[52] I translate literally. Old-fashioned people will remember a somewhat similar use of the word "Flame" in English.
[53] I subjoin a literal prose translation in preference to borrowing a rhymed one from any of Tasso's translators. This fellow "flits and circles around more unstable than dry leaves in the wind. Without faith, without love, false are his pretended torments, and false the affection which prompts his sighs. A traitorous lover, he loves and despises almost at the same moment, and in triumph displays the spoils of women as impious trophies."
[54] "See how this fellow, who in vain aims at a lofty goal, by blaming others, and by lying accents, sharpens against himself his teeth, while without reason he is enraged with me.... Of two flames he boasts, and ties and breaks over and over again the same knot; and by these arts (who would believe it!) bends in his favour the Gods!" ...
[55] It is odd that he should so write in a paper dated, as the present is, from Venice. I suppose the expression came from his feeling that he was addressing parsons at Ferrara.
[56] Seeing that, as has been said, his ancestors were of Verona, which belonged to Venice.
[57] Barotti gives it at length; but it is hardly worth while to occupy space by reproducing it here.
[58] "Guarini sitting here, sang, that which renders the seat the equal of a royal throne."
[59] It is very doubtful and very difficult to determine at what period of his life the "Pastor Fido" was written. Ginguené (Hist. Ital. Lit. Part II. ch. xxv.) has sufficiently shown that the statements of the Italian biographers on this point are inaccurate. Probably it was planned and, in part, written many years before it was finished. It was first printed in 1590.