Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/404

386 and Foscolo. (1783–1851), although of French descent, was a devoted Italian patriot, whose first works of importance were published in London, where he had been obliged to seek refuge. He began by denouncing the conduct of the English Government towards the people of Parga, and followed this up by a succession of stirring ballads, mostly of patriotic tendency, and a longer poem, Fantasie, a vision of the past glories of the Lombard League. In style these poems resemble the romantic poetry of Germany and England, without a vestige of classical influence, but also with no trace of the worship of the past, except as an example to the present, or anything of the mystic spirit of genuine romanticism. Well timed as they were, their effect was extraordinary; but whether antique of contemporary in subject, they were essentially poems of the day, and such poetry cannot continue to be read unless it attains the level of Manzoni's ode on the death of Napoleon and Tennyson's on the death of Wellington. This Berchet knew. "My aim was not," he said on one occasion, "to write a fine poem, but to perform a fine action." His style is consequently defective; his poetry was not written to be criticised, but to inspire and inflame, and fully answered its purpose. "He has found," says Settembrini, "all the maledictions that can possibly be hurled against the foreigner." Upon Charles Albert's conversion to the national cause, Berchet returned to Italy, and died a member of the Sardinian Parliament, universally honoured and beloved, nor will his countrymen forget him.

"Accursed," adds Settembrini, "be the Italian who forgets ." Rossetti (1785–1854) assuredly will not be forgotten by England, for which