No. 102.

Review of New Books.

LORD BYRON'S TRAGEDY.

Price 6d.

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: an Historical Tragedy, in Five Acts, with Notes. The Prophecy of Dante, • Poem. By Lord Byron. 8vo. pp. 261, London, 1821. Ir the production of a new tragedy was in former times an occurrence that was so eagerly looked for, and so fully chronicled, it will readily be conceived that a tragedy from the distinguished pen of Lord Byron, must, even in these days, excite no common interest. The conspiracy of the Doge Marino Indeed, of all the productions of his Faliero, on a bich this tragedy is foundlordship's pen, we know not one, the pub-ed, is, as his lordship well observes, lication of which was watched with so 'one of the most remarkable events in

much anxiety, or which, now that it has the aunals of the most singular governappeared, is read with so much avidity.ment, city, and people of modern histoThe well known talents of his lordship and the present state of the stage united to create a powerful interest, and to raise a hope that we should now have a play, worthy of the brightest period

in the annals of the drama.

In the preface to the tragedy, his lordship has some severe reflections on the taste of the public, which he unjustly censures. Speaking of his motives for writing the tragedy, he

I have had no view to the stage: in its present state it is, perhaps, not a very exalted object of ambition; besides I have been too much behind the scenes, to have thought it so at any time. And I cannot conceive any inan of iritable feeling putting himself at the mercies of an audience:the sneering reader, and the loud critic, and the tart review,are scattered and distant calamities; but the trampling of an intelligent or of an ignorant audience on a production which, be it good or bad, has been a mental labour to the writer, is a palpable and immediate grievance, heightened by a man's doubt of their competency to judge, and his certainty of his own imprudence in electing them his judges. Were I capable of writing a play which could be deemed stage-worthy,

ry.' The story, as particularly detailed in the Lives of the Doges,' by Marin Sanuto, is given by his lordship in the appendix; and, as it will make the reader fully acquainted with the subject of the tragedy; we shall give a sketch of it.

Marino Faliero, a man of talents and courage, and who had distinguished himself both as a warrior and a statesman, was chosen Doge of Venice, on the 11th of September, 1354. After he had held the office six months, he gave a feast where a circumstance occurred which laid the foundation of his fatal project; we give it in the words of the chronicler :

Ser Michele Steno, a gentleman of poor Now to this feast there came a certain estate and very young, but crafty and daring, and who loved one of the damsels of the Duchess.

Ser Michele stood he behaved indiscretely, so that my amongst the women upon the solajo; and Lord the Duke ordered that he should be kicked off the solajo; 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,

and the matter was considered very scandalous; and the Senate commanded the Avogadori of the Commonwealth to proceed therein with the greatest diligence. A largesse of great amount was immediately proffered by the Avogadori, these words. And at length it was known in order to discover who had written 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 thereen. 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 conséquence 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 lignity; and he said that they ought to required by the respect due to his ducal have condemned Ser Michele to be hanged by the neck, or at least to be banished for life.'

The day after this sentence had been the arsenal went to the Doge to compronounced on Steno, the admiral of plain that a gentleman had struck him, and prayed for heavy punishment ou bin :

"What wouldst thou have me to 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 anMy Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a Prince, and to cut all those cuckoldy gentlemen. in pieces, I have the heart, if you do but

swered;

failure great pain. It is for this reason that, even during the time of being one of the committee of one of the theatres, I never made the attempt, and never will. But surely there is uramatic power sonveVOL. III.

hall of audience, and wrote certain unthe Duchess, upon the chair in which the seemly words relating to the Duke and Duke was used to sit; for in those days the Duke did not cover his chair with

state; and then you may punish them all."-learing this, the Duke said;

46

How can such a matter be brought about?"--and so they discoursed thereon. • The Duke called for his nephew Ser

R-16

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 Bertucci Israello, who was exceedingly wily and cunning. Then taking counsel amongst themselves, they agreed to call in some others; and so, for several nights successively, they met with the Duke at home in his palace.'

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.'

