SOURCE: “Giosue Carducci: A Character Sketch.” Westminster Review 164, no. 1 (July 1905): 53-65.

[In the following essay, the unsigned critic proposes that Carducci exemplified many of the ideals contained in his poetry, and examines Carducci's influence during his lifetime.]

Italian modern literature has no greater representative than Giosue Carducci, a true-born poet of lofty ideals, to which he gave such a sublime form as to make him classic in his own times. Occasionally he was very much discussed, not for his literary merits—which were universally admitted as being unsurpassable—but owing to a fanciful interpretation given to his political writings, now by one political party, then by another. But of this we shall have something more to say in the second part of this article, as we desire to give first of all an outline of Carducci's life and character.

Giosue Carducci is now seventy years old, having been born on July 27, 1835, at Castello, near by Pietrasanta, a small Tuscan country place. His father was a doctor, and for the time being held a municipal appointment there. Both his parents were of Florentine extraction, the Carduccis being a well-known and illustrious family of Florence.

Only a few months ago an Italian paper, commenting upon the fact that the town of Volterra had given the name of Carducci to one of its new streets, explained this by making out that Carducci's mother had been born there. That was more than the poet would allow to be said about his beloved mother, and he wired at once, stating, “My mother was born in Florence.” Of this Florentine origin he was very proud, and justly so considering how the name of Florence has been for ages associated with Italian literature. In Tuscany he was born and brought up, and his inner self and manly character was formed in Tuscany, and especially in the Maremme. When he was but three years old his father removed from Pietrasanta to Bolgheri, in the province of Pisa, an ancient possession of the historical family of the Counts of the Gherardesca. There our future poet lived until he was fourteen, assimilating much of the weird and almost wild nature of those inhabitants, who are in great numbers charcoal burners, hunters and herdsmen. These eleven years passed in the Maremme have left an indelible mark on the character of our poet, and much of his life and thoughts can be easily explained thereby.

Carducci's father was a Liberal, when to be such in Italy was perilous. He took some part in the Liberal revolutionary movement of 1848; and after the Austrian bayonets restored, for a very short time, the Grand Duke on the Tuscan throne, he had to give up his municipal appointment at Bolgheri, and went with his wife and three children to live in Florence. He placed his children in the schools of the “Fathers” Scolopi. This might seem to be an incongruity, yet not a few Italian patriots sent their children to study there; and, what is more marvellous, in these schools, held and conducted as they were by reactionaries, a great number of true Italian patriots, of liberal and democratic tendencies, have been educated. The only explanation one can find for this is, that there, and there only, was the study of the classics thoroughly taught; and this study was the best one could desire to enlarge the mind of the “alunni” to the higher conception of Italy's future mission. Carducci made a great impression on the “fathers,” and left with them a kind remembrance of himself.

Carducci at this time taught his younger brothers much Latin and Italian from the works of Manzoni.

In 1852 Carducci ended his school days, and reached his father at Celle, where he was then again exercising his medical profession. There he continued his literary studies, and, having shown a great vocation for teaching, was sent to a higher grade school at Pisa, where future teachers were trained. There he soon won the admiration of the professors and of his schoolfellows. Before he was twenty he had graduated, and was but twenty-one when, with a splendid essay “On the Provençal Influence on the Lyric Literature of the XIII Century,” he won his diploma of professor.

Soon afterwards he was appointed professor at the Ginnasio of San Miniato, where, however, he did not remain more than a year. The political and ecclesiastical authorities of St. Miniato did not relish the idea of having amongst their teachers a person whom they could accuse of “liberalism,” and even of “hereticism.” In fact, when he applied for a “chair” in the Ginnasio of Arezzo, this was the character they gave him, and, of course, his application was rejected. Whilst at San Miniato he composed and published a volume of verses, comprising twenty-five sonnets and twelve poems. This publication caused at Florence a lively discussion, carried out with much passion and little discrimination by both admirers and detractors of the new poet of Italy.

