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cule over our best and most sublime feelings. He began his poem in April, 1611, and finished it, in ten books, in the following October. The rapidity with which it was composed,' himself informs us, was matter of astonishment to my friends, Monsignor Antonio Querenghi, Fulvio Testi, and others; in one year more copies of it were circulated in manuscript, than were ever yet disseminated, even in ten years, of the most admired 'works that have yet issued from the press. Some years afterwards, when compiling an historical work on the same plan as the Annals of Baronius, of which it is indeed a continuation, he took occasion, under the year 1249, to make mention of his favourite poem. This war,' he remarks, in which king Enzius was taken prisoner, was sung by us in our youth, in a poem en'titled La Secchia Rapita, which, we believe, will for its no'velty live long, it being a mixture of heroic, comic, and satiric, 'such as has never been seen before.'

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But, alas! while Tassoni's poem was wandering about in manuscript, a rival appeared in print. A poem on the same plan of composition, entitled Scherno degli Dei,' by Bracciolino of Pistago, threatened to deprive him of the honour of originality, though it is pretty evident that an accidental sight of his manuscript had given Bracciolino the thought of imitating him, and of publishing his piece as soon as possible, in order to puzzle the critics respecting the party to whom they ought to assign the palm of invention. Bracciolino's poem had much merit, and abounded in playful and ingenious circumstance. Tassoni, alarmed at his success, endeavoured to get his own published as speedily as possible; but the delays of the press are as tedious as those of the law, and Tassoni was so fretted by them, that he was obliged to seek patience in the aspect of the stars, to which he all his life paid great respect, and to whose irrevocable decrees he could submit with a better grace, than to the vexations imposed upon him by his fellow creatures.

Tassoni does not appear to have possessed a character of the higher order. He could make truth accommodate itself to his own interest; he was servile in his flatteries, and implacable in his resentments; he attracted a swarm of critics round him, by some cold-hearted strictures on the works of Petrarch, and after treating them with the most insolent and violent abuse, he indulged his spleen still farther by immortalizing them in La 'Secchia Rapita,' under the influence of the same feelings that suggested Dryden's Mac Flecno, and Pope's Dunciad.

The principal works of Tassoni, by which his name will be remembered with much more respect than by his ridicule of Petrarch and Homer, is his Pensieri Diversi, a specimen of which he published in 1608, in the shape of a hundred questions, under the title of Parte de Quisiti del Sig. Alessandro Tassoni,' and which was followed by an enlarged edition of his work.

In the specimen he confined himself chiefly to subjects of natural philosophy and astronomy; but the work which he now offered on this enlarged plan to the public, he enriched with all the opulence of his mind, the fruit of many years study and observation. His plan now embraced theology, cosmography, geography, mechanics, morality, politics, history and poetry. In short, the "Pensieri" may be considered as a compendium of all the learning of the age: the author has scarcely left any subject of science, or of polite literature, untouched; and on all he displays great acuteness of remark, much ingenuity, and extensive erudition If some of his opinions should, at this day, seem singular, some absurd and some erroneous, let it be remembered that almost two centuries have elapsed since his work appeared. To him all " the wit of Greece and Rome was known," and all the knowledge which the academies and universities of his time and country had disseminated. But Europe had not long emerged from the intellectual gloom of the middle ages, when Tassoni flourished; still a skirt of the dark cloud was visible During the splendid age of Leo X. the human intellect had, it is true, been highly cultivated; but still many discoveries and improvements in the sciences, and in the useful and in the elegant arts, were reserved for a much later period. From the "Pensieri" we may form an idea of the state of the arts, of the sciences, and of mental cultivation in the seventeenth century; but we must not expect that the author should have anticipated the discoveries which reflect so much honour upon our own age.' pp. 78, 79.

That a work of so much excellence, so prized by the Italians, so worthy the consideration of the learned, should scarcely be known on this side of the Alps, is a proof, were proof wanting, how much Italian literature was neglected in our country, from the time of Milton till within a few years of the present day. 'After the publication of his "Pensieri," in 1612, Tassoni began to enter more into public life, and introduced himself the next year into the court of Carlo Emanuele, duke of Savoy, of whom we have the following interesting account.

