No. III. c'etoient ordinairement les Dames qui se chargeoient du soin de leur apprendre en même temps leur catechisme et l'art d'aimer Mais autant la devotion qu'on leur inspiroit etoit accompagnée de puerilites et de superstitions, autant l'amour des Dames, qu'on leur recommandoit, etoit il rempli de raffinement et de fanatisme. Il semble qu'on ne pouvoit, dans ces siècles ignorans et grossiers, presenter aux hommes la religion sous une forme assez materielle pour la mettre à leur portee; ni leur donner en même temps une idee de l'amour assez pure, assez metaphysique, pour prevenir les desordres et les excès dont etoit capable une nation qui conservoit partout le caractère impetueux qu'elle montroit à la guerre. Pour mettre le jeune novice en etat de pratiquer ces bisarres leçons de galanterie, on lui faisoit de bonne heure faire choix de quelqu'une des plus nobles, de plus belles et des plus vertueuses Dames des Cours qui'l frequentoit; c'etoit elle à qui, comme à l' Etre souverain, il rapportoit tous ses sentimens, toutes ses pensées, et toutes ses actions. Cet amour aussi indulgent que la religion de ce temps-là, se prêtoit et s'accomodoit à d'autres passions moins pures et moins honnêtes.-Mémoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie, tom. I. p. 7. No. IV. No. IV.-P. 99. OF THE RINALDO. The great quantity of materials which I have to dispose of upon subjects still more interesting than the Rinaldo, renders me unwilling to dwell upon it at much length. Abstractedly considered, it is a beautiful, relatively to the age of the writer, it is a wonderful poem. Still, however, its principal value arises from its being the measure of the powers of a great mind, and an evidence of their direction, in a certain stage of their progress. The most remarkable circumstance attending it is, as I have said in the text, the example it affords of a mixture of classic and romantic poetry; and the strength of judgment of its young author, in stemming the current of popular prejudice. Tasso's poem is divided into twelve books, and its subject is the exploits of the young Paladin Rinaldo, atchieved for the love of Clarice. This Rinaldo is not the hero of the Jerusalem; but the champion of whom so much is said in the poems of Boiardo, and of Ariosto. In the work of Tasso, this Paladin is No. IV. kept always in view, and his adventures are related in one continued narrative, without any perplexing interruption. These adventures are sufficiently remarkable, and follow one another in very quick succession. Many of the fictions of this poem are extremely beautiful; such is that of the Temple of Beauty in the third canto, and the Palace of Courtesy in the seventh; the latter of which enables Tasso to pay a very graceful compliment to a number of his friends and patrons. Of these fictions several have with some modification been made use of by the author in his Jerusalem Delivered. Thus the miraculous bark that conveys the two knights from the Palace of Courtesy, seems to be the same which carries Ubaldo and Charles, to bring back Rinaldo from the Fortunate Isles. The escape of the one Rinaldo from Floriana, of whom he had been enamoured, resembles that of the other from Armida. The sepulchre raised by magic to receive the body of the Knight of the tomb, is in the Jerusalem applied to a similar purpose, in the episode concerning Sueno. The fire at the entrance of the cave of love, and the fires which burst forth between Rinaldo, and the Knights of Mambrino; may be considered as the rude idea of a fiction, which was to be employed with such magical effect in the Jerusalem Delivered. Mr Hoole, by whom most of these coincidences has been remarked, observes, that the poem of Rinaldo seems to have been known to Spenser. He instances the similarity of the valley of Despair, in the eleventh canto of Torquato's work, to that described by the English poet in his story of the Red Cross Knight. "The supernatural fire (continues he,) that defends the entrance to the house of the enchanter Busirane, in the legend of Britomart, will doubtless occur to the reader's recollection, on perusing the part where Rinaldo and Florindo pass through the flame, to consult the oracle of love.-The account of the lion tamed by Clarillo, and killed by Rinaldo, will remind us of the lion attending on Una, and killed by Sansloy." * * Preface to the translation of Rinaldo, No. IV. What is more certain is, that the passage in the fifth book of the Rinaldo, where Florindo narrates, how, being disguised in a female dress, he introduced himself among the virgins, at the games celebrated before the princess Olinda, for the purpose of kissing her, has been copied by Guarini, in Act II. Scene 1. of his Pastor Fido. Thus this latter poet has not only closely imitated the Aminta, but has pillaged the other works of his rival, for embellishments to his pastoral poem. How far the fictions of Torquato himself are original, my limited acquaintance with the writings of the Romanzatori prevents me from deciding; and the poem has been so little the object of curiosity in Italy, that nobody has endeavoured to discover the quarries from which its materials may perhaps have been