LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, BART. K.J. KENT : ^rintcD at tj^c pribatc l^vt^^ of 2e? ^ti'org ; BY JOHN WARWICK. 1821. ^ CONTENTS PAGE. Introductory 1 The Kingdom of Burgundy Helvetia— Ancient Kings— House of Charlemagne 11 Ferney Voltaire 28 Rosseau 35 Chillon— Meillerie 39 Kingdom of Burgundy 43 Dukes of Burgundy— Counts Palatine of Burgundy 53 History of Savoy 57 The Counts of Geneva 67 General Reflections- --Decline and Termination of the Kingdom of Burgundy Jean Muller Paul- Henri-Mallet 71 House of Savoy— Faucigny 77 Originality very rare— Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, Chaucer, Spenser, Sackville, Milton— -Court Poets of Charles I. and Charles II 90 Baths of St. Gervais in Savoy— Reflections on Sa- voyard Simplicity 107 Reflections— Passage of the Simplon resumed— Bor- romean Islands-— Visconti and Sforza Families. . . . 127 Dukes of Parma and Plazenza 162 Agology for the long interval between the dates of these Letters Reflections on the intervening Events-— Aim of the Publication— Common Cha- racter of Travels 171 CONTENTS LETTER. PACE. 1 . . Introductory 1 2.. The Kingdom of Burgundy Helvetia— Ancient Kings— House of Charlemagne 11 3. , Ferney Voltaire 28 4. .Rousseau 35 5. . Chillon— Meillerie 39 6. . Kingdom of Burgundy 43 7. .Dukes of Burgundy— Counts Palatine of Burgundy 53 8. . History of Savoy 57 9. , The Counts of Geneva 67 10. . General Reflections— Decline and Termination of the Kingdom of Burgundy Jean Muller Paul- Henri-Mallet 71 11. . House of Savoy— Faucigny 77 12. . Originality very rare— Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, Chaucer, Spenser, Sackville, Milton— -Court Poets of Charles I. and Charles II 90 13 ., Baths of St. Gervais in Savoy— Reflections on Sa- voyard Simplicity 107 14. , Passage of the Simplon &c , 116 15. . Reflections— Passage of the Simplon resumed— Bor- romean Islands— Visconti and Sforza Families. . . . 127 16. . Dukes of Parma and Placenza 162 17. . Apology for^ the long interval between the dates of these Letters Reflections on the intervening Events— Aim of the Publication— Common Cha- racter of Travels 171 LETTERS FMOM THE CONTINENT, LETTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Switzerland, 11 th June, 1819. Itineraries, Toms, Travels; Topographi- cal, Historical, and Statistical Descriptions of every part of Europe, abound even to satiety. He therefore who should attempt to add another to these classes of works, would not act very discreetly. Remarks and reflections suggested by the scenes or manners of foreign countries are not liable to the same censure. If there be intrinsic value in the writer's thoughts, information, or language; if he should be happily gifted with 2 LETTER I. original powers of mind; with liveliness of fancy; and energy of feeling; the view of new prospects ; of different customs ; and other forms of government may add to the animation of his mind^ and give a favourahle opportunity of pour- ing out some of its stores. The matter of Travels therefore^ will only make an incidental part of these Letters; and will only be noticed so far as it may give rise to the subject which may occupy the excursions of the author's mind. Faculties ever at work, an heart ever in motion, weave webs, and build castles, in every situation which they fondly desire to preserve and communicate. There are few pleasures equal to those of literature: there are scarcely any so innocent and pure: scarcely any so noble: and scarcely any so beneficial : when their fruits are not buried in the bosoms of the cultivators. I never rest till I have obtained an outline, at least, of the history of the place that I inhabit; but I shall not trouble the reader with what may be easily found in printed books. Switzerland, anciently called Helvetia, or the INTRODUCTORY. 3 greater part, was included in the temporary king- dom of Arles^ in the ninth century, under Charles le Gros, ^ forming, I conceive, together with Savoy, that part which as a separate kingdom had gone under the name of Burgundy Trans- Jurane, while Burgundy Cis-Jurane, the other part, extended from Franche-Comte, on the bor- ders of Alsatia, north, through Burgundy, Dau- phine^ and Prov ence, to the Mediterranean, south. This kingdom lasted but a very short time. It fell to peices again with the death of Charles le Gros, or rather with his deposition. Boson had taken it from Charles le Gros: but Rodolph soon wrested nwdj from this Boson the kingdom of High Burgundy. His son, Rodolph H. join- ed again Aries and Provence by compromise with Hugh, Count de Provence, who was com- petitor with Berengaire I. for the kingdom of Italy. Rodolph III. the grandson, who died 1032, was the last king of this race. Such a vast territory would have formed a most power- ful kingdom, if it had ever had time to con sol i- * Great grandson of Charlemagne. Ob. 888, 4 LETTER I. date itself: but perhaps it could not have con- solidated itself from want of natural boundaries. Mallet, the historian, remarks that Switzerland alone seems marked out by Nature to make its inhabitants a people distinct from their neigh- bours. Switzerland afterwards fell to the Emperors, till the Helvetic Confederacy emancipated them from the House of Hapsburg. Geneva fell under the at least contested power of the Counts of Savoy, who formed a principality out of the ruins of the kingdom of Burgundy. The Counts and Bishops of Geneva, and even the Bourgeoisie, disputed privileges and pre-eminences with them. From the time that Geneva perfectly liberated itself, its history is quite familiar to all well-read persons. The figure it makes in the annals of Protestantism, and the names of Calvin and Beza have so associated it with that, which is most impressed upon the memory, that it would be disgusting to retread these steps. Lord Byron has drawn the attention of the English reader to the fate of Francis Bonnivard in his Prisoners of Chillon. He died about 1571, aged about INTRODUCTORY. O seventy-five. There are two or three cnrioiis traits of him^ not elsewhere noticed^ in the Fragmens Biographiqiies et Historiques of Mons. Grenus-Saladin, Geneve, 1815, S""^. a rare vo- lume, extracted from the original registers of the Council of Geneve, with ninety-seven portraits of Syndics, and other eminent Genevois. The slightest allusions to the celebrated per- sons of Geneva, without any notice of Rousseau, would seem like coldness and neglect. The great difference of opinion, which it is customary to encourage regarding him, requires either a long discussion, or a recognition of the fewest words. Common-place praise, or common-place condemnation, w^ould be idle and revolting. His character is one, which interest me to analyze : but which would be too long for this first stage of my outset. I may say the same of Madame de Stael. Every one is attached naturally, and perhaps wisely, to the character and habits of his own country. As his experience enlarges; as his mind enlightens; as his associations untwist themselves; take new directions; and throw O LETTER I. themselves round new objects, he begins to won- der at many of his prejudices : to see happiness in other modes of hfe, and health and pleasure in other sorts of scenery; to believe that liberty and welfare are consistent with more than one form of goverment ; to admit that wealth is not the result merely of one system of commerce, or one form of political economy: but that, of all, the major part have some good, peculiar to themselves : that many things, deemed essential, soon become indifferent: and that we soon reconcile ourselves to the indurance, or privation, of what we had formerly thought most important to be free from, or possessed of. It is by constant occupation, wherever our lot may carry us, that Time moves swiftly, and and generally smoothly, on. The thoughts prey upon the heart, when not strongly engaged. Who is free from regrets of the past, or dread of the future ? Who has not had his misfortunes, and his griefs? Who has been free from deep wounds to his affections, from the loss of friends, from the premature death of beloved relatives ? The spirit must be hard^ that can give ample INTRODUCTORY. / space to the power of these sorrowful musings ! They gather strength hy indulgence^ and burst the breast that allows them room to swell. But how can the regions of literature be ex- hausted? Each new^ step opens numerous new vistas to as yet unexplored; and the more we read, the more we have to learn. Every new country we visit suggests a thousand enquiries, on which before we felt no curiosity. We asso- ciate its history with its scenery, and the visible relics of its former grandeur; an interest is rais- ed for its rulers and its people ; our impressions and recollections become, as it were, embodied : the light spreads: we go from country to coun- try : one history links itself to another ; till the whole is elucidated: the figures on all sides start from the canvas : each throws a ray upon its neighbours: and the whole shews an unity of design, of which many of the parts were before inexplicable. We know that all are not qualified for this mental industry. Either the native endowment, or the habitual attention, is w anting. Perhaps also the labour of reading may only overload b LETTER I. the memory, if their he no force of intellectual digestion. An overloaded memory is a danger- ous thing: it serves to make folly more conspi- cuous ; to increase its conceit ; and augment the delusion of its self-confidence. On the other hand, what can the most pow- erful human mind do without knowledge ? What enlarged opinions can we form on politics with- out history ? How can we be confident of the character of human nature, under various cir- cumstances, but from a familiarity with the ex- perience of past ages ? Is the present alone to be our care? Is the present sufficient for all the observation we require; and all the practical results we have occasion for ? It is history which reconciles us to our lot : it is history that shows us, when we are unhappy, how few have escaped better than ourselves: that power and principalities are never free from deep anxieties; and seldom from dangers, and violent deaths ! This the annals of every Sove- reign House of Europe will sufficiently shew. A man of enlarged faculties, and enlarged cultivation, wanders about a citizen of the world. INTRODUCTORY. 9 feeling an interest in the events of every country, and the characters of human nature under every government, and every climate. He seeks to extend his restless desire of knowledge by diver- sified observation ; to refresh his mind by novelty of matter; and to give new impulse to his per- ceptions by change of scenery, and variety of objects. Europe restored to peace, and restored to the principles of its ancient institutions, revives all that interest for the stories of old times, which had almost ceased from the force with which the most destructive changes had been effected, and the blaze of new doctrines by which they had been gilded. The transactions of the past again associate themselves with the existing orders of things: and the literature, which supplies the store of moral and political pictures, is once more called for, protected, and read with avidity. The Swiss appear to be great readers: they are a laborious, patient people : their knowledge is extensive ; and they seem to have a turn for the Sciences : but I should doubt if a pre-emi- nence of Imagination was not a rare endowment 10 LETTER I. with them. Rousseau and Madame de Stael may be said to have almost exhausted the whole fountain of their supply. However, the Baroness de Montolieu, the author of Caroline de Lichtfeld^ and numerous other Tales, has an easy and fer- tile fancy, enriched by various knowledge, and beautifully shaded by a simple and touching moral pathos, and an happy facility and grace of style. She lives near Lausanne. This letter, as introductory, has been made purposely general. Though it is not intended in future letters to enter into trite history, or trite topography, yet history out of the vulgar course of research, such as never appears in common books, and can only be collected by an attentive comparison of works of the first autho- rity, ancient or modern, is a field that I shall take fall liberty to enter upon, as accident gives the impulse. For instance, I may indulge the desire to strike out a sketch of the interesting annals of the fallen Kingdom of Burgundy, so utterly past over, or so confusedly alluded to, in modern volumes of travels or geography. 11 LETTER II. i^ouge of ©i)adcmagnf. Switzerland, I st July, 1819. 1 HE chain of high mountains^ called the Jura, extending from North to South, separate France from Switzerland. The northern end of them points to Alsace, the southern to Provence and the Mediterranean. Their longitudinal direction is parallel with that of the Alpes. On the French side of this chain are, Franche-Comte on the North, and Burgundy on the South. The coun- try which lies hetween these parallel chains of mountains, the Jura and the Alpes, forms Hel- vetia, or Switzerland. On the North, this coun- try is shut in by the Rhine : on the South, by the Rhone. So perfect were its ancient Natural Limits. 12 LETTER II. The Rhone takes its source from Mont- Furca^ on the western side of St. Gothard^ tra- verses the whole length of the Canton of Valais^ and throwing itself into Lake Leman, passes through Geneva; a short distance afterwards receives the Arve^ which brings to it the waters of Faucigny^ and those of the northern and western sides of Mont-Blanc: afterwards it makes itself a passage among the rocks at the extremity of Mount Jura, ingulphs itself for some time, and at last, directing its course South^ fertilizes many of the most beautiful departments of France, passing to Lyons, where it receives the Saone. It afterwards receives the waters of the Isere, the Drome, and the Durance, and dis- charges itself into the Mediterranean in the Gulf of Lyons. The country which lies on the left bank of the Rhone, from Sion, the capital of Valais^ to Geneva, at the bottom of Lake Leman, forms part of Savoy, except the small portion on the western shore of the extremity of the lake, which belongs to the Canton of Geneva. The Rhine also takes its rise in the Grisons, LETTER II. 13 at no great distance from the source of the Rhone. It unites the waters of a great part of the north- em chain of the Rhetian Alpes : and after having abandoned the Grisons^ separates the Rhinthal from the Tyrol, traverses the Lake of Constance, and forms the limits of Switzerland on the North. It goes from Basle to Strasburgh, Spire, Man- heim, Worms, Mayence, Coblentz, Cologne, Utretcht, Ley den, and discharges itself into the North Sea. Switzerland, at least with the addition of this part of Savoy, would have seemed destined to have formed always a kingdom by itself. But Switzerland had not this good fortune. The Burgundians got dominion over it as early as A. D. 454. The kings of these Burgundians fixed their chief residence at Geneva, whence they extended their authority from the Reuss, (a river which also springs from St. Gothard, and traversing the Canton of Uri, and the Lake of the Four Cantons, thro\^'s itself into the Aar, by Windisch, in the Canton of Argau,) to the banks of the Rhone, and the Saone, which last has its source in the mountains of Vosges, near Darney, 14 LETTER II. in Lorraine^ and joins itself to the Rhone^ near Lyons. Their last king was Gondemar, son of Gondebaud^ who was defeated in 534 by Dietbert de Metz, Clotaire de Soissons, and Childebert of Paris, kings of the Francs. At this time rose the distinction of the two Burgundies. The first is that which was since called the Duchy of Burgundy^. The other comprehended Franche-Comte, (or High Bur- gundy) West Switzerland, Geneva, Savoy, and Le Valais. East Switzerland was under the German sovereignty; this western part, of the King of Orleans. The throne of Burgundy passed from Clo- taire, A. D. 565, to his son Guntramn, who died s. p. A. D. 593. He was succeeded by his nephew Childebert, son of Siegbert, who dying A. D. 596, was followed by Didier. Clotaire, son of Hil- peric, and nephew of Guntramn, mounted the throne A. D. 6l3. Dagobert, son of Clotaire, succeeded, and died A. D. 638. From the time of Dagobert, there remained nothing to the Me- rovingian Race, but the royal dignity, without * Low Burgundy was the Province of that name. LETTER II. 15 the power. Able men elevated themselves to the rank of Mayors of the Palace, either by the interference of the states, or the imprudent fa- vour of their kings. The monarchs slumbered in the peaceable enjoyment of their throne, while the Mayors, always active to increase their au- thority, and to render it durable and hereditary, tried all means of success, and signalized them- selves as much by artful negotiations and hardy crimes, as by brilliant actions. The States of Burgundy, Austrasia, and Neustria, chose their Mayors of the Palace from the family of Pepin. The descendants having ruled a long while under these kings, elevated themselves above them, and exercised without them from A. D. 736, to A. D. 741, all the authority of the ancient generals of the army. The dread of the Arabs at length brought them to the possession of the high seat of ambition to which they had long aspired. From the banks of the Red Sea, these Arabs had, in sixty years, subdued Egypt, Carthagena, a great part of Asia, northern Africa, Spain, and the Indies; and carried at the same time dismay to the walls of Paris, of Benares, and of Con- l6 LETTER II. stantinople. The Emir Abderachmaii, leading these furious hoards^ had penetrated into France by the Pyrenees. All, even to Burgundy, had either submitted to the yoke of these barbarian aggressors, or sought safety in flight, when the Mayor, Charles Martel, alone opposed himself to the destruction of the manners, the govern- ment, and the religion of the Christians of the West, and stopped the progress of the Arabs, by gaining a complete victory over them. At the same time the people of Friseland, Saxony, and Bavaria, the neighbours, allies, or subjects of France, became dangerous by their laxity or their inconstancy, or formidable bv their courage. At this time a strange people was seen to penetrate from the back settlements, which form at this day the kingdom of Hungary*, as far as Rhetia. Their object was undoubtedly to penetrate to Italy. They advanced to St. Go- th ard, but were surrounded and beat in a desert near the Convent of Dissentis, by the inhabitants of the countries, who knew the paths of the * This is the most probable origin of the people who appeared A. D. 671, under the name of Huns. LETTER II. 17 mountains. Meanwhile, the countries whence these people came, were the rendezvous of other savage races^ who threatened the western em- pire. From these circumstances the French detached themselves more and more from the Merovingians, and the Mayor of the Palace gained their confidence. He made one war succeed another, to shine the more at the head of an army When at peace, he augmented his power as Viceroy, by indulgences and benefits. He died A. D. 741. In A. D. 7^1? two hundred and eighteen years after Gondemar had lost the throne of the Burgundians, and two hundred and sixty-eight after Clovis had reigned over the French, Pepin^ the Mayor of the Palace, son of Charles Martel, was gratified by the crown taken from Clovis' posterity. He enjoyed his usui*pation eighteen years. His son, Charlemagne, succeeded A. D. 7^8, having, as it is suspected, abridged the days of his brother Carloman^ to whom the kingdom was jointly left by Pepin^ their father. Never did Prince efface by so much glory the recollec- D 18 LETTER II. tion of the crimes to wliich he had been impelled by his ambition: never was the apology made by a government so wise. The extraordinary vigour of his genius procured him the throne of the Lombards^ the empire of Rome^ the sove- reignty of Germany. His arms and his pru- dence kept under the same rule the people of Europe, from the ocean to Hungary ; from the Tibre to the Elbe. He knew not adversity but in the interior of his family, a just punishment for the misfortune to which he had devoted the family of his brother. When he ceased to live, we might say that his superior genius, which he had so much abused, separated itself for ever from his race. We see weakness and crime dis- honour by turns his descendants ; children inces- santly armed against their fathers, and brothers against brothers; the paternal authority fallen to the ground ; sons a prey to curses ; the em- pire become a sport, and the spoil of pirates; his sons consumed with grief; his grandsons deprived of their sight, tormented by remorse, victims of poison in the midst of opprobrium and indigence, fugitives, prisoners, oppressed; LETTER II. 19 and after a century and a half of reverses, chased from the throne, and plunged into obscurity. For sixty years the Carlovingians were rendered powerful in their place of Mayors of the Palace : they had, at the price of much blood, maintained on the throne the eclat of their name for a long interval : and when all nations had their eyes fixed on them, a fall more fright- ful than that of the Merovingians, was the term of their elevation ^ Louis le Debonnaire, the son of Charlemagne, died 23d June, 840. By his first wife, Hermen- garde de Sundgaw, he had three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis. By his second wife, Judith, daughter of Weefon, of Bavaria, he had one son, Charles le Chauve. Louis associated Lothaire in the empire with him, and gave him the king- dom of Italy: he gave Aquitaine to Pepin, and Bavaria to Louis, each with the title of king. Charles was scarce born, when his mother was impatient that he might have a partition of the inheritance. Louis had none remaining to give; but he divided off a portion, under the title of * Muller. Histoire de Suisses^ ii. 4. 20 LETTER II. Rhetia, which gave great offence to the elder brothers. Pepin rebelled: the Empress fell into the hands of the insurgents. To obtain her li- berty she promised to engage the King to become a monk. Louis consented to become so for a time. Lothaire on his return from Italy joined the conspiracy, and shut up his father in a mo- nastery. The Empress was also shut up in a convent. The monks sowed discord among the brothers, and procured the King's liberation. The sons rebelled again: Louis was shut up again in the Abbey of St. Medard de Soissons, and submitted to numerous indignities and in- flictions. Pepin and Louis relented: they in- treated Lothaire to release their father: he was obstinate: they took up arms: Lothaire seeing himself abandoned in his turn, left the King free at St. Denis. Louis resumed the sceptre : he forgave Lothaire, who was obliged to implore his clemency; this was granted on condition of shutting himself up in Italy, and never again appearing in France. Lothaire, however, was recalled; and recall- ed by the Empress Judith, who had received LETTER II. 21 marks of hatred from Pepin, now re-established in Aquitaine, of which she had despoiled him, and could not rely on Louis, King of Bavaria, who would not separate himself from Pepin, Lothaire was their enemy; he owed to her his re call to France, and his reconciliation to his father. Pepin died before his father, leaving two sons, Pepin and Charles. Two parties divided Aquitaine: one wished to place on the throne young Pepin ; the other, his uncle, Charles le Chauve. The Emperor appeared in arms on the part of Charles, whom he placed in pos- session of the sceptre. This was the last injustice which the Empress caused Louis to commit. His son, the King of Bavaria, again took up arms. The Emperor, desolate, ill, seeing no end to the chagrins which his fatal condescension to his wife was always preparing for him, hastened to reduce his rebel son. A defluxion on the chest, an oppression on the heart, the fright from an eclipse of the sun operating on his superstitious mind, ter- minated his days at Ingelheim, the place of Charlemagne's nativity, A. D. 840. 22 LETTER II. The people whom he had subdued or re- strained^ seeing the feebleness of his sons, and the divisions of his grandsons, inundated the empire on all sides^ and avenged themselves of their defeats^ or their forced inaction. The three brothers and the nephew, two on each side, now quarrelled for the division of the inhe- ritance^ and fought the disastrous battle of Fon- tenay, near Auxerre^ 25th June, 841. The ad- vantage rested with Louis and Charles. They shewed some sentiment of humanity, some re- gret at this sad fruit of their quarrels. To spare the continuance of this horrible and usage car- nage, they now left the partition to the arbitra- tion of one hundred and twenty French chiefs, who divided into three equal parts all, except the kingdoms of Bavaria, Italy, and Aquitaine, which were considered already fixed. Charles le Chauve had, under the name of Western France, a great part of that which com- poses France at this day. Louis had Germany, and thence had the name of Louis le Germanique. Lothaire, with the title of Emperor, Italy LETTER II. 23 and Provence, which he had aheady, had the territories situated between the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine, and the Saone : that is to say, the kingdom of Lorraine. Lothaire abandoned young Pepin ; but he did not abandon himself. He gained a battle against Charles le Chauve, and maintained him- self in Aquitaine. But his debauchery, his op- pressions, and his vices, did him more injury than the arms of his enemies. He became odious to his subjects, who delivered him up to Charles. He was then shut up in the monastery of St. Medard. He was retaken, and guarded so strictly in the castle of Senlis, that it w as im- possible for him to save himself. His younger brother, Charles, was obliged to take the ton- sure, and became at last Archbishop of Mayence. Lothaire quitted the imperial purple, and retired to the monastery of Prune. His death soon followed his abdication. He left three sons: 1. Louis, whom he had for some time as- sociated with him in the empire, and to whom he gave the kingdom of Italy; 2. Lothaire, whom he made King of Lorraine; and, 3. Charles, to 24 LETTER 11. whom he gave Provence, and a part of the king- dom of Burgundy. This last lived a tranquil life in his kingdom of Provence, without taking any part in the affairs of his brothers or his uncles. Lothaire leagued himself principally with his uncle, Charles le Chauve; and Louis, with his other uncle, Louis le Germanique, but without espousing their quarrels. Lothaire became embroiled with the Pope, for divorcing his first wife, Thietberge, and taking another, Valdrade, sister of Gontier, Archbishop of Cologne. This drew him to Rome. He fell a victim to the Pope's despotic terrors over his conscience : sickness seized him, and he died at Plaisance before his return. His brother Charles died too soon after him to profit of his inheritance. Charles le Chauve, in spite of the remaining nephew, Louis, possessed himself of Lorraine. This Louis, the Emperor, died without issue male, in 8/5, not long after his brothers. His daughter, Ermengarde, married Boson, King of Aries, or Burgundy Trans-jurane. His two uncles, Louis le Germanique, and LETTER II. 25 Charles le Chauve, contested the possession of the empire. Louis sent his eldest son. Carlo- man, to Italy: Charles went himself. By pro- mises, intrigues, and bribes, Charles succeeded. The Pope conferred the empire in sovereignty; and Charles received it as a vassal. Louis prepared himself for vengeance; but he died 28th August, 8/6, aged about seventy years. He left three sons, Carloman, Louis, and Charles, (afterwards Charles le Gros.) Charles le Chauve was crowned at Rome by the Pope Christmas Day, 875. Carloman had Bavaria, and Pannonia: and by the authority of the will of the Emperor, Louis, took the title of King of Italy. Louis had Franconia. Charles le Gros had the rest of Germany. Carloman advanced to Italy. Charles took fright: Carloman took fright in his turn. But Charles died in the passage of the Alpes, 5th or 6th October, 8^7 • some say, poisoned by a Jew physician. This Charles le Chauve possessed the west- ern part of Helvetia, called La Petite Bourgogne; 26 LETTER II. and this afterwards passed to his brother Lo- thaire, Emperor and King of Italy, who married Theutberge, daughter of Boson, Count of Bur- gundy. Lothaire united La Petite Bourgogne to Provence, and to all that was between the Rhone, the Saone, the Mease, and the Scheldt. The Carlovingians became too feeble to hold the sceptre that had descended to them. The Burgundians wanted a chief who had their confidence. They oifered the crown to Boson, son of Bovon, Count of the Ardennes, who had Hermengarde, daughter of the Empe- ror, Louis le Begue, and Avhose sister, Richelde, was wife, or mistress, of Charles le Chauve. This was the grand signal of the dismember- ment of the monarchy founded by Charlemagne. Charles le Gros, who had attempted to reunite this monarchy, was deposed and abandoned ; and died in misery and oblivion without chil- dren, A. D. 888. The Germans chose for their king, Arnoul, bastard son of his brother, the Emperor Carloman. France conferred the scep- tre on Hugh, Count de Paris. The Italians crowned Guy, Duke of Spoletto. LETTER II. 2^ Boson formed his dominions of that part of Burgundy, which joined to Provence, constituted the kingdom of Arles. But a new Prince founded in Burgundy a rival throne out of that part called High Burgundy. This was Rodolph, son of Conrad, a relation of the Emperor, Loth aire. The limits of these two kingdoms, of which the latter took the greater part of Helvetia, can- not perhaps be stated after so long an extinction, without much care and research. The kings of Burgundy fixed their ordinary residence at Geneva. A 28 LETTER III. iF«n«g=--='FoUaiw* \Qth August, 1819, On the 24th of May, of this year, I8I9, I visited Ferney. I had not raised my fancy, with regard to this celebrated villa of Voltaire: it was therefore better than I expected. Two rooms only Avere shewn: his common sitting-room, beyond the vestibule; and his bed- room adjoining. Each was small, and unattrac- tive. Three or four bad pictures .were in the first: two or three portraits, with a few common prints of heads of Literati, were in the other. The garden behind was, according to the country, merely decent. There was not a single feature in the whole congenial to what may have been supposed to be the taste of genius. Ac- cording to English ideas, it was flat, insipid^ and LETTER III. 29 mean. Coppet disappointed me: Ferney is far inferior to Coppet. Monsieur Bud6, of Geneva, the proprietor, who bought it of Voltaire's niece, has resided here for upwards of thirty years. We were told that his family possessed it before Voltaire's time, and that the present possessor rebought the fa- mily inheritance. Voltaire, before he bought Ferney, occupied a chateau, called Les Dellces^ on the -Lyons road, within half a mile of Geneva. This house, ele- vated above the city, commands a noble view of the lake, far above the tops of all the buildings. Voltaire's character is set in an horrible^ but, (as I conceive) just light, in J^ie PoUtique, Lit- teraire, et Morale de Voltaire, out! V on refute Condorcet et ses autres historiens, en citant et rapprochant un grand nomhre de fails inconnus et tres-curieux. Par M. Le Pan. Paris, I817. 8vo. pp. 329. Of his genius it would be scarcely fair in me to pronounce a decided opinion, as I have not read half his works, and not any with more than a superficial attention. They were never to mv 30 LETTER III. taste; and I should have rather have said of them something like what is said by Le Pan in the two extracted judgments. Le Pan says : "Les partisans de Voltaire n' onl pas hesit^ a lui reconnoitre beaucoup de g^nie; d' autres, moins enthou- siastes, en lui accordant un esprit superieur, lui ont coa- teste le genie. ^^ Qu'est ce que le g^nie, a dit d'Olivet dans sa r^- ponse au discours que Voltaire prononca lors de la recep- tion a r academic? C'est un feu dont les ames com- munes n'ont jamais senti I'ardeur^ mais qui s'allume independamment de nous^ et s'eteint de m#me; c'est une lumiere etincelante, mais qui ne se mgntre qu' a certaines heures, pour ^tre bientot . remplacee par un nuagej c'est une douce fureur plus ou moins durable^ plus ou moins frequente; c'est I'ivresse de I'esprit comme toute passion est I'ivresse du coeur. En un mot, le genie est pour les beaux-arts, mais pour 1 'epopee sur-tout, ce qu'est le soleil pour la terre : tout est produit, echauffe, vivifie, embelli, par le soleil, et c'est pareillement au g^nie qu'il appartient d'enfanter des vers ou il y ait de I'^me, d'en bannir la sterility, le froid, la secheresse; d'inventer, de varier, d'orner, et de faire enfin que I'art, fidele imita- teur de la nature presente toujours I'agreable avec I'utile, le beau avec le bon, le gracieux avec le solide." " Si I'homme de genie en litt^rature, a ecrit aSbbatier de Castres, est celui-la seul qui a recule les bornes d'un LETTER III. 31 art^ M . de Voltaire, qui n*a pas ^t^ plus loin ni si loin qu' Homere, Virgil et le Tasse dans Tepopee; que V Arioste dans la poesie heroique, que Corneillej Racine dans la trage'die; Moliere dans la comedie; Quinault dans Topera; Jean-Baptiste Rousseau dans la podsie lyrique; M. de Voltaire, dis-je, ne seroit jamais place au rang des hommes de gdnie que par I'enthousiasme et la mauvaise foi. Si, dans les sciences, le grand homme est celui-la seul qui a un caractere decide, des principes fixes, un systeme suivi de raisons ou d'idees, qui osera soutenir que M. de Voltaire merite ce titre? Quel ecrivain s' in- quieta moins que lui de mettre de Tunite et de la suite dans ses conceptions? II est aise de remarquer dans tout ce qu'il a ecrit I'inspiration du moment, les variations de rhumeur, Tinconstance des affections, la difference des interets. De la vient qu'on ne le trouve jamais le meme, qu'il a chang^ de facon de penser suivant les cir- constances, que le pour et le contre se debattent dans la collection de ses oeu\Tes, qu'il d^truit et qu'il ^difie, qu'il decide, et qu'il retracte, et qu' apres avoir pass^ par toutes les nuances, il finit par ^tre sans couleur et sans forme determinee. En effet, je defie, quiconque lira ses Merits avec quelque reflexion, de trouver une seule opinion, qu'il n'ait tour-a-tour approuvee et combattue, aucun systeme qu'il n'ait refute et defendu." We may ask: Was Voltaire a creator? — If he was, what sort of a creator ? A lively nnderstanding ; a talent fer bons 32 LETTER III. mots ; a qoick sense of the ridiculous ; a clear- ness of apprehension ; a lightness, a transparency, and an elegance of expression; a dexterity of dialogue ; a rapidity of plausible logic ; — if some- times by their united excellence, they may be deemed to rise to the character of genius ; yet cannot be allowed to be genius of more than an inferior cast. The surest road to literary popularity, as far as matter is concerned, is a ton of sentiment sufficiently low for the sympathy of those who are engaged in the daily debasement of the con- flicts of practical life. When this is set off by skill in the use of words : when these words ex- hibit all the finish, without any part of the re- condite and over-laboured ornaments, of litera- ture : when they are smoothed down, (as men's diction is,) by perpetual collision in society ; and yet retain something of that grace, which the aits of composition, and the leisure of the closet, can confer; — it never fails to be the delight of the mob, of all ranks. If the literary merit gives a plausibility to the approbation, there are no bounds to the LETTER III. 33 triumph which these mobs feel^ in elevating the idol who flatters their propensities, and seems to stamp with the character of superior credit^ or sound sense, the terror of opinions^ and mode of reasonings, which their narrow and selfish expe- rience, or bad principle, prompts them to adopt. He, to whose heart every noble sentiment is a stranger, is delighted to join in affixing the charge of hypocrisy on every one Avho speaks of the influence of such emotions. That Voltaire had a bad heart, will scarcely be denied: that he was under the constant do- minion of the meanest passions : that envy, jea- lous}?