NOTE 26. And so Oeclides sinking into night, From the deep gulph look'd up to distant light. Amphiarus, son of Oecleus who was swallowed at Thebes by an earthquake. NOTE 27. To Leonora singing at Rome. C. Adriana of Mantua, for her beauty surnamed the Fair, and her daughter Leonora Baroni, the lady whom Milton celebrates in these epigrams, were esteemed by their contemporaries the finest singers in the world. Giovanni Battista Doni, in his book de Præstaniia Musica Veteris, published in 1647, speaking of the merit of some modern vocal performers, declares that Adriana or her daughter Leonora, would suffer injury in being compared to the antient Sappho. Book ii. 56. There is a volume of Greek, Latin, Italian, French, and Spanish poems, in praise of Leonora, printed at Rome, entitled "Applausi poetici alle glorie della Signora Leonora, Baroni." Nicias Erythreus, in his Pinacotheca, calls this collection the Theatrum of that exquisite songstress, Eleonora Baroni, "in quo omnes hic Romæ, quotquot ingenio et poeticæ facultatis laude præstant, carminibus, cum Etruscè, tum Latinè, scriptis, singulari, ac prope divino mulieris illius canendi artificio, tanquam faustos quosdam clamores et plausus edunt, &c." Pinac. ii. p. 427. Lips. 1712. 12mo. In the Poesie of Fulvio Testi, there is an encomiastic Sonnet to Leonora giving equal praise to her singing, and to her beauty: "Si lodano il canto, e la Bellezza Della Signora Leonora Baroni. Sel' Angioletta mia tremolo, e chiaro, Ma se di sua Virtú non punto ignara 'L'occhio accorda glisguardi a l'armonia, Al divin lume, a le celesti note De le potenze sue perde il vigore De fammi cieco, o fammi sordo, amore, Poesie del conte Fulvio Testi, M. Maugars, Priour of S. Peter de Mac, at Paris, king's interpreter of the English language. and in his time a capital practitioner on the viol, has left this eulogy on Leonora and her mother, at the end of his judicious Discours sur la Musique d' Italie, printed with the Life of Malherbe, and other Treatises, at Paris, 1672, 12mo. "Leonora has fine parts, and a happy judgement in distinguishing good from bad musick: she understands it perfectly well, and even composes, which makes her absolutely mistress of what she sings, and gives her the most exact pronunciation and expression of the words. She does not prétend to beauty, yet she is far from being disagreeable; nor is she a coquet; she sings with an air of confident and liberal modesty, and with a pleasing gravity. Her voice reaches a large compass of notes, is just, clear, and melodious; and she softens or raises it without constraint or grimace. Her raptures and sighs are not too tender. Her looks have nothing impudent; nor do her gestures betray any thing beyond the reserve of a modest girl. In passing from one song to another, she shews sometimes the divisions of the enharmonick and chromatick species, with so much air, and sweetness, that every heart is ravished with that delicate and difficult mode of singing. She has no need of any person to assist with a theorbo or viol, one of which is required to make her singing complete; for she plays perfectly well herself on both those instruments. In short, I have been so fortunate as to hear her sing several times above thirty different airs, with second and third stanzas of her own com position. But I must not forget, that one day she did me the particular favor to sing with her mother and her sister: her mother played upon the lute, her sister upon the harp, and herself upon the theorbo. This concert composed of three fine voices, and of three different instruments, so powerfully captivated my senses, and threw me into such raptures, that I forgot my mortality. "Et crus ètre deja parmi les anges, jouissant des con tentemens des bienheureux," Hawkins's Hist. Mus. iv. 196. See Bayle Dic. Baroni; To the excellence of the mother Adriana on the lute Milton alludes in these lines: "Et te Pieriâ sensisset voce canentem Since, could he hear that heavenly voice of thine When Milton was at Rome, he was introduced to the concerts of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, one of the nephews of Pope Urban the Eighth, where he heard Leonora sing, and her mother play. It was the fashion for all the ingenious strangers who visited Rome to leave some verses on Leonora. Pietro della Valle, who wrote about 1640, a very judicious discourse on the music of his own times, speaks of the fanciful and masterly style, in which Leonora touched the arch-lute to her own accompaniments. At the same time he celebrates her sister Catherine, and their mother Adriana. See the works of Battista Doni, vol. ii. Florence 1763. Warton corrected by Todd. The latter critic has noticed a slip of recollection in his predecessor, who had been misled by Sir John Hawkins, to mistake Cardinal Francesco Barberini for his uncle Pope Urban the Eighth, whose christian name was Maphæus, a mistake that Mr. Warton would have avoided, had he recollected a book, with which he was próbably well acquainted; I mean a volume of Latin and Greek, poems, by Maphæus Barberini, printed before he became Pope, and reprinted in Oxford, at the Clarendon press. Milton in writing from Florence to his friend Holstenius, the librarian of the Vatican, after thanking him for his great kindness in shewing him the interesting treasures of that collection, and for a present of some books, that he had printed, makes very grateful mention of Cardinal Francesco Barberini, and of the honour he received in being introduced personally by the Cardinal himself to the very concert, where he had the delight of hearing those songs of Leonora, which he has celebrated in more than one composition. The voice of this lady was so very enchanting, that the poets, her admirers, thought they could never praise her sufficiently. Milton besides his three Latin poems written expressly to honour her, most probably intended to compliment both her voice and her beauty in that Italian sonnet, in which he describes his heart as unexpectedly subdued by foreign charms; "Pellegrina bellezza che il cuor bea." And Count Fulvio Testi besides the sonnet, which he addressed to her, inserted above, appears to have made serious love to her in a poem of twenty-six stanzas, in which he cautions her against the disgraceful error of the lovely Angelica, who after disdaining the love of knights, and the hand of princes, bestowed her beauties unworthily on the page Medoro. H. |