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diff --git a/35382.txt b/35382.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a96cc32 --- /dev/null +++ b/35382.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7672 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Romance of Biography (Vol 1 of 2), by Anna Jameson + +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 + + +Title: The Romance of Biography (Vol 1 of 2) + or Memoirs of Women Loved and Celebrated by Poets, from + the Days of the Troubadours to the Present Age. 3rd ed. + 2 Vols. + +Author: Anna Jameson + +Release Date: February 24, 2011 [EBook #35382] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROMANCE OF BIOGRAPHY (VOL 1 OF 2) *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +[Illustration: _T. Wright. sc._ + +ARIOSTO READING HIS VERSES TO ALESSANDRA STROZZI.] + + +_London, Published by H. Colburn, 1829._ + + + + +THE LOVES OF THE POETS. + +VOL. I. + + +LONDON: +PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, +Dorset Street, Fleet Street. + + + + +THE ROMANCE OF BIOGRAPHY; + +OR + +MEMOIRS OF WOMEN LOVED AND CELEBRATED BY POETS, + +FROM + +THE DAYS OF THE TROUBADOURS TO THE PRESENT AGE; + +A SERIES OF ANECDOTES INTENDED TO ILLUSTRATE THE INFLUENCE WHICH FEMALE +BEAUTY AND VIRTUE HAVE EXERCISED OVER THE CHARACTERS AND WRITINGS OF MEN +OF GENIUS. + +BY MRS. JAMESON, + +_Authoress of the Diary of an Ennuyee; Lives of Celebrated Female +Sovereigns; Female Characters of Shakspeare's Plays; Beauties of the +Court of Charles the Second, &c._ + +THIRD EDITION, +IN TWO VOLUMES. +VOL. I. + +LONDON: +SAUNDERS AND OTLEY. + +MDCCCXXXVII. + + +Enfin, relevons-nous sous le poids de l'existence; ne donnons pas a nos +injustes ennemis, a nos amis ingrats, le triomphe d'avoir abattu nos +facultes intellectuelles. Ils reduisent a chercher la celebrite ceux qui +se seraient contentes des affections: eh bien! il faut l'atteindre. Ces +essais ambitieux ne porteront point remede aux peines de l'ame; mais ils +honoreront la vie. La consacrer a l'espoir toujours trompe du bonheur, +c'est la rendre encore plus infortunee. Il vaut mieux reunir tous ses +efforts pour descendre avec quelque noblesse, avec quelque reputation, +la route qui conduit de la jeunesse a la mort. + + MADAME DE STAEL. + + + + +THE AUTHOR TO THE READER. + + +These little sketches (they can pretend to no higher title,) are +submitted to the public with a feeling of timidity almost painful. + +They are absolutely without any other pretension than that of +exhibiting, in a small compass and under one point of view, many +anecdotes of biography and criticism, and many beautiful poetical +portraits, scattered through a variety of works, and all tending to +illustrate a subject in itself full of interest,--the influence which +the beauty and virtue of women have exercised over the characters and +writings of men of genius. But little praise or reputation attends the +mere compiler, but the pleasure of the task has compensated its +difficulty;--"song, beauty, youth, love, virtue, joy," these "flowers of +Paradise," whose growth is not of earth, were all around me; I had but +to gather them from the intermingling weeds and briars, and to bind them +into one sparkling wreath, consecrated to the glory of women and the +gallantry of men. + +The design which unfolded itself before me, as these little sketches +extended gradually from a few memoranda into volumes, is not completed; +much has been omitted, much suppressed. If I have paused midway in my +task, it is not for want of materials, which offer themselves in almost +exhaustless profusion--nor from want of interest in the subject--the +most delightful in which the imagination ever revelled! but because I +desponded over my own power to do it justice. I know, I feel that it +required more extensive knowledge of languages, more matured judgment, +more critical power, more eloquence;--only Madame de Stael could have +fulfilled my conception of the style in which it ought to have been +treated. It was enthusiasm, not presumption, which induced me to attempt +it. I have touched on matters, on which there are a variety of tastes +and opinions, and lightly passed over questions on which there are +volumes of grave "historic doubts;" but I have ventured on no +discussion, still less on any decision. I have been satisfied merely to +quote my authorities; and where these exhibited many opposing facts and +opinions, it seemed to me that there was far more propriety and much +less egotism in simply expressing, in the first person, what I thought +and felt, than in asserting absolutely that a thing _is so_, or _is said +to be so_. Every one has a right to have an opinion, and deliver it with +modesty; but no one has a right to clothe such opinions in general +assertions, and in terms which seem to insinuate that they are or ought +to be universal. I know I am open to criticism and contradiction on a +thousand points; but I have adhered strictly to what appeared to me the +truth, and examined conscientiously all the sources of information that +were open to me. + +The history of this little book, were it worth revealing, would be the +history, in miniature, of most human undertakings: it was begun with +enthusiasm; it has been interrupted by intervals of illness, idleness, +or more serious cares; it has been pursued through difficulties so +great, that they would perhaps excuse its many deficiencies; and now I +see its conclusion with a languor almost approaching to despair;--at +least with a feeling which, while it renders me doubly sensitive to +criticism, and apprehensive of failure, has rendered me almost +indifferent to success, and careless of praise. + +I owe four beautiful translations from the Italian (which are noticed in +their proper places,) to the kindness of a living poet, whose justly +celebrated name, were I allowed to mention it, would be subject of pride +to myself, and double the value of this little book. I have no other +assistance of any kind to acknowledge. + + * * * * * + +Will it be thought unfeminine or obtrusive, if I add yet a few words? + +I think it due to truth and to myself to seize this opportunity of +saying, that a little book published three years ago, and now perhaps +forgotten, was not written for publication, nor would ever have been +printed but for accidental circumstances. + +That the title under which it appeared was not given by the writer, but +the publisher, who at the time knew nothing of the author. + +And that several false dates, and unimportant circumstances and +characters were interpolated, to conceal, if possible, the real purport +and origin of the work. Thus the intention was not to create an +illusion, by giving to fiction the appearance of truth, but, in fact, to +give to truth the air of fiction. I was not _then_ prepared for all that +a woman must meet and endure, who once suffers herself to be betrayed +into authorship. She may repent at leisure, like a condemned spirit; but +she has passed that barrier from which there is no return. + +C'est assez,--I will not add a word more, lest it should be said that I +have only disclaimed the title of the _Ennuyee_, to assume that of the +_Ennuyeuse_. + + + + +CONTENTS + +OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + Page + +CHAPTER I. +A POET'S LOVE 1 + +CHAPTER II. +LOVES OF THE CLASSIC POETS 7 + +CHAPTER III. +THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS 14 + +CHAPTER IV. +THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS (continued) 34 + +CHAPTER V. +GUIDO CAVALCANTI AND MANDETTA.--CINO DA PISTOJA AND SELVAGGIA 55 + +CHAPTER VI. +LAURA 64 + +CHAPTER VII. +LAURA AND PETRARCH (continued) 85 + +CHAPTER VIII. +DANTE AND BEATRICE PORTINARI 105 + +CHAPTER IX. +DANTE AND BEATRICE (continued) 125 + +CHAPTER X. +CHAUCER AND PHILIPPA PICARD.--KING JAMES AND LADY JANE BEAUFORT 133 + +CHAPTER XI. +LORENZO DE' MEDICI AND LUCRETIA DONATI 161 + +CHAPTER XII. +THE FAIR GERALDINE 185 + +CHAPTER XIII. +ARIOSTO, GINEVRA, AND ALESSANDRA STROZZI 198 + +CHAPTER XIV. +SPENSER'S ROSALIND. SPENSER'S ELIZABETH 219 + +CHAPTER XV. +ON THE LOVE OF SHAKSPEARE 237 + +CHAPTER XVI. +SYDNEY'S STELLA (LADY RICH) 249 + +CHAPTER XVII. +COURT AND AGE OF ELIZABETH. + +DRAYTON, DANIEL, DRUMMOND, MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, CLEMENT +MAROT AND DIANA DE POICTIER, RONSARD'S CASSANDRE, +RONSARD'S MARIE, RONSARD'S HELENE 263 + +CHAPTER XVIII. +LEONORA D'ESTE 288 + +CHAPTER XIX. +MILTON AND LEONORA BARONI 330 + + + + +THE LOVES OF THE POETS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +A POET'S LOVE. + + Io ti cinsi de gloria, e fatta ho dea!--GUIDI. + + +Of all the heaven-bestowed privileges of the poet, the highest, the +dearest, the most enviable, is the power of immortalising the object of +his love; of dividing with her his amaranthine wreath of glory, and +repaying the inspiration caught from her eyes with a crown of +everlasting fame. It is not enough that in his imagination he has +deified her--that he has consecrated his faculties to her honour--that +he has burned his heart in incense upon the altar of her perfections: +the divinity thus decked out in richest and loveliest hues, he places on +high, and calls upon all ages and all nations to bow down before her, +and all ages and all nations obey! worshipping the beauty thus enshrined +in imperishable verse, when others, perhaps as fair, and not less +worthy, have gone down, unsung, "to dust and an endless darkness." How +many women who would otherwise have stolen through the shades of +domestic life, their charms, virtues, and affections buried with them, +have become objects of eternal interest and admiration, because their +memory is linked with the brightest monuments of human genius? While +many a high-born dame, who once moved, goddess-like, upon the earth, and +bestowed kingdoms with her hand, lives a mere name in some musty +chronicle. Though her love was sought by princes, though with her dower +she might have enriched an emperor,--what availed it? + + "She had no poet--and she died!" + +And how have women repaid this gift of immortality? O believe it, when +the garland was such as woman is proud to wear, she amply and deeply +rewarded him who placed it on her brow. If in return for being made +illustrious, she made her lover happy,--if for glory she gave a heart, +was it not a rich equivalent? and if not--if the lover was unsuccessful, +still the poet had his reward. Whence came the generous feelings, the +high imaginations, the glorious fancies, the heavenward inspirations, +which raised him above the herd of vulgar men--but from the ennobling +influence of her he loved? Through _her_, the world opened upon him with +a diviner beauty, and all nature became in his sight but a transcript of +the charms of his mistress. He saw her eyes in the stars of heaven, her +lips in the half-blown rose. The perfume of the opening flowers was but +her breath, that "wafted sweetness round about the world:" the lily was +"a sweet thief" that had stolen its purity from her breast. The violet +was dipped in the azure of her veins; the aurorean dews, "dropt from the +opening eyelids of the morn," were not so pure as her tears; the last +rose-tint of the dying day was not so bright or so delicate as her +cheek. Her's was the freshness and the bloom of the Spring; she consumed +him to languor as the Summer sun; she was kind as the bounteous Autumn, +or she froze him with her wintry disdain. There was nothing in the +wonders, the splendours, or the treasures of the created universe,--in +heaven or in earth,--in the seasons or their change, that did not borrow +from her some charm, some glory beyond its own. Was it not just that the +beauty she dispensed should be consecrated to her adornment, and that +the inspiration she bestowed should be repaid to her in fame? + + For what of thee thy poet doth invent, + He robs thee of, and pays it thee again. + He lends thee virtue, and he stole that word + From thy behaviour; beauty doth he give, + But found it in thy cheek; he can afford + No praise to thee but what in thee doth live. + + _Then thank him not for that which he doth say, + Since what he owes thee, thou thyself dost pay!_ + + SHAKSPEARE'S SONNETS. + +The theory, then, which I wish to illustrate, as far as my limited +powers permit, is this: that where a woman has been exalted above the +rest of her sex by the talents of a lover, and consigned to enduring +fame and perpetuity of praise, the passion was real, and was merited; +that no deep or lasting interest was ever founded in fancy or in +fiction; that truth, in short, is the basis of all excellence in amatory +poetry, as in every thing else; for where truth is, there is good of +some sort, and where there is truth and good, there must be beauty, +there must be durability of fame. Truth is the golden chain which links +the terrestrial with the celestial, which sets the seal of heaven on the +things of this earth, and stamps them to immortality. Poets have risen +up and been the mere fashion of a day, and have set up idols which have +been the idols of a day: if the worship be out of date and the idols +cast down, it is because these adorers wanted sincerity of purpose and +feeling; their raptures were feigned; their incense was bought or +adulterate. In the brain or in the fancy, one beauty may eclipse +another--one coquette may drive out another, and tricked off in airy +verse, they float away unregarded like morning vapours, which the beam +of genius has tinged with a transient brightness: but let the heart once +be touched, and it is not only wakened but inspired; the lover kindled +into the poet, presents to her he loves, his cup of ambrosial praise: +she tastes--and the woman is transmuted into a divinity. When the +Grecian sculptor carved out his deities in marble, and left us wondrous +and god-like shapes, impersonations of ideal grace unapproachable by +modern skill, was it through mere mechanical superiority? No;--it was +the spirit of faith within which shadowed to his imagination what he +would represent. In the same manner, no woman has ever been truly, +lastingly deified in poetry, but in the spirit of truth and of love! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +LOVES OF THE CLASSIC POETS. + + +I am not sufficiently an antiquarian or scholar, to trace the muses +"upward to their spring," neither is there occasion to seek our first +examples of poetical loves in the days of fables and of demi-gods; or in +those pastoral ages when shepherds were kings and poets: the loves of +Orpheus and Eurydice are a little too shadowy, and those of the royal +Solomon rather too mixed and too mystical for our purpose.--To descend +then at once to the _classical_ ages of antiquity. + +It must be allowed, that as far as women are concerned, we have not much +reason to regard them with reverence. The fragments of the amatory +poetry of the Greeks, which have been preserved to our times, show too +plainly in what light we were then regarded; and graceful and exquisite +as many of them are, they bear about them the taint of degraded morals +and manners, and are utterly destitute of that exalted sentiment of +respect and tenderness for woman, either individually or as a sex, which +alone can give them value in our eyes. + +I must leave it then to learned commentators to explore and elucidate +the loves of Sappho and Anacreon. To us unlearned women, they shine out +through the long lapse of ages, bright _names_, and little else; a kind +of half-real,--half-ideal impersonations of love and song; the one +enveloped in "a fair luminous cloud," the other "veiled in shadowing +roses;" and thus veiled and thus shadowed, by all accounts, they had +better remain. + +The same remark, with the same reservation, applies to the Latin poets. +They wrote beautiful verses, admirable for their harmony, elegance and +perspicuity of expression; and are studied as models of style in a +language, the knowledge of which, as far as these poets are concerned, +were best confined to the other sex. They lived in a corrupted age, and +their pages are deeply stained with its licentiousness; they inspire no +sympathy for their love, no interest, no respect for the objects of it. +How, indeed, should that be possible, when their mistresses, even +according to the lover's painting, were all either perfectly insipid, or +utterly abandoned and odious?[1] Ovid, he who has revealed to mortal +ears "all the soft scandal of the laughing sky," and whose gallantry has +become proverbial, represents himself as so incensed by the public and +shameless infidelities of his Corinna, that he treats her with the +unmanly brutality of some street ruffian;--in plain language, he beats +her. They are then reconciled, and again there are quarrels, coarse +reproaches, and mutual blows. At length the lady, as might be expected +from such tuition, becoming more and more abandoned, this delicate and +poetical lover requests, as a last favour, that she will, for the +future, take some trouble to deceive him more effectually; and the fair +one, can she do less? kindly consents! + +Cynthia, the mistress of Propertius, gets tipsey, overturns the +supper-table, and throws the cups at her lover's head; he is delighted +with her _playfulness_: she leaves him to follow the camp with a +soldier; he weeps and laments: she returns to him again, and he is +enchanted with her amiable condescension. Her excesses are such, that he +is reduced to blush for her and for himself; and he confesses that he is +become, for her sake, the laughing-stock of all Rome. Cynthia is the +only one of these classical loves who seems to have possessed any mental +accomplishments. The poet praises, incidentally, her talents for music +and poetry; but not as if they added to her charms or enhanced her value +in his estimation. The Lesbia[2] of Catullus, whose eyes were red with +weeping the loss of her favourite sparrow, crowned a life of the most +flagitious excesses by poisoning her husband. Of the various ladies +celebrated by Horace and Tibullus, it would really be difficult to +discover which was most worthless, venal, and profligate. These were the +refined loves of the classic poets! + + * * * * * + +The passion they celebrated never seems to have inspired one ennobling +or generous sentiment, nor to have lifted them for one moment above the +grossest selfishness. They had no scruple in exhibiting their mistresses +to our eyes, as doubtless they appeared in their own, degraded by every +vice, and in every sense contemptible; beings, not only beyond the pale +of our sympathy, but of our toleration. Throughout their works, virtue +appears a mere jest: Love stript of his divinity, even by those who +first deified him, is what we disdain to call by that name; _sentiment_, +as we now understand the word,--that is, the union of fervent love with +reverence and delicacy towards its object,--a thing unknown and unheard +of,--and all is "of the earth, earthy." + + * * * * * + +It is for women I write; the fair, pure-hearted, delicate-minded, and +unclassical reader will recollect that I do not presume to speak of +these poets critically, being neither critic nor scholar; but merely +with a reference to my subject, and with a reference to my sex. As +monuments of the language and literature of a great and polished people, +rich with a thousand beauties of thought and style, doubtless they have +their value and their merit: but as monuments also of a state of morals +inconceivably gross and corrupt; of the condition of women degraded by +their own vices, the vices and tyranny of the other sex, and the +prevalence of the Epicurean philosophy, the tendency of which, (however +disguised by rhetoric,) was ever to lower the tone of the mind; +considered in this point of view, they might as well have all burned +together in that vast bonfire of love-poetry which the Doctors of the +Church raised at Constantinople:--what a flame it must have made![3] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] I need scarcely observe, that the following sketch of the lyrical +poets of Rome is abridged from the analysis of their works, in +Ginguene's Histoire Litteraire, vol. 3. + +[2] Clodia, the wife of Quintus Metellus Celer. + +[3] "J'ai oui dire dans mon enfance a Demetrius Chalcondyle, homme tres +instruit de tout ce qui regarde la Grece, qui les Pretres avaient eu +assez d'influence sur les Empereurs de Constantinople, pour les engager +a bruler les ouvrages de plusieurs anciens poetes Grecs, et en +particulier de ceux qui parlaient des amours, &c. * * * Ces pretres, +sans doute, montrerent une malveillance honteuse envers les anciens +poetes; mais ils donnerent une grande preuve d'integrite, de probite, et +de religion."--ALCYONIUS. + +This sentiment is put into the mouth of Leo X. at a time when the mania +of classical learning was at its height.--See Roscoe, (Leo X.) and +Ginguene. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS. + + Gente, che d'amor givan ragionando.--PETRARCA. + + +The irruptions of the northern nations, among whom our sex was far +better appreciated than among the polished Greeks and Romans; the rise +of Christianity, and the institution of chivalry, by changing the moral +condition of women, gave also a totally different character to the +homage addressed to them. It was in the ages called gothic and +barbarous,--in that era of high feelings and fierce passions,--of love, +war, and wild adventure, that the sex began to take their true station +in society. From the midst of ignorance, superstition, and ferocity, +sprung up that enthusiasm, that exaggeration of sentiment, that +serious, passionate, and imaginative adoration of women, which has +since, indeed, degenerated into mere gallantry, but was the very +fountain of all that is most elevated and elegant in modern poetry, and +most graceful and refined in modern manners. + +The amatory poetry of Provence had the same source with the national +poetry of Spain; both were derived from the Arabians. To them we trace +not only the use of rhyme, and the various forms of stanzas, employed by +the early lyric poets, but by a strange revolution, it was from the +East, where women are now held in seclusion, as mere soulless slaves of +the passions and caprices of their masters, that the sentimental +devotion paid to our sex in the chivalrous ages was derived.[4] The +poetry of the Troubadours kept alive and enhanced the tone of feeling on +which it was founded; it was cause and effect re-acting on each other; +and though their songs exist only in the collections of the antiquarian, +and the very language in which they wrote has passed away, and may be +accounted _dead_,--so is not the spirit they left behind: as the +founders of a new school of amatory poetry, we are under obligations to +their memory, which throw a strong interest around their personal +adventures, and the women they celebrated. + +The tenderness of feeling and delicacy of expression in some of these +old Provencal poets, are the more touching, when we recollect that the +writers were sometimes kings and princes, and often knights and +warriors, famed for their hardihood and exploits. William, Count of +Poitou, our Richard the First, two Kings of Arragon, a King of Sicily, +the Dauphin of Auvergne, the Count de Foix, and a Prince of Orange, were +professors of the "gaye science." Thibault,[5] Count of Provence and +King of Navarre, was another of these royal and chivalrous Troubadours, +and his _lais_ and his virelais were generally devoted to the praises of +Blanche of Castile, the mother of Louis the Ninth--the same Blanche whom +Shakspeare has introduced into King John, and decked out in panegyric +far transcending all that her favoured poet and lover could have offered +at her feet.[6] + +Thibault did, however, surpass all his contemporaries in refinement of +style: he usually concludes his _chansons_ with an _envoi_, or address, +to the Virgin, worded with such equivocal ingenuity, that it is equally +applicable to the Queen of Heaven, or the queen of his earthly +thoughts,--"La Blanche couronnee." There is much simplicity and elegance +in the following little song, in which the French has been modernised. + + "Las! si j'avais pouvoir d'oublier + Sa beaute,--son bien dire, + Et son tres doux regarder + Finirait mon martyre! + + Mais las! mon coeur je n'en puis oter; + Et grand affolage + M'est d'esperer; + Mais tel servage + Donne courage + A tout endurer. + + Et puis comment oublier + Sa beaute, son bien dire, + Et son tres doux regarder? + Mieux aime mon martyre!" + +Princesses and ladies of rank entered the lists of poesy, and +vanquished, on almost every occasion, the Troubadours of the other sex. +For instance, that Countess of Champagne, who presided with such eclat +in one of the courts of love; Beatrice, Countess of Provence, the mother +of four queens, among whom was Berengaria of England; Clara d'Anduse, +one of whose songs is translated by Sismondi; a certain Dame +Castellosa, who in a pathetic remonstrance to some ungrateful lover, +assures him that if he forsakes her for another, and leaves her to die, +he will commit a heinous sin before the face of God and man; that +charming Comtesse de Die, of whom more presently, and others +innumerable, "tout hommes que femmes, la pluspart gentilshommes et +Seigneurs de Places, amoureux des Roynes, Imperatrices, Duchesses, +Marquises, Comtesses, et gentils-femmes; desquelles les maris +s'estimaient grandement heureux quand nos poetes leurs addressaient +quelque chant nouveau en notre langue Provencal." The said poets being +rewarded by these debonnaire husbands with rich dresses, horses, armour, +and gold;[7] and by the ladies with praise, thanks, courteous words, and +sweet smiles, and very often, "altra cosa piu cara." The biography of +these Troubadours generally commences with the same phrase--Such a one +was "gentilhomme et chevalier," and was "pris d'amour" for such a lady, +always named, who was the wife of such a lord, and in whose honour and +praise he composed "maintes belles et doctes chansons." In these +"chansons,"--for all the amatory poetry of those times was sung to +music,--we have love and romantic adventure oddly enough mixed up with +piety and devotion, such as were the mode in an age when religion ruled +the imagination and opinions of men, without in any degree restraining +the passions, or influencing the conduct. One Troubadour tells us, that +when he beholds the face of his mistress, he crosses himself with +delight and gratitude; another pathetically entreats a priest to +dispense him from his vows of love to a certain lady, whom he loved no +longer; the lady being the wife of another, one would imagine that the +dispensation should rather have been required in the first instance. +Arnaldo de Daniel, unable to soften the obdurate heart of his mistress, +performs penance, and celebrates six (or as some say, a thousand) masses +a day, "en priant Dieu de pouvoir acquerir la grace de sa dame," and +burns lamps before the Virgin, and consecrates tapers for the same +purpose: the lady with whom he is thus piously in love, was Cyberna, the +wife of Guillaume de Bouille. This was something like the incantations +and sacrifices of the classic poets, who familiarly mixed up their +mythology with their amours; but in a spirit as different as the +allegorical cupid of these chivalrous poets is from the winged and +wanton deity of the Greeks and Romans. Pierre Vidal sees a vision of +Love, whom he describes as a young knight, fair and fresh as the day, +crowned with a wreath of flowers instead of a helmet; and mounted on a +palfrey as white as snow, with a saddle of jasper, and spurs of +chalcedony; his squires and attendants are "_Mercy_, _Pudeur_, and +_Loyaute_." _Sir Cupid_ on horseback, with his saddle and his spurs, +attended by Gentleness, Modesty, and Good Faith, is a novel +divinity.--Thus, among the Greeks, Love was attended by the Graces, and +among the Troubadours by the Virtues. In the same spirit of allegory, +but touched with a more classic elegance, we have Petrarch's Cupid, +driving his fiery car in triumph, followed by a shadowy host of captives +to his power,--the heroes who had confessed and the poets who had sung +his might. + + Vidi un vittorioso e sommo duce, + Pur com' un di color ch' in Campidoglio + Trionfal carro a gran gloria conduce. + + ....*....*....*....* + + Quattro destrier via piu che neve bianchi: + Sopr' un carro di foco un garzon crudo + Con arco in mano, e con saeette a' fianchi. + +And yet more finished is Spenser's "Masque of Cupid," in the third book +of the Fairy Queen, where Love, as in the antique gem, is mounted on a +lion, preceded by minstrels carolling + + A lay of love's delight with sweet concent, + +attended by Fancy, Desire, Hope, Fear, and Doubt; and followed by Care, +Repentance, Shame, Strife, Sorrow, &c.--The vivid colours in which these +imaginary personages are depicted, the image of the God "uprearing +himself," and looking round with disdain on the troop of victims and +slaves who surround him, the rattling of his darts, as he shakes them in +defiance and in triumph, and "claps on high his coloured wings twain," +forms altogether a most finished and gorgeous picture; such as Rubens +should have painted, as far as his pencil, rainbow-dipt, could have +reflected the animated pageant to the eye. + +The extravagance of passion and boundless devotion to the fair sex, +which the Troubadours sang in their lays, they not unfrequently +illustrated by their actions; and while the knowledge of the first is +confined to a few antiquarians, the latter still survive in the history +and the traditions of their province. One of these (Guillaume de la +Tour) having lost the object of his love, underwent, during a whole +year, the most cruel and unheard-of penances, in the hope that heaven +might be won to perform a miracle in his favour, and restore her to his +arms; at length he died broken-hearted on her tomb.[8] Another,[9] +beloved by a certain princess, in some unfortunate moment breaks his vow +of fidelity, and unable to appease the indignation of his mistress, he +retires to a forest, builds himself a cabin of boughs, and turns hermit, +having first made a solemn vow that he will never leave his solitude +till he is received into favour by his offended love. Being one of the +most celebrated and popular Troubadours of his province, all the knights +and the ladies sympathise with his misfortunes: they find themselves +terribly _ennuyes_ in the absence of the poet who was accustomed to +vaunt their charms and their deeds of prowess; and at the end of two +years they send a deputation, entreating him to return,--but in vain: +they then address themselves to the lady, and humbly solicit the pardon +of the offender, whose disgrace in her sight, has thrown a whole +province into mourning. The princess at length relents, but upon +conditions which appear in these unromantic times equally extraordinary +and difficult to fulfil. She requires that a hundred brave knights, and +a hundred fair dames, pledged in love to each other, (s'aimant d'amour) +should appear before her on their knees, and with joined hands +supplicate for mercy: the conditions are fulfilled: the fifty pair of +lovers are found to go through the ceremony, and the Troubadour receives +his pardon.[10] + +The story of Peyre de Ruer, "gentilhomme et Troubadour," might be termed +a satirical romance, did we not know that it is a plain fact, related +with perfect simplicity. He devotes himself to a lady of the noble +Italian family of Carraccioli, and in her praise he composes, as usual, +"maintes belles et doctes chansons:"--but the lady seems to have had a +taste for magnificence and pleasure; and the poet, in order to find +favour in her eyes, expends his patrimony in rich apparel, banquets, and +_joustes_ in her honour. The lady, however, continues inexorable; and +Peyre de Ruer takes the habit of a pilgrim and wanders about the +country. He arrives in the holy week at a certain church, and desires of +the cure permission to preach to his congregation of penitents:--he +ascends the pulpit, and recites with infinite fervour and grace one of +his own chansons d'amour,--for, says the chronicle, "_autre chose ne +scavait_," "he knew nothing better." The people mistaking it for an +invocation to the Virgin Mary or the Saints, are deeply affected and +edified; eyes are seen to weep that never wept before; the most +impenitent hearts are suddenly softened: he concludes with an +exhortation in the same strain--and then descending from the pulpit, +places himself at the door, and holding out his hat for the customary +alms, his delighted congregation fill it to overflowing with pieces of +silver. Peyre de Ruer forthwith casts off his pilgrim's gown, and in a +new and splendid dress, and with a new song in his hand, he presents +himself before the ladye of his love, who charmed by his gay attire not +less than by his return, receives him most graciously, and bestows on +him "maintes caresses." + +I must observe that the biographer of this Peyre de Ruer, himself a +churchman, does not appear in the least scandalised or surprised at +this very novel mode of recruiting his finances and obtaining the favour +of the lady; but gives us fairly to understand, that after such a proof +of _loyaute_ he should have thought it quite contrary to all rule if she +had still rejected the addresses of this _gentil Troubadour_. + +Jauffred (or Geffrey) de Rudel is yet more famous, and his story will +strikingly illustrate the manners of those times. Rudel was the +favourite minstrel of Geffrey Plantagenet de Bretagne, the elder brother +of our Richard Coeur de Lion, and like the royal Richard, a patron of +music and poetry. During the residence of Rudel at the court of England, +where he resided in great honour and splendour, caressed for his talents +and loved for the gentleness of his manners, he heard continually the +praises of a certain Countess of Tripoli; famed throughout Europe for +her munificent hospitality to the poor Crusaders. The pilgrims and +soldiers of the Cross, who were returning wayworn, sick and disabled, +from the burning plains of Asia, were relieved and entertained by this +devout and benevolent Countess; and they repaid her generosity, with all +the enthusiasm of gratitude, by spreading her fame throughout +Christendom. + +These reports of her beauty and her beneficence, constantly repeated, +fired the susceptible fancy of Rudel: without having seen her, he fell +passionately in love with her, and unable to bear any longer the +torments of absence, he undertook a pilgrimage to visit this unknown +lady of his love, in company with Bertrand d'Allamanon, another +celebrated Troubadour of those days. He quitted the English court in +spite of the entreaties and expostulations of Prince Geffrey +Plantagenet, and sailed for the Levant. But so it chanced, that falling +grievously sick on the voyage, he lived only till his vessel reached the +shores of Tripoli. The Countess being told that a celebrated poet had +just arrived in her harbour, who was dying for her love, immediately +hastened on board, and taking his hand, entreated him to live for her +sake. Rudel, already speechless, and almost in the agonies of death, +revived for a moment at this unexpected grace; he was just able to +express, by a last effort, the excess of his gratitude and love, and +expired in her arms: thereupon the Countess wept bitterly, and vowed +herself to a life of penance for the loss she had caused to the +world.[11] She commanded that the last song which Rudel had composed in +her honour, should be transcribed in letters of gold, and carried it +always in her bosom; and his remains were inclosed in a magnificent +mausoleum of porphyry, with an Arabic inscription, commemorating his +genius and his love for her. + +It is in allusion to this well-known story, that Petrarch has introduced +Rudel into the Trionfo d'Amore. + + Gianfre Rudel ch' uso la vela e 'l remo, + A cercar la suo morte. + +The song which the minstrel composed when he fell sick on this romantic +expedition, and found his strength begin to fail, and which the Countess +wore, folded within her vest, to the end of her life, is extant, and has +been translated into most of the languages of Europe; of these +translations, Sismondi's is the best, preserving the original and +curious arrangement of the rhymes, as well as the piety, naivete, and +tenderness of the sentiment. + + Irrite, dolent partirai + Si ne vois cet amour de loin, + Et ne sais quand je le verrai + Car sont par trop nos terres loin. + Dieu, qui toutes choses as fait + Et formas cet amour si loin, + Donne force a mon coeur, car ai + L'espoir de voir m'amour au loin. + Ah, Seigneur, tenez pour bien vrai + L'amour qu'ai pour elle de loin. + Car pour un bien que j'en aurai + J'ai mille maux, tant je suis loin. + Ja d'autr'amour ne jouirai + Sinon de cet amour de loin-- + Qu'une plus belle je n'en scais + En lieu qui soit ni pres ni loin! + +Mrs. Piozzi and others have paraphrased this little song, but in a +spirit so different from the antique simplicity of the original, that I +shall venture to give a version, which has at least the merit of being +as faithful as the different idioms of the two languages will allow; I +am afraid, however, that it will not appear worthy of the honour which +the Countess conferred on it. + + "Grieved and troubled shall I die, + If I meet not my love afar; + Alas! I know not that I e'er + Shall see her--for she dwells afar. + O God! that didst all things create, + And formed my sweet love now afar; + Strengthen my heart, that I may hope + To behold her face, who is afar. + O Lord! believe how very true + Is my love for her, alas! afar, + Tho' for each joy a thousand pains + I bear, because I am so far. + Another love I'll never have, + Save only she who is afar, + For fairer one I never knew + In places near, nor yet afar." + +Bertrand d'Allamanon, whom I have mentioned as the companion of Rudel on +his romantic expedition, has left us a little ballad, remarkable for the +extreme refinement of the sentiment, which is quite a la Petrarque: he +gives it the fantastic title of a _demi chanson_, for a very fantastic +reason: it is thus translated in Millot. (vol. i. 390). + +"On veut savoir pourquoi je fais une _demi chanson_? c'est parceque je +n'ai qu'un demi sujet de chanter. Il n'y a d'amour que de ma part; la +dame que j'aime ne veut pas m'aimer! mais au defaut des _oui_ qu'elle me +refuse, je prendrai les _non_ qu'elle me prodigue:--_esperer aupres +d'elle vaut mieux que jouir avec tout autre!_" + +This is exactly the sentiment of Petrarch: + + Pur mi consola, che morir per lei + Meglio e che gioir d'altra-- + +But it is one of those thoughts which spring in the heart, and might +often be repeated without once being borrowed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[4] Sismondi--Litterature du Midi. + +[5] + Thibault fut Roi galant et valoureux, + Ses hauts faits et son rang n'ont rien fait pour sa gloire; + Mais il fut chansonnier--et ses couplets heureux, + Nous ont conserve sa memoire. + + ANTHOLOGIE DE MONET. + +[6] + If lusty Love should go in quest of beauty, + Where should he find it fairer than in Blanche? + If zealous Love should go in search of virtue, + Where should he find it purer than in Blanche? + If Love, ambitious, sought a match of birth, + Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanche? + +[7] La plus honorable recompence qu'on pouvait faire aux dits poetes, +etait qu'on leur fournissait de draps, chevaux, armure, et argent. + +[8] Millot, vol. ii. p. 148. + +[9] Richard de Barbesieu. + +[10] Millot, vol. iii. p. 86.--Ginguene, vol. i. p. 280. + +[11] "Depuis ne fut jamais veue faire bonne chere," says the old +chronicle.--I am tempted to add the description of the first and last +interview of the Countess and her lover in the exquisite old French, of +which the antique simplicity and naivete are untranslateable. + +"En cet estat fut conduit au port de Trypolly, et la arrive, son +compagnon feist (_fit_) entendre a la Comtesse la venue du Pelerin +malade. La Comtesse estant venue en la nef, prit le poete par la main; +et lui, sachant que c'estait la Comtesse, incontinent apres le doult et +gracieux accueil, recouvra ses esprits, la remercia de ce qu'elle lui +avait recouvre la vie, et lui dict: 'Tres illustre et vertueuse +princesse, je ne plaindrai point la mort oresque'--et ne pouvant achever +son propos, sa maladie s'aigrissant et augmentant, rendit l'esprit entre +les mains de la Comtesse."--_Vies des plus celebres Poetes Provencaux_, +p. 24. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE LOVES OF THE TROUBADOURS CONTINUED. + + +In striking contrast to the tender and gentle Rudel, we have the +ferocious Bertrand de Born: he, too, was one of the most celebrated +Troubadours of his time. As a petty feudal sovereign, he was, partly by +the events of the age, more by his own fierce and headlong passions, +plunged in continual wars. Nature however had made him a poet of the +first order. In these days he would have been another Lord Byron; but he +lived in a terrible and convulsed state of society, and it was only in +the intervals snatched from his usual pursuits,--that is, from burning +the castles, and ravaging the lands of his neighbours, and stirring up +rebellion, discord, and bloodshed all around him,--that he composed a +vast number of _lays_, _sirventes_, and _chansons_; some breathing the +most martial, and even merciless spirit; others devoted to the praise +and honour of his love, or rather loves, as full of submissive +tenderness and chivalrous gallantry. + +He first celebrated Elinor Plantagenet, the sister of his friend and +brother in arms and song, Richard Coeur de Lion; and we are expressly +told that Richard was proud of the poetical homage rendered to the +charms of his sister by this knightly Troubadour, and that the Princess +was far from being insensible to his admiration. Only one of the many +songs addressed to Elinor has been preserved; from which we gather, that +it was composed by Bertrand in the field, at a time when his army was +threatened with famine, and the poet himself was suffering from the +pangs of hunger. Elinor married the Duke of Saxony, and Bertrand chose +for his next love the beautiful Maenz de Montagnac, daughter of the +Viscount of Turenne, and wife of Talleyrand de Perigord. The lady +accepted his service, and acknowledged him as her Knight; but evil +tongues having attempted to sow dissension between the lovers, Bertrand +addressed to her a song, in which he defends himself from the imputation +of inconstancy, in a style altogether characteristic and original. The +warrior poet, borrowing from the objects of his daily cares, ambition +and pleasures, phrases to illustrate and enhance the expression of his +love, wishes "that he may lose his favourite hawk in her first flight; +that a falcon may stoop and bear her off, as she sits upon his wrist, +and tear her in his sight, if the sound of his lady's voice be not +dearer to him than all the gifts of love from another."--"That he may +stumble with his shield about his neck; that his helmet may gall his +brow; that his bridle may be too long, his stirrups too short; that he +may be forced to ride a hard trotting horse, and find his groom drunk +when he arrives at his gate, if there be a word of truth in the +accusations of his enemies:--that he may not have a _denier_ to stake at +the gaming-table, and that the dice may never more be favourable to +him, if ever he had swerved from his faith:--that he may look on like a +dastard, and see his lady wooed and won by another;--that the winds may +fail him at sea;--that in the battle he may be the first to fly, if he +who has slandered him does not lie in his throat," &c. and so on through +seven or eight stanzas. + +Bertrand de Born exercised in his time a fatal influence on the counsels +and politics of England. A close and ardent friendship existed between +him and young Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of our Henry the Second; +and the family dissensions which distracted the English Court, and the +unnatural rebellion of Henry and Richard against their father, were his +work. It happened some time after the death of Prince Henry, that the +King of England besieged Bertrand de Born in one of his castles: the +resistance was long and obstinate, but at length the warlike Troubadour +was taken prisoner and brought before the King, so justly incensed +against him, and from whom he had certainly no mercy to expect. The +heart of Henry was still bleeding with the wounds inflicted by his +ungrateful children, and he saw before him, and in his power, the +primary cause of their misdeeds and his own bitter sufferings. Bertrand +was on the point of being led out to death, when by a single word he +reminded the King of his lost son, and the tender friendship which had +existed between them.