as English does in monosyllables, and the few it has are mostly of but two or three letters.  In combination its syllables sometimes get to four letters, as in fronte and braccia.  As a consequence hereof, Dante’s lines, although always of eleven syllables, average about twenty-nine letters, while those of the three translators about thirty-three.  Hence, the poem in their versions carries more weight than the original; its soul is more cumbered with body.

In order to the faithful reproduction of Dante, to the giving the best transcript, possible in English, of his thought and feeling, should not regard be had to the essential difference between the syllabic constitutions of the two languages, what may be called the physical basis of the two mediums of utterance?  Here is the Francesca story, translated in the spirit of this suggestion:—­

  I turned to them, and then I spake: 
    “Francesca! tears o’erfill mine eyes,
  Such pity thy keen pangs awake. 
    But say:  in th’ hour of sweetest sighs,
  By what and how found Love relief
    And broke thy doubtful longing’s spell?”
  And she:  “There is no greater grief
    Than joy in sorrow to retell. 
  But if so urgently one seeks
    To know our Love’s first root, I will
  Do as he does who weeps and speaks. 
    One day of Lancelot we still
  Read o’er, how love held him enchained. 
    Without mistrust we were alone. 
  Our cheeks oft were of color drained: 
    One passage vanquished us, but one. 
  When we read of lips longed for pressed
    By such a lover with a kiss,
  This one whom naught from me shall wrest,
    All trembling kissed my mouth.  To this
  That book and writer brought us.  We
    No farther read that day.”  While she
  Thus spake, the other spirit wept
    So bitterly, with pity I
  Fell motionless, my senses swept
    By swoon, as one about to die.

In the very first line two Italian trisyllables, rivolsi and parlai, are given in English with literal fidelity by two monosyllables, turned and spake.  In the fourth observe how, in a word-for-word rendering, the eleven Italian syllables become, without any forcing, eight English: 

  “Ma dimmi:  al tempo de’ dolci sospiri:” 
  “But tell me:  in th’ hour of sweet sighs.”

For the sake of a more musical cadence, this line is slightly modified.  Again, in the line,—­

  “Than joy in sorrow to retell,”

joy represents, and represents faithfully, three words containing six syllables, del tempo felice:  retell stands for ricordarsi, and in sorrow for nella miseria, or, three syllables for six; so that, by means of eight syllables, is given a full and complete translation of what in Italian takes up seventeen.  English the most simple, direct, idiomatic, is needed in order