No More Learning

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? CO R I N N E ; O B I TA L Y . 137
a painful astonishment; but an attitude of complete repose
offers an image that thoroughly accords with the influence
of southern sk ies. The arts there seem but the peaceful
spectators of nature; and genius itself, which agitates a
northern breast, there appears but one harmony the more.
O swald and Corinne entered the court in which the sculp-
tured animals are assembled, with the statue of Tiberius in
the midst of them: this arrangement was made without
premeditation; the creatures seem to have ranged them-
selves around their master. A nother such hall contains
the gloomy work s of the E gyptians, resembling mummies
more than men. This people, as much as possible, assimi-
lated life with death, and lent no animation to their human
effigies: that province of art appeared to them inaccessible.
A bout the porticoes of this museum each step presents
new wonders: vases, altars, ornaments of all k inds, sur-
round the A pollo, the L aocoon, and the Muses. H ere may
one learn to appreciate H omer and S ophocles, attaining a
k nowledge of antiq uity that cannot be elsewhere acq uired.
A mid these porticoes are fountains, whose incessant flow
gently reminds you of past hours: it is two thousand
years since the artists of these chefs-d' amvre ex isted. B ut
the most melancholy sights here are the brok en statues, the
torso of H ercules, heads separated from their trunk s; the
foot of a J upiter, which it is supposed must have belonged
to the largest and most symmetrical statue ever k nown.
O ne sees the battle-field whereon Time contended with
Glory; these mutilated limbs attesting the tyrant' s victory,
and our own losses. A fter leaving the V atican, Corinne
led O swald to the colossal figures on Monte Cavallo, said
to be those of Castor and Pollux . E ach of these heroes
govern a foaming steed with one hand: this struggle of
man with brute, lik e all the work s of the ancients, finely
ex emplifying the physical powers of human nature, which
had then a dignity it no longer possesses. B odily ex ercises
are generally abandoned to our common people: personal
vigour, in the antiq ue, appeared so intimately connected
with the moral q ualities of those who lived in the heart of
war, a war of single combats, that generosity, fierceness,
command, and height of stature, seemed inseparable, ere
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? 138 corinne; on italy.
intellectual religion had throned man' s potency in his soul.
A s the gods wore our shape, every attribute appears sym-
bolical: the " brawns of H ercules" suggest no recollections
of vulgar life, but of divine, almighty will, clothed in super-
natural grandeur.
Corinne and O swald finished their day by visiting the
studio of the great Canova. The statues gained much from
being seen by torchlight, as the ancients must have thought,
who placed them in their Thermes, inaccessible to the day.
A deeper shade thus softens the brilliant uniformity of the
marble: its pallor look s more lik e that of life. A t that
time Canova had j ust achieved an ex q uisite figure, intended
i for a tomb; it represented Grief leaning on a L ion. Co-
rinne detected a resemblance to N evil, with which the
artist himself was struck
his head, to avoid this k
beloved, " Corinne, I
. O ur E nglishman turned away
ind of attention, whispering to his
believed myself condemned to this
eternal grief ere I met you, who have so changed me, that
sometimes hope, and always a delicious agitation, pervades
the heart that ought to be devoted to regret. "
CH A PTE R I I I .
I n painting, the wealth of R ome surpasses that of the rest
of the world. O nly one point of discussion can ex ist on
the effect which her pictures produce -- does the nature of
the subj ects selected by I taly' s great masters admit the
varied originality of passion which painting can ex press?
The difference of opinion between O swald and Corinne on
this point, as on others, sprung but from the difference of
their countries and creeds. Corinne affirmed that S cripture
subj ects were those most favourable to the painter; that
sculpture was the Pagan' s art, and painting the Christian' s;
that Michael A ngelo, the painter of the O ld, and R aphael,
that of the N ew Testament, must have been gifted with
sensibility profound as that of S hak speare or R acine.
" S culpture," she said, " can present but a simple or ener-
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA I j . 139
getic life to the eye, while painting displays the mys-
teries of retirement and resignation, and mak es the im-
mortal spirit speak through the fleeting colours. H istorical
facts, or incidents drawn from the poets, are rarely pic-
turesq ue. O ne had need, in order to understand them,
to k eep up the custom of writing the speeches of their per-
sonages on ribands rolling from their mouths. B ut re.
ligious pieces are instantly comprehended by the whole
world; and our attention is not turned from the art in
order to divine their meaning.
