2799.) 
Up-foaring from profundity of night, 
And rufhed upon the day.—So iflue forth, 
From their engendering caves, far-founding 
ftorms 
In rout tumultuous, that darlken heaven : 
On earth’s and fea’s wide empires waging 
war.”” ; 
But. all the ingenuity of united. Par- 
naflus has not been able to bring into con- 
fiftent aétion beings poffeffed of fuch dif- 
proportionate powers, as mortal man and 
fupernatural exiftences. ‘The genius of 
Milton, indeed, has, in one part of his 
work, conceived and executed a plan, 
where beings of the moft oppofite natures 
con{pire, by the confiftent exertion of their 
feveral powers, to the production of one 
effect. Ihe mind could not, perhaps, 
form ideas of greater contraft, than our 
firft parents, in their bower of blifs, eyed 
afkance by the arch-fiend, who bore hell 
within him, who himielf was hell.—Yet 
thefe are the characters, who are to con- 
dué& the action to the cataftrophe ; bu¢, 
obferve they are never brought, either in 
oppofition or co-operation, to a&t on the 
fame fubjeé&t;—on the contrary, one is 
properly the agent, and the other the fub- 
ject of that agent’s action. Beings of fuch 
totally unequal power cannot be intro- 
duced, as ating either in unifon or oppo- 
fition, without palpable abiurdity. Mere 
man muft aét by natural means ;—if he be 
oppofed by a being endued with fuperna- 
tural means, there is but one way for the 
conteft to terminate; and if he be aided 
by fuch a being, his own aétion is totally 
unneceflary. An example will thew how 
far thefe obfervations are applicable to the 
poem of Taffo. 
In the roth canto, Ifmeno conveys So- 
liman to Jerufalem in a flying chariot, 
which bears them high over the hoftile 
camp: and, without the chance of a 
wound, fets him down at the mouth of a 
paflage, that conveys him fafely to the 
council-chamber of the king. Inthe 12th 
canto, this mafter of the flying chariot, 
when the noéturnal expedition of Clorinda 
and Argante is projected, ftays them till 
he forms a combuftible compofition, by 
which they may, with greater fafety and 
expedition, fet fire to the great machine. 
It is acknowledged to be an expedition of 
imminent danger, to which the king very 
reluctantly expofes the great defenders of 
the city. One of. them executes the pro- 
ject at the-expence of her life, the other at 
the peril of his, without Ifmeno ever 
once thinking of his flying chariot, with 
the ufe of which the moft infignificant ani- 
mal of the garrifon might have fecurely 
performed, what, without it, loft to the 
caufe one of its beft and brayeft defenders. 
Numerous examples of fimilar incongrui-_ 
Remarks on the principal Italian Poetse 
871 
ties might be adduced 5 but this will fuf- 
ficiently explain what is meant by the 
principle. 
Thefe miraculous agencies of Taffo, 
however, are not, like the wonders of Dante 
and Ariofto,that ftamp monftrous deformity 
on the whole; but,like preternatural excref- 
cences, a blemifh on the face of beauty. 
The enchanted foreft, where the hero 
of the poem crowns his labours with the 
feats of a wood.cutter, needs only to be 
mentjoned to be flismatized with puerility. 
But even.in this, how confpicuous is the 
{kill and delicate difcrimination of the 
poet! The heroes, who, in the abfence 
of Rinaldo, attempt to break the fpell of 
the enchanted wood, are fuccefsfully op- 
pofed by. objeéts of terror and alarm. 
And when Rinaldo himfelf, prepares for 
the attack, we expect either a tedious re- 
petition of terrific defcriptions, or a dread- 
ful increafe of horror:—but are agreeably 
furprifed to find fmiling pleafure, and en- 
chayfting beauty ; for even the devils them- 
felves defpair of frightening Rinaldo ; and 
feem to acknowledge, that the hero of the 
Gierufalemme is to be allured, not deter- 
red, from his purpofe. What a beautiful 
paflage is the firen-fong of early love! 
(canto 16. ft. 14.) but how is it deformed, 
from being uttered by a creature in the 
form of an enchanted parrot! It is, 
however much to be lamented, that when 
Armida metamorphofed a band of heroes, 
in the 10th canto, fhe did not ftock her 
aviary with them, inftead of a pond, and 
endue them with the melody of finging 
birds, rather than the mutenefs of fifhes. 
The abfurdity might then, like that of the 
enchanted parrot, haye been veiled in 
beauty ; 
‘¢ Myfterious veil of brightnefs made, 
That’s both the luftre and the fhade,”” 
But what light is there to gild that im- 
pertinent epifode of miracles, concerning 
Sueno, Prince of Denmark, in canto 8? 
or the long genealogy and future offspring 
of Rinaldo, with which the 17th canto is 
encumbered, only for the purpofe of con- 
veying moft grofs flattery to the patron of 
the poet ; and which reminds us of nothing 
poetical, but the difgrace to poetry in Ho- 
race, and Virgil’s mean adulation of a 
man ftill more perfidious than Alphonfo 
of Ferrara. 
Upon the whole, however, though the 
beauty and elegance of Taffo are obfcured, 
they are not eclipfed by his abfurdities. 
And the reafon, perhaps, why Taffo is 
not more read, and his beauties more ad-~ 
mired, may be the little intereft, and lefs 
complacency, with which we regard the 
events of the croifades, or the fortunes of 
their heroes ; whofe greateft merit, ie 
iaps 

