Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: D. O. M. TORQUATI TASSI HIC JACET HOC NE NESCIAS ESSE HOSPES FRES. HUIUS. ECCL. P. P. M. D. C. I. OBIIT ANNO MDXLV. Who can tread on the ashes of the honoured dead, and not feel the lesson that their silence breathes ? But in the memory of this highly gifted mortal such lesson is more peculiarly touching. When fortune ceased to persecute him, health, and strength and vigour failed. In the rude blast, the flower shed its perfume; but when the sun of fortune burst forth, that splendour proved too oppressive?it faded and died. The Pope gave Tasso a pension; he gained several lawsuits, and in fine, a glorious triumph awaited him. Fame wove a chaplet due to his talents; but death came with a rapid stride, and snatched it from him. The tomb opened beneath his feet;?he felt the doom awarded by Providence, and retired to this monastery of St. Onofrio, to contemplate that everlasting glory which mocks all earth-born greatness. Under this impression, he addressed a letter to Constantino, his faithful friend?and died. In the first burst of feeling, the Cardinal Cintro thought of paying every mark of respect to the memory of his friend; and to this end, but with a vain and pompous sentiment, he caused the body of the deceased to be arrayed in a Roman toga, to be crowned with laurels, and to be publicly displayed and carried through the principal streets of Rome, attended by all the Palatine court; then carried back to St. Onofrio. It was deposited finallybeneath the humble stone where it now lies. Funeral orations were prepared in Latin and Italian; and the Cardinal designed to have erected a magnificent mausoleum over his friend. But the grief of the Cardinal, it seems, soon subsided, many cares superseded those which he felt for the departed, and his intentions rem...

Discover untold secrets with this extraordinary memoir of drama and tragedy by Anne Glenconner—a close member of the royal circle and lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the 5th Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact. A unique witness to landmark moments in royal history, Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth's coronation, and a lady in waiting to Princess Margaret until her death in 2002, Anne's life has encompassed extraordinary drama and tragedy. In Lady in Waiting, she will share many intimate royal stories from her time as Princess Margaret's closest confidante as well as her own battle for survival: her broken-off first engagement on the basis of her "mad blood"; her 54-year marriage to the volatile, unfaithful Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who left his fortune to a former servant; the death in adulthood of two of her sons; a third son she nursed back from a six-month coma following a horrific motorcycle accident. Through it all, Anne has carried on, traveling the world with the royal family, including visiting the White House, and developing the Caribbean island of Mustique as a safe harbor for the rich and famous-hosting Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, and many other politicians, aristocrats, and celebrities. With unprecedented insight into the royal family, Lady in Waiting is a witty, candid, dramatic, at times heart-breaking personal story capturing life in a golden cage for a woman with no inheritance. New York Times Bestseller USA Today Bestseller The Sunday Times Bestseller The Globe and Mail Bestseller ABA Indie Bestseller The Times (UK) Memoir of the Year One of Newsweek's Most Anticipated Books of 2020