and is encreased and swollen
by the torrents from the Alps and Appennines that fall into the smaller
rivers, which unite their tributary streams with the Po and accompany him
as his _seguaci_ to the Adriatic, this country is liable to the most
dreadful inundations: flocks and herds, farm-houses and sometimes whole
villages are swept away. Dykes, dams and canals innumerable are in
consequence constructed throughout this part of the country, to preserve it
as much as possible from such calamities. Ariosto's description of an
over-flowing of this river is very striking, and I here transcribe it:

Con quel furor che il Re de' fiumi altero,
Quando rompe tal volta argine e sponda,
E che ne' campi Ocnei si apre il sentiero,
E i grassi solchi e le biade feconde,
E con le sue capanne il gregge intero,
E co' cani i pastor porta neil' onde, etc.[118]

Even with that rage wherewith the stream that reigns,
The king of rivers--when he breaks his mound.
And makes himself a way through Mantuan plains--
The greasy furrows and glad harvests, round,
And, with the sheepcotes, nock, and dogs and swains
Bears off, in his o'erwhelming waters drowned.

--Trans. W.S. ROSE.

The next place I went to see was the Lyceum or University, where there is a
very fair cabinet of natural history in all its branches. The Library is
very remarkable, and possesses a great number of valuable manuscripts. But
my principal object in visiting this Museum was to see the monument erected
in honour of Ariosto, which has been transferred here from the Benedictine
church. The inkstand and chair of this illustrious bard are carefully
preserved and exhibited. They exactly resemble the print of them that
accompanies the first edition of Hoole's translation of the _Orlando
Furioso_. Among the manuscripts what gratified me most was the manuscript
of the _Gerusalemme liberata_ of Tasso. But few corrections appear in this
manuscript; tho from the extreme polish and harmony of the versification
one would expect a great many. It is written in an extremely legible hand.

I also inspected the original manuscripts of the _Pastor Fido_ of Guarini
and of the _Suppositi_ of Ariosto.

I then went to visit the Hospital of St Anna, for the sake of seeing the
dungeon where poor Tasso was confined and treated as mad for several years.
When one beholds this wretched place, where a man can scarce stand upright,
one only wonders how he could survive