greatest masters, had still been poor, detract from the merits of Petrarch. No one can doubt that his poems ex- feeble, and singularly unpoetical, and which had, in the age of Dante, been debased by the admixture of innumerable barbarous words and idioms, was still cultivated with superstitious veneration, and received, in the last stage of corruption, more honours than it had deserved in the period of its life and vigour. It was the language of the cabinet, of the university, of the church. I am not, however, at present speaking It was employed by all who aspired to of the intrinsic excellencies of his writdistinction in the higher walks of poetry.ings, which I shall take another opporIn compassion to the ignorance of his mistress, a cavalier might now and then proclaim his passion in Tuscan or Provençal rhymes. The vulgar might occasionally be edified by a pious allegory in the popular jargon. But no writer had conceived it possible that the dialect of peasants and market-women should possess sufficient energy and precision for a majestic and durable work. Dante adventured first. He their ore. many who can only imitate and judge. tunity to examine, but of the effect which they produced on the literature of Italy. The florid and luxurious charms of his style enticed the poets and the public from the contemplation of nobler and sterner models. In truth, in which great original works are most though a rude state of society is that frequently produced, it is also that in which they are worst appreciated. This detected the rich treasures of thought proved by experience, and is consistent may appear paradoxical; but it is and diction which still lay latent in with reason. To be without any reHe refined them into purity.ceived canons of taste is good for the He burnished them into splendour. He few who can create, but bad for the fitted them for every purpose of use and magnificence. And he has thus acquired Great and active minds cannot remain the glory, not only of producing the at rest. In a cultivated age they are finest narrative poem of modern times, but also of creating a language, dis- too often contented to move on in the beaten path. But where no path exists tinguished by unrivalled melody, and peculiarly capable of furnishing to lofty the Odyssey, the Divine Comedy, apThus the Iliad, they will make one. and passionate thoughts their appeared in dark and half barbarous propriate garb of severe and concise times: and thus of the few original expression. works which have been produced in To many this may appear a singular more polished ages we owe a large propanegyric on the Italian tongue. Indeed the great majority of the young gentle- portion to men in low stations and of men and young ladies, who, when they are asked whether they read Italian, answer 'yes,' never go beyond the stories at the end of their grammar,-The Pastor Fido, or an act of Artaserse. They could as soon read a Babylonian brick as a canto of Dante. Hence it is a general opinion, among those who know little or nothing of the subject, that this admirable language is adapted only to the effeminate cant of sonnetteers, musicians, and connoisseurs. The fact is that Dante and Petrarch have been the Oromasdes and Arimanes of Italian literature. I wish not to uninformed minds. I will instance, in our own language, the Pilgrim's ProOf all the gress and Robinson Crusoe. prose Had these are, I will not say the best, but *Tassoni; Secchia Rapita, canto i. stanza 6. But these circumstances, while they | sics, his theology, all bad of their kind, foster genius, are unfavourable to the while annotators laboured to detect science of criticism. Men judge by allegorical meanings of which the aucomparison. They are unable to esti- thor never dreamed, the great powers mate the grandeur of an object when of his imagination, and the incomparathere is no standard by which they can ble force of his style, were neither admeasure it. One of the French philo- mired nor imitated. Arimanes had sophers (I beg Gerard's pardon), who prevailed. The Divine Comedy was to accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, tells that age what St. Paul's Cathedral was us that, when he first visited the great to Omai. The poor Otaheitean stared Pyramid, he was surprised to see it so listlessly for a moment at the huge diminutive. It stood alone in a bound- cupola, and ran into a toyshop to play less plain. There was nothing near it with beads. Italy, too, was charmed from which he could calculate its mag- with literary trinkets, and played with nitude. But when the camp was them for four centuries. pitched beside it, and the tents appeared like diminutive specks around its base, he then perceived the immensity of this mightiest work of man. In the same manner, it is not till a crowd of petty writers has sprung up that the merit of the great masterspirits of literature is understood. 