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diff --git a/old/52387-0.txt b/old/52387-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7dcfdd4..0000000 --- a/old/52387-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7612 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gabriele Rossetti, by Gabriele Rossetti - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Gabriele Rossetti - A Versified Autobiography - -Author: Gabriele Rossetti - -Translator: William Michael Rossetti - -Release Date: June 21, 2016 [EBook #52387] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GABRIELE ROSSETTI *** - - - - -Produced by Giovanni Fini and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: - -—Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected. - - - - - _This Edition consists of - 1000 Copies only, of which - this is_ - _No._ 97 - S & Co - - - - - GABRIELE ROSSETTI - -[Illustration: DRAWING BY GABRIELE ROSSETTI -_Pen and Sepia_] - - - - - GABRIELE ROSSETTI - - A VERSIFIED AUTOBIOGRAPHY - - TRANSLATED - AND SUPPLEMENTED BY - - WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI - - Così dall’arpa opposti suoni ei desta - Pel suol che gli diè culla un suon d’affanno - Di gioia un suon per quel che asil gli presta - - G R - - SANDS & CO - 12 BURLEIGH STREET STRAND - LONDON - 1901 - - - - - DEDICATED TO - - ANTONIO AND OLIVIA AGRESTI - - WHOSE MARRIAGE HAS RESTORED - TO ITALIAN NATIONALITY - A GRAND-DAUGHTER OF - GABRIELE ROSSETTI - - - - -PREFACE - - -IN Italy the poems of Gabriele Rossetti have enjoyed a large amount of -celebrity, and they are still held in honoured remembrance; his prose -works are there known rather by rumour than in perusal. In England -the case of the prose works is much the same, while the poems are as -good as unknown. His life has never been written on any very complete -scale. In Italian there are some Memoirs, more or less detailed and -accurate--perhaps the most solid is that written by my cousin Teodorico -Pietrocola-Rossetti; in English, the nearest approach to an account of -him may be what appears in the course of my _Memoir of Dante Gabriel -Rossetti_ (1895). There is also some important information in the -book, _John Hookham Frere and his Friends_, mentioned on p. 132 of the -present volume. - -The name of Gabriele Rossetti has in this country secured some amount -of respectful regard, but rather on adventitious than on strictly -personal grounds. He is contemplated in his paternal relation--the -father of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti. Dr Garnett, in his -_History of Italian Literature_, has expressed the point neatly, and -in terms stronger than it would behove me to use: “Rossetti assuredly -will not be forgotten by England, for which he has done what no other -inhabitant of these isles ever did, in begetting two great poets.” - -On me it can be no less than a filial obligation to do what I can -for the memory of my patriotic, highly gifted, laborious, and loving -father. I therefore offer to the British public the following authentic -record of him, and leave it to obtain such readers as it may. - - W. M. ROSSETTI. - - LONDON, _January 1901_. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - GABRIELE ROSSETTI--Autobiography, etc. 1 - - Life in Italy 6 - - Life in Exile--Malta and England 60 - - - APPENDIX - - 1.--FROM SIX LETTERS FROM GABRIELE ROSSETTI TO - HIS WIFE - - A--Letter of 4 May 1831 117 - - B ” 15 May 1832 119 - - C ” 29 May 1832 122 - - D ” 6 September 1836 126 - - E ” 21 October 1836 129 - - F ” 21 August 1848 130 - - 2.--FROM EIGHT LETTERS FROM GABRIELE ROSSETTI - TO CHARLES LYELL, KINNORDY - - A--Letter of 29 October 1831 133 - - B ” 1 October 1832 134 - - C ” 15 May 1833 136 - - D ” 13 January 1836 137 - - E ” 14 January 1836 139 - - F ” 16 December 1836 140 - - G ” 21 July 1840 141 - - H ” 1 February 1842 143 - - 3.--FROM THREE LETTERS FROM SEYMOUR (BARONE) - KIRKUP TO GABRIELE ROSSETTI - - A--Letter of 12 September 1840 144 - - B ” 14 September 1841 147 - - C ” 5 February 1843 150 - - 4.--LETTERS (OR EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS) FROM - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI--ELEVEN TO ROSSETTI, AND - ONE TO ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT - - A--Letter of 28 March 1841 157 - - B ” 1841? 159 - - C ” November 1844? 160 - - D ” May 1845? 161 - - E ” 31 October 1845 162 - - F ” January 1847? 163 - - G ” January 1847? 163 - - H ” 8 February 1847 164 - - I ” May 1847? 165 - - J ” February 1848? 167 - - K ” November 1848? 168 - - L ” To Corso--1846? 168 - - 5.--SIX POEMS BY GABRIELE ROSSETTI - - A--Ad Amore 174 - - B Versi d’Amore 177 - - C Aurora del 21 Luglio del 1820 177 - - D Addio alla Patria 182 - - E San Paolo in Malta--Canto Improvvisato 186 - - F Napoleone a Sant’Elena 191 - - INDEX OF NAMES 193 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - 1. FAC-SIMILE OF AN EARLY DRAWING BY - GABRIELE ROSSETTI, pen and sepia, made - as a title-page to some of his MS. poems. - _Circa_ 1804. See p. 11 _Frontispiece_ - - 2. GABRIELE ROSSETTI--from the oil-portrait - by Dante Gabriel Rossetti now belonging - to Sir Leonard Lyell, Bart.--1848 _To face p._ 1 - - 3. GAETANO POLIDORI--from a pencil-drawing - by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, done in 1853, - the same year when Polidori died, aged 89 ” 85 - - 4. CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI--from a - pencil-drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. - _Circa_ 1846 ” 89 - - 5. FRANCES MARY LAVINIA ROSSETTI, with her - daughters Maria Francesca and Christina - Georgina--from a photograph. _Circa_ 1855 ” 115 - - 6. GABRIEL CHARLES DANTE (called Dante - Gabriel) and WILLIAM MICHAEL ROSSETTI--from - a water-colour sketch by Filippo - Pistrucci. _Circa_ 1838 ” 130 - -[Illustration: GABRIELE ROSSETTI -_From the Oil-Portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti_ -1848] - - - - -GABRIELE ROSSETTI - - -AS the career of Gabriele Rossetti was much mixed up with political and -dynastic events in the Kingdom of Naples (or of the Two Sicilies), it -may be as well at starting to give a very brief _résumé_ of historical -facts. - -In the year 1734 the Kingdom of Naples, in the resettlement of Europe -consequent upon the Treaty of Utrecht, was under the dominion of the -Empire, or, as we should now word it, of Austria; but in that year an -almost bloodless conquest brought-in a different dynasty. Charles, -Duke of Parma, a son of the Bourbon King of Spain, Philip V., by his -second wife Elizabeth Farnese, a spirited youth only seventeen years -of age, determined to assert his ancestral claims upon the kingdom, -and in a trice he was firmly seated upon the Neapolitan throne. His -government, though in a sense despotic, was popular and enlightened. In -1759 he became by succession King of Spain; and, under the obligation -of existing treaties, he relinquished the Kingdom of Naples to his -third son, Ferdinand, aged only eight. In 1768 Ferdinand married Maria -Caroline, daughter of the Emperor Francis and of Maria Theresa, and -sister of Marie Antoinette. - -Ferdinand IV., as he was then termed (afterwards Ferdinand I.) was a -man of no great ability, but of vigorous physique, and sufficiently -well-disposed as a sovereign; his wife, strong-minded and domineering, -was the more active governor of the two, and promoted various -innovations, some of which fairly counted as reforms. Things went on -well enough for the rulers and the subjects until the outbreak of the -French Revolution in 1789, when Neapolitan opposition to France and -all things French became pronounced. Queen Caroline naturally did not -relish the decapitation of her sister in 1793, and hostilities against -the Republic ensued. In 1798 the king decamped to Sicily, and in the -following year his continental dominions became the “Parthenopean -Republic.” This was of short duration, January to June 1799. The -Southern provinces rose in arms, under the leadership of Cardinal -Ruffo; the French army departed, and Ferdinand was re-installed in -Naples--Lord Nelson, victorious from the Battle of the Nile, playing -a large part, and a much-debated one, in this transaction. Ferdinand -now ruled with great rigour, and committed some barbaric acts of -repression and retaliation, for which his consort was regarded as -gravely responsible. The great Napoleon, Consul, Emperor, and King of -Italy, was not likely to tolerate for long the anti-French severities, -demonstrations, and intrigues, of “il Rè Nasone,” as Ferdinand was -nicknamed in virtue of his portentously long and prominent nose. Early -in 1806 Ferdinand and Caroline disappeared once more into Sicily, under -British protection, and Joseph Bonaparte was enthroned in Naples. -Joseph, in 1808, was transferred to the Spanish kingdom; and Joachim -Murat, brother-in-law of Napoleon and of Joseph by his marriage with -their sister Caroline, reigned in Naples in his stead. Ferdinand, with -the other Caroline, remained meanwhile unattackable in Sicily, and -was turned into a constitutional king there by British predominance. -In 1815, on the final collapse of the Napoleonic _régime_, and very -shortly after the death of his Queen, he returned to Naples. - -These particulars, meagre as they are, seem to be sufficient to -show what was the historical background to the fortunes of Gabriele -Rossetti, with whom alone I am directly concerned. He was born under a -recently-established dynasty, in a kingdom of despotic rule and many -relics of feudalism; from the age of twenty-three to thirty-two he was -the subject of a new and intrusive dynasty, not less despotic, but free -from all trammels inherited from the past. Then in 1815 he again came -under the old system, but in a state of public feeling and aspiration -which rapidly led to a constitutional government, sworn to by the -sovereign, and abolished by him at the first opportunity. - -I propose to relate my father’s life in his own verse as translated -by me, supplemented by a little of my prose. It was towards the year -1850, when his general health and strength had grievously decayed, -and he was conscious of the imminent approaches of death, that he -composed a versified autobiography, of which the great majority is -here embodied. He wrote it in rhymed sextets; but I, for ease and -literality, have rendered it into blank verse. His own verse is, as he -himself acknowledges, here pitched in a very subdued key, with little -endeavour after poetic elevation; though there are some passages in a -higher strain. My translation makes still less pretension as poetry; it -conveys the sense with strict accuracy, and that is all it affects. My -father retained in his old age some of the habits of “poetic diction” -which had been customary in the Italy of his youth; and one finds here -more than one quite wants of Phœbus, Neptune, Minerva’s fane, and other -“rattle-traps of mythology” (to borrow a phrase from William Blake); in -all this I follow my original. The versification of the Italian text is -often ingenious, and even masterly; abounding in dactylic line-endings, -or _rime sdrucciole_, as the Italians call them--a difficult feat, at -which Rossetti was uncommonly deft. I have given the great bulk of the -production--which, indeed, I had in the first instance translated in -full; but eventually I thought some passages here and there, and also -some amplifications of phrase, useless for the purposes of the British -reader, and have therefore excluded them. The whole of the expressly -biographical matter is preserved. Those notes which are not marked by -an initial are my father’s own; those to which “W.” is appended are -mine--there being several points which seemed to need some explanation. - -My material does not call for much division or subdivision. I shall -therefore simply separate it into the Life of Gabriele Rossetti (his -full Christian names were Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe) in Italy, and -his Life in Exile, Malta and England; and, plunging at once into the -versified autobiography, I commence the - - - - -LIFE IN ITALY - - - I know my fame will have but scanty flight, - Readers to whom I speak of Italy. - Yet, if in any of you there rose a wish - To know me who I am, I’ll meet it here. - Ovid’s own native soil is mine as well: - He spoke about himself, and so will I. - In verses Ovid wrote, but I in prose-- - Prose of eleven syllables with rhymes; - But, be they verses, I shall not contest. - And, without more preamble, hear me now. - - Along the beach of the Frentani lies - On teeming hills, the Adriatic near, - A small municipality of Rome-- - Histonium once and Vasto now ’tis called. - There, with no waft of Fortune, I received - A humble cradle from a worthy pair.[1] - -The brief statement of my father, in his verses and his note, may be -slightly extended. Nicola Rossetti was a blacksmith and locksmith; his -wife, Maria Francesca Pietrocola, was the daughter of a shoemaker. Both -families seem to have held a creditable, though certainly a by no means -distinguished, position in the small Vastese community. The original -name of the Rossetti race (as I have heard my father more than once -affirm) was not Rossetti but Della Guardia. Some babies in the Della -Guardia family were born with red or reddish hair (I presume, four -or five generations before my father’s birth); and the Vastese--who, -like other Italians, never lose a chance of calling people by -nicknames--termed them “the Rossetti”--_i.e._ “The Little Reds,” -and this continued to serve as surname for their progeny. Thus the -surname Rossetti may be regarded as equivalent to the English surname -Reddish, or Rudkins (if Rudkins is an abbreviation of Ruddykins). The -family of Della Guardia still exists in Vasto. It appears to have -been entitled to bear a crest--which is a sturdy-looking tree, with -the motto “Frangas non flectas”; for a seal (still in my possession), -showing this crest and motto, was delivered to Gabriele Rossetti, on -his quitting Vasto in youth, by his elder brother the Canon Andrea, -who told him that it was the family-device. This was often used, I may -add, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It appears that in the Rossetti line, -or else in the Della Guardia line, there must have been some degree -of literary eminence prior to the date of the blacksmith Nicola; as -I find, in a letter addressed by Gabriele Rossetti, towards 1807, to -his elder brother Domenico, the phrase: “You know that our stock has -always abounded in great men of letters.” One cannot suppose that this -statement is a mere fib: I have not, however, found any confirmation of -it in books about Vasto, nor do I remember that my father ever referred -to such a matter by word of mouth. - -I believe that Nicola Rossetti came to his end in a distressing way. -When the French Republican army invaded the Neapolitan territory in -1798, the troops required Nicola to render some service, such as -horseshoeing, provisioning, transport, or what not. He showed no -inclination to comply, and was beaten or otherwise ill-treated; and -this so preyed on his mind that his health suffered, and death ensued. -His decease may, I presume, have occurred towards 1800; his widow -survived till 1822 or some such date. Gabriele Rossetti used to speak -with much affection of his mother, who (like so many Italian women of -the lower middle class in those days) could neither write nor read. He -remembered his father as a somewhat harsh man, but upright and worthy -of respect. The Rossetti family is now wholly extinct, save in the -persons of myself and my four children; the line of my father’s married -sisters is also extinct. - -The precise date of my father’s birth was 28th February 1783 (not -1st March, as has at times been written and printed). He was born in -a lofty brown building, which, in a water-colour with which I was -favoured towards the date of the Vastese centenary celebration of his -birth, wears a somewhat stately though wholly unadorned aspect. It -looks like an edifice which has stood for some centuries, solid but -uncared for. It is now, I understand, a dilapidated structure, let -out in tenements to a poor class of people. The question of buying -it for the city of Vasto, in memory of Gabriele Rossetti, has often -been mooted, but not carried into effect. There are prophets who have -no honour in their own country; and others who, rather profusely -honoured there by word of mouth, are left in the lurch when deeds and -subscriptions are in demand. - - In the first opening years of joyousness - I showed clear sign of studious aptitude; - And, following my brothers, three in count, - Whose lively parts had been in evidence, - I was escorted by this goodly three - Into Apollo’s and Minerva’s fane.[2] - - Thrilled by the first Phœbean impulses, - Rough versicles I traced with facile hand: - And yet, to my surprise, those lines of mine - Almost took wing into a distant flight. - A hope of Pindus did I hear me named: - But praise increased my ardour, not my pride. - And yet some vanity there came and mixed - With the fair issue of my preluding: - But, all the more I heard the applause increase, - With equal force did study grow in me. - Not surely that I tried to load my page - With pomp abstruse extraneous to my drift; - But counterwise each image and each rhyme, - The more spontaneous, so meseemed more fair. - In trump of gold and in the oaten pipe - Let some seek the sublime, I seek for ease. - I shunned those verses which sprawl forth untuned - Even from my days of schoolboy tutelage: - I know they please some people, but not me: - Admiring Dante, Metastasio - I laud; and hold--a true Italian ear - Must not admit one inharmonious verse. - Some lines require a very surgeon’s hand - To make them upon crutches stand afoot. - So be they! But, to set them musical, - They must, by Heaven, be in themselves a song. - This seems a truthful, not a jibing, rule-- - Music and lyric are a twinborn thing. - Yet think not that I deem me satisfied - With upblown empty sound without ideas:-- - Then will a harmony be beautiful - When great emotions and great thoughts it stirs. - - To painting with an equal ardency - An almost sudden impulse led me on; - And with the pen I drew in such a mode - That all my work would look as if engraved. - To question what I say would nothing serve, - For on my hands more than one proof remains.[3] - A plaining ditty which describes my state, - And wherein I deplore my fate perverse, - And whose adorning is two pen-designs, - Is still preserved among my earliest scraps: - And many more, for him who disbelieves, - Can thoroughly attest what I aver. - - Not every magnate takes to banqueting, - Or lust of Cyprus and Pentapolis. - The Marchese di Vasto, a high-placed lord, - The King of Naples’ Majordomo in Chief - (Whatever face he show in history, - By me his memory must be always blest), - Being once in company with men of mark - Whom he was wont to invite from time to time,-- - My verses read by him, and drawings seen-- - Felt pleased that I was of his vassalage; - He wrote to his agent telling him of this - And bidding him to send me on to Naples.[4] - - There I was patronized, without parade, - By him, who from the first received me well: - But little did that firm support endure, - For a political whirlwind cut it short. - Poor I--how fare in a vast capital? - I had to bow before my destinies. - For scarcely had a year and month elapsed, - In which new studies occupied my mind, - When the French army of invasion came - In the sixth year of this our century,-- - And, seeking Sicily in urgent flight, - The Marquis vanished with the perjured King. - Then for the kingdom rose an altered time, - And all the people vied to give it hail, - For they abhorred that Bourbon void of faith, - With executions and with treasons smirched,-- - And more his wife, a type unparagoned, - Megæra, Alecto, and Tisiphone. - I will not paint that husband and his wife-- - Thank Heaven, the tomb has swallowed them ere now. - Their grandson--this suffices--pairs them both, - Re-named King Bomba, monster in human form. - - On saddened brows a few, and many glad, - I read the souls of men enslaved or free: - And, mixed myself ’mid such conflicting minds, - Judge you if I was joyful or was grieved. - The festive thundering of the martial forts - Responded to by frequent trumpet-call, - Cheers that were uttered by a thousand mouths - As the tricoloured banner came in view, - And hurly-burly weltering all around, - Opposed enormous joy to enormous grief. - Yet thoughts, more than enough, ominous and black, - Whispered me somewhile ’mid those shouts of joy: - “My hapless country, what dost thou acclaim, - Now that one despot goes and one arrives? - Ah on thy shoulders still I find the yoke: - They doff the old one and they don the new.” - And from my heart the words leapt to my lips: - “To call this liberty were sure a jibe! - As Ferdinand in Naples stifled her, - So Bonaparte butchered her in France. - But tremble, tremble, impious man! Thy crime - On all the nations’ hearts stands written deep.” - - I was a prophet here. Germany in arms, - A nation of great hearts and thought as great, - Avenging Freedom foully done to death, - Against him let whole populations loose. - Behold him fallen on field, captive at sea: - By Liberty he rose, by her he fell. - France in my youthful fervency I loved, - I loved the awful warrior guiding her: - But, when I heard, “He’s made an Emperor now, - Nor that alone, but despot autocrat,” - The hate I felt extinguished all that fire. - - For many ’twas a cause of deepest grief - To contemplate with golden diadem - A brother of that despot on our throne. - His praise was--having turned the Bourbon out; - Whence, setting every other thought at rest, - They all applauded him, and so did I. - A chosen band of daring souls and brave - Encircled the incoming Frenchman round,[5] - And of two evils they acclaimed the less, - Awaiting a true good to come one day. - Round the new sceptre flocking now I marked - A crowd of shining minds, and joyed herein; - And, taking up the lyre resolvedly, - Inly I said: “A poet I was born, - And such I will be in my future course!”[6] - The use of reason scarce had I attained - When France’s thundercloud I heard that pealed--Which - next diffused around and far-afar - Terror to Kings, to nations hopefulness. - At dawning of my lifetime I resolved - To follow in that movement--and alas! - From the successive shiftings of the chance, - I, loving good, saw evil that ensued. - Across the Red Sea, sea of blood and war, - Must then the Promised Land be still approached? - That fatal whirlwind, with alternate shock, - In Naples’ kingdom all-deplorable - Full ten times made a change of government, - Alternating with serfdom liberty: - And, with the flight of that demented court, - I saw it for the fourth time altering: - And the ninth change and tenth, which now I see, - Are the most miserable of them all. - - Many gave homage to the new-built throne; - And I, while scorning any cringing phrase, - Struck on my lyre, and spread abroad its sound, - Saluting that forthcoming period: - And what I said thereof in varying style, - If not free-toned, is not subservient. - Soon do the accents of my lyre recall - Men’s eyes and praises to the youthful gift, - And I diffuse the firstlings of my fame - About the kingdom’s mighty capital; - But, by attracting blear-eyed rivals too, - Envy first made me a target for her darts. - And so much did this trouble my repose, - And raised hobgoblins such a swarm at home, - That, freed from them, my dolorous exile - Has almost seemed to me beatitude. - How often have I cried--“I am exiled now, - And pardon all the rancour of my foes.” - - Ah when I think it o’er I shudder still, - Though past the sixtieth limit of my years. - One Boccanera, livid in his rage, - Tempted a bravo to cut short my life; - Watchful I had to be for several months: - Can then insensate envy reach to this? - But who can tell all the contorted roads - Which rancour led my rivals to pursue? - Charges unjust, anonymous calumnies,-- - But yet my innocence o’erthrew them all: - Intrepid I outfaced such keen attacks, - And became known and cherished by the young. - In public halls, where it behoved me at times - To speak the verses I had written down, - The popular applause served to prelude - My song, as soon as I appeared in sight. - - That my first volume, as it issued forth, - Earned me the friendship of distinguished men, - And I was made, without soliciting, - The Poet for San Carlo’s Theatre. - I wrote some dramas there, and every one - Of my attempts was followed by success: - First Julius Sabinus’ mournful fate, - Then Hannibal’s light loves in Capua, - And finally the Birth of Hercules,[7] - Were greeted with unanimous applause. - How much I joyed that on that stately stage - My mind was thus allowed to spatiate! - “In this arena of glory,” I would say, - “If I have genius, I can show it forth”; - And dreamed of mingling in one dulcet draught - Alfieri’s style with Metastasio’s. - But my illusions waned; for various thwarts, - And fetters both direct and indirect, - And the composers and the Managers, - And Prime Donne, plots, and etiquettes, - And then protectors and aught stranger still, - Frequently shuffled all my hand of cards. - Incensed I cried: “I’ll leave the Theatre, - For here I’m nothing but a slave of slaves.” - - To Monsignor Capecelatro I sped, - Our Minister at the time for Home-affairs, - And meekly spoke, expounding first the facts, - “The Madhouse is not where I want to go.” - Could vanity from sovereign patronage - Dazzle a free Parnassian intellect? - I was content with a subordinate post[8] - Then vacant in the King’s Museum; here - Propitious did the Muses nurture me - With vivid genius of the antique arts. - Here I could pasture in the selfsame hour - My craving mind, and shelter it from vice, - For an immense choice library is joined - To the Museum, in one building’s span: - And thus a double discipline exalts - My soul in beauty’s pathways and in truth’s. - ’Mid living bronze and marble animate, - Which constantly held converse with my thoughts, - I something wrote in prose and much in verse, - Evolving grace upon the fair and true. - - Staying amid those admirable hoards, - A treasure-house of arts and industries, - I met with Kings and met with Emperors, - Conspicuous artists, men of lettered fame.[9] - And thus three lustres of my term of life - Wore in that unperturbed abode along; - And I beheld two Kings arrive and go, - Made and unmade by force of destiny. - But, though my work was converse with the dead, - I scanned both courts, their virtues and their vice. - Of the two kings, one bad, and one was good, - And in this sentence all is summarized; - And both their fates depended, and their thrones, - Upon the man who dreamed omnipotence; - But by the Spanish and the Northern storm - The star of Bonaparte turned to pale. - Odious to many, Joseph went his way,-- - That silence followed him which speaks for much; - Wasteful and lustful and vainglorious, - He by his courtiers only was deplored. - Better than Ferdinand he was for sure, - But that was merit (merit!) none could miss. - Later when Joachim of a sudden fled, - I heard a general chorus of concern-- - “If but his mind were equal to his heart, - Who worthier than he to fill a throne?” - Ferdinand matched with him produces that - Which in a picture gives the shades and lights. - O epoch memorable for wretchedness! - Oh the caprice of barbarous destiny - Which sent us back that faithless Ferdinand, - Bereaving us of kindly Joachim! - And soon the craven to the valiant gave, - By the same destiny, a barbarous death. - - O Bonaparte, _thou_ the object deemed - Of worship? Ah he lies who calls thee great![10] - For thee the world claims lofty intellect, - For thee, with an enormous error fooled. - Thou wast, in wresting from the nations hope, - At once liberticide and suicide. - That day when thou didst will thee Emperor, - Thou in St Helena dugg’st out thy grave: - That day thou gav’st back Austria all her strength, - To Russia daring, potency to Kings. - That edict which the applauding Senate brought - To thee, ’twas that the edict of thy death. - Well do I know how scheming sycophants - Proclaimed the day auspicious and of joy; - But that day sowed the mournfulness of years - For thee and thine, for nations, for the world. - And thou, of piercing sight, thou saw’st it not? - By God, a mole would not have failed to see! - For thee I weep not, who in long-drawn throes - Didst reach convulsive to thy latest hour; - But for the innocent nations weep I fain, - Who, by thy hand betrayed, are moaning still. - Ever have I been prone to pardoning thee - Thy proper anguish, but not that of man. - But for that crime by which thou didst indue - Thee with vast shame and us with sorrows vast, - How long ago would Europe have beheld, - One after other, low her tyrants sunk! - When I the effect contemplate of thy crime, - I am tempted to exclaim--Be thou accurst! - Receive the judgment of the centuries-- - I seem to hear it sounding o’er thy grave-- - “Thou couldst have been the tyrants’ death-dealer, - And chosest for thyself a despot’s name. - As the keen-cutting vengeful sword of God, - Let wrong thou didst to others fall on thee!” - - Now the Queen-city, Joachim being gone, - Remained uncertain of her future fate; - And, like death’s messenger, the cry arose-- - “Ferdinand hastens back, and Caroline”: - And on a thousand gloomy brows one read - More horror than for earthquake or the plague. - And of those two the most terrific things - I heard a hundred hundred tongues narrate. - Some travelled, some escaped, some hid themselves, - And one was known to have gone mad with fear: - But hope, I saw, had halfway been revived - When it was published--“Caroline is dead.” - Yes, more than halfway; for they all averred: - “This Bourbon, in himself, is weak and null; - And, if he did become so black a wretch, - ’Twas that she-Fury who impelled him on: - Now that she’s foundered in the realms of night, - A human being he may be once more.” - And so it proved. The first-imagined fears - Were cleared away from the most troubled minds, - And all perceived that on a better plan - That richly-gifted Kingdom would be ruled, - And would attain, under a milder curb, - If not prosperity, at least repose. - The Aonian chorus revelled in the peace, - And chaunted amid others’ songs my own. - Our Ferdinand the Fourth was just a fiend, - But, dubbed the First, he wears an angel’s grace. - And I beheld that festive ardour grow, - The less expected, all the livelier. - ’Tis true so much rejoicing was perturbed, - In almost every confine of the realm, - By feverish epidemic, Noja’s plague, - And, worst of all, a longsome year of dearth: - But still the King dictated remedies, - And, if he could no more, he sympathized. - - Then, when he sickened, weighted now with years, - And the severe disease seemed past a cure, - So great the sorrow everywhere appeared - That all the civil orders shared in it; - And, when fair daylight followed on the cloud, - The joy was equal to the genuine grief. - In style now classic or romantic now - Native Academies acclaim the event; - And I, in verse extemporized almost - (And Fame still guerdons it with some applause), - Saluted, in the name of Italy, - The Bourbon Sovereign restored to health.[11] - One Gallo (maybe Corvo?), of Sicily, - Who thought himself a swan of Hippocrene-- - Or Gallo or Corvo, acrid and malign-- - Trying to do me an ill turn, did a good. - And this affair I’m minded to narrate,-- - A curious little story as it is. - He spread on all sides a censorious croak - That my address was outrage ’gainst the King: - And yet that ode contains such flatteries - That, when I now reflect on it, I blush; - And _he_ discerned therein, and clamoured loud, - An actual insult in the seeming praise.[12] - Against my verses such a cackle-cry - Was raised by him on one and other hand - That in the end our arbitrary Police - Prohibited their printing in the book; - And many said that I should find myself - Dismissed my employ, or sent to jail perchance. - The selfsame calumnies against my song, - From quarters more than one, arrived in court. - The King called for a copy, and, reading it, - He was affected, and was moved to tears. - The Duke of Ascoli was on the spot, - Who with minuteness told me of the facts. - Indeed the King so highly prized my lines - That he directed the Home-Minister - To have me summoned, and to give me thanks - In a dispatch sent by the government: - And, paper in hand, he added--“Tell him too, - I wept at it, and feel indebted to him.” - Further to crush that shameless calumny - Which he remarked some people still believed, - He made the Minister Tommasi read - The poem aloud, in Council at the full,-- - And oh what plaudits did my lines secure! - And at some parts the King shed tears anew. - I, then at the Museum, saw arrive - A Halberdier with grave and serious mien. - Ah what uncertainties assailed my heart! - Here comes the announcement that will strip me bare! - I read, in doubt and wavering, the dispatch: - “His Majesty requires you--come at once.” - Anxious I sped, and pondered on the way - What answer I could offer to the charge. - I entered with that sinister forecast, - And General Naselli, a Minister, - Came forward and encountered me, all smiles. - He said “Be seated”--pointing with his hand - To a gilded sofa, face to face with him. - He, turning with an affable regard - Toward me, my eyebrows arching with surprise, - Repeats, with manifest complacency, - The kindly words used by the Sovereign: - And on my countenance he could observe, - Mingled with pleasure, some astonishment. - I answered--after a simple preluding - With which I need not here concern myself-- - “This moment compensates for studious years,-- - I’m thankful for the kindness of our King. - But, Sir, is any power above his own? - What he so much approves others reject.” - He answered me with an offended air-- - “Have you your senses? This I can’t excuse.” - And I: “The whole collection is in print, - And my one poem only turned adrift; - My senses serve me well, your Excellency: - The Censorship has over-ruled the King.” - He smiled, and then, in a laconic tone, - Dictated to his secretary thus: - “The poems all must pass the censorship, - Except the one by Gabriel Rossetti. - From his the printing cannot be withheld, - Because the King has passed it and approved.” - I showed about all this no great conceit, - But it was greeted warmly by the young, - And that Sicilian Gallo, envious man, - Remained a laughing-stock, and drooped his comb.[13] - Then, when my lyric came to public light, - It won in Naples universal praise. - The fame of it went forth to Rome itself, - Where I am proud of being amply known, - For there I left a band of well-wishers - When the Provisional Government dissolved - In which I unobtrusively had held - In the Fine Arts a post of eminence.[14] - And the Sebezia Academy with pride - Noted my victory, which involved its own, - And which was viewed with so much bitterness - By Gallo that he fled that very night. - This Gallo against me, an exile now, - Perhaps is crowing still--which I forgive. - - In that Parthenopean Company - I sang the Threnody for several dead, - And for the saintly Bruno d’Amantea, - The noble surgeon and philanthropist;[15] - And good Valletta, on coming back from Rome, - And fair Paloma, did I celebrate.