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Unceafing ftill he weeps, unceasing mourns;
Alike to him the night, the day returns;
Cities and towns he fhuns; in woods he lies,
His bed the earth, his canopy the skies.
He wonders oft what fountain can supply
His floods of grief; how figh fucceeds to figh.
Thefe are not tears (he cry'd) that ceaseless flow;
Far other figns are these that speak my woe.
Before the fire my vital moisture flies,
And now, exhaling, iffues at my eyes:
Lo! thus it ftreams, and thus fhall ever spend,
Till with its course my life and forrows end.
These are not fighs that thus my torments fhow;
Sighs have a pause, but thefe no refpite know.
Love burns my heart! these are the gales he makes,
As round the flame his fanning wings he thakes.
How canft thou, wondrous Love! furround with fire,
Yet, unconfum'd preferve my heart entire?
I am not he, the man my looks proclaim,
The man that lately bore Orlando's name;
He, by his fair one's cruel falfehood, dies;
And now, interr'd, her hapless victim lies.
I am his fpirit, freed from mortal chains,
Doom'd in this hell to rove with endless pains;
A wretched warning here on earth to prove
For all henceforth who put their truft in love.
"Through the ftill night, the earl, from shade

to fhade

Thus lonely rov'd, and when the day display'd
Its twilight gleam, chance to the fountain led
His wandering courfe, where firft his fate he read
In fond Medoro's strains-the fight awakes
His torpid fenfe, each patient thought forfakes
His maddening breaft, that rage and hatred

breathes,

And from his fide he fwift the fword unfheaths.
He hews the rock, he makes the letters fly;
The shatter'd fragments mount into the sky:

Of equal growth; as easy round him ftrow'd,
As lowly weeds, or fhrubs, or dwarfish wood.
Vaft oaks and elms before his fury fall;
The stately fir, tough afh, and cedar tall.
As when a fowler for the field prepares
His fylvan warfare; ere he fpreads his fnares,
From ftubble, reeds, and furze, th' obftructed land
Around he clears: no lefs Orlando's hand
Levels the trees that long had tower'd above,
For rolling years the glory of the grove!
The ruftic Twains that mid the woodland shade
Heard the loud crash, forfook their flocks that
stray'd

Without a shepherd, while their masters flew
To learn the tumult and the wonder view."

This paffage is rather long, but, as it is one of the finest incidents in the poem, we would not deprive our readers of the pleasure which they_muft receive from the perufal of it. From this madness of his hero, Ariofto gave the title of Orlando Furiofo to his poem; and as Mr. Hoole, with great tafte and judgement, obferves in a note: "Few paffages in any author excel the remaining part of the book; and it is furely needlefs to point out to the reader of taste and difcernment the pathos and fire of the poet, whether we contemplate his hero in the firft dawn of his jealoufy, or through the gra dual progrefs of this paffion, in which,

Haplefs the cave, whofe ftones, the trees, whofe rind while he seems to fly from conviction,

Bear with Angelica Medoro join'd;
From that curs'd day no longer to receive,
And flocks or fwains with cooling fhade relieve;
While that fair fountain, late fo filvery pure,
Remain'd as little from his arm fecure:
Together boughs and earthen clods he drew,
Crags, ftones, and trunks, and in the waters threw;
Deep to its bed, with ooze and mud he spoil'd
The murmuring current, and its spring defil'd.
His limbs now moisten'd with a briny tide,

When ftrength no more his fenfelefs wrath fupply'd,
Prone on the turf he funk, unnerv'd and spent,
All motionless, his looks on heav'n intent,

Stretch'd without food or fleep, while thrice the fun
Had ftay'd, and thrice his daily courfe had run.
The fourth dire morn, with frantic rage poffeft,
He rends the armour from his back and breast:
Here lies the helmet, there the bofly shield,
Cuishes and cuirafs farther spread the field;
And all his other arms at random strow'd,
In divers parts he scatters through the wood;
Then from his body ftrips the covering veft,
And bares his finewy limbs and hairy cheft;
And now begins fuch feats of boundless rage,
As far and near th' aftonish'd world engage.
"His fword he left, elfe had his dreadful hand
With blood and horror fill'd each wafted land:
But little, pole-ax, fword, or mace he needs
T'afft his ftrength, that ev'ry strength exceeds.
Firft his huge grafp a lofty pine up-tears
Sheer by the roots; the like another fares

he finds, by a train of concurrent circumftances, moft artfully brought together, the truth forced upon him, till at length he breaks out into a frenzy, that clofes the book with wonderful fublimity!"

