The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy (2nd Edition)

by Felicia Hemans

For other versions of this work, see The Restoration of the Works of Art to Italy.

A POEM.

THE

RESTORATION

OF THE

WORKS OF ART TO ITALY:

A POEM.

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BY FELICIA HEMANS.

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Italia, Italia! O tu cui dic la sorte
Dono infelice di bellezza, ond' hai
Funesta dote d'infiniti guai,
Che'n fronte scritte per gran doglia porte;
Deh, fossi tu men bella, o almen pin forte.
Filicaja.

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SECOND EDITION.

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OXFORD,
PRINTED BY W. BAXTER;
FOR J. MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET, LONDON.
1816.

"THE French, who in every invasion have been the scourge of Italy, and have rivalled or rather surpassed the rapacity of the Goths and Vandals, laid their sacrilegious hands on the unparalleled collection of the Vatican, tore its Masterpieces from their pedestals, and dragging them from their temples of marble, transported them to Paris, and consigned them to the dull sullen halls, or rather stables, of the Louvre. ***************
"But the joy of discovery was short, and the triumph of taste transitory!"

Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy, vol. ii. p. 60.

THE

RESTORATION

OF THE

WORKS OF ART TO ITALY.