The laws of the twelve tables were inscribed on pillars of brass, and placed in the most conspicuous part of the Forum.-DION. HAL. Note 136, page 62, col. 2. And to the shepherd on the Alban mount. Amplitudo tanta est, ut conspiciatur à Latiario Jove C. PLIN. xxxiv, 7. Note 137, page 62, col. 2. A thousand torches, turning night to day. An allusion to Cæsar in his Gallic triumph. "Adscendit Capitolium ad lumina," etc. SUETONIUS. cording to Dion. Cassius, he went up on his knees. Note 138, page 63, col. 1. On those so young, well-pleased with all they see. In the triumph of Æmilius, nothing affected the Roman people like the children of Perseus. Many wept; nor could anything else attract notice, till they were gone by. PLUTARCH. Note 139, page 63, col. 1. -and she who said, Tiber." Methinks the Furies with their snakes, Of fiend and goddess she partakes, And looks at once both Love and Murder. Note 142, page 64, col. 2. From this Seat. Mons Albanus, now called Monte Cavo. On the summit stood for many centuries the temple of Jupiter Latiaris. "Tuque ex tuo edito monte Latiaris, sancte Jupiter," etc.-CICERO. Note 143, page 65, col. 1. Two were so soon to wander and be slain. livres de Virgile ne comprend, qu'une lieue de ter Note 144, page 65, col. 1. How many realms, pastoral and warlike, lay. Forty-seven, according to Dionys. Halicar. 1. iv. Note 145, page 65, col. 1. Here is the sacred field of the Horatii. "Horatiorum quà viret sacer campus."-MART. Once, as we were approaching Frescati in the sunAc-shine of a cloudless December morning, we observed a rustic group by the road-side, before an image of the Virgin, that claimed the devotions of the passenger from a niche in a vineyard wall. Two young men from the mountains of the Abruzzi, in their long brown cloaks, were playing a Christmas-carol. Their instruments were a hautboy and a bagpipe; and the air, wild and simple as it was, was such as she might accept with pleasure. The ingenuous and smiling countenances of these rude minstrels, who seemed so sure that she heard them, and the unaffected delight of their little audience, all younger than themselves, all standing uncovered, and moving their lips in prayer, would have arrested the most careless traveller. Taking the fatal cup between her hands. The story of the marriage and the poison is well known to every reader. Note 140, page 64, col. 1. His last great work. The transfiguration; “la quale opera, nel vedere il corpo morto, e quella viva, faceva scoppiare l'anima Note 148, page 65, col. 2. And architectural pomp, such as none else; Whoever has entered the Church of St. Peter's or di dolore à ogni uno, che quivi guardava."-VASARI. the Pauline Chapel, during the Exposition of the Holy Sacrament there, will not soon forget the blaze of the side of the rock, and hanging over that torrent, the altar, or the dark circle of worshippers kneeling are little ruins which they show you for Horace's house, a curious situation to observe the in silence before it. Note 149, page 65, col. 2. Ere they came. An allusion to the Prophecies concerning Antichrist. See the interpretations of Mede, Newton, Clarke, etc.; not to mention those of Dante and Petrarch. Note 150, page 66, col. 1. And from the latticed gallery came a chant Of psalms, most saint-like, most angelical. Præceps Anio, et Tiburni lucus, et uda Mobilibus pomaria rivis. Note 159, page 68, col. 2. Gray's Letters. Like one awaking in a distant time. The place here described is near Mola di Gaëta, in the kingdom of Naples. Note 160, page 68, col. 2. When they that robb'd, were men of better faith. Alluding to Alfonso Piccolomini. "Stupiva cias There was said to be in the choir, among others cuno che, mentre un bandito osservava rigorosamente of the Sisterhood, a daughter of Cimarosa. Note 158, page 67, col. 1. (So some aver, and who would not believe?) la sua parola, il Papa non avesse ribrezzo di mancare alla propria."-GALLUZZI. ii, 364. He was hanged at Florence, March 16, 1591. When along the shore. Tasso was returning from Naples to Rome, and had arrived at Mola di Gaëta, when he received this tribute of respect. The captain of the troop was Marco di Sciarra. See MANSO. Vita del Tasso. Ariosto had a similar adventure with Filippo Pachione. See BARUFFALDI. Note 162, page 69, col. 1. As by a spell they start up in array. "Cette race de bandits a ses racines dans la population même du pays. La police ne sait ou les trouver." Lettres de CHATEAUVIEUX. Note 163, page 69, col. 2. Three days they lay in ambush at my gate. This story was written in the year 1820, and is founded on the many narratives which at that time were circulating in Rome and Naples. Note 164, page 71, col. 2. And in the track of him who went to die. The Elder Pliny. See the letters in which his nephew relates to Tacitus the circumstances of his death. Note 165, page 74, col. 1. The fishing-town, Amalfi. "Amalfi fell, after three hundred years of prosperity; but the poverty of one thousand fishermen is yet dignified by the remains of an arsenal, a cathedral, and the palaces of royal merchants."