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XXXIV: Benjamin Beresford, Literary Ambassador
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Protégé of the Duke of Bedford, tutor of the Queen of Prussia, minister of the Gospel in Moscow, and professor of English in Berlin—such are the more striking phases of the varied career ascribed to the Reverend Benjamin Beresford by his commentators, for whom the full measure of the man has remained obscured. Even recent recognition of his sterling service as pioneer literary intermediary between Germany and England has been vitiated by insufficient knowledge not only of the man himself but also of the publications by which he initiated and sustained for a quarter of a century English acquaintance with German lyric poetry. His translations of popular German songs accompanied by their original melodies have long since become rarities. Even during his lifetime the compiler of a musical lexicon expressed regret that he did not have Beresford's first collection at hand so that he might inform a future generation precisely which of various current compositions had been selected for the songs. As a matter of fact, this particular publication seems to have reached posterity in a unique copy. Succeeding publications suffered similar fortunes, many of them surviving in extremely scarce if not actually single copies.
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References
1 E. L. Gerber, Neues historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Tonkünstler, Erster Theil, A-D (Leipzig, 1812), cols. 347–348.
2 James Beresford has been accorded an account in the D.N.B., while an obituary was printed in The Gentleman's Magazine (May, 1841), xv, 548. An obituary of Benjamin himself in the Intelligenz-Blatt of the Leipziger Literatur-Zeitung (May 20, 1820), no. 123, col. 978, incorporated certain facts relating to his contemporary. Similar confusions, appeared in J. D. Reuss, Das gelehrte England oder Lexikon der jetztlebenden Schriftsteller in Grossbritannien, Irland und Nord-Amerika nebst einem Verzeichniss ihrer Schriften vom Jahr 1770 bis 1790, Nachtrag und Fortsetzung vom Jahr 1790 bis 1803, Th. I., A-K (Berlin und Stettin, 1804), p. 91; J. S. Ersch, Handbuch der deutschen Literatur seit der Mitte des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts bis auf die neueste Zeit, new edition (Leipzig, 1822 and 1840), i, 268–269 and ii, 435, 453–454; J. G. Meusel, Das gelehrte Teutschland, fifth edition (Lemgo, 1829), x, 206–207; C. G. Kayser, Index Locupletissimus Librorum … Völlständiges Bücher-Lexikon enthaltend alle von 1750 bis zu Ende des Jahres 1832 in Deutschland und in den angrenzenden Ländern gedruckten Bücher, Erster Theil, A-C (Leipzig, 1834), p. 214; E. M. Oettinger, Moniteur des Dates (Leipzig, 1869), p. 79; and, perpetuating the errors of their predecessors, Michael Holzmann and Hans Bohatta, Deutsches Anonymen-Lexikon, I (1902), 333, II (1903), 39, 82, IV (1907), 97, 186. James for Benjamin survives even in F. W. Stokoe's German Influence in the English Romantic Period, 1788–1818 (Cambridge, 1926); V. Stockley, however, makes no such error in frequent mention of Beresford and his books in German Literature as Known in England, 1750–1830 (London, 1929), which volume, it is gratefully acknowledged, has been of assistance in this investigation.
3 Lucretia van Tuyl Simmons, “Goethe's Lyric Poems in English Translation Prior to 1860,” University of Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature, No. 6 (Madison, 1919), pp. 14–15, n. 13.
4 H. G. Fiedler, “Goethe's Lyric Poems in English Translation,” M.L.R., xviii (1923), 51–67.
5 William Lyon Phelps, “As I Like It,” Scribner's Magazine, November, 1932, and April, 1933, xcii, v, 299–300, and xciii, iv, 260.
6 H. Nolte and L. Ideler, Handbuch der englischen Sprache und Literatur, Poetischer Theil, third edition (Berlin, 1811), p. 679.—The present portrait of Benjamin Beresford endeavors to fill in the outlines sketched with considerable amplitude and commendable accuracy by Nolte and Ideler, Idem., pp. 679–683. It derives supplementary material from primary sources and previous accounts, the latter including, in addition to those designated in note no. 2, also: J. F. von Recke, and K. E. Napiersky, Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland, Erster Band, A-F (Mitau, 1827), p. 115, Nachträge und Fortsetzungen, Erster Band, A-K (Mitau, 1859), pp. 48–49; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica; or a General Index to British and Foreign Literature (Edinburgh, 1824), i, 102; S. A. Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (London, 1881), i, 173; and Robert Eitner, Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten (Leipzig, 1900), i, 453–454.
