Partial translations of at least one canto
I am deviating from my list of complete translations of Dante (again) to cover the dozen partial translations of a canto or more from the Divine Comedy that were published through 1849. The second half of the 19th century is inundated with partial translations, so I find it best to start now to keep it manageable.
This list does not contain the many, many partial translations of less than a canto, though at some time I might visit them, even if it is to just list the larger translated episodes (Ugolino, Paolo and Francesca, Ulysses).
Also not included are the many prose paraphrases with commentary that, although often containing a complete prose telling, are not intended as translations. I will visit these publications because some of them are in, shall we say, a gray area between paraphrase and translation.
Here are the partial translations of at least one canto through 1849:
1782 - William Hayley - Inferno - Cantos 1-3*
1804 - Richard Wharton - Inferno - Canto 3
1821 - Anonymous/Humphrey Gubbins [John Payne Collier] - Inferno - Canto 5
1826 (1832) - Anonymous [Jonathan Hatfield] - Inferno - Canto 1
1836 - Anonymous - Inferno - Canto 5
1836 - Odoardo Volpi [Edward N. Shannon] - Inferno - Cantos 1-10
1838 - John Herman Merivale - Inferno - Cantos 3, 10, and 13*
c.1840 - Peter Hawke - Inferno - Cantos 1-17*
1842 - Charles Hindley - Inferno - Cantos 1-4*
1843 - Thomas William Parsons - Inferno - Cantos 1-10*
c.1845 (1914) - Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Inferno - Canto 1*
1846 - William Nind - Inferno - Canto 1
The translations I own are marked with an asterisk. All pictures are from my collection. All titles are linked to PDF’s.
I was hoping to do all 12 translations in one post, but I started getting the “running out of space” warning, so I split the list in half. This post will cover Hayley, 1782, through Volpi, 1836.
1782 - William Hayley - Inferno - Cantos 1-3
In the decades leading up to 1782 there were a little more than a hand full of episodes1 translated, most of which were the Ugolino2 episode from Canto 33 of the Inferno. Then, in 1782, a watershed year in Dante translations, we saw two English translations published, each important for different reasons. One by Charles Rogers and the other by William Hayley. I have discussed both of these translations in a previous post, The First Translations: 1782-1802 - Part 1, but will briefly recap for continuity.
Rogers was the first to translate into English a complete cantica3 from the Divine Comedy, the Inferno. This is important in its own right and is discussed in the previous post I mentioned above. I feel it is unfortunate that Roger’s translation seems to have overshadowed the importance of Hayley’s translation because Hayley’s is, in my opinion, just as significant.
The importance of Hayley’s translation lies in the facts he was the first to translate a full canto in terza rima and he was the first to have the original Italian text on the facing page. Two approaches that will be endlessly copied in later years, whereas Rogers’ translation is in sextains of “defective terza rima”4 which no one has ever tried to emulate. I would also like to point out that Hayley’s translation is superior to Rogers’ in every way. You may think that is just my opinion, but I encourage you to read and compare them. You will see it is an undeniable fact.
Hayley’s translation of the Inferno, Cantos 1-3, would be considered of equal importance if we knew it came out before Rogers’. Then he would be given the definite distinction of being the first to translate a complete canto. As it is, we are unsure who was first, Rogers or Hayley. I like to think it was Hayley, so it fits neatly in my fantasy of a logical chronological growth of Dante translations, but this is pure conjecture.
Hayley’s translation is a bit hidden in the Notes section of his book, An Essay on Epic Poetry.5 Cantos 1-3 appear on pages 174 to 197.
1804 - Richard Wharton - Inferno - Canto 3
In 1804 Richard Wharton published his book Fables.6 In it he translates one full canto from the Inferno, Canto 3. Also included, though not a complete canto, is the Ugolino episode which he starts at the end of Canto 32 (lines 124-157) and continues into Canto 33 (lines 1-90). The translations are written in heroic couplets7 and are on pages 1-16.
Unfortunately, I do not own this book. I have found it online, but the price is a bit steep for my budget. Maybe someday.
1821 - Anonymous/Humphrey Gubbins [John Payne Collier] - Inferno - Canto 5
Hold on. This one is crazy.
Let me start with some background. I have mentioned before that in the early 20th century Paget Toynbee was the source for all things Dante. Most of the list I have compiled from pre-1921 is from his research. He did miss a small handful of translations and had even a smaller handful of mistakes, impressive based on his output. You will find a list of Toynbee’s books, as well as a long list of other useful books, at the end of my About page.
This translation, Inferno, Canto 5, in terza rima, is one Toynbee missed. Fortunately, I came across it in my research. I have never seen it previously mentioned anywhere (until recently) and its previously unknown convoluted authorship will finally been untangled.
Originally, a few years ago, I found this anonymous translation in the May, 1821 issue of The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany8 on pages 417-421 written in terza rima. Today, while writing this post, I decided to dig a bit deeper because not knowing who wrote this was driving me nuts. Lo and behold, I found the same canto published on July 1, 1821 in The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics9 on pages 17-19, and this time the author revealed himself, Humphrey Gubbins.
