ROSSETTI, GABRIELE, an Italian poet and critic; born in Vasto, Abruzzo Citeriore, then forming part of the kingdom of Na ples, Feb. 28, 1783. His father, Nicola Rossetti, was engaged in the iron trade of the district; his mother was Maria Francesca Pietrocola. The parents were not in easy circumstances, and had a large family; besides Gabriele, two of the sons attained some eminence, Andrea becoming a canon in the Church, and Domenico be ing well reputed in letters and antiquities. Gabriele gave early signs of more than common ability, and was placed by the local grandee, the Marchese del Vasto, to study in the University of Naples. He had a fine tenor voice, and was sometimes urged to try his success on the operatic stage; he drew with such precision that some of his extant pen-drawings with sepia-ink might readily be taken for steel engravings; he composed poetry, both written and improvised, and became one of the most noted improvisatori in Na ples. The boyhood and youth of Rossetti passed in a period of great political com motion, consequent on the revolutionary and imperial wars of France. The Bour bon King of Naples, Ferdinand I., was ousted by the Parthenopean Republic, and again by King Joseph, the brother of Napoleon, and his successor King Joachim (Murat), the emperor's brother-in-law, and Ferdinand had to retire to Sicily.
Rossetti obtained an appointment as curator of ancient bronzes in the Museum of Naples, and also as librettist to the operatic theater of San Carlo; he wrote the libretto of an opera, "Giulio Sabino," was well received at the court of the Na poleonic sovereigns, and in 1813 acted as a member of the provisional government sent to Rome by Murat. After the res toration of Ferdinand to Naples in 1815 he continued his connection with liberal politicians and joined the widely diffused secret society of Carbonari. In 1820 a military uprising compelled King Ferdi nand to grant a constitution on the model of that which had recently been estab lished in Spain. Rossetti saluted its ad vent in one of his most celebrated odes, beginning, "Beautiful indeed art thou, with the stars in thine hair." The good faith of the king was highly dubious from the first, and in 1821 he abrogated the constitution and put it down with the aid of Austrian troops. The Constitutional ists were proscribed and persecuted, Ros setti among them. He escaped and about
1824 made his way to London to follow the career of a teacher of Italian. In 1826 he married Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori, daughter of a Tuscan father and English mother; soon afterward he was elected Professor of Italian in King's College, London. They had four children: (1) Maria Francesca, born 1827, died 1876 (author of "A Shadow of Dante," etc.) ; (2) Gabriel Charles Dante (see be low) ; (3) William Michael, born 1829 (critical writer, and editor of Shelley; see below) ; (4) Christina Georgina (see below). In London Rossetti lived a stu dious, laborious, and honorable life. In politics he was a vigorous liberal, but more inclined to a constitutional mon archy than a republic; in religion he was mainly a freethinker, but tending in his later years toward an undogmatic form of Christianity. Though totally opposed to the papal system and pretensions, he would not openly abjure, in a Protestant country, the Roman Catholic creed of his fathers. His health began to fail in 1842, and his sight became dim. After some attacks of a paralytic character he died in London, April 26, 1854.
Besides some poems published in Italy, Rossetti produced the following works: "Dante, Commedia" (the Inferno only was published), with a commentary aiming to show that the poem is chiefly political and anti-papal in its inner meaning (1826) ; "Lo Spirito Antipapale the produsse la Riforma" ("The Anti-Papal spirit which produced the Reformation"—an English translation also was published) reinforc ing and greatly extending the same gen eral views (1832) ; "Iddio e l'Uomo, Sal terio" ("God and Man, a Psaltery"), poems (1833) ; "Il Mistero dell' Amor Platonico del Medio Evo" ("The Myste rious Platonic Love of the Middle Ages"), five volumes (1840). This book was printed and prepared for publication, but withheld as likely to be deemed rash and subversive; "La Beatrice di Dante," con tending that Dante's Beatrice was a sym bolic personage, not a real woman (1842) ; "Il Veggente in Solitudine" ("The Seer in Solitude"), a speculative and partly autobiographical poem (1846) ; it circulated largely, though clandestinely, in Italy, and a medal of Rossetti was struck there in commemo ration; "Versi" (miscellaneous poems) (1847); and "L'Arpa Evangelicd" ("The Evangelic Harp"), religious poems (1852).