Introduction.
whether a better tranſlation will ever be made by a tranſlator of the critical ſchool.
Nevertheleſs, theſe things muſt be borne in mind—that power is the great characteristic of the Dies Iræ; that its power cannot be tranſferred to Engliſh verſe by means of the weakeſt form of Engliſh words; that the double-rhyme has, to the Engliſh ear, ſomething of the jingle of the humorous ballad; and that, if we would feel the ſtrength of the great hymn, we muſt, foregoing form, go to the old verſion of Craſhaw, or to single-rhyme tranſlations like that of Mr. Sloſſon.
III.
The Stabat Mater loſes more by tranſlation, probably, than any other piece of poetry that was ever written. "The ſoft, ſad melody of its verſe is untranſlatable " (Dr. Schaff). If we take the lines, melodious in their pathos,
Quæ mœrebat et dolebat,
Pia mater, dum videbat,
and render them into Engliſh as Dr. Schaff has done,
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