wish to write on pastoral, or piscatorial subjects. The applause and good reception which this his first production experienced puffed up his spirits, and his stile, the purity of which in his heroic, moral, and sacred poems is entirely altered. His idylliums and epithalamiums are full of extravagancies; as likewise his famous poem of Adone, which has many great beauties, but so filled up, as his other small poems, with strange turns of phrases, with many false ideas, or concetti, and with such tedious verbosity, that it is sufficient to disgust any one, who has formed his taste on the pure models of the Greek, Latin, and best Italian authors. Yet Marini's fame daily increased, and, for a whole century, the Italian poets contended among themselves who could write, either in prose or in verse, in a stile still more extravagant than his. Fulvio Testi, and Gabriello Chiabrera, who flourished in this time, may be in some measure excepted. For though they are not free from faults, yet they have such beauties as to make them worthy to be ranked amongst the good poets. The former, in his odes, rivals the vivacity, the truth, and the brilliancy of Horace; whilst the latter has transfused into our language the graces of Anacreon, conjoined with the fire of Pindar; and has thus introduced into the Italian poetry, that force and tenderness which is the distinguifhed characteristic of the Greek poets.

Among the crowd of the concettisti, the first place, next to Marini, may be given to Ciro di Pers, Girolamo Preti, Battisti, and Achillini: This last

was so lucky that for an emphatic sonnet of his, which begins,

• Sudate o fochi a preparar metalli.'

in praise of Louis XIII. of France, he received, as a reward from this king, one thousand Roman crownsfor each verse; that is fourteen thousand crowns for fourteen lines, full of extravagancies; so true it is that by a malignant influence on letters, when they are in the highest stage of depravation and corruption, they meet with universal applause and approbation, and the munificence of the great, whilst people are sometimes lefs disposed to favour them, when they are in their greatest perfection.

The compositions in prose followed the destiny of those in verse; and it is sufficient to cast one's eyes on. any of the historians, or orators of those days, to observe the deplorable state into which letters had sunk. Bold and preposterous metaphors, a strangely inverted syntax, a style full of frivolous concetti, are the only things they can boast of, and which, towards the latter part of the last century, made the wonder of the academies, and obtained the fhouts of an auditory, which never imagined they were giving only proofs of a depraved taste.

From this general corruption, however, in the belles lettres, are to be excepted several literati in manyparts of Italy. This may be attested by the works of Galileo Galilei, Vincenzio Viviani, father Paolo. Segneri, Francesco Redi, and the Academia del Cimento; all of which are written in a very pure stile, and ac-cording to the rules of true composition. There were, besides, others of conspicuous talents, who being. in.

clined to poetry, and evidently perceiving that it had deviated from the right road, they knew but too well, that if, in their compositions, they had followed the footsteps of the good authors, it would be the same as to reject applause, and to renounce that fame which is the only reward of those who turn their mind to poetry. They took therefore to a jocose kind of composition, in order to get applause in their own days, and they interspersed their poems with the most justpoetical traits, to the purpose that, when Italy fhould open its eyes to the true beauties of poetry, posteri-. ty might perceive that they had been free from the general corruption. Hence it came that Antonio Malatesta wrote his beautiful riddles in sonnets, that Domenico · Lazzarini produced his much applauded Centurie of sonnets against the ridiculed Don Ciccio, that Alessandro... Tafsoni composed the heroi-comic poem of the Secchia rapita, that Francesco Bernieri published a very regular epic poem, and interpersed with many poetical beauties in Romanesco, that is the common dialect of the low people of Rome, intitled il Meo Patacca, and. Bartolomeo Nappini, imitating Fidenzio, expressed. his sentiments in what is called stile pedantesco, or pedantic stile, which requires thorough knowledge of: the Latin and of the Italian languages which in this way of writing are very nicely intermixed. Several of these were alive when Maggi and Lemene in Lombardy, Redi, Filicaja, and Menxini, in Tuscany, Buragna, Schettini, and others in Naples, and Vincen20 Leonio in Rome, set about writing their poetical performances according to the rules of the ancients; but except the Dio of Lemene, the Bacco in Toscane

of Redi, and some of the Canzoni, or songs of Filica-. ja, their poems did not go farther than the limits of. their native place, or were approved by few.

At this time Christina of Sweden, after having abdicated the throne, had come to settle in Rome. Her father, Gustavus Adolphus, had taken care to give her an education which few royal princeises can boast of, especially in her days. In laying down the sceptre, he had likewise laid aside all thoughts of war,-all notions of command; but fhe had not renounced that inclination, which fhe had cherished from her youth, of protecting letters, arts, and sciences. Hence the formed a private academy in her palace, of men conspicuous for their learning, and for their dignities, who were to meet in her presence to talk on scientific subjects. She thought afterwards that the belles lettres, fhould have. in her academy a place, in order to unbend their wearied mind from too great an application to science. Two persons were chosen for the Latin poetry, and and two for the Italian; Bencdetto Menzini and Alessandro Guidi were destined for the latter, and a pension afsigned to them. Monzini, who, as I have noticed before, followed the true path of taste, did not meet with that applause which the liveliness. of Guidi had acquired, by letting himself be carried off with the current of the age, as may be seen in a small volume of poems which he then printed, and he afterwards disapproved of himself. Emulation and disputes arose therefore between these poets, which lasted even after the death of the queen; and after that Guidi, observing the stile of the Arcadians, which

June 201 was every day gaining more footing, acknowledged' the truth, and, preserving his former vivacity, began to think with justnefs. The two for the Latin poetry, were Abate Michele Cappellari, and father Ubertino Carrara, a Jesuit. Several poems of theirs were printed, which, on account of the unfortunate circumstanceof their authors not having lived in a better age, have been condemned to be devoured by the moths, or to be made use of as wrapping paper in the grocer's or apothecary's fhops.

Vincenzo Leonio professionally attended the bar; and therefore, although remarkably eminent in the belles lettres, was not invited to be a member of this royal academy. However, in his hours of relaxation, he frequently composed some things in the taste of the ancient poets; and, as his manners were sweet, frank, and sincere, he easily gained the esteem and love of every person that happened to become acquainted with him. Thus several young gentlemen, though attending to different profefsions, had joined with him in a friendly society. In the evenings, after their business was over, they used to meet in some solitary and delightful place, either within or without the walls of Rome, where, by the rehearsal of some of their performances, they enjoyed a decent, pleasant, and instructive relaxation.

Whilst this literary union of well disposed youthrs, under the direction of Leonio, was, as it were by chance, laying the foundations of a literary republic, some other sprightly geniuses requested of Leonio, to be admitted into this society, in order that they might, from him, and from his friends, learn what they be