Maria Iliff u zewg ghanjiet qodma bil-Malti

Abstract

Mrs Maria Iliff was an actress, singer, poet, and novelist who, while residing in Malta in 1818, published the book Poems, upon Several Subjects. This slim volume should interest scholars of Maltese literature as it includes what are probably the first two unpublished poems (possibly folk songs) in the vernacular ever to appear in an English-language book. Mrs Iliff also provides a free translation of these poems in English. The same poems are also found in a manuscript entitled 'Canzonete in lingua maltese', compiled some time later, in 1825, by Dr Giuseppe Zammit. This paper compares and contrasts the two versions from an orthographic and textual point ofview, and seeks to shed some light on the character of written Maltese during the early years of British rule in Malta.