mate understanding of his author. By the lion, in the above extract, the author intended to denote Ambition; by the wolf, Avarice, and by the panther, Pleasure. One of the moft pathetic and beautiful parts of the Divina Commedia, is the tale of Francifca, in the fifth Canto, which Mr. Cary has thus rendered: Bard! willingly I would addrefs thofe two together coming, As doves And firm, to their sweet neft returning home, Thus iffu'd from that troop, where Dido ranks, Us, who the world with bloody ftain imbru'd; B 3 Even Even to tears my grief and pity moves. How him love thrall'd, Alone we were, and no All trembling kifs'd. The book and writer both We read no more.” While thus one fpirit fpake, I through compaffion fainting, feem'd not far From death, and like a corpfe fell to the ground." P. 77. Brunetto, of Florence, was Dante's mafter, and the account of the poet's interview with him, is among the best imagined poetry of this work, and furnifhes Mr. Cary with an opportunity of exhibiting his extenfive acquaintance with Italian literature. "But I remember'd him; and towards his face Turn back, and leave his fellows to proceed." Bent Bent down, as one who walks in reverent guise. Before mine age had to its fulness reach'd. And by this path homeward he leads me back." Who in old times came down from Fefole, For thee In which the holy feed revives, tranfmitted As thine was, when fo lately thou didst teach me And how I priz'd the leffon, it behoves, That, long as life endures, my tongue should speak." P. 239. When Brunetto takes leave of his friend and pupil, he recommends his " Treasure" to him, which would to moft *So well. thy words become thee as thy wounds. They Smack of honour both. Shakespeare, Mackbeth, A. 1. S. ii. B 4 readers readers be unintelligible, but for the following note by Mr. Cary. "Ser Brunetto, a Florentine, the fecretary or chancellor of the city, and Dante's preceptor, hath left us a work fo little read, that both the fubject of it and the language of it have been mistaken. It is in the French fpoken in the reign of St. Louis, under the title of Trefor, and contains a fpecies of philofophical courfe of lectures divided into theory and practice, or, as he expreffes it, un enchauffement des chofes divines et humaines,' &c. Sir R. Clayton's Tranflation of Tenhove's Memoirs of the Medici, v. i. ch. ii. p. 104. The TRESOR has never, I believe, been printed. There is a fine manufcript of it in the British Museum, with an illuminated portrait of Brunetto in his ftudy prefixed. Mus. Brit. M.S.S. 17. E. 1. Tefor. It is divided into four books; the first on Cofmogony and Theology; the fecond, a tranflation of Ariftotle's Ethics; the third on Virtues and Vices; the fourth on Rhetoric. For an interefting memoir relating to this work by M. Falconet, fee Hift. de l'Acad. des Inferiptions, tem. vii. 96. "His Teforetto, one of the earliest productions of Italian poetry, is a curious work, not unlike the writings of Chaucer in ftyle and numbers. As it is but little known, I will add a flight fketch of it. He defcribes himself as returning from an embaffy to the king of Spain, on which he had been fent by the Guelph party from Florence. On the plain of Roncifvalle he meets a cholar on a bay niule, un fcholaio Sur un muletto baio, who tells him that the Guelfi are driven out of the city with great lofs. Struck with grief at thefe mournful tidings, and mufing with his head bent downwards, he lofes his road, and wanders into a wood. Here Nature, whofe figure is described with sublimity, appears, and discloses to him the fecrets of her operations. After this he wanders into a defert. Deh che paese fiero Che quanto piu mirava Quivi non a magione, Non fiume non rufcello, Dottai ben della morte. E non é maraviglia, Che ben trecento miglia Durava d'ogni lato Quel paefe fmagato, He proceeds protected by a banner, with which Nature had fur nifhed him, till on the third day he finds himself in a large pleafant plain, Un gran piano giocondo, Lo più gajo del mondo, On this plain there are affembled many emperors, kings, and fages. It is the habitation of Virtue and her daughters, the four Cardinal Virtues. Here Brunetto fees alfo Courtefy, Bounty, Loyalty, and Prowefs, and hears the inftructions they give to a knight, which occupy about a fourth part of the poem. Leaving this territory, he paffes over vallies, mountains, woods, forefts, and bridges, till he arrives in a beautiful valley covered with flowers on all fides, and the richeft in the world; but which was continually fhifting its appearance from a round figure to a fquare, from obfcurity to light, and from populoufness to folitude. This is the region of Pleafure, or Cupid, who is accompanied by four ladies, Love, Hope, Fear, and Defire. In one part of it he meets with Ovid, and is inftructed by him how to conquer the paffion of love, and to efcape from that place. After his escape he makes his confeffion to a friar, and then returns to the foreft of vifions; and afcending a mountain, meets with Ptolemy, a venerable old man. Here the narrative breaks off. The poem ends as it began, with an address to Ruftico di Filippo, on whom he lavishes every fort of praife. "It has been obferved, that Dante derived the idea of opening his poem, by defcribing himself as loft in a wood, from the Teforetto of Brunetto, which opens in the fame manner. I know not whether it has been remarked, that the crime of ufury is branded by both these poets as offenfive to God and Nature: "Un altro, che non cura Di Dio ne di Natura, Si diventa ufuriere. The fin for which Brunetto is condemned to the Inferno by his pupil, is mentioned in the Teforetto with great horror. He died in 1295.” P. 250. When we remind the reader that Mr. Cary's profeffed object was to exhibit a literal tranflation of his author, and when it is remembered that Dante himfelf is frequently coarfe, and rugged, and inelegant, it feems very uncandid to point out a few incorrect words, faulty lines, or unpoetical expreffions. As a whole, it is an able comment on |