" The generality of modern painters are too theatrical.
They bear the stamp of an age in which the unity of ex ist-
ence and natural way of life, familiar to A ndrew Mantegne,
Perugin, and L eonardo de V inci, is entirely forgotten.
To this antiq ue repose they were wont to add the depth of
feeling which mark s Christianity. F or this I admire the
compositions of R aphael, especially in his early work s.
A ll the figures tend towards the main obj ect, without
being elaborately grouped to create a sensation -- this ho-
nesty in the arts, as in all things else, characterises true
genius; for speculations on success usually destroy enthu- |
siasm. There is a rhetoric in painting as in poetry; and
those who have it not seek to veil the defect in brilliant
but illusive aux iliaries, rich costume, remark able postures,
while an unpretending virgin, with her infant at her
breast, an old man attending the mass of B olsena, a
young one leaning on his staff, in the school of A thens,
or S aint Cecilia raising her eyes to heaven, by the mere
force of ex pression, act most powerfully on the mind.
These natural beauties grow on us each day, while of
work s done for effect our first sight is always the most
B trik ing. " (2) Corinne fortified these reflections by another
-- it was the impossibility of our sympathising with the my-
thology of the Greek s and R omans, or inventing on their
ground. " W e may imitate them by study," she said;
" but the wings of genius cannot be restrained to flights
for which learning and memory are so indispensable, and
wherein it can but copy book s or statues. N ow in pic-
tures alluding to our own history and faith the painter is
personally inspired; feeling what he depicts, retracing
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? 140CO B I N N E ; O R I TA L T.
what he has seen, he draws from the life. Portraitures
of piety are mental blessings that no others could replace;
as they assure us that the artist' s genius was animated by
the holy zeal which alone can support us against the dis-
gusts of life and the inj ustice of man. "
O swald could not, in all respects, agree with her: he
was almost scandalised at seeing that Michael A ngelo had
attempted to represent the Deity himself in mortal shape;
he did not think that we should dare embody H im; and could
scarcely call up one thought sufficiendy ethereal thus to
ascend towards the S upreme B eing, though he felt that
images of this k ind, in painting, always leave us much to
desire. H e believed, with Corinne, that religious medita-
tion is the most heartfelt sentiment we can ex perience, and
that which supplies a painter with the grandest physiogno-
mical mysteries; but as religion represses all movements
of the heart to which she has not given birth, the faces of
saints and martyrs cannot be much varied. H umility, so
lovely in the sight of heaven, weak ens the energy of
earthly passion, and necessarily monotonises the generality
of scriptural subj ects. W hen the terrible A ngelo dealt
with them, he almost changed their spirit, giving to his
prophets that formidable air more suitable to heathen gods
than to saints. O ft, too, lik e Dante, he mix ed Pagan at-
tributes with those of Christianity. O ne of the most
affecting truths in its early establishment is the lowly
station of the apostles who preached it, the slavery of the
J ews, so long depositaries of the promise that announced
the S aviour. This contrast between insignificance of
means and greatness of result is morally beautiful. Y et,
in painting, where means alone can be displayed, Christian
subj ects must needs prove less attractive than those derived
from the times of heroic fable. O f all arts, none save
music can be purely religious. Painting cannot be content
with an ex pression indefinite as that of sound. I t is true
that a happy combination of colours, and of clair-obscure,
is harmony to the eye; but as it shows us life, it should
give forth life' s strong and varied passions. Undoubtedly
such passages of history ought to be selected as are too
well k nown to be unintelligible: facts must flash on us
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y . 141
from canvass, for all the pleasures the fine arts bestow are
thus immediate; but with this eq uality provided, histori-
cal pictures have the advantage of diversified situation and
sentiments. N evil asserted, too, that a preference should
be given to scenes from tragedies, or the most touching
poetic fictions, so that all the pleasures of imagination
might thus unite. Corinne contended against this opinion,
seducing as it was; convinced that the encroachment of
one art upon another would be mutually inj urious. F or
sculpture loses by attempting the groups that belong to
painting, painting by aspiring to dramatic animation.
The arts are limited, not in their powers but in their
means. Genius seek s not to vanq uish the fitness of things
which its glory consists in guessing. " Y ou, my dear
O swald," said Corinne, " love not the arts for themselves,
but as they accord with your own feelings; you are moved
merely when they remind you of your heart' s afflictions.
