Part 13

“I read that tragedy whereof you wist; And wept in pity ... for the dramatist.”--W.

[58] Literally, “will know how to pierce.” Sand (as it may be hardly requisite to say) was a German student who on political grounds assassinated the poet Kotzebue; Louvel, a Frenchman who assassinated the Duc de Berri, heir to the French throne.

[59] Mr Lyell died in 1849.--W.

[60] The London University, consisting of University College and King’s College. Rossetti competed for the Italian Professorship in the former, but Panizzi obtained it; afterwards (1831) in the latter, and there he was elected.--W.

[61] This phrase must designate the _Salterio_, though the term would almost equally apply to the _Veggente in Solitudine_. The three prose works mentioned in the sequel are the _Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_, the _Beatrice di Dante_, and _Roma verso la Metà del Secolo Decimonono_. This last, though separately published, is in fact a long note printed in the _Amor Platonico_.--W.

[62] _i.e._ “a new life.”--W.

[63] Not only in writing, but also in conversation, all matters of this sort were left in oblivion by my father. I, at any rate, never heard him refer to them, even distantly.--W.

[64] This is perfectly accurate. Mrs Rossetti shrank from being eulogized in verse which might one day be published, and I have known her to plead for the omission of some such matter written by my father. To me, naturally, it is as pleasant to publish these not exaggerated praises as to her it was unpleasant to conceive them published.--W.

[65] The date of the proposal was 7th December 1825; of the wedding (Roman Catholic and English Church), 8th and 10th April 1826.--W.

[66] Taken literally, this is of course correct. But my mother had only an ordinary modicum of musical practice and aptitude, and neither of my sisters pursued the art with any zest.--W.

[67] The reference to “ethics” must be chiefly based on Maria Rossetti’s religious allegory named _The Rivulets_, semi-published in 1846. As to Christina, her volume entitled _Verses_ had been privately printed in 1847, and the poems which she contributed to _The Germ_ (following a brace in _The Athenæum_) appeared in 1850.--W.

[68] These expressions need not count as an exaggeration. By 1850 Dante Gabriel had exhibited two pictures (one of them now in the National British Gallery); he had published _The Blessed Damozel_ and other remarkable poems, and had done a multitude of translations from Italian, and some from German, poets.--W.

[69] I question whether my father was right in supposing me to resemble him in person; I should say that, of the two, Dante Gabriel resembled him more. I have suppressed some lines representative of fatherly fondness more than of myself.--W.

[70] The Conte Giuseppe Ricciardi was a prominent Republican politician, an attached friend of Rossetti. He exerted himself incessantly in the Italian cause; his death took place towards 1885. Terenzio Mamiani was an admired writer in verse and prose; Monsignor Muzzarelli a very open-minded churchman. Cagnazzi (I presume the same person) is spoken of by General Guglielmo Pepe as the “venerable archdeacon Luccado Samuele Cagnazzi, a profound and learned economist,” who became President of the Neapolitan Parliament in 1848. The other names, Saliceti and Gazzola, are identified by me less clearly than probably they ought to be. Pepe, the hero of Venice in 1848-9, was the same who had been the hero of Naples in 1820.--W.

[71] I cannot elucidate this matter of Paolelli and Turrigo.--W.

[72] Bozzelli became Minister of the Interior in Naples in 1848, when Ferdinand II. pretended to re-commence a constitutional government; he was afterwards Prime Minister, conniving in the cause of reaction. During the brief simulation of constitutionalism, General Pepe had much influence over the Government, and he advocated the recall of Rossetti to Naples. My father was nearly on the brink of returning thither, with his family, when the Liberal movement was quenched in blood. The other minister here mentioned, Borrelli, belongs to the earlier constitution of 1820-21; he was Minister of Police, and persuaded the Parliament to authorize the departure of Ferdinand I. from Naples; an event which was pretty soon followed by the repeal of the constitution, and the proscription of its abettors.--W.

[73] This diatribe is directed against Sir Antonio Panizzi, whose name is in the original, given at the close of it: I reduce it here to a comparative trifle, but have not thought it desirable to miss it out entirely. My father considered that, for some reason or none, Panizzi had from the first been ill-disposed towards him; and this feeling was strengthened when Panizzi published an article (or articles) opposing, and partly ridiculing, my father’s theories concerning Dante, etc. I am not sure that I ever read the articles; probably they were bitter (for Panizzi was the reverse of mealy-mouthed); but, when a man says that Beatrice did not exist, and that Dante was a sort of Freemason, he must expect that people who are of a contrary opinion will express themselves forcibly.--W.

[74] They might rather be called notebooks than volumes.--W.

[75] This seems to refer to the volume named--_Versi_, 1847; also to poems contributed to an Italian Protestantizing magazine, _L’Eco di Savonarola_.--W.

[76] Pius IX.--W.

[77] My father lost totally, and very suddenly, the sight of one eye. After that he was in constant danger of losing also the sight of the other eye, and he often expected that this would soon be lost. He did, however, to the end of his life, retain a much enfeebled modicum of eyesight. In the _expectation_ of becoming wholly blind, he often spoke and wrote of himself as blind--an exaggeration, but a pardonable one.--W.

