Aad ey 
1799-] mH Remarks on the principal Italian Poets. 
deed, appears but little in the aftion of 
the piece, where he is the profeffed hero ; 
but the reader evidently (ces that he is the 
caufe of all that is performed in it. Nine 
tenths of Ariofto’s work, may be fafely 
{aid to have no conneétion with his hero : 
—they neither are caufed by the com- 
mencement of his hiftory, nor conduce to 
theconclufion of it. But the aétors in 
them, perhaps, happen to meet a principal 
perfonage on the road, or have told their 
itory to a landlord, who happens to have 
entertained fuch a charatter on the road; 
—or any other apropos-de-bottes introduc- 
tion brings them into momentary notice, 
and permanent neglect. If there be one 
hero that interefts you more than another, 
it is Ruggiero in his attachment to Bra- 
damante. ‘Thefe two more frequently 
draw the attention in the courfe of the 
work; and their coronation, triumph, 
and nuptials form its conclufion. This 
winding up of their hiftory employs much 
the moft pleafing of all the forty-fix can- 
tos, which conftitute the poem :—they are 
the laft three, and had a few of the pre- 
ceding circumftancés of their ftory been 
colle&ted into the fame part, it would have 
formed awhoele much more engaging, than 
that of which it is fo fmall a portion.— 
Metattafio has feen this, and, by concen- 
trating the narrative in‘o dialogue, has 
produced from it one of the brightett or- 
naments of his dramatic works, in his 
piece entitled ‘* Ruggiero.”” 
Ariofto has carefully imitated Homer 
and Virgil in all their wildeft inconfift- 
encies,—and fo fond is he of their faults, 
he has adopted even fuch as have been 
falfely imputed to them. Becaufe Homer 
was vulgarly fuppofed to have made 
Achilles invulnerable, Ariofto made Or- 
lando’s fkin impenetrable by nature, and 
Ruggiero’s armour by enchantment.— 
‘This, indeed, enabled the heroes to per- 
form feats of amazement, that could not 
otherwife be achieved—that is, one im- 
poffibility is explained by the fuppofition 
of another. But the author in vain en- 
deavours to in{pire us, by fuch deeds, with 
an higher idea of his hero’s courage, 
while combating under fuch fecurities. 
He has once, indeed, attempted (and in- 
genioufly attempted too) to obviate ‘this 
objection, by rendering Bradamante igno- 
rant of the virtues of her golden lance, 
which overturned, with fated certainty, 
every foe againft whom it was direSted. 
(Canto xlv. Stanza 65.—but, in the very 
fame place, he makes Ruggiero confcious 
ofa fimilar virtue in his own fword. 
It is remarked, that Homer has given 
~ Monruiy Mac, No. xivut, 
541 
to moft of his heroes a difcriminated and 
individual charaéter.—Of Ariofto it mighe¢ 
be obferved, that it is wonderful how he 
has contrived to form fo many heroes fo 
furprizingly alike, in f{pite of varied cir. 
cumltances, that you find no diftin@ion 
but their names, The vaunting difpo- 
fition of Rodomonte, alone, marks hin: 
from the reft, who are all in two claffes, 
of the courteoully brave, or favagely fe-’ 
rocious.—In fhort, when Ariofto imitates 
a fuperior, it is generally in his faults, 
and feldom, very feldom, in his beautiess 
When he undertakes common place de-= 
{criptions, of groves that had bloomed, 
and fireams that had purled through every. 
page of poetry from Hefiod to Petrarch; 
or when he defcribes thofe battles, or thofe 
ftorms, which had overtaken every hero 
‘of the epic, from Homer to the wandering 
minftrels of Provence, the varied harmony 
of Ariofto’s verfification, in which he is 
eminently fuccefsful, places him on a 
level with the herd of imitative rhymers.« 
But when he imagines new fcenery, and 
new incidents, his de(criptions are parti- 
cular without beauty, or concife without 
ftrength. Delicacy of fentiment he has 
none, and delicacy of: imagination very 
little: —what then are his pretenfions to 
poetry? it would be difficult to enumerate. 
them—for they can confift only in extra- 
vagancies of fancy uncurbed by judge- 
ment, and unawed by criticifm. I fhall 
conclude with noticing a few of thefe ex- 
travaganzas, in order to give the reader 
fome ‘idea of. Ariofto’s character,—for 
without fpecimens of thefe it is fearcely 
poflible for any commonly well-reculated 
imagination fo tar to fhake off the fhackles 
of reafon and nature, as to have any con- 
ception of fuch exceflive abfurdity— 
<¢ Walk in then, gentlemen! and you fhall 
fee!—the wonder of -wonders !”’—There 
(Canto xxxiv.) you fee that famous knight 
Aftolfo riding full gallop to the moofi— 
and when he arrives there, you will fee 
St. John the evangelift fhewing him all 
the fighs, tears and fenfes of lovers and 
heroes, which being loft on earth, are, in 
the moon, carefully bottled up, corked, 
labelled, and exhibited by that apoftle.— 
In another place (Canto vi.) you have a, 
view of the ifland of Alcina, guarded by 
an army of monfters, each individual of 
which is neither brute nor human, but 
has a body compofed of the moft hetero- 
geneous members of all the animals in 
exiftences—as if created out of the witch. 
ing-pot in Macbeth. ‘The Minotaur, the 
Centaurs, the Sphinx, the Harpies, the 
Gorgens, the Chimera of Antiquity, 
a me eh would 
