"Con elle (le Grazie)
Qui dov' io canto Galileo sedea
——a spiar l' astro
Della loro regina, e il desviava
Col notturno rumor l' acqua remota
Che sotto ai pioppi della riva d' Arno
Furtiva e argentea gli volava al guardo,
Qui a lui l' Alba, la Luna e il Sol mostrava
Gareggianti di tinte, or le serene
Nubi sulle cerulee Alpe sedente
Ora il piano che——alle tirrene
Nereidi, immensa di città e di selve
Scena—e di templi e d' arator beati,
Or cento colli, onde Appenin corona
D' ulivi e d'antri, e di marmoree ville
L' elegante città, dove con Flora
Le Grazie han serti, e amabile idioma."
[62]Storia d' Italia, scritta da Carlo Botta.
[63]Carlo Botta.
[64]Pecchio.
[65]It was on account of one of these Graces that Foscolo believed himself obliged to challenge one Graham, an American. When they met in the field, the poet received, but did not return, his adversary's fire, and the affair terminated without a reconciliation.. Graham was at that time a reporter to a newspaper, and had served Foscolo as translator of his works. He afterwards got into difficulties, committed a forgery, and was obliged to leave this country. Soon after, he fell in a duel in America.
[66]Pecchio, Vita di Ugo Foscolo.
[67]There is an error in this inscription with regard to the day of Foscolo's death, and also probably of his age, since it is supposed that he was not more than forty-nine when he died. His countrymen also regret that instead of the above inscription, that was not adopted which he wrote for himself, under the feigned name of Didimo Chierico, which runs thus:—
Didymi Clerici
Vitia: virtus: ossa
Hic: post: annos . . .
Conquiescere cœpere.