[181] Pietro Bonaventure Trapassi (1698-1782), known as Metastasio, one of the most graceful and charming of the Italian dramatic poets. He settled in Vienna in 1730, by invitation of the Emperor Charles VI., who gave him the title of Poeta Cesareo, and there wrote a multitude of lyrical tragedies, operas, oratorios, and poems of all kinds.—T.
[182] Mrs. Canning, née Joan Scott, a sister to the Duchess of Portland, married to Mr. Canning 8 July 1800.—T.
[183] The insurrectionary Royalists in Brittany had adopted this name from their rallying-cry, which imitated the note of the chat-huant, or screech-owl. Their marauding excursions were somewhat indiscriminate, and their presence not always welcome even to the loyal inhabitants.—T.
[184] William Camden (1551-1623), the famous antiquary, first head-master of Westminster School and later Clarencieux King-at-Arms. He has been surnamed the Strabo and the Pausanias of England.—T.
[185] Alain René Le Sage (1668-1747), author of the Aventures de Gil Blas, to whom Peltier has already been compared by Chateaubriand. Le Sage was born at Sarzeau, in Brittany: hence Chateaubriand speaks of him as his "fellow-countryman."—T.
[186] 22 April 1794.—B.
[187] The Comte Louis de Chateaubriand (1790-1873) followed a military career. In 1823 King Louis XVIII. created him heir-presumptive to his uncle's peerage. In 1830 he resigned his commission at the same time that his uncle withdrew from the House of Peers. In 1870, when eighty years of age, he refused to leave Paris, and inscribed his name on the register of the defenders of the besieged capital. He died at the Château de Malesherbes, 14 October 1873.—B.
[188] "Dear orphan, of thy mother the close type,
Of Heaven above I ask for thee below
The happy days snatched from thy sire ere ripe,
The children whom your uncle may not know."—T.
[189] Addison, Cato, Act V. sc. I.—T.
[190] Rev. John Clement Ives (d. 1812) was incumbent of Ilketshall St. Margaret, near Bungay, and of Great Holland in Essex.—T.