the version is faithful to the best of the translator's ability in combining his interpretation of the one language with the not very easy task of reducing it to the same versification in the other. The reader is re He was THE Morgante Maggiore, of the first canto of which this translation is offered, divides with the Orlando Inquested to remember that the antiquated language of namorato the honour of having formed and suggested Pulci, however pure, is not easy to the generality of the style and story of Ariosto. The great defects of Italians themselves, from its great mixture of Tuscan Boiardo were his treating too seriously the narratives proverbs; and he may therefore be more indulgent to the present attempt. How far the translator has sucof chivalry, and his harsh style. Ariosto, in his continuation, by a judicious mixture of the gaiety of Pulci, ceeded, and whether or no he shall continue the work, are questions which the public will decide. has avoided the one, and Berni, in his reformation of induced to make the experiment partly by his love for, Boiardo's poem, has corrected the other. Pulci may be and partial intercourse with, the Italian language, of considered as the precursor and model of Berni alwhich it is so easy to acquire a slight knowledge, and together, as he has partly been to Ariosto, however with which it is so nearly impossible for a foreigner to inferior to both his copyists. He is no less the founder become accurately conversant. The Italian language of a new style of poetry very lately sprung up in Eng- is like a capricious beauty, who accords her smiles to land. I allude to that of the ingenious Whistlecraft. all, her favours to few, and sometimes least to those who The serious poems on Roncesvalles in the same language, have courted her longest. The translator wished also and more particularly the excellent one of Mr Merivale, to present in an English dress a part at least of a poem are to be traced to the same source. It has never yet never yet rendered into a northern language: at the been decided entirely, whether Pulci's intention was or same time that it has been the original of some of the was not to deride the religion, which is one of his famost celebrated productions on this side of the Alps, vourite topics. It appears to me, that such an intention as well as of those recent experiments in poetry in would have been no less hazardous to the poet than to England which have been already mentioned. the priest, particularly in that age and country; and the permission to publish the poem, and its reception among the classics of Italy, prove that it neither was nor is so interpreted. That he intended to ridicule the monastic life, and suffered his imagination to play with the simple dulness of his converted giant, seems evident enough; but surely it were as unjust to accuse him of irreligion on this account, as to denounce Fielding for his Parson Adams, Barnabas, Thwackum, Supple, and the Ordinary in Jonathan Wild,-or Scott, for the exquisite use of his Covenanters in the «Tales of my Landlord.»> In the following translation I have used the liberty of the original with the proper names; as Pulci uses Gan, Ganellon, or Ganellone: Carlo, Carlomagno, or Carlomano; Rondel, or Rondello, etc. as it suits his convenience, so has the translator. In other respects MORGANTE MAGGIORE. CANTO I. In the beginning was the Word next God; Of thinking, and without him nought could be: song through. But the world, blind and ignorant, don't prize And hast, and may have, if thou wilt allow, Whate'er thou hast acquired from then till now, With knightly courage, treasure, or the lance, is sprung from out the noble blood of France. VIII. In Roncesvalles, as the villain plann'd too, To him a happy seat with Charles in heaven. IX. 'T was Christmas-day; in Paris all his court In festival and in triumphant sport, The much renown'd Saint Deunis being the cause; Angiolin of Bayonne, and Oliver, And gentle Belinghieri too came there: X. Avolio, and Arino, and Othone Of Normandy, and Richard Paladin, Wise Hamo, and the ancient Salemone, Walter of Lion's Mount, and Baldovin, Who was the son of the sad Ganellone, Were there, exciting too much gladness in The son of Pepin :-when his knights came hither, He groan'd with joy to see them altogether. XI. But watchful fortune lurking, takes good heed Ever some bar 'gainst our intents to bring. While Charles reposed him thus in word and deed, Orlando ruled court, Charles, and every thing; Curst Gan, with envy bursting, had such need To vent his spite, that thus with Charles the king, One day he openly began to say, << Orlando must we always then obey? XII. « A thousand times I've been about to say, Each have to honour thee and to obey; But he has too much credit near the throne, Which we won't suffer, but are quite decided By such a boy to be