The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-24

solved to become a gentleman, and SO to meet
the Milanese face to face. How do you think
he attained this end !? He banished himself
from Italy and from Art; he entered the
service of the Knights HospitalIers of st. John
| of Malta as a common soldier and sailor he
tugged at the weary oar, he battled the Moslem,
he helped build again the battered walls of Va
letta, laboring at odd ends of time at his Art,
| painting, for instance, a Virgin Dead, whose
swollen and loathsome body was J fit type Of
his morbid mind finally, his stern fidelity, his
indomitable courage, often proved, and his great
picture of the Decollation of st. John in the
| oratory of the Church of the Conventuals--a
| picture curious for the horrid fidelity with,
which he painted the headless neck, seemingly
labor of love, in which he fancied his muir
dered man already subject to his vindictive
anatomy, combined to elevate him to the point
of his desires he was received into the fra.
ternity Of Knights, felt the accolade upon his
shoulder, and, after serenteen years of waiting,
became gentleman, noble, and, as such, the
equal of his insulter. Malta had no longer sny
charms for him he fed, sought ont the MiIans
ese, found him, and, pointing to the enncblipg
cross which the Grand Master had placed upo1
his shoulder, returned the blow which for
seventeen years had tingled on his cheek.
They fought, the Milanese fell, and Csravaggio
in this artist some of the truest traits of the
Italian character
But is not his genius too sombre ?" asked
Rupert
Perhaps so-in its out,oUd manifestations.
There is in most Italians that lively sunshine of
which Fra Lippo Lippi seems the type, but
| then, you know the story of Fra Fillippo-his
love for Lucrezia the novice his pleasure,sail
and captivity among the Moors; his pleasure
escapades, especially that famous one by the
window, when Cosimo di Medici would have
constrained him to work and, finally, his death
by poison No-I think it is not in the tragic
element that Caravaggio exaggerates the Ital
ian characterize deficiency is, that he falls
short of giving one true idea of their refine
ment, the delicacy of their tone, the silent suf-
fering aristocracy of their looks. Henry Hene
says, with wonderful spiritual truth The
whole Italian race is internally sick, and sick
people are invariably more refined than the TO
bust, for only the sick man is really man his
limbs have history of suffering, they are spir
itualized. l believe that, by suffering animals
could be made human; l have seen dying
hound, who in his last agonies gazed on me
with the glance of man."
How strange seems all you have told us ="
murmured Helen, attuning her voice to the soft
tones of the fading day; came hither ex
pectng to find brown-limbed Italy, laughing,
showing its sparkling white teeth, exulting in
its skies, its fruit and flower its sun and shine,
all aglow with ripest, most sensuous life and in.
stead, you have given me a pale, spiritual con
sumptive, the hectic on her cheeks, her bright
eye winning you to tears with its deep-thought-
ed silent melancholy, her wasted diaphanous
fingers pulling to pieces, leaf by leaf, fading
rose How strange!"
Now, the evening was gone, and the dark
night had come up, the dark velvet night, mul.
titudinously starred with the blossoms of
heaven" And, as they drove on, there came
to their ears the hoarse exulting of the frogs by
the wayside far and wide flashed the fire flies,
scudding hither and thither, as, of old time,
when Louis XIV was King, Partisan lovers
went by night, torch-lighted and bejewelled, to
wait upon their mistresses, and bear them cages
damour. From thousand village Companies
was waited the sweet, sad utterances of the bells
with their thousand words of consolation and
uplifting, waking soft and pleasant dreams, AN
the travellers came to know fully what the old
| Florentine meant when he sang:
GioJs del monde, suone dele canpans"
Behind there were the snowy mountains, but
this-this was truly Italy-did they not feel its
dreamy righteousness of spirit mastering their
souls like gentle sleep Of summer-such
|
with roses when put our brow against our
loved ones bosom, and, with her warm, soft
breath touching our cheek, and the love of her
dear eyes soothing u.s. melt listlessly away and
slumber as slumbers an entranced cloud
athwart the sky's blue vault
Then came the dust, the Streets and, as they
| swept along towards their hotel, there appeared
vision to their eyes, in the mystic moonlight,
and under the glittering stars-the vision of
| ghostly white giant, upon whose shoulders
perched a thousand spirits, seeming to rise for
| hght-a vision of a thousand pinnacles, as fine
craven as silver Of Cellini's-a vision of mighty
marble, splendid yet ghostly--a vision called
the Duomo. For they were in Milan, and they
we're passing the Cathedral
II may be well to observe here that have not
followed the popu ar faith concerning Mcheiangiol, da
Caravagso, by amy means That him in far
The reader will acKnow edge after gancng at the fol-
low ng summary, from Mrs Jameson's facie pea Gar.
avaggio was gloomy missnihIope and a profigate
rufian we read that he as bsnished from Rome for
murder committed IN drunken brawl and that he died
last OF dehauchery and want. Caravaggo was per.
feet i'll his gamblers robbers and should
never have meddled with Saints and Madonnas. In his
famous P,std IN the Vatican, the VIRGIN old beggar
woman, the two Msries fshw maudlin sor-
row, and ST. Peter and s.. John a couple of bravoes
burying murdered traveller: d,pinse eoeemenn senpre,
perehe feroce s,eO eavaere says his bagrapheT
observation, by he way in support of my hypothesis
be very well. am lot gong deny that O4rava ggios
frociy OF nature fierce aspect his intense
mere rGfhan and murderer, who WELDED is brush
as he ws ided his pognard FIRST because the facts of
has history which have truly given in the text and upon
the best auth, ry, entirely preclude the possibility of
such construction Of his character Second, because
the facts OF his genius are s more decidedly opposed to
the theory. If it impossible OF a common
bully and ruian following up a spa iuaI purpose with
OF ton and ain, sill more imposs bic to conceive
of that bully AMI Iuiian only holding with equal
eaSer,ng aSou, him such 70 lowers rs Ribe,a Sp.eno
leiio, Beissro, Andrea vacaro AIanredi SaraeenI
@ an as
Rome. mis- Fruit Girl, his Hagar" his san Bias
fr the Csoss," which is in the Vaicela Church. He
fierce, gTim and stern, yet this ruff and bravo
than all the CarraccI, Gudi, and Domenchin OF the
age rhese and mai ;heory able they
lap absurdiy. Which shall go down.
Upon ibis suiject reader may consult Bsyle ST
Jonn, Allan Cunningham "Lves, &c.n aud Lanz ii
Book I'LL Ep ~
SUBSTITUTE FOR STRYCHNINE WHIsKY-The
liquor sold lin the porIer-houses ofthe frst fourth
sixth, ninth, thirteenth, and seventeenth wards
has lately been celebrated for its certainty to
kill within few moments after drinking. A
man whose stomach would not stand aquafortis
cannot safely risk his life with the whisky of
the ninth and thirteenth wards. Hard drink
ers will be pleased to learn that there is a good,
reliable substitute offered. Minie-riae bran
dy," killing two hundred yards, of.hand, must
yield in potency to "tangle-foot whisky" a
drink now in general use. 1t is made of diluted
alcohol nitric acid, boot-legs, and tobacco, and
will upset an individual at distance of four
hundred yards from the demijohn containing it.
P1rT's DEATH ED.-Pitt died at his house
on Putney Heath, near the spot where Canning
and CastIereagh fought their duel, and in a