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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XIV, NO. 399.] SUPPLEMENTARY NUMBER. [PRICE 2d.




Verona

[Illustration: Verona.]


SPIRIT OF THE ANNUALS FOR 1830.


Fair and gentle readers, we present you with a kaleidoscopic view of
some of these elegant trifles--the very _bijouterie_ of art and
literature--in picture outmastering each other in gems of ingenuity, and
in print, exalting a thousand beautiful fancies into a halo of harmony
and happiness for the coming year. We call these "trifles," but in the
best sense of the term--ay, the air-plants of literature, whose light
flowers and fancies shoot up and entwine with our best affections, and
even lend a charm to the loveliest of their objects.

We commence with

The Gem,

almost the "youngling of the flock," which contains the original of the
annexed Engraving, by W.J. Cooke, appended to which is the following
illustrative sketch:--


VERONA.

_By Mrs. Maria Callcott_.


The drawing from which our engraving is made, is one of the relics of
the late Mr. Bonington, whose early death has caused such great and just
regret to the lovers of painting. It represents one of those ancient
towers, and one of those magnificent palaces, (the Maffei Palace), which
distinguish the city of Verona, and, by their peculiar character mark it
both as the ancient Gothic capital of northern Italy, and as one of the
great principalities of the middle ages.

Verona is indebted to nature for part of the charms it possesses for a
traveller. It is nearly surrounded by the broad and rapid Adige: the
hills towards the Tyrol have a majestic character, which, as they
approach the city, is softened by vineyards, and fields, and gardens,
between agreeable villas or groves of cypress. The dress of the people
is picturesque; their habits are cheerful, and their manners kindly.

Besides all this, there is scarcely a city, even in Italy, to which we
attach a more romantic interest than to Verona. Under its ancient Gothic
name of Bern, it is the scene of many of the Teutonic tales which are
woven into the Book of Heroes, and the song of the Nibelung. The poets
and novelists of the middle ages have also laid the scenes of many of
their enchanting tales in this beautiful city; and our own Shakspeare
has brought Verona so home to every English reader, that we feel almost
to have a right of possession in the place.

Originally a city of the Rhetians, Verona became a Roman colony about
the time of Julius Caeser, who caused its inhabitants to be enrolled
among the number of Roman citizens. Its most flourishing periods under
the empire were the reigns of Vaspasian and of Hadrian, when various
temples, and other public buildings, of which some fragments still
remain, were erected, and the magnificent ampitheatre, which is still
used for scenic representations, was built. It was under the reign of
Trajan, that Verona received its first Christian Bishop, Euprepius; and
in that of Dioclesian, that its martyrs, Fermus and Rusticus, suffered.
The conquest of the city by Constantine, and the fearful battle fought
in its immediate neighbourhood between Stilicho and Attila, produced
little change in the condition of Verona, which continued to partake of
the general fortunes of the empire, until the reign of Theodoric the
Great.

After the invasion of Italy by the Ostrogoths, under Theodoric, and his
victory over Odoacer, which ensured him the sovereignty of the country,
from the Alps to Calabria, about the year 493, he fixed his capital at
Verona, or, as it was called by the Goths, Bern:[1] there he built a
magnificent palace, which communicated, by a continued portico,
with principal gate of the city. He renewed the Roman walls and
fortifications, repaired the aqueducts, and constructed commodious
baths and other public buildings.[2]

    [1] See Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," chap. 39, for the general
        conduct of Theodoric in Italy.

    [2] Tiraboschi, book i.

After the death of Theodoric, A.D. 526, in the 37th year of his reign,
the disturbed reigns of his daughter Amalasontha and her son Athalaric
were an earnest of the distractions that Verona suffered, in common with
the rest of Italy, till the taking of the city by Charlemagne, when a
short period of tranquillity was enjoyed. Yet there a part of the great
family tragedy, which secured his possession of the empire, was acted.
He found in the town the widow and children of his brother Carloman, and
they were sacrificed to his security. His eldest son, Pepin Hunchback,
died at Verona, and was buried in St. Zeno's church, which he had
founded. The present magnificent temple stands nearly on the site of
Pepin's humbler foundation; and the great stone, now shown in the court,
called the tomb of King Pepin, is very possibly that of Charlemagne's
son.

During the disastrous period that followed, Verona underwent all the
evils that its situation (at the very entrance to Italy from Germany)
was so peculiarly calculated to draw upon it. The invasions of the
Othos, the wars of the Guelfs and Ghibelines, the struggles of the
people against oppression, and between the oppressors for power, from
time to time distressed the city and robbed the citizens. Yet the very
struggle for freedom and power ensured a portion of the former to the
people, who were courted by all parties; and Verona became rich by the
visits of her masters, and of such as courted her assistance. But it was
in the thirteenth century that she became the queen of northern Italy,
under the reign of the Scaligers, or della Scalas, who, from simple
citizens, were raised, by their valour, their humanity, and the free
choice of the people, to the sovereignty of the state.

During one hundred and twenty-seven years, ten princes of that
illustrious house reigned in Verona. The first six were men of
extraordinary talent, and, for the time in which they lived, of
extraordinary virtue. They not only enlarged the boundaries of the
Veronese, but subjected several distant cities. Albert della Scala added
Trent and Riva, Parma and Reggio, Belluno and Vicenza, to his dominions;
and Can Grande conquered Padua, Trevigi, Mantua, and Feltre. It is his
body that is laid in the plain sarcophagus over the door of the little
church of St. Mary of the Scaligers, only adorned with the figure of a
knight on horseback, of nearly the natural size, above it. The other
tombs, on which it looks down, are those of his successors: they are
gorgeous in ornament, and form a conspicuous group among the picturesque
buildings of the city; but they are built over the ashes of men under
whom their family and state declined, until the Visconti of Milan,
having overcome the princes, built the citadel, and fortified Castello
San Pietro.

We must not omit to state that under Bartolomeo, the third of the
Scaligers, that tragic end was put to the rivalry of the great families,
Capelletti and Montecchi, which served Bandello as the foundation of one
of his most popular novels, and Shakspeare as the plot of Romeo and
Juliet. The tomb now shown as that of Juliet, is an ancient sarcophagus
of red granite: it has suffered from the fire which, burnt down the
church where it was originally placed.

The Visconti did not long rule in Verona: about the year 1405, the
Veronese placed themselves under the protection of Venice, whose good
and ill fortune they partook of, until the period of the French
Revolution, when, in 1796, the Venetian Republic ceased to exist. In
1798, the German army occupied Verona, and thought itself secure behind
walls which had stood against Catinat, and which had been improved and
strengthened by Prince Eugene; but, in 1801, it fell into the hands of
the French, and became part of the kingdom of Italy. The events of 1814
placed the Veronese under the dominion of Austria; and, in 1822, this
ancient capital of the North of Italy was the scene of a congress,
wherein the divisions of Europe were remodelled, and its proportions
changed in a manner that it is to be hoped will, in the end, conduce to
its prosperity. Never had such a royal meeting taken place since the
days of Theodoric, whose companions were princes from every nation on
earth.

But they looked on the ruins of Verona. The Roman Amphitheatre is,
perhaps, the least injured of all the public buildings. On the walls,
the four bridges, the cast