LXX. presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of CHA P. poet-laureat are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing, interpreting, and composing in all places whatsoever, and on all subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the recompence of his affection for the Roman name. They did him honour, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot; and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their majestic ruins, confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted. The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indig nation and pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the faults of his fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in the hope of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of the present time. Rome was still the law The Pope and the Em ful mistress of the world. and CHAP. and eloquence *, Petrarch, Italy, and Europe, were LXX. astonished by a revolution, which realized, for a moment, his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the tribune, Rienzi, will occupy the following pages. The subject is interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot-bard t will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple narrative of the Florentine |, and more especially of the Roman historian. In To find the proofs of his enthusiasm for Rome, I need only request that the reader would open, by chance, either Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has described the poet's first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323-335.). But in the place of much idle rhetoric and morality, Petrarch might have amused the present and future age with an original account of the city and his coronation. It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P. du Cerceau, whose posthumous work (Conjuration de Nicholas Gabrini, dit de Rienzi Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published at Paris, 1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents in John Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Lat. med. Ævi, tom iii. p. 273. tom. iv. p. 85.). The Abbé de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the history of the 14th century, might treat, as his proper subject, a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply engaged, (Memoirs, tom. ii. p. 50. 51. 320-417. notes, p. 70 -76. tom. iii. p. 221-243. 366-375.). Not an idea or a fact in the writings of Petrarch has probably escaped him. Giovanni Villani, 1. xii. c. 89. 104. in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969. 970. 981-983. In his 3d volume of Italian Antiquities, (p. 249-548.), Muratori has inserted the Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ ab Anno 1327 usque ad Annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or Naples in the 14th century, and a Latin version for the benefit of strangers. It contains the most particular and authentic life of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi, which had been printed at Bracciano, 1627, in 4to, under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca, who is only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the tribune for forgery. Human nature is scarcely LXX. character, triotic de signs of In a quarter of the city, which was inhabited only CHAP. by mechanics and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a washerwoman produced the future Birth, deliverer of Rome. From such parents, Nicholas and paRienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which Rienzi. they painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end. The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Cæsar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his equals and contemporaries the genius of the young plebeian; he perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles of antiquity; loved to dispense his knowledge in familiar language; and was often provoked to exclaim, "Where are now these Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not born in those happy times?" When the republic addressed to the throne scarcely capable of such sublime or stupid impartiality; but whosoever is the author of these Fragments, he wrote on the spot, and at the time, and paints, without design or art, the manners of Rome, and the character of the tribune. *The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his tribunitian government, is contained in the 18th chapter of the Fragments, (p. 399-479.), which, in the new division, forms the 2d book of the history in xxxviii smaller chapters or sections. The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the original idiom: Fo da soa juventutine nutricato di latte de eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo. Deh como et quanto era veloce leirore! moito usava Tito Livio, Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le magnificentie di Julio, Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se speculava negl' intagli di marmo lequali iaccio intorno Roma. Non era altri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii. Tutte scritture antiche vulgarizzava; quesse fiuredi marmo justamente interpretava. Oh come spesso diceva, "Dove suoco quelli buoni Romani? dove ene loro somma "justitia poleramme trovare in tempo che quessi siuriano!" 1 LXX. CHAP. throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit and eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen deputies of the commons. The orator had the honour of haranguing Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind; but his aspiring hopes were chilled by disgrace and poverty; and the patriot was reduced to a single garment, and the charity of the hospital. From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit, or the smile of favour; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honourable and extensive connection, and the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi was prompt and persuasive; the multitude is always prone to envy and censure; he was stimulated by the loss of a brother, and the impunity of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or exaggerate the public calamities. The blessings of peace and justice, for which civil society has been instituted, were banished from Rome; the jealous citizens, who might have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in the dishonour of their wives and daughters; they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles, and the corruption of the magistrates; and the abuse of arms, or of laws, was the only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and serpents of * Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans, with the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon, (Memoires, tom, i. P. 330.). LXX. of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were CHAP. variously repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets and churches; and while the spectators gazed with curious wonder, the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome, her eternal sovereignty over her princes and provinces, was the theme of his public and private discourse; and a monument of servitude became in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the Emperor Vespasian, had been inscribed on a copper-plate still extant in the choir of the church of St John Lateran *. A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, and a convenient theatre was erected for their reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary †, and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of the senate and people, from whom all legal authority was derived. The supine ignorance *The fragments of the Lex Regia may be found in the inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242. and at the end of the Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned notes of the editor, tom. ii. + I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable blunder of Rienzi. The Lex Regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge the Pomorium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so to the tribune; he confounds it with pomarium, an orchard, translates lo Jardino de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the less excuseable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 4c6 ), and the French historian (p. 33.). Even the learning of Muratori has slumbered over the passage. |