rience an Irish bogtrotter,' &c. &c. Now I, who know Dr. Parr, and who know (not by expefor I never should have presumed so far as to contend with him- but by hearing him with others, and of others) that it is not so easy a matter to dress him,' thought Mr. Edgeworth an assertor of what was not true. He could not have stood before Parr an instant. For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement, vivacious, and full of life. He bids fair for a hundred years. 1 "He was not much admired in London, and I remember a 'ryghte merrie' and conceited jest which was rife among the gallants of the day, viz. a paper had been presented for the recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage, (she having lately taken leave, to the loss of for nothing ever was, or can be, like her,) to which all men had been called to subscribe. Whereupon Thomas Moore, of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper should be subscribed ages, and circumscribed for the recall of Mr. Edgeworth to Ireland.' 2 "The fact was— every body cared more about her. She was a nice little unassuming 'Jeanie Deans-looking body,' as we Scotch say and, if not handsome, certainly not ill-looking. Her conversation was as quiet as herself. One would never have guessed she could write her name; whereas her father talked, not as if he could write nothing else, but as if nothing else was worth writing. "As for Mrs. Edgeworth, I forget -except that I think she was the youngest of the party. Altogether, they were an excellent cage of the kind; and succeeded for two months, till the landing of Madame de Stael. "To turn from them to their works, I admire them; but they excite no feeling, and they leave no love-except for some Irish steward or postillion. However, the impression of intellect and prudence is pro- and may be useful. 3 found "January 21. 1821. "Rode-fired pistols. Read from Grimm's Correspondence. Dined-went out-heard 1 [Mr. Edgeworth died in 1817, in his seventy-fourth year.] In this I rather think he was misinformed; whatever merit there may be in the jest, I have not, as far as I can recollect, the slightest claim to it. 3 ["In my first enthusiasm of admiration, I thought that Miss Edgeworth had first made fiction useful; but every fiction since Homer has taught friendship, patriotism, generosity, contempt of death. These are the highest virtues; and the fictions which taught them were therefore of the highest, though not of unmixed utility. Miss Edgeworth inculcates prudence, and the many virtues of that family. Are these excellent virtues higher music-returned - wrote a letter to the Lord Chamberlain to request him to prevent the theatres from representing the Doge, which the Italian papers say that they are going to act. This is pretty work-what! without asking my consent, and even in opposition to it! "January 21. 1821. -con "Fine, clear, frosty day- that is to say, an Italian frost, for their winters hardly get beyond snow; for which reason nobody knows how to skate (or skait) – - a Dutch and English accomplishment. Rode out, as usual, and fired pistols. Good shooting broke four common, and rather small, bottles, in four shots, at fourteen paces, with a common pair of pistols and indifferent powder. Almost as good wafering or shooting sidering the difference of powder and pistol, -as when, in 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, it was my luck to split walking-sticks, wafers, half-crowns, shillings, and even the eye of a walking-stick, at twelve paces, with a single bullet and all by eye and calculation; for my hand is not steady, and apt to change with the very weather. To the prowess which I here note, Joe Manton and others can bear testimony; for the former taught, and the latter has seen me do, these feats. "Dined. visited - came home-read. Remarked on an anecdote in Grimm's Correspondence, which says that Regnard et la plupart des poëtes comiques étaient gens bilieux et mélancoliques; et que M. de Voltaire, qui est très gai, n'a jamais fait que des tragedies et que la comédie gaie est le seul genre où il n'ait point réussi. C'est que celui qui rit et celui qui fait rire sont deux hommes fort différens.' — Vol. VI. "At this moment I feel as bilious as the best comic writer of them all, (even as Regnard himself, the next to Molière, who has written some of the best comedies in any language, and who is supposed to have conimitted suicide 4,) and am not in spirits to continue my proposed tragedy of Sardanapalus, which I have, for some days, ceased to compose. or more useful than those of fortitude and benevolence? Certainly not. Where, then, is Miss Edgeworth's merit ? Her merit her extraordinary merit, both as a moralist and as a woman of genius-consists in her having selected a class of virtues far more difficult to treat as the subject of fiction than others, and which had therefore been left by former writers to her."-SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH: Life, vol. ii. p. 42.] 4 [Regnard died in 1709, in his fifty-second year. It has been said that he died of chagrin, nay, that he voluntarily shortened his days; but these reports are contradicted in the Dictionnaire Historique, ed. 1811.] "To-morrow is my birth-day- that is to say, at twelve o' the clock, midnight, i. e. in twelve minutes, I shall have completed thirty and three years of age!!! - and I go to my bed with a heaviness of heart at having lived so long, and to so little purpose. "It is three minutes past twelve.