You recommended him for some employment, and that is well. But to
discover an employment is a lengthy affair, and Galassi has not a
halfpenny in the world, and I, for the last month and a half, have
been assisting him so far as my means allow--or indeed _don’t_ allow.
However, an expedient has offered, equally acceptable to Galassi and
to us--that of sending him to Spain. What between the friends that he
has there, and others whom we could obtain for him, and his knowledge
of the language, and other points, he would not find it difficult
to procure occupation; here, not understanding, nor perhaps making
himself understood, he would not succeed in a hundred years. Also a
ship has been found which would convey him to Bilbao or Santander for
a sum of £5; so that, with some few other pounds to get along with
at the first start, Galassi might have a chance of better fortune.
Now the ship will leave on the 30th of this month, and I can and will
do my share--not the whole. Therefore I appeal to you and to other
good Italians. And from you, as being better than many others, I
wish for two things instead of one; I would like that, if you _can_,
you would inscribe your name for some shillings on the accompanying
subscription-list--and that, if you _will_, you would write off to
Vantini, informing him that your client is preparing to depart, and
does not need to be assisted save this one time, and you would send on
the list to him. Vantini is indeed one of the best-hearted of them,
and this I know by experience. I would myself write to him, but have
recommended so many to him that I dare no more. Besides, it seems to
me better, since _you_ made the beginning, that you should bring this
good work to a close. None the less, I shall be grateful to you, as if
you undertook it now, and solely for my sake.
Meanwhile I am greatly obliged to you for the little book you sent me;
good and useful. We perhaps do not wholly agree as to the remedies to
be applied to our Italy; but certainly we do agree as to her wounds,
and you do a beneficial work in laying bare unremittingly one of the
most pernicious. For the rest, I trust in God that one day we shall
understand each other, and that you will be unwilling to hold aloof
from our National Association, now re-organized in all quarters, and
on the way to power.
Believe meantime in the affectionate esteem of your
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
B.
4 YORK BUILDINGS, KING’S ROAD, CHELSEA.
? 1841.
MY DEAR SIGNORE ROSSETTI,
I have managed with Vantini through a different method; anyhow, I
thank you for the intention, and for what you did for my client.
If you will send an order to Rolandi to deliver, to some one on my
behalf, a certain number of copies of your booklet, I will send them,
four days hence, by an opportunity to Spain. At present I have no
opportunity as to Switzerland, but I have correspondents there; and,
were the chance to present itself to you sooner than to me, address
to Signor Fanciola, Postmaster at Locarno (Ticino) for “Signor Pietro
Ol----”; and the copies will be distributed in accordance with your
intentions.
I have promised to send to a friend in New York the copy of the Papal
Excommunication of Carbonarism--launched, I think, in 1820. Do you
happen to know where I could find it?
I am aware of your circumstances;[93] but what is requested of you
would be no more than the influence of your name among the Italians
who know you. The object is to have you as our brother in our
Association, so that to any inquirer one could say--“All those who
truly love the cause of their country have comprehended that unity
of country cannot be founded without unity of association.” There
would be a slight monthly contribution fixed by yourself; there
would be (and this is the most serious condition, but, as you will
see, inevitable) the certainty that, in writing about our country,
you would leave off recommending monarchic constitutionalism, and
repeat with us: “May God and the People be the salvation of Italy!”
And these, for us who are abroad, are about the only conditions of
the Association. For the rest, I believe that a copy of our _General
Instruction_, given to you by Pistrucci, has remained in your hands.
The whole of our thought is there expressed; and, if one day you feel
able to say “I accept it and make it mine,” you will be received by us
with joy and sincere brotherliness.
Meanwhile good-bye, and believe me
Yours,
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
If you like, you should place at my disposal a certain number of
copies for Marseilles, and for Italy in that direction; I will provide
for their reaching.
C.
LONDON.
? _November 1844._
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
I transcribe verbatim a letter that I have received.
“To Signori Rossetti, Pepoli,[94] and Mazzini. A Special Committee
chosen by the Italian Working-men begs you to come together on
Sunday 4th December 1844, at the hour and place most convenient to
yourselves, to receive a communication of high importance; and, in the
confidence that you will grant us this favour, we thank you meanwhile.
The members of the aforesaid Committee--Odoardo Villani, G. B. Soldi,
A. Berni, Giuseppe Gandolfini.”
I don’t know anything about the object of the meeting. I know the four
signatories, and they are good worthy Italians. In the impossibility,
for lack of time, of corresponding as to hour and place, I take
the liberty of fixing for the meeting my house, between 1 and 2
P.M. I am notifying to Pepoli and to them. Try and come if
you can; or, if perchance you cannot, write so as to relieve me of
responsibility.
