[The DOGE throws himself upon his knees, and as the Executioner raises his sword the scene closes.

SCENE IV.—The Piazza and Piazzetta of St. Mark's.— The people in crowds gathered round the grated gates of the Ducal Palace, which are shut.

First Citizen. I have gained the Gate, and can discern the Ten, Robed in their gowns of state, ranged round the Doge.

Second Cit. I cannot reach thee with mine utmost effort. How is it? let us hear at least, since sight Is thus prohibited unto the people, Except the occupiers of those bars.

First Cit. One has approached the Doge, and now they strip The ducal bonnet from his head—and now He raises his keen eyes to Heaven; I see Them glitter, and his lips move—Hush! hush!—no, 10 'Twas but a murmur—Curse upon the distance! His words are inarticulate, but the voice Swells up like muttered thunder; would we could But gather a sole sentence!

Second Cit. Hush! we perhaps may catch the sound.

First Cit. 'Tis vain. I cannot hear him.—How his hoary hair Streams on the wind like foam upon the wave! Now—now—he kneels—and now they form a circle Round him, and all is hidden—but I see The lifted sword in air——Ah! hark! it falls! 20

[The people murmur.

Third Cit. Then they have murdered him who would have freed us.

Fourth Cit. He was a kind man to the commons ever.

Fifth Cit. Wisely they did to keep their portals barred. Would we had known the work they were preparing Ere we were summoned here—we would have brought Weapons, and forced them!

Sixth Cit. Are you sure he's dead?

First Cit. I saw the sword fall—Lo! what have we here?

Enter on the Balcony of the Palace which fronts St. Mark's Place a CHIEF OF THE TEN,[480] with a bloody sword. He waves it thrice before the People, and exclaims,

"Justice hath dealt upon the mighty Traitor!"

[The gates are opened; the populace rush in towards the The foremost of them exclaims to those behind,

"The gory head rolls down the Giants' Steps!"[fy][481] [The curtain falls.[482]

FOOTNOTES:

[359] {331}[Marin Faliero was not in command of the land forces at the siege of Zara in 1346. According to contemporary documents, he held a naval command under Civran, who was in charge of the fleet. Byron was misled by an error in Morelli's Italian version of the Chronica iadratina seu historia obsidionis Jaderae, p. xi. (See Marino faliero avanti il Dogado, by Vittorio Lazzarino, published in Nuovo Archivio Veneto, 1893, vol. v. pt. i. p. 132, note 4.)]

[360] [For the siege of Alesia (Alise in Cote d'Or), which resulted in the defeat of the Gauls and the surrender of Vercingetorix, see De Bella Gallico, vii. 68-90. Belgrade fell to Prince Eugene, August 18, 1717.]

[361] {332}[If this event ever took place, it must have been in 1346, when the future Doge was between sixty and seventy years of age. The story appears for the first time in the chronicle of Bartolomeo Zuccato, notajo e cancelliere of the Comune di Treviso, which belongs to the first half of the sixteenth century. The Venetian chroniclers who were Faliero's contemporaries, and Anonimo Torriano, a Trevisan, who wrote before Zuccato, are silent. See Marino Faliero, La Congiura, by Vittorio Lazzarino.—Nuovo Archivio Veneto, 1897, vol. xiii. pt. i. p. 29.]

[362] ["Square talked in a very different strain.... In pronouncing these [sentences from the Tusculan Questions, etc.] he was one day so eager that he unfortunately bit his tongue ... this accident gave Thwackum, who was present, and who held all such doctrines to be heathenish and atheistical, an opportunity to clap a judgment on his back."—The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Bk. V. chap. ii. 1768, i. 234. See, too, Letter to Murray, November 23, 1822, Letters, 1901, vi. 142; Life, p. 570.]

[363] [[Principj di storia civile della Repubblica di Venezia. Scritti da Vettor Sandi, 1755, Part II. tom. i. pp. 127, 128.]

[364] [Storia della Republica Veneziana. Scritta da Andrea Navagiero, apud Muratori, Italic. Rerum, Scriptores, 1733, xxiii. p. 924, sq.]

[365] [Istoria dell' assedio e della Ricupera di Zara, Fatta da' Veneziani nell' anno 1346. Scritta da auctore contemporaneo, pp. i.-xxxviii.]

[366] {333}[Michele Steno was not, as Sanudo and others state, one of the Capi of the Quarantia in 1355, but twenty years later, in 1375. When Faliero was elected to the Dogeship, Steno was a youth of twenty, and a man under thirty years of age was not eligible for the Quarantia.—La Congiura, etc., p. 64.]

[367] [History does not bear out the tradition of her youth. Aluica Gradenigo was born in the first decade of the fourteenth century, and became Dogaressa when she was more than forty-five years of age.—La Congiura, p. 69.]

[368] [See A View of the Society and Manners in Italy, by John Moore, M.D., 1781, i. 144-152. The "stale jest" is thus worded: "This lady imagined she had been affronted by a young Venetian nobleman at a public ball, and she complained bitterly ... to her husband. The old Doge, who had all the desire imaginable to please his wife, determined, in this matter, at least, to give her ample satisfaction."]

[369] {334}[For Frederick's verse, "Evitez de Bernis la sterile abondance," see La Bibliographie Universelle, art. "Bernis"; and for his jest, "Je ne la connais pas," see History of Frederick the Great, by Thomas Carlyle, 1898, vi. 14.]

[370] [For the story of the abduction of Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan O'Ruarc, by Dermot Mac-Murchad, King of Leinster, in 1153, see Moore's History of Ireland, 1837, ii. 200.]

[371] {335}[Istoria della Repubblica di Venezia, del Sig. Abate Laugier, Tradotta del Francese. Venice, 1778, iv. 30.]

[372] {336}[The marble staircase on which Faliero took the ducal oath, and on which he was afterwards beheaded, led into the courtyard of the palace. It was erected by a decree of the Senate in 1340, and was pulled down to make room for Rizzo's facade, which was erected in 1484. The "Scala dei Giganti" (built by Antonio Rizzo, circ. 1483) does not occupy the site of the older staircase.]

[373] [On the north side of the Campo, in front of the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (better known as San Zanipolo), stands the Scuola di San Marco. Attached to the lower hall of the Scuola is the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pace, in which the sarcophagus containing the bones of Marino Faliero was discovered in 1815.]

[374] [In the Campo in front of the church is the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, designed by Andrea Veroccio, and cast in 1496 by Alessandro Leopardi.—Handbook: Northern Italy, p. 374.]

[375] {337}[See Poetical Works, 1898, i. 317, note 1.]

[376] [See Letters, 1898, ii. 79, note 3.]

[ct] It is like being at the whole process of a woman's toilet—it disenchants.—[MS. M.]

[cu] Any man of common independence.—[MS. M. erased.]

[377] {338}While I was in the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre, I can vouch for my colleagues, and I hope for myself, that we did our best to bring back the legitimate drama. I tried what I could to get De Montford revived, but in vain, and equally in vain in favour of Sotheby's Ivan, which was thought an acting play; and I endeavoured also to wake Mr. Coleridge to write us a tragedy[A]. Those who are not in the secret will hardly believe that the School for Scandal is the play which has brought the least money, averaging the number of times it has been acted since its production; so Manager Dibdin assured me. Of what has occurred since Maturin's Bertram I am not aware[B]; so that I may be traducing, through ignorance, some excellent new writers; if so, I beg their pardon. I have been absent from England nearly five years, and, till last year, I never read an English newspaper since my departure, and am now only aware of theatrical matters through the medium of the Parisian Gazette of Galignani, and only for the last twelve months. Let me, then, deprecate all offence to tragic or comic writers, to whom I wish well, and of whom I know nothing. The long complaints of the actual state of the drama arise, however, from no fault of the performers. I can conceive nothing better than Kemble, Cooke, and Kean, in their very different manners, or than Elliston in Gentleman's comedy, and in some parts of tragedy. Miss O'Neill[C] I never saw, having made and kept a determination to see nothing which should divide or disturb my recollection of Siddons. Siddons and Kemble were the ideal of tragic action; I never saw anything at all resembling them, even in person; for this reason, we shall never see again Coriolanus or Macbeth. When Kean is blamed for want of dignity, we should remember that it is a grace, not an art, and not to be attained by study. In all, not super-natural parts, he is perfect; even his very defects belong, or seem to belong, to the parts themselves, and appear truer to nature. But of Kemble we may say, with reference to his acting, what the Cardinal de Retz said of the Marquis of Montrose, "that he was the only man he ever saw who reminded him of the heroes of Plutarch."[D]

[A] [See letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, March 31, 1815, Letters, 1899, iii. 190; letter to Moore, October 28, 1815, and note 1 (with quotation from unpublished letter of Coleridge), and passages from Byron's Detached Thoughts (1821) ... ibid., pp. 230, 233-238.]

[B] [Maturin's Bertram was played for the first time at Drury Lane, May 9, 1816. (See Detached Thoughts (1821), Letters, 1899, iii. 233, and letter to Murray, October 12, 1817, Letters, 1900, iv. 171.)]

[C] [Elizabeth O'Neill (1791-1872), afterwards Lady Becher, made her debut in 1814, and retired from the stage in 1819. Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) made her final appearance on the stage June 9, 1818, and her brother John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) appeared for the last time in Coriolanus, June 23, 1817. Of the other actors mentioned in this note, George Frederick Cooke (1756-1812) had long been dead; Edmund Kean (1787-1833) had just returned from a successful tour in the United States; and Robert William Elliston (1774-1831) (vide ante, p. 328) had, not long before (1819), become lessee of Drury Lane Theatre.]

[D]["Le comte de Montross, Ecossais et chef de la maison de Graham, le seul homme du monde qui m'ait jamais rappele l'idee de certains heros que l'on ne voit plus que dans les vies de Plutarque, avail soutenu le parti du roi d'Angleterre dans son pays, avec une grandeur d'ame qui rien avait point de pareille en ce siecle."—Memoires du Cardinal de Retz, 1820, ii. 88.]

