that it seems a sort of derogation from his great name to rank him among them. It is true there is much burlesque in his poem; but it is so rich in all the beauties of the higher poetry, that he ought to be contemplated alone in that vast intermediate space which he occupies between the mere burlesque writers and the great masters of the true Epic.7

This is not the place to discuss the comparative merits of Tasso and Ariosto. That "vexata questio" has now been litigated by the critics of Italy for above two centuries, with as much eagerness as may have been observed sometimes in this country among the disputants concerning Dryden and Pope. As there has not yet been discovered any satisfactory standard of taste by which all the general lovers of poetry would be willing to weigh or measure their own sentiments or opinions, I am afraid the only safe refuge out of such unprofitable disputation is to shelter one's self under the trite but sensible maxim" that there is no disputing of tastes" ("qu'il ne faut pas disputer des goûts.") As far as the principles of regular composition commonly acknowledged can

influence the decision, this subject has been nowhere treated with so much impartiality as by Metastasio, in his Letter to Diodati, printed in the collection of his epistolary correspondence; in my opinion one of the most elegant and candid morsels of criticism that is any where to be met with. Many probably-from the infinite diversity of forms and colours which Ariosto's muse can assume, the sweet variety of his numbers, those unapproachable ("inarrivabili") beauties of the Furioso, as Serassi, though the biographer and panegyrist of Tasso, expresses himself,-will ever continue to think that his genius was superior to that of Tasso. But who can tell how much Tasso's fancy was restrained by the plan of composition which his judgment had taught him to adopt, in order to produce the greatest effect; and, as a work, how is it possible to put the wild and desultory tissue of adventures and knighterrantry, of which the Orlando Furioso is composed, on a level with the majestic design and execution, consistent beginning, middle, and end, unequalled discrimination and shadowing of characters constantly sustained, and from time to time adorned with the happy adoption and frequent

C

improvement of the most striking beauties of the genius of former times, which have been thought to entitle the Gerusalemme Liberata to be considered as the most finished poem that exists in any language?8

Lippi, the author of il Malmantile Racquistato, a painter by profession, was born in 1606, more than half a century after the death of Ariosto, Boiardo, and Berni, and several years after that of Tasso, which happened in 1595. Lippi died 1664; but though the Gerusalemme, in spite of the sort of persecution which that poem as well as its author were so long destined to endure, had then reached the height of its fame and glory, the taste for the chivalrous burlesque still maintained a sort of divided empire at Florence. As the distinguishing characteristic of the Orlando Innamorato of Berni was the graceful facetiousness which he had given to the ruder inventions of the Lombard Boiardo; so Lippi's great merit with the Florentines was to have interwoven many of the most striking proverbs and quaint expressions which abound in the mouths of the plebeian inhabitants of that part of Tuscany, with a sort of pseudo-chivalresque story,

and applied them, in a humorous manner, with now and then happy stanzas of a more serious cast, and the whole expressed (the mere proverbs and undisguised vulgarisms excepted,) in what has been considered as the purest and most classical Italian. The Malmantile has been described by a modern Italian critic as "Poema tutto sparso di proverbj e di graziosi Fiorentinismi ;" and indeed Lippi's general style partakes of that sly bonhommie which, from Berni's works, has obtained the name of the Bernesco, as somewhat of a similar style in French is called Marotique, from Clement Marot. But the naïve bonhommie, called Bernesque, is still more conspicuous in Berni's Capitoli, in terza rima, than in his Orlando,

Proverbs, or, to call them by their more dignified name, adages, have been justly described as summaries of the wisdom of ages. They consist most commonly of the illustration of some just sentiment by a quaint laconic sort of metaphor, simile, or allegory, while their pithy and concise form makes them in some respects like the Tvμai, or sententious maxims which abound in Pindar and Euripides, (not to refer to a more sacred

author), or to many of those happy lines applicable to the affairs of human life which occur so habitually to the memory of persons much conversant with the plays of Terence, and the works of Horace, Shakspeare, and Pope.-The frequent use of old proverbs by vulgar and illiterate persons may be owing to this, that, unaccustomed to analyse through the medium of language the process of their thoughts upon any subject, they find it convenient to hasten to the conclusion by the application of some apposite proverb; and, as this reason does not so generally hold in the higher ranks of society, such too frequent use of them is by persons of better taste properly avoided; but yet, when aptly introduced, a proverb sometimes contributes to produce a happy effect not only in conversation, but even in the most powerful kinds of forensic and parliamentary eloquence.

It is a remarkable thing, that in that part of the united kingdom where I am now writing, it is not unusual to speak of Scotch proverbs as particularly clever, and I should be very unwilling to disclaim so well-established a confirmation of the astute sagacity frequently attributed,-by the just in