Music and poetry better suit such a disposition than those
which speak to the eye, however ideally; they can but
please or interest us while our minds are calm and our
fancy is free. W e need not the gaiety which society con-
fers in order to enj oy them, but the composure born of
soft and radiant climes. W e ought, in the arts that re-
present ex terior obj ects, to feel the universal harmony of
nature, which, while we are distressed, we have not within'
ourselves. " -- " I k now not," answered O swald, " if I
have sought food for my sorrows in the arts, but at least I
am sure that I cannot endure their reminding me of
physical suffering. My strongest obj ection against S crip-
ture pictures is the pain I feel in look ing on blood and
tortures, however ex alted the faith of their victims. Phi-
loctetus is, perhaps, the only tragic subj ect in which such
agonies can be admitted; but with how much of poetry
are his cruel pangs invested! They are caused by the
darts of H ercules; and surely the son of E sculapius can
cure them. H is wounds are so associated with the moral
resentment they stir in that pierced breast, that they can
ex cite no symptom of disgust. B ut the Possessed in R a-
phael' s Transfiguration is disagreeable and undignified.
W e would fain discover the charm of grief, or fancy it
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? 142CO R I N N E J O B I TA L Y .
lik e the melancholy of prosperity. I t is the ideal of human
fate that ought to appear. N othing is more revolting than
ensanguined gashes or muscular convulsions. I n such
pictures we at once miss and dread to find ex actitude of
imitation. W hat pleasure could such attempted fidelity
bestow? it is always either more horrible or less lovely
than nature herself. " -- " Y ou are right, my L ord," said
Corinne, " in wishing that these blots should be effaced from
Christian pictures; they are unnecessary. N evertheless,
allow that soul-felt genius can triumph over them alL
L ook on the death of S t. J erome by Dominichino; that
venerable frame is livid, emaciated; but life eternal fills
his aspect; and the miseries of the world are here collected
but to melt before the hallowed rays of devotion. Y et,
dear O swald, though I am not wholly of your mind, I
wish to show you that, even in differing, we have always
some analogy. I have attempted a realisation of your
ideal in the gallery to which my brothers in art have con.
tributed, and where I have sk etched a few designs my.
self: you shall see the advantages and defects of the styles
you prefer in my house at Tivoli. The weather is fine;
shall we go there to-morrow ?
doubt my reply? " he ex
blessing in the world but you?
" -- "
claimed. "
The life I
My love, can you
H ave I another
have too much
freed from other occupations is now filled by the felicity of
seeing and of hearing my Corinne! "
CH A PTE R I V .
O swald himself drove the four horses that drew them nex t
day towards Tivoli: he delighted in their rapid course,
which seemed to lend fresh vivacity to the sense of ex -
istence-- an impression so sweet when enj oyed beside those
we love. H e was careful, even to fear, lest the slightest
accident should befall his charge-- that protecting air is such
a link betwix t man and woman! Corinne, though less easily
alarmed than the rest of her sex , observed his solicitude
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y . 143
with such pleasure as made her almost wish she could he
frightened, that she might claim the re-assurances of O swald.
W hat gave him so great an ascendency over her was the
occasional unex pected contrasts with himself that lent a
peculiar charm to his whole manner. E very one admired his
mind and person; but both were particularly interesting
to a woman at once thus constant and versatile. Though
occupied by nothing but Corinne, this same interest per-
petually assumed a new character: sometimes reserve pre-
dominated; then he abandoned himself to his passion; .
anon he was perfectly amiable and content; as probably,
by a gloomy bitterness, betrayed the sincerity of his
distress. A gitated at heart, he strove to appear serene,
and left her to guess the secrets of his bosom. This k ept
her curiosity for ever on the alert. H is very faults set off
his merits; ' and no man, however agreeable, who was devoid
of these contradictions and inconsistences, could thus have
captivated Corinne: she was subdued by her fear of him.