-"Tis the middle of the night by the castle clock,' and I am now thirty-three! "Eheu, fugaces, Posthume, Posthume, Labuntur anni ; but I don't regret them so much for what I have done, as for what I might have done. Through life's road, so dim and dirty, at eight- -made the usual visit. Heard of nothing but war,-'the cry is still, They come.' The Carbonari seem to have no plan nothing fixed among themselves, how, when, or what to do. In that case, they will make nothing of this project, so often postponed, and never put in action. "Came home, and gave some necessary orders, in case of circumstances requiring a change of place. I shall act according to what may seem proper, when I hear decidedly what the Barbarians mean to do. At present, they are building a bridge of boats over the Po, which looks very warlike. A few days will probably show. I think of retiring towards Ancona, nearer the northern frontier; that is to say, if Teresa and her "January 22. 1821. father are obliged to retire, which is most likely, as all the family are Liberals. If not, I shall stay. But my movements will depend upon the lady's wishes for myself, it is much the same. I have dragged to three-and-thirty. What have these years left to me? 1821. Here lies "I am somewhat puzzled what to do with my little daughter, and my effects, which are of some quantity and value, and neither of them do in the seat of war, where I think of going. But there is an elderly lady who will take charge of her, and T. says that the Marchese C. will undertake to hold the chattels in safe keeping. Half the city are getting their affairs in marching trim. A pretty Carnival! The blackguards might as well have waited till Lent. "Dined (damn this pen !)-beef tough there is no beef in Italy worth a curse; unless a man could eat an old ox with the hide on, singed in the sun. "The principal persons in the events which may occur in a few days are gone out on a shooting party. If it were like a ' highland hunting,' a pretext of the chase for a grand re-union of counsellors and chiefs, it would be all very well. But it is nothing more or less than a real snivelling, popping, small-shot, water-hen waste of powder, ammunition, and shot, for their own special amusement: a rare set of fellows for a man to risk his neck with,' as ' Marishall Wells' says in the Black Dwarf. -- for, according to the Christian dispensation, no one can know whether he is sure of salvation even the most righteous-since a single slip of faith may throw him on his back, like a skaiter, while gliding smoothly to his paradise. Now, therefore, whatever the certainty of faith in the facts may be, the certainty of the individual as to his happiness or misery is no greater than it was under Jupiter. "If they gather, whilk is to be doubt-lightened us more upon this important point; ed,' they will not muster a thousand men. The reason of this is, that the populace are not interested, only the higher and middle orders. I wish that the peasantry were; they are a fine savage race of two-legged leopards. But the Bolognese won't the Romagnuoles can't without them. Or, if they try what then? They will try, and man can do no more — and, if he would but try his utmost, much might be done. The Dutch, for instance, against the Spaniards then the tyrants of Europe, since, the slaves, and, lately, the freedmen. "The year 1820 was not a fortunate one for the individual me, whatever it may be for the nations. I lost a lawsuit, after two decisions in my favour. The project of lending money on an Irish mortgage was finally rejected by my wife's trustee after a year's hope and trouble. The Rochdale lawsuit had endured fifteen years, and always prospered till I married; since which, every thing has gone wrong-with me at least. 66 In the same year, 1820, the Countess T. G. nata G. Gi. in despite of all I said and did to prevent it, would separate from her husband, Il Cavalier Commendatore G. &c. &c. &c. and all on the account of 'P. P. clerk of this parish.' The other little petty vexations of the year- overturns in carriages -the murder of people before one's door, and dying in one's beds—the cramp in swimming colics — indigestions and bilious attacks, &c. &c. &c. "Many small articles make up a sum, And hey ho for Caleb Quotem, oh!" "January 25. 1821. "Received a letter from Lord S. O., state secretary of the Seven Islands —a fine fellow-clever - dished in England five years ago, and came abroad to retrench and to renew. He wrote from Ancona, in his way back to Corfu, on some matters of our own. He is son of the late Duke of L. by a second marriage. He wants me to go to Corfu. Why not? - perhaps I may, next spring. "Answered Murray's letter read lounged. Scrawled this additional page of life's log-book. One day more is over of it and of me:- but which is best, life or death, the gods only know,' as Socrates said to his judges, on the breaking up of the tribunal. Two thousand years since that sage's declaration of ignorance have not en [Lord Sidney-Godolphin Osborne, son of FrancisGodolphin, fifth Duke of Leeds, by Catherine, daughter of Thomas Anguish, Esq.] "It has been said that the immortality of the soul is a ‘grand peut-être'—but still it is a grand one. Every body clings to it the stupidest, and dullest, and wickedest of human bipeds is still persuaded that he is immortal. "January 26. 