Note 564:D — Chapter III
Reading edition
Chap. xlvi. edit. of 1601. Lord Berners's translation underwent three editions. The original has had the honour of giving birth to the Chef d'Oeuvre of Wieland—"the child of his genius," observe the Monthly Reviewers, "in moments of its purest converse with the all-beauteous forms of ideal excellence;—the darling of his fancy, born in the sweetest of her excursions amid the ambrosial bowers of fairy-land;—the Oberon,—an epic poem, popular beyond example, yet as dear to the philosopher as to the multitude; which, during the author's lifetime, has attained in its native country all the honours of a sacred book; and to the evolution of the beauties of which, a Professor in a distinguished university has repeatedly consecrated an entire course of patronized lectures." New Series, vol. xxiii. p. 576.
The beauties of Oberon are now accessible to the mere English scholar, through the medium of Mr. Sotheby's version, which, though strictly faithful to the German, has the spirit and harmony of an original poem.