808 
Settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. 
Tt is certain that Ariofo’s ** Orlando” 
met with great difficulties in overcoming 
the high etteem in which the <* Morgante”’ 
was held, and in obtaining the firft place, 
which it undoubtedly deferves. An au- 
thor of that age witnefles the truth of this 
affertion. ‘* Molti vohevan. pertinace- 
mente contendere, fin col farfi briga, che 
il Morgante fuffe di graa lungo fuperiore 
al Fariofo.” 
The Romanzatori, like the Rhapfodifts 
of antiquity, ufed to fing or recite their 
own performances at feafts or in public 
places, and were often accompanied by 
the lyre. Thus Luigi Pulci is recorded 
to have fung all the cantos of his ‘¢ Mor- 
gante,” at different times, at the table of 
Lorenzo de’ Medici ; and, in a Ieter age, 
Ariofio read or repeated his “* Orlando,” 
canto by canto, as he invented each, be- 
fore a noble aflembly of lords and ladies : 
and hence the fingular beginnings and ends 
of ‘hiscantos. »Dhis cuftom accounts for 
the familiar ftyle of oldromances “* You 
fhall hear what enfved in the next canto,” 
that is, *¢ when I fing before you again.” 
** But you muft be tired afrer this long 
flory 3. therefore I'll leave off here, and 
begin again fcon.” ‘¢ But you have heard 
enough of Orlando; fo we'll reft our- 
felves now, and when I fing again (nell 
altro canto,) you fnall hear Rivaldo’s ex- 
pioits in the meantime,” &c., &c. 
A charge which has been inftituted 
againit Pulci, and which 2puears to be of 
a very ferious nature, is ins frequent ufe 
of quotations from Scripture, which (if 
his pcem had realiy been a burlefque, as 
is reprefented,) would be unpardonadle ; 
but in another view we may readily excufe 
him. The manners of the times are his 
apology; the inftitutions of chivalry, 
(not yet decayed; ) which blended the wild- 
eft nations of romance with the me en- 
thufiaftic devotion ; which formed, in its 
original intentions, devout warriors, and 
religious lovers ; and, in its deciine and 
corruption, produced (uperftiticus zuffians 
and fanctified debauchees. 
But the poem of Puli deferves to be 
judged of from itfelf ; and though few 
ai wil be induced to read it merely 
from t! uixotic view of giving a candid 
easke | to a criminal who was condemned 
and executed centuries ago, yet a fum- 
mary of its fable, and the produétien of 
a few of its moft Ariking pafleges, my, 
ferve to refeue it from the influence of a 
gates received opinion, and remove it 
om ‘ic lowes Ratien in the fhelf of bur- 
ielaue poeins to a very refpectable one 
themfelves 
[May 1T, 
among the romances of the z4th, 15th, 
and 16th centuries, to which it unquef- 
tionably belongs. 
ft is with this view, Sir, that I fhall 
venture to prefent to the attention of your 
readers, in fome future Number, a fum- 
mary account of this work, lefs celebra- 
ted than it deferves, and yet jefs known 
than celebrated, interiperied with a few 
tranflations, in which T fhall endeavour to 
give a juft idea of the real fpirit of the au- 
thor. — “ 
=i 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The SETTLEMENT of the ANGLO- SAX- 
ONS 77 BRITAIN. 
[Extraéied and tranflated from a Hiftory 
of Denmark written ia ae Danifh Lan- 
, guage. | 
@ HORT LY before the eat of Frode,* 
WS) (A.C. 460,) that memorable occur- 
rence took piace, that the Britih king 
‘Vortigern, prefled by the Piéts and Scots, 
i 
and, as it feems, by Danes and Norwegi- 
ans, and abandéned by the Romans, who 
had hitheito poffciltd and’ provetted Bri- 
tain, but were now hardly capable of de- 
fendi ing their other dominions from the 
Goths, Burgundians, Sueves, Franks, 
and other barbarians, that Vortigern,  § 
fiy, called the Saxons to his affiltance 
again the Pigts and the Scots,’ fending 
deputies to them, ‘with great prefents, to 
implore relief and prom! ife alliance. The 
‘Saxons then chiefly confifted of three na- 
tions, clofely united and affociated ; to 
wit, the rea} Saxons that inhabited Hol- 
Rein, Ditmarik, Stormarn, and part of 
Vagria,-(all of which are now comprifed 
in the name of Holiein); the Angles, 
who inhabited the country now called the 
dutchy of Slefwic ; and the Jutes, who 
occupied Jutland, (the northern part of | 
* The fourth of that name, king of Zea= 
land, or (as they were called from Leire, the 
royal refidence,) king of Leire. Thefe kings 
of Leire claimed the fupremacy, and ftyled 
head-kings of all Denmark, be- 
caufe Dan Mykaliti, at the clofe of Hie 3d 
century, had fubdued the w kole country, and 
compeiled thefe petty kings, whom he leftin 
their territories, to pay tribute, and acknow- 
ledge fubordination to him. Bue the kings 
of Leire were often mere fhadows, much in- 
‘ferior in power to thofe whom they wanted to 
be regarded as. their vaflais, till the end of 
-the gth century, when they fucceeded in re- 
ducing the whole country under their govern- 
ment. 
