The several extracts inserted above constitute, according to my authorities who had access to the original sources our entire knowledge of Bodmer's achievement of translating Milton's Paradise Lost. The work was undoubtedly accomplished within a year; for Zellweger brought the copy of Milton from Trogen to Zürich in the autumn of 1723; Bodmer retired shortly after to Greifensee with the book; announced a few months later (January letter) that a rough draft would be ready in a week; and asked at the expiration of two months more (March letter) to retain the book a little while longer. 2. Reason For Using Prose. His reason for using Bodmer's translation is in prose. prose instead of poetry is a matter of conjecture. However, with his slight knowledge of English and, possibly on that account, consequent employment of a Latin-English dictionary, he must have experienced trouble enough in the very task of turning the English into German, without attempting to reproduce the meter of the original, or to use poetry in any measure.1) And he may have encountered a difficulty in his own language; for his translation, when completed, was in the rough Swiss idiom, which Bodmer afterwards mockingly called) "Swiss-prose"), and which, as he also confessed'), proved almost incomprehensible outside of Switzerland and “lacerated” 4) the ears of those who had to listen to it. One may well shrink at the thought of Milton appearing in a poetical version of such an idiom; and as Bodmer entered into the spirit of the poem, he must have had the same view of the matter, and so desisted from the attempt.") 1) See Jenny, page 22. 2) See Jenny, page 23. 3) Term used in a letter to Zellweger. See Jenny, page 23. 4) See passage in Jenny, (p. 24) quoted from Bodmers Sammlung Kritischer Schriften. VI. Stück, S. 56. 5) Jenny says (p. 24) "It seemed as if he did not dare to touch the favorite of his holiest Muse." Again, it is thought that he was deterred by the previous effort of Berg1), who made such a wretched trial at the pentameter verse. It is true that the extract from Berg did not come into Bodmer's hands until a year after the completion of his own translation; but as Bodmer's work was not published until eight years after he had finished it, surely he had ample time to transform his prose rendering into poetry. Should, however, the argument be advanced to this that his time was fully occupied with avocations the reason given by Bodmer in his March letter for retaining Milton, with other literary work, and with the demands of his position as teacher at the Carolinum (an appointment he received in 1725 to teach history), the answer may be given, that, as will be seen later2), he labored untiringly for half a century revising his work and producing new editions. It seems more likely that Bodmer, at this period of his life, was conscious of deficiencies as a poet3); for it must not be overlooked that Bodmer actually attempted the Miltonic verse in a drama entitled: Marc Anton1), which was not published because of the severe criticism upon the meter by his friend J. U. König, to whom he submitted it; nor must it be overlooked, either, that Bodmer gave utterance, later, to the hope that some day a younger poet might produce a metrical translation. 5) 1) See page XXI of this introduction. 2) See page XXVII of this introduction. 3) Hence he did not publish certain early poems? See page V of this introduction. This would explain, too, the evident irritation in the following lines, in which, shortly after his return from Italy therefore a few years only previous to the present time he gives expression to his views on the use of rhyme. He says: "I will exert all the powers of my eloquence and authority, in order that a bill may be procured from the Chancery of Parnassus, signé Apollo, which shall declare rhyme to be pedantry, and to absolve all poets from its usurped sway." Quoted in Mörikofer, page 76, without reference probably from a manuscript letter. 4) See page XXII of this introduction. 5) Mentioned by Jenny, page 24. Taken, presumably, from Bodmer's Sammlung Kritischer Schriften, VI. Stück, S. 56. Such a poet did indeed appear, at length, in the person of Zachariae, who in 1760-3, translated Paradise Lost in hexameter verse; and I mention him not as a digression, but for the fact that he also comments in his introduction upon the difficulties of the meter of the original poem. After referring to Bodmer's desire for a metrical version1), he continues2): "Had I not been deterred by difficulties that seemed to me, at least, insurmountable, and had it been possible to bring other3) difficult passages also into this measure, my readers would perhaps have received the whole poem in this meter. But I found myself, in a certain way, forced to choose the hexameter for translation, as I did not wish to depart too much from a literal rendering of the poet." So Berg, Bodmer, and Zachariae all found the original meter difficult to reproduce the poem in, and Berg, from persisting in its use, made an oblivious failure; and even Zachariae's rendering in hexameter is regarded as “weak, unfaithful and written in a style completely void of harmony." 