His financial means were very scanty at this time, and barely sufficed to make both ends meet. His abode was a single bedroom; his time was spent in work and studies; his only pastime was meeting some congenial friends, with whom classic authors were read and discussed.

The well-known Florentine publisher, Gaspare Barbera, was then at the outset of his prosperous career, and having decided to publish a small diamond collection of classic works, entrusted to Carducci the writing of the prefaces and notes for the same. The remuneration which he received for this work was then his only means of livelihood. About this time he lost his father. Carducci throughout his life has shown a great love for all the members of his family. From his early days he was more than a brother to his younger brothers, and when his father died he brought his mother and brothers to Florence, changing his single bed-room for a few rooms in the attics of a large house. There he proceeded with his work and study. He chose his wife from amongst the people, marrying in 1859 the daughter of a man of very liberal ideas whom he had known while he was at school, and he took his bride to the upper storey of Via Borgognissanti to share that modest abode with the rest of the family.

He went on writing for Barbera, and occasionally he sent some contributions to a literary sheet called Il Poliziano.

In 1860, the National Government having been established in Florence, Carducci was offered a “chair” in the Lyceum of Pistoja. He did not stay there long, he missed Florence and its libraries very much, and accordingly he applied to Signor Terenzio Mamiani, then Minister of the Educational Department, for a “chair” in Florence. Mamiani answered by offering him a “chair” at the University of Bologna, which Carducci accepted and held until January last, that is to say for about thirty-five years.

Carducci started his professorship at Bologna in January 1861. Very few students were then studying literature at that University; Carducci, however, soon made himself known, and, as the years rolled by, the number of students of literature at “Alma Mater” greatly increased.

At Bologna Carducci continued his very unassuming life, his literary work for Barbera, and his evening literary meetings—this time with other professors of the same University, who were wont to meet in the house of Professor Rocchi, a great Latin scholar—to read and discuss Italian and Latin poetical works.

Carducci always was, and especially so at this period of his life, a very hard worker. He used to write out all his lessons in full before delivering them, and for many years he produced in great numbers Odes, Poems and literary Essays.

Up to 1866 he lived quite outside the political world, which seemed to have no interest whatever for him; but the events of that year had somewhat aggrieved him, and he identified himself with a patriotic committee formed for assisting Garibaldi in his march to Rome, which ended in the defeat of Garibaldi at Mentana. On this occasion Carducci wrote several strophes which were anything but flattering to the authorities; and the Ministry, to punish him for his bold sayings and sweeping condemnation, transferred him from the literary “chair” at Bologna to the Latin “chair” of Naples.

Carducci refused to move from Bologna, because even the Ministry had no right to transfer him to another seat of learning.

Carducci, who knew this fully well, forcibly attacked the Ministry, with the result that he was suspended from teaching, and was charged with having committed acts of rebellion.

Carducci looked upon this thunderstorm with philosophical calm, and whilst waiting for better things from Florence—where the seat of the Italian Government then was—which were not long in coming, he prepared a new edition of his works, in a volume called Levia Gravia, in which he collected all his poetical productions, excluding, however, therefrom the political ones. The latter, which have appeared here and there, in Journals and Reviews, were collected together later on in a volume published by Barbera in 1871.

The year 1870—most eventful for Italy—was for Carducci a year of great domestic sorrows. In that year he lost both his mother and his only son, then three years old; the joy of his life and the hope of his future. He gave peace to his troubled mind and afflicted soul in working out some of his best poetical compositions, amongst them “Idillio Maremmano,” “On the Field of Marengo,” and “The Ox,” which he published in a volume called Nuove Poesie. He included in it also a translation from Heine and Platen.

In 1872, as he was finishing this last-mentioned work, his youngest daughter was born, whom he christened “Liberty.”

