Browning there was one thing in
common, namely, a love for and familiarity with Greek studies, used to
write in the same manner.
The Dall' Ongaro here spoken of was an old friend of ours--of my
wife's, if I remember right--before our marriage. He was a Venetian,
or rather to speak accurately, I believe, a Dalmatian by birth, but
all his culture and sympathies were Venetian. He had in his early
youth been destined for the priesthood, but like many another had been
driven by the feelings and sympathies engendered by Italy's political
struggles to abandon the tonsure for the sake of joining the "patriot"
cause. His muse was of the drawing-room school and calibre. But
he wrote very many charming little poems breathing the warmest
aspirations of the somewhat extreme _gauche_ of that day, especially
some _stornelli_ after the Tuscan fashion, which met with a very wide
and warm acceptance. I remember one extremely happy, the _refrain_
of which still runs in my head. It is written on the newly-adopted
Italian tricolour flag. After characterising each colour separately in
a couplet, he ends:--
"_E il rosso, il bianco, e il verde,
E un terno che si giuoca, e non si perde_."
The phrase is borrowed from the language of the lottery. "And the
red, and the white, and the green, are a threefold combination" [I
am obliged to be horribly prosaic in order to make the allusion
intelligible to non-Italian ears!] "on which we may play and be sure
not to lose!"
I am tempted to give here another of Mrs.
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