1820.] TITA, THE GONDOLIER. 403 being a good Governor. We have had hideous frost and snow, but all is mild again. Yours ever truly, B. 774.-To William Bankes. Ravenna, February 19, 1820. I have room for you in the house here, as I had in Venice, if you think fit to make use of it; but do not expect to find the same gorgeous suite of tapestried halls. Neither dangers nor tropical heats have ever prevented your penetrating wherever you had a mind to it, and why should the snow now?-Italian snow-fie on it !— so pray come. Tita's1 heart yearns for you, and mayhap 1. Giovanni Battista Falcieri (1798-1874), Byron's gondolier and faithful follower, came of a celebrated family of gondoliers, his father and brothers being in the service of the Mocenigo family at Venice. Tita followed Byron to Ravenna, where Shelley, writing to Peacock in 1821, from Byron's "Circæan Palace," the Palazzo Guiccioli (Prose Works of Shelley, ed. H. Buxton Forman, vol. iv. p. 220), mentions him as "a fine fellow, with a prodigious black "beard, and who has stabbed two or three people, and is one of the "most good-natured-looking fellows I ever saw." Tita was also with Shelley at Lerici (ibid., p. 271) in May, 1822. Accompanying Byron in all his wanderings, Tita followed him to Greece, where he remained with him till his death. In Byron's employment he had saved £700; but after his master's death he was appointed to command a regiment of Albanians, a command which speedily stripped him of his savings. Reduced to poverty, he engaged himself as servant to Mr. James Clay, and then (1830-31) travelled with Benjamin Disraeli in Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. On coming to England in 1832, he became house steward at Bradenham House to Isaac Disraeli, in whose service he remained till his master's death in 1848. At this crisis, fortunately for Tita, Benjamin Disraeli accidentally met Hobhouse, then a member of the Government, and asked for a messengership for Byron's old servant. By Hobhouse's influence Tita was appointed a messenger at the Board of Control. Four years later, when the Board of Control was abolished, the Conservatives were in power, and Tita, at the request of Disraeli, was appointed by Lord Stanley chief messenger at the India Office. He died December 23, 1874, at the age of 76. His widow received a pension from Lord Beaconsfield. Tita appears in Don Juan, and in Lord Beaconsfield's Contarini for your silver broadpieces; and your playfellow, the monkey, is alone and inconsolable. I forget whether you admire or tolerate red hair, so that I rather dread showing you all that I have about me and around me in this city. Come, nevertheless,-you can pay Dante1 a morning visit, and I will undertake that Theodore and Honoria will be most happy to see you in the forest hard by. We Goths, also, of Ravenna, hope you will not despise our arch-Goth, Theodoric.2 I must leave it to these worthies to entertain you all the fore part of the day, seeing that I have none at all myself— the lark that rouses me from my slumbers being an afternoon bird. But then, all your evenings, and as much as you can give me of your nights, will be mine. Ay ! and you will find me eating flesh, too, like yourself or any other cannibal, except it be upon Fridays. Then, there are more cantos (and be damned to them) of what Fleming. Among Byron's "motley household," which met Rogers at Bologna (Rogers's Italy, "Bologna "), came "Not last nor least, Battista, who, upon the moon-light sea Served, and, at parting, thrown his oar away 1. Dante died at Ravenna, September 14, 1321, and was buried in the Church of S. Francesco. P. 321, note 1.) (For Theodore and Honoria, see 2. Ravenna became the seat of the Gothic kingdom of Italy, when, after a siege of three years, it fell into the hands of Theodoric (455-526), who, after the murder of Odoacer in 493, ruled Italy till his own death in 526. Himself an Arian, he was induced, towards the close of his reign, to prosecute the orthodox Christians. He caused Boethius, the author of the Consolations of Philosophy, to be executed, as well as the philosopher's father-in-law, Symmachus (525). Remorse is said to have hastened his end. His memory is preserved at Ravenna by his palace, his mausoleum, and the churches of S. Apollinare Nuovo and Santo Spirito. |