shaking quickly
From off her face the hair that fell around it,
She cast a thoughtful and angelic glance
Upward, where clouds had caught the evening red.
And her lips gently moved with whispered words,
As rose-leaves tremble when the soft winds breathe.
O she is saintly, flashed it through my soul;
She marking on her brow the holy cross,
Lifted her face, bright with the sunset's flush,
While holy longing and devotion's glow,
Moistened her eye and hung like glory round her.
Then to her breast the little dove she clasped,
Embraced, caressed it, kissed its snow-white wings,
And laughed; when, with its rose-red bill, it pecked,
As if with longing for her fresh young lips.
How she'd caress it, said I to myself,
Were this her child, the offspring of her love!
And now a voice resounded through the woods,
And cried, "Griselda," cried it, "Come, Griselda!"
While she, the distant voice's sound distinguished,
Sprang quickly up, and scarcely lingering
Her feet to dry, ran up the dewy bank
With lightning speed, her dove in circles o'er her,
Till in the dusky thicket disappeared
For me the last edge of her flutt'ring robe.
"Obedient is she," said I to myself;
And many things revolving, turned I home.

GINEVRA.

By heaven! You tell your tale so charmingly,
And with such warmth and truth to life, the hearer
Out of your words can shape a human form.
Why, I can see this loveliest of maidens
Sit by the brook-side making her grimaces;
They are right pretty faces spite of coal-smut.
Is it not so, Sir Percival?

Mrs. Prentiss' translation is both spirited and faithful--faithful in
following even the irregularities of metre which mark the original. It
won the praise and admiration of some of the most accomplished judges in
the country. The following extract from a letter of the late Rev. Henry
W. Bellows, D.D., may serve as an instance:

I read it through at one sitting and enjoyed it exceedingly. What a
lovely, pure, and exalting story it is! I confess that I prefer it to
Tennyson's recent dramas or to any of the plays upon the same or
kindred themes that have lately appeared from Leighton and others. The
translation is melodious, easy, natural, and hardly bears any marks of
the fetters of a tongue foreign to its author. How admirable must have
been the knowledge of German and the skill in English