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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38266-0.txt b/38266-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a35552 --- /dev/null +++ b/38266-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10842 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume +the first, by Count Carlo Gozzi + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first + +Author: Count Carlo Gozzi + +Illustrator: Alphonse Lalauze + Maurice Sand + A. Manceau + +Translator: John Addington Symonds + +Release Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #38266] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + +THE MEMOIRS +OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +VOLUME THE FIRST + + + + +_PUBLISHERS' NOTE._ + +_Five hundred and twenty copies of this book printed for England, +and two hundred and sixty for America. Type distributed. Each +copy numbered._ + +_No._ 606 + +[Illustration: Carlo Gozzi] + + + + +THE MEMOIRS OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH +BY +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + +With Essays on Italian Impromptu Comedy, Gozzi's Life, +The Dramatic Fables, and Pietro Longhi + +BY THE TRANSLATOR + +_WITH PORTRAIT AND SIX ORIGINAL ETCHINGS_ +BY ADOLPHE LALAUZE + +_ALSO ELEVEN SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING ITALIAN COMEDY BY MAURICE SAND +ENGRAVED ON COPPER BY A. MANCEAU, AND COLOURED BY HAND_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOLUME THE FIRST + +NEW YORK +SCRIBNER & WELFORD +743 & 745 BROADWAY +MDCCCXC + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +_VOLUME THE FIRST._ + +The Etchings designed and etched by AD. LALAUZE. The Masks, illustrating +the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, by MAURICE SAND, engraved by A. MANCEAU, +and coloured by hand. + +I. PORTRAIT OF CARLO GOZZI (_etching_) _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +II. THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY 25 + +III. COLOMBINA (1683) 48 + +IV. TARTAGLIA (1620) 96 + +V. BRIGHELLA (1570) 128 + +VI. IL DOTTORE (1653) 160 + +VII. SCARAMOUCH (1645) 192 + +VIII. THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY (_etching_) 216 + +IX. IL CAPITANO (1668) 256 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +After the appearance of my work on Benvenuto Cellini, Mr. J. C. Nimmo +proposed that I should undertake a translation of Count Carlo Gozzi's +_Memorie Inutili_. + +The suggestion that such a book might be of interest to the English +public emanated originally, I believe, from Mr. E. Hutchings of +Manchester, in a letter addressed to the _Academy_.[1] + +To this gentleman my warmest thanks are due, not only for starting the +idea, which I have carried out, but also for the interest he has shown +in my work during its progress, and for the assistance he has liberally +rendered by the loan of rare books. + +I entertained the proposal with some doubt. What I already knew about +Carlo Gozzi amounted to little; and it seemed to me improbable that the +world would willingly have left his Memoirs in oblivion if they +possessed solid qualities. + +At the same time, the little that I did know of Gozzi roused my +curiosity. The picturesque aspects of Venetian decadence allured my +fancy. I foresaw that I should have to handle the attractive subject of +Italian impromptu comedy. Finally, it so happens that autobiographies +have always exerted a peculiar fascination for my mind. I rate them +highly as historical and psychological documents. The smallest fragment +of a genuine autobiography seems to me valuable for the student of past +epochs. + +I had strong inducements, therefore, to undertake the proposed task. + +The first thing to do was to procure a copy of the Memoirs, which exist +only in one edition of three volumes. Mr. Hutchings placed the first two +volumes of the book at my disposal; but the third was missing. It had +been purloined while its owner was stationed in one of the South +American cities. Mr. Nimmo and I waited through four months, making +continued applications to the best European dealers in old books, before +a complete copy was at last disinterred from a Venetian library. + +The extraordinary rarity of the _Memorie_ stimulated my growing +interest. After making a preliminary study of the text, I perceived that +this was no common specimen of self-portraiture. In some respects it +seemed to me to be a masterpiece. I felt no doubt that it possessed both +psychological and historical value. A man of a very marked type stood +forth from those pages. He was, moreover, the Venetian representative of +a well-defined social and literary period. This period corresponded +pretty closely with that of our own Samuel Johnson, Fielding, Goldsmith, +Reynolds, David Hume. It was the period which ended with the earthquake +of the French Revolution, the signs of which catastrophe were felt more +ominously in Italy than in our own land. At the same time I recognised +salient qualities of healthy moral sense, of analytical acumen, of +vigorous intelligence, and of caustic humour in the author, mingled with +literary merit of no ordinary kind, vivid transcripts from contemporary +life, dramatic narration, incisive sketches of character, original +reflections on society. + +According to my own standard in such matters, Gozzi's Memoirs ranked as +an important document for the study of Italy in the last century. + +But was the book worth translating? Would it not suffice to leave the +few existing copies in their obscurity, and to indicate their value for +historians by composing a critical treatise on the author and his times? + +My own predilection for autobiographies, and my sense of their utility, +caused me to reject this alternative. I decided to translate, and to +illustrate my translation by tolerably copious original essays. + +While engaged upon the work, I have not, however, felt always quite at +ease. It has recurred to my mind that many readers of these volumes will +exclaim: "An English version of Gozzi's self-styled 'useless memoirs' +cannot fail to be twice as useless as the original!" Not all people +share that partiality for autobiographies which in me amounts almost to +a passion. + +Besides, I had to face other difficulties. The three chapters which +contain the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures could not be omitted. +They are too valuable for the light they throw upon his age, and too +important in the man's estimate of his own character. Their suppression +would have been unfair to Gozzi, and would have shorn his Memoirs of +some brilliant bits of local colour. Nevertheless, I knew that the +frankness and the cynical humour of these episodes are out of tune with +modern taste. Much is pardoned by the virtue of our age to classics--to +Plato or Cellini--which would not be excused in a writer of inferior +eminence. But Gozzi is no classic. The fact of his neglect by his own +nation proves that overwhelmingly. Why drag him from deserved oblivion +if these love-stories are indispensable to the rehabilitating process? + +My answer to this perplexing query was that the debated passages are +good in literature, true to nature, sound in moral feeling. Their +candour is the candour of a cleanly heart, resolved to bare its secret +by an effort of self-portraiture. Gozzi describes passions common to +that age, and ours, and every age; but he also shows how a determined +character, upright and honourable, can free itself from the +entanglements of natural frailty. The lesson may be somewhat harsh, but +it is salutary. Gozzi has written no single word unworthy of a man of +principle--nothing which is calculated to make vice alluring. Only one-- + + "Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up + From common sense of what men were and are, + Who would not know what men must be:"-- + +only such an one can take exception to the narratives of Gozzi's +love-adventures. + +Reasoning thus, I determined to include the love-tales in my +translation, having already decided that no translation could be given +to the world without them, and that the book was worthy of +resuscitation. But I felt myself justified in removing those passages +and phrases which might have caused offence to some of my readers. + +To translate Gozzi with the minute attention to his style which I +bestowed upon Cellini would have been unpractical. I should even have +inflicted an injury upon my author. It is in many respects an annoying +style; redundant, unequal, diffuse; bearing the stamp of garrulous +senility and imperfect (though copious) command of language. + +To condense and manipulate the Memoirs at my own free will, following +the plan of Paul de Musset's abridgement, seemed to me unscrupulous, +even if I abstained from that amusing writer's deliberate +mystifications. + +I resolved to convert the larger portion of the book into equivalent +English, allowing myself the license of curtailing certain passages, and +rearranging the order of some chapters. All cases of important +condensation or omission have been indicated in my notes. My account of +the Memoirs and the causes which led to their publication (Introduction, +Part i.) sufficiently explains my right to transpose material from one +place to another. Readers of the Introduction will perceive how +carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique +edition was put together. It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's +indifference and haste of compilation that so curious a specimen of +autobiography fell into almost absolute oblivion. + +We have only one edition of the _Memorie_, that of Palese, under the +date Venezia, 1797. Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of +bibliography. I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare +book which have fallen under my inspection present some features of +difference, indicating the random way in which the sheets were made up +for publication. + +Among English critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, +has mentioned Gozzi's Memoirs. That is Vernon Lee, in her _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_. But Vernon Lee knew the book only +through Paul de Musset's "perversion." Accordingly, what she has to say +about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, +account she gives of his _Fiabe_. + +The volumes I am now presenting to the public claim at least one +merit--that of dealing with a hitherto almost untouched document of +historical and literary importance. + +I flatter myself that readers will be found to appreciate the brilliant, +though prolix and desultory, portraiture of life in Venice during the +last century which these "useless memoirs" offer to their imagination. + +Finally, I wish here to record my mature opinion about Carlo Gozzi's +character for veracity and general uprightness. I think that I have been +hardly just, and certainly not generous, to Gozzi in the Introduction +and the notes appended to my version. Wishing to avoid the _lues +biographica_, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while +writing. Careful perusal of the proofs makes me feel that the truth +would not have suffered had I entirely suppressed some suspicions and +concealed some personal want of sympathy with the man. Allowing for his +peculiar and occasionally repellent character--the character of an +"original" and a confirmed old bachelor--Gozzi seems to me now to have +been as honest and open-hearted as a gentleman should be. + + JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. + +AM HOF, DAVOS PLATZ, + +_March 25, 1889_. + + + + +_BOOKS USED AND REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK._ + + + 1. CARLO GOZZI. "Memorie Inutili." 3 vols. Venice. 1797. + + 2. CARLO GOZZI. "Opere." 10 vols. Venice. Colombani and other + publishers. 1772-1791. + + 3. ERNESTO MASI. "Le Fiabe di Carlo Gozzi." 2 vols. Bologna. + Zanichelli. 1885. + + 4. PIER ANTONIO GRATAROL. "Narrazione Apologetica." 2 vols. + Venezia. Gatti. 1797. + + 5. PAUL DE MUSSET. "Mémoires de Charles Gozzi." Paris. Charpentier. + 1848. + + 6. GIOV. BATT. MAGRINI. "Carlo Gozzi e le Fiabe." Cremona. + Feraboli. 1876. The same work, second edition: "I Tempi la Vita e + gli Scritti di Carlo Gozzi." Benevento. De Gennaro. 1883. + + 7. MICHELE SCHERILLO. "La Commedia dell' Arte in Italia." Torino. + Loescher. 1884. + + 8. ADOLFO BARTOLI. "Scenari Inediti della Commedia dell' Arte." + Firenze. Sansone. 1880. + + 9. ALFONSE ROYER. "Carlo Gozzi, Théâtre Fiabesque." Paris. Michel + Lévy. 1865. + + 10. CARLO GOLDONI. "Mémoires." 3 vols. Paris. Veuve Duchesne. 1787. + + 11. FERDINANDO GALANTI. "Carlo Goldoni e Venezia nel Secolo xviii." + Padova. Samin. 1882. + + 12. P. G. MOLMENTI. "Carlo Goldoni." Venezia. Ongania. 1880. + + 13. VERNON LEE. "Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy." + London. Satchell. 1880. + + 14. MAURICE SAND. "Masques et Bouffons." 2 vols. Paris. A. Lévy + 1862. + + 15. S. ROMANIN. "Storia Documentata di Venezia." Vols. vii.-ix. + Venezia. Naratovitch. 1860. + + 16. GIUSEPPE BOERIO. "Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano." Venezia. + Cocchini. 1856. + + 17. PHILARÈTE CHASLES. "Études sur l'Espagne, etc." ("D'un Théâtre + Espagnol-Vénitien au xviii^{me.} Siècle et de Charles Gozzi"). + Paris. Amyot. 1847. + + 18. N. TOMMASÈO. "Storia Civile nella Letteraria." Roma, Torino, + Firenze. E Loescher. 1872. + + 19. EUGENIO CAMERINI. "I Precursori del Goldoni." Milano. Sonzogno. + 1872. + + 20. "Mémoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, écrites par + lui-même. Bruxelles. Rozet. 1876. + + + + +THE MEMOIRS + +OF + +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + + +PART I. + +_CARLO GOZZI AND PIERO ANTONIO GRATAROL._ + + 1. The ancestry and social standing of Count Carlo Gozzi--His + collision with Piero Antonio Gratarol, Secretary to the Venetian + Collegio--How this quarrel led to the composition of Gozzi's + Memoirs--Their importance as a document for the social history of + Venice in the eighteenth century.--2. The interweaving of this + episode in Gozzi's Life with his literary warfare against Goldoni, + which culminated in the production of his ten dramatic fables.--3. + Sketch of Gratarol's life, and his relation to Andrea and Caterina + Tron--Gozzi's _liaison_ with the actress Teodora Ricci--Gozzi's + comedy, _Le Droghe d'Amore_--Turned by Mme. Tron into a satire upon + Gratarol--Gratarol flies from Venice to Stockholm, is proscribed by + the Republic, and loses all his fortune--His _Narrazione + Apologetica_--Gozzi takes up the pen in self-defence--The + Inquisitors of State forbid the publication of his autobiographical + polemic--Gratarol's death in Madagascar--Circumstances which + induced Gozzi in 1797, after the fall of the Republic of St. Mark, + to complete and publish his Memoirs.--4. Gozzi's literary style and + personal character--The false conception of the man and his work + which has been diffused by Paul de Musset. + + +I. + +In the year 1797 there appeared at Venice a book entitled _Memorie +inutili della vita di Carlo Gozzi, scritte da lui medesimo e pubblicate +per umiltà_, "Useless Memoirs of the Life of Carlo Gozzi, written by +himself and published from motives of humility." Its author, though he +bore the title of Count, and belonged to an honourable family in +Venice, was not of patrician descent. That is to say, none of his lineal +ancestors had acquired the right of voting in the Grand Council or of +holding the highest offices of state. They ranked with the citizens of +the Republic, who took no direct part in the government, but who were +permitted to discharge important functions as secretaries of several +departments and as ambassadors of the second class. By his mother he +drew half of his blood from one of the oldest and proudest of Venetian +noble families, the Tiepolos. Thus, socially, if not politically, birth +placed him almost on a level with the best Venetian aristocracy. + +In the year 1797 he was seventy-seven; and although he had been a man of +some mark in his early days, the public had lost sight of him for the +last seventeen years. His reputation depended upon a large number of +dramatic pieces, satirical poems, and prose compositions, mostly of a +controversial kind. Two main episodes in his literary life conferred a +slightly dubious notoriety upon his name. The first of these was the +long and bitter war he waged against the two playwrights, Chiari and +Goldoni, between the years 1756 and 1762. The other was an unfortunate +series of events which brought him into collision with a certain Pier +Antonio Gratarol in 1777. Gratarol, like his adversary, was a Venetian +citizen, allied by descent to the great patrician family of Contarini. +Unlike Gozzi, he early embarked on a political career, was one of the +secretaries of the Collegio, and looked forward to the highest +appointments which were open to a man of his rank. The collision with +Count Gozzi, which I shall have to describe with some minuteness, ended +in Gratarol's voluntary exile from Venice, the confiscation of his +property by the State, and a public scandal of sufficient importance to +attract the attention of serious historians.[2] Had it not been for this +tragi-comic episode in his past life, Gozzi would never have written his +Memoirs; and had the memory of the scandal not been revived some years +after Gratarol's death, when the old Republic of S. Mark had fallen in +the crash of the French Revolution, he would never have published them. + +This autobiography is distinctly an apologetical work, a portrait drawn +by Gozzi in self-defence, and intended to vindicate himself from the +aspersions cast by Gratarol upon his character. Its main object is to +set forth in the fairest light his own conduct during the unlucky +collision to which I have alluded. Yet though so limited in aim, the +interest which it possesses for us at the present time, is far wider +than belongs to that unhappy squabble, long since buried in oblivion. +Gozzi's conception of an _Apologia pro vita sua_ was a comprehensive +one. He resolved to reveal his character under all its aspects, from +his childhood until the date 1777, dealing now with matters of general +importance, now with the private affairs of his home, touching upon the +literature of his age, discussing fashions, criticising philosophy, +entering into minute particulars regarding theatres and actors, +describing his love-affairs with a frankness worthy of Rousseau, and +painting a series of lively portraits in which a large variety of +individuals from all classes are presented to our notice. The result is +that his autobiography, although in the strictest sense of that term an +occasional production, forms one of the most valuable documents we +possess for a study of Venetian society during the decadence of the +Republic. Gozzi was gifted with a penetrative and observant mind, strong +sense of humour, and a power of brilliant description. On the faults of +his style and the defects of his character, I shall speak hereafter. At +present it is enough to indicate the importance of the Memoirs as +furnishing a vivid picture of Venetian life in the eighteenth century. +Venice, at that period, was fortunate in autobiographers. She possessed +Goldoni and Casanova as well as Gozzi, not to mention smaller folk like +Da Ponte, the poet of Mozart's _Don Giovanni_. But when we compare the +three life-records of Goldoni, Casanova, and Gozzi, by far the deepest +historical interest, in my opinion, belongs to the last. Casanova's +Memoirs are almost excluded from general use by the nature of their +predominant pre-occupation. Moreover, they deal but partially with +Venice, and only with limited aspects of its social life. Goldoni's, +though more humane, and in all that concerns tone impeccable, turn too +exclusively upon the history of his dramatic works to be of great +importance as an historical document. Moreover, the scene is laid in +several provinces of Italy and transferred before its close to France. +Gozzi, on the contrary, never quits the soil of Venice. Except when he +served as a soldier for three years in the Venetian province of +Dalmatia, he does not appear to have travelled further than to Pordenone +on one side and to Padua on the other. Of strong aristocratic instincts, +but condemned to comparative poverty by the reckless expenditure of his +parents and grandparents, Gozzi enjoyed opportunities of studying the +society of Venice from several points of view. His enthusiasm for +literature and partiality for professional actors brought him acquainted +with the scholars and the Bohemians of that epoch. His management of the +encumbered estates of his family introduced him to advocates, +solicitors, brokers, Jews, tenants, and all manner of strange people. +His birth made him the companion of patricians. His military service +involved him in the wild pleasures and perils of scapegrace lads upon a +foreign soil. Consequently, the records of a life so varied in +experience, while strictly confined within the narrow circuit of +Venetian society, could not fail to be rich in details for the student. +It may be regretted that Gozzi chose to write in a didactic spirit. We +could willingly have exchanged his long-winded excursions into the +sphere of moral philosophy for a few more graphic sketches in the style +of his Dalmatian adventures. + + +II. + +This biographical and historical interest, far more than Gozzi's quarrel +with Goldoni or his collision with Gratarol, is the reason why I thought +it worth while to translate a book which has become excessively rare in +the original. Nothing can be duller or more contemptible, to my mind, +than the chronicle of literary quarrels. The Goldoni-Gozzi episode would +be devoid of permanent attraction were it not for the curious light +thrown by it upon the obscure subject of impromptu comedy, and for the +ten extraordinary _Fiabe Teatrali_ from Gozzi's pen to which it gave +rise. Again, the Gratarol-Gozzi episode, as we shall presently see, is +almost humiliating in the pettiness of its details, and painful through +its tragic termination. + +The Memoirs contain a full and tolerably accurate account of the +Gratarol incident. Yet I cannot dispense with a summary of this affair, +based upon a comparison of Gozzi's story with that of Gratarol in his +_Narrazione Apologetica_. The extreme importance of the event in the +lives of both men, and the fact that it constitutes the subject of +Gozzi's autobiography in quite as serious a sense as that in which the +Persian war forms the subject of Herodotus' history, render this +unavoidable. + + +III. + +Pier Antonio Gratarol was a young man between thirty and forty in the +year 1776. He had grown up with an ample fortune and without a father's +control; had imbibed French ways of thinking and French customs; had +married, and after marriage had separated from his wife.[3] He +represented that class of intellectual and political Liberals whom +Gozzi, with his Conservative prejudices, regarded as dangerous to the +well-being of the State. He was an open libertine in his relations with +women, and did not strive to conceal those principles of personal +liberty which the _philosophes_ were spreading throughout Europe. At the +same time he represented a family which had served the Republic in +distinguished offices for many generations; he possessed excellent +abilities, and had every reason to expect a brilliant future. There was +nothing in his conduct or in his domestic circumstances to distinguish +him unfavourably from a multitude of gay livers and free-thinkers in the +corrupt Venice of that epoch. He had recently become eligible for the +post of ambassador at a foreign Court; and was already nominated as +Resident in Naples. This nomination required, however, to be confirmed +by the Grand Council; and circumstances, which need not be enlarged +upon, rendered the grant of money for his embassy a matter of debate.[4] +Unfortunately, Gratarol was a person of vain, imperious temper, puffed +up with the sense of his own merits, and incapable of correcting his +antipathies. His French tendencies--political, moral, social, +literary--fashionable for the most part--prejudiced the minds of +influential people in the highest departments of the government against +him. Finally, he had made an implacable enemy of a great lady, who at +that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the +State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, +Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, +the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the +Grand Council.[5] Caterina's husband was popularly known as _Il +Padrone_, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind +affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued, like Gratarol, +with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to +manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her +own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but +for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and +indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She +vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so. + +Gozzi, meanwhile, had for the last five years or so assumed the position +of titular protector to a married actress called Teodora Ricci. He does +his best to persuade us that the _liaison_ was one of friendship; but it +is clear that, upon whatever footing he stood toward the Ricci, he felt +a real affection for this woman. For her he composed the dramatic works +of his second or Spanish manner. He attended her in public, introduced +her to the houses of his friends, and stood godfather to her second +child. We are, in fact, met here by an obscurity not unlike that which +involves the more famous connection of Congreve with Mrs. Bracegirdle. +Gratarol, pursuing the usual course of his amours, made the Ricci's +acquaintance, became her lover, compromised her reputation, and wounded +Gozzi so deeply in his sense of honour, that he broke off familiar +relations with the actress. + +Such was the position of affairs when Gozzi, who wrote assiduously for +the theatre, produced a drama modelled on a Spanish piece by Tirso da +Molina. It was called _Le Droghe d'Amore_, and contained a minor part, +which might well have passed either for a sketch of manners or for a +personal satire on Gratarol. Gozzi vehemently and persistently denied +that he had any intention of caricaturing his rival on the stage; and if +we trust what he relates about the composition of the play in question, +it is hardly possible that he can have had Gratarol in view when he +designed it. At the same time, we are bound to concede that the +offensive part of Don Adone fitted nicely on to Gratarol. Mme. Ricci, +smarting under Gozzi's withdrawal from her intimacy, took for granted +that a satire was intended. This woman's hysterical imagination turned a +mere _jeu d'esprit_ of her old friend into a formidable weapon of +attack against her new lover. Through her dangerous interference it +became an instrument, in the hands of other parties, to annoy Gozzi and +to overwhelm Gratarol. She began by poisoning the latter's mind with +gossiping insinuations. Gratarol's fretful vanity and sense of +self-importance made him boil with fury at the thought of being put upon +the stage. He moved heaven and earth to get the play suspended; +imprudently, as it turned out, because this step brought him face to +face with his real enemy, Mme. Tron. The manager of the theatre, to whom +Gozzi had given his comedy, took the manuscript at once to that lady. +This unscrupulous person now saw her opportunity for inflicting +vengeance upon Gratarol. She induced the manager to redistribute the +parts so that the _rôle_ of Don Adone should be assigned to an actor who +resembled Gratarol. She taught this man how to imitate Gratarol's dress +and gestures, and turned what may in fact have been an innocent +production of Gozzi's pen into a satire of the most insulting pungency. +At that point the _Droghe d'Amore_ passed out of the control of those +whom it privately concerned. + +After this, Gratarol, driven mad by wounded self-conceit, floundered +from one imprudence into another. He applied to the highest tribunal of +the State, and laid an information against Gozzi. Whether the +Inquisitors did not choose to cancel the license already granted for +the _Droghe d'Amore_, or whether they were influenced by Mme. Tron, does +not greatly signify. At any rate, the comedy continued to be acted. +Gratarol grew more and more irritated, uttered indignant invectives +against the tyrants of the State, and displayed a spirit of +insubordination which was perilous in Venice. Mme. Tron followed up her +advantage, and caused his appointment to the embassy at Naples to be +suspended. Thereupon Gratarol made up his mind to quit Venice. He knew +that this act would expose himself to outlawry and his family to ruin. A +civil servant of the Republic had no legal right to sever himself from +his engagements without permission. The mere fact of doing so caused him +to be treated as a contumacious rebel. But instead of assuming an +indifferent attitude, instead of biding his time in patience and letting +the storm blow over--which it certainly would have done, since a popular +reaction had already begun to operate in his favour--he departed for +Padua on the 11th of September 1777, proceeded to Ceneda, crossed the +frontier on the 25th, travelled to Munich, thence to Brunswick, and +finally to Stockholm, where he arrived in March. Meanwhile a +proclamation was issued against him at Venice. This curious document is +a relic from the savage days of the Middle Ages.[6] It set a price upon +his head, offered rewards to any one who should bring him alive to +Venice or should prove his assassination, cancelled all contracts made +by him during twelve months before the date of December 22, 1777, +confiscated his property during his lifetime, and ordered the whole of +it to be sold by public auction. The latter portions of the ban were +carried into effect. Everything which belonged to Gratarol was sold by +the Avogadori;[7] and what seems really scandalous in this transaction +is that his furniture and jewels passed into the possession of an +Avogadore, Zorzi Angaran, while his landed estates fell to the share of +the Avvocato fiscale dell' Avogaderia, Galante, at the ridiculously low +sum of 2000 ducats.[8] Even his wife, who possessed a dowry of 25,000 +ducats, had to institute long and costly lawsuits for the recovery of +what belonged to her and formed no part of the outlaw's estate. + +Caterina Dolfin Tron, aided by her victim's rashness and impatience, had +succeeded in her plan to ruin him. But a retribution awaited this lady +in the form of an eloquent invective hurled by Gratarol against his +enemies from Stockholm. The so-called _Narrazione Apologetica_ was +printed there in 1779, and soon found its way to Venice. It contained a +detailed account of the events which had induced him to take flight, +arraigned his powerful enemies in terms of the bitterest sarcasm, +exposed their private foibles, and flashed a sharp light upon the +political corruption of the decadent Republic. Gozzi, of course, came in +for his share of abuse;[9] but Gratarol's most telling shafts were +directed against Mme. Tron and the patrician ring which tyrannised over +Venice. It is believed that the scandal of this pamphlet was one reason +why Andrea Tron failed to be elected Doge in 1779. + +On perusing Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, Count Carlo Gozzi +determined to clear his own character and to lay his version of the +story before the public. With this view he composed a lengthy _Epistola +Confutatoria_, taking up each of Gratarol's points in detail, and +discussing his arguments with a strange mixture of acuteness, fury, and +contemptuous severity. He also conceived the notion of writing his +Memoirs, in order that the whole tenor of his life might be clearly +understood.[10] The Confutation and the larger part of the Memoirs were +finished in 1780. But the Government decided that Gratarol's scandalous +pamphlet should be left unanswered. No Venetian pen was allowed to +notice it;[11] and Gozzi received information that the Inquisitors of +State would take the matter up if he attempted to show further fight. +The authorities acted with prudence in this matter. Nobody but Gozzi had +anything to gain by his refutation of Gratarol. With regard to the +corruption of Venice, the despotism of a few leading patricians, and the +back-stairs influence of Mme. Tron, Gratarol had only told the truth. He +had told it indeed emphatically, bitterly, and probably with some +exaggeration. Yet, unhappily, it was the truth. No amount of +apologetical rhetoric could have broken down his arguments. A public +discussion would have disturbed the public mind, and many dark secrets +and dirty jobs must certainly have come to light. + +Gozzi had to choose between the _piombi_ or the sacrifice of his already +finished manuscripts. Of course he did not hesitate. Both Confutation +and Memoirs were thrown at once aside; and they might even now have +been lying in some neglected corner of his ancient mansion had it not +been for the events which have to be related. + +Gratarol never returned to Venice. From Sweden he passed to England, +where he was hospitably received and befriended by members of our +aristocracy. Failing, however, to get any appointment in London, he +crossed to North America, travelled southwards to Brazil, and again left +that country in the train of some political adventurers. The party were +betrayed and robbed by the captain of their vessel, and cast ashore upon +the coast of Madagascar. Here Gratarol perished miserably in October +1785. His English friends sent information of this event to the Venetian +Government; but the evidence was judged insufficient, and the +restitution of his estates to two female cousins, who were his only +heirs, was refused until the fall of the Republic. When that took place, +Gratarol's friends immediately republished the _Narrazione Apologetica_ +at Venice, and appealed to General Bonaparte for justice. This was in +1797. + +Gozzi, who had now nothing to fear from Inquisitors of State, and whose +reputation was again exposed to calumny, took his manuscripts from their +drawer, dusted them, and placed them in the hands of a publisher. In the +month of July 1797 he issued a manifesto to the Venetian public, +proclaiming his intention.[12] "Availing myself of the beneficent +freedom now permitted to the press, I have drawn my manuscript from the +tomb in which it has lain during the past seventeen years." He refers to +the recent republication of Gratarol's _Narrazione_, and declares that +this alone has forced him to resuscitate the memory of bygone quarrels +and offences. At the same time he pays a high tribute to Gratarol's +work. "This book, which appeared at Stockholm in 1779, and which I had +forgotten, without however forgetting the unjust tricks and jobs by +which its truly pitiable author was overwhelmed with ruin, contains a +great number of indubitable truths, and it is only to be regretted that +he dictated it under the influence of blind anger and venomous +resentment, instead of philosophic calm." + +It appears that at this time Gozzi did not intend to publish his +_Epistola Confutatoria_, written in 1780, and certainly dictated under +the influence of anger as hot, hatred as fierce, and resentment as +venomous as any which inspired his adversary. Indeed, it may here be +observed that Gratarol, though he calls Gozzi a hypocrite, a huckster, +an impostor, and so forth, is more measured in his language than the +latter. Yet, while Gozzi was passing the sheets of his Memoirs through +the press,[13] Gratarol's friends issued another book entitled _Last +Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol, with documents relating to +his death_. In this they expressed a hope that Gozzi would not proceed +with the publication announced by his manifesto, and incautiously +printed a document alluding to Gozzi in the following by no means +flattering terms: "the infernal hypocrisy of a satirical liar."[14] +Furthermore, upon the 29th of August, having obtained a decree for the +restitution of Gratarol's property to his cousins, they published this +edict together with a preface, signed Widiman,[15] in which they had the +folly to rake up the whole tedious story of Gratarol's wrongs again. +Once more Gozzi was annoyed with well-worn phrases like the following: +"The persecuting furies of a haughty woman, the talent and the passion +of a very famous author, made him (Gratarol), to the horror of all +right-minded people, become the object of scorn and ridicule upon a +public theatre prostituted to the uses of a vile and infamous buffoon." +This was more than Gozzi could stand. Firmly holding to the opinion that +it was only Gratarol's folly and Mme. Tron's vindictiveness which had +caused the scandal of _Le Droghe d'Amore_, he now resolved to publish +everything which could establish the truth of his own story. Therefore +he incorporated the _Epistola Confutatoria_ in the third volume of the +Memoirs, and printed the notorious comedy for the first time at the end +of the book. Meantime he invited Gratarol's friends to inspect the MS. +of this play, which he declared to be the sole and original autograph, +in order that they might convince themselves that his statements +regarding its composition were accurate. Having now made up his mind to +supplement the two parts of his book with a third, he carried down his +Memoirs to the date of March 1798, when they came to a sudden +termination. All three volumes bear the date 1797; but their pagination +and some other trifling matters lead me to believe that the first two +were printed in that year, the third in the following spring. + + +IV. + +The circumstances under which Gozzi's _Memorie_ were produced +sufficiently account for their peculiar form, or rather formlessness. He +wrote hurriedly, with a polemical object in view, and paid no attention +to style. This he confesses in the manifesto.[16] "I have not striven to +express myself with the exactitude, the raciness, and the elegances of +our language." As a literary performance, this autobiography is +remarkably unequal, a thing of rags and patches, some of which are of +fine silk or velvet, others of rough sackcloth. Their main defect as +regards composition is prolixity. Gozzi does not know when to stop, and +he uses three phrases where one would have sufficed. He is also very +incoherent, spinning interminable periodic sentences, which sometimes do +not hang together grammatically or logically. While insisting so +magisterially upon the purity of Italian diction, he indulges in uncouth +Lombardisms, and slips at times into Venetian dialect. We must remember +that he grew up practically without education. He acquired his +knowledge, cultivated his taste, and formed his style by reading without +discrimination and by writing without fixed purpose. This accounts for +the digressive, irregular, improvisatory manner of his prose. It has its +own merits, however, of vehemence, a copious vocabulary, dramatic vigour +in narration, and occasionally graphic descriptions. + +It may be asked why he called his Memoirs "useless." Partly no doubt out +of an ironical self-consciousness, which marked his peculiar species of +humour; but partly also as a slap in the face to his readers. He tells +them candidly in one of his prefaces that he considers the moral +reflections with which the book is filled to be both sound and valuable, +but that the false science of the age is certain to render them of no +effect.[17] In like manner, when he asserts that the Memoirs were +published out of humility, this is partly true and partly false. Gozzi +piqued himself on being what I may call a Stoic-Democritean philosopher. +It was his pride to bear everything with endurance and to laugh at +everything, himself and his own concerns included, with contemptuous +indulgence. Yet he deserved the stinging epigram which Goldoni uttered +on his character: "A smile upon his lips and venom in his heart." His +light-heartedness and risibility were often assumed to hide bitter +resentment or boiling indignation. No man had less of genuine humility +than Gozzi, or more of the "pride which apes humility." _Umiltà_ upon +his title-page has much the same effect as _Umiltà_ in huge Gothic +letters beneath the coronets and crests of the Borromeo family above +their haughty palace-portals. As a single instance, I might select the +supercilious condescension with which he invariably treats his friends +the actors. They are _canaille_, to be consorted with by a gentleman +merely for amusement. His repeated boast that he gave his literary work +away, and his sneers at his brother Gasparo for making money, do not +savour of a really humble spirit. At the bottom of all he says about his +foolhardiness in Dalmatia there lurks a proud self-satisfaction. + +To what extent was he truthful? That is a difficult question to answer. +I believe that in the main he tried to be, and was, veracious throughout +the Memoirs; but that he considered a certain economy of statement, a +certain evasion of direct facts, and a certain forensic chicanery to be +permissible in openly controversial composition. This renders his +account of the Gratarol episode somewhat suspicious, particularly when +we remember that he was writing with the _Narrazione Apologetica_ before +his eyes. It is clear that he wished to conceal his real age, that he +falsified the date of his departure for Dalmatia, and that he somewhat +misstated the nature of his intimacy with Mme. Tron. In each of these +cases it was his object to put himself in as favourable a light as +possible face to face with Gratarol, first by making it appear that he +was ten years or so younger than his actual age when he began the +liaison with Mme. Ricci, and secondly by slurring over the fact of a +partial collusion with Gratarol's deadly enemy. It would take up too +much space to expand the arguments by which I have arrived at these +conclusions; but the notes to my translation will make each point clear +in its proper place. + +On the whole, Gozzi strikes me as rather inclined to the vices of too +open speech and cynicism than to those of dissimulation and hypocrisy. +He can hardly have been a lovable man. His language about his mother +proves that. She treated him ill, it is true, and gave him but a scanty +share of her maternal kindness. Yet this does not justify the freezing +sarcasms with which he refers to her. They are no doubt humorous, but +their humour is of a savage kind. Toward the rest of his family he +behaved with fairness, candour, and uprightness. He devoted himself to +the task of repairing their ruined fortunes, and discharged the duties +of solicitor and estate-agent for all of them through a long series of +years. He bore their bad tempers and frivolities with good-humoured +contempt, and did not even resent being satirised by Gasparo in a comedy +upon the public stage of Venice. Gasparo, his weak but genial elder +brother, he truly loved, although, with characteristic acidity, he +always lets us understand what a poor creature he was. Women had not the +privilege of being highly appreciated by Gozzi. He treats them in all +his writings as inferior creatures, and exposes their frailties with +ruthless severity. Either he only knew the worst side of the fair sex, +or was incapable of seeing the best. To men he shows himself more just +and sympathetic. Though he made but few intimate friends, these remained +firmly attached to him till death. + +We must divest our minds of the false conception of Gozzi's character +with which Paul de Musset hoaxed the French critics and Vernon Lee. He +was no dramatic dreamer and abstract visionary, but a keen hard-headed +man of business, caustic in speech and stubborn in act, adhering +tenaciously to his opinions and his rights, acidly and sardonically +humorous, eccentric, but fully aware of his eccentricities, and apt to +use them as the material of burlesque humour. Nobody would have laughed +more loudly at De Musset's fancy picture of his fairy-haunted palace +than Gozzi would have done, or have more keenly relished the joke of +turning his practical self into a sprite-tormented idealist.[18] + +The Memoirs lie now before English readers, and Carlo Gozzi will be +known to them for the first time--certainly for the first time as he +really was. It is not necessary, therefore, to spin out this +introduction. Otherwise, it would have been interesting to compare the +portraits painted of themselves by those four eminent Italian +contemporaries--Goldoni, Gozzi, Casanova, and Alfieri. Four characters +more diverse in quality, and more admirably placed upon the literary +canvas, could hardly, I think, be found in any other nation or in any +other century. + +[Illustration: THE + +ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY] + + + + +Part II. + +_THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY._ + + 1. A brief sketch of the origins of written comedy during the + Italian Renaissance--Its dependence upon Latin models.--2. Further + description of the so-called _Commedia Erudita_.--3. Emergence of + dialectical literature in Italy during the period of the Catholic + reaction--Improvised comedy begins to supersede the written drama + of the Renaissance.--4. Farces at Naples and Florence--The Sienese + company of I Rozzi--The Paduan Beolco--The four principal + masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella.--5. Relation + of modern impromptu comedy to the old Latin comedy of mimes and + exodia--the Osci Ludi, Fescennini Verses, Satura, &c.--In what + sense the modern masks are descended from those antique + elements--Infusion of fixed characters adopted from the plays of + Plautus and Terence.--6. Lombard, Neapolitan, Florentine + ingredients in the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Lasca's carnival song of + the Zanni and Magnifichi about the year 1550.--7. A review of the + principal masks and their subordinate species, as these were + finally developed--Modifications introduced into the masks, or + fixed parts, of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, by men of genius who + supported them.--8. The plots and subjects of improvised + comedies--Buffoonery and indecency.--9. Description of the scenari + or plays in outline which were acted impromptu by the comic + companies--Method of concerting a comedy and distributing its + parts--The function of the Capo Comico.--10. Qualifications of a + good impromptu comedian--Stock repertories, commonplaces, speeches + to be introduced on set occasions, soliloquies, &c.--The Lazzi or + sallies of buffoonery and byeplay--Tendency to degeneration in this + improvisatory art of comedy.--11. European celebrity of the Italian + comedians--In Paris, Spain, Portugal, London--References to + Italian companies in England during the sixteenth century.--12. The + decadence of the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Moral and artistic germs of + dissolution--Goldoni's severe criticism--Garzoni's description of + strolling actors, and their association with quacks, mountebanks, + and clowns. + + +I. + +The history of the Italian theatre is closely connected with the history +of the Classical Revival.[19] The literary drama--as distinguished from +performances by tumblers, mimes, and masquers, from sacred plays and +from plebeian farces--began with the representation of Latin tragedies +and comedies. At the close of the fifteenth century it was usual to +crown courtly festivals with scenic recitations of favourite pieces by +Terence and Plautus. Rome vied with Florence, Venice with Naples, +Ferrara with Urbino, in the magnificence of these spectacles. At a time +when humanistic erudition formed the main preoccupation of society, and +when to be illiterate was unfashionable, princes and great prelates +afforded their guests the refined amusement of seeing the _Menœchmi_ +or _Amphitryon_, the _Eunuchus_ or _Miles Gloriosus_, on their private +stages. At the same time, obeying the decorative instinct of the +Renaissance, they set these jewels of classical antiquity in arabesques +of the richest and most fantastic workmanship. Allegorical masques, +dances with musical accompaniment and pantomimic interludes, were +interposed between each of the five acts, enhancing the simplicity of +the Roman plays and gratifying the vulgar by an appeal to their senses. +These hybrid spectacles, eminently characteristic of Italian taste in +the age which produced them, contained the germs of several dramatic +species, afterwards known as the _Commedia Erudita_, the pastoral play, +the ballet, and the opera. Meanwhile Italian literature, stimulated and +powerfully influenced by humanism, acquired independence; and the +comedies of Plautus and Terence were translated and performed in the +vernacular. During the last years of the fifteenth century these +translations began to take the place of the originals upon the temporary +stages of princely patrons. As yet there were no public theatres. + +Such, briefly sketched, was the origin of Italian comedy; and the +specific character of the _Commedia Erudita_, or written comedy of the +sixteenth century, may be ascribed to the peculiar conditions out of +which it grew. The genius of men like Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Aretino +never wholly freed the form they handled from subservience to Latin +models. It remained, in spite of their close imitation of contemporary +life and their audacious realism, a sub-species of that dramatic art +which the Romans adapted to their uses from the new comedy of the Attic +stage. + + +II. + +The first attempts at national Italian comedy were the _Calandra_ of +Bibbiena and Ariosto's _Cassaria_. The former appeared at Urbino between +1503 and 1508; the latter, in its earlier prose form, at Ferrara in +1508. During the next fifty years a large number of comedies were +produced by a great variety of authors. Men of letters like Machiavelli, +Cecchi, Dolce, and Il Lasca, men of fashion like Lorenzino de'Medici, +philosophers like Bruno, free lances of the pen like Aretino and Doni, +artisans like Gelli, devoted themselves to this species of composition. +The type remained fixed, although some notable exceptions, especially in +the case of Aretino's plays, arrest attention. Taking the intrigue of +Latin comedy for their ground material, these playwrights adapted it to +conditions of Italian society. The avaricious father, the cunning +courtesan, the parasite, the slave merchant, the swaggering soldier, the +young spendthrift in love with a virgin of unknown parentage, the astute +serving-man, the faithless wife, the pedant, the cynical priest or +friar, the vicious old man in his dotage, the reckless adventurer, the +pirate, the country-girl exposed to the corruptions of the town; such +are the stock characters of this dramatic hybrid. Everywhere we find the +plots of Terence or of Plautus interwoven with a Novella in the style +of Boccaccio. As in Latin comedy, the knot is frequently loosed by +unexpected discoveries of lost relatives; and the magnificent realism +with which contemporary manners are depicted, clashes too often with the +stiff and antiquated _ossatura_, or dramatic mechanism, to which the +authors felt themselves obliged by fashion to adhere. From hints in +prologues and prefaces we are able to discern that playwrights chafed +against these traditional limitations of the _Commedia Erudita_. + +Aretino, as I have just observed, broke the fetters of convention, and +presented scenes of pure Italian life; but his plays were too hastily +composed or ill-constructed to start a new style. The originality of +Machiavelli in his _Mandragora_ was not of the sort to encourage a +departure from the beaten track. Like many other masterpieces of Italian +art, the _Mandragora_ stands forth by itself, a sole inimitable monument +of genius; peculiar and personal; accomplished by one single act of +vigorous expression. Before a really national species of written comedy +emerged into distinctness from the _Commedia Erudita_, the literary +impulse of the Renaissance began to decline, and the Italians in the +middle of the sixteenth century entered upon that new phase of +intellectual evolution which is marked by the Tridentine Council and the +subsequent metamorphosis of Catholicism. + + +III. + +One prominent feature of this transitional epoch was the reappearance of +popular forms of art and literature in Italy. The Italian provinces had +retained their local characteristics with undiminished vitality through +centuries of civic conflict and the dominance of humanistic culture. Now +that this culture was decaying, each district and each city contributed +some novelty of its own local vintage. Things which had been overgrown +and screened by scholarship put forth their native vigour. A rich jungle +of dialectical poetry sprouted from long-hidden roots. Men of birth and +breeding began to pique themselves upon the use of their provincial +language. A polite public, tired perhaps of too much polish, yielded to +the charm of realism. The habits of the peasantry and artisans were +transmitted to writing by educated pens. Scenic representations of a +simple character, which had formed the delight of villagers from time +immemorial, claimed the attention of learned coteries. Farces and +morris-dances became fashionable. The buffoons and mimes and masquers, +against whom the Church had fulminated in the Middle Ages, and whom the +scholars of the Revival looked down upon with condescending indulgence, +now lifted up their heads. Suddenly, by an imperceptible process of +development, which it is impossible to trace in all its stages, Italy +found herself in possession of what looked like a novel type of comedy. +This improvised comedy, or _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we must henceforth +call it, was not really new.[20] On the contrary, the elements out of +which it sprang were among the oldest, most vital, most national +possessions of the race. Yet it was due to the peculiar conditions of +the last years of the Renaissance, to the reaction against exhausted +forms of artificial literature, and to the fresh interest in dialects, +that this hitherto neglected plaything of the proletariate assumed a +rare and bizarre shape of beauty. The Italians, still capable of +exquisite artistic creation, had just now lost their liking for the +_Commedia Erudita_. Public theatres were beginning to be built. These +naturally introduced a more popular tone into the drama. Spectacles were +adapted to the taste of a mixed audience. Improvised comedy succeeded to +the heritage of written comedy. This younger daughter of Thalia invested +the motley characters and masks of her invention with the cast-off +mantle of her elder sister. She entered the sphere of the fine arts by +continuing the tradition of Italian comedy upon an altered system, and +with novel elements of humour. + +To talk of younger and elder with reference to these two types of comedy +involves some confusion of ideas. Nothing is more significant of Italy +than the antiquity and complexity of all the forms of art which +flourished there. The _Commedia Erudita_, as we have seen, was derived +from Latin, and through Latin from Athenian sources. The _Commedia dell' +Arte_ had an even longer pedigree than this. In a powerfully mimetic +race like the Italians, the rudiments out of which it was constructed +were, as we shall see, indigenous. Before Rome rose upon the Tiber, the +comedy of masks and improvisation had, in some shape or other, amused +the people. The fall of the Empire, the formation of the Christian +polity, the centuries of the Middle Ages, the culture of the +Renaissance, did not extirpate it. Though we know but little of its +history during that long period, there is every reason to believe that +the elements which gave it individuality survived all changes. To this +topic I shall have to return. For the present, it is enough to point out +that the blending of the vulgar improvised comedy of vintage festivals +and market-places with what remained of polite written comedy after the +middle of the sixteenth century, determined the _Commedia dell' Arte_, +considered as a specific and strongly marked type of dramatic art. In +this sense, and in this sense only, it may be denominated the younger +sister of the _Commedia Erudita_. + + +IV. + +Farces formed a popular species of entertainment all through the years +of the Renaissance. At Naples they had the name of _Coviole_, at +Florence of _Farse_. The playwright Cecchi has left us several specimens +of the written _Farsa_, together with a general description of the type, +which proves it to have been not unlike the earliest of our own romantic +plays.[21] A company formed itself at Siena, called I Rozzi, for the +representation of rustic farces. Composed of artisans and mechanics, +this company acquired such celebrity that Leo X. invited them in 1517 to +the Vatican; and their influence must be reckoned in the evolution of +the new Italian drama. A Paduan actor and playwright also deserves +mention here. Angelo Beolco, born in 1502, made himself known upon the +stage as Il Ruzzante, or the Frolic. He wrote rustic comedies with +simple plots, distinguished by their realistic humour and their strong +incisive pathos; and created the ideal character of the peasant or Il +Villano. Beolco formed a school in the Venetian provinces, and died in +1542.[22] + +Such are some of the traces we possess of a dramatic type in growth, +which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained predominance +in Italy. It is not possible, however, for the critical historian to +explain the several steps whereby the _Commedia dell' Arte_ arrived at +maturity. Like Harlequin, bounding from the sides and capering before +the footlights, this new species makes a sudden apparition. We find it +in full energy, possessing the public theatres and claiming the +attention of all classes, at the close of the cinque cento. Described +briefly, this comedy trusted to the improvisatory talent of trained +actors and made use of masks. Companies were formed under the direction +of a _Capocomico_, who took his name from one of the masks. Their stock +in trade was a collection of plays in outline, _scenari_ or _plats_ (to +use an old English phrase),[23] which the troupe studied under the +direction of their leader. The development of the intrigue by dialogue +and action was left to the native wit of the several players, and the +performance varied according to the personal qualities of the members +who composed the company. The masks or fixed characters were derived +from all provinces of Italy, and represented types peculiar to each +district.[24] Venice contributed Pantalone; Bologna lent the Dottore; +Bergamo supplied the two Zanni--Arlecchino and Brighella; Naples gave +Pulcinella, Tartaglia, and the Captain. Tuscany made up the characters +of the comedy with the soubrette and lovers. These Tuscan personages +were unmasked and spoke Florentine Italian.[25] The masks reproduced +their native dialects.[26] Like Harlequin in his coat of many colours, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ wore motley. Displacing the literary drama, +which reduced contemporary life in Italy to the conventional standard of +classical Rome or Athens, this new drama brought into salience local +oddities and notes of provincial eccentricity. The masks were permanent; +yet they admitted of genial handling, since these parts in the comedy +were rarely written, and every fresh sustainer of a mask had the +opportunity of impressing his own individuality upon the type he +represented.[27] In this way, as will soon appear, each mask multiplied +and made a hundred. Plasticity and adaptability were the essential +qualities of a dramatic species which relied on improvisation, and had +only the unwritten code of immemorial tradition. + + +V. + +At this point it is necessary to inquire into the relation between the +modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_ and the old Italian comedy of mimes +and _exodia_. Much has been written, with meagre and dubious results, +about the origins of the Latin drama. One thing, however, appears +certain, after shaking the dust from ponderous tomes of erudition. The +Romans, like the modern Italians, had their _Commedia Erudita_ and +_Commedia dell' Arte_. Of the two species, in classical times as +afterwards, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was indigenous and popular, the +_Commedia Erudita_ derived and literary. The latter, whether it affected +Greek manners, as in the so-called _Fabula palliata_, or Roman manners, +as in the so-called _Fabula togata_, remained in the hands of scholarly +authors and serious actors (_histriones_). The former had its natural +origin in popular habits, and only at a comparatively late period +submitted to regular artistic treatment. It was represented by masked +buffoons, _Sanniones_, _Planipedes_, _Stupidi_, and so forth. We hear of +_Osci ludi_ and _Fescennini versus_, the former pointing to Campania and +the vintage, the latter to Etruria and village sports.[28] The _Satura_, +which seems to have been an offshoot from the _Fescennina_, corresponded +pretty closely to what we now call farce, and eventually developed into +the _exodia_ or _hors d'œuvre_ of the later Roman theatre.[29] Out of +these indigenous elements, but with special relation to the _Osci ludi_, +grew a literary form of comedy which obtained the name of _Atellana_. It +is supposed to have originated in the Oscan city of Atella, close to +Acerra, Pulcinella's birthplace. In all these native forms of drama, +dialects were spoken and masks were used; and this is a main point of +connection between them and the modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_. +Another feature in common is the rank realism and open obscenity which +marked the humours of both species. + +Among the ancient Roman masks four types are known to us by +name--_Maccus_, a Protean fool or Harlequin; _Bucco_, a garrulous clown +or blockhead; _Pappus_, a miserly, amorous, befooled old man; +_Dossenus_, a moralising charlatan. We also hear of the _Stupidus_ and +_Morio, Manducus_, a notable glutton, and the _Sanniones_, so called +possibly from their grin. + +Further familiarity with the modern _Commedia dell' Arte_ will make it +clear how tempting it is to conjecture a direct transmission of these +Roman masks from ancient to modern times. Maccus and Bucco bear a strong +resemblance to the two Zanni. The very word Zanni seems to suggest +Sanniones; although it is probably derived from the Bergamasque name for +a varlet--Jack; Zanni being a contraction of Giovanni. Pappus looks +uncommonly like Pantalone, and Dossenus like the Dottore. The _Stupidus_ +has an air of our clown or Mezzettino or Il Villano. Manducus might be +any glutton with a huge pair of champing jaws. Yet nothing could be more +uncritical than to assume that the Italian masks of the sixteenth +century A.D. boasted an uninterrupted descent from the Roman masks of +the fifth century B.C. That assumption closes our eyes to a far more +interesting aspect of the phenomenon. The fact seems to be that ancient +and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the +same fashion. The peasants of modern Tuscany indulged in their +Fescennine jibes, stained themselves with wine-lees, and jumped through +bonfires, like their most remote ancestors.[30] The grape-gatherers of +modern Nola and Capua ridiculed their neighbours with obscene jests, and +pranked themselves in travesty, like the earliest Oscans or the first +colonists from Hellas.[31] Out of the same persistent habits emerged the +same kind of native drama; and just as the Atellanæ of ancient Rome +eventually brought the comedy of the proletariate upon the public stage +in cities, so at the close of the sixteenth century the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ worked up the rudiments of popular farce and satire into a new +form which delighted Europe for two hundred years. + +Many details derived from the _Commedia Erudita_ rendered the +resemblance between the modern improvised drama and the vernacular +comedy of ancient Rome superficially striking. The conventional +characters of Plautus and Terence, the _senex_, the _servus_, the +_meretrix_, the _mango_, the _ancilla_, the _miles gloriosus_, and the +_parasitus_ reappeared. In truth, this peculiar and highly complex +hybrid combined strains of manifold varieties. Upon the wild and native +briar, which in former times produced the _Osci ludi_, _Fescennini +versus_, and _Satura_, and which went on living its own natural life +beneath the drums and tramplings of so many conquests, was now grafted +the cultivated rose of the _Commedia Erudita_. This, in its turn, +contained elements of the _Fabula palliata and togata_. The result was a +species eminently characteristic of sixteenth-century Italy, and similar +to the Atellan farces of the Romans. + + +VI. + +The _Commedia dell' Arte_ yields, upon analysis, three chief component +factors. The four leading masks, Arlecchino and Brighella, Pantalone and +Il Dottore, came respectively from Bergamo, Venice, and Bologna. These +were the contribution of Northern Italy. Pulcinella, Tartaglia, +Coviello, and the Captain came from Naples. They were subsidiary +characters of great importance, contributed by the South. The lovers, +_primo amoroso_ and _prima amorosa_, upon whose adventures the intrigue +turned, and the _Servetta_, came from Tuscany, or rather from the +tradition of written comedy, which adhered to the literary Italian +tongue. If priority in time is to be sought for any of these factors, we +must look to Lombardy. The four masks which were indispensable to this +dramatic species, and which survived all its vicissitudes, had an +undoubted Lombardo-Venetian origin. The Neapolitan masks were +superadded, and the Tuscan intrigue formed little more than a +conventional framework for the humours of the fixed characters. Scarcity +of documents makes it impossible to speak with absolute authority on any +of these points; yet we have good reason to credit the tradition which +connects the origin of the _Commedia dell' Arte_ with Northern Italy. + +A carnival song, composed by Anton-Francesco Grazzini, called Il Lasca, +at Florence some time before the year 1559, throws light upon the +subject.[32] It is entitled "Canto di Zanni e Magnifichi." The Magnifico +corresponded to Pantalone; and I need not repeat that the Zanni were +best known as Arlecchino and Brighella. Lasca makes it clear in this +poem that the Lombard masks were strangers to Tuscany, and that they +performed comedies upon a public stage:[33] + + "_Facendo il Bergamasco e il Veneziano,_ + _N'andiamo in ogni parte,_ + _E'l recitar commedie è la nostra arte._" + +He also shows how the buffoon parts in these plays were interwoven with +the intrigue of the regular drama: + + "E Zanni tutti siamo, + Recitatori eccellenti e perfetti; + Gli altri strioni eletti, + Amanti, Donne, Romiti e Soldati, + Alla stanza per guardia son restati." + +Furthermore, he lets us know that acting was combined with dancing and +mountebank performances, and drops the information that women in +Florence were not allowed to attend the theatres where Zanni played: + + "Commedie nuove abbiam composte in guisa + Che quando recitar le sentirete, + Morrete delle risa, + Tanto son belle, giocose, e facete; + E dopo ancor vedrete + Una danza ballar sopra la scena, + Di varj e nuovi giuochi tutta piena." + +It is therefore obvious that, at the middle of the sixteenth century, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ had already taken shape and earned popularity. +The companies who introduced it into Tuscany were recognised as hailing +from Bergamo and Venice. Before another fifty years had passed away, +this species absorbed the attention of Italy, adopted elements from +every district, and settled down into a definite form of comedy, which +lasted until the period of Goldoni's reform of the stage. It culminated +about the middle of the seventeenth century, and maintained a high +degree of excellence during the first half of the eighteenth. But when +Goldoni attacked it, and Gozzi rose in its defence, the type was already +on the wane. Depending, as any kind of improvised drama must necessarily +do, upon the personal talents of successive actors, the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ died of inanition when theatrical genius was diverted into other +channels.[34] Originality of humour then yielded to conventional +buffoonery. The masks became more and more stereotyped, more and more +insipid. Were it not for Gozzi's _Fiabe_, we should hardly be able to +form a conception of the part they actually played for two centuries in +Europe. + + +VII. + +Let us watch the carnival procession of the masks defile before us. We +may imagine that they are crossing the stage of a theatre, while we sit +idle in our stalls. First comes Pantalone, the worthy Venetian merchant, +good-hearted, shrewd, and canny, yet preserving a certain child-like +simplicity, which long acquaintance with the world has not +contaminated. His full title is Pantalone de'Bisognosi. Sometimes he is +called Il Magnifico, sometimes Babilonio; and old tradition gives a +singular derivation for his name of Pantalone. Instead of having +anything to do with the Saint called Pantaleone, he ought really to be +known as Piantaleone, or Plant-the-lion. In fact, he is one of those +patriotic _cittadini_ who, partly out of zeal for S. Mark and partly +with a view to commerce, were reputed to hoist flags with the Venetian +lion waving to the breeze on every rock and barren headland of Levantine +waters.[35] Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, +socks and slippers of bright red. A black domino conceals half of his +face. He is sometimes a bachelor, but more frequently a widower with one +daughter, who engrosses all his time and care. Easy-going indulgence for +the foibles of his neighbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the +fundamental note of his character. But as time goes on, he degenerates, +dotes, yields to senile vices. At last he becomes the shuffling +slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantomimes.[36] + +After Pantaloon walks the Doctor in his Bologna gown; a hideous black +mask covers his whole face, smudged with red patches, like skin-disease +or wine-stains, on the cheeks. He is Graziano, Baloardo Graziano, or +Prudentio, and has a kind of bastard brother called the Dottor Balanzon +Lombardo. Boasting his D.C.L. or M.D. or LL.D. degree from the august +University, Graziano makes a vast parade of learning. _Bononia docet_ is +always on his lips or in his thoughts; yet he cannot open his mouth +without letting fall some palpable absurdity. Law jargon, quibbles, +quiddities, preposterous syllogisms, fragments of distorted Latin, +misapplied quotations from the Pandects, mingle with metaphysics, +astrology, and physical chimæras about the spheres and elements and +humours, in his talk. He is a walking caricature of learning, and the +low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes +of erudition. To sustain this mask with spirit taxed the genius of a +comedian. He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber +always ready, to blunder with wit and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the +whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases. + +Pantalone and the Doctor were only half-masks; that is to say, they held +something in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, +and took a decided part in the action of the play. As the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ coalesced with the _Commedia Erudita_, they approached more +and more nearly to the type of the _senes_ in Latin comedy. The present +generation has seen them both in Rossini's _Barbiere di Siviglia_. + +Next come the two Zanni. These are thorough-going masks; twin-brothers +from the country-side of Bergamo, strongly contrasted in their +characters, yet holding certain points in common.[37] First comes +Arlecchino, the eldest and most typical of Italian masks, and the one +who has preserved its outlines to the present day. His party-coloured, +tight-fitting suit reproduces the rags and patches of a rustic servant. +On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare's or +rabbit's scut. He is always on the move, light-headed, gluttonous, gay, +pliable, credulous, ingenuously naïve and silly. The glittering +ubiquitous Harlequin of our pantomimes transforms him into a mute +ballet-dancer; but when the type was created, Arlecchino spoke and +amused the audience as much by his absurdities and uncouth jokes as by +his perpetual mobility. + +Time would fail to tell of the infinite modifications which this type +assumed under the hands of successive able actors. Truffaldino, the +delight of Venice, Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Mestolino, Bagattino, +Guazzetto, Stoppino, Burattino, and the idiotic Mezzettino, were all +descended from this parent stock. + +Side by side with Arlecchino goes his more astute and knavish brother +Brighella. He is also Bergamasque of the purest breed. But he holds +something from the Davus and Geta of Latin comedy. He is the roguish, +clever, cowardly, pimping servant of the young spendthrift, who helps +his master to deceive his father and seduce his neighbour's wife or +daughter. Brighella wears a loose white shirt trimmed with green, and +wide white trousers. On his head is a conical hat, plumed with red +feathers, which yields place in course of time to the white cap of our +clowns. His mask is brown, cut off above the upper lip, over which a +pair of short moustachios bristle. Like Arlecchino, Brighella gave birth +to a great variety of assimilated types. Unscrupulous Pedrolino, +Beltramo, Bagolino, Frontino, Sganarello, Mascarillo, Figaro, Finocchio, +Fantino, Gradellino, Traccagnino are his more or less legitimate +offspring. He enters French comedy under the names of Scapin, +Sganarelle, and Frontin. He creates a character of opera with Figaro. +Unlike Arlecchino, who becomes at last a silent ballet-dancer, Brighella +grows more vocal and distinct as time advances, until, in the plays of +Molière and Beaumarchais, he is hardly distinguishable from a _servus_ +of Latin comedy modernised. Indeed, just as Pantalone and Il Dottore +approximate to the _senes_, so Arlecchino and Brighella shade off into +the _servi_; and all their countless progeny are variations on the theme +of stupid or roguish varlets. + +The four main masks, with their attendant groups of subordinates, have +passed before us; but a multitude whom no man can number and no words +can describe press on from behind. Perhaps the first place should be +given to the _Servetta_. Her names are legion. Colombina, the sweetheart +of Arlecchino and Pulcinella, Rosetta, Florentine Pasquella, Argentina, +Diamantina, Venetian Smeraldina, Saporita, Carmosina; under all her +titles, and with every shade of character ascribed to her by the free +handling of successive actresses, she remains the sprightly, witty, +shifty pendant to the Zanni.[38] Not a true mask, however; for the +Servetta wears her own face and form, only assuming the costume and +dialect of the region she prefers to hail from. Like her lover +Arlecchino, Colombina underwent a long series of transformations before +she became the fairy-like being who flits behind the footlights of our +theatres on winter evenings. And, like Brighella, written comedy blended +her with the fixed characters of drama under the name of the soubrette. +Susanna in the _Nozze di Figaro_ is a familiar example of Colombina in +her latest dramatic development. + +[Illustration: COLOMBINA (1683) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The _Servette_ in their many-coloured _Contadina_ dresses have +passed by. Close upon their heels press forward a chattering grimacing +group from Naples. Pulcinella leads the way, for he must still keep +Colombina in sight. In him, far more than in Arlecchino, the genius of a +nation lives incarnate; and this he partly owes to a poor artisan of +Naples, Francesco Cerlone, who fixed the type with inimitable humour in +the last century.[39] Pulcinella has had whole volumes written on his +pedigree. Some authors find him depicted on the walls of Pompeii; others +trace him in statuettes and masks of antiquity. The one point which +seems to be certain is, that he made his appearance on the public stage +toward the end of the sixteenth century, wearing the white shirt and +breeches of a rustic from Acerra. His black mask, long nose, humpback, +protruding stomach, dagger and truncheon, were later additions. Whatever +connection there may be between Pulcinella and the masks of classical +antiquity--and I have already attempted to show how I think that +connection ought to be conceived[40]--he was, at his début, regarded as +the type of a Campanian villager, established at Naples in the quality +of servant. Pulcinella is thus the Southern analogue of Bergamasque +Brighella and Arlecchino. Gradually he absorbed the humours of the +Neapolitan proletariate, and became the burlesque mirror of their +manners and ways of thinking. Time's whirligig has made him the hero of +our puppet-shows, and he enjoys cosmopolitan celebrity under the name of +Punch. + +Coviello goes along with him, a Calabrian mask, which was sustained with +applause by Salvator Rosa at Rome. He belongs to the buffoon class, and +is distinguished by his mandoline and ballad-singing. After him walks +Tartaglia, afflicted with an incurable stammer, which renders his +magisterial airs and graces ludicrous. Tartaglia has something in him of +the Doctor; but this part lent itself to great varieties of treatment. +We shall see what play Gozzi made with it. + +But now our ears are deafened with a clash of arms, rumbling of drums, +pistol-shots, and shouted execrations. A fantastic extravagant troop of +soldiers march upon the stage. At their head goes the swaggering +Capitano. He is a Spaniard, armed to the teeth, loaded with outlandish +weapons, twirling huge moustachios, frowning, swearing, boasting, +quarrelling, thieving, wenching, and shrinking into corners when he +meets a man of courage. Sometimes he affects the melancholy grandeur of +Don Quixote. Sometimes he leans to the garrulity of Bobadil. Sometimes +he assumes the serious ferocity of a brigand chief or the haughty +punctiliousness of a hidalgo. Still he remains at bottom the caricature +of professional soldiers, as they plagued and infested Italy under the +Spanish domination. His language soars into the wildest hyperboles and +euphuisms. He cannot speak without new-coined oaths and frothy metaphors +and vaunts that shake heaven, earth, and sea. But the slightest trial of +his valour breaks the bubble, and he cringes like a whipped hound. + +The Capitano talked a mixture of Neapolitan and Spanish. His part, which +required to be sustained at a high pitch of burlesque upon a single note +of bragging insolence, was not unfrequently written, and none of these +fixed characters assumed more stereotyped outlines. The _Miles +Gloriosus_ of Latin comedy reappeared in him, and helped to mould the +modern type. The ramifications of this character were innumerable. A +celebrated actor, Francesco Andreini (born at Pistoja in 1548), helped +to create its form. He called himself "Capitan Spavento da Valle +Inferna." Then followed Ariararche, Diacatolicon, Leucopigo and +Melampigo (white and black buttocks), Coccodrillo, Matamoros, +Scaramuccia (created by Tiberio Fiorelli of Naples), Fracassa, +Rinoceronte, Giangiurgolo, Bombardon, Meo Squaquara, Spezzaferro, +Terremoto. The list might be prolonged until the page was filled. Every +variety of the burlesque son of Mars, from a delicate Adonis to a +fire-eater, obtained impersonation from one or other able sustainer of +the part. And a host of minor bastard braggarts, like the Trasteverine +Meo Patacco, perpetuated the fun long after the great Capitano had +quitted the public stage. Some of these types survive in literature. +Scaramouche is known to us, and Gautier has immortalised Fracasse. + +In the rabble which follows this noisy band of warriors we discern +several buffoons of the long-robed tribe--Neapolitan Pancrazio, +Biscegliese, and Cucuzzietto, Sienese Cassandro and Roman +Cassandrino--who have more or less affinity with the Dottore. Il Pedante +walks apart, and attracts attention by his Maccaronic Latin and +eccentric morals. He has the poems of Fidenzio Glottogrysio in his +hands, which he presses on the attention of a smooth-chinned pupil.[41] +Don Fastidio distinguishes himself from the vulgar herd by his enormous +nose, and lantern jaws, and long lean figure, and preposterous citations +from the law reports of Naples. Cavicchio tells silly tales and sings +his Norcian songs. Il Desávedo burlesques the "dude" of Parma, and +Narcisino plays the "masher" of Bologna to the life. Burattino comes +upon the stage in a score of disguises, now gardener, now shopkeeper, +now valet, always the fool and knave combined, impostor and imposed +on.[42] The Notajo, with huge spectacles upon his nose and swan's quill +stuck behind his spreading ears, murmuring a nasal drawl, and tripping +himself up at every step in his long skirts, leads up the rear. +Rope-dancers, ballerini, Pasquarielli, Pierrots, conclude the show, +dancing and pirouetting after their more vocal comrades. + +It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to do justice to the manifold +and motley crowd of the Italian masks. Even Callot, whose burin has +bequeathed to us so many salient portraits of the types he saw in +action, leaves the imagination cold. As I have remarked above, the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ combined fixity of outline in the masks with +illimitable plasticity in the details communicated by the genius and +personality of their sustainers. The mask, the traditional character, +was something which a comedian assumed; but he dealt with it as he found +it suited to his physical and mental qualities. Each distinguished actor +re-created the part he represented. The improvised extempore rule of the +game allowed him boundless license. Therefore, while the masks +persisted, they varied with the men who wore them. Arlecchino became +Truffaldino in the hands of Antonio Sacchi. The Capitano appeared as +Scaramuccia in the person of Tiberio Fiorelli. Parts crossed and +intercrossed. Pulcinella borrowed something from Arlecchino; Brighella +patched himself with rags from Coviello's wardrobe. The dialect and +local humours of South Italy were engrafted on types conventionalised +in Lombard provinces. Tuscany took them up, and added her own biting +wit. As in a kaleidoscope, the constituent fragments of the changeful +whole assumed shapes and forms of infinite variety by clever shifting of +each particle. Each company established for the performance of this +comedy gave a fresh nuance to the combinations which the show permitted. +In each district it adopted a new local colour. The mask was recognised; +the man who wore it was expected to remodel it upon himself. Folk came +to the theatres, less to see the masks, than to see how an Andreini or a +D'Arbes or a Costantini or a Riccoboni would sustain them. We who have +lost the men, and lost well-nigh the memory of their performance, cannot +hope to reconstruct the comedy in its entirety. Histrionic art always +and everywhere suffers from the ephemeral conditions under which it has +to be externalised. But this disadvantage is crushing in the case of an +art which was left to the spontaneous creativeness of its great +representatives. + + +VIII. + +Intrigue of a simple kind formed the staple of these improvised +comedies. Anything like refined studies of character or the development +of calculated motives was rendered impossible by the conditions under +which they were presented to the public. An artist pleased or displeased +by the exhibition of his personality in masquerade, and his creation of +a shade of difference for some known type. The plot, whether borrowed +from the written drama, from Latin plays, or from the gossip of the +market-place, was always of an amorous complexion. Fathers, lovers, +guardians, varlets, priests, and panders played their parts in it. The +action proceeded by means of disguises, sleeping-potions, changelings, +pirates, sudden recognitions of lost relatives, phantoms, demoniacal +possessions, burlesque exorcisms, shipwrecks, sacks of cities, bandits, +kidnapped children. It is singular in what a narrow circle the machinery +revolves. Unlike our own Romantic drama, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ made +but few excursions into the regions of history, fable, mythology, and +fancy. Its scene was an Italian piazza; and though we hear of thrilling +adventures by land and sea, in forest and on fell, these are only used +to loose a knot or to elucidate the transformation of some personage. We +ought not to marvel at the limitations of this drama. They are explained +by that close connection, on which I have already insisted, between the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ and the _Commedia Erudita_. The new comedy +supplied little but its masks; and these masks, as we have seen, were +types of bourgeois and rustic characters, capable of infinite +modification within prescribed boundaries. The end in view was not the +delectation of the audience by a scenic drama, but the caricature and +travesty of life as it appeared to every one. That caricature, executed +with inexhaustible finesse and piquant sallies of fresh personality, +accommodated itself to the antiquated framework of plots as old as +Plautus. + +If the _Commedia dell' Arte_ lacked fancy and invention in its +ground-themes, this defect was compensated by audacious realism and +Gargantuan humour. The indecency of these plays cannot be described. Men +and women appeared naked on the stage. Unmentionable vices were boldly +paraded. Buffoonery of the vilest description enhanced the finest +strokes of burlesque sarcasm. Actors who created types which made the +spirit of a nation live in effigy, condescended to tricks unworthy of a +Yahoo. We have to accept the species, not as a branch of the legitimate +drama, but as a carnival masquerade, in which humanity ran riot, jeering +at its own indignities and foibles. + + +IX. + +The stock in trade of an acting company consisted of some scores of +plots in outline. Gozzi, writing in the eighteenth century, calculates +that there may have been from three hundred to four hundred dramatic +situations.[43] We possess a certain number of these scenari, as they +were technically called Flaminio Scala published a collection of fifty +in his _Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative_ (Venetia, 1611). The titles +of about one hundred others survive from the archives of Basilio +Locatelli and Domenico Biancolelli, incorporated in eighteenth-century +histories of the Italian stage. The records of the theatres where +Italians played at Paris supply titles of another set, and a few have +been disinterred from miscellaneous sources. Quite recently a complete +collection of well-formed _scenari_ was given to the press by Signor +Adolfo Bartoli from a Magliabecchian MS. of the last century.[44] It +contains twenty-two pieces. + +Comparative study of these _scenari_ shows that the whole comedy was +planned out, divided into acts and scenes, the parts of the several +personages described in prose, their entrances and exits indicated, and +what they had to do laid down in detail. The execution was left to the +actors; and it is difficult to form a correct conception of the acted +play from the dry bones of its _ossatura._ "Only one thing afflicts me," +said our Marston in the preface to his _Malcontent_: "to think that +scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to +be read." And again, in his preface to the _Fawne_, "Comedies are writ +to be spoken, not read; remember the life of these things consists in +action." If that was true of pieces composed in dialogue by an English +playwright of the Elizabethan age, how far more true is it of the +skeletons of comedies, which avowedly owed their force and spirit to +extemporaneous talent! Reading them, we feel that we are viewing the +machine of stakes and irons which a sculptor sets up before he begins to +mould the figure of an athlete or a goddess in plastic clay.[45] + +The _scenario_, like the _plat_ described for us by Malone and Collier, +was hung up behind the stage. Every actor referred to it while the play +went forward, refreshing his memory with what he had to represent, and +attending to his entrances. But before the curtain lifted a previous +process had been gone through. This was called _Concertare il soggetto_. +The company met in their green-room. What followed may be told in the +words of a seventeenth-century writer on the technique of the _Commedia +dell' Arte_.[46] "The Choregus, who rules and guides the troupe by his +ability and experience, has to plan the subject, to show how the action +shall be conducted, the dialogues concluded, and new sallies of wit or +humour introduced. It is not merely his business to read the plot aloud, +but also to set forth the personages with their names and qualities, to +explain the drama, describe localities, and suggest extemporaneous +additions. For instance, he shall begin by saying: 'The comedy we have +to represent is so-and-so; the personages such-and-such; the houses are +on this side and on that.' Then he will unfold the argument. He will +impress upon his comrades the necessity of bearing well in mind the +place where they are supposed to be, the names of people and the +business they are engaged in, so that they shall not confound Rome with +Naples, or say that they have come from Spain when they are bound from +Germany. A father must not forget his son's name, nor a lover his +lady's. It is also most important that the houses in which the action +has to take place should be accurately known. To knock at the wrong +door, or to take refuge in the home of your enemy, would spoil all. +Afterwards, the planner of the subject must indicate occasions suited to +the sallies of the several characters. 'Here a piece of buffoonery is +right. A metaphor, or sarcasm, or hyperbole, or innuendo, would make a +good effect there.' In fact, he has to show each actor how to play his +part to best advantage in the circumstances of the piece. Then he must +look to preventing inconvenient entrances and exits, providing that the +stage be not left empty, and indicating proper ways of bringing scenes +to their conclusion. After the Choregus has read this lecture to the +troupe, they will meet and sketch the comedy in outline. Then they have +the opportunity of bringing their own talents forward, and combining new +effects. Yet, at such rehearsals, they must all be mindful to maintain +the outlines of the subject, not to exceed their rôles, nor yet to trust +their recollection of similar plays performed under different +conditions. The piece has each time to be produced afresh by the +concerted action of the players who will bring it on the boards." + +The Choregus was usually the _Capocomico_ or the first actor and manager +of the company. He impressed his comrades with a certain unity of tone, +brought out the talents of promising comedians, enlarged one part, +curtailed another, and squared the piece to be performed with the +capacities he could control. "When a new play has to be given," says +another writer on this subject,[47] "the first actor calls the troupe +together in the morning. He reads them out the plot, and explains every +detail of the intrigue. In short, he acts the whole piece before them, +points out to each player what his special business requires, indicates +the customary sallies of wit and traits of humour, and shows how the +several parts and talents of the actors can be best combined into a +striking work of scenic art." + + +X. + +More than natural cleverness and native humour went to the making of a +good comedian. To begin with, he had to be a man of sense, tact, and +obliging disposition. "When we speak of a good comedian in the Italian +style," says Gherardi,[48] "we mean a man of solid parts, who depends on +imagination more than memory in his performance, and composes everything +he says upon the spot; he is one who knows how to play up to his +companions on the stage, combining his words and gestures so well with +theirs that he responds at a touch to their hints, and who is so ready +with a repartee or movement that the audience believes the scene to have +been concerted beforehand." In truth, fertility of fancy, quickness of +intelligence, a brain well stocked with varied learning, facility of +utterance, command of language, and imperturbable presence of mind, were +required in a first-rate improvisatory actor. When he undertook to +sustain one of the masks, he had first of all to live himself into the +character. If, for instance, he chose the Dottore, nothing might escape +his lips upon the stage out of harmony with that character, nothing +which could remind the audience that anybody but a pedant from Bologna +was speaking. His every gesture had to contribute to the same effect. +The second nature of his part had so to supersede his own instincts, +that no sudden accidents, the maladroitness of a comrade, an unexpected +turn in the dialogue, or any of the inconveniences to which +unpremeditated acting was liable, should throw him off his guard. + +It was further necessary that he should stock his mind with what the +actors called the _doti_ of a play, and with a repertory of what they +called _generici._[49] The _doti_ or dowry of a comedy consisted of +soliloquies, narratives, dissertations, and studied passages of +rhetoric, which were not left to improvisation. These existed in +manuscript, or were composed for the occasion. They had to be used at +decisive points of the action, and formed fixed pegs on which to hang +the dialogue. The _generici_ or common-places were sententious maxims, +descriptions, outpourings of emotion, humorous and fanciful diatribes, +declarations of passion, love-laments, ravings, reproaches, declamatory +outbursts, which could be employed _ad libitum_ whenever the situation +rendered them appropriate. Each mask had its own stock of common topics, +suited to the personage who used them. A consummate artist displayed his +ability by improving on these, introducing fresh points and features, +and adapting them to his own conception of the part. They had to become +incorporated with the ideal self he represented, and not to betray their +origin in study. The tradition of the drama and the daily practice of +rehearsing together made each member of a company know when such +premeditated pieces were to be expected. They did not therefore break +the general style of the performance. Habit enabled the actors to lead +up to them and pass away from them upon the stream of impromptu +dialogue. + +Another highly important branch of the art was what were called the +_lazzi_. "We give the name of _lazzi_," says Riccoboni in his history of +the theatre, "to those sallies and bits of by-play with which Harlequin +and the other masks interrupt a scene in progress--it may be by +demonstrations of astonishment or fright, or by humorous extravagances +alien to the matter in hand--after which, however, the action has to be +renewed upon its previous lines." It was precisely in these _lazzi_ that +a comic actor displayed his personal originality to best advantage; but +it required great tact and sense of the dramatic situation to render +them natural, appropriate, and to keep them within bound and measure. + +We have now seen what was expected of a first-rate artist, and +understand to what extent the _Commedia dell' Arte_ depended upon study +and premeditation. Long familiarity with their own repertory +undoubtedly reduced the improvisatory element to a minimum in the case +of troupes who were accustomed to play together for years. Yet they +strove to gain novelty by inventing fresh situations, giving unexpected +turns to dialogue, and varying their action on successive nights. The +best companies were those in whose hands a hackneyed comedy was always +plastic, and who kept their improvisatory powers in exercise. + +The defect of the art was that it tended to become stereotyped. The +Zanni repeated their jokes. The Dottore used the same malapropisms over +and over again. The _primo amoroso_ served up the _crambe decies +repetita_ of his monologues. The _lazzi_ degenerated into unmeaning +horse-play and buffooneries, which had nothing to do with the action of +the piece. Nature was forgotten. Every actor over-played his part, +ranted, raged, turned caricature into burlesque, spoke in and out of +season, exaggerated his gestures, diction, gait, and declamation, until +a pack of madmen seemed to have run wild upon the stage. To control +these tendencies towards a false and artificial style of presentation, +which formed the inherent vice of improvisatory acting, was the duty of +an able Capocomico. It could only be done by forcing the members of the +troupe to study and reflect on what they had to represent, by compelling +them to subordinate their several parts to the general effect, and by +raising the tone of their intelligence. Thus there was the greatest +difference between a well-conducted company, intent on the perfection of +their art, and a wandering rabble, satisfied with appealing to the +lowest instincts of the proletariate. The value of these remarks will be +apparent after reading what Gozzi has to say about Antonio Sacchi's +company and the causes of its dissolution. + + +XI. + +There is no doubt that during their flourishing period the companies of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ afforded the rarest amusement, not only to the +vulgar, but also to refined and cultivated audiences throughout Europe. +They were especially appreciated at Paris. From the year 1572, when the +_Confidenti_ and _Gelosi_ made their first appearance, to the close of +the eighteenth century, Italian troupes at the Hôtel de Bourbon, the +Hôtel de Bourgogne, the Palais Royal, and the Opera Comique, formed the +delight of the French court and the Parisian public. Under various +names, _Uniti_, _Fedeli_, _Barbieri's_, _Bianchi's_, and Cardinal +Mazarin's men, actors who had learned their trade in Italy continued to +seek larger profits and a wider audience in that capital. "The way in +which Italian comedians compose, study, and represent their plays," says +a French critic in the year 1716,[50] "is quite beyond the powers of +language to describe. I might venture to call it inconceivable; with +such a wealth of new and agreeable sallies and of unpremeditated +dialogue do they adorn their scenes." Many anecdotes regarding these +Italian players in their French homes have been transmitted to us, with +detailed descriptions of their qualities. I will confine myself to two +extracts.[51] One is taken from Constantini's Life of Tiberio Fiorelli +(1608-1694), the famous Scaramouche. "He was one of the most perfect +mimes who have appeared in these last centuries. I call him mime +advisedly, because he played his part by action more than speaking. +Scaramouche was not satisfied with making what he represented +intelligible by speech; he translated everything into movements of his +face and body, adapting his gestures to his words and his words to his +gestures with incomparable art. Everything became vocal in this man, his +feet, his hands, his head; the slightest attitude he took had meaning +and significance." Gherardi adds that "he could keep an audience in fits +of laughter for a long quarter of an hour without uttering a word. A +great prince, who saw him act at Rome, uttered these words, +'_Scaramuccia does not talk, and yet he says everything_,' and at the +end of the performance presented him with his coach and six horses." Of +Tommaso Vicentini, called Il Tommasino, who made his début at Paris as +Harlequin in 1716, we read: "His suppleness, his natural gaiety, his +graceful airs of rustic simplicity, made him a first-rate Harlequin. But +nature had also made him an excellent actor in the more extended sense +of that phrase. True, naïve, original, pathetic, amid the laughter he +excited by his buffooneries, a single trait, a single reflection which +became a sentiment by his manner of expressing it, drew tears from the +audience, and surprised the author of the piece no less than the public, +and that too in spite of the mask, which seemed intended to inspire as +much fear as merriment. Often, when one had begun to laugh at his way of +simulating grief or pain, one finished by being melted with the +tenderness of the emotion which came from the bottom of his heart." + +Italian companies delighted the court of Spain during the reign of +Philip II., and were welcomed in Portugal. We find them in Bavaria, at +Dresden, and in other parts of Germany. Nor were they entirely unknown +in England. Collier, in his "History of the English Drama," speaks of a +certain Drousiano, who played with his troupe in London during the +winter of 1577-78.[52] This was probably Drusiano Martelli. The +extempore plays of the Italians are mentioned by Whetstone, Kyd, Jonson, +and Brome; and it seems probable that the plat-comedies, ascribed to +the famous fools Tarleton and Wilson, were modelled on Italian _Commedie +a Soggetto_. Kyd, in the _Spanish Tragedy_, shows that the method of +studying an improvised play was well understood. Hieronymo, who wishes +to have a certain subject mounted in a hurry, says to his confidant-- + + "The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit, + That in one hour's meditation + They would perform anything in action." + +Lorenzo replies-- + + "I have seen the like + In Paris, among the French tragedians." + +The full history of Italian companies in foreign lands still remains to +be written; but I have said enough in this place to prove their wide +popularity. + +In its native country, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was long regarded as +the special glory and the unique product of Italian dramatic genius. +Gozzi, though he wrote as its apologist, only expressed common opinion +when he said:[53] "I reckon improvised comedy among the particular +distinctions of our nation. I look upon it as quite a different species +from the written and premeditated drama; nor have I the shameless +audacity to stigmatise with the title of an ignorant rabble those noble +and cultivated persons whom I see with my own eyes following and +enjoying a play of this description. I esteem the able comedians who +sustain the masks, far higher than those improvisatory poets, who, +without uttering anything to the purpose, excite astonishment in crowds +of gaping listeners." + + +XII. + +This essay would be incomplete if I failed to describe the decadence of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_, and the various inconveniences which attended +its performance by incompetent or wilfully scurrilous actors. Without +such a sequel to the history of its development, Goldoni's reform of the +theatre, and Gozzi's energetic attempts to sustain the old style by +works of a peculiar and hybrid character, will not be intelligible. + +In its higher manifestations, this comedy, as we have seen, allied +itself to fine art by singularly delicate links of connection. More than +in other kinds of drama, where actors make themselves the mouthpieces of +poets whose creations they incarnate, the performers of improvised +comedy had to be complete and finished works of living art in their own +persons. So long as they were conscious of their mission, and earnestly +aspired to the highest points within the range and scope of their +achievement, they supplied a scenic travesty of actual life unequalled +for its freshness and its truth to nature--sparkling with salient +traits of character, seasoned with mirthful sarcasm, and pungent by its +satire of contemporary manners. But the roots of this unique and +singular species of the drama were grounded in a deep sub-soil of vulgar +instincts and dishonest proclivities. It clung to the tradition of +mountebanks and mimes, acrobats and jongleurs, circus-clowns and +rope-dancers. The rare flower of racy humour and refined parody, which +fascinated Paris in the age of Louis XIV., sprang from a stock +discredited and outcast through fifteen centuries of Christian teaching. +The Church in council and in synod had anathematised the ancestors of +Andreini and Fiorelli, Sacchi and Darbes. Burial with the sanctities of +religion was forbidden them, as it is forbidden to suicides. They were +reckoned among the enemies of social order and civil discipline. The +State, in its sumptuary laws, forbade their entrance into decent houses, +relegating them to dark corners of the city, where they lurked with +thieves and prostitutes. Saintly pastors of the flock, like Carlo +Borrommeo, carried on a crusade against these corruptors of public +morals.[54] Even in Venice, the city of their adoption--the sea-Sodom, +as Byron called it, of carnival licentiousness, the mart of pleasure for +all Europe, the modern Corinth--an Inquisitor of State scourged them +with these words of stinging reprobation:[55] "Bear in mind, you +actors, that you are folk beneath the ban of blessed God's almighty +hatred, and that the prince allows you only as pasture for the common +people, who take pleasure in your ribaldries." With such a record of +contempt and disesteem and outlawry, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was +always sinking back into the slime from which it rose. Unhappily, the +same eyes which delighted in its glory during the years when genius shed +brilliant lustre on its noblest representatives, had only to look on +this side or on that, and a crowd of shameless merry-andrews, the scum +and dregs of the histrionic profession, made the evidences of its +inherent immorality only too apparent. + +I have already touched upon the scurrilities and obscenities which were +common in improvised comedy. To enlarge upon the topic is not necessary. +Everybody can perceive that a drama relying in great part upon +buffoonery, restrained by no obligation to literary precedents, +dependent on the favour of mixed audiences, among whom women scarcely +showed their faces, and varying at each performance with the whims and +humours of masked actors, who were _ex hypothesi_ beyond the pale of +social decency, may have allowed itself licenses which were well-nigh +intolerable. + +I have already described the tendencies toward exaggerative emphasis, +stilted declamation, ill-concerted action, impertinent extravaganza, and +wearisome repetition of exhausted motives, to which the species was +peculiarly liable. There is no need to expand those observations. They +justify the severe remarks of Goldoni in the preface to his theatrical +works, which, as these have a direct bearing upon the subject of my next +essay, I will summarise here:[56]--"The comic theatre of Italy for more +than a century past had so degenerated that it became a disgusting +object for general abhorrence. You saw nothing on public stages but +indecent harlequinades, dirty and scandalous intrigue, foul jests, +immodest loves. Plots were badly constructed, and worse carried out in +action, without order, without propriety of manners. If translations of +French or Spanish pieces were given, the improvisatory comedians +mutilated and deformed them beyond recognition. The same fate befell the +plays of Plautus and Terence, and of our elder Italian dramatists. +People of culture, nay, the common folk, cried out against these +miserable travesties. Every one was wearied with the insipidities and +conventionalities of an art upon the wane. You knew what Harlequin or +Pantaloon was going to say before he opened his lips." + +Readers of Gozzi's Memoirs, to which these pages serve as a prolusion, +have means of judging, on the testimony of a very partial critic and +avowedly Quixotical defender of the old _Commedia dell' Arte_, to what +extent the system of the theatre in Italy was faulty. Students of +Casanova's Memoirs will remember the dark picture of the actress whom he +met at Ancona, with her epicene brood of children and of changelings +exposed to indiscriminate contamination.[57] The lighter pages of +Goldoni's Memoirs reveal a spectacle less revolting, but far from +edifying, of a comic troupe in its passage from one Italian capital to +another.[58] Leaving these accessible sources of information regarding +the social status of the dramatic profession in Italy untouched, I will +close this chapter with some extracts from a well-nigh forgotten +book--Garzoni's _Piazza Universale_. One of the most frequent charges +brought against the acting companies was that they dressed their women +up in men's clothes, and sent them about the public squares of cities to +attract the rabble. "No sooner have they made their entrance," says +Garzoni, "than the drum beats to let all the world know that the players +are arrived. The first lady of the troupe, decked out like a man, with a +sword in her right hand, goes round, inviting the folk to a comedy or +tragedy or pastoral in the precincts of the Pellegrino.[59] The +populace, inquisitive by nature and eager for any new thing, hurries to +take places. Paying their pennies down, they crowd into a hall, where a +temporary stage has been erected, the scenes scrawled with charcoal as +chance and want of sense will have it. An orchestra of tongs and bones, +like the braying of asses or the caterwauling of cats in February, +performs the overture. Then comes a prologue in the manner of a +quack-doctor's oration to his gulls. The piece opens; you behold a +Magnifico, who is not worth the quarter of a farthing; a Zanni, who +straddles like a goose; a Gratiano, who squirts his words out from a +clyster-pipe; a lover, who acts like a narcotic on the senses of his +neighbours; a Spanish captain, with nothing but a couple of musty oaths +in his whole repertory; a stupid and foul-mouthed bawd; a pedant, who +trips up in Tuscan phrases at each turn; a Burattino, whose whole humour +consists in taking off and putting on his greasy cap; a prima donna, who +goes yawning, drawling, twaddling through her mumbled part, with eyes +well open to the chance of selling her overblown charms in quite another +market than the theatre. The show is seasoned with loathsome +buffooneries and interludes which ought to send their performers to the +galleys." Enlarging on this theme, Garzoni proceeds as follows: "These +profane comedians pervert the noble use of their ancient art by +presenting nothing which is not openly disreputable and scandalous. The +filth which falls continually from their lips infects themselves and +their profession with the foulest infamy. They are less civil than +donkeys in their action, no better than pimps and ruffians in their +gestures, equal to public prostitutes in their immodesty of speech. +Knavery and lewdness inspire all their motions. In everything they stink +of impudicity and villainy. When occasions offer for veiling grossness +under a cloak of decorum, they do not take these, but pique themselves +on bringing beastliness to sight by barefaced bawdry and undisguised +indecency." + +One of the degradations to which these comedians willingly submitted was +that of playing jackals to quack-doctors on the squares of the Italian +cities. Goldoni in his Memoirs[60] speaks of a certain Buonafede Vitali +who "maintained at his own cost a troupe of actors. It was their +business to collect the money thrown to them in pocket-handkerchiefs, +and to return the handkerchiefs filled with pots of ointment and boxes +of pills to the purchasers, after which they performed plays in three +acts with a certain kind of pomp under the light of wax candles." In +order to form a conception of the scenes which were enacted on an +Italian piazza crowded with charlatans, mountebanks and players, we must +have recourse again to Garzoni. It is almost impossible to understand +or to reproduce his language at the present day. Sarcastic sallies, +which were doubtless piquant in their time, but to which the key has now +been lost, abundance of ephemeral slang and racy innuendo, allusions to +forgotten people and obsolete customs, topical jests, the coarsest +Lombard patois seasoned with the salt of euphuistic rhetoric, all +combine to render his motley descriptions untranslatable. Garzoni and +writers of his class still lack the pains which Casaubon bestowed on +Athenæus, and perhaps their matter is not worthy of such vast +expenditure of industry. Yet the pith may be seized; and following our +garrulous cicerone, we stroll out on the piazza. "In one corner of it +you will see our swaggering Fortunato and his boon companion Fritata +spinning yarns, and keeping the whole populace agape into the night with +stories, songs, improvisations, dialogues; quarrelling, making-up, dying +of laughter, coming to blows again, bustling about their stage, settling +the dispute by fisticuffs and violent language, and lastly handing round +the cap to reap the harvest of the pennies they have earned. In another +corner, Burattino sets up his bray of brass. You would think that the +hangman had got hold of you, to hear him yell into your ears. He carries +a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole +world gathers around him. The people crowd, the groundlings jostle, men +of quality press forward to the platform. When the burlesque prologue +comes to a conclusion, Burattino's master puts in his appearance. It is +our old friend the Doctor, with his Bolognese jargon, long-winded +citations, insipid tomfooleries, and absurd pretensions to omniscience. +The droning of this arrant humbug drives as many of the audience away as +the zany's merry pranks and roguish whiskers and apish tricks have drawn +together. Meanwhile the curtains of the booth open, and the Tuscan comes +forth with his tumbling girl. He begins some silly story in the +Florentine tongue, during which the girl draws her circle and puts +herself in position, straddling with arms and legs abroad, flinging her +body backwards to pick up a piece of money with her mouth from two +crossed swords, and tickling the greasy varlets of the market-place by +the exhibition of her lascivious graces. Not far away, you may see the +Milanese quack, dressed like a noble gentleman, velvet cap on head and +white Guelf feathers waving to the wind. He is telling his man Gradello +some story of his hapless love. The groom cuts indecent jokes and gibes +in the background; then swaggers forward, twirls his moustachios, vows +to uphold his master's cause against all rivals, and bristles like an +enraged bloodhound; but, on a sudden, feigning to see foemen near, he +drops his arms, knocks his knees together, befouls his breeches on the +stage, and lets himself be soundly drubbed. When that interlude is +over, Gradello acts another part. He is a blind man squalling out a +ditty, and thrumming on a puppy in his lap instead of a theorbo. The +climax of all this buffoonery is a panegyric of some famous pills, which +lasts an hour or two, and leaves the charlatan wrangling over cents and +farthings with his swiftly dwindling audience. Toward evening the crowd +of quacks and blind musicians and acrobats thicken. Here is Zan della +Vigna with his performing monkey; there Catullo and his guitar; in +another corner the Mantuan merry-andrew, dressed up like a zany, Zottino +singing an ode to the pox, and the pretty Sicilian rope-dancer. +Tamburino spins eggs on a stick; the Neapolitan capers about with +brimming bowls of water on his pate; and Maestro Paolo da Arezzo makes +his solemn entry with a waving banner, on which you see St. Paul, +holding a huge falchion in one hand, while the rest of the field is +painted over with twining hissing serpents. The mountebank clears his +throat and relates his fabulous pedigree. St. Paul was his great +ancestor, and ever since that accident upon the island of Malta, all the +family have possessed miraculous powers over the snaky tribe. Hereupon +boxes are opened, and horrid vipers, water-snakes, and adders are drawn +forth to the terror of the bystanders. 'Do not be afraid,' continues +Maestro Paolo; 'I have delivered your fields and woods from these +plagues and their poison.' The trembling country-lads creep up and buy a +box of powders from the condescending hands of the impostor. After the +sight of all those asps and crocodiles, stuffed basilisks, tarantulas, +and Indian armadilloes, there is not one of them would venture out into +the country lanes without a prophylactic. Meanwhile, Settecervelli has +laid his mantle on the pavement, and is making his little bitch go +through her tricks, bark at the worst-dressed fellow in the circle, howl +at the name of the Grand Turk, dance for joy in honour of her master's +sweetheart, and carry round the cap for pennies in her mouth. The +Parmesan is not to be outdone by these performances; he has his +nanny-goat, whose antics are at least as sight-worthy as the puppy's. +The Turkish athlete climbs the campanile, lets his brawny chest be +hammered like an anvil, dislodges a stout pillar by the strength of his +huge arms and shoulders, and wins a bag of coppers heavy enough to pay +his expenses to the holy town of Mecca. The baptized Jew wails in a +lamentable tone of voice, _goi, goi, badanai, badanai_, till he has +attracted a crowd round him; then he tells the romance of his conversion +to the true faith, which leaves a strong impression on our mind that if +he has become a sincere Christian, which is more than doubtful, he has +certainly not lost the arts of an accomplished cheat. Soon the whole +piazza is swarming with folk of this sort; pills and powders, for all +the ills that flesh is heir to, are being hawked about; men are eating +fire, and swallowing tow, and pulling yards of twine from their +throats, and washing their faces in molten lead, and finding cards in +the pockets of their unsuspecting neighbours; every conceivable article, +which ingenuity can force on the attention of simpletons, is flirted in +one's face, and vaunted with a deafening din by hoarse and squeaking +salesmen." + +Garzoni has carried us somewhat astray from the main subject of this +essay. Yet it is not amiss to have gained a full conception of the +medium out of which the _Commedia dell' Arte_ emerged, and into which it +always tended to relapse, as well as of the various low and ignoble +branches of industry with which the players were associated. + + + + +Part III. + + _GOZZI'S DRAMATIC FABLES, OR FIABE TEATRALI; TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF + HISTORY OF HIS QUARREL WITH GOLDONI AND CHIARI._ + + 1. Venice in the last century--The Liberals and + Conservatives--Invasion of French theories in politics, philosophy, + and social manners--Prevalence of French taste in + literature--Conservative resistance to this revolutionary state of + things.--2. Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi--Popularity of French + sentimental dramas--The Academy of the Granelleschi founded in 1747 + by literary Conservatives, to restore a taste for pure Italian + style, and to promote the study of the Tuscan classics--Carlo Gozzi + belongs to this Academy, and becomes one of its chief + supporters--Goldoni, and the qualities of his genius--His + perception that nature has to be closely followed in the drama.--3. + A sketch of Goldoni's career, and of the steps whereby he became a + professional playwright--Settles at Venice in 1747 as poet to + Medebac's company--Goldoni's Venetian comedies, comedies in the + French manner, melodramas--Goldoni's rivalry with the Abbé + Chiari--Chiari's bombastic pseudo-Pindaric style--Martellian + verses.--4. Indignation of the Granelleschi with both Goldoni and + Chiari--Carlo Gozzi confounds them in one common hatred as + corruptors of the language--His particular dislike for Goldoni, who + had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, of which Gozzi + professed himself the champion--Publication of Gozzi's satirical + poem _La Tartana degli Influssi_ in 1756--Return of Sacchi's + company of impromptu comedians to Venice in that year--Vigorous + warfare carried on by the Granelleschi against both Goldoni and + Chiari during the next four years--Gozzi first shows his dramatic + faculty in a severe Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled _Il + Teatro Comico_--Chiari makes up his differences with Goldoni, and + both playwrights now join forces against their conservative + antagonists--Chiari defies the Granelleschi to produce a + comedy--Goldoni appeals from their criticisms to the public, who + idolise him--Gozzi determines to write a satirical play upon a + nursery-tale, which shall prove no less popular than Goldoni's + comedies--The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ appears in January + 1761--The true character of Carlo Gozzi's dramatic fables--It is a + mistake to suppose that he was actuated by spontaneous Romantic + genius--His affinity with the elder Tuscan burlesque poets--His + wish to rehabilitate the Comedy of Masks--His conservative and + didactic spirit.--5. A translation of Gozzi's own account of _The + Love of the Three Oranges_, important in the history of the + _Commedia dell' Arte_, and illustrative of the way in which Gozzi + handled his fabulous material.--6. Success of _L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie_--Production and dates of the remaining nine dramatic + _Fiabe_.--7. Gozzi's method of writing, and employment of the Four + Masks and the Servetta--Interweaving of the comic element with the + fairy-tale--Gozzi does not rise to the height of imaginative + poetry.--8. His satire, humour, feeling for poetic situations--His + conservative philosophy of life.--9. Sources of the _Fiabe_--The + artistic superiority of _L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_.--10. + Analysis of _L'Augellino Belverde_.--11. Gozzi's temporary + success--Goldoni retires to Paris, and Chiari to Brescia--Posterity + has reversed the verdict of contemporary Venice--Fate of the + _Fiabe_--Vicissitudes of Gozzi's fame in Italy, Germany, + France--Paul de Musset's condensed abstract of the Memoirs, and + their distorted picture of Carlo Gozzi. + + +I. + +About the middle of the eighteenth century, Venetian society was divided +into two main parties, representing what we should now call Liberal and +Conservative principles in politics and thought. The Liberals were +imbued with French philosophical ideas, French fashions, and French +phrases. The boldest of them, men like Angelo Querini, Carlo Contarini, +Giorgio Pisani, openly aimed at remodelling the constitution. They aired +new-fangled theories of government, based upon the Social Contract and +the Rights of Man, within ear-shot of the terrible Inquisition of State. +Some of them went in consequence to end their days in the dungeons of +Cattaro or Verona. These patricians created a body of restless +opposition in the Grand Council, agitated the bourgeoisie and +proletariate with the expectation of impending changes, and succeeded in +effecting some salutary but superficial reforms. Outside the sphere of +politics, that spirit of innovation which in France was silently but +surely working toward the Revolution, made itself felt among the +educated classes. The University of Padua, while preserving external +forms of mediævalism in its discipline and teaching, fermented with the +physical hypotheses of modern science. The deism of the Encyclopædists +and Voltaire came into vogue. Sentimentalism, thinly cloaking a desire +for liberty and license, ruled in morals. Rousseau's speculations and +the humanitarian utopias of the _philosophes_ disturbed the old +foundations on which social institutions rested. The word _prejudice_ +was upon the lips of everybody, to indicate the restraining influences +of public order in the state and of ethics in the family. These new +ideas permeated society and saturated literature. In the drawing-rooms +of great ladies, the clubs and coffee-houses of the gentry, the +theatres, concert-rooms, and little houses, where men and women +congregated, French books were discussed, French fashions were +affected, the French language was engrafted on the old Venetian dialect. +Frivolous butterflies of pleasure in that great mart of the world's +amusement assumed fine airs of philosophy and science. Wide-sweeping and +far-reaching theories, which called in question the whole groundwork of +man's previous beliefs, were freely ventilated by chatterers, who caught +their jargon from flippant manuals of science and popular essays, poured +forth by thousands from the press of Paris. Unhealthy novels spread +subversive moral doctrines flavoured with a spice of philanthropic +sentiment. It was considered _rococo_ to admire the old Italian +classics. Staunch Liberals paraded their independence of precedent and +prejudice by adopting a masquerade style which set the traditions of the +language at defiance. + +All this indicated a deep and irresistible fermentation in society. The +great catastrophe of the eighteenth century was preparing. The stage of +Europe was being made ready for that transformation-scene which opened a +new era. But few could foresee the inevitable future; few could +distinguish what was wholesome progress from the delirious or +somnambulistic ravings of the moment. Therefore the Conservatives clung +fast to their prejudices and precedents; to established forms of +government, the national religion, the traditional customs of civil and +domestic life. To superficial observers it appeared that these men held +the strongest cards. Yet even rigid Conservatives were bound to admit +that there was something ominously rotten in the state of Venice. Her +commerce dwindled year by year. Her provinces were ill-administered, and +yielded less and less to the exchequer. Social demarcations disappeared +in the luxury and corruption which invaded all classes. Pauperism +assumed appalling dimensions. In the decay of industries and +manufactures thousands of workpeople were thrown famished upon public +charity. The ranks of the Barnabotti, or impoverished nobles, who +claimed state support, swelled, grew clamorous in the Grand Council, +gave signs of insubordination, and contaminated the fountain-head of +government by their venality. Meanwhile, the old machinery of the +constitution had fallen into the hands of a close oligarchy or +commission of a few powerful patricians. These corruptors of the State +pulled wires, bought votes, and manipulated the College and the Senate +to secure their own ends in the Consiglio Grande. The more far-sighted +among the Conservatives felt the necessity of temporising. Influenced by +the all-pervasive spirit of the age, but not prepared to join the +Liberal forces, they compromised, tampered with institutions, and tried +by stopping leaks to keep the deep sea out. This was the attitude of men +like Marco Foscarini, Alvise Emo, and Paolo Renier. + +Apart from politics, the Conservatives stood on firmer ground. There is +no doubt that the so-called philosophy of the eighteenth century, both +in its principles and in its consequences, offered points of patent +weakness to hostile criticism. It was subversive without being +reconstructive. Its foundations were sentimental and fanciful rather +than logical and reasoned. Hazy in the minds of its projectors, it was +almost universally misunderstood by the multitude which it illuded. +Immorality was encouraged; not that any speculative system is inherently +immoral, but that the confused postulates regarding personal liberty, +the right of private judgment in matters of conduct, the light of +Nature, and the tyranny of custom and prejudice, from which this +philosophy started, enabled foolish or ill-minded people to hide their +vices and caprices beneath the specious mask of systematic thinking. +Again, the literature which sprang into existence under the predominance +of such theories, was in some respects pernicious, and in many points of +view ridiculous. The Conservatives had a definite course before them +when they determined to vindicate the purity of Italian diction, to +maintain the traditions of a glorious past in art, and to expose the +foibles of the Liberal school of thinkers and of writers. + + +II. + +This brings me to the proper subject of the present chapter, which is +the conflict of Liberalism with Conservatism in the theatre at Venice. +The two protagonists are Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi, both Venetians, +and both of nearly the same age. Goldoni was born in 1707, Gozzi in +1720. Gozzi entered the lists against Goldoni in 1756, when the latter +had been working for the Venetian stage since 1748, and when he had +already turned the heads of the public by his brilliant dramatic +novelties. + +The old _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we have seen, had sunk into +decrepitude. It was not merely that the type itself was exhausted, +though subsequent circumstances proved this to be the case. What was +more important is, that the popular taste veered round against it. Under +the prevailing dominance of French fashions, a style of drama, hitherto +unknown to the Italians, came into vogue. The so-called _Comédie +Larmoyante_, or pathetic comedy (of which Nivelle de la Chaussée, a +now-forgotten archimage of middle-class sentimentalities and +sensibilities, is the reputed inventor), caught the ear of Europe. The +Père la Chaussée, to adopt an epigram of Piron's, preached every evening +from his pulpit in a score of theatres through Europe. The titles of his +most famous plays, _Mélanide_, _La Gouvernante_, _Préjugé à la Mode_, +_L'École des Mères_, remind us of the revolution in the drama which +converted the public stage from a place of amusement into a platform for +the dissemination of political or social sentiments. Saurin's +_Beverley_, Mercier's _Déserteur_ and _L'Indigent_, De Falbaire's +_Honnête Criminel_, Voltaire's _Écossaise_, Diderot's _Père de Famille_, +carried on La Chaussée's tradition. Regarding their popularity at +Venice, enough is related in the verbose and bilious diatribes prefixed +by Gozzi to his dramatic works. Among plays of this description, an +adaptation of our _George Barnwell_--much in the style of Thackeray's +parody upon Lord Lytton's novels--attracted great attention by the +pathos with which a nephew murdering his uncle from the highest motives +was exalted to the rank of hero. The Conservatives not unjustly +protested against the contamination of public morals by the false +sentiment of these tearful dramas. The perversion of taste by low +domestic arguments and clumsy realism, which had nothing real but its +vulgarity, seemed to them no less a sin. + +They were particularly sensitive, moreover, upon the point of language, +diction, style. Translations and adaptations of French plays confirmed +the growing carelessness of authors. Gallicisms were so fashionable that +a stage-hack allowed himself all license in that direction. The jargon +of science introduced unheard-of phrases, which would have made the +fathers of the Della-Cruscan Academy shudder in their tombs. Moreover, +the prevalent affectation of independence and the fashionable revolt +against prejudice led ignorant scribblers to plume themselves upon their +solecisms and plebeian lapses into dialect. + +With the main object, therefore, of maintaining a standard of propriety +in style, and with the secondary object of opposing theatrical +innovations, the Venetian Conservatives (in literature) founded their +Academy de'Granelleschi. It came into existence about 1747; and I need +not enlarge upon its constitution, except to say that it was an academy +of the good old Tory type, like the _Gelati_, _Sonnacchiosi_, +_Storditi_, and so many scores of literary clubs with absurd names and +trivial customs, whose members wasted their time over pedantic studies, +and occasionally issued a piece of solid work among their otherwise +ephemeral transactions. A sufficient account of this Academy is given in +Gozzi's Memoirs. Its importance at the present moment is that out of +this little camp Carlo Gozzi marched like David to attack the Goliath of +Philistinism, Carlo Goldoni. + +It is difficult to speak adequately and fairly of Goldoni. In making +this man, Nature cast her glove down in the face of criticism, and +defied analysis. He possessed indubitable genius; what is more, his +genius obeyed generous enthusiasms, unselfish aims, pure-hearted +sentiments. He perceived instinctively and correctly that a new age was +dawning for the literature of Europe. He devoted his life to creating a +comic drama adequate to the intellectual dignity of his nation. Goldoni +was a good man, a modest man, a man complete in all the social virtues. +But he was not a great man. And his genius, that innovatory force of +his, that infinite adaptability, that inexhaustible scenic faculty which +he possessed, that intuition into the necessity of change, was, after +all, a genius of thin and threadbare quality. Can we point to a single +masterpiece produced by Goldoni? After allowing the sediment to settle +down of his prolific works and various experiments, can we select any +one play which bears the stamp of the supreme master? I think not. I +shrink from placing Goldoni, as a peer, in the company of Shakespeare, +Molière, Calderon, and Schiller. But, while saying this, it is +impossible to deny his actual achievement. It is impossible not to +recognise the honest motives which prompted him to copy Nature's book. +That was his great discovery; and that keeps the memory of Goldoni ever +green among us. He saw that Nature had to be loved and studied and +followed by the artist. He discerned this luminous point in a period +befogged by prejudice, tradition, pedantry, conventionality, +subservience to antiquated humours and insurgent eccentricities. It was +not Goldoni's fault that birth and fortune denied him those higher +capacities and favourable openings which might have made his art-work +monumental. His genial, shifty, pliable, and yet persistent personality +was forced to humour obstacles and to fawn on circumstance. As an +inevitable consequence, his productions are mediocre and unsatisfactory. +Mediocrity of talent and of character is stamped upon his plays, and +self-revealed in his good-humoured Memoirs. But what confounds +criticism is that this mediocrity in the man and his equipment was +combined with undeniable originality. His genius, though not of the +purest water, was genuine. He had a correct perception of the +requirements of his age, a clear intuition into the practical +possibilities of the dramatic art he handled, and a vivid consciousness +of the ground-principle that no artist can afford to lose sight of +reality in practice. What would Goldoni not have been, we say, after +summing up the survey of his qualities, had he been gifted with a finer +fibre, a wider range of knowledge, a deeper philosophy, a more robust +temper, a poetic talent equal to the task of externalising his just +perceptions in forms of meditated art? As it is, he presents the curious +spectacle of a man born to inaugurate a new epoch, but without the +faculty to impose his own ideal successfully upon his contemporaries. +The general public acclaimed him, and understood his aims. But the +aristocrats of literature were able to inflict telling blows in their +fight against him. We, who stand aloof, when all the dust of that +conflict has subsided, see that Goldoni really won the day. It is only +to be regretted that a champion of such small dimensions, soft heart, +and feeble sinews, was commissioned to effect the revolution. + + +III. + +Goldoni's instinct led him by an irresistible bias to the stage. He +vainly attempted to form himself for the more lucrative profession of +the law. During his youth he studied at a college in Pavia, but was +expelled for giving free vent to his literary propensities in satire. He +practised as an advocate at the Venetian bar, practised at Pisa in the +same capacity, acted as Genoese Consul at Venice. Still though he +courted Themis, his real predilections drew him toward Thalia. The first +piece which revealed his leading talent was a comedy in outline; _Il +Gondoliere Veneziano_, represented at Milan in 1733. In the next year he +produced a painfully bad tragedy at Verona entitled _Belisario_. Several +pieces of a mixed character, between comedy and tragedy, followed. Yet +he had not taken to the theatre as a profession; and it was not until +the year 1746, when he joined the comic company of Medebac, at Leghorn, +in the capacity of their paid playwright, that he entered definitely +upon the career of author for the stage. + +During the years when Goldoni was thus wavering between law and +literature, he attempted many kinds of dramatic composition--operettas +for music, tragedies, tragi-comedies, farces, _scenari_ for improvised +comedies, and comedies of which the dialogue was partly written. His +facile talent adapted itself to every style in turn. All this while he +recognised that his strength lay neither in the direction of poetry nor +in that of serious drama. Nature had bestowed on him a genius for +comedy; and he felt born to educate Italian taste in that species. We +have already seen how deeply he deplored the degeneration of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_; and yet some of his pieces had been performed by +the best improvisatory actors then alive, Sacchi the famous Truffaldino, +and Darbes the no less celebrated Pantalone. + +While scribbling Harlequinades, Goldoni never lost sight of the reform +he had long meditated; and this was to substitute written comedies of +character, in the style of Molière and the ancients, for the old +comedies _all' improvviso_. But he saw the necessity of proceeding +cautiously. On the one hand, he had to consider the adherents of the +elder style. On the other hand, he was forced to humour the comedians, +who were jealous of changes which increased their dependence upon +professional playwrights.[61] Accordingly, he advanced with +circumspection. In the _Momolo Cortesan_, which he composed for the +Pantalone of Sacchi's company (a certain Golinetti), only the leading +part was written. The rest was left to improvisation. Nevertheless, +this piece was constructed on different principles from those which +governed the _Commedia dell' Arte_. It aimed at being a comedy of +character; and thus Goldoni hoped by gradual steps to wean his actors +from their bad old ways. Copying his mistress Nature, he saw that +nothing could be done _per saltum_. It was necessary to prepare +transitions, and to pass through the development of imperfect species to +the exhibition of the type he had in view. This seems to have been the +principle on which he acted. But Goldoni was so pliable and easy-going, +so apt to take the cue from casual suggestions offered to his versatile +ability, that he frequently lost sight of this leading principle. His +Muse wore Harlequin's robe of many colours, and assumed the mask while +waiting to effect the meditated revolution. This indecision at the +commencement of his career exposed him to Gozzi's piratical attacks, and +exercised, I think, a prejudicial influence over his subsequent career +as playwright. But it was not in the character of the man to act +otherwise. He could not divest himself of ready sympathy, fluency, and +genial adaptability to the circumstances in which he was placed from +time to time. Some natures are destined to achieve their ends by +condescension. Goldoni's was essentially a nature of this kind. And the +fact remains that, amid all his excursions into regions alien from his +purpose, he kept one aim in view and finally achieved it. What survives +of solid in his work, is the select series of plays produced upon the +lines of the reform he calculated. + +It was at Pisa in 1746 that the _Capocomico_ Medebac induced Goldoni to +join his troupe. The proposal was that a theatre at Venice should be +hired for five or six years, and that Goldoni should dedicate his whole +talents to the composition of plays. Sufficiently good pecuniary offers +were made; for it seems that each comedy was paid at the rate of thirty +sequins, or about £12 sterling. Goldoni accepted. Then travelling with +his new partners by the road through Modena, he reached Venice in July +1747. His first venture, with a play called _Tognetto_ or _Tonino bela +grazia_, was a failure. A couple of pathetic pieces which followed, won +more favour with the public. Darbes, whom Goldoni learned to appreciate +and use with excellent effect, seconded his efforts admirably; and in +1748 circumstances seemed propitious for attempting the long-cherished +scheme of a revolution in the theatre. Accordingly he wrote the _Vedova +Scaltra_, which is distinctly a comedy of character. It was performed +during the carnival season of 1749, and was received with intelligent +sympathy by the Venetians. This induced Goldoni to pursue the course he +had begun. _La Putta Onorata_ obtained a similar success, and met with +emphatic approval from the gondolier class, whose sentiments and manners +had been studied in its composition. Goldoni's novelties had by this +time roused the jealousy of rivals and the opposition of Conservatives. +A parody of the _Vedova Scaltra_ appeared at the theatre of S. Samuele. +This was clever enough, and scurrilous enough, to attract attention. +Goldoni received a check in mid-career, which became serious when the +Carnival of 1749 closed with the total failure of a new piece from his +pen, _L'Erede Fortunata_. Upon this occasion, stung to the quick, and +piqued in his self-esteem, with the sense of his own inexhaustible and +facile forces rendering the hazard light, Goldoni publicly declared his +intention of producing sixteen new comedies within the next twelve +calendar months. + +He kept his promise, but at a considerable cost both to his position as +playwright and his health. With the general public, the man's +indomitable pluck, his good-humour, and the variety of subjects treated +in his famous sixteen plays, created an indescribable enthusiasm. The +end of the Carnival, 1750, brought well-earned laurels to Goldoni, +together with the good-will of the fickle multitude. But unforgiving +enemies, the supporters of the old drama, the literary purists, and the +Conservatives who could not stomach sentimental comedies, were watching +him with Argus eyes. In the heat of volcanic combustion, he had thrown +up cinders and rubbish along with several felicitous and brilliant works +of art. The worst of his performances were remembered and scored up +against him by critics like Carlo Gozzi. The best were confounded +in one plausible condemnation. + +[Illustration: TARTAGLIA (1620) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +From this point forward for the next six years Goldoni met with no +formidable opposition, except from a rival playwright. The man in +question was the Abbé Chiari, a relic of the seventeenth century, +pompous and bombastic in style, a blatant member of the Arcadian +Academy, a bastard brother of Pindar in the matter of mixed metaphors +and wild Icarian flights, a prolific scribbler of melodramatic pieces in +rhymed Martellian verses,[62] and, after all his qualifications are +summed up, a mere pretentious windbag. Chiari caught the public ear. +Venice divided itself into factions for Chiari and Goldoni. On a smaller +scale, the Bononcini and Handel conflicts of London, the Gluck and +Piccini riots of Paris, were repeated. The most damaging feature of this +contest for Goldoni, was that Chiari, less gifted with originality, +aped each of his new inventions. Against Goldoni's _Pamela Nubile_ +Chiari brought out a _Pamela Maritata_, against his _Avventuriere +Onorato_ an _Avventuriere alla Moda_, against his _Padre per Amore_ an +_Inganno Amoroso_, against his _Molière_ a _Molière marito geloso_, +against his _Terenzio_ a _Plauto_, against his _Sposa Persiana_ a +_Schiava Chinese_, against his _Filosofo Inglese_ a _Filosofo +Veneziano_, against his _Scozzese_ a _Bella Pellegrina_. In spite of +their mutual hostility, this game of battledore and shuttlecock between +Chiari and Goldoni enabled the literary Conservatives to regard both +playwrights as flying under one flag. But before the Granelleschi opened +fire in earnest, Venetian society continued for five years to be pretty +equally divided in its sympathies. The best judges sided with Goldoni, +while Chiari's glaring faults, which passed for brilliant qualities with +the vulgar, won him numerous admirers. Carlo Gozzi has described this +state of contention:[63] + + "I partigiani ogni giorno crescevano, + Chi vuole _Originale_ et chi _Saccheggio_; + Tutto il paese a romore mettevano, + Sicchè la cosa non è da motteggio. + Nelle case i fratelli contendevano, + Le mogli co' mariti facean peggio, + In ogni loco acerba è la tenzone, + Tutto è scompiglio, tutto è dissensione." + + +IV. + +The Granelleschi, in their zeal for sound literature, were justly +enraged against the ranting, arrogant, bombastic Chiari. Although the +more discreet Academicians, men like Gasparo Gozzi, recognised Goldoni's +merits, they resented his slovenly and slipshod style. Carlo Gozzi, less +tolerant and far more satirical than his elder brother, confounded both +poets in a common loathing. This was obviously unfair to Goldoni, who, +whatever his faults of diction may have been, ranked immeasurably higher +than the Abbé. But Goldoni was guilty of an unpardonable sin in Gozzi's +eyes. He had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, for which +Gozzi entertained the partiality of one who was himself an excellent +impromptu actor. The other reasons of this bitter hatred are +sufficiently explained in those chapters of the Memoirs which describe +the beginning of his career as playwright. + +At last Gozzi thought the time had come for striking a decisive +blow.[64] The Granelleschi professed sincere admiration for an obscure +burlesque Florentine poet of the fifteenth century called Burchiello. +Taking some of this man's enigmatical sentences for prophecies, Gozzi +compiled a sort of comic almanac, in which the various woes impending +over Venice in the year 1756 were described. It was entitled _La Tartana +degl' Influssi per l'anno bisestile_ 1756,[65] and was modelled upon an +almanac for country-folk, published at Treviso under the name of a +certain Schieson.[66] For each quarter of the year a _capitolo_ in +_terza rima_ was written, and a prophecy in octave stanzas was dedicated +to each month. Although the _Tartana_ contained satires upon society in +general, a considerable part was directed specially against Chiari and +Goldoni. The introductory address to the readers strikes the keynote. +The month of February deals with comedies, the month of November with +Martellian verses, and the month of December invokes the speedy return +of Sacchi and his company of masks from Portugal. Finally, in the sonnet +addressed to the bookseller at the end of the book, the two poets are +mentioned by name. Gozzi declared himself an implacable enemy of the +plays in vogue, an opponent of rhymed verses imitating the French +Alexandrine measure, and a zealous adherent of the old _Commedia dell' +Arte_. The prophecy with regard to Sacchi's company was speedily +fulfilled; for the earthquake of Lisbon happening in 1755, they were +obliged to quit the scene of that lugubrious disaster. Soon after their +return to Venice, Gozzi appears to have courted their friendship. This +we gather from the _Canto Ditirambico de'Partigiani del Sacchi +Truffaldino_ which he published in 1761.[67] + +Irritated by the _Tartana degli Influssi_, Goldoni, who usually kept +silence under literary attacks, took up the pen and wrote as +follows:[68]-- + + "Ho veduta stampata una Tartana + Piena di versi rancidi sciapiti, + Versi da spaventare una befana, + Versi dal saggio imitator conditi + Con sale acuto della maladicenza, + Piena di falsi sentimenti arditi; + Ma conceder si può questa licenza + A chi in collera va colla fortuna, + Che per lui non ha molta compiacenza. + Chi dice mal senza ragione alcuna, + Chi non prova gli assunti e gli argomenti, + Fa come il can che abbaia alla luna." + +I have transcribed these verses for several reasons; first, that my +readers may judge for themselves of Goldoni's poetical style; secondly, +because the last six lines profoundly irritated Gozzi; and thirdly, +because they engaged him in the production of his first semi-dramatic +pasquinade upon their author. + +We need not describe the battle of sonnets, squibs, and pamphlets which +raged after the appearance of Gozzi's _Tartana_. The Granelleschi were +now committed to crush their antagonists; and they spared no pains to do +so. Men of birth and parts condescended to the filthiest ribaldry and +the most savage personalities. On the whole, it must be allowed that the +Granelleschi displayed superior wit and style. Gozzi, in particular, +showed real powers for burlesque satire in his _Marfisa Bizzarra_; and +some of his occasional pieces are composed with a terseness and +directness worthy of the classical age of Florentine literature. Goldoni +replied from time to time, but feebly. In a poem entitled _La Tavola +Rotonda_, he described his formidable antagonist as:[69] + + "Un Lombardo che affetta esser cruscante + Col riso in bocca e col veleno in petto." + +This seems to me a fair, if somewhat pungent, description of Carlo +Gozzi, who, in spite of his theoretical purism, rarely succeeded in +writing with correctness or distinction, and who veiled a really caustic +temper under the mask of Democritean philosophy. Touching upon the +charges brought against himself of being neither a scholar nor a poet, +Goldoni admits their truth with frankness:[70] + + "Pur troppo io so che buon scrittor non sono + E che ai fonti miglior non ho bevuto; + Qual mi detta il mio stil scrivo e ragiono, + E talor per fortuna ho anch' io piaciuto; + Ma guai a me se il fiorentin frullone + A sceverare i scritti miei si pone." + +Strong in the unwavering appreciation of the public, and confident in +his own powers, Goldoni could afford to make this concession to his +antagonist. But it argued a generous and modest mind, different in +quality from Gozzi's. + +Meanwhile Gozzi took up the glove of defiance thrown down by Goldoni in +his _Tavola Rotonda_. A sonnet referring to that poem contains these +lines:[71] + + "Ma acciò s'abbia a decidere + S'io dissi il ver, sto facendo un comento, + Che proverà l'assunto e l'argomento." + +This _Comento_ led Gozzi eventually to the production of his _Fiabe_. +But a step or two remained to be taken before Gozzi resolved to meet +Goldoni on his own ground, the theatre. + +He began by circulating a satirical piece entitled _Il Teatro Comico +all' Osteria del Pellegrino tra le mani degli Accademici Granelleschi_, +or "The Comic Theatre at the Inn of the Pilgrim, rough-handled by the +Granelleschi." Gozzi's Memoirs contain a sufficient description of this +satire, which still exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. They also +explain why he withdrew it from publication at the request of his friend +Farsetti and Goldoni's patron Count Widman. Therefore it is not +necessary to discuss it here in detail: yet the meaning of the title may +be pointed out. Goldoni had already produced a comedy, called _Il Teatro +Comico_, setting forth his views regarding the reform of the drama.[72] +Gozzi, alluding to this play, undertakes to expose the faults of +Goldoni's own theatrical writings. The satire is conceived in the broad +spirit of Aristophanic or Rabelaisian humour, and is really a +masterpiece in its kind. We feel for the first time that Gozzi has found +his proper sphere by the breadth of handling, the free play of humour, +and the precision of touch, which reveal an inborn dramatic faculty. The +unmasking of the vociferous four-faced monster which caricatured +Goldoni, is eminently fit for scenical effect. While reading, we seem to +be present at a new act in Jonson's _Poetaster_. The four mouths of the +four-faced mask represent the four kinds of dramas written by +Goldoni--his early harlequinades and _scenari_, his domestic comedy of +the pathetic species, his heroic and Oriental melodramas, and his +transcripts from Venetian life. A fifth mouth, the mouth in the belly, +_la veridica bocca dell' epa_, as Gozzi terms it, utters Goldoni's +personal aims and views, as Gozzi chose brutally to interpret them. This +truthful witness confesses that all the four mouths of the masked head +were subservient to its carnal needs. _Quis expedivit psittaco suum_ +χαἱρε?... _Magister artis ingenîque largitor, Venter negatas artifex +sequi voces._ "Who taught the parrot his word of welcome? That master of +art and liberal dispenser of genius, the belly." That motto from the +prologue to Persius' book of satires might be inscribed on the +title-page of Gozzi's pasquinade. The blow inflicted, in a literal and +metaphorical sense, below the belt, was unworthy of a gentleman. It +betrayed Gozzi's critical insensibility to Goldoni's actual merits. It +exhibited his aristocratic contempt for professional literature, +combined with his comedian's readiness to take advantage of a powerful +opponent. But it also revealed a literary athlete capable of striking +home, and whose method of attack was certain to be formidable. + +Goldoni bowed beneath the storm, and used his influence to withhold the +sanguinary satire from further publicity. At this point Gozzi showed the +courtesy which might have been expected from a man of his quality. He +dropped the point of his weapon at his antagonist's request, and +prepared himself to meet the playwright on his own ground. In fairness +to Gozzi, it is necessary to observe that this resolution indicated no +small amount of chivalry and courage. Goldoni was the idol of the +public. He kept continually pointing to the concourse which crowded the +Venetian theatres when a new piece from his pen was advertised. Gozzi +was unpractised in play-writing, a man in his fortieth year, and the +dramatic card on which he staked his luck might well be considered +hazardous. What that card was we shall presently discover. + +Chiari, involved in the same warfare with the Granelleschi, had hitherto +preserved a discreet silence. Now he defied them to produce a play. +Gasparo Gozzi answered with a sonnet, which betrays his personal leaning +toward Goldoni. Then Chiari resolved to make common cause with his old +rival on the stage. This shows how the dropping fire of the Academicians +had told upon their opponents. The Abbé addressed Goldoni as _degnissimo +comico vate, poeta amico_, most worthy master of comedy, my good poet +friend. Goldoni reciprocated the compliment with _vate sublime, vate +immortale_, sublime, immortal bard. Not without a touch of concealed +irony, he compared himself to Chiari in this lyric flight:[73] + + "Si, tu sei l'aquila, + Io la formica; + Tu voli all' apice + Senza fatica, + Mia Musa ai cardini + Salir non sa." + +We trace in these verses Goldoni's perfect clarity of vision regarding +his own powers, and his good-humoured indulgence of other people's +foibles. He recognised the practical advantage of an alliance with +Chiari. At the same time he disclaimed all honours for himself, and +gently ridiculed his new ally's pretensions. + +Chiari had defied the Granelleschi to produce a comedy. Goldoni had +taken up his stand upon the popularity of his own plays. Carlo Gozzi +conceived the bold idea of writing a fantastic drama upon the old lines +of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which should fill the theatre of his +adoption and restore Sacchi's company to favour. If he succeeded, both +Chiari and Goldoni would be hit with the same stone. This was the real +origin of the celebrated _Fiabe Teatrali_. But before engaging in the +attempt, Gozzi looked about for a suitable subject. Nothing, he +calculated, would floor his antagonists more thoroughly than the +exhibition of a dramatised nursery tale by impromptu actors. Therefore, +in the spirit of a burlesque duellist, in the true spirit of Don +Quixote, he composed his _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_. + +These facts about the genesis of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ need to be insisted on, +since French and German critics have distorted the truth. They regard +Gozzi as a romantic playwright, gifted with innate genius for a peculiar +species of dramatic art. According to this theory, the _Fiabe_ were +produced in order to manifest an ideal existing in their author's brain. +Minute attention to Gozzi's Memoirs, his explanatory Essays (Opere, +vols. i. and iv.), and the preface appended to each _Fiaba_, shows, on +the contrary, that he began to write the _Fiabe_ with the simple object +of answering a certain challenge in the most humorous way he could +devise. He continued them with a didactic purpose. His keen sagacity and +profound knowledge of the Venetian public led him possibly to anticipate +success. Yet he knew that the attempt was perilous; and he made it, +without obeying preconceived principles, without yielding to any +imperative instinct, but solely with the view of giving Chiari and +Goldoni a sound thrashing. + +If it is worth while studying Gozzi and the _Fiabe_ at all, this point +has so much importance that I may be permitted to resume the history of +his literary conflict with the two poets. Gozzi opened fire with the +_Tartana_ in 1756. Goldoni retorted that he had only made himself +ridiculous; unless he proved both his assumption and his argument, he +was nothing better than a dog barking at the moon. Gozzi then declared +that he was already engaged in the production of a commentary. This +circulated in MS. under the form of a satire called the _Teatro Comico_. +Meanwhile Goldoni parried all attacks by pointing to his popularity, and +Chiari openly defied the Granelleschi to write a comedy, instead of +condemning the plays in vogue. Finally Gozzi, who had become intimately +acquainted with the actors in Sacchi's company, resolved to write a +_scenario_, which should rehabilitate the _Commedia dell' Arte_, parody +both Chiari and Goldoni, attract the public in crowds, and prove that a +mere fairy tale, treated with romantic gusto, was capable of arousing no +less interest than the works of professional playwrights following +new-fangled models. The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_, produced at the +end of January in 1761, rather more than four years after the appearance +of the _Tartana_, was the result. + +It is mistaken to suppose that Gozzi was animated by the enthusiasm of a +literary innovator. The _Fiabe_, in spite of their fantastic form, were +the work of an aristocratical Conservative, bent on striking a shrewd +blow for the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which he considered to be the +special glory of the Italian race. In this respect, we might call Gozzi +the Venetian Aristophanes.[74] The _Fiabe_ were his "Clouds," and +"Birds," and "Wasps." Goldoni and Chiari were his Euripides and Agathon; +perverters of the good old comedy by vulgar realism, false pathos, and +meretricious rhetoric. Rousseau, Voltaire, Helvetius, the French +_philosophes_, were his Socrates and Sophists. His art was the +expression, not of creative instinct evoking a new type of drama merely +for its beauty and romance, but of a militant, sarcastic mind, imbued +with the ironical literature of the sixteenth century. Gozzi had little +in common with Shakespeare. Truffaldino is no twin-brother of King +Lear's fool, nor is Brighella cousin to the grave-digger in _Hamlet_. +These personages belong to the family of masks, whose pedigree dates +from immemorial antiquity in Italy. The element of fable, as Gozzi +repeatedly informs us, was first adopted by him out of sheer bravado to +maintain a certain thesis, viz., that whole nations could be made to +laugh and cry over puerilities, when handled with the judgment of a +master. Gozzi's true ancestors in art were the Florentine burlesque +poets, notably Luigi Pulci. The blending of magic, phantasy, broad +comedy and serious tragic interest in the _Fiabe_ allies them to the +_Morgante Maggiore_ far more closely than to Marlowe's _Doctor +Faustus_. In them, therefore, we observe the curious literary phenomenon +of what at first sight appears to be spontaneous romantic art, but what +is really the result of satirical and didactic intention. The preface to +_L'Augellino Belverde_, in which Gozzi takes leave of the _Fiabe_, +clearly explains the case.[75] "I addressed myself to the task of +arousing great popular enthusiasm by a _tour de force_ of fancy; and at +the same time I wished to cut short the series of my dramatic pieces, +from which I derived no profit, and the burden of producing which was +beginning to weigh heavily upon me. Besides, it seemed to me that I had +fully achieved the end I had proposed to myself from the outset, in the +indulgence of the purest capricious and poetical punctilio." _Punctilio_ +was the parent of the _Fiabe_. + +At this point I shall introduce a translation of _L'Amore delle Tre +Melarancie_. There are several reasons for doing so. First, although it +only exists For us in the _compte rendu_ of the author, and is therefore +a description rather than a literal _scenario_, a very good idea can be +gained from it of the directions given by a poet to extempore actors. +Secondly, it shows the four Venetian masks, Pantalone, Tartaglia, +Truffaldino, and Brighella, in action, together with the _servetta_ +Smeraldina. Thirdly, it is interesting for the light thrown upon Gozzi's +controversy with the two poets in the critical observations he has +interspersed. These I shall enclose in brackets, so that the _scenario_ +of the play may be distinguished from extraneous matter. + + +V. + +A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS + +OF THE FABLE ENTITLED + +THE LOVE OF THE THREE ORANGES. + +_A Dramatic Representation divided into Three Acts._[76] + + +PROLOGUE. + +(_A boy comes forward and makes this announcement._) + + Your faithful servants, the old company + Of players, feel sore shent and full of shame; + Behind the scenes they stand with downcast eye + And hang-dog faces, dreading words of blame; + They blush to hear the folk say: "We are dry! + Each year those fellows feed us with the same + Musty old comedies that stink of mould! + We will not be insulted, laughed at, sold!" + I swear by all the elements to you, + Kind public, that to win your love once more, + They'd let their teeth be drawn, and eyeballs too! + They sent me to say this--nay, do not roar, + Restrain your wrath, sweet gentle audience, do; + Lend me your ears three minutes, I implore; + When I have spoken what I'm sent to say, + Deal with me as you list, I won't cry nay! + We've lost all sense and knowledge how to please + The public on our scenes, in this mad age. + The plays that took last year now seem to freeze; + And something quite brand-new is all the rage. + The wheel of taste and fashion, as one sees, + Moves with a wind no prophet can presage; + We only know that when the world's agog, + Our throats are moist and stomachs filled with prog. + Taste rules this year that all the modern plays + Should be crammed full with intrigue, strange events, + Fresh characters, adventures that amaze, + Wild, thrilling, unexpected incidents;-- + Dumbfounded by these laws, we stand at gaze, + Huddling together timorous in our tents; + And yet because we must have bread to eat, + We've come with our old wares your wrath to meet. + I know not, gentle listener, who it is + Hath rendered us unfit to charm your ear: + To us who once enjoyed your courtesies, + So many and so sweet, it seems most queer. + Is Poetry perchance to blame for this? + Well, well; all things are doomed to disappear; + Mortals must learn to bear and bide their fate; + Yet, ah! your hatred is a scourge too great! + For our part, we'll leave nothing new untried; + We'll don the poet's singing-robes and bays, + If this may give us back your grace denied; + Nay, we _are_ poets in these latter days! + Our breeches shall be sold and ink supplied, + Our coats we'll change for paper to write plays; + And if we've got no genius, well, what's that? + So long as you are pleased, all's right, that's flat. + Our purpose 'tis with new-pranked comedies, + Fine things, ne'er seen before, to fill our stage. + Don't ask when, where, and how we met with these, + Or who inscribed the pure Phœbean page; + After fine weather when the deluges + Of rain descend, _Lo, new rain!_ cries the sage; + Yet though he thinks it new rain, 'tis quite plain + That rain is nought but water, water rain. + Not all things keep one course through endless time. + What's up to-day, to-morrow shall be down. + Your great-great-grandsire's garment Mode, the mime, + Steals from his picture-frame to deck the town. + 'Tis taste, opinion, gusto make sublime, + Make beautiful, what tickles prince and clown; + And we can swear upon the book our plays + Have ne'er appeared in these or other days. + We've plots and arguments to turn old folk + Back to their infancy and nurse's arms; + Parents who kindly bear their children's yoke + Will bring the babes to listen to our charms; + High solemn geniuses we daren't invoke, + Nor will their absence cause us great alarms; + Why should we snuff at pence? Whether they scent + Of ignorance or learning, we're content. + On strange and unexpected circumstance + You shall sup full to-night; on wonders wild, + Whereof you may have heard or read perchance, + Yet never seen by woman, man, or child; + Beasts, birds, and house-doors shall your ears entrance + With verses by crowned poet's labour filed; + And if Martellian verses they shall prove, + These _must_ compel your plaudits and your love! + Your servants wait, impatient to begin; + But first I'd like the story to rehearse; + Ah me! I quake and tremble in my skin-- + You're sure to hiss me or do something worse! + _The Love of the Three Oranges!