[11] Another current tradition is the following:—‘So great was the excitement of the Roman populace against the condemnation of Beatrice, that on her way to the scaffold three attempts were made, by concerted bands of young men, to rescue her from the officers’ hands. On the eve of the fatal day she sat meditating her doom so intently, that for some time she did not notice a young man who had bribed the jailer to admit him into the cell for the purpose of making a sketch of her. Her appearance is thus described:—“Beatrice had risen from her miserable pallet, but, unlike the wretched inmate of a dungeon, resembled a being from a brighter sphere. Her large brown eyes were of liquid softness, her forehead broad and clear, her countenance of angelic purity, mysteriously beautiful. Around her head a fold of white muslin had been carelessly wrapped, from whence in rich luxuriance fell her fair and waving hair. Profound sorrow and recent bodily anguish imparted an air of touching sensibility to her lovely features. Suddenly turning, she discovered a stranger seated with pencil and paper in hand looking earnestly at her—it was Guido Reni. She demanded who he was, and what he did there; the frank young artist told his name and object, when, after a moment’s hesitation, Beatrice replied, ‘Signor Guido, your great name and my sad story may make my portrait interesting, and the picture will awaken compassion if you write on one of its angles the word innocent.’” Thus was birth given to an inspired picture, which, to contemplate, is itself worth a visit to Rome; which, once seen, haunts the memory as a supernatural mystery—as the beautiful apparition of sublimated suffering.’
[12] Bulwer’s Strange Story.
[13] ‘Mohammedanism had been the patron of physical science; paganizing Christianity not only repudiated it, but exhibited towards it sentiments of contemptuous disdain and hatred; hence physicians were viewed by the Church with dislike, and regarded as atheists by the people, who had been taught that cures must be wrought by relics of martyrs and bones of saints: for each disease there was a saint. Already it was apparent that the Saracenic movement would aid in developing the intelligence of barbarian Western Europe, through Hebrew physicians, in spite of the opposition encountered from theological ideas imported from Constantinople and Rome.’—Draper’s Intellectual Development of Europe, p. 414.
‘When fainting Nature called for aid,
And hovering Death prepared the blow,
His vigorous remedy displayed
The power of Art without the show.
In Misery’s darkest caverns known,
His useful help was ever nigh;
Where hopeless Anguish poured his groan,
Or lonely Want retired to die.
No summons mocked by chill delay,
No petty gains disdained by pride;
The modest wants of every day,
The toil of every day supplied.’
[15] Shakspeare’s Medical Knowledge, by Charles W. Stearns, M.D. New York: D. Appleton and Co.
[16] ‘Country dances’ were taught in France, in 1684, by Isaac, an Englishman.—D.
[17] Which has long ceased to exist.
[18] Essays of Elia.
[19] In 1860.