The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 81

[fq] _A madness of the heart shall rise within_.--[Alternative reading.

MS. M.]

[467] [Compare--

"I pull in resolution."

_Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 42.]

[468] {452}[See the translation of Sanudo's narrative in Appendix, p.

463.]

[fr]

----_whom I know_ _To be as worthless as the dust they trample_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[fs] {453}_With unimpaired but not outrageous grief_.--[Alternative reading, MS. M.]

[469] {454}[An anachronism, _vide ante_, p. 336.]

[ft] _I am glad to be so_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[470] This was the actual reply of Bailli, maire of Paris, to a Frenchman who made him the same reproach on his way to execution, in the earliest part of their revolution. I find in reading over (since the completion of this tragedy), for the first time these six years, "Venice Preserved," a similar reply on a different occasion by Renault, and other coincidences arising from the subject. I need hardly remind the gentlest reader, that such coincidences must be accidental, from the very facility of their detection by reference to so popular a play on the stage and in the closet as Otway's chef-d'oeuvre.

["Still crueller was the fate of poor Bailly [Jean Sylvani, born September 17, 1736], First National President, First Mayor of Paris....

It is the 10th of November, 1793, a cold bitter drizzling rain, as poor Bailly is led through the streets.... Silent, unpitied, sits the innocent old man.... The Guillotine is taken down ... is carried to the riverside; is there set up again, with slow numbness; pulse after pulse still counting itself out in the old man's weary heart. For hours long; amid curses and bitter frost-rain! 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said one.

'_Mon ami_, it is for cold,' said Bailly, '_C'est de froid_.' Crueller end had no mortal."--Carlyle's _French Revolution_, 1839, iii. 264.]

[fu] {455}_Who makest and destroyest suns!_--[MS. M. Vide letter of February 2, 1821.]

[471] {456}[In his reply to the envoys of the Venetian Senate (April, 1797), Buonaparte threatened to "prove an Attila to Venice. If you cannot," he added, "disarm your population, I will do it in your stead--your government is antiquated--it must crumble to pieces."--Scott's _Life of Napoleon Bonaparte_, 1828, p. 230. Compare, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xc. lines 1, 2--

"The fool of false dominion--and a kind Of b.a.s.t.a.r.d Caesar," etc.]

[472] Should the dramatic picture seem harsh, let the reader look to the historical of the period prophesied, or rather of the few years preceding that period. Voltaire calculated their "nostre bene merite Meretrici" at 12,000 of regulars, without including volunteers and local militia, on what authority I know not; but it is, perhaps, the only part of the population not decreased. Venice once contained two hundred thousand inhabitants: there are now about ninety thousand; and THESE!!

few individuals can conceive, and none could describe, the actual state into which the more than infernal tyranny of Austria has plunged this unhappy city. From the present decay and degeneracy of Venice under the Barbarians, there are some honourable individual exceptions. There is Pasqualigo, the last, and, alas! _posthumous_ son of the marriage of the Doges with the Adriatic, who fought his frigate with far greater gallantry than any of his French coadjutors in the memorable action off Lissa. I came home in the squadron with the prizes in 1811, and recollect to have heard Sir William Hoste, and the other officers engaged in that glorious conflict, speak in the highest terms of Pasqualigo's behaviour. There is the Abbate Morelli. There is Alvise Querini, who, after a long and honourable diplomatic career, finds some consolation for the wrongs of his country, in the pursuits of literature with his nephew, Vittor Benzon, the son of the celebrated beauty, the heroine of "La Biondina in Gondoleta." There are the patrician poet Morosini, and the poet Lamberti, the author of the "Biondina," etc., and many other estimable productions; and, not least in an Englishman's estimation, Madame Mich.e.l.li, the translator of Shakspeare. There are the young Dandolo and the improvvisatore Carrer, and Giuseppe Albrizzi, the accomplished son of an accomplished mother. There is Aglietti, and were there nothing else, there is the immortality of Canova. Cicognara, Mustoxithi, Bucati, etc., etc., I do not reckon, because the one is a Greek, and the others were born at least a hundred miles off, which, throughout Italy, const.i.tutes, if not a _foreigner_, at least a _stranger_ (_forestiere_).

[This note is not in the MS. The first eight lines were included among the notes, and the remainder formed part of the Appendix in all editions 1821-1831.

Nicol Pasqualigo (1770-1821) received the command of a s.h.i.+p in the Austrian Navy in 1800, and in 1805 was appointed Director of the a.r.s.enal of Venice. He took part in both the Lissa expeditions, and was made prisoner after a prolonged resistance, March 13, 1811. (See _Personaggi ill.u.s.tri delta Veneta patrizia gente_, by E. A. Cicogna, 1822, p. 33.

See, too, for Lissa, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 25, note 3.)

The Abate Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819), known as _Principe dei Bibliotecarj_, became custodian of the Marciana Library in 1778, and devoted the whole of his long and laborious life to the service of literature. (For a list of his works, etc., see Tipaldo's _Biografia, etc._, 1835, ii. 481. See, too, _Elogio di Jacopo Morelli_, by A.

Zendrini, Milano, 1822.)

Alvisi Querini, brother to Marina Querini Benzon, published in 1759 a poem ent.i.tled _L'Ammiraglio dell' Indie_. He wrote under a pseudonym, Ormildo Emeressio.

