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FOSCOLO, UGO (1778-1827)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 731 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FOSCOLO, UGO (1778-1827) , See also:Italian writer, was See also:born at See also:Zante in the Ionian Isles on the 26th of See also:January 1778. On the See also:death of his See also:father, a physician at Spalatro, in See also:Dalmatia, the See also:family removed to See also:Venice, -and in the University of See also:Padua Foscolo prosecuted the studies begun in the Dalmatian See also:grammar school. The fact that amongst his Paduan masters was the See also:abbe Cesarotti, whose version of See also:Ossian had made that See also:work highly popular in See also:Italy, was not without See also:influence on Foscolo's See also:literary tastes, and his See also:early knowledge of See also:modern facilitated his studies in See also:ancient See also:Greek. His literary ambition revealed itself by the See also:appearance in 1797 of his tragedy Tieste—a See also:production which obtained a certain degree of success. Foscolo, who, from causes not clearly explained, had changed his See also:Christian name Niccolo to that of Ugo, now began to take an active See also:part in the stormy See also:political discussions which the fall of the See also:republic of Venice had provoked. He was a prominent member of the See also:national committees, and addressed an See also:ode to See also:Napoleon the liberator, expecting from the military successes of the See also:French See also:general, not merely the overthrow of the effete Venetian See also:oligarchy, but the See also:establishment of a See also:free republican See also:government. The treaty of Campo Formio (17th Oct. 1797), by which Napoleon handed Venice over to the Austrians, gave a See also:rude See also:shock to Foscolo, but did not quite destroy his hopes. The See also:state of mind produced by that shock is reflected in the Letters of Jacopo Ortis (1798), a See also:species of political Werther,—f or the See also:hero of Foscolo embodies the See also:mental sufferings and See also:suicide of an undeceived Italian patriot just as the hero of See also:Goethe places before us the too delicate sensitiveness embittering and at last cutting See also:short the See also:life of a private See also:German See also:scholar. The See also:story of Foscolo, like that of Goethe, had a groundwork of See also:melancholy fact. Jacopo Ortis had been a real personage; he was a See also:young student of Padua, and committed suicide there under circumstances akin to those described by Foscolo. At this See also:period Foscolo's mind appears to have been only too See also:familiar with the thought of suicide.

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Cato and the many classical examples of self-destruction scattered through the pages of See also:Plutarch appealed to the imaginations of young Italian patriots as they had done in See also:France to those of the heroes and heroines of the See also:Gironde. In the See also:case of Foscolo, as in that of Goethe, the effect produced on the writer's mind by the See also:composition of the work seems to have been beneficial. He had seen the ideal of a See also:great national future rudely shattered; but he did not despair of his See also:country, and sought See also:relief in now turning to gaze on the ideal of a great national poet. At See also:Milan, whither he repaired after the fall of Venice, he was engaged in other literary pursuits besides the composition of Ortis. The friendship formed there with the great poet See also:Parini was ever afterwards remembered with See also:pride and gratitude. The friendship formed with another celebrated Milanese poet soon gave See also:place to a feeling of See also:bitter enmity. Still hoping that his country would be freed by Napoleon, he served as a volunteer in the French See also:army, took part in the See also:battle of the Trebbia and the See also:siege of See also:Genoa, was wounded and made prisoner. When released he returned to Milan, and there gave the last touches to his Ortis, published a See also:translation of and commentary upon See also:Callimachus, commenced a version of the Iliad, and began his translation of See also:Sterne's Sentimental See also:Journey. The result of a memorandum prepared for See also:Lyons, where, along with other Italian delegates, he was to have laid before Napoleon the state of Italy, only proved that the views cherished by him for his country were too bold to be even submitted to the See also:dictator of France. The See also:year 1807 witnessed the appearance of his Carme sui sepolcri, of which the entire spirit and See also:language may be described as a See also:sublime effort to seek See also:refuge in the past from the misery of the See also:present and the darkness of the future. The mighty dead are summoned from their tombs, as ages before they had been in the masterpieces of Greek See also:oratory, to fight again the battles of their country. The inaugural lecture on the origin and See also:duty of literature, delivered by Foscolo in January 18o9 when appointed to the See also:chair of Italian eloquence at See also:Pavia, was conceived in the same spirit.

