ions of
the 'Purgatory' and 'Paradise' were issued, in octavo, in 1880 and 1885
respectively. Aids to the study of Dante are legion. The fourth edition
of Professor J. Addington Symond's 'Introduction to the Study of Dante'
appeared in 1899; whilst Lord Vernon's 'Readings in Dante,' six octavo
volumes, is said to have occupied that great scholar for more than
twenty-five years of his life.

Goethe is known to English readers chiefly by the immortal _Faust_; and
this work alone has engaged the attention of numerous scholars. A volume
containing seven of Goethe's plays in English was published in Bohn's
Standard Library in 1879. It included Sir Walter Scott's version of
'Goetz von Berlichingen,' the remainder being translated by Miss Swanwick
and E. A. Bowring. Miss Swanwick's 'Faust' is well known and has often
been reprinted; a beautiful edition illustrated by Mr. Gilbert James
appeared in 1906. There is a version, however, which stands far above the
rest, a version which the writer for his part has always considered to
rank with the greatest translations. This is the 'Faust' of Bayard
Taylor, which indeed may be read as a poem in itself. But then Taylor had
advantages possessed by few translators. An American by birth, his mother
was a German, and he spent a part of his life in Germany. From his birth
he was bilinguous; and added to this linguistic advantage were his
profound scholarship and poetic gift. There are numerous editions of his
work, but only one--so far as I am aware, in this country at
least--worthy of its great merit, namely, that which appeared in two
octavo volumes in 1871. It is an edition somewhat hard to obtain.

For Schiller's dramatic works we must have recourse to Coleridge, who has
given us versions of both parts of the 'Wallenstein' and 'William Tell.'
The Poems and Ballads were rendered in English by Sir E. Bulwer Lytton
(Lord Lytton): two volumes, 1844. Heine's short four-line verses do not
lend themselves to translating and though many have attempted it, the
results are almost always a jingle, often approaching doggerel. The prose
works have recently been translated by Mr. C. G. Leland, and the 'Atta
Troll' by Miss Armour, both forming part of a twelve volume edition
published between 1892 and 1905.

The mention of Rabelais conjures up one of those extremely rare instances
where a translation constitutes as great a classic as the original work.
Whether it was the difficulty of translation,