20) 



METASTASIO, PIETRO. 



METELLI. 



210 



ramide,' ' Ezio," ' Alessandro nell' iDdie,' 'Catone in Utica," and'the 

 opera so well known by our Knglish version of it, 'Artaserse.' But 

 praise was nearly the whole of the reward he reaped from his labours 

 in the pope's dominions. 



In the year 1729 Metastasio received an invitation from the 

 court of Vienna, whither he repaired, and became the successor' ol 

 Apostolo Zeno, the Imperial laureate. This appointment was ren- 

 dered more gratifying to him, as it was made on the recommendation 

 of Zeno himself, who had long enjoyed the office, and had written a 

 vast number of lyrical dramas, among which are some of the best that 

 the Italian language can boast The stipend assigned to Metastasio 

 3000 florins was then a large salary; and other advantages were added. 

 This came rather opportunely, for at Rome he had suffered much from 

 the slenderness of his income, and was often indebted to his friend for 

 assistance. To her, when he left Italy, he entrusted his affairs, and 

 deposited with her a small sum for the temporary support of his 

 father, till he could make an arrangement of a permanent kind. His 

 reception by Charles VI. was most gratifying, and promised every- 

 thing for the future, a promise not disappointed. During the 

 succeeding three years, his correspondence with his " inestimable 

 counsellor and friend " amounts almost to an autobiography ; but in 

 1734 he sustained an irreparable loss by her death, who to the last 

 proved the sincerity of her attachment by bequeathing to him, after 

 the decease of her husband, the whole of her property, amounting to 

 25,000 crowns. Metastasio however, guided in this instance, as he 

 was in every other, by the strictest rules of honour, declined to derive 

 any advantage from the will so generously made in his favour, and 

 immediately transferred to the husband all right to the reversionary 

 property. What may have been the nature of the connection between 

 the poet and Signora Bulgarini (or the Itomanina), it is now impossible 

 to Fay. From Metastasio's letter to the husband on the death of his 

 wife, the rorrow expressed is in a tone of candour which looks as if 

 there had been nothing to conceal or disguise. At what age the lady 

 died is unknown, but as she was first singer at Genoa in 1712, it is 

 likely that she was much the senior of her friend. 



lletastasio's mode of life, from his first settling in Vienna till the 

 moment of his death, was that of a poet and man of letters, who 

 devoted his time and thoughts to the muses, to general literature, and 

 to the conversation of persons more or lees connected with his pur- 

 suits. In 1733 he produced, among other pieces, ' L'Olimpiade,' which 

 the Italians distinguish as ' il divino,' and his very popular can- 

 zonetta, ' La Liberta.' For the emperor's birth-day in 1734 he wrote 

 the noble opera, so well known in every part of Europe, ' La Clemenza 

 di Tito,' which was set by the Imperial composer, Caldara, but not a 

 vestige of the music remains. The same drama however was in 1790 

 chosen by Mozart, whose magic notes have assisted in bestowing on it 

 immortality. It is not unworthy of remark, that though all the poet's 

 operas were set as soon as written, yet not even a single piece of the 

 original music is now known, or, wo believe, to be found, except perhaps 

 in the Imperial library of Vienna. 



He coutmued supplying the court with lyric dramas and oratorios, 

 and also employed himself in the production of various detached 

 pieces of poetry, till the year 1740, when the death of the emperor 

 brought on the long and devastating war in Germany, and this led to 

 the closing of the theatre, for which he had so successfully laboured. 

 He now employed his pen in translating into blank-verse the 'Ars 

 Poetica ' of Horace, together with one of his Satires and Epistles, and 

 Juvenal's third Satire. He likewise wrote notes on the Greek trage- 

 dians, and translated a portion of Aristotle's 'Poetic,' adding a" very 

 learned, luminous, and ingenious commentary, which appeared in 

 print after his decease. But though his dramatic labours for the 

 Imperial city were suspended, he produced in 1744 ' Antigouo ' for the 

 court of Dresden, and ' Ipermestra ' in the same year. On the return 

 of peace he wrote in 1751 ' 11 He Pastore ' for the ladies of the Imperial 

 court, by whom it was performed. His last drama was ' II Rupgiero,' 

 performed in 1771 at Milan, on the marriage of the archduke Ferdinand. 