[12] The chord was struck which never ceased to +vibrate in the parental heart of Henry; bursting into tears, he turned +aside, and commanded Bertrand and his followers to be immediately set at +liberty: he even restored to Bertrand his castle and his lands, "_in the +name of his dead son_." It is such traits as these, occurring at every +page, which lend to the chronicles of this stormy period an interest +overpowering the horror they would otherwise excite: for then all the +best, as well as the worst of human passions were called into play. In +this tempestuous commingling of all the jarring elements of society, we +have those strange approximations of the most opposite +sentiments,--implacable revenge and sublime forgiveness;--gross +licentiousness and delicate tenderness;--barbarism and +refinement;--treachery and fidelity--which remind one of that +heterogeneous mass tossed up by a stormy ocean; heaps of pearls, +unvalued gems, wedges of gold, mingled with dead men's bones, and all +the slimy, loathsome, and monstrous productions of the deep, which +during a calm remain together concealed and unknown in its unfathomed +abysses. + +To return from this long similitude to Bertrand de Born: he concluded +his stormy career in a manner very characteristic of the times; for he +turned monk, and died in the odour of sanctity. But neither his late +devotion, nor his warlike heroism, nor his poetic fame, could rescue him +from the severe justice of Dante, who has visited his crimes and his +violence with so terrible a judgment, that we forget, while we thrill +with horror, that the crimes were real, the penance only imaginary. +Dante, in one of the circles of the Inferno, meets Bertrand de Born +carrying his severed head, _lantern wise_, in his hand;--the phantom +lifts it up by the hair, and the ghastly lips unclose to confess the +cause and the justice of this horrible and unheard-of penance. + + ----Or vedi la pena molesta + Tu che spirando vai veggendo i morti; + Vedi s'alcuna e grande come questa. + E perche tu di me novella porti, + Sappi ch' i' son Bertram dal Bornio, quelli + Che diedi al Re giovane i ma' conforti. + I' feci 'l padre e 'l figlio in se ribelli: + + ....*....*....*....* + + Perch'io partii cosi giunte persone, + Partito porto il mio cerebro, lasso! + Dal suo principio ch 'e 'n questo troncone. + Cosi s'osserva in me lo contrappasso.[13] + + Now behold + This grievous torment, thou, who breathing goest + To spy the dead: behold, if any else + Be terrible as this,--and that on earth + Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I + Am Bertrand, he of Born, who gave King John + The counsel mischievous. Father and son + I set at mutual war:---- + Spurring them on maliciously to strife. + For parting those so closely knit, my brain + Parted, alas! I carry from its source + That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law + Of retribution fiercely works in me.[14] + +Pierre Vidal, whose description of love I have quoted before, was one of +the most extraordinary characters of his time, a kind of poetical Don +Quixotte:--his brain was turned with love, poetry, and vanity: he +believed himself the beloved of all the fair, the mirror of knighthood, +and the prince of Troubadours. Yet in the midst of all his +extravagances, he possessed exquisite skill in his art, and was not +surpassed by any of the poets of those days, for the harmony, delicacy, +and tenderness of his amatory effusions. He chose for his first love +the beautiful wife of the Vicomte de Marseilles: the lady, unlike some +of the Princesses of her time, distinguished between the poet and the +man, and as he presumed too far on the encouragement bestowed on him in +the former capacity, he was banished: he then followed Richard the First +to the crusade. The verses he addressed to the lady from the Island of +Cyprus are still preserved. The folly of Vidal, or rather the +derangement of his imagination, subjected him to some of those +mystifications which remind us of Don Quixote and Sancho, in the court +of the laughter-loving Duchess. For instance, Richard and his followers +amused themselves at Cyprus, by marrying Vidal to a beautiful Greek girl +of no immaculate reputation, whom they introduced to him as the niece of +the Greek Emperor. Vidal, in right of his wife, immediately took the +title of Emperor, assumed the purple, ordered a throne to be carried +before him, and played the most fantastic antics of authority. Nor was +this the greatest of his extravagances: on his return to Provence, he +chose for the second object of his amorous and poetical devotion, a +lady whose name happened to be Louve de Penautier: in her honour he +assumed the name of _Loup_, and farther to merit the good graces of his +"_Dame_," and to do honour to the name he had adopted, he dressed +himself in the hide of a wolf, and caused himself to be hunted in good +earnest by a pack of dogs: he was brought back exhausted and half dead +to the feet of his mistress, who appears to have been more moved to +merriment than to love by this new and ridiculous exploit. + +In general, however, the Troubadours had seldom reason to complain of +the cruelty of the ladies to whom they devoted their service and their +songs. The most virtuous and illustrious women thought themselves +justified in repaying, with smiles and favours, the poetical adoration +of their lovers; and this lasted until the profession of Troubadour was +dishonoured by the indiscretions, follies, and vices of those who +assumed it. Thus Peyrols, a famous Provencal poet, who was distinguished +in the court of the Dauphin d'Auvergne, fell passionately in love with +the sister of that Prince, (the Baronne de Mercoeur) and the Dauphin, +(himself a Troubadour) proud of the genius of his minstrel and of the +poetical devotion paid to his sister, desired her to bestow on her lover +all the encouragement and favour which was consistent with her dignity. +The lady, however, either misunderstood her instructions, or found it +too difficult to obey them: the seducing talents and tender verses of +this _gentil Troubadour_ prevailed over her dignity:--Peyrols was +beloved; but he was not sufficiently discreet. The sudden change in the +tone and style of his songs betrayed him, and he was banished. A great +number of his verses, celebrating the Dame de Mercoeur, are preserved +by St. Palaye, and translated by Millot. + +Bernard de Ventadour was beloved by Elinor de Guienne, afterwards the +wife of our Henry the Second, and the mother of Richard the First:--I +have before observed the poetical penchants of all Elinor's children, +which they seem to have inherited from their mother. + +Sordello of Mantua, whose name is familiar to all the readers of Dante, +as occurring in one of the finest passages of his great poem,[15] was an +Italian, but like all the best poets of his day, wrote in the Provencal +tongue: he is said to have carried off the sister of that modern +Phalaris, the tyrant Ezzelino of Padua. There is a very elegant ballad +(ballata) by Sordello, translated in Millot's collection; it is properly +a kind of rondeau, the first line being repeated at the end of every +stanza; "Helas! a quoi me servent mes yeux?"--"Alas! wherefore have I +eyes?"--It describes the pleasures of the Spring, which are to him as +nothing, in the absence of the only object on which his eyes can dwell +with delight. The arrangement of the rhymes in this pastoral song is +singularly elegant and musical. + +Lastly, as illustrating the history of the amatory poetry of this age, I +extract from Nostradamus[16] the story of the young Countess de Die; she +loved and was beloved by the Chevalier d'Adhemar: (ancestor I presume to +that Chevalier d'Adhemar who figures in the letters of Madame de +Sevigne.) It was not in this case the lover who celebrated the charms of +his mistress, but the lady, who, being an illustrious female Troubadour, +"docte en poesie," celebrated the exploits and magnanimity of her lover. +The Chevalier, proud of such a distinction, caused the verses of his +mistress to be beautifully copied, and always carried them in his bosom; +and whenever he was in the company of knights and ladies, he enchanted +them by singing a couplet in his own praise out of his lady's book. The +publicity thus given to their love, was quite in the spirit of the +times, and does not appear to have injured the reputation of the +Countess for immaculate virtue,[17] which Adhemar would probably have +defended with lance and spear, against any slanderous tongue which had +dared to defame her. + +The conclusion of this romantic story is melancholy. Adhemar heard a +false report, that the Countess, whose purity and constancy he had so +proudly maintained, had cast away her smiles on a rival: he fell sick +with grief and bitterness of heart: the Countess, being informed of his +state, set out, accompanied by her _mother_, and a long train of knights +and ladies, to visit and comfort him with assurances of her fidelity; +but when she appeared at his bed-side, and drew the curtain, it was +already too late: Adhemar expired in her arms. The Countess took the +veil in the convent of St. Honore, and died the same year _of grief_, +says the chronicle;--and to conclude the tragedy characteristically, the +mother of the young Countess buried her in the same grave with her +lover, and raised a superb monument to the memory of both. The Countess +de Die was one of the ten ladies who formed the _Court of Love_, held at +Pierrefeu, (about 1194) and in which Estifanie de Baux presided. + +These Courts of Love, and the scenes they gave rise to, were certainly +open to ridicule; the "belles et subtiles questions d'amour" which were +there solemnly discussed, and decided by ladies of rank, were often +absurd, and the decisions something worse: still the fanciful influence +they gave to women on these subjects, and the gallantry they introduced +into the intercourse between the sexes, had a tendency to soften the +manners, to refine the language, and to tinge the sentiments and +passions with a kind of philosophical mysticism. But these gay and +gallant Courts of Love, the Provencal Troubadours, their lays, which for +two centuries had been the delight of all ranks of people, and had +spread music, love, and poetry through the land;--their language, which +had been the chosen dialect of gallantry in every court of Europe,--were +at once swept from the earth. + +The glory of the Provencal literature began when Provence was raised to +an independent Fief, under Count Berenger I. about the year 1100; it +lasted two entire centuries, and ended when that fine and fertile +country became the scene of the horrible crusade against the Albigenses; +when the Inquisition sent forth its exterminating fiends to scatter +horror and devastation through the land, and the wars and rapacity of +Charles of Anjou, its new possessor, almost depopulated the country. The +language which had once celebrated deeds of love and heroism, now sang +only of desolation and despair. The Troubadours, in a strain worthy of +their gentle and noble calling, generally advocated the part of the +Albigenses, and the oppressed of whatever faith; and in many provinces, +in Lombardy especially, their language was interdicted, lest it might +introduce heretical or rebellious principles; gradually it fell into +disuse, and at length into total oblivion. The Troubadours, no longer +welcomed in castle or in hall, where once + + They poured to lords and ladies gay, + The unpremeditated lay, + +were degraded to wandering minstrels and itinerant jugglers. An attempt +was made, about a century later, (1324) by the institution of the +Floral Games at Thoulouse, to keep alive this high strain of poetical +gallantry. They were formerly celebrated with great splendour, and a +shadow of this institution is, I believe, still kept up, but it has +degenerated into a mere school of affectation. The original race of the +Troubadours was extinct long before Clemence d'Isaure and her golden +violet were thought of. + +I cannot quit the subject of the Troubadours without one or two +concluding observations. To these rude bards we owe some new notions of +poetical justice, which never seem to have occurred to Horace or +Longinus, and are certainly more magnanimous, as well as more true to +moral feeling, than those which prevailed among the polished Greeks and +Romans. For instance, the generous Hector and the constant Troilus are +invariably exalted above the subtle Ulysses and the savage Achilles. +Theseus, Jason, and AEneas, instead of being represented as classical +heroes and pious favourites of the gods, are denounced as recreant +knights and false traitors to love and beauty. In the estimation of +these chivalrous bards, a woman's tears outweighed the exploits of +demi-gods; all the glory of Theseus is forgotten in sympathy for +Ariadne; and AEneas, in the old ballads and romances, is not, after all +his perfidy, dismissed to happiness and victory, but is plagued by the +fiends, haunted by poor Dido's "grimly ghost," and, finally, doomed to +perish miserably.[18] Nor does Jason fare better at their hands; in all +the old poets he is consigned to just execration. In Dante, we have a +magnificent and a terrible picture of him, doomed to one of the lowest +circles of hell, amid a herd of vile seducers, who betrayed the trusting +faith, or bartered the charms of women. Demons scourge him up and down, +without mercy or respite, in vengeance for the wrongs of Hypsipyle and +Medea. + + Guarda quel grande che viene + E per dolor, non par lagrima spanda; + Quanto aspetto reale ancor ritiene! + Quelli e Giasone-- + + --Con segni e con parole ornate + Isifile inganno---- + Tal colpa a tal martiro lui condanna, + Ed anche di MEDEA si fa vendetta. + + INFERNO, C. 18. + + "Behold that lofty shade, who this way tends, + And seems too woe-begone to drop a tear; + How yet the regal aspect he retains! + 'Tis Jason-- + --He who with tokens and fair witching words + Hypsipyle beguil'd-- + Such is the guilt condemns him to this pain; + Here too Medea's injuries are aveng'd!"-- + + CAREY. + +And Chaucer, in relating the same story, begins with a burst of generous +indignation: + + Thou root[19] of false lovers, Duke Jason, + Thou slayer, devourer, and confusion + Of gentil women, gentil creatures! + +The story of his double perfidy is told and commented on in the same +chivalrous feeling: and the old poet concludes with characteristic +tenderness and simplicity-- + + This was the mede of loving, and guerdon + That Medea received of Duke Jason, + Right for her truth and for her kindnesse, + That loved him better than herself I guesse! + And lefte her father and her heritage: + And of Jason this is the vassalage + That in his dayes was never none yfound + So false a lover going on the ground. + +It is in the same beautiful spirit of reverence to the best virtues of +our sex, that Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, who sacrificed her life to +prolong that of her husband, is honoured above all other heroines of +classical story. She has even been elevated into a kind of presiding +divinity,--a second Venus, with nobler attributes,--and in her new +existence is feigned to be the consort and companion of Love himself. + +Another peculiarity of the poetry of the middle ages, was the worship +paid to the daisy, (la Marguerite) as symbolical of all that is lovely +in women. Why so lowly a flower should take precedence of the queenly +lily and the sumptuous rose, is not very clear; but it seems to have +originated with one of the old Provencal poets, whose mistress bore the +name of Marguerite; and afterwards it became a fashion and a kind of +poetical mythology.[20] + +Thus in the "Flower and the Leafe" of Chaucer, the ladies and knights of +the flower approach singing a chorus in honour of the Daisy, of which +the burthen is, "si douce est la Marguerite." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Le Roi lui demande, "S'il a perdu raison?" il lui repond, "Helas, +oui! c'est depuis la mort du Prince Henri, votre fils!" + +[13] Inferno, c. xxviii. + +[14] Carey's translation of Dante. Mr. Carey reads Re Giovanni, instead +of Re giovane:--King John, instead of Prince Henry. + +[15] Purgatorio, c. vi. + +[16] Vies des plus celebres poetes Provencaux. + +[17] Agnes de Navarre, Comtesse de Foix, was beloved by Guillaume de +Machaut, a French poet; he became jealous, and she sent her own +confessor to him to complain of the injustice of his suspicions, and to +swear that she was still faithful to him. She required, also, of her +lover, to write and to publish in verse the history of their love; and +she preserved, at the same time, in the eyes of her husband and of the +world, the character of a virtuous Princess.--_See Foscolo_--_Essays on +Petrarch._ + +[18] Percy's Reliques. + +[19] _Root_, i. e. example or beginner. + +[20] See the notes to Chaucer, the works of Froissart, and Memoires sur +les Troubadours. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +GUIDO CAVALCANTI AND MANDETTA, + +CINO DA PISTOJA AND SELVAGGIA. + + +Amatory poetry was transmitted from the Provencals to the Italians and +Sicilians, among whom the language of the Troubadours had long been +cultivated, and their songs imitated, but in style yet more affected and +_recherche_. Few of the Italian poets who preceded Dante, are +interesting even in a mere literary point of view: of these only one or +two have shed a reflected splendour round the object of their adoration. +Guido Cavalcanti, the Florentine, was the early and favourite friend of +Dante: being engaged in the factions of his native city, he was forced +on some emergency to quit it; and to escape the vengeance of the +prevailing party, he undertook a pilgrimage to Sant Jago. Passing +through Tolosa, he fell in love with a beautiful Spanish girl, whom he +has celebrated under the name of _Mandetta_: + + In un boschetto trovai pastorella + Piu che la stella bella al mio parere, + Capegli avea biondetti e ricciutelli. + +Some of his songs and ballads have considerable grace and nature; but +they were considered by himself as mere trifles. His grand work on which +his fame long rested, is a "Canzone sopra l'Amore," in which the subject +is so profoundly and so philosophically treated, that seven voluminous +commentaries in Latin and Italian have not yet enabled the world to +understand it. + +The following Sonnet is deservedly celebrated for the consummate beauty +of the picture it resents, and will give a fair idea of the platonic +extravagance of the time. + + Chi e questa che vien ch' ogni uom la mira! + Che fa tremar di caritate l' a're? + E mena seco amor, si che parlare + Null' uom ne puote; ma ciascun sospira? + Ahi dio! che sembra quando gli occhi gira! + Dicalo Amor, ch'io nol saprei contare; + Cotanto d' umilta donna mi pare + Che ciascun' altra inver di lei chiam' ira. + Non si porria contar la sua piacenza; + Che a lei s'inchina ogni gentil virtute, + E la beltate per sua Dea la mostra. + Non e si alta gia la mente nostra + E non s'e posta in noi tanta salute + Che propriamente n' abbian conoscenza! + + +LITERAL TRANSLATION. + + "Who is this, on whom all men gaze as she approacheth!--who + causeth the very air to tremble around her with + tenderness?--who leadeth Love by her side--in whose presence + men are dumb; and can only sigh? Ah! Heaven! what power in + every glance of those eyes! Love alone can tell; for I have + neither words nor skill! She alone is the Lady of + gentleness--beside her, all others seem ungracious and + unkind. Who can describe her sweetness, her loveliness? to + her every virtue bows, and beauty points to her as her own + divinity. The mind of man cannot soar so high, nor is it + sufficiently purified by divine grace to understand and + appreciate all her perfections!" + +The vagueness of this portrait is a part of its beauty:--it is like a +lovely dream--and probably never had any existence, but in the fancy of +the Poet. + +Cino da Pistoia enjoyed the double reputation of being the greatest +doctor and teacher of the civil law, and most famous poet of his time. +He was also remarkable for his personal accomplishments and his love of +pleasure. There is a sonnet which Dante addressed to Cino, reproaching +him with being inconstant and volatile in love.[21] Apparently, this was +after the death of the beautiful Ricciarda dei Selvaggi; or, as he calls +her, his Selvaggia: she was of a noble family of Pistoia, her father +having been gonfaliere, and leader of the faction of the Bianchi; and +she was also celebrated for her poetical talents. It appears from a +little madrigal of hers, which has been preserved, that though she +tenderly returned the affection of her lover, it was without the +knowledge of her haughty family. It is not distinguished for poetic +power, but has at least the charm of perfect frankness and simplicity, +and a kind of _abandon_ that is quite bewitching. + + +A MESSER CINO DA PISTOJA. + + Gentil mio sir, lo parlare amoroso + Di voi si in allegranza mi mantene, + Che dirvel non poria, ben lo sacciate; + Perche del mio amor sete giojoso, + Di cio grand' allegria e gio' mi vene, + Ed altro mai non haggio in volontate, + Fuor del vostro piacere; + Tutt' hora fate la vostra voglienza: + Haggiate previdenza + Voi, di celar la nostra desienza. + + "My gentle love and lord! those tender words + Of thine so fill my conscious heart with joy, + --I cannot speak it--but thou know'st it well; + Wherefore do thou rejoice in that deep love + I bear thee, knowing that I have no thought + But to fulfil thy will and crown thy wish: + --Watch thou--and hide our mutual hope from all!" + +Meantime the parents of Ricciarda were exiled from Pistoia, by the +faction of the Neri. They took refuge from their enemies in a little +fortress among the Appenines, whither Cino followed them, and was +received as a comforter amid their distresses. Probably the days passed +in this dreary abode, among the wild and solitary hills, when he +assisted Ricciarda in her household duties, and in aiding and consoling +her parents, were among the happiest of his life; but the winter came, +and with it many privations and many hardships. Their mountain retreat +was ill calculated to defend them against the fury of the elements: +Ricciarda drooped under the pressure of misery and want, and her parents +and her lover watched the gradual extinction of life--saw the rose-hue +fade from her cheek, and the light from her eye, till she melted from +their arms into death; then they buried her with tears, in a nook among +the mountains. + +Many years afterwards, when Cino had reached the height of his fame, and +had been crowned with wealth and honours by his native city, he had +occasion to cross the Appenines on an embassy, and causing his suite to +travel by another road, he made a pilgrimage alone to the tomb of his +lost Selvaggia. This incident gave rise to the most striking of all his +compositions, which with great pathos and sweetness describes his +feelings, when he flung himself down on her humble grave, to weep over +the recollection of their past happiness: + + Io fu' in sull'alto e in sul beato monte, + Ove adorai baciando il santo sasso, + E caddi in su quella pietra, oime lasso! + Ove l' onesta pose la sua fronte; + E ch' ella chiuse d' ogni virtu il fonte + Quel giorno che di morte acerbo passo + Fece la donna dello mio cor,--lasso!-- + Gia piena tutta d' adornezze conte. + Quivi chiamai a questa guisa Amore: + "Dolce mio Dio, fa che quinci mi traggia + La morte a se, che qui giace il mio cor!" + Ma poi che non m'intese il mio signore, + Mi disparti, pur chiamando, Selvaggia! + L'alpe passai, con voce di dolore. + +The circumstance in the last stanza, "I rose up and went on my way, and +passed the mountain summits, crying aloud 'Selvaggia!' in accents of +despair," has a strong reality about it, and no doubt _was_ real. Her +death took place about 1316. + +In the history of Italian poetry, Selvaggia is distinguished as the +"_bel numer' una_,"--"the fair number one"--of the four celebrated +women of that century--The others were Dante's Beatrice, Petrarch's +Laura, and Boccaccio's Fiammetta. + +Every one who reads and admires Petrarch, will remember his beautiful +Sonnet on the Death of Cino, beginning "Piangete Donne" + + Perche 'l nostro amoroso messer Cino + Novellamente s'e da noi partito. + +In the venerable Cathedral at Pistoia, there is an ancient half-effaced +bas-relief, representing Cino, surrounded by his disciples, to whom he +is explaining the code of civil law: a little behind stands the figure +of a female veiled, and in a pensive attitude, which is supposed to +represent Ricciarda de' Selvaggi. + +All these are alluded to by Petrarch in the Trionfo d'Amore. + + Ecco Selvaggia, + Ecco Cin da Pistoja; Guitton d'Arezzo; + Ecco i due Guidi che gia furo in prezzo. + +The two Guidi are, Guido Guizzinello, and Guido Cavalcanti. Guitone was +a famous monk, who is said to have invented the present form of the +sonnet: to him also is attributed the discovery of counterpoint, and the +present system of musical notation. + +Of Conti's mistress nothing is known, but that she had the most +beautiful hand in the world, whence the volume of poems written by her +lover in her praise, is entitled, _La Bella Mano_, the fair hand. Conti +lived some years later than Petrarch. I mention him merely to fill up +the list of those ancient minor poets of Italy, whose names and loves +are still celebrated. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[21] + Chi s' innamora, siccome voi fate + Ed ad ogni piacer si lega e scioglie + Mostra ch'amor leggermente il saetti--SON. 44. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LAURA. + + +There are some who doubt the reality of Petrarch's love, because it is +expressed in numbers; and others, refining on this doubt, profess even +to question whether his Laura ever existed, except in the imagination +and the poetry of her lover. The first objection could only be made by +the most prosaic of commentators--some true "black-letter dog"[22]--who +had dustified and mistified his faculties among old parchments. The most +real and most fervent passion that ever fell under my own knowledge, was +revealed in verse, and very exquisite verse too, and has inspired many +an effusion, full of beauty, fancy, and poetry; but it has not, +therefore, been counted less sincere; and Heaven forbid it should prove +less lasting than if it had been told in the homeliest prose, and had +never inspired one beautiful idea or one rapturous verse! + +To study Petrarch in his own works, and in his own delightful language; +to follow him line by line, through all the vicissitudes and +contradictions of passion; to listen to his self-reproaches, his +terrors, his regrets, his conflicts; to dwell on his exquisite +delineations of individual character and peculiar beauty, his simple +touches of profound pathos and melancholy tenderness:--and then believe +all to be mere invention,--the coinage of the brain,--a tissue of +visionary fancies, in which the heart had no share; to confound him with +the cold metaphysical rhymesters of a later age,--seems to argue not +only a strange want of judgment, but an extraordinary obtuseness of +feeling.[23] + +The faults of taste of which Petrarch has been accused over and over +again, by those who seem to have studied him as Voltaire studied +Shakspeare,--his _concetti_--his fanciful adoration of the laurel, as +the emblem of Laura--his playing on the words _Laura_, _L'aura_, and +_Lauro_, his _freezing flames_ and _burning ice_,--I abandon to critics, +and let them make the best of them, as defects in what were else +perfection. + +These were the fashion of the day: a great genius may outrun his times, +but not without bearing about him some ineffaceable impressions of the +manners and character of the age in which he lived. He is too witty--"Il +a trop d'esprit," to be sincere, say the critics,--"he has a conceit +left him in his misery,--a miserable conceit;" but we know--at least +_I_ know--how in the very extremity of passion the soul can mock at +itself--how the fancy can with a bitter and exaggerated gaiety sport +with the heart!--These are faults of composition in the writer, and +admitted to be such; but they prove nothing against the man, the poet, +or the lover. The reproach of monotony, I confess I never could +understand. It is rather matter of astonishment, how in a collection of +nearly four hundred poems, all, with one or two exceptions, turning upon +the same subject and sentiment, the poet has poured forth such an +endless and redundant variety both of thought and feeling--how from the +wide universe, the changeful face of all beautiful nature, the treasures +of antique learning, and, above all, from his own overflowing heart, he +has drawn those lovely pictures, allusions, situations, sentiments and +reflections, which have, indeed, been stolen, borrowed, imitated, worn +threadbare by succeeding poets, but in him were the fresh and +spontaneous effusions of profound feeling and luxuriant fancy. Schlegel +very justly observes, that the impression of monotony may arise from +our considering at one view, and bound up in one volume, a long series +of poems, which were written in the course of many years, at different +times, and on different occasions. Laura herself, he avers, would +certainly have been _ennuyee_ to death with her own praises, if she had +been obliged to read over, at one sitting, all the verses which her +lover composed on her charms; and I agree with him. + +It appears to me that the very impression of Petrarch's individual +character, and the circumstances of his life, on the whole mass of his +poetry, are evidence of the truth of his attachment, and the reality of +its object. He was by nature a poet; his love was, therefore, poetical: +he loved "in numbers, for the numbers came." He was an accomplished +scholar in a pedantic age,--and his love is, therefore, illustrated by +such comparisons and turns of thought as were allied to his habitual +studies. He had a fertile and playful fancy, and his love is adorned by +all the luxuriance of his imagination. He had been educated for the +profession of the Civil Law, "per vender parole anzi mensogne,"--to +sell words and lies, as he disdainfully expressed it,--and his love is +mixed up with subtile reasonings on his own hapless state. He was a +philosopher, and it is tinged with the mystic reveries of Platonism, the +favourite and fashionable philosophy of the age. He was deeply +religious, and the strain of devotional and moral feeling which mingles +with that of passion, or of grief,--his fears lest the excess of his +earthly affections should interfere with his eternal salvation,--his +continual allusions to his faith, to a future existence, and the +nothingness and vanity of the world,--are not so many proofs of his +profaneness, but of his sincerity. He was suspicious, irritable, and +susceptible; subject to quick transitions of feeling; raised by a word +to hope--plunged by a glance into despair; just such a finely-toned +instrument as a woman loves to play on;--and all this we have set forth +in the contradictions, the self-reproaches, the little daily +vicissitudes which are events and revolutions in a life of passion; a +life, which when exhibited in the rich and softening tints of poetry, +has all the power of strong interest, united to the charm of harmony and +expression; but in the reality, and in plain prose, cannot be +contemplated without a painful compassion. "The day may perhaps come," +says Petrarch in one of his familiar letters,[24] "when I shall have +calmness enough to contemplate all the misery of my soul, to examine my +passion, not however, that I may continue to love her--but that I may +love thee alone, O my God! But at this day, how many obstacles have I +yet to surmount, how many efforts have I yet to make! I no longer love +as I did love, but still I love; I love in spite of myself--in +lamentations and in tears. I will hate her--No!--I must still love her!" +Seven years afterwards he writes,--"my love is extreme, but it is +exclusive and virtuous--virtuous!--no!--this disquietude, these +suspicions, these transports, this watchfulness, this utter weariness of +every thing, are not signs of a virtuous love!" What a picture of an +impassioned and distracted heart! + + * * * * * + +And who was this Laura, the illustrious object of a passion which has +filled the wide universe from side to side with her name and fame? What +was her station, her birth, her lineage? What were her transcendant +qualities of person, heart, and mind, that she should have swayed, with +such despotic and distracting power, one of the sovereign spirits of the +age? Is it not enough that we acknowledge her to have been Petrarch's +love--as chaste as fair? + + And whether coldness, pride, or virtue, dignify + A woman, so she is good, what does it signify? + +In the present case, it signifies much:--we are not to be put off with a +witty or satirical couplet:--the insatiable curiosity which Laura has +excited from age to age--the volumes which have been written on the +subject--are a proof of the sincerity of her lover; for nothing but +truth could ever inspire this lasting and universal interest. But +without diving into these dry disputations, let us take Laura's portrait +from Petrarch himself, drawn, it will be said, by the partial hand of a +poetic lover:--true; but since Laura is interesting to us from the +charms she possessed in his eyes, it were unfair to seek her portraiture +elsewhere. + +Laura was of high birth and station, though her life was spent in +retirement and domestic cares; + + In nobil sangue, vita umile e quete. + +Her father, Audibert de Noves, was of the _haute noblesse_ of Avignon, +and died in her infancy, leaving her a dowry of 1000 gold crowns, (about +10,000 pounds)--a magnificent portion for those times. She was married +at the age of eighteen to Hugh de Sade, a man of rank equal to her own, +and of corresponding age, but not distinguished by any advantages either +of person or mind. The marriage contract is dated in January, 1325, two +years before her first meeting with Petrarch: and in it, her mother, the +Lady Ermessende, and brother John de Noves, stipulate to pay the dower +left by her father; and also to bestow on the bride two magnificent +dresses for state occasions; one of green, embroidered with violets; the +other of crimson, trimmed with feathers. In all the portraits of Laura +now extant, she is represented in one of these two dresses, and they are +frequently alluded to by Petrarch. He tells us expressly, that when he +first met her at matins in the Church of St. Claire, she was habited in +a robe of green, spotted with violets.[25] Mention is also made of a +coronal of silver, with which she wreathed her hair; of her necklaces +and ornaments of pearl. Diamonds are not once alluded to, because the +art of cutting them had not then been invented. From all which, it +appears that Laura was opulent, and moved in the first class of society. +It was customary for the women of rank, in those times, to dress with +extreme simplicity on ordinary occasions, but with the most gorgeous +splendour when they appeared in public. There are some beautiful +descriptions of Laura surrounded by her young female companions, +divested of all her splendid apparel, in a simple white robe and a few +flowers in her hair; but still pre-eminent over all by her superior +loveliness. From the frequent allusions to her dress, and Petrarch's +angry apostrophes to her mirror, because it assisted to heighten charms +already too destructive,[26] we may infer that Laura was not unmindful +of the cares of the toilette. + +She was in person a fair Madonna-like beauty with soft dark eyes, and a +profusion of pale golden hair parted on her brow, and falling in rich +curls over her neck. He dwells on the celestial grace of her figure and +movements, "l' andar celeste." + + Non era l' andar suo cosa mortale + Ma d' angelica forma. + +He describes the beauty of her hand in the 166th sonnet,-- + + O bella man che mi distringi il core. + +And the loveliness of her mouth,-- + + La bella bocca angelica. + +The general character of her beauty must have been pensive, soft, +unobtrusive, and even somewhat languid: + + L' angelica sembianza umile e piana-- + L' atto mansueto, umile e tardo-- + +the last line is exquisitely characteristic. This extreme softness and +repose must have been far removed from insipidity; for he dwells also on +the rare and varying expression of her loveliness, "Leggiadria singolare +e pellegrina;"--the lightning of her smile, "Il lampeggiar dell' +angelico riso;"--and the tender magic of her voice, which was felt in +the inmost heart, "Il cantar che nell' anima si sente." She had a habit +of veiling her eyes with her hand, and her looks were generally bent on +the earth, "o per umiltade o per orgoglio." In the portrait of Laura, +which I saw at the Laurentian Library at Florence, the eyes have this +characteristic downcast look. Her lover complains also of a veil, which +she was fond of wearing. Wandering in the country, one summer's day, he +sees a young peasant-girl washing a veil in the running stream; he +recognises the very texture which had so often intervened between him +and the heaven of Laura's beauty, and he trembles as if he had been in +the presence of Laura herself. This little incident is the subject of +the first Madrigal. + +He describes her dignified humility, "l' umilta superba;"--her beautiful +silence, "il bel tacere;"--her frequent sighs, "i sospir soavemente +rotti;"--her sweet disdain and gentle repulses, "dolci sdegni, placide +repulse;"--the gesture which spoke without the aid of words, "l'atto che +parla con silenzio." The picture, it must be confessed, is most +finished, most delicate, most beautiful;--supposing only half to be +true, it is still beautiful. But far more flattering, and more +honourable to Laura, is her lover's confession of the influence which +her charming character possessed over him; for it is certain that we owe +to Laura's exquisite purity of mind and manners, the polished delicacy +of the homage addressed to her. Passing over, of course, the +circumstance of her being a married woman, and therefore not a proper +object of amorous verse,--there is not in all the poetry she inspired, a +line or sentiment which angels might not hear and approve. Petrarch +represents her as expressing neither surprise nor admiration at the +self-sacrifice of Lucretia, but only wondering that shame and grief had +not anticipated the dagger of the Roman matron. He describes her +conversation, "pien d'intelletti dolci ed alti," and her mind ever +serene, though her countenance was pensive, "in aspetto pensoso, anima +lieta." He tells us that she had raised him above all low-thoughted +cares, and purified his heart from all base desires. "I bless the place, +the time, the hour, when I presumed to lift my eyes upon her,--I say, O +my soul, thankful shouldst thou be that hast been deemed worthy of such +high honour--for from her spring those gentle thoughts which shall lead +thee to aspire to the highest good, and to disdain all that the vulgar +mind desires." + + I' benedico il loco e 'l tempo e l'ora + Che si alti miraron gli occhi mici; + E dico: anima, assai ringraziar dei + Che fosti a tanto onor degnata allora. + + ....*....*....*....* + + Da lei ti vien l' amoroso pensiero + Che, mentre 'l segui all' Sommo ben t'invia + Poco prezzando quel ch' ogni uom desia. + +Every generous feeling, every noble and elevated sentiment, every desire +for improvement, he refers to her, and to her only: + + S' alcun bel frutto + Nasce di me, da voi vien prima il seme. + Io per me son quasi un terreno asciutto + Colto da voi; e 'l pregio e vostro in tutto. + + CANZONE 8. + +He gives us in a single line the very _beau ideal_ of a female +character, when he tells us that Laura united the highest intellect with +the purest heart, "In alto intelletto un puro core." He dwells with +rapture on her angelic modesty, which excited at once his reverence and +his despair; but he confesses that he still hopes something from the +pitying tenderness of her disposition.-- + + Non e si duro cor, che lagrimando, + Pregando, amando, talor non si smova + Ne si freddo voler, che non si scalde. + +The attachment inspired by such a woman was not likely to be lessened by +absence, or removed by death itself; and it is certain that the second +part of the Canzoniere of Petrarch, written after the death of Laura, is +more beautiful than the first part: in a more impassioned style, a +higher tone of feeling, with far fewer faults, both of taste and style. + + * * * * * + +It will be said perhaps that "the picture of such a mind as Petrarch's, +enslaved and distracted by a dreaming passion, employed even in his +declining years, in writing and polishing love verses, is a pitiable +subject of contemplation; that if he had not left us his Canzoniere, he +would probably have performed some other excelling work of genius, which +would have crowned him with equal or superior glory; and that if he had +never been the lover of Laura, he would have been no less that +master-spirit who gave the leading impulse to the age in which he +lived, by consecrating his life, his energies, all his splendid talents, +to the cultivation of philosophy and the fine arts, the extension of +learning and liberty, and the general improvement of mankind." + +I doubt this, and I appeal to Petrarch himself. + +I believe there is no version into English of the 48th Canzone. If Lady +Dacre had executed it--and in the same spirit as the "Chiare, fresche e +dolce acque," and the "Italia mia," the reader had been spared my +abortive prose sketch, which will give as just an idea of the original +as a hasty penciled outline of one of Titian's or Domenichino's +masterpieces would give us of all the magic colouring and effect of +their glorious and half-breathing creations. + +In this Canzone, Petrarch, in a high strain of poetic imagery, which +takes nothing from the truth or pathos of the sentiment, allegorises his +own situation and feelings: he represents himself as citing the Lord of +Love, "Suo empio e dolce Signore," before the throne of Reason, and +accusing him as the cause of all his sufferings, sorrows, errors, and +misspent time. "Through _him_ (Love) I have endured, even from the +moment I was first beguiled into his power, such various and such +exquisite pain, that my patience has at length been exhausted, and I +have abhorred my existence. I have not only forsaken the path of +ambition and useful exertion, but even of pleasure and of happiness: I, +who was born, if I do not deceive myself, for far higher purposes than +to be a mere amorous slave! Through _him_ I have been careless of my +duty to Heaven,--negligent of myself:--for the sake of one woman I +forgot all else!--me miserable! What have availed me all the high and +precious gifts of Heaven, the talents, the genius which raised me above +other men? My hairs are changed to grey, but still my heart changeth +not. Hath he not sent me wandering over the earth in search of repose? +hath he not driven me from city to city, and through forests, and woods, +and wild solitudes?