The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.Fagan, Louis
History
The life and correspondence of Sir Anthony Panizzi, K.C.B., Vol. 1 (of 2): Late principal librarian of the British museum, senator of Italy, etc.
Fagan, Louis
Panizzi, Anthony, Sir, 1797-1879
I feel it would be indiscretion were I to trespass any longer upon
your time, as I was inclined so to do on this last occasion. I shall
therefore conclude, offering you my sincerest thanks for the kindness
with which, sometimes even in spite of the enraged elements, you have
honoured this course of lectures. I know full well that the subject
must have been so agreeable to a choice audience like that by which I
have been favoured, so as to be a powerful attraction for them to
attend. But I cannot and will not think that I am indebted for your
presence to the merits of the poems I lectured upon rather than to
your benevolence to me. I have known Liverpool so long and so well,
and have had so many occasions of experiencing the hospitality of its
inhabitants, that my heart cannot allow me to think that you came to
hear me as you would have done a stranger. I am not a stranger in this
town to which the noblest of sentiments—gratitude—ties me. I beg you
will continue to entertain for me the kind feelings which you have
hitherto done, being certain that I am fully sensible of their value,
and proud in thinking that you have not found—and I hope you never
will find me either unworthy of them, or not appreciating them as
fully as they deserve.
It is pleasing to trace in these words the grateful heart of Panizzi,
reflecting as they do the warmth of his feelings, and acknowledging the
kindness shown him by Liverpool friends at a time when he sadly needed
sympathy and support; we now leave him, through such aid, in better
worldly circumstances than he had but recently encountered.
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CHAPTER III
_Foscolo; At Holkham; First Article; Departure from Liverpool; Brougham;
Miss Turner; London University; Botta; Lady Dacre; ‘Orlando
Innamorato’; W. S. Rose; Keightley; Moore’s Verses; Correspondence
with Mr. Grenville; First Appointment._
Panizzi being established in Liverpool in 1826, it may be concluded
(and, indeed, in a letter to be presently quoted he admits as much) that
he was now earning sufficient to satisfy his immediate wants, and to
enable him to enjoy a certain degree of luxury. He resided at 93 Mount
Pleasant, an eminence overlooking the town, and celebrated in Roscoe’s
poem of the same name. From the invitations he received, constantly
dining out, it may be inferred he moved in the best society and was
leading a comfortable life. Far otherwise was it with Ugo Foscolo, his
fellow-exile. For Foscolo, of whose celebrity in England, as of the
reverence paid to his name by the youth of his native Italy, Giuseppe
Mazzini writes so warmly, was now living in London in a state bordering
on destitution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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