In

Such are the materials on which Lord Byron has founded his tragedy, and in no material point has he deviated from historical correctness. It was concerted that sixteen or seven- his preface he states that he had once teen leaders should be stationed in va- thought of making jealousy the morious parts of the City, each being at the tive which stimulated the Doge to enhead of forty men, armed and prepared; gage in the conspiracy, but that the but the followers were not to know their advice of Sir William Drummond and destination. On the appointed day they the late Monk Lewis dissuaded him were to make affrays amongst themselves here and there, in order that the Duke from it. In speaking of this last promight have a pretence for tolling the bells duction of his lordship's brilliant and of San Marco; these bells are never prolific muse, we must not forget that rung but by the order of the Duke. it was not written for the stage, and And at the sound of the bells, these six-therefore judge of it rather as a tragic teen or seventeen, with their followers, poem than an acting tragedy, for which were to come to San Marco, through the it is too long by at least one-half. streets which open upon the Piazza. Having detailed the story so amply,

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 fifteenth day of April, in the year 1355. So covertly did they plot, that no one ever dreamt of their machinations.'

The plot was, however, discovered by one Beltramo Bergamasco, who mentioned it to Sir Niccolo Lioni, one

it in the tragedy, and we shall therefore it will now be unnecessary to go through notice such of the scenes as appear to us most worthy of attention; and to which it will be seen his lordship has often given the most powerful interest and effect. We ought to premise that, in order to preserve a near approach to the unity of the play, his lordship has represented the conspiracy as already formed, and the Doge acceding to it; whereas, in fact, it was of his own preparation, and that of Israel Berof the senators, whose life he wished tuccio. The tragedy commences just to preserve. The Council of Ten, and before sentence has been passed on the Great Council were assembled, Steno, and the Doge is anxio sly Beltramo was brought before them, waiting the result. When it is made and, ascertaining the truth of his state-known to him that he has only been ment, measures were taken to counsentenced to a month's imprisonment, he breaks out into a violent rage, throws down the ducal bonnet, and wishes the enemies of Venice at the gates that he might do them homage. The whole of this scene between the Doge and his nephew is admirable; we quote a few passages :

teract the conspiracy. The tolling of the bells was prevented, and the principal conspirators all seized, most of whom were condemned to death by the Council of Ten, and afterwards exeuted :

On Friday, the sixteenth day of April, judgment was also given, in the 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 fol. lowing day, the seventeenth day of April, the doors of the palace being shut, the Duke had his head cut off, about the 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

hour of noon.

I

Even from this hour; the meanest artisan
Will point the finger, and the haughty noble
May spit upon us: where is our redress?
Ber. Fal. The law, my prince-

Doge (interrupting him.)

You see what it has done I ask'd po remedy but from the lawI sought no vengeance but redress by law-~ call'd no judges but those named by law As sovereign, I appeal'd unto my subjects, The very subjects who had made me sovereign, And gave me thus a double right to be so. The rights of place and choice, of birth and ser

stain,

The grossest insult, most contemptuous crime Of a rank rash patrician-and found wanting! And this is to be borne ?

had been done him by the imputation The deep sense of the wrong that on his wife, never leaves the Doge; speaking of Steno, he says'Doge. You know the full offence, of this born villain,

This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon,

Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel, And on the honour of Oh God!—my wife, The nearest dearest part of all men's honour, Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth

Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments,

And villainous jests, and blasphemies obscene; While sneering nobles, in more polish'd guise,

Whisper'd the tale, and smiled upon the lie. Which made me look like them-a courteous wittol,

Patient-ay, proud, it may be, of dishonour.'

And in an interview afterwards with

Israel Bertuccio, the chief of the arsenal, alluding to the

'foul words,

That have cried shame to every car in Venice,' He says,

Ay, doubtless they have echo'd o'er the ar

senal,

Keeping due time with every hammer's clink
As a good jest to jolly artisans ;
Or making chorus to the creaking oar,
In the vile tune of every galley slave,
Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted
He was not a shamed dotard like a Doge.'

The second act is very heavy, particularly the scene between the Doge and Angiolina his wife, and it appears to us highly improbable. That an old man should marry a young and beautiful wife, is, if not very natural, at least very common, but that he should marry her from such motives as his lordship assigns him, is extremely improbable. The Doge addressing his wife is made to say

I knew my heart would never treat you harshly;

I knew my days could not disturb you long; And then the daughter of my earliest friend, His worthy daughter, free to choose again, Wealthier and wiser, in the ripest bloom

Would choose more fitly in respect of years,
And not less truly in a faithful heart.'

The following passage is very spirited. Angiolina, in allusion to Steno, says,

Angi. Oh! had this false and flippant libeller

Shed his young blood for his absurd lampoon, Ne'er from that moment could this breast have known

A joyous hour, or dreamless slumber more. Doge. Does not the law of Heaven say blood for blood?