taken. Great as were its merits, it wanted that gaiety which enlivens the Orlando Innamorato, and the poem of Ariosto; nor did it possess that soothing and voluptuous sweetness which is so frequently to be found in the Jerusalem Delivered. There appears in the Rinaldo very little of that discrimination of character, which its author so wonderfully displays in his greater work; and which has indeed been neglected by the romantic poets in general. But the young bard already understood the art of contrast, and he has availed himself of it very happily in the seventh canto, where the pleasing description of the Palace of Courtesy succeeds to the gloomy tale of the Knight of the Tomb; and in the eleventh, where the Hill of Hope soothes the mind which had been saddened by the painting of the Valley of Despair. It seems to me, also, that Tasso had already acquired, in some degree, that dignified style, that long majestic march, which is so characteristic of his heroic poetry. This arose partly from his assiduous study of Virgil, which strongly appears in his Rinaldo; partly from the natural elevation of his conceptions and loftiness of his character. He partook not of that mobility of imagination, that facility and gaiety, which must be possessed by him who would give interest to a very long detail of romantic adventures. For such a task, pathos; sublimity, and tenderness, seem less necessary than humour, cheerfulness, and ease. It is not improbable that the feeling of his deficiencies in these latter qualities, as much as the strength of his judgment, directed him to the path in which he has acquired immortality. Still, however, this supposes great rectitude of No. IV. thinking, and acuteness of discernment. It would lead me too far if I were to select striking passages from the Rinaldo. Mr Hoole particularly remarks the spirited description of the enchanted chariot employed to carry off Clarice, in the fourth canto, and the account of the discipline in the camp of Charlemagne, in the sixth. A beautiful Impresa of one of the champions of the Rinaldo, (canto ix. stanza 8.) has been taken notice of by Drummond of Hawthornden. On his shield was represented a rock, dashing into pieces the waves by which it was assaulted, with the motto, Rompe ch'il percote: "It breaks whatever strikes upon it." I may mention too, as painted with much vigour, the combat betwixt Rinaldo and Orlando in the sixth canto: the reader, however, will be more highly amused with the battle of those heroes, in the xxvii. and xxviii. cantos of Bernis Orlando Innamorato. This latter work appears to me fully as entertaining as the poem of Ariosto; the introductory stanzas to the cantos are excellent, and some of them are exceedingly philosophical. Mr Hoole, to whom Tasso is greatly indebted, has given a translation of the Rinaldo, of considerable fidelity and elegance. Sometimes, however, he appears to misconceive his author; but what one has principally to regret in Mr Hoole, is feebleness, diffusion, and the want of a certain tact, a perception of the minute and delicate shades of meaning; or an incapacity of exhibiting them. An example will explain my meaning. At the end of the description of the discipline in Charlemagne's camp, Tasso laments the sloth and effeminacy which had crept into the Christian armies, at a time when the Turks were dreadfully menacing the subjugation of the West. He compares the Ottoman Empire to a serpent, which had just been devouring Greece, and was awfully advancing to prey upon the rest of Europe. Che meraviglia è poi, s'el rio serpente ? E par, che'l prema già, che già il divore? Can. VI, St. 13: No, IV. What wonder then, if that huge dragon, fed Mr Hoole translates, in the following manner, the above passage of the Rinaldo, by which he totally destroys the original image : What wonder then, if that infernal pest, That ancient foe to dying Greece confest, Should now with threats our western world annoy, By ruthless arts, industrious to destroy! No. V.-P. 117. No. V. ATTACHMENT OF THE EPIC POETS TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF PLATO. EXPLANATION OF A PASSAGE IN THE JERUSA- The three epic poets, Virgil, Milton, and Tasso, agree in having entertained a great admiration of the writings of Plato. Platonis sententias, (says Donatus in his life of Virgil,) omnibus aliis praetulit." Thus, from the laureat fraternity of poets, [they are the words of Milton, in that noble digression in one of his works, where he gives an account of his conduct and pursuits,] riper years, and the ceaseless round of study, and reading, led me to the shady spaces of philosophy, but chiefly to the divine volumes of Plato, and his equal Xenophon; where, if I should tell ye what I learnt of chastity and love and how the first and chiefest office of Love begins and ends in the soul, ducing those happy twins of her divine generation, Knowledge and Virtue, with such abstracted sublimities as these, it might be worth your listening." pro 1 Apology for Smectymnuus.-P. Works, vol. I. p. 225. 8vo. See also Milton's Letter to Diodati, where his passion for the Platonic philosophy, and intense love of the beautiful, the Të xaλõ, is warmly depicted. |