April 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



297 



LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 21. 1838. 

 ARIOSTO's " BRUXTO MOSTRO." 



The readers of L' Orlando Furioso will readily 

 bring to mind the description contained in the 

 thirtieth and six following stanzas of the twenty- 

 sixth canto, of the allegorical figures sculptured 

 on a marble fountain by 



" Merlino, il savio incaotator britaimo," 

 and the general description of which is that of 

 a number of armed warriors slaying a 



" Mostro, 

 II maggior che mai fosse e lo piii orretido ; " 



in comparison with which the Delphic Python was 

 not half so — 



" . . . abbominevol nfe » brutto." 



In the succeeding stanzas Malagigi declares the 

 sculptured scene to contain a yet unfulfilled pro- 

 phecy ; and then describes the rise and progress 

 of the monster through the world, until its course 

 should be arrested in the sixteenth century, by 

 the united prowess of the sovereigns of France, 

 Germany, Spain, England, and Rome. 



Hoole, a translator Into English of the Orlando 

 Furioso, says (vol. iii. p. 262., Lond. edit. 1799) 

 that he thinks by this monster " Ariosto meant to 

 represent Avarice ; " and that " most of the com- 

 mentators have explained this monster to mean 

 Avarice, which had overrun all the Christian world, 

 and brought scandal on the professors of the 

 faith." In support of this the notes to Sir John 

 Harrington's translation of the canto in question, 

 and Lavezuola, an Italian commentator, are 

 quoted ; but there is added, " Mr. Upton thinks, 

 that by the moneter is characterised Superstition.^'' 

 I had never been satisfied with either of these 

 guesses (for they are nothing more), when, in 

 1849, I met with Baudry's Paris edition, published 

 in 1836, o? V Orlando Furioso, with the annotations 

 of Antonio Buttura, in which I found (vol. iii. 

 et seq.) that he also baptized the monster Avarice, 

 having previously been inclined to call it " la mol- 

 tiforme Imposturay The coincidence of the con- 

 clusion arrived at by so learned an Italian anno- 

 tator as Buttura, with that of the commentators 

 mentioned in Hoole's note, at so long an interval 

 of time between them, and the almost certainty 

 that Hoole's note was unknown to Buttura, seemed 

 to strengthen the claim made for Avarice, but yet 

 only served to increase my doubt of its correct- 

 ness. I therefore endeavoured to probe the 

 mystery, and the result, " when found, I made a 

 note of." Of that note a copy is herewith sent, in 

 the hope that it may not be deemed unworthy of 

 a place in " N. & Q. ; "and that if mine be not the 

 true monster, some artist well versed in the lan- 



guage and literature of Ariosto's country and day, 

 may be induced to communicate a better likeness. 



Note to stanzas xxxi. to xxxvi. of canto xxvl 

 pages 1 1 — 13., and to Buttura's annotation thereon, 

 pp. 457. et seq. : — 



" An unlearned one " ventures to suggest an- 

 other elucidation of Ariosto's allegory, than that 

 given in the annotation above referred to. 



It will be recollected that the time of the 

 Orlando Furioso is laid in the reign of Charle- 

 magne, that is, in the end of the eighth and be- 

 ginning of the ninth centuries ; and that the 

 figures sculptured on the marble fountain by 

 Merlin (who flourished towards the close of the 

 fifth century) are represented as being pre- 

 figurative of events to happen in the first half of 

 the sixteenth century. The description of the 

 five assailants of the brutto mostro renders this 

 clear. They were cotemporaries, viz. Francis L, 

 King of France ; Maximilian I., Emperor of 

 Germany ; Charles V., King of Spain, and suc- 

 cessor of Maximilian as Emperor of Germany ; 

 Henry VIII., King of England (Jidei defensor) ; 

 and Pope Leo X. 



When Ariosto was writing his poem, the first 

 four of these monarchs were the chief of the 

 earthly powers of Europe, and they all acknow- 

 ledged the supremacy of the fifth in spiritual 

 matters ; and these earthly and earthly -spiritual 

 powers were, combinedly, straining their energies 

 to crush that which an over-ruling Providence, by 

 the humble medium of the monk Luther, had 

 called Into existence as the scourge of a corrupt 

 church, and which they, doubtless, viewed as a 

 brutto mostro, namely Protestantism. 



The poet, measuring the strength of the com- 

 batants " according to the measure of a man," 

 was unable to perceive in the monk's weakness the 

 expansive power of omnipotence. He therefore 

 boldly predicted the annihilation of the brutto 

 mostro. Protestantism, by the five united powers, 

 as the result of the combat. But Luther survived 

 the poetic pseudo-prophet thirteen years ; and 

 although three centuries have since passed into 

 eternity. Protestantism not only still exists, but 

 shows evidence of an increasing strength that can. 

 only be given to it " from above." Ebic. 



Ville-Marie, Canada. 



ERRORS AND ABSURCITIES IN RECENT WOKKS ON 

 SWITZERLAND. 



In The Alps, Switzerland, 8rc., by the Rev. 

 Charles Williams: London, 1854, are the follow- 

 ing Statements. 



The compiler gives a lady's account of the 

 Simplon, in the autumn of 1845. After describing 

 her own difficulties in a storm, she mentions, for 