In 1870 the publisher Zanicchelli transferred his printing-office and book-store from Modena to Bologna, on a place near by where, in the eighteenth century, there was the library of Lelio Della Volpe, the meeting-place of literary men and students. Signor Zanicchelli's place soon became the rendezvous of the intellectuals. Carducci used to go there occasionally in search of books, and in a somewhat short period of time a very strong and mutual friendship was aroused between the poet and the publisher, the latter becoming in due course of time Carducci's own publisher. The first of Carducci's works published by Zanicchelli was an essay on The Parentage of Giovanni Boccaccio, written in 1874, and in 1875 Zanicchelli published a second edition of Nuove Poesie.

By this time Carducci's name and reputation was thoroughly established; he was acclaimed throughout the land as Italy's great poet. This judgment was fully confirmed and universally accepted after he published—in 1877—his famous Odi Barbare.

Above everything else, Carducci is a very conscientious writer. In 1875 he undertook to write the Life of Ariosto. With this intent he spent some time in Ferrara and Scandiano, where Ariosto was born and passed his early days; then a doubt crossed his mind whether he had at his disposal sufficient time to do full justice to his subject, and he most reluctantly decided not to carry out his work, notwithstanding that it was very dear to him.

During the General Elections of 1876, Carducci for the first and only time aspired to Parliament. He was duly elected by the constituency to whom he appealed, but he could not enter Parliament because, according to Italian law, only a certain number of teaching professors are allowed to be members of Parliament. When a greater number of professors is elected a ballot is taken, and Carducci's name was amongst those rejected.

One may say that blind fortune was then very kind to Carducci, inasmuch as he was not cut out for a political life as it is understood in the Chamber of Deputies. He, however, easily consoled himself for his parliamentary failure, and in October, at Perugia, he began his masterpiece, “The Song of Love.”

In 1878, King Humbert and Queen Margherita paid a visit to Bologna. Carducci had but lately refused the highest honour in the power of the Italian Government to bestow, to wit, the Cross of Savoy for Civil Merit. This refusal was misconstrued by the political parties, and Carducci took this opportunity to show that he did not mean to be disrespectful to the Sovereign; he declined the honour simply on account of certain ceremonies in connection with the investiture of the same. He nevertheless went with the other professors to pay his homage to the Sovereigns, and Queen Margherita left on him an everlasting and deep impression, which he reproduced and immortalised in his Eterno Femminino Regale. Never was a crowned lady more fittingly praised by a great poet, and one can add that no other royal personality better deserved to be praised than Queen Margherita, who is a great worshipper of the Muses, and an admirer of their most faithful interpreters.

This work was eminently a political one, and the next work of the same kind was an ode Carducci wrote on the occasion of the hanging of William Oberdank by the Austrians. Carducci's patriotic sympathy with the Italian provinces subjected to Austria and Carducci's hatred for the latter have been emphasised in many of his works, and were even more so on this one, as Oberdank's fate deeply moved all Italy.

Strange to say, although Rome is foremost in Carducci's mind, he only visited Rome for the first time in 1874, on which occasion he only stayed a few days. He returned in 1876 for a longer stay, and since 1881—when he was appointed a member of the Educational Board—he visited Rome frequently and made special studies there. In the meantime, Carducci was appointed a member also of a Royal Commission for Historical Studies, of which in due course he became firstly the secretary and then the chairman.

In 1884 a very flattering offer was made by the Government to Carducci, the acceptance of which would have implied the abandonment of Bologna for Rome. Carducci was encouraged to accept that offer, but he refused it because, though he loved Rome very much, he loved Bologna better, where he felt at home, and where he had many friends and no masters.

In 1885 nature warned Carducci that at his age it was no longer wise to strain his nerves with much brain-work without physical exercise or proper rest. It was a terrible warning, which for a short time caused grave fears amongst his friends. Fortunately, Carducci recovered in a comparatively short space of time, and since then he has passed some months every year on the Alps.

In 1887 he was tempted to go to Rome by another offer which seemed to appeal to Carducci's most sensitive chord. The Government had created for him a special “chair” for the study of Dante, and offered it to him; he refused it because the rules were not to his liking, and that chair up to the present time is still waiting for its first occupant.

