year 1434. He studied in the University of Ferrara, and remained almost all his life attached to the courts of the Ferrarese dukes. He died in the year 1494. He was one of the most learned and ingenious men of a very intellectual age, and he gave his country a poem, wherein the marvels of fairy worlds are displayed, if not with the luxuriousness of beauty, yet with astonishing stateliness and magnifi cence. Until I read Ariosto, I conceived that Boiardo had exhausted the world of invention; so numerous are the characters in the Orlando Innamorato, so varied the circumstances, so rich the mantle of embellishment. His good sense and piety made him avoid the example of his poetical predecessors, in introducing Scriptural phrases on low or trivial occasions. He is sometimes grand and sublime; but he lived in a court where gallantry dictated manners; and his subject, both as he conceived it, and as his readers expected to find it, tended more to love than heroism. There is in the Orlando Innamo rato, as in every other poem, a maze of romantic adventures, that befel the Paladins of Charlemagne, in their wars with the Saracens. But Boiardo is the first poet that has made love the ruling passion of Orlando, Angelica, the object of his passion, does not, however, return his affection. She adores Rinaldo, who regards her with indifference. Orlando breaks the ties of friendship, and forgets his love of fame, and, indeed, all his chivalric qualities and desires, except his religion; for, in perfect harmony with the principle, that God and the ladies should possess, in divided sovereignty, the heart of a true knight, Orlando is as zealous in converting the heathens as in adoring Angelica.' Vol. II. pp. 147, 8. Ariosto's poem is read with delight by all nations. Stripped of the beauties of poetry, even in the cold and languid translation of Hoole, his fables are captivating and delightful. The secret charm that leads us on, is the interest that we feel in deeds of valorous achievement. He transports us into a world in which the vulgar interests, the sordid chace after vulgar happiness, and the low and common perturbations of life are suspended. In spite also of a lurking spirit of raillery and an ill-concealed satire, that run through the poem, he raises within us, we know not by what process, a high-toned enthusiasm for courage and virtue; and we almost blush, as we read him, that we are not cavaliers and heroes. His versification is more graceful and elegant, than vigorous or majestic. His beauties of diction are peculiarly observable in the opening stanzas of each canto. He has no equal in harmony of language. He dallies, as it were, with his subject, as well as with his readers. Hence it is, that he seldom reaches the elevation and grandeur of the epic; but, if he does not reach it, it is because he does not wish to do so. Hence too, his facility borders not unfrequently upon negligence, and he brings out his verses like an improvisatore. Yet, even these negligences please us, like those of the nymph of Horace. But he drops his playfulness in an instant; and the elaborate polish of the rest of his verses, shews them to have been interposed by design, that the more vigorous and finished parts of the poem might stand out in bolder relief from the contrast. The other poetical qualities of this great artist, are adequately appreciated by Mr. Mills. There are few parts of the story of the Orlando Furioso that are strictly new. The author has freely borrowed from all the common stores of fictitious narratives, the romances relating to Charlemagne and his Paladins, King Arthur and the Armoric knights. But Ari. osto every where appears an original writer, because the changes which he has made in his original tales shew the highest powers of invention. He has given form and character to the meagre sketches of his precursors. His genius has embellished their creations, or given life to more beautiful visions; and when he has borrowed from the classical authors any of their rich inventions, (and he is the first of the romance-writers that has drank of this source of inspiration,) he has either varied with masterly power some features of their images, or has so nobly developed their beauties, that there is no appearance of adoption or translation. The Orlando Furioso is the richest and most magnificent of the poems of chivalry. The author commands, with the potent skill of a magician, all the marvels of Oriental sorcery that form the graceful colouring of the Spanish and French romances, which Ariosto had diligently read. Wit, elegance, pathos, satire, comedy, simplicity, the terrific and the sublime, the classic and the historic pages, the authentic annals and the fairy tale, all contribute their stores equally for the events that prevent the marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante, who are the ancestors of the Este family, for the wars of Agramant, the Musselman chief, with Charlemagne, and for the misery and madness of Orlando on account of the beautiful Angelica bestowing her affections upon Medoro, and not upon himself. The valour of the cavaliers, and the tenderness, true feminine fortitude, and energy of the ladies of chivalry, are described in the most glowing colours. No author paints with more vividness and brilliancy than Ariosto. The interest of the reader is perpetually alert, for it is impossible to foresee the progress of the story, But, to enjoy the Orlando Furioso, we must associate with the poem a long train of chivalric recollections. We must imagine a lofty hall enriched with the trophies of war, where the minstrel roused the courage or softened into love or pity the hearts of knights and ladies, by singing the wars and loves of times which poetry has rendered bright and golden. Then the lively conversational style which pervades the greatest part of the Orlando Furioso, will appear brilliant, elegant, and harmonious, and the variety and quick transition of circumstances in the poem will seem the natural flights of genius roving over boundless worlds of fiction, and bearing away the feelings of the enraptured auditors. I shall say little on the defects of the Orlando Furioso; on the author's preserving his comic mask in improper places, on his vulgar and mean phrases in serious parts, and many other inaccuracies of style. If the poem be censured for its voluptuousness, let it be praised for the delicacy of every point of honour that it inculcates. It must be confessed that Ariosto's digressions respecting the origin and history of the family of Este are exceedingly wearisome. The poet has made some noble attempts to illustrate that family, but their real insignificance appears only more contemptible through the cumbrous load of ornament,' Vol. II. pp. 151-154. We have not room even for a passing mention of the numerous poems in imitation of Boiardo and Ariosto, nor for any remarks, strongly as we are tempted to make them, on the Orlando Innamorato Reformato of Berni; a refaccimento