was the son of a baker; yet he presumed so much on his rhyming talents and his other attractions, that he found access to the lady of the viscount Ventadour, and made her the theme of several madrigals, which probably gave umbrage to his lordship; for it appears that the Poet was in a short time obliged to change his residence, though not his habits; for the next fair object of his Muse was a lady whom the old commentators name la duchessa di Normandia: but from the mention of her subsequent marriage with Henry king of England, it appears that it was the celebrated Eleanor, whose early amours and jealousy in the decline of life have been the subject of so many tales and dramas. On her nuptials, the Poet retired to the court of Raimond, count of Toulouse, with whom he lived in a very respectable manner: but, on the demise of the earl, he became weary of the world, and joined a religious order.

Ugo, a native of Genoa, noted for his love of gaming, by which he spent his patrimony, and sup

ported himself by singing or reciting the verses of

other poets.

Anselmo Anselm de Faydit, a native of Limoges, represented by the old commentators as a satirist, a bon-vivant, and a spendthrift.

Being

reduced to great poverty, he supported himself principally by the musical talents of his wife, who travelled with him from court to court, and sung his

verses.

(28) This enchanting isle denotes the pleasures and allurements of LOVE, which fosters the passion to that extravagant height described under the allegory of Volcanoes and Tempests in the subsequent verses; where its effects, when unrestrained by the government of reason, are aptly described under the image of matter actuated by a blind impulse.

By the characters and stories which the Poet introduces in these four cantos from romancers and

novelists, ancient and modern, he seems to point out

the tendency of these studies to inflame the imagination, to keep the rational powers dormant for want of materials for exercise, and thus to prepare the active faculties for the most dangerous excesses.

END OF THE TRIUMPH OF LOVE.

THE

TRIUMPH OF CHASTITY.

WHEN gods and men I saw in Cupid's chain

Promiscuous led, a long uncounted train

By sad example taught, I learn'd at last
Wisdom's best rule-to profit from the past.

Some solace in the numbers too I found,

Of those that mourn'd like me the common wound.
That Phoebus felt, a mortal beauty's slave,

That urg'd Leander through the wintry wave;
That jealous Juno with Eliza shar'd,

Whose more than pious hands the flame prepar'd;
That mixt her ashes with her murther'd spouse,
A dire completion of her nuptial vows.

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