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short fiction, excerpts, poetry, including ballads, and
songs.




First up:

The Famous History of Friar Bacon:  both a modernized version by S.
Rhoads of the text, followed by the original text of the 16th century
comedy.


Latest:


The Georgics by Virgil translated by J. P. Mackail


Old-Time Conviviality in Bon-Accord by Robert Kempt


"In Memory of an Ornery Pup," in At the Grass Roots, by Elmer House


From Tales from the Fjeld, A Series of Popular Tales from the Norse of P.
Ch. Asbjörnsen, by Sir George Dasent, illustrated by Moyr Smith:

Osborn's Pipe,

The Haunted Mill,

Another Haunted Mill, and

The Honest Penny.


Some poems by John Greenleaf Whittier, and Walt Whitman.

The Eclogues, by Virgil, translated by J. W. Mackail.

Horatius at the Bridge, by Lord Macaulay, Americanized version.

Slams of Life by J. P. McEvoy

De L'Ystoire Asseneth, a fourteenth century French story, with links to a
modern English translation.

Celestial Intelligence, by Frederic S. Cozzens, anonymously contributed
to the Yankee Doodle Magazine, in 1847.

Some Extracts by Honoré  de Balzac, the funniest being Innocence,
(anonymous translator)

The Groves of Blarney, by Richard A. Milliken, with Notes by Charles
Eliot Norton.

Rude Rural Rhymes by Bob Adams [Robert Morrill Adams] -- an
agricultural extension teacher from Cornell, who wrote popular, usually
funny, [and educational] rhymes that were nationally syndicated in the
1920's.

The Bard of the Dimbovitza, songs collected from the farm workers of
Romania by Helene Vacaresco, translated into English by Carmen
Sylva (Queen Elizabeth de Wied of Romania) and Alma Strettel.

The Greco-Trojan Game, by Charles F. Johnson.   A Homeric parody of
The Trojan War as a football game in epic verse.



The Earliest Anglo-Saxon Poems in English translation:

The Attack at Finnsburg by Francis B. Gummere, with notes,

Deor (with Signy's Lament from the Norse) by Francis B. Gummere, with
notes,

Widsith, The Far-traveler, by Henry Morley, notes by Cook and Tinker

Widsith by Francis B. Gummere

Widsith, extract, in Pancoast and Spaeth, with notes



Extract from Ship of Fools, by Sebastian Brant, translated by Merrick
Whitcomb

The Scorpion of Father Gomez, A Peruvian Folk-Tale, by Ricardo Palma,
translated into English (uncredited translator)

Bunker Hill: An Old-Time Ballad, by Frederic S. Cozzens.

Barbara Allen, edited by H. B. Cotterill.

From Anecdotes of Dogs, by Edward Jesse, Esq. (1870):

Introduction
The Turnspit
The Ban-Dog
The Lurcher
The Great Danish Dog
The Cur Dog
The Dalmatian or Coach-Dog,
The Bull-Dog


The Silvae of Statius, translated by D. A. Slater:


I. THE LIFE
II. THE SILVAE
III. THE LITERARY HISTORY OF THE SILVAE: AN OUTLINE


BOOK I:

i.     Quae superimposito moles:  
The unveiling of an equestrian statue of the emperor
Domitian.

ii.    Vnde sacro Latii:  
The marriage of Stella and Violentilla.  

iii.  Cernere facundi Tibur Glaciale Vopiscus:
The Pleasaunce of Vopiscus at Tiber.

iv.   Estis, io, superi:
On the recovery of Rutilius Gallicus, Prefect of Rome,
from an illness.

v.    Non Helicona gravi:  
The Baths of Claudius Etruscus.

vi.   Et Phoebus pater et severa Pallas:
The Emperor's Carnival.


BOOK II.

i      Quod tibi praerepti:
The part condoles with his friend Melior on the death
of Glaucias, his adopted son.

ii     Est inter notos Sirenum:
The poet commemorates a visit to his friends Pollius
and Polla at their countryseat near Sorrento.

iii   Stat qua perspicuas:
The legend of the Plane-tree in Melior’s grounds.
A birthday poem.

iv   Psittace dux volucrum:
In memory of Melior’s parrot.

v    Quid tibi deposita:
On Melior’s tame Lion killed in the Amphitheatre.

vi   Saeve nimis, lacrimis:
To Flavius Ursus on the death of a favourite slave.

vii  Lucani proprium diem:
Lucan’s Birthday.



BOOK III.

i     Intermissa tibi renovat:
Pollius dedicates a temple to Hercules at Sorrento,

ii   Di quibus audacis:
A send-off for his patron Maecius Celer, who is sailing
for Egypt.

iii  Summa Deum, Pietas:
The poet consoles Claudius Etruscus on the death of
his aged father.

iv  Ite, comae, facilemque:
The dedication of the lock to Aesculapius.

v    Quid mihi maesta die:
Statius has resolved to leave Rome and settle in his
native city. He rallies his wife Claudia on her apparent
reluctance to go with him.


