The Romance of Biography Volume II Part 6

[30] "Non desidero d'esser moglie d'un re; bensi di quel gran capitano, il quale non solamente in guerra con valor, ma ancora in pace con la magnanimit ha saputo vincere i re pi grande." (Vita di Vittoria Colonna, da Giambattista Rota.)

[31] See in Robertson's Charles V. an account of the generous conduct of Pescara to the Chevalier Bayard.

[32] Che il suo sole, quantunque dagli altri fosse riputato morte, appresso di lei sempre vivea. (Vita.)

[33] Ischia.

[34] Sonnet 74.

[35] Componimenti Lirici, vol. i. 144.

[36] L'honneur d'avoir t, entre toutes les potes, la premire composer un recueil de posies sacres, appartient, toute entire, Vittoria Colonna. (See Ginguen.) Her masterpieces, in this style, are said to be the sonnet on the death of our Saviour.--

"Gli Angeli eletti al gran bene infinito;"

and the hymn

"Padre Eterno del cielo!"

which is sublime: it may be found in Mathias's Collection, vol. iii.

[37] Died 1535.

[38] Mrs. Hemans.

CHAPTER VI.

CONJUGAL POETRY CONTINUED.

VERONICA GAMBARA.

Vittoria Colonna, and her famed friend and contemporary, Veronica, Countess of Correggio, are inseparable names in the history of Italian literature, as living at the same time, and equally ornaments of their s.e.x. They resembled each other in poetical talent, in their domestic sorrows and conjugal virtues: in every other respect the contrast is striking. Vittoria, with all her genius, seems to have been as lovely, gentle, and feminine a creature as ever wore the form of woman.

No lily--no--nor fragrant hyacinth, Had half such softness, sweetness, blessedness.

Veronica, on the contrary, was one,

----to whose masculine spirit To touch the stars had seemed an easy flight.

She added to her talents and virtues, strong pa.s.sions,--and happily also sufficient energy of mind to govern and direct them. She had not Vittoria's personal charms: it is said, that if her face had equalled her form, she would have been one of the most beautiful women of her time; but her features were irregular, and her grand commanding figure, which in her youth was admired for its perfect proportions, grew large and heavy as she advanced in life. She retained, however, to the last, the animation of her countenance, the dignity of her deportment, and powers of conversation so fascinating, that none ever approached her without admiration, or quitted her society without regret.

Her verses have not the polished harmony and the graceful suavity of Vittoria's; but more vigour of expression, and more vivacity of colouring. Their defects were equally opposed: the simplicity of Veronica sometimes borders upon harshness and carelessness; the uniform sweetness of Vittoria is sometimes too elaborate and artificial.

Veronica Gambara was born in 1485. Her _fortunate_ parents, as her biographer expresses it,[39] were Count Gian Francisco Gambara, and Alda Pia. In her twenty-fifth year, when already distinguished as a poetess, and a woman of great and various learning, she married Ghiberto Count of Correggio, to whom she appears to have been attached with all the enthusiasm of her character, and by whom she was tenderly loved in return. After the birth of her second son, she was seized with a dangerous disorder, of what nature we are not told. The physicians informed her husband that they did not despair of her recovery, but that the remedies they should be forced to employ would probably preclude all hope of her becoming again a mother. The Count, who had always wished for a numerous offspring, ordered them to employ these remedies instantly, and save her to him at every other risk. She recovered; but the effects upon her const.i.tution were such as had been predicted.

Like Vittoria Colonna, she made the personal qualities and renown of her husband the princ.i.p.al subjects of her verse. She dwells particularly on his fine dark eyes, expressing very gracefully the various feelings they excited in her heart, whether clouded with thought, or serene with happiness, or sparkling with affection.[40] She devotes six Sonnets and a Madrigal to this subject; and if we may believe his poetical and admiring wife, these "occhi stellante" could combine more variety of expression in a single glance than ever did eyes before or since.

Lieti, mesti, superbi, umili, altieri, Vi mostrate in un punto; onde di speme E di timor m' empiete.--

There is great power and pathos in one of her poems, written on his absence.

O Stella! O Fato! del mio mal si avaro!

Ch' l mio ben m'allontani, anzi m'involi-- Fia mai quel di ch' io lo riveggia o mora?[41]

Veronica lost her husband, after nine years of the happiest union.[42]

He gave her an incontrovertible proof of his attachment and boundless confidence, by leaving her his sole executrix, with the government of Correggio, and the guardianship of his children during their minority.

Her grief on this occasion threw her into a dangerous and protracted fever, which during the rest of her life attacked her periodically. She says in one of her poems, that nothing but the fear of not meeting her beloved husband in Paradise prevented her from dying with him. She not only vowed herself to a perpetual widowhood, but to a perpetual mourning; and the extreme vivacity of her imagination was displayed in the strange trappings of woe with which she was henceforth surrounded.

