The Lapidation of Giuseppe Baretti and the Invective of His Lettere familiari from Portugal and Spain
In an age when the necessity of learning several modern languages was coming to be seen as a burden, now that Latin had passed away as the universal scholarly medium, Baretti mastered no less than five of them.3 It is in English that he will write, in 1768, An Account of Manners and Customs of Italy...
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| Published in: | MLN 2010-01, Vol.125 (1), p.141-152 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | In an age when the necessity of learning several modern languages was coming to be seen as a burden, now that Latin had passed away as the universal scholarly medium, Baretti mastered no less than five of them.3 It is in English that he will write, in 1768, An Account of Manners and Customs of Italy, with Observations on the Mistakes of Some Travelers with Regard to that Country-combating the vituperative Samuel Sharp.4 In his Discours sur Shakespeare et sur Monsieur de Voltaire of 1777, he will argue against the great philosophe in French.5 It is not surprising, then, that Baretti, as he sails off from England, throws himself into the study of Portuguese. Throughout his life he had fought against myriad foes and in his last years his attacks against opponents seemed to become vicious, particularly those against a fellow Hispanicist John Bowle.31 Then, too, there were his invectives against Mrs. Piozzi, the former Mrs. Thrale, upon whom he discharged his anger in his Strictures on Signora Piozzi's Publication of Doctor Johnson's Letters of 1788, and, it seems, also in the play The Sentimental Mother.32 Finally, he broke with his brothers, over a matter of inheritance, and with Johnson over a plaisanterie.33 Baretti, it seems, was unable to rise above the offenses he believed himself to have received. |
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| ISSN: | 0026-7910 1080-6598 1080-6598 |