H e reigned in her heart by a good and by an evil power--
by his own q ualities, and by the anx iety their ill-regulated
state inspired. There was no safety in the happiness he
bestowed. This, perhaps, accounts for the ex altation of
her love; she might not have thus adored aught she did
not fear to lose. A mind of ardent yet delicate sensibility
may weary of all save a being whose own, for ever in
motion, appears lik e a heaven, now clear and smiling, n< J w
lapped in threatening clouds. O swald, ever truly, deeply
attached, was not the less often on the brink of abj uring
the obj ect of his tenderness, because long habit had per-
suaded him that he could find nothing but remorse in the
too vivid feelings of his breast.
O n their way to Tivoli, they passed the ruins of A drian' s
palace, and the immense garden that surrounded it. H ere
were collected the rarest productions of the realms con-
q uered by R ome. There are still seen the scattered stones
called E gypt, I ndia, and A sia. F arther off is the retreat
where Z enobia ended her days. The q ueen of Palmyra
sustained not, in adversity, the greatness of her doom: she
k new neither how to die for glory, lik e a man, nor how,
lik e a woman, to die rather than betray her friend. A t
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? 144CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y .
last they beheld Tivoli, once the abode of B rutus, A u-
gustus, Maecenas, Catullus, but, above all, H orace, whose
verses have immortalised these scenes. Corinne' s villa stood
near the loud cascade of Teverone. O n the top of the
hill, facing her garden, was the S ibyl' s temple. The
ancients, by building these fanes on heights lik e this, sug-
gested the due superiority of religion over all other pursuits.
They bid you " look from nature up to nature' s God,"
and tell of the gratitude that successive generations have
paid to heaven. The landscape, seen from whatever point,
includes this its central ornament. S uch ruins remind one
not of the work of man. They harmonise with the fair
trees and lonely torrent, that emblem of the years which
have made them what they are. The most beauteous land
that awok e no memory of great events were uninteresting,
compared with every spot that history sanctifies. W hat
place could more appropriately have been selected as the
home of Corinne than that consecrated to the S ibyl, a
woman divinely inspired? The house was charming;
deck ed in all the elegance of modern taste, yet evidently
by a classic hand. Y ou saw that its mistress understood
felicity in its highest signification; that which implies all
that can ennoble, while it ex cites our minds. A sighing
melody now stole on O swald' s ear, as if the nodding
flowers and waving shrubs thus lent a voice to nature.
Corinne informed him that it proceeded from the E olian
harps, which she had hung in her grottoes, adding music
to the perfume of the air. H er lover was entranced.
" Corinne," he cried, throwing himself at her feet, " till
to-day I have censured mine own bliss beside thee; but
now I feel as if the prayers of mine offended parent had
won me all this favour; the chaste repose I here enj oy
tells me that I am pardoned. F earlessly, then, unite thy
fate with mine: there is no danger now ! " -- "
W ell," she
replied, " let us not disturb this peace by naming F ate.
W hy strive to gain more than she ever grants? W hy
seek for change while we are happy? " H e was hurt by
this reply.
H e thought she should have understood his
readiness to confide, to promise, all. This evasion, then,
offended and afflicted him: he appreciated not the delicacy
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y . 145
which forbade Corinne to profit by his weak ness. W here
we really love, we often dread more than we desire the
solemn moment that ex changes hope for certainty. O swald,
however, concluded that, much as she loved him, she
preferred her independence, and therefore shunned an in-
dissoluble tie. I rritated by this mistak e, he followed her
to the gallery in frigid silence. S he guessed his mood,
but k new his pride too well to tell him so; yet, with a
vague design of soothing him, she lent even to general and
indifferent topics the softest tones of affection.
H er gallery was composed of historical, poetic, re-
ligious subj ects, and landscapes. N one of them contained
any great number of figures. Crowded pictures are,
doubtless, arduous task s; but their beauties are mostly
either too confused or too detailed. Unity of interest,
that vital principle of art, as of all things, is necessarily
frittered away. The first picture represented B rutus,
sitting lost in thought, at the foot of the statue of R ome,
while slaves bore by the dead bodies of the sons he had
condemned; on the other side, their mother and sisters
stood in frantic despair, fortunately ex cused, by their sex ,
from that courage which sacrifices the affections. The
situation of B rutus, beneath the statue of R ome, tells all.
