1806.] 
' Io the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
N Baretti’ s ‘© Jtalian Library,” p. 58, 
Ah we find the fullowing article, — * Tl 
Filogine del Bojardo, 1535, in o€tavo: 
it it faid that there is 2 copy of this book in 
the Weftminfter Libtary : perbaps it isthe 
only one extant.’” It is very extraordinary 
that Baretti’s literary curiofity, perhaps I 
might fay bis duty as a bibliographer, did 
not lead him to infpe& this very rare vo- 
lume, If it had, he would have found 
that it was not the production of Bojardo, 
but of Andrea Baiardo. .Th:s we learn 
from a note on ** An Hiforical and Cii- 
tical Effay on the Revival of the Drama 
in Ltaly, p. 195." Ihe author of this 
eflay did what Baretti oughe to have 
done ;—he had the work examined, as he 
thought that Hfaym had erroneoufly 
afcribed itto Bojardo. 
Tn the eflay to which I have juf refer- 
red, anaccount is given of a charaéter in 
an Italian comedy of the fifteenth centu- 
ry, which was probably the prototype of 
the Bobadil cf Ben Jonfon.—vid. p. 73. 
This charaéter, which is named Spampa- 
na, is thus made to boaft :-— 
El Spampana mi chiamo, &c. 
SPAM. 
Spampana ismy name, my looks alone 
Give terror to the man that meets my eye} 
Yet in affe@ion firong I yield to none, 
Though not a bolder breathes beneath the 
iky. i 
Truly Itell you (for Ifcorn to boaft) . 
My {word has {ped a thoufand in a day. 
ASS. 
Ay, of flies, &c., &c. 
If the reader will take the trouble to 
compare this pafflage with the boaftings of 
Bobadil, in Sc. i., ACL ii., of Every 
Man in His Humour,’’ he will perceive a 
ftriking refemblance. 
Perhaps, too, Ben Jonfon might have 
had cbligations to another Italian c comedy. 
In a note on the ‘¢ a Memoir on 
Italian Tragedy,’’ p. 100, we are told 
that Bernardino Lombardi, a comedian, 
printed at Ferrara, in 1533, a comedy in- 
titled «© L’Alchimifta.”” That Jonfon 
might have feen the Italian drama before 
he wrote his comedy, is certain, for his 
*¢ Alchemift”? did not appear till 1610.— 
Tam not, however, prepared to accufe him 
of plagiart fo, for the Italian drama in 
queftion has as yet eluded my refearches. 
But the cofje&ures which I have jult of- 
fered fhould at leaf induce us to fubferibe 
to an hoye expreficd by Mr. Walker, the 
author of the « Effay on the Revival of 
MoarTuLy Mac, No. 139, 
Italian Plays.—Fragments, &c. from the Greek. 
Tecent . 
I 
VW? 
the Drama in Italy,” p. 263 :—** I hope 
(fays he) the hiitorians of the Englifh 
ftage, and the commentators on our early 
poets, will ac length fee the neceflity of 
exten ding their refearches to the literature 
of Italy.” 
A precious little book, “ 11 Cortesi. 
ano,’ now lies before me, of wtih! I 
could wifh a tranflation were prefented to 
the public, with biographical notes, and 
the interefting account. of the author, 
givenin the ‘ Life of Leo.” This book 
contains more ufeful inftruétion, and bet- 
ter hints for the formation of youth, than 
any modern publication that I am ac- 
quainted with. Biographical notices of 
the feveral interlocutors would render the 
notes very amuling ; and for fuch notes the 
‘publications of Mefirs. Rofcoe, 
Chenben!. Grefwell, Walker, &c., &cey 
would furnifh abundant matter. 
Iam, Sec., A. B. 
7th Nov., 1805. 
SITIO 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
EPIGRAMS, FRAGMENTS, end FUGI«< 
TIVE PIECES, from the GREEK. 
(Concluded from Vol. xx., p. 511.) 
MUST beg pardon for the long di- 
greffion in my lafi, and return to the 
object 1 had in view, which was, to pro- 
duce a few {pecimens of Greek amatory 
poetry, cf a different nature from that 
which I have ailerted to pervade the gene- 
rality of their works of that defcription. 
In the Afiatic Refearches is 2 tranflation 
of an Indian grant of Jand which was 
made about the year of Our Lord ros8. 
So frongly did the warmth of their poeti- 
cal imaginations incorporate itfelf with 
every production of the Oriental writers, 
that even in this fimple legal tranfaction 
we meet with a ftrmig of moral fentiments 
cloathed in elevated metaphorical lan- 
guage, and worthy of being compared 
with the philofophical ftrains a Simonides 
or Theognis. I have rendered a few of 
thefe fentences into Englith verfe, and will 
here prefent them, in order to Uluftrate 
the comparifon I have made :— 
Unthinking youth, life’s firft impetuous flage, 
Too oft? partakes the {wift approach of age, 
Wooes to his arms the tyrant of his race, 
And dies, empoifon’d by the foul embrace. 
This frame of man three unrelenting faes 
Befiege with fure variety of woes 3 : 
Death and Old-Age their blafting force unite 
Againf{t the peafant’s toil and monarch’s 
might 5 
The third, ordain’d by hoffile pow’rs abovey 
Is feparation from the friends we love. 
se lag 
