"the vessel. The proud and haughty Aholibamah scorns to pray either to God or man, and anticipates the grave 66 66 by plunging into the waters. Noah is still inexorable. The surviving daughter of Cain is momentarily in dan ger of perishing before the eyes of the Arkites. Japhet " is in despair. The last wave sweeps her from the rock, " and her lifeless corpse floats past in all its beauty, whilst 66 a sea-bird screams over it, and seems to be the spirit of “her angel lord. I once thought of conveying the lovers 66 to the moon, or one of the planets; but it is not easy "for the imagination to make any unknown world more "beautiful than this; besides, I did not think they would 66 approve of the moon as a residence. I remember what Fontenelle said of its having no atmosphere, and the "dark spots being caverns where the inhabitants reside. "There was another objection: all the human interest 66 would have been destroyed, which I have even endea"voured to give my Angels. It was a very Irish kind of compliment Jeffrey paid to Moore's Lalla Rookh,' when "he said the loves were those of Angels; meaning that 66 66 they were like nothing on earth. What will he say of "The Loves of the Angels?'-that they are like (for he "has nothing left) nothing in Heaven ?" "I wrote The Prophecy of Dante' at the suggestion "of the Countess. I was at that time paying my court to "the Guiccioli, and addressed the dedicatory sonnet to her. "She had heard of my having written something about 66 66 Tasso, and thought Dante's exile and death would furnish as fine a subject. I can never write but on the spot. "Before I began The Lament,' I went to Ferrara, to visit "the Dungeon. Hoppner was with me, and part of it, the "greater part, was composed (as "The Prisoner of Chillon') in "the prison. The place of Dante's fifteen years' exile, where "he so pathetically prayed for his country, and deprecated "the thought of being buried out of it; and the sight of "his tomb, which I passed in my almost daily rides,-in spired me. Besides, there was somewhat of resemblance* * "The day may come she would be proud to have Prophecy of Dante. "Where now my boys are, and that fatal she" Ibid. 66 They made an exile, not a slave of me." Ibid. "in our destinies he had a wife, and I have the same feelings about leaving my bones in a strange land. 66 that poem I had, however, a much more extensive view in writing than to describe either his banishment or his 66 grave. Poets are sometimes shrewd in their conjectures. "You quoted to me the other day a line in Childe Ha 66 rold,' in which I made a prediction about the Greeks *: "in this instance I was not so fortunate as to be prophetic. "This poem was intended for the Italians and the "Guiccioli, and therefore I wished to have it translated. "I had objected to the Versi sciolti having been used 66 in Fourth Canto of Childe Harold;' but this was "the very metre they adopted in defiance of my remon 66 66 66 66 my strance, and in the very teeth of it; and yet I believe the Italians liked the work. It was looked at in a poli tical light, and they indulged in my dream of liberty, and the resurrection of Italy. Alas! it was only a 66 "Terza Rima does not seem to suit the genius of English poetry-it is certainly uncalculated for a work of any length. In our language, however, it may do for a short "ode. The public at least thought my attempt a failure, "and the public is in the main right. I never perse cute the public. I always bow to its verdict, which "is generally just. But if I had wanted a sufficient 66 reason for my giving up the Prophecy-the Prophecy "failed me. "It was the turn political affairs took that made me relinquish the work. At one time the flame was expected to break out over all Italy, but it only ended in smoke,` " and my poem went out with it. I don't wonder at the "enthusiasm of the Italians about Dante. He is the poet "of liberty. Persecution, exile, the dread of a foreign grave, could not shake his principles. There is no Italian gentleman, scarcely any well-educated girl, that has "not all the finer passages of Dante at the fingers' ends,particularly the Ravennese. The Guiccioli, for instance, "could almost repeat any part of the Divine Comedy;' " and, I dare say, is well read in the Vita Nuova,' that 66 66 Shelley always says that reading Dante is unfavourable to writing, from its superiority to all possible composi"tions. Whether he be the first or not, he is certainly the 66 66 66 most untranslatable of all poets. You may give the meaning; but the charm, the simplicity-the classical simplicity, is lost. You might as well clothe a statue, as attempt to translate Dante. He is better, as an Ita"lian said, 'nudo che vestito.' 66 "There's Taafe is not satisfied with what Carey has "done, but he must be traducing him too. What think you of that fine line in the Inferno' being rendered, as Taafe has done it? “There's alliteration and inversion enough, surely! I "have advised him to frontispiece his book with his own 66 head, Capo di Traditore, the head of a traitor; then "will come the title-page comment—Hell!" I asked Lord Byron the meaning of a passage in 'The Prophecy of Dante.' He laughed, and said : |