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Untitled Article
dition , and prepare to leave his prison . For what new abode ? The question was soon answered . They arrived at Venice next day , proceeded to the palace , and there in the burning and stifling region of the leads , already familiar to all readers of Cooper ' s € Bravo / was the poor prisoner deposited . It was still spring , but the air was more than commonly warm for the season , and after a few days of wind , in March , hot weather set in .
• It is not to be described ; the burning air of the region I inhabited , exposed to the full glare ^ f noon-day , under a leaden roof , the window looking to the roof of St . Mark , also of lead , the reflection of which was tremendous ; I was stifled—1 never had an idea of a heat so oppressive . To this punishment was added that of a plague of gnats , in such a multitude that however I might agitate and struggle I was covered with them , as were also the bed , the table , chair , and stool , clothes , face , every part covered . '
Here such was his misery , that for the first time some temptations to suicide overtook him , but they did not last , and religion continued his support . ' The Bible , thanks to Heaven , ' says he , * I knew how to read . The time was gone by in which I judged it by the bad criticism of Voltaire , despising expressions which are neither laughable nor false , except when , through ignorance or malice , we do not penetrate their meaning .
It appeared to me clearly that it was a law of holiness , therefore of truth ; how very unphilosophic it was to be offended by certain imperfections of style , as much so as the pride of him who despises every thing which has rot an elegant exterior . How absurd it is to imagine that such a collection of books , so religiously venerated , should have an un-authentic beginning : how undeniable was the superiority of such writings above the theology of the Indies .
While at Venice he underwent repeated examinations ,, and describes his sufferings at these times as terrible ; the fear of committing others , the wearisorneness of answering minute crossquestionings for hours together , at times sent him back to his oven exhausted and trembling , nnd fit only to die . However , he was permitted to have paper and pens . He wrote incessantly , sometimes meditations and pious exercises , sometimes for
amusement only . In Italy he was well known as the author of Francisco da Rimini , ' a tragedy suggested by the episode in canto v . of Dante ' s Inferno , and now he composed other tragedies , and also lyric poems . It appears , however , that what with the combined excitements of imagination , solitude , together with an agitating correspondence with an atheistical fellow-prisoner , in which
Pellico maintained his ground with great fidelity and couragewith all these circumstances put together , and bad management as to diet , he fell into a state of nervous excitement , the description of which is perhaps the most distressing part of the book . He had previously , however , to undergo another change ; the beneficent government of Venice , seeing that the summer heats were passing away , deemed it time to remove him . October came ; he
Untitled Article
406 Silvio Pellico .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 406, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/46/
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