as Mr. Hoole remarks, gives his testimony in behalf of Tasso, so far as it goes, new force. Of these criticisms, the greater part seem to be made, according to the practice of the author, merely pour egayer les choses, and the few that are serious, (if indeed any one but the objection to the episode of Olindo and Sophronia is so,) are not more just. With regard to this episode, if it had no other merit than throw ing odium on the character af Aladin, a circumstance which Voltaire considers as of such mighty consequence, it would be far from useless. What the French poet objects to, are the enchantments, that is to say, the finest passages of the work of Tasso. Of these objections, the principal have been answered by Mr. Hoole, in the preface to his translation of the Jerusalem Delivered. In our crticisms of the poem of Tasso, we ought not to forget the singular nobleness and dignity of his characters. His Tancred is a chevalier Bayard, refined to the highest degree, by the lofty genius of the poet. When Rinaldo leaves in a rage the Christian army, he does not, as has been remarked by Terrasson, repose, like Achilles, in his tent, and behold with apathy the ruin of his countrymen. He does not pray like him, that no one, whether friend or foe, may escape from slaughter. No-he refuses to be accompanied by the heroes, who wish to follow him, as partakers of his fortunes: he resolves to go to Egypt to oppose its monarch, who was arming against the crusades, and thus, though at a distance, to co-operate with the Christian arms: he determines to explore the head of the Nile, and revolves in his mind the greatest and most unwonted exploits. Molta intanto è concorsa amica gente, 52. Parte, e porta un desio d'eterna, ed alma Gir fra i nemici: ivi ò cipresso, ò palma "But, above all, the principal charm of the Jerusalem Delivered, is the enchantress Armida, and the adventures and events to which she gives birth. Never did the imagination conceive a woman so bewitching; never did genius array with such seducing charms an ideal being. Her boldness in undertaking A crowd of friends around the hero throng, 52. And, evermore, gay visions of delight Canto V. the the preservation of her faith; her arts in the attempt; these arts yielding to her love for Rinaldo; her genius, her vivacity, her prcfound sensibility, affect, in the strongest degree, the fancy and the heart. The enchantresses of other poets; the Alcina of Ariosto, and Duessa of Spenser, are foul and filthy hags; and Tasso seems, first, of the romantic poets, to have perceived that there is no witchery so powerful, as natural and virgin grace. In every country, Armida, and the gardens of Armida, are proverbial terms for beauty and delight; and there is no reader of sensibility, who does not adopt, or at least confess the justness of the sentiments which Quinault, in his opera on this subject, puts into the mouth of the enamoured Rinaldo: Que j'etois insensé de croire "To an English reader, some of Tasso's paintings of the spiritual world may, perhaps, seem mean, owing to the elevation of our ideas of this kind, by the sublime pictures which have been pourtrayed by the genius of Milton. This, however, can only apply to his description of the Devil, and the infernal scenes; for the angels of Tasso are beautiful as those of Raphael, and have evidently been the principal study of the English poet. What vision of the Paradise Lost is more happily conceived, or more exquisitely delineated, than the pic, ture of Gabriel, in the first canto of the Jerusalem, or the descent of Michael, in the ninth. Tasso has indeed, in the description of his Devil, injured the picture, by some disgusting strokes, but it was not his object to exhibit that being as the rival of the Omnipotent. Satan is not, as in the Paradise Lost, the principal character of the Jerusalem; nor was it the purpose of the poet to depict him as sublime, bot horrible. Nevertheless, he has raised the leader of the infernal regions higher than Michael Angelo, or any painter or poet who preceded him, and has described him as towering, terrible, and majestic as Atlas. One of the commentators, indeed, of Tasso, apne logises for his attributing majesty to the Devil: nor is it probable, that, if he had conceived an idea of this being similar to that of Milton, that he would have dared to embody it. In the Jerusalem Delivered, however, the speech of Lucifer is equally dignified with any in the Paradise Lost; and from it, the English poet has manifestly derived several of those dauntless sentiments and proud resolves, which wake alternately our pity and admiration for