of admirable purity, and a few clouds | grams and epithalamiums, two opposite gilded by the first rays of the sun seemed kinds, but which it is not surprising to like the fringe of these magnificent hang- | find in the same author, as malice can ings. The Monte Baldo, a picturesque very well amalgamate with vileness. and fertile mountain, surnamed the Such is, however, the power of glory; Garden of the Alps, whose lofty summit no one knows the name of the opulent by a gentle and majestic sweep is united patrician who owned this superb palace, with the Tyrolian Alps, overlooks this and after ages have thought they hoalmost boundless scene. It was impos- noured its ruins by decorating them with sible not to be enraptured at such a sight: the name of a poet. these are the voluptuous moments of a traveller's life, which is always rather cheerless and uncomfortable when one journies alone. I have since visited the peninsula, or rather the rock, of Sermione and the vast ruins which cover it. The olive accords well with these ruins, and their charming position still recalls that venusta Sirmio which its poet was so happy to see again on his return from Bithynia and Thynia. But after reading Catullus attentively it is difficult to recognise his dwelling in the ruins bearing his name that palace was perhaps the one belonging to Manlius; the house of him who composed his epithalamium would be adjacent, that house which he received with a field and even a mistress, and which was rendered more disagreeable by its mortgages than all the winds.3 Catullus, notwithstanding his talents, was already a kind of courtier poet, although the manners of Rome were not then so relaxed, nor had Mæcenas sanctioned literary adulation. He often, much too often, speaks of his poverty, and rails against the race of protectors whom he curses: all this, certainly, is but little in character with the powerful Roman, who possessed the great and beautiful structures of Sermione, with their bath, a separate edifice, their lofty pilasters, and the immensity of their subterraneous vaults. The rank of Catullus's father and the distinguished family to which he belonged have been adduced; but he would not be the only instance of a well-born man sinking into a debauched and servile poet. The conventional manners of the Romans could not indeed sanction the loose tone of Catullus, nor the licentiousness and infaruy of his poems. He has written both epi Catull. Carm., xxxi., 5, 12. • Id., Ixvii., 41, 67, 8. 3 Id., xxvi., 5, 4 Id, xxvii. Sermione reminds us of some events of modern times. By a singular destiny, this peninsula, the abode of the bard who sung of Lesbia and her sparrow, was given by Charlemagne to the monks of Saint Martin of Tours to bear the expenses of their wardrobe; for it seems that these monks liked to be better clothed than their saint. The fort of Sermione, with its battlements and antique towers, erected by the Scaligers, the sovereigns of Verona, has a fine appearance from the lake. When the Austrians evacuated the retrenchments of Sermione in 1797, the French general who took possession of them gave a fête in honour of Catullus; but in the midst of the poetical toast and drinking songs, the inhabitants came to complain of the depredations they suffered from a detachment of our troops. Probably these brave fellows had unconsciously imitated rather too much, the lax morals of the poet they celebrated. After two thousand years the memory of Catullus proved useful to his country, as a narrative of that period pompously apprises us. The disorderly detachment was immediately dispersed among the inhabitants of other villages, good folks who counted no poets among their ancestors, who, it appears, had never written any thing but prose. A steamboat now runs the whole length of the lake of Garda; assuredly it is not less rapid than the old ship devoted to Castor and Pollux by Catullus; but previously to its boat existence it had not, like that, delivered oracles :— After two thousand years, such is the truth of Virgil's verse, that a double machine has been found necessary for this boat, to subdue the fluctibus et fremitu marino of the Latin poet. The boat of lake Garda has none of those learned and national names common to steamboats of other lakes, such as the Verbano of Lago Maggiore, the Lario, and the Plinio of the lake of Cosmo; it takes the respected but less poetic name of the archduke Regnier, who has truly usurped that honour over the Benaco. One does not meet here the elegant company of the above-mentioned lakes, but tradesmen, peasants, sawyers, and loads of packages. The day I was on this boat it coasted along the Brescian shore, which is very superior to the Veronese. It starts from Desenzano and goes to Riva and