[27] hath he not deprived me of peace, and of that +sleep which no herbs nor chaunted spells have power to restore? Through +him, I have become a bye-word in the world, which I have filled with my +lamentations, till by their repetition I have wearied myself, and +perhaps all others." + +To this long tirade, Love with indignation replies: "Hearest thou the +falsehood of this ungrateful man? This is he who in his youth devoted +himself to the despicable traffic of words and lies, and now he blushes +not to reproach me with having raised him from obscurity, to know the +delights of an honourable and virtuous life. I gave him power to attain +a height of fame and virtue to which of himself he had never dared to +aspire. If he has obtained a name among men, to me he owes it. Let him +remember the great heroes and poets of antiquity, whose evil stars +condemned them to lavish their love upon unworthy objects, whose +mistresses were courtezans and slaves; while for him, I chose from the +whole world one lovely woman, so gifted by Heaven with all female +excellence, that her likeness is not to be found beneath the moon,--one +whose melodious voice and gentle accents had power to banish from his +heart every vain, and dark, and vicious thought. These were the wrongs +of which he complains: such is my reward for all I have done for +him,--ungrateful man! Upon my wings hath he soared upwards, till his +name is placed among the greatest of the sons of song, and fair ladies +and gentle knights listen with delight to his strains:--had it not been +for me, what had he become before now? Perhaps a vain flatterer, seeking +preferment in a Court, confounded among the herd of vulgar men! I have +so chastened, so purified his heart through the heavenly image impressed +upon it, that even in his youth, and in the age of the passions, I +preserved him pure in thought and in action;[28] whatever of good or +great ever stirred within his breast, he derives from her and from me. +From the contemplation of virtue, sweetness, and beauty, in the +gracious countenance of her he loved, I led him upwards to the adoration +of the first Great Cause, the fountain of all that is beautiful and +excellent;--hath he not himself confessed it? And this fair creature, +whom I gave him to be the honour, and delight, and prop of his frail +life"-- + +Here the sense is suddenly broken off in the middle of a line. Petrarch +utters a cry of horror, and exclaims--"Yes, you gave her to me, but you +have also taken her from me!" + +Love replies with sweet austerity--"Not I--but HE--the eternal One--who +hath willed it so!" + +After this, it will be allowed, I think, that it is to Laura we owe +Petrarch; and that if the recompense she bestowed on him was not exactly +that which he sought,--yet in fame, in greatness, in virtue, and in +happiness, she well and richly repaid the adoration he lavished at her +feet, and the glorious wreath of song with which he has circled her +brows! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[22] See Pursuits of Literature. + +[23] In a private letter of Petrarch to the Bishop of Lombes, occurs the +following passage--(the Bishop, it appears, had rallied him on the +subject of his attachment.) "Would to God that my Laura were indeed but +an imaginary person, and my passion for her but sport!--Alas! it is +rather a madness!--hard would it have been, and painful, to feign so +long a time--and what extravagance to play such a farce in the world! +No! we may counterfeit the action and voice of a sick man, but not the +paleness and wasted looks of the sufferer; and how often have you +witnessed both in me!"--SADE, vol. i. p. 281. + +[24] Quoted by Foscolo. + +[25] Canz. xv. Son. 10. + +[26] See Son. 37, 38, &c. + +[27] Foscolo remarks the restless spirit which all his life drove +Petrarch, like a perturbed spirit, from one residence to another. + +[28] Here Petrarch seems to have forgotten himself; he was not _always_ +immaculate. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +LAURA AND PETRARCH CONTINUED. + + +Much power of lively ridicule, much coarse wit,--principally French +wit,--has been expended on the subject of Laura's virtue; by those, I +presume, who under similar circumstances would have found such virtue +"too painful an endeavour."[29] Much depraved ingenuity has been +exerted to twist certain lines and passages in the Canzoniere into a +sense which shall blot with frailty the memory of this beautiful and +far-famed being: once believe these interpretations, and all the +peculiar and graceful charm which now hangs round her intercourse with +Petrarch vanishes,--the reverential delicacy of the poet's homage +becomes a mockery, and all his exalted praises of her unequalled virtue, +and her invincible chastity, are turned to satire, and insult our moral +feeling. + +But the question, I believe, is finally set at rest, and it were idle +to war with epigrams. All the evidence that has been collected, external +and internal, prose and poetry, critical and traditional, tends to +prove, first, that Laura preserved her virtue to the last; and, +secondly, that she did not preserve it unassailed; that Petrarch, true +to his sex,--a very man, (as Laura has been called a _very woman_,) used +at first every art, every effort, every advantage, which his diversified +accomplishments of mind and person lent him, to destroy the very virtue +he adored. He only _hints_ this in his poetry, just sufficiently to +enhance the glory which he has thrown round his divinity; but he speaks +more plainly in prose. + +"Untouched by my prayers, unvanquished by my arguments, unmoved by my +flattery, she remained faithful to her sex's honour; she resisted her +own young heart, and mine, and a thousand, thousand, thousand things, +which must have conquered any other. She remained unshaken. A woman +taught me the duty of a man! to persuade me to keep the path of virtue, +her conduct was at once an example and a reproach; and when she beheld +me break through all bounds, and rush blindly to the precipice, she had +the courage to abandon me, rather than follow me."[30] + +But whether, in this long conflict, Laura preserved her heart untouched, +as well as her virtue immaculate; whether she shared the love she +inspired; or whether she escaped from the captivating assiduities and +intoxicating homage of her lover, "_fancy-free_;"--whether coldness, or +prudence, or pride, or virtue, or the mere heartless love of admiration, +or a mixture of all together, dictated her conduct, is at least as well +worth inquiry, as the exact colour of her eyes, or the form of her nose, +upon which we have pages of grave discussion. She might have been +_coquette par instinct_, if not _par calcul_; she might have felt, with +feminine _tacte_, that to preserve her influence over Petrarch, it was +necessary to preserve his respect. She was evidently proud of her +conquest: she had else been more or less than woman; and at every +hazard, but that of self-respect, she was resolved to retain him. If +Petrarch absented himself for a few days, he was generally better +treated on his return.[31] If he avoided her, then her eye followed him +with a softer expression. When he looked pale from sickness of heart and +agitation of spirits, Laura would address him with a few words of +pitying tenderness. He thanks her in those exquisite lines, which seem +to glow with all the renovation of hope, + + Volgendo gli occhi al mio novo colore + Che fa di morte rimembrar le gente + Pieta vi mosse, onde benignamente + Salutando teneste in vita il core. + + La frale vita ch'ancor meco alberga, + Fu de' begli occhi vostri aperto dono, + E della voce angelica soave![32] + +He presumes upon this benignity, and is again dashed back with frowns. +He flies to solitude,--solitude!--Never let the proud and torn heart, +wrung with the sense of injury, and sick with unrequited passion, seek +that worst resource against pain, for there grief grows by contemplation +of itself, and every feeling is sharpened by collision. Petrarch sought +to "mitigate the fever of his heart" amid the shades of Vaucluse, a spot +so gloomy and so solitary, that his very servants forsook him; and +Vaucluse, its fountains, its forests, and its hanging cliffs, reflected +only the image of Laura. + + L'acque parlan d'amore, e l'aura, e i rami + E gli augeletti, e i pesci e i fiori e l'erba; + Tutti insieme pregando ch' io sempr'ami![33] + +He is driven again to her feet by his own insupportable thoughts--and in +terror of himself;-- + + Tal paura ho di ritrovarmi solo! + +He endeavours to maintain in her presence that self-constraint she had +enjoined. He assumes a cold and calm deportment, and Laura, as she +passes him, whispers in a tone of gentle reproach, "Petrarch! are you so +soon weary of loving me?" (ten or eleven years of adoration were, in +truth, nothing--_to signify_!) At length, he resolved to leave Laura and +Avignon for ever; and instead of plunging into solitude, to seek the +wiser resource of travel and society. He announced this intention to +Laura, and bade her a long farewell; either through surprise, or grief, +or the fear of losing her glorious captive, she turned exceedingly pale, +a cloud overspread her beautiful countenance, and she fixed her eyes on +the ground. This was to her lover an intoxicating moment; in the +exultation of sudden delight, he interpreted these symptoms of +relenting, this "vago impallidir," too favourably to himself. "She bent +those gentle eyes upon the earth, which in their sweet silence said,--to +me at least they seemed to say,--'who takes my faithful friend so far +from me?'" + + Chinava a terra il bel guardo gentile, + E tacendo dicea, com' a me parve-- + "Chi m'allontana il mio fedele amico?" + +On his return to Avignon, a few months afterwards, Laura received him +with evident pleasure; but he is not, therefore, more _avance_; all this +was probably the refined coquetterie of a woman of calm passions; but +not heartless, not really indifferent to the devotion she inspired, nor +ungrateful for it. + +Petrarch has himself left us a most minute and interesting description +of the whole course of Laura's conduct towards him, which by a beautiful +figure of poetry he has placed in her own mouth. The passage occurs in +the TRIONFO DI MORTE, beginning, "La notte che segui l'orribil caso." + +The apparition of Laura descending on the morning dew, bright as the +opening dawn, and crowned with Oriental gems, + + Di gemme orientali incoronata, + +appears before her lover, and addresses him with compassionate +tenderness. After a short dialogue, full of poetic beauty and noble +thoughts,[34] Petrarch conjures her, in the name of heaven and of truth, +to tell him whether the pity she sometimes expressed for him was allied +to love? for that the sweetness she mingled with her disdain and +reserve--the soft looks with which she tempered her anger, had left him +for long years in doubt of her real sentiments, still doating, still +suspecting, still hoping without end: + + Creovvi amor pensier mai nella testa, + D' aver pieta del mio lungo martire + Non lasciando vostr' alta impresa onesta? + + Che vostri dolci sdegni e le dolc' ire-- + Le dolci paci ne' begli occhi scritte-- + Tenner molt' anni in dubbio il mio desire. + +She replies evasively, with a smile and a sigh, that her heart was ever +with him, but that to preserve her own fair fame, and the virtue of +both, it was necessary to assume the guise of severity and disdain. She +describes the arts with which she kept alive his passion, now checking +his presumption with the most frigid reserve, and when she saw him +drooping, as a man ready to die, "all fancy-sick and pale of cheer," +gently restoring him with soft looks and kind words: + + "Salvando la tua vita e'l nostro onore." + +She confesses the delight she felt in being beloved, and the pride she +took in being sung by so great a poet. She reminds him of one particular +occasion, when seated by her side, and they were left alone, he sang to +his lute a song composed to her praise, beginning, "Dir piu non osa il +nostro amore;" and she asks him whether he did not perceive that the +veil had then nearly fallen from her heart?[35] + +She laments, in some exquisite lines, that she had not the happiness to +be born in Italy, the native country of her lover, and yet allows that +the land must needs be fair in which she first won his affection. + + Duolmi ancor veramente, ch'io non nacqui + Almen piu presso al tuo fiorito nido!-- + Ma assai fu bel paeese ov'io ti piacqui. + +In another passage we have a sentiment evidently taken from nature, and +exquisitely graceful and feminine. "You," says Laura, "proclaimed to all +men the passion you felt for me: you called aloud for pity: you kept not +the tender secret for me alone, but took a pride and a pleasure in +publishing it forth to the world; thus constraining me, by all a woman's +fear and modesty, to be silent."--"But not less is the pain because we +conceal it in the depths of the heart, nor the greater because we lament +aloud: fiction and poetry can add nothing to truth, nor yet take from +it." + + Tu eri di merce chiamar gia roco + Quand'io tacea; perche vergogna e tema + Facean molto desir, parer si poco; + Non e minor il duol perch' altri 'l prema, + Ne maggior per andarsi lamentando: + Per fizion non cresce il ver, ne scema. + +Petrarch, then all trembling and in tears, exclaims, "that could he but +believe he had been dear to her eyes as to her heart, he were +sufficiently recompensed for all his sufferings;" and she replies, "that +will I never reveal!" ('_quello mi taccio._') By this coquettish and +characteristic answer, we are still left in the dark. Such was the +sacred respect in which Petrarch held her he so loved, that though he +evidently wishes to believe--perhaps _did_ believe, that he had touched +her heart, he would not presume to insinuate what Laura had never +avowed. The whole scene, though less polished in the versification than +some of his sonnets, is written throughout with all the flow and fervour +of real feeling. It received the poet's last corrections twenty-six +years after Laura's death, and but a few weeks previous to his own. + + * * * * * + +When at Milan, I was taken, as a matter of course, to visit the +Ambrosian library. At the time I was ill in health, dejected and +indifferent; and I only remember being led in passive resignation from +room to room, and called upon to admire a vast variety of objects, at +the moment when I was pining for rest; when to look, think, speak, or +move, was pain,--when to sit motionless and gaze out upon the sunshine, +seemed to me the only supreme blessedness. In such moments as these, we +can have sympathies with nature, but not with old books and antiquities. +I have a most confused recollection both of the locality and the +contents of this famous collection; but there were two objects which +roused me from this sullen stupor, and indelibly impressed my +imagination and my memory; and one of these was the celebrated copy of +Virgil, which had been the favourite companion and constant study of +Petrarch, containing that memorandum of the death of Laura, in his own +handwriting, which, after much expenditure of paper, and argument, and +critical abuse, is at length admitted to be genuine. I knew little of +the controversy this famous inscription had occasioned in Italy,--though +I was aware that its authenticity had been disputed: but as a homely +proverb saith, _seeing is believing_; to look upon the handwriting with +my own eyes, would have made assurance double sure, if in that moment I +needed such assurance. I do not remember reasoning or doubting on the +subject;--but gushing up like the waters of an intermitting fountain, +there was a sudden flow of feeling and memory came over my heart:--I +stood for some moments silently contemplating the name of LAURA, in the +pale, half-effaced characters traced by the hand of her lover; that name +with which his genius and his love have filled the earth: confused +thoughts of the mingling of vanity and glory,--of the "poco polvere che +nulla sente," and the immortality of deified beauty, were crowded in my +mind. When all were gone, I turned back, and gave the guide a small +gratuity to be allowed to do homage to the name of Laura, by pressing my +lips upon it. The reader smiles at this sentimental enthusiasm; so would +I, if time had not taught me to respect, as well as regret, what it has +taken from me, and never can restore. + +The memorandum has often been quoted; but this account of the love of +Petrarch would not be complete were it omitted here. It runs literally +thus:-- + +"Laura, illustrious by her own virtues, and long celebrated by my +verses, I beheld for the first time, in my early youth, on the 6th of +April, 1327, about the first hour of the day, in the church of Saint +Claire in Avignon: and in the same city, in the same month of April, the +same day and hour, in the year 1348, this light of my life was withdrawn +from the world while I was at Verona, ignorant, alas! of what had +befallen me. The terrible intelligence was conveyed in a letter from +Louis, and reached me at Parma the 19th of May, early in the morning. + +"Her chaste and beautiful remains were deposited the same day after +vespers, in the Church of the Fratri Minori (Cordeliers). Her spirit, as +Seneca said of Scipio Africanus,[36] has returned, doubtless, to that +heaven whence it came. + +"To preserve the memory of this afflicting loss, it is with a bitter +pleasure I record it here, in this book which is ever before my eyes, +that nothing in this world may hereafter delight me: and that the chief +tie which bound me to life being broken, I may, by frequently looking on +these words, and thinking on this transitory existence, be prepared to +quit this earthly Babylon, which, with the help of the divine grace, and +the constant and manly recollection of those fruitless desires, and vain +hopes, and sad vicissitudes which have so long agitated me, will be an +easy task." + +Laura died of the plague, which then desolated Avignon, and terminated +the life of the sufferer on the third day. The moment she was seized +with the fatal symptoms, she dictated her will; and notwithstanding the +pestilential nature of her disorder, she was surrounded to the last by +her numerous relations and friends, who braved death rather than forsake +her. + +Her tomb was discovered and opened in 1533, in the presence of Francis +the First, whose celebrated stanzas on the occasion are well known. + +Of the fame, which even in her lifetime, the love and poetical adoration +of Petrarch had thrown round his Laura, a curious instance is given +which will characterise the manners of the age. When Charles of +Luxemburgh (afterwards Emperor) was at Avignon, a grand fete was given, +in his honour, at which all the noblesse were present. He desired that +Petrarch's Laura should be pointed out to him; and when she was +introduced, he made a sign with his hand that the other ladies present +should fall back; then going up to Laura, and for a moment contemplating +her with interest, he kissed her respectfully on the forehead and on the +eyelids. Petrarch alludes to this incident in the 201st sonnet, the last +line of which shows that this royal salutation was considered singular. + + "M'empia d'invidia l'atto dolce e strano." + +Petrarch survived her twenty-six years, dying in 1374. He was found +lifeless one morning in his study, his hand resting on a book. + + * * * * * + +The inferences I draw from this rapid sketch are, first, that Laura was +virtuous, but not insensible;--for had she been facile, she would not +have preserved her lover's respect; had she been a heartless trifler, +she could not have retained his love, nor deserved his undying regrets: +and secondly, that if Petrarch had not attached himself fervently to +this beautiful and pure-hearted woman, he would have employed his +splendid talents like other men of his time. He might then have left us +theological treatises and Latin epics, which the worms would have eaten; +he might have risen high in the church or state; have become a bold, +intriguing priest; a politic archbishop,--a cardinal,--a pope;--most +worthless and empty titles all, compared with that by which he has +descended to us, as Petrarch, the poet and the lover of Laura![37] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[29] Madame Deshoulieres speaks "avec connaissance de fait," and even +points out the very spot in which Laura, "de l'amoureux Petrarque +adoucit le martyre."--Another French lady, who piqued herself on being a +descendant of the family of Laura, was extremely affronted and +scandalised when the Chevalier Ramsay asserted that Petrarch's passion +was purely poetical and platonic, and regarded it heresy to suppose that +Laura could have been "_ungrateful_,"--such was her idea of feminine +_gratitude_!--(Spence's Anecdotes.) Then comes another French woman, +with the most anti-poetical soul that God ever placed within the form of +a woman--"Le fade personage que votre Petrarque! que sa Laure etait +sotte et precieuse! que la Cour d'Amour etait fastidieuse!" &c. exclaims +the acute, amusing, profligate, heartless Madame du Deffand. It must be +allowed that Petrarch and Laura would have been extremely _desplaces_ in +the Court of the Regent,--the only _Court of Love_ with which Madame du +Deffand was acquainted, and which assuredly was not _fastidieuse_. + +[30] From the Dialogues with St. Augustin, as quoted in the "Pieces +Justificatives," and by Ginguene (Hist. Litt. vol. iii. notes.) These +imaginary dialogues are a series of Confessions not intended for +publication by Petrarch, but now printed with his prose works. + +[31] Sonnet 39. + +[32] Ballata 5. + +[33] Petrarch withdrew to Vaucluse in 1337, and spent three years in +entire solitude. He commenced his journey to Rome in 1341, about +fourteen years after his first interview with Laura. + +[34] Petrarch asks her whether it was "pain to die?" she replies in +those fine lines which have been quoted a thousand times: + + La Morte e fin d' una prigion oscura + Agli animi gentili; agli altri e noia, + Ch' hanno posto nel fango ogni lor cura. + +[35] + Ma non si ruppe almen ogni vel quando + Sola i tuoi detti, te presente accolsi + "_Dir piu non osa il nostro amor_," cantando. + +(The song here alluded to is not preserved in Petrarch's works, and the +expression "_il nostro amore_," is very remarkable.) + +[36] This sounds at first pedantic; but it must be remembered that at +this very time Petrarch was studying Seneca, and writing a Latin poem on +the history of Scipio: thus the ideas were fresh in his mind. + +[37] The hypothesis I have assumed relative to Laura's character, her +married state, and the authenticity of the MS. note in the Virgil, have +not been lightly adopted, but from deep conviction and patient +examination: but this is not the place to set arguments and authorities +in array--Ginguene and Gibbon against Lord Byron and Fraser Tytler. I am +surprised at the ground Lord Byron has taken on the question. As for his +characteristic sneer on the assertion of M. de Bastie, who had said +truly and beautifully--"qu'il n'y a que la vertu seule qui soit capable +de faire des impressions que la mort n'efface pas," I disdain, in my +feminine character, to reply to it; I will therefore borrow the +eloquence of a more powerful pen:--"The love of a man like Petrarch, +would have been less in character, if it had been less ideal. For the +purposes of inspiration, a single interview was quite sufficient. The +smile which sank into his heart the first time he ever beheld Laura, +played round her lips ever after: the look with which her eyes first met +his, never passed away. The image of his mistress still haunted his +mind, and was recalled by every object in nature. Even death could not +dissolve the fine illusion; for that which exists in the imagination is +alone imperishable. As our feelings become more ideal, the impression of +the moment indeed becomes less violent; but the effect is more general +and permanent. The blow is felt only by reflection; it is the rebound +that is fatal. We are not here standing up for this kind of Platonic +attachment, but only endeavouring to explain the way in which the +passions very commonly operate in minds accustomed to draw their +strongest interests from constant contemplation."--_Edinburgh Review._ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ON THE LOVE OF DANTE FOR BEATRICE PORTINARI. + + +Had I taken chronology into due consideration, Dante ought to have +preceded Petrarch, having been born some forty years before him,--but I +forgot it. "Truth," says Wordsworth, "has her pleasure-grounds, + + Her haunts of ease + And easy contemplation;--gay parterres + And labyrinthine walks; her sunny glades + And shady groves for recreation framed." + +And such a haunted pleasure-ground of beautiful recollections, would I +wish my subject to be to myself and to my readers; where we shall be +priviledged to wander at will; to pause or turn back; to deviate to +this side or to that, as memory may prompt, or imagination lead, or +illustration require. + +Dante and his Beatrice are best exhibited in contrast to Petrarch and +Laura. Petrarch was in his youth an amiable and accomplished courtier, +whose ambition was to cultivate the arts, and please the fair. Dante +early plunged into the factions which distracted his native city, was of +a stern commanding temper, mingling study with action. Petrarch loved +with all the vivacity of his temper; he took a pleasure in publishing, +in exaggerating, in embellishing his passion in the eyes of the world. +Dante, capable of strong and enthusiastic tenderness, and early +concentrating all the affections of his heart on one object, sought no +sympathy; and solemnly tells us of himself,--in contradistinction to +those poets of his time who wrote of love from fashion or fancy, not +from feeling,--that he wrote as love inspired, and as his heart +dictated. + + "Io mi son un che, quando + Amore spira, noto, ed in quel modo + Ch'ei detta dentro, vo significando." + + PURGATORIO, c. 24. + +A coquette would have triumphed in such a captive as Petrarch; and in +truth, Laura seems to have "sounded him from the top to the bottom of +his compass:"--a tender and impassioned woman would repose on such a +heart as Dante's, even as his Beatrice did. Petrarch had a gay and +captivating exterior; his complexion was fair, with sparkling blue eyes +and a ready smile. He is very amusing on the subject of his own +coxcombry, and tells us how cautiously he used to turn the corner of a +street, lest the wind should disorder the elaborate curls of his fine +hair! Dante, too, was in his youth eminently handsome, but in a style of +beauty which was characteristic of his mind: his eyes, were large and +intensely black, his nose aquiline, his complexion of a dark olive, his +hair and beard very much curled, his step slow and measured, and the +habitual expression of his countenance grave, with a tinge of melancholy +abstraction. When Petrarch walked along the streets of Avignon, the +women smiled, and said, "there goes the lover of Laura!" The impression +which Dante left on those who beheld him, was far different. In allusion +to his own personal appearance, he used to relate an incident that once +occurred to him. When years of persecution and exile had added to the +natural sternness of his countenance, the deep lines left by grief, and +the brooding spirit of vengeance, he happened to be at Verona, where +since the publication of the Inferno, he was well known. Passing one day +by a portico, where several women were seated, one of them whispered, +with a look of awe,--"Do you see that man? that is he who goes down to +hell whenever he pleases, and brings us back tidings of the sinners +below!" "Ay, indeed!" replied her companion,--"very likely; see how his +face is scarred with fire and brimstone, and blackened with smoke, and +how his hair and beard have been singed and curled in the flames!" + +Dante had not, however, this forbidding appearance when he won the young +heart of Beatrice Portinari. They first met at a banquet given by her +father, Folco de' Portinari, when Dante was only nine years old, and +Beatrice a year younger. His childish attachment, as he tells us +himself, commenced from that hour; it became a passion, which increased +with his years, and did not perish even with its object. + +Beatrice has not fared better at the hands of commentators than Laura. +Laura, with her golden hair scattered to the winds, "i capei d'oro al +aura sporsi," her soft smiles, and her angel-like deportment, was to be +Repentance; and the more majestic Beatrice, in whose eyes dwelt love, + + E spiriti d'amore infiammati, + +was sublimated into _Theology_: with how much reason we shall examine. + +In one of his canzoni, called il Ritratto, (the Portrait) Dante has left +us a most minute and finished picture of his Beatrice, "which," says Mr. +Carey, "might well supply a painter with a far more exalted idea of +female beauty, than he could form to himself from the celebrated Ode of +Anacreon, on a similar subject." From this canzone and some lines +scattered through his sonnets, I shall sketch the person and character +of Beatrice. She was not in form like the slender, fragile-looking +Laura, but on a larger scale of loveliness, tall and of a commanding +figure;[38]--graceful in her gait as a peacock, upright as a crane, + + Soava a guisa va di un bel pavone, + Diritta sopra se, come una grua. + +Her hair was fair and curling, + + "Capegli crespi e biondi," + +but not _golden_,--an epithet I do not find once applied to it: she had +an ample forehead, "spaciosa fronte," a mouth that when it smiled +surpassed all things in sweetness; so that her Poet would give the +universe to hear it pronounce a kind "yes." + + Mira che quando ride + Passa ben di dolcezza ogni altra cosa. + Cosi di quella bocca il pensier mio + Mi sprona, perche io + Non ho nel mondo cosa che non desse + A tal ch'un si, con buon voler dicesse. + +Her neck was white and slender, springing gracefully from the bust-- + + Poi guarda la sua svelta e bianca gola + Commessa ben dalle spalle e dal petto. + +A small, round, dimpled chin, + + Mento tondo, fesso e piccioletto: + +and thereupon the Poet breaks out into a rapture, any thing but +theological, + + Il bel diletto + Aver quel collo fra le braccia stretto + E far in quella gola un picciol segno! + +Her arms were beautiful and round; her hand soft, white, and polished; + + La bianca mano morbida e pulita: + +her fingers slender, and decorated with jewelled rings as became her +birth; fair she was as a pearl; + + Con un color angelica di perla: + +graceful and lovely to look upon, but disdainful where it was becoming: + + Graziosa a vederla, + E disdegnosa dove si conviene. + +And as a corollary to these traits, I will quote the eleventh Sonnet as +a more general picture of female loveliness, heightened by some tender +touches of mental and moral beauty, such as never seem to have occurred +to the debased imaginations of the classic poets: + + Negli occhi porta la mia Donna Amore; + Perche si fa gentil ciocch' ella mira: + Ov' ella passa, ogni uom ver lei si gira; + E cui saluta, fa tremar lo core, + Sicche bassando 'l viso tutto smuore, + Ed ogni suo difetto allor sospira; + Fugge dinanzi a lei superbia ed ira. + Ajutatemi, donne, a farle onore! + Ogni dolcezza, ogni pensiero umile + Nasce nel core a chi parlar la sente; + Onde e laudato chi prima la vide. + Quel ch' ella par, quando un poco sorride + No si puo dicer, ne tenera mente; + Si e nuovo miracolo e gentile. + + +TRANSLATION. + + "Love is throned in the eyes of my Beatrice! they ennoble + every thing she looks upon! As she passes, men turn and + gaze; and whomsoever she salutes, his heart trembles within + him; he bows his head, the colour forsakes his cheek, and he + sighs for his own unworthiness. Pride and anger fly before + her! Assist me, ladies, to do her honour! All sweet thoughts + of humble love and good-will spring in the hearts of those + who hear her speak, so that it is a blessedness first to + behold her, and when she faintly and softly smiles--ah! then + it passes all fancy, all expression, so wondrous is the + miracle, and so gracious!" + +The love of Dante for his Beatrice partook of the purity, tenderness, +and elevated character of her who inspired it, and was also stamped with +that stern and melancholy abstraction, that disposition to mysticism, +which were such strong features in the character of her lover. He does +not break out into fond and effeminate complaints, he does not sigh to +the winds, nor swell the fountain with his tears; his love does not, +like Petrarch's, alternately freeze and burn him, nor is it "un dolce +amaro," "a bitter sweet," with which his fancy can sport in good set +terms. No; it shakes his whole being like an earthquake; it beats in +every pulse and artery; it has dwelt in his heart till it has become a +part of his life, or rather his life itself.[39] Though we are not told +so expressly, it is impossible to doubt, on a consideration of all those +passages and poems which relate to Beatrice, that his love was approved +and returned, and that his character was understood and appreciated by a +woman too generous, too noble-minded, to make him the sport of her +vanity. He complains, indeed, _poetically_, of her disdain, for which he +excuses himself in another poem: "We know that the heavens shine on in +eternal serenity, and that it is only our imperfect vision, and the +rising vapours of the earth, that make the ever-beaming stars appear +clouded at times to our eye." He expresses no fear of a rival in her +affections; but the native jealousy as well as delicacy of his temper +appears in those passages in which he addresses the eulogium of Beatrice +to the Florentine ladies and her young companions.[40] Those of his own +sex, as he assures us, were not worthy to listen to her praises; or must +perforce have become enamoured of this picture of female excellence, the +fear of which made a coward of him-- + + Ma trattero del suo stato gentile + Donne e donzelle amorose, con vui; + Che non e cosa da parlarne altrui. + +Among the young companions of Beatrice, Dante particularly distinguishes +one, who appears to have been her chosen friend, and who, on account of +her singular and blooming beauty, was called, at Florence, Primavera, +(the Spring.) Her real name was Giovanna. Dante frequently names them +together, and in particular in that exquisitely fanciful sonnet to his +friend Guido Cavalcanti; where he addresses them by those familiar and +endearing diminutives, so peculiarly Italian-- + + E Monna Vanna e Monna Bice poi.[41] + +It appears from the 7th and 8th Sonnets of the Vita Nuova, that in the +early part of their intercourse, Beatrice, indulging her girlish +vivacity, smiled to see her lover utterly discountenanced in her +presence, and pointed out her triumph to her companions. This offence +seems to have deeply affected the proud, susceptible mind of Dante: it +was under the influence of some such morose feeling, probably on this +very occasion, that his dark passions burst forth in the bitter lines +beginning, + + Io maledico il di ch' io vidi imprima + La luce de' vostri occhi traditori. + +"I curse the day in which I first beheld the splendour of those traitor +eyes," &c. This angry sonnet forms a fine characteristic contrast with +that eloquent and impassioned effusion of Petrarch, in which he +multiplies blessings on the day, the hour, the minute, the season, and +the spot, in which he first beheld Laura-- + + Benedetto sia l' giorno, e 'l mese, e l' anno, &c. + +This fit of indignation was, however, short-lived. Every tender emotion +of Dante's feeling heart seems to have been called forth when Beatrice +lost her excellent father. Folco Portinari died in 1289; and the +description we have of the inconsolable grief of Beatrice and the +sympathy of her young companions,--so poetically, so delicately touched +by her lover,--impress us with a high idea both of her filial tenderness +and the general amiability of her disposition, which rendered her thus +beloved. In the 12th and 13th Sonnets, we have, perhaps, one of the most +beautiful groups ever presented in poetry. Dante meets a company of +young Florentine ladies, who were returning from paying Beatrice a visit +of condolence on the death of her father. Their altered and dejected +looks, their downcast eyes, and cheeks "colourless as marble," make his +heart tremble within him; he asks after Beatrice--"_our_ gentle lady," +as he tenderly expresses it: the young girls raise their downcast eyes, +and regard him with surprise. "Art thou he," they exclaim, "who hast so +often sung to us the praises of our Beatrice? the voice, indeed, is his; +but, oh! how changed the aspect! Thou weepest!--why shouldest _thou_ +weep?--thou hast not seen _her_ tears;--leave _us_ to weep and return to +our home, refusing comfort; for we, indeed, have heard her speak, and +seen her dissolved in grief; so changed is her lovely face by sorrow, +that to look upon her is enough to make one die at her feet for +pity."[42] + +It should seem that the extreme affliction of Beatrice for the loss of +her father, acting on a delicate constitution, hastened her own end, for +she died within a few months afterwards, in her 24th year. In the "Vita +Nuova" there is a fragment of a canzone, which breaks off at the end of +the first strophe; and annexed to it is the following affecting note, +originally in the handwriting of Dante. + +"I was engaged in the composition of this Canzone, and had completed +only the above stanza, when it pleased the God of justice to call unto +himself this gentlest of human beings; that she might be glorified +under the auspices of that blessed Queen, the Virgin Maria, whose name +was ever held in especial reverence by my sainted Beatrice." + +Boccaccio, who knew Dante personally, tells us, that on the death of +Beatrice, he was so changed by affliction that his best friends could +scarcely recognise him. He scarcely eat or slept; he would not speak; he +neglected his person, until he became "una cosa selvatica a vedere," _a +savage thing to the eye_: to borrow his own strong expression, he seems +to have been "grief-stung to madness." To the first Canzone, written +after the death of Beatrice, Dante has prefixed a note, in which he +tells us, that after he had long wept in silence the loss of her he +loved, he thought to give utterance to his sorrow in words; and to +compose a Canzone, in which he should write, (weeping as he wrote,) of +the virtues of her who through much anguish had bowed his soul to the +earth. "Then," he says, "I thus began:--gli occhi dolenti,"--which are +the first words of this Canzone. It is addressed, like the others, to +her female companions, whom alone he thought worthy to listen to her +praises, and whose gentle hearts could alone sympathise in his grief. + + Non vo parlare altrui + Se non a cor gentil, che 'n donna sia! + +One stanza of this Canzone is unequalled, I think, for a simplicity at +once tender and sublime. The sentiment, or rather the meaning, in homely +English phrase, would run thus:-- + +"Ascended is our Beatrice to the highest Heaven, to those realms where +angels dwell in peace; and you, her fair companions, and Love and me, +she has left, alas! behind. It was not the frost of winter that chilled +her, nor was it the heat of summer that withered her; it was the power +of her virtue, her humility, and her truth, that ascending into Heaven +moved the ETERNAL FATHER to call her to himself, seeing that this +miserable life was not worthy of any thing so fair, so excellent!" + +On the anniversary of the death of Beatrice, Dante tells us that he was +sitting alone, thinking upon her, and tracing, as he meditated, the +figure of an angel on his tablets.[43] Can any one doubt that this +little incident, so natural and so affecting,--his thinking on his lost +Beatrice, and by association sketching the figure of an angel, while his +mind dwelt upon her removal to a brighter and better world,--must have +been real? It gave rise to the 18th Sonnet of the Vita Nuova, which he +calls "Il doloroso annovale," (the mournful anniversary.) + +Another little circumstance, not less affecting, he has beautifully +commemorated in two Sonnets which follow the one last mentioned. They +are addressed to some kind and gentle creature, who from a window beheld +Dante abandon himself, with fearful vehemence, to the agony of his +feelings, when he believed no human eye was on him. "She turned pale," +he says, "with compassion; her eyes filled with tears, as if she had +loved me: then did I remember my noble-hearted Beatrice, for even thus +she often looked upon me," &c. And he confesses that the grateful, yet +mournful pleasure with which he met the pitying look of this fair being, +excited remorse in his heart, that he should be able to derive pleasure +from anything. + +Dante concludes the collection of his _Rime_, (his miscellaneous poems +on the subject of his early love) with this remarkable note:-- + +"I beheld a marvellous vision, which has caused me to cease from writing +in praise of my blessed Beatrice, until I can celebrate her more +worthily; which that I may do, I devote my whole soul to study, as _she_ +knoweth well; in so much, that if it please the Great Disposer of all +things to prolong my life for a few years upon this earth, I hope +hereafter to sing of my Beatrice what never yet was said or sung of +woman.'" + +And in this transport of enthusiasm, Dante conceived the idea of his +great poem, of which Beatrice was destined to be the heroine. It was to +no Muse, called by fancy from her fabled heights, and feigned at the +poet's will; it was not to ambition of fame, nor literary leisure +seeking a vent for overflowing thoughts; nor to the wish to aggrandise +himself, or to flatter the pride of a patron;--but to the inspiration of +a young, beautiful, and noble-minded woman, we owe one of the grandest +efforts of human genius. And never did it enter into the imagination of +any lover, before or since, to raise so mighty, so vast, so enduring, so +glorious a monument to the worth and charms of a mistress. Other poets +were satisfied if they conferred on the object of their love an +immortality on earth: Dante was not content till he had placed _his_ on +a throne in the Empyreum, above choirs of angels, in presence of the +very fountain of glory; her brow wreathed with eternal beams, and +clothed with the ineffable splendours of beatitude;--an apotheosis, +compared to which, all others are earthly and poor indeed. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[38] "Membra formosi et grandi." + +[39] It borrows even the solemn language of Sacred Writ to express its +intensity: + + Nelle man vostre, o dolce donna mia! + Raccomando lo spirito che muore. + + SON. 34. + +[40] I refer particularly to that sublime Canzone addressed to the +ladies of Florence, and beginning + + "Donne ch' avete intelletto d' amore." + +[41] Monna Vanna, for _Madonna Giovanna_; and Monna Bice, _Madonna +Beatrice_. + +This famous sonnet has been translated by Hayley and by Shelley. I +subjoin the version of the latter, as truer to the spirit of the +original. + +THE WISH.--TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI. + + Guido! I would that Lapo, thou, and I, + Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend + A magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly + With winds at will, where'er our thoughts might wend: + And that no change, nor any evil chance + Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be + That even satiety should still enhance + Between our hearts their strict community, + And that the bounteous wizard there would place + Vanna and Bice, and thy gentle love, + Companions of our wanderings, and would grace + With passionate talk, wherever we might rove + Our time!--and each were as content and free + As I believe that thou and I should be! + +[42] Sonnetto 13 (Poesie della Vita Nuova.) + +[43] Vita Nuova, p. 268. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +DANTE AND BEATRICE CONTINUED. + + +Through the two first parts of the Divina Commedia, (Hell and +Purgatory,) Beatrice is merely announced to the reader--she does not +appear in person; for what should the sinless and sanctified spirit of +Beatrice do in those abodes of eternal anguish and expiatory torment? +Her appearance, however, in due time and place, is prepared and shadowed +forth in many beautiful allusions: for instance, it is she, who +descending from the empyreal height, sends Virgil to be the deliverer of +Dante in the mysterious forest, and his guide through the abysses of +torment. + + Io son Beatrice che ti faccio andare; + Vegno di loco ove tornar disio: + Amor mi mosse che mi fa parlare. + + INFERNO, c. 2. + + "I who now bid thee on this errand forth + Am Beatrice; from a place I come + Revisited with joy; love brought me thence, + Who prompts my speech." + + CAREY'S TRANS. + +And she is _indicated_, as it were, several times in the course of the +poem, in a manner which prepares us for the sublimity with which she is +at length introduced, in all the majesty of a superior nature, all the +dreamy splendour of an ideal presence, and all the melancholy charm of a +beloved and lamented reality. When Dante has left the confines of +Purgatory, a wondrous chariot approaches from afar, surrounded by a +flight of angelic beings, and veiled in a cloud of flowers ("un nuvola +di fiori," is the beautiful expression.)