Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One has merely to glance at any detailed catalogue of the translations from Longfellow's works—as for instance that given in the appendix to this volume—to measure the vast extent of his fame. The list includes thirty-five versions of whole books or detached poems in German, twelve in Italian, nine each in French and Dutch, seven in Swedish, six in Danish, five in Polish, three in Portuguese, two each in Spanish, Russian, Hungarian, and Bohemian, with single translations in Latin, Hebrew, Chinese, Sanskrit, Marathi, and Judea-German—yielding one hundred versions altogether, extending into eighteen languages, apart from the original English. There is no evidence that any other English-speaking poet of the last century has been so widely appreciated.

Especially is this relative superiority noticeable in that wonderful literary cyclopaedia, the vast and many-volumed catalogue of the British Museum. There, under each author's name, is found not merely the record of his works in every successive edition, but every secondary or relative book, be it memoir, criticism, attack, parody, or translation; and it is always curious