The First Translations: 1782-1802 - Part 1
Hayley, Rogers, and Boyd
This post is Part 1 of a three part post on the “firsts” of the English translations of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. This will cover the translations of William Hayley and Charles Rogers; Part 2 will cover Henry Boyd’s Inferno, and Part 3 will cover Boyd’s Divine Comedy.
I am still trying to get a grip on how much information to give on the individual translators. Other authors, such as Cunningham, Friederich, Tinkler-Villani, and Toynbee,1 have fully explored the lives of the early translators and there is nothing new I can add to the discussion. What I will do is present material I personally find interesting. Further, I will discuss the physical specifics of a book in the hope of helping any other collectors out there.
I want to note the 18th century saw quite a few partial (less than a canto) translations worth mentioning. I will give them their own post in the near future.
1782 - William Hayley - Inferno, cantos 1-3
William Hayley holds an important place in the early translations of the Divine Comedy. In the decades leading up to Hayley there were a little more than a hand full of episodes2 translated, most of which were the Ugolino3 episode from Canto 33 of the Inferno, but it was in 1782 that Hayley, in his book An Essay on Epic Poetry,4 published Cantos 1-3 from the Inferno.
Although his translation was not a complete cantica, he did, however, publish the first sustained translation in terza rima5 and presented his translation alongside the original text on facing pages.
Hayley was a very popular poet in his lifetime. His most famous poem, Triumphs of Temper, achieved considerable popularity during its time and was “published twenty-four times between 1781 and 1817.”6 I mention this because this poem “could and did borrow from Dante, his Hell.”7 There is a wonderful analysis of what and how Hayley borrowed from Dante in the section “Hayley’s Triumphs of Temper” from V. Tinkler-Villani’s Visions of Dante in English Poetry.8 Well worth reading.
Though Hayley’s translations of Cantos 1-3 appeared in 1782, he states that “the three cantos which follow, were translated a few years ago.”9 This would mean that quite possibly Hayley’s translation came before the publication of Triumphs and this would explain the influence.
BOOK SPECIFICS:
I am trying to learn the official jargon on describing a book, but in the mean time you will get this ham-fisted version.
My copy of Hayley’s An Essay on Epic Poetry was published in London and printed for J. Dodsley in Pall Mall in MDCCLXXXII (1782). I bought it disbound, but had it bound by Griffin Bookbinding. It is a half-title page, a title page, then 298 pages where page 1 is a half-title page for the first section of the book. There are no blank pages on either end. The translation of the three cantos are on pages 174 through 197, Italian on the left, translation on the right. Size: Quarto.
1782 - Charles Rogers - Inferno
Charles Rogers gets the nod for the first complete English translation of any cantica from the Divine Comedy, the Inferno in 1782. It was originally published anonymously, but the authorship has been authenticated.10 I find it interesting he was over 70 years old when it was published. It’s never too late.
Rogers was an art collector who was known for his book A Collection of Prints in Imitation of Drawings published in 1778 and was a friend to Horace Walpole. It was to Walpole’s brother Edward that Rogers dedicates his Inferno.
Though it is the first, it was, and still is, considered inferior. Cunningham said the “blank verse is so completely lacking in quality that most of it might be called indifferent prose,”11 and Toynbee stated “that the translation, while entirely devoid of any spark of poetry, has not even the merit of being faithful.”12 Ouch. This is essentially the unanimous consensus in all sources.
BOOK SPECIFICS:
I do not own this book. In fact, I have never seen it available in all my years of collecting Dante. The following information is from the PDF on archive.org, the one linked above.
The Inferno of Dante Translated. Published in London and printed by J. Nichols, MDCCLXXXII (1782). Title page, dedication page, 141 pages, then last page lists errata.
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.
Hayley, William. An Essay on Epic Poetry. London, J. Dodsley, 1782, pp. 174-197.
A rhyming verse form consisting of three line stanzas (tercets) with an interlocking rhyming pattern; ABA BCB CDC…etc.
Tinkler-Villani, V. Visions of Dante in English Poetry. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 1989, p. 77.
Ibid, p. 81.
Ibid, 78-93.
Hayley, William. An Essay on Epic Poetry. London, J. Dodsley, 1782, pp. 172.
Toynbee, Paget. Dante in English Literature, in Two Volumes, Vol. 1. London, Methuen & Co., 1909, p. 383.
Cunningham, Gilbert F. The Divine Comedy in English, A Critical Bibliography, 1782-1900. Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1965, p. 14.
Toynbee, Paget. Dante in English Literature, in Two Volumes, Vol. 1. London, Methuen & Co., 1909, p. 383.