--A female form is at length +apparent in the midst of this angelic pomp, seated in the car, and +"robed in hues of living flame:" she is veiled: he cannot discern her +features, but there moves a hidden virtue from her, + + At whose touch + The power of ancient love was strong within him. + +He recognises the influence which even in his childish days had smote +him-- + + Che gia m'avea trafitto + Prima ch' io fuor della puerizia fosse; + +and his failing heart and quivering frame confess the thrilling presence +of his Beatrice-- + + Conosco i segni dell'antica fiamma! + +The whole passage is as beautifully wrought as it is feelingly and truly +conceived. + +Beatrice,--no longer the soft, frail, and feminine being he had known +and loved upon earth, but an admonishing spirit,--rises up in her +chariot, + + And with a mien + Of that stern majesty which doth surround + A mother's presence to her awe-struck child, + She looked--a flavour of such bitterness + Was mingled with her pity! + + CAREY'S TRANS. + +Dante then puts into her mouth the most severe yet eloquent accusation +against himself: while he stands weeping by, bowed down by shame and +anguish. She accuses him before the listening angels for his neglected +time, his wasted talents, his forgetfulness of her, when she was no +longer upon earth to lead him with the light of her "youthful eyes," +(gli occhi giovinetti.) + + Soon as I had changed + My mortal for immortal, then he left me, + And gave himself to others; when from flesh + To spirit I had risen, and increase + Of beauty and of virtue circled me, + I was less dear to him and valued less! + + PURGATORY, C. 30.--CAREY'S TRANS. + +This praise of herself and stern upbraiding of her lover, would sound +harsh from woman's lips, but have a solemnity, and even a sublimity, as +uttered by a disembodied and angelic being. When Dante, weeping, falters +out a faint excuse-- + + Thy fair looks withdrawn, + Things present with deceitful pleasures turned + My steps aside,-- + +she answers by reproaching him with his inconstancy to her memory:-- + + Never didst thou spy + In art or nature aught so passing sweet + As were the limbs that in their beauteous frame + Enclosed me, and are scattered now in dust. + If sweetest thing thus failed thee with my death, + What afterward of mortal should thy wish + Have tempted? + + PURGATORY, c. 31. + +And she rebukes him, for that he could stoop from the memory of her love +to be the thrall of a _slight girl_. This last expression is supposed to +allude either to Dante's unfortunate marriage with Gemma Donati,[44] or +to the attachment he formed during his exile for a beautiful Lucchese +named Gentucca, the subject of several of his poems. But, +notwithstanding all this severity of censure, Dante, gazing on his +divine monitress, is so rapt by her loveliness, his eyes so eager to +recompence themselves for "their ten years' thirst," (Beatrice had been +dead ten years) that not being yet freed from the stain of his earthly +nature, he is warned not to gaze "too fixedly" on her charms. After a +farther probation, Beatrice introduces him into the various spheres +which compose the celestial paradise; and thenceforward she certainly +assumes the characteristics of an allegorical being. The true +distinction seems this, that Dante has not represented Divine Wisdom +under the name and form of Beatrice, but the more to exalt his Beatrice, +he has clothed her in the attributes of Divine Wisdom. + +She at length ascends with him into the Heaven of Heavens, to the source +of eternal and uncreated light, without shadow and without bound; and +when Dante looks round for her, he finds she has quitted his side, and +has taken her place throned among the supremely blessed, "as far above +him as the region of thunder is above the centre of the sea:" he gazes +up at her in a rapture of love and devotion, and in a sublime apostrophe +invokes her still to continue her favour towards him. She looks down +upon him from her effulgent height, smiles on him with celestial +sweetness, and then fixing her eyes on the eternal fountain of glory, is +absorbed in ecstasy. Here we leave her: the poet had touched the limits +of permitted thought; the seraph wings of imagination, borne upwards by +the inspiration of deep love, could no higher soar,--the audacity of +genius could dare no farther! + + * * * * * + +Dante died at Ravenna in 1321, and was sumptuously interred at the cost +of Guido da Polenta, the father of that unfortunate Francesca di Rimini, +whose story he has so exquisitely told in the fifth canto of the +Inferno. He left several sons and an only daughter, whom he had named +Beatrice, in remembrance of his early love: she became a nun at Ravenna. + +Now where, in the name of all truth and all feeling, were the heads, or +rather the hearts, of those commentators, who could see nothing in the +Beatrice thus beautifully pourtrayed, thus tenderly lamented, and thus +sublimely commemorated, but a mere allegorical personage, the creation +of a poet's fancy? Nothing can come of nothing; and it was no unreal or +imaginary being who turned the course of Dante's ardent passions and +active spirit, and burning enthusiasm, into one sweeping torrent of love +and poetry, and gave to Italy and to the world the Divina Commedia! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] This marriage was one of policy, and negociated by the friends of +Dante and of Gemma Donati: her temper was violent and harsh, and their +domestic peace was, probably, not increased by Dante's obstinate regret +for his first love. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +CHAUCER AND PHILIPPA PICARD. + + +After Italy, England,--who has ever trod in her footsteps, and at length +outstript her in the race of intellect,--was the next to produce a great +and prevailing genius in poetry, a master-spirit, whom no change of +customs, manners, or language, can render wholly obsolete; and who was +destined, like the rest of his tribe, to bow before the influence of +woman, to toil in her praise, and soar by her inspiration. + +Seven years after the death of Dante, Chaucer was born, and he was +twenty-four years younger than Petrarch, whom he met at Padua in 1373; +this meeting between the two great poets was memorable in itself, and +yet more interesting for having first introduced into the English +language that beautiful monument to the virtue of women,--the story of +Griselda. + +Boccaccio had lately sent to his friend the MS. of the Decamerone, of +which it is the concluding tale: the tender fancy of Petrarch, refined +by a forty years' attachment to a gentle and elegant female, passed over +what was vicious and blameable, or only recommended by the wit and the +style, and fixed with delight on the tale of Griselda; so beautiful in +itself, and so honourable to the sex whom he had poetically deified in +the person of one lovely woman. He amused his leisure hours in +translating it into Latin, and having finished his version, he placed it +in the hands of a citizen of Padua, and desired him to read it aloud. +His friend accordingly began; but as he proceeded, the overpowering +pathos of the story so affected him, that he was obliged to stop; he +began again, but was unable to proceed; the gathering tears blinded +him, and choked his voice, and he threw down the manuscript. This +incident, which Petrarch himself relates in a letter to Boccaccio, +occurred about the period when Chaucer passed from Genoa to Padua to +visit the poet and lover of Laura-- + + Quel grande, alla cui fama angusto e il mondo. + +Petrarch must have regarded the English poet with that wondering, +enthusiastic admiration with which we should now hail a Milton or a +Shakspeare sprung from Otaheite or Nova Zembla; and his heart and soul +being naturally occupied by his latest work, he repeated the experiment +he had before tried on his Paduan friend. The impression which the +Griselda produced upon the vivid, susceptible imagination of Chaucer, +may be judged from his own beautiful version of it in the Canterbury +Tales; where the barbarity and improbability of the incidents are so +redeemed by the pervading truth and purity and tenderness of the +sentiment, that I suppose it never was perused for the first time +without tears. Chaucer, as if proud of his interview with Petrarch, and +anxious to publish it, is careful to tell us that he did not derive the +story from Boccaccio, but that it was + + Learned at Padua of a worthy clerk, + As proved by his wordes and his work; + Francis Petrark, the Laureat Poete; + +which is also proved by internal evidence. + +Chaucer so far resembled Petrarch, that, like him, he was at once poet, +scholar, courtier, statesman, philosopher, and man of the world; but +considered merely as poets, they were the very antipodes of each other. +The genius of Dante has been compared to a Gothic cathedral, vast and +lofty, and dark and irregular. In the same spirit, Petrarch may be +likened to a classical and elegant Greek temple, rising aloft in its +fair and faultless proportions, and compacted of the purest Parian +marble; while Chaucer is like the far-spreading and picturesque palace +of the Alhambra, with its hundred chambers, all variously decorated, +and rich with barbaric pomp and gold: he is famed rather as the animated +painter of character, and manners, and external nature, than the poet of +love and sentiment; and yet no writer, Shakspeare always excepted, (and +perhaps Spenser) contains so many beautiful and tender passages relating +to, or inspired by, women. He lived, it is true, in rude times, times +strangely deficient in good taste and decorum; but when all the +institutions of chivalry, under the most chivalrous of our kings and +princes,[45] were at their height in England. As a poet, Chaucer was +enlisted into the service of three of the most illustrious, most +beautiful, and most accomplished women of that age--Philippa, the +high-hearted and generous Queen of Edward the Third; the Lady Blanche of +Lancaster, first wife of John of Gaunt; and the lovely Anne of Bohemia, +the Queen of Richard the Second;[46] for whom, and at whose command, he +wrote his "Legende of Gode Women," as some amends for the scandal he had +spoken of us in other places. The Countess of Essex, the Countess of +Pembroke, and that beautiful Lady Salisbury, the ancestress of the +Montagu family, whose famous mischance gave rise to the Order of the +Garter, were also among Chaucer's patronesses. But the most +distinguished of all, and the favourite subject of his poetry, was the +Duchess Blanche. The manner in which he has contrived to celebrate his +own loves and individual feelings with those of Blanche and her royal +suitor, has given additional interest to both, and has enabled his +commentators to fix with tolerable certainty the name and rank of the +object of his love, as well as the date and circumstances of his +attachment. + +In the earliest of Chaucer's poems, "The COURT OF LOVE," he describes +himself as enamoured of a fair mistress, whom in the style of the time, +he calls Rosial, and himself Philogenet: the lady is described as +"sprung of noble race and high," with "angel visage," "golden hair," and +eyes orient and bright, with figure "sharply slender," + + So that from the head unto the foot all is sweet womanhead, + +and arrayed in a vest of green, with her tresses braided with silk and +gold. She treats him at first with disdain, and the Poet swoons away at +her feet: satisfied by this convincing proof of his sincerity, she is +induced to accept his homage, and becomes his "liege ladye," and the +sovereign of his thoughts. In this poem, which is extremely wild, and +has come down to us in an imperfect state, Chaucer quaintly admonishes +all lovers, that an absolute faith in the perfection of their +mistresses, and obedience to her slightest caprice, are among the first +of duties; that they must in all cases believe their ladye faultless; +that, + + In every thing she doth but as she should. + Construe the best, believe no tales new, + For many a lie is told that seem'th full true; + But think that she, so bounteous and so fair, + Could not be false; imagine this alway. + + ....*....*....*....* + + And tho' thou seest a fault right at thine eye, + Excuse it quick, and glose it prettily.[47] + +Nor are they to presume on their own worthiness, nor to imagine it +possible they can earn + + By right, her mercie, nor of equity, + But of her grace and womanly pitye.[47] + +There is, however, no authority for supposing that at the time this poem +was written, Chaucer really aspired to the hand of any lady of superior +birth, or was very seriously in love; he was then about nineteen, and +had probably selected some fair one, according to the custom of his age, +to be his "fancy's queen," and in the same spirit of poetical +gallantry, he writes to do her honour; he says himself, + + My intent and all my busie care + Is for to write this treatise as I can, + Unto my ladye, stable, true, and sure; + Faithful and kind sith firste that she began + Me to accept in service as her man; + To her be all the pleasures of this book, + That, when her like, she may it rede and look.[48] + +Mixed up with all this gallantry and refinement are some passages +inconceivably absurd and gross; but such were those times,--at once rude +and magnificent--an odd mixture of cloth of frieze and cloth of gold! + +The "Parliament of Birds," entitled in many editions, the "_Assembly of +Fowls_," celebrates allegorically the courtship of John of Gaunt and +Blanche of Lancaster. + +Blanche, as the greatest heiress of England, with a duchy for her +portion, could not fail to be surrounded by pretenders to her hand; but, +after a year of probation, she decided in favour of John of Gaunt, who +thus became Duke of Lancaster in right of his bride. This youthful and +princely pair were then about nineteen. + +The "Parliament of Birds" being written in 1358, when Blanche had +postponed her choice for a year, has fixed the date of Chaucer's +attachment to the lady he afterwards married; for, here he describes +himself as one who had not yet felt the full power of love-- + + For albeit that I know not love indeed, + Ne wot how that he quitteth folks their hire, + Yet happeth me full oft in books to read + Of his miracles.---- + +But the time was come when the poet, now in his thirty-second year, was +destined to feel, that a strong attachment for a deserving object--for +one who will not be obtained unsought, "was no sport," as he expresses +it, but + + Smart and sorrow, and great heavinesse. + +During the period of trial which Lady Blanche had inflicted on her +lover, it was Chaucer's fate to fall in love in sad earnest.--The object +of this passion, too beautifully and unaffectedly described not to be +genuine, was Philippa Picard de Rouet, the daughter of a knight of +Hainault, and a favourite attendant of Queen Philippa. Her elder sister +Catherine, was at the same time maid of honour to the Duchess Blanche. +Both these sisters were distinguished at Court for their beauty and +accomplishments, and were the friends and companions of the Princesses +they served: and both are singularly interesting from their connection, +political and poetical, with English history and literature. + +Philippa Picard is one of the principal personages in the poem entitled +"Chaucer's Dream," which is a kind of epithalamium celebrating the +marriage of John of Gaunt with the Lady Blanche, which took place at +Reading, May 19, 1359. It is a wild, fanciful vision of fairy-land and +enchantments, of which I cannot attempt to give an analysis. In the +opening lines, written about twelve months after the "Parliament of +Birds," we find Chaucer in deep love according to all its forms. He is +lying awake, + + About such hour as lovers weep + And cry after their lady's grace, + +thinking on his mistress--all her goodness and all her sweetness, and +marvelling how heaven had formed her so exceeding fair, + + And in so litel space + Made such a body and such a face; + So great beauty, and such features, + More than be in other creatures! + +He falls into a dream as usual, and in the conclusion fancies himself +present at the splendid festivities which took place at the marriage of +his patron. The ladye of his affection is described as the beloved +friend and companion of the bride. She is sent to grace the marriage +ceremony with her presence; and Chaucer seizes the occasion to plead his +suit for love and mercy. Then the Prince, the Queen, and all the rest of +the Court, unite in conjuring the lady to have pity on his pain, and +recompence his truth; she smiles, and with a pretty hesitation at last +consents. + + Sith his will and yours are one, + Contrary in me shall be none. + +They are married: the ladies and the knights wish them + + ----Heart's pleasance, + In joy and health continuance! + +The minstrels strike up,--the multitude send forth a shout; and in the +midst of these joyous and triumphant sounds, and in the troubled +exultation of his own heart, the sleeper bounds from his couch,-- + + Wening to have been at the feast, + +and wakes to find it all a dream. He looks around for the gorgeous +marriage-feast, and instead of the throng of knights and ladies gay, he +sees nothing but the figures staring at him from the tapestry. + + On the walls old portraiture + Of horsemen, of hawks and hounds, + And hurt deer all full of wounds; + Some like torn, some hurt with shot; + And as my dream was, _that_ was not![49] + +He is plunged in grief to find himself thus reft of all his visionary +joys, and prays to sleep again, and dream thus for aye, or at least "a +thousand years and ten." + + Lo, here my bliss!--lo, here my pain! + Which to my ladye I complain, + And grace and mercy of her requere, + To end my woe and all my fear; + And me accept for her service-- + That of my dream, the substance + Might turnen, once, to cognisance.[50] + +And the whole concludes with a very tender "envoi," expressly addressed +to Philippa, although the poem was written in honour of his patrons, the +Duke and Duchess. It has been well observed, that nothing can be more +delicate and ingenious than the manner in which Chaucer has complimented +his mistress, and ventured to shadow forth his own hopes and desires; +confessing, at the same time, that they were built on air and ended in a +dream: it may be added, that nothing can be more picturesque and +beautiful, and vigorous, than some of the descriptive parts of this +poem. + +There is no reason to suppose that Philippa was absolutely deaf to the +suit, or insensible to the fame and talents of her poet-lover. The delay +which took place was from a cause honourable to her character and her +heart; it arose from the declining health of her royal mistress, to whom +she was most strongly and gratefully attached, and whose noble qualities +deserved all her affection. It appears, from a comparison of dates, that +Chaucer endured a suspense of more than nine years, during which he was +a constant and fervent suitor for his ladye's grace. In this interval he +translated the Romaunt of the Rose, the most famous poetical work of the +middle ages. He addressed it to his mistress; and it is remarkable that +a very elaborate and cynical satire on women, which occurs in the +original French, is entirely omitted by Chaucer in his version; perhaps +because it would have been a profanation to her who then ruled his +heart: on other occasions he showed no such forbearance. + +In the year 1369, Chaucer lost his amiable patroness, the Duchess +Blanche; she died in her thirtieth year; he lamented her death in a long +poem, entitled the "Booke of the Duchesse." The truth of the story, the +virtues, the charms, and the youth of the Princess, the grief of her +husband, and the simplicity and beauty of many passages, render this one +of the most interesting and striking of all Chaucer's works. + +The description of Blanche, in the "Booke of the Duchesse," shows how +trifling is the difference between a perfect female character in the +thirteenth century, and what would now be considered as such. It is a +very lively and animated picture. Her golden hair and laughing eyes; her +skill in dancing, and her sweet carolling; her "goodly and friendly +speech;" her debonair looks; her gaiety, that was still "so womanly;" +her indifference to general admiration; her countenance, "that was so +simple and so benigne," contrasted with her high-spirited modesty and +consciousness of lofty birth, + + No living wight might do her shame, + _She loved so well her own name_; + +her disdain of that coquetterie which holds men "in balance," + + By half-word or by countenance; + +her wit, "without malice, and ever set upon gladnesse;" and her +goodness, which the Poet, with a nice discrimination of female virtue, +distinguishes from mere ignorance of evil--for though in all her actions +was perfect innocence, he adds, + + I say not that she had no knowing + What harm was; for, else, she + Had known no good--so thinketh me; + +are all beautifully and happily set forth, and are charms so appropriate +to woman, as _woman_, that no change of fashion or lapse of ages can +alter their effect. Time + + "Can draw no lines there with his antique pen." + +But afterwards follows a trait peculiarly characteristic of the women of +that chivalrous period. She was not, says Chaucer, one of those ladies +who send their lovers off + + To Walachie, + To Prussia, and to Tartary, + To Alexandria, ne Turkie; + +and on other bootless errands, by way of displaying their power. + + She used no such _knacks small_. + +That is, she was superior to such frivolous tricks. + +John of Gaunt, who is the principal speaker and chief mourner in the +poem, gives a history of his courtship, and tells with what mixture of +fear and awe, he then "right young," approached the lovely heiress of +Lancaster: but bethinking him that Heaven could never have formed in any +creature so great beauty and bounty "withouten mercie,"--in that hope he +makes his confession of love; and he goes on to tell us, with exquisite +_naivete_,-- + + I wot not well how I began, + Full evil rehearse it, I can: + + ....*....*....*....* + + For many a word I overskipt + In telling my tale--for pure fear, + Lest that my words misconstrued were. + Softly, and quaking for pure dred, + And shame,-- + Full oft I wax'd both pale and red; + I durst not once look her on, + For wit, manner, and all was gone; + I said, "Mercie, sweet!"--and no more. + +Then his anguish at her first rejection, and his rapture when, at last, +he wins from his ladye + + The noble gift of her mercie; + +his domestic happiness--his loss, and his regrets, are all told with the +same truth, simplicity, and profound feeling. For such passages and such +pictures as these, Chaucer will still be read, triumphant as the poet of +nature, over the rust and dust of ages, and all the difficulties of +antique style and obsolete spelling; which last, however, though +repulsive, is only a difficulty to the eye, and easily overcome. + +To return to Chaucer's own love.--In the opening lines of the "Booke of +the Duchesse," he describes himself as wasted with his "eight years' +sicknesse," alluding to his long courtship of the coy Philippa: + + I have great wonder, by this light, + How that I live!--for day nor night + I may not sleepen well-nigh nought: + I have so many an idle thought + Purely for the default of sleep; + That, by my troth, I take no keep + Of nothing--how it com'th or go'th, + To me is nothing liefe or lothe;[51] + All is equal good to me, + Joy or sorrow--whereso it be; + For I have feeling in no thing, + But am, as 'twere, a mazed[52] thing, + All day in point to fall adown + For sorrowful imagination, &c. + +In the same year with the Duchess died the good Queen of Edward the +Third; and Philippa Picard being thus sadly released from her attendance +on her mistress, a few months afterwards married Chaucer, then in his +forty-second year. + +In consequence of her good service, Philippa had a pension for her life; +and I regret that little more is known concerning her: but it should +seem that she was a good and tender wife, and that long years of wedded +life did not weaken her husband's attachment for her; for she +accompanied Chaucer when he was exiled, about fifteen years after his +marriage, though every motive of prudence and selfishness, on both +sides, would then have induced a separation.[53] Neither was the poet +likely to be easily satisfied on the score of conjugal obedience; he was +rather _exigeant_ and despotic, if we may trust his own description of a +perfect wife. The chivalrous and poetical lover was the slave of his +mistress; but once married, it is all _vice versa_. + + She saith not once _nay_, when he saith _yea_ + "Do this," saith he, "all ready, Sir," saith she! + +The precise date of Philippa's death is not known, but it took place +some years before that of her husband. Their residence at the time of +their marriage, was a small stone building, near the entrance of +Woodstock Park; it had been given to Chaucer by Edward the Third; +afterwards they resided principally at Donnington Castle, that fine and +striking ruin, which must be remembered by all who have travelled the +Newberry road. In the domain attached to this castle were three oaks of +remarkable size and beauty, to which Chaucer gave the names of the +Queen's oak, the King's oak, and Chaucer's oak; these venerable trees +were felled in Evelyn's time, and are commemorated in his Sylva, as +among the noblest of their species. + +Philippa's eldest son, Thomas Chaucer, had a daughter, Alice, who became +the wife of William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, the famous favourite of +Margaret of Anjou. The grandson of Alice Chaucer, by the Duke of +Suffolk, John Earl of Lincoln, was declared heir to the crown by Richard +the Third;[54] and had the issue of the battle of Bosworth been +different, would undoubtedly have ascended the throne of England;--as it +was, the lineage of Chaucer was extinguished on a scaffold. + +The fate of Catherine Picard de Rouet, the sister of Chaucer's wife, was +still more remarkable,--she was destined to be the mother of a line of +kings. + +She had been _domicella_, or maid of honour to the Duchess Blanche, +after whose death, the infant children of the Princess were committed to +her care.[55] In this situation she won the heart of their father, the +Duke of Lancaster, who on the death of his second wife, Constance of +Castile, married Catherine, and his children by her were solemnly +legitimatized. The conduct of Catherine, except in one instance, had +been irreproachable: her humility, her prudence, and her various +accomplishments, not only reconciled the royal family and the people to +her marriage, but added lustre to her rank: and when Richard the Second +married Isabella of France, the young Queen, then only nine years old, +was placed under the especial care and tuition of the Duchess of +Lancaster. + +One of the grand-daughters of Catherine, Lady Jane Beaufort, had the +singular fortune of becoming at once the inspiration and the love of a +great poet, the queen of an accomplished monarch, and the common +ancestress of all the sovereigns of England since the days of +Elizabeth.[56] + +Never, perhaps, was the influence of woman on a poetic temperament more +beautifully illustrated, than in the story of James the First of +Scotland, and Lady Jane Beaufort. It has been so elegantly told by +Washington Irving in the Sketch-Book, that it is only necessary to refer +to it.--James, while a prisoner, was confined in Windsor Castle, and +immediately under his window there was a fair garden, in which the Lady +Jane was accustomed to walk with her attendants, distinguished above +them all by her beauty and dignity, even more than by her state and the +richness of her attire. The young monarch beheld her accidentally, his +imagination was fired, his heart captivated, and from that moment his +prison was no longer a dungeon, but a palace of light and love. As he +was the best poet and musician of his time, he composed songs in her +praise, set them to music, and sang them to his lute. He also wrote the +history of his love, with all its circumstances, in a long poem[57] +still extant; and though the language be now obsolete, it is described, +by those who have studied it, as not only full of beauties both of +sentiment and expression, but unpolluted by a single thought or allusion +which the most refined age, or the most fastidious delicacy, could +reject;--a singular distinction, when we consider that James's only +models must have been Gower and Chaucer, to whom no such praise is due: +we must rather suppose that he was no imitator, but that he owed his +inspiration to modest and queenly beauty, and to the genuine tenderness +of his own heart. His description of the fair apparition who came to +bless his solitary hours, is so minute and peculiar, that it must have +been drawn from the life:--the net of pearls, in which her light tresses +were gathered up; the chain of fine-wrought gold about her neck; the +heart-shaped ruby suspended from it, which glowed on her snowy bosom +like a spark of fire; her white vest looped up to facilitate her +movements; her graceful damsels who followed at a respectful distance; +and her little dog gambolling round her with its collar of silver +bells,--these, and other picturesque circumstances, were all noted in +the lover's memory, and have been recorded by the poet's verse. And he +sums up her perfections thus: + + In her was youth, beauty, and numble port, + Bountee, richesse, and womanly feature. + God better knows than my pen can report, + Wisdom, largesse,[58] estate,[59] and cunning[60] sure: + In every point so guided her measure, + In word, in deed, in shape, in countenance, + That nature could no more her child advance. + +The account of his own feelings as she disappears from his charmed +gaze,--his lingering at the window of his tower, till Phoebus + + Had bid farewell to every leaf and flower,-- + +then resting his head pensively on the cold stone, and the vision which +steals upon his half-waking, half-dreaming fancy, and shadows forth the +happy issue of his love,--are all conceived in the most lively manner. +It is judged from internal evidence, that this poem must have been +finished after his marriage, since he intimates that he is blessed in +the possession of her he loved, and that the fair vision of his solitary +dungeon is realised. + +When the King of Scots was released, he wooed and won openly, and as a +monarch, the woman he had adored in secret. The marriage was solemnized +in 1423, and he carried Lady Jane to Scotland where she was crowned soon +after his bride and queen. + +How well she merited, and how deeply she repaid the love of her devoted +and all-accomplished husband, is told in history. When James was +surprised and murdered by some of his factious barons, his queen threw +herself between him and the daggers of the assassins, received many of +the wounds aimed at his heart, nor could they complete their purpose +till they had dragged her by force from his arms. She deserved to be a +poet's queen and love! These are the souls, the deeds which inspire +poetry,--or rather which are themselves poetry, its principle and its +essence. It was on this occasion that Catherine Douglas, one of the +queen's attendants, thrust her arm into the stanchion of the door to +serve the purpose of a bolt, and held it there till the savage +assailants forced their way by shattering the frail defence. What times +were those!--alas! the love of women, and the barbarity of men! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[45] Edward III. and the Black Prince. + +[46] She was popularly distinguished as the "_good_ Queen Anne," and as +dear to her husband as to her people. Richard, who with many and fatal +faults, really possessed sensibility and strong domestic affections with +which Shakspeare has so finely pourtrayed him, was passionately devoted +to his amiable wife. She died young, at the Palace of Sheen; and when +Richard afterwards visited the scene of his loss, he solemnly cursed it +in his anguish, and commanded it to be razed to the ground, which was +done. One of our kings afterwards rebuilt it. I think Henry the VIIth. + +[47] Court of Love, v. 369-412. + +[48] Court of Love, v. 36-42. + +[49] _i. e._ the tapestry, like my dream, was a representation, not a +reality. + +[50] Chaucer's Dreame, v. 2185. "Here also is showed Chaucer's match +with a certain gentlewoman, who was so well liked and loved of the Lady +Blanche and her Lord (as Chaucer himself also was), that gladly they +concluded a marriage between them."--_Arguments to Chaucer's Works. +Edit._ 1597. + +[51] To me there is nothing dear or hateful, every thing is indifferent. + +[52] _Mazed_,--distracted. + +[53] Godwin's Life of Chaucer, v. iii. p. 5. + +[54] In right of his mother, Elizabeth Plantagenet, eldest sister of +Edward IV. + +[55] These were Henry of Lancaster, afterwards Henry IV. Philippa, Queen +of Portugal, and Elizabeth, Duchess of Exeter. + +[56] Catherine, Duchess of Lancaster, had three sons: the second was the +famous Cardinal Beaufort; the eldest (created Earl of Somerset,) was +grandfather to Henry the Seventh, and consequently ancestor to the whole +race of Tudor: thus from the sister of Chaucer's wife are descended all +the English sovereigns, from the fifteenth century; and likewise the +present family of Somerset, Dukes of Beaufort. + +[57] "The King's Quhair," (i.e. _cahier_ or book.) + +[58] Liberality. + +[59] Dignity. + +[60] Knowledge and discretion. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +LORENZO DE' MEDICI AND LUCRETIA DONATI. + + +To Lorenzo de' Medici,--or rather to the preeminence his personal +qualities, his family possessions, and his unequalled talents, gave him +over his countrymen,--some late travellers and politicians have +attributed the downfall of the liberties of Florence, and attacked his +memory as the precursor of tyrants and the preparer of slaves. It may be +so:--yet was it the fault of Lorenzo, if his collateral posterity +afterwards became the oppressors of that State of which he was the +father and the saviour? And since in this world some must command and +some obey, what power is so legitimate as that derived from the +influence of superior virtue and talent? from the employ of riches +obtained by honourable industry, and expended with princely munificence, +and subscribed to by the will and the affections of the people? + +But I forget:--these are questions foreign to our subject. Politics I +never could understand in my life, and history I have forgotten,--or +would wish to forget,--perplexed by its conflicting evidence, and +shocked by its interminable tissue of horrors. Let others then scale the +height while we gather flowers at the foot; let others explore the mazes +of the forest; ours be rather + + The gay parterre, the chequered shade, + The morning bower, the evening colonnade, + Those soft recesses of uneasy minds, + +whence the din of doleful war, the rumour of cruelty and suffering, and +all the "fitful stir unprofitable" of the world are shut out, and only +the beautiful and good, or the graceful and the gay, are admitted. There +have been pens enough, Heaven knows, to chronicle the wrongs, the +crimes, the sorrows of our sex: why should I add an echo to that voice, +which from the beginning has cried aloud in the wilderness of this +world, upon women betrayed, and betraying in self-defence? A nobler and +more grateful task be mine, to show them how much of what is most fair, +most excellent, most sublime among the productions of human genius, has +been owing to their influence, direct or indirect; and call up the +spirits of the dead,--those who from their silent urns still rule the +pulses of our hearts--to bear witness to this truth. + + * * * * * + +It is not, then, Lorenzo the MAGNIFICENT, the statesman, and the chief +of a great republic, who finds a place in these pages,--but Lorenzo the +lover and the poet, round whose memory hover a thousand bright +recollections connected with the revival of arts and literature, and the +golden age of Italy. Let politicians say what they will, there is a +spell of harmony, there is music in his very name! how softly the +vowelled syllables drop from the lips--LORENZO DE' MEDICI!--it even +looks elegant when written. Yes, there is something in the mere sound of +a name. I remember once taking up a book, and a very celebrated book, +in which, after turning over some of the pages with pleasure, I came to +_Peter_ and _Laurence Medecis_,--I shut it hastily, as I would have +covered my ears to protect them from a sudden discord in music. + +Between Petrarch and Lorenzo de' Medici, there occurs not a single great +name in Italian poetry. The century seemed to lie fallow, as if +preparing for the great birth of various genius which distinguished the +succeeding age. The sciences and the classics were chiefly studied, and +philosophy and Greek seemed to have banished love and poetry. + +In such a state of things, it is rather surprising to find in Lorenzo +de' Medici the common case reversed; for by his own confession, it +appears that it was not love which made him a poet, but poetry which +made him a lover. + +Giuliano, the brother of Lorenzo,--he who was afterwards assassinated by +the Pazzi, and was so beloved at Florence for his amiable character and +personal accomplishments, had been seized with a passion for a lady +named Simonetta, who was esteemed the most beautiful woman in Florence, +and is scarcely ever mentioned but with the epithet, "La bella +Simonetta."--She died in the bloom of early youth, and all the wit and +eloquence of her native city were called forth in condolences addressed +to Giuliano, or elegies to her memory, in prose and verse, Latin, Greek, +and Italian. Among the rest, Lorenzo, who had already made several +attempts in Italian poetry, pressed forward to celebrate the love and +the loss of his amiable brother:--in his zeal to do justice to so dear a +subject, he worked himself up into a fit of amorous and poetical +enthusiasm which soon found a real and living beauty for its object. But +to give this romantic tale its proper effect, it must be related in +Lorenzo's own words. He has left us a most circumstantial and elegant as +well as interesting and fanciful account of the birth and progress of +his poetic passion, and I extract it at length from Mr. Roscoe's +translation. + +"A young lady of great personal attractions happened to die at Florence; +and as she had been very generally admired and beloved, so her death +was as generally lamented. Nor was this to be much wondered at; for, +independent of her beauty, her manners were so engaging, that almost +every person who had any acquaintance with her flattered himself that he +had obtained the chief place in her affections." (In other words, this +beautiful Simonetta was an exquisite coquette.) + +"This fatal event excited the extreme regret of her admirers; and as she +was carried to the place of burial, with her face uncovered, those who +had known her when living, pressed for a last look at the object of +their adoration, and accompanied her funeral with their tears. + +"On this occasion, all the eloquence, and all the wit of Florence were +exerted in paying due honours to her memory, both in prose and verse. +Amongst the rest, I also composed a few sonnets; and in order to give +them greater effect, I endeavoured to convince myself, that I too had +been deprived of the object of my love, and to excite in my own mind all +those passions that might enable me to move the affections of +others.--Under the influence of this delusion, I began to think how +severe was the fate of those by whom she had been beloved; and from +thence was led to consider, whether there was any other lady in this +city deserving of such honour and praise, and to imagine the happiness +that must be experienced by any one, whose good fortune could procure +him such a subject for his pen. I accordingly sought for some time +without having the satisfaction of finding any one, who in my judgment +was deserving of a sincere and constant attachment. But when I had +nearly resigned all expectations of success, chance threw in my way that +which had been denied to my most diligent inquiry; as if the God of Love +had selected this hopeless period, to give me a more decisive proof of +his power.--A public festival was held in Florence, to which all that +was noble and beautiful in the city resorted. To this I was brought by +some of my companions (I suppose as my destiny led) against my will, for +I had for some time past avoided such exhibitions; or if at times I +attended them, it proceeded rather from a compliance with custom, than +from any pleasure I experienced in them. Among the ladies there +assembled, I saw one of such sweet and attractive manners, that while I +regarded her, I could not help saying, 'If this person were possessed of +the delicacy, the understanding, the accomplishments of her who is +lately dead--most certainly she excels her in the charms of her +person.--" + + * * * * * + +"Resigning myself to my passion, I endeavoured to discover, if possible, +how far her manners and her conversation agreed with her appearance; and +here I found such an assemblage of extraordinary endowments, that it was +difficult to say whether she excelled more in person or in mind. Her +beauty was, as I have before mentioned, astonishing. She was of a just +and proper height. Her complexion extremely fair, but not +pale,--blooming but not ruddy. Her countenance was serious, without +being severe,--mild and pleasant without levity or vulgarity. Her eyes +were lively, without any indication of pride or conceit. Her whole +shape was so finely proportioned, that amongst other women she appeared +with superior dignity, yet free from the least degree of formality or +affectation. In walking, in dancing, or in other exercises which display +the person, every motion was elegant and appropriate. Her sentiments +were always just and striking, and have furnished materials for some of +my sonnets; she always spoke at the proper time, and always to the +purpose, so that nothing could be added, nothing taken away. Though her +remarks were often keen and pointed, yet they were so tempered as not to +give offence. Her understanding was superior to her sex, but without the +appearance of arrogance or presumption; and she avoided an error too +common among women, who, when they think themselves sensible, become for +the most part insupportable.[61] To recount all her excellencies would +far exceed my present limits, and I shall therefore conclude with +affirming, that there was nothing which could be desired in a beautiful +and an accomplished woman, which was not in her most abundantly found. +By these qualities I was so captivated, that not a power or faculty of +my body or mind remained any longer at liberty, and I could not help +considering the lady who had died, as the star of Venus, which at the +approach of the sun is totally overpowered and extinguished." + +The real name of this beautiful and accomplished creature, Lorenzo was +too discreet to reveal; but from contemporary authors, we learn that she +was Lucretia Donati--a noble lady, distinguished at Florence for her +virtue and beauty, and of the same illustrious family which had given a +wife to Dante. + +When Lorenzo undertook to fall in love thus poetically, he was only +twenty: the experiment was perilous; and it is not wonderful that this +imaginary passion had at first in his ardent and susceptible mind all +the effects of a real one: he neglected society--abandoned himself to +musing and solitude--affected the rural shades, and gave up his time, +and devoted all his powers, to celebrate, in the richest colouring of +poetry, her whom he had selected to be the mistress of his heart, or +rather the presiding goddess of his fancy. + +The result is exactly what may be imagined, and a proof of the theory on +which I insist, that "nothing but what arises from the heart goes to the +heart, and that the verse which never quickened a pulse in the bosom of +the poet, never awakened a throb in that of his reader." If I were +required to express in one word the distinguishing character of +Lorenzo's amatory poems, I should say _grace_: they are full of refined +sentiment, elegant simplicity, the most exquisite little touches of +description, and illustrations, drawn either from external nature, or +from the refined mysteries of platonism; but there is a want of passion, +of power, and of pathos; there is no genuine emotion; no overflow of the +heart, bursting with its own intense feeling; no voice that cries aloud +for our sympathy, and echoes to our inmost bosom. What true lover ever +thought of apologising for having given his time to celebrate the object +of his love? + +"Persecuted as I have been from my youth," says Lorenzo, "some +indulgence may perhaps be allowed me for having sought consolation in +these pursuits."