" 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.
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.
Madame de Stael - Corinna, or Italy
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.
mix ing freely with their betters, who, on their parts, are
as diverted at rinding themselves thrown among those be-
neath them. O nly the refined and delicate pleasures that
spring from research and education can build up barriers
between different rank s. I taly, as hath been said, is more
distinguished by universal talent than by its cultivation
among the aristocracy. Therefore, during the carnival,
all minds and all manners blend: the shouting crowds
that indiscriminately shower their bonbons on the passers
by confound the whole nation pell-mell, as if no social
order remained. Corinne and N evil arrived in the midst
of this uproar: at first it stunned them; for nothing ap-
pears stranger than such activity of noisy enj oyment,
while the soul is pensively retired within herself. They
stopped in the Piazza del Popolo, to ascend the amphi-
theatre near the obelisk , thence to overlook the horse-racing:
as they alighted from their calash, the Count d' E rfeuil
perceived them, and took O swald aside, saying, " H ow
can you show yourself thus publicly returning from the
country with Corinne? Y ou will commit her, and then what
can you do? " -- " I think I shall not commit her," re-
turned he, " by showing my affection; if I do, I shall be
buttoohappy,inthedevotionofmylife-- " -- " H appy! "
interrupted d' E rfeuil; " don' t believe it! one can only be
happy in becoming situations. S ociety, do what we will,
has a great influence; and what society would disapprove
ought never to be attempted. " -- " Then," replied O
" our own thoughts and feelings are to guide us less than
the words of others. I f it were our duty thus constantly
to follow the million, what need has any individual with a
heart or a soul? -- Providence might have spared us from
swald,
such superfluities. " -- " V ery philosophical," replied the
Count; " but such max ims ruin a man; and when love is
over, he is left to the censure of the world. F lighty as
you think me, I would not risk it, on any account. W e
may allow ourselves the little freedoms and good-natured
j ests of independent think
ers, but in our actions such
liberties become serious. " -- " A nd are not love and hap-
piness serious considerations?
" ask ed N evil. -- " That is
nothing to the purpose: there are certain established forms
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? corinn-e; or italy. 153
which you cannot brave without passing for an eccentric;
for a man-- in fact -- you understand me -- unlik e other
men. " L ord N evil smiled, and without either pain or
displeasure rallied d' E rfeuil on his frivolous severity: he
rej oiced to feel, for the first time, that on a subj ect which had
cost him so much, the Count' s advice had not the slightest
power. Corinne guessed what had past, but O swald' s
smile restored her composure; and this conversation tended
but to put them both in spirits for the fete. N evil ex -
pected to see a R ace lik e those of E ngland; but was sur-
prised to learn that small B arbary steeds were about to
mak e the contest of speed without riders. This is a very
favourite sport with the R omans.
W hen it was about to commence, the crowd ranged
themselves on each side of the street. The Place, late so
thronged, was emptied in a minute: every one hurried to
the stands which surrounded the obelisk s; while a mul-
titude of black heads and eyes were turned towards the
barrier from which the barbs were to start. They appeared,
without bridle or saddle, their back s covered by bright-hued
stuffs: they were led by well-dressed grooms, passionately
interested in their success. A s the animals reach the
barrier, their eagerness for release is almost uncontrollable:
they rear, neigh, and paw the earth, as if impatient for the
glory they are about to win, without the aid or guidance
of man. Their prancing, and the rapturous cry of " R oom,
room! " as the barrier falls, have a perfectly theatrical
effect. The grooms are all voice and gesture, as long as
their steeds remain in sight; the creatures are as j ealous
as mank ind of one another; the spark s fly beneath their
feet; their manes float wildly on the breeze; and such is
their desire to reach the goal, that some have fallen there
dead. To look on these free things, all animated by per-
sonal passion, is astounding-- as if one beheld Thought
itself flying in that fine shape. The crowd break their
rank s as the horses pass, and follow them in tumult. The
V enetian palace ends the race; then may be heard ex -
clamations of disappointment from those whose horses have
been beaten; while he whose darling has deserved the
greatest prize throws himself on his k nees before the
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? 154 corinne; or italy.
