Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1885-10-15
THE BIIsYHPLACE OF LEO
PARDI.

The POETS father was count Moh2i-
do Leopardi. who had written little
books ol religious and political char
acter; The religion very bigoted, the
politics very reactionary. His library
was thclargest anywhere in that re-
gion, but he seems not to have learned
wisdom in il, and, though otherwise a
blameless man, he used his son, who
grew to manhood differing from him
10 all his opinions, with rigor that
was scarcely less than cruel. He was
bitterly opposed to what was called
progress TO religion and civil liberty;
he was devoted TO what was called
order, which merely meant the exist
ing order of things. the divinely ap-
pointed prince, the infallible priest.
He had medieval taste, and he made
his palace ut Recanati as much like
feudal castle rs he could, with all sort
of bar0nial bricabrac. An armed vas-
sal at his gate was out of the question,
but at IT, dnor Of his omn channher
stood an efiigy in rusty armor, bearing
q furnished halberd. He abhorred the
fashions of our century, and wore those
of an earlier epoch; his wife, WHO shar-
ed his prejudices and opinions. fantas-
tically apparcled herself to look like
the portrait of some gcntlewoman of
as remote date. Halls hung in dam
ask, vast mirrors in carven frames,
and stately furniture of antique form
attested throughout the palace 1.-THE
splendor of race which, If It's fortunes
had somewhat declined, still knew how
to maintain its ancient decorum."
In this home passed the youth and
manhood of q poet who nosooner began
to think for himself than he began to
think the things most discordant to his
fathers principles and ideas. He be-
Ieved in neither the religion nor the
politics of his race; he cherished with
the desire of literary achievement that
vague faith in humanity, in freedom,
in the future, against which the Count
Monaldo had so sternly set his face; he
chafed under the restraints of his faith
er's authority, and longed for some es-
cape into the world. The Italians
sometimes write of Leopardi's unhap-
piness, with passionate condemnation
of his father; but neither was Count
Monaldo's part an enviable one, and it
was certainly not at this period that
he had all the wrong in his differences
with his son. Nevertheless, it is pa
{ thetic to read how the heartsick, frail,
ambitious boy, when he found some ar
ticle in q newspaper that greatly pleas
ed him, would write to the author and
ask his friendship. When these jour
nalists, who we're possibly not the
wisest publicists of their time, SO far
responded to the young scholars adj
vances as TO give him their personal
acquaintance as well as their friend
ship, the old count received them with
q courteous tolerance. which had no
ideas. He lived in dread of his sons
becoming involved in some of the
many plots then Matching against
order and religion, and nc repressed
with all his strength Ieopardi's revo-
lutionary tendencies. which must al
ways have been mere matters of senti-
ment, and not deserving of great rig
or.
He seems not so much TO have loved
Italy as 10 have hated Recanati. It is
small village high mp in the Apen-
mines. between Loreto and Macerata.
and is chiefly accessible in ox-carts.
Small towns everywhere are duh, and
perhaps are not more deadly SO in
Italy than they are elsewhere, but
there they have . peculiar obscure,
narrow life indoors. Outdoors there
Is > little Iounging around the cafe. =
little stir on holidays among the lower
classes and the neighboring peasants.
: great deal Of gossip at all times. and
hardly anything more. The local no.
bleman. perhaps. cultivates literature,
as Leopardi's father did; there is al
ways some abbute mousing around in
the local archives aud writing pamph-
lets on disputed points Of the local his
tory; and there Is the parish priest to
form the polite society Of the place.
As If this social barrenness were not
enough. Recanati wsss physically hurt