[116] Œuvres Complètes, 1641.
[117] Opere. Edited by Giov. Rosini. Pisa, 33 vols., 1821-1832.
[118] The Godfrey of Bulloigne of Fairfax has been praised well beyond the full extent of its merits. The sober fact concerning it is that though the language has a real interest, the translation has not the merit of great accuracy, and it is wanting in those flashes of original power with which Fairfax’s contemporaries seldom failed to redeem their infidelity to their author. He, on the contrary, is too often far below Tasso, and he is addicted to the detestable practice of replacing the simplicity of the Italian by classic commonplaces. Now and then he is inept, or shirks a difficulty which he ought to have faced. Examples of all three vices may be found in the beginning of the fifteenth canto. Tasso opens with the simple and direct words—
“Già richiamava il bel nascente raggio
All’ opere ogni animal che ’n terra alberga.”
For this Fairfax writes—
“The rosy-fingered morn with gladsome ray
Rose to her task from old Tithonus’ lap”—
the commonplace of a boy doing a copy of Latin verse. In the second stanza, where the Italian has—
“Erano essi già sorti, e l’arme intorno