[16] - And in the presence of the royal court, - Which had erected a majestic tomb, - I sang the glory and deplored the death - Of the renowned Giovanni Paisiello,[17] - Who, the harmonic Siren’s progeny, - Bore sway o’er Europe’s music on the stage. - Torquato Tasso’s golden trumpet next - Blew with my breath, to magnify himself,[18] - He mine inspirer from the living stone - Which near the sea the King had raised for him; - And on that evening the Sebezia - Brought from all Europe choicest guests to meet. - There the good King of Denmark’s worthy heir - Came to embrace me ’mid a crushing throng;[19] - And with my daring images I struck - French, Russians, Germans, Spaniards, Englishmen. - - And now in Sapphic now in Theban mood, - I sang beside the urn, with laurel wreathed, - Wherein Luigi Quattromani sleeps,[20] - A casket from the Bible’s treasure-stores: - In him I greeted, and I bless him now, - The kindly master in the social friend. - Truly a poet--I seem to see him still-- - Inspired himself, inspiring others too: - When blind and old, he in his mind preserved - Acutest sight and lively youthfulness. - -I interrupt the verse-narrative for a moment, to point out that -Rossetti here recounts--what was of leading importance in his -Neapolitan career--how he came to be an improvising poet. Luigi -Quattromani was a renowned improvisatore, and (so far as I infer) -little or not at all an author of verse written and published. The date -when Rossetti first knew him, and soon afterwards began improvising, -is not here defined; I suppose it may have been towards 1810. When my -father came to London in 1824 he resolved not to prolong the practice; -thinking, and no doubt rightly, that, although he might excite some -surprise and attention by improvising, it would on the whole lower his -position as a serious professional man in the teaching and literary -vocation. Yet he did occasionally give a specimen of his prowess as an -extempore poet; the latest notice I find of such a performance was in -his family-circle, in 1840. If I myself ever heard him improvise, I -have forgotten it. The observations which he here makes on the dangers -of the habit, both to health and to purity of poetic style, are worth -noting. He first proceeds with a description of Quattromani’s doings. - - Whenso I heard him touch on David’s harp, - All fervid with extemporaneous power, - Upon his face shone out the impassioned soul - Which spread around spontaneous bursts of light. - And that same flame I saw a-shine in him - On mine own spirit did I feel descend. - Yes, what I heard meseemed not possible; - ’Twas ecstasy to me, enchantment, dream. - But what appeared incredible almost - Was coming to be realized in myself. - On my way home I tried to do the like, - And oh astonishment! I also sang - Line after line: so strange the upshot seemed - That I renewed the essay for several days. - By daytime and by night assiduously - Did I repeat that same experiment. - Often with Quattromani I conferred, - Who gave my verses not a little praise; - And once the blind old man exclaimed to me-- - “Alternate with me in an improvise.” - And, after a few trials and demands, - He took me up with so much ardent zest - That ’mid the pomp of images produced - He gave me many a “viva” from his heart. - He closed by saying: “For poetic strifes - Nature has given you athletic power.” - “Persist,” he often said to me, “persist, - And let no sloth impede you on your road. - A poet you were born, and those who seek - To change your course--believe this--envy you. - What you at your commencement do with me - Might seem the fruit of lengthy studying.” - And often did our verses alternate - In choice assemblies with co-equal praise, - So much men’s judgments wavered in the scales - That ’twixt us victory remained in doubt. - But this impressed on me the stamp of worth-- - What honour to contend with such a man! - He, like a living mirror, faces me, - And, seeing myself in him, I can but grieve. - He old and blind, and I too blind and old: - And he died poor, and I am dying poor. - But which of us the more deplorable? - He in his country, I exiled by fate! - - Oft on this foreign shore I’ve asked myself, - Did my addiction to extempore song - Harm me, or profit? I remain in doubt. - But this, without nice solving, I’ll affirm-- - I was becoming palsied and in spasms. - A Galen’s rigour ought to cry it down, - And thus prevent so miserable an end. - ’Twas so my Brother Dominick expired,[21] - Who in such efforts was expert and apt. - I never heard that brother of mine recite-- - He left me a child, but I remember him; - And well I know that he at Parma’s bar - Was greeted as a re-born Cicero. - Youthful he died, far from his family-- - And wherefore died? Because he improvised. - More than one symptom has convinced me clear - That, through my leaving off that exercise, - Exile, in that alone, has been my friend: - And so, from much reflection I can say, - That mental strain leads to paralysis. - Nor only with regard to healthful life - Makes it the nerves uncertain and unstrung, - But as to writing with correctness too - I fear at last it worsens toward neglect. - Yes, that it harms the style I can but think: - To work a-sudden is not working well. - Thou who wouldst merit the Phœbean wreath, - O youth, take caution ’gainst this same abuse; - For these my verses, written slipshod-like, - Perhaps derive from that ill-wont of mine; - For now I hurry verse to follow verse, - And reel them off as ’twere a kind of talk. - Good composition craves a needful space, - Not emulous capricious fantasy. - - Though such a practice I cannot defend, - Still I become renowned because of that. - Full many a noted passage from my muse - Was quoted, serious and facetious both; - And oft-times at the tables of the great, - Invited guest and poet, I had my place. - What precious days I wasted on good cheer, - Whence, save keen penitence, I’ve nothing now! - Amid our Princes, Dukes, and Marquises,-- - Cassero, Campochiaro, Berio-- - Phœbus joined Bacchus with a joyous note, - Doubly to drench the mind’s ebriety. - Inflamed and reckless ’mid the toasts and praise, - I saw my youthful Muse more daring grown; - And, when I went from Naples to the Tiber, - I found my fame there copiously diffused. - Among the poets whom I cherished there, - I give but Biondi’s and Ferretti’s names.[22] - - As one of the Provisional Government - King Joachim had summoned me to Rome:[23] - Monte Citorio there, seven months and more, - Saw me employed at morning and at eve; - And I was present at the Pope’s return - In year thirteen of this our century. - And _there_ was likewise put in exercise - My Muse, by urgencies a thousandfold; - And I again aroused enthusiasm, - For poetry in Rome is greatly loved.-- - Of this no more, for I can hear a voice-- - “To enlarge hereon were obvious self-conceit.” - - Nor does Rome stint herself to mere applause, - But gives me titles and diplomas too. - The Arcadia, and Tiberine Academy, - The Ardenti of Viterbo, and others more, - Inscribed my own ’mid many goodly names. - In Naples not of the Sebezia alone - But the Pontanian Society, - And even the Orezia from Palermo, - I hold diplomas in this distant land; - And, now that I am at my day’s extreme, - One also I receive from Lyons in France. - I _was_, not am. The past is all a school - Where clear I see the nothingness of man. - For me has vanished all: only the grave - Awaits me, and thither willingly I go. - Life is a lengthened dream, and, when it ends, - All lettered glory is a dream as well; - And vanity of vanities I mark, - Yea even in that which crowns the highest of men - Had I the golden trump and deathless name - Of Homer, or of Virgil or Torquato, - What would the guerdon of my verses be? - Just a dissyllable I should not hear. - Sad fate! - - But I return to Ferdinand, - Auspicious planet to his realm restored. - He, by endowing the Sebezia, - Seemed patron of our country’s intellect; - So that I frequently heard men proclaim-- - “Demon he went, and angel he returned.” - But who can ever change the human soul? - He in reverting saw us evermore - As liegemen to himself or to Murat: - The first he greeted with a cheerful mien, - And for the second nursed a secret grudge. - Brothers with brothers he did not unite, - As should have been effected from the first - All the best posts were given away to these, - Though oftentimes unjust and ignorant; - Those others were neglected and depressed, - However honourable and well-informed. - A victim I of such partiality, - Of which the proofs could day by day be seen; - What was my due he gave to some one else. - When Naples to their palace had beheld - From Sicily return the unrighteous court, - In her most famous University - The chair of Eloquence was left unfilled; - And in the ardour of a youthful hope - I too competed ’mid a lettered band.[24] - We numbered thirty-six. Before me I saw - Conspicuous talents, each more strong than I; - And we were set to pass a triple test, - Three different subjects taken out by lot: - Two, writ in the Professors’ presence there, - Who had to be the censors of the themes. - The first was in the language of that Rome - Who gave her laws and usage to the world; - The second, in the tongue of Italy, - Classic in style, and resonant and terse; - Lastly, the third one had to be pronounced - To the assembled public from the chair. - For the two writings, Gatti, Oliva, and I, - Issued with equal credit from the strife: - But in the third and arduous exercise - I gained the victory over all the rest. - Amid the surging and applauding throng, - The Faculty cried many times “Well done!”-- - Who got the chair? A certain Bianchi did, - Who had salient merits as a loyalist. - And mice were cutting capers on the forms - Deserted by our youth indignantly. - I vamp up no fantastic notions here: - All Naples can declare it to be true. - - The young men, nettled by a noble scorn, - Called _me_ Professor--not the other man; - And I at home opened a private class, - Where I was trainer of some vivid minds: - And, if I thither could return one day, - How many a pupil should I see around! - Ah fervid youth, liege to the beautiful, - Who so did sorrow for mine adverse fate, - Durso, Malpica, Curci, Caccavon,[25] - And others to whose names my bosom beats, - In you I glory; and you, choice grateful souls, - Glory that I your master was erewhile. - The army, by the royal ordinance, - Saw heroes now supplanted by poltroons; - From the tribunals upright judges banned, - And greedy vultures were installed on them; - And, what is worse, the Kingdom’s treasury - By vultures in like manner was devoured. - Likewise a matter so terrific happed - As to fill all the Kingdom with dismay. - Wicked Canosa, back from Sicily,[26] - Invested as the Minister of Police, - Conceived a project truculent and vile, - Enough for Satan’s self to shudder at. - This monster stands by various writers drawn, - And I can be excused from limning him: - Yet, always by the King’s approval graced, - The man’s foul shame reflected on the King. - In every crime he out-did every wretch, - And now he laboured to out-do himself. - He, pondering an atrocious butchery - Which for whole weeks he set to ruminate, - Filled with the loathliest scum the capital, - Offscouring of the gibbets and the hulks; - And at a signal these men were to pounce - On any whom they saw unlike their crew. - That felon was a new Friar Alberic.[27] - Oh the hard fate and outrage of our time! - The Austrian General fathomed this intrigue, - And forced the King to turn the monster out; - Inept Italian princes were and are - The Austrian Sultan’s underling Bashaws. - Escaped from this portentous massacre, - We all denounced it with stentorian lungs. - And what a sort of crime must that have been - Which very Austria spurned!--and truth it is. - ’Twas even said the King----But this I scout. - - While from the foulness of despotic power - Such nauseous effluvia were diffused, - A patriotic flame wound everywhere, - And a Vesuvius all the Kingdom seemed; - And from the augmented crackling underground - At last erupted many external peals. - Like gushing blood from several arteries - Toward the treasury all the money flowed; - And with our straits our hardihood increased, - So that the government was undermined; - Already many free-souled squadrons thrilled, - Like winds unloosed to agitate the main. - The Carbonari, an unvanquished sect,[28] - A vast re-union of audacious souls, - Spread with a progress irresistible, - As in a wood by winds a tameless fire: - Opening I saw a gulf without confine, - And on the shelving marge the governors slept. - The politicians’ atrabilious brains - Called that great movement faction--shame be theirs! - For, being Carbonari almost all, - The movement may be termed the Kingdom’s own. - - The King, who did us wrong with insolence, - Might have avoided it, had he been wise. - Insensate! His commands are ridiculed - Amid the increasing cries which stun the realm. - Besides, the Vardarelli slain by fraud,[29] - Slain Capobianco,[30] all men recollect. - And what the outcome of the treacheries? - “Freedom” was sounded, “Freedom” everywhere. - Not that which, ever hungering for blood, - Like to a Fury rioted in France; - But sacred Freedom, of angelic form, - Who tells the king “Be just,” and harms him not; - Who at the shrine of the metropolis - Soon saw the nation prostrated around. - O Freedom, girdled by the Italian light, - Never did man kneel unto thee so fair: - In vain Vandalic outrage hurled thee down, - For still in thousand hearts thou bear’st the sway. - I for six lustres vow to thee my life, - And, thine apostle, thee announce and preach. - Thou shalt return, return--no frenzy this! - - Our century has seen no brighter year, - That year beheld not a more radiant day, - Than that when the symbolic furnaces - Diffused around the burning and the flash: - Those vivid flashes and those fiery heats - Spread light on minds and flame upon the heart. - And now a lofty hope bestows on all - Blest harmony which universal seems, - Because that flame and light can permeate - Through every member of the social frame. - And one could hear a new alliance preached - Of two great forces in a single sway: - Popular liberty and kingly power - Conjoined in amity by a lasting link; - Each one in this serves to ennoble each,-- - Itself the nation honours in the king.[31] - Of such mixed government, which Europe seems - To tend to by an impulse from on high, - England possesses much that’s genuine, - But France has only seen its counterfeit.[32] - - At that time, to the sound of thousand cheers, - Spain made it simpler, giving it the throne. - With friendly breeze from that re-fashioned scheme - Nations felt joy and princes troublousness; - And Naples, from of old the liege of Spain, - Revelled in rapture inexpressible: - In launching flames on this side and on that - More than volcano seemed the fiery forge. - That selfsame ardour all through Italy - Hurled curses on the shameful Austrian yoke, - When the year twenty, past its midway course, - Felt all the parching of the Syrian Dog: - That heat still swelled the Carbonaro heat,-- - The Ausonian Genius blew his trumpet-call. - - And to those memorable clangours soon - More than one note replied with sound of joy. - Silvati and Morelli, noble souls,[33] - Hoisted aloft the Italian battle-flag; - And Minichini,[34] of the Nolan church, - Joining them, sanctified the enterprise. - From Nola’s city on to Monteforte - The band of heroes goes determinate: - Their Country guides them, and Humanity, - And twixt these Freedom who salutes the two. - With vast applause the kingdom echoes round: - Only the palace in dismay is dumb. - Terror and rage distract it hour by hour: - Yet troops are sent--but only raise a laugh; - For squadron after squadron joins with those - So as to number a resistless host: - Despotic sway now comes to such a pass - As to appear a corpse mouldering in worms. - - O Monteforte, oh the glorious slope - O’er which shone forth the star of liberty! - Like Sinai and Horeb thou’lt be famed, - For on thee the new age was brought to birth.[35] - - That hour supreme is present to my soul, - Whereby I live again in youthful prime. - Naples is wavering between hope and fear, - But outside of her walls ’tis only hope. - She for the towns and cities joyously - Assembles troops and arms, and sends them on. - Guglielmo Pepe--and our fear is sped-- - Mounts to be captain of the daring hosts. - Hero, all hail! History shall celebrate, - Not thy good fortune, but thy just renown. - And, more than in thy land, in hard exile - Constant wast thou, strong son of Italy. - Proud am I of thy friendship with myself,-- - It is the noblest honour of my life. - - And I from far cry at the mountain’s base - To that day’s dawn as prompted by a god, - “Lovely indeed art thou with stars in hair - Which like to vivid sapphires scintillate!”[36] - Dawn thou of brightest day!--and that salute - Soon through the whole of Italy re-rings. - - But wherefore must I moan, remembering this? - My land, I saw thee throned, thou’rt now i’ the dust: - For thee, my land, these tears,--no tears for me! - And yet Hope comes dictating to my heart: - “From the new mourning shall new joy result; - That which was then achieved is but a seed,-- - The goodly seed shall bear a goodly fruit.” - Yes, O ye nations, courage! and expect - From sterile winter lavish summertime. - - July’s ninth day is blazing in the heaven, - And to the people’s will the King accedes. - How could I ever fully represent - The immense delight which I beheld around? - - The Bourbon King, throned in his gilded seat, - Object of love in such a festival, - With rage in bosom and with joy in face, - Feigns to applaud the good he so detests: - Then on the gospel swears ... ah crime-stained King! - Thou stamp’st the kiss of Judas on the Christ! - - O realm betrayed, to which I wailing speak, - Remember that Alfieri has pronounced-- - “To make a blameless king, unmake him first”-- - And, if a greedy foreigner, all the more. - The deed then wrought was done in righteousness, - ’Twas reason’s revolution: all the same, - As if it were the greatest of all crimes - ’Twas punished by the Bourbon’s perfidy. - No, such a sacred movement cost to none - A drop of blood, not even a drop of tears. - Ah I remember those nine hurrying months - As though they had been blessed years of fame! - August the Parliament was opened, where - Some Cato, Tully, or Hortensius, pealed. - Activity is witnessed in the fleet,-- - Ancient Amalfi seems therein revived. - The manning of the army starts anew, - But with no mixture of a foreign stock; - And warlike squadrons are adjoined to it - Of civic legions and militia-bands. - The strenuous presses creak, and everywhere - The country’s intellect displays its fruits. - My own blood like a burning lava coursed: - Not I, not I, then sang, but Patriot Love! - And, to encourage that heroic race - Which from ancestral ashes came to birth, - Re-echoed did I hark to those his strains - Which he was pleased to utter through my lips: - From women and from children and from all, - Here, there, and up and down, on every hand.[37] - With dulcet and with martial harmony - By the Musician’s skill invested, these, - Sung in all houses and in every street, - Were even quoted in the Parliament; - To their Tyrtæus all the provinces, - As chorus to the coryphee, replied. - All, all was active: Usages and laws - Progressed in union with the newborn rights. - But many of the law-courts had to shut, - For rivalry in virtue lessened crime. - -I must here make a little digression, to illustrate this matter of -“Tyrtæus.” It need scarcely be said that Tyrtæus, who flourished about -650 B.C., was a Greek elegiac poet, born in Attica, lame and -misshapen, and totally ignorant of military matters. In the second -Messenian war the Lacedæmonians were directed by the oracle to apply to -the Athenians for a general; and the Athenians (such at least is the -legend, which may be largely discounted without undue scepticism) sent -them Tyrtæus. This looked very like a _mauvaise plaisanterie_, and was -so regarded by the Lacedæmonians; yet the result justified the oracle, -and the Athenians as well. The poet poured forth his strains with such -splendid impulse and vigour that he animated the troops; they abandoned -the idea of raising the siege of Ithome, and thoroughly defeated the -Messenians. “The popularity of these elegies in the Spartan army was -such that it became the custom to sing them round the camp-fires at -night, the polemarch rewarding the best singer with a piece of flesh.” - -The term “Tyrtæus of Italy” (Tirteo d’Italia) has been constantly -applied by his countrymen to Gabriele Rossetti. I am not clear when -this practice began, whether before or only after 1846, when Rossetti, -in his _Veggente in Solitudine_, applied the term to _himself_. At -any rate, I had until recently assumed that the phrase had only a -lax application, as indicating that Rossetti, by his declaimed and -published patriotic lyrics, had incited, and would continue to incite, -Italians to combat for liberty and independence. But of late I have -come to the almost confident conclusion that he must have taken a -personal part in the sole military expedition in which the Neapolitan -army sought to maintain the constitution of 1820. This conclusion -is founded upon a letter (in my possession) which a certain Dr -Costanza--to me not otherwise known--addressed to my father on 10th -November 1847. I first read the letter with attention towards 1896, and -I here give a translation of it. - - “GIBRALTAR. - “_10th November 1847._ - - “HONOURED COMPATRIOT, - - “Twenty-six years have now passed since we bade one another a last - adieu in the Island of Malta, at the fatal period of ’21. You must - recollect Dr Costanza, then a young physician and surgeon, now - turned of fifty years of age. You had known him in the capital of - the kingdom, and you afterwards met him at Montecassino, _when you - were returning from the gorges of Antrodoca after the hapless result - of that first passage of arms_ upon which depended the fate of our - country. That Costanza is now writing to you, and warmly recommends - to you three fellow-countrymen of ours, recently saved by miracle - from the blood-red hands of the agents of the tyrant of Naples and - Sicily.... - - “Your Compatriot, and erewhile Companion - in misfortune, - DR COSTANZA.” - -In this letter the mention of Antrodoca (or Antrodoco) is the essential -thing. The mountains of Antrodoco are near Rieti, which was the scene -of an engagement, on 7th March 1821, between the Neapolitan and the -Austrian troops. The actual feat of arms was not discreditable to the -Italians; but--perceiving that they were the weaker party, and that -the final issue was hopeless for them--they immediately afterwards -disbanded, and all was over. I cannot indeed, recollect having ever -heard from my father that he was along with the army on that occasion, -nor does he affirm it in his versified Autobiography; yet I now see -that he must have been so. I do not infer that he was in the fighting -ranks; but I do infer that two passages which are to be found in his -_Veggente in Solitudine_ have a more positive meaning than I used to -attribute to them. The passages are as follows:-- - - 1. “Fratelli, all’armi, all’armi!” etc. - - “Brothers, to arms, to arms! Our country has summoned us. _I, with my - stimulating songs, will also go among you._” - - 2. (As already referred to) “Tirteo d’Italia,” etc. - - “Who will be the Tyrtæus of Italy in the camp? ’Tis I, ’tis I! _Such I - have been_, such I am.” - -The first of these passages comes from a song composed by Rossetti -towards the date of the soldiering in 1821. The second may have been -written about 1845. - -I have found one other paper which seems to bear upon this -semi-military act of Gabriele Rossetti. An excellent friend of his, -Ferdinando Ciciloni, wrote to him from Naples on 24th November 1825, -saying: “Three days ago I went to San Sebastiano, which, from the seat -of the Parliament, has become a College of Music. As I crossed the -courtyard, I had a mental vision of Rossetti in uniform, and with two -very black moustaches.” As we have seen (note on p. 36), Rossetti, -though not at all a man of a soldiering turn, had belonged, in 1814, -to the Guard of Internal Security under King Joachim, and once again, -in 1821, he donned a uniform--a British one this time. But Ciciloni’s -remark does not seem very likely to refer to either of these incidents; -rather to something in which the Parliament-building was concerned, and -a muster immediately before the departure of the army to Rieti appears -the most probable occurrence. - - Freedom immaculate, O thou who hadst - Such sacred worship on Sebeto’s banks, - Iniquitous plots ’gainst thee, without and in, - The Royal Princes’ visible ill-faith, - Ambition nursed by some few senators, - And envious grudge of many generals, - Engirt thee with the trackless labyrinth - When in thee Heaven was overcome by Hell. - - Nor have I in repentance struck my brow - Because my worship of thee wrought me scathe. - Were I in that same case a thousand times, - A thousand I’d return to do the same. - Thee from Christianity I ne’er disjoined,-- - I feel my heart-strings quivering to both. - The Bourbon perjury, the Austrian force, - On thee, O sacred Liberty, made war: - And, seeing thy holy worship thus destroyed, - I bade a farewell to the soil profaned, - And so the thundering ship conducted me - Where Christ and Freedom can be both adored. - - Name to the world, O sacred Gratitude, - The Scotch-born hero who on British deck - Rescued the singer of Italian hopes - Out of the Bourbon despot’s slaughter-fangs. - Sir Graham Moore,[38] inured to combating - In a great nation’s thundrous lightning-flash, - I bear with an indelible imprint - Thy cherished name written upon my heart. - Those soul-inspired and freedom-loving strains - Intoned by me upon my native soil - On the four winds already had dispread, - O’er mountains and o’er seas, a tireless flight; - And the Britannic Genius, when they reached - His shores, bade Italy’s Tyrtæus hail. - Now my propitious fate had willed it so - That by a lady were my verses read-- - A British Admiral’s well-honoured wife, - Whether more fair or gracious who could say? - But this I know--I saw in her combined - Penelope’s heart and Helen’s countenance. - She, worthy partner of the British chief, - Honours in others’ mental gifts her own; - And those who know her know how highly trained - She is, and she alone discerns it not. - - To Naples came the lady at the time - When flames burned there of patriotic love, - And she expressed the wish she had conceived - To know the Italian poet face to face; - And with such ardour she admired his work - That numerous verses she could quote by heart. - An English officer, of cultured mind, - Who had always shown me marks of courtesy, - And who in the Museum saw me at whiles, - Made me acquainted with the lady’s wish. - I to the invitation gave response, - And so a day was settled for my call. - - She--as a sister might a brother greet - Returning--greeted me in amity; - Yet day by day this kindliness increased. - Fair Angel of God’s presence sent on earth, - Ah not so soon return to Paradise! - Many there circle his eternal throne, - But angels are not plenteous here below. - In all that effervescent period - She, whose good wishes were for our success, - Remained a witness of my innocence, - And an approver of my patriot zeal. - - When by the foul effect of treacheries - Our government had perished, she was grieved, - And for unfortunate Rossetti’s fate - She felt concern, and to her husband spoke: - “Save from the axe that guiltless man; if love - Of country is a crime, you are guilty too!” - - Alas how hard did exile seem to me, - And leaving in such woes my native land! - Three times he offered refuge on his ship, - And all the three times I rejected it. - But my continuing was so foolhardy - That wiser I accepted it the fourth. - - Lamenting night and day my country’s lot, - And as to my own life not caring much, - From March to June I kept myself concealed, - ’Mid traps laid by a sleepless-eyed police.[39] - One night I was in that terrific plight, - When a voice called upon my name, and said: - “Fly--I discern your scaffold plain to see!” - I look, and find ’tis General Fardella, - Who was just then the Minister of War; - But, while I am rousing from my wonderment, - The dark receives him--moveless I remain. - Meseems I see him still, the while I write. - He, who so often gave my lines applause, - Had entered furtive in my hiding-place: - But how he found it out I cannot say. - How could I sleep, or hope again for calm? - Within my soul I heard the word--“Fly, fly!” - In perturbations having passed the night, - I to the lady wrote at earliest dawn; - And towards the eve two English subalterns[40] - Most willingly responded to my wish; - And they, to make my move less perilous, - Gave me red uniform resembling theirs. - I on the moment, be it luck or thought - To pass more safely before others’ eyes, - Packed a few clothes and papers many a one - In a small trunk, and was in readiness: - And I exclaimed, twixt joyful heart and grieved, - “I bear with me my all--Ready--let’s go.” - Between the gallant pair I took the coach, - Which drove us forth on our clandestine path[41] - To where a skiff was in await for us, - With six athletic oarsmen on the beach. - O Rochfort,[42] thou to which the naval forts - All paid salute as they before thee passed, - And thundering thou through hundred-fourscore mouths - Didst spread afar thy nautical command, - Thee sinuous the Mediterranean, - And thee vast Ocean’s sheer immensity, - Saw dominating the unstable wave, - And christened thee the Formidable Fort. - Thee from the skiff I see, and feed my glance, - As on artilleried walls, upon thy bows. - - The mighty ship gave symptoms of good-will, - Expressed in divers modes by the ample crew; - And I--I kissed that wooden Albion - Amid the naval group who smiled thereat. - To the saloon bright-shining in the dusk - I sped, to give Thetis and Neptune thanks. - “Here is a pair of gods not fabulous,” - I said, when greeted by their noble smiles. - The grace which can forestall a modest wish - I always found on either countenance. - - Then in the night I went with saddened soul - To contemplate the shore which met my view. - All are reposing in the silent hour, - Except some watch that paces vigilant; - And I alone and pensive on the prow - Stand communing with this my land betrayed; - And a few happy days and many dire - Are passing in review before mine eyes. - Ever ferocious Tyranny I saw - Becoming stronger by flagitious means; - And Freedom, tasted for a few poor days, - Begetting, like the fruit of Eden, death; - And Treason, like a snake pestiferous, - From two great goblets sipping tears and blood. - And, while my fantasy on every side - Ran riot, struck by miserable ideas, - The scenes of sanguinary Ninety-nine - Offered themselves to my dejected soul; - And o’er the regal lair meseemed I saw - A host funereal of threat’ning ghosts. - “Unhappy country, adieu!”--And that adieu - Over all Italy I diffused in song.[43] - - - - -LIFE IN EXILE--MALTA AND ENGLAND - - - To thee the first the British prow was turned, - Flourishing Malta, small but beautiful, - A quiet refuge ’mid the unquiet sea, - Of an Italian mind and Arab speech. - I, sifting out of fallacies the truth, - Full half a lustre passed within thy bounds; - And, but for patriotic sorrowings, - Out there I should have led a placid life,-- - For I encountered courteous, cultured minds,-- - Culture in some, in many courtesy. - - But both of these--they have my homage here-- - I amply in one person found conjoined, - John Hookham Frere, a learned man and wise, - A Privy Councillor of the British Crown. - Himself he shone, not through extraneous aids, - And how I knew him I shall gladly tell. - Fame, so propitious to poetic gifts, - In Malta made a magnified report-- - That Italy’s Tyrtæus had arrived, - And rescued by the British Admiral. - And I by many people was informed - That in the higher class the wish prevailed - That in some noted house I should display - My fervour of poetic improvise; - And I, now so suspicious of my powers, - Unhesitating answered--“Yes, at once.” - - Ah me unhappy! I’m no more the man! - But such must be the course of human fate. - Too true, I, then a river, am now a rill-- - A rill which comes anear to drying up. - In vain I stir my fancy, which is tired,-- - I cannot even command poetic phrase. - These verses--let me say this prose in rhyme-- - As I dictate them, others write them down,[44] - And, as they all gush out extempore, - Some of them will be good, and others bad: - Nor do I blot the bad to keep the best, - But pass them current as they chance to come. - To get the whole expressed without constraint, - And without labouring after phrase and word, - I pitched on purpose on that sextal rhyme - In which one easily words the thing one wants. - - On my assent, a spacious hall prepares - For ladies, men of letters, diplomats. - There that distinguished man enraptured heard - My burst of song ’mid plaudits many and full;[45] - And, being unused to such demonstrances, - He deemed the thing almost a prodigy. - I sang six themes, and my excited mind - Poured copiously divergent styles and rhythms. - Persons of eminence, the following day, - Graced me by visits of civility. - But one beneficent and reverend mien - In which I read exalted characters, - A diction which, arising from the soul, - Goes to the heart, and fixes what it says-- - This ’mid the throng I noted. He being gone, - I asked his name--and it astonished me; - For all that I had heard rumoured around - About his talents settled on my thought: - An ample treasure-house of classic lore,[46] - Such did Fame publish him by hundred mouths: - Toward him desire resistless drew me on, - Nor did his presence lessen his repute. - Unconscious of his fame he singly seemed,-- - To hear it named was what he could not brook; - Courtesy generous and without display, - Learning immense, and greater modesty;-- - Ah who could paint that noble-natured man? - One day when he accorded praise anew - To chaunts of mine which wakened his surprise, - I answered him: “In you I seem to see - The imperial eagle by a sparrow charmed. - I know my verse has earned me banishment; - But I, excelling some, bend low to you.” - And later, when I saw how plenteously - He dealt his succours to the sick and poor, - I in John Hookham Frere discerned the type - Of the sublime Christian philosopher. - None but an angel could pourtray him true,-- - I feel my eyes grow moist to speak of him. - He called me friend, and that has been my pride, - And in myself I reverenced the name. - Having that store of virtues in my gaze, - Sanctified in him by Christianity,-- - ’Tis sacred duty to confess as much-- - I felt myself grow better by so great - A pattern. Nevermore he left my thoughts, - And even in death within my heart he lives. - - To him, after I reached the English shores - (All distant from him though I then had passed), - I dedicated Dante’s Comedy, - With Analytic Comment from my pen. - That Psaltery to him too I inscribed - Which praises freedom and ennobles man, - And he with kindliness received the wish - I showed that it be dedicate to him. - Of him with lively gratitude anew - I chaunted in my “Seer in Solitude.” - Those lines while I was writing, thou, blest soul, - Wast winging forth thy way to Paradise, - There to embrace the sister and the spouse - From whom thou languishing wast parted here. - - O all of you elected spirits and pure, - Look down on desolate Rossetti’s grief. - He in himself holds that same constancy - Which every one of you applauded oft. - Still exiled, but now old, infirm, and blind, - How different alas from other-while! - Different? Ah no! Although oppressed by years, - He for his country always is the same. - And he, on hearing how that freedom’s tree - Has there re-budded, full of sapfulness,[47] - Blesses his every sweat of brow poured out - To irrigate its high ancestral germ; - And, now when all men sweat to nurture it - He hopes before he dies to taste its fruits. - Now Scythian cold, ’tis true, reigns everywhere, - But none can think it will last on for aye: - To the political winter now endured - A more propitious season must succeed; - And all by various signs can estimate - That flowers and fruits we yet shall see in bloom. - -As Rossetti has here mentioned his edition of Dante’s _Comedy_, and his -own _Psaltery_, and as references occur later on to other publications -of his, I may as well enter at once into some details in elucidation. -After his arrival in England he printed the following works:-- - -1. 1826-7. Dante’s _Inferno_, with a “Comento Analitico.” The intention -was to publish the whole of the _Divina Commedia_: but, the expense -proving too great, the _Inferno_ alone came out. The great majority of -the comment on the _Purgatorio_ was written--not any (I think) of that -on the _Paradiso_. The MS. comment on the _Purgatorio_ was presented -by me in 1883 to the Municipality of Vasto, under a stipulation -(volunteered by the Municipality itself) that they would print it; but -this has not been done, and indeed the MS. volume was treated in a -highly neglectful style. My father, when in Italy, was of course very -well acquainted with Dante’s poem; but he had not studied it with any -keenness of scrutiny until he settled in London. When he did that, he -soon reached the conclusion that the surface of Dante’s _Commedia_ is -very different from its inner core of meaning. At first he considered -the inner core to be political: the Empire and Ghibellinism, as against -the Papacy and Guelfism. As he progressed his conceptions expanded, and -he regarded Dante as a member, both in politics and in religion, of an -occult society having a close relation to what we now call Freemasonry; -and he opined that the _Commedia_ and other writings of Dante, and -also the books of many other famous authors in various languages and -epochs, are of similar internal significance. It is not my purpose here -to discuss whether he was right or wrong: I hold that he was highly -ingenious, that some of his reasonings deserve very careful attention, -and that in several instances he pushed things too far. His comment -on Dante, and subsequent writings in the same direction, excited some -notice in Italy, and at least as much in England. Coleridge thought -well of his speculations up to, but not beyond, a certain point; Isaac -Disraeli was fully convinced by them; Arthur Hallam, and afterwards -Panizzi and Schlegel, wrote in opposition. A learned German, Joseph -Mendelssohn, lectured in Berlin on Rossetti’s system, and published -his discourses, which are more expository than critical, in 1843. A -remarkable book (later than my No. 2) was brought out at Naples by -Vecchioni, embodying a course of interpretation and argument closely -resembling that of Rossetti, who never quite understood whether the -conclusions of Vecchioni had been formed independently or not. - -2. 