in the Concordia quarter. Opposite it was a meagre invalid, who posted
himself all day at the window, to peer at whatever was going on in the
neighbourhood--which prevented me from getting a little fresh air. One
day, from the shadowed inside of my room, I saw that a funeral-car
stopped at his door. I perceived he must be dead, and I was glad of
it--why conceal the fact? My prying bugbear being gone, I felt more at
liberty, and I wrote for him the following epigrammatic epitaph:--
“Here lies a man of prying peering art,
Who in other folk’s affairs made endless pother:
And he from this world did at last depart,
Merely to fathom what is done in t’other.”
[I may add that on 18th March 1821, midway between the military
disaster at Rieti on 7th March, and the dissolution of the Parliament
on 21st March, Rossetti procured a Neapolitan passport for either
Spain or Malta; but it seems that he never attempted to use it, but
lay _perdu_ instead, until shipped off to Malta by Admiral Sir Graham
Moore.--W.]
[40] It appears that one of these officers was named Stanford. My aunt,
Charlotte Polidori, being in Naples in 1840, knew something of a Mr
Stanford, who (as she wrote) “knew Rossetti well; it was on _his_ arm
that he leaned when, dressed as an English officer, he went on board.
He would have been put to death, had he not left, merely on account
of his political opinions--on no other subject could a word be said
against him.”--W.
[41] I remember that, when I set off in the coach between the two
English officers, as we passed before the royal palace to reach Santa
Lucia where the skiff awaited, a police inspector exclaimed--“By God!
the man in the middle looks to me like Rossetti!” But the coach passed
rapidly on, and a few moments afterwards I found myself in the skiff,
and then in the ship.
[42] The flagship, a first-class man-of-war. [Rossetti Italianizes
the name into Roccaforte, and then proceeds to some _jeux de mots on
Rocca_ (which in Italian means fortress). I have had to take the second
syllable, fort, for a like purpose.--W.]
[43] The allusion is to the justly-admired lyric by Rossetti,
commencing “Nella notte più serena.” See p. 182.--W.
[44] No doubt this is true; the practice of dictation having been
frequently adopted by my father after the sight of one eye had been
lost totally, and of the other partially. However, the copy of the poem
from which I am translating is all in his own handwriting; and very
good handwriting it is, though done with some perceptible effort.--W.
[45] The chief poem thus improvised was _San Paolo in Malta_. See p.
186.--W.
[46] What I indicate regarding the Right Honourable J. Hookham Frere
is far less than the truth. The life of that admirable and exemplary
man ought to be written. [This was done in publications of the years
1871 and 1899.--W.] All Malta was full of his munificences, and still
resounds his praise; and, when in the sequel I quitted that island
for England, I found wide-spread confirmation of his repute as a most
erudite man, and a genuine Christian. After being English Ambassador in
Spain, he settled in Malta, with his sister Susan, to watch over the
health of his invalid wife in a mild climate: there he had the grief of
losing them both. Oh what excellent women those were! Early in 1846 he
himself, struck by apoplexy, closed his beneficent life.
[47] A reference to the progress of constitutional liberty in the
Sardinian kingdom.--W.
[48] The name of Minasi was known to me from boyhood; but I am unable
to say much about him, or to account in detail for the singular burst
of rage and obloquy (here abridged) which my father bestows upon him.
He held in London some official appointment (perhaps consular) from the
Neapolitan Government, and refugees were prone to speaking of him as a
spy--as to which, see p. 98.--W.
[49] Two members of the Ruffo family were conspicuous as Bourbon
devotees from 1799 onwards. The Cardinal was the more important and
celebrated; but I think the Principe di Castelcicala is here meant. He
was an Ambassador, and as such he lived in London for some years during
my father’s sojourn.--W.
[50] General Rossaroll headed, in 1821, a short-lived insurrection in
Messina.--W.
[51] General Michele Carrascosa took a leading part in the events of
1820-21 in the Kingdom of Naples. His conduct was not wholly approved
by the constitutional party.--W.
[52] I do not distinctly recognize this name, nor those of Florio and
de Luca.--W.
[53] This must be Colonel Francesco Capecelatro, who was excepted from
the amnesty granted by the King in September 1822. Thirteen persons in
all were excepted; Rossetti figured as the thirteenth.--W.
[54] More than one member of the Poerio family suffered in these
Neapolitan turmoils. The one who went to Malta was, I think, a major in
the army.--W.
[55] The _Veggente in Solitudine_. Rossetti, I gather, embarked from
Malta in January 1824, and reached London in April. His first London
residence was No. 37 Gerard Street, Soho.--W.
[56] I, of course, do not know whether this statement regarding
Ferdinand I. is accurate or not. My father, I am sure, believed it: I
more than once heard him recount it by word of mouth.--W.
[57] I know at least five of these. They are neat, and cannot have been
gratifying to the Lord of Lusciano. Here is one:
“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.