In 1888, on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the opening of the Bologna University, Carducci wrote an essay on “Learning at Bologna,” which he read before a most exceptionally erudite assembly, at which the Sovereigns of Italy and the representatives of all the Universities of the world were present.

Carducci also took an active part in the municipal administration of Bologna; he was elected Town Councillor for the first time in 1869. Twenty years after, on the occasion of a General Municipal Election, Carducci's name came out at the top of the poll, which clearly shows in what high estimation our poet was held by his adopted town.

In 1890 the King nominated him a member of the Senate. This appointment was proposed to the King by the late Signor Crispi, a great admirer of Carducci, who, in his turn, admired Crispi very much.

Carducci, in his writings and speeches, held Crispi in great estimation, because he shared Crispi's political conception that it was useless to have created a United Italy if she was not to be mistress of her own destiny, or if her policy had to be guided by allies, and if she was compelled to beg for friendships granted to her only with a humiliating and protecting air. Carducci's affection for Crispi remained unshaken by the hostile demonstration he was subject to in his own University in 1891, and by the strong charges brought against Crispi by his foes in 1895 and 1896.

In February 1895 there was at Bologna a most interesting demonstration of general sympathy and admiration for Carducci on the occasion of his jubilee. From every part of Italy Carducci's pupils—now themselves already well-known professors—flocked to Bologna. Italian Universities and Corporations appointed special delegates to represent them. This demonstration ended with a most characteristic act on the part of Count Pier Desiderio Pasolini, who, having made a wreath of laurel grown on Dante's tomb at Ravenna, he crowned our poet with it.

In July, 1899, he was commissioned by the well-known publisher, Rapi, of Città di Castello, to write a preface to a new edition of Muratori's Rerum Italicorum Scriptores. There was to be only a few pages, but Carducci loved the subject so much that he wrote instead a fair-sized volume; but, whilst thus occupied, nature gave him another similar warning to that which it gave him in 1885. He had to rest for awhile, after which he resumed and finished the preface in question.

About this time Carducci expressed some apprehension concerning the future of his library after he had gone. Queen Margherita having heard of this, offered to pay a handsome sum for it, which offer was accepted, the library meanwhile to remain with the poet so long as he lived.

As we said at the outset, Carducci will soon be seventy years old, but he has very much aged these last few years, and, if anything, he looks older than he actually is. He does not walk easily but rather lamely, and the pen which he wielded for over fifty years and for long consecutive periods now lies almost inactive. He can now only write short things, but his mind is quite awake and as bright as ever. He passes most of his mornings with his beloved works and books, making notes with a pencil and looking after the new edition of his works begun in 1901, and of which fifteen volumes have been already published, and five more volumes are now wanting to complete the series.

As soon as it became publicly known that Carducci early in 1905 would have retired from his professorship, there was an universal demonstration of sympathy, and letters, telegrams and addresses were forwarded to the poet.

Amongst the telegrams which he received early in January there was one from King Victor Emmanuel; and the aged poet, in thanking his Majesty for his kind wishes, concluded as follows: “Your kindness to me I have always reciprocated, and will always reciprocate with sincere affection and faith.”

“Carmen non dat panem” is a well-known saying, and therefore there could be no wonder that Carducci at the end of his long and honourable career should have found himself not quite well provided for in his old age.

The Italian Parliament however, faithfully echoing the national feeling, voted him an annuity of 12,000 lire, as the nation's gift to its great poet, apart from the pension due to him for his long services as professor. The Italian people expected—not altogether without reason—that the Swedish Academy would have conferred upon him (Carducci) Noebel's Prize for Literature and Poetry, and openly and feelingly spoke of this their disappointment, which, we have reason to think, will not last longer than a year.

Passing now to the second part of our article dealing with Carducci's influence on his own times, we must, for brevity's sake, forego any criticisms on his poetical works.

