The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 52

[35] [Begun June the 12th, completed July the 9th, Ravenna, 1821.--_Byron MS_.]

[36] [_Gov._ "_The father softens--but the governor is fixed_."

_Dingle_. "Aye that ant.i.thesis of persons is a most established figure."--_Critic_, act ii. sc. 2.

Byron may have guessed that this pa.s.sage would be quoted against him, and, by taking it as a motto, hoped to antic.i.p.ate or disarm ridicule; or he may have selected it out of bravado, as though, forsooth, the public were too stupid to find him out.]

[at] ----_too soon repeated_.--[MS. erased.]

[37] {121}[It is a moot point whether Jacopo Foscari was placed on the rack on the occasion of his third trial. The original doc.u.ment of the X.

(July 23, 1456) runs thus: "Si videtur vobis per ea quae dicta et lecta sunt, quod _procedatur_ contra Ser Jacob.u.m Foscari;" and it is argued (see F. Berlan, _I due Foscari, etc._, 1852, p. 57), (1) that the word _procedatur_ is not a euphemism for "tortured," but should be rendered "judgment be given against;" (2) that if the X had decreed torture, torture would have been expressly enjoined; and (3) that as the decrees of the Council were not divulged, there was no motive for ambiguity. S.

Romanin (_Storia Doc.u.mentata, etc._, 1853, iv. 284) and R. Senger (_Die beiden Foscari_, 1878, p. 116) take the same view. On the other hand, Miss A. Wiel (_Two Doges of Venice_, 1891, p. 107) points out that, according to the _Dolfin Cronaca_, which Berlan did not consult, Jacopo was in a "mutilated" condition when the trial was over, and he was permitted to take a last farewell of his wife and children in Torricella. Goethe (_Conversations_, 1874, pp. 264, 265) did not share Eckermann's astonishment that Byron "could dwell so long on this torturing subject." "He was always a self-tormentor, and hence such subjects were his darling theme."]

[38] {122}[It is extremely improbable that Francesco Foscari was present in person at the third or two preceding trials of his son. As may be gathered from the _parte_ of the Council of Ten relating to the first trial, there was a law which prescribed the contrary: "In ipsius Domini Ducis praesentia de rebus ad ipsum, vel ad filios suos tangentibus non tractetur, loquatur vel consulatur, sicut non potest (_fieri_) quando tractatur de rebus tangentibus ad attinentes Domini Ducis." The fact that "Nos Franciscus Foscari," etc., stood at the commencement of the decree of exile may have given rise to the tradition that the Doge, like a Roman father, tried and condemned his son. (See Berlan's _I due Foscari_, p. 13.)]

[39] {123}[Pietro Loredano, admiral of the Venetian fleet, died November 11, 1438. His death was sudden and suspicious, for he was taken with violent pains and spasms after presiding at a banquet in honour of his victories over the Milanese; and, when his illness ended fatally, it was remembered that the Doge had publicly declared that so long as the admiral lived he would never be _de facto_ Prince of the Republic.

Jacopo Loredano chose to put his own interpretation on this outburst of impatience, and inscribed on his father's monument in the Church of the Monastery of Sant' Elena, in the Isola della Santa Lena, the words, "Per insidias hostium veneno sublatus." (See _Ecclesiae Venetae_, by Flaminio Cornaro, 1749, ix. 193, 194; see, too, Cicogna's _Inscrizioni Veneziane_, 1830, iii. 381.)

Not long afterwards Marco Loredano, the admiral's brother, met with a somewhat similar fate. He had been despatched by the X. to Legnano, to investigate the conduct of Andrea Donate, the Doge's brother-in-law, who was suspected of having embezzled the public moneys. His report was unfavourable to Donato, and, shortly after, he too fell sick and died.

It is most improbable that the Doge was directly or indirectly responsible for the death of either brother; but there was an hereditary feud, and the libellous epitaph was a move in the game.]

[40] {124}[Daru gives Palazzi's _Fasti Ducales_ and _L'Histoire Venitienne_ of Vianolo as his authorities for this story.]

[au]4

----_checked by nought_ _The vessel that creaks_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[av] {125} ----_much pity_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[41] ["This whole episode in the private life of the Foscari family is valuable chiefly for the light it throws upon the internal history of Venice. We are clearly in an atmosphere unknown before. The Council of Ten is all-powerful; it even usurps functions which do not belong to it by the const.i.tution. The air is charged with plots, suspicion, a.s.sa.s.sination, denunciation, spies,--all the paraphernalia which went to confirm the popular legend as to the terrible nature of the _Dieci_."--_Venice, etc._, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, p. 305.]

[aw] {126} _In this brief colloquy, and must redeem it_.--[MS. M.]

[42] [Compare--

"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy I wantoned with thy breakers."

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clx.x.xiv. lines 1-4, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 461, note 2.]

[43] {127}[The climate of Crete is genial and healthy; but the town of Candia is exposed to winds from the north and north-west.]

