Introduction
In an essay on John Milton contributed to the Edinburgh Review in 1825, Thomas Babington Macaulay recalled a fable by Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) concerning the lovely fairy Manto, who every seventh day underwent transformation into a loathsome serpent. Macaulay drew from this a lesson about those statesmen who snatch Liberty away when she does not produce the results they want.
ARIOSTO tells a pretty story of a fairy, who, by some mysterious law of her nature, was condemned to appear at certain seasons in the form of a foul and poisonous snake.* Those who injured her during the period of her disguise were forever excluded from participation in the blessings which she bestowed. But to those who, in spite of her loathsome aspect, pitied and protected her, she afterward revealed herself in the beautiful and celestial form which was natural to her, accompanied their steps, granted all their wishes, filled their houses with wealth, made them happy in love and victorious in war. Such a spirit is Liberty. At times she takes the form of a hateful reptile. She grovels, she hisses, she stings. But woe to those who, in disgust, shall venture to crush her! And happy are those who, having dared to receive her in her degraded and frightful shape, shall at length be rewarded by her in the time of her beauty and her glory.
There is only one cure for the evils which newly acquired freedom produces; and that cure is freedom.
* She appears in Book VI of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso, line 720, with the name Manto. The comparison with Liberty is Macaulay’s.
Précis
In 1825, Thomas Babington Macaulay retold a tale from sixteenth-century poet Ludovico Ariosto about a fairy doomed to take every now and then the form of a dreadful serpent. Those who harmed her in her enchantment forfeited her favour ever after, but those who pitied her she handsomely rewarded. Liberty, said Macaulay, is a fairy of the same kind. (59 / 60 words)
In 1825, Thomas Babington Macaulay retold a tale from sixteenth-century poet Ludovico Ariosto about a fairy doomed to take every now and then the form of a dreadful serpent. Those who harmed her in her enchantment forfeited her favour ever after, but those who pitied her she handsomely rewarded. Liberty, said Macaulay, is a fairy of the same kind.
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