The Bibelof HEN, in The Bibelot for April, WHEN of Dead Florentines 1896, we printed certain Songs a series of Italian lyrics in large part done into English by the late John Addington Symonds it was, confessedly, with the title in mind of a book but recently issued, to wit: A Masque of Dead Florentines, / wherein some of Death's Choicest Pieces, and the Great Game that he played therewith,/are fruitfully set forth. / [Motto: "Fiorenza mia, ben puoi esser contenta."]/ [Publishers' Device.]/ By Maurice Hewlett / Pictured by J. D. Batten / J. M. Dent & Co. /— London,/MDCCCXCV. A few months earlier, Earthwork Out of Tuscany, being Impressions and Translations of Maurice Hewlett, had been brought out by the same publishers,-a book dismissed with scant, disparaging estimate in The Athenæum,- though now seen to have held within its all too few pages one indubitable little "Imaginary Portrait," fit to be ranked immediately after the four elaborately finished cabinetpieces of the same name and genre by Walter Pater. This episode in the life of Botticelli (Quattrocentisteria), was recognized by one reader at least and, as an immediate result, transferred to our pages in May, 1896. As for the Masque it apparently fell still-born from the press: to the best of our knowledge and belief no criticism whatever, in any journal of note in England or America, being passed upon it.1 From our personal view-point — and that is all we have to offer - Mr. Hewlett's morality-play, if one chooses to call it so, is a brilliant conception, bringing together as it does, the august shades of the men and women of the Renaissance. It is in very truth" a masque of death's old comedy," of which a brief analysis may not be considered unwelcome to those who now read it for the first time. The First Part opens with an invocation of Dante; then Beatrice is seen, followed by Laura and Petrarch, and, quite out of historic sequence, Boccace and his Fiammetta. Then the three ladies of old time dance and recede from sight, while the Chorus recites their worth and the renown of their lovers; whereupon Giotto, Corso Donati, Farinata, Buondelmonte, Guido Cavalcante I See Bibliographical Note at the end of Part II. and the Lady Piccarda Donati appear. Lastly comes Fra Beato Angelico, the scene closing with Chorus giving voice to approval of his lovely life and quiet end. Part Second deals with "Love and Italy and Art their fosterling," and immediately we have speech with Fra Lippo Lippi; then enter Pico della Mirandola, Bartolommeo Scala, Lionardo da Vinci, all voicing the bitter outcry of the Psalmist. Simonetta now makes moan over the dead days of her youth, and her lover Giuliano, with others of the house of Medici pass over the stage with Lorenzo, greatest of them all, upon whom the Three Reproaches habited as bent old women heap their curses for his misdeeds. Poliziano, who was with the Magnificent when he died, then recites an elegy and is dismissed into darkness. We now see Cosimo di Medici, hard upon whose footsteps follows Savonarola with the two who most loved and hated him; and last comes Botticelli whose lament is broken in upon by the Chorus with a sinister dirge of its own. Then the Sun shines out and Luca della Robbia speaks in his own praise which is fully justified by the ever-discerning Chorus. Quatrains are now respectively recited by Macchiavelli, Cellini and Pulci, and the burden of Florence, her destiny and doom, sums itself up in a final invocation of Michael Angelo. So passes the glory of the City of Lilies. We reprint the text of A Masque of Dead Florentines in its entirety. As Mr. Batten's illustrations do not lend themselves to satisfactory reproduction they have been omitted. With the lapse of time it is unlikely that this thin oblong quarto will lose value either in the eyes of the collector or the lover of poetry for its own sake. FOR FEBRUARY: A MASQUE OF Dead FlorentiNES FOR MARCH: POEMS BY LIONEL JOHNSON. |