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u*y'8 name. In one respect, indeed, he is undoubt-edly superior to that famous translator. Neither Carynor Lyell cared to face the difficulties of rhyme;but the latter in a manner justifies his decision byextreme literalness — a quality with which Cary can-not be credited. On the other hand, it must beadmitted that a rhymeless epic is more capable ofaffording literary enjoyment than a rhymeless sonnetor canzone*; and for that reason L yell's verse, forall his undoubted care, ingenuity and gifts, mustalways appear somewhat wooden.^ In the same year (1845), (^^^) Theodore Martin,happily still with us, published the first important Englishessay on the subject of Dante -and Beatrice in Tait'sMagazine, This piece of work, which, if not verydeep, was at least thoroughly sympathetic and freefrom the fatal errors of Gabriele Rossetti and Lyell,included clever versions of the lyrics.' The following ^ Readers will be able to judge of his performance in theAppendices I and IV at tlie close of this Tolume. AppendixIV contains a specimen passage (the sonnet Tanto gentil*with the preceding piece of prose^ of all the Englishtranslations of the Fha Nuova mentioned in this Preface. * It does not appear, to hare made any great mark at thetime, but was known to D. G. Rossetti. See his letter toMcCracken, dated May 15, 1854: <<A better and fulleraccount [than an essay in the Dublin University Magazine]yon will find in an article in Tait*s Magazine some years
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