And he who taints kills more than he who sheds it.

Is it the pain of blows, or shame of blows,

That make such deadly to the sense of man?
Do not the laws of man say blood for honour?
And less than honour for a little gold?
Say not the laws of nations blood for treason?
Is 't nothing to have fill'd these veins with poi-

son

For their once healthful current? is it nothing To have stain'd your name and mine-the noblest names?

Is 't nothing to have brought into contempt
A prince before his people? to have fail'd
In the respect accorded by mankind
To youth in woman, and old age in man?
To virtue in your sex, and dignity
In ours?'

Bertram, one of the conspirators, not having completed the number of men that he was to bring, is suspected by Calendaro, who intimates his fears of him to Israel Bertuccio, but says, he has no ties of kindred to make him fear. Bertuccio replies,—

Is. Ber. Such ties are not

For those who are call'd to the high destinies.
Which purify corrupted commonwealths;
We must forget all feelings save the one-
We must resign all passions save our purpose-
We must behold no object save our country-
And only look on death as beautiful,
So that the sacrifice ascend to heaven,
And draw down freedom on her evermore.
Calen. But if we fail.-

Is. Ber. They never fail who die

In a great cause: the block may soak their gore;

Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs.

Be strung to city gates and castle walls-
But still their spirit walks abroad. Though

years

Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
They but augment the deep and sweeping
thoughts

Which o'erpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to freedom: What were we,
If Brutus had not lived? He died in giving
Rome liberty, but left a deathless lesson-
A name which is a virtue, and a soul
Which multiplies itself throughout all time,
When wicked men wax mighty, and a state
Turns servile: he and his high friend were
styled

Of saving one of these: they form but links Of one long chain; one mass, one breath, ore body;

gether,

Revel, and lie, oppress, and kill in concert,— So let him die as one!

"The last of Romans!" Let us be the first Of true Venetians, sprung from Roman sires.' There is a fearful grandeur in the They eat, and drink, and live, and breed tofollowing soliloquy of the Doge, when on his way to meet the conspirators:I am before the hour, the hour whose voice, Pealing into the arch of night, might strike These palaces with ominous tottering, And rock their marbles to the corner-stone, Waking the sleepers from some hideous dream Of indistinct but awful augury

Of that which will befal them. Yes, proud city!

Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee

A lazar-house of tyranny: the task
Is forced upon me, I have sought it not;
And therefore, was I punish'd, seeing this
Patrician pestilence spread on and on,
Until at length it smote me in my slumbers,
And I am tainted, and must wash away
The plague-spots in the healing wave.
fane!

Tall

Where sleep my fathers, whose dim statues shadow

The floor which doth divide us from the dead, Where all the pregnant hearts of our bold blood Moulder'd into a mite of ashes, hold

In one shrunk heap what once made many

heroes,

Their mighty name dishonour'd all in me,
Not by me, but by the ungrateful nobles
We fought to make our equals, not our lords :-
And chiefly thou, Ordelafo the brave,
Who perish'd in the field, where I since con-
quer'd,

Battling at Zara, did the Hecatombs

The scene in the third act, in which the Doge is introduced to the senate, is highly dramatic, and we quote the principal passages :

Conspirators. Most welcome.-Brave Bertuccio, thou art lateWho is this stranger?

Calendaro. It is time to name him.

Our comrades are even now prepared to greet him.

In brotherhood, as I have made it known That thou would'st add a brother to our cause, Approved by thee, and thus approved by all, Such is our trust in all thine actions. Now Let him unfold himself.

Is. Ber. Stranger, step forth!

[The Doge discovers himself. Cons. To arms!-we are betrayed-it is the

Doge!

Down with them both! our traitorous captain, and

The tyrant he hath sold us to!

Calen. (drawing his sword.) Hold! Hold! Who moves a step against them dies. Hold! hear,

Bertuccio What! are you appall'd to see
A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man
Amongst you?—Israel, speak! what means
this mystery?

Is. Ber. Let them advance and strike at their
own bosoms,

Ungrateful suicides! for on our lives Depend their own, their fortunes, and their hopes.

Doge. Strike!-If I dreaded death, a death more fearful

Than any your rash weapons can inflict,

I should not now be here ;-Oh, noble courage! The eldest born of fear, which makes you brave Against this solitary hoary head!

