Note 8 — Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (continued 11)
A. J. W. (Alexander James William) Morrison translation
The lines in Shakspeare, which the above are intended to imitate, are the following:—
"The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; Some say a sore; but not a sore till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket Or pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores, O sore L! Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L."
Lenz's words, which cannot be rendered intelligibly into English, furnish an instance of Goethe's meaning, when he commends Lenz as happily catching the spirit of the original, without the slightest pretence to accuracy.—Trans.