Rienzi | Page 4

of Rienzi, I was led to believe that a very

remarkable man had been superficially judged, and a very important
period crudely examined. (See Appendix, Nos. I and II.) And this belief
was sufficiently strong to induce me at first to meditate a more serious
work upon the life and times of Rienzi. (I have adopted the termination
of Rienzi instead of Rienzo, as being more familiar to the general
reader. - But the latter is perhaps the more accurate reading, since the
name was a popular corruption from Lorenzo.) Various reasons
concurred against this project - and I renounced the biography to
commence the fiction. I have still, however, adhered, with a greater
fidelity than is customary in Romance, to all the leading events of the
public life of the Roman Tribune; and the Reader will perhaps find in
these pages a more full and detailed account of the rise and fall of
Rienzi, than in any English work of which I am aware. I have, it is true,
taken a view of his character different in some respects from that of
Gibbon or Sismondi. But it is a view, in all its main features, which I
believe (and think I could prove) myself to be warranted in taking, not
less by the facts of History than the laws of Fiction. In the meanwhile,
as I have given the facts from which I have drawn my interpretation of
the principal agent, the reader has sufficient data for his own judgment.
In the picture of the Roman Populace, as in that of the Roman Nobles
of the fourteenth century, I follow literally the descriptions left to us; -
they are not flattering, but they are faithful, likenesses.
Preserving generally the real chronology of Rienzi's life, the plot of this
work extends over a space of some years, and embraces the variety of
characters necessary to a true delineation of events. The story, therefore,
cannot have precisely that order of interest found in fictions strictly and
genuinely dramatic, in which (to my judgment at least) the time ought
to be as limited as possible, and the characters as few; - no new
character of importance to the catastrophe being admissible towards the
end of the work. If I may use the word Epic in its most modest and
unassuming acceptation, this Fiction, in short, though indulging in
dramatic situations, belongs, as a whole, rather to the Epic than the
Dramatic school.
I cannot conclude without rendering the tribute of my praise and
homage to the versatile and gifted Author of the beautiful Tragedy of

Rienzi. Considering that our hero be the same - considering that we had
the same materials from which to choose our several stories - I trust I
shall be found to have little, if at all, trespassed upon ground previously
occupied. With the single exception of a love-intrigue between a
relative of Rienzi and one of the antagonist party, which makes the plot
of Miss Mitford's Tragedy, and is little more than an episode in my
Romance, having slight effect on the conduct and none on the fate of
the hero, I am not aware of any resemblance between the two works;
and even this coincidence I could easily have removed, had I deemed it
the least advisable: - but it would be almost discreditable if I had
nothing that resembled a performance possessing so much it were an
honour to imitate.
In fact, the prodigal materials of the story - the rich and exuberant
complexities of Rienzi's character - joined to the advantage possessed
by the Novelist of embracing all that the Dramatist must reject (Thus
the slender space permitted to the Dramatist does not allow Miss
Mitford to be very faithful to facts; to distinguish between Rienzi's
earlier and his later period of power; or to detail the true, but somewhat
intricate causes of his rise, his splendour, and his fall.) - are sufficient
to prevent Dramatist and Novelist from interfering with each other.
London, December 1, 1835.
Preface to the Present Edition, 1848.
From the time of its first appearance, "Rienzi" has had the good fortune
to rank high amongst my most popular works - though its interest is
rather drawn from a faithful narration of historical facts, than from the
inventions of fancy. And the success of this experiment confirms me in
my belief, that the true mode of employing history in the service of
romance, is to study diligently the materials as history; conform to such
views of the facts as the Author would adopt, if he related them in the
dry character of historian; and obtain that warmer interest which fiction
bestows, by tracing the causes of the facts in the characters and
emotions of the personages of the time. The events of