NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, 28 April 1921, Page 26

NOTES

Poets’ Graves in Rome It is worth while adding a few additional notes to what we have 1 already said concerning the place where Keats was buried, under the walls of Rome. Shelley’s heart was, as we have said, brought .thither after Byron and Trelawney had burned 'the poet’s body on the beach at Spezzia. During his lifetime he loved this spot, arid in the preface to Adonais we read : , i;: • “ The cemetery is an open place among the ruins, covered in the winter with violets and daisies. It might make one in love with death to think that one should be buried in so sweet a place.” ■ The wealthy banker, Samuel Rogers, wrote of it “When I am inclined to be serious, I love to wan-der-up and down before the tomb of Cains Cestius. The Protestant burial ground is there, and most of the little monuments are erected to the young—young men of promise cut v off when on their travels, full of enthusiasm, full dfM enjoyment; brides,/in the bloom of their beauty, on their first journey ;, or- children borne from home in search of health. * . It is a quiet, sheltered place, covered in winter with violets; and the pyramid hthatuovershadows it gives, it; a -classical- and singularly solemn air. -UM-y r&ir.r}; Jj*.;c-e

Keats’ Grave S •.tsiulThe full inscription on the grave of Keats is: ~ ' “This - grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet,- who, on his death-bed, in the bitterness of his* heart at the malicious ‘ power of his enemies, desired these; words to . be engraven on his tombstone : ‘ Here lies one whose name was writ in water.’ February 24, 1821.” ; C: , Shelley’s lines from Ado n ais . are well known: ■* ’ * •' f Go thou to Rome — once, the paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness; And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And fragrant weeds, and fragrant copses dress The bones of desolation’s nakedness; Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead Thy footsteps to a'* spot of green access, Where, like an infant’s smile ; over the dead A light of laughing flowers over the grass is spread. And grey walls moulder round on which dull Time Feeds,- like the slow fire upon a hoary brandy And one keen pyramid, with wedge sublimePavilioning the dust of him who planned This refuge for his memory, doth stand Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath A field is spread, on which a newer band Have pitched in Heaven’s smile their comp of death, Welcoming . him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.

Shelley’s Grave 1 Leigh Hunt wrote the epitaph for the grave of Shelley’s heart: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Cor Cordium. Nat ns iv. Aug. MDGCXCII. Obi it viii Jul. MDGCGXXIt. Trelawney added the words from 7'Ac Tempest, loved by Shelley: Nothing- of him doth fade But doth suffer a sea-change Into something grand and strange.

Pasquinades In reply to a correspondent, it may be interesting to readers to know the origin of the term “pasquinades.” Opposite the shop of a witty Roman tailor, who used to entertain his clients'with the scandal of the day, stands* a statue which has been called by the, Romans, Pasquino, after the tailor. When the tailor died some wag used to append to the pedestal of Pasquino criticisms of passing events, some of which were in the form of a dialogue which Pasquino was supposed to hold with his friend Marforio, another statue near the Capitol. From the repartees came the term “pasquinades.” The pasquinades continued for a long period of time. Some were as early as 1492 and others were written in the days of the Buonapartes. Very often, they were attacks on the reigning Pope. Of Paul 111., who tried to silence''him, Pasquino. said: '. * Ut earner data midta olim sunt vatihus aera; Ut taceam, quanta tv, mild, Fault, dab is ? i (Formerly much money was given to the poets ; for singing; _ , ..... - How much will you give me, Paul, if I shut up?) . When Francis of Austria came to Rome, Pasquino saluted him thus - " ; 1 Gaudium urbis,fletus provinciarum,—rims mundi . (Joy of the city,—tears of'-provinces,laughter, of the world.) ;ry r v.v,.,;'i ;■ . I When the French were in Rome in Napoleon’s time, Pasquino said: . | I Franccsi- v son tutti ladri. i { V | Non tutti—ma buonjx parte* uy . o-l'.hrii "l The French are all; rogues. ; ! Not all—-but'a great part.) ; 1 It is narrated that Adrian VI. once : wished to have the statue thrown into the Tiber but was & dissuaded by Ludovico Suessano, : who said,!- jokingly, that if j Pasquino were drowned his body would turn: into frogs ; that might croak even louder than the original did, Accord- .. \ -■ 1 - -

ing to Fuller, i Pasquino is famous, because (1) of knowing everything while remaining unknown himself, noscens omnia et notus nemini; (2) of his intelligence, (3) r of his impartial ‘ boldness, (4) iof his longevity, (5) of his impunity in escaping the Inquisition. pasquinades were always biting and often scurrilous. ,