OF THE ITALIAN POETS BY HENRY STEBBING, D.D. F.R.S, A NEW EDITION LONDON RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET 1860 The right of translation is reserved ΤΟ ICHABOD CHARLES WRIGHT, ESQ. M.A. LATE FELLOW OF MAGDALENE COLLEGE, OXFORD, THIS EDITION IS DEDICATED IN TESTIMONY OF RESPECT FOR HIS EMINENT TALENTS AS A TRANSLATOR OF DANTE AND HOMER. PREFACE. THE two former editions of this work were received with sufficient public approbation to make me anxious to revise it, and render it more worthy of the place permanently assigned it by various critics. Many years of severe toil have passed since I first thought of writing the lives of Italian poets. In my present state of mind, I should have doubted whether it was proper for me, as a clergyman, to enter upon a work so purely literary. My apology for still allowing it to occupy a portion of my time and thoughts, is derived from the subject itself. I love the men, immortal as they are, whose memoirs I have ventured to write. With all their weaknesses, inconsistencies, and errors, they constitute a class claiming, by turns, our highest admiration and our warmest sympathy. Italian poets exhibit the several phases of the literary character in its most striking aspects. It is in this respect that I write of them ; |