1821. "Fine day-a few mares' tails portending change, but the sky clear, upon the whole. Rode-fired pistols-good shooting. Coming back, met an old man. Charity-purchased a shilling's worth of salvation. If that was to be bought, I have given more to my fellow-creatures in this life. sometimes for vice, but, if not more often, at least more considerably, for virtue-than I now possess. I never in my life gave a mistress so much as I have sometimes given a poor man in honest distress; but no matter. The scoundrels who have all along persecuted me (with the help of ** who has_crowned their efforts) will triumph;— and, when justice is done to me, it will be when this hand that writes is as cold as the hearts which have stung me. "Returning, on the bridge near the mill, met an old woman. I asked her age-she said Tre croci.' I asked my groom (though myself a decent Italian) what the devil her three crosses meant. He said, ninety years, and that she had five years more to boot!! I repeated the same three times - not to mistake-ninety-five years!!! and she was yet rather active-heard my question, for she answered it- -saw me, for she advanced towards me; and did not appear at all decrepit, though certainly touched with years. Told her to come to-morrow, and will examine her myself. I love phenomena. If she is ninety-five years old, she must recollect the Cardinal Alberoni, who was legate here. "On dismounting, found Lieutenant E. just arrived from Faenza. Invited him to dine with me to-morrow. Did not invite him for to-day, because there was a small 2["It is time that I retire to death, and you to your affairs of life: which of us has the better is known to the gods, but to no mortal man." Cicero: Tusc. Quæst. lib. i.] music. turbot, (Friday, fast regularly and religiously,) which I wanted to eat all myself. Ate it. "Went out-found T. as usual The gentlemen, who make revolutions and are gone on a shooting, are not yet returned. They don't return till Sunday - - that is to say, they have been out for five days, buffooning, while the interests of a whole country are at stake, and even they themselves compromised. "It is a difficult part to play amongst such a set of assassins and blockheads- but, when the scum is skimmed off, or has boiled over, good may come of it. If this country could but be freed, what would be too great for the accomplishment of that desire? for the extinction of that Sigh of Ages? Let us hope. They have hoped these thousand years. The very revolvement of the chances may bring it—it is upon the dice. 66 If the Neapolitans have but a single Massaniello amongst them, they will beat the bloody butchers of the crown and sabre. Holland, in worse circumstances, beat the Spains and Philips; America beat the English; Greece beat Xerxes; and France beat Europe, till she took a tyrant; South America beats her old vultures out of their nest; and, if these men are but firm in themselves, there is nothing to shake them from without. "January 28. 1821. Letters 'Lugano Gazette did not come. from Venice. It appears that the Austrian brutes have seized my three or four pounds of English powder. The scoundrels! - I hope to pay them in ball for that powder. Rode out till twilight. "Pondered the subjects of four tragedies to be written (life and circumstances permitting), to wit, Sardanapalus, already begun; Cain, a metaphysical subject, something in the style of Manfred, but in five acts, perhaps, with the chorus; Francesca of Rimini, in five acts; and I am not sure that I would not try Tiberius. I think that I could extract a something, of my tragic, at least, out of the gloomy sequestration and old age of the tyrant-and even out of his sojourn at Caprea by softening the details, and exhibiting the despair which must have led to those very vicious pleasures. For none but a powerful and gloomy mind overthrown would have had recourse to such solitary horrors, being also, at the same time, old, and the master of the world. 1 Thus marked, with impatient strokes of the pen, by himself in the original. 66 "Thought Second. Why, at the very height of desire and human pleasure, - worldly, social, amorous, ambitious, or even avaricious, does there mingle a certain sense of doubt and sorrow -a fear of what is to come a doubt of what is - -a retrospect to the past, leading to a prognostication of the future? (The best of Prophets of the future is the Past.) Why is this, or these? I know not, except that on a pinnacle we are most susceptible of giddiness, and that we never fear falling except from a precipice—the higher, the more awful, and the more sublime; and, therefore, I am not sure that Fear is not a pleasurable sensation; at least, Hope is; and what Hope is there without a deep leaven of Fear? and what sensation is so delightful as Hope? and, if it were not for Hope, where would the Future be?