OMNIANA.
223
every thing I ever heard of elsewhere. I should like to see how much of it is imputable to the Italian[1] translator. Nothing can be so strange as the mixture of these abominations with the grave theology of the book. In one place there is a discourse upon the Trinity, and in another there is a sermon! The personages write letters, make long speeches, and quote the fathers and the philosophers.
There is not a single adventure of chivalry throughout the whole book; in this it differs from all other romances of its age: but its total want of the spirit of chivalry is still more remarkable, and I am at a loss to conceive where or how
- ↑ The King of France (T. 1, P. 139) is said to be superior in dignity to all other Kings in Christendom. From this and other passages of like import, I suspect that the translator, being a partizan of France, has interpolated the book with language which could not have proceeded from a Spaniard. He may therefore very probably have cantharidized it to the taste of the French court.