the fallen angel. Ah non fia ver: che non sono anco estinti Gli spirgi in noi di quel valor primiero, Quando di ferro, e d'alte fiamme cinti, Pugnammo già contra il celeste im pero: Fummo (no'l nego) in quel conflitte vinti; Pur non mancò virtute al gran pen- Hebbero i più felici allor vittoria; Oh be not then the courage fled away, "Of I grant, re "Of the enemies of the reputation of Tasso, one of the most formidable has been Boileau, who, though he confesses, in his Art of Poetry, that this writer has de son livre illustré l'Italie, has a most illiberal verse on the subject in the ninth of his satires. For this line the satirist has been often proached by Voltaire, and by other critics of sensibility: but it received, in this country, both notoriety and authority from Addison, whose critical discernment was quite subdued by Bouhours, Boileau, Bossu, and other French writers, the fashionable Aristarchi of those days. My reflections on this subject, I shall subjoin to a passage taken from Bishop Hurd's Remarks on the Plan and Conduct of the Faerie Queene, which, though of considerable length, is so connected with the topics I am now treating of, and so important, that I should deem myself unpardonable not to give it a place in the Appendix. Meanwhile, I may remark, that, if Tasso's merit is to be decided by his popularity, his admirers can point out an hundred and sixty editions of the Jerusalem, and above forty translations; if it is to be estimated by authority, his glory is equally secure. We have already seen the admiration which Voltaire entertained for the Italian bard, an admiration which appears in a great number of passages in his works. "With regard to the Iliad," says he, in his Essay on Universal History, "let each reader consult his "feelings, and tell us what would "be his opinion upon the first "reading of this poem, and that "of Tasso, without knowing the <c names of the authors, and the period at which they wrote, but "determining only by the pleasure "he received from each. Could "he avoid giving the preference "to Tasso in every respect? Would "he not find in the Italian more "conduct, interest, variety, exact"ness, graces, and that tenderness "which gives relief to the sub“lime?—In a few ages hence, "I question whether they will even "be compared." "Rousseau, in the most eloquent of his works, shows his high esteem of Tasso, by the frequency with which he names and quotes him; and the story of our poet seems first to have inspired the citizen of Geneva with the sweet transport of composition. "In an "heroic ballet, (says he, in his "Confessions) I proposed three dif"ferent subjects, in three acts, de"tached from each other, set to "music of a different character, "and taking for each subject, the "amours of a poet. I entitled "this opera, Les Muses Galantes. My first act, in music strongly "characterised, was Tasso........ I tried my skill on it, and applied to it "with an ardour, which, for the "first time, made me feel the de"lightful sensation produced by "the creative power of composi"tion. One evening, as I entered "the opera, feeling myself strongly "incited and overpowered by my “ideas, I returned to my apart"ment, locked the door, and, after "having close drawn all the cur I grant, we fell—I grant, oppress'd we lay, Yet not our virtue, but our fortune fail'd: To him was giv'n the conquest of the field, To us, superior minds, that scorn'd to yield. Canto IV. Stanza 15. "tains, "tains, that every ray of light "might be excluded, I went to bed, abandoning myself to this musical and poetical oestrum, and "in seven or eight hours, rapidly composed the greater part of an "act. I can truly say, that my "love for the princess of Ferrara, " (for I was Tasso for the moment,) "and my noble and lofty senti"ments with respect to her unjust "brother, procured me a night an "hundred times more delicious than it is possible for me to "describe.' In the morning, but "a very little of what I had done "remained in my head, but this "little, almost effaced by sleep and "lassitude, still sufficiently evinced "the energy of the piece of which "it was the scattered remains." "Nor have examples of the interest which Tasso excites in minds of genius and sensibility been less but more remarkable, among the writers of this island. To Spenser he has furnished the most beautiful passages of his poem-to Mil. ton his fame was an incentive, and his work a model. Dryden, in the preface to his Virgil, declares the Jerusalem Delivered to be the next heroic poem to the Iliad and Æneid. Gray, in a letter to Mr. West, tells him that he is reading Tasso, "whom (says