-Gibbon. Note 166, page 74, col. 2. A Hospital, that, night and day, received It was dedicated to Saint John. Note 167, page 74, col. 2. -relics of ancient Grecce. Among other things the Pandects of Justinian were found there in 1137. By the Pisans they were taken from Amalfi, by the Florentines from Pisa; and they are now preserved with religious care in the Laurentian Library. There Note 168, page 74, col. 2. Grain from the golden vales of Sicily. at this day in Syracuse a street called "I did not tell you that just below the first fall, on La Strada degli Amalfitani. third novel of Franco Sacchetty we read, that a stranger, suddenly entering Giotto's study, threw down a shield and departed, saying, "Paint me my It was in the year 839. See Muratori. Art. Chronici arms in that shield ;" and that Giotto, looking after Amalphitani Fragmenta. Note 170, page 74, col. 2. Serve for their monument. By degrees, says Giannone, they made themselves famous throngh the world. The Tarini Amalfitani were a coin familiar to all nations; and their maritime code regulated everywhere the commerce of the sea. Many churches in the East were by them built and endowed: by them was first founded in Palestine that most renowned military Order of St. John of Jerusalem; and who does not know that the Mariner's Compass was invented by a citizen of Amalfi ? Note 171, page 75, col. 1. The air is sweet with violets, running wild. The violets of Pæstum were as proverbial as the roses. Martial mentions them with the honey of Hybla. Note 172, page 75, col. 1. Those thoughts so precious and so lately lost. The introduction to his treatise on Glory. Cic. ad Att. xvi, 6. For an account of the loss of that treatise, see Petrarch, Epist. Rer.; SENILIUM, XV, i; and BAYLE, Dict. in Alcyonius. Note 173, page 75, col. 2. -and Posidonia rose. Originally a Greek City under that name, and afterwards a Roman City, under the name of Paestum. See Mitford's Hist. of Greece, chap. x, sec. 2. It was surprised and destroyed by the Saracens at the beginning of the tenth century. Note 174, page 76, col. 1. "What hangs behind that curtain ?" This story, if a story it can be called, is fictitious; and I have done little more than give it as I received it. It has already appeared in prose; but with many alterations and additional circumstances. The abbey of Monte Cassino is the most ancient and venerable house of the Benedictine Order. It is situated within fifteen leagues of Naples, on the inland road to Rome; and no house is more hospitable. Note 175, page 76, col. 1. For life is surely there, and visible change. There are many miraculous pictures in Italy; but none, I believe, were ever before described as malignant in their influence. Note 176, page 76, col. 2. Within a crazed and tatter'd vehicle. Then degraded, and belonging to a Vetturino. Note 177, page 76, col. 2. A shield as splendid as the Bardi wear. him, exclaimed, "Who is he? What is he? He says, Paint me my arms, as if he was one of the Bardi! What arms does he bear?" The Piazza Doria, or, as it is now called, the Piazza di San Matteo, insignificant as it may be thought, is to me the most interesting place in Genoa. It was there that Doria assembled the people, when he gave them their liberty (Sigonii Vita Doria); and on one side of it is the church he lies buried in, on the other a house, originally of very small dimensions, with this inscription: S. C. Andreæ de Auria Patriæ Liberatori Munus Publicum. The streets of old Genoa, like those of Venice, were constructed only for foot-passengers. Note 182, page 77, col. 2. Held many a pleasant, many a grave discourse. See his Life by Sigonio. Note 183, page 77, col. 2. A house of trade. When I saw it in 1822, a basket-maker lived on the ground-floor, and over him a seller of chocolate. Note 184, page 78, col. 1. Before the ocean-wave thy wealth reflected. Alluding to the Palace which he built afterwards, and in which he twice entertained the Emperor Charles the Fifth. It is the most magnificent edifice on the bay of Genoa. Note 185, page 78, col. 1. The ambitious man, that in a perilous hour Fiesco. See Robertson's History of the Emperor A Florentine family of great antiquity. In the sixty-Charles the Fifth. 