“=Behold! I see the Haven nigh at Hand, To which I meane my wearie Course to bend; Vere the maine Shete, and beare up with the Land, The which afore is fayrly to be kend, And seemeth safe from Storms that may offend.= * * * * * =There eke my Feeble Barke a while may stay, Till mery Wynd and Weather call her thence away.=” —THE FAERIE QUEENE, I. xii. 1. [Illustration] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] This “eclectic formation of the English text,” as I have called it for brevity in the marginal rubric, has been disapproved by Mr. de Khanikoff, a critic worthy of high respect. But I must repeat that the duties of a translator, and of the Editor of an original text, at least where the various recensions bear so peculiar a relation to each other as in this case, are essentially different; and that, on reconsidering the matter after an interval of four or five years, the plan which I have adopted, whatever be the faults of execution, still commends itself to me as the only appropriate one. Let Mr. de Khanikoff consider what course he would adopt if he were about to publish Marco Polo in Russian. I feel certain that with whatever theory he might set out, before his task should be concluded he would have arrived practically at the same system that I have adopted. [2] In Polo’s diction C frequently represents H., _e.g._, _Cormos_ = Hormuz; _Camadi_ probably = Hamadi; _Caagiu_ probably = Hochau; _Cacianfu_ = Hochangfu, and so on. This is perhaps attributable to Rusticiano’s Tuscan ear. A true Pisan will absolutely contort his features in the intensity of his efforts to aspirate sufficiently the letter C. Filippo Villani, speaking of the famous Aguto (Sir J. Hawkwood), says his name in English was _Kauchouvole_. (_Murat. Script._ xiv. 746.) [3] In the Venetian dialect _ch_ and _j_ are often sounded as in English, not as in Italian. Some traces of such pronunciation I think there are, as in _Coja, Carajan_, and in the Chinese name _Vanchu_ (occurring only in Ramusio, _supra_, p. _99_). But the scribe of the original work being a Tuscan, the spelling is in the main Tuscan. The sound of the _Qu_ is, however, French, as in _Quescican, Quinsai_, except perhaps in the case of _Quenianfu_, for a reason given in vol. ii. p. 29. [4] For example, that enthusiastic student of mediæval Geography, Joachim Lelewel, speaks of Polo’s “gibberish” (_le baragouinage du Venitien_) with special reference to such names as _Zayton_ and _Kinsay_, whilst we now know that these names were in universal use by all foreigners in China, and no more deserve to be called gibberish than _Bocca-Tigris_, _Leghorn_, _Ratisbon_, or _Buda_.