Haymarket by a woman of bad character, gave her a blow on the hand, was attacked by three bullies, and in self-defence inflicted mortal wounds upon one of them with a knife. At the next sessions Baretti was tried at the Old Bailey. Johnson and Burke went to see him in Newgate, and had small comfort to give him. ‘Why, what can he fear,’ said Baretti, placing himself between them, ‘that holds two such hands as I do?’ (Mrs. Piozzi, Autobiography, 2nd ed. i. 97). He declined to claim the privilege of being tried by a jury half composed of foreigners. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Beauclerk, Fitzherbert, Burke, Garrick, Goldsmith, and Dr. Hallifax bore testimony to the quietness of his general character. The jury acquitted him. It has been supposed that Baretti was assisted in drawing up his defence by Dr. Johnson and Mr. Murphy, but on the other hand it is asserted that he claimed it as his own at Mr. Thrale's table in the hearing of both those gentlemen. The street scuffle and the subsequent trial were made the subject of a poem in Italian ottava rima published at Turin in 1857.
In 1770 Baretti determined to revisit Italy and repay his brothers a portion of the money advanced by them. At the end of April 1771 he returned to London after an absence of nine months. Among the works he published about this time were an improved edition of his Italian-English Dictionary; prefaces to the magnificent London reprints of the works of Machiavelli and other standard authors; and a volume of Italian-English dialogues. He likewise began an English translation of ‘Don Quixote,’ but abandoned it half finished in 1772.
From October 1773 to 6 July 1776 Baretti was domesticated in the family of Mr. Thrale. He had, at Dr. Johnson's request, undertaken to instruct his eldest daughter, Hester Thrale, afterwards Lady Keith, in the Italian language. In 1774 he received an offer of the professorship of Italian in the university of Dublin, but declined it (Gent. Mag. lx. 1063). In the autumn of 1775 Baretti accompanied the Thrales and Dr. Johnson on their well-known visit to France. They were about to make another continental tour in 1776 under Baretti's guidance, but were prevented by the sudden death of Thrale's only son. The bitterest enmity had by this time arisen between Mrs. Thrale and Baretti, who finally left the house on 6 July 1776. Baretti's strictures in the ‘European Magazine’ for 1788 on Mrs. Thrale's marriage with Piozzi are so brutal that even her enemy Boswell could not approve them (Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, vi. 169 n.) Baretti's manuscript notes on Mrs. Piozzi's ‘Letters of Dr. Johnson’ are still more insulting. In a private communication to a friend he accused her of breaking a promise to pension him for teaching her daughter (Letter to Don Francesco Carcano, 12 March 1785). Mrs. Piozzi says that Baretti's overbearing insolence was intolerable (Mrs. Piozzi, Autobiography, 103 et seq.)
Baretti became embarrassed and again sought help from his brothers; but he received no reply. In 1777 he published in French a ‘Discourse on Shakespeare,’ which increased his reputation. In 1778 he brought out a Spanish and English dictionary, which has become a standard work. In 1779 he aided Philidor in producing a musical setting of the ‘Carmen Seculare’ of Horace. Baretti says this work ‘brought me in 150l. in three nights, and three times as much to Philidor, whom I got to set it to musick. It would have benefited us both (if Philidor had not proved a scoundrel) greatly more than those sums’ (Manuscript Note on Johnson's Letters, ii. 41). He next published, in Italian, ‘A Collection of Familiar Letters,’ ascribed to various historical and literary personages, but really composed by himself; and in a work entitled ‘Tolondron’ (1786) he violently attacked Bowle's edition of ‘Don Quixote’ [see Bowle, John].
In 1782 he had received from the government an annual pension of 80l. Not long afterwards he contracted a friendship with Richard Barwell [q. v.], whom he used to call his rich Nabob, and usually spent several months of the year at Barwell's country seat at Stanstead in Sussex.
He died on 5 May 1789, and was buried at Marylebone. Immediately after his death his legal representatives burnt every letter in his possession without inspection.
His portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, has been engraved by Bromley.
Baretti was tall in stature, and had a robust constitution. He was exceedingly temperate. He early abandoned the doctrines of the Roman catholic church, without adopting those of any other; but his scepticism was never offensively displayed. In England he is chiefly remembered as the friend of Dr. Johnson, and as the compiler of the Italian and Spanish dictionaries, though the English account of his ‘Travels’ is still sometimes read, and always with pleasure. In Italy his fame has been kept alive by reprints of his lively prose writings, and his continued popularity among his countrymen is proved by the fact that in 1870 a philocritical society called after him was founded at Florence.
His works are as follows: 1. ‘Stanze al