[378] {339}[This appreciation of the Mysterious Mother, which he seems to have read in Lord Dover's preface to Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, provoked Coleridge to an angry remonstrance. "I venture to remark, first, that I do not believe that Lord Byron spoke sincerely; for I suspect that he made a tacit exception of himself at least.... Thirdly, that the Mysterious Mother is the most disgusting, vile, detestable composition that ever came from the hand of man. No one with a spark of true manliness, of which Horace Walpole had none, could have written it."—Table Talk, March 20, 1834. Croker took a very different view, and maintained "that the good old English blank verse, the force of character expressed in the wretched mother ... argue a strength of conception, and vigour of expression capable of great things," etc. Over and above the reasonable hope and expectation that this provocative eulogy of Walpole's play would annoy the "Cockneys" and the "Lakers," Byron was no doubt influenced in its favour by the audacity of the plot, which not only put septentrional prejudices at defiance, but was an instance in point that love ought not "to make a tragic subject unless it is love furious, criminal, and hopeless" (Letter to Murray, January 4, 1821). He would, too, be deeply and genuinely moved by such verse as this—

"Consult a holy man! inquire of him! —Good father, wherefore? what should I inquire? Must I be taught of him that guilt is woe? That innocence alone is happiness— That martyrdom itself shall leave the villain The villain that it found him? Must I learn That minutes stamped with crime are past recall? That joys are momentary; and remorse Eternal?... Nor could one risen from the dead proclaim This truth in deeper sounds to my conviction; We want no preacher to distinguish vice From virtue. At our birth the God revealed All conscience needs to know. No codicil To duty's rubric here and there was placed In some Saint's casual custody."

Act i. sc. 3, s.f. Works of the Earl of Orford, 1798, i. 55.]

[379] {340}[Byron received a copy of Goethe's review of Manfred, which appeared in Kunst und Alterthum (ii. 2. 191) in May, 1820. In a letter to Murray, dated October 17, 1820 (Letters, 1901, v. 100), he enclosed a letter to Goethe, headed "For Marino Faliero. Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc." It is possible that Murray did not take the "Dedication" seriously, but regarded it as a jeu d'esprit, designed for the amusement of himself and his "synod." At any rate, the "Dedication" did not reach Goethe's hand till 1831, when it was presented to him at Weimar by John Murray the Third. "It is written," says Moore, who printed a mutilated version in his Letters and Journals, etc., 1830, ii. 356-358, "in the poet's most whimsical and mocking mood; and the unmeasured severity poured out in it upon the two favourite objects of his wrath and ridicule, compels me to deprive the reader of its most amusing passages." The present text, which follows the MS., is reprinted from Letters, 1901, v. 100-104—

"Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc.

"Sir—In the Appendix to an English work lately translated into German and published at Leipsic, a judgment of yours upon English poetry is quoted as follows: 'That in English poetry, great genius, universal power, a feeling of profundity, with sufficient tenderness and force, are to be found; but that altogether these do not constitute poets,' etc., etc.

"I regret to see a great man falling into a great mistake. This opinion of yours only proves that the 'Dictionary of Ten Thousand living English Authors'[A] has not been translated into German. You will have read, in your friend Schlegel's version, the dialogue in Macbeth—

"'There are ten thousand! Macbeth. Geese, villain? Answer. Authors, sir.'[B]

Now, of these 'ten thousand authors,' there are actually nineteen hundred and eighty-seven poets, all alive at this moment, whatever their works may be, as their booksellers well know: and amongst these there are several who possess a far greater reputation than mine, though considerably less than yours. It is owing to this neglect on the part of your German translators that you are not aware of the works of William Wordsworth, who has a baronet in London[C] who draws him frontispieces and leads him about to dinners and to the play; and a Lord in the country,[D] who gave him a place in the Excise—and a cover at his table. You do not know perhaps that this Gentleman is the greatest of all poets past—present and to come—besides which he has written an 'Opus Magnum' in prose—during the late election for Westmoreland.[E] His principal publication is entitled 'Peter Bell' which he had withheld from the public for 'one and twenty years'—to the irreparable loss of all those who died in the interim, and will have no opportunity of reading it before the resurrection. There is also another named Southey, who is more than a poet, being actually poet Laureate,—a post which corresponds with what we call in Italy Poeta Cesareo, and which you call in German—I know not what; but as you have a 'Caesar'—probably you have a name for it. In England there is no Caesar—only the Poet.

"I mention these poets by way of sample to enlighten you. They form but two bricks of our Babel, (Windsor bricks, by the way) but may serve for a specimen of the building.

"It is, moreover, asserted that 'the predominant character of the whole body of the present English poetry is a disgust and contempt for life.' But I rather suspect that by one single work of prose, you yourself have excited a greater contempt for life than all the English volumes of poesy that ever were written. Madame de Staeel says, that 'Werther has occasioned more suicides than the most beautiful woman;' and I really believe that he has put more individuals out of this world than Napoleon himself,—except in the way of his profession. Perhaps, Illustrious Sir, the acrimonious judgment passed by a celebrated northern journal[F] upon you in particular, and the Germans in general, has rather indisposed you towards English poetry as well as criticism. But you must not regard our critics, who are at bottom good-natured fellows, considering their two professions,—taking up the law in court, and laying it down out of it. No one can more lament their hasty and unfair judgment, in your particular, than I do; and I so expressed myself to your friend Schlegel, in 1816, at Coppet.

"In behalf of my 'ten thousand' living brethren, and of myself, I have thus far taken notice of an opinion expressed with regard to 'English poetry' in general, and which merited notice, because it was yours.

"My principal object in addressing you was to testify my sincere respect and admiration of a man, who, for half a century, has led the literature of a great nation, and will go down to posterity as the first literary Character of his Age.

"You have been fortunate, Sir, not only in the writings which have illustrated your name, but in the name itself, as being sufficiently musical for the articulation of posterity. In this you have the advantage of some of your countrymen, whose names would perhaps be immortal also—if anybody could pronounce them.

"It may, perhaps, be supposed, by this apparent tone of levity, that I am wanting in intentional respect towards you; but this will be a mistake: I am always flippant in prose. Considering you, as I really and warmly do, in common with all your own, and with most other nations, to be by far the first literary Character which has existed in Europe since the death of Voltaire, I felt, and feel, desirous to inscribe to you the following work,—not as being either a tragedy or a poem, (for I cannot pronounce upon its pretensions to be either one or the other, or both, or neither,) but as a mark of esteem and admiration from a foreigner to the man who has been hailed in Germany 'the great Goethe.'

"I have the honour to be,

With the truest respect,

Your most obedient and

Very humble servant,

Byron,

"Ravenna, 8^bre^ 14, 1820.

"P.S.—I perceive that in Germany, as well as in Italy, there is a great struggle about what they call 'Classical' and 'Romantic,'—terms which were not subjects of classification in England, at least when I left it four or five years ago. Some of the English Scribblers, it is true, abused Pope and Swift, but the reason was that they themselves did not know how to write either prose or verse; but nobody thought them worth making a sect of. Perhaps there may be something of the kind sprung up lately, but I have not heard much about it, and it would be such bad taste that I shall be very sorry to believe it."

Another Dedication, to be prefixed to a Second Edition of the play was found amongst Byron's papers. It remained in MS. till 1832, when it was included in a prefatory note to Marino Faliero, Works of Lord Byron, 1832, xii. 50.

"Dedication of Marino Faliero.

"To the Honourable Douglas Kinnaird.

"My dear Douglas,—I dedicate to you the following tragedy, rather on account of your good opinion of it, than from any notion of my own that it may be worthy of your acceptance. But if its merits were ten times greater than they possibly can be, this offering would still be a very inadequate acknowledgment of the active and steady friendship with which, for a series of years, you have honoured your obliged and affectionate friend,

"BYRON. "Ravenna, Sept. 1st, 1821."

[A][A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, etc., London, 1816, 8vo.]

[B] [Macbeth. Where got'st thou that goose look? Servant. There is ten thousand— Macbeth. Geese, villain? Servant. Soldiers, sir." Macbeth, act v. sc. 3, lines 12, 13.]

[C][Sir George Beaumont. See Professor W. Knight, Life of Wordsworth, ii. (Works, vol. x.) 56.]

[D][Lord Lonsdale (ibid., p. 209).]

[E][Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland, 1818.]

[F][See an article on Goethe's Aus Meinem Leben, etc., in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1816, vol. xxvi. pp. 304-337.] ]

[cv] {345} Are none yet of the Messengers returned?—[MS. M.]

[380] [The Consiglio Minore, which originally consisted of the Doge and his six councillors, was afterwards increased, by the addition of the three Capi of the Quarantia Criminale, and was known as the Serenissima Signoria (G. Cappelletti, Storia della Repubblica di Venezia, 1850, i. 483). The Forty who were "debating on Steno's accusation" could not be described as the "Signory."]

[cw] With seeming patience.—[MS. M.]

[cx] He sits as deep—[MS. M.]

[cy] {346}Or aught that imitates—.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[cz] Young, gallant—.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[381] [Bertuccio Faliero was a distant connection of the Doge, not his nephew. Matters of business and family affairs seem to have brought them together, and it is evident that they were on intimate terms.—La Congiura, p. 84.]

[382] [The Avogadori, three in number, were the conductors of criminal prosecutions on the part of the State; and no act of the councils was valid, unless sanctioned by the presence of one of them; but they were not, as Byron seems to imply, a court of first instance. The implied reproach that they preferred to send the case to appeal because Steno was a member of the "Quarantia," is based on an error of Sanudo's (vide ante, p. 333).]

[da] {348} ——Marin! Falierae [sic].—[MS. M.]

[383] ["Marin Faliero, dalla bella moglie—altri la gode, ed egli la mantien."—Marino Samuto, Vitae Ducum Venetorum, apud Muratori, Rerum Italicurum Scriptores, 1733, xxii. 628-638]. Navagero, in his Storia della Repubblica Veneriana, ibid., xxiii. 1040, gives a coarser rendering of Steno's Lampoon.—"Becco Marino Fallier dalla belta mogier;" and there are older versions agreeing in the main with that Faliero's by Sanudo. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether Faliro's conspiracy was, in any sense, the outcome of a personal insult. The story of the Lampoon first appears in the Chronicle of Lorenzo de Monaci, who wrote in the latter half of the fifteenth century. "Fama fuit ... quia aliqui adolescentuli nobiles scripserunt in angulis interioris palatii aliqua verba ignominiosa, et quod ipse (il Doge) magis incanduit quoniam adolescentuli illi parva fuerant animadversione puniti." In course of time the "noble youths" became a single noble youth, whose name occurred in the annals, and the derivation or evolution of the "verba ignominiosa," followed by a natural process.—La Congiura, Nuona Archivio Veneto, 1897, tom. xiii. pt. ii. p. 347.]

[384] {349}[Sanudo gives two versions of Steno's punishment: (1) that he should be imprisoned for two months, and banished from Venice for a year; (2) that he should be imprisoned for one month, flogged with a fox's tail, and pay one hundred lire to the Republic.]

