(as where he illustrates the relative position of Alcina’s and Logistilla’s territories by the boundaries of England and Scotland) is the more remarkable, as he is, I believe, the first among the moderns, who made a study of such proprieties. What is more, he certainly was the first, either among ancients or moderns, who, in a wider sense of the word, studied what is now called costume, as in his description of a Scottish chief in a future canto, &c. &c.
At nigh Volana, with his sweeping nets,
The wary fisher fith and pool besets.
Stanza lxv. lines 7 and 8.
Volana, not far distant from Ferrara, is one of the mouths of the Po, in which the fish take refuge, and from which their return is intercepted by a net, resembling the Seine.
As wary fowler, bent on greater prey,
Wisely preserves alive the game first caught,
That by the call-bird and his cheating play,
More may within the circling net be brought.
Stanza lxvii. lines 1, 2, 3, 4.
In the original,
Qual cauto uccellator, che serba vivi
Intento à maggior preda, i primi augelli,
Perchè in più quantitade altri captivi
Faccia col gioco e col zimbel di quelli.
The zimbello of the text is a bird used to decoy others, which, together with the birds first taken, is, in Italy, confined with a string, and by the fowler’s play made to leap up and flutter; which attracts the notice of the wild birds, who join them, and are taken. I have seen this practice in Tuscany, where it is styled the paretajo. It is, I believe, called the roccolo in Lombardy, and is common in Germany, and probably in other parts
