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respects, Dominichi' attempted to reduce his poem to better Italian; and about fifty years after Boyardo's death, Francesco Berni, the modern Catullus of Italy, undertook to versify it again, and published his Rifacimento*, of the Orlando Inamorato, which met with such general approbation, that the original poem was soon neglected, and at this time the genuine work of Boyardo is little attended to. Berni was not satisfied with making the versification of this poem better; inserted many stanzas of his own, and changed almost all the beginnings of the cantos, introducing each, after the manner of Ariosto, with some moral reflection arising from the subject.

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Of the Orlando Inamorato no translation has appeared in English; and indeed, though it is a work highly entertaining in Berni's dress, it would scarce admit of a translation into English verse, the narrative descending to such familiar images and expressions, as would, by no means, suit the genius of our language and poetry. In the year 1716, the celebrated Le Sage, author of Gil Blas, published in French a prose translation, or rather paraphrase, under the title of Roland L'Amoureux, in which he has taken considerable liberties with his author, not only changing the order of the incidents, but very often altering the fables, retrenching from the Italian, and adding circumstances of his own, not observing, in this conduct, the example of Berni, who has religiously adhered to the stories, as related by Boyardo, and which have not received any improvement from the imagination of the French translator.

A new-making or new-modelling a work.

The poem of Orlando Inamorato, though very long, consisting of LXIX cantos, divided into three books, was left unfinished by the death of its author: several continuations were written by different persons, particularly one by Nicolo Agostini, in three books: but all these, being greatly inferior to Boyardo, were disregarded, till in the year 1515, Ariosto, having taken up the same subject, gave the world his ORLANDO FURIOSO, which not only eclipsed all the other continuators of Orlando, but greatly surpassed the performance of Boyardo himself.

The poems of Boyardo and Ariosto, taken together, form a complete series of events, and require little or no reference to other romance writers, to give the reader a perfect knowledge of their story. Ariosto, indeed, is intimately connected with the narrative of Boyardo in the general plan of his poem, and in the continuation of several under parts: but Boyardo does not appear, in one instance, to have taken up and continued any single story from another. It is however certain, that these poets have derived their general fable from various books and poems on the wars of Charlemain, and the actions of his Paladins, and other subjects of chivalry; and that both have frequent allusions to incidents recorded in these books, and particularly in one apparently prior to Boyardo, entitled, "ASPRAMONTE, in cui si contiene le guerre di Re Guarnieri et Agolante contra Roma e Carlo Magno, e di altre guerre e battaglie, massime dello avvenimento d'Orlando e di molti altri Reali di Francia." This book is in XXIII cantos, in ottava rima, the date and author are altogether uncertain; but from many peculiarities of style and idiom, which strongly resemble

the very early writers, it was probably written, if not before, about the time of Pulci; and the beginning of all the cantos have the same strange allusions to scripture doctrine and story, as the Morgante. As to the performance itself, it may be classed with the greater part of the numerous publications of the same nature, but will always retain a value from the consideration that it might have been the principal source of the Orlandos Inamorato and Furioso..

With respect to the separate merits of Boyardo and Ariosto, Le Sage, in the preface to his translation, gives the following character of the two poets.

"These authors have given a free scope to their imagination, which in both was equally noble and lively: if Boyardo has the merit of invention, Ariosto, in return, has every advantage of style and manner, and the copy is doubtless greatly superior to the original. Ariosto is far more polished, his diction is chaster, and he possesses all the elegance of language: his verses are strong and sonorous; his descriptions are admirable and often sublime. On the contrary, Boyardo, is always grovelling and feeble: Ariosto, whether serious or pleasant, is every where entertaining, and preserves a degree of majesty even in his pleasantry: he is the only author who has found out the art of blending the serious with the comic, and the heroic with the familiar: by which means he is truly original, and such an original as no one has yet successfully imitated."

I shall not enter upon the comparative merits of Tasso and Ariosto: the Italians, in general, give the preference to the Orlando, and other nations allot the first place to the Jerusalem, which undoubtedly has the advantage

with respect to unity of design, regularity of disposition, and dignity of subject: these poems are of so different a nature, that they will not admit of a comparison. Mirabaud, the French translator of the Jerusalem, observes, that this matter cannot be more judiciously discussed, than in the words of Horatio Ariosto, nephew to Ludovico, who, however biassed to give the palm to his uncle, has delivered himself in the following manner.

"We cannot easily enter upon a comparison of these two poets, who have not the least resemblance to each other: the style of the one is throughout serious and elevated, that of the other is often simple and full of pleasantry. Tasso has observed the precepts of Aristotle; Ariosto has taken no guide but nature; Tasso, by subjecting himself to the unity of action, has deprived his poem of a considerable advantage derived from the multiplicity of events; whereas Ariosto, being freed from such restraint, has filled his with a number of incidents that are very delightful to the reader: these great poets have nevertheless both attained the same end, that of pleasing; but they have attained it by different .means."

Girafolo tells us, that from the first publication of his poem in 1515, to the year 1532, when he gave an edition, with his last corrections and improvements, enlarged to the number of XLVI cantos, Ariosto was continually revising and altering it, occasionally applying to the first wits in Italy for their opinion and advice, such as Bemba, Melzo, Novagero, and others mentioned in his concluding book; and that, like Apelles, he submitted his work to the criticisms of all that would exa mine it.

Ariosto has been called by some a comic poet; but it should seem that such an opinion must be formed for want óf due attention to the several parts of his work, which is undoubtedly serious upon the whole, though occasionally diversified with many sallies of humour. But should we, on this account, deny Ariosto the essentials of Epic poetry, we must, with equal justice, refuse the tragic laurel to our own Shakespeare, because his plays are not pure tragedies. Our bard in his dramatic representation, has drawn his whole picture from the natural world, where events are blended, and where not only the moral characters are varied, but where the same character is seen with very different aspect at different times*.

But whatever liberties we may allow an author like Ariosto, with respect to mixture of character or style, yet proverbial and ludicrous expressions, or vulgar images, immediately mixed with subjects of pathos, or elevation, must be ever disgusting. On this occasion the author of the Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope, makes some excellent remarks, which he is led to, from some passages of this kind introduced by Mr. Pope in his Temple of Fame.

"Strokes of pleasantry and humour, and satirical reflections on the foibles of common life, are surely too familiar, and unsuited to a grave and majestic poem †. Such incongruities offend propriety, though I know ingenious persons have endeavoured to excuse them, by saying that they add a variety of imagery to the piece.

See Dr. Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare.

+ What is here said of an entire poem may equally be applied to any part of a poem that comes under this description.

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