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chivalry weds shame. Fairfax's translation of this 77th stanza is faithful and elegant."

We conceive that we shall gratify the reader by quoting the following stanzas of Tasso, Fairfax, and Wiffen:

Era la notte, e 'l suo stellato velo
Chiaro spiegava a senza nube alcuna
E gia spargea rai luminosi e gelo
Di vive perle la sorgente luna
L innamorata donna iva col cielo

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sue fiamme sfogando ad una ad una ; E secretarj del suo amore antico

Fea imuti campi e quel silenzio amico."
Fairfax-"Invested in her starry veil the night

In her kind arms embraced all this round,
The silver moon from sea uprising bright
Spread frosty pearl, on the candied ground.
And Cynthia like for beauty's glorious light
The love-sick nymph threw glistening beams around,
And counsellors of her old love she made

Those vallies dumb, that silence and that shade."
Wiffen-" On high were the clear stars, the purple hours
Walked cloudless through the galaxy of space,
And the calm moon rose lighting up the flowers
With frost of living pearl: like her in grace
Th' enamoured maid from her illumined face
Reflected light wherever she chanced to rove.
And made the silent spirit of the place

The hills, the melancholy moon above

And the dumb vallies round familiars of her love."

Stanza 103.

This stanza is, we are confident, a favourite with Mr. W. and one at which he laboured, if labour it could be called studio fallente. We shall make no remarks on it only merely notice the curious instance of mis-translation which the Italics in it and in the corresponding stanza of Fairfax, contain. That Fairfax misunderstood his original no one who is acquainted with him can doubt. But would it be fair to say the same of Mr. W.? Is it not the more charitable supposition that he has reversed the maxim "Anicus Platoni?"

"Nè però cessa Amor con varie forme
La sua pace turbar mentre ella dorme."

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but forms of visioned things Disturb her fluttering spirit while she sleeps

Still fancy's pictured porch unsilenced passion keeps."

Canto 7. Stanza 4.

Does not this passage justify us in what we said about Mr. W.'s notion of the privileges of a translator?..

In the next stanza we meet " the blithe bee wound its dulcet horn." This useful little animal is a favourite with the translator, as we have it introduced again in stanza 11.; it has not been fortunate enough to find such favour in the eyes of Tasso, nor that we can recollect in the eyes of other Italian poet.

"Se non t invidj il ciel sì dolce stato

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Delle miserie mie pietà ti mova."

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If the skies be nothing jealous of thy blissful lot."-Stanza 15.

It is extraordinary that not one of the translators has seen that se is here the Latin sic, so, and not si, if.

"Nè morendo impetrar potrà coi preghi

Che in pesta ai coni le sue membra i' neghi."

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vainly beg his limbs to spare,

Vowed to the growling dogs and griffons of the air."-Stanza 54. In the Italian there is nothing about griffons, and Herodotus, from whom our knowledge of them is derived, does not represent them as animals of prey. Mr. W.'s love for variation, and for poetic-sounding and poetic-looking words is of the most impassioned kind. Would not vulture, since he must lend to Tasso, serve his purpose and his versification just as well?

"E qui sospeso è in alto il gran tridente
Primo terror de' miseri mortali

Quando egli avvien che i fondermenti scota
Dell'ampia terra e le città percota."

"Are hung the writhen bolts midst pennons furl'd
Which turn to deepest dread all human mirth,
When through the steadfast empyrean hurled

Cities are ground to dust and earthquake rocks the world."

Stanza 81.

By tridente in the original is undoubtedly meant "the earthshaking Neptune's mace," and not writhen bolts midst pennons furled; and Tasso, in the christian spirit of ascribing to the one God those powers which paganism divided among several, ascribes thus poetically to the Almighty the production of earthquakes, which antiquity assigned to Neptune :

"entro ai ripari suoi

Di notte opprimi il barbaro tiranno."

"Let Dedanim awake, let Kedar rise

And storm the dragon in his midnight den.-Canto 9. Stanza 10.

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morn's arising ray

Tinted the eastern cliffs with gold and gray."-Canto 8. St. 42.

We have our doubts whether this description be perfectly true to nature. At all events the idea of the sun tinging the cliffs grey contains philosophy of later date than the age of Tasso. Mr. W. is too fond of employing terms and ideas of an age posterior to that of Tasso. Thus it was not till the last century that Europeans began to grow familiar with the religion, language, &c. of Asia; yet we meet the following terms: Imaum, Moslem, Mussulmen (as Mr. W. makes the plural of Mussulman), Emir, Divan, Angel of Death, Eblis' halls (first found, we believe, in Caliph Vathek), Lillah il Allah, Allah, the Prophet, and these not always used with the utmost propriety, for as we noticed before, that Mr. W. is not quite at home in the east, as for instance when he says, that "Tancred rode beneath the yellow moon's bright rays." We strongly suspect that none of our numerous travellers in Syria ever saw a yellow moon there. He also constantly employs the word "Turk" as synonymous with "Mohamedan," and the Italian "Pagono." Tasso applies it strictly to Solyman and his subjects.

