Puslapio vaizdai
PDF
„ePub“

not very well pleafed with living fo obfcurely in the country: but his mother dying, he prevailed with his father to let him indulge a defire, which he had long entertained, of feeing foreign countries, and particularly Italy: and having communicated his defign to Sir Henry Wotton, who had formerly been' embaffador at Venice, and was then Provost of Eton College, and having alfo fent him his Mask of which he had not yet publicly acknowledged himself the author, he received from him the following friendly letter dated from the College the 10th of April 1638.

[ocr errors]

SIR,

"It was a fpecial favor, when You lately bestowed upon me here the first taste of Your acquaintance, "tho' no longer than to make me know, that I "wanted more time to value it, and to enjoy it

rightly. And in truth, if I could then have ima"gined Your farther ftay in these parts, which I "understood afterwards by Mr. H., I would have "been bold, in our vulgar phrafe, to mend my

[ocr errors]

draught, for You left me with an extreme thirst, "and to have begged your converfation again jointly "with Your faid learned friend, at a poor meal or

[ocr errors]

two, that we might have banded together fome "good authors of the ancient time, among which I "obferved You to have been familiar.

"Since Your going, You have charged me with "new obligations, both for a very kind letter from You, dated the fixth of this month, and for a dainty piece of entertainment, that came there"with; wherein I fhould much commend the tragical part, if the lyrical did not ravish with a

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

certain

"certain Doric delicacy in Your fongs and odes, "wherein I must plainly confefs to have feen yet "nothing parallel in our language, Ipfa mollities. "But I muft not omit to tell You, that I now only "owe You thanks for intimating unto me, how "modeftly foever, the true artificer. For the work " itself I had view'd fome good while before with fingular delight, having received it from our common friend Mr. R. in the very close of the late "R's poems printed at Oxford; whereunto it is "added, as I now fuppofe, that the acceffory might

[ocr errors]

"

[ocr errors]

help out the principal, according to the art of "ftationers, and leave the reader con la bocca dolce. "Now, Sir, concerning Your travels, wherein I may challenge a little more privilege of discourse " with You; I fuppofe, You will not blanch Paris "in Your way. Therefore I have been bold to " trouble You with a few lines to Mr. M. B. whom "You fhall eafily find attending the young Lord S. "as his governor; and You may furely receive from " him good directions for fhaping of Your farther journey into Italy, where he did refide by my "choice fome time for the king, after mine own re"cefs from Venice.

"I should think, that Your beft line will be "thro' the whole length of France to Marseilles, "and thence by fea to Genoa, whence the paffage "into Tuscany is as diurnal as a Gravefend barge. I

[ocr errors]

haften, as You do, to Florence or Sienna, the ra"ther to tell You a fhort ftory, from the intereft "You have given me in Your fafety.

"At Sienna I was tabled in the house of one Alberto "Scipione, an old Roman courtier in dangerous VOL. I.

C

"times,

"times, having been steward to the Duca di Pag"liano, who with all his family were ftrangled, "fave this only man, that escaped by forefight of "the tempeft. With him I had often much chat "of those affairs; into which he took pleasure to "look back from his native harbour; and at my

[ocr errors]

de

parture toward Rome, which had been the center " of his experience, I had won confidence enough "to beg his advice, how I might carry myself fecurely there, without offenfe of others, or of my own confcience: Signor Arrigo meo, fays he, i penfieri ftretti, & il vifo fciolto, that is, Your "thoughts clofe, and Your countenance loofe, ic will go fafely over the whole world. Of which "Delphian oracle (for fo I have found it) Your σε judgment doth need no commentary; and therefore, Sir, I will commit You with it to the best "of all fecurities, God's dear love, remaining Your friend, as much at command as any of longer "date. H. Wotton.

[ocr errors]

[ocr errors]

P. S. "Sir, I have exprefsly fent this by my footboy to prevent Your departure, without fome ac"knowledgment from me of the receipt of Your obliging letter, having myself thro' fome business, "I know not how, neglected the ordinary conveyance. In any part where I fhall understand You fixed, I fhall be glad and diligent to entertain "You with home-novelties, even for fome fomen*tation of our friendship, too foon interrupted in "the cradle."

[ocr errors]

Soon after this he fet out upon his travels, being of an age to make the proper improvements, and

.not

not barely to fee fights and to learn the languages, like most of our modern travelers, who go out boys, and return fuch as we fee, but fuch as I do not choose to name. He was attended by only one fervant, who accompanied him through all his travels; and he went first to France, where he had recommendations to the Lord Scudamore, the English embaffador there at that time; and as foon as he came to Paris, he waited upon his Lordship, and was received with wonderful civility; and having an earnest defire to vifit the learned Hugo Grotius, he was by his Lordship's means introduced to that great man, who was then embaffador at the French court from the famous Chriftina Queen of Sweden; and the vifit was to their mutual fatisfaction; they were each of them pleased to fee a perfon, of whom they had heard fuch commendations. But at Paris he stayed not long; his thoughts and his wishes haftened into Italy; and fo after a few days he took leave of the Lord Scudamore, who very kindly gave him letters to the English merchants in the feveral places thro' which he was to travel, requesting them to do him. all the good offices which lay in their power.

From Paris he went directly to Nice, where he took shipping for Genoa, from whence he went to Leghorn, and thence to Pisa, and fo to Florence, in which city he found fufficient inducements to make a ftay of two months. For befides the curiofities and other beauties of the place, he took great delight in the company and converfation there, and frequented their academies as they are called, the meetings of the most polite and ingenious perfons, which they have in this, as well as in the other

C 2

principal

principal cities of Italy, for the exercise and im provement of wit and learning among them. And in these converfations he bore fo good a part, and produced fo many excellent compofitions, that he was foon taken notice of, and was very much courted and careffed by several of the nobility and prime wits of Florence. For the manner is, as he fays himfelf in the preface to his fecond book of the Reason of Church-government, that every one must give fome proof of his wit and reading there, and his productions were received with written encomiums which the Italian is not forward to beftow on men of this fide the Alps. Jacomo Gaddi, Antonio Francini, Carlo Dati, Beneditto Bonmatthei, Cultellino, Frefcobaldi, Clementilli are reckoned among his particular friends. At Gaddi's house the academies were held, which he conftantly frequented. Antonio Francini compofed an Italian ode in his commendation. Carlo Dati wrote a Latin eulogium of him, and correfponded with him after his return to England. Bonmatthei was at that time about publishing an Italian grammar; and the eighth of our author's familiar epiftles, dated at Florence Sept. 10. 1638, is addreffed to him upon that occafion, commending his defign, and advising him to add fome obfervations concerning the true pronunciation of that language for the ufe of foreigners.

So much good acquaintance would probably have detained him longer at Florence, if he had not been going to Rome, which to a curious traveler is certainly the place the moft worth feeing of any in the world. And fo he took leave of his friends at Florence, and went from thence to Sienna, and from

« AnkstesnisTęsti »