^, revenge; avarice, vanity, pride, were in- dulged, in the fullest swing, without compunc- tion: that, judging by himself, he could not be- lieve any one actuated by other motives than his own interest or gratification, are well known. That, Nature having endowed him with great acuteness of faculties, and his bent leading him to apply them in detecting the foibles and evil thoughts (however disguised) of others, he inces- santly profited of the insight he thus possessed, not only to degrade to the lowest point his F 34 LETTER III. opinions of mankind ; but to play off every arti- fice^ which his ungenerous wits suggested, in turning these delinquencies to his own account, is too apparent from the whole course of his actions. Brilliant talents thus furnished, and thus ap- plied, endowed by Nature with the means, and by vanity with the desire, to become master of all the skill that literary accomplishments could give, were weapons which supplied him with a sort of Satanic power over the understandings and the hearts of the tumultuous mass of human beings, who, in the compunctious visitings which all, not utterly lost, feel occasionally at the sub- mission to passions and principles repugnant to probity, generosity, and mutual well-being, hail- ed as their consoler One, whose false splendor gilded their turpitude with rays, which made them mistake it for wisdom and truth. 35 LETTER IV. i^ou^^cau. 13^ August^ 1819. J. HERE are parts of a man's life, which no other can write so well as himself. Such parts as others have cognizance of, they will do better than he can do. Nothing seems more clear, than that Pro- vidence has formed mankind with every variety of power, mental and corporeal, for every variety of the purposes of human life: and that it has decreed the expansion of these powers to depend on an equal variety of circumstances. Yet Genius breaks out under circumstances appa- rently the most unfavourable: and often dies away under those apparently the most calculated to nourish it. How unpropitious did the inci- dents of Rousseau's early life seem to the emer- 36 LETTER IV. gence of that brilliance^ which at length shone on the world! Without a regular education: brought up to a mechanical employment: living among profligate adventurers: uncertain of the means of subsistence: what time does he appear to have had for the cultivation of such refined talents ? for the nurture of sentiments so exqui- sitely refined? for an habitual intercourse with those ideal pleasures, for which none but the idle and luxurious have leisure ? But it is said, that his sensibilities and his fancies not only amount too frequently to excess ; but often sallied into depravity. So, alas, it was ! Sad example of the danger of these envied and enviable gifts ! Let not the refined, but more temperate reader, be too sure of his superiority, or too proud of his virtue ! He, who diinks at the spring, may choose his sufiiciency, and reject what he wants not! The spring, which is to supply thousands, will sometimes be left to waste itself in useless or dangerous ebullitions ! Rousseau's Confessions have been admired, and justly criticised; and with too much reason condemned. LETTER IV. 37 There is implanted in ns an unconquerable desire to be thought well of by our fellow-crea- tures^ both while 1 idling and after death. He who feels a certain conviction that in his heart there springs up a continual stream of noble sentiments and generous emotions, of a nature too refined to be communicated but to the lonely reader when freed from the cornipt- ing influence of society, and raised into the purity of mental abstraction — is desirous to pro- cure, the esteem to which these secret virtues en- title him, by communicating them to the world. Admitting that the Confessions of Rousseau originated in peculiar and complicated motives, this appears to have been at least one of them. These Confessions are, it is true, in many parts, the result of an insane and terrible imagination. They exhibit an audacious kind of nakedness, for which no just apology can be found. They degrade Genius, and stagger Virtue, by occa- sional virtue, and by occasional instances of un- blushing and appalling profligacy. They offer the most dangerous poison by connecting unpar- donable depravity with bursts of exquisite sen- 38 LETTER IV. sibility^ overwhelming eloquence^ and seductive genius. It is difficult to reconcile to our minds the gradations of mental process, by which he could have brought himself to the resolution of expos- ing to the world, unbidden, these dark spots in his character. It is probable that they had haunted his morbid fancy for a long series of years: he could not conceal them from himself: he thought that he could not conceal them from the world. Crimes will out ! We feel that we have discharged ourselves of part of the poig- nancy of remorse, when we have told them. He sought in the self-drawn picture of redeeming virtues, to set himself right to himself and to the world. At once timid and audacious, sensitive and hardy — \^ hat a striking and pre-eminent instance of human inconsistency ! 39 LETTER V. mji\hn===0ln\\me. 14M .August, 1819. 1 HE notice of the English has of late beea particularly drawn to the Castle of Chillon, by Lord Byron s muse. It stands on the east bank of the lake, between Vevay and Villeneuve. It was built by Peter Count of Savoy, who died here June 7^ 1268. His corpse was carried to the family vault, in the monastery of Haute- combe. Before he attained the sovereignty of Savoy, he had lived much in England, and been en- riched there by the patronage of King Henry III. who had married his niece Leonore. The king built for him an hotel at Westminster, called thence to this day. The Savoy. It is close to Somerset House : and was used till last year, as 40 LETTER V. a military prison. I believe that part at least of the remains are now removed, to make way for the entrance to Waterloo Bridge. He had also a grant of the County of Richmond, the Lordship of Essex, and many other lands. At one time, when he was about to re-embark for the Continent, the king recalled him, and forced him to accept the government of Dover Castle. ^ He left a daughter, Beatrix, married to Guy, Dauphin de Viennois. He succeeded his ne- phew, Count Boniface, who died without issue; and was born at the Chateau of Sase, in Pied- mont, in 1203; being seventh son of Thomas Count de Maurienne, by Marguerite de Faus- signy. Chillon stands on a rock, or little promon- tory, jutting into the lake. A fair idea of its situation and form, is given in the slight engrav- * " Le Comte Pierre illustre par ses belles qualites, et par son credit dans plusieurs cours, sur-tout dans celle d'An- gleterre, acquit de grands domaines dans le pays de Vaud, et le bas Valais, par des conquetes et par des achats -, c'est sous ce Prince que commenga la domination des Comtes de Savoie dans ces pays et dans I'Helvetie AWem&nde."-— Mallet. Hist, des Suisses, i. 157. LETTER V. 41 ing annexed to the Lausanne edition of The Prisoners of Chillon, 1818, 8^°. The short note at the end of the poem, descriptive of this edifice, and its position, is very accurate. The Alpine rocks of Meillerie, on the oppo- site bank of the lake, are bean tif ally and truly drawn bv Rousseau. ■^ Ce lieu solitaire formoit un reduit sauvage et desert, mais plein de ces sortes de beaut^s qui ne plaisent qu'aux ames sensibles, et paroissent horribles aux autres. Un torrent forme par la fonte des neiges rouloit a vingt pas de nous une eau bourbeuse, et charlolt avec bruit du limou, du sable, et des plerres. Derriere nous une chaine des roehes inaccessibles separoit I'esplanade ou nous etious de cette partie des Alpes qu'on nomme les Glaciers, parceque d'enormes sommets de glaces qui s' accroissent incessamment les couvrent depuis le commencement du monde. Des forets de noirs sapius nous ombrageoient tristement a droite. Un grand bols de chenes etoit a gauche au-dela du torrent, et au-dessous de nous cette immense plaine d'eau que le lac forme au sein des Alpes nous separoit des riches c6tes du pays de Vaud, dont la cime du majestueux Jura couronnoit le tableau. '^ Au milieu de ces grands et superbes objets, le petit terrain ou nous etious ^taloit les charmes d'un sejour riant et champ^tre ; quelques ruisseaux filtroient a travers les rochers, et rouloient sur la verdure en filets de crystal ; G 4fl LETTER V. quelques arbres fruitiers sauvages penchoient leurs tetes sur les n6tres; la terre humide et fraiche ^toit couverte d' herbe et de fleurs. En comparant un si doux sejour aux objets qui I'environnoient^ il sembloit que ce lieu desert dut ^tre I'asile de deux amants .^chappes seuls au bouleversement de la nature/'* * Nouvelle Heloise. Tom. III. Lettre XVII. 43 LETTER VI. Itingtiom of 9iSurguntig. XAth August, 1819. I RESUME the history I had dropped with the second. Rodolph I. the son of Conrad, a relation of the Emperor Lothaire^ who had in consequence of that alliance been appointed Governor of Burgundy Trans-jurane, was afterwards pro- claimed king at St. Maurice, in Valais, and reigned twenty-four years. His son^ Rodolph IT. King of Burgundy Trans-jurane^ reunited in A. D. 911^ to the same crown, the kingdom of Burgundy Cis-jurane^ or Arles^ by compromise with Hugh, King of Arles^ who had chased from that throne Charles Constantin^ (son of Louis^ King of Aries, and grandson of King Boson.) Hugh surrendered it in compromise for 44 LETTER VI. Rodolph's assistance in gaining him the kingdom ofltalj^. Rodolph II. married Berthe, daughter of Bnrcard, Dake of Suabia, who remarried Hugh^ King of Italy. He died A. D. 938. His daughter Adelaide, married for her second hus- band. Otto II. the Emperor. Conrad, le Pacifique, succeeded his father, Rodolph II. in the crown of Burgundy. He naarried Matilda, daughter of Louis d'Outremer, King of France, and (besides two natural chil- dren, Burckard, Archbishop of Lyons, and Ma- tilda, wife of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders,) had a son, Rodolph, and three daughters, Gisele, Berthe, and Gerberge. Gisele married 1st, Henry, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had Gisele, married to Conrad le SaliqiWy Emperor of Germany, father by her * Hugh was King of Italy, A. D. 926-947- He was son of Theobald, Count de Provence, by Berthe, daughter of the Emperor Lothaire^ who, in her widowhood, remarried Adalbert H. Duke of Tuscany, King Hugh associated with him in the crown of Italy, his son Lothaire, who married Adelaide, daughter of Rodolph H. King of Burgundy, re- married to Otto II. fie Grand J Emperor of Germany. LETTER VI. 45 of Henry III. Emperor, who^ after the death of Rodolph III. obtained Burgundy Trans-iurane. Gisele remarried Stephen, Ring of Hungary, Berthe married Odo I. Count of Champagne, mother of Odo, Count of Champagne, who dis- puted the succession of Burgundy Trans-jurane with his cousin Henry of Bavaria, and died 1032 ;' father of Stephen, Count of Champagne ; father of Thibaud, Count of Champagne, who died 1151; father of Henry, Count of Champagne ; father of Thibaud, Count of Champagne, who died 1201 ; father of Thibaud, Count of Champagne, the ce- lebrated troubadour, who died I269; father of Henry, Count of Champagne, and King of Na- varre, who died 12/4, &c. Gerberge, the third daughter, married, 1. Her- man, Duke of Suabia; 2. the Count of Vienne; 3. Henry, Duke of Burgundy, beyond the Saone. Rodolph III. called Le Faineant, last King of Burgundy, died in 1032. Factions, disorders, anarchy, attended his reign ; and all orders of the State, especially the clergy and the nobility, rendered themselves independent*. He named * See Mallet's Histoire des Suisses, i, 1*29. 46 LETTER VI. his cousin^ the Emperor Henry II. for his suc- cessor. This second kingdom of Burgundy therefore, only endured for a century and a half. It was more than six centuries since the Burgun- dians passed the Rhine, and founded in Gaul the first kingdom of the name. These Burgundians, thus sprung from Germany, gave the name, which is retained to this day, of Low and High Burgun- dy, to the country of the Allobroges, (viz. Savoy, Dauphine, and Lyons,) and West Switzerland. The Counts of Champagne did not give up this beautiful inheritance without a struggle. Count Odo ravaged the part of Helvetia called Burgundy Trans -jurane, penetrated to Vienne on the Rhone, and had himself crowned under the title of King of Aries. The Emperor was not idle: among other steps he marched to Geneva, where he made Count Gerold open the gates to him, and where he was acknowledged King of Burgundy in an assembly of bishops and lay lords, and Avas crowned by the hands of the Archbishop of Milan. Thence the Count of Champagne made but feeble efforts to oppose him. LETTER VI. 47 The Emperor assembled the States, and maintained order and the public safety in this vast country, which extended from Bale, to the point where the Rhone discharges its waters into the Mediterranean. Over this realm he made himself beloved and respected by the wisdom of his government. Helvetia and Rhetia had now therefore be- come altogether provinces of the empire. Feuds and divisions followed in the empire: and Hel- vetia, placed between Italy and Germany, pecu- liarly felt the eifects of them. The minority of Henry IV. (son of Henry III.) gave full scope for these divisions. The Counts of Hapsbourg got possession of the Duchy of Suabia. '^ They were," says Mallet, " powerful from their posses- sions in the environs of the Jura, and still more ambitious than powerful." Count Rodolph of Hapsbourg, had married a sister of the Emperor ; but he did not the less aspire to the imperial crown. A civil war ensued. Rodolph took up arms ; but was subdued. The Dachy of Suabia was forfeited, and given to Frederic de Hohen- stauffen, with the hand of the Emperor's sister, 48 LETTER VI. Agnes. The son of Rodolph disputed with Frederic, Suabia, as a part of his patrimony. This rival died ; but the Count de Zseringen, his brother-in-law, claimed it for himself A com- promise took place. The Count of Zseringen gave up Suabia; but retained the Brisgau, the Black Forest, and the patronage of Zurich, with the imperial power over that city and province. Hence the happy dominion of the House of Zseringen began to extend itself over a consider- able part of Helvetia. The Houses of Hapsbourg, Zaeringen, Baden, and Lorraine^ are understood to have all come from the same male stock. They are all derived: from Ethicon, Count de Noidgaw^ who died A. D. 720, son of Adalric, Duke of Alsace, who died A. D. 69O. Hugh I. Count de Nordgaw, seventh in descent from Ethicon^ died A. D. 940. His son, Eberhard IV. had issue, Albert, ancestor of the House of Lorraine, now emperors. His other son, Gontram le Riche, who died A.D. 970, was father of Lancelin, whose son Rodolph was father of Rudeboton, builder of the Castle of Hapsbourg, and whose fourth son, Birchtilon, LETTER VI. 49 was ancestor of the Houses of Zaeringen and Baden. The Dukes of Zaeringen took the name from the Castle of Zaeringen, of which the ruins may yet be seen on one of the summits of the Black Forest. Berthod, Count de Brisgau, who is first known to have taken the name of Zaeringen, occurs in charters of A. D. 999, and 1004. Berthod I. obtained the title of Duke from the Emperor Henry HI. He died 1077- His younger son, Herman, * was ancestor of the House of Baden. From Conrad, Duke de Zaeringen, descended Berthold IV. Duke de Zaeringen, who died 1185. His son, Berthold V. last Duke of Zaeringen, died 14th February, 1218, and was interred at St. Pierre, in the Black Forest. His sister, Agnes, married Egon, Count d' Aurach, in Suabia ; and his sister, Anne, married the Count de Kibourg. When the Emperor Henry V. son of Henry IV. died, and the imperial crown passed from his House, Renaud, Count Palatine of High Bur- * Herman II. died about 1130. H 60 LETTER VI. gundy, refused homage to Lothaire II. his suc- cessor of the House of Saxe. The Emperor put him under the ban of the empire, and he was condemned as a rebel. The Diet softened the sentence. He lost part of his territories to the west of the Jura, and preserved Franche*- Comte. All the rest, on the other side of the Jura, and to the east of that chain of mountains^ was given to Conrad, Duke of Zeeringen, who was also possessor of Zurich ; and now united under his authority a great part of Switzerland of this day, and governed it under the title of Rector, or Regent of Burgundy Trans-jurane, After the death of the Emperor, Lothaire II. rose the two celebrated factions of the Guelphes, and GiheUns: the latter the adherents of the House of Suabia, or Franconia: the former of the House of Saxony. The Duke of Zaeringen was of the former party; and Frederic, Duke of Suabia, therefore chased him from his estates, took possession of the Castle of Zeeringen^ of * It has been conjectured that hence it derived its name 3 because the States of the Empire allowed it to retain its Franchises. Mallet , i. 141. LETTER VI. 51 Zurich, &c. and made hiiii submit^ and swear homage. His son, Berthold IV. reconciled him- self to Frederic, when the latter became Emperor^ under the name of Frederic I. (Barhe-rousse.) Frederic gave him the patronage of the three Bishoprics of Lausanne, Geneva, and Sion ; but took from him whatever he possessed on the west of the Jura. The Duke ceded the patronage of the church of Geneva, to Amede, Count de Genevois, who, under that name, governed a great part of the Pays de f^aud of this day. The great vassals of the empire submitted with regret to the Dukes of Zseringen : the lesser noblesse on the contrary preferred to hold of them, because they shewed less rigour and pride than the great. These dukes used all possible means to favour the one, and restrain the other. For this purpose they built cities, and established colonies of faithful subjects, from the Rhine and the Brisgau, or of strangers from the German provinces. Thus Duke Conrad built the cities of Yverdun and Morges. Berthold IV. founded Fribourg. The privileges he conferred, drew many inhabitants to this new city. Berthold V. 52 LETTER VI. fortified the cities of Berthould and Moudon : and at length built the city of Berne. Multi- tudes flocked to it, to enjoy the privileges of the empire, and the protection of an equitable and powerful prince. Such was the origin of Berne, which afterwards became the most powerful re- public of Helvetia. Berth old, who merited by his useful establishments, and the wisdom of his government, the esteem of his cotemporaries, was offered the imperial crown oi^ the death of Henry VI. but wisely declined it, at a period when its authority was uncertain and disputed. This duke governed twenty years ; with his death, in 1218, the dukes expired. They were the most powerful chiefs of Helvetia. After them were the Counts of Burgundy, of Savoy, of Hapsbourg, and of Kibourg. The Counts of Rapperschwyl, of Tokenbourg, and of Neuchatel, were scarcely inferior to them. Among the pre- lates were distinguished the bishops of Lausanne, Sion, Bale, Coire, and the Abbot of St. Gall. The extinction of the House of Zseringen, contributed to elevate the Counts of Savoy in the middle of Helvetia. 53 LETTER VII 19ufec0 of 35urguttt!2=--=CDoimt0 palatine of l^urgunDg. 15th August, 1819. W HEN the kingdom of Aries was reunited to that of High Burgundy, Richard, (brother of King Boson,) who was Duke of the province of Burgundy, of which Dijon is the capital, retain- ed that dukedom, and transmitted it to his pos- terity. It afterwards came to Hugh le Grand^ father of Hagh Capet. In 1035, Henry, King of France, gave it to his brother, Robert, with whose descendants it remained to Philip de Rouvres, the last duke of this line, when revert- ing to the crown of France, it was conferred by King John, on Philip, his third son, who died 1404; and was succeeded by his son, John, Duke of Burgundy, who died 1419; and was succeeded by his son, Duke Philip le Bon, who died 146/; 54 LETTER VII. and was succeeded by his son, Duke Charles le Temeraire, a name so marked in the history of Switzerland, by his defeat at the battle of Gran- son, a second time at Morat^ and by the loss of his life at the siege of Nancy, in 1477^ aged forty-four. His sole daughter and heir, Mary, married in the same year, Maximilian, Emperor of Germany, and died in 1483, at the age of twenty-six. But Avhen the kingdom of Rodolph III. last king of Burgundy, a\ as broke to pieces. High Burgundy (or Franche-Comte) fell to the Em- perors of Germany, who appointed Counts Pala- tine over this province of High Burgundy. Renaud^, Count Palatine of Burgundy, who died 1057, was son of Otto Guillaume, Count of Besancon, the capital of Franche-Comte, who was son of Adelbert, Marquis of Ivree, son of Berenger \\. King of Italy, son of Adelbert, Marquis of Ivree, by Emengarde, daughter of ^ Mallet says it was not without difficulty that the Em- peror Henry III. obliged this powerful vassal to pay homage to him. He afterwards espoused his niece, Agnes, and their enmity ceased. LETTER VII. 55 Adelbert II. Duke of Tuscany, by Berthe, sister to Louis III. Emperor^ and King of Aries. Renaud, Count Palatine of Burgundy, who died 1057, was father of William II. Count of Burgundy, who died 108/; father of Renaud II. Count of Burgundy, who died IO99; father of Renaud III. Count of Burgundy, who died 1107; father of William IV. Count of Bur- gundy, assassinated at Payeme, 1 1 26. His daugh- ter and heir, was wife of Frederic I. (Barhe- rousse,) Emperor. Their younger son, Otto- William, became Count Palatine of Burgundy, and left a daughter and heir, Beatrix, married to Otto, Duke of Merania, who died 1248. This Duke had possession of such parts of the County Palatine of Burgundy, as surrounded Besancon. His daughter, Alice, married John de Chalons, (son of Stephen, who had disputed with him the possession of this County Palatine, and who was younger brother of this Renaud II.) The issue of this marriage was Hugh de Chalons, Count Palatine of Burgundy. Their eldest son, Otto, succeeded as Count Palatine of Burgundy. He died 1303. His daughter, Jane, carried 56 LETTER VII. this Palatinate in marriage to Philip V. le Long, afterwards King of France^ who died 1322. The perpetual confusion which the recur- rence of the names of these Counts Palatine of High Burgundy, (or Franche-Comte,) intermixed with those of the dukes of the adjoining pro- vince of Burgundy, causes to readers of the his- tory of these parts, has induced me to deem it worth the trouble to enter into these details. 57 LETTER VIII, ^i^tov^ of ^abog. St. Gervais, in Savoy, 1st Oct. 1819. 1 HE Alpes separate Italy from Savoy, which extends from the feet of these mountains to the lake of Geneva: and below the lake, extends to the banks of the Rhone, near which, at the distance of twenty-three leagues and a half from Cieneva, lies Chambery, the capital of this Duchy. Savoy was anciently part of the country of the Allo- hroges. The picturesque beauties of this wild and mountainous Principality, defy the powers of language. The magnificence of Mont-Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, eternally cover- ed with snow; the sublime scenery of roaring torrents bursting through the chasms of tremen- dous rocks ; profound vallies shut in by declivities 58 LETTER VIII. generally inaccessible, yet covered with the richest wood, springing even out of the rocks themselves ; cottages, and villages, and churches, every where scattered, as if to embellish the views in the hap- piest manner; rich meadows, enlivened by herds and flocks; swelling slopes of green herbage^ which often runs up almost to the summits of the mountains ; noble trees rising every where in profusion, as if the hand of art and pinch of poverty had never disturbed them: these are features of grandeur, which verbal description must always give a vague and inadequate idea of! It was over this sublime country that the present royal house of savoy obtained their sovereignty early in the eleventh century. Hum- bert I. surnamed Aux Blanches Mains, chief of Maurienne ^, one of the Feudatories of the ancient * Maurienne is an ancient Province of the Duchy of Savoy, which, in the late empire of Bonaparte, formed one of the departments of Mont-Blanc. It is composed of a long valley, traversed through all its length of twenty leagues by the river Arcqj of which the direction is from Aiguebelle, its an- cient capital, to St. Jean, from north to south. The Sara- cens wasted Maurienne twice at the commencement, and end of the tenth century. LETTER VIII. 59 kingdom of Burgundy, who, on the death of Rodolph 111. the last king, became by his testa- ment one of the Members of the Germanic Empire, obtained on that occasion the investiture of the sovereignty of a part of Maurienne, the Chablais, and the Low Valais, from the Emperor Conrad le Salique, whose part Humbert took against his competitor for the inheritance of Burgundy, Odo, Earl of Champagne. Humbert was the son of Berold, on Avhose origin there are great disputes : the favourite opinion is, that he was of the Im- perial House of Saxony : he is said to have been a governor under the king of Burgundy, and viceroy of Aries : and many think that he sprung from those kings : Berold is reported in an an- cient MS chronicle of Savov, to have died at Aries in IO27. The death of Humbert I. is placed in 1048: and tradition says that he was interred l)efore the porch of the cathedral church of St. Jean de Maurienne. The division of the vast empire of Charle- magne into minor sovereignties, had become necessary by the circumstances of the times. The descendants of this great Emperor had left 60 LETTER VIII. to the Feudal Chiefs the care of defending then- country as they could; and permitted the cities to fortify themselves to repel the attacks, from which themselves were incapable of defending them. Lombardy and Burgundy (of which last Savoy formed a part) were, before the time of the Emperor Conrad le Salique, at the same period tormented by the spirit of party, and a prey to the devastations of the Hungarians and the Saracens, and to the ravages of the pest. The Hungarians, a barbarous people from Tartary, appeared in Piedmont in 90I, and ex- ercised for along time the most cruel ravages: they seemed to have no other object than to wade in blood; they passed Mont-Ceuis^ and made a desert of Maurienne. The Saracens, coming from Spain, from Sicily, and the other islands of the Mediterranean, landed at Nice in 89 1 ; they desolated Piedmont and Savoy for more than fifty years. In 940 they despoiled the Abbey of Angaune, (or St. Maurice,) in the Low-Valais^ one of the most flourishing and the most numerous of the order of St. Benedict. LETTER VIII. 6l Some authors contend that Humbert I. had never any higher authority than that of military commander of the Marches of Italy, and that Conrad le Salique exercised absolute authority here in 1038, as appears by a Bull of that date, in which he is spoken of as Humhertus Comes in pago Savogensi. At any rate he was not so- vereign of the whole of Savoy. Two other petty princes shared with him parts of this country : the Counts of Geneva^ and the Barons of Faucigny. The House of Faucigny =^ were descended from Emerard, a soldier distinguished under the last kings of Burgundy. The proper Barony of Faucigny consisted of that magnificent country lying in the neighbourhood of Mont-Blanc: Ser- voz, Cluses, Sallenches, Bonneville, &c. Besides this they had the Barony of Beaufort, Hermence, Versoix, and many lordships from Seyssel to Fribonrg in Switzerland. This great Barony divided itself into six Baronies of an inferior order. * Genealogists make the House of Faucigny descend from the brave Oliver, one of the Paladins of Charlemagne. 62 LETTER VIII. The territories of the Counts of Geneva ex tended from the Tillet, a little river near Aix, to the Castle of Troches in Chablais. But the au- thority of this House was much shorn by the encroachments of the Prince- Bishops of Geneva, whom the Emperors made them acknowledge as their soa ereigns, and consequently to take inves- titure of their estates. The Emperor Frederic Barbe-rousse, by a Bull of 1153, made these bishops Princes of the German Empire. These Prince-Bishops, after the cessions of the Emperors, were sovereigns not only of their episcopal city and its precincts, but also of Peney, Jussy, and Thyez, in Faucigny. The territory of Rumilly in Albanais^, and the jurisdiction of Ternier, was also part of the fiefs dependent on their principality, and enfeoffed by them to the Counts of Geneva, and the Barons of Ternier. The possessions both of the Counts of Geneva, and of the Barons of Faucigny, at last fell, partly * Albanais, Pagus Alhanensis, a district of ancient Savoy, comprehended, under the kings of Burgundy of the second race, all the territory of the city of Rumilly, those of Alby, Albens, Annecy, Talloires, and the valley of Faverges^ as far as Marlens. LETTER VIII. 6*3 by alliances, partly by purchase and exchange, with those who inherited them, to the House of Savoy. Odo, Count de Savoy, son of Humbert I. married Adelaide, heiress of Ulrich Manfroi, last Marquis of Suse; and, thus obtaining the Duchies of Turin and Aost, extended his power over the Alpes. She had been first married to Herman, Duke of Suabia; and secondly, to Henry, Marquis de Montferrat. Odo died in 1609; and she, surviving her three husbands, died very aged, in IO91. Amedee II. Count de Savoy, (for he had an uncle, Amedee I. elder brother to Odo,) succeeded his father, Odo, and died 1094. He obtained of his brother-in-law, the Emperor Henry IV. when that monarch paid him a visit on a journey to Italy, the investiture of Bugey, which, for five hundred years, has made a part of the domain of Savoy. On the same occasion his mother, Adelaide, obtained the infeodation of a great part of the Marquisate of Ivree, on which she had claims through her mother, but which she could not possess without the authority of the Emperor. Amedee II. 64 LETTER VIII. married Jane, daughter of Ceroid II. Count of Geneva. His son^ Humbert II. Count of Savoy, married Gilles, daughter of William \l, sur- named Tefe-Hardie, Count of Burgundy. He died «it Moutier, 14th November, 1103. He added the title of Marquis of Suse. BARONS OF FAUCIGNY. It was a great inconvenience to the House of Savoy, that their dominions were intermixed with a multitude of Strange and Independent Fiefs. But the Counts of Savoy did not fail to render themselves considerable in the midst of surrounding powers, in addition to the Barons of Faucigny, and Counts of Geneva, were the Dukes of Zaeringen, the Counts de Kibourg and de Forets, the Lords of Beaujeu, Coligni, Villars, the Seigneurs de Gex, de la Tour du Pin, and some bishops. All these petty potentates held of the Ger- manic Empire; but the distance at which they lived from their Chief, made them pay little at- tention to him. They were independent one of the other; obliged nevertheless by their weak- LETTER VIII. 65 ness to seek mutual aid, they made a common cause against the House of Savoy, the ohject of their jealousy ; and who, on their side, neg- lected nothing to sow discord among them. Faucigny is an inclosure, bounded by the Chablais *, the Valley of Aost, and the Ta- rantese-l-. ^ The Barons of Faucigny were more ancient in the Alpes, than the Counts of Maurienne, and had been more powerful. Their common residence was at the Castles (or chateaux) of Marcossey ;}:, of Chatillon §, and of Flumet || , in * The Chablais is one of the seven provinces of the Duchy of Savoy, and comprehends the delicious plaia on. the east side of the Lake of Geneva, and the Vallies of Aulps, Abon- dance, and la Morge. f The Tarantese is a province of Savoy, of which Moutiers was the ancient capital. X Marcossey is an ancient fortified castle in the district of Bonneville. It served anciently to defend the avenues of Cluse, and is situated on this side the Arve, opposite the church of Thy. § The ancient castle of Chatillon was the chief place where these Barons resided. At this castle, Agnes, daughter and heir of Aimon, last Baron of Faucigny, was married to Peter, Count de Savoy, in 1233. II Flumet is built on the rocks of the banks of the river 66 LETTER VIII. Faucigny; and that of Hermance in Chablais. The capital of their Barony was the little city of Cluse, where they held their courts, and where they assembled annually the estates of their province ^, Arly. It was a castle flanked by four towers, of which only the ruins remain. The first Barons of Faucigny resided a part of the year here. * The Abbey of Sixt was founded by the Barons de Fau- cigny, in 1144: the Chartreuse of Reposoir, by the same, in 1151 ; and that of the Daughters of Melan, in 1292. There exists a cession of Faucigny, by Aimon, Lord of this Province, in favour of his son-in-law, Peter, Count of Savoy, of the 13th September, 1261. 67 LETTER IX. ^\)t ©ounts of Snxeba* Geneva. 8th October, 1819. 1 HE heiress of Faucigny having carried her estates to Peter, Count de Savoy, her heiress by him, Beatrix, carried them in marriage to the Dauphin, Guy VII. and thus the Dauphins ob- tained possessions in the middle of the territories of the House of Sav^oy. The Counts of Geneva thus became the na- tural allies of the Dauphins. The possessions of these Counts of Geneva extended beyond the province which bears their name, (and which was bounded by the three rivers the Arve, the Arli, and the Rhone,) to the mouth of the Guier. They owned the district of Gex, a great part of Bugey, and many detached fiefs in the surround- 68 LETTER IX. ing States. They also pretended to different rights over Geneva, though this city was of the same nature as the free imperial cities^ which had multiplied themselves over Piedmont, and Avho would not acknowledge any superior juris- diction but that of the Bishops. These Counts took the title of Adfoocati Ecclesice Gehenensis, and paid full and entire homage to the Bishop, saving only their fidelity to the Emperor. These Counts existed from the time of the kings of Burgundy; and even, as is believed, from the time of Charlemagne. Few families could prove an origin so ancient. The Castles of Annecy, la Roche, and Faverges, were the chief seats of their residence. Many monasteries founded by them have subsisted even to our days: such as the Abbey of Entremonts; the Chartreuse of Pommier; St. Catherine of Annecv, where are to be seen the tombs of their family; Beaumont, in the Pays de Vaud, become the chief seat of a Swiss bailiwick; and, in fine, the Priory of Chamouni, at the foot of Mont-Blanc. Ame III. 19th Count, who died 1367, mar- LETTER IX. 69 ried Mahaut d' Auvergne, and had three sons, Ame IV. Pierre^ and Robert. Ame IV. 20th County died without issue at Paris^ 1368. He was succeeded by his brother, Robert, known under the name of Pope Clement VII. who took the title of Comte de Genevois in March 1394, but died in September of the same year. His sister, Marie, married to Humbert de Thoire de Villars, pretended a right to the inheritance. Oddo de Villars, uncle of Hum- bert, having become heir to his nephew, ceded all his rights in the County of Geneva, and all the lands dependant on it, to Am^d^e VIII. Count of Savoy, by the Treaty of Paris, 5 th of August, 1401. This Prince having also bought the rights of Margaret de Joinville, all the rights of the House of Geneva were re-united to those of Savoy; but they were not possessed without opposition till after the Emperor Sigis- mond gave investiture in 1422. ' The estates of the Counts of Geneva were from the Thirteenth Century the objects of ag- grandisement of the House of Savoy, who pro- 70 LETTER IX. fitted of all occasions and circumstances to become the absolute masters of them. Ruinous wars were in consequence for gene- rations carried on between the Counts of Geneva, the Dauphins and Barons of Faucigny, against the House of Savoy. 