1832. _Lo Spirito Antipapale che produsse la Riforma_ (The -Anti-papal Spirit which produced the Reformation) develops and extends -the ideas, which Rossetti had conceived during his study of Dante, as -to a secret society to which that poet and many other writers belonged, -and as to the essentially anti-Christian as well as anti-papal opinions -covertly expressed in their writings. An English translation of this -work was published. - -3. 1833. The work to which the Autobiography has applied the name -_Psaltery_ is entitled _Iddio e l’Uomo, Salterio_ (God and Man, -a Psaltery). The majority of it was written in Malta: in London -considerable additions and changes were made. Leaving some of his -individual lyrics out of account, this may be regarded as the -completest and best poetic work produced by Rossetti. In 1843 it -was republished under a new title, _Il Tempo_ (Time), and with some -substantial modifications of plan. This book, and our No. 2, are down -in the Pontifical _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_. - -4. 1840. _Il Mistero dell’ Amor Platonico del Medio Evo derivato -dai Misteri Antichi_ (The Mystery of the Platonic Love of the -Middle Ages derived from the Ancient Mysteries). This extensive and -rather discursive work, in five volumes, follows up the line of -speculation and argument shown in Nos. 1 and 2. Rossetti wrote it -with a consciousness that the themes of religion or irreligion which -it discusses were volcanic matter for readers to handle, as well as -perilous to his own professional position in England. He therefore -exhibited his subject with some amount of reticence, meandering through -thickets of very audacious thought--the thought of great writers of -the past as interpreted (but also to a great extent deprecated) by -himself. This book was printed; but, as Mr Frere, partially seconded by -Mr Charles Lyell, pronounced it to be foolhardy, it was withheld from -publication in England, and was only put on sale on the Continent with -precaution and in small numbers. - -5. 1842. _La Beatrice di Dante_--an argument that Dante’s Beatrice -was not in any sense a real woman, but an embodiment of Philosophy. -The reasoning extends a good deal beyond this limit, into regions -explored in Nos. 1, 2, and 4. Rossetti completed the work in three -disquisitions--or indeed, according to the final arrangement, in nine -disquisitions. Only the first of these was published. The others -were entrusted to a French writer, M. E. Aroux. He studied them, -and published a book named _Dante Hérétique, Révolutionnaire, et -Socialiste_--a book which my father, on seeing it in print, did not -acknowledge as by any means faithful to his own views. The MS. was -returned to Rossetti: somehow it could never be found in our household -until the close of 1900, when I discovered it, more or less complete, -in an old portfolio. - -6. 1846. _Il Veggente in Solitudine_ (The Seer in Solitude) is a long -poem of patriotic aim, in several books and all sorts of metres. Its -main object is to denounce the then political and religious condition -of Italy, and to forecast a better future. This is mixed up with a -good deal of autobiographical matter, and with many lyrics of old time -(some of them evincing Rossetti’s very best work) interpolated into -the context. As a rounded achievement of poetry, this book cannot be -eulogized; it had, however, a great though clandestine circulation in -Italy, roused enthusiastic feelings, and was so much prized that an -honorary medallion of Rossetti, the work of Signor Cerbara, was struck. - -7. 1847. _Versi_, published at Lausanne. This volume has not a directly -patriotic or political complexion: it consists of many of Rossetti’s -best poems of early date, along with some of recent years. - -8. 1852. _L’Arpa Evangelica_ (The Evangelic Harp). Although printed in -1852, this volume only reached Rossetti’s hands at an advanced date -in 1853. It consists of hymns and lyrics of a distinctly Christian, -combined with an enlarged humanitarian, character. Several of the poems -in this volume are now used in the Evangelical churches of Italy. I -find twenty-one in a volume entitled _Inni e Cantici ad uso delle -Chiese, Famiglie, Scuole, ed Associazioni Cristiane d’ Italia_. Roma, -1897. - -It may be as well to say here something as to my father’s religious -opinions. His parents were religious Catholics of the ordinary Italian -type. His bringing-up was religious; and I suppose that, until -manhood was well advanced, he acquiesced, without special zeal, in -the established views and practices of Catholicism. As his political -opinions progressed into active opposition to despotism and the foreign -yoke, so did his religious opinions progress into active, and indeed -very fierce, opposition to Papal dogma and pretensions, and to all -that side of Roman Catholicism which pertains more to sacerdotal and -hierarchical system than to the personality and the gospel utterances -of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, he never ceased to cherish and -reverence this original basis of Evangelical faith and practice. As -I knew him from my earliest years (say from 1834), he adhered to no -ecclesiastical sect whatever; and--allowing for the primitive-Christian -sympathy just referred to--he was certainly far more a free-thinker -than definitely a Christian. As his writings were never of a personally -anti-Christian tone (though they often developed the anti-Christian -views of other authors), and _were_ of an anti-papal tone, he became -mixed up in his later years with Italian anti-papal Protestantizing -religionists, to an extent greater than in his prime he would have -tolerated. Towards 1849 disfrocked priests and semi-Waldensian -semi-simpletons got a good deal about him, when broken health and -precarious eyesight had to some extent enfeebled his mental along -with his bodily powers; and association with these people and their -publications did certainly not tend to promote a vigorous presentment -of his essentially undogmatic but not essentially unspiritual mind. He -came to write about Christian matters in terms suited to an absolute -Christian believer; whereas, in fact, he was a devotional adherent to -the moral and spiritual utterances of Jesus, but was not a practising -member of any Christian denomination, nor a disciple in any theological -school. It should be understood that, though a fervent and outspoken -anti-papalist, he never expressly renounced the Roman Catholic faith. -In the earlier years of his London sojourn it might have been to his -advantage (as Professor of Italian in King’s College and elsewhere) -to join the Anglican rather than the Roman communion; but this he -considered unworthy of an Italian, and he never took any step in that -direction. Neither did he naturalize himself as an Englishman. - -The means of Gabriele Rossetti were never equal to paying the cost -of expensive publications. My No. 1 was brought out by subscription; -Nos. 2 and 4 by the spontaneous liberality of Mr Lyell, and, as far -as No. 4 is concerned, Mr Frere came forward, as well, at the close. -It is only fair to say that Rossetti was a laborious worker, of -independent spirit; and, though he accepted with grateful satisfaction -the volunteered bounty of Mr Lyell in these instances, and of Mr Frere -in some others likewise, he was the least likely of men to go about to -“ask, and ye shall receive.” - -As I have been speaking--with the distaste which I learned to feel -for them as a class--of Protestantizing Italians, I will add that -one excellent man I have known among them was my cousin Teodorico -Pietrocola-Rossetti. He was in London in the later years of my father’s -life, but was not then taking an active part in the Evangelical -propaganda to which he devoted all the closing part of his career. -In 1883 he died in Florence, while conducting a service for his -congregation. A great number of his hymns are in the collection _Inni e -Cantici_ before mentioned. - - Back to my tale. And I should here premise - That, turning lengthened studies to account, - I undertook in Malta first to spread - A taste for our Italian literature; - And in distinguished houses not a few - To witness others’ progress was my joy. - A Massic or Falernian wine no more - I drank, as oft in Naples I had done, - But quaffed the spirit of the classics now - Alone, and none could say “Why gorge thyself?” - But, even in study laudable howe’er, - Intemperance is still condemnable. - Many, I know, find teaching wearisome, - Whereas to me ’twas profit and repute; - And I could all repeat from memory - The Comedy of Dante, mystical, - Tasso, Ariosto, drama, satirists, - Petrarch, Chiabrera, and some lyrists more. - Become the foremost of professors there, - I knew the most distinguished travellers - And highest officers of government: - Indeed, from titled man to boatman, all - Bore me affection--saving only one. - - The Consul there from Naples was Gerardi, - Who constantly molested refugees. - One day that upon me he fixed his glance, - I cried: “You hangman’s face, what see you in me?” - Confused he drooped his far from pleasant eyes, - And put the tail of him between his legs. - This serf of tyrant power endeavoured then - To get me turned adrift out of the isle, - When Albion’s Sejanus, Castlereagh, - Was ordering to expel the fugitives: - But this Gerardi (he might cry with rage) - Had read my face “Noli me tangere.” - As long as there I lived, I felt assured - That all the world contained no baser man; - But, when I saw in London a Minasi,[48] - I found that I had made a great mistake. - But such a name, by God, pollutes my lips. - No, let my mouth be nevermore befouled - To speak a most opprobrious brigand’s name! - Go, galleys’ rot, or rather gallows’ rot, - Go, Ruffo’s bravo[49] and worse knave than he! - - Through that Gerardi, under-strapper of Kings, - I saw from Malta hounded Rossaroll,[50] - And Carrascosa[51] and Abatemarchi,[52] - Capecelatro,[53] Florio, and many more; - And a Poerio,[54] in his rage convulsed, - Was first imprisoned, afterwards expelled. - And Pier de Luca (I record with tears - Thy fate, the flower of courteous learned men) - And Pier de Luca lost his reason hence, - And was in frenzy for some days and nights: - He trembled at Gerardi’s very name, - And later on, to escape, he drowned himself. - O Castlereagh! Thy country rightly deems - That thy best service was thy suicide; - But why no suicide a year before? - - Indignant I returned to England’s masts, - For Malta grew to me insufferable. - A nest of corsairs Malta now meseemed, - Where, save that single man, all things I abhorred; - So to the seat imperial of the main - Thetis and Neptune re-conveyed my steps. - Nor shall I paint that lengthy voyaging, - Which in another poem[55] I described. - - The curst Gerardi, in insulting terms, - Had written to the Bourbon Council-board - How that Rossetti, that incendiary, - Was to be found upon the British ship; - And cried the King: “Upon a sovereign’s faith, - I’ll do my utmost to get hold of him.” - Well had that General Fardella said, - Who gave me secret pledge of friendliness, - That a malignant star detained me there, - Since o’er me impended a tremendous ire. - And I had stayed, at hazard of my life, - For full three months exposed to all the risk! - Following routine, the British Admiral - Was bidding farewell to the Sovereign; - And he perceived astonished that for rage - The King, like a hyæna, bit his lips. - Treating him almost as a menial, he - Said with an angry and imperious tone: - “Surrender that rebellious subject whom - You saved, and now to England would conduct.” - And he with firmset aspect made reply: - “An English Admiral will not be base.” - Menaces and entreaties he contemned, - And turned his back on him resolvedly; - And, when that evening he returned aboard, - He told what was demanded and refused. - And such a fact cannot be called in doubt, - For all o’er Naples did its rumour run. - - I felt myself so moved by that account - That, in the presence of his noble wife, - I with emotion kissed his saving hand. - Thee may God guerdon, mounted soul in heaven! - Twice over did I owe my life to thee,-- - And gracious lady, God bless thee alike! - - And I reflected: “Why in Ferdinand - Boils up against me such a fierce despite - That, not appeased by lifelong banishment, - He would inflict on me a barbarous death? - So much of rage against my civic song, - In which as father I so lauded him! - And how has he forgotten those my lines - Which drew the very tear-drops from his eyes?” - - The savage spirit! When he heard me named, - His knees would jog beneath his body’s weight, - And he against me, the poor exiled bard, - Was all a-tremble, furiously convulsed. - And thence a truthful penman wrote to me - He had himself from the fierce Bourbon heard-- - “If even the court declares him innocent, - I’ll make him die under the bastinade: - On public scaffold or in darkest crypt - Die he infallibly shall--and that I swear.”[56] - Thus for a long while I remained in doubt - Of the true motive for such senseless rage: - But then the pen of a most worthy man - Gave me a light amid the obscurity. - What time the King of Naples had decamped, - And I had turned my course to another goal, - Some praise of me was heard by Gaspare Mollo - Duke of Lusciano, who was reckoned then - An able poet; and my fate so willed - That he desired to meet me face to face. - Of voluntary good-will he gave me proofs, - Which I responded to with modesty: - But, when he heard me improvise in verse, - Mollo became as jealous as a beast: - He in my presence spoke in jest alone, - But poured his insults forth behind my back. - He piqued himself the most on improvise: - He saw his primacy endangered much, - And tried his best to make me ludicrous. - And I upon his dramas and his rhymes - (For who can damp a youthful poet’s fire?) - Launched a good ten or dozen epigrams,[57] - Which many men rehearsed with loud guffaws. - For one he gave me, I returned him ten: - This was ill done, I know--but so I did. - Mollo kept brooding o’er his inward grudge, - Which well I read upon his pallid cheek. - Now, when the liberal Government had fall’n, - He was installed as President of a Board - To overhaul the writings then produced. - The President, and Censors in his wake, - From that explosion of anonymous print - Chose hundreds of inflammatory attacks, - And called them all my own--no fable this-- - And showed me like a devil to the King. - And how that monumental lie disprove? - If even I had been Briareus, - Writing by night and day with hundred pens, - It would have been a thing impossible - To achieve that quantity of verse and prose. - A shameless slander! Yet my enemy - Mouths it against me, and the King believes. - -This statement about the Duke of Lusciano may be quite true--a point -as to which I am not competent to express an opinion. I have always -understood, however, that one main professed grievance of the King -against Rossetti was as follows (and in candour I state it here, as -I did in my Memoir of Dante Rossetti):--At the time when an Austrian -invasion of the Neapolitan territory, connived at by King Ferdinand, -was imminent, Rossetti wrote a lyric expressive of the patriotic rage -natural at the time, containing this quatrain addressed to the King-- - - “I vindici coltelli - Sapran passarvi il cor: - I Sandi ed i Luvelli - Non son finiti ancor.” - -(Avenging knives will be apt to pierce[58] your heart: the Sands and -the Louvels are not yet done with). These lines clearly say that King -Ferdinand, if he were to persist in a certain course, would be very -liable to be assassinated; and, although they do not add that he -_ought_ to be assassinated, the Rè Nasone cannot have been solitary -in scenting out that implication. There was also the affair (referred -to on p. 50 as more than probable) that Rossetti had accompanied the -Neapolitan troops, animating them by his verses to fight against the -Austrians in defence of a constitution which the King, by a gross act -of perjury, had then abolished. - - We in the harbour of Naples made a stay - Two weeks almost--it gave me many a thrill. - The very aspect of the city enslaved - Became for me a melancholy scene. - The vigilant Police, who day and night - Laid scores of snares if they might catch me so, - Set full a hundred spies around the ship - To learn who might be come to visit me-- - But no one came; and yet by means unknown - Earnest of friendship did not fail to reach. - - But now the breeze is favouring, waves a-calm, - And the much longed-for moment is at hand. - How many mothers o’er their slaughtered sons - Wept on the shore because of that wild beast - Who for a five years’ term had sheathed his claws, - And now unsheathed them in the lust of rage! - - Joyful I turned my back on servitude, - And full of ardour sped toward Liberty. - - Hail and thrice hail, O puissant Albion, - Who, ceaseless in diffusing trades and arts, - Thine irresistible trident dost extend - Over the immense four quarters of the world. - If thou, devout to rightful liberty, - Impart’st to others its inspiring rays, - Thou, arbiter of warfare and of peace, - Wilt become mightier than antique Rome. - Will it, and thou redeem’st a world oppressed, - For thy determined will ensures result. - America, thy rival and thy child, - If thou dost fail, will do it later on: - She in her nascent empire will become - The foremost nation of the rounded world. - She’ll be thy rival, truly glorious, - For still in her gigantic state she grows; - But not vociferous conceited France, - Free and enslaved at once, as if by Fate. - In you two all is diverse--customs, tongues; - Her mark is impetus, and reason thine. - Since my arrival, England, much thou hast done, - Yet much remains to do--do it thou wilt. - - Hardly had I set foot upon the land - But I around me felt a freer air: - ’Mid grand activity which knows no pause - I found my own increasing day by day; - And by the influences which wove my web - After the poet’s came the scholar’s turn. - Accounting precious every instant’s time - In high conceptions I was all immersed: - Dante, with Analytic Commentary, - Was the first outcome of my new pursuits: - And, spite of all disparagement, the work - Earns me the sympathy of distinguished men. - Charles Lyell, having read it, to me wrote, - Giving clear pledge of unsolicited - Regard--a Scotchman he, of lofty mind, - And Allighieri’s signal devotee: - He on my heart, which honours his deserts, - Is still impressed, after the unequalled Frere. - And now him also doth the urn enclose,[59] - And bitter tears he leaves me to outpour. - I say it again; no longer in the heat - Of Massic or Falernian, nor indeed - Of politics, I set to tracing out - Our classic writers’ anti-papal spirit, - With critical mind--confuting carping tongues; - To Lyell did I dedicate the book. - - Stately an University had risen - In this enormous capital of the realm:[60] - And now the Council, from whose midst emerged - Such ample learning sacred and profane, - Offered me of its own accord the chair - Allotted to Italian literature. - - To Italy, to flout three Kings, I sped - My fame, and triumphed over lies with truth. - Let Tyranny hate me, while my country loves,-- - Her exiled son has never wrought her shame; - And this I know--despite all senseless rage, - My books have made their way from hand to hand. - And not those hymns alone where I forecast - The Ausonian Genius’ future rapt in thought;[61] - But that Arcanum of Platonic Love - Which offers in five tomes broad scrutinies, - Where pondering I analyse the myths - Of every country, every faith and age; - And that in which I showed symbolic all - Our Allighieri’s mystic Beatrice, - Delineated by the schemes occult - Of most remote gymnosophistic times, - Which schools of magians had inherited, - And through the Mysteries bequeathed to us; - Also that other noted by its name, - Rome toward the Middle of our Century. - In each my work, to freedom dedicate, - I demonstrate the iniquities of priests: - In all that I expounded nought I feigned, - But drew my facts from pages thousandfold. - - Immoderate study always is unwise, - But, if ’tis noxious, it amounts to guilt. - No, that which I have published, much though it be, - Is but the half of what I’ve written down. - Ah for my blindness whom have I to blame, - When by myself my eyes were done to death? - - Having in England stayed my roaming course, - And seeing my future less ambiguously, - Like Dante’s, “Vita Nuova!”[62] was my word: - He wrote but I resolved to practise it. - “Let warm affections in my novel lot - Arise,” I said, “to populate my breast. - - [Illustration: GAETANO POLIDORI - - _From a Pencil-Drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti_ - - 1853] - - Within the hotbed of our vicious times - Love proffered me its frenzies and remorse: - But, never a seducer, still seduced, - Quicksand to quicksand, angry seas I ploughed: - Now let a holier love possess my soul,-- - May he who churned it up restore its calm.” - And prudent reason here will not disclose - What and how many tempests I endured. - Upon my canvas be concealed, concealed, - The flush upon my brow in others’ shame.[63] - And on those quicksands while I fix my gaze - A dreadful shudder creeps along my veins, - And in that shudder I my visage smite, - Uttering a curse against my weaknesses. - The quicksands are afar, the harbour’s here. - - Settled in London, all my travels past, - Among the men I most was pleased to meet, - Gaetano Polidori, learned, wise, - Who had been Count Alfieri’s secretary, - ’Mid all the Italians whom I had known as yet - Appeared to merit honour and esteem. - Teaching was his profession. He had done - No small translating-work, had much composed. - Tuscan by birth, by accent all the more, - An elegant writer both in prose and verse, - He showed me, joined with candid character, - The strictest morals and a cultured mind. - Upon the day when I returned his call, - And saw him ’mid his well-bred family, - I twice and thrice fixed my admiring eyes - Upon the second daughter’s comeliness. - A single moment regulates a life: - My heart became the lodestone, she the pole. - And every hour my love became more keen - When hundred virtues and no self-conceit ... - I know that what I’m writing she dislikes,[64] - But, hiding it from her, I speak it still: - Knowing her fully, I have often said-- - Angel in soul, and angel in her looks. - Feeling within me glow the lighted flame, - I wrote to Polidori, and ’twas thus: - “If to the gracious name of friend you please - To add the loving name of son as well - (Pray Heaven that so it may be!) be not loth - To give the enclosed into your Frances’ hands. - If this displease you, little though it were, - If so it haps you disapprove my suit, - Throw the two letters both into the fire, - And speak of this no more; but pray concede - Our friendship be not sundered, yours and mine,-- - You so would punish my straightforwardness.” - A day being past, the maid to me so dear - Gave me a most affectionate response; - And at the altar after four months more - We vowed between us two a mutual faith.[65] - In marriage-knot at summit of my hopes, - My days went by in cheerful industry. - As sweet reward of honourable zeal, - My credit made advance from day to day. - Four only children Heaven conceded me, - And all the four I see around me still, - The issue of affections tender and true - In the four opening matrimonial years. - - To speak about my wife I shall not pause,-- - Others would think it overcharged, inept: - This I may tell--she is a blooming graft - Of English mother and of Tuscan sire; - Through mother and through sire in her one sees - Two nations tempering the mind and heart. - Let me but say that in her is evinced - Frankness of manner unpremeditate; - That she both speaks and writes three high-prized tongues, - Which rank ’mong Europe’s choicest and most rich; - And, when their authors she was studying, - She culled the flower of the three literatures. - That firm-fixed character which she displays - Founded, by means of Jesus’ gospel-book, - Upon religion pure morality, - Upon morality the purest life; - Thus she presents, perfect on every side, - The steadfast woman of the sacred page. - From living pattern oh what strength the love - Of ethical instructions must receive! - Wherefore to her more than myself is due - Our children’s educating discipline; - For of each rule she utters with her lips - They see in her the breathing prototype. - I never had occasion for a school, - Too apt to vitiate a guileless heart; - For she in her two daughters had betimes - Transfused a taste for music;[66] in all four - (Presenting now this model and now that) - The taste for letters and the beautiful. - In theory and in practice, both alike, - Her life is a fine treatise on the good: - Always a Christian, not a fanatic, - Always devout, but not ecstatical: - Heavens, what a woman! her Anglo-Italian soul - Has never trespassed over duty’s bound. - ’Tis now five lustres I have made her mine, - And in five lustres I still see her the more - An angel harmony of deeds and words, - And in five lustres her all-blameless life - Has not one moment, one, belied itself. - I thank my God that, when he addressed my heart - To new affections, he made these be high: - And you, beloved children, thank you me - That such a mother I chose to give you breath. - - [Illustration: CHRISTINA ROSSETTI - - _From a Pencil-Drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti_ - - C. 1846] - - Others perhaps will say that every bird - (An ancient saw) approves his proper nest. - Maria, Christina, William, Gabriel, - My children, _you_’ll reply, and that’s enough. - - My loving girls, in whom my soul descries - A heavenly mind in virgin modesty, - Of intellect and ethics you have given - Already a shining proof in prose and verse:[67] - You from a double looking-glass, it seems, - Reflect upon us all your mother’s soul. - - As from a twin-branched fountain-source there spurt - Rills of fresh lymph to inundate a mead-- - So sometimes sister-like do poetry - And painting beautify the selfsame mind: - And both unite in you, my Gabriel, - And fertilize your soul, and give it fire. - These like two fountains both in you upflow, - Both in you like two torches are alight; - And, while you make them brightly manifest, - They both prepare in you exalted work. - Run and attain the duplicated goal, - Though yours is the most early dawn of life: - As able poet I hear you already hailed, - Already as able painter see you admired.[68] - Now onward, and the double race-course win! - You will be doing what I could not do. - - If ’tis not vanity, almost re-born - I feel in person, even in countenance, - My calm-attempered William, in yourself,[69] - Thought in your eyes, and on your lips a smile. - In two dead languages and four that live - Already Truth converses with your mind. - - My children, grow, grow up to patriot love; - In you the blood and name of me is stored - To England from Abruzzo transmigrate. - Free you were born, and I was born a serf. - O Providence! Mine exile seemed to me - The dire injustice of a Fate my foe; - But, if mine exile’s fruitage was to prove - A family like this, I bless the ban. - Yes, for thy deadly rage which hurled me forth, - Perfidious Bourbon King, I give thee thanks. - - The thirteenth lustre have I now o’erstept - Of veteran life used to the field of fight; - And, never deviating from myself, - I glory in a changeless character. - A splendid servitude enchants me not: - Dying I’ll cry “All life to Italy!” - From the first day when her I knew oppressed, - I envied any who could give her aid. - Not for _my_ sake I loved her, but for hers, - When I devoted to her rest and life. - But there are some who, posed as Liberals, - Defame with such a title country and self: - And things I have to tell so silly or mean - That but to think of them my stomach turns. - - But, ere I yield me to indignant zeal, - I sever the few good from numerous bad. - You who, despite the despots and the priests, - As firm Italians have revealed yourselves, - Ricciardi and Cagnazzi and Saliceti, - Gazzola, Mamiani, and Muzzarel,[70] - You let Fame publish in all time and place, - You and some others--yet ye are but few. - And where, immortal Pepe, leave I thee, - Who wreath’st young laurel upon hoary hair? - Sole Garibaldi is compeer of thine-- - The sword of Venice thou, and he of Rome: - Tarpeian Eagle and Lion of Adria - Maintained by you two a determined strife. - By virtue of you Venice and Rome exclaim: - “All have we lost, ’tis true, but honour not; - For ne’er, undaunted heroes, did you yield - Save to the greater number and adverse fate. - Ye both, our century’s honour, have pursued - The good of Italy and not your own.” - -That my father was most right in saying, “And where, immortal Pepe, -leave I thee?” will be generally allowed by persons cognizant of the -facts. I sincerely regret that he did not add, “And where, immortal of -immortals, Mazzini, leave I _thee_?” As he did not add that, I must say -a few words to account for so grave an omission. - -Mazzini did not settle in London until 1837. It was inevitable that -two such patriots and exiles as Mazzini and Rossetti should know one -another. There was a great amount of mutual respect between them -(of which my Appendix furnishes ample proof), but not anything like -constant personal intercourse--in fact, I do not recollect having -even once seen Mazzini in our house, but I have occasionally seen him -elsewhere. To Italy and freedom they were equally devoted, and the -great conception of Italian unity was present to the minds of both. But -Mazzini was a determined Republican, which Rossetti was not--being, -from the course of his experiences and reflections, more in favour of a -constitutional monarchy, though by no means unsympathetic with the idea -of a Republic at the rare conjunctures when it emerged as having some -practical application: he was never a member of the Giovine Italia. -Mazzini was also, by nature and circumstance, an incessant conspirator, -and promoted a number of unpromising and abortive insurrections, -foredoomed to failure, and viewed with regret, and at times even -with great repugnance, by such Italians as were not committed to the -extremest forms of political theory and practice. It is no business of -mine to express an opinion whether Mazzini or Rossetti was the more -nearly in the right; but it has always been my conviction that, had it -not been for the agitation so strenuously kept alive by the sublime -Genoese patriot, the emancipation and unifying of Italy would not have -taken place so soon as they did. - -It happened that towards 1850, when my father was writing his -Autobiography, he was particularly alienated from the policy pursued -by Mazzini and his adherents. The great revolutionary year, 1848, had -witnessed uprisings in various parts of Italy (an insurrection in -Messina had preceded the French Revolution of February 1848 against -Louis Philippe), followed by a regular campaign between the Piedmontese -and the Austrians; this was renewed in 1849. In both instances the -Austrians were the victors; and many patriotic Italians, including -Rossetti, opined that this disastrous result had in large measure been -brought about by a Mazzinian agitation (I will not pretend to say how -far Mazzini himself was personally responsible for it) which repelled -aid that might possibly have been forthcoming from some foreign powers, -especially republican France, and denounced the Piedmontese sovereign, -Charles Albert, as covertly a traitor to the Italian cause for which he -was fighting. I can thus understand a certain feeling on my father’s -part which, when he undertook to “sever the few good from numerous -bad,” among Italians “posed as Liberals,” withheld him from expressly -naming the great protagonist of the national movement, Mazzini, -although he indisputably, in his own mind, included him in the roll of -“the few good.” Even so the omission is to be regretted. - -As to the question of Rossetti’s estimate of Republicanism (to which, -as I have already said, he preferred, for practical purposes, a -constitutional monarchy), the following distinct profession of faith -seems worth preserving. Its date cannot be earlier than June 1850, and -is probably a little later. It was written to introduce a poem--not, I -think, any that has been published. - -“After having seen what is almost always the issue of a democratic -republic, more than once attempted in Europe; having seen that, -barbarous, sanguinary, fratricidal, predaceous, and atheistic, in -France in the last century, it ended in the absolute despotism of -Bonaparte; and that, although mild, gentle, generous, and believing, -in our own century, it is about to merge into the augmenting despotism -of another Bonaparte, who does not even possess the fascination of the -military and political successes and the talents of the first; how -can ever this blessed Republic still abide in the hearts of so many -Italians who sincerely love their country? And yet it does abide.... -And was it not this desire which produced among us the discord of minds -in 1848, and caused all our subsequent reverses? Oh if all the Italians -had then unanimously combined with Charles Albert to expel the common -enemy from our sacred soil--oh if many inconsiderate men had not, with -the cry of ’Republic’ which they proclaimed with so much fervour, -first dismayed that sovereign, and afterwards damped his enthusiasm -for Italian independence--at this hour not one German foot would be -insolently stamping our land, and Italy would not be such as she has -miserably returned to being. Pius IX. himself took fright at that name; -and, retreating from the glorious path which he was already footing, he -ended by betraying us. A melancholy story this--which has made, makes, -and will make, all who love Italy shed prolonged tears. - -“‘But then you have no liking for a Republic?’ To any who ask me this, -I shall answer: Yes, I like it, and that far better than others do; -but I like one which would not have severed from us either Charles -Albert or Pius IX., and which would have conduced to our obtaining that -national independence that was the ardent longing of all Italians.... I -like that Republic which alone can suit the interest of all, and which -alone seems capable of enduring in Italy, or indeed in modern Europe. - -“Whilst our hapless country had a prospect of good success, I wrote -these few extemporized octaves, which might furnish occasion for many -notes, so as to establish more fully what such a _Republic without -peril_ ought to be--which I have always desired, and now more than ever -desire.... I felt my heart touched in re-reading these stanzas; and, -rude and unpolished as they are, I yet transcribe them, so that they -may bear evidence that my soul did not participate in that political -offence which was the cause of our disasters.” - -After this rather long digression, I return to the Autobiography, and -its contrast between “the few good” and the “numerous bad” Italians. - - But ah how few there are that acted thus! - With us a most repulsive crew combined, - Seeking to fish in troubled water-streams. - ’Mong scanty good men many bad escaped, - A show of baseness and of wretchedness: - These brought dishonour on the refugees - In French and Portuguese and Spanish soil; - But here in England unexpectedly - There came to settle down the best and worst. - I grieved for famished men and mendicants - Who had recourse to swindling and intrigue: - But Paolelli who became a spy, - And wrought out General Turrigo’s death,[71] - And other such, Italy’s sorrow and shame, - Made me repent--but this I will not say. - Bozzelli was a Liberal of this kind, - And acted it with comic gravity; - And, viler than Borrelli, vilest man, - Betrayed anon his country for a “place.”