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

by the awful feelings of that moment, he had not, for the first and last time, pressed his lips to hers.

Vittoria had another passionate admirer in Galeazzo di Tarsia, Count of Belmonte in Calabria, and an excellent poet of that time.* His attachment was as poetical, but apparently not quite so Platonic, as that of Michel Angelo. His beautiful Canzone beginning,

A qual pietra sommiglia

La mia bella Colonna,

contains lines rather more impassioned than the modest and grave Vittoria could have approved: for example—

Con lei foss' io da che si parte il sole,

E non ci vedesse altri che le stelle,

-Solo una notte-e mai non fosse l' Alba!

*Died 1535.

Marini and Bernardo Tasso were also numbered

among her poets and admirers.

Vittoria Colonna died at Rome, in 1547. She was suspected of favouring in secret the reformed doctrines; but I do not know on what authority Roscoe mentions this. Her 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 one of the most remarkable of women ;

-as her sorrows, her conjugal virtues, her innocence of heart, and elegance of mind, have rendered her one of the most interesting.

Where could she fix on mortal ground

Those tender thoughts and high?

Now peace, the woman's heart hath found,

And joy, the poet's eye

1*

Antiquity may boast its heroines; but it required virtues of a higher order to be a Vittoria Colonna, or a Lady Russel, than to be a Portia.

* Mrs. Hemans.

or an Arria. How much more graceful, and even more sublime, is the moral strength, the silent enduring heroism of the Christian, than the stern, impatient defiance of destiny, which showed so imposing in the heathen! How much more

difficult is it sometimes to live than to die!

Più val d' ogni vittoria un bel soffirire.

Or as Campbell has expressed nearly the same sentiment,

To bear, is to conquer our fate!

81

CHAPTER VI.

CONJUGAL POETRY CONTINUED.

VERONICA GAMBARA.

VITTORIA COLONNA, and her famed friend and contemporary, Veronica, Countess of Correggio, are inseparable names in the history of Italian literature, as living at the same time, and equally ornaments of their sex. They resembled each other in poetical talent, in their domestic sorrows and conjugal virtues in every other respect the contrast is striking. Vittoria, with all her genius, seems to have been as lovely, gentle, and feminine a creature as ever wore the form of woman.

No lily-no-nor fragrant hyacinth,

Had half such softness, sweetness, blessedness.

Veronica, on the contrary, was one,

-to whose masculine spirit

To touch the stars had seemed an easy flight.

She added to her talents and virtues, strong passions, — and happily also sufficient energy of mind to govern and direct them. She had not Vittoria's personal charms: it is said, that if her face had equalled her form, she would have been one of the most beautiful women of her time; but her features were irregular, and her grand commanding figure, which in her youth was admired for its perfect proportions, grew large and heavy as she advanced in life. She retained, however, to the last, the animation of her countenance, the dignity of her deportment, and powers of conversation so fascinating, that none ever approached her without admiration, or quitted her society without regret.

Her verses have not the polished harmony and the graceful suavity of Vittoria's; but more vigour of expression, and more vivacity of colouring. Their defects were equally opposed: