The Romance of Biography (Vol 2 of 2)

RIA C

s the wife of that Marquis of Pescara, who has earned himself a name in the busiest and bloodiest page of history:-of that Pescara who commanded the armies of Charles the Fifth in Italy, and won the battle of Pavia, where Francis the First was taken prisoner. But great as was Pescara as a statesman and a military commander, he is far more interesting as the husband of Vittoria Colonna, and the laurels he reape

, di che il mi

que, di cui p

lcro, e fa ch

isia, for a reason rath

An

quanto è più as

rra un uom, t

e compares her successively to all the famed heroines of Greece and Rome,-to Laodamia, to

a Vittoria

e del Rio c

da, ha tratto

e parche, e d

earning, reckoned sixty poetesses, nearly contemporary, there was not one to be compared with Vittoria Colonna,-herself the theme of song; and upon whom her enthusiastic countrymen have lavished all the high-sounding superlatives of a language, so rich

ch heaven, and nature, and fortune combined, ever lavished on one of her sex, paid for her celebrity with her happine

endship which existed between her own family and that of d'Avalo, by a union with the young Count d'Avalo, afterwards Marquis of Pescara, who was exactly her own age. Such infant marriages are contracted at a fearful risk; yet, if auspiciou

me era

sier più

rywomen, and sought even by sovereign princes. The Duke of Savoy and the Duke of Braganza made overtures to obtain her hand; the Pope himself interfered in behalf of one of these princes; but both were rejected. Vittoria, accustomed to consider herself

gli spirti

r proscrisse ogn

were precisely calculated to impress her poetical imagination, as contrasted with her own gentler and more contemplative character. He loved her too with the most enth

as poets fancy and romancers feign. Hence the frequent allusions to the island of Ischia, in Vittoria's later poems, as a spot beloved by her husband, and the scene of their youthful happiness. One thing alone was wanting to complete this happiness: Heaven denied them children

own hand, in silken characters, the motto, "Nunquam minus otiosus quam cum otiosus erat."[29] She also presented him with some branches of palm, "In segno di felice augurio;" but her bright anticipations were at first cruelly disappointed. Pescara, then in his twenty-second year, commanded as general of cavalry at the battle of Ravenna, where he was taken prisoner, and detained at Milan. While

the island of Ischia, devoting her time to literature, and to the composition of those beautiful Sonnets in which she celebrated the exploits and virtues of her husband. He, whenever his military or political duties allowed of a short absence from the theatre of war, flew to rejoin her; and these short and delicious meetings, and the

mio bel sol

lie carco, e

nto dolor, l

v' ei mi fea

ie allor cint

o, alla più

e opre udit

o, il parlar

eghi miei, p

trici, e 'l t

ie sue tante

or mi da, gi

in quel pensier

ci, e assai l

;-of his yielding, half reluctant, to her tender entreaties, and showing her the wounds he had received in battle;-then the bitter thoughts of his dang

im if he would detach himself from the party of Charles the Fifth. Pescara was not without ambition, though without "the ill that should attend it." He wavered-he consulted his wife;-he expressed his wish to place her on a throne she was so fitted to adorn. That admirable and high-minded woman wrote to confirm him in the path of honour, and bes

he did not escape without some impeachment of his before stainless honour. The bitter consciousness of this, and the effects of some desper

way; and being brought a little to herself, sank into a stupor of grief, which alarmed her attendants for her reason or her life. Seasonable tears at length came to her relief; but her sorrow, for a long, long time, a

and remonstrances, with a mixture of dignity and tenderness, that "Though her noble husband might be by others reputed dead, he still lived to her, and to her heart."[32] And in one of her poems, she alludes to these attempts to shake her constancy. "

e piangendo n

di fedele i

ra ogn' altro

la fè,-ne q

l piacque, ov

già, quest'

sewhere, that her heart having once been so nobly bestowed, disdains a me

l fiamma amo

penta, in me

same day and hour: such a fate appeared to her worthy of envy; and she laments very tenderly that Heaven had doomed her to survive him with whom

r sfogar l' i

l' ardor, l'

ciascun; che '

mpo, ne raggi

from thy seat of glory! look down upon me with those eyes that ever turned with tenderness on mine! Behold, how misery has changed me; how all that once was beauty is fled!-and yet I am-I am the same!"-(Io son-io son ben dessa!)-B

nature of her grief, took a strong devotional turn: and from this

t rather nourished and kept alive in all its first poignancy, by constantly dwelling on the theme of his virtues and her own regrets; that the thirst of fame,

casto amor, gr

ma accesa, ed

per cui dolen

or, onde il r

...*..

on convien Pa

cqua s' aspira

piede uman p

i divino spirito era inamorato:" and he makes use of a strong expression to describe the admiration and friendship she felt for him in return. She was fifteen years younger than Michel Angelo, who not only employed his pencil and h

el Angelo to the Marchesana of Pescara, as translated by Wordsworth, in a peal of grand

NN

ith my strong d

ndeluded,

affections n

en, then, wheref

ch we inhabit

ve, than that

t eternal pe

vinity to t

makes pure al

eacherous only

which is vary

earts, uninfluen

, there blooms a

on earth the a

her hand and kissed it with a sacred respect. He afterwards expressed to an intimate friend his regret, that being

abria, and an excellent poet of that time.[37] His attachment was as poetical, but appa

pietra

bella C

ned than the modest and grave Vitto

io da che si

esse altri c

te-e mai non

o were also numbered amo

r noble birth, her admirable beauty, her illustrious marriage, her splendid genius, (which made her the worship of genius-and the theme of poets,) have rendered her

she fix on m

er thought

e woman's hea

the poet'

or an Arria. How much more graceful, and even more sublime, is the moral strength, the silent enduring heroism of the Christian, than the

i vittoria un

expressed nearly

s to conqu

TNO

do Furioso

less idle th

e non solamente in guerra con valor, ma ancora in pace con la magnanimità ha sa

an account of the generous conduct

agli altri fosse riputato morte, a

Isc

Sonne

menti Lirici

de po?sies sacrées, appartient, toute entière, à Vittoria Colonna. (See Ginguené.) He

etti al gran b

the

terno de

ay be found in Mathias

Died

Mrs.