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Carlo was one of the most distinguished among 6 a race of princes, more sagacious in discovering their true interest, more deci'sive in their resolutions, and more dextrous in availing themselves of every occurrence which presented itself,than any perhaps that can be 'singled out in the history of mankind.'* Environed by powerful neighbours, whose motions it was necessary to watch with the strictest attention, their characters were, in a great degree, formed by their situation. To the qualifications in a prince so circumstanced, Carlo united an ardent passion for letters. He loved and patronised the sciences, and the elegant arts; and he invited the wandering muses to his court. Tassoni relates, that he has seen him seated at a table surrounded with sixty prelates and erudite men of different countries, conversing learnedly upon the various and dissimilar subjects of history, poetry, physic, chemistry, astronomy, tactics, and the fine arts, varying his language according to the nature of his subject, or according to the

* Robertson's History of Charles V. Book XII.

particular nation or pursuit of the respective persons whom he occasionally addressed. Of the fruits of his studies, there still remain, or were lately remaining, in his own hand-writing, two voluminous manuscripts, in Italian, of an history of the founders of the principal European monarchies, and a treatise, in French, on heraldry. The wisdom, learning and valorous deeds of this amiable, accomplished, and heroic prince, are recorded in the page of history; and his taste, genius, and munificence, live in the glowing numbers of Marino, Chiabrera, Guarini, and Tassoni.' pp. 115, 116.

The patronage of the house of Savoy was, however, far from being propitious to Tassoni; his honours were of a very empty nature At one time he had an order from the duke for two hundred Roman crowns; but, unfortunately, the coffers just then proved to be empty. Another time he had a prospect of receiving thirty pieces of gold, and three hundred gold crowns, out of certain benefices in Piedmont, which were daily expected to become vacant; but, alas! the incumbents, as fond of the good things of this world as the rest of their brethren, were in no haste to depart. Tassoni waited in vain for their removal to a better state; and this disappointment being succeeded by others, his faith in the malignant aspect of his stars waxed so strong, that in a letter to his friend Barisoni, he said, 'I do not despair of 'seeing, ere I die, the mountains of the earth fly before me, if I 'should happen to have occasion to ascend one of them.'

Overwhelmed with the cares, and disgusted with the intrigues, of a courtier's life, Tassoni, after many difficulties and dangers, disengaged himself from the court of Turin, and taking a house in the neighbourhood of Rome, with a garden and vineyard attached to it, he devoted himself to the luxury of ' lettered ease,' cultivating with his own hands bis flowers, of which he boasts in a letter to a friend that he had a hundred different sorts; pruning his vines, and occasionally making war upon the thrushes, & sport of which he appears to have been more fond than bard be'seems.' Persons who have been accustomed to active life and violent excitement of mind, soon become weary of tranquil occupations and sequestered enjoyments. Tassoni quitted his retreat three years after the time he entered upon it, and accepted an appointment under Cardinal Lodivisio, nephew of Gregory XV. and a kind and liberal patron of men of genius, with a salary of four hundred crowns, and apartments in the Cardinal's palace at Bologna. Our Author seems to have kept both himself and his muse in good humour, as well as his patron, who used to laugh immoderately at his effusions. He remained six years in the service of the Cardinal, when death deprived him of his patron. But the stars had by this time changed their aspect: Francis I. one of the most accomplished princes of his age, a munificent patron of letters and the fine arts, was at this period the reigning sovereign

