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history, he is not excluded from affording it some bearing upon truth. In fact, the magnitude of his compositions, and the commanding authority of those great persons who have ceded him in such an undertaking, seem to exact that his subject should be founded on facts: while the nature of his poem, equally strengthened by the same precedents,* imposes a law no less binding, that these facts should never have been committed to authentick record. From the first of these prin

x Such fabulous histories as those of Turpin and Geoffrey of Monmouth, are the authorities on which those compositions are principally founded. The former is frequently referred to by Ariosto.

E Turpin scrive a punto, che fur, &c.

Cant. xiii. Ott. 40.

Non si legge in Turpin, che n'avvenisse;
Ma vidi già un Autor, che più ne scrisse.
Scrive l'autore, il cui nome mi taccio:

Che non fuor, &c.

Cant. xxiv. Ott. 44.

Cant. xxviii. Ott. 2.

Mettendolo Turpino, anch'io l'ho messo, &c.

Scrive Turpin, verace in questo loco,

Che due, o tre giù, &c. Cant. xxx. Ott. 49.

Non ho veduto mai, nè letto altrove

Fuor ch' in Turpin, d'un sì fatto animale.

Many of the chief incidents in the "

Cant. xxxiii. Ott. 85.

Fairy Queen," have been

traced by Mr. Warton to still less authentick sources. See his Observations on Spenser. Vol. I. sect. ii.

ciples he transfers to his work the name of its hero, and some of the leading circumstances of his achievements; from the latter, he derives the power of forming his plot, of interweaving with it such wild incidents as contribute to its advancement, and of adapting to it such grotesque particulars as this extravagant species of composition delights in.

And this reasoning is as generally exemplified, as that on the historick epopee, in the productions of every writer who has excelled in the romantick department of poetry. We find no instance of a poet applying for the subject of such a work to any source, but that in which even apparent truth became suspicious from being forced into an alliance with some contiguous improbability. Thus the period of the European annals, from which Pulci, Boyardo, and Ariosto, took the subject of their romances, was one which received no steady illumination from the clear lights of history; and Spenser, writing with similar views, was led in search of his subject into an era which was involved in all the remoteness and obscurity of the darker ages.

The poetical romance, being thus excluded from authentick history, must rely on

fiction to supply those principal incidents which constitute the groundwork of its fable. And this being the case, it regularly arranges itself under that part of my inquiry which is professedly devoted to what is marvellous in the composition of poetry. I shall therefore dismiss it for the present with a single remark. The more important incidents being thus derived from fiction, they afford the poet an opportunity of varying them by every species of licence; by which means the striking contrast that exists between romantick and historick productions, is preserved to a remarkable degree. For this liberty is permitted to the historick poet over those incidents only, which are the reverse of important; while it extends to the romantick poet over its principal events, and over the body of those descriptions which hold the most considerable share in the constitution. of its subject.

F

CHAP. III.

OF THE POETICAL EPOS.

We have already seen that the historick poem nearly excludes the intermixture of fiction with its realities, and that the poetical romance is equally averse from constructing its details upon history. One of the chief circumstances which mark the superiority of the poetical epos over both these kinds of composition, is that of giving to its subject an equal alliance with facts and fiction, and securing to it the contrary qualities of being marvellous and true.

From this consideration on the nature of the poetical epopee, our mode of inquiry into the licences admissible in the art again shifts its position. For on balancing between what is fictitious, and what is historical in this department of the art, and inclining successively to either extreme, the object of research appears to branch out into the following diversities.

I. May the poet take his subject wholly from invention?

II. Or, may he be indulged in deriving it wholly from history?

III. On taking a middle course between truth and fiction, what proportion of each will he be constrained to preserve: what licences in fact may he take in what is historical, and what is fictitious in his subject?

I. The project of founding an epick poem upon a fictitious subject has been opposed by Tasso. He combats such an undertaking on the principle of its weakening the interest by destroying the verisimilitude of the composition. "Molto meglio è a mio giudicio, che d'all'istoria si prenda; perchè dovendo l'Epico circare in ogni parte il verisimile, (presuppongo questo come principio notissimo,) non e verisimile che una azione illustre, quale sono quelle del poema Eroico, non sia stata scritta, e passata alla memoria de' posteri coll' ajuto d'alcuna istoria. I successi grandi non possono essere incogniti, e ove non siano ricevuti in iscrittura, da questo solo argomentano gli uomini la loro falsità, e falsi stimandogli, non consentono cosi facilmente d'essere or mossi ad ira, or a terrore, or a pietà d'essere or allegrati, or contris. tati, or sospesi, or rapiti, ed insomma non attendono con quella aspettazione, e con

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