Rienzi | Page 5

his work are thus
already shaped to his hand - the characters already created - what
remains for him, is the inner, not outer, history of man - the chronicle

of the human heart; and it is by this that he introduces a new harmony
between character and event, and adds the completer solution of what is
actual and true, by those speculations of what is natural and probable,
which are out of the province of history, but belong especially to the
philosophy of romance. And - if it be permitted the tale-teller to come
reverently for instruction in his art to the mightiest teacher of all, who,
whether in the page or on the scene, would give to airy fancies the
breath and the form of life, - such, we may observe, is the lesson the
humblest craftsman in historical romance may glean from the
Historical Plays of Shakespeare. Necessarily, Shakespeare consulted
history according to the imperfect lights, and from the popular
authorities, of his age; and I do not say, therefore, that as an historian
we can rely upon Shakespeare as correct. But to that in which he
believed he rigidly adhered; nor did he seek, as lesser artists (such as
Victor Hugo and his disciples) seek now, to turn perforce the Historical
into the Poetical, but leaving history as he found it, to call forth from its
arid prose the flower of the latent poem. Nay, even in the more
imaginative plays which he has founded upon novels and legends
popular in his time, it is curious and instructive to see how little he has
altered the original ground-work - taking for granted the main materials
of the story, and reserving all his matchless resources of wisdom and
invention, to illustrate from mental analysis, the creations whose
outline he was content to borrow. He receives, as a literal fact not to be
altered, the somewhat incredible assertion of the novelist, that the pure
and delicate and highborn Venetian loves the swarthy Moor - and that
Romeo fresh from his "woes for Rosaline," becomes suddenly
enamoured of Juliet: He found the Improbable, and employed his art to
make it truthful.
That "Rienzi" should have attracted peculiar attention in Italy, is of
course to be attributed to the choice of the subject rather than to the
skill of the Author. It has been translated into the Italian language by
eminent writers; and the authorities for the new view of Rienzi's times
and character which the Author deemed himself warranted to take, have
been compared with his text by careful critics and illustrious scholars,
in those states in which the work has been permitted to circulate. (In the
Papal States, I believe, it was neither, prudently nor effectually,

proscribed.) I may say, I trust without unworthy pride, that the result
has confirmed the accuracy of delineations which English readers
relying only on the brilliant but disparaging account in Gibbon deemed
too favourable; and has tended to restore the great Tribune to his long
forgotten claims to the love and reverence of the Italian land. Nor, if I
may trust to the assurances that have reached me from many now
engaged in the aim of political regeneration, has the effect of that
revival of the honours due to a national hero, leading to the ennobling
study of great examples, been wholly without its influence upon the
rising generation of Italian youth, and thereby upon those stirring
events which have recently drawn the eyes of Europe to the men and
the lands beyond the Alps.
In preparing for the Press this edition of a work illustrative of the
exertions of a Roman, in advance of his time, for the political freedom
of his country, and of those struggles between contending principles, of
which Italy was the most stirring field in the Middle Ages, it is not out
of place or season to add a few sober words, whether as a student of the
Italian Past, or as an observer, with some experience of the social
elements of Italy as it now exists, upon the state of affairs in that
country.
It is nothing new to see the Papal Church in the capacity of a popular
reformer, and in contra-position to the despotic potentates of the several
states, as well as to the German Emperor, who nominally inherits the
sceptre of the Caesars. Such was its common character under its more
illustrious Pontiffs; and the old Republics of Italy grew up under the
shadow of the Papal throne, harbouring ever two factions - the one for
the Emperor, the one for the Pope - the latter the more naturally allied
to Italian independence. On the modern stage, we almost see the
repetition of many an ancient drama. But the past should teach us to
doubt