The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-24
For the National Era ~.
A PALACE IN GEN GA.
BY EDWARD SPENCER.

BY EDWARD SPENCER.
Iv-Contnued.
Miss Beale shuddered. After period of 81.
lence, she said:
81 do not understand you-at one moment,
you relate such tragedy-then again you deny
that Italy is the land of the poets. feel already
the influence of this dark fate upon mel seem
to tread on graves-why do you deny to Italy
her stern romance?"
You mistake met is because have such
a profound sense Of this stern, sad fate, that
am unwilling to credit the romance of it--can
romance lend its chiaroscuro to picture of
such positive, black, harsh lines? May we ex-
pect the soft melting contour of marble from
the Parian quarries in the deep, stern frame of
bronze? shall not deny to Italy her fatal
gift of beauty but the people stand apart
from that and, lovely as they are, there is a dis
NAL shadow rules their lives, which appals me
more than their beauty woos me. will con-
fess, lido not understand the Italian character
there is completely about it and subtlety
which makes me difident in all my attempts at
| thorough estimate. The elements seem in.
congruous, conflicting, impossible of associa-
ton. see that they do go together, but how
cannot say, and it puzzles me, for cannot
reason on the Tertullianic basis of credible
est, qua impossible
"Still," said Rupert, ave must admit that
there is some potent-and therefore genuine
charm about this Italy. Just see where she
has stood in the world, how great has been her
influence, not only upon the history of man, but
upon the men among man, and, in that way,
upon the thoughts and ideas which rule men,
l leave out of notice all Etruscan civilization
and Roman empery-I take no notice of the
triumphant Church, nor ofthe crusading State
but see what benisons we of the other world owe
Italy still. Liberty, commerce, letters, art, re-
finement, doetrine-Dante, Savonarola, Michel
agnolo = Petrarch, Lorenzo, Raphael who
shall wonder it is the worlds very shrine? Proof
enough fthe genuineness of Italy is the longing
with which men in all ages have turned towards
it, and yearned after it, with an unceasing, pas
sionate longing. Luther and Sidney, Milton
and Erasmus, all turned thither. Goethe tells
us that, for years before his Italian journey, he
dared not open a Latin work, it depressed him
so. Baggesen, the Dane, not waiting for his
rix dollars-Hans Andersen, writing his Impro-
visatore-Jean Paul, depicting lovingly in his
Titan the traits of Rome he had never
seen Wincklemann making it his home-Shel-
~, and Byron, and Keats-W Werner, and Schle.
gel, and Tieck-all have turned towards Italy
with the fidelity of the needle to the pole, find
ing there, as it would seem, at once inspiration
| aud oil al 1olr IL II. Il
CROWN
"You forgot to add to your list the Brown
ings and our own Margaret Fuller, whose lives
owe Italy large debt, which they are repaying
in the largest manner"
a am surprised-shocked," spoke up Miss
Beale, "to think that neither of you have utter
ed one word for music! Is not Italy the birth
place of music---the cradle of melody and har-
mony? Remember Scarlattie, Korpora, Du-
rante, Corelh the Improvisatore, Fra Martini,
Cherubini, Beliini, Donisetti, Rossini, spontini,
| Mercadante -
spray, do not add Verdi to that scale, inter
rupted the artist, hastily.
There is no danger" replied Miss Beale,
laughing; i am too fond of the old idols But"
she added with modest earnestness that
pleased Merivale, "if you will permit me a word
in your debate, what most wins me to belief
in the genuineness of Italy, is the devotion of
the people themselves. Plague, pestilence, and
| famine; the ruthless flames of war; tyranny
grinding them down into the dust with its iron
shod heels; superstition tanning them into the
sleep Of death with its vampire wings-all these
have visited, still impend over Italy, vet how
her children love her Patriotism here seems
to be passion, wild, unreasoning, uncalcu-
lating, and unselfsh passion personal feel
ing, impossible to be abstracted or colby argued
about"
"You are right, Miss Beale-and there is
scarce an Italian but will die for his coun-
try-more, all are jealous of her, as if she we're
really mistress. All, these Italians-they
puzzle me with their wild enthusiasms-who
but an Italian would have died as Giordano
Bruno did, for an abstract dogma concerning
an immaterial world? Who but an Italian
would have preached and ruled, fallen and died,
as did Savonarola?"
"Can you not name to me q man who seems
to your eyes to embody in himself type of the
Italian character? / wish to master it, aud |
can do SO most wildly, if l can present it to my
| eyes in concrete FORM"
"Why no, Miss Beale, fear not" replied
Merivale, after bordering while. "The Ital-
ian character is too complex, too anomalous, to
have its full type in any one man. There is,
however, one constant element the spirit of
revenge, and, taking this as the connecting
thread, do not know any man who seems to
unite in himself so many of the Italians fea-
lures of soul as Caravaggio"
"What Caravaggio the artist t? thought
he was altogether sombre genius, as violent
in his imagnings as Salvador, and as dark and
gloomy in coloring as Rembrandt"
Not quite. Sombre he was, and fierce, and
rude beyond the limit of Italian manners, but
in the more essential qualities, in his life, his
passion, his quarrelsome nature, his earnest
ness his fine artistic sense, his devotion to art,
but above all in his subtle, far reaching spirit
of revenge, and the steady fidelity and intent
ness of will with which he pursued his hatreds,
| think Morigi da Caravaggio the truest type
| possible of the Italian character. Are you ac-
uuainted with his story? He was one of the
| most prominent reformers of Art a contempt
rary of the Caracci, and a determined enemy to
the mannerisms which the heirs of Raphael
had introduced everywhere. He was self made,
a man of the people, entirely, and only elevated
| by his devotion to Art. He studied first in
Milan, then went to Venice to acquire Gior-
Clones coloring, and thence to Rome, where
he rivalled Ludovico Caracci in artistic excel
lence, and Annibale in violence of temper. In
one of his many brawls he came into collision
with Milanese nobleman, who, acquainted
with his antecedents, refused to fight him, be.
cause he was not gentleman. Caravaggio
had often before sought his revenge with the
quick point of his ready poignard, but this was
| a case which, to his subtle and far-reaching
soul, seemed to demand very different treat
ment. Punished the man must be, but not by
common methods Oh no-the artists subtle
hatred, his refined and intellectual conceptions
of vengeance, were not to be satisfied with any
coarse process-any sudden blow that would
"end ALL" Why, your dullest OK, being smit.
| ten and goaded. NAV lift up his violent heel