Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-07-22
OF petty powerimpell'd, ofthose who wore
The wreath which Ddnte's brow alone had
worn before.

And see how dearly earn'd Torquato's
And where Alphonso babe his poet dwell.
The miserable despot could not qnell
The insul,ed mind be sought to quench, and
blend
With the surrounding maniacs, in the hell
Where he had plung'd it. Glory without
end
Scattered the clouds 'away--and on that
name attend
"The tears and praises Of all time; while
Would rot in its oblivion-in the sink
OF worthless dust which from thy boosted
line
Is shaken into nothing but the link
Thou formest in his fortunes bids US thak
OF thy poor malice, naming thee with scorn!
Alphonso, how thy ducal pageants shrink
From thee! " in another station born,
Scarce fit to be the slave OF him thou mad'st
10 mourn.
" Thou, iorm'dto eat, and be despis'd, and
die,
Even as the beasts that perish, save that
thou
Had'st a more splendid trough and wider
sly:
He. with glory round his furrow'd brow,
Which emanated then, and dazzles now
!, In face of all his foes, the cruscan quire;
And Boileau. whose rash envy could allow
No strain which sham'd his country creak-
ing !vre,
That milestone of tie teeth-monotony in
Peace TO Torquato's injured shade -
twas his
In life and death TO be the mark where
wrong
Aim'd, with her poison'd arrows but to
miss.
Oh, victor unsurpassed in modern song!
Each year brings forth its millions; but
how long
The tide of generations shall roll on,
And not the whole combined and countless
thrOng
Compose a mind like thine Though all
in one
Condensed their scattered rays, they would
not form sun.
"Great as thou art, yet paralellel'd by those
Thy countrymen before thee born to shine,
The bards Of hell and chivalry first rose
The Tuscan fathers comedy divine;
Then, not unequal 10 the Florentine,
The southern Scott, the minstrel who call'd
forth,
A new creation with his magic line,
And like the Ariosto of the north,
Sung ladye-love and war, romance and
knightly worth.
The lightning rent from Ariostc's bust
The iron crown of laurel's mimic'd leaves:t'
Nor was the ominous element unjust,
For the true laurel-wreath which glory
weaves.
Is Of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves,
And the false semblance but disgraced his
brow;
Yet still if fondly superstition grieves,
Know that the lightning sanctifies below
Whate'er il strikes lyon head is doubly
sacred now.t
*Tasso was immured in mad house, on
a charge of insanity, by order Of his patron,
Alphonso
THE bust of Ariosto was struck by light
ming. and a crown of iron laurels that sur
mounted il was melted away.
4 superstition TO this effect prevailed
among the ancients The curtain lake and
the ruminal fg-tree in The forum. having
been touchedby lightning were held sacred.
Bodies scathed and persons struck dead.
were thought to be incorruptible: and
stroke not fatal conferred dignity upon tho
man so distinguished by heaven. This su-
perstition was not confined to the worship
pers of Jupiter; the Lombards believe in
the omens furnished by lightning-snd a
christian priest confesses that by diaboli-
cal skill in interpreting thunder, a seer fore
told TO the duke of Turin (Agiluff) an event
which came TO pass, and gave him queen
and crown.
From the Charleston Courier, July IL.
MORE PIRACY.
The schr. Sight, Captain Sylvia, arrived
at St. Jago de Cuba, from this port, on the
10Th MI after touching at BarraCOa, in dis