•.vas a prince of very rigid ideas of decorum. Yet, after all, it is not easy to part, on very harsh terms, with the name and memory of the woman who solaced the heart, and cherished the genius of Metastasio. Something may be allowed for the general manners of her country and her vocation. She was no ordinary person; she made no vulgar choice in her affection; and was neither mercenary nor inconstant in preserv ing it. The age at which she died is not precisely known ; but she was probably older than Metastasio, having attained to the zenith of her reputation as a singer in Genoa in 1712. Metastasio speaks with deep grief for her death to those with whom it was not his interest to be ostentatious of such feelings. In a let ter to his brother, he says—" Poor Marianna will never return ; and I believe that the rest of my life will be insipid and soirowful." It has been already noticed, that in early life lie took the minor orders of priesthood. In one of his letters to his female friend, he mentions the death of a certain abate in Sicily, to whose vacant abbey he would have wished to succeed; but did not know in what diocese it was situated, or whether it was requisite that the candidate should be a regular ecclesiastic. It appears from other letters, that although he wished for secular perferment in the church, he had no intention to be an ecclesiastic " in Ills course of life after his removal to Vienna, was little varied by other events than the successive pro duction of his operas. In 1738, he was, without soli citation on his part, complimented by the city of Asisi with a patent of nobility. His appointment or lau reate, and the profits of nis compositions, enabled him to support a respectable appeaiance in society, and to live with all the comforts necessary to his retired and moderate habits. It may be suspected, however, that lie was obliged, for many years, to cherish retired and moderate habits from necessity as much as choice ; nor does lie write to his friends at all times with unquali fied satisfaction about his pecuniary affairs. t. Charles VI.," he says in a letter to a lriend, " as a reward for my long services, and to make up for toy unpaid salary, granted me a thousand crowns in Sicily on a bishoprick or benefice in that kingdom; but all the bishops, abbots, and beneficed clergy became from that time immortal, and the kingdom was lost before I had received a penny The treasurership of Cosenza m Ca labria becoming vacant, my august patron, remember ing my unpaid arrears, destined it for me. I took pos session—spent more than 800 ducats of my own money in fees and other expellees ; but before I had begun to to reap the first crop, the Spaniards entered the king dom, and I remained with my patent in my hand, ready for curling my hair, or folding up sugar plums." The Empress Queen, lie farther relates to his corres pondent, impoverished by a seven years' war, was ob liged to diminish the salaries of her servants. To con sole him for this diminution, and for his other losses, she assigned him 1500 florins in Milan ; but at the end of five years the promise was unluifilled ; and after fif teen years service lie found himself in a worse state than when he had left his native country. was undoubtedly a faithful picture of his affairs at one pe riod of his residence in Germany. It is clear, nowever, that he must have ultimately saved money at Vienna in the course of his long life, from the sums which he left at his death.
These particulars of his private history are contain ed in his correspondence with the celebrated singer Farinelli. A friendship subsisted between our poet and that musician for filly years, after they were sepa rated and established in the service of different mo narchs in the two most remote capitals of Europe. The poet and musician were nearly of the same age, and began their public career in the city of Naples at the same time. They regarded each other as twins of public favour, brought to light at the same birth, and united in one common interest. Metastasio never ima gined his poetry injured by Farinelli's moo florid style of singing ; and such was his fraternal affection for his taro gernello," that he overlooked or forgot the of simplicity. action, and pathos in his singing so entire ly, as to censure young performers for these defects in his letters to Farinelli.• The tenor of his life was uniform and placid at Vienna, if not remarkably happy ; and whatever dis turbance the absence and remembrance of Marianna may have given him, he never seems to have fallen again in love. " You believe me," lie says in one of
his letters to a friend, r, in danger here from the charms of some tranquil Teutonic beauty ; how mistaken you are. Here, love and hatred never disturb the sleep of any mortal: here the body cares very little for the af fairs of the mind ; at night you may be a favourite, and in the morning unknown. Eagerness, agitation, solicitude, little quarrels, reconciliations, gratitude, vengeance, &c. all that gives terror or pleasure in the commerce of delicate souls, is here thought ridiculous, or fit only for the embellishments of romances. It is incredible to what a pitch of indolence the placid nymphs of this place are arrived. I should despair of finding one that would relinquish a game at piquet for the loss or death of her dearest lover. There are many who would think the turning aside from their sampler among the most mysterious excesses of genius." He divided his apartments with the family of Signor Mar tinez, the imperial librarian, whose sister, brought up from the cradle by the poet, and highly accomplished in literature as well as in music, devoted herself with :filial attachment to his amusement. From the period of his fixing in this intimacy with the family of Mar tinez, he acquired a habit of dividing his time so re gularly, that a single day became something like a mi niature of his life ; and he was often in jest, though with great justice, compared to a clock. In the morn ing he went always at the same hour to hear mass at the church of the Capuchins ; from thence he went to visit the Countess of Althau, with whom, his Italian biographer says, that he regularly spent his time from eleven till two in the morning, and from eight till ten in the evening ; and after her death he spent the same allotted hours with his friend Perlas, the canon of Breslaw. We must suppose that he met at that lady's house the circle of friends to whose society he was chiefly attached. He rose, took his meals, and went to bed always at a stated hour. At six in the evening lie received at home the Sardinian minister and Baron Hagen, the president of the imperial Aulic council. With these friends, he spent his time till eight, usually reading the Greek and Latin classics in chronological order. In the intervals of the day he wrote his verses and his letters. When he had finished his writing, he never left a scrap of paper on the table. He was in short such a lover of order in all his ways, that he used to say jocularly that he feared Hell chiefly besause it was a place of utter disorder, and because he under stood that in the infernal legions nullus ordo sed sempcternes horror inhabitat." He was accused of bring finical in his person, from his attachment to odo riferous washes, and delicate soaps and pomatums. In his dress he was excessively neat and simple. He had a frailty in his advanced years of being averse to de cLre his age, and was not fond of alluding to his hum ble parentage. Having never had the small-pox, he could not bear to hear the word mentioned ; and when Lewis XV. died of that distemper, not only that circumstance, but even every thing concerning the Court of France, were forbidden topics in his presence. Tuis weakness was the result of the uncommon dread of death, with which he was so tormented, that when any of his friends were given over, he never inquired more about them, nor was willing to hear their names mentioned. These were foibles in a character upon the whole highly estimable ; for if not possessed of the strong and active virtues, he was perfectly free from. jealousy, envy, malignity, and the selfish passions. Ir the April of 1782, having attained his 84th year, he was suddenly seized with a fever, which for some time made him delirious; but on recovering his senses he received the sacrament with symptoms of devout scn sibility, which drew tears from the surrounding spec tators ; he also had the Apostolic benediction pronoun ced upon him in the article of death. This benedic tion was sent to him from Pope Pius VI., who was then at Vienna, by the Nuncio Garampi. He was buried with great funeral solemnity by his principal heir, Signor Joseph 'Martinez, to whom he left his house and library, and about 100,000 florins. A re maining, though small portion of his fortune, went to his sisters.