117 



Mr. Peter transUited from the Italian, Manzoni's Fifth of May, and 

 various fugitive verses, some of which have superior poetical merit. 

 In the same manner he published with his translation of Schiller^s 

 William Tell, sundry smaller pieces, most of them also from the 

 German. This dramatic poem, in celebration of the great deliverer 

 of Switzerland, he translated in Lucerne, in 1837. In the year 1839, 

 appeared another volume containing poetical translations of Schiller's 

 Marie Stuart and the Battle with the Dragon. He added to the 

 edition which he published in this city, several miscellaneous original 

 pieces of rare excellence and beauty. His 3Iaid of Orleans was 

 translated in Philadelphia, and in this volume also, are contained some 

 of his best original verses. The Maid of Orleans is generally re- 

 garded as the most polished ajjd felicitous of his versions from Schil- 

 ler. 



To these various works he added a volume of considerable size, 

 entitled, " Specimens of the Poets and Poetry of Greece and Rome." 

 It was first published at Philadelphia, in 1847. This production has 

 been pronounced in England, to be "the most thorough and satisfac- 

 tory popular summary of ancient poetry, ever made in the English 

 language." 



A translation followed of iEschylus's Agamemnon from the Greek, 

 which he published in this city, in 1852. It has the merit of being 

 literal, but scholars, I think, do not generally accord to it a very near 

 approximation to the spirit of the original. In the brief notice con- 

 tained of Mr. Peter in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1853, it is 

 mentioned that he translated Prometheus from the same author. 

 This, I believe, is a mistake. Mr. Peter tells us, in his preface to Aga- 

 memnon, that ever since his classic days at Oxford, he had been 

 "possessed with an earnest longing to translate the Prometheus and 

 the Agamemnon of ^Eschylus;" but that, like the slothful man in 

 scripture, he had always some "lion in his way," until his arrival in 

 America, when he set about the undertaking in good earnest, and had 

 been able to finish only a portion of his task. The other and more 

 attractive division of his long deferred labour, was postponed till death 

 prevented the execution of his projects and intentions. 



Mr. Peter was devoted to poetry. He intensely admired Milton, 

 and, I believe, he could repeat from memory, the most of Paradise 

 Lost. As some evidence of his relish of good poetry and his fondness 

 for rendering it into English, I may mention, that he translated the 

 Leonore of Burger in the train of cars, on a journey to Washington. 

 He told me, that in reading it, he was so delighted with the imagina- 



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