victor, thank ing and recommending him to S t. A nthony,
patron of the brute creation, with an enthusiasm as seriously
felt as it is comically ex pressed. The races usually con-
clude the day. Then begins another k ind of amusement,
less attractive, but eq ually loud. The windows are illu-
minated; the guards leave their posts, to share the general
j oy. E very one carries a little torch, called moccolo, and
every one tries to ex tinguish his neighbour' s, repeating the
word " ammaasare" (k ill), with formidable vivacity. "
K ill
the fair princess! let the L ord A bbot be k illed! " The
multitude, re-assured by the interdiction of horses and car-
riages at that hour, pour forth from every q uarter: all is
turmoil and clamour; yet, as night advances, this ceases
by degrees: the deepest silence succeeds. The remem-
brance of this evening is. lik e that of a confused vision,
which, for awhile, changed every dreamer' s ex istence, and
made the people forget their toil, the learned their studies,
and the nobles their sloth.
CH A PTE R I I .
O swald, since his misfortunes, had never regained suf-
ficient courage voluntarily to hear music. H e dreaded those
ravishing sounds, so agreeable to melancholy, but which
prove so truly inj urious while we are weighed down by real
calamities. Music revives the recollections it would, ap-
pease. W hen Corinne sang, O swald listened to the words
she pronounced; gazed on her ex pressive features, and
thought of nothing but her. Y et if, of an evening, in the
streets, he heard many voices united to sing the sweet airs
of celebrated composers, as is often the case in I taly, though
inclined to pause, he soon withdrew, alarmed by the strong
yet indefinite emotion which renewed his sorrows. B ut a
concert was about to be given at the theatre of R ome, con-
centrating the talents of the first singers in I taly. Corinne
ask ed N evil to accompany her thither: he consented, hoping
that her presence would soften all the pangs he must endure.
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y . 153
O n entering her box , she was immediately recognised;
and a remembrance of her coronation, adding to the interest
she usually created, all parts of the house resounded with
applause, and cries of " V iva Corinne! " The musicians
themselves, electrified by this unanimous sensation, sent
forth strains of victory; for triumph, of whatever k ind,
awak ens in our recollection " the pomp and circumstance
of glorious war.
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.
mix ing freely with their betters, who, on their parts, are
as diverted at rinding themselves thrown among those be-
neath them. O nly the refined and delicate pleasures that
spring from research and education can build up barriers
between different rank s. I taly, as hath been said, is more
distinguished by universal talent than by its cultivation
among the aristocracy. Therefore, during the carnival,
all minds and all manners blend: the shouting crowds
that indiscriminately shower their bonbons on the passers
by confound the whole nation pell-mell, as if no social
order remained. Corinne and N evil arrived in the midst
of this uproar: at first it stunned them; for nothing ap-
pears stranger than such activity of noisy enj oyment,
while the soul is pensively retired within herself. They
stopped in the Piazza del Popolo, to ascend the amphi-
theatre near the obelisk , thence to overlook the horse-racing:
as they alighted from their calash, the Count d' E rfeuil
perceived them, and took O swald aside, saying, " H ow
can you show yourself thus publicly returning from the
country with Corinne? Y ou will commit her, and then what
can you do? " -- " I think I shall not commit her," re-
turned he, " by showing my affection; if I do, I shall be
buttoohappy,inthedevotionofmylife-- " -- " H appy! "
interrupted d' E rfeuil; " don' t believe it! one can only be
happy in becoming situations. S ociety, do what we will,
has a great influence; and what society would disapprove
ought never to be attempted. " -- " Then," replied O
" our own thoughts and feelings are to guide us less than
the words of others. I f it were our duty thus constantly
to follow the million, what need has any individual with a
heart or a soul? -- Providence might have spared us from
swald,
such superfluities. " -- " V ery philosophical," replied the
Count; " but such max ims ruin a man; and when love is
over, he is left to the censure of the world. F lighty as
you think me, I would not risk it, on any account. W e
may allow ourselves the little freedoms and good-natured
j ests of independent think
ers, but in our actions such
liberties become serious. " -- " A nd are not love and hap-
piness serious considerations?
