ole 
€¢ Who knocks >” with reugh and grumbling 
voice he cried. 
*¢ Soon fhalt thou know—” the Paladin re- 
plied, 
«¢ Tcome to make thee, as £ have before 
Fhy brothers, for thy fins do penitence; 
Sest by thofe monks unfortunate and poor, 
-And guarded by celeftial Providence. 
Your wicked hands have long affail’d them 
fore, 
| And now Heav’n’s juflice waits on your of- 
fence. 
Know, that already, as the marble cold, 
Lie Paffamont and Alabafter bold. 
¢Oh Knight,” Morgante faid, ** Oh gentle 
knight, 
By thine own God, I charge thee, tell me 
fair, 
Rede me in courtefy thy name aright, 
And, if a Chriftian, oh the truth declare !”* 
Orlando anfwer’d, ** By this holy light 
And by my faith (a facred oath) I fwear, 
Chrift I adore, my mafter juft and true— 
Serve him thyfelf; and all thy crimes ef- 
chew.” Canto I. ft. 39. 
The opportunity was not to be loft 
(Orlando would hardly have met with fuch 
another) of making a pidus convert of a 
Pagan giant. Morgante, with great good 
humour, accepted his invitation to the 
abbey ; and the good Count, reafoning 
with him on the way, approved himfelf 
zn excellent Roman Catholic doétor. His 
arguments being detailed at length by the 
hiftorian, the reader (who is in fearch of 
incident rather than metaphyfics) finds 
little difficulty in coinciding with the tr- 
reverent interruption of our Catechumen— 
¢¢ All favio fol baftar poche parole’ — 
<¢ A word to the wife.” 
We will not dwell on the Abbot’s repe- 
tition of Orlande’s fermon, or on the 
means adopted by ovr new Chriftian to 
render himfelf acceptable to his picus 
colleagues, and to make amends, by his 
fkillin hunting, fer the «four uy manna” 
with yhich he had fora jong time coniri- 
be<ed to feed the convent 
* Among the common jefts which have 
fixed on this romance among many of its 
readers the imputation of a burlefgue, and 
from which J have endeavoured to free it, 
may be accounted the defcription which the 
Abbot makes to Orlando of the unpleafant 
vifitations of his neighbours, which rendered 
his life, and that of his affociates, far differ- 
ent from that of the faints of old, for whom 
manna ufed to rain from heaven. ‘* If we 
venture out,” fays the Abbot, ‘ inftead of 
manna, we are prefented with a fhower of 
ftones.” - While they are, convesfing, a ftone 
falls en Oriando’s “hore, and breaks the 
Critical Obfervations on the Morgante Mazegiore. 
_ By Milo,* 
[July 3, 
Orlando having expreffed his determi- 
nation to purfue his journey, the Abbot 
led him into the armoury to provide his 
{quire _(Morgante) with armour fuitable 
to his fize. The manner in which this 
fearch brings about the difeovery of Or- 
lando’s relationfhip to the Abbot is related 
in Pulci’s beft manner. 
Into a fecret cabinet they came, 
With antient armour piled upon the ground, . 
* Ail thefe,” the Abbot faid, ‘* my friend 
may claim.” 
Morgante views them all, 
round 5 
But nothing feem’d to fuit his giant qoee.# 
Save one old coat of mail with ruft em- 
brown’d. 
Much does he wonder, when the mail he tries, 
To find it fitexaéily to his fize. 
and handles 
‘This cuirafs ance a monfrous giant wore, " 
Within the precin&ts of the abbey flain 
great Angrante’s chief of yore, 
(Unlefs the ftory I have heard be vain.) 
The pictured walls the whole adventure bore, 
How their huge foe was humbled on the 
plain 5 
The cruel war he waged was there difplay’d, 
And there was Milo’s knightly form pour- 
tray’d, 
This painted ftory when the count beheld, 
With wonder he furvey’d the varied {cenes 
How Milo there arrived, and how he quell’d 
The mighty giant fearful and obfcene. 
His heart with tender recolle&ions fwell’d, 
And, as he read, the tears gufh’d forth bee 
tween. 
For never tili that moment did he hear 
This noble a€tion of the reverend Peer. 
The Abbot, when he faw his forrows rife, 
And tears that, fat mens flow’d 
apace, 
And the fad afpeé& of his glifteningeyes, * 
Which mark’?d with generous grief his. 
manly face, 
Stay’d till his grief was calm’d, and ceas’d* 
his fighs, 
Then aik’d the reafon of fo ftrange a cafe. 
*“ Why on thefe ftoried pi€tures dof thoa 
gaze 
With fuch fad afpe& and fuch fix’d amaze? 
‘* To this fam’d hiftory Iam near allied. 
My coufin is Rinaldo Paladine ; 
Anfuigi was my fire, and ’tis my pride 
Todraw my birth fram Chiaramonte’s line. 
crupper. ‘*@ome within-doors,” fays the 
Abbot ; ‘* the manna begins to drop.” Our 
brave Knight only exprefies his determination 
that they fhall no longer give fuch fcurvy 
feed to his charger. 
-* Milo, Count of Angrante and of Chiar- 
monte or Clermont, was Orlando’s father, 
according to the Romances, A 
Anfuigui’s 
—— 
— 
7 
. - v 
