CESAROTTI (MELcHloa), an Italian poet, was born at Padua, in the year 1730, of a family of con siderable rank but small fortune. He was educated at the academy of Padua, where he early showed a strong inclination for literary pursuits, and made such progress in study, that he was raised to the Chair of Rhetoric in the Academy where he had been brought up, at a period of life when others were yet attending the lectures. Having been appointed to this charge, he devoted himself with the utmost zeal to the duties of his situation. He introduced several useful reforms in the system of education which was then practised, and endeavoured by in cessant study to render his instructions as useful as possible to the youth committed to his care. The first fruits of his studies were Italian translations of the Prometheus of )Eschylus, and three Tragedies of Voltaire, the merit of which, and the reputation he had acquired for learning and persevering ap plication, successively procured him a distinguish ed employment at Venice, and the Professorship of Greek and Hebrew in the University of Padua. Ce sarotti had held this situation for nearly thirty years at the date of the first French invasion of Italy. This poet did not, like Alfieri, scorn the pecuniary favours of the republican government, nor shun the acquaintance of its chiefs. He published seve ral political tracts and essays by their order ; and when the general of the invading army assumed the title of King of Italy, he was rewarded with two pensions of considerable amount, and distinguished by various honours. He continued to reside partly at Padua, and partly at his country house of Bel vaggiano, chiefly occupied with the composition of laudatory poems in return for the favours he had received, and with the superintendence of a com plete edition of his works, when he was suddenly arrested by the hand of death on the 3d of No vember 1808.
Though held by Sismondi to be the first in _point of celebrity of the modern Italian poets, Ce aaretti is better known as a translator than an origi nal author.. The Italians have always been distin guished for the elegance and spirit of their transla tions from the 'classics ; the Lucretius of Marchetti,' the 'Enid of Anibal Caro, and Anguillara's free version of the Metamorphoses of Ovid have deserved their reputation to the utmost height in • department of literature. Anguillara's transla
tion of Homer, however; had been less popular and Successful than his Metamorphoses, and there still remained room in Italy for a translation of the Prince of poets. The work, however, of Cesarotti, is far from being literal ; he has modernized and accom modated the Iliad to the prtgailing taste of the age ; he has abridged it in some and added to it in others, according to his taste or fancy; and he has been often reproached with having given to the Greek bard the style and language of his favourite Ossian. In the late edition of the works of Cesarotti, the poetical version is followed by a literal prose one, accompanied with critical notes and dissertations, partly translated from Pope and Dacier.
Cesarotti acquired more fame by his version of Ossian than of Homer ; and certainly no translation bad ever more appearance of originality and inspira tion. He has completely preserved the spirit of the supposed bard of Morven—his gigantic and gloomy grander; ,and, at the same time, has given us that harmony of versification, which we miss in the work of Macpherson. The Italian Ossian was first publish ed at Padua in 1763, 2 vols. 8vo, at the expence of an English traveller, with whom Cesarotti had con tracted a friendship. This edition was necessarily incothplete, as the translation of Macpherson at that time was so also; but the whole poems were printed at the same place about ten years afterwards in 4 vols. small 8vo. The Poems of Ossian also occupy four volumes in the recent complete edition of the works of Cesarotti, where they are accompanied by an exa mination of the question so much agitated in this Country, with regard to the authenticity of these ce lebrated productions. Their appearance in this new form attracted much attention in Italy, and raised up many imitators of the Ossianic style, so different from the warm and glowing imagery of the earlier Italian poets.