_--I'm in, + And don't repent the plunge, although you curse. + Imagine then, my darlings, heart's desires, + You're sitting with your granddams round your fires. + +[The touch of satire in this prologue, directed against poets who were +trying to trample down Sacchi's company of improvisatory players, is +too obvious, and my intention of supporting the latter by introducing +the series of my dramatised nursery-tales upon the theatre is too +evident, to call for detailed commentary. In the choice of my first +fable, which I took from the commonest among the stories told to +children, and in the base alloy of the dialogues, the action, and the +characters, which are obviously degraded of set purpose, I wanted to +ridicule _Il Campiello_, _Le Massère_, _Le Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and many +other plebeian and very trivial pieces by Signor Goldoni.] + + +FIRST ACT. + +Silvio, King of Diamonds,[77] the monarch of an imaginary realm, whose +habit exactly imitated that of his majesty upon the playing cards, +confided to Pantalone the deep distress caused to his royal mind by the +misfortune of his sole son and heir, Tartaglia. The Crown-Prince had +been subject, for the last ten years, to an incurable malady. The first +physicians diagnosed the case as hopeless hypochondria, and gave their +patient up. The King wept bitterly. Pantalone, sending doctors to the +devil with his sarcasms, suggested that the admirable secrets of certain +charlatans, at that time famous, might be tried. The King protested that +all such means had been employed with no result. Pantalone, letting his +fancy play upon the hidden causes of the malady, asked his liege in +secret, so as not to be overheard by the royal bodyguard, whether his +Majesty had perhaps contracted something in his younger days, which, +being communicated to the constitution of the Prince, might still be +extirpated by the exhibition of mercury. The King, assuming an air of +stately seriousness, replied that he had been invariably faithful to his +consort's bed. Pantalone then submitted that the Prince might be +concealing, out of a befitting sense of shame, the consequence of boyish +peccadilloes. His Majesty assured him seriously that his own paternal +inspection of the patient excluded that hypothesis; the young man's +illness was solely due to hypochondria of a grave and malignant nature; +the physicians declared that, unless he could be made to laugh, he must +sink slowly into his grave; a smile upon his face would be the +favourable sign of convalescence. That was too good to be expected. To +this he added that the prospect of his own decrepitude, the sight of his +son and heir upon a death-bed, the inevitable succession to the crown of +his niece Clarice, a young woman of strange temper, bizarre fancies, and +cruel passions, caused him the deepest affliction. Thereupon he began to +bewail the future misery of his subjects, broke down into a flood of +tears, and quite forgot the dignity of his high station. Pantalone +consoled him, urged on his attention the propriety of restoring the +court to merriment and gladness, if all depended on Prince Tartaglia's +recovering the power of laughter. Let festivities, games, masquerades, +and spectacles be set on foot. Let Truffaldino, well approved for making +people laugh and chasing the blue-devils from their brains, be summoned +to the Prince's service. The Prince had shown some inclination for +Truffaldino's society. He might succeed in bringing smiles again upon +the royal features. The remedy could but be tried, and possibly a cure +might ensue. The King allowed himself to be convinced, and began to plan +arrangements. + +To these persons entered Leandro, Knave of Diamonds,[78] and first +Minister of the realm. He too was dressed like his figure on a pack of +cards. Pantalone, aside, expressed his suspicion of some treachery on +the part of Leandro. The King commanded festivities, games, and Bacchic +entertainments, adding that whoever made the Prince laugh should receive +a noble prize. Leandro tried to dissuade his Majesty, and urged that +such remedies were likely to prejudice the sick man's health. The King +repeated his orders and retired. Pantalone rejoiced. Aside, to the +audience, he explained that Leandro was certainly planning the Prince's +death. Then he followed the King. Leandro remained stubborn, muttered +that he detected some opposition to his wishes, but from what quarter he +could not guess. + +To him appeared the Princess Clarice, niece of the King. There was never +seen upon the stage a princess of so wild, irascible, and determined a +character as this Clarice. [I have to thank Signer Chiari for furnishing +me with abundant models for such caricatures in his dramatic works.] She +had settled with Leandro to marry him, and raise him to the throne, upon +the death of her cousin. Accordingly she burst into reproaches against +her lover for his coldness. Were they to wait until Tartaglia died of a +disease so slow as hypochondria? Leandro excused himself with +circumspection. Fata Morgana, he said, his powerful protectress, had +given him certain charms in Martellian verses, which were to be +administered to Tartaglia in wafers. These would certainly work his +destruction by sure if tardy means. [This was introduced to criticise +the plays of Chiari and Goldoni, whose Martellian verses bored every one +to death by their monotony of rhyme.] Now Fata Morgana was hostile to +the King of Diamonds, having lost much of her treasure on his card. She +loved the Knave of Diamonds, because he had brought her luck in play. +She dwelt in a lake, not far from the city. Smeraldina, a Moorish woman, +who performed the _servetta_ in this scenic parody, acted as +intermediary between Leandro and Morgana. Clarice fumed with fury at +hearing the slow means appointed for Tartaglia's death. Leandro +confessed that he entertained some doubts about the efficacy of +Martellian verses to secure a happy dispatch. He was uneasy, too, at +the unexplained appearance of Truffaldino at court, a very facetious +fellow; and if Tartaglia laughed, his cure was certain. Clarice's rage +boiled over; she had seen Truffaldino, and the mere sight of him was +certain to make anybody laugh. [In this dialogue my readers will detect +a defence of the mirth-making comedy of the masks as against the +melancholy drama in verse of the poets in vogue.] Meanwhile, Leandro had +seat Brighella, his servant, to Smeraldina, to learn the explanation of +Truffaldino's appearance, and to demand assistance from Morgana. + +Brighella entered; and with much show of secrecy related that +Truffaldino had been sent to court by a certain wizard Celio, Morgana's +enemy, and the King of Diamonds' friend, for reasons exactly opposite to +those which had incensed Morgana against him. Truffaldino, he continued, +was an antidote to the morbific influences of Martellian verses; he had +come to protect the King, the Prince, and all the people from the +infection of those melancholic charms. + +[It may be pointed out that the hostility between Fata Morgana and Celio +the wizard symbolised the warfare carried on between Goldoni and Chiari. +Fata Morgana was a caricature of Chiari, and Celio of Goldoni.] + +Brighella's news threw Clarice and Leandro into consternation. They laid +their heads together how to kill Truffaldino by some secret device. +Clarice suggested arsenic or a blunderbuss. Leandro was for trying +Martellian verses in wafers, or opium. Clarice objected that there was +not much to choose between Martellian verses and opium, and that +Truffaldino had the stomach to digest such trifles. Brighella added that +Morgana, informed of the festivities designed for the Prince's recovery, +meant to appear and neutralise the action of his salutiferous laughter +by a curse which should quickly send him to the tomb. Clarice retired. +Leandro and Brighella went to superintend the preparation of the shows. + +The next scene disclosed the chamber of the sick Prince. He was attired +in the most laughable caricature of an invalid's costume. Reclining in +an ample lounging-chair, Tartaglia leaned against a table, piled with +medicine-bottles, ointments, spittoons, and other furniture appropriate +to his melancholy condition. With a weak and quavering voice he lamented +his misfortunes, the various treatments he had tried with no success, +and the extraordinary symptoms of his incurable malady. The eminent +actor, who sustained this scene alone, kept the audience in one roar of +laughter by his exquisite burlesque and natural drollery. Then +Truffaldino entered, and tried to make the patient laugh. The extempore +performance of this duet by two of the best comic players of our day +afforded excellent mirth. The Prince looked on approvingly while +Truffaldino exhibited his pranks. But nothing could bring a smile upon +his lips. He insisted upon returning to his illness, and asking +Truffaldino's advice. Truffaldino entered into a labyrinth of +physiological and medical arguments, highly humorous and spiced with +satire. He smelt the Prince's breath, and swore that it stank of a +surfeit of undigested Martellian verses. The Prince coughed, and asked +to spit. Truffaldino brought him the vessel, examined the expectoration, +and found in it a mass of rancid rotten rhymes. This scene lasted above +a quarter of an hour, to the continual amusement of the audience. +Instruments of music were then heard, announcing the festivities in the +great court of the palace. Truffaldino wanted to conduct the Prince to a +balcony from which he could survey them. Tartaglia protested that this +was impossible. Truffaldino, in a rage, threw all the medicines, cups, +and ointments out of window, while the Prince squealed and wept like a +baby. At last Truffaldino carried him off by main force, howling as +though he was being massacred, and bore him on his shoulders to enjoy +the show. + +The third scene was laid in the courtyard of the palace. Leandro +entered, and declared that he had carried out the King's commands; the +people, plunged in grief, but eager to refresh their spirits, were all +masked; he had taken precautions to make many persons assume lugubrious +disguises, in order to augment the Prince's melancholy; the hour had +sounded for unbarring the court-gates to the populace. + +Morgana then entered, in the travesty of a ridiculous old woman. Leandro +expressed his astonishment that such an object should have obtained +entrance before the gates were opened. Morgana discovered herself, and +said she had come in that disguise to work the Prince's swift +destruction. Leandro thanked her, and styled her the Queen of +Hypochondria. Morgana drew to one side, and the gates were thrown wide. + +On a terraced balcony, in front of the spectators, sat the King, and +Prince Tartaglia, muffled in furred pelisse, Clarice, Pantalone, the +guards, and afterwards Leandro. The spectacles and games were precisely +such as are related in the fairy story. The people flocked in. There was +a tournament, directed by Truffaldino, who arranged burlesque encounters +for the knights. At every turn, he addressed himself to the balcony, +inquiring of his majesty if the Prince had laughed. The Prince only shed +tears, complaining that the air hurt him, and the noise made his head +ache. He entreated his royal sire to send him back to his warm bed. + +There were two fountains, one of which ran with oil, the other with +wine. Round these the rabble hustled, disputing with vulgar and plebeian +violence. But nothing moved the Prince to laughter. Then Morgana hobbled +out to fill her cruse with oil. Truffaldino assailed the hag with a +variety of insults, and finally sent her sprawling with her legs in air. +[These trivialities, taken from the trivial story-book, amused the +audience by their novelty quite as much as the _Massère_, _Campielli_, +_Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and all the other trivial pieces of Goldoni.] On +seeing the old woman's fall, Tartaglia burst into a long sonorous peal +of laughter. Truffaldino gained the prize. The people, relieved of their +anxiety about the Prince's health, laughed uncontrollably. All the court +was glad. Only Leandro and Clarice showed wry faces. + +Morgana, raising herself from the ground in a spasm of fury, abused the +Prince, and hurled the following awful malediction in the true style of +Chiari at his devoted head:[79] + + "Open thine ears, barbarian! let my voice assail thy heart! + Nor wall nor mountain stay the sound my words of doom impart. + As riving thunderbolts descend and split the solid rock, + So may my curses split thy breast with their tremendous shock. + As boats against a running tide the tug triumphant tows, + So let my malediction strong still lead thee by the nose. + Oh awful curse! oh direful doom! To hear it is to die, + Like quadrupeds within the sea, or fish on flowers that lie! + I call on Pluto, gloomy god, to Pindar winged I pray, + That thou with the Three Oranges may'st fall in love to-day. + Threats, tears, entreaties now are nought, leaves shaken by the breeze; + Haste to the horrible acquist of the Three Oranges!" + +Morgana disappeared. The Prince suddenly conceived a firm and resolute +enthusiasm for the love of the Three Oranges. He was led away amid the +confusion and consternation of the court. + +What nonsense! What a mortification for the two poets! The first act of +the fable ended at this point with a loud and universal clapping of +hands. + + +ACT THE SECOND. + +In one of the Prince's apartments, Pantalone, beside himself with +despair, describes the terrible effect of the hag's malediction on +Tartaglia. Nothing could be done to calm him down. He had asked his +father for a pair of iron shoes, to walk the world over, and discover +the fatal Oranges. The King had commanded Pantalone, under pain of the +Prince's displeasure, to find him such a pair. The matter was one of the +most pressing urgency. [This motive suited the theatre, and conveyed a +sprightly satire on the dramatic motives then in vogue.] + +Pantalone retired, and the Prince entered with Truffaldino. Tartaglia +expressed impatience at this long delay in bringing him the iron shoes. +Truffaldino asked a number of absurd questions. Tartaglia declared his +intention of going to find the Three Oranges, which, as he heard from +his grandmother, were two thousand miles away, in the power of Creonta, +a gigantic witch. Then he called for his armour, and bade Truffaldino +array himself in mail, for he meant him to be his squire. A scene of +excellent buffoonery followed between these highly comical personages, +both of them fitting on corslets, helmets, and huge long swords, with +burlesque military ardour. + +Enter the King, Pantalone, and guards. One of the latter carries a pair +of iron shoes upon a salver. This scene was executed by the four +principal performers with a gravity which made it doubly ridiculous. In +a tone of high tragedy and theatrical majesty the father dissuaded his +son from this perilous adventure. He entreated, threatened, relapsed +into pathos. The Prince, like a man possessed, insisted. His +hypochondria was sure to return, unless he was allowed to set forth. At +last he burst into coarse threats against his father. The King stood +rooted to the ground with amazement and grief. Then he reflected that +this want of filial respect in Tartaglia arose from the bad example of +the new comedies. [In one of Chiari's comedies a son had drawn his sword +to kill his father. Instances of the same description abounded in the +dramas of that day, which I wished to censure.] Nothing would silence +the Prince, till Truffaldino shod him with the iron shoes. The scene +ended with a quartet in dramatic verse, of blubberings, farewells, sighs +and sobs. Tartaglia and Truffaldino took their leave. The King fell +fainting on a sofa, and Pantalone called aloud for aromatic vinegar. + +Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella came hurrying upon the stage, rebuking +Pantalone for the clamour he was raising. Pantalone replied that, with a +King in a fainting fit, a Prince gone off on the dangerous adventure of +the Oranges, it was only natural to kick up a row. Brighella answered +that such matters were mere twaddle, like the new comedies, which turned +everything topsy-turvy without reason. The King meanwhile recovered his +senses, and fell to raving in true tragic style. He bewept his son for +dead; ordered the whole court to wear mourning; and shut himself up in a +little cabinet, to end his days under the weight of this crushing +affliction. Pantalone, vowing that he would share the King's +lamentations, collect their mingled tears in one pocket-handkerchief, +and bequeath to coming bards the argument for interminable episodes in +Martellian verse, withdrew in the train of his liege. + +Clarice, Leandro, Brighella gave way to their gladness, and extolled +Morgana to the skies. Whimsical Clarice then insisted on coming to +conditions before she raised Leandro to the throne. In time of war she +was to command the armies. Even if she suffered a defeat, she was sure +to subdue the victor by her charms; when he was drowned in love, and +lulled by her blandishments, she meant to stick a knife into his paunch. +[This was a side hit at Chiari's _Attila_.] Clarice further reserved to +herself the right of distributing court-offices. Brighella, as the +reward of his services, begged to be appointed Master of the King's +Revels. The three personages now disputed upon the choice of different +theatrical diversions. Clarice voted for tragic dramas, with personages +who should throw themselves out of windows and off towers, without +breaking their necks, and such-like miraculous accidents (_id est_, the +plays of Chiari). Leandro preferred comedies of character (_id est_, +Goldoni's plays). Brighella recommended the _Commedia dell' Arte_, as +very fit to yield the public innocent amusement. Clarice and Leandro +flew into a rage. What did they want with stupid buffooneries, rancid +relics of antiquity, unseemly in this enlightened age? Brighella then +began a pathetic speech, commiserating Sacchi's company, without +mentioning it by name, but making his meaning plain enough. He deplored +the misfortunes of an honourable troupe, who had done good service in +their day, but were now downtrodden, and forced to behold the affections +of the public they adored, and whom they had for many years amused, +withdrawn from them. He retired with the applause of that public, who +thoroughly understood the real drift of his discourse. + +The next scene opened in a wilderness. Celio the wizard was discovered +drawing circles. As the protector of Prince Tartaglia, he summoned +Farfarello, a devil, to his aid. Farfarello appeared, and with a +formidable voice uttered these Martellian lines: + + "Hullo! who calls? who drags me forth from earth's drear centre dark? + A wizard real art thou, or wizard of the stage, thou spark? + If only of the stage thou art, I need not tell thee then + That devils, wizards, sprites, are out of fashion among men." + +[Allusion was here made to the two poets, who wanted to abolish the +masks, magicians, and fiends in writings for the stage.] Celio answered +in prose that he was a real wizard. Farfarello continued: + + "Well, be thou what thou wilt; yet if thou of the stage may be, + At least thou might'st respond in verse Martellian to me." + +Celio swore at the devil, and told him that he meant to go on talking +prose. Then he inquired whether Truffaldino, whom he had sent to the +court of the King of Diamonds, had done any good, and whether Tartaglia +had been obliged to laugh, and had lost his hypochondria. The devil +answered: + + "He laughed; recovered health; but then, Morgana, thy great foe, + With malediction spoiled thy pains, and wrought a double woe. + With fury winged and breathless he, both burning cheeks on fire, + Is after the Three Oranges, inflamed with fierce desire. + With Truffaldin the Prince is sped; Morgana sends a sprite + To wait upon the pair and blow them forward in their flight. + A thousand miles the men have gone, and soon they will descend, + Here by Creonta's fort, half-dead, at their long journey's end." + +[Illustration: BRIGHELLA (1570) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The devil disappeared. Celio monologised against his mortal foe Morgana, +explaining the great perils of Tartaglia and Truffaldino when they +should arrive at the castle of Creonta on the quest of the fatal +Oranges. Then he retired to make the necessary preparations for saving +two persons of high merit and great social utility. + +[Celio, who stood for Goldoni in this piece of nonsense, ought not to +have protected Tartaglia and Truffaldino. I admit the error, which +deserves to be condemned, if a mere dramatic sketch of such a trivial +kind comes within the scope of criticism. At that time Chiari and +Goldoni were enemies and rivals. I wanted Morgana and Celio to +caricature their opposite dramatic styles; and I did not care to protect +myself against censure by multiplying personages more than needful.] + +Tartaglia and Truffaldino entered armed, and proceeding at a tremendous +pace. They had a devil with a pair of bellows following behind, and +blowing their backsides to make them skim along the ground. The devil +ceased to blow and disappeared. They sprawled on the grass at the sudden +cessation of the favouring gale. + +[I am under infinite obligations to Signor Chiari for this burlesque +conception, which produced a very excellent effect upon the stage. In +his dramas, drawn from the Æneid, Chiari made the Trojans perform long +journeys within the space of a single action, and without the assistance +of my devil and his bellows. This writer, though he pedantically +insulted everybody else who broke the rules, allowed himself singular +privileges. In his tragedy of _Ezelino_, after the tyrant's downfall, a +captain is sent to beleaguer Treviso, and reduce Ezelino's garrison. +This takes place in one scene. In the next scene the same captain +returns victorious, having ridden more than thirty miles, captured the +town, and butchered the tyrant's troops. He delivers a rhetorical +oration, ascribing this miracle to the matchless spirit of his horse! +Tartaglia and Truffaldino had to perform a journey of two thousand +miles, and my device of the devil with the bellows explained their +exploit better than Chiari's charger.] + +The two comedians rose from the ground, half-stunned and astonished at +the mighty wind which wafted them. Their geographical description of the +countries, mountains, rivers, and oceans they had passed, was crammed +with burlesque absurdities. Tartaglia concluded that the Three Oranges +must be nigh at hand. Truffaldino, feeling tired and hungry, asked the +Prince whether he had brought a good stock of cash or bills. Tartaglia +spurned such low considerations and idle questions. Spying a castle on a +hill, and judging it to be Creonta's, he set manfully forward, while +Truffaldino trudged behind in the hope of finding food. + +Meanwhile Celio entered, and sought in vain to dissuade the Prince from +his perilous adventure. He described insuperable obstacles fraught with +danger on the way. They were exactly the same as are told to children in +the story-book; but Celio enlarged upon them with wide rolling eyes, +and magnified the molehills into mountains. There was an iron gate +rusted with time, a famished dog, a well-rope rotten with damp, a +baker's wife, who, having no broom, was forced to sweep the oven out +with her own dugs. The Prince, unterrified by these appalling objects, +determined to assail the castle. Celio, seeing his mind made up, gave +him a magic ointment to smear the bolt of the gate, a loaf to throw the +dog, and a bundle of brooms to give the baker's wife. The rope he bade +them hang out in the sun to dry. Then he added that, if by lucky chance +they should acquire the Oranges, they were to leave the castle at once, +and be mindful to open none of the Oranges except in the immediate +neighbourhood of some fountain. Finally, he promised, if they escaped +the perils of their theft, to send the same devil with the bellows, to +blow them home again. Then he recommended them to Heaven and left them. +Tartaglia and Truffaldino, carrying the articles provided by Celio, went +forward on their journey. + +Here a tent was lowered, which represented the pavilion of the King of +Diamonds.--What an irregularity!--Nay, what misapplied criticism!--Two +short scenes followed, one between Smeraldina and Brighella, rejoicing +over the loss of Tartaglia; the other with Morgana, who bade Brighella +inform Clarice and Leandro that Celio was assisting the Prince. This she +had learned from the devil Draghinazzo. Then she bade Smeraldina follow +her to the lake, where Tartaglia and Truffaldino would certainly arrive +if they escaped Creonta's clutches. Some new snare might then be devised +to entrap them. The parley broke up in confusion. + +The next scene disclosed a courtyard in Creonta's castle. [I was able to +observe, upon the opening of this scene, with the grossly absurd objects +it contained, what an immense power the marvellous exerts over the human +mind. A gate constructed with an iron grating, a famished dog which +howled and roamed around, a well with a coil of rope beside it, a +baker's wife who swept her oven with two enormously long breasts, kept +the whole theatre in silent wonder and attention quite as effectually as +the most thrilling scenes in the works of our two poets.] Outside the +grating appeared Tartaglia and Truffaldino, engaged in smearing the +bolt; and lo! the portal swung upon its hinges. Great miracle! They +passed in. The dog barked and leapt upon them. They threw him the bread +and he was still. Great portent! Truffaldino, trembling with fright, +then hung the cord up to dry, and gave the baker's wife her brooms, +while the Prince entered the castle and came out again, capering for joy +and holding the three enormous Oranges he had seized. + +The moving accidents of this scene did not end so suddenly. The sky +darkened, the earth quaked, and loud claps of thunder were heard. +Tartaglia handed the Oranges to Truffaldino, who kept trembling like an +aspen leaf. Then there issued from the castle an awful voice, which was +Creonta's own. She spoke as the story-book dictates: + + "O baker's wife, O baker's wife, abide not my just ire! + Take those two fellows by the feet, and cast them in the fire." + +The baker's wife, following the fable with equal fidelity, replied thus: + + "Not I! How many months have passed, how many months and years, + While with my milk-white breasts I sweep, and waste my life in tears! + Thou, cruel dame, a single broom ne'er gav'st me at my need; + These brought a bundle; let them go in peace; I will not heed." + +Creonta cried: + + "O rope, O rope! hang up the knaves!" + +And the rope, still observing the text, answered: + + "Hard heart! hast thou forgot + Those many years, those many months, thou left'st me here to rot? + By thee was I abandoned long in damp to waste away; + These stretched me to the sun; let them go forth in peace, I say." + +Creonta howled aloud: + + "Dog, faithful watch-dog! rend and tear those wretches limb from limb." + +The dog retorted: + + "Nay, why, Creonta, should I rend poor fellows at thy whim? + So many years, so many months, I've served thee without food; + These filled my belly full; thy cries shall not control my mood." + +Creonta, again: + + "Portal of iron, close! Grind yon base knaves and thieves to dust!" + +And the gate: + + "Cruel Creonta! vainly now your threats on me are thrust! + So many years, so many months, in rust and woe to pine, + You left me here; they oiled my bolts; no ingrate's heart is mine." + +It was very funny to see Tartaglia's and Truffaldino's mock astonishment +at the fine flow of the poet's eloquence. They stood dumbfounded to hear +bakers' wives, and ropes, and dogs, and gates talking in Martellian +verse. Then they thanked those courteous objects for the kindness shown +them. + +The audience were hugely delighted with these puerilities, and I confess +that I joined heartily in their laughter, half-ashamed the while at +being forced to relish a pack of infantile absurdities, which took me +back to the days of my babyhood. + +The giantess Creonta now appeared upon the stage. She was of towering +stature, and attired in a vast sweeping _andrienne_. Tartaglia and +Truffaldino fled before her horrible aspect. Then she gave vent to her +despair in Martellian verses, not forgetting to invoke Pindar, whom +Signor Chiari treated complacently as his own twin-brother: + + "Woe to you, faithless servants! Woe, false rope and dog and gate! + Base baker's wife, I curse thee too! Ye traitors found too late! + Alas! Sweet Oranges! Ah me! Who stole you unaware? + Dear Oranges, my hope, my soul, my love, my life, my care! + Woe's me! I burst with bitter rage; there's boiling in my breast + Chaos, the Elements, the Sun, the Rainbow, and the rest! + I scarce can stand against it all: O Jove, the Thunderer, send + Thy lightnings on my pate, and me down to the slippers rend! + Help to me! Ho! Who helps me? Fiends! Who lifts me from this world?-- + A friendly thunderbolt descends! I burn, I'm soothed, I'm hurled." + +[These last verses were no bad parody of both Chiari's sentiments and +style of writing.] A thunderbolt fell and reduced the giantess to ashes. +Here ended the second act, which had been followed with more marked +applause than the first. My bold experiment began to seem less culpable +than it had done at the commencement. + + +ACT THE THIRD. + +The first scene opened near Fata Morgana's lake. There was a great tree +visible and underneath it a large stone seat. Several rocks and boulders +were strewn about the meadow. Smeraldina, who talked the jargon of an +Italianised Turk, was standing at the brink of the lake impatiently +awaiting the fairy's orders, and calling out. Morgana rose from the +surface, and began to relate a journey she had made to hell, where she +learned that Tartaglia and Truffaldino, victorious in their achievement +of the Three Oranges, were coming by the help of Celio and the devil +with the bellows. Smeraldina soundly abused the fairy for her want of +skill in magic. Morgana bade her spare her breath. Owing to precautions +she had taken, Truffaldino would reach the spot where they were +standing, separately from the Prince. Thirst and hunger, sent by +wizard's arts, should annoy him; and since the Oranges were in his +custody, great catastrophes would take place. Then she consigned two +bedevilled pins to Smeraldina, adding that she would see a fair girl +sitting on the stone beneath the tree. She was to contrive to fix one of +these needles in the girl's hair, whereupon the latter would become a +dove, and Smeraldina was to take her place upon the stone. Tartaglia +should marry her and make her Queen. During the night, while sleeping +with her husband, she was to fix the other needle in his hair, whereupon +he would become a beast, and the throne would be left vacant for Clarice +and Leandro. The Moorish woman raised some difficulties, which Morgana +easily disposed of. Then, observing Truffaldino approaching with the +infernal blast behind him, they withdrew to mature their plans. + +Truffaldino entered, carrying the Three Oranges in a wallet. The devil +with the bellows disappeared, and Truffaldino related how the Prince had +tripped up a little while back, and that he must wait for him. He seated +himself. Intolerable thirst and hunger tormented him. At last he +resolved to eat one of the Oranges. But conscience stung him; he +declaimed in tragic style; then, driven mad by thirst, made up his mind +to risk the sacrifice. After all, he reflected, the damage could be made +good with two farthings. So he proceeded to cut open an Orange. Oh, +what a surprise! There issued from its rind a girl clothed in white, +who, following the text of the story-book, spoke immediately: + + "Give me to drink! I'm fainting! Ah! I'm dying! Quick, my dear! + Of thirst I'm dying! Oh, poor me! Quick, cruel man! Death's here!" + +She fell upon the earth oppressed with mortal languor. Truffaldino, who +had forgotten Celio's directions about opening the Oranges within reach +of water, being besides a fool by nature, and not noticing the lake in +his distraction, thought he could not do better than to slice another of +the Oranges and quench the dying girl's thirst with the juice of that. +Accordingly, he went, like a donkey, and sliced another Orange, out of +which there appeared a second lovely female, exclaiming: + + "Woe's me! Of thirst I'm dying! Ho! Give me to drink! I rave! + Cruel! I die of thirst! Ah God! 'Twill kill me! Lord! oh save!" + +She sank down exhausted like the other. Truffaldino flung himself about +in fits of desperation. He roared, screamed, leapt like a maniac, while +one of the girls spoke as follows, in an expiring voice: + + "Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'm dying! I am dead!" + +Then she breathed her last, and the other continued: + + "I'm dying! Barbarous stars! Ah me! Who'll soothe my burning head?" + +Then she too breathed her last. Truffaldino wept abundantly, and +murmured over them words of impassioned tenderness. He decided to cut +the third Orange in the hope of saving both girls alive. While he was +upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped +him. Truffaldino took to his heels and left the Orange lying on the +grass. + +The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he +poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of +the girls, soar beyond the powers of language. The masked actors of our +_Commedia dell' Arte_, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll +and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, movements, and _lazzi_ +so delightful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could +surpass them. + +After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia caught sight of two +country bumpkins passing by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, +and bade the fellows carry them away. Then the Prince turned to gaze +upon the third Orange. To his utter amazement it had swelled to a +portentous size, and was as large now as the biggest pumpkin. Seeing the +lake at hand, and bearing Celio's injunctions in mind, he thought the +place convenient for cutting the fruit open. This he did with his long +sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in +robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the +story-book by speaking as follows: + + "Who drew me from my living core? Ah God! Of thirst I die! + Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!" + +The Prince understood upon the spot the meaning of Celio's precepts. But +he was embarrassed to find any vessel capable of holding water. The case +did not admit of ceremony. So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to +the lake, filled it with water, and making a thousand excuses for the +improvised cup, presented it to the fair damsel, who slaked her thirst, +and stood up in full vigour, thanking him for his timely assistance. + +She said that she was the daughter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; +Creonta, by enchantment, had enclosed her, together with her two +sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as +probable as the circumstance itself. A scene of comical love-making +followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife. +The capital was close at hand. The Princess had no decent clothes to +wear. The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, +while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to +attend her. That settled, they parted with sighs. + +Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered. She +saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake. Of course she +proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the +story-tale. She dropped her Italianate Turkish. Morgana had put a Tuscan +devil into her tongue. Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak +with more complete correctness. Advancing to the young Princess, whose +name was Ninetta, she began to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her +hair, came to close quarters and betrayed her. One of the magic pins was +promptly stuck in the girl's head. Ninetta took the form of a dove and +flew away. Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the +Court. + +These miraculous occurrences, together with the childish simplicity of +the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the +audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses +in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity. They +followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest +interest in watching each step in the development upon the stage of such +a trifle. + +Then, to the music of a march, the King of Diamonds entered, with the +Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the Court. On +beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride whom he had come to fetch +away, Tartaglia flew into the wildest astonishment and fury. Smeraldina, +so altered by Morgana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she +was the Princess Ninetta. Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque +exhibition of his misery. Leandro, Clarice, and Brighella, suspecting +the real source of the mystery, rejoiced among themselves. The King of +Diamonds gravely and majestically enjoined upon his son the duty of +keeping his princely word and marrying the Moor. The Prince submitted +with a wry face and new demonstrations of comical grief. Then the band +struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the marriage in +the palace. + +Truffaldino meanwhile remained behind in the royal kitchen, to the +charge of which Tartaglia had appointed him, after condoning his +mistakes about the Oranges. He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a +new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody. + +[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, who were present in the +theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did +their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a +commotion. They did not succeed, however. I have already said that Celio +represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari. The former of these gentlemen +had served his apprenticeship at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked +of forensic idioms. Chiari plumed himself upon his sublime pindaric +flights of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never +was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who +surpassed him in extravagant conceits and bombast. + +Well, Celio and Morgana, animated by mutual hostility, met together in +this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was +spoken. I must first remind my readers that parodies miss their mark +unless they are surcharged; and, keeping this in view, I beg them to +look with indulgence upon a caprice, which was begotten by jesting +humour, without any animosity against two worthy individuals.] + + CELIO (_entering with vehemence, to Morgana_). "Wicked enchantress! + I have discovered all your base deceits. But Pluto will assist me. + Infamous beldame, accursed witch!" + + MORGANA. "What do you mean, you charlatan of a wizard? Do not + provoke me. I will give you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which + shall make you die foaming." + + C. "To me, rash witch? You shall get tit for tat from me. I defy + you in Martellian verse. Here's at you![80] + + "It shall be always held a vain injurious assault, + Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault; + To wit these, and whatever else, malignant, fury-fraught + Spells by Morgana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought: + And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue + Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due." + + M. "Oh, the bad verses! Come on, you twopenny-halfpenny magician! + + "First shall the glorious rays of gold which beam from Phœbus' breast + Be turned to lumps of vulgar lead, and East become the West; + First shall the darkling moon on high, her silver beams so bright + Change with the glimmering stars, and lose the empire of the night; + The murmuring streams that purling roll along their crystal bed, + With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread; + But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force + To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course." + + C. "O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder! + + "On the main paragraph I'll win the verdict in this suit, + Which by the first preamble shall be made to bear its fruit: + Princess Ninetta, changed by you into a dove, shall be + Reconstituted in her rights and due estate by me: + And through the second paragraph, which follows from the first, + Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed; + While Smeraldina, who can claim no hearing from the court, + By mere endorsement shall be burned, to give the people sport." + + M. "Oh, the stupid, stupid versifier! Listen to me, now. See if I + don't terrify you. + + "On flying plumes soars Icarus, and climbs the heaven with pride, + Treads on the clouds, then stoops, rash youth, and skims along the tide. + O'er Pelion piled, see Ossa frown, Olympus on her back; + This wrought the Titans, impious brood, to work high heaven wrack. + But Icarus erelong must sink, and drown in salt sea-spume; + Jove's bolt will hurl the Titans bold in ashes to their tomb. + Clarice shall ascend the throne, false Mage, in thy despite; + Tartaglia, like Actæon, mock the antlered deer in flight." + + C. (_aside_). "She is trying to beat me down with poetical bombast. + If she thinks to shut me up in that way she is quite mistaken. + + "I will not leave one plea unturned without demurrers sound, + And 'gainst your swelling lies will file a protest firm and round." + + M. "The realm of Diamonds avoid! Let lawful monarchs reign!" + + (_Taking her departure._) + + C. (_crying after her_). "And I'll claim costs, stay execution, + file my bills again." + + (_Here Celio went in._) + +The last scene was laid in the royal kitchen. Never did mortal eyes +behold a more miserable king's kitchen than this. The remainder of the +performance followed the old story-book precisely; nevertheless, the +spectators watched it with sustained attention. The parody turned upon +some trivialities of detail and some basenesses of character in dramas +written by the two poets. Excessive poverty, dramatic impropriety, and +meanness gave the satire point. + +Truffaldino appeared spitting a joint. He related how, there being no +turnjack in the kitchen, he was obliged to watch the revolutions of the +spit himself. While thus engaged, a dove alighted on the window-sill, +and a conversation took place between him and the bird. The dove had +said: "Good morning, cook of the kitchen." He had replied: "Good +morning, white dove." She continued: "I pray to Heaven that you may fall +asleep, that the roast may burn, so that the Moor, that ugly mug, may +not be able to eat." A mighty slumber overcame him; he fell asleep, and +the roast was burned to cinders. This accident happened twice. In a +precious hurry he set the third joint before the fire. Then the dove +reappeared, and the conversation was repeated. Again the mighty slumber +overcame his senses. Truffaldino, honest fellow, did all he could to +keep awake. His _lazzi_ were in the highest degree facetious. But he +could not resist the spell, began to nod, and the flames reduced the +third roast to ashes. + +You must ask the audience why and wherefore this scene afforded +exquisite amusement. + +Pantalone entered scolding, woke up Truffaldino; said that the King was +in a fury; soup, boiled meat, and liver had been eaten, but the roast +had not appeared at table. [All honour to a poet's daring! This outdid +the lowness of Goldoni's squabbles about a brace of pumpkins in his +_Chiozzotte_.] Truffaldino told the strange occurrence with the dove. +Pantalone dismissed it as an idle story. But the dove at this point +reappeared and repeated her ominous speech. Truffaldino was on the point +of going off into a doze when Pantalone roused him, and they both gave +chase to the dove, which flew fluttering about the kitchen. + +The attempts to catch the dove, made by these facetious personages, +amused the audience above measure. At last they caught it, placed it on +a table, and began to stroke its feathers. Then they detected the +enchanted pin stuck into a knot upon its head. Truffaldino drew the pin +forth, and behold the bird was transformed into the Princess Ninetta! + +A scene of stupors and astonishments. His Majesty the King of Diamonds +arrived; pompously, with sceptre in hand, he rebuked Truffaldino for the +non-appearance of the roast-meat at his royal table, whereby he had been +put to shame before illustrious guests. The Prince followed, and +recognised his lost Ninetta. Joy bereft him of his wits. Ninetta related +what had befallen her; the King remained lost in amazement. Then the +Moor and the rest of the Court came crowding into the kitchen, to find +their monarch. He, with an air of haughty dignity, bade the princely +couple retire into the scullery. He chose the hearth for his throne, and +took his seat there with majestic sternness. The courtiers assembled +round him; and as it happens in the story-book, the King now performed +his part of ultimate adjudicator. What, he inquired, would be proper +punishments for the several parties incriminated in these occurrences? +Various opinions were offered. Then the King in his fury condemned +Smeraldina to the flames. Celio appeared. He unmasked the hidden +culpability of Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella. They were sentenced to +cruel banishment. The two Princes were finally summoned from the +scullery, and universal gladness crowned the termination of this high +act of justice. + +Celio warned Truffaldino that it was his most solemn duty to keep +Martellian verses, those inventions of the devil, out of all dishes +served up at the royal table. His function was to make his sovereigns +laugh. + +The play wound up with that marriage festival which all children know by +heart--the banquet of preserved radishes, skinned mice, stewed cats, and +so forth. And inasmuch as the journalists were wont in those days to +blow their trumpets of applause over every new work which appeared from +Signor Goldoni's pen, we concluded with an epilogue, in which the +spectators were besought to use all their influence with these +journalists, in order that a crumb of eulogy might be bestowed upon our +rigmarole of mystical absurdities. + +It was not my fault that a courteous public called for the repetition of +this fantastic parody on many successive evenings. The theatre was +crowded, and Sacchi's company began to breathe again after their long +discouragement. + + +VI. + +Such is Gozzi's own account of his first acted fable. + +The public had been invited to sit as umpires in the controversy between +him and their two favourite playwrights. They had been requested to +suspend their judgment before finally pronouncing sentence against the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. The result of the experiment was a decided +triumph for the author of the _Three Oranges_, for Sacchi's company, and +for the Granelleschi. But, what was more important, Gozzi, at the +commencement of his forty-first year, now discovered himself to be +possessed of dramatic ability in no common degree, and of a peculiar +kind. The success of the _Three Oranges_ suggested the notion that use +might be made of fairy tales, not only for maintaining the impromptu +style of Italian Comedy, and amusing the public with piquant novelties, +but also for conveying moral lessons under the form of allegory, and +mingling tragic pathos with the humours of the masks. Accordingly Gozzi +composed a succession of similar pieces, gradually suppressing the +burlesque elements, enlarging the sphere of didactic satire, pathos, and +dramatic action, relying less upon the mechanical attractions of +transformation scenes and _lazzi_, writing the principal parts in full, +and versifying a considerable portion of the dialogue. + +_Il Corvo_ was produced at Milan in the summer of 1761, and at Venice in +October 1761. _Il Rè Cervo_ appeared in January 1762; _Turandot_ perhaps +in the same month; _La Donna Serpente_ in October 1762; _Zobeide_ in +November 1763; _I Pitocchi Fortunati_ in November 1764; _Il Mostro +Turchino_ in December of the same year; _L'Augellino Belverde_ in +January 1765; _Zeim, Rè de'Geni_ in November 1765. These, with _L'Amore +delle Tre Melarancie_, form the ten _Fiabe._ After the production of +_Zeim_, Gozzi judged that the vein had been worked out, and turned his +attention to adaptations of Spanish dramas for the stage. + +The occasional origin of the _Fiabe_, on which I have already insisted, +accounts for their want of plastic unity, their jumble of oddly +contrasted ingredients. They were not the spontaneous outgrowth of +artistic genius seeking to fuse the real and the fantastic in an ideal +world of the imagination; but monsters begotten by an accident, which +the creative originality of a highly-gifted intellect turned to +excellent account. Gozzi's predilection for burlesque, his satirical +propensity and fondness for moralising on the foibles of his age, found +easy vent in the peculiar form he had discovered by a lucky chance. But +these motives were not subordinated to the higher coherence of +imaginative poetry. His fancy, command of dramatic situations, +intuition into character, rhetorical eloquence, and inexhaustible +inventiveness expatiated in the region of caprice and wonder. Yet we do +not feel that he has succeeded in harmonising these divers elements with +the spiritual instinct of an Aristophanes or a Shakespeare. Probably he +did not seek to do so. The numerous reflections on the _Fiabe_, which +are scattered up and down his works, prove that art for art's sake was +far from being the leading consideration in their production. They +remained with him pastimes, which had partly a practical, partly a +didactic purpose--convenient vehicles for indulging his literary bias +and airing his ethical opinions--serviceable ammunition in the battle +against men whom he regarded as impostors and pretenders--excellent +means of putting money into the purses of his protegés, the actors, and +of keeping himself in favour with his friends, the actresses. To the +last they retained something of the _punctilio_, which, as he says, +inspired him at the outset. + + +VII. + +In all his _Fiabe Gozzi_ employed the four Masks and the Servetta, +Smeraldina.[81] He not unfrequently wrote the whole part of a mask, so +that nothing remained for impromptu acting but "gag" and _lazzi_. +Truffaldino's rôle, however, was invariably left to improvisation; +perhaps in compliment to Sacchi's talents and his prominent position. +The other masks were dealt with as Gozzi thought best. When the dialogue +acquired dramatic or satirical importance, he wrote it out for them. On +ordinary occasions he intrusted the whole or a considerable portion of +each scene to their extempore ability, only indicating the movement of +the plot in a _scenario_. The parts of the masks were treated in dialect +and prose. The serious actors, who had to sustain the scheme of the +fable, as lovers, magicians, queens, fairies, good and evil spirits, +spoke in Tuscan blank verse, occasionally heightened by the use of +Martellian rhymed couplets at thrilling moments of the action. Thus it +will be seen that the text of Gozzi's plays offers every condition of +dramatic utterance, from mere stage-directions, through carefully +dictated prose, up to rhetorical soliloquies and dialogues in verse of +several descriptions. His dexterity as a playwright is shown in the tact +with which he employed these various resources. + +The handling of the five fixed characters is masterly throughout. +Whether Gozzi writes their lines or only indicates a theme for their +impromptu declamation, he shows himself in perfect sympathy with an +intelligent and practised group of actors. The humour of the man comes +out to best advantage in this department. His language is most +idiomatic and spontaneous here. Here too we find his raciest characters. +Powerfully conceived and boldly projected, each comic personage breathes +and moves with vivid realism. Study of the Masks, as Gozzi treated them, +makes us feel what a wonderful thing of plastic beauty the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ must have been. Here, in a work of carefully considered +literary art, we have its long tradition and its manifold capacities +preserved for us. Reading a _Fiaba_ is like opening a bottle of rare old +wine. The bouquet of the fragrant vintage exhales into the chamber, and +we taste the bloom of bygone summers. But the very conditions under +which Gozzi exhibited this side of his dramatic mastery render +translation impossible. In a translation the colours of the dialects are +lost. The gradations of style, passing from a laconically worded +_scenario_ through half-dialogue into elaborated scenes, are bound to +disappear. Tuned to a foreign language, our inward eye and ear fail to +reconstruct the _lazzi_, which rendered this part of the drama humorous. +That is why Schiller's _Turandot_ is inferior to Gozzi's; and yet, when +Schiller selected this piece for the German stage, he showed a right +artistic instinct. It is the one in which the fable predominates, and +can best be separated from the humours of the Masks. + +I dare not enlarge here upon the variety of shades and complexions given +to the five fixed types of character, according as the plot demanded +more or less of serious action from the several personages. This inquiry +would be interesting, since it reveals their singular elasticity beneath +a master's touch. It must, however, be left to amateurs of curiosities +in art. The development of the subject in detail implies previous +acquaintance with the ten _Fiabe_, and would involve a lengthy +dissertation. Some general points may, nevertheless, be indicated. + +Pantalone retains marked psychological outlines under all his +transformations. He is the good-humoured, honourable, simple-hearted +Venetian of the middle class, advanced in years, Polonius-like, with +stores of worldly wisdom, strong natural affections, and healthy moral +impulses. Gozzi has drawn the character in a favourable light, purging +away those baser associations which gathered round it during two +centuries of the _Commedia dell' Arte_. His Pantalone recalls the +Cortesani, described in a chapter of the Memoirs; but a touch of +senility has been added, which lends comic weakness to the type. + +Tartaglia stammers, and preserves something of the knave in his +composition, burnished with Neapolitan abandonment to appetite and +brazen disregard for moral rectitude. This general conception of the +character explains the transformation of Tartaglia, in the _Three +Oranges_, into the Tartaglia of the _Augellino Belverde_. + +Brighella is an intriguing, self-interested individuality, trying to +turn the world round his fingers, and not succeeding, or succeeding only +by some lucky accident. He frequently assumes the form of a simpleton +befooled by his short-sighted cunning. + +Truffaldino blossoms before us as an ubiquitous and chameleon-like +creature of caprice and humour; the liberal, carnal, careless +boon-companion; the genial rogue and witty fool; bred in the kitchen; +uttering words of wisdom from his belly rather than his brains; pliable, +fit for all occasions; a prodigious coward; trusty in his own degree; +taking the mould of fate and circumstance, adapting himself to external +conditions; understanding nothing of the higher sentiments and awful +destinies which rule the drama; but turning up at its conclusion with a +rogue's own luck in the place he started from, and on which his heart is +set, the larder. He runs like an inexpressibly comic thread of staring +scarlet through the warp and woof of Gozzi's many-coloured loom. The +most serious use made of him is when, in the _Augellino Belverde_, for +purposes of pungent parody, Gozzi invests him with the vizard of a +Machiavellian egotist. At the close of that supremely caustic scene, +Truffaldino drops his disguise, and willingly assumes the rôle of a +domestic buffoon. Our author's trenchant irony, that "smile on the lips +with venom in the heart," of which Goldoni wrote so lucidly, that touch +of bitterness which renders him akin to Swift, was displayed by a stroke +of genius here. Truffaldino, the whelp whose antics dispelled +melancholy, becomes for once in Gozzi's hands a stick wherewith to beat +the dog of modern science. + +Smeraldina, under her numerous manifestations, maintains the lineaments +of vulgar womanhood. Sometimes a good mother or nurse, sometimes a +shifty waiting-woman, sometimes a blustering amazon, sometimes a bad +wife or would-be virgin, she never soars into the regions of ideality, +and mates eventually with Truffaldino, if she escapes from being burned +for blundering atrocities upon the road to commonplace felicity. + +With these fixed characters, which form the most delightful ingredients +of the _Fiabe_, Gozzi interweaves a fairy-tale, abounding in magic, +flights of capricious fancy, marvels, transformations, perilous +adventures. There is always a conflict of beneficent and malignant +supernatural powers, ending in the triumph of good over evil, the reward +of innocence, and the punishment of crime. There is a fate to which the +heroes and heroines are subject, and which can only be overcome by +protracted trials, by patience through dark years, by sustained +endurance, terrible struggles, and faith in supernatural protectors. +Thus the texture of the _Fiabe_ is similar to that of our pantomimes, +except that in the former the fairy-tale and the harlequinade are +interwoven instead of being disconnected. + +The fairy-tale is always treated in a serious spirit. The didactic +allegory, on which the author set such store, and which he regarded as +the main purpose of his art, finds expression here. The fairy-tale is +romantic, pathetic, heroic, sometimes acutely tragic. Gozzi interests +himself in the creatures of fantastic fiction, and forces them to utter +tones which vibrate in our entrails. Some scenes, written under the high +pressure of dramatic œstrum, stir tears by their poignancy, by the +accents of grief and anguish on the lips of _fantoccini._ It is a +singular species of art, soaring by spasms and short gasps to dramatic +sublimity, casting flashes of electric light on human nature in the garb +of puppets, then passing away by abrupt transitions into mechanical +improbabilities and burlesque absurdities--an art for marionettes rather +than living actors, yet withal so vivid that able representation on the +stage might translate it to our senses as an allegory of the masquerade +world in which man lives:-- + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made of, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." + +The Masks take part in the action, generally as subordinate personages, +sometimes as persons of the first rank, never as mere accessories to +move laughter, nor as a stationary chorus. In this way the comic element +is ingeniously connected with the tragic and didactic. This sounds like +a contradiction of what I have said above, about the want of plastic +unity in Gozzi's work. Yet the two apparently contradictory statements +are true together. Gozzi interweaves the wires of humour and romance +with remarkable skill. But he does not fuse them into one poetic +substance. He fails to create an ideal world in which both tragedy and +comedy are necessary to the spiritual order, as are the systole and +diastole of the heart to an organised being. Though interlaced, they +stand apart, each upon its own clearly defined basis. You pass from the +one sphere to the other, and have sudden shocks communicated to your +sensibility. There is a lack of atmosphere in the wonderfully brilliant +and exciting picture, an absence of spontaneous transition from this +mood to that, a suggestion that the playwright's sympathies have been +touched to diverse issues by divers portions of his task. Very probably, +the atmosphere, which I have indicated as wanting in the _Fiabe_, may +have been communicated by the interaction of the members of Sacchi's +troupe upon the stage at Venice. But this is only tantamount to +admitting that Gozzi understood the theatre. It does not prove that he +was a dramatic poet in the highest sense of that term. Had he been this, +we should have submitted to his magic wand while reading him. That is +precisely what we wish to do, and cannot always actually do. His _Fiabe_ +remain stupendous sketches in a style of audacious and suggestive +originality. They are not the inevitable products of creative genius, +fusing and informing--the children of imagination, "dead things with +inbreathed sense able to pierce." + +Had Gozzi been a great spontaneous poet, or a consummate artist, this +invention of the dramatised _Fiaba_ might have become one of the rarest +triumphs of artistic fancy. It is difficult to state precisely what his +work misses for the achievement of complete success. Perhaps we shall +arrive at a conclusion best by inquiry into points of style and details +of execution. + + +VIII. + +By singular irony of accident, the author of the _Fiabe_, though he +dealt so much in the fantastic, the marvellous, and the pathetic, was +far more a humorist and satirist than a poet in the truer sense. Of +sublime imagery, lyrical sweetness or intensity, verbal melody and +felicity of phrase, there is next to nothing in his plays. The style, +except in the parts written for the Masks, is coarse and slovenly, the +versification hasty, the language diffuse, commonplace, and often +incorrect. Yet we everywhere discern a lively sense of poetical +situations and the power of rendering them dramatically. The resources +of Gozzi's inventive faculty seem inexhaustible; and our imagination is +excited by the energy with which he forces the creations of his +capricious fancy on our intelligence. The passionate volcanic talent of +the man almost compensates for his lack of the finer qualities of +genius. + +What he wants is not the power of poetical conception, but the power of +poetical projection; and the defects of his work seem due to the partly +contemptuous, partly didactic, mood in which he undertook them. It would +be difficult to surpass the pathos of Jennaro's devotion to his brother +in _Il Corvo_, or the dramatic intensity of Armilla's self-sacrifice at +the conclusion of that play. _Turandot_ is conceived throughout +poetically. The melancholy high-strung passion of Prince Calaf passes +through it like a thread of silver. In the _Rè Cervo_, Angela has equal +beauty. Her love of the man in the king, and her discernment of her real +husband under his transformation into the person of a decrepit beggar, +are humanly and allegorically touching. Cherestani, the Persian fairy, +who loves a mortal in spite of the doom attending her devotion, is +admirably presented at the opening of _La Donna Serpente_. The +subterranean labyrinth of lost women, degraded to monstrous shapes by +their tyrannical seducer, in _Zobeide_, merits comparison with one of +the _bolge_ in Dante's Hell. Its horror is almost appalling. The love of +Barbarina for her brother in _L'Augellino Belverde_, which melts the +stony hardness of the girl's heart, and changes her from a vain +worldling to a woman capable of facing any danger, is no less romantic +than Jennaro's love in _Il Corvo_. The picture of Pantalone and his +daughter Sarchè, in _Zeim Rè de' Genj_, passing their quiet life aloof +from cities on the borders of an enchanted forest, touches our +imagination with something of the charm we find in _Cymbeline_. _Il +Mostro Turchino_ is romantically passionate and highly-wrought. It seems +to call for music, such music as Mozart invented for the _Zauberflöte_. +Or, since Gozzi had little in common with the gracious spirit of Mozart, +we might wish that this wild fable had fallen into the hands of Verdi. +The composer of _Aïda_ would have given it the wings of immortality. +Gulindi, by the way, in this last fable, is a terrible portrait of the +Messalina-Potiphar's-wife. + +In selecting these passages for emphatic praise, I wish to call +attention to the power and beauty of Gozzi's conception. Not as finished +literature, but as the raw material of dramatic presentation, are they +admirable. They need the life of action, the adjuncts of scenery, the +illusion of the stage. And for this reason it seems to me that, by means +of prudent adaptation, the _Fiabe_ might furnish excellent _libretti_ to +composers of opera. This is a hint to musicians of the school of +Wagner--to that rare dramatic genius, Boito! Could the Masks be revived, +and their burlesque parts be spoken on the stage, while orchestra and +song were reserved for the serious elements of the fable, I feel +convinced that a new and fascinating work of art might still be evolved +from such pieces as _La Donna Serpente_ and _Il Mostro Turchino_.[82] + +[Illustration: IL DOTTORE (1653) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +But this is a digression, which has for its object to indicate the +region in which Gozzi's chief merit as a playwright seems to me to lie. +The satire, which forms so prominent a feature in the _Fiabe_, impairs +their artistic harmony. So far as this is literary (in the _Tre +Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, and elsewhere), it has lost its interest at the +present day. So far as it is philosophical and didactic (as in +_L'Augellino Belverde_ and _Zeim_), it tends to break the unity of +effect by the author's over-earnestness. So far as it is purely ethical, +as in _Zobeide_, Gozzi loads his palette with colours too sinister and +sombre. Perhaps, the political touches of satire in _I Pitocchi +Fortunati_ are the lightest and most genially used. Gozzi, as we have +seen already, was a confirmed conservative. An optimist as regarded the +institutions, religion, and social manners of the past, he was a bitter +pessimist in all that concerned the changes going on around him. The new +literature, the new philosophy, the new luxury, the new libertinism, +which seemed to be flooding Italy from France, were the objects of his +hatred and abhorrence. Calmon, in the _Augellino Belverde_, expresses +Gozzi's personal convictions and beliefs in their fullest extent. +But the following speech may be extracted from _Zeim Ré de Genj_ as +a fair summary of his social stoicism.[83] A Princess of Balsora, who +has been brought up by one of the capricious tricks of fortune as a +slave is speaking: + + "Who am I? That I know not. An old man, + With snows upon his beard, in snow-white robes + Attired, of serious and austere aspect, + Reared me beneath a humble cottage roof. + He told me that one day upon the bank + Of foaming Tigris, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, + He found me; peradventure by my kin + Abandoned, the cast fruit of shame and scorn. + This good man taught me I was born to serve, + To suffer, to endure; and that I ought + To bow beneath the will of supreme Heaven. + 'Providence, holy, in her ways unknown,' + He said, 'rules all things: in the scale ordained + Of human beings great folk have their seat; + And so, by steps descending through all ranks, + Down to the lowest folk, men live and work + Subordinate. Ah! do not be seduced, + (He often warned me) by sophistic sages, + Who bent on malice paint of liberty + False lures for mortals, your own place to quit, + The order due designed by Heaven for man! + These sophists breed confusion, anarchy, + Duty neglected at the cost of peace; + They stir up murders, thefts, impieties, + And glut with blood the shambles of the state. + Daughter, respect the great, love them, endure + What in they lot seems bitter, woo content, + And stifle that snake envy in thy breast! + In the just eyes of Heaven a great man's acts, + Rightly performed, have no superior merit + To those of servants rightly done; the road + Toward immortality lies open unto kings + And children of the people; 'tis all one. + Only the soul that suffers and is strong, + Finds happiness.' So spake the firm old man; + And firmly, in his strength of soul unshaken, + He sold me slave; so I account me blessed, + As you shall trust me for a faithful slave." + + +IX. + +Gozzi drew the subjects of his _Fiabe_ from divers sources. The chief of +these was a book of Neapolitan fairy-tales called _Il Pentamerone del +Cavalier Giovan Battista Basile, ovvero lo Cunto de li Cunti_. This +collection enjoyed great vogue in Italy during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, and is still worthy of attentive study by lovers +of comparative folklore. Some of the motives of the _Fiabe_ have been +traced to the _Posilipeata di Massillo Repone_, the _Biblioteca dei +Genj_, the _Gabinetto delle Fate_, the _Arabian Nights_, and those +Persian and Chinese stories which were fashionable a hundred and fifty +years ago. It was Gozzi's habit to interweave several tales in one +action; and this renders researches into the texture of his dramatic +fables difficult. But the inquiry is not one of great importance, and +may well be dismissed until the star of Gozzi shall reascend the +heavens, if time's whirligig should ever bring about this revenge. + +_L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ is both the simplest in construction and +also the most artistically perfect of the ten _Fiabe._ In it alone the +fairy-tale and the Masks are brought into complete harmony. No serious +note breaks the burlesque style of the piece, while a sustained parody +of Chiari's and Goldoni's mannerisms lends it the interest of satire. As +he advanced, Gozzi gradually changed the form of his original invention. +That fusion of fairy-tale and impromptu comedy in subordination to +literary satire, which distinguishes the _Tre Melarancie_, was never +repeated in his subsequent performances. The fable, with its romance, +pathos, passion, adventure, magic marvels, and fantastic +transformations, began to detach itself against the comedy. Both formed +essential factors in Gozzi's later work; but the links between them +became more and more mechanical. Satire, in like manner, did not +disappear; but this was either used occasionally and by accident, or +else it absorbed the whole allegory. The three ingredients, which had +been so genially combined in the first piece, were now disengaged and +treated separately. The sunny light of sportive humour, which bathed +that wonder-world of fabulous absurdity, darkened as the clouds of +didactic purpose gathered. The fairy-tale acquired an inappropriate +gravity. Becoming aware of his dramatic talent, Gozzi assumed the tone +of tragedy. He treated the loves and hatreds, the trials and triumphs, +the vices and virtues, the heroism and the baseness, of his puppets +seriously. Nevertheless, he preserved the preposterous accidents of the +fable. On those enchantments, whimsical oracles of fate, metamorphoses, +talking statues, monsters, good and wicked genii, he was of course +unable to bestow the same reality as on his human characters. Yet, +having carried the latter out of the sphere of burlesque, he had to +maintain a tone of realism with the former. But he could not wield the +Prospero's wand of imaginative insight which brings the supernatural and +the incredible within the range of actualities. Thus the marvellous +elements of the fable remained stiff and artificial beside the natural +pathos and passion of humanity. + +Having recapitulated the chief features of the _Fiabe_ in their later +form, I will now analyse _L'Augellino Belverde._ + + +X. + +Many years have elapsed since Tartaglia married Ninetta. His father is +dead, and he has fallen under the malignant influence of the +Queen-Mother, Tartagliona. She persuades him that Ninetta has given +birth to a pair of puppies, male and female, whereas the twins are +really a fine boy and girl, called Renzo and Barbarina. Ninetta is +condemned to be buried alive; and Pantalone, Tartaglia's minister, +receives commission to drown the supposed puppies. Instead of executing +these orders, Pantalone sews the children up in oil-cloth, and sets them +floating down a river. They are found and rescued by Smeraldina, a woman +of good heart, who is married to the dissolute and worthless +Truffaldino, a pork-butcher. When the play opens, eighteen years are +supposed to have elapsed since the burial of Ninetta. All this while she +has been kept alive by the Beautiful Green Bird, who is the King of +Terradombra, condemned to take this form by magic arts. The Green Bird +also has become the lover of Barbarina. Meanwhile Tartagliona is being +courted by Brighella, who now appears in the character of a burlesque +poet and seer. His pindaric prophecies and exaggerated flights of +passion, alternating with the lowest language of the proletariate, +afford excellent opportunities for caricature. + +Renzo and Barbarina, growing up in the house of the pork-butcher, have +improved their minds by assiduous reading of French philosophical +treatises sold for waste paper. This education has persuaded them that +all human actions and affections proceed from self-love, and that it is +the duty of rational beings to preserve a cold impartiality, indifferent +to emotions, regardless of comfort and vain pleasures, governed only by +the dictates of the reason. Accident reveals to them that Smeraldina is +not their mother, and that they are nameless foundlings. They determine +to go forth alone, and seek their fortunes in the world. The scene in +which they take leave of their kindly warm-hearted foster-mother is +excellent. Gozzi has painted a pair of consummate prigs, whose natural +instincts have been perverted by a false theory of life, and who have +learned to call that reason which is really inhumanity. They tell +Smeraldina that her unselfish charity to the foundling infants was a +form of self-love, and that her continued attention to them for the last +eighteen years had no higher motive. + +Having quitted Smeraldina, with the loftiest airs of condescension, they +set forth upon their travels. Getting lost in the wilderness, it begins +to dawn upon them that self-love is one of the cardinal facts of human +nature, to which even the most philosophical characters, when threatened +with death by cold and famine, are subject. In the midst of these +reflections, they are terrified with an earthquake and sudden darkness. +A statue appears walking toward them, who informs them that he too was +once a miserable philosopher, who petrified his own humanity and that of +others by perverse principles analogous to those which have infected +them. Consequently, he was doomed to be a statue, lying lifeless and +inert among the rubbish of neglected things, until one of Renzo's and +Barbarina's ancestors rescued him from filth and set him up in a garden +of the city. This benefit he now means to repay by watching over the +twins. First of all, he ardently desires to save them from the +petrifaction which awaits all souls made frigid by a false philosophy. +Next, he tells them that, though he knows the secret of their parentage, +he may not reveal it. They have a dreadful doom impending over them; and +their eventual happiness can only be secured by the assistance of the +Green Bird. His own name in the world was Calmon; and he has now become +the King of Images:[84]-- + + "Molti viventi + Sono forse più statue, ch'io non sono. + Tu proverai qual forza abbia una statua, + E come simulacro un uom diventi." + +Then Calmon gives the twins a stone. They are to return to the city, and +Barbarina is to throw the stone down before the royal palace. They will +immediately become rich. In any great disaster, let them call on Calmon. + +In this way Gozzi allegorises his own prejudice against the cold and +shallow theories of society, which were infiltrating Italy from France. + +The second act reveals Tartaglia. He is the victim of remorse, haunted +by the memory of Ninetta, whom he buried alive in a hole beneath the +scullery-sink. There is the floor on which she used to walk. There is +the kitchen where she fluttered in the form of a dove. "O spirit of +Ninetta, where art thou?" Tartaglia preserves the burlesque note of his +Mask. Only one friend remains to him, his old henchman Truffaldino; but +Truffaldino has become a pork-butcher, and forgotten him. Truffaldino at +this juncture appears. He too gives himself philosophical airs, without +concealing his gross appetites and greedy love of self. Tartaglia kicks +him out of doors, and then passes to a scene of vituperation against his +wicked mother, Tartagliona, the Queen of Tarocchi,[85] who has been the +cause of all his misery. Tartagliona shows the worst side of her coarse +malignant nature in the ensuing altercation, and departs vowing +vengeance. + +Her only consolation is that she is beloved by Brighella, the most +famous poet of the age:[86]-- + + "Non mancano + In me vezzi, e lusinghe, ond' al mio fianco + Fedel sia sempre. Ah, non vorrei, che alfine + Le mie finezze a lui, negli altri amanti + Destasser gelosia." + +A new scene introduces Renzo and Barbarina. They have returned to the +city, and are standing in front of the palace. Renzo begs his sister to +throw the magic stone. Barbarina reminds him that if they become rich, +all will be over with their philosophy. At last he persuades her to +throw it, and she does so, bidding herself be mindful that a wretched +pebble is the source of her future magnificence. In a moment a gorgeous +palace rises, fronting the royal dwelling. Renzo's and Barbarina's rags +are exchanged for splendid raiment. Moorish servants issue from the +great gates with torches, and welcome their princely masters. + +No sooner have the twins taken up their abode in this magic palace, than +they begin to act like _parvenus_ and _nouveaux riches._ Every folly, +vanity, and false desire enters their heads. Their philosophy is +forgotten. Brighella, in his character of seer, divines, meanwhile, that +their presence threatens danger to the person of Tartagliona. He +therefore endeavours to persuade the Queen to make her will in his +favour. She very sensibly refuses, and bids him do all in his power to +prolong the life of one whom he adores. He is obliged to meet her +wishes, and divulges a plan whereby the twins shall be destroyed. The +fairy Serpentina, he reminds her, owns apples which sing, and golden +water which plays and dances. The adventure of stealing these magical +objects involves the greatest peril. Certainly Barbarina will be ruined +if she longs to have them. Accordingly, when she appears at the window +of her palace, Tartagliona from the opposite balcony is to repeat these +rhymes:[87]-- + + "Voi siete bella assai; ma più bella sareste, + S'un de'pomi, che cantano, in una mano areste. + + * * * * * + + Figlia voi siete bella; ma più bella sareste, + S'acqua, che suona e balla, nell'altra mano areste." + +The scene now changes to the interior of the palace of the twins. +Barbarina is contemplating her charms in the looking-glass, when +Smeraldina suddenly enters, full of affection. She has heard of the good +fortune of her foundlings, and forgetting their recent ill-treatment of +her, has come to congratulate them. Barbarina exclaims against her +rudeness, calls the servants, throws a purse of gold at her +foster-mother, and bids her depart. Smeraldina, who cannot stifle her +affection for the ungrateful girl, changes tone, and humbly asks to be +allowed to stay and serve her. Barbarina, much to her own surprise, +feels touched by this display of feeling, and magnanimously allows the +good woman to remain as a menial. Smeraldina's soliloquy at the end of +the scene reveals her sound sense no less than her warm heart:[88] + + "Questa è quella filosofa, che andava + Ieri per legna al bosco, ed oggi! ... basta ... + Seco volea restar, perchè l'adoro, + E seco resto alfin; del tacer poi + Ci proveremo; ma non sarà nulla. + Non la conosco più. Quanta superbia! + Che diavol l'ha arrichita in questa forma? + Io non vorrei, che questa frasconcella ... + Forse qualche milord ... ma saprò tutto." + + {_Entra._ + +Next we have Renzo. He has fallen desperately in love with a beautiful +statue which he found in the garden of the palace. Truffaldino enters, +frankly confesses that he has come to live at ease with his quondam +foster-child, professes himself a true sage, and expounds the cynical +philosophy of interested motives. Renzo cannot resist laughing at the +knave's candour, but is not yet disposed to bear his insolence. +Truffaldino sees that he must alter his tone. So he begins to whine and +flatter. Renzo is softened, and consents to keep him as a buffoon. His +cynicism and his hyperbolical adulation will serve to make the hours +pass pleasantly. + +Tartaglia and Pantalone appear upon the royal balcony. Barbarina enters +on the other side, and Tartaglia falls head over ears in love with her +at first sight. The scene is carried out with much burlesque humour, +until Tartagliona and Brighella join the group below. Tartagliona utters +the magic verses, and Barbarina becomes madly bent upon the apples which +sing and the water which plays and dances. Renzo, touched by his +sister's despair, agrees to attempt the adventure; but before he goes, +he gives her a dagger. So long as this is bright, he will be alive. If +it drops blood, that is a sign that her brother has died in the attempt. + +A scene between Ninetta in her living tomb and the Green Bird who brings +her food, is here interpolated, in order to prepare the audience for +what ensues. + +Renzo and Truffaldino arrive at Serpentina's garden, and fail in their +adventure. Then Renzo calls on Calmon, who appears, and summons a band +of statues--the female figure on the fountain at Treviso and the Moors +of the Campo de'Mori at Venice[89]--to his aid. By their assistance a +singing apple is procured, and some of the dancing water is bottled in +a phial. But Calmon and his band of statues remind Renzo that he is in +duty bound to be grateful. Calmon lacks his nose; the fountain of +Treviso's breasts are injured; the Moors have, each of them, some broken +limb. Renzo must undertake to restore them properly, and all will go +well with him. + +Renzo promises; but he very soon forgets the shattered statues. Lost in +admiration before the image of beautiful Pompea, he spends his days in +wooing her. At length Pompea finds her voice, and confides to him her +previous experience. She was the daughter of a great Italian prince, the +prince of a corrupt but mighty city; and she has now become an idol +through her self-idolatry. + +At this juncture enters Truffaldino with exciting news. Tartaglia has +made a declaration of his love through Pantalone to Barbarina. She +wavers between the splendid prospects of a royal match and the affection +which she feels for the Green Bird, her lover and consoler in their days +of poverty. Meanwhile Tartagliona breaks negotiations off by declaring +that Barbarina must bring the Green Bird as dower; else she can never be +Tartaglia's bride. At this announcement Barbarina falls into hysterics, +kicking Pantalone downstairs, and screaming out that nothing but the +Green Bird will satisfy her. Truffaldino, partly out of compassion for +Barbarina's state, partly from a sense of modesty, leaves her presence. +He arrives to rouse his master to a sense of the situation. This is no +time to make platonic love to statues, &c. + +Renzo replies that he is quite ready to attempt the adventure of the +Green Bird. He knows from Calmon that the bird alone is capable of +solving the problem of his own parentage, and also of evoking Pompea +from her marble immobility. Consequently he has a strong personal +interest in the capture of the bird; and his sister's troubles are an +additional reason why he should no longer delay. With Truffaldino for +his squire, he will ride forth into the forest of the Goblin, who holds +the bird in meshes of diabolical enchantments. Let Smeraldina remind his +sister that the dagger which he gave her will assure her of his good or +evil fortune in the perilous essay. + +While Renzo is on his journey, Barbarina keeps continually gazing on the +dagger. It does not cease to shine. But Smeraldina and the speaking +statue of Pompea work upon her feelings by suggesting the perils her +brother is undergoing, to which her own vanity has exposed him. Moved at +last by simple human sympathy, she finds the situation intolerable, and +resolves to follow Renzo to the place of danger. It is this return to +nature which saves her, and brings about a happy catastrophe. Barbarina +renounces her wish to wed Tartaglia, and thinks only of arresting Renzo +in his dangerous course. She sets off with Smeraldina; and the magic +palace is left desolate, in mourning, all its splendour gone. + +Renzo and Truffaldino have now reached the Goblin's hill, where the +Green Bird is seen upon a perch, chained by the leg. Trying to capture +him, Renzo turns into a statue; and there is a whole gathering of +similar statues in the place--men who essayed the same adventure, and +failed. + +Barbarina and _Smeraldina_ arrive at the scene of action. The dagger +drops blood. Barbarina's mask of false philosophy and selfish vanity +drops off. She becomes a simple woman, filled with repentance and +anguish for her brother who is dead. She flings herself upon the bosom +of poor Smeraldina, whom she had so villainously treated. At this +juncture, when all seems lost, Calmon appears, and reads her a sound +moral lecture. Then he points to a scroll before her feet, and instructs +her what she has to do. She must walk up to within a hair's-breadth--no +more and no less--of the bird, and take good heed that he does not utter +a sound before she has read aloud the words inscribed upon the scroll. +If she succeeds in this feat, all may yet come right. There is a +breathless moment, during which Barbarina executes what Calmon told her. +The bird is captured, and begins to talk. Let her take a feather from +his tail. That will restore the statues to life. + +The drama is quickly wound up. By means of the bird's tail-feather, +Renzo and Pompea are made happy lovers. Ninetta returns from her hole. +Tartagliona is changed into a tortoise, and Brighella into a donkey. The +Green Bird resumes his form as King of Terradombra and plights his faith +to Barbarina. Tartaglia recognises his lost son and daughter, and is +fain to be contented with the resuscitated wife whom he had so wantonly +condemned to a lingering death. + + * * * * * + +This analysis, if any one takes the trouble to read it, will suffice to +show the sprightliness of Gozzi's invention, and also the essential +weakness of his artistic method. The magic and the transformations at +the close are mechanical. The fate of the Green Bird is connected by no +proper motive with the fate of Tartaglia and the twins. Calmon and the +statues, allegorically useful, are in like manner independent of the +main dramatic action. Ninetta's doom is atrocious. Tartaglia is only +saved from being disgusting by his burlesque absurdity. + + +XI. + +In the spring of 1762, having exhibited _Le Tre Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, +_Il Rè Cervo_, and _Turandot_, Gozzi proved that he had won the game +against Chiari and Goldoni. Sacchi's company removed from the theatre at +S. Samuele to a more commodious house at S. Angelo. Chiari retired to +his native city, Brescia, and left off writing for the stage. Goldoni +departed for Paris. None of Goldoni's biographers deny that he took this +step in consequence of Gozzi's triumph. In his own Memoirs he omitted +all references to the literary quarrels of the years 1756-62; and he +gives excellent reasons, quite independent of Gozzi, for his setting off +to seek fortune in the French capital. Certainly, the last piece he +presented to the Venetian public, _Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale_, +was received with enthusiasm. "It closed the theatrical year of 1761," +he says;[90] "and the evening of Shrove Tuesday brought me an ovation. +The theatre rang with thunders of applause, among which could be +distinguished these farewells: _A happy journey! Come back to us! Be +sure you do not fail to do so!_ I confess that I was touched to tears." +Yet the simultaneous retirement of both Chiari and Goldoni at this +critical moment justifies our believing that the latter judged it +expedient to leave Venice after the revolution effected by Gozzi. He did +so without ill-will on either side. Count Gasparo Gozzi, Carlo's +brother, and a distinguished member of the Granelleschi, undertook the +charge of seeing a new edition of Goldoni's plays through the press in +his absence. + +For some years after this event, Carlo Gozzi and Sacchi's company had +the theatres of Venice pretty much at their own disposal. But the +success of the _Fiabe_ was ephemeral. Before their author's death, he +saw his own dramatic novelties cast into the shade and Goldoni's +realistic comedies restored to favour. A poet of such eminence as +Goethe, surveying all things Italian with curiosity in 1786, paid a +well-considered tribute to Gozzi's sympathy with the Venetian public, +praised the energy and nature of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, but reserved +his highest panegyric for a representation of Goldoni's _Baruffe +Chiozzote_ at the theatre of S. Luca.[91] "At last I am able to say that +I have seen a comedy," are the emphatic words with which Goethe opens a +detailed description of this piece. + +In the course of the last hundred years, Goldoni has secured a signal +and irreversible victory over his rival. One of the best theatres at +Venice is called by his name. His house is pointed out by gondoliers to +tourists. His statue stands almost within sight of the Rialto on the +Campo S. Bartolommeo, where people most do congregate. His comedies are +repeatedly given by companies of celebrated actors. Gozzi's _Fiabe_ have +been relegated to the marionette stages, where some of their _scenari_ +in a mutilated form may still be seen. There exist no memorials to his +fame in Venice. Not even a tablet with the words _Qui nacque Carlo +Gozzi_ is to be found upon the ancient palace at S. Cassiano. The +sacristan of the church, where his dust is gathered to his fathers, +cannot point to the Gozzi vault. + +The vicissitudes of Gozzi's reputation turn upon the different views +which have been taken of his merits in relation to Goldoni. In Italy the +balance of opinion tends to sink against him. Baretti, that fiery member +of Sam Johnson's club, the fierce opponent of Goldoni, pronounced at +first in Gozzi's favour, lamented that he could not bring Garrick to one +of his plays, proposed to translate the _Fiabe_ into English, and swore +that Gozzi stood next to Shakespeare in dramatic genius. But when +Baretti read the _Fiabe_ in print, he declaimed against the buffooneries +of the Masks, and dropped his enthusiasm. Tommasei found no words too +strong to express his contempt for a writer whose genius he denied, and +whose character inspired him with repugnance. Tommasei was a champion of +Goldoni. Omitting further details, it is enough to say that Italy has +elected to ignore Gozzi and to deify Goldoni. The causes are not far to +seek. Gozzi's vogue depended partly upon controversy and satire. It was +confined to the locality of Venice. His plays required the co-operation +of the Masks; and these expired in his own lifetime. Moreover, they +appealed to a rare combination of sensibilities, romantic and humorous, +which is not common in Italy. Lastly, for their proper mounting on the +stage, they demanded an expenditure of ingenuity and money, which their +fading popularity prohibited. Goldoni, on the other hand, suited the +temper of the growing age by his simplicity, his truth to nature, his +realism, and the freshness of eternal youth which lends charm to the +facile productions of his amiable genius. His comedies can be put upon +the stage without the least difficulty; and they afford scope for the +display of varied talents in actors of several descriptions. + +In Germany Gozzi enjoyed wide posthumous reputation, not as a playwright +with the public, but as a poet among men of letters. He was early +chosen, during the _Sturm und Drang_ period, to perform the part of +champion of Romantic against Classical forms of art. How mistaken this +view of Gozzi really is, I have attempted to prove. Yet if critics +ignore what Gozzi wrote about the origin of his _Fiabe_, and keep out of +sight his intentions while composing them--if they only regard the +printed plays--it is not difficult to make him assume this false +position. Franz A. C. Werthes translated the _Fiabe_ into German so +early as 1777-79, and published them at Bern. No less than twelve +separate versions of selected plays have since appeared, up to the date +1877.[92] Among these may be mentioned Schiller's _Turandot_, which was +executed from the translation of Werthes, and a reproduction of _I +Pitocchi Fortunati_ by Paul Heyse. Schlegel introduced the _Fiabe_ to +public notice, emphasising their value as specimens of the Romantic +style, and connecting them with the indigenous art of Italy. Hoffmann +declared his enthusiasm for Gozzi; and if he did not borrow motives from +the _Fiabe_ and the _Memoirs_ for his own fantastic productions, he +undoubtedly regarded their author as a genius of the same species as +himself. Wagner, I may parenthetically observe, based one of his +earliest operatic productions on _La Donna Serpente_. It was composed in +1833, and was first exhibited at Munich in 1888. To follow the several +steps by which Gozzi came to be regarded in Germany as a Romanticist, +snuffed out by the Revolution, would lead me beyond the limits of this +introduction. I suspect that he was known there mainly in the +translation of Werthes, and that his works were quarried as a mine of +motives by writers of romantic tendencies, who lacked invention. There +is a pocket edition of the _Fiabe_ in Italian, 3 vols., published by +Hitzig, 1808. + +The German conception of Gozzi as a Romantic poet of the purest water +spread to France. It took the French imagination just when the Romantic +movement was at its height. Philarète Chasles treated his works from the +point of view of Spanish dramatic literature. Paul de Musset pounced +upon the Memoirs, condensed them into a small volume with considerable +literary ability, and so ingeniously manipulated their text in the +process as to create the illusion that Gozzi had pronounced himself to +be in fact what his German admirers found in him. This clever travesty +of Gozzi's autobiography presented him to the world as the victim of +sprites, the creature of his own inventions, the plaything of +superstition, instead of the caustic, practical, sometimes dissembling, +and often sinister, man of thwarted passion, violent caprice, hard head, +and conservative heart, who will presently be revealed in my version of +the Memoirs. I do not blame Paul de Musset for his literary escapade. I +understand his motive, and appreciate the joke. He wanted, at one and +the same time, to place Gozzi, as the Germans had already placed him, +among the fathers of Romanticism, and also to construct a telling novel +of adventure out of the copious materials furnished by the Memoirs. But, +by so doing, Paul de Musset misled writers who had no access to the sole +edition of Gozzi's _Memorie_, or who were perhaps too careless to seek +this document out. Among these I may mention M. Paul Royer, the +translator of five of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ into French,[93] and Vernon Lee, +the talented authoress of a deservedly popular book entitled _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_.[94] Both of these distinguished +writers have fallen into the trap laid for them by Paul de Musset, and +have accepted a false conception of the man who forms the subject of +these volumes. + +Gozzi, who plumed himself upon his Democritean philosophy of laughter, +his Stoic-Epicurean acceptance of every wayward stroke of fortune, would +have been the first to smile sardonically, yet not without a touch of +benignant humour, upon the mask he has been made to wear by Germans and +by Frenchmen. English critics, with the exception of Vernon Lee, have +had little or nothing to do with him up to this date.[95] Let the man +speak for himself in the account of his own life, which I now for the +first time present to the multitude of English readers. + +_August 8, 1888._ + + + + +CARLO GOZZI. + + + + +I. + +_My Pedigree and Birth._ + + +There are people foolish enough to make every family history the object +of their ridicule and satire. For the sake of wits of this sort I shall +give a short but truthful account of my ancestry, in order that they may +have something to quiz. + +Our stock springs in the fourteenth century from a certain Pezòlo +de'Gozzi. This is proved by an authentic genealogy, which we possess; +the authority of which has never been disputed, and which has been +accepted as evidence in law-courts, although it is but a dusty document, +worm-eaten and be-cobwebbed, not framed in gold or hung against the +wall. Since I am no Spaniard, I never applied to any genealogist to +discover a more ancient origin for our race. There are historical works, +however, which derive us from the family de'Gozze, extant at the present +epoch in Ragusa, and original settlers of that venerable republic. The +chronicles of Bergamo relate that the aforesaid Pezòlo de'Gozzi was a +man of weight and substance in the district of Alzano, and that he won +the gratitude of the most serene Republic of Venice for having +imperilled his property and person against the Milanese in order to +preserve that district for her invincible and clement rule. His +descendants held office as ambassadors and podestàs for the city of +Bergamo, which proves that they were members of its Council; while two +privileges of the sixteenth century show that two separate branches of +the family obtained admission to the citizenship of Venice.[96] They +erected houses for the living and provided tombs for their dead in the +quarter and the Church of San Cassiano, as may be seen at the present +day.[97] One of these branches was honoured with adoption into the +patrician families of Venice in the seventeenth century,[98] and +afterwards expired. The branch from which I am descended remained in the +class of Cittadini Originari, on which they certainly brought no +discredit whatsoever. + +None of my ancestors aspired to the honourable and lucrative posts which +are open to Venetian citizens.[99] They were for the most part men of +peaceful unambitious temper, contented with their lot in life, or +perhaps averse from the disturbances of competition. Had they entered +upon a political career, I am quite sure that they would have served +their Prince faithfully, without pride and without vain ostentation. + +About two centuries ago, my great-great-grandfather purchased some six +hundred acres of land,[100] together with buildings, in Friuli, at the +distance of five miles from Pordenone. A large portion of these estates +consists of meadow-land, and is held by feudal tenure. All the +heirs-male are bound to renew the investiture, which costs some ducats. +Upon this point the officials of the Camera de' Feudi at Udine are +extremely vigilant. If the fine is not paid immediately after the death +of the last feudatory, they confiscate the crops derived from the +meadows subject to this tenure. That happened to me after my father's +decease. A few months' negligence cost me a considerable sum in excess +of the customary fine. It is probably by right of some old parchment +that we own the title of Count, conceded to our family in public acts +and in the addresses of letters.[101] I should feel no resentment, if +this title were refused me; but it would anger me extremely, if my hay +were withheld. + +My father was Jacopo Antonio Gozzi; a man of fine and penetrative +intellect, of sensitive and delicate honour, of susceptible temper, +resolute, and sometimes even formidable. His father Gasparo died while +he was yet a child, leaving this only son to the guardianship of his +mother, the Contessa Emilia Grampo, a noble woman of Padua. The estate +was sufficient to sustain his dignity with credit; but he indulged +dreams of magnificence. Sole heir, and educated by a tender mother, who +humoured every fancy of her son, he early acquired the habit of +following his own inclinations. These led him into lordly +extravagances--stables full of horses; kennels of hounds; +hunting-parties; splendid banquets--nor did he reflect upon the +consequences of a marriage, which he made without deliberation in his +early manhood, to indulge a whim of the heart. My mother was Angela +Tiepolo, the daughter of one branch of that patrician house, which +expired in her brother Almorò Cesare.[102] He died, a Senator of the +Republic, about the year 1749. + +I shall perhaps have wearied my readers with these facts about my +pedigree and birth. Satirists will not, however, find in them anything +to excite ambition in myself or to wing their pen with ridicule. Social +ranks have always been regarded by me as accidental, though necessary +for the proper subordination on which our institutions depend. As for my +birth, I think less of whence I came than of whither I am going. Conduct +unworthy of a decent origin might cause sorrow to my deceased parents, +whose memory I hold in honour, and might cover myself and all my +posterity with shame. + +My name is Carlo. I was the sixth child born by my mother into the +light, or shall I say the shadows of this world. I am writing on the +last day of April in the year 1780. I have passed fifty, and not yet +reached the age of sixty.[103] I shall not put the sacristan to trouble +in order to view the register of my baptism, being quite sure that I was +christened, and not having the stupid vanity to pass for a curled +dandy. That is obvious, and has been always obvious, from the fashion of +my clothes and the way I dress my hair. Besides, I set no value on the +age of men. Human beings die at all ages; and I have seen boys who are +adult, while grown-up men or grey-beards are often nothing better than +peevish and ridiculous children. + + + + +II. + + _My Education and Circumstances down to the Age of + Sixteen--Concerning the Art of Improvisation, and my Literary + Studies._ + + +Our family consisted of eleven children, male and female. I could record +nothing but what is creditable of my brothers and sisters, had I +proposed to write their memoirs. But this is not my thought; and they +are capable of writing their own, if the whim should take them; for the +epidemic of literature was always chronic in our household. + +A succession of priests with little learning were our domestic +pedagogues up to a certain age. I say a succession advisedly; each in +turn having earned his dismissal by impertinent behaviour and intrigues +with the serving-maids. + +From early childhood I was always a silent observer of men and things, +by no means insolent, of imperturbable serenity, and extremely +attentive to my lessons. My brothers used my taciturn and peaceable +temper to their own advantage. They accused me to our common tutor of +all the naughtinesses of which they had been guilty. I did not +condescend to excuse myself or to accuse them, but bore my unjust +punishments with stoicism. I venture to affirm that no boy was ever more +supremely indifferent than I was to the terrible penalty of being sent +away from table just as we were sitting down to dinner. Smiling +obedience was my only self-defence. Enemies may conclude from these +traits of character that I was a stupid lout, and friends that I was a +philosopher in embryo. Nothing is rarer than the eye of equal justice. +Yet any one who takes the trouble to inquire of my acquaintances and +servants, will learn that my taciturnity, my tolerance, my stoical +endurance, have not changed with years--that I continue to view the +events of this life with a smile, and that only those have nettled me +which touched my honour. + +[Illustration: SCARAMOUCH (1645) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The growing disorder in our family affairs did not at first deprive us +boys of a sound education. My two elder brothers, Gasparo and Francesco, +went to public schools,[104] and were in time to drink at all the +fountains of the regular curriculum. Extravagant expenditure, however, +combined with the needs of a numerous progeny, soon rendered anything +like an adequate course of studies impossible for the younger +children. I was intrusted for some years to a learned country-parson, +and then to a priest in Venice, of decent acquirements and excellent +morality. After this I entered the academy of two Genoese priests, who +supplied instruction to some youths of noble birth, and to some of no +nobility whatever. There were about twenty-five pupils in this academy. +We pursued the same studies, with some difference according to our +classes. Here I had the opportunity of observing that teachers are very +valuable guides to youths who love learning, and mere images of +ineffectual deities to such as hate it. For my part, being fond of books +and eager for information, I imbibed my fill of such instruction as a +boy can acquire before the age of fourteen. But sloth and vicious habits +extirpate the seeds of learning planted by preceptors in the minds of +ill-conditioned lads. Therefore I saw, and still see, more than +two-thirds of my fellow-pupils sunk in a slough of baseness. Grammar, +the classics, and rhetoric only taught them to get drunk in taverns, to +carry sacks for hire upon their shoulders, and to cry "_Baked apples, +plums, and chestnuts!_" about the streets, with a basket on their heads +and a pair of scales slung round their waists. Wretched fate to be a +father! + +When I became aware that our domestic difficulties would prove an +obstacle to my remaining long at school, I determined to utilise the +little I had already learned, and to carry on my education by myself. My +elder brother Gasparo's example, whose passion for study had won public +recognition, and my own good-will, kept me nailed to books of all sorts; +nor could I imagine any pleasure worth a thought, beyond reading, +meditating, and writing. + +Poetry, choice Italian, and correct style were then in vogue. The young +men of Venice met to discuss these three topics, which have now been +utterly forgotten--possibly for the greater advantage and convenience of +our citizens. I see crowds of young people, hair-brained, conceited, +idle, frivolous, presumptuous, and harmful to society. Heaven knows what +their studies are! Not poetry, not the niceties of the Italian language, +not correction of style. And then, forsooth, I am to admire a +hurly-burly of well-born persons, who claim in their foolhardiness to be +omniscient, who produce nothing whatsoever, who cannot write three lines +of a letter which shall express their sentiments, and which shall not +swarm with revolting faults of grammar and of spelling! + +I will omit to observe that respect for nobles in a state is necessary; +but that the respect shown simply for their birth and wealth is not +respect but false feigned adulation. I will refrain from asserting that +a daily correspondence, maintained with a large variety of +persons--people who may not perhaps be scientific, but who understand +whether a letter is well written or ridiculous--may be capable of +securing a large part of the regard, or of occasioning a large part of +the contempt, bestowed on nobles. I make no mention of the rich man in +Signor Mercier's comedy of Indigence, who found it impossible to write a +letter of the utmost importance because his secretary was away from +home. I will say nothing to those scientific tutors of the scions of our +aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and +the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, moulding +them into geometricians, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, +astronomers, algebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of +sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what +they have taught or what the common business of life requires. + +All these things, and everything which imposture has presented to my +senses and impressed upon my mind, must remain unwritten in my pen. I +have no wish to make enemies. + +Yet we cannot prevent drops of ink from falling sometimes from the pen +and making blots upon our papers. Just so, while I am dictating these +memoirs of my life, I shall not be able to avoid splutterings, however +out of place and inconvenient. + +I am almost ashamed to confess the intense assiduity with which I +applied myself to those frivolous literary studies of which I have been +speaking. They brought on a hæmorrhage from the nostrils, so violent +and so frequent, that I was more than once or twice given up for dead in +the manner of Seneca.[105] In their anxiety about my health, my friends +hid away all my books, and deprived me of paper and inkstand; but I was +the cleverest of thieves in searching for them, and went on doggedly +reading and writing by stealth in the uninhabited attics of our mansion. +After relating this fact about my boyhood, malicious people may think +that I am claiming to be considered worthy of a panegyric. They are +quite mistaken. I fix them with my eyeglass, and assure them that it is +rather my intention to provide them with another good reason for +quizzing me. The famous Doctor Tissot angrily rebukes excessive +application to those studies which are universally esteemed as useless. +He reserves his praise for folk who ruin their health in pursuits +considered beneficial to humanity; and such, I do not doubt, are the +studies affected by himself and his admirers. + +The Abbé Giovan Antonio Verdani, keeper of the select and extensive +library of the patrician family Soranzo, was a man of vast literary +erudition. He felt compassion for my weakness, which coincided with his +own, and directed my reading by lending me the rarest books, +masterpieces of pure Italian diction in prose and poetry. To estimate +the quantities of paper which I covered with my thoughts in verse and +prose, would be beyond my powers. I tried to imitate the style of all +the early Tuscan writers who are most admired. Assuredly I never +approached the perfection of their language; but I am none the less sure +that the diligent and attentive perusal of a mass of the best works, +treating of a vast variety of subjects, cannot fail to furnish a better +head than mine with instruction and ideas, with the power of making just +reflections and probable conjectures, and with the principles of sound +morality. I am also convinced that the imitation of style in writing, +pursued methodically, enables a man to express his own thoughts with +facility, propriety of colouring, exactitude of phrase and term, +according to the variety of images, grave or gay, familiar or dignified, +which we desire to develop and to communicate under their true aspect in +prose or poetry. + +Without attaining to the mastery of style at which I aimed, I acquired +the miserable satisfaction of finding myself in the very select group of +persons who know this truth. I also earned the wretchedness of being +forced to read with insuperable aversion and disgust the works of many +modern Italian authors, which are full of false fancies and sophisms, +the rhetoric and diction of which never vary however the subject-matter +changes, which are defiled by all manner of gibberish, bombast, +nonsense, with periods involved in unintelligible vortices, and with +preposterous phraseology. The sciences, the discoveries, the branches +of new knowledge which are now so loudly vaunted, ought to be accepted +as useful, and are worthy of respect. For this reason it is wrong to +profane them and to render them contemptible by barbarous impurity and +impropriety of diction. Francesco Redi, that great man, great +philosopher, great physician, great naturalist, confirms my doctrine by +his written works.[106] As regards the literature of art and wit and +fancy, it is obvious that without correction of style this is absolutely +worthless and condemned to merited oblivion. No one could count the fine +and ample sentiments which perish, smothered in the mire of inartistic +writing. Not less numerous, on the other hand, are the small but +brilliant thoughts, duly coloured with appropriate terms, and placed at +the right point of view by a master-hand, which sparkle before the eyes +of every reader, be he learned or simple. + +There is no disputing about tastes. Yet I think it could be easily +maintained that our century has lapsed into a shameful torpor with +regard to these things. I have written and printed quite enough upon the +subject; without effect, however; and now I see no reason why I should +not utter a last funeral lament over the mastery of art I longed to +possess. That mastery, which nowadays is reckoned among the inutilities +of existence, has been freely conceded to me by the verdict of +contemporaries--blind judges, governed not by intelligence but by +ignorant assumption--so that their opinion does not sustain me with the +sure conviction of having attained my purpose. Nevertheless I am +grateful even to the blind and deaf, who see and hear what gives them +pleasure in my writings. + +My pursuit of culture advanced on the lines I have described, whether +for my happiness or my misfortune it is worthless to inquire. I read +continually, and wasted enormous quantities of ink; paid close attention +to men and manners; profited by the encouragement of the Abbé Verdani +and Antonio Federigo Seghezzi; walked in the steps of my brother +Gasparo; and frequented a literary society which met daily at our house. +From a Piedmontese, who knew how to read and nothing more, I learned the +first rudiments of French; not that I wished to talk French in Italy, an +affectation which I loathed; but because it was my desire, by the help +of grammar and dictionary, to study the books, most excellent in part, +in part injurious to society, which issue daily from the French press. +It was thus that I formed those literary tastes, to which I have always +clung for innocent and disinterested amusement, and which, now that my +hairs are grey, will be my solace till the hour of death. The giants of +science, to whom I dare not raise my quizzing-glass for fear of +committing an unpardonable sin, will perceive that in describing the +scanty sources of my education, I am only painting the portrait of a +literary pigmy in all humility. + +As regards my moral training, it is only necessary to observe that the +family of which I was a member has always cherished a deep and fervent +reverence for the august image of religion, and that my father, careless +as he was in matters of economy, never neglected religious duties or the +good ensample of honourable conduct. He was a bitter enemy of falsehood. +His delicate susceptibility detected a lie by the inflection of the +voice, and he punished it upon the spot with sounding boxes on the ears +of his offspring. + +Being a bold rider and passionately fond of horses, he taught us to +ride, and liked to see us every day on horseback during our summer +visits to the country. It was useless to plead timidity, or to shrink +from the snortings and jibbings of some half-broken beast he wanted us +to back. Up we went; a cut or two of the switch across our legs set us +off at a gallop; and there we were in full career, without a thought for +broken shins or necks. Some jockeys, who came to break in vicious colts, +put me up to tricks for mastering a hard-mouthed bolting animal. One of +these tricks stood me in good stead upon an occasion I shall afterwards +relate. Indeed, I may say that I owe my life to a jockey. + +We had a little theatre of no great architectural pretensions in our +country-house; and here we children used to act.[107] Brothers and +sisters alike were gifted with some talent for comedy; and all of us, +before a crowd of rustic spectators, passed for players of the first +quality. Beside tragic and comic pieces learned by heart, we frequently +improvised farces with a slight plot upon some laughable motive. My +sister Marina and I had the knack of imitating certain married couples +notorious in the village for their burlesque humours. We used to +interpolate our farces with scenes and dialogues in which the famous +quarrels of these women with their drunken husbands were reproduced to +the life. Our clothes were copied from the originals; and the imitation +was so exact that our bucolic audience hailed it with Homeric peals of +laughter, measuring their applause by the delight it afforded their +coarse natures. My father and mother took a fancy to see themselves +represented in this way. My sister and I were shy at first, but we had +to obey our parents. Finally, we regaled them with a perfect +reproduction of their costume, their gestures, their way of talking, and +some of their familiar household bickerings. Their astonishment was +great, and their laughter was the only punishment of our dutiful +temerity. + +I learned to twang the guitar with a certain amount of skill, and vied +with my brother Gasparo in improvising rhymed verses, which I sang to +music in our hours of recreation. This was done with all the +foolhardiness inseparable from a display which the vulgar are only too +apt to regard as miraculous. Since I have touched upon the point, I will +digress a little on this so-called miracle. In my opinion, the immense +crowds of people hanging with open mouths upon the lips of an +_improvisatore_ only prove that, in spite of the contempt into which +poetry has fallen, it still possesses that power over the minds and the +brains of men which their tongues deny it. Cristoforo Altissimo, a poet +of the fifteenth century, is said to have publicly improvised his epic +in octave stanzas on the Reali di Francia; the words were taken down +from his lips, just as he composed them at the moment. The book was +published; and though it is extremely rare, I have read it through the +kindness of the Abbé Verdani. Only a few stanzas, out of all that ocean +of verse, are worthy of the name of poetry; and yet we may believe that +before the work was given to the press, some pains had been bestowed +upon it. I have listened to many extempore versifiers, male and female, +the most famous of our century. It has always struck me that if the +deluges of verses which they spout forth with face on fire, to the +applause of frantic multitudes, were written down, they would have very +little poetical value, and that nobody would have the patience to read +the twentieth part of them. Padre Zucchi, of the Olivetan Order, whom I +heard in my youth, surpassed his rivals; now and then he produced +sensible stanzas; but he improvised so slowly that reflection may have +had some part in the result. I do not deny that these extempore +rhymesters may be people of culture and learning, qualified to discourse +well upon the themes proposed to them. Yet they would not be listened +to, if they spoke ever so divinely in prose. In order to draw a crowd, +they are forced to express their thoughts and images, just as they come, +with voluble rapidity, in bad rhymed verses, which often are no better +than a gabble of words without sense. This throws their audience into a +trance of astonishment. Humanity has always quested after the marvellous +like a hound. If a painter sought to depict foolhardiness or imposture +wearing the mask of poetry, I could recommend nothing better than the +portrait of an improvisatore, with goggle-eyes and arms in air, and a +multitude staring up at him in stupid dumb amazement. These being my +sentiments, I am willing, out of mere politeness and good manners, to +approve the coronation of a Cavaliere Perfetto or a Corilla on the +Capitol. But I can only accept with cordial and serious enthusiasm the +honours of that sort paid to a Virgil, a Petrarch, and a Tasso. + +The Arcadians will laugh when I proceed to speak about an improvisatore, +whom I knew and whom I have listened to a hundred times. Yet I should be +committing an injustice if I did not mention him, and declare my opinion +that he was the single really wonder-worthy artist in this kind, with +whom I ever came in contact. He used to pour forth anacreontics, octave +stanzas, any and every metre, extempore, to the music of a well-touched +guitar. His verses rhymed, but had no _Clio_, _Euterpe_, _Plettro_, +_Parnaso_, _Aganippe_, _Ruscelletto_, _Zefiretto_, and such stuff, in +them. They composed a well-developed discourse, flowing evenly, not +soaring, but with abundance of well-connected images, and natural, +lively, graceful thoughts. He invariably used either the Venetian or the +Paduan dialect; which will augment the derisive laughter of Arcadia, and +make the Campidoglio ring. On one occasion, while he was improvising on +the theme: _diligite inimicos vestros_, it happened that two enemies +were present. At another time, he dilated on his own grief for a +cavaliere[108] who had been kind to him, and who was then dying, given +over by the doctors. Not only did the audience hang upon his lips with +rapt attention; but in the former case, the enemies were reconciled, +while in the latter tears were freely shed for the poet's expiring +benefactor. Such influence over the passions of the heart reveals a true +poet; for such a man I reserve the laurel crown upon my Campidoglio. His +name was Giovanni Sibiliato, brother of the celebrated professor of +literature in the University of Padua. + +Returning from this digression, I will resume the narrative of my +boyhood. I learned to fence and to dance; but books and composition were +my chief pastime. Before a numerous audience in our literary assemblies +I felt no shyness. In private visits, among people new to me, the +reserve of my demeanour often passed for savagery. My first sonnet of +passable quality was written at the age of nine. Beside the applause it +won me, I was rewarded with a box of comfits; and for this reason I have +never forgotten it. The occasion of its composition was as follows. A +certain Signora Angela Armano, midwife by trade, had a friend at Padua +whose pet dog died and left her inconsolable. Signora Angela wished to +comfort her friend; indulged in condolements for her loss; and sent a +little spaniel of her own, called Delina, to replace the defunct pet. +Delina was to be given as a present, and a sonnet was to accompany the +gift, expressing all the sentiments which a lady of Signora Angela's +profession might entertain in a circumstance of such importance. Though +our family was a veritable lunatic asylum of poets, no one cared to +translate the good creature's gossipping garrulity into verse. Moved by +her entreaties, I undertook the task; and the following Bernesque sonnet +was the result:-- + + "Madama io vi vorrei pur confortare + Con qualche graziosa diceria, + Ma la sciagura vuole, e vostra, e mia, + Che in un sonetto la non vi può stare. + Non vi state, mia cara, a disperare, + Che la sarebbe una poltroneria, + L'entrar per un can morto in frenesia; + Chi nasce muor, convien moralizzare. + Vi sovvenite, ch' egli avrà pisciato + Alcuna volta in camera, o in cucina, + Che in quell' istante lo avreste ammazzato. + Io vi spedisco intanto la Delina + Che più d'un cane ha d'essa innamorato, + E può farvi di cani una dezina. + È bella, e picciolina; + Di lei non voglio più nuova, o risposta, + Servitevi per razza, o di supposta." + +Two years later, a new edition of the poems of Gaspara Stampa appeared +in Venice, at the expense of Count Antonio Ramboldo di Collalto of +Vienna, a prince distinguished for his birth and writings. Scholars know +that this sixteenth-century Sappho sighed her soul forth in love-laments +to a certain Count Collaltino di Collalto, doughty warrior and polished +versifier, and that she was reputed to have died of hopeless passion in +her youth.[109] The ladies of our century will hardly believe her +story; for Cupid has changed temper since those days, and kills his +victims with far different and less honourable weapons. Some verses by +contemporary writers in praise of our literary heroine were to be +appended to this edition of her works. I dared to enter the lists, and +wrote a sonnet in the style of the earliest Tuscan poets. Such as it is, +the sonnet may be found printed in the book which I have indicated. It +appears from this juvenile production that I already acknowledged a +mistress of my heart; compliance with fashion was alone responsible for +my precocity. + +This trifling composition was read by the famous Apostolo Zeno. He +deigned to inquire for the author, who had reproduced the antique +simplicity of Cino da Pistoja, Guittone d'Arezzo, and Guido Cavalcanti. +On my presenting myself, Signor Zeno politely expressed surprise at +discovering a mere boy in the learned writer of the sonnet, treated me +with kind attention, and placed his choice library at my disposal.[110] +The encouragement of this distinguished poet, true lover of pure style, +and foe to seventeenth-century conceits, added fuel to the fire of my +literary passion. From that day forward not one of those collections of +verses appeared, in which marriages, the entrance of young ladies into +convents, the election of noblemen to offices of state, the deaths of +people, cats, dogs, parrots, and such events, are celebrated in Venice +and other towns of Italy, but that it contained some specimen of my Muse +in grave or playful verse. + +Books, paper, pens and ink formed the staple of my existence. I was +always pregnant, always in labour, giving birth to monsters in remote +corners of our mansion. I scribbled furiously, God knows how, up to my +seventeenth year. Besides innumerable essays in prose and multitudes of +fugitive verses, I wrote four long poems, entitled _Berlinghieri_, _Don +Quixote_, _Moral Philosophy_ (based upon the talking animals of +Firenzuola), and _Gonella_ in twelve cantos. The Abbé Verdani took a +fancy to this last, and wished to see it printed. Signor Giulio Cesare +Beccelli, however, had published a poem at Verona on the same subject, +which robbed my work of novelty; and though mine was richer in facts +drawn from good old sources, I did not venture to enter into competition +with him. The three years' absence from home, which I shall presently +relate, and the revolution in our domestic affairs which surprised me on +my return, exposed these boyish literary labours to ruin and +dispersion. It is probable that pork-butchers and fruit-vendors +exercised condign justice on the children of my Muse. + + + + +III. + + _The Situation of my Family, and my Reasons for Leaving Home._ + + +In the course of these years, the early deaths of a brother and a sister +had reduced our numbers from eleven to nine. Meanwhile, our annual +expenditure exceeded the resources at our command, and left but little +for the needs of a numerous offspring, too old to be contented with a +toy or plaything. Some lawsuits, which we lost, diminished the estate. +Clouds of doubt and care began to obscure the horizon, and in a few +years the family was plunged in pecuniary embarrassment. + +My brother Gasparo had taken a wife in a fit of genial poetical +abstraction. Even poetry has its dangers. This man, who was really +singular in his absolute self-dedication to books, in his indefatigable +labours as an author, and in a certain philosophical temper or +indolence, which made him indifferent to everything which was not +literary, learned to fall in love from Petrarch. A young lady, ten years +older than himself, named Luigia Bergalli,[111] better known among the +shepherdesses of Arcady as Irmenia Partenide, a poetess of romantic +fancy, as her published works evince, was my brother's Laura. Not being +a canon, like Petrarch, he married her in Petrarch's spirit, but with +due legal formalities. This woman, of fervent and soaring imagination, +which fitted her for high poetic flights, undertook to regulate the +disorder in our affairs. Impelled by the instincts of a good nature, +with something of ambition and a flattering belief in her own practical +ability, she did the best that in her lay. Yet all her projects and +administrative measures revolved within a circle of romantic raptures +and Pindaric ecstasies. Thirsting with soul-passion after an ideal +realm, she found herself the sovereign of a state in decadence. It was +the desire of her heart to make us all happy, in the most disinterested +way. Yet she accomplished nothing beyond involving every one, and +herself to boot, in the meshes of still greater misfortune. Her +husband, poring perpetually upon his books, could only oppose her at the +sacrifice of ease and quiet. This he was incapable of doing.--In order +to judge people equitably, it is necessary that character, temperament, +and circumstances should be thoroughly explained. + +I know how unphilosophical it is to ascribe the discords of a family to +malignant planetary influences. Our domestic circle consisted of a +father, a mother, four brothers, and five sisters, all of them +good-hearted, honourable, mutually well-inclined; and yet it became the +very mirror of infelicity at every moment and in each of the persons who +composed it. Minute investigation into the causes of this painful fact +would probably reveal them. But it is better to adopt the language of +the vulgar, and to say that a bad star pursued our family. Otherwise, +analysis might lead one into acts of unkindness, and involve one in +hatred. + +The confusion in which we lived at that period, and the bitter +discomforts we had to bear, were augmented by expenses due to my +brother's increasing progeny. Our worst disaster, however (and this +wound I carry in my heart even to the present day), was a cruel stroke +of apoplexy which laid my beloved father low. He continued to exist, an +invalid, for about seven years after the sad event; dumb and paralytic, +but in possession of all his mental faculties--a circumstance which +rendered his deplorable condition almost unbearable to a man of my +father's extreme sensibility. + +The tears of five sisters, the births of nephews and nieces, a house +swarming with female go-betweens, brokers, and the Hebrew ministers of +our decaying realm--all this whirlpool of economical extravagance and +folly, to utter one word against which was reckoned mutiny or treason, +drove my second brother, Francesco, into exile. He went into the Levant +with the Provveditore Generale di Mare,[112] his Excellency the +Cavaliere Antonio Loredano, of happy memory. At that period I was about +thirteen. + +Letters written from Corfu by this brother describing the kindness shown +him by his Provveditore, and the rank of ensign to which he soon +attained, awoke in me a burning desire to escape like him from those +domestic turmoils, the gravity of which I felt in experience and +measured by anticipation, but which my state of boyhood rendered me +unable to remedy. Our uncle on the mother's side, Almorò Cesare Tiepolo, +recommended me to his Excellency Girolamo Quirini, Provveditore Generale +elect for Dalmatia and Albania. Furnished with a modest outfit, in which +my book-box and guitar were not forgotten, I bade farewell to my parents +at the age of seventeen,[113] and went across seas as volunteer into +those provinces, to study the ways and manners of my fellow-soldiers, +and of the peoples among whom we were quartered. + + +IV. + + _I Embark upon a Galley, and Cross the Seas to Zara._ + + +I was not slow to perceive that I had adopted a career by no means +suited to my character, the proper motto for which was always the +following verse from Berni: + + "Voleva far da se, non commandato." + +My natural dislike of changeableness kept me, however, from showing by +outward signs of any sort that I repented of my choice; and I reflected +that abundant opportunities were now at least offered for observations +on the men of a world new to me. This thought sufficed to keep me in +good spirits and a cheerful humour through all the vicissitudes of my +three years' sojourn in Illyria. + +According to orders received from his Excellency, the Provveditore +Generale Quirini, I embarked before him on a galley called +_Generalizia_, which was riding at the port of Malamocco. There I was to +wait for his arrival. A band of military officers received me with +glances of courtesy and some curiosity. In a Court where all the members +are seeking fortune, each newcomer is regarded with suspicion. Whether +he has to be reckoned with or may be disregarded on occasions of +promotion, concerns the whole crew of officials, who, like him, are +dependent on the will of the Provveditore. It was perhaps insensibility +which made me indifferent to these preoccupations; this the sequel of my +narrative will show; and yet such thoughts are very wood-worms in the +hearts of courtiers. + +I had to swallow a great quantity of questions, to which I replied with +the laconic brevity of an inexperienced lad upon his guard. Some of +those gentlemen had known my brother Francesco at Corfu. When they +discovered who I was, they seemed to be relieved of all anxiety on my +account, and welcomed me with noisy demonstrations of soldierly +comradeship. I expressed my thanks in modest, almost monosyllabic +phrases. They set me down for an awkward young fellow, unobliging, and +proud. This was a mistake, as they freely confessed a few months later +on. I had retired into myself, with the view of studying their +characters and sketching my line of action. The quick and penetrative +intuition with which I was endowed at birth by God, together with the +faculty of imperturbable reserve, enabled me in the course of a few +hours to recognise in that little group some men of noble birth and +liberal culture, some nobles ruined by the worst of educations, and some +plebeians who owed their position to powerful protection. + +Gaming, intemperance, and unbridled sensuality were deeply rooted in the +whole company. I laid my plans of conduct, and found them useful in the +future. My intimacies were few, but durable. The vices I have named, +clung like ineradicable cancers to the men with whom I associated. Sound +principles engrafted on me in my early years, regard for health, and the +slenderness of my purse helped me to avoid their seductions. At the same +time, I saw no reason why I should proclaim a crusade against them. +Holding a middle course, I succeeded in winning the affection of my +comrades. They invited me to take part in their orgies. I did not play +the prude. Without yielding myself to the transports of brutal appetite, +I proved the gayest reveller at all those lawless meetings. Some of my +seniors, on whom a career of facile pleasure had left its inevitable +stigma, used to twit me with being a reserved young simpleton. I did +not heed their raillery, but laughed at the inebriation of my comrades, +studied the bent of divers characters, observed the animal brutality of +men, and used our uproarious debauches as a school for fathoming the +depths of human frailty. + +Now I will return to the point of my embarkation on the galley +_Generalizia_ in the port of Malamocco. While awaiting the arrival of +the Provveditore, I had two whole days and nights to spend in sad +reflections on humanity. These were suggested by the spectacle of some +three hundred scoundrels, loaded with chains, condemned to drag their +life out in a sea of miseries and torments, each of which was sufficient +by itself to kill a man. An epidemic of malignant fever raged among +these men, carrying away its victims daily from the bread and water, the +irons, and the whips of the slavemasters. Attended in their last passage +by a gaunt black Franciscan friar, with thundering voice and jovial +mien, these wretches took their flight--I hope and think--for Paradise. + +[Illustration: THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY + +_Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze_] + +The Provveditore's arrival amid the din of instruments and roar of +cannon roused me from my dismal reveries. I had visited this gentleman +ten times at least in his own palace, and had always been received with +that playful welcome and confidential sweetness which distinguish the +patricians of Venice. He made his appearance now in crimson--crimson +mantle, cap, and shoes--with an air of haughtiness unknown to me, and +fierceness stamped upon his features. The other officers informed +me that when he donned this uniform of state, he had to be addressed +with profound and silent salaams, different indeed from the reverence +one pays at Venice to a patrician in his civil gown.[114] He boarded the +galley, and seemed to take no notice whatever of the crowd around him, +bowing till their noses rubbed their toes. The affability with which he +touched our hands in Venice had disappeared; he looked at none of us; +and sentenced the young captain of the guard, called Combat, to arrest +in chains, because he had omitted some trifle of the military salute. My +comrades stood dumbfounded, staring at one another with open eyes. This +singular change from friendliness to severity set my brains at work. By +the light of my boyish philosophy I seemed to comprehend why the noble +of a great republic, elected general of an armament[115] and governor of +two wide provinces, on his first appearance in that office, felt bound +to assume a totally different aspect from what was natural to him in his +private capacity. He had to inspire fear and a spirit of submission into +his subordinates. Otherwise they might have taken liberties upon the +strength of former courtesy displayed by him, being for the most part +presumptuous young fellows, apt to boast about their favour with the +general. For my own part, since I was firmly bent on doing my duty +without ambitious plans or dreams of fortune, this formidable attitude +and the harsh commands of the great man made a less disheartening +impression on me than on my companions. I whispered to myself: "He +certainly inspires me with a kind of dread; but he has taken immense +trouble to transform his nature in order to produce this effect; I am +sure the irksomeness which he is suffering now must be greater than any +discomfort he can cause me." + +The general retired to his cabin in the bowels of our floating hell, and +sent Lieutenant-Colonel Micheli, his major in the province, to make out +a list of all the officers and volunteers on board, together with the +names of their protectors. Nobody expected this; for we had been +personally presented to the general at Venice, and had explained our +affairs in frequent conversations. Once more I reflected that this was +his way of damping the expectations which might have been bred in +scheming brains before he exchanged the politenesses of private life for +the austerities of office. The Maggiore della Provincia Micheli--a most +excellent person and very fat--bustled about his business, sweating, and +scribbling with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as though the matter was +one of life or death. Everybody began to shy and grumble and chafe with +indignation at passing under review in this way. When my turn came, I +answered frankly that I was called Carlo Gozzi, and that I had been +recommended by the patrician Almorò Cesare Tiepolo. I withheld his title +of senator and the fact that he was my maternal uncle, deeming it +prudent not to seem ambitious. + +The _Generalizia_, convoyed by another galley named _Conserva_ and a few +light vessels of war, got under way for the Adriatic;[116] and the night +fell very dark upon the waters. I shall not easily forget that night, +because of a little incident which happened to me, and which shows what +a curious place of refuge a galley is for young men leaving their homes +for the first time. A natural necessity made me seek some corner for +retirement. I was directed to the bowsprit; on approaching it, an +Illyrian sentinel, with scowling visage, bushy whiskers, and levelled +musket, howled his "_Who goes there?_" in a tremendous voice. When he +understood my business, he let me pass. My next step lighted on a soft +and yielding mass, which gave forth a kind of gurgling sound, like the +stifled breath of an asthmatic patient, into the dark silent night. +Retracing my path, I asked the sentinel what the thing was, which +responded with its inarticulate gurgling voice to the pressure of my +feet. He answered with the coldest indifference that it was the corpse +of a galley-slave, who had succumbed to the fever, and had been flung +there till he could be buried on the sea-shore sands in Istria. The hair +on my head bristled with horror. But my happy disposition for seeing the +ludicrous side of things soon came to my assistance. + +After twelve days of much discomfort, and twelve noisome nights, passed +in broken slumbers under the decks of that galley, which only too well +deserved its name, our little fleet entered the port of Zara. We went on +shore at first privately and quietly; and after a few days the public +ceremonies of official disembarkation were gone through. The +Provveditore Generale Jacopo Cavalli handed his baton of command over to +the Provveditore Generale Girolamo Quirini with all the formalities +proper to the occasion. This solemnity, which is performed upon the open +sea, to the sound of military music, the thunder of artillery, and the +crackling of musket-shots, deserves to be witnessed by all who take an +interest in imposing spectacles. An old man, fat and short of stature, +with a pair of moustachios bristling up beneath his nostrils, a merry +and most honest fellow to boot, who bore the name of Captain Girolamo +Visinoni, was appointed master of these ceremonies, on account of his +intimate acquaintance with their details. I had no other duty that day +but to wear my best clothes, which did not cost much trouble. + + +V. + + _I Fall Dangerously Ill; Recover; Form the only Intimate + Acquaintance I made in Dalmatia._ + +When the new Regency had been established and the Court settled, I had +but eight days to learn my duties as volunteer or adjutant[117] to his +Excellency, as it is called there, before I fell ill of a fever which +was declared to be malignant. Alone among people whom I hardly knew, at +the commencement of my career, poorly provided with money, and lying in +a wretched room, the windows of which were closed with torn and rotten +paper instead of glass, I could not but compare my present destitution +with the comforts of our home. Here I was battling with a mortal disease +in solitude. There, at the least touch of illness, I enjoyed the tender +solicitude of a sister or a servant at my pillow, to brush away the +flies which settled on my forehead. Fortunately, I was not so strongly +attached to life as to be rendered miserable by unavailing recollections +and gloomy forebodings. + +It happened one day, as I lay there burning, that a convict presented +himself at the door of my miserable den, and asked me if I wanted +anything which he could fetch me. He was one of those men who prowl +around the officers' quarters, wrapped in an old blanket with a bit of +rope about the waist, ready to do any dirty business and to pilfer if +they find the opportunity. I gave him a few farthings and told him to +send me a confessor--an errand very different from what he had expected. +Before long a good Dominican appeared, who prepared me to die with the +courage of an ancient Roman. Our modern sages may laugh at this plebeian +wish of mine to make my peace with Heaven; but I have never been able to +dissociate philosophy from religion. Satisfied to remain a little child +before the mysteries of faith, I do not envy wise men in their +disengagement from spiritual terrors. + +The chief physician, Danieli, a man of prodigious corpulence and +blackness, who had been sent to my assistance by the Governor, spared no +attentions and no remedies. As usual, they proved unavailing; and he +bade me prepare myself for death by receiving the holy sacrament. I +summoned what remained to me of vital force, and went through this +ceremony with devotion. There seemed to be so little difference between +a sepulchre and the room in which my body lay, that I felt no disgust at +relinquishing my corpse to the grave-diggers. I was now ready for the +last unction, when an attack of hemorrhage from the nostrils, like those +which had already nearly brought me to death's door, recalled me for the +nonce to life. All the ordinary remedies--ligatures, powders, herbs, +astringent plasters, sympathetic stones, muttered charms, old wives' +talismans--were exhibited in vain. After filling two basons with blood, +I lapsed into a profound swoon, which the doctor styled a syncope. To +all appearances I was dead; but the blood stopped; in a quarter of an +hour I revived; and three days afterwards I found myself, weak indeed, +but wholly free from fever and on the road to recovery. My ignorance +could not reconcile this salutary crisis with Danieli's absolute +prohibition of blood-letting in my malady. But I suppose that a score of +learned physicians, each of them upon a different system of hypotheses, +conjectures, well-based calculations, and trains of lucid argument, +would be able to demonstrate the phenomenon to their own satisfaction +and to the illumination or confusion of my stupid brain. Stupendous +indeed are the mental powers which Almighty God has bestowed on men! + +The readers of these Memoirs will hardly need to be informed that my +slender purse had nothing in it at the termination of this illness. +Under these painful circumstances I found a cordial and open-hearted +friend in Signor Innocenzio Massimo, nobleman of Padua, and captain of +halbardiers at the Dalmatian Court. This excellent gentleman, of rare +distinction for his mental parts, the quickness of his spirit, his +courage, energy, and honour, was the only intimate friend whom I +possessed during my three years' absence from home. When they were over, +our friendship continued undiminished by lapse of time, distance, and +the various vicissitudes of life. I have enjoyed it through thirty-five +years, and am sure that it will never fail me. Some qualities of his +character have exposed him to enmity; among these I may mention a +particular sensitiveness to affronts, an intolerance of attempts to +deceive him, and a quick perception of fraud, together with a firm +resolve to stem the tide of extravagance and fashionable waste in his +own family. His many virtues, the decent comfort of his household, his +hospitality to friends and acquaintances, his careful provision for the +well-being of his posterity, his benevolence to the poor and afflicted, +his successful efforts as a peacemaker among discordant fellow-citizens, +his expenditure of time and trouble upon all who come to him for advice +or assistance, have not sufficed to disarm the malignity of a vulgar +crowd, corrupted by the false philosophy of our century, which goes from +bad to worse in dissolution and ill manners. + + + + +VI. + + _Short Studies in the Science of Fortification and Military + Exercises.--Some Reflections which will pass for Foolishness._ + + +On the restoration of my health, his Excellency placed me under +Cavaliere Marchiori, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, to learn +mathematics as applied to fortification. This gentleman sent for me, and +said that he had heard from my uncle of my aptitude for study, adding +that the subject he proposed to teach me was of the greatest consequence +to a soldier. I perceived at once that I was being treated on a +different footing from the other volunteers, and that the studied +forgetfulness of the Provveditore had been, as I suspected, a politic +device to humble ambitious schemers. I thanked Signor Marchiori, and +followed his instructions with pleasure, without however abandoning my +own interest in literature. + +He questioned me regarding my knowledge of arithmetic, which was only +elementary; and when I saw that I must master it, in order to pursue the +higher branch of study, I gave my whole head to the business. In the +space of a month, I could cipher like a money-lender, and was ready to +receive my master's teaching. My friend Massimo possessed a good +collection of instruments for engineering draughtsmanship, and a +library of French works on geometry, mathematics, and fortification, +both of which he placed at my disposal. Signor Marchiori's lectures, +long discussions with Signor Massimo, perusal of Euclid, Archimedes, and +the French books, soon plunged me in the lore of points and lines and +calculations. I burned with the enthusiasm, droll enough to my way of +looking at the world, which inspires all students of this science. Yet I +did not, like them, regard moral philosophy and humane literature as +insignificant frivolities. I bore in mind for what good reasons the +Emperor Vespasian dismissed the mathematicians who offered their +assistance in the building of his Roman edifices. I knew that +innumerable vessels, fabricated on the principles of science, have +perished miserably in the tempests; that hundreds of fortresses, built +by science, have been destroyed and captured by the same science; that +inundations are continually sweeping away the dykes erected by science, +to the ruin of thousands of families, and that the inundations +themselves are attributable to the admired masterpieces of science +bequeathed to us by former generations; that, in spite of science and +her creative energy, the buildings she erects are not secured from +earthquakes, conflagrations, and the thunderbolt. It remains to be seen +whether Professor Toaldo's lightning-conductors will prove effectual +against the last of these disasters. Then I reckoned up the blessings +and curses which this vaunted science has conferred on humanity, +arriving at the conclusion that the harm which she has done infinitely +exceeds the good. I shuddered at the hundreds of thousands of human +beings ingeniously massacred in war or drowned at sea by her devices; +and took more pleasure in consulting my watch, her wise invention, for +the dinner-hour than at the hour of keeping an appointment with my +lawyer. Without denying the utility of sciences, I stuck resolutely to +the opinion that moral philosophy is of more importance to the human +race than mechanical inventions, and deplored the pernicious influence +of modern Lyceums and Polytechnic schools upon the mind of Europe. + +Signor Massimo and I kept house together in a little dwelling on the +city walls, facing the sea. The sun, in his daily revolutions, struck +this habitation on every side; and there was not an open space of wall +or window-sill without its dial, fabricated by my skill, and adorned +with appropriate but useless mottoes on the flight of time. A lieutenant +named Giovanni Apergi, upright and pious, especially when the gout he +had acquired in the world's pleasures made him turn his thoughts to +Heaven, gave me friendly lessons in military drill. I soon learned to +handle my musket, pike, and ensign; and sweated a shirt daily, fencing +with Massimo, who was ferociously expert in that fiendish but +gentlemanly art. We also spent some hours together over a great +chessboard of his, covered with wooden soldiers, which we moved from +square to square, forming squadrons, and studying the combinations which +enable armies to kill with prodigality and to be killed with +parsimony,--fitting ourselves, in short, for manuring cemeteries in the +most approved style. + +I was already half a soldier, and meant to make myself perfect in my +profession; not, however, without a firm resolve to quit the army[118] +at the expiration of my three years' service. Twelve months spent in +studying my comrades convinced me that, though some worthy fellows might +be found among them, their society as a whole was uncongenial to my +tastes. I had neither the ambition nor the greed of gain which might +have sapped this resolution; and my persistence during the appointed +time was mainly due to a dislike of seeming fickle. I wanted to gain the +respect of my relatives, whom I hoped to help one day with my counsel, +my credit, and the example of my perseverance. + +After eight months spent in the study of fortification, I lost my poor +master. He died suddenly of a fit of spleen a few days after winning his +company in a regiment called Lagarde. This promotion he obtained by +competition; and some insulting words dropped upon the occasion, which +he was unable to resent, caused his mortal illness. Every one deplored +the death of Marchiori; but no one more than I did. His goodness, +sweetness, affability, and friendly patience left a powerful impression +on my memory. Gradually my interest in geometry declined, and I resumed +my former studies with fresh ardour, attending meanwhile to my military +duties, and waiting philosophically till the three years should be over. + + + + +VII. + + _This Chapter proves that Poetry is not as useless as people + commonly imagine._ + + +I am bound to confess that my weakness for poetry and Italian literature +was great. In the Venetian service, and particularly in Dalmatia, there +were very few indeed who shared these tastes. I wrote and read my +compositions to myself, without seeking the applause of an audience or +boring my neighbours with things they do not care for, as is the wont of +most scribblers. + +The secretary of the Generalate, Signor Giovanni Colombo, took some +interest in literature. I may mention, by the way, that he afterwards +rose to high dignity, which involved a calamity for him, sweetened, +however, by a splendid funeral; in other words, he died Grand Chancellor +of our most serene Republic.[119] This man, of gentle spirit and jovial +temper, knowing the epidemic of poetry which possessed the Gozzi family, +encouraged me to read him some of my trifles, and seemed to take +pleasure in listening to them. He owned a small but well-chosen library, +which he courteously allowed me to use. My verses, satirical for the +most part and descriptive of characters--without scurrility indeed, +though based on accurate observation of both sexes--were communicated to +him and Massimo alone. + +The town of Zara was bent on testifying its respect for our Provveditore +Generale Quirini by a grand public display. A large hall of wood was +accordingly erected on the open space before the fort, and hung with +fine damask. Tickets of invitation were then distributed to various +persons, who were to compose an Academy upon the day of the solemnity. +Every academician had to recite two compositions in prose or verse, as +he thought fit. The subjects were set forth on the tickets, and were as +follows:--First, Is a prince who preserves, defends, and improves his +dominions in peace, more praiseworthy than one who seeks to extend them +by force of arms? The second was to be a panegyric of the Provveditore +Generale. An old nobleman of Zara, named Giovanni Pellegrini, was chosen +to preside in the Academy and to dispense the invitations. He wore a +black velvet suit and a huge blonde wig, done up into knotted curls, and +possessed a fund of eloquence in the style of Father Casimir +Frescot.[120] + +I did not receive an invitation, which proves either that I was an +amateur of poetry unknown to fame, or that Signor Pellegrini, in his +gravity and wisdom, judged me a mere boy, unworthy of consideration in +an enterprise which he treated with true Illyrico-Italian seriousness. +Signor Colombo and my friend Massimo urged me to prepare two +compositions on the published themes; but I reminded them that I had no +right to appear uninvited. Nevertheless, I amused myself by scribbling a +couple of sonnets, which I consigned to the bottom of my pocket. As may +be imagined, I defended peace in the one, and did my best to belaud his +Excellency in the other. + +The Provveditore Generale, attended by his officers and by the magnates +of the city, entered the temporary hall, and took his seat upon a rich +fauteuil raised many steps above the ground. A covey of literary +celebrities, collected Heaven knows where, ranged their learned backs +along a row of chairs, which formed a semicircle round him. + +Strolling outside the damasked tabernacle, I saw some servants who were +preparing beverages and refreshments with a mighty bustle. I was +thirsty, and thought I should not be committing a crime if I asked one +of them for a lemonade. He replied that express orders had been given +not to quench the thirst of anybody who was not a member of the Academy. +This discourteous rebuff, repeated to the _sitio_ of several officers, +raised a spirit of silent revolt among us. I resolved to put a bold face +on the matter, and to proclaim myself an academician, thinking that the +title of poet might win for me the lemonade which was denied to the +dignity and the weapons of an officer. + +This little incident confirmed my opinion of the usefulness of poetry +against the universal judgment which regards it as an inutility. Poetry +stood me in good stead by procuring me a lemonade and saving me from +dying of thirst. Having swallowed the beverage, I proceeded to one of +the seats in the assembly, exciting some surprise among its members, who +were, however, kind enough to tolerate my presence. For three whole +hours the air resounded with long inflated erudite orations and poems +not remarkable for sweetness. A yawn from the General now and then did +honour to the Academy and the academicians. I must in justice say that +some tolerable compositions, superior to what I had expected, struck my +ears. A young abbé in holy orders gushed with poetic eloquence. I have +heard that he is now become a bishop. Who knows whether poetry was not +as serviceable to him in the matter of his mitre, as she was to me in +the matter of my lemonade! + +I declaimed my sonnets in their turn; the second of which, by Apollo's +blessing, pleased his Excellency, and consequently was received with +general approval. It established my reputation among the folk of Zara, +and led to a comic scene two days later. The Provveditore Generale was +in the habit of riding in the cool some four or five miles outside the +city; a troop of officers galloped at his heels, and I galloped with +them. While we were amusing ourselves in this way, his Excellency took a +fancy to hear my sonnet over again; for it had now become famous, as +often happens with trifles, which go the round of society upon the +strength of adventitious circumstances. He called me loudly. I put spurs +to my horse, while he, still galloping, ordered me to recite. I do not +think a sonnet was ever declaimed in like manner since the creation of +the world. Galloping after the great man, and almost bursting my lungs +in the effort to make myself heard, with all the trills, gasps, +cadences, semitones, clippings of words, and dissonances, which the +movement of a horse at full speed could occasion, I recited the sonnet +in a storm of sobs and sighs, and blessed my stars when I had pumped +out the fourteenth line. Knowing the temper of the General, who was +haughty and formidable in matters of importance, but sometimes whimsical +in his diversions, I thought at the time that he must have been seeking +a motive for laughter. And indeed, I believe this was the case. Anyhow, +he can only have been deceived if he hoped to laugh more at the affair +than I did. Yet I was rather afraid of becoming a laughing-stock to my +riding-companions also. Foolish fear! These honest fellows, like true +courtiers, vied with each other in congratulating me upon the partiality +of his Excellency and the honour he had done me. They were even jealous +of a burlesque scene in which I played the buffoon, and sorry that they +had not enjoyed the luck of performing it themselves. + + + + +VIII. + + _Confirmation of a hint I gave in the Second Chapter of these + Memoirs relating to a great danger which I ran._ + + +I related in the second chapter of this book that I once owed my life to +a trick taught me by a jockey. The incident happened during one of our +cavalcades with the Provveditore Generale. + +At the hour appointed for riding out, all the officers of the Court sent +their saddles and bridles to the General's stables, and each of us +mounted the animal which happened to be harnessed with his own gear. Now +the Bashaw of Bosnia had presented the governor with a certain Turkish +stallion, finely made, but so vicious that no one liked to back the +brute. One day I noticed that the grooms had saddled this untamable Turk +for me. Who knows what motives determine the acts of stable-boys? I am +not accustomed to be easily dismayed; besides, I had ridden many +dangerous horses in my time, and this was not the minute to show the +white feather before a crowd of soldiers. I leapt upon the animal like +an antique paladin, without looking to see whether the bit and trappings +were in order. Our troops started; but my Bucephalus reared, whirled +round in the air, and bolted toward his stable, which lay below the +ramparts. Pulling and working at the reins had no effect upon the brute; +and when I bent down to discover the cause, I found that the bit had not +been fastened, either through the negligence or the malice of the +grooms. + +Rushing at the mercy of this demon through the narrow streets and low +doors of the city, I began to reflect that I was not likely to reach the +stables with my head upon my shoulders. Then I remembered the jockey's +advice, and rising in my stirrups, leaned forwards, and stuck my fingers +into the two eyes of the stallion. Suddenly deprived of sight, and not +knowing whither he was going, he dashed furiously up against a wall, +and fell all of a heap beneath me. I leapt to earth with the agility of +a practised rider, and made the Turk get up; he was trembling like a +leaf, while I with shaky fingers fastened the bit firmly; then I mounted +again, and rejoined my company among the shouts of applause which always +greet dare-devil escapades of this kind. The middle finger of my left +hand had been flayed by striking against the wall. I still bear the scar +of this glorious wound. + + + + +IX. + + _Little incidents, trifling observations, moral reflections of no + value, gossip which is sure to make the reader yawn._ + + +Our forces had little to occupy them in those provinces, so that my +sonnet in praise of peace exactly fitted. Some interesting incidents, +and several journeys which I undertook, furnished me, however, with +abundant matter for reflection. I shall here indulge myself by setting +down a few observations which occur to my memory. + +The regular troops which garrison the fortresses of Dalmatia had been +recalled to Italy, in order to defend the neutrality of Venice during +the wars which then prevailed among her neighbours. In these +circumstances the Senate commissioned our Provveditore Generale to levy +new forces from the subject tribes, not only for maintaining the +military establishment of Dalmatia, but also for drafting a large number +of Morlacchi[121] into Italy. It was a matter of no difficulty to enrol +garrisons for the Illyrian fortresses; but the exportation of the +Morlacchi cost his Excellency the greatest trouble. These ruffianly wild +beasts, wholly destitute of education, are aware that they are subjects +of Venice; yet their firm resolve is to indulge lawless instincts for +robbery and murder as they list, refusing obedience in all things which +do not suit their inclinations. To reason with them is the same as +talking in a whisper to the deaf. They simply resisted the command to +form themselves into a troop and leave their lairs for Italy. + +Their chiefs, who were educated men, brave and loyal to their prince, +strained every nerve to carry out these orders. It was found needful to +recall the bandits, who swarm throughout those regions, outlawed for +every sort of crime--robberies, homicides, arson, and such-like acts of +heroism. Bribes too were offered of bounties and advanced pay, in order +to induce the wild and stubborn peasants to cross the seas. I was +present at the review of these Anthropophagi; for indeed they hardly +merited a more civilised title. It took place on the beach of Zara under +the eyes of the Provveditore, with ships under sail, ready for the +embarkation of the conscripts. Pair by pair, they came up and received +their stipend; upon which they expressed their joy by howling out some +barbarous chant, and dancing off together with uncouth gambols to the +transport ships. I revered God's handiwork in these savages while +deploring their bad education, and felt a passing wish to explore the +Eden of eternal beatitude in which the Morlacchi dwell. + +It is certain that the Italian cities under our benign government were +more disturbed than guarded by these brutal creatures. At Verona, in +particular, they indulged their appetite for thieving, murdering, +brawling, and defying discipline, without the least regard for orders. +At the close of a few months, they had to be sent back to their caves, +in order to deliver the Veneto from an unbearable incubus. Even at the +outset, their spirit of insubordination let itself be felt. Scarcely had +the transports sailed, when the sight of the Illyrian mountains made +them burn to leap on shore. The seamen did their best to restrain the +unruly crew; but finding that they ran a risk of being cut in pieces, +they finally unbarred the pens before this indomitable flock of rams. + +What I am now writing may seem to have little to do with the narrative +of my own life, and may look as though I wished to calumniate the +natives of Dalmatia. The rulers of those territories will, however, bear +me out in the following remarks. I have visited all the fortresses, +many districts, and many villages of the two provinces. In some of the +cities I found well-educated people, trustworthy, cordial, and liberal +in sentiment. In places far removed from the Provveditore Generale's +Court the manners of the population are incredibly rough. All the +peasants may be described as cruel, superstitious, and irrational wild +beasts. In their marriages, their funerals, their games, they preserve +the customs of pagan antiquity. Reading Homer and Virgil gives a perfect +conception of the Morlacchi. They hire a troop of women to lament over +their dead. These professional mourners shriek by turns, relieving one +another when voice and throat have been exhausted by dismal wailings +tuned to a music which inspires terror. One of their pastimes is to +balance a heavy piece of marble on the lifted palm of the right hand, +and hurl it after taking a running jump. The fellow who projects this +missile in a straight line to the greatest distance, wins. One is +reminded of the enormous boulders hurled by Diomede and Turnus. + +In their mountain homes the Morlacchi are fine fellows, useful to the +State of Venice on occasions of war with the Turks, their neighbours, +whom they cordially detest. The inhabitants of the coast make bold +seamen, apt for fighting on the waters. Toward Montenegro the tribes +become even more like savages. Families, who have been accustomed for +some generations to die peaceably in their beds or kennels, and cannot +boast of a fair number of murdered ancestors, are looked down upon by +the rest. On the beach outside the city walls of Budua, for which these +men and brothers leave their hills in summer-time to taste the coolness +of sea-breezes, I have witnessed their exploits with the musket and have +seen three corpses stretched upon the sands. A member of one of the +pacific families I have described, being taunted by some comrade, burned +to wipe out the shame of his kindred, and opened a glorious chapter in +their annals by slaughtering and being slaughtered. Fierce battles and +armed encounters between village and village are frequent enough in +those parts. The men of one village who kill a man of the next village, +have no peace unless they pay a hundred sequins or discharge their debt +by the death of one of their own folk. Such is the current tariff, fixed +without consulting their sovereign, among these people, who regard +brutality as justice. I learned much about these traits of human nature +from a village priest of Montenegro, who conversed with me nearly every +day upon the beach at Budua. He talked a strange Italian jargon, +narrated the homicides of his flock with complacency, and let it be +understood that a gun was better suited to his handling than the vessels +of the sanctuary. + +The thirst for vengeance is never slaked there. It passes from heir to +heir like an estate in tail. Among the Morlacchi, who are less +bloodthirsty than the Montenegrins, I once saw a woman of some fifty +years fling herself at the feet of the Provveditore Generale, extract a +mummied head from a game-bag, and cast it on the ground before him, +weeping as though her heart would burst, and calling aloud for pity and +justice. For thirty years she had preserved this skull, the skull of her +mother, who had been murdered. The assassins had long ago been brought +to justice, but their punishment was insufficient to lay the demon of +ferocity in this affectionate daughter. Accordingly, she presented +herself indefatigably through a course of thirty years before each of +the successive Provveditori Generali, with the same maternal skull in +her game-bag, with the same shrieks and tears and cries for justice. + +I liked seeing the Montenegrin women. They clothe themselves in black +woollen stuffs after a fashion which was certainly not invented by +coquetry. Their hair is parted, and falls over their cheeks on either +shoulder, thickly plastered with butter, so as to form a kind of large +shiny bonnet. They bear the burden of the hard work of the field and +household. The wives are little better than slaves of the men. They +kneel and kiss the men's hands whenever they meet; and yet they seem to +be contented with their lot. Perhaps it would not be amiss if some +Montenegrins came to Italy and changed our fashions with regard to +women; for ours are somewhat too marked in the contrary direction. + +Climate renders both the men and women of those provinces extremely +prone to sensuality. Legislators, recognising the impossibility of +controlling lawless lust here, have fixed the fine for seduction of a +girl with violence at a trifle above the sum which a libertine in Venice +bestows on the purveyor of his venal pleasures. At the period of my +residence in Dalmatia, the cities retained something of antique +austerity. This did not, however, prevent the fair sex from conducting +intrigues by stealth. It is possible that, since those days, enlightened +and philosophical Italians, composing the courts of successive +Provveditori Generali, may have removed the last obstacles of prejudice +which gave a spice of danger to love-making. + +In Dalmatia the women are handsome, inclining for the most part toward a +masculine robustness; among the Morlacchi of the villages, a Pygmalion +who chose to expend some bushels of sand in polishing the fair sex up, +would obtain fine breathing statues for his pains. These women of +Illyria are less constant in their love than those of Italy; but merit +less blame for their infidelity than the latter. The Illyrian is blinded +and constrained by her fervent temperament, by the climate, by poverty +and credulity; the Italian errs through ambition, avarice, and caprice. +I consider myself qualified for speaking with decision on these points, +as will appear from the chapter I intend to write upon the +love-adventures of my youth. + +The land of those provinces is in great measure mountainous, stony, and +barren. There are, however, large districts of plain which might be +extremely fertile. Neither the sterile nor the fertile regions are under +cultivation, but remain for the most part fallow and unfruitful. Onions +and garlic constitute the favourite delicacies of the Morlacchi. The +annual consumption of these vegetables is enormous; and it would not be +difficult to raise a large supply of both at home. They insist, however, +on importing them from Romagna; and when one takes the peasants to task +for this sluggish indifference to their own interests, they reply that +their ancestors never planted onions, and that they have no mind to +change their customs. I often questioned educated inhabitants of those +regions upon the indolence and sloth which prevail in rural Dalmatia. +The answer I received was that nobody, without exposing his life to +peril, could make the Morlacchi do more than they chose to do, or +introduce the least reform into their agriculture. I observed that the +proprietors might always import Italian labour and turn those fertile +plains into a second Apulia. This remark was met with bursts of +laughter; and when I asked the reason, my informants told me that many +Dalmatian gentlemen had brought Italian peasants over, but that a few +days after their arrival, they were found murdered in the fields, +without the assassins having ever been detected. I perceived that my +project was impracticable. Yet I wondered at my friends laughing rather +than shedding tears, when they gave me these convincing answers. + +It is a pity that Illyria and Dalmatia cannot be rendered fertile and +profitable to the State. As it is, they cost our treasury more than they +yield, through the expenses incidental to their forming our frontier +against Turkey. But I never made it my business to meddle in affairs of +public policy; and perhaps there are good reasons why these provinces +should be left to their sterility. The opinion I have continually +maintained and published, that we ought to begin by cultivating heads +and hearts, has raised a swarm of hostile projectors against me. Such +men take the truths of the gospel for biting satires, if they detect the +least shadow of opposition to their views regarding personal interest, +personal ambition, or particular prejudice. Yet the real miseries which +I noticed in Dalmatia, the wretched pittance which proprietors draw from +their estates, and the dishonesty of the peasants, suffice to +demonstrate my principles of moral education beyond the possibility of +contradiction. + +During my three years in Dalmatia I used to eat superb game and +magnificent fish for a mere nothing; often against my inclination, and +only because the opportunity could not be neglected. When you are in +want of something, you rarely find it there. The fishermen, who live +upon the rocky islands,[122] ply their trade when it pleases them. They +take no thought for fasts, and sell fish for the most part on days when +flesh is eaten. The fish too is brought to market stuffed into sacks. I +could multiply these observations; but let what I have already said +suffice. It is my firm opinion that the economists of our century are at +fault when they propose material improvements and indulge in visions of +opulence and gain, without considering moral education. Wealth is now +regarded by the indigent with eyes of envy and the passions of a pirate; +rich people act as though they knew not what it was to possess wealth, +and make a shameless abuse of it in practice. The one class need to +learn temperance, moderation, and obedience to duty; the other ought to +be trained to reason and subordination. The sages of the present day +entertain very different views from these. In their eyes nothing but +material interest has any value; and instead of deploring bad morals and +manners, they seem to glory in them. + + + + +X. + + _I am enrolled in the Cavalry of the Republic.