he balance," or that he "made a practice of reading through ... the
_Orlando_ of Ariosto once every year" (see _Memoirs of the Life, etc._,
1871, pp. 12, 747); but the parallel had suggested itself. The key-note
of "the harpings of the north," the chivalrous strain of "shield, lance,
and brand, and plume and scarf," of "gentle courtesy," of "valour,
lion-mettled lord," which the "Introduction to _Marmion_" preludes, had
been already struck in the opening lines of the _Orlando Furioso_--

"Le Donne, i Cavalier', l'arme, gli amori,
Le cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto."

Scott, we may be assured, was neither disconcerted nor uplifted by the
parallel. Many years before (July 6, 1812), Byron had been at pains to
inform him that so august a critic as the Prince Regent "preferred you
to every bard past and present," and "spoke alternately of Homer and
yourself." Of the "placing" and unplacing of poets there is no end.
Byron had already been sharply rebuked by the _Edinburgh Review_ for
describing _Christabel_ as a "wild and singularly original and beautiful
poem," and his appreciation of Scott provoked the expostulation of a
friendlier critic. "Walter Scott," wrote Francis Hodgson, in his
anonymous _Monitor of Childe Harold_ (1818), "(_credite posteri_, or
rather _praeposteri_), is designated in the Fourth Canto of _Childe
Harold_ as 'the Northern Ariosto,' and (droller still) Ariosto is
denominated 'the Southern Scott.' This comes of mistaking
horse-chestnuts for chestnut horses."]

[421] {361} The two stanzas xlii. and xliii. are, with the exception of
a line or two, a translation of the famous sonnet of Filicaja:--"Italia,
Italia, O tu, cui feo la sorte!"--_Poesie Toscane_ 1823, p. 149.

["Italia, Italia, o tu cui feo la sorte
Dono infelice di bellezza, ond'hai
Funesta dote d'infiniti guai
Che in fronte scritti per gran doglia porte:
Deh fossi tu men bella, o almen piu forte,
Onde assai piu ti paventasse, o assai
T'amasse men, chi del tuo bello ai rai
Par che si strugga, e pur ti sfida a morte,
Che or giu dall' Alpi non vedrei torrenti
Scender d'armati, ne di sangue tinta
Bever l'onda del Po gallici armenti;
Ne te vedrei, del non tuo ferro cinta,
Pugnar col braccio di straniere genti,
Per servir sempre, o vincitrice, o vinta."]

[mn]
_And on thy brow in characters of flame_
_To write the words of sorrow and of shame_.--[