Era nel tempo, quando Filomena
Con la sorella si lamenta e plora,
Che si ricorda di sua antica pena,
E pe' boschetti le ninfe innamora
E Febo il carro temperato mena,

Che 'l suo Fetonte l' ammaestra ancora ;
Ed appariva appunto all' orizzonte,
Tal che Titon si graffiava la fronte.
IV.

Quand' io varai la mia barchetta, prima
Per ubbidir chi sempre ubbidir debbe
La mente, e faticarsi in prosa e in rima,
E del mio Carlo Imperador m' increbbe ;
Che so quanti la penna ha posto in cima,
Che tutti la sua gloria prevarrebbe :
E stata quella istoria, a quel ch' i' veggio,
Di Carlo male intesa, e scritta peggio.
V.

Diceva già Lionardo Aretino,

Che s' egli avesse avuto scrittor degno,
Com' egli ebbe un Ormanno il suo Pipino
Ch' avesse diligenzia avuto e ingegno;
Sarebbe Carlo Magno un uom divino;
Però ch' egli ebbe gran vittorie e regno,
E fece per la chiesa e per la fede
Certo assai più, che non si dice o crede.

Catholic writers had ridienled popish divines, and that the Bible had been subjected to private judgment, notwithstanding the popes had prohibited the reading of it. His arilor did not allow him to stop and examine whether this prohibition might not be posterior to the death of Pulci. Milton had studied Pulci to advantage. The knowledge which he ascribes to his devils, their despairing repentance, the lofty sentiments which he bestows upon soine of them, and, above all, the principle that, notwithstanding their crime and its punishment, they retain the grandeur and perfection of angelic nature, are af to be found in the Morgante as well as in the Paradise Lost. Ariosto and Tasso have imitated other passages. When great poets borrow from their inferiors in genius, they turn their acquisitions to such advantage that it is difficult to detect their thefts, and still more difficult to blame them.

The poem is filled with kings, knights, giants, and devils. There are many battles and many duels. Wars rise out of wars, and empires are conquered in a day. Pulci treats us with plenty of magic and enchantment. His love adventures are not peculiarly interesting; and, with the exception of four or five leading personages, his characters are of no moment. The fable turns wholly upon the hatred which Gane lon, the felon knight of Maganza, bears towards Orlando and the rest of the Christian Paladins. Charlemagne 18 easily practised upon by Ganellon, his prime confidant and man of business. So be treats Orlando and his friends in the most scurvy manner imaginable, and sends them out to hard service in the wars against France. Ganellon is dispatched to Spain to treat with King Marsilius, being also instructed to obtain the cession of a kingdom for Orlando; but

I.

In the beginning was the Word next God;
God was the Word, the Word no less was he:
This was in the beginning, to my mode

Of thinking, and without him naught could be: Therefore, just Lord! from out thy high abode, Benign and pious, bid an angel flee,

One only, to be my companion, who
Shall help my famous, worthy, old song through.

II.

And thou, oh Virgin! daughter, mother, bride
Of the same Lord, who gave to you each key
Of heaven, and hell, and every thing beside,
The day thy Gabriel said "All hail!" to thee,
Since to thy servants pity 's ne'er denied,
With flowing rhymes, a pleasant style and free,
Be to my verses then benignly kind,
And to the end illuminate my mind.

'Twas in the season when sad Philomel
Weeps with her sister, who remembers and
Deplores the ancient woes which both befell,
And makes the nymphs enamor'd, to the hand
Of Phaeton by Phoebus loved so well

His car (but temper'd by his sire's command) Was given, and on the horizon's verge just now Appear'd, so that Tithonus scratch'd his brow

IV.

When I prepared my bark first to obey,

As it should still obey, the helmn, my mind, And carry prose or rhyme, and this my lay

Of Charles the Emperor, whom you will find By several pens already praised; but they Who to diffuse his glory were inclined, For all that I can see in prose or verse, Have understood Charles badly, and wrote worse.

V.

Leonardo Aretino said already,

That if, like Pepin, Charles had had a writer Of genius quick, and diligently steady,

No hero would in history look brighter; He in the cabinet being always ready,

And in the field a most victorious fighter, Who for the church and Christian faith had wrought, Certes, far more than yet is said or thought.

he concerts a treacherous device with the Spaniards, and Orlando is kiše! at the battle of Roncesvalles. The intrigues of Ganedon, his spie, ka patience, his obstinacy, his dissimulation, his affected humility, an exhaustible powers of intrigue, are admirably depicted; and his chancer constitutes the chief and finest feature in the poem. Charlemagne ja a worthy monarch, but easily gulled. Orlando is a real hero, chave sudde interested, and who fights in good earnest for the propagation of the cach He baptizes the giant Morgante, who afterwards serves him like a fa squire. There is another giant, whose name is Margutte. Morgante is a in with Margutte; and they become sworn brothers Margutte is a very fidel giant, ready to confess his failings, and fiil of drel ́erv He els as a-laughing, readers, giants, devils, and heroes; and he finishes his career +7 laughing till he bursts."]