See the bold chiefs, who would reform a state And shake down senates, mad with wrath and dread

At sight of one patrician.- Butcher me,

You can; I care not.-Israel, are these men The mighty hearts you spoke of? look upon them!

Calen. Faith! he hath shamed us, and deservedly.

Was this your trust in your true Chief Bertuc

cio,

To turn your swords against him and his guest? Sheathe them, and hear him.

Of thine and Venice' foes, there offer'd up By thy descendant, merit such acquittance? Spirits! smile down upon me; for my cause Is your's, in all life now can be of your's,Your fame, your name, all mingled up in mine, And in the future fortunes of our race! Let me but prosper, and I make this city Free and immortal, and our house's name Worthier of what you were, now and hereafter! Bertram, in an interview with Calendaro, inquires if there are not some among the senators whose age and qua- Incapable of treachery; and the power lities might mark them out for pity. They gave me to adopt all fitting means Calendaro replies in the following pas-They might be certain that whoe'er was brought To further their designs, was ne'er abused. sage, which is bold, and the idea we consider original :—

"Yes, such pity As when the viper hath been cut to pieces, The separate fragments quivering in the sun In the last energy of venomous life, Deserve and have. Why, I should think as

soon

Of pitying some particular fang which made One in the jaw of the swoln serpent, as

They might and must have known a heart like Is. Ber. I disdain to speak.

mine

such

As I described them-Speak to them.
Calen Ay, speak;

We are all listening in wonder.

Is. Ber. (addressing the conspirators.)

You are safe,

Nay, more, almost triumphant-listen, then,
And know my words for truth.

Doge. You see me here,

As one of you hath said, an old, unarm'd,
Defenceless man; and yesterday you saw me
Presiding in the hall of ducal state,
Apparent sovereign of our hundred isles,
Robed in official purple, dealing out
The edicts of a power which is not mine,
Nor yours, but of our masters-the patricians.
Why I was there you know, or think you know;
Why I am here, he who hath been most wrong'd,

He, who among you, hath been most insulted,

Outraged and trodden on, until he doubt
If he be worm or no, may answer for me,
Asking of his own heart what brought him here?
You know my recent story, all men know it,
And judge of it far differently from those
Who sate in judgment to heap scorn on scorn
But spare me the recital-it is here,
Here at my heart the outrage-but my words,
Already spent in unavailing plaints,
Would only shew my feebleness the more,
And I come here to strengthen even the strong,
And urge them on to deeds, and not to war
With woman's weapons; but I need not urge

you.

In this-I cannot call it commonwealth,
Nor kingdom, which hath neither prince nor
people,

But all the sins of the old Spartan state,
Without its virtues, temperance, and valour.
The lords of Lacedemon were true soldiers,
But ours are Sybarites, while we are Helots,
Of whom I am the lowest, most enslaved,
Although drest out to head a pageant, as
The Greeks of yore made drunk their slaves to
form

A pastime for their children. You are met
To overthrow this monster of a state,
This mockery of a government, this spectre,
Which must be exorcised with blood, and then
We will renew the times of truth and justice,
Condensing in a fair free commonwealth,
Not rash equality, but equal rights,
Proportion'd like the columns to the temple,
Giving and taking strength reciprocal,
And making firm the whole with grace and
beauty,

So that no part could be removed without
Infringement of the general symmetry.
In operating this great change, I claim
To be one of you-if you trust in me;
If not, strike home, my life is compromised,
And I would rather fall by freemen's hands,
Than live another day to act the tyrant
As delegate of tyrants; such I am not,
And never have been-read it in our annals;
I can appeal to my past government
In many lands and cities; they can tell you
If I were an oppressor, or a man
Feeling and thinking for my fellow men.
Haply had I been what the senate sought,
A thing of robes and trinkets, dizen'd out
To sit in state as for a sovereign's picture;
A popular scourge, a ready sentence signer,
A stickler for the senate and "the Forty,"
A sceptic of all measures which had not
The sanction of "the Ten," a council-fawner,
A tool, a fool, a puppet,-they had neer.