--What my military + services amounted to._ + + +Some fifteen months of my three years' service had elapsed, when the +recall of our regular troops and the enrolment of fresh forces in +Dalmatia, which have been described by me above, took place. I have now +to mention that the Provveditore Generale chose this moment for placing +me upon the roll of the Venetian service. + +He had me inscribed as a cadet noble[123] of cavalry. Accordingly I +blossomed out into a proper soldier at the age of about eighteen. Signor +Giorgio Barbarigo, the paymaster,[124] a short, fat, honest fellow, +informed me that my commission was registered, and that I was qualified +to draw the salary of thirty-eight lire in good Venetian coin monthly at +his office. The news surprised me, and I went at once to pay my +acknowledgments to his Excellency. + +He told me that, nearly all the regular troops having been recalled to +Italy, he saw no prospect of awarding me a higher rank during the term +of his administration, a considerable part of which had already +elapsed. To this he added some ironical remarks to the following +effect--"Although, indeed, I do not think you mean to follow a military +career, having observed from many points in your behaviour that you are +rather inclined to assume the clerical habit." I chose to interpret the +irony of my chief to my advantage, and answered cheerfully that although +I felt little inclination for the military profession, nothing would +ever induce me to become an ecclesiastic; meanwhile I was glad to have +studied human nature as one finds it in an army and in those provinces; +above all things, I recognised the advantage of having been allowed to +serve his Excellency during the three years of his office. I perceived +that this reply had not been unacceptable, and retired after making the +regulation bow. + +I discharged my military duties with punctuality; and if my courage had +been put to the test, I feel sure that I should have faced death with +romantic enthusiasm. Yet I cannot boast of having earned my monthly pay +by any particular services. In addition to the daily and nightly routine +of discipline, I attended his Excellency upon visits of inspection by +sea and land to the various fortified places of the territory. When the +plague broke out, I spoiled my shirts and ruffles in fumigating the mass +of correspondence which used to reach the Provveditore Generale from +infected villages. I delivered sentences of arrest by word of mouth to +Venetian patricians, noblemen, and officers--always much against the +grain. I lay, together with several of my comrades, under arrest on a +false charge of malpractice, and owed my liberation after a few hours to +the intercession of a gentle lady of the Veniero family. While +enumerating these martial deserts, I ought not perhaps to include the +sufferings endured upon my journeys, whether riding the worst of nags +under a fierce sun and sleeping in jackboots upon the open fields, or +rocking at sea all night aboard some galley on a coil of cable, half +devoured by myriads of bugs. Great as these sufferings were, I must +admit that I endured greater in the disorderly garrison amusements which +I joined of my own accord. Some account of these I intend to give in +another chapter. + +It will be observed that my services to the State were but slender. Yet +many men have gained promotion or a pension on the strength of nothing +better. And now I think upon it, I will mention one notable achievement, +which, though it be not martial, might have put some other soldier +laddie in the way of rising to his colonelcy. I hardly expect to be +believed, but I am telling the truth, when I affirm that I acquired +renown throughout Dalmatia as a _soubrette_ in improvised comedy upon +the boards of a theatre. + + + + +XI. + + _My theatrical talents; athletic exercises; imprudences of all + kinds; dangers to which I exposed myself; with reflections which + are always frivolous._ + + +All through the carnival, tragedies, dramas and comedies used to be +performed by amateurs in the Court-theatre, for the amusement of his +Excellency, the patricians on the civil staff, officers of the garrison, +and the good folk of Zara.[125] + +Our troop was composed exclusively of male actors, as is the case in +general with unprofessional theatres; and young men, dressed like women, +played the female parts. I was selected to represent the _soubrette_. + +On weighing the tastes of my audience, and taking into account the +nation for whom I was to act, I invented a wholly new kind of character. +I had myself dressed like a Dalmatian servant-girl, with hair divided at +the temples, and done up with rose-coloured ribbands. My costume +corresponded at all points to that of a coquettish housemaid of +Sebenico. I discarded the Tuscan dialect, which is spoken by the +_soubrettes_ of our theatres in Italy, and having learned Illyrian +pretty well by this time, I devised for my particular use a jargon of +Venetian, altering the pronunciation and interspersing various Illyrian +phrases. This produced a very humorous effect, and lent itself both in +dialogue and improvised soliloquies to the expression of sentiments in +keeping with my part. Courage and loquacity were always at my service; +after studying the plot of a comedy, which had to be performed +extempore, I never found my readiness of wit at fault. Accordingly, the +new and unexpected type of the _soubrette_ which I invented was welcomed +with enthusiasm alike by Italians and natives. It created a _furore_ in +my audience, and won for me universal sympathy. + +My sketches of Dalmatian manners studied from the life, my satirical +repartees to the mistresses I served, my piquant sallies upon incidents +which formed the talk of town and garrison, my ostentatious modesty, my +snubs to impertinent admirers, my reflections and my lamentations, made +the Provveditore Generale and the whole audience declare with tears of +laughter running down their cheeks that I was the wittiest and most +humourous _soubrette_ who ever trod the boards of a theatre. They often +bespoke improvised comedies, in order to enjoy the amusing chatter and +Illyrico-Italian jargon of Luce; for I ought to add that I adopted this +name, which is the same as our Lucia, instead of Smeraldina, Corallina, +or Colombina. + +Ladies in plenty were eager to know the young man who played Luce with +such diablerie and ready wit upon the stage. But when they met him face +to face in society, his reserve and taciturnity were so unlike the +sprightliness of his assumed character, that they fairly lost their +temper. Now that I am well stricken in years, I recognise that their +disappointment was anything but a misfortune for me. The conduct of +those few who concealed their feelings and pretended that my +self-control and seriousness had charms to win their heart, justifies +this moral reflection. Meanwhile my talent for comedy relieved me of all +military duties so long as carnival lasted. Each year, at the +commencement of this season, the Provveditore Generale sent for me, and +affably requested me to devote my time and energy to his amusement in +the Court-theatre. + +During summer he set the fashion of pallone-playing, which had hitherto +been unknown at Zara.[126] I had made myself an adept in this game at +our Friulian country-seat. Accordingly his Excellency urged me to +display my accomplishments for the entertainment of the public. In a +short time my seductive costume of fine white linen, with a waistband of +black satin and fluttering ribands, cut a prominent figure among the +competitors in this noble sport. My turn for study, literary talent, +grave demeanour, and seriousness of character made far less impression +on the fair sex than my successes on the stage and the pallone-ground. +It was these and these alone which put my chastity to the test and +conquered it, as will appear in the chapter on my love-adventures. I +might here indulge in a digression hardly flattering to women. But I +prefer to congratulate them on their emancipation from the ideality of +Petrarch's age. Now they are at liberty to float voluptuously on the +tide of tender and electrical emotions, in company with youths congenial +to their instincts, who have abandoned tedious studies for occupations +hardly more exacting than a game at ball or the impersonation of a +waiting-maid. + +The truth of history compels me to touch upon some incidents which put +my boyish courage to the proof; yet I must confess that my deeds of +daring in Dalmatia were nothing better than mad and brainless acts of +folly. While recording them, I dare hardly hope--although I should +sincerely like to do so--that they will prove useful to parents by +exposing the kind of life which young men lead on foreign service, or to +sons by pointing out the errors of my ways. + +We had no war on hand, and our valour was obliged to find a vent for +itself. I should have passed for a poltroon if I had not joined the +amusements and adventures of my comrades. These consisted for the most +part in frantic gambling, serenading houses which returned our serenades +with gunshots, entertaining women of the town at balls and +supper-parties, brawling in the streets at night, disguising ourselves +to frighten people, and breaking the slumbers of the good folk of the +towns and fortresses where the Court happened to be fixed. I remember +that one summer night in the city of Spalato, eight or ten of us dressed +up for the latter purpose. Each man put on a couple of shirts, thrusting +his legs through the sleeves of one and his arms through the other, with +a big white bonnet on his head and a pole in his hand. Thus attired, we +scoured the town like spectres from the other world, knocking at doors, +uttering horrid shrieks to rouse the population, and striking terror +into the breasts of women and children. Now it is the custom there to +leave the stable-doors open, because of the great heat at night. +Accordingly we undid the halters of some fifty horses, and drove them +before us, clattering our staves upon the pavement. The din was +infernal. Folk leaped from their beds, thinking that the Turks had made +a raid upon the town, and crying from their windows: "Who the devil are +you? Who goes there? Who goes there?" They screamed to the deaf, while +we went clattering and driving on. In the morning the whole city was in +an uproar, discussing last night's prodigy and skurrying about to catch +the frightened animals. + +My guitar-playing accomplishments made me indispensable in these +dare-devil escapades of hair-brained boys, which by some miracle never +seemed to reach the Provveditore Generale's ears. Had they done so, I +suppose they would have been punished, as they deserved; for he was a +man who knew how to maintain discipline. The Italians and Illyrians do +not dwell together without a certain half-concealed antipathy. This +leads to frequent trials of strength and valour, in which the Italians +are most to blame. They insult the natives and pick quarrels with a +people famous for their daring and ferocity. The courage displayed in +maintaining these quarrels and facing their attendant dangers deserves +the name of folly rather than of bravery. After stating this truth, to +which indeed I was never blind, I dare affirm that no one met +musket-shots and menaces with a bolder front than I did. Physicians +versed in the anatomy of the human frame may be able to explain my +constitutional imperturbability under all circumstances of peril. I am +content to account for it as sheer stupidity. + +We were at Budua, toward Montenegro, my friend Massimo and I. In this +city women are guarded with a watchful jealousy of which Italians have +no notion; while homicides occur with facility and frequency. Massimo +began a gallant correspondence from the window of our lodging with a +girl who was our neighbour. She belonged to one of the noblest families +of the place, and was engaged to a gentleman of the city. Nevertheless, +she returned my friend's advances with the eagerness of one who has been +kept in slavery. I must add that the future bridegroom obtained some +inkling of this aërial intrigue. He was a rough Illyrian of no breeding. +One morning this fellow opened conversation with us officers in a little +square, where we were seated together on stone benches. With much +circumlocution and a kind of awkward sprightliness, addressing himself +to Massimo, and smiling half-sourly and half-sillily, he expressed his +own stupid contempt for Italian customs with regard to women. The long +and the short of this involved discourse was simply that all the men in +Italy were cuckolds, and all the women no better than they should be. +Massimo took care not to emphasise the meaning of the fellow's +innuendoes, which would have called for blood and vengeance; but +contented himself with bluntly defending our social institutions. In the +course of his argument he proved that the barbarity and tyranny of men +toward women, who are always sharp of wit and full of cleverness in +every climate, caused more of immorality and intrigue in Illyria than +freedom of intercourse between the sexes caused in Italy. To my mind, +he spoke what was partly true and partly false; for it cannot be +maintained that the facilitation and toleration of licentiousness remove +it from our midst. The Illyrian, however, lacked eloquence, and felt ill +at ease in carrying on a wordy warfare. So he did not attempt to confute +Massimo; but rolled his head and knit his brows, and told him that he +might soon be taught at his own cost how badly the Italians conduct +themselves in this respect. + +Nothing more was wanted in the way of challenge to set us Italians on +our mettle. A trifle of this sort turned us at once into knights-errant, +championing our nation's cause among half-savages, who murder men with +the same indifference as they kill quails or fig-peckers. Massimo turned +to me and said that, when night fell, I must take my guitar and follow +him. Obeying the rash romantic impulse of my heart, I replied that +nothing should prevent me from attending on him. The other Italians who +were present at this interview, with more prudence than ourselves, +affected to hear nothing. + +It happened that a young Florentine named Steffano Torri was at this +time clerk in the secretary's office of the Generalato. He played female +parts in our comedies and tragedies with much ability, and sang like a +nightingale. In order to give our nocturnal enterprise the character of +a serenade--a thing quite alien to the customs of that district--Massimo +invited this poor lad to warble, without informing him of what, had +happened. He was only too glad to let his fine voice be heard; and being +besides an obliging creature, he gave his promise on the spot. + +[Illustration: IL CAPITANO (1668) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy._] + +Night came. It was September; the season warm, and the moon shining +brightly. We girt our swords, stuck a brace of pistols in our belts, and +took up our station in the principal street, which was long and +straight, beneath the windows of Massimo's Dulcinea. Torri sent melody +after melody forth into the silent air, while I twanged my +guitar-strings for a good hour's space. Suddenly a window, belonging to +the mansion we were honouring with our duet, flew violently open. A +great black head appeared, from which there issued a hoarse voice like +that of Charon in Dante's Inferno. "What insolence!" it uttered with a +bad Italian accent. We knew that the huge skull was consecrate, and +belonged to a certain Canon, uncle of the girl. But something more was +needed than the big bovine voice of an ecclesiastic to disturb our +tranquillity. Torri, however, being a civilian and no soldier, began to +be aware that his melodious airs were out of place. The prudence which +is born of fear made him reflect upon the situation, and he asked leave +to retire. We persuaded him to stay awhile, pointing out that the street +was public, that our amusement was lawful and innocuous, and that it +conferred an honour on our nation. He resumed his singing; but from this +moment the melodies had a certain quaver in them, which the composer had +not calculated. The first assault by the Canon was sustained and +repulsed; for after roaring out "What insolence!" three or four times, +he shut the window in our faces with a crash. + +The second attack upon our obstinacy was something very different and +far more formidable than a priest's voice, however horrible. It +effectually shut the mouth up of our young musician. By the light of the +moon we could discern six men at a distance entering the street with six +lowered and gleaming muskets; the cowls of their cloaks concealed their +faces, and they advanced at a slow pace toward us. At this apparition +our musician took to his heels, and did not stop running till he reached +his lodging. Massimo and I stood our ground like Orlando and Rodomonte. +I went on playing; my friend, to keep the singing up, howled out some +rustic ditties in a bold voice, which was however, I am bound to say, +even less agreeable than the Canon's. His discords were enough to cast +eternal shame upon Italian music; and if the young lady heard them, they +must have frightened her out of her wits instead of giving her the +pleasure of a serenade. + +Observing our determination to stand firm, the six cowled men advanced +to within twenty paces. We heard the click of their six gunlocks, as +they cocked them, ready to give fire. At this point our intrepidity +deserved no other name than madness; it called for the lancet, +hellebore, strait-jackets, a good drubbing. Without budging an inch, we +raised our pistols at the muffled band. They looked at us, we looked at +them, for good two minutes. Then they made their minds up to defile +past, leaving us at a little distance, but always keeping their eyes +fixed with a haughty defiance on our faces. We, on our part, made our +minds up to let them pass, returning no less haughty glances. Perhaps +they wished to give us time for repentance, or for wholesome +reflections, which should make us quit our post. Anyhow, they moved +onward till they reached the end of the street, when once again they +turned and faced us. + +Little did those cowled and mantled fellows know the length and breadth +of our stupidity! We recommenced our duet with a more hideous din than +ever. They retraced their steps, and advanced steadily toward us. But +when they found the pair of little fighting-cocks still standing with +raised pistols on the watch, they judged it wiser to pursue their course +and disappear. The removal of the Court from Budua, which took place one +day after this memorable exploit, probably saved us from being shot down +by an ambuscade. I also imagine that the men only wished to frighten us +away. Possibly our expected departure from the city, or else respect for +our staff-uniform, restrained their fingers on the trigger. Such +considerations had certainly more weight with those fierce natives than +the insane bravado of two insects armed with pistols. Anyhow, I have +always regarded our courage in this danger as fool-hardiness rather than +magnanimity. + +I could relate an infinity of such adventures, in all of which we risked +our lives on some puerile point of honour, or in pursuit of some +impertinence which called for castigation. One night at Spalato our +serenading party was welcomed with a storm of heavy stones, which made +us skip like kids, but could not drive us from our post. We were paying +this compliment to a handsome girl of Ragusa, the mistress of one of the +chief nobles of the city, and we maintained our station for the honour +of Italy, with skulls unbroken, till the day rose. + +In the society of unemployed and lazy officers, a young man may be said +to have worked miracles who preserves the good principles implanted in +him at home. Unless he conforms to the tone and fashion of his comrades, +he is sure to be derided and despised. If he does conform, he is likely +to lose substance, health and reputation at cards, with women, or by +drinking. Besides this, he constantly risks life and limb in the +so-called pastimes I have just described. + +I am able to boast without exaggeration that I never played for high +stakes, that I never surrendered myself to debauchery, that I preserved +the sound principles of my home education, and yet that I was popular +with all my comrades, owing to the clubbable and fraternal attitude +which I assumed at some risk, it is true, yet always with the firm +determination to leave a good character behind me when my term of +service ended. + + + + +XII. + + _Shows how a young Cadet of Cavalry is capable of executing a + military stratagem._ + + +Having described the dangers to which my system of conduct in the army +exposed me, I ought in justice to myself to show that I was able on +occasion to reconcile our absurd code of honour with prudence and +diplomacy. With this object I will relate an incident, which is neither +more nor less insignificant than the other events of my life. + +The city of Zara is traversed by a main street of considerable length, +extending from the piazza of San Simeone to the gate called Porta +Marina. Several lanes and alleys, leading downwards from the ramparts on +the side toward the sea, debouch into this principal artery. It so +happened that some of the officers, wishing to traverse one of these +lanes on their way to the promenade upon the ramparts, had been +intercepted by a man muffled in a mantle, who levelled an eloquent +enormous blunderbuss at their persons, and forced them to change their +route. This act of violence ought to have been reported to the +Provveditore Generale, and he would have speedily restored order and +freedom of passage. Our military code of honour, however, forbade +recourse to justice as an act of cowardice; albeit some of my comrades +found it not derogatory to their courage to recoil before a blunderbuss. + +My readers ought to be informed that a girl of the people, called +Tonina, one of the loveliest women whom eyes of man have ever seen, +lived in this lane. She had multitudes of admirers; and the cozening +tricks she used to wheedle and entice a pack of simpletons, made her no +better than any other cheap and venal beauty. Yet she contrived to sell +her favours by the sequin. A gentleman, whom I shall mention lower down, +was madly in love with this little baggage. Wishing to keep the treasure +to himself, he adopted a truly Dalmatian mode of testifying his +devotion, and stood sentinel in her alley. On two consecutive evenings +the passage was barred; we talked of nothing else in the ante-chamber of +the General, and laid plans how to reassert our honour. A number of +officers agreed to face the blunderbuss; I received an invitation to +join the band; and acting on my system of good-fellowship, I readily +consented. + +Our discussion took place in the ante-chamber; silence was enjoined; we +settled that each of the conspirators should wear a white ribband on his +hat, and that three hours after nightfall we should assemble under arms +at our accustomed mustering-place. This was a billiard-saloon, whence +we were to sally forth to the assault of Budua. + +An Illyrian nobleman, Signor Simeone C----, of handsome person, +honourable carriage, and a resolute temper, which inspired even soldiers +with respect, although he held no military grade, was sitting in a +corner of the ante-chamber, half-asleep, and apparently inattentive to +our project. I knew him to be frank and genial, and he had often +professed sentiments of sincere friendship for myself. After our scheme +had been concerted, I passed into the reception-room of the palace. He +followed, and opened a conversation on indifferent topics, in the course +of which he drew me aside, changed his tone, and began to speak as +follows:-- + +"The moment has arrived for me to testify the cordial friendship which I +entertain for you. I regret that you have promised to join those +fire-eaters this evening. On your honour and secrecy I know that I can +count. I am sure that you will not reveal what I am about to disclose; +else the higher powers, whom we are bound to regard, might be involved, +and cowardice might be suspected in those whose courage is indisputable. +This preamble will enable you to judge what I think of you, and to +measure the extent of my friendship. I am the man in the mask. To-night +there will be four blunderbusses in the alley. I shall lose my life; but +several will lose theirs before the lane is forced. I am sorry that you +are in the affair. Contrive to get out of your engagement. Let the rest +come, and enjoy their fill of pastime at the cost of life or limb." + +This blunderbuss of an oration took me by surprise. But I did not lose +my senses or my tongue, and answered to the following effect:-- + +"I am amazed that you should have begun by professing friendship and +preaching caution. You do not seem to understand the first elements of +the one or the simple meaning of the other. I am obliged to you for one +thing only, your belief that I am incapable of divulging what you have +just told me. Upon this point alone your discernment is not at fault. I +would rather die than expose you. Yet you want me, under threats, to +break my word, and to render myself contemptible in the eyes of all my +comrades. This you call a proof of friendship. It is as clear as day, +too, that you have yielded to a hussy's importunities, risking your own +life and the lives of your friends upon a silly point of honour in a +shameful quarrel. This is the proof of your prudence. If you withdraw +from the engagement, no harm will be done, and cowardice will only be +imputed to a nameless mask. But if I break my word, you cannot free me +from the imputation of having proved myself a renegade and a dastard. I +shall become an object of scorn and abhorrence to the whole army. If I +act as you desire, my oath of secrecy to you will violate the laws of +friendship, prudence, everything which men hold sacred. Your promise of +secrecy again puts my honour in peril. How can you be sure that one of +your accomplices will not privily inform his Excellency of your name and +your mad enterprise? Where shall I then be? No: it is clearly your duty +to obey the counsels dictated by my loyal friendship and my sound +prudence. Leave the alley open; and then you will in truth oblige me. +Make love to your Tonina with something more to the purpose than a +blunderbuss. Her physical shape excuses your weakness for her; her mind +deserves your scorn; but I am not going to preach sermons on objects +worthy or unworthy of love; I feel compassion for human frailty." + +It was obvious that Signor Simeone C---- felt the force of these +arguments. But he writhed with rage under them, and showed no sign of +consenting. In his fierce Dalmatian way he burst into bare +protestations, swore that he would never quit the field, and wound up +with a vow to sell his life as dearly as man ever did. + +At this point I judged it needful to administer a dose of histrionic +artifice. After gazing at him for some seconds with eyes which spoke +volumes, I assumed the declamatory tone of a tragedian, and exclaimed: +"Well then, I promise to be the first to enter the lane this evening, +and, without attacking you, I shall offer my breast to your fire. I have +only this way left of proving to you that you are in no real sense of +the word my friend." Then I turned my back with a show of passion, +taking care, however, to retire at a slow pace. Except for the ferocity +instilled by education, he was at bottom an excellent good-hearted +fellow. Seizing me by the arm, he begged me wait a moment. I saw that he +was touched, and maintaining the tragic tone, I persuaded him to leave +the access to the alley free, without resigning his exclusive right to +the Tonina. For my part, I undertook never to reveal our secret. This +promise I have kept for thirty-five years. Lapse of time and the +probability of his decease--for he was much older than I--excuse me for +now breaking it. + +On three following nights I joined the allied forces at the +billiard-room, armed to the teeth, and with a white ribbon flying from +my hat-band. I was always the first to brave the blunderbusses, being +sure that no resistance would be offered. Indeed, the victory, on which +we piqued ourselves, had been won beforehand in my battle of words. The +culpable conduct of Tonina, a girl of the people, who had exposed so +many gentlemen to serious danger, remained fixed in my mind. I shall +relate the sequel to this incident, which took a comic turn, in the next +chapter. For the present, it is enough to add that Signer Simeone C----'s +infatuation for this corsair of Venus rapidly declined, as is the wont +of passions begotten by masculine appetite and feminine avarice. +Tonina, however, did not lack lovers, and the badness of her nature +continued to spread discord and foment disorder in our circle. + + + + +XIII. + + _The fair Tonina is rudely rebuked by me upon an accidental + occasion in the theatre.--My reconciliation with the young + woman.--Reflections on my life in Dalmatia._ + + +One evening during the last carnival of my three years' service, the +Provveditore Generale bespoke an improvised comedy at the Court-theatre. +The officers arranged a supper-party and a ball in private rooms, +intending to pass the night gaily when the farce was over. I had to play +the part of Luce, married to Pantalone, a vicious old man, broken in +health and fortune. I was reduced to extreme poverty, with a daughter in +the cradle, the fruit of my unhappy marriage. + +There was a night-scene, in which I had to soliloquise, while rocking my +child and singing it to sleep with some old ditty. This lullaby I +interrupted from time to time with the narrative of my misfortunes and +with sallies which made the audience die of laughter. Bursts of applause +brought the house down as I told my story, enlarged upon my reasons for +marrying an old man, related the incidents of my life, alluded in +modest monosyllables to what I had to bear, described what a fine figure +of a woman I had been, and what a scarecrow matrimony had made me. I +complained of cold, hunger, evil treatment. I did not make milk enough +to suckle my baby; and what I made was sour, nay, venomous from fits of +rage and all the sufferings I had to go through. This bad milk gave my +darling, the fruit of my womb, the stomach-ache. It kept bleating all +night like a lamb, and would not let me close an eye. The night was far +advanced. I was waiting for my old fool of a husband. What could be +keeping him abroad? He must surely be in the Calle del Pozzetto, +notorious at Zara for its evil fame. I had a presentiment of coming +troubles, moralised upon the woes of life, and burst into a flood of +tears, which made everybody laugh. The truth was that one of our +officers, Signor Antonio Zeno, who played the part of Pantalone +excellently, had not turned up at the proper time to enter into dialogue +with me. Until he arrived, I was forced to continue my soliloquy, which +had already occupied the attention of the audience full fifteen minutes. +A good extempore actor ought never to lose presence of mind, or to be at +a loss for material. In order to prolong the scene, I pretended that my +baby was crying, and that it would not go to sleep for all my lullabies +and cradle-rocking. In a fit of impatience I took it up, unlaced my +dress, and laid it with endearing caresses to my breasts to quiet it. +This fresh absurdity, together with my lamentations over the +non-existent teats I said the greedy little thing was biting, kept my +audience in good-humour. From time to time I turned my eyes to the +sides, being really disturbed at Signor Zeno-Pantalone's non-appearance, +and racking my brains in vain for some new matter to sustain the +soliloquy. + +Just then I happened to catch sight of Tonina seated in one of the front +boxes of the theatre, resplendent with beauty, and attired in a gala +dress which cast a glaring light upon her dubious career. She was +laughing with more assurance and sense of fun than anybody at my jokes. +The catastrophe which she had nearly caused flashed suddenly across my +mind. I felt that I had discovered a treasure; and plunged like +lightning into a new subject. What I proceeded to do was bold, I admit, +yet quite within the limits of good taste upon our amateur stage, where +personal allusions were allowed perhaps a little too liberally. I called +my doll-baby by the name of Tonina, and addressed my speech to it. I +caressed it, admired its features, flattered my maternal heart with the +hope that Tonina would grow up a lovely girl. So far as I was concerned. +I vowed to give her a good education, by example, precepts, +chastisement, and watchful care. Then, taking a tone of gravity, I +warned her that if, in spite of all my trouble, she fell into such and +such faults, such and such acts of imprudence, such and such immoral +ways, and caused such and such disturbances, she would be the worst +Tonina in the world, and I prayed God to cut her days short rather in +the cradle. All the evil things I mentioned were faithfully copied from +anecdotes about Tonina in the front box, with which my audience were +only too well acquainted. + +Never in my whole life have I known an improvised soliloquy to be so +tumultuously applauded as this of mine was. The spectators at one point +of the speech turned their faces with a simultaneous movement towards +Tonina in her gala dress, clapping their hands and laughing till the +theatre rang again. His Excellency, who had some inkling of the siren's +ways, honoured my unexpected satire with explosions of unconcealed +merriment. Tonina backed out of her box in a fit of fury, and escaped +from the theatre, cursing my soliloquy and the man who made it. +Pantalone finally arrived, and the comedy ended without any episode more +mirthful than the scene between me and my baby. + +Do not imagine that I have related this incident to brag about it. +Although the young woman in question was a girl of the people, whose +dissolute behaviour and ill-nature had been the cause of many +misadventures, and though the Provveditore Generale applauded my +performance, I blamed myself, when it was over, for yielding to a mere +impulse of vanity, and exhibiting my power as a comedian at the cost of +committing an act of imprudence and indiscretion. Much has to be +condoned to youth which is never conceded to maturity. + +I have mentioned that a ball and supper-party had been arranged by us +officers after the play, and that I was a member of the company. I went +in my costume of Luce, partly to save time, and partly to carry on the +joke. Tonina was among the guests. She did not expect me, and was +sitting in a corner, angry and out of spirits. When she saw me, one +would have thought she had set eyes on the fiend; she looked as though +she meant to leave the room. I took her hand, and protested I would +rather go than that the company should lose its loveliest ornament. I +vowed that she was adorably beautiful, and that it was a pity she was +not equally good. I begged her in gentle terms to take the accident of +the evening into account, to reflect upon the universal verdict given by +the audience on her ways of life, and to guard against the private +flatterers who blinded her to the truth. I told her that God had meant +to send in her an angel, and not a devil into this world. I interwove so +many praises with so many insolences, and with such complete frankness, +that she could not but laugh. Everybody laughed, down to her very +lovers. She expressed a wish to dance with me. I accepted the +invitation. This looked like a token of peace; but it was only +treachery. While dancing, she exerted all the charms, enticements, +captivating humours, pressures of the hand, and so forth, which her bad +vindictive and seductive nature could suggest to enslave me. + +A woman's coquetries directed to some purpose of revenge are always +blind, and give the best advantage to a clever roué. The reason is that +the woman, piqued to the point of seeking a victory at any price, lowers +herself to the utmost, without being aware of what she is conceding. I +was not a roué; and woe to me if I had let myself be snared by the wiles +and artifices of that viper smarting under the sense of recent insult! + +Our pleasure party was resumed soon after supper, during which my fair +foe kept me at her side. We broke up about sunrise; and Tonina never +ceased to call me her accursed little devil; that was the sweet +Dalmatian term of endearment which she used. Compelled by these +compliments, I promised to pay her a visit, but I did not keep my word. + +I have now given some general notion of my ways of thinking and acting, +my character and conduct, up to the age of eighteen on to twenty. +Nothing but the truth has dictated these reminiscences, from which I +have undoubtedly omitted many things of similar importance. I am sure +that if I had been guilty of anything really wrong during this period, +it would not have escaped either my memory or my pen. I have never +hardened my heart against the stings of remorse, and I would far rather +frankly record facts to my discredit than bear the stings of conscience +by suppressing what is true. Reviewing the veracious picture of myself +which I have painted, friends will see in me a somewhat eccentric young +man, but of harmless disposition; enemies will take me for a worthless +scapegrace; the indifferent, who know me superficially by sight, will +discover some one very different from their conception based on my +external qualities. At the proper place and time I shall account for +this not unreasonable and yet fallacious conception formed of me by +strangers. The reasons will appear clearly in the detailed portrait I +intend to execute of myself, and which will surpass the best work of any +painter. + + + + +XIV. + + _The end of my three years' service.--I cast up my accounts, and + reckon debts; calculate upon the future, with a sad prevision of + the truth.--My arrival in my home at Venice._ + + +The three years of my military service were nearly at an end, when I +contracted a slow fever, not dangerous to life, but tedious. The time +had come for settling accounts, and seeing how I stood. My family, since +I left home, had furnished me with only two bills of exchange, one for +fourteen, the other for six sequins. My useless duties to the State had +brought me thirty-eight lire per month. Against these receipts I +balanced my expenses: so much for my daily food; so much for my lodging, +clothing, and washing; so much for a servant, indispensable in my +position; so much for two illnesses, together with the small sums spent +on unavoidable pleasures of society. The result was that I found myself +in debt to my friend Massimo for exactly the sum of fifty-six sequins +and sixteen lire, or 200 ducats.[127] + +If the necessities of life are not to be considered vices, this debt was +certainly a modest one. Still it weighed upon my mind. I consoled myself +by recalling my friend's nobleness of nature, and felt sure that I +should be able to repay him on reaching home. I computed that the gross +sum I had received during those three years amounted to 480 ducats; and +I did not think I had been a spendthrift in consuming about 150 ducats a +year on my total expenditure. I could indeed have saved something by +attending the table which the Provveditore Generale kept daily for the +officers of his Court and guard, but which his sublime Excellency never +honoured with his presence. Little did he know what a gang of ruffians, +with the exception of a few patient souls constrained by urgent need, +defiled his table, or what low tricks were perpetrated at it. Since the +day of my arrival I had heard the infamous and compromising talk which +went on there, had watched the squabbles between guest and guest, and +guests and serving-men, had seen the cups and platters flying through +the air--and, like a naughty boy perhaps, I preferred to contract a debt +of 200 ducats rather than accept a hospitality so prostituted to vile +uses. I attended this table of Thyestes, as it seemed to me, only when I +could not help it, on the days when I had to mount guard. + +The financial statement I have just made will appear to many of my +readers a mere trifle, unworthy of recording here. They are mistaken. +When they have learned in what a state of desolation I found my father's +house, and how I strove to stem the tide of prodigality and waste which +was bringing our family to ruin, they will understand my reasons for +insisting on these trifles. Heads heated by anger and resentment are +only too ready to invent false accusations; and I shall soon be made to +appear a prodigal, a reckless gambler, a consumer of the substance of my +family during the three years I spent abroad. This is why I am so +scrupulous in telling the plain truth about my cost of living in +Dalmatia. I have never been ashamed of letting the whole world know how +modest are my fortunes. I should think it a greater shame to pretend to +possess more than I really own. Riches have always seemed to me to be a +name, and to reside in the imagination. If I cast my eyes on a +carpenter, then raise them to a duke, and finally lift them to a king, I +obtain convincing demonstration of the fact that he alone is rich who +has the mental wealth--to be contented with his lot. Alas! that only I +and many millions upon their deathbed recognise this truth. + +My three years were over. The new Provveditore Generale, Jacopo Boldù, +arrived in Dalmatia, and received the staff of office with the usual +formalities from his Excellency Quirini. In my moments of leisure I had +composed several poems in honour of the latter, and had procured others +from Venice. These I copied out in the beautiful handwriting which I +then possessed, sewed them together, added a respectful dedication, and +had them bound in a fine velvet cover. Then I paid my respects to his +Excellency in company with my friend Massimo, and laid my literary +tribute at his feet. I was no Virgil, nor was I born in the golden age +of Augustus. Only my fanaticism for the art of poetry made me imagine +that verses could be anything worth offering as a gift. + +The Cavaliere accepted my donation with affability. He said: "I thank +you. At least I have the wherewithal to show that, while a member of my +Court, you have remained at school." + +Afterwards I learned that he made a present of this book to the Very +Eminent Cardinal, his uncle, Bishop of Brescia. His Excellency inquired +whether I preferred to return to Venice or to stay in Dalmatia, +occupying the post of cadet noble of cavalry on my promotion. I begged +him to take me in his train to Venice, and he graciously accepted. + +Some one else than I would have looked around for testimonials little to +be trusted, which might have kept me fraudulently drawing pay upon the +muster-roll of Venice from a too indulgent Government. But I had +renounced the military career, and had no mind to spunge upon the public +treasury. Our Prince I regarded as a common father, but did not think it +just to saddle him with thievish sons, each one of whom by coaxed +protections, adulations, hypocrisies, and the vilest offices, eats into +the common patrimony of the nation, which ought to be reserved for +urgent needs. I was a poor lad, with a debt of 200 ducats; but I knew +that the services rendered to the State by me constituted no claim upon +the public purse. If I was poor, this came from our being too many in +our family and from the maladministration of our property. + +My wants were moderate. I flattered myself that I could satisfy them by +attending to the management of the estate; and I felt sure that my +father, paralysed and speechless as he was, would never refuse to pay +the trifling debt I had contracted. Meanwhile it is not improbable that +my name remained upon the muster-roll long after I left Dalmatia. +Somebody may have pocketed my pay and pilfered from the treasury to this +extent. I was not responsible for this, and had no right to inquire into +the matter, since I never asked to be cashiered in form. Poor I was, +poor I am, and poor I expect to die. At any rate, I am sure that I +should die in desperation if I felt on my deathbed that I had earned a +fortune by deceit, injustice, and intrigue. + +It was in the month of October when at last I embarked for Venice on the +galley of his Excellency. Wind and weather were against us. After a +painful voyage of twenty-two days, we came in sight of home, and I drew +breath again. After paying my respects and returning thanks to the +Cavaliere who had brought me back, I set off for our ancestral mansion +at San Cassiano, accompanied by Signor Massimo, whom I had invited to +stay with me upon his way to Padua. There I hoped to be able to pay my +friend some attention by giving him good quarters during his sojourn in +Venice. + + + + +XV. + + _Disagreeable discoveries relating to our family affairs, which + dissipate all illusions I may have formed._ + + +Leaving the horrors of the galley for the ancient home of my ancestors, +I palpitated between pleasure at escaping into freedom, hope of being +able to make my friend comfortable, and uneasiness lest this hope might +prove ill-founded. + +We reached the entrance, and my companion gazed with wonder at the +stately structure of the mansion, which has really all the appearance of +a palace. As a connoisseur of architecture, he complimented me upon its +fine design. I answered, what indeed he was about to discover by +experience, that attractive exteriors sometimes mask discomfort and +annoyance. He had plenty of time to admire the façade, while I kept +knocking loudly at the house-door. I might as well have knocked at the +portal of a sepulchre. At last a woman, named Eugenia, the +guardian-angel of this wilderness, ran to open. To my inquiries she +answered, yawning, that the family were in Friuli, but that my brother +Gasparo was momently expected. Our luggage had now been brought from the +boat, and we began to ascend a handsome marble staircase. No one could +have expected that this fine flight of steps would lead to squalor and +the haunts of indigence. Yet on surmounting the last stair this was what +revealed itself. The stone floors were worn into holes and fissures, +which spread in all directions like a cancer. The broken window panes +let blasts from every point of the compass play freely to and fro within +the draughty chambers. The hangings on the walls were ragged, smirched +with smoke and dust, fluttering in tatters. Not a piece remained of that +fine gallery of pictures which my grandfather had bequeathed as +heirlooms to the family. I only saw some portraits of my ancestors by +Titian and Tintoretto still staring from their ancient frames. I gazed +at them; they gazed at me; they wore a look of sadness and amazement, as +though inquiring how the wealth which they had gathered for their +offspring had been dissipated. + +I have hitherto omitted to mention that our family archives contain an +old worm-eaten manuscript, in which are registered the tenths[128] paid +to the public treasury. From this document it appears that the father of +my great-grandfather was taxed on upwards of ten thousand ducats of +income. It is perhaps a folly to moralise on such things; yet the +recollection of those mournful portraits gazing down upon me in the +squalor of our ancient habitation prompts me to tell an idle truth. +Nobody will be the wiser for it; certainly none of our posterity in +this prodigal age. My grandfather left an only son and a good estate +settled in tail on heirs-male in perpetuity. Four excellent residences, +all of them well-furnished, one in Venice, another in Padua, another in +Pordenone, another in the Friulian country-town of Vicinate, were +included in this entail, as appears from his last will and testament. +Little did he think that the solemn appointments of the dead would be so +lightly binding on the living. + +I had informed my friend Massimo of the exact state of our affairs at +home, so far as these were known to me. I could not acquaint him with +the grave disasters which had happened in my three years' absence, being +myself in blessed ignorance as yet. The news that my two elder sisters +had been married inclined me to expect that our domestic circumstances +were improving. Cruel deception wrapped me round, and a hundred +speechless but eloquent mouths were now proclaiming, from the walls and +chambers of my home, how utterly deceived I had been. + +Before long I broke, as usual, into laughter, and gaily begged my +comrade's pardon for bringing him to such a wretched hostelry. I assured +him that my heart, at any rate, was not so ruined as my dwelling, and +engaged him in conversation, while we roamed around its chambers, every +nook of which increased my mirth by some new aspect of dilapidation. +Then I bade him refresh his spirits with a survey of the noble façade; +till at last we settled down as well as circumstances permitted. Two +days afterwards, my brother Gasparo arrived. I presented the stranger I +had brought to share our hospitality, frankly expressing my sense of his +worth and my obligations to him as a friend. Upon this we established +ourselves in a little society of three, enlivened by the conversation of +my brother, who, even with a fever on him, never failed to be witty. + +Gasparo and I were anxiously awaiting an opportunity to talk alone like +brothers after my long absence. When the moment came, I inquired after +my poor father, our mother, and the circumstances of the family. What I +had already seen on my arrival prepared me for the disagreeable news I +had to hear. With his usual philosophy, but not without an occasional +sign of painful emotion, he gave me the following details. The family +was reduced to really tragic straits. Our father lived on, but +speechless and paralytic, in the same state as when I left him. My two +elder sisters, Marina and Giulia, were married respectively to the Conte +Michele di Prata and the Conte Giovan-Daniele di Montereale. About ten +thousand ducats had been promised for their dowries. To raise this sum, +such and such portions of the estate had been sold, and a debt of more +than two thousand ducats had been contracted. A lawsuit was pending +between the family and the Conte Montereale concerning part of the dowry +still due to him. Our other three sisters, Laura, Girolama, and Chiara, +were growing into womanhood, and gave much to think of for their future. + +I saw, to my great annoyance, that it would be impossible to liquidate +my debt upon the spot. But all these terrifying details did not make me +regret my resignation of the post of cadet noble in the cavalry. A few +days later, Signor Massimo left for Padua, with the assurance that his +two hundred ducats would be paid in course of time by me. Upon this +matter he only expressed the sentiments of cordial friendship. + +It was not too late in the season for a visit to the country. I felt a +strong desire to reach Friuli, and to kiss the hands of my unhappy +father. Thither then I went, together with my brother, armed with a +giant's fortitude, which was not long in being put to proof. + + + + +XVI. + + _Fresh discoveries regarding the condition of our family.--Vain + hopes and wasted will to be of use.--I abandon myself to my old + literary studies._ + + +Our country-house had been originally constructed on an old-fashioned, +roomy, and convenient scale, with numbers of out-buildings. It was now +reduced to one of those dilapidated farms, which I have described in my +burlesque poem _La Marfisa Bizzarra_, canto xii., stanza 126.[129] +Two-thirds of the edifice had been demolished, and the materials sold. +The remaining fragments were inhabited, but bore written on their front: +"Here once was Troy." + +Prepared as I was by the misery of our town-house for the desolation of +this rural mansion, I hardly cared to cast a glance upon it. What I +noticed on arriving was a certain air of jollity and gladness, breathing +health, betokening contentment, which all the faces of the village +people wore. Amid the jubilations of relatives, guests, serving-folk and +lads about the farm, not omitting a pack of barking dogs, I descended +from the calèche with my brother. A whole crowd of people, whom I did +not know and could not number, fell upon my neck to bid me welcome. +Something of a military carriage, which I had picked up abroad, but +which had no relation to my real self, made our farm-folk stare upon me +like a comet. + +Then I raised my eyes, and saw my poor father at a window in the upper +storey, with trembling limbs, dragging himself forward on his stick to +catch a glimpse of me. All the blood turned suddenly and galloped +through my veins. I rushed up the stairs, burst into the room where he +was standing, seized one of his hands, and kissed it in a transport of +filial affection. He fell upon my shoulder, more paralytic than he had +been when I last embraced him, and, in his inability to speak, broke +into a piteous fit of weeping. The effort I made to restrain my own +tears, lest they should add to his unhappiness, made me feel as though +my lungs would burst. Leaning on my arm, he slowly tottered after me, +and little by little we reached another room which he frequented. +October was nearly over, and the cold in that Friulian climate was very +sensible. A good fire burned on the hearth, near which stood the +arm-chair of my father, who for seven years had dragged his life out in +this wretched state. All the resources of medical science had been tried +in vain. Physicians sometimes agreed and sometimes differed about his +treatment. But their concord and their discord were equally impotent to +effect a cure; and he had not yet reached the age of fifty-five. + +I found my mother in the same apartment. She uttered sentiments which +were not inappropriate to her maternal character, but in a frigid tone +and with an air of stately self-control. I always loved and respected +her, not merely from a sense of duty, but with a true filial instinct. +She, on her side, used frequently to protest when there was no need for +protestation, that she loved all her nine children with exactly the same +amount of affection. She often repeated the following words with +gravity, raising her eyebrows as she spoke: "Cut off one of my fingers +and I suffer pain; cut off a second and I suffer;" and so on through +nine fingers, amputated by the same figure of speech, with equal agony +in each case. Notwithstanding this, I believe that the loss of eight +fingers would not have given her the same pain as that of the first-born +finger, in other words, of my brother Gasparo. He is still alive, a man +of honour, and a sage if ever sage existed; and I feel sure that he +would admit the truth of this statement, if called on to confirm it. + +In my long and anxious study of human nature, I have seen so many +mothers with the weakness of my own, that I never dreamed of blaming +her. It seemed right to me that my brother's mental gifts and noble +qualities should earn for him more of her love than she bestowed on all +her other eight children. Mothers, however, who are so devoted to a son +generally spoil him, notably by extolling what is good in his character, +but also by defending his natural frailties. Acting thus, my mother +favoured Gasparo's marriage, which subjected her beloved son to a real +martyrdom. Her lifelong devotion to him, and the prejudice displayed in +his favour by her will, only served to increase the unhappiness of a man +whom I always loved, loved still, and shall love as friend and brother +till the end of my days on earth. This digression was rendered necessary +by what will follow in my Memoirs. + +The room was soon full of relatives and intimate friends, all curious +about me. My father strove to ply me with questions, but his tongue +refused its office, and he relapsed into weeping. Sad at heart as I was +for him, I contrived to relate the most amusing anecdotes I could +remember concerning my life in Dalmatia and my travels. In this way I +kept him laughing, together with the whole company, through the rest of +that day. + +The perfect country air; a table abundantly served with rural dainties, +though somewhat deficient in elegance; the joviality, wit, and pleasant +sallies which never failed in our domestic circle,--all this prevented +me from attending to the defects of our establishment. Next day I began +to discover that the real cause of trouble was not in the building, but +in the minds of its inhabitants. I could not have explained why, but I +seemed to be a person of importance in the eyes of everybody. My three +sisters confided to me in secret that my brother Gasparo's wife, in +close alliance with my mother, who doted on her as the consort of her +favoured first-born, ruled all the affairs of the family, which were +rapidly going from bad to worse. My father's authority as head of the +house had ceased to be more than a mere instrument for carrying out what +my sister-in-law advised and my mother sanctioned. Unless I managed to +stem the tide of extravagance, we should all be plunged into an abyss of +ruin. One of my sisters, Girolama, a girl devoted to reading, writing, +and translating from the French--for she too was bitten with our family +cacoethes--spoke like a sibyl, gravely and eloquently, on these painful +topics. At the same time, my brother's wife contrived secret interviews, +in which she explained to me that her husband was indolent, torpid, +drowned in fruitless studies, devoted to the company of a certain clever +person, and wholly averse from thoughts or cares about domestic matters. +She had done everything in her power--God knew she had. She would go on +doing her best--God should see she would. Then she described her plans +and projects, which, to tell the truth, were pure poetical stupidities. +She vowed that she was not in any sense the mistress of the +establishment, the administrator of the estate, or the disposer of its +revenues; she merely gave advice, made suggestions, and exerted herself +for the common benefit and to supply the needs of the family in general. +She exhorted me to speak seriously to her husband; I was to make him +abandon his unprofitable studies, make him, above all things, give up +those visits of taste and soul, which did so much harm; in fine, I was +to force him to sustain his wife in her stupendous labours, and to +concentrate his thoughts upon his children, who were five in number. + +When I came to analyse the curious compound of truths, lies, and fancies +which issued from the fevered brains of this poor lady--always hard at +work, always embarrassed in a labyrinth of business--I seemed to +perceive that what moved her most was the fear of being made herself +responsible for our financial failure. It was also clear that her +original ambition of acting the part of prime minister in a realm which +only existed in her own imagination, kept her always on the stretch; +while a certain little devil of feminine jealousy against her husband +added to her disquietude. He, good fellow, had forgotten the long +collection of Petrarchan poems written by him for her honour in the +past, and which she had repaid with the gift of five children. Not the +least little sonnet issued from his pen to celebrate her now. His lyrics +were addressed to another idol of the moment. + +Meanwhile she set great store upon her personal importance. Every member +of our family, who wanted a ducat, a pair of shoes, or something of the +sort, came to her with humble supplications, imploring her good offices +at head-quarters--and Heaven knew where head-quarters were. This honour +and glory made up to her for all her heroic labours in the little +realm, which she administered with real authority, though her right to +do so was contested, and her schemes were pindarically unpractical. + +My younger brother, Almorò,[130] was also at our villa, on a holiday +from school--the non-existent school he never went to. His education +seemed to have been of the slightest, and his wardrobe left even more to +be desired. A boy of good heart and parts, however; gay-spirited and +innocent; he was not old enough and had not time to reflect upon our +troubles; setting snares for little birds was all his pastime, and when +he talked to me, I heard only of the number and the kinds of birds he +caught, and the important adventures he had met with in his fowling +expeditions. + +My father did not converse with me, because he could not; my mother, +because she would not. Gasparo's five children with their quarrels and +their games broke in upon the only solace which I had, that of reading +and writing. + +To all the complaints I heard, to all the exhortations which were daily +heaped upon me, I gave one only answer: we will see and think it over. + +One thing emerged with distinctness from this hurlyburly of our family. +If I attempted any salutary innovation in the wasp's nest of my +relatives, I should find no difficulty in gaining supporters to assist +me in my opposition to the government; but the government was in the +hands of women, under the shadow of my father's authority; I should +therefore be misrepresented to him, prejudiced as he was by education, +susceptible and hot-blooded by temperament, enfeebled by chronic +illness; and he was still the master, still my father, loved and +respected by me. I doubted whether anything which I could do would not +prove ineffectual or worse. I was afraid of becoming the object of +everybody's hatred; for I observed that personal considerations, rather +than wise reflection and moderate ambitions, were the motive principles +of all the folk I had to deal with. Finally I dreaded giving such a +shock to my father's declining frame as would cut short the few days of +life which still remained to him. The sequel will show that these +anticipations were not ill-founded. + +In these circumstances I determined to exercise the strictest +self-control, and to bear with everything during my father's lifetime. +Literature and my favourite studies of the world meanwhile would suffice +to entertain me. Knowing that my uncle Almorò Cesare Tiepolo was in the +country on an estate of his not far from where we lived, I went to pay +him my respects. He inquired how I had been treated in Dalmatia by his +Excellency Quirini. I answered that he had treated me very well indeed, +but that he could not give me any permanent commission, because our +troops had been drafted into Italy. He then proposed to recommend me to +his Excellency the Provveditore Generale at Verona. I replied that I was +grateful for his interest on my behalf, but that Mars had not inspired +me with a vocation for military service. I foresaw that I should have to +employ all my energies upon the affairs of my family, which were calling +loudly for my assistance. Shaking his head and pursing up his lips, he +answered that what I said was only too true. + + + + +XVII. + + _Return from Friuli to Venice with my family.--I pursue my chosen + path in life, and open new veins of experience.--Yet further + painful discoveries as to our circumstances.--The beginnings of + domestic discord._ + + +The month of November was wearing away when our family began to think of +Venice. It amused me to watch the preparations for our journey and our +luggage, which in no wise resembled that of the General's suite I had +been used to. My father, an invalid; my mother, serious and +diplomatical; my sister-in-law, the woman of business; my brother +Gasparo, wool-gathering; our little sisters, intent upon the custody of +their old-fashioned bonnets; Almorò, plunged in grief at leaving his +birds and cages, which he consigned by something like a last will and +testament to the bailiff; I, giving myself military airs, quite out of +season; some serving-maids and men in worn-out livery; a few cats and +dogs; these composed our travelling party, which might have been +compared to a troupe of comedians upon the march. + +I shall perhaps be told that there was no reason to enumerate these +humiliating circumstances. But I have never had to blush for unworthy +actions in my family; and it seems to me a poor philosophy that feels +ashamed where no shame is. Such as it was, our caravan arrived in +Venice, joking and laughing all the way. There we installed ourselves +with as much disorder and as little comfort as was proper to a fine +large mansion with nothing to fill its empty spaces. + +For my own use I chose out a little room at the top of the house, where +I set up a rickety table, provided myself with a huge inkstand and +plenty of pens and paper, and spent at least six hours a day in reading +and scribbling poetic nonsense. This was my best amusement; but I ought +to add that I devoted some of my time to the cafés, studying types of +character and listening to conversation; nor did I neglect our theatres, +where I saw the various tragedies and comedies which appeared. My +brother Gasparo had already given several serious pieces to the stage. +They pleased the public then; and though they may be out of fashion +now, they would not fail to please me still. I know the instability of +taste too well to change my old opinions. + +I had mixed with all sorts of men and learned to know their +characters--generals, admirals, noblemen, great lords, officers, +soldiers, the people of Illyrian cities, the Morlacchi of the villages, +Mainotti, Pastrovicchi, convicts, galley-slaves. It was time, I thought, +to become acquainted with my own Venetians. I began by cultivating a set +of men who go in Venice by the name of Cortigiani.[131] My companions of +this kind were chiefly shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, with a priest or +two among the number; clever fellows, respectable, and versed in all the +ways of our Venetian world. Their courage and readiness to take part in +quarrels won them the respect of the common people, and they carried the +art of getting the maximum of pleasure at a minimum of outlay to +perfection. On certain holidays I joined their boating-parties, and went +to shoot birds on the marshes with them. Or else we lunched together on +the Giudecca, at Campalto, Malcontenta, Murano, Burano, and other +neighbouring islands. My share of the expense on these occasions was +not much above sixpence, and I gained the hearty good-will of my +companions by contributing some slices of excellent Friulian ham to our +common table. The characters and manners of these men delighted me; I +took pleasure in listening to the stories of their quarrels, +reconciliations, love-adventures, misfortunes, accidents of all kinds, +told in racy Venetian dialect, with the liveliness which is natural to +our folk. What is more, I learned much from them. Alas! the race of +Cortigiani has degenerated, like everything else in this corrupt age. +When I chance to meet a survivor of the honest jolly crew, he strikes +his forehead, and confesses that the good days of his youth are +irrecoverable, and that the Cortigiano is an extinct species. + +Meanwhile I took good care to interfere with nobody and nothing in the +household. This I did for my poor father's sake. But I kept my eyes open +to observe the intrigues, schemes, and movements of the government. Some +Jews, some brokers, and a crowd of women were always coming and going on +secret conferences with my sister-in-law. These attracted my attention, +and formed the subject of my earnest cogitations. It grieved me to see +my brother Gasparo immersed in his philosophy and poetry, never for one +moment giving the least thought to domestic economy. It grieved me; but +I grieved in silence. There was one circumstance, however, which fairly +put me out of patience. We had three sisters in the house; and a swarm +of drones, hulking young fellows of the freest manners, kept buzzing +round them. When I came home and found these visitors at their +accustomed chatter, I used to scowl at them, lift my hat and put it on +again, turn my back, and climb the stairs to my own den, with the fixed +intention of making the gentlemen perceive how little their company +attracted me. This manœuvre had its effect. My sister-in-law took it +upon her to read me a matronly lecture on the impropriety of insulting +friends of the family by my rough ways. I replied that I knew very well +what friendship was, but that I could distinguish the false from the +true; I was not conscious of having been rude to anybody; my father was +the master, and if he did not mind some things which seemed to my +inexperience imprudent and irregular, a mere lad's opinions were not +worthy of consideration. This hint of my displeasure made all the women +of the house regard me like a serpent. Even my three sisters, who loved +me sincerely, and were excellent creatures, imbued with the soundest +religious principles, could not help harbouring a trifle of suspicion in +their feminine brains. For the rest, I said what I thought when I was +consulted upon affairs of no importance. My advice in such matters +pleased nobody. I ran on little errands if these were intrusted to me; +and above all, I devoted some hours of every evening to my father, who +always received me with tenderness and tears. + +From conversation with my sisters I learned that the five thousand +ducats raised by sale of lands in Friuli, ostensibly to make up portions +for my married sisters, had either not been paid by the purchasers or +had only reached the hands of the husbands in part. The same had +happened with the drapery, linen, and jewels, for which a large debt had +been contracted with a company of merchants. These and similar +confidences made it clear to my mind that the marriages of my two +sisters had not been arranged for their settlement in life so much as +with the view of raising money under colourable pretexts, and of +alienating entailed property with some show of legality. In fact, I +scented disastrous dealings of the sort which are known at Venice by the +name of _stocchi_.[132] As natural consequences of this crooked policy, +urgent needs for ready money and embarrassments of all sorts had ensued, +which led to fresh expedients and ever-growing financial distress. + +Without attributing malice to any one, I merely blamed the bad luck of +our family, owing to which my grandfather's fine estate had passed into +the hands of women under two administrations, and had been wasted by a +course of insane irregularities. I took care to send an accurate report +of our domestic circumstances to my brother Francesco at Corfu. And now +I must embark upon the sea of my worst troubles. + + + + +XVIII. + + _I become, without fault of my own, quite unjustly, the object of + hatred to all members of my household.--Resolve to return to + Dalmatia.--My father's death._ + + +It had not escaped my notice that my mother and sister-in-law were in +the habit of going abroad together in the mornings. During the five +winter months they wore masks, and their proceedings had all the +appearance of some secret business.[133] Now Carnival was over. We had +reached the month of March 1745, a date which will be always painful to +my recollection. Every morning the two ladies left the house together, +no longer masked, but wearing the _zendado_.[134] I asked my sisters if +they knew the object of these daily expeditions. They answered to the +following effect: all they knew for certain was that my father's invalid +condition made a residence in Venice irksome to him; now that the spring +was advancing, he wished to go into Friuli with my mother, leaving our +sister-in-law at the head of affairs in Venice; meanwhile the treasury +was empty, the barns and cellars of our country-house had nothing left +in them. I shrugged my shoulders, and kept silence. + +A few days afterwards, while I was attempting to drive away care by +study in my little upper chamber, my three sisters entered. They were +weeping, and my first fear was lest my father should have died. +Reassuring me upon this point, they passionately besought me to +interpose between the family and shameful ruin. I alone was capable of +doing this. The secret expeditions of my mother and sister-in-law had +resulted in a contract with a certain Signor Francesco Zini, cloth +merchant. He undertook to pay down six hundred ducats in exchange for +our ancestral mansion, agreeing, moreover, to hand over a little +dwelling of his own in the distant quarter of San Jacopo dall' Orio. +They added that my father was ready to give his assent to this bargain, +and my brothers Gasparo and Almorò would offer no opposition. I felt +deeply moved by the distress of these poor girls as well as by my own +keen sense of humiliation; and when they concluded by enjoining the +strictest secrecy upon myself in the transaction, a gulf of dissensions, +disagreeableness, and misery of all kinds seemed to yawn before my feet. +Our pressing want of money, the contract verbally completed by my mother +and sister-in-law, my father's consent, the adhesion of my brothers to +the scheme, the obligation to secrecy laid upon me by my sisters, my own +bad reputation in the household as a disturber of domestic quiet, my +lack of friends and supporters in Venice, all filled me with terror. Yet +I resolved to try what I could do to gratify my father's desire for the +country, and to put a stop to this humiliating contract. With that +object in view I also undertook a secret mission and went to visit +Signor Francesco Zini. + +I laid myself open to him in terms of flattering politeness, appealing +to his excellent disposition, and pointing out that he was about to +enter on a business which would expose him to risk and us to notable +humiliation. I told him that my father had been an invalid for many +years, that our ancestral mansion was subject to a strict entail, that +on my father's death he would lose his money and the house, that all +the sons of the family were not prepared to sanction the contract, that +one of them was in the Levant, that I had not the least intention of +assenting, and that the utmost I could do would be to abandon the house +at my father's express command. Then I passed to the pathetic. I +described a numerous family departing with their scanty bundles from the +loved paternal nest, bowed down with grief and shame before the eyes of +all their neighbours, who would be exclaiming: "See those gentlefolk +upon the move, because their home has been sold over their heads!" I +proved to him that if he gained a fine house to live in, he would also +gain an odious and ugly reputation. Finally, I besought him, as a man of +worth, to seize some plausible pretext for breaking a bargain which, +happily for his advantage and our own, had not been ratified. + +Over the fat, red, small-pox-pitted features of Signor Zini spread +amazement and perplexity. He did not understand my rigmarole, he said; +he was an honest man, pouring out his blood, not water, to obtain the +house; my mother and sister-in-law, together with the broker of this +honourable bargain, had assured him that my father wished to conclude +it, and that all his sons were prepared to emancipate themselves from +the paternal authority, in order to be able to sign the contract, thus +giving it validity, and securing the rightful interest of the innocent +purchaser. The affair had been settled, the necessary deeds were +waiting on the bureau of Marchese Suarez, his advocate. Most assuredly, +unless my father's male heirs procured their emancipation, in order to +give validity to the contract in perpetuity, he would not unbutton his +pockets to disburse a penny; he was not a fool, to be imposed upon with +fibs and fables. + +I commended the fat gentleman's perspicacity and caution; repeated that +I had no intention of procuring my emancipation, and that nothing on +earth would force me to consent; once more I begged him to find some +excuse for breaking off the bargain; and wound up by imploring him to +keep silence upon my interference in the matter. I made it clear that +only a brute, devoid of Christian charity, would reject a son's +entreaties, and render him odious to mother and father without any +advantage to himself. He promised to respect my secrecy, wagging his +huge scarlet jowl and lifting his night-cap, with so many protestations +of being touched to the heart, that I ought to have been put upon my +guard. I did not yet know human nature, and retired as happy as if I had +taken Gibraltar by assault, feeling confident that my prudence and +discretion had averted a lamentable catastrophe. + +Nothing was said by me about the course which I had followed, even to my +three sisters. I reflected that they were women, and awaited a quiet +termination of the affair, trusting to Signor Zini's humanity. +Meanwhile I ruminated how to procure my father's removal to the country, +and how to help the family without waiting for the harvest, which would +be finished in three months. I computed the value of my clothes, my +watch, my snuff-box; prepared as I was then, to sell everything I +possessed. But these calculations only reduced me to despair. My one +real friend was Signor Massimo, then at Padua. I remembered that I +already owed him two hundred ducats, and that he was living on an +allowance from his father. Yet I knew that both father and son, as well +as a brother of my comrade, were no less generous toward persons on +whose character for loyalty and friendship they relied, than they were +suspicious of intriguers and impostors. I was also aware that they were +in a position to render me substantial services. How often, during the +tempestuous vicissitudes of my existence, have I not had the opportunity +to verify this fact! + +While thus engaged in studying ways and means, Signor Zini broke rudely +in upon my meditations. Possessed with the desire to obtain our dwelling +for his own, he divulged the secret of my visit, and exposed what I had +said to him in terms of his own choosing. My belief is that his +communication amounted to this:--unless the hot-headed impetuous young +fellow, who had come to treat with him, were brought to reason, and +compelled to sign the contract, he refused to disburse two shillings. + +I was in my upper chamber, studying as usual, and talking with my +brother Almorò about his wretched schooling, when my mother appeared one +day. Something of philosophical severity in her toilette, something +imposing in her manner, which concealed, however, an internal +irritation, proclaimed the gravity of her mission. She addressed herself +pointedly to me, with the features of a judge rather than a mother, and +began a long narration of the straits to which we were reduced. She said +that, God be blessed, she had been inspired and assisted to discover six +hundred ducats in the hands of a benevolent merchant, which would be +placed immediately at her disposal upon such and such conditions. The +notary was ready to engross the necessary deeds; and she begged me to +declare what I thought about this special providence. + +At the bottom of her heart I read Signor Zini's act of treason, and saw +that I was lost. However, I answered respectfully that a contract of +this kind struck me as anything but providential; still my father had +full power to do what he thought fit, without rendering an account of +his actions to his sons. She flamed up, and cried with a threatening air +that my consent was also needed; she could not believe that I should be +so rash and headstrong as to prevent a plan which would relieve my +father and the family in our present painful circumstances. I could have +uttered several truths without a wish to wound; but certain truths, +once spoken, wound incurably. Therefore, I contented myself with +observing that I was ready to shed my blood for my father, but that I +could not assent to a contract so humiliating and ruinous, the last of a +whole series dictated by suicidal policy. People who understood economy +were in the habit of calculating and making provision for the future, +not of selling or mortgaging their property to meet embarrassments +created by their own extravagance. The latter course was rapidly +bringing our whole family to the workhouse. Under a disastrous financial +system our income had been reduced to three thousand ducats; yet I could +not comprehend how we were in such straits as she had described. When +people were unable to maintain a decent state in the capital, they could +live at ease in the country at one-third of the same cost. Houses ought +to be let, and not sold. Still my father had the power to make any +contract he thought right; only I did not believe him capable of forcing +me to give consent against my will and judgment. + +The gestures of submission, respect, and supplication with which I +accompanied this speech had no power to mollify the pungency of its +significance. My mother rose, with her arms akimbo, and inquired who it +was I meant to blame for our misfortunes. Instead of telling the bitter +and irrefutable truth, I said that I only blamed fate and the +misfortunes themselves. "I reckon," she replied with a smile of fury, +"that you will give in your adhesion." "Indeed I shall not," was my +answer; and the profound bow with which I spoke these words had the +appearance of impertinent irony, although God knows I did not mean it. +This was enough to fan the smothered flames into a Vesuvius in eruption. +My mother bent her stormy brows upon me--upon the sixth finger of her +maternal hands--and broke into the following declamation. "From the +moment of my return she had prophesied, like Cassandra, that I should +turn the household upside down. She did not know me for one of her own +children. The intimacy of a certain friend to whom I had attached myself +was ruining the family, as it had ruined me. (Poor innocent generous +Signor Massimo!) If I had behaved well during my three years' service, +his Excellency Quirini would certainly have rewarded me with some good +military situation. As it was, my excursion into Dalmatia had been a +source of burdensome expense. I had led a vicious life there ... she +knew ... she did not mean to speak ... but ... enough ... and my debt of +two hundred ducats to Massimo was merely a sum lost by me at basset." + +Now this debt had not yet been paid, and had therefore been of no +inconvenience to my family. Such extravagant accusations took me by +surprise; and the reader will now perceive the reason of the accounts +which I rendered in a former passage of these Memoirs. I should perhaps +have flown into a fury alien to my real nature, if these reproofs had +been based on truth. The wounding allusion to Signor Massimo nearly +roused me, but I preserved my self-control. It was clear that my mother +had been deeply prejudiced and cruelly instigated against me. The +consciousness of my innocence and a sense of duty made me stand before +her rigid and mute as a statue. With an impulse of affection, maternal +as it seemed, my mother took my brother Almorò by the arm, and gazing at +me with contempt, which strove to be compassionate, she addressed these +words to him: "Come away, my dear boy; let us leave that madman to the +error of his ways!" Then she turned her back and led him from the room, +as though she were saving an innocent creature from some fearful danger. + +Convinced by this tragi-comedy that I was the victim of a family cabal, +I saw no other course open but to resume my commission as a cadet of +cavalry. I left my room, went downstairs, and found all the family +(except my father) assembled in commotion, listening to the +commiserations of their usual friends enraged against me. It had been +proclaimed aloud that I had called them all thieves, retorted against my +mother with scandalous and impious audacity, and betrayed my +determination to make myself the tyrant of the household. Even my three +sisters, who had urged me into opposition, showed themselves sulkily +scornful; and though I might have exposed them before the whole +company, I did not deign to do so. Confirmed in my resolve to leave +Venice for Dalmatia, I buckled on my sword, wasted no words about my +intention, and repaired to the Riva dei Schiavoni, to see if I could +find a ship for Zara. There I discovered that a _trabacolo_ would set +sail in four or five days. The captain was a certain Bernetich. I took +down his name, and, wrapped up in my own dark thoughts, spent all that +day in exile, wandering far from home. + +On my return, I noticed that, though everybody wore a crabbed face +against me, something had happened to their satisfaction. Signor Zini, +it appeared, was willing to execute the contract without requiring my +consent. I did not know that my brother Francesco had left a power of +attorney to act for him in Gasparo's hands. With voices of triumph they +all exclaimed together that the great sacrifice was to be solemnly and +legally performed next day. I did not care to inquire how things had +been brought to this conclusion; but putting on as cheerful a face as +possible, I went to keep my poor father company as usual for a few hours +in the evening. + +It will be as well at this point to describe the topography of our +house. It was originally built for two separate residences, with double +entrances upon the street and water-side, two staircases and two +cisterns. At the time when it was planned, the Gozzis formed two +families, which were afterwards reduced to one. We occupied the lower +floor and some apartments in the highest storey. The second floor was +let for 150 ducats a year to an honest iron-monger called Uccelli; but +this portion of the mansion had also been sold upon my father's life, by +one of those contracts which were only too frequent in our family, for +the sum of 1200 ducats to his Excellency the Procuratore Sagredo. + +I did all in my power to avoid the least allusion to the painful scenes +of the preceding day; but my dear father kept gazing earnestly at me, +and shedding tears from time to time. In vain I tried to inspire him +with happier thoughts. Would that I could banish all recollection of +that night, which was one of the most sombre, the most painful, in the +whole course of my existence. Paralysed and dumb for seven long years, +he yet retained his mental faculties in their full vigour. Summoning all +his force, by signs and stammerings and tears, he made it only too clear +how much he suffered from the miserable straits to which the family had +been reduced. He also continued to express his sympathy with me for my +dislike to sign the projected contract. To my surprise and grief, he +intimated that I had only a brief time to wait; his swift approaching +death would restore to us the upper dwelling, which had been sold upon +his life, and which was much better than the one we occupied. This +inarticulate but eloquent discourse ended in a flood of tears. Deeply +moved to the bottom of my heart, I strove to tranquillise his mind, and +direct his thoughts from such afflicting topics. I perceived that no +pains had been spared to make me odious in my father's eyes, and that +this had been done without the least regard for his infirmity. Yet I did +not attempt to justify my conduct, and said nothing about my firm +resolve to leave home. His departure for Friuli had been fixed on the +third day after this fatal evening, and I mentally decided to set out +for Dalmatia two days later on. My assumed cheerfulness, and the merry +turn I gave to all those dismal subjects of reflection, seemed to +tranquillise him. Then he tried to lift himself from his arm-chair, as +though to get to bed. I helped to raise him, but he tottered more than +usual, and sank with his knees toward the ground. I took him in my arms +to keep him from falling. Agonising moment! It was clear that a last +stroke of apoplexy was carrying away my father from my arms. In a loud +voice and with perfect articulation he pronounced the words: "I am +dying!" They fell like lead upon my heart, with such cruel force that I +nearly dropped. My mother, who was present, fled from the room. I called +aloud for aid. Servants hurried in; one of these I dispatched for +medical assistance, while the others helped me to place my poor dear +father, now quite incapable of any movement, on his bed. A physician, +Doctor Bonariva by name, had him bled at once. But nothing could be done +to save his life. Assisted by Don Pietro Pighetti, now Canon of S. +Marco, in the last religious duties of our creed, he displayed all the +signs of Christian resignation and intelligence; and after eight hours +of oppression, toilsome suffering, and the pangs of death, my unhappy +parent closed his eyes upon the vast obscurity in which his family was +plunged. + + + + +XIX. + +_My attempts at pacification defeated.--Useless philosophical +reflections.--A terrible domestic storm begins to brew._ + + +No sooner had my father breathed his last than my lady sister-in-law, +all activity and bustle, issued from the room of mourning, and took upon +her to console his sorrowing children with the convincing statement that +he was the most lovely corpse which eyes of men had ever seen. This +wholly unexpected statement, which had nothing of humanity, morality, or +philosophy in it, and which she kept repeating and affirming upon oath +for our relief, filled me then, and fills me now, with such fury, that I +should be angry to think that any of my readers could laugh at it. + +One disastrous thought kept breaking in upon our sorrow at this tragic +moment. Am I to record it? We had neither the wherewithal to provide a +decent interment for my father, nor the credit to obtain it. The +habitués of the house gave words in abundance, but no pecuniary aid. I +had only one friend, Massimo, my creditor, the object of my relatives' +calumnies. Grief inspired me with the thought of writing to lay our +difficulties before his generous mind. The special messenger by whom I +sent this letter returned with a sum of money more than sufficient to +defray the expenses of a becoming funeral. On receiving it, I took my +brother Gasparo apart, placed the money in his hands, and told him who +had given it. Then I begged him not to misinterpret what I was about to +say. He was my elder, and I willingly acknowledged him to be the head of +our family. He could not be blind to the deplorable condition into which +we had declined. Duty required that he should take the reins with manly +resolution, and should withdraw the management of our affairs from the +hands of those who had brought us to utter shipwreck. My brother +accepted the money and my speech as well as might have been expected +from a man of his excellent disposition and superior intelligence. He +admitted that he saw the necessity of a thorough economical reform, +carried through with virile firmness. Some increase of income, owing to +the expiration of contracts made upon my father's life, would facilitate +the undertaking. He was willing to relinquish literary occupations, +which were neither appreciated nor remunerated in Italy, for the sake +of being able to devote his energy and time to the administration of our +common property. + +I did not flatter myself that anything so much to be desired would come +to pass. I knew how impossible it is for people to change their +character and nature. I knew his wife's meddlesome, restless, imperious +thirst for ruling--his own peaceable temperament, averse from +opposition, addicted to the habits of a student. Yet I saw the necessity +of taking the step I did, if only to correct the bad impression of +myself, which had grown up under malevolent influences in the family. + +I had no heart to follow my father to the grave, but shut myself up in +my little chamber, where I gave way through three days and three nights +to grief, not unmingled with remorse for having innocently helped to +hasten his death. Nothing less than this tragedy was needed to cancel +Signor Francesco Zini's contract. + +I feel some repugnance at sitting down to write what happened at this +epoch in my family. I wish that I could tell the tale without appearing +to censure any of my relatives and without seeming to draw a +vain-glorious picture of myself. The truth at any cost has to be +reported; but I protest with emphasis, and this is also true, that I +always experienced real pain when I beheld the disastrous consequences +which the faults of others brought upon themselves, and that I neither +took pleasure in revenge, nor cherished sentiments of ambition in doing +good to my family--if indeed I did do good. The reader will be able to +judge of that from the sequel of these Memoirs. + +When a group of closely related persons in one household fall to +quarrelling, all the causes which perpetuate faults of character and +conduct begin to operate. Each member of the company is perfectly +acquainted with the weak side of his neighbour, and knows exactly how to +sting him to the quick. Exacerbated tempers and prejudiced minds judge +everything awry, while partisans and flatterers add fuel to the fire. +Zeal is misconstrued into craft and tyranny; no protestations and no +arguments suffice to remove such false impressions. The torment of the +hell in which one has to live blinds reason and enslaves the freedom of +volition; years of unhappiness pass by before the weapons of vindictive +rage are blunted by constant acts of toleration and disinterested deeds +of kindness, and the innocent are seen in their true light. To blame the +doings of a family divided against itself is much the same as blaming +the actions of somnambulists. + +We had never used the outward demonstrations of affection, kisses and +caresses, in our domestic circle. Yet we were bound together by real +sentiments of friendliness and love on all sides. Unluckily the seeds of +discord had already begun to germinate in our brains. Besides my mother, +three brothers and three sisters, my sister-in-law was there, with her +hot, headstrong, vindictive temperament, her aptitude for colouring +everything to suit her own purpose, and her established dominion over +the minds of my relations. During my father's long illness there had +been no real head in the household. Everybody passed for master. No one +learned the virtues of submission and filial obedience. Each member of +the family had his own engagements, his own separate obligations, +together with the passions proper to himself as a human being. There was +no defect of intelligence or mental energy. But lacking a central +authority which might have brought man's egotistic passions into +wholesome subjection, self-love and caprice turned the individuals of +the group into so many political agents, bent on achieving their own +ends, without regard for the common interest. I must not omit the +chronic malady under which we suffered--that predilection for poetry, +which tinged all we thought and planned with romanticism. During a +period of many years no records had been kept either of the income +derived from our estate, or of the sales which had been made. With +perfect justice each in turn denied that he had directed our affairs. In +such circumstances the death of the father leaves a family exposed to +direst intestine warfare; and I should be both indiscreet and inhuman if +I were to lay the whole blame of what ensued upon any of the six +relatives whom I have mentioned. + +A young man like myself, of little more than twenty years, prone to +thinking rather than to speaking, with a military air acquired abroad, +when he found himself in the middle of so many working brains, and +attempted to effect a total revolution, could not but raise +irascibilities of all sorts and expose himself to odious suspicions. The +portrait which I mean to paint of my own physical and other qualities +will perhaps reveal defects which rendered such suspicions, unjust as +they are, at any rate excusable. + +My mother was not so overwhelmed by the recent loss of her husband as to +be unable to think of business. She demanded the repayment of her dowry, +small as it was, like one who feels the coming shipwreck and seeks a +skiff for his salvation. My sister-in-law, bent as usual on displaying +her talent for affairs, called the brokers, Jews, and female go-betweens +around her. My sisters were always conferring in secret among +themselves, or with my sister-in-law, who kept promising them husbands +and marriage-portions. My brother Gasparo, at the very moment when he +solemnly promised to assume the reins of government, handed over the +money I had got from Padua to his wife, to do as she thought best with, +reserving only a few coins for his own purse. Then he relapsed into his +ordinary ways of life, his literary studies, his society of wit and +genius, and gave no signs of any firm intention to make himself the +master. + +About twenty days had passed since my father died, when I was summoned +to a serious conference with my elder brother, my mother, and my +sister-in-law. We seated ourselves upon four straw-bottomed rickety +chairs, and my sister-in-law, with an air betokening the gravity of the +occasion, moved the following resolution. Signor Massimo ought to be +repaid (this, mark well, was meant to gain me over). With a view to +discharging the debts we owed him, and for other urgent necessities, it +would be advisable to sell the upper dwelling in our town-house for the +sum of 1200 ducats on the lives of us four brothers. A purchaser was +ready (possibly Signor Francesco Zini). The capital left over would +enable us to put our affairs in order, and to go forward swimmingly upon +a new and proper method of administration. My mother blinked approval of +this fine idea. My brother declared that it was the only course left +open to us. They all looked at me and waited for my assent. I did not +comprehend by what right my mother and sister-in-law took part in the +conference, or how my brother was not ashamed of cutting the figure he +did there, and of following his wife's suggestions with such docility. A +hell of squabbling yawned before me, and I answered as coldly as I could +that, so far as Signor Massimo was concerned, I could trust his generous +indulgence towards a friend in difficulties, and that I did not approve +of selling property upon our joint lives. Such a step seemed to me mere +progress on the former road to ruin. I should prefer to let our mansion, +removing the whole family to the country, where we could live for +one-third of the expense, until our debts were paid and the estate was +nursed into comparative prosperity. + +This scandalous ultimatum, which wounded the inclinations and the +self-interest of every member in the family, won me the reputation of a +very Dionysius of Syracuse. Day by day, in secret conclaves, the storm +against me grew and gathered strength. My brother Francesco, however, +had written from Corfu that he was coming home, and I judged it prudent +to await his arrival. Until I gained his support, I stood alone, hated +and dreaded like a fatal comet by my kindred. To distract my mind from +painful thoughts, I summoned all my mental forces, and poured forth +torrents of verse and prose and bizarre fancies upon paper. All through +my long and troubled life I have drawn relief from two main sources. One +is my own robust and democratic[135] bent of mind. The other is my +aptitude for studying human nature and for writing. I may truly say +that the exercise of fancy and the art of composition have been to my +mental pains what opiates are to physical torments. + + + + +XX. + +_We plunge from bad to worse, deeper and deeper into the mire._ + + +When my brother Francesco arrived from the Levant, I explained to him +the state of our affairs, and my own wishes with regard to their +administration. We both decided that he should repair to Friuli, and +undertake the management of our estates there. Gasparo was to remain +titular head of the family, while Francesco received rents, kept strict +accounts, and provided for the common household. Meanwhile we begged our +mother to charge herself with certain domestic duties, and our +sister-in-law with certain others, hoping by this apportionment of +officers to introduce harmony and order into the establishment. My +sister-in-law displayed a really exemplary resignation, merely +expressing her desire that, at this juncture, the account-book of +expenditure which she had kept for some years past should be signed by +her husband and his three brothers, in token of approval and in +discharge to her of all pecuniary obligations. + +I strove to make her understand that there was no need for such a +receipt in form; nobody would dream of calling her to account, and we +were all very grateful for her services. She would not listen to my +arguments, but insisted on our signing a certain notebook scrawled with +cabalistic characters and numbers. Francesco observed that we might +safely sign, for the sake of peace and quiet. Having entered our family +without a farthing, accompanied by her father and mother, whom we had +supported for many years and buried at our own charges, she was +incapable of making claims on the estate. To this he added that he had +consulted lawyers, and that he was quite convinced of the propriety of +yielding to her wishes. + +The sequel of this history will show that his reasoning, though +plausible enough, was faulty, and that the policy he recommended led to +further complications. Gasparo and Almorò had already signed; Francesco +was prepared to follow suit; I did not care to take the odium of +standing out alone. Accordingly, four signatures were generously +appended to the mass of undecipherable hieroglyphics, without any +attempt on our part to examine the accounts, which by this act we +formally accepted. + +Francesco set off for Friuli, after promising to maintain a detailed +correspondence with Gasparo on the state and management of our farms +there, and not to let himself be wheedled out of money or produce at the +demand of every one and anybody. I did not then know what a worthless +coadjutor I had summoned to support my policy. Without the least +intention to defraud, he was governed by an insect's blind instinct for +his own particular advantage. Under a compliant exterior, he concealed +the subtlety of a diplomatist. His sole aim was to temporise and make +concessions, with the view of bringing matters to a rupture and of +obtaining his own share in the division of our common patrimony. This +end he pursued in secrecy and silence, without reflecting on his duties +to the family, or the position of our three unmarried sisters, and the +discords which his pursuit of self-interest was bound to foment. + +What followed after his departure for Friuli seemed conclusively to +prove that a plan had been laid to drive him to the Levant and me to +Dalmatia by involving us in embarrassments of all sorts. I accuse +nobody; the heated passions which raged round us, and the injuries from +which I suffered, deserve compassion more than blame. + +Scarcely a day passed without letters being sent from Venice, begging my +brother to dispatch provisions or money on various pretences. He +complied with every application, whether it bore the name of Gasparo or +of my mother or my sister-in-law. In the course of some seven months he +had exhausted the whole harvest of that year, without asking for +accounts or disputing the claims made upon the property he managed. In +like manner the profits of certain houses in Venice, and of some farms +at Bergamo and Vicenza, amounting to 800 ducats, had been dissipated. +When letters still kept coming, demanding supplies and setting forth our +urgent needs, my brother could only answer that there was nothing left +to send. It was vain to inquire how the casks of wine and sacks of corn +and bags of cash had vanished. Everybody had taken something to defray +his own particular expenses. One said, "I got only so much;" another, "I +got so much; I did this, and I did that." Gasparo knew less than anybody +how matters had been managed, and had kept no account of the least +article. The conclusion arrived at was that we must all die of hunger +unless we sold some piece of the estate upon our joint lives. + + "Ora incomencian le dolenti note." + "And now begins the Iliad of our woes." + + + + +XXI. + + _My attitude of patient calm is useless.--Volcanic eruptions, + machinations, tragi-comic civil wars within our household._ + + +At this point I resolved to step forth boldly and to take the whole +weight of our affairs upon my shoulders, without troubling my head about +being called a tyrant and disturber of domestic peace. I proclaimed +aloud that the family must retire for some time into the country and +economise. Nothing would induce me to consent to sales or mortgages. +Then I began to contract debts on my own account, and to part with my +personal trifles for the support of the household. I soon saw that it +was impossible in this way to keep fifteen people, servants included, at +Venice. Whenever I insisted upon the necessity of leaving for the +country, all the women rose in revolt, and turned their backs without a +word of answer. Our dining-table became the scene of daily quarrels, +sullen faces, surly glances, biting speeches. I was deeply grieved to +observe that a final division of the estate was drawing nearer and +nearer. To avert this catastrophe seemed impracticable, and I reflected +gloomily upon the condition to which my brother Gasparo would be +reduced, with a wife and five children to support upon the fourth part +of our encumbered property. Meanwhile I could not blame him except for +his incurable indolence and absolute immersion in studies for which I +shared his weakness. + +Among the habitués of the house, none of them friends of mine, were +certain lawyers. I noticed that these gentlemen had frequent conferences +with the ladies of the family who ruled my brother. They were clearly +plotting against me, and seeking means to set the machinery of the law +in movement in order to hamper my free action. There was also a lady to +whom the female members of my family paid visits every evening. She was +the Countess Elisabetta Ghellini of Vicenza, widow of the patrician +Barbarigo Balbi, who died some years before this epoch, leaving her the +mother of an only son. It is exceedingly rare to find a lady endowed +with the excellent qualities of heart and head which she possessed in a +supreme degree. About forty years of age, infirm of health, and exposed +to constant litigation through various claims advanced against her +moderate estates, she bore the trials of life with steady courage and +constant trust in Heaven. Her chief interest was the education of her +son, a boy of eight or nine, for whom she had provided masters, while +she herself instilled into his mind the principles of sound religion and +morality. Gifted with a lively intellect, and fond of literature, she +spent a large part of the day in reading poetry, and opened her house to +a society composed mainly of persons who had suffered in the battles of +life. Her extreme sympathy for the afflicted led her to despoil herself +with admirable intrepidity, and to bestow on others what was needed for +her own support. This compassionate and pious lady had for her adviser +and advocate in the numerous lawsuits to which she was condemned, the +celebrated Conte Francesco Santorini. + +It will appear from the sequel that this digression upon the Countess +Ghellini was needed to explain an important passage in my life. Amid the +din and squabbles of our home, I used at times to catch fragments of +the panegyrics poured forth by my female relatives and Gasparo upon this +lady, and heard them rehearse the sonnets which they intended to recite +in her honour, or to offer for her recreation. Such was the common +custom at that period, observed by poets in the houses they frequented. +I speedily divined that a plot was in process of formation to secure the +assistance of a very famous advocate against me. Trusting this +intuition, I resolved to introduce myself, although I had received no +invitation, to the lady whom my enemies so warmly praised. + +She received me, and asked who I might be. On giving my name, the noble +and yet kindly distance of her manner changed suddenly to sternness. A +few phrases which I thought it right to utter about her interest in my +relatives increased this expression of reserve; and she began to speak +as follows, with the happy choice of words which was peculiar to her: +"Sir, I am a poor woman as regards the wealth of this life, but by the +grace of God I am rich in the possession of good sentiments and a sound +education. Your family is cultivated, and deserves to meet with kindly +feeling and esteem from all the world. It is a pity that such a family +should be annoyed and brought to sorrow by a certain individual bound to +it by ties of blood, duty, and respect. A mother of very noble birth +treated with contempt, sisters domineered over, persons of merit +regarded with hatred--all kinds of extravagances and injustice--such +things dishonour the individual of whom I speak." This preamble made me +feel inclined to bow myself out of the room in silence, since I am by +nature far from prone to justify my innocence; but politeness and a fear +that a certain famous advocate, if prejudiced against me, might upset my +plans, kept me where I was. I suffered, however, keenly from the +barbarous picture which had been presented to me, and began to plead in +self-defence. She interrupted me by saying that she did not believe me +to be entirely bad-hearted, and that if I ceased to follow the counsels +of a certain friend of mine, I might become a rational and right-feeling +young man. So then, here was Signor Massimo once more made a +scape-goat--the friend who had assisted me in Dalmatia, succoured my +family in our distress, and who still remained our uncomplaining +creditor. The impropriety of this attack stung me so sharply that I +could not hold my tongue. I had been treated as a knave and fool without +losing patience; but never in my life have I heard my friends insulted +without resenting the injustice. + +I told the lady, knitting my brows and speaking seriously, that she was +bound to listen to me: unless, as I thought not, she was indifferent to +equity. Prejudice, I said, is a very unjust judge, and I did not wish +her to fall into that category. Then I entered into a candid narration +of our family affairs. I described the ill results of reckless +mal-administration. I related what had already happened and was sure to +happen, what I wanted, how I was opposed, my honourable intentions, the +plots and schemes to thwart me, the services rendered by my friend and +his guiltlessness of any machinations. I could see that she was both +surprised and penetrated by my reasoning. Just at this point Conte +Francesco Santorini entered the apartment, tired and drowsy. We +exchanged greetings, and the lady spoke to him in this way: "Count, you +were quite right to doubt about the Gozzi. This gentleman has put a very +different face upon the matter, and I know not what to think." The Count +sank sleepily into a chair, murmuring: "Did I not tell you that you +ought to hear both sides? The chatter of women, heated brains" ... And +having said these words, he subsided into slumber. + +I begged this noble lady to continue her protection to our family, and +to receive the visits which I hoped to pay her; if she sought to help +us, she could do so by allaying the fever which was burning in so many +irritated bosoms. For my part, I cultivated her friendship through many +long years, until death forced me to deplore the loss of one whom I +esteemed and reverenced. My relatives, on the other hand, gradually +relaxed in their attentions, ceased to visit her, and changed their +eulogistic sonnets into petty satires. + + + + +XXII. + + _The dogs of the law are let loose on me by my family.--It is + impossible to avoid a separation._ + + +As time went on, my steady intention to remove our family into the +country, and my other plans of reform, roused my domestic antagonists to +various pettifogging stratagems. The black-robed seedy myrmidons of the +courts began to haunt our dwelling, taking inventories of every nail on +the pretext of my mother's dowry, delivering demands in form from my +three sisters for maintenance and marriage portions, presenting bills +for drapery and jewels furnished by a company of merchants to the tune +of 1500 ducats, and suing on the part of my two brothers-in-law for some +4000 ducats owed to them. Little creditors of all descriptions rose in +swarms around us; and what was still more astounding, my sister-in-law +advanced a claim of 900 ducats, due to her, she said, upon the statement +of accounts which we had signed so negligently. One would have thought +the myrmidons and ban-dogs of the law had been unleashed by hunters bent +on driving a wild beast from his lair; while the satisfaction and +triumph depicted on the faces of my relatives showed too clearly who +were the real authors of this legal persecution. + +I bore the brunt of these attacks with my habitual philosophy of +laughter, drew closer to my brother Almorò, and informed Francesco by +letter of what was being conspired against us. Count Francesco Santorini +helped me at this pinch with excellent advice. Under his direction I +took the following measures. Francesco received instructions to hold +fast by every rood of our Friulian property, and to send me copies of +any writs which might be served upon him there. I recognised my mother's +dowry, and offered annual payments to the merchants and my +brothers-in-law. To my sisters I replied in writing that their +maintenance should be duly attended to, but that it was impossible to +create marriage portions for them under the conditions of entail to +which the estate was subjected. With regard to the monstrous claims +advanced by my sister-in-law, I flatly denied their validity until they +had been submitted to a court of justice. Then I proceeded to meet the +current expenditure of our establishment as well as I was able, while +waiting for the time of harvest; and all this I did without mooting the +question of Gasparo's separation from our brotherhood, in the hope that +little by little things would settle down in peace and quietness. Vain +and idle expectation! My reforms, by cutting at the root of vested +interests, and checking the arbitrary sway of Heaven knows whom, merely +fanned the flames of rage which burned against me. In a private +memorial, addressed to my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and sisters, +I finally explained the impossibility of supporting the family any +longer at Venice, exposed as I was to annoying and expensive litigation +with the very persons who ate and drank at the same table. I might just +as well have talked to images. Writs issued by my mother, my +sister-in-law, my sisters, fell in showers. Slights and insults +thickened daily. Our common table had become a pit of hell, worthy to be +sung by Dante. To such a state of misery had irrational dissensions +brought a set of relatives who really loved each other. + +In order to shelter Almorò and myself from the wordy missiles which fell +like hail all dinner-time, I had a little table laid for us two in a +separate apartment. The covers were removed with rudeness, on the +pretext that the linen, plates, dishes, &c., belonged to my mother's +dowry, and that if I wanted such furniture I must buy it. Pushed in this +way to extremities, I decided to leave a house which had become for me a +hell on earth. Perhaps it was impolitic to take this step. But I could +not stand these petty persecutions longer. Before quitting the infernal +regions, I begged permission from my mother to take away the beds in +which my brother Almorò and I enjoyed our troubled slumbers, offering to +pay their price to the credit of her dowry. She replied with a sardonic +smile of discontent that she could not grant my request, since the beds +were needed by the family. I accepted this refusal with hilarity. + + "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle." + "And thence we issued to review the stars." + + + + +XXIII. + + _Calumnious reports, negotiations, a legal partition of our family + estate, tranquillity sought in vain._ + + +I had hardly settled down with my brother Almorò in the remote quarter +of S. Caterina, where lodgings are cheap in proportion to their +inconvenience and discomfort, before the whole town began to talk about +our doings. Three of the brothers Gozzi, it was rumoured, had laid +violent hands upon the family estate; their eldest brother with his wife +and five children, their three unmarried sisters, and their mother, a +Venetian noblewoman worthy of all respect, had been plunged in tears and +indigence by the barbarous inhumanity of these unnatural monsters. The +hovel I had hired, and where I suffocated with Almorò in the smoke of a +miserable kitchen, ill-furnished and waited on by an old beldame called +Jacopa, was besieged by the myrmidons of the law. Everything was done to +dislodge me from the city, and to make me abandon the line of action on +which I had resolved. Democritus and my innocence came to my aid; and I +determined to stand firm with silent and passive resistance. + +In these painful circumstances I heard to my great sorrow that my +brother's wife had persuaded him to become the lessee of the theatre of +S. Angelo at Venice.[136] Her romantic turn of fancy, together with her +love of domination, made her conceive wild hopes of profit from this +scheme. A company of actors were engaged at fixed salaries; and she was +to play the part of controller, purse-holder, and stage-manager for the +troupe at Venice and on the mainland. Moved by pity for my brother and +his innocent children, I did everything I could, without appearing +personally in the matter, to dissuade this hot-headed woman from so +perilous an enterprise. She repelled all such attempts with scorn, being +firmly convinced that she would gain a fortune and make her +brothers-in-law bite their nails with envy. + +I saw that the division of our patrimony could no longer be postponed, +and civilly intimated to Gasparo that the time was come for taking this +supreme step. Articles were accordingly drawn up, whereby the several +parcels of our estate in Friuli, Venice, Bergamo, and Vicenza were +partitioned into four lots. Provision was made for the repayment of my +mother's dowry and for the proper maintenance of my three sisters, all +of whom elected to reside with Gasparo. A fund was formed for the +liquidation of debts, the charge of which devolved on me. I undertook to +render an annual report of this operation, showing how I had bestowed +the monies in my hands as trustee for the family. Nothing was fixed +about my sister-in-law's claims for reimbursement; but it will be seen +that when her theatrical speculation proved a ruinous failure, I had to +take these also into account. Gasparo expressed a wish to obtain the +upper dwelling in our mansion as part of his share. The lower dwelling +was conceded to Francesco, Almorò and myself. To my mother and sisters +we offered the hospitality of sons and brothers, in case at any time +they should repent of their decision to abide with Gasparo. + +It might be imagined that, while these negotiations were in progress, I +had no time to spend on literary occupations. Nothing could be further +from the fact. I found in them my solace and distraction, pouring forth +multitudes of compositions, for the most part humorous and alien to the +cares which weighed upon my mind. The course of my Memoirs will bring to +light many curious incidents which these literary pastimes occasioned, +and the narration of which will prove, I hope, far from saddening to my +readers. + + + + +XXIV. + + _I enter on a period of toilsome litigation, and become acquainted + with Venetian lawyers._ + + +I should have been an arrant fool had I flattered myself with the hope +that this partition would introduce the olive-branch of peace into our +midst. On the contrary, I looked forward, and with justice, to all kinds +of coming troubles. Two-thirds of the estate were saved from extravagant +administration by the process; but the minds of Gasparo's family had +been almost incurably embittered by the same cause. When I wanted to lay +my hands upon our documents, in order to study the nature of various +entails and trusts under which the estates were settled, I found that +all these papers had been sold out of spite. Who had done this I did not +learn, but I was informed in great secrecy by a servant-maid that they +had been sold to a certain pork-butcher. I repaired immediately to his +shop, and was only just in time to repurchase some abstracts and wills, +which had not yet been used to wrap up sausages. Then I set to work in +the cabinets of notaries and advocates and in the public archives, +following the scent afforded by my recovered papers. More than eighty +bulky suits in my own handwriting remain to show how patiently I +studied the rights and claims of our estate, and now I prepared myself +for the task of laying these before the courts. + +At this epoch I made acquaintance with the celebrated pleader, Antonio +Testa, under whose direction and advice I embarked upon a series of +litigations which kept me fully occupied for eighteen years, and in the +course of which I became acquainted with the men who haunt our palace of +justice, and learned the chicaneries of legal warfare. Inveterate +abuses, introduced in the remote past, and complicated by the ingenuity +of lawyers through successive generations (most of them men of subtle +brains, some of them devoid of moral rectitude), have been built up into +a system of pleading as false as it is firmly grounded and imbued with +ineradicable insincerity. This system consists, for the most part, of +quibbling upon side-issues, throwing dust in the eyes of judges, +cavilling, misrepresenting, taking advantage of technical errors, doing +everything in short to gain a cause by indirect means. And from this +false system neither honourable nor dishonest advocates are able to +depart. + +In justice to the legal profession, I must, however, say that I found +many practicians who combined the gifts of eloquence and intellectual +fervour with urbanity, cordiality, prudence, and disinterested zeal. +Outside the vicious circle of their system they were men of loyalty and +honour. Among these I ought to pay a particular tribute to my friendly +counsel and defender, Signor Testa. Knowing my circumstances and my +upright motives, he refused to take the fees which were his due, and not +unfrequently opened his purse to me at a pinch in my necessities. I have +never met with a lawyer more quick at seizing the strong and weak points +of a case, more rapid in his analysis of piles of documents, more +sagacious in divining the probable issue of a suit, or more acute in +calculating the mental powers, the bias, and the equity of judges. Time +and the circumstances of our several lives have drawn us somewhat apart. +But nothing can diminish the feeling of deep gratitude which I shall +always cherish for one who helped to heal the distractions and to +improve the fallen fortunes of my family. + +The final result of eight or nine tedious lawsuits, carried through with +the assistance of Signor Testa, was that I received several parcels of +our estates in Friuli, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Venice, which had been +alienated by fraudulent evasions of entail.[137] Meanwhile I found time +to visit my mother and Gasparo's family. The latter were busily engaged +in concocting and translating plays for my brother's theatre. These +visits, paid with cordiality and frankness on my side, were usually the +occasions of requests for money on my mother's. She begged with maternal +dignity for little loans. I complied to the best of my ability, and +forgot to remind her of her debts. My sister-in-law forced herself to +treat me with an affectation of flattery. My sisters looked upon me with +real affection, checked in its expression by I know not what untoward +influence. My brother accepted me with philosophical indifference. + + + + +XXV. + + _A collision with my brother's family, due to old grudges and to + present needs.--They make me a married man without my having taken + a wife._ + + +My brother Gasparo's income, derived from his portion of the family +estates, from the interest on my mother's dowry and the annual allowance +for my sisters' maintenance, together with the profits of his writing +and of certain literary services rendered to his Excellency Marco +Foscarini,[138] late Doge of glorious memory, amounted to about 1500 +ducats, free of all debts and obligations. This was certainly nothing +very splendid; but neither would the wealth of Crœsus have been +anything to boast of in the hands of an extravagant family, ruled only +by the caprice of its component members. + +I have mentioned above that Gasparo obtained the upper dwelling in our +house at Venice, which was let for 150 ducats, while we three brothers +received the lower dwelling, at that time inhabited by him. Some few +months were allowed him to remove from the one apartment to the other. +But no sooner had he entered into legal possession of his new habitation +than he, or perhaps I ought to say his wife, let it again to the noble +lady Ginevra Loredan Zeno. She paid the rent of several years in +advance, and installed herself in Gasparo's part of the mansion, while +he, with all his family, continued to inhabit our part with the utmost +sang-froid, taking no further heed of the engagement he was under to us +three brothers. Now we had resolved to put this tenement into good +repair and to let it for some years, until the debts of the estate had +been discharged and we could go to live in it at peace. With this view +we had already found a tenant, who was no other than the Contessa +Ghellini Balbi. She, on her side, had given up her old apartment, which +was already let in advance to other tenants by her landlord. Time went +on, and I saw no sign of our house being abandoned to our use, according +to the family agreement. It appeared only too clearly that the +partition I had demanded, my resolve to pay the family debts out of +income without resorting to sale or mortgage, and my application to the +courts for annulment of contracts made during my father's lifetime, were +all of them unpardonable offences in the eyes of those who had made the +debts, the mortgages, the contracts. + +I began by gently asking for the house which was our portion, seeing +that we had resigned the upper dwelling to our brother at his particular +request. No answer reached me; but rumours ran around the city that I +was now attempting to turn my old mother, my three marriageable sisters, +my brother, his wife, and five innocent children into the streets. At +this point I expected that one of those interminable lawsuits, which are +the dishonour of the legal profession, but which never lack advocates to +keep them going, would be commenced against me. In order to lend colour +and substance to their false report, my relatives determined to give me +a wife without consulting me. It was impossible to fix definite +calumnies upon Mme. Ghellini Balbi, because of her exemplary life and +conspicuous piety. But my daily visits to her house offered a pretext +for injurious insinuations; and I soon heard it announced that I was +secretly married to this lady, and that all my plots had only this one +end in view. Such gossip did me honour in some respects. Yet I was +grieved that a lady of excellent conduct, devoted to her only son, and +old enough to be my mother, should be made the butt of malignant +animosity.[139] + +Without wasting time or breath in contradicting these unjust and lying +vociferations of my private enemies, I made my mind up to obtain +possession of my house by all the straightforward means in my power. +Accordingly I managed to meet my brother apart from the din of women, +and laid a clear statement before him of my obligations to Mme. Ghellini +Balbi (who ran the risk of remaining without a roof to shelter her) and +of my well-founded rights which were being iniquitously set at nought. +The poor fellow seemed on the point of weeping. His gestures reminded me +of patient Job, while he protested that he had nothing whatever to do +with a state of affairs the injustice of which he frankly admitted. He +added that he had to put up with infernal clamourings--that he was +called a chicken-hearted poltroon, a father without entrails for his +offspring--in short, that he was neither obeyed nor listened to at home. +Then, to convince me that it was not he who opposed my entrance into our +part of the house, he took a pen and wrote and signed a declaration to +the effect that he fully acknowledged the title of his brothers +Francesco, Carlo, and Almorò, and that he would never interfere to +prevent our taking possession of our lawful property. + +All these steps proved fruitless. Time pressed, and I found myself +obliged to bring my cause before a judge, who chanced to be his +Excellency Count Galean Angarano, at that time Avvogador del +Comune.[140] What was my astonishment when I saw my sister-in-law, like +an advocate in petticoats, at the head of my mother and my sisters, with +my hen-pecked brother to bring up the rear, come marching into court. I +will not dwell upon this too too comic scene-- + + "For my Thalia takes no thought to sing." + +The judge recognised that my claims were indisputable. But before +pronouncing sentence in my favour he strove to settle matters by +mediation. Conferences took place; first between the bench and his +Excellency the Senator Daniele Reniero, who acted for Mme. Ghellini +Balbi; then between the Senator and my sister-in-law, who was the rock +and stone of our vexation. I was curious to know the upshot of these +whispered confabulations. At length Senator Reniero came up and told me +that if I was willing to disburse sixty ducats, which my sister-in-law +had pressing need of, I might enter at once into possession of the +house without a verdict from the bench. Such a verdict would be appealed +against and would certainly lead to indescribable delays. I thanked his +Excellency for suggesting this arrangement. My sister-in-law received +her ducats, and we obtained our dwelling. I had it straightway put into +repair, for it looked as though it had sustained a siege. Mme. Balbi +went at once to live there with a lease of five years only, while I +retired with my brothers into a cheap house, which I had taken at S. +Ubaldo and furnished with strict regard to economy. Here I arranged for +Almorò's tuition by an excellent ecclesiastic. For my own part, I went +on paying off debts, rebuilding such of our houses as needed it, +prosecuting my lawsuits, and amusing myself in leisure hours with +literature. + + + + +XXVI. + + _A serious event, depicting the character of my uncle, the Senator + Almorò Cesare Tiepolo._ + + +A very long time had elapsed since I visited my maternal uncle, the +Senator Almorò Cesare Tiepolo. I imagined that my mother and the persons +about her, who were assiduous in paying court to him from motives wholly +alien to my nature, might have prejudiced the good old man against me. +Still I did not choose to undergo the mortification of defending +myself, especially as I could only do so by accusing those for whom at +the bottom of my heart I felt both love and reverence. I knew, moreover, +that our Venetian patricians, though just and dispassionate upon the +bench in their capacity of judges, were singularly liable to be +influenced by what they heard in private at their own homes from suitors +or clients, and that it was extremely difficult to remove impressions +which had once been made upon their minds. This weakness I have always +ascribed to their amiability, and have regarded the nobles of our +Republic as really adorable for qualities of the heart, in spite of the +sentimental bias I have mentioned. + +My habitual taciturnity and solitary ways of life, my neglect of petty +social duties, my habit of asking and desiring nothing from fortune, +together with the freedom of my pen, might have won me formidable +enemies, if any such had deigned to look down upon a person of so little +consequence as I am. + +My wise and good uncle, who was suffering from a dropsy in the chest, +and not far from death's door, let me know that he should like to see +me. I went at once to his house; and was bidden to take a seat at his +bedside. He began to complain gently that I had so long neglected to +visit him. I answered frankly that I had stayed away through fear of his +having been wrongfully prejudiced against me, and also because I heard +that he was angry with me, perhaps on account of my prolonged absence. +"If I complained," he said, "that my sister and your mother was being +exposed to ill-treatment and affronts, this was no reason why you should +suspend your visits." "I see," I replied, "that my suspicions and my +fears are not without foundation. But this is not the proper time to +trouble you with lengthy narratives in self-defence. Your health is a +matter of concern to me for your sake and for my own. I have tried +everything in my power to avert discords and divisions, even to the +point of doing violence to my naturally pacific temper. I feel sure, +when you recover, as I hope you will with all my heart, that I shall +make it clear to you that I have hurt nobody and attacked nobody, and +that I am only doing all I can to benefit our family, without the least +regard for my mere private interest; nay, that I am bearing the burden +of enormous cares and weighty business, not to speak of exposing myself +to risks and dangers, for the common good." + +He was just, prudent, a philosopher, and ill. Therefore he made no +immediate answer. I renewed my daily visits, and had the satisfaction of +hearing afterwards that the venerable old man expressed himself in these +words to my mother: "Believe me, your son Carlo is a good young fellow." + +His illness kept increasing, and I perceived, by the persons whom he +urged to visit him, that he was anxious to be reconciled with all of his +acquaintances who might be under the impression that he bore a grudge +against them. A certain Frate Bernardo of the Gesuati, who then passed +for a learned ecclesiastic, acted as his spiritual director, and used to +read at his request portions of the Holy Scriptures aloud to him. +Observing his indifference upon the point of death, this excellent friar +was moved to say: "I do not want you to prepare yourself for death too +much like a philosopher." + +Though he had filled important posts in the Government, and had +frequently sat as member of the sublime Council of Ten, he was never +heard, throughout his last illness, to utter the least word regarding +the tribunals of justice or the state. + +During his whole lifetime he had taken delight in gathering company +around his hospitable board, and seeing the table furnished with good +cheer, especially with the choicest kinds of fish. Now that he was sick +unto death, and could only take some spoonfuls of such broth as are +administered to dying persons, he still would have the table served as +formerly for guests. Every morning he used to send for one of his +gondoliers, and inquire what sorts of fine fish were that day in the +market. On receiving the man's report, he commented in praise or blame, +as this might be, upon the season and the quality of the fishes for +sale, and the various waters in which they had been caught. After +settling these affairs of the household, he proceeded to religious +exercises, grave discourses with his spiritual director, and prayers of +fervent piety. I ought further to testify that he breathed his last in +the spirit of a great man, philosophically Christian, and that his +example inspired me with the desire to imitate his end. + +He possessed the virtue of patience in the highest degree. No one ever +saw his temper stirred by any untoward accident which happened to him. +In order to give a single instance of his intrepid constancy, I will +relate an event which happened some years before his death. One evening, +while alighting from his gondola, he caught his foot in the long and +ample robes of the patrician mantle, and was upon the point of falling +into the canal. The gondolier, in his anxiety to catch and keep him up, +let the oar go which he was holding in his hands. The oar fell with +violence upon the right arm of his master, and broke it. The gondolier +was not aware of what had happened; and my uncle, though he knew very +well, uttered no complaint. He ascended the stairs, and when he reached +his apartment, the valet came forward to help him off, as usual, with +his cloak. Then at last he remarked with imperturbable long-suffering: +"Pull gently, for my right arm is in two pieces." The uproar among the +servants, who were greatly attached to him, was tremendous. The +gondolier ran up, weeping bitterly and begging to be pardoned. He bade +them all be calm, and said to the man: "You did me harm when you were +meaning to do me good. What fault have you committed, which requires my +pardon?" After this he had to lie forty days in bed without altering his +position, at the surgeon's orders; yet he never uttered a syllable that +betrayed any impatience. I could relate a number of such traits of +character, but they have nothing to do with the Memoirs of my life. + +After his death, which I felt very deeply, as every one could see, a +certain Signor Giovannantonio Guseò came to call on me. This man +practised as notary, land-surveyor, advocate, registrar, and judge in +certain courts of Friuli. He was known to be more wily than the old +Greek Sinon, and had assisted my brother's wife in procuring the +alienation of certain portions of our entailed estates. Now he suggested +that it would do me great honour, as a sign of affectionate remembrance, +if I were to contribute ten sacks of flour and two casks of wine +annually to my mother, in addition to her dowry. I saw at once from whom +this proposal emanated, and admired the address with which the proper +moment had been chosen for working on my feelings. Such artifices, +however, were repugnant to my nature; and changing my tone from sadness +to cold reserve, I replied to the following effect. "I thought my +mother's preference for my brother Gasparo's family unfortunate; my own +house was always open to her, and here she would be revered and loved by +three respectful sons. Here she would enjoy her yearly maintenance, and +the income of her dowry. By refusing our offer, she only affronted us. +By accepting it, she would confer a benefit on Gasparo, the number of +whose family would be diminished. Meanwhile, the obligation I was under +of reducing debts, repairing buildings on the property, and reclaiming +parts of the entailed estates, rendered it impossible that I should +weaken the insufficient resources at my command by any such donation as +Signor Guseò had proposed." This answer set tongues wagging again, and +revived the opinion that I was a downright Phalaris. + +The estate of my uncle Tiepolo had gained nothing by his regency of +Zante and by other lucrative appointments. The probity of his character +did not suffer him to enrich himself at the expense of the State. +Accordingly, he provided by will that all his debts should be paid off, +appending a schedule of his creditors. The residue he bequeathed to his +sister Girolama for her lifetime, with reversion to my mother. On the +same sad occasion my mother inherited a portion of some landed property +in Friuli, which had belonged to an old aunt Tiepolo, who died +intestate. This, united to her dowry, formed a sufficient fund for her +establishment. + +My mother continued to regard me as her sixth finger, amputated without +any suffering on her part. Of course she had the right to dispose of her +affections as she felt inclined, and to keep her tender heart open for +the persons who possessed her favour. It was my misfortune not to +possess it, but I did not envy those who had that privilege; and I can +assure my readers that what caused me the greatest annoyance with regard +to my mother, was seeing her always without a ducat to spend according +to her fancy. This state of things continued when the whole property of +that branch of the Tiepolos passed into her hands upon the death of her +sister Girolama, who left furniture and a considerable amount of money +to my mother, jointly with my brother Gasparo and his children. + + + + +XXVII. + + _It is decided that I was a husband, though I had no wife.--Some + anecdotes of a serious character._ + + +An event happened which clenched the gossip of my imaginary marriage to +the Contessa Ghellini Balbi. The patrician Benedetto Balbi, Canon of +Padua and Abbot of Lonigo, a gentleman abundantly endowed with gifts of +nature and of fortune, who was this lady's brother-in-law, had caused +himself to be legally appointed sole guardian of his nephew Paolo, the +widow's only son. The lad may have been about ten years old at this +epoch; and his uncle resolved to separate him from his mother, and to +place him in a school kept by the Somascan fathers, at San Cipriano on +the island of Murano.[141] His mother, who was tenderly devoted to her +son, did not oppose his entrance into this college, but resented his +being torn from the arms which had nursed and fostered him till now, as +though she were a peril to his youth and had no claim to supervise his +education in the school. Sharp and angry words passed; and Mme. Balbi +applied to the courts, demanding to be nominated guardian together with +her brother-in-law. The conflagration spread, and I, innocent as I was, +found myself involved in it. With the object of strengthening his case, +the Cavaliere went about the town, loudly protesting that his +sister-in-law had contracted a second alliance with Count Carlo Gozzi; +that she had ceased thereby to be a Balbi, and had lost all rights over +the boy, who belonged to his family. I laughed, as usual, with the lady +over the pertinacity of folk in thinking we were married. But my +laughter was turned to seriousness, when the Cavaliere finally declared +his intention to be free of legal quarrels, and to abandon all the +schemes which he had formed for his nephew's advantage, leaving him +entirely to his mother's authority. + +Assuming a Catonian gravity, I pointed out to Mme. Balbi that she ought +to waive her just claims and to stomach her natural resentment for the +sake of her son. I firmly believed in my own soul that an ounce of +sincere love was worth more than a hundred pounds of gold. Yet I +reminded her that she was not in the position to make up to her boy for +the loss of his uncle's property. This reasoning, which I regard as mere +sophistry, but which the world accepts as irrefutable, made the lady +burst into a flood of tears and then exclaim: "You are right! I am a +poor woman, and should be condemned by everybody, perhaps even in the +future by my own son. I am ready to sacrifice my rights; I will bury in +my breast the stirrings of maternal love, the sense of insult and of +injury, all that may prove prejudicial to the interests of my adored +son, on whom I am unable to confer those benefits which lie within his +uncle's power. Pray do me the further kindness of undertaking to explain +the unalterable decision at which I have arrived." + +I praised her virtuous resolution, and reported to the noble gentleman, +her brother-in-law, from whom I have always received distinguished marks +of politeness, the decision she had come to. In doing so, I attempted to +draw a picture of her merits, and to maintain that her feelings were not +merely excusable, but worthy of the highest commendation. The Cavaliere +replied with some emotion: "You must not take me for a wild beast! I +mean that the boy shall be visited by his mother, and looked after in +all his wants, the charge of supplying which I take for the future on +myself. I am quite willing to let her bring him back from time to time +to dine with her, and only stipulate that her demonstrations of +tenderness shall not interfere with his education and discipline." These +solemn words of covenant having been exchanged, I was the instrument of +separating the boy from his mother's embraces, and of conducting him to +his appointed school. His behaviour on this occasion, in which firmness +blent with filial emotion, made me feel sure that he was destined to +reward his mother's virtues and his uncle's benevolence with conduct +worthy of the highest honours of his country. Only death, which spared +neither of his relatives, and which prevented them from reaping the +fruits of their respective love and kindness, defeated these +prognostications. The mother died twelve, and the uncle fifteen years +after the events I have narrated. Young Balbi grew up to be an ornament, +by his intellectual and moral qualities, by his probity and purity of +manners, by his sympathy for the oppressed, and by his thoroughly +national temper, to the Venetian Republic, in the administration of +which his birth opened for him a career of usefulness and honour. + + + + +XXVIII. + + _I should not have believed what is narrated in this chapter, if I + had not seen it with my own eyes._ + + +Family jars and discords have this effect upon embittered minds that +each member, wherever the wrong may really lie, is apt to think, not +only that he is in the right, but that the right is absolutely and +wholly on his side. For my part, I am not altogether sure that I was +justified in doing what I did, and what I have described above with +perfect candour. + +I was aware that the theatrical speculation into which my brother had +been induced to enter had taken a bad turn, and that worse might be +expected in the future. A malignant and vindictive spirit would have +found some satisfaction in these circumstances. As it was, I felt +sincerely sorry, and flattered myself on being therefore free from +malice. In proportion as things went from bad to worse, the rancour +against myself increased, as though I had been responsible for an +enterprise which I had always solemnly condemned by act and word. + +I kept up relations with my brother's family, wishing to maintain the +links of relationship unbroken, and to explain from time to time what I +was doing for the common good. In spite of these demonstrations of a +kindly feeling, which I admit were never very gushing, I saw to my deep +regret that the wounds caused by the partition of our patrimony had not +ceased to bleed. + +The youngest of my sisters, Chiara by name, induced perhaps by some +presentiment of coming trouble, asked me one day to take her under the +protection of us three brothers. I cordially acceded to her request, and +would have done the like by my mother and our two other sisters, had +they not spurned the acceptance of what they had hitherto rejected as a +great misfortune. + +I told this youngest of my sisters that, our mother not being under my +roof, my brother Francesco occupied with the estates in Friuli, Almorò a +mere boy engaged in studies, and I absorbed in legal affairs for the +common interests of the family, she could not with any propriety be left +to the custody of a rough and stupid serving-woman. I therefore begged +her to enter a convent for a while, until we should have changed our +mode of living, and should be in a position to receive her more suitably +and to take thought for her proper establishment. My sisters are neither +foolish nor ill-natured. Chiara accepted my proposal, and was placed in +the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli at Pordenone, as a young lady in +charge of the Superior. + +Any one exposed, as I was, to the rage of angry tongues, blackening me +with the epithets of unjust, inhumane, tyrannical, marrying me against +my will, and capable of insinuating the worst of charges against me for +my guardianship of a sister, would act rightly if he took the +precautions I did. Yet the precautions of the most prudent man on earth +do not always bear the good results expected of them. I speak with +experience derived from long study of ill-inclined men and +worse-inclined women, who have invariably taken my unalterable good +faith for venomous maliciousness. + +I was excessively pained to observe that the bitterness created in my +brother Gasparo's family by the events I have narrated remained +unconquerable. It is true that they concealed, as far as possible, their +grudge against me, whenever I paid them visits and treated them with +brotherly good-will. This grudge, however, could not help showing itself +in public; and it did so in a monstrous fashion, which I should not have +credited unless I had been an eye-witness of the scandal. + +My brothers and I were in the habit, during carnival-time, of frequently +attending the theatre of S. Angelo, which was under the direction of my +sister-in-law far rather than her husband. Amusement was less our object +than the wish to support, so far as in us lay, a speculation to which we +feared our brother had been sacrificed. We persuaded Mme. Ghellini Balbi +to accompany us; and she entered into our designs by applauding as +heartily as any of the audience. + +They had given at this theatre a translation of the French comedy called +_Esop at the Court_, which succeeded partly by the elegance of my +brother's Italian version, and partly by its novelty. Rumour told us +that the sequel, by the same French author, entitled _Esop in the Town_, +was being translated and would soon appear. We were eager to be present +at the first night, to back the piece with our approval, and to witness +its triumph. + +A worthy fellow, who aired his eloquence at Gasparo's house and also in +our own, took me apart one day, and spoke with an air of secrecy and +consternation to the following effect: "You must know that the +forthcoming play of _Esop in the Town_ will contain a scene, +interpolated, not translated from the original, in which you, your +brothers Francesco and Almorò, and Mme. Ghellini Balbi, are held up in a +cruel satire to the public scorn. Do not let my name transpire; but take +means to prevent this scandal; the comedy will be represented in five +days from now." I was far from disbelieving that what my friend said was +the truth; yet I took care to let no sign of my belief escape me. I +thanked him for the friendly interest which had prompted him to warn me, +but laughed the matter off as something beyond the range of possibility. +He strained every nerve to convince me, but got nothing for his pains +beyond smiles and ironical protestations of gratitude. I left him there +fuming with anger at my obstinate hilarity. + +I kept guard over my tongue in the presence of my brothers and the lady, +and made a show of great anxiety to see the new play produced upon the +boards. At last the first night came, and we all provided ourselves with +a convenient box for the occasion. We were disappointed to find the +theatre ill-attended, and to notice that the comedy dragged. _Esop at +the Court_ had caught the public by something piquant in its chief +character, by his grotesque, crook-backed figure, and by the appropriate +fables which had been written with real dramatic skill for the part. +_Esop in the Town_ was no less worthy of attention, but the novelty had +evaporated; it seemed a plagiarism of the former piece, and wearied the +audience like a composition which has lost its salt. At length the +interpolated scene, of which my friend had warned me, came on.[142] + +An ancient dame, attired in black, made her entrance, and unfolded the +tale of her self-styled calamities to Esop. Pouring forth an +interminable catalogue of woes, she enumerated all the lies which had +been circulated against myself and Mme. Balbi at the period of our +family dissensions. The ancient dame summed up by saying that she had +been turned out of house and home, together with a loving son, three +daughters, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren, by three of her +own male children, the barbarous perverted offspring of her womb. Then +she appealed with tears for counsel and advice to Esop, who expressed +his sympathy in a frigidly elaborated fable. The ancient dame, attired +in black, was an exact image of our poor mother, who had been blinded by +a touch of spite against me and by the mud-honey of her favouritism into +allowing herself to be exposed in this way on a public stage for the +mirth of the populace. + +The scene was very long; it had nothing to do with the action of the +piece, having been foisted in to gratify a private animosity. The +audience, ignorant of what it meant, began to yawn; and it contributed +in no small measure to the failure of the play. + +While this indecent and malignant episode was dragging its slow length +along, I saw Mme. Ghellini Balbi becoming momently more taciturn and out +of humour, my two brothers flaming into anger and preparing for some act +of violence. The shouts of laughter with which I greeted this abortion +of a satire added fuel to their fire, and Francesco, spurred by martial +ardour, was on the point of defying the players. He only made me laugh +the louder; but I had some difficulty in persuading my companions to +quench their indignation in a cup of water, and to wrap themselves +around with imperturbable indifference. They obeyed me. If we had made a +disturbance, we should have put the cap on our own heads. As it was, our +cold behaviour snuffed out the whole episode, without awaking anybody's +interest. And such will, peradventure, be the fate of these Memoirs I am +writing of my life. + +In after days I was glad to have laughed at this indecent exhibition. +The perusal of an anecdote in Ælian confirmed my self-congratulation. It +was to the following effect. "When," says he, "a firm courageous spirit +is attacked before the public in quizzical caricatures and gibing +insults, these trifles vanish like mist before the wind; but if they +meet with a nature which is base and proud and abject all at one and the +same time, they fill it with melancholy and madness, which often lead it +to the grave.[143] Take the proof of these remarks. Socrates, when he +was ridiculed upon the public stage by Aristophanes, enjoyed the fun and +laughed at it. Poliagros, under the same circumstances, went mad and +hanged himself." + +In concluding this episode, which I leave my readers to characterise +with stronger epithets than I shall use, I wish to affirm that I never +have believed, or can believe, that my brother Gasparo lent his pen or +his assent to the production of the scene in question. + + + + +XXIX. + + _A disagreeable action at law brought against me._ + + +While busily engaged in prosecuting my many lawsuits, I was unpleasantly +surprised by the revival of my sister-in-law's old claim for +reimbursement of monies expended by her in the management of our affairs +during my father's lifetime.[144] This preposterous claim had long been +lying dormant, and the better terms on which we were gradually coming to +live together made me forget it as a chimera of the past. + +My brother Gasparo's direction of the theatre of which he was the sole +lessee bore such fruits as every one predicted. Instead of the pecuniary +profits he had been encouraged to expect, the poor fellow was worried +with vexatious and aggressive opposition, peculiarly trying to one of +his gifts and temperament, but only too usual in enterprises of this +kind. + +Wounded pride and thirst for vengeance, together with the hideous +necessity of meeting debts contracted in this unsuccessful speculation, +were the causes which roused his wife to bring her alleged claims upon +the family into a law-court. The defendants in this suit were myself and +my two brothers Francesco and Almorò. It will be remembered that she had +induced us to sign her cabalistic book of magic numbers with the sole +object of freeing her from any possible pretensions upon our side. My +elder brother, who had been the first to sign, in order to give a good +example to his juniors, was not prosecuted by his wife. + +Our legal advisers maintained, with some show of reason, that Gasparo +was the real mover in this matter. For my part, knowing as I did his +peaceful character, I felt certain, that though he was capable of +countenancing irregularities through indolence and the desire to live a +quiet life, he was incapable of stirring up litigious strife on such +foundations. I was not ignorant that he had stooped to the theatrical +speculation in order merely to escape from a vortex of domestic +intrigues. I knew, moreover, that, after the partition of our patrimony, +his wife and family had changed their residence at least six times, +through restlessness, without informing him; so that he had gone to +knock at empty house-doors, and had casually learned from neighbours in +what quarter of the town his flighty brood had nested last. It also +reached my ears that his wife was selling property upon his life, and +that he had finally been driven by the tempest of his home to take a +distant lodging of two rooms,[145] where he installed himself with his +little heap of books and abandoned himself to study, seeking the peace +he could not find. After all, the father of a family who flies domestic +cares, only brings upon himself more carping cares than those which he +has fled from. All these considerations put together enabled me to +convince my counsel that Gasparo had no share in the proceedings of his +wife. + +In the pleadings which set forth my sister-in-law's cause, Signor Guseò, +already named by me above, deposed on obviously false oath that he had +been commissioned by us three brothers to examine her accounts, and that +he had found her claim for reimbursement in the sum demanded to be just. +To cut a long story short, our arguments upon the other side were +useless. It was in vain that we expounded the inability of a woman who +had entered our family without dowry, and had got the management of +affairs into her hands through the indolence of its real head, to +constitute herself its creditor; in vain that we denounced the collusion +of one brother with his wife against the interests of three innocent +brothers, who had been absent many years without burdening the estate; +in vain that we showed how the father and the mother of the plaintiff +had been received into our house and maintained for full fifteen years +until their death, and how her relatives had been more the masters there +than its legitimate owners; in vain that we brought forward the chaotic +account-book, signed by us in compliance with our elder brother for the +sole sake of calming troubled tempers; in vain that we pointed out +figures, garbled, cancelled, altered in these precious documents; in +vain that we offered to discharge sums due to creditors for money or +goods rendered to the plaintiff in her administration of the family +affairs. All these solid pleas were like words thrown to the winds +before the impudence of two scoundrelly pettifoggers, the very scum of +the Venetian law-courts, who managed to convince our sapient judges that +men ought to open their eyes wide before they signed papers. From that +moment until now, I have always read my letters through ten times before +appending my signature. + +As usual, I consoled myself by laughing over the inevitable. Nor did I +dream of complaining to Francesco, who had drawn me into the affair by +his desire to settle matters. He, good fellow, met my laughter with a +sorry countenance, protesting that he could never have anticipated such +an abominable trick of fortune. + +Seven hundred ducats were passed to my sister-in-law's credit on the +termination of this suit. They did my brother's family no good. Debts to +comedians had eaten up the capital beforehand; and I was obliged to pay +a set of hungry fellows with the consent of him and his wife. The +annoyance, however, did not stop here. In order to bolster up her claim, +my sister-in-law had raked together a multitude of soi-disant creditors, +who pretended to have supplied money or goods to our family; and +declarations signed by them, recognising her as their sole debtor, were +put into court as evidence. When they found their expectations +frustrated, the wasp's nest swarmed out against us three brothers, and +sequestrated our house-property for payment of their alleged debts. +Before I succeeded in finally shaking them off, I had to transact much +tiresome business and to fight several lawsuits. + + + + +XXX. + + _A long and serious illness.--My recovery.--The doctors + differ.--One of my sisters takes the veil.