Here’s where it gets insane. I started researching Gubbins and came across this book: John Payne Collier: Scholarship &Forgery in the Nineteenth Century.10 It turns out Humphrey Gubbins was a pseudonym for John Payne Collier! Apparently, Collier wrote under a number of pseudonyms.11 In 1821 Collier published “four verse translations from the Italian [which he] signed ‘Humphrey Gubbins.’”12 Only one of the translations is from Dante.
Don’t have either and have not seen them available.
1826 (1832) - Anonymous [Jonathan Hatfield] - Inferno - Canto 1
In 1832 another terza rima translation of the Inferno, Canto 1, was privately printed. It is titled An Attempt at an English Translation, in Terza Rima, of the First Canto of Dante’s Inferno13 and the author is listed as a “late scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge.”14 According to Toynbee, the unknown translator is Jonathan Hatfield.15 I found a backup source stating the same at the University of Toronto Libraries website.16 Within the book the author states the translation was done in 1826.
Again, I do not own this book. I have never seen it available and it is also high on my list.
1836 - Anonymous - Inferno - Canto 5
In 1836 Trelawney Tomkinson edited a book titled The Inquisitor.17 The book is “a collection of miscellaneous letters in separate series, addressed to [Tomkinson] by friends.”18 In this book is a prose translation of Canto 5 from the Inferno, along with commentary, which is spread out over a series of letters. Also included are partial translations of Cantos 1-4, and 6, only 5 being complete. Annoyingly, Tomkinson states, “that in editing them, at the end of each of which I have purposely omitted signatures.”19 Still digging for who the author might be, but it seems the chances are really slim.
Another one I have never seen available.
1836 - Odoardo Volpi [Edward N. Shannon] - Inferno - Cantos 1-10
In 1836 a terza rima translation of Cantos 1-10 from the Inferno were published in a book: The Comedy of Dante Alighieri.20 A very misleading title as it is less than a third of the Inferno. The author is listed as Odoardo Volpi which is a pseudonym for Edward N. Shannon.21 He used this pseudonym, along with another, Edward Fox, “for the purposes of mystification.”22
Yet another translation high on my want list, but have never seen available.
Each canto is made up of a series of encounters, or episodes.
The Ugolino episode recounts the tragic tale of Count Ugolino, a nobleman from Pisa who was betrayed by Archbishop Ruggieri. Imprisoned along with his children and grandchildren, they were left to starve to death in a tower. Starving and desperate, Ugolino was driven to cannibalism.
The Divine Comedy is divided into 3 books: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. These three books are referred to as cantiche, or when singular, cantica.
“Defective terza rima” is a translation method that involves leaving out the middle line rhyme of a terza rima poem. This is usually interpreted as tercets where lines 1 and 3 rhyme, and line 2 doesn’t rhyme with anything. For example: ABA CDC EFE, etc. In Rogers’ case he wrote in sextains (six-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme of AABCCB.
Hayley, William. An Essay on Epic Poetry; In Five Epistles to the Rev. Mr. Mason. With Notes. London, J. Dodsley, 1882, pp. 174-197.
Wharton, Richard. Fables. Printed by T. Bensley for Payne and MacKinley, London, 1804, pp. 1-16.
Two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter.
Anonymous. “Dante’s Inferno.” The Edinburgh Magazine and Literary Miscellany. May, Printed for Archibald Constable and Company, Edinburgh, 1821, pp. 417-421.
Gubbins, Humphrey. “The fifth Canto of Dante's Inferno, translated according to the original Stanza.” The Repository of Arts, Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions and Politics. The Second Series, Vol. XII, No. LXVIII, July 1, London, R. Ackerman, 1821, pp. 17-19.
Freeman, Arthur, Janet Ing Freeman. John Payne Collier: Scholarship &Forgery in the Nineteenth Century. Volumes 1 & 2. New Haven and London, Yale University Press. 2004.
Freeman, Arthur, Janet Ing Freeman. John Payne Collier: Scholarship &Forgery in the Nineteenth Century. Volumes 1. New Haven and London, Yale University Press. 2004. p. 1042.
Ibid, p. 114.
Anonymous (late scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge) [Jonathan Hatfield]]. An Attempt at an English Translation, in Terza Rima, if the First Canto of Dante’s Inferno. London, printed by Gilbert and Rivington, 1832.
(Within the book, Canto 1 is stated to have been translated in 1926.)
Ibid, title page.
Toynbee, Paget. Britain’s Tribute to Dante, London, Oxford University Press, 1921, p. 72.
Anonymous [Jonathan Hatfield]. An Attempt at an English Translation, in Terza Rima, of the First Canto of Dante’s Inferno. Jackson Bibliography of Romantic Poetry, University of Toronto Libraries. jacksonbibliography.library.utoronto.ca/book/details/an-attempt-at-an-english-translation-in-terza-rima-of-the-first-canto-of-inferno-c-c/8573. Accessed 10 Oct. 2024.
Anonymous. The Inquisitor. Trelawney Tomkinson, ed. London, John Macrone, 1836.
Ibid, p. iv.
Ibid, p. vi.
Odoardo Volpi [Edward N. Shannon]. The Comedy of Dante Alighieri. London, Edward Moxon, 1836.
Toynbee, Paget. Britain’s Tribute to Dante, London, Oxford University Press, 1921, p. 85.
Ibid.