[385] {350}[Vide ante, p. 331.]

[386] {351}[Faliero's appeal to the "law" is a violation of "historical accuracy." The penalty for an injury to the Doge was not fixed by law, but was decided from time to time by the Judge, in accordance with unwritten custom.—La Congiura, p. 60.]

[db] {352}Who threw his sting into a poisonous rhyme.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[387] [For the story of Caesar, Pompeia, and Clodius, see Plutarch's Lives, "Caesar," Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 498.]

[dc]——Enrico.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[388] [According to Sanudo (Vitae Ducum Venetorum, apud Muratori, Rerum Ital. Script., 1733, xxii. 529), it was Ser Pantaleone Barbo who intervened, when (A.D. 1204) the election to the Empire of Constantinople lay between the Doge "Arrigo Dandolo" and "Conte Baldovino di Fiandra."]

[dd] {354} ——in olden days.—[MS. M.]

[389] {356}[According to the much earlier, and, presumably, more historical narrative of Lorenzo de Monaci, Bertuccio Isarello was not chief of the Arsenalotti, but simply the patron, that is the owner, of a vessel (paron di nave), and consequently a person of importance amongst sailors and naval artisans; and the noble who strikes the fatal blow is not Barbaro, but a certain Giovanni Dandolo, who is known, at that time, to have been "sopracomito and consigliere del capitano da mar." If the Admiral of the Arsenal had been engaged in the conspiracy, the fact could hardly have escaped the notice of contemporary chroniclers. Signor Lazzarino suggests that the name Gisello, or Girello, which has been substituted for that of Israel Bertuccio, is a corruption of Isarello.—La Congiura, p. 74.]

[390] [The island of Sapienza lies about nine miles to the north-west of Capo Gallo, in the Morea. The battle in which the Venetians under Nicolo Pisani were defeated by the Genoese under Paganino Doria was fought November 4, 1354. (See Venice, an Historical Sketch, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, p. 201.)]

[391] An historical fact. See Marin Sanuto's Lives of the Doges. ["Sanuto says that Heaven took away his senses for this buffet, and induced him to conspire:—'Pero fu permesso che il Faliero perdesse l'intelletto.'"—B. Letters (Works, etc., 1832, xii. 82. note 1).

[392] {358}["The number of their constant Workmen is 1200; and all these Artificers have a Superior Officer called Amiraglio, who commands the Bucentaure on Ascension Day, when the Duke goes in state to marry the sea. And here we cannot but notice, that by a ridiculous custom this Admiral makes himself Responsible to the Senat for the inconstancy of the Sea, and engages his Life there shall be no Tempest that day. 'Tis this Admiral who has the Guard of the Palais, St. Mark, with his Arsenalotti, during the interregnum. He carries the Red Standard before the Prince when he makes his Entry, by virtue of which office he has his Cloak, and the two Basons (out of which the Duke throws the money to the People) for his fee."—The History of the Government of Venice, written in the year 1675, by the Sieur Amelott de la Houssaie, London, 1677, p. 63.]

[393] [Vide ante, p. 356, note 1.]

[394] {360}[The famous measure known as the closing of the Great Council was carried into force during the Dogeship (1289-1311) of Pietro Gradenigo. On the last day of February, 1297, a law was proposed and passed, "That the Council of Forty are to ballot, one by one, the names of all those who during the last four years have had a seat in the Great Council.... Three electors shall be chosen to submit names of fresh candidates for the Great Council, on the ... approval of the Doge." But strict as these provisions were, they did not suffice to restrict the government to the aristocracy. It was soon decreed "that only those who could prove that a paternal ancestor had sat on the Great Council, after its creation in 1176, should now be eligible as members.... It is in this provision that we find the essence of the Serrata del Maggior Consiglio.... The work was not completed at one stroke.... In 1315 a list of all those who were eligible ... was compiled. The scrutiny ... was entrusted to the Avogadori di Comun, and became ... more and more severe. To ensure the purity of blood, they opened a register of marriages and births.... Thus the aristocracy proceeded to construct itself more and more upon a purely oligarchical basis."—Venice, an Historical Sketch, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, pp. 162-164.]

[395] {362}[To "partake" this or that is an obsolete construction, but rests on the authority of Dryden and other writers of the period. Byron's "have partook" cannot come under the head of "good, sterling, genuine English"! (See letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, Letters, 1901, v. 89.)]

[396] {363}[The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune. According to Sanudo, "on the appointed day they [the followers of the sixteen leaders of the conspiracy] were to make affrays amongst themselves, here and there, in order that the Duke might have a pretence for tolling the bells of San Marco." (See, too, Sketches from Venetian History, 1831, i. 266, note.)]

[397] ["Le Conseil des Dix avail ses prisons speciales dites camerotti; celles non officiellement appelees les pozzi et les piombi, les puits et les plombs, etaient de son redoubtable domaine. Les Camerotti di sotto (les puits) etaient obscurs mais non accessibles a l'eau du canal, comme on l'a fait croire en des recits dignes d'Anne Radcliffe; les camerotti di sopra (les plombs) etaient des cellules fortement doublees de bois mais non privees de lumiere."—Les Archives de Venise, par Armand Baschet, 1870, p. 535. For the pozzi and the "Bridge of Sighs" see note by Hobhouse, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 465; and compare Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza i. line 1 (and The Two Foscari, act iv. sc. 1), Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 327, note 2.]

[398] {365}[For "Sapienza," vide ante, p. 356. According to the genealogies, Marin Falier, by his first wife, had a daughter Lucia, who was married to Franceschino Giustiniani; but there is no record of a son. (See La Congiura, p. 21.)]

[399] {366}["The Doges were all buried in St. Mark's before Faliero: it is singular that when his predecessor, Andrea Dandolo, died, the Ten made a law that all the future Doges should be buried with their families in their own churches,—one would think by a kind of presentiment. So that all that is said of his Ancestral Doges, as buried at St. John's and Paul's, is altered from the fact, they being in St. Mark's. Make a note of this, and put Editor as the subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not like to be twitted even with such trifles on that score. Of the play they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and dram. pers.—they having been real existences."—Letter to Murray, October 12, 1820, Letters, 1901, v. 95. Byron's injunction was not carried out till 1832.]

[400] A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily rowed with one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so from motives of privacy; and, since the decay of Venice, of economy.

[401] {367}["What Gifford says (of the first act) is very consolatory. 'English, sterling genuine English,' is a desideratum amongst you, and I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain it: I hear none but from my Valet, and his is Nottinghamshire; and I see none but in your new publications, and theirs is no language at all, but jargon.... Gifford says that it is 'good, sterling, genuine English,' and Foscolo says that the characters are right Venetian."—Letters to Murray, Sept. 11, Oct. 8, 1820, Letters, 1901, v. 75-89.]

[402] [Byron admits (vide ante, p. 340) that the character of the "Dogaressa" is more or less his own creation. It may be remarked that in Casimir Delavigne's version of the story, the Duchess (Elena) cherishes a secret and criminal attachment for Bertuccio Faliero, and that in Mr. Swinburne's tragedy, while innocent in act, she is smitten with remorse for a passion which overmasters her loyalty to her husband. Byron's Angiolina is "faultily faultless, ... splendidly null."

In a letter to Murray, dated January 4, 1821 (Letters, 1901, v. 218), he says, "As I think that love is not the principal passion for tragedy, you will not find me a popular writer. Unless it is Love, furious, criminal, and hapless [as in The Mysterious Mother, or in Alfieri's Mirra, or Shelley's Cenci], it ought not to make a tragic subject. When it is melting and maudlin, it does, but it ought not to do; it is then for the gallery and second-price boxes." It is probable that he owed these sentiments to the theory and practice of Vittorio Alfieri. "It is extraordinary," writes M. de Fallette Barrol (Monthly Magazine, April, 1805, reprinted in Preface to Tragedie di Alfieri, A. Montucci, Edinburgh, 1805, i. xvi. sq.), "that a man whose soul possessed an uncommon share of ardour and sensibility, and had experienced all the violence of the passions, should scarcely have condescended to introduce love into his tragedies; or, when he does, that he should only employ it with a kind of reserve and severity.... He probably regarded it as a hackneyed agent; for in ... Myrrha it appears in such a strange character, that all the art of the writer is not capable of divesting it of an air at once ludicrous and disgusting."

But apart from the example of Alfieri, there was another motive at work—a determination to prove to the world that he was the master of his own temperament, and that, if he chose, he could cast away frivolity and cynicism, and clothe himself with austerity "as with a garment." He had been taken to task for "treating well-nigh with equal derision the most pure of virtues, and the most odious of vices" (Blackwood's Edin. Mag., August, 1819), and here was an "answer to his accusers!"]

[403] {368}[The exact date of Marin Falier's birth is a matter of conjecture, but there is reason to believe that he Was under seventy-five years of age at the time of the conspiracy. The date assigned is 1280-1285 A.D.]

[de] {369} ——has he been doomed?—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[404] {370}[According to Dio Cassius, the last words of Brutus were, [Greek: O~) tle~mon a)rete/, lo/gos a)/r e~)sth a)/llos], [Greek: e)go de o(s e(/rgon e(/skoun' sy d'a)r' e)dou/leues ty/che ] Hist. Rom., lib. xlvii. c. 49, ed. v., P. Boissevain, 1898, ii. 246.]

[df] {375}

Doth Heaven forgive her own? is Satan saved? But be it so?—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[405] [There is no MS. authority for "From wrath eternal."]

[dg] Oh do not speak thus rashly.-[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[406] {377}

["Beg Heaven to cleanse the leprosy of lust."

'Tis Pity she's a Whore, by John Ford. Lamb's Dramatic Poets, 1835, i. 265.]

[407] {378}[The Dogaressa Aluica was the daughter of Nicolo Gradenigo. It was the Doge who inherited the "blood of Loredano" through his mother Beriola.]

[408] {381}[The lines "and the hour hastens" to "whate'er may urge" are not in the MS.]

[dh] {382}Where Death sits throned——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[409] [Filippo Calendario, who is known to have been one of the principal conspirators, was a master stone-cutter, who worked as a sculptor, and ranked as such. The tradition, to which Byron does not allude, that he was an architect, and designed the new palace begun in 1354, may probably be traced to a document of the fifteenth century, in which Calendario is described as commissario, i.e. executor, of Piero Basejo, who worked as a master stone-cutter for the Republic. The Maggior Consiglio was its own architect, and would not have empowered a tagliapietra, however eminent, to act on his own responsibility.—La Congiura, pp. 76, 77.]