--Beginnings of literary + squabbles, and other trifles._ + + +In the midst of these annoyances, I found the time and strength to +pursue my literary studies, especially in the now neglected art of +poetry, and enjoyed excellent health; when suddenly, one night, a +violent hemorrhage from the lungs warned me that the life of mortals +hangs upon the frailest thread. + +Bleeding, vegetable diet, and a frugality in food, which few, I think, +are capable of continuing for as long a space of time as I can, +together with my philosophical indifference to death, restored me to +something like a tolerable state of health. + +It seemed to me at this period that my two brothers and I, who always +kept together, were in a position to settle down again into our paternal +home. Mme. Ghellini Balbi, who had rented the house for more than five +years, politely retired at my request, and found another habitation at +S. Agostino. I furnished our ancestral nest as decently as I was able; +and we were soon installed there. It was then that I invited my youngest +sister to leave her convent and join us, travelling myself to Pordenone +for this purpose. + +Whether through weakness, or human influence, or Divine inspiration, I +know not; but I found the good girl obstinate against my prayers, my +anger, and my threats. She entreated with a holy stubbornness to be left +in prison, to be indulged in her desire to pass her lifetime in that +blessed aviary of virgins. I commanded her to come home for at least +three or four months. At the end of that time, if she still persisted in +her pious fanaticism, I promised to play the part of executioner at her +request. She replied with a serious enthusiasm, which made me laugh, +that she knew enough of the world to be experienced in its wickedness; +and when I insisted, she met me with rather less than heavenly +doggedness by remarking that nothing short of cutting her in pieces +would make her quit the convent-gratings. Though I did not believe that +this ultimatum was dictated by the angels, I bent my head in order to +avoid a scandal. On taking the veil, she received those appointments and +allowances which are usually bestowed upon the brides of Christ. + +Were I to fix my thoughts upon the troubles which my four married +sisters have had to suffer and still suffer--and I am only too well +informed about them--I should be obliged to admit that the youngest +chose the better part in life. They were always in straits, always +weeping, with their gentle natures and their illimitable powers of +endurance. One of them died before my eyes, to my deep sorrow, only +because she was a wife. Meanwhile, the nun, beloved by her sisters, +placidly smiled at things which we, refined in pleasures, finding +nowhere solid pleasure for our satisfaction, would call barbarous +tortures, and took delight in little treats, which we philosophers, +past-masters in the arts of greed, are wont to scorn and turn our backs +upon. In due course she attained the highest rank of Abbess in her +convent; and I believe she was more gratified with this honour than +Louis XVI. with his titles of King of France and of Navarre.[146] + +Time had at length allayed the discords of our family. My two remaining +sisters found husbands. My brother Gasparo obtained a post at the +University of Padua, which brought him six hundred ducats a year, +besides pecuniary gratifications for extraordinary services.[147] This +proves that literature is not wholly unremunerated in Venice. In +addition to these emoluments, he found another way, legitimate indeed, +but one which seems incredible, for accumulating the sequins so much +needed after his theatrical disaster. There was not a marriage, a taking +of the veil among our noble families, an election of a Doge, or +procurator, or grand chancellor, without my brother being engaged to +produce the panegyrics or poems which are usual on such occasions--more +sought perhaps by fashion than by studious readers. The patricians made +it their custom to reward him with a hundred sequins, which contributed +to the splendour of their families, but did him little good, for in his +hands money found wings and flew away. + +These details have little to do with my Memoirs; yet they are honourable +to my nation, and are not without a certain bearing on my subject. +Poetical trifles, published by me in collections, found favour by some +aspect of novelty and by genial satire on contemporary fashions. +Unluckily, they got me the reputation of a good poet and good writer. +Accordingly, many of our lords tried to press me into the ranks of the +_Raccoglitori_--collectors and compilers of occasional verse-books. +They did not know that I had adopted for my motto that line of Berni:-- + + "Voleva far da se, non comandato." + "His master he would be, and no man's man." + +Whenever they did me the honour to force this function on me, I civilly +declined, and sent their messengers on to my brother, without, however, +refusing compositions of my own, which swelled the collections, to their +gain or loss as chance might have it. + +I never abandoned the scheme I had formed of moving at law against the +Marchese Terzi of Bergamo in a suit for the recovery of lands and rights +belonging to us.[148] But while I was engaged on the preliminary +business, a fresh attack of pulmonary hemorrhage cooled my ardour. Many +learned physicians whom I consulted, looked upon me as a victim of +consumption, at the point of death. Beggars in the street, when they saw +me pass, promised to pray for my life if I would fling them a copper. +The cleverest professors of medicine at Padua prescribed ass's milk, +which was tantamount to saying: "Phthisical creature, go and make your +peace with Heaven!" My own doctor in ordinary, Arcadio Cappello by name, +now dead--an old man, experienced, well acquainted with my +constitution, and a philosopher to boot--forbade me milk as though it +had been poison. "You," he said, "are suffering from a nasty malady. Yet +it has not the origin, nor has it made the progress, which these eminent +physicians fancy. If you let your illness prey upon your mind, you will +die. If you have the strength and heart to throw aside all thoughts +about it, you will recover. It has in you no other basis than a +hypochondriacal habit, which you have contracted by a sedentary life of +worry, business, and excessive study. Raw milk of any kind is a pure +poison in your case. Live regularly, cast aside reflections on your +symptoms, take horse-exercise two or three hours a day. These are your +best medicines." + +Marchese Terzi owes no thanks to my malady. Bloodless as I was, through +what I lost by hemorrhage and venesection, my intellect enjoyed the +highest qualities of penetration and acumen. Stretched out upon my bed, +I had the necessary papers for my lawsuit brought to me--abstracts and +wills recovered from the pork-butcher--a whole paraphernalia of +documents forbidden by my doctors--and set up a scheme of proofs and +arguments, so clear and so convincing that they subsequently drove my +enemy to desperate measures. + +These annoying relapses of my malady continued for two years and a half +to fall upon me when I least expected them. They were enough to +dishearten any man less stupid than myself, and make him despair of +living. Contrary to the advice of several physicians, who protested with +wide-open horror-stricken eyes that riding would inflame my blood and +burst the arteries of my lungs, I followed the prescription of Doctor +Arcadio Cappello, half-suffocated as I was with hemorrhage. He proved to +be right. Regular diet, contempt for my symptoms, and horse-exercise +completed my cure. It is now twenty years and more since I have been +reminded that I was ever subject to this indisposition. + +As I have often had occasion to remark, no business, no quarrels, no +lawsuits, and no illnesses prevented me from devoting some hours every +day to poetry. This being the case, when controversies arose in Venice +on philology and the higher Italian literature--controversies of which I +mean to render some account in the following chapters--I went on +vomiting blood from my veins, and scribbling sonnets, satires, essays in +defence of our great writers, treatises on style, polemics against +Chiari and Goldoni and their followers. All these trifles, when I read +them aloud, made my friends laugh, as well as my doctor and the surgeon +who attended on me. + +Before engaging in the circumstances which led to my becoming a writer +for the theatre, I will wind up the history of our private affairs. +First of all, I let the lawsuit with Marchese Terzi drop. My reasons +were as follows:--With the best intentions in the world, and the +strongest desire to reunite the scattered members of our family under +one roof, I found this task impossible. My sisters married. My brothers +Francesco and Almorò in course of time took wives and begat children. My +mother's inheritance of the Tiepolo property (though strictly speaking +it ought to have been treated as entailed upon her sons) ran to waste in +the hands of Gasparo and his wife. I had the old debts of our estate +still weighing on my shoulders. It seemed to me, in this condition of +affairs, best to remain a bachelor, and to devote myself to the duties I +had undertaken, without ambitious projects and without assuming heavier +obligations. Freed from further responsibilities to my family, whom I +had loyally served in their material interests, and against none of whom +I harboured any rancour, I was master of my time and could devote myself +to the literary exercises which were so congenial to my temper. + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + + + +INDEX. + +This index appears at the end of Volume 2, but is shown here for the +convenience of the reader. {note of etext transcriber} + + +Academy de' Granelleschi, at Venice, i. 89, 99. + +Actors, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Actresses, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Agazi, Francesco, Censor of Plays, ii. 264, 268. + +Albergati, Marchese Francesco, ii. 240; + notes on his career, ii. 240 _note_ 1. + +Altissimo, Cristoforo, poet and _improvisatore_, i. 202. + +"Amore delle Tre Melarancie," Gozzi's first _Fiaba_, i. 109; ii. 129, 133. + translation of, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147; ii. 130. + his best Fable, artistically, i. 163. + +Andreini, Francesco, a celebrated actor, i. 51. + +Andrich, Carlo, ii. 76. + +Angaran, Zorzi, Avogadore, i. 13. + +Angarano, Count Galeaso, i. 341. + +Apergi, Lieutenant Giovanni, i. 227; ii. 16. + +Aretino, Pietro, i. 29. + +Arlecchino, i. 35, + description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 46. + +"Augellino Belverde," one of Gozzi's "Fiabe," analysis of, i. 164-176. + +Bada, Gianbattista, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Balbi, Benedetto, Canon of Padua, i. 349-352. + +Balbi, Countess Elisabetta Ghellini, _see_ Ghellini Balbi, Countess. + +Balbi, Paolo, i. 349-352; ii. 89, 295. + his sudden death, ii. 326. + +Balestra, Antonio, painter, ii. 342. + +Baretti, Giuseppe, his opinion of Gozzi, i. 179. + +Barsanti, Domenico, actor, ii. 216, 323. + +Bartoli, Adolfo, his "Scenari Inediti," i. 57. + +Bartoli, Francesco, husband of Teodora Ricci, ii. 195 _note_ 1, 249-252. + his ill-health and separation from his wife, ii. 199. + +Battagia, Maddalena, actress, ii. 174. + +Benedetti, Luigi, actor, ii. 209, 269, 288, 323. + +Beolco, Angelo, a Paduan writer of simple rustic comedies, i. 33. + +Bergalli, Luisa Pisana, wife of Gasparo Gozzi, _see_ Gozzi, Luisa Pisana. + +Bettinelli, Abbé Xavier, his attempted revolution in literary taste, ii. 104. + shown up by the Granelleschi, ii. 105. + +Bevilacqua, Doctor Bartolommeo, ii. 314. + +Boldù, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 276. + +Borrommeo, Carlo, his crusade against the Comedians, i. 70. + +Bragadino, Cavaliere, the curious occurrence that earned +Gozzi his friendship, ii. 80-84. + +Brescia, Bishop of, i. 277. + +Brighella, i. 35; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 47. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Burchiello, an obscure Florentine poet, ii. 116. + + +Calogerà, Padre, ii. 117. + +Canale, or Canaletti, Antonio, ii. 338. + his defects, ii. 338. + +Canziani, Maria, dancer, ii. 75. + +Capitano, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + +Capocomico, manager of the Comedians, his functions, i. 58-60, 64. + +Cappello, Arcadio, physician, i. 368. + +Casali, Gaetano, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Ignazio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Jacques, i. 4, 73, 350 _note_ 1; ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Cavalli, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 220. + +Cecchi, playwright, i. 33. + +Cenet, Madame Jeanne Sarah, ii. 310. + +Cerlone, Francesco, poet, i. 35 _note_ 3. + fixed the type of Pulcinella, i. 49. + +Chasles, Philarete, i. 181. + +Chaussée, Nivelle de la, his sentimental comedies, i. 87. + +Chiari, Abbé Pietro, playwright, i. 2. + his rivalry with Goldoni, i. 97. + Gozzi's attacks on, i. 99. + makes common cause with Goldoni against Gozzi, i. 106, ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of, ii. 113, 114. + defeated by Gozzi, gives up play-writing, i. 177, ii. 155, 156. + +Cicucci, Regina, actress, ii. 170. + +Colombani, Paolo, bookseller, his shop the headquarters +of the Granelleschi, ii. 127. + +Colombo, Giovanni, i. 229. + Grand Chancellor of the Venetian Republic, i. 230. + +Comedian, qualifications of a good Italian, i. 61. + +Comedians, their degraded social position, i. 70. + +Comedy, Italian-- + Its origin during the Renaissance, i. 26. + its dependence on Latin models, i. 26, 28. + the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 27, 39. + the first attempts at National Italian comedy, i. 28. + its stock characters, i. 28. + _Commedia dell'Arte all'Improviso_, its causes, and its + distinctive features, i. 30-32. + its great antiquity, i. 32. + its relation to the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 32, 55. + farces in relation to the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 33. + the _Commedia dell'Arte_ trusted to the improvisatory + talent of the actors, i. 34. + the actors in it wore masks, i. 34. + the principal masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella, i. 34. + description of the masks, i. 43-54. + the less important masks, i. 52. + relation of the _Commedia dell'Arte_ to the old Latin comedy + of mimes and _exodia_, i. 36-40. + Lombard, Neapolitan, and Florentine ingredients in it, i. 40. + its culmination and decay, i. 43. + modifications introduced into the fixed characters of the _Commedia + dell'Arte_ + by celebrated actors, i. 53. + the plots and subjects of improvised comedies, i. 54. + its indecency and buffoonery, i. 56. + description of the _scenari_ of the comedies, i. 56. + how they were arranged or rehearsed, i. 58. + qualifications of the actors, i. 61. + stock speeches, which were not left to the inspiration of the comedians, + but were written, i. 62. + _lazzi_ (sallies of buffoonery), i. 63. + its tendency to degenerate, i. 64, 69. + the widespread popularity of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 65. + its success in Paris, Spain, Portugal, and London, i. 65, 67. + probably the model on which Tarleton and Wilson formed their Drolls, i. 68. + Gozzi's praise of it, i. 68. + its decadence, i. 69, 87. + the degraded social position of the actors, i. 70. + Garzoni's description of the strolling comedians, i. 73-80. + superseded by the _Comédie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + Gozzi's "Fiabe Teatrali," an attempt to rehabilitate the impromptu + comedy, i. 109. + translation of Gozzi's first "Fiaba," i. 112-146. + character of the actors in Italian Comedy, ii. 137. + +_Commedia dell'Arte._ _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Comparetti, Doctor Andrea, ii. 300. + +Contarini, Francesco, Gratarol's uncle, ii. 292, 293. + +Coralli, actor, ii. 201, 208, 214, 216. + +Cornaro, Giorgio, physician, ii. 327. + +Cortigiani, the Venetian, or Men of the World, i. 294 _note_ 1. + +Coviello, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 50. + +Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, ii. 342. + + +Dalmatia, the character of the natives of, i. 238. + the women of, i. 242. + the nature of the country, i. 243. + +Danieli, chief physician to the Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 222. + +Da Ponte, Lorenzo, i. 4. + +Darbes, Cesare, comedian, i. 95, 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169. + +Della Bona, Professor, ii. 310. + his skilful treatment of Gasparo Gozzi's illness, ii. 316. + +Despériers, Bonaventura, ii. 7 _note_ 1. + +Dialects, different, spoken in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35. + +Dolfin-Tron, Caterina, i. 11; ii. 264, 287, 312, 319. + her character and influence, i. 9. + her enmity towards Gratarol, i. 9. + ruins Gratarol, i. 12, 13. + Gratarol's "Narrazione" bitterly attacks her, i. 13. + Gozzi's relations with, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + Gozzi intercedes with her to have "Le Droghe d'Amore" stopped, ii. 288. + her refusal, ii. 290. + Gozzi shows her how he has been insulted by Gratarol, ii. 208. + her interest in Gasparo Gozzi, ii. 308. + +_Doti_--stock passages in the _Commedia dell'Arte_ which were not left to + improvisation, i. 62; ii. 144. + +Dottore, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 34. + description of, i. 45. + +"Droghe d'Amore, Le," Gozzi's comedy which caused the quarrel between + Gratarol and Gozzi, i. 10; ii. 225, 252, 258. + licensed for the stage, ii. 259. + the cast changed by the actors in order to attack Gratarol, ii. 260, 269. + read to the actors, ii. 260. + Gratarol's foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, and + makes all Venice talk of it, ii. 263. + its production, ii. 270. + the excitement it causes, ii. 274. + Gratarol's distress at its success, ii. 277. + Gozzi's efforts to have it stopped, ii. 286-294. + +Drousiano, an Italian comedian in London in 1577-8, i. 67. + + +"Esop in the Town," a play in which Gozzi and the Countess + Balbi were attacked, i. 356. + +Farces, popular during the Renaissance, i. 33. + +Farsetti, Daniele, Gozzi dedicates his "Tartana degl'influssi" to, ii. 116. + +Farsetti, Giuseppe, ii. 124. + +"Fiabe Teatrali," Gozzi's celebrated plays, i. 107; ii. 129-137. + an endeavour to rehabilitate the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 109. + success of his first Fable, i. 146, 147. + list of the remaining nine Fables, i. 148. + critical account of, i. 148-176. + the sources of, i. 162. + their success but ephemeral, i. 178. + +Fiorelli, Agostino, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169, 323. + +Fiorelli, Tiberio of Naples, the famous Scaramouch, i. 51, 53. + his wonderful acting described, i. 66. + +Florentine burlesque poets, Gozzi's true ancestors in art, i. 110. + +Florentine ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Foscarini, Marco, Doge of Venice, i. 337. + + +Galante, avvocato fiscale dell'Avogaderia, i. 13. + +Garzoni, his description of the strolling comedians, + in his "Piazza Universale," i. 73-80. + +_Generici_--or common-places--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + +Ghellini Balbi, Countess Elisabetta, i. 324, 338, 342, 355, 365. + her interest in the Gozzi family, i. 324. + Gozzi calls upon her, i. 325. + Gozzi reported to be married to her, i. 339, 349. + her anxieties about her son, i. 349-352. + attacked in a play called "Esop in the Town," i. 356. + +Gherardi, his "Theatre Italien," i. 61, 66. + +Goethe, his estimate of Goldoni and Gozzi, i. 178. + +Goldoni, Carlo, dramatist, i. 2, 4, 87. + his severe condemnation of the Italian Comedy, i. 72. + his undoubted genius, i. 89. + his excellent character, i. 89. + his qualities and defects, i. 89-91. + sketch of his career, i. 92. + his desire to reform Italian Comedy, i. 93. + the steps which he took in that direction, i. 93-95. + joins the company of Medebac, i. 95. + his first comedy of character, as opposed to impromptu comedy, i. 95. + the fortunes of his crusade against the _Commedia + dell'Arte_, i. 95; ii. 128. + his contest with Chiari, i. 97. + Gozzi's hatred for him as a corrupter of the language, i. 99. + Gozzi's first attack on him, i. 99; ii. 116. + his reply to Gozzi, i. 101; ii. 117. + the long-continued warfare between him and Gozzi, i. 102; ii. 119-128 + Chiari makes common cause with him against Gozzi, i. 106; ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + defeated by Gozzi, goes to Paris, i. 177; ii. 155, 156. + his ultimate success and fame, i. 178. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of him, ii. 111-113. + his superiority over Chiari, ii. 114. + the various publications in which Gozzi attacked him, ii. 119-128. + himself writes a "Fable," ii. 150. + his similarity in art with Longhi the painter, ii. 350. + +Gozzi family, i. 185; + _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice, i. 186. + +Gozzi, Almorò, younger brother of Carlo, i. 290, 320, 329, 330, + 331, 354; ii. 79, 162, 336. + +Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo, mother of Carlo, i. 189, 285, 304. + her maladministration of the family affairs, i. 297. + her quarrels with Carlo Gozzi, i. 304. + her dislike for Carlo, i. 348. + +Gozzi, Carlo-- + his autobiography, entitled "Memorie inutili della vita di + Carlo Gozzi." i. 1. + design of his autobiography, i. 3, 19; + its value historically, i. 4. + his "Droghe d'Amore" supposed to contain a caricature of Gratarol. i. 10. + attacked by Gratarol in his "Narrazione Apologetica, i. 14. + writes a reply--"Epistola Confutatoria," i. 14; + but is not allowed to publish it, i. 15. + publishes his memoir and, under provocation, the "Epistola Confutatoria," + after the fall of the Venetian republic, i. 16-19. + his autobiography, its form, its merits and defects, and its + reliability, i. 19-24. + his personal characteristics, i. 22. + his "Fiabe," i. 43. + his eulogy of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 68. + his description of the contest between Goldoni and Chiari, i. 98. + translation of his first Fable, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147. + his other "Fiabe," i. 148. + critical account of his "Fiabe Teatrali, i. 148-176. + his use of the Masks, i. 149-154. + his mixture of the comic element with the fairy-tale, i. 154. + not a great imaginative poet, i. 156. + his merits as a playwright, i. 157-160. + his conservative philosophy of life, i. 160. + the sources of his "Fiabe," i. 162. + analysis of "L'Augellino Belverde," i. 164-176. + his victory over Goldoni and Chiari, i. 176. + his fame ephemeral, i. 178. + German translation of his plays, i. 180. + his pedigree, i. 2, 185-190. + his birth, i. 190 _note_ 1. + the exact trustworthiness of his Memoirs, i. 190 _note_ 1.[I?] + his brothers and sisters, i. 191. + his education, i. 192. + injures his health by study, i. 196. + his endeavours after a good literary style, i. 197. + his moral and physical training, i. 200, 205. + his acting as a child, i. 201. + shows skill as an _improvisatore_, i. 202. + his first poetical productions, i. 205-207. + his early productions, i. 208. + the family difficulties, i. 209. + the discomforts of his home, i. 212. + he leaves home and becomes a soldier, i. 213. + his first experiences as a soldier, i. 214-221. + has a dangerous illness, i. 221. + studies Fortification, i. 225. + his love of poetry, i. 229. + his sonnet in praise of Provveditore Quirini, i. 233. + an exciting adventure with a horse, i. 234. + he is enrolled as a _Cadet noble_ of cavalry, i. 246. + what his military services amounted to, i. 247. + his success as a _soubrette_ in the military theatricals at Zara, + i. 249-251. + some of his escapades as a youth, i. 252-273. + the adventures in connection with the courtesan Tonina, i. 262-272. + his finances at the close of his military service, i. 273. + returns to Venice, i. 278. + the state of his family and home, when he returns, i. 279. + his first meeting with his family, i. 284. + his difficulty in interfering in the management of the family + affairs, i. 290. + his negotiations with Francesco Zini, i. 300. + becomes the object of hatred to all his family, i. 307, 318. + in continual quarrels with his family, i. 322. + his interview with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 325. + his family set the law in motion against him, i. 328. + he leaves home, i. 330. + lies spread about him, i. 331. + the family property divided, i. 332. + is dragged into tedious lawsuits, i. 334-342. + his friendship with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 339, 349. + his sister-in-law's vexatious lawsuit against him, i. 360-364. + has violent hæmorrhage from the lungs, i. 364, 368. + his illnesses and occupations, i. 370. + his account of his own physical and mental qualities, ii. 1-9. + accepted no payment for any of his works, ii. 3. + his love-tales-- + his first love, ii. 11-27; + his second love, ii. 28-33; + his third love, ii. 33-69. + his reflections on his love affairs, ii. 69. + his object in relating them, ii. 72 _note_ 1. + the absurdities and contrarieties to which his star made him + subject, ii. 73-89. + his unfortunate experience as a landlord, ii. 85-89. + the origin and progress of his literary quarrels, i. 2; ii. 90. + his views upon Italian literature, ii. 91. + his dissertation on Prejudice, ii. 99. + his humorous attack on Bettinelli, ii. 106. + the motives of his attacks upon Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 115. + his first attack on Goldoni and Chiari in his "Tartana degli Influssi," + i. 100, 109; ii. 116. + Goldoni's reply, i. 101, 109; ii. 117. + his Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled "Il Teatro Comico," + i. 104, 109; ii. 120. + he withdraws this satire at Goldoni's request, i. 106; ii. 124. + the origin of his celebrated "Fiabe Teatrali," i. 107; ii. 128. + his first Fable, "The Love of the Three Oranges (L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie)," i. 109; ii. 129. + the various publications in which he carried on the war against Goldoni + and Chiari, ii. 119-128. + his relations with Sacchi's company of comedians, ii. 137-155. + his tuition of the actresses, ii. 145. + his lawsuit against the Marchese Terzi, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + he withdraws his aid temporarily from Sacchi's company, ii. 166. + comes to their assistance again, ii. 168. + undertakes to tutor Teodora Ricci, ii. 177. + the successful result of his tuition, ii. 185. + his defence of his character and conduct in connection with Teodora Ricci, + and the actresses of Sacchi's company, ii. 187, 192 _note_ 1. + becomes Cicisbeo to Ricci, i. 9; ii. 193. + is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + his troublous relations with the Ricci, ii. 200. + his excuse for submitting to the worries caused by the Ricci, ii. 218. + his adaptations of Spanish plays, ii. 225. + his "Droghe d'Amore," i. 10; ii. 225. + his and Gratarol's versions of the quarrel between them, ii. 229 _note_ 1. + Gratarol's first visit to him, ii. 238. + his final rupture with Ricci, ii. 246. + annoyed by her, ii. 249, 255. + annoyed by her husband, ii. 250. + completes his comedy "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 252. + is pestered into giving it to Sacchi, ii. 258. + his innocence of an intention to caricature Gratarol in "Le Droghe d'Amor," + ii. 258. + reads the piece to the actors, ii. 260. + tries to have it withdrawn, ii. 263. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + forbidden by the Censor to withdraw his play, ii. 268. + his distress at the play's vogue, ii. 274. + waited on by Carlo Maffei on behalf of Gratarol, ii. 277. + interview between him and Gratarol, ii. 279-285. + his futile efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + his further squabbles with Gratarol, ii. 294. + his cause espoused by the Supreme Tribunal, which forces Gratarol to + apologise to him, ii. 303. + Gratarol's conduct to him subsequently, ii. 307. + goes to Padua, where his brother Gasparo lies dangerously ill, ii. 309. + uses his influence in Gratarol's behalf, ii. 319. + his reflection on Gratarol's flight, ii. 321. + his last interview with Sacchi, ii. 324. + his sorrow at the death of his friends, ii. 325. + has a bad attack of fever, ii. 327. + lays down his pen, ii. 330. + a review of his life and an estimate of his character, ii. 330. + his old age, ii. 332. + his will, ii. 333. + his death, ii. 337. + +Gozzi, Chiara, sister of Carlo, i. 354. + becomes a nun, i. 365. + +Gozzi, Francesco, brother of Carlo, i. 319, 320, 329, 354; ii. 79, 162. + becomes a soldier, i. 212. + his bad character, i. 321. + his death, ii. 326. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, grandfather of Carlo, i. 189. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, brother of Carlo, i. 282, 286, 288, 293, 312, 320, 329; + ii. 301, 319, 350. + his personal leaning towards Goldoni, i. 106. + undertakes to superintend a new edition of Goldoni's plays, i. 177. + his passion for study, i. 194. + his marriage, i. 209. + becomes lessee of the theatre of S. Angelo at Venice, i. 332. + his helpless position in his own house, i. 340. + his theatrical speculation is unsuccessful, i. 353, 360. + Carlo Gozzi and the Countess Balbi attacked on his stage, i. 357. + obtains a post at the University of Padua, i. 367. + his "Defence of Dante" against the Abbé Bettinelli, ii. 106. + his lack of spirit, ii. 162. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 267. + his serious illness, ii. 308. + in his delirium throws himself from a window, ii. 308. + his recovery, ii. 317. + his death, ii. 327. + +Gozzi, Girolama, i. 288. + +Gozzi, Giulia, i. 282. + +Gozzi, Jacopo Antonio, father of Carlo, i. 188. + has a stroke of apoplexy, i. 211. + his feeble state of health, i. 284. + the unhappiness of his position amid the family quarrels, i. 309. + his death, i. 310. + +Gozzi, Luisa Pisani Bergalli, wife of Gasparo, i. 210. + the ruler of the Gozzi family affairs, i. 287. + her mismanagement, i. 299, 317. + her dishonourable conduct, i. 319, 328. + tries to manage her husband's theatre, i. 332. + brings a lawsuit against Carlo, i. 360-364. + +Gozzi, Marina, sister of Carlo, i. 201, 282. + +Gradenigo, Cavaliere Andrea, ii. 76. + +Grampo, Contessa Emilia, i. 189. + +Granelleschi, Academy of the, i. 89, 99, 102. + its warfare with Goldoni and Chiara, i. 102. + the founding of the Academy, ii. 93. + its burlesque Prince, ii. 93. + its more serious objects, ii. 97, 108. + its attack on the Abbé Bettinelli, ii. 105. + its headquarters in the shop of the bookseller, Paolo Colombani, ii. 127. + +Gratarol, Pier Antonio, i. 359 _note_ 1; ii. 10, 72 _note_ 1, 79, 227, 263. + his quarrel with Gozzi, i. 2, 6. + account of his life, i. 7-16. + nominated as Venetian Resident at Naples, i. 8. + his quarrel with Caterina Dolfin Tron, i. 9. + becomes lover to Teodora Ricci, i. 10; ii. 229. + his version of his quarrel with Gozzi compared with Gozzi's statement, + ii. 229 _note_ 1. + his presence behind the scenes of Sacchi's theatre, ii. 230, 233. + his entertainment to the actors and actresses, ii. 237. + his first visit to Gozzi, ii. 238. + Ricci compromised by him, ii. 242. + caricatured in "Le Droghe d'Amore," but not by Gozzi's wish, + i. 10; ii. 258, 259. + his foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, ii. 263. + is present on its production and sees himself caricatured, ii. 272. + his distress, ii. 275 _note_ 1, 277. + his intrigues against Gozzi, ii. 278. + his interview with Gozzi, ii. 279-285. + Gozzi's efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + the further squabbles between him and Gozzi, ii. 294-300. + forced by the Supreme Authority to apologise to Gozzi, ii. 303. + his own account of the letter which he was forced to write, + ii. 303 _note_ 1. + his conduct to Gozzi subsequently, ii. 307. + suspected of having the actor Vitalba assaulted, ii. 319. + his appointment to Naples cancelled, ii. 319, 320. + his withdrawal from Venice and consequent outlawry, i. 12; ii. 321. + his "Narrazione Apologetica" published at Stockholm, i. 13. + published at Venice after the fall of the Republic, i. 16. + his death, i. 16. + book entitled "Last Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol," i. 17. + Gozzi's reflections on his character, ii. 321. + +Grazzini, Anton-Francesco, his Carnival song of the Zanni and + Magnifichi, i. 41. + +Gritti, Francesco, ii. 76. + his play of _Gustavus Vasa_, ii. 184. + +Guardi, Francesco, ii. 338. + the interest of his paintings historically, ii. 340. + +Gusèo, Giovannantonio, a notary, i. 347, 362. + + +Hoffmann, E. T. W., his enthusiasm for Gozzi, i. 181. + +Hogarth, William, contrasted with Pietro Longhi, ii. 350. + + +Illyria, the nature of the country, i. 244. + +Improvisation, Gozzi's views on, i. 202. + +I Rozzi, a company at Siena, who performed farces, i. 33. + +Italian Comedy. _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Italian Literature, ii. 91. + + +Lami, Signor, ii. 117. + +Laveleye, Emil de, ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Lazari, V., ii. 347 _note_ 1, 353 _note_ 1. + +_Lazzi_--or humorous sallies--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 63. + +Lee, Vernon, i. 23, 182. + +Lombard ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Longhi, Alessandro, son of Pietro, ii. 346, 357. + +Longhi, Pietro, ii. 338-361. + the interest of his works, ii. 338 _note_ 1, 341, 347. + his parentage, ii. 342. + his early training, ii. 342. + his _Fall of the Giants_, ii. 343. + finds his true vocation as a painter in studies of contemporary + Venetian life, ii. 344. + the difference in his handiwork, ii. 346. + his similarity in art with Goldoni the dramatist, ii. 350. + the strong contrast between him and Hogarth, ii. 350. + his portrait, ii. 351. + filled the Chair of Painting in the Pisani Academy, ii. 353. + a picture representing the Pisani family attributed to him, ii. 354. + frescoes in the Palazzo Sina attributed to him, ii. 356. + his sketch-book, a collection of 140 drawings, ii. 357. + its great value, ii. 357. + description of its contents, ii. 358. + its merits and its limitations, ii. 358, 359. + summary of his work, ii. 360. + +Loredano, Cavaliere Antonio, i. 212. + + +Machiavelli, Niccolò, i. 29. + +Maffei, Carlo-- + account of his character, ii. 276. + his intervention on Gratarol's behalf in the dispute regarding + the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 277-285. + his sudden death, ii. 326, 327. + +Manzoni, Caterina, actress, ii. 170. + her excellent qualities, ii. 192. + +Marchiori, Cavaliere, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, i. 225. + Gozzi studies Fortification under, i. 225. + his death, i. 228. + +Marsili, Professor Giovanni, ii. 308. + +Martelli, Pier Jacopo, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Martellian verses, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Masi, Ernesto, i. 99 _note_ 1. + +Masks, the, as employed by Gozzi, i. 149. + +Massimo, Innocenzio, i. 226, 227, 278, 326; ii. 28, 162, 310. + his friendship with Gozzi, i. 223, 283. + his character, i. 224. + a foolish adventure, i. 254-260. + his generous kindness to Gozzi, i. 312. + his sudden death, ii. 327. + +Medebac (master of a company of comedians), engages Goldoni to + write for his company, i. 95. + +Messer Grande, the Chief Constable of Venice, ii. 89 _note_ 1. + +Micheli, Maggiore della Provincia, i. 218. + +Montenegrins, the women of the, i. 241. + +Morlacchi, a tribe of Dalmatians, i. 237 _note_ 1. + their barbarism, i. 237, 239. + +Musset, Paul de, his travesty of Gozzi's real character, i. 23, + 24 _note_ 1, 181, ii. 89 _note_ 2. + + +Neapolitan ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + + +Pallone, the game of, i. 251 _note_ 1. + +Pantalone, i. 34; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 43. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Paruta, the Patrician, Gozzi mistaken for, ii. 74. + +Perrucci, Andrea, his description of the rehearsal of an + impromptu comedy, i. 58. + +Pisani family, their Academy for the Study of the Art of Design, ii. 353. + +Pozzobon, Giovanni, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Prata, Count Michele di, i. 282. + +Prejudice, Gozzi's dissertation on, ii. 99. + +Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, the office of, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Provveditore Generale di Mare, the head of the Venetian + forces in the Levant, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Pulcinella, i. 35; + description of, i. 49. + +Punch (Pulcinella), i. 50. + + +Quirini, Girolamo, Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 213, 216, 247, 277, 278. + the town of Zara gives a grand public display in his honour, i. 230. + Gozzi presents a volume of his poems to him, i. 276. + + +Regina, the actress engaged by Sacchi to fill Ricci's place, ii. 254. + +Renier, Paolo, ii. 301, 305. + his brilliant abilities, and his career, ii. 301 _note_ 1, 306 _note_ 1. + +Reniero, Senator Daniele, i. 341. + +Ricci, Marianna, sister of Teodora, ii. 242. + +Ricci, Teodora, ii. 174, 324. + engaged as leading actress by Sacchi, ii. 174. + her personal appearance, ii. 175. + her connection with Gozzi, i. 9. + her connection with Gratarol, i. 10. + Gozzi's tuition of, ii. 177 + the opposition to her, ii. 179. + her _début_ at Venice not very successful, ii. 182. + her success in "Gustavus Vasa," ii. 184. + her triumph in Gozzi's "Principessa Filosofa," ii. 185. + her gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 186. + her merits and defects, ii. 188-192. + Gozzi becomes her Cicisbeo, ii. 193. + Gozzi is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + her separation from her husband, ii. 199. + her _liaison_ with Sacchi, ii. 202-210. + her foolish conduct, ii. 216. + her rapacity, ii. 221. + her agreement for five years with Sacchi, ii. 221. + her friendship with P. A. Gratarol, ii. 227, 241, 245. + its consequences, ii. 242. + Gozzi's final rupture with her, ii. 246. + her annoyance of him, ii. 249, 255. + she leaves Sacchi's company and goes to Paris, ii. 254. + her strange manners when she returns, ii. 256. + her failure as an actress when she began to ape the French, ii. 257. + her conduct at the reading of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 260. + her foolish conduct in connection with the play, ii. 269, 275. + pretends illness in order to stop the play, ii. 275. + is ordered to play by the authorities, ii. 276. + her tactics which led to the withdrawal of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 306. + her death in a madhouse, ii. 195 _note_ 1. + +Riccoboni, Luigi, i. 63. + +"Riflessioni d'un Imparziale," a pamphlet in answer to Gratarol's + "Narrazione," i. 13 _note_ 2, 15 _note_ 1. + +Rossi, Pietro, actor, ii. 189. + +Royer, Paul, i. 182. + +Ruskin, John, ii. 340. + + +Sacchi, Antonia, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi, Antonio, i. 53, 100, 101, 112 _note_ 1, 150; ii. 201, + 262, 272, 282 _note_ 1, 286, 297, 306, 318. + list of his company, i. 112 _note_ 1. + allusion to his company in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 127. + the inventor of Truffaldino as a form of Arlecchino, ii. 131 _note_ 1. + his famous company, ii. 142. + ruined by the opposition of Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 132. + their visit to Lisbon, ii. 132. + their return to Venice, ii. 132. + their success with Gozzi's pieces, i. 176; ii. 132. + their gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 137. + Gozzi temporarily withdraws his aid from his company, ii. 166. + obtains a lease of the theatre S. Salvadore, ii. 167, 168. + his passion for the Ricci, ii. 202, 214. + his ill-treatment of her, ii. 207. + its result, ii. 208-210. + his theatre pronounced unsafe, ii. 219. + his five years' agreement with Ricci, ii. 221. + his difficulties with Gratarol, ii. 233. + Ricci leaves his company and he engages Regina in her place, ii. 254. + consents to withdraw the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 263. + produces it, ii. 271. + the dissolution of his company, ii. 322. + his excesses and tempers, ii. 322. + his last interview with Gozzi, ii. 324. + his death, ii. 325 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi-Zannoni, Adriana, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131. + +Sacchi's company-- + its respectability, ii. 143. + Gozzi's relations with the actors and actresses, ii. 137-155. + dissensions in, ii. 164. + the details of its dissolution, ii. 322-325. + +Santorini, Count Francesco, i. 324, 327, 329. + +Schlegel, A. W., his praise of Gozzi's "Fiabe," i. 180. + +Sciugliaga, Stefano, Secretary of the University of Milan, ii. 198. + +Sechellari, Giuseppe, Prince of the Accademia Granellesca, ii. 93. + the tricks played on him, ii. 95. + +Seghezzi, Antonio Federigo, i. 199. + +Servetta, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 48, 154. + +Sibiliato, Giovanni, a wonderful _improvisatore_ and a true poet, i. 204. + +Smeraldina (Servetta), as employed by Gozzi, i. 154. + +Somascan Order of Monks, i. 350 _note_ 1. + +Stampa, Gaspara, poetess, i. 206. + +Stock speeches in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + + +Tartaglia, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Terzi, Marchese, of Bergamo, i. 368, 369, 370. + Gozzi's lawsuit against, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + +Testa, Antonio, a famous lawyer, i. 335; ii. 163. + his kindness to Gozzi, i. 336. + +Theatres, private, in the houses of the Venetian nobility, i. 201 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo family, i. 189 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo, Almorò Cesare, i. 213, 291, 342. + his just and excellent character, i. 344-347. + +Tiepolo, G. B., painter, ii. 338. + a genius of the first order, ii. 339. + +Tiepolo, Nicolò Maria, his condemnation of comedians, i. 71. + +Tiepolo Gozzi, Angela, mother of Carlo Gozzi--_See_ Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo. + +Toaldo, Professor, ii. 75. + +Todeschini, Raffaelle, ii. 295, 326. + +Tommassei, his contempt for Gozzi, i. 179. + +Tonina, a courtesan of Zara, i. 262. + Gozzi's impromptu attack on, in the theatre, i. 269. + +Tron, Andrea, Procuratore di San Marco, i. 9, 14; ii. 264 _note_ 1. + +Tron, Caterina Dolfin, see Dolfin-Tron, Caterina. + +Truffaldino, the mask, a modification of Arlecchino, i. + 46, 150; ii. 131 _note_ 1. + as used by Gozzi, i. 153. + + +Vendramini, Antonio, proprietor of the theatre of S. Salvadore, + ii. 167, 173, 276, 286. + +Venice-- + its decadence, i. 7 _note_ 1. + its political and social state about the middle of the 18th century, i. 82. + conflict of liberalism and conservatism in literature and + the theatre, i. 86. + success of the _Comédie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + foundation of the Academy de' Granelleschi, i. 89. + the granting of citizenship in, i. 186 _note_ 1. + the position of the _Cittadini Originari_, i. 186 _note_ 1. + posts open to the _Cittadini_, i. 187 _note_ 3. + Gozzi's remarks on the degeneration of the Venetian youth, i. 194. + robes of the Dignitaries, i. 217 _note_ 1. + the office of Grand Chancellor, i. 230 _note_ 1. + the values of the sequin and lira, i. 274 _note_ 1. + _Decime_ (taxes), i. 280 _note_ 1. + its theatres, i. 332 _note_ 1; ii. 167. + its law of entail, i. 336 _note_ 1. + the _Avogadori del Comun_, i. 341 _note_ 1. + decay of literary taste in, ii. 108-110. + the length of the theatrical year, ii. 146 _note_ 1. + its decrepitude, as shown in State interference in Gratarol's + quarrel with Gozzi, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + the influence of the French Revolution on, ii. 328. + partial revival of art in, in the 18th century, ii. 338. + Longhi's paintings of contemporary life in, ii. 338 _note_ 1; + ii. 341, 347, 358. + +Verdani, Abbé Giovan Antonio, i. 196. + +Vilio, Count, of Desenzano, ii. 24. + +Vinacesi, Elisabetta, actress, ii. 213. + +Vincentini, Tommaso, his excellence as Harlequin, i. 67. + +Vitalba, Giovanni, actor, ii. 269. + the actor who caricatured Gratarol in the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 272. + assaulted by a ruffian in Milan, ii. 318. + + +Wagner, Richard, his "Fairies," a setting of Gozzi's "Donna Serpente," + i. 160 _note_ 1, 181. + +Werthes, Franz A. C., translator of Gozzi's "Fiabe" into German, i. 180. + +Widiman, Count Ludovico, a patron of Goldoni, ii. 124. + + +Zanche, Daniele, advocate, ii. 161. + +Zanerini, Petronio, the best actor of Italy, ii. 323. + +Zanoni, Atanagio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 323. + +Zannuzzi, Francesco, of the Comédie Italienne at Paris, ii. 211, + 212 _note_ 1. + +Zeno, Apostolo, encourages Gozzi in his poetical attempts, i. 207. + his influence in the drama, i. 207 _note_ 1. + +Zini, Francesco, a cloth merchant, wishes to buy the Gozzis' house, i. 299. + Carlo Gozzi tries to prevent the purchase, i. 300. + +Zon, Signer, Secretary to the Inquisitors of State, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + +Zucchi, Padre, an _improvisatore_, i. 203. + + * * * * * + +The following typographical errors have been corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Many years have elasped since Tartaglia married=>Many years have elapsed +since Tartaglia married + +twirls his moustachioes=>twirls his moustachios + +Philarete Chasles=>Philarète Chasles + +whence we were to sally forth to the assault of Buda.=>whence we were to +sally forth to the assault of Budua. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Under date August 31, 1885, with the assumed signature of E. H. +Westbourne. See _Academy_, No. 696, Sept. 5, 1885. + +[2] See Romanin, _Storia Documentata di Venezia_, vol. viii. ch. 7. + +[3] Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This appears from +several passages of his _Narrazione Apologetica_. It may, however, be +here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to matrimony +formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between 1782 and +1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions for +divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at one +time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a +dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, _op. cit._, p. 23; and +Macchi, _Storia del Concilio dei Dieci_, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that +the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in +these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as +indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to +enter a convent. + +[4] A short while before, he had been appointed Resident at Turin, and +had received the usual equipment for that service. Circumstances +independent of his own will in the matter prevented him from assuming +the office. His political ill-wishers were able to point to the unused +grant which he had pocketed. + +[5] Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished +house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the +Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, +Andrea Tron. + +[6] It may be read in Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, vol. ii. p. +78, &c. + +[7] These magistrates acted for the Fisco or Treasury of the Republic. + +[8] It has been suggested that Gratarol so heavily mortgaged his lands +before leaving Venice that they were not worth more than this sum, after +allowing for rent charges on them and _fidei commissa_. See the +observations of a self-styled impartial writer printed at the end of the +_Narrazione Apologetica_, ed. 1797. I must, however, observe that this +writer is by no means impartial. The essay in question is a piece of +skilful special pleading in defence of Mme. Tron, her husband, the +oligarchs of Venice, and the officers who executed the _bando_ against +Gratarol. + +[9] Gratarol pays high tribute to Gozzi's genius. But he sticks to the +conviction that the _Droghe d'Amore_ was meant to turn him into +ridicule, and that its author could, if he had chosen, have withdrawn it +from the stage. + +[10] He tells us that he began the Memoirs on April 30, 1780. _Memorie_, +vol. i. p. 3. The passage occurs in Gozzi's manifesto, of which more +anon. I may add that the manifesto is not included in all copies of the +Memoirs. + +[11] An anonymous answer, entitled _Riflessioni d'un Imparziale_, +appeared at Lugano. This was ascribed to Carlo Gozzi's pen; but he +repudiated the pamphlet, and it does not bear the mark of his style. It +may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Gratarol's _Narr. Apol._, ed. +1797, Venice, Silvestro Gatti. + +[12] _Memorie_, vol i. pp. 3-15. + +[13] This is evident from the appearance of the _Ragionamento del +Cittadino Carlo Gozzi a' Cittadini amici della Memoria di P. A. +Gratarol_ at the beginning of the _Memorie_, vol. ii. + +[14] _Memorie Ultime_, p. 39; Gozzi's _Memorie_, vol. ii. p. x. + +[15] The family of Widiman or Widman was of patrician rank in Venice. + +[16] Vol. i. p. 4. + +[17] Vol. ii. p. xvi. + +[18] De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the precursor +of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the chapter on +_Contrattempi_ in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to have +extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned his +_Fiabe_--in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought upon +the stage were resolved to be revenged on him--from a letter addressed +to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (_Mémoires de Charles Gozzi_, pp. 184-188). De +Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged letter, which is +mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor Ernesto Masi +informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have failed to discover +it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several plays, Gozzi gives a +very different account of the reasons why he stopped producing _Fiabe_. +I am loth to draw the conclusion that the letter in question was a +deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further researches may bring it +still to light, but at present it has to be regarded with the greatest +possible suspicion. + +[19] I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: +_Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. ch. 11. + +[20] The full title would be _Commedia dell' Arte all' Improviso_. It is +also called _Commedia a soggetto_, _Commedia non scritta_, _Commedia +improvisa._ The written comedy, beside _Commedia Erudita_, was also +called _Commedia sostenuta, scritta_, or _letteraria_. + +[21] See what I have said at length upon this point in my _Shakespeare's +Predecessors_, p. 259, and _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. p. 188. + +[22] To Maurice Sand, in his _Masques et Bouffons_, vol. ii. p. 77 _et +seq._, is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this great +local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's influence in +the creation of impromptu comedy. + +[23] See Collier's _English Dramatic Poetry_ (ed. 1879), vol. iii. p. +197. + +[24] It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the word _mask_ +in a double sense,--both to indicate the fixed character assumed by a +certain species of actor, and also the vizard which concealed his +features. + +[25] It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain the names +of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Punch. Our +Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the _Servetta_ or soubrette. Our +Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, which obtained +great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our pantomimes has to be +classed with the _Villano_, or rather with one of the Zanni, I am +uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of Pantaloon seems +to indicate the latter alternative. + +[26] In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (_Li Diversi Linguaggi_, Venezia, +1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, Bolognese, +Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects were spoken. +See Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxix. + +[27] Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. Thus the +plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of Don +Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here the +man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued by +other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See Scherillo's +_Commedia dell' Arte_, chap, iii., for the history of Don Fastidio). +This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When Casanova +wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, he had to +choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio and +Sicilian Battipaglia (_Mémoires_, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, as I +have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks. + +[28] _Fescenninus_ is variously derived from the town Fescennia in South +Etruria, or from _fascinum_, the Latin form of _phallus_. + +[29] The common meaning of _satura_ and _farsa_, both of which have +reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular. + +[30] I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at +Montepulciano. + +[31] A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo (_Arch. +Stor._, vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these +Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth +century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the +vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples. + +[32] It was included in the first edition of the _Canti +Carnascialeschi_, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of +Grazzini's _Rime Burlesche_, Firenze, Sansone, 1882. + +[33] "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the whole world +over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are all of us +Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors of our +troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind to +guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so +mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of +laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of +new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this +country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you +will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the +sweetness and the pleasure of our sports." + +[34] The other channels were French plays, modifications of English +plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas. + +[35] I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the compiler of +the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be well +contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would willingly +make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed trousers-makers. + +[36] It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the symbol +of old age in _As You Like It_, knew him already in decrepitude. + +[37] It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos in the +summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from Bergamo, who +were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to help at the +hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque hills. +Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at Arlecchino's +simplicity and suppleness. + +[38] Carlo Gozzi at Zara in his youth created a new type of the +Servetta, adapted to Dalmatian circumstances, under the name of Luce. + +[39] Scherillo, in his _Commedia dell' Arte_, has resuscitated Cerlone's +fame, as Maurice Sand made us acquainted with Beolco. + +[40] See above, p. 38. + +[41] For a short notice of these curious Maccaronic poems, _I Cantici di +Fidentio Glottogrysio Ludimagistro_, see my _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. +v. p. 328. The obscurity of their jargon veiled considerable indecency. +It is noticeable that this book, now exceedingly rare, should have +become the text-book of the Pedante. But see Bartoli, _op. cit._, pp. +lii., lvii. + +[42] Burattino is so kaleidoscopic that at last he becomes the +patronymic hero of marionettes in Italy. _I Burattini_ are the acting +dolls. + +[43] In the _Ragionamento Ingenuo_ and _Appendice_, Op., 1772, vols i. +and iv. + +[44] _Scenari Inediti_, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880. + +[45] It has to be mentioned that in plays of a more serious description, +the parts of character were frequently written out, and only the parts +of the masks left to improvisation. This was the method pursued by Gozzi +in his _Fiabe_. + +[46] Andrea Perrucci, _Dell' Arte Rappresentativa premeditata ed all' +improvviso_, Napoli, 1699, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[47] _Histoire Anecdotique du Théâtre Italien_, Paris, 1769, quoted by +Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxvi. + +[48] _Le Théâtre Italien_, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxx. + +[49] These phrases are used by Gozzi in his _Memorie Inutili_. Compare +what he says in his _Appendice al Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. +iv. p. 40. + +[50] Quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[51] I am indebted to Maurice Sand, _Masques et Bouffons_. + +[52] Vol. iii. p. 201. + +[53] _Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. i. + +[54] Scherillo, in his book on _La Commedia dell' Arte_, ch. vi., has +given the history of San Carlo's efforts to suppress the theatre at +Milan. + +[55] Nicolò Maria Tiepolo, about 1778, quoted by Molmenti in his Essay +on Goldoni, Venezia, Ongania, 1880, p. 68. + +[56] Pasquali's edition, 1761; also, _Teatro Comico_, act i. sc. 2. + +[57] _Mémoires de Jacques Casanova_, Bruxelles, Rozez, vol. i. ch. II. + +[58] _Mémoires de M. Goldoni_, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1787, vol. i. +ch. 5. + +[59] A common inn-sign. This reminds us of the earliest performances of +plays in the yards of London hostelries. + +[60] Ed. cit., vol i. p. 228. + +[61] See his Mémoires, part i. ch. 40. + +[62] This is perhaps the proper place to explain the meaning of +Martellian verses. They owe their name to Pier Jacopo Martelli +(1665-1725), who revived them, and used them for the drama. Metrically +speaking, Martellian verses are twelve-syllable lines of the Alexandrine +type. These long lines had been commonly employed in Italy during the +thirteenth century, before the heroic verse of eleven syllables obtained +ascendancy. It is difficult to say why the Alexandrine, which Italy in +the thirteenth century shared with France, died out in the former +country and became the standard heroic line of the latter. Possibly the +reason may be found in the Italian tendency toward double rhymes; the +so-called _versi piani_ of Dante being decasyllabic iambics with a +redundant syllable rather than hendecasyllabics. Anyhow, the Alexandrine +has not flourished south of the Alps. Martelli's revival did not +prosper; and Carducci, in his _Su' Campi di Marengo_ (_Nuove Poesie_, p. +91), is the only recent poet who has attempted them with success. + +[63] Opere, ed. 1772, tom. viii. p. 27. "The partisans on both sides +gathered forces daily. One swears by _Original_ (a name for Goldoni), +the other by _Plunder_ (Chiari, because of his plagiarisms). The whole +city was turned upside down, and indeed it is no laughing matter. +Brothers fought with brothers, wives did worse with their husbands. +Everywhere the wrangling was fierce; nought but confusion, nought but +discord." + +[64] The details of the controversy between Gozzi and Goldoni are given +at fuller length than I have attempted in Signor Ernesto Masi's masterly +Introduction to his edition of the _Fiabe Teatrali_. + +[65] Opere, vol. viii. _Tartana_ is a large merchant vessel. + +[66] The editor of this Venetian Zadkiel was originally Giovanni +Pozzobon. After his death it was continued by Giambattista Bada. +Pozzobon was nicknamed Schieson. The almanac was adorned with a +ridiculous portrait of a doctor in a huge wig. Owing to this fact, +Schieson came to signify any one with rumpled hair. See Boerio's +_Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano_. + +[67] Opere, vol. viii. p. 164. + +[68] The original exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. Goldoni wrote +the poem on the occasion of S. E. Bastian Venier's return from the +rectorship of Bergamo. When he reprinted it in the edition of his +poetical works (Pasquali, Venezia, 1764), he omitted the passage +referring to Gozzi's _Tartana_. The lines above are given in Magrini's +and Masi's essays. I add a translation. "I have seen a certain _Tartana_ +in print, full of rancid and insipid verses, verses bad enough to +terrify a goblin, verses seasoned by the wise plagiary with acrid salt +of evil-speaking, full of false arrogant sentiments. One can, however, +condone this licence in one who is out of temper with Fortune, she being +not greatly well-affected toward him. He who speaks evil without any +reason shown, he who does not prove his assumptions and his arguments, +acts like the dog who barks against the moon." + +[69] It was written for the marriage of Contarini Venier. "A Lombard who +pretends to be a Delia Cruscan, with a smile on his lips and venom in +his heart." + +[70] "Only too well I know that I am not a good writer, and that I never +drank at the best fountains. I write and reason as my style dictates, +and sometimes by good chance I also have afforded pleasure. But woe to +me if the Florentine sieve should be applied to sifting my productions." + +[71] Opere, vol. viii. p. 183. "I am engaged in preparing a commentary +which shall prove both the assumption and the argument." + +[72] _Il Teatro Comico_ was the first of the famous sixteen comedies of +1749-50. The list of the pieces to be expected was announced in it. See +Goldoni's _Memoirs_, part i. ch. 7. + +[73] "Yes, thou art the eagle, I am the ant. Thou soarest to the zenith +without exertion; my Muse cannot rise to the poles of the universe." + +[74] Only in this respect, however; otherwise, as artist, Gozzi differs +widely from Aristophanes. + +[75] Opere, vol. iii. p. 9. + +[76] The actors in Sacchi's company were: Antonio Sacchi, _Truffaldino_; +Atanagio Zanoni, _Brighella_; Agostino Fiorelli, _Tartaglia_; Cesare +Darbes, _Pantalone_; Adriana Sacchi Zanoni, _Smeraldina_; Antonia +Sacchi, _Beatrice_; together with Ignazio Casanova and Gaetano Casali. +How the parts of Leandro, Clarice, Rè di Coppe, Celio, Morgana, Creonta, +Ninetta were distributed, we do not know. Antonia Sacchi (the _Beatrice_ +of the troupe) probably played Clarice. + +[77] In Italian, _Rè di Coppe_. The Italian suits are _Coppe_ or cups, +_Danari_ or coins, _Spade_ or swords (whence our Spades), _Bastoni_ or +clubs. + +[78] In Italian, _Cavaliere di Coppe_. + +[79] I have adopted the old English fourteen-syllable line for the +translation of Gozzi's Martellian verses. It seemed to me that the +lumbering effect of this metre lent itself to the spirit of his parody. +What Martellian verses were has been explained at p. 97. + +[80] I cannot pretend to give a literal translation of these gross +parodies of Goldoni's forensic verbiage. The most I can do is to stuff +the verse with more or less of legal phraseology. + +[81] See above, p. 112, for the names of the five actors who sustained +these parts in Sacchi's company. + +[82] I wrote this in the spring of 1888, before I was aware that Wagner +had set the _Donna Serpente_ to music. His early piece, _The Fairies_, +was composed in 1833, and first performed this year in June at Munich. + +[83] Act ii. sc. 5. In Masi's edition, vol. ii. p. 458. Readers who care +for further diatribes _à la Gozzi_ on these topics, may be referred to +the _Astrazione_ which serves as introduction to his translation of +Boileau, Op., vol. vii. p. 53. + +[84] + + "Many are now alive, + Who haply are more statues than I am. + Thou shalt experience what power hath a statue, + And how a live man may become an image." + + +[85] _Tarocchi_ is the name for the cards, seventy-eight in number, used +in a now well-nigh forgotten game. Fifty-six cards of the whole series +consist of the four Italian suits: Coppe, Spade, Bastoni, and Danari. +The remaining twenty-two are properly called _Tarocchi_, and in the game +of Taroc take precedence of any cards of the four ordinary suits. + +[86] + + "I too have charms, + Sweet flatteries, dulcet wiles; and to my side + He shall be faithful ever. Yet I would not + That, loving him, my kindness should arouse + In hearts of others jealousy." + + +[87] + +"Fair, yea, most fair thou art in sooth; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou an apple hold which sings, plucked from the magic tree. + + * * * * * + +Daughter, I trow that thou art fair; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou that water hold which plays and dances merrily." + +[88] + +"So! this is my philosopher, who went Yesterday picking sticks, and now! +... But patience!... I wished to stay with her, for I adore her; And +stay with her I shall. We must contrive To hold our tongue; and yet this +may not be. I vow I scarcely knew her! What grand airs! Some devil must +have daubed her o'er with gold. 'Twould vex me sorely if the little +hussy ... Some rich milord perhaps.... Well, I'll know all." + +{_Exit._ + +[89] There are five of these old statues, painted, in Moorish costumes. +One of them has the name Rioba carved above his head. Everybody in +Venice, of course, knew them; and their appearance on the stage must +have been mirth-promoting. + +[90] _Mémoires_, part ii. cap. 45. + +[91] Letters from Italy, dated October 4, October 6, and October 10, +1786. + +[92] See Masi's Essay, p. cxxxii. + +[93] _Carlo Gozzi, Théâtre Fiabesque, Alphonse Royer._ Paris, Michel +Lévy, 1865. + +[94] London, W. Satchell & Co. 1880. + +[95] Through the courtesy of Mr. John P. Anderson of the British Museum +I am able to state that, besides a short article in the _Encyclopædia +Britannica_, he can only discover an essay in _Lippincott's Magazine_ +(vol. xx. p. 347, &c.), entitled "A Venetian of the Eighteenth Century," +which deals with Carlo Gozzi. + +[96] The Gozzi family were thus _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice. These +_Cittadini_ had to prove legitimate birth in the city; three generations +during which the family had exercised no mechanical arts; freedom from +any criminal stain, debts to the state, or factious behaviour. +Citizenship, as in the case of the Gozzi, was also granted by privilege. +The _Cittadini_ formed a class of burgher aristocracy, ranking below the +patricians and taking no part in the actual government of the State, +since they did not vote in the Consiglio Grande. Their names, pedigrees, +and arms were enrolled in a book, of which many copies exist, and which +was commonly called the _Libro d'Argento_, to distinguish it from the +_Libro d'Oro_ of the patricians. In a MS. of the seventeenth century, +which belonged to Cicogna, now at the Museo Civico, entitled _Le Due +Corone della Nobiltà Veneziana, Corona Seconda_, the Gozzi arms are +blazoned thus: "Or, on the topmost branches of an olive-tree vert a dove +ppr., and round the stem of the tree a scroll argent inscribed Signum +Pacis." The family is described as wealthy; but no pedigree is given: +_Non vi è albero_. Carlo Gozzi, in his _Lettera Confutatoria, Memorie_, +vol. iii. p. 31, asserts that the privilege of citizenship was given to +his ancestors by the Doge Cicogna (1585-95). It is neither impossible +nor improbable that the Gozzi of Bergamo were derived from the same +stock as the Gozze or Gozzi of Ragusa. These latter drew their pedigree +from Herzegovina, and were therefore Slavs. We know that the patrician +families of Polo and Sagredo came originally from Sebenico. + +[97] Their palace is still inhabited by a Conte Gozzi. The _arca_, or +family sepulture, can no longer be traced in the church. It was at the +foot of the altar in the Chapel of the Madonna. Here Carlo Gozzi was +buried. + +[98] In a voluminous MS. written by Cicogna, embodying all he could +collect about the _Famiglie Cittadine_ (now at the Museo Civico), we +find that _Alberto Gozi detto delle Sede_ was inscribed among the +patricians in 1646. I may mention that Cicogna tricks the arms of Gozzi +without the dove. + +[99] The Grand Chancellor, the Ducal Notaries, and the Secretaries of +many Magistracies, were chosen from the _Cittadini_, who were also sent, +after holding such posts, as ambassadors of the second class, or +Residents, to foreign Courts. + +[100] The word, which I have translated acre, is _campo_. Now the +_campo_ differed in different provinces of Lombardy. But the _Campo +Padovano_ corresponded pretty nearly to an English acre; and from +another passage in Gozzi (_Memorie_, vol. iii. p. 226) it appears that +he was in the habit of using the Paduan standard. + +[101] The Gozzi were what are called in Venice _Conti di Terra Ferma_, +and their title seems to have been dependent upon these feudal tenures. + +[102] At the time when Gozzi wrote, this was the eldest branch, called +Di San Fantin. Two remote branches, of S. Apollinare and San Polo, +survived. They descended from a collateral ancestor, Girolamo Tiepolo, +who died in 1516. The branch of S. Polo expired in 1820. See Litta, +_Famiglie Celebri_. The Tiepolo family was one of the oldest and most +illustrious among the patrician houses. It ranked with the _Case +vecchie_, as distinguished from the _Case nuove_. These _Case vecchie_ +were also called tribunizie, from having exercised the highest offices +of State at the time when Venice was still governed by tribunes, and +before the foundation of the Dogeship. Of these oldest and purest noble +houses there were twenty-four. The closing of the Grand Council in 1297, +which determined the oligarchical character of the Venetian government, +led to an attempted revolution in the State by Baiamonte Tiepolo. +Tiepolo's conspiracy was really an effort in the interests of the old +aristocracy to throw off the yoke which _novi homines_ were fixing on +the commonwealth. An excellent essay on Baiamonte Tiepolo will be found +in H. F. Brown's _Venetian Studies_. I may add to this note that the +Gozzi had previously intermarried with the Corner, Zuccato, Donà, and +Morosini, patrician houses of high respectability. + +[103] Carlo Gozzi was born December 13, 1720. He probably knew that he +was in his sixtieth year; and this passage enables us to measure the +exact amount of duplicity which he thought venial in composing his +Memoirs. It was Gozzi's object to extenuate the fact that his _liaison_ +with Teodora Ricci had been carried on when he was past the age of +fifty. When he asserts that he had "not yet reached the age of sixty," +he was just within the bounds of veracity; for he wanted more than seven +months to complete his sixtieth year. + +[104] _Collegi._ Gasparo was educated in the Somaschan establishment at +S. Cipriano on the island of Murano. + +[105] Casanova, in the first chapter of his Memoirs, says that he +suffered during his boyhood from the same violent hæmorrhages. + +[106] _Gozzi_ might have cited Galileo, whose style, formed by the study +of the "divine" Ariosto, is a model of exquisite and urbane Italian +diction. + +[107] Compare what Goldoni says about the marionette theatre at his +grandfather's country-seat. In some of the great villas of the Venetian +nobility these private stages were built on an enormous scale. The +account of Marco Contarini's theatre at Piazzola near Padua, and of the +sumptuous dramatic performances which took place there, reads like a +passage from the _Arabian Nights_. See Romanin's _Storia di Venezia_, +vol. vii. p. 550. + +[108] I may here say that the title of cavaliere, or knight, was +commonly given to members of patrician families at Venice, irrespective +of their being laymen or in orders. + +[109] Gaspara Stampa was born at Padua, but was a gentlewoman of Milan +by descent. She died about 1554, at the age of thirty. If this edition +of Gaspara Stampa's _Rime_ is the one prepared for publication by Luisa +Bergalli (Gozzi's sister-in-law), there is the same confusion of dates +here as I have noticed above. It was published when Gozzi had reached +his seventeenth year. + +[110] A tablet over the entrance to the restaurant at the Calcina on the +Zattere, records that Apostolo Zeno dwelt there. It was, perhaps, to +this house that young Gozzi paid his visit. Zeno (b. 1668, d. 1750) +exercised considerable influence over the Italian drama. He wrote plays +for music and oratorios. For some years he held the post of Cesarean +poet at Vienna, which he resigned to the more celebrated Metastasio. + +[111] Luisa Pisana Bergalli was born at Venice in 1703, of humble +parentage, being descended from a Piedmontese shoemaker. Luigi Mocenigo +and Pisana Cornaro held her at the font, and gave her their two +Christian names. She showed distinguished talents in early youth, and +was educated by the painter Rosalba Carriera, afterwards by Caterino and +Apostolo Zeno. At twenty-three she published a tragedy and an anthology +of Italian poems by female writers; at twenty-five another tragedy; at +thirty a translation of Terence, and a comedy dedicated to Count Jacopo +Antonio Gozzi. It appears from this dedication to _Le avventure del +poeta_ that she was the protegée of both Count Gozzi and his wife, and +on the best of terms with their children. She was thirty-five and +Gasparo was twenty-five when they married. See Tommasei, _Storia Civile +nella Letteraria_, pp. 185-188. + +[112] The title _Provveditore Generale di Mare_ was given to the supreme +head of the Venetian naval and military forces in the Levant. He resided +at Corfu, where he maintained a princely court, and ruled like a +sovereign, being only responsible for his actions to the Senate. Next in +importance to this functionary was the _Provveditore Generale di +Dalmazia_, of whose Court we shall hear much in Gozzi's Memoirs. +Casanova, who went to Corfu in the train of the Prov. Gen. Dolfino, +called Il Bucentoro because of his grand manner, and the father of the +famous Caterina Dolfin Tron, gives an excellent account of the Court +there, its military, naval, and civil establishment. Chapters xiii.-xvi. +of the first volume of his Memoirs deserve to be compared with the +corresponding part of Gozzi's. + +[113] Not at seventeen, but at twenty. Gozzi was born in 1720, and +Quirini took the government of Dalmatia in 1740. + +[114] _Togato._ The State dignitaries of Venice wore robes of various +colours and forms, according to their office. A simple nobleman was +bound to go abroad in a flowing robe of silk, or toga, ample enough to +conceal whatever costume he may have worn beneath it. + +[115] _Armata_, composed of naval and military forces, to act equally on +sea and shore. + +[116] It seems from the names of these larger galleys that they were the +official ships of the Provveditore, his own flag-ship and her attendant +convoy. Romanin (vol. viii. p. 372) says that at this epoch Venice kept +fifteen heavy galleys, ten lighter, nine sailing ships of the frigate +build, and twenty-four armed craft of other descriptions. The galleys +and sailing ships were commanded only by patricians. This was her peace +establishment. + +[117] Gozzi says _adjutante_ alone. _Adjutante di campo_ is +aide-de-camp. + +[118] This word is in the Italian _armata_. The _armata_, to which Gozzi +belonged, was properly an armament of mixed naval and military forces, +and _armata_ would naturally be translated "navy." He was attached to +it, however, in the quality of soldier, and was eligible (as we shall +afterwards see) for transfer into the land forces of the State in +Lombardy. Thus he belonged to the Venetian army. + +[119] This was the highest office in the State to which a _cittadino_ +could aspire. It conferred the rank of cavaliere. The Grand Chancellor +could open public despatches; he attended the sittings of the Grand +Council and the Senate, but without a vote, and was the official chief +of all the civil servants. + +[120] Probably Freschot, the author of several works on Venice, a +Frenchman by birth. + +[121] The native Dalmatians of Slav origin, inhabiting the inland +villages and country districts, were called by this name. + +[122] _Scogli._ A long low island opposite the harbour of Zara is so +called. + +[123] This and other French terms show to what extent the military +system of Venice had been modernised. + +[124] Razionato. + +[125] This chapter will be read with interest by students of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. It throws light upon the way in which an actor of +originality could adapt one of the fixed characters of that comedy, in +this case the _servetta_, to his own talents and to local circumstances. + +[126] _Pallone_ is a game played with a large leather ball, filled with +air, and something like our football. In Italy it is struck with the +hand, which is armed for the purpose with gloves or a flat short bat +fixed on the palm. Sides are chosen, and the game roughly resembles +tennis on a large scale. Pallone is the original of our balloon. + +[127] The sequin at this time was worth twenty-two _lire Venete_. The +worth of the _lira_ was about half a franc, says Romanin (vol. viii. p. +302). Romanin in the same place fixes the ducat at eight _lire_. Gozzi's +debt amounted to 1248 _lire_. This would make only 156 ducats at the +above rate. But the relation of the ducat to the sequin and the _lira_ +is very obscure, and seems to have varied according to the kind of +ducat. + +[128] _Decime._ Taxes annually raised upon the whole property of a +Venetian. + +[129] Opere, vol. vii. p. 393. This is the stanza-- + + Gli antichi di provincia tuoi fedeli + Son quasi tutti fuggiti alle ville, + In castellacci discoperti a' cieli, + Con figli e figlie e nipoti e pupille, + Ripieni di pensieri acri e crudeli, + Allor che suonan mezzodì le squille. + Educazion non han, mangiar, nè bere; + Pensa se daran nerbo alle tue schiere! + +This is said to the burlesque Carlo Magno of the poem. The passage in +the text confirms the theory that Gozzi intended his Carlo Magno to +represent the decrepit majesty of Venice. + +[130] Almorò is the Venetian form of the name Ermolao. + +[131] Gozzi's description of the Venetian _Cortesan_ may serve as +illustration to a popular play of Goldoni's, _Momolo Cortesan_. This was +the first comedy of character Goldoni composed. Its title-rôle was +written for a celebrated Pantalone, Golinetti (see Goldoni's _Memoirs_, +part i. ch. 40). When he printed it, he translated the title into +_L'Uomo di Mondo_, finding no exact equivalent for the Venetian phrase +_Cortesan_. Goldoni's account of the character tallies with Gozzi's. + +[132] In these and several passages which follow, Gozzi ascribes the +pecuniary embarrassments of his family to the maladministration of his +mother, aided by his sister-in-law. It it only fair to say, that Gasparo +Gozzi's correspondence confirms his veracity. That favourite and +favoured eldest son complains bitterly that, even to the last days of +her life, his mother insisted on managing the property, and that she +made underhand contracts to the prejudice of himself and his children. +It was, in fact, a misfortune for the Gozzi that their father, Jacopo +Antonio, married into a patrician family of higher rank and pretensions +than his own. Angela Tiepolo, knowing herself to be one of the last +representatives of a very noble house, with considerable expectations +from her childless brother, drove her easy-going husband into ruinous +expenditure, and domineered over her kindred by right of a marriage +which savoured of a mésalliance. See the article upon her in Litta's +_Famiglie Celebri_, sub tit. "Tiepolo." + +[133] The _bautta_ and the mask were permitted at Venice from the first +Sunday in October until Ash Wednesday. + +[134] This was a very long scarf of black silk, which, draped above the +head, and fulling over the shoulders, was tied in a knot, and allowed to +hang on both sides of the wearer's skirts. The mask or _bautta_ was only +permitted during the prolonged Venetian Carnival. + +[135] The Italian is _democraziano_. Perhaps Gozzi wrote _democriziano_, +from Democritus, the sage who laughed at all things. In either case the +adjective is wrongly formed. It ought to be either _democratico_ or +_democritico_. But _democrazia_ may have led him to _democraziano_. He +not infrequently employs this phrase, which always puzzles me, because +nobody was really less democratic than Carlo Gozzi, and as yet, in 1780, +he had no reason, under the pressure of the Revolution, to dissemble. + +[136] The theatres of Venice were called by the names of the parishes in +which they stood, or of non-parochial churches to which they were +contiguous. S. Angelo was one of the smaller. + +[137] I have condensed in this sentence the details of a long and +tiresome chapter (chap. xxix.). It is worth adding here that the law of +Venice with regard to entail was very strict; time gave no title to a +purchaser who had obtained possession of an estate subject to _fidei +commissa_. One of Goethe's most interesting letters from Venice (October +5, 1786) contains the full description of a cause he heard pleaded in +the Ducal palace for the recovery of illegally alienated real property. +Goethe remarks upon the extraordinary permanence of trusts in Venice. + +[138] The author of an unfinished work on Venetian literature. + +[139] It seems probable that Gozzi was really at one time on the point +of marrying this lady. + +[140] The Avvogadori del Comune, or _Advocatores Comunis_, corresponded +in a certain sense to the modern Procuratori di Stato, and had some +resemblance to the Roman tribunes. They formed a High Court of Justice +for the guardianship of property accruing to the Exchequer, for the +protection of private rights in property, rights of minors and widows, +the superintendence of registers of births and marriages, &c. Three +patricians formed the board. + +[141] The Somascan Order was founded about 1540 by Girolamo Miani, a +Venetian senator, upon the model of the Theatines. Its object was +education, principally of the poor. With regard to the school at S. +Cipriano, it is worth mentioning that the famous adventurer, Casanova, +was placed there by his guardian the Abbé Grimani in the year 1740 or +thereabouts. He gives a full account of the institution in his Memoirs +(vol. i. ch. vi.), from which it appears that at this epoch about 150 +youths were educated by the Somascan monks. Readers of Casanova need +hardly be reminded that he was expelled from the seminary after a few +weeks' residence. Gasparo Gozzi was also educated here. + +[142] This scene has actually been preserved and printed in Gasparo +Gozzi's works. Opere, Minerva, Padova, vol. vii. It forms the 6th scene +of the 3rd act of _Esopo in Città_, and is very much as Carlo Gozzi +describes it. The ancient lady throws the principal blame for her +domestic sufferings upon a certain "Sicofante, Dottor legista di questa +città," whom I take to be Carlo's lawyer, Testa. + +[143] Gozzi can hardly not have been thinking of poor Gratarol, when he +penned these lines. Mentally he contrasts his own conduct under the +inconvenience of a stage-satire with Gratarol's. + +[144] See above, p. 319. + +[145] On the Fondamenta Nuove, looking across Murano to the mountains of +the Dolomites. See Tommasei, _op. cit._, p. 258. + +[146] This was written in 1780, but when it was printed in 1797, Louis +XVI. had little reason to be proud of his titles. + +[147] He was made secretary to the Riformatori dello Studio. + +[148] Gozzi here resumes a portion of the 29th chapter of his Memoirs, +which I have condensed in Chapter XXIV. above (see note to p. 336). It +seemed unnecessary to burden the translation of his autobiography with +more of legal details than was absolutely necessary for understanding +the tenor of his life-experience. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; +Volume the first, by Count Carlo Gozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + +***** This file should be named 38266-0.txt or 38266-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/6/38266/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first + +Author: Count Carlo Gozzi + +Illustrator: Alphonse Lalauze + Maurice Sand + A. Manceau + +Translator: John Addington Symonds + +Release Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #38266] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + +THE MEMOIRS +OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +VOLUME THE FIRST + + + + +_PUBLISHERS' NOTE._ + +_Five hundred and twenty copies of this book printed for England, +and two hundred and sixty for America. Type distributed. Each +copy numbered._ + +_No._ 606 + +[Illustration: Carlo Gozzi] + + + + +THE MEMOIRS OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH +BY +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + +With Essays on Italian Impromptu Comedy, Gozzi's Life, +The Dramatic Fables, and Pietro Longhi + +BY THE TRANSLATOR + +_WITH PORTRAIT AND SIX ORIGINAL ETCHINGS_ +BY ADOLPHE LALAUZE + +_ALSO ELEVEN SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING ITALIAN COMEDY BY MAURICE SAND +ENGRAVED ON COPPER BY A. MANCEAU, AND COLOURED BY HAND_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOLUME THE FIRST + +NEW YORK +SCRIBNER & WELFORD +743 & 745 BROADWAY +MDCCCXC + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +_VOLUME THE FIRST._ + +The Etchings designed and etched by AD. LALAUZE. The Masks, illustrating +the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, by MAURICE SAND, engraved by A. MANCEAU, +and coloured by hand. + +I. PORTRAIT OF CARLO GOZZI (_etching_) _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +II. THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY 25 + +III. COLOMBINA (1683) 48 + +IV. TARTAGLIA (1620) 96 + +V. BRIGHELLA (1570) 128 + +VI. IL DOTTORE (1653) 160 + +VII. SCARAMOUCH (1645) 192 + +VIII. THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY (_etching_) 216 + +IX. IL CAPITANO (1668) 256 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +After the appearance of my work on Benvenuto Cellini, Mr. J. C. Nimmo +proposed that I should undertake a translation of Count Carlo Gozzi's +_Memorie Inutili_. + +The suggestion that such a book might be of interest to the English +public emanated originally, I believe, from Mr. E. Hutchings of +Manchester, in a letter addressed to the _Academy_.[1] + +To this gentleman my warmest thanks are due, not only for starting the +idea, which I have carried out, but also for the interest he has shown +in my work during its progress, and for the assistance he has liberally +rendered by the loan of rare books. + +I entertained the proposal with some doubt. What I already knew about +Carlo Gozzi amounted to little; and it seemed to me improbable that the +world would willingly have left his Memoirs in oblivion if they +possessed solid qualities. + +At the same time, the little that I did know of Gozzi roused my +curiosity. The picturesque aspects of Venetian decadence allured my +fancy. I foresaw that I should have to handle the attractive subject of +Italian impromptu comedy. Finally, it so happens that autobiographies +have always exerted a peculiar fascination for my mind. I rate them +highly as historical and psychological documents. The smallest fragment +of a genuine autobiography seems to me valuable for the student of past +epochs. + +I had strong inducements, therefore, to undertake the proposed task. + +The first thing to do was to procure a copy of the Memoirs, which exist +only in one edition of three volumes. Mr. Hutchings placed the first two +volumes of the book at my disposal; but the third was missing. It had +been purloined while its owner was stationed in one of the South +American cities. Mr. Nimmo and I waited through four months, making +continued applications to the best European dealers in old books, before +a complete copy was at last disinterred from a Venetian library. + +The extraordinary rarity of the _Memorie_ stimulated my growing +interest. After making a preliminary study of the text, I perceived that +this was no common specimen of self-portraiture. In some respects it +seemed to me to be a masterpiece. I felt no doubt that it possessed both +psychological and historical value. A man of a very marked type stood +forth from those pages. He was, moreover, the Venetian representative of +a well-defined social and literary period. This period corresponded +pretty closely with that of our own Samuel Johnson, Fielding, Goldsmith, +Reynolds, David Hume. It was the period which ended with the earthquake +of the French Revolution, the signs of which catastrophe were felt more +ominously in Italy than in our own land. At the same time I recognised +salient qualities of healthy moral sense, of analytical acumen, of +vigorous intelligence, and of caustic humour in the author, mingled with +literary merit of no ordinary kind, vivid transcripts from contemporary +life, dramatic narration, incisive sketches of character, original +reflections on society. + +According to my own standard in such matters, Gozzi's Memoirs ranked as +an important document for the study of Italy in the last century. + +But was the book worth translating? Would it not suffice to leave the +few existing copies in their obscurity, and to indicate their value for +historians by composing a critical treatise on the author and his times? + +My own predilection for autobiographies, and my sense of their utility, +caused me to reject this alternative. I decided to translate, and to +illustrate my translation by tolerably copious original essays. + +While engaged upon the work, I have not, however, felt always quite at +ease. It has recurred to my mind that many readers of these volumes will +exclaim: "An English version of Gozzi's self-styled 'useless memoirs' +cannot fail to be twice as useless as the original!" Not all people +share that partiality for autobiographies which in me amounts almost to +a passion. + +Besides, I had to face other difficulties. The three chapters which +contain the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures could not be omitted. +They are too valuable for the light they throw upon his age, and too +important in the man's estimate of his own character. Their suppression +would have been unfair to Gozzi, and would have shorn his Memoirs of +some brilliant bits of local colour. Nevertheless, I knew that the +frankness and the cynical humour of these episodes are out of tune with +modern taste. Much is pardoned by the virtue of our age to classics--to +Plato or Cellini--which would not be excused in a writer of inferior +eminence. But Gozzi is no classic. The fact of his neglect by his own +nation proves that overwhelmingly. Why drag him from deserved oblivion +if these love-stories are indispensable to the rehabilitating process? + +My answer to this perplexing query was that the debated passages are +good in literature, true to nature, sound in moral feeling. Their +candour is the candour of a cleanly heart, resolved to bare its secret +by an effort of self-portraiture. Gozzi describes passions common to +that age, and ours, and every age; but he also shows how a determined +character, upright and honourable, can free itself from the +entanglements of natural frailty. The lesson may be somewhat harsh, but +it is salutary. Gozzi has written no single word unworthy of a man of +principle--nothing which is calculated to make vice alluring. Only one-- + + "Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up + From common sense of what men were and are, + Who would not know what men must be:"-- + +only such an one can take exception to the narratives of Gozzi's +love-adventures. + +Reasoning thus, I determined to include the love-tales in my +translation, having already decided that no translation could be given +to the world without them, and that the book was worthy of +resuscitation. But I felt myself justified in removing those passages +and phrases which might have caused offence to some of my readers. + +To translate Gozzi with the minute attention to his style which I +bestowed upon Cellini would have been unpractical. I should even have +inflicted an injury upon my author. It is in many respects an annoying +style; redundant, unequal, diffuse; bearing the stamp of garrulous +senility and imperfect (though copious) command of language. + +To condense and manipulate the Memoirs at my own free will, following +the plan of Paul de Musset's abridgement, seemed to me unscrupulous, +even if I abstained from that amusing writer's deliberate +mystifications. + +I resolved to convert the larger portion of the book into equivalent +English, allowing myself the license of curtailing certain passages, and +rearranging the order of some chapters. All cases of important +condensation or omission have been indicated in my notes. My account of +the Memoirs and the causes which led to their publication (Introduction, +Part i.) sufficiently explains my right to transpose material from one +place to another. Readers of the Introduction will perceive how +carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique +edition was put together. It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's +indifference and haste of compilation that so curious a specimen of +autobiography fell into almost absolute oblivion. + +We have only one edition of the _Memorie_, that of Palese, under the +date Venezia, 1797. Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of +bibliography. I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare +book which have fallen under my inspection present some features of +difference, indicating the random way in which the sheets were made up +for publication. + +Among English critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, +has mentioned Gozzi's Memoirs. That is Vernon Lee, in her _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_. But Vernon Lee knew the book only +through Paul de Musset's "perversion." Accordingly, what she has to say +about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, +account she gives of his _Fiabe_. + +The volumes I am now presenting to the public claim at least one +merit--that of dealing with a hitherto almost untouched document of +historical and literary importance. + +I flatter myself that readers will be found to appreciate the brilliant, +though prolix and desultory, portraiture of life in Venice during the +last century which these "useless memoirs" offer to their imagination. + +Finally, I wish here to record my mature opinion about Carlo Gozzi's +character for veracity and general uprightness. I think that I have been +hardly just, and certainly not generous, to Gozzi in the Introduction +and the notes appended to my version. Wishing to avoid the _lues +biographica_, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while +writing. Careful perusal of the proofs makes me feel that the truth +would not have suffered had I entirely suppressed some suspicions and +concealed some personal want of sympathy with the man. Allowing for his +peculiar and occasionally repellent character--the character of an +"original" and a confirmed old bachelor--Gozzi seems to me now to have +been as honest and open-hearted as a gentleman should be. + + JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. + +AM HOF, DAVOS PLATZ, + +_March 25, 1889_. + + + + +_BOOKS USED AND REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK._ + + + 1. CARLO GOZZI. "Memorie Inutili." 3 vols. Venice. 1797. + + 2. CARLO GOZZI. "Opere." 10 vols. Venice. Colombani and other + publishers. 1772-1791. + + 3. ERNESTO MASI. "Le Fiabe di Carlo Gozzi." 2 vols. Bologna. + Zanichelli. 1885. + + 4. PIER ANTONIO GRATAROL. "Narrazione Apologetica." 2 vols. + Venezia. Gatti. 1797. + + 5. PAUL DE MUSSET. "Mmoires de Charles Gozzi." Paris. Charpentier. + 1848. + + 6. GIOV. BATT. MAGRINI. "Carlo Gozzi e le Fiabe." Cremona. + Feraboli. 1876. The same work, second edition: "I Tempi la Vita e + gli Scritti di Carlo Gozzi." Benevento. De Gennaro. 1883. + + 7. MICHELE SCHERILLO. "La Commedia dell' Arte in Italia." Torino. + Loescher. 1884. + + 8. ADOLFO BARTOLI. "Scenari Inediti della Commedia dell' Arte." + Firenze. Sansone. 1880. + + 9. ALFONSE ROYER. "Carlo Gozzi, Thtre Fiabesque." Paris. Michel + Lvy. 1865. + + 10. CARLO GOLDONI. "Mmoires." 3 vols. Paris. Veuve Duchesne. 1787. + + 11. FERDINANDO GALANTI. "Carlo Goldoni e Venezia nel Secolo xviii." + Padova. Samin. 1882. + + 12. P. G. MOLMENTI. "Carlo Goldoni." Venezia. Ongania. 1880. + + 13. VERNON LEE. "Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy." + London. Satchell. 1880. + + 14. MAURICE SAND. "Masques et Bouffons." 2 vols. Paris. A. Lvy + 1862. + + 15. S. ROMANIN. "Storia Documentata di Venezia." Vols. vii.-ix. + Venezia. Naratovitch. 1860. + + 16. GIUSEPPE BOERIO. "Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano." Venezia. + Cocchini. 1856. + + 17. PHILARTE CHASLES. "tudes sur l'Espagne, etc." ("D'un Thtre + Espagnol-Vnitien au xviii^{me.} Sicle et de Charles Gozzi"). + Paris. Amyot. 1847. + + 18. N. TOMMASO. "Storia Civile nella Letteraria." Roma, Torino, + Firenze. E Loescher. 1872. + + 19. EUGENIO CAMERINI. "I Precursori del Goldoni." Milano. Sonzogno. + 1872. + + 20. "Mmoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, crites par + lui-mme. Bruxelles. Rozet. 1876. + + + + +THE MEMOIRS + +OF + +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + + +PART I. + +_CARLO GOZZI AND PIERO ANTONIO GRATAROL._ + + 1. The ancestry and social standing of Count Carlo Gozzi--His + collision with Piero Antonio Gratarol, Secretary to the Venetian + Collegio--How this quarrel led to the composition of Gozzi's + Memoirs--Their importance as a document for the social history of + Venice in the eighteenth century.--2. The interweaving of this + episode in Gozzi's Life with his literary warfare against Goldoni, + which culminated in the production of his ten dramatic fables.--3. + Sketch of Gratarol's life, and his relation to Andrea and Caterina + Tron--Gozzi's _liaison_ with the actress Teodora Ricci--Gozzi's + comedy, _Le Droghe d'Amore_--Turned by Mme. Tron into a satire upon + Gratarol--Gratarol flies from Venice to Stockholm, is proscribed by + the Republic, and loses all his fortune--His _Narrazione + Apologetica_--Gozzi takes up the pen in self-defence--The + Inquisitors of State forbid the publication of his autobiographical + polemic--Gratarol's death in Madagascar--Circumstances which + induced Gozzi in 1797, after the fall of the Republic of St. Mark, + to complete and publish his Memoirs.--4. Gozzi's literary style and + personal character--The false conception of the man and his work + which has been diffused by Paul de Musset. + + +I. + +In the year 1797 there appeared at Venice a book entitled _Memorie +inutili della vita di Carlo Gozzi, scritte da lui medesimo e pubblicate +per umilt_, "Useless Memoirs of the Life of Carlo Gozzi, written by +himself and published from motives of humility." Its author, though he +bore the title of Count, and belonged to an honourable family in +Venice, was not of patrician descent. That is to say, none of his lineal +ancestors had acquired the right of voting in the Grand Council or of +holding the highest offices of state. They ranked with the citizens of +the Republic, who took no direct part in the government, but who were +permitted to discharge important functions as secretaries of several +departments and as ambassadors of the second class. By his mother he +drew half of his blood from one of the oldest and proudest of Venetian +noble families, the Tiepolos. Thus, socially, if not politically, birth +placed him almost on a level with the best Venetian aristocracy. + +In the year 1797 he was seventy-seven; and although he had been a man of +some mark in his early days, the public had lost sight of him for the +last seventeen years. His reputation depended upon a large number of +dramatic pieces, satirical poems, and prose compositions, mostly of a +controversial kind. Two main episodes in his literary life conferred a +slightly dubious notoriety upon his name. The first of these was the +long and bitter war he waged against the two playwrights, Chiari and +Goldoni, between the years 1756 and 1762. The other was an unfortunate +series of events which brought him into collision with a certain Pier +Antonio Gratarol in 1777. Gratarol, like his adversary, was a Venetian +citizen, allied by descent to the great patrician family of Contarini. +Unlike Gozzi, he early embarked on a political career, was one of the +secretaries of the Collegio, and looked forward to the highest +appointments which were open to a man of his rank. The collision with +Count Gozzi, which I shall have to describe with some minuteness, ended +in Gratarol's voluntary exile from Venice, the confiscation of his +property by the State, and a public scandal of sufficient importance to +attract the attention of serious historians.[2] Had it not been for this +tragi-comic episode in his past life, Gozzi would never have written his +Memoirs; and had the memory of the scandal not been revived some years +after Gratarol's death, when the old Republic of S. Mark had fallen in +the crash of the French Revolution, he would never have published them. + +This autobiography is distinctly an apologetical work, a portrait drawn +by Gozzi in self-defence, and intended to vindicate himself from the +aspersions cast by Gratarol upon his character. Its main object is to +set forth in the fairest light his own conduct during the unlucky +collision to which I have alluded. Yet though so limited in aim, the +interest which it possesses for us at the present time, is far wider +than belongs to that unhappy squabble, long since buried in oblivion. +Gozzi's conception of an _Apologia pro vita sua_ was a comprehensive +one. He resolved to reveal his character under all its aspects, from +his childhood until the date 1777, dealing now with matters of general +importance, now with the private affairs of his home, touching upon the +literature of his age, discussing fashions, criticising philosophy, +entering into minute particulars regarding theatres and actors, +describing his love-affairs with a frankness worthy of Rousseau, and +painting a series of lively portraits in which a large variety of +individuals from all classes are presented to our notice. The result is +that his autobiography, although in the strictest sense of that term an +occasional production, forms one of the most valuable documents we +possess for a study of Venetian society during the decadence of the +Republic. Gozzi was gifted with a penetrative and observant mind, strong +sense of humour, and a power of brilliant description. On the faults of +his style and the defects of his character, I shall speak hereafter. At +present it is enough to indicate the importance of the Memoirs as +furnishing a vivid picture of Venetian life in the eighteenth century. +Venice, at that period, was fortunate in autobiographers. She possessed +Goldoni and Casanova as well as Gozzi, not to mention smaller folk like +Da Ponte, the poet of Mozart's _Don Giovanni_. But when we compare the +three life-records of Goldoni, Casanova, and Gozzi, by far the deepest +historical interest, in my opinion, belongs to the last. Casanova's +Memoirs are almost excluded from general use by the nature of their +predominant pre-occupation. Moreover, they deal but partially with +Venice, and only with limited aspects of its social life. Goldoni's, +though more humane, and in all that concerns tone impeccable, turn too +exclusively upon the history of his dramatic works to be of great +importance as an historical document. Moreover, the scene is laid in +several provinces of Italy and transferred before its close to France. +Gozzi, on the contrary, never quits the soil of Venice. Except when he +served as a soldier for three years in the Venetian province of +Dalmatia, he does not appear to have travelled further than to Pordenone +on one side and to Padua on the other. Of strong aristocratic instincts, +but condemned to comparative poverty by the reckless expenditure of his +parents and grandparents, Gozzi enjoyed opportunities of studying the +society of Venice from several points of view. His enthusiasm for +literature and partiality for professional actors brought him acquainted +with the scholars and the Bohemians of that epoch. His management of the +encumbered estates of his family introduced him to advocates, +solicitors, brokers, Jews, tenants, and all manner of strange people. +His birth made him the companion of patricians. His military service +involved him in the wild pleasures and perils of scapegrace lads upon a +foreign soil. Consequently, the records of a life so varied in +experience, while strictly confined within the narrow circuit of +Venetian society, could not fail to be rich in details for the student. +It may be regretted that Gozzi chose to write in a didactic spirit. We +could willingly have exchanged his long-winded excursions into the +sphere of moral philosophy for a few more graphic sketches in the style +of his Dalmatian adventures. + + +II. + +This biographical and historical interest, far more than Gozzi's quarrel +with Goldoni or his collision with Gratarol, is the reason why I thought +it worth while to translate a book which has become excessively rare in +the original. Nothing can be duller or more contemptible, to my mind, +than the chronicle of literary quarrels. The Goldoni-Gozzi episode would +be devoid of permanent attraction were it not for the curious light +thrown by it upon the obscure subject of impromptu comedy, and for the +ten extraordinary _Fiabe Teatrali_ from Gozzi's pen to which it gave +rise. Again, the Gratarol-Gozzi episode, as we shall presently see, is +almost humiliating in the pettiness of its details, and painful through +its tragic termination. + +The Memoirs contain a full and tolerably accurate account of the +Gratarol incident. Yet I cannot dispense with a summary of this affair, +based upon a comparison of Gozzi's story with that of Gratarol in his +_Narrazione Apologetica_. The extreme importance of the event in the +lives of both men, and the fact that it constitutes the subject of +Gozzi's autobiography in quite as serious a sense as that in which the +Persian war forms the subject of Herodotus' history, render this +unavoidable. + + +III. + +Pier Antonio Gratarol was a young man between thirty and forty in the +year 1776. He had grown up with an ample fortune and without a father's +control; had imbibed French ways of thinking and French customs; had +married, and after marriage had separated from his wife.[3] He +represented that class of intellectual and political Liberals whom +Gozzi, with his Conservative prejudices, regarded as dangerous to the +well-being of the State. He was an open libertine in his relations with +women, and did not strive to conceal those principles of personal +liberty which the _philosophes_ were spreading throughout Europe. At the +same time he represented a family which had served the Republic in +distinguished offices for many generations; he possessed excellent +abilities, and had every reason to expect a brilliant future. There was +nothing in his conduct or in his domestic circumstances to distinguish +him unfavourably from a multitude of gay livers and free-thinkers in the +corrupt Venice of that epoch. He had recently become eligible for the +post of ambassador at a foreign Court; and was already nominated as +Resident in Naples. This nomination required, however, to be confirmed +by the Grand Council; and circumstances, which need not be enlarged +upon, rendered the grant of money for his embassy a matter of debate.[4] +Unfortunately, Gratarol was a person of vain, imperious temper, puffed +up with the sense of his own merits, and incapable of correcting his +antipathies. His French tendencies--political, moral, social, +literary--fashionable for the most part--prejudiced the minds of +influential people in the highest departments of the government against +him. Finally, he had made an implacable enemy of a great lady, who at +that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the +State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, +Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, +the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the +Grand Council.[5] Caterina's husband was popularly known as _Il +Padrone_, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind +affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued, like Gratarol, +with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to +manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her +own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but +for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and +indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She +vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so. + +Gozzi, meanwhile, had for the last five years or so assumed the position +of titular protector to a married actress called Teodora Ricci. He does +his best to persuade us that the _liaison_ was one of friendship; but it +is clear that, upon whatever footing he stood toward the Ricci, he felt +a real affection for this woman. For her he composed the dramatic works +of his second or Spanish manner. He attended her in public, introduced +her to the houses of his friends, and stood godfather to her second +child. We are, in fact, met here by an obscurity not unlike that which +involves the more famous connection of Congreve with Mrs. Bracegirdle. +Gratarol, pursuing the usual course of his amours, made the Ricci's +acquaintance, became her lover, compromised her reputation, and wounded +Gozzi so deeply in his sense of honour, that he broke off familiar +relations with the actress. + +Such was the position of affairs when Gozzi, who wrote assiduously for +the theatre, produced a drama modelled on a Spanish piece by Tirso da +Molina. It was called _Le Droghe d'Amore_, and contained a minor part, +which might well have passed either for a sketch of manners or for a +personal satire on Gratarol. Gozzi vehemently and persistently denied +that he had any intention of caricaturing his rival on the stage; and if +we trust what he relates about the composition of the play in question, +it is hardly possible that he can have had Gratarol in view when he +designed it. At the same time, we are bound to concede that the +offensive part of Don Adone fitted nicely on to Gratarol. Mme. Ricci, +smarting under Gozzi's withdrawal from her intimacy, took for granted +that a satire was intended. This woman's hysterical imagination turned a +mere _jeu d'esprit_ of her old friend into a formidable weapon of +attack against her new lover. Through her dangerous interference it +became an instrument, in the hands of other parties, to annoy Gozzi and +to overwhelm Gratarol. She began by poisoning the latter's mind with +gossiping insinuations. Gratarol's fretful vanity and sense of +self-importance made him boil with fury at the thought of being put upon +the stage. He moved heaven and earth to get the play suspended; +imprudently, as it turned out, because this step brought him face to +face with his real enemy, Mme. Tron. The manager of the theatre, to whom +Gozzi had given his comedy, took the manuscript at once to that lady. +This unscrupulous person now saw her opportunity for inflicting +vengeance upon Gratarol. She induced the manager to redistribute the +parts so that the _rle_ of Don Adone should be assigned to an actor who +resembled Gratarol. She taught this man how to imitate Gratarol's dress +and gestures, and turned what may in fact have been an innocent +production of Gozzi's pen into a satire of the most insulting pungency. +At that point the _Droghe d'Amore_ passed out of the control of those +whom it privately concerned. + +After this, Gratarol, driven mad by wounded self-conceit, floundered +from one imprudence into another. He applied to the highest tribunal of +the State, and laid an information against Gozzi. Whether the +Inquisitors did not choose to cancel the license already granted for +the _Droghe d'Amore_, or whether they were influenced by Mme. Tron, does +not greatly signify. At any rate, the comedy continued to be acted. +Gratarol grew more and more irritated, uttered indignant invectives +against the tyrants of the State, and displayed a spirit of +insubordination which was perilous in Venice. Mme. Tron followed up her +advantage, and caused his appointment to the embassy at Naples to be +suspended. Thereupon Gratarol made up his mind to quit Venice. He knew +that this act would expose himself to outlawry and his family to ruin. A +civil servant of the Republic had no legal right to sever himself from +his engagements without permission. The mere fact of doing so caused him +to be treated as a contumacious rebel. But instead of assuming an +indifferent attitude, instead of biding his time in patience and letting +the storm blow over--which it certainly would have done, since a popular +reaction had already begun to operate in his favour--he departed for +Padua on the 11th of September 1777, proceeded to Ceneda, crossed the +frontier on the 25th, travelled to Munich, thence to Brunswick, and +finally to Stockholm, where he arrived in March. Meanwhile a +proclamation was issued against him at Venice. This curious document is +a relic from the savage days of the Middle Ages.[6] It set a price upon +his head, offered rewards to any one who should bring him alive to +Venice or should prove his assassination, cancelled all contracts made +by him during twelve months before the date of December 22, 1777, +confiscated his property during his lifetime, and ordered the whole of +it to be sold by public auction. The latter portions of the ban were +carried into effect. Everything which belonged to Gratarol was sold by +the Avogadori;[7] and what seems really scandalous in this transaction +is that his furniture and jewels passed into the possession of an +Avogadore, Zorzi Angaran, while his landed estates fell to the share of +the Avvocato fiscale dell' Avogaderia, Galante, at the ridiculously low +sum of 2000 ducats.[8] Even his wife, who possessed a dowry of 25,000 +ducats, had to institute long and costly lawsuits for the recovery of +what belonged to her and formed no part of the outlaw's estate. + +Caterina Dolfin Tron, aided by her victim's rashness and impatience, had +succeeded in her plan to ruin him. But a retribution awaited this lady +in the form of an eloquent invective hurled by Gratarol against his +enemies from Stockholm. The so-called _Narrazione Apologetica_ was +printed there in 1779, and soon found its way to Venice. It contained a +detailed account of the events which had induced him to take flight, +arraigned his powerful enemies in terms of the bitterest sarcasm, +exposed their private foibles, and flashed a sharp light upon the +political corruption of the decadent Republic. Gozzi, of course, came in +for his share of abuse;[9] but Gratarol's most telling shafts were +directed against Mme. Tron and the patrician ring which tyrannised over +Venice. It is believed that the scandal of this pamphlet was one reason +why Andrea Tron failed to be elected Doge in 1779. + +On perusing Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, Count Carlo Gozzi +determined to clear his own character and to lay his version of the +story before the public. With this view he composed a lengthy _Epistola +Confutatoria_, taking up each of Gratarol's points in detail, and +discussing his arguments with a strange mixture of acuteness, fury, and +contemptuous severity. He also conceived the notion of writing his +Memoirs, in order that the whole tenor of his life might be clearly +understood.[10] The Confutation and the larger part of the Memoirs were +finished in 1780. But the Government decided that Gratarol's scandalous +pamphlet should be left unanswered. No Venetian pen was allowed to +notice it;[11] and Gozzi received information that the Inquisitors of +State would take the matter up if he attempted to show further fight. +The authorities acted with prudence in this matter. Nobody but Gozzi had +anything to gain by his refutation of Gratarol. With regard to the +corruption of Venice, the despotism of a few leading patricians, and the +back-stairs influence of Mme. Tron, Gratarol had only told the truth. He +had told it indeed emphatically, bitterly, and probably with some +exaggeration. Yet, unhappily, it was the truth. No amount of +apologetical rhetoric could have broken down his arguments. A public +discussion would have disturbed the public mind, and many dark secrets +and dirty jobs must certainly have come to light. + +Gozzi had to choose between the _piombi_ or the sacrifice of his already +finished manuscripts. Of course he did not hesitate. Both Confutation +and Memoirs were thrown at once aside; and they might even now have +been lying in some neglected corner of his ancient mansion had it not +been for the events which have to be related. + +Gratarol never returned to Venice. From Sweden he passed to England, +where he was hospitably received and befriended by members of our +aristocracy. Failing, however, to get any appointment in London, he +crossed to North America, travelled southwards to Brazil, and again left +that country in the train of some political adventurers. The party were +betrayed and robbed by the captain of their vessel, and cast ashore upon +the coast of Madagascar. Here Gratarol perished miserably in October +1785. His English friends sent information of this event to the Venetian +Government; but the evidence was judged insufficient, and the +restitution of his estates to two female cousins, who were his only +heirs, was refused until the fall of the Republic. When that took place, +Gratarol's friends immediately republished the _Narrazione Apologetica_ +at Venice, and appealed to General Bonaparte for justice. This was in +1797. + +Gozzi, who had now nothing to fear from Inquisitors of State, and whose +reputation was again exposed to calumny, took his manuscripts from their +drawer, dusted them, and placed them in the hands of a publisher. In the +month of July 1797 he issued a manifesto to the Venetian public, +proclaiming his intention.[12] "Availing myself of the beneficent +freedom now permitted to the press, I have drawn my manuscript from the +tomb in which it has lain during the past seventeen years." He refers to +the recent republication of Gratarol's _Narrazione_, and declares that +this alone has forced him to resuscitate the memory of bygone quarrels +and offences. At the same time he pays a high tribute to Gratarol's +work. "This book, which appeared at Stockholm in 1779, and which I had +forgotten, without however forgetting the unjust tricks and jobs by +which its truly pitiable author was overwhelmed with ruin, contains a +great number of indubitable truths, and it is only to be regretted that +he dictated it under the influence of blind anger and venomous +resentment, instead of philosophic calm." + +It appears that at this time Gozzi did not intend to publish his +_Epistola Confutatoria_, written in 1780, and certainly dictated under +the influence of anger as hot, hatred as fierce, and resentment as +venomous as any which inspired his adversary. Indeed, it may here be +observed that Gratarol, though he calls Gozzi a hypocrite, a huckster, +an impostor, and so forth, is more measured in his language than the +latter. Yet, while Gozzi was passing the sheets of his Memoirs through +the press,[13] Gratarol's friends issued another book entitled _Last +Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol, with documents relating to +his death_. In this they expressed a hope that Gozzi would not proceed +with the publication announced by his manifesto, and incautiously +printed a document alluding to Gozzi in the following by no means +flattering terms: "the infernal hypocrisy of a satirical liar."[14] +Furthermore, upon the 29th of August, having obtained a decree for the +restitution of Gratarol's property to his cousins, they published this +edict together with a preface, signed Widiman,[15] in which they had the +folly to rake up the whole tedious story of Gratarol's wrongs again. +Once more Gozzi was annoyed with well-worn phrases like the following: +"The persecuting furies of a haughty woman, the talent and the passion +of a very famous author, made him (Gratarol), to the horror of all +right-minded people, become the object of scorn and ridicule upon a +public theatre prostituted to the uses of a vile and infamous buffoon." +This was more than Gozzi could stand. Firmly holding to the opinion that +it was only Gratarol's folly and Mme. Tron's vindictiveness which had +caused the scandal of _Le Droghe d'Amore_, he now resolved to publish +everything which could establish the truth of his own story. Therefore +he incorporated the _Epistola Confutatoria_ in the third volume of the +Memoirs, and printed the notorious comedy for the first time at the end +of the book. Meantime he invited Gratarol's friends to inspect the MS. +of this play, which he declared to be the sole and original autograph, +in order that they might convince themselves that his statements +regarding its composition were accurate. Having now made up his mind to +supplement the two parts of his book with a third, he carried down his +Memoirs to the date of March 1798, when they came to a sudden +termination. All three volumes bear the date 1797; but their pagination +and some other trifling matters lead me to believe that the first two +were printed in that year, the third in the following spring. + + +IV. + +The circumstances under which Gozzi's _Memorie_ were produced +sufficiently account for their peculiar form, or rather formlessness. He +wrote hurriedly, with a polemical object in view, and paid no attention +to style. This he confesses in the manifesto.[16] "I have not striven to +express myself with the exactitude, the raciness, and the elegances of +our language." As a literary performance, this autobiography is +remarkably unequal, a thing of rags and patches, some of which are of +fine silk or velvet, others of rough sackcloth. Their main defect as +regards composition is prolixity. Gozzi does not know when to stop, and +he uses three phrases where one would have sufficed. He is also very +incoherent, spinning interminable periodic sentences, which sometimes do +not hang together grammatically or logically. While insisting so +magisterially upon the purity of Italian diction, he indulges in uncouth +Lombardisms, and slips at times into Venetian dialect. We must remember +that he grew up practically without education. He acquired his +knowledge, cultivated his taste, and formed his style by reading without +discrimination and by writing without fixed purpose. This accounts for +the digressive, irregular, improvisatory manner of his prose. It has its +own merits, however, of vehemence, a copious vocabulary, dramatic vigour +in narration, and occasionally graphic descriptions. + +It may be asked why he called his Memoirs "useless." Partly no doubt out +of an ironical self-consciousness, which marked his peculiar species of +humour; but partly also as a slap in the face to his readers. He tells +them candidly in one of his prefaces that he considers the moral +reflections with which the book is filled to be both sound and valuable, +but that the false science of the age is certain to render them of no +effect.[17] In like manner, when he asserts that the Memoirs were +published out of humility, this is partly true and partly false. Gozzi +piqued himself on being what I may call a Stoic-Democritean philosopher. +It was his pride to bear everything with endurance and to laugh at +everything, himself and his own concerns included, with contemptuous +indulgence. Yet he deserved the stinging epigram which Goldoni uttered +on his character: "A smile upon his lips and venom in his heart." His +light-heartedness and risibility were often assumed to hide bitter +resentment or boiling indignation. No man had less of genuine humility +than Gozzi, or more of the "pride which apes humility." _Umilt_ upon +his title-page has much the same effect as _Umilt_ in huge Gothic +letters beneath the coronets and crests of the Borromeo family above +their haughty palace-portals. As a single instance, I might select the +supercilious condescension with which he invariably treats his friends +the actors. They are _canaille_, to be consorted with by a gentleman +merely for amusement. His repeated boast that he gave his literary work +away, and his sneers at his brother Gasparo for making money, do not +savour of a really humble spirit. At the bottom of all he says about his +foolhardiness in Dalmatia there lurks a proud self-satisfaction. + +To what extent was he truthful? That is a difficult question to answer. +I believe that in the main he tried to be, and was, veracious throughout +the Memoirs; but that he considered a certain economy of statement, a +certain evasion of direct facts, and a certain forensic chicanery to be +permissible in openly controversial composition. This renders his +account of the Gratarol episode somewhat suspicious, particularly when +we remember that he was writing with the _Narrazione Apologetica_ before +his eyes. It is clear that he wished to conceal his real age, that he +falsified the date of his departure for Dalmatia, and that he somewhat +misstated the nature of his intimacy with Mme. Tron. In each of these +cases it was his object to put himself in as favourable a light as +possible face to face with Gratarol, first by making it appear that he +was ten years or so younger than his actual age when he began the +liaison with Mme. Ricci, and secondly by slurring over the fact of a +partial collusion with Gratarol's deadly enemy. It would take up too +much space to expand the arguments by which I have arrived at these +conclusions; but the notes to my translation will make each point clear +in its proper place. + +On the whole, Gozzi strikes me as rather inclined to the vices of too +open speech and cynicism than to those of dissimulation and hypocrisy. +He can hardly have been a lovable man. His language about his mother +proves that. She treated him ill, it is true, and gave him but a scanty +share of her maternal kindness. Yet this does not justify the freezing +sarcasms with which he refers to her. They are no doubt humorous, but +their humour is of a savage kind. Toward the rest of his family he +behaved with fairness, candour, and uprightness. He devoted himself to +the task of repairing their ruined fortunes, and discharged the duties +of solicitor and estate-agent for all of them through a long series of +years. He bore their bad tempers and frivolities with good-humoured +contempt, and did not even resent being satirised by Gasparo in a comedy +upon the public stage of Venice. Gasparo, his weak but genial elder +brother, he truly loved, although, with characteristic acidity, he +always lets us understand what a poor creature he was. Women had not the +privilege of being highly appreciated by Gozzi. He treats them in all +his writings as inferior creatures, and exposes their frailties with +ruthless severity. Either he only knew the worst side of the fair sex, +or was incapable of seeing the best. To men he shows himself more just +and sympathetic. Though he made but few intimate friends, these remained +firmly attached to him till death. + +We must divest our minds of the false conception of Gozzi's character +with which Paul de Musset hoaxed the French critics and Vernon Lee. He +was no dramatic dreamer and abstract visionary, but a keen hard-headed +man of business, caustic in speech and stubborn in act, adhering +tenaciously to his opinions and his rights, acidly and sardonically +humorous, eccentric, but fully aware of his eccentricities, and apt to +use them as the material of burlesque humour. Nobody would have laughed +more loudly at De Musset's fancy picture of his fairy-haunted palace +than Gozzi would have done, or have more keenly relished the joke of +turning his practical self into a sprite-tormented idealist.[18] + +The Memoirs lie now before English readers, and Carlo Gozzi will be +known to them for the first time--certainly for the first time as he +really was. It is not necessary, therefore, to spin out this +introduction. Otherwise, it would have been interesting to compare the +portraits painted of themselves by those four eminent Italian +contemporaries--Goldoni, Gozzi, Casanova, and Alfieri. Four characters +more diverse in quality, and more admirably placed upon the literary +canvas, could hardly, I think, be found in any other nation or in any +other century. + +[Illustration: THE + +ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY] + + + + +Part II. + +_THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY._ + + 1. A brief sketch of the origins of written comedy during the + Italian Renaissance--Its dependence upon Latin models.--2. Further + description of the so-called _Commedia Erudita_.--3. Emergence of + dialectical literature in Italy during the period of the Catholic + reaction--Improvised comedy begins to supersede the written drama + of the Renaissance.--4. Farces at Naples and Florence--The Sienese + company of I Rozzi--The Paduan Beolco--The four principal + masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella.--5. Relation + of modern impromptu comedy to the old Latin comedy of mimes and + exodia--the Osci Ludi, Fescennini Verses, Satura, &c.--In what + sense the modern masks are descended from those antique + elements--Infusion of fixed characters adopted from the plays of + Plautus and Terence.--6. Lombard, Neapolitan, Florentine + ingredients in the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Lasca's carnival song of + the Zanni and Magnifichi about the year 1550.--7. A review of the + principal masks and their subordinate species, as these were + finally developed--Modifications introduced into the masks, or + fixed parts, of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, by men of genius who + supported them.--8. The plots and subjects of improvised + comedies--Buffoonery and indecency.--9. Description of the scenari + or plays in outline which were acted impromptu by the comic + companies--Method of concerting a comedy and distributing its + parts--The function of the Capo Comico.--10. Qualifications of a + good impromptu comedian--Stock repertories, commonplaces, speeches + to be introduced on set occasions, soliloquies, &c.--The Lazzi or + sallies of buffoonery and byeplay--Tendency to degeneration in this + improvisatory art of comedy.--11. European celebrity of the Italian + comedians--In Paris, Spain, Portugal, London--References to + Italian companies in England during the sixteenth century.--12. The + decadence of the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Moral and artistic germs of + dissolution--Goldoni's severe criticism--Garzoni's description of + strolling actors, and their association with quacks, mountebanks, + and clowns. + + +I. + +The history of the Italian theatre is closely connected with the history +of the Classical Revival.[19] The literary drama--as distinguished from +performances by tumblers, mimes, and masquers, from sacred plays and +from plebeian farces--began with the representation of Latin tragedies +and comedies. At the close of the fifteenth century it was usual to +crown courtly festivals with scenic recitations of favourite pieces by +Terence and Plautus. Rome vied with Florence, Venice with Naples, +Ferrara with Urbino, in the magnificence of these spectacles. At a time +when humanistic erudition formed the main preoccupation of society, and +when to be illiterate was unfashionable, princes and great prelates +afforded their guests the refined amusement of seeing the _Menoechmi_ +or _Amphitryon_, the _Eunuchus_ or _Miles Gloriosus_, on their private +stages. At the same time, obeying the decorative instinct of the +Renaissance, they set these jewels of classical antiquity in arabesques +of the richest and most fantastic workmanship. Allegorical masques, +dances with musical accompaniment and pantomimic interludes, were +interposed between each of the five acts, enhancing the simplicity of +the Roman plays and gratifying the vulgar by an appeal to their senses. +These hybrid spectacles, eminently characteristic of Italian taste in +the age which produced them, contained the germs of several dramatic +species, afterwards known as the _Commedia Erudita_, the pastoral play, +the ballet, and the opera. Meanwhile Italian literature, stimulated and +powerfully influenced by humanism, acquired independence; and the +comedies of Plautus and Terence were translated and performed in the +vernacular. During the last years of the fifteenth century these +translations began to take the place of the originals upon the temporary +stages of princely patrons. As yet there were no public theatres. + +Such, briefly sketched, was the origin of Italian comedy; and the +specific character of the _Commedia Erudita_, or written comedy of the +sixteenth century, may be ascribed to the peculiar conditions out of +which it grew. The genius of men like Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Aretino +never wholly freed the form they handled from subservience to Latin +models. It remained, in spite of their close imitation of contemporary +life and their audacious realism, a sub-species of that dramatic art +which the Romans adapted to their uses from the new comedy of the Attic +stage. + + +II. + +The first attempts at national Italian comedy were the _Calandra_ of +Bibbiena and Ariosto's _Cassaria_. The former appeared at Urbino between +1503 and 1508; the latter, in its earlier prose form, at Ferrara in +1508. During the next fifty years a large number of comedies were +produced by a great variety of authors. Men of letters like Machiavelli, +Cecchi, Dolce, and Il Lasca, men of fashion like Lorenzino de'Medici, +philosophers like Bruno, free lances of the pen like Aretino and Doni, +artisans like Gelli, devoted themselves to this species of composition. +The type remained fixed, although some notable exceptions, especially in +the case of Aretino's plays, arrest attention. Taking the intrigue of +Latin comedy for their ground material, these playwrights adapted it to +conditions of Italian society. The avaricious father, the cunning +courtesan, the parasite, the slave merchant, the swaggering soldier, the +young spendthrift in love with a virgin of unknown parentage, the astute +serving-man, the faithless wife, the pedant, the cynical priest or +friar, the vicious old man in his dotage, the reckless adventurer, the +pirate, the country-girl exposed to the corruptions of the town; such +are the stock characters of this dramatic hybrid. Everywhere we find the +plots of Terence or of Plautus interwoven with a Novella in the style +of Boccaccio. As in Latin comedy, the knot is frequently loosed by +unexpected discoveries of lost relatives; and the magnificent realism +with which contemporary manners are depicted, clashes too often with the +stiff and antiquated _ossatura_, or dramatic mechanism, to which the +authors felt themselves obliged by fashion to adhere. From hints in +prologues and prefaces we are able to discern that playwrights chafed +against these traditional limitations of the _Commedia Erudita_. + +Aretino, as I have just observed, broke the fetters of convention, and +presented scenes of pure Italian life; but his plays were too hastily +composed or ill-constructed to start a new style. The originality of +Machiavelli in his _Mandragora_ was not of the sort to encourage a +departure from the beaten track. Like many other masterpieces of Italian +art, the _Mandragora_ stands forth by itself, a sole inimitable monument +of genius; peculiar and personal; accomplished by one single act of +vigorous expression. Before a really national species of written comedy +emerged into distinctness from the _Commedia Erudita_, the literary +impulse of the Renaissance began to decline, and the Italians in the +middle of the sixteenth century entered upon that new phase of +intellectual evolution which is marked by the Tridentine Council and the +subsequent metamorphosis of Catholicism. + + +III. + +One prominent feature of this transitional epoch was the reappearance of +popular forms of art and literature in Italy. The Italian provinces had +retained their local characteristics with undiminished vitality through +centuries of civic conflict and the dominance of humanistic culture. Now +that this culture was decaying, each district and each city contributed +some novelty of its own local vintage. Things which had been overgrown +and screened by scholarship put forth their native vigour. A rich jungle +of dialectical poetry sprouted from long-hidden roots. Men of birth and +breeding began to pique themselves upon the use of their provincial +language. A polite public, tired perhaps of too much polish, yielded to +the charm of realism. The habits of the peasantry and artisans were +transmitted to writing by educated pens. Scenic representations of a +simple character, which had formed the delight of villagers from time +immemorial, claimed the attention of learned coteries. Farces and +morris-dances became fashionable. The buffoons and mimes and masquers, +against whom the Church had fulminated in the Middle Ages, and whom the +scholars of the Revival looked down upon with condescending indulgence, +now lifted up their heads. Suddenly, by an imperceptible process of +development, which it is impossible to trace in all its stages, Italy +found herself in possession of what looked like a novel type of comedy. +This improvised comedy, or _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we must henceforth +call it, was not really new.[20] On the contrary, the elements out of +which it sprang were among the oldest, most vital, most national +possessions of the race. Yet it was due to the peculiar conditions of +the last years of the Renaissance, to the reaction against exhausted +forms of artificial literature, and to the fresh interest in dialects, +that this hitherto neglected plaything of the proletariate assumed a +rare and bizarre shape of beauty. The Italians, still capable of +exquisite artistic creation, had just now lost their liking for the +_Commedia Erudita_. Public theatres were beginning to be built. These +naturally introduced a more popular tone into the drama. Spectacles were +adapted to the taste of a mixed audience. Improvised comedy succeeded to +the heritage of written comedy. This younger daughter of Thalia invested +the motley characters and masks of her invention with the cast-off +mantle of her elder sister. She entered the sphere of the fine arts by +continuing the tradition of Italian comedy upon an altered system, and +with novel elements of humour. + +To talk of younger and elder with reference to these two types of comedy +involves some confusion of ideas. Nothing is more significant of Italy +than the antiquity and complexity of all the forms of art which +flourished there. The _Commedia Erudita_, as we have seen, was derived +from Latin, and through Latin from Athenian sources. The _Commedia dell' +Arte_ had an even longer pedigree than this. In a powerfully mimetic +race like the Italians, the rudiments out of which it was constructed +were, as we shall see, indigenous. Before Rome rose upon the Tiber, the +comedy of masks and improvisation had, in some shape or other, amused +the people. The fall of the Empire, the formation of the Christian +polity, the centuries of the Middle Ages, the culture of the +Renaissance, did not extirpate it. Though we know but little of its +history during that long period, there is every reason to believe that +the elements which gave it individuality survived all changes. To this +topic I shall have to return. For the present, it is enough to point out +that the blending of the vulgar improvised comedy of vintage festivals +and market-places with what remained of polite written comedy after the +middle of the sixteenth century, determined the _Commedia dell' Arte_, +considered as a specific and strongly marked type of dramatic art. In +this sense, and in this sense only, it may be denominated the younger +sister of the _Commedia Erudita_. + + +IV. + +Farces formed a popular species of entertainment all through the years +of the Renaissance. At Naples they had the name of _Coviole_, at +Florence of _Farse_. The playwright Cecchi has left us several specimens +of the written _Farsa_, together with a general description of the type, +which proves it to have been not unlike the earliest of our own romantic +plays.[21] A company formed itself at Siena, called I Rozzi, for the +representation of rustic farces. Composed of artisans and mechanics, +this company acquired such celebrity that Leo X. invited them in 1517 to +the Vatican; and their influence must be reckoned in the evolution of +the new Italian drama. A Paduan actor and playwright also deserves +mention here. Angelo Beolco, born in 1502, made himself known upon the +stage as Il Ruzzante, or the Frolic. He wrote rustic comedies with +simple plots, distinguished by their realistic humour and their strong +incisive pathos; and created the ideal character of the peasant or Il +Villano. Beolco formed a school in the Venetian provinces, and died in +1542.[22] + +Such are some of the traces we possess of a dramatic type in growth, +which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained predominance +in Italy. It is not possible, however, for the critical historian to +explain the several steps whereby the _Commedia dell' Arte_ arrived at +maturity. Like Harlequin, bounding from the sides and capering before +the footlights, this new species makes a sudden apparition. We find it +in full energy, possessing the public theatres and claiming the +attention of all classes, at the close of the cinque cento. Described +briefly, this comedy trusted to the improvisatory talent of trained +actors and made use of masks. Companies were formed under the direction +of a _Capocomico_, who took his name from one of the masks. Their stock +in trade was a collection of plays in outline, _scenari_ or _plats_ (to +use an old English phrase),[23] which the troupe studied under the +direction of their leader. The development of the intrigue by dialogue +and action was left to the native wit of the several players, and the +performance varied according to the personal qualities of the members +who composed the company. The masks or fixed characters were derived +from all provinces of Italy, and represented types peculiar to each +district.[24] Venice contributed Pantalone; Bologna lent the Dottore; +Bergamo supplied the two Zanni--Arlecchino and Brighella; Naples gave +Pulcinella, Tartaglia, and the Captain. Tuscany made up the characters +of the comedy with the soubrette and lovers. These Tuscan personages +were unmasked and spoke Florentine Italian.[25] The masks reproduced +their native dialects.[26] Like Harlequin in his coat of many colours, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ wore motley. Displacing the literary drama, +which reduced contemporary life in Italy to the conventional standard of +classical Rome or Athens, this new drama brought into salience local +oddities and notes of provincial eccentricity. The masks were permanent; +yet they admitted of genial handling, since these parts in the comedy +were rarely written, and every fresh sustainer of a mask had the +opportunity of impressing his own individuality upon the type he +represented.[27] In this way, as will soon appear, each mask multiplied +and made a hundred. Plasticity and adaptability were the essential +qualities of a dramatic species which relied on improvisation, and had +only the unwritten code of immemorial tradition. + + +V. + +At this point it is necessary to inquire into the relation between the +modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_ and the old Italian comedy of mimes +and _exodia_. Much has been written, with meagre and dubious results, +about the origins of the Latin drama. One thing, however, appears +certain, after shaking the dust from ponderous tomes of erudition. The +Romans, like the modern Italians, had their _Commedia Erudita_ and +_Commedia dell' Arte_. Of the two species, in classical times as +afterwards, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was indigenous and popular, the +_Commedia Erudita_ derived and literary. The latter, whether it affected +Greek manners, as in the so-called _Fabula palliata_, or Roman manners, +as in the so-called _Fabula togata_, remained in the hands of scholarly +authors and serious actors (_histriones_). The former had its natural +origin in popular habits, and only at a comparatively late period +submitted to regular artistic treatment. It was represented by masked +buffoons, _Sanniones_, _Planipedes_, _Stupidi_, and so forth. We hear of +_Osci ludi_ and _Fescennini versus_, the former pointing to Campania and +the vintage, the latter to Etruria and village sports.[28] The _Satura_, +which seems to have been an offshoot from the _Fescennina_, corresponded +pretty closely to what we now call farce, and eventually developed into +the _exodia_ or _hors d'oeuvre_ of the later Roman theatre.[29] Out of +these indigenous elements, but with special relation to the _Osci ludi_, +grew a literary form of comedy which obtained the name of _Atellana_. It +is supposed to have originated in the Oscan city of Atella, close to +Acerra, Pulcinella's birthplace. In all these native forms of drama, +dialects were spoken and masks were used; and this is a main point of +connection between them and the modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_. +Another feature in common is the rank realism and open obscenity which +marked the humours of both species. + +Among the ancient Roman masks four types are known to us by +name--_Maccus_, a Protean fool or Harlequin; _Bucco_, a garrulous clown +or blockhead; _Pappus_, a miserly, amorous, befooled old man; +_Dossenus_, a moralising charlatan. We also hear of the _Stupidus_ and +_Morio, Manducus_, a notable glutton, and the _Sanniones_, so called +possibly from their grin. + +Further familiarity with the modern _Commedia dell' Arte_ will make it +clear how tempting it is to conjecture a direct transmission of these +Roman masks from ancient to modern times. Maccus and Bucco bear a strong +resemblance to the two Zanni. The very word Zanni seems to suggest +Sanniones; although it is probably derived from the Bergamasque name for +a varlet--Jack; Zanni being a contraction of Giovanni. Pappus looks +uncommonly like Pantalone, and Dossenus like the Dottore. The _Stupidus_ +has an air of our clown or Mezzettino or Il Villano. Manducus might be +any glutton with a huge pair of champing jaws. Yet nothing could be more +uncritical than to assume that the Italian masks of the sixteenth +century A.D. boasted an uninterrupted descent from the Roman masks of +the fifth century B.C. That assumption closes our eyes to a far more +interesting aspect of the phenomenon. The fact seems to be that ancient +and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the +same fashion. The peasants of modern Tuscany indulged in their +Fescennine jibes, stained themselves with wine-lees, and jumped through +bonfires, like their most remote ancestors.[30] The grape-gatherers of +modern Nola and Capua ridiculed their neighbours with obscene jests, and +pranked themselves in travesty, like the earliest Oscans or the first +colonists from Hellas.[31] Out of the same persistent habits emerged the +same kind of native drama; and just as the Atellan of ancient Rome +eventually brought the comedy of the proletariate upon the public stage +in cities, so at the close of the sixteenth century the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ worked up the rudiments of popular farce and satire into a new +form which delighted Europe for two hundred years. + +Many details derived from the _Commedia Erudita_ rendered the +resemblance between the modern improvised drama and the vernacular +comedy of ancient Rome superficially striking. The conventional +characters of Plautus and Terence, the _senex_, the _servus_, the +_meretrix_, the _mango_, the _ancilla_, the _miles gloriosus_, and the +_parasitus_ reappeared. In truth, this peculiar and highly complex +hybrid combined strains of manifold varieties. Upon the wild and native +briar, which in former times produced the _Osci ludi_, _Fescennini +versus_, and _Satura_, and which went on living its own natural life +beneath the drums and tramplings of so many conquests, was now grafted +the cultivated rose of the _Commedia Erudita_. This, in its turn, +contained elements of the _Fabula palliata and togata_. The result was a +species eminently characteristic of sixteenth-century Italy, and similar +to the Atellan farces of the Romans. + + +VI. + +The _Commedia dell' Arte_ yields, upon analysis, three chief component +factors. The four leading masks, Arlecchino and Brighella, Pantalone and +Il Dottore, came respectively from Bergamo, Venice, and Bologna. These +were the contribution of Northern Italy. Pulcinella, Tartaglia, +Coviello, and the Captain came from Naples. They were subsidiary +characters of great importance, contributed by the South. The lovers, +_primo amoroso_ and _prima amorosa_, upon whose adventures the intrigue +turned, and the _Servetta_, came from Tuscany, or rather from the +tradition of written comedy, which adhered to the literary Italian +tongue. If priority in time is to be sought for any of these factors, we +must look to Lombardy. The four masks which were indispensable to this +dramatic species, and which survived all its vicissitudes, had an +undoubted Lombardo-Venetian origin. The Neapolitan masks were +superadded, and the Tuscan intrigue formed little more than a +conventional framework for the humours of the fixed characters. Scarcity +of documents makes it impossible to speak with absolute authority on any +of these points; yet we have good reason to credit the tradition which +connects the origin of the _Commedia dell' Arte_ with Northern Italy. + +A carnival song, composed by Anton-Francesco Grazzini, called Il Lasca, +at Florence some time before the year 1559, throws light upon the +subject.[32] It is entitled "Canto di Zanni e Magnifichi." The Magnifico +corresponded to Pantalone; and I need not repeat that the Zanni were +best known as Arlecchino and Brighella. Lasca makes it clear in this +poem that the Lombard masks were strangers to Tuscany, and that they +performed comedies upon a public stage:[33] + + "_Facendo il Bergamasco e il Veneziano,_ + _N'andiamo in ogni parte,_ + _E'l recitar commedie la nostra arte._" + +He also shows how the buffoon parts in these plays were interwoven with +the intrigue of the regular drama: + + "E Zanni tutti siamo, + Recitatori eccellenti e perfetti; + Gli altri strioni eletti, + Amanti, Donne, Romiti e Soldati, + Alla stanza per guardia son restati." + +Furthermore, he lets us know that acting was combined with dancing and +mountebank performances, and drops the information that women in +Florence were not allowed to attend the theatres where Zanni played: + + "Commedie nuove abbiam composte in guisa + Che quando recitar le sentirete, + Morrete delle risa, + Tanto son belle, giocose, e facete; + E dopo ancor vedrete + Una danza ballar sopra la scena, + Di varj e nuovi giuochi tutta piena." + +It is therefore obvious that, at the middle of the sixteenth century, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ had already taken shape and earned popularity. +The companies who introduced it into Tuscany were recognised as hailing +from Bergamo and Venice. Before another fifty years had passed away, +this species absorbed the attention of Italy, adopted elements from +every district, and settled down into a definite form of comedy, which +lasted until the period of Goldoni's reform of the stage. It culminated +about the middle of the seventeenth century, and maintained a high +degree of excellence during the first half of the eighteenth. But when +Goldoni attacked it, and Gozzi rose in its defence, the type was already +on the wane. Depending, as any kind of improvised drama must necessarily +do, upon the personal talents of successive actors, the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ died of inanition when theatrical genius was diverted into other +channels.[34] Originality of humour then yielded to conventional +buffoonery. The masks became more and more stereotyped, more and more +insipid. Were it not for Gozzi's _Fiabe_, we should hardly be able to +form a conception of the part they actually played for two centuries in +Europe. + + +VII. + +Let us watch the carnival procession of the masks defile before us. We +may imagine that they are crossing the stage of a theatre, while we sit +idle in our stalls. First comes Pantalone, the worthy Venetian merchant, +good-hearted, shrewd, and canny, yet preserving a certain child-like +simplicity, which long acquaintance with the world has not +contaminated. His full title is Pantalone de'Bisognosi. Sometimes he is +called Il Magnifico, sometimes Babilonio; and old tradition gives a +singular derivation for his name of Pantalone. Instead of having +anything to do with the Saint called Pantaleone, he ought really to be +known as Piantaleone, or Plant-the-lion. In fact, he is one of those +patriotic _cittadini_ who, partly out of zeal for S. Mark and partly +with a view to commerce, were reputed to hoist flags with the Venetian +lion waving to the breeze on every rock and barren headland of Levantine +waters.[35] Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, +socks and slippers of bright red. A black domino conceals half of his +face. He is sometimes a bachelor, but more frequently a widower with one +daughter, who engrosses all his time and care. Easy-going indulgence for +the foibles of his neighbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the +fundamental note of his character. But as time goes on, he degenerates, +dotes, yields to senile vices. At last he becomes the shuffling +slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantomimes.[36] + +After Pantaloon walks the Doctor in his Bologna gown; a hideous black +mask covers his whole face, smudged with red patches, like skin-disease +or wine-stains, on the cheeks. He is Graziano, Baloardo Graziano, or +Prudentio, and has a kind of bastard brother called the Dottor Balanzon +Lombardo. Boasting his D.C.L. or M.D. or LL.D. degree from the august +University, Graziano makes a vast parade of learning. _Bononia docet_ is +always on his lips or in his thoughts; yet he cannot open his mouth +without letting fall some palpable absurdity. Law jargon, quibbles, +quiddities, preposterous syllogisms, fragments of distorted Latin, +misapplied quotations from the Pandects, mingle with metaphysics, +astrology, and physical chimras about the spheres and elements and +humours, in his talk. He is a walking caricature of learning, and the +low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes +of erudition. To sustain this mask with spirit taxed the genius of a +comedian. He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber +always ready, to blunder with wit and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the +whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases. + +Pantalone and the Doctor were only half-masks; that is to say, they held +something in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, +and took a decided part in the action of the play. As the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ coalesced with the _Commedia Erudita_, they approached more +and more nearly to the type of the _senes_ in Latin comedy. The present +generation has seen them both in Rossini's _Barbiere di Siviglia_. + +Next come the two Zanni. These are thorough-going masks; twin-brothers +from the country-side of Bergamo, strongly contrasted in their +characters, yet holding certain points in common.[37] First comes +Arlecchino, the eldest and most typical of Italian masks, and the one +who has preserved its outlines to the present day. His party-coloured, +tight-fitting suit reproduces the rags and patches of a rustic servant. +On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare's or +rabbit's scut. He is always on the move, light-headed, gluttonous, gay, +pliable, credulous, ingenuously nave and silly. The glittering +ubiquitous Harlequin of our pantomimes transforms him into a mute +ballet-dancer; but when the type was created, Arlecchino spoke and +amused the audience as much by his absurdities and uncouth jokes as by +his perpetual mobility. + +Time would fail to tell of the infinite modifications which this type +assumed under the hands of successive able actors. Truffaldino, the +delight of Venice, Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Mestolino, Bagattino, +Guazzetto, Stoppino, Burattino, and the idiotic Mezzettino, were all +descended from this parent stock. + +Side by side with Arlecchino goes his more astute and knavish brother +Brighella. He is also Bergamasque of the purest breed. But he holds +something from the Davus and Geta of Latin comedy. He is the roguish, +clever, cowardly, pimping servant of the young spendthrift, who helps +his master to deceive his father and seduce his neighbour's wife or +daughter. Brighella wears a loose white shirt trimmed with green, and +wide white trousers. On his head is a conical hat, plumed with red +feathers, which yields place in course of time to the white cap of our +clowns. His mask is brown, cut off above the upper lip, over which a +pair of short moustachios bristle. Like Arlecchino, Brighella gave birth +to a great variety of assimilated types. Unscrupulous Pedrolino, +Beltramo, Bagolino, Frontino, Sganarello, Mascarillo, Figaro, Finocchio, +Fantino, Gradellino, Traccagnino are his more or less legitimate +offspring. He enters French comedy under the names of Scapin, +Sganarelle, and Frontin. He creates a character of opera with Figaro. +Unlike Arlecchino, who becomes at last a silent ballet-dancer, Brighella +grows more vocal and distinct as time advances, until, in the plays of +Molire and Beaumarchais, he is hardly distinguishable from a _servus_ +of Latin comedy modernised. Indeed, just as Pantalone and Il Dottore +approximate to the _senes_, so Arlecchino and Brighella shade off into +the _servi_; and all their countless progeny are variations on the theme +of stupid or roguish varlets. + +The four main masks, with their attendant groups of subordinates, have +passed before us; but a multitude whom no man can number and no words +can describe press on from behind. Perhaps the first place should be +given to the _Servetta_. Her names are legion. Colombina, the sweetheart +of Arlecchino and Pulcinella, Rosetta, Florentine Pasquella, Argentina, +Diamantina, Venetian Smeraldina, Saporita, Carmosina; under all her +titles, and with every shade of character ascribed to her by the free +handling of successive actresses, she remains the sprightly, witty, +shifty pendant to the Zanni.[38] Not a true mask, however; for the +Servetta wears her own face and form, only assuming the costume and +dialect of the region she prefers to hail from. Like her lover +Arlecchino, Colombina underwent a long series of transformations before +she became the fairy-like being who flits behind the footlights of our +theatres on winter evenings. And, like Brighella, written comedy blended +her with the fixed characters of drama under the name of the soubrette. +Susanna in the _Nozze di Figaro_ is a familiar example of Colombina in +her latest dramatic development. + +[Illustration: COLOMBINA (1683) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The _Servette_ in their many-coloured _Contadina_ dresses have +passed by. Close upon their heels press forward a chattering grimacing +group from Naples. Pulcinella leads the way, for he must still keep +Colombina in sight. In him, far more than in Arlecchino, the genius of a +nation lives incarnate; and this he partly owes to a poor artisan of +Naples, Francesco Cerlone, who fixed the type with inimitable humour in +the last century.[39] Pulcinella has had whole volumes written on his +pedigree. Some authors find him depicted on the walls of Pompeii; others +trace him in statuettes and masks of antiquity. The one point which +seems to be certain is, that he made his appearance on the public stage +toward the end of the sixteenth century, wearing the white shirt and +breeches of a rustic from Acerra. His black mask, long nose, humpback, +protruding stomach, dagger and truncheon, were later additions. Whatever +connection there may be between Pulcinella and the masks of classical +antiquity--and I have already attempted to show how I think that +connection ought to be conceived[40]--he was, at his dbut, regarded as +the type of a Campanian villager, established at Naples in the quality +of servant. Pulcinella is thus the Southern analogue of Bergamasque +Brighella and Arlecchino. Gradually he absorbed the humours of the +Neapolitan proletariate, and became the burlesque mirror of their +manners and ways of thinking. Time's whirligig has made him the hero of +our puppet-shows, and he enjoys cosmopolitan celebrity under the name of +Punch. + +Coviello goes along with him, a Calabrian mask, which was sustained with +applause by Salvator Rosa at Rome. He belongs to the buffoon class, and +is distinguished by his mandoline and ballad-singing. After him walks +Tartaglia, afflicted with an incurable stammer, which renders his +magisterial airs and graces ludicrous. Tartaglia has something in him of +the Doctor; but this part lent itself to great varieties of treatment. +We shall see what play Gozzi made with it. + +But now our ears are deafened with a clash of arms, rumbling of drums, +pistol-shots, and shouted execrations. A fantastic extravagant troop of +soldiers march upon the stage. At their head goes the swaggering +Capitano. He is a Spaniard, armed to the teeth, loaded with outlandish +weapons, twirling huge moustachios, frowning, swearing, boasting, +quarrelling, thieving, wenching, and shrinking into corners when he +meets a man of courage. Sometimes he affects the melancholy grandeur of +Don Quixote. Sometimes he leans to the garrulity of Bobadil. Sometimes +he assumes the serious ferocity of a brigand chief or the haughty +punctiliousness of a hidalgo. Still he remains at bottom the caricature +of professional soldiers, as they plagued and infested Italy under the +Spanish domination. His language soars into the wildest hyperboles and +euphuisms. He cannot speak without new-coined oaths and frothy metaphors +and vaunts that shake heaven, earth, and sea. But the slightest trial of +his valour breaks the bubble, and he cringes like a whipped hound. + +The Capitano talked a mixture of Neapolitan and Spanish. His part, which +required to be sustained at a high pitch of burlesque upon a single note +of bragging insolence, was not unfrequently written, and none of these +fixed characters assumed more stereotyped outlines. The _Miles +Gloriosus_ of Latin comedy reappeared in him, and helped to mould the +modern type. The ramifications of this character were innumerable. A +celebrated actor, Francesco Andreini (born at Pistoja in 1548), helped +to create its form. He called himself "Capitan Spavento da Valle +Inferna." Then followed Ariararche, Diacatolicon, Leucopigo and +Melampigo (white and black buttocks), Coccodrillo, Matamoros, +Scaramuccia (created by Tiberio Fiorelli of Naples), Fracassa, +Rinoceronte, Giangiurgolo, Bombardon, Meo Squaquara, Spezzaferro, +Terremoto. The list might be prolonged until the page was filled. Every +variety of the burlesque son of Mars, from a delicate Adonis to a +fire-eater, obtained impersonation from one or other able sustainer of +the part. And a host of minor bastard braggarts, like the Trasteverine +Meo Patacco, perpetuated the fun long after the great Capitano had +quitted the public stage. Some of these types survive in literature. +Scaramouche is known to us, and Gautier has immortalised Fracasse. + +In the rabble which follows this noisy band of warriors we discern +several buffoons of the long-robed tribe--Neapolitan Pancrazio, +Biscegliese, and Cucuzzietto, Sienese Cassandro and Roman +Cassandrino--who have more or less affinity with the Dottore. Il Pedante +walks apart, and attracts attention by his Maccaronic Latin and +eccentric morals. He has the poems of Fidenzio Glottogrysio in his +hands, which he presses on the attention of a smooth-chinned pupil.[41] +Don Fastidio distinguishes himself from the vulgar herd by his enormous +nose, and lantern jaws, and long lean figure, and preposterous citations +from the law reports of Naples. Cavicchio tells silly tales and sings +his Norcian songs. Il Desvedo burlesques the "dude" of Parma, and +Narcisino plays the "masher" of Bologna to the life. Burattino comes +upon the stage in a score of disguises, now gardener, now shopkeeper, +now valet, always the fool and knave combined, impostor and imposed +on.[42] The Notajo, with huge spectacles upon his nose and swan's quill +stuck behind his spreading ears, murmuring a nasal drawl, and tripping +himself up at every step in his long skirts, leads up the rear. +Rope-dancers, ballerini, Pasquarielli, Pierrots, conclude the show, +dancing and pirouetting after their more vocal comrades. + +It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to do justice to the manifold +and motley crowd of the Italian masks. Even Callot, whose burin has +bequeathed to us so many salient portraits of the types he saw in +action, leaves the imagination cold. As I have remarked above, the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ combined fixity of outline in the masks with +illimitable plasticity in the details communicated by the genius and +personality of their sustainers. The mask, the traditional character, +was something which a comedian assumed; but he dealt with it as he found +it suited to his physical and mental qualities. Each distinguished actor +re-created the part he represented. The improvised extempore rule of the +game allowed him boundless license. Therefore, while the masks +persisted, they varied with the men who wore them. Arlecchino became +Truffaldino in the hands of Antonio Sacchi. The Capitano appeared as +Scaramuccia in the person of Tiberio Fiorelli. Parts crossed and +intercrossed. Pulcinella borrowed something from Arlecchino; Brighella +patched himself with rags from Coviello's wardrobe. The dialect and +local humours of South Italy were engrafted on types conventionalised +in Lombard provinces. Tuscany took them up, and added her own biting +wit. As in a kaleidoscope, the constituent fragments of the changeful +whole assumed shapes and forms of infinite variety by clever shifting of +each particle. Each company established for the performance of this +comedy gave a fresh nuance to the combinations which the show permitted. +In each district it adopted a new local colour. The mask was recognised; +the man who wore it was expected to remodel it upon himself. Folk came +to the theatres, less to see the masks, than to see how an Andreini or a +D'Arbes or a Costantini or a Riccoboni would sustain them. We who have +lost the men, and lost well-nigh the memory of their performance, cannot +hope to reconstruct the comedy in its entirety. Histrionic art always +and everywhere suffers from the ephemeral conditions under which it has +to be externalised. But this disadvantage is crushing in the case of an +art which was left to the spontaneous creativeness of its great +representatives. + + +VIII. + +Intrigue of a simple kind formed the staple of these improvised +comedies. Anything like refined studies of character or the development +of calculated motives was rendered impossible by the conditions under +which they were presented to the public. An artist pleased or displeased +by the exhibition of his personality in masquerade, and his creation of +a shade of difference for some known type. The plot, whether borrowed +from the written drama, from Latin plays, or from the gossip of the +market-place, was always of an amorous complexion. Fathers, lovers, +guardians, varlets, priests, and panders played their parts in it. The +action proceeded by means of disguises, sleeping-potions, changelings, +pirates, sudden recognitions of lost relatives, phantoms, demoniacal +possessions, burlesque exorcisms, shipwrecks, sacks of cities, bandits, +kidnapped children. It is singular in what a narrow circle the machinery +revolves. Unlike our own Romantic drama, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ made +but few excursions into the regions of history, fable, mythology, and +fancy. Its scene was an Italian piazza; and though we hear of thrilling +adventures by land and sea, in forest and on fell, these are only used +to loose a knot or to elucidate the transformation of some personage. We +ought not to marvel at the limitations of this drama. They are explained +by that close connection, on which I have already insisted, between the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ and the _Commedia Erudita_. The new comedy +supplied little but its masks; and these masks, as we have seen, were +types of bourgeois and rustic characters, capable of infinite +modification within prescribed boundaries. The end in view was not the +delectation of the audience by a scenic drama, but the caricature and +travesty of life as it appeared to every one. That caricature, executed +with inexhaustible finesse and piquant sallies of fresh personality, +accommodated itself to the antiquated framework of plots as old as +Plautus. + +If the _Commedia dell' Arte_ lacked fancy and invention in its +ground-themes, this defect was compensated by audacious realism and +Gargantuan humour. The indecency of these plays cannot be described. Men +and women appeared naked on the stage. Unmentionable vices were boldly +paraded. Buffoonery of the vilest description enhanced the finest +strokes of burlesque sarcasm. Actors who created types which made the +spirit of a nation live in effigy, condescended to tricks unworthy of a +Yahoo. We have to accept the species, not as a branch of the legitimate +drama, but as a carnival masquerade, in which humanity ran riot, jeering +at its own indignities and foibles. + + +IX. + +The stock in trade of an acting company consisted of some scores of +plots in outline. Gozzi, writing in the eighteenth century, calculates +that there may have been from three hundred to four hundred dramatic +situations.