On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
OBITUARY.
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
UGO FOSCOLO , Lately died at ChiswicJi , in his 49 th year , Ugo Foscolo , a man in whose praise Italy was justly enthusiastic as one of her ornaments , the most distinguished for talents , character , and acquirements , though her intestine
troubles drove him to consume the prime of his life in exile , and often in distress . Foscolo ' s family was originally Zantiote , he himself being born under the dominion of Venice , in the Adriatic , on board a frigate of that state , as he mentions in one of the best of his odes :
" Ebbi in quel mar la culla , &c . He was in early youth implicated m some democratic movements in Venice , and was summoned before the Inquisitors of State . His mother , a high-spirited lady , though a great Aristocrat , ia said to have cried out to him in ' Greek
as he passed to the Tribunal , " Die , but do not dishonour thyself by betraying thf friends . " He was , however , dischargedj and by the advice of friends went to Tuscany , where , before he had attained twenty years , he wrote his tragedy Tieste , from which Alfieri pronounced that the young poet would attain a celebrity surpassing his own .
Returning to Venice , he entered upon public life on tire occasion of the negociations with Buonaparte , as to the fate of Venice , which ended in his betraying that republic ^ and the confidence of those whom he had encouraged in the promotion of democratic priciples , binding them to his purpose , rn the vain hope that he would favour Italian independence . The Venetian Republic , it is needless to add . was sold to Austria .
Venice bemg no longer a country for Foscolo , he retired into Lombardy , then " the Cisalpine Republic , where he wrote his romance , entitled " Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis . " " No Italian " ( it is art Italian who so observes ) " having once read can ever forget it , or can rest satisfied with a single perusal , so
full is it of ardtnt sentiment , and of the purest love of Italy , whkh he adored . " Poscolo then entered into the array , the ' otily ' walk of life which seemed open to Mm . He was shut up in Geneva during the famous siege of 1 ^ 99 with Massina , but found time to write two of the most beautiful oclcs the Italians can boast . He continued after the battle of
Untitled Article
Marengo in the army , but had long lost his relish for French politics . On one memorable occasion , the Congress of the Cisalpine Republics at Lyons , under the Consular authority , at which Foscolo attended as Deputy ( we believe ) of Pavia , full of the bitterness of disappointment of his hopes for the real independence of Italy , he eagerly seized the opportunity
to pour forth his mind fully and freely to the face of the oppressor . He rose and delivered a speech , no less remarkable for the high-toned spirit of independence , than for energy of thought , feeling , and expression . If a panegyric was expected by the Consul from a flattering slave , he was wofully disappointed , for Foscolo proceeded to draw a strong
and eloquent picture of the abuses and oppression of the Government , and with rapid and masterly strokes of satire flashed the follies and crimes of the agerits and ministers of a foreign power in the face of the consular despotism which employed them . His delivery was bold , easy , and unconstrained . With his hands resting on the back of his chair ,
he spoke his whole soul freely for more than thfree hours ; and such was the rapidity , energy , and authority of his manner , as- to defy or disarm all power of interruption . This speech he afterwards published , with a motto from Sophocles , which he , against whom it had been pointed , would understand , " My soul groans for my country , for myself , and for thee . "
To Buonaparte personally he said , " There is not one of the nobler qualities of thy mind which we do not find in the pages of history ; in the profound policy of Tiberius , in the philosophic spirit of Marcus Aurelius , in the munificent patronage of letters by Leo X . If most of these supreme arbiters of the destinies of our species have been unable to pre * serve their memories from everlasting stains , it is because they were men and
mortal , as thou art . Forget not that it was neither the hopes nor the fears of their contemporaries , but the voice of posterity which pronounced just sentences upon their tombs . Numerous and illustrious arc the examples which have rendered sacred the maxim of the wise ; let no man be accounted happy of virtuous on this side the grave !" Foscolb was , however , too heedless and opeu to be much dreaded as a poll-
Obituary.
OBITUARY .
Untitled Article
( 845 )
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1827, page 845, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1802/page/61/
-