Much, even too much, has been said upon this matter in 1877, soon after the appearance of the first Odi Barbare, in which Carducci, following the example given a century before by Klopstock, and in his own times by Tennyson and Ellis, revived the ancient classic metres.

Undoubtedly form has an essential part in poetry, but by itself it does not create the grandeur of a poetical work which is substantially constituted by ideas and conceptions.

The Odi Barbare appeared as a striking new poetical creation, vigorous and modern, not because they were written in alcaic strophes, but because they were truly virile as opposed to a high-sounding but empty and effete poetry, as was for many years written by several Italian poets. These Odes at once fascinated and conquered the most intellectual section of the Italian public, because they were fully inspired by heroic sentiments, which seemed to have been banished by modern poets, although without it, it appears almost impossible to conceive true poetry.

Before writing these Odes Carducci had written, besides the Rime, published in 1857, and the Levia Gravia, published in 1868, Iambics and Epods and Nuove Poesie. The latter fully represented the then state of mind of our poet,—very much discontented with the political situation of Italy, which was not then such as he wished it to be. In these Odi Barbare all political indignation and apprehension were banished, and pure art manifested itself in all its splendour. The appearance of these Odes marked for Italian poetry the end of one artistic period and the opening of a new one, much greater, and in which Carducci for some time remained a gigantic and solitary figure, and gave forth, clearly and even rudely, the truth that was in him and as he felt it. Then, gradually, his poetical works became better understood, and the knowledge of the same more generally spread.

Carducci's telling influence was exercised on Italian literature not only as a poet, but also as a prose-writer and critic. Unsurpassable master of the Italian language, he knows how to adapt to modern exigency the beauties of the thirteenth century, and to free it from the shackles of the pedants against whom, in his younger days, he has fought many a battle.

Carducci undoubtedly is the strongest, the most forcible, and at the same time the sweetest prose-writer Italy has had for a very long time. He can with great ease be witty or invective, sarcastic or deeply serious; he can use with equal force either calm reasoning or fierce indignation, attaining, when needed, the acme of literary loftiness both in style and thoughts. With extraordinary simplicity, free from any rhetorical phrases, he knows how to move and touch the most sensible chord of human nature. He is a speaker of no mean order, though generally the words do not come to his lips so fluently as the ideas spring from his fertile brain; but occasionally, when fully inspired with his subject, he appears as one of the greatest orators Italy has ever had. As an instance, at the time of the death of Giuseppe Garibaldi, and on the occasion of the opening of the new Presidential Palace of the little Republic of San Marino, he delivered his orations so perfectly and eloquently that one must go to the classic times of Greece and Rome to find the like of them.

Upon the literature and culture of his own times Carducci has also exercised his great influence as a scholar, as a critic, and as a student of historical science. As a scholar he taught with great care and conscientiousness.

Though when he went to Bologna he found only four or five students entered for his class, this number increased soon after, and in a few years it reached and even exceeded the hundred. From his school a goodly number of professors, critics and literary men sprang who are now doing a great deal of good work throughout the land, not only by enlightening the literary world with a new light and power, but also outside it, by leading noble intellects towards neglected art. Amongst Carducci's “alunni” there are the following professors: Giovanni Pascoli, Giovanni Ferrari, Guido Mazzoni and Severino Ferrari, all worthy disciples of so great a teacher. The first-mentioned professor was by the whole nation indicated as Carducci's probable successor, and early in June Giovanni Pascoli was duly chosen and appointed to that University chair.

Carducci is a keen and conscientious critic. All his criticism is founded in deep and careful study. He has deeply read and studied Italian and foreign literature, both modern and classic, Latin and Greek, reading also English, German and French authors in their own language. He translated Platen's lyrics and some of Heine's poems. For Shakespeare he has a great admiration, and he once wrote how he had read Richard III. and the Death of Julius Cæsar on the Alps amid the deafening noise of a roaring torrent.

