Note 472 — Scene III.—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 "Giants' Staircase"[469] (where the Doges took the 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.

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 (forestiére).

[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.

Nicolò 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.)]