As Aftolpho's journey to the moon has frequently been mentioned by Englifh writers, we fhall quote it for the perufal of our readers.

It must be remembered, that St. John, who had been Aftolpho's guide through the earthly paradife, is now his conductor.

"But, when the fun was funk in ocean's stream,
And from her horns the moon her filver beam
Above them thed, a wond'rous car appear'd,
That oft through thofe bright fields of ether steer'de
The fame that, where Judean mountains rife,
Receiv'd Elias, wrapt from mortal eyes.
Four courfers, red as flame, the hallow'd fage,
The bleft historian of the facred page,
Join'd to the yoke; and now the reins he held
And, by Aftolpho plac'd, the steeds impell'd
To rife aloft: foft rofe the wond'rous car,
The wheels fmooth turning through the yielding
air;

The

The favour'd warrior and the guiding feer
Afcending till they reach'd the torrid sphere:
Here fire eternal burns, but, while they pafs'd,
No noxious heat the raging vapours caft.
Through all this elemental flame they foar'd,
And next the circle of the moon explor'd,
Whofe fpheric face in many a part outshin'd
The polifh'd fteel from spots and ruft refin'd:
Its orb, increafing to their nearer eyes,
Swell'd like the earth, and feem'd an earth in fize,
Like this huge globe, whose wide extended space
Vaft oceans with circumfluent waves embrace.
Aftolpho wondering view'd what to our fight
Appears a narrow round of filver light:

Nor could he thence but with a sharpen'd eye
And bending brow our lands and feas defcry.
The land and feas he left, which, clad in shade
So far remote, to viewless forms decay'd.
Far other lakes than our's this region yields,
Far other rivers, and far other fields;
Far other vallies, plains, and hills fupplies,
Where stately cities, towns, and caftles rife
Here lonely woods large tracts of land embrace,
Where fylvan nymphs pursue the favage chace.
"Deep in a vale, conducted by his guide,
Where rose a mountain steep on either fide,

He came, and faw (a wonder to relate)
Whate'er was wafted in our earthly state
Here fafely treafur'd: each neglected good;
Time fquander'd, or occafion ill-beftow'd.
Not only here are wealth and fceptres found,
That, ever changing, shift th' unsteady round:
But thofe poffeffions, while on earth we live,
Which Fortune's hand can neither take nor give.
Much fame is there, which here the creeping hours
Confume, till time at length the whole devours.
There vows, and there unnumber'd prayers remain,
Which oft to God the finner makes in vain.
The frequent tears that lovers' eyes fuffufe; [lofe..
The fighs they breathe: the days that gamefters
The leifure given, which fools so oft neglect,
The weak designs that never take effect.
Whate'er defires the mortal breaft affail,
In countless numbers fill th' encumber'd vale.
For know, whate'er is loft by human kind,
Afcending here you treafur'd fafe may find.
The wondering Paladin the heaps admir'd,
And now of these and now of those enquir'd.
Of bladders huge a mountain he beheld,
That feem'd within by fhouts and tumults swell'd,
And imag'd found by these the crowns of yore
Which Lydian and Áffyrian monarchs wore,

T 2

Which

→ Very like this is the paffage in Taffo, where the poet defcribes the vifion of Godfrey, where the hero takes a view of the earth at an immense distance beneath him.

+ Milton has tranflated a few lines of this paffage:

His guide him brings

Into a goodly valley, where he fees

Things that on earth were lost or were abus'd, &c.

His account of the Limbo of Vanity is wonderfully in the fpirit of Ariofto, and undoubtedly the idea was caught from the Italian poet. This line plainly alludes to Ariofto:

Not in the neighbouring moon, as fome have dream'd.

Defcribing Satan on the outer convex of this planetary fyftem, he thus proceeds:

the fiend

Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey;

Alone, for other creature in this place

Living or lifelefs to be found was none;

None yet, but itore hereafter from the earth

Up hither like aerial vapours flew,

Of all things tranfitory' and vain, when fin
With vanity had fill'd the works of men;

Both all things vain, and all who in vain things
Built their fond hopes of glory' or lasting fame.

All th' unaccomplish'd works of Nature's hand,
Abortive, monstrous, or unkindly mix'd,
Diffolv'd on earth, fleet hither, and in vain,

Till final diffolution, wander here,

Not in the neighbouring moon, as fome have dream'4.

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Mr. Addison has cenfured this passage as beneath the dignity of Milton's fubject, but, what is

#pry extraordinary, does not feem to know how closely he has followed Ariosto.

