Dryden's Relation to Germany 73 



4. Comparison of the Translations 



Before taking up the comparison of the translations of the Ode, 

 Dryden's versification will be analyzed in brief. Throughout the 

 verse is irregular in rhyme and meter, but the rhymed couplet and 

 the iambic tetrameter predominate. The meter varies in length 

 from two to seven feet; in the two, three, and four foot verses 

 the iambus, trochee, and anapest are employed, while in the five, 

 six, and seven foot measures only the iambus appears, but there 

 are comparatively few of these longer verses. As was his custom, 

 Dryden interspersed the rhymed couplet with triplets; here and 

 there the alternating rhyme is substituted for the couplets. 



In their translations of Dryden's ode Weisse and Ramler fol- 

 lowed the original rather closely in thought, but Kosegarten fre- 

 quently deviated from the source according to his fancy. While 

 differing from each other, these three translations embodied the 

 spirit of the original and the characteristics of each translator as 

 a lyricist. Weisse imitated Dryden in a general way in both rhyme 

 and meter, but often varied the number of feet in a verse. Al- 

 though Ramler had the groundwork of Weisse to build on and 

 discarded the rhyme, his task was more difficult, since he followed 

 the original absolutely in the number of feet in order to adapt it 

 to Handel's music. Kosegarten worked independently of the orig- 

 inal, using blank verse interspersed with passages in rhyme. Dry- 

 den's 141 verses Weisse expanded into 148, Kosegarten into 183, 

 while Ramler naturally kept the original number. The transla- 

 tions of Noldeke and T — r lacked the poetic finish of the other 

 three, but that of Noldeke was far superior to that of T — r. Both 

 endeavored to follow Dryden in rhyme and meter ; in rhyme Nol- 

 deke more nearly approached him than any of the others and both 

 retained approximately the same number of lines found in the 

 original. 



D. German Criticism of the Original and the Translations 



Both the original and translations of Alexander's Feast called 



Rupprecht. Erster Bd. Wien, 1812. The title is : " Alexanders Fest, 

 oder die Gewalt der Musik, eine Ode zu Ehren des St. Cacilien-Tages," S. 

 392/400. Goedeke, VII, p. 699. 



361 



