Introduction.
For this he diſplaced the ſtanza of the firſt verſion which the Rev. Franklin Johnſon has characterized as never ſurpaſſed in "its high finiſh, its delicate ſuggeſtion of the antique and its perfection of form." I have, therefore, retained the firſt verſion. The effort of tranſlators generally has been to reproduce the double-rhyme of the original; but the truth is that the ſingle-rhyme better preſerves for the Engliſh reader the two important elements of ſimplicity and ſtrength. Of ſuch tranſlations I have found none better than that of Mr. Sloſſon.
In 1883 a tranſlation of the Dies Iræ was publiſhed by the Rev. Franklin Johnſon, of Chicago, which I regard as the moſt nearly perfect in form that has ever been made, and which I have incorporated in this edition. Dr. Johnſon ſays in his preface that he publiſhed a previous edition in 1865; that the work of tranſlation occupied his attention at frequent intervals during a period of fifteen years, and that there were weeks in succeſſion during which, both day and night, his mind was filled with the ſtanzas. I may well believe this, for nothing has ever been publiſhed which denotes
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