which, by a singular fatality, has entirely superseded the original of Boiardo. Mr. Mills has noticed them somewhat slightly. Nor has he dwelt very emphatically upon Tasso, the only poet to whom Italy owes the glory of a serious epic. We must, therefore, close our article without touching upon the painters, the sculptors, the political and philosophical writers whom he commemorates. Our opinions concerning his work have been already given, and we shall neither add to our censures nor to our commendations. But his industry, to which every page of the book bears ample attestation, deserves more than lukewarm praise. Whatever portion of fame may be assigned to Mr. Mills, he has shewn himself, more especially in his former works, not unmindful of the path by which it is to be attained, -the path of severe diligence and unremitted research; and his Italian studies seem at least to have impressed him with the truth conveyed in the immortal lines of Dante, -che seggendo in piuma, In fama non si vien, nè sotto coltre, Sanza la qual chi sua vita consuma Qual fummo in aere, ad in acqua la schiuma. Inferno. Canto 24. Art. II. 1. The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns. By Thomas Chalmers, D.D. Minister of St. John's Church, Glasgow. Vol. II. 8vo. pp. 366. Price 8s. 6d. Glasgow. 1823. 2. A Letter to the Right Hon. George Canning, on the Principle and the Administration of the English Poor Laws. By a Select Vestryman of the Parish of Putney. 8vo. pp. 110. London. 1823. DR. R. Chalmers will have performed an essential service to society, whatever be the event of his economical specu lations and labours in other respects, should he but succeed in drawing attention to these repulsive subjects by the force of his name, and in rendering them somewhat more attractive by the charm of his eloquence. The least that his present volume claims from the public, is an attentive perusal on the part of every person who feels an interest in the national welfare. The facts which he states, are in the highest degree deserving of consideration; and his own practical exertions in following out his system of local inspection, are above all praise. We estimate very highly Dr. Chalmers's intelligent zeal and persevering philanthropy. A man may be forgiven being sanguine, who has been so successful; and of such pure and active enthusiasm as has supplied the stimulus to his labours, it must be at least admitted, that it works well.' The general design of the present volume is, to shew the bearing which a right Christian economy of the kind contended for in the previous chapters, has upon pauperism, and to demonstrate the feasibility of completely doing away our poor's rates, and indeed any legal provision for the poor, by means of an efficient parochial apparatus. This seemingly chimerical achievement, the Author shews to have been actually realized to a considerable extent in some of the poorest districts of Glasgow. In the parishes of St. John and of the Outer Kirk, the experiment has been tried with the most complete success, of a return to a strictly gratuitous economy, agreeable to the original constitution of Scottish parishes, in which a legal assessment is an innovation of modern date. In three other parishes, the North-west, St. George's, and St. James's, the example has been followed, of taking the charge of all new cases upon the gratuitous fund formed by the weekly collections. In five parishes, the system of receiving aids from the Town Hospital out of the general fund raised by assessment, still prevails. In the Barony of Glasgow, one of the suburbs, containing a population of more than 50,000, the plan of assessment was first resorted to in 1810,- much against the ad'vice and opinion of those who were most versant in the details of the administration for the poor, antecedently to that period. In the short space of seven years following that period, the expenditure became five times greater than before, while the poor, Dr. Chalmers states, are in no wise better off under the present regime. In the Gorbals, another suburb parish, containing upwards of 22,000 inhabitants, almost all belonging to the mercantile and manufacturing classes, the assessment has never been admitted; and the whole of its sessional expenditure for the poor, is defrayed from a revenue of about £400. annually, which is not £25. a year for each thousand of the population. And it is stated, that the lower orders are in circumstances of quite as great comfort and suffi ciency as those of the assessed Barony, and of the still more heavily assessed parishes within the city. Thus, Glasgow exhibits the experiment in every stage and form, at one and the same time. There are the assessed parishes, the parish into which assesments have never been introduced, those in which a return has been made to the original Scottish mode of supporting the burden entirely by voluntary contributions, and those in which the transition is in progress. From a comparison of the actual results in all these several cases, the Author must be admitted to have made out by fair induction a very strong case. And he has left little room for doubt, that in Scotland, the old system might be rendered perfectly efficient under proper management, so as to supersede the necessity of ever having recourse to a compulsive assessment. The application of his statements and arguments to the English poor laws and English pauperism, is, perhaps, the only question that is attended with real difficulty. It is now five years since we devoted considerable attention to the subject of the Poor Laws.* We then examined at some length the principle of the law of relief, shewing that it arose out of a previous state of society, which rendered the measure at once just, expedient, and salutary; that it was conceded to the poor not as a gratuitous boon, but as the equivalent for a natural right; that it had for its object, less to extirpate poverty, than to put down or abate the nuisance of a savage mendicity; and that the right of the poor of this country to parochial aid, is a right of precisely the same description, and having the same origin, as the right of the clergy to the tithes. We adduced these considerations, not as absolute and sufficient reasons for the continuance of the present system at all events, but as throwing some light on its original design, and on what was then at least the only alternative. An Edinburgh Reviewer, whom common report identified at the time with the reverend Author of the present volume on the Economy of Towns, did not scruple to avow his preference of mendicity in its very worst form of unlicenced vagrancy,' to the system of assessment: and he gave it moreover as his deliberate opinion, that the zeal of regulation against the nuisance of public begging, is a violation of one of the clearest principles both of nature and of Christianity.' This we deemed at the time, and we still deem it, an extravagant and unwise Eclectic Review. Sept. & Nov. 1818. (Vol. X. N. S.) |