--And again, in allusion to his political +situation,--"It is not to be wondered at if I endeavoured to alleviate +my anxiety by turning to more agreeable subjects of meditation; and in +celebrating the charms of my mistress, sought a temporary refuge from my +cares."--Thus Lorenzo tells us that it was not in obedience to the +dictates of his own overflowing heart, nor yet to celebrate the charms +of his mistress, and win her favour, that he wrote in her praise, but to +amuse himself and distract his mind from those cares and anxieties into +which he was so early plunged. It has followed as a natural consequence, +that elegant as are the amatory effusions of Lorenzo, they are less +celebrated, less popular, than his descriptive and moral poems. His +Ambra, La Nencia, and his songs for the carnival, have all in their +respective style a higher stamp of excellence and originality than his +love poetry. His forte seems to have been lively description, +philosophical illustration, and brilliant and sportive fancy, combined +with a classic taste and polished versification. Some of those sonnets, +which, though addressed to Madonna Lucretia, turn chiefly on some +beautiful thought or description, are finished like gems; as that on +Solitude-- + + Cerchi chi vuol le pompe e gli alti onori; + +and that well known and charming one, "Sopra Violetti," + + Non di verdi giardin, ornati e colti, &c. + +both of which have been happily translated by Roscoe; and to these may +be added the address to Cytherea-- + + Lascia l' isola tua tanta diletta! + Lascia il tuo regno delicato e bello + Ciprigna Dea! &c. + +There is another, not so well known, distinguished by its peculiar fancy +and elegance-- + + Spesso mi torna a mente, anzi gia mai, &c. + +In this he recalls to mind the time and the place, and even the vesture +in which his gentle lady first appeared to him-- + + Quanto vaga, gentil, leggiadra, e pia + Non si puo dir, ne imaginar assai; + +and he beautifully adds, + + Quale sopra i nevosi, ed alti monti + Apollo spande il suo bel lume adorno, + Tal' i crin suoi sopra la bianca gonna! + Il tempo e 'l luogo non convien ch' io conti, + Che dov' e si bel sole e sempre giorno; + E Paradiso, ov' e si bella Donna! + +"As over the snowy summits of the high mountains Apollo sheds his golden +beams, so flowed her golden tresses over her white vest.--But for the +_time_ and the _place_, is it necessary that I should note them? Where +shines so fair a sun, can it be other than day? Where dwells so +excellent a beauty, can it be other than Paradise?" + +It happened in the midst of Lorenzo's visions of love and poetry, that +he was called upon to give his hand to a wife chosen by his father for +political reasons. His inclinations were not consulted, as is plain +from the blunt amusing manner in which he has noted it down in his +memoranda. "I, Lorenzo, took to wife Donna Clarice Orsini,--or rather +she was given to me, (ovvero mi fu data) on such a day." Yet a union +thus inauspiciously contracted, was rendered, by the affectionate +disposition of Lorenzo, and the amiable qualities of his wife, rather +happy than otherwise; it is true, we have no poetical compliments +addressed by Lorenzo to Donna Clarice, but there is extant a little +billet written to her a few months after their marriage, from the tone +of which it is fair to suppose, that Lorenzo had exchanged his poetic +flame for a real attachment to an amiable woman.[62] + +There is a very beautiful and elegant passage in the beginning of +Lorenzo's commentary on his own poems, in which he enlarges on the +theory of love. "The conditions (he says) which appear necessarily to +belong to a true, exalted, and worthy love, are two. First,--_to love +but one_: secondly,--_to love that one always_. Not many lovers have +hearts so generous as to be capable of fulfilling these two conditions; +and exceedingly few women display sufficient attractions to withhold men +from the violation of them; yet without these there is no true love." +And afterwards, enumerating those charms of person and mind which +inspire affection, he adds, "and yet these estimable qualities are not +enough, unless the lover possess sensibility of heart to discern them, +and elevation and generosity of soul to appreciate them." + +This in the original is very elegantly expressed, and the sentiment is +as true as it is exalted and graceful; but that Lorenzo was not always +thus philosophically refined, that he could descend from these +Platonics to be impassioned and in earnest, and that when touched to the +heart, he could pour forth the language of the heart, we have a single +instance, which it is impossible to allude to without feeling some +emotion of curiosity, which can never now be gratified. + +We find among Lorenzo's poems, written later in life than those +addressed to Lucretia Donati, one entitled simply "An Elegy;" the style +is different from that of his earlier poetry, and has more of the +terseness and energy of Dante than the sweetness and flow of Petrarch. +It begins + + "Vinto dagli amorosi, empi martiri." + +"Subdued by the fierce pangs of my love, a thousand times have I taken +up the pen, to tell thee, O gentle lady mine, all the sighs of my sick +heart. Then fearing thy displeasure, I have, on a second thought, flung +it from me. * * * Yet must I speak, for if words were wanting, my pallid +cheek would betray my suffering." + +He then tells her that he does not seek her dishonour, but only her kind +thoughts, and that he may find a place within her gentle heart. + + Perche non cerco alcun tuo disonore, + Ma sol la grazia tua, e che piaci + Che'l mio albergo sia dentro al tuo core! + +He wishes that he might be once permitted to twine his fingers in her +fair hair; to gaze into her eyes;--but he complains that she will not +even meet his look,--that she resolutely turns her eyes another way at +his approach.--"But do with me what thou wilt: while I live upon this +earth, still I must love thee, since it so pleaseth Heaven--I swear it! +and my hand writes it! + + * * * * * + +"Come then! oh come, while yet thy gracious looks may avail me, for +delay is death to one who loves likes me! Would I could send with this +scroll all the torture of heart, the tears and sighs, the gesture and +the look, that should accompany it!" + + Ma s' egli avvien, che soletti ambo insieme, + Posso il braccio tenerti al collo avvolto, + Vedrai come d'amore alto arde e geme, + Vedrai cader dal mio pallido volto, + Nel tuo candido sen lagrime tante. + +(I leave these lines untranslated for the benefit of the Italian +reader). After a few more stanzas, we have this very unequivocal +passage: + +"O would to Heaven, lady, that marriage had made us one! ah, why didst +thou not come into this world a little sooner?--or I a little later? Yet +why these vain thoughts? since I am doomed to see thee the bride of +another, and am myself fettered in these marriage bonds! + + * * * * * + +"Thou knowest, Madonna, that these sighs, these burning words, are not +feigned; for even as Love dictates does my hand write. + + * * * * * + +"My life and death are with thee;--grant me but a few words, and I am +content to live;--if not, let me die! and let my poor remains be laid in +some forlorn and sequestered spot. Let none whisper the cause of my +death, lest it should grieve thee! enough if some kind hand engrave upon +my tomb,--'_He perished through too much love and too much cruelty._'" + +I have given, literally, the leading sentiments of this little poem, but +have left untranslated many of the stanzas. There are one or two +concetti; but as Ginguene truly observes on a different occasion, "Dans +les poetes Italiens, souvent la passion est vraie, meme quand +l'expression ne l'est pas." + +The style is so natural, the transitions so abrupt, the expressions so +energetic, and there are so few of those descriptive ornaments which are +plentifully scattered through Lorenzo's other poems, that I should +pronounce it the real effusion of a heart, touched,--and deeply touched. +It is to be regretted that we know nothing of the name or real character +of an object who, deserving or not, could call forth such strong lines +as these; and in the plenitude of his power and fame, and in the midst +of his great and serious avocations, deeply, though secretly, tyrannise +over the peace of Lorenzo. + +He is accused,--I regret that I must allude to it,--of considerable +licence of manners with regard to women;--a reproach from which Roscoe +has fairly vindicated him. United, at the age of twenty-one, to a woman +he had never seen; residing in a dissipated capital, surrounded by +temptation, and from disposition peculiarly sensible to the influence of +women, it is not matter of astonishment if Lorenzo's conjugal faith was +not preserved immaculate,--if he occasionally became the thrall of +beauty, and--(since he was not likely to be caught by vulgar +charms,)--if he sighed, _par hazard_, for one who was not to be tempted +by power or gold: such a one as his Elegy indicates. Two points are +certain,--that his uniform respect and kindness to his wife Clarice, +left her no reason to complain; while his discretion was such, that +though historians have hazarded a general accusation against him in this +one particular, there exists not in any contemporary writer one +scandalous anecdote of his private life, nor the name of any woman to +whom he was attached, except that of his poetical love, Lucretia Donati. + +Lorenzo de' Medici was not handsome in face, nor graceful in form; but +he was captivating in his manners, and excelled in all manly exercises. +The engraving prefixed to Roscoe's life of him, does not do justice to +his countenance. I remember the original picture in the gallery of +Florence, on which I have looked day after day for many minutes +together, with an interest that can only be felt on the very spot where +the memory of Lorenzo is "wherever we look, wherever we move." In spite +of the stoop in the shoulders, the unbecoming dress, and the harsh +features, I was struck by the grand simplicity of the head, and the +mingled expression of acuteness, benevolence, and earnest thought in the +countenance; the imagination filled with the splendid character of the +man, might possibly have perceived more than the eye,--but such was my +impression. + +Lorenzo died in his forty-fourth year, in 1492. He is not interred in +that celebrated chapel of his family, rich with the sublimest +productions of Michael Angelo's chisel: he lies at the opposite side of +the church, in a magnificent sarcophagus of bronze, which contains also +the ashes of his murdered brother, Giuliano.--Among the recollections, +sweet and bitter, which I brought from Florence, is the remembrance of a +day when retiring, from the glare of an Italian noontide, I stood in the +church of San Lorenzo, sketching the tomb of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' +Medici. The spot whence I viewed it was so obscure, that I could scarce +see the lines traced by my pencil; but immediately behind the +sarcophagus, there flowed from above a stream of strong light, relieving +with added effect the dark outline of the sculptured ornaments. Through +the grating which formed the background, I could see the figures of +shaven monks and stoled priests gliding to and fro, like apparitions; +and while I thought more,--O much more,--of the still and cold repose +which wrapped the dead, than of their high deeds and far-spread fame, +the plaintive music of a distant choir, chanting the _Via crucis_, +floated through the pillared aisles, receding or approaching as the +singers changed their station; swelling, sinking, and at length dying +away on the ear. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[61] Lorenzo tells us in the original, that the ladies who rendered +themselves thus insupportable, were called (_vulgarly_) +_Saccenti_:--query--_vulgarly, Blue-stockings_? + +[62] Lorenzo de' Medici to his wife Clarice:-- + +"I arrived here in safety, and am in good health: this, I believe, will +please thee better than any thing else, except my return, at least so I +judge from my own desire to be once more with thee. Associate as much as +possible with my father and sisters. I shall make all possible speed to +return to thee, for it appears a thousand years till I see thee again. +Pray to God for me--if thou want any thing from this place write in +time. From Milan, 22d July, 1469. THY LORENZO." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE FAIR GERALDINE. + + +In the reign of the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, of Lorenzo's family, +(Cosmo I.) Florence, it is said, beheld a novel and extraordinary +spectacle: a young traveller, from a court and a country which the +Italians of that day seemed to regard much as we now do the +Esquimaux,[63] combining the learning of the scholar and the amiable +bearing of the courtier, with all the rash bravery of youthful romance, +astonished the inhabitants of that queenly city, first, by rivalling her +polished nobles in the splendour of his state, and gallantry of his +manners, and next, by boldly proclaiming that his "lady love" was +superior to all that Italy could vaunt of beauty, that she was "oltre le +belle, bella," fair beyond the fairest,--and maintaining his boast in a +solemn tourney held in her honour, to the overthrow of all his +opponents. + +This was our English Surrey; one of the earliest and most elegant of our +amatory poets, and the lover of the Fair Geraldine. + +It must be admitted that the fame of the Earl of Surrey does not rest +merely on title, and that if the fair Geraldine had never existed, he +would still have lived in history as an accomplished scholar, soldier, +courtier, and been lamented as the noble victim of a suspicious tyrant. +But if some fair object of romantic gallantry had not given the impulse +to his genius, and excited him to try his powers in a style of which no +models yet existed in his native language,[64]--it may be doubted +whether his name would have descended to us with all those poetical and +chivalrous associations which give a charm and an interest to his +memory, far beyond that of a mere historical character. As for the +fair-haired, blue-eyed Geraldine, the mistress of his fancy and +affections, and the subject of his verse, her identity long lay +_entombed_, as it were, in a poetical name; but Surrey had loved her, +had maintained her beauty at the point of his lance--had made her +"famous by his pen, and glorious by his sword." This was more than +enough to excite the interest and the inquiries of posterity, and lo! +antiquaries and commentators fell to work, archives were searched, +genealogies were traced, and at length the substance of this beautiful +poetical shadow was detected: she was proved to have been the Lady +Elizabeth Fitzgerald, afterwards the wife of a certain Earl of Lincoln, +of whom little is known--but that he married the woman Surrey had loved. + +Surrey has ingeniously contrived to compress, within the compass of a +sonnet, some of the most interesting particulars of the personal and +family history of his mistress. The Fitzgeralds derive their origin +from the Geraldi of Tuscany,--hence + + From Tuscan came my ladye's worthy race, + Fair Florence was sometime their ancient seat. + +She was born and nurtured in Ireland-- + + Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast. + +Her father was the Earl of Kildare, her mother allied to the blood +royal. + + Her sire an Earl, her dame of Prince's blood. + +She was brought up (through motives of compassion, after the misfortunes +of her family,) at Hunsdon, with the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth, +where Surrey, who frequently visited them in company with the young Duke +of Richmond,[65] first beheld her. + + Hunsdon did first present her to mine eyes. + +She was then extremely young, not above fourteen or fifteen, as it +appears from comparative dates; and Surrey says very clearly, + + She wanted years to understand + The grief that he did feel. + +But even then her budding charms made him confess as he beautifully +expresses it-- + + How soon a look can print a thought + That never may remove! + +It was during the festivals held at Hampton Court, whither she +accompanied the Princesses, that her conquest was completed; and Surrey +being afterwards confined at Windsor,[66] was deprived of her society. + + Bright is her hue, and Geraldine she hight; + Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine, + Windsor, alas! doth chase me from her sight. + +Hampton Court was the scene of their frequent interviews. Surrey +mentions a certain recessed or bow window, in which, retired apart from +the gay throng around them, they held "converse sweet." Here she gave +him, as it seems, some encouragement; too proud of such a distinguished +suitor to let him escape. He in the same moment confesses himself a very +slave, and betrays an indignant consciousness of the arts by which she +keeps him entangled in her chain. + + In silence tho' I keep to such secrets myself, + Yet do I see how she sometime, doth yield a look by stealth; + As tho' it seemed, I wis,--"I will not lose thee so!" + When in her heart so sweet a thought did never truly grow. + +He accuses her expressly of a love of general admiration, and of giving +her countenance and favour to unworthy rivals. In "The Warning to a +Lover how he is abused by his Love," he thus addresses himself as the +deceived lover:-- + + Where thou hast loved so long, with heart and all thy power, + I see thee fed with feigned words, &c. + I see her pleasant cheer in chiefest of thy suit: + When thou art gone, I see him come who gathers up the fruit; + And eke in thy respect, I see the base degree + Of him to whom she gives the heart, that promised was to thee![67] + +The fair Geraldine must have been a practised coquette to have sat for a +picture so finished and so strongly marked: yet before we blame her for +this disdainful trifling, it should be remembered that Lord Surrey, at +the time he was wooing her with "musicke vows," was either married or +contracted to another,[68]--a circumstance quite in keeping with the +fashionable system of Platonic gallantry introduced from Italy-- + + O Plato! Plato! you have been the cause, &c. + +and so forth. I forbear to continue the apostrophe. + +According to the old tradition, repeated by all Surrey's biographers, he +visited on his travels the famous necromancer Cornelius Agrippa, who in +a magic mirror revealed to him the fair figure of his Geraldine, lying +dishevelled on a couch, and, by the light of a taper, reading one of his +tenderest sonnets. + + Fair all the pageant, but how passing fair + The slender form that lay on couch of Ind! + O'er her white bosom strayed her hazel hair, + Pale her dear cheek, as if for love she pined. + All in her night-robe loose, she lay reclined, + And pensive read from tablet eburnine, + Some strain that seemed her inmost soul to find;-- + That favoured strain was Surrey's raptured line, + That fair and lovely form, the Lady Geraldine![69] + +This beautiful incident is too celebrated, too touching, not to be one +of the articles of our poetical faith. It was believed by Surrey's +contemporaries, and in the age immediately following was gravely related +by a grave historian. It shows at least the celebrity which his poetry, +unequalled at that time, had given to his love, and the object of it. In +fact, when divested of the antique spelling, which, at the first glance, +revolts by the impression it gives of difficulty and obscurity, some of +the lyrics of Surrey have not since been surpassed either in elegance of +sentiment, or flowing grace of expression:--for example-- + + A Praise of his Love, wherein he reproveth them that compare + their Ladies with his. + + Give place ye lovers here before, + That spent your boastes and braggs in vain, + My ladye's beauty passeth more + The best of yours, I dare well sayne, + Then doth the sun the candle light, + Or brightest day the darkest night. + And thereto hath a truth as just, + As had Penelope the fair: + For what she sayeth you may it trust. + As it by writing sealed were; + And virtues hath she many moe, + Than I with pen have skill to show. + +The following sonnet is rather a specimen of versification than of +sentiment: the subject is borrowed from Petrarch. + + +A COMPLAINT, BY NIGHT, OF A LOVER NOT BELOVED. + + Alas! so all things now do hold their peace, + Heaven and earth disturbed in no thing; + The beasts, the air, the birds their song do cease, + And the night's car the stars about doth bring: + Calm is the sea, the waves work less and less: + So am not I, whom love, alas! doth wring, + Bringing before my face the great increase + Of my desires, whereas I weep and sing, + In joy and woe, as in a doubtful case. + For my sweet thoughts, some time do pleasure bring; + But by and by, the cause of my disease, + Gives me a pang, that inwardly doth sting, + When that I think, what grief it is again + To live, and lack the thing should rid my pain. + +Geraldine was so beautiful as to authorise the raptures of her poetical +lover. Even in her later years, when as Countess of Lincoln, she +attended on Queen Elizabeth, she retained so much of her excelling +loveliness, that the adoration paid to her in youth, was not wondered +at; and her celebrity as Surrey's early love, is alluded to by +cotemporary writers.[70] There can be no doubt that she was an +accomplished woman: the learned education the Princesses received at +Hunsdon, (in the advantages of which she participated,) is well known. +Her father, Lord Kildare, was a man of vigorous intellect and uncommon +attainments for the age in which he lived. He was the eighth Earl of his +noble family, and being engaged in the disturbances of Ireland, then a +scene of eternal dissension and bloodshed between the native princes and +the lords of the English pale, he fell under the displeasure of Henry +the Eighth: his eldest son, and his five brothers, who had been seized +as hostages, were executed on the same day at Tyburn, and the "stout old +Earl," as he is called in history, died broken-hearted in the Tower. +The mother of Geraldine is rendered interesting to us by a little family +trait, related by one of our old Chroniclers.[71] Lord Kildare, he tells +us, "was so well affected to his wife, as he would not at anie time buy +a suite of apparel for himself, but he would suite her with the same +stuffe; the which gentlenesse she recompensed with equal kindnesse; for +after that he, the said Earle, deceased in the Tower, she did not onely +live a chaste and honourable widow, but also nightly, before she went to +bed, she would resorte to his picture, and there, with a solemn _conge_, +she would bid her Lorde good nighte." + +This Countess of Kildare was Lady Elizabeth Grey, granddaughter of that +famous Lady Elizabeth Grey, whose virtue made her the queen of Edward +the Fourth. Thus the fair Geraldine was cousin to the young princes who +were smothered in the Tower, and may truly be said to have been of +"Prince's blood." + +It must be admitted that the general tone of Surrey's poems does not +give us a favourable idea of the fair Geraldine's manners and character. +She was variable, coquetish, and fond of admiration;--on this point I +have offered some apology for her. She is accused also of marrying +twice, from _mercenary_ motives, and thus forfeiting the attachment of +her noble and poetical lover.[72] This is unfair, I think; there is no +_proof_ that Geraldine married solely from _mercenary_ motives. Surrey +was himself married, and both the men to whom she was successively +united,[73] were eminent in their day for high personal qualities, +though in comparison with Surrey, they have been reduced to hide their +diminished heads in peerages and genealogies. + +The Earl of Surrey was beheaded in 1547. The fair Geraldine was living +forty years afterwards: she survived for a short time her second +husband, Lord Lincoln; and with him lies buried under a sumptuous tomb +at Windsor: she left no descendants. Her youngest brother, Edward +Fitzgerald, was the lineal ancestor of the present Duke of Leinster. + +The only original portrait of the fair Geraldine, now extant, is in the +gallery of the Duke of Bedford, at Woburn; and I am told that it is +sufficiently beautiful to justify Surrey's admiration.[74] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[63] "Those bears of English--those barbarous islanders," are common +phrases in the Italian writers of that age. + +[64] Surrey introduced the sonnet, and the use of blank verse into our +literature. It is a curious fact, that the earliest blank verse extant +was written by Saint Francis. + +[65] Natural brother of the princesses: he was the son of Henry VIII. by +Lady Talbot. + +[66] He was imprisoned for eating meat in Lent. + +[67] Lady Frances Vere. + +[68] Surrey's Works: Nott's Edit. 4to. + +[69] Lay of the Last Minstrel. + +[70] Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, vol. i. + +[71] Holinshed. + +[72] See Nott's edition of Surrey's Works. + +[73] She was the second wife of Sir Anthony Browne, and the third wife +of the Earl of Lincoln, ancestor to the Duke of Newcastle. + +[74] Those who are curious about historic proofs, may consult Anecdotes +of the family of Howard, Memoirs and works of Henry Howard Earl of +Surrey, edited by Dr. Nott, Park's Royal and Noble Authors, and Collins' +Peerage, by Brydges. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +GINEVRA, AND ALESSANDRA STROZZI. + + +While the sagacity of Horace Walpole was tracking the identity of the +fair Geraldine, through the mazes of poetry and probability,--through +parchments, through peerages, through papers, and through patents, he +must now and then have been annoyed by the provoking discretion of her +chivalrous adorer, which had led him such a chase. But of all the +discreet lovers that ever baffled commentators or biographers, commend +me to Ariosto! though one of the last from whom discretion might have +been expected on such a subject. He is known to have been particularly +susceptible to the power of beauty; passionate in his attachments; and +though pensive and abstracted in his general habits, almost irresistibly +captivating in his intercourse with women. Yet such was his fine +chivalrous feeling for the honour of those who, won by his rare +qualities, yielded it to his keeping--"such his marvellous secrecy and +modesty," say his Italian biographers, that although the public gaze was +fixed upon him in his lifetime, and although, since his death, the +minutest circumstances relative to him have been subjects of as much +curiosity and research in Italy, as Shakspeare among us; yet a few +scattered notices are all that can be brought together to illustrate his +charming lyrics. + +This mystery was not in Ariosto the effect of chance or affectation; it +arose from a principle of conduct faithfully adhered to from youth to +age; in behalf of which, and the many beautiful passages expressive of +devotion and reverential tenderness towards our sex, scattered through +his great poem, we will endeavour, (though at some little sacrifice of +the pride and delicacy of women,) to pardon him, for having treated us +most wickedly, on sundry other occasions. As an emblem of the reserve he +had imposed on himself, a little bronze Cupid, with his finger on his +lip, in token of silence, ornamented his inkstand, which is still +preserved at Ferrara. + +Of Ariosto's amatory poems, so full of spirit, grace, and a sort of +earnest triumphant tenderness, it is impossible to doubt that the +objects were real. The earliest of his serious attachments, was to a +young girl of the Florentine family of the Lapi, but residing at Mantua, +or in its vicinity. Her name was Ginevra,--a name he has tenderly +commemorated in the Orlando Furioso, by giving it to one of his most +charming and interesting heroines,--Ginevra di Scozia. He has also, +after Petrarch's fashion, _played_ upon this name in one or two of his +sonnets; _Ginevro_ signifying a juniper-tree: + + Non voglio (e Febo e Bacco mi perdoni) + Che lor frondi mi mostrino poeta, + Ma che un _Ginevro_ sia che mi coroni! + + "I wish not, (may Bacchus and Phoebus pardon me!) either + the laurel or the ivy to crown my brows; let my wreath be + rather of the thorny juniper!" + +His love for Ginevra (which was fondly returned,) began in very early +youth; their first interview occurred at a _Festa di Ballo_,--a +fete-champetre, where Ginevra excelled all her young companions in the +dance, as much as she surpassed them in her blooming beauty. He alludes +to stolen interviews, in a grove of laurels, and on the banks of the +Mincio: and on the whole, confesses that he had no reason to complain of +cruelty from the fair Ginevra.[75] This attachment lasted long; for, +four years after their first meeting, Ariosto addresses her in a most +impassioned strain, and vows that she was then "dearer to him than his +own soul, and fairer than ever in his eyes." She seems to have left that +permanent impression on his memory and fancy, that shade of tender +regret with which a man of strong sensibility and ardent imagination +always recurs to the first love of his youth, even when the passion +itself is past. He says himself, when revisiting Mantua many years +afterwards, that the scene revived all his former tenderness-- + + Quel foco ch' io pensai che fosse estinto, + Dal tempo, dagli affanni, ed il star lunge + Signor pur arde.---- + +I cannot discover what became of Ginevra ultimately: her fate was a +common one: she was loved by a celebrated man, was forsaken, and in +exchange for happiness and for love, she has enjoyed for some time a +shadowy renown. Her name was usually connected with that of Ariosto, +till the researches of later biographers discovered the object of that +more celebrated, more serious, and more lasting passion which inspired +Ariosto's finest lyrics, which was subsequently sealed by a private +marriage, and ended only with the poet's life. In this instance, the +modesty of the lady and the discretion of Ariosto have proved in vain, +for the name of _Alessandra Strozzi_ is now so inseparably linked with +that of her poet, that Beatrice is not more identified with Dante, nor +Laura with Petrarch; though their names be more popular, and their fame +more widely spread. + + Minor di grido, ma del vanto altera, + (E cio le basta) che suo saggio amante + Fu'l grande che canto l'armi e gli amori-- + Vedi Alessandra![76] + +Alessandra Strozzi was the daughter of Filippo Benucci, and the widow of +Tito Strozzi, a noble Florentine and famous Latin poet. At the period of +her first acquaintance with Ariosto, she must have been about +six-and-twenty, and a beautiful woman, on a very magnificent scale. +Though I cannot find that she was distinguished for talents, or any +particular taste for literature, she seems to have possessed higher and +more loveable qualities, which won Ariosto's admiration and secured his +respect to the last. + +It was on his return from Rome in 1515, that Ariosto visited Florence, +intending merely to witness the grand festival which was then celebrated +in honour of St. John the Baptist, and lasted several days. With what +animation, what graphic power, he has described in one of his canzoni, +the scene and occasion in which he first beheld his mistress! The +magnificence of Florence left, he says, few traces on his memory: he +could only recollect that in all that fair city, he saw nothing so fair +as herself. + + Sol mi resta immortale + Memoria, ch'io non vidi in tutta quella + Bella citta, di voi, cosa piu bella. + +He had arrived just in time to be present at a fete, to which both were +invited, and which Alessandra, notwithstanding her recent widowhood, +condescended to adorn with her presence, "da preghi vinta"--conquered by +the entreaties of her friends. The whole scene is set forth like some of +the living and moving pictures which glow before us in the Orlando. + + Porte, finestre, vie, templi, teatri, + Vidi pieni di Donne, + A giochi, a pompe, a sacrifici intenti. + +The portrait of Alessandra in her festal attire, and all her matronly +loveliness, looks forth, as it were, from this gorgeous frame, like one +of Titian's breathing, full-blown beauties. Her dress is minutely +described: it was black, embroidered over with wreaths of vine-leaves +and bunches of grapes, in purple and gold; her fair luxuriant hair, +gathered in a net behind and parted in front, fell down on either side +of her face, in long curls which touched her shoulders. + + In aurei nodi, il biondo e spesso crine + In rara e sottil rete, avea raccolto; + Soave ombra di drieto + Rendea al collo, e dinanzi alle confine + Delle guance divine; + E discendea fin a l' avorio bianco + Del destro omero, e manco; + Con queste reti, insidiosi amori + Preser quel giorno, piu de mille cori! + + "In golden braids, her fair + And richly flowing hair + Was gather'd in a subtle net behind,-- + (A subtle net and rare!) + And cast sweet shadows there + Over her neck, whilst parted ringlets, twined + In beauty, from her forehead fell away, + And hung adown her cheek where roses lay, + Touching the ivory pale, (how pale and white!) + Of both her rounded shoulders, left and right. + O crafty Loves! no more ye need your darts; + For well ye know, how many thousand hearts, + (Willing captives on that day,) + In those golden meshes lay!"[77] + +On her brow, just where her hair is parted, she wears a sprig of laurel, +wondrously wrought in gems and gold; + + Quel gemmato + Alloro, tra la serena fronte e l' calle assunto. + +After a rapturous, but general description of the lady's surpassing +beauty, this animated and admirable canzone concludes with the fine +comparison of himself to the wild falcon, tamed at length to a master's +hand and voice:-- + + La libertade apprezza, + Fin che perduta ancor non l' ha il falcone; + Preso che sia, depone + Del gire errando si l' antica voglia, + Che sempre che si scioglia, + Al suo Signor a render con veloci + Ali s' andra, dove udira le voci! + +Ariosto, thus enamoured, forgot the flight of time; instead of remaining +at Florence a few days, his stay was prolonged to six months; and as he +resided in the house of his friend Vespucci, who was the brother-in-law +of Alessandra, he had daily opportunities of seeing her, without in any +way compromising her matronly dignity. On a certain occasion he finds +her employed at her embroidery. She is working a robe, with wreaths of +lilies and amaranthes; these emblems of purity and love suggest, of +course, the obvious compliments, but in a spirit that places the whole +scene before us: Alessandra, gracefully bending at her embroidery-frame, +and listening, with veiled lids and suspended needle, to the tender +homage of Ariosto, who repeats, as he hangs over her,-- + + Non senza causa il giglio e l' amaranto, + L' uno di fede, e l' altro fior d' amore, &c. + +Even the pattern from which she is working, the silk, the gold, the +lawn, made happy by her touch, are sanctified, are envied,-- + + Avventuroso man! beato ingegno! + Beata seta! beatissimo oro! + Ben nato lino! inclito bel lavoro, + Da chi vuol la mia dea prender disegno, + Per far a vostro esempio un vestir degno, + Che copra avorio, e perle ed un tesoro![78] + +And he adds, "Ah, that she would rather take pattern after me, and +imitate the constant love I bear her!" + +Alessandra must have excelled in needle-work, for we find frequent +mention of her favorite occupation; and it is even alluded to in the +Orlando, where describing the wound of Zerbino, Ariosto uses a +comparison rather too fanciful for the occasion. + + Cosi talora un bel purpureo nastro + Ho veduto partir tela d'argento, + Da quel bianca man piu ch'alabastro + Da cui partire il cor spesso mi sento. + + And so, I sometimes have been wont to view + A hand more white than alabaster, part + The silver cloth, with ribbons red of hue, + A hand I often feel divide my heart.[79] + +Among the personal charms of Alessandra, the most striking was the +beauty and luxuriance of her hair. In the days of Ariosto, fair hair, +with a golden tinge, was so much admired that it became a fashion; we +are even informed that the Venetian women had invented a dye, or +extract, by which they discharged the natural colour of their tresses, +and gave them this admired hue. Almost all Titian's and Giorgione's +beauties have fair hair; the "richissima capellatura bionda" of +Alessandra, was a principal charm in the eyes of her lover, but it was +one she was destined to lose prematurely; during a dangerous illness, +some rash and luckless physician ordered all her beautiful tresses to be +cut off. The remedy, it seems, was equally unnecessary and unfortunate; +but here was a fine theme for an indignant lover! and Ariosto has, +accordingly, lavished on it some of his most graceful and poetical +ideas. Of the three elegant sonnets[80] in which he has commemorated the +incident, it is difficult to decide which is the finest--the last, +perhaps, is the most spirited: the poet bursts at once into his subject, +as in a transport of grief and rage. + +"When I think, as I do, a thousand, thousand times a-day, upon those +golden tresses, which neither wisdom nor necessity, but hasty folly, +tore, alas! from that fair head, I am enraged,--my cheek burns with +anger,--even tears gush forth, bathing my face and bosom;--I could die +to be revenged on the impious stupidity of that rash hand! O Love, if +such wrong goes unpunished, thine be the reproach! Remember how Bacchus +avenged on the Thracian King,[81] the clusters torn from his sacred +vines: wilt thou, who art greater far than he, do less? Wilt thou suffer +the loveliest and dearest of thy possessions to be audaciously ravished, +and yet bear it in silence?"[82] + +This is powerful enough to be in downright earnest: and unsoftened by +the flowing harmony of the verse and rhyme, appears even harsh, both in +sentiment and expression: but the poetry and spirit being inherent, have +not, I trust, quite escaped in the _transfusion_. When Ariosto, after a +long absence, revisits the scene in which he first beheld the lady of +his thoughts, he addresses those "marble halls, and lofty and stately +roofs, + + "Marmoree logge, alti e superbi tetti," + +in a strain which leaves the issue of his suit something less than +doubtful:-- + +"Well do ye remember, ye scenes, when I left ye a captive sick at +heart, and pierced with Love's sweet pain: but ye know not perhaps how +sweetly I died, and was restored again to life: how my gentlest Lady, +seeing that my soul had forsaken me, sent me hers in return to dwell +with me for ever!" + + "Ben vi sovvien, che di qui andai captivo, + Trafitto il cor! ma non sapete forse + Com' io morissi, e poi tornassi in vita. + + E che madonna, tosto che s' accorse + Esser l' anima in lei da me fuggita, + La sua mi diede, e ch' or con questa vivo!" + +The exact date of Ariosto's marriage cannot be ascertained, but the +marriage itself is proved beyond a doubt:[83] it must have taken place +about 1522. The reasons which induced Ariosto to involve in doubt and +mystery his union with this admirable woman, can only be +conjectured,[84] their intercourse was so carefully concealed, and the +discretion and modesty of Alessandra so remarkable, that no suspicion of +the ties which bound them to each other, existed during the life of the +poet; nor did the slightest imputation ever sully the fair fame of her +he loved. + +It were endless to point out the various beauties of Ariosto's +lyrics,--beauties which, as they spring from feeling, are _felt_. We +have few sonnets in a dolorous strain, few complaints of cruelty; and +even these seem inspired, not by the habitual coldness of Alessandra, +but by some occasional repulses which he confesses to have deserved. + + Per poco consiglio, e troppo ardire. + +But we have, in their place, all the glow of sensibility, the sparkling +of hope, the grateful rapture of returned affection, and that power of +imagery, by which, with one vivid stroke, he turns his emotions into +pictures: these predominate throughout. As an instance of the latter, +there is the apostrophe to Hope, "now bounding and leaping along, now +creeping with coward steps and slow:" + + O speranza! che ancor dietro si mena + Quando a gran salti, e quando a passi lenti! + +In one of his madrigals, he says, with an elegance which is perhaps a +little quaint, "my wishes soar so high, that my hopes shrink back, and +dare not follow them." In the same spirit, when he is blest with the +presence of his love, grief is not only banished, but "flies with the +rapidity of a falcon before the wind," + + Vola, com' un falcone che ha seco il vento! + +Merely to compare his mistress to a rose, would have been common-place. +She is a rose "unfolding her _paradise_ of leaves,"--a charming +expression, which has been adopted, I think, by one of our living poets. +Mingled with the most rapturous praise of Alessandra's triumphant +beauty, we have constantly the most delightful impression of her +tenderness, her frank and courteous bearing, and the gladness which her +presence diffuses through his heart, which, after the sentimental +lamentations of former poets, are really a relief. + +I can understand the self-congratulation, the secret enjoyment, with +which Ariosto dwelt on the praises of Alessandra, celebrated her charms, +and exulted in her love, while her name remained an impenetrable secret, + + Nor pass'd his lips in holy silence seal'd! + +But when once he had introduced her into the Orlando, he must have had a +very modest idea of his own future renown, not to have anticipated the +consequences. A famous passage in the 42d canto, is now universally +admitted to be a description of Alessandra.[85] She is very strikingly +introduced, and yet with the usual characteristic mystery; so that while +nothing is omitted that can excite interest and curiosity, every means +are taken to baffle and disappoint both. Rinaldo, while travelling in +Italy, arrives at a splendid palace on the banks of the Po. It is +minutely described, with all the prodigal magnificence of the Arabian +Nights', and all the taste of an architect; and among other riches, is +adorned with the statues of the most celebrated women of that age, all +of whom are named at length; but among them stands the effigy of one so +preeminent in majesty, and beauty, and intellect, that though she is +partly veiled, and habited in modest black, (alluding to her recent +widowhood,) though she wears neither jewels nor chains of gold, she +eclipses all the beauties around her, as the evening star outshines all +others. + + Che sotto puro velo, in nera gonna + Senza oro e gemme, in un vestire schietto, + Fra le piu adorne non parea men bella + Che sia tra l'altre la ciprigna stella![86] + +At her side stands the image of one, who in humble strains had dared to +celebrate her virtues and her beauty (meaning himself). "But," adds the +poet modestly, "I know not why he alone should be placed there, nor what +he had done to be so honoured; of all the rest, the names were +sculptured beneath; but of these two, the names remained unknown."