he,) "I hold in great admi "ration;" of which, indeed, he gave a most unequivocal proof, by leaving among his papers a translation of part of the fourth canto of the Jerusalem, which Mr. Mason tells us has great merit. In short, it may be affirmed, that, in proportion as a person is himself possessed of poetical genius, of a vivid imagination, and a tender heart, in that proportion shall Tasso be admired. With what transport he could affect Collins, even in the rugged and unequal translation of Fairfax, he has left us a testimony in the following beautiful lines: In scenes like these, which daring to depart From sober truth, are still to nature true, And call forth fresh delight to Fancy's view, Th' heroic Muse enfploy'd her Tasso's art, How have I trembled, when at Tancred's stroke, Its gushing blood the gaping Cypress pour'd! When each live plant with mortal accents spoke, And the wild blast upheav'd the vanish'd sword! " MEMOIRS OF VICTOR ALFIERI. [From the Translation of bis Life and Writings, written by Himself.] WH HILE assiduously occupied in correcting my four Greek translations, and buried in studies, undertaken perhaps at too late a period, the French again took possession of Tuscany, on the fifteenth of October, On this occasion time was not allowed me to retire to the country: besides, I had succeeded in obtaining, as a foreigner, from the municipality of Florence, an exemption from what I conceived the greatest of all misfortunes, having soldiers billetted in my house. As soon as my mind ceased to contemplate such an event, I resigned myself to circumstances. I shut myself up in my own house, and never went abroad, unless to take an airing for two hours in the morning. This exercise, which my health rendered indispensable, I took in the most solitary places, and always without any attendants. But though I religiously shunned on all occasions the society of the French, they evinced not such a disposition to wards me. Unfortunately the French general at Florence was attached to literature. Wishing to become acquainted with me, he called several times at my house. I determined, however, to be visible to no one; and instead of returning his politeness, I took not the least notice whatever of his calls. After an interval of a few days, I received from him a verbal message, requesting to know when he might be permitted to wait on me. Finding that he persisted in his intentions, and unwilling to entrust a servant with a verbal message, which might not be faithfully communicated, I dispatched the following note: If the General "in his official capacity commands "his presence, Victor Alfieri, who " never resists constituted autho"rity of any kind, will immediately hasten to obey the order; "but if on the contrary he requests an interview only as a "private individual, Alfieri begs "leave to observe, that being of "a very retired turn of mind, he "wishes not to form any new ac"quaintance, and therefore entreats "the French general to hold him "excused." " "To this the general immediately returned the following laconic reply: that having read my works, he had been desirous of becoming acquainted with their author; but as that appeared not to be consonght to my wishes, he would no farther importune me on the subject. In fact, he left me to myself, and I was thus freed from an interview, which must necessarily have proved no less embarrassing than painful to my feelings. "In the mean time, Piedmont having been revolutionized, and wishing to ape their masters in every thing, transformed their Royal Academy of Sciences into a National Institute, modelled on the plan of that of Paris, in which the belles lettres were united to the fine arts. It pleased these gentlemen, whose designations I am unacquainted with, since my friend Caluso had been dismissed from his office of secretary to the academy, to nominate me one of its members. This circumstance was immediately noti fied in a letter addressed to me on the occasion. Having been previously informed by the abbé of the honour they meant to confer on me, I returned the letter unopened, and caused them to be in. formed that I was little solicitous of matriculation, either in their society or any other; and, in short, that I would never enroll myself among any body of men who had excluded such characters as Cardinal Gerdil, Count Balbo, and Chevalier Morozzo, merely because they were sincere royalists. "Because I have never been a royalist, it by no means follows that I must belong to the class who style themselves democrates. Their republic is not conformable to my fancy; and I declare that I am, and shall |