66 We have indeed ample proof that Dante was highly admired in his own and the following age. I wish that we had equal proof that he was admired for his excellencies. But it is a remarkable corroboration of what has been said, that this great man seems to have been utterly unable to appreciate himself. In his treatise De Vulgari Eloquentia he talks with satisfaction of what he has done for Italian literature, of the purity and correctness of his style. Cependant," says a favourite writer of mine, "il n'est ni pur, ni correct, mais il est créateur." Considering the difficulties with which Dante had to struggle, we may perhaps be more inclined than the French critic to allow him this praise. Still it is by no means his highest or most peculiar title to applause. It is scarcely necessary to say that those qualities which escaped the notice of the poet himself were not likely to attract the attention of the commentators. The fact is, that, while the public homage was paid to some absurdities with which his works may be justly charged, and to many more which were falsely imputed to them, -while lecturers were paid to expound and eulogise his physics, his metaphy From the time of Petrarch to the appearance of Alfieri's tragedies, we may trace in almost every page of Italian literature the influence of those celebrated sonnets which, from the nature both of their beauties and their faults, were peculiarly unfit to be models for general imitation. Almost all the poets of that period, however different in the degree and quality of their talents, are characterised by great exaggeration, and, as a necessary consequence, great coldness of sentiment; by a passion for frivolous and tawdry ornament; and, above all, by an extreme feebleness and diffuseness of style. Tasso, Marino, Guarini, Metastasio, and a crowd of writers of inferior merit and celebrity, were spell-bound in the enchanted gardens of a gaudy and meretricious Alcina, who concealed debility and deformity beneath the deceitful semblance of loveliness and health. Ariosto, the great Ariosto himself, like his own Ruggiero, stooped for a time to linger amidst the magic flowers and fountains, and to caress the gay and painted sorceress. But to him, as to his own Ruggiero, had been given the omnipotent ring and the winged courser, which bore him from the paradise of deception to the regions of light and nature. The evil of which I speak was not confined to the graver poets. It infected satire, comedy, burlesque. No person can admire more than I do the great masterpieces of wit and humour which Italy has produced. Still I cannot but discern and lament a great deficiency, which is common to them greatest masters, had still been poor, | detract from the merits of Petrarch. feeble, and singularly unpoetical, and No one can doubt that his poems exwhich had, in the age of Dante, been hibit, amidst some imbecility and more debased by the admixture of innume- affectation, much elegance, ingenuity, rable barbarous words and idioms, was and tenderness. They present us with still cultivated with superstitious vene- a mixture which can only be compared ration, and received, in the last stage to the whimsical concert described by of corruption, more honours than it had the humorous poet of Modena : deserved in the period of its life and "S'udian gli usignuoli, al primo albore, vigour. It was the language of the E gli asini cantar versi d'amore."* cabinet, of the university, of the church. I am not, however, at present speaking It was employed by all who aspired to of the intrinsic excellencies of his writdistinction in the higher walks of poetry.ings, which I shall take another opporIn compassion to the ignorance of his mistress, a cavalier might now and then proclaim his passion in Tuscan or Provençal rhymes. The vulgar might occasionally be edified by a pious allegory in the popular jargon. But no writer had conceived it possible that the dialect of peasants and market-women should possess sufficient energy and precision for a majestic and durable work. Dante adventured first. He tunity to examine, but of the effect which they produced on the literature of Italy. The florid and luxurious charms of his style enticed the poets and the public from the contemplation of nobler and sterner models. In truth, though a rude state of society is that in which great original works are most frequently produced, it is also that in which they are worst appreciated. This detected the rich treasures of thought proved by experience, and is consistent may appear paradoxical; but it is and diction which still lay latent in with reason. To be without any retheir ore. He refined them into purity.ceived canons of taste is good for the He burnished them into splendour. He few who can create, but bad for the fitted them for every purpose of use and magnificence. And he has thus acquired Great and active minds cannot remain many who can only imitate and judge. the glory, not only of producing the at rest. In a cultivated age they are finest narrative poem of modern times, too often contented