id 
1806. ] 
by thofe whofe tafte and judgment ought 
to have infured an impartial and original 
decifion. We mutt refle& that a tingle 
word of Boileau’s was of fufficient weight 
tc damn the name of Taffo for near 
a century. throughout the French na- 
tion ; and fhall then no longer wonder if 
we find that Luigi Pulci deferves a higher 
rank in the poetical fcale than Jate authors 
have been inclined to give him. Perhaps 
the Italian critics, who are always extra- 
vagant both in their praife and cenfure, 
found that in order to extol their favou- 
rite Ariolto to the fkies, it was neceflary 
to conceal the fountain and firft fource of 
half his honours. Yet without afcribing 
any invidious motives, it mult be acknow- 
ledged, that the very different fpirit of 
the age of Pulci has fuch an operation on 
the whole of his work, as may account 
for much of the unjuft obloquy that has 
been thrown out againit him. This very 
circumftance has caufed it to have been 
generally treated as a burlefque; and (if 
that view of it be once admitted,) I fhall 
readily admit the reft, and concur in the 
cenfure of dullneis, pr rolixity, and cum- 
brous heavy witticifm, that it has incur- 
red. But Jet us hear the opinion of the 
learned Crefcimbeni. 
«¢ The Morgante, though fome perfons 
pretend to rank it among burlefques, yet 
if we judge it by the rules I have laid 
down in my Commentaries, whoever 
treats it as fuch has no foundation for his 
opinion ; and I think in the fame man- 
ner, of thofe that defpile it, as low and 
plebeian ; for though by the fide of Boy- 
ardo it lofes its confequence, and, com- 
pared to Ariofto, is completely eclipled; 
yet it muft be remembered that it was the 
origin of their nobler works, and is itfelf 
more excellent than all the other poems of 
the fame defcripticn which that age pro- 
duced,”’ 
In the firft period of Italian poeiry, the 
wild imagination of their. bards was with- 
out any critical veftraints, and their na- 
tive wit burft ferth, whether called for or 
not, in the midit of their tragedies and 
epics, as wellas their comedies and {a- 
tires. The humour of thofe ages, when 
the world was enly Rruggling to break 
through the darknefs of ignorance by 
which it was enveloped, was allio of a pe- 
culiar famp. ‘The common proverbs and 
maxims which are now fo vulgar, and 
fuggeft nothing but the lowelt ideas, be- 
caulethey are conftantly in the mouths 
of the meaneft peopie, were the invention 
of thofe days, and owed their crigin to 
the native wit and judgment of posts and 
MonTaLty Mac., No. 142. 
Critical Obfervations on the Morgante Maggiore. 
. 305 
philofophers. Plain and fimple fables, 
which, however juft and excellent the ap- 
plication, would now find no admittance 
in our ferious difcourfes, were then newly 
thought of, or only juft imported from the 
Eaft, together with the Grecian language, 
and had the force of novelty, as well as 
their own intrinfic merit, to recommend 
them. 
Pulci, and improved by fo many patterns 
that had gone before him, as well as pof- 
feffed of a more refined tafte and judg- 
ment, isnot without thofe very witticifms 
and (to modero ears) meannefles of ex 
preffion which Pulci is fo full of ; and, to 
come {till nearer our own-times, and into 
our own countrys Spenfer, grave and mo- 
ral.and lgarned as he is, {ometimes ile 
dulges in them ; and the noble plays of 
Shakefpeare admit alternately the utmolkt 
buffoonery of farce and the moft pore 
exaltation of tragedy. 
The ‘© Tefeide’ of Boccacio, the origi- 
nal of «* The Knight’s Tale’ of Chaucer, 
and of Dryden’s “‘ Palaman and Arcite,’? 
is faid to have been the firft of Italian roe 
mances. Ancient as is that fpecies of 
writing, i ae as it had flourifhed in 
the neighbouring country of Provence 
before Boccacio’s days, it appears never 
before to have paffed the Alps ; yet the 
very firft ftep it made in Italy announced 
a.rapid improvement. But the elegant 
ftyle and fimple narration of that accom- 
plifhed writer did not more exceed the rude 
‘unpolifhed lays of the Troubadours and 
Jongleuis, than be was himfelf exceeded, 
"a few years: afterwards, by his country- 
man Pulci, in invention and ‘every other 
qualification of a poetical fpirit. Indeed 
romance became, under his management, 
fo very different a thing, that it would be 
unjuft to deny him the merit of being its 
founder, at leaftin Italy. ‘* He gave it 
(jays Crefcimbeni,) variety and grandeur 
of argument, the tyle and language of 
poetry. He amufes uy the relation of fa- 
bulous wonders, and interefts by an agree- 
able intricacy of actions, interwoven with 
each other by the hand of a mafter. And 
thoughf4ometimes he mixes vile and low 
adions with his plot, and at others con- 
cefcends to fable rather in an entertaining 
and familiar than in an heroic manner, 
yet peripicuity, g grace of exprefion, and 
exireme purity of language, {ufficiently 
redeem thefe faults, and feem to rank him 
ainong the good Romanzatori.”’ 
The romance bef{ known among the 
Italians befcre the time of Pulci,. was 
the of au King Arthur i his Round 
Table. A ftrange and fpurious work oa 
Re the 
Ariofto, though much later than’ 
\ 
ee 
a 
—— 
SS ee 
—— 
i 
\ 
; 
i 
i 
ul 
——— 
aes ——s 