[43] We possess a certain number of these scenari, as they +were technically called Flaminio Scala published a collection of fifty +in his _Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative_ (Venetia, 1611). The titles +of about one hundred others survive from the archives of Basilio +Locatelli and Domenico Biancolelli, incorporated in eighteenth-century +histories of the Italian stage. The records of the theatres where +Italians played at Paris supply titles of another set, and a few have +been disinterred from miscellaneous sources. Quite recently a complete +collection of well-formed _scenari_ was given to the press by Signor +Adolfo Bartoli from a Magliabecchian MS. of the last century.[44] It +contains twenty-two pieces. + +Comparative study of these _scenari_ shows that the whole comedy was +planned out, divided into acts and scenes, the parts of the several +personages described in prose, their entrances and exits indicated, and +what they had to do laid down in detail. The execution was left to the +actors; and it is difficult to form a correct conception of the acted +play from the dry bones of its _ossatura._ "Only one thing afflicts me," +said our Marston in the preface to his _Malcontent_: "to think that +scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to +be read." And again, in his preface to the _Fawne_, "Comedies are writ +to be spoken, not read; remember the life of these things consists in +action." If that was true of pieces composed in dialogue by an English +playwright of the Elizabethan age, how far more true is it of the +skeletons of comedies, which avowedly owed their force and spirit to +extemporaneous talent! Reading them, we feel that we are viewing the +machine of stakes and irons which a sculptor sets up before he begins to +mould the figure of an athlete or a goddess in plastic clay.[45] + +The _scenario_, like the _plat_ described for us by Malone and Collier, +was hung up behind the stage. Every actor referred to it while the play +went forward, refreshing his memory with what he had to represent, and +attending to his entrances. But before the curtain lifted a previous +process had been gone through. This was called _Concertare il soggetto_. +The company met in their green-room. What followed may be told in the +words of a seventeenth-century writer on the technique of the _Commedia +dell' Arte_.[46] "The Choregus, who rules and guides the troupe by his +ability and experience, has to plan the subject, to show how the action +shall be conducted, the dialogues concluded, and new sallies of wit or +humour introduced. It is not merely his business to read the plot aloud, +but also to set forth the personages with their names and qualities, to +explain the drama, describe localities, and suggest extemporaneous +additions. For instance, he shall begin by saying: 'The comedy we have +to represent is so-and-so; the personages such-and-such; the houses are +on this side and on that.' Then he will unfold the argument. He will +impress upon his comrades the necessity of bearing well in mind the +place where they are supposed to be, the names of people and the +business they are engaged in, so that they shall not confound Rome with +Naples, or say that they have come from Spain when they are bound from +Germany. A father must not forget his son's name, nor a lover his +lady's. It is also most important that the houses in which the action +has to take place should be accurately known. To knock at the wrong +door, or to take refuge in the home of your enemy, would spoil all. +Afterwards, the planner of the subject must indicate occasions suited to +the sallies of the several characters. 'Here a piece of buffoonery is +right. A metaphor, or sarcasm, or hyperbole, or innuendo, would make a +good effect there.' In fact, he has to show each actor how to play his +part to best advantage in the circumstances of the piece. Then he must +look to preventing inconvenient entrances and exits, providing that the +stage be not left empty, and indicating proper ways of bringing scenes +to their conclusion. After the Choregus has read this lecture to the +troupe, they will meet and sketch the comedy in outline. Then they have +the opportunity of bringing their own talents forward, and combining new +effects. Yet, at such rehearsals, they must all be mindful to maintain +the outlines of the subject, not to exceed their rles, nor yet to trust +their recollection of similar plays performed under different +conditions. The piece has each time to be produced afresh by the +concerted action of the players who will bring it on the boards." + +The Choregus was usually the _Capocomico_ or the first actor and manager +of the company. He impressed his comrades with a certain unity of tone, +brought out the talents of promising comedians, enlarged one part, +curtailed another, and squared the piece to be performed with the +capacities he could control. "When a new play has to be given," says +another writer on this subject,[47] "the first actor calls the troupe +together in the morning. He reads them out the plot, and explains every +detail of the intrigue. In short, he acts the whole piece before them, +points out to each player what his special business requires, indicates +the customary sallies of wit and traits of humour, and shows how the +several parts and talents of the actors can be best combined into a +striking work of scenic art." + + +X. + +More than natural cleverness and native humour went to the making of a +good comedian. To begin with, he had to be a man of sense, tact, and +obliging disposition. "When we speak of a good comedian in the Italian +style," says Gherardi,[48] "we mean a man of solid parts, who depends on +imagination more than memory in his performance, and composes everything +he says upon the spot; he is one who knows how to play up to his +companions on the stage, combining his words and gestures so well with +theirs that he responds at a touch to their hints, and who is so ready +with a repartee or movement that the audience believes the scene to have +been concerted beforehand." In truth, fertility of fancy, quickness of +intelligence, a brain well stocked with varied learning, facility of +utterance, command of language, and imperturbable presence of mind, were +required in a first-rate improvisatory actor. When he undertook to +sustain one of the masks, he had first of all to live himself into the +character. If, for instance, he chose the Dottore, nothing might escape +his lips upon the stage out of harmony with that character, nothing +which could remind the audience that anybody but a pedant from Bologna +was speaking. His every gesture had to contribute to the same effect. +The second nature of his part had so to supersede his own instincts, +that no sudden accidents, the maladroitness of a comrade, an unexpected +turn in the dialogue, or any of the inconveniences to which +unpremeditated acting was liable, should throw him off his guard. + +It was further necessary that he should stock his mind with what the +actors called the _doti_ of a play, and with a repertory of what they +called _generici._[49] The _doti_ or dowry of a comedy consisted of +soliloquies, narratives, dissertations, and studied passages of +rhetoric, which were not left to improvisation. These existed in +manuscript, or were composed for the occasion. They had to be used at +decisive points of the action, and formed fixed pegs on which to hang +the dialogue. The _generici_ or common-places were sententious maxims, +descriptions, outpourings of emotion, humorous and fanciful diatribes, +declarations of passion, love-laments, ravings, reproaches, declamatory +outbursts, which could be employed _ad libitum_ whenever the situation +rendered them appropriate. Each mask had its own stock of common topics, +suited to the personage who used them. A consummate artist displayed his +ability by improving on these, introducing fresh points and features, +and adapting them to his own conception of the part. They had to become +incorporated with the ideal self he represented, and not to betray their +origin in study. The tradition of the drama and the daily practice of +rehearsing together made each member of a company know when such +premeditated pieces were to be expected. They did not therefore break +the general style of the performance. Habit enabled the actors to lead +up to them and pass away from them upon the stream of impromptu +dialogue. + +Another highly important branch of the art was what were called the +_lazzi_. "We give the name of _lazzi_," says Riccoboni in his history of +the theatre, "to those sallies and bits of by-play with which Harlequin +and the other masks interrupt a scene in progress--it may be by +demonstrations of astonishment or fright, or by humorous extravagances +alien to the matter in hand--after which, however, the action has to be +renewed upon its previous lines." It was precisely in these _lazzi_ that +a comic actor displayed his personal originality to best advantage; but +it required great tact and sense of the dramatic situation to render +them natural, appropriate, and to keep them within bound and measure. + +We have now seen what was expected of a first-rate artist, and +understand to what extent the _Commedia dell' Arte_ depended upon study +and premeditation. Long familiarity with their own repertory +undoubtedly reduced the improvisatory element to a minimum in the case +of troupes who were accustomed to play together for years. Yet they +strove to gain novelty by inventing fresh situations, giving unexpected +turns to dialogue, and varying their action on successive nights. The +best companies were those in whose hands a hackneyed comedy was always +plastic, and who kept their improvisatory powers in exercise. + +The defect of the art was that it tended to become stereotyped. The +Zanni repeated their jokes. The Dottore used the same malapropisms over +and over again. The _primo amoroso_ served up the _crambe decies +repetita_ of his monologues. The _lazzi_ degenerated into unmeaning +horse-play and buffooneries, which had nothing to do with the action of +the piece. Nature was forgotten. Every actor over-played his part, +ranted, raged, turned caricature into burlesque, spoke in and out of +season, exaggerated his gestures, diction, gait, and declamation, until +a pack of madmen seemed to have run wild upon the stage. To control +these tendencies towards a false and artificial style of presentation, +which formed the inherent vice of improvisatory acting, was the duty of +an able Capocomico. It could only be done by forcing the members of the +troupe to study and reflect on what they had to represent, by compelling +them to subordinate their several parts to the general effect, and by +raising the tone of their intelligence. Thus there was the greatest +difference between a well-conducted company, intent on the perfection of +their art, and a wandering rabble, satisfied with appealing to the +lowest instincts of the proletariate. The value of these remarks will be +apparent after reading what Gozzi has to say about Antonio Sacchi's +company and the causes of its dissolution. + + +XI. + +There is no doubt that during their flourishing period the companies of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ afforded the rarest amusement, not only to the +vulgar, but also to refined and cultivated audiences throughout Europe. +They were especially appreciated at Paris. From the year 1572, when the +_Confidenti_ and _Gelosi_ made their first appearance, to the close of +the eighteenth century, Italian troupes at the Htel de Bourbon, the +Htel de Bourgogne, the Palais Royal, and the Opera Comique, formed the +delight of the French court and the Parisian public. Under various +names, _Uniti_, _Fedeli_, _Barbieri's_, _Bianchi's_, and Cardinal +Mazarin's men, actors who had learned their trade in Italy continued to +seek larger profits and a wider audience in that capital. "The way in +which Italian comedians compose, study, and represent their plays," says +a French critic in the year 1716,[50] "is quite beyond the powers of +language to describe. I might venture to call it inconceivable; with +such a wealth of new and agreeable sallies and of unpremeditated +dialogue do they adorn their scenes." Many anecdotes regarding these +Italian players in their French homes have been transmitted to us, with +detailed descriptions of their qualities. I will confine myself to two +extracts.[51] One is taken from Constantini's Life of Tiberio Fiorelli +(1608-1694), the famous Scaramouche. "He was one of the most perfect +mimes who have appeared in these last centuries. I call him mime +advisedly, because he played his part by action more than speaking. +Scaramouche was not satisfied with making what he represented +intelligible by speech; he translated everything into movements of his +face and body, adapting his gestures to his words and his words to his +gestures with incomparable art. Everything became vocal in this man, his +feet, his hands, his head; the slightest attitude he took had meaning +and significance." Gherardi adds that "he could keep an audience in fits +of laughter for a long quarter of an hour without uttering a word. A +great prince, who saw him act at Rome, uttered these words, +'_Scaramuccia does not talk, and yet he says everything_,' and at the +end of the performance presented him with his coach and six horses." Of +Tommaso Vicentini, called Il Tommasino, who made his dbut at Paris as +Harlequin in 1716, we read: "His suppleness, his natural gaiety, his +graceful airs of rustic simplicity, made him a first-rate Harlequin. But +nature had also made him an excellent actor in the more extended sense +of that phrase. True, nave, original, pathetic, amid the laughter he +excited by his buffooneries, a single trait, a single reflection which +became a sentiment by his manner of expressing it, drew tears from the +audience, and surprised the author of the piece no less than the public, +and that too in spite of the mask, which seemed intended to inspire as +much fear as merriment. Often, when one had begun to laugh at his way of +simulating grief or pain, one finished by being melted with the +tenderness of the emotion which came from the bottom of his heart." + +Italian companies delighted the court of Spain during the reign of +Philip II., and were welcomed in Portugal. We find them in Bavaria, at +Dresden, and in other parts of Germany. Nor were they entirely unknown +in England. Collier, in his "History of the English Drama," speaks of a +certain Drousiano, who played with his troupe in London during the +winter of 1577-78.[52] This was probably Drusiano Martelli. The +extempore plays of the Italians are mentioned by Whetstone, Kyd, Jonson, +and Brome; and it seems probable that the plat-comedies, ascribed to +the famous fools Tarleton and Wilson, were modelled on Italian _Commedie +a Soggetto_. Kyd, in the _Spanish Tragedy_, shows that the method of +studying an improvised play was well understood. Hieronymo, who wishes +to have a certain subject mounted in a hurry, says to his confidant-- + + "The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit, + That in one hour's meditation + They would perform anything in action." + +Lorenzo replies-- + + "I have seen the like + In Paris, among the French tragedians." + +The full history of Italian companies in foreign lands still remains to +be written; but I have said enough in this place to prove their wide +popularity. + +In its native country, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was long regarded as +the special glory and the unique product of Italian dramatic genius. +Gozzi, though he wrote as its apologist, only expressed common opinion +when he said:[53] "I reckon improvised comedy among the particular +distinctions of our nation. I look upon it as quite a different species +from the written and premeditated drama; nor have I the shameless +audacity to stigmatise with the title of an ignorant rabble those noble +and cultivated persons whom I see with my own eyes following and +enjoying a play of this description. I esteem the able comedians who +sustain the masks, far higher than those improvisatory poets, who, +without uttering anything to the purpose, excite astonishment in crowds +of gaping listeners." + + +XII. + +This essay would be incomplete if I failed to describe the decadence of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_, and the various inconveniences which attended +its performance by incompetent or wilfully scurrilous actors. Without +such a sequel to the history of its development, Goldoni's reform of the +theatre, and Gozzi's energetic attempts to sustain the old style by +works of a peculiar and hybrid character, will not be intelligible. + +In its higher manifestations, this comedy, as we have seen, allied +itself to fine art by singularly delicate links of connection. More than +in other kinds of drama, where actors make themselves the mouthpieces of +poets whose creations they incarnate, the performers of improvised +comedy had to be complete and finished works of living art in their own +persons. So long as they were conscious of their mission, and earnestly +aspired to the highest points within the range and scope of their +achievement, they supplied a scenic travesty of actual life unequalled +for its freshness and its truth to nature--sparkling with salient +traits of character, seasoned with mirthful sarcasm, and pungent by its +satire of contemporary manners. But the roots of this unique and +singular species of the drama were grounded in a deep sub-soil of vulgar +instincts and dishonest proclivities. It clung to the tradition of +mountebanks and mimes, acrobats and jongleurs, circus-clowns and +rope-dancers. The rare flower of racy humour and refined parody, which +fascinated Paris in the age of Louis XIV., sprang from a stock +discredited and outcast through fifteen centuries of Christian teaching. +The Church in council and in synod had anathematised the ancestors of +Andreini and Fiorelli, Sacchi and Darbes. Burial with the sanctities of +religion was forbidden them, as it is forbidden to suicides. They were +reckoned among the enemies of social order and civil discipline. The +State, in its sumptuary laws, forbade their entrance into decent houses, +relegating them to dark corners of the city, where they lurked with +thieves and prostitutes. Saintly pastors of the flock, like Carlo +Borrommeo, carried on a crusade against these corruptors of public +morals.[54] Even in Venice, the city of their adoption--the sea-Sodom, +as Byron called it, of carnival licentiousness, the mart of pleasure for +all Europe, the modern Corinth--an Inquisitor of State scourged them +with these words of stinging reprobation:[55] "Bear in mind, you +actors, that you are folk beneath the ban of blessed God's almighty +hatred, and that the prince allows you only as pasture for the common +people, who take pleasure in your ribaldries." With such a record of +contempt and disesteem and outlawry, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was +always sinking back into the slime from which it rose. Unhappily, the +same eyes which delighted in its glory during the years when genius shed +brilliant lustre on its noblest representatives, had only to look on +this side or on that, and a crowd of shameless merry-andrews, the scum +and dregs of the histrionic profession, made the evidences of its +inherent immorality only too apparent. + +I have already touched upon the scurrilities and obscenities which were +common in improvised comedy. To enlarge upon the topic is not necessary. +Everybody can perceive that a drama relying in great part upon +buffoonery, restrained by no obligation to literary precedents, +dependent on the favour of mixed audiences, among whom women scarcely +showed their faces, and varying at each performance with the whims and +humours of masked actors, who were _ex hypothesi_ beyond the pale of +social decency, may have allowed itself licenses which were well-nigh +intolerable. + +I have already described the tendencies toward exaggerative emphasis, +stilted declamation, ill-concerted action, impertinent extravaganza, and +wearisome repetition of exhausted motives, to which the species was +peculiarly liable. There is no need to expand those observations. They +justify the severe remarks of Goldoni in the preface to his theatrical +works, which, as these have a direct bearing upon the subject of my next +essay, I will summarise here:[56]--"The comic theatre of Italy for more +than a century past had so degenerated that it became a disgusting +object for general abhorrence. You saw nothing on public stages but +indecent harlequinades, dirty and scandalous intrigue, foul jests, +immodest loves. Plots were badly constructed, and worse carried out in +action, without order, without propriety of manners. If translations of +French or Spanish pieces were given, the improvisatory comedians +mutilated and deformed them beyond recognition. The same fate befell the +plays of Plautus and Terence, and of our elder Italian dramatists. +People of culture, nay, the common folk, cried out against these +miserable travesties. Every one was wearied with the insipidities and +conventionalities of an art upon the wane. You knew what Harlequin or +Pantaloon was going to say before he opened his lips." + +Readers of Gozzi's Memoirs, to which these pages serve as a prolusion, +have means of judging, on the testimony of a very partial critic and +avowedly Quixotical defender of the old _Commedia dell' Arte_, to what +extent the system of the theatre in Italy was faulty. Students of +Casanova's Memoirs will remember the dark picture of the actress whom he +met at Ancona, with her epicene brood of children and of changelings +exposed to indiscriminate contamination.[57] The lighter pages of +Goldoni's Memoirs reveal a spectacle less revolting, but far from +edifying, of a comic troupe in its passage from one Italian capital to +another.[58] Leaving these accessible sources of information regarding +the social status of the dramatic profession in Italy untouched, I will +close this chapter with some extracts from a well-nigh forgotten +book--Garzoni's _Piazza Universale_. One of the most frequent charges +brought against the acting companies was that they dressed their women +up in men's clothes, and sent them about the public squares of cities to +attract the rabble. "No sooner have they made their entrance," says +Garzoni, "than the drum beats to let all the world know that the players +are arrived. The first lady of the troupe, decked out like a man, with a +sword in her right hand, goes round, inviting the folk to a comedy or +tragedy or pastoral in the precincts of the Pellegrino.[59] The +populace, inquisitive by nature and eager for any new thing, hurries to +take places. Paying their pennies down, they crowd into a hall, where a +temporary stage has been erected, the scenes scrawled with charcoal as +chance and want of sense will have it. An orchestra of tongs and bones, +like the braying of asses or the caterwauling of cats in February, +performs the overture. Then comes a prologue in the manner of a +quack-doctor's oration to his gulls. The piece opens; you behold a +Magnifico, who is not worth the quarter of a farthing; a Zanni, who +straddles like a goose; a Gratiano, who squirts his words out from a +clyster-pipe; a lover, who acts like a narcotic on the senses of his +neighbours; a Spanish captain, with nothing but a couple of musty oaths +in his whole repertory; a stupid and foul-mouthed bawd; a pedant, who +trips up in Tuscan phrases at each turn; a Burattino, whose whole humour +consists in taking off and putting on his greasy cap; a prima donna, who +goes yawning, drawling, twaddling through her mumbled part, with eyes +well open to the chance of selling her overblown charms in quite another +market than the theatre. The show is seasoned with loathsome +buffooneries and interludes which ought to send their performers to the +galleys." Enlarging on this theme, Garzoni proceeds as follows: "These +profane comedians pervert the noble use of their ancient art by +presenting nothing which is not openly disreputable and scandalous. The +filth which falls continually from their lips infects themselves and +their profession with the foulest infamy. They are less civil than +donkeys in their action, no better than pimps and ruffians in their +gestures, equal to public prostitutes in their immodesty of speech. +Knavery and lewdness inspire all their motions. In everything they stink +of impudicity and villainy. When occasions offer for veiling grossness +under a cloak of decorum, they do not take these, but pique themselves +on bringing beastliness to sight by barefaced bawdry and undisguised +indecency." + +One of the degradations to which these comedians willingly submitted was +that of playing jackals to quack-doctors on the squares of the Italian +cities. Goldoni in his Memoirs[60] speaks of a certain Buonafede Vitali +who "maintained at his own cost a troupe of actors. It was their +business to collect the money thrown to them in pocket-handkerchiefs, +and to return the handkerchiefs filled with pots of ointment and boxes +of pills to the purchasers, after which they performed plays in three +acts with a certain kind of pomp under the light of wax candles." In +order to form a conception of the scenes which were enacted on an +Italian piazza crowded with charlatans, mountebanks and players, we must +have recourse again to Garzoni. It is almost impossible to understand +or to reproduce his language at the present day. Sarcastic sallies, +which were doubtless piquant in their time, but to which the key has now +been lost, abundance of ephemeral slang and racy innuendo, allusions to +forgotten people and obsolete customs, topical jests, the coarsest +Lombard patois seasoned with the salt of euphuistic rhetoric, all +combine to render his motley descriptions untranslatable. Garzoni and +writers of his class still lack the pains which Casaubon bestowed on +Athenus, and perhaps their matter is not worthy of such vast +expenditure of industry. Yet the pith may be seized; and following our +garrulous cicerone, we stroll out on the piazza. "In one corner of it +you will see our swaggering Fortunato and his boon companion Fritata +spinning yarns, and keeping the whole populace agape into the night with +stories, songs, improvisations, dialogues; quarrelling, making-up, dying +of laughter, coming to blows again, bustling about their stage, settling +the dispute by fisticuffs and violent language, and lastly handing round +the cap to reap the harvest of the pennies they have earned. In another +corner, Burattino sets up his bray of brass. You would think that the +hangman had got hold of you, to hear him yell into your ears. He carries +a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole +world gathers around him. The people crowd, the groundlings jostle, men +of quality press forward to the platform. When the burlesque prologue +comes to a conclusion, Burattino's master puts in his appearance. It is +our old friend the Doctor, with his Bolognese jargon, long-winded +citations, insipid tomfooleries, and absurd pretensions to omniscience. +The droning of this arrant humbug drives as many of the audience away as +the zany's merry pranks and roguish whiskers and apish tricks have drawn +together. Meanwhile the curtains of the booth open, and the Tuscan comes +forth with his tumbling girl. He begins some silly story in the +Florentine tongue, during which the girl draws her circle and puts +herself in position, straddling with arms and legs abroad, flinging her +body backwards to pick up a piece of money with her mouth from two +crossed swords, and tickling the greasy varlets of the market-place by +the exhibition of her lascivious graces. Not far away, you may see the +Milanese quack, dressed like a noble gentleman, velvet cap on head and +white Guelf feathers waving to the wind. He is telling his man Gradello +some story of his hapless love. The groom cuts indecent jokes and gibes +in the background; then swaggers forward, twirls his moustachios, vows +to uphold his master's cause against all rivals, and bristles like an +enraged bloodhound; but, on a sudden, feigning to see foemen near, he +drops his arms, knocks his knees together, befouls his breeches on the +stage, and lets himself be soundly drubbed. When that interlude is +over, Gradello acts another part. He is a blind man squalling out a +ditty, and thrumming on a puppy in his lap instead of a theorbo. The +climax of all this buffoonery is a panegyric of some famous pills, which +lasts an hour or two, and leaves the charlatan wrangling over cents and +farthings with his swiftly dwindling audience. Toward evening the crowd +of quacks and blind musicians and acrobats thicken. Here is Zan della +Vigna with his performing monkey; there Catullo and his guitar; in +another corner the Mantuan merry-andrew, dressed up like a zany, Zottino +singing an ode to the pox, and the pretty Sicilian rope-dancer. +Tamburino spins eggs on a stick; the Neapolitan capers about with +brimming bowls of water on his pate; and Maestro Paolo da Arezzo makes +his solemn entry with a waving banner, on which you see St. Paul, +holding a huge falchion in one hand, while the rest of the field is +painted over with twining hissing serpents. The mountebank clears his +throat and relates his fabulous pedigree. St. Paul was his great +ancestor, and ever since that accident upon the island of Malta, all the +family have possessed miraculous powers over the snaky tribe. Hereupon +boxes are opened, and horrid vipers, water-snakes, and adders are drawn +forth to the terror of the bystanders. 'Do not be afraid,' continues +Maestro Paolo; 'I have delivered your fields and woods from these +plagues and their poison.' The trembling country-lads creep up and buy a +box of powders from the condescending hands of the impostor. After the +sight of all those asps and crocodiles, stuffed basilisks, tarantulas, +and Indian armadilloes, there is not one of them would venture out into +the country lanes without a prophylactic. Meanwhile, Settecervelli has +laid his mantle on the pavement, and is making his little bitch go +through her tricks, bark at the worst-dressed fellow in the circle, howl +at the name of the Grand Turk, dance for joy in honour of her master's +sweetheart, and carry round the cap for pennies in her mouth. The +Parmesan is not to be outdone by these performances; he has his +nanny-goat, whose antics are at least as sight-worthy as the puppy's. +The Turkish athlete climbs the campanile, lets his brawny chest be +hammered like an anvil, dislodges a stout pillar by the strength of his +huge arms and shoulders, and wins a bag of coppers heavy enough to pay +his expenses to the holy town of Mecca. The baptized Jew wails in a +lamentable tone of voice, _goi, goi, badanai, badanai_, till he has +attracted a crowd round him; then he tells the romance of his conversion +to the true faith, which leaves a strong impression on our mind that if +he has become a sincere Christian, which is more than doubtful, he has +certainly not lost the arts of an accomplished cheat. Soon the whole +piazza is swarming with folk of this sort; pills and powders, for all +the ills that flesh is heir to, are being hawked about; men are eating +fire, and swallowing tow, and pulling yards of twine from their +throats, and washing their faces in molten lead, and finding cards in +the pockets of their unsuspecting neighbours; every conceivable article, +which ingenuity can force on the attention of simpletons, is flirted in +one's face, and vaunted with a deafening din by hoarse and squeaking +salesmen." + +Garzoni has carried us somewhat astray from the main subject of this +essay. Yet it is not amiss to have gained a full conception of the +medium out of which the _Commedia dell' Arte_ emerged, and into which it +always tended to relapse, as well as of the various low and ignoble +branches of industry with which the players were associated. + + + + +Part III. + + _GOZZI'S DRAMATIC FABLES, OR FIABE TEATRALI; TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF + HISTORY OF HIS QUARREL WITH GOLDONI AND CHIARI._ + + 1. Venice in the last century--The Liberals and + Conservatives--Invasion of French theories in politics, philosophy, + and social manners--Prevalence of French taste in + literature--Conservative resistance to this revolutionary state of + things.--2. Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi--Popularity of French + sentimental dramas--The Academy of the Granelleschi founded in 1747 + by literary Conservatives, to restore a taste for pure Italian + style, and to promote the study of the Tuscan classics--Carlo Gozzi + belongs to this Academy, and becomes one of its chief + supporters--Goldoni, and the qualities of his genius--His + perception that nature has to be closely followed in the drama.--3. + A sketch of Goldoni's career, and of the steps whereby he became a + professional playwright--Settles at Venice in 1747 as poet to + Medebac's company--Goldoni's Venetian comedies, comedies in the + French manner, melodramas--Goldoni's rivalry with the Abb + Chiari--Chiari's bombastic pseudo-Pindaric style--Martellian + verses.--4. Indignation of the Granelleschi with both Goldoni and + Chiari--Carlo Gozzi confounds them in one common hatred as + corruptors of the language--His particular dislike for Goldoni, who + had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, of which Gozzi + professed himself the champion--Publication of Gozzi's satirical + poem _La Tartana degli Influssi_ in 1756--Return of Sacchi's + company of impromptu comedians to Venice in that year--Vigorous + warfare carried on by the Granelleschi against both Goldoni and + Chiari during the next four years--Gozzi first shows his dramatic + faculty in a severe Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled _Il + Teatro Comico_--Chiari makes up his differences with Goldoni, and + both playwrights now join forces against their conservative + antagonists--Chiari defies the Granelleschi to produce a + comedy--Goldoni appeals from their criticisms to the public, who + idolise him--Gozzi determines to write a satirical play upon a + nursery-tale, which shall prove no less popular than Goldoni's + comedies--The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ appears in January + 1761--The true character of Carlo Gozzi's dramatic fables--It is a + mistake to suppose that he was actuated by spontaneous Romantic + genius--His affinity with the elder Tuscan burlesque poets--His + wish to rehabilitate the Comedy of Masks--His conservative and + didactic spirit.--5. A translation of Gozzi's own account of _The + Love of the Three Oranges_, important in the history of the + _Commedia dell' Arte_, and illustrative of the way in which Gozzi + handled his fabulous material.--6. Success of _L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie_--Production and dates of the remaining nine dramatic + _Fiabe_.--7. Gozzi's method of writing, and employment of the Four + Masks and the Servetta--Interweaving of the comic element with the + fairy-tale--Gozzi does not rise to the height of imaginative + poetry.--8. His satire, humour, feeling for poetic situations--His + conservative philosophy of life.--9. Sources of the _Fiabe_--The + artistic superiority of _L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_.--10. + Analysis of _L'Augellino Belverde_.--11. Gozzi's temporary + success--Goldoni retires to Paris, and Chiari to Brescia--Posterity + has reversed the verdict of contemporary Venice--Fate of the + _Fiabe_--Vicissitudes of Gozzi's fame in Italy, Germany, + France--Paul de Musset's condensed abstract of the Memoirs, and + their distorted picture of Carlo Gozzi. + + +I. + +About the middle of the eighteenth century, Venetian society was divided +into two main parties, representing what we should now call Liberal and +Conservative principles in politics and thought. The Liberals were +imbued with French philosophical ideas, French fashions, and French +phrases. The boldest of them, men like Angelo Querini, Carlo Contarini, +Giorgio Pisani, openly aimed at remodelling the constitution. They aired +new-fangled theories of government, based upon the Social Contract and +the Rights of Man, within ear-shot of the terrible Inquisition of State. +Some of them went in consequence to end their days in the dungeons of +Cattaro or Verona. These patricians created a body of restless +opposition in the Grand Council, agitated the bourgeoisie and +proletariate with the expectation of impending changes, and succeeded in +effecting some salutary but superficial reforms. Outside the sphere of +politics, that spirit of innovation which in France was silently but +surely working toward the Revolution, made itself felt among the +educated classes. The University of Padua, while preserving external +forms of medivalism in its discipline and teaching, fermented with the +physical hypotheses of modern science. The deism of the Encyclopdists +and Voltaire came into vogue. Sentimentalism, thinly cloaking a desire +for liberty and license, ruled in morals. Rousseau's speculations and +the humanitarian utopias of the _philosophes_ disturbed the old +foundations on which social institutions rested. The word _prejudice_ +was upon the lips of everybody, to indicate the restraining influences +of public order in the state and of ethics in the family. These new +ideas permeated society and saturated literature. In the drawing-rooms +of great ladies, the clubs and coffee-houses of the gentry, the +theatres, concert-rooms, and little houses, where men and women +congregated, French books were discussed, French fashions were +affected, the French language was engrafted on the old Venetian dialect. +Frivolous butterflies of pleasure in that great mart of the world's +amusement assumed fine airs of philosophy and science. Wide-sweeping and +far-reaching theories, which called in question the whole groundwork of +man's previous beliefs, were freely ventilated by chatterers, who caught +their jargon from flippant manuals of science and popular essays, poured +forth by thousands from the press of Paris. Unhealthy novels spread +subversive moral doctrines flavoured with a spice of philanthropic +sentiment. It was considered _rococo_ to admire the old Italian +classics. Staunch Liberals paraded their independence of precedent and +prejudice by adopting a masquerade style which set the traditions of the +language at defiance. + +All this indicated a deep and irresistible fermentation in society. The +great catastrophe of the eighteenth century was preparing. The stage of +Europe was being made ready for that transformation-scene which opened a +new era. But few could foresee the inevitable future; few could +distinguish what was wholesome progress from the delirious or +somnambulistic ravings of the moment. Therefore the Conservatives clung +fast to their prejudices and precedents; to established forms of +government, the national religion, the traditional customs of civil and +domestic life. To superficial observers it appeared that these men held +the strongest cards. Yet even rigid Conservatives were bound to admit +that there was something ominously rotten in the state of Venice. Her +commerce dwindled year by year. Her provinces were ill-administered, and +yielded less and less to the exchequer. Social demarcations disappeared +in the luxury and corruption which invaded all classes. Pauperism +assumed appalling dimensions. In the decay of industries and +manufactures thousands of workpeople were thrown famished upon public +charity. The ranks of the Barnabotti, or impoverished nobles, who +claimed state support, swelled, grew clamorous in the Grand Council, +gave signs of insubordination, and contaminated the fountain-head of +government by their venality. Meanwhile, the old machinery of the +constitution had fallen into the hands of a close oligarchy or +commission of a few powerful patricians. These corruptors of the State +pulled wires, bought votes, and manipulated the College and the Senate +to secure their own ends in the Consiglio Grande. The more far-sighted +among the Conservatives felt the necessity of temporising. Influenced by +the all-pervasive spirit of the age, but not prepared to join the +Liberal forces, they compromised, tampered with institutions, and tried +by stopping leaks to keep the deep sea out. This was the attitude of men +like Marco Foscarini, Alvise Emo, and Paolo Renier. + +Apart from politics, the Conservatives stood on firmer ground. There is +no doubt that the so-called philosophy of the eighteenth century, both +in its principles and in its consequences, offered points of patent +weakness to hostile criticism. It was subversive without being +reconstructive. Its foundations were sentimental and fanciful rather +than logical and reasoned. Hazy in the minds of its projectors, it was +almost universally misunderstood by the multitude which it illuded. +Immorality was encouraged; not that any speculative system is inherently +immoral, but that the confused postulates regarding personal liberty, +the right of private judgment in matters of conduct, the light of +Nature, and the tyranny of custom and prejudice, from which this +philosophy started, enabled foolish or ill-minded people to hide their +vices and caprices beneath the specious mask of systematic thinking. +Again, the literature which sprang into existence under the predominance +of such theories, was in some respects pernicious, and in many points of +view ridiculous. The Conservatives had a definite course before them +when they determined to vindicate the purity of Italian diction, to +maintain the traditions of a glorious past in art, and to expose the +foibles of the Liberal school of thinkers and of writers. + + +II. + +This brings me to the proper subject of the present chapter, which is +the conflict of Liberalism with Conservatism in the theatre at Venice. +The two protagonists are Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi, both Venetians, +and both of nearly the same age. Goldoni was born in 1707, Gozzi in +1720. Gozzi entered the lists against Goldoni in 1756, when the latter +had been working for the Venetian stage since 1748, and when he had +already turned the heads of the public by his brilliant dramatic +novelties. + +The old _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we have seen, had sunk into +decrepitude. It was not merely that the type itself was exhausted, +though subsequent circumstances proved this to be the case. What was +more important is, that the popular taste veered round against it. Under +the prevailing dominance of French fashions, a style of drama, hitherto +unknown to the Italians, came into vogue. The so-called _Comdie +Larmoyante_, or pathetic comedy (of which Nivelle de la Chausse, a +now-forgotten archimage of middle-class sentimentalities and +sensibilities, is the reputed inventor), caught the ear of Europe. The +Pre la Chausse, to adopt an epigram of Piron's, preached every evening +from his pulpit in a score of theatres through Europe. The titles of his +most famous plays, _Mlanide_, _La Gouvernante_, _Prjug la Mode_, +_L'cole des Mres_, remind us of the revolution in the drama which +converted the public stage from a place of amusement into a platform for +the dissemination of political or social sentiments. Saurin's +_Beverley_, Mercier's _Dserteur_ and _L'Indigent_, De Falbaire's +_Honnte Criminel_, Voltaire's _cossaise_, Diderot's _Pre de Famille_, +carried on La Chausse's tradition. Regarding their popularity at +Venice, enough is related in the verbose and bilious diatribes prefixed +by Gozzi to his dramatic works. Among plays of this description, an +adaptation of our _George Barnwell_--much in the style of Thackeray's +parody upon Lord Lytton's novels--attracted great attention by the +pathos with which a nephew murdering his uncle from the highest motives +was exalted to the rank of hero. The Conservatives not unjustly +protested against the contamination of public morals by the false +sentiment of these tearful dramas. The perversion of taste by low +domestic arguments and clumsy realism, which had nothing real but its +vulgarity, seemed to them no less a sin. + +They were particularly sensitive, moreover, upon the point of language, +diction, style. Translations and adaptations of French plays confirmed +the growing carelessness of authors. Gallicisms were so fashionable that +a stage-hack allowed himself all license in that direction. The jargon +of science introduced unheard-of phrases, which would have made the +fathers of the Della-Cruscan Academy shudder in their tombs. Moreover, +the prevalent affectation of independence and the fashionable revolt +against prejudice led ignorant scribblers to plume themselves upon their +solecisms and plebeian lapses into dialect. + +With the main object, therefore, of maintaining a standard of propriety +in style, and with the secondary object of opposing theatrical +innovations, the Venetian Conservatives (in literature) founded their +Academy de'Granelleschi. It came into existence about 1747; and I need +not enlarge upon its constitution, except to say that it was an academy +of the good old Tory type, like the _Gelati_, _Sonnacchiosi_, +_Storditi_, and so many scores of literary clubs with absurd names and +trivial customs, whose members wasted their time over pedantic studies, +and occasionally issued a piece of solid work among their otherwise +ephemeral transactions. A sufficient account of this Academy is given in +Gozzi's Memoirs. Its importance at the present moment is that out of +this little camp Carlo Gozzi marched like David to attack the Goliath of +Philistinism, Carlo Goldoni. + +It is difficult to speak adequately and fairly of Goldoni. In making +this man, Nature cast her glove down in the face of criticism, and +defied analysis. He possessed indubitable genius; what is more, his +genius obeyed generous enthusiasms, unselfish aims, pure-hearted +sentiments. He perceived instinctively and correctly that a new age was +dawning for the literature of Europe. He devoted his life to creating a +comic drama adequate to the intellectual dignity of his nation. Goldoni +was a good man, a modest man, a man complete in all the social virtues. +But he was not a great man. And his genius, that innovatory force of +his, that infinite adaptability, that inexhaustible scenic faculty which +he possessed, that intuition into the necessity of change, was, after +all, a genius of thin and threadbare quality. Can we point to a single +masterpiece produced by Goldoni? After allowing the sediment to settle +down of his prolific works and various experiments, can we select any +one play which bears the stamp of the supreme master? I think not. I +shrink from placing Goldoni, as a peer, in the company of Shakespeare, +Molire, Calderon, and Schiller. But, while saying this, it is +impossible to deny his actual achievement. It is impossible not to +recognise the honest motives which prompted him to copy Nature's book. +That was his great discovery; and that keeps the memory of Goldoni ever +green among us. He saw that Nature had to be loved and studied and +followed by the artist. He discerned this luminous point in a period +befogged by prejudice, tradition, pedantry, conventionality, +subservience to antiquated humours and insurgent eccentricities. It was +not Goldoni's fault that birth and fortune denied him those higher +capacities and favourable openings which might have made his art-work +monumental. His genial, shifty, pliable, and yet persistent personality +was forced to humour obstacles and to fawn on circumstance. As an +inevitable consequence, his productions are mediocre and unsatisfactory. +Mediocrity of talent and of character is stamped upon his plays, and +self-revealed in his good-humoured Memoirs. But what confounds +criticism is that this mediocrity in the man and his equipment was +combined with undeniable originality. His genius, though not of the +purest water, was genuine. He had a correct perception of the +requirements of his age, a clear intuition into the practical +possibilities of the dramatic art he handled, and a vivid consciousness +of the ground-principle that no artist can afford to lose sight of +reality in practice. What would Goldoni not have been, we say, after +summing up the survey of his qualities, had he been gifted with a finer +fibre, a wider range of knowledge, a deeper philosophy, a more robust +temper, a poetic talent equal to the task of externalising his just +perceptions in forms of meditated art? As it is, he presents the curious +spectacle of a man born to inaugurate a new epoch, but without the +faculty to impose his own ideal successfully upon his contemporaries. +The general public acclaimed him, and understood his aims. But the +aristocrats of literature were able to inflict telling blows in their +fight against him. We, who stand aloof, when all the dust of that +conflict has subsided, see that Goldoni really won the day. It is only +to be regretted that a champion of such small dimensions, soft heart, +and feeble sinews, was commissioned to effect the revolution. + + +III. + +Goldoni's instinct led him by an irresistible bias to the stage. He +vainly attempted to form himself for the more lucrative profession of +the law. During his youth he studied at a college in Pavia, but was +expelled for giving free vent to his literary propensities in satire. He +practised as an advocate at the Venetian bar, practised at Pisa in the +same capacity, acted as Genoese Consul at Venice. Still though he +courted Themis, his real predilections drew him toward Thalia. The first +piece which revealed his leading talent was a comedy in outline; _Il +Gondoliere Veneziano_, represented at Milan in 1733. In the next year he +produced a painfully bad tragedy at Verona entitled _Belisario_. Several +pieces of a mixed character, between comedy and tragedy, followed. Yet +he had not taken to the theatre as a profession; and it was not until +the year 1746, when he joined the comic company of Medebac, at Leghorn, +in the capacity of their paid playwright, that he entered definitely +upon the career of author for the stage. + +During the years when Goldoni was thus wavering between law and +literature, he attempted many kinds of dramatic composition--operettas +for music, tragedies, tragi-comedies, farces, _scenari_ for improvised +comedies, and comedies of which the dialogue was partly written. His +facile talent adapted itself to every style in turn. All this while he +recognised that his strength lay neither in the direction of poetry nor +in that of serious drama. Nature had bestowed on him a genius for +comedy; and he felt born to educate Italian taste in that species. We +have already seen how deeply he deplored the degeneration of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_; and yet some of his pieces had been performed by +the best improvisatory actors then alive, Sacchi the famous Truffaldino, +and Darbes the no less celebrated Pantalone. + +While scribbling Harlequinades, Goldoni never lost sight of the reform +he had long meditated; and this was to substitute written comedies of +character, in the style of Molire and the ancients, for the old +comedies _all' improvviso_. But he saw the necessity of proceeding +cautiously. On the one hand, he had to consider the adherents of the +elder style. On the other hand, he was forced to humour the comedians, +who were jealous of changes which increased their dependence upon +professional playwrights.[61] Accordingly, he advanced with +circumspection. In the _Momolo Cortesan_, which he composed for the +Pantalone of Sacchi's company (a certain Golinetti), only the leading +part was written. The rest was left to improvisation. Nevertheless, +this piece was constructed on different principles from those which +governed the _Commedia dell' Arte_. It aimed at being a comedy of +character; and thus Goldoni hoped by gradual steps to wean his actors +from their bad old ways. Copying his mistress Nature, he saw that +nothing could be done _per saltum_. It was necessary to prepare +transitions, and to pass through the development of imperfect species to +the exhibition of the type he had in view. This seems to have been the +principle on which he acted. But Goldoni was so pliable and easy-going, +so apt to take the cue from casual suggestions offered to his versatile +ability, that he frequently lost sight of this leading principle. His +Muse wore Harlequin's robe of many colours, and assumed the mask while +waiting to effect the meditated revolution. This indecision at the +commencement of his career exposed him to Gozzi's piratical attacks, and +exercised, I think, a prejudicial influence over his subsequent career +as playwright. But it was not in the character of the man to act +otherwise. He could not divest himself of ready sympathy, fluency, and +genial adaptability to the circumstances in which he was placed from +time to time. Some natures are destined to achieve their ends by +condescension. Goldoni's was essentially a nature of this kind. And the +fact remains that, amid all his excursions into regions alien from his +purpose, he kept one aim in view and finally achieved it. What survives +of solid in his work, is the select series of plays produced upon the +lines of the reform he calculated. + +It was at Pisa in 1746 that the _Capocomico_ Medebac induced Goldoni to +join his troupe. The proposal was that a theatre at Venice should be +hired for five or six years, and that Goldoni should dedicate his whole +talents to the composition of plays. Sufficiently good pecuniary offers +were made; for it seems that each comedy was paid at the rate of thirty +sequins, or about 12 sterling. Goldoni accepted. Then travelling with +his new partners by the road through Modena, he reached Venice in July +1747. His first venture, with a play called _Tognetto_ or _Tonino bela +grazia_, was a failure. A couple of pathetic pieces which followed, won +more favour with the public. Darbes, whom Goldoni learned to appreciate +and use with excellent effect, seconded his efforts admirably; and in +1748 circumstances seemed propitious for attempting the long-cherished +scheme of a revolution in the theatre. Accordingly he wrote the _Vedova +Scaltra_, which is distinctly a comedy of character. It was performed +during the carnival season of 1749, and was received with intelligent +sympathy by the Venetians. This induced Goldoni to pursue the course he +had begun. _La Putta Onorata_ obtained a similar success, and met with +emphatic approval from the gondolier class, whose sentiments and manners +had been studied in its composition. Goldoni's novelties had by this +time roused the jealousy of rivals and the opposition of Conservatives. +A parody of the _Vedova Scaltra_ appeared at the theatre of S. Samuele. +This was clever enough, and scurrilous enough, to attract attention. +Goldoni received a check in mid-career, which became serious when the +Carnival of 1749 closed with the total failure of a new piece from his +pen, _L'Erede Fortunata_. Upon this occasion, stung to the quick, and +piqued in his self-esteem, with the sense of his own inexhaustible and +facile forces rendering the hazard light, Goldoni publicly declared his +intention of producing sixteen new comedies within the next twelve +calendar months. + +He kept his promise, but at a considerable cost both to his position as +playwright and his health. With the general public, the man's +indomitable pluck, his good-humour, and the variety of subjects treated +in his famous sixteen plays, created an indescribable enthusiasm. The +end of the Carnival, 1750, brought well-earned laurels to Goldoni, +together with the good-will of the fickle multitude. But unforgiving +enemies, the supporters of the old drama, the literary purists, and the +Conservatives who could not stomach sentimental comedies, were watching +him with Argus eyes. In the heat of volcanic combustion, he had thrown +up cinders and rubbish along with several felicitous and brilliant works +of art. The worst of his performances were remembered and scored up +against him by critics like Carlo Gozzi. The best were confounded +in one plausible condemnation. + +[Illustration: TARTAGLIA (1620) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +From this point forward for the next six years Goldoni met with no +formidable opposition, except from a rival playwright. The man in +question was the Abb Chiari, a relic of the seventeenth century, +pompous and bombastic in style, a blatant member of the Arcadian +Academy, a bastard brother of Pindar in the matter of mixed metaphors +and wild Icarian flights, a prolific scribbler of melodramatic pieces in +rhymed Martellian verses,[62] and, after all his qualifications are +summed up, a mere pretentious windbag. Chiari caught the public ear. +Venice divided itself into factions for Chiari and Goldoni. On a smaller +scale, the Bononcini and Handel conflicts of London, the Gluck and +Piccini riots of Paris, were repeated. The most damaging feature of this +contest for Goldoni, was that Chiari, less gifted with originality, +aped each of his new inventions. Against Goldoni's _Pamela Nubile_ +Chiari brought out a _Pamela Maritata_, against his _Avventuriere +Onorato_ an _Avventuriere alla Moda_, against his _Padre per Amore_ an +_Inganno Amoroso_, against his _Molire_ a _Molire marito geloso_, +against his _Terenzio_ a _Plauto_, against his _Sposa Persiana_ a +_Schiava Chinese_, against his _Filosofo Inglese_ a _Filosofo +Veneziano_, against his _Scozzese_ a _Bella Pellegrina_. In spite of +their mutual hostility, this game of battledore and shuttlecock between +Chiari and Goldoni enabled the literary Conservatives to regard both +playwrights as flying under one flag. But before the Granelleschi opened +fire in earnest, Venetian society continued for five years to be pretty +equally divided in its sympathies. The best judges sided with Goldoni, +while Chiari's glaring faults, which passed for brilliant qualities with +the vulgar, won him numerous admirers. Carlo Gozzi has described this +state of contention:[63] + + "I partigiani ogni giorno crescevano, + Chi vuole _Originale_ et chi _Saccheggio_; + Tutto il paese a romore mettevano, + Sicch la cosa non da motteggio. + Nelle case i fratelli contendevano, + Le mogli co' mariti facean peggio, + In ogni loco acerba la tenzone, + Tutto scompiglio, tutto dissensione." + + +IV. + +The Granelleschi, in their zeal for sound literature, were justly +enraged against the ranting, arrogant, bombastic Chiari. Although the +more discreet Academicians, men like Gasparo Gozzi, recognised Goldoni's +merits, they resented his slovenly and slipshod style. Carlo Gozzi, less +tolerant and far more satirical than his elder brother, confounded both +poets in a common loathing. This was obviously unfair to Goldoni, who, +whatever his faults of diction may have been, ranked immeasurably higher +than the Abb. But Goldoni was guilty of an unpardonable sin in Gozzi's +eyes. He had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, for which +Gozzi entertained the partiality of one who was himself an excellent +impromptu actor. The other reasons of this bitter hatred are +sufficiently explained in those chapters of the Memoirs which describe +the beginning of his career as playwright. + +At last Gozzi thought the time had come for striking a decisive +blow.[64] The Granelleschi professed sincere admiration for an obscure +burlesque Florentine poet of the fifteenth century called Burchiello. +Taking some of this man's enigmatical sentences for prophecies, Gozzi +compiled a sort of comic almanac, in which the various woes impending +over Venice in the year 1756 were described. It was entitled _La Tartana +degl' Influssi per l'anno bisestile_ 1756,[65] and was modelled upon an +almanac for country-folk, published at Treviso under the name of a +certain Schieson.[66] For each quarter of the year a _capitolo_ in +_terza rima_ was written, and a prophecy in octave stanzas was dedicated +to each month. Although the _Tartana_ contained satires upon society in +general, a considerable part was directed specially against Chiari and +Goldoni. The introductory address to the readers strikes the keynote. +The month of February deals with comedies, the month of November with +Martellian verses, and the month of December invokes the speedy return +of Sacchi and his company of masks from Portugal. Finally, in the sonnet +addressed to the bookseller at the end of the book, the two poets are +mentioned by name. Gozzi declared himself an implacable enemy of the +plays in vogue, an opponent of rhymed verses imitating the French +Alexandrine measure, and a zealous adherent of the old _Commedia dell' +Arte_. The prophecy with regard to Sacchi's company was speedily +fulfilled; for the earthquake of Lisbon happening in 1755, they were +obliged to quit the scene of that lugubrious disaster. Soon after their +return to Venice, Gozzi appears to have courted their friendship. This +we gather from the _Canto Ditirambico de'Partigiani del Sacchi +Truffaldino_ which he published in 1761.[67] + +Irritated by the _Tartana degli Influssi_, Goldoni, who usually kept +silence under literary attacks, took up the pen and wrote as +follows:[68]-- + + "Ho veduta stampata una Tartana + Piena di versi rancidi sciapiti, + Versi da spaventare una befana, + Versi dal saggio imitator conditi + Con sale acuto della maladicenza, + Piena di falsi sentimenti arditi; + Ma conceder si pu questa licenza + A chi in collera va colla fortuna, + Che per lui non ha molta compiacenza. + Chi dice mal senza ragione alcuna, + Chi non prova gli assunti e gli argomenti, + Fa come il can che abbaia alla luna." + +I have transcribed these verses for several reasons; first, that my +readers may judge for themselves of Goldoni's poetical style; secondly, +because the last six lines profoundly irritated Gozzi; and thirdly, +because they engaged him in the production of his first semi-dramatic +pasquinade upon their author. + +We need not describe the battle of sonnets, squibs, and pamphlets which +raged after the appearance of Gozzi's _Tartana_. The Granelleschi were +now committed to crush their antagonists; and they spared no pains to do +so. Men of birth and parts condescended to the filthiest ribaldry and +the most savage personalities. On the whole, it must be allowed that the +Granelleschi displayed superior wit and style. Gozzi, in particular, +showed real powers for burlesque satire in his _Marfisa Bizzarra_; and +some of his occasional pieces are composed with a terseness and +directness worthy of the classical age of Florentine literature. Goldoni +replied from time to time, but feebly. In a poem entitled _La Tavola +Rotonda_, he described his formidable antagonist as:[69] + + "Un Lombardo che affetta esser cruscante + Col riso in bocca e col veleno in petto." + +This seems to me a fair, if somewhat pungent, description of Carlo +Gozzi, who, in spite of his theoretical purism, rarely succeeded in +writing with correctness or distinction, and who veiled a really caustic +temper under the mask of Democritean philosophy. Touching upon the +charges brought against himself of being neither a scholar nor a poet, +Goldoni admits their truth with frankness:[70] + + "Pur troppo io so che buon scrittor non sono + E che ai fonti miglior non ho bevuto; + Qual mi detta il mio stil scrivo e ragiono, + E talor per fortuna ho anch' io piaciuto; + Ma guai a me se il fiorentin frullone + A sceverare i scritti miei si pone." + +Strong in the unwavering appreciation of the public, and confident in +his own powers, Goldoni could afford to make this concession to his +antagonist. But it argued a generous and modest mind, different in +quality from Gozzi's. + +Meanwhile Gozzi took up the glove of defiance thrown down by Goldoni in +his _Tavola Rotonda_. A sonnet referring to that poem contains these +lines:[71] + + "Ma acci s'abbia a decidere + S'io dissi il ver, sto facendo un comento, + Che prover l'assunto e l'argomento." + +This _Comento_ led Gozzi eventually to the production of his _Fiabe_. +But a step or two remained to be taken before Gozzi resolved to meet +Goldoni on his own ground, the theatre. + +He began by circulating a satirical piece entitled _Il Teatro Comico +all' Osteria del Pellegrino tra le mani degli Accademici Granelleschi_, +or "The Comic Theatre at the Inn of the Pilgrim, rough-handled by the +Granelleschi." Gozzi's Memoirs contain a sufficient description of this +satire, which still exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. They also +explain why he withdrew it from publication at the request of his friend +Farsetti and Goldoni's patron Count Widman. Therefore it is not +necessary to discuss it here in detail: yet the meaning of the title may +be pointed out. Goldoni had already produced a comedy, called _Il Teatro +Comico_, setting forth his views regarding the reform of the drama.[72] +Gozzi, alluding to this play, undertakes to expose the faults of +Goldoni's own theatrical writings. The satire is conceived in the broad +spirit of Aristophanic or Rabelaisian humour, and is really a +masterpiece in its kind. We feel for the first time that Gozzi has found +his proper sphere by the breadth of handling, the free play of humour, +and the precision of touch, which reveal an inborn dramatic faculty. The +unmasking of the vociferous four-faced monster which caricatured +Goldoni, is eminently fit for scenical effect. While reading, we seem to +be present at a new act in Jonson's _Poetaster_. The four mouths of the +four-faced mask represent the four kinds of dramas written by +Goldoni--his early harlequinades and _scenari_, his domestic comedy of +the pathetic species, his heroic and Oriental melodramas, and his +transcripts from Venetian life. A fifth mouth, the mouth in the belly, +_la veridica bocca dell' epa_, as Gozzi terms it, utters Goldoni's +personal aims and views, as Gozzi chose brutally to interpret them. This +truthful witness confesses that all the four mouths of the masked head +were subservient to its carnal needs. _Quis expedivit psittaco suum_ +[Greek: chaire]?... _Magister artis ingenque largitor, Venter negatas +artifex sequi voces._ "Who taught the parrot his word of welcome? That +master of art and liberal dispenser of genius, the belly." That motto +from the prologue to Persius' book of satires might be inscribed on the +title-page of Gozzi's pasquinade. The blow inflicted, in a literal and +metaphorical sense, below the belt, was unworthy of a gentleman. It +betrayed Gozzi's critical insensibility to Goldoni's actual merits. It +exhibited his aristocratic contempt for professional literature, +combined with his comedian's readiness to take advantage of a powerful +opponent. But it also revealed a literary athlete capable of striking +home, and whose method of attack was certain to be formidable. + +Goldoni bowed beneath the storm, and used his influence to withhold the +sanguinary satire from further publicity. At this point Gozzi showed the +courtesy which might have been expected from a man of his quality. He +dropped the point of his weapon at his antagonist's request, and +prepared himself to meet the playwright on his own ground. In fairness +to Gozzi, it is necessary to observe that this resolution indicated no +small amount of chivalry and courage. Goldoni was the idol of the +public. He kept continually pointing to the concourse which crowded the +Venetian theatres when a new piece from his pen was advertised. Gozzi +was unpractised in play-writing, a man in his fortieth year, and the +dramatic card on which he staked his luck might well be considered +hazardous. What that card was we shall presently discover. + +Chiari, involved in the same warfare with the Granelleschi, had hitherto +preserved a discreet silence. Now he defied them to produce a play. +Gasparo Gozzi answered with a sonnet, which betrays his personal leaning +toward Goldoni. Then Chiari resolved to make common cause with his old +rival on the stage. This shows how the dropping fire of the Academicians +had told upon their opponents. The Abb addressed Goldoni as _degnissimo +comico vate, poeta amico_, most worthy master of comedy, my good poet +friend. Goldoni reciprocated the compliment with _vate sublime, vate +immortale_, sublime, immortal bard. Not without a touch of concealed +irony, he compared himself to Chiari in this lyric flight:[73] + + "Si, tu sei l'aquila, + Io la formica; + Tu voli all' apice + Senza fatica, + Mia Musa ai cardini + Salir non sa." + +We trace in these verses Goldoni's perfect clarity of vision regarding +his own powers, and his good-humoured indulgence of other people's +foibles. He recognised the practical advantage of an alliance with +Chiari. At the same time he disclaimed all honours for himself, and +gently ridiculed his new ally's pretensions. + +Chiari had defied the Granelleschi to produce a comedy. Goldoni had +taken up his stand upon the popularity of his own plays. Carlo Gozzi +conceived the bold idea of writing a fantastic drama upon the old lines +of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which should fill the theatre of his +adoption and restore Sacchi's company to favour. If he succeeded, both +Chiari and Goldoni would be hit with the same stone. This was the real +origin of the celebrated _Fiabe Teatrali_. But before engaging in the +attempt, Gozzi looked about for a suitable subject. Nothing, he +calculated, would floor his antagonists more thoroughly than the +exhibition of a dramatised nursery tale by impromptu actors. Therefore, +in the spirit of a burlesque duellist, in the true spirit of Don +Quixote, he composed his _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_. + +These facts about the genesis of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ need to be insisted on, +since French and German critics have distorted the truth. They regard +Gozzi as a romantic playwright, gifted with innate genius for a peculiar +species of dramatic art. According to this theory, the _Fiabe_ were +produced in order to manifest an ideal existing in their author's brain. +Minute attention to Gozzi's Memoirs, his explanatory Essays (Opere, +vols. i. and iv.), and the preface appended to each _Fiaba_, shows, on +the contrary, that he began to write the _Fiabe_ with the simple object +of answering a certain challenge in the most humorous way he could +devise. He continued them with a didactic purpose. His keen sagacity and +profound knowledge of the Venetian public led him possibly to anticipate +success. Yet he knew that the attempt was perilous; and he made it, +without obeying preconceived principles, without yielding to any +imperative instinct, but solely with the view of giving Chiari and +Goldoni a sound thrashing. + +If it is worth while studying Gozzi and the _Fiabe_ at all, this point +has so much importance that I may be permitted to resume the history of +his literary conflict with the two poets. Gozzi opened fire with the +_Tartana_ in 1756. Goldoni retorted that he had only made himself +ridiculous; unless he proved both his assumption and his argument, he +was nothing better than a dog barking at the moon. Gozzi then declared +that he was already engaged in the production of a commentary. This +circulated in MS. under the form of a satire called the _Teatro Comico_. +Meanwhile Goldoni parried all attacks by pointing to his popularity, and +Chiari openly defied the Granelleschi to write a comedy, instead of +condemning the plays in vogue. Finally Gozzi, who had become intimately +acquainted with the actors in Sacchi's company, resolved to write a +_scenario_, which should rehabilitate the _Commedia dell' Arte_, parody +both Chiari and Goldoni, attract the public in crowds, and prove that a +mere fairy tale, treated with romantic gusto, was capable of arousing no +less interest than the works of professional playwrights following +new-fangled models. The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_, produced at the +end of January in 1761, rather more than four years after the appearance +of the _Tartana_, was the result. + +It is mistaken to suppose that Gozzi was animated by the enthusiasm of a +literary innovator. The _Fiabe_, in spite of their fantastic form, were +the work of an aristocratical Conservative, bent on striking a shrewd +blow for the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which he considered to be the +special glory of the Italian race. In this respect, we might call Gozzi +the Venetian Aristophanes.[74] The _Fiabe_ were his "Clouds," and +"Birds," and "Wasps." Goldoni and Chiari were his Euripides and Agathon; +perverters of the good old comedy by vulgar realism, false pathos, and +meretricious rhetoric. Rousseau, Voltaire, Helvetius, the French +_philosophes_, were his Socrates and Sophists. His art was the +expression, not of creative instinct evoking a new type of drama merely +for its beauty and romance, but of a militant, sarcastic mind, imbued +with the ironical literature of the sixteenth century. Gozzi had little +in common with Shakespeare. Truffaldino is no twin-brother of King +Lear's fool, nor is Brighella cousin to the grave-digger in _Hamlet_. +These personages belong to the family of masks, whose pedigree dates +from immemorial antiquity in Italy. The element of fable, as Gozzi +repeatedly informs us, was first adopted by him out of sheer bravado to +maintain a certain thesis, viz., that whole nations could be made to +laugh and cry over puerilities, when handled with the judgment of a +master. Gozzi's true ancestors in art were the Florentine burlesque +poets, notably Luigi Pulci. The blending of magic, phantasy, broad +comedy and serious tragic interest in the _Fiabe_ allies them to the +_Morgante Maggiore_ far more closely than to Marlowe's _Doctor +Faustus_. In them, therefore, we observe the curious literary phenomenon +of what at first sight appears to be spontaneous romantic art, but what +is really the result of satirical and didactic intention. The preface to +_L'Augellino Belverde_, in which Gozzi takes leave of the _Fiabe_, +clearly explains the case.[75] "I addressed myself to the task of +arousing great popular enthusiasm by a _tour de force_ of fancy; and at +the same time I wished to cut short the series of my dramatic pieces, +from which I derived no profit, and the burden of producing which was +beginning to weigh heavily upon me. Besides, it seemed to me that I had +fully achieved the end I had proposed to myself from the outset, in the +indulgence of the purest capricious and poetical punctilio." _Punctilio_ +was the parent of the _Fiabe_. + +At this point I shall introduce a translation of _L'Amore delle Tre +Melarancie_. There are several reasons for doing so. First, although it +only exists For us in the _compte rendu_ of the author, and is therefore +a description rather than a literal _scenario_, a very good idea can be +gained from it of the directions given by a poet to extempore actors. +Secondly, it shows the four Venetian masks, Pantalone, Tartaglia, +Truffaldino, and Brighella, in action, together with the _servetta_ +Smeraldina. Thirdly, it is interesting for the light thrown upon Gozzi's +controversy with the two poets in the critical observations he has +interspersed. These I shall enclose in brackets, so that the _scenario_ +of the play may be distinguished from extraneous matter. + + +V. + +A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS + +OF THE FABLE ENTITLED + +THE LOVE OF THE THREE ORANGES. + +_A Dramatic Representation divided into Three Acts._[76] + + +PROLOGUE. + +(_A boy comes forward and makes this announcement._) + + Your faithful servants, the old company + Of players, feel sore shent and full of shame; + Behind the scenes they stand with downcast eye + And hang-dog faces, dreading words of blame; + They blush to hear the folk say: "We are dry! + Each year those fellows feed us with the same + Musty old comedies that stink of mould! + We will not be insulted, laughed at, sold!" + I swear by all the elements to you, + Kind public, that to win your love once more, + They'd let their teeth be drawn, and eyeballs too! + They sent me to say this--nay, do not roar, + Restrain your wrath, sweet gentle audience, do; + Lend me your ears three minutes, I implore; + When I have spoken what I'm sent to say, + Deal with me as you list, I won't cry nay! + We've lost all sense and knowledge how to please + The public on our scenes, in this mad age. + The plays that took last year now seem to freeze; + And something quite brand-new is all the rage. + The wheel of taste and fashion, as one sees, + Moves with a wind no prophet can presage; + We only know that when the world's agog, + Our throats are moist and stomachs filled with prog. + Taste rules this year that all the modern plays + Should be crammed full with intrigue, strange events, + Fresh characters, adventures that amaze, + Wild, thrilling, unexpected incidents;-- + Dumbfounded by these laws, we stand at gaze, + Huddling together timorous in our tents; + And yet because we must have bread to eat, + We've come with our old wares your wrath to meet. + I know not, gentle listener, who it is + Hath rendered us unfit to charm your ear: + To us who once enjoyed your courtesies, + So many and so sweet, it seems most queer. + Is Poetry perchance to blame for this? + Well, well; all things are doomed to disappear; + Mortals must learn to bear and bide their fate; + Yet, ah! your hatred is a scourge too great! + For our part, we'll leave nothing new untried; + We'll don the poet's singing-robes and bays, + If this may give us back your grace denied; + Nay, we _are_ poets in these latter days! + Our breeches shall be sold and ink supplied, + Our coats we'll change for paper to write plays; + And if we've got no genius, well, what's that? + So long as you are pleased, all's right, that's flat. + Our purpose 'tis with new-pranked comedies, + Fine things, ne'er seen before, to fill our stage. + Don't ask when, where, and how we met with these, + Or who inscribed the pure Phoebean page; + After fine weather when the deluges + Of rain descend, _Lo, new rain!_ cries the sage; + Yet though he thinks it new rain, 'tis quite plain + That rain is nought but water, water rain. + Not all things keep one course through endless time. + What's up to-day, to-morrow shall be down. + Your great-great-grandsire's garment Mode, the mime, + Steals from his picture-frame to deck the town. + 'Tis taste, opinion, gusto make sublime, + Make beautiful, what tickles prince and clown; + And we can swear upon the book our plays + Have ne'er appeared in these or other days. + We've plots and arguments to turn old folk + Back to their infancy and nurse's arms; + Parents who kindly bear their children's yoke + Will bring the babes to listen to our charms; + High solemn geniuses we daren't invoke, + Nor will their absence cause us great alarms; + Why should we snuff at pence? Whether they scent + Of ignorance or learning, we're content. + On strange and unexpected circumstance + You shall sup full to-night; on wonders wild, + Whereof you may have heard or read perchance, + Yet never seen by woman, man, or child; + Beasts, birds, and house-doors shall your ears entrance + With verses by crowned poet's labour filed; + And if Martellian verses they shall prove, + These _must_ compel your plaudits and your love! + Your servants wait, impatient to begin; + But first I'd like the story to rehearse; + Ah me! I quake and tremble in my skin-- + You're sure to hiss me or do something worse! + _The Love of the Three Oranges!_--I'm in, + And don't repent the plunge, although you curse. + Imagine then, my darlings, heart's desires, + You're sitting with your granddams round your fires. + +[The touch of satire in this prologue, directed against poets who were +trying to trample down Sacchi's company of improvisatory players, is +too obvious, and my intention of supporting the latter by introducing +the series of my dramatised nursery-tales upon the theatre is too +evident, to call for detailed commentary. In the choice of my first +fable, which I took from the commonest among the stories told to +children, and in the base alloy of the dialogues, the action, and the +characters, which are obviously degraded of set purpose, I wanted to +ridicule _Il Campiello_, _Le Massre_, _Le Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and many +other plebeian and very trivial pieces by Signor Goldoni.] + + +FIRST ACT. + +Silvio, King of Diamonds,[77] the monarch of an imaginary realm, whose +habit exactly imitated that of his majesty upon the playing cards, +confided to Pantalone the deep distress caused to his royal mind by the +misfortune of his sole son and heir, Tartaglia. The Crown-Prince had +been subject, for the last ten years, to an incurable malady. The first +physicians diagnosed the case as hopeless hypochondria, and gave their +patient up. The King wept bitterly. Pantalone, sending doctors to the +devil with his sarcasms, suggested that the admirable secrets of certain +charlatans, at that time famous, might be tried. The King protested that +all such means had been employed with no result. Pantalone, letting his +fancy play upon the hidden causes of the malady, asked his liege in +secret, so as not to be overheard by the royal bodyguard, whether his +Majesty had perhaps contracted something in his younger days, which, +being communicated to the constitution of the Prince, might still be +extirpated by the exhibition of mercury. The King, assuming an air of +stately seriousness, replied that he had been invariably faithful to his +consort's bed. Pantalone then submitted that the Prince might be +concealing, out of a befitting sense of shame, the consequence of boyish +peccadilloes. His Majesty assured him seriously that his own paternal +inspection of the patient excluded that hypothesis; the young man's +illness was solely due to hypochondria of a grave and malignant nature; +the physicians declared that, unless he could be made to laugh, he must +sink slowly into his grave; a smile upon his face would be the +favourable sign of convalescence. That was too good to be expected. To +this he added that the prospect of his own decrepitude, the sight of his +son and heir upon a death-bed, the inevitable succession to the crown of +his niece Clarice, a young woman of strange temper, bizarre fancies, and +cruel passions, caused him the deepest affliction. Thereupon he began to +bewail the future misery of his subjects, broke down into a flood of +tears, and quite forgot the dignity of his high station. Pantalone +consoled him, urged on his attention the propriety of restoring the +court to merriment and gladness, if all depended on Prince Tartaglia's +recovering the power of laughter. Let festivities, games, masquerades, +and spectacles be set on foot. Let Truffaldino, well approved for making +people laugh and chasing the blue-devils from their brains, be summoned +to the Prince's service. The Prince had shown some inclination for +Truffaldino's society. He might succeed in bringing smiles again upon +the royal features. The remedy could but be tried, and possibly a cure +might ensue. The King allowed himself to be convinced, and began to plan +arrangements. + +To these persons entered Leandro, Knave of Diamonds,[78] and first +Minister of the realm. He too was dressed like his figure on a pack of +cards. Pantalone, aside, expressed his suspicion of some treachery on +the part of Leandro. The King commanded festivities, games, and Bacchic +entertainments, adding that whoever made the Prince laugh should receive +a noble prize. Leandro tried to dissuade his Majesty, and urged that +such remedies were likely to prejudice the sick man's health. The King +repeated his orders and retired. Pantalone rejoiced. Aside, to the +audience, he explained that Leandro was certainly planning the Prince's +death. Then he followed the King. Leandro remained stubborn, muttered +that he detected some opposition to his wishes, but from what quarter he +could not guess. + +To him appeared the Princess Clarice, niece of the King. There was never +seen upon the stage a princess of so wild, irascible, and determined a +character as this Clarice. [I have to thank Signer Chiari for furnishing +me with abundant models for such caricatures in his dramatic works.] She +had settled with Leandro to marry him, and raise him to the throne, upon +the death of her cousin. Accordingly she burst into reproaches against +her lover for his coldness. Were they to wait until Tartaglia died of a +disease so slow as hypochondria? Leandro excused himself with +circumspection. Fata Morgana, he said, his powerful protectress, had +given him certain charms in Martellian verses, which were to be +administered to Tartaglia in wafers. These would certainly work his +destruction by sure if tardy means. [This was introduced to criticise +the plays of Chiari and Goldoni, whose Martellian verses bored every one +to death by their monotony of rhyme.] Now Fata Morgana was hostile to +the King of Diamonds, having lost much of her treasure on his card. She +loved the Knave of Diamonds, because he had brought her luck in play. +She dwelt in a lake, not far from the city. Smeraldina, a Moorish woman, +who performed the _servetta_ in this scenic parody, acted as +intermediary between Leandro and Morgana. Clarice fumed with fury at +hearing the slow means appointed for Tartaglia's death. Leandro +confessed that he entertained some doubts about the efficacy of +Martellian verses to secure a happy dispatch. He was uneasy, too, at +the unexplained appearance of Truffaldino at court, a very facetious +fellow; and if Tartaglia laughed, his cure was certain. Clarice's rage +boiled over; she had seen Truffaldino, and the mere sight of him was +certain to make anybody laugh. [In this dialogue my readers will detect +a defence of the mirth-making comedy of the masks as against the +melancholy drama in verse of the poets in vogue.] Meanwhile, Leandro had +seat Brighella, his servant, to Smeraldina, to learn the explanation of +Truffaldino's appearance, and to demand assistance from Morgana. + +Brighella entered; and with much show of secrecy related that +Truffaldino had been sent to court by a certain wizard Celio, Morgana's +enemy, and the King of Diamonds' friend, for reasons exactly opposite to +those which had incensed Morgana against him. Truffaldino, he continued, +was an antidote to the morbific influences of Martellian verses; he had +come to protect the King, the Prince, and all the people from the +infection of those melancholic charms. + +[It may be pointed out that the hostility between Fata Morgana and Celio +the wizard symbolised the warfare carried on between Goldoni and Chiari. +Fata Morgana was a caricature of Chiari, and Celio of Goldoni.] + +Brighella's news threw Clarice and Leandro into consternation. They laid +their heads together how to kill Truffaldino by some secret device. +Clarice suggested arsenic or a blunderbuss. Leandro was for trying +Martellian verses in wafers, or opium. Clarice objected that there was +not much to choose between Martellian verses and opium, and that +Truffaldino had the stomach to digest such trifles. Brighella added that +Morgana, informed of the festivities designed for the Prince's recovery, +meant to appear and neutralise the action of his salutiferous laughter +by a curse which should quickly send him to the tomb. Clarice retired. +Leandro and Brighella went to superintend the preparation of the shows. + +The next scene disclosed the chamber of the sick Prince. He was attired +in the most laughable caricature of an invalid's costume. Reclining in +an ample lounging-chair, Tartaglia leaned against a table, piled with +medicine-bottles, ointments, spittoons, and other furniture appropriate +to his melancholy condition. With a weak and quavering voice he lamented +his misfortunes, the various treatments he had tried with no success, +and the extraordinary symptoms of his incurable malady. The eminent +actor, who sustained this scene alone, kept the audience in one roar of +laughter by his exquisite burlesque and natural drollery. Then +Truffaldino entered, and tried to make the patient laugh. The extempore +performance of this duet by two of the best comic players of our day +afforded excellent mirth. The Prince looked on approvingly while +Truffaldino exhibited his pranks. But nothing could bring a smile upon +his lips. He insisted upon returning to his illness, and asking +Truffaldino's advice. Truffaldino entered into a labyrinth of +physiological and medical arguments, highly humorous and spiced with +satire. He smelt the Prince's breath, and swore that it stank of a +surfeit of undigested Martellian verses. The Prince coughed, and asked +to spit. Truffaldino brought him the vessel, examined the expectoration, +and found in it a mass of rancid rotten rhymes. This scene lasted above +a quarter of an hour, to the continual amusement of the audience. +Instruments of music were then heard, announcing the festivities in the +great court of the palace. Truffaldino wanted to conduct the Prince to a +balcony from which he could survey them. Tartaglia protested that this +was impossible. Truffaldino, in a rage, threw all the medicines, cups, +and ointments out of window, while the Prince squealed and wept like a +baby. At last Truffaldino carried him off by main force, howling as +though he was being massacred, and bore him on his shoulders to enjoy +the show. + +The third scene was laid in the courtyard of the palace. Leandro +entered, and declared that he had carried out the King's commands; the +people, plunged in grief, but eager to refresh their spirits, were all +masked; he had taken precautions to make many persons assume lugubrious +disguises, in order to augment the Prince's melancholy; the hour had +sounded for unbarring the court-gates to the populace. + +Morgana then entered, in the travesty of a ridiculous old woman. Leandro +expressed his astonishment that such an object should have obtained +entrance before the gates were opened. Morgana discovered herself, and +said she had come in that disguise to work the Prince's swift +destruction. Leandro thanked her, and styled her the Queen of +Hypochondria. Morgana drew to one side, and the gates were thrown wide. + +On a terraced balcony, in front of the spectators, sat the King, and +Prince Tartaglia, muffled in furred pelisse, Clarice, Pantalone, the +guards, and afterwards Leandro. The spectacles and games were precisely +such as are related in the fairy story. The people flocked in. There was +a tournament, directed by Truffaldino, who arranged burlesque encounters +for the knights. At every turn, he addressed himself to the balcony, +inquiring of his majesty if the Prince had laughed. The Prince only shed +tears, complaining that the air hurt him, and the noise made his head +ache. He entreated his royal sire to send him back to his warm bed. + +There were two fountains, one of which ran with oil, the other with +wine. Round these the rabble hustled, disputing with vulgar and plebeian +violence. But nothing moved the Prince to laughter. Then Morgana hobbled +out to fill her cruse with oil. Truffaldino assailed the hag with a +variety of insults, and finally sent her sprawling with her legs in air. +[These trivialities, taken from the trivial story-book, amused the +audience by their novelty quite as much as the _Massre_, _Campielli_, +_Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and all the other trivial pieces of Goldoni.] On +seeing the old woman's fall, Tartaglia burst into a long sonorous peal +of laughter. Truffaldino gained the prize. The people, relieved of their +anxiety about the Prince's health, laughed uncontrollably. All the court +was glad. Only Leandro and Clarice showed wry faces. + +Morgana, raising herself from the ground in a spasm of fury, abused the +Prince, and hurled the following awful malediction in the true style of +Chiari at his devoted head:[79] + + "Open thine ears, barbarian! let my voice assail thy heart! + Nor wall nor mountain stay the sound my words of doom impart. + As riving thunderbolts descend and split the solid rock, + So may my curses split thy breast with their tremendous shock. + As boats against a running tide the tug triumphant tows, + So let my malediction strong still lead thee by the nose. + Oh awful curse! oh direful doom! To hear it is to die, + Like quadrupeds within the sea, or fish on flowers that lie! + I call on Pluto, gloomy god, to Pindar winged I pray, + That thou with the Three Oranges may'st fall in love to-day. + Threats, tears, entreaties now are nought, leaves shaken by the breeze; + Haste to the horrible acquist of the Three Oranges!" + +Morgana disappeared. The Prince suddenly conceived a firm and resolute +enthusiasm for the love of the Three Oranges. He was led away amid the +confusion and consternation of the court. + +What nonsense! What a mortification for the two poets! The first act of +the fable ended at this point with a loud and universal clapping of +hands. + + +ACT THE SECOND. + +In one of the Prince's apartments, Pantalone, beside himself with +despair, describes the terrible effect of the hag's malediction on +Tartaglia. Nothing could be done to calm him down. He had asked his +father for a pair of iron shoes, to walk the world over, and discover +the fatal Oranges. The King had commanded Pantalone, under pain of the +Prince's displeasure, to find him such a pair. The matter was one of the +most pressing urgency. [This motive suited the theatre, and conveyed a +sprightly satire on the dramatic motives then in vogue.] + +Pantalone retired, and the Prince entered with Truffaldino. Tartaglia +expressed impatience at this long delay in bringing him the iron shoes. +Truffaldino asked a number of absurd questions. Tartaglia declared his +intention of going to find the Three Oranges, which, as he heard from +his grandmother, were two thousand miles away, in the power of Creonta, +a gigantic witch. Then he called for his armour, and bade Truffaldino +array himself in mail, for he meant him to be his squire. A scene of +excellent buffoonery followed between these highly comical personages, +both of them fitting on corslets, helmets, and huge long swords, with +burlesque military ardour. + +Enter the King, Pantalone, and guards. One of the latter carries a pair +of iron shoes upon a salver. This scene was executed by the four +principal performers with a gravity which made it doubly ridiculous. In +a tone of high tragedy and theatrical majesty the father dissuaded his +son from this perilous adventure. He entreated, threatened, relapsed +into pathos. The Prince, like a man possessed, insisted. His +hypochondria was sure to return, unless he was allowed to set forth. At +last he burst into coarse threats against his father. The King stood +rooted to the ground with amazement and grief. Then he reflected that +this want of filial respect in Tartaglia arose from the bad example of +the new comedies. [In one of Chiari's comedies a son had drawn his sword +to kill his father. Instances of the same description abounded in the +dramas of that day, which I wished to censure.] Nothing would silence +the Prince, till Truffaldino shod him with the iron shoes. The scene +ended with a quartet in dramatic verse, of blubberings, farewells, sighs +and sobs. Tartaglia and Truffaldino took their leave. The King fell +fainting on a sofa, and Pantalone called aloud for aromatic vinegar. + +Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella came hurrying upon the stage, rebuking +Pantalone for the clamour he was raising. Pantalone replied that, with a +King in a fainting fit, a Prince gone off on the dangerous adventure of +the Oranges, it was only natural to kick up a row. Brighella answered +that such matters were mere twaddle, like the new comedies, which turned +everything topsy-turvy without reason. The King meanwhile recovered his +senses, and fell to raving in true tragic style. He bewept his son for +dead; ordered the whole court to wear mourning; and shut himself up in a +little cabinet, to end his days under the weight of this crushing +affliction. Pantalone, vowing that he would share the King's +lamentations, collect their mingled tears in one pocket-handkerchief, +and bequeath to coming bards the argument for interminable episodes in +Martellian verse, withdrew in the train of his liege. + +Clarice, Leandro, Brighella gave way to their gladness, and extolled +Morgana to the skies. Whimsical Clarice then insisted on coming to +conditions before she raised Leandro to the throne. In time of war she +was to command the armies. Even if she suffered a defeat, she was sure +to subdue the victor by her charms; when he was drowned in love, and +lulled by her blandishments, she meant to stick a knife into his paunch. +[This was a side hit at Chiari's _Attila_.] Clarice further reserved to +herself the right of distributing court-offices. Brighella, as the +reward of his services, begged to be appointed Master of the King's +Revels. The three personages now disputed upon the choice of different +theatrical diversions. Clarice voted for tragic dramas, with personages +who should throw themselves out of windows and off towers, without +breaking their necks, and such-like miraculous accidents (_id est_, the +plays of Chiari). Leandro preferred comedies of character (_id est_, +Goldoni's plays). Brighella recommended the _Commedia dell' Arte_, as +very fit to yield the public innocent amusement. Clarice and Leandro +flew into a rage. What did they want with stupid buffooneries, rancid +relics of antiquity, unseemly in this enlightened age? Brighella then +began a pathetic speech, commiserating Sacchi's company, without +mentioning it by name, but making his meaning plain enough. He deplored +the misfortunes of an honourable troupe, who had done good service in +their day, but were now downtrodden, and forced to behold the affections +of the public they adored, and whom they had for many years amused, +withdrawn from them. He retired with the applause of that public, who +thoroughly understood the real drift of his discourse. + +The next scene opened in a wilderness. Celio the wizard was discovered +drawing circles. As the protector of Prince Tartaglia, he summoned +Farfarello, a devil, to his aid. Farfarello appeared, and with a +formidable voice uttered these Martellian lines: + + "Hullo! who calls? who drags me forth from earth's drear centre dark? + A wizard real art thou, or wizard of the stage, thou spark? + If only of the stage thou art, I need not tell thee then + That devils, wizards, sprites, are out of fashion among men." + +[Allusion was here made to the two poets, who wanted to abolish the +masks, magicians, and fiends in writings for the stage.] Celio answered +in prose that he was a real wizard. Farfarello continued: + + "Well, be thou what thou wilt; yet if thou of the stage may be, + At least thou might'st respond in verse Martellian to me." + +Celio swore at the devil, and told him that he meant to go on talking +prose. Then he inquired whether Truffaldino, whom he had sent to the +court of the King of Diamonds, had done any good, and whether Tartaglia +had been obliged to laugh, and had lost his hypochondria. The devil +answered: + + "He laughed; recovered health; but then, Morgana, thy great foe, + With malediction spoiled thy pains, and wrought a double woe. + With fury winged and breathless he, both burning cheeks on fire, + Is after the Three Oranges, inflamed with fierce desire. + With Truffaldin the Prince is sped; Morgana sends a sprite + To wait upon the pair and blow them forward in their flight. + A thousand miles the men have gone, and soon they will descend, + Here by Creonta's fort, half-dead, at their long journey's end." + +[Illustration: BRIGHELLA (1570) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The devil disappeared. Celio monologised against his mortal foe Morgana, +explaining the great perils of Tartaglia and Truffaldino when they +should arrive at the castle of Creonta on the quest of the fatal +Oranges. Then he retired to make the necessary preparations for saving +two persons of high merit and great social utility. + +[Celio, who stood for Goldoni in this piece of nonsense, ought not to +have protected Tartaglia and Truffaldino. I admit the error, which +deserves to be condemned, if a mere dramatic sketch of such a trivial +kind comes within the scope of criticism. At that time Chiari and +Goldoni were enemies and rivals. I wanted Morgana and Celio to +caricature their opposite dramatic styles; and I did not care to protect +myself against censure by multiplying personages more than needful.] + +Tartaglia and Truffaldino entered armed, and proceeding at a tremendous +pace. They had a devil with a pair of bellows following behind, and +blowing their backsides to make them skim along the ground. The devil +ceased to blow and disappeared. They sprawled on the grass at the sudden +cessation of the favouring gale. + +[I am under infinite obligations to Signor Chiari for this burlesque +conception, which produced a very excellent effect upon the stage. In +his dramas, drawn from the neid, Chiari made the Trojans perform long +journeys within the space of a single action, and without the assistance +of my devil and his bellows. This writer, though he pedantically +insulted everybody else who broke the rules, allowed himself singular +privileges. In his tragedy of _Ezelino_, after the tyrant's downfall, a +captain is sent to beleaguer Treviso, and reduce Ezelino's garrison. +This takes place in one scene. In the next scene the same captain +returns victorious, having ridden more than thirty miles, captured the +town, and butchered the tyrant's troops. He delivers a rhetorical +oration, ascribing this miracle to the matchless spirit of his horse! +Tartaglia and Truffaldino had to perform a journey of two thousand +miles, and my device of the devil with the bellows explained their +exploit better than Chiari's charger.] + +The two comedians rose from the ground, half-stunned and astonished at +the mighty wind which wafted them. Their geographical description of the +countries, mountains, rivers, and oceans they had passed, was crammed +with burlesque absurdities. Tartaglia concluded that the Three Oranges +must be nigh at hand. Truffaldino, feeling tired and hungry, asked the +Prince whether he had brought a good stock of cash or bills. Tartaglia +spurned such low considerations and idle questions. Spying a castle on a +hill, and judging it to be Creonta's, he set manfully forward, while +Truffaldino trudged behind in the hope of finding food. + +Meanwhile Celio entered, and sought in vain to dissuade the Prince from +his perilous adventure. He described insuperable obstacles fraught with +danger on the way. They were exactly the same as are told to children in +the story-book; but Celio enlarged upon them with wide rolling eyes, +and magnified the molehills into mountains. There was an iron gate +rusted with time, a famished dog, a well-rope rotten with damp, a +baker's wife, who, having no broom, was forced to sweep the oven out +with her own dugs. The Prince, unterrified by these appalling objects, +determined to assail the castle. Celio, seeing his mind made up, gave +him a magic ointment to smear the bolt of the gate, a loaf to throw the +dog, and a bundle of brooms to give the baker's wife. The rope he bade +them hang out in the sun to dry. Then he added that, if by lucky chance +they should acquire the Oranges, they were to leave the castle at once, +and be mindful to open none of the Oranges except in the immediate +neighbourhood of some fountain. Finally, he promised, if they escaped +the perils of their theft, to send the same devil with the bellows, to +blow them home again. Then he recommended them to Heaven and left them. +Tartaglia and Truffaldino, carrying the articles provided by Celio, went +forward on their journey. + +Here a tent was lowered, which represented the pavilion of the King of +Diamonds.--What an irregularity!--Nay, what misapplied criticism!--Two +short scenes followed, one between Smeraldina and Brighella, rejoicing +over the loss of Tartaglia; the other with Morgana, who bade Brighella +inform Clarice and Leandro that Celio was assisting the Prince. This she +had learned from the devil Draghinazzo. Then she bade Smeraldina follow +her to the lake, where Tartaglia and Truffaldino would certainly arrive +if they escaped Creonta's clutches. Some new snare might then be devised +to entrap them. The parley broke up in confusion. + +The next scene disclosed a courtyard in Creonta's castle. [I was able to +observe, upon the opening of this scene, with the grossly absurd objects +it contained, what an immense power the marvellous exerts over the human +mind. A gate constructed with an iron grating, a famished dog which +howled and roamed around, a well with a coil of rope beside it, a +baker's wife who swept her oven with two enormously long breasts, kept +the whole theatre in silent wonder and attention quite as effectually as +the most thrilling scenes in the works of our two poets.] Outside the +grating appeared Tartaglia and Truffaldino, engaged in smearing the +bolt; and lo! the portal swung upon its hinges. Great miracle! They +passed in. The dog barked and leapt upon them. They threw him the bread +and he was still. Great portent! Truffaldino, trembling with fright, +then hung the cord up to dry, and gave the baker's wife her brooms, +while the Prince entered the castle and came out again, capering for joy +and holding the three enormous Oranges he had seized. + +The moving accidents of this scene did not end so suddenly. The sky +darkened, the earth quaked, and loud claps of thunder were heard. +Tartaglia handed the Oranges to Truffaldino, who kept trembling like an +aspen leaf. Then there issued from the castle an awful voice, which was +Creonta's own. She spoke as the story-book dictates: + + "O baker's wife, O baker's wife, abide not my just ire! + Take those two fellows by the feet, and cast them in the fire." + +The baker's wife, following the fable with equal fidelity, replied thus: + + "Not I! How many months have passed, how many months and years, + While with my milk-white breasts I sweep, and waste my life in tears! + Thou, cruel dame, a single broom ne'er gav'st me at my need; + These brought a bundle; let them go in peace; I will not heed." + +Creonta cried: + + "O rope, O rope! hang up the knaves!" + +And the rope, still observing the text, answered: + + "Hard heart! hast thou forgot + Those many years, those many months, thou left'st me here to rot? + By thee was I abandoned long in damp to waste away; + These stretched me to the sun; let them go forth in peace, I say." + +Creonta howled aloud: + + "Dog, faithful watch-dog! rend and tear those wretches limb from limb." + +The dog retorted: + + "Nay, why, Creonta, should I rend poor fellows at thy whim? + So many years, so many months, I've served thee without food; + These filled my belly full; thy cries shall not control my mood." + +Creonta, again: + + "Portal of iron, close! Grind yon base knaves and thieves to dust!" + +And the gate: + + "Cruel Creonta! vainly now your threats on me are thrust! + So many years, so many months, in rust and woe to pine, + You left me here; they oiled my bolts; no ingrate's heart is mine." + +It was very funny to see Tartaglia's and Truffaldino's mock astonishment +at the fine flow of the poet's eloquence. They stood dumbfounded to hear +bakers' wives, and ropes, and dogs, and gates talking in Martellian +verse. Then they thanked those courteous objects for the kindness shown +them. + +The audience were hugely delighted with these puerilities, and I confess +that I joined heartily in their laughter, half-ashamed the while at +being forced to relish a pack of infantile absurdities, which took me +back to the days of my babyhood. + +The giantess Creonta now appeared upon the stage. She was of towering +stature, and attired in a vast sweeping _andrienne_. Tartaglia and +Truffaldino fled before her horrible aspect. Then she gave vent to her +despair in Martellian verses, not forgetting to invoke Pindar, whom +Signor Chiari treated complacently as his own twin-brother: + + "Woe to you, faithless servants! Woe, false rope and dog and gate! + Base baker's wife, I curse thee too! Ye traitors found too late! + Alas! Sweet Oranges! Ah me! Who stole you unaware? + Dear Oranges, my hope, my soul, my love, my life, my care! + Woe's me! I burst with bitter rage; there's boiling in my breast + Chaos, the Elements, the Sun, the Rainbow, and the rest! + I scarce can stand against it all: O Jove, the Thunderer, send + Thy lightnings on my pate, and me down to the slippers rend! + Help to me! Ho! Who helps me? Fiends! Who lifts me from this world?-- + A friendly thunderbolt descends! I burn, I'm soothed, I'm hurled." + +[These last verses were no bad parody of both Chiari's sentiments and +style of writing.] A thunderbolt fell and reduced the giantess to ashes. +Here ended the second act, which had been followed with more marked +applause than the first. My bold experiment began to seem less culpable +than it had done at the commencement. + + +ACT THE THIRD. + +The first scene opened near Fata Morgana's lake. There was a great tree +visible and underneath it a large stone seat. Several rocks and boulders +were strewn about the meadow. Smeraldina, who talked the jargon of an +Italianised Turk, was standing at the brink of the lake impatiently +awaiting the fairy's orders, and calling out. Morgana rose from the +surface, and began to relate a journey she had made to hell, where she +learned that Tartaglia and Truffaldino, victorious in their achievement +of the Three Oranges, were coming by the help of Celio and the devil +with the bellows. Smeraldina soundly abused the fairy for her want of +skill in magic. Morgana bade her spare her breath. Owing to precautions +she had taken, Truffaldino would reach the spot where they were +standing, separately from the Prince. Thirst and hunger, sent by +wizard's arts, should annoy him; and since the Oranges were in his +custody, great catastrophes would take place. Then she consigned two +bedevilled pins to Smeraldina, adding that she would see a fair girl +sitting on the stone beneath the tree. She was to contrive to fix one of +these needles in the girl's hair, whereupon the latter would become a +dove, and Smeraldina was to take her place upon the stone. Tartaglia +should marry her and make her Queen. During the night, while sleeping +with her husband, she was to fix the other needle in his hair, whereupon +he would become a beast, and the throne would be left vacant for Clarice +and Leandro. The Moorish woman raised some difficulties, which Morgana +easily disposed of. Then, observing Truffaldino approaching with the +infernal blast behind him, they withdrew to mature their plans. + +Truffaldino entered, carrying the Three Oranges in a wallet. The devil +with the bellows disappeared, and Truffaldino related how the Prince had +tripped up a little while back, and that he must wait for him. He seated +himself. Intolerable thirst and hunger tormented him. At last he +resolved to eat one of the Oranges. But conscience stung him; he +declaimed in tragic style; then, driven mad by thirst, made up his mind +to risk the sacrifice. After all, he reflected, the damage could be made +good with two farthings. So he proceeded to cut open an Orange. Oh, +what a surprise! There issued from its rind a girl clothed in white, +who, following the text of the story-book, spoke immediately: + + "Give me to drink! I'm fainting! Ah! I'm dying! Quick, my dear! + Of thirst I'm dying! Oh, poor me! Quick, cruel man! Death's here!" + +She fell upon the earth oppressed with mortal languor. Truffaldino, who +had forgotten Celio's directions about opening the Oranges within reach +of water, being besides a fool by nature, and not noticing the lake in +his distraction, thought he could not do better than to slice another of +the Oranges and quench the dying girl's thirst with the juice of that. +Accordingly, he went, like a donkey, and sliced another Orange, out of +which there appeared a second lovely female, exclaiming: + + "Woe's me! Of thirst I'm dying! Ho! Give me to drink! I rave! + Cruel! I die of thirst! Ah God! 'Twill kill me! Lord! oh save!" + +She sank down exhausted like the other. Truffaldino flung himself about +in fits of desperation. He roared, screamed, leapt like a maniac, while +one of the girls spoke as follows, in an expiring voice: + + "Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'm dying! I am dead!" + +Then she breathed her last, and the other continued: + + "I'm dying! Barbarous stars! Ah me! Who'll soothe my burning head?" + +Then she too breathed her last. Truffaldino wept abundantly, and +murmured over them words of impassioned tenderness. He decided to cut +the third Orange in the hope of saving both girls alive. While he was +upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped +him. Truffaldino took to his heels and left the Orange lying on the +grass. + +The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he +poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of +the girls, soar beyond the powers of language. The masked actors of our +_Commedia dell' Arte_, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll +and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, movements, and _lazzi_ +so delightful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could +surpass them. + +After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia caught sight of two +country bumpkins passing by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, +and bade the fellows carry them away. Then the Prince turned to gaze +upon the third Orange. To his utter amazement it had swelled to a +portentous size, and was as large now as the biggest pumpkin. Seeing the +lake at hand, and bearing Celio's injunctions in mind, he thought the +place convenient for cutting the fruit open. This he did with his long +sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in +robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the +story-book by speaking as follows: + + "Who drew me from my living core? Ah God! Of thirst I die! + Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!" + +The Prince understood upon the spot the meaning of Celio's precepts. But +he was embarrassed to find any vessel capable of holding water. The case +did not admit of ceremony. So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to +the lake, filled it with water, and making a thousand excuses for the +improvised cup, presented it to the fair damsel, who slaked her thirst, +and stood up in full vigour, thanking him for his timely assistance. + +She said that she was the daughter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; +Creonta, by enchantment, had enclosed her, together with her two +sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as +probable as the circumstance itself. A scene of comical love-making +followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife. +The capital was close at hand. The Princess had no decent clothes to +wear. The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, +while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to +attend her. That settled, they parted with sighs. + +Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered. She +saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake. Of course she +proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the +story-tale. She dropped her Italianate Turkish. Morgana had put a Tuscan +devil into her tongue. Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak +with more complete correctness. Advancing to the young Princess, whose +name was Ninetta, she began to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her +hair, came to close quarters and betrayed her. One of the magic pins was +promptly stuck in the girl's head. Ninetta took the form of a dove and +flew away. Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the +Court. + +These miraculous occurrences, together with the childish simplicity of +the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the +audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses +in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity. They +followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest +interest in watching each step in the development upon the stage of such +a trifle. + +Then, to the music of a march, the King of Diamonds entered, with the +Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the Court. On +beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride whom he had come to fetch +away, Tartaglia flew into the wildest astonishment and fury. Smeraldina, +so altered by Morgana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she +was the Princess Ninetta. Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque +exhibition of his misery. Leandro, Clarice, and Brighella, suspecting +the real source of the mystery, rejoiced among themselves. The King of +Diamonds gravely and majestically enjoined upon his son the duty of +keeping his princely word and marrying the Moor. The Prince submitted +with a wry face and new demonstrations of comical grief. Then the band +struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the marriage in +the palace. + +Truffaldino meanwhile remained behind in the royal kitchen, to the +charge of which Tartaglia had appointed him, after condoning his +mistakes about the Oranges. He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a +new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody. + +[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, who were present in the +theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did +their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a +commotion. They did not succeed, however. I have already said that Celio +represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari. The former of these gentlemen +had served his apprenticeship at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked +of forensic idioms. Chiari plumed himself upon his sublime pindaric +flights of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never +was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who +surpassed him in extravagant conceits and bombast. + +Well, Celio and Morgana, animated by mutual hostility, met together in +this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was +spoken. I must first remind my readers that parodies miss their mark +unless they are surcharged; and, keeping this in view, I beg them to +look with indulgence upon a caprice, which was begotten by jesting +humour, without any animosity against two worthy individuals.] + + CELIO (_entering with vehemence, to Morgana_). "Wicked enchantress! + I have discovered all your base deceits. But Pluto will assist me. + Infamous beldame, accursed witch!" + + MORGANA. "What do you mean, you charlatan of a wizard? Do not + provoke me. I will give you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which + shall make you die foaming." + + C. "To me, rash witch? You shall get tit for tat from me. I defy + you in Martellian verse. Here's at you![80] + + "It shall be always held a vain injurious assault, + Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault; + To wit these, and whatever else, malignant, fury-fraught + Spells by Morgana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought: + And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue + Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due." + + M. "Oh, the bad verses! Come on, you twopenny-halfpenny magician! + + "First shall the glorious rays of gold which beam from Phoebus' breast + Be turned to lumps of vulgar lead, and East become the West; + First shall the darkling moon on high, her silver beams so bright + Change with the glimmering stars, and lose the empire of the night; + The murmuring streams that purling roll along their crystal bed, + With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread; + But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force + To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course." + + C. "O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder! + + "On the main paragraph I'll win the verdict in this suit, + Which by the first preamble shall be made to bear its fruit: + Princess Ninetta, changed by you into a dove, shall be + Reconstituted in her rights and due estate by me: + And through the second paragraph, which follows from the first, + Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed; + While Smeraldina, who can claim no hearing from the court, + By mere endorsement shall be burned, to give the people sport." + + M. "Oh, the stupid, stupid versifier! Listen to me, now. See if I + don't terrify you. + + "On flying plumes soars Icarus, and climbs the heaven with pride, + Treads on the clouds, then stoops, rash youth, and skims along the tide. + O'er Pelion piled, see Ossa frown, Olympus on her back; + This wrought the Titans, impious brood, to work high heaven wrack. + But Icarus erelong must sink, and drown in salt sea-spume; + Jove's bolt will hurl the Titans bold in ashes to their tomb. + Clarice shall ascend the throne, false Mage, in thy despite; + Tartaglia, like Acton, mock the antlered deer in flight." + + C. (_aside_). "She is trying to beat me down with poetical bombast. + If she thinks to shut me up in that way she is quite mistaken. + + "I will not leave one plea unturned without demurrers sound, + And 'gainst your swelling lies will file a protest firm and round." + + M. "The realm of Diamonds avoid! Let lawful monarchs reign!" + + (_Taking her departure._) + + C. (_crying after her_). "And I'll claim costs, stay execution, + file my bills again." + + (_Here Celio went in._) + +The last scene was laid in the royal kitchen. Never did mortal eyes +behold a more miserable king's kitchen than this. The remainder of the +performance followed the old story-book precisely; nevertheless, the +spectators watched it with sustained attention. The parody turned upon +some trivialities of detail and some basenesses of character in dramas +written by the two poets. Excessive poverty, dramatic impropriety, and +meanness gave the satire point. + +Truffaldino appeared spitting a joint. He related how, there being no +turnjack in the kitchen, he was obliged to watch the revolutions of the +spit himself. While thus engaged, a dove alighted on the window-sill, +and a conversation took place between him and the bird. The dove had +said: "Good morning, cook of the kitchen." He had replied: "Good +morning, white dove." She continued: "I pray to Heaven that you may fall +asleep, that the roast may burn, so that the Moor, that ugly mug, may +not be able to eat." A mighty slumber overcame him; he fell asleep, and +the roast was burned to cinders. This accident happened twice. In a +precious hurry he set the third joint before the fire. Then the dove +reappeared, and the conversation was repeated. Again the mighty slumber +overcame his senses. Truffaldino, honest fellow, did all he could to +keep awake. His _lazzi_ were in the highest degree facetious. But he +could not resist the spell, began to nod, and the flames reduced the +third roast to ashes. + +You must ask the audience why and wherefore this scene afforded +exquisite amusement. + +Pantalone entered scolding, woke up Truffaldino; said that the King was +in a fury; soup, boiled meat, and liver had been eaten, but the roast +had not appeared at table. [All honour to a poet's daring! This outdid +the lowness of Goldoni's squabbles about a brace of pumpkins in his +_Chiozzotte_.] Truffaldino told the strange occurrence with the dove. +Pantalone dismissed it as an idle story. But the dove at this point +reappeared and repeated her ominous speech. Truffaldino was on the point +of going off into a doze when Pantalone roused him, and they both gave +chase to the dove, which flew fluttering about the kitchen. + +The attempts to catch the dove, made by these facetious personages, +amused the audience above measure. At last they caught it, placed it on +a table, and began to stroke its feathers. Then they detected the +enchanted pin stuck into a knot upon its head. Truffaldino drew the pin +forth, and behold the bird was transformed into the Princess Ninetta! + +A scene of stupors and astonishments. His Majesty the King of Diamonds +arrived; pompously, with sceptre in hand, he rebuked Truffaldino for the +non-appearance of the roast-meat at his royal table, whereby he had been +put to shame before illustrious guests. The Prince followed, and +recognised his lost Ninetta. Joy bereft him of his wits. Ninetta related +what had befallen her; the King remained lost in amazement. Then the +Moor and the rest of the Court came crowding into the kitchen, to find +their monarch. He, with an air of haughty dignity, bade the princely +couple retire into the scullery. He chose the hearth for his throne, and +took his seat there with majestic sternness. The courtiers assembled +round him; and as it happens in the story-book, the King now performed +his part of ultimate adjudicator. What, he inquired, would be proper +punishments for the several parties incriminated in these occurrences? +Various opinions were offered. Then the King in his fury condemned +Smeraldina to the flames. Celio appeared. He unmasked the hidden +culpability of Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella. They were sentenced to +cruel banishment. The two Princes were finally summoned from the +scullery, and universal gladness crowned the termination of this high +act of justice. + +Celio warned Truffaldino that it was his most solemn duty to keep +Martellian verses, those inventions of the devil, out of all dishes +served up at the royal table. His function was to make his sovereigns +laugh. + +The play wound up with that marriage festival which all children know by +heart--the banquet of preserved radishes, skinned mice, stewed cats, and +so forth. And inasmuch as the journalists were wont in those days to +blow their trumpets of applause over every new work which appeared from +Signor Goldoni's pen, we concluded with an epilogue, in which the +spectators were besought to use all their influence with these +journalists, in order that a crumb of eulogy might be bestowed upon our +rigmarole of mystical absurdities. + +It was not my fault that a courteous public called for the repetition of +this fantastic parody on many successive evenings. The theatre was +crowded, and Sacchi's company began to breathe again after their long +discouragement. + + +VI. + +Such is Gozzi's own account of his first acted fable. + +The public had been invited to sit as umpires in the controversy between +him and their two favourite playwrights. They had been requested to +suspend their judgment before finally pronouncing sentence against the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. The result of the experiment was a decided +triumph for the author of the _Three Oranges_, for Sacchi's company, and +for the Granelleschi. But, what was more important, Gozzi, at the +commencement of his forty-first year, now discovered himself to be +possessed of dramatic ability in no common degree, and of a peculiar +kind. The success of the _Three Oranges_ suggested the notion that use +might be made of fairy tales, not only for maintaining the impromptu +style of Italian Comedy, and amusing the public with piquant novelties, +but also for conveying moral lessons under the form of allegory, and +mingling tragic pathos with the humours of the masks. Accordingly Gozzi +composed a succession of similar pieces, gradually suppressing the +burlesque elements, enlarging the sphere of didactic satire, pathos, and +dramatic action, relying less upon the mechanical attractions of +transformation scenes and _lazzi_, writing the principal parts in full, +and versifying a considerable portion of the dialogue. + +_Il Corvo_ was produced at Milan in the summer of 1761, and at Venice in +October 1761. _Il R Cervo_ appeared in January 1762; _Turandot_ perhaps +in the same month; _La Donna Serpente_ in October 1762; _Zobeide_ in +November 1763; _I Pitocchi Fortunati_ in November 1764; _Il Mostro +Turchino_ in December of the same year; _L'Augellino Belverde_ in +January 1765; _Zeim, R de'Geni_ in November 1765. These, with _L'Amore +delle Tre Melarancie_, form the ten _Fiabe._ After the production of +_Zeim_, Gozzi judged that the vein had been worked out, and turned his +attention to adaptations of Spanish dramas for the stage. + +The occasional origin of the _Fiabe_, on which I have already insisted, +accounts for their want of plastic unity, their jumble of oddly +contrasted ingredients. They were not the spontaneous outgrowth of +artistic genius seeking to fuse the real and the fantastic in an ideal +world of the imagination; but monsters begotten by an accident, which +the creative originality of a highly-gifted intellect turned to +excellent account. Gozzi's predilection for burlesque, his satirical +propensity and fondness for moralising on the foibles of his age, found +easy vent in the peculiar form he had discovered by a lucky chance. But +these motives were not subordinated to the higher coherence of +imaginative poetry. His fancy, command of dramatic situations, +intuition into character, rhetorical eloquence, and inexhaustible +inventiveness expatiated in the region of caprice and wonder. Yet we do +not feel that he has succeeded in harmonising these divers elements with +the spiritual instinct of an Aristophanes or a Shakespeare. Probably he +did not seek to do so. The numerous reflections on the _Fiabe_, which +are scattered up and down his works, prove that art for art's sake was +far from being the leading consideration in their production. They +remained with him pastimes, which had partly a practical, partly a +didactic purpose--convenient vehicles for indulging his literary bias +and airing his ethical opinions--serviceable ammunition in the battle +against men whom he regarded as impostors and pretenders--excellent +means of putting money into the purses of his protegs, the actors, and +of keeping himself in favour with his friends, the actresses. To the +last they retained something of the _punctilio_, which, as he says, +inspired him at the outset. + + +VII. + +In all his _Fiabe Gozzi_ employed the four Masks and the Servetta, +Smeraldina.[81] He not unfrequently wrote the whole part of a mask, so +that nothing remained for impromptu acting but "gag" and _lazzi_. +Truffaldino's rle, however, was invariably left to improvisation; +perhaps in compliment to Sacchi's talents and his prominent position. +The other masks were dealt with as Gozzi thought best. When the dialogue +acquired dramatic or satirical importance, he wrote it out for them. On +ordinary occasions he intrusted the whole or a considerable portion of +each scene to their extempore ability, only indicating the movement of +the plot in a _scenario_. The parts of the masks were treated in dialect +and prose. The serious actors, who had to sustain the scheme of the +fable, as lovers, magicians, queens, fairies, good and evil spirits, +spoke in Tuscan blank verse, occasionally heightened by the use of +Martellian rhymed couplets at thrilling moments of the action. Thus it +will be seen that the text of Gozzi's plays offers every condition of +dramatic utterance, from mere stage-directions, through carefully +dictated prose, up to rhetorical soliloquies and dialogues in verse of +several descriptions. His dexterity as a playwright is shown in the tact +with which he employed these various resources. + +The handling of the five fixed characters is masterly throughout. +Whether Gozzi writes their lines or only indicates a theme for their +impromptu declamation, he shows himself in perfect sympathy with an +intelligent and practised group of actors. The humour of the man comes +out to best advantage in this department. His language is most +idiomatic and spontaneous here. Here too we find his raciest characters. +Powerfully conceived and boldly projected, each comic personage breathes +and moves with vivid realism. Study of the Masks, as Gozzi treated them, +makes us feel what a wonderful thing of plastic beauty the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ must have been. Here, in a work of carefully considered +literary art, we have its long tradition and its manifold capacities +preserved for us. Reading a _Fiaba_ is like opening a bottle of rare old +wine. The bouquet of the fragrant vintage exhales into the chamber, and +we taste the bloom of bygone summers. But the very conditions under +which Gozzi exhibited this side of his dramatic mastery render +translation impossible. In a translation the colours of the dialects are +lost. The gradations of style, passing from a laconically worded +_scenario_ through half-dialogue into elaborated scenes, are bound to +disappear. Tuned to a foreign language, our inward eye and ear fail to +reconstruct the _lazzi_, which rendered this part of the drama humorous. +That is why Schiller's _Turandot_ is inferior to Gozzi's; and yet, when +Schiller selected this piece for the German stage, he showed a right +artistic instinct. It is the one in which the fable predominates, and +can best be separated from the humours of the Masks. + +I dare not enlarge here upon the variety of shades and complexions given +to the five fixed types of character, according as the plot demanded +more or less of serious action from the several personages. This inquiry +would be interesting, since it reveals their singular elasticity beneath +a master's touch. It must, however, be left to amateurs of curiosities +in art. The development of the subject in detail implies previous +acquaintance with the ten _Fiabe_, and would involve a lengthy +dissertation. Some general points may, nevertheless, be indicated. + +Pantalone retains marked psychological outlines under all his +transformations. He is the good-humoured, honourable, simple-hearted +Venetian of the middle class, advanced in years, Polonius-like, with +stores of worldly wisdom, strong natural affections, and healthy moral +impulses. Gozzi has drawn the character in a favourable light, purging +away those baser associations which gathered round it during two +centuries of the _Commedia dell' Arte_. His Pantalone recalls the +Cortesani, described in a chapter of the Memoirs; but a touch of +senility has been added, which lends comic weakness to the type. + +Tartaglia stammers, and preserves something of the knave in his +composition, burnished with Neapolitan abandonment to appetite and +brazen disregard for moral rectitude. This general conception of the +character explains the transformation of Tartaglia, in the _Three +Oranges_, into the Tartaglia of the _Augellino Belverde_. + +Brighella is an intriguing, self-interested individuality, trying to +turn the world round his fingers, and not succeeding, or succeeding only +by some lucky accident. He frequently assumes the form of a simpleton +befooled by his short-sighted cunning. + +Truffaldino blossoms before us as an ubiquitous and chameleon-like +creature of caprice and humour; the liberal, carnal, careless +boon-companion; the genial rogue and witty fool; bred in the kitchen; +uttering words of wisdom from his belly rather than his brains; pliable, +fit for all occasions; a prodigious coward; trusty in his own degree; +taking the mould of fate and circumstance, adapting himself to external +conditions; understanding nothing of the higher sentiments and awful +destinies which rule the drama; but turning up at its conclusion with a +rogue's own luck in the place he started from, and on which his heart is +set, the larder. He runs like an inexpressibly comic thread of staring +scarlet through the warp and woof of Gozzi's many-coloured loom. The +most serious use made of him is when, in the _Augellino Belverde_, for +purposes of pungent parody, Gozzi invests him with the vizard of a +Machiavellian egotist. At the close of that supremely caustic scene, +Truffaldino drops his disguise, and willingly assumes the rle of a +domestic buffoon. Our author's trenchant irony, that "smile on the lips +with venom in the heart," of which Goldoni wrote so lucidly, that touch +of bitterness which renders him akin to Swift, was displayed by a stroke +of genius here. Truffaldino, the whelp whose antics dispelled +melancholy, becomes for once in Gozzi's hands a stick wherewith to beat +the dog of modern science. + +Smeraldina, under her numerous manifestations, maintains the lineaments +of vulgar womanhood. Sometimes a good mother or nurse, sometimes a +shifty waiting-woman, sometimes a blustering amazon, sometimes a bad +wife or would-be virgin, she never soars into the regions of ideality, +and mates eventually with Truffaldino, if she escapes from being burned +for blundering atrocities upon the road to commonplace felicity. + +With these fixed characters, which form the most delightful ingredients +of the _Fiabe_, Gozzi interweaves a fairy-tale, abounding in magic, +flights of capricious fancy, marvels, transformations, perilous +adventures. There is always a conflict of beneficent and malignant +supernatural powers, ending in the triumph of good over evil, the reward +of innocence, and the punishment of crime. There is a fate to which the +heroes and heroines are subject, and which can only be overcome by +protracted trials, by patience through dark years, by sustained +endurance, terrible struggles, and faith in supernatural protectors. +Thus the texture of the _Fiabe_ is similar to that of our pantomimes, +except that in the former the fairy-tale and the harlequinade are +interwoven instead of being disconnected. + +The fairy-tale is always treated in a serious spirit. The didactic +allegory, on which the author set such store, and which he regarded as +the main purpose of his art, finds expression here. The fairy-tale is +romantic, pathetic, heroic, sometimes acutely tragic. Gozzi interests +himself in the creatures of fantastic fiction, and forces them to utter +tones which vibrate in our entrails. Some scenes, written under the high +pressure of dramatic oestrum, stir tears by their poignancy, by the +accents of grief and anguish on the lips of _fantoccini._ It is a +singular species of art, soaring by spasms and short gasps to dramatic +sublimity, casting flashes of electric light on human nature in the garb +of puppets, then passing away by abrupt transitions into mechanical +improbabilities and burlesque absurdities--an art for marionettes rather +than living actors, yet withal so vivid that able representation on the +stage might translate it to our senses as an allegory of the masquerade +world in which man lives:-- + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made of, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." + +The Masks take part in the action, generally as subordinate personages, +sometimes as persons of the first rank, never as mere accessories to +move laughter, nor as a stationary chorus. In this way the comic element +is ingeniously connected with the tragic and didactic. This sounds like +a contradiction of what I have said above, about the want of plastic +unity in Gozzi's work. Yet the two apparently contradictory statements +are true together. Gozzi interweaves the wires of humour and romance +with remarkable skill. But he does not fuse them into one poetic +substance. He fails to create an ideal world in which both tragedy and +comedy are necessary to the spiritual order, as are the systole and +diastole of the heart to an organised being. Though interlaced, they +stand apart, each upon its own clearly defined basis. You pass from the +one sphere to the other, and have sudden shocks communicated to your +sensibility. There is a lack of atmosphere in the wonderfully brilliant +and exciting picture, an absence of spontaneous transition from this +mood to that, a suggestion that the playwright's sympathies have been +touched to diverse issues by divers portions of his task. Very probably, +the atmosphere, which I have indicated as wanting in the _Fiabe_, may +have been communicated by the interaction of the members of Sacchi's +troupe upon the stage at Venice. But this is only tantamount to +admitting that Gozzi understood the theatre. It does not prove that he +was a dramatic poet in the highest sense of that term. Had he been this, +we should have submitted to his magic wand while reading him. That is +precisely what we wish to do, and cannot always actually do. His _Fiabe_ +remain stupendous sketches in a style of audacious and suggestive +originality. They are not the inevitable products of creative genius, +fusing and informing--the children of imagination, "dead things with +inbreathed sense able to pierce." + +Had Gozzi been a great spontaneous poet, or a consummate artist, this +invention of the dramatised _Fiaba_ might have become one of the rarest +triumphs of artistic fancy. It is difficult to state precisely what his +work misses for the achievement of complete success. Perhaps we shall +arrive at a conclusion best by inquiry into points of style and details +of execution. + + +VIII. + +By singular irony of accident, the author of the _Fiabe_, though he +dealt so much in the fantastic, the marvellous, and the pathetic, was +far more a humorist and satirist than a poet in the truer sense. Of +sublime imagery, lyrical sweetness or intensity, verbal melody and +felicity of phrase, there is next to nothing in his plays. The style, +except in the parts written for the Masks, is coarse and slovenly, the +versification hasty, the language diffuse, commonplace, and often +incorrect. Yet we everywhere discern a lively sense of poetical +situations and the power of rendering them dramatically. The resources +of Gozzi's inventive faculty seem inexhaustible; and our imagination is +excited by the energy with which he forces the creations of his +capricious fancy on our intelligence. The passionate volcanic talent of +the man almost compensates for his lack of the finer qualities of +genius. + +What he wants is not the power of poetical conception, but the power of +poetical projection; and the defects of his work seem due to the partly +contemptuous, partly didactic, mood in which he undertook them. It would +be difficult to surpass the pathos of Jennaro's devotion to his brother +in _Il Corvo_, or the dramatic intensity of Armilla's self-sacrifice at +the conclusion of that play. _Turandot_ is conceived throughout +poetically. The melancholy high-strung passion of Prince Calaf passes +through it like a thread of silver. In the _R Cervo_, Angela has equal +beauty. Her love of the man in the king, and her discernment of her real +husband under his transformation into the person of a decrepit beggar, +are humanly and allegorically touching. Cherestani, the Persian fairy, +who loves a mortal in spite of the doom attending her devotion, is +admirably presented at the opening of _La Donna Serpente_. The +subterranean labyrinth of lost women, degraded to monstrous shapes by +their tyrannical seducer, in _Zobeide_, merits comparison with one of +the _bolge_ in Dante's Hell. Its horror is almost appalling. The love of +Barbarina for her brother in _L'Augellino Belverde_, which melts the +stony hardness of the girl's heart, and changes her from a vain +worldling to a woman capable of facing any danger, is no less romantic +than Jennaro's love in _Il Corvo_. The picture of Pantalone and his +daughter Sarch, in _Zeim R de' Genj_, passing their quiet life aloof +from cities on the borders of an enchanted forest, touches our +imagination with something of the charm we find in _Cymbeline_. _Il +Mostro Turchino_ is romantically passionate and highly-wrought. It seems +to call for music, such music as Mozart invented for the _Zauberflte_. +Or, since Gozzi had little in common with the gracious spirit of Mozart, +we might wish that this wild fable had fallen into the hands of Verdi. +The composer of _Ada_ would have given it the wings of immortality. +Gulindi, by the way, in this last fable, is a terrible portrait of the +Messalina-Potiphar's-wife. + +In selecting these passages for emphatic praise, I wish to call +attention to the power and beauty of Gozzi's conception. Not as finished +literature, but as the raw material of dramatic presentation, are they +admirable. They need the life of action, the adjuncts of scenery, the +illusion of the stage. And for this reason it seems to me that, by means +of prudent adaptation, the _Fiabe_ might furnish excellent _libretti_ to +composers of opera. This is a hint to musicians of the school of +Wagner--to that rare dramatic genius, Boito! Could the Masks be revived, +and their burlesque parts be spoken on the stage, while orchestra and +song were reserved for the serious elements of the fable, I feel +convinced that a new and fascinating work of art might still be evolved +from such pieces as _La Donna Serpente_ and _Il Mostro Turchino_.[82] + +[Illustration: IL DOTTORE (1653) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +But this is a digression, which has for its object to indicate the +region in which Gozzi's chief merit as a playwright seems to me to lie. +The satire, which forms so prominent a feature in the _Fiabe_, impairs +their artistic harmony. So far as this is literary (in the _Tre +Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, and elsewhere), it has lost its interest at the +present day. So far as it is philosophical and didactic (as in +_L'Augellino Belverde_ and _Zeim_), it tends to break the unity of +effect by the author's over-earnestness. So far as it is purely ethical, +as in _Zobeide_, Gozzi loads his palette with colours too sinister and +sombre. Perhaps, the political touches of satire in _I Pitocchi +Fortunati_ are the lightest and most genially used. Gozzi, as we have +seen already, was a confirmed conservative. An optimist as regarded the +institutions, religion, and social manners of the past, he was a bitter +pessimist in all that concerned the changes going on around him. The new +literature, the new philosophy, the new luxury, the new libertinism, +which seemed to be flooding Italy from France, were the objects of his +hatred and abhorrence. Calmon, in the _Augellino Belverde_, expresses +Gozzi's personal convictions and beliefs in their fullest extent. +But the following speech may be extracted from _Zeim R de Genj_ as +a fair summary of his social stoicism.[83] A Princess of Balsora, who +has been brought up by one of the capricious tricks of fortune as a +slave is speaking: + + "Who am I? That I know not. An old man, + With snows upon his beard, in snow-white robes + Attired, of serious and austere aspect, + Reared me beneath a humble cottage roof. + He told me that one day upon the bank + Of foaming Tigris, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, + He found me; peradventure by my kin + Abandoned, the cast fruit of shame and scorn. + This good man taught me I was born to serve, + To suffer, to endure; and that I ought + To bow beneath the will of supreme Heaven. + 'Providence, holy, in her ways unknown,' + He said, 'rules all things: in the scale ordained + Of human beings great folk have their seat; + And so, by steps descending through all ranks, + Down to the lowest folk, men live and work + Subordinate. Ah! do not be seduced, + (He often warned me) by sophistic sages, + Who bent on malice paint of liberty + False lures for mortals, your own place to quit, + The order due designed by Heaven for man! + These sophists breed confusion, anarchy, + Duty neglected at the cost of peace; + They stir up murders, thefts, impieties, + And glut with blood the shambles of the state. + Daughter, respect the great, love them, endure + What in they lot seems bitter, woo content, + And stifle that snake envy in thy breast! + In the just eyes of Heaven a great man's acts, + Rightly performed, have no superior merit + To those of servants rightly done; the road + Toward immortality lies open unto kings + And children of the people; 'tis all one. + Only the soul that suffers and is strong, + Finds happiness.' So spake the firm old man; + And firmly, in his strength of soul unshaken, + He sold me slave; so I account me blessed, + As you shall trust me for a faithful slave." + + +IX. + +Gozzi drew the subjects of his _Fiabe_ from divers sources. The chief of +these was a book of Neapolitan fairy-tales called _Il Pentamerone del +Cavalier Giovan Battista Basile, ovvero lo Cunto de li Cunti_. This +collection enjoyed great vogue in Italy during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, and is still worthy of attentive study by lovers +of comparative folklore. Some of the motives of the _Fiabe_ have been +traced to the _Posilipeata di Massillo Repone_, the _Biblioteca dei +Genj_, the _Gabinetto delle Fate_, the _Arabian Nights_, and those +Persian and Chinese stories which were fashionable a hundred and fifty +years ago. It was Gozzi's habit to interweave several tales in one +action; and this renders researches into the texture of his dramatic +fables difficult. But the inquiry is not one of great importance, and +may well be dismissed until the star of Gozzi shall reascend the +heavens, if time's whirligig should ever bring about this revenge. + +_L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ is both the simplest in construction and +also the most artistically perfect of the ten _Fiabe._ In it alone the +fairy-tale and the Masks are brought into complete harmony. No serious +note breaks the burlesque style of the piece, while a sustained parody +of Chiari's and Goldoni's mannerisms lends it the interest of satire. As +he advanced, Gozzi gradually changed the form of his original invention. +That fusion of fairy-tale and impromptu comedy in subordination to +literary satire, which distinguishes the _Tre Melarancie_, was never +repeated in his subsequent performances. The fable, with its romance, +pathos, passion, adventure, magic marvels, and fantastic +transformations, began to detach itself against the comedy. Both formed +essential factors in Gozzi's later work; but the links between them +became more and more mechanical. Satire, in like manner, did not +disappear; but this was either used occasionally and by accident, or +else it absorbed the whole allegory. The three ingredients, which had +been so genially combined in the first piece, were now disengaged and +treated separately. The sunny light of sportive humour, which bathed +that wonder-world of fabulous absurdity, darkened as the clouds of +didactic purpose gathered. The fairy-tale acquired an inappropriate +gravity. Becoming aware of his dramatic talent, Gozzi assumed the tone +of tragedy. He treated the loves and hatreds, the trials and triumphs, +the vices and virtues, the heroism and the baseness, of his puppets +seriously. Nevertheless, he preserved the preposterous accidents of the +fable. On those enchantments, whimsical oracles of fate, metamorphoses, +talking statues, monsters, good and wicked genii, he was of course +unable to bestow the same reality as on his human characters. Yet, +having carried the latter out of the sphere of burlesque, he had to +maintain a tone of realism with the former. But he could not wield the +Prospero's wand of imaginative insight which brings the supernatural and +the incredible within the range of actualities. Thus the marvellous +elements of the fable remained stiff and artificial beside the natural +pathos and passion of humanity. + +Having recapitulated the chief features of the _Fiabe_ in their later +form, I will now analyse _L'Augellino Belverde._ + + +X. + +Many years have elapsed since Tartaglia married Ninetta. His father is +dead, and he has fallen under the malignant influence of the +Queen-Mother, Tartagliona. She persuades him that Ninetta has given +birth to a pair of puppies, male and female, whereas the twins are +really a fine boy and girl, called Renzo and Barbarina. Ninetta is +condemned to be buried alive; and Pantalone, Tartaglia's minister, +receives commission to drown the supposed puppies. Instead of executing +these orders, Pantalone sews the children up in oil-cloth, and sets them +floating down a river. They are found and rescued by Smeraldina, a woman +of good heart, who is married to the dissolute and worthless +Truffaldino, a pork-butcher. When the play opens, eighteen years are +supposed to have elapsed since the burial of Ninetta. All this while she +has been kept alive by the Beautiful Green Bird, who is the King of +Terradombra, condemned to take this form by magic arts. The Green Bird +also has become the lover of Barbarina. Meanwhile Tartagliona is being +courted by Brighella, who now appears in the character of a burlesque +poet and seer. His pindaric prophecies and exaggerated flights of +passion, alternating with the lowest language of the proletariate, +afford excellent opportunities for caricature. + +Renzo and Barbarina, growing up in the house of the pork-butcher, have +improved their minds by assiduous reading of French philosophical +treatises sold for waste paper. This education has persuaded them that +all human actions and affections proceed from self-love, and that it is +the duty of rational beings to preserve a cold impartiality, indifferent +to emotions, regardless of comfort and vain pleasures, governed only by +the dictates of the reason. Accident reveals to them that Smeraldina is +not their mother, and that they are nameless foundlings. They determine +to go forth alone, and seek their fortunes in the world. The scene in +which they take leave of their kindly warm-hearted foster-mother is +excellent. Gozzi has painted a pair of consummate prigs, whose natural +instincts have been perverted by a false theory of life, and who have +learned to call that reason which is really inhumanity. They tell +Smeraldina that her unselfish charity to the foundling infants was a +form of self-love, and that her continued attention to them for the last +eighteen years had no higher motive. + +Having quitted Smeraldina, with the loftiest airs of condescension, they +set forth upon their travels. Getting lost in the wilderness, it begins +to dawn upon them that self-love is one of the cardinal facts of human +nature, to which even the most philosophical characters, when threatened +with death by cold and famine, are subject. In the midst of these +reflections, they are terrified with an earthquake and sudden darkness. +A statue appears walking toward them, who informs them that he too was +once a miserable philosopher, who petrified his own humanity and that of +others by perverse principles analogous to those which have infected +them. Consequently, he was doomed to be a statue, lying lifeless and +inert among the rubbish of neglected things, until one of Renzo's and +Barbarina's ancestors rescued him from filth and set him up in a garden +of the city. This benefit he now means to repay by watching over the +twins. First of all, he ardently desires to save them from the +petrifaction which awaits all souls made frigid by a false philosophy. +Next, he tells them that, though he knows the secret of their parentage, +he may not reveal it. They have a dreadful doom impending over them; and +their eventual happiness can only be secured by the assistance of the +Green Bird. His own name in the world was Calmon; and he has now become +the King of Images:[84]-- + + "Molti viventi + Sono forse pi statue, ch'io non sono. + Tu proverai qual forza abbia una statua, + E come simulacro un uom diventi." + +Then Calmon gives the twins a stone. They are to return to the city, and +Barbarina is to throw the stone down before the royal palace. They will +immediately become rich. In any great disaster, let them call on Calmon. + +In this way Gozzi allegorises his own prejudice against the cold and +shallow theories of society, which were infiltrating Italy from France. + +The second act reveals Tartaglia. He is the victim of remorse, haunted +by the memory of Ninetta, whom he buried alive in a hole beneath the +scullery-sink. There is the floor on which she used to walk. There is +the kitchen where she fluttered in the form of a dove. "O spirit of +Ninetta, where art thou?" Tartaglia preserves the burlesque note of his +Mask. Only one friend remains to him, his old henchman Truffaldino; but +Truffaldino has become a pork-butcher, and forgotten him. Truffaldino at +this juncture appears. He too gives himself philosophical airs, without +concealing his gross appetites and greedy love of self. Tartaglia kicks +him out of doors, and then passes to a scene of vituperation against his +wicked mother, Tartagliona, the Queen of Tarocchi,[85] who has been the +cause of all his misery. Tartagliona shows the worst side of her coarse +malignant nature in the ensuing altercation, and departs vowing +vengeance. + +Her only consolation is that she is beloved by Brighella, the most +famous poet of the age:[86]-- + + "Non mancano + In me vezzi, e lusinghe, ond' al mio fianco + Fedel sia sempre. Ah, non vorrei, che alfine + Le mie finezze a lui, negli altri amanti + Destasser gelosia." + +A new scene introduces Renzo and Barbarina. They have returned to the +city, and are standing in front of the palace. Renzo begs his sister to +throw the magic stone. Barbarina reminds him that if they become rich, +all will be over with their philosophy. At last he persuades her to +throw it, and she does so, bidding herself be mindful that a wretched +pebble is the source of her future magnificence. In a moment a gorgeous +palace rises, fronting the royal dwelling. Renzo's and Barbarina's rags +are exchanged for splendid raiment. Moorish servants issue from the +great gates with torches, and welcome their princely masters. + +No sooner have the twins taken up their abode in this magic palace, than +they begin to act like _parvenus_ and _nouveaux riches._ Every folly, +vanity, and false desire enters their heads. Their philosophy is +forgotten. Brighella, in his character of seer, divines, meanwhile, that +their presence threatens danger to the person of Tartagliona. He +therefore endeavours to persuade the Queen to make her will in his +favour. She very sensibly refuses, and bids him do all in his power to +prolong the life of one whom he adores. He is obliged to meet her +wishes, and divulges a plan whereby the twins shall be destroyed. The +fairy Serpentina, he reminds her, owns apples which sing, and golden +water which plays and dances. The adventure of stealing these magical +objects involves the greatest peril. Certainly Barbarina will be ruined +if she longs to have them. Accordingly, when she appears at the window +of her palace, Tartagliona from the opposite balcony is to repeat these +rhymes:[87]-- + + "Voi siete bella assai; ma pi bella sareste, + S'un de'pomi, che cantano, in una mano areste. + + * * * * * + + Figlia voi siete bella; ma pi bella sareste, + S'acqua, che suona e balla, nell'altra mano areste." + +The scene now changes to the interior of the palace of the twins. +Barbarina is contemplating her charms in the looking-glass, when +Smeraldina suddenly enters, full of affection. She has heard of the good +fortune of her foundlings, and forgetting their recent ill-treatment of +her, has come to congratulate them. Barbarina exclaims against her +rudeness, calls the servants, throws a purse of gold at her +foster-mother, and bids her depart. Smeraldina, who cannot stifle her +affection for the ungrateful girl, changes tone, and humbly asks to be +allowed to stay and serve her. Barbarina, much to her own surprise, +feels touched by this display of feeling, and magnanimously allows the +good woman to remain as a menial. Smeraldina's soliloquy at the end of +the scene reveals her sound sense no less than her warm heart:[88] + + "Questa quella filosofa, che andava + Ieri per legna al bosco, ed oggi! ... basta ... + Seco volea restar, perch l'adoro, + E seco resto alfin; del tacer poi + Ci proveremo; ma non sar nulla. + Non la conosco pi. Quanta superbia! + Che diavol l'ha arrichita in questa forma? + Io non vorrei, che questa frasconcella ... + Forse qualche milord ... ma sapr tutto." + + {_Entra._ + +Next we have Renzo. He has fallen desperately in love with a beautiful +statue which he found in the garden of the palace. Truffaldino enters, +frankly confesses that he has come to live at ease with his quondam +foster-child, professes himself a true sage, and expounds the cynical +philosophy of interested motives. Renzo cannot resist laughing at the +knave's candour, but is not yet disposed to bear his insolence. +Truffaldino sees that he must alter his tone. So he begins to whine and +flatter. Renzo is softened, and consents to keep him as a buffoon. His +cynicism and his hyperbolical adulation will serve to make the hours +pass pleasantly. + +Tartaglia and Pantalone appear upon the royal balcony. Barbarina enters +on the other side, and Tartaglia falls head over ears in love with her +at first sight. The scene is carried out with much burlesque humour, +until Tartagliona and Brighella join the group below. Tartagliona utters +the magic verses, and Barbarina becomes madly bent upon the apples which +sing and the water which plays and dances. Renzo, touched by his +sister's despair, agrees to attempt the adventure; but before he goes, +he gives her a dagger. So long as this is bright, he will be alive. If +it drops blood, that is a sign that her brother has died in the attempt. + +A scene between Ninetta in her living tomb and the Green Bird who brings +her food, is here interpolated, in order to prepare the audience for +what ensues. + +Renzo and Truffaldino arrive at Serpentina's garden, and fail in their +adventure. Then Renzo calls on Calmon, who appears, and summons a band +of statues--the female figure on the fountain at Treviso and the Moors +of the Campo de'Mori at Venice[89]--to his aid. By their assistance a +singing apple is procured, and some of the dancing water is bottled in +a phial. But Calmon and his band of statues remind Renzo that he is in +duty bound to be grateful. Calmon lacks his nose; the fountain of +Treviso's breasts are injured; the Moors have, each of them, some broken +limb. Renzo must undertake to restore them properly, and all will go +well with him. + +Renzo promises; but he very soon forgets the shattered statues. Lost in +admiration before the image of beautiful Pompea, he spends his days in +wooing her. At length Pompea finds her voice, and confides to him her +previous experience. She was the daughter of a great Italian prince, the +prince of a corrupt but mighty city; and she has now become an idol +through her self-idolatry. + +At this juncture enters Truffaldino with exciting news. Tartaglia has +made a declaration of his love through Pantalone to Barbarina. She +wavers between the splendid prospects of a royal match and the affection +which she feels for the Green Bird, her lover and consoler in their days +of poverty. Meanwhile Tartagliona breaks negotiations off by declaring +that Barbarina must bring the Green Bird as dower; else she can never be +Tartaglia's bride. At this announcement Barbarina falls into hysterics, +kicking Pantalone downstairs, and screaming out that nothing but the +Green Bird will satisfy her. Truffaldino, partly out of compassion for +Barbarina's state, partly from a sense of modesty, leaves her presence. +He arrives to rouse his master to a sense of the situation. This is no +time to make platonic love to statues, &c. + +Renzo replies that he is quite ready to attempt the adventure of the +Green Bird. He knows from Calmon that the bird alone is capable of +solving the problem of his own parentage, and also of evoking Pompea +from her marble immobility. Consequently he has a strong personal +interest in the capture of the bird; and his sister's troubles are an +additional reason why he should no longer delay. With Truffaldino for +his squire, he will ride forth into the forest of the Goblin, who holds +the bird in meshes of diabolical enchantments. Let Smeraldina remind his +sister that the dagger which he gave her will assure her of his good or +evil fortune in the perilous essay. + +While Renzo is on his journey, Barbarina keeps continually gazing on the +dagger. It does not cease to shine. But Smeraldina and the speaking +statue of Pompea work upon her feelings by suggesting the perils her +brother is undergoing, to which her own vanity has exposed him. Moved at +last by simple human sympathy, she finds the situation intolerable, and +resolves to follow Renzo to the place of danger. It is this return to +nature which saves her, and brings about a happy catastrophe. Barbarina +renounces her wish to wed Tartaglia, and thinks only of arresting Renzo +in his dangerous course. She sets off with Smeraldina; and the magic +palace is left desolate, in mourning, all its splendour gone. + +Renzo and Truffaldino have now reached the Goblin's hill, where the +Green Bird is seen upon a perch, chained by the leg. Trying to capture +him, Renzo turns into a statue; and there is a whole gathering of +similar statues in the place--men who essayed the same adventure, and +failed. + +Barbarina and _Smeraldina_ arrive at the scene of action. The dagger +drops blood. Barbarina's mask of false philosophy and selfish vanity +drops off. She becomes a simple woman, filled with repentance and +anguish for her brother who is dead. She flings herself upon the bosom +of poor Smeraldina, whom she had so villainously treated. At this +juncture, when all seems lost, Calmon appears, and reads her a sound +moral lecture. Then he points to a scroll before her feet, and instructs +her what she has to do. She must walk up to within a hair's-breadth--no +more and no less--of the bird, and take good heed that he does not utter +a sound before she has read aloud the words inscribed upon the scroll. +If she succeeds in this feat, all may yet come right. There is a +breathless moment, during which Barbarina executes what Calmon told her. +The bird is captured, and begins to talk. Let her take a feather from +his tail. That will restore the statues to life. + +The drama is quickly wound up. By means of the bird's tail-feather, +Renzo and Pompea are made happy lovers. Ninetta returns from her hole. +Tartagliona is changed into a tortoise, and Brighella into a donkey. The +Green Bird resumes his form as King of Terradombra and plights his faith +to Barbarina. Tartaglia recognises his lost son and daughter, and is +fain to be contented with the resuscitated wife whom he had so wantonly +condemned to a lingering death. + + * * * * * + +This analysis, if any one takes the trouble to read it, will suffice to +show the sprightliness of Gozzi's invention, and also the essential +weakness of his artistic method. The magic and the transformations at +the close are mechanical. The fate of the Green Bird is connected by no +proper motive with the fate of Tartaglia and the twins. Calmon and the +statues, allegorically useful, are in like manner independent of the +main dramatic action. Ninetta's doom is atrocious. Tartaglia is only +saved from being disgusting by his burlesque absurdity. + + +XI. + +In the spring of 1762, having exhibited _Le Tre Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, +_Il R Cervo_, and _Turandot_, Gozzi proved that he had won the game +against Chiari and Goldoni. Sacchi's company removed from the theatre at +S. Samuele to a more commodious house at S. Angelo. Chiari retired to +his native city, Brescia, and left off writing for the stage. Goldoni +departed for Paris. None of Goldoni's biographers deny that he took this +step in consequence of Gozzi's triumph. In his own Memoirs he omitted +all references to the literary quarrels of the years 1756-62; and he +gives excellent reasons, quite independent of Gozzi, for his setting off +to seek fortune in the French capital. Certainly, the last piece he +presented to the Venetian public, _Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale_, +was received with enthusiasm. "It closed the theatrical year of 1761," +he says;[90] "and the evening of Shrove Tuesday brought me an ovation. +The theatre rang with thunders of applause, among which could be +distinguished these farewells: _A happy journey! Come back to us! Be +sure you do not fail to do so!