Vittore Benzon (d. 1822), whose mother, Marina, was celebrated by Anton Maria Lamberti (1757-1832) as _La biondina in gondoleta (Poesie_, 1817, i. 20), was the author of _Nella_, a love-poem, abounding in political allusions. (See Tipaldo, v. 122, and _Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, I Suoi amici_, by V. Malamani, 1882, pp. 119, 136.)

II Conte Domenico Morosini (see _Letters_, Venezia, 1829) was the author of two tragedies, _Medea in Corinto_ and _Giulio Sabino_, published in 1806.

Giustina Renier Michiel (1755-1832) was niece to the last Doge, Lodovico Manin. Her _salon_ was the centre of a brilliant circle of friends, including such names as Pindemonte, Foscolo, and Cesarotti. Her translation of _Oth.e.l.lo_, _Macbeth_, and _Coriola.n.u.s_ formed part of the _Opere Drammatiche di Shakspeare_, published in Venice in 1797. Her work, _Origine delle Feste Veneziane_, was published at Milan in 1829.

(See _G. R. Michiel, Archivio Veneto_, tom. x.x.xviii. 1889.)

Luigi Carrer (1801-1856) began life as a lawyer, but afterwards devoted himself to poetry and literature. He was secretary of the Venetian Inst.i.tute in 1842, and, later, Director of the Carrer Museum. (See Gio.

Crespan, _Della vita e delle lettere di Luigi Carrer_, 1869.)

For Giuseppino Albrizzi (1800-1860), and for Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, Countess Albrizzi (? 1761-1836), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, note 1; and for Francesco Aglietti (1757-1836), Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1835), and Andreas Moustoxudes (1787-1860), see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii.

324, note 1.

The "younger Dandolo" may be Conte Girolamo Antonio Dandolo, author of _Sui Quattro Cavalli, etc._, published in 1817, and of _La Caduta della Repubblica di Venezia_, 1855. By "Bucati" may possibly be meant the satirist Pietro Buratti (1772-1832). (See _Poesie Veneziane_, by R.

Barbiera, 1886, p. 209.)]

[fv] {457}

/ _lazars_ _Beggars for n.o.bles_, < _lepers_=""> _for a people_!--[MS. M.]

_wretches_ /

[473] The chief palaces on the Brenta now belong to the Jews; who in the earlier times of the republic were only allowed to inhabit Mestri, and not to enter the city of Venice. The whole commerce is in the hands of the Jews and Greeks, and the Huns form the garrison.

[474] {458}[Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, May 3, 1805. Venice was ceded by Austria, December 26, 1805, and shortly after, Eugene Beauharnais was appointed Viceroy of Italy, with the t.i.tle of Prince of Venice. It is certain that the "Vice-gerent" stands for Beauharnais, but it is less evident why Byron, doubtless quoting from _Hamlet_, calls Napoleon the "Vice of Kings." Did he mean a "player-king," one who not being a king acted the part, as the "vice" in the old moralities; or did he misunderstand Shakespeare, and seek to depreciate Beauharnais as the Viceroy of a Viceroy, that is Joseph Bonaparte?]

[fw] _Vice without luxury_----.--[Alternative reading, MS. M.]

[475] [Compare--

"When Vice walks forth with her unsoftened terrors."

_Ode on Venice_, line 34, _vide ante_, p. 194.]

[476] See Appendix, Note C.

[477] {459}If the Doge's prophecy seem remarkable, look to the following, made by Alamanni two hundred and seventy years ago;--"There is one very singular prophecy concerning Venice: 'If thou dost not change,' it says to that proud republic, 'thy liberty, which is already on the wing, will not reckon a century more than the thousandth year.'

If we carry back the epocha of Venetian freedom to the establishment of the government under which the republic flourished, we shall find that the date of the election of the first Doge is 697: and if we add one century to a thousand, that is, eleven hundred years, we shall find the sense of the prediction to be literally this: 'Thy liberty will not last till 1797.' Recollect that Venice ceased to be free in the year 1796, the fifth year of the French republic; and you will perceive that there never was prediction more pointed, or more exactly followed by the event. You will, therefore, note as very remarkable the three lines of Alamanni addressed to Venice; which, however, no one has pointed out:--

"'Se non cangi pensier, l'un secol solo Non contera sopra 'l millesimo anno Tua liberta, che va fuggendo a volo.'

_Sat_., xii. ed. 1531, p. 413.

Many prophecies have pa.s.sed for such, and many men have been called prophets for much less."--P. L. Ginguene, _Hist. Lit. d'Italie_, ix. 144 [Paris Edition, 1819].

[478] Of the first fifty Doges, _five_ abdicated--_five_ were banished with their eyes put out--_five_ were ma.s.sacred--and _nine_ deposed; so that _nineteen_ out of fifty lost the throne by violence, besides two who fell in battle: this occurred long previous to the reign of Marino Faliero. One of his more immediate predecessors, Andrea Dandolo, died of vexation. Marino Faliero himself perished as related. Amongst his successors, _Foscari_, after seeing his son repeatedly tortured and banished, was deposed, and died of breaking a blood-vessel, on hearing the bell of Saint Mark's toll for the election of his successor.

Morosini was impeached for the loss of Candia; but this was previous to his dukedom, during which he conquered the Morea, and was styled the Peloponnesian. Faliero might truly say,--

"Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes!"

[fx] _Thou brothel of the waters! thou sea Sodom!_--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[479] [See letters to Webster, September 8, 1818, and to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 255, 393.]