[72] - The royal beasts having re-sought their dens, - Scoundrels in crowds go to consort with them; - Rome, Naples, Lombardy, and Tuscany,-- - I turn my indignant eye from such a horde. - - And then reposefully my glance can pause - Upon the upright whom Heaven has with me leagued, - And who, inflamed with patriot charity, - Reverberate on me their proper light. - In a great cause we fell, and from that day - We share the sacredness of Fortune’s blows. - On reaching London, from the very first - I knew some trustworthy, some faithless souls: - These base Minasi set upon my track, - And I--fool that I was--discerned it not. - But all the emigrating company - Treated me brother-like--save only one.[73] - Still, if in me he blames and snaps on all, - For all that’s mine he deems detestable, - He prized my steadfast politics alone, - And, joined with this, my blameless moral course: - As for the rest, he wants all men to sniff - In me the agreeable smell which donkeys yield. - But wherefore in him did such rage collect? - I know not, I: I saw him only once, - When some one showed him to me in the street. - - Italy, subject of mine every thought, - Thine exiled son found kindness everywhere - In hundreds of high-hearted foreigners: - Only one exiled brother’s fatal hate ... - Yet this disgrace is common, and I pause. - - Behold I waken from the dream of life, - And all the past meseems a flitting shade. - Before I quit the earth, or--better so-- - Before I there return and sleep in peace, - I think it time to make my testament, - For now I feel me on the bed of death. - - It shall be brief indeed. What can I say? - I will repeat with other sufferers-- - I leave my corpse to earth, my soul to God, - Of whom I ask forgiveness of my sins. - I trust in Christ, and cheer me with the thought - That his true dogma I have tried to avow. - I pardon all, yes all, my enemies. - - More than one work of mine lies on my hands; - Something I think it well to say of them. - I have indited a great roll of rhymes, - Eight volumes[74]--to my country they’re bequeathed. - Four I have published;[75] four I leave behind, - Which are extemporaneous almost all,-- - For, having reached the arduous goal of life, - A popular poet’s title I desire. - The book I called _Arpa Evangelica_, - Which aims the man-God’s worship to promote, - Will prove--and would it were already in print!-- - Grateful to pious souls, I doubt not this. - With what rapidity I wrote the book! - It seemed as if I knew the whole by heart. - Those hymns are not of all one calibre - But all of them evince a feeling soul. - - I did it in three months--the vein ran quick. - In volumes twain, where I make practical - Rights linked to duties, which I specify, - To which I have appropriately given - The title Politic-Dogmatic Lyre, - Eschewing style fantastic or bizarre - ’Gainst all despotic power I hurl my words. - Then in the fourth, mid plaudits, pomps, and rites, - I sang that man[76] whom many wrote about, - Who first deceived us all, and then betrayed. - _Pœnitet me fecisse_ is my finale: - I hate as once I loved thee--Man of Fraud! - - The work however where with critic thoughts - My mind has spatiated and rested most, - And where I have sought out the essential truth - Of Dante’s Beatrice, as yet concealed, - Is that in which I clasp a mighty orb - As ’twere, and thereon most I plume myself. - In this the mystic diction I expound - Of which I recollect I spoke before. - A sample of it I printed ten years back - In one Discourse alone, but now they are nine. - “This, more than poems,” I sometimes exclaim, - “May prove my passport to a future age.” - - I, if my life is now a bitter one, - Can still, amid my very sorrows, say: - “I live a freeman,--at my country’s shrine - Freedom for me becomes a form of faith: - And as I lived I’ll die--a sacred vow.” - - And, while I look on all my bygone life, - The year of this our century forty-three - With black stone noted figures on the roll: - I fancied I should die, but sore mishap - Left me my life but took my sight away.[77] - Worn down and down by bronchial sufferings, - From January until September increased, - I yet, exhaling in my verse my woes, - Nurtured my mind with patriotic thoughts: - And daybreaks of the Seer in Solitude - Shed on my visioned spirit glowing beams: - No, those were not fantastical ideas, - For to men’s eyes they are daily verified.[78] - - But ah my life now dwindles more and more, - And hurries toward its occidental dusk; - Yet I enjoyed aforetime strenuous health, - Which for grave constant study made me apt: - And, now that old and blind I cling to that, - I feel that habit serves me more than drugs. - How could I curb myself? For I confess - My heart vibrates to thousand impulses; - Existence is almost the same as thought,-- - To live and nought to do I cannot brook. - A course of living honourable and hard - A poet I began, a poet end. - - But, if I am condemned to days so black, - At least let Tyranny not therefor joy. - I, in this night to which no dawn ensues, - Record a vow to raise my chaunt ’gainst her - So long as life endures, and yet beyond-- - For even when I am silent in the earth - To war on her in verse will I persist. - Great God, to whom I hymning wafted prayers - Of Italy--diseased, betrayed, unvenged-- - Thou didst preserve me, I know, that I might wage - War on the wretch who in man insults Thyself. - Who knows, who knows but for my latest days - Thou mayest have held reserved a greater strength? - Perchance Thou hast reft mine eyes that I might turn - Back to that poesy which I had left; - Thought prompts me that for this supreme intent - Thou a blind instrument will’st me of Thine hand. - How haps it that the old man’s heart glows young, - And in him life and daring are re-greened? - How haps it that his soul’s a looking-glass, - So to reflect the future’s burst of flame? - A light of prophecy salutes his eyes, - A voice of prophecy salutes his lips. - Magnify, magnify the name of Him - Who knots the mighty bindings of events-- - Him by whose hand I, an obscure young man, - Was drawn into the strife of politics. - I nought, He all. I comprehend His power, - And for my very ills I yield Him thanks. - All the less possible the victory seems - So much the greater is the glory of God![79] - - To Thee, great God, I owe devoutest praise, - In that, before I sleep the eternal sleep, - In the Subalpine noble Realm I see - Already a liberal form of better rule. - If all has gone to wreckage in the storm, - At least this single plank remains to us. - - And nigh to death I still can joy and chaunt, - And can foresee more favourable days. - From the two sees which they so much befouled - Refractory priests a pair have been dismissed;[80] - And without mitre on their tonsured scalps - One takes his way to France, and one to Rome. - Those desecrated altars wait you there - Whence Christ indignant has withdrawn his foot: - There full a thousand demons are your peers,-- - Sole Bonaparte and Pius distance you. - - Fair Kingdom which, to avenge that double scorn, - Art now expelling the two mitred fiends, - Wherefore dost thou retain a hateful cult - Which Petrarch called a “school of fallacies”? - Oh let the Man of Sin and Realm of Sin, - Pitiful God, come to their end at last! - - Farewell, farewell for ever, land beloved, - To whom I joyed to vow my whole of life; - And, while thy foe remains upon the throne, - I evermore against him will to fight. - Yes, I will fight till underground I sink.... - And yet I feel alas all vigour wanes: - What is the use of will bereft of strength? - - Moaning I quit mine arms: and to the last - Of hours my daytime goes precipitant. - O land of Liberty, accept my thanks; - O hour of my repose, I greet thee well. - When he has footed a disastrous road, - And night without a star engirds him round, - The wearied traveller searches for repose, - Waiting until the dayspring rise anew: - Yes, sleep in quiet, you are tired indeed, - But nevermore the sun for you will rise. - If you have done your duty, happy you, - And for your dust your country prays for peace. - If, sleeping in the earth, you wake in heaven, - Amid the daylight without even and dawn, - Each of your sufferings here becomes a claim, - And in your garland like a jewel shines. - There you will hold, amid the angelic throng, - Fixed on the Eternal Sun insatiate eyes. - Where summer burns not nor doth winter chill, - I shall again embrace thee, O my wife, - Within that everlasting nuptial-bond - Which never hand of Death can sunder more. - There I await thee, thou art sure to come: - Who worthier than thou of that abode? - I know what sun will in thy pilgrimage - Serve as the guide to thine unswerving feet. - Be, in the zenith of thy life and path, - Be thou the escort of our children loved; - This duty when thou wholly hast fulfilled, - Well know’st thou who expects thee above the spheres. - When these my wearied eyelids shall be closed, - Her steps, beloved children, follow ye: - Of her be worthy--and of me perchance-- - And unto us you four will all return. - Oh glad the day when seated ’mid you all, - I shall see Paradise for me complete! - Ah let not one of you be wanting there! - And, when you shall ascend to our embrace, - Speak to me of Italy, speak one by one, - For then her state will not endure the same. - - Oh if in heaven one day the fame should spread - That she anew resurges free and grand! - Hosannah and hosannah ’mid the harps - Of gold a thousand toward the Eternal Breath - I shall intone: Hosannah in infinite - Chorus, Hosannah, shall the Saints resound: - And in the new augmented jubilee - Far lovelier to me Paradise will show. - - Oh let the prison unclose where I am shut! - My penal period has fulfilled its term. - -And here the versified Autobiography also fulfils its term. - -The desire for death, expressed in verse, was genuinely present to -Gabriele Rossetti’s mind. Ever since the break-up of his health--which -came to a severe crisis in 1843, followed by partial blindness, and -that by many and increasing infirmities, paralytic and other--he -found life more burdensome than otherwise, and would willingly have -resigned it but for his earnest wish to work for the benefit of his -family. Even the power of remunerative work failed towards 1847, when -he had to resign his professorship at King’s College. Troublous public -events ensued; the tergiversation of Pope Pius IX., the defeat of the -Piedmontese and other Italians by the Austrian armies, the crushing of -the Roman Republic by a French expedition. These and other political -occurrences greatly darkened the closing years of Rossetti; and yet he -was unconquerably hopeful as to a more or less near future, and the -result justified his hopes. - -I will summarize very briefly the events of his life subsequent to the -date of the Autobiography, say 1850. - -Rossetti being now, by failure of health and eyesight, debarred from -professional work--though he always continued diligent in no common -degree as a writer, principally in verse--the support of the family -devolved in large part on our mother, who went out teaching, and at one -time conducted a small day-school in London. The four children were, at -the end of 1850, in this position:--Maria, aged twenty-three, a teacher -of Italian, French, etc.; Dante Gabriel, aged twenty-two, a painter -struggling to sell his pictures and make a position; Christina, aged -just twenty, assisting our mother when the day-school was going on, -otherwise without regular employment; myself, aged twenty-one, a clerk -in the Inland Revenue Office and art-critic of _The Spectator_--my -earnings of course scanty, but on the whole the least precarious among -the slender resources of the family. As the day-school in London -brought in no income worth speaking of, Mrs Rossetti, seeing some -prospect of an opening at Frome-Selwood, Somerset, started another -day-school there in the spring of 1853; her husband and Christina -accompanied her. This school proved no more successful than its -predecessor; and, as by the end of 1853 I was beginning to advance -a little in my office, I got the family to re-unite in London from -Lady-day 1854, and had the satisfaction of housing my suffering father -in his last days. The house was named 45 Upper Albany Street, Regent’s -Park--later on, 166 Albany Street. The end came very soon, 26th April -1854. - -I subjoin here two obituary notices. The first was written by Conte -Giuseppe Ricciardi, on 1st May 1854, and published in the _Opinione_ -of Turin. The second was written by myself, and published in _The -Spectator_, 6th May. In the latter there are a few details (of dates -etc.) which I now know to be not absolutely correct, but I leave -them as they stand. I could cite a great number of other eulogistic -tributes, more especially since 1882, but need not launch out upon -these. - - (_a_) “Italian emigrants, and with the emigrants all Italy, are - constrained to mourn another loss. The earliest, the most venerable, - of the exiles, the illustrious Gabriele Rossetti, died in London - on the evening of 26th April, after a banishment of thirty-three - years--all of them spent in upholding the sacred Italian cause.... - - “Rossetti, an extemporaneous poet already known and valued by the - public at the date, 1820, when in Naples the revolution broke out - which came to such a wretched end in the following year, composed, - among other lyrics, the splendid hymn, ’Sei pur bella cogli astri sul - crine,’ to which I find nothing to be compared except the other lyric - brought out by himself in London in 1831, beginning ‘Sù brandisci la - lancia di guerra’; and this too records another hapless revolution!... - - “It is needless to say that not a few writings of the highly - distinguished author remain unpublished; pre-eminent among which are - Parts II. and III. of his Comment on the _Divine Comedy_. For this - (shall I say it?) I have in vain, up to the present date, sought out a - publisher--so miserable are the conditions of Italian literature. - - “Rossetti, besides being, as all know, an eminent poet and renowned - scholar, was a fervent patriot, always most constant to his - principles, and a man of unsullied virtue, so that he was revered - even by his political enemies, and no one ever ventured to assail his - reputation in the least degree; while all who came to have a little - knowledge of him soon got to love him.” - - (_b_) “Gabriele Rossetti, the most daringly original of the - commentators on Dante, died on the 26th ultimo, in London, in his - seventy-second year. - - “Born on the 28th February 1783, in Vasto, a sea-coast town in the - Kingdom of Naples, he first visited the capital in the capacity of - secretary to the Marquis of Vasto, but for the purpose of following, - under the auspices of that nobleman, the profession of a painter. His - tastes soon took a more decided bent, however, towards literature. He - developed a particular talent as a poetical improvisatore; and his - poems, both recited and written, gained him considerable reputation. - For some while he held the official post of poet to the Theatre of - San Carlo. He afterwards entered the Museo Borbonico, as sub-director - of the collection generally, and curator of the splendid sculptural - department,--a position which led him to devote especial attention - to the then fresh explorations at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Here he - remained for fifteen years; with an interval of seven months, ending - with the Pope’s return in 1813, during which he was at Rome, summoned - thither by Murat as a member of the Provisional Government. Courses - of lectures and literary instruction also occupied his time. With the - restoration of King Ferdinand came the spread of Carbonarism; and - Rossetti enrolled himself as a member of that society of national - reformers. The short-lived constitution of 1821 succeeded--to expire - in nine months; leaving those who, like Rossetti, had hailed its - advent with enthusiasm, exposed to the rancour of tyrannic reaction. - His patriotic verses were his crime, and proved his rescue. The wife - of Admiral Sir Graham Moore had read and admired them: the Admiral was - then in Naples; and he prevailed on the poet to terminate by flight - the cruel suspense of three months’ concealment, and to embark on - board an English vessel in the disguise of a lieutenant. His first - asylum was Malta, where he enjoyed and appreciated the intimate - friendship of the Right Honourable J. Hookham Frere; two years - afterwards he proceeded to England. - - “In this country, occupied in teaching Italian, and holding the - Professorship at King’s College, he engaged deeply in studies of the - letter and spirit of Dante’s imperishable works. The first-fruits of - his labours appeared in the ‘Analytic Comment’ on Dante, of which the - opening part only, the _Hell_, published in 1826 and 1827, has yet - seen the light. Rossetti’s leading idea (indicated in this work, and - enforced in subsequent productions with the fervour of a discoverer, - vast literary diligence, and indefatigable minuteness of criticism) - is that Dante, in common with numberless other great authors, wrote - in a language of secret allegory, which embodies, in the form now of - love, now of mythology, now of alchemy, now of freemasonry, the most - daring doctrines in metaphysics and politics. In 1832 was published - his work ‘On the Anti-Papal Spirit which produced the Reformation, - and on the secret influence which it exercised over the Literature of - Europe, and especially of Italy, as is proved by many of her Classics, - Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, in particular,’ (_Sullo Spirito - Antipapale_, etc.), a treatise which was translated into English; in - 1840, ‘The Mystery of the Platonic Love of the Middle Ages, derived - from the Ancient Mysteries,’ (_Il Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_, etc.), - in five volumes; and in 1842, ‘A Critical Essay on Dante’s Beatrice’ - (_La Beatrice di Dante_), the concluding parts of which remain in - manuscript, but have recently, we understand, been worked up into a - Frenchified concoction, issued, or to be issued, under the flaring - title, _Dante Hérétique, Républicain, et Socialiste_. Rossetti’s - criticisms have been much criticized. Fraticelli and Schlegel have - been his unmitigated opponents: Delécluze, in his _Amour du Dante_, - and the German philosopher Mendelssohn, promulgated, without entirely - committing themselves to, his views; an Italian writer of credit, - Vecchioni, has taken them up in labours of his own; and Arthur Hallam, - immortalized by Tennyson’s _In Memoriam_, has left a respectful though - adverse essay on the subject. In addition to these works, and others - of minor account, four poetical volumes attest both the constancy and - the versatility of Rossetti’s powers,--_Il Tempo_, _Salterio_, _Il - Veggente in Solitudine_, _Versi_, and _L’Arpa Evangelica_; the last - published not many months ago. Italy is not unmindful of his name. - - “In private life Rossetti was thoroughly domestic and warm-hearted. - His family and literature formed his world, whence the talents for - society of which he possessed an ample share could not withdraw him. - No political exile leaves a memory more highly above the whisper of - public or private shame.” - -Rossetti lies buried in Highgate Cemetery, with the following -inscription: “To the dear memory of my husband, Gabriele Rossetti; born -at Vasto d’Ammone in the Kingdom of Naples, 28th February 1783; died in -London, 26th April 1854.” “He shall return no more nor see his native -country.”--Jer. xxii. 10. “Now they desire a better country, that is an -heavenly.”--Heb. xi. 16. “Ah Dio ajutami Tu.” - -The concluding phrase formed the last emphatic words which Rossetti -pronounced in a loud voice, in the evening of 25th April, after some -hours of approximate loss of speech. The remains of my mother, my -brother’s wife, and my sister Christina, are now interred in the same -grave. Towards 1871 a proposal was pressed upon us for transporting my -father’s remains to Italy, for ceremonial re-interment there; but the -feeling of most members of the family was adverse, and the project was -not carried out. - -The tone of the versified Autobiography--which is a very genuine -document of his character and feelings--shows pretty well what manner -of man Gabriele Rossetti was; and in my Memoir of Dante Rossetti I -have given some details as to family-life and personal habits. Here, -therefore, I shall barely touch the fringe of the subject. It is not -for me to spy out every infirmity in my father’s character; and, even -were I to try to do so, I should find nothing worse to allege than a -phase of self-esteem which at times trenched upon self-complacency, -a disregard of externals in point of dress, etc., and an honourable -(and, in the circumstances which affected himself in England and his -family, a truly very requisite) habit of thriftiness which made him -count the cost of every personal indulgence, while nothing expedient -was stinted to his wife and children. I know him to have been -diligent, indefatigable, upright, high-minded, affectionate, grateful, -placable, eminently good-natured, vivacious, cheerful for the most -part, friendly, companionable: whether patriotic I need not say. Our -excellent friend Dr Adolf Heimann (Professor of German in University -College), writing to my brother a letter of condolence on our father’s -death, made the following observations, which I consider just:--“I -have never seen a more devoted man of letters; endowed with some of -the rarest gifts of a literary character, real love for literature, -unworldliness, perseverance, and warmth of interest both in writing and -reading at an advanced time of life. He might indeed have been a model -to all of us. When I look at all the great scholars and men of science -whom I have known, I do not remember one who was so little satisfied -with show as your father, who was so content with a comparatively -humble situation, and so wonderfully patient in times of affliction.” - -[Illustration: FRANCES, MARIA, AND CHRISTINA ROSSETTI - -_From a Photograph_ - -C. 1855.] - -In person Gabriele Rossetti was barely up to middle height, fleshy -and full in contour until his health failed. His eyes were dark and -expressive, and did not alter when his sight was damaged; his brow -fine and well-rounded; his nose, though not specially large, more than -commonly prominent, with wide nostrils. His mouth was pleasant and -nicely moulded, with a winning smile, and on occasion a laugh of the -heartiest. - - - - -APPENDIX - - -I HAVE now said as much as I feel to be requisite by way of explaining -and supplementing my father’s versified Autobiography, and shall -proceed to give some further illustrative matter in the form of five -Appendices. - - 1. Extracts from six of the domestic letters of Gabriele Rossetti. - - 2. Extracts from eight of those which he addressed to Mr Charles Lyell - on the subject of his Dantesque and other literary researches. - - 3. Extracts from three letters of the Barone Kirkup regarding Dante, - etc. - - 4. Twelve letters from Mazzini--all but one addressed to Rossetti. - - 5. Six specimens of Rossetti’s poetry. - -Under each of these five headings I add a few explanatory remarks. - - -NO. 1.--FROM SIX LETTERS FROM GABRIELE ROSSETTI TO HIS -WIFE - -I give these letters (translated by me) for what they are worth; not -as being of any singular degree of interest in the topics which they -raise, or in the mode of treating these, but chiefly for the purpose -of showing what was the prevalent and constant tone of Rossetti in his -family-relations. Two of his children, Dante Gabriel and Christina -Georgina, have turned out to be of some moment to the British public, -and some hint of their childish or youthful doings will be here found. -In these letters I leave some gaps: in the great majority of cases this -is only done because the omitted passages are of no importance. Holmer -Green, the locality to which the first five letters are addressed, -is in Buckinghamshire, near Little Missenden and Amersham: Gaetano -Polidori, my maternal grandfather, along with his family, resided there -for several years. The final letter was addressed to Mrs Rossetti at -Brighton. - - -A. - -[Mr Potter, here mentioned, was Mr Cipriani Potter, Principal of the -Royal Academy of Music, a distinguished pianist, and composer of -pianoforte-music. He was my godfather, and his family was the only -British family of which our household saw a goodish deal in these -early years. I infer that “the drama” which my father had written, and -which was to be paid for with £40, was a set of scenes named _Medora e -Corrado_ (after Byron’s _Corsair_),--Mr Potter having been concerned in -composing music to these scenes: such a sum as £40 appears to be ample -remuneration for it. “Mrs Fitch” was our servant at this date: I have -naturally no recollection of Dante Gabriel’s performance which amused -her, nor yet of Signor Barile. Henry and Charlotte, named along with -Barile, were my Uncle and Aunt: also Robert and Eliza.] - - [38 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON.] - _4th May 1831._ - - MY DEAREST FRANCES, - - No doubt you have been indignant at my long silence, full fourteen - days. Don’t attribute it to want of love, but to my wish to write you - something which might partly relieve the anxiety which you only too - much share with me. Know therefore, dear wife, that our affairs are - proceeding less amiss. At the present date I have seventeen lessons - a week, and I am expecting others.... Mr Potter, who sends his best - regards, saw me this morning, and he told me that Mrs Howard also will - soon resume her lessons; and he expressly added, of his own accord, - that it seems to be time for him to give me the £40 for the drama. I - hope to put you, on your return, in possession of some £80 at home; - and perhaps we shall be getting as much at the end of the season. - Be in good spirits then, Frances mine, because that God who gives - nourishment to worms in the earth will not abandon us, with our four - little children, innocent and in need. - - I have not slackened in trying for King’s College, and many persons - have interested themselves in my behalf. The Principe di Cimitile, who - recommended me to some member of the Council of the College, learned - from him that the election of Professors depends chiefly on the Bishop - of London; and I quickly procured two letters of introduction to the - Bishop. Mr Barclay, who is his intimate friend, gave me one, and the - other came from Sir Gore Ouseley, who has also handed me two others - for two patrons of the College. I trust that Providence will second my - efforts. - - The affairs of Italy also resume a better aspect; and it is officially - notified that the French Government has sent a representative to - Rome, to dissuade from shedding the blood of the poor patriots, who - have behaved with admirable moderation. Poland is darting like a - thunderbolt against Russia. - - Two or three days after your departure I received another letter from - Mr Lyell, in which he asks me briefly to suspend sending him the MS. - you wot of, as he was about to start for a different part of England; - adding that by the end of a month he would come in person to see us - in London. I fancy that he has gone to present himself as a candidate - for the new Parliament. People are all in motion for this purpose; - but it seems that Reform will triumph, and the anti-reformers will - get more and more into the mire. God forbid that this Bill should - not pass--there would certainly be a revolution. All say so, and the - symptoms are manifest.... - - I trust that you and our children have always been well: speak of them - to me one by one when you write. I was so much pleased at what you - told me about Gabriel in your last; and it made Mrs Fitch laugh so - that she recounted it to all who came here--Henry, Charlotte, and also - Signor Barile.... Salute cordially for me Robert and Eliza: God give - them patience with those four babbykins, and especially with that dear - impertinent, Gabriel. In your last you told me nothing about either - William or Christina: make up for your omission. Every syllable you - write about them is a boon to me.... - - Your loving - GABRIELE. - - -B. - -[Mr Tallent, here mentioned, was the medical adviser of the family -at Holmer Green; Mr MacIntyre (living near Portland Place) was often -consulted towards this time in London. About Maestro Negri and the -drama I have no clear idea: possibly it was _Il Corsaro_, for Rossetti -wrote some “Scene Melodrammatiche” under this title, as well as the -“Cantata Melodrammatica” of _Medora e Corrado_. The person termed “Mr -Charles” was the painter Mr (afterwards Sir) Charles Locke Eastlake: -“my new work,” which he admired, was the _Spirito Antipapale_.] - - [38 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON.] - _15th May 1832._ - - MY DEAREST FRANCES, - - ... I should indeed like to see our skittish Christina, with those - rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, so like her grandmother’s, walking all - alone about the garden, like a little butterfly among the flowers. I - hope that, thanks to the beneficial change of air, I shall soon see - her still prettier and still healthier than you describe her to me - now. To tell you the truth, I think Mr Tallent’s advice is better - than Mr MacIntyre’s. It is high time to wean her.... You cannot think - how much pleasure those childish English words which you gathered - from the lips of Maria and Gabriel gave me. If they are truthful, I - thank Heaven that they are good children, and that they do not tire - your mother too much with their noise and their impudence. I mean to - send them some new little picture-books which will amuse them; and - also a box of figs, in order that you may at times reward their good - behaviour and satisfy their small greed. Poor little things! They used - to await my return home so eagerly, so as to receive the trifles I had - brought them! And now neither they nor I have that pleasure.... - - This evening Casella arrived here quite out of breath to announce that - the King has again dismissed the Duke of Wellington from the ministry, - and has recalled Lord Grey with all his ministerial following; thus - rectifying the error he had committed. And indeed he could not act - otherwise in order to calm the huge agitation which was on foot - throughout the country, and principally in this metropolis. The Duke - of Wellington has had the mortification of being unable to find any - one who would consent to form the Cabinet with him; Sir Robert Peel - refused, Lord Aberdeen refused; all refused when they perceived the - peril in which they would place themselves. A pretty figure they have - cut--the great Captain and His Majesty,--this latter so changeable - and deceitful, and the former first deserted and then sent about his - business! It is a hard task to oppose the will of a whole people. - It is just 11 o’clock as I write to you, and I hear “_The Courier_, - fourth edition,” being called out by several voices past the house.... - - Let us take heart, Providence will not forsake us. You know, my wife, - that we have had recent proofs of its assistance; here is another. - Yesterday the son of the Maestro Negri called on me bringing me the - answer from those young ladies who, as you know, wished for a drama; - he showed me a letter from them in which the matter is revived. I - have had to lower my price, however, and content myself with thirty - guineas.... - - Two days ago, a great Italian littérateur, Professor Orioli, head of - the Bologna University, and head of the Italian Government during - last year’s revolution, visited me, and paid me a great compliment on - my new work. Mr Scrope, with whom I dined last Saturday, also said - some very laudatory things about it, which he based on the opinion of - _Mr Charles_, who had read it; the latter afterwards expressed his - admiration to me in person. Last week I wrote two long letters to - Malta to thank Mr and Miss Frere for their very opportune generosity, - which saved us from imminent anxieties. - - The day before yesterday I bought myself a pair of spectacles, which - I felt badly in need of; and now, if you could see what an imposing - figure I cut, and what a grave air they give me, it would inspire even - you with respect. When you return you will certainly take me for a - president. I will not tell you how much they cost, because you would - immediately conclude that my spectacles were bad, and yet they serve - their purpose wonderfully well.... - - Hitherto my stupid prophecy has not been at all fulfilled, and this - letter is witness to the fact: and I pray to God that he may not - fulfil it till I have been able, with your help, to educate and give - a start in life to our four dear offshoots, who have rendered life - extremely dear to me; and I hope to pass it in your sweet company, in - that reciprocal affection which has hitherto bound us together.... - - Your most affectionate husband, - GABRIELE. - - -C. - -[The “garden” here spoken of is the enclosure of Park Square, Regent’s -Park; I can remember being in it more than once in early childhood. -Sangiovanni, a strange impetuous southern Italian, was now an -artist-modeller in clay. Dr Maroncelli was a brother of the prisoner -who was sent to the Spielberg along with Silvio Pellico, as recorded in -Pellico’s book, once highly celebrated, _Le Mie Prigioni_. “My letter -for the King of Naples” appears to have been a memorial or petition. -Pistrucci (Filippo) had been run down in London streets, and remained -lame (yet still active) up to the close of his life, which terminated -towards 1857.] - - [38 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON.] - _29th May 1832._ - - MY DEARLY LOVED FRANCES, - - I would that I had not received your letter this time, although I had - looked forward to it and desired it so eagerly. Every word you wrote - pierced like a dagger into my heart. My sweetest Gabriel, then, is - so ill! My baby Christina suffers with her teeth and has wounded her - forehead! Oh my poor children! If the distance were less great, I - would come immediately to see my four treasures, and you, my beloved - wife, who must be immensely afflicted, as I am myself. And William, - you tell me nothing about him. You told me in your last letter that - he had a return of those fevers from which he suffered here: and now, - how is that going on?