7 Joseph Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886 (London, 1887), i, 99.
8 The principal himself published at London in 1782 A Narrative of Circumstances attending Mr. Beresford's Marriage with Miss Hamilton, to which he added six years later an Appendix to Mr. Beresford's Narrative of Circumstances attending his Marriage with Miss Hamilton. According to the former account Beresford's counsel “published a Memoire for his client, replete with sound learning, clothed in elegant diction” while “the advocate for Mr. Beresford's child composed an excellent Memoire in favour of his infant client.” Further, a brief of the opposition “was published by way of Memoire” at Paris also in 1782, “and many thousand copies were distributed in Paris and Versailles.” It would seem that this publication is identical with the Question de Droit public, Plaidoyer pour Messire Gawen Hamilton, des Comtes de Clambrasil; & Madame Jeanne Rowan, son Epouse; contre le Sieur Benjamin Beresford, Chapelain Anglican; en présence de M. le Procurer Général; et de Miss Sidney Hamilton, leur Fille, which the British Museum has ascribed to Henry Cardin Jean Baptiste de Fresnes, Marquis d'Aguesseau, who, however, acted as Avocat Général in the proceedings.
9 A Narrative of Circumstances attending Mr. Beresford's Marriage with Miss Hamilton, passim.
10 H. Nolte and L. Ideler, Handbuch der englischen Sprache und Literatur, p. 679.
11 The University of Halle has kindly provided a transcript of the diploma, which bears the date April 28, 1801.
12 Cf. Die Kaiserliche Universität Dorpat während der ersten funfzig Jahre ihres Bestehens und Wirkens, Denkschrift zum Jubelfeste 1852, p. 31, and also Heinrich Storch, Russland unter Alexander dem Ersten (St. Petersburg and Leipzig), ii (1804), 208.
13 Despite divergence of date in Recke and Napiersky, Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland, i, 115, and in Meusel, Das gelehrte Teutschland, x, 206, the precise date of Beresford's appointment, as well as that of his departure, is reliably reported in Die Kaiserliche Universität zu Dorpat, Fünfundzwanzig Jahre nach ihrer Gründung (1827), p. 27. The same source, p. 12, reveals the salary of language teachers.
14 Die Kaiserliche Universität Dorpat während der ersten fünfzig Jahre ihres Bestehens und Wirkens, p. 43, n. 64; Heinrich Storch, Russland unter Alexander dem Ersten, viii (1806), 25; and Intelligenzblatt der Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung, Wednesday, October 10, 1804, no. 162, col. 1312.
15 Nolte and Ideler, p. 683.
16 P. S. Allen and J. T. Hatfield, Diary and Letters of Wilhelm Müller (Chicago, 1903), p. 9. This reference was kindly furnished by Miss L. V. T. Simmons, The Pennsylvania State College.
17 Max Lenz, Geschichte der Königlichen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitäl zu Berlin (Halle, 1910), i, 392.
18 Heinrich Dernburg, Die Königliche Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin in ihrem Personalbestande seit ihrer Errichtung Michaelis 1810 bis Michaelis 1885 (Berlin, 1885), p. 3.
19 Index Lectionum quae Auspiciis Regis Augustissimi Friderici Guilelmi Tertii in Universitate Litteraria Berolinensi per Semestre Aestivum MDCCCXVI A Die XVII M. Aprilis Instituentur, Berolini, Formis 10, p. 14; succeeding announcements appeared in catalogues for the winter and summer semesters, respectively, 1816–17, p. 14 and p. 15; 1817–18, p. 12 and p. 13; 1818–19, p. 12 and p. 16.