[78] The poem _The Seer in Solitude_ (_Il Veggente in Solitudine_) has been previously mentioned. It is true that some of the ideas presented in that poem as visions or presages--as to the liberation of Italy, etc.--were getting “daily verified” even in Rossetti’s lifetime, and much more conspicuously so a few years afterwards.--W.

[79] Rossetti here, and in some other parts of the Autobiography, speaks of himself in an _exalté_ tone, as imbued with a spirit of prophecy, an instrument in the divine hand for combating despotism, etc. All this would have seemed forced and presumptuous to a reader of his own day; yet it was not a mere distempered dream. In less than ten years from the date of his writing, the thunderbolt had fallen, and Italian despots and Papal temporal dominion were in the agonies of dissolution.--W.

[80] Rossetti here dilates (at a length which I have much curtailed) on a matter now perhaps well-nigh forgotten, the exile in 1850 of the Archbishops of Turin and Cagliari for obstructing certain laws passed by the Piedmontese Parliament as a check upon the privileges of the Church.--W.

[81] “He unites the advantages of two rivals--Mars in strength, Adonis in beauty.”

[82] _Gergo._ The word might be translated as “slang” or “jargon”; but each of these words conveys a rather incongruous idea to an English mind, so I say (here and elsewhere) “the sect-language.”

[83] Rossetti’s volume _Lo Spirito Antipapale che produsse la Riforma_.

[84] “L’illusione è sì grande che scuote.” I understand the meaning to be as here rendered; but the phrase is not entirely clear.

[85] “Not I, if I had a hundred mouths and a hundred tongues, with iron lungs and iron breast.”

[86] This odd-seeming phrase offers no difficulty to the reader of the _Vita Nuova_. Dante there says that Beatrice had a special analogy with the number nine, and was (in a sense) a nine, or a three times three, whereof the root was the Holy Trinity.

[87] Rossetti’s letter, next before the present one, is dated 13th December 1836. It would seem (looking to dates) that Mr Lyell’s acknowledgment of being convinced cannot have applied to anything contained in that letter, but to something in the proofs, then passing through his hands, of the _Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_.

[88] _i.e._ “To remember is a sweet thought, and I rejoice.” My father proceeds here to quote the entire sonnet, underlining some words, and offering brief comments. I question whether the English reader would thank me for reproducing the whole. As regards the other (second) sonnet which follows, I give the whole of the octave, with comments.

[89] Translation: “As Paul, when he had descended from heaven, could not speak of the arcana of God, so my heart has covered all my thoughts with an amorous veil. Wherefore, for joy which I hide in my heart, I keep silence as to all that I saw and all that I did; and I shall change the hair on my brow sooner than guilty thoughts shall ever reverse the obligation.” I have translated the last line in conformity with the annotation made by my father, which runs thus: “‘Che mai pensier rei volger possano in me l’obbligo’ to keep silence, as he has said.” I feel, however, some considerable doubt whether this is the true order of the words, which are, as a matter of mere construing, anything but clear. It might be possible to attempt some conjectural emendation in the words, but I forbear.

[90] These words come from Dante’s _Paradiso_: “In Rue du Fouarre, syllogizing invidious truths.”

[91] Mr Taylor was a member of the firm that printed Rossetti’s _Amor Platonico_. His book was, I think, _Michelangelo considered as a Philosophic Poet_.

[92] _i.e._ The _Mistero dell’Amor Platonico_--which was dedicated to Mr Kirkup.

[93] By the phrase “your circumstances” Mazzini, I think, refers not so much to moderate pecuniary means, but rather to the fact that Rossetti, maintaining himself and his family by the teaching of Italian in private families and schools, could not with any prudence put himself forward as a revolutionary agitator. I am satisfied that he did _not_ join the Association named by Mazzini.

[94] The Conte Carlo Pepoli, a member of an ancient and highly distinguished Bolognese family, was then a political exile in London. He ultimately became a Senator of the Italian Kingdom. An epistle in verse had, in his youth, been addressed to him by the great poet Leopardi.

[95] Adelaide Kemble, afterwards Mrs Sartoris.

[96] He was, I think, a music-master in Paris.

[97] The address (as noted down by my mother on Mazzini’s letter) was No. 40 Clarges Street.

[98] As I have mentioned in my published Memoir of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, my father spoke at this Anniversary-meeting, followed by Mazzini.

[99] This must have been a _different_ celebration from that in which Signor Delavo was concerned. The latter was fixed for 14th May, the anniversary of the Battle of Marengo.

[100] King Charles Albert, of Piedmont, who had to abdicate in 1849.

[101] Mazzini’s word (indistinctly written) appears to be “raccolta,” which frequently means “harvest,” but may probably here mean “subscription.” Perhaps it was a public subscription for reinstating amnestied emigrants in the Papal States.

[102] The Italian word looks something like “compatisci,” which corresponds to “excuse”; I am not certain about it.

[103] General Guglielmo Pepe.