The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 45

[317] [Compare--

"Thy G.o.dlike crime was to be kind, To render with thy precepts less The sum of human wretchedness ...

But baffled as thou wert from high ...

Thou art a symbol and a sign To Mortals."

_Prometheus_, iii. lines 35, _seq_.; _vide ante_, p. 50.

Compare, too, the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, stanza xvi. _var_ ii.--

"He suffered for kind acts to men."

_Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 312.]

[318] {270}["Transfigurate," whence "transfiguration," is derived from the Latin _transfiguro,_ found in Suetonius and Quintilian. Byron may have thought to anglicize the Italian _trasfigurarsi._]

[319] The Cupola of St. Peter's. [Michel Angelo, then in his seventy-second year, received the appointment of architect of St.

Peter's from Pope Paul III. He began the dome on a different plan from that of the first architect, Bramante, "declaring that he would raise the Pantheon in the air." The drum of the dome was constructed in his life-time, but for more than twenty-four years after his death (1563), the cupola remained untouched, and it was not till 1590, in the pontificate of Sixtus V., that the dome itself was completed. The ball and cross were placed on the summit in November, 1593.--_Handbook of Rome_, p. 239.

Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cliii. line i, _Poetical Works_, 1892, ii. 440, 441, note 2.]

[320] {271}["Yet, however unequal I feel myself to that attempt, were I now to begin the world again, I would tread in the steps of that great master [Michel Angelo]. To kiss the hem of his garment, to catch the slightest of his perfections, would be glory and distinction enough for an ambitious man."--_Discourses_ of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1884, p. 289.]

[321] The statue of Moses on the monument of Julius II. [Michel Angelo's Moses is near the end of the right aisle of the Church of S.

Pietro-in-Vincoli.]

"SONETTO

"_Di Giovanni Battista Zappi_.

"Chi e costui, che in si gran pietra scolto, Siede gigante, e le piu ill.u.s.tri, e conte Opre dell' arte avanza, e ha vive, e p.r.o.nte Le labbra si, che le parole ascolto?

Quest' e Mose; ben me 'l diceva il folto Onor del mento, e 'l doppio raggio in fronte; Quest' e Mose, quando scendea dal monte, E gran parte del Nume avea nel volto.

Tal' era allor, che le sonanti, e vaste Acque ei sospese, a se d' intorno; e tale Quando il Mar chiuse, e ne fe tomba altrui.

E voi, sue turbe, un rio vitello alzaste?

Alzata aveste immago a questa eguale!

Ch' era men fallo i' adorar costui."

[_Scelta di Sonetti ... del Gobbi_, 1709, iii. 216.]

["And who is he that, shaped in sculptured stone Sits giant-like? stern monument of art Unparalleled, while language seems to start From his prompt lips, and we his precepts own?

--'Tis Moses; by his beard's thick honours known, And the twin beams that from his temples dart; 'Tis Moses; seated on the mount apart, Whilst yet the G.o.dhead o'er his features shone.

Such once he looked, when Ocean's sounding wave Suspended hung, and such amidst the storm, When o'er his foes the refluent waters roared.

An idol calf his followers did engrave: But had they raised this awe-commanding form, Then had they with less guilt their work adored."

Rogers.]

[cm] {272}

----_from whose word_ {_Israel took G.o.d, p.r.o.nounce the law in stone._ {_Israel left Egypt, cleave the sea in stone_.--

[MS. Alternative readings.]

[322] The Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel.

["It is obvious, throughout his [Michel Angelo's] works, that the poetical mind of the latter [Dante] influenced his feelings. The Demons in the Last Judgment ... may find a prototype in _La Divina Comedia_.

The figures rising from the grave mark his study of _L'Inferno_, e _Il Purgatorio_; and the subject of the Brazen Serpent, in the Sistine Chapel, must remind every reader of Canto XXV. dell' _Inferno_."--_Life of Michael Angelo_ by R. Duppa, 1856, p. 120.]

[323] I have read somewhere (if I do not err, for I cannot recollect where,) that Dante was so great a favourite of Michael Angelo's, that he had designed the whole of the Divina Commedia: but that the volume containing these studies was lost by sea.

[Michel Angelo's copy of Dante, says Duppa (_ibid_., and note 1), "was a large folio, with Landino's commentary; and upon the broad margin of the leaves he designed with a pen and ink, all the interesting subjects.

This book was possessed by Antonio Montanti, a sculptor and architect in Florence, who, being appointed architect to St. Peter's, removed to Rome, and s.h.i.+pped his ... effects at Leghorn for Civita Vecchia, among which was this edition of Dante. In the voyage the vessel foundered at sea, and it was unfortunately lost in the wreck."]

