84 Ugo Foscolo, and the Italian Poets. [JAN. 



Dominico Marocco and Filippo Pacchione, he was somewhat disconcerted at 

 seeing his path crossed by a large body of armed men coming out of the woods. 

 As he was attended by only six followers, resistance to an attack he knew would 

 be vain. Neither he nor his party, however, encountered any interruption, till 

 his servant, who had loitered behind, on coming up, was asked by one of the 

 banditti who the gentleman was that had just passed them. Being answered 

 that it was Ariosto the poet, he immediately spurred his horse forward, and, 

 pulling off his hat as he approached him, said that he was Filippo Pacchione, 

 and was come to apologize for having suffered so great a man as Ariosto to pass 

 him unsaluted." 



The Life of Torquato Tasso is very ably written, and the author 

 decides between the conflicting evidence it offers, with a discriminating 

 and dispassionate judgment. On turning to the additional materials 

 with which the present edition is enriched, we find among the most 

 attractive of the list, the names of Pindemonte, Monti, and Ugo Foscolo ; 

 while the whole offers ample scope for the biographer in appealing at 

 once to the sources both of mirth and of tears. But Alfieri is, com- 

 paratively, familiar to us, and next to him there is no one that, in force 

 and eccentricity of character, offers so singular a picture as the learned 

 and highly talented Foscolo. Among the anecdotes and adventures 

 which marked his strange and chequered career, we shall select a few 

 such as will throw more light on his genius and character, than volumes 

 of our own observations could do :- 



" He arrived in this country under favourable auspices. He was a poet, a 

 scholar, and a liberal ; and in each of these characters, there were persons of 

 wealth and influence ready to appreciate his merits. At Holland House he was 

 introduced to all the principal literary men residing in town. Byron, Campbell, 

 Moore, Rogers, and other eminent persons, among whom were the present Lord 

 Chancellor, Sir James Mackintosh, the late Editor of the Edinburgh Review, Lord 

 John Russell, and Mr. Hallam, were his frequent associates ; and the attention 

 he received from them, is one of the best proofs that could be given of the extent 

 of his acquirements, and of the high character of his mind. 



" From the mention I have heard made of him by some of his most intimate 

 friends, he appears not to have lost the slightest portion of his self-confidence by 

 becoming an exile, nor to have felt in the most exalted and intellectual society 

 which this country could afford less independent either as a patriot or man of 

 letters, than when surrounded by his admirers at Milan or Brescia. He was at 

 no time an example of patience in dispute, but when his own character or that of 

 his country was concerned, he lost all consideration for either the rank, or the 

 sex of his opponents. I am told that he was once dining at the table of a dis- 

 tinguished nobleman, when some person present, whose principles were widely 

 opposite to his own, ventured to make remarks which he conceived derogatory to 

 the honour of Italy. He did not conceal his emotion, but replied with all the 

 force of his stentorian eloquence ; the spirit of refined society quickly yielded to 

 the indignation of the patriot, and grasping the table-cloth with both his hands, 

 he went on encreasing in energy as he proceeded, till at last, his adversary 

 having made a remark which added more fuel to the flame, he jumped up, and 

 still grasping the table-cloth, drew, to the infinite consternation of the guests, 

 most of the dishes into their laps." 



In his estimate both of the life and writings of Foscolo, Mr. Stebbing 

 awards to him, as a writer and as a man, his full and deserved meed of 

 praise, without extenuating his errors. There are some points, indeed, as to 

 which only a closer knowledge of, and a long personal acquaintance with, 

 the man, might have enabled him to decide with greater confidence, and 



