n K R 



B E R 



Bojardo's poem ' Orlando Innamoruto.' [Soo BOJARUO.] 

 Berni altet. 'on of the poem into purer Italian, but 



be left the narrative exactly as it was from 1 

 end. He also added some introductory stanzas, moral or 

 satirical, to most of the cantos, in imitation of A 

 practice, and also a few c\ii- !..- il -'...;. '.n > in the body of 

 the poem, the principal of which is that in canto 67, where 

 he describes Imiiicll and his lubits nf lit'.-. It cannot be 

 maintained that Berui has turned I!oj;irdo's serious poem 

 into burlesque: he merely steps in as a thud pcrsun, after 

 the fashion of the old story-tellers, lu-r.veen the original poet 

 and the audience, moralizing upon what he relates, or re- 

 \erting, from the errors and follies of his heroes, to the \ices 

 and follies of men in the every -day world. The sinccri; y and 

 simplicity of his practical moralizing strain contrasts with 

 the prodigious and absurd magnificence of the romantic 

 narrative, which Berni, however, relates with all the appear- 

 ance of credulity. Some of Berni's openings to the various 

 cantos are remarkably fine, and perhaps superior to those 

 in Ariosto's poem. With regard to his alterations of Bo- 

 jardo's text, it is generally allowed that he has improved it 

 in many parts, though not in every instance. (See Panizzi's 

 remarks on Berni's Rifacimento, in vol. ii. of his edition 

 of Bojardo and Ariostn, London, 1831.) It appears also 

 that several parts of the ' Rifacimento,' such as we have it, 

 and which are very inferior to the rest were either not written 

 by Berni, or have not received from the author the la-t cor- 

 reeiion and polish. There are discrepancies between the 

 various editions, and no autograph of Berni's ' Orlando ' is 

 known to exist, or has ever been mentioned by any of its 

 various editors. The poem was not published till after 

 Berni's death. The first eighty-two stanzas of the first 

 canto as given in the Giunti edition, Venice, 1545, are quite 

 different from those in the first edition of the poem in 15-11. 

 The text of 1545 is now adopted as most resembling Berni's 

 style, and has been followed by Molini in his edition of the 

 l nnamorato,' Florence, 1827, which is considered as the 

 most accurate. There are still doubts about the genuine- 

 ness of the remaining stanzas of the first canto, from Ixxxiii. 

 to the end, of some of the second canto, and of the whole of 

 the two last cantos, Ixviii. and Ixix., of the poem. The 

 earlier editions of Berni's ' Rifacimento,' 1541-45, are en- 

 titled, 'Orlando Innatnorato composto gia dal Signor Matteo 

 Maria Bojardo, Conte di Scandiano, e rifatto tutto di nuovo 

 da M. Francesco Berni.' In course of time, however, the 

 name of Bojardo was almost forgotten, and the ' Orlando 

 Innaraorato ' went by the name of Berni, as if he had been 

 the real author of the poem. Berni has not added any in- 

 decent interpolations to Bojardos poems, as some have 

 superficially supposed ; he has, on the contrary, left out, 

 in one instance, some licentious though fine stanzas of 

 the original. (See Pani/zi's ' Remarks' above quoted.) 

 Stfwart Rose has given an analysis of the ' Innamorato' in 

 Ki i<;lish prose, intermixed with verse, London, 1823. 



Berni wrote some Latin poems, which were published at 

 Florence in 1562 in the Collection, ' Carmina quinque 

 Etruscorum Poetarum.' They have beeo praised by Tira- 

 boschi as happy imitations of the style of Catullus. 



He wrote also ' La Catrina' and ' II Mogliazzo,' which 

 are dramatic scenes in ' lingua ruslica,' or idiom of the Flo- 

 rentine peasantry, Florence, 1537-1567. 



Berni's letters are scattered through several collection?, 

 in Atanagi's Lettere Facete di Diaersi, in Manuzio's 

 Leltere k'olgari, and in the Nuoca Scella di Letters by Pino. 

 Bemi is an author who ought to be attentively studied 

 by Italian scholars. His mastery over his language, and 

 the ease and purity of his diction, have been seldom equalled. 

 His humour, though often broad, is not low ; it is sharp and 

 clever. His skill is not easily appreciated, because it is 

 clothed with the appearance of extreme simplicity. 