Which Greeks and Perfians own'd, once great in

fame,

And fcarcely now remember'd but in name.
Of gold and filver form'd, a heapy load
Of hooks he faw, and these were gifts bestow'd
By needy flaves, in hope of rich rewards,
On greedy princes, kings, and patron lords.
He faw in garlands many a fare conceal'd;
And flatteries bafe his guide in thefe reveal'd.
There forms of creaking grafshoppers he spy'd;
Smooth verfes thefe to fawning praife apply'd.
There fparkling chains he found and knots of gold,,
The fpecious ties that ill-pair'd lovers hold.
There eagles' talons lay, which here below
Are power that lords on deputies bestow.

On
every cliff were numerous bellows caft,
Great princes' favours thefe that never last;
Given to their minions first in early prime,
And foon again refum'd with stealing time.
Cities he faw o'erturn'd, and towers destroy'd,
And endless treasures fcatter'd through the void:
Of thefe he afk'd; and thefe (reply'd the fire)
Were treafons foul, and machinations dire.
He ferpents then with female faces view'd,
Of coiners and of thieves the hateful brood.
Of broken vials many heaps there lay;
These were the fervices that courts repay.
He faw a freaming liquid fcatter'd round
Of favoury food; and from his teacher found
That this was alms, which, while his last he
breathes,

A wretched finner to the poor bequeaths.
Then to a hill of vary'd flowers they went,
That feet before, now yields a foetid fcent;
This flet me dare to fpeak) that prefent fnow 'd,
* Which on Sylvefter Conftantine beftow'd.
Of bird-lime twigs he faw vaft numbers there;
And thefe, O gentle dames! your beauties were.
Vain is th' attempt in ftory to comprize
Whate'er Aftolpho faw with wondering eyes:
A thousand told, ten thousand would remain;
Each toil, each lofs, each chance that men fuftain,
Save Folly, which alone pervades them all;
For Folly never quits this earthly ball.
There his paft time mifpent, and deeds apply'd
To little good, Aitolpho foon eípy'd; [known
Yet thefe, though clear beheld, had ne'er been
But that his guide explain'd them for his own.

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"At length they came to that whose want below
None e'er perceiv'd, or breath'd for this his vow;
That choiceft gift of Heaven, by Wit expreft,
Of which each mortal deem's himfelf poifeft,
Of this Aftolpho view'd a wond'rous store
Surpalling all his eyes had view'd before.
It feem'd a Ruid mafs of fubtleft kind,
Still apt to mount, if not with care confin'd:
But gather'd there he view'd it fafely clos'd,
In many a vafe of various fize difpos'd,
Above the reit the veffel's bulk excell'd,
Whofe womb Orlando's godlike reafon held:
This well he knew, for on its fide were writ
Thefe words in letters fair, OR LANDO'S WITt.
Thus every vale in characters explain'd

The names of thofe whofe wits the vafe contain'da,
Much of his own the noble duke amaz'd [gaz'd
Amongst them view'd, but wondering more he
To fee the wits of thofe, whom late he thought
Above their earthly peers with wifdom fraught.
But who can fuch a fleeting treafure boat,
From fome new caufe each hour, each moment
loft?

One, while he loves; one, feeking fame to gain;
One, wealth purfuing through the stormy main;
One, trusting to the hopes which great men raife
One, whom fome fcheme of inagic guile betrays.
Some, from their wits for fond purfuits depart,
For jewels, paintings, and the works of art.
Of ppets' wits, in airy vifions loft,

Great ftore he read; of those who to their cost
The wandering maze of fophiftry purfu'd,
And thofe who vain prefaging planets view'd.

"The vafe that held his own Aitolpho took
So will'd the writer of the myftic book +,
Beneath his noftril held, with quick afcent
Back to its place the wit returning went.
The duke (in holy Turpin's page is read)
Long time a life of fage difcretion led,
Till one frail thought his brain again bereft
Of wit, and fent it to the place it left.
The ampleft veffel fill'd above the rest
With that fam'd fente which once the earl pof
fefs'd,

Aftolpho feiz'd, and found a heavier load
Than plac'd amidit th' unnumber'd heap it show'd.
"Ere yet for earth they quit that fphere of light,
The fage apoftle leads the Chriftian knight

Within

"By this gift is understood the city of Rome, which Conftantine the Great gave Pope Sylvciter, which he faith now ftinketh, because of their fins." Sir JOHN HARRINGTON.