[410] {383}[The sbirri were constables, officers of the police magistrates, the signori di notte. The Italians have a saying, Dir le sue ragioni agli sbirri, that is, to argue with a policeman.]

[411] {384}["It was concerted that sixteen or seventeen leaders should be stationed in various parts of the city, each being at the head of forty men, armed and prepared; but the followers were not to know their destination."—See translation of Sanudo's Narrative, post, p. 464.]

[412] [In the earlier chronicles Beltramo is named Vendrame. He was, according to some authorities, compare with Lioni, i.e. a co-sponsor of the same godchild. Signor Lazzarino (La Congiura, p. 90 (2)) maintains that in all probability Beltramo betrayed his companions from selfish motives, in order to save himself, and not from any "compunctious visitings," or because he was "too full o' the milk of human kindness." According to Sanudo (vide post, p. 465), "Beltramo Bergamasco" was not one of the principal conspirators, but "had heard a word or two of what was to take place." Ser Marco Soranzano (p. 466) was one of the "Zonta" of twenty who were elected as assessors to the Ten, to try the Doge of high treason against the Republic.]

[413] {386}[Compare—

"If we should fail,——We fail. But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail."

Macbeth, act i. sc. 7, lines 59-61.]

[di] In a great cause the block may soak their gore.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[dj] If Brutus had not lived? He failed in giving.—[MS. M.]

[414] [At the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42, Brutus lamented over the body of Cassius, and called him the "last of the Romans."—Plutarch's Lives, "Marcus Brutus," Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 686.]

[415] [The citizens of Aquileia and Padua fled before the invasion of Attila, and retired to the Isle of Gradus, and Rivus Altus, or Rialto. Theodoric's minister, Cassiodorus, who describes the condition of the fugitives some seventy years after they had settled on the "hundred isles," compares them to "waterfowl who had fixed their nests on the bosom of the waves." (See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, etc., 1825, ii. 375, note 6, and 376, notes 1, 2.)]

[416] [Mal bigatto, "vile silkworm," is a term of contempt and reproach = "uomo de maligna intenzione," a knave.]

[417] {388}[Compare—

"I'll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate."

Macbeth, act iv. sc. I, lines 83, 84.]

[418] {390}[For Byron's correction of this statement, vide ante, p. 366. The monument of the Doge Vitale Falier (d. 1096) "was at the right side of the principal entrance into the Vestibule." According to G. Meschinello (La Chiesa Ducale, 1753), Ordelafo Falier was buried in the Atrio of St. Mark's. See, too, Venetia citta nobilissima ... descritta da F. Sansovino, 1663, pp. 96, 556.]

[dk] We thought to make our peers and not our masters.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[dl] ——merit such requital.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[419] {391}[Compare—

"I have set my life upon a cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die."

Richard III., act v. sc. 4, lines 9, 10.]

[420] {392}["The equestrian statue of which I have made mention in the third act as before the church, is not ... of a Faliero, but of some other now obsolete warrior, although of a later date."—Vide ante, Preface, p. 336. "In the Campo in front of the church [facing the Rio dei Mendicanti] stands the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the second equestrian statue raised in Italy after the revival of the arts....The handsome marble pedestal is lofty, supported and flanked by composite columns."—Handbook: Northern Italy, p. 374.]

[dm] {393}Nor dwindle to a cut-throat without shuddering.—[MS. M. erased.]

[dn] A scourged mechanic——.—[MS. M.] A roused mechanic——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[421] {394}An historical fact. [See Appendix A, p. 464.]

[do]

/ in So let them die one.—[MS. M.] as /

[dp] {397}We are all lost in wonder—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[dq] ——of our splendid City.—[MS. M. erased.]

[422] [Compare—

"Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles."

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza i. line 9, and var. i.]

[dr] {398}But all the worst sins of the Spartan state.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ds] The Lords of old Laconia——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[423] {399}[Compare—

"A king of shreds and patches."

Hamlet, act iii. sc. 4, line 102.]

[424] ["The members of the Ten (Il Cousiglio de' Dieci) were elected in the Great Council for one year only, and were not re-eligible for the year after they had held office. Every month the Ten elected three of their own number as chiefs, or Capi of the Council.... The court consisted, besides the Ten, of the Doge and his six councillors, seventeen members in all, of whom twelve were necessary to make a quorum. One of the Avogadori di Comun, or State advocates, was always present, without the power to vote, but to act as clerk to the court, informing it of the law, and correcting it where its procedure seemed informal. Subsequently it became customary to add twenty members to the Council, elected in the Maggior Consiglio, for each important case as it arose."—Venice, an Historical Sketch, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, pp. 177, 178. (See, too, Les Archives de Venise, par Armand Baschet, 1870, p. 525.)]

[425] {400}[The chronicles are silent as to any embassy or commission from the Republic to Rhodes or Cyprus in which Marin Falier held office or took any part whatever. Cyprus did not pass into the hands of Venice till 1489, and Rhodes was held by the Knights of St. John till 1522.]

[426] {401}[Compare—

"We have scotched the snake, not killed it."

Macbeth, act iii. sc. II, line 13.]

[dt] {402}Fought by my side, and John Grimani shared.—[MS. M. erased.]

[427] [Marc Cornaro did not "share" his Genoese, but his Hungarian embassy.—M. Faliero Avanti il Dogado: Archivio Veneto, 1893, vol. v. pt. i. p. 144.]

[du] {403}My mission to the Pope; I saved the life.—[MS. M. erased.]

[dv]

Bear witness with me! ye who hear and know, And feel our mutual mass of many wrongs.—[MS. M. erased.]

[428] {404}[The Italian Oime recalls the Latin Hei mihi and the Greek [Greek: Oi~moi] ]

[429] [Compare—

"Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven, Hope sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away?"

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza cxxxv. lines 5, 6.

And—

"The beings which surrounded him were gone. Or were at war with him."

The Dream, sect. viii. lines 3, 4, vide ante, p. 40]

[dw] Sate grinning Mockery——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[dx] {405}The feelings they abused——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[dy] ——and then perish.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[dz] {406}

/ carrion Nor turn aside to strike at such a —[MS. M.] wretch /

[ea] {407}You are a patriot, plebeian Gracchus.—[Ed. 1832.] (MS., and First Edition, 1821, insert "a.")

[430] [Compare "Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation."—I Henry IV., act i. sc. 2, lines 101, 102.]

[eb] {409}To this now shackled——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[431] {410}[Byron told Medwin that he wrote "Lioni's soliloquy one moonlight night, after coming from the Benzoni's."—Conversations, 1824, p. 177.]

[ec] High o'er the music——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[432] {411}["At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The Carnival—that is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights, had knocked me up a little.... The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc., etc.; and, though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of twenty-nine.

"So we'll go no more a roving So late into the night, Though the heart be still as loving, And the moon be still as bright.

"For the sword outwears its sheath, And the soul wears out the breast, And the heart must pause to breathe, And Love itself have rest.

"Though the night was made for loving, And the day returns too soon, Yet we'll go no more a roving By the light of the moon."

Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817, Letters, 1900, iv. 59.]

[ed] {412}Suggesting dreams or unseen Symmetry.—[MS. M. erased.]

[ee] Which give their glitter lack, and the vast AEther.—[MS. M. erased.]

[ef] ——seaborn palaces.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[433] {413}[Compare "What, ma'amselle, don't you remember Ludovico, who rowed the Cavaliero's gondola at the last regatta, and won the prize? and who used to sing such sweet verses about Orlando's ... all under my lattice ... on the moonlight nights at Venice?"—Mysteries of Udolpho, by Anne Radcliffe, 1882, p. 195. Compare, too, Beppo, stanza xv. lines 1-6, vide ante, p. 164.]

[434] [Compare "The gondolas gliding down the canals are like coffins or cradles ... At night the darkness reveals the tiny lanterns which guide these boats, and they look like shadows passing by, lit by stars. Everything in this region is mystery—government, custom, love."—Corinne or Italy, by Madame de Stael, 1888, pp. 279, 280. Compare, too—

"In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more, And silent rows the songless Gondolier."

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza iii. lines 1, 2, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. note 3.]

[eg] ——or towering spire.—[MS. M.]

[eh] ——at this moment.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ei] {414} ——Has he no name?—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ej] His voice and carriage——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ek] {415}If so withdraw and fly and tell me not.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[el] {416}Good I would now requite——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[em] Remain at home——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[en] {417}Why what hast thou to gainsay of the Senate?—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[eo] On the accursed tyranny which taints.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ep] {418}I would not draw my breath——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[435] {419}[If Gifford had been at the pains to read Byron's manuscripts, or revise the proofs, he would surely have pointed out, if he had not ventured to amend, his bad grammar.]

[436] {421}The Doge's family palace.

[eq] {422}A Loredano——.—[MS. erased.]

[437] [Compare Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza xiv. line 3, Poetical Works, 1898, ii. 339, note i.]

[438] {423}[Compare "Themistocles was sacrificing on the deck of the admiral-galley."—Plutarch's Lives, Langhorne, 1838, p. 89.]

[439] [For Timoleon, who first saved, and afterwards slew his brother Timophanes, for aiming at sovereignty, see The Siege of Corinth, line 59, note 1, Poetical Works, 1900, iii. 452.]

[er] {424}The night is clearing from the sky.—[MS. M. erased.]

[440] [For the use of "dapple" as an intransitive verb, compare Mazeppa, xvi. line 646, vide ante, p. 227.]

[es] ——Now—now to business.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[et] {425}The signal——.—[MS. M. erased.]

The storm-clock——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[441] ["'Tis done ... unerring beak" (six lines), not in MS.]

[442] [Byron had forgotten the dictum of the artist Reinagle, that "eagles and all birds of prey attack with their talons and not with their beaks" (see Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza xviii. line 6, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 226, note 1); or, possibly, had discovered that eagles attack with their beaks as well as their talons.]

[443] [Vide ante, p. 368, note 1.]

[eu]

——ten thousand caps were flung Into the air and thrice ten——.—[MS. M. erased.]

[444] {426}[Compare—

"Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo!"

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza xii. line 8, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 337.]

[ev]

/ iron oracle. Where swings the sullen huge oracular bell. / [Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[445] {427} "I Signori di Notte" held an important charge in the old republic. [The surveillance of the "sestieri" was assigned to the "Collegio dei Signori di notte al criminal." Six in all, they were at once police magistrates and superintendents of police. (See Cappelletti, Storia, etc., 1856, ii. 293.)]