Of Metastaaio's seven sacred dramas, or oratorios, 'La Passione,' 

 ' La Morte d'Abel,' and ' Isacco ' are best known ; but all of them, 

 Calsabigi justly observes, are as perfect as this kind of composition 

 will allow. Of Lis cantatas, ' La Primavtra,' 'La Liberta,' and 'La 

 Paitcnza' are admired by all who have any acquaintance with Italian 

 poetry. His occasional short dramatic pieces, sonnets, and other 

 miscellanies are too numerous to be mentioned here ; a catalogue 

 raiaoone' of them is given in the work whence we have drawn most 

 of our materials for the foregoing portion of this article. (Dr. 

 Buruey's ' Memoirs of Metastasio.') 



One of the occupations of the poet when far advanced in years was 

 the preparing corrected copies for the magnificent edition of his 

 works printed at Paris in 1780. This may be considered his last 

 labour. On the 1st of April 1782, he was attacked by symptoms of 

 fever, alarming at his age, and on the 12th he expired. His remains 

 were deposited in the church of St. Michael at Vienna. His property, 

 consisting of a well-furnished bouse, carriage, &c., many princely 

 presents, an ample library, and 180,000 florins, he bequeathed to the 

 son of his old friend Signor Martinetz, whose house was his first 

 abode in Germany : but from this sum were to be deducted 20,000 

 florins for each of the executor's sisters, and 3000 for each of his 

 younger brothers. 



BIOO. Dry. VOL. IT. 



The genius of Metastasio, says Arteaga, "may be compared to the 

 goddess Chloris of the Greeks, who, in flying through the air, scat- 

 tered roses wherever she went." He did indeed ornament aud cast a 

 fragrance on whatever he touched. His reputation soon obscured 

 that of Apostolo Zeno, W. Schlegel observes, because, having the same 

 object in view, he showed more flexible talent, and knew better how 

 to adapt himself to the views and means of the composer. A perfect 

 purity of diction, adds the same acute critic, a grace and unalloyed 

 delicacy, have rendered Metastasio, in the eyes of his countrymen, a 

 classic author, the Racine of Italy. He has above all a delightful 

 softness in his verses designed 'for music. Perhaps no other poet of 

 the musical drama ever possessed in the same degree the gift of com- 

 pressing in a short space situations so pathetic, so touching, but it is 

 done frequently by the entire abandonment of all probability of 

 sentiment and incident. It is said of him, by Schlegel, that in order 

 not to endanger his originality, he carefully abstained from reading 

 the chefs-d'oeuvre of the French stage. However this may be, we 

 will add, that in all hia works it is clear that he was no imitator: 

 his style, his chasteness, his tenderness, were his own. In deep 

 tragedy he could not excel ; he had not the power to wring the 

 heart ; his life was too serene, he was too happy in himself to imagine 

 scenes of bitter anguish, of complicated misery ; but in depicting 

 gentle grief, that grief which does not pass the confines of reason, he 

 has no superior. He haa been described as, ' par excellence,' the poet 

 of love, but his most passionate expressions never are sullied by the 

 slightest breathing of indelicacy. His morality is unimpeachable, is 

 exemplary. In all his works he stands high ; in his operas he is 

 unrivalled. 