We have noticed Mr. W.'s great partiality for epithets, but he is not always very fortunate in those he selects; for instance, starless air (the scene of the poem is in Syria), curious comet, weeping stars, bright brilliancy, choice heralds, admirable bow and dulcet dart (those of love), sparkling lips, cubic rank, illstarred hour, sea-green bed, and grass-green bed, &c. &c.

We are disposed to give the translator credit for his industry. But the merits of his work are, as we have shown, unfortunately counterbalanced by some very palpable defects. Its general character is ponderousness; the evil genius of Mr. W.'s favourite Alexandrine frequently passes its habitual bounds, and the shorter lines have all its gravity without its stateliness.

"The line too labours, and the words move slow."

The rhymes are occasionally careless in a remarkable degree. We do not disguise from Mr. W. that these defects are extremely serious, and that to persist in them in his second volume, will be to utterly extinguish the poetic value of his work. The homely performance that might have passed into popular reception twenty years ago, would not be suffered now, when poetry has attained so high a degree of brilliancy and

vigour. Yet we are glad to see a work of this kind, or of any kind, proceeding from one of that fraternity of broad brimmed souls, whose solemn love for heaven and money-making, has hitherto made all arts, but the art of gain an abomination among them. That one of those picture and poetry-hating personages should start forth a writer of verses, and above all, a translator of the dreams of one who combined Shakspeare's three insanities, and was at once" the lover, the poet, and the madman," is little less than a miracle, and we have no doubt has already lifted the eyes and hands of the tabernacle in meek alarm, and dumb deprecation. However, "Fiat poesis, ruant amici." Let Mr. Wiffen polish his translation, and print forthwith, though before the first edition is sold, the capeless coat, the grey beaver, and the sleek, sly physiognomy of Quakerism should no longer haunt the marts, and amuse the highways of the unhallowed of mankind.

Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont, and Researches among the Vaudois or Waldenses, with Maps, Plates, an Appendix, &c. By the Rev. W. S. GILLY, M.A. Rector of North Fambridge. 4to. Pp. 279. London. Rivingtons. 1824.

It is probably not much known even in this Protestant country, that there exists almost in the heart of papacy a Protestant communion, the parent of all the churches; continually suffering, yet still unbroken, and in all its diminished fortunes preserving the purity, the doctrine, and the fortitude of the primitive age.

This small but memorable community of the Vaudois is seated in the vallies that stretch at the foot of the Cottian Alps; and is subject to the King of Sardinia. Its history is among the most melancholy evidences of the madness with which a corrupt and arrogant belief can inflame the human mind. The bitterness of its trials is now abated; for the public spirit of Europe will not permit the old Anti-christian vengeance of fire and sword. But the restoration of the Pope and the King of Sardinia has abridged its rights and privileges, and exposed it to vexations, which more than authorize the interference of the Protestant governments of Europe.

The vallies which the Vaudois inhabit, do not lie in the ordinary track of our travellers; and Mr. Gilly has had the merit of some spirit of adventure in his visit; yet the circumstances of

the Vaudois were already tolerably well known. Even in his own list of the books which he consulted, there are some which at least rival his own in accuracy, and others which equal him in the recency of their information. The best are those which are the most concise; and yet even in the bulk of his volume he is fairly out-done by one of the authors to whom he is indebted for a very valuable share of his information. There are writers too on the same subject, who seem to have escaped even the sharpness of his research.

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It was upon the dreadful persecutions of the Vaudois in 1655, when Oliver Cromwell interfered in their behalf, that their situation and their history were made familiar to the people of this country by the publication of Morland, Cromwell's envoy to the court of Savoy. He gave the world what he called " most Naked and Punctual Relation" of the massacre in 1655, and of all the transactions to the year 1658. His book also contains the history of the churches of the vallies, with " a most geographical description of the place." It was Archbishop Usher who first drew the attention of Morland to the subject.

"The late Lord Primate of Ireland," he says, 66 some days before my setting out for Savoy, sent for me on purpose to his chamber, and there gave me a very serious and strict charge to use my utmost diligence in the enquiry after, and to spare no cost in the purchase of all those manuscripts and authentic pieces, which might give any light into the ancient doctrine and discipline of these churches: adding, that there was nothing in the world he was more curious and impatient to know, as being a point of exceeding great weight and moment for stopping the mouths of our Popish adversaries, and discovering the footsteps of our religion in those dark intervals of the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. This serious injunction of that reverend and worthy man, together with mine own real inclinations, caused me to leave no stone unturned, nor to lose any opportunity during my abode in those parts for the real effecting this thing."

The fruits of his researches were a very rich collection of Waldensian manuscripts, which he brought to England, and presented to the public library of the University of Cambridge.

Of equal industry and value with Morland's work, is that of Leger, the learned and exemplary pastor and moderator of the churches of the vallies. The mixture of extensive learning and extreme simplicity in the history of Leger, is scarcely to be paralleled.

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There were motives of pure policy which induced Oliver Cromwell to be very loud and vehement in his interference on behalf of the Vaudois. But the treaty of Pinerolo, which was

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