"What have I done to thee, my people?" Stern Are all thy dealings, but in this they pass The limits of man's common malice, for Raised by thy will, all thine in peace or war, And for this thou hast warr'd with me. 'Tis done: I may not overleap the eternal bar Built up between us, and will die alone, Beholding with the dark eye of a seer The evil days to gifted souls foreshown, Foretelling them to those who will not hear. As in the old time, till the hour be come When Truth shall strike their eyes through many a tear, And make them own the Prophet in his tomb.2 the man who cries aloud for justice, this compromise, by his money, with his persecutors! No, my Father, this is not the way that shall lead me back to my country. But I shall return with hasty steps, if you or any other can open to me a way that shall not derogate from the fame and honour of Dante; but if by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall never enter. What shall I not every where enjoy the sight of the sun and stars? and may I not seek and contemplate, in every corner of the earth under the canopy of heaven, consoling and delightful truth, withcut first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous, to the people and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will not fail me." he continued to experience "How salt the savour is of others' bread, How hard the passage to descend and climb Yet His countrymen persecuted even his memory: he was excommunicated after death by the Pope.] 1"E scrisse più volte non solamente a particolari cittadini del reggimento, ma ancora al popolo, e intra l'altre una Epistola assai lunga che comincia: -' Popule mi, quid feci tibi?'" Vita di Dante scritta da Lionardo Aretino. 2 [Dante died at Ravenna in 1321, in the palace of his patron, Guido Novello da Polenta, who testified his sorrow and respect by the sumptuousness of his obsequies, and by giving orders to erect a monument, which he did not live to complete. His countrymen showed, too late, that they knew the value of what they had lost. At the beginning of the next century, they entreated that the mortal remains of their illustrious citizen might be restored to them, and deposited among the tombs of their fathers. But the people of Ravenna were unwilling to part with the sad and honourable memorial of their own hospitality. No better success attended the subsequent negotiations of the Florentines for the same purpose, though renewed under the auspices of Leo X., and conducted through the powerful mediation of Michael Angelo. Never did any poem rise so suddenly into notice, after the death of its author, as the Divina Commedia. About the year 1350, Giovanni Visconti, Archbishop of Milan, selected six of the most learned men in Italy, two divines, two philosophers, and two Florentines, and gave them in charge to contribute their joint endeavours towards the compilation of an ample comment, a copy of which is preserved in the Laurentian Library. At Florence, a public lecture was founded for the purpose of explaining a poem, which was at the same time the boast and the disgrace of the city. The decree for this institution was passed in 1373; and in that year Boccaccio was appointed, with a salary of a hundred florins, to deliver lectures in one of the churches on the first of their poets. The example of Florence was speedily followed by Bologna, Pisa, Piacenza, and Venice. It is only within a few years, that the me rits of this great and original poet were attended to, and made known in this country. And this seems to be owing to a translation of the very pathetic story of Count Ugolino; to the judicious and spirited summary given of this poem in the 31st section of the History of English Poetry; and to Mr. Hayley's translations of the three cantos of the Inferno. "Dante believed," says Ugo Foscolo, "that, by his sufferings on earth, he atoned for the errors of humanity Ma la bontà divina ha si gran braccia, Hath goodness infinite, that it receives And he seems to address Heaven in the attitude of a worshipper, rather than a suppliant. Being convinced, that Man is then truly happy when he freely exercises all his energies,' he walked through the world with an assured step, 'keeping his vigils ' So that, nor night nor slumber with close stealth The goings on of time.' He collected the opinions, the follies, the vicissitudes, the miseries, and the passions that agitate mankind; and left behind him a monument, which, while it humbles us by the representation of our own wretchedness, should make us glory that we partake of the same nature with such a man, and encourage us to make the best use of our fleeting existence."] THE BLUES: A LITERARY ECLOGUE. "Nimium ne crede colori."- VIRGIL. O trust not, ye beautiful creatures, to hue, Though your hair were as red, as your stockings are bluc. [THIS trifle, which Lord Byron has himself designated as "a mere buffoonery, never meant for publication," was written in 1820, and first appeared in "The Liberal." The personal allusions in which it abounds are, for the most part, sufficiently intelligible; and, with a few exceptions, so good-humoured, that the parties concerned may be expected to join in the laugh.] THE BLUES:1 A LITERARY ECLOGUE. London ECLOGUE FIRST. Before the Door of a Lecture Room. Enter TRACY, meeting INKEL. Ink. You 're too late. Tra. Ink. Is it over ? Nor will be this hour. But the benches are cramm'd, like a garden in flower, 1 ["About the year 1781, it was much the fashion for several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation with literary and ingenious men, animated by à desire to please. These societies were denominated Blue-stocking Clubs; the origin of which title being little known, it may be worth while to relate it. One of the most eminent members of those societies, when they first commenced, was Mr. Stillingfleet, whose dress was remarkably grave, and in particular it was observ ed that he wore blue stockings. Such was the the excellence of his conversation, that his absence was felt as so great a loss, that it used to be said, ' We can do nothing without the blue stockings; and thus by degrees the title was established." -Boswell, vol. viii. p. 85. Sir William Forbes, in his life of Dr. Beattie, says, that a foreigner of distinction hearing the expression, translated it literally 'Bas Bleu, by which these meetings came to be distinguished. Miss Hannah More, who was herself a member, has written a poem with the title of Bas Bleu,' in allusion to this mistake of the foreigner, in which she has characterised most of the eminent personages of which it was composed."] |