[324] {273} See the treatment of Michel Angelo by Julius II., and his neglect by Leo X. [Julius II. encouraged his attendance at the Vatican, but one morning he was stopped by the chamberlain in waiting, who said, "I have an order not to let you enter." Michel Angelo, indignant at the insult, left Rome that very evening. Though Julius despatched five couriers to bring him back, it was some months before he returned. Even a letter (July 8, 1506), in which the Pope promised his "dearly beloved Michel Angelo" that he should not be touched nor offended, but be "reinstated in the apostolic grace," met with no response. It was this quarrel with Julius II. which prevented the completion of the sepulchral monument. The "Moses" and the figures supposed to represent the Active and the Contemplative Life, and three Caryatides (since removed) represent the whole of the original design, "a parallelogram surmounted with forty statues, and covered with reliefs and other ornaments."--See Duppa's _Life, etc_., 1856, pp. 33, 34, and _Handbook of Rome_, p. 133.]

[325] [Compare _Merchant of Venice_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 191, 192.]

[326] {274}[Compare--

"I fled, and cried out Death ...

I fled, but he pursued, (though more, it seems, Inflamed with l.u.s.t than rage), and swifter far, Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, And in embraces forcible and foul, Ingendering with me, of that rape begot These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry Surround me."

_Paradise Lost_, book ii. lines 787-796.]

[327] [In his _Convito_, Dante speaks of his banishment, and the poverty and distress which attended it, in very affecting terms. "Ah! would it had pleased the Dispenser of all things that this excuse had never been needed; that neither others had done me wrong, nor myself undergone penalty undeservedly,--the penalty, I say, of exile and of poverty. For it pleased the citizens of the fairest and most renowned daughter of Rome--Florence--to cast me out of her most sweet bosom, where I was born and bred, and pa.s.sed half of the life of man, and in which, with her good leave, I still desire with all my heart to repose my weary spirit, and finish the days allotted me; and so I have wandered in almost every place to which our language extends, a stranger, almost a beggar, exposing against my will the wounds given me by fortune, too often unjustly imputed to the sufferer's fault. Truly I have been a vessel without sail and without rudder, driven about upon different ports and sh.o.r.es by the dry wind that springs out of dolorous poverty; and hence have I appeared vile in the eyes of many, who, perhaps, by some better report, had conceived of me a different impression, and in whose sight not only has my person become thus debased, but an unworthy opinion created of everything which I did, or which I had to do."--_Il Convito_, book i. chap. iii., translated by Leigh Hunt, _Stories from the Italian Poets_, 1846, i. 22, 23.]

[328] {275} What is Horizon's quant.i.ty? Horizon, or Horizon? adopt accordingly.--[B.]

[cn]--_and the Horizon for bars_.--[MS. Alternative reading.]

[329] [Compare--

"Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar."

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza lvii., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 371, note 1.

"Between the second and third chapels [in the nave of Santa Croce at Florence] is the colossal monument to Dante, by Ricci ... raised by subscription in 1829. The inscription, '_A majoribus ter frustra decretum_,' refers to the successive efforts of the Florentines to recover his remains, and raise a monument to their great countryman."--_Handbook, Central Italy_, p. 32.]

[330] "E scrisse piu volte non solamente a' particolari Cittadini del Reggimento, ma ancora al Popolo; e intra l' altre un' Epistola a.s.sai lunga che incomincia: '_Popule mee_ (sic), _quid feci tibi?_"--_Le vite di Dante, etc._, _scritte da Lionardo Aretino_, 1672, p. 47.

[331] {276}[About the year 1316 his friends obtained his restoration to his country and his possessions, on condition that he should pay a certain sum of money, and, entering a church, avow himself guilty, and ask pardon of the republic.

The following was his answer to a religious, who appears to have been one of his kinsmen: "From your letter, which I received with due respect and affection, I observe how much you have at heart my restoration to my country. I am bound to you the more gratefully inasmuch as an exile rarely finds a friend. But, after mature consideration, I must, by my answer, disappoint the writers of some little minds ... Your nephew and mine has written to me ... that ... I am allowed to return to Florence, provided I pay a certain sum of money, and submit to the humiliation of asking and receiving absolution.... Is such an invitation then to return to his country glorious to d. all. after suffering in exile almost fifteen years? Is it thus, then, they would recompense innocence which all the world knows, and the labour and fatigue of unremitting study?

Far from the man who is familiar with philosophy, be the senseless baseness of a heart of earth, that could imitate the infamy of some others, by offering himself up as it were in chains. Far from the man who cries aloud for justice, this compromise, by his money, with his persecutors! No, my Father, this is not the way that shall lead me back to my country. I will return with hasty steps, if you or any other can open to me a way that shall not derogate from the fame and honour of d.; but if by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall never enter. What! shall I not every where enjoy the light of the sun and the stars? and may I not seek and contemplate, in every corner of the earth, under the canopy of heaven, consoling and delightful truth, without first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous, to the people and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will not fail me."--_Epistola, IX. Amico Florentino: Opere di Dante_, 1897, p. 413.]

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