--how is he? As you do not speak about it, I will - hope and trust that he has recovered. Be good enough, dear Frances, to - write to me at once and tell me all about them; hide from me nothing, - absolutely nothing. I wish to know the facts, be they better or be - they worse.... I beg you, I beg you urgently, to return immediately if - Gabriel’s condition permits. I wish to share with you the care of my - bantlings. I would never have written you this but for this painful - circumstance, but would have been content to remain a cheerless hermit - for another month; but, now that I see that your presence instead of - improving only aggravates the condition of your honoured mother to - whom we owe every consideration, now that I see that our children, - instead of benefiting by the country air, have rather derived harm - from it (although I ought perhaps to attribute this to other causes), - I should feel dreadfully anxious if you remained any longer away from - me. Who knows but what the figs I sent may have done them harm! But - this constant change of weather has more likely been the cause, first - hot, then cold, now hot again. This belief is strengthened by your - telling me that Maria and Christina have sore throats.... I should be - the most frantic and inconsolable man in the world if I were to lose a - son, that dearest little Gabriel, the very core of my heart, and lose - him thus, far from my sight. My eyes are already full of tears whilst - writing these words, and unless I dry them I cannot continue writing, - as I do not see the paper. But take heart, my wife, it may turn out to - be nothing serious. - - Here, meanwhile, is one cause for rejoicing. I have already obtained - the key of the garden for which you so often wished.... I have already - been five times for a stroll in the garden, the first time alone, the - second time with Polidori, the third with him and Sangiovanni, the - fourth again with him and Doctor Maroncelli, one of those two who - called on me one evening in company with Lablache. This walk is very - convenient, and the children will find plenty of space to walk and run - about here and there.... - - I have already written three scenes of that play for the young ladies, - which I have given to the son of Maestro Negri.... - - Count Lucchesi has told me a thing which he had never mentioned to - me before. When he went with my letter to the King of Naples, about - which you heard, he found the Minister of Naples reading my last work, - dedicated to Mr Lyell. The Minister said to him: “What a talented - man this Rossetti is! You see what persons the government of Naples - exiles!” It is well, dear Frances, that this diplomatist should not be - ignorant of what I have written; and, if it is granted me to return - to my country, before doing so I will send the work to the King - of Naples, so that he will not be able to say later on that I had - committed some old faults of which he was unaware. On Friday I dined - with that painter whom I described to you by the name of Mr Charles.... - - I will close this letter begging you again to write to me at once, - during the course of this week. Remember that until I hear from you - again I shall be extremely agitated. Don’t conceal anything from me, - I repeat. If you did so, you would force me to rush off to you like - a madman, to ascertain with my own eyes the real state of things. - Besides which it might cause me a somewhat serious ill; since for - some six days I have felt distressing and strong symptoms of gout, - which causes me much uneasiness. I needn’t ask you to look after the - children, because I hold it unnecessary; I know you too well. I doubt - whether there lives a better mother than you, and a wife more amiable - and affectionate has yet to be born. And so your husband idolizes you, - and his sincerest love increases with years, and he considers himself - fortunate in possessing such a rare woman. - - Goodbye, dearly loved Frances, I am going to bed for it is one - o’clock. I bless one by one the infant pledges of our love, and invoke - on them health and prosperity. Kiss them for me, speak about me to - them, and--along with theirs--preserve your precious health, which is - my greatest treasure. - - Yesterday poor Pistrucci wrote me a letter which really is fit to make - one weep. He says he is suffering horrible torments, and it has been - discovered that his thigh was broken in three parts, so that he is - crippled. Poor man! - - Your most affectionate husband, - GABRIELE ROSSETTI. - - -D. - -[I have no recollection of the Marchesa Marchigiana, nor of Signor -Ferri. The physiognomical estimate of Signor Janer is curious, because -that gentleman, a cultivated Tuscan whom we saw continually in these -years, was regarded as somewhat prone to backbiting; he was always, -however, on good terms with my father and his family, and I should say -that he was really amicable with all of us. Margaret, named towards the -end of the letter, was my mother’s elder sister.] - - 50 CHARLOTTE STREET [LONDON]. - _6th September 1836._ - - MY DEAREST FRANCES, - - ... At the moment of my writing a very deluge is coming - down--lightning, thunder, buckets of water. I am sorry for poor - Gabriel, who is out for a walk with Henry.... - - That Marchesa Marchigiana left yesterday morning (Sunday), and in the - last two days she called on me thrice. On the evening of Saturday she - came at eight, and left at midnight. She talked for ten. She expressed - great concern for your illness, and exclaimed several times--“Oh, - if I had seen her, I would have made her know what a husband she - possesses!” To hear her, I am the idol of Italy. She knows by heart a - great quantity of my verses, some of which I had as good as forgotten. - Suffice it to say that she knows more of them than Curci, and is more - enthusiastic than Curci about me and my doings. But the greatest - wonder is that she recites long snatches of my _Analytic Comment on - the Divina Commedia_. She told me that, being unable to procure it - in print (as it is prohibited in Italy), she copied it all out from - one that was lent her in secret. That many other people have done the - like. That of my _Salterio_ (the _whole_ of which she truly knows by - heart) she is acquainted with a great number of manuscript copies. - That in Rome a liberal Monsignore named Muzzarelli has, like herself, - copied it out, and learned it off. That, were I to return, in passing - through Romagna, youthful admirers would come about me in shoals, and - would unharness the horses from my carriage to drag me in triumph. - Matter for laughter! Sangiovanni, who was present at all this (which - I can but suppose exaggerated), had to wipe his eyes from time to - time--the loving friend. In short, dear Frances, without your having - observed it nor yet myself, you have as husband the greatest man of - Italy, indeed the idol of Italy! Who would ever have fancied it? - - The best of it is that another gentleman from Lugo has arrived, Conte - Carducci, who brings me a letter from Comendator Borgia (a descendant - of that scoundrel Alexander VI.), and both Carducci and Borgia speak - to me in the same style.... This shows once again that the physical - optics are the reverse of the imaginary; for, as by physics distant - objects seem to us small, so by imagination small objects, the further - off they are, seem the larger. I should be almost afraid of returning, - even if I could, so that I might not verify that saying, _Minuit - præsentia famam_. - - The Marchesa gave us a proof of her physiognomic science which made - me and Sangiovanni laugh a great deal. She saw here Janer, whom she - knew not in the least, and who showed her a thousand civilities. After - Janer had left, she, who had treated him distantly, called me aside, - and said: “Beware of that man, who has the face of a great intriguer - and a very cunning fellow.” Isn’t this queer?... - - With her came a very handsome young man from Fermo, named Ferri, - nephew of Cardinal Ferri. He, on hearing the nature of your illness, - spoke of one of his of the same class, from which he has recovered - to the most perfect health. He was reduced, as he described it, to - a truly deplorable condition, from which he rallied by continual - exercise; and if one sees him now! - - “Di due rivali i pregi in sè compone-- - Marte alla forza, alla bellezza Adone--”[81] - - (old verses of mine). So, my dear Frances, take as much exercise as - you can.... - - Lo and behold, the day is again beautiful, and what a brilliant sun! - Truly the climate of London is more changeable than a Frenchwoman. - Gabriel is knocking with that double knock of his like the postman. I - trust he avoided the rain under some shelter--will go and ask. He has - returned all drenched, and Margaret will make him change clothes.... - - I embrace you, and bless Maria. Repeat to her that her letter gave - me great pleasure; and tell her that I expect one in Italian, which - will serve not only to show me how you are, when you don’t want to be - writing yourself, but also to keep her in the practice of the language - of “the beautiful land.” Believe me, full of unalterable affection, - - Your Husband, - GABRIELE. - - -E. - - [50 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON. - _21st October 1836._] - - MY DEAREST FRANCES, - - Ever since you informed us that the day of your longed-for return - would be the 25th of this October (which will complete two full months - of your absence) we have never ceased to count, every day, how many - days remain before reaching the one which is to restore you to us. - The most steady computer of this sum is Christina. This morning, - barely just out of bed, she came in great glee into the room where I - was studying, and the first words she spoke were these--“Not counting - to-day, only three days remain” (you will understand that the day of - my writing is Friday evening). And I’m sure that to-morrow morning - she will come and say, “There are only two remaining.” ... If you - will tell us at about what hour you will arrive at the Coach-office, - we will all come to meet you, and will bring you home in triumph, - outbidding the most pompous ovations of ancient Rome.... Oh that I - had two arms as long as from here to Holmer Green! you would find - your neck clasped of a sudden by the warmest marital embrace, and you - would then be softly seized hold of and deposited in Charlotte Street, - saving you the trouble of the journey by the road: yours should be - aërial, to beat those of Mrs Graham and Mr Green.... The true, the - one treasure of my life is my dear Frances, and to restore her to me - renewed in health is to restore my existence. Goodbye to the better - portion of myself. Three days hence you, by God’s help, will be here - with me, and I will prove to you how much you are loved by - - Your Husband, - GABRIELE. - - -F. - -[Dante Gabriel had been commissioned by his godfather, Mr Lyell, to -paint an oil-portrait of our father; he was now, after some seeming -neglectfulness, giving full attention to the matter. The portrait, -nearly his first painting, turned out a creditable work; it remains in -the Lyell family, the property of Sir Leonard Lyell, and is reproduced -in this volume.] - - [50 CHARLOTTE STREET, LONDON.] - _21st August 1848._ - - MY DEAREST FRANCES, - - I have the satisfaction of informing you that this (Monday) morning - our Gabriel has for an hour and a half been working at my portrait - in colours, which appears to me to come very like, if I can trust my - poor eyesight, and the exclamations of our emphatic Maria. Moreover, - I asked Gabriel whether he would go on to-morrow, and he replied yes. - If he takes a fancy to it, he will not leave off until he has finished - the work; you know that character of his better than myself. I am - fain to hope that all I wrote you in my recent letter was only the - outcome of the over-much anxiety of a father who gets distressed at - any appearance of evil in what concerns a beloved son.... - - [Illustration: DANTE GABRIEL AND WILLIAM ROSSETTI - - _From a Water-Colour Sketch by Filippo Pistrucci_ - - C. 1838] - - I had hoped yesterday to see Pistrucci, whom I supposed likely to - come to London, to promote the concert for the benefit of the Italian - School. But I was disappointed. I trust he was not offended at that - outburst I sent him regarding the demagogues who have contributed to - the present ruin of Italy. He, as the perfectly sincere patriot whom - all men recognize, must deplore, or rather detest, whatever can have - been a cause of the pitiful state to which our country is reduced. But - let us hope that the disaster is reparable, and I am certain that his - heart desires this no less fervently than my own. I am aware of the - glorious event at Bologna, where the Germans got a good lesson. May - this be the glorious beginning of a still more glorious re-arising! - I know that France and England have become mediators between Italy - and Austria in this bloody strife; may they be sincere and effectual - mediators for the good of both, and may the _reasonable liberty_ of - our poor country result from their efforts! Not every evil comes to do - harm--an old adage: let us hope this may be so in our case. Perhaps - the republican over-zeal will be toned down, after the events which we - are deploring.... - - Now that I can give you better news from home, I remain with a more - cheerful heart - - Your loving Husband, - - G. ROSSETTI. - - -NO. 2.—FROM EIGHT LETTERS FROM GABRIELE ROSSETTI TO -CHARLES LYELL, KINNORDY - -[As to Mr Lyell, see p. 72. I give the following extracts, bearing upon -Rossetti’s theories and speculations regarding Dante and a great number -of other writers, not because I suppose him to have been constantly -right in detail, nor even as adopting his views in a broad sense, but -because the allegations which he here puts forward are certainly both -curious and startling; and they formed so intimate a portion of his -thought and life, chiefly between the years 1825 and 1842, that no -true picture of him could be given without taking matters of this kind -into account. The correspondence between Mr Lyell and my father was -frequent, and often lengthy. I used to possess the general bulk of the -letters written by Mr Lyell, and had been authorized by the present -head of the family, Sir Leonard Lyell, to use, in a compilation which -I was undertaking, extracts from many of them. In 1898, however, an -interchange took place between Sir Leonard and myself; and I now own -the letters which my father wrote, in lieu of letters coming from Mr -Lyell. In comparison with the full extent of these Rossetti epistles, -the extracts which I give are a mere trifle. I have selected not -always the most important passages, but such as tend to show the very -wide range along which he applied his theory of a covert, esoteric, -and perilous meaning in the writings of authors of many centuries -and many nations. Copies of Rossetti’s letters to Lyell, one hundred -and twenty-eight in number, are deposited in the Taylor Institution, -Oxford; the copying was done by Signor de Tivoli. - -There is another copious correspondence which my father carried on -regarding the like topics--that with Mr Hookham Frere. I possess the -letters of Mr Frere appertaining to this correspondence, and also -(through the courtesy of Mr John Tudor Frere and Miss Festing) those -of Rossetti. I had at one time thought of publishing ample extracts -from this series; but ultimately I found it more suitable to place the -correspondence at the disposal of Miss Festing, who, in her interesting -book named _John Hookham Frere and his Friends_ (1899), has drawn upon -it so far as was consistent with her scheme. She has also quoted the -passage in verse about Hookham Frere (see p. 60 of the present work). -Miss Festing naturally did not publish all the letters _in extenso_, -nor even so much of them as I had at first proposed to extract. Several -passages which Miss Festing did not use seem well worthy of being -printed at some time or another--Mr Hookham Frere’s letters, not to -speak of my father’s, being capital reading; at present, however, -I leave all this aside, chiefly with a view to condensing my whole -account of Gabriele Rossetti into a moderate space.] - - -A. - - _29th October 1831._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - ... I have by me _decisive_ historical records and documents, - researches into works in the sect-language,[82] treatises on the use - of the sect-language; in fine, I have as much as would make all our - adversaries remain frost-bound and mute. And to me it is a kind of - enigma to see how matters so multiple, so consentaneous, so palpable, - which have been going on in a lapse of six centuries (from Frederick - II. up to our time), have not ever been either discerned or revealed. - There is not the least doubt that that Emperor projected a change - of religion, and the destruction of the Roman Church. The Popes had - no alternative but either to destroy him and his party, or else to - be themselves destroyed, and their cult with them. That opinion of - Foscolo, regarded by all as a fantasy, which led him to say that - _Dante wished to change the religion_, is a certain fact; and his - fantasy consists only in his having supposed that this was an idea of - Dante’s own, and not that of a most numerous, most potent, and most - wide-spread sect, upheld by men of great power.... - - Never will I set it down, _never_, that there was a project of - expelling Jesus Christ from the altars--only that there was a project - for restoring His worship to its primitive simplicity, and that they - profaned the Catholic doctrine by a concerted phraseology which - involved a political scheme. Wherefore scandalize the world by the - revelation of a daring purpose which may do discredit to illustrious - authors, and bring down upon myself the ill-will of the sect which - still exists, and has power and influence in the social world? The - fact is that the true intention of that secret society, to which - belonged all the authors whom I am engaged in examining, manifested - itself plainly in the effects of the French Revolution at the close of - last century.... - - Reghellini says openly that Dante’s poem is a Masonic poem; and, - before he wrote this, I had already seen it for myself.... - - I have also made some examination of English poetry--that of the time - of Cromwell; I know, however, and know for certain, that Chaucer is in - the same boat.... - - Your highly obliged - GABRIELE ROSSETTI. - - -B. - - _1st October 1832._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - ... It is impossible to continue without exhibiting the most intimate - mysteries of the sect, seeing that the entire poem of Dante, all the - lyrics of Petrarca, almost all the works of Boccaccio, and, in fine, - all the old writings of that class, are nothing else than _downright - doctrine and practice of the Freemasons_, in the strictest acceptation - of the word. Such was the Gay Science, such the Platonic love, such - the sect of the Templars, and that of the Paulicians. How true this is - you will find in the published volume,[83] with numberless manuscript - additions which I have made to it.... There you will see developed - the God of the Sect--viz. Man in Freedom; there, also, the Sectarian - Trinity, the Incarnation, Transubstantiation, and other matters.... - But it is dangerous to consign the work to the public, and the chief - danger is this: The demonstration cannot be _rightly_ founded, so as - to defy confutation, without citing in confirmation the writings of St - Paul and those of St John. One might make use of protests, dexterity, - or even hypocrisy, but none the less one must state the thing which - is; and, if one will not state this, one is compelled to stop short at - the effects, and leave the cause unexplained, which makes less visible - and tangible the reality of the assumption.... - - I see with regret that the assertion of many Sectarian writers, - and among others of Swedenborg, is not without foundation--namely, - that the religion founded upon the New Testament is, in fact, the - religion which they profess, of which _we_ practise the letter, and - _they_ possess the spirit: we are the outer church, and they form the - hereditary priesthood. Be this true or false, great indeed is the - illusion which it assails;[84] and to bring this to light would be an - offence against the human society in which we exist.... - - I now comprehend why the _Mysterium Magnum_ was never manifested - to the world. It is confided to very few persons, of well-approved - prudence, and at an age of thorough maturity; and to discover it by - one’s own scrutiny is a work of immense labour, and (I will venture - to say) of no ordinary talent.... I know that Mr Frere belongs to the - secret order; and, having perceived what it is that I have already - discovered by analysis and reasoning, he fears lest I should reveal it - to the world. I am not so mad as to plan detriment to society, and to - myself.... - - With regard to the chapter, _Dante personified in Adam_, this, though - not demonstrated in full, has none the less a great basis of proofs in - other chapters; and its substance is that Dante was the inventor of - that simulated religious language. Perhaps, on reading some additions - which I have made, you will more strongly feel the reality of the - thesis.... - - Your much obliged Servant, - GABRIELE ROSSETTI. - - -C. - - _15th May 1833._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - “Non io, se cento bocche avessi e cento - Lingue, con ferrea lena e ferreo petto,”[85] - - not if I were to talk for a hundred years with the eloquence of Cicero - himself, could I sufficiently thank you for having first mentioned - and then sent to me the _Donna Immaginaria_ of Magalotti. Oh what a - precious book for proving to the over-brim my assumption!... - - In these recent days I have made some most important discoveries - in the _Convito_: of these I will give you a hint, but only a - hint, as the thing would be lengthy to expound. Being persuaded - that the _Convito_ is the exposition, in the sect-language, of the - _Commedia_ and its secrets, I, observing that Dante dwells so much - upon explaining the cosmographical construction of heaven and earth, - and confident that he must be speaking of his poem, have been minded - to follow the track which he indicates; and I have found (_mirabile - dictu!_) that all corresponds to the poem. Begin reading at p. 153 - (Zatta’s edition), here at the end; “This heaven turns round this - centre continually,” etc.; all that he says--verily all--expounds the - arcane structure of his poetic machinery, and discloses its secret - device.... - - Your much obliged - G. ROSSETTI. - - -D. - - _13th January 1836._ - - VERY DEAR SIR AND EXCELLENT FRIEND, - - ... The interpretation of the _Vita Nuova_ depends upon knowing what - portions of it are to be taken first, and what portions are to be - taken last. This enigmatic booklet contains thirty-three compositions - (_vide_ your Index), relating to the thirty-three cantos of each - section of the _Commedia_. These thirty-three poetic compositions are - to be divided into three parts, according to those three sections, - and to the three predominant canzoni of the _Vita Nuova_. The central - canzone, which is “Donna pietosa,” is the head of the skein, and from - that point must the interpretation begin; and then one must take, - on this side and on that, the four lateral sonnets to the left, and - the four to the right--(the last one to the right has been somewhat - altered by Dante, with the designation of one stanza of an incomplete - canzone, but it is in fact a sonnet, as I will prove)--and the one - set of sonnets will explain the other set; and it will be seen that - the death of Beatrice’s father, set forth on the left side, and the - death of Beatrice herself, set forth on the right side, of the central - canzone, mean one and the same thing. This is the first part of the - enigma. - - On this side and on that follow the two canzoni, placed - symmetrically--viz. “Donne che avete intelletto d’amore” on the - left, and “Gli occhi dolenti per pietà del core” on the right. In - the former it is decided that Beatrice is to die; in the second, - Beatrice dead is lamented; and the one canzone explains the other. - And thus, proceeding from one side to the other, collating the ten - compositions to the right with the ten to the left, we come finally - to the first and the last sonnets of the _Vita Nuova_, which contain - two visions; and the last vision, “Oltre la spera che più larga gira,” - explains the first vision, “A ciascun’alma presa e gentil core.” - When the interpretation goes on these lines, this sonnet becomes as - clear as possible. Dante, assuming his reader to be already cognizant - of the mystical language, and to be capable of solving by this - process his work which has the character of a knot, wrote: “The true - judgment as to the said sonnet was not then seen by any one, but now - it is manifest to the simplest.”... The central part [of the _Vita - Nuova_], which constitutes the Beatrice Nine,[86] consists of nine - compositions--_i.e._ the central canzone, with four sonnets on one - side and four on the other.... - - Recently I have been applying myself to a study of the first Holy - Fathers of the primitive Church; and they say plainly that they, in - the inner Sacerdotal School, explained the _mysteries_ of religion, - protesting at the same time that they could reveal nothing of this - to the profane. I have passages from St Basil, a light of the Greek - Church, which show that these personages acted like the gentile - school.... - - Your truly devoted and obliged - G. ROSSETTI. - - -E. - - _14th January 1836._ - - VERY DEAR SIR AND FRIEND, - - ... The object or system of the secret school, in explaining the - mysteries, is to show that those whom we take for beings existing - outside of ourselves, and who are represented to us as such by - the Christian doctrine, are none other than our internal ideas or - affections; that is to say, that those supernatural personages who - are exhibited to men as divine are the human faculties themselves, - personified by ancient secret art; and that these figurative - personages merge the one into the other, and interpenetrate and unify - in one sole being--namely, in Man. The ultimate revelation. - - This is equally the system of Dante, both in the _Divine Comedy_ and - in the _Vita Nuova_--which latter gives the keys of the former.... - - Origen and Tertullian, as well as Synesius, Bishop of Cyrene, give in - the sect-language the keys to the whole New Testament, and partly to - the Old:... the selfsame explanation which is given in the mysteries - of the present still-subsisting sect. - - From the writings of the latter I gather that the secret school of the - Christian priesthood is continued by Masonry; that one of the heads of - the school in Constantine’s time, Sylvester, came to an understanding - with that despot to suppress the secret explanation, and to retain - merely the formula of the external figures, which understanding - produced the papacy or priesthood of Rome; but that other chiefs of - the same school, indignant at his having sold the interests of mankind - to the secular power, severed themselves from him and persisted in the - secret teaching,--which went on to the late ages (and here we arrive - at Dante), and so continued up to our own times. - - -F. - - _16th December 1836._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - I cannot sufficiently express to you how much pleasure it affords me - to hear from you, “What you have written[87] has convinced me.”... - - Despite every effort, the nature of the argument wells forth of - itself, and almost overflows the dykes which I labour to erect and - strengthen. And I regret to tell you (far from rejoicing at it) that - in the successive chapters the evidence increases to such a point - as to belie all my words, which heal, assuage, and soften down the - nature of the thing. Oh how much have I done to disguise it, but all - in vain! I confess to you my misdeed: in that which you have read, - or which you will be reading, I have suppressed all those passages - of the authorities that I quote which exhibit the secret overtly. - I have quoted in a maimed form Petrarca, Boccaccio, and especially - Swedenborg.... For example, this Swede writes that the entire Bible, - both the Old Testament and the New, is written in that selfsame - language in which he writes, and that his is none other than a - prolongation of that. He says that the Prophets saw God no otherwise - than he saw him; that there is no other future life than that which - he describes, in which one dies a man, and revives as an angel to a - new life; that there are not any other heavens nor another God than - those to which he ascended, and that with whom he spoke; and other - similar things: all of them expunged by me, even in the thick of the - citation which I make. These utterances of his may have illuded the - world, before it was understood, by giving the keys, what heaven is, - and what the angels and God are; but, the keys having been given, the - propositions become horrible and scandalous.... - - Your very affectionate and oblige - G. ROSSETTI. - - -G. - - _21st July 1840._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - ... I could send you a hundred things of the sixteenth and seventeenth - centuries which I have amassed in my extracts. I will limit myself to - two sonnets of the famous Raphael of Urbino; and judge you whether he - was not of the sect--like his contemporary, Michelangelo Buonarroti, - and very many others who were in the environment of the Pope. - - “Un pensier dolce è _rimembrare_, e godo.”[88] - - Raphael’s second sonnet. He, having descended from the _third heaven_ - (like St Paul), writes thus: - - “Come non potè dir d’arcana Dei - Paolo come disceso fù dal cielo, - Così il mio cor d’un amoroso velo - Ha ricoperto tutt’i pensier miei. - Però che quanto io vidi e quanto fei (in the third heaven) - Per gaudio taccio che nel petto celo; - E prima cangerò nel fronte il pelo - Che mai l’obbligo volger pensier rei.”[89] - - ... Pico della Mirandola, Molza, and other contemporaries, speak of - this third heaven in the same mysterious manner, and agree with what - St Bernard, Swedenborg, Cecco d’Ascoli, Dante, etc., say of it.... - - Oh how much can be gathered from the Latin writings of Poliziano! Far - more than even from those of Tasso.... - - Your greatly obliged and obedient - G. ROSSETTI. - - -H. - - _1st February 1842._ - - MY VERY DEAR SIR, - - ... Have you ever read _Le Livre Mystique_ of De Balzac, a living - French author--a book published in 1836? Read it, for it is truly - curious. It is divided into three parts, and expounds mysticism in - mystic language, somewhat less obscure than in the ancient works - of like kind. In the first part he introduces a certain Louis - Lambert as expounder of mysticism; in the second he introduces - Dante at the school of Sigier in Paris, “al Vico degli Strami, - Sillogizzando invidiosi veri”:[90] in the third he introduces a - nephew of Swedenborg, _female and male_, a fantastic and changeful - being, Seraphita-Seraphitus; and she-and-he expresses herself in - terms fit to set the soundest head in a whirl,--and says among other - things: “L’union qui se fait d’un _esprit d’amour_ et d’un _esprit de - sagesse_ met la créature à l’état _divin_, pendant que son âme est - _femme_ et que son corps est _homme_; dernière expression humaine où - l’esprit l’emporte sur la forme, et la forme se débat encore contre - l’esprit divin.... Ainsi _le naturel_ (état dans lequel sont les êtres - non régénérés), _le spirituel_ (état dans lequel sont les esprits - angéliques), et _le divin_ (état dans lequel demeure l’ange avant - de briser son enveloppe), sont _les trois degrés_ de l’exister par - lesquels l’homme parvient au ciel.” (Vol. II. p. 102.) And so on to - a large extent. What seems to me most noticeable is to see Dante and - Swedenborg put on the same footing. And Reghellini says plainly that - Dante was a Freemason (_vide_ Vol. III. pp. 48, 49). And Ragon affirms - the same (pp. 290-332).... - - Your most attached - G. ROSSETTI. - - -NO. 3.--FROM THREE LETTERS FROM SEYMOUR [BARONE] KIRKUP TO -GABRIELE ROSSETTI - -[Mr Seymour Kirkup, an English painter and man of letters established -in Florence, became an enthusiastic adherent to Rossetti’s scheme of -Dantesque interpretation, from reading his Comment on the _Inferno_ -and his _Spirito Antipapale_. In his later years he was made a Barone -of the Italian Kingdom, and he died at a great age towards 1880. The -following extracts relate chiefly to the deeply interesting discovery, -in which he bore a very principal part, of the portrait of Dante by -Giotto in the Chapel of the Podestà, in the Bargello of Florence.] - - -A. - - FLORENCE, _12th September 1840_. - - MY VERY EXCELLENT FRIEND, - - Yours of the 22nd July came safe with the Sonnet, “O della mente - eterna immago e prole.” It is very beautiful. It is capital. Let me - thank you very sincerely, and let me congratulate you on Germany being - about to enjoy the benefit of your invaluable discoveries. Every new - country is a triumph of your cause; and, whilst all Europe will be - benefiting by your genius and learning, Italy alone remains without - an Italian edition of the original Italian work on the great luminary - of Italy and of the world. In Florence there are too many obstacles: - the priests, and the antiquated routine imbecility of the Crusca. The - word-mongers are all envious. They are true bran, and well sifted from - the fior di pensieri. They are old, and find your success a reproach, - and in this country all hue and cry raised against innovation is - supported by force. The tone of the court and the police is carried - into the Academies. Well may you say “L’Italia invidia omai fin la - Turchia.” - - I have delayed writing in the hopes of sending you a sketch which will - interest you, but I have hitherto been disappointed. We have made - a discovery of an original portrait of Dante in fresco by Giotto! - Although I was a magna pars in this undertaking, the Jacks in Office - have not allowed me yet to make a copy. Sono tanto gelosi, most likely - afraid I should publish it and prevent some friends of their own - reaping all the profit they hope from that speculation. - - I was the person who first mentioned to Sig. Bezzi, a Piedmontese and - friend of Carlo Eastlake’s, the existence of the portrait under the - whitewash of three centuries. We were joined by an American, and we - three undertook at our expense to employ a restorer to uncover the - walls of the old chapel in the palace of the Podestà in search of - the portrait--mentioned by F. Villani, Filelfo, L. Aretino, Vasari, - Cinelli, etc. Nothing but the constancy and talent of Sig. Bezzi could - have overcome the numberless obstacles and refusals we met with. He - wrote and spoke with the persuasions of an advocate, and persevered - with the obstinacy and activity of an Englishman (which I believe he - now is). He alone was the cause of success. We should have had no - chance without him. At last, after uncovering enough of three walls to - ascertain it was not there, the Government took the task into their - own hands, on our terms, with the same restorer, and in the fifth wall - they have succeeded. The number of walls is six, for the chapel has - been divided in two--(magazines of wine, oil, bread, etc., for the - prisoners). - - The precise date of the painting is not known. The poet looks about - 28--very handsome--un Apollo colle fattezze di Dante. The expression - and character are worthy of the subject, and much beyond what I - expected from Giotto. Raphael might own it with honour. Add to which - it is not the mask of a corpse of 56--a ruin--but a fine, noble image - of the Hero of Campaldino, the Lover of Beatrice. The costume very - interesting--no beard or even a lock of hair. - - A white cap, over which a white capuccio, lined with dark red showing - the edge turned back. A parchment book under his arm--perhaps the Vita - Nuova. - - It is in a group of many others--one seems Charles II. of Naples. - Brunetto Latini and Corso Donati are mentioned by the old authors. - - I send herewith a pamphlet by Prof. Nannucci--very curious and very - interesting respecting Dante--and a dose for the Crusca. - - I wrote to you by Mr Craufurd, who took charge of the medal, and sent - two pamphlets by him, one for Mr Taylor--and two letters of thanks, - one to him and one to Mr Lyell; but I fear by what you say in your - last letter you have never received them. Mr C[raufurd] is a friend - of Eastlake’s, who can perhaps get them for you. I liked Mr Taylor’s - book[91] very much indeed, and am very grateful to you and him. - - Yours most sincerely, - SEYMOUR KIRKUP. - - -B. - - FLORENCE, _14th September 1841_. - - MY DEAR FRIEND, - - By the time you receive this, I hope that the portrait of Dante, for - you, will be in London. - - The gentleman who has taken charge of it was in such haste to leave - the country (from the consequences of a fatal duel) that I had not an - opportunity for writing. - - You will receive, in fact, three portraits. They are as follows:-- - - No. 1. A drawing in chalk, on light-brown paper, of the face as large - as the original. I had intended to write a memorandum on it, but in my - hurry it was forgotten. Perhaps you would have the kindness to add it, - if you think it worth while--viz. - - “Drawn by S. K., and traced with talc, on the original fresco by - Giotto; discovered in the Chapel of the Palazzo del Podestà, Florence, - on the 21st July 1840, before it was retouched.” - -No. 2. A small sketch in water-colours, giving the colours of the -dress, and the heads supposed to be of Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini. - -No. 3. A Lithography by the painter and restorer Marini, who uncovered -the painting. This is made on a tracing by himself. - -I thought it useful to send you these in order to give you a better -idea of this very interesting discovery--Dante, under 30 years of -age. With respect to No. 1, it is fixed with glue-water, and will -not rub out with common usage. The only thing it is liable to is the -cracking or bending of the paper, which sometimes in a face alters the -expression. - -Since I drew it, I have had the mortification to see the original -retouched, and its beauty destroyed. You will perceive that the eye is -wanting. A deep hole in the wall was found exactly on that spot, as if -done on purpose. It was necessary to fill it that it might not extend -further: not content, they ordered Sig. Marini to paint the eye on -it, and he has daubed over the face in many parts, to the ruin of its -expression and character. It is now 15 years older, a mean, pinched -expression, and an effeminate character, compared to what it was. It -is not quite so bad as the lithography I send you, but not far from -it. When I saw what was done, I asked a young man, his assistant, if -it was done with colours in tempera, and he assured me, with a boast, -that it was in bon fresco. If so, Dante is gone for good. But I have -still hopes that he spoke only of the eye, and many of my friends -think it can only be accomplished on the old and hard painting by some -distemper-colour of glue, size, or egg; and, if so, a damp cloth fixed -on it for half-an-hour will bring it all away without injuring the -original fresco. I mean to take my time, and perhaps some day I may -restore Dante to himself a second time. I had the principal part in the -late discovery. - -The lithography I send you is exceedingly unlike and incorrect, -although a tracing. In shading and finishing he has totally lost -and changed the outline, if he ever had it. It is vulgar, old, and -effeminate--the contrary in every respect to the original. The -Florentines of to-day cannot draw, nor even trace. Think of what such a -hand would do, if allowed to paint over it! and that has been the case. -It is a misfortune when the direction of the fine arts is in the hands -of an ignorant man, chosen only for his _Nobility_! Our Direttore with -his cleaners has been the ruin of paintings in the Galleries, since I -have been here, to the value of £60,000 or £80,000 sterling--and the -money is the least part of the loss. When I mentioned to you that my -drawing was a secret, I only meant that, if known here that I obtained -access to make a tracing by bribery, it would compromise those who had -assisted me. You are welcome to show it to whom you please, and _do -whatever you wish with it_. But I recommend you not to give it away, -for it is the _only_ copy that has been made to my knowledge before the -fresco was retouched, except the miserable lithography which I send; -and, if so bad a copy was produced by the help of tracing, and from -the original in its pure state, nothing very good is to be expected in -future. The eye in the said lithography was, of course, added by the -copier. You will perceive by my drawing that the outline (the eyelash) -remained, which was fortunate, as it gives the exact situation of the -feature. - -We are in daily expectation of the arrival of The Book of Mystery.