ardor and ambition,--but as a "hopeless employment," a task to which
he gave "all his miserable days, and often many hours of the night,"
seeking to beguile the sense of utter wretchedness, by altering as if
for the sake of alteration.

The Editor has been confirmed in this opinion by the concurrence of
every person with whom he has communicated on the subject. Among
others he takes the liberty of mentioning Mr. Cary, whose authority
upon such a question is of especial weight, the Translator of Dante
being the only one of our countrymen who has ever executed a
translation of equal magnitude and not less difficulty, with the same
perfect fidelity and admirable skill.

In support of this determination, the case of Tasso may be cited as
curiously in point. The great Italian poet altered his Jerusalem like
Cowper, against his own judgment, in submission to his critics: he
made the alteration in the latter years of his life, and in a diseased
state of mind; and he proceeded upon the same prescribed rule of
smoothing down his versification, and removing all the elisions. The
consequence has been that the reconstructed poem is utterly neglected,
and has rarely, if ever, been reprinted, except in the two great
editions of his collected works; while the original poem has been and
continues to be in such demand, that the most diligent bibliographer
might vainly attempt to enumerate all the editions through which it
has passed.




EDITOR'S NOTE.