With Signor Alessandro d'Ancona and Signor Adolfo Bartoli, Carducci has renewed in Italy historical criticism as applied to Belles Lettres, and he became the centre and mainspring of a new form of criticism.

Carducci's geniality and versatility are fully manifested in his investigations of art in every age, from the origin of the Provençal and Italian lyrics up to Parini, Manzoni and Gabrielle Rossetti. His wide knowledge and culture, the acumen and keenness of his mind, his profound erudition and his exquisite taste, have made of him a powerful critic of great modernity and merit. In a poetry with which he became inspired during a visit he paid to the tomb of Percy Bysshe Shelley, he showed in its fulness the mighty power of his analytic and, at the same time, synthetic criticism.

In the study of history he has shown a great love and devotion since his early school days. These historical studies have formed so to say, the substratum of his vast culture and learning. He read into history with a searching and open mind, and no doubt this has served to give our poet his most admirable uprightness of character and judgment.

Professor Chiarini, Carducci's intimate friend and biographer, has written that our poet, even outside poetry, has not been the man of his times, but rather a severe, and occasionally a pitiless judge and censor of the same. His severity and sternness greatly influenced the writings and thoughts of his contemporaries. Occasionally in the past he has been very much hated by a small and noisy party for his alleged political changes, but now a better and juster judgment is passed on him, even in connection with his political manifestations, as the present generation of Italians are more able to compare the same with the political events of Italy from 1865 to 1870, during which period Carducci identified himself with the most advanced parties. Rome was the magic word that moved and ruled the minds and hearts of Italian patriots. Every patriotic aspiration had for its aims the liberation of Rome from the Papal yoke. Any act of the Government which did not fully correspond to this national aspiration was fiercely denounced; and Carducci, who in 1860 had greeted King Victor Emmanuel II as the Liberator of Italy, in the years 1865-1870 sided with the Republicans. But when, in due time, the King of Italy marched to Rome and freed the Eternal City once and for ever from the rule of the Popes, Carducci's Republicanism, like that of many other great Italian patriots, came to its natural and logical death. And when, in 1876, King Victor Emmanuel summoned to power the leaders of the Liberal party, Carducci came forward, as we have said, as a Liberal Parliamentary candidate.

It so happened that in the sixties the Republican party claimed him as their own, and, accordingly, he was loved by them and despised by the opposite party. In the eighties the Monarchical party had much reason to be pleased with him, and they openly showed their satisfaction and admiration, whilst the Republicans cried out that he had gone over to the “enemy.” He was very much misunderstood by both. Carducci never was of this or that party, though some of his writings might have occasionally favoured one or the other political tendency; but he was throughout his long and glorious life a patriot in the truest meaning of the expression, both in his severe rebukes and his warm praises. His political ideas and principles—as shown in all his poems and writings—have been consistent. At times he wrote, it is true, most feelingly against this or that measure or policy, against this or that Ministry, but always keeping foremost the ideals of an Italy free, great, strong, and a guide to less fortunate nations in the paths of liberal national government. Never a word did he utter against the supreme ruler of the country. For King Humbert he cherished a strong affection, and when he was murdered he sent a most touching telegram to the bereaved Queen Margherita. The devotion of the poet to the Queen, and the Queen's admiration for the poet, are of very long standing, dating from the first year of the late King Humbert's reign.

Carducci himself, in pages which will accompany his name into posterity, has most brilliantly, and with great sincerity, fully described that striking period of his eventful life, putting forth most convincing reasons in explanation of his political evolution. Yet these were not accepted by the younger section of the Republican party—then rather strong in Bologna and the neighbouring provinces—and our poet in his own seat of learning was subject to hostile demonstrations. Once he was fiercely attacked by a mob of students, and was left by the University authorities to defend himself as best he could. He faced the music in a manly way. Lamps were smashed, the chair torn to pieces amidst a great uproar. The mob were shouting, “Down with Carducci!” “Down with the author of the poetry to the Queen!” “Down with the admirer of Crispi!” Carducci stood wonderfully calm, and addressing that adverse assembly, said: “It is useless for you to shout down with me, as nature has placed me on a lofty stage.” He waited patiently until the hostile demonstration had exhausted itself. The students one by one left the hall, and when the last one had turned on his heels, Carducci also left. As he was entering a cab to return home, one student, personally known to Carducci, tried to strike him on the head with a big key. He was prevented from carrying out his design by a policeman, who arrested him. Brought before the magistrate, Carducci's assailant was condemned to a fine; he would have been more severely dealt with had not Carducci, in his great generosity and magnanimity declared that he had not noticed anything.