71 LETTER X. ^Jencral J^eflection^-rBeclfnc auD tlTcrmination of t\)c IKmgtiom Milan, 8th October , 1819. It will be necessary to say something more of Faucigny^ and the Country and Royal House of Savoy; but I must pause before I return to this subject. The sight of Italy, its climate, its ge- nius, its arts, its relics of ancient grandeur, its manners, arrest my attention, and make me for- get even the Alpine scenery of Savoy. It is probable that I shall be deemed to have dwelt on dry and discarded fragments of history. But they are notices, without which it is impossible to understand the extent, the duration, and the localities of the ancient dominion of the coun- tries I have visited. Most of these notices have 72 LETTER X. disappeared from modern compilations, and are only to be found in works of research, or for- gotten books of reference. Facts^ however, without reflection, or senti- ment, or description, will, I fear, soon tire the reader. We travel to amuse and instruct the mind; to wear out prejudices by the sight of new manners-; to refresh the weary spirit by novelty; and to force the thoughts out of deadened channels by unaccustomed impulses. As life advances, old spots almost every where recall associations too painful to be endured. A sanguine fancy is condemned to pass a great part of its time in the regions of Disappoint- ment: and the bitterness of hope perpetually destroyed, requires every alleviation that ma- nagement can devise. Change of air, and a novel atmosphere, ame- liorates and strengthens also our material part. The human frame is powerfully affected by this variety. In this re-invigorated state all the materials presented to our minds make more vivid impres- sions, and are used with double advantage. LETTER X. 73 Knowledge, which had lain for years lifeless on the tablets of our memories, springs up into bloom and fruit; and we associate memorials, hitherto dry and inanimate, with living scenes and actual appearance,s. What I have said about the kingdom of Burgundy and its Rulers, from the time of Char- lemagne to the extinction of the Second Race of Kings of that magnificent Country, has been drawn forth by the curiosity excited by visiting the rich and sublime expanse of their domains. When on the death of Rodolph III. in 1032, these noble territories were subjected to the all- grasping and overshadow ing w^ing of the German Empire, they lost, with their independence, much of their political interest. Three centuries elaps- ed before they emancipated themselves from the iron yoke, and established a new sort of inde- pendence, under the guard of the Helvetic Con- federacy. The two principal authors who have written the History of Switzerland in modern days, are Jean MuLLER, and Paul-Henri Mallet; the last the senior in age, and of prior date in the L 74 LETTER X. literary world^ though posterior on the present subject. Jean Midler was born at Schaffousen in 17^2, the son of a pastor who filled the chair of He- brew Professor at that place. At the age of eighteen he studied Theology at Gottingen; but his taste soon led him to History, and he printed his Bellum Cimhricum at Zurich^ 1772. He soon afterwards began to assemble his materials for the History of Switzerland^ and consumed eight or nine years in this labour. During this period he became tutor to the children of the celebrated Tronchin at Geneva; and enjoyed the society of the eminent naturalist^ Charles Bonnet^ with whom he passed much time at his villa of Genthod, on the Lake, near Coppet. He now opened a course of Historical Lectures at Gene- va; and at this time published in German the first part of his History of Switzerland. In 178I he had an interview with the great Fre- deric at Berlin; but the prejudices of this mo- narch against German literature, formed a bar to his deriving any advantages from the patron- age of this whimsical Prince. After a varied LETTER X. 75 series of events^ during which he laboured to perfect his History of Switzerland, he opened a new course of History at Berne; and all the youth of that Canton were anxious to profit from the instruction of a Professor so learned and so famous. He afterwards accepted the employment of Librarian to the Elector of Mayence. Here he published the first volumes of his new edition of the History of Switzerland ; and wrote many things on the state of Germany. In 1793 he was induced by the Emperor s offers to visit Vienna; but jealousies and disagreeable circumstances forced him to quit it, and visit Berlin a second time, Avhere he continued his history. He had afterwards the good fortune to procure the situation of Counsellor of State to the Court of Westphalia, and in this post he died at the age of fifty-six years. His Letters to his friend Bonstetten have been publislied in a little 8vo. volume at Zurich, and are characterized by great eloquence, and the most attractive purity and fervor of senti- ment. 76 LETTER X. PauU Henri-Mallet was born at Geneva in 173O; became Professor of History at his native city; and was successively Royal Professor of Belles-Lettres at Copenhagen, and Member of the Academies of Upsal^ Lyons, Cassel, and of the Celtic Academy of Paris. One of his earliest and his most celebrated work, was his History OF Denmark, of which the learned Introduction contains a most curious view of the Ancient Mythology of the People of the North. His History of Switzerland, in 4 vols. 8vo. may be considered as in part a digested Abridgement of the more detailed work (in 9 vols. 8vo.) of his young friend Jean Midler, with a continua- tion to more modern times. He also wrote the His tori/ oj' the House of Hesse ; the His tori/ of the House of Brunswick ; the History of the Hanseatic League, &c. He died at Geneva, 8th February, I8073 in his seventy-seventh year. 11 LETTER XI. ?l^ou0e of 5abog.-=iFaucigtt8. Florence, Octo ber 19, 1819. 1 HE Royal House of Savoy, who form part of the subject of my former Letters, have con- tinued in the male line in possession of the same Principality for about eight hundred years. They are inferior in this sort of antiquity to the Royal House of France : but perhaps to no other now existing in Europe. Their gradual accu- mulation of territories and power from a petty sovereignty or vice-government^ is curious : like a little spring, which gradually receives, the tri- bute of collateral streams, till it becomes a mighty river. These sovereigns did not indeed immediately take their rise on the breaking up of the Empire 78 LETTER XI. of Charlemagne. Another century and half intervened ; and they rose out of the spoils of the kingdom of Burgundy^ which was itself but a limb of the first magnificent empire. It was immediately as governors or great officers under this vast dominion, that the first great princes and nobles of Europe carved out their future possessions and power. Savoie Proper, fSavogia; Ager Savogensis,) in the Tenth Century, comprehended only the Valley of the Isere, (which extends from Cha- parillan to Conflans,) the territory of Bauges, the Vallies of Chambery, Aix, and Bourget. Humbert was Comes in Agro Savogensis in 1010. The descendants of these first Counts having acquired by alliances or treaties the neighbouring country of the Maurieime, extend- ed successively the name of Savoy to all the countries submitted to their domination on the same side of the Alpes. In the reign of Amddee VIII. this country comprehended the Maurienne, the Tarentaise, Savoy Proper, Bresse, Bugey, the County of the Genevois, Faucigny, the countries of Gex and LETTER XI. 79 Vaud, and the Duchy of Chablais^ which ex- tended itself to Maitigny. The Emperor Sigis- mond erected these provinces into a Duchy, 19th February, I4l6, under the German Empire, and every Duke of Savoy constantly took investiture from the Emperors. The most romantic part of all this Duchy is Faucigny, already mentioned, at the foot of Mont-Blanc. Mons. Bouriit in his Itineraire de Geneve, des Glaciers de Chamouny, &c. 1808, 8vo. has the following extraordinary passage : ^* A line lieue de Bonneville, on voit sur un rocher escarpe les mines du fort de Faucigny, detrult dans les guerres du seizieme siecle, ruines qui nous representent encore Timage de I'oppression de la portion la plus re- spectable du genre humain. La Savoie etoit alors b^rissee de cbateaux; c 'etoit la depouille du foible, et en jouis- soient dans une tranquillite cruelle, comme I'aigle dans son aire decbire avec securite les membres palpitans de sa proie/' Where is the justice of this comparison of ancient Feudal Barons, of whom no record oi 80 LETTER XI. particular exists^ to Eagles in their Airies enjoy- ing in tranquillity the palpitating limbs of their mangled prey ? It would be difficult to prove that the Feudal establishment was not the best for the times in which it arose. The period kt length arrived when the augmenting spirit of commerce required that the Feudal fetters should be broken: but centuries elapsed before this was the case. During these centuries the Feudal chain was best calculated to hold together so- ciety, and to defend them from the violences and encroachments of each other. Nothing can be more magnificent than the situations of the ruins of some of these chateaux of the Princes of Faucigny. Sometimes they stand upon the points of stupendous insulated rocks, of which the swelling bases and half the ascents are covered with noble forest trees ; over- looking with sublime command scenes such as Sdlvator Rosa would have delighted to paint in his wildest and most inspired moments. Between Servoz and Chamouni are the relics of one of these chateaux on a rock placed in the midst of the valley, overtopped indeed by the LETTER XI. 81 lateral chains of Alpine mountains that shut in the valley. It is called the chateau of St. Michael. The peasantry believe it to be haunted, and re- late wonderful stories of its treasures, its sor- ceries, and the Spirits that frequent it. I pre- sume that it was one of the residences of the Faucigny family. The inhabitants of the district of Faucigny are distinguished above all other Savoyards as a people simple in their manners, cheerful, robust, and industrious. They send out numbers annu- ally all over Europe, to make their fortunes by little articles of merchandise: bnt such is their passionate love of their country, that all retire to spend what they get in the bosom of their own dear, mountains. All the English, and indeed all foreigners who come into these regions, visit Mont-Blanc. The whole road from Geneva to Chamouni, which is at the foot of this mountain, augments in grandeur at every step. It lies on the banks of the Arve, the whole way, ascending towards its source in the Col de Balme, which separates The Valais from Chamouni. It passes through M 82 LETTER IX. tbe three towns of Bonneville, Cluse, and Servoz. At Cliise the valley grows narrower, and the . moTintauis become perpendicular, and frown over the road in the most savage sublimity. As we enter the Valley of Chamouni^ and pursue the road along the side of the mountain, looking down upon the profound depths through which the Arve runs, the mind is filled with awe and admiration, and language is inadequate to give a picture of the scenery. Chamouni is divided into three parishes: that which is distinguished by its ancient monas- tic establishment by the name of Priory, is a village of a few scattered houses. The Priory is broke up, (I believe by the French:) the church remains. Here are two hotels for the numerous visitants who flock hither every year from every part of Europe. The Union, esta- blished in 1815, is excellent: a table d'hote at five o'clock is well supplied in the English fashion: we sat down about twenty — English, Scotch, Irish, Germans, Russians. Here Mont-Blanc is directly over us : the village is literally at its foot. On Saturday, LETTER XI. S3 September 18, 18 19, we breakfasted at the hotel just named; set off from it at half-past eight o'clock; ascended the Mount ainv ert ; went over the summit to the Mer de Glace; and returning back to the hut erected for a resting-pLice on the top, where a person attends, and where a book is kept for travellers' names, we took some refreshment, and then descended a steeper path to the source of the Arvelron, and thence came back to the hotel, which we reached by half- past four o'clock. The ascent is accessible for mules about half the way: to one who is not a good walker, the fatigue of the steepness beyond that point is very great: but the acute declivity of the return is still more painful. I had suffered by a bad sprain of ray left ankle about ten days before, and in consequence I felt great weariness and inconvenience in the labour of regaining the valley. I will confess that the Mer de Glace disappointed me: perhaps the whole ascent dis- appointed me: but I was in ill health at the time. The first part of the ascent by an intricate and rocky pathway among forests of pine pleased 84 LETTER XI. me most. The ascent of the adjoining moun- tain of Mont-Blanc itself^ covered with eternal snow, only a few adventrous travellers under- take. The world has been inundated with descrip- tions of visits to Mont-Blanc. I have nothing new therefore to say on this subject. During the long Avinter the inhabitants are buried in snow\ From June to September they live amid scenery at once beautiful and sublime ; and are cheered and enriched by the numerous travellers from every other part of Europe, who come to inspect the wonders of Nature among which their lot has placed them. It was in 1741 that Messrs. Pocock and Windham first set the fashion of visiting this place. So little was it frequented, and such were the supposed hazards and perils attending it, that they made preparations as if they W'Cre going on travels of discovery of a new world. More than thirty years afterwards the famous Genevan Naturalist, Horace Benedict De Saussure, made the attempt to ascend these mountains. It was not till August 1/87^ that he conquered Mont-Blanc. The next year LETTER XI. 85 he accomplished the Col du Geant, where he encamped seventeen days to make his ob- servations. His Geological Works are known all over Europe. He died 1798, aged forty- eight. His friend, Senebier, of Geneva, has pnb- lished a memoir of him, in one small 8vo. vo- lume. The inhabitants of Chamouni are a simple^ robust, hardy people. The children, particularly the girls, are strikingly beautiful : we remarked this in the faces of all the children who flocked about us in our ascent of tbe Montanvert; but labour or hard living, or the union of both, de- stroys this at an early age; for we saw no beau- tiful women ; and the aged were hideous. The first known sovereign of tbe Barony of Faucigny, was Emmerad, who, about A. D. 1000, paid homage for it to the Emperor Conrad^ who had succeeded to the rights of the Kings of Bur- gundy. His son, Louis, Avas father (by Teberge, his second wife) of William, Baron of Faucigny, 1119, who, by Utilie, his wife, had Rodolph^ his son and heir, fourth Baron, 1125, whose second son, Ardutius, was first Bishop of Geneva, 86 LETTER XI. who^ in opposition to the pretensions of the Counts of the Genevois, and the Dukes of Zse- ringen, obtained in 1 1 53 from the Emperor Fre- deric Barberousse^ at Spire, a confirmation of the possessions and privileges of his church; and who afterwards, in 11 62, further acquired from the same Emperor a declaration in his fa- vour, as supremus dom'mus et princeps civitatis, suhurhioriim et llmitum ipslus civitatis et castro- rum episcopatus Gehennensis. Raymond, fourth son, Seigneur of Thoire and of Boissy, left male posterity, who continaed for seventeen genera- tions, even to our days. Aimon I. Baron of Faucigny, elder brother of Bishop Ardutius and of Raymond, accom- panied Ame III. Count de Savoy, to the Holy Land in 11 47, and founded the Reposoir in 1 151. His son, Henri, (or Humbert,) was father of Aimon H. sixth Baron, 1234, the last Baron of the male line, who left three daughters : 1 . Agnes, Baroness de Faucigny, who married at Chatillon sur Cluses, in 1223, Peter, Count dp Savoy; 2. Beatrix, who married Stephen de Thoire- LETTER XI. 8/ Villars; 3. Eleonore, who married Simon de Joinville, Lord of Gex. Pierre, Count de Savoy, left issne by Agnes de Faiicigny, only one dangliter and heir, Beatrix, who inherited this Barony^ and who, on 4th December, 1241, married Hugh XII. Dauphin de Viennois, by whom she had issue, to whom the Barony of Faucigny passed. Hugh, Dau- phin de Viennois, took the title of Baron of Faucigny, in the life time of his grandmother. Humbert II. last Dauphin, ceded his dominions of Dauphiny and Faucigny, in 1343, to Philip, King of France, on condition that the eldest sons of France should bear the title and arms of Dauphins de Viennois, and that Faucigny should never be dismembered from their estates. But the situation of this district surrounded on every side by the territories of Savoy, occasioned con- tinual wars ; and it became necessary, for the purpose of terminating them, to enter into a treaty at Paris, in 1354, for a mutual exchange, by which France should possess the seigniories and rights which Savoy had in Dauphiny, and Savoy become Sovereign of Faucigny and Gex, under 88 LETTER XI. the reserve of homage to France. Louis XI. released this homage by the Treaty of Bayonne, 1445 ; but Francis I. having declared war against his uncle, Charles III. reclaimed this homage for the Barony of Faucigny. This question was discussed at the conferences of Lyons in 1561; and Charles-Emanuel I. to relieve himself from this claim, called in the influence of the Emperor Rodolph, whom he was forced to conciliate by taking investiture of Faucigny from him, not- withstanding the Dukes, his predecessors, had always protested that it was independent. The ancient administration, civil and poli- tical, of Faucigny, was of a mixed government. The Estates of the Province assembled every year at Cluse, to elect a Grand Bailiff, a Chief Judge, and an Ordinary Judge. These estates were composed of ten Bailiwicks — Chatillon, Ckises, Bonneville, Bonne, Sallanches, Chateau- de-Faucigny, Chatelet de Credoz, Samoens, Mont-Joye, and Flumet. The inhabitants of Faucigny have been al- ways lively, industrious, and active. They have furnished a great number of men of letters, and LETTER XI. 89 men employed in the business of state. Natu- rally addicted to the speculations of commerce^ the Fauciguans have for more than a century established considerable houses of commerce in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Watch- making has flourished at Cluse, &c. Their chief commerce consists in beasts, mules, timber, char- coal, butter, cheese, tallow, flax, honey of Cha- mouni, cherry-brandy, leather, skins, &c. which find their principal vent through Geneva. There is little luxury in these parts: the churches are unornamented : the clergy lead a plain^ coarse life : there are scarcely any nobles or gentlemen resident in the country. The pea- sants are apparently frank, honest, and unso- phisticated. The French are said to have intro- duced some change here, as every where else, which thev unhappily overran. The old regime, to which they have returned, is somewhat strict : and particularly with regard to religious into- lerance. 90 LETTER XII. (f^tiginalits berg tau==--13ante, ^^etratci), iSoccacj, ©baucer, ^pcnm, .^acfebiUe, iIWilton===®outt=^om ot Florence f November 13, 1819. 1 O have a clear perception of what others have written or said, to retain it in the memory, and to be able to bring forward, or repeat it either in the same order, or in any altered succession, en- titles a man to the praise of intellectual abilities, and may enable him to acquire and communicate great eiiidition. But it is quite a different qua- lity from Genius : whether as applied to the in- vention of imagery or sentiment, or to novelty of deduction in the application of reasoning. When therefore we speak of a man's acquire- ments, we are incorrect if we bring them as LETTER XII. 91 preofs of his genius. It is astonishing what an extent of acquirements may be conferred by long and patient labour on one of very moderate talents ! Of those original powers, which constitute Genius, the gradations are infinite, both in native strength, and in exercise, discipline, and appli- cation. Some are feeble, crude, and of but slight use or merit. Some, by the union of innate force and due discipline, arrive at almost super- human splendor. But of the multitudes even of those, who have obtained some reputation in the literary world, it is, perhaps, not too severe to exclude nineteen out of tAventy from the classes of ori- ginal writers. In this exclusion must be comprised, for the most part, historians, biographers, authors of travels and voyages, critics and annotators, and almost all writers on professional subjects. Even in departments which require originality, a large portion employ no other faculty than memory, which enables them to be faint echoes of some 93 LETTER XII. favourite predecessor^ or of a combination 'of their predecessors. It wonld demand space and leisure, and close and patient attention, and perhaps superior acute- ness, to develop with exactness the value of these multiplications of the same facts and the same ideas. There may be some value in a diversity of dress, or of position. But there is an ubiquity and universality in Avhat is intellectual, that, with the exception qf the varying media of dif- ferent languages, makes copies (not an addition to the wealth, but) mainly a superfluity. If this be true, they who possess the rare faculty of original thinking, ought not to waste their time in labour of such comparative insig- nificance as repeating the ideas of others. It must strike every one of a scrutinizing spirit, how little there is new in the whole range of literature. lujages, sentiments, reasoning, facts, language, n)ethod, are all borrowed from those who have gone before: as if men were afraid to trust themselves to go alone, even where they have the strength ! If there be a class of books in which this LETTER XII. 93 weakness abounds more than in any other, it is in vohimes of Travels. On the same subjects, and in copying from the same features, it may be said that it is impossible to avoid similitude. But the similitude j)roduced by a common ori- ginal, and that which arises from identity of copy, are quite different things. It is not pro- bable that two artists would, without communica- tion, select the same features and the same points of view of the same subject. Two authors, if struck with the same ideas, could scarcely, with- out communication, express them in the same language. Of all subjects, it would be the most curious to trace poetical thoughts, poetical stories, and poetical phrases, to their origin. On the revival of poetry with Dante, Petrarch, and Boccacio, how instructive and how amusing would be the task, to enquire how much w as borrowed from the ancients, how much issued from the stores of the troubadours, and bow much Avas of the true and proper invention of these deservedly immortal men ! In addition to the splendid genius with which 94 LETTER XII. Nature had endowed them, they had great ad- vantages of time and country. The climate, the scenery, the specimens of ancient Art, with • which they were surrounded; the manners of the Age ; the institutions of Chivahy, yet in their lustre; the romantic spirit that prevailed; the dawn of science; the yet-believing superstitions: nourished an union of wild Fancy and com- mencing Taste, so happily blended, as to have been most favourable to the display of the un- equalled powers of intellect, which had been conferred on their birth. But even these illustrious and powerful spirits, have probably much less of their own, than modern blindness supposes ! Yet what do we not owe them? He who thinks the obli- gations of modern literature to them light, is as ignorant as he is devoid of taste and sagacity. They seized the bold features of an age of vigour and enthusiasm, and rapidly-growing effulgence; and painted them with a master's talent, and a master's fire. The grand con- ception of the Divina Comedla in particular, (to which nothing subsequent approximates, LETTER XII. 95 unless Milton's Paradise Lost, an invention de- ficient in the due interest of human aiFairs,) and added to this, an execution equally magnificent, produced in the midst of surrounding barbarism, must continue to fill the intelligent with admira- tion and astonishment, increasing in proportion to the intensity of their reflection upon the subject. Language, which unites grace and precision with power, would seem to be the patient result of gradual refinement operating on the gradual progress of human intelligence, in its march from ignorance and savageness to polished matu- rity. But Dante grasped it at once; he threw oif its excrescences, and retained all its force. What ardour must have carried him forward, when, instead of resting content with that which would have satisfied his cotemporaries, he exert- ed the energies required to anticipate the im- provements of future centuries, and to secure the applause of those, whom successive ages of la- bour should render fastidious ! It is probable, that men, even of the brightest genius, experience but a twilight glimmering of q6 letter XII. many images and sentiments^ which it would demand great and painful effort to bring for- ward into clear and defined light. If readers are content with what is more easily produced^ they revel in their idleness. But Dante could never have indulged in this propensity to ob- livious ease. With what profoundness he had studied the history of mankind ; with what saga- city and feeling he had penetrated into the hu- man character; with what sympathy he had traced the misfortunes, and pursued the gran- deur of the illustrious, is apparent from the feli- city with which he selected the traits that en- nobled their sorrows, and exhibited them in the most striking points of view to posterity ! In him it is sublimity of thought, and in- tenseness of feeling, that forms the essence of his poetry. In him the minor poetry of mere language is subordinate : it follows of course in mere reflection from the glow of soul that it clothes. Petrarch has less invention in its most exten- sive range. He has the invention of linking the immaterial to the material world before the eyes LETTER XII. 97 of one individual. In this faculty bis brilliance, his pathos, his eloquence, his touching language, have secured him a laurel that will for ever flourish with the same distinguished verdure. How strange and perverse has been the opinion promulgated by many literati, that Laura, the object of his affection, was an ideal personage. He has left a record in his own hand, the most decisive possible on this subject. In the celebrated MS. volume of Virgil in the Ambrosienne Library at Milan, (a MS. of which it is supposed that the Avhole was executed by the beautiful pen of Petrarch himself,) is the following inestimable autograph. '' Laura propiiis virtutibus illustris, et meis longum celebrata carminibus, primum sub meis oculis apparuit sub primum adolescentiae meae tempus anno Domini MCCCXXVII. die VI. mensis Aprilis in Ecclesia S. Claras Avinione hora matutina. Et in eadem Civitate eodem mense Aprili, eodem die VI. eadem hora prima_, anno autem MCCCXLVIII. ab hac luce lux ilia subtracta est, cum ego forte tunc Veronae essem, heu! fati mei nescius. Rumor autem infelix per litteras Ludovici mei me Parmae reperit anno eodem mense Maio die XIX. mane Corpus o 98 LETTER XII. illud castlssimum atque pulcherrimum in loco Fralrum Minorum reposltum est eo ipso die mortis ad vesperam. Animam quidem ejus, ut de Africano ait Seneca, in Caelum, unde erat, rediisse persuadeo mihi. Hoc autem ad acer- bam rei memoriam amara quadam dulcedine scribere visum est hoc potissimum loco, qui saepe sub oculos meos redit, ut scilicet niliil esse deberet (quod) amplius mihi placeat, et efFracto majori laqueo tempus esse de Babylone fugiendi, crebra horum inspectione, ac fugacis- simse setatis sestimatione commonear, quod praevia Dei gratia facile erit praeteriti temporis curas supervacuas, spes inanes, et inexpectatos exitus acriter et viriliter cogitanti, '' * Petrarch was born at Arezzo, in 1304; and died in 1374, aged seventy. Dante was born at Florence, in 1262; and died in 1321, aged fifty- nine. I have not dwelt upon Boccacio, because his Decameron., which is in prose, and not his poetry, has continued the favourite of future generations. Boccacio was born in 1313; and * This is printed in Tiraboschi, V. 532, and also in Fabroni's Latin Life of Petrarch. But I also saw it with my own eyes in the Ambrosienne Library, on Monday, October 18, 1819. LETTER XII. 99 died in 1375, aged sixty-two. Ariosto's birth was more than an hundred years later. He was born at Reggio =^, between Parma and Modena, on September 8th, 14/4; and died at Ferrara, 6th June, 1533, aged hfty-eight. Torquato Tasso was born at Sorrento in the kingdom of Naples, 11th March, 1544, eleven years after the death of Ariosto; and died 25th April, 1595, aged fifty-one. With these immortal names, we have three of congenial powers in England, which, perhaps, we may venture to put on the same seats: — Chaucer, Spenser, and Milton. Chaucer, I think, has the least pretensions, excellent as he is in his own department. His vivacity, his ease, his knowledge of life, are admirable; but there is less depth of colouring in his images ; less of that sublime, or of that wild and romantic fancy, which constitute the most characteristic features of the highest poetry. He is indeed always a poet; he groups his figures with a * On Saturday, October 23, 1819, 1 read with veneration the Inscription recording- the fact, over the door of the house where he was born. 100 LETTER XII. poef s wand, and his circumstancialities are al- ways poetical; but he delights to dwell rather upon the merriments and absurdities of life^ than upon the exhibitions of the grander passions. Sackville, at the distance of more than two hun- dred years, caught better some of Dante's tones ; and threw on his figures some of that great master's sombre colouring. Lord Surrey imi- tated rather, but imitated feebly, the elegant pathos of Petrarch. I begun this letter with the subject of Ori- ginality, and I must end with it. I would not do so unhallowed a thing as to detract from the originality of Milton : but it is clear that there are certain tints and hues both of imagery and sentiment, that were caught; perhaps involun- tarily and unconsciously caught, from the in- spired Bard of the Inferno; the Purgatorio; and the Paradiso; Avho is well known to have been a prime poetical favourite w^ith him. If Milton borrowed or imitated, it was not from poverty. He is perhaps the most original, (ex- cept Shakespeare,) as he is the most sublime of our poets. If he sometimes takes images from LETTER XII. 101 obscure predecessors, he uses them as the artist does the raw material; transmutes what was of no value, by the touch of his hand^ into a bril- liant composition. There have been endeavours to find models for his ComuSy his L' Allegro, and his // Pen- seroso. The instances of resemblance produced have been absurdly inapplicable to the point in- tended to be established. The same image in different hands has the most dissimilar effects: not only may the combination be different ; but an epithet; a single additional circumstance; the omission of a single circumstance ; the very har- mony, or harshness in the position of words or syllables, may create or destroy the charm. Beauties may once or twice occur in a tedious mass of rubbish ; but they then appear accidental. It is in the tone of the whole; in the uniform character of inspiration; in the Doric grace ; the mellow sweetness; that these enchantingp oems breathe a felicity peculiarly their own, and hitherto vainly attempted to be imitated. When with the return of Charles 11. the French School of Poetry rose in England into 102 LETTER XII. such encouragement as to overshadow and crush the Italian, Milton's poetry lay for more than half a century neglected. Rural images became of no value for their own sake ; they were merely regarded as materials for similies to aid in the composition of the petty ingenuities of courtly gallantry ; to form verses of extravagant flattery, in which there was neither passion nor genius ; to put Fancy in opposition to Nature, not as the light to set off her charms ; to represent man- kind not in the simple and beautiful forms which Providence has conferred on them; but in a whimsical masquerade of artifiicial disguise, to which the energies of romantic passion would appear untutored ignorance; and the pure lan- guage of unsophisticated genius, the insipid bab- blings of a dull and inexperienced recluse. From the time of our Restoration, every thing was sacrificed to point and neatness; to what was deemed a polished and courtly turn; to a certain sort of ironical, smiling, or sneering treatment of every subject, as if sincerity was vulgar, and seriousness want of illumination. There had been in the time of Charles I. a LETTER XII. 103 set of Court-Poets, who had mixed up with their compositions sufficient gallantry, and a due attention to all those subjects^ and that manner of treating them, which Courts in their nature require. Thomas Carew, Thomas Stanley, Richard Lovelace, Sidney Godolphin, William Earl of Pembroke, Robert Herrick, James "Shir- ley^ Sir Richard Fanshaw, and others, abounded in gallantry; in compliments to the beauties of the day, fervid and often far-fetched; in quaint- nesses adapted to the aifected pretensions of the butterflies that buzz about a throne. These quaintnesses had the farther recommendation of being often ingenious, and often elegantly and harmoniously expressed. They were the fruits of the perversion of very ingenious minds, and very skilful and extensive acquirements in polite literature. It is impossible not to admit and admire their ingenuity, even when a rigid taste must condemn them. But, mingled with these faults, so likely to suit the depraved appetites of a dissolute Court, were beauties which made the votaries of the new fashion turn with aversion from these pro- 104 LETTER XII. ductions, and condemn them to a long oblivion. The best of them often breathed a spirit of the purest and simplest poetry^ expressed in language equally pure and simple : they relied on the in- terest of the image or the sentiment, and scorned to have recourse to the attractions of meretricious ornament. The Wits of King Charles the Se- cond's Court had no conception of the value of a thought for its own sake: it was the dress, and nothing but the dress, that they regarded. An unexpected turn ; a sharp jest upon the manners of the world ; an epigrammatic terseness ; an happy simile ; a compliment of extravagant gal- lantry neatly pointed ; a voluptuous and disso- lute principle gaily and transparently announced ; — these were the merits they aspired to, and often attained. Whatever was sincere in the former age ; whatever spoke the emotions of the heart; Avhatever was in a tone of enthusiasm, they rejected as unenlightened, unrefined, and unfashionable. I cannot guess at any other mode of account- ing for the immediate, profound, and long neg- lect, into which such poets as Carew, Lovelace, LETTER XII. 105 and Stanley, immediately fell. There is a Song of Lovelace, and there are Stanzas of Carew, and even of Herrick, which have never been rivalled : and Stanley, though quaint, is not only elegant, but had the recommendation of great classical fame to preserve the memory of his poems. If this letter seems out of place, let the reader turn back to the second page of this vo- lume, and he will there find that it is only one of the digressions for which the author has ex- pressly stipulated. io6 LETTER XIII. I^atj^g of Bt ©crbaig in ^abo8==.=J^eflcctton0 on ^abo^arti ^implkitg. Florerice, November 15, 1819. At the foot of the Alpes^ in the district of Fau- cigny, about forty miles south-east from Geneva, lie the celebrated Mineral Baths of St. Gervais, which are of very late discovery, and have not been in use for more than twelve yeais. The first characteristic of these Baths, is the beauty and s^randeur of the Natural Scenerv in which they are placed. As far as Sallenche^ (or rather St. Martin, which stands before the entrance of the bridge that conducts across the Arve to Sallenche,) the route is the same from Geneva as leads to Chamouni. From Sallenche the road lies along LETTER XIII. 107 the valley on the right bank of the Arve for about five miles, till it conducts the traveller to the rude and crazy bridge thrown across the lit- tle torrent of the Bon-Navt. Up the deep valley, through which the tor- rent flows, about half a mile distant on the east bank, are situated the Baths of St. Gervais. The village is on the side of the mountain, up a steep ascent, more than a mile beyond the bridge. It directly overhangs the Bath, behind which the torrent rushes doAvn in a most mag- nificent cascade, through a cleft of the rocks. The Mineral Spring issues from this rock, a few yards below the torrent. It was discover- ed about 1807, by Mr. Gonthard, the proprietor, then a notary at the village of St. Gervais. Dr. Matthey, the physician, who resides here during the season, has written a full account of these Baths ; * and it would therefore be idle and use- * Dr. Matthej'-'s is an ingenious, scientific, clear, and satisfactory account of these Baths, entitled " Las Bains de Saint- Gervais pres du Mont-Blanc, fen SavoieJ Par Andre Matthey, D. M. Secretaire de la Societe de Medecine, et Medicin du bureau de bienfaisance, de Geneve; Membre de la Societe medicale d' emulation de Paris, de la Societe de medecine 108 LETTER XIII. less in me to fill these pages with a long descrip- tion of them. My health requiring that I should visit these Baths, which were prescribed to me by the me- dical advice of Geneva, I spent here a month in August, and the whole month of September. I found the Warm Bath highly efficacious; and, at the same time, very pleasant. I bathed twice a day almost the whole time. Here are also Vapour-Baths and Shower-Baths, and the Waters are also drank. The air is eminently light and pure ; and the surrounding scenery at once so magnificent, so pastoral, and so delicious, that it contributes at once to calm and to cheer the spirits. The tour pratique de Montpelier de celles de BesancoUj, Marseille, etc. Paris, et Geneve, J. J. Paschoud, 181S, 8vo. pp. ^40.— Part I. contains the Topography of St. Gervais and its neighbourhood : its natural history ; its air -, its waters } the regimen of the Baths. Part II. gives an account of the Medicinal Properties of the Waters of St. Gervais ; with a large collection of curious cases. Dr. Matthey is also author of " Recherches Nouvelles sur les Maladies de V Esprit, prectd^es de Considerations sur les dif- ficultes de V Art de Guerir. Geneve, Paschoud, 1816, 8vo. pp. 368. LETTER XIII. 109 along the summits of the two lateral mountains, that immediately enclose the valley, and round the head^ down which the torrent of the Bon- ^Nant thunders, to its foot, adjoining the spring, is performed by walkers, or on mules, in two or three hours, and leads through the village of St. Gervais, and over a most romantic bridge, called The Devil's Bridge, which crosses the Bon-Nant at a spot where it runs in a deep and narrow channel through the rocks. On one occasion we ascended this torrent for some miles towards the mountains, and crossed it below St. Nicholai, which stands high upon the slope that overlooks it. Here we dined at the house of the Cure. The windows of this house com- mand one of the sides of these gigantic elevations, which form the chain that go under the name of Mont-Blanc. At this season it was green and smiling. The air, through which it was seen, was so light and clear, that every object seemed brilliant as in a mirror. To live amid such scenes, strikes one at first as adapted to nurse the most sublime contem- plations, and to strengthen into splendor and 110 LETTER XIII. energy the powers of fancy and sentiment. But this is rather the first view of the warm Poet^ than the conclusion of the calculating Philoso- pher. It seems as if cultivated man was more, destined to be within the frequent reacli of society. The inhabitants of these lonely mag- nificences, exhibit marks of torpor and coarse- ness, that dissipate the Poet's dreams of purity, and innocence, and virtue; of senses exqui- sitely tuned to the beauty of natural scenery; and of lofty disdain of the debasing vices of congregated cities ; of the mean passions of conflicting society; and of the petty squabbles of artificial desires. In the midst of the puri- fying expansion of mountain-air, they live in squall id cottages; and their looks, their habits, and amusements, are hard and repulsive. In truth, magnificent as is the scenery of Nature, without the aid of Mind, it is nothing. It is the combination of the immaterial with the material world, that constitutes true grandeur, and true virtue. Hence all landscape-painting, all description of natural scenery, unconnected with its operations on the intellectual beings that LETTER XIII. Ill people it, is of little comparative estimation or use. For this reason Thomson's Seasons fall beneath the highest classes of poetry, and give to Cowper's Task some advantage over them. But Solitude is still the sphere of the nobler orders of intellect. The question is, what soli- tude? shall it be a retreat in the midst of man- kind ? or far remote from their habitations ? We ought to retire from the world, full of materials for reflection upon human nature. We ought frequently to return to it, to refresh our stores, and bring our mental excursions again to the test of experience. If in society our worst pas- sions are nurtured ; in society are also nurtured our best! It is by collision that our manners are polished, and our faculties invigorated and improved. The lonely mountains of Savoy, in which Nature revels in all her sublimity, may cherish the dreams, and fructify the reason of him, who carries thither the treasures of know- ledge and thought; but the mountain-breezes will blow their freshness, and the smiling vallies will breathe their perfumes, in vain for him, in whose vacant brain no seeds have been sown. 112 LETTER XIII. Where the mind has not been cultivated; where exercise and labour have not ameliorated it; it produces but little, and that little is weeds. We turn with pain and mortification from torpor and hardness in the countenance, and squalid neglect in the whole person. We see the pea- sant children stretched out at their ease on the sides of magnificent mountains, under the shades of old fantastic trees, in a genial climate, w^atch- ing their goats, and their cows, and their sheep, that browse round them ; and we hear them sing- ing their songs of gladness, that echo cross the vallies : for a moment we imagine the Arcadian times returned: we think of the purity of this pastoral life: of senses refined by the delightful images with which they are constantly conver- sant: and of dispositions and feelings congenial to the simplicity and grandeur of the scenery in which they are placed. We approach them: we examine their countenances: we hear their voices: — and the spell is broke! It is too much to be feared, that these rural beings, so appa- rently enviable when seen from a distance, are little lifted above mere animal life ! Their LETTER XIII. 113 pleasures are coarse ; their reflections are few and dull ; and they are insensible to all the variety of grandeur and beauty, that surrounds them ! In the solitary and picturesque groves of old Walnut-trees, in the little green glens of the Mountains, gilded by the serene splendor of an Autumnal Sun, I saw groups of children, and young girls, gathering the ripe produce of the trees that lay scattered on the grass, or shaking it from the branches, on which they had climbed. Fancy siezed upon the picture, and clad their existence with rays of imaginary innocence and happiness. Cold reason, and the memory of experience, soon forced upon me a different les- son. Severe labour; scanty and innutricious food; long, cheerless winters of snow and frost; and rude dwellings of bare walls, comfortless, and loaded with smoke and filth, made up the greater part of their lot ! It is the decree of Providence, that Man should work out the well-being of his existence by mental labour improving upon bodily; by wealth, that can only be brought forth by intel- lectual ingenuity; by Art and Science; by the a 114 LETTER Xlll. Reason, that directs ; by the Fancy, that illumines! Poverty is the offspring of our supineness : and if Riches ill-applied lead to sensual and corrupt luxury, and final ruin; with Riches alone spring up the refinements and splendors, that raise us in the scale of Intellectual Existence ! Of the evils of artificial society much may be said: but those are its abuses! Its uses no profound thinker can doubt. There only can the high Virtues : there only can Man appear in his glory ! The labours of the hewers of wood, and the drawers of water; and even those of the Arts of necessity, cannot, in the most extended and grand view of human society, be deemed of more use than the toils of the Ornamental Arts. If they be thought a vain and empty consump- tion of wealth in abandoning to superfluous pleasure what might supply the cravings of Want, they who indulge this opinion, have not penetrated into the real sources of wealth, nor examined the immutable laws of Nature, by which it is decreed that wealth should be pro- duced and distributed. LETTER XIII. 115 What is solitude without literature? And how can literature have birth, but amid the re- finements of society ? It was in '* thronged Cities," amid the splendor of Tournaments, in Courts of Princes, *' In Halls of Knights and Barons bold," under the influence of the eyes of Beauty, that Poetry first revived with the Troubadours, after the darkness and barbarism of Centuries. li6 LETTER XIV, Florence, Ath December, 18I9r X HE Reader need scarcely be again reminded, that I am not undertaking to write a volume descriptive of Travels. I have many reasons for this. The Route from Calais by Paris^ and the Simplon, to Milan^ Florence, Rome, and Naples, has been described by an hundred English Tra- vellers ; and has been, even in the last four years, trod by thousands of them. All the common information regarding the places of this Route, is to be found in the compilations, called Guides, and works of that class. The pens of real Tra- vellers, if they sometimes supply a few new notices to the last editions of these Guides, more often borrow from them all their stale inform- ation; and have little other value than a seeming verification of the descriptions, by having copied them on the spot. LETTER XIV. 117 But if for these reasons I studiously avoid to add another to this abundance of common-place Books, I do not admit that the subject is ex- hausted. A very great deal of very useful^ and some necessary information is left buried in the repositories of Learning ; and the field of observ- ation upon manners and arts leaves much fruit still to be gathered. But the former can only be done by long leisure; by industry; by access to books, of which few travellers can possess the opportunity: the latter requires talent, lite- rature^ genius^ taste, combined with toilsome thinking, accurate enquiry, and favourable inter- course with the Natives. It would be invidious to mention the glaring defects even of the most popular of our modern Tours. Men of high literature seem to have shrunk from this task; and the peril becomes every day greater. The endless subjects of re- mark, that offer themselves require knowledge so multifarious, and erudition at once so exten- sive and so correct ; and such a facility of lan- guage, to convey what is worthy of being com- municated, that he, who with great gifts and 118 LETTER XIV. acquirements, cannot spare a long period of al- most exclusive attention to it, will ill consult his reputation if he enters upon the under- taking. Notwithstanding I have been induced by these considerations to abstain from writing a regular account of the places I have visited on the Continent, I have thought it right to inter- sperse my Letters with slight intimations of the places I have visited, and occasional remarks on them, as clues to the different trains of reflection or observation, or the different sketches of his- tory, in which I have indulged. On the 10th of October I quitted Geneva for Italy, by the route of the Simplon, by the road that passes along the Southern side of the Lake, through Thonon, Evian, Meillerie, and St. Gingoulph, which form part of The Chablais, to St. Maurice, in the Canton of The Valais. There is another route along the Northern Bank of the Lake, to the same point, through Coppet, Nyon, Rolle, Morges, Lausanne, Vevay, Chillon, Villeneuve, and Bex. This joins the first at the Bridge which crosses The Rhone at LETTER XIV. 119 the entrance of St. Maurice. On the four last days of July, I passed this road in an excursion round the Lake as far as Villeneuve, whence I turned to the right, and skirting round the head of the Lake crossed the Rhone, here very rapid, in a ferry-boat, to Port-Valais, called also Village de Bouveret, a league above St. Gin- go ul ph. Having a large family with me ; and travel- ling with the same horses, we proceeded scarcely forty miles a day. October 10, w^e slept at Evian. Monday, October 11, at St. Maurice. Tuesday, October 12, at Sion. Wednesday, October 13, at Brieg. Thursday, October 14, w^e ascended the Simplon; and having passed the Summit, slept at the village of Simplon, a few miles on the descent. Friday, October 15, we descended, under torrents of rain, through the savage gran- deur of a narrow gorge of these Mountains, into the plains of Lombardy. We dined at Domo d'Ossola, in the territories of Piedmont, at the foot of these Alpes ; and slept at Bavino. On Saturday, October l6, we slept at Cassina, in the Milanese; and on Sunday morning, Octo- 120 LETTER XIV. ber 17, arrived at Milan, under a very heavy rain. In this journey we passed through five sepa- rate dominions — the Canton of Geneva; Savoy; the Canton of Valais ; Piedmont (which, though under the same Monarch with Savoy, is a dif- ferent kingdom) ; and the Milanese, now restored to Austria. That department of Savoy, called the Duchy of Chablais, commences at a little village beyond Coligny, little more than a league from Geneva; and terminates at the Bridge, which divides the village of St. Gingoulph into two parts. Here commences the Canton of Valais. It is remarked by the writers on this Canton, that there is not a country in the world, which in so narrow a space offers such a variety of features ; and so many temperatures. It has more than two hundred square leagues of surface; and has two chains of Mountains, of which the highest summits do not yield in elevation, except to Mont-Blanc. These two chains, of which one separates from Switzerland, and the other from Italy, form by their approximation a lateral LETTER XIV. 121 valley, the longest perhaps of the ancient world; for it extends from The Fourcke, (or Monnt Furca,) in which the Rhone takes its rise, and which forms the boundary between the Valaisans, and the Canton of Uri, to the Lake of Geneva, in a line of about thirty-six leagues. From the bottom of this valley of the Rhone, separate more than twenty other vallies of a less extent, which divide transversely the two chains; and rise up to enormous Glaciers, which crown them. Every one of these transversal vallies has a character of its own. Some are covered with forest-trees, interspersed with pastures and habitations. Some are a mixture of rocks and fields ; some are pointed declivities, and profound and rugged gorges ; from which roaring torrents are precipitated, full of terrible grandeur. Others abound in green swards, decorated with flowers, pastures, villages, and habitations, beautifully grouped. The whole is enchanting to the sight; uniting in the same valley different aspects; and producing the most smiling views by the side of the most awful. A country so extraordinary by its great R 122 LETTER XIV. variety, where the North and the South seem to shake hands, appears destined to receive vege- tables of the most opposite climates. Accord- ingly Botanists find here an inexhaustible field for their pursuits ^. Amongst the features that most struck me in the grand scenery of the Valley from St. Gin- goulph, and Port-Valais, to Brieg, were the Trees, both single and in forests, not only from their position, but often from their venerable and picturesque form. Shiner speaks of these with just enthusiasm, in his Chapter XVII. Des for its et des arhres des montagnes du pays, " Regardez ces Monts qui semblent braver les orages; leurs cimes sont couvertes de la neige des hivers; sur leurs flancs sont d'immenses paturages; pendant des siecles, leurs antiques forets ont vu s' asseoir les families * This is taken from the Preface to Shiner's interesting vo- lume of the Topography of this Country, entitled : " Descrip- tion du Department du Simplon, ou de la ci-devant Republique du Valais. Par Mr, Scliiner, Docteur en Medecine de la Fa- culty de Montpelier. A Sion Chez Antoine Advocat, bupri- meur de la Prefecture du Departement, 1812." pp. 558. LETTER XIV. 123 du pays SOUS leur ombrage: hameaux, cabanes, bergers troupeaux, tout respire la serenitd dans ces heureux asiles. Ces for^ts sont compos^es d'arbres plus ou moins nom- bereux; I'oeil aime a voir tout ce peuple de freres. C'est par eux que la nature varie ses desseins, rapproche et tant6t repousse les lointains, reunit, separe^ et sur les paysages etend ou replie le rideau des ombres." ^^Les arbres des forets peuvent s'oflrir sous des as- pects sans nombre; ici des troncs perces rembrunissent leur ombre; la de quelques rayons egayant ce sejour, forment un doux combat de la nuit et du jour.'* " On doit avoir lieu de regretter^ de pleurer meme la coupe des bois dans une belle foret; pour moi, je ne trouve rien de si beau, de si agreable^ et de si majestueux qu*une belle foret. Ah ! que ne puis-je tous les jours de ma vie, dans la belle saison, passer quelques heures dans de tels endroits, j' y savourerais a longs traits les plaisirs que procure la solitude de ces lieux, reellement faits y mediter a loisir. '^Ces forets sont composees en general d'arbres de sapin, et melese, especes d'arbres les plus beaux, et sou- vent d'une posseur et d'une hauteur prodigieuse: il y a aussi le pin sauvage, le pesse, le pin cimbre, le cha- taignier et le bouleau. Quant a ceux qui croissent dans la vallee du Rhone, et qui plus ou moins aiment I'humi- dite^ ce sont I'aulne verne, le petit aulne^ le peuplier 124 LETTER XIV. blanc, le peuplier noir, le peuplier tremble. Le platane d'occident et la saule; on en compte au dire de Mr. d^Eschasseriaiix, vingt-trois varietes dans le Valais/* &c. At St. Maurice Rodolpb I. was proclaimed King of Burgundy Trans-jurane ; and after reigning twenty-four years, was succeeded by his son, Rodolph II. who died A. D. 938. Martigny, which lies between St. Maurice and Sion, was the Octodurum of the Romans. The Bishops of Sion had their residence here for many ages, from A. D. 419*. but afterwards, when the Lombards penetrated to this Capital, the Bishops abandoned their abode here, and fixed themselves at Sion. In 1818 Martigny suffered a dreadful inun- dation from the burst of a leservoir of one of the mountain torrents, which carried away houses and cattle, and destroyed many lives. The marks of its ravages were still very con- spicuous when we passed this place. Sion, as it appears on the approach to it, is one of the most picturesque, if not the most pic- turesque, I have seen on the Continent. Its LETTER XIV. 125 internal aspect does not answer to the view of it from a distance. It is the Capital of the Valais. Brieg, which we reached by another day's journey^ stands at the foot of The Simp] on. Here is the large massive Chateau^ partly Gothic, partly as it would seem, Moorish, of the Barons of Stochalper, great and ancient feudal proprie- tors here, whose vast territories, we were told, are spread over the Simplon as far as Iselle, at the Italian foot of the mountain, where the Pied- montese dominions commence. We ascended the Simplon on a day of rain, mixed with snow ; and long before we reached the summit, the cold began to grow severe. The celebrity of this road has rendered the know- ledge of it as a celebrated work of Art, familiar to all readers of Travels. It will always be a monument of Napoleon's magnificence. It is a stupendous exhibition of human labour and skill. I will not say that the ascent quite equalled the anticipations of my fancy. It however exceeds in grandeur, what language can delineate. The accommodations of the Hotel of the 126 LETTER XIV. village of Simplon, are far beyond any thing that could be expected in so lonely a spot. We slept here with comfort. At the same time equal room was found for other travellers: among these were , General Burnet^ with his friends Mr. Millar and Mr. Cruikshanks. The following day the descent into Italy was marked 1}y a savage grandeur, which I never before expected to see, except in some of the sublimest pictures of Salvator Rosa. Perpen- dicular rocks lifted themselves to the sky on each side of us ; w hile the bed of the valley was only wide enough for the roaring stream; and sometimes for the road on its side, which at other times ran through galleries formed by piercing the projections of the rocks. The longest of these galleries are also pierced upw ard, to let in the light from the sky ; and sometimes towards the torrent, to enable the traveller to look down upon the tremendous waters that are foaming and bellowing by his side. 12? LETTER XV, Naples^ hth June, 182:0. 1 HOUGH I am now at Naples, I have not conducted my reader beyond the Simplon. A long interval of seven anxious months has passed, principally spent at Florence^ of which nearly four months have dragged along under the con- finement of a painful illness. Yet I have seen much ; read much ; and reflected still more in this instructive period. It would have been strange if I had not, on a first visit to Italy at so mature an age ! He^ who writes a Guide, will do well to commit his notices to paper at the moment they occur. He. who undertakes to communicate 128 LETTER XV. reflections, and well-considered opinions, will act more skilfully by waiting till the confusion of first impressions has passed away; and only what is of permanent interest remains upon his mind. There is a false attraction in Novelty, of which the power soon subsides. I look back upon the descent into Italy from the summit of the Simplon with undimi- nished admiration ! I have never beheld any thing in Nature so stupendously and awfully grand! The narrowness of the gorge through which the road runs; the roaring torrent; the perpendicular height of the rocks which enclose it; their rude, barren, and black surface; the perpetual rush of tremendous waters down their sides; the sinuosity of the course; the endless diversity of the forms of the precipices; the savage solitude; — contrasted with a road where the labour and skill of man appears in all its grandeur, and with all its convenience! How delightful was it to issue out from this frightful sublimity, upop the cheerful plains of LoMBARDY. The third day (Oct. 17th) brought us to dinner at Milan. In this part of our jour- LETTER XV. 129 ney the Boii^omean Islands formed the most curious feature. We remained the two following days at Milan, and quitted it on our w^ay to Florence on Wednesday, Octoher 20th. There are numerous objects of attention in Milan, which would have repaid a longer stay ; but Winter was approach- ing, and we were anxious to pass the Appenines before Autumn had closed. The Gothic Cathedral at Milan is the grand feature of its architecture. It pleases me more than any other Building I have yet seen in Italy. But I have a love of the Gothic style, which it is too late in life to eradicate ! The Collections of Pictures in this City have many grand speci- mens of the Art : but it required more leisure to examine them, than we could spare. But I most regretted that this leisure could not be obtained for an examination of the noble Ambrosienne Library! I caught an hasty sight of the ines- timable Virgil, which contains the eloquent and pathetic memorial of Laura in his own hand- \vriting. And I saw a Fragment of the precious MSS. of Homer, &c. so learnedly and skilfully s 130 LETTER XV. deciphered by Abbe Mai. Here are also some noble relics of the divine pencil of Leonardo da Vinci ! All readers of History know something of the Viscontis, who long held the Sovereignty here as Dukes of Milan. The familv of Sforza, who succeeded them, reigned a much shorter time. The Lives of the Viscontis * have been written by Paulus JoviuSj accompanied by their engraved portraits: probably copied from the pictures of them in the Gallery at Florence, which formerly, I believe, belonged to this Author f. Three families ruled successively at Milan from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Century: the Torriani ; the Viscontis ; the Sforcas. In l^bjy Martin della Torre, being put at the head of a faction against the Emperor, took possession of the government. He died 1263. His brother, Philip, succeeded him ; but died 1265. Napoleon della Torre was declared Sove- reign of Milan, on the death of his relation, * See Vite degli Visconti trad, par Domenichi da P. Giovio. Milan, 1645, 4^^ t See also P. Jovil Vita Sfortia. Romcc, 1539, 8^°. LETTER XV. 131 Philip. But Otto Visconti, who had been ap- pointed, by Pope Clement IV. Archbishop of Milan, the year of the death of Martin della Torre, was soon placed at the head of a Party against Napoleon, and formed an army, with which he defeated the Torriani, 21st January, 1576. After this victory Otto Visconti not only again took possession of his See, but was declared Temporal Sovereign of the City. Napoleon, after lingering in a prison, died in 1283. The Archbishop (Visconti) ended his days 8th Au- gust, 1296, at the age of ninety-seven years. Mathieu Visconti, nephew of the Arch- bishop Otto, (a descendant of Elipraud, whom Charles le Gros had appointed Viscount ofMilan^) was acknowledged Sovereign of this City after the death of his Uncle. He had a troublesome and doubtful reign. The Faction of the Tor- riani joined some neighbouring Princes, jealous of his elevation, to oppose him. Among these was Albert Scotto, Sovereign of Placenza, in resentment for his having obtained for his son Galeas the haad of Beatrix, daughter of Azzo, 132 LETTER XV. Marquis d'Este^ who had been destined for his own wife. But Albert covered this enmity with a shew of friendship^ and pretended to take the part of a mediator between Albert, and the con- spirators against Mathieu, who placed himself in his treacherous hands, and found a prison in- stead of protection; from which he could only obtain a release at the price of a cession of part of his territories. At length, Scotto, discontent- ed with the Torrani, favoured his design of re- turning to Milan. Mathieu obtained his recall 7th April, 1311 ; and was confirmed in the title of Vicar of the Empire, which, however, drew on him the resentment of Pope John XXII. be- cause this title was taken without his permission. The Pope excommiftiicated him; and finding him regardless of his censures, cited him to his Tribunal to answer to the charges of Heresy and Magic. On his refusal to appear, he declared his goods confiscated, and his dignities gone. This Interdict was placed on Milan and all the other Cities under the dominion of Mathieu. Find- ing that under the terrors of this Interdict, and by the influence of the Pope's Legate, his Nobles LETTER XV. 133 were disposed to secede from their obedience to him, he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, retired to the monastery of Cresconzago, fell ill of chagrin, and died 27th June the same year, 1321, set. 62. He was Sovereign not only of Milan, but of Pavia, Placenza, Novarra, Como, Tortona, Alexandria, Bergamo, and other cities. His death was kept secret for fourteen days ; and he was buried in a secret place, because he had died under excommunication. His valour, and the force of his genius, obtained him the name of Le Grand. But Muratori says, he was little regretted, because he had oppressed his people, and was not exempt from vices. He left Rye sons, Galeas, Mark, Luchin, Stephen, and John. Galeas Visconti, the eldest son, found great difficulty in obtaining the succession to his father's Sovereignty. He found enemies not onlv among the Guelfes, but also among the Ghibelins, of which his father had been a sort of chief. He sustained the efforts of his enemies with great valour in many battles; but being driven from Milan in 1322^ retired to Lodi: but 34 LETTER XV. his presence was soon found necessary, and he was recalled. In 1327 he received the Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, at Milan. But by the in- trigues which the jealousy of his brother Mark was guilty of, he became embroiled with the Emperor, who caused him to be arrested on the 20th July, this year, with his two brothers, Luchin and John, who were priests, and con- veyed prisoners to Monza. The same day, their other Brother, Stephen, and his son Azzo, died suddenly, of poison according to common report. Louis gave Galeas to understand, that his head should answer it, if he did not surrender to him the castle of Monza in three days. Galeas gave the order, but the Governor would not obey, without the order of Galeas himself in person. Beatrix d'Este, his wife, and their daughter, Ricarda, lifted their hands in prayer to the Governor to obey. In vain: they returned to Milan covered with affliction. The Emperor departed from Milan for Rome, on 12th August. The famous Castruccio Castracani, who accom- panied him thither from Tuscany, interceded for the liberty of Galeas, his two brothers, and his LETTER XV. 135 son. The Chiefs of the Ghibelins did the same, and threatening to abandon the Emperor, triumphed over his resistance, and obtained an order for their release. But the fatigues and anxieties of his imprisonment bronglit on Galeas an ilhiess, of which he died at Bresua, in iVugust, 1328, aged fifty-one years, leaving, says Mura- tori, a striking example of the inconstancy of fortune. He had married in 1300, Beatrix, who died 1335, daughter of Obizzo II. Marquis d' Este, by whom he left one son, Azzo. Azzo ViscoNTi, only son of Galeas, received from the Emperor in January, 1329, foi' ^^e sum of 25,000 florins of gold, the title of Vicar of the Empire at Milan. In the following month, his uncle, Mark Visconti, having come to Milan, was honourably received by Azzo and his two uncles, Luchin and John, brothers of Mark; but on discovering that he wished to make him- self master of the City, they caused him to be secretly strangled. The Cities of Pavia, Ver- ceila, Novarra, Parma, and Reggio, received Azzo for their Sovereign: other Cities did the same. This reception, says Paulus Jovius, 136 LETTER XV. seemed like a piece of enchantment ; but it was not strange : for all parts of Italy sought but for foreign masters, capable of extinguishing the spirit of Faction, and of extending to the people the blessings of Peace. In 1336, he possessed himself of Placenza, by siege. Jealous of his success, his relation, Lodrisio Visconti, levied an army, furnished by the Princes of Verona, and invaded the Milanese. Luchin Visconti march- ed against him, and took him. prisoner in a bloody battle, fought on 21st February, 1339- Azzo survived this event but a short time. In May of this year. Death took him from the love of his people, at the age of thirty-seven years. Muratori represents him as an accomplished hero, in whom were united piety, valour, pru- dence, generosity, sweetness, affability, and all the virtues. Exempt from partiality, he treated with the same equity the Guelfes and the Ghibe- lins. He married, in 1333, Catherine, daughter of Louis II. of Savoy, Lord of Bugey, by whom he had no children. Luchin Visconti, his uncle, succeeded in the Sovereignty of Milan. The severity of his LETTER XV. 13/ government was the reverse of that of his ne- phew. This drew upon him the conspiracy of Francis cle Posterla^ who, on the discovery, fled to Avignon ; but, being inveigled back by false promises, was arrested at Verona, and lost his head with those of his sons, aud of his accom- plices. This act of severity imposed such terror on the Milanese, that they no more revolted. Luchin had from this time his chamber-door guarded by two enormous dogs, who accom- panied him wherever he went. The House of Visconti, and the Milanese, were always em- broiled with the Holy See. Luchin made peace with Pope Benedict XH. and having thus esta- blished tranquillity, and anxious to maintain it in his States, he published many wise laws, to abolish the abuses which times of trouble had introduced. By good fortune and activity, he added to his dominion the Cities of Parma, Asti, Bobbio, Tortona, and Alexandria; and in 1348, took Albe, Quiers, and other lands, extending even to Vinaglio and the Alpes, from Jane, Queen of Naples. His ambition, excited by the troubles which prevailed at Genoa, roused him T 138 LETTER XV. to the desire of adding this City to his dominions. In concert with the Dorias, the Spinolas, the Fiesques, the Grimaldis^ he levied a strong army, which he sent under the conduct of his natural son Bruzio, to besiege this place. But he did not live long enough to see the event. In all his treaties it was his purpose to make his Con federates work for his own aggrandisement. Having hitherto received the aid of Guido Torelli^ he was now deserted by this able friend, who, with Philip Gonzaga, defied the army of Luchin under the walls of Borgoforte. He did not long survive this reverse. He died 24th January, 1349, poisoned, according to some authorities, by his own wife, Isabel de Fiesque, a woman capable of such a crime ; for she had two twin sons, whom she boasted to have been the issue, not of her husband, but of his nephew, Galeas : which prevented their succession. One of these died in prison, and the other in exile. She had also a daughter, Catherine, wife of Francis d' Este. Luchin was of so grave a disposition, that he was never seen to smile ! John Visconti, the brother of Luchin, ere- LETTER XV. 139 Sited a Cardinal in 1328^ and appointed Arch- bishop of Mihm in 1342, succeeded to the tem- poral power in April 1349, to the satisfaction of the people, and the advantage of his family. Many Cities, gained by his intrigues, or forced by his arms, submitted to him. In 1350 he be- came master of the City of Bologna, by purchase from John de Pepoli, who had inherited it from his father, Thaddee. Pope Clement VI. having in vain summoned him to surrender this city, attacked him by excommunication, and put his interdict upon Milan. The Prelate remained firm. Thus fulminating in vain, Clement sent his Legate to oblige him to give up Bologna; and to surrender either the Archbishopric of Milan, or the Temporal Domain. The Prelate engaged the Legate to receive his answer the following Sunday in his own cathedral church. He officiated this day himself; and at the Mass, holding up in one hand the Cross, and in the other a naked sword. Behold, said he to the Legate, while he put forth the Cross, the proof of my spiritual power I and behold the Sword, with which I will defend the States that I 140 LETTER XV. possess! He displayed an equal bravado in the subsequent attempts of the Pope to overawe him. In 1352 he made his peace with the Pope, who gave him possession of Bologna for twelve years at a certain rent. In 1353 Genoa received a Governor from his hands. This warlike Pre- late died 5th October^ 1354, leaving three natu- ral children. Mathieu II. Bernabo, and Galeas II. the three sons of Stephen Visconti, (who has been already mentioned to have died of poison, with his son Azzo, and who was brother of John,) succeeded tp the States in equal portions. Mathieu II. a lover of his ease, resembled his grandfather, Mathieu le Grand, in nothing but his name. Born with an unwarlike spirit, abandoned to women, he lost with them the strength both of his body and his mind. P. Jovius says, he used strange medicines to excite him to new debauches. A slow fever, occasioned by these excesses, carried him to the tomb on 26th September, 1355. His mother, Valentina, ac- cused his brothers, Bernabo and Galeas, of hav- ing administered poison to him in a dish which LETTER XV. 141 he loved. He married Egidiole de Gonzagua, sister to Isabel, married to Rodolph de Haps- bourg, Come d' Inspruck, by whom he had two daughters, Orsina, married to Hugolin de Gou- zagua; and Catherine, married to Baldazzar Pusterla, a rich and powerful Prince of that time. His two brothers inherited his territories, with the exception of Bologna. They obtained the same year, from the Emperor, Charles IV. the Vicariat of Lombardy. Their union enabled them to defend themselves against the powerful league formed by the Florentines with the Mar- quises of Este, Mantua, and Montferrat. But they could not maintain possession of Genoa. The Genoese, revolting at a foreign yoke, rose against the Milanese officers who had the com- mand of their City, drove them away, and re- established the government of a Doge. Bernabo Visconti, in 1357, found occupa- tion for his troops, by attacking the Modenese ; whence, entering the Bolognese, they were en- countered by the forces of the Gonzagas, the Marquis d' Este, and Olegio, who vigorously 142 LETTER XV. repelled them back into their own conntry. They recompensed themselves by taking Borgo- forte; whence they passed into the Mantnan territories, and besieged the Capital. Gonzaga, and Comte Lando, by Avay of diversion^ threw themselves into the Milanese, where they com- mitted all to the flame and the sword, which compelled Bernabo's general, Bizozero, to raise the siege of Mantna^ and march against them. The two armies met at the passage of the Oglio; that of Bernabo was put to the route, and his General made prisoner. But such was Bernabo's ability, that he knew always how to raise him- self from his losses, in such a manner as to be- come more powerful than before. His enemies began to demand Peace; which was concluded at Milan^ 8th June, 1358, in the presence of the ambassadors of the Emperor, Charles IV. But by this signature, the Viscontis did not renounce their views of ambition. Bernabo, and Galeas, resumed the Siege of Pavia, in 135g, which they had commenced in 1356; and forced the place to surrender, after having endured the horrors of famine and pestilence. To bridle the hatred LETTER XV. 143 t)f these people^ Galeas, to whose lot it fell, built a Castle here: and to repeople the City, and restore it to its former lastre, he founded an University here. Bernabo always retained in his mind the re- covery of Bologna. In 1359, ^^ ^^^^ ^^ army against it. In 1362 the league against him was renewed, to which Pope Urban V. was induced to unite himself. Bernabo did not pursue his projects with the less ardour. A grand victory gained over him by Feltrin de Gouzagaa did not disconcert him. Bernabo allied himself with Cane de TEscala, Lord of Verona. The Em- peror seeing the inutility of his efforts against the Viscontis, formed a treaty with them the following year. Again they attacked Asti ; and another league was formed against them. Ber- nabo again entered the Modenese ; and was at- tacked by the confederates, whom, after a bloody battle, he put to the route. This facilitated his conquest of Corregio. The confederates sent new forces : the campaign ended by a treaty. The war recommenced the following year, 1373. The troops of Bernabo were beat upon the 144 LETTER XV. Panaro^ in the Bolonese^ by Sir John Hawkwood, an Englishman, a famous partisan, who having been engaged on the side of the Viscontis, had abandoned them to go into the service of the league. On the 8th May, the same year, Hawkwood gained a second victory over the Viscontis. In 1375, the affairs of Italy changed their face. Lombardy was no longer the theatre of war: nor the ambition of the Viscontis its source. The tyranny of the officers of Pope Gregory IX. engaged the attention of all the Italian powers : at the same time that it roused all the cities of the Ecclesiastical States. The Queen of Naples, Bernabo^ the Florentines, the Pisans, and the Siennese, formed a confederation. More than eighty places threw off the Pope's yoke ; and maintained themselves in their revolt, not- withstanding the efforts of Hawkwood and his English. Bernabo continued to govern his part of the Milanese after the death of Galeas, from whom he tried in vain, to carry aAvay the succession. In 1385, his nephew Jean-Galeas, having dis- LETTER XV. 145 covered a plot against him hatched by this uncle, had him arrested with his two sons, Louis and Raoul^ and conducted to the Castle of Trezzo, where with these two sons, it is said that he died of poison on 18th Dec. the same year. At his death immense riches were found in his palace, the fruit of his rapines and insatiable avarice. Pignotti in his Storia di Toscayia lib. iv. cap, vi. says: " Soverchiatore, e insolente Bernabo governava con dispotica durezza i suoi Stati, odiato dai popoli, e temuto dal nipoter" — " Ri- mase Bernabo setti mesi prigione nel Castello di Trezzo, dopo i quali mori, e si credette di veleno : non era difficile dopo il descritto avvenimento, immaginarlo, ma sono un lento veleno anche le angustie dell animo, e di sifFatte malattie I'istoria politica abbonda, come delle fisiche la medica."