TASSO, Torquato
£11,000 · Offered by Sokol Books
A remarkable copy, on large paper, of the first edition, first issue, of the hugely popular and influential translation into English by the English poet Fairfax of Tasso s Jerusalem Delivered. Fairfax s was the first complete translation, though Richard Carew had produced a translation of the first five books Torquato Tasso s Jerusalem Delivered is one of the great Italian epics, an influential and immensely popular piece. .. There have been many translations of Tasso s work, new ones continuing to appear at a steady rate , but to speak of Tasso in English has, for four hundred years, been to speak of Edward Fairfax s translation. .. The Elizabethan poet Fairfax did not make a great mark with his own verse (little of which survives), but his translation is an acknowledged masterpiece of sorts. Fairfax s translation is a fairly free one, taking more liberties than most translators care or dare to. There is considerable embellishment of the text, specifically with the addition of nouns and adjectives as Fairfax uses two or three words to repeat what Tasso expressed in one. Fairfax remains true to the story, but his language is much more sprightly (and the effect more dramatic or at least melodramatic) than in Tasso s original. Usually such translatorial interference does little to enhance a text, but Fairfax was a real poet and his English version, though a stretch as a translation, is an impressive English epic. Fairfax s imprint was a strong and enduring one, and the receptio
- Binding: Hardcover
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