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tical enemy * He remained for a considerable time afterwards in an Italian regiment , in which , about 1805 , he formed part of " the Army of England . " Disgusted with the service , and despairing of his country , he , at this time , first formed the desire of transporting
himself , a voluntary exile , to England . This design , however , he for a time abandoned , but he left the army , disliking its commander , and himself obnoxious from the freedom of his politics . He , however , retained his rank as Captain . In 1807 , he published at Brescia , his celebrated little poem , " I Sepolcri . "
In 1809 , he was appointed Professor of Literature at the University of Pavia ; and opened his course with one of the most splendid and liberal orations ever delivered iu Italy , " Dell' Origine e dell' Officio della Letteratura . " This oratiou was immediately followed by one of Buonaparte ' s decisive measures , the suppression of the professorships of literature not only in Pavia but at Padua and Bologna . Fosco ] o , therefore , was a
professor only two months . In 1812 , he wrote another tragedy , " Ajace , ' which was politically applied , whether the author designed it or not , and he left the kingdom of Italy for Florence , where several other minor performances were written by him , aud particularly a biting satire in Latin against some of those whom he esteemed his rivals or persecutors , entitled " Didymi Clerici Prophetae minimi Hypercalypseos Liber singularis . "
During this period he cultivated the Euglish language , and translated Sterne ' s Sentimental Journey . He also began and finished . insulated portions of the great work for which he was so well qualified , and which should have immortalized his name , the translation and illustration of Homer . The first and
third books of the Iliad have been published . Fragments of other books were translated , but the work was , from his extreme fastidiousness , aud his enthusiastic admiration ( amounting almost to awe ) of the original , exceedingly laborious , and therefore taken up only at intervals . In 1814 , he was promoted to the rank of Major , by the Regency at Milan , after
the fall of Buonaparte , and he once more appeared on the stage of Italian politics , rousing his count 17 men by eloquent addresses , and endeavouring in vain to enlist England in the cause of Italian independence . It has been said that he was implicated in a secret attempt to expel the Austrians from Italy on the failure of lua avowed scheme ; his own account ,
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however , ( and we believe the truth , ) was , that he could not bring his mind to swear ah allegiance to Austria , which might have imposed upon him military services in her interests . He resigned his employments , ( the emolunlents of which formed a considerable income , ) and went to Switzerland , and thence to England , in a great degree , if not entirely , a voluntary exile .
His reputation secured him a cordial , we might say a brilliant , reception here , from the highest ranks of literature , fashion , and nobility . Nothing could be more fascinating and interesting than his conversation , particularly on literary subjects , and his favourite authors , Homer , Dante , and Shakspeare . He spoke with
great fluency , energy , and brilliancy ; his erudition was vast ; and his memory tenacious in an extraordinary degree . Those who knew him at his cottage ( which , from the controversy on the JEolic Digamma , in which he took an active part , he called Digamma Cottage ) saw him in the midst of all that exquisite and refined taste could devise to adorn
his small but elegant dwelling—where every thing was his own contrivance ; and if he afterwards gradually sunk into retirement and comparative oblivion , it was certainly , it must be owned , in a great degree his own fault . He was not the man to cultivate or even endure the
patronage of any one long . He felt himself out of his proper sphere . An exile ' s life ( as he would frequently , after the fervour of political zeal had grown cooler , acknowledge and bitterly lament ) is often necessarily one of social and even of moral degradation . Strong passions , ardent genius , and eccentricities , for which it is impossible to expect that adequate
allowances will be ordinarily made , often placed him in positions from which his was not a judgment or temper which knew how to withdraw with prudence or dexterity . Yet none who knew him ceased under any circumstances to regard him with respect and esteem , and in his last days of pain aud disease the mention of his situation sufficed to bring around him all the consolations which
liberality and friendship could minister to his infirmities . His pen was , during his residence in England , busily employed . Some of his papers in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews are well known . The greater part of his literary engagements were on subjects of temporary interest and for the purpose of immediate pecuniary support . His Essays on Petrarch , hi » Hicciarda ( a tragedy ) , and the first volume
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846 Obituary . —Ugo Foscoto .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1827, page 846, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1802/page/62/
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