Marini and Bernardo Tasso were also numbered among her poets and admirers.
Vittoria Colonna died at Rome, in 1547. She was suspected of favouring in secret the reformed doctrines; but I do not know on what authority Roscoe mentions this. Her noble birth, her admirable beauty, her illustrious marriage, her splendid genius, (which made her the worship of genius—and the theme of poets,) have rendered her one of the most remarkable of women;—as her sorrows, her conjugal virtues, her innocence of heart, and elegance of mind, have rendered her one of the most interesting.
Where could she fix on mortal ground
Those tender thoughts and high?
Now peace, the woman's heart hath found,
And joy, the poet's eye![38]
Antiquity may boast its heroines; but it required virtues of a higher order to be a Vittoria Colonna, or a Lady Russel, than to be a Portia or an Arria. How much more graceful, and even more sublime, is the moral strength, the silent enduring heroism of the Christian, than the stern, impatient defiance of destiny, which showed so imposing in the heathen! How much more difficult is it sometimes to live than to die!
Più val d' ogni vittoria un bel soffirire.
Or as Campbell has expressed nearly the same sentiment,
To bear, is to conquer our fate!
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Orlando Furioso, canto 37.
[29] "Never less idle than when idle."