[Footnote 21: John Bach McMaster, _Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters_, Boston, 1887, p. 129 seq.]
[Footnote 22: A similar decline in the German literary influence was noticed also in England after 1810.]
To estimate definitively the amount of literary activity in America with respect to things German, as illustrated by these translations and poems, would require considerable information concerning the translators. If the translator lived in England and his work was simply reprinted in an American magazine, the literary activity belongs more to England than to this country; but the fact that the poem was reprinted shows a desire to acquaint readers here with foreign poetry, the only difference being that the influence came through England and not from Germany direct. Where the works printed are from the pen of an American, they represent not only the ability of the writer to appreciate German, but also the active interest to reproduce it for the American public; the translation is then entirely an American product. As to Englishmen here doing this kind of work, it would be of advantage to know whether they were merely travelers or sojourners, or had been here long enough to be considered an integral part of our civilization. However useful this information would be, it is, in a majority of cases, unobtainable. Most of the translations appeared without any indication as to authorship. One thing that may partly account for this was the tendency of the early magazines to copy and plagiarize. Scores of poems were found which had previously been printed in other periodicals (American or English), but for the source of which no credit was given. Even the author's name was suppressed. In one instance an editor inserted a poem that had appeared in the very same magazine one or two years earlier, and yet the readers were to receive it as something new.[23] The only possible means of identification in these cases is by comparison with published collections of translations. Several translations have thus been traced to Sir Walter Scott, M. G. Lewis, William Taylor of Norwich and others. Many are reprints from English magazines, concerning which it is impossible at present to give more accurate information. The subject has not been investigated with respect to the English periodicals, and since their number is far greater than the American, it would require a separate study to prepare a list of translations from the German published in them. It is, therefore, impracticable to exclude from the present discussion translations and poems by Englishmen, for it is only where the author's name is mentioned, or a note given, stating that the translation was made for such and such a magazine, that we can be sure whether it was an American product or not. The important fact is that the translation appeared in America and helped to make known to American readers certain specimens of German literature.