moments of complacency and suspense, preferred the sum mons of the metropolis of the world.

The ceremony of his coronation 13 was performed in the Capitol, by his friend and patron the supreme magistrate of the republic. Twelve patrician youths were arrayed in scar'et six representatives of the most illustrious families, in green robes, with garlands of flowers, accompanied the procession; in the midst of the princes and nobles, the senator, count of Anguillara, a kinsman of the Colonna, assumed his throne and at the voice of a herald Petrarch arose. After discoursing on a text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his vows for the prosperity of Rome, he knelt before the throne, and received from the senator a laurel crown, with a more precious declaration, "This is the reward of merit." The people shouted, "Long life to the Capitol and the poet!" A sonnet in praise of Rome was accepted as the effusion of genius and gratitude; and after the whole procession had visited the Vat ican, the profane wreath was suspended before the shrine of St. Peter. In the act or diploma 14 which was presented to Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of poet-laureate are revived in the Capitol, after the lapse of thirteen hundred years; and he receives the perpetual privilege of wearing, at his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle, of assuming the poetic habit, and of teaching, disputing, interpreting, and composing, in all places whatsoever, and on all subjects of literature. The grant was ratified by the authority of the senate and people; and the character of citizen was the recompense of his affection for the Roman name. They did him honor, but they did him justice. In the familiar society of Cicero and Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot; and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a sentiment, and every sentiment to a passion. The aspect of the seven hills and their majestic ruins confirmed these lively impressions; and he loved a country by whose liberal spirit he had been crowned and adopted. The poverty and debasement of Rome excited the indignation and pity of her grateful son; he dissembled the

13 The whole process of Petrarch's coronation is accurately described by the abbé de Sade, (tom. i. p. 425-435, tom. ii. p, 1-6, notes, p. --13,) from his own writings, and the Roman diary of Ludovico Monaldeschi, without mixing in this authentic narrative the more recent fables of Sannuccio Delbene.

14 The original act is printed among the Pieces Justificatives in the Mémoires sur Pétrarque, tom. iii. p. 50-53.

faults of his fellow-citizens; applauded with partial fondness the last of their heroes and matrons; and in the remembrance of the past, in the hopes of the future, was pleased to forget the miseries of the present time. Rome was still the lawful mistress of the world: the pope and the emperor, the bishop and general, had abdicated their station by an inglorious re-u treat to the Rhône and the Danube; but if she could resume her virtue, the republic might again vindicate her liberty and dominion. Amidst the indulgence of enthusiasm and eloquence,15 Petrarch, Italy, and Europe, were astonished by a revolution which realized for a moment his most splendid visions. The rise and fall of the tribune Rienzi will occupy the following pages: 16 the subject is interesting, the materials are rich, and the glance of a patriot bard 17 will sometimes vivify the copious, but simple, narrative of the Florentine 18 and more especially of the Roman,19 historian. arier bus amit In a quarter of the city which was inhabited only by me bibialya bus Seth edi

15 To find the proofs of his enthusiasm for Rome, I need only request that the reader would open, by chance, either Petrarch, or his French biographer. The latter has described the poet's first visit to Rome, (tom. i. p. 323-335.) But in the place of much idle rhetoric si and morality, Petrarch might have amused the present and future age with an original account of the city and his coronation, youlal soolay eno 16 It has been treated by the pen of a Jesuit, the P. de Cerceau, whose posthumous work (Conjuration de Nicolas & Gabrini, dit de Rienzi, Tyran de Rome, en 1347) was published at Paris, 1748, in 12mo. I am indebted to him for some facts and documents in Johns Hocsemius, canon of Liege, a contemporary historian, (Fabricius, Bibliot. Lat. Med. Ævi, tom. iii. p. 273, tom. iv. p. 85.)ond dieup arous 17 The abbé de Sade, who so freely expatiates on the history of the kivth century, might treat, as his proper subject, a revolution in which the heart of Petrarch was so deeply engaged, (Mémoires, tom. ii. p. s, p. 70-76, tom. iii. p. 221-243, 366-375.) tan ide17 notes. or a fact in the writings of Petrarch has probably escaped wolói work aresto! 97s edgemooh seeds to instogmi Jaoun 18 Giovanni Villani, 1. xii. c. 89, 104, in Mui atori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, tom. xiii. p. 969, 970, 981-983. dw ant odal 19309 yada

50,

him.