Believe me always
Yours,
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
D.
4 YORK BUILDINGS, CHELSEA.
? _May 1845._
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
We have decided to have on an early day in June a concert for the
benefit of the school; Pistrucci, I suppose, will give you all the
particulars of the project, or I will give them myself. You will then
see how far and in what way you may be able to aid towards a good
result. But meanwhile I have to beg you urgently for one thing. I have
a letter of introduction to Miss Kemble,[95] and I want to request
her to sing: singing for a school is quite a different thing from
singing in a theatre. I know that she at one time asked Giannone[96]
for a letter to you, and that you saw her. I don’t know on what terms
you have remained with her, but, knowing _you_, I presume good terms.
Could you add a letter to the one which I hold? or could you join me
in a visit? or, if nothing else, write to her on your own part?--and,
in this last case, on Monday or Tuesday. Thus assailed at one moment
from two sides, she would perhaps surrender.
Whatever you decide, please oblige me with a couple of words in reply,
and with the lady’s present address,[97] if you can give this.
Wish me well, and believe me
Your very affectionate
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
E.
108 HIGH HOLBORN.
_31st October 1845._
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
Pistrucci told me that he would undertake to beg you to allow your
voice to be heard, in one way or other, at the Anniversary of our
School, 10th November.[98] Still, I will join to his my poor request.
The fact of the School is an Italian fact; and it ought, even with a
view to the English, to have the moral support of all Italians who,
like yourself, do honour to the name of our common country.
Confiding in your willingness to hearken to our request, believe, dear
Signor Rossetti, in the full friendly esteem of
Yours,
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
F.
19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
[? _January 1847_].
VERY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
An opportunity has arisen. Will you give the MS. to the bearer? He
will be leaving to-morrow, or at latest on Tuesday.
I thank you for your good wishes for the year now commenced; but I
have no hope of joy, save one alone--that of bearing witness in death,
as I have endeavoured to do in life, to my Italian faith. Pray that
this may occur within this year, and believe me always
Your much attached
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
G.
19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
[? _January 1847_].
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
The Manuscript has gone off--not anything else. Ricciardi, Janer,
Pistrucci, will have patience, and await other opportunities which I
shall have towards the end of the month. We cannot, for exhortations
and sonnets, be guilty of an indiscretion towards English travellers,
who consider they have stretched a point if they accept letters,
and are quite capable of throwing in your face a “Why not employ a
bookseller?”--which I should not like. However, I undertake, for
love of you, to get all the things off, but distributing them among
various travellers. A slight delay will not spoil matters; nor will
the exhortations to return to Paris accelerate to any great extent the
progress of French civilization.
I was unable to charge my traveller--an Englishman, young, and
an officer--with the eight shillings, for he would probably have
forgotten them. But I have written that you had given them to me, to
be paid to Ricciardi--and probably they will be paid one of these days.
Believe me, with all esteem,
Your much attached
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
H.
17 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
_8th February_ [1847].
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
To your MS. has happened what often happens to our Italian affairs:
in trying to do good, one does harm. If we had waited patiently for
that Italian traveller of mine of the 24th January, the MS. would at
this date be in Paris. But, urged on by my own wishes, and also by the
strong pressure, I seized the opportunity of an Englishman, Captain
Boulton, and consigned the volume to him. He, as he said, was to leave
on the following day. And, knowing nothing to the contrary, I supposed
him to have departed, in fact; until, five or six days ago, becoming
suspicious from the silence of my correspondents, and making active
quest for the officer, I found that owing to some family incident or
other he had deferred his departure, and had indeed gone off to the
country--whence he writes that he will be leaving in seven days!!
You should, therefore, be under no alarm for the MS. Like yourself, I
regret the delay, but it is not my fault. If, earlier than the seven
days, I get an opportunity, I will see that the MS. goes off before
the officer; if not, not.
I felt anxious to reply to you about the MS., as the matter of most
importance. As to Ricciardi’s eight copies, please inform Ricciardi
that one can’t tell a tourist, “Take with you a boxful of things”;
that it is a miracle if I found some one to convey the eight; that,
sooner or later, I shall find some one to convey the others; and that
moreover I would not have undertaken, except for wishing to do a
service to you whom I greatly esteem, to send off either the eight or
the sixteen. Neither would I set going from Paris to London, and then
from London to Paris, copies of my own performances, but would order
them to be burned or given away.
