TO SCROPE BERDMORE DAVIES, ESQ. THE FOLLOWING POEM IS INSCRIBED BY ONE WHO HAS LONG ADMIRED HIS TALENTS AND VALUED HIS FRIENDSHIP. January 22, 1816. THE following poem is grounded on a circumstance mentioned in Gibbon's "Antiquities of the House of Brunswick."—I am aware, that in modern times the delicacy or fastidiousness of the reader may deem such subjects unfit for the purposes of poetry. The Greek dramatists, and some of the best of our old English writers, were of a different opinion: as Alfieri and Schiller have also been, more recently, upon the continent. The following extract will explain the facts on which the story is founded. The name of Azo is substituted for Nicholas, as more metrical. 66 "Under the reign of Nicholas III. Ferrara was polluted with a domestic tragedy. By the testimony "of an attendant, and his own observation, the Mar quis of Este discovered the incestuous loves of his "wife Parisina, and Hugo his bastard son, a beautiful "and valiant youth. They were beheaded in the "castle by the sentence of a father and husband, who 66 published his shame, and survived their execution. "He was unfortunate, if they were guilty; if they "were innocent, he was still more unfortunate; nor is "there any possible situation in which I can sincerely "approve the last act of the justice of a parent.”— Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works, vol. iii. p. 470, new edition. |