780 
POE 
daggering fa£ts. They will perceive in thefecondall the 
errors and faults of the firft edition transformed into the 
moft tranfcendent and vivid beauties. So much for the 
defpifed labour of correftion. 
While the refined and laborious Ariofto cultivated 
poetical diftion in this extenfive and finifhed manner, the 
playful and learned Bc.rni gave firft accefiions of beauty 
to the Italian tongue by another route. He attempted 
fimplicity; to weed out the profulion of bold ornaments 
which his predecefiors had adopted. Berni followed, as 
to his ftory, the footfteps of Boyardo ; but his moral fen- 
timents, and his exquifite fatirical ftrokes, are entirely 
his own. In thefe he furpaffes even Ariofto. 
The miraculous adventures told by travellers, the 
union of love and religion which infpired the minds of 
the noble and brave, furnilhed, as we have faid, ample 
food for romantic poetry; but whoever contemplated 
the crufaders as the great political agents by whole power 
Europe was faved from the yoke of the MulTulman ; 
whoever viewed in their fuccefs the triumph of God over 
the infidel, mull have confidered the achievements of the 
crufaders worthy of the loudeft efforts of the mufe, and 
the time of their being an epoch in the hiftory of man 
worth the rich drefllng of the epic verfe. So thought 
Tajjo, the poet of heaven and pure love; and he wrote the 
well-known “ Gerufalemme .Liberata.” In judging the 
merits of this epic poem, critics have as ufual attempted 
to ruin or depreciate Taffo by a comparifon with the 
other epic poets, or with Ariofto. As to the firft, it mull 
be obferved that he did not follow the clafiic models in 
the plan of this poem; and he was right; for, had he 
done fo, he would have fpoilt the materials with which 
hiftory had furnifhed him. Yet there is a unity of aftion 
in the Gerufalemme. Wheffread through, we contem¬ 
plate the beautiful whole, in its bearings and proportions, 
at a fingle glance. What more is required ? To thofe 
who would compare Ariofto with Taffo, it mud be 
granted that the llyle of Taffo is inferior to the romantic 
poet; that his characters are not fo grand, though, be 
it remembered, they are more natural; and that, in regard 
to feparate and fcattered beauties of thought, Ariofto is 
commonly fuperior. But look to the great whole of the 
Gerufalemme, its end, its purport; look at that only good 
portrait of a religious hero, the Godfrey of Taffo ; look 
at the devoted defpairing love, which mingles with all 
this poet’s thoughts ; look on his deep and burningmad- 
nefs, which injuftice and oppreflion kindled in his foul: 
-—fuch thoughts and feelings have given his labour a.fub- 
limity far beyond the work of Ariofto. War, honour, 
and religion, are the thefes of every page; and every 
aflion is defcribed with fuch force of colouring, and 
fuch prefent vivacity, that the author appears always in 
the field, and engaged in noting down the tranfablions 
of its heroes. Praife, however, is needlefs. This pro¬ 
duction will go down the ftream of time with Komerand 
Virgil; and, though far inferior to either, it is, as an 
epic poem, the firft and nobleft that has been produced 
by any genius of renovated Europe. It is perhaps too 
gorgeous, too full of imagery, fimile, metaphor, allufion, 
and figure of every kind ; the memory is too often car¬ 
ried back to Virgil; and the Italian, though unqueltion- 
ably the moft poetical of modern languages, lofes groupd 
in its competition with the beautiful and majeftic idiom 
of antiquity. We fubjoin a fpecimen of Talfo. It is a 
defcription of the Grifly King, from Mr. Wiffen’s tranf- 
lation : 
They took their flation right and left around 
The grifly king ; he, cruel of command, 
Sate in the midlt of them, and hourly frowned, 
The huge rough fceptre in his brandilhed hand; 
No Alpine crag, magnificently gr^nd, 
No rock of th’ fea in fize with him might vie; 
Calpe and Atlas, foaring from the hand, 
Seemed to his ftature little hills, fo high 
Reared he his horned front in that ftupendous fky. 
