Dryden's Relation to Germany 8i 



Voltaire was quoted on Dryden's ode by the Gottingischen An- 

 seigen in 1786: " Seine [Dryden's] Ode Timotheus muss wohl vor- 

 trefflich sein, da sie den Beifall einer so gelehrten Nation, und, 

 was manchen noch wichtiger erscheinen mag, Voltaires Beifall 

 erhalten hat."^^ Strangely enough the German review is in con- 

 nection with an Italian criticism, and shows that the Italians like- 

 wise had noted Dryden's ode, and that Voltaire's criticism of it 

 was known to the Germans. 



Bouterwek commends and quotes the first stanza of Aranjo de 

 Azavedo's Portuguese translation of Alexander's Feast, which 

 was published along with the English text at Hamburg in 1799.^^ 

 " Seine vortrefflichen Uebersetzungen des Alexander-festes von 

 Dryden, einiger Oden von Gray, und der bekannten Elegy of a 

 Country Church von demselben Dichter sind seine wahre Bereich- 

 erung der Portugiesischen Nationallitteratur."^^ 



Even in the nineteenth century the ode of Dryden was perpetu- 

 ated through the many performances of Handel's music. In his 

 letters to Goethe Seltner often speaks of the beauty of Handel's 

 composition ;^° and finally the Handel Societies organized in Eng- 

 land and in Germany in the nineteenth century have published 

 standard editions of Handel's composition, accompanied with the 



Dryden, auteur de cette belle ode intitulee La Fete d'Alexandre et 

 Timothee. Cette ode, mise en musique par Purcell (si je ne me trompe) 

 passe en Angleterre pour le chef-d'oeuvre de la poesie la plus sublime et 

 plus variee; et je vous avoue que, comme je sais mieux I'anglais que le 

 grec; j'aime cent fois mieux cette ode qui tout Pindare." See letter 

 written to Chabanon, dated March gth, 1772. Loco citato, LXXXI, p. 268. 



It seems strange that Voltaire was ignorant of the fact that Handel 

 had set the ode to music. 



^"^ Loco citato, p. 1042. 



^8 For the original title, etc., again see British Museum Catalogue under 

 Dryden, p. 47. 



^9 Loco citato, IV, p. 394. 1804. 



■^o Briefwechsel simschen Goethe und Zeltner in den Jahren 1796 bis 



1832. Herausgegeben von Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer, 6 volumes. Berlin, 



1833. Zeltner mentions it in letters number log, 112, 362, 425, and 788. 

 Together they planned a cantata for a Luther celebration, and in the 

 sketch drawn up by Goethe he says that Handel's Alexander's Feast served 

 as a model. See No. 277, Goethe's letter to Zeltner, which contains the 

 sketch. 



369 



