The author of the introduction to the curious Memoirs of Sir Kenelm Digby, has proved the absolute falsehood of some of Aubrey's assertions, and infers the improbability of others. But these beautiful lines by Habington, seem to have escaped his notice; and they are not slight evidence in Venetia's favor. On the whole, the mystery remains unexplained; a cloud has settled forever on the true story of this extraordinary creature. Neither the pen nor the sword of her husband could entirely clear her fame in her own age: he could only terrify slander into silence, and it died away into an indistinct murmur, of which the echo alone has reached our time.-But this is enough :the echo of an echo could whisper into naught a woman's fair name. The idea of a creature so formed in the prodigality of nature; so completely and faultlessly beautiful ; so nobly born and allied; so capable (as she showed herself on various occasions) of high generous feeling,* of delicacy,† of fortitude, of tenderness; § depraved by her own vices, or "done to death by slanderous tongues," is equally painful and heart-sickening. The image of the aspic trailing its slime and its venom over the bosom of Cleopatra, is not more abhorrent. * Memoirs of Sir Kenelm Digby, pp. 211, 224. Introduction, p. 27. † Memoirs, pp. 205, 213. Introduction, p. 28. Memoirs, p. 254. § Memoirs, p. 305. CHAPTER XXVIII. CONJUGAL POETRY, CONTINUED. THE TWO ZAPPI. WE find among the minor poets of Italy, a charming, and I believe a singular instance of a husband and a wife, both highly gifted, devoting their talents to celebrate each other. These were Giambattista Zappi,* the famous Roman advocate, and his wife Faustina, the daughter of Carlo Maratti, the painter. Zappi, after completing his legal studies at Bologna, came to reside at Rome, where he distinguished himself in his profession, and was one of the founders of the academy of the Arcadii. Faustina Maratti was many years younger than her husband, and extremely beautiful: she was her father's favorite model for his Madonnas, Muses, and Vestal Virgins. From a description of her, in an Epithalamium † on her marriage, it appears that her eyes and hair were jet black, her features regular, and her complexion pale and delicate; a style of beauty which, in its perfection, is almost peculiar to Italy. To the mutual tenderness of * Born at Imola, 1668; died at Rome, 1719. † See the Epithalamium on her marriage with Zappi, prefixed to their works. these married lovers, we owe some of the most elegant among the lighter Italian lyrics. Zappi, in a Sonnet addressed to his wife some time after their union, reminds her, with a tender exultation, of the moment they first met; when she swept by him in all the pride of beauty, careless or unconscious of his admiration,—and he bowed low before her, scarcely daring to lift his eyes on the charms that were destined to bless him; "Who," he says, "would then have whispered me, the day will come when you will smile to remember her disdain, for all this blaze of beauty was created for you alone!" or would have said to her, "Know you who is destined to touch that virgin heart? Even he, whom you now pass by without even a look! Such are the miracles of love!" La prima volta ch' io m' avenni in quella La fronte inchinò in umil atto, ed ella "costci ti sprezza, Chi detto avesse a me, Che nacque sol per te tanta bellezza." Chi detto avesse ad ella: "Il tuo bel core Sai chi l'avrà? Costui ch' or non t' apprezza The first Sonnet in Faustina's Canzoniere, Dolce sollievo delle umane cure, is an eulogium on her husband, and describes her own confiding tenderness. It is full of grace and sweetness, and feminine feeling: Soave cortesi a vezzosi accenti, Or tu gli affetti miei puri innocenti Others are of a melancholy character; and one or two allude to the death of an infant son, whom she tenderly laments. But the most finished of all her poems is a Sonnet addressed to a lady whom her husband had formerly loved; * the sentiment of which is truly beautiful and feminine: never was jealousy so amiably, or so delicately expressed. There is something very dramatic and picturesque in the apostrophe which Faustina addresses to her rival, and in the image of the lady "casting down her large bright eyes;" as well as affecting in the abrupt recoil of feeling in the last lines. *Probably the same he had celebrated under the name of Filli, and who married another. Zappi's Sonnet to this lady, "Ardo per Filli," is elaborately elegant; sparkling and pointed as a pyramid of gems. SONNETTO. Donna! che tanto almio bel soi piacesti! Dimmi, quando le voci a lui volgesti (Come a me volge) a te volger vedesti? De tuoi bei lumi, a le due chiare faci Veggo il rossor che le tue guance infiora; TRANSLATION. Lady, that once so charm'd my life's fair Sun,* "Il mio bel sol" is a poetical term of endearment, which is not easy to reduce gracefully into English. † Translated by a friend. |