Io vengo a te, com' è di Dio volere,
Per dar ti morte, e non per ragazzino.
A'monaci suoi fatto ha dispiacere:
Non puo piu comportarti, can mastino.
Questo gigante armar si corse a furia,
Quando sentì ch' e'gli diceva ingiuria.”

He cross'd the forehead of the knight, and said,
"Go then, of God, and of our prayers befriended.”
Orlando went, and keeping in his head

The monk's directions, hastily ascended
The height, and struck for Passamonte's shed,
Who seeing him thus coming unattended,
Perused him well, then cried, "I like his plan!
What, my new footboy? eh, my little man?"

And then he promised him his board and pallet.
"You stupid Saracen !" Orlando cried,

"I come to be your death, and not your valet;
Think of these saints here, whom you keep inside
Their abbey: 'tisn't to be borne, nor shall it,
You hound, you; so prepare your stupid hide."
The giant, hearing him pour forth such evil,
Ran in to arm him, like a very devil.

The hero kills Alabaster and Passamonte, and converts Morgante, who was prepared for him by a dream. The giant becomes a faithful servant, both of the knight and the church, and after many enormous achievements, dies of the bite of a crab ; an edifying moral. His conversation, in the course of his studies in divinity, is no less instructive; but we are at a loss how to quote it, from the reverential feelings we have for certain names, whose misuse he helps to expose. We would fain see them kept sacred against better days. There is another giant, Margutte, who speaks still more plainly, and is the prototype of a worldly philosophy, the natural offspring of a profaner superstition. "Margutte," says Ugo Foscolo, "is a very infidel giant, ready to confess his failings, and full of droll

ery. He sets all a-laughing, readers, giants, devils, and heroes, and he finishes his career by laughing till he bursts."*

We do not choose, however, to leave off speaking of our old friends with a burlesque; and, therefore, we shall conclude the present chapter with a few right earnest giants out of the “ 'History of Prince Arthur." A jest cracked by that hero upon one of them is no joke infidel. It is only, as the poet says, “the ornament of his gravity." Arthur, in a battle with the Emperor of Rome, smites off by the knees the legs of a giant of the name of Galapar. "Now," quoth he, “art thou better of a size to deal with, than thou wert." The Emperor of Rome had got together fifty giants, who were "born of fiends," to break the front of the warriors' battle. But a chapter in that once popular compilation will present the reader with the complete giant of the old story-books. The style of the work is incorrect. The compiler pieces out the fine things of the old romances with a poverty of language that is a poor substitute for their simplicity; but the present extract is "a favorable specimen;" and the repetitions, and other gossiping fervors, have the proper childlike effect. We ascend the giant's mountain by due degrees. The picture of him, "baking his broad limbs by the fire," is in sturdy epic taste; and "the weltering and wallowing" of the fighters does not mince the matter. There is a Cornish hug in the battle.†

*See a masterly criticism in the "Quarterly Review," said to be translated from a contribution of this gentleman, and entitled "Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italians."

Fuller, in the "Worthies," gives this definition of a Cornish hug: "The Cornish are masters of the art of wrestling; so that if the Olympian games were now in fashion, they would come away with victory. Their hug is a

"HOW A MAN OF THE COUNTRY TOLD HIM OF A MAR

VELLOUS GIANT, AND HOW HE FOUGHT AND CONQUERED HIM.

"Then came to him a husbandman of the country, and told him how there was, in the country of Constantine, beside Britain, a great giant, which had slain, murthered, and devoured much people of the country, and had been sustained seven years with the children of the commons of that land, insomuch that all the children be all slain and destroyed. And now late he hath taken the Duchess of Brittany, as she rode with her men, and had led her to his lodging, which is in a mountain: and many people followed her, more than five hundred; but all they might not rescue her, but they left her shrieking and crying lamentably ; wherefore I suppose that he hath slain her in fulfilling his foul lust; she was wife unto your cousin, Sir Howel, the which was full nigh of your blood. Now, as ye are a rightful king, have pity on this lady, and revenge us all as ye are a valiant conqueror.

"Alas!' said King Arthur, 'this is a great mischief; I had rather than the best realm that I have that I had been a furlong before him, for to have rescued that lady. Now, fellow,' said King Arthur, 'canst thou bring me there whereas this giant haunteth ?'

"'Yea, Sir,' said the good man; 'lo, yonder whereas ye see the two great fires, there shall ye not fail to find him, and more treasure, as I suppose, than is in all the realm of France.'

"When King Arthur had understood this piteous case,

cunning close with their fellow-combatant; the fruit whereof is his fair fall, or foil at the least. It is figuratively applicable to the deceitful dealing of such, who secretly design their overthrow whom they openly embrace."— ED.

he returned into his tent, and called unto him Sir Kaye and Sir Bedivere, and commanded them secretly to make ready horse and harness for himself, and for them twain ; for after evensong he would ride on pilgrimage, with them two only, unto Saint Mighel's Mount. And then anon they made them ready, and armed them at all points, and took their horses and their shields; and so they three departed thence, and rode forth as fast as they might, till they came unto the furlong of that mount, and there they alighted, and the king commanded them to tarry there, and said he would himself go up to that mount.

"And so he ascended up the mount till he came to a great fire, and there found he a careful widow wringing her hands and making great sorrow, sitting by a grave new made. And then King Arthur saluted her, and demanded her wherefore she made such lamentation. Unto whom she answered and said, 'Sir Knight, speak soft, for yonder is a devil; if he hear thee speak he will come and destroy thee. I hold thee unhappy: what dost thou here in this mountain? for if ye were such fifty as ye be, ye were not able to make resistance against this devil: here lieth a duchess dead, which was the fairest lady of the world, wife unto Sir Howel of Britain.'

"Dame,' said the King, 'I come from the great conqueror, King Arthur, for to treat with that tyrant for his liege people.'

666

'Fie upon such treaties,' said the widow; "he setteth nought by the King, nor by no man else; but and if thou hath brought King Arthur's wife, Dame Guenever, he shall be gladder than if thou hadst given him half France. Beware; approach him not too nigh; for he hath overcome and vanquished fifteen kings, and hath made him a coat full of precious stones, embroidered with their beards,

which they sent him to have his love for salvation of their people this last Christmas, and if thou wilt speak with him at yonder great fire, he is at supper.'

"Well,' said King Arthur, 'I will accomplish my message for all your fearful words,' and went forth by the crest of that hill, and saw where he sat at supper gnawing on a limb of a man, baking his broad limbs by the fire, and breechless, and three damsels turning three broaches, whereon was broached twelve young children, late born, like young birds.

“When King Arthur beheld that piteous sight, he had great compassion on them, so that his heart bled for sorrow, and hailed him, saying in this wise: 'He that all the world wieldeth give thee short life and shameful death, and the devil have thy soul! Why hast thou murthered these young innocent children, and this duchess? Therefore arise and dress thee, thou glutton, for this day shalt thou die of my hands.'

"Then anon the giant start up, and took a great club in his hand, and smote at the King that his coronal fell to the earth. And King Arthur hit him again, that he carved his belly, and that his entrails fell down to the ground. Then the giant with great anguish threw away his club of iron and caught the King in his arms, that he crushed his ribs. Then the three damsels kneeled down, and called unto our Lord Jesus Christ, for help and comfort of the noble King Arthur. And then King Arthur weltered and wrung, that he was one while under, and another while above; and so weltering and wallowing, they rolled down the hill, till they came to the sea-mark; and as they so tumbled and weltered, King Arthur smote him with his dagger, and it fortuned they came unto the place whereas the two knights were that kept King Arthur's