PELLIOO, SILVIO. 



PELLISSON-FONTANIER, PAUL. 



La WfnoraPeUico-Tournier. They had ix children. Luigi and 

 , wm th* two eldest; Silvio and Rosins, twins, followed; 

 and ila. ietU wtro next in succession. Luigi and Silvio 

 sdueaUd at homo under the can of their parent*. Onorato 

 Ptllleo, while hi* chiMrvn wire yet young, baring established a manu- 

 factory for winding ilk at Piuerolo, resided there some tiuio ; but 

 removed to Turin, where he was appointed to a situation under the 

 Korernmeot There Luigi and Silvio were instructed in Latin and 

 Orwk, and other branches of education, by Don Manavella, a clergy- 

 man. Onorato Pellieo, who had a taite for poetry and the drama, 

 wrote teenes and short plays, which were performed by his children 

 and other* of a similar age, on a small stage constructed in bit hotue. 

 I.uifri afterwards breame a dramatic writer as well as Silvio. 



Silvio Pellioo's twin-sister Rosina, who is described as having been 

 extremely beautiful, was married at the age of eighteen to a cousin 

 by the mother's aide, who was prosperously established in business at 

 Lyon in France ; and Signora Pellico-Tournier, with her son Silvio, 

 accompanied the bride to the residence of her husband. The mother 

 alter a short stay returned home, but Silvio continued to reside with 

 his sister's husband during four yean. While at Lyon in 1807 Ugo 

 Foscolo's poem ' I Sepolcri ' (' The Tombs ') was published, and was 

 sent to him by his brother Luigi. The reading of it excited him 

 greatly, and stimulated him to the prosecution of his poetical studies. 

 Meantime his father had obtained a situation under the minister of 

 war at Milan, and bad removed to that city with his family. His 

 brother Luigi was secretary to the Marquis Caprara, grand equerry of 

 the kingdom of Italy. 



ilio Pellieo returned from France in 1810, and went to Milan, 

 where be became a teacher of French in the Collegio degli Orfani 

 Militiri, an occupation which required two or three hours of the day. 

 The rest of his time was devoted to his poetical studies and to the 

 acquisition of the German and English languages. He became 

 acquainted with Ugo Foscolo and Monti, who were then at Milan, and 

 occasionally taw Pindetnoute, who resided at Verona. He was for a 

 time tutor to the son of Count Briche, and afterwards to the t .vo SODS 

 of Count Luigi Porro Lambertenghi, in whose mansion he became a 

 resident, and at whose assemblies he associated with the most intel- 

 lectual men of Italy, and with many distinguished foreigners, among 

 whom he himself mentions Madame de Stael, Schlegel, Davy, Byron, 

 Hobhouse, and Brougham. After the fall of Napoleon I., Onorato 

 Pellieo returned with the rest of his family to Turin, where ho had 

 again an office under the government. Silvio Pellieo continued to 

 reside at Milan with Count Porro. 



Silvio Pellico's first dramatic production was the tragedy of 

 Laodamia,' which was followed by his tragedy of 'Francesca da 

 Rimini,' founded on a well-known passage in the 5th canto of the 

 ' Inferno ' of Dante. This tragedy was much admired, was acted with 

 great applause in the principal cities of Italy, and established his repu- 

 tation as a dramatic poet Byron translated it into English verse, but 

 did not publish it, and Pellieo translated Byron's 'Manfred ' into Italian 

 prose. He was desirous of publishing his next tragedy, ' Eufemio da 

 Messina;' but so many passages were objected to by the censorship 

 that he sent it to Turin, where it was published by his father. It 

 was afterwards published at Milan, but was not allowed to be acted. 

 In 1818 Silvio Pellieo was the chief agent in establishing a periodical 

 entitled ' 11 Conciliatore,' of which he became the secretary. It was 

 mainly of a literary character, and Silvio Pellieo, Manzoni, and similar 

 literary men, were the chief contributors ; but it was of too liberal a 

 a tendency to be endured by the Austrian government, and was 

 suppressed. 



On the 13th of October 1820 Silvio Pellieo was arrested, and was 

 confined in the prison of Santa Margherita at Milan. He seems to 

 have become a member of the revolutionary society called Carbonari, 

 but does not say so. Ho was transferred thence to a prison on the 

 island of Ban Michrle, near Venice ; and while there was tried at 

 Venice, found guilty, and condemned to death. That sentence how- 

 ever was commuted to fifteen year* of ' carcere duro.' In April 1822 

 ho was removed to the prison of Spielberg, near the city of llninn, in 

 Moravia. Some of those sent to this prison are condemned to the 

 ' oarcere dnro ' (severe imprisonment), and some to ' carcere durissimo' 

 (very severe imprisonment). Silvio Pellieo says : " Those condemned 

 to ' carcere dnro ' are obliged to labour, to wear chains on their feet, 

 to sleep on bare boardi, and to oat the poorest food. Those condemned 

 to ' carcere durissimo' are chained more heavily, and with a band ol 

 iron nmnd the waist, the chain being fastened in the wall, so that they 

 can walk only just by the side of the boards which serve them for a 

 bed. Their food is the same, though the law says only bread and 

 water." In the earlier part of his imprisonment, during about eighteen 

 months, he as treated with indulgence by his jailer, and read the 

 . Homer in Oreek, Dante, Petrarch. Shakspere, Byron, Scott, 

 Schiller, Oothe, snd other writers, and was allowed some paper, and 

 pen and ink. His friendly jailer having (>een removed to another 

 situation, during the whole of the yean 1824-25-26- 27 his imprisonment 

 w excessively severe, and bis health a much injured. His impri 

 soomeut was afterward* less stringent, and on the 1st of August 1830 

 he received the announcement that he was to be set at liberty. 'I Inn 

 promise was soon afterwards performed, and be returned to bis 

 parents at Turin. In 1881 he published the account of his Imprison 



menU, entitled ',Le Mie Prigioni,' which has had a very large circulation, 



and has been translated Into all the languages of Europe. It U written 



n a stylo of great simplicity, with much apparent truthfulness, and is 



ery interesting. In 1882 he published at Turin ' Tre Nove Tragedie,' 