19 In his third volume of Italian Antiquities, (p. 249-518,) Muratori las inserted the Fragmenta Historiæ Romanæ ab Anno 1327, usque ad Annum 1354, in the original dialect of Rome or Naples in the xivth century, and a Latin version for the benefit of strangers. It contains the most particular and authentic life of Cola (Nicholas) di Rienzi; which had been printed at Bracciano, 1627, in 4to., under the name of Tomaso Fortifiocca, who is only mentioned in this work as having been punished by the tribune for forgery. Human nature is de scarcely capable of such sublime or stupid impartiality; but whoso, ever is the author of these Fragments, he wrote on the spot and at the

chanics and Jews, the marriage of an innkeeper and a usnerwoman produced the future deliverer of Rome.20 † Froin such parents Nicholas Rienzi Gabrini could inherit neither dignity nor fortune; and the gift of a liberal education, which they painfully bestowed, was the cause of his glory and untimely end. The study of history and eloquence, the writings of Cicero, Seneca, Livy, Cæsar, and Valerius Maximus, elevated above his equals and contemporaries the ger ius of the young plebeian: he perused with indefatigable diligence the manuscripts and marbles of antiquity; lavede to dispense his knowledge in familiar language: and was often provoked to exclaim, "Where are now these Romans? their virtue, their justice, their power? why was I not born in those happy times? " 21 When the republic ad

time, and paints, without design or art, the manners of Rome and the character of the tribune.*

20 The first and splendid period of Rienzi, his tribunitian govern. ment, is contained in the xviiith chapter of the Fragments, (p. 399– 479,) which, in the new division, forms the iid book of the history in xxxviii. smaller chapters or sections

"The reader may be pleased with a specimen of the original idiom: Fò da soa juventutine nutricato di latte de eloquentia, bono gramatico, megliore rettuorico, autorista bravo. Deh como et quanto era veloce leitore! moito usava Tito Livio, Seneca, et Tullio, et Balerio Massimo, moito li dilettava le magnificentie di Julio Cesare raccontare. Tutta la die se speculava negl' intagli di marmo lequalı iaccio intorno Roma. Non era altri che esso, che sapesse lejere li antichi pataffii. Tutte scritture antiche vulgarizzava; quesse fiure di marmo justamente interpretava. Oh come spesso diceva,“ Dove suono quelli buoni Romani? dove ene loro somma justitia ? poleramme trovare in tempo che quessi fiuriano!

Since the publication of my first edition of Gibbon, some new and very remarkable documents have been brought to light in a life of Nicolas Rienzi, Cola di Rienzo und seine Zeit, by Dr. Felix Papencordt. The most important of these documents are letters from Rienzi to Charles the Fourth, emperor and king of Bohemia, and to the archbishop of Prague; they enter into the whole history of his adventurous career during its first period, and throw a strong light upon his extraordinary character. These documents were first discovered and made use of, to a certain extent, by Pelzel, the historian of Bohemia. The originals have disappeared, but a copy made by Pelzel for his own use is now in the library of Count Thun at Teschen. There seems no doubt of their authenticity. Dr. Papencordt has printed the whole in his Urkunden, with the exception of one long theological paper. M. 1845.

Shis

But see in Dr. Papencordt's work, and in Rienzi's own words, ciaims to be a bastard son of the emperor Henry the Seventh, whose intrigue with his mother Rienzi relates with a sort of proud shamelessness, Compare account by the editor of Dr. Papenoordt's work in Quarterly Re riew, vol. Ixix.-M. 1845.