_ I confess that I was touched to tears." +Yet the simultaneous retirement of both Chiari and Goldoni at this +critical moment justifies our believing that the latter judged it +expedient to leave Venice after the revolution effected by Gozzi. He did +so without ill-will on either side. Count Gasparo Gozzi, Carlo's +brother, and a distinguished member of the Granelleschi, undertook the +charge of seeing a new edition of Goldoni's plays through the press in +his absence. + +For some years after this event, Carlo Gozzi and Sacchi's company had +the theatres of Venice pretty much at their own disposal. But the +success of the _Fiabe_ was ephemeral. Before their author's death, he +saw his own dramatic novelties cast into the shade and Goldoni's +realistic comedies restored to favour. A poet of such eminence as +Goethe, surveying all things Italian with curiosity in 1786, paid a +well-considered tribute to Gozzi's sympathy with the Venetian public, +praised the energy and nature of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, but reserved +his highest panegyric for a representation of Goldoni's _Baruffe +Chiozzote_ at the theatre of S. Luca.[91] "At last I am able to say that +I have seen a comedy," are the emphatic words with which Goethe opens a +detailed description of this piece. + +In the course of the last hundred years, Goldoni has secured a signal +and irreversible victory over his rival. One of the best theatres at +Venice is called by his name. His house is pointed out by gondoliers to +tourists. His statue stands almost within sight of the Rialto on the +Campo S. Bartolommeo, where people most do congregate. His comedies are +repeatedly given by companies of celebrated actors. Gozzi's _Fiabe_ have +been relegated to the marionette stages, where some of their _scenari_ +in a mutilated form may still be seen. There exist no memorials to his +fame in Venice. Not even a tablet with the words _Qui nacque Carlo +Gozzi_ is to be found upon the ancient palace at S. Cassiano. The +sacristan of the church, where his dust is gathered to his fathers, +cannot point to the Gozzi vault. + +The vicissitudes of Gozzi's reputation turn upon the different views +which have been taken of his merits in relation to Goldoni. In Italy the +balance of opinion tends to sink against him. Baretti, that fiery member +of Sam Johnson's club, the fierce opponent of Goldoni, pronounced at +first in Gozzi's favour, lamented that he could not bring Garrick to one +of his plays, proposed to translate the _Fiabe_ into English, and swore +that Gozzi stood next to Shakespeare in dramatic genius. But when +Baretti read the _Fiabe_ in print, he declaimed against the buffooneries +of the Masks, and dropped his enthusiasm. Tommasei found no words too +strong to express his contempt for a writer whose genius he denied, and +whose character inspired him with repugnance. Tommasei was a champion of +Goldoni. Omitting further details, it is enough to say that Italy has +elected to ignore Gozzi and to deify Goldoni. The causes are not far to +seek. Gozzi's vogue depended partly upon controversy and satire. It was +confined to the locality of Venice. His plays required the co-operation +of the Masks; and these expired in his own lifetime. Moreover, they +appealed to a rare combination of sensibilities, romantic and humorous, +which is not common in Italy. Lastly, for their proper mounting on the +stage, they demanded an expenditure of ingenuity and money, which their +fading popularity prohibited. Goldoni, on the other hand, suited the +temper of the growing age by his simplicity, his truth to nature, his +realism, and the freshness of eternal youth which lends charm to the +facile productions of his amiable genius. His comedies can be put upon +the stage without the least difficulty; and they afford scope for the +display of varied talents in actors of several descriptions. + +In Germany Gozzi enjoyed wide posthumous reputation, not as a playwright +with the public, but as a poet among men of letters. He was early +chosen, during the _Sturm und Drang_ period, to perform the part of +champion of Romantic against Classical forms of art. How mistaken this +view of Gozzi really is, I have attempted to prove. Yet if critics +ignore what Gozzi wrote about the origin of his _Fiabe_, and keep out of +sight his intentions while composing them--if they only regard the +printed plays--it is not difficult to make him assume this false +position. Franz A. C. Werthes translated the _Fiabe_ into German so +early as 1777-79, and published them at Bern. No less than twelve +separate versions of selected plays have since appeared, up to the date +1877.[92] Among these may be mentioned Schiller's _Turandot_, which was +executed from the translation of Werthes, and a reproduction of _I +Pitocchi Fortunati_ by Paul Heyse. Schlegel introduced the _Fiabe_ to +public notice, emphasising their value as specimens of the Romantic +style, and connecting them with the indigenous art of Italy. Hoffmann +declared his enthusiasm for Gozzi; and if he did not borrow motives from +the _Fiabe_ and the _Memoirs_ for his own fantastic productions, he +undoubtedly regarded their author as a genius of the same species as +himself. Wagner, I may parenthetically observe, based one of his +earliest operatic productions on _La Donna Serpente_. It was composed in +1833, and was first exhibited at Munich in 1888. To follow the several +steps by which Gozzi came to be regarded in Germany as a Romanticist, +snuffed out by the Revolution, would lead me beyond the limits of this +introduction. I suspect that he was known there mainly in the +translation of Werthes, and that his works were quarried as a mine of +motives by writers of romantic tendencies, who lacked invention. There +is a pocket edition of the _Fiabe_ in Italian, 3 vols., published by +Hitzig, 1808. + +The German conception of Gozzi as a Romantic poet of the purest water +spread to France. It took the French imagination just when the Romantic +movement was at its height. Philarte Chasles treated his works from the +point of view of Spanish dramatic literature. Paul de Musset pounced +upon the Memoirs, condensed them into a small volume with considerable +literary ability, and so ingeniously manipulated their text in the +process as to create the illusion that Gozzi had pronounced himself to +be in fact what his German admirers found in him. This clever travesty +of Gozzi's autobiography presented him to the world as the victim of +sprites, the creature of his own inventions, the plaything of +superstition, instead of the caustic, practical, sometimes dissembling, +and often sinister, man of thwarted passion, violent caprice, hard head, +and conservative heart, who will presently be revealed in my version of +the Memoirs. I do not blame Paul de Musset for his literary escapade. I +understand his motive, and appreciate the joke. He wanted, at one and +the same time, to place Gozzi, as the Germans had already placed him, +among the fathers of Romanticism, and also to construct a telling novel +of adventure out of the copious materials furnished by the Memoirs. But, +by so doing, Paul de Musset misled writers who had no access to the sole +edition of Gozzi's _Memorie_, or who were perhaps too careless to seek +this document out. Among these I may mention M. Paul Royer, the +translator of five of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ into French,[93] and Vernon Lee, +the talented authoress of a deservedly popular book entitled _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_.[94] Both of these distinguished +writers have fallen into the trap laid for them by Paul de Musset, and +have accepted a false conception of the man who forms the subject of +these volumes. + +Gozzi, who plumed himself upon his Democritean philosophy of laughter, +his Stoic-Epicurean acceptance of every wayward stroke of fortune, would +have been the first to smile sardonically, yet not without a touch of +benignant humour, upon the mask he has been made to wear by Germans and +by Frenchmen. English critics, with the exception of Vernon Lee, have +had little or nothing to do with him up to this date.[95] Let the man +speak for himself in the account of his own life, which I now for the +first time present to the multitude of English readers. + +_August 8, 1888._ + + + + +CARLO GOZZI. + + + + +I. + +_My Pedigree and Birth._ + + +There are people foolish enough to make every family history the object +of their ridicule and satire. For the sake of wits of this sort I shall +give a short but truthful account of my ancestry, in order that they may +have something to quiz. + +Our stock springs in the fourteenth century from a certain Pezlo +de'Gozzi. This is proved by an authentic genealogy, which we possess; +the authority of which has never been disputed, and which has been +accepted as evidence in law-courts, although it is but a dusty document, +worm-eaten and be-cobwebbed, not framed in gold or hung against the +wall. Since I am no Spaniard, I never applied to any genealogist to +discover a more ancient origin for our race. There are historical works, +however, which derive us from the family de'Gozze, extant at the present +epoch in Ragusa, and original settlers of that venerable republic. The +chronicles of Bergamo relate that the aforesaid Pezlo de'Gozzi was a +man of weight and substance in the district of Alzano, and that he won +the gratitude of the most serene Republic of Venice for having +imperilled his property and person against the Milanese in order to +preserve that district for her invincible and clement rule. His +descendants held office as ambassadors and podests for the city of +Bergamo, which proves that they were members of its Council; while two +privileges of the sixteenth century show that two separate branches of +the family obtained admission to the citizenship of Venice.[96] They +erected houses for the living and provided tombs for their dead in the +quarter and the Church of San Cassiano, as may be seen at the present +day.[97] One of these branches was honoured with adoption into the +patrician families of Venice in the seventeenth century,[98] and +afterwards expired. The branch from which I am descended remained in the +class of Cittadini Originari, on which they certainly brought no +discredit whatsoever. + +None of my ancestors aspired to the honourable and lucrative posts which +are open to Venetian citizens.[99] They were for the most part men of +peaceful unambitious temper, contented with their lot in life, or +perhaps averse from the disturbances of competition. Had they entered +upon a political career, I am quite sure that they would have served +their Prince faithfully, without pride and without vain ostentation. + +About two centuries ago, my great-great-grandfather purchased some six +hundred acres of land,[100] together with buildings, in Friuli, at the +distance of five miles from Pordenone. A large portion of these estates +consists of meadow-land, and is held by feudal tenure. All the +heirs-male are bound to renew the investiture, which costs some ducats. +Upon this point the officials of the Camera de' Feudi at Udine are +extremely vigilant. If the fine is not paid immediately after the death +of the last feudatory, they confiscate the crops derived from the +meadows subject to this tenure. That happened to me after my father's +decease. A few months' negligence cost me a considerable sum in excess +of the customary fine. It is probably by right of some old parchment +that we own the title of Count, conceded to our family in public acts +and in the addresses of letters.[101] I should feel no resentment, if +this title were refused me; but it would anger me extremely, if my hay +were withheld. + +My father was Jacopo Antonio Gozzi; a man of fine and penetrative +intellect, of sensitive and delicate honour, of susceptible temper, +resolute, and sometimes even formidable. His father Gasparo died while +he was yet a child, leaving this only son to the guardianship of his +mother, the Contessa Emilia Grampo, a noble woman of Padua. The estate +was sufficient to sustain his dignity with credit; but he indulged +dreams of magnificence. Sole heir, and educated by a tender mother, who +humoured every fancy of her son, he early acquired the habit of +following his own inclinations. These led him into lordly +extravagances--stables full of horses; kennels of hounds; +hunting-parties; splendid banquets--nor did he reflect upon the +consequences of a marriage, which he made without deliberation in his +early manhood, to indulge a whim of the heart. My mother was Angela +Tiepolo, the daughter of one branch of that patrician house, which +expired in her brother Almor Cesare.[102] He died, a Senator of the +Republic, about the year 1749. + +I shall perhaps have wearied my readers with these facts about my +pedigree and birth. Satirists will not, however, find in them anything +to excite ambition in myself or to wing their pen with ridicule. Social +ranks have always been regarded by me as accidental, though necessary +for the proper subordination on which our institutions depend. As for my +birth, I think less of whence I came than of whither I am going. Conduct +unworthy of a decent origin might cause sorrow to my deceased parents, +whose memory I hold in honour, and might cover myself and all my +posterity with shame. + +My name is Carlo. I was the sixth child born by my mother into the +light, or shall I say the shadows of this world. I am writing on the +last day of April in the year 1780. I have passed fifty, and not yet +reached the age of sixty.[103] I shall not put the sacristan to trouble +in order to view the register of my baptism, being quite sure that I was +christened, and not having the stupid vanity to pass for a curled +dandy. That is obvious, and has been always obvious, from the fashion of +my clothes and the way I dress my hair. Besides, I set no value on the +age of men. Human beings die at all ages; and I have seen boys who are +adult, while grown-up men or grey-beards are often nothing better than +peevish and ridiculous children. + + + + +II. + + _My Education and Circumstances down to the Age of + Sixteen--Concerning the Art of Improvisation, and my Literary + Studies._ + + +Our family consisted of eleven children, male and female. I could record +nothing but what is creditable of my brothers and sisters, had I +proposed to write their memoirs. But this is not my thought; and they +are capable of writing their own, if the whim should take them; for the +epidemic of literature was always chronic in our household. + +A succession of priests with little learning were our domestic +pedagogues up to a certain age. I say a succession advisedly; each in +turn having earned his dismissal by impertinent behaviour and intrigues +with the serving-maids. + +From early childhood I was always a silent observer of men and things, +by no means insolent, of imperturbable serenity, and extremely +attentive to my lessons. My brothers used my taciturn and peaceable +temper to their own advantage. They accused me to our common tutor of +all the naughtinesses of which they had been guilty. I did not +condescend to excuse myself or to accuse them, but bore my unjust +punishments with stoicism. I venture to affirm that no boy was ever more +supremely indifferent than I was to the terrible penalty of being sent +away from table just as we were sitting down to dinner. Smiling +obedience was my only self-defence. Enemies may conclude from these +traits of character that I was a stupid lout, and friends that I was a +philosopher in embryo. Nothing is rarer than the eye of equal justice. +Yet any one who takes the trouble to inquire of my acquaintances and +servants, will learn that my taciturnity, my tolerance, my stoical +endurance, have not changed with years--that I continue to view the +events of this life with a smile, and that only those have nettled me +which touched my honour. + +[Illustration: SCARAMOUCH (1645) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The growing disorder in our family affairs did not at first deprive us +boys of a sound education. My two elder brothers, Gasparo and Francesco, +went to public schools,[104] and were in time to drink at all the +fountains of the regular curriculum. Extravagant expenditure, however, +combined with the needs of a numerous progeny, soon rendered anything +like an adequate course of studies impossible for the younger +children. I was intrusted for some years to a learned country-parson, +and then to a priest in Venice, of decent acquirements and excellent +morality. After this I entered the academy of two Genoese priests, who +supplied instruction to some youths of noble birth, and to some of no +nobility whatever. There were about twenty-five pupils in this academy. +We pursued the same studies, with some difference according to our +classes. Here I had the opportunity of observing that teachers are very +valuable guides to youths who love learning, and mere images of +ineffectual deities to such as hate it. For my part, being fond of books +and eager for information, I imbibed my fill of such instruction as a +boy can acquire before the age of fourteen. But sloth and vicious habits +extirpate the seeds of learning planted by preceptors in the minds of +ill-conditioned lads. Therefore I saw, and still see, more than +two-thirds of my fellow-pupils sunk in a slough of baseness. Grammar, +the classics, and rhetoric only taught them to get drunk in taverns, to +carry sacks for hire upon their shoulders, and to cry "_Baked apples, +plums, and chestnuts!_" about the streets, with a basket on their heads +and a pair of scales slung round their waists. Wretched fate to be a +father! + +When I became aware that our domestic difficulties would prove an +obstacle to my remaining long at school, I determined to utilise the +little I had already learned, and to carry on my education by myself. My +elder brother Gasparo's example, whose passion for study had won public +recognition, and my own good-will, kept me nailed to books of all sorts; +nor could I imagine any pleasure worth a thought, beyond reading, +meditating, and writing. + +Poetry, choice Italian, and correct style were then in vogue. The young +men of Venice met to discuss these three topics, which have now been +utterly forgotten--possibly for the greater advantage and convenience of +our citizens. I see crowds of young people, hair-brained, conceited, +idle, frivolous, presumptuous, and harmful to society. Heaven knows what +their studies are! Not poetry, not the niceties of the Italian language, +not correction of style. And then, forsooth, I am to admire a +hurly-burly of well-born persons, who claim in their foolhardiness to be +omniscient, who produce nothing whatsoever, who cannot write three lines +of a letter which shall express their sentiments, and which shall not +swarm with revolting faults of grammar and of spelling! + +I will omit to observe that respect for nobles in a state is necessary; +but that the respect shown simply for their birth and wealth is not +respect but false feigned adulation. I will refrain from asserting that +a daily correspondence, maintained with a large variety of +persons--people who may not perhaps be scientific, but who understand +whether a letter is well written or ridiculous--may be capable of +securing a large part of the regard, or of occasioning a large part of +the contempt, bestowed on nobles. I make no mention of the rich man in +Signor Mercier's comedy of Indigence, who found it impossible to write a +letter of the utmost importance because his secretary was away from +home. I will say nothing to those scientific tutors of the scions of our +aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and +the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, moulding +them into geometricians, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, +astronomers, algebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of +sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what +they have taught or what the common business of life requires. + +All these things, and everything which imposture has presented to my +senses and impressed upon my mind, must remain unwritten in my pen. I +have no wish to make enemies. + +Yet we cannot prevent drops of ink from falling sometimes from the pen +and making blots upon our papers. Just so, while I am dictating these +memoirs of my life, I shall not be able to avoid splutterings, however +out of place and inconvenient. + +I am almost ashamed to confess the intense assiduity with which I +applied myself to those frivolous literary studies of which I have been +speaking. They brought on a hmorrhage from the nostrils, so violent +and so frequent, that I was more than once or twice given up for dead in +the manner of Seneca.[105] In their anxiety about my health, my friends +hid away all my books, and deprived me of paper and inkstand; but I was +the cleverest of thieves in searching for them, and went on doggedly +reading and writing by stealth in the uninhabited attics of our mansion. +After relating this fact about my boyhood, malicious people may think +that I am claiming to be considered worthy of a panegyric. They are +quite mistaken. I fix them with my eyeglass, and assure them that it is +rather my intention to provide them with another good reason for +quizzing me. The famous Doctor Tissot angrily rebukes excessive +application to those studies which are universally esteemed as useless. +He reserves his praise for folk who ruin their health in pursuits +considered beneficial to humanity; and such, I do not doubt, are the +studies affected by himself and his admirers. + +The Abb Giovan Antonio Verdani, keeper of the select and extensive +library of the patrician family Soranzo, was a man of vast literary +erudition. He felt compassion for my weakness, which coincided with his +own, and directed my reading by lending me the rarest books, +masterpieces of pure Italian diction in prose and poetry. To estimate +the quantities of paper which I covered with my thoughts in verse and +prose, would be beyond my powers. I tried to imitate the style of all +the early Tuscan writers who are most admired. Assuredly I never +approached the perfection of their language; but I am none the less sure +that the diligent and attentive perusal of a mass of the best works, +treating of a vast variety of subjects, cannot fail to furnish a better +head than mine with instruction and ideas, with the power of making just +reflections and probable conjectures, and with the principles of sound +morality. I am also convinced that the imitation of style in writing, +pursued methodically, enables a man to express his own thoughts with +facility, propriety of colouring, exactitude of phrase and term, +according to the variety of images, grave or gay, familiar or dignified, +which we desire to develop and to communicate under their true aspect in +prose or poetry. + +Without attaining to the mastery of style at which I aimed, I acquired +the miserable satisfaction of finding myself in the very select group of +persons who know this truth. I also earned the wretchedness of being +forced to read with insuperable aversion and disgust the works of many +modern Italian authors, which are full of false fancies and sophisms, +the rhetoric and diction of which never vary however the subject-matter +changes, which are defiled by all manner of gibberish, bombast, +nonsense, with periods involved in unintelligible vortices, and with +preposterous phraseology. The sciences, the discoveries, the branches +of new knowledge which are now so loudly vaunted, ought to be accepted +as useful, and are worthy of respect. For this reason it is wrong to +profane them and to render them contemptible by barbarous impurity and +impropriety of diction. Francesco Redi, that great man, great +philosopher, great physician, great naturalist, confirms my doctrine by +his written works.[106] As regards the literature of art and wit and +fancy, it is obvious that without correction of style this is absolutely +worthless and condemned to merited oblivion. No one could count the fine +and ample sentiments which perish, smothered in the mire of inartistic +writing. Not less numerous, on the other hand, are the small but +brilliant thoughts, duly coloured with appropriate terms, and placed at +the right point of view by a master-hand, which sparkle before the eyes +of every reader, be he learned or simple. + +There is no disputing about tastes. Yet I think it could be easily +maintained that our century has lapsed into a shameful torpor with +regard to these things. I have written and printed quite enough upon the +subject; without effect, however; and now I see no reason why I should +not utter a last funeral lament over the mastery of art I longed to +possess. That mastery, which nowadays is reckoned among the inutilities +of existence, has been freely conceded to me by the verdict of +contemporaries--blind judges, governed not by intelligence but by +ignorant assumption--so that their opinion does not sustain me with the +sure conviction of having attained my purpose. Nevertheless I am +grateful even to the blind and deaf, who see and hear what gives them +pleasure in my writings. + +My pursuit of culture advanced on the lines I have described, whether +for my happiness or my misfortune it is worthless to inquire. I read +continually, and wasted enormous quantities of ink; paid close attention +to men and manners; profited by the encouragement of the Abb Verdani +and Antonio Federigo Seghezzi; walked in the steps of my brother +Gasparo; and frequented a literary society which met daily at our house. +From a Piedmontese, who knew how to read and nothing more, I learned the +first rudiments of French; not that I wished to talk French in Italy, an +affectation which I loathed; but because it was my desire, by the help +of grammar and dictionary, to study the books, most excellent in part, +in part injurious to society, which issue daily from the French press. +It was thus that I formed those literary tastes, to which I have always +clung for innocent and disinterested amusement, and which, now that my +hairs are grey, will be my solace till the hour of death. The giants of +science, to whom I dare not raise my quizzing-glass for fear of +committing an unpardonable sin, will perceive that in describing the +scanty sources of my education, I am only painting the portrait of a +literary pigmy in all humility. + +As regards my moral training, it is only necessary to observe that the +family of which I was a member has always cherished a deep and fervent +reverence for the august image of religion, and that my father, careless +as he was in matters of economy, never neglected religious duties or the +good ensample of honourable conduct. He was a bitter enemy of falsehood. +His delicate susceptibility detected a lie by the inflection of the +voice, and he punished it upon the spot with sounding boxes on the ears +of his offspring. + +Being a bold rider and passionately fond of horses, he taught us to +ride, and liked to see us every day on horseback during our summer +visits to the country. It was useless to plead timidity, or to shrink +from the snortings and jibbings of some half-broken beast he wanted us +to back. Up we went; a cut or two of the switch across our legs set us +off at a gallop; and there we were in full career, without a thought for +broken shins or necks. Some jockeys, who came to break in vicious colts, +put me up to tricks for mastering a hard-mouthed bolting animal. One of +these tricks stood me in good stead upon an occasion I shall afterwards +relate. Indeed, I may say that I owe my life to a jockey. + +We had a little theatre of no great architectural pretensions in our +country-house; and here we children used to act.[107] Brothers and +sisters alike were gifted with some talent for comedy; and all of us, +before a crowd of rustic spectators, passed for players of the first +quality. Beside tragic and comic pieces learned by heart, we frequently +improvised farces with a slight plot upon some laughable motive. My +sister Marina and I had the knack of imitating certain married couples +notorious in the village for their burlesque humours. We used to +interpolate our farces with scenes and dialogues in which the famous +quarrels of these women with their drunken husbands were reproduced to +the life. Our clothes were copied from the originals; and the imitation +was so exact that our bucolic audience hailed it with Homeric peals of +laughter, measuring their applause by the delight it afforded their +coarse natures. My father and mother took a fancy to see themselves +represented in this way. My sister and I were shy at first, but we had +to obey our parents. Finally, we regaled them with a perfect +reproduction of their costume, their gestures, their way of talking, and +some of their familiar household bickerings. Their astonishment was +great, and their laughter was the only punishment of our dutiful +temerity. + +I learned to twang the guitar with a certain amount of skill, and vied +with my brother Gasparo in improvising rhymed verses, which I sang to +music in our hours of recreation. This was done with all the +foolhardiness inseparable from a display which the vulgar are only too +apt to regard as miraculous. Since I have touched upon the point, I will +digress a little on this so-called miracle. In my opinion, the immense +crowds of people hanging with open mouths upon the lips of an +_improvisatore_ only prove that, in spite of the contempt into which +poetry has fallen, it still possesses that power over the minds and the +brains of men which their tongues deny it. Cristoforo Altissimo, a poet +of the fifteenth century, is said to have publicly improvised his epic +in octave stanzas on the Reali di Francia; the words were taken down +from his lips, just as he composed them at the moment. The book was +published; and though it is extremely rare, I have read it through the +kindness of the Abb Verdani. Only a few stanzas, out of all that ocean +of verse, are worthy of the name of poetry; and yet we may believe that +before the work was given to the press, some pains had been bestowed +upon it. I have listened to many extempore versifiers, male and female, +the most famous of our century. It has always struck me that if the +deluges of verses which they spout forth with face on fire, to the +applause of frantic multitudes, were written down, they would have very +little poetical value, and that nobody would have the patience to read +the twentieth part of them. Padre Zucchi, of the Olivetan Order, whom I +heard in my youth, surpassed his rivals; now and then he produced +sensible stanzas; but he improvised so slowly that reflection may have +had some part in the result. I do not deny that these extempore +rhymesters may be people of culture and learning, qualified to discourse +well upon the themes proposed to them. Yet they would not be listened +to, if they spoke ever so divinely in prose. In order to draw a crowd, +they are forced to express their thoughts and images, just as they come, +with voluble rapidity, in bad rhymed verses, which often are no better +than a gabble of words without sense. This throws their audience into a +trance of astonishment. Humanity has always quested after the marvellous +like a hound. If a painter sought to depict foolhardiness or imposture +wearing the mask of poetry, I could recommend nothing better than the +portrait of an improvisatore, with goggle-eyes and arms in air, and a +multitude staring up at him in stupid dumb amazement. These being my +sentiments, I am willing, out of mere politeness and good manners, to +approve the coronation of a Cavaliere Perfetto or a Corilla on the +Capitol. But I can only accept with cordial and serious enthusiasm the +honours of that sort paid to a Virgil, a Petrarch, and a Tasso. + +The Arcadians will laugh when I proceed to speak about an improvisatore, +whom I knew and whom I have listened to a hundred times. Yet I should be +committing an injustice if I did not mention him, and declare my opinion +that he was the single really wonder-worthy artist in this kind, with +whom I ever came in contact. He used to pour forth anacreontics, octave +stanzas, any and every metre, extempore, to the music of a well-touched +guitar. His verses rhymed, but had no _Clio_, _Euterpe_, _Plettro_, +_Parnaso_, _Aganippe_, _Ruscelletto_, _Zefiretto_, and such stuff, in +them. They composed a well-developed discourse, flowing evenly, not +soaring, but with abundance of well-connected images, and natural, +lively, graceful thoughts. He invariably used either the Venetian or the +Paduan dialect; which will augment the derisive laughter of Arcadia, and +make the Campidoglio ring. On one occasion, while he was improvising on +the theme: _diligite inimicos vestros_, it happened that two enemies +were present. At another time, he dilated on his own grief for a +cavaliere[108] who had been kind to him, and who was then dying, given +over by the doctors. Not only did the audience hang upon his lips with +rapt attention; but in the former case, the enemies were reconciled, +while in the latter tears were freely shed for the poet's expiring +benefactor. Such influence over the passions of the heart reveals a true +poet; for such a man I reserve the laurel crown upon my Campidoglio. His +name was Giovanni Sibiliato, brother of the celebrated professor of +literature in the University of Padua. + +Returning from this digression, I will resume the narrative of my +boyhood. I learned to fence and to dance; but books and composition were +my chief pastime. Before a numerous audience in our literary assemblies +I felt no shyness. In private visits, among people new to me, the +reserve of my demeanour often passed for savagery. My first sonnet of +passable quality was written at the age of nine. Beside the applause it +won me, I was rewarded with a box of comfits; and for this reason I have +never forgotten it. The occasion of its composition was as follows. A +certain Signora Angela Armano, midwife by trade, had a friend at Padua +whose pet dog died and left her inconsolable. Signora Angela wished to +comfort her friend; indulged in condolements for her loss; and sent a +little spaniel of her own, called Delina, to replace the defunct pet. +Delina was to be given as a present, and a sonnet was to accompany the +gift, expressing all the sentiments which a lady of Signora Angela's +profession might entertain in a circumstance of such importance. Though +our family was a veritable lunatic asylum of poets, no one cared to +translate the good creature's gossipping garrulity into verse. Moved by +her entreaties, I undertook the task; and the following Bernesque sonnet +was the result:-- + + "Madama io vi vorrei pur confortare + Con qualche graziosa diceria, + Ma la sciagura vuole, e vostra, e mia, + Che in un sonetto la non vi pu stare. + Non vi state, mia cara, a disperare, + Che la sarebbe una poltroneria, + L'entrar per un can morto in frenesia; + Chi nasce muor, convien moralizzare. + Vi sovvenite, ch' egli avr pisciato + Alcuna volta in camera, o in cucina, + Che in quell' istante lo avreste ammazzato. + Io vi spedisco intanto la Delina + Che pi d'un cane ha d'essa innamorato, + E pu farvi di cani una dezina. + bella, e picciolina; + Di lei non voglio pi nuova, o risposta, + Servitevi per razza, o di supposta." + +Two years later, a new edition of the poems of Gaspara Stampa appeared +in Venice, at the expense of Count Antonio Ramboldo di Collalto of +Vienna, a prince distinguished for his birth and writings. Scholars know +that this sixteenth-century Sappho sighed her soul forth in love-laments +to a certain Count Collaltino di Collalto, doughty warrior and polished +versifier, and that she was reputed to have died of hopeless passion in +her youth.[109] The ladies of our century will hardly believe her +story; for Cupid has changed temper since those days, and kills his +victims with far different and less honourable weapons. Some verses by +contemporary writers in praise of our literary heroine were to be +appended to this edition of her works. I dared to enter the lists, and +wrote a sonnet in the style of the earliest Tuscan poets. Such as it is, +the sonnet may be found printed in the book which I have indicated. It +appears from this juvenile production that I already acknowledged a +mistress of my heart; compliance with fashion was alone responsible for +my precocity. + +This trifling composition was read by the famous Apostolo Zeno. He +deigned to inquire for the author, who had reproduced the antique +simplicity of Cino da Pistoja, Guittone d'Arezzo, and Guido Cavalcanti. +On my presenting myself, Signor Zeno politely expressed surprise at +discovering a mere boy in the learned writer of the sonnet, treated me +with kind attention, and placed his choice library at my disposal.[110] +The encouragement of this distinguished poet, true lover of pure style, +and foe to seventeenth-century conceits, added fuel to the fire of my +literary passion. From that day forward not one of those collections of +verses appeared, in which marriages, the entrance of young ladies into +convents, the election of noblemen to offices of state, the deaths of +people, cats, dogs, parrots, and such events, are celebrated in Venice +and other towns of Italy, but that it contained some specimen of my Muse +in grave or playful verse. + +Books, paper, pens and ink formed the staple of my existence. I was +always pregnant, always in labour, giving birth to monsters in remote +corners of our mansion. I scribbled furiously, God knows how, up to my +seventeenth year. Besides innumerable essays in prose and multitudes of +fugitive verses, I wrote four long poems, entitled _Berlinghieri_, _Don +Quixote_, _Moral Philosophy_ (based upon the talking animals of +Firenzuola), and _Gonella_ in twelve cantos. The Abb Verdani took a +fancy to this last, and wished to see it printed. Signor Giulio Cesare +Beccelli, however, had published a poem at Verona on the same subject, +which robbed my work of novelty; and though mine was richer in facts +drawn from good old sources, I did not venture to enter into competition +with him. The three years' absence from home, which I shall presently +relate, and the revolution in our domestic affairs which surprised me on +my return, exposed these boyish literary labours to ruin and +dispersion. It is probable that pork-butchers and fruit-vendors +exercised condign justice on the children of my Muse. + + + + +III. + + _The Situation of my Family, and my Reasons for Leaving Home._ + + +In the course of these years, the early deaths of a brother and a sister +had reduced our numbers from eleven to nine. Meanwhile, our annual +expenditure exceeded the resources at our command, and left but little +for the needs of a numerous offspring, too old to be contented with a +toy or plaything. Some lawsuits, which we lost, diminished the estate. +Clouds of doubt and care began to obscure the horizon, and in a few +years the family was plunged in pecuniary embarrassment. + +My brother Gasparo had taken a wife in a fit of genial poetical +abstraction. Even poetry has its dangers. This man, who was really +singular in his absolute self-dedication to books, in his indefatigable +labours as an author, and in a certain philosophical temper or +indolence, which made him indifferent to everything which was not +literary, learned to fall in love from Petrarch. A young lady, ten years +older than himself, named Luigia Bergalli,[111] better known among the +shepherdesses of Arcady as Irmenia Partenide, a poetess of romantic +fancy, as her published works evince, was my brother's Laura. Not being +a canon, like Petrarch, he married her in Petrarch's spirit, but with +due legal formalities. This woman, of fervent and soaring imagination, +which fitted her for high poetic flights, undertook to regulate the +disorder in our affairs. Impelled by the instincts of a good nature, +with something of ambition and a flattering belief in her own practical +ability, she did the best that in her lay. Yet all her projects and +administrative measures revolved within a circle of romantic raptures +and Pindaric ecstasies. Thirsting with soul-passion after an ideal +realm, she found herself the sovereign of a state in decadence. It was +the desire of her heart to make us all happy, in the most disinterested +way. Yet she accomplished nothing beyond involving every one, and +herself to boot, in the meshes of still greater misfortune. Her +husband, poring perpetually upon his books, could only oppose her at the +sacrifice of ease and quiet. This he was incapable of doing.--In order +to judge people equitably, it is necessary that character, temperament, +and circumstances should be thoroughly explained. + +I know how unphilosophical it is to ascribe the discords of a family to +malignant planetary influences. Our domestic circle consisted of a +father, a mother, four brothers, and five sisters, all of them +good-hearted, honourable, mutually well-inclined; and yet it became the +very mirror of infelicity at every moment and in each of the persons who +composed it. Minute investigation into the causes of this painful fact +would probably reveal them. But it is better to adopt the language of +the vulgar, and to say that a bad star pursued our family. Otherwise, +analysis might lead one into acts of unkindness, and involve one in +hatred. + +The confusion in which we lived at that period, and the bitter +discomforts we had to bear, were augmented by expenses due to my +brother's increasing progeny. Our worst disaster, however (and this +wound I carry in my heart even to the present day), was a cruel stroke +of apoplexy which laid my beloved father low. He continued to exist, an +invalid, for about seven years after the sad event; dumb and paralytic, +but in possession of all his mental faculties--a circumstance which +rendered his deplorable condition almost unbearable to a man of my +father's extreme sensibility. + +The tears of five sisters, the births of nephews and nieces, a house +swarming with female go-betweens, brokers, and the Hebrew ministers of +our decaying realm--all this whirlpool of economical extravagance and +folly, to utter one word against which was reckoned mutiny or treason, +drove my second brother, Francesco, into exile. He went into the Levant +with the Provveditore Generale di Mare,[112] his Excellency the +Cavaliere Antonio Loredano, of happy memory. At that period I was about +thirteen. + +Letters written from Corfu by this brother describing the kindness shown +him by his Provveditore, and the rank of ensign to which he soon +attained, awoke in me a burning desire to escape like him from those +domestic turmoils, the gravity of which I felt in experience and +measured by anticipation, but which my state of boyhood rendered me +unable to remedy. Our uncle on the mother's side, Almor Cesare Tiepolo, +recommended me to his Excellency Girolamo Quirini, Provveditore Generale +elect for Dalmatia and Albania. Furnished with a modest outfit, in which +my book-box and guitar were not forgotten, I bade farewell to my parents +at the age of seventeen,[113] and went across seas as volunteer into +those provinces, to study the ways and manners of my fellow-soldiers, +and of the peoples among whom we were quartered. + + +IV. + + _I Embark upon a Galley, and Cross the Seas to Zara._ + + +I was not slow to perceive that I had adopted a career by no means +suited to my character, the proper motto for which was always the +following verse from Berni: + + "Voleva far da se, non commandato." + +My natural dislike of changeableness kept me, however, from showing by +outward signs of any sort that I repented of my choice; and I reflected +that abundant opportunities were now at least offered for observations +on the men of a world new to me. This thought sufficed to keep me in +good spirits and a cheerful humour through all the vicissitudes of my +three years' sojourn in Illyria. + +According to orders received from his Excellency, the Provveditore +Generale Quirini, I embarked before him on a galley called +_Generalizia_, which was riding at the port of Malamocco. There I was to +wait for his arrival. A band of military officers received me with +glances of courtesy and some curiosity. In a Court where all the members +are seeking fortune, each newcomer is regarded with suspicion. Whether +he has to be reckoned with or may be disregarded on occasions of +promotion, concerns the whole crew of officials, who, like him, are +dependent on the will of the Provveditore. It was perhaps insensibility +which made me indifferent to these preoccupations; this the sequel of my +narrative will show; and yet such thoughts are very wood-worms in the +hearts of courtiers. + +I had to swallow a great quantity of questions, to which I replied with +the laconic brevity of an inexperienced lad upon his guard. Some of +those gentlemen had known my brother Francesco at Corfu. When they +discovered who I was, they seemed to be relieved of all anxiety on my +account, and welcomed me with noisy demonstrations of soldierly +comradeship. I expressed my thanks in modest, almost monosyllabic +phrases. They set me down for an awkward young fellow, unobliging, and +proud. This was a mistake, as they freely confessed a few months later +on. I had retired into myself, with the view of studying their +characters and sketching my line of action. The quick and penetrative +intuition with which I was endowed at birth by God, together with the +faculty of imperturbable reserve, enabled me in the course of a few +hours to recognise in that little group some men of noble birth and +liberal culture, some nobles ruined by the worst of educations, and some +plebeians who owed their position to powerful protection. + +Gaming, intemperance, and unbridled sensuality were deeply rooted in the +whole company. I laid my plans of conduct, and found them useful in the +future. My intimacies were few, but durable. The vices I have named, +clung like ineradicable cancers to the men with whom I associated. Sound +principles engrafted on me in my early years, regard for health, and the +slenderness of my purse helped me to avoid their seductions. At the same +time, I saw no reason why I should proclaim a crusade against them. +Holding a middle course, I succeeded in winning the affection of my +comrades. They invited me to take part in their orgies. I did not play +the prude. Without yielding myself to the transports of brutal appetite, +I proved the gayest reveller at all those lawless meetings. Some of my +seniors, on whom a career of facile pleasure had left its inevitable +stigma, used to twit me with being a reserved young simpleton. I did +not heed their raillery, but laughed at the inebriation of my comrades, +studied the bent of divers characters, observed the animal brutality of +men, and used our uproarious debauches as a school for fathoming the +depths of human frailty. + +Now I will return to the point of my embarkation on the galley +_Generalizia_ in the port of Malamocco. While awaiting the arrival of +the Provveditore, I had two whole days and nights to spend in sad +reflections on humanity. These were suggested by the spectacle of some +three hundred scoundrels, loaded with chains, condemned to drag their +life out in a sea of miseries and torments, each of which was sufficient +by itself to kill a man. An epidemic of malignant fever raged among +these men, carrying away its victims daily from the bread and water, the +irons, and the whips of the slavemasters. Attended in their last passage +by a gaunt black Franciscan friar, with thundering voice and jovial +mien, these wretches took their flight--I hope and think--for Paradise. + +[Illustration: THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY + +_Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze_] + +The Provveditore's arrival amid the din of instruments and roar of +cannon roused me from my dismal reveries. I had visited this gentleman +ten times at least in his own palace, and had always been received with +that playful welcome and confidential sweetness which distinguish the +patricians of Venice. He made his appearance now in crimson--crimson +mantle, cap, and shoes--with an air of haughtiness unknown to me, and +fierceness stamped upon his features. The other officers informed +me that when he donned this uniform of state, he had to be addressed +with profound and silent salaams, different indeed from the reverence +one pays at Venice to a patrician in his civil gown.[114] He boarded the +galley, and seemed to take no notice whatever of the crowd around him, +bowing till their noses rubbed their toes. The affability with which he +touched our hands in Venice had disappeared; he looked at none of us; +and sentenced the young captain of the guard, called Combat, to arrest +in chains, because he had omitted some trifle of the military salute. My +comrades stood dumbfounded, staring at one another with open eyes. This +singular change from friendliness to severity set my brains at work. By +the light of my boyish philosophy I seemed to comprehend why the noble +of a great republic, elected general of an armament[115] and governor of +two wide provinces, on his first appearance in that office, felt bound +to assume a totally different aspect from what was natural to him in his +private capacity. He had to inspire fear and a spirit of submission into +his subordinates. Otherwise they might have taken liberties upon the +strength of former courtesy displayed by him, being for the most part +presumptuous young fellows, apt to boast about their favour with the +general. For my own part, since I was firmly bent on doing my duty +without ambitious plans or dreams of fortune, this formidable attitude +and the harsh commands of the great man made a less disheartening +impression on me than on my companions. I whispered to myself: "He +certainly inspires me with a kind of dread; but he has taken immense +trouble to transform his nature in order to produce this effect; I am +sure the irksomeness which he is suffering now must be greater than any +discomfort he can cause me." + +The general retired to his cabin in the bowels of our floating hell, and +sent Lieutenant-Colonel Micheli, his major in the province, to make out +a list of all the officers and volunteers on board, together with the +names of their protectors. Nobody expected this; for we had been +personally presented to the general at Venice, and had explained our +affairs in frequent conversations. Once more I reflected that this was +his way of damping the expectations which might have been bred in +scheming brains before he exchanged the politenesses of private life for +the austerities of office. The Maggiore della Provincia Micheli--a most +excellent person and very fat--bustled about his business, sweating, and +scribbling with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as though the matter was +one of life or death. Everybody began to shy and grumble and chafe with +indignation at passing under review in this way. When my turn came, I +answered frankly that I was called Carlo Gozzi, and that I had been +recommended by the patrician Almor Cesare Tiepolo. I withheld his title +of senator and the fact that he was my maternal uncle, deeming it +prudent not to seem ambitious. + +The _Generalizia_, convoyed by another galley named _Conserva_ and a few +light vessels of war, got under way for the Adriatic;[116] and the night +fell very dark upon the waters. I shall not easily forget that night, +because of a little incident which happened to me, and which shows what +a curious place of refuge a galley is for young men leaving their homes +for the first time. A natural necessity made me seek some corner for +retirement. I was directed to the bowsprit; on approaching it, an +Illyrian sentinel, with scowling visage, bushy whiskers, and levelled +musket, howled his "_Who goes there?_" in a tremendous voice. When he +understood my business, he let me pass. My next step lighted on a soft +and yielding mass, which gave forth a kind of gurgling sound, like the +stifled breath of an asthmatic patient, into the dark silent night. +Retracing my path, I asked the sentinel what the thing was, which +responded with its inarticulate gurgling voice to the pressure of my +feet. He answered with the coldest indifference that it was the corpse +of a galley-slave, who had succumbed to the fever, and had been flung +there till he could be buried on the sea-shore sands in Istria. The hair +on my head bristled with horror. But my happy disposition for seeing the +ludicrous side of things soon came to my assistance. + +After twelve days of much discomfort, and twelve noisome nights, passed +in broken slumbers under the decks of that galley, which only too well +deserved its name, our little fleet entered the port of Zara. We went on +shore at first privately and quietly; and after a few days the public +ceremonies of official disembarkation were gone through. The +Provveditore Generale Jacopo Cavalli handed his baton of command over to +the Provveditore Generale Girolamo Quirini with all the formalities +proper to the occasion. This solemnity, which is performed upon the open +sea, to the sound of military music, the thunder of artillery, and the +crackling of musket-shots, deserves to be witnessed by all who take an +interest in imposing spectacles. An old man, fat and short of stature, +with a pair of moustachios bristling up beneath his nostrils, a merry +and most honest fellow to boot, who bore the name of Captain Girolamo +Visinoni, was appointed master of these ceremonies, on account of his +intimate acquaintance with their details. I had no other duty that day +but to wear my best clothes, which did not cost much trouble. + + +V. + + _I Fall Dangerously Ill; Recover; Form the only Intimate + Acquaintance I made in Dalmatia._ + +When the new Regency had been established and the Court settled, I had +but eight days to learn my duties as volunteer or adjutant[117] to his +Excellency, as it is called there, before I fell ill of a fever which +was declared to be malignant. Alone among people whom I hardly knew, at +the commencement of my career, poorly provided with money, and lying in +a wretched room, the windows of which were closed with torn and rotten +paper instead of glass, I could not but compare my present destitution +with the comforts of our home. Here I was battling with a mortal disease +in solitude. There, at the least touch of illness, I enjoyed the tender +solicitude of a sister or a servant at my pillow, to brush away the +flies which settled on my forehead. Fortunately, I was not so strongly +attached to life as to be rendered miserable by unavailing recollections +and gloomy forebodings. + +It happened one day, as I lay there burning, that a convict presented +himself at the door of my miserable den, and asked me if I wanted +anything which he could fetch me. He was one of those men who prowl +around the officers' quarters, wrapped in an old blanket with a bit of +rope about the waist, ready to do any dirty business and to pilfer if +they find the opportunity. I gave him a few farthings and told him to +send me a confessor--an errand very different from what he had expected. +Before long a good Dominican appeared, who prepared me to die with the +courage of an ancient Roman. Our modern sages may laugh at this plebeian +wish of mine to make my peace with Heaven; but I have never been able to +dissociate philosophy from religion. Satisfied to remain a little child +before the mysteries of faith, I do not envy wise men in their +disengagement from spiritual terrors. + +The chief physician, Danieli, a man of prodigious corpulence and +blackness, who had been sent to my assistance by the Governor, spared no +attentions and no remedies. As usual, they proved unavailing; and he +bade me prepare myself for death by receiving the holy sacrament. I +summoned what remained to me of vital force, and went through this +ceremony with devotion. There seemed to be so little difference between +a sepulchre and the room in which my body lay, that I felt no disgust at +relinquishing my corpse to the grave-diggers. I was now ready for the +last unction, when an attack of hemorrhage from the nostrils, like those +which had already nearly brought me to death's door, recalled me for the +nonce to life. All the ordinary remedies--ligatures, powders, herbs, +astringent plasters, sympathetic stones, muttered charms, old wives' +talismans--were exhibited in vain. After filling two basons with blood, +I lapsed into a profound swoon, which the doctor styled a syncope. To +all appearances I was dead; but the blood stopped; in a quarter of an +hour I revived; and three days afterwards I found myself, weak indeed, +but wholly free from fever and on the road to recovery. My ignorance +could not reconcile this salutary crisis with Danieli's absolute +prohibition of blood-letting in my malady. But I suppose that a score of +learned physicians, each of them upon a different system of hypotheses, +conjectures, well-based calculations, and trains of lucid argument, +would be able to demonstrate the phenomenon to their own satisfaction +and to the illumination or confusion of my stupid brain. Stupendous +indeed are the mental powers which Almighty God has bestowed on men! + +The readers of these Memoirs will hardly need to be informed that my +slender purse had nothing in it at the termination of this illness. +Under these painful circumstances I found a cordial and open-hearted +friend in Signor Innocenzio Massimo, nobleman of Padua, and captain of +halbardiers at the Dalmatian Court. This excellent gentleman, of rare +distinction for his mental parts, the quickness of his spirit, his +courage, energy, and honour, was the only intimate friend whom I +possessed during my three years' absence from home. When they were over, +our friendship continued undiminished by lapse of time, distance, and +the various vicissitudes of life. I have enjoyed it through thirty-five +years, and am sure that it will never fail me. Some qualities of his +character have exposed him to enmity; among these I may mention a +particular sensitiveness to affronts, an intolerance of attempts to +deceive him, and a quick perception of fraud, together with a firm +resolve to stem the tide of extravagance and fashionable waste in his +own family. His many virtues, the decent comfort of his household, his +hospitality to friends and acquaintances, his careful provision for the +well-being of his posterity, his benevolence to the poor and afflicted, +his successful efforts as a peacemaker among discordant fellow-citizens, +his expenditure of time and trouble upon all who come to him for advice +or assistance, have not sufficed to disarm the malignity of a vulgar +crowd, corrupted by the false philosophy of our century, which goes from +bad to worse in dissolution and ill manners. + + + + +VI. + + _Short Studies in the Science of Fortification and Military + Exercises.--Some Reflections which will pass for Foolishness._ + + +On the restoration of my health, his Excellency placed me under +Cavaliere Marchiori, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, to learn +mathematics as applied to fortification. This gentleman sent for me, and +said that he had heard from my uncle of my aptitude for study, adding +that the subject he proposed to teach me was of the greatest consequence +to a soldier. I perceived at once that I was being treated on a +different footing from the other volunteers, and that the studied +forgetfulness of the Provveditore had been, as I suspected, a politic +device to humble ambitious schemers. I thanked Signor Marchiori, and +followed his instructions with pleasure, without however abandoning my +own interest in literature. + +He questioned me regarding my knowledge of arithmetic, which was only +elementary; and when I saw that I must master it, in order to pursue the +higher branch of study, I gave my whole head to the business. In the +space of a month, I could cipher like a money-lender, and was ready to +receive my master's teaching. My friend Massimo possessed a good +collection of instruments for engineering draughtsmanship, and a +library of French works on geometry, mathematics, and fortification, +both of which he placed at my disposal. Signor Marchiori's lectures, +long discussions with Signor Massimo, perusal of Euclid, Archimedes, and +the French books, soon plunged me in the lore of points and lines and +calculations. I burned with the enthusiasm, droll enough to my way of +looking at the world, which inspires all students of this science. Yet I +did not, like them, regard moral philosophy and humane literature as +insignificant frivolities. I bore in mind for what good reasons the +Emperor Vespasian dismissed the mathematicians who offered their +assistance in the building of his Roman edifices. I knew that +innumerable vessels, fabricated on the principles of science, have +perished miserably in the tempests; that hundreds of fortresses, built +by science, have been destroyed and captured by the same science; that +inundations are continually sweeping away the dykes erected by science, +to the ruin of thousands of families, and that the inundations +themselves are attributable to the admired masterpieces of science +bequeathed to us by former generations; that, in spite of science and +her creative energy, the buildings she erects are not secured from +earthquakes, conflagrations, and the thunderbolt. It remains to be seen +whether Professor Toaldo's lightning-conductors will prove effectual +against the last of these disasters. Then I reckoned up the blessings +and curses which this vaunted science has conferred on humanity, +arriving at the conclusion that the harm which she has done infinitely +exceeds the good. I shuddered at the hundreds of thousands of human +beings ingeniously massacred in war or drowned at sea by her devices; +and took more pleasure in consulting my watch, her wise invention, for +the dinner-hour than at the hour of keeping an appointment with my +lawyer. Without denying the utility of sciences, I stuck resolutely to +the opinion that moral philosophy is of more importance to the human +race than mechanical inventions, and deplored the pernicious influence +of modern Lyceums and Polytechnic schools upon the mind of Europe. + +Signor Massimo and I kept house together in a little dwelling on the +city walls, facing the sea. The sun, in his daily revolutions, struck +this habitation on every side; and there was not an open space of wall +or window-sill without its dial, fabricated by my skill, and adorned +with appropriate but useless mottoes on the flight of time. A lieutenant +named Giovanni Apergi, upright and pious, especially when the gout he +had acquired in the world's pleasures made him turn his thoughts to +Heaven, gave me friendly lessons in military drill. I soon learned to +handle my musket, pike, and ensign; and sweated a shirt daily, fencing +with Massimo, who was ferociously expert in that fiendish but +gentlemanly art. We also spent some hours together over a great +chessboard of his, covered with wooden soldiers, which we moved from +square to square, forming squadrons, and studying the combinations which +enable armies to kill with prodigality and to be killed with +parsimony,--fitting ourselves, in short, for manuring cemeteries in the +most approved style. + +I was already half a soldier, and meant to make myself perfect in my +profession; not, however, without a firm resolve to quit the army[118] +at the expiration of my three years' service. Twelve months spent in +studying my comrades convinced me that, though some worthy fellows might +be found among them, their society as a whole was uncongenial to my +tastes. I had neither the ambition nor the greed of gain which might +have sapped this resolution; and my persistence during the appointed +time was mainly due to a dislike of seeming fickle. I wanted to gain the +respect of my relatives, whom I hoped to help one day with my counsel, +my credit, and the example of my perseverance. + +After eight months spent in the study of fortification, I lost my poor +master. He died suddenly of a fit of spleen a few days after winning his +company in a regiment called Lagarde. This promotion he obtained by +competition; and some insulting words dropped upon the occasion, which +he was unable to resent, caused his mortal illness. Every one deplored +the death of Marchiori; but no one more than I did. His goodness, +sweetness, affability, and friendly patience left a powerful impression +on my memory. Gradually my interest in geometry declined, and I resumed +my former studies with fresh ardour, attending meanwhile to my military +duties, and waiting philosophically till the three years should be over. + + + + +VII. + + _This Chapter proves that Poetry is not as useless as people + commonly imagine._ + + +I am bound to confess that my weakness for poetry and Italian literature +was great. In the Venetian service, and particularly in Dalmatia, there +were very few indeed who shared these tastes. I wrote and read my +compositions to myself, without seeking the applause of an audience or +boring my neighbours with things they do not care for, as is the wont of +most scribblers. + +The secretary of the Generalate, Signor Giovanni Colombo, took some +interest in literature. I may mention, by the way, that he afterwards +rose to high dignity, which involved a calamity for him, sweetened, +however, by a splendid funeral; in other words, he died Grand Chancellor +of our most serene Republic.[119] This man, of gentle spirit and jovial +temper, knowing the epidemic of poetry which possessed the Gozzi family, +encouraged me to read him some of my trifles, and seemed to take +pleasure in listening to them. He owned a small but well-chosen library, +which he courteously allowed me to use. My verses, satirical for the +most part and descriptive of characters--without scurrility indeed, +though based on accurate observation of both sexes--were communicated to +him and Massimo alone. + +The town of Zara was bent on testifying its respect for our Provveditore +Generale Quirini by a grand public display. A large hall of wood was +accordingly erected on the open space before the fort, and hung with +fine damask. Tickets of invitation were then distributed to various +persons, who were to compose an Academy upon the day of the solemnity. +Every academician had to recite two compositions in prose or verse, as +he thought fit. The subjects were set forth on the tickets, and were as +follows:--First, Is a prince who preserves, defends, and improves his +dominions in peace, more praiseworthy than one who seeks to extend them +by force of arms? The second was to be a panegyric of the Provveditore +Generale. An old nobleman of Zara, named Giovanni Pellegrini, was chosen +to preside in the Academy and to dispense the invitations. He wore a +black velvet suit and a huge blonde wig, done up into knotted curls, and +possessed a fund of eloquence in the style of Father Casimir +Frescot.[120] + +I did not receive an invitation, which proves either that I was an +amateur of poetry unknown to fame, or that Signor Pellegrini, in his +gravity and wisdom, judged me a mere boy, unworthy of consideration in +an enterprise which he treated with true Illyrico-Italian seriousness. +Signor Colombo and my friend Massimo urged me to prepare two +compositions on the published themes; but I reminded them that I had no +right to appear uninvited. Nevertheless, I amused myself by scribbling a +couple of sonnets, which I consigned to the bottom of my pocket. As may +be imagined, I defended peace in the one, and did my best to belaud his +Excellency in the other. + +The Provveditore Generale, attended by his officers and by the magnates +of the city, entered the temporary hall, and took his seat upon a rich +fauteuil raised many steps above the ground. A covey of literary +celebrities, collected Heaven knows where, ranged their learned backs +along a row of chairs, which formed a semicircle round him. + +Strolling outside the damasked tabernacle, I saw some servants who were +preparing beverages and refreshments with a mighty bustle. I was +thirsty, and thought I should not be committing a crime if I asked one +of them for a lemonade. He replied that express orders had been given +not to quench the thirst of anybody who was not a member of the Academy. +This discourteous rebuff, repeated to the _sitio_ of several officers, +raised a spirit of silent revolt among us. I resolved to put a bold face +on the matter, and to proclaim myself an academician, thinking that the +title of poet might win for me the lemonade which was denied to the +dignity and the weapons of an officer. + +This little incident confirmed my opinion of the usefulness of poetry +against the universal judgment which regards it as an inutility. Poetry +stood me in good stead by procuring me a lemonade and saving me from +dying of thirst. Having swallowed the beverage, I proceeded to one of +the seats in the assembly, exciting some surprise among its members, who +were, however, kind enough to tolerate my presence. For three whole +hours the air resounded with long inflated erudite orations and poems +not remarkable for sweetness. A yawn from the General now and then did +honour to the Academy and the academicians. I must in justice say that +some tolerable compositions, superior to what I had expected, struck my +ears. A young abb in holy orders gushed with poetic eloquence. I have +heard that he is now become a bishop. Who knows whether poetry was not +as serviceable to him in the matter of his mitre, as she was to me in +the matter of my lemonade! + +I declaimed my sonnets in their turn; the second of which, by Apollo's +blessing, pleased his Excellency, and consequently was received with +general approval. It established my reputation among the folk of Zara, +and led to a comic scene two days later. The Provveditore Generale was +in the habit of riding in the cool some four or five miles outside the +city; a troop of officers galloped at his heels, and I galloped with +them. While we were amusing ourselves in this way, his Excellency took a +fancy to hear my sonnet over again; for it had now become famous, as +often happens with trifles, which go the round of society upon the +strength of adventitious circumstances. He called me loudly. I put spurs +to my horse, while he, still galloping, ordered me to recite. I do not +think a sonnet was ever declaimed in like manner since the creation of +the world. Galloping after the great man, and almost bursting my lungs +in the effort to make myself heard, with all the trills, gasps, +cadences, semitones, clippings of words, and dissonances, which the +movement of a horse at full speed could occasion, I recited the sonnet +in a storm of sobs and sighs, and blessed my stars when I had pumped +out the fourteenth line. Knowing the temper of the General, who was +haughty and formidable in matters of importance, but sometimes whimsical +in his diversions, I thought at the time that he must have been seeking +a motive for laughter. And indeed, I believe this was the case. Anyhow, +he can only have been deceived if he hoped to laugh more at the affair +than I did. Yet I was rather afraid of becoming a laughing-stock to my +riding-companions also. Foolish fear! These honest fellows, like true +courtiers, vied with each other in congratulating me upon the partiality +of his Excellency and the honour he had done me. They were even jealous +of a burlesque scene in which I played the buffoon, and sorry that they +had not enjoyed the luck of performing it themselves. + + + + +VIII. + + _Confirmation of a hint I gave in the Second Chapter of these + Memoirs relating to a great danger which I ran._ + + +I related in the second chapter of this book that I once owed my life to +a trick taught me by a jockey. The incident happened during one of our +cavalcades with the Provveditore Generale. + +At the hour appointed for riding out, all the officers of the Court sent +their saddles and bridles to the General's stables, and each of us +mounted the animal which happened to be harnessed with his own gear. Now +the Bashaw of Bosnia had presented the governor with a certain Turkish +stallion, finely made, but so vicious that no one liked to back the +brute. One day I noticed that the grooms had saddled this untamable Turk +for me. Who knows what motives determine the acts of stable-boys? I am +not accustomed to be easily dismayed; besides, I had ridden many +dangerous horses in my time, and this was not the minute to show the +white feather before a crowd of soldiers. I leapt upon the animal like +an antique paladin, without looking to see whether the bit and trappings +were in order. Our troops started; but my Bucephalus reared, whirled +round in the air, and bolted toward his stable, which lay below the +ramparts. Pulling and working at the reins had no effect upon the brute; +and when I bent down to discover the cause, I found that the bit had not +been fastened, either through the negligence or the malice of the +grooms. + +Rushing at the mercy of this demon through the narrow streets and low +doors of the city, I began to reflect that I was not likely to reach the +stables with my head upon my shoulders. Then I remembered the jockey's +advice, and rising in my stirrups, leaned forwards, and stuck my fingers +into the two eyes of the stallion. Suddenly deprived of sight, and not +knowing whither he was going, he dashed furiously up against a wall, +and fell all of a heap beneath me. I leapt to earth with the agility of +a practised rider, and made the Turk get up; he was trembling like a +leaf, while I with shaky fingers fastened the bit firmly; then I mounted +again, and rejoined my company among the shouts of applause which always +greet dare-devil escapades of this kind. The middle finger of my left +hand had been flayed by striking against the wall. I still bear the scar +of this glorious wound. + + + + +IX. + + _Little incidents, trifling observations, moral reflections of no + value, gossip which is sure to make the reader yawn._ + + +Our forces had little to occupy them in those provinces, so that my +sonnet in praise of peace exactly fitted. Some interesting incidents, +and several journeys which I undertook, furnished me, however, with +abundant matter for reflection. I shall here indulge myself by setting +down a few observations which occur to my memory. + +The regular troops which garrison the fortresses of Dalmatia had been +recalled to Italy, in order to defend the neutrality of Venice during +the wars which then prevailed among her neighbours. In these +circumstances the Senate commissioned our Provveditore Generale to levy +new forces from the subject tribes, not only for maintaining the +military establishment of Dalmatia, but also for drafting a large number +of Morlacchi[121] into Italy. It was a matter of no difficulty to enrol +garrisons for the Illyrian fortresses; but the exportation of the +Morlacchi cost his Excellency the greatest trouble. These ruffianly wild +beasts, wholly destitute of education, are aware that they are subjects +of Venice; yet their firm resolve is to indulge lawless instincts for +robbery and murder as they list, refusing obedience in all things which +do not suit their inclinations. To reason with them is the same as +talking in a whisper to the deaf. They simply resisted the command to +form themselves into a troop and leave their lairs for Italy. + +Their chiefs, who were educated men, brave and loyal to their prince, +strained every nerve to carry out these orders. It was found needful to +recall the bandits, who swarm throughout those regions, outlawed for +every sort of crime--robberies, homicides, arson, and such-like acts of +heroism. Bribes too were offered of bounties and advanced pay, in order +to induce the wild and stubborn peasants to cross the seas. I was +present at the review of these Anthropophagi; for indeed they hardly +merited a more civilised title. It took place on the beach of Zara under +the eyes of the Provveditore, with ships under sail, ready for the +embarkation of the conscripts. Pair by pair, they came up and received +their stipend; upon which they expressed their joy by howling out some +barbarous chant, and dancing off together with uncouth gambols to the +transport ships. I revered God's handiwork in these savages while +deploring their bad education, and felt a passing wish to explore the +Eden of eternal beatitude in which the Morlacchi dwell. + +It is certain that the Italian cities under our benign government were +more disturbed than guarded by these brutal creatures. At Verona, in +particular, they indulged their appetite for thieving, murdering, +brawling, and defying discipline, without the least regard for orders. +At the close of a few months, they had to be sent back to their caves, +in order to deliver the Veneto from an unbearable incubus. Even at the +outset, their spirit of insubordination let itself be felt. Scarcely had +the transports sailed, when the sight of the Illyrian mountains made +them burn to leap on shore. The seamen did their best to restrain the +unruly crew; but finding that they ran a risk of being cut in pieces, +they finally unbarred the pens before this indomitable flock of rams. + +What I am now writing may seem to have little to do with the narrative +of my own life, and may look as though I wished to calumniate the +natives of Dalmatia. The rulers of those territories will, however, bear +me out in the following remarks. I have visited all the fortresses, +many districts, and many villages of the two provinces. In some of the +cities I found well-educated people, trustworthy, cordial, and liberal +in sentiment. In places far removed from the Provveditore Generale's +Court the manners of the population are incredibly rough. All the +peasants may be described as cruel, superstitious, and irrational wild +beasts. In their marriages, their funerals, their games, they preserve +the customs of pagan antiquity. Reading Homer and Virgil gives a perfect +conception of the Morlacchi. They hire a troop of women to lament over +their dead. These professional mourners shriek by turns, relieving one +another when voice and throat have been exhausted by dismal wailings +tuned to a music which inspires terror. One of their pastimes is to +balance a heavy piece of marble on the lifted palm of the right hand, +and hurl it after taking a running jump. The fellow who projects this +missile in a straight line to the greatest distance, wins. One is +reminded of the enormous boulders hurled by Diomede and Turnus. + +In their mountain homes the Morlacchi are fine fellows, useful to the +State of Venice on occasions of war with the Turks, their neighbours, +whom they cordially detest. The inhabitants of the coast make bold +seamen, apt for fighting on the waters. Toward Montenegro the tribes +become even more like savages. Families, who have been accustomed for +some generations to die peaceably in their beds or kennels, and cannot +boast of a fair number of murdered ancestors, are looked down upon by +the rest. On the beach outside the city walls of Budua, for which these +men and brothers leave their hills in summer-time to taste the coolness +of sea-breezes, I have witnessed their exploits with the musket and have +seen three corpses stretched upon the sands. A member of one of the +pacific families I have described, being taunted by some comrade, burned +to wipe out the shame of his kindred, and opened a glorious chapter in +their annals by slaughtering and being slaughtered. Fierce battles and +armed encounters between village and village are frequent enough in +those parts. The men of one village who kill a man of the next village, +have no peace unless they pay a hundred sequins or discharge their debt +by the death of one of their own folk. Such is the current tariff, fixed +without consulting their sovereign, among these people, who regard +brutality as justice. I learned much about these traits of human nature +from a village priest of Montenegro, who conversed with me nearly every +day upon the beach at Budua. He talked a strange Italian jargon, +narrated the homicides of his flock with complacency, and let it be +understood that a gun was better suited to his handling than the vessels +of the sanctuary. + +The thirst for vengeance is never slaked there. It passes from heir to +heir like an estate in tail. Among the Morlacchi, who are less +bloodthirsty than the Montenegrins, I once saw a woman of some fifty +years fling herself at the feet of the Provveditore Generale, extract a +mummied head from a game-bag, and cast it on the ground before him, +weeping as though her heart would burst, and calling aloud for pity and +justice. For thirty years she had preserved this skull, the skull of her +mother, who had been murdered. The assassins had long ago been brought +to justice, but their punishment was insufficient to lay the demon of +ferocity in this affectionate daughter. Accordingly, she presented +herself indefatigably through a course of thirty years before each of +the successive Provveditori Generali, with the same maternal skull in +her game-bag, with the same shrieks and tears and cries for justice. + +I liked seeing the Montenegrin women. They clothe themselves in black +woollen stuffs after a fashion which was certainly not invented by +coquetry. Their hair is parted, and falls over their cheeks on either +shoulder, thickly plastered with butter, so as to form a kind of large +shiny bonnet. They bear the burden of the hard work of the field and +household. The wives are little better than slaves of the men. They +kneel and kiss the men's hands whenever they meet; and yet they seem to +be contented with their lot. Perhaps it would not be amiss if some +Montenegrins came to Italy and changed our fashions with regard to +women; for ours are somewhat too marked in the contrary direction. + +Climate renders both the men and women of those provinces extremely +prone to sensuality. Legislators, recognising the impossibility of +controlling lawless lust here, have fixed the fine for seduction of a +girl with violence at a trifle above the sum which a libertine in Venice +bestows on the purveyor of his venal pleasures. At the period of my +residence in Dalmatia, the cities retained something of antique +austerity. This did not, however, prevent the fair sex from conducting +intrigues by stealth. It is possible that, since those days, enlightened +and philosophical Italians, composing the courts of successive +Provveditori Generali, may have removed the last obstacles of prejudice +which gave a spice of danger to love-making. + +In Dalmatia the women are handsome, inclining for the most part toward a +masculine robustness; among the Morlacchi of the villages, a Pygmalion +who chose to expend some bushels of sand in polishing the fair sex up, +would obtain fine breathing statues for his pains. These women of +Illyria are less constant in their love than those of Italy; but merit +less blame for their infidelity than the latter. The Illyrian is blinded +and constrained by her fervent temperament, by the climate, by poverty +and credulity; the Italian errs through ambition, avarice, and caprice. +I consider myself qualified for speaking with decision on these points, +as will appear from the chapter I intend to write upon the +love-adventures of my youth. + +The land of those provinces is in great measure mountainous, stony, and +barren. There are, however, large districts of plain which might be +extremely fertile. Neither the sterile nor the fertile regions are under +cultivation, but remain for the most part fallow and unfruitful. Onions +and garlic constitute the favourite delicacies of the Morlacchi. The +annual consumption of these vegetables is enormous; and it would not be +difficult to raise a large supply of both at home. They insist, however, +on importing them from Romagna; and when one takes the peasants to task +for this sluggish indifference to their own interests, they reply that +their ancestors never planted onions, and that they have no mind to +change their customs. I often questioned educated inhabitants of those +regions upon the indolence and sloth which prevail in rural Dalmatia. +The answer I received was that nobody, without exposing his life to +peril, could make the Morlacchi do more than they chose to do, or +introduce the least reform into their agriculture. I observed that the +proprietors might always import Italian labour and turn those fertile +plains into a second Apulia. This remark was met with bursts of +laughter; and when I asked the reason, my informants told me that many +Dalmatian gentlemen had brought Italian peasants over, but that a few +days after their arrival, they were found murdered in the fields, +without the assassins having ever been detected. I perceived that my +project was impracticable. Yet I wondered at my friends laughing rather +than shedding tears, when they gave me these convincing answers. + +It is a pity that Illyria and Dalmatia cannot be rendered fertile and +profitable to the State. As it is, they cost our treasury more than they +yield, through the expenses incidental to their forming our frontier +against Turkey. But I never made it my business to meddle in affairs of +public policy; and perhaps there are good reasons why these provinces +should be left to their sterility. The opinion I have continually +maintained and published, that we ought to begin by cultivating heads +and hearts, has raised a swarm of hostile projectors against me. Such +men take the truths of the gospel for biting satires, if they detect the +least shadow of opposition to their views regarding personal interest, +personal ambition, or particular prejudice. Yet the real miseries which +I noticed in Dalmatia, the wretched pittance which proprietors draw from +their estates, and the dishonesty of the peasants, suffice to +demonstrate my principles of moral education beyond the possibility of +contradiction. + +During my three years in Dalmatia I used to eat superb game and +magnificent fish for a mere nothing; often against my inclination, and +only because the opportunity could not be neglected. When you are in +want of something, you rarely find it there. The fishermen, who live +upon the rocky islands,[122] ply their trade when it pleases them. They +take no thought for fasts, and sell fish for the most part on days when +flesh is eaten. The fish too is brought to market stuffed into sacks. I +could multiply these observations; but let what I have already said +suffice. It is my firm opinion that the economists of our century are at +fault when they propose material improvements and indulge in visions of +opulence and gain, without considering moral education. Wealth is now +regarded by the indigent with eyes of envy and the passions of a pirate; +rich people act as though they knew not what it was to possess wealth, +and make a shameless abuse of it in practice. The one class need to +learn temperance, moderation, and obedience to duty; the other ought to +be trained to reason and subordination. The sages of the present day +entertain very different views from these. In their eyes nothing but +material interest has any value; and instead of deploring bad morals and +manners, they seem to glory in them. + + + + +X. + + _I am enrolled in the Cavalry of the Republic.--What my military + services amounted to._ + + +Some fifteen months of my three years' service had elapsed, when the +recall of our regular troops and the enrolment of fresh forces in +Dalmatia, which have been described by me above, took place. I have now +to mention that the Provveditore Generale chose this moment for placing +me upon the roll of the Venetian service. + +He had me inscribed as a cadet noble[123] of cavalry. Accordingly I +blossomed out into a proper soldier at the age of about eighteen. Signor +Giorgio Barbarigo, the paymaster,[124] a short, fat, honest fellow, +informed me that my commission was registered, and that I was qualified +to draw the salary of thirty-eight lire in good Venetian coin monthly at +his office. The news surprised me, and I went at once to pay my +acknowledgments to his Excellency. + +He told me that, nearly all the regular troops having been recalled to +Italy, he saw no prospect of awarding me a higher rank during the term +of his administration, a considerable part of which had already +elapsed. To this he added some ironical remarks to the following +effect--"Although, indeed, I do not think you mean to follow a military +career, having observed from many points in your behaviour that you are +rather inclined to assume the clerical habit." I chose to interpret the +irony of my chief to my advantage, and answered cheerfully that although +I felt little inclination for the military profession, nothing would +ever induce me to become an ecclesiastic; meanwhile I was glad to have +studied human nature as one finds it in an army and in those provinces; +above all things, I recognised the advantage of having been allowed to +serve his Excellency during the three years of his office. I perceived +that this reply had not been unacceptable, and retired after making the +regulation bow. + +I discharged my military duties with punctuality; and if my courage had +been put to the test, I feel sure that I should have faced death with +romantic enthusiasm. Yet I cannot boast of having earned my monthly pay +by any particular services. In addition to the daily and nightly routine +of discipline, I attended his Excellency upon visits of inspection by +sea and land to the various fortified places of the territory. When the +plague broke out, I spoiled my shirts and ruffles in fumigating the mass +of correspondence which used to reach the Provveditore Generale from +infected villages. I delivered sentences of arrest by word of mouth to +Venetian patricians, noblemen, and officers--always much against the +grain. I lay, together with several of my comrades, under arrest on a +false charge of malpractice, and owed my liberation after a few hours to +the intercession of a gentle lady of the Veniero family. While +enumerating these martial deserts, I ought not perhaps to include the +sufferings endured upon my journeys, whether riding the worst of nags +under a fierce sun and sleeping in jackboots upon the open fields, or +rocking at sea all night aboard some galley on a coil of cable, half +devoured by myriads of bugs. Great as these sufferings were, I must +admit that I endured greater in the disorderly garrison amusements which +I joined of my own accord. Some account of these I intend to give in +another chapter. + +It will be observed that my services to the State were but slender. Yet +many men have gained promotion or a pension on the strength of nothing +better. And now I think upon it, I will mention one notable achievement, +which, though it be not martial, might have put some other soldier +laddie in the way of rising to his colonelcy. I hardly expect to be +believed, but I am telling the truth, when I affirm that I acquired +renown throughout Dalmatia as a _soubrette_ in improvised comedy upon +the boards of a theatre. + + + + +XI. + + _My theatrical talents; athletic exercises; imprudences of all + kinds; dangers to which I exposed myself; with reflections which + are always frivolous._ + + +All through the carnival, tragedies, dramas and comedies used to be +performed by amateurs in the Court-theatre, for the amusement of his +Excellency, the patricians on the civil staff, officers of the garrison, +and the good folk of Zara.[125] + +Our troop was composed exclusively of male actors, as is the case in +general with unprofessional theatres; and young men, dressed like women, +played the female parts. I was selected to represent the _soubrette_. + +On weighing the tastes of my audience, and taking into account the +nation for whom I was to act, I invented a wholly new kind of character. +I had myself dressed like a Dalmatian servant-girl, with hair divided at +the temples, and done up with rose-coloured ribbands. My costume +corresponded at all points to that of a coquettish housemaid of +Sebenico. I discarded the Tuscan dialect, which is spoken by the +_soubrettes_ of our theatres in Italy, and having learned Illyrian +pretty well by this time, I devised for my particular use a jargon of +Venetian, altering the pronunciation and interspersing various Illyrian +phrases. This produced a very humorous effect, and lent itself both in +dialogue and improvised soliloquies to the expression of sentiments in +keeping with my part. Courage and loquacity were always at my service; +after studying the plot of a comedy, which had to be performed +extempore, I never found my readiness of wit at fault. Accordingly, the +new and unexpected type of the _soubrette_ which I invented was welcomed +with enthusiasm alike by Italians and natives. It created a _furore_ in +my audience, and won for me universal sympathy. + +My sketches of Dalmatian manners studied from the life, my satirical +repartees to the mistresses I served, my piquant sallies upon incidents +which formed the talk of town and garrison, my ostentatious modesty, my +snubs to impertinent admirers, my reflections and my lamentations, made +the Provveditore Generale and the whole audience declare with tears of +laughter running down their cheeks that I was the wittiest and most +humourous _soubrette_ who ever trod the boards of a theatre. They often +bespoke improvised comedies, in order to enjoy the amusing chatter and +Illyrico-Italian jargon of Luce; for I ought to add that I adopted this +name, which is the same as our Lucia, instead of Smeraldina, Corallina, +or Colombina. + +Ladies in plenty were eager to know the young man who played Luce with +such diablerie and ready wit upon the stage. But when they met him face +to face in society, his reserve and taciturnity were so unlike the +sprightliness of his assumed character, that they fairly lost their +temper. Now that I am well stricken in years, I recognise that their +disappointment was anything but a misfortune for me. The conduct of +those few who concealed their feelings and pretended that my +self-control and seriousness had charms to win their heart, justifies +this moral reflection. Meanwhile my talent for comedy relieved me of all +military duties so long as carnival lasted. Each year, at the +commencement of this season, the Provveditore Generale sent for me, and +affably requested me to devote my time and energy to his amusement in +the Court-theatre. + +During summer he set the fashion of pallone-playing, which had hitherto +been unknown at Zara.[126] I had made myself an adept in this game at +our Friulian country-seat. Accordingly his Excellency urged me to +display my accomplishments for the entertainment of the public. In a +short time my seductive costume of fine white linen, with a waistband of +black satin and fluttering ribands, cut a prominent figure among the +competitors in this noble sport. My turn for study, literary talent, +grave demeanour, and seriousness of character made far less impression +on the fair sex than my successes on the stage and the pallone-ground. +It was these and these alone which put my chastity to the test and +conquered it, as will appear in the chapter on my love-adventures. I +might here indulge in a digression hardly flattering to women. But I +prefer to congratulate them on their emancipation from the ideality of +Petrarch's age. Now they are at liberty to float voluptuously on the +tide of tender and electrical emotions, in company with youths congenial +to their instincts, who have abandoned tedious studies for occupations +hardly more exacting than a game at ball or the impersonation of a +waiting-maid. + +The truth of history compels me to touch upon some incidents which put +my boyish courage to the proof; yet I must confess that my deeds of +daring in Dalmatia were nothing better than mad and brainless acts of +folly. While recording them, I dare hardly hope--although I should +sincerely like to do so--that they will prove useful to parents by +exposing the kind of life which young men lead on foreign service, or to +sons by pointing out the errors of my ways. + +We had no war on hand, and our valour was obliged to find a vent for +itself. I should have passed for a poltroon if I had not joined the +amusements and adventures of my comrades. These consisted for the most +part in frantic gambling, serenading houses which returned our serenades +with gunshots, entertaining women of the town at balls and +supper-parties, brawling in the streets at night, disguising ourselves +to frighten people, and breaking the slumbers of the good folk of the +towns and fortresses where the Court happened to be fixed. I remember +that one summer night in the city of Spalato, eight or ten of us dressed +up for the latter purpose. Each man put on a couple of shirts, thrusting +his legs through the sleeves of one and his arms through the other, with +a big white bonnet on his head and a pole in his hand. Thus attired, we +scoured the town like spectres from the other world, knocking at doors, +uttering horrid shrieks to rouse the population, and striking terror +into the breasts of women and children. Now it is the custom there to +leave the stable-doors open, because of the great heat at night. +Accordingly we undid the halters of some fifty horses, and drove them +before us, clattering our staves upon the pavement. The din was +infernal. Folk leaped from their beds, thinking that the Turks had made +a raid upon the town, and crying from their windows: "Who the devil are +you? Who goes there? Who goes there?" They screamed to the deaf, while +we went clattering and driving on. In the morning the whole city was in +an uproar, discussing last night's prodigy and skurrying about to catch +the frightened animals. + +My guitar-playing accomplishments made me indispensable in these +dare-devil escapades of hair-brained boys, which by some miracle never +seemed to reach the Provveditore Generale's ears. Had they done so, I +suppose they would have been punished, as they deserved; for he was a +man who knew how to maintain discipline. The Italians and Illyrians do +not dwell together without a certain half-concealed antipathy. This +leads to frequent trials of strength and valour, in which the Italians +are most to blame. They insult the natives and pick quarrels with a +people famous for their daring and ferocity. The courage displayed in +maintaining these quarrels and facing their attendant dangers deserves +the name of folly rather than of bravery. After stating this truth, to +which indeed I was never blind, I dare affirm that no one met +musket-shots and menaces with a bolder front than I did. Physicians +versed in the anatomy of the human frame may be able to explain my +constitutional imperturbability under all circumstances of peril. I am +content to account for it as sheer stupidity. + +We were at Budua, toward Montenegro, my friend Massimo and I. In this +city women are guarded with a watchful jealousy of which Italians have +no notion; while homicides occur with facility and frequency. Massimo +began a gallant correspondence from the window of our lodging with a +girl who was our neighbour. She belonged to one of the noblest families +of the place, and was engaged to a gentleman of the city. Nevertheless, +she returned my friend's advances with the eagerness of one who has been +kept in slavery. I must add that the future bridegroom obtained some +inkling of this arial intrigue. He was a rough Illyrian of no breeding. +One morning this fellow opened conversation with us officers in a little +square, where we were seated together on stone benches. With much +circumlocution and a kind of awkward sprightliness, addressing himself +to Massimo, and smiling half-sourly and half-sillily, he expressed his +own stupid contempt for Italian customs with regard to women. The long +and the short of this involved discourse was simply that all the men in +Italy were cuckolds, and all the women no better than they should be. +Massimo took care not to emphasise the meaning of the fellow's +innuendoes, which would have called for blood and vengeance; but +contented himself with bluntly defending our social institutions. In the +course of his argument he proved that the barbarity and tyranny of men +toward women, who are always sharp of wit and full of cleverness in +every climate, caused more of immorality and intrigue in Illyria than +freedom of intercourse between the sexes caused in Italy. To my mind, +he spoke what was partly true and partly false; for it cannot be +maintained that the facilitation and toleration of licentiousness remove +it from our midst. The Illyrian, however, lacked eloquence, and felt ill +at ease in carrying on a wordy warfare. So he did not attempt to confute +Massimo; but rolled his head and knit his brows, and told him that he +might soon be taught at his own cost how badly the Italians conduct +themselves in this respect. + +Nothing more was wanted in the way of challenge to set us Italians on +our mettle. A trifle of this sort turned us at once into knights-errant, +championing our nation's cause among half-savages, who murder men with +the same indifference as they kill quails or fig-peckers. Massimo turned +to me and said that, when night fell, I must take my guitar and follow +him. Obeying the rash romantic impulse of my heart, I replied that +nothing should prevent me from attending on him. The other Italians who +were present at this interview, with more prudence than ourselves, +affected to hear nothing. + +It happened that a young Florentine named Steffano Torri was at this +time clerk in the secretary's office of the Generalato. He played female +parts in our comedies and tragedies with much ability, and sang like a +nightingale. In order to give our nocturnal enterprise the character of +a serenade--a thing quite alien to the customs of that district--Massimo +invited this poor lad to warble, without informing him of what, had +happened. He was only too glad to let his fine voice be heard; and being +besides an obliging creature, he gave his promise on the spot. + +[Illustration: IL CAPITANO (1668) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy._] + +Night came. It was September; the season warm, and the moon shining +brightly. We girt our swords, stuck a brace of pistols in our belts, and +took up our station in the principal street, which was long and +straight, beneath the windows of Massimo's Dulcinea. Torri sent melody +after melody forth into the silent air, while I twanged my +guitar-strings for a good hour's space. Suddenly a window, belonging to +the mansion we were honouring with our duet, flew violently open. A +great black head appeared, from which there issued a hoarse voice like +that of Charon in Dante's Inferno. "What insolence!" it uttered with a +bad Italian accent. We knew that the huge skull was consecrate, and +belonged to a certain Canon, uncle of the girl. But something more was +needed than the big bovine voice of an ecclesiastic to disturb our +tranquillity. Torri, however, being a civilian and no soldier, began to +be aware that his melodious airs were out of place. The prudence which +is born of fear made him reflect upon the situation, and he asked leave +to retire. We persuaded him to stay awhile, pointing out that the street +was public, that our amusement was lawful and innocuous, and that it +conferred an honour on our nation. He resumed his singing; but from this +moment the melodies had a certain quaver in them, which the composer had +not calculated. The first assault by the Canon was sustained and +repulsed; for after roaring out "What insolence!" three or four times, +he shut the window in our faces with a crash. + +The second attack upon our obstinacy was something very different and +far more formidable than a priest's voice, however horrible. It +effectually shut the mouth up of our young musician. By the light of the +moon we could discern six men at a distance entering the street with six +lowered and gleaming muskets; the cowls of their cloaks concealed their +faces, and they advanced at a slow pace toward us. At this apparition +our musician took to his heels, and did not stop running till he reached +his lodging. Massimo and I stood our ground like Orlando and Rodomonte. +I went on playing; my friend, to keep the singing up, howled out some +rustic ditties in a bold voice, which was however, I am bound to say, +even less agreeable than the Canon's. His discords were enough to cast +eternal shame upon Italian music; and if the young lady heard them, they +must have frightened her out of her wits instead of giving her the +pleasure of a serenade. + +Observing our determination to stand firm, the six cowled men advanced +to within twenty paces. We heard the click of their six gunlocks, as +they cocked them, ready to give fire. At this point our intrepidity +deserved no other name than madness; it called for the lancet, +hellebore, strait-jackets, a good drubbing. Without budging an inch, we +raised our pistols at the muffled band. They looked at us, we looked at +them, for good two minutes. Then they made their minds up to defile +past, leaving us at a little distance, but always keeping their eyes +fixed with a haughty defiance on our faces. We, on our part, made our +minds up to let them pass, returning no less haughty glances. Perhaps +they wished to give us time for repentance, or for wholesome +reflections, which should make us quit our post. Anyhow, they moved +onward till they reached the end of the street, when once again they +turned and faced us. + +Little did those cowled and mantled fellows know the length and breadth +of our stupidity! We recommenced our duet with a more hideous din than +ever. They retraced their steps, and advanced steadily toward us. But +when they found the pair of little fighting-cocks still standing with +raised pistols on the watch, they judged it wiser to pursue their course +and disappear. The removal of the Court from Budua, which took place one +day after this memorable exploit, probably saved us from being shot down +by an ambuscade. I also imagine that the men only wished to frighten us +away. Possibly our expected departure from the city, or else respect for +our staff-uniform, restrained their fingers on the trigger. Such +considerations had certainly more weight with those fierce natives than +the insane bravado of two insects armed with pistols. Anyhow, I have +always regarded our courage in this danger as fool-hardiness rather than +magnanimity. + +I could relate an infinity of such adventures, in all of which we risked +our lives on some puerile point of honour, or in pursuit of some +impertinence which called for castigation. One night at Spalato our +serenading party was welcomed with a storm of heavy stones, which made +us skip like kids, but could not drive us from our post. We were paying +this compliment to a handsome girl of Ragusa, the mistress of one of the +chief nobles of the city, and we maintained our station for the honour +of Italy, with skulls unbroken, till the day rose. + +In the society of unemployed and lazy officers, a young man may be said +to have worked miracles who preserves the good principles implanted in +him at home. Unless he conforms to the tone and fashion of his comrades, +he is sure to be derided and despised. If he does conform, he is likely +to lose substance, health and reputation at cards, with women, or by +drinking. Besides this, he constantly risks life and limb in the +so-called pastimes I have just described. + +I am able to boast without exaggeration that I never played for high +stakes, that I never surrendered myself to debauchery, that I preserved +the sound principles of my home education, and yet that I was popular +with all my comrades, owing to the clubbable and fraternal attitude +which I assumed at some risk, it is true, yet always with the firm +determination to leave a good character behind me when my term of +service ended. + + + + +XII. + + _Shows how a young Cadet of Cavalry is capable of executing a + military stratagem._ + + +Having described the dangers to which my system of conduct in the army +exposed me, I ought in justice to myself to show that I was able on +occasion to reconcile our absurd code of honour with prudence and +diplomacy. With this object I will relate an incident, which is neither +more nor less insignificant than the other events of my life. + +The city of Zara is traversed by a main street of considerable length, +extending from the piazza of San Simeone to the gate called Porta +Marina. Several lanes and alleys, leading downwards from the ramparts on +the side toward the sea, debouch into this principal artery. It so +happened that some of the officers, wishing to traverse one of these +lanes on their way to the promenade upon the ramparts, had been +intercepted by a man muffled in a mantle, who levelled an eloquent +enormous blunderbuss at their persons, and forced them to change their +route. This act of violence ought to have been reported to the +Provveditore Generale, and he would have speedily restored order and +freedom of passage. Our military code of honour, however, forbade +recourse to justice as an act of cowardice; albeit some of my comrades +found it not derogatory to their courage to recoil before a blunderbuss. + +My readers ought to be informed that a girl of the people, called +Tonina, one of the loveliest women whom eyes of man have ever seen, +lived in this lane. She had multitudes of admirers; and the cozening +tricks she used to wheedle and entice a pack of simpletons, made her no +better than any other cheap and venal beauty. Yet she contrived to sell +her favours by the sequin. A gentleman, whom I shall mention lower down, +was madly in love with this little baggage. Wishing to keep the treasure +to himself, he adopted a truly Dalmatian mode of testifying his +devotion, and stood sentinel in her alley. On two consecutive evenings +the passage was barred; we talked of nothing else in the ante-chamber of +the General, and laid plans how to reassert our honour. A number of +officers agreed to face the blunderbuss; I received an invitation to +join the band; and acting on my system of good-fellowship, I readily +consented. + +Our discussion took place in the ante-chamber; silence was enjoined; we +settled that each of the conspirators should wear a white ribband on his +hat, and that three hours after nightfall we should assemble under arms +at our accustomed mustering-place. This was a billiard-saloon, whence +we were to sally forth to the assault of Budua. + +An Illyrian nobleman, Signor Simeone C----, of handsome person, +honourable carriage, and a resolute temper, which inspired even soldiers +with respect, although he held no military grade, was sitting in a +corner of the ante-chamber, half-asleep, and apparently inattentive to +our project. I knew him to be frank and genial, and he had often +professed sentiments of sincere friendship for myself. After our scheme +had been concerted, I passed into the reception-room of the palace. He +followed, and opened a conversation on indifferent topics, in the course +of which he drew me aside, changed his tone, and began to speak as +follows:-- + +"The moment has arrived for me to testify the cordial friendship which I +entertain for you. I regret that you have promised to join those +fire-eaters this evening. On your honour and secrecy I know that I can +count. I am sure that you will not reveal what I am about to disclose; +else the higher powers, whom we are bound to regard, might be involved, +and cowardice might be suspected in those whose courage is indisputable. +This preamble will enable you to judge what I think of you, and to +measure the extent of my friendship. I am the man in the mask. To-night +there will be four blunderbusses in the alley. I shall lose my life; but +several will lose theirs before the lane is forced. I am sorry that you +are in the affair. Contrive to get out of your engagement. Let the rest +come, and enjoy their fill of pastime at the cost of life or limb." + +This blunderbuss of an oration took me by surprise. But I did not lose +my senses or my tongue, and answered to the following effect:-- + +"I am amazed that you should have begun by professing friendship and +preaching caution. You do not seem to understand the first elements of +the one or the simple meaning of the other. I am obliged to you for one +thing only, your belief that I am incapable of divulging what you have +just told me. Upon this point alone your discernment is not at fault. I +would rather die than expose you. Yet you want me, under threats, to +break my word, and to render myself contemptible in the eyes of all my +comrades. This you call a proof of friendship. It is as clear as day, +too, that you have yielded to a hussy's importunities, risking your own +life and the lives of your friends upon a silly point of honour in a +shameful quarrel. This is the proof of your prudence. If you withdraw +from the engagement, no harm will be done, and cowardice will only be +imputed to a nameless mask. But if I break my word, you cannot free me +from the imputation of having proved myself a renegade and a dastard. I +shall become an object of scorn and abhorrence to the whole army. If I +act as you desire, my oath of secrecy to you will violate the laws of +friendship, prudence, everything which men hold sacred. Your promise of +secrecy again puts my honour in peril. How can you be sure that one of +your accomplices will not privily inform his Excellency of your name and +your mad enterprise? Where shall I then be? No: it is clearly your duty +to obey the counsels dictated by my loyal friendship and my sound +prudence. Leave the alley open; and then you will in truth oblige me. +Make love to your Tonina with something more to the purpose than a +blunderbuss. Her physical shape excuses your weakness for her; her mind +deserves your scorn; but I am not going to preach sermons on objects +worthy or unworthy of love; I feel compassion for human frailty." + +It was obvious that Signor Simeone C---- felt the force of these +arguments. But he writhed with rage under them, and showed no sign of +consenting. In his fierce Dalmatian way he burst into bare +protestations, swore that he would never quit the field, and wound up +with a vow to sell his life as dearly as man ever did. + +At this point I judged it needful to administer a dose of histrionic +artifice. After gazing at him for some seconds with eyes which spoke +volumes, I assumed the declamatory tone of a tragedian, and exclaimed: +"Well then, I promise to be the first to enter the lane this evening, +and, without attacking you, I shall offer my breast to your fire. I have +only this way left of proving to you that you are in no real sense of +the word my friend." Then I turned my back with a show of passion, +taking care, however, to retire at a slow pace. Except for the ferocity +instilled by education, he was at bottom an excellent good-hearted +fellow. Seizing me by the arm, he begged me wait a moment. I saw that he +was touched, and maintaining the tragic tone, I persuaded him to leave +the access to the alley free, without resigning his exclusive right to +the Tonina. For my part, I undertook never to reveal our secret. This +promise I have kept for thirty-five years. Lapse of time and the +probability of his decease--for he was much older than I--excuse me for +now breaking it. + +On three following nights I joined the allied forces at the +billiard-room, armed to the teeth, and with a white ribbon flying from +my hat-band. I was always the first to brave the blunderbusses, being +sure that no resistance would be offered. Indeed, the victory, on which +we piqued ourselves, had been won beforehand in my battle of words. The +culpable conduct of Tonina, a girl of the people, who had exposed so +many gentlemen to serious danger, remained fixed in my mind. I shall +relate the sequel to this incident, which took a comic turn, in the next +chapter. For the present, it is enough to add that Signer Simeone C----'s +infatuation for this corsair of Venus rapidly declined, as is the wont +of passions begotten by masculine appetite and feminine avarice. +Tonina, however, did not lack lovers, and the badness of her nature +continued to spread discord and foment disorder in our circle. + + + + +XIII. + + _The fair Tonina is rudely rebuked by me upon an accidental + occasion in the theatre.--My reconciliation with the young + woman.--Reflections on my life in Dalmatia._ + + +One evening during the last carnival of my three years' service, the +Provveditore Generale bespoke an improvised comedy at the Court-theatre. +The officers arranged a supper-party and a ball in private rooms, +intending to pass the night gaily when the farce was over. I had to play +the part of Luce, married to Pantalone, a vicious old man, broken in +health and fortune. I was reduced to extreme poverty, with a daughter in +the cradle, the fruit of my unhappy marriage. + +There was a night-scene, in which I had to soliloquise, while rocking my +child and singing it to sleep with some old ditty. This lullaby I +interrupted from time to time with the narrative of my misfortunes and +with sallies which made the audience die of laughter. Bursts of applause +brought the house down as I told my story, enlarged upon my reasons for +marrying an old man, related the incidents of my life, alluded in +modest monosyllables to what I had to bear, described what a fine figure +of a woman I had been, and what a scarecrow matrimony had made me. I +complained of cold, hunger, evil treatment. I did not make milk enough +to suckle my baby; and what I made was sour, nay, venomous from fits of +rage and all the sufferings I had to go through. This bad milk gave my +darling, the fruit of my womb, the stomach-ache. It kept bleating all +night like a lamb, and would not let me close an eye. The night was far +advanced. I was waiting for my old fool of a husband. What could be +keeping him abroad? He must surely be in the Calle del Pozzetto, +notorious at Zara for its evil fame. I had a presentiment of coming +troubles, moralised upon the woes of life, and burst into a flood of +tears, which made everybody laugh. The truth was that one of our +officers, Signor Antonio Zeno, who played the part of Pantalone +excellently, had not turned up at the proper time to enter into dialogue +with me. Until he arrived, I was forced to continue my soliloquy, which +had already occupied the attention of the audience full fifteen minutes. +A good extempore actor ought never to lose presence of mind, or to be at +a loss for material. In order to prolong the scene, I pretended that my +baby was crying, and that it would not go to sleep for all my lullabies +and cradle-rocking. In a fit of impatience I took it up, unlaced my +dress, and laid it with endearing caresses to my breasts to quiet it. +This fresh absurdity, together with my lamentations over the +non-existent teats I said the greedy little thing was biting, kept my +audience in good-humour. From time to time I turned my eyes to the +sides, being really disturbed at Signor Zeno-Pantalone's non-appearance, +and racking my brains in vain for some new matter to sustain the +soliloquy. + +Just then I happened to catch sight of Tonina seated in one of the front +boxes of the theatre, resplendent with beauty, and attired in a gala +dress which cast a glaring light upon her dubious career. She was +laughing with more assurance and sense of fun than anybody at my jokes. +The catastrophe which she had nearly caused flashed suddenly across my +mind. I felt that I had discovered a treasure; and plunged like +lightning into a new subject. What I proceeded to do was bold, I admit, +yet quite within the limits of good taste upon our amateur stage, where +personal allusions were allowed perhaps a little too liberally. I called +my doll-baby by the name of Tonina, and addressed my speech to it. I +caressed it, admired its features, flattered my maternal heart with the +hope that Tonina would grow up a lovely girl. So far as I was concerned. +I vowed to give her a good education, by example, precepts, +chastisement, and watchful care. Then, taking a tone of gravity, I +warned her that if, in spite of all my trouble, she fell into such and +such faults, such and such acts of imprudence, such and such immoral +ways, and caused such and such disturbances, she would be the worst +Tonina in the world, and I prayed God to cut her days short rather in +the cradle. All the evil things I mentioned were faithfully copied from +anecdotes about Tonina in the front box, with which my audience were +only too well acquainted. + +Never in my whole life have I known an improvised soliloquy to be so +tumultuously applauded as this of mine was. The spectators at one point +of the speech turned their faces with a simultaneous movement towards +Tonina in her gala dress, clapping their hands and laughing till the +theatre rang again. His Excellency, who had some inkling of the siren's +ways, honoured my unexpected satire with explosions of unconcealed +merriment. Tonina backed out of her box in a fit of fury, and escaped +from the theatre, cursing my soliloquy and the man who made it. +Pantalone finally arrived, and the comedy ended without any episode more +mirthful than the scene between me and my baby. + +Do not imagine that I have related this incident to brag about it. +Although the young woman in question was a girl of the people, whose +dissolute behaviour and ill-nature had been the cause of many +misadventures, and though the Provveditore Generale applauded my +performance, I blamed myself, when it was over, for yielding to a mere +impulse of vanity, and exhibiting my power as a comedian at the cost of +committing an act of imprudence and indiscretion. Much has to be +condoned to youth which is never conceded to maturity. + +I have mentioned that a ball and supper-party had been arranged by us +officers after the play, and that I was a member of the company. I went +in my costume of Luce, partly to save time, and partly to carry on the +joke. Tonina was among the guests. She did not expect me, and was +sitting in a corner, angry and out of spirits. When she saw me, one +would have thought she had set eyes on the fiend; she looked as though +she meant to leave the room. I took her hand, and protested I would +rather go than that the company should lose its loveliest ornament. I +vowed that she was adorably beautiful, and that it was a pity she was +not equally good. I begged her in gentle terms to take the accident of +the evening into account, to reflect upon the universal verdict given by +the audience on her ways of life, and to guard against the private +flatterers who blinded her to the truth. I told her that God had meant +to send in her an angel, and not a devil into this world. I interwove so +many praises with so many insolences, and with such complete frankness, +that she could not but laugh. Everybody laughed, down to her very +lovers. She expressed a wish to dance with me. I accepted the +invitation. This looked like a token of peace; but it was only +treachery. While dancing, she exerted all the charms, enticements, +captivating humours, pressures of the hand, and so forth, which her bad +vindictive and seductive nature could suggest to enslave me. + +A woman's coquetries directed to some purpose of revenge are always +blind, and give the best advantage to a clever rou. The reason is that +the woman, piqued to the point of seeking a victory at any price, lowers +herself to the utmost, without being aware of what she is conceding. I +was not a rou; and woe to me if I had let myself be snared by the wiles +and artifices of that viper smarting under the sense of recent insult! + +Our pleasure party was resumed soon after supper, during which my fair +foe kept me at her side. We broke up about sunrise; and Tonina never +ceased to call me her accursed little devil; that was the sweet +Dalmatian term of endearment which she used. Compelled by these +compliments, I promised to pay her a visit, but I did not keep my word. + +I have now given some general notion of my ways of thinking and acting, +my character and conduct, up to the age of eighteen on to twenty. +Nothing but the truth has dictated these reminiscences, from which I +have undoubtedly omitted many things of similar importance. I am sure +that if I had been guilty of anything really wrong during this period, +it would not have escaped either my memory or my pen. I have never +hardened my heart against the stings of remorse, and I would far rather +frankly record facts to my discredit than bear the stings of conscience +by suppressing what is true. Reviewing the veracious picture of myself +which I have painted, friends will see in me a somewhat eccentric young +man, but of harmless disposition; enemies will take me for a worthless +scapegrace; the indifferent, who know me superficially by sight, will +discover some one very different from their conception based on my +external qualities. At the proper place and time I shall account for +this not unreasonable and yet fallacious conception formed of me by +strangers. The reasons will appear clearly in the detailed portrait I +intend to execute of myself, and which will surpass the best work of any +painter. + + + + +XIV. + + _The end of my three years' service.--I cast up my accounts, and + reckon debts; calculate upon the future, with a sad prevision of + the truth.--My arrival in my home at Venice._ + + +The three years of my military service were nearly at an end, when I +contracted a slow fever, not dangerous to life, but tedious. The time +had come for settling accounts, and seeing how I stood. My family, since +I left home, had furnished me with only two bills of exchange, one for +fourteen, the other for six sequins. My useless duties to the State had +brought me thirty-eight lire per month. Against these receipts I +balanced my expenses: so much for my daily food; so much for my lodging, +clothing, and washing; so much for a servant, indispensable in my +position; so much for two illnesses, together with the small sums spent +on unavoidable pleasures of society. The result was that I found myself +in debt to my friend Massimo for exactly the sum of fifty-six sequins +and sixteen lire, or 200 ducats.[127] + +If the necessities of life are not to be considered vices, this debt was +certainly a modest one. Still it weighed upon my mind. I consoled myself +by recalling my friend's nobleness of nature, and felt sure that I +should be able to repay him on reaching home. I computed that the gross +sum I had received during those three years amounted to 480 ducats; and +I did not think I had been a spendthrift in consuming about 150 ducats a +year on my total expenditure. I could indeed have saved something by +attending the table which the Provveditore Generale kept daily for the +officers of his Court and guard, but which his sublime Excellency never +honoured with his presence. Little did he know what a gang of ruffians, +with the exception of a few patient souls constrained by urgent need, +defiled his table, or what low tricks were perpetrated at it. Since the +day of my arrival I had heard the infamous and compromising talk which +went on there, had watched the squabbles between guest and guest, and +guests and serving-men, had seen the cups and platters flying through +the air--and, like a naughty boy perhaps, I preferred to contract a debt +of 200 ducats rather than accept a hospitality so prostituted to vile +uses. I attended this table of Thyestes, as it seemed to me, only when I +could not help it, on the days when I had to mount guard. + +The financial statement I have just made will appear to many of my +readers a mere trifle, unworthy of recording here. They are mistaken. +When they have learned in what a state of desolation I found my father's +house, and how I strove to stem the tide of prodigality and waste which +was bringing our family to ruin, they will understand my reasons for +insisting on these trifles. Heads heated by anger and resentment are +only too ready to invent false accusations; and I shall soon be made to +appear a prodigal, a reckless gambler, a consumer of the substance of my +family during the three years I spent abroad. This is why I am so +scrupulous in telling the plain truth about my cost of living in +Dalmatia. I have never been ashamed of letting the whole world know how +modest are my fortunes. I should think it a greater shame to pretend to +possess more than I really own. Riches have always seemed to me to be a +name, and to reside in the imagination. If I cast my eyes on a +carpenter, then raise them to a duke, and finally lift them to a king, I +obtain convincing demonstration of the fact that he alone is rich who +has the mental wealth--to be contented with his lot. Alas! that only I +and many millions upon their deathbed recognise this truth. + +My three years were over. The new Provveditore Generale, Jacopo Bold, +arrived in Dalmatia, and received the staff of office with the usual +formalities from his Excellency Quirini. In my moments of leisure I had +composed several poems in honour of the latter, and had procured others +from Venice. These I copied out in the beautiful handwriting which I +then possessed, sewed them together, added a respectful dedication, and +had them bound in a fine velvet cover. Then I paid my respects to his +Excellency in company with my friend Massimo, and laid my literary +tribute at his feet. I was no Virgil, nor was I born in the golden age +of Augustus. Only my fanaticism for the art of poetry made me imagine +that verses could be anything worth offering as a gift. + +The Cavaliere accepted my donation with affability. He said: "I thank +you. At least I have the wherewithal to show that, while a member of my +Court, you have remained at school." + +Afterwards I learned that he made a present of this book to the Very +Eminent Cardinal, his uncle, Bishop of Brescia. His Excellency inquired +whether I preferred to return to Venice or to stay in Dalmatia, +occupying the post of cadet noble of cavalry on my promotion. I begged +him to take me in his train to Venice, and he graciously accepted. + +Some one else than I would have looked around for testimonials little to +be trusted, which might have kept me fraudulently drawing pay upon the +muster-roll of Venice from a too indulgent Government. But I had +renounced the military career, and had no mind to spunge upon the public +treasury. Our Prince I regarded as a common father, but did not think it +just to saddle him with thievish sons, each one of whom by coaxed +protections, adulations, hypocrisies, and the vilest offices, eats into +the common patrimony of the nation, which ought to be reserved for +urgent needs. I was a poor lad, with a debt of 200 ducats; but I knew +that the services rendered to the State by me constituted no claim upon +the public purse. If I was poor, this came from our being too many in +our family and from the maladministration of our property. + +My wants were moderate. I flattered myself that I could satisfy them by +attending to the management of the estate; and I felt sure that my +father, paralysed and speechless as he was, would never refuse to pay +the trifling debt I had contracted. Meanwhile it is not improbable that +my name remained upon the muster-roll long after I left Dalmatia. +Somebody may have pocketed my pay and pilfered from the treasury to this +extent. I was not responsible for this, and had no right to inquire into +the matter, since I never asked to be cashiered in form. Poor I was, +poor I am, and poor I expect to die. At any rate, I am sure that I +should die in desperation if I felt on my deathbed that I had earned a +fortune by deceit, injustice, and intrigue. + +It was in the month of October when at last I embarked for Venice on the +galley of his Excellency. Wind and weather were against us. After a +painful voyage of twenty-two days, we came in sight of home, and I drew +breath again. After paying my respects and returning thanks to the +Cavaliere who had brought me back, I set off for our ancestral mansion +at San Cassiano, accompanied by Signor Massimo, whom I had invited to +stay with me upon his way to Padua. There I hoped to be able to pay my +friend some attention by giving him good quarters during his sojourn in +Venice. + + + + +XV. + + _Disagreeable discoveries relating to our family affairs, which + dissipate all illusions I may have formed._ + + +Leaving the horrors of the galley for the ancient home of my ancestors, +I palpitated between pleasure at escaping into freedom, hope of being +able to make my friend comfortable, and uneasiness lest this hope might +prove ill-founded. + +We reached the entrance, and my companion gazed with wonder at the +stately structure of the mansion, which has really all the appearance of +a palace. As a connoisseur of architecture, he complimented me upon its +fine design. I answered, what indeed he was about to discover by +experience, that attractive exteriors sometimes mask discomfort and +annoyance. He had plenty of time to admire the faade, while I kept +knocking loudly at the house-door. I might as well have knocked at the +portal of a sepulchre. At last a woman, named Eugenia, the +guardian-angel of this wilderness, ran to open. To my inquiries she +answered, yawning, that the family were in Friuli, but that my brother +Gasparo was momently expected. Our luggage had now been brought from the +boat, and we began to ascend a handsome marble staircase. No one could +have expected that this fine flight of steps would lead to squalor and +the haunts of indigence. Yet on surmounting the last stair this was what +revealed itself. The stone floors were worn into holes and fissures, +which spread in all directions like a cancer. The broken window panes +let blasts from every point of the compass play freely to and fro within +the draughty chambers. The hangings on the walls were ragged, smirched +with smoke and dust, fluttering in tatters. Not a piece remained of that +fine gallery of pictures which my grandfather had bequeathed as +heirlooms to the family. I only saw some portraits of my ancestors by +Titian and Tintoretto still staring from their ancient frames. I gazed +at them; they gazed at me; they wore a look of sadness and amazement, as +though inquiring how the wealth which they had gathered for their +offspring had been dissipated. + +I have hitherto omitted to mention that our family archives contain an +old worm-eaten manuscript, in which are registered the tenths[128] paid +to the public treasury. From this document it appears that the father of +my great-grandfather was taxed on upwards of ten thousand ducats of +income. It is perhaps a folly to moralise on such things; yet the +recollection of those mournful portraits gazing down upon me in the +squalor of our ancient habitation prompts me to tell an idle truth. +Nobody will be the wiser for it; certainly none of our posterity in +this prodigal age. My grandfather left an only son and a good estate +settled in tail on heirs-male in perpetuity. Four excellent residences, +all of them well-furnished, one in Venice, another in Padua, another in +Pordenone, another in the Friulian country-town of Vicinate, were +included in this entail, as appears from his last will and testament. +Little did he think that the solemn appointments of the dead would be so +lightly binding on the living. + +I had informed my friend Massimo of the exact state of our affairs at +home, so far as these were known to me. I could not acquaint him with +the grave disasters which had happened in my three years' absence, being +myself in blessed ignorance as yet. The news that my two elder sisters +had been married inclined me to expect that our domestic circumstances +were improving. Cruel deception wrapped me round, and a hundred +speechless but eloquent mouths were now proclaiming, from the walls and +chambers of my home, how utterly deceived I had been. + +Before long I broke, as usual, into laughter, and gaily begged my +comrade's pardon for bringing him to such a wretched hostelry. I assured +him that my heart, at any rate, was not so ruined as my dwelling, and +engaged him in conversation, while we roamed around its chambers, every +nook of which increased my mirth by some new aspect of dilapidation. +Then I bade him refresh his spirits with a survey of the noble faade; +till at last we settled down as well as circumstances permitted. Two +days afterwards, my brother Gasparo arrived. I presented the stranger I +had brought to share our hospitality, frankly expressing my sense of his +worth and my obligations to him as a friend. Upon this we established +ourselves in a little society of three, enlivened by the conversation of +my brother, who, even with a fever on him, never failed to be witty. + +Gasparo and I were anxiously awaiting an opportunity to talk alone like +brothers after my long absence. When the moment came, I inquired after +my poor father, our mother, and the circumstances of the family. What I +had already seen on my arrival prepared me for the disagreeable news I +had to hear. With his usual philosophy, but not without an occasional +sign of painful emotion, he gave me the following details. The family +was reduced to really tragic straits. Our father lived on, but +speechless and paralytic, in the same state as when I left him. My two +elder sisters, Marina and Giulia, were married respectively to the Conte +Michele di Prata and the Conte Giovan-Daniele di Montereale. About ten +thousand ducats had been promised for their dowries. To raise this sum, +such and such portions of the estate had been sold, and a debt of more +than two thousand ducats had been contracted. A lawsuit was pending +between the family and the Conte Montereale concerning part of the dowry +still due to him. Our other three sisters, Laura, Girolama, and Chiara, +were growing into womanhood, and gave much to think of for their future. + +I saw, to my great annoyance, that it would be impossible to liquidate +my debt upon the spot. But all these terrifying details did not make me +regret my resignation of the post of cadet noble in the cavalry. A few +days later, Signor Massimo left for Padua, with the assurance that his +two hundred ducats would be paid in course of time by me. Upon this +matter he only expressed the sentiments of cordial friendship. + +It was not too late in the season for a visit to the country. I felt a +strong desire to reach Friuli, and to kiss the hands of my unhappy +father. Thither then I went, together with my brother, armed with a +giant's fortitude, which was not long in being put to proof. + + + + +XVI. + + _Fresh discoveries regarding the condition of our family.--Vain + hopes and wasted will to be of use.--I abandon myself to my old + literary studies._ + + +Our country-house had been originally constructed on an old-fashioned, +roomy, and convenient scale, with numbers of out-buildings. It was now +reduced to one of those dilapidated farms, which I have described in my +burlesque poem _La Marfisa Bizzarra_, canto xii., stanza 126.[129] +Two-thirds of the edifice had been demolished, and the materials sold. +The remaining fragments were inhabited, but bore written on their front: +"Here once was Troy." + +Prepared as I was by the misery of our town-house for the desolation of +this rural mansion, I hardly cared to cast a glance upon it. What I +noticed on arriving was a certain air of jollity and gladness, breathing +health, betokening contentment, which all the faces of the village +people wore. Amid the jubilations of relatives, guests, serving-folk and +lads about the farm, not omitting a pack of barking dogs, I descended +from the calche with my brother. A whole crowd of people, whom I did +not know and could not number, fell upon my neck to bid me welcome. +Something of a military carriage, which I had picked up abroad, but +which had no relation to my real self, made our farm-folk stare upon me +like a comet. + +Then I raised my eyes, and saw my poor father at a window in the upper +storey, with trembling limbs, dragging himself forward on his stick to +catch a glimpse of me. All the blood turned suddenly and galloped +through my veins. I rushed up the stairs, burst into the room where he +was standing, seized one of his hands, and kissed it in a transport of +filial affection. He fell upon my shoulder, more paralytic than he had +been when I last embraced him, and, in his inability to speak, broke +into a piteous fit of weeping. The effort I made to restrain my own +tears, lest they should add to his unhappiness, made me feel as though +my lungs would burst. Leaning on my arm, he slowly tottered after me, +and little by little we reached another room which he frequented. +October was nearly over, and the cold in that Friulian climate was very +sensible. A good fire burned on the hearth, near which stood the +arm-chair of my father, who for seven years had dragged his life out in +this wretched state. All the resources of medical science had been tried +in vain. Physicians sometimes agreed and sometimes differed about his +treatment. But their concord and their discord were equally impotent to +effect a cure; and he had not yet reached the age of fifty-five. + +I found my mother in the same apartment. She uttered sentiments which +were not inappropriate to her maternal character, but in a frigid tone +and with an air of stately self-control. I always loved and respected +her, not merely from a sense of duty, but with a true filial instinct. +She, on her side, used frequently to protest when there was no need for +protestation, that she loved all her nine children with exactly the same +amount of affection. She often repeated the following words with +gravity, raising her eyebrows as she spoke: "Cut off one of my fingers +and I suffer pain; cut off a second and I suffer;" and so on through +nine fingers, amputated by the same figure of speech, with equal agony +in each case. Notwithstanding this, I believe that the loss of eight +fingers would not have given her the same pain as that of the first-born +finger, in other words, of my brother Gasparo. He is still alive, a man +of honour, and a sage if ever sage existed; and I feel sure that he +would admit the truth of this statement, if called on to confirm it. + +In my long and anxious study of human nature, I have seen so many +mothers with the weakness of my own, that I never dreamed of blaming +her. It seemed right to me that my brother's mental gifts and noble +qualities should earn for him more of her love than she bestowed on all +her other eight children. Mothers, however, who are so devoted to a son +generally spoil him, notably by extolling what is good in his character, +but also by defending his natural frailties. Acting thus, my mother +favoured Gasparo's marriage, which subjected her beloved son to a real +martyrdom. Her lifelong devotion to him, and the prejudice displayed in +his favour by her will, only served to increase the unhappiness of a man +whom I always loved, loved still, and shall love as friend and brother +till the end of my days on earth. This digression was rendered necessary +by what will follow in my Memoirs. + +The room was soon full of relatives and intimate friends, all curious +about me. My father strove to ply me with questions, but his tongue +refused its office, and he relapsed into weeping. Sad at heart as I was +for him, I contrived to relate the most amusing anecdotes I could +remember concerning my life in Dalmatia and my travels. In this way I +kept him laughing, together with the whole company, through the rest of +that day. + +The perfect country air; a table abundantly served with rural dainties, +though somewhat deficient in elegance; the joviality, wit, and pleasant +sallies which never failed in our domestic circle,--all this prevented +me from attending to the defects of our establishment. Next day I began +to discover that the real cause of trouble was not in the building, but +in the minds of its inhabitants. I could not have explained why, but I +seemed to be a person of importance in the eyes of everybody. My three +sisters confided to me in secret that my brother Gasparo's wife, in +close alliance with my mother, who doted on her as the consort of her +favoured first-born, ruled all the affairs of the family, which were +rapidly going from bad to worse. My father's authority as head of the +house had ceased to be more than a mere instrument for carrying out what +my sister-in-law advised and my mother sanctioned. Unless I managed to +stem the tide of extravagance, we should all be plunged into an abyss of +ruin. One of my sisters, Girolama, a girl devoted to reading, writing, +and translating from the French--for she too was bitten with our family +cacoethes--spoke like a sibyl, gravely and eloquently, on these painful +topics. At the same time, my brother's wife contrived secret interviews, +in which she explained to me that her husband was indolent, torpid, +drowned in fruitless studies, devoted to the company of a certain clever +person, and wholly averse from thoughts or cares about domestic matters. +She had done everything in her power--God knew she had. She would go on +doing her best--God should see she would. Then she described her plans +and projects, which, to tell the truth, were pure poetical stupidities. +She vowed that she was not in any sense the mistress of the +establishment, the administrator of the estate, or the disposer of its +revenues; she merely gave advice, made suggestions, and exerted herself +for the common benefit and to supply the needs of the family in general. +She exhorted me to speak seriously to her husband; I was to make him +abandon his unprofitable studies, make him, above all things, give up +those visits of taste and soul, which did so much harm; in fine, I was +to force him to sustain his wife in her stupendous labours, and to +concentrate his thoughts upon his children, who were five in number. + +When I came to analyse the curious compound of truths, lies, and fancies +which issued from the fevered brains of this poor lady--always hard at +work, always embarrassed in a labyrinth of business--I seemed to +perceive that what moved her most was the fear of being made herself +responsible for our financial failure. It was also clear that her +original ambition of acting the part of prime minister in a realm which +only existed in her own imagination, kept her always on the stretch; +while a certain little devil of feminine jealousy against her husband +added to her disquietude. He, good fellow, had forgotten the long +collection of Petrarchan poems written by him for her honour in the +past, and which she had repaid with the gift of five children. Not the +least little sonnet issued from his pen to celebrate her now. His lyrics +were addressed to another idol of the moment. + +Meanwhile she set great store upon her personal importance. Every member +of our family, who wanted a ducat, a pair of shoes, or something of the +sort, came to her with humble supplications, imploring her good offices +at head-quarters--and Heaven knew where head-quarters were. This honour +and glory made up to her for all her heroic labours in the little +realm, which she administered with real authority, though her right to +do so was contested, and her schemes were pindarically unpractical. + +My younger brother, Almor,[130] was also at our villa, on a holiday +from school--the non-existent school he never went to. His education +seemed to have been of the slightest, and his wardrobe left even more to +be desired. A boy of good heart and parts, however; gay-spirited and +innocent; he was not old enough and had not time to reflect upon our +troubles; setting snares for little birds was all his pastime, and when +he talked to me, I heard only of the number and the kinds of birds he +caught, and the important adventures he had met with in his fowling +expeditions. + +My father did not converse with me, because he could not; my mother, +because she would not. Gasparo's five children with their quarrels and +their games broke in upon the only solace which I had, that of reading +and writing. + +To all the complaints I heard, to all the exhortations which were daily +heaped upon me, I gave one only answer: we will see and think it over. + +One thing emerged with distinctness from this hurlyburly of our family. +If I attempted any salutary innovation in the wasp's nest of my +relatives, I should find no difficulty in gaining supporters to assist +me in my opposition to the government; but the government was in the +hands of women, under the shadow of my father's authority; I should +therefore be misrepresented to him, prejudiced as he was by education, +susceptible and hot-blooded by temperament, enfeebled by chronic +illness; and he was still the master, still my father, loved and +respected by me. I doubted whether anything which I could do would not +prove ineffectual or worse. I was afraid of becoming the object of +everybody's hatred; for I observed that personal considerations, rather +than wise reflection and moderate ambitions, were the motive principles +of all the folk I had to deal with. Finally I dreaded giving such a +shock to my father's declining frame as would cut short the few days of +life which still remained to him. The sequel will show that these +anticipations were not ill-founded. + +In these circumstances I determined to exercise the strictest +self-control, and to bear with everything during my father's lifetime. +Literature and my favourite studies of the world meanwhile would suffice +to entertain me. Knowing that my uncle Almor Cesare Tiepolo was in the +country on an estate of his not far from where we lived, I went to pay +him my respects. He inquired how I had been treated in Dalmatia by his +Excellency Quirini. I answered that he had treated me very well indeed, +but that he could not give me any permanent commission, because our +troops had been drafted into Italy. He then proposed to recommend me to +his Excellency the Provveditore Generale at Verona. I replied that I was +grateful for his interest on my behalf, but that Mars had not inspired +me with a vocation for military service. I foresaw that I should have to +employ all my energies upon the affairs of my family, which were calling +loudly for my assistance. Shaking his head and pursing up his lips, he +answered that what I said was only too true. + + + + +XVII. + + _Return from Friuli to Venice with my family.--I pursue my chosen + path in life, and open new veins of experience.--Yet further + painful discoveries as to our circumstances.--The beginnings of + domestic discord._ + + +The month of November was wearing away when our family began to think of +Venice. It amused me to watch the preparations for our journey and our +luggage, which in no wise resembled that of the General's suite I had +been used to. My father, an invalid; my mother, serious and +diplomatical; my sister-in-law, the woman of business; my brother +Gasparo, wool-gathering; our little sisters, intent upon the custody of +their old-fashioned bonnets; Almor, plunged in grief at leaving his +birds and cages, which he consigned by something like a last will and +testament to the bailiff; I, giving myself military airs, quite out of +season; some serving-maids and men in worn-out livery; a few cats and +dogs; these composed our travelling party, which might have been +compared to a troupe of comedians upon the march. + +I shall perhaps be told that there was no reason to enumerate these +humiliating circumstances. But I have never had to blush for unworthy +actions in my family; and it seems to me a poor philosophy that feels +ashamed where no shame is. Such as it was, our caravan arrived in +Venice, joking and laughing all the way. There we installed ourselves +with as much disorder and as little comfort as was proper to a fine +large mansion with nothing to fill its empty spaces. + +For my own use I chose out a little room at the top of the house, where +I set up a rickety table, provided myself with a huge inkstand and +plenty of pens and paper, and spent at least six hours a day in reading +and scribbling poetic nonsense. This was my best amusement; but I ought +to add that I devoted some of my time to the cafs, studying types of +character and listening to conversation; nor did I neglect our theatres, +where I saw the various tragedies and comedies which appeared. My +brother Gasparo had already given several serious pieces to the stage. +They pleased the public then; and though they may be out of fashion +now, they would not fail to please me still. I know the instability of +taste too well to change my old opinions. + +I had mixed with all sorts of men and learned to know their +characters--generals, admirals, noblemen, great lords, officers, +soldiers, the people of Illyrian cities, the Morlacchi of the villages, +Mainotti, Pastrovicchi, convicts, galley-slaves. It was time, I thought, +to become acquainted with my own Venetians. I began by cultivating a set +of men who go in Venice by the name of Cortigiani.[131] My companions of +this kind were chiefly shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, with a priest or +two among the number; clever fellows, respectable, and versed in all the +ways of our Venetian world. Their courage and readiness to take part in +quarrels won them the respect of the common people, and they carried the +art of getting the maximum of pleasure at a minimum of outlay to +perfection. On certain holidays I joined their boating-parties, and went +to shoot birds on the marshes with them. Or else we lunched together on +the Giudecca, at Campalto, Malcontenta, Murano, Burano, and other +neighbouring islands. My share of the expense on these occasions was +not much above sixpence, and I gained the hearty good-will of my +companions by contributing some slices of excellent Friulian ham to our +common table. The characters and manners of these men delighted me; I +took pleasure in listening to the stories of their quarrels, +reconciliations, love-adventures, misfortunes, accidents of all kinds, +told in racy Venetian dialect, with the liveliness which is natural to +our folk. What is more, I learned much from them. Alas! the race of +Cortigiani has degenerated, like everything else in this corrupt age. +When I chance to meet a survivor of the honest jolly crew, he strikes +his forehead, and confesses that the good days of his youth are +irrecoverable, and that the Cortigiano is an extinct species. + +Meanwhile I took good care to interfere with nobody and nothing in the +household. This I did for my poor father's sake. But I kept my eyes open +to observe the intrigues, schemes, and movements of the government. Some +Jews, some brokers, and a crowd of women were always coming and going on +secret conferences with my sister-in-law. These attracted my attention, +and formed the subject of my earnest cogitations. It grieved me to see +my brother Gasparo immersed in his philosophy and poetry, never for one +moment giving the least thought to domestic economy. It grieved me; but +I grieved in silence. There was one circumstance, however, which fairly +put me out of patience. We had three sisters in the house; and a swarm +of drones, hulking young fellows of the freest manners, kept buzzing +round them. When I came home and found these visitors at their +accustomed chatter, I used to scowl at them, lift my hat and put it on +again, turn my back, and climb the stairs to my own den, with the fixed +intention of making the gentlemen perceive how little their company +attracted me. This manoeuvre had its effect. My sister-in-law took it +upon her to read me a matronly lecture on the impropriety of insulting +friends of the family by my rough ways. I replied that I knew very well +what friendship was, but that I could distinguish the false from the +true; I was not conscious of having been rude to anybody; my father was +the master, and if he did not mind some things which seemed to my +inexperience imprudent and irregular, a mere lad's opinions were not +worthy of consideration. This hint of my displeasure made all the women +of the house regard me like a serpent. Even my three sisters, who loved +me sincerely, and were excellent creatures, imbued with the soundest +religious principles, could not help harbouring a trifle of suspicion in +their feminine brains. For the rest, I said what I thought when I was +consulted upon affairs of no importance. My advice in such matters +pleased nobody. I ran on little errands if these were intrusted to me; +and above all, I devoted some hours of every evening to my father, who +always received me with tenderness and tears. + +From conversation with my sisters I learned that the five thousand +ducats raised by sale of lands in Friuli, ostensibly to make up portions +for my married sisters, had either not been paid by the purchasers or +had only reached the hands of the husbands in part. The same had +happened with the drapery, linen, and jewels, for which a large debt had +been contracted with a company of merchants. These and similar +confidences made it clear to my mind that the marriages of my two +sisters had not been arranged for their settlement in life so much as +with the view of raising money under colourable pretexts, and of +alienating entailed property with some show of legality. In fact, I +scented disastrous dealings of the sort which are known at Venice by the +name of _stocchi_.[132] As natural consequences of this crooked policy, +urgent needs for ready money and embarrassments of all sorts had ensued, +which led to fresh expedients and ever-growing financial distress. + +Without attributing malice to any one, I merely blamed the bad luck of +our family, owing to which my grandfather's fine estate had passed into +the hands of women under two administrations, and had been wasted by a +course of insane irregularities. I took care to send an accurate report +of our domestic circumstances to my brother Francesco at Corfu. And now +I must embark upon the sea of my worst troubles. + + + + +XVIII. + + _I become, without fault of my own, quite unjustly, the object of + hatred to all members of my household.--Resolve to return to + Dalmatia.--My father's death._ + + +It had not escaped my notice that my mother and sister-in-law were in +the habit of going abroad together in the mornings. During the five +winter months they wore masks, and their proceedings had all the +appearance of some secret business.[133] Now Carnival was over. We had +reached the month of March 1745, a date which will be always painful to +my recollection. Every morning the two ladies left the house together, +no longer masked, but wearing the _zendado_.