[446] [The Doge overstates his authority. He could not preside without his Council "in the Maggior Consiglio, or in the Senate, or in the College; but four ducal councillors had the power to preside without the Doge. The Doge might not open despatches except in the presence of his Council, but his Council might open despatches in the absence of the Doge."—Venetian Studies, by H. F. Brown, 1887, p. 189.]

[ew] {428}That thus you dare assume a brigand's power.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ex] ——storm-clock.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[447] [Byron may have had in his mind the "bell or clocke" (see var. ii.) in Southey's ballad of The Inchcape Rock.

"On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, And over the waves its warning rung."]

[ey] Or met some unforeseen and fatal obstacle.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[448] {430}[A translation of Beltramo Bergamasco, i.e. a native of the town and province of Bergamo, in the north of Italy. Compare "Comasco." Harlequin ... was a Bergamasc, and the personification of the manners, accent, and jargon of the inhabitants of the Val Brembana.—Handbook: Northern Italy, p. 240.]

[ez] {431}While Manlius, who hurled back the Gauls——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fa] The Grand Chancellor of the Ten.—[MS. M. erased.]

[449] ["In the notes to Marino Faliero, it may be as well to say that 'Benintende' was not really of the ten, but merely Grand Chancellor—a separate office, though an important one: it was an arbitrary alteration of mine."—Letter to Murray, October 12, 1820.

Byron's correction was based on a chronicle cited by Sanudo, which is responsible for the statement that Beneintendi de Ravignani presided as Grand Chancellor at the Doge's trial, and took down his examination. As a matter of fact, Beneintendi was at Milan, not at Venice, when the trial took place. The "college" which conducted the examination of the Doge consisted of Giovanni Mocenigo, Councillor; Giovanni Marcello, Chief of the Ten; Luga da Lezze, "Inquisitore;" and Orio Pasqualigo, "Avogadore."—La Congiura, p. 104(2).]

[450] "Giovedi grasso,"—"fat or greasy Thursday,"—which I cannot literally translate in the text, was the day.

[451] {435}Historical fact. See Sanuto, Appendix, Note A [vide post, p. 466].

[452] {436}["I know what Foscolo means about Calendaro's spitting at Bertram: that's national—the objection, I mean. The Italians and French, with those 'flags of Abomination,' their pocket handkerchiefs, spit there, and here, and every where else—in your face almost, and therefore object to it on the Stage as too familiar. But we who spit nowhere—but in a man's face when we grow savage—are not likely to feel this. Remember Massinger, and Kean's Sir Giles Overreach—

'Lord! thus I spit at thee and thy Counsel!'"

Letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, Letters, v. 1901, 89.

"Sir Giles Overreach" says to "Lord Lovel," in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, act v. sc. 1, "Lord! thus I spit at thee, and at thy counsel." Compare, too—

"You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine."

Merchant of Venice, act i. sc. 3, lines 106, 107.]

[fd] {437}It is impending——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[453] {438}["Is [Solon] cum interrogaretur, cur nullum supplicium constituisset in eum qui parentem necasset, respondit se id neminem facturum putasse."—Cicero, Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino, cap, 25.]

[454] ["Signory" is used loosely to denote the State or Government of Venice, not the "collegio" or "Signoria Serenissima."]

[455] [This statement is strictly historical. On the death of Andrea Dandolo (September 7, 1334) the Maggior Consiglio appointed a commission of five "savi" to correct and modify the "promissione," or ducal oath. The alterations which the commissioners suggested were designed to prevent the Doge from acting on his own initiative in matters of foreign policy.—La Congiura, pp. 30, 31.]

[456] {440}[Gelo is quoted as the type of a successful and beneficent tyrant held in honour by all posterity; Thrasybulus as a consistent advocate and successful champion of democracy.]

[457] [The lines from "I would have stood ... while living" are not in the MS.]

[fe] There were no other ways for truth to pierce them.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[ff] {441}The torture for the exposure of the truth.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fg]

/ Doge Faliero's consort. Noble Venetians! —[MS. M. erased.] with respect the Duchess. /

[458] The Venetian senate took the same title as the Roman, of "conscript fathers." [It was not, however, the Senate, the Pregadi, but the Consiglio dei Dieci, supplemented by the Zonta of Twenty, which tried and condemned the Doge.]

[fh] {443}He hath already granted his own guilt.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fi] He is a Sovereign and hath swayed the state.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[459] {445}[The accepted spelling is "aerie." The word is said to be derived from the Latin atrium. The form eyry, or eyrie, was introduced by Spelman (Gl. 1664) to countenance an erroneous derivation from the Saxon eghe, an egg. N. Eng. Dict., art. "aerie."]

[fj] Of his high aiery——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[460] [Vide Suetonius, De XII. Caesaribus, lib. iv. cap. 56, ed. 1691, p. 427. Angiolina might surely have omitted this particular instance of the avenging vigilance of "Great Nemesis."]

[461] {446}[The story is told in Plutarch's Alexander, cap. 38. Compare—

"And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy; Thais led the way, To light him to his prey, And like another Helen, fired another Troy."

Dryden's Alexanders Feast, vi. lines 25-28.]

[462] [Byron's imagination was prone to dwell on the "earthworm's slimy brood." Compare Childe Harold, Canto II. stanzas v., vi. Dallas (Recollections of Lord Byron, 1824, p. 124) once ventured to remind his noble connection "that although our senses make us acquainted with the chemical decomposition of our bodies," there were other and more hopeful considerations to be entertained. But Byron was obdurate, "and the worms crept in and the worms crept out" as unpleasantly as heretofore.]

[fk] ——you call your duty.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fl] {447} ——never heard of.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fm] For this almost——.—[MS. M.]

[463] ["Hic est locus Marini Falethri, decapitati pro criminibus." Even more impressive is the significant omission of the minutes of the trial from the pages of the State Register. "The fourth volume of the Misti Consiglio X. contains its decrees in the year 1355. On Friday, the 17th April in that year, Marin Falier was beheaded. In the usual course, the minutes of the trial should have been entered on the thirty-third page of that volume; but in their stead we find a blank space, and the words 'N SCBATUR:' 'Be it not written.'"—Calendar of State Papers ... in Venice, Preface by Rawdon Brown, 1864, i. xvii.]

[464] [Lines 500-507 were forwarded in a letter to Murray, dated Marzo, 1821 (Letters, 1901, v. 261). According to Moore's footnote, "These lines—perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them—were never inserted in the Tragedy." It is true that in some copies of the first edition of Marino Faliero (1821, p. 151) these lines do not appear; but in other copies of the first edition, in the second and other editions, they occur in their place. It is strange that Moore, writing in 1830, did not note the almost immediate insertion of these remarkable lines.]

[465] {448}[The Council of Ten decided that the possessions of Faliero should be confiscated; but the "Signoria," as an act of grace, and ob ducatus reverentiam, allowed him to dispose of 2000 "lire dei grossi" of his own. The same day, April 17, the Doge dictated his will to the notary Piero de Compostelli, leaving the 2000 lire to his wife Aluica.—La Congiura, p. 105.]

[fn] {449}Of the house of Rizzando Caminese.—[MS. M.]

[fo] Have I aught else to undergo ere Death?—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[466] {450}[The story as related by Sanudo is of doubtful authenticity, vide ante, p. 332, note 1.]

[fp] {451}Until he rolled beneath——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fq] A madness of the heart shall rise within.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[467] [Compare—

"I pull in resolution."

Macbeth, act v. sc. 5, line 42.]

[468] {452}[See the translation of Sanudo's narrative in Appendix, p. 463.]

[fr]

——whom I know To be as worthless as the dust they trample.—[MS. M. erased.]

[fs] {453}With unimpaired but not outrageous grief.—[Alternative reading, MS. M.]

[469] {454}[An anachronism, vide ante, p. 336.]

[ft] I am glad to be so——.—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[470] This was the actual reply of Bailli, maire of Paris, to a Frenchman who made him the same reproach on his way to execution, in the earliest part of their revolution. I find in reading over (since the completion of this tragedy), for the first time these six years, "Venice Preserved," a similar reply on a different occasion by Renault, and other coincidences arising from the subject. I need hardly remind the gentlest reader, that such coincidences must be accidental, from the very facility of their detection by reference to so popular a play on the stage and in the closet as Otway's chef-d'oeuvre.

["Still crueller was the fate of poor Bailly [Jean Sylvani, born September 17, 1736], First National President, First Mayor of Paris.... It is the 10th of November, 1793, a cold bitter drizzling rain, as poor Bailly is led through the streets.... Silent, unpitied, sits the innocent old man.... The Guillotine is taken down ... is carried to the riverside; is there set up again, with slow numbness; pulse after pulse still counting itself out in the old man's weary heart. For hours long; amid curses and bitter frost-rain! 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said one. 'Mon ami, it is for cold,' said Bailly, 'C'est de froid.' Crueller end had no mortal."—Carlyle's French Revolution, 1839, iii. 264.]

[fu] {455}Who makest and destroyest suns!—[MS. M. Vide letter of February 2, 1821.]

[471] {456}[In his reply to the envoys of the Venetian Senate (April, 1797), Buonaparte threatened to "prove an Attila to Venice. If you cannot," he added, "disarm your population, I will do it in your stead—your government is antiquated—it must crumble to pieces."—Scott's Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, 1828, p. 230. Compare, too, Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza xc. lines 1, 2—

"The fool of false dominion—and a kind Of bastard Caesar," etc.]