BOOK IV.

i       Laeta bis octonis:
Statius celebrates Domitian’s seventeenth consulship.

ii      Regia Sidoniae convivia:
Statius banquets with his Lord God the Emperor.

iii     Quis duri silicis:
The Emperor’s road.

iv     Curre per Euboicos:
The poet writes to his friend Marcellus, bidding him
make holiday in summer.

v       Parvi beatus ruris honoribus:
An ode to Septimius of Leptis.

vi     Forte remittentem curas:                    
Reminiscences of Vindex and his art-treasures.

vii    Iam diu lato:
In honour of Maximus.

viii   Pande foris superum:
Statius congratulates Menecrates on the birth of a
third child.

ix     Est sane iocus iste:
Statius rallies his friend Grypus for sending him a
book as a Christmas-box, and offers some
suggestions for inexpensive presents.


BOOK V.

i       Si manus aut similis:
Statius consoles Abascantus for the loss of his wife
Priscilla.

ii     Rura meus Tyrrhena petit:
Statius celebrates the promotion and regrets the
departure from Rome of his young friend Crispinus.

iii    Ipse malas vires:
In memory of the poet’s father.

iv    Crimine quo merui:
The poet invokes Sleep.

v      Me miserum! neque enim:
Statius laments the death of his adopted son.



From Early English Romances:  Done into Modern English by Edith
Rickert: Romances of Friendship:

Amis and Amiloun
The Story of Gray-Steel
Roswall and Lillian
Gamelyn
Sir Amadas
Athelston


Bust of Dante, by Thomas W. Parsons


A short very young children's book:
The Wish Fairy of the Sunshine and Shadow Forest, by Alice Ross
Colver.


Turkish Fables, translated by Epiphanius Wilson

Some of the poems in English and Italian, with brief biographies, from
An Anthology of Italian Poems, selected and translated by Lorna de
Lucchi:

St. Francis of Assisi
Cielo dal Camo
Frederick II.
Rinaldo d' Aquino
Ciacco dell' Anguillaia
Guittone d' Arezzo
Compiuta Donzella
Rustico Filippo
Iacopone da Todi
Guido Guinizelli
Guido Cavalcanti
Cecco Angiolieri
Lapo Gianni
Folgore da San Gimignano
Dante [Durante] Alighieri
Cino da Pistoia
Francesco Petrarca
Giovanni Boccaccio
Franco Sacchetti
Matteo Maria Boiardo
Lorenzo de' Medici
Angelo Poliziano
Iacopo [Jacopo] Sannazaro
Niccolo Machiavelli
Pietro Bembo
Lodovic Ariosto
Michelangeo Buonarroti
Vittoria Colonna
Luigi Alamanni
Francesco Berni
Giovanni Guidiccioni
Benedetto Cariteo
Giovanni Della Casa
Luigi Tansillo
Gaspara Stampa
Torquato Tasso


More 16th - 19th century stories, translated by
Thomas Roscoe, from The Italian Novelists:

Robustiano Gironi,
Luigi Bramieri,
Count Carlo Gozzi,
Luigi Sanvitale,
Girolamo Padovani,
Autore Ignoto (anonymous),
Domenico Maria Manni,
Carlo Lodoli,
Count Lorenzo Magalotti,
Gianfrancesco Altanesi,
Francesco Soave,
Albergati Capacelli,
Giovanni Bottari,
Scipione Bargagli,
The Cordelier Metamorphosed, attributed to        
Michele Colombo,
Maiolino Bisaccioni,
Anonymous Authors of the 16th century,
Salvuccio Salvucci,
Celio Malespini,
Ascanio Mori Da Ceno,
Niccolo Granucci,
Sebastiano Erizzo,
Anton-Francesco Doni,
Francesco Sansovino,
Matteo Bandello,



Beauty by Anacreon,
translated by Thomas Stanley.

Some 16th century stories by
Giovan-Francesco Straparola,
Ortensio Lando,
translated by Thomas Roscoe.

Dick Turpin's Ride, an excerpt from Rookwood
by William Harrison Ainsworth.

Some 16th century stories by                  
Anton-Francesco Grazzini,         
Giovambattista Giraldi Cinthio,
translated by Thomas Roscoe.

While the Days  Are Going By,
Anonymous Lyric.

Roses of Paestum by Edward McCurdy,
Volume 10 Number VII, of The Bibelot.

Gunpowder and Chalk,
from Dicken's Household Words in
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1850.

Sea-Magic and Running Water, by
Fiona Macleod (William Sharp)
The Bibelot, Volume 10, Number IV.    

Fragments from Sappho,
The Bibelot, Volume 1, Number V.

A Story by Marco Cademosto Da Lodi
(16th century)
translated by Thomas Roscoe.

The Mother, translated from the Chinese
by George Borrow.

The Mirage in Egypt
by Theodore Watts-Dunton.

A Discourse of Marcus Aurelius,
by Walter Pater,
The Bibelot, Volume I, Number IV.

Medieval Latin Students' Songs,
translated by John Addington Symonds,
The Bibelot, Volume I, Number III.

