Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

The Italian, or the Confessional of the Black Penitents. A Romance

London

Cadell and Davies

1797

"The early breeze sighing among the foliage, that waved high over the path, and the hollow dashing of distant waters, he listened to with complacency, for these were sounds which soothed yet promoted his melancholy mood; and he sometimes rested to gaze upon the scenery around him, for this too was in harmony with the temper of his mind."

A few devotees only had begun to ascend the mountain, and Vivaldi kept aloof even from these, pursuing a lonely track, for his thoughtful mind desired solitude. The early breeze sighing among the foliage, that waved high over the path, and the hollow dashing of distant waters, he listened to with complacency, for these were sounds which soothed yet promoted his melancholy mood; and he sometimes rested to gaze upon the scenery around him, for this too was in harmony with the temper of his mind. Disappointment had subdued the wilder energy of the passions, and produced a solemn and lofty state of feeling; he viewed with pleasing sadness the dark rocks and precipices, the gloomy mountains and vast solitudes, that spread around him; nor was the convent he was approaching a less sacred feature of the scene, as its gray walks and pinnacles appeared beyond the dusky groves. 'Ah! if it should enclose her!' said Vivaldi, as he caught a first glimpse of its hall. 'Vain hope! I will not invite your illusions again, I will not expose myself to the agonies of new disappointment; I will search, but not expect. Yet, if she should be there!'
(I.xi, p. 135)

Music::Harmony

Reading

At least 7 entries in the ESTC (1797)

Radcliffe, Ann. The Italian, ed. Robert Miles (New York: Penguin, 2000). <Google Books: vol. I, vol. II, vol. III>

06/04/2013