deavoured to paint Serena as a most lovely, engaging, and accomplished character; yet I hope the colouring is so faithfully copied from general nature, that every man who reads the poem, may be happy enough to know many fair ones who resemble my heroine.

There is another point, in which I have also attempted to give this poem an air of novelty; I mean the manner of connecting the real and the visionary scenes which compose it; by shifting these in alternate cantos, I hoped to make familiar incident and allegorical picture afford a strong relief to each other, and keep the attention of the reader alive by an appearance particularly diversified. I wished, indeed, (but I fear most ineffectually) for powers to unite some touches of the sportive wildness of Ariosto, and the more serious sublime painting of Dante, with some portion of the enchanting elegance,