Ballades from Francois Villon,
The Bibelot, Volume I, Number II.

Villon
poem by Francis B. Gummere
(noted Anglo-Saxon Scholar)  

Lyrics from William Blake and
Preface to Volume I,
The Bibelot, Volume I, Number I.

Along the Trail:                                             
Lyrics from The Poems of  Richard Hovey,
The Bibelot, Volume X, Number IX.

The Adventures of Istar from The Chaldean
Account of Genesis                    
translated by George Smith.                

Memories of President Lincoln, by                                            
Walt Whitman   
(The best of these are:
O Captain!  My Captain!
The Wound-dresser)

The Poems of Lionel Johnson

A Toast by Richard Hovey

Dead Love and Other Inedited Pieces, by                                  
Algernon Charles Swinburne

One of the Gesta Romanorum:
Of Christ, who, by his Passion, delivered us                          
from Hell    

Walter Skeat's
Fables & Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest.

Roscoe's translations of some of the
16th century tales written by:

Girolamo Parabosco
Giovanni Brevio
Pietro Fortini
Gentile Sermini
Agnolo Firenzuola
Bernardo Illicini
Alessandro Girolamo Sozzini
Niccolo Machiavelli, (the original
translation of Belphagor, also listed below:                                    
modernized and unattributed -- till now)


Roscoe's translations of some of the
15th century tales written by:
Massuccio Salernitano
(Masuccio di Salerno)              
Sabadino degli Arienti
(Giovanni Sabbadino)     


Three Poor Mariners
by Thomas Ravenscroft

The Story of 'Lorn Light
by Thomas Hood

The Launching of the Ship
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

All Things Shall Pass Away
by Thomas Tilton

The Fables of Pilpay                   

Count Lucanor: Or The Fifty Pleasant Stories of  Patronio
by Don Juan Manuel


A very consoling poem:  Self deception by Matthew Arnold.


The Sea-Farer, an example of Early English poetry from the Exeter
Book (<1050 A.D.)


Early English  Romances In Verse Done Into Modern English  by Edith.
Rickert: Romances of Love.


Death Levels All  by Thomas Blacklock.


Address to an Egyptian Mummy  by Horace Smith.


The Maiden Tribute, an Ancient Spanish Ballad, translated by J. G.
Lockhart


Three Warnings by Mrs. Thrale.


Young Beichan (and Susie Pye), from Ballads Old and New, Part I;
edited and modernized by H. B. Cotterill.


A few of the Novelle Antiche, or Hundred Ancient Tales, from The Italian
Novelists;,translated by Thomas Roscoe.


Some of the Novels of Sacchetti, from The Italian Novelists, translated
by Thomas Roscoe.


Some of the Novels of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino from Il Pecorone,
translated by Thomas Roscoe.


The Mischievous Ape by Matteo Bandello translated by Thomas Roscoe.


A Lover of Lies by Ortensio Lando translated by Thomas Roscoe.


Aucassin and Nicolette and other Medieval Romances and Legends
translated by Eugene Mason.


The Prince Don Juan Manuel's El Conde Lucanor.


Don Diego de Hurtado Mendoza: The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes, his
Fortunes and His Mishaps. (not proofed)


The Facetious Nights of Straparola
Volume 2, (not proofed).  Renaissance Italy 'fables' translated into
English by H. G. Waters,


Legends and Satires from Medieval Literature, edited by M. H. Shackford.


Short but catchy: The Bow-Legged Ghost, by Leon Mead.

Also by Leon Mead: When Ezra Sang First Bass, The Woman in Yellow, An
Assumed Weakness, Revels of the Muses, The Belle of the Dinner,



From The Goldenrod  Fairy Book by Esther Singleton (translator):

The White Cat (French), The Dancing-Shoes (German), The Red Bull of Norroway
(English), The Three Gifts (Polish), Little Ruby Fish (Murchie-Lal) (Hindu), The
Elder-tree Mother (Danish), The Cake Shop on the Wooden Bridge (Chinese),
Faithful John (German), Hop O' My Thumb (French), ** Huntsman the Unlucky
(Russian,-- and my favorite), Florinda and Yoringal (German), Little Tiny (Danish),
The Three Lemons (Italian), Prince Zeyn Alasnam and the King of the Genii
(Arabian), Story of Vasilisa With the Golden Tress and of Ivan the Pea (Russian),
Snow-white and Red-rose (German), The Fir-tree (Danish), The Field of Boliauns
(Irish), Golden Hair (Bohemian), The Knights of the Fish (Spanish), The Golden Bird
(German), The Sandal-wood Necklace (Chundun Rajah) (Hindu), Yanechek, and the
Water Demon (Bohemian), The Frog Prince (German).



Barbara Smythe's Chapters from "The Trobador Poets," on Guilhem VII.
Count of Poitou, the first troubador and Bertran de Born, an early
troubadour poet  and nobleman, with poems, an early biography,  her
assessment and translation.  Also, Two Anonymous Albas.



The Infant Medusa, a poem by Thomas Gordon Hake.


Enjoy!