to move on in the but also of creating a language, dis-beaten path. But where no path exists tinguished by unrivalled melody, and Thus the Iliad, peculiarly capable of furnishing to lofty the Odyssey, the Divine Comedy, apthey will make one. and passionate thoughts their appeared in dark and half barbarous propriate garb of severe and concise times: and thus of the few original expression. works which have been produced in more polished ages we owe a large proportion to men in low stations and of To many this may appear a singular panegyric on the Italian tongue. Indeed the great majority of the young gentleuninformed minds. I will instance, in men and young ladies, who, when they our own language, the Pilgrim's Proare asked whether they read Italian, Of all the at the end of their grammar,-The Prose works of fiction which we possess, answer 'yes,' never go beyond the stories gress and Robinson Crusoe. these are, I will not say the best, but Pastor Fido,- -or an act of Artaserse. the most peculiar, the most unpreceThey could as soon read a Babylonian dented, the most inimitable. Had a general opinion, among those who Bunyan and Defoe been educated genknow little or nothing of the subject, lished translations and imitations of tlemen, they would probably have pubthat this admirable language is adapted French romances "by a person of only to the effeminate cant of sonnet-quality." I am not sure that we should teers, musicians, and connoisseurs. The fact is that Dante and Petrarch have had Lear if Shakspeare had been able to read Sophocles. brick as a canto of Dante. Hence it is have been the Oromasdes and Arimanes of Italian literature. I wish not to *Tassoni; Secchia Rapita, canto i. stanza 6. But these circumstances, while they | sics, his theology, all bad of their kind, foster genius, are unfavourable to the while annotators laboured to detect science of criticism. Men judge by allegorical meanings of which the aucomparison. They are unable to esti- thor never dreamed, the great powers mate the grandeur of an object when of his imagination, and the incomparathere is no standard by which they can ble force of his style, were neither admeasure it. One of the French philo- mired nor imitated. Arimanes had sophers (I beg Gerard's pardon), who prevailed. The Divine Comedy was to accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, tells that age what St. Paul's Cathedral was us that, when he first visited the great to Omai. The poor Otaheitean stared Pyramid, he was surprised to see it so listlessly for a moment at the huge diminutive. It stood alone in a bound- cupola, and ran into a toyshop to play less plain. There was nothing near it with beads. Italy, too, was charmed from which he could calculate its mag- with literary trinkets, and played with nitude. But when the camp was them for four centuries. pitched beside it, and the tents appeared like diminutive specks around its base, he then perceived the immensity of this mightiest work of man. In the same manner, it is not till a crowd of petty writers has sprung up that the merit of the great masterspirits of literature is understood. 66 From the time of Petrarch to the appearance of Alfieri's tragedies, we may trace in almost every page of Italian literature the influence of those celebrated sonnets which, from the nature both of their beauties and their faults, were peculiarly unfit to be models for general imitation. Almost We have indeed ample proof that all the poets of that period, however Dante was highly admired in his own different in the degree and quality of and the following age. I wish that we their talents, are characterised by great had equal proof that he was admired exaggeration, and, as a necessary confor his excellencies. But it is a re- sequence, great coldness of sentiment; markable corroboration of what has by a passion for frivolous and tawdry been said, that this great man seems to ornament; and, above all, by an exhave been utterly unable to appreciate treme feebleness and diffuseness of himself. In his treatise De Vulgari style. Tasso, Marino, Guarini, MetaEloquentia he talks with satisfaction of stasio, and a crowd of writers of inferior what he has done for Italian literature, merit and celebrity, were spell-bound of the purity and correctness of his in the enchanted gardens of a gaudy style. Cependant," says a favourite and meretricious Alcina, who concealed writer of mine, "il n'est ni pur, ni cor- debility and deformity beneath the rect, mais il est créateur." Considering deceitful semblance of loveliness and the difficulties with which Dante had health. Ariosto, the great Ariosto to struggle, we may perhaps be more himself, like his own Ruggiero, stooped inclined than the French critic to allow for a time to linger amidst the magic him this praise. Still it is by no means flowers and fountains, and to caress the his highest or most peculiar title to ap-gay and painted sorceress. But to him, plause. It is scarcely necessary