New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-19

T., ohtoi,od tbe title of Wears of the Empire. and
built an illegal power upon the OASIS Oh ihpc'"'.
right in Lombardy: Of whom the Niscoht' anu
Della Scala families were distinguished examples
The third class were noblcmen who were charged
with military Or judicial power, and who useu
their positions to enslavc those whom they were
sent 10 govern and TO protect: OF which class inc
outcome of noble Italian families Is too numcr-
Gus TO bear mention. The fourth class was COM
posed OF successful soldiers of fortune who sezed
and rulcd by the strong hand the most cOnspicu-
GUS of which class was Francesca SfOrza. The fifth
class include, the neuhcws lie. the sons) of Popes
and of these the no1lc" Borra and Farnese !am-
lies sp1aug The syth class is as large and rs imror-
tant rs the third and is peculiar TO Italy in its
methods of ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. 1t consists OF citizens
who by the gradual accumulation Of great wealth
IN their families and by political craft made them
selves masters Of independent cities, aud who
finally took the title and the prerogltives of Grand
Dukes and Princes. OF these the most notcd were
the Mcdici Of Florence and the Bentivogli of
Ravenna.
We cannot follow Mr.. Symonds in his relation of
the lives and crimes of these various classes OF
despots. His pictures are plainly mere faithful
unevaggcratcd portrayals Of the mode OF life OF
these cruel, selfish remorseless men; but although
he paints in as low key his subject Will permit
his canvas is necessarily red with blood and rough
with riot more h:deous and revolving succession
Of stories for here unity is impossible, and no less,
even n connected sequence) it would be difficult to
find even in the history of the darkest ages and the
most savage people. And the picture is only the
more revolving because at this very tme Italy was
full Of scholarship and of culture, and half these
Lestial creatures themselves scholars and art
critics Of no mean requirements and abilities
q: G., "a Ia nv f
special cmark,-and to this point Mr. Symonds does
call attention-that freedom, the freedom of cities
and peoples. and the liberty of the individual did
not tend to the advancement of literature and art.
Not only 40 the two things did not coexist The
republics during the days Of their Independent eX-
sence produced 10 great writers no great scholars,
40 great artists Venice did nothing for literature;
AMI the painters who are called hers came from
abroad to gain Venetian gold. Genoa Pisa. Sicna
did nothing. Tic Perugine school OF art which
bloomed into Raphael was developed during the
ascendenCy of dcspOtic families. Ludovico Sforza
was the foster.fath Their of the Milanese school.
Prnccly Ferrara and royal Naples were brilliant
centres of literary light, and Florence itself was
most splendid in arts and in letters under the
Mcdici. Lovers of literature and of liberty are
OBLIGED 10 face these facts.
Mr. Synonls's pages are q rich gallery of splendid
historical portraits among which these CT Macchia-
veiI and SavonaIola are conspicuous not only for
the cmnencc of their Iiects bit for careful and
skilful dciineaton of character. We cannot remark
upon these in detail to do which in a way at all
satisfactory would occupy all our remaining space,
and to do less would be unjust to our author and
merely tantalizing 70 our readers. We only
recommend those among the latter who would
understand these men. and see them in their lives
as they were and with the world by which they
were surrounded and in which they worked, to
read attentiycly Mr. Symondss third and sixth
chapters which are hardly inferior in interest to
any other pages OF history written in the English
language.
The portrait of one historical personage-Lucrelia
Borgia-wc shall consider briefly because of tho
popular interest IN her. and because that interest
has its origin in q total Misrepresentation of her
character The Lucrezia BOrgia of tradition, of
Victor Hugo, and of the librettO of Donizettis
opera, had hardly more real existence than
griffin or a chimera. LucreZia was the daughter OF
Pope Alexander VI. (ROderigO BOrgal by Nanozza
Catanci, who had two husbands of n very make
believe order. Lucrezia herself living in such
moral atmosphere, and being constantly in the COM
pany of her shameless father and her equally
shameless brother Cesare BOrga, could have had no
very great sense of purity or modesty and the way
marriage must have tended rather than otherwise,
to the elevation of concubinage in her eyes She
was formally betrotheu first to one Spanish noble
man. then to another. Then these engagements
being broken when her father became Pope, because
they were not splendid enough she married 70
Giovanni Sforza From him she was divorced and
gwen to Alfonso of Biscglia When he was muir
dered Alfonso dEste was forced by policy to take
her as his wife against his will. This man, rough
soldier, chiefly interested in cannon-foundry, was
won to esteem the woman whom he had taken to
wife unwillingly and even to love her and she at
tachcd the whole State to her by her kindness of
heart and sweetness of temper. She was the sub
iect of the panegyrcs OF ArOsto and of Bcmbo;
and the French biographer of Bayard wrote of her:
" venture 20 say that neither in her own time nor
long before could there be found a more eminent
uriomphantel princess; for she was beautiful,
good, sweet aud courteous to ALL She hardly APP
pears il any authentic record of the time except at
the births of her numerous family and she died at
last IN chd-bed. There is not piece of positive
Trustworthy evidence upon which to found the
character of the Lucrezia Borgia of legend and
story no charge, even by any respectable witness,
of the crimes of incest and poisoning and assaSsina
ton which have been LAID upon her. III fact, all
that we really know of her is that she was beautiful
"A goldcn-haircd blonde that she made herself be
loved by an unwilling husband. and that she was
the mother of q large family. The truth about her
seems to be this: that she one of those soft,
yielding, impossible. feminine natures who take
their moral character from the man to whom for
the time being they attached, whether father,
brother, friend, lover or husband. And this soft,
sweet, motherly creature is made the raying, pos-
oning, Wandering strunpet of tradition and the
stagei
The second volume, or rather the second part, of
Mr.. SymOnds's work Is at once less repulsiye and
less interesting, more novel and more instructive
than it, predecessor. The reason OF this somewhat
paradoxical difference is IN the nature Of the sub
jects OF the tSo parts. "The Age of the Despots