NUMBER VI. La brevità del sonetto non comporta, che una sola parola sia vana, ed il vero subietto e materia del sonetto debbe essere qualche acuta e gentile sentenza, narrata attamente, ed in pochi versi ristretta, e fuggendo la oscurità e durezza. Comment. di Lor. de Med. sopra i suoi Sonetti. LORENZO de Medici has thus, in few words, accurately defined the true character of the Sonnet, a species of composition which has lately been cultivated with considerable success in England. Italy, however, may boast the honour of giving birth to this elegant and elaborate little poem, which, confined as it is to a frequent return of rhyme, and limited to a certain number of lines, imposes no small difficulty on the poet. Among the Ancients, nothing makes so near an approach to the Sonnet, as the Greek Epigram; the simplicity, sweetness, and perspicuity of these compositions, which are generally occupied in illustrating a single idea, want little but the metrical arrangement and restriction of the Italians, to form the legitimate sonnet. The praise of a picture, a statue, or a poem, will be found in the Anthologia to be a common subject of these exquisite pieces, which, in many instances, display so much. beauty of sentiment, and such a delicious vein of expression, that with all who possess great delicacy of taste, they must ever be favourites. Yet few touches of the picturesque, or of what has been termed still-life painting, so common in the effusions of the modern writer of sonnets, are discoverable in the Greek Epigram. There are, however, two short greek poems that, in this respect, have infinite merit, namely, the fifth and seventh Idyllia of Moschus, which, as well in sentiment, as in description, may be deemed indeed unrivalled; they are, in fact, merum nectar.* There is a beautiful imitation of the seventh Idyllium of Moschus in Dodsley's Collection, in an Ode to Cynthia, by Miss F Danté, though not the inventor* of the sonnet, was the first illustrious Italian who succeeded in the composition of it. The same severe and sublime spirit which pervades his wonderful production, the Comedia, may be perceived in these smaller poems, though a few, written in early life, sparkle with pleasure, and youthful gaiety. A striking similitude exists between this great poet and our immortal Milton, whose sonnets partake much more of the genius of Danté than of Petrarch. Both were fond of the gloomy and the terrible, both were judges and lovers of music, both were deeply immersed in the politics of their times, and both felt the vengeance of irritated faction. That Milton was familiar with the writings of his great Predecessor, the following beautiful passage in his Epistles will fully evince: "Ego certè istis utrisque linguis non extremis tantum--modò labris madidus; sed siquis alius, quantum per annos licuit, poculis majoribus prolutus, possum tamen nonnunquam ad illum DANTEM, et Petrarcham, aliosque vestros complusculos, libenter et cupidè comessatum ire. *Guitone d'Arezzo, who flourished about the year 1250, first used the peculiar measure of the sonnet. Nec me tam ipsæ Athenæ Atticæ cum illo suo pellucido Ilisso, nec illa vetus Roma suâ Tiberis ripâ retinere valuerunt, quin sæpe Arnum vestrum, et Fæculanos illos Colles invisere amem.” * The sonnets of Milton, like those of Danté, are frequently deficient in sweetness of diction. and harmony of versification, yet they possess, what seldom is discernible in compositions of this kind, energy and sublimity of sentiment. The sonnets to Cyriac Skinner, to Fairfax, Cromwell, and Vane, are remarkable for these qualities, and for vigour of expression, whilst those addressed to the Nightingale and to Mr. Laurence, can boast, I may venture to assert, both of melody in language and elegance in thought. It should also be observed that Milton has altogether avoided the quaint and metaphysic concetti of Petrarch. The sonnets of this far-famed Italian have met with more applause perhaps than they deserve. Simplicity, that first of all graces in composition, he has usually violated; and, considering the multitude of his productions. * Epist. viii. |