consequent liberation of Papal Umbria and the Marches by the regular army of Victor Emmanuel. The immediate outcome was the United Kingdom of Italy, formed against the wishes of all the great European powers except England, who was the first to recognise the new State in the spring of 1861. Mrs. Browning died at Florence in the following summer, having seen her dream realised for all Italy except Rome and Venice. At the time of her death the English poet whose name will live longest in connection with the theme of Italian liberty was only beginning to express in verse the enthusiasm for that cause which was to inspire half his finest work. Swinburne's devotion to Italy was not, like that of Byron or the Brownings, the result of knowledge of the Italians and understanding of their problems. It was inspired by Mazzini's cast-iron Republican theories, already dead as a practical influence on the world of Italian politics, but resuscitated into immortal life by their adaptation to the art and temperament of his singular disciple. It may be doubted whether the poet of such a headlong river of song, fresh and glorious as Arethusa springing from her couch of snows, could have halted to think, without losing more in volume and simplicity than could have been replaced by greater penetration or breadth of outlook. In the Muses' house are many mansions. When a great poet thinks deeply on historical and political subjects, like Meredith in his Odes on French History, he may achieve something unique, but he is not likely to attain to the lyrical splendour of Swinburne's Songs before Sunrise. The Monotones of Mazzini's unbending faith were admirably suited to produce the full genius of Swinburne. 'Because there is but one truth; To this later period of the Risorgimento belongs the poetic genius of Carducci, who represents to his countrymen the finest spirit of their nation. Meredith may well have been thinking of Carducci's popularity with his own people when he said, on Swinburne's death, that if Swinburne had been an Italian he would have been hailed as the National Poet. In 1866 Italy acquired Venice, and in 1870 Rome. The dream for which Shelley had scarcely dared to hope in his vision on the Euganean Hills, the 'free Italy' for which Byron had been so willing to sacrifice himself, became an accomplished and thereupon a most prosaic fact. Even while I write these words the prospect is arising that Italy will of her own accord throw away the one inestimable advantage that she has hitherto had over the other Great Powers, of being the conqueror of no other race, and mistress only in her own house. The warship Garibaldi, * This volume would not be worth publishing but for the generosity of Mr. Watts Dunton in allowing me to make such free use of his copyrights. one reads, is bombarding Tripoli. It is not hard to guess what the namesake of that ship would have thought of this attack upon the liberty of others. The 'red, white, and green' has become one of the least honourable of the 'commercial assets' waving over a militarist and financial Europe. Yet sometimes, somewhere, for a little, ideals stir the masses of men, and at all times the tourist in Italy will do well to remember that but sixty years ago it was death to show those three colours, that the thought of the hidden flag was the sacrament of a great faith and of a pure and mighty brotherhood, and that English poets, the like of whom are no longer found in the world, felt their hearts throb at the sight of that foreign flag, and hailed it as 'a beacon beneath to the beacon above, Green as our hope in it, white as our faith in it, red as our love.' |