118 
and toru in pieces by the devouring 
wolf, or the ferocious hawk darting 
from on high upon the innocent and 
timid dove. Thns Fable makes AZsop 
relate the treachery of the frog towards 
the rat, and Ariosto the tale of the 
grasshopper as a lesson to flattering 
poets. In short, so gracefully had Fa- 
ble now learnt to interweave the pleas- 
ing with the austere; so many fictions 
adorned with the irresistible persua- 
sions of truth, that each individual dis- 
covering in them the defects of others, 
but not his own, gladdened his heart 
in the pleasing consolation of an inno- 
cent and unconvicting pastime, whilst 
the clement deity, self-love, sweet com- 
fort to wretched mortals, benignly in- 
terpreted the good and the ills of those 
fictions and narrations; that every one 
then was glad to laugh at the faults of 
others, and the derider himself became 
unknowingly the derided. So the god- 
dess Fable found her final gracious re- 
ception among mortals, so she has con- 
tinued to charm and please, so she has 
pointed out the good path of life, and 
succeeded in delighting even in speak- 
ing the wholesome truth. 
It has been said of this great poet 
that one of the original and precious 
characteristics of his poetry was that of 
uniting whatever fancy possesses of 
most pleasing and most varied with all 
that reason contains instructive and 
philosophical. There are a few of his 
imitations (for he always preferred imi- 
tations to translation,) in which he may 
not have been altogether successful, but 
whilst he did not choose to write either 
epistles or satires, nor to form a poetic 
art of his own, he is still justly entitled 
to be called, together with the father of 
Italian fable, the Horace and the Boi- 
leau of Italian literature. In his pe- 
enliar manner of painting vice and ri- 
dicule, he conceals the lash in the 
midst of the roses which blow around 
his ornamental descriptions, and causes 
them to be read even with interest, by 
those very persons who perhaps he had 
in view when writing them. 
In what has been already said of the 
origin of Fable given by Pignotti, the 
reader will have reason to expect that 
his fancy has been unbounded, and his 
‘powers omnipotent. In some future 
numbers, we shalljagain endeavour to 
offer some dissertations upon his most 
splendid productions; the field is rich 
and much can be gleaned, for Pignotti 
wrote much, and wrote sense too; ne- 
ver prostituted his talents, or demeaned 
L Ape Italiana.—No. XXVIII. 
[ March I, 
them by a protracted exhaustion of hu- 
man ability, with which some poets an 
comedians have been charged, and par- 
ticularly Goldoni, We will conclude 
this number with a short notice of his 
copious History of Tuscany, an English 
version of which is preparing fur the 
press, and will be shortly offered to 
the English reader. 
Like Alberti, liké Baretti, Pignotti 
combined the most astonishing and the 
strongest natural talents with the most 
profound erudition. The author of the 
Gift of the Lock, (La Trecia Donata) 
could also write the History of Tus- 
cany ; whilst facctious and all compli- 
mentary to the fair, he could dedicate 
hours to the most elaborate research, 
the most studied diction, the most 
learned dissertations upon the deepest 
antiquarians, in order to prove, like a 
‘warm lover of his country, the splen- 
did descent, the illustrious origin of 
that part of Italy which has been 
equally celebrated in arts and in arms, 
aud has been justly denotuinated the 
cradle of sciences. At a period of life, 
too, when nature bends beneath the 
oppressing weight of years, Pignotti 
began this elegant history; no manu- 
scripts, no archives, no libraries were 
left unsearched, whence he could draw 
arguments either contradictory or in 
support of the origin of the Etruscans. 
He wished to gratify the long express 
ed desires of his numerous learned 
friends respecting a history of Tuscany, 
or of Italy at large, and he succeeded 
equally, to the most sanguine expecta- 
tion. In his love of accuracy and truth 
he may occasionally have found it even 
necessary to disregard the studied effu- 
sions which burst upon us in a Robert- 
son or an Hume, but he has the singu- 
lar merit of combining the man of 
science with the historian, and intro- 
duces at every distinguished epoch a 
treatise or an essay either upon “ the 
Origin and Progress of the Italian Lan- 
guage,” or upon “ the Arts, Sciences, 
and Literature’ analogous to the pre- 
cise period of which he treats. In the 
history of the various republics of the 
middle ages of Italy, he is at once con- 
cise and accurate: this is an interest- 
ing period of European civilization ; 
and Pignotti well knew bow much Eu- 
rope of our days had to learn from his 
correct detail of continued internal dis- 
sensions, of changes of government, of 
translation from liberty to slavery, 
which in these ages marked the most 
beautiful and alluring regions of our 
: portion 