no longer guided. XIII. «And even at Aspramont thou didst begin The victory was Almonte's else, his sight << If thou rememberest being in Gascony, When there advanced the nations out of Spain, The Christian cause had suffer'd shamefully, Had not his valour driven them back again. Best speak the truth when there's a reason why: Know then, oh emperor! that all complain: As for myself, I shall repass the mounts O'er which I cross'd with two-and-sixty counts. XV. «T is fit thy grandeur should dispense relief, So that each here many have his proper part, For the whole court is more or less in grief : Perhaps thou deem'st this lad a Mars in heart?» Orlando one day heard this spech in brief, As by himself it chanced he sate apart: Displeased he was with Gan because he said it, But much more still that Charles should give him credit. XVI. And with the sword he would have murder'd Gan, Wanted but little to have slain him there; From Ermellina, consort of the Dane, He took Cortana, and then took Rondell, And on towards Brara prick'd him o'er the plain; And when she saw him coming, Aldabelle Stretch'd forth her arms to clasp her lord again: Orlando, in whose brain all was not well, As a Welcome my Orlando home,» she said, Raised up his sword to smite her on the head. XVIII. Like him a fury counsels; his revenge On Gan in that rash act he seem'd to take, Which Aldabella thought extremely strange, But soon Orlando found himself awake; And his spouse took his bridle on this change, And he dismounted from his horse, and spake Of every thing which pass'd without demur, And then reposed himself some days with her. XIX. Then full of wrath departed from the place, The traitor Gau remember'd by the way; Midst glens obscure, and distant lands he found, Which form'd the Christian's and the Pagan's bound. XX. The abbot was call'd Clermont, and by blood Of a great mountain's brow the abbey stood, XXI. The monks could pass the convent gate no more, Nor leave their cells for water or for wood. Orlando knock'd, but none would ope, before Unto the prior it at length seem'd good; Enter'd, he said that he was taught to adore Him who was born of Mary's holiest blood, And was baptized a Christian; and then show'd How to the abbey he had found his road. XXII. Said the abbot, « You are welcome; what is mine And that you may not, cavalier, conceive To be rusticity, you shall receive XXII. « When hither to inhabit first we came XXIV. These make us stand, in fact, upon the watch, I know not what to do till matters change. << Our ancient fathers living the desert in, Our bounds, or taste the stones shower'd down for But the world, blind and ignorant, don't prize And hast, and may have, if thou wilt allow, Whate'er thou hast acquired from then till now, VIII. In Roncesvalles, as the villain plann'd too, To him a happy seat with Charles in heaven. IX. 'T was Christmas-day; in Paris all his court In festival and in triumphant sport, The much renown'd Saint Deunis being the cause; Angiolin of Bayonne, and Oliver, And gentle Belinghieri too came there: X. Avolio, and Arino, and Othone Of Normandy, and Richard Paladin, Wise Hamo, and the ancient Salemone, Walter of Lion's Mount, and Baldovin, Who was the son of the sad Ganellone, Were there, exciting too much gladness in The son of Pepin :-when his knights came hither, He groan'd with joy to see them altogether. XI. But watchful fortune lurking, takes good heed To vent his spite, that thus with Charles the king, One day he openly began to say, << Orlando must we always then obey? XII. « A thousand times I've been about to say, Each have to honour thee and to obey; But he has too much credit near the throne, Which we won't suffer, but are quite decided By such a boy to be no longer guided. XIII. «And even at Aspramont thou didst begin The victory was Almonte's else, his sight << If thou rememberest being in Gascony, When there advanced the nations out of Spain, The Christian cause had suffer'd shamefully, Had not his valour driven them back again. Best speak the truth when there's a reason why: Know then, oh emperor! that all complain: As for myself, I shall repass the mounts O'er which I cross'd with two-and-sixty counts. XV. «T is fit thy grandeur should dispense relief, XVI. And with the sword he would have murder'd Gan, Wanted but little to have slain him there; From Ermellina, consort of the Dane, He took Cortana, and then took Rondell, Like him a fury counsels; his revenge On Gan in that rash act he seem'd to take, Then full of wrath departed from the place, The traitor Gau remember'd by the way; << These make us stand, in fact, upon the watch, I know not what to do till matters change. << Our ancient fathers living the desert in, That manna was rain'd down from heaven instead; But here 't is fit we keep on the alert in Our bounds, or taste the stones shower'd down for |