-in hell. It is useless to say where the Present is, for most of us know; and as for the Past, what predominates in memory? Hope baffled. Ergo, in all human affairs, it is Hope Hope Hope. I allow sixteen minutes, though I never counted them, to any given or supposed possession. From whatever place we commence, we know where it all must end. And yet, what good is there in knowing it? It does not make men better or wiser. During the greatest horrors of the greatest plagues, (Athens and Florence, for examplevelli,) men were more cruel and profligate see Thucydides and Machiathan ever. It is all a mystery. I feel most things, but I know nothing, except 66 Thought for a Speech of Lucifer, in the Tragedy of Cain: "Were Death an evil, would I let thee live? Fool I live as I live as thy father lives, And thy son's sons shall live for evermore. "Past Midnight. One o' the clock. "I have been reading Frederick Schlegel? (brother to the other of the name) till now, and I can make out nothing. He evidently 2 [A translation of his "Lectures on the History of Literature" was published at Edinburgh in 1818.] 66 I dislike him the worse, (that is, Schlegel,) because he always seems upon the verge of meaning; and, lo, he goes down like sunset, or melts like a rainbow, leaving a rather rich confusion, to which, however, the above comparisons do too much honour. 'Continuing to read Mr. Frederick Schlegel. He is not such a fool as I took him for, that is to say, when he speaks of the North. But still he speaks of things all over the world with a kind of authority that a philosopher would disdain, and a man of common sense, feeling, and knowledge of his own ignorance, would be ashamed of. The man is evidently wanting to make an impression, like his brother, or like George in the Vicar of Wakefield, who found out that all the good things had been said already on the right side, and therefore ‘dressed up some paradoxes' upon the wrong side-ingenious, but false, as he himself says-to which 'the learned world said nothing, nothing at all, sir.' The learned world,' however, has said something to the brothers Schlegel. "It is high time to think of something else. What they say of the antiquities of the North is best. "January 29. 1821. "Yesterday, the woman of ninety-five years of age was with me. She said her eldest son (if now alive) would have been seventy. She is thin-short, but active — hears, and sees, and talks incessantly. Several teeth left-all in the lower jaw, and single front teeth. She is very deeply wrinkled, and has a sort of scattered grey beard over her chin, at least as long as my mustachios. Her head, in fact, resembles the drawing in crayons of Pope the poet's mother, which is in some editions of his works. I forgot to ask her if she remembered 1["Finding that the best things remained to be said on the wrong side, I resolved to write a book that should be wholly new. I therefore dressed up three paradoxes with ingenuity. They were false indeed, but they were new. Well, my boy,' cried I, and what did the learned world say to your paradoxes.'' Sir,' replied my son, the learned world said nothing to my paradoxes; nothing at all, Sir.'"- Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xx.] 2 [Alberoni, the son of a gardener of Placentia, rose by his intrigues and his talents to be cardinal and prime minister of Spain. After his disgrace, in 1720, he went to Alberoni (legate here), but will ask her next time. Gave her a louis -- ordered her a new suit of clothes, and put her upon a weekly pension. Till now, she had worked at gathering wood and pine-nuts in the forest, - pretty work at ninety-five years old! She had a dozen children, of whom some are alive. Her name is Maria Montanari. 66 Met a company of the sect (a kind of Liberal Club) called the Americani' in the forest, all armed, and singing, with all their might, in Romagnuole-Sem tutti soldat' per la liberta' (we are all soldiers for liberty'). They cheered me as I passed - I returned their salute, and rode on. This may show the spirit of Italy at present. 66 My to-day's journal consists of what I omitted yesterday. To-day was much as usual. Have rather a better opinion of the writings of the Schlegels than I had fourand-twenty hours ago; and will amend it still further, if possible. "They say that the Piedmontese have at length arisen ça ira! "Read Schlegel. Of Dante he says, 'that at no time has the greatest and most national of all Italian poets ever been much the favourite of his countrymen.' 'Tis false! There have been more editors and commentators (and imitators, ultimately) of Dante than of all their poets put together. Not a favourite! Why, they talk Dante - write Dante-and think and dream Dante at this moment (1821) to an excess, which would be ridiculous, but that he deserves it." "In the same style this German talks of gondolas on the Arno- a precious fellow to dare to speak of Italy! "He says also that Dante's chief defect is a want, in a word, of gentle feelings. Of gentle feelings!-and Francesca of Rimini and the father's feelings in Ugolino- and Beatrice- and 'La Pia!' Why, there is gentleness in Dante beyond all gentleness, when he is tender. It is true that, treating of the Christian Hades, or Hell, there is not much scope or site for gentleness—but who but Dante could have introduced any 'gentleness' at all into Hell? Is there any in Mil Rome, and was made legate of Romagna by Innocent XIII. He died in 1752, at the age of eighty-seven.] 3 ["I don't wonder," said Lord Byron, "at the en. thusiasm of the Italians about Dante. He is the poet of liberty. Persecution, exile, the dread of a foreign grave, could not shake his principles. There is no Italian gentleman, scarcely any well-educated girl, that has not all the finer passages of Dante at the finger's ends; particularly the Ravennese. The Guiccioli, for instance, can almost repeat any part of the Divine Comedy."MEDWIN.] |