20 Allen and Hatfield, p. 52.
21 Cf. the “Todesfälle.” in C. D. Beck, Allgemeines Repertorium der neuesten in- und ausländischen Literatur (Leipzig, 1819), iii, 193, in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung (July, 1819), no. 185, col. 631, and in the Leipziger Literatur-Zeitung (May 20, 1820), no. 123, col. 978; the date is also recorded by Recke and Napiersky, Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland, i, 115, and by E. M. Oettinger, Moniteur des Dates, p. 79.
22 Max Lenz, Geschichte der Königlichen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin, i, 611, n. 1.
23 The appointment was reported in the department devoted to advancements in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung for April, 1817, no. 98, col. 783.
24 Berlin, Sold by G. C. Nauk, 1797.—The Duchess of York was the “natural patroness” of a collection of English translations of German songs in that she was a German princess, daughter of Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia. Less than six years before the publication of the Erato at Berlin Frederick, Duke of York, had married at the court of Berlin Friederike Charlotte Ulrike Katharine, whose worth, Beresford affirmed, he had had, during his “residence at Berlin, such frequent occasions of estimating in the regret which still prevail[ed] among all ranks of people, that she [was] no longer resident in that capital.”
25 Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, December 1, 1798 (Saturday), no. 365, cols. 561–565.—Professor J. A. Walz, who has given generously of advice and assistance, is responsible for the identification of this and another review by Schlegel, both of which were published anonymously in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung. This one appears also in the eleventh volume of August Wilhelm von Schlegel's sämmtliche Werke, edited by Eduard Böcking (Leipzig, 1847), pp. 324–329.
26 This poem was designated by the review as Hölty's “Aufforderung zur Freude,” but that was first translated by Beresford in a later collection.
27 Berlin, Sold by G. C. Nauk, 1798.
28 Elizabeth Farren, who appears in the D.N.B. played the part of the Baroness, that is Minna, in The Disbanded Officer; or, the Baroness of Bruchsal, under which title an adaptation by James Johnstone of Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm was presented at the Haymarket Theater eleven times from the twenty-third of July, 1786, in what was probably the first representation of a German play upon an English stage (John Genest, Some Account of the English Stage, from the Restoration in 1660 to 1830 [Bath, 1832], vi, 413–414; for further mention of Miss Farren and especially of her characters cf. ibid., vii, 297–300). There are extant at least three early editions of The Disbanded Officer; or, the Baroness of Bruchsal, A Comedy, As performed at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market, which appeared in 1786 both at “London: Printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand” and at “Dublin: Printed for Mess. Byrne, W. Porter, and Jones,” and again in 1788 also in Dublin through these same publishers.
29 In addition, as in Beresford's other collections, there were several unascribed poems. Such were occasionally unknown even to contemporary reviewers, although they can frequently be identified. Of four anonymous poems contained in this publication, for instance, two are recognizable as Overbeck's “Lied Fritzchens an den Mai” (Komm lieber Mai) and Usteri's “Gesellschaftslied” (Freut euch des Lebens), which had been first printed in the Göttinger Musenalmanach für das Jahr 1796.
30 Berlin, Sold by G. C. Nauk, 1798.
31 Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, July 9, 1799 (Tuesday), no. 217, cols. 75–80; Eduard Böcking, August Wilhelm von Schlegel's sämmtliche Werke, xi, 403–408.
32 Berlin, Sold by H. Frölich, and by Messieurs Baumgartners [sic], Leipsic, 1799.
33 Of these, moreover, three are anonymous, although one of them has been identified as “Die Ewigkeit der Freundschaft” by Meister; still another, the authorship of which is indicated, is Nostiz's poem “An Hebe.”
34 The Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung in noting this fact (July 9, 1799 [Tuesday], no. 217, col. 80) observed also that the German text could be sung to the same music, regardless of the fact that the feminine rimes had not been reproduced in the translation.
35 “Hätte Bürger das erlebt, es würde ihn für manches entlchädigt (sic) haben.” Such are the exact words of the review of “Translations of German Poems, extracted from the musical publications of the author of the German Erato. Berlin 1801,” which was signed F. R., presumably Friedrich Rambach, in whose Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit the review was printed in March, 1801 (Berlin, in Commission bey Heinrich Frölich, Erster Band, Januar bis April, pp. 240–241).