She lived in apartments hung and furnished with black, and from which every object of luxury was banished: her liveries, her coach, her horses, were of the same funereal hue. There is extant a curious letter addressed by her to Ludovico Rossi, in which she entreats her dear Messer Ludovico, by all their mutual friendship, to procure, at any price, a certain black horse, to complete her set of carriage horses--"pi che notte oscuri, conformi, proprio a miei travagli." Over the door of her sleeping-room she inscribed the distich which Virgil has put into the mouth of Dido.

Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores Abstulit: ille habeat sec.u.m servetque sepulchro!

He who once had my vows, shall ever have, Beloved on earth and worshipped in the grave!

But, unlike Dido, she did not "profess too much." She kept her word.

Neither did she neglect her duties; but more fortunate in one respect than her fair and elegant friend the Marchesana, she had two sons, to whose education she paid the utmost attention, while she administered the government of Correggio with equal firmness and gentleness. Her husband had left a daughter,[43] whom she educated and married with a n.o.ble dower. Her eldest son, Hypolito, became a celebrated military commander; her youngest and favourite son, Girolamo, was created a cardinal. Wherever Veronica loved, it seems to have been with the same pa.s.sionate _abandon_ which distinguished her character in every thing.

Writing to a friend to recommend her son to his kind offices, she a.s.sures him that "he (her son) is not only a part of herself--but rather _herself_. Remember," she says, "Ch'egli la Veronica medesima,"--a strong and tender expression.

We find her in correspondence with all the most ill.u.s.trious characters, political and literary, of that time; and chiefly with Ariosto, Bembo, Molza, Sanazzaro, and Vittoria Colonna. Ariosto has paid her an elegant compliment in the last canto of the Orlando Furioso. She is one among the company of beautiful and accomplished women and n.o.ble knights, who hail the poet, at the conclusion of his work, as a long-travelled mariner is welcomed to the sh.o.r.e:

Veronica da Gambara e con loro Si grata a Febo, e al santo aonio coro.

This was distinction enough to immortalize her, if she had not already immortalized herself.

Veronica was not a prolific poetess; but the few Sonnets she has left, have a vigour, a truth and simplicity, not often met with among the _rimatori_ of that rhyming age. She has written fewer good poems than Vittoria Colonna, but among them, two which are reckoned superior to Vittoria's best,--one addressed to the rival monarchs, Charles the Fifth and Francis the First, exhorting them to give peace to Italy, and unite their forces to protect civilized Europe from the incursions of the infidels; the other, which is exquisitely tender and picturesque, was composed on revisiting her native place Brescia, after the death of her husband.

Poi che per mia ventura a veder torno, &c.

It may be found in the collection of Mathias.

Veronica da Gambara died in 1550, and was buried by her husband.

It should seem that poetical talents and conjugal truth and tenderness were inherent in the family of Veronica. Her niece, Camilla Valentini, the auth.o.r.ess of some very sweet poems, which are to be found in various _Scelte_, married the Count del Verme, who died after a union of several years. She had flung herself, in a transport of grief, on the body of her husband; and when her attendants attempted to remove her, they found her--dead! Even in that moment of anguish her heart had broken.

O judge her gently, who so deeply loved!

_Her_, who in reason's spite, without a crime, Was in a trance of pa.s.sion thus removed!

I have been detained too long in "the sweet South;" yet, before we quit it for the present, I must allude to one or two names which cannot be entirely pa.s.sed over, as belonging to the period of which we have been speaking--the golden age of Italy and of literature.

Bernardino Rota, who died in 1575, a poet of considerable power and pathos, has left a volume of poems, "In vita e in morte di Porzia Capece;" she was a beautiful woman of Naples, whom he loved and afterwards married, and who was s.n.a.t.c.hed from him in the pride of her youth and beauty. Among his Sonnets, I find one peculiarly striking, though far from being the best. The picture it presents, with all its affecting accompaniments, and the feelings commemorated, are obviously taken from nature and reality. The poet--the husband--approaches to contemplate the lifeless form of his Portia, and weeping, he draws from her pale cold hand the nuptial ring, which he had himself placed on her finger with all the fond antic.i.p.ations of love and hope--the pledge of a union which death alone could dissolve: and now, with a breaking heart, he transfers it to his own. Such is the subject of this striking poem, which, with some few faults against taste, is still singularly picturesque and eloquent, particularly the last six lines.--

SONETTO.

Questa scolpita in oro, amica fede, Che santo amor nel tuo bel dito pose, O prima a me delle terrene cose!