In this lecture Foscolo urged his young countrymen to study letters, not in obedience to See also:

academic traditions, but in their relation to individual and national life and growth. The sensation produced by this Iecture had no slight See also:share in provoking the See also:decree of Napoleon by which the chair of national eloquence was abolished in all the Italian See also:universities. Soon afterwards Foscolo's tragedy of See also:Ajax was represented but with little success at Milan, and its supposed allusions to Napoleon rendering the author an See also:object of suspicion, he was forced to remove from Milan to See also:Tuscany. The See also:chief fruits of his stay in See also:Florence are the tragedy of Ricciarda, the Ode to the See also:Graces, See also:left unfinished, and the completion of his version of the Sentimental Journey (1813). His version of Sterne is an important feature in his See also:personal See also:history. When serving with the French he had been at the See also:Boulogne See also:camp, and had traversed much of the ground gone over by Yorick; and in his memoir of Didimo Cherico, to whom the version is ascribed, he throws much curious See also:light on his own See also:character. He returned to Milan in 1813, until the entry of the Austrians; thence he passed into See also:Switzerland, where he wrote a fierce See also:satire in Latin on his political and literary opponents; and finally he sought the shores of See also:England at the See also:close of 1816. During the eleven years passed by Foscolo in See also:London, until his death there, he enjoyed all the social distinction which the most brilliant circles of the See also:English See also:capital confer on foreigners of political and literary renown, and experienced all the misery which follows on a disregard of the first conditions of domestic See also:economy. His contributions to the See also:Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, his See also:dissertations in Italian on the See also:text of See also:Dante and See also:Boccaccio, and still more his English essays on See also:Petrarch, of which the value was enhanced by See also:Lady Dacre's admirable See also:translations of some of Petrarch's finest sonnets, heightened his previous fame as a See also:man of letters. But his want of care and forethought in pecuniary matters involved him in much embarrassment, and at last consigned him to a See also:prison; and when released he See also:felt bitterly the See also:change in his social position, and the coldness now shown to him by many whom he had been accustomed to regard as See also:friends. His general bearing in society —if we may accept on this point the testimony of so keen an observer and so tolerant a man as See also:Sir See also:Walter Scott—had unhappily not been such as to gain and retain lasting friendships. He died at Turnham See also:Green on the loth of See also:October 1827.

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Forty-four years after his death, in 1871, his remains were brought to Florence, and with all the pride, pomp and circumstance of a great national See also:mourning, found their final resting-place beside the monuments of Macchiavelli and See also:Alfieri, of See also:Michelangelo and Galileo, in Italy's See also:Westminster See also:Abbey, the See also:church of See also:Santa Croce. To that See also:solemn national See also:tribute Foscolo was fully entitled. For the originality of his thoughts and the splendour of his diction his country honours him as a great classic author. He had assigned to the literature of his nation higher aims than any which it previously recognized. With all his defects of character, and through all his vicissitudes of See also:fortune, he was always a sincere and courageous patriot. Ample materials for the study of Foscolo's character and career may be found in the See also:complete See also:series of his See also:works published in Florence by Le See also:Monnier. The series consists of See also:Prose letterarie, (4 vols., 1850) ; Epistolario (3 vols., 1854) ; Prose politiche (1 vol., 185o) ; Poesie (1 vol., 1856) ; Lettere di Ortis (1 vol., 1858) ; Saggi di critica storico-letteraria (1st vol., 1859; 2nd vol., 1862). To this series must be added the very interesting work published at See also:Leghorn in 1876, Lettere inedite del Foscolo, del Giordani, e della Signora di See also:Stael, a Vincenzo Monti. The work published at Florence in the summer of 1878, Vita di Ugo Foscolo, di Pellegrino See also:Artusi, throwsmuch doubt on the genuineness of the text in Foscolo's writings as given in the complete Florence edition, whilst it furnishes some curious and See also:original illustrations of Foscolo's familiarity with the English language. (J. M.

End of Article: FOSCOLO, UGO (1778-1827)

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