most extraordinary censure of Ariosto: "De l'humeur dont vous êtes (repliqua Phalante) vous n'approuveriez pas ce que dit l'Arioste d'un de ses heros, qui dans la chaleur du combat, ne s'étant pas apperçu qu'on l'avoit tué, il combattit toujours vaillaniment tout mort qu'il étoit."

Il pover' huomo, ed non s'en era accorto,
Andava combattendo ed era morto t.

This criticism, with the quotation, undoubtedly made from memory, has been implicitly taken up by many, and produced as an example of the absurdity of the Italian poets in general, and of Ariosto in particular: but the truth is, no such lines are to be found in the whole poem of Orlando Furioso, nor was Ariosto capable of a fiction so truly ridiculous, as only to deserve a place in a burlesque composition. The passage that gave rise to this remark of Father Bouhours is in Berni's Rifacimento of Boyardo, and is entirely his own, there being not the least foundation for it in the original work in Boyardo. The whole stanza runs thus:

Onde ora avendo a traverso tagliato
Questo Pagan, lo fe si destramenté,
Che l'un pezzo in su l'altro suggellato
Rimase, senza muoversi niente :

E come avvien', quand uno è rescaldato,
Che le ferite per allor non sente,

Cosi colui del colpo non accorto,
Andava combattendo ed era morto.

Orland. Inam. L. ii. C. xxiv. S. 60.

* Maniere de bien penser.

+ The poor man, not perceiving what had happened to him, went en fighting, and he was dead.

Ile with his falchion aim'd so well the blow,
And sever'd with such art the Pagan foe,
That still, as one, the separate parts adher'd,
And still, entire, unhurt, the man appear'd:
And as the limbs, while warm in action, feel
No sense of anguish from the wounding steel;
So the fierce knight, with vigour yet unbroke,
Fought on, tho' dead, unconscious of the stroke.

The champion who gave this wonderful stroke was Orlando, with his sword Durindana.

But if we consider that part of Ariosto's fable, which, independent of supernatural agents and visionary beings, exhibits merely a view of general manners so totally repugnant to the present system of political and social life, we shall find the picture much nearer than we imagined to the early times of feudal violence and oppression; and with respect to many descriptions in those writers, who are generally supposed to give us a world of their own creation, I beg to quote the following passage:

"The fictions of the Gothic romances were not so remote from credibility as they are now thought. In the full prevalence of the feudal institution, when violence desolated the world, and every baron lived in a fortress, forests and castles were regularly succeeded by each other, and the adventurer might very suddenly pass from the gloom of woods, or the ruggedness of moors, to seats of plenty, gaiety, and magnificence. Whatever is imaged in the wildest tale, if giants, dragons, and enchantments be excepted, would be felt by him, who, wandering in the mountains without a guide, or upon the sea without a pilot, should be carried amidst

his terror and uncertainty to the hospitality and elegance. of Raasay and Dunvegan *"

The same writer, having described the nature of the castles and fortified places, formerly in use in the islands of Scotland, proceeds thus: "These castles afford another evidence, that the fictions of romantic chivalry had, for their basis, the real manners of the feudal times, when every lord of a seignory lived in his hold lawless and unaccountable, with all the licentiousness and insolence of uncontested superiority and unprincipled power. The traveller, whoever he might be, coming to the fortified habitation of a chieftain, would probably have been interrogated from the battlements, admitted with caution at the gate, introduced to a petty monarch, fierce with habitual hostility, and vigilant with ignorant suspicion; who, according to his general temper, or accidental humour, would have seated a stranger as his guest at the table, or as a spy confined him to the dungeon.†"

The characters of Ariosto are powerfully delineated, and admirably sustained; and however he may offendi in the probability of his action, his pictures of the affections of the mind have the clearest historical truth. Let the reader of imagination, and only such readers are qualified to taste the beauties of Ariosto, when he opens his book, allow him in full force the ideas of chivalry and magic, and he will find infinite touches of nature in the manners of his heroes and heroines, with a discrimination and variety rarely to be excelled.

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 174.
+ Ibid. p. 361.

"Ariosto (says a late writer) pleases; but not by his monstrous and improbable fictions, by his bizarre mixture of the serious and comic styles, by the want of coherence in his stories, or by the continual interruptions in his narration. He charms by the force and clearness of his expression, by the readiness and variety of his inventions, and by his natural pictures of the passions, especially of the gay and amorous kind*."

No one seems to have been more powerfully impressed with the merits of Ariosto than an elegant poet of our own time, who, in taking a review of the several epic writers, where, in a most spirited manner, he asserts the superiority of genius and fancy over rule and system, has characterised the author of Orlando Furioso in the following animated lines :

"

Indignant Fancy, who with scorn survey'd
The sleepy honours to proud System paid,
Smiling to see that on her rival's brow
The poppy lurks beneath the laurel bough,
Resolv'd in sportive triumph to display
The rich extent of her superior sway:
From Necromancy's hand, in happiest hour,
She caught the rod of visionary power;
And, as aloft the magic wand she rais'd,
A peerless Bard, with new effulgence blaz'd,
Born every law of system to disown,
And rule by Fancy's boundless power alone.
High in mid air, between the moon and earth,
The Bard of pathos now, and now of mirth,
Pois'd with his lyre between a griffin's wings,

Her sportive darling Ariosto sings.

As the light cloud, whose varying vapours fly,

Driven by the zephyr of the evening sky,
Fixes and charins the never-wearied view,
'By taking every shape and every hue;
So, by Variety's supreme controul,

His changeful numbers charm the willing soul;

* Hume, Dissertation iv.

✓reader.

Enchanted by his song, Attention sits,
With features catching every cast by fits,
Life the fond infant, in whose tender brain
Young Sensibility delights to reign;
While rapid Joy and Pain each other chase,
Through the soft muscles of its April face.
In vain the slaves of System would discard
From Glory's classic train this airy bard;
Delighted Nature her gay favourite crown'd,
And Envy's clamour in her plaudit drown'd.
Severe Morality, to censure mov'd,
His wanton lyre with juster blame reprov'd;
But his sweet song her anger so beguil'd,

That ere she finish'd her reproof, she smil❜d.

Haley's Essay on Ep. Poet. Ep. iii.

But whatever may be the power of Ariosto in the original, a translator will find great difficulties; and considerable liberties are to be allowed him, if he is expected to make his author graceful to an English reader. The great praise of Ariosto, amongst the intelligent of his countrymen, is simplicity of expression, and purity of diction; and it is universally allowed, that no author had ever a more absolute command of his own language. There is a certain easy negligence in his muse that often assumes a playful mode of expression, incompatible with the nature of our present poetry, though some few examples of the kind may be met with in our old poets, particularly Spenser, who has adopted much of Ariosto's manner. To this it may be added, that the Italian appears to run into rhyme with a facility altogether unknown to us, which may be seen from what has been related of Pulci, on which subject I shall give a remarkable passage from Mr. Baretti, in the book before quoted.

66 Among the general characteristics of the Tuscans, I have already touched upon their love of poetry; and,