97 Miscellaneous Poems. ODE TO SUPERSTITION.1 I. 1. HENCE, to the realms of Night, dire demon, hence! Clot his shaggy mane with gore, With flashing fury bid his eye-balls shine; Thy touch, thy deadening touch has steel'd the breast, Whence, through her April-shower, soft Pity smiled; When, with a frown that froze the peopled earth,3 Ha! what withering phantoms glare! As blows the blast with many a sudden swell, And, through the mist, reveals the terrors of his form. I. 3. O'er solid seas, where Winter reigns, Each potent spell thou badest him know. Smit by the scorchings of the noontide beam. She hurls the torch! she fans the fire! To die is to be blest: She clasps her lord to part no more, 1 Written in early youth. 2 The sacrifice of Iphigenia. 3 Lucretius, I. 63. 4 The funeral rite of the Hindoos. While the lone shepherd, near the shipless main,' Sees o'er her hills advance the long-drawn funeral train. II. 1. Thou spakest, and lo! a new creation glow'd. Grasp'd the globe with iron hand. spheres ; The indignant pyramid sublimely towers, And braves the efforts of a host of years. Sweet Music breathes her soul into the wind; And bright-eyed Painting stamps the image of the mind. II. 2. Round their rude ark old Egypt's sorcerers rise! But ah! what myriads claim the bended knee!" II. 3. On yon hoar summit, mildly bright® High o'er the world, the white-robed Magi gaze 5 The Fates of the Northern Mythology. See Mallet's An- I. 131. tiquities. 9 En. VI. 46, etc. The Sibyl speaks, the dream is o'er, Breathing a prophetic flame. The cavern frowns; its hundred mouths unclose! And in the thunder's voice, the fate of empire flows! III. 1. Mona, thy Druid-rites awake the dead! Rites thy brown oaks would never dare Rites that have chain'd old Ocean on his bed. III. 2. Lo, steel-clad War his gorgeous standard rears! In cloister'd solitude she sits and sighs, Lord of each pang the nerves can feel, Pure as the mountain-snows: She smiles! and where is now the cloud 1 See Tacitus, 1. ziv, c. 29. 2 This remarkable event happened at the siege and sack of Jerusalem, in the last year of the eleventh century. Matth. Paris, p. 34. Her touch unlocks the day-spring from above, And lo! it visits man with beams of light and love, VERSES WRITTEN TO BE SPOKEN BY MRS. SIDDONS.' YES, 't is the pulse of life! my fears were vain; I wake, I breathe, and am myself again. Still in this nether world; no seraph yet! Nor walks my spirit, when the sun is set, With troubled step to haunt the fatal board, Where I died last-by poison or the sword; Blanching each honest cheek with deeds of night, Done here so oft by dim and doubtful light. -To drop all metaphor, that little bell Call'd back reality, and broke the spell. No heroine claims your tears with tragic tone; A very woman-scarce restrains her own! Can she, with fiction, charm the cheated mind, When to be grateful is the part assign'd? Ah no! she scorns the trappings of her Art; No theme but truth, no prompter but the heart! But, Ladies, say, must I alone unmask? Is here no other actress? let me ask. Believe me, those, who best the heart dissect, Know every Woman studies stage-effect. She moulds her manners to the part she fills, As Instinct teaches, or as Humor wills; And, as the grave or gay her talent calls, Acts in the drama till the curtain falls. First, how her little breast with triumph swells, When the red coral rings its golden bells! To play in pantomime is then the rage, Along the carpet's many-color'd stage; Or lisp her merry thoughts with loud endeavor, Now here, now there-in noise and mischief ever! A school-girl next, she curls her hair in papers, And mimics father's gout, and mother's vapors; Discards her doll, bribes Betty for romances; Playful at church, and serious when she dances; Tramples alike on customs and on toes, And whispers all she hears to all she knows; Terror of caps, and wigs, and sober notions! A romp! that longest of perpetual motions! -Till tamed and tortured into foreign graces, She sports her lovely face at public places; And with blue, laughing eyes, behind her fan, First acts her part with that great actor, MAN. Too soon a flirt, approach her and she flies! Frowns when pursued, and, when entreated, sighs! Plays with unhappy men as cats with mice; Till fading beauty hints the late advice. Her prudence dictates what her pride disdain'd, And now she sues to slaves herself had chain'd! Then comes that good old character, a Wife, With all the dear distracting cares of life; A thousand cards a day at doors to leave, And, in return, a thousand cards receive; Rouge high, play deep, to lead the ton aspire, With nightly blaze set Portland-place on fire; Snatch half a glimpse at Concert, Opera, Ball, A meteor, traced by none, though seen by all; 1 After a Tragedy, performed for her benefit, at the Theatre Royal in Drury-lane, April 27, 1795. |