4) Bodmer probably, then, took cognizance of all the difficulties of a metrical rendering and hence expressed his hope for the coming of a poet; while the appearance of the first cantos of Klopstock's Messias") which was on a similar subject, and in hexameter may have extinguished some possible, secret purpose entertained by Bodmer of eventually publishing an edition in verse. 1) "This great art-poet [Bodmer] desired himself, meanwhile, that some one might translate it [P. L.] into verse, because a poet of this sort loses too much in a prose translation. I submit to the world such a translation, and await its judgment, without saying anything further about my work." Vol. 1. 2) Last page of introduction to Part II (second volume). Paris, vol. 2, 1876, page 1445. See also Brockes's Konservations-Lexikon, vol. 16, page 904, where the words "matt, untreu, unharmonisch" (weak, unfaithful, unharmonical) are employed. 5) 1748. 3. First Knowledge of Other Translations. Bodmer believed that his was the only translation of Milton's Paradise Lost in any foreign language.1) He was, therefore, ignorant of the Latin paraphrase in 1690 by the Scotchman William Hoghe; the translation into Dutch by Zante; that of Saint Maure in French; and of Paul Rolli in Italian; all of which translations he names, however, in the introduction to his first edition (1732). He also mentions there the names of Lorentz Magalotti and Anton Salvini, who translated some single selections into Italian. Of these works, he states that he had not yet gotten hold of Hoghe's; he comments favorably on the few passages he had seen of the Dutch translation; while he passes an adverse criticism on the French one, declaring that Maure had taken the same liberty with the original that La Motte did with the Iliad; Rolli did not always make a happy selection of words, using prose terms when there were excellent poetic expressions in the language. In 1682 E. G. von Berg had completed a translation of Paradise Lost in Zerbst 2). As has been noted3), Bodmer did not learn of Berg's work until his own was completed. "Some one", he writes in a letter to a friend"), "told me that about thirty years ago Gottlob von Berg translated Milton's Paradise Lost under the title "Verlustiges Paradies" in the original meter of pantameter blank verse, like that in my drama 5). I have for a long time been hunting, though in vain, for this แ 1) Jenny, pages 19-20. Zellweger's belief too: an author so unknown everywhere, and not yet translated into any language." Quoted by Vetter in "Johann Jacob Bodmer", page 349. His authority is indicated in the "Bibliographie" no. 94 on page 399: Literarische Denkmale von verschiedenen Verfassern, bey Orell, Gessner, Füssli, und Comp. 1779. In the Zürich city library, no. III 390. 2) Vetter, page 7. 3) See page XIX of this introduction. 4) Johann Michael von Loen, Goethe's granduncle. Jan. 12, 1729. Vetter, page 7. 5) Marc Anton. See next page. work, because for a number of years1) I have been working on a German rendering of the poem in prose, without knowing anything about another translation, and have in reality already completed it, so that nothing is wanting to me but a publisher.") next At length Bodmer secured an extract from the work through J. U. König, to whom he had applied, enclosing some passages from his own translation. König writes"), "that he sends the extract in order that he [Bodmer] may be able to see that the translator has written not only without rhyme, but, indeed, in pentameter verses, and also without regular division, with, besides, the carrying over of the sense from one line to the even as you have given me an example in your drama: Marc-Anton"; furthermore, he declares that by adhering too much to the English style of writing, Berg had had but little success, and that, aside from himself, no one had deemed it worthy of a reading; and, finally, that in spite of all his efforts, he had not been able to procure a complete copy to send to his friend. "Your translation in prose", he concludes "is far more natural." In the introduction to the first edition, Bodmer inserted the extract that König had forwarded to him, with the following criticism: "This translation came into no repute. Indeed, Milton looks greatly sullied in it; yet the fallen poet retains, even then, so much of his inherent splendor, that he ought to have created a sensation among meditative readers, and, at least, a desire for the original." But even Berg had been preceded by another German translator, namely: Haake. Theodoro Haake, according to Jenny), went to England at the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, and became in course of time the manager of foreign 1) Including, of course, the time occupied in revising the translation. This letter is written in 1729: Bodmer made his translation inside of a year: 1723-24. See page XVIII of this introduction. 2) Quoted in Vetter, page 7. 3) Manuscript letter in city library of Zürich, quoted by A. Brandl, in Anglia. B. I, S. 461. 4) Page 9 of his Thesis. |