He
says that "the whole Divine Comedy of which these ten cantos are a
specimen will appear in due time." If the specimen be a fair one,
the translation of the "Purgatory" and the "Paradise" will not appear
until after the publication of Dr. Carlyle's prose version, for
which we may yet have to wait some time.
We are confident that so honorable a publishing house as that of
Messrs. Ticknor and Fields must have been unaware of the character
of a book so full of false pretences, when they allowed their name
to be put on the title-page. But to make up for even unconscious
participation in such a literary imposition, we trust that they will
soon put to press the remainder of Dr. Parsons's excellent
translation of Dante's poem, a specimen of which appeared so long
since, bearing their imprint.
* * * * *
_City Poems_. By ALEXANDER SMITH, Author of "A Life Drama, and
other Poems." Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
On the first appearance of Alexander Smith, criticism became
light-headed, and fairly exhausted its whole vocabulary of panegyric
in giving him welcome. "There is not a page in this volume on which
we cannot find some novel image, _some Shakspearian felicity_ of
expression, or some striking simile," said the critic of the
"Westminster Review.
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