1["About the Morgante Maggiore, I won't have a line omitted. It may circulate or it may not, but all the criticisI on earth shan't touch a line, unless it be because it is bad y translated. Now you say, and I say, and others say, that the translation is a good one, and so it shall go to press as it is. Pulci must answer for his own irreligion: Fanswer for the translation only."-Lord Byron to Mr. Murray, 1820 — Why don't you publish my Pulci,-the best thing I ever wrote."-lb. 1821.]

66

XIII.

Tu cominciasti insino in Aspramonte
A dargli a intender che fusse gagliardo,
E facesse gran cose a quella fonte;
Ma se non fusse stato il buon Gherardo,
Io so che la vittoria era d' Almonte:
Ma egli ebbe sempre l'occhio a lo stendardo:
Che si voleva quel dì coronarlo:
Questo è colui ch' ha meritato, Carlo.

XIV.

Se ti ricorda già sendo in Guascogna,
Quando e' vi venne la gente di Spagna,
Il popol de' cristiani avea vergogna,
Se non mostrava la sua forza magna.
Il ver convien pur dir, quando e' bisogna:
Sappi ch' ognuno imperador si lagna:
Quant' io per me, ripasserò que' monti
Ch' io passai 'n qua con sessantaduo conti.

XV.

La tua grandezza dispensar si vuole,

E far che ciascun abbi la sua parte:
La corte tutta quanta se ne duole :
Tu credi che costui sia forse Marte?
Orlando un giorno udì queste parole,
Che si sedeva soletto in disparte:
Dispiacquegli di Gan quel che diceva;
Ma molto più che Carlo gli credeva.

XVI.

E volle con la spada uccider Gano;
Ma Ulivieri in quel mezzo si mise,
E Durlindana gli trasse di mano,
E così il me' che seppe gli divise.
Orlando si sdegnò con Carlo Mano,
E poco men che quivi non l' uccise;
E dipartissi di Parigi solo,

E scoppia e 'mpazza di sdegno e di duolo.

XVII.

Ad Ermellina moglie del Danese

Tolse Cortana, e poi tolse Rondello;
E'n verso Brara il suo cammin poi prese.
Alda la bella, come vide quello,
Per abbracciarlo le braccia distese.
Orlando, che ismarrito avea il cervello,
Com' ella disse: ben venga il mio Orlando:
Gli volle in su la testa dar col brando,

XVIII.

Come colui che la furia consiglia,
Egli pareva a Gan dar veramente:
Alda la bella si fe' maraviglia:
Orlando si ravvide prestamente:
E la sua sposa pigliava la briglia,
E scese dal caval subitamente:
Ed ogni cosa narrava a costei,
E riposossi alcun giorno con lei.

XIX

Poi si partì portato dal furore,

E terminò passare in Paganía;
E mentre che cavalca, il traditore
Di Gan sempre ricorda per la via:
E cavalcando d' uno in altro errore,
In un deserto truova una badía
In luoghi oscuri e paesi lontani,
Ch'era a' confin' tra cristiani e pagani.

XIII.

"And even at Aspramont thou didst begin To let him know he was a gallant knight, And by the fount did much the day to win;

But I know who that day had won the fight If it had not for good Gherardo been:

The victory was Almonte's else; his sight He kept upon the standard, and the laurels In fact and fairness are his earning, Charles. XIV.

"If thou rememberest being in Gascony,

When there advanced the nations out of Spain, The Christian 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 complain: 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?"
Orlando one day heard this speech 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,
But Oliver thrust in between the pair,
And from his hand extracted Durlindan,

And thus at length they separated were.
Orlando, angry too with Carloman,

Wanted but little to have slain him there; Then forth alone from Paris went the chief, And burst and madden'd with disdain and grief.

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

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,
And far as pagan countries roam'd astray,
And while he rode, yet still at every pace

The traitor Gan remember'd by the way;
And wandering on in error a long space,

An abbey which in a lone desert lay, 'Midst glens obscure, and distant lands, he found, Which form'd the Christian's and the pagan's bound.