This disgraceful demonstration was universally condemned, the students themselves felt ashamed of it, and on the morrow they tried to justify their actions by saying that their demonstrations were not against the poet and the literary man, but they merely wished to hoot and hiss the “Deserter of the Flag.” Any excuse is better than none, but we are afraid that this one was very poor indeed inasmuch as Carducci has had but one Flag, “the country's flag”; but one programme, the country's greatness and welfare. All his writings clearly show this. With them he did not aim at writing books to be handed over to a publisher to make money, but he composed them to teach others how to love the country, art, and beauty; how to fight against injustice, oppression, and vulgarity, and whereby to prepare worthier citizens to the nation. This is now recognised by every one, and Carducci in leaving his “chair,” which he so much honoured, saw, as it were, all the nation prostrate before his greatness, and the partisan demonstrations of many years ago fall into insignificance at the sight of the universal apotheosis of last January.

In Carducci we find a most striking harmony between the man and the poet, the lofty ideals of the latter not being omitted in the former, but rather the actions of the man seem to integrate and complete the thoughts of the poet. His whole life has been a continual tribute of love and duty to the country, to the family and to the school, upholding at all hazards truth and uprightness.

No one could be more democratic than he in the simplicity of private life and in the aversion for any form of prejudices and conventionalities; and, vice versa, no one could be more aristocratic than he in the appreciation of beautiful, great, strong and generous actions and things. His good and bad qualities are derived from the same source; his shortcomings are not the result of any weak point in his character, but they are due to the great exuberance of his passion and love. With the same abundance of feeling he loves what is beautiful, noble, and great; he hates what is ugly, ignoble, and low. Mankind has not a greater lover than he; any reform tending to improve social conditions, or to bring about a better understanding between man and man, and between nation and nation has always commanded and obtained his influential support. Italian Socialism has utterly misunderstood him: perhaps the loftiness of his ideal was much above its reach, especially so when he preached that: “A nation's ideal must have as its standing ground a gradual levelling up of the lower classes, and an ordained development of its economical resources, accompanied by all the political and social safeguards as suggested by Italian national traditions.”

A poet's influence on his own times greatly depends upon his personal character. Carducci for some time enjoyed a reputation which he did not deserve, namely, of being a wild person, almost unapproachable, full of hatred for everything he disliked; while, as a matter of fact, he is loving-kindness itself, and ready to forgive injuries he received and to forget them; and on more than one occasion he has utterly humiliated with his kindness some of his detractors—who had received at his hands courteous help and assistance—instead of crushing them with the strong rebuke which they fully desérved. Much more could be said upon this feature of the character of our poet, and from the several volumes written on Carducci it would be very easy to cull many instances of Carducci's love for his foes and adversaries, and narrate striking examples of democratic love expressed with aristocratic grace and nobility; but we have to close our paper.

Carducci's career as a poet and teacher is ended, sooner, perhaps, than his faithful admirers had foreseen. As a critic some more work is expected from him. As a citizen he will no doubt continue, in his old age and well-deserved rest, to honour the nation he belongs to and which he loved so much, and to be to others a living model of honesty, goodness, and virtue.

In concluding, we venture to express the hope that these few pages, in which we have striven to condense many things gathered from the poet himself and from some of his intimate friends, may serve to give the English public a just and truthful appreciation of the poet and of the man in whom Italy, art, and literature are equally exalted and honoured.