DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55699#0245
THE HOUSE OF RIENZI. 197
Lord Byron has dedicated to Rienzi a beautiful stanza
in the fourth canto of his Childe Harold.
Then turn we to the latest tribune’s name,
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee,
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame,
The friend of Petrarch, hope of Italy-
Rienzi I—last of Romans! While the tree
Of Freedom’s wither’d trunk puts forth a leaf,
Even for thy tomb a garland let it be:
The forum’s champion, and the people’s chief,
The new-born Numa thou, with reign, alas I too brief.
It may well be questioned whether the tomb of Rienzi
has any claim to the garland of freedom. The substi-
tution of one oppression for another ; the destruction of
the tyrannical few in order to exalt the despotic one;
the abuse of the name and of the weapons of freedom in
the erection of a power independent of the people; the
heaping of contempt and derision upon efforts which
ought to be consecrated as most honourable and glorious;
if, indeed, these be services to the cause of freedom,
Rienzi may merit the chaplet I The eulogistic epithets
which Petrarch applied to his friend—“ vir magnamine!
vir fortissime ! Junior Brute 1”—seem to have had greater
weight with Lord Byron than the sober relations of his-
tory. Even Mr. Hobhouse has spoken in very, very
measured terms of Rienzi’s apostasy from the cause of
freedom. “ The fall of this abortion of fortune was the
fruit rather of his own intemperance than of the incon-
stancy of the Romans. As the overthrower of the usurpa-
tion of the nobles, as the assertor of justice, as the
punisher of violence, and the projector of a splendid
system which was to restore the freedom of Rome and
Lord Byron has dedicated to Rienzi a beautiful stanza
in the fourth canto of his Childe Harold.
Then turn we to the latest tribune’s name,
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee,
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame,
The friend of Petrarch, hope of Italy-
Rienzi I—last of Romans! While the tree
Of Freedom’s wither’d trunk puts forth a leaf,
Even for thy tomb a garland let it be:
The forum’s champion, and the people’s chief,
The new-born Numa thou, with reign, alas I too brief.
It may well be questioned whether the tomb of Rienzi
has any claim to the garland of freedom. The substi-
tution of one oppression for another ; the destruction of
the tyrannical few in order to exalt the despotic one;
the abuse of the name and of the weapons of freedom in
the erection of a power independent of the people; the
heaping of contempt and derision upon efforts which
ought to be consecrated as most honourable and glorious;
if, indeed, these be services to the cause of freedom,
Rienzi may merit the chaplet I The eulogistic epithets
which Petrarch applied to his friend—“ vir magnamine!
vir fortissime ! Junior Brute 1”—seem to have had greater
weight with Lord Byron than the sober relations of his-
tory. Even Mr. Hobhouse has spoken in very, very
measured terms of Rienzi’s apostasy from the cause of
freedom. “ The fall of this abortion of fortune was the
fruit rather of his own intemperance than of the incon-
stancy of the Romans. As the overthrower of the usurpa-
tion of the nobles, as the assertor of justice, as the
punisher of violence, and the projector of a splendid
system which was to restore the freedom of Rome and