He ceased, and drew forth an MS.; and no He meant no harm in scribbling: 'twas his way Like lightning, off from his "melodious twang."† Upon all topics; 'twas, besides his bread, Of which he butter'd both sides; 'twould delay Too long the assembly, (he was pleased to dread,) And take up rather more time than a day, To name his works-he would but cite a fewWat Tyler-Rhymes on Blenheim-Waterloo. XCVII. He had written praises of a regicide; He had written praises of all kings whatever; He had written for republics far and wide, And then against them bitterer than ever; For pantisocracy he once had cried Aloud, a scheme less moral than 'twas clever; Then grew a hearty antijacobin Had turn'd his coat-and would have turn d his skin. XCVIII. He had sung against all battles, and again • See "Life of H. Kirke White." CIII. Those grand heroics acted as a spell: The angels stopp'd their ears and plied their pinion The devils ran howling, deafen'd, down to hell; The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominion, (For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell, And I leave every man to his own opinion ;) Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys, And at the fifth line knock'd the poet down; Who fell like Phaeton, but more at ease, Into his lake, for there he did not drown, A different web being by the Destinies Woven for the laureate's final wreath, whene'er Reform shall happen either here or there. King Alfonso, speaking of the Ptolomean system, said, that "had he been consulted at the creation of the world, he would have spared the Maker some absurdities," ↑ See Aubrey's account of the apparition which disappeared "with a curi ous perfume and a melodious twang;" or see the Antiquary, vol. 1. CV. He first sank to the bottom-like his works, It may be, still, like dull books on a shelf, A drowned body lies at the bottom till rotten; it then floats, as most people know. MORGANTE MAGGIORE, DI MESSER LUIGI PULCI. ADVERTISEMENT. (the Ordinary in Jonathan Wild-or Scott, for the exquisite use of his Covenanters in the 66 Tales of THE Morgante Maggiore, of the first canto of my Landlord." which this translation is offered, divides with the In the following translation I have used the Orlando Innamorato the honor of having formed liberty of the original with the proper names; and suggested the style and story of Ariosto. The as Pulci uses Gan, Ganellon, or Ganellone; Carlo, great defects of Boiardo, were his treating too seri-Carlomagno, or Carlomano; Rondel, or Rondello, ously the narratives of chivalry, and his harsh style. &c., as it suits his convenience; so has the transAriosto, in his continuation, by a judicious mixture lator. In other respects the version is faithful to of the gayefy of Pulci, has avoided the one; and the best of the translator's ability in combining his Berni, in his reformation of Boiardo's poem, has interpretation of the one language with the not corrected the other. Pulci may considered as the very easy task of reducing it to the same versificaprecursor and model of Berni altogether, as he has tion in the other. The reader, on comparing it partly been to Ariosto, however inferior to both his with the original, is requested to remember that copyists. He is no less the founder of a new style the antiquated language of Pulci, however pure, of poetry very lately sprung up in England. I is not easy to the generality of Italians themselves, allude to that of the ingenious Whistlecraft. The from its great mixture of Tuscan proverbs; and serious poems on Roncesvalles in the same lan- he may therefore be more indulgent to the present guage, and more particularly the excellent one attempt. How far the translator has succeeded, of Mr. Merivale, are to be traced to the same and whether or no he shall continue the work, are questions which the public will decide. He was It has never yet been decided entirely whether induced to make the experiment partly by his love Pulci's intention was or was not to deride the for, and partial intercourse with, the Italian lanreligion which is one of his favorite topics. It guage, of which it is so easy to acquire a slight appears to me, that such an intention would have knowledge, and with which it is so nearly imposbeen no less hazardous to the poet than to the sible for a foreigner to become accurately conversant. priest, particulary in that age and country; The Italian language is like a capricious beauty, and the permission to publish the poem, and its who accords her smiles to all, her favors