[134] I asked my sisters if +they knew the object of these daily expeditions. They answered to the +following effect: all they knew for certain was that my father's invalid +condition made a residence in Venice irksome to him; now that the spring +was advancing, he wished to go into Friuli with my mother, leaving our +sister-in-law at the head of affairs in Venice; meanwhile the treasury +was empty, the barns and cellars of our country-house had nothing left +in them. I shrugged my shoulders, and kept silence. + +A few days afterwards, while I was attempting to drive away care by +study in my little upper chamber, my three sisters entered. They were +weeping, and my first fear was lest my father should have died. +Reassuring me upon this point, they passionately besought me to +interpose between the family and shameful ruin. I alone was capable of +doing this. The secret expeditions of my mother and sister-in-law had +resulted in a contract with a certain Signor Francesco Zini, cloth +merchant. He undertook to pay down six hundred ducats in exchange for +our ancestral mansion, agreeing, moreover, to hand over a little +dwelling of his own in the distant quarter of San Jacopo dall' Orio. +They added that my father was ready to give his assent to this bargain, +and my brothers Gasparo and Almor would offer no opposition. I felt +deeply moved by the distress of these poor girls as well as by my own +keen sense of humiliation; and when they concluded by enjoining the +strictest secrecy upon myself in the transaction, a gulf of dissensions, +disagreeableness, and misery of all kinds seemed to yawn before my feet. +Our pressing want of money, the contract verbally completed by my mother +and sister-in-law, my father's consent, the adhesion of my brothers to +the scheme, the obligation to secrecy laid upon me by my sisters, my own +bad reputation in the household as a disturber of domestic quiet, my +lack of friends and supporters in Venice, all filled me with terror. Yet +I resolved to try what I could do to gratify my father's desire for the +country, and to put a stop to this humiliating contract. With that +object in view I also undertook a secret mission and went to visit +Signor Francesco Zini. + +I laid myself open to him in terms of flattering politeness, appealing +to his excellent disposition, and pointing out that he was about to +enter on a business which would expose him to risk and us to notable +humiliation. I told him that my father had been an invalid for many +years, that our ancestral mansion was subject to a strict entail, that +on my father's death he would lose his money and the house, that all +the sons of the family were not prepared to sanction the contract, that +one of them was in the Levant, that I had not the least intention of +assenting, and that the utmost I could do would be to abandon the house +at my father's express command. Then I passed to the pathetic. I +described a numerous family departing with their scanty bundles from the +loved paternal nest, bowed down with grief and shame before the eyes of +all their neighbours, who would be exclaiming: "See those gentlefolk +upon the move, because their home has been sold over their heads!" I +proved to him that if he gained a fine house to live in, he would also +gain an odious and ugly reputation. Finally, I besought him, as a man of +worth, to seize some plausible pretext for breaking a bargain which, +happily for his advantage and our own, had not been ratified. + +Over the fat, red, small-pox-pitted features of Signor Zini spread +amazement and perplexity. He did not understand my rigmarole, he said; +he was an honest man, pouring out his blood, not water, to obtain the +house; my mother and sister-in-law, together with the broker of this +honourable bargain, had assured him that my father wished to conclude +it, and that all his sons were prepared to emancipate themselves from +the paternal authority, in order to be able to sign the contract, thus +giving it validity, and securing the rightful interest of the innocent +purchaser. The affair had been settled, the necessary deeds were +waiting on the bureau of Marchese Suarez, his advocate. Most assuredly, +unless my father's male heirs procured their emancipation, in order to +give validity to the contract in perpetuity, he would not unbutton his +pockets to disburse a penny; he was not a fool, to be imposed upon with +fibs and fables. + +I commended the fat gentleman's perspicacity and caution; repeated that +I had no intention of procuring my emancipation, and that nothing on +earth would force me to consent; once more I begged him to find some +excuse for breaking off the bargain; and wound up by imploring him to +keep silence upon my interference in the matter. I made it clear that +only a brute, devoid of Christian charity, would reject a son's +entreaties, and render him odious to mother and father without any +advantage to himself. He promised to respect my secrecy, wagging his +huge scarlet jowl and lifting his night-cap, with so many protestations +of being touched to the heart, that I ought to have been put upon my +guard. I did not yet know human nature, and retired as happy as if I had +taken Gibraltar by assault, feeling confident that my prudence and +discretion had averted a lamentable catastrophe. + +Nothing was said by me about the course which I had followed, even to my +three sisters. I reflected that they were women, and awaited a quiet +termination of the affair, trusting to Signor Zini's humanity. +Meanwhile I ruminated how to procure my father's removal to the country, +and how to help the family without waiting for the harvest, which would +be finished in three months. I computed the value of my clothes, my +watch, my snuff-box; prepared as I was then, to sell everything I +possessed. But these calculations only reduced me to despair. My one +real friend was Signor Massimo, then at Padua. I remembered that I +already owed him two hundred ducats, and that he was living on an +allowance from his father. Yet I knew that both father and son, as well +as a brother of my comrade, were no less generous toward persons on +whose character for loyalty and friendship they relied, than they were +suspicious of intriguers and impostors. I was also aware that they were +in a position to render me substantial services. How often, during the +tempestuous vicissitudes of my existence, have I not had the opportunity +to verify this fact! + +While thus engaged in studying ways and means, Signor Zini broke rudely +in upon my meditations. Possessed with the desire to obtain our dwelling +for his own, he divulged the secret of my visit, and exposed what I had +said to him in terms of his own choosing. My belief is that his +communication amounted to this:--unless the hot-headed impetuous young +fellow, who had come to treat with him, were brought to reason, and +compelled to sign the contract, he refused to disburse two shillings. + +I was in my upper chamber, studying as usual, and talking with my +brother Almor about his wretched schooling, when my mother appeared one +day. Something of philosophical severity in her toilette, something +imposing in her manner, which concealed, however, an internal +irritation, proclaimed the gravity of her mission. She addressed herself +pointedly to me, with the features of a judge rather than a mother, and +began a long narration of the straits to which we were reduced. She said +that, God be blessed, she had been inspired and assisted to discover six +hundred ducats in the hands of a benevolent merchant, which would be +placed immediately at her disposal upon such and such conditions. The +notary was ready to engross the necessary deeds; and she begged me to +declare what I thought about this special providence. + +At the bottom of her heart I read Signor Zini's act of treason, and saw +that I was lost. However, I answered respectfully that a contract of +this kind struck me as anything but providential; still my father had +full power to do what he thought fit, without rendering an account of +his actions to his sons. She flamed up, and cried with a threatening air +that my consent was also needed; she could not believe that I should be +so rash and headstrong as to prevent a plan which would relieve my +father and the family in our present painful circumstances. I could have +uttered several truths without a wish to wound; but certain truths, +once spoken, wound incurably. Therefore, I contented myself with +observing that I was ready to shed my blood for my father, but that I +could not assent to a contract so humiliating and ruinous, the last of a +whole series dictated by suicidal policy. People who understood economy +were in the habit of calculating and making provision for the future, +not of selling or mortgaging their property to meet embarrassments +created by their own extravagance. The latter course was rapidly +bringing our whole family to the workhouse. Under a disastrous financial +system our income had been reduced to three thousand ducats; yet I could +not comprehend how we were in such straits as she had described. When +people were unable to maintain a decent state in the capital, they could +live at ease in the country at one-third of the same cost. Houses ought +to be let, and not sold. Still my father had the power to make any +contract he thought right; only I did not believe him capable of forcing +me to give consent against my will and judgment. + +The gestures of submission, respect, and supplication with which I +accompanied this speech had no power to mollify the pungency of its +significance. My mother rose, with her arms akimbo, and inquired who it +was I meant to blame for our misfortunes. Instead of telling the bitter +and irrefutable truth, I said that I only blamed fate and the +misfortunes themselves. "I reckon," she replied with a smile of fury, +"that you will give in your adhesion." "Indeed I shall not," was my +answer; and the profound bow with which I spoke these words had the +appearance of impertinent irony, although God knows I did not mean it. +This was enough to fan the smothered flames into a Vesuvius in eruption. +My mother bent her stormy brows upon me--upon the sixth finger of her +maternal hands--and broke into the following declamation. "From the +moment of my return she had prophesied, like Cassandra, that I should +turn the household upside down. She did not know me for one of her own +children. The intimacy of a certain friend to whom I had attached myself +was ruining the family, as it had ruined me. (Poor innocent generous +Signor Massimo!) If I had behaved well during my three years' service, +his Excellency Quirini would certainly have rewarded me with some good +military situation. As it was, my excursion into Dalmatia had been a +source of burdensome expense. I had led a vicious life there ... she +knew ... she did not mean to speak ... but ... enough ... and my debt of +two hundred ducats to Massimo was merely a sum lost by me at basset." + +Now this debt had not yet been paid, and had therefore been of no +inconvenience to my family. Such extravagant accusations took me by +surprise; and the reader will now perceive the reason of the accounts +which I rendered in a former passage of these Memoirs. I should perhaps +have flown into a fury alien to my real nature, if these reproofs had +been based on truth. The wounding allusion to Signor Massimo nearly +roused me, but I preserved my self-control. It was clear that my mother +had been deeply prejudiced and cruelly instigated against me. The +consciousness of my innocence and a sense of duty made me stand before +her rigid and mute as a statue. With an impulse of affection, maternal +as it seemed, my mother took my brother Almor by the arm, and gazing at +me with contempt, which strove to be compassionate, she addressed these +words to him: "Come away, my dear boy; let us leave that madman to the +error of his ways!" Then she turned her back and led him from the room, +as though she were saving an innocent creature from some fearful danger. + +Convinced by this tragi-comedy that I was the victim of a family cabal, +I saw no other course open but to resume my commission as a cadet of +cavalry. I left my room, went downstairs, and found all the family +(except my father) assembled in commotion, listening to the +commiserations of their usual friends enraged against me. It had been +proclaimed aloud that I had called them all thieves, retorted against my +mother with scandalous and impious audacity, and betrayed my +determination to make myself the tyrant of the household. Even my three +sisters, who had urged me into opposition, showed themselves sulkily +scornful; and though I might have exposed them before the whole +company, I did not deign to do so. Confirmed in my resolve to leave +Venice for Dalmatia, I buckled on my sword, wasted no words about my +intention, and repaired to the Riva dei Schiavoni, to see if I could +find a ship for Zara. There I discovered that a _trabacolo_ would set +sail in four or five days. The captain was a certain Bernetich. I took +down his name, and, wrapped up in my own dark thoughts, spent all that +day in exile, wandering far from home. + +On my return, I noticed that, though everybody wore a crabbed face +against me, something had happened to their satisfaction. Signor Zini, +it appeared, was willing to execute the contract without requiring my +consent. I did not know that my brother Francesco had left a power of +attorney to act for him in Gasparo's hands. With voices of triumph they +all exclaimed together that the great sacrifice was to be solemnly and +legally performed next day. I did not care to inquire how things had +been brought to this conclusion; but putting on as cheerful a face as +possible, I went to keep my poor father company as usual for a few hours +in the evening. + +It will be as well at this point to describe the topography of our +house. It was originally built for two separate residences, with double +entrances upon the street and water-side, two staircases and two +cisterns. At the time when it was planned, the Gozzis formed two +families, which were afterwards reduced to one. We occupied the lower +floor and some apartments in the highest storey. The second floor was +let for 150 ducats a year to an honest iron-monger called Uccelli; but +this portion of the mansion had also been sold upon my father's life, by +one of those contracts which were only too frequent in our family, for +the sum of 1200 ducats to his Excellency the Procuratore Sagredo. + +I did all in my power to avoid the least allusion to the painful scenes +of the preceding day; but my dear father kept gazing earnestly at me, +and shedding tears from time to time. In vain I tried to inspire him +with happier thoughts. Would that I could banish all recollection of +that night, which was one of the most sombre, the most painful, in the +whole course of my existence. Paralysed and dumb for seven long years, +he yet retained his mental faculties in their full vigour. Summoning all +his force, by signs and stammerings and tears, he made it only too clear +how much he suffered from the miserable straits to which the family had +been reduced. He also continued to express his sympathy with me for my +dislike to sign the projected contract. To my surprise and grief, he +intimated that I had only a brief time to wait; his swift approaching +death would restore to us the upper dwelling, which had been sold upon +his life, and which was much better than the one we occupied. This +inarticulate but eloquent discourse ended in a flood of tears. Deeply +moved to the bottom of my heart, I strove to tranquillise his mind, and +direct his thoughts from such afflicting topics. I perceived that no +pains had been spared to make me odious in my father's eyes, and that +this had been done without the least regard for his infirmity. Yet I did +not attempt to justify my conduct, and said nothing about my firm +resolve to leave home. His departure for Friuli had been fixed on the +third day after this fatal evening, and I mentally decided to set out +for Dalmatia two days later on. My assumed cheerfulness, and the merry +turn I gave to all those dismal subjects of reflection, seemed to +tranquillise him. Then he tried to lift himself from his arm-chair, as +though to get to bed. I helped to raise him, but he tottered more than +usual, and sank with his knees toward the ground. I took him in my arms +to keep him from falling. Agonising moment! It was clear that a last +stroke of apoplexy was carrying away my father from my arms. In a loud +voice and with perfect articulation he pronounced the words: "I am +dying!" They fell like lead upon my heart, with such cruel force that I +nearly dropped. My mother, who was present, fled from the room. I called +aloud for aid. Servants hurried in; one of these I dispatched for +medical assistance, while the others helped me to place my poor dear +father, now quite incapable of any movement, on his bed. A physician, +Doctor Bonariva by name, had him bled at once. But nothing could be done +to save his life. Assisted by Don Pietro Pighetti, now Canon of S. +Marco, in the last religious duties of our creed, he displayed all the +signs of Christian resignation and intelligence; and after eight hours +of oppression, toilsome suffering, and the pangs of death, my unhappy +parent closed his eyes upon the vast obscurity in which his family was +plunged. + + + + +XIX. + +_My attempts at pacification defeated.--Useless philosophical +reflections.--A terrible domestic storm begins to brew._ + + +No sooner had my father breathed his last than my lady sister-in-law, +all activity and bustle, issued from the room of mourning, and took upon +her to console his sorrowing children with the convincing statement that +he was the most lovely corpse which eyes of men had ever seen. This +wholly unexpected statement, which had nothing of humanity, morality, or +philosophy in it, and which she kept repeating and affirming upon oath +for our relief, filled me then, and fills me now, with such fury, that I +should be angry to think that any of my readers could laugh at it. + +One disastrous thought kept breaking in upon our sorrow at this tragic +moment. Am I to record it? We had neither the wherewithal to provide a +decent interment for my father, nor the credit to obtain it. The +habitus of the house gave words in abundance, but no pecuniary aid. I +had only one friend, Massimo, my creditor, the object of my relatives' +calumnies. Grief inspired me with the thought of writing to lay our +difficulties before his generous mind. The special messenger by whom I +sent this letter returned with a sum of money more than sufficient to +defray the expenses of a becoming funeral. On receiving it, I took my +brother Gasparo apart, placed the money in his hands, and told him who +had given it. Then I begged him not to misinterpret what I was about to +say. He was my elder, and I willingly acknowledged him to be the head of +our family. He could not be blind to the deplorable condition into which +we had declined. Duty required that he should take the reins with manly +resolution, and should withdraw the management of our affairs from the +hands of those who had brought us to utter shipwreck. My brother +accepted the money and my speech as well as might have been expected +from a man of his excellent disposition and superior intelligence. He +admitted that he saw the necessity of a thorough economical reform, +carried through with virile firmness. Some increase of income, owing to +the expiration of contracts made upon my father's life, would facilitate +the undertaking. He was willing to relinquish literary occupations, +which were neither appreciated nor remunerated in Italy, for the sake +of being able to devote his energy and time to the administration of our +common property. + +I did not flatter myself that anything so much to be desired would come +to pass. I knew how impossible it is for people to change their +character and nature. I knew his wife's meddlesome, restless, imperious +thirst for ruling--his own peaceable temperament, averse from +opposition, addicted to the habits of a student. Yet I saw the necessity +of taking the step I did, if only to correct the bad impression of +myself, which had grown up under malevolent influences in the family. + +I had no heart to follow my father to the grave, but shut myself up in +my little chamber, where I gave way through three days and three nights +to grief, not unmingled with remorse for having innocently helped to +hasten his death. Nothing less than this tragedy was needed to cancel +Signor Francesco Zini's contract. + +I feel some repugnance at sitting down to write what happened at this +epoch in my family. I wish that I could tell the tale without appearing +to censure any of my relatives and without seeming to draw a +vain-glorious picture of myself. The truth at any cost has to be +reported; but I protest with emphasis, and this is also true, that I +always experienced real pain when I beheld the disastrous consequences +which the faults of others brought upon themselves, and that I neither +took pleasure in revenge, nor cherished sentiments of ambition in doing +good to my family--if indeed I did do good. The reader will be able to +judge of that from the sequel of these Memoirs. + +When a group of closely related persons in one household fall to +quarrelling, all the causes which perpetuate faults of character and +conduct begin to operate. Each member of the company is perfectly +acquainted with the weak side of his neighbour, and knows exactly how to +sting him to the quick. Exacerbated tempers and prejudiced minds judge +everything awry, while partisans and flatterers add fuel to the fire. +Zeal is misconstrued into craft and tyranny; no protestations and no +arguments suffice to remove such false impressions. The torment of the +hell in which one has to live blinds reason and enslaves the freedom of +volition; years of unhappiness pass by before the weapons of vindictive +rage are blunted by constant acts of toleration and disinterested deeds +of kindness, and the innocent are seen in their true light. To blame the +doings of a family divided against itself is much the same as blaming +the actions of somnambulists. + +We had never used the outward demonstrations of affection, kisses and +caresses, in our domestic circle. Yet we were bound together by real +sentiments of friendliness and love on all sides. Unluckily the seeds of +discord had already begun to germinate in our brains. Besides my mother, +three brothers and three sisters, my sister-in-law was there, with her +hot, headstrong, vindictive temperament, her aptitude for colouring +everything to suit her own purpose, and her established dominion over +the minds of my relations. During my father's long illness there had +been no real head in the household. Everybody passed for master. No one +learned the virtues of submission and filial obedience. Each member of +the family had his own engagements, his own separate obligations, +together with the passions proper to himself as a human being. There was +no defect of intelligence or mental energy. But lacking a central +authority which might have brought man's egotistic passions into +wholesome subjection, self-love and caprice turned the individuals of +the group into so many political agents, bent on achieving their own +ends, without regard for the common interest. I must not omit the +chronic malady under which we suffered--that predilection for poetry, +which tinged all we thought and planned with romanticism. During a +period of many years no records had been kept either of the income +derived from our estate, or of the sales which had been made. With +perfect justice each in turn denied that he had directed our affairs. In +such circumstances the death of the father leaves a family exposed to +direst intestine warfare; and I should be both indiscreet and inhuman if +I were to lay the whole blame of what ensued upon any of the six +relatives whom I have mentioned. + +A young man like myself, of little more than twenty years, prone to +thinking rather than to speaking, with a military air acquired abroad, +when he found himself in the middle of so many working brains, and +attempted to effect a total revolution, could not but raise +irascibilities of all sorts and expose himself to odious suspicions. The +portrait which I mean to paint of my own physical and other qualities +will perhaps reveal defects which rendered such suspicions, unjust as +they are, at any rate excusable. + +My mother was not so overwhelmed by the recent loss of her husband as to +be unable to think of business. She demanded the repayment of her dowry, +small as it was, like one who feels the coming shipwreck and seeks a +skiff for his salvation. My sister-in-law, bent as usual on displaying +her talent for affairs, called the brokers, Jews, and female go-betweens +around her. My sisters were always conferring in secret among +themselves, or with my sister-in-law, who kept promising them husbands +and marriage-portions. My brother Gasparo, at the very moment when he +solemnly promised to assume the reins of government, handed over the +money I had got from Padua to his wife, to do as she thought best with, +reserving only a few coins for his own purse. Then he relapsed into his +ordinary ways of life, his literary studies, his society of wit and +genius, and gave no signs of any firm intention to make himself the +master. + +About twenty days had passed since my father died, when I was summoned +to a serious conference with my elder brother, my mother, and my +sister-in-law. We seated ourselves upon four straw-bottomed rickety +chairs, and my sister-in-law, with an air betokening the gravity of the +occasion, moved the following resolution. Signor Massimo ought to be +repaid (this, mark well, was meant to gain me over). With a view to +discharging the debts we owed him, and for other urgent necessities, it +would be advisable to sell the upper dwelling in our town-house for the +sum of 1200 ducats on the lives of us four brothers. A purchaser was +ready (possibly Signor Francesco Zini). The capital left over would +enable us to put our affairs in order, and to go forward swimmingly upon +a new and proper method of administration. My mother blinked approval of +this fine idea. My brother declared that it was the only course left +open to us. They all looked at me and waited for my assent. I did not +comprehend by what right my mother and sister-in-law took part in the +conference, or how my brother was not ashamed of cutting the figure he +did there, and of following his wife's suggestions with such docility. A +hell of squabbling yawned before me, and I answered as coldly as I could +that, so far as Signor Massimo was concerned, I could trust his generous +indulgence towards a friend in difficulties, and that I did not approve +of selling property upon our joint lives. Such a step seemed to me mere +progress on the former road to ruin. I should prefer to let our mansion, +removing the whole family to the country, where we could live for +one-third of the expense, until our debts were paid and the estate was +nursed into comparative prosperity. + +This scandalous ultimatum, which wounded the inclinations and the +self-interest of every member in the family, won me the reputation of a +very Dionysius of Syracuse. Day by day, in secret conclaves, the storm +against me grew and gathered strength. My brother Francesco, however, +had written from Corfu that he was coming home, and I judged it prudent +to await his arrival. Until I gained his support, I stood alone, hated +and dreaded like a fatal comet by my kindred. To distract my mind from +painful thoughts, I summoned all my mental forces, and poured forth +torrents of verse and prose and bizarre fancies upon paper. All through +my long and troubled life I have drawn relief from two main sources. One +is my own robust and democratic[135] bent of mind. The other is my +aptitude for studying human nature and for writing. I may truly say +that the exercise of fancy and the art of composition have been to my +mental pains what opiates are to physical torments. + + + + +XX. + +_We plunge from bad to worse, deeper and deeper into the mire._ + + +When my brother Francesco arrived from the Levant, I explained to him +the state of our affairs, and my own wishes with regard to their +administration. We both decided that he should repair to Friuli, and +undertake the management of our estates there. Gasparo was to remain +titular head of the family, while Francesco received rents, kept strict +accounts, and provided for the common household. Meanwhile we begged our +mother to charge herself with certain domestic duties, and our +sister-in-law with certain others, hoping by this apportionment of +officers to introduce harmony and order into the establishment. My +sister-in-law displayed a really exemplary resignation, merely +expressing her desire that, at this juncture, the account-book of +expenditure which she had kept for some years past should be signed by +her husband and his three brothers, in token of approval and in +discharge to her of all pecuniary obligations. + +I strove to make her understand that there was no need for such a +receipt in form; nobody would dream of calling her to account, and we +were all very grateful for her services. She would not listen to my +arguments, but insisted on our signing a certain notebook scrawled with +cabalistic characters and numbers. Francesco observed that we might +safely sign, for the sake of peace and quiet. Having entered our family +without a farthing, accompanied by her father and mother, whom we had +supported for many years and buried at our own charges, she was +incapable of making claims on the estate. To this he added that he had +consulted lawyers, and that he was quite convinced of the propriety of +yielding to her wishes. + +The sequel of this history will show that his reasoning, though +plausible enough, was faulty, and that the policy he recommended led to +further complications. Gasparo and Almor had already signed; Francesco +was prepared to follow suit; I did not care to take the odium of +standing out alone. Accordingly, four signatures were generously +appended to the mass of undecipherable hieroglyphics, without any +attempt on our part to examine the accounts, which by this act we +formally accepted. + +Francesco set off for Friuli, after promising to maintain a detailed +correspondence with Gasparo on the state and management of our farms +there, and not to let himself be wheedled out of money or produce at the +demand of every one and anybody. I did not then know what a worthless +coadjutor I had summoned to support my policy. Without the least +intention to defraud, he was governed by an insect's blind instinct for +his own particular advantage. Under a compliant exterior, he concealed +the subtlety of a diplomatist. His sole aim was to temporise and make +concessions, with the view of bringing matters to a rupture and of +obtaining his own share in the division of our common patrimony. This +end he pursued in secrecy and silence, without reflecting on his duties +to the family, or the position of our three unmarried sisters, and the +discords which his pursuit of self-interest was bound to foment. + +What followed after his departure for Friuli seemed conclusively to +prove that a plan had been laid to drive him to the Levant and me to +Dalmatia by involving us in embarrassments of all sorts. I accuse +nobody; the heated passions which raged round us, and the injuries from +which I suffered, deserve compassion more than blame. + +Scarcely a day passed without letters being sent from Venice, begging my +brother to dispatch provisions or money on various pretences. He +complied with every application, whether it bore the name of Gasparo or +of my mother or my sister-in-law. In the course of some seven months he +had exhausted the whole harvest of that year, without asking for +accounts or disputing the claims made upon the property he managed. In +like manner the profits of certain houses in Venice, and of some farms +at Bergamo and Vicenza, amounting to 800 ducats, had been dissipated. +When letters still kept coming, demanding supplies and setting forth our +urgent needs, my brother could only answer that there was nothing left +to send. It was vain to inquire how the casks of wine and sacks of corn +and bags of cash had vanished. Everybody had taken something to defray +his own particular expenses. One said, "I got only so much;" another, "I +got so much; I did this, and I did that." Gasparo knew less than anybody +how matters had been managed, and had kept no account of the least +article. The conclusion arrived at was that we must all die of hunger +unless we sold some piece of the estate upon our joint lives. + + "Ora incomencian le dolenti note." + "And now begins the Iliad of our woes." + + + + +XXI. + + _My attitude of patient calm is useless.--Volcanic eruptions, + machinations, tragi-comic civil wars within our household._ + + +At this point I resolved to step forth boldly and to take the whole +weight of our affairs upon my shoulders, without troubling my head about +being called a tyrant and disturber of domestic peace. I proclaimed +aloud that the family must retire for some time into the country and +economise. Nothing would induce me to consent to sales or mortgages. +Then I began to contract debts on my own account, and to part with my +personal trifles for the support of the household. I soon saw that it +was impossible in this way to keep fifteen people, servants included, at +Venice. Whenever I insisted upon the necessity of leaving for the +country, all the women rose in revolt, and turned their backs without a +word of answer. Our dining-table became the scene of daily quarrels, +sullen faces, surly glances, biting speeches. I was deeply grieved to +observe that a final division of the estate was drawing nearer and +nearer. To avert this catastrophe seemed impracticable, and I reflected +gloomily upon the condition to which my brother Gasparo would be +reduced, with a wife and five children to support upon the fourth part +of our encumbered property. Meanwhile I could not blame him except for +his incurable indolence and absolute immersion in studies for which I +shared his weakness. + +Among the habitus of the house, none of them friends of mine, were +certain lawyers. I noticed that these gentlemen had frequent conferences +with the ladies of the family who ruled my brother. They were clearly +plotting against me, and seeking means to set the machinery of the law +in movement in order to hamper my free action. There was also a lady to +whom the female members of my family paid visits every evening. She was +the Countess Elisabetta Ghellini of Vicenza, widow of the patrician +Barbarigo Balbi, who died some years before this epoch, leaving her the +mother of an only son. It is exceedingly rare to find a lady endowed +with the excellent qualities of heart and head which she possessed in a +supreme degree. About forty years of age, infirm of health, and exposed +to constant litigation through various claims advanced against her +moderate estates, she bore the trials of life with steady courage and +constant trust in Heaven. Her chief interest was the education of her +son, a boy of eight or nine, for whom she had provided masters, while +she herself instilled into his mind the principles of sound religion and +morality. Gifted with a lively intellect, and fond of literature, she +spent a large part of the day in reading poetry, and opened her house to +a society composed mainly of persons who had suffered in the battles of +life. Her extreme sympathy for the afflicted led her to despoil herself +with admirable intrepidity, and to bestow on others what was needed for +her own support. This compassionate and pious lady had for her adviser +and advocate in the numerous lawsuits to which she was condemned, the +celebrated Conte Francesco Santorini. + +It will appear from the sequel that this digression upon the Countess +Ghellini was needed to explain an important passage in my life. Amid the +din and squabbles of our home, I used at times to catch fragments of +the panegyrics poured forth by my female relatives and Gasparo upon this +lady, and heard them rehearse the sonnets which they intended to recite +in her honour, or to offer for her recreation. Such was the common +custom at that period, observed by poets in the houses they frequented. +I speedily divined that a plot was in process of formation to secure the +assistance of a very famous advocate against me. Trusting this +intuition, I resolved to introduce myself, although I had received no +invitation, to the lady whom my enemies so warmly praised. + +She received me, and asked who I might be. On giving my name, the noble +and yet kindly distance of her manner changed suddenly to sternness. A +few phrases which I thought it right to utter about her interest in my +relatives increased this expression of reserve; and she began to speak +as follows, with the happy choice of words which was peculiar to her: +"Sir, I am a poor woman as regards the wealth of this life, but by the +grace of God I am rich in the possession of good sentiments and a sound +education. Your family is cultivated, and deserves to meet with kindly +feeling and esteem from all the world. It is a pity that such a family +should be annoyed and brought to sorrow by a certain individual bound to +it by ties of blood, duty, and respect. A mother of very noble birth +treated with contempt, sisters domineered over, persons of merit +regarded with hatred--all kinds of extravagances and injustice--such +things dishonour the individual of whom I speak." This preamble made me +feel inclined to bow myself out of the room in silence, since I am by +nature far from prone to justify my innocence; but politeness and a fear +that a certain famous advocate, if prejudiced against me, might upset my +plans, kept me where I was. I suffered, however, keenly from the +barbarous picture which had been presented to me, and began to plead in +self-defence. She interrupted me by saying that she did not believe me +to be entirely bad-hearted, and that if I ceased to follow the counsels +of a certain friend of mine, I might become a rational and right-feeling +young man. So then, here was Signor Massimo once more made a +scape-goat--the friend who had assisted me in Dalmatia, succoured my +family in our distress, and who still remained our uncomplaining +creditor. The impropriety of this attack stung me so sharply that I +could not hold my tongue. I had been treated as a knave and fool without +losing patience; but never in my life have I heard my friends insulted +without resenting the injustice. + +I told the lady, knitting my brows and speaking seriously, that she was +bound to listen to me: unless, as I thought not, she was indifferent to +equity. Prejudice, I said, is a very unjust judge, and I did not wish +her to fall into that category. Then I entered into a candid narration +of our family affairs. I described the ill results of reckless +mal-administration. I related what had already happened and was sure to +happen, what I wanted, how I was opposed, my honourable intentions, the +plots and schemes to thwart me, the services rendered by my friend and +his guiltlessness of any machinations. I could see that she was both +surprised and penetrated by my reasoning. Just at this point Conte +Francesco Santorini entered the apartment, tired and drowsy. We +exchanged greetings, and the lady spoke to him in this way: "Count, you +were quite right to doubt about the Gozzi. This gentleman has put a very +different face upon the matter, and I know not what to think." The Count +sank sleepily into a chair, murmuring: "Did I not tell you that you +ought to hear both sides? The chatter of women, heated brains" ... And +having said these words, he subsided into slumber. + +I begged this noble lady to continue her protection to our family, and +to receive the visits which I hoped to pay her; if she sought to help +us, she could do so by allaying the fever which was burning in so many +irritated bosoms. For my part, I cultivated her friendship through many +long years, until death forced me to deplore the loss of one whom I +esteemed and reverenced. My relatives, on the other hand, gradually +relaxed in their attentions, ceased to visit her, and changed their +eulogistic sonnets into petty satires. + + + + +XXII. + + _The dogs of the law are let loose on me by my family.--It is + impossible to avoid a separation._ + + +As time went on, my steady intention to remove our family into the +country, and my other plans of reform, roused my domestic antagonists to +various pettifogging stratagems. The black-robed seedy myrmidons of the +courts began to haunt our dwelling, taking inventories of every nail on +the pretext of my mother's dowry, delivering demands in form from my +three sisters for maintenance and marriage portions, presenting bills +for drapery and jewels furnished by a company of merchants to the tune +of 1500 ducats, and suing on the part of my two brothers-in-law for some +4000 ducats owed to them. Little creditors of all descriptions rose in +swarms around us; and what was still more astounding, my sister-in-law +advanced a claim of 900 ducats, due to her, she said, upon the statement +of accounts which we had signed so negligently. One would have thought +the myrmidons and ban-dogs of the law had been unleashed by hunters bent +on driving a wild beast from his lair; while the satisfaction and +triumph depicted on the faces of my relatives showed too clearly who +were the real authors of this legal persecution. + +I bore the brunt of these attacks with my habitual philosophy of +laughter, drew closer to my brother Almor, and informed Francesco by +letter of what was being conspired against us. Count Francesco Santorini +helped me at this pinch with excellent advice. Under his direction I +took the following measures. Francesco received instructions to hold +fast by every rood of our Friulian property, and to send me copies of +any writs which might be served upon him there. I recognised my mother's +dowry, and offered annual payments to the merchants and my +brothers-in-law. To my sisters I replied in writing that their +maintenance should be duly attended to, but that it was impossible to +create marriage portions for them under the conditions of entail to +which the estate was subjected. With regard to the monstrous claims +advanced by my sister-in-law, I flatly denied their validity until they +had been submitted to a court of justice. Then I proceeded to meet the +current expenditure of our establishment as well as I was able, while +waiting for the time of harvest; and all this I did without mooting the +question of Gasparo's separation from our brotherhood, in the hope that +little by little things would settle down in peace and quietness. Vain +and idle expectation! My reforms, by cutting at the root of vested +interests, and checking the arbitrary sway of Heaven knows whom, merely +fanned the flames of rage which burned against me. In a private +memorial, addressed to my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and sisters, +I finally explained the impossibility of supporting the family any +longer at Venice, exposed as I was to annoying and expensive litigation +with the very persons who ate and drank at the same table. I might just +as well have talked to images. Writs issued by my mother, my +sister-in-law, my sisters, fell in showers. Slights and insults +thickened daily. Our common table had become a pit of hell, worthy to be +sung by Dante. To such a state of misery had irrational dissensions +brought a set of relatives who really loved each other. + +In order to shelter Almor and myself from the wordy missiles which fell +like hail all dinner-time, I had a little table laid for us two in a +separate apartment. The covers were removed with rudeness, on the +pretext that the linen, plates, dishes, &c., belonged to my mother's +dowry, and that if I wanted such furniture I must buy it. Pushed in this +way to extremities, I decided to leave a house which had become for me a +hell on earth. Perhaps it was impolitic to take this step. But I could +not stand these petty persecutions longer. Before quitting the infernal +regions, I begged permission from my mother to take away the beds in +which my brother Almor and I enjoyed our troubled slumbers, offering to +pay their price to the credit of her dowry. She replied with a sardonic +smile of discontent that she could not grant my request, since the beds +were needed by the family. I accepted this refusal with hilarity. + + "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle." + "And thence we issued to review the stars." + + + + +XXIII. + + _Calumnious reports, negotiations, a legal partition of our family + estate, tranquillity sought in vain._ + + +I had hardly settled down with my brother Almor in the remote quarter +of S. Caterina, where lodgings are cheap in proportion to their +inconvenience and discomfort, before the whole town began to talk about +our doings. Three of the brothers Gozzi, it was rumoured, had laid +violent hands upon the family estate; their eldest brother with his wife +and five children, their three unmarried sisters, and their mother, a +Venetian noblewoman worthy of all respect, had been plunged in tears and +indigence by the barbarous inhumanity of these unnatural monsters. The +hovel I had hired, and where I suffocated with Almor in the smoke of a +miserable kitchen, ill-furnished and waited on by an old beldame called +Jacopa, was besieged by the myrmidons of the law. Everything was done to +dislodge me from the city, and to make me abandon the line of action on +which I had resolved. Democritus and my innocence came to my aid; and I +determined to stand firm with silent and passive resistance. + +In these painful circumstances I heard to my great sorrow that my +brother's wife had persuaded him to become the lessee of the theatre of +S. Angelo at Venice.[136] Her romantic turn of fancy, together with her +love of domination, made her conceive wild hopes of profit from this +scheme. A company of actors were engaged at fixed salaries; and she was +to play the part of controller, purse-holder, and stage-manager for the +troupe at Venice and on the mainland. Moved by pity for my brother and +his innocent children, I did everything I could, without appearing +personally in the matter, to dissuade this hot-headed woman from so +perilous an enterprise. She repelled all such attempts with scorn, being +firmly convinced that she would gain a fortune and make her +brothers-in-law bite their nails with envy. + +I saw that the division of our patrimony could no longer be postponed, +and civilly intimated to Gasparo that the time was come for taking this +supreme step. Articles were accordingly drawn up, whereby the several +parcels of our estate in Friuli, Venice, Bergamo, and Vicenza were +partitioned into four lots. Provision was made for the repayment of my +mother's dowry and for the proper maintenance of my three sisters, all +of whom elected to reside with Gasparo. A fund was formed for the +liquidation of debts, the charge of which devolved on me. I undertook to +render an annual report of this operation, showing how I had bestowed +the monies in my hands as trustee for the family. Nothing was fixed +about my sister-in-law's claims for reimbursement; but it will be seen +that when her theatrical speculation proved a ruinous failure, I had to +take these also into account. Gasparo expressed a wish to obtain the +upper dwelling in our mansion as part of his share. The lower dwelling +was conceded to Francesco, Almor and myself. To my mother and sisters +we offered the hospitality of sons and brothers, in case at any time +they should repent of their decision to abide with Gasparo. + +It might be imagined that, while these negotiations were in progress, I +had no time to spend on literary occupations. Nothing could be further +from the fact. I found in them my solace and distraction, pouring forth +multitudes of compositions, for the most part humorous and alien to the +cares which weighed upon my mind. The course of my Memoirs will bring to +light many curious incidents which these literary pastimes occasioned, +and the narration of which will prove, I hope, far from saddening to my +readers. + + + + +XXIV. + + _I enter on a period of toilsome litigation, and become acquainted + with Venetian lawyers._ + + +I should have been an arrant fool had I flattered myself with the hope +that this partition would introduce the olive-branch of peace into our +midst. On the contrary, I looked forward, and with justice, to all kinds +of coming troubles. Two-thirds of the estate were saved from extravagant +administration by the process; but the minds of Gasparo's family had +been almost incurably embittered by the same cause. When I wanted to lay +my hands upon our documents, in order to study the nature of various +entails and trusts under which the estates were settled, I found that +all these papers had been sold out of spite. Who had done this I did not +learn, but I was informed in great secrecy by a servant-maid that they +had been sold to a certain pork-butcher. I repaired immediately to his +shop, and was only just in time to repurchase some abstracts and wills, +which had not yet been used to wrap up sausages. Then I set to work in +the cabinets of notaries and advocates and in the public archives, +following the scent afforded by my recovered papers. More than eighty +bulky suits in my own handwriting remain to show how patiently I +studied the rights and claims of our estate, and now I prepared myself +for the task of laying these before the courts. + +At this epoch I made acquaintance with the celebrated pleader, Antonio +Testa, under whose direction and advice I embarked upon a series of +litigations which kept me fully occupied for eighteen years, and in the +course of which I became acquainted with the men who haunt our palace of +justice, and learned the chicaneries of legal warfare. Inveterate +abuses, introduced in the remote past, and complicated by the ingenuity +of lawyers through successive generations (most of them men of subtle +brains, some of them devoid of moral rectitude), have been built up into +a system of pleading as false as it is firmly grounded and imbued with +ineradicable insincerity. This system consists, for the most part, of +quibbling upon side-issues, throwing dust in the eyes of judges, +cavilling, misrepresenting, taking advantage of technical errors, doing +everything in short to gain a cause by indirect means. And from this +false system neither honourable nor dishonest advocates are able to +depart. + +In justice to the legal profession, I must, however, say that I found +many practicians who combined the gifts of eloquence and intellectual +fervour with urbanity, cordiality, prudence, and disinterested zeal. +Outside the vicious circle of their system they were men of loyalty and +honour. Among these I ought to pay a particular tribute to my friendly +counsel and defender, Signor Testa. Knowing my circumstances and my +upright motives, he refused to take the fees which were his due, and not +unfrequently opened his purse to me at a pinch in my necessities. I have +never met with a lawyer more quick at seizing the strong and weak points +of a case, more rapid in his analysis of piles of documents, more +sagacious in divining the probable issue of a suit, or more acute in +calculating the mental powers, the bias, and the equity of judges. Time +and the circumstances of our several lives have drawn us somewhat apart. +But nothing can diminish the feeling of deep gratitude which I shall +always cherish for one who helped to heal the distractions and to +improve the fallen fortunes of my family. + +The final result of eight or nine tedious lawsuits, carried through with +the assistance of Signor Testa, was that I received several parcels of +our estates in Friuli, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Venice, which had been +alienated by fraudulent evasions of entail.[137] Meanwhile I found time +to visit my mother and Gasparo's family. The latter were busily engaged +in concocting and translating plays for my brother's theatre. These +visits, paid with cordiality and frankness on my side, were usually the +occasions of requests for money on my mother's. She begged with maternal +dignity for little loans. I complied to the best of my ability, and +forgot to remind her of her debts. My sister-in-law forced herself to +treat me with an affectation of flattery. My sisters looked upon me with +real affection, checked in its expression by I know not what untoward +influence. My brother accepted me with philosophical indifference. + + + + +XXV. + + _A collision with my brother's family, due to old grudges and to + present needs.--They make me a married man without my having taken + a wife._ + + +My brother Gasparo's income, derived from his portion of the family +estates, from the interest on my mother's dowry and the annual allowance +for my sisters' maintenance, together with the profits of his writing +and of certain literary services rendered to his Excellency Marco +Foscarini,[138] late Doge of glorious memory, amounted to about 1500 +ducats, free of all debts and obligations. This was certainly nothing +very splendid; but neither would the wealth of Croesus have been +anything to boast of in the hands of an extravagant family, ruled only +by the caprice of its component members. + +I have mentioned above that Gasparo obtained the upper dwelling in our +house at Venice, which was let for 150 ducats, while we three brothers +received the lower dwelling, at that time inhabited by him. Some few +months were allowed him to remove from the one apartment to the other. +But no sooner had he entered into legal possession of his new habitation +than he, or perhaps I ought to say his wife, let it again to the noble +lady Ginevra Loredan Zeno. She paid the rent of several years in +advance, and installed herself in Gasparo's part of the mansion, while +he, with all his family, continued to inhabit our part with the utmost +sang-froid, taking no further heed of the engagement he was under to us +three brothers. Now we had resolved to put this tenement into good +repair and to let it for some years, until the debts of the estate had +been discharged and we could go to live in it at peace. With this view +we had already found a tenant, who was no other than the Contessa +Ghellini Balbi. She, on her side, had given up her old apartment, which +was already let in advance to other tenants by her landlord. Time went +on, and I saw no sign of our house being abandoned to our use, according +to the family agreement. It appeared only too clearly that the +partition I had demanded, my resolve to pay the family debts out of +income without resorting to sale or mortgage, and my application to the +courts for annulment of contracts made during my father's lifetime, were +all of them unpardonable offences in the eyes of those who had made the +debts, the mortgages, the contracts. + +I began by gently asking for the house which was our portion, seeing +that we had resigned the upper dwelling to our brother at his particular +request. No answer reached me; but rumours ran around the city that I +was now attempting to turn my old mother, my three marriageable sisters, +my brother, his wife, and five innocent children into the streets. At +this point I expected that one of those interminable lawsuits, which are +the dishonour of the legal profession, but which never lack advocates to +keep them going, would be commenced against me. In order to lend colour +and substance to their false report, my relatives determined to give me +a wife without consulting me. It was impossible to fix definite +calumnies upon Mme. Ghellini Balbi, because of her exemplary life and +conspicuous piety. But my daily visits to her house offered a pretext +for injurious insinuations; and I soon heard it announced that I was +secretly married to this lady, and that all my plots had only this one +end in view. Such gossip did me honour in some respects. Yet I was +grieved that a lady of excellent conduct, devoted to her only son, and +old enough to be my mother, should be made the butt of malignant +animosity.[139] + +Without wasting time or breath in contradicting these unjust and lying +vociferations of my private enemies, I made my mind up to obtain +possession of my house by all the straightforward means in my power. +Accordingly I managed to meet my brother apart from the din of women, +and laid a clear statement before him of my obligations to Mme. Ghellini +Balbi (who ran the risk of remaining without a roof to shelter her) and +of my well-founded rights which were being iniquitously set at nought. +The poor fellow seemed on the point of weeping. His gestures reminded me +of patient Job, while he protested that he had nothing whatever to do +with a state of affairs the injustice of which he frankly admitted. He +added that he had to put up with infernal clamourings--that he was +called a chicken-hearted poltroon, a father without entrails for his +offspring--in short, that he was neither obeyed nor listened to at home. +Then, to convince me that it was not he who opposed my entrance into our +part of the house, he took a pen and wrote and signed a declaration to +the effect that he fully acknowledged the title of his brothers +Francesco, Carlo, and Almor, and that he would never interfere to +prevent our taking possession of our lawful property. + +All these steps proved fruitless. Time pressed, and I found myself +obliged to bring my cause before a judge, who chanced to be his +Excellency Count Galean Angarano, at that time Avvogador del +Comune.[140] What was my astonishment when I saw my sister-in-law, like +an advocate in petticoats, at the head of my mother and my sisters, with +my hen-pecked brother to bring up the rear, come marching into court. I +will not dwell upon this too too comic scene-- + + "For my Thalia takes no thought to sing." + +The judge recognised that my claims were indisputable. But before +pronouncing sentence in my favour he strove to settle matters by +mediation. Conferences took place; first between the bench and his +Excellency the Senator Daniele Reniero, who acted for Mme. Ghellini +Balbi; then between the Senator and my sister-in-law, who was the rock +and stone of our vexation. I was curious to know the upshot of these +whispered confabulations. At length Senator Reniero came up and told me +that if I was willing to disburse sixty ducats, which my sister-in-law +had pressing need of, I might enter at once into possession of the +house without a verdict from the bench. Such a verdict would be appealed +against and would certainly lead to indescribable delays. I thanked his +Excellency for suggesting this arrangement. My sister-in-law received +her ducats, and we obtained our dwelling. I had it straightway put into +repair, for it looked as though it had sustained a siege. Mme. Balbi +went at once to live there with a lease of five years only, while I +retired with my brothers into a cheap house, which I had taken at S. +Ubaldo and furnished with strict regard to economy. Here I arranged for +Almor's tuition by an excellent ecclesiastic. For my own part, I went +on paying off debts, rebuilding such of our houses as needed it, +prosecuting my lawsuits, and amusing myself in leisure hours with +literature. + + + + +XXVI. + + _A serious event, depicting the character of my uncle, the Senator + Almor Cesare Tiepolo._ + + +A very long time had elapsed since I visited my maternal uncle, the +Senator Almor Cesare Tiepolo. I imagined that my mother and the persons +about her, who were assiduous in paying court to him from motives wholly +alien to my nature, might have prejudiced the good old man against me. +Still I did not choose to undergo the mortification of defending +myself, especially as I could only do so by accusing those for whom at +the bottom of my heart I felt both love and reverence. I knew, moreover, +that our Venetian patricians, though just and dispassionate upon the +bench in their capacity of judges, were singularly liable to be +influenced by what they heard in private at their own homes from suitors +or clients, and that it was extremely difficult to remove impressions +which had once been made upon their minds. This weakness I have always +ascribed to their amiability, and have regarded the nobles of our +Republic as really adorable for qualities of the heart, in spite of the +sentimental bias I have mentioned. + +My habitual taciturnity and solitary ways of life, my neglect of petty +social duties, my habit of asking and desiring nothing from fortune, +together with the freedom of my pen, might have won me formidable +enemies, if any such had deigned to look down upon a person of so little +consequence as I am. + +My wise and good uncle, who was suffering from a dropsy in the chest, +and not far from death's door, let me know that he should like to see +me. I went at once to his house; and was bidden to take a seat at his +bedside. He began to complain gently that I had so long neglected to +visit him. I answered frankly that I had stayed away through fear of his +having been wrongfully prejudiced against me, and also because I heard +that he was angry with me, perhaps on account of my prolonged absence. +"If I complained," he said, "that my sister and your mother was being +exposed to ill-treatment and affronts, this was no reason why you should +suspend your visits." "I see," I replied, "that my suspicions and my +fears are not without foundation. But this is not the proper time to +trouble you with lengthy narratives in self-defence. Your health is a +matter of concern to me for your sake and for my own. I have tried +everything in my power to avert discords and divisions, even to the +point of doing violence to my naturally pacific temper. I feel sure, +when you recover, as I hope you will with all my heart, that I shall +make it clear to you that I have hurt nobody and attacked nobody, and +that I am only doing all I can to benefit our family, without the least +regard for my mere private interest; nay, that I am bearing the burden +of enormous cares and weighty business, not to speak of exposing myself +to risks and dangers, for the common good." + +He was just, prudent, a philosopher, and ill. Therefore he made no +immediate answer. I renewed my daily visits, and had the satisfaction of +hearing afterwards that the venerable old man expressed himself in these +words to my mother: "Believe me, your son Carlo is a good young fellow." + +His illness kept increasing, and I perceived, by the persons whom he +urged to visit him, that he was anxious to be reconciled with all of his +acquaintances who might be under the impression that he bore a grudge +against them. A certain Frate Bernardo of the Gesuati, who then passed +for a learned ecclesiastic, acted as his spiritual director, and used to +read at his request portions of the Holy Scriptures aloud to him. +Observing his indifference upon the point of death, this excellent friar +was moved to say: "I do not want you to prepare yourself for death too +much like a philosopher." + +Though he had filled important posts in the Government, and had +frequently sat as member of the sublime Council of Ten, he was never +heard, throughout his last illness, to utter the least word regarding +the tribunals of justice or the state. + +During his whole lifetime he had taken delight in gathering company +around his hospitable board, and seeing the table furnished with good +cheer, especially with the choicest kinds of fish. Now that he was sick +unto death, and could only take some spoonfuls of such broth as are +administered to dying persons, he still would have the table served as +formerly for guests. Every morning he used to send for one of his +gondoliers, and inquire what sorts of fine fish were that day in the +market. On receiving the man's report, he commented in praise or blame, +as this might be, upon the season and the quality of the fishes for +sale, and the various waters in which they had been caught. After +settling these affairs of the household, he proceeded to religious +exercises, grave discourses with his spiritual director, and prayers of +fervent piety. I ought further to testify that he breathed his last in +the spirit of a great man, philosophically Christian, and that his +example inspired me with the desire to imitate his end. + +He possessed the virtue of patience in the highest degree. No one ever +saw his temper stirred by any untoward accident which happened to him. +In order to give a single instance of his intrepid constancy, I will +relate an event which happened some years before his death. One evening, +while alighting from his gondola, he caught his foot in the long and +ample robes of the patrician mantle, and was upon the point of falling +into the canal. The gondolier, in his anxiety to catch and keep him up, +let the oar go which he was holding in his hands. The oar fell with +violence upon the right arm of his master, and broke it. The gondolier +was not aware of what had happened; and my uncle, though he knew very +well, uttered no complaint. He ascended the stairs, and when he reached +his apartment, the valet came forward to help him off, as usual, with +his cloak. Then at last he remarked with imperturbable long-suffering: +"Pull gently, for my right arm is in two pieces." The uproar among the +servants, who were greatly attached to him, was tremendous. The +gondolier ran up, weeping bitterly and begging to be pardoned. He bade +them all be calm, and said to the man: "You did me harm when you were +meaning to do me good. What fault have you committed, which requires my +pardon?" After this he had to lie forty days in bed without altering his +position, at the surgeon's orders; yet he never uttered a syllable that +betrayed any impatience. I could relate a number of such traits of +character, but they have nothing to do with the Memoirs of my life. + +After his death, which I felt very deeply, as every one could see, a +certain Signor Giovannantonio Guse came to call on me. This man +practised as notary, land-surveyor, advocate, registrar, and judge in +certain courts of Friuli. He was known to be more wily than the old +Greek Sinon, and had assisted my brother's wife in procuring the +alienation of certain portions of our entailed estates. Now he suggested +that it would do me great honour, as a sign of affectionate remembrance, +if I were to contribute ten sacks of flour and two casks of wine +annually to my mother, in addition to her dowry. I saw at once from whom +this proposal emanated, and admired the address with which the proper +moment had been chosen for working on my feelings. Such artifices, +however, were repugnant to my nature; and changing my tone from sadness +to cold reserve, I replied to the following effect. "I thought my +mother's preference for my brother Gasparo's family unfortunate; my own +house was always open to her, and here she would be revered and loved by +three respectful sons. Here she would enjoy her yearly maintenance, and +the income of her dowry. By refusing our offer, she only affronted us. +By accepting it, she would confer a benefit on Gasparo, the number of +whose family would be diminished. Meanwhile, the obligation I was under +of reducing debts, repairing buildings on the property, and reclaiming +parts of the entailed estates, rendered it impossible that I should +weaken the insufficient resources at my command by any such donation as +Signor Guse had proposed." This answer set tongues wagging again, and +revived the opinion that I was a downright Phalaris. + +The estate of my uncle Tiepolo had gained nothing by his regency of +Zante and by other lucrative appointments. The probity of his character +did not suffer him to enrich himself at the expense of the State. +Accordingly, he provided by will that all his debts should be paid off, +appending a schedule of his creditors. The residue he bequeathed to his +sister Girolama for her lifetime, with reversion to my mother. On the +same sad occasion my mother inherited a portion of some landed property +in Friuli, which had belonged to an old aunt Tiepolo, who died +intestate. This, united to her dowry, formed a sufficient fund for her +establishment. + +My mother continued to regard me as her sixth finger, amputated without +any suffering on her part. Of course she had the right to dispose of her +affections as she felt inclined, and to keep her tender heart open for +the persons who possessed her favour. It was my misfortune not to +possess it, but I did not envy those who had that privilege; and I can +assure my readers that what caused me the greatest annoyance with regard +to my mother, was seeing her always without a ducat to spend according +to her fancy. This state of things continued when the whole property of +that branch of the Tiepolos passed into her hands upon the death of her +sister Girolama, who left furniture and a considerable amount of money +to my mother, jointly with my brother Gasparo and his children. + + + + +XXVII. + + _It is decided that I was a husband, though I had no wife.--Some + anecdotes of a serious character._ + + +An event happened which clenched the gossip of my imaginary marriage to +the Contessa Ghellini Balbi. The patrician Benedetto Balbi, Canon of +Padua and Abbot of Lonigo, a gentleman abundantly endowed with gifts of +nature and of fortune, who was this lady's brother-in-law, had caused +himself to be legally appointed sole guardian of his nephew Paolo, the +widow's only son. The lad may have been about ten years old at this +epoch; and his uncle resolved to separate him from his mother, and to +place him in a school kept by the Somascan fathers, at San Cipriano on +the island of Murano.[141] His mother, who was tenderly devoted to her +son, did not oppose his entrance into this college, but resented his +being torn from the arms which had nursed and fostered him till now, as +though she were a peril to his youth and had no claim to supervise his +education in the school. Sharp and angry words passed; and Mme. Balbi +applied to the courts, demanding to be nominated guardian together with +her brother-in-law. The conflagration spread, and I, innocent as I was, +found myself involved in it. With the object of strengthening his case, +the Cavaliere went about the town, loudly protesting that his +sister-in-law had contracted a second alliance with Count Carlo Gozzi; +that she had ceased thereby to be a Balbi, and had lost all rights over +the boy, who belonged to his family. I laughed, as usual, with the lady +over the pertinacity of folk in thinking we were married. But my +laughter was turned to seriousness, when the Cavaliere finally declared +his intention to be free of legal quarrels, and to abandon all the +schemes which he had formed for his nephew's advantage, leaving him +entirely to his mother's authority. + +Assuming a Catonian gravity, I pointed out to Mme. Balbi that she ought +to waive her just claims and to stomach her natural resentment for the +sake of her son. I firmly believed in my own soul that an ounce of +sincere love was worth more than a hundred pounds of gold. Yet I +reminded her that she was not in the position to make up to her boy for +the loss of his uncle's property. This reasoning, which I regard as mere +sophistry, but which the world accepts as irrefutable, made the lady +burst into a flood of tears and then exclaim: "You are right! I am a +poor woman, and should be condemned by everybody, perhaps even in the +future by my own son. I am ready to sacrifice my rights; I will bury in +my breast the stirrings of maternal love, the sense of insult and of +injury, all that may prove prejudicial to the interests of my adored +son, on whom I am unable to confer those benefits which lie within his +uncle's power. Pray do me the further kindness of undertaking to explain +the unalterable decision at which I have arrived." + +I praised her virtuous resolution, and reported to the noble gentleman, +her brother-in-law, from whom I have always received distinguished marks +of politeness, the decision she had come to. In doing so, I attempted to +draw a picture of her merits, and to maintain that her feelings were not +merely excusable, but worthy of the highest commendation. The Cavaliere +replied with some emotion: "You must not take me for a wild beast! I +mean that the boy shall be visited by his mother, and looked after in +all his wants, the charge of supplying which I take for the future on +myself. I am quite willing to let her bring him back from time to time +to dine with her, and only stipulate that her demonstrations of +tenderness shall not interfere with his education and discipline." These +solemn words of covenant having been exchanged, I was the instrument of +separating the boy from his mother's embraces, and of conducting him to +his appointed school. His behaviour on this occasion, in which firmness +blent with filial emotion, made me feel sure that he was destined to +reward his mother's virtues and his uncle's benevolence with conduct +worthy of the highest honours of his country. Only death, which spared +neither of his relatives, and which prevented them from reaping the +fruits of their respective love and kindness, defeated these +prognostications. The mother died twelve, and the uncle fifteen years +after the events I have narrated. Young Balbi grew up to be an ornament, +by his intellectual and moral qualities, by his probity and purity of +manners, by his sympathy for the oppressed, and by his thoroughly +national temper, to the Venetian Republic, in the administration of +which his birth opened for him a career of usefulness and honour. + + + + +XXVIII. + + _I should not have believed what is narrated in this chapter, if I + had not seen it with my own eyes._ + + +Family jars and discords have this effect upon embittered minds that +each member, wherever the wrong may really lie, is apt to think, not +only that he is in the right, but that the right is absolutely and +wholly on his side. For my part, I am not altogether sure that I was +justified in doing what I did, and what I have described above with +perfect candour. + +I was aware that the theatrical speculation into which my brother had +been induced to enter had taken a bad turn, and that worse might be +expected in the future. A malignant and vindictive spirit would have +found some satisfaction in these circumstances. As it was, I felt +sincerely sorry, and flattered myself on being therefore free from +malice. In proportion as things went from bad to worse, the rancour +against myself increased, as though I had been responsible for an +enterprise which I had always solemnly condemned by act and word. + +I kept up relations with my brother's family, wishing to maintain the +links of relationship unbroken, and to explain from time to time what I +was doing for the common good. In spite of these demonstrations of a +kindly feeling, which I admit were never very gushing, I saw to my deep +regret that the wounds caused by the partition of our patrimony had not +ceased to bleed. + +The youngest of my sisters, Chiara by name, induced perhaps by some +presentiment of coming trouble, asked me one day to take her under the +protection of us three brothers. I cordially acceded to her request, and +would have done the like by my mother and our two other sisters, had +they not spurned the acceptance of what they had hitherto rejected as a +great misfortune. + +I told this youngest of my sisters that, our mother not being under my +roof, my brother Francesco occupied with the estates in Friuli, Almor a +mere boy engaged in studies, and I absorbed in legal affairs for the +common interests of the family, she could not with any propriety be left +to the custody of a rough and stupid serving-woman. I therefore begged +her to enter a convent for a while, until we should have changed our +mode of living, and should be in a position to receive her more suitably +and to take thought for her proper establishment. My sisters are neither +foolish nor ill-natured. Chiara accepted my proposal, and was placed in +the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli at Pordenone, as a young lady in +charge of the Superior. + +Any one exposed, as I was, to the rage of angry tongues, blackening me +with the epithets of unjust, inhumane, tyrannical, marrying me against +my will, and capable of insinuating the worst of charges against me for +my guardianship of a sister, would act rightly if he took the +precautions I did. Yet the precautions of the most prudent man on earth +do not always bear the good results expected of them. I speak with +experience derived from long study of ill-inclined men and +worse-inclined women, who have invariably taken my unalterable good +faith for venomous maliciousness. + +I was excessively pained to observe that the bitterness created in my +brother Gasparo's family by the events I have narrated remained +unconquerable. It is true that they concealed, as far as possible, their +grudge against me, whenever I paid them visits and treated them with +brotherly good-will. This grudge, however, could not help showing itself +in public; and it did so in a monstrous fashion, which I should not have +credited unless I had been an eye-witness of the scandal. + +My brothers and I were in the habit, during carnival-time, of frequently +attending the theatre of S. Angelo, which was under the direction of my +sister-in-law far rather than her husband. Amusement was less our object +than the wish to support, so far as in us lay, a speculation to which we +feared our brother had been sacrificed. We persuaded Mme. Ghellini Balbi +to accompany us; and she entered into our designs by applauding as +heartily as any of the audience. + +They had given at this theatre a translation of the French comedy called +_Esop at the Court_, which succeeded partly by the elegance of my +brother's Italian version, and partly by its novelty. Rumour told us +that the sequel, by the same French author, entitled _Esop in the Town_, +was being translated and would soon appear. We were eager to be present +at the first night, to back the piece with our approval, and to witness +its triumph. + +A worthy fellow, who aired his eloquence at Gasparo's house and also in +our own, took me apart one day, and spoke with an air of secrecy and +consternation to the following effect: "You must know that the +forthcoming play of _Esop in the Town_ will contain a scene, +interpolated, not translated from the original, in which you, your +brothers Francesco and Almor, and Mme. Ghellini Balbi, are held up in a +cruel satire to the public scorn. Do not let my name transpire; but take +means to prevent this scandal; the comedy will be represented in five +days from now." I was far from disbelieving that what my friend said was +the truth; yet I took care to let no sign of my belief escape me. I +thanked him for the friendly interest which had prompted him to warn me, +but laughed the matter off as something beyond the range of possibility. +He strained every nerve to convince me, but got nothing for his pains +beyond smiles and ironical protestations of gratitude. I left him there +fuming with anger at my obstinate hilarity. + +I kept guard over my tongue in the presence of my brothers and the lady, +and made a show of great anxiety to see the new play produced upon the +boards. At last the first night came, and we all provided ourselves with +a convenient box for the occasion. We were disappointed to find the +theatre ill-attended, and to notice that the comedy dragged. _Esop at +the Court_ had caught the public by something piquant in its chief +character, by his grotesque, crook-backed figure, and by the appropriate +fables which had been written with real dramatic skill for the part. +_Esop in the Town_ was no less worthy of attention, but the novelty had +evaporated; it seemed a plagiarism of the former piece, and wearied the +audience like a composition which has lost its salt. At length the +interpolated scene, of which my friend had warned me, came on.[142] + +An ancient dame, attired in black, made her entrance, and unfolded the +tale of her self-styled calamities to Esop. Pouring forth an +interminable catalogue of woes, she enumerated all the lies which had +been circulated against myself and Mme. Balbi at the period of our +family dissensions. The ancient dame summed up by saying that she had +been turned out of house and home, together with a loving son, three +daughters, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren, by three of her +own male children, the barbarous perverted offspring of her womb. Then +she appealed with tears for counsel and advice to Esop, who expressed +his sympathy in a frigidly elaborated fable. The ancient dame, attired +in black, was an exact image of our poor mother, who had been blinded by +a touch of spite against me and by the mud-honey of her favouritism into +allowing herself to be exposed in this way on a public stage for the +mirth of the populace. + +The scene was very long; it had nothing to do with the action of the +piece, having been foisted in to gratify a private animosity. The +audience, ignorant of what it meant, began to yawn; and it contributed +in no small measure to the failure of the play. + +While this indecent and malignant episode was dragging its slow length +along, I saw Mme. Ghellini Balbi becoming momently more taciturn and out +of humour, my two brothers flaming into anger and preparing for some act +of violence. The shouts of laughter with which I greeted this abortion +of a satire added fuel to their fire, and Francesco, spurred by martial +ardour, was on the point of defying the players. He only made me laugh +the louder; but I had some difficulty in persuading my companions to +quench their indignation in a cup of water, and to wrap themselves +around with imperturbable indifference. They obeyed me. If we had made a +disturbance, we should have put the cap on our own heads. As it was, our +cold behaviour snuffed out the whole episode, without awaking anybody's +interest. And such will, peradventure, be the fate of these Memoirs I am +writing of my life. + +In after days I was glad to have laughed at this indecent exhibition. +The perusal of an anecdote in lian confirmed my self-congratulation. It +was to the following effect. "When," says he, "a firm courageous spirit +is attacked before the public in quizzical caricatures and gibing +insults, these trifles vanish like mist before the wind; but if they +meet with a nature which is base and proud and abject all at one and the +same time, they fill it with melancholy and madness, which often lead it +to the grave.[143] Take the proof of these remarks. Socrates, when he +was ridiculed upon the public stage by Aristophanes, enjoyed the fun and +laughed at it. Poliagros, under the same circumstances, went mad and +hanged himself." + +In concluding this episode, which I leave my readers to characterise +with stronger epithets than I shall use, I wish to affirm that I never +have believed, or can believe, that my brother Gasparo lent his pen or +his assent to the production of the scene in question. + + + + +XXIX. + + _A disagreeable action at law brought against me._ + + +While busily engaged in prosecuting my many lawsuits, I was unpleasantly +surprised by the revival of my sister-in-law's old claim for +reimbursement of monies expended by her in the management of our affairs +during my father's lifetime.[144] This preposterous claim had long been +lying dormant, and the better terms on which we were gradually coming to +live together made me forget it as a chimera of the past. + +My brother Gasparo's direction of the theatre of which he was the sole +lessee bore such fruits as every one predicted. Instead of the pecuniary +profits he had been encouraged to expect, the poor fellow was worried +with vexatious and aggressive opposition, peculiarly trying to one of +his gifts and temperament, but only too usual in enterprises of this +kind. + +Wounded pride and thirst for vengeance, together with the hideous +necessity of meeting debts contracted in this unsuccessful speculation, +were the causes which roused his wife to bring her alleged claims upon +the family into a law-court. The defendants in this suit were myself and +my two brothers Francesco and Almor. It will be remembered that she had +induced us to sign her cabalistic book of magic numbers with the sole +object of freeing her from any possible pretensions upon our side. My +elder brother, who had been the first to sign, in order to give a good +example to his juniors, was not prosecuted by his wife. + +Our legal advisers maintained, with some show of reason, that Gasparo +was the real mover in this matter. For my part, knowing as I did his +peaceful character, I felt certain, that though he was capable of +countenancing irregularities through indolence and the desire to live a +quiet life, he was incapable of stirring up litigious strife on such +foundations. I was not ignorant that he had stooped to the theatrical +speculation in order merely to escape from a vortex of domestic +intrigues. I knew, moreover, that, after the partition of our patrimony, +his wife and family had changed their residence at least six times, +through restlessness, without informing him; so that he had gone to +knock at empty house-doors, and had casually learned from neighbours in +what quarter of the town his flighty brood had nested last. It also +reached my ears that his wife was selling property upon his life, and +that he had finally been driven by the tempest of his home to take a +distant lodging of two rooms,[145] where he installed himself with his +little heap of books and abandoned himself to study, seeking the peace +he could not find. After all, the father of a family who flies domestic +cares, only brings upon himself more carping cares than those which he +has fled from. All these considerations put together enabled me to +convince my counsel that Gasparo had no share in the proceedings of his +wife. + +In the pleadings which set forth my sister-in-law's cause, Signor Guse, +already named by me above, deposed on obviously false oath that he had +been commissioned by us three brothers to examine her accounts, and that +he had found her claim for reimbursement in the sum demanded to be just. +To cut a long story short, our arguments upon the other side were +useless. It was in vain that we expounded the inability of a woman who +had entered our family without dowry, and had got the management of +affairs into her hands through the indolence of its real head, to +constitute herself its creditor; in vain that we denounced the collusion +of one brother with his wife against the interests of three innocent +brothers, who had been absent many years without burdening the estate; +in vain that we showed how the father and the mother of the plaintiff +had been received into our house and maintained for full fifteen years +until their death, and how her relatives had been more the masters there +than its legitimate owners; in vain that we brought forward the chaotic +account-book, signed by us in compliance with our elder brother for the +sole sake of calming troubled tempers; in vain that we pointed out +figures, garbled, cancelled, altered in these precious documents; in +vain that we offered to discharge sums due to creditors for money or +goods rendered to the plaintiff in her administration of the family +affairs. All these solid pleas were like words thrown to the winds +before the impudence of two scoundrelly pettifoggers, the very scum of +the Venetian law-courts, who managed to convince our sapient judges that +men ought to open their eyes wide before they signed papers. From that +moment until now, I have always read my letters through ten times before +appending my signature. + +As usual, I consoled myself by laughing over the inevitable. Nor did I +dream of complaining to Francesco, who had drawn me into the affair by +his desire to settle matters. He, good fellow, met my laughter with a +sorry countenance, protesting that he could never have anticipated such +an abominable trick of fortune. + +Seven hundred ducats were passed to my sister-in-law's credit on the +termination of this suit. They did my brother's family no good. Debts to +comedians had eaten up the capital beforehand; and I was obliged to pay +a set of hungry fellows with the consent of him and his wife. The +annoyance, however, did not stop here. In order to bolster up her claim, +my sister-in-law had raked together a multitude of soi-disant creditors, +who pretended to have supplied money or goods to our family; and +declarations signed by them, recognising her as their sole debtor, were +put into court as evidence. When they found their expectations +frustrated, the wasp's nest swarmed out against us three brothers, and +sequestrated our house-property for payment of their alleged debts. +Before I succeeded in finally shaking them off, I had to transact much +tiresome business and to fight several lawsuits. + + + + +XXX. + + _A long and serious illness.--My recovery.--The doctors + differ.--One of my sisters takes the veil.--Beginnings of literary + squabbles, and other trifles._ + + +In the midst of these annoyances, I found the time and strength to +pursue my literary studies, especially in the now neglected art of +poetry, and enjoyed excellent health; when suddenly, one night, a +violent hemorrhage from the lungs warned me that the life of mortals +hangs upon the frailest thread. + +Bleeding, vegetable diet, and a frugality in food, which few, I think, +are capable of continuing for as long a space of time as I can, +together with my philosophical indifference to death, restored me to +something like a tolerable state of health. + +It seemed to me at this period that my two brothers and I, who always +kept together, were in a position to settle down again into our paternal +home. Mme. Ghellini Balbi, who had rented the house for more than five +years, politely retired at my request, and found another habitation at +S. Agostino. I furnished our ancestral nest as decently as I was able; +and we were soon installed there. It was then that I invited my youngest +sister to leave her convent and join us, travelling myself to Pordenone +for this purpose. + +Whether through weakness, or human influence, or Divine inspiration, I +know not; but I found the good girl obstinate against my prayers, my +anger, and my threats. She entreated with a holy stubbornness to be left +in prison, to be indulged in her desire to pass her lifetime in that +blessed aviary of virgins. I commanded her to come home for at least +three or four months. At the end of that time, if she still persisted in +her pious fanaticism, I promised to play the part of executioner at her +request. She replied with a serious enthusiasm, which made me laugh, +that she knew enough of the world to be experienced in its wickedness; +and when I insisted, she met me with rather less than heavenly +doggedness by remarking that nothing short of cutting her in pieces +would make her quit the convent-gratings. Though I did not believe that +this ultimatum was dictated by the angels, I bent my head in order to +avoid a scandal. On taking the veil, she received those appointments and +allowances which are usually bestowed upon the brides of Christ. + +Were I to fix my thoughts upon the troubles which my four married +sisters have had to suffer and still suffer--and I am only too well +informed about them--I should be obliged to admit that the youngest +chose the better part in life. They were always in straits, always +weeping, with their gentle natures and their illimitable powers of +endurance. One of them died before my eyes, to my deep sorrow, only +because she was a wife. Meanwhile, the nun, beloved by her sisters, +placidly smiled at things which we, refined in pleasures, finding +nowhere solid pleasure for our satisfaction, would call barbarous +tortures, and took delight in little treats, which we philosophers, +past-masters in the arts of greed, are wont to scorn and turn our backs +upon. In due course she attained the highest rank of Abbess in her +convent; and I believe she was more gratified with this honour than +Louis XVI. with his titles of King of France and of Navarre.[146] + +Time had at length allayed the discords of our family. My two remaining +sisters found husbands. My brother Gasparo obtained a post at the +University of Padua, which brought him six hundred ducats a year, +besides pecuniary gratifications for extraordinary services.[147] This +proves that literature is not wholly unremunerated in Venice. In +addition to these emoluments, he found another way, legitimate indeed, +but one which seems incredible, for accumulating the sequins so much +needed after his theatrical disaster. There was not a marriage, a taking +of the veil among our noble families, an election of a Doge, or +procurator, or grand chancellor, without my brother being engaged to +produce the panegyrics or poems which are usual on such occasions--more +sought perhaps by fashion than by studious readers. The patricians made +it their custom to reward him with a hundred sequins, which contributed +to the splendour of their families, but did him little good, for in his +hands money found wings and flew away. + +These details have little to do with my Memoirs; yet they are honourable +to my nation, and are not without a certain bearing on my subject. +Poetical trifles, published by me in collections, found favour by some +aspect of novelty and by genial satire on contemporary fashions. +Unluckily, they got me the reputation of a good poet and good writer. +Accordingly, many of our lords tried to press me into the ranks of the +_Raccoglitori_--collectors and compilers of occasional verse-books. +They did not know that I had adopted for my motto that line of Berni:-- + + "Voleva far da se, non comandato." + "His master he would be, and no man's man." + +Whenever they did me the honour to force this function on me, I civilly +declined, and sent their messengers on to my brother, without, however, +refusing compositions of my own, which swelled the collections, to their +gain or loss as chance might have it. + +I never abandoned the scheme I had formed of moving at law against the +Marchese Terzi of Bergamo in a suit for the recovery of lands and rights +belonging to us.[148] But while I was engaged on the preliminary +business, a fresh attack of pulmonary hemorrhage cooled my ardour. Many +learned physicians whom I consulted, looked upon me as a victim of +consumption, at the point of death. Beggars in the street, when they saw +me pass, promised to pray for my life if I would fling them a copper. +The cleverest professors of medicine at Padua prescribed ass's milk, +which was tantamount to saying: "Phthisical creature, go and make your +peace with Heaven!" My own doctor in ordinary, Arcadio Cappello by name, +now dead--an old man, experienced, well acquainted with my +constitution, and a philosopher to boot--forbade me milk as though it +had been poison. "You," he said, "are suffering from a nasty malady. Yet +it has not the origin, nor has it made the progress, which these eminent +physicians fancy. If you let your illness prey upon your mind, you will +die. If you have the strength and heart to throw aside all thoughts +about it, you will recover. It has in you no other basis than a +hypochondriacal habit, which you have contracted by a sedentary life of +worry, business, and excessive study. Raw milk of any kind is a pure +poison in your case. Live regularly, cast aside reflections on your +symptoms, take horse-exercise two or three hours a day. These are your +best medicines." + +Marchese Terzi owes no thanks to my malady. Bloodless as I was, through +what I lost by hemorrhage and venesection, my intellect enjoyed the +highest qualities of penetration and acumen. Stretched out upon my bed, +I had the necessary papers for my lawsuit brought to me--abstracts and +wills recovered from the pork-butcher--a whole paraphernalia of +documents forbidden by my doctors--and set up a scheme of proofs and +arguments, so clear and so convincing that they subsequently drove my +enemy to desperate measures. + +These annoying relapses of my malady continued for two years and a half +to fall upon me when I least expected them. They were enough to +dishearten any man less stupid than myself, and make him despair of +living. Contrary to the advice of several physicians, who protested with +wide-open horror-stricken eyes that riding would inflame my blood and +burst the arteries of my lungs, I followed the prescription of Doctor +Arcadio Cappello, half-suffocated as I was with hemorrhage. He proved to +be right. Regular diet, contempt for my symptoms, and horse-exercise +completed my cure. It is now twenty years and more since I have been +reminded that I was ever subject to this indisposition. + +As I have often had occasion to remark, no business, no quarrels, no +lawsuits, and no illnesses prevented me from devoting some hours every +day to poetry. This being the case, when controversies arose in Venice +on philology and the higher Italian literature--controversies of which I +mean to render some account in the following chapters--I went on +vomiting blood from my veins, and scribbling sonnets, satires, essays in +defence of our great writers, treatises on style, polemics against +Chiari and Goldoni and their followers. All these trifles, when I read +them aloud, made my friends laugh, as well as my doctor and the surgeon +who attended on me. + +Before engaging in the circumstances which led to my becoming a writer +for the theatre, I will wind up the history of our private affairs. +First of all, I let the lawsuit with Marchese Terzi drop. My reasons +were as follows:--With the best intentions in the world, and the +strongest desire to reunite the scattered members of our family under +one roof, I found this task impossible. My sisters married. My brothers +Francesco and Almor in course of time took wives and begat children. My +mother's inheritance of the Tiepolo property (though strictly speaking +it ought to have been treated as entailed upon her sons) ran to waste in +the hands of Gasparo and his wife. I had the old debts of our estate +still weighing on my shoulders. It seemed to me, in this condition of +affairs, best to remain a bachelor, and to devote myself to the duties I +had undertaken, without ambitious projects and without assuming heavier +obligations. Freed from further responsibilities to my family, whom I +had loyally served in their material interests, and against none of whom +I harboured any rancour, I was master of my time and could devote myself +to the literary exercises which were so congenial to my temper. + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + + + +INDEX. + +This index appears at the end of Volume 2, but is shown here for the +convenience of the reader. {note of etext transcriber} + + +Academy de' Granelleschi, at Venice, i. 89, 99. + +Actors, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Actresses, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Agazi, Francesco, Censor of Plays, ii. 264, 268. + +Albergati, Marchese Francesco, ii. 240; + notes on his career, ii. 240 _note_ 1. + +Altissimo, Cristoforo, poet and _improvisatore_, i. 202. + +"Amore delle Tre Melarancie," Gozzi's first _Fiaba_, i. 109; ii. 129, 133. + translation of, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147; ii. 130. + his best Fable, artistically, i. 163. + +Andreini, Francesco, a celebrated actor, i. 51. + +Andrich, Carlo, ii. 76. + +Angaran, Zorzi, Avogadore, i. 13. + +Angarano, Count Galeaso, i. 341. + +Apergi, Lieutenant Giovanni, i. 227; ii. 16. + +Aretino, Pietro, i. 29. + +Arlecchino, i. 35, + description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 46. + +"Augellino Belverde," one of Gozzi's "Fiabe," analysis of, i. 164-176. + +Bada, Gianbattista, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Balbi, Benedetto, Canon of Padua, i. 349-352. + +Balbi, Countess Elisabetta Ghellini, _see_ Ghellini Balbi, Countess. + +Balbi, Paolo, i. 349-352; ii. 89, 295. + his sudden death, ii. 326. + +Balestra, Antonio, painter, ii. 342. + +Baretti, Giuseppe, his opinion of Gozzi, i. 179. + +Barsanti, Domenico, actor, ii. 216, 323. + +Bartoli, Adolfo, his "Scenari Inediti," i. 57. + +Bartoli, Francesco, husband of Teodora Ricci, ii. 195 _note_ 1, 249-252. + his ill-health and separation from his wife, ii. 199. + +Battagia, Maddalena, actress, ii. 174. + +Benedetti, Luigi, actor, ii. 209, 269, 288, 323. + +Beolco, Angelo, a Paduan writer of simple rustic comedies, i. 33. + +Bergalli, Luisa Pisana, wife of Gasparo Gozzi, _see_ Gozzi, Luisa Pisana. + +Bettinelli, Abb Xavier, his attempted revolution in literary taste, ii. 104. + shown up by the Granelleschi, ii. 105. + +Bevilacqua, Doctor Bartolommeo, ii. 314. + +Bold, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 276. + +Borrommeo, Carlo, his crusade against the Comedians, i. 70. + +Bragadino, Cavaliere, the curious occurrence that earned +Gozzi his friendship, ii. 80-84. + +Brescia, Bishop of, i. 277. + +Brighella, i. 35; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 47. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Burchiello, an obscure Florentine poet, ii. 116. + + +Caloger, Padre, ii. 117. + +Canale, or Canaletti, Antonio, ii. 338. + his defects, ii. 338. + +Canziani, Maria, dancer, ii. 75. + +Capitano, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + +Capocomico, manager of the Comedians, his functions, i. 58-60, 64. + +Cappello, Arcadio, physician, i. 368. + +Casali, Gaetano, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Ignazio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Jacques, i. 4, 73, 350 _note_ 1; ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Cavalli, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 220. + +Cecchi, playwright, i. 33. + +Cenet, Madame Jeanne Sarah, ii. 310. + +Cerlone, Francesco, poet, i. 35 _note_ 3. + fixed the type of Pulcinella, i. 49. + +Chasles, Philarete, i. 181. + +Chausse, Nivelle de la, his sentimental comedies, i. 87. + +Chiari, Abb Pietro, playwright, i. 2. + his rivalry with Goldoni, i. 97. + Gozzi's attacks on, i. 99. + makes common cause with Goldoni against Gozzi, i. 106, ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of, ii. 113, 114. + defeated by Gozzi, gives up play-writing, i. 177, ii. 155, 156. + +Cicucci, Regina, actress, ii. 170. + +Colombani, Paolo, bookseller, his shop the headquarters +of the Granelleschi, ii. 127. + +Colombo, Giovanni, i. 229. + Grand Chancellor of the Venetian Republic, i. 230. + +Comedian, qualifications of a good Italian, i. 61. + +Comedians, their degraded social position, i. 70. + +Comedy, Italian-- + Its origin during the Renaissance, i. 26. + its dependence on Latin models, i. 26, 28. + the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 27, 39. + the first attempts at National Italian comedy, i. 28. + its stock characters, i. 28. + _Commedia dell'Arte all'Improviso_, its causes, and its + distinctive features, i. 30-32. + its great antiquity, i. 32. + its relation to the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 32, 55. + farces in relation to the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 33. + the _Commedia dell'Arte_ trusted to the improvisatory + talent of the actors, i. 34. + the actors in it wore masks, i. 34. + the principal masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella, i. 34. + description of the masks, i. 43-54. + the less important masks, i. 52. + relation of the _Commedia dell'Arte_ to the old Latin comedy + of mimes and _exodia_, i. 36-40. + Lombard, Neapolitan, and Florentine ingredients in it, i. 40. + its culmination and decay, i. 43. + modifications introduced into the fixed characters of the _Commedia + dell'Arte_ + by celebrated actors, i. 53. + the plots and subjects of improvised comedies, i. 54. + its indecency and buffoonery, i. 56. + description of the _scenari_ of the comedies, i. 56. + how they were arranged or rehearsed, i. 58. + qualifications of the actors, i. 61. + stock speeches, which were not left to the inspiration of the comedians, + but were written, i. 62. + _lazzi_ (sallies of buffoonery), i. 63. + its tendency to degenerate, i. 64, 69. + the widespread popularity of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 65. + its success in Paris, Spain, Portugal, and London, i. 65, 67. + probably the model on which Tarleton and Wilson formed their Drolls, i. 68. + Gozzi's praise of it, i. 68. + its decadence, i. 69, 87. + the degraded social position of the actors, i. 70. + Garzoni's description of the strolling comedians, i. 73-80. + superseded by the _Comdie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + Gozzi's "Fiabe Teatrali," an attempt to rehabilitate the impromptu + comedy, i. 109. + translation of Gozzi's first "Fiaba," i. 112-146. + character of the actors in Italian Comedy, ii. 137. + +_Commedia dell'Arte._ _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Comparetti, Doctor Andrea, ii. 300. + +Contarini, Francesco, Gratarol's uncle, ii. 292, 293. + +Coralli, actor, ii. 201, 208, 214, 216. + +Cornaro, Giorgio, physician, ii. 327. + +Cortigiani, the Venetian, or Men of the World, i. 294 _note_ 1. + +Coviello, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 50. + +Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, ii. 342. + + +Dalmatia, the character of the natives of, i. 238. + the women of, i. 242. + the nature of the country, i. 243. + +Danieli, chief physician to the Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 222. + +Da Ponte, Lorenzo, i. 4. + +Darbes, Cesare, comedian, i. 95, 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169. + +Della Bona, Professor, ii. 310. + his skilful treatment of Gasparo Gozzi's illness, ii. 316. + +Despriers, Bonaventura, ii. 7 _note_ 1. + +Dialects, different, spoken in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35. + +Dolfin-Tron, Caterina, i. 11; ii. 264, 287, 312, 319. + her character and influence, i. 9. + her enmity towards Gratarol, i. 9. + ruins Gratarol, i. 12, 13. + Gratarol's "Narrazione" bitterly attacks her, i. 13. + Gozzi's relations with, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + Gozzi intercedes with her to have "Le Droghe d'Amore" stopped, ii. 288. + her refusal, ii. 290. + Gozzi shows her how he has been insulted by Gratarol, ii. 208. + her interest in Gasparo Gozzi, ii. 308. + +_Doti_--stock passages in the _Commedia dell'Arte_ which were not left to + improvisation, i. 62; ii. 144. + +Dottore, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 34. + description of, i. 45. + +"Droghe d'Amore, Le," Gozzi's comedy which caused the quarrel between + Gratarol and Gozzi, i. 10; ii. 225, 252, 258. + licensed for the stage, ii. 259. + the cast changed by the actors in order to attack Gratarol, ii. 260, 269. + read to the actors, ii. 260. + Gratarol's foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, and + makes all Venice talk of it, ii. 263. + its production, ii. 270. + the excitement it causes, ii. 274. + Gratarol's distress at its success, ii. 277. + Gozzi's efforts to have it stopped, ii. 286-294. + +Drousiano, an Italian comedian in London in 1577-8, i. 67. + + +"Esop in the Town," a play in which Gozzi and the Countess + Balbi were attacked, i. 356. + +Farces, popular during the Renaissance, i. 33. + +Farsetti, Daniele, Gozzi dedicates his "Tartana degl'influssi" to, ii. 116. + +Farsetti, Giuseppe, ii. 124. + +"Fiabe Teatrali," Gozzi's celebrated plays, i. 107; ii. 129-137. + an endeavour to rehabilitate the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 109. + success of his first Fable, i. 146, 147. + list of the remaining nine Fables, i. 148. + critical account of, i. 148-176. + the sources of, i. 162. + their success but ephemeral, i. 178. + +Fiorelli, Agostino, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169, 323. + +Fiorelli, Tiberio of Naples, the famous Scaramouch, i. 51, 53. + his wonderful acting described, i. 66. + +Florentine burlesque poets, Gozzi's true ancestors in art, i. 110. + +Florentine ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Foscarini, Marco, Doge of Venice, i. 337. + + +Galante, avvocato fiscale dell'Avogaderia, i. 13. + +Garzoni, his description of the strolling comedians, + in his "Piazza Universale," i. 73-80. + +_Generici_--or common-places--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + +Ghellini Balbi, Countess Elisabetta, i. 324, 338, 342, 355, 365. + her interest in the Gozzi family, i. 324. + Gozzi calls upon her, i. 325. + Gozzi reported to be married to her, i. 339, 349. + her anxieties about her son, i. 349-352. + attacked in a play called "Esop in the Town," i. 356. + +Gherardi, his "Theatre Italien," i. 61, 66. + +Goethe, his estimate of Goldoni and Gozzi, i. 178. + +Goldoni, Carlo, dramatist, i. 2, 4, 87. + his severe condemnation of the Italian Comedy, i. 72. + his undoubted genius, i. 89. + his excellent character, i. 89. + his qualities and defects, i. 89-91. + sketch of his career, i. 92. + his desire to reform Italian Comedy, i. 93. + the steps which he took in that direction, i. 93-95. + joins the company of Medebac, i. 95. + his first comedy of character, as opposed to impromptu comedy, i. 95. + the fortunes of his crusade against the _Commedia + dell'Arte_, i. 95; ii. 128. + his contest with Chiari, i. 97. + Gozzi's hatred for him as a corrupter of the language, i. 99. + Gozzi's first attack on him, i. 99; ii. 116. + his reply to Gozzi, i. 101; ii. 117. + the long-continued warfare between him and Gozzi, i. 102; ii. 119-128 + Chiari makes common cause with him against Gozzi, i. 106; ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + defeated by Gozzi, goes to Paris, i. 177; ii. 155, 156. + his ultimate success and fame, i. 178. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of him, ii. 111-113. + his superiority over Chiari, ii. 114. + the various publications in which Gozzi attacked him, ii. 119-128. + himself writes a "Fable," ii. 150. + his similarity in art with Longhi the painter, ii. 350. + +Gozzi family, i. 185; + _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice, i. 186. + +Gozzi, Almor, younger brother of Carlo, i. 290, 320, 329, 330, + 331, 354; ii. 79, 162, 336. + +Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo, mother of Carlo, i. 189, 285, 304. + her maladministration of the family affairs, i. 297. + her quarrels with Carlo Gozzi, i. 304. + her dislike for Carlo, i. 348. + +Gozzi, Carlo-- + his autobiography, entitled "Memorie inutili della vita di + Carlo Gozzi." i. 1. + design of his autobiography, i. 3, 19; + its value historically, i. 4. + his "Droghe d'Amore" supposed to contain a caricature of Gratarol. i. 10. + attacked by Gratarol in his "Narrazione Apologetica, i. 14. + writes a reply--"Epistola Confutatoria," i. 14; + but is not allowed to publish it, i. 15. + publishes his memoir and, under provocation, the "Epistola Confutatoria," + after the fall of the Venetian republic, i. 16-19. + his autobiography, its form, its merits and defects, and its + reliability, i. 19-24. + his personal characteristics, i. 22. + his "Fiabe," i. 43. + his eulogy of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 68. + his description of the contest between Goldoni and Chiari, i. 98. + translation of his first Fable, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147. + his other "Fiabe," i. 148. + critical account of his "Fiabe Teatrali, i. 148-176. + his use of the Masks, i. 149-154. + his mixture of the comic element with the fairy-tale, i. 154. + not a great imaginative poet, i. 156. + his merits as a playwright, i. 157-160. + his conservative philosophy of life, i. 160. + the sources of his "Fiabe," i. 162. + analysis of "L'Augellino Belverde," i. 164-176. + his victory over Goldoni and Chiari, i. 176. + his fame ephemeral, i. 178. + German translation of his plays, i. 180. + his pedigree, i. 2, 185-190. + his birth, i. 190 _note_ 1. + the exact trustworthiness of his Memoirs, i. 190 _note_ 1.[I?] + his brothers and sisters, i. 191. + his education, i. 192. + injures his health by study, i. 196. + his endeavours after a good literary style, i. 197. + his moral and physical training, i. 200, 205. + his acting as a child, i. 201. + shows skill as an _improvisatore_, i. 202. + his first poetical productions, i. 205-207. + his early productions, i. 208. + the family difficulties, i. 209. + the discomforts of his home, i. 212. + he leaves home and becomes a soldier, i. 213. + his first experiences as a soldier, i. 214-221. + has a dangerous illness, i. 221. + studies Fortification, i. 225. + his love of poetry, i. 229. + his sonnet in praise of Provveditore Quirini, i. 233. + an exciting adventure with a horse, i. 234. + he is enrolled as a _Cadet noble_ of cavalry, i. 246. + what his military services amounted to, i. 247. + his success as a _soubrette_ in the military theatricals at Zara, + i. 249-251. + some of his escapades as a youth, i. 252-273. + the adventures in connection with the courtesan Tonina, i. 262-272. + his finances at the close of his military service, i. 273. + returns to Venice, i. 278. + the state of his family and home, when he returns, i. 279. + his first meeting with his family, i. 284. + his difficulty in interfering in the management of the family + affairs, i. 290. + his negotiations with Francesco Zini, i. 300. + becomes the object of hatred to all his family, i. 307, 318. + in continual quarrels with his family, i. 322. + his interview with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 325. + his family set the law in motion against him, i. 328. + he leaves home, i. 330. + lies spread about him, i. 331. + the family property divided, i. 332. + is dragged into tedious lawsuits, i. 334-342. + his friendship with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 339, 349. + his sister-in-law's vexatious lawsuit against him, i. 360-364. + has violent hmorrhage from the lungs, i. 364, 368. + his illnesses and occupations, i. 370. + his account of his own physical and mental qualities, ii. 1-9. + accepted no payment for any of his works, ii. 3. + his love-tales-- + his first love, ii. 11-27; + his second love, ii. 28-33; + his third love, ii. 33-69. + his reflections on his love affairs, ii. 69. + his object in relating them, ii. 72 _note_ 1. + the absurdities and contrarieties to which his star made him + subject, ii. 73-89. + his unfortunate experience as a landlord, ii. 85-89. + the origin and progress of his literary quarrels, i. 2; ii. 90. + his views upon Italian literature, ii. 91. + his dissertation on Prejudice, ii. 99. + his humorous attack on Bettinelli, ii. 106. + the motives of his attacks upon Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 115. + his first attack on Goldoni and Chiari in his "Tartana degli Influssi," + i. 100, 109; ii. 116. + Goldoni's reply, i. 101, 109; ii. 117. + his Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled "Il Teatro Comico," + i. 104, 109; ii. 120. + he withdraws this satire at Goldoni's request, i. 106; ii. 124. + the origin of his celebrated "Fiabe Teatrali," i. 107; ii. 128. + his first Fable, "The Love of the Three Oranges (L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie)," i. 109; ii. 129. + the various publications in which he carried on the war against Goldoni + and Chiari, ii. 119-128. + his relations with Sacchi's company of comedians, ii. 137-155. + his tuition of the actresses, ii. 145. + his lawsuit against the Marchese Terzi, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + he withdraws his aid temporarily from Sacchi's company, ii. 166. + comes to their assistance again, ii. 168. + undertakes to tutor Teodora Ricci, ii. 177. + the successful result of his tuition, ii. 185. + his defence of his character and conduct in connection with Teodora Ricci, + and the actresses of Sacchi's company, ii. 187, 192 _note_ 1. + becomes Cicisbeo to Ricci, i. 9; ii. 193. + is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + his troublous relations with the Ricci, ii. 200. + his excuse for submitting to the worries caused by the Ricci, ii. 218. + his adaptations of Spanish plays, ii. 225. + his "Droghe d'Amore," i. 10; ii. 225. + his and Gratarol's versions of the quarrel between them, ii. 229 _note_ 1. + Gratarol's first visit to him, ii. 238. + his final rupture with Ricci, ii. 246. + annoyed by her, ii. 249, 255. + annoyed by her husband, ii. 250. + completes his comedy "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 252. + is pestered into giving it to Sacchi, ii. 258. + his innocence of an intention to caricature Gratarol in "Le Droghe d'Amor," + ii. 258. + reads the piece to the actors, ii. 260. + tries to have it withdrawn, ii. 263. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + forbidden by the Censor to withdraw his play, ii. 268. + his distress at the play's vogue, ii. 274. + waited on by Carlo Maffei on behalf of Gratarol, ii. 277. + interview between him and Gratarol, ii. 279-285. + his futile efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + his further squabbles with Gratarol, ii. 294. + his cause espoused by the Supreme Tribunal, which forces Gratarol to + apologise to him, ii. 303. + Gratarol's conduct to him subsequently, ii. 307. + goes to Padua, where his brother Gasparo lies dangerously ill, ii. 309. + uses his influence in Gratarol's behalf, ii. 319. + his reflection on Gratarol's flight, ii. 321. + his last interview with Sacchi, ii. 324. + his sorrow at the death of his friends, ii. 325. + has a bad attack of fever, ii. 327. + lays down his pen, ii. 330. + a review of his life and an estimate of his character, ii. 330. + his old age, ii. 332. + his will, ii. 333. + his death, ii. 337. + +Gozzi, Chiara, sister of Carlo, i. 354. + becomes a nun, i. 365. + +Gozzi, Francesco, brother of Carlo, i. 319, 320, 329, 354; ii. 79, 162. + becomes a soldier, i. 212. + his bad character, i. 321. + his death, ii. 326. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, grandfather of Carlo, i. 189. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, brother of Carlo, i. 282, 286, 288, 293, 312, 320, 329; + ii. 301, 319, 350. + his personal leaning towards Goldoni, i. 106. + undertakes to superintend a new edition of Goldoni's plays, i. 177. + his passion for study, i. 194. + his marriage, i. 209. + becomes lessee of the theatre of S. Angelo at Venice, i. 332. + his helpless position in his own house, i. 340. + his theatrical speculation is unsuccessful, i. 353, 360. + Carlo Gozzi and the Countess Balbi attacked on his stage, i. 357. + obtains a post at the University of Padua, i. 367. + his "Defence of Dante" against the Abb Bettinelli, ii. 106. + his lack of spirit, ii. 162. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 267. + his serious illness, ii. 308. + in his delirium throws himself from a window, ii. 308. + his recovery, ii. 317. + his death, ii. 327. + +Gozzi, Girolama, i. 288. + +Gozzi, Giulia, i. 282. + +Gozzi, Jacopo Antonio, father of Carlo, i. 188. + has a stroke of apoplexy, i. 211. + his feeble state of health, i. 284. + the unhappiness of his position amid the family quarrels, i. 309. + his death, i. 310. + +Gozzi, Luisa Pisani Bergalli, wife of Gasparo, i. 210. + the ruler of the Gozzi family affairs, i. 287. + her mismanagement, i. 299, 317. + her dishonourable conduct, i. 319, 328. + tries to manage her husband's theatre, i. 332. + brings a lawsuit against Carlo, i. 360-364. + +Gozzi, Marina, sister of Carlo, i. 201, 282. + +Gradenigo, Cavaliere Andrea, ii. 76. + +Grampo, Contessa Emilia, i. 189. + +Granelleschi, Academy of the, i. 89, 99, 102. + its warfare with Goldoni and Chiara, i. 102. + the founding of the Academy, ii. 93. + its burlesque Prince, ii. 93. + its more serious objects, ii. 97, 108. + its attack on the Abb Bettinelli, ii. 105. + its headquarters in the shop of the bookseller, Paolo Colombani, ii. 127. + +Gratarol, Pier Antonio, i. 359 _note_ 1; ii. 10, 72 _note_ 1, 79, 227, 263. + his quarrel with Gozzi, i. 2, 6. + account of his life, i. 7-16. + nominated as Venetian Resident at Naples, i. 8. + his quarrel with Caterina Dolfin Tron, i. 9. + becomes lover to Teodora Ricci, i. 10; ii. 229. + his version of his quarrel with Gozzi compared with Gozzi's statement, + ii. 229 _note_ 1. + his presence behind the scenes of Sacchi's theatre, ii. 230, 233. + his entertainment to the actors and actresses, ii. 237. + his first visit to Gozzi, ii. 238. + Ricci compromised by him, ii. 242. + caricatured in "Le Droghe d'Amore," but not by Gozzi's wish, + i. 10; ii. 258, 259. + his foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, ii. 263. + is present on its production and sees himself caricatured, ii. 272. + his distress, ii. 275 _note_ 1, 277. + his intrigues against Gozzi, ii. 278. + his interview with Gozzi, ii. 279-285. + Gozzi's efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + the further squabbles between him and Gozzi, ii. 294-300. + forced by the Supreme Authority to apologise to Gozzi, ii. 303. + his own account of the letter which he was forced to write, + ii. 303 _note_ 1. + his conduct to Gozzi subsequently, ii. 307. + suspected of having the actor Vitalba assaulted, ii. 319. + his appointment to Naples cancelled, ii. 319, 320. + his withdrawal from Venice and consequent outlawry, i. 12; ii. 321. + his "Narrazione Apologetica" published at Stockholm, i. 13. + published at Venice after the fall of the Republic, i. 16. + his death, i. 16. + book entitled "Last Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol," i. 17. + Gozzi's reflections on his character, ii. 321. + +Grazzini, Anton-Francesco, his Carnival song of the Zanni and + Magnifichi, i. 41. + +Gritti, Francesco, ii. 76. + his play of _Gustavus Vasa_, ii. 184. + +Guardi, Francesco, ii. 338. + the interest of his paintings historically, ii. 340. + +Guso, Giovannantonio, a notary, i. 347, 362. + + +Hoffmann, E. T. W., his enthusiasm for Gozzi, i. 181. + +Hogarth, William, contrasted with Pietro Longhi, ii. 350. + + +Illyria, the nature of the country, i. 244. + +Improvisation, Gozzi's views on, i. 202. + +I Rozzi, a company at Siena, who performed farces, i. 33. + +Italian Comedy. _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Italian Literature, ii. 91. + + +Lami, Signor, ii. 117. + +Laveleye, Emil de, ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Lazari, V., ii. 347 _note_ 1, 353 _note_ 1. + +_Lazzi_--or humorous sallies--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 63. + +Lee, Vernon, i. 23, 182. + +Lombard ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Longhi, Alessandro, son of Pietro, ii. 346, 357. + +Longhi, Pietro, ii. 338-361. + the interest of his works, ii. 338 _note_ 1, 341, 347. + his parentage, ii. 342. + his early training, ii. 342. + his _Fall of the Giants_, ii. 343. + finds his true vocation as a painter in studies of contemporary + Venetian life, ii. 344. + the difference in his handiwork, ii. 346. + his similarity in art with Goldoni the dramatist, ii. 350. + the strong contrast between him and Hogarth, ii. 350. + his portrait, ii. 351. + filled the Chair of Painting in the Pisani Academy, ii. 353. + a picture representing the Pisani family attributed to him, ii. 354. + frescoes in the Palazzo Sina attributed to him, ii. 356. + his sketch-book, a collection of 140 drawings, ii. 357. + its great value, ii. 357. + description of its contents, ii. 358. + its merits and its limitations, ii. 358, 359. + summary of his work, ii. 360. + +Loredano, Cavaliere Antonio, i. 212. + + +Machiavelli, Niccol, i. 29. + +Maffei, Carlo-- + account of his character, ii. 276. + his intervention on Gratarol's behalf in the dispute regarding + the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 277-285. + his sudden death, ii. 326, 327. + +Manzoni, Caterina, actress, ii. 170. + her excellent qualities, ii. 192. + +Marchiori, Cavaliere, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, i. 225. + Gozzi studies Fortification under, i. 225. + his death, i. 228. + +Marsili, Professor Giovanni, ii. 308. + +Martelli, Pier Jacopo, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Martellian verses, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Masi, Ernesto, i. 99 _note_ 1. + +Masks, the, as employed by Gozzi, i. 149. + +Massimo, Innocenzio, i. 226, 227, 278, 326; ii. 28, 162, 310. + his friendship with Gozzi, i. 223, 283. + his character, i. 224. + a foolish adventure, i. 254-260. + his generous kindness to Gozzi, i. 312. + his sudden death, ii. 327. + +Medebac (master of a company of comedians), engages Goldoni to + write for his company, i. 95. + +Messer Grande, the Chief Constable of Venice, ii. 89 _note_ 1. + +Micheli, Maggiore della Provincia, i. 218. + +Montenegrins, the women of the, i. 241. + +Morlacchi, a tribe of Dalmatians, i. 237 _note_ 1. + their barbarism, i. 237, 239. + +Musset, Paul de, his travesty of Gozzi's real character, i. 23, + 24 _note_ 1, 181, ii. 89 _note_ 2. + + +Neapolitan ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + + +Pallone, the game of, i. 251 _note_ 1. + +Pantalone, i. 34; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 43. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Paruta, the Patrician, Gozzi mistaken for, ii. 74. + +Perrucci, Andrea, his description of the rehearsal of an + impromptu comedy, i. 58. + +Pisani family, their Academy for the Study of the Art of Design, ii. 353. + +Pozzobon, Giovanni, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Prata, Count Michele di, i. 282. + +Prejudice, Gozzi's dissertation on, ii. 99. + +Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, the office of, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Provveditore Generale di Mare, the head of the Venetian + forces in the Levant, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Pulcinella, i. 35; + description of, i. 49. + +Punch (Pulcinella), i. 50. + + +Quirini, Girolamo, Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 213, 216, 247, 277, 278. + the town of Zara gives a grand public display in his honour, i. 230. + Gozzi presents a volume of his poems to him, i. 276. + + +Regina, the actress engaged by Sacchi to fill Ricci's place, ii. 254. + +Renier, Paolo, ii. 301, 305. + his brilliant abilities, and his career, ii. 301 _note_ 1, 306 _note_ 1. + +Reniero, Senator Daniele, i. 341. + +Ricci, Marianna, sister of Teodora, ii. 242. + +Ricci, Teodora, ii. 174, 324. + engaged as leading actress by Sacchi, ii. 174. + her personal appearance, ii. 175. + her connection with Gozzi, i. 9. + her connection with Gratarol, i. 10. + Gozzi's tuition of, ii. 177 + the opposition to her, ii. 179. + her _dbut_ at Venice not very successful, ii. 182. + her success in "Gustavus Vasa," ii. 184. + her triumph in Gozzi's "Principessa Filosofa," ii. 185. + her gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 186. + her merits and defects, ii. 188-192. + Gozzi becomes her Cicisbeo, ii. 193. + Gozzi is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + her separation from her husband, ii. 199. + her _liaison_ with Sacchi, ii. 202-210. + her foolish conduct, ii. 216. + her rapacity, ii. 221. + her agreement for five years with Sacchi, ii. 221. + her friendship with P. A. Gratarol, ii. 227, 241, 245. + its consequences, ii. 242. + Gozzi's final rupture with her, ii. 246. + her annoyance of him, ii. 249, 255. + she leaves Sacchi's company and goes to Paris, ii. 254. + her strange manners when she returns, ii. 256. + her failure as an actress when she began to ape the French, ii. 257. + her conduct at the reading of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 260. + her foolish conduct in connection with the play, ii. 269, 275. + pretends illness in order to stop the play, ii. 275. + is ordered to play by the authorities, ii. 276. + her tactics which led to the withdrawal of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 306. + her death in a madhouse, ii. 195 _note_ 1. + +Riccoboni, Luigi, i. 63. + +"Riflessioni d'un Imparziale," a pamphlet in answer to Gratarol's + "Narrazione," i. 13 _note_ 2, 15 _note_ 1. + +Rossi, Pietro, actor, ii. 189. + +Royer, Paul, i. 182. + +Ruskin, John, ii. 340. + + +Sacchi, Antonia, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi, Antonio, i. 53, 100, 101, 112 _note_ 1, 150; ii. 201, + 262, 272, 282 _note_ 1, 286, 297, 306, 318. + list of his company, i. 112 _note_ 1. + allusion to his company in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 127. + the inventor of Truffaldino as a form of Arlecchino, ii. 131 _note_ 1. + his famous company, ii. 142. + ruined by the opposition of Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 132. + their visit to Lisbon, ii. 132. + their return to Venice, ii. 132. + their success with Gozzi's pieces, i. 176; ii. 132. + their gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 137. + Gozzi temporarily withdraws his aid from his company, ii. 166. + obtains a lease of the theatre S. Salvadore, ii. 167, 168. + his passion for the Ricci, ii. 202, 214. + his ill-treatment of her, ii. 207. + its result, ii. 208-210. + his theatre pronounced unsafe, ii. 219. + his five years' agreement with Ricci, ii. 221. + his difficulties with Gratarol, ii. 233. + Ricci leaves his company and he engages Regina in her place, ii. 254. + consents to withdraw the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 263. + produces it, ii. 271. + the dissolution of his company, ii. 322. + his excesses and tempers, ii. 322. + his last interview with Gozzi, ii. 324. + his death, ii. 325 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi-Zannoni, Adriana, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131. + +Sacchi's company-- + its respectability, ii. 143. + Gozzi's relations with the actors and actresses, ii. 137-155. + dissensions in, ii. 164. + the details of its dissolution, ii. 322-325. + +Santorini, Count Francesco, i. 324, 327, 329. + +Schlegel, A. W., his praise of Gozzi's "Fiabe," i. 180. + +Sciugliaga, Stefano, Secretary of the University of Milan, ii. 198. + +Sechellari, Giuseppe, Prince of the Accademia Granellesca, ii. 93. + the tricks played on him, ii. 95. + +Seghezzi, Antonio Federigo, i. 199. + +Servetta, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 48, 154. + +Sibiliato, Giovanni, a wonderful _improvisatore_ and a true poet, i. 204. + +Smeraldina (Servetta), as employed by Gozzi, i. 154. + +Somascan Order of Monks, i. 350 _note_ 1. + +Stampa, Gaspara, poetess, i. 206. + +Stock speeches in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + + +Tartaglia, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Terzi, Marchese, of Bergamo, i. 368, 369, 370. + Gozzi's lawsuit against, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + +Testa, Antonio, a famous lawyer, i. 335; ii. 163. + his kindness to Gozzi, i. 336. + +Theatres, private, in the houses of the Venetian nobility, i. 201 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo family, i. 189 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo, Almor Cesare, i. 213, 291, 342. + his just and excellent character, i. 344-347. + +Tiepolo, G. B., painter, ii. 338. + a genius of the first order, ii. 339. + +Tiepolo, Nicol Maria, his condemnation of comedians, i. 71. + +Tiepolo Gozzi, Angela, mother of Carlo Gozzi--_See_ Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo. + +Toaldo, Professor, ii. 75. + +Todeschini, Raffaelle, ii. 295, 326. + +Tommassei, his contempt for Gozzi, i. 179. + +Tonina, a courtesan of Zara, i. 262. + Gozzi's impromptu attack on, in the theatre, i. 269. + +Tron, Andrea, Procuratore di San Marco, i. 9, 14; ii. 264 _note_ 1. + +Tron, Caterina Dolfin, see Dolfin-Tron, Caterina. + +Truffaldino, the mask, a modification of Arlecchino, i. + 46, 150; ii. 131 _note_ 1. + as used by Gozzi, i. 153. + + +Vendramini, Antonio, proprietor of the theatre of S. Salvadore, + ii. 167, 173, 276, 286. + +Venice-- + its decadence, i. 7 _note_ 1. + its political and social state about the middle of the 18th century, i. 82. + conflict of liberalism and conservatism in literature and + the theatre, i. 86. + success of the _Comdie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + foundation of the Academy de' Granelleschi, i. 89. + the granting of citizenship in, i. 186 _note_ 1. + the position of the _Cittadini Originari_, i. 186 _note_ 1. + posts open to the _Cittadini_, i. 187 _note_ 3. + Gozzi's remarks on the degeneration of the Venetian youth, i. 194. + robes of the Dignitaries, i. 217 _note_ 1. + the office of Grand Chancellor, i. 230 _note_ 1. + the values of the sequin and lira, i. 274 _note_ 1. + _Decime_ (taxes), i. 280 _note_ 1. + its theatres, i. 332 _note_ 1; ii. 167. + its law of entail, i. 336 _note_ 1. + the _Avogadori del Comun_, i. 341 _note_ 1. + decay of literary taste in, ii. 108-110. + the length of the theatrical year, ii. 146 _note_ 1. + its decrepitude, as shown in State interference in Gratarol's + quarrel with Gozzi, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + the influence of the French Revolution on, ii. 328. + partial revival of art in, in the 18th century, ii. 338. + Longhi's paintings of contemporary life in, ii. 338 _note_ 1; + ii. 341, 347, 358. + +Verdani, Abb Giovan Antonio, i. 196. + +Vilio, Count, of Desenzano, ii. 24. + +Vinacesi, Elisabetta, actress, ii. 213. + +Vincentini, Tommaso, his excellence as Harlequin, i. 67. + +Vitalba, Giovanni, actor, ii. 269. + the actor who caricatured Gratarol in the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 272. + assaulted by a ruffian in Milan, ii. 318. + + +Wagner, Richard, his "Fairies," a setting of Gozzi's "Donna Serpente," + i. 160 _note_ 1, 181. + +Werthes, Franz A. C., translator of Gozzi's "Fiabe" into German, i. 180. + +Widiman, Count Ludovico, a patron of Goldoni, ii. 124. + + +Zanche, Daniele, advocate, ii. 161. + +Zanerini, Petronio, the best actor of Italy, ii. 323. + +Zanoni, Atanagio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 323. + +Zannuzzi, Francesco, of the Comdie Italienne at Paris, ii. 211, + 212 _note_ 1. + +Zeno, Apostolo, encourages Gozzi in his poetical attempts, i. 207. + his influence in the drama, i. 207 _note_ 1. + +Zini, Francesco, a cloth merchant, wishes to buy the Gozzis' house, i. 299. + Carlo Gozzi tries to prevent the purchase, i. 300. + +Zon, Signer, Secretary to the Inquisitors of State, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + +Zucchi, Padre, an _improvisatore_, i. 203. + + * * * * * + +The following typographical errors have been corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Many years have elasped since Tartaglia married=>Many years have elapsed +since Tartaglia married + +twirls his moustachioes=>twirls his moustachios + +Philarete Chasles=>Philarte Chasles + +whence we were to sally forth to the assault of Buda.=>whence we were to +sally forth to the assault of Budua. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Under date August 31, 1885, with the assumed signature of E. H. +Westbourne. See _Academy_, No. 696, Sept. 5, 1885. + +[2] See Romanin, _Storia Documentata di Venezia_, vol. viii. ch. 7. + +[3] Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This appears from +several passages of his _Narrazione Apologetica_. It may, however, be +here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to matrimony +formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between 1782 and +1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions for +divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at one +time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a +dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, _op. cit._, p. 23; and +Macchi, _Storia del Concilio dei Dieci_, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that +the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in +these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as +indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to +enter a convent. + +[4] A short while before, he had been appointed Resident at Turin, and +had received the usual equipment for that service. Circumstances +independent of his own will in the matter prevented him from assuming +the office. His political ill-wishers were able to point to the unused +grant which he had pocketed. + +[5] Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished +house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the +Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, +Andrea Tron. + +[6] It may be read in Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, vol. ii. p. +78, &c. + +[7] These magistrates acted for the Fisco or Treasury of the Republic. + +[8] It has been suggested that Gratarol so heavily mortgaged his lands +before leaving Venice that they were not worth more than this sum, after +allowing for rent charges on them and _fidei commissa_. See the +observations of a self-styled impartial writer printed at the end of the +_Narrazione Apologetica_, ed. 1797. I must, however, observe that this +writer is by no means impartial. The essay in question is a piece of +skilful special pleading in defence of Mme. Tron, her husband, the +oligarchs of Venice, and the officers who executed the _bando_ against +Gratarol. + +[9] Gratarol pays high tribute to Gozzi's genius. But he sticks to the +conviction that the _Droghe d'Amore_ was meant to turn him into +ridicule, and that its author could, if he had chosen, have withdrawn it +from the stage. + +[10] He tells us that he began the Memoirs on April 30, 1780. _Memorie_, +vol. i. p. 3. The passage occurs in Gozzi's manifesto, of which more +anon. I may add that the manifesto is not included in all copies of the +Memoirs. + +[11] An anonymous answer, entitled _Riflessioni d'un Imparziale_, +appeared at Lugano. This was ascribed to Carlo Gozzi's pen; but he +repudiated the pamphlet, and it does not bear the mark of his style. It +may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Gratarol's _Narr. Apol._, ed. +1797, Venice, Silvestro Gatti. + +[12] _Memorie_, vol i. pp. 3-15. + +[13] This is evident from the appearance of the _Ragionamento del +Cittadino Carlo Gozzi a' Cittadini amici della Memoria di P. A. +Gratarol_ at the beginning of the _Memorie_, vol. ii. + +[14] _Memorie Ultime_, p. 39; Gozzi's _Memorie_, vol. ii. p. x. + +[15] The family of Widiman or Widman was of patrician rank in Venice. + +[16] Vol. i. p. 4. + +[17] Vol. ii. p. xvi. + +[18] De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the precursor +of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the chapter on +_Contrattempi_ in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to have +extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned his +_Fiabe_--in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought upon +the stage were resolved to be revenged on him--from a letter addressed +to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (_Mmoires de Charles Gozzi_, pp. 184-188). De +Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged letter, which is +mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor Ernesto Masi +informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have failed to discover +it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several plays, Gozzi gives a +very different account of the reasons why he stopped producing _Fiabe_. +I am loth to draw the conclusion that the letter in question was a +deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further researches may bring it +still to light, but at present it has to be regarded with the greatest +possible suspicion. + +[19] I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: +_Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. ch. 11. + +[20] The full title would be _Commedia dell' Arte all' Improviso_. It is +also called _Commedia a soggetto_, _Commedia non scritta_, _Commedia +improvisa._ The written comedy, beside _Commedia Erudita_, was also +called _Commedia sostenuta, scritta_, or _letteraria_. + +[21] See what I have said at length upon this point in my _Shakespeare's +Predecessors_, p. 259, and _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. p. 188. + +[22] To Maurice Sand, in his _Masques et Bouffons_, vol. ii. p. 77 _et +seq._, is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this great +local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's influence in +the creation of impromptu comedy. + +[23] See Collier's _English Dramatic Poetry_ (ed. 1879), vol. iii. p. +197. + +[24] It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the word _mask_ +in a double sense,--both to indicate the fixed character assumed by a +certain species of actor, and also the vizard which concealed his +features. + +[25] It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain the names +of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Punch. Our +Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the _Servetta_ or soubrette. Our +Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, which obtained +great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our pantomimes has to be +classed with the _Villano_, or rather with one of the Zanni, I am +uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of Pantaloon seems +to indicate the latter alternative. + +[26] In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (_Li Diversi Linguaggi_, Venezia, +1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, Bolognese, +Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects were spoken. +See Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxix. + +[27] Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. Thus the +plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of Don +Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here the +man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued by +other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See Scherillo's +_Commedia dell' Arte_, chap, iii., for the history of Don Fastidio). +This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When Casanova +wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, he had to +choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio and +Sicilian Battipaglia (_Mmoires_, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, as I +have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks. + +[28] _Fescenninus_ is variously derived from the town Fescennia in South +Etruria, or from _fascinum_, the Latin form of _phallus_. + +[29] The common meaning of _satura_ and _farsa_, both of which have +reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular. + +[30] I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at +Montepulciano. + +[31] A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo (_Arch. +Stor._, vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these +Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth +century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the +vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples. + +[32] It was included in the first edition of the _Canti +Carnascialeschi_, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of +Grazzini's _Rime Burlesche_, Firenze, Sansone, 1882. + +[33] "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the whole world +over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are all of us +Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors of our +troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind to +guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so +mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of +laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of +new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this +country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you +will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the +sweetness and the pleasure of our sports." + +[34] The other channels were French plays, modifications of English +plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas. + +[35] I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the compiler of +the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be well +contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would willingly +make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed trousers-makers. + +[36] It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the symbol +of old age in _As You Like It_, knew him already in decrepitude. + +[37] It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos in the +summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from Bergamo, who +were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to help at the +hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque hills. +Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at Arlecchino's +simplicity and suppleness. + +[38] Carlo Gozzi at Zara in his youth created a new type of the +Servetta, adapted to Dalmatian circumstances, under the name of Luce. + +[39] Scherillo, in his _Commedia dell' Arte_, has resuscitated Cerlone's +fame, as Maurice Sand made us acquainted with Beolco. + +[40] See above, p. 38. + +[41] For a short notice of these curious Maccaronic poems, _I Cantici di +Fidentio Glottogrysio Ludimagistro_, see my _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. +v. p. 328. The obscurity of their jargon veiled considerable indecency. +It is noticeable that this book, now exceedingly rare, should have +become the text-book of the Pedante. But see Bartoli, _op. cit._, pp. +lii., lvii. + +[42] Burattino is so kaleidoscopic that at last he becomes the +patronymic hero of marionettes in Italy. _I Burattini_ are the acting +dolls. + +[43] In the _Ragionamento Ingenuo_ and _Appendice_, Op., 1772, vols i. +and iv. + +[44] _Scenari Inediti_, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880. + +[45] It has to be mentioned that in plays of a more serious description, +the parts of character were frequently written out, and only the parts +of the masks left to improvisation. This was the method pursued by Gozzi +in his _Fiabe_. + +[46] Andrea Perrucci, _Dell' Arte Rappresentativa premeditata ed all' +improvviso_, Napoli, 1699, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[47] _Histoire Anecdotique du Thtre Italien_, Paris, 1769, quoted by +Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxvi. + +[48] _Le Thtre Italien_, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxx. + +[49] These phrases are used by Gozzi in his _Memorie Inutili_. Compare +what he says in his _Appendice al Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. +iv. p. 40. + +[50] Quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[51] I am indebted to Maurice Sand, _Masques et Bouffons_. + +[52] Vol. iii. p. 201. + +[53] _Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. i. + +[54] Scherillo, in his book on _La Commedia dell' Arte_, ch. vi., has +given the history of San Carlo's efforts to suppress the theatre at +Milan. + +[55] Nicol Maria Tiepolo, about 1778, quoted by Molmenti in his Essay +on Goldoni, Venezia, Ongania, 1880, p. 68. + +[56] Pasquali's edition, 1761; also, _Teatro Comico_, act i. sc. 2. + +[57] _Mmoires de Jacques Casanova_, Bruxelles, Rozez, vol. i. ch. II. + +[58] _Mmoires de M. Goldoni_, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1787, vol. i. +ch. 5. + +[59] A common inn-sign. This reminds us of the earliest performances of +plays in the yards of London hostelries. + +[60] Ed. cit., vol i. p. 228. + +[61] See his Mmoires, part i. ch. 40. + +[62] This is perhaps the proper place to explain the meaning of +Martellian verses. They owe their name to Pier Jacopo Martelli +(1665-1725), who revived them, and used them for the drama. Metrically +speaking, Martellian verses are twelve-syllable lines of the Alexandrine +type. These long lines had been commonly employed in Italy during the +thirteenth century, before the heroic verse of eleven syllables obtained +ascendancy. It is difficult to say why the Alexandrine, which Italy in +the thirteenth century shared with France, died out in the former +country and became the standard heroic line of the latter. Possibly the +reason may be found in the Italian tendency toward double rhymes; the +so-called _versi piani_ of Dante being decasyllabic iambics with a +redundant syllable rather than hendecasyllabics. Anyhow, the Alexandrine +has not flourished south of the Alps. Martelli's revival did not +prosper; and Carducci, in his _Su' Campi di Marengo_ (_Nuove Poesie_, p. +91), is the only recent poet who has attempted them with success. + +[63] Opere, ed. 1772, tom. viii. p. 27. "The partisans on both sides +gathered forces daily. One swears by _Original_ (a name for Goldoni), +the other by _Plunder_ (Chiari, because of his plagiarisms). The whole +city was turned upside down, and indeed it is no laughing matter. +Brothers fought with brothers, wives did worse with their husbands. +Everywhere the wrangling was fierce; nought but confusion, nought but +discord." + +[64] The details of the controversy between Gozzi and Goldoni are given +at fuller length than I have attempted in Signor Ernesto Masi's masterly +Introduction to his edition of the _Fiabe Teatrali_. + +[65] Opere, vol. viii. _Tartana_ is a large merchant vessel. + +[66] The editor of this Venetian Zadkiel was originally Giovanni +Pozzobon. After his death it was continued by Giambattista Bada. +Pozzobon was nicknamed Schieson. The almanac was adorned with a +ridiculous portrait of a doctor in a huge wig. Owing to this fact, +Schieson came to signify any one with rumpled hair. See Boerio's +_Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano_. + +[67] Opere, vol. viii. p. 164. + +[68] The original exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. Goldoni wrote +the poem on the occasion of S. E. Bastian Venier's return from the +rectorship of Bergamo. When he reprinted it in the edition of his +poetical works (Pasquali, Venezia, 1764), he omitted the passage +referring to Gozzi's _Tartana_. The lines above are given in Magrini's +and Masi's essays. I add a translation. "I have seen a certain _Tartana_ +in print, full of rancid and insipid verses, verses bad enough to +terrify a goblin, verses seasoned by the wise plagiary with acrid salt +of evil-speaking, full of false arrogant sentiments. One can, however, +condone this licence in one who is out of temper with Fortune, she being +not greatly well-affected toward him. He who speaks evil without any +reason shown, he who does not prove his assumptions and his arguments, +acts like the dog who barks against the moon." + +[69] It was written for the marriage of Contarini Venier. "A Lombard who +pretends to be a Delia Cruscan, with a smile on his lips and venom in +his heart." + +[70] "Only too well I know that I am not a good writer, and that I never +drank at the best fountains. I write and reason as my style dictates, +and sometimes by good chance I also have afforded pleasure. But woe to +me if the Florentine sieve should be applied to sifting my productions." + +[71] Opere, vol. viii. p. 183. "I am engaged in preparing a commentary +which shall prove both the assumption and the argument." + +[72] _Il Teatro Comico_ was the first of the famous sixteen comedies of +1749-50. The list of the pieces to be expected was announced in it. See +Goldoni's _Memoirs_, part i. ch. 7. + +[73] "Yes, thou art the eagle, I am the ant. Thou soarest to the zenith +without exertion; my Muse cannot rise to the poles of the universe." + +[74] Only in this respect, however; otherwise, as artist, Gozzi differs +widely from Aristophanes. + +[75] Opere, vol. iii. p. 9. + +[76] The actors in Sacchi's company were: Antonio Sacchi, _Truffaldino_; +Atanagio Zanoni, _Brighella_; Agostino Fiorelli, _Tartaglia_; Cesare +Darbes, _Pantalone_; Adriana Sacchi Zanoni, _Smeraldina_; Antonia +Sacchi, _Beatrice_; together with Ignazio Casanova and Gaetano Casali. +How the parts of Leandro, Clarice, R di Coppe, Celio, Morgana, Creonta, +Ninetta were distributed, we do not know. Antonia Sacchi (the _Beatrice_ +of the troupe) probably played Clarice. + +[77] In Italian, _R di Coppe_. The Italian suits are _Coppe_ or cups, +_Danari_ or coins, _Spade_ or swords (whence our Spades), _Bastoni_ or +clubs. + +[78] In Italian, _Cavaliere di Coppe_. + +[79] I have adopted the old English fourteen-syllable line for the +translation of Gozzi's Martellian verses. It seemed to me that the +lumbering effect of this metre lent itself to the spirit of his parody. +What Martellian verses were has been explained at p. 97. + +[80] I cannot pretend to give a literal translation of these gross +parodies of Goldoni's forensic verbiage. The most I can do is to stuff +the verse with more or less of legal phraseology. + +[81] See above, p. 112, for the names of the five actors who sustained +these parts in Sacchi's company. + +[82] I wrote this in the spring of 1888, before I was aware that Wagner +had set the _Donna Serpente_ to music. His early piece, _The Fairies_, +was composed in 1833, and first performed this year in June at Munich. + +[83] Act ii. sc. 5. In Masi's edition, vol. ii. p. 458. Readers who care +for further diatribes _ la Gozzi_ on these topics, may be referred to +the _Astrazione_ which serves as introduction to his translation of +Boileau, Op., vol. vii. p. 53. + +[84] + + "Many are now alive, + Who haply are more statues than I am. + Thou shalt experience what power hath a statue, + And how a live man may become an image." + + +[85] _Tarocchi_ is the name for the cards, seventy-eight in number, used +in a now well-nigh forgotten game. Fifty-six cards of the whole series +consist of the four Italian suits: Coppe, Spade, Bastoni, and Danari. +The remaining twenty-two are properly called _Tarocchi_, and in the game +of Taroc take precedence of any cards of the four ordinary suits. + +[86] + + "I too have charms, + Sweet flatteries, dulcet wiles; and to my side + He shall be faithful ever. Yet I would not + That, loving him, my kindness should arouse + In hearts of others jealousy." + + +[87] + +"Fair, yea, most fair thou art in sooth; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou an apple hold which sings, plucked from the magic tree. + + * * * * * + +Daughter, I trow that thou art fair; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou that water hold which plays and dances merrily." + +[88] + +"So! this is my philosopher, who went Yesterday picking sticks, and now! +... But patience!... I wished to stay with her, for I adore her; And +stay with her I shall. We must contrive To hold our tongue; and yet this +may not be. I vow I scarcely knew her! What grand airs! Some devil must +have daubed her o'er with gold. 'Twould vex me sorely if the little +hussy ... Some rich milord perhaps.... Well, I'll know all." + +{_Exit._ + +[89] There are five of these old statues, painted, in Moorish costumes. +One of them has the name Rioba carved above his head. Everybody in +Venice, of course, knew them; and their appearance on the stage must +have been mirth-promoting. + +[90] _Mmoires_, part ii. cap. 45. + +[91] Letters from Italy, dated October 4, October 6, and October 10, +1786. + +[92] See Masi's Essay, p. cxxxii. + +[93] _Carlo Gozzi, Thtre Fiabesque, Alphonse Royer._ Paris, Michel +Lvy, 1865. + +[94] London, W. Satchell & Co. 1880. + +[95] Through the courtesy of Mr. John P. Anderson of the British Museum +I am able to state that, besides a short article in the _Encyclopdia +Britannica_, he can only discover an essay in _Lippincott's Magazine_ +(vol. xx. p. 347, &c.), entitled "A Venetian of the Eighteenth Century," +which deals with Carlo Gozzi. + +[96] The Gozzi family were thus _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice. These +_Cittadini_ had to prove legitimate birth in the city; three generations +during which the family had exercised no mechanical arts; freedom from +any criminal stain, debts to the state, or factious behaviour. +Citizenship, as in the case of the Gozzi, was also granted by privilege. +The _Cittadini_ formed a class of burgher aristocracy, ranking below the +patricians and taking no part in the actual government of the State, +since they did not vote in the Consiglio Grande. Their names, pedigrees, +and arms were enrolled in a book, of which many copies exist, and which +was commonly called the _Libro d'Argento_, to distinguish it from the +_Libro d'Oro_ of the patricians. In a MS. of the seventeenth century, +which belonged to Cicogna, now at the Museo Civico, entitled _Le Due +Corone della Nobilt Veneziana, Corona Seconda_, the Gozzi arms are +blazoned thus: "Or, on the topmost branches of an olive-tree vert a dove +ppr., and round the stem of the tree a scroll argent inscribed Signum +Pacis." The family is described as wealthy; but no pedigree is given: +_Non vi albero_. Carlo Gozzi, in his _Lettera Confutatoria, Memorie_, +vol. iii. p. 31, asserts that the privilege of citizenship was given to +his ancestors by the Doge Cicogna (1585-95). It is neither impossible +nor improbable that the Gozzi of Bergamo were derived from the same +stock as the Gozze or Gozzi of Ragusa. These latter drew their pedigree +from Herzegovina, and were therefore Slavs. We know that the patrician +families of Polo and Sagredo came originally from Sebenico. + +[97] Their palace is still inhabited by a Conte Gozzi. The _arca_, or +family sepulture, can no longer be traced in the church. It was at the +foot of the altar in the Chapel of the Madonna. Here Carlo Gozzi was +buried. + +[98] In a voluminous MS. written by Cicogna, embodying all he could +collect about the _Famiglie Cittadine_ (now at the Museo Civico), we +find that _Alberto Gozi detto delle Sede_ was inscribed among the +patricians in 1646. I may mention that Cicogna tricks the arms of Gozzi +without the dove. + +[99] The Grand Chancellor, the Ducal Notaries, and the Secretaries of +many Magistracies, were chosen from the _Cittadini_, who were also sent, +after holding such posts, as ambassadors of the second class, or +Residents, to foreign Courts. + +[100] The word, which I have translated acre, is _campo_. Now the +_campo_ differed in different provinces of Lombardy. But the _Campo +Padovano_ corresponded pretty nearly to an English acre; and from +another passage in Gozzi (_Memorie_, vol. iii. p. 226) it appears that +he was in the habit of using the Paduan standard. + +[101] The Gozzi were what are called in Venice _Conti di Terra Ferma_, +and their title seems to have been dependent upon these feudal tenures. + +[102] At the time when Gozzi wrote, this was the eldest branch, called +Di San Fantin. Two remote branches, of S. Apollinare and San Polo, +survived. They descended from a collateral ancestor, Girolamo Tiepolo, +who died in 1516. The branch of S. Polo expired in 1820. See Litta, +_Famiglie Celebri_. The Tiepolo family was one of the oldest and most +illustrious among the patrician houses. It ranked with the _Case +vecchie_, as distinguished from the _Case nuove_. These _Case vecchie_ +were also called tribunizie, from having exercised the highest offices +of State at the time when Venice was still governed by tribunes, and +before the foundation of the Dogeship. Of these oldest and purest noble +houses there were twenty-four. The closing of the Grand Council in 1297, +which determined the oligarchical character of the Venetian government, +led to an attempted revolution in the State by Baiamonte Tiepolo. +Tiepolo's conspiracy was really an effort in the interests of the old +aristocracy to throw off the yoke which _novi homines_ were fixing on +the commonwealth. An excellent essay on Baiamonte Tiepolo will be found +in H. F. Brown's _Venetian Studies_. I may add to this note that the +Gozzi had previously intermarried with the Corner, Zuccato, Don, and +Morosini, patrician houses of high respectability. + +[103] Carlo Gozzi was born December 13, 1720. He probably knew that he +was in his sixtieth year; and this passage enables us to measure the +exact amount of duplicity which he thought venial in composing his +Memoirs. It was Gozzi's object to extenuate the fact that his _liaison_ +with Teodora Ricci had been carried on when he was past the age of +fifty. When he asserts that he had "not yet reached the age of sixty," +he was just within the bounds of veracity; for he wanted more than seven +months to complete his sixtieth year. + +[104] _Collegi._ Gasparo was educated in the Somaschan establishment at +S. Cipriano on the island of Murano. + +[105] Casanova, in the first chapter of his Memoirs, says that he +suffered during his boyhood from the same violent hmorrhages. + +[106] _Gozzi_ might have cited Galileo, whose style, formed by the study +of the "divine" Ariosto, is a model of exquisite and urbane Italian +diction. + +[107] Compare what Goldoni says about the marionette theatre at his +grandfather's country-seat. In some of the great villas of the Venetian +nobility these private stages were built on an enormous scale. The +account of Marco Contarini's theatre at Piazzola near Padua, and of the +sumptuous dramatic performances which took place there, reads like a +passage from the _Arabian Nights_. See Romanin's _Storia di Venezia_, +vol. vii. p. 550. + +[108] I may here say that the title of cavaliere, or knight, was +commonly given to members of patrician families at Venice, irrespective +of their being laymen or in orders. + +[109] Gaspara Stampa was born at Padua, but was a gentlewoman of Milan +by descent. She died about 1554, at the age of thirty. If this edition +of Gaspara Stampa's _Rime_ is the one prepared for publication by Luisa +Bergalli (Gozzi's sister-in-law), there is the same confusion of dates +here as I have noticed above. It was published when Gozzi had reached +his seventeenth year. + +[110] A tablet over the entrance to the restaurant at the Calcina on the +Zattere, records that Apostolo Zeno dwelt there. It was, perhaps, to +this house that young Gozzi paid his visit. Zeno (b. 1668, d. 1750) +exercised considerable influence over the Italian drama. He wrote plays +for music and oratorios. For some years he held the post of Cesarean +poet at Vienna, which he resigned to the more celebrated Metastasio. + +[111] Luisa Pisana Bergalli was born at Venice in 1703, of humble +parentage, being descended from a Piedmontese shoemaker. Luigi Mocenigo +and Pisana Cornaro held her at the font, and gave her their two +Christian names. She showed distinguished talents in early youth, and +was educated by the painter Rosalba Carriera, afterwards by Caterino and +Apostolo Zeno. At twenty-three she published a tragedy and an anthology +of Italian poems by female writers; at twenty-five another tragedy; at +thirty a translation of Terence, and a comedy dedicated to Count Jacopo +Antonio Gozzi. It appears from this dedication to _Le avventure del +poeta_ that she was the protege of both Count Gozzi and his wife, and +on the best of terms with their children. She was thirty-five and +Gasparo was twenty-five when they married. See Tommasei, _Storia Civile +nella Letteraria_, pp. 185-188. + +[112] The title _Provveditore Generale di Mare_ was given to the supreme +head of the Venetian naval and military forces in the Levant. He resided +at Corfu, where he maintained a princely court, and ruled like a +sovereign, being only responsible for his actions to the Senate. Next in +importance to this functionary was the _Provveditore Generale di +Dalmazia_, of whose Court we shall hear much in Gozzi's Memoirs. +Casanova, who went to Corfu in the train of the Prov. Gen. Dolfino, +called Il Bucentoro because of his grand manner, and the father of the +famous Caterina Dolfin Tron, gives an excellent account of the Court +there, its military, naval, and civil establishment. Chapters xiii.-xvi. +of the first volume of his Memoirs deserve to be compared with the +corresponding part of Gozzi's. + +[113] Not at seventeen, but at twenty. Gozzi was born in 1720, and +Quirini took the government of Dalmatia in 1740. + +[114] _Togato._ The State dignitaries of Venice wore robes of various +colours and forms, according to their office. A simple nobleman was +bound to go abroad in a flowing robe of silk, or toga, ample enough to +conceal whatever costume he may have worn beneath it. + +[115] _Armata_, composed of naval and military forces, to act equally on +sea and shore. + +[116] It seems from the names of these larger galleys that they were the +official ships of the Provveditore, his own flag-ship and her attendant +convoy. Romanin (vol. viii. p. 372) says that at this epoch Venice kept +fifteen heavy galleys, ten lighter, nine sailing ships of the frigate +build, and twenty-four armed craft of other descriptions. The galleys +and sailing ships were commanded only by patricians. This was her peace +establishment. + +[117] Gozzi says _adjutante_ alone. _Adjutante di campo_ is +aide-de-camp. + +[118] This word is in the Italian _armata_. The _armata_, to which Gozzi +belonged, was properly an armament of mixed naval and military forces, +and _armata_ would naturally be translated "navy." He was attached to +it, however, in the quality of soldier, and was eligible (as we shall +afterwards see) for transfer into the land forces of the State in +Lombardy. Thus he belonged to the Venetian army. + +[119] This was the highest office in the State to which a _cittadino_ +could aspire. It conferred the rank of cavaliere. The Grand Chancellor +could open public despatches; he attended the sittings of the Grand +Council and the Senate, but without a vote, and was the official chief +of all the civil servants. + +[120] Probably Freschot, the author of several works on Venice, a +Frenchman by birth. + +[121] The native Dalmatians of Slav origin, inhabiting the inland +villages and country districts, were called by this name. + +[122] _Scogli._ A long low island opposite the harbour of Zara is so +called. + +[123] This and other French terms show to what extent the military +system of Venice had been modernised. + +[124] Razionato. + +[125] This chapter will be read with interest by students of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. It throws light upon the way in which an actor of +originality could adapt one of the fixed characters of that comedy, in +this case the _servetta_, to his own talents and to local circumstances. + +[126] _Pallone_ is a game played with a large leather ball, filled with +air, and something like our football. In Italy it is struck with the +hand, which is armed for the purpose with gloves or a flat short bat +fixed on the palm. Sides are chosen, and the game roughly resembles +tennis on a large scale. Pallone is the original of our balloon. + +[127] The sequin at this time was worth twenty-two _lire Venete_. The +worth of the _lira_ was about half a franc, says Romanin (vol. viii. p. +302). Romanin in the same place fixes the ducat at eight _lire_. Gozzi's +debt amounted to 1248 _lire_. This would make only 156 ducats at the +above rate. But the relation of the ducat to the sequin and the _lira_ +is very obscure, and seems to have varied according to the kind of +ducat. + +[128] _Decime._ Taxes annually raised upon the whole property of a +Venetian. + +[129] Opere, vol. vii. p. 393. This is the stanza-- + + Gli antichi di provincia tuoi fedeli + Son quasi tutti fuggiti alle ville, + In castellacci discoperti a' cieli, + Con figli e figlie e nipoti e pupille, + Ripieni di pensieri acri e crudeli, + Allor che suonan mezzod le squille. + Educazion non han, mangiar, n bere; + Pensa se daran nerbo alle tue schiere! + +This is said to the burlesque Carlo Magno of the poem. The passage in +the text confirms the theory that Gozzi intended his Carlo Magno to +represent the decrepit majesty of Venice. + +[130] Almor is the Venetian form of the name Ermolao. + +[131] Gozzi's description of the Venetian _Cortesan_ may serve as +illustration to a popular play of Goldoni's, _Momolo Cortesan_. This was +the first comedy of character Goldoni composed. Its title-rle was +written for a celebrated Pantalone, Golinetti (see Goldoni's _Memoirs_, +part i. ch. 40). When he printed it, he translated the title into +_L'Uomo di Mondo_, finding no exact equivalent for the Venetian phrase +_Cortesan_. Goldoni's account of the character tallies with Gozzi's. + +[132] In these and several passages which follow, Gozzi ascribes the +pecuniary embarrassments of his family to the maladministration of his +mother, aided by his sister-in-law. It it only fair to say, that Gasparo +Gozzi's correspondence confirms his veracity. That favourite and +favoured eldest son complains bitterly that, even to the last days of +her life, his mother insisted on managing the property, and that she +made underhand contracts to the prejudice of himself and his children. +It was, in fact, a misfortune for the Gozzi that their father, Jacopo +Antonio, married into a patrician family of higher rank and pretensions +than his own. Angela Tiepolo, knowing herself to be one of the last +representatives of a very noble house, with considerable expectations +from her childless brother, drove her easy-going husband into ruinous +expenditure, and domineered over her kindred by right of a marriage +which savoured of a msalliance. See the article upon her in Litta's +_Famiglie Celebri_, sub tit. "Tiepolo." + +[133] The _bautta_ and the mask were permitted at Venice from the first +Sunday in October until Ash Wednesday. + +[134] This was a very long scarf of black silk, which, draped above the +head, and fulling over the shoulders, was tied in a knot, and allowed to +hang on both sides of the wearer's skirts. The mask or _bautta_ was only +permitted during the prolonged Venetian Carnival. + +[135] The Italian is _democraziano_. Perhaps Gozzi wrote _democriziano_, +from Democritus, the sage who laughed at all things. In either case the +adjective is wrongly formed. It ought to be either _democratico_ or +_democritico_. But _democrazia_ may have led him to _democraziano_. He +not infrequently employs this phrase, which always puzzles me, because +nobody was really less democratic than Carlo Gozzi, and as yet, in 1780, +he had no reason, under the pressure of the Revolution, to dissemble. + +[136] The theatres of Venice were called by the names of the parishes in +which they stood, or of non-parochial churches to which they were +contiguous. S. Angelo was one of the smaller. + +[137] I have condensed in this sentence the details of a long and +tiresome chapter (chap. xxix.). It is worth adding here that the law of +Venice with regard to entail was very strict; time gave no title to a +purchaser who had obtained possession of an estate subject to _fidei +commissa_. One of Goethe's most interesting letters from Venice (October +5, 1786) contains the full description of a cause he heard pleaded in +the Ducal palace for the recovery of illegally alienated real property. +Goethe remarks upon the extraordinary permanence of trusts in Venice. + +[138] The author of an unfinished work on Venetian literature. + +[139] It seems probable that Gozzi was really at one time on the point +of marrying this lady. + +[140] The Avvogadori del Comune, or _Advocatores Comunis_, corresponded +in a certain sense to the modern Procuratori di Stato, and had some +resemblance to the Roman tribunes. They formed a High Court of Justice +for the guardianship of property accruing to the Exchequer, for the +protection of private rights in property, rights of minors and widows, +the superintendence of registers of births and marriages, &c. Three +patricians formed the board. + +[141] The Somascan Order was founded about 1540 by Girolamo Miani, a +Venetian senator, upon the model of the Theatines. Its object was +education, principally of the poor. With regard to the school at S. +Cipriano, it is worth mentioning that the famous adventurer, Casanova, +was placed there by his guardian the Abb Grimani in the year 1740 or +thereabouts. He gives a full account of the institution in his Memoirs +(vol. i. ch. vi.), from which it appears that at this epoch about 150 +youths were educated by the Somascan monks. Readers of Casanova need +hardly be reminded that he was expelled from the seminary after a few +weeks' residence. Gasparo Gozzi was also educated here. + +[142] This scene has actually been preserved and printed in Gasparo +Gozzi's works. Opere, Minerva, Padova, vol. vii. It forms the 6th scene +of the 3rd act of _Esopo in Citt_, and is very much as Carlo Gozzi +describes it. The ancient lady throws the principal blame for her +domestic sufferings upon a certain "Sicofante, Dottor legista di questa +citt," whom I take to be Carlo's lawyer, Testa. + +[143] Gozzi can hardly not have been thinking of poor Gratarol, when he +penned these lines. Mentally he contrasts his own conduct under the +inconvenience of a stage-satire with Gratarol's. + +[144] See above, p. 319. + +[145] On the Fondamenta Nuove, looking across Murano to the mountains of +the Dolomites. See Tommasei, _op. cit._, p. 258. + +[146] This was written in 1780, but when it was printed in 1797, Louis +XVI. had little reason to be proud of his titles. + +[147] He was made secretary to the Riformatori dello Studio. + +[148] Gozzi here resumes a portion of the 29th chapter of his Memoirs, +which I have condensed in Chapter XXIV. above (see note to p. 336). It +seemed unnecessary to burden the translation of his autobiography with +more of legal details than was absolutely necessary for understanding +the tenor of his life-experience. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; +Volume the first, by Count Carlo Gozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + +***** This file should be named 38266-8.txt or 38266-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/6/38266/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first + +Author: Count Carlo Gozzi + +Illustrator: Alphonse Lalauze + Maurice Sand + A. Manceau + +Translator: John Addington Symonds + +Release Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #38266] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_cover_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_cover.jpg" width="312" height="500" alt="Image of the book's cover" title="Image of the book's cover" /></a> +</p> + +<p class="cb">THE MEMOIRS<br /> +OF<br /> +COUNT CARLO GOZZI<br /> +VOLUME THE FIRST</p> + +<p class="c"> +<i>PUBLISHERS' NOTE.</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>Five hundred and twenty copies of this book printed for England,<br /> +and two hundred and sixty for America. Type distributed. Each<br /> +copy numbered.</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>No.</i> 606<br /> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS" +style="border:2px dotted gray;max-width:60%;text-align:center;"> +<tr><td><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">List of Illustrations.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#PREFACE">Preface.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#BOOKS_USED_AND_REFERRED_TO_IN_THIS_WORK">Books Used and Referred to in This Work.