And believe me ever
Your much attached and affectionate
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
I.
19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
? _ May 1847._
DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
I cannot succeed in the endeavour. Among the leading newspapers, I
had no hope save in the _Morning Chronicle_, and this one declines.
The quantity of matter, electoral movements, literary articles
already promised, etc., form the pretext. The true reason, I think,
is that the apotheosis of Napoleon has no grateful sound to English
reminiscences. Besides, a short paragraph upon the celebration of the
6th[99] had already received insertion in several journals when your
letter arrived, and they are not fond of repetitions.
For myself, I, as you know, do not believe in King nor in Pope: I
believe in God and in ourselves. They may do what they choose, and
try to compromise Charles Albert[100] in the face of Austria by every
means: the rabbit will not be changed into a lion. I say rabbit, and
might say fox. To celebrate Marengo, a battle won by an Italian but in
the name and under the banner of the French nation, while we have the
Austrians our masters two paces off, savours to me of bragging rather
than of patriotism. I see these demonstrations with pleasure, because
they furnish an occasion for impressing on the people, who know not,
the name of Italy, and that of her oppressors; but, as an individual,
I feel inclined to smile with a trifle of bitterness. In Piedmont the
rabbit is now in the vein of reaction; and not only the suppression
of the subscription,[101] but that of the Family-readings conceded to
the Jesuits, and other recent acts, speak clearly enough. However, we
shall see.
I keep the letter for another two days, for a final endeavour;
afterwards, I shall return it to you. Meanwhile believe me always
Your much attached and affectionate
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
J.
[The reference to Ricciardi’s book follows on more or less from what
appears in two previous letters. The book may possibly have been a
predictive _History of Italy from 1850 to 1900_, which was published in
1842. This letter, written in the great year of European revolutions,
1848, belongs, I suppose, to a very early date in that year; perhaps
prior to the insurrection in Paris, which began on 23rd February. There
had been some disturbances in Milan on 3rd January, and a rising in
Messina from 6th January. On 22nd February martial law was proclaimed
in Lombardy by the Austrians.]
19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
? _February 1848._
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
I send you by Parcels Delivery Company ten copies of Ricciardi’s book,
admiring our friend’s tenacity of memory, especially in this time
of events. These are the only copies that I find in my possession.
If I _had_ a larger number, the Italian friends who during the long
interval have been frequenting my house must have appropriated them
with no great ceremony, much as they appropriate my own books. None
the less, if ever Ricciardi were to complain, I declare myself ready
to pay the expense of the copies deficient. I ought to have been on
the watch, but that is not my habit.
The affairs of Italy are going and will go on their right course--that
is, to the expulsion of the Austrians from the Lombardo-Venetian
territory. The Sicilian insurrection has done more for the Italian
cause, in a few days of popular action, than two years of petitioning.
Believe me always
Your much attached
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
K.
19 CROPLEY STREET, NEW NORTH ROAD.
? _November 1848._
MY DEAR SIGNOR ROSSETTI,
Here is the Address which we sent to the Swiss Diet. I will add that
a discussion on military capitulations was in consequence started in
the Diet by the Ticino and the Bas-Valais; a discussion which, as
befalls everything important in that Central (not Government but)
mis-Government, was not settled, but held over (as they say) _ad
referendum_.
Make any use of me that I can manage, and believe me always
Your much attached
GIUSEPPE MAZZINI.
L.
TO “CORSO”
BROTHER,
I have received yours of the 8th. That I should write to you at much
length on the subject of your letter is not possible. You, however,
will certainly not suppose that I evade the discussion, nor that I
do not set a right value on your convictions, or do not care about
them. No indeed; and you are mistaken in fancying that your frankness
of speech could ever offend me. If you but knew how the religion
of truth is the religion for me! and how much any real conviction
inspires me with respect, if not assent! But this is not a question
to be disposed of in a few letters; nor have I time, beset as I am by
a thousand distractions through my dream of Italian initiative, to
enter on a discussion. And, if I ever have time, I shall compose, I
confess to you, a whole volume--but I shall never publish it, unless
a Republican revolution should have broken out. For the present, I
understand this latest reaction in favour of Christianity, and I see
it to be necessary, and acknowledge it as useful. A true knowledge of
Christianity--its nature, its mission--will follow from this study.