to say that those qualities which escaped the notice of the poet himself were not likely to attract the attention of the commentators. The fact is, that, while the public homage was paid to some absurdities with which his works may be justly charged, and to many more which were falsely imputed to them, -while lecturers were paid to expound and eulogise his physics, his metaphy* Sismondi ; l'Europe. Littérature du Midi de as to his own Ruggiero, had been given the omnipotent ring and the winged courser, which bore him from the paradise of deception to the regions of light and nature. The evil of which I speak was not confined to the graver poets. It infected satire, comedy, burlesque. No person can admire more than I do the great masterpieces of wit and humour which Italy has produced. Still I cannot but discern and lament a great deficiency, which is common to them who all. I find in them abundance of | But the living charms which were well ingenuity, of droll naïveté, of profound worth all the rest remained in the and just reflection, of happy expression. bloom of eternal youth, and well reManners, characters, opinions, are warded the bold adventurer treated with "a most learned spirit of roused them from their long slumber. human dealing." But something is In every line of the Philip and the Saul, still wanting. We read, and we ad- the greatest poems, I think, of the mire, and we yawn. We look in vain eighteenth century, we may trace the for the bacchanalian fury which in- influence of that mighty genius which spired the comedy of Athens, for the has immortalised the ill-starred love of fierce and withering scorn which Francesca, and the paternal agonies animates the invectives of Juvenal and of Ugolino. Alfieri bequeathed the Dryden, or even for the compact and sovereignty of Italian literature to the pointed diction which adds zest to the author of the Aristodemus—a man of verses of Pope and Boileau. There is genius scarcely inferior to his own, and no enthusiasm, no energy, no conden- a still more devoted disciple of the sation, nothing which springs from great Florentine. It must be acknowstrong feeling, nothing which tends to ledged that this eminent writer has excite it. Many fine thoughts and fine sometimes pushed too far his idolatry expressions reward the toil of reading. of Dante. To borrow a sprightly illusStill it is a toil. The Secchia Rapita,tration from Sir John Denham, he has in some points the best poem of its kind, is painfully diffuse and languid. The Animali Parlanti of Casti is perfectly intolerable. I admire the dexterity of the plot, and the liberality of the opinions. I admit that it is impossible to turn to a page which does not contain something that deserves to be remembered; but it is at least six times as long as it ought to be. And the garrulous feebleness of the style is a still greater fault than the length of the work. It may be thought that I have gone too far in attributing these evils to the influence of the works and the fame of Petrarch. It cannot, however, be doubted that they have arisen, in a great measure, from a neglect of the style of Dante. This is not more proved by the decline of Italian poetry than by its resuscitation. After the lapse of four hundred and fifty years, there appeared a man capable of appreciating and imitating the father of Tuscan literature Vittorio Alfieri. Like the prince in the nursery tale, he sought and found the Sleeping Beauty within the recesses which had so long concealed her from mankind. The portal was indeed rusted by time; the dust of ages had accumulated on the hangings; the furniture was of antique fashion;-and the gorgeous colour of the embroidery had faded. not only imitated his garb, but borrowed his clothes. He often quotes his phrases; and he has, not very judiciously as it appears to me, imitated his versification. Nevertheless, he has displayed many of the higher excellencies of his master; and his works may justly inspire us with a hope that the Italian language will long flourish under a new literary dynasty, or rather under the legitimate line, which has at length been restored to a throne long occupied by specious usurpers. The man to whom the literature of his country owes its origin and its revival was born in times singularly adapted to call forth his extraordinary powers. Religious zeal, chivalrous love and honour, democratic liberty, are the three most powerful principles that have ever influenced the character of large masses of men. Each of them singly has often excited the greatest enthusiasm, and produced the most important changes. In the time of Dante all the three, often in amalgamation, generally in conflict, agitated the public mind. The preceding generation had witnessed the wrongs and the revenge of the brave, the accomplished, the unfortunate Emperor Frederic the Second,- -a poet in an age of schoolmen,-a philosopher in an age of monks,- -a statesman in an age of crusaders. During the whole life of the |