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lS2o.^ The Fourth Volume ()f the Orlando Fttrioro. 5V 



Surrounded by these seas of terror, minds, naturally susceptible and 

 poetical, had ample materials with which to indul';e their fancies. 

 Among the greatest of these writers was Ariosto. In addition to his 

 genius not being adapted to submit to the tranmiels of classic rules, that 

 method was not suited to the age in which he lived, and therefore 

 he wrote on the gothic model. 



Spenser, in his celebrated letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, says, " that 

 the Fairy Queen kejjt her annual feast twelve days, upon which twelve 

 several days the occasions of the twelve several adventures happened, 

 which being undertaken by twelve several knights, arc in these twelve 

 books severally handled." Ariosto, in the structure of his poem, does 

 not, like Spenser, endeavour to combine the wildncss of the gothic with 

 the confinement of the classic, and so spoil both ; but with bolder flight 

 and better judgment adopts the simple gothic, and writes in that octave 

 stanza which may j)roperly be called the gothic metre. ^Ir. Rose, seeing 

 the absurdity of rendering a metre, so admirably adapted to the subject, 

 into heroic verse, as Iloole has done, with that taste and judgment so 

 conspicuous in his work, has translated in the original stanza. 



However noble the heroic couplet may be, however well adapted to 

 the English language, it requires a subject less wild, a style less pointed, 

 than that of Ariosto. Byron, who loved to lead, and sometimes to drag, the 

 mind of his reader, as with a lasxn, felt that the heroic couplet would not 

 suit his purpose-, and in his " Harold" and " Juan" has wisely adopted the 

 octave stanza. It would have evinced timidity in Mr. Rose, if he had com- 

 posed his translation in another stanza than that which he has ; and we will 

 presently show, by our (juotations, that he has most skilfully prevented 

 the frequent repetition of similar sounds from dwelling on the ear. This 

 he has accomplished, by entering fully into the spirit of the polished 

 Ariosto, and giving to each line in the stanza that increasing force 

 which leads the reader on to the intended climax. That Ariosto did 

 thus, is evident; indeed, it appears to have been his darling object (in 

 which Byron has imitated him). To transfer this excellence into the 

 English translation, required no common talent, and much patient 

 industry. Mr. Rose has succeeded in accomplishing this dIfHcult task, 

 and the public taste will pronounce his reward, and place the chaplet on 

 his brow. 



However wild, and almost offensively so, some parts of the Orlando 

 Furioso may be, as a whole it is in perfect harnion; , and proves how 

 carefully Ariosto, amid his most extravagant flights, attended to the gothic 

 structure of his poem. We need not descant on the language of Ariosto ; 

 he took sixteen years, after the publication of the first edition, to polish, 

 correct, and strengthen it, and has left a model which the Italians look 

 on with admiration. 



One proof of the degree of intellectual power possessed by a writer, 

 is his keeping every character so distinct, that the reader never mis- 

 takes the conduct of one for that of another; in this, Ariosto v.as 

 super-eminent, and In this point ^Nlr. Rose has done ample justice to his 

 original. It was not the intention of Ariosto to describe the various feelings 

 and shades of affections and disposition of his various persons, as if he 

 were applying a mental thermometer or barometer to their souls, but to 

 touch, with a master's true and rapid pencil, their leading traits, and, 

 undei* their influences, lead them to their various exploits and occupa- 

 tions. Ariosto, like every true poet, loved and observed nature in all 



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