[472] Should the dramatic picture seem harsh, let the reader look to the historical of the period prophesied, or rather of the few years preceding that period. Voltaire calculated their "nostre bene merite Meretrici" at 12,000 of regulars, without including volunteers and local militia, on what authority I know not; but it is, perhaps, the only part of the population not decreased. Venice once contained two hundred thousand inhabitants: there are now about ninety thousand; and THESE!! few individuals can conceive, and none could describe, the actual state into which the more than infernal tyranny of Austria has plunged this unhappy city. From the present decay and degeneracy of Venice under the Barbarians, there are some honourable individual exceptions. There is Pasqualigo, the last, and, alas! posthumous son of the marriage of the Doges with the Adriatic, who fought his frigate with far greater gallantry than any of his French coadjutors in the memorable action off Lissa. I came home in the squadron with the prizes in 1811, and recollect to have heard Sir William Hoste, and the other officers engaged in that glorious conflict, speak in the highest terms of Pasqualigo's behaviour. There is the Abbate Morelli. There is Alvise Querini, who, after a long and honourable diplomatic career, finds some consolation for the wrongs of his country, in the pursuits of literature with his nephew, Vittor Benzon, the son of the celebrated beauty, the heroine of "La Biondina in Gondoleta." There are the patrician poet Morosini, and the poet Lamberti, the author of the "Biondina," etc., and many other estimable productions; and, not least in an Englishman's estimation, Madame Michelli, the translator of Shakspeare. There are the young Dandolo and the improvvisatore Carrer, and Giuseppe Albrizzi, the accomplished son of an accomplished mother. There is Aglietti, and were there nothing else, there is the immortality of Canova. Cicognara, Mustoxithi, Bucati, etc., etc., I do not reckon, because the one is a Greek, and the others were born at least a hundred miles off, which, throughout Italy, constitutes, if not a foreigner, at least a stranger (forestiere).

[This note is not in the MS. The first eight lines were included among the notes, and the remainder formed part of the Appendix in all editions 1821-1831.

Nicolo Pasqualigo (1770-1821) received the command of a ship in the Austrian Navy in 1800, and in 1805 was appointed Director of the Arsenal of Venice. He took part in both the Lissa expeditions, and was made prisoner after a prolonged resistance, March 13, 1811. (See Personaggi illustri delta Veneta patrizia gente, by E. A. Cicogna, 1822, p. 33. See, too, for Lissa, Poetical Works, 1900, iii. 25, note 3.)

The Abate Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819), known as Principe dei Bibliotecarj, became custodian of the Marciana Library in 1778, and devoted the whole of his long and laborious life to the service of literature. (For a list of his works, etc., see Tipaldo's Biografia, etc., 1835, ii. 481. See, too, Elogio di Jacopo Morelli, by A. Zendrini, Milano, 1822.)

Alvisi Querini, brother to Marina Querini Benzon, published in 1759 a poem entitled L'Ammiraglio dell' Indie. He wrote under a pseudonym, Ormildo Emeressio.

Vittore Benzon (d. 1822), whose mother, Marina, was celebrated by Anton Maria Lamberti (1757-1832) as La biondina in gondoleta (Poesie, 1817, i. 20), was the author of Nella, a love-poem, abounding in political allusions. (See Tipaldo, v. 122, and Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, I Suoi amici, by V. Malamani, 1882, pp. 119, 136.)

II Conte Domenico Morosini (see Letters, Venezia, 1829) was the author of two tragedies, Medea in Corinto and Giulio Sabino, published in 1806.

Giustina Renier Michiel (1755-1832) was niece to the last Doge, Lodovico Manin. Her salon was the centre of a brilliant circle of friends, including such names as Pindemonte, Foscolo, and Cesarotti. Her translation of Othello, Macbeth, and Coriolanus formed part of the Opere Drammatiche di Shakspeare, published in Venice in 1797. Her work, Origine delle Feste Veneziane, was published at Milan in 1829. (See G. R. Michiel, Archivio Veneto, tom. xxxviii. 1889.)

Luigi Carrer (1801-1856) began life as a lawyer, but afterwards devoted himself to poetry and literature. He was secretary of the Venetian Institute in 1842, and, later, Director of the Carrer Museum. (See Gio. Crespan, Della vita e delle lettere di Luigi Carrer, 1869.)

For Giuseppino Albrizzi (1800-1860), and for Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, Countess Albrizzi (? 1761-1836), see Letters, 1900, iv. 14, note 1; and for Francesco Aglietti (1757-1836), Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1835), and Andreas Moustoxudes (1787-1860), see Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 324, note 1.

The "younger Dandolo" may be Conte Girolamo Antonio Dandolo, author of Sui Quattro Cavalli, etc., published in 1817, and of La Caduta della Repubblica di Venezia, 1855. By "Bucati" may possibly be meant the satirist Pietro Buratti (1772-1832). (See Poesie Veneziane, by R. Barbiera, 1886, p. 209.)]

[fv] {457}

/ lazars Beggars for nobles, for a people!—[MS. M.] wretches /

[473] The chief palaces on the Brenta now belong to the Jews; who in the earlier times of the republic were only allowed to inhabit Mestri, and not to enter the city of Venice. The whole commerce is in the hands of the Jews and Greeks, and the Huns form the garrison.

[474] {458}[Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, May 3, 1805. Venice was ceded by Austria, December 26, 1805, and shortly after, Eugene Beauharnais was appointed Viceroy of Italy, with the title of Prince of Venice. It is certain that the "Vice-gerent" stands for Beauharnais, but it is less evident why Byron, doubtless quoting from Hamlet, calls Napoleon the "Vice of Kings." Did he mean a "player-king," one who not being a king acted the part, as the "vice" in the old moralities; or did he misunderstand Shakespeare, and seek to depreciate Beauharnais as the Viceroy of a Viceroy, that is Joseph Bonaparte?]

[fw] Vice without luxury——.—[Alternative reading, MS. M.]

[475] [Compare—

"When Vice walks forth with her unsoftened terrors."

Ode on Venice, line 34, vide ante, p. 194.]

[476] See Appendix, Note C.

[477] {459}If the Doge's prophecy seem remarkable, look to the following, made by Alamanni two hundred and seventy years ago;—"There is one very singular prophecy concerning Venice: 'If thou dost not change,' it says to that proud republic, 'thy liberty, which is already on the wing, will not reckon a century more than the thousandth year.' If we carry back the epocha of Venetian freedom to the establishment of the government under which the republic flourished, we shall find that the date of the election of the first Doge is 697: and if we add one century to a thousand, that is, eleven hundred years, we shall find the sense of the prediction to be literally this: 'Thy liberty will not last till 1797.' Recollect that Venice ceased to be free in the year 1796, the fifth year of the French republic; and you will perceive that there never was prediction more pointed, or more exactly followed by the event. You will, therefore, note as very remarkable the three lines of Alamanni addressed to Venice; which, however, no one has pointed out:—

"'Se non cangi pensier, l'un secol solo Non contera sopra 'l millesimo anno Tua liberta, che va fuggendo a volo.'

Sat., xii. ed. 1531, p. 413.

Many prophecies have passed for such, and many men have been called prophets for much less."—P. L. Ginguene, Hist. Lit. d'Italie, ix. 144 [Paris Edition, 1819].

[478] Of the first fifty Doges, five abdicated—five were banished with their eyes put out—five were massacred—and nine deposed; so that nineteen out of fifty lost the throne by violence, besides two who fell in battle: this occurred long previous to the reign of Marino Faliero. One of his more immediate predecessors, Andrea Dandolo, died of vexation. Marino Faliero himself perished as related. Amongst his successors, Foscari, after seeing his son repeatedly tortured and banished, was deposed, and died of breaking a blood-vessel, on hearing the bell of Saint Mark's toll for the election of his successor. Morosini was impeached for the loss of Candia; but this was previous to his dukedom, during which he conquered the Morea, and was styled the Peloponnesian. Faliero might truly say,—

"Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes!"

[fx] Thou brothel of the waters! thou sea Sodom!—[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[479] [See letters to Webster, September 8, 1818, and to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, Letters, 1900, iv. 255, 393.]

[480] {461} "Un Capo de' Dieci" are the words of Sanuto's Chronicle.

[fy]

The gory head is rolling down the steps! The head is rolling dawn the gory steps!—

[Alternative readings. MS. M.]

[481] [A picture in oils of the execution of Marino Faliero, by Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), which was exhibited in the Salon in 1827, is now in the Wallace Collection (Provisional Catalogue, 1900, p. 28).]

[482] [End of the Historical Tragedy of Marino Faliero, or the Doge of Venice.

Begun April 4th, 1820.

Completed July 16th, 1820.

Finished copying in August 16th, 17th, 1820.

The which copying takes ten times the toil of composing, considering the weather—thermometer 90 in the shade—and my domestic duties.

The motto is—

"Dux inquietae turbidus Adrirae."

Horace.]



APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

I am obliged for the following excellent translation of the old Chronicle to Mr. F. Cohen,[483] to whom the reader will find himself indebted for a version that I could not myself—though after many years' intercourse with Italian—have given by any means so purely and so faithfully.

Story of Marino Faliero, Doge XLIV. mcccliv.[483a]

On the eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1354, Marino Faliero was elected and chosen to be the Duke of the Commonwealth of Venice. He was Count of Valdemarino, in the Marches of Treviso, and a Knight, and a wealthy man to boot. As soon as the election was completed, it was resolved in the Great Council, that a deputation of twelve should be despatched to Marino Faliero the Duke, who was then on his way from Rome; for when he was chosen, he was ambassador at the court of the Holy Father, at Rome,—the Holy Father himself held his court at Avignon. When Messer Marino Faliero the Duke was about to land in this city, on the 5th day of October, 1354, a thick haze came on and darkened the air: and he was enforced to land on the place of Saint Mark, between the two columns, on the spot where evil doers are put to death; and all thought that this was the worst of tokens.—Nor must I forget to write that which I have read in a chronicle.—When Messer Marino Faliero was Podesta and Captain of Treviso, the Bishop delayed coming in with the holy sacrament, on a day when a procession was to take place. Now, the said Marino Faliero was so very proud and wrathful, that he buffeted the Bishop, and almost struck him to the ground: and, therefore, Heaven allowed Marino Faliero to go out of his right senses, in order that he might bring himself to an evil death.

When this Duke had held the dukedom during nine months and six days, he, being wicked and ambitious, sought to make himself Lord of Venice, in the manner which I have read in an ancient chronicle. When the Thursday arrived upon which they were wont to hunt the bull, the bull hunt took place as usual; and, according to the usage of those times, after the bull hunt had ended, they all proceeded unto the palace of the Duke, and assembled together in one of his halls; and they disported themselves with the women. And until the first bell tolled they danced, and then a banquet was served up. My Lord the Duke paid the expenses thereof, provided he had a Duchess, and after the banquet they all returned to their homes.