--No, +not so! for those whom Love and Fame have joined together, who shall +henceforth sunder? + +The Orlando Furioso was completed and published shortly after Ariosto's +visit to Florence; and this passage must have been written apparently +not only before his marriage with Alessandra, but before he was even +secure of her affection; perhaps he read it aloud to her, and while his +stolen looks and faltering voice betrayed the true object of this most +beautiful and refined homage, she must have felt the delicacy which had +suppressed her name. In such a moment, how little could she have heeded +or thought of the voice of future fame, while the accents of her lover +thrilled through her heart! + +Alessandra removed from Florence to Ferrara, about 1519, and inhabited +the Casa Strozzi, in the street of Santa Maria in Vado. The residence +of Ariosto was in the Via Mirasole, at some distance. Both houses are +still standing. She died in 1552, having survived the poet about +nineteen years; and she was buried in the church of San Rocco at +Ferrara. + +She bore no children to Ariosto; and her son, by her first marriage +(Count Guido Strozzi), died before her. + + * * * * * + +Ariosto left two sons, whom he tenderly loved, and had educated with +extreme care. The eldest, Virginio, was the son of a beautiful +Contadinella, whose name was Orsolina; the mother of the youngest, +Giovanbattista, was also a girl of inferior rank; her name was Maria. +Neither are once mentioned or alluded to by Ariosto; but the mischievous +industry of the poet's commentators has immortalized their names and +their frailty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[75] + ----Non ebbe unqua pastore + Di me piu lieto, o piu felice amore! + +See the canzone to Ginevra, quoted by Baruffaldi. Vita, p. 148. + +[76] Monti. Poesie varie, p. 88. + +[77] Translated by a friend. + +[78] Sonnet 27. + +[79] Stewart Rose's translation. + +[80] The 26th, 27th, and 28th. + +[81] Lycurgus, King of Thrace. + +[82] Ariosto. Rime. + +[83] The proofs may be consulted in Baruffaldi, "Vita di M. Ludovico +Ariosto," published in 1807; and also in Frizzi, "Memorie della Famiglia +Ariosto." + +[84] Baruffaldi gives some family reasons, but they are far from being +satisfactory.--See VITA, in p. 159. + +[85] Ruscelli, Fabroni, Baruffaldi, and the late poet Monti, are all +agreed on this point. + +[86] Orlando Furioso, c. 42, st. 93. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +SPENSER'S ROSALIND AND SPENSER'S ELIZABETH. + + +Pass we from the Ariosto of Italy, to Spenser, our English Ariosto; the +transition is natural:--they resemble each other certainly, but with a +difference, and this difference reigns especially in their minor poems. + +The tender heart and luxuriant fancy of Spenser have thrown round his +attachments all the strong interest of reality and all the charm of +romance and poetry; and since we know that the first developement of his +genius was owing to female influence, his Rosalind ought to have been +deified for what her beauty achieved, had she possessed sufficient soul +to appreciate the lustre of her conquest. + +Immediately on leaving college, Spenser retired to the north of England, +where he first became enamoured of the fair being to whom, according to +the fashion of the day, he gave the fanciful appellation of Rosalind. We +are told that the letters which form this word being "well ordered," +(that is, _transposed_) comprehend her real name; but it has hitherto +escaped the penetration of his biographers. Two of his friends were +entrusted with the secret, and they, with a discretion more to be +regretted than blamed, have kept it. One of these, who speaks from +personal knowledge, tells us, in a note on the Eclogues, that she was +the daughter of a widow; that she was a gentlewoman, and one "that for +her rare and singular gifts of person and mind, Spenser need not have +been ashamed to love." We can believe this of a poet, whose delicate +perception of female worth breathes in almost every page of his works; +but after having, as he hoped, made some progress in her heart, a rival +stept in, whom Spenser accuses expressly of having supplanted him by +treacherous arts;[87] and on this obscure and nameless wight, Rosalind +bestowed the hand which had been coveted,--the charms which had been +sung by Spenser! He suffered long and deeply, wounded both in his pride +and in his love: but her beauty and virtue had made a stronger +impression than her cruelty; and her lover, with a generous tenderness, +not only pardoned, but found excuses for her disdain. + + "I have often heard, + Fair Rosalind of divers foully blam'd, + For being to that swain too cruel hard; + But who can tell what cause had that fair maid + To use him so, that loved her so well? + Or who with blame can justly her upbraid, + For loving not; for who can love compel? + And (sooth to say) it is full handy thing + Rashly to censure creatures so divine; + For demi-gods they be; and first did spring + From heaven, though graft in frailness feminine."[88] + +The exquisite sentiment of these lines is worthy of him who sung of +"heavenly Una and her milk-white lamb." + +To the memory of Rosalind,--to the long felt influence of this first +passion, and to the melancholy shade which his early disappointment cast +over a mind naturally cheerful, we owe some of the most tender and +beautiful passages scattered through his later poems:--for instance--the +bitter sense of recollected suffering, seems to have suggested that fine +description of a lover's life, which may almost rank as a _pendant_ to +the miseries of the courtier, so well known and often quoted. + + Full little know'st thou that hast not tied, &c. + +It occurs in the "Hymn to Love." + + The gnawing envy, the heart-fretting fear, + The vain surmises, the distrustful shows, + The false reports that flying tales do bear, + The doubts, the dangers, the delays, the woes, + The feigned friends, the unassured foes, + With thousands more than any tongue can tell-- + Do make a lover's life, a wretch's hell! + +And again in the Fairey Queen:-- + + What equal torment to the grief of mind. + And pining anguish, hid in gentle heart, + That inly foods itself with thoughts unkind, + And nourisheth its own consuming smart; + And will to none its malady impart! + +The effects produced in a noble and gentle spirit, by virtuous love for +an exalted object, are not less elegantly described in another stanza of +the Hymn to Love; and must have been read with rapture in that +chivalrous age. The last line is particularly beautiful. + + Then forth he casts in his unquiet thought, + What he may do, her favour to obtain; + What brave exploit, what peril hardly wrought, + What puissant conquest, what adventurous pain, + May please her best, and grace unto him gain; + He dreads no danger, nor misfortune fears,-- + His faith, his fortune, in his breast he bears! + +And in what a fine spirit of poetry, as well as feeling, is that +description of the power of true beauty, which forms part of his second +Hymn! It is indeed imitated from the refined Platonics of the Italian +school, which then prevailed in the court, the camp, the grove, and is a +little diffuse in style, a little redundant; but how rich in poetry, and +in the most luxuriant and graceful imagery! + + How vainly then do idle wits invent, + That beauty is nought else but mixture made + Of colours fair, and goodly temperament + Of pure complexions, that shall quickly fade + And pass away, like to a summer's shade; + Or that it is but comely composition + Of parts well measured, with meet disposition! + + Hath white and red in it such wondrous power, + That it can pierce through th' eyes into the heart, + And therein stir such rage and restless stowre, + As nought but death can stint his dolor's smart? + Or can proportion of the outward part + Move such affection in the inward mind, + That it can rob both sense, and reason blind? + + Why do not then the blossoms of the field, + Which are array'd with much more orient hue, + And to the sense most dainty odours yield, + Work like impression in the looker's view? + Or why do not fair pictures like power show, + In which oft-times we Nature see of Art + Excell'd, in perfect limming every part? + + But ah! believe me, there is more than so, + That works such wonders in the minds of men, + I, that have often prov'd, too well it know. + And who so list the like essaies to ken, + Shall find by trial, and confess it then, + That beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, + An outward show of things that only seem. + + For that same goodly hue of white and red, + With which the cheeks are sprinkled, shall decay, + And those sweet rosy leaves, so fairly spread + Upon the lips, shall fade and fall away, + To that they were, even to corrupted clay:-- + That golden wire, those sparkling stars so bright + Shall turn to dust, and lose their goodly light. + + But that fair lamp, from whose celestial ray + That light proceeds, which kindleth lovers' fire, + Shall never be extinguished nor decay; + But, when the vital spirits do expire, + Unto her native planet shall retire; + For it is heavenly born and cannot die, + Being a parcel of the purest sky! + +At a late period of Spenser's life, the remembrance of this cruel piece +of excellence,--his Rosalind, was effaced by a second and a happier +love. His sonnets are addressed to a beautiful Irish girl, the daughter +of a rich merchant of Cork. She it was who healed the wound inflicted by +disdain and levity, and taught him the truth he has expressed in one +charming line-- + + Sweet is that love alone, that comes with willingnesse! + +Her name was Elizabeth, and her family (as Spenser tells us himself,) +obscure; but, in spite of her plebeian origin, the lady seems to have +been a very peremptory and Juno-like beauty. Spenser continually dwells +upon her pride of sex, and has placed it before us in many charming +turns of thought, now deprecating it as a fault, but oftener celebrating +it as a virtue. For instance,-- + + Rudely thou wrongest my dear heart's desire, + In finding fault with her too portly pride: + The thing which I do most in her admire, + Is of the world unworthy most envied; + For in those lofty looks is close implied, + Scorn of base things, disdain of foul dishonour; + Threatening rash eyes which gaze on her so wide, + That loosely they ne dare to look upon her. + Such pride is praise; such portliness is honour.[89] + +And again, in the thirteenth sonnet,-- + + In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth, + Whiles her fair face she rears up to the sky, + And to the ground, her eyelids low embaseth, + Most goodly temperature ye may descry; + Mild humblesse, mixt with awful majesty! + +This picture of the deportment erect with conscious dignity, and the +eyelids veiled with feminine modesty, is very beautiful. We have the +figure of his Elizabeth before us in all her maidenly dignity and proud +humility. The next is a softened repetition of the same characteristic +portrait: + + Was it the work of Nature or of Art, + Which temper'd so the features of her face, + That pride and meekness, mixt by equal part, + Do both appear to adorn her beauty's grace![90] + +He rebukes her with a charming mixture of reproof and flattery, in the +lines-- + + Fair Proud! now tell me, why should fair be proud? &c. + +This imperious and high-souled beauty at length gives some sign of +relenting; and pursuing the train of thought and feeling through the +latter part of the collection, we can trace the vicissitudes of the +lady's temper, and how the lover sped in his wooing. First, she grants a +smile, and it is hailed with rapture-- + + Sweet smile! the daughter of the Queen of Love, + Expressing all thy mother's powerful art, + With which she wont to temper angry Jove, + When all the gods he threats with thundering dart: + Sweet is thy virtue, as thyself sweet art! + For, when on me thou shinedst late in sadness, + A melting pleasance ran through every part, + And me revived with heart-robbing gladness![91] + +The effect of a first relenting and affectionate smile, from a being of +this character, must, in truth, have been irresistible. He tells us how +lovely she appeared in his eyes,--how surpassing fair: + + When that the cloud of pride which oft doth dark + Her goodly light, with smiles she drives away! + +He finds her one day embroidering in silk a bee and a spider, + + Woven all about, + With woodbynd flowers and fragrant eglantine, + +and he playfully compares himself to a spider, and her to the bee, whom, +after long and weary watching, he has at length caught in his snare. +This pretty incident is the subject of the 71st Sonnet. The rapture of +grateful affection is more eloquent in the Sonnet beginning + + Joy of my life! full oft for loving you + I bless my lot, that was so lucky placed, &c. + +When he is allowed to hope, the pride which had before checked and +chilled him, seems to change its character. He feels all the exultation +of being beloved of one, not easily gained, and "assured unto herself." + + Thrice happy she that is so well assured + Unto herself, and settled so in heart, &c.[92] + +After a courtship of about three years, he sues for the possession of +the fair hand to which he had so long aspired; promising her (and not +vainly,) all the immortality his verse could bestow,-- + + Even this verse, vowed to eternity, + Shall be of her immortal monument, + And tell her praise to all posterity! + +The fair Elizabeth at length confesses herself won; but expresses some +fears at the idea of relinquishing her maiden freedom. His reply is, +perhaps, the most beautiful of all the Sonnets. It has all the +tenderness, elegance, and fancy, which distinguish Spenser in his +happiest moments of inspiration. + + The doubt which ye misdeem, fair love, is vain, + That fondly fear to lose your liberty; + When, losing one, two liberties ye gain, + And make him bound that bondage erst did fly. + Sweet be the bands, the which true love doth tye + Without constraint, or dread of any ill: + The gentle bird feels no captivity + Within her cage; but sings, and feeds her fill: + There pride dare not approach, nor discord spill + The league 'twixt them, that loyal love hath bound: + But simple Truth, and mutual Good-will, + Seeks, with sweet peace, to salve each other's wound: + There Faith doth fearless dwell is brazen tower, + And spotless Pleasure builds her sacred bower.[93] + +The _Amoretti_, as Spenser has fancifully entitled his Sonnets, are +certainly tinctured with a good deal of the verbiage and pedantry of the +times; but I think I have shown that they contain passages of earnest +feeling, as well as high poetic beauty. Spenser married his Elizabeth, +about the year 1593, and he has crowned his amatory effusions with a +most impassioned and triumphant epithalamion on his own nuptials, which +he concludes with a prophecy, that it shall stand a perpetual monument +of his happiness, and thus it has been. The passage in which he +describes his youthful bride, is perhaps one of the most beautiful and +vivid _pictures_ in the whole compass of English poetry. + + Behold, while she before the altar stands, + Hearing the holy priest that to her speaks, + And blesses her with his two happy hands. + How the red roses flush up in her cheeks. + And the pure snow, with goodly vermeil stain, + Like crimson died in grain! + That even the angels, which continually + About the sacred altar do remain, + Forget their service, and about her fly, + Oft peeping in her face, which seems more fair, + The more they on it stare. + But her sad eyes, still fastened on the ground, + Are governed with a goodly modesty + That suffers not a look to glance away, + Which may let in a little thought unsound. + Why blush ye, love! to give to me your hand + The pledge of all our band! + Sing! ye sweet angels! Hallelujah sing! + That all the woods may answer, and their echoes ring! + +And the rapturous apostrophe to the evening star is in a fine strain of +poetry. + + Late, though it be, at last I see it gloom, + And the bright evening star, with golden crest, + Appear out of the west! + Fair child of beauty! glorious lamp of love! + That all the host of heaven in ranks dost lead, + And guidest lovers through the night's sad dread, + How cheerfully thou lookest from above, + And seem'st lo laugh atween thy twinkling light! + +As Ariosto has contrived to introduce his personal feelings, and the +memory of his love, into the Orlando Furioso, so Spenser has enshrined +_his_ in the Fairy Queen; but he has not, I think, succeeded so well in +the _manner_ of celebrating the woman he delighted to honour. Ariosto +has the advantage over the English poet, in delicacy and propriety of +feeling as well as power. Spenser's picture of the swelling eminence, +the lawn, the clustering trees, the cascade-- + + Whose silver waves did softly tumble down, + +haunted by nymphs and fairies; the bevy of beauties who dance in a +circle round the lady of his love, while he himself, in his character of +Colin Clout, sits aloof piping on his oaten reed, remind us of one of +Claude's landscapes: and the difference between the pastoral luxuriance +of this diffuse description, and the stately magnificence of Ariosto's, +is very characteristic of the two poets. Were I to choose, however, I +would rather have been the object of Ariosto's compliment than of +Spenser's. The passage in the Fairy Queen occurs in the 10th canto of +the Legend of Sir Calidore; and all his commentators are agreed that the +allusion is to his Elizabeth, and not to Rosalind. + +Both are mentioned in "Colin Clout's come home again." Rosalind, and her +disdainful rejection of the poet's love, are alluded to near the end, in +some lines already quoted; but a very beautiful passage, near the +commencement of the poem, clearly alludes to Elizabeth, under whose +thrall he was at the time it was written. + + Ah! far be it, (quoth Colin Clout,) fro me, + That I, of gentle maids, should ill deserve, + For that myself I do profess to be + Vassal to one, whom all my days I serve; + The beam of Beauty, sparkled from above, + The flower of virtue and pure chastitie; + The blossom of sweet joy and perfect love; + The pearl of peerless grace and modesty! + To her, my thoughts I daily dedicate; + To her, my heart I nightly martyrise; + To her, my love I lowly do prostrate; + To her, my life I wholly sacrifice: + My thought, my heart, my life, my love, is she! &c. + +Spenser married his Elizabeth about the year 1593. He resided at this +time at the Castle of Kilcolman, in the south of Ireland, a portion of +the forfeited domains of the Earl of Desmond having been assigned to +him: but the adherents of that unhappy chief saw in Spenser only an +invader of their rights,--a stranger living on their inheritance, while +they were cast out to starvation or banishment. He and his family dwelt +in continual fears and disturbance from the distracted state of the +country; and at length, about two years after his marriage, he was +attacked in his castle by the native Irish. He and his wife escaped with +difficulty, and one of their children perished in the flames. After this +catastrophe they came to England, and Spenser died in 1598, about five +years after his marriage with Elizabeth. The short period of their +union, though disturbed by misfortunes, losses, and worldly cares, was +never clouded by domestic disquiet. This haughty beauty, + + Whose lofty countenance seemed to scorn + Base thing, and think how she to heaven might climb, + +became the tenderest and most faithful of wives. How long she survived +her husband is not known; but though scarce past the bloom of youth at +the period of her loss, we have no account of her marrying again. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[87] Eclogue 6. + +[88] Colin Clout. + +[89] Sonnet 5. + +[90] Sonnet 21. + +[91] Sonnet 39. + +[92] Sonnet 39. + +[93] Sonnet 65. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ON THE LOVE OF SHAKSPEARE. + + +Shakspeare--I approach the subject with reverence, and even with +fear,--is the only poet I am acquainted with and able to appreciate, who +appears to have been really heaven-inspired: the workings of his +wondrous and all-embracing mind were directed by a higher influence than +ever was exercised by woman, even in the plenitude of her power and her +charms. Shakspeare's genius waited not on Love and Beauty, but Love and +Beauty ministered to _him_; he perceived like a spirit; he was created, +to create; his own individuality is lost in the splendour, the reality, +and the variety of his own conceptions. When I think what those are, I +feel how needless, how vain it were to swell the universal voice with +one so weak as mine. Who would care for it that knows and feels +Shakspeare? Who would listen to it that does not, if there be such? + +It is not Shakspeare as a great power bearing a great name,--but +Shakspeare in his less divine and less known character,--as a lover and +a man, who finds a place here. The only writings he has left, through +which we can trace any thing of his personal feelings and affections, +are his Sonnets. Every one who reads them, who has tenderness or taste, +will echo Wordsworth's denunciation against the "flippant insensibility" +of some of his commentators, who talked of an Act of Parliament not +being strong enough to compel their perusal, and will agree in his +opinion, that they are full of the most exquisite feelings, most +felicitously expressed; but as to the object to whom they were +addressed, a difference of opinion prevails. From a reference, however, +to all that is known of Shakspeare's life and fortunes, compared with +the internal presumptive evidence contained in the Sonnets, it appears +that some of them are addressed to his amiable friend, Lord Southampton; +and others, I think, are addressed in Southampton's name, to that +beautiful Elizabeth Vernon, to whom the Earl was so long and ardently +attached.[94] The Queen, who did not encourage matrimony among her +courtiers, absolutely refused her consent to their union. She treated +him as she did Raleigh in the affair of Elizabeth Throckmorton; and +Southampton, after four years of impatient submission and still +increasing love, as tenderly returned by his mistress, married without +the Queen's knowledge, lost her favour for ever, and had nearly lost his +head.[95] + +That Lord Southampton is the subject of the first fifty-five Sonnets is +sufficiently clear; and some of these are perfectly beautiful,--as the +30th, 32d, 41st, 54th. There are others scattered through the rest of +the volume, on the same subject; but there are many which admit of no +such interpretation, and are without doubt inspired by the real object +of a real passion, of whom nothing can be discovered, but that she was +dark-eyed[96] and dark-haired,[96] that she excelled in music;[97] and +that she was one of a class of females who do not always, in losing all +right to our respect, lose also their claim to the admiration of the sex +who wronged them, or the compassion of the gentler part of their own, +who have rejected them. This is so clear from various passages, that +unhappily there can be no doubt of it.[98] He has flung over her, +designedly it should seem, a veil of immortal texture and fadeless hues, +"branched and embroidered like the painted Spring," but almost +impenetrable even to our imagination. There are few allusions to her +personal beauty, which can in any way individualise her, but bursts of +deep and passionate feeling, and eloquent reproach, and contending +emotions, which show, that if she could awaken as much love and impart +as much happiness as woman ever inspired or bestowed, he endured on her +account all the pangs of agony, and shame, and jealousy;--that our +Shakspeare,--he who, in the omnipotence of genius, wielded the two +worlds of reality and imagination in either hand, who was in conception +and in act scarce less than a GOD, was in passion and suffering not more +than MAN. + +Instead of any elaborate description of her person, we have, in the only +sonnet which sets forth her charms, the rich materials of a picture, +rather than the picture itself. + + The forward violet thus did I chide: + Sweet thief, whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells, + If not from my Love's breath? The purple pride + Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells, + In my Love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd. + The lily I condemned for thy hand, + And buds of marjoram had stolen thy hair: + The roses fearfully on thorns did stand, + One blushing shame, another white despair: + A third, nor red nor white, had stolen of both, + And to his robbery had annex'd thy breath; + But for his theft, in pride of all his growth + A vengeful canker eat him up to death. + More flowers I noted, yet I none could see, + But sweet, or colour, it had stolen from thee. + +He intimates that he found a rival in one of his own most intimate +friends, who was also a poet.[99] He laments her absence in this +exquisite strain;-- + + How like a winter hath my absence been + From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! + What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen, + What old December's bareness everywhere! + + ....*....*....*....* + + For Summer and his pleasures wait on thee, + And thou away, the very birds are mute! + +He dwells with complacency on her supposed truth and tenderness, her +bounty, like Juliet's, "boundless as the sea, her love as deep." + + Kind is my love to-day, to-morrow kind, + Still constant in a wondrous excellence. + +Then, as if conscious upon how unstable a foundation he had built his +love, he expresses his fear lest he should be betrayed, yet remain +unconscious of the wrong. + + For there can live no hatred in thine eye, + Therefore in that I cannot know thy change! + In many looks, the false heart's history + Is writ in moods and frowns, and wrinkles strange. + But heaven in thy creation did decree, + That in thy face sweet love should ever dwell. + +He bitterly reproaches her with her levity and falsehood, and himself +that he can be thus unworthily enslaved,-- + + What potions have I drunk of Syren tears, &c. + +Then, with lover-like inconsistency, excuses her,-- + + As on the finger of a throned queen + The basest jewel will be well esteemed: + So are those errors that in thee are seen + To truths translated, and for true things deem'd. + +And the following are powerfully and painfully expressive:-- + + How sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame, + Which, like the canker in a fragrant rose, + Doth spot the beauty of thy budding name! + Oh, in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose! + + And what a mansion have those vices got, + Which for their habitation chose out thee, + Where Beauty's veil doth cover every blot, + And all things turn to fair that eyes can see! + +"Who taught thee," he says in another sonnet, + + --to make me love thee more + The more I hear, and see just cause for hate? + +He who wrote these and similar passages was certainly under the full and +irresistible influence of female fascination. But who it was that thus +ruled the universal heart and mighty spirit of our Shakspeare, we know +not. She stands beside him a veiled and a nameless phantom. Neither dare +we call in Fancy to penetrate that veil; for who would presume to trace +even the faintest outline of such a being as Shakspeare could have +loved? + + * * * * * + +I think it doubtful to whom were addressed those exquisite lines, + + Then hate me when thou wilt, if ever, now! &c.[100] + +but probably to this very person. + +The Sonnets in which he alludes to his profession as an actor; where he +speaks of the brand, "which vulgar scandal stamped upon his brow," and +of having made himself "a motley to men's view,"[101] are undoubtedly +addressed to Lord Southampton. + + O, for my sake, do you with fortune chide + The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, + That did not better for my life provide, + Than publick means, which public manners breeds; + Thence comes it that my name receives a brand, + And almost thence my nature is subdu'd + To what it works in, like the dyer's hand. + Pity me then, and wish I were renew'd. + +The last I shall remark, perhaps the finest of all, and breathing the +very soul of profound tenderness and melancholy feeling, must, I think, +have been addressed to a female. + + No longer mourn for me when I am dead, + Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell + Give warning to the world that I am fled + From this vile earth, with vilest worms to dwell: + Nay, if you read this line, remember not + The hand that writ it; for I love you so + That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot, + If thinking on me then should make you woe. + O if (I say) you look upon this verse, + When I perhaps compounded am with clay, + Do not so much as my poor name rehearse; + But let your love even with my life decay: + Lest the wise world should look into your moan, + And mock you with me after I am gone. + +The period assigned to the composition of these Sonnets, and the +attachment which inspired them, is the time when Shakspeare was living a +wild and irregular life, between the court and the theatre, after his +flight from Stratford. He had previously married, at the age of +seventeen, Judith Hathaway, who was eight or ten years older than +himself: he returned to his native town, after having sounded all depths +of life, of nature, of passion, and ended his days as the respected +father of a family, in calm, unostentatious privacy. + +One thing I will confess:--It is natural to feel an intense and +insatiable curiosity relative to great men, a curiosity and interest for +which nothing can be too minute, too personal.--And yet when I had +ransacked all that had ever been written, discovered, or surmised, +relative to Shakspeare's private life, for the purpose of throwing some +light upon his Sonnets, I felt no gratification, no thankfulness to +those whose industry had raked up the very few particulars which can be +known. It is too much, and it is not enough: it disappoints us in one +point of view--it is superfluous in another: what need to surround with +common-place, trivial associations, registers of wills and genealogies, +and I know not what,--the mighty spirit who in dying left behind him not +merely a name and fame, but a perpetual being, a presence and a power, +identified with our nature, diffused through all time, and ruling the +heart and the fancy with an uncontrollable and universal sway! + +I rejoice that the name of no one woman is popularly identified with +that of Shakspeare. He belongs to us all!--the creator of Desdemona, and +Juliet, and Ophelia, and Imogen, and Viola, and Constance, and Cornelia, +and Rosalind, and Portia, was not the poet of one woman, but the POET OF +WOMANKIND. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[94] She was the grandmother of Lady Russell. + +[95] Elizabeth Vernon was first cousin to Essex. "Was it treason?" asks +Essex indignantly, in one of his eloquent letters; "Was it treason in my +Lord of Southampton to marry my poor kinswoman, that neither long +imprisonment, nor any punishment besides that hath been usual in such +cases can satisfy or appease?" + +[96] Sonnets 127, 130 + +[97] Sonnet 128. + +[98] See "Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare." + +[99] Sonnets 80, 83. + +[100] Sonnet 172. + +[101] Sonnets 110, 111. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +SYDNEY'S STELLA. + + +At the very name of Sir Philip Sydney,--the generous, gallant, +all-accomplished Sydney,--the roused fancy wakes, as at the sound of a +silver trumpet, to all the gay and splendid associations of chivalry and +romance. He was in the court of Elizabeth, what Surrey had been in that +of her father, Henry the Eighth; and like his prototype. Sir Calidore in +the Fairy Queen,-- + + Every look and word that he did say + Was like enchantment, that through both the ears + And both the eyes, did steal the heart away. + +And as Surrey had his Fair Geraldine, Sydney had his STELLA. + +Simplicity was not the fashion of Elizabeth's age in any particular: the +conversation and the poetry addressed by her stately romantic courtiers +to her and her maids of honour, were like the dresses they wore,--stiff +with jewels and standing on end with embroidery, gorgeous of hue and +fantastic in form; but with many a brilliant gem of exceeding price, +scattered up and down, where one would scarce think to find them; losing +something of their effect by being misplaced, but none of their inherent +beauty and value. The poetry of Sir Philip Sydney was extravagantly +admired in his own time, and it has since been less read than it +deserves. It contains much of the pedantic quaintness, the laboured +ornament, the cumbrous phraseology, which was the taste, the language of +the day: but he had elegance of mind and tenderness of feeling; above +all, he was in earnest, and accordingly, there are beautiful and +brilliant things scattered through both his poetry and prose. If his +"Phoenix-Stella" be less popularly celebrated than the Fair +Geraldine,--her name less intimate with our fancy,--it is not because +her poet lacked skill to immortalize her in superlatives: it is the +recollection of the mournful fate and darkened fame of that beautiful +but ill-starred woman, contrasted with the brilliant career and spotless +glory of her lover, which strikes the imagination with a painful +contrast, and makes us reluctant to dwell on her memory. + +The Stella of Sydney's poetry, and the Philoclea of his Arcadia, was the +Lady Penelope Devereux, the elder sister of the favourite Essex. While +yet in her childhood, she was the destined bride of Sydney, and for +several years they were considered as almost engaged to each other: it +was natural, therefore, at this time, that he should be accustomed to +regard her with tenderness and unreproved admiration, and should gratify +both by making her the object of his poetical raptures. She was also +less openly, but even more ardently, loved by young Charles Blount, +afterwards Lord Mountjoy, who seems to have disputed with Sydney the +first place in her heart. + +She is described as a woman of exquisite beauty, on a grand and splendid +scale; dark sparkling eyes; pale brown hair; a rich vivid complexion; a +regal brow and a noble figure. Sydney tells us that she was at first +"most fair, most cold;"--and the beautiful sonnet, + + "With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb'st the sky![102] + How silently, and with how wan a face!" + +refers to his earlier feelings. He describes a tilting-match, held in +presence of the Queen and Court, in which he came off victor-- + + Having this day my horse, my hand, my lance, + Guided so well, that I obtained the prize, &c.[103] + +"Stella looked on," he says, "and from her fair eyes sent forth the +encouraging glance that gave him victory." These soft and brilliant eyes +are often and beautifully touched upon; and it must be remarked, never +without an allusion to the _modesty_ of their expression. + + O eyes! that do the spheres of beauty move, + Which while they make Love conquer, conquer Love. + +And on some occasion, when she turned from him bashfully, he addresses +her in a most impassioned strain,-- + + Soul's joy! bend not those morning stars from me, + Where virtue is made strong by beauty's might, + Where love is chasteness--pain doth learn delight + And humbleness doth dwell with majesty: + Whatever may ensue, O let me be + Copartner of the riches of that sight; + Let not mine eyes be hell-driven from that light. + O look! O shine! O let me die, and see![104] + +Another, "To Sleep," is among the most beautiful, and I believe more +generally known. + + Lock up, fair lids! the treasure of my heart! &c. + +There is also much vivacity and earnest feeling in the lines addressed +to one who had lately left the presence of Stella, and of whom he +inquires of her welfare. Whoever has known what it is to be separated +from those beloved, to ask after them with anxious yet suppressed +fondness, of some unsympathising acquaintance, to be alternately +tantalised and _desespere_, by their vague and careless replies, will +understand, will feel their truth and beauty. Even the quaint, petulant +commencement is true to the sentiment: + + Be your words made, good Sir, of Indian ware, + That you allow me them at so small rate? + + ....*....*....*....* + + When I demand of Phoenix-Stella's state, + You say, forsooth, "You left her well of late." + O God! think you that satisfies _my_ care? + I would know whether she do sit or walk,-- + How clothed, how waited on? sighed she, or smiled? + Whereof--with whom--how often did she talk? + With what pastime, time's journey she beguiled? + If her lips deign'd to sweeten my poor name? + Say all! and all well said, still say the same! + +At length, after the usual train of hopes, fears, complaints, and +raptures, the lady begins to look with pity and favour on the "ruins of +her conquest;"[105] and he exults in an acknowledged return of love, +though her heart be given conditionally,-- + + His only, while he virtuous courses takes. + +So far Stella appears in a most amiable and captivating light, worthy +the romantic homage of her accomplished lover. But a dark shade steals, +like a mildew, over this bright picture of beauty, poetry, and love, +even while we gaze upon it. The projected union between Sydney and Lady +Penelope was finally broken off by their respective families, for +reasons which do not appear.[106] Sir Charles Blount offered himself, +and was refused, though evidently agreeable to the lady; and she was +married by her guardians to Lord Rich, a man of talents and integrity, +but most disagreeable in person and manners, and her declared +aversion.[107] + +This inauspicious union ended, as might have been expected, in misery +and disgrace. Lady Rich bore her fate with extreme impatience. Her warm +affections, her high spirit, and her strength of mind, so heroically +displayed in behalf of her brother, served but to render her more +poignantly sensible of the tyranny which had forced her into detested +bonds. She could not forget,--perhaps never wished or sought to +forget--that she had received the homage of the two most accomplished +men of that time,--Sydney and Blount; "and not finding that satisfaction +at home she ought to have received, she looked for it abroad where she +ought not to find it." + +Sydney describes a secret interview which took place between himself and +Lady Rich shortly after her marriage. I should have observed, that +Sydney designates himself all through his poems by the name of +Astrophel. + + In a grove, most rich of shade, + Where birds wanton music made, + May, then young, his pied weeds showing, + New perfumed with flowers fresh growing. + Astrophel, with Stella sweet, + Did for mutual comfort meet; + Both within themselves opprest, + But each in the other blest; + Him great harms had taught much care, + _Her fair neck a foul yoke bear_; + But her sight his cares did banish, + In his sight her yoke did vanish, &c. + +He pleads the time, the place, the season, and their divided vows; and +would have pressed his suit more warmly, + + But her hand, his hands repelling, + Gave repulse--all grace excelling! + + ....*....*....*....* + + Then she spake! her speech was such + As not ear, but heart did touch. + "Astrophel, (said she) my love, + Cease in these effects to prove! + Now be still!--yet still believe me, + Thy grief more than death would grieve me. + Trust me, while, I thus deny, + In myself the smart I try: + Tyrant honour doth thus use thee; + Stella's self might not refuse thee! + Therefore, dear! this no more move: + Lest, though I leave not thy love, + (Which too deep in me is framed!) + _I should blush when thou art named!_" + +The sentiment he has made her express in the last line is beautiful, and +too feminine and appropriate not to have been taken from nature; but, +unhappily, it did not always govern her conduct. How far her coquetry +proceeded we do not know. Sydney, about a year afterwards, married the +daughter of Secretary Walsingham, and survived his marriage but a short +time. This theme of song, this darling of fame, and ornament of his age, +perished at the battle of Zutphen, in the very summer of his glorious +youth. "He had trod," as the author of the Effigies Poeticae so +beautifully expresses it, "from his cradle to his grave, amid incense +and flowers--and died in a dream of glory!" + +His death was not only such as became the soldier and Christian;--the +natural elegance and sensibility of his mind followed him even to the +verge of the tomb: in his last moments, when the mortification had +commenced, and all hope was over, he called for music into his chamber, +and lay listening to it with tranquil pleasure. Sydney died in his +thirty-fourth year. + +Among the numerous poets who lamented this deep-felt loss (volumes, I +believe, were filled with the tributes paid to his memory), was Spenser, +whom Sydney had early patronised. His elegy, however, is too laboured, +too lengthy, too artificial, to please altogether, though containing +some lines of great beauty. It is singular, and a little +incomprehensible to our modern ideas of _bienseance_ and good taste, +that in this elegy, which Spenser dedicates to Sydney's widow after her +remarriage with Essex, he introduces Stella as lamenting over the body +of Astrophel, tells us how she beat her fair bosom--"the treasury of +joy,"--how she tore her lovely hair, wept out her eyes,-- + + And with sweet kisses suckt the parting breath + Out of his lips. + +At length, through excess of grief, or the compassion of the gods, she +is changed into the flower, "by some called starlight, by others +penthia." This might pass in those days; though, considering all the +circumstances, it is strange that, even then, it escaped ridicule. + +The tears shed for Sydney, by those nearest and dearest to him, were but +too soon dried. His widow was consoled by Essex, and his Stella, by her +old lover Mountjoy, who returned from Ireland, flushed with victory and +honours, and cast himself again at her feet. Their secret intercourse +remained, for several years, undiscovered. Lady Rich, who was tenderly +attached to her brother, was guarded in her conduct, fearing equally the +loss of his esteem, and the renewal of those hostile feelings which had +already caused one duel between Essex and Mountjoy. She had also +children; and as all, without exception, lived to be distinguished men +and virtuous women, we may give her credit for some attention to their +education,--some compunctious visitings of nature on their account. + +During her brother's imprisonment, she made the most strenuous, the most +persevering efforts to save his life: she besieged Elizabeth with the +richest presents, the most eloquent letters of supplication;--she +waylaid her at the door of her chamber, till commanded to remain a +prisoner in her own house;--she bribed, or otherwise won, all whom she +thought could plead his cause;--and when these were of no avail, and +Essex perished, she seems, in her despair, to have thrown off all +restraint--and at length, fled from the house of her husband. + +In 1605 she was legally divorced from Lord Rich; and soon after married +Mountjoy, then Earl of Devonshire. The marriage of a divorced wife in +the lifetime of her first husband, was in those days a thing almost +unprecedented in the English court, and caused the most violent outcry +and scandal. Laud (the archbishop, then chaplain to the Earl of +Devonshire,) incurred the censure of the Church for uniting the lovers, +and ever after fasted on the anniversary of this fatal marriage. The +Earl, one of the most admirable and distinguished men of that chivalrous +age, who "felt a stain as a wound," found it impossible to endure the +infamy brought on himself and the woman he loved: he died about a year +after: "the griefe," says a contemporary, "of this unhappie love brought +him to his end."[108] + +His unfortunate Countess lingered but a short time after him, and died +in a miserable obscurity.--Such is the history of Sydney's STELLA. + +Three of her sons became English earls; the eldest, Earl of Warwick; the +second, Earl of Holland; and the third (her son by Mountjoy) Earl of +Newport. The earldoms of Warwick and Holland were held by her lineal +descendants, till the death of that young Lord Warwick, whose mother +married Addison. