SPLENDID MOURNING.
[To TEE EDITOR OP THE "SPEOTATOR.1 SIR,—Whatever may be said of the accuracy of the two English renderings of Madame de Staers words, quoted by "H. C. B." in the Spectator of July 26th, his judgment as to the respective pathos of the versions will surely not be gener- ally endorsed. The thought expressed in the translation to which he takes exception is finely worked out by Mrs. Browning in "Aurora Leigh" :— "How dreary 'tis for women to sit still On wintry nights by solitary fires And hear the nations praising them far off ; Too far! ay, praising our quick sense of love, Our very heart of passionate womanhood, Which could not beat so in the verse unless Being present also in the unkissed lips, And eyes undried because there's none to ask The reason they grew moist."
Is there not more real pathos in this than in the sentiment expressed in the other rendering,—" Fame is the showy mourning a plain woman wears for her lost happiness" ?— I am, Sir, &c., L. M. C.
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