No. VI. but, upon the whole, their sentiments were calculated to do less harm than an A doctrine of the very same kind is supported in the following manner by the author of the Life of Lope de Vega." The chief objects of poetry (says Lord Holland) are to delineate strongly the characters and passions of mankind, to paint the appearances of nature, and to describe their effects upon our sensations. To accomplish those ends, the versification must be smooth, the language pure and impressive, and the images just, natural, and appropriate; our interest should be excited by the nature of the subject, and kept up by the spirit of the narration. The probability of the story, the connection of the tale, the regularity of the design, are indeed beauties; but beauties which are ornamental rather than necessary, which have often been attained by persons who had no poetical turn whatever, and as often neglected by those whose genius and productions have placed them in the first rank in the province of poetry. Novels and comedies derive, indeed, a great advantage from an attention to these niceties, but in the higher branches of invention, they are the less necessary, because the justness of the imitation of passions inherent in the general nature of man, depends less upon the probability of the situations, than of manners and opinions resulting from the accidental and temporary forms of society." In a great and serious poetical work, however, the plan and symmetry of parts is perhaps more essential to production of effect, than seems here to be allowed by Mr Hume, and by the noble critic. Much is owing to the force du sujet; and the selection of a fine subject, its natural conduct and progression, has a prodigious effect in warming the genius and fertilizing the ideas of the poet. In the reader it adds to the emotions of sympathy, the pleasure derived from the perception of skill and order. Perhaps the two works in the Italian and English languages, which contain the greatest quantity of poetical materials, are the Adone of Marino, and the Faerie Queen of Spenser. These works, however, have never been favourites of the public; a circumstance which must be owing to the unskilful manner in which these materials are employed. I am of opinion, too, that to form a combination of events, which shall at once be new and credible; to carry them on with nature and probability, and delight the fancy without offending reason, is a still more difficult task than to embellish them with description and sentiment. In a sister art, the magic colouring of Rubens often dazzles so much as to make the defects of his design be overlooked; but Raphael is, nevertheless, the first of painters. It is proper to remark, with regard to Tasso's Discourses on Heroic Poetry, that Sperone having learned that his young friend had written a work of this kind, addressed to Scipio Gonzaga, he gave some pretty broad hints, or rather openly pretended, that the remarks contained in it were his own; and that Tasso was a plagiarist. That our poet had been greatly indebted to the acute No. VI. *See a remark of Voltaire on the subject of Zaire, p. 177. No. VI. observations of this very ingenious writer, cannot be denied, and he pays him a very high compliment in the first of these Discourses: "Mi ricordo (says Tasso) in questo proposito, avere udito dire allo Sperone, la cui privata camera mentre Io in Padova studiava, era solito di frequentare non meno spesso, e volentieri che le pubbliche scuole, parendomi, che mi rappresentasse la sembianza di quella Accademia, e di quel Liceo, in cui i Socrati, e i Platoni avevano in uso di disputare; mi ricordo, dico, d'avere udito da lui, che il nostro Poeta Latino è più simile al Greco Oratore, che al Greco Poeta, e'l nostro Latino Oratore ha maggior conformità col Poeta Greco, che coll' Orator Greco."* That Tasso, however, did not derive from Sperone any system of poetical doctrine appears manifestly from the great diversity, and almost contradiction, which subsists between the principles in the Discourses of the former, and those which are supported in the works of the latter. No. VII. No. VII.-P. 119. OF GUARINI. Battista Guarini, of whom the Pastor fido is so celebrated, was born at Ferrara, in 1537. Little is known of his first studies; but, at an early period of his life, he was, during some years, professor of belles lettres in his native city. At the age of thirty, he entered into the service of the Duke of Ferrara, who honoured him with the title of Cavalier, and employed him as ambassador to different Italian princes and states. Two several times he was sent (very much against his will) to Poland; to the throne of which Alphonso II. of Ferrara aspired, after the abdication of Henry III. In 1585, the duke named Guarini secretary of state, an employment which, being disgusted with his situation, he retained only two years. He tells us, in one of his letters, (Lettere di B. Guarini, p. 59, 1615, in 8vo,) that it was not for want of smiles and promises, (if these could have contented him,) that he left Ferrara; but he found, after Oper. vol. V. p. 498. sixteen years of service, that he was acquiring neither honour nor profit; and No. VII. he adds, that for a slave he was too free, and for a freeman too much a slave. He had before quitted the service of Alphonso, and, at this new dereliction, that prince was exceedingly enraged. From a letter of Coccapani, steward of the duke, (dated July 1st, 1588, and which is quoted by Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura d'Italia, tom. IX. p. 180,) it would appear that Guarini had fled secretly, and by night, from Ferrara. "I was stupified," says Coccapani, "when I beheld this folly, and it was my opinion that he was falling into the condition of Tasso." At Turin he had an honourable office assigned him, and his pastoral was, for the first time, represented in a splendid manner. The persecution of Alphonso, however, forced him to leave that city, and betake himself to Venice; where, in February, 1589, he published an apology. After spending some time in this city, and at Padua, he was invited to Mantua by its duke, in 1593. Alphonso, however, signified to that prince, that he would consider it as a very high obligation if he would not employ Guarini in his service; and that he would explain, at meeting, the reason of this request. Fortunately for the poet his persecutor died soon afterward, and he passed into the service of the Grand Duke Ferdinand. The marriage of one of his sons with a lady of unequal rank, an union to which he suspected the duke had consented, induced Guarini to leave that court in disgust. He next entered into the service of the Duke of Urbino; but he soon became dissatisfied, from an idea that he was not sufficiently distinguished. His death happened at Venice (where he had gone to manage some law-suits) in the year 1612. This poet was of an extremely restless and unhappy temper; a great part of his life was spent in law-suits, first with his father, and afterward with his own children. His friends and patrons were the same with those of Tasso; and he does not seem to have enjoyed a much greater share of happiness than his rival poet. "Chi vide," says he in one of his letters, " fortuna più della mia cattiva? patisco quello innocente ch'a malfattori si da per pena." One of the principal sources of his misery was the violent attacks which were made on his Pastor fido, by a numerous swarm of critics, immediately on its publication. In the first scene of the fifth act of this pastoral, Guarini gives, under the name of Carino, an account of his life, and the hardships he had undergone; and he draws a most frightful picture of the court of Ferrara, No. VII. Gente di nome, e di parlar cortese Poi trovi, e'n dritto sguardo animo bieco, vero, oprar non torto, amar non finto, E di core, e di man vita innocente, Cosa sì venerabile, o sì santa O si giusta esser può, ch'a quella vasta Hor' Io, ch' incauto, e di lor arti ignaro Such was the dreadful scene into which Tasso, (with a character precisely the same as that described in the five last verses,) entered, at the age of twentyone. Nor, though evidently drawn in a moment of disgust, is it probable that the tints of the picture are unjustifiably gloomy. It is remarked by Serassi, that the court of Ferrara seems to have been extremely dangerous, especially to literary men. Not to mention Tasso and Guarini, the celebrated Panigar |