Torbola, small towns at the extremity of the lake. They scarcely stop any where now, as I had done previously, but on the fertile borders of the riviera of Salò, covered with olives, vines, and citrons, which have an absolutely enchanting aspect from the lake. Towards the middle the lake narrows, becomes wild, and presents a succession of grottoes, steep rocks, a fine cascade the Ponale) and lofty mountains; it is a Scotch loch under an Italian sky. A letter of Bonfadio, addressed to Plinio Tomacello, contains a description of lake Garda, which Ginguené extols as charming and faithful, though he does not appear to have ever visited the country. Bonfadio's description is rather Insipid and exaggerated, and he well deserved the castigation inflicted by the lash frustra, of the burlesque Baretti; the dreams of Platonism, in vogue in the wateenth century, are absurdly enough med up with this description of a lake in the north of Italy. Cardan, a man of parts whose name has wrongfully become synonymous with atheism, tells us in the narrative of his life, that he narrowly escaped shipwreck at the entrance of lake Garda. The situation of an atheist in a tempest must be horrible, were it possible for one to exist under such circumstances, which I do not think, for the danger would compel belief. The history of Cardan, a kind of Confessions, which often do him no great honour, disproves his reputed atheism, as there is in it a chapter on his religious feelings, which even contains a short prayer. 3 The isle of Lecchi, which is only an Italian mile in circumference, is one of the embellishments of the smiling part of lake Garda; Dante thus speaks of this solitude: Luogo é nel mezzo la dove 'l Trentino A monk of the family of Count L. Lecchi, who now inhabits this island, founded there about the beginning of the sixteenth century, a theological school of great reputation. So fervent was the passion then for the study of divinity, that, to accommodate the multitude of his disciples, he was obliged to have the seats raised so as to form an amphitheatre, in the centre of which he delivered his lectures. Some authors pretend that Pope Adrian VI., whom they suppose the same person as Ludovico Rampini, one of the pupils of P. Francesco Lecchi, was born at Renzano, near Salo; a conjecture peculiar to the Italian literati, which seems to have but slight foundation: this pedagogue of Charles V., this pope void of taste for the arts,-the unworthy successor of Leo X., who, on arriving at Rome, turned away in disgust from the sight of the Laocoon, as from a profane divinity-this gloomy and rigorous pontiff seems more likely to have been born at Utrecht amid the fogs of Holland, than under an Italian sky. In the wilder part, near the extremity of the lake, is Malsesine, a large town on the Veronese coast. The embattled gothic castle, of several stories, with an old tower, rises picturesquely from the rocks on the water's edge. It was there that 3 The twenty-second. The arrangement of these Memoirs of Cardan is whimsical enough: Instead of following chronological order, they are divided into collective chapters separately treating of his friends and enemies, his pleasures and rains, bis travels, lawsuits, regimen, style of dress, etc. 4 Inf. xx 69. one of those rare and illustrious victims who, like the favourites of fortune, appear but at long intervals; the former acquire by sacrifices, imprisonment, calumnies, and death, a glory not less eminent, and much purer, than the latter can ever at an agent of Venice tore and threw away the drawing that Goethe was making of these ruins; and where, without the security of a gardener who had served at Frankfort, the poet's country, he would have had much difficulty in escaping the persecution of the podesta and his grasp-tain by success, power, and dominion. ing secretary. The borough of Malsesine, the country and residence of two good poets, Giambattiste Spolverini and Buttura, has inspired them with some verses. Spolverini, in his poem of the Riseide, which he composed at Malsesine, invites his Amaryllis to repair thither: Amarilli gentil, vieni quì, dove Tral marmifero Torri, e la pescosa And Buttura, who sojourned long with us, wished to die in his native town: Salve! mi scuote il seno Di Malsesine mia l'aspetto, e l'opre Liete ricordo di mia nuova etate. Mi terrei fortunato Lasciando util memoria al borgo umile Opposite Malsesine, on the Brescian coast, is the small village of Limone, where the Tyrolian Andrew Hofer embarked a prisoner. When Europe had yielded, this mountaineer alone defended his country against the arms of Napoleon. He was abandoned by the princes whom he had served, and delivered to his implacable enemy, who had ostentatiously accorded favour to certain aristocrats, but could not pardon the rustic heroism of Hofer. An inhabitant of Limone who had witnessed his removal, gave me a few particulars respecting it. Hofer, calm and resigned, was accompanied by a young man, the son of a physician of Gratz, who would not leave him, so great admiration had he for his courage and virtues. This Vendean of the Alps was fettered like a robber; and as the little bark which held him crossed the lake, its waters were unusually agitated, as if indignant at participating in such a murder: he was landed at the fortress of Peschiera, and taken thence to Mantua, where he was shot. Hofer was CHAPTER IX. Italian Tyrol.-Madonna of the Inviolata.-Lake of Loppio. Roveredo. - Dante's verses: Quar" è quella ruina.—Valley of the Adige. Near Riva, a small fortified town at the point of the lake, is a church of the Inviolata, which, with its pictures and cupola resplendent with marble and gilding, seems like a lingering ray of Italy in a poor and mountainous country. The miraculous image of the Virgin was shown me by a Franciscan of the convent, a jovial fellow who was almost intoxicated, and exhibited the first traces of German manners by the side of Italian magnificence. The Franciscan, nevertheless, very devoutly lighted two small candles on each side the tabernacle, before he uncovered the image of the madonna and recited his prayer. The road across the mountains from Riva to Roveredo, is exceedingly picturesque. The limpid rock-bound lake of Loppio, with its Islands, has a thousand particulars that one cannot too highly recommend to artists. Roveredo is a pretty town, with a German aspect; it is entirely devoted to manufactures and commerce, and has neither the loitering inquisitive travellers, the monuments, nor the external appearance of Italian towns. Between Roveredo and Ala, another small town of the Tyrol, is lo Slavino di Marco, a fallen mountain, or kind of avalanche of stones, which it is now said that Dante meant to designate, much more than the Chiusa, by : Qual' è quella ruina che nel flanco, One can scarcely conceive now what lo Slavino may have been; but after visiting the Chiusa, which is farther down on the same road, I should incline to re turn to the opinion of the first commen- | tators and Maffei, by again recognising the Chiusa, as the famous ruin it gives a good idea of a vestibule of hell, of the entrance to that circle where the violent were punished, by the immense succession of rocks it presents, which the road made by the French has mutilated without destroying their formidable aspect. From Roveredo to Verona, the road descends the valley of the Adige, a garden traversed by a torrent and enclosed by mountains. CHAPTER X. Peschiera.- Verona - Scaligers.- Can Grande.Romeo and Juliet. The direct road to Verona passes through the fortress of Peschiera, erected at the spot where the Mincio issues from the lake : Siede Peschiera, bello e forte arnese Verona, with its old tower-flanked walls, its embattled bridges, its long wide streets, and its reminiscences of the middle ages, has an imposing air of grandeur. Such a city was fit to be the capital and abode of this Can Grande della Scala, the Augustus of the middle ages, who welcomed to his court Dante and other proscribed poets and authors. Boccaccio cites Can Grande as one of the most magnificent lords that Italy ever knew. One of the refugees whom he received has given a particular account of his noble and ingenious hospitality. "Different apartments were assigned to them in the palace according to their respective conditions; he appointed servants to each, and a well served table. Their several apartments were indicated by symbols and devices: Victory for the The etymology of the name of this illustrious family is very uncertain. The historian Villani, like a true Florentine merchant, believes in good farment that it proceeds from the circumstance of the Scaligers ancestors baving been ladder-makers. 3 Geers. 1 DOT TIL 3 Sagarios Mucius Gazata, the historian of Reggio, quoted in part by M. de Sismondi, Hist. des Rép. tiac ch uvid Pared can, tvil. 46, et seq. At last, however, Dante e spirii could not endure the manner of living in the palace of Can Grande, nor the Insolence of warriors, Hope for the exiles, the Muses for the poets, Mercury for the artists, Paradise for the preachers. During meals, musicians, jesters, and conjurers performed in these apartments, the rooms were ornamented with paintings (by Giotto) relating to the vicissitudes of fortune (probably after the inspirations of Dante, his friend) and the lord of La Scala occasionally invited some of his guests to his own table, particularly Guido di Castello di Reggio, who, for his sincerity, was called the simple Lombard, and Dante Alighieri, then a most