TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
The cover image was created by the transcriberand is placed in the public domain.
E.E.T.S. stands for Early English Text Society.
Footnotes are all positioned within a specific section as in theoriginal text. One section uses [*] to denote a multiple-referencefootnote. All other footnotes are denoted by (1) in the original,and are denoted here by [1] for clarity.
Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected after carefulcomparison with other occurrences within the text and consultationof external sources.
More detail can be found at the end of the book.
The First Printed
Translations into English
of the
Great Foreign Classics
A SUPPLEMENT TO TEXT-BOOKS
OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
By
WILLIAM J. HARRIS, A.R.S.I.
BOROUGH LIBRARIAN, BROMLEY
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS, Limited
NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO
To my Wife
THE
FIRST PRINTED TRANSLATIONS
INTO ENGLISH
PREFACE
This bibliography has been compiled with the viewof supplementing existing text books on Englishliterary history, and assisting students in preparingfor examinations in Bibliography and Literature.It will also be found of service to those who are workingfor the professional examinations of the LibraryAssociation.
Students of literature, more particularly of Englishliterature, experience much difficulty in tracing theoutside influences which at various periods, or, perhaps,speaking more correctly, at all periods, haveaffected or moulded our literature. The greatforeign classics have exercised a direct and decidedinfluence upon English literature and the object ofthis bibliography is to give in concise form the authorsand titles, translations and dates of the first Englishtranslations of the chief foreign authors, and incidentallyto enable students to note the effect of suchtranslations on the works of many of our greatimaginative writers.
So far as it has been possible to discover, no workof this kind exists in this country. Students arefrequently reminded of the special need for such abibliography as this, and to all interested in the subjectit should serve a useful purpose, and perhapshelp to fill a gap in literary bibliography.
Students have been asked such questions as—givethe date of the first translation into English ofDon Quixote, of The Arabian Nights, Boccaccio'sDecameron, or of Homer. Such questions as thesenaturally involve some inquiry and research on thepart of the student, and occupy a larger amountof time than is necessary for the purpose. Hence thenecessity for a brief bibliography of this nature,which will show at a glance the first translations intoEnglish of the most important foreign classics, andsave inquirers the fatigue of searching catalogues,bibliographies and similar works.
The dictionary form of arrangement has beenadopted with the authors in alphabetical order.In some instances a work has been noticed twice,in which case the first entry will generally befound to be an edition, either issued in an incomplete