36 Cf. especially O. F. Emerson, “The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore, A Study in English and German Romanticism,” Western Reserve Studies (Cleveland, 1915), i, i.
37 There are extant upwards of fifty different English translations, many of which have been recorded neither by Alois Brandl, “Lenore in England,” in Erich Schmidt's Charakteristiken, first series (Berlin, 1886), nor by W. W. Greg, “English Translations of ‘Lenore,‘ A Contribution to the History of the Literary Relations of the Romantic Revival,” The Quarterly of Language and Literature, ii, 13–28, and iii, 40.
38 Berlin, Sold by H. Frölich; and by Messieurs Baumgärtners, Leipsic, 1800.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 Schillers Lied An die Freude in Uebersetzungen, Fortsetzung, Enthaltend noch eine lateinische Uebersetzung im Versmaasse des Originals von M. Gottfried Günther Röller, und eine englische in gleichem Versmaasse von Professor Beresford in Dorpat, 1810.
42 London, Printed for L. Lavenu, No. 29. New Bond-Street, Music-Seller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 1801.
43 Only upon its reappearance under the title “An Amor” in Beresford's last collection was a poem translated anonymously in the Supplement attributed to Wieland.
44 The Faithful Knight, A Ballad, by F. Schiller, Done into English by the Translator of The German Erato, etc. and Set to Music by J. R. Zumsteeg, London, Sold by L. Lavenu, No. 29. New Bond-Street, Music-Seller to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, 1800.
45 Lenore, eine Ballade von Bürger, in Musik gesetzt von Reichardt, nebst der englischen Übersetzung von dem Verfasser der German Erato, Berlin, Bei H. Frölich, und Leipzig bei Baumgärtner, 1801.
46 To this number should probably be added a second edition of A Collection of German Ballads and Songs, which was advertised at the end of the independent edition of The Faithful Knight as “likewise [to] be had at L. Lavenu's,” having been announced at the end of Twelve Favourite Songs as “now in the press, and to be sold by” Frölich and Baumgärtners. At the end of the second volume of Translations it was also stated that “Of Henry Frölich may likewise be had,” among other publications by Beresford, “German Ballads etc., second edition.”
47 Berlin, Sold by H. Frölich, Bookseller, 1802.
48 Berlin, Printed for H. Frölich, 1801.
49 Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit, i (January, 1801), 57–59.
50 Ibid., i (March, 1801), 240–241.
51 Berlin: Printed for H. Frölich, 1803.
52 The pertinent page of the periodical, which has not been identified, has been preserved in the Varnhagen Collection of the state library at Berlin. With the same date the poem appeared in The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1810–1811 (London, 1814), p. 384, while already in 1801 it had been printed in The German Museum for March, III, 230. As late as 1822 and 1823 it was reprinted in the two editions of Specimens of the German Lyric Poets, London.
53 The German Museum, or Monthly Repository of the Literature of Germany, the North and the Continent in general, Preface and passim.
54 The Poetical Register, and Repository of Fugitive Poetry, for 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806–1807, 1808–1809, 1810–11 (London, 1801–1814).
55 The German Museum, i (January, 1800), 63–64.
56 Ibid., i (June, 1800), 526.
57 Ibid., ii (November, 1800), 482.
58 Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit, i (January, 1801), 57–58.
59 Ibid., i (April, 1801), 314–315.
60 Nolte and Ideler, p. 680.
61 In three volumes, London: Printed for Richard Phillips, No. 71, St. Paul's Churchyard, by T. Gillet, Salisbury-square, 1802. These volumes were published both in octavo and in duodecimo.
62 New York: Printed for H. Caritat, Bookseller and Librarian, No. 1, Tontine Building, Broad-Way, By G. F. Hopkins, 1802.
63 In three volumes, London: Printed for Richard Phillips, No. 6, Bridge-Street, Black-friars, by T. Gillet, Wild-court, Wild-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, 1806.
64 The Annual Review; and History of Literature; for 1802, i, 74–78, and The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged, September, 1805, New Series, xlviii, i, 75–80.
65 London: Printed for Hunt and Clarke, York Street, Covent Garden.
66 London: Whittaker, Treacher, and Arnot, Ave-Maria-Lane.
67 Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit, March and April, 1801, i, 241 and 314–315.
