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parison of the bull beset by dogs. This simile is repeated in the Gerusalemme, when Clorinda retires with her face to the enemy, at this moment assailing, the next assailed, then flying, then putting to flight, so that it is impossible to say whether she pursues or flees.

"Tal gran tauro talor nell' ampio agone,
Se volge il corno di cani ond'è seguito,

S'arretran essi; e se a fuggir si pone,
Ciascun ritorna a seguitarlo ardito."

Gerus. Lib. C. III. st. 32.

We here see Tasso, when his judgment was matured, saying more in four verses than he had before done in double the number, exactly assimilating to the bull the warlike maid, now advancing, now retreating, whilst, in the Rinaldo, the bull is represented as advancing towards the dogs, and the latter retiring; besides, Rinaldo does not put the Maganzesi to flight as the bull does the dogs, but retreats himself, so that they could not run away in terror whenever he wheeled about. The verses are very picturesque and fine.

In the combat between Mambrino and Rinaldo, if the young poet does not shew that profound acquaintance with swordmanship, in which he afterwards excelled, and which has led the Italian professors of that art to introduce his verses into their books, as precepts, he, however, both here, and in the seventh canto, in the fight between Rinaldo and Orlando, shews he was no stranger to it, and the latter description deserves the perusal of amateurs.

Gentili, speaking of the very beautiful comparison of Tancredi and Argante to two vessels of war engaging, observes, that Tasso's comparison surpasses that of Virgil, in the fifth book of the Eneid, v. 539, &c. where Dares is compared to some great captain carefully eyeing every place round a fortress, to discover a favourable point of attack. To be convinced that Gentili is right, it will be sufficient to read the following

stanza.

"Così pugna naval, quando non spira
Per lo piano del mare Africo o Noto,
Fra due Legni ineguali egual si mira
Ch'un d'altezza preval, l'altro di moto;
L'un con volte e rivolte assale e gira
Da prora a poppa; e si sta l'altro immoto;
E quando il più legger gli s'avvicina
D'alta parte minaccia alta ruina."

Gerus. Lib. C. XIX. st. 13.

Guastavini adds, that the comparison of a battle between a lion and an elephant would have been more striking and original, and not less elegant and apposite, and cites the testimony of Plato. But it is sufficient to observe, and Gentili might have done it, that Tasso here uses the simile of the ships, after having said, whilst describing the combat between Bremondo and Argante,

"Qual capitan, che oppugni eccelsa torre Infra paludi posta o in alto monte,

Mille aditi ritenta e tutte scorre

L'arte e le vie: cotal s'aggira il conte.

Gerus. Lib. C. VII. st. 90.

So that Tasso has used his own very fine comparison after having availed himself of that of Virgil. If Guastavini, then, had read Rinaldo, he might have cited Tasso himself, without troubling Plato.

"Chi visto ha mai nell' Affricane arene,

Quando il leon l'alto elefante assale,
Com' egli destro ad affrontarlo viene,
Come dell' arte e del saltar si vale,
Che mai fermo in un luogo il passo tiene,
Ma gira sempre e par che alfianco abbia ale :
Mambrino a questo, e'l gran Rinaldo a quello
Potria rassomigliar nel fier duello.”

Rinaldo, C. XII. s. 59.

In the Gerusalemme, in order to describe the progress that the spirit of revolt was making, and which afterwards broke out, among the Crusaders, at the instigation of Argillano, in imitation of Homer and Virgil, he employs the following simile: "Così nel cavo rame umor che bolle,

Per troppo fuoco entro gorgoglia e sfuma;
Nè capendo insè stesso alfin s'éstolle
Sovra gli orli del vaso e inonda e spuma."

Gerus. Lib. C. VIII. st. 74.

In the Rinaldo, when the hero discovers that he is slighted by Clarice, who will not receive even a letter from him, his grief so overpowers him, that he can neither utter a word nor shed a tear; afterwards,

"Qual suole spesso chiuso umor fervente

In cavo rame a cui sott'arda il fuoco,
Con rauco suon, con gorgogliar frequente
sempre avvanzando a poco a poco;

Girsi

Poi con impeto ratto e violente,
Versarsi uscendo dell' angusto loco;
Tal versossi in lamenti il rio dolore

Di cui non era più capace il cuore."

C. XI. st. 43.

It is apparent, that this comparison is as much out of place here, as it is appropriate in the Ġerusalemme. For, as the heat increasing expands the water, and forces it over the edges of the vessel, in like manner seditious speeches inflame the passions of some, who still, from old grudges, keep their hatred rankling in their breasts against the French and Godfrey, and lead the misguided multitude to open revolt; but it cannot be said that tears flow as the intensity of the grief increases. Tears come when reason and time have somewhat softened and diminished the excess of suffering; and the comparison of water boiling over is then false; for it would seem that this might occur when the fire becomes lower. Ariosto was so fully aware of this, that, after describing Orlando, when he was betrayed by Angelica, as bereft of motion and speech, and unable to shed a tear, he does not compare the poor knight to water boiling over from excessive heat, but to water confined in a capacious vessel with a narrow neck, from which, when turned upside down, the water cannot escape, but drop by drop, and with much difficulty.

