634 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



JUNE, 



against the Marquis of Este, who led the 

 troops of the Guelphic faction. Eccelino 

 was the especial opponent, not only of the 

 papal authority, but of revelation, and per- 

 secuted a Christian with as much zeal and 

 zest as the Christian ever did the pagan or 

 the heretic with all the malignity of 

 Julian, and a thousand times his cruelty. 

 Cruelty, indeed, was the main attribute of 

 his nature it was part and parcel of him, 

 and its exercise was unchecked by any 

 counteracting sympathies. He was insensi- 

 ble to the attractions of women, and sacri- 

 ficed as readily the fair as the "unfair" 

 sex as Leigh Hunt lately called them the 

 infant and the aged. " By day and by 

 night, in the cities under his sway, the air 

 rang with the agonizing shrieks of the 

 wretched sufferers expiring under varieties 

 of torture. Eleven thousand of his army 

 falling under his suspicion, on some occa- 

 sion, he dextrously disarmed them, and 

 threw them all into prisons; and when 

 famine, and massacre, and the executioner, 

 had done their office, two hundred sur- 

 vived /" This is the language of a modern 

 historian, borne out to the full by cotempo- 

 rary, or nearly cotemporary, authority 

 not, surely, to be credited to the letter but 

 such a wretch answers the purposes of 

 poetry, if one object of that be the working 

 of passions, in their fullest and wildest 

 excitement. 



The mother of this Eccelino was equally 

 conspicuous. She was the daughter of a 

 noble Tuscan family the Mongonas a 

 person of no common endowments and 

 acquirements, it may be safely presumed ; 

 for she had the reputation of being a sor- 

 ceress an adept, we mean to avoid an 

 equivoque in the art magic which, with 

 her beauty, her address, and her spirit of 

 intrigue, combined to give her unusual 

 influence over her contemporaries. This 

 lady, on her death-bed, disclosed to her son 

 the tremendous secret of his birth the very 

 agreeable information, that he was the 

 offspring of an adulterous intercourse with a 

 demon an account which Eccelino himself 

 proclaimed, and made use of, as a potent 

 engine to sway a credulous and excited 

 multitude. 



The story of this personage constitutes 

 the subject of Lord Dillon's verse and he 

 has followed it, he says, as closely as could 

 be made consistent with the general manage- 

 ment of a poem. To trace it minutely, 

 with our limits, is impracticable all we can 

 do, is to present another specimen or two of 

 his powers of versification. 

 Hermione's form 



Hounded and full. display'd the sanctuary 



Of Love ; for love might well have chosen here, 



So fair a shrine, to make his long abode. 



Of ivory and alabaster blent 



Her limbs were form'd, in so exact a mould, 



That their transparent forms might almost seem 



To melt in air, or float impalpable, 



Like the bright moonbeams in the quiet lake. 



Nor, though she thus beauteous, ethereal, pure 

 As sweetest breath of early flowers, not less 

 She glow'd a woman to the touch, that might 

 The type of all her sex have been. Her breast 

 An altar was, in which did burn a lamp 

 Exhaustless ; whose bright light shed from her 



eyes 



Such rays of tenderness, that e'en might tame 

 The lion In his rage, and bid him quit 

 His prey, and crouch beneath her feet (for such, 

 As olden legends sing, is Beauty's power!) 

 Her voice the silver bells would shame ; her hair 

 Like Terni's waterfall did dazzling shine ; 

 Nor fairer form than her's hath Fancy bright 

 E'er wove, or Grecian chisel ever form'd : 

 In marble breathing with ideal grace. 



Hermione's bath a little too warm and 

 voluptuous, perhaps but 



On one side rush the waters, and their spray 



Throw 'gainst the rock ; then opens there a grot 



Upon the pool, whose pavement, richly wrought, 



Oftesselated stones, more beauteous is 



Than beds of flowers ; and from the grotto cool 



A flight of marble steps lead to a bath. 



Around, in animated marble carv'd, 



Diana, with her nymphs, is seen; and there 



Acteon chas'd by his own hounds, that gives 



Warning to eyes profane ne'er to invade 



This sanctuary. Of white Carrara was 



The floor, seen through the pure translucent 



wave ; 



Here myrtle grew, and sacred laurel screen'd 

 The spot. One sultry night the spangled arch 

 Of Heav'n was of a darker, deeper blue; 

 The moon gleam'd bright with her full face, and 



seem'd 



Rejoicing in her orb ; the fire-flies' light 

 In mid air sparkled ; they the brilliant gems 

 Of animated nature, that adorn 

 Night's earthly vesture. Such the hour, the time, 

 Hermione now chose to seek the bath, 

 Attended by her two most favour'd nymphs, 

 Lucinda, Viola ; descending now 

 With cautious step the grot, they enter straight ; 

 Loosens Hermione her radiant zone, 

 And soon the busy damsels her despoil 

 Of those rich robes that half conceal'd her form ; 

 That form that Phidias' chisel had not scorn'd, 

 To grace the temple of the Paphian queen. 

 Her golden hair in azure net is bound ; 

 Her nymphs, alike unrob'd, follow her steps ; 

 The lovely three issue from out the grot, 

 Back cow'ring, startled, and asham'd, e'en at 

 The cold chaste moon's modest unscorching look. 

 Hermione stretch'd out her ivory foot, 

 Then drew it back when she the chilness felt ; 

 With laugh and joke they stand, and half afraid, 

 Hang o'er the brink, then hand in hand the three 

 Plunge headlong in the limpid element, 

 A lucid garment form'd, through which they 



seem'd 



More fair e'en than the floor on which they stood. 

 A thousand frolics the gay laughing nymphs 

 Perform; they dive, and rise, and plunge, and 



dart, 



Nor sportive dolphins e'er more gamesome were ; 

 And sometimes wanton on the surface float 

 Their forms ; then turn and sudden disappear. 

 . The moon alone a conscious witness is 

 Of their wild gambols ; Nature, mistress sole 

 Of these their revels ; she a tumult rais'd 



