scarcely arrived."(a) On this passage it has been remarked by Benedetto Varchi, that there "was matter sufficient to have justified Pico in commending Lorenzo without unjustly blaming Petrarca and Dante, inasmuch as Lorenzo, together with Poliziano and Benivieni were the first, who in their compositions, discarded the low and vulgar style, and began, if not to imitate, at least to be willing, or appear to be willing, to imitate Petrarca and Dante, laying aside in some degree the common and plebeian manner observable in the Morgante Maggiore of Luigi Pulci, and the Ciriffo Calvaneo of Luca his brother."(b)

That the opinion of Pico on the writings of Lorenzo is a tribute to friendship at the expense of his judgment, no one will be found to deny. So far from considering the compositions of Lo

(a) "Sunt apud vos duo præcipuè celebrati poetæ Florentinæ linguæ, Franciscus Petrarca et Dantes Aligerius, de quibus illud in universum sim præfatus, esse ex eruditis qui res in Francesco, verba in Dante desiderent. In Te, qui mentem habeat et aures neutrum desideraturum, in quo non sit videre an res oratione an verba sententiis magis illustrentur.....Eo animum remittens pertigisti, quo Illi, omnes animi nervos contendentes, fortasse non pertigerunt."-Jo. Pici Op. p. 348.

(b) Varchi L'Ercolano. v. Life of Lorenzo, 4°. ed. vol. i. p. 311. 8°. ed. vol. i. p. 415.

renzo as intitled to a preference over those of his great predecessors, I have in his life expressly stated the reasons which in my opinion occasioned their inferiority.(a) Yet it must be observed, that the claims of Lorenzo to rank with the great poets of his country have been strongly insisted on by numerous writers, and in particular, by the most accomplished critic and elegant scholar of the Augustan age of Italy, who could have had no such motives of flattery as have been imputed to Pico. The person to whom I allude is the illustrious Baldassar Castiglione, who in his Libro del Cortigiano has the following passage: "I cannot conceive how it can be thought proper, instead of enriching our language, and giving it spirit, grandeur, and brilliancy, to render it languid, poor, and colourless, and to reduce it into such limits that every person should be compelled to imitate only Petrarca and Boccaccio, and that we should not also place our confidence in Poliziano, in Lorenzo de' Medici, in Francesco Diaceto, and some others who are not only natives of Tuscany, but are perhaps equal in learning and judgment to those writers themselves."- In adverting to this passage,

(a) 4°. ed. vol. i. p. 313. 8°. ed. vol. i. p. 418.

which I had quoted in the original in the Life of Lorenzo (a) for the same purpose as I have here repeated it in English, Pozzetti has thought proper to express it as his opinion, that Castiglione did not intend to enumerate Lorenzo amongst the great fathers of the Italian language, and that he has only conferred on him a secondary place. (b) To this opinion I cannot however assent. As models of the Italian language, Castiglione seems to me to place Politiano and Lorenzo de' Medici in the same rank as Petrarca and Boccaccio. It may indeed still be allowed us to doubt, whether his opinion, like that of Pico, be not carried somewhat beyond the bounds which a cautious critic would prescribe to himself; but it must not be forgotten that these decisions have been before the world for upwards of three centuries; and that in the mean time the writings of Lorenzo de' Medici, and of Politiano, have been received equally with those of Petrarca and Boccaccio,

(a) 4°. ed. vol. i. p. 312. 8°. ed. vol. i. p. 417.

(b) "Ne si può tampoco inferire col Sig. Roscoe, dal seguente luogo di Baldassar Castiglione che questi contasse Lorenzo tra i gran Padri della lingua Italiana. E' manifesto che gli vengono quivi assegnati unicamente i secondi onori.”—Pozzetti, Diss. I. p. 27.

as "Testi di Lingua," or classical models of the language of Italy.

As a further vindication of his sentiments as to the inferior character of the poetry of Lorenzo, Professor Pozzetti has referred to the opinion of the judicious Lodovico Antonio Muratori, one of the best critics of the eighteenth century; who in his excellent work, "Della perfetta poesia Italiana," has introduced several specimens of the writings of Lorenzo, and accompanied them by critical remarks, to which I had also occasion briefly to refer in the Life of Lorenzo. (a) But as the professor places great reliance on the authority of Muratori, I shall beg leave to lay his observations more fully before the reader. The plan of Muratori is to select from the most distinguished poets of Italy the most perfect of their works, and to accompany them with his own critical remarks and elucidations, in order to shew wherein the true excellence of poetry consists. Amongst the examples cited by him for this purpose he has inserted, in different parts of his work, three sonnets of Lorenzo de' Medici, upon each of which he has given a

(a) 4°. ed. vol. i. p. 277. 8°. ed. vol. i. p. 370.

distinct critique; but before I submit these to the reader, it may not be improper to state the degree of general estimation in which the poetical character of Lorenzo is viewed by this eminent critic. "The character of Italian poetry," says he," was kept up after the middle of the fifteenth century by several writers; amongst whom were Girolamo Benivieni, the Count Matteo Maria Bojardo, Antonio Tibaldeo, Serafino dell' Aquila, and especially Lorenzo de' Medici; in whose poetry, although I do not perceive an entire perfection, yet I discover such beautiful and noble Platonic imagery, such a fine poetical taste, that assuredly he

EXCELS IN SOME RESPECTS MANY OF THE MOST

CELEBRATED POETS IN OUR LANGUAGE.” (a)

The critiques of Muratori on the three sonnets of Lorenzo are as follow: '

(a) “Si mantenne, ciò non ostante dopo la metà di quel secolo in qualche Rimatori la riputazion della nostra poesia, essendo allora fioriti Girolamo Benivieni, Angelo Poliziano, il Conte Matteo Maria Bojardo, Antonio Tibaldeo, Serafino dall' Aquila, e spezialmente Lorenzo de' Medici; nelle Rime del quale, benchè non vegga un' intera perfezione, pure io vi truovo sì nobili e vaghe imagini platoniche, si buon gusto poetico, che sicuramenti EGLI SUPERA IN QUALCHE PREGIO MOLTI ALTRI

FAMOSI POETI DELLA NOSTRA LINGUA. -Muratori della perfetta Poesia, lib. 1, p. 18. Ed. Ven. 1770.