B ut how, without ex planation, can we k now that this is
B rutus, or that those are his children, whom he himself
has sentenced? and yet the event cannot be better set
forth by any painting. R ome fills its back -ground, as yet
unornamented as a city, grand only as the country that
could inspire such heroism. " O nce hear the name," said
Corinne, " and doubtless your whole soul is given up to it;
otherwise might not uncertainty have converted a pleasure
which ought to be so plain and so easy into an abstruse
enigma? I chose the subj ect, as recalling the most ter-
rible deed a patriot ever dared. The nex t is Marius, tak en
by one of the Cimbri, who cannot resolve to k ill so great a
man. Marius,indeed, is an imposing figure; the costume and
physiognomy of the Cimbri leader ex tremely picturesq ue:
it mark s the second era of R ome, when laws were no more,
but when genius still ex erted a vast control. N ex t come
the days in which glory led but to misfortune and insult.
L
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? 14-6 CO R I N N E J O B I TA L Y .
The third picture is B elisarius, bearing his young guide,
who had ex pired while ask ing alms for him: thus is the
hlind hero recompensed by his master; and in the world he
vanq uished hath no better office than that of carrying to
the grave the sad remains of yon poor boy, his only faith-
ful friend. S ince the old school, I have seen no truer
figure than that: the painter, lik e the poet, has loaded him
with all k inds of miseries -- too many, it may be, for com-
passion. B ut what tells us that it is B elisarius? what
fidelity to history is ex acted both of artist and spectator!
a fidelity, by the way, often ruinous to the beautiful. I n
B nltus we look on virtues that resemble crime; in Marius,
on fame causing but distress; in B elisarius, on services
req uited by the black est persecution. N ear these I have
hung two pictures that console the oppressed spirit by
reminding it of the piety that can cheer the brok en
heart, when all around is bondage. The first is A l-
bano' s infant Christ asleep on a cross. Does not that
stainless, smiling face convince us that heavenly faith
hath nought to fear from grief or death? The following
one is Titian' s J esus bending under the weight of the
cross. H is mother on her k nees before him: what a
proof of reverence for the undeserved oppressions suf-
fered by her Divine S on! W hat a look of resignation is
his! yet what an air of pain, and therefore sympathy, with
us! That is the best of all my pictures; to that I turn
my eyes with rapture inex haustible; and now come my
dramatic chefs-d' oeuvre, drawn from the work s of four
great poets. There is the meeting of Dido and iE neas in
the E lysian fields: her indignant shade avoids him; re-
j oicing to be freed from the fond heart which yet would
throb at his approach. The vaporous colour of the phan-
toms, and the pale scenes around them, contrast the air of
life in iE neas, and the S ibyl who conducts him; but in
these attempts the bard' s description must far transcend
all that the pencil reaches: in this of the dying Clorinda
our tears are claimed by the remembered lines of Tasso,
where she pardons the beloved Tancred, who has j ust dealt
her the mortal wound. ' Painting inevitably sink s beneath
poetry, when devoted to themes that great authors have
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? CO B I N N B J O B I TA L Y . 147
already treated. O ne glance back at their words effaces all
before us. Their favourite situations gain force from im-
passioned eloq uence; while picturesq ue effect is most fa-
voured by moments of repose, worthy to be indefinitely
prolonged, and too perfect for the eye ever to weary of
their grace. Y our terrific S hak speare, my L ord, afforded
the ensuing subj ect. The invincible Macbeth, about to
fight Macduff, learns that the witches have eq uivocated
with him; that B irnam wood is coming to Dunsinnane,
and that his adversary was not of woman born, but ' un-
timely ripped' from his dying mother. * Macbeth is sub-
dued by his fate, not by his foe; his desperate hand still
grasps its glaive, certain that he must fall, yet to the last
opposing human strength against the might of demons.
There is a world of fury and of troubled energy in that
countenance: but how many of the poet' s beauties do we
lose? Can we paint Macbeth hurried into crime by the
dreams of ambition, conj ured up by the powers of sorcery?
H ow ex press a terror compatible with intrepidity; how
characterise the superstition that oppresses him? the
ignoble credulity, which, even while he feels such scorn of
life, forces on him such horror of death! Doubtless the
human face is the grandest of all mysteries; yet fix ed on
canvass, it can hardly tell of more than one sensation; no
struggle, no successive contrasts accessible to dramatic art,
can painting give, as neither time nor motion ex ists for her.
