Page:The Oxford book of Italian verse.djvu/561

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NOTES

then Secretary of the Directorate. It was at this time that he composed a poem in execration of Louis XVI, whom he had formerly praised. After the fall of the Cisalpine Republic he went to Genoa and thence to Paris, where he became the flatterer of Napoleon. In 1802 he was elected professor of Poetry at Pavia, and, in 1804, poeta del governo italiano and assessore consulente of fine arts. After the Congress of Vienna in 1814 he had leave to remain at Milan, and wrote poems on the Austrian governor of the Lombardo-Veneto. Died at Milan. Chief works:—Shakespearian tragedies: Aristodemo (1787); Galeotto Manfredi (1788); Caio Graccho (1802); poems: the Bassvilliana; the Mascheroniana, celebrating Napoleon and cursing England; La Bellezza dell'Universo, influenced by Milton; I Pensieri d'Amore, Il Bardo della Selva Nera, Il Beneficio, etc. [Poesie liriche, Carducci, Firenze, 1858; Canti e Poemi, ed. Carducci, Firenze, 1862; Tragedie, etc., ed. Carducci, Firenze, 1865.]

Foscolo (page 398). Born at Zante. Educated at Spalato; went to Venice about 1793; after the fall of the Republic joined a cavalry regiment at Bologna. Returned to Venice, and went to Milan when the treaty of Campoformio ceded Venetian territory to Austria. Wrote in the Monitore italiano; went to Bologna and Florence; fought against the Austrians and Russians; was imprisoned at Modena; fought at Trebbia and Novi; was at Genoa during the siege. Joined the Italian legion of the French army, 1804; returned to Milan, 1806, and was made professor of Italian Eloquence at Pavia, but the Chair was abolished almost immediately after his appointment. Had to leave Milan because his tragedy Aiace, produced at La Scala in 1811, contained satirical references to Napoleon. Returned in 1813, served the Austrians for a short time, then (1815) fled to Switzerland, and came to London in 1816. He met most of the interesting people in England, but lived in

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