Exception that Men of Understanding take to Tao, is that of having too much of Ariosto in him. Taffo feems to have been confcious of this Fault. He could not be unfenfible that fuch wild Fairy Tales, at that time fo much in Fashion, not in Italy only, but in all Europe, were altogether inconfiftent with the Gravity of Epick Poetry: In order to cover this Defect, he printed a Preface, in which he pretends that all his Poem is but a Shadow and a Type.

The Army of the Chriftian Princes, fays he, reprefents the Body and the Soul. Jerufalem the Figure of true Happinefs, which cannot be obtain'd but by Labour and Difficulties. Goffredo is the Mind, Tancredo, Raimondo, &c. are the Faculties of the Mind. The common Soldiers make up the Limbs of the Body. The Devils are at once figur'd, and Figures figura è figurato.) Armida and Ifmeno are the Temptations which befiege our Souls. The Spells and the Illufions of the inchanted Forest shadow out the falfe Reafoning (falfi Syllogifmi) into which our Paffions are apt to mislead us.

Such is the Key that Tafso thinks fit to give us of his Works. He deals with himfelf, as the Commentators have done with Homer and Virgil. Thofe Gentlemen are

like

like fpeculative and dully wife Politicians, who conftrue the moft infignificant Actions of great Men, into Defigns of the greatest Depth and Importance. But Teffo was like that Ambaffador, who having spent all the Time of his Ambaffy in Debauchery and Riot, wrote to his Mafter that he was whoring and drinking for the Service of his Majefty.

However, the ridiculous Explanation which Taffo gives with fo much Gravity of his Extravagancies, cannot impofe upon Mankind; for we no more allow an Author to comment upon himself, than a Prieft to prophefy of himself.

If the Devils act in Taffo the infipid part of defpicable Jugglers; on the other hand, what is relating to Religion, is writ with Majefty, and I dare fay in the Spirit of Religion itself. Nay, Proceffions and Litanies, and all the Parts of Popish Religion, which are accounted comical and mean in England, appear in a reverend Awefulness in that Poem. So prevalent is the Art of Poetry when it exerts itself in its full force, and fo peculiar to it is the Power of raifing what is low, and of enlarging the Sphere of all Things!

He is guilty of indulging the inaccurate Custom of calling the Evil Spirits by the Names of Pluto, Alecto, and of mingling

often

often Pagan Ideas with Chriftian Mytho logy. 'Tis ftrange that none of the modern Poets are free from that Fault. I feems that our Devils and our Chriftian Hell, have fomething in them low and mean, and muft be rais'd by the Hell of the Pagans, which owes its Dignity to its Antiquity. Certain it is, that the Hell of the Gofpel is not fo fitted for Poetry as that of Homer and Virgil. The Name of Tifiphone founds better than that of Beelzebub; but with all that, it is as prepofterous in a Poet to bring Michael and Alecto together, as in fome Italian and Flemish Painters to have reprefented the Virgin Mary with a Chapelet of Beads hanging at her Girdle, to have plac'd fome Swifs Guards at the Door of the Apartment of Pharaoh, and to have mix'd Cannons and Carabines with the ancient Arrows in the Battle of Jofbuah.

Don Alonzo d'Ereilla y Cuniga.

A

T the End of the fixteenth Century, Spain produc'd an Epick Poem, famous for fome peculiar Beauties that fhine in it, as well as for the Singularity. of its Subject, but ftill more illuftrious by the Character of the Author.

Alonzo

Alonzo of Ereilla y Cuniga, Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber to the Emperor Maximilian, was bred up in the Houfe of Philip the fecond, and fought under his Orders, at the Battle of St. Quintin, where the French were utterly defeated.

Philip, after fuch a Succefs, being lefs defirous to augment his Glory abroad, than to fettle his Affairs at home, went back to Spain. The young Alonzo of Ereilla, led by an infatiable Avidity of true Learning, (I mean of knowing Men, and of feeing the World) travell'd through all France, faw Italy, Germany, and ftay'd a long while in England. Whilft he was in London, he heard fome Provinces of Peru and Chily had taken Arms against the Spaniards, their Conquerors; which Struggle for their Liberty, is, by the by, stil'd Rebellion by the Spanish Authors. Thirst of Glory, and his eager Defire of feeing and doing new and fingular Things, carry'd him, without any hesitation or delay, into thofe Countries. He went to Chily, at the head of a few Troops, and he ftay'd in thefe Parts all the time of the War.

His

Near the Borders of Chily, towards the South, lies a fmall mountainous Country, call'd Araucana, inhabited by a Race of Men, ftronger and more fierce, than all the Nations of that new World. They

fought

fought for their Liberty, longer than the other Americans, and were the laft who were fubdu'd. Alonzo waged against them a toilfome and dangerous War, underwent inexpreffible Hardfhips, faw and atchiev'd the moft furprising Deeds, the Prize whereof was only the Honour of reducing fome Rocks and barren Countries, in another Hemisphere, to the Crown of Spain.

Alonzo, in the Courfe of that War, conceiv'd the Idea to immortalize his Enemies and himself, he was at once the Conqueror and the Poet. He made ufe of the Intervals of the War to fing it, and as he wanted Paper, he wrote the firft Part of his Poem upon little Pieces of Leather, which afterwards he had much ado to fet right, and to bring together. The Poem is called the Araucana, from the Name of the Country.

It begins with a geographical Account of Chily, and with a Defcription of the Manners and Cuftoms of the People; fuch a beginning, which would be quite flat and intolerable in any other Poem, is neceffary and not unpleafant in a Subject where the Scene lies under the other Tropick, and where the Heroes he writes of, are barbarous Americans, who must have been