METELLI, a distinguished family of the Csecilian ' gens ' in ancient 

 Rome. Those most worthy of notice are 



1. Q. C.ECILIUS METELLUS MACEDONIOUS, who was sent when prator 

 (B.C. 148) into Macedonia against Andriscus, who pretended to be a 

 son of Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, and who had excited a 

 revolt against the Romans. In this war Andriscus was defeated and 

 taken prisoner by Metellus. (Liv., 'Epit.,' 50; Paus., vii. 13, 1; 

 Eutrop., iv. 13.) In B.C. 146, Metellus defeated the Aehseans near 

 Thermopylse, and on his return to Rome obtained a triumph ou 

 account of his conquest of Macedonia. (Liv., 'Epit.,' 52.) Metellus, 

 in his consulship, B.C. 143, was sent into Spain to oppose Viriathus, 

 who had obtained possession of the whole of Lusitania, and had 

 defeated successively the prcotors Vetiliua and Plautius. Metellus 

 remained in Spain two years, and obtained several victories, but was 

 succeeded in the command, before the conclusion of the war, by Q. 

 Pompeius. (Liv., ' Epit.,' 52, 53 ; Val. Max., iii. 2, 21 ; vii. 4, 5 ; ix. 3, 

 7 ; Appian, ' Iber.,' 76 ; Eutrop., iv. 16.) During the censorship of 

 Metellus and Q. Pompeius, B.c. 131, it was decreed that all citizens 

 should be obliged to marry. The oration which Metellus delivered on 

 this subject was extant in the time of Livy, and is referred to by 

 Suetonius (Liv., 'Epit.,' 59; Suet., 'Octav.,' 89.) We are told by 

 Livy and Pliny that when Metellus was returning one day from the 

 Campus Martius, he was seized by command of C. Attinius Labeo, a 

 tribune of the plebs, whom he had in his censorship expelled from 

 the senate, and dragged to the Tarpeian rock ; and that it was with 

 the greatest difficulty that his friends were enabled to preserve his 

 life by obtaining another tribune to put his veto upon the order of 

 Attinius. (Liv., ' Epit.,' 59 ; Plin., ' Nat Hist.,' vii. 45.) Metellus 

 died in B.C. 115, during the consulship of his son Marcus. Pliny 

 refers to Metellus. as an extraordinary example of human happiness. 

 "For besides the possession of the highest dignities," says Pliny, 

 " and having obtaiued a surname from the conquest of Macedonia, he 

 was carried to the funeral pile by four sons, of whom one had been 

 prsetor, three had been consuls, two had enjoyed a triumph, and one 

 had been censor." (' Nat. Hist.,' vii. 45.) 



2. QUINTUS C.ECILIUS METELLUS NUMIDICCS derived his latter 

 cognomen or surname from his victories in Numidia, whither he was 

 sent in his consulship, B.C. 109, in order to oppose Jugurtha. He 

 remained in Numidia, B.C. 108, as proconsul ; but in the beginning of 

 the following year he was superseded in the command by Marius, 

 who had formerly been his legatus, or lieutenant-general. On his 

 return to Rome, Metellus obtained the honour of a triumph. (Sallust, 

 'Bell. Ju^urth.;' Veil., ii. 11; Eutrop., iv. 27; Liv., 'Ep./ 65.) 

 [JuGURTHA.] Metellus was censor B.C. 102. He took an active part 

 in the civil commotions of his time, and was one of the most powerful 

 supporters of the aristocratical party. In B.C. 100 he was obliged to 

 50 into exile in consequence of opposing the measures of the tribune 

 iaturninus ; but on the execution of the latter, Metellus was recalled 

 from exile in the foUowiug year. [MARIUS.] 



3. Q. CjECinus METELLUS Pius, sou of Nurnidicus, belonged to 

 ;he same political party as his father, and supported Sulla in his 

 contest with Marius. Metellus received especial marks of favour 

 :rom Sulla, and was consul with him, B.C. 80. In B.C. 78 Metellus 

 was sent against Sertorius in Spain, where he appears to have remained 

 till the conclusion of the war, in B.C. 72. From the year 76 Pompey 

 was his colleague in the command; and they triumphed together at 

 the end of the war. [SERTORIUS.] (Veil., ii. 30; Eutrop., vi. 5; 

 Pint., 'Pomp.') Metellus was Pontifex Maximus; and on his death, 

 B.C. 63, in the consulahip of Cicero, he was succeeded in that dignity 

 >y Julius Cjesar. 