In the first edition of the poem the pailage ftood thus:

Ad un monte di rofe e gigli patlo,

Ch'ebbe gia buon odor, or putia forte;
Ch'era corrotto: e da Giovanni intefe

Che fu un gran don' ch'un gran fignor mal spese,
Where rofes and where lilies grew he went,

A hill once sweet, but now of fætid fcent,

Corrupt and foul!-and this his teacher show'd,
A gift by mighty hands but ill heftow'd.

"It is very remarkable that the poet had the boldness to place among thefe imaginary treafures, the famous deed of gift of Conftantine to Pope Sylveter. It may be obferved in general, to the ho nour of the poets both ancient and modern, that they have ever been fome of the firft who have detected and opposed the falfe clums and inifchievous uurpations of fuperftition and flavery Nor can this be wondered at, fince thele two are the greatett enemies, not only to all true happiness, but to all true genius." ESSAY on the Genius and Writings of Pope, Vol. I. p. 252. 4th edit.

See Note to Book xvii. ver. 552, on the lame fubje&t.

+ This fiction of Arifto is most wittily alluded to by Mr. Pope in his Rape of the Lock, accom panied with a fine ftroke of fatire: fpeaking of things lot in the moon, he lays:

There heroes' wits are kept in ponderous vates,

And beaux' in fauff-boxes and tweezer cafes.
THE APOCALYPSE.

CANTO IV

Within a stately dome, where fast befide
A rapid river rolls its conftant tide.
[views
*Here heap'd with many a fleece each room he
And tilk and wool unwrought of various hues,
Some fair, fome foul: a beldame thefe with kill
Selects, and whirling round the rapid reel
Draws the fine thread: fo from the reptile fwarms
Whofe induftry the filken texture forms,
The village maid untwines the moisten'd flue,
When fummer bids the pleafing talk renew.
A fecond beldame from the first receives
Each finish'd work, while in its ftead the leaves
A fleece unfpun: a third, with equal care
Divides, when fpun, th' ill-favour'd from the fair.
What means this myftic thow Aitolpho cries

To holy John-and thus the faint replies.
"In yonder aged dames the Parce know,
Who weave the thread of human life below.
Long as the fleeces laft, fo long extend

The days of man, but with the fleece they end.
With watchful eyes fee Death and Nature wait,
And mark the hour to clofe each mortal date.
The beauteous threads felected from the relt,
Are types of happy fouls amid the bleft;
Thele form'd for Paradife: the bad are those
Condemn'd for fin to never-ending woes.

"Of all the fleeces by the beldame wrought,
Of all the fleeces to the fpindle brought,
The living names were caft in many a mold
Of iron, filver, and refplendent gold;
Thefe, heap'd together, form'd a mighty pile,
+ And hence an aged fire, with ceafelefs toil,
Names after names within his mantle bore,
And ftill, from time to time, return'd for more:
So light he feem'd, fo rapid in his pace,
As from his birth inur'd to lead the race."

If we were to lay before our readers every paffage which we admire, we fhould be obliged to exclude all other fubjects from our Magazine. From the quotations which we have already given, we dare venture to affure our felves, that thofe who perufe them will not reft fatisfied till they have read the whole poem.

A tranflation can never equal the original which it copies. There are beauties in every language peculiar to

itfelf. Into no other can they be trans fufed. To tranflate has been acknow ledged by Dryden to be a talk more arduous than writing. If fidelity, however, and fimoothnefs of verfifica. tion, if correctness united with spirit, if a fubject replete with entertainment and delightful variety, can recommend ` a work, or an author, to the notice and regard of the public, Mr. Hoole's verfion of Orlando Furiofo can never be without admirers, and Mr. Hoole can never be without patrons.

Each of thefe volumes is decorated with an engraving of fome ftriking incident in the poem; and in the first vo, lume, befides a very elegant plate by Bartolozzi, from a defign of Angelica Kauffman, we are prefented with the heads of Mr. Hoole, and of Ariofto, and with a print of the chair and inkftandifh of this divine Italian poet.

We shall conclude our account of this tranflation, which has afforded us the highest entertainment, with the poftfcript which Mr. Hoole has annexed to the fifth volume. It displays fo candid a mind, and fo ingenuous and feeling a heart, that we should deem the omiffion of it the highest injuftice, and most unpardonable neglect:

THE POSTSCRIPT.

