It is like passing from some luxurious grove of oranges and roses to a barren hill-top without prospect over sea or champaign.

We are fortunate in possessing a few pages of autobiography, from which all that is needful to remember of Gabriello Chiabrera's personal history may be extracted.

He was born in 1552 at Savona, fifteen days after his father's death.

His mother made a second marriage, and left him to the care of an uncle, with whom at the age of nine he went to reside in Rome.

In the house of this bachelor uncle the poor little orphan pined away.