[92] -I am doubly anxious, from the distinguished honour you have conferred -on me. The Marquis and the Professor are full of gratitude to you, but -the Frenchman (_entre nous_) seemed to confer a favour rather than -receive one. And so great a one! _Gente francesca!_ - -The scientific meeting of Florence commences to-morrow, and ends on -the 8th Oct. It opens with a grand Mass of Spontini, in the Church -of S. Croce. Galileo’s shrine will be the favourite of the four -great Tuscans--besides whom, there is a host of secondary stars: F. -Barberini, C. Marsuppini, Leonardo Aretino, Lami, Mascagni, Alfieri, -Rinuccini, Alberti, etc., etc., etc. - -Do you know the Improvisatore Regaldi? and his _Carme a -Firenze_--written about three years ago. There are some lines on the -subject of S. Croce. - -God bless you, my dear friend, and allow me once more to thank you for -all your kindness, and to subscribe myself - - Most sincerely yours, - SEYMOUR KIRKUP. - -Best remembrances to Sig. Carlo (Eastlake, his name in Rome). - - * * * * * - -The name of the bearer of the portrait is Plowden. He is a banker of -Florence, and may be heard of at Messrs Harris & Farquhar, Bankers, of -London. He will send it you, I hope, or leave it himself. - - -C. - - FLORENCE, _5th February 1843_. - - MY DEAR FRIEND, - - Let me add my thanks to the rest of the world for the mental enjoyment - afforded by your _Beatrice_. My share is the greater for the handsome - and honourable mention you make of me. I am proud of your approbation - and good opinion, and am doubly grateful for the rank in your esteem - which you have so generously bestowed on me. The book has met with - unusual success here. It has converted many. Whether the name has - attracted the public, or the compactness has excited the idle, or the - cheapness the economic, or all together, I know not, but it has been - much read and admired. Italians and Tramontani are all full of it. I - think in general they are grateful for the light; although it destroys - a romantic illusion, which has been much cherished, especially on this - spot, but which they cannot now entertain, except at the expense of - adhering to an absurdity, or rather many absurdities. Some, however, - are too far committed, and have too much vanity to acknowledge - themselves wrong--the vulgar and the selfish in particular. - - For my own part, I have found the Ragionamento in part a renewal and - condensation of what I had already learned from your former works, - divided and spread through them. In this first Ragionamento you have - not given the demonstration (I suppose it will follow in a succeeding - one) of Boccaccio’s fault respecting May-Day, which is so complete and - curious in the _Misteri Platonici_.... - - The most important of your decisions is confirmed and strengthened in - this volume: I mean your identification of Beatrice and Filosofia. - Your three reasons at the top of p. 20 are new and unanswerable. How - completely Dante blindfolds the superficial reader (which I was, till - you taught me to fathom him) by making one believe that the lady at - the window was _mundane philosophy_, and that Beatrice, or _Divine - Science_, reproaches Dante in Purgatory for having yielded to her - attractions for a short time.... - - I am so engrossed by your work that I am carried away and not - answering your very kind and most friendly letter. A thousand thanks - for it. I know how your time is filled, and have always wondered how - you can get through all. I fear even writing you, but you desired - me to send you all I think of _Beatrice_. My letter would be long - indeed if I touched on all its beauties: I should copy the book. - There are many additional discoveries in the weaving of this mystic - web which the book is rich in. You still surprise those whom you have - already convinced. You are certainly an extraordinary Unraveller--a - Disentangler--and I will say that, notwithstanding the dry task of - unpicking knots, tight-drawn on purpose to resist skill and force, you - have performed it with a skill and elegance that render it exciting - and delightful to follow. - - You desire all my “opposizioni.” Lord help me! Can I find an error or - two of the press?... - - I am longing for the next Ragionamento; I don’t know if others want - much more to convince them, but in general the first part seems to - have had that effect. - - Mr Lyell judges me, as you do, too partially. All I have learned I owe - to you; and I confess to you that I have often found it difficult, - even with your powerful help, to remove the substantial screen which - Dante has built up _purposely_ to conceal and protect his secret. But, - when I think of you, who have, alone and single-handed, knocked over - so many formidable barriers, and shown us the gardens and roses, the - groves, the apples, the laurels, the olives, the flowers, the stags, - and all the magic machinery of secret romance, I am lost in thinking - how you found your way in such a labyrinth, and what immense and - curious courses of reading you must have gone through, turning all you - obtained to the accomplishing your will and determination to penetrate - an untrod region, without a track or vestige to guide you. I wish I - had the ability to write a description of your _Misteri_. Perhaps I - could be of use in lending a hand merely, as I have studied them much; - but _my_ tools are paint-brushes, and I am not practised in the art - of writing. My education has been too defective for me ever to have - ventured in print. A weak defender is more dangerous than a strong - opponent, and all I could hope would be perhaps to hit on some thought - that might have escaped others; but without some help from the third - heaven (which a good friend of mine knows of) I should not be able to - clothe it so as to render it decent. - - I observe what you say on the subject of necessary reserve on certain - subjects. You are quite right. You cannot be too careful in your - situation and with your family. From your letter I see that your - opinions are nearer mine than I supposed. But, as I am living out of - the world and am perfectly free from it, I can safely be as explicit - as I please. I have no reserve, and, if ever _the_ cause require a - word beyond the customary and necessary limits, call upon me to say - it, or say anything for me against priestcraft and kingcraft. That is - my religion. - - I don’t wonder at Mr Lyell’s exultation at your _Beatrice_. There are - some master-touches amongst the new proofs, both in matter and manner, - both close reasoning and light.... - - The three pomegranates in Giotto’s fresco are so uncertain in their - appearance, from injury and time, that I was doubtful about them, but - a word from you decides the question in my mind. They are chipped and - much obliterated; and, from their seeming a sort of double outline, - and no shade or colour but the yellow drapery on which they are - painted, I took them for an embroidery on the breast of the Barone. - Some remains of fingers and stalk, however, had led the Florentines - to consider them as melograni, and they were puzzling their brains to - find a meaning.... - - Your whole-length portrait of yourself is full of nature and - character, and therefore it must be very like: I thank you for it. - And here is mine:--a little thin old man, 54, formerly dark, now very - grey. Fond of fun, but not often tempted to indulge in it, and seldom - depressed. Living alone in an old tower with two dogs only--a servant - coming daily for a few hours. Disliking much to go into company, and - especially to dress in cold weather, being slovenly even in my younger - days. I live very temperately and never take wine. I am very active, - more from lightness than strength, for I feel the effects of years and - illness. Just now I boast, for I have had extraordinary health this - autumn and winter. I paint a little, and read a good deal. I ought to - do more in both, with opportunities and perfect liberty, but I am slow - and stupid. My memory, too, is weaker than it was. - - Lord Vernon has twice desired me to present his best compliments and - remembrances to you. He hopes you have received his book (through - Molini). There is an outline in it from my tracing of Dante’s head, - and, though it is not very correct, it is the best yet done.... - - When will your new edition of _Iddio e l’Uomo_ come out? I admired - it much in its former state. Forgive the length of this letter, and - remember me to Eastlake and Keightley. - - Believe me, with sincere affection, - Your faithful friend, - SEYMOUR KIRKUP. - - - NO. 4.--LETTERS (OR EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS) FROM GIUSEPPE - MAZZINI--ELEVEN TO ROSSETTI, AND ONE TO ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT - -The following are the only letters from Mazzini that remain among my -father’s papers--except some other three or four, too trifling to be -printed. The originals are naturally in Italian; the translation is -mine. Letters A. and B. relate to a certain Galassi and Vantini, whom -I do not remember, but the letters explain themselves well enough. -Mention is also made of a “little book” by my father, which was _Rome -towards the Middle of the Nineteenth Century_. Letters C, D, and E, -refer to a school which was got up in London, by some leading resident -Italians interested in the lot of their fellow-countrymen, for the -instruction of the poorer and hitherto much neglected members of -the colony--organ-grinders, plaster-cast vendors, models, waiters, -journeymen, etc. The ice-cream purveyor did not exist at that remote -date. This school, held in the Hatton Garden quarter, went on for -some few years, dignified by the countenance of Mazzini, and greatly -indebted to the practical work of (among others) Filippo Pistrucci, -who was a painter, teacher, writer, and improvisatore, brother of -the celebrated medallist. Rossetti of course concurred, but without -taking any very active part. Letters F, G, and H, refer mainly to a -MS. which my father wished to send to Paris--being, I take it, the -selection of his poems, many of them youthful, which were published -at Lausanne, under the title _Versi_. There is also some mention of -the Conte Giuseppe Ricciardi, named on p. 91 of the present book. -He belonged to the Mazzinian sect, but sometimes kicked against the -traces, and one can see in the correspondence that the great chief -found him on occasion a little exacting and tenacious. Letter I has -reference to a _fête_ which Signor Giovanni Antonio Delavo, who had -erected a villa on the site of the Battle of Marengo, got up on the -anniversary of the conflict. He had induced my father to write a poem -for that commemoration; and Mazzini, it seems, was invited to obtain -the insertion, in some English newspaper, of the poem, or of some -other writing connected with the occurrence. In this letter, and in -the following one (J), the observations about political events deserve -notice. The final letter (K) seems to belong to a late date in 1848, -and to imply that various Italians, including Mazzini himself, had -addressed the Swiss Diet in consequence of some complications arising -out of the Italian military reverses, in conflict with the Austrians, -towards the close of that memorable year of unmeasured hopes and cruel -disappointments. - -A few notes of my own on minor points are appended to the -correspondence. - -Besides the eleven letters to my father, I give one letter, of far -larger purport, which is quite unconnected with my family. It was -lately purchased by a daughter of mine, simply as an autograph. On the -purport of this document I need not enlarge, as it speaks for itself. -It stands numbered at the close “15” in Mazzini’s handwriting, and -would seem therefore to be one missive in a sustained correspondence. -The recipient (or some one) has written upon it in Italian, “Letter -from Giuseppe Mazzini”; moreover, the peculiar handwriting is quite -unmistakable. It bears no date, and, for reasons readily surmisable, no -postmark. In the course of the letter the addressee is spoken of as “My -Corso”: I presume, therefore, that his surname may have been Corso, but -this _might_ also be a Christian name, or might merely mean “Corsican.” -A name is written by Mazzini on the back of the letter; it has been -partly inked over, and looks to me more like “Mr Clare” than anything -else. - -The letter shows that the addressee had some relations with Vincenzo -Gioberti, the celebrated Churchman and Minister of State, whose leading -work, _Il Primato d’Italia_, was published in 1845. Perhaps 1846 or -thereabouts may be the date of the letter. It mentions Tommaseo, a -multifarious man of letters, whom English people may remember as having -written the inscription on Casa Guidi, Florence, for Mrs Browning; -Buonarroti, a member of the house of the great Michelangelo; and -Bozzelli, the Liberal politician in Naples, who came to precarious -power in 1848. My father has mentioned him on p. 98. Libri appears to -be the Librarian of that name, settled in Paris, who succumbed under -a charge of serious frauds. The names of Malmusi and Bianco are not -recognized by me. - - -A. - - 4 YORK BUILDINGS, KING’S ROAD, CHELSEA. - _28th March 1841._ - - MY DEAR SIGNORE ROSSETTI, - - You warmly recommended to Vantini one of our brother exiles, Galassi. - You recommended him for some employment, and that is well. But to - discover an employment is a lengthy affair, and Galassi has not a - halfpenny in the world, and I, for the last month and a half, have - been assisting him so far as my means allow--or indeed _don’t_ allow. - However, an expedient has offered, equally acceptable to Galassi and - to us--that of sending him to Spain. What between the friends that he - has there, and others whom we could obtain for him, and his knowledge - of the language, and other points, he would not find it difficult - to procure occupation; here, not understanding, nor perhaps making - himself understood, he would not succeed in a hundred years. Also a - ship has been found which would convey him to Bilbao or Santander for - a sum of £5; so that, with some few other pounds to get along with - at the first start, Galassi might have a chance of better fortune. - Now the ship will leave on the 30th of this month, and I can and will - do my share--not the whole. Therefore I appeal to you and to other - good Italians. And from you, as being better than many others, I - wish for two things instead of one; I would like that, if you _can_, - you would inscribe your name for some shillings on the accompanying - subscription-list--and that, if you _will_, you would write off to - Vantini, informing him that your client is preparing to depart, and - does not need to be assisted save this one time, and you would send on - the list to him. Vantini is indeed one of the best-hearted of them, - and this I know by experience. I would myself write to him, but have - recommended so many to him that I dare no more. Besides, it seems to - me better, since _you_ made the beginning, that you should bring this - good work to a close. None the less, I shall be grateful to you, as if - you undertook it now, and solely for my sake. - - Meanwhile I am greatly obliged to you for the little book you sent me; - good and useful. We perhaps do not wholly agree as to the remedies to - be applied to our Italy; but certainly we do agree as to her wounds, - and you do a beneficial work in laying bare unremittingly one of the - most pernicious. For the rest, I trust in God that one day we shall - understand each other, and that you will be unwilling to hold aloof - from our National Association, now re-organized in all quarters, and - on the way to power. - - Believe meantime in the affectionate esteem of your - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -B. - - 4 YORK BUILDINGS, KING’S ROAD, CHELSEA. - ? 1841. - - MY DEAR SIGNORE ROSSETTI, - - I have managed with Vantini through a different method; anyhow, I - thank you for the intention, and for what you did for my client. - - If you will send an order to Rolandi to deliver, to some one on my - behalf, a certain number of copies of your booklet, I will send them, - four days hence, by an opportunity to Spain. At present I have no - opportunity as to Switzerland, but I have correspondents there; and, - were the chance to present itself to you sooner than to me, address - to Signor Fanciola, Postmaster at Locarno (Ticino) for “Signor Pietro - Ol----”; and the copies will be distributed in accordance with your - intentions. - - I have promised to send to a friend in New York the copy of the Papal - Excommunication of Carbonarism--launched, I think, in 1820. Do you - happen to know where I could find it? - - I am aware of your circumstances;[93] but what is requested of you - would be no more than the influence of your name among the Italians - who know you. The object is to have you as our brother in our - Association, so that to any inquirer one could say--“All those who - truly love the cause of their country have comprehended that unity - of country cannot be founded without unity of association.” There - would be a slight monthly contribution fixed by yourself; there - would be (and this is the most serious condition, but, as you will - see, inevitable) the certainty that, in writing about our country, - you would leave off recommending monarchic constitutionalism, and - repeat with us: “May God and the People be the salvation of Italy!” - And these, for us who are abroad, are about the only conditions of - the Association. For the rest, I believe that a copy of our _General - Instruction_, given to you by Pistrucci, has remained in your hands. - The whole of our thought is there expressed; and, if one day you feel - able to say “I accept it and make it mine,” you will be received by us - with joy and sincere brotherliness. - - Meanwhile good-bye, and believe me - - Yours, - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - If you like, you should place at my disposal a certain number of - copies for Marseilles, and for Italy in that direction; I will provide - for their reaching. - - -C. - - LONDON. - ? _November 1844._ - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - I transcribe verbatim a letter that I have received. - - “To Signori Rossetti, Pepoli,[94] and Mazzini. A Special Committee - chosen by the Italian Working-men begs you to come together on - Sunday 4th December 1844, at the hour and place most convenient to - yourselves, to receive a communication of high importance; and, in the - confidence that you will grant us this favour, we thank you meanwhile. - The members of the aforesaid Committee--Odoardo Villani, G. B. Soldi, - A. Berni, Giuseppe Gandolfini.” - - I don’t know anything about the object of the meeting. I know the four - signatories, and they are good worthy Italians. In the impossibility, - for lack of time, of corresponding as to hour and place, I take - the liberty of fixing for the meeting my house, between 1 and 2 - P.M. I am notifying to Pepoli and to them. Try and come if - you can; or, if perchance you cannot, write so as to relieve me of - responsibility. - - Believe me always - Yours, - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -D. - - 4 YORK BUILDINGS, CHELSEA. - ? _May 1845._ - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - We have decided to have on an early day in June a concert for the - benefit of the school; Pistrucci, I suppose, will give you all the - particulars of the project, or I will give them myself. You will then - see how far and in what way you may be able to aid towards a good - result. But meanwhile I have to beg you urgently for one thing. I have - a letter of introduction to Miss Kemble,[95] and I want to request - her to sing: singing for a school is quite a different thing from - singing in a theatre. I know that she at one time asked Giannone[96] - for a letter to you, and that you saw her. I don’t know on what terms - you have remained with her, but, knowing _you_, I presume good terms. - Could you add a letter to the one which I hold? or could you join me - in a visit? or, if nothing else, write to her on your own part?--and, - in this last case, on Monday or Tuesday. Thus assailed at one moment - from two sides, she would perhaps surrender. - - Whatever you decide, please oblige me with a couple of words in reply, - and with the lady’s present address,[97] if you can give this. - - Wish me well, and believe me - Your very affectionate - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -E. - - 108 HIGH HOLBORN. - _31st October 1845._ - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - Pistrucci told me that he would undertake to beg you to allow your - voice to be heard, in one way or other, at the Anniversary of our - School, 10th November.[98] Still, I will join to his my poor request. - The fact of the School is an Italian fact; and it ought, even with a - view to the English, to have the moral support of all Italians who, - like yourself, do honour to the name of our common country. - - Confiding in your willingness to hearken to our request, believe, dear - Signor Rossetti, in the full friendly esteem of - - Yours, - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -F. - - 19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - [? _January 1847_]. - - VERY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - An opportunity has arisen. Will you give the MS. to the bearer? He - will be leaving to-morrow, or at latest on Tuesday. - - I thank you for your good wishes for the year now commenced; but I - have no hope of joy, save one alone--that of bearing witness in death, - as I have endeavoured to do in life, to my Italian faith. Pray that - this may occur within this year, and believe me always - - Your much attached - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -G. - - 19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - [? _January 1847_]. - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - The Manuscript has gone off--not anything else. Ricciardi, Janer, - Pistrucci, will have patience, and await other opportunities which I - shall have towards the end of the month. We cannot, for exhortations - and sonnets, be guilty of an indiscretion towards English travellers, - who consider they have stretched a point if they accept letters, - and are quite capable of throwing in your face a “Why not employ a - bookseller?”--which I should not like. However, I undertake, for - love of you, to get all the things off, but distributing them among - various travellers. A slight delay will not spoil matters; nor will - the exhortations to return to Paris accelerate to any great extent the - progress of French civilization. - - I was unable to charge my traveller--an Englishman, young, and - an officer--with the eight shillings, for he would probably have - forgotten them. But I have written that you had given them to me, to - be paid to Ricciardi--and probably they will be paid one of these days. - - Believe me, with all esteem, - Your much attached - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -H. - - 17 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - _8th February_ [1847]. - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - To your MS. has happened what often happens to our Italian affairs: - in trying to do good, one does harm. If we had waited patiently for - that Italian traveller of mine of the 24th January, the MS. would at - this date be in Paris. But, urged on by my own wishes, and also by the - strong pressure, I seized the opportunity of an Englishman, Captain - Boulton, and consigned the volume to him. He, as he said, was to leave - on the following day. And, knowing nothing to the contrary, I supposed - him to have departed, in fact; until, five or six days ago, becoming - suspicious from the silence of my correspondents, and making active - quest for the officer, I found that owing to some family incident or - other he had deferred his departure, and had indeed gone off to the - country--whence he writes that he will be leaving in seven days!! - - You should, therefore, be under no alarm for the MS. Like yourself, I - regret the delay, but it is not my fault. If, earlier than the seven - days, I get an opportunity, I will see that the MS. goes off before - the officer; if not, not. - - I felt anxious to reply to you about the MS., as the matter of most - importance. As to Ricciardi’s eight copies, please inform Ricciardi - that one can’t tell a tourist, “Take with you a boxful of things”; - that it is a miracle if I found some one to convey the eight; that, - sooner or later, I shall find some one to convey the others; and that - moreover I would not have undertaken, except for wishing to do a - service to you whom I greatly esteem, to send off either the eight or - the sixteen. Neither would I set going from Paris to London, and then - from London to Paris, copies of my own performances, but would order - them to be burned or given away. - - And believe me ever - Your much attached and affectionate - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -I. - - 19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - ? _ May 1847._ - - DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - I cannot succeed in the endeavour. Among the leading newspapers, I - had no hope save in the _Morning Chronicle_, and this one declines. - The quantity of matter, electoral movements, literary articles - already promised, etc., form the pretext. The true reason, I think, - is that the apotheosis of Napoleon has no grateful sound to English - reminiscences. Besides, a short paragraph upon the celebration of the - 6th[99] had already received insertion in several journals when your - letter arrived, and they are not fond of repetitions. - - For myself, I, as you know, do not believe in King nor in Pope: I - believe in God and in ourselves. They may do what they choose, and - try to compromise Charles Albert[100] in the face of Austria by every - means: the rabbit will not be changed into a lion. I say rabbit, and - might say fox. To celebrate Marengo, a battle won by an Italian but in - the name and under the banner of the French nation, while we have the - Austrians our masters two paces off, savours to me of bragging rather - than of patriotism. I see these demonstrations with pleasure, because - they furnish an occasion for impressing on the people, who know not, - the name of Italy, and that of her oppressors; but, as an individual, - I feel inclined to smile with a trifle of bitterness. In Piedmont the - rabbit is now in the vein of reaction; and not only the suppression - of the subscription,[101] but that of the Family-readings conceded to - the Jesuits, and other recent acts, speak clearly enough. However, we - shall see. - - I keep the letter for another two days, for a final endeavour; - afterwards, I shall return it to you. Meanwhile believe me always - - Your much attached and affectionate - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -J. - -[The reference to Ricciardi’s book follows on more or less from what -appears in two previous letters. The book may possibly have been a -predictive _History of Italy from 1850 to 1900_, which was published in -1842. This letter, written in the great year of European revolutions, -1848, belongs, I suppose, to a very early date in that year; perhaps -prior to the insurrection in Paris, which began on 23rd February. There -had been some disturbances in Milan on 3rd January, and a rising in -Messina from 6th January. On 22nd February martial law was proclaimed -in Lombardy by the Austrians.] - - 19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - ? _February 1848._ - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - I send you by Parcels Delivery Company ten copies of Ricciardi’s book, - admiring our friend’s tenacity of memory, especially in this time - of events. These are the only copies that I find in my possession. - If I _had_ a larger number, the Italian friends who during the long - interval have been frequenting my house must have appropriated them - with no great ceremony, much as they appropriate my own books. None - the less, if ever Ricciardi were to complain, I declare myself ready - to pay the expense of the copies deficient. I ought to have been on - the watch, but that is not my habit. - - The affairs of Italy are going and will go on their right course--that - is, to the expulsion of the Austrians from the Lombardo-Venetian - territory. The Sicilian insurrection has done more for the Italian - cause, in a few days of popular action, than two years of petitioning. - - Believe me always - Your much attached - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -K. - - 19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD. - ? _November 1848._ - - MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI, - - Here is the Address which we sent to the Swiss Diet. I will add that - a discussion on military capitulations was in consequence started in - the Diet by the Ticino and the Bas-Valais; a discussion which, as - befalls everything important in that Central (not Government but) - mis-Government, was not settled, but held over (as they say) _ad - referendum_. - - Make any use of me that I can manage, and believe me always - - Your much attached - GIUSEPPE MAZZINI. - - -L. - -TO “CORSO” - - BROTHER, - - I have received yours of the 8th. That I should write to you at much - length on the subject of your letter is not possible. You, however, - will certainly not suppose that I evade the discussion, nor that I - do not set a right value on your convictions, or do not care about - them. No indeed; and you are mistaken in fancying that your frankness - of speech could ever offend me. If you but knew how the religion - of truth is the religion for me! and how much any real conviction - inspires me with respect, if not assent! But this is not a question - to be disposed of in a few letters; nor have I time, beset as I am by - a thousand distractions through my dream of Italian initiative, to - enter on a discussion. And, if I ever have time, I shall compose, I - confess to you, a whole volume--but I shall never publish it, unless - a Republican revolution should have broken out. For the present, I - understand this latest reaction in favour of Christianity, and I see - it to be necessary, and acknowledge it as useful. A true knowledge of - Christianity--its nature, its mission--will follow from this study. - Just as, in my view, _reform_ must naturally precede the securing - of independence, liberty, and equality, in political dogma, so do I - believe that the political synthesis, or at any rate a glimpse of this - synthesis, must, in the new epoch, precede in renovated Europe the - manifestation of the religious synthesis of the epoch. Rights were of - yore individual; and it was natural that first the _individual_ should - be emancipated, that the _instrument_ should be formed to acquire - an application of those rights in the political department. At the - present time the reverse is the case. The question is that of the - _social_ synthesis. The _instrument_ is no longer the _individual_, - but the people. Therefore the people, which is to secure the religious - formula, requires to be _constituted_: therefore a political - revolution before the religious one. - - Only, you know what I have always said: like advanced scouts, secret - sentinels of human nature, _intelligences_ must begin to proclaim that - they descry the _new lands_ and the new law. And therefore I should - have supposed you to be among them; and I still believe that you will - be among them later on. Meanwhile, as you think that my efforts (and - be it observed that I am doing nothing) are to subserve the triumph - of Christianity, so do I think that yours are to subserve the triumph - of the new synthesis, the _social_ synthesis, philosophy merged into - religion: because--I do not deny it--my “harmonized dualism” is - precisely this harmonizing of philosophy with religion--two things - which hitherto have been at odds, and which will end by coalescing. - Yours is, without your perceiving it, an eclecticism and no more. Your - _quid tertium_, neither _catholic_ nor _primitive_ (two distinctions - as to which I should have much to say), is an Utopia, or rather a - chimera. You don’t perceive that that which you call _primitive_ is at - bottom nothing except Christianity in the soul, not any social form; - that the second epoch--_i.e._ Catholicism--is rightly the application - of Christianity to society; and that the Reformation--a cynical - movement, whatever you may say about it--came, in fact, to say of - Christianity: “You are not susceptible of any social application, of - any national unity, because you are an individualistic formula and no - more: stay you in your proper sphere.” - - You and I, I perceive, regard the Reformation, and all things, from - different points of view. - - And now see what is the outcome of the idea, “Christianity is an - _eternal_ religion, an unique religious synthesis.” And what of - mankind prior to Christianity? Oh in what sense do you understand God, - if you admit that He gave the unique eternal synthesis some thousands - of years after the race had been created? And the unity of the mind - of God? A progressive law at the beginning, and an eternal synthesis - later on? But no more of this; you go too far. Believing as I do, with - yourself, in continuous progression, there ought to be between us - only a question of time, but never a denial of a new synthesis when - the time comes. _Christianity asserts its perfection and eternity as - a fundamental principle: therefore you cannot, without destroying it, - say that it is not the whole of truth._ But once again, no more of - this. Christianity had to profess itself perfect and eternal, and I - even admit that. But when did Christianity ever affect to be a social - religion? _That_ is the question. Christianity is the formula of the - individual, and as such is eternal and perfect to my thinking--for - that formula is what no one can nullify. It means liberty and - equality; and who can ever henceforth exclude those two bases of - progress from the progress of the future? Christianity therefore will - endure. Only, behind that formula one seeks for another--the social. - Where is the contradiction? - - Tell me, my Corso, with your hand on your heart. To the arguments - which I scatter in my letters, hurried, unconnected, and almost - sportive, the true fruit of profound convictions, and which you - (permit me to say) shirk a little in your replies, have you anything - to oppose? Do not some of the things which I say, if you think them - over seriously, cast some doubts on your mind? - - As to what you cite to me, regarding miracles, and the resurrection - of Christ, etc., I will not discuss to-day; but I confess to you, it - seems to me strange that you should regard those as being irrevocably - proved in history. - - I say it seriously, some one will come to furbish up my ideas, without - knowing that I advocated them. I am more than likely to die without - doing this, because I am conscious of my mission, and I know the - duration of it--and I know that it is not I who will wage the war. - Truth means to run her course, and she will do it; but I shall not - lay the foundation-stone of the edifice--I have no future. I have - discerned, but it is not given to me to do more; therefore I still - devote these my days to a work very inferior to that which my longings - would have sought for--the actual production of the instrument. I am - neither more nor less than a political revolutionist, and to this I - resign myself. Would that I may at least be that, and wrench this - Italy that I love out of the mire in which she lies, set her freed - face to face with her destinies, and say to her, “Now make them yours.” - - As you see, I am writing to Gioberti. Writing thus to all and sundry - begins to weigh upon me. I have moments of _spleen_, of individualism - which rebels; and at those moments I seem to myself to be playing - the prostitute, and making Italian liberty play the like part. For - if you but knew how many letters, and these to intellects so-called, - and all useless! But these are moments of irritation, arising out of - what I have myself been suffering these three years, and this is more - than you suppose, and you know it not, and never will know it. Then - I return to myself; and, where I can see any little advantage, any - symptom of duty, I submit and write. - - Hand also the enclosed lines to Tommaseo, who, like others, does not - understand me, and does not understand the situation in which we are. - - Have you seen Libri? You will tell me that I am pertinacious; this is - true. But all those who desert me, without any fault of mine against - them, and without my being even able to guess the reason, cause me - real pain. - - If you know Malmusi, or can get at any one who knows him, don’t forget - to tell him that for the love of God he should reassure me concerning - the arrival of certain letters of mine: his silence troubles me. - - Of politics I say nothing, as I do not mean to speak about them until - the first half of the month of October; then I shall have data from - which to speak. Meanwhile I repeat to you what I told you. - - Did you ever see Buonarroti? Do you know where Bianco is? Of him - I know nothing of late, and I am anxious to write to him. Do they - ever write to you from Turin? What Italians are you acquainted with? - Bozzelli? - - Wish well to your - STROZZI. - - Put an envelope on the letter to Gioberti. Write to me what reception - he gives it. Pray excuse.