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] Sonnet 31. + +[103] Sonnet 41. + +[104] Sonnet 48. + +[105] Sonnet 54. + +[106] "All the lords that wish well to the children of the Earl of +Essex, and I suppose all the best sorte of the English lords besides, +doe expect what will become of the treaty between Mr. Philip and my lady +Penelope. Truly, my Lord, I must say to your lordship, as I have said it +to my Lord of Leicester and Mr. Philip, the breaking off this match, if +the default be on your parts, will turn to more dishonour than can be +repaired with any other marriage in England."--_Letter of Mr. Waterhouse +to Sir Henry Sydney, in the Sydney Papers._ + +[107] Zouch's Life of Sir P. Sydney. + +[108] Memoirs of King James's Peers, by Sir E. Brydges. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +COURT AND AGE OF ELIZABETH. + +DRAYTON, DANIEL, DRUMMOND, &c. + + +The voluminous Drayton[109] has left a collection of sonnets under the +fantastic title of his IDEAS. Ideas they may be,--but they have neither +poetry, nor passion, nor even elegance:--a circumstance not very +surprising, if it be true that he composed them merely to show his +ingenuity in a style which was then the prevailing fashion of his time. +Drayton was never married, and little is known of his private life. He +loved a lady of Coventry, to whom he promises an immortality he has not +been able to confer. + + How many paltry, foolish, painted things + That now in coaches trouble every street, + Shall be forgotten, whom no poet sings, + E'er they be well wrapp'd in their winding-sheet; + + While I to thee eternity shall give, + When nothing else remaineth of these days, + + _And Queens hereafter shall be glad to live + Upon the alms of thy superfluous praise;_ + + Virgins and matrons reading these my rhimes, + Shall be so much delighted with thy story, + + That they shall grieve they liv'd not in these times, + To have seen thee, their sex's only glory: + + So thou shall fly above the vulgar throng, + Still to survive in my immortal song. + +There are fine nervous lines in this Sonnet: we long to hail the exalted +beauty who is announced by such a flourish of trumpets, and are +proportionably disappointed to find that she has neither "a local +habitation nor a name." Drayton's little song, + + I prythee, love! love me no more, + Take back the heart you gave me! + +stands unique, in point of style, among the rest of his works, and is +very genuine and passionate. Daniel,[110] who was munificently +patronized by the Lord Mountjoy, mentioned in the preceding sketch, was +one of the most graceful sonnetteers of that time; and he has touches of +tenderness as well as fancy; for _he_ was in earnest, and the object of +his attachment was real, though disguised under the name of Delia. She +resided on the banks of the river Avon, and was unmoved by the poet's +strains. Rank with her outweighed love and genius. Daniel says of his +Sonnets-- + + Though the error of my youth in them appear, + Suffice they show I lived, and loved thee dear. + +The lines + + Restore thy tresses to the golden ore, + Yield Citherea's son those arcs of love, + +are luxuriantly elegant, and quite Italian in the flow and imagery. Her +modesty is prettily set forth in another Sonnet-- + + A modest maid, deck'd with a blush of honour, + Whose feet do tread green paths of youth and love, + The wonder of all eyes that look upon her, + Sacred on earth, designed a Saint above! + +After a long series of sonnets, elaborately plaintive, he interrupts +himself with a little touch of truth and nature, which is quite +refreshing; + + I must not grieve my love! whose eyes should read + Lines of delight, whereon her youth might smile; + The flowers have time before they come to seed, + And she is young, and now must sport the while. + And sport, sweet maid! in season of these years, + And learn to gather flow'rs before they wither; + And where the sweetest blossom first appears, + Let Love and Youth conduct thy pleasures thither. + +If the lady could have been won by poetical flattery, she must have +yielded. At length, unable to bear her obduracy, and condemned to see +another preferred before him, Daniel resolved to travel; and he wrote, +on this occasion, the most feeling of all his Sonnets. + + And whither, poor forsaken! wilt thou go? + +Daniel remained abroad several years, and returning, cured of his +attachment, he married Giustina Florio, of a family of Waldenses, who +had fled from the frightful persecutions carried on in the Italian Alps +against that miserable people. With her, he appears to have been +sufficiently happy to forget the pain of his former repulse, and enjoy, +without one regretful pang, the fame it had given him as a poet. + +Drummond, of Hawthornden,[111] is yet more celebrated, and with reason. +He has elegance, and sweetness, and tenderness; but not the pathos or +the passion we might have expected from the circumstances of his +attachment, which was as real and deep, as it was mournful in its issue. +He loved a beautiful girl of the noble family of Cunningham, who is the +Lesbia of his poetry. After a fervent courtship, he succeeded in +securing her affections; but she died, "in the fresh April of her +years," and when their marriage-day had been fixed. Drummond has left us +a most charming picture of his mistress; of her modesty, her retiring +sweetness, her accomplishments, and her tenderness for him. + + O sacred blush, empurpling cheeks, pure skies + With crimson wings, which spread thee like the morn; + O bashful look, sent from those shining eyes; + O tongue in which most luscious nectar lies, + That can at once both bless and make forlorn; + Dear coral lip, which beauty beautifies, + That trembling stood before her words were born; + And you her words--words! no, but golden chains, + Which did enslave my ears, ensnare my soul; + Wise image of her mind,--mind that contains + A power, all power of senses to controul; + So sweetly you from love dissuade do me, + That I love more, if more my love can be. + +The quaint iteration of the same word through this Sonnet has not an ill +effect. The lady was in a more relenting mood when he wrote the Sonnet +on her lips, "those fruits of Paradise,"-- + + I die, dear life! unless to me be given + As many kisses as the Spring hath flowers, + Or there be silver drops in Iris' showers, + Or stars there be in all-embracing heaven; + And if displeased ye of the match remain, + Ye shall have leave to take them back again! + +He mentions a handkerchief, which, in the days of their first +tenderness, she had embroidered for him, unknowing that it was destined +to be steeped in tears for her loss!--In fact, the grief of Drummond on +this deprivation was so overwhelming, that he sunk at first into a total +despondency and inactivity, from which he was with difficulty roused. He +left the scene of his happiness, and his regrets-- + + Are these the flowery banks? is this the mead + Where she was wont to pass the pleasant hours? + Is this the goodly elm did us o'erspread, + Whose tender rind, cut forth in curious flowers + By that white hand, contains those flames of ours? + Is this the murmuring spring, us music made? + Deflourish'd mead, where is your heavenly hue? + +He travelled for eight years, seeking, in change of place and scene, +some solace for his wounded peace. There was a kind of constancy even in +Drummond's inconstancy; for meeting many years afterwards with an +amiable girl, who bore the most striking resemblance to his lost +mistress, he loved her for that very resemblance, and married her. Her +name was Margaret Logan. I am not aware that there are any verses +addressed to her. + +Drummond has been called the Scottish Petrarch: he tells us himself, +that "he was the first in this Isle who did celebrate a dead +mistress,"--and his resemblance to Petrarch, in elegance and sentiment, +has often been observed: he resembles him, it is true--but it is as a +professed and palpable imitator resembles the object of his imitation. + + * * * * * + +On glancing back at the age of Elizabeth,--so adorned by masculine +talent, in arts, in letters, and in arms,--we are at first surprised to +find so few distinguished women. It seems remarkable that a golden epoch +in our literature, to which she gave her name "the Elizabethan age,"--a +court in which a female ruled,--a period fruitful in great poets, should +have produced only one or two women who are interesting from their +poetical celebrity. Of these, Alice Spenser, Countess of Derby, and Mary +Sydney, Countess of Pembroke, (the sister of Sir Philip Sydney) are the +most remarkable; the first has enjoyed the double distinction of being +celebrated by Spenser in her youth, and by Milton in her age,--almost +too much honour for one woman, though she had been a muse, and a grace, +and a cardinal virtue, moulded in one. Lady Pembroke has been celebrated +by Spenser and by Ben Jonson, and was, in every respect, a most +accomplished woman. To these might be added other names, which might +have shone aloft like stars, and "shed some influence on this lower +world:" if the age had not produced two women, so elevated in station, +and so every way illustrious by accidental or personal qualities, that +each, in her respective sphere, extinguished all the lesser orbs around +her. It would have been difficult for any female to seize on the +attention, or claim either an historical or poetical interest, in the +age of Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart. + +In her own court, Elizabeth was not satisfied to preside. She could as +ill endure a competitor in celebrity or charms, as in power. She +arrogated to herself all the incense around her; and, in point of +adulation, she was like the daughter of the horse-leech, whose cry was, +"give! give!" Her insatiate vanity would have been ludicrous, if it had +not produced such atrocious consequences. This was the predominant +weakness of her character, which neutralized her talents, and was +pampered, till in its excess it became a madness and a vice. This +precipitated the fate of her lovely rival, Mary Queen of Scots. This +elevated the profligate Leicester to the pinnacle of favour, and kept +him there, sullied as he was by every baseness and every crime;[112] +this hurried Essex to the block; banished Southampton; and sent Raleigh +and Elizabeth Throckmorton to the Tower. Did one of her attendants, more +beautiful than the rest, attract the notice or homage of any of the gay +cavaliers around her,--was an attachment whispered, a marriage +projected,--it was enough to throw the whole court into consternation. +"Her Majesty, the Queen, was in a passion;" and, then, heaven help the +offenders! It was the spirit of Harry the Eighth let loose again. Yet +such is the reflected glory she derives from the Sydneys and the +Raleighs, the Walsinghams and Cecils, the Shakspeares and Spensers of +her time, that we can scarce look beyond it, to stigmatise the hard +unfeminine egotism of her character. + +There was something extremely poetical in her situation, as a maiden +queen, raised from a prison to a throne, exposed to unceasing danger +from without and treason from within, and supported through all by her +own extraordinary talents, and by the devotion of the chivalrous, +gallant courtiers and captains, who paid to her, as their queen and +mistress, a homage and obedience they would scarce have paid to a +sovereign of their own sex. All this display of talent and heroism, and +chivalrous gallantry, has a fine gorgeous effect to the +imagination;--but for the woman herself,--as a woman, with her pedantry, +and her absurd affectation; her masculine temper and coarse insolence; +her sharp, shrewish, cat-like face, and her pretension to beauty, it is +impossible to conceive any thing more anti-poetical. + + Yet had she praises in all plenteousness + Pour'd upon her, like showers of Castalie.[113] + +She was a favourite theme of the poets of the time, and by right divine +of her sceptre and her sex, an object of glorious flattery, not always +feigned, even where it was false. + +She is the Gloriana of Spenser's Fairy Queen,--she is the "Cynthia, the +ladye of the sea,"--she is the "Fair Vestal throned in the West," of +Shakspeare-- + + That very time I saw, (but thou couldst not,) + Flying between the cold moon and the earth, + Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took + At a fair Vestal, throned by the West, + And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow, + As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts; + But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft + Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon; + And the imperial vot'ress passed on + In maiden meditation, fancy free. + +And the previous allusion to Mary of Scotland, as the "Sea Maid on the +Dolphin's back," + + Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, + That the rude sea grew civil at her song, + +is not less exquisite. + +It would, in truth, have been easier for Mary to have calmed the rude +sea than her ruder and wilder subjects. These two queens, so strangely +misplaced, seem as if, by some sport of destiny, each had dropt into the +sphere designed for the other. Mary should have reigned over the +Sydneys, the Essexes, the Mountjoys;--and with her smiles, and sweet +words; and generous gifts, have inspired and rewarded the poets around +her. Elizabeth should have been transferred to Scotland, where she might +have bandied frowns and hard names with John Knox, cut off the heads of +rebellious barons, and boxed the ears of ill-bred courtiers. + +This is no place to settle disputed points of history, nor, if it were, +should I presume to throw an opinion in to one scale or the other; but +take the two queens as women merely, and with a reference to apparent +circumstances, I would rather have been Mary than Elizabeth; I would +rather have been Mary, with all her faults, frailties, and +misfortunes,--all her power of engaging hearts,--betrayed by her own +soft nature, and the vile or fierce passions of the men around her, to +die on a scaffold, with the meekness of a saint and the courage of a +heroine, with those at her side who would willingly have bled for +her,--than I would have been that heartless flirt, Elizabeth, surrounded +by the oriental servility, the lip and knee homage of her splendid +court; to die at last on her palace-floor, like a crushed wasp--sick of +her own very selfishness--torpid, sullen, and despairing,--without one +friend near her, without one heart in the wide world attached to her by +affection or gratitude. + +There is more true and earnest feeling in some little verses written by +Ronsard on the unhappy Queen of Scots, than in all the elegant, +fanciful, but extravagant flattery of Elizabeth's poets. After just +mentioning the English Queen, whom he dispatches in a single line,-- + + Je vis leur belle reine, honnete et vertueuse; + +he thus dwells on the charms of Mary:-- + + Je vis des Ecossais la Reine sage et belle, + Qui de corps et d'esprits ressemble une immortelle; + J'approchai de ses yeux, mais bien de deux soleils, + Deux soleils de beaute, qui n'ont point leurs pareils. + Je les vis larmoyer d'une claire rosee, + Je vis d'un clair crystal sa paupiere arrosee, + Se souvenant de France, et du sceptre laisse, + Et de son premier feu, comme un songe passe! + +And when Mary was a prisoner, he dedicated to her a whole book of poems, +in which he celebrates her with a warmth, the more delightful that it +was disinterested. He thanks her for selecting his poems, to amuse her +solitary hours, and adds feelingly,-- + + Car, je ne veux en ce monde choisir + Plus grand honneur que vous donner plaisir! + +Mary did not leave her courteous poet unrewarded. She contrived, though +a prisoner, to send him a casket containing two thousand crowns, and a +vase, on which was represented Mount Parnassus, and a flying Pegasus, +with this inscription:-- + + A Ronsard, l'Apollon de la source des Muses. + +No one understood better than Mary the value of a compliment from a +beauty, and a queen; had she bestowed more precious favours with equal +effect and discrimination, her memory had escaped some disparagement. +Ronsard, we are told, was sufficiently a poet, to value the inscription +on his vase more than the gold in the casket. + +Apropos to Ronsard: the history of his loves is so whimsical and so +truly French, that it must claim a place here. + +Yet now I am upon French ground, I may as well take the giant's advice, +and "begin at the beginning."[114] It seems at first view unaccountable +that France, which has produced so many remarkable women, should scarce +exhibit one poetical heroine of great or popular interest, since its +language and literature assumed their present form; not one who has been +rendered illustrious or dear to us by the praises of a poet lover. The +celebrity of celebrated French women is, in truth, very anti-poetical. +The memory of the kiss which Marguerite d'Ecosse[115] gave to Alain +Chartier, has long survived the verses he wrote in her praise. Clement +Marot, the court poet of Francis the First, was the lover, or rather one +of the lovers, of Diana of Poictiers (mistress to the Dauphin, +afterwards Henry the Second). She was confessedly the most beautiful and +the most abandoned woman of her time. Marot could hardly have expected +to find her a paragon of constancy; yet he laments her fickleness, as if +it had touched his heart. + + +A DIANE. + + Puisque de vous je n'ai autre visage, + Je m'en vais rendre hermite en un desert, + Pour prier Dieu, si un autre vous sert, + Qu'autant que moi en votre honneur soit sage. + + Adieu, Amour! adieu, gentil corsage! + Adieu ce teint! adieu ces friands yeux! + Je n'ai pas eu de vous grand avantage,-- + Un moins aimant aura peut-etre mieux. + +In a _liaison_ of mere vanity and profligacy, the transition from love +(if love it be) to hatred and malignity, is not uncommon--as Spenser +says so beautifully, + + Such love might never long endure, + However gay and goodly be the style, + That doth ill cause or evil end enure: + For Virtue is the band that bindeth hearts most sure! + +From being the lady's _lover_, Marot became her satirist; instead of +_chansons_ in praise of her beauty, he circulated the most biting and +insufferable epigrams on her person and character. We are told by one, +who, I presume, speaks _avec connaissance de fait_, that a woman's +revenge + + Is like the tiger's spring, + Deadly and quick, and crushing. + +Diana was a libelled beauty, all powerful and unprincipled. Marot, in +some moment of gaiety and overflowing confidence, had confessed to her +that he had eaten meat on a "jour maigre:" he had better in those days +have committed all the seven deadly sins; and when the lady revealed his +unlucky confession, and denounced him as a heretic, he was immediately +imprisoned. Instead, however, of being depressed by his situation, or +moved to make any concessions, he published from his prison a most +ludicrous lampoon on his _ci-devant_ mistress, of which the burthen was, +"Prenez le, il a mange le lard!" He afterwards made his escape, and took +refuge in the court of Renee, Duchess of Ferrara; and though +subsequently recalled to France, he continued to pursue Diana with the +most bitter satire, became a second time a fugitive, partly on her +account, and died in exile and poverty.[116] + +Marot has been called the French Chaucer. He resembles the English poet +in liveliness of fancy, picturesque imagery, simplicity of expression, +and satirical humour; but he has these merits in a far less degree; and +in variety of genius, pathos and power, is immeasurably his inferior. + +Ronsard, to whom I at length return, was the successor of Marot. In his +time the Italian sonnetteers, as Petrarch, Bembo, Sanazzaro, were the +prevailing models, and classical pedantry the prevailing taste. Ronsard, +having filled his mind with Greek and learning, determined to be a +poet, and looked about for a mistress to be the object of his songs: +for a poet without a mistress was then an unheard-of anomaly. He fixed +upon a beautiful woman of Blois, named Cassandre, whose Greek +appellative, it is said, was her principal attraction in his fancy. To +her he addressed about two hundred and twenty sonnets, in a style so +lofty and pedantic, stuffed with such hard names and philosophical +allusions, that the fair Cassandra must have been as wise as her +namesake, the daughter of Priam, to have comprehended her own praises. + +Ronsard's next love was more interesting. Her name was Marie: she was +beautiful and kind: the poet really loved her; and consequently, we find +him occasionally descending from his heights of affectation and +scholarship, to the language of truth, nature and tenderness. Marie died +young; and among Ronsard's most admired poems are two or three little +pieces written after her death. As his works are not commonly met with, +I give one as a specimen of his style:-- + + +EPITAPHE DE MARIE. + + Ci reposent les os de la belle Marie, + Qui me fit pour un jour quitter mon Vendomois,[117] + Qui m'echauffa le sang au plus verd de mes mois; + Qui fut toute mon tout, mon bien, et mon envie. + + En sa tombe repose honneur et courtoisie, + Et la jeune beaute qu'en l'ame je sentois, + Et le flambeau d'Amour, ses traits et son carquois, + Et ensemble mon coeur, mes pensees et ma vie. + + Tu es, belle Angevine,[117] un bel astre des cieux; + Les anges, tous ravis, se paissent de tes yeux, + La terre te regrette, O beaute sans seconde! + + Maintenant tu es vive, et je suis mort d'ennui, + Malheureux qui se fie en l'attente d'autrui; + Trois amis m'ont trompe,--toi, l'amour, et le monde. + +Ronsard had by this time acquired a reputation which eclipsed that of +all his contemporaries. He was caressed and patronised by Charles the +Ninth (of hateful memory), who, like Nero, exhibited the revolting +combination of a taste for poetry and the fine arts, with the most +sanguinary and depraved dispositions. Ronsard, having lost his Marie, +was commanded by Catherine de' Medicis to select a mistress from among +the ladies of her court, to be the future object of his tuneful homage. +He politely left her Majesty to choose for him, prepared to fall in love +duly at the royal behest; and Catherine pointed out Helene de Surgeres, +one of her maids of honour, as worthy to be the second Laura of a second +Petrarch. The docile poet, with zealous obedience, warbled the praises +of Helene for the rest of his life. He also consecrated to her a +fountain near his chateau in the Vendomois, which has popularly +preserved her name and fame. It is still known as the "Fontaine +d'Helene." + +Helene was more witty than beautiful, and, though vain of the celebrity +she had acquired in the verses of Ronsard, she either disliked him in +the character of a lover, or was one of those lofty ladies + + Who hate to have their dignity profaned + With any relish of an earthly thought.[118] + +She desired the Cardinal du Perron would request Ronsard (in her name) +to prefix an epistle to the odes and sonnets addressed to her, assuring +the world that this poetical love had been purely Platonic. "Madam," +said the Cardinal, "you had better give him leave to prefix your +picture."[119] + +I presume my fair and gentle readers (I shall have none, I am sure, who +are not one or the other, or both,) are as tired as myself of all this +affectation, and glad to turn from it to the interest of passion and +reality. + +"There is not," says Cowley, "so great a lie to be found in any poet, as +the vulgar conceit of men, that lying is essential to good poetry." On +the contrary, where there is not truth, there is nothing-- + + Rien n' est beau que le vrai,--le vrai seul est aimable! + +While the Italian school of amatory verse was flourishing in France, +Spain, and England, almost to the extinction of originality in this +style, the brightest light of Italian poesy had arisen, and was shining +with a troubled splendour over that land of song. How swiftly at the +thought does imagination shoot, "like a glancing star," over the wide +expanse of sea and land, and through a long interval of sad and varied +years! I am again standing within the porch of the church of San +Onofrio, looking down upon the little slab in its dark corner, which +covers the bones of TASSO. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[109] Died 1631 + +[110] Died in 1619. + +[111] Died 1649. + +[112] Leicester's influence over Elizabeth appeared so unaccountable, +that it was ascribed to magic, and to her evil stars. + +[113] Spenser's Daphnaida. + +[114] + Belier, mon ami! Commencez par le commencement! + + COUNT HAMILTON. + +[115] "La gentille Marguerite," the unhappy wife of Louis the Eleventh. +Beautiful, accomplished, and in the very spring of life, she died a +victim to the detestable character of her husband. When one of her +attendants spoke of hope and life, the Queen, turning from her with an +expression of deep disgust, exclaimed with a last effort, "Fi de la vie! +ne m'en parlez plus!"--and expired. + +[116] At Althorp, the seat of Lord Spenser, there is a most curious +picture of Diana of Poictiers, once in the Crawford collection: it is a +small half-length; the features are fair and regular; the hair is +elaborately dressed with a profusion of jewels; but there is no drapery +whatever, except a curtain behind: round the head is the legend from the +forty-second Psalm,--"Comme le cerf braie apres le decours des eaues, +ainsi brait mon ame apres toi, O Dieu!" which is certainly a most +extraordinary and profane application. In the days of Diana of +Poictiers, Marot had composed a version of the Psalms, then very +popular. It was the fashion to sing them to dance and song tunes; and +the courtiers and beauties had each their favourite psalm, which served +as a kind of _devise_. This may explain the very singular inscription on +this very singular picture. + +[117] Ronsard was a native of the Vendomois, and Marie, of Anjou. + +[118] Ben Jonson. + +[119] V. Bayle Dictionnaire Historique.--Pierre de Ronsard was born in +1524, and died in 1585. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LEONORA D'ESTE. + + +Leonora d'Este, a princess of the proudest house in Europe, might have +wedded an emperor, and have been forgotten. The idea, true or false, +that she it was who broke the heart and frenzied the brain of Tasso, has +glorified her to future ages; has given her a fame, something like that +of the Greek of old, who bequeathed his name to immortality, by firing +the grandest temple of the universe. + +The question of Tasso's attachment to the Princess Leonora, is, I +believe, set at rest by the acute researches and judicious reasoning of +M. Ginguene, and those who have followed in his steps. A body of +circumstantial evidence has been collected, which would not only satisfy +a court of love--but a court of law, with a Lord Chancellor, to boot, +"_perpending_" at the head of it. That which was once regarded as a +romance, which we wished to believe, if we _could_, is now an +established fact, which we cannot disbelieve if we would. + +No poet perhaps ever owed so much to female influence as Tasso, or wrote +so much under the intoxicating inspiration of love and beauty. He paid +most dearly for such inspiration; and yet not _too_ dearly. The high +tone of sentiment, the tenderness, and the delicacy which pervade all +his poems, which prevail even in his most voluptuous descriptions, and +which give him such a decided superiority over Ariosto, cannot be owing +to any change of manners or increase of refinement produced by the lapse +of a few years. It may be traced to the tender influence of two elegant +women. He for many years read the cantos of the Gerusalemme, as he +composed them, to the Princesses Lucretia and Leonora, both of whom he +admired--one of whom he adored. + +_Au reste_--the kiss, which he is said to have imprinted on the lips of +Leonora in a transport of frenzy, as well as the idea that she was the +primary cause of his insanity, and of his seven years' imprisonment at +St. Anne's, rest on no authority worthy of credit; yet it is not less +certain that she was the object of his secret and fervent admiration, +and that this hopeless passion conspired, with many other causes, to +fever his irritable temperament and unsettle his imagination, beyond +that "fine madness," which we are told _ought_ "to possess the poet's +brain." + +When Tasso first visited Ferrara, in 1565, he was just one-and-twenty, +with all the advantages which a fine countenance, a majestic figure, +(for he was tall even among the tallest,) noble birth, and excelling +talents could bestow: he was already distinguished as the author of the +Rinaldo, his earliest poem, in which he had celebrated (as if +prophetically,) the Princesses d'Este--and chiefly Leonora. + + Lucrezia Estense, e l'altra i cui crin d'oro, + Lacci e reti saran del casto amore.[120] + +When Tasso was first introduced to her in her brother's court, Leonora +was in her thirtieth year; a disparity of age which is certainly no +argument against the passion she inspired. For a young man, at his first +entrance into life, to fall in love ambitiously--with a woman, for +instance, who is older than himself, or with one who is, or ought to be, +unattainable--is a common occurrence. Tasso, from his boyish years, had +been the sworn servant of beauty. He tells us, in grave prose, "che la +sua giovanezza fu tutta sotto-posta all' amorose leggi;"[121] but he was +also refined, even to fastidiousness, in his intercourse with women. He +had formed, in his own poetical mind, the most exalted idea of what a +female ought to be, and unfortunately, she who first realised all his +dreams of perfection, was a Princess--"there seated where he durst not +soar." Leonora was still eminently lovely, in that soft, artless, +unobtrusive style of beauty, which is charming in itself, and in a +princess irresistible, from its contrast with the loftiness of her +station and the trappings of her rank. Her complexion was extremely +fair; her features small and regular; and the form of her head +peculiarly graceful, if I may judge from a fine medallion I once saw of +her in Italy. Ill health, and her early acquaintance with the sorrows of +her unfortunate mother, had given to her countenance a languid and +pensive cast, and sicklied all the natural bloom of her complexion; but +"Paleur, qui marque une ame tendre, a bien son prix:" so Tasso thought; +and this "vago Pallore," which "vanquishes the rose, and makes the dawn +ashamed of her blushes," he has frequently and beautifully celebrated; +as in the pretty Madrigal-- + + Vita della mia Vita! + _O Rosa scolorita!_ &c. + +and in those graceful lines, + + Languidetta belta vinceva amore, &c. + +applicable only to Leonora. Her eyes were blue; her mouth of peculiar +beauty, both in form and expression. In the seventh Sonnet, "Bella e la +donna mia," he says it was the most lovely feature in her face; in +another, still finer,[122] he styles this exquisite mouth "a crimson +shell"-- + + Purpurea conca, in cui si nutre + Candor di perle elette e pellegrine; + +and he concludes it with one of those disguises under which he was +accustomed to conceal Leonora's name. + + E di si degno cor tuo straLE ONORA. + +She was negligent in her dress, and studious and retired in her habits, +seldom joining in the amusements of her brother's court, then the gayest +and most magnificent in Italy.[123] Her accomplished and unhappy mother, +Renee of France,[124] had early instilled into her mind a love of +literature, and especially of poetry. She was passionately fond of +music, and sang admirably. One of Tasso's most beautiful sonnets was +composed on some occasion when her physician had forbidden her to sing. +He who had so often felt the magic of that enchanting voice, thus +describes its power and laments his loss:-- + + Ahi, ben e reo destin, ch' invidia, e toglie + Almondo il suon de' vostri chiari accenti, + Onde addivien che le terrene genti + De' maggior pregi, impoverisca e spoglie. + + Ch' ogni nebbia mortal, che 'l senso accoglie, + Sgombrar potea dalle piu fosche menti + L' armonia dolce, e bei pensieri ardenti + Spirar d' onore, e pure e nobil voglie. + + Ma non si merta qui forse cotanto; + E basta ben che i sereni occhi, e 'l riso + N' infiammin d' un piacer celeste e santo. + + Nulla fora piu bello il Paradiso, + Se 'l mondo udisse, in voi d' angelo il canto, + Siccome vede in voi d' angelo il viso. + +"O cruel--O envious destiny, that hast deprived the world of those +delicious accents, that hast made earth poor in what was dearest and +sweetest! No cloud ever gathered over the gloomiest mind, which the +melody of that voice could not disperse; it breathed but to inspire +noble thoughts and chaste desires.--But, no! it was more than mortals +could deserve to possess. Those soft eyes, that smile were enough to +inspire a sacred and sweet delight.--Nor would Paradise any longer excel +this earth, if in your voice we heard an angel sing, as we behold an +angel's beauty in your face!" + +Leonora, to a sweet-toned voice, added a gift, which, unless thus +accompanied, loses half its value, and almost all its charm--she spoke +well; and her eloquence was so persuasive, that we are told she had +power to move her brother Alphonso, when none else could. Tasso says +most poetically, + + E l'aura del parlar cortese e saggio, + Fra le rose spirar, s'udia sovente; + +--meaning--for to translate literally is scarce possible,--that +"eloquence played round her lips, like the zephyr breathing over roses." + +"I (he adds), beholding a celestial beauty walk the earth, closed my +eyes in terror, exclaiming, O rashness! O folly! for any to dare to gaze +on such charms! Alas! I quickly perceived that this was my least peril. +My heart was touched through my ears; her gentle wisdom penetrated +deeper than her beauty could reach." + +With what emotions must a young and ardent poet have listened to his own +praises from a beautiful mouth, thus sweetly gifted! and it may be +added, that Leonora's eloquence, and the influence she possessed over +her brother, were ever employed in behalf of the deserving and +unfortunate. The good people of Ferrara had such an exalted idea of her +piety and benevolence, that when an earthquake caused a terrible +innundation of the Po, and the destruction of the surrounding villages, +they attributed the safety of their city entirely to her prayers and +intercession. + +Leonora then was not unworthy of her illustrious conquest, either in +person, heart, or mind. To be summoned daily into the presence of a +Princess thus beautiful and amiable, to read aloud his verses to her, to +hear his own praises from her lips, to bask in her approving smiles, to +associate with her in her retirement, to behold her in all the graceful +simplicity of her familiar life,--was a dangerous situation for Tasso, +and surely not less so for Leonora herself. That she was aware of his +admiration, and perfectly understood his sentiments, and that a +mysterious intelligence existed between them, consistent with the utmost +reverence on his part, and the most perfect delicacy and dignity on +hers, is apparent from the meaning and tendency of innumerable passages +scattered through his minor poems--too significant in their application +to be mistaken. Though that application be not avowed, and even +disguised--the very disguise, when once detected, points to the object. +Leonora knew, as well as her lover, that a Princess "was no love-mate +for a bard." She knew far better than her lover, until _he_ too had been +taught by wretched experience, the haughty and implacable temper of her +brother Alphonso, who never was known to brook an injury or forgive an +offender. She must have remembered too well the twelve years' +imprisonment and the narrow escape from death, of her unfortunate mother +for a less cause. She was of a timid and reserved nature, increased by +the extreme delicacy of her constitution. Her hand had frequently been +sought by princes and nobles, whom she had uniformly rejected, at the +risk of displeasing her brother; and the eyes of a jealous court were +upon her. Tasso, on the other hand, was imprudent, hot-headed, fearless, +ardently attached. For both their sakes, it was necessary for Leonora to +be guarded and reserved, unless she would have made herself the fable of +all Italy. And in what glowing verse has Tasso described all the +delicious pain of such a situation! now proud of his fetters, now +execrating them in despair. In allusion to his ambitious passion, he is +Phaeton, Icarus, Tantalus, Ixion. + + Se d' Icaro leggesti c di Fetonte, &c. + +But though presumption flung to ruin Icarus and Phaeton, did not the +power of love bring even Dian down "from her amazing height?" + + E che non puote + Amor, che con catena il ciel unisce? + Egli gia trae delle celeste rote + Di terrana belta Diana accesa, + E d'Ida il bel Fanciul[125] al' ciel rapisce. + +This at least is _clearly_ significant, however poetical the allusions; +but what a world of passion and of meaning breathes through the Sonnet +which he has entitled "The constrained Silence," ("_Il Silenzio +Imposto._") + +"She is content that I should love her; yet, O what hard restraint of +galling silence has she imposed!" + + Vuol che l' ami costei; ma duro freno + Mi pone ancor d' aspro silenzio; or quale + Avro da lei, se non conosce il male + O medecina, o refrigerio almeno? + + ....*....*....*....* + + Tacer ben posso, e tacero! ch' io toglia + Sangue alle piaghe, e luce al vivo foco + Non brami gia; questa e impossibil voglia + Troppo spinse pungenti a dentro i colpi, + E troppo ardore accolse in picciol loco: + S' apparira, natura, e se n' incolpi.[126] + +"Yes, I can, I will keep silence; but to command that the wound shall +not bleed nor the fire burn, is to command impossibility. Too, too deep +hath the blow been struck; too ardently glows the flame; and if +betrayed, the fault is in nature--not in me!" + +And again, what can be more exquisitely tender, more beautiful in its +fervent simplicity of expression, than the effusion which follows? How +miserably does an inadequate prose translation halt after the glowing +poetry, the rhythmical music, the "linked sweetness" of the original! + + Io non cedo in amar, Donna gentile + A' chi mostra di fuor l' interno affetto; + Perche 'l mio si nasconda in mezzo 'l petto, + Ne co' fior s' apra del mio nuovo Aprile, + Co' vaghi sguardi, e col sembiante umile, + Co' detti sparsi in variando aspetto + Altri si veggia al vostro amor soggetto, + E co' sospiri, e con leggiadro stile. + + E quando gela il cielo, e quando infiamma, + E quando parte il sole, e quando riede, + Vi segua; come il can selvaggia damma. + + Ch' io se nel cor vi cerco, altri noi vede, + E sol mi vanto di nascosa fiamma, + E sol mi glorio di secreta fede.[127] + +"I yield not in love, O gentlest lady! to those who dare to show their +love more openly, though I conceal it within the centre of my heart, nor +suffer it to spread forth, like the other flowers of my spring. Let +others boast themselves subjects of love for your sake, and slaves of +your beauty, with admiring looks, with humble aspect, with sighs, with +eloquent words, with lofty verse! whether the winter freeze or the +summer burn,--at set of sun, and when he laughs again in heaven, let +them still pursue you, as dogs the shy and timid deer. But I--O, I seek +you in my own heart, where none else behold you! My hidden love be my +only boast: my secret faith, my only glory!" + +Without multiplying quotations, which would extend this sketch from +pages into volumes, it is sufficient to trace through Tasso's verses the +little incidents which varied this romantic intercourse. The frequent +indisposition of Leonora, her absence when she went to visit her +brother, the Cardinal d'Este, at Tivoli, form the subjects of several +beautiful little poems; as the Sonnets + + Dianzi al vostro languir, &c. + + Donna! poiche fortuna empia mi nega + Seguirvi, &c. + + Al nobil colle, ove in antichi marmi + Di Greco mano opre famose ammira + Vaga LEONORA il mio pensier mi gira. + +Here he names her expressly; while in the little lament-- + + Lunge da voi, ben mio! + Non ho vita ne core! e non son io + Non sono, oime! non sono + Quel ch' altra volta fui, ma un Ombra mesta, + Un lagrimevol suono, &c. + +--the tone is too passionate to allow of it. He finds her looking up one +night at the stars; it is sufficient to inspire that beautiful little +song, + + Mentre, mia stella, miri + I bei celesti giri, + Il cielo esser vorrei, + Perche negli occhi mici + Fiso tu rivolgessi + Le tue dolci faville; + Io vagheggiar potessi + Mille bellezze tue, con luci mille![128] + +He relates, in another little madrigal, that standing alone with her in +a balcony, he chanced, perhaps in the eagerness of conversation, to +extend his arm on hers. He asks pardon for the freedom, and she replies +with sweetness, "You offended not by placing your arm there, but by +withdrawing it." This little speech in a coquette would have been _sans +consequence_; from such a woman as Leonora, it spoke volumes; and her +lover felt it so. He breaks forth in a rapture at the tender +condescension, + + O parolette amorose, &c. + +Then comes a cloud, but whether of temper or jealousy, we know not. One +of those luckless trifles, perhaps, + + --that move + Dissension between hearts that love. + +Tasso accompanied Lucrezia d'Este, then Duchess of Urbino, to her villa +of Castel Durante, where he remained for some time, partaking in all the +amusements of her gay court, without once seeing Leonora. He then wrote +to her, and the letter fortunately has been preserved entire. + +Though guarded in expression, it is throughout in the tone of a lover +piqued, and yet conscious that he has himself offended; and seeking, +with a sort of proud humility, the reconciliation on which his happiness +depends. He sends her a sonnet, which he admits is "far unlike the +elegant effusions he supposes her now in the habit of receiving." He +begs to assure her, that though it be in art and wit as poor as he is +himself in happiness, yet in his present pitiable condition, he could do +no better; (not that he was to all appearance so very much to be +pitied). He adds, "do not think, however, that in this vacancy of +thought, my heart has found leisure for love. The Sonnet is merely +composed at the request of a certain poor lover, who has for some time +past quarrelled with his mistress; and now no longer able to endure his +hard fortune, is obliged to yield, and sue for grace and pardon." "Il +quale essendo stato un pezzo in colera con la sua donna, ora non potendo +piu, bisogna che si renda e che dimanda merce." The Sonnet enclosed in +this letter, ("Sdegno, debil Guerrier,") appears to me one of the least +pleasing in the collection; as if his genius and his feelings were both +under some benumbing influence when he wrote it. + +In the meanwhile, there was a report that Leonora was about to be united +to a foreign Prince. Her hand had been demanded of her brother with the +usual formalities. On this occasion Tasso wrote the fine Canzone, + + Amor, tu vedi, e non hai duolo o sdegno, &c. + +"Love! canst thou look on without grief or indignation, to see my gentle +lady bow her fair neck to the yoke of another?" + +The expression in the 6th strophe is very unequivocal-- + +"Nor let my mistress, though she suffer her bosom to be invaded by a +newer flame, forget the _former_ bond." + + Ne la mia Donna, perche scaldi il petto + Di nuovo amore, nodo _antico_ sprezzi. + +In one of his Sonnets, this jealous pain is yet more strongly +expressed:-- + + Io sparso, ed altri miete! &c. + +"I sow, another reaps! I water a lovely blossom, unworthy, alas! to tend +it; and another gathers the fruit. O rage!