,-hich were 'Oinmonda da Mandrisio,' ' Leoniero da Drrtoua,' and 



Krodiade;' and in 1832 his tragedy of ' Toiuuioso Moro.' His mn'ln-r 



died in 1 837, hi father in 1888, and his brother Luigi in 1841. In 1837 



appeared his ' Opere Inedite,' 2 void. One of his latest works was a 



reatUe in prose, ' Dei Dover! degli Uomini ' (' On the Duties of Men '). 



taring his Inter years Silvio Pellieo was secretary to the Marches*. 



Urola, and he died at her villa of Monoaglieri, near Turin, January 1, 



1864. 



PELLISSON-FONTANIER, PAUL, was born at Beners in 1624. 

 le was deprived of his father at an early age, and was educated by 

 lia mother in the principles of the Reformed church. His family had 

 or a long time been distinguished in the profession of the law, and 

 a that profession he was also destined. He studied successively at 

 Jistres, Montauban, and Toulouse, and acquired an intimate know- 

 edge of the best classical writers, and of French, Spanish, and Italian 

 iterature. To the study of civil law and jurisprudence he especially 

 devoted himself ; the fruits of which shortly afterwards appeared in a 

 Mrapbrase of the Institutes of Justinian, which was published at 

 .'aris in 1645. He commenced hU legal career with considerable 

 success at Cost res, but it was soon interrupted by a most severe 

 attack of email pox, which permanently affected his sight and so 

 disfigured him that Mad. de Scudeti, though sincerely attached to 

 lira (' Menagiona,' vol. ii. p. 331, Paris, 1715), could not refrain from 

 making him the object of her wit, by remarking that he abused the 

 permission of being ugly. 



Compelled by his infirmities to abandon the practice of his pro- 

 "es-ioii, he retired into the country and devoted himself to general litera- 

 ture. In 1652 he settled in Paris, where his writings hod already made 

 liim advantageously known. The French Academy, in acknowledg- 

 ment of the services he had rendered it by writing its history (the 

 work perhaps by which he is best known), decreed that he should be 

 appointed a member of it on the first vacancy that should occur, and 

 that in the meantime he should be permitted to attend their sittings : 

 to enhance the honour, they further decided that a similar privilege 

 should on no consideration be granted in future to any man of letters. 

 The same year Pelliason purchased the office of secretary to the king ; 

 and in 1657 ho was appointed first clerk to the intendant of finances, 

 Fouquet, of unfortunate celebrity. In an employment where vast 

 sums of money passed through his hands be maintained his reputation 

 for integrity, while his increased means enabled him to render pecu- 

 niary services to the distressed men of letters in the capful. II is 

 services were rewarded by Fouquet with the appointment, in 1660, 

 to the office of state counsellor. The following year be partook of the 

 disgrace of his patron, and, as being the principal sharer in his 

 fortunes and the supposed confidant of his secrets, was imprisoned in 

 the Bastille. He remained upwards of four years in captivity. During 

 this imprisonment he composed three Memoirs in behalf of Fouquet, 

 which have been reckoned the finest models of that species of writing 

 in the French language. They became however the plea for additional 

 severity towards l'ellion. In order to increase the rigour of his 

 confinement he was deprived of the use of ink and paper, the want 

 of which compelled him to have recourse to divers ingenious expe- 

 dients, such as writing on the margin of hit bonks with the lead of 

 the casements. The persevering influence of his friends was at length 

 successful in restoring him to liberty ; and he was even received into 

 favour by a king whoso characteristic was seldom to forgive any oppo- 

 sition to his despotic will The sufferings he had undergone at the 

 Bastille were compensated for by a pension and the appointment of 

 historiographer to the king. In 1670 he abjured Protestantism for 

 the Roman Catholic faith. This change, followed soon after by his 

 entrance into holy orders, enabled Louis XIV. to bestow upon him 

 the abbacy of Qimont and the priory of St. Orcns, a benefice of con- 

 siderable value ill the diocese of Auch. However ho is favourably 

 distiuguished from most proselytes by the lenient and tolerant 

 disposition which he evinced towards those who disagreed with him 

 in opinion, and, when high in royal favour, he publicly disapproved 

 and opposed by his influence and writings the violent measures which 

 were employed by tho king's command to bring his Protestant 

 subjects within the palo of the Roman church. In 1671, on tho 

 occasion of the reception of the archbishop of Paris as member of tho 

 Academy, he delivered a panegyric on Louis XIV., which was trans- 

 lated into the Latin, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and even 

 Arabia languages. In 1673, having incurred the displeasure of 

 Madame de Monteapan, he was deprived of his office of royal historio- 

 grapher, but at the special request of Louis, he continued to write 

 the Life of the King, and for that purpose accompanied him in several 

 of his campaigns. Nearly every succeeding year of Pellisson's life 

 was marked by some instance of royal favour. His death took place 

 at Versaillen, in February 1693. The fact of his not receiving the 

 Sacrament in his last moments has been explained by the Human 

 Catholic writers to be owing to the suddenness of his death, by Pro- 

 testants to his unwillingness to sanction a conversion, which they 

 allege to be insincere, by a solemn act of hypocrisy. The arguments on 

 both sides will be found impartially stated by Bayle (art 'Fellisson.') 



