It has been said that the village of San Aitore, near Aversa, belonged to the Marquis Manso; but Signor Signorelli informs me, that it was the property of a different family of the same name, of which Thomas Manso, the antiquarian, who died in Naples, in 1650, was a distinguished member.

The authenticity of the life of Tasso ascribed to Manso, has been doubted from the circumstance of the publisher, Evangelista Deuchino, affecting to be author, and only acknowledging to have been indulged with the use of the collections made by the Marquis for a similar undertaking. But I shall beg leave to observe, that the perspicuous arrangement of the materials, the purity and elegance of the diction, the moral and philosophical reflections which frequently occur; and the integrity, in fact, of the whole plan, bear such strong marks of the hand of Manso, that I am induced to think he only borrowed the name of the bookseller, in order that he might covertly do justice to the memory of the deceased, without offending the living. For when this little work appeared, several of the persons necessarily noticed in it as friends or persecutors of Tasso, were still in being; or, if dead, their ashes were not yet cold. Had Manso, therefore, acknowledged himself the author, he must have given offence

to

to many, and perhaps to some of those too, with whom he was living in habits of intimacy. It was then only prudent to screen himself under the name of a man whose interest tempted him to run the risk of incurring the displeasure of a few individuals, and whose humble situation in life might probably serve to protect him. Amongst the internal proofs of the genuineness of this little work, may be adduced the modest manner in which Manso is always mentioned throughout the whole narrative; and that, at the conclufion, he comes forward, we may say in person, to relate the "sentenze e motti," or table-talk of his friend, speaking, at the same time, of his kinsmen, his villas, and his vineyards. It should also be observed, that though Manso lived twenty-four years after the publication of the Vita di Torquato Tasso, he never publicly denied that it was "scritta (as the title-page: sets forth) da Gio. Battista Manso."

No. VI.

No. VI.

Thoughts on the Origin of Milton's Paradise Lost.

IN addition to the information which enriches the foregoing number of this Appendix, Signor Signorelli favoured me with thoughts on the origin of the Paradise Lost, which, from their ingenuity, and their bearing even slightly upon the subject of this work, I am tempted to lay before the public. "Persuaso come io sono," says he, "de' meriti poetici eminenti del Milton, non m'induco a credere che abbia mai potuto approfittarsi gran fatto della Battaglia celeste tra Michele e Lucifero, del palermitano Antonio Alfani del 1568, dell' Adamo di Giovanni Soranzo del 1604, dell'Adamo Caduto del Salandra del 1647, e dell' Adamo dell' Andreini. Non pertanto ciò che narrasi della rappresentazione di quest' ultimo veduta dal Milton in Milano, è a voi ben noto. E che in quella potesse esser nato nel celebre inglese il pensiero di tessere il suo poema, come non sarebbe cosa inverisimile, così in nulla ciò derogherebbe a i pregi tutti proprj di quel raro ingegno, ed all' invenzione del suo poema. Quanto all' Angeleide però poema di tre canti in ottava rima di Erasmo da Valvasone, stampato fin dal 1590, l'anteriorità indubitata di tempo sul Paradiso perduto, e l'analogia nella tessitura e nella

dispo

sizione del fatto che si vede fra'l poema Inglese e l' Italiano, e le parlate de'capi de'due partiti, e l'idea di far seguire fra essi una vera battaglia, e'l disegno di fare adoperar dagli angeli ribelli il cannone, danno indizi più manifesti di aver l'Angeleide suggerito al Milton alcune idee che leggonsi nel Paradiso perduto." In regard to Milton's obligations to the Angeleide, Signor Signorelli, we find, accords in opinion with Mr. Hayley; nor does he absolutely deny, that the Adamo of Andreini might have given birth to the Paradise Lost. But until the other dramas enumerated above, shall be inspected, (and as yet they have escaped the researches of Signor Signorelli as well as those of Mr. Hayley) it will be impossible to determine whether Milton read them with profit or not. Besides the imitations of the Gerusalemme Liberata of Tasso, and the Adone of Marino, pointed out by Bishop Newton in his edition of the Paradise Lost, Mr. Hayley seems to think, that La Strage degl'Innocenti of the latter may be sometimes traced in the poem of our divine bard. But all the commentators of Milton, pass over in silence his obligations to the Gerusalemme Distrutta of the same author; a production which has little else to recommend it to our notice. deed, we must not expect to track Milton only in the snow of the Italian poets. Let us, however, on the present occasion, follow his steps for a few moments, without any intention of galling his kibe." Not to weary the reader or myself, I

e

In

shall

shall select only a few of such passages from both poems as

appear to me to bear the strongest resemblance to each other. Pace, pace e pietà scritto à vermiglio

Both those passages are evidently imitated in the following beautiful lines:

Fountain of light, thyfelf invisible

Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sit'st

Thron'd inaccessible, but when thou shad'st

The