452 
tranflation ; and where, if any where, a 
foreigner is to meet-his reward.. But, on 
retracing in my mind the impreffion which 
thele performances had left, I began to 
doubt, whether the comparative luftre, 
which the old poets of Italy enjoyed, by 
rifing in an age of darkneis, was not me- 
tamorphofed into pofitive fplendour, by 
the grateful homage we are inclined to 
pay tothe firft fources of light, as eaftern 
{uperftition bows to the rifing fun, but 
walks almoft without acknowledgment in 
his meridian effulgence. From thefe re- 
fiections I arofe with undiminifhed refpect 
for thefe day-ftars of literature ; but with 
a full conviétion that we had fuffered our 
enthufiafm to ob{cure our judgment ; and, 
becaule thefe poets were the firft in the order 
of time, proclaimed them, allo,the firft in the 
{cale of excellence. ‘This, in my opinion, 
has been peculiarly the cafe with the Italian 
‘poets. We have permitted them to retain, 
by courtely and prefcription, a precedence 
to which they have no longer any real 
title. But, by this fictitious rank, many 
are induced to wafte much labour and 
time in feeking the honour of their ac- 
quaintance ; which, like the titles confer- 
red_by depoied fovereigns, will be found 
neither to enrich nor dignify. With a 
View to fave fome of your readers from 
this difappointment, I will, with your 
permiflion, {ketch a general criticifm ef 
the works of the principal poets of Italy. 
And when I have done this, it will fufh- 
ciently appear why I pais over the minor 
works of the fame poets, and itill more, 
the minor poets of the fame language.— 
When we have difcuffed the characters of 
Dante, Petrarch, Ariofto, and the more re- 
fpectable, though lefs hoary, names of 
YVaffo and Metaftafio, we fhall have exa- 
mined the principal claims of the Italian 
poetrytothe attentionof Europe. ““DANTE 
comes forward ;—forward let him come: 
-——bring with him airs from heaven, or 
blafts trom hell.’ For the fubje&t of his 
<< Commedia Divina’ is no lefs than an 
account of his travels through heaven, hell, 
and purgatory.—After what I have faid, 
it would be fuperfluous again to adduce 
the caufes, which have given celebrity to 
the early writers of Italy. I need only 
obferve, that Dante owes more of his fame 
to fuch caufes, and lefs to his own merit, 
than any of thofe I have mentioned. ‘To 
do juftice, however, to the tafte of the pre- 
fent age (though perhaps at the expence 
of its fincerity), we muft confefs, that 
what we hear of Dante now, is more the 
echo of former fame, than the found of 
_ prefent praife.— Le Dante (fays Vol-. 
Remarks on the principal Italian Poets. 
[July 
taire, I think, in fome of his letters), 
pourra entrer dans les bibliotheques des 
curieux, mais il ne fera jamais lu ;*? for 
the oblelete phrafeology, the inverted idi- 
om, and obfcure ftyle of Dante, deter 
moft foreigners from reading him in the 
original ; and I have never yet heard of 
any, that have thought it worth while . 
to ** do him’. iato Englifh verfe. But he 
remains a poet, as I laid, by prefcription ; 
every one allowing the title, without 
knowing any thing of the claim; or, 
perhaps, decauje they knew nothing of the 
claim. The plan of his work was, un- 
doubtedly, extraordinary ; but, with the 
plan, all eccentricity ends :—The execu- 
tion is totally without intereft ; and what 
is ftill more fingular, almoft without no- 
velty. He pafles, indeed, the aming 
bounds of fpace and time ;- but he-plunges 
into no new creation of his own that may 
dictate a new and loftier language to his 
tongue.—It is mere earthly matter, in 
mere earthly words.—The author is the 
‘< little hero of his tale :*’ and the hero’s 
only adventure is that of being the traveller 
and {peftator, without ever forming a part 
of what paffes, or ferving at all to conneét 
the parts that do pafs under his obferva- 
tion, except as being the endlefs relator of 
them: and they are as diftinét from each 
other, as he from them.—In hell, indeed, 
he frequently meets with an acquaintance, 
who geneially* proves to have been his 
enemy in fome of the petty fa@tions of 
Florence, or in (ome of the full more petty 
factions, of fome of the ftill more petty 
ftates of Italy ; and who, to a modern rea- 
der, are as uninterefting and infignificant 
as John Doe and Richard Roe, thofe im- 
mortal heroes in the fquabbles of Weft- 
minfter. In the Inferno, however, there 
is, at leaft, fome variety of folly. Weare 
carried on from torment to torment :—and 
children who have been taught to find 
their amufement in feeing a fly {pin round 
upon a needle, might find, perhaps, inthe 
Inferno of Dante, a recreation for their 
riper years. It is fingular, that, in the 
continued contemplation of fuch a fubjeét, 
as the place of eternal punifhment for fo 
great a part of the human race, he fhould 
not once be elevated into grandeur of de- 
{cription, or fublimity of fentiment: un- 
Jefs you will confer the titles of grandeur 
and fublimity, on the idea of lazy fouls 
being bitten to all eternity by fieas, and 
heretical fouls being ftifled and ftunk to 
all eternity in a bog of ordure. <The pro- 
priety or impropriety, the heterodoxy, or 
orthodoxy, of Dante’s opinions I leave to 
Father G. Berti Agoftiniano, who si 
moft 
