The Press.
London, England, 1854-03-04 00:00:00

I will the truth tell: thou on earth repeat it.
God's angel seized on me, and he of Hell
Cried out: ' 0 thou of Heaven, why dost rob me?
Thou claimest to bear off his part eternal
For one small tear, which rescues him from me.
But with the rest I otherwise will deal!'
Thou knowest well how in the air collects
The humid vapour which in rain returns
Soon as it drifts where it is met by cold.
He joined the bad will, which bad only seeks,
With reason, and he stirred the rack and wind
By virtue of the skill his nature gave.
Wherefore the valley, when the day was spent,
From Pratomagno to the heights he shut
In clouds, and over them disposed the sky
So that the laden air to water turned.
The rainstorm fell, and down the runnels came
Such of it as the soil could not drink up ;
And, as it happens with important streams,
Towards the chief river with such mighty speed
Headlong it ran that nothing held it back.
My stiffened body at its opening
The chafing Archian found, and bore it on
To Arno,—loosing on my breast the cross
Which I had made when spent in agony.
Against its banks it dashed me, and its bed ;
Then covered me and girt me with its spoil."
" What time thou art unto the world returned,

And art recruited from thy journey long."—
A third soul to the second followed thus,—
" Have me in thy remembrance. lam Pia;
Siena bore me, the Maremma slew.
Of this he knows who gave me once the ring
With his own jewel when he wedded me."•

CAYLEY.
Here spoke another : " 0 mayst thou conclude
The task which draws thee up the lofty mount,
As thy good piety shall to mine do good.
I am of Montefeltro ; I am Bonconte ;
Joanna, or some other, minds not me ;
Hence mast I walk by these with downcast front."
Said I : " What fate or fortune carried thee
By such a wrested course from Campaldino
That known thy burial-place could never be ?"
" 0," answered he, " at foot of Casentino
A river crosseth, called Archiane,
That springs above the Wolds from Apennino.
Where its appellative becomes inane,
There hardly reached I when on foot I fled,
Thrust thro' the weasand, crimsoning the plain.
There lost I sight, and latest breath I shed
In syllabling the name of Mary, when
I sank, and left my flesh distenanted.
I tell thee truth, which tell to living men:
God's angel took me, and the Infernal one
Cried, ' 0 thou Heavenly, why dost rob me then ?
Thou halt the man's eternal portion won,
Which I must for a drop of brine forbear:
I'll have the other otherwise undone.'
Thou knoweat how there gathers in the air
A humid steam that, meeting with some wave
Of cold above, returns to water there.
This evil will, who doth hut evil crave,
Came with his art, and called up reek and wind,
As by the puissance which his nature gave.
Then all the valley, whilst the day declined,
'Twist Pratomagno and the Pennine chain
He clad with cloud, and drew down heaven behind
So prone as turned the pregnant air to rain.
Adown it gushed. and toward the sluices went
That portion which the ground could not retain.
There, gathering larger volume, was it sent
To join the kingly floods from all around
So fast that nothing mought its rush prevent.
My stiffened corpse the stalwart Archian found
Upon his confluence, where he, shouldering it
To Arno, from my breast the cross unbound
Which I had made there in the deadly fit.
He rolled me on his banks and on his bed,
And over me hie rapine wound and knit."
" Oh ! when thou (lost again the earth betread,
And haat from thy long journeys rested thee,"—
Thus the third ghost after the second said,—
" Remember then la Pia ; I am she.
Siena gave me being, and Maremme
Was my destruction. That he knows who me
Enringed at our espousals with his gem.' "
As we have said, Mr. Pollock is a very con-
scientious translator. He is certainly literal,
and generally accurate, but he does not show
signs of the finer sense so necessary here.
Every now and then he is loose to the extent
of incorrectness. To confine ourselves for in-
stances to the opening cantos of the Hell :
In the beginning of the second we find, " The
day departed," which means something differ-
ent from the imerfect tense of the original—
"was departing.' At line 11, " Look to my
merit e
" is no equivalent for " virt—virtue,
fortitude. " Whence that," at line 18, substi-
tuted for "yet, if " (pero, se), spoils the logical
sequence of ideas. Lines 88-90
Only it needs to be in dread of things
Which have the power to do others ill,
But not of such as are not terrible—
assert a mere platitude. The last should
read—
Of others not, for they're not terrible.

• This Is a very clumsy phrase. Cayley's is almost a literal
rendering of the Italian: " Who had before in we,iding ringed
me with his gem."