Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/210

192 which the following sonnet superadds the charms of fancy:

If other Italian poets felt like Guidiccioni, they shunned to give their sentiments utterance. The chief original poem of (1507–66), the accomplished translator of Virgil and Longus, and one of the best letter-writers of his age, was a panegyric on the house of Valois—Venite all' ombra dei gran gigli d'oro ("Hither, where spread the golden fleurs-de-lis"). A few years later, with equal genius and equal insensibility to the part that became an Italian, Caro turned to celebrate the Spanish conqueror. Whatever may be thought of the theme of his poem, it is in execution one of the great things of Italian poetry:

Here the Fifth Charles reposes, at whose name Eyes of superbest monarchs seek the ground, Whom Story's tongue and Honour's trump resound, Quelling all loudest blasts of meaner fame. How hosts and legioned chiefs he overcame, Kings, but for him invincible, discrowned, Swayed realms beyond Imagination's bound, And his own mightier soul did rule and tame—