dressed to the throne of Avignon an embassy of the three orders, the spirit and eloquence of Rienzi recommended him to a place among the thirteen deputies of the commons. The orator had the honor of haranguing Pope Clement the Sixth, and the satisfaction of conversing with Petrarch, a congenial mind: but his aspiring hopes were chilled by disgrace and poverty; and the patriot was reduced to a single garment and the charity of the hospital.* From this misery he was relieved by the sense of merit or the smile of favor; and the employment of apostolic notary afforded him a daily stipend of five gold florins, a more honorable and extensive connection, and the right of contrasting, both in words and actions, his own integrity with the vices of the state. The eloquence of Rienzi was prompt and persuasive: the multitude is always prone to envy and censure: he was stimulated by the loss of a brother and the impunny of the assassins; nor was it possible to excuse or exaggerate the public calamities. The bless ings of peace and justice, for which civil society has been instituted, were banished from Rome: the jealous citizens, who might have endured every personal or pecuniary injury, were most deeply wounded in the dishonor of their wives and daughters: 22 they were equally oppressed by the arrogance of the nobles and the corruption of the magistrates; † and the abuse of arms or of laws was the only circumstance that distinguished the lions from the dogs and serpents of the Capitol. These allegorical emblems were variously repeated in the pictures which Rienzi exhibited in the streets and churches; and while the spectators gazed with curious wonder, the bold and ready orator unfolded the meaning, applied the satire, inflamed their passions, and announced a distant hope of comfort and deliverance. The privileges of Rome, her eternal sovereignty over her princes and provinces, was the theme of his public and private discourse; and a monu

2 Petrarch compares the jealousy of the Romans with the easy temper of the husbands of Avignon, (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 330.)

Sir J. Hobhouse published (in his Illustrations of Childe Ha:old) Rienzi's joyful letter to the people of Rome, on the apparently favorable termination of this mission. ➡ M. 1845.

All this Rienzi, writing at a later period to the archbishop of Prague, attributed to the criminal abandonment of his flock by the supreme ponliff. See Urkunde apud Papencordt, p. xliv. Quarterly Review, p. 355

- -M 1845.

ment of servit ide became in his hands a title and incentive of liberty. The decree of the senate, which granted the most ample prerogatives to the emperor Vespasian, had beer inscribed on a copper plate still extant in the choir of the church of St. John Lateran.23 A numerous assembly of nobles and plebeians was invited to this political lecture, ana a convenient theatre was erected for their reception. The notary appeared in a magnificent and mysterious habit, explained the inscription by a version and commentary,24 and descanted with eloquence and zeal on the ancient glories of the senate and people, from whom all legal authority was derived. The supine ignorance of the nobles was incapablo of discerning the serious tendency of such representations : they might sometimes chastise with words and blows the plebeian reformer; but he was often suffered in the Colonna palace to amuse the company with his threats and predic tions; and the modern Brutus 25 was concealed under the mask of folly and the character of a buffoon. While they indulged their contempt, the restoration of the good estate his favorite expression, was entertained among the people as a desirable, a possible, and at length as an approaching, event; and while all had the disposition to applaud, some had the courage to assist, their promised deliverer.

10A prophecy, or rather a summons, affixed on the church

23 The fragments of the Lex regia may be found in the Inscriptions of Gruter, tom. i. p. 242, and at the end of the Tacitus of Ernesti, with some learned notes of the editor, tom. ii.

24 I cannot overlook a stupendous and laughable blunder of Rienzi. The Lex regia empowers Vespasian to enlarge the Pomorium, a word familiar to every antiquary. It was not so to the tribune; he confounds it with pomarium, an orchard, translates lo Jardine de Roma cioene Italia, and is copied by the less excusable ignorance of the Latin translator (p. 406) and the French historian, (p. 33.) Even the learning of Muratori has slumbered over the passage.

Priori (Bruto) tamen similior, juvenis uterque, longe ingenio quam cujus simulationem induerat, ut sub hoc obtentu liberator ille P. R. aperiretur tempore suo Ille regibus, hic tyrannis contemptus, (Opp. p. 536.)*

Fateor attamen quod -nunc fatuum, nunc hystrionem, nunc gravem, nunc simplicem, nunc astutum, nunc fervidum, nunc timidum simulatorem, et dissimulatorem ad hunc caritativum finem, quem dixi, constitui sepius memet ipsum. Writing to an archbishop, (of Prague,) Rienzi al leges scriptural examples. Saltator coram archa David e: insanus apparui coram Rege; blanda, astuta, et tecta Judith astitit Ho oferni; et astute Jacob meruit benedici, Urkunde, xlix. M. 1845.