THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. IMITATED FROM THE GERMAN OF BURGER. BY ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. Burger's Lenora is acknowledged, by all who are familiar with German poetry, to be the masterpiece of ballads. No composition of the kind in the German, or perhaps any other language, can be compared with it for effect. It is rather remarkable that the works of a poet who was capable of producing it, should be so scanty, and generally of so little value. With the exception of the Wild Huntsman (Wilde Jaeger), another ballad of great power, though not equal to the Lenora, the contents of his little volume are almost wholly destitute of interest. There is a fine translation of the Wild Huntsman by Sir Walter Scott. The Lenora has been several times attempted, but without much success. The poem, which is published in Sir Walter's works under the title of William and Helen, though founded upon that of Burger, can hardly be said with propriety to be a translation, or even an imitation of it. It was written by Scott after having heard a friend relate the substance of the ballad, as he had heard it read by a lady in the translation of Mr. Taylor, at the house of Dugald Stewart. That, with so little knowledge of the original, Scott should have approached it as nearly as he did in William and Helen, is a fact which does credit to his memory as well as to that of his relutor. There are, however, great deviations, not only in the language, but in the narration; and the poem, in general, has but little merit. Among other alterations, Sir Walter has changed the time to that of the Crusades, and the scene from the common walks of life to those of knighthood and romance. This change, as Mr. J. Q. Adams has justly remarked in a letter to the late Dr. Follen, injures the effect. It was a part of the author's plan to give an air of reality to his wild machinery, by placing it among ordinary characters and incidents. For the same reason he makes the language, which is exceedingly bold, striking, and poetical, at the same time colloquial and familiar. I have attempted, to the extent of my limited powers, to combine the same classes of characteristics, and also to bring out more distinctly than is done in some of the other translations, the sneering, Mephistopheles tone of the spectre. I. At the first sight of dawning light "Oh William! William! art thou false To me, or art thou dead?" The youth had gone with Frederic's bands To fight in far Bohemian lands, And ne'er had written home, to tell His love if he were sick or well. II. At length, the king and empress queen, Resolved to make their quarrel up, And both the armies, gaily drest III. And wheresoe'er they took their way, Forth came the people one and all, "Thank God!" each grateful mother cried; For all, except the poor Lenore. IV. As on they journeyed, troop by troop, When now the long parade was o'er, v. Her mother clasped her in her arms, "Oh mother! mother! woe is me! My love is lost; my life is o'er; God has no mercy for Lenore!" VI. "Nay, dearest daughter! say not so, The ways of God are always just, "No, mother! no: they are not so: VII. "Oh, dearest child! thy talk is wild, Unless the sacramental bread Could raise my William from the dead." VIII. "Nay, listen, child! perhaps beguiled Then let him go, the treacherous friend! He'll rue his falsehood in the end: Tormented for his base desires Hereafter in eternal fires!" IX. "Oh, mother dear! he is not here! Oh most unhappy morn! Would God that I were in the grave! That I had ne'er been born! Oh, would to God that I could be X. Oh, gracious Father! do not heed Dear child forget these earthly ties, XI. "Oh, what care I for future bliss? And never see the day-light more: XII. Thus, in her transports of despair, The Almighty goodness, and condemn And night, with starry gems besprent, Rode darkling up the firmament. XIII. When, hark! a horseman, tramp! tramp! tramp! Comes prancing to the door, And straight alights, with jingling stamp, Upon the step before. The door-bell next, with gentle ring, Is softly sounded, kling-ling-ling, And, through the passage clearly heard, Thus spoke the horseman, word for word: XIV. "What ho! what ho! unlock the door! Ho! lady bright! awake! Art fast asleep, or dost thou watch And weep for William's sake?" XV. "We mount for flight, at dead of night; Our courser's fleet and black; I come from far Bohemian lands, And take you with me back." "Nay, William, rest, at least till morn! |