Has reach'd me through my pity for the people;

That many know, and they who know not yet
Will one day learn: meantime, I do devote,
Whate'er the issue, my last days of life-
My present power, such as it is, not that
Of Doge, but of a man who has been great
Before he was degraded to a Doge,
And still has individual means and mind;
I stake my fame (and I had fame)-my
breath-

(The least of all, for its last hours are nigh)
My heart-my hope-my soul-upon this cast!
Such as I am, I offer me to you

And to your chiefs, accept me or reject me, A prince who fain would be a citizen Or nothing, and who has left his throne to be so.' the conspiracy, yet he is not altogether Although the Doge goes fully into free from compunction:

Doge. Bear with me! Step by step, and blow on blow,

I will divide with you; think not I waver:
Ah! no; it is the certainty of all
Which I must do, doth make me tremble thus.
But let these last and lingering thoughts have

way,

To which you only and the night are conscious,

And both regardless; when the hour arrives,
'Tis mine to sound the knell, and strike the
blow,

Which shall unpeople many palaces,
And hew the highest genealogic trees
Down to the earth, strew'd with their bleeding
fruit,

And crush their blossoms into barrenness :
This will 1-must I-have I sworn to do,
Nor aught can turn me from my destiny;
But still I quiver to behold what I
Must be, and think what I have been!
with me.

Bear

Is. Ber. Re-man your breast; I feel no such

Bertram, who is guilty of weakness rather than treachery, goes to his friend and patron Lioni, and cautions him not to go forth on the day of the intended massacre. Lioni, unable to gain the secret, secures Bertram. There is one passage in this scene which strikes us as peculiarly happy, and we quote it. Bertram says,

'I come

To save patrician blood, and not to shed it!
And there unto I must to speedy, for
Each minute may lose a life; since Time
Has changed his slow scythe for the two-edged
sword,

And is about to take, instead of sand,
fine soliloquy of the Doge, which is
The dust from sepulchres, to fill his hour-glass."
We cannot omit noticing another
when he has despatched his nephew to
commence the dreadful work, and is
waiting the issue :-

Doge (solus.) He is gone, And on each footstep moves a life-'Tis dose Now the destroying angel hovers o'er Venice, and pauses ere he pours the vial, Even as the eagle o'erlooks his prey, And for a moment, poised in middle air, Suspends the motion of his mighty wings, Then swoops with his unerring beak.-Thou day!

That slowly walk'st the waters! march-march

I have seen you dyed ere now, and deeply too,
With Genoese, Saracen, and Hunnish gore,
While that of Venice flow'd too, but victorious:
Now thou must wear an unmix'd crimson; no
Barbaric blood can reconcile us now

Unto that horrible incarnadine,
But friend or foe will roll in civic slaughter.
And have I lived to fourscore years for this?
1, who was named Preserver of the City?
I, at whose name the million's caps were flung
Into the air, and cries from tens of thousands
Rose up, imploring Heaven to send me bless-
ings,

And fame, and length of days-to see this day?
But this day, black within the calendar,
Shall be succeeded by a bright millennium.
Doge Dandolo survived to ninety summers
To vanquish empires, and refuse their crown;
I will resign a crown, and make the state

The noble end must justify them-What
Are a few drops of human blood? 'tis false,
The blood of tyrants is not human; they,
Like to incarnate Molochs, feed on ours,
Until 'tis time to give them to the tombs
Which they have made so populous.—Oh

world!

Oh men! what are ye, and our best designs,
That we must work by crime to punish crime?/
And slay as if Death had but this one gate,
When a few years would make the sword su
perfluous?

And I, upon the verge of th*nnknown realm,
Yet send so many heralds on, before me
I must not ponder this.

[A pause.
Hark! was there not
A murmur as of some distant voices, and
The tramp of feet in martial unison!
What phantoms even of sound our wishes

raise !

It cannot be the signal hath not rung➡
Why pauses it? my nephew's messenger
Should be upon his way to me, and he
Himself perhaps even now draws grating back
Upon its ponderous hinge the steep tower
portal,

Where swings the sullen huge oracular bell,
Which never knells but for a princely death,
Or for a state in peril, pealing forth
Tremendous bodements; let it do its office,
And be this peal its awfullest and last.
Sound till the strong tower rock!-What! si-
lent still?

I would go forth, but that my post is here,
To be the centre of re-union to

The oft discordant elements which form
Leagues of this nature, and to keep compact
The wavering or the weak, in case of conflict;
For if they should do battle, 'twill be here,
Within the palace, that the strife will thicken;
Then here must be my station, as becomes
The master-mover-Hark! he comes-he

They here! all's lost-yet will I make an effort.'