=^ His wife was Beatrice, sur named Regina, daugh- *Crescenzi in his Corona delta Nobiltci d' Italia, 1639, 4to. p. 62 says : " Tanto si abbandono nel lezzo della libidine, che vidde viviventiduefigliuoHbastardi, ed hebbein uno stesso tempo diece femine gravida del suo seme. Manteneva cestui nella sua corte, qual caverna di Poliferao, diece mila Cani da Caccia oltre gli Astorri, i Falconi, e simili animali." U 146 LETTER XV. ter of Martino ii. dalla Scala, 7th Prince of Verona (who died 1351) by Taddea, daughter of James, le Grand, de Carrara. Beatrice died at Milan 1384. By her he had five sons and six daughters, which last married into the greatest Houses of Europe. Taddea, wife of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria. Ingolstadt was grandmother of Isabel of France, so memorable for her vices.*}" By his mistresses Bernabo had also thirteen bastards. Jean-Galeas, the nephew, now became mas- ter of all Milan. Charles Visconti, Prince of Parma, 3d son of Bernabo, saved himself by flight into Bavaria : Martin, his brother, defended himself some time in Brescia, with the aid of the Gonzaguas : but delivered the place at last for a pension. For the price of 100,000 gold florins he purchased of Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, the title of Duke of Milan: and by another diploma, 13th Oct. 1396, Wences- laus gave up to him the sovereignty over all the the Cities of Lombardy held of the empire. t ^' She- Wolf of France." See Gray's Bard. LETTER XV. 147 In 1402 the city of Bologna threw themselves under his protection : to which Jean Bentivoglio, Prince of Bologna^ fell a victim ; heing massa- cred by his subjects. Being at Pavia in this year, Jean-Galeas fell ill of the pestilence, and died on September 4th, 1402. By his wife Catherine, daughter of his uncle Bernabo he left two sons : Jean-Marie; and Philip-Marie, and one daugh- ter Valentina, married to Louis Duke of Orleans. Jean-Galeas was the most celebrated of all the Viscontis. He protected Letters, and the Arts; he fixed the most celebrated men in the Univer- sity of Pavia. He established order in the ad- ministration of his states. He revived the mili- tary art in Italy. He finished the magnificent structure of the cathedral at Milan. He en- couraged agriculture, and promoted canals. His conquests conducted him to the point of aspiring to be King of Italy. He was severe in enforcing on his subjects that regard to justice, which he violated with impunity himself. His eldest son, Jean-Marie, born 7th Sept. 1388, became his successor in the Duchy of Milan. As he advanced in age, he developed 148 LETTER XV. the ferocity of his character, which rose to such an height, that in the last years of his life, he exercised his vengeance on those, whom he had condemned to death, by throwing them to be devoured by hungry dogs : and delighted in feasting his eyes on this hideous spectacle. He was poignarded by two officers of his household, l6th May, 1412, set. 24. He was succeeded by his brother Philip-Marie, Count of Pavia, who died 14th Aug. 1447^ without leaving legitimate issue. He took into his service a great, but unfaithful soldier Franc. Sforza, who having quitted his service, was in- duced to return to it by toe bribe of receiving in marriage the hand of Blanche-Marie Visconti, the Duke's natural daughter. — This Duke was an able General, and an intrepid soldier; but remarkable for the extreme deceitfulness of his character. He was faithless to his word: what he promised to-day, he retracted to-morrow : he was unchangeable only in his resentments. When vengeance entered his heart, it left no more. Tho' an hero in the field, he was most pusillanimous in his private habits. He was so LETTER XV. 149 frightened at thunder, that at its first sound he hid himself in the deepest cavern: the effect, perhaps, of the remorse he felt for his crimes: and, among the rest, for the cruel death to which he had condemned his first wife, Beatrix, for the false charge of adultery. Francis Sforza was the natural son of James Attendolo, a simple peasant of Cotignola, who had raised himself by his valour to be constable of the kingdom of Naples, and Gonfalonier of the Roman Church. In 1424, Francis was taken into the favour of the famous Joanna II. Q, of Naples, In 1425, he passed into the service of the Duke of Milan. On the death of his father-in-law Duke Philip- Marie Visconti, he set up a claim to succeed him in the Duchy of Milan: but he had competitors in the Duke of Savoy ; the Venetians ; the King of Naples ; and Charles, Duke of Orleans, ne- phew of the late Duke by his sister Valentina. To compromise these claims the Milanese re- solved to abolish the Ducal Dignity; and to erect themselves into a republic. They nominated Regents of the State ; and gave the command of 150 LETTER XV. their troops to Francis Sforza. But it soon be- came suspected^ from the possession of this power; having therefore agreed with the Vene- tians in 1449, he leagued himself against his former masters. He blockaded Milan ; and threatened them with famine. The people rose^ and opened their gates to him ; Sforza entered 25th March, 1450 ; and was solemnly proclaimed Duke. He governed his states with moderation ; and it is said, that never was an Usurper a better Sovereign. He died 8th March, 1466. He was succeeded by his eldest son Galeas- Marie-Sforza, Duke of Milan, whose reign was a complete tyranny. Given up to debauchery and tyranny, he in- curred the hatred of his subjects. Corio, in his history of Milan, speaks of a journey, which he made with his Duchess, in 14/1, to Florence, in which he unnecessarily displayed great pomp. The Grand Duke, Lorenzo de Medici, would not yield to him in magnificence. On his return to Milan, he continued to irritate the citizens by the new fortifications, which he made, as if they were destined to protect himself against them. LETTER XV. 151 Three gentlemen, joining to the pubh'c indispo- sition their own discontents, assassinated him on the 25th December, 14^6, in the church ^3f St. Stephen, of Milan. His first wife was Dorothy de Gonzagua, daughter of Louis, Marquis of Mantua, whom, it is said, he caused to be poi- soned, the same year, 1460. The same year he remarried Bonne, daughter of Louis, Duke of Savoy ; and by her, who died in 1485, had, 1. Jane-Galeas Marie. 2. Hermes, who passed into Germany after the death of his brother. 3. Blanche-Marie, wife, first of Philibert, Duke of Savoy; and secondly, of the Emperor Max- imilian; and 4. Anne, married in 1491, to Al- fonzo L Duke of Ferrara. Jean-Gal eas-Marie Sforza, born in 1468, suc- ceeded his father as Duke of Milan, under the tu- tillage of his mother Bonne, and of Cecco Simon- etta. Secretary or State. His uncles, irritated to see themselves excluded from the Regency, came to Milan to excite trouble, and were exiled. But Ludovic-Marie-Sforsa, having entered the Mi- lanese with his troops, three years afterwards, possessed himself of Tortona, marched to Milan ; 152 LETTER XV. and obliged the Duchess and her son to give him part of the Government. The ambition of Lo- dovic did not confine him to this advantage : he wished to be sole Regent. For this purpose he caused the wise Simonetta to be arrested ; and had him condemned to lose his head, which was executed on the 30th Oct. 1480, at Pavia. The Duchess Bonne was obliged to retire three days afterwards from Milan. Lodovic become master, left to the young Duke nothing but the title ; and exercised himself all the rights of sovereignty. In 1482, he entered into a league with Ferdinand I. King of Naples and the Florentines, against the Venetians. Having in 1484 discovered a conspiracy to replace the government in the hands of the Duchess Bonne, he severely punished the authors. In 1493, he invited Charles VIII. King of France, to come to Italy ; and at the same time secretly caballed w-ith the Emperor Maximilian I. and Ferdinand, King of Naples. Charles having arrived in 1494 at Asti, Lodovic waited on him to encourage him in his design. A few days afterwards the death, which this frightful man had prepared, placed him in pos- LETTER XV. 163 session of his wishes. The young Duke, Jean- Galeas-Marie, whom he kept confined in the Castle of Pavia, expired on the 2 2d October, 1494, at the age of 25 years, of a slow poison, which, it is said his uncle gave him. This young Prince had espoused on the 2d February, 1493, Isabelle, daughter of Alfonso II. King of Naples, who, after his death, retired to Bari, where she died in 1524. By this marriage he had issue Francis Sforsa, who being conveyed by his mo- ther to Louis XII. King of France, became Abb^ of Marmoutiers; and Bonne, married in 1518 to Sigismond, King of Poland; and died at Bari 17th Sept. 1558; and Hyppolita, who died in 1501. The uncle, Ludovic-Marie-Sforza, born in 1451, became Duke of Milan, in right of rhe investiture which the Emperor Maximilian I. gave him of the Milanese. One word escaped from Louis, Dnke of Orleans, at Asti, of which he was Prince, determined Ludovic to take the part against him. " See the time," said the French Prince on occasion of the success of King Charles in Italy, '^ when I may prosecute X 154 LETTER XV. the rights of my ancestress, Valentine Visconti, on the Milanese." Louis, on ascending the throne of France, put into execution, in 1499, the menaces he had made at Asti. His General, Trivulca, sent into the Milanese with an army, rendered himself master of this Duchy with a rapidity w^hich astonished all Italy. This Ge- neral was seconded by his nephew Francis Torelli, Count of Montechiarugulo, who distinguished himself at the taking of Milan, where he com- manded the army. Louis came himself to take possession of this conquest ; and made his entry at Milan, 6th Oct. 1499. But the bad conduct of the French after his departure, made it easy for Ludovic, who had taken fight, to re-enter Milan, in February following, Avith the aid of 8000 Swiss, joined to the troops with which the Emperor had furnished him. This triumph, how- ever, was of short duration. His imprudence having prompted him to pass with 18,000 men from Milan to Novarra, the French, who were in the neighbourhood, took the resolution to come and besiege him. In vain the Swiss of his party exhorted him not to sustain the siege in a place LETTER XV. 155 badly prepared and provisioned^ against an army so considerable as tbat of tbe French joined to the Venetians. He was equally deaf to the clamours of the part of his army^ Avho demanded to fight ; and chose ratherto wait the event in Novarra. The French advanced. It became necessary to take the field. But the Swiss declared that they would not fight against their compatriots, who were in the enemy's army. All that he could obtain from them w^as, that they would put him in a place of safety ; which obliged him to take the habit of a common soldier. He placed himself in the ranks ; hoping that in this disguise he should not be recognized W'hen he filed with the Swiss before the French army. ButLudovic could not escape his unhappy destiny. He was betrayed by one of his men, a native of Uri, named Turmann. Immediately the Bailiff of Dijon siezed him, (on the 9th of April, 1500) in defiance of the remonstrances of the Swiss. The traitor became an object of hor- ror to his compatriots. They placed him in irons on his return to his country, and took off* his head as a punishment for his crime. As to Lo- dovic, Louis de la Tremouille, the French Ge- 156 LETTER XV. neral, had him conveyed to France, with the Cardinal Ascane-Marie^ his brother; and other Princes of his house. He was then shut up at Pierre-Encise ; and afterwards in the Tower of Lys-de St. George, in Berry; and thence con- ducted, four or five years afterwards, to the Cas- tle of Loches, where he passed the rest of his days, not in a cage of iron, as was said; but" served with distinction ; and being allowed to walk, for the last year, to the distance of five leagues. — The common opinion is, that he died in 1510; two cotemporary authors place it in 15o8. By Beatrix of Este, daughter of Hercules I. Duke of Ferrara, whom he married in 1491, and who died in 1497, he had two sons, Maximilian; and Francis Mary. Lovis Xn. King of France, rested master of the Milanese, from the time he possessed him- self of the person of Lodovic Sforza. In 1505, he obtained of the Emperor Maximilian I. inves- titure of this Duchy; and again, by a new in- vestiture in 1508. Four years afterwards the Milanese escaped from his possession. Maximilian Sforza, born in 1491, had been LETTER XV. 15? sent with his brother^ by father Ludovic^ after his defeat, to the Emperor Maximilian. The league formed in 1512, by the Pope Julius II. and the Emperor, declared him Duke of Milan. On the 15th Dec. of the same year, he made his entry into the Capital of the Duchy, amid the acclamations of the people ; but immediately afterwards ran the hazard of losing it. The Castle of Milan was still occupied by the French. Instead of endeavouring to dislodge them, Max- imilan took the field to oppose the Generals Trivulca and la Tremouille, whose arms were making a great progress. The City of Milan, finding itself without troops, was ready to rise : but the victory gained by Maximilian near No- varra, on 6th June 1513, reconciled the capital to him. The Castle surrendered itself the fol- lowing year. Francis I. King of France, having made a new expedition into Italy, gained, on the 13th and 14th Sept. 1515, the celebrated battle of Marignan, which rendered him master in a few days, of almost all the Milanese. The city of Milan having sent the next day, its keys to the Conqueror, this example drew after it the 158 LETTER XV. Other cities of the Duchy. Placenza and Parma followed the same fate. Francis I. trusted the government of this last city to Count Francis Torelli, who had served him so well. The Castles of Milan, and Cremona were the only places, which made resistance. Maximilian shut up in the first, could defend himself a long time: but the Constable of Bourbon, having proposed to him to cede to France not only the place, but the Duchy, for a pension of 30,000 ducats of gold, he had the weakness to consent to these offers. In consequence, he quitted the Castle on the 5th Oct. to go to pass the rest of his days inglo- riouslyin France. He died, unmarried at Paris, in June 1530, aged 39. Francis I. King of France, remained for six years possessor of the Duchy of Milan, of which he confided the government to Odet de Lautrec. The event did not justify the choice. Lautrec alienated the hearts of the Milanese by the severity of his government, and his troops by their indiscipline. The Pope Leo X. irritated by the haughtiness of the Governor to himself, concluded with Charles V. on the 8thMay 1521, LETTER XV. 159 a treaty against the French^ into which most of the Princes of Italy entered : Prosper Colonna, named General of the Armies of the Allies, with the Marquis of Pescara, beat the French army at Vauri on the Adda, on the 18th November, and the following day having surprised Milan, he took possession of this city; as was the Duchy the following day, by Jerome Marone, in the name of Francis-Marie-Sforza. Francis-Marie-Sforza (2d son of Duke Lu- dovic) arrived from Trent, where he had been for six years, at the end of November at Milan, and was received with great demonstrations of joy. In 1522, the fatal Battle of Bicogna, which the Swiss forced Lautrecto give to the Imperial- ists, ou April the 22d, lost the French the Duchy of Milan, of Avhich Francis-Marie-Sforza took possession. In 1524, Francis I. having arrived in Italy, Sforza at his approach abandoned Milan. He returned the following year, after the victory gained by the Imperialists over the French at the Battle of Pavia^, on the 24th Feb. But the * See Gaillard, Histoire de Franc. 1 . Roi de France. Paris 1766— ISIS. Svo. l60 LETTER* XV. Conquerors left him only the title of Duke; and took into their own hands the reins of government. Jerome Moron e, the Duke's Chancellor, then formed the project of chasing the Imperialists from Italy ; and succeeded in getting this scheme adopted by the Pope and the Venetians. The plot was discovered ; and the Duke, as an ac- complice was declared to have forfeited all his rights ; and obliged to deliver up his best places. Antoine de Leve having entered Milan, obliged the inhabitants to take the oath of fidelity to the Emperor. On May 22d, 1526, a league was concluded at Cognac, between the Pope, the King of France, and the Venetians, of which one of the objects was to re-establish the Duke of Milan. But the efforts of the Confederates were powerless and ill-concerted. x4t length in 1529, Sforza waiting on the Emperor at Bologna, obtained of him, on the 23d December, by the mediation of the Pope, the re-investiture of the Duchy of Milan, for the price of 900,000 ducats of gold, payable at different times ; and on other onerous conditions. Three years afterwards, on the 24th of October, 1532, this Duke died without LETTER XV. l6l issue by his wife Christine, daughter of Christ- iern II. King of Denmark, whom he had mar- ried in 1534. The Emperor now took possession of the Milanese, as a fief devolved to the Empire. On the 1st of October, 1540, he gave investiture of this Duchy to his son Philip. This Prince, and all the King's of Spain, his successors, possessed the Milanese till 1706. The Emperor Joseph I. then made himself master of it ; and Charles VI. got his possession confirmed by the Treaty of Baden 1714. The Empress Maria-Teresa, transmitted it to her posterity, with whom it has remained, subject to the interval of Napoleon's supremacy. During this interval, the Viceroy- ship of Eugene Beauharnois was very popular. 162 LETTER XVI. ISttfecg of ^arma atiti ^^laccn^a. 6th JunCf 1820. We left Milan late in the day; and slept at Lodi. The bridge, at which Bonaparte fought his famous battle, is a low, mean, flat, structure of wood. We dined the next day at Placenza, which, with Parma, forms part of the dominions of the Ex Empress, Marie-Louise. Here is a cele- brated Palace of the Farnese family, to whose Ducal Sovereignty it belonged. Pierre-Louis Farnese, Due de Castro, received on the 12th August 1545, from Pope Paul IIL his father, the investiture of the estates of Parma and Placenza : but the Emperor Charles LETTER XVI. iBS V. refused to confirm it. The Duke alienated his subjects by the most licentious manners, and excesses of every kind. He had recourse to cruelty and perfidy to exterminate his nobility. This excited a conspiracy against him. On the 10th September 1547, the conspirators entered the chamber of the palace here, where the Duke was alone ; aud having poignarded him, threw his body out of the window, where it was ex- posed to all sorts of insults of the mob. By Hieronyme Orsine he left three sons. His eldest son, Alexander, who died a Cardinal in 158J), was the founder of the Farnese Palace at Rome. Octave Farnese, the second son, succeeded on his father s assassination, to the Dukedom * of Parma ; but the Castle of Placenza remained in the hands of the Spaniards. By the aid of France, the Duke retained the Parmesan ; and in 1585, recovered this place. He died 18th September 1586, aged 62. By Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles V.(widow of Alexander de Medicis, Duke of Florence) he left issue Alexander. l64 LETTER XVI. Alexander, 3d Duke, was born in 1544, and was one of the most eminent Soldiers of his age. Philip II. appointed him Governor of the Low Countries, in 15/8. He died at Arras, 3d Dec. 1592, aged 48, from the effects of an injury he had received at the Siege of Rouen. His body was conveyed to Parma, where he had built the citadel ; and his statue in bronze, on horseback ; the work of the famous sculptor, John of Bo- logna, is one of the ornaments of the Grand Place of this City. He married Marie, grand- daughter of Emanuel, King of Portugal. Ranuce I. his eldest son, born in the Nether- lands 1569, became fourth Dake of Parma and Placenza. Muratori speaks of him as of a lofty character ; a great politician ; but sombre and melancholy, always nursing in his thoughts sus- picions, which troubled his own repose, and that of others. He saw in his subjects only enemies, incessantly recollecting the fatal catastrophe of his ancestor, Pierre- Louis. Thus disposed, he studied to make himself less loved, than feared : always ready to punish ; and seldom conferring favours. His subjects returned hatred for the LETTER XVI. l6'5 terror^ with which he inspired them. What his alarms predicted, befell him in l6l2. He dis- covered a conspiracy against him formed in the preceding year, of which the principal authors were the Marquis de'San-Vitali; the Countess de Sala; the Count Horace Simonetta, her husband; the Count Pio Torelli ;^ the Count Alfonse and the Marquis Jerome San-Vitali ; the Count Je rome de Corregio ; the Count J. B. Mazzi, and others. They were .siezed ; condemned ; and beheaded. The confiscation of their fiefs greatly augmented the Prince's domain. The Duke Ranuce died suddenly l622, aged 53. His statue, on horseback^ in bronze^ accompanies that of his father, Alexander, in the Grand Place of Placenza. He married Margaret Aldrovandin, the Pope's niece. Edward, his second son, born 28th April, l6l2, succeeded him as Duke of Parma and Placenza ; his elder brother, being born deaf and dumb. * A son and nephew of Pio Torelli escaped by being trans- ported in the night by the Franciscans of Monte-Chiarugolo to the dominions of Modena j and Joseph, one of them, became ancestor of Stanislas II. King of Poland^ 1764. l66 LETTER XVI. He died 12tli Sept. 1646, aged 34. Muratori says that this Duke was reckoned among the " beaux-esprits" of his age. He enchanted the world by his brilliant conversation, in which, however, there was too much tendency to satire, a fault dangerous in private characters ; but much less prudent in Princes. Among his splendid qualities, the most remarkable were his magni- ficence ; his grandeur of mind, and his liberal- ity. He had ministers, not to give him advice ; but to execute his will ; and as he had a fervid mind, bent upon great things, he easily deceived himself; and formed resolves superior to his means. His wife was Margaret de Medicis, daughter to the Grand Duke, Ferdinand H. who survived till 1679. His eldest son, Ranuce H. became 6th Duke. He was born l630, and died 11th December, 1694, aged 64. He inherited a principality so exhausted by wars, that he could scarcely subsist with decency. He had three wives ; Margaret Yolande, daughter of Victor- Am^d^e I. Duke of Savoy, who died l663: secondly, Isabel d'Este drughter of Fra. I. Duke ofModena, who LETTER XVI. iS/ died 1666: thirdly, Marie d'Este, her sister. The last was the mother of the two last Dukes of this house. The second was the grand-mo- ther of Elizabeth, married to Philip V. King of Spain. Muratori says that this Duke Ranuce was a Prince full of valour ; a good economist ; but generous and liberal on proper occasions ; zealous for justice even to severity; and who made himself less loved, than dreaded. Francis succeeded his father as 7th Duke ; (his elder half-brother, Edward, having died before his father Duke Ranuce, 5th Sept. 1693, leaving no issue male.) He died 26th Feb. 1727^ with- out issue by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Phi- lip-William, Elector-Palatine ; widow of his brother. Edward. His brother, Anthony, born 29th Nov. 1679, succeeded as 8th Duke of Parma. He died 20th January, 1731, aged 51, without issue by his Duchess Henriette-Marie, daughter of Renard, Duke of Modena. He was a large strong man, who loved good living, and his ease. After this Duke's death the Imperial troops siezed on the Duchess of Parma and Placenza, as vacant fiefs of the Empire. iGS LETTER XVI. Don Carlos, Infant of Spain, son of Philip V. by Elizabeth Farnese, daughter of Edward, (who died before his father,) eldest son of the Duke Ranuce II. claimed the inheritance of Parma and Placenza, in virtue of the Treaty of the Quadruple Alliance, and of another con- cluded at Vienna, 30th April, 17^5, between the Emperor Charles VI. and the King of Spain. The Princess Dorothy, grandmother of Don Carlos, took possession of these Duchies in her grandson s name, 29th December, 1731 ; and or- dered the Imperial troops to retire. Don Carlos made his entry at Parma and Plaisance. in Oc- tober 1732; In 1734 this Prince, having ac- quired the Kingdom of Naples, ceded the Duchies of Parma and Placenza. In 1748, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the Duchies of Parma, Pla- cenza, and Guastalla, were ceded by the Queen of Hungary to Don Philip, Infant of Spain, to him and his heirs male, with a clause of rever- sion, in the event of his coming either to the throne of the two Sicilies, or to that of Spain. Don Philip, Infant of Spain, born 15th March 1720, arrived at Parma, aud took possession of LETTER XVI. iGQ these Dachies, 7th March, 1749. He had mar- ried 1738, Louis€-Elizabeth, daughter of Louis XV. who died of the small pox at Versailles, 6th Dec. 1759. The Duke, Don Philip, also died of the same malady, 18th July, 17^3, aged 43. Don Ferdinand, his eldest son, succeeded to the Duchies of Parma, Placenza, and Guastalla. He was born 20th Jan. 1751. He married 27th June, 1769, the Arch-Duchess Marie- Amelie- Josephe -Jeanne -Antoinette, daughter of the Emperor Francis, who died in 1804. The Duke died 9th Oct. 1802. His son, Don Louis, born 5th July, 1773, did not succeed to these Duchies, of which Bo- naparte took possession by virtue of the Conven- tion of Madrid, 21st March, 1801 ; by which Tuscany was ceded to Don Louis with the title of King of Etruria, in indemnity for the Duchies of Parma, Placenza, and Guastalla. He died 27th May, 1803, set. 30, having married Marie- Louise, Infanta of Spain, Duchess of Lucca, born 6th July, 1782. By her he left issue a daughter Marie-Louise-Charlotte, bom 1st Oct. 1802 ; and an only son ; viz. z 1/0 LETTER XVI. Charles Louis^ bom 23d Dec. 1799, who be- came King of Etruria, under the Regency of his mother, 27th May, 1803 ; and was despoiled of his Estates by Bonaparte, 10th Dec. I807. The events of 1813, restored Tuscany to the Archduke Ferdinand ; and these Duchies being assigned for life to the Ex-Empress Marie-Louise, the Congress of Vienna assigned provisionally to the House of Parma the Duchy of Lucca, till they should re-enter upon their patrimony. Marie-Louise was declared Duchess of Parma, Placenza, and Guastalla, by the Acts of the Congress of Vienna, 9th June 1815, and 10th June, I8I7. She was born 12th Dec. 1791? and married to Napoleon, 1st April 1810. Her son Francis Joseph Charles was born 20th March 1811. 171 LETTER XVII. ^pologg fot tijt long inteibal B^ttocen il)e tiateg of i'tm Setter?; --==3^ffleftiott^ on intcrtjenmg 1£benti3===^im of i\)t ^ubU= (ation===©omn\on ©j^atactcr of f^rabel^. Naples, lid July, 1820. 31 Y Narrative has not kept pace with the pas- sage of Time. Nine montlis have elapsed; of which six were spent at Florence^ from 27th Oct. 18 19 to 27th x4pril, 1820. Florence is supera- bundant in interesting matter of history political and literary, in all that regards the noblest efforts of Genius ; of Poetry ; and the Fine Arts. The very copiousness almost frightens me from com- mencing to touch upon them. This task, from which I should at any time shrink, is more especially at the present moment inopportune to my inclinations. 1 am now in the 172 LETTER XVII. midst of aRevolution of another ItalianPrlncipallty of far larger extent, and more ancient establish- ment—which for its present tranquil characterjand the other peculiar circumstances attending it, has no parallel in the annals of political changes. It would seem to display extraordinary phlegm, if during the period of such a pressure of interest in favour of the present both in time and place, I should waste my attention on remote occurrences ; and more idle and unnecessary curiosities. But perhaps in a volume, which, it is hoped, may aspire to something better than the gratifi- cation of momentary intelligence, the crisis at which we have yet arrived is not sufficiently ad- vanced to venture opinions, which must be crude, and relations of facts, of which the character is not yet sufficiently developed. On the Avhole therefore it will be better not to break the natural train of my Narrativ^e. To write upon the spot, and at the moment, has many ad- vantages : but it has also some important defects. It is not till the first effervescence has subsided; and time has given an opportunity to the heavy and unimportant to sink, and leave buoyant only LETTER XV. 173 what has in it the spirit of life, that our opinions and our selection of facts can ever attain that ma^ turity and mellowness, which continue to please after the charm of novelty has ceased. The liasty traveller, always under the impulse of loco-motion, or the feverish colouring of new impressions, neither conveys, nor receives the ideas, which sober experience would approve. These Letters have been written at long and tedious intervals. My printer's patience has no doubt been exhausted. It may seem strange, that I could not be induced oftener to take up my pen for this purpose. But I have not been idle. Funds of new knowledge have been opened upon me in floods. My weak memory; my feeble health ; my exhausted spirits, have been ill-calculated to meet the gigantic tasks, that have solicited my at- tention. How much I regret that an earlier com- mencement had not given me a chance of master- ing the immense range of Italian literature I In li- terary history no country is so fertile ! And, what is singular, the compilation of other European countriesh ave not taken adequate advantage of this apparatus. The noblest poets, the greatest his to- 174 LETTER XVII. rians, the finest scholars, after the revival of learning, all rose in Italy ; and principally in Tuscany. Something of this, it is true, is fa- miliar to the English reader through the volumes of RoscoE ;* and Mathias Has endeavoured to furnish them with the means of judging of its Lyrical Poetry. -f- But Roscoe wanted the ad- vantage of a personal residence in Italy ; and Matthias's collection is necessarily slight both in quantity, biography, and criticism, because it was intended for popular use. If it be satisfactory to the reader that on most occasions I have looked into Original Works ; and derived nothing from compilers in the histo- rical and literary notices I have had occasion to communicate, he may rest assured, that such has been my custom. It is not always in the power of a traveller, to consult the books, to which he would wish to refer ; he cannot carry ^ Lorenzo de Medici ; and Leo X. See also Shepherd's Life of Politian. t Componimenti Lirici^ reprinted at Naples^ 1819;, in 4 slight 8vo. vols. LETTER XVII. 17^ a library about with him. I have therefore omitted the mention of innumerable things, which though they were fairly on my memory, I could not cite with sufficient exactness and fide- lity, to justify committing them to paper. All vulgar aids, all second-hand information, I have rejected in conformity to my preponderant prin- ciple. As to the common guides, and most of the po- pular books of travels, useful as they are as pocket-companions, they seldom convey even the slightest sketches of the information, on which an inquisitive mind is most desirous to have his memory refreshed. They are merely Topogra- phical and Statistical ;— scarce in the smallest degree historical. When a traveller proposes to give a descrip- tion of the society and manners of a nation, pro- vince, or city, he undertakes a very interesting and profound Topic. But when the talents, the sagacity, the rare opportunity, the time neces- sary to execute this perilous task with discrimina- tion and truth, are considered, it will appear an effort sufficiently ludicrous on the part of a com- mon tour- writer ! 