It is no wonder, that those Scenes should be very surprizing, which were contrived by two Poets of different Nations, and raised by two Magicians of different Sexes. _Armida_ (as we are told in the Argument) was an _Amazonian_ Enchantress, and poor Seignior _Cassani_ (as we learn from the _Persons represented_) a Christian Conjuror (_Mago Christiano_). I must confess I am very much puzzled to find how an _Amazon_ should be versed in the Black Art, or how a [good] Christian [for such is the part of the magician] should deal with the Devil.
To consider the Poets after the Conjurers, I shall give you a Taste of the _Italian_, from the first Lines of his Preface.
'Eccoti, benigno Lettore, un Parto di poche Sere, che se ben nato di Notte, non è però aborto di Tenebre, mà si farà conoscere Figlio d'Apollo con qualche Raggio di Parnasso.
Behold, gentle Reader, the Birth of a few Evenings, which, tho' it be the Offspring of the Night, is not the Abortive of Darkness, but will make it self known to be the Son of Apollo, with a certain Ray of Parnassus.'
He afterwards proceeds to call Minheer _Hendel_, [3] the _Orpheus_ of our Age, and to acquaint us, in the same Sublimity of Stile, that he Composed this Opera in a Fortnight. Such are the Wits, to whose Tastes we so ambitiously conform our selves. The Truth of it is, the finest Writers among the Modern _Italians_ express themselves in such a florid form of Words, and such tedious Circumlocutions, as are used by none but Pedants in our own Country; and at the same time, fill their Writings with such poor Imaginations and Conceits, as our Youths are ashamed of, before they have been Two Years at the University. Some may be apt to think that it is the difference of Genius which produces this difference in the Works of the two Nations; but to show there is nothing in this, if we look into the Writings of the old _Italians_, such as _Cicero_ and _Virgil_, we shall find that the _English_ Writers, in their way of thinking and expressing themselves, resemble those Authors much more than the modern _Italians_ pretend to do. And as for the Poet himself from whom the Dreams of this Opera are taken, I must entirely agree with Monsieur _Boileau_, that one Verse in _Virgil_ is worth all the _Clincant_ or Tinsel of _Tasso_.