Autograph Letter Signed ('Y. Smythies') to Twining, including two translations of 'Bishop Lowth's Maria's Elegy'.

4to, 3pp. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with slight loss to second leaf caused by opening of red wax seal (part of which still adheres), and minor nicking to edges. Begins: 'The task you set me was a task indeed [...] my first attempt at translation'. He comments on some of the difficulties involved ('The Cara so often repeated in the original is beautiful in repetition while it's angliciz'd Dear is so degraded by vulgar use'). Ends first page with transcription of 'the Bishop's Charming Elegy', and the words 'Now don't look on the other side - But if you can't help it please to shut your critical eye Mr Richard'. A further discussion of the poem and its translation conclude the letter. Some account of Smythies ('This remarkable man') can be found in Montague Summers article on his wife: 'Mrs. Gordon Smythies', Modern Language Notes, June 1945. From the Twining family archive.