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.

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

what is altogether singular in them, their common custom of improvisare; that is, of singing verses extempore to the guitar, and other stringed instruments. I can aver that it is a very great entertainment, and what cannot fail of exciting very great surprise, to hear two of their best improvisatori et cantare pares et respondere parati, and eager to excel, expatiate in ottava rima, upon any subject moderately susceptible of poetical amplification. Several times have I been astonished at the rapidity of their expressions, the easiness of their rhymes, the justness of their numbers, the copiousness of their images, and the general warmth and impetuosity of their thoughts; and I have seen crowds of listeners hurried, as well as myself, into a vortex of delight, if I may so express it, whose motion acquired more and more violence as the bards grew more and more inflamed by the repeated shoutings of the by-standers, and by the force of the opposition, which each encountered from his antagonist."

It is this ease, blended with occasional strength, that gives unspeakable grace and variety to the narratives of Ariosto; and an English translator will have frequent reason to regret the more rigid genius of his language, that rarely permits him, in this respect, to attempt even an imitation of his author. It will therefore be found, upon comparing this version with the original, that some parts are shortened, and that the style of others has been varied, retaining, at the same time, what was thought requisite to preserve the character of the writer, for which reason I have not omitted the puerile conceits at the end of his books, as they do not in the least affect the general merit of the work.

Concerning the compliments to the house of Este, which occur in different parts of the poem, I have endeavoured to take off from the dryness of the subject, by giving in the notes a concise account of the Italian history and families alluded to. But there is a heavy charge against Ariosto, to which no defence can be made; which is, that he sometimes gives himself up to an unwarrantable licentiousness of idea and language: however, it is hoped, that every passage of this nature, is so far softened in the translation, as to give no just cause of offence.

As the far greater part of my readers must be supposed unacquainted with the work on which this poem is immediately founded, I have thought it expedient to prefix to the FURIOSO a general view of Boyardo's prin cipal story, as connected with Ariosto, and to insert in the notes an account of every adventure referred to in the former poem.

The reader will observe that Ariosto generally breaks off his stories abruptly, after the manner of Boyardo, and other romantic writers, in which practice he has been followed by Spenser. Some Italian writers haveapplauded this method, as tending to excite and keep up the attention, and prevent satiety, by a continual variation of the subject; as the poet himself, says: "Come raccende il gusto il mutare esca; Cosi mi par, che la mia istoria, quanto, Or quà, or là piu variata, sia,

Meno, a chi l'udirà noisa sia.”

"As at the board, with plenteous viands grac❜d,
Cate after cate excites the sickening taste;

So while my muse repeats her vary'd strains,
Tale following tale the ravish'd ear detains.”

Book xiii.

But perhaps the generality of readers will, with Gra vina*, be rather disgusted to have their curiosity so frequently raised, and almost as constantly disappointed, and that, sometimes, in the most critical and interesting part: it is likewise to be feared that these repeated breaks, by blending the adventures with each other, must rather tend to perplex and embarrass the story; though we cannot but admire the art of the poet, in connecting such an immense variety of incidents, and bringing them at last to one point. I have, therefore, set down the several continuations, after the example of the Italian editors, which method has likewise been pursued by Sir John Harington in his translation..

It will be proper, in this place, to say something of the five cantos printed after Ariosto's death, in addition to the forty-six cantos of the Orlando Furioso, and concerning which there have been different opinions. amongst his own countrymen of the intention of the poet. Some have supposed that they were meant to have been incorporated with his great work; but such opinion must surely be erroneous, since the first of these additional cantos opens after Rogero had been converted to Christianity, and was made one of the Paladins of Charlemain, circumstances that certainly point out the conclusion of the Furioso. Others have, with much more reason, judged these five cantos to be the beginning of an entire new work, continued from the subject of the former: and by some writers, amongst whom is Porcacchi, it has been doubted whether these cantos were the genuine production of Ariosto, to whom, however,

See page 18.

the generality of his biographers, without scruple, give them; but it seems to be agreed by all, that they are very inferior in composition and elegance of style to his celebrated poem; nor are they ever quoted or referred to by any writer, as so frequently happens with respect to the Furioso. Some have thought that they were the work of his earlier years. It is certain that the fable appears very uninteresting after a perusal of the Furioso, and the fiction most absurdly extravagant, where he brings Rogero into the belly of a whale, when he meets with a hermit, who had been there forty years, and who relates to him, that all who had escaped from Alcina, were sooner or later imprisoned in this monster. Here he meets with Astolpho, and sees a church and dwelling for the inhabitants, all in the belly of the whale. On considering these five posthumous cantos, in which the story is brought to no conclusion, I am almost tempted to subscribe to the following judicious sentiments of Sir John Harington: "For the five cantos that follow Furioso, I am partly of opinion they were not his, both because methinke they differ in sweetnesse of style from the other, and beside it is not likely that a man of his judgment, having made so absolute a piece of worke as his Furioso is, and having brought every matter to a great and well-pleasing conclusion, would, as it were, marre all again, and set them all by the ears, and bring Rogero in the whale's belly, and Astolpho with him for company, that a little before were conquerors of the world *."

Harington's Life of Ariosto.