GIUS'TI, GIUSEPPE, the most celebrated and popular of the modern poets and satir ists of Italy, was b. in 1809, at Pescia, in the vicinity of Florence. Sprung from an influential Tuscan family, Giusti was early destined to the bar, and at Pistoja and Lucca commenced the preliminary studies, which were completed at the university of Pisa, where lie obtained his degree of doctor of laws. Sustained earnestness of study seems to have formed no feature in Guisti's collegiate course, whose natural bent rather inclined him to a genial participation in the freaks and social pleasures of his compan ions than to the erudite investigation of the Pandects. On quitting Pisa, Giusti was domiciled at Florence with the eminent advocate Capoquadri, who subsequently became minister of justice, and here he first attempted poetry. Lyrical compositions of the romantic school, evincing both elevated and nervous thought, were his earliest efforts; but lie speedily comprehended that satire, not idealism, was his true forte. In a pre eminent degree, Giusti possesses the requirements of a great lyrical satirist—terse, clear, and brilliant, he depicts, alternately with the poignant regret of the humanitarian and the mocking laugh of the ironist, the decorous shams and conventional vices of his age. His impartiality only lends a keener sting to his denunciation. The stern flagellator of tyrants, he is no less merciless in stigmatizing those whose pliant servility helps to per petuate the abasement of their country. Nor does he adulate the people, whose cham pion he avowedly is, and whose follies and inconsistencies he indicates with the faith fulness of a watchful friend. The writings of Giusti exercised a positive political influence. When the functions of the press were ignored, and freedom of thought was treason, his flaming verses in manuscript were throughout all Italy in general circula tion, fanning the hatred of foreign despots, and powerfully assisted in preparing the revolutionary insurrection of 18-1-8. Then for the first time, did' Giusti discard the
pseudonym of "The Anonymous Tuscan," and append his name to a volume of verses. bearing on the events and aims of the times. All his compositions are short pieces, rarely blemished with personalities, and written in the purest form of the popular Tus can dialect. The elegant familiarity of idiom which constitutes one of their chief and original beauties in the eyes of their native readers, presents great difficulties to foreign ers, and still greater to the translator. Giusti's writings are not only Italian in spirit and wit, but essentially Tuscan. A reverent student of Dante, Giusti himself often reaches an almost Dantesque sublimity in the higher outbursts of his scornful wrath, while he stands alone in the lighter play of ironical wit. In politics, an enlightened and moderate liberal, averse alike to bureaucracy and mobocracy, Giusti was also beloved in private life for his social qualities, and his loving and gentle spirit. He died in 1850, aged 41, in the dwelling of his attached friend, the marquis Gino Capponi, at Florence; and the throng of citizens who followed him to the grave, in the teeth of Austrian prohibi tion, attested eloquently the repute he enjoyed in life. His most celebrated pieces are entitled Stivale, or the History of a boot (Italy), a humorous narration of all the misfits, ill-usage, and patching allotted to this unfortunate down-trodden symbol of his country;. Gingillino, a master-piece of sarcasm, portraying the ignoble career of the sycophant, whose supple back and petty diplomacy finally secure for him the highest distinctions; 11 Re fNavieello, or King Log, the subject of which is indicated by the title; 11 prindisi: di Girella, or the Weathercock's Toast, one of his best pieces, dedicated to the suggestive. name of Talleyrand: and the Dies Ir'e, or funeral oration of the emperor Francis I. The only authorized and correct edition of his works is that published at Florence in. 1?52 by Le Monnier.