Monthly lii'vit'w of Literature, 



[JAN. 



jn, notwithstanding certain verses, 



ts known no\v-a-days not by tljeir 



j at full length, or in the vernacular 



acter, but by initials, English or Greek : 



* notwithstanding the editor talks very 



, /mplacently of the " intellectual feast" he 



Annually prepares, and from the task of still 



annually purveying which feast, he gallantly 



professes himself resolved not to shrink, 



" while life and health permit." 



The present volume, adds the editor (al- 

 most entirely a new work), will be found 

 to exhibit much novelty, as well as variety, 

 in the selection of the materials : a very in- 

 ter ,:sting series of papers on Scotian Botany 

 (does this mean the botany of Scotland ?), 

 by Mr. Young, of Paisley ; a description of 

 the most rare and remarkable British In- 

 sects, by Mr. Curtis, author of the " British 

 Ornithology ;" Ornithological Notices, by 

 the Rev. Mr. Jenyns, of Bottisden-Hall ; 

 and Sketches of the various appearances of 

 Nature, by W. Howett ; &c. &c. 



AUa Giiirnata, or To the Day,- 1826. 

 Ildegarda, daughter of the Marchese Ghe- 

 rarrlesca, became heiress to his large 

 property in consequence of the death of 

 her only brother this brother having been 

 poisoned, as was suspected, by one Mon-- 

 tescttjado, who sought Ildegarda's hand. 



The young lady's father was unhappily 

 tinged with several anti-catholic notions, 

 which he had gathered from Germany, and" 

 brought, to settle with him, to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Pisa. He was not content 

 with the imputation and reality of being 

 a heretic himself, but imbues his daughter's 

 mind with the same obnoxious opinions 

 for the obvious purpose of producing a 

 sufficient train of disastrous consequences 

 upon her innocent head to swell out three 

 volumes. 



Duly then, upon her parent's demise, 

 and her own installation into his posses- 

 sions, she not only takes no pains to con- 

 ceal her inheritance of his Protestant in- 

 clinations also, but forces her crude notions 

 upon public and private animadversion, 

 with the pertinacious assiduity of a clai- 

 mant for martyrdom. 



With all the circumstance of established 

 wealth and power, with a fool, a dwarf, a 

 poet, and a painter, in her train, and other 

 attendance proportioned to such appen- 

 dages, she held up her chin above public 

 opinion, and would not keep within her 

 own bosom the contempt she entertained 

 for the popish religion as received by her 

 compatriots ; but amused herself with 

 making the existing superstitions constant 

 themes of obloquy. In vain her friends, 

 a priest among the number, urged caution 

 and moderation ; she replied to them, 

 either with the insolent sarcasm of power, 

 or the no less insolent silence of greatness, 

 that fancied itself beyond reach. She was 

 a genius, too, devoted to the arts a blue- 

 stocking, long ere that character was for- 



tified by its multitudes against the envy 

 and derision which first innovators must 

 ever encounter. 



The lady gave a splendid fete ; whoever 

 had the least claim to rank or distinction 

 for many miles around were invited to it. 

 At prodigious cost, she had collected all 

 the adornments of luxury which the arts 

 and her own cultivated taste could supply 

 to delight and astonish. Towards the con- 

 clusion of the day a sort of masque, 

 founded on a legend of the church, was 

 about to be performed by hired exhibitors. 

 At this critical moment, a procession of 

 priests, from the near convent, entered on the 

 stage, anathematizing the whole procedure, 

 preremptorily prohibiting its continuance ; 

 and, at the same time, admonishing the large, 

 brilliant and illustrious audience, that their 

 own disapproval of such a spectacle, and con- 

 sequently their own safety, could only be 

 proved by a speedy removal of themselves 

 home. The church was irresistible : the 

 crowd having tasted her hospitality, one 

 and all departed, glad of such authority, 

 in support of their own dislike, for exer- 

 cising their contempt upon her. No sooner 

 were the guests departed than her castle 

 was shaken to its centre. Thunder and 

 lightning commenced the building be- 

 gan to totter, with difficulty are she and 

 her immediate attendants rescued from 

 quick destruction; but nothing could rescue 

 her from the damnatory conclusions sug- 

 gested by so plain an interposition. Al- 

 ways feared, slighted, hated, whispering 

 enemies now shook off their restraints ; and 

 her ancient lover, the imagined mur- 

 derer of her brother, and for that cause 

 rejected, foaming for revenge, conspired 

 with the ruling powers of Pisa for strip- 

 ping Ildegarda of her estates, and pro- 

 curing the imprisonment of her person, on 

 the ground of her contempt for religion (for 

 which there was certainly some plea) ; arid 

 also, on that of her connivance in a late 

 projected resistance of Volterra and its 

 territory to the Pisan dominion. 



Now Ildegarda was not without a fa- 

 voured lover : the son of a prouder house 

 than her own, and of a mother, whose 

 Spartan prayer had rather been to sec him 

 on his bier than Ildegarda's husband. His 

 mother's steady and contemptuous avoid- 

 ance of an introduction to Ildegarda, 

 notwithstanding her unwearied efforts to 

 attain that lady's regard and acquaintance, 

 her public scorn of Ildegarda's character 

 and sentiments, her prohibition of her son's 

 connexions, were the bitterest draughts 

 of humiliation our heroine had to gulp. 

 Upright, however, and generous, and dis- 

 daining to employ the power she really 

 possessed against an anxious parent's will, 

 she gradually rendered that will less vio- 

 lent in its manifestations, and the impli- 

 cation finally of the proud mother and the 

 beloved son in the Volterra-tumnlt, by 

 rendering the two families fellow gufferers 