[ax] _I see your colour comes_.--[MS. M.]

[44] {130}["She was a Contarini (her name was Lucrezia, not Marina)--

'A daughter of the house that now among Its ancestors in monumental bra.s.s Numbers eight Doges.'

On the occasion of her marriage the Bucentaur came out in its splendour; and a bridge of boats was thrown across the Ca.n.a.l Grande for the bridegroom and his retinue of three hundred horse."--_Foscari_, by Samuel Rogers, _Poems_, 1852, ii. 93, note.

According to another footnote (_ibid_., p. 90), "this story (_Foscari_) and the tragedy of the _Two Foscari_ were published within a few days of each other, in November, 1821." The first edition of _Italy_ was published anonymously in 1822. According to the announcement of a corrected and enlarged edition, which appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_, April 11, 1823, "a few copies of this poem were printed off the winter before last, while the author was abroad."]

[ay] {132} _Do not deem so_.--[MS. M.]

[45] {133}[Jacopo's plea, that the letter to the Duke of Milan was written for the express purpose of being recalled to Venice, is inadmissible for more reasons than one. In the first place, if on suspicion of a letter written but never sent, the Ten had thought fit to recall him, it by no means followed that they would have granted him an interview with his wife and family; and, secondly, the fact that there were letters in cypher found in his possession, and that a direct invitation to the Sultan to rescue him by force was among the impounded doc.u.ments ("Quod requirebat dictum Teucrum ut mitteret ex galeis suis ad accipiendum et levandum eum de dicto loco"), proves that the appeal to the Duke of Milan was _bona fide_, and not a mere act of desperation.

(See _The Two Doges_, pp. 101, 102, and Berlan's _I due Poscari_, p. 53, etc.)]

[46] {134}[There is no doc.u.mentary evidence for this "confession," which rests on a mere tradition. (_Vide_ Sanudo, _Vita Duc.u.m Venetorum_, _apud_ Muratori, _Rerum Ital. Script_., 1733, xxii. col. 1139; see, too, Berlan, _I due Foscari_, p. 37.) Moreover, Almoro Donato was not chief of the "Ten" at the date of his murder. The three "Capi" for November, 1450, were Ermolao Vallaresso, Giovanni Giustiniani, and Andrea Marcello (_vide ibid._, p. 25).]

[47] {135}["Examination by torture: 'Such presumption is only sufficient to put the person to the rack or torture' (Ayliffe's _Parergon_)."--_Cent.

Dict._, art. "Question."]

[48] [Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, and others, use "shook" for "shaken."]

[az] _As was proved on him_----.--[MS. M.]

[49] [The inarticulate mutterings are probably an echo of the "incantation and magic words" ("incantationem et verba quas sibi reperta sunt de quibus ad funem ut.i.tur ... quoniam in fune aliquam nec vocem nec gemitum emitt.i.t sed solum inter dentes ipse videtur et auditur loqui"

[_Die beiden Foscari_, pp. 160, 161]), which, according to the decree of the Council of Ten, dated March 26, 1451, Jacopo let fall "while under torture" during his second trial.]

[ba] {137} _I'll hence and follow Loredano home_.--[MS. M.]

[bb] _That I had dipped the pen too heedlessly_.--[MS. M.]

[bc] {138} _Mistress of Lombardy--'tis some comfort to me_.--[MS. M.]

[50] [Compare "Ce fut l'epoque, ou Venise etendit son empire sur Brescia, Bergame, Ravenne, et Creme; ou elle fonda sa domination de Lombardie," etc. (Sismondi's _Histoire des Republiques_, x. 38). Brescia fell to the Venetians, October, 1426; Bergamo, in April, 1428; Ravenna, in August, 1440; and Crema, in 1453.]

[51] {139}[The Bridge of Sighs was not built till the end of the sixteenth century. (_Vide ante, Marino Faliero_, act i. sc. 2, line 508, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2; see, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza i. line 1, _et post_, act iv. sc. 1, line 75.)]

[bd] {141} _To tears save those of dotage_----.--[MS. M.]

[52] {143}[Five sons were born to the Doge, of whom four died of the plague (_Two Doges, etc._, by A. Wiel, 1891, p. 77).]

[53] {144}[The Doge offered to abdicate in June, 1433, in June, 1442, and again in 1446 (see Romanin, _Storia, etc._, 1855, iv. 170, 171, note 1).]

[54] [_Vide ante_, p. 123.]

[55] {148}[For the _Pozzi_ and _Piombi_, see _Marino Faliero_, act i.

sc. 2, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2.]

[be] _Keep this for them_----.--[MS. M.]

[bf] {149} _The blackest leaf, his heart, and blankest, his brain_.--[MS. M.]

[bg] ----_and best in humblest stations_.--[MS. M.]

[bh]

_Where hunger swallows all--where ever was_ _The monarch who could bear a three days' fast?_--[MS. M.]