[113] Caroline, Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, formerly Princess Caroline of Hesse-Darmstadt.—T.
[114] Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) had produced some twenty operas prior to 1823.—T.
[115] Christopher Gluck (1712-1787), the great classical operatic composer.—T.
[116] Johann Friedrich Christopher Schiller (1759-1805). His tragedy of Joan of Arc, or, rather, the Jungfrau von Orleans, appeared in 1802.—T.
[117] Gaspardo Spontini (1778-1851), a native of the Papal States, made his first great success with the Vestal in 1807, at which time he was musical director to the Empress Joséphine. In 1810, he became manager of the Théâtre Italien in Paris and, in 1820, manager of the Berlin Opera. On the death of Frederic William, in 1842, he returned to Paris, where he had been elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1839.—T.
[118] Sébastian Érard (1752-1831), the famous pianoforte manufacturer. He was born at Strasburg, went to Paris in 1768 and, after a stay of some years in London, settled finally in Paris in 1812. Érard perfected the modern piano, organ and harp.—T.
[119] Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) fulfilled a number of political missions before 1300, when he was made a Florentine magistrate.—T.
[120] Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) spent his life between poetry and public affairs. In 1512, he was sent on a mission from the Duke of Ferrara to Pope Julius II.; in 1521, he was sent to suppress the bands of brigands infesting one of the provinces, and so on.—T.
[121] John Milton (1608-1674) was secretary-interpreter for the Latin tongue to the Privy Council under the Commonwealth and, subsequently, private secretary to the Protector Cromwell.—T.
[122] Charles de Lameth had made himself ridiculous in 1790, in his capacity as a member of the Committee of Inspection of the Constituent Assembly, by leading a nocturnal expedition against the convent of the Nuns of the Annunciation at Pontoise, in order to look for M. de Barentin, brother of the Abbess. The Marquis de Bonnay, Chateaubriand's predecessor in Berlin, wrote on this occasion an heroi-comical poem of the wittiest description, entitled the Prise des Annonciades.—B.