68 It is upon the testimony of this same authority, who read a fragment thereof, that a translation of Wieland's “Musarion” is asserted to have been begun by Beresford.
69 Berlin, Printed for Augustus Mylius, 1800.
70 Berlin, Printed for Augustus Mylius, 1801.
71 Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit, i (April, 1801), 314–315.
72 Berlin: Printed for the Author; and sold by R. Phillips, Bookseller, No. 71. St. Paul's Churchyard, London, 1803. A second edition, with maps and plans, is reported to have been issued in 1810.
73 London: Printed for the Translator, & Sold by Clementi Banger, Collard, Davis & Collard, Cheapside, 1816.
74 Princess Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmine, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, to whom Beresford inscribed these “melodies of a nation, which now, it may be presumed, naturally creates an interest in her, and which most assuredly will hereafter be amply returned, how warm so ever it may be,” was married the following year on her nineteenth birthday, July 13, 1817, to Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia.
75 Auf Kosten des Herausgebers, und zu haben in den vorzüglichsten Musikhandlungen Deutschlands, 1817.
76 For Anna Luise Karsch cf. Die Karschin, Friedrichs des Grossen Volksdichterin, ein Leben in Briefen, eingeleitet und herausgegeben von Elizabeth Hausmann, mit 31 Bildern (Societäts-Verlag Frankfurt am Main, 1933).
77 At the time of this dedication Anton Heinrich Fürst von Radziwill, who may be reckoned a musician in his own right, had already been engaged at least six years upon his most significant work: a musical setting to Goethe's Faust. Inasmuch as the undertaking was to occupy him more than twelve years more, “So ward das Lebenswerk des Dichters auch dem Componisten zur Lebensarbeit”—to quote a comment by Robert Eitner, who not only included the prince in his Biographisch-Bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten but also contributed an account of him to the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie.
78 London: Printed for the Author, and Sold by Messieurs Clementi and Co. Cheapside, MDCCCXIX.
79 London: Boosey and Sons, 4, Broad Street; and Rodwell and Martin, New Bond Street.
80 Joseph Charles Mellish, “Königlich Grossbritannischer General-Consul in Niedersachsen und den freien Hansestädten” and “Königlich Preussischer, auch Grossherzoglich Sachsen-Weimarscher Kammerherr,” who is remembered through various associations with Goethe and Schiller, is probably known mainly for his translation of Maria Stuart, which he rendered concurrently as Schiller composed it, with the result that the English version appeared before the German original. His translation of Hermann und Dorothea, which received Goethe's commendation, was never published, while that of Wallenstein, which he projected and began, was never completed; Goethe's masque Paleophron und Neoterpe was also translated by Mellish and twice publiehsd.
81 Hamburg, 1818, bei Perthes und Besser, Gedruckt bei J. G. Langhoff. It is to be noted that the volume exists in two states, one of them lacking the engravings of the other.
82 August Wilhelm Schlegel in the Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung, July 9, 1799 (Tuesday), no. 217, cols. 75–80; and an anonymous commentator in Kronos, ein Archiv der Zeit, i (April, 1801), 314.
83 Although the reprint in The Atheneum; or, Spirit of the English Magazines, xi (May 15, 1822), 144–145, omitted portions of the text printed in The European Magazine, and London Review, lxxxi (February, 1822), 156–159, it added two translations that were not included among those quoted in the original review. Beresford's translation of Weisse's “Iris,” entitled “Song,” which had been printed at least three times previously, was reprinted in 1853 by D. Appleton and Company of New York in A Token of Affection. Poetry of the Heart. This volume, like many American gift-books, was reissued at least once without date.
84 Instead of the usual “lieben, vollen Becher” this reading without the n stands in the Supplement to the Erato and also in the Translations. The two volumes of Translations have furnished both the German and the English texts of all the herewith quoted songs which they contain.
86 The participle “gemacht” appears by mistake, probably through the influence of the alternate rime, for the correct form “gewusst.”
87 It is gratefully acknowledged that the present study presents one result of research conducted under the auspices of the Ottendorfer Memorial Fellowship for Germanic Philology.