106 



M E T A S T A S I O. 



Mmstasio. beautiful extemporaneous verses, which his hearers car- 

 "*~v~ ' ried away in their memory the grace and dignity of 

 his elocution and the inspired expression of his coun- 

 tenance. 



With his poetical pursuits, he still continued the study 

 of the law ; and in order to obtain a passport through 

 the only other promising road to preferment at Rome, 

 he took the minor orders of priesthood, by the advice 

 of his affectionate master. At 20 years of age he lost 

 his patron Gravina, who died, aged 54-, leaving behind 

 him the character of a moderate poet and orator, but 

 of great learning and classical knowledge, and con- 

 siderable acuteness in criticism, though not unble- 

 mished by asperity. He rendered his name more cele- 

 brated by protecting Metastasio than by all the works 

 of his own pen. The benefit of his influence on Me- 

 tastasio's taste has been doubted, for he was a precisian 

 in his ideas of classical purity, and it is supposed that 

 if he had lived, his advice might have cramped his pu- 

 pil's genius with rules of Greek art, and implicit imita- 

 tion. However this may be, Metastasio's expressions 

 of grief for his loss, which were strongly conveyed in 

 poetical effusions, were never suspected of being insin- 

 cere, though his mourning for him was that of an heir, 

 which is sometimes so ludicrously doubtful, for Gra- 

 vina, faithful to his promise of treating him as his own 

 child, bequeathed to him 15,000 Koman crowns, an 

 excellent library, rich furniture, and a small estate in 

 the kingdom of Naples. The specie alone, (equal to 

 between three and four thousand pounds,) was, ac- 

 cording to the value of money in those days, a sufficient 

 independence ; but among the lessons which his pa- 

 tron had taught him, he seems to have forgotten those 

 of worldly wisdom. His legacy was soon spent, not 

 indeed in vicious courses, but in the munificence of 

 good cheer which he shewed to the admirers of his 

 poetry and the frequenters of his table. In two years 

 only an insignificant landed property remained ; but 

 though his fall was like Timon's, he had nothing of 

 the misanthrope in his bland and benevolent disposi- 

 tion. At two and twenty, he set himself to renew the 

 study of the law as a profession ; and as if he had re- 

 solved to secure himself against the seduction of the 

 muses, he placed himself under an advocate of the 

 name of Paglietti, a man who is described as " all law," 

 a bitter enemy to poetry one who hated the sound of 

 verse, and the very sight of a poet ; and was merciless- 

 ly intolerant of the slightest deviation from worldly 

 prudence. One may figure a whimsical scene in con- 

 ceiving the shrewd and suspicious lawyer receiving 

 such a noviciate, a youth already known and celebrat- 

 ed for poetical genius, but with his fortune spent, 

 obliged to determine in earnest that he would prosecute 

 his legal studies. The assiduity of Metastasio is said 

 to have at first inspired Paglietti himself with confi- 

 dence, that he was thoroughly weaned from poetry; 

 and we are told, that many who had before admired 

 his verses, now regarded the rapidity of his progress in 

 legal knowledge with still greater astonishment ; but 

 this change was an effort against nature, and could not 

 continue. At the end of a year, we find him making 

 a sly breach of his contract with the rugged advocate, 

 by writing an epithalamium of 100 octave stanzas, at 

 the instigation of the Countess of Althau. Then came 

 his drama of Endymion, under the same sedative influ- 

 ence. The viceroy of Naples next prevailed on him to 

 write the drama of the Garden of the Hesperides, on a 

 promise that it should be kept a profound secret from 

 his inexorable lawyer. His next drama was Angelica, 



the plot of which is taken from Ariosto. The poems -Mettuusio. 

 which he prod need at Naples were universally admired, 1 *" P "V * 

 particularly the Gardens of the Hesperides, but none felt 

 the beauties of that drama so forcibly as Signora Ma- 

 rianna Bcnti Bulgarini, commonly called the Ramanina, 

 the greatest female singer and actress of her time, ivho 

 perftirmed the part of Venus in that piece, and was so 

 enchanted with the poetry that she would not rest till 

 she was introduced to the acquaintance of the author. 

 She felt on seeing him, (says his biographer), an un- 

 common regard for him, and it was believed to be mu- 

 tual. Meanwhile his legal friend Paglietti did not re- 

 gard him by any means with the same pleasant looks as 

 the actress his admirer, the Romanina. His poetisal re- 

 putation was now blazoned abroad ; and his disgust at 

 the law, added to the severity of the old advocate, soon 

 became sufficiently strong to make him wish to abandon 

 the profession. Meanwhile the Romanina pressed him 

 to take up his residence under her roof, and her hus- 

 band joined in the same request. Metastasio was not 

 insensible to the apparent indecorum of quitting a grave 

 profession, as well as of laying himself under obliga- 

 tions to the family of Bulgarini ; but after a struggle in 

 his own mind, he gave way to his love of poetry and 

 leisure, and possibly also to his partiality for the lady, 

 and accepted the invitation. To this proceeding, what- 

 ever may be thought of his motives, the world was per- 

 haps indebted for the direction of his exquisite genius 

 into its proper channel. 



At the request of the Romanina, he wrote his " Di- 

 done Abbandonala," which was perhaps the first perfect 

 musical drama that ever graced the Italian stage. The 

 Romanina was a great actress, and a good judge of dra- 

 matic poetry, and Metastasio was obliged to her for 

 suggesting the finest situations in his Dldone. She 

 was thought, with the exception of Mingotti, to be the 

 only instance ever known of a female singer who had 

 studied stage effect as well as harmony, sufficiently to 

 enlighten the author of the words which she sung, as 

 well as the composer of the music. The celebrity of 

 the Didone occasioned its being set by the best compos- 

 ers of the time, for the other principal theatres of Italy, 

 and it brought the author a considerable pecuniary re- 

 ward. 



In 1727, the Romanina having fulfilled all her thea- 

 trical engagements at Naples, was ready to return to 

 her native city of Rome, provided her beloved poet 

 would accompany her. Metastasio hesitated for some 

 time, but at length consented, on condition that in re- 

 turn for the hospitality which he had received under 

 her roof at Naples, she and her family would consent 

 to be his guests at Rome, where the relatives of Me- 

 tastasio still resided. He therefore wrote to his agents 

 to procure a house for the reception of his two fami- 

 lies of the Trapassi and Bulgarini ; and from the time 

 of his arrival in that city, till his departure for Ger- 

 many, they all lived under the same roof. The Ro- 

 manina, as more accustomed to the superintendance of 

 a family, managed the household ; the rest attended to 

 their own pursuits ; while Metastasio received his visi- 

 tors, wrote his verses, and increased his celebrity. 



He finished several operas during his residence at 

 Rome, as the " Catone in Utica," Egio, Semiramide 

 Reconnosciuta, Artaserse and Alessandro nelle Indie, 

 and his reputation continued to increase, not only in 

 Italy, but spread beyond the Alps. But with all the 

 praises which he acquired, it does not appear that he 

 reaped much profit from his labours ; and though he 

 could not be said to be in necessitous circumstances, 