176 LETTER XVII. What is in the power of books best sought on the spot tQ give ; what the hints derived from personal intercourse with learned men may facili-* late: what the sight of monuments; what the prospect of the features of nature ; what the ex- ternal appearance of a people, their dress, their occupations, their customs, may suggest, is all within the range of the easy performance of a traveller of a cultivated mind, and moderate abilities. He may write a useful book : his asso- ciations of ideas and images may be refreshed, and improved ; and he may communicate this improvement to those who peruse his pages. A foreigner sees peculiarity in many things, which are unnoticed by a native ; and rejects as common many things, on which a native errone- ously prides himself. He would therefore per- haps reject many things as superflous ; and sup- ply others, in which they have been omissive. It is in this way that he may advantageously recast their information ; and derive ihe due ad- vantage from their writings. But, alas, how many works of travellers are written to feed the rage of temporary politics ! to LETTER XVII. 177 furnish examples of some momentary whim of opinion ! to exalt by exaggerated praise : to make odious by exaggerated contrast ! to convey under the new form of a flowery disguise the poison of mischievous principles ! or to gratify the vulgar curiosity of vulgar minds ! To such, to recall what has passed in the long roll of departed ages, the succession of a coun- try's princes, its wars, its violences, its conquests, its misfortunes, is to revive the dull and stultified annals of barbarous ancestors, whom it becomes the wise to pity and forget ! all is to be a parade of philosophy, and reason, and new illumination! •»^4-# ^^C r- #4-'®'«"<"*" KENT . i^tintcU at t^e piibate i^u^^ of %u ^rioig. BY JOHN WARWICK. LETTERS FROM THE CONTINENT. PART II. CONTENTS, LETTER. PAGE. Preface 18. .Reggio birth-place of Ariosto— Learned Men of Modena, Castelvetro, Tassoni^ Muratori, Tira- boschi, &c 178 19. . Bukes of Modena, of the House of Est 265 20. . Remarks on the subjects of the last Letters— His- tory— Bibliography— Public Taste 343 21. . Concluding Letter 355 Preface. Geneva, 21*? November, 1821. THE Printer being desirous not to delay the publication of another Volume (or Part) of the Letters from the Continent , it becomes necessary to say something by way of Preface j which I should have done before the First Part, if I had been aware of the time when it was brought to a conclusion . I was^ however, at that period in a remote part of Italy. It might have been adviseable to have prepared th^ rea- der for that which was intended to be offered to him. Yet the First Letter declared that it was the Writer's positive resolution, to refrain from adding another to the already superabundant heap of Works, called Tours and Travels. He hears therefore with some surprise the complaint, that he has not been more of a Tourist. Whether the matter, which he has brought forward is or is not of curiosity or use, it must be for the sound-minded to judge. It is that, of which he had himself found the want, among books of modern circulation. He does not pre- tend that it required much effort of intellect, or any extra- ordinary erudition to produce it 3 but it required a search among works a little out of the common track. One of the great purposes and one of the highest grati- fications to a cultivated taste in a visit to Italy, is the oppor- tunity of materializing the associations of the ideas of the 11 PREFACE. past with the present. This country is not merely Classic ground j but here was the scene of the revival of Literature : and here occurred a large portion of the most interesting events and features of the Middle Ages. There is scarce a large City in Italy, which was not the seat of a separate Principality in those Ages. Whether these separate Principalities were a good, or an evil, is a question irrelevant to the present consideration : that they have aug- mented the subjects of exercise to the memory and fancy of the Traveller is certain. The two modern Works on Italy most in the hands of the English, before that of Lady Morgan, (of which the public Journals have said too much to allow another word, ) are those of Eustace and Forsyth. The latter is the highly- endowed Gentleman, who has the goodness to inform his readers, that Redi and Pignotti are two far better Poets than Petrarch ! ! having learned, ( I believe, at the head of an Academy at Newington - Butts, ) how to instruct the fine Ladies and Gentlemen from the environs of Grosvenor Square, in their future appreciation of Italian genius. But both these very profound productions, which have so happily hit the popular feeling, pass over Milan, Parma^ Modena, Bologna, Mantua, Ferrara, &c. with scarce a men- tion of the Viscontis, Sforzas, Farneses, Bentivoglios, Gon- zagas, Estes, &c. The conjuration by which any clear idea of the History of this part of the Continent in the Middle Ages, and of what PREFACE. Ill is most remarkable in its great Cities, can be formed, with- out a distinct conception of the leading events and characters of these Families, far exceeds that of any common magic ! If indeed the Traveller goes only to behold Nature and sce- nery J and even extends his observations to modern manners, the case is different. But a great part of that which gives interest to the study of the Arts is wanting 3 and almost all that excites the attention of the scholar and the man of deep reflection, is deficient in its first materials. All the objects which a common Tourist desires to visit, are sufficiently described in the local Guides, which every considerable place furnishes 3 and almost all the intelligence which the generality of Travels supply is purloined, and re- peated in a disguised form, from these sources. With regard to modern manners and habits of society, how slight and superficial is the knowledge which is picked up by these Authors ! Their views of politics are equally ignorant and prejudiced. Of this I had a personal oppor- tunity of witnessing the most glaring instances at Naples and Rome, in the Autumn of 1820, and the Spring of 1821, during the commencement, progress, and termination of the Neapolitan Revolution, But on this topic I shall probably have occasion to say much more hereafter. The hasty manner, in which a large portion of the English pass over the Continent, is inconsistent with those calm, sober, and well-regulated impressions, which it be- comes an enlightened mind to cultivate. Novelty is apt to IV PREFACE. give a false effect;, of which transitoriness is the very essence. I am persuaded that such momentary views rather mislead than inform the judgement 5 and that a traveller of this sort has less correct ideas on his return even than he had before he set out. I lived a year and seven months in Italy^ from 13th October 1819, to 9th May 1821 3 and during this period I gave myself up to its literature with the ardour which is a part of my nature. The additional knowledge, which has poured in upon me, is too multifarious to find vent in any small space, or short time. If little of it has appeared in these Letters, it has partly arisen from a desire, (perhaps ill- judged) to clear the ground, and lay the foundation 5 and partly from following the order of the Route, which has hitherto kept my reader from arriving at the Cities where I spent most of my time. Half a year at Florence j seven months at Naples ; and four months at Rome, enabled me to take a calm survey of those illustrious Cities. If my mind was not directed to the same points of obser- vation as is usual to, and required from the generality of Travellers, it ought not to be assumed that on that account it was less properly employed. Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture all alike go to see in this once-glorious part of the world ; but to describe them adequately demands the pen of an eloquent professor of these wonderful Arts : the unin- structed admiration and affected praise of a scribbling Tour- ist is insufferably impertinent and odious. PREFACE. V It is the mental temperament, and general conclusions produced on those habituated to think, and capable of think- ing with vigour and justness, by a residence in these places, that a reader seeking the moral knowledge most prized by the highest classes of intellect, desires to learn. With the little paltry details of temporary ton, or tem- porary costume, no wise man would degrade his pages,-- any more than with the adventures of the post, the perils of the road, or the hardships of mean accommodation. Scenery indeed is a noble field of description: but it requires powers of so high a kind ; and those powers in so happy a mood, that I, for one, have shrunk from it, where I had to describe views, of which so many gifted geniuses have already given sketches. I took no notes at the timcj and I now find that my recollections are too general for local pictures. The passage over the Alps and the Appenines no fancy capable of receiving vivid impressions can ever forget. It was on two October days, of wind and rain and sunshine by fits, that we first mounted over the latter : mighty and ter- riffic gust were frequently crossing between the Adriatic and the Mediterranean : and then the sun broke out again, and all was serene and balmy ; and the beech and chesnut groves in the hollows, and feathering down the slopes of the moun- tains, their leaves all of gold, half- strewing the ground, or glittering in the renewed rays of that gentle splendor, which attends the departing year, seemed like a vision of Romance^ VI PREFACE. too full of colours and shapes of enchantment for the exhi- bitions of reality ! It rained again hideously, and a black night came on before we reached our humble resting-place on the Mountains 3 which we found full of Travellers ; and ill-calculated to accommodate us ! A bright morning shone on our descent into Tuscany : but after mid-day we entered Florence under torrents of rain. Multitudes of English overflowed through this beautiful City. The noble Gallery was beset with throngs to gaze with wondering eyes upon the Paintings 5 and to look with scanning curiosity on the Venus de Medicis, whose inimitable proportions were examined with a dangerous eagerness, and whose slender and inimitable grace was willingly mistaken by the ladies of small stature for the perfect height. But I forget that my Letters have not yet conducted my readers to Florence. Is it asked, what merit I claim for the Historical, Genea- logical, and Biographical memorials, which I have given?-— None ! ——They are compiled from Books notrare, but volu- minous 3 and seldom within an English reader's range. They may not be the less useful, because they tend little to prove the Author's talents or learning. To be a mere compiler is certainly but an humble occu- pation in literature : but I am not much afraid of incurring this contemptuous designation. I have indulged myself in too many walks of composition, and been too excursive in the labours of my mind to dread such a censure. What is PREFACE. Vll here presented to the Public is indeed a mere trifle compared with all in which I have employed myself during the same period. But we are '^^ fallen upon evil days -, " upon days of un- qualified bitterness and malignity. The Populace, great and small, are the rulers of the Public mind. The critical Works in fashion are seasoned to their palates -, and the highest de- light is to bait an Author j and as Book-making is become a mercenary profession, it is useless to praise any production not formed to gratify popular prejudices. From the moment that the Press became the slave of the Public, it became an evil rather than a good. * It gave authority to the test of vulgar opinion j and submitted all judgments to the passions of the multitude. It is the ignorance of the Age, which allows it to assume to itself the credit of peculiar enlightenment : for this igno- rance shuts from it the opportunity of comparison. Men now venture to become Authors^ who are unacquainted with the true models of composition ; and who are utterly unap- prized of what has been already elucidated ; and still more of the reasonings or facts by which it has been established or confirmed. Scholars formerly held the pen : and habituated to look to future times for their reward, they felt a responsibility beyond what a mere plausible covering might give to what * It appears to me that this is the idea with which Cornelius ^grifipa sets out in his Tract, Dc Vanitate Scientiarum, VUl PREFACE. they wrote. It is necessary that an Author should write from conviction, not merely as an advocate. Every thing is now hollow J corrupt 5 and calculated for momentary effect j for piquancy, and vendability ! All regard to past opinions is called Prejudice : and every witling affects to set up on the stock of his own ideas j and to judge for himself. Is the simpleton aware how little a way the greatest genius can proceed in literature without building on the stock of his predecessors ? How far could Bacon or Newton have advanced, if they had not commenced at a forward point, to which ages had been clearing the way for them ? What could Dante, or Tasso, or Milton have done but for the stores of antiquity ? Flippant scribblers now arise j and without erudition, without reflection, without experience, undertake to reverse all the characters of History ; to rejudge all those, on whom their cotemporaries, and the wisest and best- informed of pos- terity, have pronounced a verdict 5 and to speak of things according to the view which their own superficial, presump- tuous, and twilight understandings, or malignant and de- grading passions present. Is there no weight in authority ? Is there no deference to integrity 5 and long- exercised and deeply- matured ability? But '^ Lo! J, the Oracle come forth -^ and all else shall be silent, and dumb!'' Our ancestors shall be pronounced to have been all fools, or flatterers, or slaves ! Are there any words of contempt and derision sufficient for this ineffable arrogance of ignorant stupidity ? All of wis- ' PREFACE. IX dom and truth that can now be said^ has been said beforeh- and generally better said ! I have been blamed for endeavouring to draw back the Public notice to the Latin writers soon after the revival of Literature, especially those of Italy,— the Demi- Ancients ^ as Le-Clerc properly calls them. It is asked, who reads modern Latin? If no one reads such books, it follows that no one consults the sources of modern History, either Literary, or Political ! that no one is a scholar ! that no one studies the new birth of genius undepressed by a semi - barbarous lan- guage ! that no one can guess at what an height of polish, and eloquence, and wisdom, the Learned of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries had arrived ! But this disgraceful charge is far from universally true ! From what sources has M. Sismondi written his Historij of the Italian Republics ? * From what sources is he now composing his History of France ? From what sources did Gibbon draw the latter volumes of his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? The Author, who is in general content to rest without consulting original authorities, (and indeed original editions,) is a Char- latan, who does not deserve the name of Learned ! Most modern books are so utterly sophisticated 3 so full of tinsel j so deficient in solid and honest ingredients, that with the novelty of the phrase, the type, and the paper, the charm evaporates, before the volumes have been a month on the shelves ! Who turns back to them for any sound know- * 16" vols. 8vo. Id Ed. Paris 1818. X PREFACE. ledge ? Who refers to them for an happy elucidation of nice questions in morality ? Who seeks them for felicity of lan- guage, and beauty of illustration ? I have at length come to the determination to conclude these Letters abruptly. I know not to what point of those Letters, sent from Naples in 1820, my Printer has reached. It is for his benefit that they have been written ; and I give him leave to close the press at what part of the MS. suits his convenience. He says that the Booksellers demand of him to finish these Letters and the Sylvan Wanderer, before they will engage to take any thing else off his hands. The inconvenience of supplying him with Copy at all times, while visiting remote regions of the Continent; the impossibility of a proper superintendance of the Press at all times, while military duties call my son from home; the losses from long delay, incurred by this Printer, who as he has all the emolument is subjected to the risk of these publi- cations, which he is ill-prepared to endure 5 (even after all the expensive assistance, which, though never engaged for, has in fact been amply extended to him, ) make it more pru- dent to incur the alternative of exposing myself to malignant criticisms for giving to the Public an imperfect Work, than to let an helpless individual suffer by the circumstances in which he is placed. There is a limit to all things. The Lee Press was set up at the earnest and repeated desire and for the exclusive benefit of the two Printers originally engaged in it. As I PREFACE. XI would have disdained to have had any concern with tlie pro- duce J so I deemed it prudent to take every precaution which I could suggest, to protect myself from every part of the expence. These precautions were vain : the expenses were heavy to me, while in England j and have been heavy to my Son, since my absence. The publications, which I have given to the World, in thirty-seven years, are beyond my power of enumeration. Of all, which have been at my own risk, (and they have been not a few,) neither the expences, nor probably one half the expences in printing and paper have ever been returned to me. Of those undertaken by Booksellers, I have never re- ceived, nor asked, one shilling of copy money ! I am forced to make this declaration, because the base heart of mankind thirsting only for lucre, thinks that I like them could only be actuated by mercenary motives in my multifarious labours. I have now completed my fifty -ninth year 3 and the pecuniary returns of literature have never up to this hour reached the value of a single sixpence 3 except in the volun- tary presents of Books which the publishers made to me for the immense labour in editing the New Edition of Collinses Peerage ! On the other hand I have spent a little fortune among Printers, A^tationers, and Engravers ! This has been among the prime amusements of my life: and how could I have endured the gigantic injuries and oppressions, by which I XU PREFACE. have been pursued^ unless my mind had indulged itself in some favourite and oblivious recreation ? The same passion adheres to me amid the inconveniences of a mitigratory life ; and in the three last years I have equally sought occupation in the employment of Foreign Presses. In 1819, I printed at Geneva. 1. A Volume on Popu- lation and Riches. 2. Coningsby, a Tragic Tale. 3. Lord Brokenhurst, a Tragic Tale. In 1820, I printed at Florence. 4. Sir Ralph Wil- loughby, a Tale. 5. AlavicB Regice. 60 copies only for pri- vate use. In the same year I printed at Naples. 6. Res Literarice, Vol. I. only 75 copies. In 1821, I printed at Rome. 7. Res LiteraricE. Vol. 2. In the Autumn of the same year 1 printed at Geneva. 8. Valerianus de Infelicitate Liter atorum, Editio Nova. 87 copies. 9. What are Riches? an examination into the defini- tions of that subject. 100 copies. In 1822, I am completing at the same place. 10. Res LiteraruB, Vol 3. nearly finished. 11. The Anti- Critic, Vol I, nearly finished. 12. Lamento di Strozzi, S;c. 12 copies. 13. Libellus Gebensis. Poemata Selecta Latina media et infirnce aetatis. 97 copies. Besides I have concluded the Tale of 14. The Hall of Hellingsley. 3 vols 12mo. which has been published by Messrs, Longman and Co. London. PREFACE. Xm When I undertook to write the Lettfrs, of which all that will be printed, are now offered to the Public, I hoped that the difficulties which I have experienced in carrying them through the Press, would not have occurred. The conse- quence of these difficulties has been, that they have taken an entirely different character from that which was intended at their outset. They have been written at long intervals 3 at inconvenient seasons j under a perpetual interruption of the proper train of ideas 3 " in sickness, and in sorrow) " with an exhausted frame, and wearied spirits. I submit therefore to the censure of my friends that they are dull 3 and the matter of them deficient in general interest. I know as well as they do the seasoning which the flavour of modern taste requires. It costs not quite as much ingenuity as they seem to think. He, who will descend to it, may easily attain the art of it. Nearly three years' study of Italian literature 3 a resi- dence of seven months at Naples at a most important crisis, followed by four months at Rome during the same crisis, have, when matured by calm recollection, taught me most important intellectual and political lessons. These would have redeemed the dullness or emptiness of what is already printed. But I am willing that they should expire in my bosom! Let them go, without leaving a trace of their passage ! My political speculations would have been as little fashion- able as my literary ! I as little belong to any political as to any literary Coterie! I have no interest at the conflicting XIV PREFACE. Cofirts of Mess". Constable, or Murray ! with the latter there is an interior Cabinet, not understood by the uninitiated who apparently espouse the same line in politics ! But the day will come, when all these factitious interests will avail nothing : when every literary production must stand upon its own intrinsic merits: when intrigue and personal interest must cease : when the gratification of temporary pas- sions can no longer operate : when truth, and native fancy and eloquence, must prevail ! In the long course of thirty-seven years, amid the innu- merable things which I have given to the Press, I am not conscious of having printed a single page of which I am ashamed : any thing, which whatever interest or merit, ( if any,) it then possessed, it does not possess still ! If neglect, and discouragement could have made the pen drop from my hand, I should long ago have dropped it. It is the intrinsic pleasure of the employment ; the undaunted consciousness of an innocent, virtuous, and exalting occupa- tion, which carries me calmly forward. I leave Charla- tanism to its little reign, without envy or disturbance ! I leave some to fill their pockets, and others to tickle their ears with sounds of outrivalling Shakespeare 3 and brilliant encomia that pale the splendor of departed Genius ! If I can but engage the sympathy of the very few, who think for themselves, I am content ! LETTERS FKOM THE CONTINENT. PJRT IL LETTER XVIII, l^fggio hittfi place of ^riogtc===3lcarneU 0im of i)W;otetta, ©a^teltetro, ^aggont, J^luratori, Zixaho^tU ^t^ Naples, ^4th July, 1820. v/NE of the greatest ornaments of Parma was Antonio Allegri, called Corregio^ the famous Painter: born at Corregio in the Modenese in 1494. He owed the whole of his progress in the Art to his wonderful genius rather than to Masters. He died 5tli March, 1534, aged 40. He was the Founder of the Parmigian School of Painting, by which name for its excellence the School of Lomhardy is known. 2 A 179 LETTER XVIII. " II carattere dominante della scuola parmigiana, che per excellenza dicesi anco la lombarda^ 6 lo scorto, come della fiorenlina la espressione de' nervi, e de' muscoli : ne serve aggiungere, che ancor qui si e da alcuni caricato e affettuto lo scorto^ come ivi il nudo : 1' imitar bene e dif- ficile in ogni luogo. Entra pur nel carattere della scuola lo studio del chiaroscuro, e de' panni piu che quello del corpo umano^ nel quale pochi si contano veramente va- lenti. I lor contorni son larghi, i volti non tan to ideali, quanto scelti fra mezzo alia nazione che gli produce ben ritondati, e ben coloriti^ e spezzo di quelle fattezze e di quella giocondita, che si stima originale nel Corregio : cosi notava un professore stato gran tempo in Parma*' * Whosoever is desirous of having a critical idea of Corregio 's excellencies will do well to consult Lanzi's elegant and learned Storia Pitto- rica d^ Italia. Parmigiano and Lanfranc were also celebra- ted ornaments of Parma. Ariosto was a native of Reggio. The family was ancient : it had been transplanted from Bo- logna to Ferrara; had made honorable alliances; and had even contracted a marriage with the princely House of Este, in the person of Lippa, ♦ Lanzi Storia Pittorica della Italia, Edit. 4. Pisa, 1816. 12mo. vol IV. p. 87. LETTER XVIII. 180 or Filippa Ariosta^ who was first the concuhine, and afterwards the wife of Obizzo III. Sovereign ofFerrara; which princess died in 1347, three years before her husband. Nicolas^ the poet's Father, was 4th son of Rinaldo Ariosto. He had the title of Count as well as his brothers Francesco, and Ludovico, conferred on him by the Emperor Frederic on his visit to Ferrara 1469. Hercules, Duke of Ferrara, appointed him Captain of the Citadel of Reggio. He held this post 1474, when his eldest son, Lodovico was born. His wife was Daria, daughter of Gabriele Malaguzzi, a Noble of Reggio, a Doctor of medicine, by Taddea de' Valeri, (a family originally of Parma.) Gabriele was a man of science and a poet. Over a House in the Piazza adjoining the Cathedral of Reggio, is the following Inscription. LuDovicus Ariostus. POETA PR^CLARISSIMUS MANU PROPRIO CaROLI V. ImpER : Laureatus Natus Regii Ex Matre daria Malagutici de Valeriis in Camera Media Primi Ordinis ergaPlateas Anno MCCCCLXXIV. Die VIII. Septembris. 181 LETTER XVIII. BarufFaldi gives satisfactory reasons to con- clude that the Poet was not born here: but in the Citadel: and that this House, which is assert- ed to have belong'd to the mother's family, did not come in their possession till long afterwards: and that the Inscription must have been of a date, at least half a Century posterior to the Poet's death. A Memoir of Ariosto would occupy too much space in these Letters. But as something requires to be said of his general character, perhaps there may be most novelty at present in reviving the Sketch of a learned Cotemporary. The old Bio- graphers were deficient in many of the attrac- tions possessed by modern authors in this depart- ment. They were general and declamatory; and wanted the criticism, tTie precision, the minute- ness of those, whom the last Century has pro- duced. But these last in searching for what is new, or particular, have often wandered too far from original impressions ; and buried the great outlines of feature in a mass of incumbering pet- tinesses. It becomes therefore sometimes instruc- tive, if not necessary, to recur for the characters LETTER XVIII. 182 of the Great Dead, long departed, to these origi- nal Memorialists. I will therefore copy the character of our Poet by the celebrated Paulus Jovius in his Elogla Virorum Liter Is Illustrium Basil, 1^7/3 Folio, " Ludovicus Ariostus nobili genere FerraricB natus, cum paterna haeredltas inter numerosam fratrum sobolem diducta, ipsi pertennis obvenisset, ingenium in literis vigi- lanter exercuit, ut certo nobiliqiie praesidio familiae nomen tueretur. Sed uti pari prope necessitatis et gloriae sti- mulo vebementer excitatus, feliciore certe judicio inter primes Etruscae linguae poetas celebrari^ quam inter Lati- nos in secundis gradibus consistere maluit: quod ejus industriae labor, cum eruditis ac idiotis latlssime dlspen- satus, uberiorem praesentis praemii, et diffiisae laudis fruc- tum ostenderet. Adhaesit comes Hippolyto atestino Cardinali in Pannoniam profecto : quum ille erudito ac illustri comitatu apud reges Hungaros.ambitios^ gauderet : sed iterum euntem, quum sequi recusasset, usque adeo gravlter ofFendit, ut pene implacabilis odii discrimen adi- erit. Receptus inde est ab Alfonso Principe tanquam horarum omnium amicus, et sodalis, cujus benigna manu urbanam domum extruxit peramaena hortorum ubertate, frugi mensae quotidianos sumptus adaequantem. In eo autem civili otio, extra aulae strepitum poemata factitavit : satyras in primis mordaci sale conspersas^ ac item comae- 183 LETTER XVIII. dias plures theatrali voluptate saepe repetitas inter eas autem, maxime Supposlti excellunt, inventionis atque suc- cessus amsenitate cum Plautinis facile contendentes^ si utriusque Seculi mores non inepte comparentur. Sed luculentissimum, ob idque forsitan aeternum id volumen existimatur, quo Orlaisij) if abulosi Herois admiranda bello facinora, octonario modulo decantavit, Boiardo hercle, ipsoque Pulcio peregregie superatis. Quandoquidem et hunc rerum, et Carmimim accurata granditate devicerit: ac ilium surrepto inventionis titulo, ac eo quidem variis elegantioris doctrinae luminibus illustrato penitus extinx- erit. Cuncta enim evolvisse volumina videtur, ut sibi undique collecta gratia, ex jucundissimis floribus longe pulcherrimam, ideoque perennem, quo lepidum caput or- naretur coronam intexeret. Interilt in patria salari setatis anno, quum diu pectoris angustia ex pituitae stillicidio laborasset. Hoc autem Carmen vivens composuit, ut Sepidchro incideretur. Ludovici Ariosti humantur ossa Sub hoc marmpre, seu sub hac humo : seu Sub quicquid voluit benignus haeres : Sive haerede benignior comes : seu Opportunius incidens viator: Nam scire baud potuit futura, sed nee Tanti erat vacuam sibi cadaver ; Ut urnam cuperet parare vivens, Vivens ista tamen sibi paravit. Quae scribi voluit suo sepulchro, Olim si quod haberet is sepulchrum : LETTER XVIII. 184 Ne cum spiritus hoc brevi peracto Praescripto spacio misellus artus, Quos aegre ante reliquerat, reposcet : Hac, et hac cinerem hunc et hunc revellens : Dum noscat propiium, diu vagetur. C.ELII Calcagnini Tu rcpetas caelum, et terras Arioste, relinquis Et loca jam meritis inferiora tuis. Nos miseri, et curis longe mortalibus acti, Noo tibi, sed nobis fundimus has lachrymas. Gloria te niveis subducit in sethera bigis ; Nos sine te luctu perpetuo opprimimur. Latomi Arma, virumque canens, Etruscae carmina Musae, • Palmam Virgilio vel tribuente refers. Scit sua te melius patrio sermone Latina, Quam sese Latio Graia referre sono. * f * Giambatista Pigna published an Edition of Orlando Fu- rioso, Ferrara, 1521. 4*^. (40 Cantos) Again Venice, 1556^ 4to \yy Valgrisi, with a Life of the Poet prefixed. This Life again appeared in the Variorum Edition, Venice 1584, 4*°. Giambatista Pigna, the Historian of the House of Este, was not born till 1529^ 8 years after the first edition of the other Pigna' s Orlando Furioso. t Paulus Jovius was born at Como in the Milanese 19th 185 LETTER XVIII. MoDENA has a fine Library; and has been the birthplace, or residence of many eminent men. See Dot tori Modonesi — opera di D. Lodovico Vedriani da Modena, l655, 4to. adorned with Portraits; most of them spirited; and some well engraved. LoDOVico Castelvetro, the Commentator on Petrarch was a Modenese : so also Alessan- DRO Tassoni author of the celebrated poem, the Sechia Rapita, April, 1483. He passed a part of his youth in Como, Padua, Pavia, and Milan. In Pavia he studied Medicine, and began to practice this Art in Como, and Milan. In this science he obtained the notice of Leo X. In 1528, he was made Bishop of Nocera. In 1549, he retired to Como, and in 1550, to Florence, where he died on the 1 1 Dec. 1552, aged 69. His Funeral was honoured by all the Court of Cosmo de Medici, and his body was honorably buried in the Church of St. Lorenzo. His merits procured him many rich benefices, besides a pension from Charles V. The Duke of Milan, the Farnese, the Estes, the Dukes of Urbino, the Medici, the Gon- zaghi, distinguish' d him. It would seem impossible that Jovius could write so much, while his time was occupied in Travels, in literary leisure, in the offices and visits of Courts ; in the pleasant suppers of the Cardinals Farnese, and Carpi. He was too apt to lavish his praise, or his blame according to his private passions. It was said that he boasted that he had two pens, one of gold 3 the other of iron 3 and that he could use either as he had occasion. His Elogia of Famous Men were LETTER XVIII. 186 Castelvetro was of a noble Family at Modena^ where he was born 1505. He studied in the prin- cipal Universities of Italy, Bologna, Ferrara, Pa- dua and Siena. Thence he went to Rome under the patronage of his relation Giovanni Maria dalla Porta^ a Noble Modenese. From Rome he returned to his favourite studies at Siena, and cultivated Greek, Latin, and Italian Literature. By his intense application, he now fell into extreme ill health, and could only use a vegatable diet. At his Father s desire he returned to Modena^ written in his delightful Villa on the Lake of Como^ where he had collected Portraits of these distinguished Persons, which these Elogia were intended to accompany. These Portraits formed the Foundation of the Series, which now adorn the Gallery at Florence. All his Works were collec- ted and published in 6 vols. Folio, Basil, 1578. See a severe character of this Author in Ritratti Poetici Storici, e Critici of App. Ann. de Faba (viz. Appiano Buonafede) 2 vols. 8'". (ISth. Edit.) Venice, 1796 vol. 1. p. 268. '^Egli si crede di poter esse signore e tiranno in una provincia, ov' era vassallo, e crede di poter sacrificare al suo utile la verita, sulla quale non avea verun dirittoj di poter fare della menzogna una f ruttuosa mercantanzia j e di poter usare le indipendenze e 1 privilegi de' pittori e de' poeti. Per le quali cose si ode tra gli eruditi un giusto lamento, che la venality del Giovio abbia deturpato il candor della storia." See also r/ma«M5, and Boyle, 2 B 187 LETTER XVIII. where he continued the same course of Life; and exerted himself to promote Letters in his native City. About 1537 i^ was at his persuasion that Francesco Porto, a Greek a native of Candia was called to lecture in the Greek tongue at Modena. Porto remained here till 1546, when he was called to Ferrara with a rich provision by Duke Her- cules n. who was intent upon drawing celebrated men to the University of Ferrara. The vacant Chair was soon filled by Carlo Sigonio a Citizen of Modena, who afterwards became one of the most famous and learned men, not only of Italy, but of all Italy. Another Contemporary and friend of Castelvetro, who honoured Modena by his learning was Giovanni Grileuzone, a Citizen and Physician here, of whom Castelvetro has written some memorials preserved by Muratori. In 1540 Modena could shew among its living Citizen, (besides Castelvetro and Grileuzone) 1. Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto, one of the great- est Luminaries of the Sacred College ; to which his printed works bear testimony. 2. Cardinal Tommaso Badia, Master of the Sacred Palace, famous for his Sanctity and pro- LETTER XVIII. 188 found Knowledge. 3. Cardinal Gregorio Cortese, a worthy emu- lator of Sadoleto, in skUl in the Greek and Latin Languages, an illustrious Poet and Theologian, as his Books shew. 4. Giovanne Moroni, Bishop of Modena^ crea- ted Cardinal 1542 by Paul III, one of the most learned and illustrious of the Purple, who sus- tained the honour of the Roman Church in the Council of Trent, and at Rome ; for though he was by birth a Milanese^ he was educated from infancy in Modena; here made his studies; and was honoured with his father with the Citizen- ship, and afterwards with the Mitre of this City 5. Gahriello Fallopia, eminent for his science, and his medical works. All these men, versed in the Greek, and Latin languages, had great obligations to Castelvetro. To these may be added, 6. Francesco Maria Moha, famous for his Latin and Italian poetry. 