There was another Francesco Berni, of Ferrara, who lived 

 in the seventeenth century, and wrote several poetical 

 work*. 



o Mazzuchelli, Scrilton d Italia ; Stewart Rose's Life 

 f HFI-IH, prefixed to hU Analysis of the Innamorato ; Pa- 

 in// !ii<jnr</ti.i 



BKRNUXK GOOSK, or CLARIS. (Zoology.) The 



.culnr name for the bernicla of Ray, Anser bernichi of 



nng: the liTuicle, bernacla gowte, and barnacle goose 



of authors. This bird affords an instance of the credulity 



with which those who. in their generation, were held wise 



and learned, accepted the most absurd traditions, and 



handed them down to posterity with the additional weight of 



their authority. A cirrhhiped, a marine testaceous animal, 

 the PfiilelaHiifn iinuti/rra of Leach, Annli/n Itevit ot 

 Bruguicn-*, the duck barnacle of collectors, was long as- 

 serted to be the parent of the l>eriiiele goo.se. This common 

 shell is fixed to a long, fleshy peduncle, and is frequently 

 found attached to flouting limber. The tentacula, which 

 proceed from the anterior opening of the valves, have an 

 appearance that recalls to the mind of a casual inaccurate 

 observer the recollection of a feather, and 'hence, in all 

 probability, the fable took its origin. ' Some,' writes Nut- 

 tall, 'even described these supposed embryos as fruit>, in 

 w'n -e structure already appeared the lineaments of a fowl, 

 and which, being forthwith dropped into the sea, turned 

 directly into birds. Minister, Saxo GrammntieuR, and 

 Scalii;er even, asserted this absurdity. Fulgusus atlirmed 

 that the trees which bore these wonderful fruits reset 

 willows, producing at the ends of their branches small 

 swelled balls containing the embryo of a duck. Mi>pended 

 by the bill, which when ripe fell off into the sea and took 

 wing. Bishop Leslie, Torquemada, Odericus. the Bishop 

 Olaus Magnus, and a learned cardinal, all attested to the 

 truth of their monstrous generation. Hence the bird has 

 been called the tree goose, and one of the Orkneys, the 

 scene of the prodigy, has received the appellation of 

 Pomona.' 



Not to weary the reader with names, and some of great 

 reputation might be added, we will proceed to t rel- 

 iable as told by Gerard, merely adding, by the way, that one 

 of the other worthies is recorded to have upent-d a hundred 

 of the goose-bearing shells, and to have found in all of 

 them the rudiments of the bird completely formed. Gerard, 

 then, as if determined that no sceptic should have the 

 slightest ground whereon to rest a doubt, thus gives hi* 

 evidence in his Herhal : 



' But what our eyes have seene and hands have tr.uchcd 

 we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire, 

 called the Pile of Foulders. wherein are found the broken 

 pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have U-cn 

 cast thither by shipwracke, and also the trunks and bodies 

 with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there, 

 likewise; whereon is found a certaine spume, or froth, that 

 in time breedeth unto certaine shels, in shape like th< 

 the muskle, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; 

 wherein is contained a thing in form like a luce of silke 

 finely woven, as it were, together, of a whitish colour; one 

 end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as 

 the fish of oisters and muskles are : the other end is made 

 fast unto the belly of a rude masse or himpc, which in time 

 commeth to the shape and form of a bird : when it is per- 

 fectly formed the shell gapcth open, and the first thing that 

 appearcth is the foresuid lace or string : next come the legs 

 of the bird hanging out. and as it groweth greater it openetli 

 the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth and 

 hangeth only by the bill : in short space after it commeth 

 to full maturitie, and fallelh into the sea, where it calhi-relh 

 feathers, and growclh to a low ie bigger than a niallan: 



-', having blaeke legs and bill or heake, 

 and feathers bluckc and white, spotted in such manner 

 our mag-pie, called in some places a pie-anncl, which the 

 people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree; 

 goose ; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining, 

 do so much abound therewith, that one of the best is bought 

 for three pence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it 

 please them to rcpaire unto me, and I shall satisfie them 

 by the testimonic of good witnesses.' This edifying de- 

 position is illustrated by a cut of the goose and of its parent 

 shell. 



Now, after this, can we wonder at the melancholy cata- 

 logue of human beings who have expiated the supposed 

 crime of witchcraft at the stake on the te-.timony of their 

 deluded and deluding prosecutors Here is a man olh run- 

 ing, and of considerable accuracy in many points, the author 

 of a valuable work conlaininu' much information, who gravely 

 and deliberately, on the authority of two of the most acute 

 of his senses, asserts a downright falsehood and courts in- 

 vestigation. He may, moreover, be acquitted of any inten- 

 !:. n to deceive; but his mind was filled with pn 



lions and preconceived opinion?, and his excited imagi- 

 nation, like that of the majority of the witnesses again-t 

 the unfortunate witches, gave a colour and a form to all he 

 saw and felt. 



.ird published this celebrated romance in 1636. If 

 we now turn to Ray's ' Willughby,' published in 1678, we 



