revived the decaying spirit of our national muse, or the smooth couplets
of Pope, or those gentle and polished verses with the composition of
which you had beguiled your own earlier leisure? It was those easy
lessons, far more than the harsher rudiments learned subsequently
in schools, that taught me to admire and to imitate; and in them I
recognise the germ of the flowers, however perishable they be, that I
now bind up and lay upon a shrine hallowed by a thousand memories of
unspeakable affection. Happy, while I borrowed from your taste, could I
have found it not more difficult to imitate your virtues--your spirit of
active and extended benevolence, your cheerful piety, your considerate
justice, your kindly charity--and all the qualities that brighten a
nature more free from the thought of self, than any it has been my lot
to meet with. Never more than at this moment did I wish that my writings
were possessed of a merit which might outlive my time, so that at least
these lines might remain a record of the excellence of the Mother, and
the gratitude of the Son.

E.L.B. London: January 6, 1840.



Preface

to

The First Edition of Rienzi.

I began this tale two years ago at Rome. On removing to Naples, I
threw it aside for "The Last Days of Pompeii," which required more
than "Rienzi" the advantage of residence within reach of the scenes