This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ... charge. In the very first place he must have known that his method of comparison was utterly valueless. Had the conditions been reversed, no one would have been quicker than he to point out the fraud which by its very nature existed in the course he pursued of testing the merits of two authors. No one would have been ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ... charge. In the very first place he must have known that his method of comparison was utterly valueless. Had the conditions been reversed, no one would have been quicker than he to point out the fraud which by its very nature existed in the course he pursued of testing the merits of two authors. No one would have been more earnest in denouncing the injustice of an Englishman presuming to decide upon the merits of Corneille, as contrasted with Shakespeare, by setting even a good translation of the former against an original of the latter. He had had a full opportunity to observe for himself the worthlessness of all such comparisons. The Andromaque of his favorite Racine had been translated into English by Ambrose Philips. In Voltaire's own 1 Sherlock's ' Letters from an English Traveller, ' translated from the French original, London, 17S0. Letter xxiii. page 152; dated Ferney, April 26, 1776. expressed opinion it was an excellent translation. It was brought out in 1712 under the title of 'The Distrest Mother, ' and was acted not unfrequently during the rest of the century. Yet no one then thought of putting it on a level with any production of Shakespeare. No one reads it now; no one would contemplate reading it for itself. The work has been left hopelessly behind. Were an Englishman compelled to derive from it his conception of Racine he would not adjudge that dramatist a higher rank in literature than the one held by his translator. Furthermore, it is perfectly easy to give an author's meaning faithfully in another speech and yet produce an utterly erroneous impression of his work. Words which suggest noble associations in one tongue can be rendered by words of precisely the same signification, as found in the dictionary of another tongue, while yet in the ...
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Seller's Description:
Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.