to few, reception among the classes of Italy, prove that it and sometimes least to those who have courted her neither was nor is so interpreted. That he intended longest. The translator wished also to present in to ridicule the monastic life, and suffered his imagi- an English dress a part at least of a poem never yet nation to play with the simple dulness of his rendered into a northern language; at the same converted giant, seems evident enough; but surely time that it has been the original of some of the it were as unjust to accuse him of irreligion most celebrated productions on this side of the on this account, as to denounce Fielding for his Alps, as well of those recent experiments in poetry Parson Adams, Barnabas, Thwackum, Supple, and in England which have been already mentioned. source. XIV. "If thou rememberest being in Gascony, When there advanced the nations out of Spain, The Christain cause had suffer'd shamefully, Had not his valor driven them back again. Best speak the truth when there's a reason why: Know then, oh emperor! that all complaint: As for myself, I shall repass the mounts O'er which I cross'd with two and sixty counts. XV. ""Tis fit thy grandeur should dispense relief, So that each here may have his proper part, For the whole court is more or less in grief: Perhaps thou deem'st this lad a Mars in heart?" And with the sword he would have murder'd Gan, Wanted but little to have slain him there; XVII. 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 "Welcome, my Orlando, home," she said, Raised up his sword to smite her on the head. XVIII. Like him a fury counsels; his revenge XIX. Then full of wrath departed from the place, XX. The abbot was call'd Clermont, and by blood 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 XXIII. "When hither to inhabit first we came These mountains, albeit that they are obscure, As you perceive, yet without fear or blame They seem'd to promise an asylum sure: From savage brutes alone, too fierce to tame, "Twas fit our quiet dwelling to secure; But now, if here we'd stay, we needs must guard Against domestic beasts with watch and ward. XXIV. "These make us stand, in fact, upon the watch; XXV. "Our ancient fathers living the desert in, Our bounds, or taste the stones shower'd down for XXVI. "The third, Morgante, 's savagest by far; he Plucks up pines, beeches, poplar-trees, and oaks, And flings them, our community to bury; And all that I can do but more provokes." While thus they parley in the cemetery, A stone from one of their gigantic strokes, Which nearly crush'd Rondell, came tumbling over, So that he took a long leap under cover. XXVII. "For God sake, cavalier, come in with speed; The manna's falling now," the abbot cried. "This fellow does not wish my horse should feed, Dear abbot," Roland unto him replied. "Of restiveness he'd cure him had he need; That stone seems with good will and aim applied." The holy father said, "I don't deceive: They'll one day fling the mountain, I believe " XXXV. Orlando had Cortana bare in hand, To split the head in twain was what he schemed:Cortana clave the skull like a true brand, And pagan Passamont died unredeem'd. Yet harsh and haughty, as he lay he bann'd, And most devoutly Macon still blasphemed; Yet while his crude, rude blasphemies he heard, Orlando thank'd the Father and the Word, XXXVI. Saying, "What grace to me thou'st given! XXXVII. And having said thus much, he went his way; To root from out a bank a rock or two. Orlando, when he reach'd him, loud 'gan say, "How think'st thou, glutton, such a stone to throw ?" When Alabaster heard his deep voice ring, He suddenly betook him to his sling, XXXVIII. And hurl'd a fragment of a size so large, That if it had in fact fulfill'd its mission, And Roland not avail'd him of his targe, And in his bulky bosom made incision XXXIX. Morgante had a palace in his mode, Composed of branches, logs of wood, and earth, And stretch'd himself at ease on this abode, And shut himself at night within his berth. Orlando knock'd, and knock'd again, to goad The giant from his sleep; and he came forth, The door to open, like a crazy thing, For a rough dream had shook him slumbering. "I come to preach to you, as o your brothers, Sent by the miserable monks-repentance; For Providence divine, in you and others, Condemns the evil done by new acquaintance. 'Tis writ on high-your wrong must pay another's; From heaven itself is issued out this sentence. Know then, that colder now than a pilaster 'I left your Passamont and Alabaster." |