"Having brought this long work to a conclufion, I cannot clofe the volume without fome acknowledgement for kindnesses received, and without expreffing a hope that a perusal of my tranflation will not wholly disap point thofe expectations which may have been raised by my preface, or entertained from a knowledge of that admiration

Ariofto takes the general idea of the Parcæ, from the well-known heathen mythology, with a genius that never borrowed any circumstance from another without embellishing it with his own inventive fancy: he makes the fair fleeces the type of a good, and the foul of an ill life: in which he might probably have an eye to the following paffages of Statius and Seneca:

Ergo dies aderat Parcarum conditus albo
Vellere

And Seneca, in the life of the tyrant Nem, proffitutes his praise in this line:

Aurea formofo defcendant pollice fila.

+ The following paffage is fo beautifully imagined, and fo diverfified with circumstances, as to form, perhaps, one of the finest allegories in this or any poem.

Or all the fictions of Ariotto, the fight of Aitolpho to the moon muft, for furprise and novelty of fubject, take the strongest hold on the reader: we experience here the power of a great and eccentric genius, who, without any rettraint, gives a loose to the reins of his imagination, and with his adventurous knight, on his own Ippogrifo, foars

Beyond the vifible diurnal sphere!

Amidst the general wildhefs, and perhaps abfurdity of particular parts in this book, we are hur ried along by the itrength and livelipels of the poet's defcriptive powers, and have no leifure to apænd to the cool phlegm of ritititin!

442
admiration which the Italians univer-
fally testify for their favourite poet.

every

"It will be fufficiently flattering to me, fhould the English reader experience but a small part of that pleasure which has recompenfed me for the hours of anxiety and application that must attend fuch an undertaking; but whatever fupport I may have found from that degree of enthufiafm which tranflator, who has the leaft pretence to tafte or genius, will imbibe from fuch a poet as Ariofto, I muft likewife declare, that no little encouragement has been afforded me by the countenance of those friends, who, if I may be allowed to make ufe of the beautiful figure of my author at the opening of his laft book, will, I truft, ftand on the beach to welcome my return from fo hazardous a voyage. To this I must add, that the favour shown by the public, in the reception of the first volume of my Orlando, would of itfelf, without any other confideration, have effectually determined me to perfevere in making an entire verfion of this wonderful poem; a defign which I had conceived and entered upon many years before I engaged in the tranflation of Taffo, but which the avocations of a life devoted to business long prevented me from pursuing.

"In my preface, life, and notes, I have endeavoured to infert whatever might gratify curiofity, or give every neceflary elucidation, on which occafion I muft return my thanks to thofe gentlemen who have fmoothed the way in this part of my labours, by giving me information and affiftance; and here let me declare my fenfe of the kindnefs of one who was ever ready to patronize any apparent work of genius. My firft obligations are due to the late Mr. Garrick, who gave me free accefs to the books in his collection: he faw the beginning of my tranflation, but did not live to fee the completion of a work, in the fuccefs of which he once feemed kindly to intereft himself. It will never be thought fuperfluous that I pay this regard to the memory of him, whofe death I fincerely lamented, and who, however foon forgotten by the many in the diffipation of the day,

has, in the words of one of his moit
refpectable friends, left that gap in fo-
ciety which will not eafily be filled up.

In the late Dr. Hawkefworth I
have found reafon to regret the lofs of
one, whofe tafte and friendship I had
formerly experienced in my verfion of
Taffo, and which would have been
fenfibly felt in the present publication;
he faw the first part of the foregoing
tranflation, and gave me every encou-
declaring himself more
ragement,
ftruck with the wild beauties of the
Orlando, than with the more claffical
merits of the Jerufalem.

"I muft here make my grateful acknowledgements to the friendship and politenefs of Mr. Barnard, of St. James's, for being honoured with the indulgence of confulting the Royal Library. To this gentleman's particular kindness, and general liberality of fentiment, every return is due for favours shown to the man, and to the tranflator.

"Nor can I pafs over unnoticed the very flattering manner in which, without any previous recommendation, I was permitted to make ufe of the library of the late Reverend Mr. Crofts; a refource the more grateful to me, as this collection has been allowed to exceed any other in the number of Italian books, amongft which are many early writers of the greatest rarity and eftimation.

"I muft likewife confefs the affiftance which I have derived from the friendship of Mr. Saftres, of whose tafte and knowledge in Italian litera ture I was happy to avail myfelf in any difficulty.

"I owe my thanks to all my fubfcribers; but my firft thanks are due for the great honour that has been con→ ferred on me in the permiffion of introducing Ariofto to my countrymen with becoming dignity, by an infertion of fuch auguft names at the head of my encouragers.

"I must not forget my obligations to the Governor-General of Bengal, and to the rest of the gentlemen in the Eaft-India Company's fervice at that fettlement, for their very generous patronage of my propofals; at the fame

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