The Modern Gyffes. A Tale of Trials.
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THE MODERN GVGES. A TAI.B of TRIALS.
" THE boy shall be called Annl- bal !" exclaimed Walstein, a young painter resident in Nuremburg, as he snatched his sleeping first-born from the mother's arms, and strained him with rapturous delight to his bosom. The infant, roused by this sudden change of position, opened a pair of large blue eyes upon the happy fa- ther, and screamed with terror in his vehement embrace. " Give me the boy, Walstein !" exclaimed the anxious mo- ther, as she hastily extricated the frightened infant from her husband's arms. ' ' You men are miserable nur- ses, and should never touch an infant under twelve months old." The little fellow nestled in her arms, reposed his cherub-head upon her bosom, and in a few seconds was asleep again.
" But tell me, Walstein !" conti- nued Amelia, " what in the name of wonder can prompt you to call this beautiful boy by such an ugly name as Annibal ? Why, it is the name of our neighbour's bull- dog, and the first owner of it was that heathen Cartha- genian who delighted in havoc and slaughter. I should never hear the name without a shudder, and I beg you will choose one more suitable for the child of Christian parents. For instance, one of those fine Scriptural names, John, or Mark, or Luke."
"Luke, say you?" exclaimed the painter ; ei impossible, Amelia ! St Luke is the patron-saint of the sub- lime art of painting, as St Cecilia is of music ; and to call a painter's child after him would be almost as irreve- rent as to name him after the great founder of our faith. No, Amelia ! these holy names will not become a painter's boy ; he must be called after some one of the great Italian masters. The Annibal I mean is not the Car- thagenian general, who, by the way, was a great man ; but the famous painter Annibal Caracci, that great and glorious artist, who, in conjunc- tion with his brothers, roused Italian art from the death-like torpor and darkness which had succeeded the me- ridian effulgence of llaffaelle and Mi- chel Angelo. How often I have ga- zed on and copied the great achieve- ments of the Caracci at Bologna, and even wept as I compared my tame and feeble drawings with the immeasura- VOL. XXV.
bly surpassing power and science of the great originals. Can you wonder, my Amelia ! that I should venerate the man whose resolute perseverance revived and invigorated the Italian schools, and to whose admirable de- signs I am mainly indebted for my proficiency in art ? I will, neverthe- less, to please you, abandon my inten- tion of calling our first-born after him. What think you of Bartolo* meo ?"
" I prefer it to Annibal," said Ame- lia, " because it was the name of one of the holy apostles ; but it is so long that every one would call the boy Bart. No, Walstein ! he is a beau- tiful fellow, and I am determined that he shall have a beautiful name."
" What name can be more imposing than Bartolomeo?" replied the paint- er ; " and what elevated associations are connected with it ! Only think of those great masters, Fra Bartolomeo, Bartolomeo Ramenghi, and Bartolo- meo Schidone, whose works are full of sublimity and devotion, and glo- riously coloured. What a constella- tion of greatness, and what an enno- bling distinction to be named after them !"
" All this may be very true," retort- ed the smiling mother, " but the name is, and ever will be, an ugly one. If our boy must bear a painter's name, why not call him Guido, or Julius ?" " True, Amelia ! Guido Reni and Julio Romano were able artists ; but I class my Annibal and the Bartolo- meos far above them."
" But why attach such importance to a name ?" resumed his wife. " How many men have worn distinguished names, and disgraced them by vice and folly !"
" And yet a good name is a point of vital importance," replied the tena- cious Walstein. " Nomen ct omen, said the Romans, and in this saying a fine morality is conveyed. The youth who wears a great man's name will be naturally solicitous to prove himself not unworthy of it, or, at least, he will endeavour not to disgrace it. With this view my good father called me after the immortal Leonardo da Vin- ci, and that great and accomplished man has been through life my polar star, as well as my guardian angel, 2 G