illustrious man, who charmed him with his genius."3 This hospitality accorded to Dante has been immortalised by the celebrated verses of the poet, the finest, and most pathetic that ever exile inspired : Qual si part) Ipolito d'Atene Per la spietata e perfida noverca, Questo si vuole, e questo già si cerca; E tosto verrà fatto a chi ciò pensa Là dove Cristo tutto di si merca. Tu lascerai ogni cosa diletta Più caramente; e questo è quello strale Tu proverai sì come sa di sale Il pane altrui, e com' è duro calle E quel che più il graverà le spalle Sarà la compagnia malvagia e scempia Lo primo tuo rifugio e 'l primo ostello The tombs of the magnificent lords of Verona, a species of long Gothic pyramids his courtiers. It is very possible that the latter had destroyed the effect of their master's benevolent intentions. Poggio gives us, in his Facetiæ, the poet's answer to these courtiers, who had placed nothing but bones before him one day when be dined at Can Grande's table :-" Versi omnes In solum Dantem, mirabantur cum ante ipsum solummodo ossa conspicerentur; tum ille: Minimum inquit, mirum si canes ossa sua comederunt, ego autem non sum canis Facetio, p. 67. Tiraboschi relates the anecdote of that buffoon whose grimaces and jokes were not relished by Dante, though they had ob surmounted by the equestrian statue of I saw in a garden, said to have once been a cemetery, the pretended sarcophagus of Romeo's bride. This tomb was the object, at the same time, of excessive honours and strange indignities. Madame de Stael, and a very learned antiquary whom I knew at Verona, regarded it as really that of Juliet. A great princess 4 has had a necklace and bracelets made of the reddish stone of which it is composed; some illustrious foreigners and handsome ladies of Verona wear a small coffin of this same stone, and the peasants in whose garden this poetical sarcophagus stood in 1826 used it to wash their lettuce in. It is now religiously Flos Veronensium depereunt juvenum,3 a verse of Catullus, applied to much less honourable loves, and that one would imagine Shakspeare had imitated : Verona's summer hath not such a flower; which passage M. Emile Deschamps has naturally rendered by C'est la plus belle fleur du printemps de Vérone. tained great success at the court. Being asked by Cane, or more likely by his brother and predecessor Alboin, why be alone despised the man whom every body else admired, he answered: "It is because a similarity of manners is the foundation of friendship." Although the remark has escaped the many voluminous commentators on the Divina Commedia, I know not whether the phrase to scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale be not a jeu de mots in allusion to the annoyances that Dante experienced with the lords of La Scala. The arcade under which Can Signorio committed this murder, took and retained the name of Vollo barbaro; it joins the Piazza de' ¡Signori, where the Scaligers lived. Epist. senil. 3 Carm. C. 2. 4 The Archduchess Maria Louisa of Parma. 5 It is extraordinary that Dante, to whose genius the pathos of the story of Romeo and Juliet was so suitable, has said nothing about them, though he According to a popular but erroneous tradition, the Capelletta takes its name from the family of the Capulets, and some enthusiastic travellers have lately taken drawings of both the interior and exterior. The memory of the loves of Romeo and Juliet has been renewed in Italy by English_travellers; Shakspeare's play has made it popular. Thus do Dante and Shakspeare seem to meet at Verona, the one by his works, the other by his misfortunes; and the imagination delights in bringing together these two great geniuses, so tremendous, so creative, and perhaps the most astonishing of modern literature. 5 CHAPTER XI. Amphitheatre.-People inhabiting the monuments. The amphitheatre of Verona, now the finest and best restored of those edifices, speaks so eagerly of the Montagues and Capulets: Vieni a veder Montecchi e Cappelletti. (Purg. vi. 106.) A poetess, or more probably a poet of the time concealed under the name of Clithia, celebrated it. This little poem in four cantos, printed in 4553, bəd become scarce; it has been reproduced by S. Alessandro Torri in his notes to the novel of Luigi da Porto. (Pisa, 1831.) The novelliers and Italian historians who have related the adventure of Romeo and Juliet, which happened in 1303 or 1304 under Bartolommeo della Scala, the son of Albert, are later by more than two centuries. See the novel of Bandello, t. IV. nov. ix. A French translation of the novel of Romeo and Juliet, by Luigi da Porto, followed by some scenes translated from Shakspeare's Juliet, is due to a learned writer, M. Delécluse, who has compared the play with the novel. Paris, 1829, in-12. |