[102] - - -NO. 5.--SIX POEMS BY GABRIELE ROSSETTI - -[I give here six specimens of my father’s powers as a poet. Setting -aside _San Paolo in Malta_, which is only an improvise, it may be said -that in all these instances the verses rank among his choice things; -though many others could be quoted not inferior. The dates which I give -may be regarded as correct, unless as to the final sonnet, regarding -which I am uncertain. - -The lyric, _Aurora del 21 Luglio del 1820_, was, as I have before -said, extremely celebrated in its time; and the _Addio alla Patria_ -has always been an admired piece. The _San Paolo in Malta_ is -referred to at p. 61, and testifies to Rossetti’s uncommon power -as an Improvisatore; being as it is in _terza rima_, each rhyme is -triplicated, and thus the improvising effort was all the more arduous. - -I leave these poems to the perusal of such readers as are acquainted -with Italian. To try to translate them would be little else than to -scheme deliberately to spoil them.] - - -A. - -AD AMORE - - Alato bambino, - Tiranno de’ cuori, - Ch’io segua il cammino - Che innanzi m’infiori? - Unendomi teco - Ch’io veggio sì cieco, - Oh quanto sarei - Più cieco di te! - Pur troppo gemei, - Fanciullo inumano! - Ma i lacci funesti - Che al piè mi cingesti - Del Tempo la mano - Mi sciolse dal piè. - - A credulo cuore - Tu scaltro dispensi - Contento ed ardore - Che inebbriano i sensi: - Ma in mezzo al contento - Prepari il tormento; - L’ardor ti precede, - Ti segue il languor. - Nè l’alma si avvede - Del passo imprudente - Che quando a fuggire - Le manca l’ardire, - Che quando si sente - Già vinta dal cuor. - - Quel dì che sul mondo - Vagisti bambino, - Un cenno iracondo - Del sordo Destino - Di face ferale - La destra immortale - Di penne funeste - Il dorso ti armò. - Le penne son queste, - O nume fallace, - Che a Pari infedele - Gonfiaron le vele, - E questa è la face - Che Troia bruciò. - - Tu godi, o tiranno, - Di sparger la terra - Di gioia, d’affanno, - Di pace, di guerra; - Ma finta è la pace, - La guerra è verace, - L’affanno rimane, - La gioia sen va. - Insidie sì strane - Ci ordisci, ci tendi, - Che a render prigione - L’augusta Ragione, - Tuoi complici rendi - Ingegno e Beltà. - - Chi crede a’ tuoi detti - Ne attenda la fine; - Le rose prometti - Per dargli le spine: - Ben sento che giova - Saperlo per prova; - Ma troppo al mio cuore - Tal prova costò. - La via del dolore - Io teco calcava; - Ma in mezzo del corso - Intesi il Rimorso - Che _ferma_, gridava, - Ma tardi gridò. - - Quel giorno che il velo - Mi cadde dal ciglio, - Rimasi di gelo - Scorgendo il periglio: - Sul velo squarciato, - Sul laccio spezzato, - Il canto innalzai - Di mia libertà. - Ah libero omai - Dal giogo abborrito, - Sull’ara tua stessa - Crollata, depressa, - Innalzo pentito - L’altar d’Amistà. - - 1813. - - -B. - -VERSI D’AMORE - - Dal tuo leggiadro viso - Il mio destin dipende: - D’ugual desio mi accende - Il tuo desio. - Dal labbro tuo soltanto - Ha questo labbro il riso: - Ha dal tuo ciglio il pianto - Il ciglio mio. - - 1814. - - -C. - -AURORA DEL 21 LUGLIO DEL 1820 - - Sei pur bella cogli astri sul crine - Che scintillan quai vivi zaffiri, - È pur dolce quel fiato che spiri, - Porporina foriera del dì. - Col sorriso del pago desio - Tu ci annunzii dal balzo vicino - Che d’Italia nell’almo giardino - Il servaggio per sempre finì. - - Il rampollo d’Enrico e di Carlo, - Ei ch’ad ambo cotanto somiglia, - Oggi estese la propria famiglia, - E non servi ma figli bramò. - Volontario distese la mano - Sul volume de’ patti segnati; - E il volume de’ patti giurati - Della patria sull’ara posò. - - Una selva di lance si scosse - All’invito del bellico squillo, - Ed all’ombra del sacro vessillo - Un sol voto discorde non fù. - E fratelli si strinser le mani, - Dauno, Irpino, Lucano, Sannita; - Non estinta ma solo sopita - Era in essi l’antica virtù. - - Ma qual suono di trombe festive! - Chi s’avanza fra cento coorti? - Ecco il forte che riede tra i forti,[103] - Che la patria congiunse col re! - Oh qual pompa! Le armate falangi - Sembran fiumi che inondin le strade! - Ma su tante migliaia di spade - Una macchia di sangue non v’è. - - Lieta scena! Chi plaude, chi piange, - Chi diffonde vïole e giacinti, - Vincitori confusi coi vinti - Avvicendano il bacio d’amor! - Dalla reggia passando al tugurio - Non più finta la gioia festeggia; - Dal tugurio tornando alla reggia - Quella gioia si rende maggior. - - Genitrici de’ forti campioni - Convocati dal sacro stendardo, - Che cercate col pavido sguardo? - Non temete, chè tutti son quì. - Non ritornan da terra nemica, - Istrumenti di regio misfatto, - Ma dal campo del vostro riscatto, - Dove il ramo di pace fiorì. - - O beata fra tante donzelle, - O beata la ninfa che vede - Fra que’ prodi l’amante che riede - Tutto sparso di nobil sudor! - Il segreto dell’alma pudica - Le si affaccia sul volto rosato, - Ed il premio finora negato - La bellezza prepara al valor. - - Cittadini, posiamo sicuri - Sotto l’ombra de’ lauri mietuti, - Ma coi pugni sui brandi temuti - Stiamo in guardia del patrio terren. - Nella pace prepara la guerra - Chi da saggio previene lo stolto: - Ci sorrida la pace sul volto, - Ma ci frema la guerra nel sen. - - Che guardate, gelosi stranieri? - Non uscite dai vostri burroni, - Chè la stirpe dei prischi leoni - Più nel sonno languente non è. - Adorate le vostre catene; - Chi v’invidia cotanto tesoro? - Ma lasciate tranquilli coloro - Che disdegnan sentirsele al piè. - - Se verrete, le vostre consorti, - Imprecando ai vessilli funesti, - Si preparin le funebri vesti, - Chè speranza per esse non v’ha. - Sazierete la fame de’ corvi, - Mercenarie falangi di schiavi; - In chi pugna pe’ dritti degli avi - Divien cruda la stessa pietà. - - Una spada di libera mano - È saetta di Giove tonante, - Ma nel pugno di servo tremante - Come canna vacilla l’acciar. - Fia trionfo la morte per noi, - Fia ruggito l’estremo sospiro; - Le migliaia di Persia fuggiro, - I trecento di Sparta restâr! - - E restaron coi brandi ne’ pugni - Sopra mucchi di corpi svenati, - E que’ pugni, quantunque gelati, - Rassembravan disposti a ferir. - Quello sdegno passava nel figlio - Cui fù culla lo scudo del padre, - Ed al figlio diceva la madre, - “Quest’esempio tu devi seguir.” - - O tutrice dei dritti dell’uomo, - Che sorridi sul giogo spezzato, - È pur giunto quel giorno beato - Che un monarca t’innalza l’altar! - Tu sul Tebro fumante di sangue - Passeggiavi qual nembo fremente, - Ma serena qual’alba ridente - Sul Sebeto t’assidi a regnar. - - Una larva col santo tuo nome - Quì sen venne con alta promessa; - Noi, credendo che fossi tu stessa, - Adorammo la larva di te: - Ma, nel mentre fra gl’inni usurpati - Sfavillava di luce fallace, - Ella sparve qual sogno fugace, - Le catene lasciandoci al piè. - - Alla fine tu stessa venisti - Non ombrata da minimo velo, - Ed un raggio disceso dal cielo - Sulla fronte ti veggio brillar. - Coronata di gigli perenni, - Alla terra servendo d’esempio, - Tu scegliesti la reggia per tempio, - Ove il trono ti serve d’altar. - - 1820. - - -D. - -ADDIO ALLA PATRIA - - Nella notte più serena - Era in ciel la luna piena: - Neve il dorso e fiamma il crin - Riflettea dal mar vicin - Il Vesèvo che grandeggia - Come reggia--di Vulcan: - D’arme grave--anglica nave - Trascorrea l’equoreo pian. - - Quando il profugo cantore, - La cui colpa è il patrio amore, - Atteggiato di martir, - Schiuse il labbro ad un sospir - E qual flebile usignuolo, - Il suo duolo--a disfogar, - Dal naviglio--volse il ciglio - La sua terra a salutar. - - O Partenope, egli dice, - O Partenope infelice, - Di tua gloria il chiaro dì - Quasi al nascere morì! - Ah dal cor t’indrizzo i carmi - Nel sottrarmi--a reo poter, - E nel bando--miserando - Sarai sempre il mio pensier! - - Rè fellon che ci tradisti, - Tu rapisci e non racquisti: - Maledetto, o rè fellon, - Sii dall’austro all’aquilon! - Maledetto ogni malnato - Che ha tramato--insiem con te! - Maledetto--ogni soggetto - Che ti lambe il sozzo piè! - - Ti sien contro in ogni loco - Cielo e terra, mare e foco, - Nè dien tregua a un infedel - Foco e mare, terra e ciel! - Sì, ti faccian sempre guerra - Cielo e terra--foco e mar! - Ti stia scritto--il tuo delitto - Sulla mensa e sull’altar! - - Traditor, da quel momento - Che infrangesti il giuramento, - Cento stili, o traditor, - Tendon’ avidi al tuo cor... - Deh frenate il santo sdegno, - Non n’è degno--un cor brutal, - E saetta--di vendetta - Tenga il luogo del pugnal! - - Che pel fulmine di Dio - De’ suoi falli ei paghi il fio, - Ma di Bruto il sacro stil - Onorar non dee quel vil! - No, non abbia il vil la gloria - Che la storia--dica un dì: - Il nefando--Ferdinando - Come Cesare perì! - - Mesta Italia, io ti saluto: - Qual momento hai tu perduto! - Quel momento, o Dio, chi sà - Se mai più ritornerà? - Già sorgea ringiovanita - L’impigrita--tua virtù... - Come mai--tornar potrai - Al languor di servitù? - - Deh perchè non farla, o Sorte, - O men bella, o almen più forte? - L’astringesti ad invocar - Lo straniero infido acciar, - Onde o vinta o vincitrice - L’infelice--ognor servì, - E impugnando--estraneo brando - Sè medesma ognor ferì. - - Ah crudel, se a questa terra - Far volevi eterna guerra, - Perchè darle poi, crudel, - Questo suolo e questo ciel? - Quì le vergini di Giove - Tutte e nove--apriro il vol, - Quì sfavilla--la scintilla - Che Prometeo tolse al sol. - - Surse quì la face aurata - Sull’Europa ottenebrata, - E l’Europa a quel fulgor - Si scotea dal suo torpor. - Cento doti, Italia bella, - Lieta stella--a te largì; - Ahi t’invola--quella sola - Che ti fea regina un dì! - - Libertà, tu fuggi? Ed io... - Io ti seguo; Italia, addio! - Libertà, non mai da te, - Mai non fia ch’io torca il piè! - Oh se un dì farai ritorno, - In quel giorno--anch’io verrò; - Ma infelice--il cor mi dice - Che mai più non tornerò! - - Sì dicea; ma l’igneo monte - Decrescea nell’orizzonte, - E la luna in mezzo al ciel - S’era ascosa in grigio vel. - Par che stia con veste oscura - La Natura--a dolorar, - Par lamento--il flebil vento, - Par singulto il rotto mar. - - Addio, terra sventurata!... - Ma la terra era celata. - Ei nel duol che l’aggravò - Chinò ’l capo e singhiozzò. - Ahi l’amor della sua terra, - Ahi qual guerra--in sen gli fà! - Infelice!--il cor gli dice - Che mai più non tornerà! - - _24 Giugno 1821._ - - -E. - -SAN PAOLO IN MALTA--_Canto Improvvisato_ - - Poichè l’onda varcai non mai tranquilla - Ove spiran talor venti insoavi, - Fra cui Cariddi freme e latra Scilla, - Scilla e Cariddi che le intere navi - Ingoian nelle viscere petrose, - E ne vomitan poi le rotte travi, - Oltre l’etnee voragini fumose, - A cui perpetuo april le balze infiora, - Solcai dell’afro mar le strade ondose. - In porpora augural sorgea l’aurora, - Quando un’isola apparve al punto istesso - A me che meditava in su la prora; - Isola che in offrir facile accesso - L’Africa con l’Europa in sè marita, - A due parti del mondo uscita e ingresso; - Isola che bilingue e tripartita - Il passeggier nel suo cammin navale - Con quattro porti a riposarsi invita. - Già vi scendea del mio desir sull’ale, - Quando dall’alto udii voce tonante: - “Scrivi quel che vedrai, scrivi, o mortale!” - Levai sorpreso il pallido sembiante, - E scender vidi nuvola d’argento - Che agli occhi mi vibrò balen fiammante: - E dopo un giro vorticoso e lento - Un cittadin del ciel mi dischiudea, - E tal che ancor lo veggio, ancor lo sento. - Gran parte delle sfere onde scendea - Avea nel volto, e lunga fluttuando - Sfioccata barba al petto suo pendea. - Un pallio sinuoso e venerando - Lo panneggiava, e avea tra fiero e pio - Un libro in una man, nell’altra un brando. - All’inspirato suo decor natio - Riconobbi il maestro delle genti, - Vaso d’elezïon, lingua di Dio, - Colui che or con ragioni, or con portenti, - Apostolo e filosofo, fu vago - Ne’ varj climi illuminar le menti. - E poichè offrì la venerata imago - Del Verbo Eterno in Efeso e Corinto, - Mostrò l’ignoto Dio nell’Areopago; - Ed in Damasco dalla grazia vinto, - Da nemico di Dio fattone messo, - Ancor vivente al terzo ciel fu spinto. - Nel ravvisarlo al vivido riflesso, - Di riverenza l’anima ripiena, - Mutolo al piè gli caddi e genuflesso. - L’accerchiata di rai fronte serena - Paolo abbassando allor: “Sorgi,” mi disse, - “O figliuol dell’armonica sirena, - Sorgi e respira. Io so quanto soffrisse - Di tempeste il tuo cor che un porto chiede, - E un porto il fausto ciel già ti prefisse. - Quell’isola gentil che là si vede - Curvar flavo e petroso il fianco aprico, - Cui basso il mar lambe amoroso il piede, - Al tuo vagar fia di ricetto amico. - Bella ospitalità pronta ai soccorsi - Colà si annida, ed io per prova il dico; - Chè poichè Saulo caddi e Paolo sorsi, - E la spada in gettar presi la penna, - Vangelizzando l’Orïente io corsi, - E quella Fè ch’anche gli stolti assenna, - Fuggendo la tirannide feroce, - Meco salì sulla velata antenna; - E ovunque alzando l’inspirata voce, - In faccia alla fremente Idolatria, - Rovesciò l’are e vi piantò la croce. - Or mentre trascorrea l’equorea via, - E ministra al vagante apostolato - Pellegrina la Fè meco venia, - Lo spirto delle tenebre sdegnato - Contro il mio pin che questo mar fendea - L’onde rimescolò col freddo fiato, - E dal nembo mugghiante in cui fremea - Stese il braccio nemico, e con furore - Negli scogli spezzò la prora achea. - Ma quel che impera ai venti alto Signore - Mi guidò fra quei semplici isolani - A dissipar le nebbie dell’errore. - E i varj ne fugai sogni profani, - Onde impresse vi avean larghe vestigia - Fenici, Greci, Punici, e Romani: - E la potenza eterea, equorea, e stigia, - Dei falsi dei, figli di reo consiglio, - Per me disparve da Melita e Ogigia. - Nè sol Giove, Nettun, Pluto, in esiglio - Mandai dall’are, ma Calipso istessa - Onde accolti quì furo Ulisse e il figlio. - E fin d’Ercole Tirio al suol depressa - Cadde l’imago, cara al volgo insano, - Che nei numismi ancor si vede impressa. - Quivi rettile reo mi morse invano, - Che dai sarmenti accesi in cui soffiava - Sbucò fischiando e m’addentò la mano; - E mentre a gonfio collo raddoppiava - Il morso in questa man, da me sospinto, - Spense nel foco la maligna bava. - Ciascun credea che di pallor dipinto, - Quasi iniquo omicida a Dio rubello, - Per quel velen cader dovessi estinto. - Ma sopra i giorni miei vegliava quello - Che salvi trasse i tre dalla fornace, - E dai leoni il giovin Danïello. - Ei volle questo suolo asil di pace, - Onde fe’ che per me restasse illeso - Dal tosco d’ogni rettile mordace. - Del portento insperato ognun sorpreso - Mi cadde al piè con supplicanti rai, - Come s’io fossi un dio dal ciel disceso. - E bene al guardo altrui tal mi mostrai, - Chè dalle genti estenuate e grame - Cento pallidi morbi allor fugai. - Di Publio udii le filïali brame, - Sì che a suo padre, in preda a morbo ingordo, - Dell’egra vita rannodai lo stame. - Tolsi a Morte l’acciar di sangue lordo, - Sordi e muti guarii, con tal portento - Che il muto lo narrò, l’intese il sordo. - Corser d’allor ben cento lustri e cento - E sempre questi resi almi confini - Asili dell’industria e del contento. - E vigilando ognor sui lor destini - Nel successivo imperversar degli anni - Scacciai Goti, Normanni, e Saracini. - Farne una rocca contro agli Ottomanni - Disegnai poscia, ne parlai nel cielo, - E mi fe’ plauso il precursor Giovanni. - Ei che a vittoria del divin vangelo - Proteggeva un equestre ordin d’onore - Che pria regnò fra il Libano e il Carmelo, - Per rinnovarne il pristino splendore - Meco discese per le vie del tuono - Del Quinto Carlo a favellarne al core. - E Carlo allor dal riverito trono - Per compenso di Rodi (ahi Rodi tristo!) - Ai campioni di Dio ne fece un dono. - Ed essi intenti a glorïoso acquisto - Spinser nautiche flotte all’uopo accolte, - Il gran sepolcro a liberar di Cristo: - Tal che in fronte alle turbe infide e stolte, - Che sparsa avean di sè tremenda fama, - L’Ordrisia Luna s’ecclissò più volte; - E sì troncata fu l’iniqua trama - Che la città che le scacciò con l’armi - ‘Città Vittoriosa’ ancor si chiama. - Io resi degni di perpetui carmi - Que’ Duci ch’al più Sant’Ordine ascritti - Augusti templi ornar di bronzi e marmi, - E a render più sicuri i patrii dritti - Formar nell’arduo inespugnabil sito - Muniti porti e baluardi invitti. - Io resi industre il popolo imperito, - Tal che per lui nel freddo e nell’ardenza - Lo steril sasso ancor divien fiorito; - E sì lo prosperai di mia presenza - Che, mentre Europa avea miseria e guerra, - Quì fiorivan la pace e l’opulenza. - Io fei cenno da lungi all’Inghilterra, - E commisine il freno a quella destra - Che lo scettro de’ mari in pugno serra. - Ed or che il vizio infetta ogni terreno - Melita che virtù non mai discaccia - La virtù sventurata accoglie in seno. - Tu vi discendi: io ti farò la traccia: - Vedrai, figlio, vedrai come a te inerme - Amorosa accoglienza apra le braccia. - Nè l’aspe infausto e il velenoso verme - Temer del vizio all’altrui danno intesi, - Ch’io là distrussi d’ogni serpe il germe.” - Disse, e su me vibrò più lampi accesi - Che in sen mi ravvivâr gli spirti oppressi; - Nella nube ei si chiuse, a terra io scesi, - E sull’ospite sponda un bacio impressi. - - _12 Agosto 1821._ - - -F. - -NAPOLEONE A SANT’ELENA - - Mira, Ocean, quel principe son io - Temuto in guerra qual fragor del tuono, - Che, a sua voglia togliendo e dando il trono, - Turba d’imbelli rè spinse all’obblio. - Un trono io m’ebbi; e non mel diede in dono - La sognata dai rè grazia di Dio; - A un nume de’ miei pari, al brando mio, - Terror dell’orbe, debitor ne sono. - Il Destin quì mi trasse, e non l’Ispano, - Il Prusso, il gel di Scizia, o i rè tremanti, - Nè il fulmine temprato in Vaticano. - Ma quì pur grande. E dov’è mai chi vanti - Per sua prigione aver l’ampio Oceano, - E per custodi suoi tutt’i regnanti? - - 1835? - - - - -INDEX OF NAMES - - - A - - Abatemarchi, 75 - - Aberdeen, Lord, 121 - - Abruzzo Citeriore, 6, 90 - - Adriatic Sea, 6 - - Albany Street, 166, London, 109 - - Alberic, Friar, 40 - - Alberti, 150 - - Alexander VI., Pope, 127 - - Alfieri, 18, 47, 85, 150 - - Amalfi, 47 - - Amantea, Bruno d’, 29 - - America, 15, 81, 82 - - Amersham, 117 - - Antrodoco, 51 - - Arcadi, Academy of the, 36 - - Ardenti, Academy of the, 36 - - Arditi, Cavalier, 19, 20 - - Aretino, Leonardo, 145-50 - - Ariosto, 73 - - Aroux, E., 68 - - ---- Dante Hérétique, etc., by, 68, 112 - - Ascoli, Duke of, 26 - - Athenæum, The, 89 - - Attica, 49 - - Austria, 1, 23, 41, 48, 131-66 - - Avalloni, Baron Giovanni, 15 - - - B - - Balzac, Honoré de, 143 - - ---- Le Livre Mystique, by, 143 - - Barberini, Francesco, 150 - - Barclay, 118 - - Bargello, The, Florence, 144-7 - - Barile, 117-9 - - Bas-Valais, 168 - - Basil, St, 139 - - Berio, Marchese, 35 - - Bernard, St, 143 - - Berni, A., 161 - - Berri, Duc de, 80 - - Bezzi, Aubrey, 145-6 - - Bianchi, 39 - - Bianco, 157-73 - - Bilbao, 158 - - Biondi, 36 - - Blake, William, 5 - - Boccaccio, 135-41-51 - - Boccanera, 17 - - Bologna, 131 - - ---- University, 121 - - Bonaparte, Lucian, 15 - - ---- Pierre, 15 - - ---- Princess Charlotte, 15 - - Borgia, Comendator, 127 - - Borrelli, 98 - - Boulton, Captain, 164-5 - - Bozzelli, 98, 173 - - Brighton, 117 - - Browning, Mrs, 157 - - Buonarroti, Michelangelo, 12, 142, 157 - - ---- Signor, 157-73 - - Byron, Lord, 117 - - ---- The Corsair, by, 117 - - - C - - Caccavon, 39 - - Cagliari, Archbishop of, 104 - - Cagnazzi, Archdeacon, 91 - - Calderari, The, 40 - - Campi, Don Giuseppe, 20 - - Campochiaro, Duca di, 35 - - Canosa, Principe di, 40 - - Capecelatro, Colonel F., 75 - - ---- Monsignor, 18 - - Capobianco, 42 - - Carbonari, The, 40, 41, 42, 44, 48 - - Carducci, Conte, 127 - - Caroline, Queen (Bonaparte), 3 - - Carrascosa, General, 75 - - Casa Guidi, Florence, 157 - - Casella, 120 - - Cassero, Principe di, 35 - - Castelcicala, Principe di, 74 - - Castlereagh, Lord, 74, 75 - - Cecco d’Ascoli, 143 - - Cerbara, 69 - - Charles, King of Naples (Bourbon), 1, 178 - - Charles II., King of Naples, 146 - - Charles IV., King of Spain, 19 to 22 - - Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, 94, 95, 96, 166 - - Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London, 129 - - Chaucer, 134 - - Chiabrera, 73 - - Christian VIII., King of Denmark, 30, 31 - - Cicero, 47, 136 - - Ciciloni, Ferdinando, 52, 53 - - Cimitile, Principe di, 118 - - Cinelli, 145 - - Clarges Street, 40, London, 162 - - Coleridge, S. T., 66 - - Colletta, General, 40 - - ---- Storia di Napoli, by, 40, 43 - - Colonna, Vittoria, 12 - - Concordia, Naples, 56 - - Constantine the Great, 140 - - Corsica, 14 - - Corso, 156 - - Corunna, 54 - - Cosenza, 42 - - Costanza, Dr, 50 - - Courier, The, 121 - - Craufurd, 146 - - Cromwell, Oliver, 134 - - Crusca, La, 145-6 - - Curci, Dr, 39, 126 - - Cyrene, 140 - - - D - - Dante, 10, 40, 65, 82, 84, 99, 110-1-2-31-3-4-6-40-3-4-52-4 - - ---- Convito, by, 137 - - ---- Divina Commedia, by, 63, 65, 66, 73, 135-7-9-43 - - ---- Vita Nuova, by, 137-8-9-46-51 - - D’Avalos, 12 - - De Luca, Pier, 75 - - De Tivoli, 132 - - Delavo, Giovanni A., 156-66 - - Delécluze, 112 - - ---- Amour du Dante, by, 112 - - Della Guardia, 7 - - Denmark, Princess of, 30 - - Disraeli, Isaac, 66 - - Donati, Corso, 146-7 - - Durso, 39 - - - E - - Eastlake, Sir C. L., 120-1-5-45, 146-50-4 - - Eco (L’) di Savonarola, 100 - - Elizabeth, Queen of Spain (Farnese), 1 - - England, ix, 5, 44, 62, 65, 66, 68, 81, 82, 90, 105-11-4-31 - - Erroll, Countess of, 62, 64 - - Escurial, The, 21 - - - F - - Fanciola, 159 - - Fardella, General, 56, 57, 76 - - Ferdinand I. (Naples), 2, 3, 12, 13, 19, 21, 22, 24 to 28, 30, 37, 38, - 40, 41, 42, 47, 48, 51, 54, 75 to 81, 90, 98, - 111-78-82-3 - - Ferdinand II. (Naples), 13, 98, 122-4-5 - - Ferdinand VII. (Spain), 21 - - Fermo, 128 - - Ferretti, 36 - - Ferri, Cardinal, 128 - - ---- Signor, 126-8 - - Festing, Miss, ix, 132 - - ---- J. H. Frere and his Friends, by, ix, 132-3 - - Filelfo, 145 - - Finati, Giovanni, 22 - - Fitch, Mrs, 117-9 - - Florence, 73, 144-5-50 - - Florio, 75 - - Foggia, 42 - - Foscolo, Ugo, 133 - - Fouarre, Rue de, Paris, 143 - - France, 2, 13, 15, 42, 44, 82, 94, 95, 104-31 - - Francis, Emperor, 2 - - Fraticelli, 112 - - Frederick II., Emperor, 133 - - Frentani, 6 - - Frere, J. Hookham, 60, 62, 63, 64, 68, 72, 82, 111-22-32-3-6 - - ---- J. Tudor, 132 - - ---- Susan, 62, 64, 122 - - Frome-Selwood, 108 - - - G - - Gaetani, Padre Vincenzo, 10 - - Galassi, 155-7-8 - - Galileo, 150 - - Gallo, Agostino, 25, 26, 28, 29 - - Gandolfini, Giuseppe, 161 - - Garibaldi, 92 - - Garnett, Richard, vii - - ---- History of Italian Literature, by, ix - - Gatti, 38 - - Gazzola, 91 - - Gerard Street, 37, London, 76 - - Gerardi, 73 to 76 - - Germ, The, 89 - - Germany, 14, 145 - - Giannone, 162 - - Gioberti, Vincenzo, 157-72-3 - - ---- Primato d’Italia, by, 157 - - Giotto, 144-5 - - ---- Portrait of Dante by, 144-48-53 - - Giovine Italia, La, 93, 159-60 - - Gomez-Paloma, Marchesina Luisa, 29 - - Graham, Mrs, 129 - - Green, 129 - - Grey, Lord, 121 - - - H - - Hallam, Arthur, 66, 112 - - Harris and Farquhar, 150 - - Hatton Garden, London, 155 - - Heimann, Dr Adolf, 114 - - Henri IV., 178 - - Herculaneum, 111 - - Highgate Cemetery, 113 - - Holmer Green, Bucks, 117-9-29 - - Homer, 37 - - Howard, Mrs, 118 - - - I - - Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 67 - - Inland Revenue Office, 108 - - Inni e Cantici Cristiani, 70, 73 - - Italy, ix, 5, 6, 12, 44, 46, 65, 66, 69, 83, 91, 93, 96, 99, - 102-3-6-9, 113-8-26-7-31-45-58-60-6-72-84-5 - - ---- Kingdom of, 3, 144-61 - - Ithome, 49 - - - J - - Janer, 126-7-63 - - Jannelli, General, 42 - - Jesus Christ, 70, 71, 134-71 - - Joachim, King of Naples, 3, 15, 20, 22, 24, 29, 36, 37, 42, 52, 111 - - John, St, 135 - - Jorio, Canon, 20 - - Joseph, King of Naples and Spain, 3, 14, 15, 20, 21 - - Jubar, Baron, 30 - - - K - - Keightley, Thomas, 154 - - Kemble, Adelaide (_see_ Sartoris) - - King’s College, London, 72, 83, 107-11-8 - - Kirkup, Seymour (Barone), 116-44-9 - - Kotzebue, 80 - - - L - - Lablache, 124 - - Labrador (Minister), 22 - - Lami, 150 - - Latini, Brunetto, 146-7 - - Lausanne, 69 - - Leopardi, Giacomo, 161 - - ---- Epistle to Pepoli, by, 161 - - Libri, 157-72 - - Little Missenden, 117 - - Locarno, 159 - - Lombardo-Venetia, 168 - - Lombardy, 98, 167 - - London, 15, 32, 36, 39, 67, 71, 72, 74, 76, 85, 92, 98, 108-9-10-2-9, - 120-2-8-30-61-5 - - ---- Bishop of (Blomfield), 118 - - ---- University, 83 - - Louis Philippe, King, 44, 94 - - Louvel, 80 - - Lucchesi, Count, 124 - - Lugo, 127 - - Lusciano, Duke of (Mollo), 78, 79 - - Lyell, Charles, 68, 72, 82, 83, 116, 119-24-30-1-2-40-6-52-3 - - ---- Sir Leonard, 130-2 - - Lyons, 37 - - - M - - MacIntyre, 119-20 - - Magalotti, 136 - - ---- La Donna Immaginaria, by, 136 - - Malmusi, 157-73 - - Malpica, Cesare, 39 - - Malta, 5, 50, 56, 60, 62, 67, 73, 75, 76, 111-22-88 - - Mamiani, Terenzio, 91 - - Marchigiana, Marchesa, 126-7 - - Marengo, 155-66 - - Maria Caroline, Queen, 2, 3, 13, 24 - - Maria Theresa, 2 - - Marie Antoinette, 2 - - Marini, 147-8 - - Maroncelli, Dr, 122-4 - - ---- Pietro, 122 - - Marseilles, 160 - - Marsuppini, C., 150 - - Mascagni, 150 - - Mazzini, 92, 93, 94, 116-55-6-7 - - Mediterranean Sea, 58 - - Mendelssohn, Joseph, 66 - - ---- Lectures on Rossetti, by, 66, 112 - - Messina, 75, 94, 167 - - Metastasio, 10, 18 - - Milan, 167 - - Minasi, 74, 98 - - Minichini, Abate, 45 - - Mirandola, Pico della, 142 - - Molini, 154 - - Molza, 142 - - Monte Citorio, Rome, 36 - - Montecassino, 51 - - Monteforte, 45 - - Moore, Lady, 54, 55, 57, 58, 76, 77, 111 - - ---- Sir Graham, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 76, 77, 111 - - ---- Sir John, 54 - - Morelli, 44 - - Morning Chronicle, 165-6 - - Museo Borbonico, Naples, 18, 19, 22, 27, 55, 111 - - Muzzarelli, Monsignor, 91, 127 - - - N - - Nannucci, Professor, 146 - - Naples, 2, 3, 10, 12, 15, 19, 22, 24, 28, 31, 35, 36, 38, 39, 45, 52, - 54, 57, 66, 73, 80, 91, 98, 110-1-57, 182 - - ---- Kingdom of, 1, 13, 16, 40, 41, 44, 75, 98 - - ---- University, 38 - - Napoleon I., 3, 13, 14, 15, 21 to 24, 95, 166-91 - - Napoleon III., 15, 95, 105 - - Naselli, General, 27, 28, 30 - - National British Gallery, 90 - - Negri, Maestro, 120-1-4 - - Nelson, Lord, 2 - - New Testament, 87, 135-40-1 - - New York, 159 - - Nile, Battle of, 2 - - Noja, 25 - - Nola, 45 - - Norway, 30 - - - O - - Old Testament, 140-1 - - Oliva, 38 - - Opinione, L’, 109 - - Orezia Academy, 37 - - Origen, 140 - - Orioli, Professor, 121 - - Ouseley, Sir Gore, 118 - - Ovid, 6 - - - P - - Paisiello, Giovanni, 29 - - Palermo, 28 - - Panizzi, Sir Antonio, 66, 83, 99 - - Paolelli, 97 - - Papal States, 166 - - Paris, 143-55-7-62-4-5-7 - - Park Square, Regent’s Park, 122-4 - - Parma, 11, 34 - - Parthenopean Republic, 2 - - Paul, St, 135-42-86 - - Peel, Sir Robert, 121 - - Pellico, Silvio, 122 - - ---- Le Mie Prigioni, by, 122 - - Pepe, General Guglielmo, 43, 46, 91, 92, 98, 178 - - ---- Memoirs of, 43 - - Pepoli, Conte Carlo, 161 - - Petrarca, 73, 105-35-41 - - Philip V. (Spain), 1 - - Pietrocola-Rossetti, Teodorico, ix, 72 - - ---- Memoir of Rossetti, by, ix - - Pistrucci, Filippo, 122-5-30-1-55-60 to 163 - - Pius VII., 36, 111 - - Pius IX., 96, 101-5-7 - - Plowden, 150 - - Poerio, Major, 75 - - Poland, 119 - - Polidori, Charlotte, 57, 117-9 - - ---- Eliza, 117-9 - - ---- Gaetano, 85, 86, 87, 117-24 - - ---- Margaret, 126-8 - - ---- Mrs, 87, 120 - - ---- P. Robert, 117-9 - - Poliziano, 143 - - Polydore, Henry, 117-9-26 - - Pompeii, 111 - - Pontanian Society, Naples, 37 - - Portinari, Beatrice, 99, 138 - - Portinari, Folco, 138 - - Porto-Cannone, 42 - - Potter, Cipriani, 117-8 - - - Q - - Quattromani, Luigi, 31, 33, 34 - - - R - - Ragon, 144 - - Raphael, 142-6 - - Raphael, Sonnets by, 142 - - Regaldi, 150 - - ---- Carme a Firenze, by, 150 - - Reghellini, 134-44 - - Ricciardi, Conte Giuseppe, 91, 109, 155-63-4-5-7 - - ---- History of Italy, 1850-1900, by, 167 - - Rieti, 51, 53, 56 - - Rinuccini, 150 - - Rochfort, The (Ship), 58 - - Rolandi, 159 - - Romagna, 127 - - Rome, 6, 28, 36, 38, 92, 98, 104, 111-8-27-50 - - Rossaroll, General, 75 - - Rossetti, Angiola Maria, 6 - - Rossetti, Antonio, 6 - - Rossetti, Canon Andrea, 6, 7, 9 - - Rossetti, Christina G., ix, 15, 88, 89, 108-9-13-7-9-20-3-4-9 - - ---- Verses (1847), by, 89 - - Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, ix, 7, 88, 89, 90, 106-8-14-7-9-20-3-4-6-8, - 130 - - ---- Annunciation, by, 90 - - ---- Blessed Damozel, by, 90 - - ---- Girlhood of Mary Virgin, by, 90 - - ---- Portrait of G. Rossetti, by, 130 - - Rossetti, Domenico, 6, 8, 11, 34 - - Rossetti, Elizabeth E., 113 - - Rossetti, Frances, 86, 87, 88, 106, 108-13-62 - - Rossetti, Gabriele, Writings by, ix, 101 - - ---- Addio alla Patria, 59, 173 - - ---- Alla Difesa, O Cittadini, 48 - - ---- Arpa Evangelica, 69, 70, 100, 113 - - ---- Aurora del 21 Luglio, 1820, 46, 110-73 - - ---- Beatrice di Dante, 68, 69, 83, 84, 101-12-50 to 153 - - ---- Birth of Hercules, 17 - - Rossetti, Canto Marziale, 110 - - ---- Catalogue Raisonné, Museo Borbonico, 22 - - ---- Comento Analitico, Dante, 63 to 66, 72, 82, 110-1-2-26-44 - - ---- Giulio Sabino, 17, 18 - - ---- Hannibal in Capua, 17 - - ---- Il Corsaro, 120-1-4 - - ---- Marengo, Verses on, 156 - - ---- Medora e Corrado, 117-8-20 - - ---- Mistero dell’Amor Platonico, 67, 68, 72, 83, 84, 112-40-1-7-9, - 151-3 - - ---- Napoleone a Sant’Elena, 23 - - ---- Poems, 1807, 15 - - ---- Ricuperata Salute di Ferdinando I., 25, 26, 28 - - ---- Roma, Secolo 19, 83, 84, 155, 158-9 - - ---- Salterio, 63, 64, 67, 83, 113, 127-54 - - ---- San Paolo in Malta, 61, 173-4 - - ---- Spirito Antipapale, 66, 67, 72, 83, 112-3-20-4-35-44 - - ---- Veggente in Solitudine, 48, 50, 52, 63, 69, 76, 83, 102-13 - - ---- Versi, 1847, 29, 31, 69, 100, 155-63-5 - - Rossetti, Helen M. M., 156 - - Rossetti, Maria Francesca, 88, 89, 108-20-4-8-30 - - ---- The Rivulets, by, 89 - - Rossetti, Maria Francesca (Pietrocola), 6, 8 - - Rossetti, Maria Giuseppe, 6 - - Rossetti, Maria Michele, 6, 9 - - Rossetti, Mary E. M., 15 - - Rossetti, Nicola, 6, 8, 70 - - Rossetti, William M., ix, 5, 9, 22, 48, 88, 89, 90, 108-9-19-23 - - ---- Memoir of D. G. Rossetti, by, ix, 11, 79, 114-62 - - Royal Academy of Music, 117 - - Ruffo, Cardinal, 2, 74 - - Russia, 23, 119 - - - S - - Saint Helena, 23 - - Saint Mary’s Church, Vasto, 6 - - Saliceti, 91 - - San Carlo Theatre, Naples, 15, 17, 18, 111 - - San Sebastiano, 52, 53 - - Sand, 80 - - Sangiovanni, Benedetto, 122-4-7 - - Santa Croce Church, Florence, 150 - - Santa Lucia, Naples, 57 - - Santander, 158 - - Sardinia, Kingdom of, 64, 104-5-66 - - Sartoris, Mrs, 162 - - Schlegel, 66, 112 - - Scrope, 121 - - Sebeto (River), 53 - - Shelley, P. B., 45 - - ---- Ode to Naples, by, 45 - - Sicily, 2, 3, 12, 19, 38, 40 - - Sigier, 143 - - Silvati, 44 - - Società Sebezia, Naples, 29, 30, 36, 37 - - Solari, 30 - - Soldi, G. B., 161 - - Spain, 1, 3, 12, 21, 44, 56, 62, 158-9 - - Spectator, The (Newspaper), 108-9 - - Spielberg, The, 122 - - Spontini, 150 - - Stanford, 57 - - Strozzi (Mazzini), 173 - - Stuart, Lady Dudley, 15 - - Suetonius, 20 - - Swedenborg, 141-3-4 - - Switzerland, 159 - - Sylvester, Pope, 140 - - Synesius, 140 - - - T - - Tallent, 119-20 - - Tasso, 29, 37, 73, 143 - - Taylor Institute, Oxford, 132 - - Taylor, J. E., 146 - - ---- Michelangelo as a Philosophical Poet, by, 147 - - Tennyson, 112 - - ---- In Memoriam, by, 112 - - Tertullian, 140 - - Tiber, The, 35 - - Tiberine Academy, 36 - - Ticino, Canton of, 168 - - Tommaseo, 157-72 - - Tommasi, 27 - - Trajan, 20, 21 - - ---- Statue of, 20 - - Turin, 173 - - Turin, Archbishop of, 104 - - Turkey, 145 - - Turrigo, General, 97 - - Tuscany, 98 - - Two Sicilies, Kingdom of, 1 - - Tyrtæus, 49 - - - U - - University College, London, 83, 114 - - Ururi, 42 - - Utrecht, 1 - - - V - - Valletta, 29 - - Vantini, 155-7-8-9 - - Vardarelli, Brothers, 42 - - Vasari, Giorgio, 145 - - Vasto, 6 to 9, 65, 110-3 - - Vasto, Marchese del, 12, 110 - - Vecchioni, 66, 112 - - Venice, 91, 92 - - Vernon, Lord, 154 - - Verona, 21 - - Vezzi, Signora, 11 - - Villani, Francesco, 145 - - Villani, Odoardo, 161 - - Virgil, 37 - - - W - - Wellington, Duke of, 120-1 - - William IV., 120-1 - - - Z - - Zatta, 137 - - - - - THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED - EDINBURGH - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - - -[1] Of Nicola Rossetti and Francesca Pietrocola, a respected married -couple, I was born in Vasto, a city in Abruzzo Citeriore, in the -year 1783. My brothers, all senior to me, were Andrea, Antonio, -and Domenico. The first, admired for his pulpit-eloquence, became -a Canon of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, the principal church -in the city. The other two, endowed with much poetical talent, have -left good evidence of this in their compositions. I had also three -sisters--Angiola Maria, Maria Giuseppe, and Maria Michele. The first -died unmarried; the other two married. - -[2] I had various masters in the first rudiments of literature; -but none was of so much benefit to me as the one who started me in -“philosophy,” and who also nurtured in me the taste for poetry. He was -a Regular Priest of that province, and he died in Naples at a somewhat -early age. I shall always bless the name of Padre Vincenzo Gaetani. - -[3] Now on _my_ hands: one specimen forms our frontispiece. I have -spoken of this matter in my _Memoir of Dante Gabriel Rossetti_, pp. -5 and 6, and I know that my father’s statement concerning it is not -exaggerated. He executed also, towards 1804, a miniature of himself, -of which, writing to his brother Domenico, he speaks in the following -terms:--“A miniature portrait of myself, the work of my own hand when -I exercised myself much in the fine art which imitates visible truths. -I was at that time fresher-looking, and perhaps rather plumper, and -slightly paler; before the sanguine-choleric temperament obtained the -mastery in me with that vigour which it now displays. All who have seen -it aver that it is truly myself.” This miniature used once to be in the -possession of a Signora Vezzi of Parma: I know not where it may now -be.--W. - -[4] The Marquis who brought me to Naples was Tommaso, of the famous and -very ancient house of D’Avalos, which was transplanted from Spain to -Italy. [It was the same family as that into which the sixteenth-century -poetess, Vittoria Colonna, beloved by Michelangelo, married.