" ask ed N evil. -- " That is
nothing to the purpose: there are certain established forms
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? corinn-e; or italy. 153
which you cannot brave without passing for an eccentric;
for a man-- in fact -- you understand me -- unlik e other
men. " L ord N evil smiled, and without either pain or
displeasure rallied d' E rfeuil on his frivolous severity: he
rej oiced to feel, for the first time, that on a subj ect which had
cost him so much, the Count' s advice had not the slightest
power. Corinne guessed what had past, but O swald' s
smile restored her composure; and this conversation tended
but to put them both in spirits for the fete. N evil ex -
pected to see a R ace lik e those of E ngland; but was sur-
prised to learn that small B arbary steeds were about to
mak e the contest of speed without riders. This is a very
favourite sport with the R omans.
W hen it was about to commence, the crowd ranged
themselves on each side of the street. The Place, late so
thronged, was emptied in a minute: every one hurried to
the stands which surrounded the obelisk s; while a mul-
titude of black heads and eyes were turned towards the
barrier from which the barbs were to start. They appeared,
without bridle or saddle, their back s covered by bright-hued
stuffs: they were led by well-dressed grooms, passionately
interested in their success. A s the animals reach the
barrier, their eagerness for release is almost uncontrollable:
they rear, neigh, and paw the earth, as if impatient for the
glory they are about to win, without the aid or guidance
of man. Their prancing, and the rapturous cry of " R oom,
room! " as the barrier falls, have a perfectly theatrical
effect. The grooms are all voice and gesture, as long as
their steeds remain in sight; the creatures are as j ealous
as mank ind of one another; the spark s fly beneath their
feet; their manes float wildly on the breeze; and such is
their desire to reach the goal, that some have fallen there
dead. To look on these free things, all animated by per-
sonal passion, is astounding-- as if one beheld Thought
itself flying in that fine shape. The crowd break their
rank s as the horses pass, and follow them in tumult. The
V enetian palace ends the race; then may be heard ex -
clamations of disappointment from those whose horses have
been beaten; while he whose darling has deserved the
greatest prize throws himself on his k nees before the
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? 154 corinne; or italy.
victor, thank ing and recommending him to S t. A nthony,
patron of the brute creation, with an enthusiasm as seriously
felt as it is comically ex pressed. The races usually con-
clude the day. Then begins another k ind of amusement,
less attractive, but eq ually loud. The windows are illu-
minated; the guards leave their posts, to share the general
j oy. E very one carries a little torch, called moccolo, and
every one tries to ex tinguish his neighbour' s, repeating the
word " ammaasare" (k ill), with formidable vivacity. "
K ill
the fair princess! let the L ord A bbot be k illed! " The
multitude, re-assured by the interdiction of horses and car-
riages at that hour, pour forth from every q uarter: all is
turmoil and clamour; yet, as night advances, this ceases
by degrees: the deepest silence succeeds. The remem-
brance of this evening is. lik e that of a confused vision,
which, for awhile, changed every dreamer' s ex istence, and
made the people forget their toil, the learned their studies,
and the nobles their sloth.
CH A PTE R I I .
O swald, since his misfortunes, had never regained suf-
ficient courage voluntarily to hear music. H e dreaded those
ravishing sounds, so agreeable to melancholy, but which
prove so truly inj urious while we are weighed down by real
calamities. Music revives the recollections it would, ap-
pease. W hen Corinne sang, O swald listened to the words
she pronounced; gazed on her ex pressive features, and
thought of nothing but her. Y et if, of an evening, in the
streets, he heard many voices united to sing the sweet airs
of celebrated composers, as is often the case in I taly, though
inclined to pause, he soon withdrew, alarmed by the strong
yet indefinite emotion which renewed his sorrows. B ut a
concert was about to be given at the theatre of R ome, con-
centrating the talents of the first singers in I taly. Corinne
ask ed N evil to accompany her thither: he consented, hoping
that her presence would soften all the pangs he must endure.
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? CO R I N N E ; O R I TA L Y . 153
O n entering her box , she was immediately recognised;
and a remembrance of her coronation, adding to the interest
she usually created, all parts of the house resounded with
applause, and cries of " V iva Corinne! " The musicians
themselves, electrified by this unanimous sensation, sent
forth strains of victory; for triumph, of whatever k ind,
awak ens in our recollection " the pomp and circumstance
of glorious war.