7- Gandolfo Porrino, whose Rim as were in great credit. 8. Antonio Fiordihello, C^non of the Cathedral 189 LETTER XVIII. 1537; Bishop of Lavello, 1558; and together with the celebrated Monsignor Giovanni dalla Casa Secretary of Paul IV. and Paul V. a man in great reputation for his Hebrew, Greek, and Latin^ Literature. 9. In the same degree of Secretary to Pope Julio III. served Paulo Sadoleto, son of a cousin of Cardinal Jacobo; famous as a Philosopher, and Theologian; and for his great eloquence in the Greek and Latin Tongues. 10. Benedetto Manziiolo, afterwards Bishop of Reggio, an excellent philosopher, and delicate Poet. 11. .Giovan Maria Barbieri, the companion of Castelvetro's studies; afterwards Chancellor and Secretary of the State; an excellent Italian Poet, who had given much of his attention to the ancient Italian language, in which Castelvetro delighted. 12. Agostino Gadaldino, who profited by his learning and example, whose posterity flourished in illustrious rank at Venice; and who translated from Greek into Latin various works of Galen, Oribasius, and other Greek physicians. In these Studies he had an imitator in. LETTER XVIII. I9O 13. Niccollo Macchella, wellknovvii to learned Physicians by his translations from the Greek; and his works in Medicine. . Castelvetro was esteemed as another Socrates in his native City. At this time the doctrines of Luther having spread even into Italy^ the literary societies of Modena, supposed to have caught the taint raised the jealousy and vigilance of the Court of Rome. But Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto from love of his native City took advantage of his power to endeavour to appease these suspicions. In 1553 commenced Castelvetro's literary quarrel with Annihal Caro. ^ This poet had written a Canzone in praise of the Casa Farnese-, and in deification of the Royal House of France. This was so superlatively commended by the friends of Caro; as to be placed equal or supe- rior to Petrarch. Among many Moderiese then at Rome was Aurelio Bellincini, a man of learn- ing, into whose hands this Canzone of Caro came; and who marvelling at the admiration, "^ Annibal Caro was a poet of a great name and a fertile pen, born in Civitanova in the Marches of Ancona, 1507^ and Secretary to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. igi LETTER XVIII. yet unwilling to trust his own judgment sent it to Castelvetro, requesting his opinion. Castel- vetro^ as was his custom with his friends, freely gave his thoughts on this production in twenty words or little more; but begged Bellincini not to talk about it; and not to say it was his: not because he felt doubtful of the truth of his criti- cism: but because he considered Caro a per- son of a poor and base condition mounted into a high place by the favour of a Great Prince, and by his faculty of poetizing: and that he would deeply resent the freedom of any one who could call into doubt the beauty and merit of his verses ; and would not want a pretext to say or do any thing his passions should prompt him towards such an offender. Bellincini betrayed the opinion; but without discovering the Author. This however Caro soon learned through Gasparo Calori, a Modenese ; and vented his rage in Rome by the most oppro- brious invectives. Literati^ and especially poets, have seldom much philosophy; and do not like to have their conquests in the fields of Fame and Glory disturbed. Hence arise wars more fierce LETTER XVIII. 192 than the Princes of the World make for temporal Kingdoms. Thus Caro commenced^ and carried on his war furiously; while Castelvetro in his defence kept the temper of a philosopher always serious and reasonable without descending to in- juries, invectives, and scorn. Defences and Re- plies rapidly followed each other: but Caro was not willing to trust alone to the force of his pen: he called in a more efficacious instrument; the processes of the Holy Inquisition ! In aid of his writing, he tailed in many of the Literati then at Rome, who were friends of the House of Farnese ; especially Benedetto Varclii; and Giovan Fran- cesco Comrnendo?ie, afterwards Cardinal; both persons of^ great power in the Italian language, as well as the Latin; and also in Poetry, and Oratory. They introduced all sorts of buffoonery into their attacks ; and stuffed them with all sorts of scandal and bitterness. They required to have these Libels distributed in M S, not only through Rome ; but through other Cities of Italy, in the hope that the poison might produce its effect while the means should be kept concealed from the Victim. Castelvetro perceived the effect, 193 LETTER XVIII. without being able to get at so distinct a know- ledge of particulars^ as would enable him to know on what points to defend himself. At length in 1558^ five years after the com- mencement of the controversy^ this secret Libel was published under the title of Apologia degli Accademici di Banchi di Roma contra Lodovico Castelvetro in difesa delta sequente Canzone del Commendatore Annihal Caro. — Parma, par Viotti, It took little time to Castelvetro* to write an answer. But he did not publish it till 156o, un- der the following title, according to Muratori. '^ Di Lodovico Castelvetro Ragionedi alcune cose segnate nella canzone di Annihal Caro : Ve- nite air ombra de' gran Gigli d' oro, Venezia presso Andrea Arrivabene. But a copy of an early Edition, I believe the original and very rare Edition now lies before me, of which this is the exact title: LETTER XVIII. 19^ Ragione D' Alcune Cose Segnatb Nella Canzone d' Annibal Caro. Venite al' Ombra De Gran GiGLi d' Oro [A rude Cut of an Owl sitting on a fallen Urn] KEKPIKA. * without date, small 4^^. p. 1 16. besides 4 pages of Contents. In his first page he mentions Caro having given to the world his Apologia degli Academi di Banchi dl Roma printed at Parma in Nov. 1558, after five years study. The Heads of Castelvetro's Tract are 1. Mala Elettione di parole forestreri. 2. Mala Formatione di Traslationi 3. Parole di significato nocivo. 4. Parole di significato improprio. 5. Guastamento dell' uso della lingua. 6. Vilta di parole. * See Poggiali-Testi di Lingua. 11. 186. 2 c 19^ LETTER XVIII. 7. Falsita di sentimenti. 8. Nocumento di sentimenti. 9. Superflita di sentimenti. 10. Difeto di Sentimenti. ir Ignoranza di Lod. Castelvetro. 12. Vilta di Lod. Castelvetro. 13. Malvagita di Lod. Castelvetro. 14. Canzone d' An. Caro. 15. Commento di An. Caro. 16. Parer di Lod. Castelvetro. 17. Dichiaratione di Lod. Castelvetro. To this Work of Castelvetro, Caro made no reply. But his friend Benedetto Varchi, a Flo- rentine, a man of letters of great credit in those times, but satirical, took the occasion of his Dia- logues on Language to defend him against the censures of Castelvetro. But for whatever rea- son this did not appear in print till 1570, four years after his death. It then appeared from the Press of Filippo Giunti at Florence thus : V Ercolano Dialogo di Benedetto Varchi, nel quale si ragiona generalmente delle Lingue ^c. corn- posto dalui sull occasione della disputa occorsa LETTER XVIII. 19^ trd!l Commendator Caro, Lodovico Castelvetro, Though at this time Castelvetro was a wanderer, and in countries where he could not command Books, and under the aggravation of various misfortunes, almost on the point of death, yet when this production of Varchi came under his eyes, he could not refrain from giving an Answer, by the mere strength of his memory, to show that the Dialogue was erroneous in the whole, or ma- jor part of its principal points. And certainly this Argument on Language was in his province; and such as a Litterateur so practised and saga- cious in these studies could throw light upon. But Death, which seized him in the following year, Feb. 1571, did not permit him to continue; much less, to complete these studies. There ex- isted only a first draught, that is, some pieces, not read over, or corrected, which yet his Bro- ther Giovan-Maria Castelvetro, judged with rea- son to be worthy of the light ; and published the following year 1572, in Basil under the title of Correzione di alcune Cose del Dialogo delle Lin- gue del Varchi per Lodovico Castelvetro, But in his lifetime these had been published in Bo- 197 LETTER XVIII. logne from the printmg office of Alessandro Be- nacci, 1567, Discorso di Girolamo Zoppio intorno al alcuni oppozioni di Lodovico Castelvetro, alia Canzone de' Gigli d' oro compost a da Annibal Caro in lode di Real Casa di Francia. Castel- vetro probably knew nothing of the publication of this little piece. Such was the course of the literary contro- versy between Caro and Castelvetro. Many learned and powerful persons endeavoured to make peace between these Litigants, to which Castelvetro was inclined; but which Caro re- mained obstinately averse to. On the contrary Caro sought among the bad Citizens of Modena, ( and such are to be found in all Cities, ) for evidence to support a charge of heresy against Castelvetro. He found out that in 1556 there had been a bad understanding be- tween his adversary, and his brother Paul, Avho, having been a spendthrift was many times fra- ternally admonished without amendment. This irritated him so much, that he joined with Caro against his Brother. The accusation is black; and not lightly to be made ; but it seems too true LETTER XVIII. I98 that Caro wished to oppress his adversary by one of the most tremendous Tribunals of Rome. Castelvetro was accordingly cited to appear before this Tribunal ; where though he had no- thing to fear from any consciousness of guilty he had much to fear from the power of such an enemy as Caro, and his supporters. He con- cealed himself therefore in the States of the Duke of Ferrara till the Pontificate of Paul IV. of the House of Caraffa. Then his friends advised him to go to Rome to purge himself of the Calumny; and especially Egidio Foscherari^ Bishop of Mo- dena. At length he obeyed in company with his Brother Giov an- Maria: and going to Rome with a safe conduct presented himself before the Car- dinals in Assembly. After many disputes, the Convent of Santa Maria in Vice, was assigned for his prison; but without requiring Bail; and with liberty to consult with whom he pleased, which attracted to him the continual visits of Gentlemen, and Men of Letters, desirous to know the person of one so distinguished for his wisdom and acquirements. Many were the examinations of Castelvetro 199 LETTER XVIII. made by Brother Tommasso da Vigevano, depu- ted for this Process^ who with the Chancellor of the Holy Inquisition tried the means to discover his guilt; but finding nothing in Lodovico but good habits and profound science, he came to severer methods, threatening both him, and his brother Giovan- Maria with the most frightful treatment, if they did not confess the faults laid to their charge; Castelvetro remained firm, con- fiding in his innocence. But hearing afterwards that Cardinal Alessandrino, afterwards Pope Pius V, remarkable for his severity to whosoever was accused or suspected of Heresy, threw out great threats against every one subjected to the processes of the Inquisition, the Sage's courage began to fail ; and especially from reflecting on the character of the Enemies he had at Rome ; so that his fears increased so strongly, as to throw him into a melancholy, which made him imagine that he always saw a Bailiff at his heels ready to confine him within the miserable walls of a pri- son. Then he lamented to his Brother his re- gret at having been the occasion of bringing him also into so cruel a situation. But Giovan-Maria LETTER XVIII. 200 endeavoured to reason him out of* these fears; re- presenting the integrity of the Sacred Tribunal ; and that the Innocent might well place their re- liance on Heaven ; but Lodovico replied by other strong reasoning, shewing the foundation of these terrors, notwithstanding he felt conscious of no fault. Thus, notwithstanding the comfort of his conscience, the ideas of the threatened dangers so increased upon him, that he resolved to take flight. He accordingly escaped from the Mo- nastery, and from Rome ; and in company with his Brother bent his way towards Lombardy. They got safe through their journey, though they had run through difficulties and perils, by the necessity of frequenting bye-roads, to avoid falling into the hands of the Officers and Gove- nors of the Pontifical States, as they had good intelligence, that Letters were immediately sent out to search for and arrest the Fugitives. " I do not" says Muratori, "undertake to de- fend, or excuse Castelvetro; because I am equ- ally ignorant of the accusations^ and on the other hand of the justifications and grounds of Defence of my illustrious Fellow-Citizen. Flight seems 201 LETTER XVIII. the indication of Guilt: but is not always the mark of a wicked cause; it may sometimes ac- company innocence, and a right conscience. Judges may be misled; and are subject to the secret operation of powerful Passions ; and the means of discovering Truth may be used to ob- tain credit for Falsehood." Whatever was the case of Castelvetro, he thought that the only safe- ty was in flight from enemies so powerful, in times when Governments were so severe. He might well dread the suspicion of being misrepresented amid the discord of the dogmas of the Catholic Church, and of being exposed to the malignant Zealots, who had prisons and torments always at hand. He had two striking examples before him from his own City. Cardinal Morone; and Egidio Foscherari. The former filled the Epis- copal Chair of Modena from 1529 to 1550, with the highest applause. But in the time of Pope Paul IV. Caraffa, remarkable for his fiery and indiscreet zeal, he fell under suspicion, was con- fined a prisoner in the Castle of St. Angelo; and and would probably have been deprived of the Purple and other dignities, but for the timely LETTER XVIII. 202 death of the Pope 1559. He survived to die in glory at Rome Bishop of Ostia, 1580. Fosche- rari his friend incurred the same hazard ; and long languished miserably till the same pontiiF's death released him. He died at Rome 1564. It must not therefore be marvelled, that while Paul IV. lived, Castelvetro had not the courage to stand his Trial at Rome; and that he deemed his best safety in flight. Annibal Caro was not slow in taking advantage of this event; and with the aid of his protectors caused Castelvetro to be condemned, and excommunicated for contumacy, on the presumption that he was guilty of the charges made against him: and this Sentence was published in the usual form. His Brother, Giovan- Maria, for having kept him company was rigorously cited to Rome under penalty of excommnnication, and not having obeyed this Citation, was obliged to become a Wanderer with his Brother, to the great injury of himself and his family, Now Caro had the triumph of seeing his adversary depressed: not indeed by his literary attacts ; but by ill Fortune. How- ever he enjoyed this victory but a few years. Hav- 2 D 203 LETTER XVIII. ing requested of his old Patron Cardinal Farnese to give up to one of his nephews a Commandery of Malta of the rent of 1000 scudi, formerly ob- tained notwithstanding the baseness of his birth through this Cardinal; and being refused this favour, he immediately requested a release from his service. The Cardinal answered bitterly this request ; reproached him with his former favours ; undeservedly, as he said, conferred on him; and more especially for having been the occasion of his discountenancing the greatest Liter at eur of that age; as was attested by Count Jacopo Bos- chetti, a Noble Bolonese, then in the Cardinals Service. By these words the miserable old man was struck to the heart, having lost, besides the hope of accomodating his nephew, the favour of his Patron, whom he had so many years served in the office of Secretary : and thus he died on 28 Nov. 1566.* Castelvetro, having fled into Lombard y con- * Caro translated Virgil's ^Eneid into Italian Verse. The most rare Edition is that of Venice 1581^ 4*«. See two son- nets of Caro in Matthias's Componimentij IV. 144. 145. LETTER XVIII. 204 cealed himself for that winter in a Villa in the Province of Modena ; and \v as at that time kindly received by Count Ercole Contrario in his terri- tory of Vignola, and afterwards secretly in his Palace in Ferrara, a resort then common to all the Literati. But having soon afterwards heard of his condemnation^ and of all the severe edicts against the planners, accomplices, and favourers of Heresy, he resolved to yield to his fate, and retire out of Italy with his Brother Giovan-Maria. In the first favourable opening therefore of the year 156l he departed for Chiavenna near the Lake of Como, in the Republic (or Canton) of the Grisons, where he found Francesco Porto, the Greek already mentioned, his old friend, who received him with the greatest kindness. This Territory was but small; and of little fertility, inhabited by a small population, intent only on traffic and lucre: Castelvetro thefore begun to think of going into France, where he did not want friends, who having heard of his misfor- tunes, invited him thither with large promises. Porto was about to set oif to Paris on his own affairs ; when he took upon himself to procure 205 LETTER XVm. that also of his friend. He set forwards for Lyons ; but passing through Geneva, the Repub- lic of that City applied to him to remain there to read Lectures in the Greek language, which the good Greek accepted : and took up his residence there with his family. The French friends of Castelvetro did not refrain from soliciting him to pass into their country : and sent him money for his journey: but as he began to fall into age; and w^as subject to a suppression of urine, which caused him great torments, instead of going, he sent his Brother to carry back the money; and to make his excuses, that being prevented by his maladies from visiting them, he could not accept their generous offers. Another motive for not leaving the Territory of Chiavenna was that he found himself in the neighbourhood of Trent w^here the famous Coun- cil was held: and thence he indulged a hope of finding a way out of the Labyrinth in which he had so long been involved. In IbGl he made vari- ous applications to this venerable assembly, repre- senting the calumnies, which had undeservedly been thrown upon him ; and the Sentence fulmi- LETTER XVIII. 206 iiated against him from Rome ; what happened the Reader may find in the History of the Coun- cil of Trent * by the celebrated pen of the Car- dinal Sforza Pallavicino, (Liv XV. cap. 10.) All the efforts of Castelvetro, which merited a more kind reception^ could gain nothing; and seeing the Council of Trent about to end^ he be- gan to lose all hope of recovering his quiet; and of beholding an end to his misfortunes. For this reason ; or from the increased invitations of the French ; or perhaps from the desire^ which he had to find air^ food, and wine more favour- able to his debiliated and melancholy Constitu- tion ; he went to Lyons in France; and there took up his Station. How much time he spent at Lyons is unknown; certainly not a little; for he there composed his Conunent on the Poeties of Aristotle, It is beyond doubt, that while Castelvetro was here quietly enjoying his sojourn in this great City, that the Civil Wars broke out between the Catholics and the Hugonots. On this occasion according to custom the houses of the innocent were pillaged ; and among them that of the unhappy Castelvetro. Thus the two * Printed at Rome in 1656, in 2 Vols. Fol. 207 LETTER XVIII. Modenese found themselves most unwillingly in- volved in these noisy and dangerous tumults; and had no remedy but in flight. Having with great difficulty, obtained of the Governor the escort of two Halberdiers, who ac- companied them one league out of Lyons ; when they travelled in company with other Fugitives for the safety of their persons. But as one mis- fortune never comes alone, armed bravos on the road came on their backs; robbed them; and wdth difficulty spared their lives. Castelvetro so entirely lost his courage, and his strength, that he could scarcely move his feet; and before he could get out of the danger, it was necessary to travel three miles; and on foot; a thing impos- sible for him. But God did not abandon him in this Strait; for there came on the road a Ferra- rese Gentleman, who, having heard that he had departed from Lyons, recognized him ; made two of his Servants disrhount from their horses; and put upon them the two Modenese ; and carried them away with him in safety. In his portman- teau Castelvetro had brought with him besides his apparel, some of his best printed Books that LETTER XVIII. 208 he could find; and what was worse^ his MSS, among which a Grammar on his Native Tongue ; a Comment on the greater part of the Dialogues of Plato ; and a Judgement on the Comedies of Plautus and Terence ; all written in the Italian language ; and of which there only remain a few fragments of his hand^ which came into the pos- session of Muratori. The Comments which he had written on the Comedia of Dante, and which he had tried to recompose, were not conducted beyond the XXIX Cap. of the Inferno. At that time his Translation of the New Testament into Italian, was missing; bnt a copy having been luckily left in the hands of a Friend, it was re- covered. Having given a copy of his Comment on the Poeties of Aristotle when just finished to Giro- lamo Arnolfino, Merchant of Lucca, to save it from this tempest, and return it, this faithless man could by no instances be prevailed on to restore it; and this literary labour would proba- bly have been entirely lost; but that luckily ano- ther Copy had been made by him, and sent to Modena some months before. 209 LETTER XVIII. Castelvetro having escaped in this manner from these dangers, went to Geneva, where he was received most kindly by Francesco Porto ; and remained there till he could replace his ap- parel, and replenish his pocket, not turning to his first resting place at Chiavenna, till he had made a sojourn of more than a year. His great- est comfort and restorer in this solitude was the friendship and familiarity, which he formed with Ridolfo Salice a Gentleman of one of the most noble and powerful families of the Grisoijs ; a Colonel under the Emperor, Maxamilian II, with whom he was a great favourite; and who had shewn him benefits and courtesies in all sorts of offices. Immediately the fame of Castelvetro's know- ledge attracted there many youths desirous to obtain the Greek Letters ; and he consented to give them in private a Lecture on Homer, &c. But his brother Giovan-Maria, having been sent to the Imperial Court at Vienna, brought back the protection of the Emperor, Maximilian : and the two Brothers thought it better to trans- LETTER XVIII. 210 fer themselves thither, as to a noble port in those hazardous times. Daring his stay at Vienna Ludovico was so kindly received by Maximilian, that having been advised by his friends to publish his Exposition of the Poetics of Aristotle, he determined to de- dicate it to this his most August Protector; and had it printed in that City. Soon after rose a suspicion of the Plague in Vienna, and he, vrho vrould not voluntarily be present at this new and dismal Tragedy, judged it better to return to Chiavenna, where he ended his unfortunate life 21 Feb. 1571. He passed his youth in the company of the noble, the accomplished, and the lettered; in the exercise of arms, of the lance and the sword ; in dancing and such other toils as keep the body in health. Having moderated his love of study, he returned early to it ; but from that time no longer enjoyed a sound constitution ; and was afterwards tormented with continual maladies. He cared not for the honours, nor riches, nor pleasures, after which most men so eagerly run ; and though frequently invited by great men into 2 E 211 LETTER XVIII. their service he could not bear to be the com- panion of this worldly greatness, from his ab- horence of those chains, which, though they might be of gold, were still chains I Among these was the Cardinal Bernardino Maffeo, who in- vited him to Rome ; that is, to the most frequent- ed Emporium of the best Wits: and Vitellozzo Vitelliy afterwards Cardinal, who had formed a strict intimacy with him at Padua, who said he had learned more from his familiar reasonings, than from all the pompous Lectures of the Pub- lic Readers of the University. He had a great love of changing his climate ; and of travelling, not from the vain curiosity of feeding his eyes with the Material ip^rt of Cities; but to profit by the conversation of the Learned, who then flourished in Italy at a distance from his native spot. On his Mother s death he went to Pisa, hav- ing a great desire to know personally Francesco Robortello, who then read Lectures with great celebrity at that University. He afterwards formed so strict an intimacy with him at Venice and at Padua, that Robortello deeply interested LETTER XV III. 212 himself to assist him against Caro: bat he did not accept the offer; though he had great want of subsidiaries in this War. Castelvetro went equally to Florence to seek the acquaintance of Pier Vittorio, or rather Vet- tori, one of the most learned and famous persons, which Italy then had in the science of the Greek and Latin Literature. From Florence he went to Padua, an Univer- sity then abounding in Professors and men of great Literature, into whose friendship he intro- duced himself; and gained great reputation a- mong various Gentlemen, lovers of Letters, who sojourned in that City. Castelvetro was a man of honorable, and ex- cellent habits; and no one received any other than good advice from him. Zealous to serve his friends and relations, he spared no fatigue to help the oppressed, and console the afflicted. Be- sides the lessons, which he gave with so much kindness and courtesy to the youth of his own country, he endeavoured to serve every one who had resort to him ; nor was there a dissention 213 LETTER XVIII. among the Citizens, of which the reconcilement was not committed to him. He saw his House always frequented hy the most noble and honourable of his countrymen; and himself universally beloved through the whole City. Among the Nobles who especially distinguished him was Count Alessandro Ran- gone, who venerated him as a Father; and visit- ed him every day, while he remained in his Country; and in his exile always sought to assist him in every manner he could. His conversation was always of great profit to those, who were lovers of literature ; and he had the talent of re- lating in the most agreeable manner the adven- tures with which he had become acquainted more especially of the time, during which he had studied at Rome. It was his custom to con- verse in a low voice; and with few words; a habit, which appears in his writings, which a- bound with sense and thoughts, and are marked by that clearness, which is one of the greatest excellencies of style. He was steady in abstemiousness of food, partly from virtue ; and partly from his habitual LETTER XVIII. 214 ill health. His dress was simple; and even austere. He never married; and abhorred all sensual luxuries. Persecution and adversity could not shake the fortitude of his miud, so long as he enjoyed liberty; and he sustained exile for fifteen years with intrepidity and patience observ- ing that to a brave man every place was his country. He was naturally irascible; but by reason and virtue moderated this heat; and easily par- doned those who offended him, except in literary disputes, in which, when his adversaries were ob- stinate, he was obstinate also; and the more emi- nent they were, the more he exerted himself to oppose them. He had disputes with many; but with none so bitter, or so prejudicial to his quiet, as with Annibal Caro. He was accustomed to say, that he did not enter into contests with able men, but to benefit the world by searching out the truth of things : that he was not instigated by any passion : that his study was not from am- bition; nor for his own private benefit; but only for the honourable recreation of his mind ; and to point out to others that which he believed to be true, or the best. 215 LETTER XVIII. Many contend that his genius was peculiarly censorious and critical. It is certain that he could not have arrived at great fame in literature, if he had not discovered the base and the false; and other defects in the writinsrs and conduct of others. But it is necessary to guard against the excess of such studies; as all are liable to faults and errors : and we ought to refrain from search- ing only for that which we may reprehend and oppose in their works, as if all were blind and negligent but ourselves. He certainly was fond of censure, and literary war: and this his natural inclination appears in the features, which the painter has preserved of his countenance; not open, but ruffled and gloomy. Torquato Tasso, who praised and esteemed this learned man, yet mentions in one of his Letters, that he found in his Books something peevish and fantastical, which he disliked ; and a certain desire to sink others Avho came under his hands, which dis- pleased him. Yet it is true, that Castelvetro was not professedly a Cynic, nor properly Satiri- cal and biting; but he was too subtle; and refined too much on the opinions and compositions of LETTER XVIII. 21 6 others ; and sometimes over-argued points in the wish to explain defects. This he was more espe- cially accustomed to do in his greener years. But his judgment encreased with age ; and his sentiments became more just and moderate. But he never ceased to be over-acute; and too easy in finding faults, where they did not exist. As he loved to contradict, and to censure, in consequence of that philosophical and pene- trating spirit, which urged him to reflect, and subtilize on every subject, which came before him; so he was little loved by many; though not the less venerated, especially in matters of Rhe- toric, poetry, and grammar, in which he was most eminent; and above all, for his singular skill in language. He had also a good know- ledge of Hebrew, having had for a Master a cer- tain Davide Gindeo, a Modenese; a man, who not only possessed this language ; but was a Phi- losopher, and Theologian not to be despised. He had also acquired great skill in the Pro- vengallauguage ; having had for guide Giovan- Maria Barbieri, a Modenese, who, if he was not the only one, was certainly the most eminent for 217 LETTER XVIII. his knowledge in this Tongue. Associated with him, he translated many Canzons of Arnaldo Daniello, and of many other Provencal Poets ; and perhaps to these able men belonged that most precious and very ancient MS. of the Rimes of the Provencals^ preserved in the Biblio- theca Estense. They also translated into Italian the Lives of these Poets; and a Provencal Grammar by a good Author ; and other things belonging to this Language, with a view to have them all printed, as they were pressed to by many persons; and especially by Alessandro Beccadelli, Archbishop of Ragusa. But from the persecu- tions, which befell Castelvetro; and from other interruptions, the design was dropped ; and their labours were dispersed ; which might have been of great use to Giovan-Maria Crescimheniy and the Canon Antonio Bastero of Barcelona, who in the commencement of the last Century labour- ed not a little at Rome to illustrate this language, and its ancient Poets. ^ * Nostradamus wrote the Lives of the Provencal Poets in French, in the middle of the XVI ^h. Century. This was soon after translated into Italian by Gindici, and printed at LETTER XVIII. 218 Unquestionably Castelvetro was without a rival in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek languages. He composed in the first both in prose, and in verse ; and wrote with no ordinary- purity and elegance, imitating, as much as pos- sible, the stile of Caesar, and of Cicero; deeming Caesar superior in purity to the other; delighting much in the copiousness and sweetness of Ovid; but still more the sobriety and grandeur of Vir- gil, whom yet he held inferior in invention and other gifts to Homer. But his forte was in Latin poetry; for this he was held in most value by Giovanni Guidic- cioni; Marco Antonio Flaminio; Giraldi the elder; Pigna, and others. Cardinal Bembo also highly commended some of his Latin verses, as the best of that age. Some of his Latin Verses Lyons 1575. Svo. Crescimbeni made a new Translation with Notes and Additions, Roma, 1722, 4to, now scarce. Dela Curue St~ Palaije made ijreat Collections for a History of the Troubadours; and Millet wrote their Lives, Paris 1773, 3 vols. 12mo. from St Palayes MSS. Selections from Troubadour Poetry have been lately pub- lishing at Paris by Renouard, with Notes and Observations Critical and Biographical. 2 F 219 LETTER XVIII. have seen the light; but the greater part are l08t. Castelvetro was also a marvellous Master of the Greek Tongue ; at that time cultivated with so much application by the Italians^ and espe- cially the Modenese; and now so much neglect- ed. He composed many Epigrams in this lan- guage^ and made many Translations from it. His Trmislation and Exposition of Aristotle s Poetics printed at Vienna, 1^7^; ^i^d again at Basil, 1576; and his last Commentary on the Dialogues of Plato were proofs of his skill. By such skill in language and such acuteness of talent, he became almost miraculous in deducing the Etymology of Italian words from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin ; in which after him the most distinguished were Ferrari, Menagio, and the Abate Anton-Maria Salvini. For this skill in the Greek he was esteemed by the first Literati of his age ; and especially by the famous Harry Stevens, who considered him the first greek Scho- lar of his age, and dedicated to him the Book of Parrasius de rebus per Epistolam qucesitis, which was afterwards reprinted by Gruter in the first LETTER XVIII. 220 volume of his Thesaurus Criticus, Stevens calls him "the greatest of Critics; and a man the most eminent for his skill in poetry." Castelvetro was also preeminently skilled in the Italian language. To this he gave the great- est study; and the most continued attention, which it well deserved. The famous Cardinal Sadoleto residing in his Bishopric of Carpentras in France; and with him Paolo Sadoleto, and Antonio Fiordibello, also Modenese, who both became eminent Literati, and Bishops, there fell under the inspection of this famous Prelate, the glory of the Modenese, some Italian Letters of Castelvetro, of Filippo Valentino, and of others of their companions : and it appearing to him that they gave more study to the Italian language than became them, he caused Fiordihello to write a long Latin Argument in dispraise of this Lan- guage, and of its Authors ; and in commendation of the Latin, and of its Authors ; warning his stu- dious fellow-citizens to despise the one, and at- tend to the other. Paolo Sadoleto wrote another Discourse in Italian, intended to prove this lan- guage was only fit for common things; and 221 LETTER XVIII. that the Latin ought to be used in matters of importance ; and such as were worthy of remem- brance^ These two Arguments were directed to Cas- telvetro, to Valentino, to Giovanni Falloppia, to Alessandro Melano, and to Frances Camo- rana, ingenious men then of this City. Castel- vetro and Valentino retired into the Country ; and with strong reason and much erudition com- posed an Answer^ proving that in our times the Italians could write much better in their liv- ing language than in Latin; an argument happily handled in the XVIIP^ Century hj Antonio VaU lisnieri, a celebrated Physician and Philosopher of the University of Padua, published anony- mously. No reply was made to the Answer of Castel- vetro, and Valentino. In a more vigorous age Castelvetro wrote his Comento sopra le Rime di Francesco Petrarca; but to which he did not give his last hand ; and from which he reserved the three First Sonnets, having a controversy on these with Giulio Cam- ilb DelminiOy who had commented on them LETTER XVIII. 222 before him ; which made him desire to labour them with more attention. This Work^ which consisted of his private readings in his juvenile studies, was published some years after his death ; being printed at Ba- sil, 1582; but with some defects, which the Au- thor had not removed, not haying prepared the Work for publication. In a MS copy, the Au- thor has noted that this Comment was finished on 8th Oct. 1545.^ This Edition of 1582 is rare and esteemed. It was reprinted at Venice by Zatta, 17^6, 4*^ * Allessandro VellutellOj a native of Lucca published Pe- trarch's Rimes with a Commentary. Venice, 1525, 4to.— 1528, 4to.--1532, 8VO.--1538, 1552, 1554, 1560, 1568, 1584 4to See Dessade, 1. Pref. XXXII. Bernardino Daniello, published Petrarch's Rimes, with a Comment, 1549, 4to. Venice. Among the best of the early Lives of Petrarch, was that of Beccadelli, Archbishop of Ragnsa, first printed in Tomasi- ni's Pretrarcha Redivivus 1635, 4to, Of this learned Prelate, whose exquisite Portrait adorns tlie Tribune of the Royal Gal- lery at Florence, See Monumenti di Vavia Litteratura Tratti dui Manoscritti di Monsignor Lodovico Beccadelli Arcivescovo di Ragusa. 3 vols, 4to. Bologna, 1797,-1804. He died 17th Oct. 1572, oet. 71. He was born at Bologna, 29th. Jan^ 1501, of a noble and ancient, but decayed family. 223 LETTER XVIII. Within four or five years of this time Cas- telvetro was impelled by his critical genius to write a Volume of Criticism on the Prose del celebre Cardinal Pietro Bemho, where he treated minutely on the Grammar of the Italian lan- guage ; sometimes approving, sometimes blaming the examples which he drew from Bembo. He suffered a part of this work to see the light at Modena^ in 156*3; but without his name. Other fragments came out appended to the Cor- rections of the Dialogue of Varchi 1572. Other parts, preserved in the Bibliotheca Estense were furnished by Muratori, and added to the beautiful edition of the Prvse of Bemho, Naples, 1714. * The greatest favourites of Castelvetro in the Ita- lian language were Petrarch, and Boccace. He often read over the Novels ; and said he always found something new in them. He highly esteemed Dante; and had written *Maratori says, the meaning of the Motto, KEKPICA at the bottom of the title of the answer to Annibal Caro, &c. is ho giiidicato: and that the empty Vase is a device to ex- press a person swelled with too high an opinion of himself, but without wisdom^ or judgment. LETTER XVIII. 224 a Commetif on him, which was lost at Lyons in the shipwreck of his writings. The first Part, containing an Exposition of the Inferko as far as Canto XXIX. This was found among the MSS of Cardinal d' Este ; and was once recovered by Muratori; but lost again. He persuaded the famous Printers, the Gi- untl, to print the vast Latin Comment of Beneve- nuto da Incola upon the Comedia of Dante, having found a good and ancient text in the hands of the Canons of Reggio in Lombardy, and thinking that this work, full of Philosophy, Theology, and History, ought not to perish in darkness. In almost all the works of Literary Elogia of Italy, Castelvetro is highly praised. * It has been already said, that his death hap- pened at Chiavenna, after his return from Vienna. He was looking to the Spring to go to Basil, * See (among others) Giullo Coesare Capaccio: Elogi. Giovan-Matteo Toscario-Veplus Italiae. Lorenzo Crasso-Elogi. Gaddi- Scrittori non Ecclesiastici. Teissier Elogi de i Letterati ! 225 LETTER XVIir. whither he had been invited by some Italian friends, when his old complaint of a stoppage of urine returned upon him with greater violence : and in the space of four days he died 21st. Feb. 1571 5 set. 66, He was buried there; and a mar- ble Inscription is erected to his memory. =^ His intellectual character; his learning; his morals; his person, have been already described. His example may incite to an imitation of his Learning; and of his moral virtues; but not of his literary irratibility: for Literature and Sci- ence should be used to make our lot more happy in this world; not more full of troubles, -j- Alas ! of all bitternesses what is so bitter, as the spirit of Literary Quarrels ? To envy, to scorn, to censure, to misrepresent, to dissect, to delight in debasing, what is it but an emanation of the fire of the Infernal Regions ? It breaks the heart of the kind, and the good! It never yet reformed or convinced Stupidity, or Folly ! The *See it in Ghilini, Teatro Degli Uomini Letterati, 1. 147. t Drawn from the Life prefixed by Muratori to Opere varie Critiche di Lodovico Castelvetro. Milan 17^7. 4, Jean Pic married Catherine daughter of Wil- liam Bevilacqua, and was father of Jean- Francis Pic, who by Julia daughter of Feltrin Boiardo had three sons. 1. Galeotto. 2. Anthony -Marie. 3. Jean. 30J) LETTER XTX. The next day Alfonso solemnly abdicated the Ducal Power : and retiring among the Capu- chins of Morano in the Tyrol, took the habit of their Order, on 8th Sep. under the name of Bro- ther John Baptist of Modena, being then only in his 38th year. He persisted in his vocation, This 3d son was the renowned Scholar. He was called Count ot Mirandola though a younger brothen j as all the sons seem to have been entitled to share the inheritance and the titles* He studied the Law at Bologna at the age of 14 years ; thence he passed to the most celebrated Universi- ties of France and Italy. He pretended at the age of 18 to be master of 22 languages 3 a thing incredible. At the age of 24 he published at Rome a challenge to all the world to to dispute on proposed subjects, which embraced the whole range of the Sciences, de omni scibili. Envy accused some of his Theses of Heresy. The Pope pronounced more than one suspicious : Pico apologised ; and by his submission obtained absolution. Pico then applied himself to the study of the Sacred Writings ; and to confute the Jews and Mahometans and to shew the vanity of Judicial Astrology. He renounced his share in ths Principality j distributed his goods among the Poor J and shut himself up in one of his Castles. He died at Florence, in 1494, aged 32. This Epitaph was made on him : Joannes jacet hie Mi- randola} c to the great regret of his subjects ; and retired to Venice; having named, before his departure, a Regency, at the head of which was the Mar- quis Girard Rangone. To this Regency the Duke confided the government of his dominions. A little after a deputation was sent to the Gene- ral in Chief, who was at Placenza; and he re- quired a great contribution to be paid to the French Army; and an Embassy to be sent to the Directory of the Republic at Paris, to treat of a Peace with them. The Count of San-Romano, named to this difficult mission, departed immediately accompa- nied by the Professor John-Baptist Venturi, and two Secretaries: but all these proceedings went for nothing: and the French Troops took hos- 335 LETTER XIX. tile occup at ion of Modena on the evening of Oct. 6th 1796. In this year there was assembled at Reggie, by order of Bonaparte, a Congress composed of Cispadane Italians ; and on 27th Dec. it decreed the unity and indivisibility of the Cispadane Re- publiCy to which these provinces were joined : but only for a short time; for Bonaparte by his decree of 27th May, 1797? detached them from the Cispadane; and united them to the new Cisalpine Republic ; which had Milan for its Capital. A little time after the Treaty of Leoben, war being renewed, the fate of Arms entirely changed in Italy; and on 30th April 1799, the Germans penetrated on the side of Parma. On 4th May of the same year the Austrians occupied Modena, where a Regency was provisionally established, which published, on 13th May new regulations for administering the Estates of the House of Este. But the French Army, which remained in the Kingdom of Naples, commanded by General Macdonald, approached by forced marches to LETTER XIX. 336 Modena, to come to the succour of the Grand Army encamped near the Po. A body of Aus- trians, under the orders of General Ott, opposed itself to their passage through these States, with the sole view of retarding their march. In effect the French, having on the evening of 11th of June 1799 given the signal of an attack upon the ramparts of Modena, they put it into execution the day after, and the iVustrians sustained it teebly for some time ; after which they abandon- ed the City to the French, who entered it, and caused much destruction. The German Corps retired to Placenza, where it rejoined the Army of the General in Chief Melas, aud that of the Russian General Suwarrow, who were watching the French. These last were beat at Trebia, on 19th June; and were obliged to retire, on the 24th in a bad condition, upon Reggio, and Modena. Thence they retired into Tuscany, always closely pursued by the Austrian General Klenau, who, on the 25th, occupied Modena. These provinces then returned under the dominion of Duke Hercules, who named a Re- 337 LETTER XIX. gency, over which presided the Imperial Com- missary, Count Querrieri of Mantua. But the Duke continued his residence at Tre- viso; for he perceived that the affairs of Italy were not yet settled. In effect the Battle of Marengo, gained by the French in June 1800 rendered them again Masters of all Lombardy, and the contigious Provinces. The Conquerors established the Government of the Cisalpine Republic at Modena as well as at Reggio; a government which subsisted till* the epoch of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Italy; of which these States formed two De- partments : one named, of Panaro, having for its chief City, Modena; the other of Crosfolo, hav- ing for its chief City, Reggio. When the City of Venice was threatened, and afterwards occupied by the French Arms, Duke Hercules retired to Treviso, with his sis- ter Mathilda. He lived exiled from his States till 1803, when after a long illness sustained with Christian resignation, he died the night of the 13th or 14th of October, aged 7b years, 10 LETTER XIX. 338 months, and 24 days; and was buried in the Church of the Capuchins of that City. In I816 the Body was transported to Modena; and de- posited in a tomb in the Cathedral Church ac- cording to the orders of his Will. Here ended the male line of the Italian branch of the very ancient and illustrious House of Este. In the same month the Princess Mathilda died at Treviso: and in the following month, her sister, the Princess Fortunee, widow of the Prince de Bourbon - Conti, terminated her days at Ve- nice. Marie-Beatrix d'Este, only daughter and heir of the last Duke, by Marie-Therese de Cibo Malespina, succeeded her Mother, on 26th Dec. 1790, in the Principalities of Massa and Carrara. On 15th Oct. 177 1 i this Princess married the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, younger son of the Emperor Francis I. and of Maria-Theresa: and carried to him her rights of inheritance upon Modena, Reggio, and Mirandola. The Events of the war had forced the late Duke to exchange the States of Modena for Bris- gaw and Ortenau in conformity to the provisions 'Z X 339 LETTER XIX. of the Peace of Luneville of 1801. But the Duke, not choosing to take possession of these Provinces, made a cession of them to his son-in- law, the Archduke Ferdinand, who preserved the Sovereignty till 1805, when they passed to the Grand-Diike of Baden. The Archduke Ferdinand died 24th Decem- ber 1806, leaving four sons, and three daughters. Francis IV. (eldest son of Marie -Beatrix d'Este by the Archduke Ferdinand) born 6th Oct. 1779^ was called to the Duchy of Modena in 1814. At this epoch the affairs of Europe changed their face. The Neapolitan Troops, under the orders of Murat, then King of Naples, appeared, on 21st Jan. without seeming to assume an hos- tile character. But in a few days there arrived two small Corps, one Austrian, and one English, commanded by General Nugent. * These joined themselves to the Neapolitan Troops ; and com- menced hostilities against the Army of the King- dom of Italy. * The same, who was lately Commander in Chief at Naples, till removed by the Revolution of July 6th 1820. LETTER XIX. 340 On 7^^ ^^b. General Nugent published a Proclamation^ by which he delivered up these States to the legitimate successor, Francis IV, Archduke of Austria, eldest son of Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, deceased, and of the Arch- duchess, Marie -Beatrix d'Este, sole surviving Branch of the ancient family of Este, On 14th July, 1814, the new Sovereign Francis IV. entered solemnly into Modena, ac- companied by his Consort, Marie -Beatrix -Vic- toire, daughter of the King of Sardinia; and followed by Prince Maximilian d'Este, Archduke of Austria, his Brother. This gave the greatest joy among all ranks of the Citizens, who thus saw their wishes accomplished. The tranquillity, which had now commenced in Italy, was disturbed in the following year, 1815; and Modena was again enveloped in the common evils ; from which however it was soon relieved by the activity which its Sovereign took in military affairs. On 4th April 1815, the Army of Murat pre- sented itself before the ramparts of Modena, then guarded only by a Corps of German Infantry ; 341 LETTER XIX. and a few Cavalry under the orders of the Aus- trian General Bianchi. The Neapolitan Forces were much more considerable, though badly com- manded ; and the Duke of Modena judged it proper to withdraw himself for a little time from the Capital: and therefore went to Mantua, whi- ther he was preceded some days by the Archduke Maximilian, who went immediately into Austria, to accelerate the succours destined for the Ger- man Army in Italy. The Archduchess had already gone some days before to Mantua, while all the family trans- ported itself to Venice. But the Austrian Troops, being already on the road, very quickly arrived, after some partial combats, which they sustained with the enemy; and in which the last were always beaten. On the night of the llth or 12th of April, the Neapolitan Division, preceded by King Mu- rat, quitted Modena, which was entirely relieved by seeing the next morning Duke Francis arrive at the head of a Corps of Hungarian Cavalry. This second Entry of the Prince was an epoch for his subjects more joyous than the first. LETTER XIX. 342 when they saw themselves delivered from the im- minent danger of falling into the hands of Stran- gers. And all hastened to testify their delight at a return so prompt, as well as so desirable. The victories gained by the Germans over the Army of Naples; Mhich in a few days was constrained to quit the States of the Holy See, always closely pursued by the Austrians^ encou- raged the Pope to return anew to Rome, whence he had fled a second time, when the Neapolitan Troops approached his Capital. He took the the route of Tuscany, and Genoa : but in return- ing, he honoured, for a fourth time, the City of MoDENA with his presence; and arrived there on 24th May 1815. He was received at the Gates of the City by the reigning Duke, and remained there till the 27th of the same month. The present Duke has issue. a43 LETTER XX. J^fmatfe^ on tijc ^nb\nt^ of if)t (a^t 2etterg=r='fj^i^torg= 3t3i6liogt:apl)j)=--=^ublic €agte. Naples, bth August 1820. 1 HAVE been induced in my former Letters to give some account of the Sovereigns of three of the chief of the Petty States of Italy: of Milan,* the most considerable Principality of Lombardy; *I have said nothing of the Literary history of Milan, which I ought to have a little enlarged upon. Like all the great Cities of Italy, it has copious and laborious Works, dedicated to the record of the Lives and Writings of its learn- ed Men j especially Philippi Argelati Bononiensis Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium. Two splendid Folio Volumes, Milan J 1745. Among these may be mentioned Andreas AHc- atus, vrell-known to the English for his Emblems : and Car- dan, the Physician, for whom see No I. of the Retrospective Review. LETTER XX. 344 of Parma -f" and of Modena. Whoever is curi- ous about the History of Europe in the XlVth XVth XVIth and XVI I th Centuries^ must wish to have a clear understanding of the Viscontis, the Sforzas^ the Farneses, and the Estes. Nume- rous as are the accounts of them to be found in the Volumes of learned and well-furnished Libra- ries^ they do not often occur in such Books, as are at present in general circulation in England. In truth, though Bibliography is a study, which may be very much abused, and is too often the rage of a Fool with a long memory^ yet he, who is not tolerably well versed in the solid parts of this study, must be content, in all the literary departments, of which the fruit is to be derived from the collected wisdom of ages, con- tinually to waste his labour on what has been already done to his hands; and to be blind to a thousand lights, which, if accessible, he will not be forgiven for having neglected. f Cristoforo Poggiali, Librarian of the Royal Library at Placenza, wrote, Memorie per la Storia Letter aria di Piacenza. 2 vols 4to. Piacenza, 1789. 345 LETTER XX. Thus soundly applied, it teaches us a just humility by the opportunity of comparison ; and, though a learned man may not be a man of genius, or talent, yet talent and genius can ad- vance but a little way without learning. A Nation, which has passed its highest point of Literary vigour and splendor is apt to mistake superficiality for taste; and to call whatever is solid or copious, dull. They like what requires little attention, and still less reflection : a pert joke ; a gaudy metaphor ; an oracular sneer I Some short and piquant remark, Avhich may not puzzle the understanding, or overload the me- mory; but may be easily borrowed; carried away; and form a bon-mot for conversation! Some- thing, which boldly takes part with vulgar feel- ings! Something which, as in some former ages it was the fashion to overrate the claims of lite- rature, panders to the mean passions of the pub- lic of the present day by degrading and debasing them ! Something, which glories in coming back to a belief in first appearances which treats what- ever is taken on the authority of the Wise as prejudice: which rejects every thing profound, LETTER XX. 346 as curious and useless subtlety: which relies on the unborrowed and unprompted force of its own understanding; and believes that real illumina- tion, and sound learning, have risen up for the first time in the Nineteenth Century ! A Book to please such tastes may easily be written by any practised Author, who will con- descend to apply a very small degree of ingenuity in the exercise of the necessary Charlatanism! The learned John Burchard Menckenius (who died 1732, set. 58,) wrote a Book De Charlate- neria Eruditorum.^ This, I believe, was first * In the Charlatanism of Dedications, the Author speaks of our Thomas Fuller, the author of the Worthies ; the Church History, 8^c. * '^ Alii, ut Thomas Fullerus, celebratissimus Historicus Anglus, libros suos plurimis voluminibus parti- untur, singulisque singulos praeponunt Principes aut Opti- mates, a quibus lucelli quippiam aucupantur." p. 63. The author speaks of the vain collectors of Books, in the same manner as, it is now the fashion to speak, as if it was a discovery! Ad eos pergo, qui, cum ipsi nihil habeant, quod prodant, \e\ poiliceantur, satis tamen se tueri posse putant nomen eru- diti, si cunctas suas facultates dilapidantes, quicquid ubique prodeat librorum, quos nee legunt quidem unquam, nee si legant, intelligunt, avidissime corradant totosque monies con- gerant, quae Ion go ordine velut in armamentariis disposita , Y 2 347 LETTER XX. published at Amsterdam, in 1716. I have the 6th edition, published at Naples, 1786. 8vo. But the mode and form of Charlatanism necessarily varies with the Age : it must folio vi^ the fashions and prejudices of the day. At the commencement of the Seventeenth Century, Ser- mons and Disquisitions were loaded with endless quotations from the Classics and Fathers. Every thing was proved by authority: Now every thing is proved, by what is called reason ! Books^ like assortments of goods, are made for the sole purpose of pleasing the public taste : multoque auro ac purpura distincta aliquoties per diem hila- rem vultu adspectant, amicisque ac clientibus suis identidem ad nauseam usque demonstrant." The Neapolitan Editor adds in a Note the following French Extract : "De toutes les occupations une des plus vaines c'est sans doute celle de faire une Biblotheqne, pour ne s'en servir ja- mais. II est vrai, que c'est un meuble qui pare une chambre de meme que les porcellaines, les tables, les peintures, les ta- pisseries. Dons. . . . ne lit, et ne lira jamais j mais il a du bien. ... II achete des livres, les fait relier bien propreraent, forme une nombreuse Bibliotheque. A certain jour, a certaine heure, une fois le mois, il fait placer sor fauteuil vis a vis de ces beaux livres 3 et \k illes contemple.. . Apres quoi il se retire toujours ignorant, mais fort satisfait d'avoir vu des Livres. "&*^ F. Rejl. Mor, Sat. et Com. p. 35, seq. LETTER XX. 348 not to lead it! Not their learning, but their nes- cience^ must be consulted ! The pages mast be as light as their understandings ; and as fashion- ably devoid of laborious discussion! The tone of fashionable society must be adopted : the current topics must be just touched upon; a piquant thing on the most trifling and insignificant part of them must be said — and then away to something else ! Politics may be touched: — but touched with a smile^ and a sneer; as if every thing old was the abuse of the rights of the Many, for the gratifi- cation of the Few; and as if the present Epoch alone had freed our judgments from prejudice! Whether we are in any respect;— either in genius, taste, or learning, advanced beyond our ancestors , may at least be strongly doubted ! Whether in Criticism, that Art in Avhich we are supposed to have made the most rapid progress, we have effected any sound and just improve- ment, is a question much less easy to determine, than is supposed. It is true, we have increased tenfold in severity: but I doubt, if there be much sound policy in turning out Authors, to be bated like wild-beasts, for the public entertainment! to 349 LETTER XX. gratify the worst malignities of a literature-hating Mob!* I know^ that in these our days other motives than a regard to the cause of Literature, real or pretended, have been the main springs in the propagation of Literary Judgments. The dis- semination of political Opinions ; the advocating the cause of a Party has been the prime purpose of the principal British Journals of the XlXth Century. Literary merit, or demerit, has been * But here again there is perhaps nothing new : In the Notes to Menckenius I find this passage. ^'In hunc censum (veritatem non dicendi) referendi sunt multi Ephemeridum Scriptores, qui sine uUo aut judicio aut delectu excerpta compilare, et superfluis suis insulsisque ali- eni laboris, sive censuris, sive panegyricis mercedem men- struani promereri soliti sunt. Alii id curant tantum, ut sues ipsi libellos eosque, qui ex offieina Typographi sui prodeant, extoUant^ ceteros omnes praestantissimos licet, carpant et sugillant, quo id consequi- tur, ut Autores velint nollnt, sua scripta offerant gratis Cen- soribus illis ut vel levi saltern censura afficiantur, vel indicta certe maneant. Ita sunt, qui J Clericuni accusant, quod nuUo alio fine tot annis scripserit suas Ephemerides, quam ut scrip- tis suis digne recensendis ac vindicandis, aliorum vero, quibus male vellet, carpendis locum faceret." pp. 187. 188. LETTER XX. 350 therefore made a consideration subordinate to these views. The National Reading has therefore been confined to a few Books : and those Books have become the Masters of the Public mind. Indi- viduals are scarcely ever strong enough to face them. One gigantic mind did so; and con- quered ! But the only proper reference, which the subject of Literary Criticism has to these Letters, is the manner of writing Accounts of Travels ; and the objects of the particular Travellers curio- sity. Some go in search of the Arts ; some, of Literature ; some, of Society and Manners ; some, of the face of Nature ; some, of natural Science ; and some, of political institutions. But without particular opportunity, to how little advantage can most, (if any,) of these be pursued? What that is worth relating can a superficial Connoiseur, always in motion, tell of pictures, and sculptures, and buildings ? Can we by pass- ing a night, a day, or a week at an Hotel, guess at the political character of the people, among whom it is placed ? Can we guess at the evils 351 LETTER XX. that grind them; can we prognosticate the chan- ges, that would make them happy? Then as to society and manners, — a man like Dr. Moore, travelling with a Duke of Ha- milton, a British nobleman, of the highest rank, and of an historical name, might have an oppor- tunity of seeing them internally ; and describing them with exactness ! but what proud spirit, to whom it is not so easy, will come with crouching introductions ; and wait the mercy of whim and prejudice; neglect and insult? The access perhaps to Literati is not so diffi- cult — at least to a busy man, \^^o can condes- cend to solicit introductions ! And the scenes of Nature are open to all! ^' You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Through which Aurora shews her opening face." * Little incidents and anecdotes, which shew traits of National character, are much sought after and praised! But it too often happens, that these are traits of the mere surface of character, and into the bargain,— of that portion of society, about which little interest can be felt. * Thompson's Castle of Indolence. LETTER XX. 352 As few writers of Travels therefore either know how to select proper topics, or have the talents, the learning, or the opportunities to sup- ply themselves with the proper materials for the due treatment of those topics, few Books in this department are of any permanent value; or even of any momentary interest, except to vulgar and uncultivated curiosity. More than forty years have elapsed, since Coxe's Tour into Switzerland first appeared. It still retains its reputation ;— and justly. This ari- ses from the sound and useful matter of which it is formed. The learned Author's mind was directed to whatever was worthy of notice in sce- nery, natural curiosities, history, politics, biogra- phy, literature, geography, statistics. His cha- racter, introductions, address, curiosity, activity, and spirits introduced him every where to the most distinguished local Literati: and from them, or with their aid, he learned, or was directed to the means of learning, whatever it was most de- sirable for his purpose to know, on the numerous topics which the enquiries of his comprehensive and well-stocked mind embraced. 353 LETTER XX. Matter thus widely gathered; then well-sift- ed^ admitted with all the guards of a well pre- pared and long-instructed judgment, and told with the skill and precision of a Scholar, must comprehend what is beyond the reach of the in- dividual imparters of the separate portions. Each Local Man of Letters might have been more ex- act, and more profound, as he would have been more original, in his own particular sphere. But in him the combination would have been w^anting. It may be also observed, that an observing Stranger has some advantages in selecting pecu- liar traits of manners or whatever else is uncom- mon, over a native, in whom familiarity blunts remark. Coxe's Tour therefore has lost little of its value from Time. The sterling ore of the mat- ter preserves it: and though it has been distilled, and hashed up into an hundred subsequent works, there is always a freshness in the original relator, which literary piracy cannot successfully coun- terfeit ! Whenever therefore a Traveller with all the LETTER XX. 354 qualifications of Coxe, including his industry and address, shall arise, he may make a valuable addition to literature, and to knowledge. But how much the greater part of volumes of Travels are pert and offensive trifles, worse than waste paper. An unfortunate opinion prevails, that a man without literary habits, or even without literary talents, may be able to produce an agreeable, if not an useful Book of Travels! — How can he get the information? — What substitute can he produce for the want of it ? — If a man of genius, or even of literature alone is deficient in the intelligence, which ought to be the first ingre- dient of such Works, still by his general opi- nions, by his taste, by his style, by his very authority, he may make an agreeable and in- structive Book! 2 Z 355 CONCLUDING LETTEF Geneva, Sth February, i88«. As it has been resolved that the communication to the Public of my Letters from the Conti- nent shall close here, a desire has risen in my mind since yesterday to give here a few parting words. How far my Printer has conducted the read- er, I know not: probably not beyond Bologna; through which we passed for the first time about the 23d of October 18 19. We remained at Florence till the end of April 1820; then having spent nearly three weeks at Leghorn, arrived at Naples, by sea, the end of May. Here we remained till the 8th or 10th of Dec. —reached Rome in the evening of the fourth day, after a perilous escape from the Brigands; LETTER XXI. 356 Staid there till 7th of April 1821 ; thence passed back to Florence; and by Bologna, Ferrara, Ro- vigo, and Padua, to Venice ; which City we left again on the fifth day. We now returned through Padua, Vicenza, Brescia, and Bergamo, to Milan, where we rested only one day. By Vercelli and Novara we came to Turin; and passing the Alps again by Mont Cents, reach- ed Geneva a second time on 12th May, 1821 It was curious to have an opportunity of ob- serving the short reign of the Carbonari govern- ment at Naples. It was not less so to have one's ears every moment assailed by the cunning and deep-plan- ned reports, framed of utter invention, which thousands of emissaries were propagating dur- ing the passage of the Austrians round the walls of Rome in March 1821 ; and which English credulity repeated with untired and undestruc- tible eagerness. It would have taught to me, if I had not known before, of what stuff revolutions were made. I wrote privately to England my observations and opinions; but my intelligence 357 LETTER XXr. was not palatable ; and therefore few would give credit to it. What astonished me was the utter want of accurate information of the English Newspapers on both sides, at this time. The opposition Papers naturally shut their ears to that, which they did not wish. But the Government Papers were equally ignorant. When I asked some of my private correspondents why they did not give a hint of what I wrote to them, so contrary to the current news, they answered ; '^ why, it was dis- agreeable to people ; and they did not like to hear it!'' Thus^ "Qui vult decipi, decipiatur!" The last Letter of those printed is probably one of those written from Naples in August 1820. Seventeen eventful months have since passed. 1 could not crowd all that I have observed, and all that I have learned since that time into half a dozen thick volumes! I do not assume that the matter of such volumes would have much hope of being to the public taste. I should have been glad however, if I had had sufficient encourage- ment to fix them upon paper. Perhaps it would LETTER XXI. 358 have given me a stimulus to embody many things, which are yet undeveh^ped even to myself! Let it go ! I have occupation enough with- out the task of these Letters! And it cannot be denied, that the Public have a right to choose, and to carve for themselves. I wish they did do this! but, alas, they choose and carve according to the dictates of certain Reviewers; under the dictates of certain Booksellers! While this is the case, all taste will he mercenary ; or at best capricious! All opinions will be adapted to some temporary purpose. And literature, of which it was formerly the highest praise to exalt us above the arhitrium popidaris aurce, becomes its most entire and most unresisting victim. It is said, that the Mob always takes the tone of a qualified leader! — It takes the tone in gene- ral, of some leader! but is he always, or com- monly, a qualified leader? Sometimes he is a sprig of fashion ! Sometimes he is at the head of a political faction ! Sometimes he is a publish- er s hireling, paid to set off his employer's goods! Sometimes he is in the pay, or under the patro- nage of some overweening, upstart, presumptuous 593 LETTER XXI. Aristocrat; whose assumptions^ whose violences, whose intrigues, whose ambitions, and whose im- portance, he must guard by every maneuvre, and at any sacrifice! Sometimes he is the chief of a literary coterie, out of whose pale no merit is to be allowed I Of all the misfortunes that can happen to Literature, the greatest is its entire subjection to temporary politics. It is in this latter occupa- tion that all the most coarse talents, and most vulgar passions of mankind are busied. As it is all carried on by a system of intrigue and man- agement, and unblushing disregard of all those principles of sincerity, plain dealing, and honor, which a man in his individual conduct would be ashamed to disavow: so, from the instant that Literature falls under the same dominion, the same rules of acting are applied to it without shame or hesitation. It is notorious that Eng- lish Literature is now under the direction of the two great Political Parties who rule over the State. The Law is given at their respective Co- teries, or Cabinets. The Author, who by his independence has omitted to create any interest LETTER XXI. 360 with one of these Parties, is most punctiliously, and with unbroken caution, condemned to neg- lect. It would be treason even to mention his name. But it is quite impossible, that a practical Politician, living in the heated and contagious temperament of daily contention, should have a pure and unvitiated taste in literature ! All his opinions must be mixed with so much which is adventitious and artificial, that it would be above humanity to separate them ! We know also that very minor wits make great men among the prac- tical politicians. All the higher departments of literature lead to a tone of mind quite inconsistent with the routine of practical affairs. They cannot there- fore find a due sympathy in the taste of men so employed ! An habit of piquancy, and sarcasm, and raillery grows up, which is mistaken for solid superiority: and the sensitiveness of genius is sacrificed to the flippant jest of a lively com- panion. All this is exactly what thie multitude, great and small, enjoys. Nothing is so hateful to them 36l LETTER XXI. as intellectual superiority ; and nothing so de- lightful as to pull it down! We are no longer to be dazzled by its splendor; and to be blind to its faults ! We are to teach the mob to detect every weakness with microscopic eye; to analyse away its beauties; and to exaggerate its defects and errors! to instruct the envious how to sneer; and the stupid how to laugh ! Hence men come boldly forward as Authors, who rely upon their management and influence among certain Coteries; and hence those who disdain such servitude^ submit to a sullen silence; and to close within their own bosoms the ener- gies of genius, which might have delighted the world! — It is ludicrous enough, that Great Britain, which in every thing else is becoming extrava- gantly democr^atical, is governed in literature by two petit and narrow, but imperious, unbending, and exclusive Aristocracies! One transcen- dant Genius has, indeed, shewn himself above them all; and made a law and a dominion to himself! In defiance of politics, in defiance of personalities, his strength has risen with op- LETTER XXI. 362 pression and laughing his assailants to scorn, he has forced the applause he disdained to solicit! Till they, who shall take the lead, will trust less to their own crude notions and imperfect views, and more to what the literature of ages has acknowledged as standards of taste, or of moral and political truth; till there shall be more of individual and independent scholarship, and less of Party conspiracy, Literature will continue to decline among the British as rapidly as it has done in the last twenty years ; and perhaps with accelerated velocity. FINIS, "»^K^«<:>«^^«<->^'^'- KENT: ^xinUti at tjc pcibate i^w^g of Sec ^riorjj -, ?Y JOHN WARWICK. 1822. i«^: >il .' ;' ■imi