"Having his face covered with tears, the count dismounts from
Brigliadoro: he took the wounded king in his arms, and placed him on the
brink of the fountain, entreating, while he kisses and embraces him,
that all past injuries might be forgotten. Not able to say yes, the king
inclines his head, and Orlando baptized him with water; and, at last, he
found his face and whole person cold, whence he judged that he was no
more; wherefore he left him on the verge of the fountain, all armed as
he was, with sword in hand, and with his crown: then, turning his look
upon his horse, it seemed to him that he recognised Bajardo."
This, of course, is a very clumsy mode of showing the difference; and
yet it gives the mere English reader an idea of the extent of Berni's
alterations.
But, although he did not materially change either event or thought, he
added to the poem; and the real merits of Berni became very evident in
the introductory stanzas which he appended to each canto. It seems to me
that these have never been sufficiently appreciated: they are not jocose
nor burlesque; they are beautiful apostrophes, or observations upon the
heart and fortunes of human beings, embodied in poetic language and
imagery. Many of them are to be preferred to those of Ariosto, whom he
imitated in these additions. We have noticed his address to the Po,
which is singularly beautiful; another well known interpolation is the
introduction of a description of himself: this, it is true, is
burlesque; but the style of irony is exquisite, and, surely, may be
allowed, as it is directed against his own faults and person. Mr. Rose
has translated this passage, and published it in his prose abstract of
the "Innamorato." Dr. Panizzi has quoted it also in his work. He gives
an account of his life; of his birth at Lamporecchio; of the "piteous
plight" in which he sojourned at Florence till the age of nineteen; and
his journey to Rome, when he attached himself to his kinsman, the
cardinal Bibbiena, who neither did him harm nor good and, on his death,
how he passed to the nephew,--
"Who the same measure as his uncle meted;"
and then "in search of better bread," how he became secretary to the
Datario. Yet, he could not please his new patron; although
"The worse he did, the more he had to do."