[Painted by Richter.] PARISINA. [Engraved by Chevallier.] THE grand part of this poem is that which describes the defence of Hugo, and the execution of that rival son; and in which, though there is no pomp, either of language or of sentiment, and though every thing is conceived and expressed with the utmost simplicity and directness, there is a spirit of pathos and poetry to which it would not be easy to find many parallels. The following extract from Gibbon will prove that, unhappily, fact was the foundation of the tale: Lord Byron substituting Azo for Nicholas, as more metrical. "Under the reign of Nicholas III. Ferrara was polluted with a domestic tragedy. By the testimony of an attendant, and his own observation, the Marquis of Estè discovered the incestuous loves of his wife Parisina, and his natural son Hugo, a beautiful and valiant youth. They were beheaded in the castle by the sentence of a father and husband, who published his shame, and survived their execution. He was unfortunate if they were guilty; if they were innocent, he was still more unfortunate; nor is there any possible situation, in which I can sincerely approve the last act of the justice of a parent." "Ferrara is much decayed and depopulated," says Lord Byron, in one of his letters; " but the castle still exists entire ; and I saw the court where Parisina and Hugo were beheaded, according to the annal of Gibbon.” PARISINA. In the poem, the fate of Parisina is left doubtful; but the following statement, in Frizzi's history of Ferrara, confirms the account of Gibbon. "It was, then, in the prisons of the castle, and exactly in those frightful dungeons, beneath the chamber called the Aurora, that, on the night of the 21st of May, were beheaded, first Hugo, and then Parisina. Zoese, he that accused her, conducted the latter under his arm to the place of punishment. She, all along, fancied she was to be thrown into a pit, and asked, at every step, if she was yet come to the spot? She was told, that her punishment was the axe. She inquired what was become of Hugo, and received for answer, that he was already dead; at the which, sighing grievously, she exclaimed, 'Now then, I wish not myself to live;' and, being come to the block, she stripped herself with her own hands of all her ornaments, and, wrapping a cloth round her head, submitted to the fatal stroke, which terminated the cruel scene. "The marquis kept watch the whole of that dreadful night, and, as he was walking backwards and forwards, inquired, of the captain of the castle, if Hugo was dead yet? Who answered him, 'Yes.' He then gave himself up to the most desperate lamentations, exclaiming, 'Oh! that I too were dead, since I have been hurried on to resolve thus against my own Hugo!' and then, gnawing with his teeth a cane which he had in his hand, he passed the rest of the night in sighs and tears, calling frequently upon his own dear Hugo." BEPPO. [Painted by Davis.] [Engraved by Goodyear.] XI. "They've pretty faces yet, those same Venetians, ; In ancient arts by moderns mimick'd ill; XII. Whose tints are truth and beauty at their best." Giorgione, and Titian, who for some time copied his style, seem to have been the only painters who excited, in any great degree, the admiration of Lord Byron. Giorgione was especially his favourite, and deservedly so, from the grace, dignity, expression, and truth of character, which distinguish his compositions; to which may be added, the beauty with which he invests his female heads, a charm more likely to attract one of the uninitiated than even higher qualities in painting. There are very few specimens of this master in England, and, from his early death at thirty-four, his paintings are rare even on the Continent. Two beautiful compositions by Giorgione adorn the collection of Mr. Hope, in Duchess Street; one the head of a woman, whose majesty and loveliness realize all that imagination can desire. "I know nothing of pictures myself and care almost as little; but to me there are none like the Venetian above all, Giorgione."-B. LETTERS. 1817. |