440 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
: SIR; 
(Continued from page 457. ) 
afk 50.560. —Folly is never, perhaps, 
fo fucceistully combated, as when 
attacked by the weapons of ridicule: but 
there is a fpecies of folly in itfelf fo fuper- 
latively- ridiculous, tlt no caricature 
can exceed the original, Cervantes could 
bring chivalry into difrepute, and Butler 
fanaticifm into contempt, by exhibiting a 
picture fo much refembling the original, 
that the likenefs was ack nowledged by 
all; and yet fo outré im its appearance, as 
eternally to affociate their reipective ob- 
jets with ridicule and {corn. Bucking- 
ham and Sheridan have greatly contri- 
buted to banifh bombaft from the ftage, 
becaufe, by collecting all the high- ftrained 
fuftian of many writers, and concentrating 
them in one piece, with a few additional 
rnaments of their own, they produced a 
whole, whofe confummate folly, when af- 
feciated with individual pieces, could not 
fail to render them completely ludicrous: 
—and, though they might now be cen- 
fured, perhaps even bey vond their de- 
merits, yet the apparent injuftice was ne- 
Sea to awaken the judgment and cor- 
rect the vitiated tafte of a ‘public who had 
been etadually drawn on firft to tolerate, 
and then to approve. ~ But when the public 
mind is once fo befotted as to admire a 
farrago of follies that the ftrongeft/argu- 
ment cannot render more con{picuous nor 
the wildeft imagimation furpals, reafon and 
ridicule mu drop their idle fhafts, and let 
the monfter_pafs on in unmoletted triumph. 
Hence the Orlando Furiofo of Ariofto is 
{till looked up to, asa fiar of the firit 
magnitude, becaute it rofe, 
jatuus, in.the twilight of the 16th cen- 
tury. Europe had then but lately waked 
to the perception of literary pleafure, and, 
like a favage, was to be pleafed only with 
fubje&ts that could excite the ftrong 
emotions of wonder and fear, thofe rude 
fubftitutes for admiration and fublimity. 
Hence the prefs, itfelf new-born, teemed 
with romances, that united the powers of 
heroes, faints, and magicians, of earth, 
of heaven, and hell, to gratify the pru- 
riency of imagination unpurified by tatie. 
When the public palate had become al- 
moft callous even to fuch fimuli, Ariofto 
fele€ted the moft pungent he could find, 
and, blending them in one mighty oliet 
fuperadded to the mafs the all- relifhing 
condiment of rhyme: for, to mock it with 
the dignified title of poetry, would be 
perhaps the only way in which ridicule 
could reach it with effe&, 
Remarks on the principal Italian Peets. 
like an zgwis | 
Had Ariofto felected the fame fa&s, 
united with them the fame fentiments, and 
recorded them in dogerel rhyme, he might 
have done infinite fervice to his Country, 
and immortalifed himfelf thr ‘oughout Eu- 
rope, as the reftorer of genuine tafte, and 
the fuccefsful fatyrilt of barbarous igno- 
rance.—By clothing the fame ideas’ in 
folemn language, anid mufical verfification, 
he has contributed to perpetuate the cor- 
ruption of tafte; and when that fnall at 
laft be reformed, he will, like the Devil 
and Oliver Cromwell, be damned to im- 
mortality. . 
This, I am fenfible, may be thought 
the effufion of general cenfure, unfupported 
by the deduction of particulars ;—but, 
really, to cite the paflages that fhock the 
calor without amufing the fancy, would 
be to undertake the office of the author’s 
amanuentis, ‘and eet the greateft 
part of his work. It will bea much eafier 
tafk for his admirers to adduce the proofs 
of poetical beauty: unlefs, indeed, they 
include fuch paflages as may claim the 
title by prefeription ;— —fuch as when 2 
hero rushing on his foe is compared to a 
lion feifing his prey—or another, lofing his 
friend, is ” compared to a er robbed of 
her nel ae whee the mind of a deipair- 
ing lover is faid to be agitated like a fea 
in a ftorm, &c. &c. &c. &c. &K&c.—But 
thele flowers of poefy have been woven 
into garlands and worn by fo many fuc- 
ceflive poets and verfifiers, till they have 
withered in our eyes, and no longer look 
like flowers—thele garlands always re- 
mind me of Boileau’s wig: 
‘¢ —Qui de front en front paflant 4 fes neveux, 
‘¢ Devoit avoir plus d’ans, quelle n’ent de 
cheveux.” 
From pate to pate, from fite to fon it pafs’d, 
Till more of years than hairs it counts at 
lait. 
The poets are ranged into claffes; and 
if a man with to enter himfelf on the litt, 
he muft either protefs hnnfelf of fome par- 
ticular clafs, or poflefs fo decided a fupe- 
riority as himlelf to create a clafs—a poet 
fut generis. Now our author’s admirers 
muit either prove him of the latter deferip- 
tion, or leave him with the fimple title of 
a verlifier of romances ; for there is cer- 
aay no clafs of poets that will own him. 
e has not thought proper to fubjeét him- 
a to any of their mott neceflary laws. 
Orlando Furiofo has neither beginni Ings 
nor middle, nor end. The hero who 
gives the title to the piece, when he has 
fo done, has performed his moft mamen- 
tous feat. ~The Achilles of Homer, in- 
deed 