" R acine' s Phedra forms the fourth picture. H ippolitus,
in all the beauty of youth and innocence, repulses the per-
fidious accusations of his stepmother. The heroic The-
seus still protects his guilty wife, whom his conq uering
arms surround. Phedra'
that we freeze to look
courages her in guilt. H
s visage is agitated by impulses
on; and her remorseless nurse en-
ippolitus is here even more lovely
than in R acine; more lik e to Meleager, as no love for
A ricia here seems to mingle with his tameless virtue.
* Madame de S taet B ays, " Macbeth apprend q ue l' oracle des sorcieres s' est
accompli; q ue le foret dc B irnam parait s' avancer vers Dunsinnane; et q u' il
se bat avec un homme ni depuis la mort de sa mere. "
* * L udicrous perversion of the author' s meaning! " The points S huk speare
intended to impress were, that" the wierd women," " j uggling fiends, who palter
with us in a double sense," had promised their victim success and lite till events
which he naturally conceived impossible, but which they k new wnUd occur.
L 2,?
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? 148 corinne; or I taly.
B ut could Phedra have supported her falsehood in such a
presence? N o, she must have fallen at his feet: a vindic-
tive woman may inj ure him she loves in absence, but,
while she look s on him, that love must triumph. The
poet never brings them together after she has slandered
him. The painter was obliged to oppose them to each
other; but is not the distinction between the picturesq ue
and the poetical proved by the fact, that verses copied
from paintings are worth all the paintings that have imi-
tated poetry? F ancy must ever precede reason, as it
does in the growth of the human mind. "
W hile Corinne spok e thus, she had freq uently paused,
hoping that O swald would add his remark s; but, as she
made any feeling observation, he would merely sigh and
turn away his head, to conceal his present disposition to-
wards sadness. Corinne, at last discouraged by this silence,
sat down and hid her face in her hands. O swald hastily
paced the apartment, and was j ust about to give his emo-
tions way, when, with a sudden check of pride, he turned
towards the pictures, as if ex pecting her to finish the ac-
count of them. S he had great hope in the last; and
mak ing an effort to compose herself, rose, saying, " My
L ord, there remain but three landscapes for me to show
you; two possess some interest. I do not lik e rural scenes
that bear no allusion to fable or history; they are insipid as
the idyls of our poets. I prefer S alvator R osa' s style here,
which gives you rock s, torrents, and trees, with not even
the wing of a bird visible to remind you of life! The ab-
sence of man, in the midst of nature, ex cites profound re-
flections. W hat is this deserted scene, so vainly beautiful,
whose mysterious charms address but the eye of their
Creator? H ere, on the contrary, history and poesy are
happily united in a landscape. (3) This represents the
moment when Cincinnatus is invited by the consuls to
q uit his plough, and tak e command of the R oman
armies. A ll the lux ury of the S outh is seen in this pic-
ture,-- abundant vegetation, burning sk y, and an universal
air of j oy, that pervades even the aspect of the plants. S ee
what a contrast is beside it. The son of Cairbar sleeps
upon his father' s tomb. Three nights he awaited the
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? corinne; or italy. 149
bard, who comes to honour the dead. H is form is he-
held afar, he descends the mountain' s side. O n the clouds
floats the shade of the chief. The land is hoary with ice;
and the trees, as the rude winds war on their lifeless and
withered arms, strew their sear leaves to the gale, and
herald the course of the storm. " O swald, till now, had
cherished his resentment; but at the sight of this picture,
the tomb of his father, the mountains of S cotland rose to
his view, and his eyes filled with tears. Corinne took her
harp, and sung one of those simple S cotch hallads whose
notes seem fit to be borne on the wailing breeze. I t was
the soldier' s farewell to his country and his love, in which
recurred that most melodious and ex pressive of E nglish
phrases, "
ingly, that O
together. "
N o more. " * Corinne pronounced it so touch-
swald could resist no longer; and they wept
A h, Corinne! " he cried, " does then my
country affect your heart? Could you go with me to the
land peopled by my recollections? W ould you there he the
worthy partner of my life, as you are here its enchantress? "
-- " I believe I could," she answered, " for I love you. " --
" I
me. "
n the name of love and pity then, have no more secrets from
-- " Y our will shall he obeyed, O swald: I promise it
on one condition, that you ask not its fulfilment before the
termination of our approaching religious solemnities. I s
not the support of H eaven more than ever necessary at the
moment which must decide my fate? " -- " Corinne,"
said, " if thy fate depends on me it shall no longer be a
sad one," -- " Y ou think so," she rej oined; "
no such confidence, therefore indulge my weak ness. "
O swald sighed, without granting or refusing the delay she
he
but I have
ask ed. " L etusreturntoR omenow," sheadded. " I
should tell you all in this solitude; and if what I have to
say must drive you from me,-- need it be so soon? Come,
O swald; you may revisit this scene when my ashes repose
here. " Melted and agitated, he obeyed. O n their road they
scarcely spok e a word, but now and then ex changed look s
of affection; yet a heavy melancholy oppressed them both,
as they re-entered R ome.
