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Countries. The life of Erasmus, which deserves the finest pen, has been wretchedly and frigidly written by Knight; although, indeed, the materials he has collected are curious and useful.

47. But see! each muse in Leo's golden days,

Starts from her trance, and trims her wither'd bays:
Rome's ancient Genius, o'er its ruins spread,
Shakes off the dust, and rears his rev'rend head.*

History has recorded five ages of the world, in which the human mind has exerted itself in an extraordinary manner; and in which its productions in literature and the fine arts, have arrived at a perfection not equalled in other periods. The FIRST, is the age of Philip and Alexander; about which time flourished Socrates, Plato, Demosthenes, Aristotle, Lysippus, Apelles, Phidias, Praxiteles, Thucydides, Xenophon, Eschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Menander, Philemon. The SECOND age, which seems not to have been sufficiently taken notice of, was that of Ptolomy Philadelphus, king of Ægypt; in which appeared Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Apollonius Rhodius, Theocritus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes,

* Ver. 697.

Eratosthenes, Philicus, Erasistratus the physician, Timæus the historian, Cleanthes, Diogenes the painter, and Sostrates the architect. This prince, from his love of learning, commanded the Old Testament to be translated into Greek. The THIRD age is that of Julius Cæsar, and Augustus; marked with the illustrious names of Laberius, Catullus, Lucretius, Cicero, Livy, Varro, Virgil, Horace, Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, Phædrus, Vitruvius, Dioscorides. The FOURTH age was that of Julius II. and Leo X. which produced Ariosto, Tasso, Fracastorius, Sannazarius, Vida, Bembo, Sadolet, Machiavel, Guicciardin, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian. The FIFTH age, is that of Louis XIV. in France, and of king William and queen Anne in England; in which, or thereabouts, are to be found, Corneille, Moliere, Racine, Boileau, La Fontaine, Bossuet, La Rochefoucault, Paschal, Bourdaloue, Patru, Malbranche, De Retz, La Bruyere, St. Real, Fenelon, Lully, Le Sæur, Poussin, La Brun, Puget, Theodon, Gerardon, Edelinck, Nanteuil, * Perrault, Dryden, Tillotson, Temple, POPE, N 3 Addison,

*The Architect,

Addison, Garth, Congreve, Rowe, Prior, Lee, Swift, Bolingbroke, Atterbury, Boyle, Locke, Newton, Clarke, Kneller, Thornhill, Jervas, Purcell, Mead, Freind.

Concerning the particular encouragement given by Leo X. to polite literature, and the fine arts, I forbear to enlarge; because a friend of mine is: at present engaged in writing, THE HISTORY OF THE AGE OF LEO X. It is a noble period, and full of those most important events which have had the greatest influence on human affairs. Such is the discovery of the West-Indies, by the Spaniards; and of a passage to the East, by the Portuguèze the invention of printing; the reformation of religion; with many others all which will be insisted upon at large, and their consequences displayed. I shall only here transiently observe, that some efforts to emerge from barbarity had long before this time appeared in Italy. Dante wrote his sublime* and original

poem,

* See particularly the beginning of the third canto of the INFERNO, as also the beginning of the sixth, particularly the inscription over the gate of Hell :

Per

poem, which is a kind of satirical epic, and which abounds in images and sentiments almost worthy of Homer, but whose works he had never seen, about the year 1310. Giotto, the disciple of Cimabue, the friend of Dante, and subject of his praises, was employed, about the same time, by Benedict XI. and a picture of mosaic work done by him, over the gate of St. Peter's church at Rome, is still remaining. Tuscan, called Guy of Arezzo, invented the musical notes in use at present: and Bruneleschi built palaces at Florence, in the style of ancient architecture. Soon afterwards, Boccace and Petrarch polished, and fixed the standard of, the Italian language.* To Petrarch the honour is N 4 generally

Per me si va nella città dolente;

Per me si va nell' eterno dolor, &c.
Lasciate ogni speranza, voi, che entrate.

Whence Milton,

-Hope never comes,

That comes to all

A

*«Veggiamo in un medesimo progresso di tempo (dal regno principalmente dell' una, e dell' altra Sicilia, e poi della Lombardia, e de vari, e distinti luoghi d'Italia) sorgere scrittori, i quali anno favella con Dante, Petrarcha, Boccacio, ed altri

Toscani

generally attributed of having restored* the elegance of the Latin tongue; particularly in poetry. But a late acute searcher into antiquity, whose death is justly lamented, the learned Scipio Maffei, has informed us,† in a curious passage, that this was not so much owing to Petrarch, as to Albertino Mussato, a native of Padua ; with whose merit the learned seem not to be suffi ciently acquainted. Mussato died very old, after having borne the greatest offices in his country, in the year 1329; that is to say, thirty-five years before Petrarch. He wrote not only many books of a history of his own times, and of the emperor Henry VII. but also an heroic poem on the siege of Padua, by the Veronese, under the

great

Toscani autori comune, e con loro anche comune l'autorità, da ogni regolator dalla lingua riconosciuta, i quali, tra molti altri, furono Guidotto Bolognese, Marco Polo Veneziano, Pier Crescenzio da Bologna, Guido Giudice Messinese, Giacopo Colonna Romano, Frederico II. imperadore, Pier delle Vigne Capoano, Benvenuto da Imola, Fra Jacopone da Todi, Onesto Bolognese, Guido Guislieri, Semprebene, Fabrovio, Guido Guislieri, Jacopo della Lana, Giotto Mantovano."

Gravina della Rag. Poet. lib. ii.

p. 170.

* When Petrarch wrote his Africa, he had not seen Silius Italicus.

+ TEATRO Italiano. In Verona, 1723. tom. i. p. 4.

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