We have received from Messrs. Schott and Co. the four
parts (2s. each) of Wagner's Ring of the Niblung—Rhinegold, The Valkyrie, Siegfried, and The Twilight of the Gods—in which the text of Wagner's poem is printed page by page with an excellent English version by Mr. Frederick Jameson. The double difficulty which translators have hitherto encountered is to produce a version which shall be at once (1) faithful to the sense and metre of the original without being grotesquely angular, and (2) closely fitted to the music. So far as we have been able to test his versions, Mr. Jameson has surmounted this difficulty with remark- able skill, and his excellent versions ought to be of the greatest assistance at the performance of the Ring to be given next year in English at Covent Garden under the direction of Dr. Richter.