--yet must I, through coward +fear, lock my grief within my own bosom!" &c. + +This intended marriage never took place; and Tasso, relieved from his +fears, and restored to the confidence of Leonora, was again +comparatively blessed. He sometimes ventured to name her openly in his +poems,--as in the little Madrigal, + + Cantava in riva al fiume + Tirse di LEONORA, + E rispondean le selve, e l'onde, _onora_. + +Sometimes he disguised her name as l'Aurora, l'Aura, Onor, le +onora,[129] + + Dell' Onor simulacro e'l nome vostro. + +To these the preceding Madrigal is a sort of _key_; or the better to +conceal the true object of his adoration, he carried his apparent +homage, and often his poetical gallantry, to the feet of other fair +ladies. Lucretia d'Este, the elder sister of Leonora; Tarquinia Molza, a +beauty and a poetess; and Lucretia Bendidio, another most accomplished +woman, who numbered all the poets and literati of Ferrara in her train, +frequently inspired him. + +The mention of Lucretia Bendidio reminds me of an incident in Tasso's +early life, which, besides being characteristic of his times and genius, +is extremely _apropos_ to my present purpose and subject. In the days of +his first enthusiasm for Lucretia, when he and Guarini were rivals for +her favour, he undertook to maintain, publicly, fifty _theses_, or +difficult questions, in the "Science of Love." These "Conclusion! +amorosi" may be found in the third volume of the great folio edition of +his works; and some of them, it must be confessed, afforded matter for +much amusing and edifying discussion; for instance,--"Amore esser piu +nell' amata che nell' amante," "that love exists rather in the person +beloved than in the lover," which seems to involve a nice distinction in +metaphysics; and "Nessuna amata essere, o poter essere ingrata,"--"that +no woman truly beloved, is or can be ungrateful," which involves a +mystery--and a truth. And the 48th, "Se piu si patisca, o non ricevendo +alcun premio, o ricevendo minor del desiderio,"--"whether in love, it be +harder to receive no recompense whatever, or less than we desire,"--a +question so difficult to settle, and so depending on individual feeling, +that it should have been put to the vote. Others prove, that whatever +was the practice in those days, the received and philosophical theory of +love was sublime enough; for instance, the 14th, "That the more love is +regulated by reason, the more noble it is in its nature." (Agreed to, +with exceptions, of which Tasso himself might furnish the most +prominent.) That "compassion in our sex is never a sign of reciprocal +affection, but on the contrary." (True, generally.) The 34th, "That the +respect of the lover for her he loves increases the value and delight of +every favour she grants him." (I think this must have passed undisputed, +or by acclamation.) + +The 38th of these curious propositions, "L'uomo in sua natura amar piu +intentamente e stabilmente che la donna,"--that "men by nature love more +intensely and more permanently than women," was opposed by Signora +Orsolina Cavaletta, a woman of singular accomplishments, and who +displayed, in defence of her sex, so much wit and talent, such various +learning, ingenuity, and eloquence, that the young disputant, perhaps +placed in a dilemma between his honour and his gallantry, came very +hardly off. This singular exhibition continued for three days, and was +conducted with infinite solemnity, in presence of the Court and the +Princesses; all the nobility and even the superior clergy of Ferrara +crowded to witness it; and I doubt whether any lecture at the British +Institution, on mathematics, or electricity, or geology, was ever +listened to by our fair bas-bleus with half as much interest as Tasso's +"Fifty Theses on Love" excited in Ferrara. + +Several years after his first introduction to Leonora d'Este, and after +some of the most impassioned and least ambiguous of his verses were +written, the Court of Ferrara was embellished by the arrival of two of +the most beautiful women in all Italy,--Leonora di Sanvitali, Countess +of Scandiano, then a youthful bride, and her not less lovely +mother-in-law, Barbara, Countess of Sala. The Countess of Scandiano is +the _other_ LEONORA who has puzzled all the biographers, from the open +gallantry and avowed adoration with which Tasso has celebrated her; but +in strains,--O how different from the sentiment, the veneration, the +tenderness, and the mystery which breathe through his verses to Leonora +d'Este! A third Leonora was said to exist in the person of the +Countess's favourite attendant: but this is untrue. The name of +Leonora's waiting-maid was Laura. Tasso has addressed several little +poems to her; and there can be no doubt that she occasionally served as +a blind to his real attachment for her mistress. The Countess of +Scandiano's attendant was the fair Olympia, to whom is addressed that +exquisitely graceful Canzone, + + O con le Grazie elette, e con gli amori. + +The Duchess of Ferrara's maid, the beautiful Livia d'Arco, and even her +dwarf, are also immortalised in Tasso's verses, who poured forth his +courtly gallantry with an exhaustless and splendid prodigality, fitting +their praises to his lyre, as if it had never resounded to higher +themes. + +At a court festival given by the Duke Alphonso, in honour of his +beautiful and illustrious visitors, the Countess of Sala appeared with +her fine hair wreathed round her head in the form of a coronet, which +with her grand style of beauty and majestic deportment, gave her the air +of a Juno. The young Countess of Scandiano, on the other hand, enchanted +by her Hebe-like graces, her smiles, and the unequalled beauty of a +pouting underlip;--nothing was talked of at Ferrara but these braided +tresses and this lovely lip; the poets and the young cavaliers were +divided into parties on the occasion. Tasso has celebrated both with the +same voluptuous elegance of style in which he described his Armida. To +the Countess of Scandiano he wrote, + + Quel labbro, che le rose han colorito + Molle si sporge, e tumidetto in fuore, &c. + +To the Countess of Sala, + + Barbara! maraviglia de' tempi nostri. + +But the Countess of Scandiano was more especially the object of his +public adoration. It was a poetical passion, openly professed; and +flattering, as it appears, both to the lady and to her husband, without +in any degree implicating either her discretion or that of Tasso. +Compare his verses to this young Countess--this _peregrina Fenice_,[130] +as he fancifully styles her, who comes shining forth, not _to be +consumed_, but _to consume_,--to the profound tenderness, the intense +yet mournful feeling of some of the poems composed for the Princess +d'Este, about the same time; when he must have daily contrasted the rich +bloom, the smiling eyes, and sparkling graces of the youthful Countess, +with the fading or faded beauty, the languid form, and pale cheek of his +long-loved Leonora. See particularly the Sonnet + + Tre gran Donne vid' io, &c. + +"Three illustrious ladies did I behold,--I sung them all--_one only_ I +loved," &c. And another equally beautiful and significant, + + Perche 'n giovenil volto amor mi mostri + Talor, Donna _Real_, rose e ligustri + Oblio non pone in me, de' miei trilustri + Affanni, o de miei spesi indarno inchiostri. + + E 'l cor, che s' invaghi degli onor vostri + Da prima, e vostro fu poscia piu lustri + Reserba, amo in se forme piu illustri + Che perle e gemme, e bei coralli ed ostri. + + Queste egli in suono di sospir si chiari + Farebbe udir, che d' amorosa face + Accenderebbe i piu gelati cori. + + Ma oltre suo costume e fatto avaro + De' vostri pregi, suoi dolci tesori, + Che in se medesmo gli vagheggia e _tace_! + + +TRANSLATION. + + "Albeit in younger faces Love at times + May show me where a fresher rose is set, + Yet, _Royal_ Lady, can I not forget + My fifteen years of pain and useless rhymes. + This heart, so touch'd by all thy beauty bright, + After so many years is still thine own, + And still retaineth forms more exquisite + Than pearls, or purple gems, or coral stone. + All this my heart in soft sighs would make known, + And thus with fire the coldest bosom fill, + But that, unlike itself, that heart hath grown + So covetous of thy sweet charms, and thee, + (Its secret treasures,) that it aye doth flee + Inwards, and dwells upon them, and is still."[131] + +Lastly, that most perfect Sonnet, so well known and so celebrated, that +I should not insert it here, but that I am enabled to give, for the +first time, a translation equally faithful to the sentiment and the +poetry of the original. + + Negli anni acerbi tuoi, purpurea rosa + Sembravi tu, ch' ai rai tepidi, all' ora + Non apre 'l sen, ma nel suo verde ancora + Verginella s' asconde, e vergognosa. + + O piu tosto parei (che mortal cosa, + Non s' assomiglia a te) celeste Aurora, + Che le campagne imperla, e i monti indora, + Lucida in ciel sereno e rugiadosa. + + Or la men verde eta nulla a te toglie; + Ne te, benche negletta, in manto adorno + Giovinetta belta vince, o pareggia. + + Cosi piu vago e 'l fior, poiche le foglie + Spiega odorate: e 'l sol nel mezzo giorno + Vie-piu, che nel mattin, luce e fiammeggia. + + +TRANSLATION. + + "Thou, in thy unripe years, wast like the rose, + Which shrinketh from the summer dawn, afraid, + And with her green veil, like a bashful maid, + Hideth her bosom sweet, and scarcely blows: + Or rather,--(for what shape ever arose + From the dull earth like thee,) thou didst appear + Heavenly Aurora, who, when skies are clear, + Her dewy pearls o'er all the country sows. + Time stealeth nought: thy rare and careless grace + Surpasseth still the youthful bride when neatest,-- + Her wealth of dress, her budding blooming face, + So is the full-blown rose for age the sweetest, + So doth the mid-day sun outshine the morn, + With rays more beautiful and brighter born!"[132] + +Yet all this was too little. His minor lyrics, the unlaboured and +spontaneous effusions of leisure, of fancy, of sentiment, would have +been glory enough for any other poet, and fame enough for any other +woman: but Tasso had founded his hopes of immortality on his great poem, +The Jerusalem Delivered; and it was imperfect in his eyes unless Leonora +were shrined in it. To convert the pale, gentle, elegant invalid into a +heroine, seemed impossible: she was no model for his lovely amazon, +Clorinda; nor his exquisite sorceress, Armida; nor his love-sick +Erminia: for her, therefore, and to her honour, and to the eternal +memory of his love for her, he composed the episode in the second Canto, +where we have her portrait at full length as Sophronia. + + Vergine era fra lor, di gia matura + Verginita, d'alta pensieri e regi, + D'alta Belta; ma sua belta non cura, + O tanto sol quant' onesta sen fregi; + E 'l suo pregio maggior che tra le mura + D'angusta casa, asconde i suoi gran pregi: + E da' vagheggiatori ella s'invola, + Alle lodi, agli sguardi, inculta e sola. + + Non sai ben dir s'adorno, o se negletta, + Se caso od arte, il bel volto compose, + Di natura, d'amor, di cieli amici, + Le negligenze sue sono artifici. + + Mirata da ciascun, passa, e non mira + L'altera donna! + + +TRANSLATION. + + Among them dwelt a noble maid, matured + In loveliness, of thoughts serene and high, + And loftiest beauty;--beauty which herself + Esteem'd not more than modesty might own. + Within an humble dwelling did she hide + Her peerless charms, and shunning lovers' eyes, + From flattering words and glances, lived retired. + + Whether 'tis curious care, or sweet neglect, + Or chance, or art, that have array'd her thus, + One scarce can tell: for each unstudied grace + Has been the work of Nature, heaven, and love. + + And thus admired by all, unheeding all, + Forth steps the noble maid. + +It is impossible to mistake, in this finished and exquisite portrait, +the matured beauty, the negligent attire, and love of solitude which +characterised Leonora: the resemblance was so perfect, as to be +universally recognised and acknowledged. But is it not, as M. Ginguene +remarks, equally certain that Tasso has pourtrayed himself as Olindo? + + Ei che modesto e, com' essa e bella, + Brama, assai, poco spera, nulla chiede! + + He, full of modesty and truth, + Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought! + +Has he not in the verse + + Ed o mia morte avventurosa appiena, + +breathed forth all the smothered passion of his soul?-- + + Ed o mia morte avventurosa appiena! + Oh fortunati miei dolci martiri! + S'impetrero che giunto seno a seno + L'anima mia nella tuo bocca io spiri, + E venendo tu meco a un tempo meno + In me fuor mandi gli ultimi sospiri! + + And O! how happy were my death! how blest + These tortures,--could I but the meed obtain, + That breast to breast, and lip to lip, our souls + Might flee together, and our latest sighs + Mingle in death. + +This episode is critically a defect in the poem: it seems to stand +alone, unconnected in any way with the main action; he acknowledged +this; but he absolutely, and obstinately, refused to alter it, or strike +it out. He, who was in general amenable to criticism, even to a degree +of weakness, willed that it should stand an everlasting monument of his +tenderness, and of the virtues and the charms of her who inspired +it:--and thus it has been. + +A cruel, and, as I think, a most unjust imputation rests on the memory +of the Princess Leonora. She is accused of cold-heartedness, in +suffering Tasso to remain so long imprisoned, without interceding in his +favour, or even vouchsafing any reply to his affecting supplications for +release, and for her mediation in his behalf. The excuse alledged by +those who would fain excuse her,--"That she feared to compromise herself +by any interference," is ten times worse than the accusation itself. But +though there exists, I suppose, no _written_ proof that Leonora pleaded +the cause of Tasso, or sought to mitigate his sufferings; neither is +there any proof of the contrary. We know little, or rather nothing, of +the private intrigues of Alphonso's palace: we have no "memoires +secretes" of that day; no diaries kept by prying courtiers, to enlighten +us on what passed in the recesses of the royal apartments: and upon mere +negative presumption, shall we brand the character of a woman, who +appears on every other occasion so blameless, so tender-hearted, and +beneficent, with the imputation of such barbarous selfishness? for the +honour of our sex, and human nature, I must believe it impossible. + +In no other instance was the homage which Tasso loved to pay to +high-born beauty repaid with ingratitude; all his life he seems to have +been an object of affectionate interest to women. They, in his misery, +stood not aloof, but ministered to him the oil and balm, which soothed +his vexed and distempered spirit. The Countesses of Sala and Scandiano +never forgot him. Lucretia Bendidio, who had married into the +Marchiavelli family, sent him in his captivity all the consolation she +could bestow, or he receive. The Duchess of Urbino (Lucretia d'Este,) +was munificently kind to him. The young Princess of Mantua, she for whom +he wrote his "Torrismondo," loaded him with courtesy and proofs of her +regard. He was ill at the Court of Mantua, after his release from +Ferrara; and her exertions to procure him a copy of Euripides, which he +wished to consult, (an anecdote cited somewhere, as a proof of the +rarity of the book at that time,) is also a proof of the interest and +attention with which she regarded him. It happened when he was at the +Court of the Duke of Urbino, that he had to undergo a surgical +operation; and the sister of the Duke, the young and beautiful Lavinia +di Rovera, prepared the bandages, and applied them with her own fair and +princely hands;--a little instance of affectionate interest, which Tasso +has himself commemorated. If then we do not find Leonora publicly +appearing as the benefactress of Tasso, and using her influence over her +brother in his behalf, is it not a presumption that she was implicated +in his punishment? What comfort or kindness she could have granted, +must, under such circumstances, have been bestowed with infinite +precaution; and, from gratitude and discretion, as carefully concealed. +We know, that after the first year of his confinement, Tasso was removed +to a less gloomy prison; and we know that Leonora died a few weeks +afterwards; but what share she might have had in procuring this +mitigation of his suffering, we do not know; nor how far the fate of +Tasso might have affected her so as to hasten her own death. If we are +to argue upon probabilities, without any preponderating proof, in the +name of womanhood and charity, let it be on the side of indulgence; let +us not believe Leonora guilty, but upon such authority as never has +been,--and I trust never can be produced. + + * * * * * + +About two years after the completion of the Jerusalem Delivered, and +four years after the first representation of the Aminta;--when all +Europe rung with the poet's fame, Tasso fled from the Court of Ferrara, +in a fit of distraction. His frenzy was caused partly by religious +horrors and scruples; partly by the petty but accumulated injuries which +malignity and tyranny had heaped upon him; partly by a long-indulged and +hopeless passion; and with these, other moral and physical causes +combined. He fled, to hide himself and his sorrows in the arms of his +sister Cornelia. The brother and sister had not met since their childish +years; and Tasso, wild with misery, forlorn, and penniless, knew not +what reception he was to meet with. When arrived within a league of his +birthplace, Sorrento,[133] he changed clothes with a shepherd, and in +this disguise appeared before his sister, as one sent with tidings of +her brother's misfortunes. The recital, we may believe, was not coldly +given. Cornelia, who appears to have inherited with the personal beauty, +the sensibility and strong domestic affections of her mother, +Portia,[134] was so violently agitated by the eloquence of the feigned +messenger, that she fainted away; and Tasso was obliged to hasten the +denouement by discovering himself. In the same moment he was clasped in +her affectionate arms, and bathed with her tears. How often, when I have +stood on my balcony at Naples, have I looked towards the white buildings +of Sorrento, glittering afar upon the distant promontory, and thought +upon this scene! and felt, how that which is already surpassingly +beautiful to the eye, may be hallowed to the imagination by such +remembrances as these! + +Tasso resided with his sister for three years, the object of her +unwearied and tender attention. It was on his return to Ferrara, +(recalled, as Manso says, by the tenor of Leonora's letters[135]) that +he was imprisoned as a lunatic at St. Anne's. They show to travellers +the cell in which he was confined. Over the entrance of the gallery +leading to it, is written up in large letters, "Ingresso alla Prigione +di Torquato Tasso," as if to blazon, in the eye of the stranger, what is +at once the renown and disgrace of that fallen city. The cell itself is +small, dark and low. The abhorred grate, + + Marring the sun-beams with its hideous shade, + +is a semicircular window, strongly cross-barred with iron; it looks into +a court-yard, so built up, if I remember rightly, that the noon-day sun +could scarce reach it. Even without the hallowed associations connected +with the spot, it would have chilled and saddened me. With them, the +very air had a suffocating weight; and the cold dark walls, and +low-bowed roof, struck a shivering awe through the blood. Upon the +plaster outside the grated window, I observed several names written in +pencil; among the rest, those of Byron and Rogers. I must observe here, +that the "Lament of Tasso" is, in fact, a cento taken from Tasso's minor +poems. Almost every sentiment there expressed, may be found in the +Italian; but the soul of the poet has been transfused with such a +glowing impulse into its new mould, it never seems to have been adapted +to another; the precious metal is the same, only the impress is +different, and it has been stamped by a kindred and a master spirit. +Lord Byron says, + + Yes, Leonora! it shall be our fate + To be entwined for ever; but too late! + +Tasso had said, that his name and that of Leonora should be united and +soar to fame together. + + "Ella a miei versi, ed io + Circondava al suo nome altere piume, + E l'un per l'altro ando volando a prova;" + +--and a long list of corresponding passages and sentiments might easily +be pointed out. + +The inscription on the door of Tasso's cell, _lies_, I believe, like +many other inscriptions. Tasso was _not_ confined in this cell for seven +years; but here it was that he addressed that affecting Canzone to +Leonora and her sister Lucrezia, which begins "Figlie di +Renata,"--"daughters of Renee!" Thus in the very commencement, by this +delicate and tender apostrophe, bespeaking their compassion, by +awakening the remembrance of their mother, like him so long a wretched +prisoner. He reminds them of the years he spent at their side--"their +noble servant and their dear companion," + + Gli anni miei tra voi spese,-- + Qual son,--qual fui,--che chiedo--ove mi trovo![136] + +He was, after the first year, removed to a larger cell, with better +accommodations. Here he made a collection of his smaller poems lately +written, and dedicated them to the two Princesses. But Leonora was no +longer in a state to be charmed by the verses, or flattered or touched +by the admiring devotion of her lover,--her poet,--her faithful +servant: she was dying. A slow and cureless disease preyed on her +delicate frame, and she expired in the second year of Tasso's +imprisonment. When the news of her danger was brought to him, he +requested his friend Pignarola to kiss her hand in his name, and ask her +whether there was any thing which, in his sad state, he could do for her +ease or pleasure? We do not know how this tender message was received or +answered; but it was too late. Leonora died in February 1581, after +lingering from the November previous. + +Thus perished, of a premature decay, the woman who had been for +seventeen years the idol of a poet's imagination--the worship of a +poet's heart; she who was not unworthy of being enshrined in the rich +tracery-work of sweet thoughts and bright fancies she had herself +suggested. The love of Tasso for the Princess Leonora might have +appeared, in his own time, something like the "desire of the night-moth +for the star;" but what is it _now_? what was it _then_ in the eyes of +her whom he adored? How far was it permitted, encouraged, repaid in +secret? This we cannot know; and perhaps had we lived at the time,--in +the very Court, and looked daily into her own soft eyes, practised to +conceal,--we had been no wiser. Yet one more observation. + +When Leonora died, all the poets of Ferrara pressed forward with the +usual tribute of elegy and eulogium; but the voice of Tasso was not +heard among the rest. He alone flung no garland on the bier of her, +whose living brow he had wreathed with the brightest flowers of song. +This is adduced by Serassi as a proof that he had never loved her. +Ginguene himself can only account for it, by the presumption that he was +piqued by that coldness and neglect, which I have shown was merely +supposititious. Strange reasoning! as if Tasso, while his heart bled +over his loss, in his solitary cell, could have deigned to join this +crowd of courtly mourners! as if, under such circumstances, in such a +moment, the greatness of his grief could have burst forth in any terms +that must not have exposed himself to fresh rigours, and the fame, at +least the discretion, of her he had loved, to suspicion! No! nothing +remained to him but silence;--and he was silent. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[120] See the Rinaldo, c. 8. + +[121] + + ----From my very birth + My soul was drunk with love, &c. + + LAMENT OF TASSO. + +[122] + + Rose, che l' arte invidiosa mira. &c. + +[123] + + Alteremente umile + Te chiudi ne' tuoi cari alti soggiorni. + +[124] The daughter of Louis XII. She was closely imprisoned during +twelve years, on suspicion of favouring the early reformers. + +[125] Ganymede. + +[126] Sonnet 37. + +[127] Sonnet 29. + +[128] I am told the original idea is in Plato; prettier, however, than +either, was the speech of a modern lover, whose mistress was gazing +pensively on a star: "Ne la regardez pas tant, chere amie!--je ne puis +pas te la donner!" + +[129] The Canzono which is, I believe, esteemed the finest of those +addressed to Leonora, + + Mentre ch' a venerar muovon le gente, + +concludes with this play upon her name-- + + Costei LE ONORA col bel nome sante. + + She does them HONOUR by her sacred name. + +[130] "Foreign Phoenix." + +[131] Translated by a friend. + +[132] Translated by a friend. + +[133] Near Naples: thus, in his pathetic Canzone on himself,-- + + Sassel la gloriosa alma Sirena + Appresso il cui sepolcro, ebbi la cuna! + +[134] The wife of Bernardo Tasso. See an account of her in Black's Life +of Tasso. + +[135] Manso, Vita di T. Tasso. + +[136] Part of this Canzone has been elegantly translated by Mr. Wiffen +in his Life of Tasso, p. 83. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +MILTON AND LEONORA BARONI. + + +The Marquis Manso of Naples, who in his early youth had entertained +Tasso in his palace, had cherished and honoured him when that great but +unhappy man was wandering, brain-struck with misery, from one court to +another,--was, in his old age, the host and admirer of Milton; thus, by +a singular good fortune, allying his name to two of the most illustrious +of earth's diviner sons: while theirs, linked together by the +recollection of this common friend, follow each other in our memory by a +natural transition. We can think of them as pressing, though at an +interval of many years, the same friendly hand, and gracing the same +hospitable board with "colloquy sublime." Tasso, from the romance of his +story, and his personal character, is the most interesting of the two; +yet Milton, besides standing highest in the scale of moral dignity, sits +nearest to our hearts as an Englishman, whose genius, speaking through +our native accents, strikes upon our sense, + + Like the large utterance of the early gods. + + * * * * * + +We rise from reading Johnson's Biography of Milton, either with the most +painful and indignant feeling of the malignity of the critic,[137] or +with an impression of Milton's character, as false as it is odious. Of +moral inconsistency and weakness, blended with splendid genius, we have +proofs lamentable and numerous enough: to be obliged to regard the +mighty father of English verse,--him "who rode sublime upon the seraph +wings of ecstasy,"--him, whose harmonious soul was tuned to the music +of the spheres, though when struck in evil times, and by an adverse +hand, it sent forth a crash of discord,--him, who has left us the most +exquisite pictures of tenderness and beauty--to think of such a being as +a petty domestic tyrant, a coarse-minded fanatic, stern and unfeeling in +all the relations of life, were enough to confound all our ideas of +moral fitness. When we figure to ourselves the author of Rasselas +trampling over the ashes of Milton, lending his mighty powers to degrade +the majestic, to disfigure the beautiful, and to darken the glorious, it +is with the same feeling of concentrated disgust with which we recall +the violation of the poet's grave, some years ago, when vulgar savages +defaced and carried off his sacred and venerable remains +piece-meal.[138] Let us for a moment imagine our Milton descending to +earth to assert his injured fame, and confronted with his great +biographer-- + + Look here upon this picture, and on this-- + +The one, like his own Adam, with fair large front and hyacinthine locks, +serene and blooming as his own Eden; in all the dignified graces which +temperance and self-conquest lend to youth,[139] in all the purity of +his stainless mind, radiant like another Moses, with the reflected +glories of the Empyreum,--and then look upon the other!--But it is an +awful thing for little people, to meddle with great and sacred names; +and so leaving the Hippopotamus of literature in his den--proceed we. + +It relieves the heart from an oppressive contradiction to behold Milton, +such as he is represented by his other biographers, and such as +undoubtedly he really was. It is well known, that in his youth, and +even at a late age, he had an uncommonly fine person, almost to +effeminacy; and was as gracefully endowed in form and manners, as he was +highly and holily gifted in mind. His natural mildness, cheerfulness, +and courtesy, are commemorated by all who knew him, or lived near his +time.[140] He whom Johnson accuses of a "Turkish contempt of females, as +inferior beings," and whom he represents in a light so ungentle and +gloomy, that we cannot imagine him under the influence of beauty, was +early touched by the softest passions, and during his whole life +peculiarly sensible to the charm of female society: witness his +successive marriages, and his friendship and intercourse with Lady +Margaret Ley, and the all-accomplished Countess of Ranelagh, who +supplied to him, as he says, the place of every friend:[141]--witness, +too, a thousand most lovely and glorious passages scattered through his +works, which women may quote with triumph, as proofs that we had no +small influence over the imagination of our great epic poet. What but +the most reverential and lofty feeling of the graces and virtues proper +to our sex, could have embodied such an exquisite vision as the Lady in +Comus? or created his delightful Eve? on whom, "as on a queen, a pomp of +winning graces waited still." + + All higher knowledge in her presence falls + Degraded; wisdom, in discourse with her, + Loses discountenanc'd, and like folly shows; + Authority and reason on her wait, + As one intended first, not after made + Occasionally; and to consummate all, + Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat, + Build in her loveliest, and create an awe + About her, as a guard angelic plac'd. + +And this is the being whom a lady-author calls a "great overgrown baby, +with nothing to recommend her but her submission, and her fine +hair!"[142]--two things, be it observed, among the most graceful of our +feminine attributes, mental and exterior. The poet who conceived and +wrote this description, most assuredly had not a "Turkish contempt" for +the female character. + +Milton was in love, as he tells us himself, at nineteen; but the object +cannot even be guessed at. He has celebrated this boyish passion very +beautifully in one of his Latin elegies. One of the passages in this +poem, in which he compares the effect produced on him by the first +momentary view of his mistress, followed by her immediate absence to the +Theban Oeclides,[143] swallowed up by the abyss which opens beneath +him, and gazing back upon the parting light of day, is admired for its +classic sublimity and appropriate beauty. + +There is a tradition mentioned by all his biographers, that while Milton +was a student at Cambridge, an Italian lady of rank, who was travelling +in England, found him sleeping one day under the shade of a tree, and, +struck with his beauty, wrote with her pencil on a slip of paper, the +pretty madrigal of Guarini, which Menage translated for Madame de +Sevigne, "Occhi, stelle mortali," and leaving it in his hand, pursued +her journey. This fair unknown is said to have been the cause of +Milton's travels into Italy; but the story rests on no authority: and it +is clear, that the "foreign fair" to whom the Sonnets are addressed, was +neither imaginary nor unknown. During his stay at Rome, he was received +with particular distinction by the Cardinal Barberini, the nephew of the +reigning Pope, and at his palace had frequent opportunities of hearing +Leonora Baroni, the finest singer in Italy. She was the daughter of +Adriana of Mantua, surnamed, for her beauty, La Bella Adriana, and the +best singer and player on the lute of her time. Leonora inherited her +mother's extraordinary talent for music, and conquered all hearts by the +inexpressible charm of her voice and style. She was also a poetess, +frequently composing the words of her own songs. Though not a regular +beauty, she had brilliant eyes, and a captivating countenance and +manner. Count Fulvio Testi, in a Sonnet addressed to her, celebrates the +union of so many charms: + + Tra il concento e 'l fulgor, dubbio e se sia + L'udir piu dolce, o il rimirar piu caro. + Deh fammi cieco, o fammi sordo, amore! + +M. Maugars, himself a musician, who saw and heard Leonora at Rome, +praises her talents generally, and adds, that she was no coquette; that +she sang with confidence, but with modesty; that there was nothing in +her manners that could be censured; that the effect she produced on +those who heard her, was owing, not only to the wonderful rapidity and +delicacy of her execution, but to the care with which she gave the exact +sense and proper expression of the words she sang. He tells us, that on +one occasion, she _favoured_ him by singing with her mother and her +sister, each accompanying herself on a different instrument (in those +days pianos were not, and Leonora's favourite instrument was the +Theorbo, on which she excelled). This little concert so enraptured our +musician, that, to use his own words, he forgot his mortality, "et crut +etre deja parmi les anges, jouissant des contentemens des bienheureux." + +It is no wonder that the charms and talents which exalted this prosaic +Frenchman almost into a poet, should turn the heads of poets themselves. +The verses addressed to Leonora were collected into a volume, and +published under the title of "Applausi poetici alle glorie della Signora +Leonora Baroni."--"Poetical eulogies to the glory of Signora Leonora +Baroni." A similar homage had been paid to her mother, Adriana, who +reckoned Tasso among her panegyrists. This may seem too high a +distinction for a species of talent, which, however admirable, can leave +behind no durable monument, and therefore can claim no interest with +posterity. Yet is it just, that those whom heaven has enriched with the +gift of melody, and who have cultivated that delicious faculty to its +height, until with angel-skill they can suspend the dominion of pain in +aching hearts,[144]--that such should ravish with delight a whole +generation, and then perish from the earth, they and their memory, with +the pleasure they bestowed, and gratitude be voiceless and tuneless in +their praise? The gift of song is fleeting as that of beauty; but while +the painter fixes on his canvas + + The vermeil-tinctur'd lip, + Love-darting eyes, and tresses like the morn, + +what shall immortalise the tones which "turned sense to soul?" what but +poetry, which, while it preserves the memory of such excellence, gives +back to the fancy some reflection of the delight we have felt, when the +full tide of a divine voice is poured forth to the sense, like wine from +an enchanted cup, making us thrill "with music's pulse in every artery." +Leonora Baroni had her poets, and her name, linked with that of Milton, +shall never die. + +It is a curious circumstance, and one but little consonant with the +popular idea of Milton's austerity, that the object of his poetical +homage, and even of his serious admiration, was an Italian singer; but +it must be remembered, that Milton, the son of an accomplished +musician,[145] was, by nature and education, peculiarly susceptible to +the power of sweet sounds. Next to poetry, music was with him a passion; +and the profession of a singer in those days, when the art was in its +second infancy, was more highly estimated, in proportion as excellence +was more rare and less publicly exhibited. I cannot find that either +Leonora Baroni, or her mother Adriana, ever appeared on a stage; yet +their celebrity had spread from one end of Italy to the other. Milton +joined the crowd of Leonora's votaries at Rome, and has expressed his +enthusiastic admiration, not only in verse but in prose.[146] He +addressed her in Latin and Italian, the languages she understood, and +which he had perfectly at command. In one of his Latin poems, "To +Leonora, singing at Rome," the allusion to Leonora d'Este, + + Another Leonora once inspired + Tasso, by hopeless love to phrenzy fired, &c. + +is as happy as it is beautiful, and shows the belief which then +prevailed of the real cause of Tasso's delirium. + +Two of Milton's Italian sonnets are very beautiful, and have been +translated by Cowper with singular felicity. All his biographers agree +that Leonora Baroni is the subject of both; the first, addressed to +Carlo Diodati, describes the lady, whose dark and foreign charms are +opposed to those of the _blonde_ beauties he had admired in his youth. + + +SONNET. + + _Diodati! e te 'l diro con maraviglia, &c._ + + Charles,--and I say it wondering,--thou must know + That I, who once assumed a scornful air, + And scoffed at Love, am fallen into his snare; + (Full many an upright man has fallen so.) + Yet think me not thus dazzled by the flow + Of golden locks, or damask rose; more rare + The heartfelt beauties of my foreign fair! + A mien majestic, with dark brows, that show + The tranquil lustre of a lofty mind,-- + Words exquisite, of idioms more than one; + And song, whose fascinating power might bind, + And from her sphere draw down the lab'ring moon; + With such fire-darting eyes, that should I fill + Mine ears with wax, she would enchant me still! + +In this translation, though elegant and faithful, the lines + + A mien majestic, with dark brows, that show + The tranquil lustre of a lofty mind, + +have much diluted the energy of Milton's + + Portamenti alti onesti, e nelle ciglia + Quel sereno fulgor d'amabil nero. + +In the other Sonnet, addressed to Leonora, he gives, with all the +simplicity of conscious worth, this lofty description of himself, and of +his claims to her preference. + + +SONNET. + + _Giovane, piano, e semplicetto amante, &c._ + + Enamour'd, artless, young, on foreign ground, + Uncertain whither from myself to fly, + To thee, dear lady, with an humble sigh, + Let me devote my heart, which I have found, + By certain proofs not few, intrepid, sound, + Good, and addicted to conceptions high: + When tempests shake the world, and fire the sky, + It rests in adamant, self-wrapt around, + As safe from envy and from outrage rude, + From hopes and fears that vulgar minds abuse, + As fond of genius and fixt solitude, + Of the resounding lyre and every muse. + Weak you will find it in one only part, + Now pierc'd by Love's immedicable dart. + + * * * * * + +Milton was three times married. The relations of his first wife, (Mary +Powell,) who were violent Royalists, and ashamed or afraid of their +connection with a republican, persuaded her to leave him. She +absolutely forsook her husband for nearly three years, and resided with +her family at Oxford, when that city was the head-quarters of the King's +party. "I have so much charity for her," says Aubrey, "that she might +not wrong his bed; but what man (especially contemplative,) would like +to have a young wife environed and stormed by the sons of Mars, and +those of the ennemie partie?" + +Milton, though a suspicion of the nature hinted at by Aubrey never rose +in his mind, was justly incensed at this dereliction. He was on the +point of divorcing this contumacious bride, and had already made choice +of another[147] to succeed her, when she threw herself, impromptu, at +his feet and implored his forgiveness. He forgave her; and when the +republican party triumphed, the family who had so cruelly wronged him +found a refuge in his house. This woman embittered his life for fourteen +or fifteen years. + +A remembrance of the reconciliation with his wife, and of his own +feelings on that occasion, are said to have suggested to Milton's mind +the beautiful scene between Adam and Eve, in the tenth book of the +Paradise Lost. + + She ended weeping; and her lowly plight, + Immoveable, till peace obtained for faults + Acknowledged and deplored, in Adam wrought + Commiseration; soon his heart relented + Tow'rds her, his life so late and sole delight, + Now at his feet submissive in distress, + Creature so fair, his reconcilement seeking; + As one disarmed, his anger all he lost, &c. + +Milton's second and most beloved wife (Catherine Woodcock) died in +child-bed, within a year after their marriage. He honoured her memory +with what Johnson (out upon him!) calls a _poor_ sonnet; it is the one +beginning + + Methought I saw my late espoused saint + Brought to me, like Alcestis from the grave; + +which, in its solemn and tender strain of feeling and modulated harmony, +reminds us of Dante. He never ceased to lament her, and to cherish her +memory with a fond regret:--she must have been full in his heart and +mind when he wrote those touching lines in the Paradise Lost-- + + How can I live without thee? how forego + Thy sweet converse and love so dearly joined, + To live again in these wild woods forlorn? + Should God create another Eve, and I + Another rib afford, yet loss of thee + Would never from my heart! + +After her death,--blind, disconsolate, and helpless--he was abandoned to +petty wrongs and domestic discord; and suffered from the disobedience +and unkindness of his two elder daughters, like another Lear.[148] His +youngest daughter, Deborah, was the only one who acted as his +amanuensis, and she always spoke of him with extreme affection:--on +being suddenly shown his picture, twenty years after his death, she +burst into tears.[149] + +These three daughters were grown up, and the youngest about fifteen, +when Milton married his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull. She was a +gentle, kind-hearted woman,[150] without pretensions of any kind, who +watched over his declining years with affectionate care. One biographer +has not scrupled to assert, that to her,--or rather to her tender +reverence for his studious habits, and to the peace and comfort she +brought to his heart and home,--we owe the Paradise Lost: if true, what +a debt immense of endless gratitude is due to the memory of this +unobtrusive and amiable woman! + +FOOTNOTES: + +[137] What Dr. Johnson _wrote_ is known;--he was accustomed to _say_ +that the admiration expressed for Milton was all _cant_. + +[138] I have before me the pamphlet, entitled "A Narrative of the +disinterment of Milton's coffin, on Wednesday the 4th of August, 1790, +and of the treatment of the Corpse during that and the following day." +The circumstances are too revolting to be dwelt upon. + +[139] Si les Anges, (said Madame de Stael) n'ont pas ete representes +sous les traits de femme, c'est parceque l'union de la force avec la +purete, est plus belle et plus celeste encore que la modestie meme la +plus parfaite dans un etre faible. + +[140] See his life by Dr. Symmons, Dr. Todd, Newton, Hayley, Aubrey, +Richardson, Warton. + +"She (his daughter Deborah) spoke of him with great tenderness; she said +he was delightful company, the life of the conversation, and that on +account of a flow of subject, and an unaffected cheerfulness and +civility," &c.--RICHARDSON. + +[141] She was Catherine Boyle, the daughter of the Great Earl of Cork, +one of the most excellent and most distinguished women of that +time.--_See Hayley's Life of Milton._ + +[142] Miss Letitia Hawkins. + +[143] Otherwise Amphiaraus: his story is told by Ovid. Met. B. 9. + +[144] As Milton felt when he wrote-- + + And ever against eating cares, + Lap me in soft Lydian airs. + +[145] Milton alludes to his father's talent for music: + + Thyself + Art skilful to associate verse with airs + Harmonious, and to give the human voice + A thousand modulations.-- + Such distribution of himself to us + Was Phoebus' choice; _thou_ hast thy gift, and I + Mine also; and between us we receive, + Father and Son, the whole inspiring God! + + AD PATREM. + +[146] There is extant a prose letter from Milton to Holstentius, the +librarian of the Vatican, in which he accounts as one of his greatest +pleasures at Rome, that of having known and heard Leonora. + +[147] A Miss Davies. "The father (says Hayley) seems to have been a +convert to Milton's arguments; but the lady had scruples. She possessed +(according to Philips) both wit and beauty. A novelist could hardly +imagine circumstances more singularly distressing to sensibility than +the situation of the poet, if, as we may reasonably conjecture, he was +deeply enamoured of this lady; if her father was inclined to accept him +as a son-in-law, and the object of his love had no inclination to reject +his suit, but what arose from a dread of his being indissolubly mated to +another."--_Life of Milton_, p. 90. + +[148] + + --I, dark in light, exposed + To daily fraud, contempt, abuse, and wrong, + Within doors or without, still as a fool + In power of others, never in my own, &c. + + SAMSON AGONISTES. + +[149] Todd's Life of Milton--See also Milton's Will, which has been +lately recovered, and published by Warton. + +[150] Aubrey's Letters. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + +LONDON: +PRINTED BY S. AND R. 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