And cleared that night St. Micliael’s Mount.
Stanza xv. line 8.
Another reading of the original would make Orlando pass the night in St. Michael’s Mount: but I shall generally adopt that which appears to me the best, without stating my reasons for it, unless I should conceive there is some cause for explanation. Ariosto must here mean one of the many of St. Michael’s seats in Brittany, and not our Cornish “vision of the guarded Mount:” for St. Michael seems to have been a very favourite saint with the Celts of Brittany as well as those of Cornwall.
Breac and Landriglier, &c.
Stanza xvi. line 1.
I can no more explain what Ariosto means by these names, which, as having a Welsh or Breton sound, may be supposed real, than former commentators could what Milton had in view when he spoke of Namancos, which he places on the Spanish coast, opposite to St. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. But as Namancos has been found in an old map of Spain, so Breac and Landriglier may perhaps be discovered in one of France.
Somewhat changed its tune.
Stanza xvii. line 5.
In the original,
alquanto cangiò metro.
I thought, and think, and still shall think, &c.
Stanza xxiii. line 7.
The want of inflection in our tenses precluded a nearer approach to the original, of which I have sought to imitate the tone.
lo credea, e credo, e creder credo il vero.
which again is an imitation of Dante’s
“lo credo ch’ ei credette ch’ io credessi.”
Inf. Cant. XIII.
