Nevertheless this conclusion need not deprive us of either work. Berni raised a fine polished edifice, copied and enlarged after that of Boiardo;--on the other hand, the old house, thank Heaven, remains; and our best way of settling the question between the two is, to be glad that we have got both. Let the reader who is rich in such possessions look upon Berni's as one of his town mansions, erected in the park-like neighbourhood of some metropolis; and Boiardo's as the ancient country original of it, embosomed in the woods afar off, and beautiful as the Enchanted Castle of Claude--
"Lone sitting by the shores of old romance."
[Footnote 1: The materials for the biography in this notice have been gathered from Tiraboschi and others, but more immediately from the copious critical memoir from the pen of Mr. Panizzi, in that gentleman's admirable edition of the combined poems of Boiardo and Ariosto, in nine volumes octavo, published by Mr. Pickering. I have been under obligations to this work in the notice of Pulci, and shall again be so in that of Boiardo's successor; but I must not a third time run the risk of omitting to give it my thanks (such as they are), and of earnestly recommending every lover of Italian poetry, who can afford it, to possess himself of this learned, entertaining, and only satisfactory edition of either of the Orlandos. The author writes an English almost as correct as it is elegant; and he is as painstaking as he is lively.]
[Footnote 2: She had taken a damsel in male attire for a man]
[Footnote 3: Crescimbeni himself had not seen the translation from Apuleius, nor, apparently, several others--_Commentari, &c_. vol. ii. part ii. lib. vii. sect. xi.]
[Footnote 4: Article on the _Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italians_, in the _Quarterly Review_, No. 62, p. 527.]
"E' suoi capelli a sè sciolse di testa, Che n'avea molti la dama gioconda; Ed, abbracciato il cavalier con festa, Tutto il coperse de la treccia bionda: Così, nascosi entrambi di tal vesta, Uscir' di quella fonte e la bell' onda."
Her locks she loosened from her lovely head, For many and long had that same lady fair; And clasping him in mirth as round they spread, Covered the knight with the sweet shaken hair: And so, thus both together garmented, They issued from the fount to the fresh air.