The Doge is arrested and brought before the Great Council, where he confesses the accusation against him. His wife, Angiolina, intercedes that his life may be spared, but the Council condemn him to immediate death. The scene in which this is described we quote at length:

The Court of the Ducal Palace: the outer gates are shut against the people-The DOGE enters in his ducal robes, in procession with the Council of Ten and other Patricians, attended by the Guards till they arrive at the top of the "Giant's Staircase," (where the Doges took their oaths); the executioner is stationed there with his sword-On arriving, a Chief of the Ten takes off the ducal cap from the Doge's head.

Doge. So now the Doge is nothing, and at last

I am again Marino Faliero :

'Tis well to be so, though but for a moment. Here I was crown'd, and here, bear witness, Heaven!

With how much more contentment I resign
That shining mockery, the ducal bauble,
Than I received the fatal ornament.
One of the Ten.

Thou tremblest, Faliero!
Doge. Tis with age, then.

Ben. Faliero! hast thou aught further to
commend,

Compatible with justice, to the senate?
Doge. I would commend my nephew to their
mercy,

My consort to their justice; for methinks
My death, and such a death, might settle all
Between the state and me.

Ben. They shall be cared for;
Even notwithstanding thine unheard of crime.
Doge. Unheard-of? ay, there's not a history
But shows a thousand crown'd conspirators
Against the people; but to set them free
One sovereign only died, and one is dying.
Ben. And who were they who fell in such a
cause?

Doge. The King of Sparta and the Dege of

VeniceAgis and Paliero!

Ben. Hast thou more
To utter or to do?

Doge. May I speak?
Ben. Thou may'st;
But recollect the people are without,
Beyond the compass of the human voice.

Doge. I speak to Time and to Eternity,
Of which I grow a portion, not to man.
Ye elements! in which to be resolved
I hasten, let my voice be as a spirit
Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore my
banner,

Ye winds! which flutter'd o'er as if you loved it,

And fill'd my swelling sails as they were wafted To many a triumph! Thou, my native earth, Which I have bled for, and thou foreign earth, Which drank this willing blood from many a wound!

Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but Reek up to Heaven! Ye skies, which will receive it!

Thou sun! which shinest on these things, and Thou!

Who kindlest and who quenchest suns!-At

test!

doom

I am not innocent but are these guiltless?
I perish, but not unavenged; far ages
Float up from the abyss of time to be,
And show these eyes, before they close, the
Of this proud city, and I leave my curse
On her and her's for ever!-Yes, the hours
Are silently engendering of the day,
When she, who built 'gainst Attila a bulwark,
Unto a bastard Attila, without
Shall yield, and bloodlessly and basely yield

Shedding so much blood in her last defence
As these old veins, oft drain'd in shielding her,
Shall pour in sacrifice.-She shall be bought
And sold, and be an appanage to those
Who shall despise herShe shall stoop to be
A province for an empire, petty town
In lieu of capital, with slaves for senates,
Beggars for nobles, pandars for a people!
Then, when the Hebrew 's in thy palaces,
The Hun in thy high places, and the Greek
Walks o'er thy mart, and smiles on it for his;
When thy patricians beg their bitter bread
In narrow streets, and in their shameful need
Make their nobility a plea for pity;
Then, when the few who still retain a wreck
Of their great fathers' heritage, shall fawn
Round a barbarian Vice of King's Vice-gerent,
Even in the palace where they sway'd as sove-
reigns,

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

The great length to which we have extended our extracts leaves us little room for critical remarks. The tragedy is certainly a noble production, and worthy of the pen of its distinguished author. The characters of Marino Faliero and Israel Bertuccio, are powerfully drawn, and throughout the whole tragedy there is a vigour and a tone of eloquence, which leaves modern tragedies at an immeasurable distance. One of the characters, that of Bertram, will remind the reader of Jaffier in Venice Preserved; nor is that the only thing which will often remind him both of Otway and Shakespear. The hunters after plagiarisms will, we doubt not, be again at work, and like those who would deny the glory of the sun because it has spots, will seek to nibble at the fair fame of the poble author, because a similarity of sentiment may

writer.

The Prophecy of Dante,' which follows this tragedy, consists of four cantos on the exile of the post, the author intending to continue the subject in some future cantos. Dante is supposed to address the reader in the interval between the conclusion of the divina commedia and his death, and, shortly before the latter event, foretelling the fortunes of Italy in the enwhich possesses many beauties, is so The whole poem, suing centuries. connected that it is difficult even to detach à passage; we shall, however, alludes to Michael Angelo, and the select a portion of the last canto, which building of Sa Peter's at Rome :-