As J. M. Cohen points out in the opening of his survey, the two great periods of excellence in English translation occur at the time of the Renaissance, and again at the present, when 'English has become...the common cultural language of a vast section of the world.' Helped by a discriminating use of quotation in prose and verse, Cohen covers the whole story of the English effort to make classics of other languages on their own, and he has wise words on the difficulties and achievements of individual translators. Ezra Pound once said: 'English literature lives on translation, it is fed by translation: every new heave is stimulated by translation, every allegedly quiet is an age of translation.' This booklet is a valuable commentary on this judgement by a writer who has himself won distinction as a translator of Cervantes, Montaigne and Rabelais.