1799-] 
is truly aftonifhing ; efpecially when we 
confider the famenefs of fubject that per- 
vades the whole, and conftitutes what we 
may call a monotony of thought. To 
‘this circumfcription of fubject, we may 
add the rigid rules of the fonnet, which 
admits. only the introduction of one 
thought; and, whether that thought re- 
quires condenfation or expanfion, will 
allow neither more nor lefs than fourteen 
lines to be employed in its expreflion ; 
and, of each of thefe, the termination is 
reftritted to one of four founds, which is 
all the variety of rhyme admitted in fuch 
compofitions. The confequence is, that 
when the author does ftrike out a bright 
thought, the effect is generally loft by 
being beaten out into a blunt furface, 
inftead of being fharpened into a point ; 
or, perhaps, the luminous point appears 
in the middle, with.a dull tag at the end, 
as in fonnets of part 2d; but examples of 
fuch tags are not very eafy to refer to; 
there is in general no point for them to 
hang by. The fonnet immediately fuc- 
ceeding that,which I have lait cited, affords 
an example ftill lefs eafy to refer to, equal 
beauty of fentiment and conftruction, and 
yet this beauty is not of a very {uperior 
kind. Taffo, however, has thonght it 
worth imitating in ‘*¢ Grer. Lib. c. iil. 
ft. 68.”” 
The feftina is regulated by laws ftill 
more puerile than the ionnet. It gene- 
rally confifts of fix ftanzas, each of fix 
lines ; and every line of the last five ftan- 
gas muft conclude with fome word that 
terminates a line in the firft ftanza ; but 
fubjected to this additional reftriction, 
that the terminating word of the firft line 
in each ftanza muft be the fame as the 
laft word in the ftanza preceding. Ifyou 
read a ftanza feparately there is no rhyme ; 
if two are read-in immediate fucceffion, it 
is not rhyme that is perceived, but re- 
petition, 
Had Petrarch confined himfelf to the 
founet and the feftina, we might have 
attributed the defects of his productions 
to the defective laws of verfification. But 
the loofer texture of the canzone, and 
ballata, feems to give no fcope to his 
fancy ; but rather adds to the indifting& 
diffufivenefs of his ftyle and conceptions : 
like a form, that after having been dark- 
ly, and fometimes brightly, pourtrayed 
in a cloud, diffolves into a mift, which 
fometimes, too, refleSts the fun-beams, 
but in fhapele(s luftre. 
The firft canzone, of the firft part, ap- 
pears to have been his favourite produc- 
Remarks on the principal Italian Poets. 
455 
tion in this defcription of pieces. And 
yet, what fchool-boy, that was able to 
verfify, would net have taught his imagi- 
nation to foar as far as ‘* Owid’s Meta- 
morphofes,’—augment their extravagance 
by accumulating them on one perfon, and 
fucceflively relate bis own transformation 
into a laurel, a rock, a river, a hart, a 
{wan, &c,—in fhort, into every thing bur 
a poet. In the fame {pirit is the 2d Son~ 
net of the fame part: but fortunately the 
rules of the Sonnet are, here, of fome ufe, 
fince they forbid his being changed into 
more monfters than one atatime. This 
perpetual recurrence to the Katterfelto of 
antiquity, might be conftrued as the preju- 
dice of the age. But, when the author 
draws from his own fources, his imagina- 
tion ftill appears to have been in purfuit 
rather of the ftrange, than the beautiful ; 
or if he ever purfued the latter, he feems, 
at leaft, to have been very unfortunate in 
the fearch. When any thing but the art 
of verfification is exerted, extravagance is 
the ufual confequence. Hence the crowd 
of the bleffed, when Laura dies, will be 
fo great, as to difcolour the face of the 
fun; (Sen. 24. p. x.) hence the heart, 
which is burnt by the flames of love, is 
preferved from total confumption, by 
the cold blood of fear ; (Canz. 8. ibid.) 
hence, too, Laura, in her grief, utters 
words that make the mountains walk and 
the rivers ftand {till : (Sonn. 123. ibid.)-- 
{plitting of ftones is a very common effect 
of grief:—nay, in Seftin. 7., fighs and 
tears rife into wind and rain that fhake 
the woods and deluge the grafs *. 
A perfon fubjeét to fuch violence of 
grief, would be a moft dangerous neigh- 
bour ina cultivated country ; where he, 
indeed, might expect very particular at- 
tention to preferve him in cheerfuinefs and 
good humour, left, in fome gloomy fits, 
he fhould convert arable, meadow, and 
pafture-land, into a falt water lake fF. 
But wind and rain are not the only ma- 
terials of a ftorm, which Laura can fur- 
nifh—‘* as with thunder and lightning 
in the fame inftunt, fo was I once over- 
come by two bright eyes, and a gentle 
faJutation f.”” y 

* Solpir del petto, et degli occhiefcono onde, 
Da bagnar Verbe, et da crollar i bof- 
chi’—1ft p. 
+ ‘* Or vorria trar degli occhi noftri un 
lago.”” Sonn. 204. . 
*¢ Come col balenar tona in un punto, 
Cofi fu’io da’ begli occhi lucenti ; 
> E dun dolce faluto, infieme aggunto.” 
Son. 87. p. 1% 
Perhaps 