--W.] - -[5] Joseph Bonaparte (I need hardly observe) was not strictly a -Frenchman. He was a Corsican, of Corsican or Italian parentage, born -before Corsica had become a French possession. He was thus an Italian, -naturalized as a Frenchman.--W. - -[6] My first volume of poems, printed in Naples in 1807, was dedicated -by me to Baron Giovanni Avalloni, who, upon hearing me recite some -of the compositions, voluntarily offered to have the whole of them -printed. That volume, which was never re-issued, must have become very -scarce. [I possess an imperfect copy of it. The poems--some of them -poor, and not any exactly good--deal partly with national events, and -this naturally in a spirit conformable to the Napoleonic _régime_. -There are some strong animadversions on the Bourbon monarchy.--W.] My -dramas, written for the Theatre of San Carlo, were printed at the time; -were they collected together, they would make up a volume. - -King Joseph and King Joachim have been depicted by grave historians, -and I will not add anything regarding their public and private -character. But, for truth’s sake, I may say that here in London I was -very well acquainted with Joseph Bonaparte, after he had returned -from America in 1831, and that I found many personal gifts in him to -admire. In his house I saw a good deal not only of him but of his -brother Lucian, his nephew Louis (the present President of the French -Republic), Lucian’s daughter Lady Dudley Stuart, with whom I became -intimately acquainted, and who, at the baptismal font, gave her own -name, Christina, to my younger daughter. I might say that I have known -all the members of that renowned family, either in Naples or in London, -except the great Napoleon, whom I never saw. Joseph was kind-natured -and cultivated in mind; but in Naples, spoiled by courtiers, he was -a bad king. One evening, while I was improvising in his house, his -daughter, Princess Charlotte, made a pencil sketch of me, and she sent -it me framed as a present: I still preserve it. [I also have preserved -it, and have given it to my youngest daughter.--W.] I could here relate -many dialogues which I had with Lucian, his son Pierre, etc., and with -the present French President. But I will only say that Lucian was a -republican, but with many prejudices, and the present President was and -is of a character all puffed up with ambition. Never did I hear from -his lips a single word indicating a liberal spirit. - -[7] I possess the printed _Giulio Sabino_, 1809; not the other two -libretti.--W. - -[8] One may suppose it to have been at first a _very_ subordinate post; -for the pay, I find, was only 15 ducats a month, which appears to be -£31, 2s. 6d. a year. Later on it was 28 ducats a month.--W. - -[9] Of the very many incidents which occurred to me in the Royal -Museum, and which might furnish matter for anecdote, I will state in -prose the following. In the year 1816 [it must have been in 1819, that -being the year in which Charles IV. died.--W.] there came to Naples -Charles IV., ex-King of Spain, elder brother of Ferdinand, King of -Naples. The latter had also been numbered as fourth; then in Sicily he -became third, and finally, on his return, he was declared first; and in -his island-kingdom this epigram, almost prophetic, had been neatly made -upon him:-- - - “Fourth thou wast and now art Third:-- - By subtraction’s rule I’m taught-- - Second--First--may yet be heard, - Till at last remains a nought.” - -When King Charles came to visit the Museum--announced by a formal -dispatch, the beating of drums, and a call to arms by the piquette -stationed at the gate--we presented ourselves to receive him, with -Cavalier Arditi, Director-General of the institution, at our head. The -first section which is ordinarily inspected there is the collection of -statues in marble and bronze, both Latin and Greek--a most important -department on the ground floor, entrusted to my custody. Thus it -became my work to show first those admired treasures to the Spanish -monarch, who spoke Italian very fairly. In the discharge of my office -I pointed out to him the leading objects; and I recollect that in the -first portico I stopped before the statue of Trajan, and I referred to -his rare excellences, saying that he had been the honour of the Roman -Empire and of the Spanish nation. “What, was Trajan a Spaniard?” he -exclaimed with surprise. “Certainly, your majesty, if Suetonius and -other historians did not deceive us.” [_N.B._--“Suetonius” appears to -have been a random shot; he has left us nothing about Trajan.--W.] He -visited the three porticoes and the five galleries, and showed much -pleasure in my explanations. Having gone through the whole, I said -that others would have the honour of showing him the picture-gallery, -the Etruscan vases, the bronze implements, the collection of papyri, -and the immense library, which were kept in the upper apartments. He -said in a determined tone, “Come yourself.” I felt much embarrassed -in obeying, because I knew how jealous were Don Giuseppe Campi, Canon -Jorio, and others, if any one encroached on their departments, and -especially on so solemn an occasion; but I made a bow and obeyed. -He remained on that long visit upwards of four hours, and, highly -satisfied, he left. The following day, towards the same hour, a fresh -beating of drums and a fresh call to arms announced a visitor of -importance. It was again the King of Spain. On his arrival I alone -received him, as neither Cavalier Arditi nor any one else had been -apprised by a dispatch, as on the preceding day, of this unexpected -visit. Entering my small apartment, he asked for a seat, which I at -once gave him. He sat down, and affably added, “Sit down also,” and, -seeing that I hesitated, “Sit down, sit down,” he repeated. He said -that he had returned to re-inspect some of the objects which had most -struck him the previous day, and chiefly the Emperor Trajan--adding: -“Now that I know he was a Spaniard, tell me all you know about him.” -And I failed not to inform him that that Emperor, elected by the -unanimous vote of the Roman Army, was surnamed Optimus; and that after -his death, at the election of every new Cæsar, the senate installed -him in the Empire with the salutation, “Sis bonus ut Trajanus, sis -felix ut Augustus.” That on his accession to the throne he entered -Rome on foot, to denote his disregard of worldly pomp; that, confident -in the love of the entire nation, he abolished the offence of high -treason; that he embraced any persons who came to visit him, and had -his residence inscribed “Public Palace,” in order that all might -enter without the least scruple, as though the house were their own. -In short, I narrated what history sets down about him. On the third -day the King renewed his visit. He remained alone with me, as on the -preceding day, and, assuming a more confidential tone, he enquired -whether I was married. I replied, No. He then told me that a Congress -of Sovereigns was about to assemble in Verona, at which he meant to -claim his throne which had been usurped by his son, with whom he -showed himself very much displeased. “If I return to Spain, of which -I am almost certain,” he added, “you shall come with me, and I will -make you Director of the Escurial.” “But, your sacred Majesty, so many -distinguished Spaniards--” “The one who is there now is my enemy, and -I mean to dismiss him.”--“But I am in employ here, and your august -brother--”--“Oh, I spoke to him about that last evening, and he will -willingly concede you to my wishes.” I bowed, and thanked him for so -much good-will. But a few days passed, and Charles IV. lay a frigid -corpse in his brother’s palace. He was a simple, kindly man, given to -talking, and he held with others the same sort of conversation that -he had held with me. His right was manifest, and his son schemed to -get rid of him by means of his Minister Labrador. This was the rumour -which then ran through Naples. I could relate many other anecdotes -of what happened to me in the Museum, but I leave them alone. I will -only mention that I elucidated those admired monuments in two volumes -entitled _Catalogue Raisonné of the Royal Museum_. In order to give -some credit to a young man whom I liked much--Giovanni Finati, son of -the Controller--I allowed him to have his name on the title-page, with -the condition that the two volumes should be printed at his expense, -while the receipts from the sale should be halved between us. After -my departure he took advantage of my misfortune, and wholly defrauded -me of that labour of mine. The profits became and are entirely his; -whereas he had no share in the work, except only the measuring of the -statues and busts--nothing else. [I possess the book in question.--W.] - -[10] This vigorous tirade against the mighty Napoleon, written in -Rossetti’s old age, is no doubt a true expression of his reasoned -opinion, but only of one side of that. It should not be supposed that -he was really blind to the enormous and many-sided genius of the man; -if he condemned, he also most sincerely admired. See the sonnet at p. -191.--W. - -[11] This poem by Rossetti forms one in a series bearing the following -title: _Per la Ricuperata Salute di S. M. Ferdinando I., Attestato -di Gioia della Società Sebezia. Napoli, 1819._ Agostino Gallo (named -immediately afterwards) contributed a Sapphic ode. Of course the name -Gallo means “Cock”: Corvo (“Raven,” or bird of ill-omen) is jocularly -proposed as a substitute.--W. - -[12] I have read this ode for the express purpose of discovering what -Signor Gallo objected to, and can only see this. There are certain -stanzas in which the overpraise (too truly termed “flatteries” by -the author) takes the form of remonstrance. The King is told that -the nation, in loving him, do in fact love _themselves_; that the -public happiness demands that he should be duly careful of his -invaluable life; and that, at his age, he must not persist in incessant -hunting.--W. - -[13] What I relate of Agostino Gallo, of Palermo, is strictly accurate; -I confirm in prose what I have stated in verse. - -[14] This relates to events in the time of King Joachim.--W. - -[15] This poem is printed in the _Versi_ of Rossetti (Lausanne, 1847). -It begins, “Tu posi, o giusto, ed io ti seggo al fianco.”--W. - -[16] Valletta was a lawyer and a poet. “Fair Paloma” was the Marchesina -Luisa Gomez-Paloma, an associate of the Sebezian Society. The verses -(which begin “Parmi vederti ancor quando animata”) indicate that she -was accomplished both as a vocalist and as a painter.--W. - -[17] This is also in the _Versi_. Begins--“Dunque muto per sempre ahi -muto resta.”--W. - -[18] Similar remark. Begins--“Sei tu che in questa riva a te natia.”--W. - -[19] All that I relate here and in the following Canto is strict -matter of fact. The Prince Royal of Denmark, who was afterwards King -[Christian VIII., who came to the throne in 1839--W.], and is now dead, -was enrolled in the Società Sebezia as an honorary member; and on that -evening when the bust of Torquato Tasso was inaugurated--a fine work -by Signor Solari of Naples,--he was seated, along with all the other -Academicians, beside General Naselli, the honorary President. He was -so impressed by my composition (which formed the close of the stately -proceedings) that he said, embracing me, “May I ask a favour of you? -I should like to have a copy of your poem to present to the Princess, -who, owing to indisposition, was not able to come this evening.”--“I -shall attend to it immediately, and to-morrow you shall receive it.” -That royal couple was held in the highest esteem by all. The Prince, -a man of masculine and imposing presence, had fought with signal -courage against the French, especially in the forests of Norway. The -Princess, a lady of extreme grace and beauty, was universally admired -and praised. Next morning I rose early and copied out the poem; and -hardly had I completed the work (rather a long one, 54 octaves) when -I received a note from Baron Jubar, the Prince’s majordomo, to remind -me of my promise, and invite me to dine with the royal couple the -following day. At table were all the foreign ambassadors, and other -diplomatists. This occurred, so far as I recollect, towards the -beginning of 1820. The Prince invited me various times; and about the -end of that year--when the revolution and the King’s departure had -already occurred--one evening after dinner he called me aside, and -said: “As it is our intention to pass the rest of the winter in several -cities of North Italy, would not you come with us, to instruct the -Princess in your beautiful language?”--“But, your Highness, I am here -employed.”--“I have already spoken to the Minister of the Interior, who -will grant you leave for six months.” A fierce lightning-flash seemed -to strike my mind, and I comprehended that the King was betraying us. -The Prince, cautioned through some diplomatic channel to quit Naples -(as in fact he did), wished to withdraw me from that political danger -in which he perceived me to be greatly entangled. With these sinister -thoughts, I replied thanking him for an offer which highly honoured -me, and saying that I would soon apprise him of my decision. On the -following day I wrote to him that, in the peril to which my country -would soon be exposed, I should be stained with cowardice if I left it; -and that I therefore felt compelled to decline accompanying him in the -proposed tour, an honour which in any other conditions I would gladly -have welcomed. Nor do I repent of what I then did. - -[20] The Sapphic ode is likewise in the _Versi_. It begins--“Furon -tristi, O Luigi, i giorni tuoi.”--W. - -[21] He died in Parma in July 1816, aged forty-three. The paralysis -which killed him had been going on for about a twelvemonth. My father -had himself more than one stroke of paralysis in his closing years.--W. - -[22] Of Biondi I cannot say anything distinct: Ferretti continued -corresponding with Rossetti, in very affectionate terms, after the -latter had settled in London.--W. - -[23] I may mention that, besides performing this service under the -Government of King Joachim, Rossetti was enrolled in his National -Guard (or Guard of Internal Security) in Naples. I have a document, -15th December 1814, which shows this. His berth in Rome has been -termed by him elsewhere “a provisional post in the Secretariate of -the Provisional Government, being the post which concerns Public -Instruction and the Fine Arts.”--W. - -[24] This occurred in 1817.--W. - -[25] Dr Curci, who had a passionate attachment to my father, came to -London to see him towards 1836; Durso also I can remember as having -visited him towards 1840. “Cesare Malpica” is a name I often heard him -pronounce; of Caccavon I am not able to say anything.--W. - -[26] The statements here made about the Principe di Canosa are not -inventions; they will be found confirmed in Colletta’s _Storia del -Regno di Napoli_, Book viii. Canosa’s scheme amounted (in general -terms) to an attempt to get up in 1816 a massacre of the Carbonari and -their sympathizers, by a hostile sect named the Calderari.--W. - -[27] Consigned to eternal infamy by Dante.--W. - -[28] Rossetti was a Carbonaro; but (I understand) he was not enrolled -in that secret society until the second half of the year 1820, when, -as the constitution had been already granted by the King, there was -nothing illegal in his being a member. The word Carbonaro means -literally “coalman, charcoal-burner”: hence certain technical terms of -the sect, occurring further on.--W. - -[29] Gaetano Vardarelli, with his two brothers, commanded a formidable -band of brigands (who may or may not have been Carbonari): the whole -band was generally called the Vardarelli. In July 1817 the Government -entered into a dishonouring compromise with these brigands; but soon -afterwards, at Ururi, slaughtered the three Vardarelli and others by -treachery, and, later on, others of the disbanded band at Foggia, -and the remainder underwent military execution. A grimly Italian -incident accompanied the massacre of the brothers Vardarelli. One of -the brothers had outraged the sister of a man from Porto-Cannone. This -man dipped his hands repeatedly in the blood gushing from the corpse, -washed his face in it, and cried to the multitude, “L’ho purgata” (I’ve -washed it clean).--W. - -[30] For Capobianco’s judicial murder King Joachim (not Ferdinand) -was responsible; it took place in 1813. Capobianco was a Carbonaro, -young, and of very daring spirit. He was invited by General Jannelli -to a public dinner in Cosenza, well feasted, seized at the moment of -departure, and next day condemned to be beheaded.--W. - -[31] What I state here is matter of general knowledge; and, relating as -it does to public events of that agitated period, it belongs more to -history than to biography. Those authors should therefore be consulted -who have treated of it; among whom I recommend the valuable Memoirs of -General Guglielmo Pepe, who was greatly concerned in the occurrences, -in preference to the elegant History of General Pietro Colletta, who, -whether through mis-information or through distorting envy, is not -always a veracious narrator. I have been intimately acquainted with -both these writers; but more than either I prize sacred Truth; and -the little which I state in this note is consequent upon most candid -examination. - -[32] This remark relates mainly, though not exclusively, to the -condition of France, 1830 to 1848, under King Louis Philippe--a -potentate whom Rossetti most heartily abhorred.--W. - -[33] These were two sub-lieutenants of cavalry; after the abolition of -the constitution they were both hanged.--W. - -[34] I saw Minichini once or twice in my father’s house--probably -towards 1840. His personal appearance was anything but -prepossessing.--W. - -[35] This pæan may seem misapplied, considering the rapid collapse of -the Neapolitan emancipation of 1820. That movement was, however, the -first awakening of the Italian national sentiment since 1815, and in -1859 (though Gabriele Rossetti did not live to see it) the great cause -had triumphed. Readers may recollect that Shelley’s _Ode to Naples_ -celebrates in exalted terms these same events of 1820.--W. - -[36] Rossetti refers here to his most celebrated ode, beginning “Sei -pur bella cogli astri sul crine.” I quote it on p. 177.--W. - -[37] I wrote several patriotic odes for that great event of the -revolution of Naples, and I will here name two, which are introduced -into my _Veggente in Solitudine_. They begin thus-- - - “Sei pur bella cogli astri sul crine”-- - “Fratelli, all’armi, all’armi!” - -I also composed more than sixty manifestoes upon various occurrences; -they circulated in print throughout the whole Carboneria, in which -I was a member of the General Assembly; likewise a brochure of some -length entitled _Alla Difesa, O Cittadini_. This inflamed all hearts, -when the treachery of the perfidious Bourbon King came to be known. -[I possess the brochure in question. It was printed towards the end -of 1820, at the time when Ferdinand I. was still professing to adhere -cordially to the Constitution, notwithstanding the threatening attitude -assumed by Austria. Consequently the tone of the author is highly -respectful towards Ferdinand, at the same time that the nation is urged -to prepare energetically for a war--possible, though as yet not exactly -probable--against Austria.--W.] - -[38] Sir Graham Moore, brother of the famous General Sir John Moore, -who died in the field in the campaign of Corunna. The brothers might -truly be called _duo fulmina belli_. - -[39] The house in which I kept needfully concealed for three months is -in the Concordia quarter. Opposite it was a meagre invalid, who posted -himself all day at the window, to peer at whatever was going on in the -neighbourhood--which prevented me from getting a little fresh air. One -day, from the shadowed inside of my room, I saw that a funeral-car -stopped at his door. I perceived he must be dead, and I was glad of -it--why conceal the fact? My prying bugbear being gone, I felt more at -liberty, and I wrote for him the following epigrammatic epitaph:-- - - “Here lies a man of prying peering art, - Who in other folk’s affairs made endless pother: - And he from this world did at last depart, - Merely to fathom what is done in t’other.” - -[I may add that on 18th March 1821, midway between the military -disaster at Rieti on 7th March, and the dissolution of the Parliament -on 21st March, Rossetti procured a Neapolitan passport for either -Spain or Malta; but it seems that he never attempted to use it, but -lay _perdu_ instead, until shipped off to Malta by Admiral Sir Graham -Moore.--W.] - -[40] It appears that one of these officers was named Stanford. My aunt, -Charlotte Polidori, being in Naples in 1840, knew something of a Mr -Stanford, who (as she wrote) “knew Rossetti well; it was on _his_ arm -that he leaned when, dressed as an English officer, he went on board. -He would have been put to death, had he not left, merely on account -of his political opinions--on no other subject could a word be said -against him.”--W. - -[41] I remember that, when I set off in the coach between the two -English officers, as we passed before the royal palace to reach Santa -Lucia where the skiff awaited, a police inspector exclaimed--“By God! -the man in the middle looks to me like Rossetti!” But the coach passed -rapidly on, and a few moments afterwards I found myself in the skiff, -and then in the ship. - -[42] The flagship, a first-class man-of-war. [Rossetti Italianizes -the name into Roccaforte, and then proceeds to some _jeux de mots on -Rocca_ (which in Italian means fortress). I have had to take the second -syllable, fort, for a like purpose.--W.] - -[43] The allusion is to the justly-admired lyric by Rossetti, -commencing “Nella notte più serena.” See p. 182.--W. - -[44] No doubt this is true; the practice of dictation having been -frequently adopted by my father after the sight of one eye had been -lost totally, and of the other partially. However, the copy of the poem -from which I am translating is all in his own handwriting; and very -good handwriting it is, though done with some perceptible effort.--W. - -[45] The chief poem thus improvised was _San Paolo in Malta_. See p. -186.--W. - -[46] What I indicate regarding the Right Honourable J. Hookham Frere -is far less than the truth. The life of that admirable and exemplary -man ought to be written. [This was done in publications of the years -1871 and 1899.--W.] All Malta was full of his munificences, and still -resounds his praise; and, when in the sequel I quitted that island -for England, I found wide-spread confirmation of his repute as a most -erudite man, and a genuine Christian. After being English Ambassador in -Spain, he settled in Malta, with his sister Susan, to watch over the -health of his invalid wife in a mild climate: there he had the grief of -losing them both. Oh what excellent women those were! Early in 1846 he -himself, struck by apoplexy, closed his beneficent life. - -[47] A reference to the progress of constitutional liberty in the -Sardinian kingdom.--W. - -[48] The name of Minasi was known to me from boyhood; but I am unable -to say much about him, or to account in detail for the singular burst -of rage and obloquy (here abridged) which my father bestows upon him. -He held in London some official appointment (perhaps consular) from the -Neapolitan Government, and refugees were prone to speaking of him as a -spy--as to which, see p. 98.--W. - -[49] Two members of the Ruffo family were conspicuous as Bourbon -devotees from 1799 onwards. The Cardinal was the more important and -celebrated; but I think the Principe di Castelcicala is here meant. He -was an Ambassador, and as such he lived in London for some years during -my father’s sojourn.--W. - -[50] General Rossaroll headed, in 1821, a short-lived insurrection in -Messina.--W. - -[51] General Michele Carrascosa took a leading part in the events of -1820-21 in the Kingdom of Naples. His conduct was not wholly approved -by the constitutional party.--W. - -[52] I do not distinctly recognize this name, nor those of Florio and -de Luca.--W. - -[53] This must be Colonel Francesco Capecelatro, who was excepted from -the amnesty granted by the King in September 1822. Thirteen persons in -all were excepted; Rossetti figured as the thirteenth.--W. - -[54] More than one member of the Poerio family suffered in these -Neapolitan turmoils. The one who went to Malta was, I think, a major in -the army.--W. - -[55] The _Veggente in Solitudine_. Rossetti, I gather, embarked from -Malta in January 1824, and reached London in April. His first London -residence was No. 37 Gerard Street, Soho.--W. - -[56] I, of course, do not know whether this statement regarding -Ferdinand I. is accurate or not. My father, I am sure, believed it: I -more than once heard him recount it by word of mouth.--W. - -[57] I know at least five of these. They are neat, and cannot have been -gratifying to the Lord of Lusciano. Here is one: - - “I read that tragedy whereof you wist; - And wept in pity ... for the dramatist.”--W. - - -[58] Literally, “will know how to pierce.” Sand (as it may be hardly -requisite to say) was a German student who on political grounds -assassinated the poet Kotzebue; Louvel, a Frenchman who assassinated -the Duc de Berri, heir to the French throne. - -[59] Mr Lyell died in 1849.--W. - -[60] The London University, consisting of University College and King’s -College. Rossetti competed for the Italian Professorship in the former, -but Panizzi obtained it; afterwards (1831) in the latter, and there he -was elected.--W. - -[61] This phrase must designate the _Salterio_, though the term -would almost equally apply to the _Veggente in Solitudine_. The -three prose works mentioned in the sequel are the _Mistero dell’Amor -Platonico_, the _Beatrice di Dante_, and _Roma verso la Metà del Secolo -Decimonono_. This last, though separately published, is in fact a long -note printed in the _Amor Platonico_.--W. - -[62] _i.e._ “a new life.”--W. - -[63] Not only in writing, but also in conversation, all matters of this -sort were left in oblivion by my father. I, at any rate, never heard -him refer to them, even distantly.--W. - -[64] This is perfectly accurate. Mrs Rossetti shrank from being -eulogized in verse which might one day be published, and I have known -her to plead for the omission of some such matter written by my father. -To me, naturally, it is as pleasant to publish these not exaggerated -praises as to her it was unpleasant to conceive them published.--W. - -[65] The date of the proposal was 7th December 1825; of the wedding -(Roman Catholic and English Church), 8th and 10th April 1826.--W. - -[66] Taken literally, this is of course correct. But my mother had only -an ordinary modicum of musical practice and aptitude, and neither of my -sisters pursued the art with any zest.--W. - -[67] The reference to “ethics” must be chiefly based on Maria -Rossetti’s religious allegory named _The Rivulets_, semi-published in -1846. As to Christina, her volume entitled _Verses_ had been privately -printed in 1847, and the poems which she contributed to _The Germ_ -(following a brace in _The Athenæum_) appeared in 1850.--W. - -[68] These expressions need not count as an exaggeration. By 1850 -Dante Gabriel had exhibited two pictures (one of them now in the -National British Gallery); he had published _The Blessed Damozel_ and -other remarkable poems, and had done a multitude of translations from -Italian, and some from German, poets.--W. - -[69] I question whether my father was right in supposing me to resemble -him in person; I should say that, of the two, Dante Gabriel resembled -him more. I have suppressed some lines representative of fatherly -fondness more than of myself.--W. - -[70] The Conte Giuseppe Ricciardi was a prominent Republican -politician, an attached friend of Rossetti. He exerted himself -incessantly in the Italian cause; his death took place towards 1885. -Terenzio Mamiani was an admired writer in verse and prose; Monsignor -Muzzarelli a very open-minded churchman. Cagnazzi (I presume the same -person) is spoken of by General Guglielmo Pepe as the “venerable -archdeacon Luccado Samuele Cagnazzi, a profound and learned economist,” -who became President of the Neapolitan Parliament in 1848. The other -names, Saliceti and Gazzola, are identified by me less clearly than -probably they ought to be. Pepe, the hero of Venice in 1848-9, was the -same who had been the hero of Naples in 1820.--W. - -[71] I cannot elucidate this matter of Paolelli and Turrigo.--W. - -[72] Bozzelli became Minister of the Interior in Naples in 1848, when -Ferdinand II. pretended to re-commence a constitutional government; -he was afterwards Prime Minister, conniving in the cause of reaction. -During the brief simulation of constitutionalism, General Pepe had much -influence over the Government, and he advocated the recall of Rossetti -to Naples. My father was nearly on the brink of returning thither, with -his family, when the Liberal movement was quenched in blood. The other -minister here mentioned, Borrelli, belongs to the earlier constitution -of 1820-21; he was Minister of Police, and persuaded the Parliament to -authorize the departure of Ferdinand I. from Naples; an event which -was pretty soon followed by the repeal of the constitution, and the -proscription of its abettors.--W. - -[73] This diatribe is directed against Sir Antonio Panizzi, whose name -is in the original, given at the close of it: I reduce it here to a -comparative trifle, but have not thought it desirable to miss it out -entirely. My father considered that, for some reason or none, Panizzi -had from the first been ill-disposed towards him; and this feeling was -strengthened when Panizzi published an article (or articles) opposing, -and partly ridiculing, my father’s theories concerning Dante, etc. I -am not sure that I ever read the articles; probably they were bitter -(for Panizzi was the reverse of mealy-mouthed); but, when a man says -that Beatrice did not exist, and that Dante was a sort of Freemason, -he must expect that people who are of a contrary opinion will express -themselves forcibly.--W. - -[74] They might rather be called notebooks than volumes.--W. - -[75] This seems to refer to the volume named--_Versi_, 1847; also to -poems contributed to an Italian Protestantizing magazine, _L’Eco di -Savonarola_.--W. - -[76] Pius IX.--W. - -[77] My father lost totally, and very suddenly, the sight of one eye. -After that he was in constant danger of losing also the sight of the -other eye, and he often expected that this would soon be lost. He -did, however, to the end of his life, retain a much enfeebled modicum -of eyesight. In the _expectation_ of becoming wholly blind, he often -spoke and wrote of himself as blind--an exaggeration, but a pardonable -one.--W. - -[78] The poem _The Seer in Solitude_ (_Il Veggente in Solitudine_) has -been previously mentioned. It is true that some of the ideas presented -in that poem as visions or presages--as to the liberation of Italy, -etc.--were getting “daily verified” even in Rossetti’s lifetime, and -much more conspicuously so a few years afterwards.--W. - -[79] Rossetti here, and in some other parts of the Autobiography, -speaks of himself in an _exalté_ tone, as imbued with a spirit of -prophecy, an instrument in the divine hand for combating despotism, -etc. All this would have seemed forced and presumptuous to a reader -of his own day; yet it was not a mere distempered dream. In less than -ten years from the date of his writing, the thunderbolt had fallen, -and Italian despots and Papal temporal dominion were in the agonies of -dissolution.--W. - -[80] Rossetti here dilates (at a length which I have much curtailed) -on a matter now perhaps well-nigh forgotten, the exile in 1850 of the -Archbishops of Turin and Cagliari for obstructing certain laws passed -by the Piedmontese Parliament as a check upon the privileges of the -Church.--W. - -[81] “He unites the advantages of two rivals--Mars in strength, Adonis -in beauty.” - -[82] _Gergo._ The word might be translated as “slang” or “jargon”; but -each of these words conveys a rather incongruous idea to an English -mind, so I say (here and elsewhere) “the sect-language.” - -[83] Rossetti’s volume _Lo Spirito Antipapale che produsse la Riforma_. - -[84] “L’illusione è sì grande che scuote.” I understand the meaning to -be as here rendered; but the phrase is not entirely clear. - -[85] “Not I, if I had a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues, with iron -lungs and iron breast.” - -[86] This odd-seeming phrase offers no difficulty to the reader of the -_Vita Nuova_. Dante there says that Beatrice had a special analogy with -the number nine, and was (in a sense) a nine, or a three times three, -whereof the root was the Holy Trinity. - -[87] Rossetti’s letter, next before the present one, is dated 13th -December 1836. It would seem (looking to dates) that Mr Lyell’s -acknowledgment of being convinced cannot have applied to anything -contained in that letter, but to something in the proofs, then passing -through his hands, of the _Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_. - -[88] _i.e._ “To remember is a sweet thought, and I rejoice.” My father -proceeds here to quote the entire sonnet, underlining some words, and -offering brief comments. I question whether the English reader would -thank me for reproducing the whole. As regards the other (second) -sonnet which follows, I give the whole of the octave, with comments. - -[89] Translation: “As Paul, when he had descended from heaven, could -not speak of the arcana of God, so my heart has covered all my thoughts -with an amorous veil. Wherefore, for joy which I hide in my heart, -I keep silence as to all that I saw and all that I did; and I shall -change the hair on my brow sooner than guilty thoughts shall ever -reverse the obligation.” I have translated the last line in conformity -with the annotation made by my father, which runs thus: “‘Che mai -pensier rei volger possano in me l’obbligo’ to keep silence, as he has -said.” I feel, however, some considerable doubt whether this is the -true order of the words, which are, as a matter of mere construing, -anything but clear. It might be possible to attempt some conjectural -emendation in the words, but I forbear. - -[90] These words come from Dante’s _Paradiso_: “In Rue du Fouarre, -syllogizing invidious truths.” - -[91] Mr Taylor was a member of the firm that printed Rossetti’s _Amor -Platonico_. His book was, I think, _Michelangelo considered as a -Philosophic Poet_. - -[92] _i.e._ The _Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_--which was dedicated to -Mr Kirkup. - -[93] By the phrase “your circumstances” Mazzini, I think, refers not so -much to moderate pecuniary means, but rather to the fact that Rossetti, -maintaining himself and his family by the teaching of Italian in -private families and schools, could not with any prudence put himself -forward as a revolutionary agitator. I am satisfied that he did _not_ -join the Association named by Mazzini. - -[94] The Conte Carlo Pepoli, a member of an ancient and highly -distinguished Bolognese family, was then a political exile in London. -He ultimately became a Senator of the Italian Kingdom. An epistle -in verse had, in his youth, been addressed to him by the great poet -Leopardi. - -[95] Adelaide Kemble, afterwards Mrs Sartoris. - -[96] He was, I think, a music-master in Paris. - -[97] The address (as noted down by my mother on Mazzini’s letter) was -No. 40 Clarges Street. - -[98] As I have mentioned in my published Memoir of Dante Gabriel -Rossetti, my father spoke at this Anniversary-meeting, followed by -Mazzini. - -[99] This must have been a _different_ celebration from that in which -Signor Delavo was concerned. The latter was fixed for 14th May, the -anniversary of the Battle of Marengo. - -[100] King Charles Albert, of Piedmont, who had to abdicate in 1849. - -[101] Mazzini’s word (indistinctly written) appears to be “raccolta,” -which frequently means “harvest,” but may probably here mean -“subscription.” Perhaps it was a public subscription for reinstating -amnestied emigrants in the Papal States. - -[102] The Italian word looks something like “compatisci,” which -corresponds to “excuse”; I am not certain about it. - -[103] General Guglielmo Pepe. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gabriele Rossetti, by Gabriele Rossetti - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GABRIELE ROSSETTI *** - -***** This file should be named 52387-0.txt or 52387-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/3/8/52387/ - -Produced by Giovanni Fini and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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