Now to this feast there came a certain Ser Michele Steno, a gentleman of poor estate and very young, but crafty and daring, and who loved one of the damsels of the Duchess. Ser Michele stood amongst the women upon the solajo; and he behaved indiscreetly, so that my Lord the Duke ordered that he should be kicked off the solajo [i.e. platform]; and the esquires of the Duke flung him down from the solajo accordingly. Ser Michele thought that such an affront was beyond all bearing; and when the feast was over, and all other persons had left the palace, he, continuing heated with anger, went to the hall of audience, and wrote certain unseemly words relating to the Duke and the Duchess upon the chair in which the Duke was used to sit; for in those days the Duke did not cover his chair with cloth of sendal, but he sat in a chair of wood. Ser Michele wrote thereon—"Marin Falier, the husband of the fair wife; others kiss her, but he keeps her."[484] In the morning the words were seen, and the matter was considered to be very scandalous; and the Senate commanded the Avogadori of the Commonwealth to proceed therein with the greatest diligence. A largess of great amount was immediately proffered by the Avogadori, in order to discover who had written these words. And at length it was known that Michele Steno had written them. It was resolved in the Council of Forty that he should be arrested; and he then confessed that in the fit of vexation and spite, occasioned by his being thrust off the solajo in the presence of his mistress, he had written the words. Therefore the Council debated thereon. And the Council took his youth into consideration, and that he was a lover; and therefore they adjudged that he should be kept in close confinement during two months, and that afterwards he should be banished from Venice and the state during one year. In consequence of this merciful sentence the Duke became exceedingly wroth, it appearing to him, that the Council had not acted in such a manner as was required by the respect due to his ducal dignity; and he said that they ought to have condemned Ser Michele to be hanged by the neck, or at least to be banished for life.

Now it was fated that my Lord Duke Marino was to have his head cut off. And as it is necessary when any effect is to be brought about, that the cause of such effect must happen, it therefore came to pass, that on the very day after sentence had been pronounced on Ser Michele Steno, being the first day of Lent, a gentleman of the house of Barbara, a choleric gentleman, went to the arsenal, and required certain things of the masters of the galleys. This he did in the presence of the Admiral of the arsenal, and he, bearing the request, answered, No, it cannot be done. High words arose between the gentleman and the Admiral, and the gentleman struck him with his fist just above the eye; and as he happened to have a ring on his finger, the ring cut the Admiral and drew blood. The Admiral, all bruised and bloody, ran straight to the Duke to complain, and with the intent of praying him to inflict some heavy punishment upon the gentleman of Ca Barbaro.—"What wouldst thou have me do for thee?" answered the Duke: "think upon the shameful gibe which hath been written concerning me; and think on the manner in which they have punished that ribald Michele Steno, who wrote it; and see how the Council of Forty respect our person."—Upon this the Admiral answered, "My Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a prince, and to cut all those cuckoldy gentlemen to pieces, I have the heart, if you do but help me, to make you prince of all this state; and then you may punish them all." Hearing this, the Duke said, "How can such a matter be brought about?"—and so they discoursed thereon.

The Duke called for his nephew, Ser Bertuccio Faliero, who lived with him in the palace, and they communed about this plot. And without leaving the place, they sent for Philip Calendaro, a seaman of great repute, and for Bertuccio Israello, who was exceedingly wily and cunning. Then taking counsel among themselves, they agreed to call in some others; and so, for several nights successively, they met with the Duke at home in his palace. And the following men were called in singly; to wit:—Niccolo Fagiuolo, Giovanni da Corfu, Stefano Fagiono, Niccolo dalle Bende, Niccolo Biondo, and Stefano Trivisano.—It was concerted that sixteen or seventeen leaders should be stationed in various parts of the city, each being at the head of forty men, armed and prepared; but the followers were not to know their destination. On the appointed day they were to make affrays amongst themselves here and there, in order that the Duke might have a pretence for tolling the bells of San Marco; these bells are never rung but by the order of the Duke. And at the sound of the bells, these sixteen or seventeen, with their followers, were to come to San Marco, through the streets which open upon the Piazza. And when the noble and leading citizens should come into the Piazza, to know the cause of the riot, then the conspirators were to cut them in pieces; and this work being finished, my Lord Marino Faliero the Duke was to be proclaimed the Lord of Venice. Things having been thus settled, they agreed to fulfil their intent on Wednesday, the 15th day of April, in the year 1355. So covertly did they plot, that no one ever dreamt of their machinations.

But the Lord, who hath always helped this most glorious city, and who, loving its righteousness and holiness, hath never forsaken it, inspired one Beltramo Bergamasco to be the cause of bringing the plot to light, in the following manner. This Beltramo, who belonged to Ser Niccolo Lioni of Santo Stefano, had heard a word or two of what was to take place; and so, in the above-mentioned month of April, he went to the house of the aforesaid Ser Niccolo Lioni, and told him all the particulars of the plot. Ser Niccolo, when he heard all these things, was struck dead, as it were, with affright. He heard all the particulars; and Beltramo prayed him to keep it all secret; and if he told Ser Niccolo, it was in order that Ser Niccolo might stop at home on the 15th of April, and thus save his life. Beltramo was going, but Ser Niccolo ordered his servants to lay hands upon him, and lock him up. Ser Niccolo then went to the house of Messer Giovanni Gradenigo Nasoni, who afterwards became Duke, and who also lived at Santo Stefano, and told him all. The matter seemed to him to be of the very greatest importance, as indeed it was; and they two went to the house of Ser Marco Cornaro, who lived at San Felice; and, having spoken with him, they all three then determined to go back to the house of Ser Niccolo Lioni, to examine the said Beltramo; and having questioned him, and heard all that he had to say, they left him in confinement. And then they all three went into the sacristy of San Salvatore, and sent their men to summon the Councillors, the Avogadori, the Capi de' Dieci, and those of the Great Council.

When all were assembled, the whole story was told to them. They were struck dead, as it were, with affright. They determined to send for Beltramo. He was brought in before them. They examined him, and ascertained that the matter was true; and, although they were exceedingly troubled, yet they determined upon their measures. And they sent for the Capi de' Quarante, the Signori di Notte, the Capi de' Sestieri, and the Cinque della Pace; and they were ordered to associate to their men other good men and true, who were to proceed to the houses of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, and secure them. And they secured the foreman of the arsenal, in order that the conspirators might not do mischief. Towards nightfall they assembled in the palace. When they were assembled in the palace, they caused the gates of the quadrangle of the palace to be shut. And they sent to the keeper of the Bell-tower, and forbade the tolling of the bells. All this was carried into effect. The before-mentioned conspirators were secured, and they were brought to the palace; and, as the Council of Ten saw that the Duke was in the plot, they resolved that twenty of the leading men of the state should be associated to them, for the purpose of consultation and deliberation, but that they should not be allowed to ballot.

The counsellors were the following:—Ser Giovanni Mocenigo, of the Sestiero of San Marco; Ser Almoro Veniero da Santa Marina, of the Sestiero of Castello; Ser Tomaso Viadro, of the Sestiero of Canaregio; Ser Giovanni Sanudo, of the Sestiero of Santa Croce; Ser Pietro Trivisano, of the Sestiero of San Paolo; Ser Pantalione Barbo il Grando, of the Sestiero of Ossoduro. The Avogadori of the Commonwealth were Zufredo Morosini, and Ser Orio Pasqualigo; and these did not ballot. Those of the Council of Ten were Ser Giovanni Marcello, Ser Tomaso Sanudo, and Ser Micheletto Dolfino, the heads of the aforesaid Council of Ten. Ser Luca da Legge, and Ser Pietro da Mosto, inquisitors of the aforesaid Council. And Ser Marco Polani, Ser Marino Veniero, Ser Lando Lombardo, and Ser Nicoletto Trivisano, of Sant' Angelo.

Late in the night, just before the dawning, they chose a junta of twenty noblemen of Venice from amongst the wisest, and the worthiest, and the oldest. They were to give counsel, but not to ballot. And they would not admit any one of Ca Faliero. And Niccolo Faliero, and another Niccolo Faliero, of San Tomaso, were expelled from the Council, because they belonged to the family of the Doge. And this resolution of creating the junta of twenty was much praised throughout the state. The following were the members of the junta of twenty:—Ser Marco Giustiniani, Procuratore, Ser Andrea Erizzo, Procuratore, Ser Lionardo Giustiniani, Procuratore, Ser Andrea Contarini, Ser Simone Dandolo, Ser Niccolo Volpe, Ser Giovanni Loredano, Ser Marco Diedo, Ser Giovanni Gradenigo, Ser Andrea Cornaro Cavaliere, Ser Marco Soranzo, Ser Rinieri du Mosto, Ser Gazano Marcello, Ser Marino Morosini, Ser Stefano Belegno, Ser Niccolo Lioni, Ser Filippo Orio, Ser Marco Trivisano, Ser Jacopo Bragadino, Ser Giovanni Foscarini.

These twenty were accordingly called in to the Council of Ten; and they sent for my Lord Marino Faliero, the Duke: and my Lord Marino was then consorting in the palace with people of great estate, gentlemen, and other good men, none of whom knew yet how the fact stood.

At the same time Bertuccio Israello, who, as one of the ringleaders, was to head the conspirators in Santa Croce, was arrested and bound, and brought before the Council. Zanello del Brin, Nicoletto di Rosa, Nicoletto Alberto, and the Guardiaga, were also taken, together with several seamen, and people of various ranks. These were examined, and the truth of the plot was ascertained.

On the 16th of April judgment was given in the Council of Ten, that Filippo Calendaro and Bertuccio Israello should be hanged upon the red pillars of the balcony of the palace, from which the Duke is wont to look at the bull hunt: and they were hanged with gags in their mouths.

The next day the following were condemned:—Niccolo Zuccuolo, Nicoletto Blondo, Nicoletto Doro, Marco Giuda, Jacomello Dagolino, Nicoletto Fidele, the son of Filippo Calendaro, Marco Torello, called Israello, Stefano Trivisano, the money-changer of Santa Margherita, and Antonio dalle Bende. These were all taken at Chiozza, for they were endeavouring to escape. Afterwards, by virtue of the sentence which was passed upon them in the Council of Ten, they were hanged on successive days; some singly and some in couples, upon the columns of the palace, beginning from the red columns, and so going onwards towards the canal. And other prisoners were discharged, because, although they had been involved in the conspiracy, yet they had not assisted in it; for they were given to understand by some of the heads of the plot, that they were to come armed and prepared for the service of the state, and in order to secure certain criminals; and they knew nothing else. Nicoletto Alberto, the Guardiaga, and Bartolommeo Ciricolo and his son, and several others, who were not guilty, were discharged.