Just as, in my view, _reform_ must naturally precede the securing
of independence, liberty, and equality, in political dogma, so do I
believe that the political synthesis, or at any rate a glimpse of this
synthesis, must, in the new epoch, precede in renovated Europe the
manifestation of the religious synthesis of the epoch. Rights were of
yore individual; and it was natural that first the _individual_ should
be emancipated, that the _instrument_ should be formed to acquire
an application of those rights in the political department. At the
present time the reverse is the case. The question is that of the
_social_ synthesis. The _instrument_ is no longer the _individual_,
but the people. Therefore the people, which is to secure the religious
formula, requires to be _constituted_: therefore a political
revolution before the religious one.
Only, you know what I have always said: like advanced scouts, secret
sentinels of human nature, _intelligences_ must begin to proclaim that
they descry the _new lands_ and the new law. And therefore I should
have supposed you to be among them; and I still believe that you will
be among them later on. Meanwhile, as you think that my efforts (and
be it observed that I am doing nothing) are to subserve the triumph
of Christianity, so do I think that yours are to subserve the triumph
of the new synthesis, the _social_ synthesis, philosophy merged into
religion: because--I do not deny it--my “harmonized dualism” is
precisely this harmonizing of philosophy with religion--two things
which hitherto have been at odds, and which will end by coalescing.
Yours is, without your perceiving it, an eclecticism and no more. Your
_quid tertium_, neither _catholic_ nor _primitive_ (two distinctions
as to which I should have much to say), is an Utopia, or rather a
chimera. You don’t perceive that that which you call _primitive_ is at
bottom nothing except Christianity in the soul, not any social form;
that the second epoch--_i.e._ Catholicism--is rightly the application
of Christianity to society; and that the Reformation--a cynical
movement, whatever you may say about it--came, in fact, to say of
Christianity: “You are not susceptible of any social application, of
any national unity, because you are an individualistic formula and no
more: stay you in your proper sphere.”
You and I, I perceive, regard the Reformation, and all things, from
different points of view.
And now see what is the outcome of the idea, “Christianity is an
_eternal_ religion, an unique religious synthesis.” And what of
mankind prior to Christianity? Oh in what sense do you understand God,
if you admit that He gave the unique eternal synthesis some thousands
of years after the race had been created? And the unity of the mind
of God? A progressive law at the beginning, and an eternal synthesis
later on? But no more of this; you go too far. Believing as I do, with
yourself, in continuous progression, there ought to be between us
only a question of time, but never a denial of a new synthesis when
the time comes. _Christianity asserts its perfection and eternity as
a fundamental principle: therefore you cannot, without destroying it,
say that it is not the whole of truth._ But once again, no more of
this. Christianity had to profess itself perfect and eternal, and I
even admit that. But when did Christianity ever affect to be a social
religion? _That_ is the question. Christianity is the formula of the
individual, and as such is eternal and perfect to my thinking--for
that formula is what no one can nullify. It means liberty and
equality; and who can ever henceforth exclude those two bases of
progress from the progress of the future? Christianity therefore will
endure. Only, behind that formula one seeks for another--the social.
Where is the contradiction?
Tell me, my Corso, with your hand on your heart. To the arguments
which I scatter in my letters, hurried, unconnected, and almost
sportive, the true fruit of profound convictions, and which you
(permit me to say) shirk a little in your replies, have you anything
to oppose? Do not some of the things which I say, if you think them
over seriously, cast some doubts on your mind?
As to what you cite to me, regarding miracles, and the resurrection
of Christ, etc., I will not discuss to-day; but I confess to you, it
seems to me strange that you should regard those as being irrevocably
proved in history.
I say it seriously, some one will come to furbish up my ideas, without
knowing that I advocated them. I am more than likely to die without
doing this, because I am conscious of my mission, and I know the
duration of it--and I know that it is not I who will wage the war.
Truth means to run her course, and she will do it; but I shall not
lay the foundation-stone of the edifice--I have no future. I have
discerned, but it is not given to me to do more; therefore I still
devote these my days to a work very inferior to that which my longings
would have sought for--the actual production of the instrument. I am
neither more nor less than a political revolutionist, and to this I
resign myself. Would that I may at least be that, and wrench this
Italy that I love out of the mire in which she lies, set her freed
face to face with her destinies, and say to her, “Now make them yours.”
