the story of his life is not unknown. All who have followed the
career of GOETHE are familiar with the name and character of
DALBERG, and also with the deep and lasting friendship that
existed between them, from which SCHILLER too was not absent;
recalling to the mind the days of old, when a Virgil and a Horace
and a Maecenas sat side by side.

Remembering, then, the connection that, in a former century,
was formed and riveted between your illustrious ancestor and him
whom it is the object of these pages to represent, I deem it a
happy augury that the link then established finds itself not
wholly severed even now (although its strength may be
immeasurably weakened in the comparison), inasmuch as this page
brings them once more in contact, the one in the person of his
own descendant, the other in that of the translator of his Poems.

Believe me, with great truth,
Very faithfully yours,
EDGAR A. BOWRING.
London, April, 1853.



ORIGINAL PREFACE.


I feel no small reluctance in venturing to give to the public a
work of the character of that indicated by the title-page to the
present volume; for, difficult as it must always be to render
satisfactorily into one's own tongue the writings of the bards of