On Friday, the 16th day of April, judgment was also given in the aforesaid Council of Ten, that my Lord Marino Faliero, the Duke, should have his head cut off; and that the execution should be done on the landing-place of the stone staircase, where the Dukes take their oath when they first enter the palace. On the following day, the 17th of April, the doors of the palace being shut, the Duke had his head cut off, about the hour of noon. And the cap of estate was taken from the Duke's head before he came down stairs. When the execution was over, it is said that one of the Council of Ten went to the columns of the palace over against the place of St. Mark, and that he showed the bloody sword unto the people, crying out with a loud voice—"The terrible doom hath fallen upon the traitor!"—and the doors were opened, and the people all rushed in, to see the corpse of the Duke, who had been beheaded.

It must be known that Ser Giovanni Sanudo, the councillor, was not present when the aforesaid sentence was pronounced; because he was unwell and remained at home. So that only fourteen balloted; that is to say, five councillors, and nine of the Council of Ten. And it was adjudged, that all the lands and chattels of the Duke, as well as of the other traitors, should be forfeited to the state. And as a grace to the Duke, it was resolved in the Council of Ten, that he should be allowed to dispose of two thousand ducats out of his own property. And it was resolved, that all the councillors and all the Avogadori of the Commonwealth, those of the Council of Ten, and the members of the junta, who had assisted in passing sentence on the Duke and the other traitors, should have the privilege of carrying arms both by day and by night in Venice, and from Grado to Cavazere. And they were also to be allowed two footmen carrying arms, the aforesaid footmen living and boarding with them in their own houses. And he who did not keep two footmen might transfer the privilege to his sons or his brothers; but only to two. Permission of carrying arms was also granted to the four Notaries of the Chancery, that is to say, of the Supreme Court, who took the depositions; and they were, Amedio, Nicoletto di Lorino, Steffanello, and Pietro de Compostelli, the secretaries of the Signori di Notte.

After the traitors had been hanged, and the Duke had had his head cut off, the state remained in great tranquillity and peace. And, as I have read in a Chronicle, the corpse of the Duke was removed in a barge, with eight torches, to his tomb in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo, where it was buried. The tomb is now in that aisle in the middle of the little church of Santa Maria della Pace which was built by Bishop Gabriel of Bergamo. It is a coffin of stone, with these words engraven thereon: "Heic jacet Dominus Marinus Faletro Dux."—And they did not paint his portrait in the hall of the Great Council:—but in the place where it ought to have been, you see these words:—"Hic est locus Marini Faletro, decapitati pro criminibus."—And it is thought that his house was granted to the church of Sant' Apostolo; it was that great one near the bridge. Yet this could not be the case, or else the family bought it back from the church; for it still belongs to Ca Faliero. I must not refrain from noting, that some wished to write the following words in the place where his portrait ought to have been, as aforesaid:—"Marinus Faletro Dux, temeritas me cepit. Paenas lui, decapitatus pro criminibus."—Others, also, indited a couplet, worthy of being inscribed upon his tomb.

"Dux Venetum jacet heic, patriam qui prodere tentans, Sceptra, decus, censum perdidit, atque caput."

NOTE B.

Petrarch on the Conspiracy of Marino Faliero.[485]

"Al giovane doge Andrea Dandolo succedette un vecchio, il quale tardi si pose al timone della repubblica, ma sempre prima di quel, che facea d' uopo a lui ed alia patria: egli e Marino Faliero, personaggio a me noto per antica dimestichezza. Falsa era l' opinione intorno a lui, giacche egli si mostro fornito piu di coraggio, che di senno. Non pago della prima dignita, entro con sinistro piede nel pubblico Palazzo: imperciocche questo doge dei Veneti, magistrato sacro in tutti i secoli, che dagli antichi fu sempre venerato qual nume in quella citta, l' altr'jeri fu decollato nel vestibolo dell' istesso Palazzo. Discorrerei fin dal principio le cause di un tale evento, se cosi vario, ed ambiguo non ne fosse il grido: nessuno pero lo scusa, tutti affermano, che egli abbia voluto cangiar qualche cosa nell' ordine della repubblica a lui tramandato dai maggiori. Che desiderava egli di piu? Io son d' avviso, che egli abbia ottenuto cio, che non si concedette a nessun altro: mentre adempiva gli uffici di legato presso il Pontefice, e sulle rive del Rodano trattava la pace, che io prima di lui avevo indarno tentato di conchiudere, gli fu conferito l' onore del ducato, che ne chiedeva, ne s' aspettava. Tornato in patria, penso a quello, cui nessuno non pose mente giammai, e soffri quello, che a niuno accadde mai di soffrire: giacche in quel luogo celeberrimo, e chiarissimo, e bellissimo infra tutti quelli, che io vidi, ove i suoi antenati avevano ricevuti grandissimi onori in mezzo alle pompe trionfali, ivi egli fu trascinato in modo servile, e spogliato delle insegne ducali, perdette la testa, e macchio col proprio sangue le soglie del tempio, l' atrio del Palazzo, e le scale marmoree endute spesse volte illustri o dalle solenni festivita, o dalle ostili spoglie. Ho notato il luogo, ora noto il tempo: e l' anno del Natale di Cristo, 1355, fu il giorno diciotto aprile si alto e il grido sparso, che se alcuno esaminera la disciplina, e le costumanze di quella citta, e quanto mutamento di cose venga minacciato dalla morte di un solo uomo (quantunque molti altri, come narrano, essendo complici, o subirono l' istesso supplicio, o lo aspettano) si accorgera, che nulla di piu grande avvenne ai nostri tempi nella Italia. Tu forse qui attendi il mio giudizio: assolvo il popolo, se credere si dee alia fama, benche abbia potuto e castigate piu mitemente, e con maggior dolcezza vendicare il suo dolore: ma non cosi facilmente, si modera un' ira giusta insieme, e grande in un numeroso popolo principalmente, nel quale il precipitoso, ed instabile volgo aguzza gli stimoli dell' iracondia con rapidi, e sconsigliati clamori. Compatisco, e nell' istesso tempo mi adiro con quell' infelice uomo, il quale adorno di un' insolito onore, non so, che cosa si volesse negli estremi anni della sua vita: la calamita di lui diviene sempre piu grave, perche dalla sentenza contra di esso promulgata apparira, che egli fu non solo misero, ma insano, e demente, e che con vane arti si usurpo per tanti anni una falsa fama di sapienza. Ammonisco i dogi, i quali gli succederanno, che questo e un' esempio posto innanzi ai loro occhi, quale specchio, nel quale veggano d' essere non signori, ma duci, anzi nemmeno duci, ma onorati servi della Repubblica. Tu sta sano; e giacche fluttuano le pubbliche cose, sforziamoci di governar modestissimamente i privati nostri affari."—Viaggi di Francesco Petrarca, descritti dal Professore Ambrogio Levati, Milano, 1820, iv. 323-325.

The above Italian translation from the Latin epistles of Petrarch proves—1stly, That Marino Faliero was a personal friend of Petrarch's; "antica dimestichezza," old intimacy, is the phrase of the poet. 2dly, That Petrarch thought that he had more courage than conduct, "piu di coraggio che di senno." 3dly, That there was some jealousy on the part of Petrarch; for he says that Marino Faliero was treating of the peace which he himself had "vainly attempted to conclude." 4thly, That the honour of the Dukedom was conferred upon him, which he neither sought nor expected, "che ne chiedeva, ne aspettava," and which had never been granted to any other in like circumstances, "cio che non si concedette a nessun altro," a proof of the high esteem in which he must have been held. 5thly, That he had a reputation for wisdom, only forfeited by the last enterprise of his life, "si usurpo per tanti anni una falsa fama di sapienza."—"He had usurped for so many years a false fame of wisdom," rather a difficult task, I should think. People are generally found out before eighty years of age, at least in a republic.—From these, and the other historical notes which I have collected, it may be inferred, that Marino Faliero possessed many of the qualities, but not the success of a hero; and that his passions were too violent. The paltry and ignorant account of Dr. Moore falls to the ground. Petrarch says, "that there had been no greater event in his times" (our times literally), "nostri tempi," in Italy. He also differs from the historian in saying that Faliero was "on the banks of the Rhone," instead of at Rome, when elected; the other accounts say, that the deputation of the Venetian senate met him at Ravenna. How this may have been, it is not for me to decide, and is of no great importance. Had the man succeeded, he would have changed the face of Venice, and perhaps of Italy. As it is, what are they both?



NOTE C.

Venetian Society and Manners.

"Vice without splendour, sin without relief Even from the gloss of love to smooth it o'er; But in its stead, coarse lusts of habitude," etc.

"To these attacks so frequently pointed by the government against the clergy,—to the continual struggles between the different constituted bodies,—to these enterprises carried on by the mass of the nobles against the depositaries of power,—to all those projects of innovation, which always ended by a stroke of state policy; we must add a cause not less fitted to spread contempt for ancient doctrines; this was the excess of corruption.

"That freedom of manners, which had been long boasted of as the principal charm of Venetian society, had degenerated into scandalous licentiousness: the tie of marriage was less sacred in that Catholic country, than among those nations where the laws and religion admit of its being dissolved. Because they could not break the contract, they feigned that it had not existed; and the ground of nullity, immodestly alleged by the married pair, was admitted with equal facility by priests and magistrates, alike corrupt. These divorces, veiled under another name, became so frequent, that the most important act of civil society was discovered to be amenable to a tribunal of exceptions; and to restrain the open scandal of such proceedings became the office of the police. In 1782 the Council of Ten decreed, that every woman who should sue for a dissolution of her marriage should be compelled to await the decision of the judges in some convent, to be named by the court.[486] Soon afterwards the same council summoned all causes of that nature before itself.[487] This infringement on ecclesiastical jurisdiction having occasioned some remonstrance from Rome, the council retained only the right of rejecting the petition of the married persons, and consented to refer such causes to the holy office as it should not previously have rejected.[488]

"There was a moment in which, doubtless, the destruction of private fortunes, the ruin of youth, the domestic discord occasioned by these abuses, determined the government to depart from its established maxims concerning the freedom of manners allowed the subject. All the courtesans were banished from Venice; but their absence was not enough to reclaim and bring back good morals to a whole people brought up in the most scandalous licentiousness. Depravity reached the very bosoms of private families, and even into the cloister; and they found themselves obliged to recall, and even to indemnify,[489] women who sometimes gained possession of important secrets, and who might be usefully employed in the ruin of men whose fortunes might have rendered them dangerous. Since that time licentiousness has gone on increasing; and we have seen mothers, not only selling the innocence of their daughters, but selling it by a contract, authenticated by the signature of a public officer, and the performance of which was secured by the protection of the laws.[490]