As you see, I am writing to Gioberti. Writing thus to all and sundry
begins to weigh upon me. I have moments of _spleen_, of individualism
which rebels; and at those moments I seem to myself to be playing
the prostitute, and making Italian liberty play the like part. For
if you but knew how many letters, and these to intellects so-called,
and all useless! But these are moments of irritation, arising out of
what I have myself been suffering these three years, and this is more
than you suppose, and you know it not, and never will know it. Then
I return to myself; and, where I can see any little advantage, any
symptom of duty, I submit and write.
Hand also the enclosed lines to Tommaseo, who, like others, does not
understand me, and does not understand the situation in which we are.
Have you seen Libri? You will tell me that I am pertinacious; this is
true. But all those who desert me, without any fault of mine against
them, and without my being even able to guess the reason, cause me
real pain.
If you know Malmusi, or can get at any one who knows him, don’t forget
to tell him that for the love of God he should reassure me concerning
the arrival of certain letters of mine: his silence troubles me.
Of politics I say nothing, as I do not mean to speak about them until
the first half of the month of October; then I shall have data from
which to speak. Meanwhile I repeat to you what I told you.
Did you ever see Buonarroti? Do you know where Bianco is? Of him
I know nothing of late, and I am anxious to write to him. Do they
ever write to you from Turin? What Italians are you acquainted with?
Bozzelli?
Wish well to your
STROZZI.
Put an envelope on the letter to Gioberti. Write to me what reception
he gives it. Pray excuse.[102]
NO. 5.--SIX POEMS BY GABRIELE ROSSETTI
[I give here six specimens of my father’s powers as a poet. Setting
aside _San Paolo in Malta_, which is only an improvise, it may be said
that in all these instances the verses rank among his choice things;
though many others could be quoted not inferior. The dates which I give
may be regarded as correct, unless as to the final sonnet, regarding
which I am uncertain.
The lyric, _Aurora del 21 Luglio del 1820_, was, as I have before
said, extremely celebrated in its time; and the _Addio alla Patria_
has always been an admired piece. The _San Paolo in Malta_ is
referred to at p. 61, and testifies to Rossetti’s uncommon power
as an Improvisatore; being as it is in _terza rima_, each rhyme is
triplicated, and thus the improvising effort was all the more arduous.
I leave these poems to the perusal of such readers as are acquainted
with Italian. To try to translate them would be little else than to
scheme deliberately to spoil them.]
A.
AD AMORE
Alato bambino,
Tiranno de’ cuori,
Ch’io segua il cammino
Che innanzi m’infiori?
Unendomi teco
Ch’io veggio sì cieco,
Oh quanto sarei
Più cieco di te!
Pur troppo gemei,
Fanciullo inumano!
Ma i lacci funesti
Che al piè mi cingesti
Del Tempo la mano
Mi sciolse dal piè.
A credulo cuore
Tu scaltro dispensi
Contento ed ardore
Che inebbriano i sensi:
Ma in mezzo al contento
Prepari il tormento;
L’ardor ti precede,
Ti segue il languor.
Nè l’alma si avvede
Del passo imprudente
Che quando a fuggire
Le manca l’ardire,
Che quando si sente
Già vinta dal cuor.
Quel dì che sul mondo
Vagisti bambino,
Un cenno iracondo
Del sordo Destino
Di face ferale
La destra immortale
Di penne funeste
Il dorso ti armò.
Le penne son queste,
O nume fallace,
Che a Pari infedele
Gonfiaron le vele,
E questa è la face
Che Troia bruciò.
Tu godi, o tiranno,
Di sparger la terra
Di gioia, d’affanno,
Di pace, di guerra;
Ma finta è la pace,
La guerra è verace,
L’affanno rimane,
La gioia sen va.
Insidie sì strane
Ci ordisci, ci tendi,
Che a render prigione
L’augusta Ragione,
Tuoi complici rendi
Ingegno e Beltà.
Chi crede a’ tuoi detti
Ne attenda la fine;
Le rose prometti
Per dargli le spine:
Ben sento che giova
Saperlo per prova;
Ma troppo al mio cuore
Tal prova costò.
La via del dolore
Io teco calcava;
Ma in mezzo del corso
Intesi il Rimorso
Che _ferma_, gridava,
Ma tardi gridò.
Quel giorno che il velo
Mi cadde dal ciglio,
Rimasi di gelo
Scorgendo il periglio:
Sul velo squarciato,
Sul laccio spezzato,
Il canto innalzai
Di mia libertà.
Ah libero omai
Dal giogo abborrito,
Sull’ara tua stessa
Crollata, depressa,
Innalzo pentito
L’altar d’Amistà.
1813.
B.
VERSI D’AMORE