of Modena. He immediately invited Tassoni to his court, appointed him one of his gentlemen in waiting, with a liberal salary, and at the same time nominated him a member of his council. Thus covered with honours and easy in circumstances, it was Tassoni's rare and enviable fate to close his days in his native city, fortunate in meeting there with some of his early friends, and proving himself deserving of his good fortune, by encouraging elegant literature, performing acts of charity and benevolence, and serving his natural sovereign with fidelity and zeal. There are persons who reap more benefit from prosperity than from adversity Tassoni appears to have been of this description; he became infuriated under opposition, but under soothing circumstances he was kind and gentle. He was never married: like Petrarch he had one natural son, whom, in early youth, he disliked for his profligacy; but from whom, in later life, he received comfort in consequence of his amended conduct. Mr. Walker's minute and elegant criticism of 'La Secchia 'Rapita,' will, we hope, so far turn the attention of the public to its merits, as to procure us a good translation of it; more particularly as the historical and personal allusions, even at this distance of time, are susceptible of easy and interesting illustration. It is almost unnecessary to say, that these Memoirs, like Mr. Walker's other productions, abound with entertaining anecdotes and interesting remarks.

We shall conclude this article with some observations on the state of patronage in Italy, in the seventeenth century, which Mr. Walker remarks his researches warrant him in making.

Men of learning and genius were, during that period, rarely allowed to pine in indigence and obscurity. They were not compelled to ascend to the chilly region of the garret, and to write for bread at a "broken pane." Princes sought them out, received them into their courts, admitted them into their cabinets, and investing them with diplomatic powers, dispatched them on missions to the neighbouring courts. Nor were the doors of the palaces of the nobility, or of the chief dignitaries of the church closed against them. In many of these palaces a state and splendour, much resembling that of the royal court, were affected. Their households were generally established on the same plan, and their officers bore the same titles. This magnificence of establishment afforded an ample provision and an honourable asylum for indigent merit, while it proved an incitement to the cultivation of elegant literature. The votaries of the muses, if the muses were propitious, were not diverted from their pursuits by the dread of future scorn or neglect. They knew that if they should not be honoured with the protection of their sovereigns, they might look forward, with well founded hope, to a provision, and to flattering distinctions, in some of the palaces of the prelates, or of the nobility. Nor were their feelings in danger of being wounded: for if invested with the titles of chamberlains, gentlemen in waiting, or secretaries,

they felt honoured by the distinction, as the same respectability attached to these offices on private establishments, as to those of equal rank in the households of sovereign princes, provided that the investiture proceeded from holy, or from noble hands.' pp. 183-185.

When we contrast this account with the board wages, and vulgar appendages in the establishments of some of our nobility in the present day, we feel an increasing desire for the diffusion of works which may direct them to the imitation of some of the most laudable customs of their ancestors, who were attentive to the quality as well as to the number of those whom they retained under their roofs, and who seemed to think it one of the privileges of rank to encourage the efforts of those who had only their talents to ennoble them.

Art. X. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. For the Year 1814. Parts I. and II. 4to. G. and W. Nicol. London, (Chemical and Physiological Papers).

[Concluded from p. 369 of our last Number.]

An Account of a Family having Hands and Feet with Supernumerary Fingers and Toes. By Anthony Carlisle, Esq. F. R. S.

HE singularities of anatomical structure of which we have a statement in this paper, occurred in the family of the American boy who was lately exhibited in London, on account of his extraordinary powers of calculation by memory. Mr. Carlisle has stated the particular facts with great circumstantiality, as he received them from Abiah Colburn, the boy's father. The peculiarity was introduced into the family by the mother of Abiah Colburn, his father having no such deviation from the ordinary structure. Of the issue of this marriage, four in number, three had the peculiarity in both hands and both feet; the fourth had one hand and one foot naturally formed. The mother of Abiah Colburn had herself derived the peculiarity from her mother, the father having his hands and feet naturally formed, and all the children of this marriage, eleven in number, were reported to Mr. C. to have been completely marked with the mother's peculiarity, though she herself had one hand without the supernumerary finger. The knowledge of the parties did not extend farther back.

The wife of Abiah Colburn, the father of Zerah Colburn, the calculating boy, had no deviation from the ordinary structure; but of their children, eight in number, four inherit the father's peculiarity more or less completely; the other four being perfectly free from it. The subject is extremely curious and interesting in a physiological view; but the facts hitherto col

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