APPENDIX. WE have mentioned in another place, (see vol. i. p. 106,) the slight dispute between Goldsmith and Dr Percy regarding the originality of the beautiful ballad of Edwin and Angelina, the hint of which was supposed to have been taken from the Friar of Orders Grey. A still heavier charge of plagiarism was made a few years afterwards in the Quiz, a collection of essays by a Society of Gentlemen, where the author of the Hermit is broadly accused of taking the whole ballad from a French original. The Monthly Reviewers, in a short notice of this obscure collection of essays, in their number for September, 1797, insert the French poem. It bears the title of Raimond et Angeline, and is a very pretty translation of Goldsmith's ballad, slightly curtailed, and adapted to the French taste. That our readers may have an opportunity of judging of the merit of this little poem, we shall insert it, together with the controversy to which it gave rise. RAIMOND ET ANGELİNE. "Entens ma voix gémissante, Perce l'ombre de la nuit?" 1 "Mon fils!" dit le Solitaire, Ces accens faisant sourire Devant lui son chien folatre Mais helas! rien n'a des charmes Pour son hôte malheureux, Rien ne put tarir les larmes Qui s'echappent de ses yeux. L'Hermite voit sa tristesse Et voudroit la soulager; "" D'où vient l'ennui qui te presse?' Dit il au jeune etranger; "Est-ce une amitié trahie? Est-ce un amour dedaigné? Ou la misère ennemie, Qui te rende infortuné ? "Helas! tous les biens du monde Sont peu dignes de nos vœux; Et l' insensé qui s'y joint Est plus meprisable qu' eux. L'amitié, s'il en est une, N'est qu'un fantôme imposteur; "L'amour est plus vain encore "Va, crois moi, deviens plus sage, Meprise un sex trompeur!" L'hôte emu de ce langage S'embellit par sa rougeur; Les yeux, sa bouche, et son sein, "Voyez," dit elle, "une amante Dont l'amour cause les maux: J'avois mit tout mon bonheur. Dans cette foule volage Qui venoit grossir mon cœur, "Sa naissance etoit commune, Il me quitte pour toujours; "Maintenant désespérée "Non! non!" dit Raimond lui-même, En la serrant dans ses bras, "Non, celui que ton cœur aime N'a point subi trépas; Regarde, O mon Angeline, Regarde, Ŏ fille divine, Čet amant qui tu pleurois." Angeline est dans l'ivresse "We insert the whole of the pretended original," say the Monthly Reviewers," as we conceive that it will give great pleasure to our readers: but, in transcribing the poem, which is said to be taken from an old and scarce Freneh novel, the title of which is Les Deux Habitants de Lozanne, we feel some apprehension of mistakes, from the general inaccuracy which we have observed to prevail in the printing of the volume before us, as the orthography is in an uncominon degree perverted. "We have endeavoured to correct many of the errors of the printed copy, and to give the reader this charming and simple ballad as correctly as the various faults to which we have alluded would permit us, by inserting some conjectural emendations. "After all, it is possible (we mean barely possible) that Goldsmith was innocent of the theft with which he is here charged. We recollect a report, at the time when the Vicar of Wakefield was first published, that the favourite ballad in question was not the composition of Goldsmith; and that it was given to him by an ingenious friend, whose name was then freely mentioned, but which we now spare to repeat, from respect to a character which is deservedly held in high estimation in the republic of letters. "With respect to the French composition, some have even questioned its originality; alleging, that it is not the French of the age in which it is said to have been written; but we have not leisure to undertake, on this occasion, the office of detection." The following letter appeared in the Review for November of the same year : "TO THE AUTHORS OF THE MONTHLY REVIEW. "You owe the trouble of a letter from an unknown correspondent to a motive which you have too much candour not to approve. subject requires no farther introduction, and will speak for itself. The In your account of the Quiz, (Review for September, Article 66,) you insert a French poem, given by the authors as the original of Goldsmith's Edwin and Angelina, and which seems to be considered by as such As the English poet, unfortunately for the world and himself, cannot assert his claim to his own work, it is a necessary duty of an old acquaintance and friend of his to do it for him. you To judge only from internal evidence, there is no need of very profound judgment to discover at once that the French is a translation from the English; and as it is possible that the translator is living, |