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J**A
If only this were more consistently legible ...
William Huggins' translation of "Orlando Furioso" appeared in two editions:1. "Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto. In Italian and English," 2 volumes, London, 1755; now available from Gale ECCO as a print-on-demand facsimile of a copy in the British Library (or on the Internet Archive from a copy in the University of California Libraries).2. "Orlando Furioso, by Ludovico Ariosto: Translated by William Huggins, Esq." 2 volumes, London, 1757; available as a print-on-demand facsimile from Gale ECCO of a copy in the British Library.Huggins writes in the same metrical form as the original, and his stanzas are printed in parallel columns with it. To my astonishment, he is often somehow able to follow the Italian, both lexically and syntactically, almost as closely as if writing in prose. But the results are not often outstanding poetically, and he is given to replacing explicitly sexual passages with his own edifying or innocuous filler, even while faithfully reprinting the salacious Italian. Despite these limitations, Huggins' volumes would be invaluable even today for Anglophone readers who want to study or consult the original text, if only the reproduction were more consistently legible. But it isn't. As it is, these reprints are a monument to a translation too-soon forgotten. It was soon eclipsed by the couplet version by John Hoole and then the ottava rima one by William Stewart Rose, but in completeness and accuracy it was not really surpassed until Allan H. Gilbert's prose translation (itself too-soon forgotten) appeared in 1954.Here is a sample from Canto 10, the celebrated episode in which the pagan knight Ruggiero, mounted on the high-soaring hippogriff, swoops down to rescue the naked princess Angelica from the monstrous sea-orc:The isle of woe was of this place the name;A people fierce, and most inhumane too,With cruelty, inhabited the same;Who, as I did in t'other canto show,To various coasts with armed vessels came,Seizing the lovely nymphs where-e'er they cou'd,A monster to supply with wicked food.There she this very morning was bound fast,Where her to gorge alive was coming straightThe monstrous Orc, immeasurably vast,Whom they kept nourish'd with such horrid bait:I told before, how she was seiz'd in hasteBy those who near the sea with her did meet,While the enchanter old lay sleeping by,Who her had thither brought by sorcery.This people fierce, so barbarous, inhumane,To the dire monster on the shore exposeThe finest damsel, thus quite naked lain,As nature at her birth did her compose:Not e'en a veil, that cover'd might remainThe lilies white, and the vermilion rose,Not to be cropt by July or December;Which scatter'd were about each lovely member.Ruggiero this a statue feign'd had thoughtOf alabaster, or of some marble nice,And that upon the rock it had been wroughtBy some ingenious sculptor's neat device,Had he not from her eyes with tears full-fraughtMidst the fresh roses, and jess'mine white,Bedew her heaving bosom with their flow,And gentle breezes her gold tresses blow....Behold! the boundless monster now appears,Half in the waves conceal'd, and half above:As when the wind from various quarters tears,The vessel vast into the port is drove;So to the food, plac'd in his sight, repairsThe horrid beast, now at a short remove:The lady now remains half-dead with fear,And little thinks she has assistance near....As from on high the eagle stooping down,Espies the snake, where thro' the meads she strays,Or in the sun's warm rays upon a stone,Where she her golden spots does deck and glaze;He will not by that part her set upon,Whence hissing she her pois'nous fork displays:But at her back plies with his claws and wing,That, turning, she mayn't reach him with her sting.So Ruggier, with his sword and with his spear,Not where her snout is armed with its fangs,But wills betwixt her ears his strokes to bear;Now at the loins, now at the tail he bangs:If she turn round, around she does repair;Now he drops down, now in the air he hangs:But just as if he had attack'd a stone,Her skin's too hard and tough to cut thereon....The lovely nymph repeatedly did cry,His massy scales, ah ! cease, 'tis vain, to break !Turn, good my Lord, me from the rock untie,She weeping said, before this Orc does wake:Tho' you should drown me, let me with you fly,Ere this foul fish's stomach me should take.Mov'd was Ruggier, so right she did implore,He her unty'd, and took her from the shore.The horse prest on the ground, prest by the spur,Mounted in air, and gallop'd fleet as wind ;While on his back the cavalier he bore,Upon his hips the damsel safe behind :So was the beast depriv'd, her supper o'er,For her too sweet, of too delicious kind ;Ruggier a thousand kisses, as he flies,Fix'd on her breast, and on her sparkling eyes.
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