THE TEMPLE OF FAME*. IN that foft feason, when defcending show'rs Call forth the greens, and wake the rifing flow'rs; When op'ning buds falute the welcome day, And earth relenting feels the genial ray; NOTES. As * It was to the Italians we owed any thing that could be called poetry; from whom Chaucer, imitated by Pope in this vifion, copied largely, as they are faid to have done from the bards of Provence, and to which Italians he is perpetually owning his obligations, particularly to Boccace and Petrarch. But Petrarch had greater advantages, which Chaucer wanted, not only in the friendship and advices of Boccace, but ftill more in having found fuch a predeceffor as Dante. In the year 1359, Boccace fent to Petrarch, who, it feems, was jealous of Dante, and in the answer speaks coldly of his merits. This circumftance, unobserved by the generality of writers, and even by Fontanini, Crefcembini, and Muratori, is brought forward, and related at large in the third volume (p. 507.) of the very entertaining Memoirs of the Life of Petrarch. In the year 1363, Boccace, driven from Florence by the plague, vifited Petrarch at Venice, and carried with him Leontius Pilatus, of Theffalonica, a man of genius, but of haughty, rough, and brutal manners. From this fingular man, who perished in a voyage from Conftantinople to Venice 1365, Petrarch received sa Latin translation of the Iliad and Odyffey. Muratori, in his firft book, Della Perfetta Poefia, p. 18. relates, that a very few years after the death of Dante, 1321, a most curious work on the Italian poetry was written by a M.A. di Tempo, of which he had feen a manufcript in the great library at Milan, of the year 1332, and of which this is the title: Incipit Summa Artis Ritmici vulga ris dictaminis. The chapters are thus divided: Ritmorum vulgaxium Septem funt genera; 1. Eft Sonetus; 2. Ballata; 3. Cantio extenfa ; F 2 As balmy fleep had charm'd my cares to reft, NOTES. A train extenfa; 4. Rotundellus; 5. Mandrialis; 6. Serventefius; 7. Molus Confectus. But whatever Chaucer might copy from the Italians, yet the artful and entertaining plan of his Canterbury Tales was purely original and his own. This admirable piece, even ex clufive of its poetry, is highly valuable, as it preferves to us the livelieft and exacteft picture of the manners, customs, characters, and habits, of our forefathers, whom he has brought before our eyes acting as on a stage, suitably to their different orders and employments. With thefe portraits the drieft antiquary must be delighted. By this plan, he has more judiciously connected thefe ftories which the guests relate, than Boccace has done his novels: whom he has imitated, if not excelled, in the variety of the fubjects of his tales. It is a common mistake, that Chaucer's excellence lay in his manner of treating light and ridiculous fubjects; for whoever will attentively confider the noble poem of Palamon and Arcite, will be convinced that he equally excels in the pathetic and the fublime. It has been but lately proved, that the Palamon and Arcite of Chaucer, is taken from the Tefeide of Boccace, a poem which has been, till within a few years paft, ftrangely neglected and unknown, and of which Mr. Tyrwhitt has given a curious and exact fummary, in his Differtation on the Canterbury Tales, vol. iv. p. 135. I cannot forbear expreffing my furprize, that the circumftance of Chaucer's borrowing this tale, fhould have remained fo long unobferved, when it is fo plainly and pofitively mentioned in a book fo very common as the Memoirs of Niceron; who says, t. 33. p. 44. after giving an abftract of the ftory of Palamon and Arcite, G. Chaucer, l'Homere de fon pays, a mis l'ouvrage de Boccace en vers Anglois. This book was published by Niceron 1736. He also mentions a French tranflation of the Tefeide, published at Paris, M.D.CC. 1597, in 12mo. The late Mr. Hans Stanley, who was as accurately skilled in modern as in ancient Greek, for a long time was of opinion, that this poem, in modern political Greek verses, was the original; in which opinion be A train of phantoms in wild order rose, 10 I ftood, methought, betwixt earth, feas, and skies; The whole creation open to my eyes: NOTES. In he was confirmed by the Abbé Barthelmy, at Paris, whofe learned correfpondence with Mr. Stanley on this fubject I have read. At laft Mr. Stanley gave up this opinion, and was convinced that Boccace invented the tale. Crefcembini and Muratori have men. tioned the Tefeide more than once. That very laborious and learned antiquary Apoftolo Zeno, speaks thus of it in his notes to the Bibliotheca of Fontanini, p. 450. t. i. Questa opera paftorale (that is, the Ameto) che prende il nome dal paftore Ameto, ha data l'origine all egloga Italiana, non fenza lode del Boccacio, a cui pure la noftra lingua deve il ritrovamento della ottava rima (which was first used in the Teseide), e del poema eroico Gravina does not mention this poem. Crefcembini gives this opinion of it, p. 118. t. i. Nel medefimo fecolo del Petrarca, il Boccacio diede principio all' Epica, colla fua Tefeide, e col Filoftrato; ma nello ftile non accede la mediocrita, anzi fovente cadde nell' umile. The fashion that has lately obtained, in all the nations of Europe, of republishing and illustrating their old Poets, does honour to the good tafte and liberal curiofity of the present age. It is always pleafing, and indeed useful, to look back to the rude beginnings of any art brought to a greater degree of elegance and grace. Aurea nunc, olím fylveftribus horrida dumis. Virg. WARTON. VER. 1. In that foft season, &c.] This poem is introduced in the manner of the Provençal Poets, whofe works were for the moft part Visions, or pieces of imagination, and constantly descriptive. From these, Petrarch and Chaucer frequently borrow the idea of their poems. See the Trionfi of the former, and the Dream, Flower and the Leaf, &c of the latter. The Author of this thereof chofe the fame fort of exordium. POPE. VER. 11. I flood,] This poem was elegantly translated into French by Madame du Boccage, who also wrote three poems of the epic kind: The Paradife, from Milton; the Death of Abel, from Gefner; and the Exploits of Columbus, in ten cantos. In air felf-balanc'd hung the globe below, Here naked rocks, and empty wastes were seen, ; 15 20 Then gazing up, a glorious pile beheld, 25 Whose tow'ring fummit ambient clouds conceal'd. High on a rock of Ice the ftructure lay, Steep its afcent, and flipp'ry was the way; The NOTES. VER. 27. High on a rock of Ice] Milton, in his poem on the Fifth of November (Works, vol. ii. p. 506. v. 170.), has introduced a defcription of the Temple or Tower of Fame, copied from the 12th book of Ovid's Metamorphofis, v. 39. and from this vifion of Chaucer, with the addition of many circumftances and images. WARTON. It is fingular that Pope has made the time of his vifion in Spring. In Chaucer it is in December, and the rock of ice is in. troduced with more propriety than in Spring. VER. II. IMITATIONS. &c.] Thefe verfes are hinted from the following of Chaucer, Book ii. "Tho' beheld I fields and plains, "Now hills, and now mountains, "Now The wond'rous rock like Parian marble fhone, And fix their own, with labour, in their place: 30 36 Their IMITATIONS. "Now valeis, and now foreftes, "And now unneth great beftes, "Now rivers, now citees, "Now towns, now great trees, "Now shippes fayling in the fees." РОРЕ. VER. 27. High on a rock of Ice, &c.] Chaucer's third book of |