knowledge, and with which it is so nearly impossible for a foreigner to become accurately conversant. The Italian language is like a capricious beauty, who accords her smiles to all, her favours to few, and sometimes least to those who have courted her longest. The translator wished also to present in an English dress a part at least of a poem never yet rendered into a northern language; at the same time that it has been the original of some of the most celebrated productions on this side of the Alps, as well as of those recent experiments in poetry in England which have been already mentioned. IL MORGANTE MAGGIORE. CANTO PRIMO. I. In principio era il Verbo appresso a Dio; II. E tu Vergine, figlia, e madre, e sposa THE MORGANTE MAGGIORE. CANTO THE FIRST. I. In the beginning was the Word next God; Of thinking, and without him nought 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. III. Era nel tempo, quando Filomena IV. Quand'io varai la mia barchetta, prima V. Diceva già Lionardo Aretino, Che s'egli avesse avuto scrittor degno, III. "Twas in the season when sad Philomel Weeps with her sister, who remembers and Deplores the ancient woes which both befel, And makes the nymphs enamour'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, V. Leonardo Aretino said already, That if, like Pepin, Charles had had a writer Of genius quick, and diligently steady, He in the cabinet being always ready, |