"Così veggiam restar l'acqua nel vase,
Chè largo il ventre e la bocca abbia stretta,
Chè nel voltar che si fa in su la base
L'umor che vorria uscir tanto s'affretta,

E nel angusta via tanto s'intrica

Che a goccia a goccia fuori esce a fatica."
Orlando Fur. C. XXIII. st. 113.

The last line is one of the very best specimens of imitative harmony.

These observations, which are very far from being a full critical analysis of the Rinaldo, will suffice to shew that the poem deserves a perusal, as containing passages of great beauty and truly wonderful execution, when we consider the author's youth, who, perhaps, more than any thing else contributed to the oblivion in which it lies, by the unequalled splendor of his Gerusalemme.

The name of the author, and the excellencies we have pointed out in this youthful work of one of the greatest geniuses that ever lived, are a sufficient apology for bringing it before the notice of the lovers of Italian literature. We cannot conclude, without apprising our readers of another stanza in the

poem, from which it appears that Tasso, even at that early age, felt what a fine subject for an Epic the Crusades were: for, in the first canto, he proposes to sing the glories of the Cardinal Luigi d'Este, when, on his exaltation to the papal throne, he shall proclaim a Crusade for the deliverance of Jerusalem.

"Ma quando il crin di tre corone cinto
V'avrò l'empia eresia domar già visto,
E spinger, pria da santo amor sospinto,
Contra l'Egitto i prencipi di Cristo,
Onde il fiero ottomanno oppresso e vinto
Vi ceda a forza il suo a malfatto acquisto,
Çangiar la lira in tromba, e in maggior carme
Dir tenterò le vostre imprese e l'arme."

C. I. st. 6.

ART. VI.-Psyche: or Love's Misterie. In Twenty Cantos: Displaying the Intercourse between Christ and the Soule.

Ὁ Θεὸς ̓Αγάπη ἐστί,

- Οἱ πάλαι προσῇδον ἐμμελεῖς λόγους,
τὸ τερπνὸν, οἶμαι, τοῦ καλοῦ ποιούμενοι
ὄχημα, καὶ τυποῦντες ἐκ μελῶν τρόπους.

S. Greg. Naz. de Carminibus suis.

By Joseph Beaumont, Master in Arts, and Ejected Fellow of S. Peter's College, in Cambridge. London, Printed by John Dawson for George Boddington, and to be sold at his Shop in Chancery-lane, near Serjeant's-Inn. 1648.*

Psyche or Love's Mystery, in XXIV. Cantos: displaying, &c. By Joseph Beaumont, D.D. late King's Professor of Divinity, and Master of St. Peter's College in Cambridge. The Second Edition, with corrections throughout, and Four new Cantos, never before printed. Cambridge, printed at the UniversityPress, for Thomas Bennet, at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-Yard, London, 1702.

The "Psyche" of Dr. Beaumont, and the "Philosophical Poem" of Dr. Henry More (reviewed in our Tenth Number,

* In some copies another title-page is pasted over the first, without motto or publisher's name, containing the date 1652, and the name of Francis Beaumont, without any addition, as the author. This has obviously been an artifice of the bookseller's, to pass off an

p. 223) deserve to be associated together, as the two most considerable efforts of English poetry during the era of the Commonwealth. There are, indeed, many other points of resemblance between the two poems. Both were the work of retired scholars, devout and simple-minded men, in whose minds learning and piety formed an amicable union; both were written under the inspiration of a high moral purpose, with little view to profit or reputation, or to any thing but the promotion of truth and virtue. They resemble each other, too, in their didactic prolixity, of which they are almost unique specimens. In other points, however, there is considerable difference between the two works. The tone of Beaumont's poem is more purely devotional; in that of his contemporary, the philosophical or argumentative preponderates. More's general manner is dry and hard, with but little of that sparkling though illregulated fancy which enlivens the poetry of Beaumont. His stream rolls in a deeper channel, but it is ever and anon losing itself in the swamps of metaphysical disputation; that of Beaumont, though somewhat shallow, is always visible, always clear, and always sparkling. On the other hand, More, in the few passages where his genius finds an unobstructed field to exercise itself in, shews himself the far higher poet. There is nothing in Beaumont equal to some of the extracts quoted in the article abovementioned, and which are not unworthy of an English Lucretius. Thus, too, in minor points; though Beaumont's language and rhyme are in general more correct than More's, yet, in select passages, the latter displays a beauty and variety of both, far surpassing that of his rival.

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"Psyche," however, is deserving of notice on various accounts; among others, it possesses the singular distinction of being (to the best of our knowledge) the longest poem in the English language. The number of lines it contains is nearly forty thousand; or rather (to speak with all possible accuracy on so important a point) 38,922, and, including the metrical arguments, 39,066; being considerably longer than the “Faërie Queene," nearly four times the length of "Paradise Lost," or Henry More's poem; five or six times as long as the "Excursion," and reducing the versified novels of modern times to utter insignificance. We have purposely limited the remark to our own language, and the range of our own personal reading: what krakens may lie in the unexplored ocean beyond, it is

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unsaleable work by attributing it to the more celebrated Beaumont. There were also two other Francis Beaumonts of the same family, both poets, contemporary with the dramatist. Some copies of "Psyche" have also the date 1651 (with some other trifling variations), probably to give the book an appearance of novelty.

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