He published three successive papers in "The
European Magazine" for 1788, assailing her with the coarsest
ribaldry. "I have just read for the first time," writes Miss Seward
in June, 1788, "the base, ungentleman-like, unmanly abuse of Mrs.
Piozzi by that Italian assassin, Baretti. The whole literary world
should unite in publicly reprobating such venomed and foul-mouthed
railing." He died soon afterwards, May 5th, 1789, and the notice of
him in the "Gentleman's Magazine" begins: "Mrs. Piozzi has reason to
rejoice in the death of Mr. Baretti, for he had a very long memory
and malice to relate all he knew." And a good deal that he did not
know, into the bargain; as when he prints a pretended conversation
between Mr. and Mrs. Thrale about Piozzi, which he afterwards admits
to be a gratuitous invention and rhetorical figure of his own, for
conveying what is a foolish falsehood on the face of it.
Baretti's death is thus noticed in "Thraliana," 8th May, 1789:
"Baretti is dead. Poor Baretti! I am sincerely sorry for him, and as
Zanga says, 'If I lament thee, sure thy worth was great.' He was a
manly character, at worst, and died, as he lived, less like a
Christian than a philosopher, refusing all spiritual or corporeal
assistance, both which he considered useless to him, and perhaps they
were so. He paid his debts, called in some single acquaintance, told
him he was dying, and drove away that _Panada_ conversation which
friends think proper to administer at sick-bedsides with becoming
steadiness, bid him write his brothers word that he was dead, and
gently desired a woman who waited to leave him quite alone.
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