Italy Volume 11 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 Excerpt: ...And always fair, rare laud of courtesy O Florence with the Tuscan fields and hills, And famous Arno, fed with all their rills; Thou brightest star of star-bright Italy Rich, ornate, populous, all treasures thine, The golden corn, the olive, and the vine. Fair cities, gallant mansions, castles old, And forests, where beside his leafy hold The sullen boar hath heard the distant horn, And whets his tusks against the gnarled thorn; Palladian palace with its storied halls; Fountains, where Love lies listening to their falls; Gardens, where flings the bridge its airy span, And Nature makes her happy home with man; Where many a gorgeous flower is duly fed With its own rill, on its own spangled bed, And wreathes the marble urn, or leans its head, A mimic mourner, that with veil withdrawn Weeps liquid gems, the presents of the dawn; Thine all delights, and every muse is thine; And more than all, the embrace and intertwine Of all with all in gay and twinkling dance Mid gods of Greece and warriors of romance, See Boccace sits, unfolding on his knees The new-found roll of old Mseonides; But from his mantle's fold, and near the heart, Peers Ovid's holy book of Love's sweet smart Samuel Taylor Coleridge. PIAZZA DELLA SIGNORIA. AMONG the awful forms that stand assembled In the great square of Florence, may be seen That Cosmo, not the father of his country, Not he so styled, but he who played the tyrant. Clad in rich armor like a paladin, But with his helmet off, in kingly state, Aloft he sits upon his horse of brass; And they who read the legend underneath Go and pronounce him happy. Yet there is A chamber at Grosseto, that, if walls Could speak and tell of what is done within, Would turn your admiration into pity. Half of what passed died with him; but the rest, Al...