? I presume the " A dieu to L ochaber," though in that it is " nae mair. " -- Tr.
L3
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? 150CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y .
BOOKIX.
O N TH E CA R N I V A L ,A N DI TA L I A N MUS I C,
CH A PTE R I .
The last day of the carnival is the gayest in the year.
The R oman populace carry their rage for amusement to a
perfect fever, unex ampled elsewhere. The whole town is
disguised; the very gazers from its windows are mask ed.
This begins regularly to the appointed day, neither public
nor private affairs interfering with its indulgence. Then
may one j udge of the imagination possessed by the herd.
I talian sounds sweetly even from their mouths. A lfieri
said that he went to the mark et of F lorence to learn good
I talian. R ome has the same advantage; and, perhaps,
these are the only cities of which all the natives speak so
well that the mind is feasted at every corner of the streets.
The k ind of gaiety that shines through their harleq uinades
is often found in the most uneducated men; and during
this festival, while ex aggeration and caricature are fair
play, the most comic scenes perpetually recur. O ften a
grotesq ue gravity contrasts the usually vivacious I talian
manner, as if their strange dresses conferred an unnatural
dignity on the wearers. S ometimes they evince so sur-
prising a k nowledge of mythology, in the travesties they
assume, that one might suppose them still believers in its
fictions. Most freq uently, however, they ridicule the va-
rious rank s of society with a pleasantry truly original: the
nation is now a thousand times more distinguished by its
sports than by its history. I talian lends itself so easily to
all k inds of playfulness, that it needs but a slight inflex ion
of voice, a little difference of termination, lengthening or
diminishing the words, to change the entire meaning of a
sentence. The language comes with a peculiar grace from
the lips of childhood. The innocence of that age, and the
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? corinne; O R I TA L Y . 151
natural archness of the southern tongue, ex q uisitely con-
trast each other. (4) O ne may almost call it a language
that talk s of itself, and always-seems more witty than its
speak ers.
There is neither splendour nor taste in the carnival:
its universal tumult assimilates it in the fancy with the
bacchanalian orgies; but in the fancy only; for the R o-
mans are generally sober and serious enough -- the last
days of this fete ex cepted. Then one mak es such varied
and sudden discoveries in their character, as have con-
tributed to give them a reputation for cunning. Doubt-
less, there is a great habit of feigning among people who
have borne so many yok es; but we must not always at-
tribute their rapid changes of manner to dissimulation.
I nflammable imagination is as oft its cause. R easoners may
readily foresee their own actions; but all that belongs to
fancy is unex pected: she overleaps gradations; a trifle
may wound her, or that which ought to move her most
be past by with indifference; she' s her own world, and in
it there is no calculating effects by causes. F or instance,
we wonder what entertainment the R oman nobles find in
driving from one end of the Corso to the other for hours
together, every day in the year, yet nothing break s in on this
custom. A mong the mask s, too, may be found wandering
victims to ennui, pack ed up in the drollest of dresses, sad
harleq uins, and silent clowns, who satisfy their carnival
conscience by merely seek ing to divert themselves. I n
R ome they have one assumption that nowhere else ex ists--
mask ers, who, in their own persons, copy the antiq ue statues,
and from a distance perfectly realise their beauty. Many of
the women are losers by renouncing this disguise. N ever-
theless, to behold life imitating motionless marble, however
gracefully, strik es one with fear. The carriages of the
great and gay throng the streets; but the charm of these
festivities is their saturnalian confusion: all classes are
mingled; the gravest magistrates ride among the mask s
with almost official assiduity. A ll the windows are de-
corated, and all the world out of doors: the pleasure of the
populace consists not in their spectacles nor their feasts;
they commit no ex cess, but revel solely in the delight of
h4
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? 152 corinne; or I taly.