CHARACTERS. 



4.65 



ng tenderness which Petrarch in- 

 fuses into such subjects, Bertola 

 is too fond of universality and 

 change. He has been a traveller, 

 a monk, a secular priest, a profes- 

 sor in different universities and in 

 different sciences, an historian, a 

 poet, a biographer, a journalist, an 

 improvvisatore. 



Bondi has also been bitten by 

 the " estro" of sonnet; but he is 

 more conspicuous as a painter of 

 nnanners. His " conversazioni" 

 and " alia moda" expose some 

 genteel follies with great truth of 

 ridicule. His " giornata vilarec- 

 cia," is diversified, not by the com- 

 mon expedient of episodes, but by 

 a skilful interchange of rural de- 

 scription, good-natured satire, and 

 easy philosophy. The same sub- 

 ject has been sung by Melli in Sici- 

 lian, which is the doric of Italian 

 poetry, and full of the ancient Theo- 

 critan dialect. 



Cesarolti is the only Italian now 

 alive (I hope Caiafa will pardon 

 the exclusion) that has shown pow- 

 ers equal to an original epic ; but 

 those noble powers he has wasted 

 in stooping to paraphrase the sa- 

 vage nonsense of Ossian, and in 

 working on Homer's unimprovable 

 fhapsodies. The Iliad he pulls 

 down and rebuilds on a plan of his 

 own. He brings Hector into the 

 very front, and re-moulds the mo- 

 rals and decorations of the poem. — 

 He retains most of the sublime 

 that flashes through the original ; 

 but he has modernized some of its 

 manners, given a certain relief to 

 its simplicity, and suppressed those 

 repetitions peculiar to Homer, and 

 to the literature of the early 

 ages. 



Parini has amused, and I hope, 

 corrected his countrymen by the 



Vol. LVI. 



Mattina and Mezzogiorno, for the 

 other two parts of the day he left 

 imperfect. An original vein of 

 irony runs through all his pictures, 

 and brings into view most of the 

 affections accredited in high life or 

 in fine conversation. He lays on 

 colour enough, yet he seldom ca- 

 ricatures follies beyond their natu- 

 ral distortion. His style is highly 

 poetical, and, being wrought into 

 trivial subjects, it acq uiresa curious 

 charm from the contrast. He is 

 thought infeiior to Bettinelll in the 

 structure of blank verse ; but the 

 seasoning and pungency of his 

 themes are more relished here than 

 the milder instruction of that vener- 

 able bard. 



Faritoni, better known by his 

 Arcadian name La bindo, is in high 

 favour as a lyric poet. This true 

 man of fashion never tires his fancy 

 by any work of length ; he flies 

 from subject to subject, delighted 

 and delighting. You see Horace 

 in every ode, Horace's modes of 

 thinking, his variety of measures, 

 his imagery, his transitions. Yet 

 Labindo wants the Horatian ease ; 

 he is too studious of diction, and 

 hazards " some taffeta phrases, 

 silken terms precise," which re- 

 mind us of our late Delia Crusca 

 jargon. 



Pindemonte was connected with 

 some of our English Cruscans, but 

 he cannot be charged with their 

 flimsy, gauzy, glittering nonsense. 

 He thinks, and he makes his read- 

 ers think. Happy in description, 

 sedate even in his light themes, 

 generally melancholy, and some- 

 times sublime, he bears a fine re- 

 semblance to our Gray, and like 

 Gray, has written but little in a 

 country where most poets are vo- 

 luminous. 



2H 



