though you know it, I will repeat it, and, by Gratian's favour, let it
pass for my version. For once, borrowed plumes,--and I shall not be the
worse bird--though birds of richer plumage have no song.

"La verginella e simile alla rosa,
Chi'n bel giardin su la nativa spina,
Mentre sola, e sicura si riposa,
Ne gregge, ne pastor sele avvicina;
L'aura soave, e l'alba rugidosa
L'acqua, la terra al suo favor s'inch a:
Giovani vaghi, e donne innamorate,
Amano averne e seni, e tempre ornate.
Ma non si tosto dal materno stelo,
Remossa viene, e dal suo ceppo verde,
Che, quanto avea dagli uomini, e dal cielo,
Favor, grazia, ebellezza, tutto perde."

GRATIAN.--Let us examine the alterations made by one genius, in
transferring to his own language the ideas of another genius of another
country. Catullus says "the floweret,"--_flosculus_: Ariosto
particularises the rose,--the _bel giardin_, "the beautiful garden,"
stands for _septis in hortis_, the enclosed. Then he has given the idea
of _secretus_, which is certainly "separated," "set apart," by the words
_sola e sicura_, "alone and safe"--is it so good? but he gives that a
grace, a beauty, the original perhaps has not, _riposa_--the floweret
enjoys its secret repose. The cutting down the flower by the plough was
unnecessary, after telling us of the enclosure; we scarcely like to be
brought suddenly into the ploughed field. Here Ariosto is better--"nor
shepherd nor flock come near it." That enough confirms the idea of its
being fenced off, and they wander in their idleness, or, but for the
fence, might have reached it; the plough and the team are a heavy
apparatus, and would be a most unexpected intrusion,--so I like the
Italian here better. Then, _su la nativa spina_ is good: you see the
beautiful creature on its native stem or thorn. Then for the enumeration
of the airs, the sun, and the shower, the Italian, in his beautiful
language, softens the very air, and gives it a sweetness, _l'aura
soave_, and ushers in "the dewy morn:" then, expanding to the glory of
the full reverence of nature to this emblem of purity, he makes all bend
and bow before it, as before the very queen of the earth. Here he
surpasses his original. Then he gives you the object of the wishes of
the youths and maidens, the _multi pueri multae optaverae puellae_. They
desire to place it in their bosoms or round their temples: and is not
the lovingness of