TRY. 
There was amajefty in his fierce face 
That deepening others’ fears increafed his pride ; 
His eyes were bloodfhot, and inftinfl with rays. 
That like a baleful comet far and wide 
Diffufed a venomous fplendour which outvied 
The fafcinating fnake’s; barbarous and hoar 
His grand beard fvvept his breaft ; and, gaping wide 
As deep Charybdison the Sicil (ho re, 
Yawned his terrific jaws befmeared with foaming gore. 
His breath was like thofe fulphurous vapours borne 
In thunder, flench, and the live (hotflar’s light, 
When red Vefnvius (flowers, by earthquakes torn. 
O’er fleeping Naples in the dead of night, 
Funereal allies ! whilft he fpoke, affright 
Hulhed howling Cerberus, Coeloeno’s fhriek;— 
Cocytus paufed in his lamenting flight; 
The abyffes trembled.; horror chilled each cheek ; 
And thefe the words they heard the (flouting giant (peak. 
Again; how beautiful are the following lines on the 
countenance of Armida, when ffle at length fucceeds in 
her fuit: 
Then the dark afpeCt of her face grew fine, 
With her white veil (lie dallied the tears away, 
And gave a fmile fo brilliant and benign, 
You would have thought th’ enamoured god of day 
In funlliine killed her lips, whofe fparkling fflamed his ray 
To the age of Taffo fucceeded a long interval of perfe- 
cution, diredled againlt learning by unfeeling popes and 
intriguing princes. Yet, in defiance of thefe obftacles 
and the terrors of the inquifition, the germs of genius 
continued to expand. Italy produced not lefs than thirty 
contemporary poets, who, in the opinion of the age in 
which they flourilhed, equalled, if they did not furpafs, 
the greatell geniufes of antiquity: and whofe celebrity 
was expe&'ed to lafl with the duration of the world. The 
very names, however, of thefe immortal bards, are fafl 
wearing away ; and the names of Taffoni, the author of 
Secchia Rapita, and the infamous Aretino, are only 
heard of. 
TaJJoni united, in his “Secchia Rapita,” the epic poem 
with comedy. He oppofed himfelf flrongly to the gene¬ 
ral corruption of tafte brought about by Marino, his fol¬ 
lowers, and by the imitators of Lope de Vega. He ridi¬ 
cules, with a forcible pen, thefocial errors of private life. 
He never did this but with the higher views of attacking 
the foreign rulers of Italy, and of depicting the evils in¬ 
cident to the perpetual feuds that agitated his country¬ 
men. The topic therefore made his tale epic. In fpite 
of the terrors of the inquifition, he wrote boldly, and lie 
was a well-informed hiftorian. His wit was very refined 
and cnullic, but he is fparing of its ufe. He (ketches 
characters forcibly ; and, as he makes the inhabitants of 
various provinces (peak their peculiar dialeCt, he gives 
great force to their language. 
Aretino, by a whimlical application of the lucus <5 non 
hicenclo, gained the title of divine by books and conven¬ 
tions of the loweftand moft obfeene tendency. Of all liber¬ 
tines he was the moft profligate; and, of all deaths, the 
death of Aretino was moft in unifon with the tenour of 
his life. He had fome lifters at Venice who palled a life 
as dilfolute as his own ; one day, on hearing a recital of 
their gallantries, he was fo delighted with their oddity, 
that in the violence of merriment he upfet himfelf in his 
chair; his head ftruck againft the floor; and he died at 
that very moirvnt, in the midft of convulfions of laugh¬ 
ter at lome dories replete with ribaldry. 
The Sophonilfla of Triffino, written at the commence¬ 
ment of the fixteenth century, was the firil regular tra¬ 
gedy that appeared after the revival of letters in Italy. 
The paftorals of Taffo and Guarini were compofed about 
half a century later; and, though not regular dramas, 
abound in poetical beauties. The Merope of Muffei 
followed, and obtained in Italy a degree of admiration 
fuperior to its intrinfic merits. 
The 