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction: </a> +<a href="#PART_I">Part I., </a> +<a href="#Part_II">Part II., </a> +<a href="#Part_III">Part III.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CARLO_GOZZI">Carlo Gozzi: </a> +<a href="#I">I., </a> +<a href="#II">II., </a> +<a href="#III">III., </a> +<a href="#VI">VI., </a> +<a href="#VII">VII., </a> +<a href="#VIII">VIII., </a> +<a href="#IX">IX., </a> +<a href="#X">X., </a> +<a href="#XI">XI., </a> +<a href="#XII">XII., </a> +<a href="#XIII">XIII., </a> +<a href="#XIV">XIV., </a> +<a href="#XV">XV., </a> +<a href="#XVI">XVI., </a> +<a href="#XVII">XVII., </a> +<a href="#XVIII">XVIII., </a> +<a href="#XIX">XIX., </a> +<a href="#XX">XX., </a> +<a href="#XXI">XXI., </a> +<a href="#XXII">XXII., </a> +<a href="#XXIII">XXIII., </a> +<a href="#XXIV">XXIV., </a> +<a href="#XXV">XXV., </a> +<a href="#XXVI">XXVI., </a> +<a href="#XXVII">XXVII., </a> +<a href="#XXVIII">XXVIII., </a> +<a href="#XXIX">XXIX., </a> +<a href="#XXX">XXX.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#FOOTNOTES">Notes</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="FRONT" id="FRONT"></a></p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_front_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_front_sml.jpg" width="389" height="550" alt="Carlo Gozzi" title="Carlo Gozzi" /></a> +</p> + +<h1> +THE MEMOIRS OF<br /> +COUNT CARLO GOZZI</h1> + +<p class="cb">TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH<br /> +BY<br /> +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS<br /> +<br /> +<span class="eng">With Essays on Italian Impromptu Comedy, Gozzi's Life,<br /> +The Dramatic Fables, and Pietro Longhi</span><br /> +<br /> +B<small>Y THE</small> TRANSLATOR<br /> +<br /><br /> +<i>WITH PORTRAIT AND SIX ORIGINAL ETCHINGS</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> ADOLPHE LALAUZE<br /> +<br /><br /> +<small><i>ALSO ELEVEN SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING ITALIAN COMEDY BY MAURICE SAND<br /> +ENGRAVED ON COPPER BY A. MANCEAU, AND COLOURED BY HAND</i></small><br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +IN TWO VOLUMES<br /> +<small>VOLUME THE FIRST</small><br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +NEW YORK<br /> +SCRIBNER & WELFORD<br /> +743 & 745 BROADWAY<br /> +<small>MDCCCXC</small></p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.<br /><br /> +<small><i>VOLUME THE FIRST.</i></small></h2> + +<p>The Etchings designed and etched by <span class="smcap">Ad. Lalauze</span>. The Masks, illustrating +the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, by <span class="smcap">Maurice Sand</span>, engraved by <span class="smcap">A. Manceau</span>, +and coloured by hand.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">I.</td><td><span class="smcap">Portrait of Carlo Gozzi</span> (<i>etching</i>)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#FRONT"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan="3" align="right">P<small>AGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">II.</td><td><span class="smcap">The Italian Commedia Dell'arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> </td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_025">25</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">III.</td><td><span class="smcap">Colombina</span> (1683)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_048">48</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IV.</td><td><span class="smcap">Tartaglia</span> (1620)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_096">96</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">V.</td><td><span class="smcap">Brighella</span> (1570)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_128">128</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VI.</td><td><span class="smcap">Il Dottore</span> (1653)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_160">160</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VII.</td><td><span class="smcap">Scaramouch</span> (1645)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_192">192</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">The Franciscan Friar on the Galley</span> (<i>etching</i>)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_216">216</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IX.</td><td><span class="smcap">Il Capitano</span> (1668)</td><td align="right" valign="bottom"><a href="#page_256">256</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + +<p class="nind">A<small>FTER</small> the appearance of my work on Benvenuto Cellini, Mr. J. C. Nimmo +proposed that I should undertake a translation of Count Carlo Gozzi's +<i>Memorie Inutili</i>.</p> + +<p>The suggestion that such a book might be of interest to the English +public emanated originally, I believe, from Mr. E. Hutchings of +Manchester, in a letter addressed to the <i>Academy</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>To this gentleman my warmest thanks are due, not only for starting the +idea, which I have carried out, but also for the interest he has shown +in my work during its progress, and for the assistance he has liberally +rendered by the loan of rare books.</p> + +<p>I entertained the proposal with some doubt. What I already knew about +Carlo Gozzi amounted to little; and it seemed to me improbable that the +world would willingly have left his Memoirs in oblivion if they +possessed solid qualities.</p> + +<p>At the same time, the little that I did know of Gozzi roused my +curiosity. The picturesque aspects of Venetian decadence allured my +fancy. I foresaw that I should have to handle the attractive subject of +Italian impromptu comedy. Finally, it so happens that autobiographies +have always exerted a peculiar fascination for my mind. I rate them +highly as historical and psychological documents. The smallest fragment +of a genuine autobiography seems to me valuable for the student of past +epochs.</p> + +<p>I had strong inducements, therefore, to undertake the proposed task.</p> + +<p>The first thing to do was to procure a copy of the Memoirs, which exist +only in one edition of three volumes. Mr. Hutchings placed the first two +volumes of the book at my disposal; but the third was missing. It had +been purloined while its owner was stationed in one of the South +American cities. Mr. Nimmo and I waited through four months, making +continued applications to the best European dealers in old books, before +a complete copy was at last disinterred from a Venetian library.</p> + +<p>The extraordinary rarity of the <i>Memorie</i> stimulated my growing +interest. After making a preliminary study of the text, I perceived that +this was no common specimen of self-portraiture. In some respects it +seemed to me to be a masterpiece. I felt no doubt that it possessed both +psychological and historical value. A man of a very marked type stood +forth from those pages. He was, moreover, the Venetian representative of +a well-defined social and literary period. This period corresponded +pretty closely with that of our own Samuel Johnson, Fielding, Goldsmith, +Reynolds, David Hume. It was the period which ended with the earthquake +of the French Revolution, the signs of which catastrophe were felt more +ominously in Italy than in our own land. At the same time I recognised +salient qualities of healthy moral sense, of analytical acumen, of +vigorous intelligence, and of caustic humour in the author, mingled with +literary merit of no ordinary kind, vivid transcripts from contemporary +life, dramatic narration, incisive sketches of character, original +reflections on society.</p> + +<p>According to my own standard in such matters, Gozzi's Memoirs ranked as +an important document for the study of Italy in the last century.</p> + +<p>But was the book worth translating? Would it not suffice to leave the +few existing copies in their obscurity, and to indicate their value for +historians by composing a critical treatise on the author and his times?</p> + +<p>My own predilection for autobiographies, and my sense of their utility, +caused me to reject this alternative. I decided to translate, and to +illustrate my translation by tolerably copious original essays.</p> + +<p>While engaged upon the work, I have not, however, felt always quite at +ease. It has recurred to my mind that many readers of these volumes will +exclaim: "An English version of Gozzi's self-styled 'useless memoirs' +cannot fail to be twice as useless as the original!" Not all people +share that partiality for autobiographies which in me amounts almost to +a passion.</p> + +<p>Besides, I had to face other difficulties. The three chapters which +contain the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures could not be omitted. +They are too valuable for the light they throw upon his age, and too +important in the man's estimate of his own character. Their suppression +would have been unfair to Gozzi, and would have shorn his Memoirs of +some brilliant bits of local colour. Nevertheless, I knew that the +frankness and the cynical humour of these episodes are out of tune with +modern taste. Much is pardoned by the virtue of our age to classics—to +Plato or Cellini—which would not be excused in a writer of inferior +eminence. But Gozzi is no classic. The fact of his neglect by his own +nation proves that overwhelmingly. Why drag him from deserved oblivion +if these love-stories are indispensable to the rehabilitating process?</p> + +<p>My answer to this perplexing query was that the debated passages are +good in literature, true to nature, sound in moral feeling. Their +candour is the candour of a cleanly heart, resolved to bare its secret +by an effort of self-portraiture. Gozzi describes passions common to +that age, and ours, and every age; but he also shows how a determined +character, upright and honourable, can free itself from the +entanglements of natural frailty. The lesson may be somewhat harsh, but +it is salutary. Gozzi has written no single word unworthy of a man of +principle—nothing which is calculated to make vice alluring. Only one—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">From common sense of what men were and are,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Who would not know what men must be:"—</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="nind">only such an one can take exception to the narratives of Gozzi's +love-adventures.</p> + +<p>Reasoning thus, I determined to include the love-tales in my +translation, having already decided that no translation could be given +to the world without them, and that the book was worthy of +resuscitation. But I felt myself justified in removing those passages +and phrases which might have caused offence to some of my readers.</p> + +<p>To translate Gozzi with the minute attention to his style which I +bestowed upon Cellini would have been unpractical. I should even have +inflicted an injury upon my author. It is in many respects an annoying +style; redundant, unequal, diffuse; bearing the stamp of garrulous +senility and imperfect (though copious) command of language.</p> + +<p>To condense and manipulate the Memoirs at my own free will, following +the plan of Paul de Musset's abridgement, seemed to me unscrupulous, +even if I abstained from that amusing writer's deliberate +mystifications.</p> + +<p>I resolved to convert the larger portion of the book into equivalent +English, allowing myself the license of curtailing certain passages, and +rearranging the order of some chapters. All cases of important +condensation or omission have been indicated in my notes. My account of +the Memoirs and the causes which led to their publication (Introduction, +Part i.) sufficiently explains my right to transpose material from one +place to another. Readers of the Introduction will perceive how +carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique +edition was put together. It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's +indifference and haste of compilation that so curious a specimen of +autobiography fell into almost absolute oblivion.</p> + +<p>We have only one edition of the <i>Memorie</i>, that of Palese, under the +date Venezia, 1797. Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of +bibliography. I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare +book which have fallen under my inspection present some features of +difference, indicating the random way in which the sheets were made up +for publication.</p> + +<p>Among English critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, +has mentioned Gozzi's Memoirs. That is Vernon Lee, in her <i>Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy</i>. But Vernon Lee knew the book only +through Paul de Musset's "perversion." Accordingly, what she has to say +about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, +account she gives of his <i>Fiabe</i>.</p> + +<p>The volumes I am now presenting to the public claim at least one +merit—that of dealing with a hitherto almost untouched document of +historical and literary importance.</p> + +<p>I flatter myself that readers will be found to appreciate the brilliant, +though prolix and desultory, portraiture of life in Venice during the +last century which these "useless memoirs" offer to their imagination.</p> + +<p>Finally, I wish here to record my mature opinion about Carlo Gozzi's +character for veracity and general uprightness. I think that I have been +hardly just, and certainly not generous, to Gozzi in the Introduction +and the notes appended to my version. Wishing to avoid the <i>lues +biographica</i>, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while +writing. Careful perusal of the proofs makes me feel that the truth +would not have suffered had I entirely suppressed some suspicions and +concealed some personal want of sympathy with the man. Allowing for his +peculiar and occasionally repellent character—the character of an +"original" and a confirmed old bachelor—Gozzi seems to me now to have +been as honest and open-hearted as a gentleman should be.</p> + +<p class="r">JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS.</p> + +<p class="nind"><span class="smcap">Am Hof, Davos Platz</span>,<br /> + <i>March 25, 1889</i>.</p> + +<p> +<br /> +<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c"><a name="BOOKS_USED_AND_REFERRED_TO_IN_THIS_WORK" id="BOOKS_USED_AND_REFERRED_TO_IN_THIS_WORK"></a><i>BOOKS USED AND REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK.</i></p> + +<p class="hang">1. <span class="smcap">Carlo Gozzi.</span> "Memorie Inutili." 3 vols. Venice. 1797.</p> + +<p class="hang">2. <span class="smcap">Carlo Gozzi.</span> "Opere." 10 vols. Venice. Colombani and other +publishers. 1772-1791.</p> + +<p class="hang">3. <span class="smcap">Ernesto Masi.</span> "Le Fiabe di Carlo Gozzi." 2 vols. Bologna. +Zanichelli. 1885.</p> + +<p class="hang">4. <span class="smcap">Pier Antonio Gratarol.</span> "Narrazione Apologetica." 2 vols. +Venezia. Gatti. 1797.</p> + +<p class="hang">5. <span class="smcap">Paul de Musset.</span> "Mmoires de Charles Gozzi." Paris. Charpentier. +1848.</p> + +<p class="hang">6. <span class="smcap">Giov. Batt. Magrini.</span> "Carlo Gozzi e le Fiabe." Cremona. +Feraboli. 1876. The same work, second edition: "I Tempi la Vita e +gli Scritti di Carlo Gozzi." Benevento. De Gennaro. 1883.</p> + +<p class="hang">7. <span class="smcap">Michele Scherillo.</span> "La Commedia dell' Arte in Italia." Torino. +Loescher. 1884.</p> + +<p class="hang">8. <span class="smcap">Adolfo Bartoli.</span> "Scenari Inediti della Commedia dell' Arte." +Firenze. Sansone. 1880.</p> + +<p class="hang">9. <span class="smcap">Alfonse Royer.</span> "Carlo Gozzi, Thtre Fiabesque." Paris. Michel +Lvy. 1865.</p> + +<p class="hang">10. <span class="smcap">Carlo Goldoni.</span> "Mmoires." 3 vols. Paris. Veuve Duchesne. 1787.</p> + +<p class="hang">11. <span class="smcap">Ferdinando Galanti.</span> "Carlo Goldoni e Venezia nel Secolo xviii." +Padova. Samin. 1882.</p> + +<p class="hang">12. <span class="smcap">P. G. Molmenti.</span> "Carlo Goldoni." Venezia. Ongania. 1880.</p> + +<p class="hang">13. <span class="smcap">Vernon Lee.</span> "Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy." +London. Satchell. 1880.</p> + +<p class="hang">14. <span class="smcap">Maurice Sand.</span> "Masques et Bouffons." 2 vols. Paris. A. Lvy +1862.</p> + +<p class="hang">15. <span class="smcap">S. Romanin.</span> "Storia Documentata di Venezia." Vols. vii.-ix. +Venezia. Naratovitch. 1860.</p> + +<p class="hang">16. <span class="smcap">Giuseppe Boerio.</span> "Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano." Venezia. +Cocchini. 1856.</p> + +<p class="hang">17. <span class="smcap">Philarte Chasles.</span> "tudes sur l'Espagne, etc." ("D'un Thtre +Espagnol-Vnitien au xviii<sup>me.</sup> Sicle et de Charles Gozzi"). +Paris. Amyot. 1847.</p> + +<p class="hang">18. <span class="smcap">N. Tommaso.</span> "Storia Civile nella Letteraria." Roma, Torino, +Firenze. E Loescher. 1872.</p> + +<p class="hang">19. <span class="smcap">Eugenio Camerini.</span> "I Precursori del Goldoni." Milano. Sonzogno. +1872.</p> + +<p class="hang">20. "Mmoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, crites par +lui-mme. Bruxelles. Rozet. 1876.</p> + +<p class="cb">THE MEMOIRS<br /><br /> +<small>OF</small><br /><br /> +COUNT CARLO GOZZI</p> + +<p><a name="page_001" id="page_001"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION.<br /> +<span class="eng"><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I"></a>Part I.</span><br /> +<small><i>CARLO GOZZI AND PIERO ANTONIO GRATAROL.</i></small></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">1. The ancestry and social standing of Count Carlo Gozzi—His +collision with Piero Antonio Gratarol, Secretary to the Venetian +Collegio—How this quarrel led to the composition of Gozzi's +Memoirs—Their importance as a document for the social history of +Venice in the eighteenth century.—2. The interweaving of this +episode in Gozzi's Life with his literary warfare against Goldoni, +which culminated in the production of his ten dramatic fables.—3. +Sketch of Gratarol's life, and his relation to Andrea and Caterina +Tron—Gozzi's <i>liaison</i> with the actress Teodora Ricci—Gozzi's +comedy, <i>Le Droghe d'Amore</i>—Turned by Mme. Tron into a satire upon +Gratarol—Gratarol flies from Venice to Stockholm, is proscribed by +the Republic, and loses all his fortune—His <i>Narrazione +Apologetica</i>—Gozzi takes up the pen in self-defence—The +Inquisitors of State forbid the publication of his autobiographical +polemic—Gratarol's death in Madagascar—Circumstances which +induced Gozzi in 1797, after the fall of the Republic of St. Mark, +to complete and publish his Memoirs.—4. Gozzi's literary style and +personal character—The false conception of the man and his work +which has been diffused by Paul de Musset.</p></div> + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p>In the year 1797 there appeared at Venice a book entitled <i>Memorie +inutili della vita di Carlo Gozzi, scritte da lui medesimo e pubblicate +per umilt</i>, "Useless Memoirs of the Life of Carlo Gozzi, written by +himself and published from motives of humility." Its author, though he +bore the title of Count, and<a name="page_002" id="page_002"></a> belonged to an honourable family in +Venice, was not of patrician descent. That is to say, none of his lineal +ancestors had acquired the right of voting in the Grand Council or of +holding the highest offices of state. They ranked with the citizens of +the Republic, who took no direct part in the government, but who were +permitted to discharge important functions as secretaries of several +departments and as ambassadors of the second class. By his mother he +drew half of his blood from one of the oldest and proudest of Venetian +noble families, the Tiepolos. Thus, socially, if not politically, birth +placed him almost on a level with the best Venetian aristocracy.</p> + +<p>In the year 1797 he was seventy-seven; and although he had been a man of +some mark in his early days, the public had lost sight of him for the +last seventeen years. His reputation depended upon a large number of +dramatic pieces, satirical poems, and prose compositions, mostly of a +controversial kind. Two main episodes in his literary life conferred a +slightly dubious notoriety upon his name. The first of these was the +long and bitter war he waged against the two playwrights, Chiari and +Goldoni, between the years 1756 and 1762. The other was an unfortunate +series of events which brought him into collision with a certain Pier +Antonio Gratarol in 1777. Gratarol, like his adversary, was a Venetian +citizen, allied by descent to the great patrician family of Contarini. +Unlike Gozzi, he early<a name="page_003" id="page_003"></a> embarked on a political career, was one of the +secretaries of the Collegio, and looked forward to the highest +appointments which were open to a man of his rank. The collision with +Count Gozzi, which I shall have to describe with some minuteness, ended +in Gratarol's voluntary exile from Venice, the confiscation of his +property by the State, and a public scandal of sufficient importance to +attract the attention of serious historians.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Had it not been for this +tragi-comic episode in his past life, Gozzi would never have written his +Memoirs; and had the memory of the scandal not been revived some years +after Gratarol's death, when the old Republic of S. Mark had fallen in +the crash of the French Revolution, he would never have published them.</p> + +<p>This autobiography is distinctly an apologetical work, a portrait drawn +by Gozzi in self-defence, and intended to vindicate himself from the +aspersions cast by Gratarol upon his character. Its main object is to +set forth in the fairest light his own conduct during the unlucky +collision to which I have alluded. Yet though so limited in aim, the +interest which it possesses for us at the present time, is far wider +than belongs to that unhappy squabble, long since buried in oblivion. +Gozzi's conception of an <i>Apologia pro vita sua</i> was a comprehensive +one. He resolved to reveal his character under all its aspects,<a name="page_004" id="page_004"></a> from +his childhood until the date 1777, dealing now with matters of general +importance, now with the private affairs of his home, touching upon the +literature of his age, discussing fashions, criticising philosophy, +entering into minute particulars regarding theatres and actors, +describing his love-affairs with a frankness worthy of Rousseau, and +painting a series of lively portraits in which a large variety of +individuals from all classes are presented to our notice. The result is +that his autobiography, although in the strictest sense of that term an +occasional production, forms one of the most valuable documents we +possess for a study of Venetian society during the decadence of the +Republic. Gozzi was gifted with a penetrative and observant mind, strong +sense of humour, and a power of brilliant description. On the faults of +his style and the defects of his character, I shall speak hereafter. At +present it is enough to indicate the importance of the Memoirs as +furnishing a vivid picture of Venetian life in the eighteenth century. +Venice, at that period, was fortunate in autobiographers. She possessed +Goldoni and Casanova as well as Gozzi, not to mention smaller folk like +Da Ponte, the poet of Mozart's <i>Don Giovanni</i>. But when we compare the +three life-records of Goldoni, Casanova, and Gozzi, by far the deepest +historical interest, in my opinion, belongs to the last. Casanova's +Memoirs are almost excluded from general use by the nature of their +predominant pre-occupation.<a name="page_005" id="page_005"></a> Moreover, they deal but partially with +Venice, and only with limited aspects of its social life. Goldoni's, +though more humane, and in all that concerns tone impeccable, turn too +exclusively upon the history of his dramatic works to be of great +importance as an historical document. Moreover, the scene is laid in +several provinces of Italy and transferred before its close to France. +Gozzi, on the contrary, never quits the soil of Venice. Except when he +served as a soldier for three years in the Venetian province of +Dalmatia, he does not appear to have travelled further than to Pordenone +on one side and to Padua on the other. Of strong aristocratic instincts, +but condemned to comparative poverty by the reckless expenditure of his +parents and grandparents, Gozzi enjoyed opportunities of studying the +society of Venice from several points of view. His enthusiasm for +literature and partiality for professional actors brought him acquainted +with the scholars and the Bohemians of that epoch. His management of the +encumbered estates of his family introduced him to advocates, +solicitors, brokers, Jews, tenants, and all manner of strange people. +His birth made him the companion of patricians. His military service +involved him in the wild pleasures and perils of scapegrace lads upon a +foreign soil. Consequently, the records of a life so varied in +experience, while strictly confined within the narrow circuit of +Venetian society, could not fail to be rich in details for the<a name="page_006" id="page_006"></a> student. +It may be regretted that Gozzi chose to write in a didactic spirit. We +could willingly have exchanged his long-winded excursions into the +sphere of moral philosophy for a few more graphic sketches in the style +of his Dalmatian adventures.</p> + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>This biographical and historical interest, far more than Gozzi's quarrel +with Goldoni or his collision with Gratarol, is the reason why I thought +it worth while to translate a book which has become excessively rare in +the original. Nothing can be duller or more contemptible, to my mind, +than the chronicle of literary quarrels. The Goldoni-Gozzi episode would +be devoid of permanent attraction were it not for the curious light +thrown by it upon the obscure subject of impromptu comedy, and for the +ten extraordinary <i>Fiabe Teatrali</i> from Gozzi's pen to which it gave +rise. Again, the Gratarol-Gozzi episode, as we shall presently see, is +almost humiliating in the pettiness of its details, and painful through +its tragic termination.</p> + +<p>The Memoirs contain a full and tolerably accurate account of the +Gratarol incident. Yet I cannot dispense with a summary of this affair, +based upon a comparison of Gozzi's story with that of Gratarol in his +<i>Narrazione Apologetica</i>. The extreme importance<a name="page_007" id="page_007"></a> of the event in the +lives of both men, and the fact that it constitutes the subject of +Gozzi's autobiography in quite as serious a sense as that in which the +Persian war forms the subject of Herodotus' history, render this +unavoidable.</p> + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>Pier Antonio Gratarol was a young man between thirty and forty in the +year 1776. He had grown up with an ample fortune and without a father's +control; had imbibed French ways of thinking and French customs; had +married, and after marriage had separated from his wife.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> He +represented that class of intellectual and political Liberals whom +Gozzi, with his Conservative prejudices, regarded as dangerous to the +well-being of the State. He was an open libertine in his relations with +women, and<a name="page_008" id="page_008"></a> did not strive to conceal those principles of personal +liberty which the <i>philosophes</i> were spreading throughout Europe. At the +same time he represented a family which had served the Republic in +distinguished offices for many generations; he possessed excellent +abilities, and had every reason to expect a brilliant future. There was +nothing in his conduct or in his domestic circumstances to distinguish +him unfavourably from a multitude of gay livers and free-thinkers in the +corrupt Venice of that epoch. He had recently become eligible for the +post of ambassador at a foreign Court; and was already nominated as +Resident in Naples. This nomination required, however, to be confirmed +by the Grand Council; and circumstances, which need not be enlarged +upon, rendered the grant of money for his embassy a matter of debate.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +Unfortunately, Gratarol was a person of vain, imperious temper, puffed +up with the sense of his own merits, and incapable of correcting his +antipathies. His French tendencies—political, moral, social, +literary—fashionable for the most part—prejudiced the minds of +influential people in the highest departments of the government against +him. Finally, he had made an implacable<a name="page_009" id="page_009"></a> enemy of a great lady, who at +that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the +State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, +Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, +the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the +Grand Council.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Caterina's husband was popularly known as <i>Il +Padrone</i>, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind +affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued, like Gratarol, +with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to +manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her +own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but +for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and +indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She +vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so.</p> + +<p>Gozzi, meanwhile, had for the last five years or so assumed the position +of titular protector to a married actress called Teodora Ricci. He does +his best to persuade us that the <i>liaison</i> was one of friendship; but it +is clear that, upon whatever footing he stood toward the Ricci, he felt +a real affection for<a name="page_010" id="page_010"></a> this woman. For her he composed the dramatic works +of his second or Spanish manner. He attended her in public, introduced +her to the houses of his friends, and stood godfather to her second +child. We are, in fact, met here by an obscurity not unlike that which +involves the more famous connection of Congreve with Mrs. Bracegirdle. +Gratarol, pursuing the usual course of his amours, made the Ricci's +acquaintance, became her lover, compromised her reputation, and wounded +Gozzi so deeply in his sense of honour, that he broke off familiar +relations with the actress.</p> + +<p>Such was the position of affairs when Gozzi, who wrote assiduously for +the theatre, produced a drama modelled on a Spanish piece by Tirso da +Molina. It was called <i>Le Droghe d'Amore</i>, and contained a minor part, +which might well have passed either for a sketch of manners or for a +personal satire on Gratarol. Gozzi vehemently and persistently denied +that he had any intention of caricaturing his rival on the stage; and if +we trust what he relates about the composition of the play in question, +it is hardly possible that he can have had Gratarol in view when he +designed it. At the same time, we are bound to concede that the +offensive part of Don Adone fitted nicely on to Gratarol. Mme. Ricci, +smarting under Gozzi's withdrawal from her intimacy, took for granted +that a satire was intended. This woman's hysterical imagination turned a +mere <i>jeu d'esprit</i> of her old<a name="page_011" id="page_011"></a> friend into a formidable weapon of +attack against her new lover. Through her dangerous interference it +became an instrument, in the hands of other parties, to annoy Gozzi and +to overwhelm Gratarol. She began by poisoning the latter's mind with +gossiping insinuations. Gratarol's fretful vanity and sense of +self-importance made him boil with fury at the thought of being put upon +the stage. He moved heaven and earth to get the play suspended; +imprudently, as it turned out, because this step brought him face to +face with his real enemy, Mme. Tron. The manager of the theatre, to whom +Gozzi had given his comedy, took the manuscript at once to that lady. +This unscrupulous person now saw her opportunity for inflicting +vengeance upon Gratarol. She induced the manager to redistribute the +parts so that the <i>rle</i> of Don Adone should be assigned to an actor who +resembled Gratarol. She taught this man how to imitate Gratarol's dress +and gestures, and turned what may in fact have been an innocent +production of Gozzi's pen into a satire of the most insulting pungency. +At that point the <i>Droghe d'Amore</i> passed out of the control of those +whom it privately concerned.</p> + +<p>After this, Gratarol, driven mad by wounded self-conceit, floundered +from one imprudence into another. He applied to the highest tribunal of +the State, and laid an information against Gozzi. Whether the +Inquisitors did not choose to cancel the license already<a name="page_012" id="page_012"></a> granted for +the <i>Droghe d'Amore</i>, or whether they were influenced by Mme. Tron, does +not greatly signify. At any rate, the comedy continued to be acted. +Gratarol grew more and more irritated, uttered indignant invectives +against the tyrants of the State, and displayed a spirit of +insubordination which was perilous in Venice. Mme. Tron followed up her +advantage, and caused his appointment to the embassy at Naples to be +suspended. Thereupon Gratarol made up his mind to quit Venice. He knew +that this act would expose himself to outlawry and his family to ruin. A +civil servant of the Republic had no legal right to sever himself from +his engagements without permission. The mere fact of doing so caused him +to be treated as a contumacious rebel. But instead of assuming an +indifferent attitude, instead of biding his time in patience and letting +the storm blow over—which it certainly would have done, since a popular +reaction had already begun to operate in his favour—he departed for +Padua on the 11th of September 1777, proceeded to Ceneda, crossed the +frontier on the 25th, travelled to Munich, thence to Brunswick, and +finally to Stockholm, where he arrived in March. Meanwhile a +proclamation was issued against him at Venice. This curious document is +a relic from the savage days of the Middle Ages.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> It set a price upon +his head, offered rewards to any<a name="page_013" id="page_013"></a> one who should bring him alive to +Venice or should prove his assassination, cancelled all contracts made +by him during twelve months before the date of December 22, 1777, +confiscated his property during his lifetime, and ordered the whole of +it to be sold by public auction. The latter portions of the ban were +carried into effect. Everything which belonged to Gratarol was sold by +the Avogadori;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> and what seems really scandalous in this transaction +is that his furniture and jewels passed into the possession of an +Avogadore, Zorzi Angaran, while his landed estates fell to the share of +the Avvocato fiscale dell' Avogaderia, Galante, at the ridiculously low +sum of 2000 ducats.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Even his wife, who possessed a dowry of 25,000 +ducats, had to institute long and costly lawsuits for the recovery of +what belonged to her and formed no part of the outlaw's estate.</p> + +<p>Caterina Dolfin Tron, aided by her victim's rashness and impatience, had +succeeded in her plan to ruin him. But a retribution awaited this lady +in the form of an eloquent invective hurled by Gratarol<a name="page_014" id="page_014"></a> against his +enemies from Stockholm. The so-called <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i> was +printed there in 1779, and soon found its way to Venice. It contained a +detailed account of the events which had induced him to take flight, +arraigned his powerful enemies in terms of the bitterest sarcasm, +exposed their private foibles, and flashed a sharp light upon the +political corruption of the decadent Republic. Gozzi, of course, came in +for his share of abuse;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> but Gratarol's most telling shafts were +directed against Mme. Tron and the patrician ring which tyrannised over +Venice. It is believed that the scandal of this pamphlet was one reason +why Andrea Tron failed to be elected Doge in 1779.</p> + +<p>On perusing Gratarol's <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i>, Count Carlo Gozzi +determined to clear his own character and to lay his version of the +story before the public. With this view he composed a lengthy <i>Epistola +Confutatoria</i>, taking up each of Gratarol's points in detail, and +discussing his arguments with a strange mixture of acuteness, fury, and +contemptuous severity. He also conceived the notion of writing his +Memoirs, in order that the whole tenor of his life might be clearly +understood.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The Confutation and<a name="page_015" id="page_015"></a> the larger part of the Memoirs were +finished in 1780. But the Government decided that Gratarol's scandalous +pamphlet should be left unanswered. No Venetian pen was allowed to +notice it;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and Gozzi received information that the Inquisitors of +State would take the matter up if he attempted to show further fight. +The authorities acted with prudence in this matter. Nobody but Gozzi had +anything to gain by his refutation of Gratarol. With regard to the +corruption of Venice, the despotism of a few leading patricians, and the +back-stairs influence of Mme. Tron, Gratarol had only told the truth. He +had told it indeed emphatically, bitterly, and probably with some +exaggeration. Yet, unhappily, it was the truth. No amount of +apologetical rhetoric could have broken down his arguments. A public +discussion would have disturbed the public mind, and many dark secrets +and dirty jobs must certainly have come to light.</p> + +<p>Gozzi had to choose between the <i>piombi</i> or the sacrifice of his already +finished manuscripts. Of course he did not hesitate. Both Confutation +and Memoirs were thrown at once aside; and they might<a name="page_016" id="page_016"></a> even now have +been lying in some neglected corner of his ancient mansion had it not +been for the events which have to be related.</p> + +<p>Gratarol never returned to Venice. From Sweden he passed to England, +where he was hospitably received and befriended by members of our +aristocracy. Failing, however, to get any appointment in London, he +crossed to North America, travelled southwards to Brazil, and again left +that country in the train of some political adventurers. The party were +betrayed and robbed by the captain of their vessel, and cast ashore upon +the coast of Madagascar. Here Gratarol perished miserably in October +1785. His English friends sent information of this event to the Venetian +Government; but the evidence was judged insufficient, and the +restitution of his estates to two female cousins, who were his only +heirs, was refused until the fall of the Republic. When that took place, +Gratarol's friends immediately republished the <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i> +at Venice, and appealed to General Bonaparte for justice. This was in +1797.</p> + +<p>Gozzi, who had now nothing to fear from Inquisitors of State, and whose +reputation was again exposed to calumny, took his manuscripts from their +drawer, dusted them, and placed them in the hands of a publisher. In the +month of July 1797 he issued a manifesto to the Venetian public, +proclaiming his intention.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> "Availing myself of the beneficent +freedom<a name="page_017" id="page_017"></a> now permitted to the press, I have drawn my manuscript from the +tomb in which it has lain during the past seventeen years." He refers to +the recent republication of Gratarol's <i>Narrazione</i>, and declares that +this alone has forced him to resuscitate the memory of bygone quarrels +and offences. At the same time he pays a high tribute to Gratarol's +work. "This book, which appeared at Stockholm in 1779, and which I had +forgotten, without however forgetting the unjust tricks and jobs by +which its truly pitiable author was overwhelmed with ruin, contains a +great number of indubitable truths, and it is only to be regretted that +he dictated it under the influence of blind anger and venomous +resentment, instead of philosophic calm."</p> + +<p>It appears that at this time Gozzi did not intend to publish his +<i>Epistola Confutatoria</i>, written in 1780, and certainly dictated under +the influence of anger as hot, hatred as fierce, and resentment as +venomous as any which inspired his adversary. Indeed, it may here be +observed that Gratarol, though he calls Gozzi a hypocrite, a huckster, +an impostor, and so forth, is more measured in his language than the +latter. Yet, while Gozzi was passing the sheets of his Memoirs through +the press,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Gratarol's friends issued another book entitled <i>Last +Notices regarding Pietro Antonio<a name="page_018" id="page_018"></a> Gratarol, with documents relating to +his death</i>. In this they expressed a hope that Gozzi would not proceed +with the publication announced by his manifesto, and incautiously +printed a document alluding to Gozzi in the following by no means +flattering terms: "the infernal hypocrisy of a satirical liar."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +Furthermore, upon the 29th of August, having obtained a decree for the +restitution of Gratarol's property to his cousins, they published this +edict together with a preface, signed Widiman,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> in which they had the +folly to rake up the whole tedious story of Gratarol's wrongs again. +Once more Gozzi was annoyed with well-worn phrases like the following: +"The persecuting furies of a haughty woman, the talent and the passion +of a very famous author, made him (Gratarol), to the horror of all +right-minded people, become the object of scorn and ridicule upon a +public theatre prostituted to the uses of a vile and infamous buffoon." +This was more than Gozzi could stand. Firmly holding to the opinion that +it was only Gratarol's folly and Mme. Tron's vindictiveness which had +caused the scandal of <i>Le Droghe d'Amore</i>, he now resolved to publish +everything which could establish the truth of his own story. Therefore +he incorporated the <i>Epistola Confutatoria</i> in the third volume of the +Memoirs, and printed the notorious comedy for the first time at the end +of the book.<a name="page_019" id="page_019"></a> Meantime he invited Gratarol's friends to inspect the MS. +of this play, which he declared to be the sole and original autograph, +in order that they might convince themselves that his statements +regarding its composition were accurate. Having now made up his mind to +supplement the two parts of his book with a third, he carried down his +Memoirs to the date of March 1798, when they came to a sudden +termination. All three volumes bear the date 1797; but their pagination +and some other trifling matters lead me to believe that the first two +were printed in that year, the third in the following spring.</p> + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>The circumstances under which Gozzi's <i>Memorie</i> were produced +sufficiently account for their peculiar form, or rather formlessness. He +wrote hurriedly, with a polemical object in view, and paid no attention +to style. This he confesses in the manifesto.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> "I have not striven to +express myself with the exactitude, the raciness, and the elegances of +our language." As a literary performance, this autobiography is +remarkably unequal, a thing of rags and patches, some of which are of +fine silk or velvet, others of rough sackcloth. Their main defect as<a name="page_020" id="page_020"></a> +regards composition is prolixity. Gozzi does not know when to stop, and +he uses three phrases where one would have sufficed. He is also very +incoherent, spinning interminable periodic sentences, which sometimes do +not hang together grammatically or logically. While insisting so +magisterially upon the purity of Italian diction, he indulges in uncouth +Lombardisms, and slips at times into Venetian dialect. We must remember +that he grew up practically without education. He acquired his +knowledge, cultivated his taste, and formed his style by reading without +discrimination and by writing without fixed purpose. This accounts for +the digressive, irregular, improvisatory manner of his prose. It has its +own merits, however, of vehemence, a copious vocabulary, dramatic vigour +in narration, and occasionally graphic descriptions.</p> + +<p>It may be asked why he called his Memoirs "useless." Partly no doubt out +of an ironical self-consciousness, which marked his peculiar species of +humour; but partly also as a slap in the face to his readers. He tells +them candidly in one of his prefaces that he considers the moral +reflections with which the book is filled to be both sound and valuable, +but that the false science of the age is certain to render them of no +effect.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> In like manner, when he asserts that the Memoirs were +published out of humility, this is partly true and partly false. Gozzi<a name="page_021" id="page_021"></a> +piqued himself on being what I may call a Stoic-Democritean philosopher. +It was his pride to bear everything with endurance and to laugh at +everything, himself and his own concerns included, with contemptuous +indulgence. Yet he deserved the stinging epigram which Goldoni uttered +on his character: "A smile upon his lips and venom in his heart." His +light-heartedness and risibility were often assumed to hide bitter +resentment or boiling indignation. No man had less of genuine humility +than Gozzi, or more of the "pride which apes humility." <i>Umilt</i> upon +his title-page has much the same effect as <i>Umilt</i> in huge Gothic +letters beneath the coronets and crests of the Borromeo family above +their haughty palace-portals. As a single instance, I might select the +supercilious condescension with which he invariably treats his friends +the actors. They are <i>canaille</i>, to be consorted with by a gentleman +merely for amusement. His repeated boast that he gave his literary work +away, and his sneers at his brother Gasparo for making money, do not +savour of a really humble spirit. At the bottom of all he says about his +foolhardiness in Dalmatia there lurks a proud self-satisfaction.</p> + +<p>To what extent was he truthful? That is a difficult question to answer. +I believe that in the main he tried to be, and was, veracious throughout +the Memoirs; but that he considered a certain economy of statement, a +certain evasion of direct facts, and a<a name="page_022" id="page_022"></a> certain forensic chicanery to be +permissible in openly controversial composition. This renders his +account of the Gratarol episode somewhat suspicious, particularly when +we remember that he was writing with the <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i> before +his eyes. It is clear that he wished to conceal his real age, that he +falsified the date of his departure for Dalmatia, and that he somewhat +misstated the nature of his intimacy with Mme. Tron. In each of these +cases it was his object to put himself in as favourable a light as +possible face to face with Gratarol, first by making it appear that he +was ten years or so younger than his actual age when he began the +liaison with Mme. Ricci, and secondly by slurring over the fact of a +partial collusion with Gratarol's deadly enemy. It would take up too +much space to expand the arguments by which I have arrived at these +conclusions; but the notes to my translation will make each point clear +in its proper place.</p> + +<p>On the whole, Gozzi strikes me as rather inclined to the vices of too +open speech and cynicism than to those of dissimulation and hypocrisy. +He can hardly have been a lovable man. His language about his mother +proves that. She treated him ill, it is true, and gave him but a scanty +share of her maternal kindness. Yet this does not justify the freezing +sarcasms with which he refers to her. They are no doubt humorous, but +their humour is of a savage kind. Toward the rest of his family he<a name="page_023" id="page_023"></a> +behaved with fairness, candour, and uprightness. He devoted himself to +the task of repairing their ruined fortunes, and discharged the duties +of solicitor and estate-agent for all of them through a long series of +years. He bore their bad tempers and frivolities with good-humoured +contempt, and did not even resent being satirised by Gasparo in a comedy +upon the public stage of Venice. Gasparo, his weak but genial elder +brother, he truly loved, although, with characteristic acidity, he +always lets us understand what a poor creature he was. Women had not the +privilege of being highly appreciated by Gozzi. He treats them in all +his writings as inferior creatures, and exposes their frailties with +ruthless severity. Either he only knew the worst side of the fair sex, +or was incapable of seeing the best. To men he shows himself more just +and sympathetic. Though he made but few intimate friends, these remained +firmly attached to him till death.</p> + +<p>We must divest our minds of the false conception of Gozzi's character +with which Paul de Musset hoaxed the French critics and Vernon Lee. He +was no dramatic dreamer and abstract visionary, but a keen hard-headed +man of business, caustic in speech and stubborn in act, adhering +tenaciously to his opinions and his rights, acidly and sardonically +humorous, eccentric, but fully aware of his eccentricities, and apt to +use them as the material of<a name="page_024" id="page_024"></a> burlesque humour. Nobody would have laughed +more loudly at De Musset's fancy picture of his fairy-haunted palace +than Gozzi would have done, or have more keenly relished the joke of +turning his practical self into a sprite-tormented idealist.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>The Memoirs lie now before English readers, and Carlo Gozzi will be +known to them for the first time—certainly for the first time as he +really was. It is not necessary, therefore, to spin out this +introduction. Otherwise, it would have been interesting to compare the +portraits painted of themselves by those four eminent Italian +contemporaries—Goldoni, Gozzi, Casanova, and Alfieri. Four characters +more diverse in quality, and more admirably placed upon the literary +canvas, could hardly, I think, be found in any other nation or in any +other century.<a name="page_025" id="page_025"></a></p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_025_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_025_sml.jpg" width="361" height="550" alt="THE +ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY" title="ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">THE<br /> +ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY</span> +</p> + +<h2><a name="Part_II" id="Part_II"></a><span class="eng">Part II.</span><br /><br /> +<small><i>THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY.</i></small></h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">1. A brief sketch of the origins of written comedy during the +Italian Renaissance—Its dependence upon Latin models.—2. Further +description of the so-called <i>Commedia Erudita</i>.—3. Emergence of +dialectical literature in Italy during the period of the Catholic +reaction—Improvised comedy begins to supersede the written drama +of the Renaissance.—4. Farces at Naples and Florence—The Sienese +company of I Rozzi—The Paduan Beolco—The four principal +masks—Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella.—5. Relation +of modern impromptu comedy to the old Latin comedy of mimes and +exodia—the Osci Ludi, Fescennini Verses, Satura, &c.—In what +sense the modern masks are descended from those antique +elements—Infusion of fixed characters adopted from the plays of +Plautus and Terence.—6. Lombard, Neapolitan, Florentine +ingredients in the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>—Lasca's carnival song of +the Zanni and Magnifichi about the year 1550.—7. A review of the +principal masks and their subordinate species, as these were +finally developed—Modifications introduced into the masks, or +fixed parts, of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, by men of genius who +supported them.—8. The plots and subjects of improvised +comedies—Buffoonery and indecency.—9. Description of the scenari +or plays in outline which were acted impromptu by the comic +companies—Method of concerting a comedy and distributing its +parts—The function of the Capo Comico.—10. Qualifications of a +good impromptu comedian—Stock repertories, commonplaces, speeches +to be introduced on set occasions, soliloquies, &c.—The Lazzi or +sallies of buffoonery and byeplay—Tendency to degeneration in this +improvisatory art of comedy.—11. European celebrity of the Italian +comedians—In Paris, Spain, Portugal, London—References to<a name="page_026" id="page_026"></a> +Italian companies in England during the sixteenth century.—12. The +decadence of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>—Moral and artistic germs of +dissolution—Goldoni's severe criticism—Garzoni's description of +strolling actors, and their association with quacks, mountebanks, +and clowns.</p></div> + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HE</small> history of the Italian theatre is closely connected with the history +of the Classical Revival.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> The literary drama—as distinguished from +performances by tumblers, mimes, and masquers, from sacred plays and +from plebeian farces—began with the representation of Latin tragedies +and comedies. At the close of the fifteenth century it was usual to +crown courtly festivals with scenic recitations of favourite pieces by +Terence and Plautus. Rome vied with Florence, Venice with Naples, +Ferrara with Urbino, in the magnificence of these spectacles. At a time +when humanistic erudition formed the main preoccupation of society, and +when to be illiterate was unfashionable, princes and great prelates +afforded their guests the refined amusement of seeing the <i>Menœchmi</i> +or <i>Amphitryon</i>, the <i>Eunuchus</i> or <i>Miles Gloriosus</i>, on their private +stages. At the same time, obeying the decorative instinct of the +Renaissance, they set these jewels of classical antiquity in arabesques +of the richest and most fantastic workmanship. Allegorical masques, +dances with musical accompaniment and<a name="page_027" id="page_027"></a> pantomimic interludes, were +interposed between each of the five acts, enhancing the simplicity of +the Roman plays and gratifying the vulgar by an appeal to their senses. +These hybrid spectacles, eminently characteristic of Italian taste in +the age which produced them, contained the germs of several dramatic +species, afterwards known as the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, the pastoral play, +the ballet, and the opera. Meanwhile Italian literature, stimulated and +powerfully influenced by humanism, acquired independence; and the +comedies of Plautus and Terence were translated and performed in the +vernacular. During the last years of the fifteenth century these +translations began to take the place of the originals upon the temporary +stages of princely patrons. As yet there were no public theatres.</p> + +<p>Such, briefly sketched, was the origin of Italian comedy; and the +specific character of the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, or written comedy of the +sixteenth century, may be ascribed to the peculiar conditions out of +which it grew. The genius of men like Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Aretino +never wholly freed the form they handled from subservience to Latin +models. It remained, in spite of their close imitation of contemporary +life and their audacious realism, a sub-species of that dramatic art +which the Romans adapted to their uses from the new comedy of the Attic +stage.<a name="page_028" id="page_028"></a></p> + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>The first attempts at national Italian comedy were the <i>Calandra</i> of +Bibbiena and Ariosto's <i>Cassaria</i>. The former appeared at Urbino between +1503 and 1508; the latter, in its earlier prose form, at Ferrara in +1508. During the next fifty years a large number of comedies were +produced by a great variety of authors. Men of letters like Machiavelli, +Cecchi, Dolce, and Il Lasca, men of fashion like Lorenzino de'Medici, +philosophers like Bruno, free lances of the pen like Aretino and Doni, +artisans like Gelli, devoted themselves to this species of composition. +The type remained fixed, although some notable exceptions, especially in +the case of Aretino's plays, arrest attention. Taking the intrigue of +Latin comedy for their ground material, these playwrights adapted it to +conditions of Italian society. The avaricious father, the cunning +courtesan, the parasite, the slave merchant, the swaggering soldier, the +young spendthrift in love with a virgin of unknown parentage, the astute +serving-man, the faithless wife, the pedant, the cynical priest or +friar, the vicious old man in his dotage, the reckless adventurer, the +pirate, the country-girl exposed to the corruptions of the town; such +are the stock characters of this dramatic hybrid. Everywhere we find the +plots of Terence or<a name="page_029" id="page_029"></a> of Plautus interwoven with a Novella in the style +of Boccaccio. As in Latin comedy, the knot is frequently loosed by +unexpected discoveries of lost relatives; and the magnificent realism +with which contemporary manners are depicted, clashes too often with the +stiff and antiquated <i>ossatura</i>, or dramatic mechanism, to which the +authors felt themselves obliged by fashion to adhere. From hints in +prologues and prefaces we are able to discern that playwrights chafed +against these traditional limitations of the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>.</p> + +<p>Aretino, as I have just observed, broke the fetters of convention, and +presented scenes of pure Italian life; but his plays were too hastily +composed or ill-constructed to start a new style. The originality of +Machiavelli in his <i>Mandragora</i> was not of the sort to encourage a +departure from the beaten track. Like many other masterpieces of Italian +art, the <i>Mandragora</i> stands forth by itself, a sole inimitable monument +of genius; peculiar and personal; accomplished by one single act of +vigorous expression. Before a really national species of written comedy +emerged into distinctness from the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, the literary +impulse of the Renaissance began to decline, and the Italians in the +middle of the sixteenth century entered upon that new phase of +intellectual evolution which is marked by the Tridentine Council and the +subsequent metamorphosis of Catholicism.<a name="page_030" id="page_030"></a></p> + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>One prominent feature of this transitional epoch was the reappearance of +popular forms of art and literature in Italy. The Italian provinces had +retained their local characteristics with undiminished vitality through +centuries of civic conflict and the dominance of humanistic culture. Now +that this culture was decaying, each district and each city contributed +some novelty of its own local vintage. Things which had been overgrown +and screened by scholarship put forth their native vigour. A rich jungle +of dialectical poetry sprouted from long-hidden roots. Men of birth and +breeding began to pique themselves upon the use of their provincial +language. A polite public, tired perhaps of too much polish, yielded to +the charm of realism. The habits of the peasantry and artisans were +transmitted to writing by educated pens. Scenic representations of a +simple character, which had formed the delight of villagers from time +immemorial, claimed the attention of learned coteries. Farces and +morris-dances became fashionable. The buffoons and mimes and masquers, +against whom the Church had fulminated in the Middle Ages, and whom the +scholars of the Revival looked down upon with condescending indulgence, +now lifted up their heads. Suddenly, by an imperceptible process of +development,<a name="page_031" id="page_031"></a> which it is impossible to trace in all its stages, Italy +found herself in possession of what looked like a novel type of comedy. +This improvised comedy, or <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, as we must henceforth +call it, was not really new.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> On the contrary, the elements out of +which it sprang were among the oldest, most vital, most national +possessions of the race. Yet it was due to the peculiar conditions of +the last years of the Renaissance, to the reaction against exhausted +forms of artificial literature, and to the fresh interest in dialects, +that this hitherto neglected plaything of the proletariate assumed a +rare and bizarre shape of beauty. The Italians, still capable of +exquisite artistic creation, had just now lost their liking for the +<i>Commedia Erudita</i>. Public theatres were beginning to be built. These +naturally introduced a more popular tone into the drama. Spectacles were +adapted to the taste of a mixed audience. Improvised comedy succeeded to +the heritage of written comedy. This younger daughter of Thalia invested +the motley characters and masks of her invention with the cast-off +mantle of her elder sister. She entered the sphere of the fine arts by +continuing the tradition of Italian comedy upon an altered system, and +with novel elements of humour.<a name="page_032" id="page_032"></a></p> + +<p>To talk of younger and elder with reference to these two types of comedy +involves some confusion of ideas. Nothing is more significant of Italy +than the antiquity and complexity of all the forms of art which +flourished there. The <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, as we have seen, was derived +from Latin, and through Latin from Athenian sources. The <i>Commedia dell' +Arte</i> had an even longer pedigree than this. In a powerfully mimetic +race like the Italians, the rudiments out of which it was constructed +were, as we shall see, indigenous. Before Rome rose upon the Tiber, the +comedy of masks and improvisation had, in some shape or other, amused +the people. The fall of the Empire, the formation of the Christian +polity, the centuries of the Middle Ages, the culture of the +Renaissance, did not extirpate it. Though we know but little of its +history during that long period, there is every reason to believe that +the elements which gave it individuality survived all changes. To this +topic I shall have to return. For the present, it is enough to point out +that the blending of the vulgar improvised comedy of vintage festivals +and market-places with what remained of polite written comedy after the +middle of the sixteenth century, determined the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, +considered as a specific and strongly marked type of dramatic art. In +this sense, and in this sense only, it may be denominated the younger +sister of the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>.<a name="page_033" id="page_033"></a></p> + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>Farces formed a popular species of entertainment all through the years +of the Renaissance. At Naples they had the name of <i>Coviole</i>, at +Florence of <i>Farse</i>. The playwright Cecchi has left us several specimens +of the written <i>Farsa</i>, together with a general description of the type, +which proves it to have been not unlike the earliest of our own romantic +plays.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> A company formed itself at Siena, called I Rozzi, for the +representation of rustic farces. Composed of artisans and mechanics, +this company acquired such celebrity that Leo X. invited them in 1517 to +the Vatican; and their influence must be reckoned in the evolution of +the new Italian drama. A Paduan actor and playwright also deserves +mention here. Angelo Beolco, born in 1502, made himself known upon the +stage as Il Ruzzante, or the Frolic. He wrote rustic comedies with +simple plots, distinguished by their realistic humour and their strong +incisive pathos; and created the ideal character of the peasant or Il +Villano. Beolco formed a school in the Venetian provinces, and died in +1542.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a><a name="page_034" id="page_034"></a></p> + +<p>Such are some of the traces we possess of a dramatic type in growth, +which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained predominance +in Italy. It is not possible, however, for the critical historian to +explain the several steps whereby the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> arrived at +maturity. Like Harlequin, bounding from the sides and capering before +the footlights, this new species makes a sudden apparition. We find it +in full energy, possessing the public theatres and claiming the +attention of all classes, at the close of the cinque cento. Described +briefly, this comedy trusted to the improvisatory talent of trained +actors and made use of masks. Companies were formed under the direction +of a <i>Capocomico</i>, who took his name from one of the masks. Their stock +in trade was a collection of plays in outline, <i>scenari</i> or <i>plats</i> (to +use an old English phrase),<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> which the troupe studied under the +direction of their leader. The development of the intrigue by dialogue +and action was left to the native wit of the several players, and the +performance varied according to the personal qualities of the members +who composed the company. The masks or fixed characters were derived +from all provinces of Italy, and represented types peculiar to each +district.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Venice contributed Pantalone; Bologna<a name="page_035" id="page_035"></a> lent the Dottore; +Bergamo supplied the two Zanni—Arlecchino and Brighella; Naples gave +Pulcinella, Tartaglia, and the Captain. Tuscany made up the characters +of the comedy with the soubrette and lovers. These Tuscan personages +were unmasked and spoke Florentine Italian.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> The masks reproduced +their native dialects.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> Like Harlequin in his coat of many colours, +the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> wore motley. Displacing the literary drama, +which reduced contemporary life in Italy to the conventional standard of +classical Rome or Athens, this new drama brought into salience local +oddities and notes of provincial eccentricity. The masks were permanent; +yet they admitted of genial handling, since these parts in the comedy +were rarely written, and every fresh sustainer of a mask had the +opportunity of impressing his own individuality upon the type he +represented.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> In this way, as will soon appear, each<a name="page_036" id="page_036"></a> mask multiplied +and made a hundred. Plasticity and adaptability were the essential +qualities of a dramatic species which relied on improvisation, and had +only the unwritten code of immemorial tradition.</p> + +<h3>V.</h3> + +<p>At this point it is necessary to inquire into the relation between the +modern Italian <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> and the old Italian comedy of mimes +and <i>exodia</i>. Much has been written, with meagre and dubious results, +about the origins of the Latin drama. One thing, however, appears +certain, after shaking the dust from ponderous tomes of erudition. The +Romans, like the modern Italians, had their <i>Commedia Erudita</i> and +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. Of the two species, in classical times as +afterwards, the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> was indigenous and popular, the +<i>Commedia Erudita</i> derived and literary. The latter, whether it affected +Greek manners, as in the so-called<a name="page_037" id="page_037"></a> <i>Fabula palliata</i>, or Roman manners, +as in the so-called <i>Fabula togata</i>, remained in the hands of scholarly +authors and serious actors (<i>histriones</i>). The former had its natural +origin in popular habits, and only at a comparatively late period +submitted to regular artistic treatment. It was represented by masked +buffoons, <i>Sanniones</i>, <i>Planipedes</i>, <i>Stupidi</i>, and so forth. We hear of +<i>Osci ludi</i> and <i>Fescennini versus</i>, the former pointing to Campania and +the vintage, the latter to Etruria and village sports.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> The <i>Satura</i>, +which seems to have been an offshoot from the <i>Fescennina</i>, corresponded +pretty closely to what we now call farce, and eventually developed into +the <i>exodia</i> or <i>hors d'œuvre</i> of the later Roman theatre.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Out of +these indigenous elements, but with special relation to the <i>Osci ludi</i>, +grew a literary form of comedy which obtained the name of <i>Atellana</i>. It +is supposed to have originated in the Oscan city of Atella, close to +Acerra, Pulcinella's birthplace. In all these native forms of drama, +dialects were spoken and masks were used; and this is a main point of +connection between them and the modern Italian <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. +Another feature in common is the rank realism and open obscenity which +marked the humours of both species.<a name="page_038" id="page_038"></a></p> + +<p>Among the ancient Roman masks four types are known to us by +name—<i>Maccus</i>, a Protean fool or Harlequin; <i>Bucco</i>, a garrulous clown +or blockhead; <i>Pappus</i>, a miserly, amorous, befooled old man; +<i>Dossenus</i>, a moralising charlatan. We also hear of the <i>Stupidus</i> and +<i>Morio, Manducus</i>, a notable glutton, and the <i>Sanniones</i>, so called +possibly from their grin.</p> + +<p>Further familiarity with the modern <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> will make it +clear how tempting it is to conjecture a direct transmission of these +Roman masks from ancient to modern times. Maccus and Bucco bear a strong +resemblance to the two Zanni. The very word Zanni seems to suggest +Sanniones; although it is probably derived from the Bergamasque name for +a varlet—Jack; Zanni being a contraction of Giovanni. Pappus looks +uncommonly like Pantalone, and Dossenus like the Dottore. The <i>Stupidus</i> +has an air of our clown or Mezzettino or Il Villano. Manducus might be +any glutton with a huge pair of champing jaws. Yet nothing could be more +uncritical than to assume that the Italian masks of the sixteenth +century <small>A.D.</small> boasted an uninterrupted descent from the Roman masks of +the fifth century <small>B.C.</small> That assumption closes our eyes to a far more +interesting aspect of the phenomenon. The fact seems to be that ancient +and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the +same fashion. The peasants of modern Tuscany indulged in their +Fescennine jibes, stained themselves with wine-lees,<a name="page_039" id="page_039"></a> and jumped through +bonfires, like their most remote ancestors.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> The grape-gatherers of +modern Nola and Capua ridiculed their neighbours with obscene jests, and +pranked themselves in travesty, like the earliest Oscans or the first +colonists from Hellas.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Out of the same persistent habits emerged the +same kind of native drama; and just as the Atellan of ancient Rome +eventually brought the comedy of the proletariate upon the public stage +in cities, so at the close of the sixteenth century the <i>Commedia dell' +Arte</i> worked up the rudiments of popular farce and satire into a new +form which delighted Europe for two hundred years.</p> + +<p>Many details derived from the <i>Commedia Erudita</i> rendered the +resemblance between the modern improvised drama and the vernacular +comedy of ancient Rome superficially striking. The conventional +characters of Plautus and Terence, the <i>senex</i>, the <i>servus</i>, the +<i>meretrix</i>, the <i>mango</i>, the <i>ancilla</i>, the <i>miles gloriosus</i>, and the +<i>parasitus</i> reappeared. In truth, this peculiar and highly complex +hybrid combined strains of manifold varieties. Upon the wild and native +briar, which in former times produced the <i>Osci ludi</i>, <i>Fescennini<a name="page_040" id="page_040"></a> +versus</i>, and <i>Satura</i>, and which went on living its own natural life +beneath the drums and tramplings of so many conquests, was now grafted +the cultivated rose of the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>. This, in its turn, +contained elements of the <i>Fabula palliata and togata</i>. The result was a +species eminently characteristic of sixteenth-century Italy, and similar +to the Atellan farces of the Romans.</p> + +<h3>VI.</h3> + +<p>The <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> yields, upon analysis, three chief component +factors. The four leading masks, Arlecchino and Brighella, Pantalone and +Il Dottore, came respectively from Bergamo, Venice, and Bologna. These +were the contribution of Northern Italy. Pulcinella, Tartaglia, +Coviello, and the Captain came from Naples. They were subsidiary +characters of great importance, contributed by the South. The lovers, +<i>primo amoroso</i> and <i>prima amorosa</i>, upon whose adventures the intrigue +turned, and the <i>Servetta</i>, came from Tuscany, or rather from the +tradition of written comedy, which adhered to the literary Italian +tongue. If priority in time is to be sought for any of these factors, we +must look to Lombardy. The four masks which were indispensable to this +dramatic species, and which survived all its vicissitudes, had an +undoubted Lombardo-Venetian origin. The Neapolitan<a name="page_041" id="page_041"></a> masks were +superadded, and the Tuscan intrigue formed little more than a +conventional framework for the humours of the fixed characters. Scarcity +of documents makes it impossible to speak with absolute authority on any +of these points; yet we have good reason to credit the tradition which +connects the origin of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> with Northern Italy.</p> + +<p>A carnival song, composed by Anton-Francesco Grazzini, called Il Lasca, +at Florence some time before the year 1559, throws light upon the +subject.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> It is entitled "Canto di Zanni e Magnifichi." The Magnifico +corresponded to Pantalone; and I need not repeat that the Zanni were +best known as Arlecchino and Brighella. Lasca makes it clear in this +poem that the Lombard masks were strangers to Tuscany, and that they +performed comedies upon a public stage:<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"<i>Facendo il Bergamasco e il Veneziano,</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>N'andiamo in ogni parte,</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>E'l recitar commedie la nostra arte.</i>"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_042" id="page_042"></a></p> + +<p>He also shows how the buffoon parts in these plays were interwoven with +the intrigue of the regular drama:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"E Zanni tutti siamo,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Recitatori eccellenti e perfetti;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Gli altri strioni eletti,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Amanti, Donne, Romiti e Soldati,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Alla stanza per guardia son restati."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Furthermore, he lets us know that acting was combined with dancing and +mountebank performances, and drops the information that women in +Florence were not allowed to attend the theatres where Zanni played:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Commedie nuove abbiam composte in guisa</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Che quando recitar le sentirete,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Morrete delle risa,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tanto son belle, giocose, e facete;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">E dopo ancor vedrete</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Una danza ballar sopra la scena,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Di varj e nuovi giuochi tutta piena."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It is therefore obvious that, at the middle of the sixteenth century, +the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> had already taken shape and earned popularity. +The companies who introduced it into Tuscany were recognised as hailing +from Bergamo and Venice. Before another fifty years had passed away, +this species absorbed the attention of Italy, adopted elements<a name="page_043" id="page_043"></a> from +every district, and settled down into a definite form of comedy, which +lasted until the period of Goldoni's reform of the stage. It culminated +about the middle of the seventeenth century, and maintained a high +degree of excellence during the first half of the eighteenth. But when +Goldoni attacked it, and Gozzi rose in its defence, the type was already +on the wane. Depending, as any kind of improvised drama must necessarily +do, upon the personal talents of successive actors, the <i>Commedia dell' +Arte</i> died of inanition when theatrical genius was diverted into other +channels.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Originality of humour then yielded to conventional +buffoonery. The masks became more and more stereotyped, more and more +insipid. Were it not for Gozzi's <i>Fiabe</i>, we should hardly be able to +form a conception of the part they actually played for two centuries in +Europe.</p> + +<h3>VII.</h3> + +<p>Let us watch the carnival procession of the masks defile before us. We +may imagine that they are crossing the stage of a theatre, while we sit +idle in our stalls. First comes Pantalone, the worthy Venetian merchant, +good-hearted, shrewd, and canny, yet preserving a certain child-like +simplicity, which<a name="page_044" id="page_044"></a> long acquaintance with the world has not +contaminated. His full title is Pantalone de'Bisognosi. Sometimes he is +called Il Magnifico, sometimes Babilonio; and old tradition gives a +singular derivation for his name of Pantalone. Instead of having +anything to do with the Saint called Pantaleone, he ought really to be +known as Piantaleone, or Plant-the-lion. In fact, he is one of those +patriotic <i>cittadini</i> who, partly out of zeal for S. Mark and partly +with a view to commerce, were reputed to hoist flags with the Venetian +lion waving to the breeze on every rock and barren headland of Levantine +waters.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, +socks and slippers of bright red. A black domino conceals half of his +face. He is sometimes a bachelor, but more frequently a widower with one +daughter, who engrosses all his time and care. Easy-going indulgence for +the foibles of his neighbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the +fundamental note of his character. But as time goes on, he degenerates, +dotes, yields to senile vices. At last he becomes the shuffling +slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantomimes.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a><a name="page_045" id="page_045"></a></p> + +<p>After Pantaloon walks the Doctor in his Bologna gown; a hideous black +mask covers his whole face, smudged with red patches, like skin-disease +or wine-stains, on the cheeks. He is Graziano, Baloardo Graziano, or +Prudentio, and has a kind of bastard brother called the Dottor Balanzon +Lombardo. Boasting his D.C.L. or M.D. or LL.D. degree from the august +University, Graziano makes a vast parade of learning. <i>Bononia docet</i> is +always on his lips or in his thoughts; yet he cannot open his mouth +without letting fall some palpable absurdity. Law jargon, quibbles, +quiddities, preposterous syllogisms, fragments of distorted Latin, +misapplied quotations from the Pandects, mingle with metaphysics, +astrology, and physical chimras about the spheres and elements and +humours, in his talk. He is a walking caricature of learning, and the +low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes +of erudition. To sustain this mask with spirit taxed the genius of a +comedian. He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber +always ready, to blunder with wit and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the +whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases.</p> + +<p>Pantalone and the Doctor were only half-masks; that is to say, they held +something in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, +and took a decided part in the action of the play. As the <i>Commedia +dell' Arte</i> coalesced with the <i>Commedia<a name="page_046" id="page_046"></a> Erudita</i>, they approached more +and more nearly to the type of the <i>senes</i> in Latin comedy. The present +generation has seen them both in Rossini's <i>Barbiere di Siviglia</i>.</p> + +<p>Next come the two Zanni. These are thorough-going masks; twin-brothers +from the country-side of Bergamo, strongly contrasted in their +characters, yet holding certain points in common.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> First comes +Arlecchino, the eldest and most typical of Italian masks, and the one +who has preserved its outlines to the present day. His party-coloured, +tight-fitting suit reproduces the rags and patches of a rustic servant. +On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare's or +rabbit's scut. He is always on the move, light-headed, gluttonous, gay, +pliable, credulous, ingenuously nave and silly. The glittering +ubiquitous Harlequin of our pantomimes transforms him into a mute +ballet-dancer; but when the type was created, Arlecchino spoke and +amused the audience as much by his absurdities and uncouth jokes as by +his perpetual mobility.</p> + +<p>Time would fail to tell of the infinite modifications which this type +assumed under the hands of successive able actors. Truffaldino, the +delight of Venice,<a name="page_047" id="page_047"></a> Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Mestolino, Bagattino, +Guazzetto, Stoppino, Burattino, and the idiotic Mezzettino, were all +descended from this parent stock.</p> + +<p>Side by side with Arlecchino goes his more astute and knavish brother +Brighella. He is also Bergamasque of the purest breed. But he holds +something from the Davus and Geta of Latin comedy. He is the roguish, +clever, cowardly, pimping servant of the young spendthrift, who helps +his master to deceive his father and seduce his neighbour's wife or +daughter. Brighella wears a loose white shirt trimmed with green, and +wide white trousers. On his head is a conical hat, plumed with red +feathers, which yields place in course of time to the white cap of our +clowns. His mask is brown, cut off above the upper lip, over which a +pair of short moustachios bristle. Like Arlecchino, Brighella gave birth +to a great variety of assimilated types. Unscrupulous Pedrolino, +Beltramo, Bagolino, Frontino, Sganarello, Mascarillo, Figaro, Finocchio, +Fantino, Gradellino, Traccagnino are his more or less legitimate +offspring. He enters French comedy under the names of Scapin, +Sganarelle, and Frontin. He creates a character of opera with Figaro. +Unlike Arlecchino, who becomes at last a silent ballet-dancer, Brighella +grows more vocal and distinct as time advances, until, in the plays of +Molire and Beaumarchais, he is hardly distinguishable from a <i>servus</i> +of Latin comedy modernised. Indeed, just as Pantalone and Il Dottore +approximate<a name="page_048" id="page_048"></a> to the <i>senes</i>, so Arlecchino and Brighella shade off into +the <i>servi</i>; and all their countless progeny are variations on the theme +of stupid or roguish varlets.</p> + +<p>The four main masks, with their attendant groups of subordinates, have +passed before us; but a multitude whom no man can number and no words +can describe press on from behind. Perhaps the first place should be +given to the <i>Servetta</i>. Her names are legion. Colombina, the sweetheart +of Arlecchino and Pulcinella, Rosetta, Florentine Pasquella, Argentina, +Diamantina, Venetian Smeraldina, Saporita, Carmosina; under all her +titles, and with every shade of character ascribed to her by the free +handling of successive actresses, she remains the sprightly, witty, +shifty pendant to the Zanni.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> Not a true mask, however; for the +Servetta wears her own face and form, only assuming the costume and +dialect of the region she prefers to hail from. Like her lover +Arlecchino, Colombina underwent a long series of transformations before +she became the fairy-like being who flits behind the footlights of our +theatres on winter evenings. And, like Brighella, written comedy blended +her with the fixed characters of drama under the name of the soubrette. +Susanna in the <i>Nozze di Figaro</i> is a familiar example of Colombina in +her latest dramatic development.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_048_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_048_sml.jpg" width="335" height="550" alt="COLOMBINA (1683) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" title="COLOMBINA (1683) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">COLOMBINA (1683)<br /> +</span><span class="caption2">Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> +</p> + +<p>The <i>Servette</i> in their many-coloured <i>Contadina</i><a name="page_049" id="page_049"></a> dresses have +passed by. Close upon their heels press forward a chattering grimacing +group from Naples. Pulcinella leads the way, for he must still keep +Colombina in sight. In him, far more than in Arlecchino, the genius of a +nation lives incarnate; and this he partly owes to a poor artisan of +Naples, Francesco Cerlone, who fixed the type with inimitable humour in +the last century.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> Pulcinella has had whole volumes written on his +pedigree. Some authors find him depicted on the walls of Pompeii; others +trace him in statuettes and masks of antiquity. The one point which +seems to be certain is, that he made his appearance on the public stage +toward the end of the sixteenth century, wearing the white shirt and +breeches of a rustic from Acerra. His black mask, long nose, humpback, +protruding stomach, dagger and truncheon, were later additions. Whatever +connection there may be between Pulcinella and the masks of classical +antiquity—and I have already attempted to show how I think that +connection ought to be conceived<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>—he was, at his dbut, regarded as +the type of a Campanian villager, established at Naples in the quality +of servant. Pulcinella is thus the Southern analogue of Bergamasque +Brighella and Arlecchino. Gradually he absorbed the humours of the +Neapolitan proletariate, and became the burlesque<a name="page_050" id="page_050"></a> mirror of their +manners and ways of thinking. Time's whirligig has made him the hero of +our puppet-shows, and he enjoys cosmopolitan celebrity under the name of +Punch.</p> + +<p>Coviello goes along with him, a Calabrian mask, which was sustained with +applause by Salvator Rosa at Rome. He belongs to the buffoon class, and +is distinguished by his mandoline and ballad-singing. After him walks +Tartaglia, afflicted with an incurable stammer, which renders his +magisterial airs and graces ludicrous. Tartaglia has something in him of +the Doctor; but this part lent itself to great varieties of treatment. +We shall see what play Gozzi made with it.</p> + +<p>But now our ears are deafened with a clash of arms, rumbling of drums, +pistol-shots, and shouted execrations. A fantastic extravagant troop of +soldiers march upon the stage. At their head goes the swaggering +Capitano. He is a Spaniard, armed to the teeth, loaded with outlandish +weapons, twirling huge moustachios, frowning, swearing, boasting, +quarrelling, thieving, wenching, and shrinking into corners when he +meets a man of courage. Sometimes he affects the melancholy grandeur of +Don Quixote. Sometimes he leans to the garrulity of Bobadil. Sometimes +he assumes the serious ferocity of a brigand chief or the haughty +punctiliousness of a hidalgo. Still he remains at bottom the caricature +of professional soldiers, as they plagued and infested<a name="page_051" id="page_051"></a> Italy under the +Spanish domination. His language soars into the wildest hyperboles and +euphuisms. He cannot speak without new-coined oaths and frothy metaphors +and vaunts that shake heaven, earth, and sea. But the slightest trial of +his valour breaks the bubble, and he cringes like a whipped hound.</p> + +<p>The Capitano talked a mixture of Neapolitan and Spanish. His part, which +required to be sustained at a high pitch of burlesque upon a single note +of bragging insolence, was not unfrequently written, and none of these +fixed characters assumed more stereotyped outlines. The <i>Miles +Gloriosus</i> of Latin comedy reappeared in him, and helped to mould the +modern type. The ramifications of this character were innumerable. A +celebrated actor, Francesco Andreini (born at Pistoja in 1548), helped +to create its form. He called himself "Capitan Spavento da Valle +Inferna." Then followed Ariararche, Diacatolicon, Leucopigo and +Melampigo (white and black buttocks), Coccodrillo, Matamoros, +Scaramuccia (created by Tiberio Fiorelli of Naples), Fracassa, +Rinoceronte, Giangiurgolo, Bombardon, Meo Squaquara, Spezzaferro, +Terremoto. The list might be prolonged until the page was filled. Every +variety of the burlesque son of Mars, from a delicate Adonis to a +fire-eater, obtained impersonation from one or other able sustainer of +the part. And a host of minor bastard braggarts, like the Trasteverine +Meo Patacco, perpetuated<a name="page_052" id="page_052"></a> the fun long after the great Capitano had +quitted the public stage. Some of these types survive in literature. +Scaramouche is known to us, and Gautier has immortalised Fracasse.</p> + +<p>In the rabble which follows this noisy band of warriors we discern +several buffoons of the long-robed tribe—Neapolitan Pancrazio, +Biscegliese, and Cucuzzietto, Sienese Cassandro and Roman +Cassandrino—who have more or less affinity with the Dottore. Il Pedante +walks apart, and attracts attention by his Maccaronic Latin and +eccentric morals. He has the poems of Fidenzio Glottogrysio in his +hands, which he presses on the attention of a smooth-chinned pupil.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> +Don Fastidio distinguishes himself from the vulgar herd by his enormous +nose, and lantern jaws, and long lean figure, and preposterous citations +from the law reports of Naples. Cavicchio tells silly tales and sings +his Norcian songs. Il Desvedo burlesques the "dude" of Parma, and +Narcisino plays the "masher" of Bologna to the life. Burattino comes +upon the stage in a score of disguises, now gardener, now shopkeeper, +now valet, always the fool and knave combined, impostor and imposed +on.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The Notajo,<a name="page_053" id="page_053"></a> with huge spectacles upon his nose and swan's quill +stuck behind his spreading ears, murmuring a nasal drawl, and tripping +himself up at every step in his long skirts, leads up the rear. +Rope-dancers, ballerini, Pasquarielli, Pierrots, conclude the show, +dancing and pirouetting after their more vocal comrades.</p> + +<p>It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to do justice to the manifold +and motley crowd of the Italian masks. Even Callot, whose burin has +bequeathed to us so many salient portraits of the types he saw in +action, leaves the imagination cold. As I have remarked above, the +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> combined fixity of outline in the masks with +illimitable plasticity in the details communicated by the genius and +personality of their sustainers. The mask, the traditional character, +was something which a comedian assumed; but he dealt with it as he found +it suited to his physical and mental qualities. Each distinguished actor +re-created the part he represented. The improvised extempore rule of the +game allowed him boundless license. Therefore, while the masks +persisted, they varied with the men who wore them. Arlecchino became +Truffaldino in the hands of Antonio Sacchi. The Capitano appeared as +Scaramuccia in the person of Tiberio Fiorelli. Parts crossed and +intercrossed. Pulcinella borrowed something from Arlecchino; Brighella +patched himself with rags from Coviello's wardrobe. The dialect and +local humours of South Italy were engrafted on types<a name="page_054" id="page_054"></a> conventionalised +in Lombard provinces. Tuscany took them up, and added her own biting +wit. As in a kaleidoscope, the constituent fragments of the changeful +whole assumed shapes and forms of infinite variety by clever shifting of +each particle. Each company established for the performance of this +comedy gave a fresh nuance to the combinations which the show permitted. +In each district it adopted a new local colour. The mask was recognised; +the man who wore it was expected to remodel it upon himself. Folk came +to the theatres, less to see the masks, than to see how an Andreini or a +D'Arbes or a Costantini or a Riccoboni would sustain them. We who have +lost the men, and lost well-nigh the memory of their performance, cannot +hope to reconstruct the comedy in its entirety. Histrionic art always +and everywhere suffers from the ephemeral conditions under which it has +to be externalised. But this disadvantage is crushing in the case of an +art which was left to the spontaneous creativeness of its great +representatives.</p> + +<h3>VIII.</h3> + +<p>Intrigue of a simple kind formed the staple of these improvised +comedies. Anything like refined studies of character or the development +of calculated motives was rendered impossible by the conditions<a name="page_055" id="page_055"></a> under +which they were presented to the public. An artist pleased or displeased +by the exhibition of his personality in masquerade, and his creation of +a shade of difference for some known type. The plot, whether borrowed +from the written drama, from Latin plays, or from the gossip of the +market-place, was always of an amorous complexion. Fathers, lovers, +guardians, varlets, priests, and panders played their parts in it. The +action proceeded by means of disguises, sleeping-potions, changelings, +pirates, sudden recognitions of lost relatives, phantoms, demoniacal +possessions, burlesque exorcisms, shipwrecks, sacks of cities, bandits, +kidnapped children. It is singular in what a narrow circle the machinery +revolves. Unlike our own Romantic drama, the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> made +but few excursions into the regions of history, fable, mythology, and +fancy. Its scene was an Italian piazza; and though we hear of thrilling +adventures by land and sea, in forest and on fell, these are only used +to loose a knot or to elucidate the transformation of some personage. We +ought not to marvel at the limitations of this drama. They are explained +by that close connection, on which I have already insisted, between the +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> and the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>. The new comedy +supplied little but its masks; and these masks, as we have seen, were +types of bourgeois and rustic characters, capable of infinite +modification within prescribed boundaries. The end in view was not the +delectation<a name="page_056" id="page_056"></a> of the audience by a scenic drama, but the caricature and +travesty of life as it appeared to every one. That caricature, executed +with inexhaustible finesse and piquant sallies of fresh personality, +accommodated itself to the antiquated framework of plots as old as +Plautus.</p> + +<p>If the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> lacked fancy and invention in its +ground-themes, this defect was compensated by audacious realism and +Gargantuan humour. The indecency of these plays cannot be described. Men +and women appeared naked on the stage. Unmentionable vices were boldly +paraded. Buffoonery of the vilest description enhanced the finest +strokes of burlesque sarcasm. Actors who created types which made the +spirit of a nation live in effigy, condescended to tricks unworthy of a +Yahoo. We have to accept the species, not as a branch of the legitimate +drama, but as a carnival masquerade, in which humanity ran riot, jeering +at its own indignities and foibles.</p> + +<h3>IX.</h3> + +<p>The stock in trade of an acting company consisted of some scores of +plots in outline. Gozzi, writing in the eighteenth century, calculates +that there may have been from three hundred to four hundred dramatic +situations.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> We possess a certain number<a name="page_057" id="page_057"></a> of these scenari, as they +were technically called Flaminio Scala published a collection of fifty +in his <i>Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative</i> (Venetia, 1611). The titles +of about one hundred others survive from the archives of Basilio +Locatelli and Domenico Biancolelli, incorporated in eighteenth-century +histories of the Italian stage. The records of the theatres where +Italians played at Paris supply titles of another set, and a few have +been disinterred from miscellaneous sources. Quite recently a complete +collection of well-formed <i>scenari</i> was given to the press by Signor +Adolfo Bartoli from a Magliabecchian MS. of the last century.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> It +contains twenty-two pieces.</p> + +<p>Comparative study of these <i>scenari</i> shows that the whole comedy was +planned out, divided into acts and scenes, the parts of the several +personages described in prose, their entrances and exits indicated, and +what they had to do laid down in detail. The execution was left to the +actors; and it is difficult to form a correct conception of the acted +play from the dry bones of its <i>ossatura.</i> "Only one thing afflicts me," +said our Marston in the preface to his <i>Malcontent</i>: "to think that +scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to +be read." And again, in his preface to the <i>Fawne</i>, "Comedies are writ +to be spoken, not read; remember the life of these things consists in +action." If that was true of pieces composed in dialogue by an English +playwright<a name="page_058" id="page_058"></a> of the Elizabethan age, how far more true is it of the +skeletons of comedies, which avowedly owed their force and spirit to +extemporaneous talent! Reading them, we feel that we are viewing the +machine of stakes and irons which a sculptor sets up before he begins to +mould the figure of an athlete or a goddess in plastic clay.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>The <i>scenario</i>, like the <i>plat</i> described for us by Malone and Collier, +was hung up behind the stage. Every actor referred to it while the play +went forward, refreshing his memory with what he had to represent, and +attending to his entrances. But before the curtain lifted a previous +process had been gone through. This was called <i>Concertare il soggetto</i>. +The company met in their green-room. What followed may be told in the +words of a seventeenth-century writer on the technique of the <i>Commedia +dell' Arte</i>.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> "The Choregus, who rules and guides the troupe by his +ability and experience, has to plan the subject, to show how the action +shall be conducted, the dialogues concluded, and new sallies of wit or +humour introduced. It is not merely his business to read the plot aloud, +but also to set forth the personages with their names and qualities, to +explain<a name="page_059" id="page_059"></a> the drama, describe localities, and suggest extemporaneous +additions. For instance, he shall begin by saying: 'The comedy we have +to represent is so-and-so; the personages such-and-such; the houses are +on this side and on that.' Then he will unfold the argument. He will +impress upon his comrades the necessity of bearing well in mind the +place where they are supposed to be, the names of people and the +business they are engaged in, so that they shall not confound Rome with +Naples, or say that they have come from Spain when they are bound from +Germany. A father must not forget his son's name, nor a lover his +lady's. It is also most important that the houses in which the action +has to take place should be accurately known. To knock at the wrong +door, or to take refuge in the home of your enemy, would spoil all. +Afterwards, the planner of the subject must indicate occasions suited to +the sallies of the several characters. 'Here a piece of buffoonery is +right. A metaphor, or sarcasm, or hyperbole, or innuendo, would make a +good effect there.' In fact, he has to show each actor how to play his +part to best advantage in the circumstances of the piece. Then he must +look to preventing inconvenient entrances and exits, providing that the +stage be not left empty, and indicating proper ways of bringing scenes +to their conclusion. After the Choregus has read this lecture to the +troupe, they will meet and sketch the comedy in outline. Then<a name="page_060" id="page_060"></a> they have +the opportunity of bringing their own talents forward, and combining new +effects. Yet, at such rehearsals, they must all be mindful to maintain +the outlines of the subject, not to exceed their rles, nor yet to trust +their recollection of similar plays performed under different +conditions. The piece has each time to be produced afresh by the +concerted action of the players who will bring it on the boards."</p> + +<p>The Choregus was usually the <i>Capocomico</i> or the first actor and manager +of the company. He impressed his comrades with a certain unity of tone, +brought out the talents of promising comedians, enlarged one part, +curtailed another, and squared the piece to be performed with the +capacities he could control. "When a new play has to be given," says +another writer on this subject,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> "the first actor calls the troupe +together in the morning. He reads them out the plot, and explains every +detail of the intrigue. In short, he acts the whole piece before them, +points out to each player what his special business requires, indicates +the customary sallies of wit and traits of humour, and shows how the +several parts and talents of the actors can be best combined into a +striking work of scenic art."<a name="page_061" id="page_061"></a></p> + +<h3>X.</h3> + +<p>More than natural cleverness and native humour went to the making of a +good comedian. To begin with, he had to be a man of sense, tact, and +obliging disposition. "When we speak of a good comedian in the Italian +style," says Gherardi,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> "we mean a man of solid parts, who depends on +imagination more than memory in his performance, and composes everything +he says upon the spot; he is one who knows how to play up to his +companions on the stage, combining his words and gestures so well with +theirs that he responds at a touch to their hints, and who is so ready +with a repartee or movement that the audience believes the scene to have +been concerted beforehand." In truth, fertility of fancy, quickness of +intelligence, a brain well stocked with varied learning, facility of +utterance, command of language, and imperturbable presence of mind, were +required in a first-rate improvisatory actor. When he undertook to +sustain one of the masks, he had first of all to live himself into the +character. If, for instance, he chose the Dottore, nothing might escape +his lips upon the stage out of harmony with that character, nothing +which could remind the<a name="page_062" id="page_062"></a> audience that anybody but a pedant from Bologna +was speaking. His every gesture had to contribute to the same effect. +The second nature of his part had so to supersede his own instincts, +that no sudden accidents, the maladroitness of a comrade, an unexpected +turn in the dialogue, or any of the inconveniences to which +unpremeditated acting was liable, should throw him off his guard.</p> + +<p>It was further necessary that he should stock his mind with what the +actors called the <i>doti</i> of a play, and with a repertory of what they +called <i>generici.</i><a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> The <i>doti</i> or dowry of a comedy consisted of +soliloquies, narratives, dissertations, and studied passages of +rhetoric, which were not left to improvisation. These existed in +manuscript, or were composed for the occasion. They had to be used at +decisive points of the action, and formed fixed pegs on which to hang +the dialogue. The <i>generici</i> or common-places were sententious maxims, +descriptions, outpourings of emotion, humorous and fanciful diatribes, +declarations of passion, love-laments, ravings, reproaches, declamatory +outbursts, which could be employed <i>ad libitum</i> whenever the situation +rendered them appropriate. Each mask had its own stock of common topics, +suited to the personage who used them. A consummate artist displayed his +ability by improving<a name="page_063" id="page_063"></a> on these, introducing fresh points and features, +and adapting them to his own conception of the part. They had to become +incorporated with the ideal self he represented, and not to betray their +origin in study. The tradition of the drama and the daily practice of +rehearsing together made each member of a company know when such +premeditated pieces were to be expected. They did not therefore break +the general style of the performance. Habit enabled the actors to lead +up to them and pass away from them upon the stream of impromptu +dialogue.</p> + +<p>Another highly important branch of the art was what were called the +<i>lazzi</i>. "We give the name of <i>lazzi</i>," says Riccoboni in his history of +the theatre, "to those sallies and bits of by-play with which Harlequin +and the other masks interrupt a scene in progress—it may be by +demonstrations of astonishment or fright, or by humorous extravagances +alien to the matter in hand—after which, however, the action has to be +renewed upon its previous lines." It was precisely in these <i>lazzi</i> that +a comic actor displayed his personal originality to best advantage; but +it required great tact and sense of the dramatic situation to render +them natural, appropriate, and to keep them within bound and measure.</p> + +<p>We have now seen what was expected of a first-rate artist, and +understand to what extent the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> depended upon study +and premeditation. Long familiarity with their own repertory<a name="page_064" id="page_064"></a> +undoubtedly reduced the improvisatory element to a minimum in the case +of troupes who were accustomed to play together for years. Yet they +strove to gain novelty by inventing fresh situations, giving unexpected +turns to dialogue, and varying their action on successive nights. The +best companies were those in whose hands a hackneyed comedy was always +plastic, and who kept their improvisatory powers in exercise.</p> + +<p>The defect of the art was that it tended to become stereotyped. The +Zanni repeated their jokes. The Dottore used the same malapropisms over +and over again. The <i>primo amoroso</i> served up the <i>crambe decies +repetita</i> of his monologues. The <i>lazzi</i> degenerated into unmeaning +horse-play and buffooneries, which had nothing to do with the action of +the piece. Nature was forgotten. Every actor over-played his part, +ranted, raged, turned caricature into burlesque, spoke in and out of +season, exaggerated his gestures, diction, gait, and declamation, until +a pack of madmen seemed to have run wild upon the stage. To control +these tendencies towards a false and artificial style of presentation, +which formed the inherent vice of improvisatory acting, was the duty of +an able Capocomico. It could only be done by forcing the members of the +troupe to study and reflect on what they had to represent, by compelling +them to subordinate their several parts to the general effect, and by +raising the tone of their intelligence.<a name="page_065" id="page_065"></a> Thus there was the greatest +difference between a well-conducted company, intent on the perfection of +their art, and a wandering rabble, satisfied with appealing to the +lowest instincts of the proletariate. The value of these remarks will be +apparent after reading what Gozzi has to say about Antonio Sacchi's +company and the causes of its dissolution.</p> + +<h3>XI.</h3> + +<p>There is no doubt that during their flourishing period the companies of +the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> afforded the rarest amusement, not only to the +vulgar, but also to refined and cultivated audiences throughout Europe. +They were especially appreciated at Paris. From the year 1572, when the +<i>Confidenti</i> and <i>Gelosi</i> made their first appearance, to the close of +the eighteenth century, Italian troupes at the Htel de Bourbon, the +Htel de Bourgogne, the Palais Royal, and the Opera Comique, formed the +delight of the French court and the Parisian public. Under various +names, <i>Uniti</i>, <i>Fedeli</i>, <i>Barbieri's</i>, <i>Bianchi's</i>, and Cardinal +Mazarin's men, actors who had learned their trade in Italy continued to +seek larger profits and a wider audience in that capital. "The way in +which Italian comedians compose, study, and represent their plays," says +a French critic in the year<a name="page_066" id="page_066"></a> 1716,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> "is quite beyond the powers of +language to describe. I might venture to call it inconceivable; with +such a wealth of new and agreeable sallies and of unpremeditated +dialogue do they adorn their scenes." Many anecdotes regarding these +Italian players in their French homes have been transmitted to us, with +detailed descriptions of their qualities. I will confine myself to two +extracts.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> One is taken from Constantini's Life of Tiberio Fiorelli +(1608-1694), the famous Scaramouche. "He was one of the most perfect +mimes who have appeared in these last centuries. I call him mime +advisedly, because he played his part by action more than speaking. +Scaramouche was not satisfied with making what he represented +intelligible by speech; he translated everything into movements of his +face and body, adapting his gestures to his words and his words to his +gestures with incomparable art. Everything became vocal in this man, his +feet, his hands, his head; the slightest attitude he took had meaning +and significance." Gherardi adds that "he could keep an audience in fits +of laughter for a long quarter of an hour without uttering a word. A +great prince, who saw him act at Rome, uttered these words, +'<i>Scaramuccia does not talk, and yet he says everything</i>,' and at the +end of the performance presented him with his coach and six horses." Of<a name="page_067" id="page_067"></a> +Tommaso Vicentini, called Il Tommasino, who made his dbut at Paris as +Harlequin in 1716, we read: "His suppleness, his natural gaiety, his +graceful airs of rustic simplicity, made him a first-rate Harlequin. But +nature had also made him an excellent actor in the more extended sense +of that phrase. True, nave, original, pathetic, amid the laughter he +excited by his buffooneries, a single trait, a single reflection which +became a sentiment by his manner of expressing it, drew tears from the +audience, and surprised the author of the piece no less than the public, +and that too in spite of the mask, which seemed intended to inspire as +much fear as merriment. Often, when one had begun to laugh at his way of +simulating grief or pain, one finished by being melted with the +tenderness of the emotion which came from the bottom of his heart."</p> + +<p>Italian companies delighted the court of Spain during the reign of +Philip II., and were welcomed in Portugal. We find them in Bavaria, at +Dresden, and in other parts of Germany. Nor were they entirely unknown +in England. Collier, in his "History of the English Drama," speaks of a +certain Drousiano, who played with his troupe in London during the +winter of 1577-78.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> This was probably Drusiano Martelli. The +extempore plays of the Italians are mentioned by Whetstone, Kyd, Jonson, +and Brome; and it seems probable that the plat-comedies,<a name="page_068" id="page_068"></a> ascribed to +the famous fools Tarleton and Wilson, were modelled on Italian <i>Commedie +a Soggetto</i>. Kyd, in the <i>Spanish Tragedy</i>, shows that the method of +studying an improvised play was well understood. Hieronymo, who wishes +to have a certain subject mounted in a hurry, says to his confidant—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">That in one hour's meditation</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">They would perform anything in action."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Lorenzo replies—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="right"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"I have seen the like </span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">In Paris, among the French tragedians."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The full history of Italian companies in foreign lands still remains to +be written; but I have said enough in this place to prove their wide +popularity.</p> + +<p>In its native country, the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> was long regarded as +the special glory and the unique product of Italian dramatic genius. +Gozzi, though he wrote as its apologist, only expressed common opinion +when he said:<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> "I reckon improvised comedy among the particular +distinctions of our nation. I look upon it as quite a different species +from the written and premeditated drama; nor have I the shameless +audacity to stigmatise with the title of an ignorant rabble those noble +and cultivated persons whom I see with my own eyes following and<a name="page_069" id="page_069"></a> +enjoying a play of this description. I esteem the able comedians who +sustain the masks, far higher than those improvisatory poets, who, +without uttering anything to the purpose, excite astonishment in crowds +of gaping listeners."</p> + +<h3>XII.</h3> + +<p>This essay would be incomplete if I failed to describe the decadence of +the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, and the various inconveniences which attended +its performance by incompetent or wilfully scurrilous actors. Without +such a sequel to the history of its development, Goldoni's reform of the +theatre, and Gozzi's energetic attempts to sustain the old style by +works of a peculiar and hybrid character, will not be intelligible.</p> + +<p>In its higher manifestations, this comedy, as we have seen, allied +itself to fine art by singularly delicate links of connection. More than +in other kinds of drama, where actors make themselves the mouthpieces of +poets whose creations they incarnate, the performers of improvised +comedy had to be complete and finished works of living art in their own +persons. So long as they were conscious of their mission, and earnestly +aspired to the highest points within the range and scope of their +achievement, they supplied a scenic travesty of actual life unequalled +for its<a name="page_070" id="page_070"></a> freshness and its truth to nature—sparkling with salient +traits of character, seasoned with mirthful sarcasm, and pungent by its +satire of contemporary manners. But the roots of this unique and +singular species of the drama were grounded in a deep sub-soil of vulgar +instincts and dishonest proclivities. It clung to the tradition of +mountebanks and mimes, acrobats and jongleurs, circus-clowns and +rope-dancers. The rare flower of racy humour and refined parody, which +fascinated Paris in the age of Louis XIV., sprang from a stock +discredited and outcast through fifteen centuries of Christian teaching. +The Church in council and in synod had anathematised the ancestors of +Andreini and Fiorelli, Sacchi and Darbes. Burial with the sanctities of +religion was forbidden them, as it is forbidden to suicides. They were +reckoned among the enemies of social order and civil discipline. The +State, in its sumptuary laws, forbade their entrance into decent houses, +relegating them to dark corners of the city, where they lurked with +thieves and prostitutes. Saintly pastors of the flock, like Carlo +Borrommeo, carried on a crusade against these corruptors of public +morals.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> Even in Venice, the city of their adoption—the sea-Sodom, +as Byron called it, of carnival licentiousness, the mart of pleasure for +all Europe, the modern Corinth—an Inquisitor of State scourged them +with these words<a name="page_071" id="page_071"></a> of stinging reprobation:<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> "Bear in mind, you +actors, that you are folk beneath the ban of blessed God's almighty +hatred, and that the prince allows you only as pasture for the common +people, who take pleasure in your ribaldries." With such a record of +contempt and disesteem and outlawry, the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> was +always sinking back into the slime from which it rose. Unhappily, the +same eyes which delighted in its glory during the years when genius shed +brilliant lustre on its noblest representatives, had only to look on +this side or on that, and a crowd of shameless merry-andrews, the scum +and dregs of the histrionic profession, made the evidences of its +inherent immorality only too apparent.</p> + +<p>I have already touched upon the scurrilities and obscenities which were +common in improvised comedy. To enlarge upon the topic is not necessary. +Everybody can perceive that a drama relying in great part upon +buffoonery, restrained by no obligation to literary precedents, +dependent on the favour of mixed audiences, among whom women scarcely +showed their faces, and varying at each performance with the whims and +humours of masked actors, who were <i>ex hypothesi</i> beyond the pale of +social decency, may have allowed itself licenses which were well-nigh +intolerable.</p> + +<p>I have already described the tendencies toward<a name="page_072" id="page_072"></a> exaggerative emphasis, +stilted declamation, ill-concerted action, impertinent extravaganza, and +wearisome repetition of exhausted motives, to which the species was +peculiarly liable. There is no need to expand those observations. They +justify the severe remarks of Goldoni in the preface to his theatrical +works, which, as these have a direct bearing upon the subject of my next +essay, I will summarise here:<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a>—"The comic theatre of Italy for more +than a century past had so degenerated that it became a disgusting +object for general abhorrence. You saw nothing on public stages but +indecent harlequinades, dirty and scandalous intrigue, foul jests, +immodest loves. Plots were badly constructed, and worse carried out in +action, without order, without propriety of manners. If translations of +French or Spanish pieces were given, the improvisatory comedians +mutilated and deformed them beyond recognition. The same fate befell the +plays of Plautus and Terence, and of our elder Italian dramatists. +People of culture, nay, the common folk, cried out against these +miserable travesties. Every one was wearied with the insipidities and +conventionalities of an art upon the wane. You knew what Harlequin or +Pantaloon was going to say before he opened his lips."</p> + +<p>Readers of Gozzi's Memoirs, to which these pages<a name="page_073" id="page_073"></a> serve as a prolusion, +have means of judging, on the testimony of a very partial critic and +avowedly Quixotical defender of the old <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, to what +extent the system of the theatre in Italy was faulty. Students of +Casanova's Memoirs will remember the dark picture of the actress whom he +met at Ancona, with her epicene brood of children and of changelings +exposed to indiscriminate contamination.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> The lighter pages of +Goldoni's Memoirs reveal a spectacle less revolting, but far from +edifying, of a comic troupe in its passage from one Italian capital to +another.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> Leaving these accessible sources of information regarding +the social status of the dramatic profession in Italy untouched, I will +close this chapter with some extracts from a well-nigh forgotten +book—Garzoni's <i>Piazza Universale</i>. One of the most frequent charges +brought against the acting companies was that they dressed their women +up in men's clothes, and sent them about the public squares of cities to +attract the rabble. "No sooner have they made their entrance," says +Garzoni, "than the drum beats to let all the world know that the players +are arrived. The first lady of the troupe, decked out like a man, with a +sword in her right hand, goes round, inviting the folk to a comedy or +tragedy or pastoral in the precincts of the Pellegrino.<a name="page_074" id="page_074"></a><a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> The +populace, inquisitive by nature and eager for any new thing, hurries to +take places. Paying their pennies down, they crowd into a hall, where a +temporary stage has been erected, the scenes scrawled with charcoal as +chance and want of sense will have it. An orchestra of tongs and bones, +like the braying of asses or the caterwauling of cats in February, +performs the overture. Then comes a prologue in the manner of a +quack-doctor's oration to his gulls. The piece opens; you behold a +Magnifico, who is not worth the quarter of a farthing; a Zanni, who +straddles like a goose; a Gratiano, who squirts his words out from a +clyster-pipe; a lover, who acts like a narcotic on the senses of his +neighbours; a Spanish captain, with nothing but a couple of musty oaths +in his whole repertory; a stupid and foul-mouthed bawd; a pedant, who +trips up in Tuscan phrases at each turn; a Burattino, whose whole humour +consists in taking off and putting on his greasy cap; a prima donna, who +goes yawning, drawling, twaddling through her mumbled part, with eyes +well open to the chance of selling her overblown charms in quite another +market than the theatre. The show is seasoned with loathsome +buffooneries and interludes which ought to send their performers to the +galleys." Enlarging on this theme, Garzoni proceeds as follows: "These +profane comedians<a name="page_075" id="page_075"></a> pervert the noble use of their ancient art by +presenting nothing which is not openly disreputable and scandalous. The +filth which falls continually from their lips infects themselves and +their profession with the foulest infamy. They are less civil than +donkeys in their action, no better than pimps and ruffians in their +gestures, equal to public prostitutes in their immodesty of speech. +Knavery and lewdness inspire all their motions. In everything they stink +of impudicity and villainy. When occasions offer for veiling grossness +under a cloak of decorum, they do not take these, but pique themselves +on bringing beastliness to sight by barefaced bawdry and undisguised +indecency."</p> + +<p>One of the degradations to which these comedians willingly submitted was +that of playing jackals to quack-doctors on the squares of the Italian +cities. Goldoni in his Memoirs<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> speaks of a certain Buonafede Vitali +who "maintained at his own cost a troupe of actors. It was their +business to collect the money thrown to them in pocket-handkerchiefs, +and to return the handkerchiefs filled with pots of ointment and boxes +of pills to the purchasers, after which they performed plays in three +acts with a certain kind of pomp under the light of wax candles." In +order to form a conception of the scenes which were enacted on an +Italian piazza crowded with charlatans, mountebanks and players, we must +have recourse<a name="page_076" id="page_076"></a> again to Garzoni. It is almost impossible to understand +or to reproduce his language at the present day. Sarcastic sallies, +which were doubtless piquant in their time, but to which the key has now +been lost, abundance of ephemeral slang and racy innuendo, allusions to +forgotten people and obsolete customs, topical jests, the coarsest +Lombard patois seasoned with the salt of euphuistic rhetoric, all +combine to render his motley descriptions untranslatable. Garzoni and +writers of his class still lack the pains which Casaubon bestowed on +Athenus, and perhaps their matter is not worthy of such vast +expenditure of industry. Yet the pith may be seized; and following our +garrulous cicerone, we stroll out on the piazza. "In one corner of it +you will see our swaggering Fortunato and his boon companion Fritata +spinning yarns, and keeping the whole populace agape into the night with +stories, songs, improvisations, dialogues; quarrelling, making-up, dying +of laughter, coming to blows again, bustling about their stage, settling +the dispute by fisticuffs and violent language, and lastly handing round +the cap to reap the harvest of the pennies they have earned. In another +corner, Burattino sets up his bray of brass. You would think that the +hangman had got hold of you, to hear him yell into your ears. He carries +a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole +world gathers around him. The people crowd, the groundlings jostle, men +of quality press<a name="page_077" id="page_077"></a> forward to the platform. When the burlesque prologue +comes to a conclusion, Burattino's master puts in his appearance. It is +our old friend the Doctor, with his Bolognese jargon, long-winded +citations, insipid tomfooleries, and absurd pretensions to omniscience. +The droning of this arrant humbug drives as many of the audience away as +the zany's merry pranks and roguish whiskers and apish tricks have drawn +together. Meanwhile the curtains of the booth open, and the Tuscan comes +forth with his tumbling girl. He begins some silly story in the +Florentine tongue, during which the girl draws her circle and puts +herself in position, straddling with arms and legs abroad, flinging her +body backwards to pick up a piece of money with her mouth from two +crossed swords, and tickling the greasy varlets of the market-place by +the exhibition of her lascivious graces. Not far away, you may see the +Milanese quack, dressed like a noble gentleman, velvet cap on head and +white Guelf feathers waving to the wind. He is telling his man Gradello +some story of his hapless love. The groom cuts indecent jokes and gibes +in the background; then swaggers forward, twirls his moustachios, vows +to uphold his master's cause against all rivals, and bristles like an +enraged bloodhound; but, on a sudden, feigning to see foemen near, he +drops his arms, knocks his knees together, befouls his breeches on the +stage, and lets himself be soundly drubbed. When that interlude<a name="page_078" id="page_078"></a> is +over, Gradello acts another part. He is a blind man squalling out a +ditty, and thrumming on a puppy in his lap instead of a theorbo. The +climax of all this buffoonery is a panegyric of some famous pills, which +lasts an hour or two, and leaves the charlatan wrangling over cents and +farthings with his swiftly dwindling audience. Toward evening the crowd +of quacks and blind musicians and acrobats thicken. Here is Zan della +Vigna with his performing monkey; there Catullo and his guitar; in +another corner the Mantuan merry-andrew, dressed up like a zany, Zottino +singing an ode to the pox, and the pretty Sicilian rope-dancer. +Tamburino spins eggs on a stick; the Neapolitan capers about with +brimming bowls of water on his pate; and Maestro Paolo da Arezzo makes +his solemn entry with a waving banner, on which you see St. Paul, +holding a huge falchion in one hand, while the rest of the field is +painted over with twining hissing serpents. The mountebank clears his +throat and relates his fabulous pedigree. St. Paul was his great +ancestor, and ever since that accident upon the island of Malta, all the +family have possessed miraculous powers over the snaky tribe. Hereupon +boxes are opened, and horrid vipers, water-snakes, and adders are drawn +forth to the terror of the bystanders. 'Do not be afraid,' continues +Maestro Paolo; 'I have delivered your fields and woods from these +plagues and their poison.' The trembling country-lads creep up and buy a +box<a name="page_079" id="page_079"></a> of powders from the condescending hands of the impostor. After the +sight of all those asps and crocodiles, stuffed basilisks, tarantulas, +and Indian armadilloes, there is not one of them would venture out into +the country lanes without a prophylactic. Meanwhile, Settecervelli has +laid his mantle on the pavement, and is making his little bitch go +through her tricks, bark at the worst-dressed fellow in the circle, howl +at the name of the Grand Turk, dance for joy in honour of her master's +sweetheart, and carry round the cap for pennies in her mouth. The +Parmesan is not to be outdone by these performances; he has his +nanny-goat, whose antics are at least as sight-worthy as the puppy's. +The Turkish athlete climbs the campanile, lets his brawny chest be +hammered like an anvil, dislodges a stout pillar by the strength of his +huge arms and shoulders, and wins a bag of coppers heavy enough to pay +his expenses to the holy town of Mecca. The baptized Jew wails in a +lamentable tone of voice, <i>goi, goi, badanai, badanai</i>, till he has +attracted a crowd round him; then he tells the romance of his conversion +to the true faith, which leaves a strong impression on our mind that if +he has become a sincere Christian, which is more than doubtful, he has +certainly not lost the arts of an accomplished cheat. Soon the whole +piazza is swarming with folk of this sort; pills and powders, for all +the ills that flesh is heir to, are being hawked about; men are eating +fire, and swallowing tow, and<a name="page_080" id="page_080"></a> pulling yards of twine from their +throats, and washing their faces in molten lead, and finding cards in +the pockets of their unsuspecting neighbours; every conceivable article, +which ingenuity can force on the attention of simpletons, is flirted in +one's face, and vaunted with a deafening din by hoarse and squeaking +salesmen."</p> + +<p>Garzoni has carried us somewhat astray from the main subject of this +essay. Yet it is not amiss to have gained a full conception of the +medium out of which the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i> emerged, and into which it +always tended to relapse, as well as of the various low and ignoble +branches of industry with which the players were associated.<a name="page_081" id="page_081"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="Part_III" id="Part_III"></a> +<span class="eng">Part III.</span></h2> + +<p class="hang"><small><i>GOZZI'S DRAMATIC FABLES, OR FIABE TEATRALI; TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF +HISTORY OF HIS QUARREL WITH GOLDONI AND CHIARI.</i></small></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">1. Venice in the last century—The Liberals and +Conservatives—Invasion of French theories in politics, philosophy, +and social manners—Prevalence of French taste in +literature—Conservative resistance to this revolutionary state of +things.—2. Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi—Popularity of French +sentimental dramas—The Academy of the Granelleschi founded in 1747 +by literary Conservatives, to restore a taste for pure Italian +style, and to promote the study of the Tuscan classics—Carlo Gozzi +belongs to this Academy, and becomes one of its chief +supporters—Goldoni, and the qualities of his genius—His +perception that nature has to be closely followed in the drama.—3. +A sketch of Goldoni's career, and of the steps whereby he became a +professional playwright—Settles at Venice in 1747 as poet to +Medebac's company—Goldoni's Venetian comedies, comedies in the +French manner, melodramas—Goldoni's rivalry with the Abb +Chiari—Chiari's bombastic pseudo-Pindaric style—Martellian +verses.—4. Indignation of the Granelleschi with both Goldoni and +Chiari—Carlo Gozzi confounds them in one common hatred as +corruptors of the language—His particular dislike for Goldoni, who +had declared war against the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, of which Gozzi +professed himself the champion—Publication of Gozzi's satirical +poem <i>La Tartana degli Influssi</i> in 1756—Return of Sacchi's +company of impromptu comedians to Venice in that year—Vigorous +warfare carried on by the Granelleschi against both Goldoni and +Chiari during the next four years—Gozzi first shows his dramatic +faculty in a severe Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled <i>Il +Teatro Comico</i>—Chiari makes up his differences with Goldoni, and +both playwrights now join forces against their conservative +antagonists—Chiari defies the Granelleschi to produce a +comedy—<a name="page_082" id="page_082"></a>Goldoni appeals from their criticisms to the public, who +idolise him—Gozzi determines to write a satirical play upon a +nursery-tale, which shall prove no less popular than Goldoni's +comedies—The <i>Amore delle Tre Melarancie</i> appears in January +1761—The true character of Carlo Gozzi's dramatic fables—It is a +mistake to suppose that he was actuated by spontaneous Romantic +genius—His affinity with the elder Tuscan burlesque poets—His +wish to rehabilitate the Comedy of Masks—His conservative and +didactic spirit.—5. A translation of Gozzi's own account of <i>The +Love of the Three Oranges</i>, important in the history of the +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, and illustrative of the way in which Gozzi +handled his fabulous material.—6. Success of <i>L'Amore delle Tre +Melarancie</i>—Production and dates of the remaining nine dramatic +<i>Fiabe</i>.—7. Gozzi's method of writing, and employment of the Four +Masks and the Servetta—Interweaving of the comic element with the +fairy-tale—Gozzi does not rise to the height of imaginative +poetry.—8. His satire, humour, feeling for poetic situations—His +conservative philosophy of life.—9. Sources of the <i>Fiabe</i>—The +artistic superiority of <i>L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie</i>.—10. +Analysis of <i>L'Augellino Belverde</i>.—11. Gozzi's temporary +success—Goldoni retires to Paris, and Chiari to Brescia—Posterity +has reversed the verdict of contemporary Venice—Fate of the +<i>Fiabe</i>—Vicissitudes of Gozzi's fame in Italy, Germany, +France—Paul de Musset's condensed abstract of the Memoirs, and +their distorted picture of Carlo Gozzi.</p></div> + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p class="nind">A<small>BOUT</small> the middle of the eighteenth century, Venetian society was divided +into two main parties, representing what we should now call Liberal and +Conservative principles in politics and thought. The Liberals were +imbued with French philosophical ideas, French fashions, and French +phrases. The boldest of them, men like Angelo Querini, Carlo Contarini, +Giorgio Pisani, openly aimed at remodelling the constitution. They aired +new-fangled<a name="page_083" id="page_083"></a> theories of government, based upon the Social Contract and +the Rights of Man, within ear-shot of the terrible Inquisition of State. +Some of them went in consequence to end their days in the dungeons of +Cattaro or Verona. These patricians created a body of restless +opposition in the Grand Council, agitated the bourgeoisie and +proletariate with the expectation of impending changes, and succeeded in +effecting some salutary but superficial reforms. Outside the sphere of +politics, that spirit of innovation which in France was silently but +surely working toward the Revolution, made itself felt among the +educated classes. The University of Padua, while preserving external +forms of medivalism in its discipline and teaching, fermented with the +physical hypotheses of modern science. The deism of the Encyclopdists +and Voltaire came into vogue. Sentimentalism, thinly cloaking a desire +for liberty and license, ruled in morals. Rousseau's speculations and +the humanitarian utopias of the <i>philosophes</i> disturbed the old +foundations on which social institutions rested. The word <i>prejudice</i> +was upon the lips of everybody, to indicate the restraining influences +of public order in the state and of ethics in the family. These new +ideas permeated society and saturated literature. In the drawing-rooms +of great ladies, the clubs and coffee-houses of the gentry, the +theatres, concert-rooms, and little houses, where men and women +congregated, French<a name="page_084" id="page_084"></a> books were discussed, French fashions were +affected, the French language was engrafted on the old Venetian dialect. +Frivolous butterflies of pleasure in that great mart of the world's +amusement assumed fine airs of philosophy and science. Wide-sweeping and +far-reaching theories, which called in question the whole groundwork of +man's previous beliefs, were freely ventilated by chatterers, who caught +their jargon from flippant manuals of science and popular essays, poured +forth by thousands from the press of Paris. Unhealthy novels spread +subversive moral doctrines flavoured with a spice of philanthropic +sentiment. It was considered <i>rococo</i> to admire the old Italian +classics. Staunch Liberals paraded their independence of precedent and +prejudice by adopting a masquerade style which set the traditions of the +language at defiance.</p> + +<p>All this indicated a deep and irresistible fermentation in society. The +great catastrophe of the eighteenth century was preparing. The stage of +Europe was being made ready for that transformation-scene which opened a +new era. But few could foresee the inevitable future; few could +distinguish what was wholesome progress from the delirious or +somnambulistic ravings of the moment. Therefore the Conservatives clung +fast to their prejudices and precedents; to established forms of +government, the national religion, the traditional customs of civil and +domestic life. To superficial observers it appeared that these<a name="page_085" id="page_085"></a> men held +the strongest cards. Yet even rigid Conservatives were bound to admit +that there was something ominously rotten in the state of Venice. Her +commerce dwindled year by year. Her provinces were ill-administered, and +yielded less and less to the exchequer. Social demarcations disappeared +in the luxury and corruption which invaded all classes. Pauperism +assumed appalling dimensions. In the decay of industries and +manufactures thousands of workpeople were thrown famished upon public +charity. The ranks of the Barnabotti, or impoverished nobles, who +claimed state support, swelled, grew clamorous in the Grand Council, +gave signs of insubordination, and contaminated the fountain-head of +government by their venality. Meanwhile, the old machinery of the +constitution had fallen into the hands of a close oligarchy or +commission of a few powerful patricians. These corruptors of the State +pulled wires, bought votes, and manipulated the College and the Senate +to secure their own ends in the Consiglio Grande. The more far-sighted +among the Conservatives felt the necessity of temporising. Influenced by +the all-pervasive spirit of the age, but not prepared to join the +Liberal forces, they compromised, tampered with institutions, and tried +by stopping leaks to keep the deep sea out. This was the attitude of men +like Marco Foscarini, Alvise Emo, and Paolo Renier.</p> + +<p>Apart from politics, the Conservatives stood on firmer ground. There is +no doubt that the so-called<a name="page_086" id="page_086"></a> philosophy of the eighteenth century, both +in its principles and in its consequences, offered points of patent +weakness to hostile criticism. It was subversive without being +reconstructive. Its foundations were sentimental and fanciful rather +than logical and reasoned. Hazy in the minds of its projectors, it was +almost universally misunderstood by the multitude which it illuded. +Immorality was encouraged; not that any speculative system is inherently +immoral, but that the confused postulates regarding personal liberty, +the right of private judgment in matters of conduct, the light of +Nature, and the tyranny of custom and prejudice, from which this +philosophy started, enabled foolish or ill-minded people to hide their +vices and caprices beneath the specious mask of systematic thinking. +Again, the literature which sprang into existence under the predominance +of such theories, was in some respects pernicious, and in many points of +view ridiculous. The Conservatives had a definite course before them +when they determined to vindicate the purity of Italian diction, to +maintain the traditions of a glorious past in art, and to expose the +foibles of the Liberal school of thinkers and of writers.</p> + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<p>This brings me to the proper subject of the present chapter, which is +the conflict of Liberalism with<a name="page_087" id="page_087"></a> Conservatism in the theatre at Venice. +The two protagonists are Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi, both Venetians, +and both of nearly the same age. Goldoni was born in 1707, Gozzi in +1720. Gozzi entered the lists against Goldoni in 1756, when the latter +had been working for the Venetian stage since 1748, and when he had +already turned the heads of the public by his brilliant dramatic +novelties.</p> + +<p>The old <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, as we have seen, had sunk into +decrepitude. It was not merely that the type itself was exhausted, +though subsequent circumstances proved this to be the case. What was +more important is, that the popular taste veered round against it. Under +the prevailing dominance of French fashions, a style of drama, hitherto +unknown to the Italians, came into vogue. The so-called <i>Comdie +Larmoyante</i>, or pathetic comedy (of which Nivelle de la Chausse, a +now-forgotten archimage of middle-class sentimentalities and +sensibilities, is the reputed inventor), caught the ear of Europe. The +Pre la Chausse, to adopt an epigram of Piron's, preached every evening +from his pulpit in a score of theatres through Europe. The titles of his +most famous plays, <i>Mlanide</i>, <i>La Gouvernante</i>, <i>Prjug la Mode</i>, +<i>L'cole des Mres</i>, remind us of the revolution in the drama which +converted the public stage from a place of amusement into a platform for +the dissemination of political or social sentiments. Saurin's +<i>Beverley</i>, Mercier's <i>Dserteur</i> and <i>L'Indigent</i>, De<a name="page_088" id="page_088"></a> Falbaire's +<i>Honnte Criminel</i>, Voltaire's <i>cossaise</i>, Diderot's <i>Pre de Famille</i>, +carried on La Chausse's tradition. Regarding their popularity at +Venice, enough is related in the verbose and bilious diatribes prefixed +by Gozzi to his dramatic works. Among plays of this description, an +adaptation of our <i>George Barnwell</i>—much in the style of Thackeray's +parody upon Lord Lytton's novels—attracted great attention by the +pathos with which a nephew murdering his uncle from the highest motives +was exalted to the rank of hero. The Conservatives not unjustly +protested against the contamination of public morals by the false +sentiment of these tearful dramas. The perversion of taste by low +domestic arguments and clumsy realism, which had nothing real but its +vulgarity, seemed to them no less a sin.</p> + +<p>They were particularly sensitive, moreover, upon the point of language, +diction, style. Translations and adaptations of French plays confirmed +the growing carelessness of authors. Gallicisms were so fashionable that +a stage-hack allowed himself all license in that direction. The jargon +of science introduced unheard-of phrases, which would have made the +fathers of the Della-Cruscan Academy shudder in their tombs. Moreover, +the prevalent affectation of independence and the fashionable revolt +against prejudice led ignorant scribblers to plume themselves upon their +solecisms and plebeian lapses into dialect.<a name="page_089" id="page_089"></a></p> + +<p>With the main object, therefore, of maintaining a standard of propriety +in style, and with the secondary object of opposing theatrical +innovations, the Venetian Conservatives (in literature) founded their +Academy de'Granelleschi. It came into existence about 1747; and I need +not enlarge upon its constitution, except to say that it was an academy +of the good old Tory type, like the <i>Gelati</i>, <i>Sonnacchiosi</i>, +<i>Storditi</i>, and so many scores of literary clubs with absurd names and +trivial customs, whose members wasted their time over pedantic studies, +and occasionally issued a piece of solid work among their otherwise +ephemeral transactions. A sufficient account of this Academy is given in +Gozzi's Memoirs. Its importance at the present moment is that out of +this little camp Carlo Gozzi marched like David to attack the Goliath of +Philistinism, Carlo Goldoni.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to speak adequately and fairly of Goldoni. In making +this man, Nature cast her glove down in the face of criticism, and +defied analysis. He possessed indubitable genius; what is more, his +genius obeyed generous enthusiasms, unselfish aims, pure-hearted +sentiments. He perceived instinctively and correctly that a new age was +dawning for the literature of Europe. He devoted his life to creating a +comic drama adequate to the intellectual dignity of his nation. Goldoni +was a good man, a modest man, a man complete in all the social virtues. +But he was not a great man. And his genius, that<a name="page_090" id="page_090"></a> innovatory force of +his, that infinite adaptability, that inexhaustible scenic faculty which +he possessed, that intuition into the necessity of change, was, after +all, a genius of thin and threadbare quality. Can we point to a single +masterpiece produced by Goldoni? After allowing the sediment to settle +down of his prolific works and various experiments, can we select any +one play which bears the stamp of the supreme master? I think not. I +shrink from placing Goldoni, as a peer, in the company of Shakespeare, +Molire, Calderon, and Schiller. But, while saying this, it is +impossible to deny his actual achievement. It is impossible not to +recognise the honest motives which prompted him to copy Nature's book. +That was his great discovery; and that keeps the memory of Goldoni ever +green among us. He saw that Nature had to be loved and studied and +followed by the artist. He discerned this luminous point in a period +befogged by prejudice, tradition, pedantry, conventionality, +subservience to antiquated humours and insurgent eccentricities. It was +not Goldoni's fault that birth and fortune denied him those higher +capacities and favourable openings which might have made his art-work +monumental. His genial, shifty, pliable, and yet persistent personality +was forced to humour obstacles and to fawn on circumstance. As an +inevitable consequence, his productions are mediocre and unsatisfactory. +Mediocrity of talent and of character is stamped upon his plays, and +self-revealed<a name="page_091" id="page_091"></a> in his good-humoured Memoirs. But what confounds +criticism is that this mediocrity in the man and his equipment was +combined with undeniable originality. His genius, though not of the +purest water, was genuine. He had a correct perception of the +requirements of his age, a clear intuition into the practical +possibilities of the dramatic art he handled, and a vivid consciousness +of the ground-principle that no artist can afford to lose sight of +reality in practice. What would Goldoni not have been, we say, after +summing up the survey of his qualities, had he been gifted with a finer +fibre, a wider range of knowledge, a deeper philosophy, a more robust +temper, a poetic talent equal to the task of externalising his just +perceptions in forms of meditated art? As it is, he presents the curious +spectacle of a man born to inaugurate a new epoch, but without the +faculty to impose his own ideal successfully upon his contemporaries. +The general public acclaimed him, and understood his aims. But the +aristocrats of literature were able to inflict telling blows in their +fight against him. We, who stand aloof, when all the dust of that +conflict has subsided, see that Goldoni really won the day. It is only +to be regretted that a champion of such small dimensions, soft heart, +and feeble sinews, was commissioned to effect the revolution.<a name="page_092" id="page_092"></a></p> + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<p>Goldoni's instinct led him by an irresistible bias to the stage. He +vainly attempted to form himself for the more lucrative profession of +the law. During his youth he studied at a college in Pavia, but was +expelled for giving free vent to his literary propensities in satire. He +practised as an advocate at the Venetian bar, practised at Pisa in the +same capacity, acted as Genoese Consul at Venice. Still though he +courted Themis, his real predilections drew him toward Thalia. The first +piece which revealed his leading talent was a comedy in outline; <i>Il +Gondoliere Veneziano</i>, represented at Milan in 1733. In the next year he +produced a painfully bad tragedy at Verona entitled <i>Belisario</i>. Several +pieces of a mixed character, between comedy and tragedy, followed. Yet +he had not taken to the theatre as a profession; and it was not until +the year 1746, when he joined the comic company of Medebac, at Leghorn, +in the capacity of their paid playwright, that he entered definitely +upon the career of author for the stage.</p> + +<p>During the years when Goldoni was thus wavering between law and +literature, he attempted many kinds of dramatic composition—operettas +for music, tragedies, tragi-comedies, farces, <i>scenari</i> for improvised<a name="page_093" id="page_093"></a> +comedies, and comedies of which the dialogue was partly written. His +facile talent adapted itself to every style in turn. All this while he +recognised that his strength lay neither in the direction of poetry nor +in that of serious drama. Nature had bestowed on him a genius for +comedy; and he felt born to educate Italian taste in that species. We +have already seen how deeply he deplored the degeneration of the +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>; and yet some of his pieces had been performed by +the best improvisatory actors then alive, Sacchi the famous Truffaldino, +and Darbes the no less celebrated Pantalone.</p> + +<p>While scribbling Harlequinades, Goldoni never lost sight of the reform +he had long meditated; and this was to substitute written comedies of +character, in the style of Molire and the ancients, for the old +comedies <i>all' improvviso</i>. But he saw the necessity of proceeding +cautiously. On the one hand, he had to consider the adherents of the +elder style. On the other hand, he was forced to humour the comedians, +who were jealous of changes which increased their dependence upon +professional playwrights.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> Accordingly, he advanced with +circumspection. In the <i>Momolo Cortesan</i>, which he composed for the +Pantalone of Sacchi's company (a certain Golinetti), only the leading +part was written. The rest was left to improvisation.<a name="page_094" id="page_094"></a> Nevertheless, +this piece was constructed on different principles from those which +governed the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. It aimed at being a comedy of +character; and thus Goldoni hoped by gradual steps to wean his actors +from their bad old ways. Copying his mistress Nature, he saw that +nothing could be done <i>per saltum</i>. It was necessary to prepare +transitions, and to pass through the development of imperfect species to +the exhibition of the type he had in view. This seems to have been the +principle on which he acted. But Goldoni was so pliable and easy-going, +so apt to take the cue from casual suggestions offered to his versatile +ability, that he frequently lost sight of this leading principle. His +Muse wore Harlequin's robe of many colours, and assumed the mask while +waiting to effect the meditated revolution. This indecision at the +commencement of his career exposed him to Gozzi's piratical attacks, and +exercised, I think, a prejudicial influence over his subsequent career +as playwright. But it was not in the character of the man to act +otherwise. He could not divest himself of ready sympathy, fluency, and +genial adaptability to the circumstances in which he was placed from +time to time. Some natures are destined to achieve their ends by +condescension. Goldoni's was essentially a nature of this kind. And the +fact remains that, amid all his excursions into regions alien from his +purpose, he kept one aim in view and finally achieved it. What survives +of solid<a name="page_095" id="page_095"></a> in his work, is the select series of plays produced upon the +lines of the reform he calculated.</p> + +<p>It was at Pisa in 1746 that the <i>Capocomico</i> Medebac induced Goldoni to +join his troupe. The proposal was that a theatre at Venice should be +hired for five or six years, and that Goldoni should dedicate his whole +talents to the composition of plays. Sufficiently good pecuniary offers +were made; for it seems that each comedy was paid at the rate of thirty +sequins, or about 12 sterling. Goldoni accepted. Then travelling with +his new partners by the road through Modena, he reached Venice in July +1747. His first venture, with a play called <i>Tognetto</i> or <i>Tonino bela +grazia</i>, was a failure. A couple of pathetic pieces which followed, won +more favour with the public. Darbes, whom Goldoni learned to appreciate +and use with excellent effect, seconded his efforts admirably; and in +1748 circumstances seemed propitious for attempting the long-cherished +scheme of a revolution in the theatre. Accordingly he wrote the <i>Vedova +Scaltra</i>, which is distinctly a comedy of character. It was performed +during the carnival season of 1749, and was received with intelligent +sympathy by the Venetians. This induced Goldoni to pursue the course he +had begun. <i>La Putta Onorata</i> obtained a similar success, and met with +emphatic approval from the gondolier class, whose sentiments and manners +had been studied in its composition. Goldoni's novelties had<a name="page_096" id="page_096"></a> by this +time roused the jealousy of rivals and the opposition of Conservatives. +A parody of the <i>Vedova Scaltra</i> appeared at the theatre of S. Samuele. +This was clever enough, and scurrilous enough, to attract attention. +Goldoni received a check in mid-career, which became serious when the +Carnival of 1749 closed with the total failure of a new piece from his +pen, <i>L'Erede Fortunata</i>. Upon this occasion, stung to the quick, and +piqued in his self-esteem, with the sense of his own inexhaustible and +facile forces rendering the hazard light, Goldoni publicly declared his +intention of producing sixteen new comedies within the next twelve +calendar months.</p> + +<p>He kept his promise, but at a considerable cost both to his position as +playwright and his health. With the general public, the man's +indomitable pluck, his good-humour, and the variety of subjects treated +in his famous sixteen plays, created an indescribable enthusiasm. The +end of the Carnival, 1750, brought well-earned laurels to Goldoni, +together with the good-will of the fickle multitude. But unforgiving +enemies, the supporters of the old drama, the literary purists, and the +Conservatives who could not stomach sentimental comedies, were watching +him with Argus eyes. In the heat of volcanic combustion, he had thrown +up cinders and rubbish along with several felicitous and brilliant works +of art. The worst of his performances were remembered and scored up +against him by critics<a name="page_097" id="page_097"></a> like Carlo Gozzi. The best were confounded +in one plausible condemnation.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 291px;"> +<a href="images/ill_096_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_096_sml.jpg" width="291" height="550" alt="TARTAGLIA (1620) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" title="TARTAGLIA (1620) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">TARTAGLIA (1620)<br /> +</span><span class="caption2">Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> +</div> + +<p>From this point forward for the next six years Goldoni met with no +formidable opposition, except from a rival playwright. The man in +question was the Abb Chiari, a relic of the seventeenth century, +pompous and bombastic in style, a blatant member of the Arcadian +Academy, a bastard brother of Pindar in the matter of mixed metaphors +and wild Icarian flights, a prolific scribbler of melodramatic pieces in +rhymed Martellian verses,<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> and, after all his qualifications are +summed up, a mere pretentious windbag. Chiari caught the public ear. +Venice divided itself into factions for Chiari and Goldoni. On a smaller +scale, the Bononcini and Handel conflicts of London, the Gluck and +Piccini riots of Paris, were repeated. The most damaging feature of this +contest for Goldoni,<a name="page_098" id="page_098"></a> was that Chiari, less gifted with originality, +aped each of his new inventions. Against Goldoni's <i>Pamela Nubile</i> +Chiari brought out a <i>Pamela Maritata</i>, against his <i>Avventuriere +Onorato</i> an <i>Avventuriere alla Moda</i>, against his <i>Padre per Amore</i> an +<i>Inganno Amoroso</i>, against his <i>Molire</i> a <i>Molire marito geloso</i>, +against his <i>Terenzio</i> a <i>Plauto</i>, against his <i>Sposa Persiana</i> a +<i>Schiava Chinese</i>, against his <i>Filosofo Inglese</i> a <i>Filosofo +Veneziano</i>, against his <i>Scozzese</i> a <i>Bella Pellegrina</i>. In spite of +their mutual hostility, this game of battledore and shuttlecock between +Chiari and Goldoni enabled the literary Conservatives to regard both +playwrights as flying under one flag. But before the Granelleschi opened +fire in earnest, Venetian society continued for five years to be pretty +equally divided in its sympathies. The best judges sided with Goldoni, +while Chiari's glaring faults, which passed for brilliant qualities with +the vulgar, won him numerous admirers. Carlo Gozzi has described this +state of contention:<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"I partigiani ogni giorno crescevano,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Chi vuole <i>Originale</i> et chi <i>Saccheggio</i>;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Tutto il paese a romore mettevano,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Sicch la cosa non da motteggio.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Nelle case i fratelli contendevano,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Le mogli co' mariti facean peggio,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">In ogni loco acerba la tenzone,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Tutto scompiglio, tutto dissensione."</span></td></tr> +</table> +<p><a name="page_099" id="page_099"></a></p> + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<p>The Granelleschi, in their zeal for sound literature, were justly +enraged against the ranting, arrogant, bombastic Chiari. Although the +more discreet Academicians, men like Gasparo Gozzi, recognised Goldoni's +merits, they resented his slovenly and slipshod style. Carlo Gozzi, less +tolerant and far more satirical than his elder brother, confounded both +poets in a common loathing. This was obviously unfair to Goldoni, who, +whatever his faults of diction may have been, ranked immeasurably higher +than the Abb. But Goldoni was guilty of an unpardonable sin in Gozzi's +eyes. He had declared war against the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, for which +Gozzi entertained the partiality of one who was himself an excellent +impromptu actor. The other reasons of this bitter hatred are +sufficiently explained in those chapters of the Memoirs which describe +the beginning of his career as playwright.</p> + +<p>At last Gozzi thought the time had come for striking a decisive +blow.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> The Granelleschi professed<a name="page_100" id="page_100"></a> sincere admiration for an obscure +burlesque Florentine poet of the fifteenth century called Burchiello. +Taking some of this man's enigmatical sentences for prophecies, Gozzi +compiled a sort of comic almanac, in which the various woes impending +over Venice in the year 1756 were described. It was entitled <i>La Tartana +degl' Influssi per l'anno bisestile</i> 1756,<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> and was modelled upon an +almanac for country-folk, published at Treviso under the name of a +certain Schieson.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> For each quarter of the year a <i>capitolo</i> in +<i>terza rima</i> was written, and a prophecy in octave stanzas was dedicated +to each month. Although the <i>Tartana</i> contained satires upon society in +general, a considerable part was directed specially against Chiari and +Goldoni. The introductory address to the readers strikes the keynote. +The month of February deals with comedies, the month of November with +Martellian verses, and the month of December invokes the speedy return +of Sacchi and his company of masks from Portugal. Finally, in the sonnet +addressed to the bookseller at the end of the book, the two poets are +mentioned by name. Gozzi declared himself an implacable enemy of the +plays in vogue, an<a name="page_101" id="page_101"></a> opponent of rhymed verses imitating the French +Alexandrine measure, and a zealous adherent of the old <i>Commedia dell' +Arte</i>. The prophecy with regard to Sacchi's company was speedily +fulfilled; for the earthquake of Lisbon happening in 1755, they were +obliged to quit the scene of that lugubrious disaster. Soon after their +return to Venice, Gozzi appears to have courted their friendship. This +we gather from the <i>Canto Ditirambico de'Partigiani del Sacchi +Truffaldino</i> which he published in 1761.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<p>Irritated by the <i>Tartana degli Influssi</i>, Goldoni, who usually kept +silence under literary attacks, took up the pen and wrote as +follows:<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Ho veduta stampata una Tartana</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Piena di versi rancidi sciapiti,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Versi da spaventare una befana,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Versi dal saggio imitator conditi</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Con sale acuto della maladicenza,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Piena di falsi sentimenti arditi;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Ma conceder si pu questa licenza</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">A chi in collera va colla fortuna,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Che per lui non ha molta compiacenza.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Chi dice mal senza ragione alcuna,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Chi non prova gli assunti e gli argomenti,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fa come il can che abbaia alla luna."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_102" id="page_102"></a></p> + +<p>I have transcribed these verses for several reasons; first, that my +readers may judge for themselves of Goldoni's poetical style; secondly, +because the last six lines profoundly irritated Gozzi; and thirdly, +because they engaged him in the production of his first semi-dramatic +pasquinade upon their author.</p> + +<p>We need not describe the battle of sonnets, squibs, and pamphlets which +raged after the appearance of Gozzi's <i>Tartana</i>. The Granelleschi were +now committed to crush their antagonists; and they spared no pains to do +so. Men of birth and parts condescended to the filthiest ribaldry and +the most savage personalities. On the whole, it must be allowed that the +Granelleschi displayed superior wit and style. Gozzi, in particular, +showed real powers for burlesque satire in his <i>Marfisa Bizzarra</i>; and +some of his occasional pieces are composed with a terseness and +directness worthy of the classical age of Florentine literature. Goldoni +replied from time to time, but feebly. In a poem entitled <i>La Tavola +Rotonda</i>, he described his formidable antagonist as:<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Un Lombardo che affetta esser cruscante</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Col riso in bocca e col veleno in petto."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_103" id="page_103"></a></p> + +<p>This seems to me a fair, if somewhat pungent, description of Carlo +Gozzi, who, in spite of his theoretical purism, rarely succeeded in +writing with correctness or distinction, and who veiled a really caustic +temper under the mask of Democritean philosophy. Touching upon the +charges brought against himself of being neither a scholar nor a poet, +Goldoni admits their truth with frankness:<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Pur troppo io so che buon scrittor non sono</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">E che ai fonti miglior non ho bevuto;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Qual mi detta il mio stil scrivo e ragiono,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">E talor per fortuna ho anch' io piaciuto;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">Ma guai a me se il fiorentin frullone</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0.25em;">A sceverare i scritti miei si pone."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Strong in the unwavering appreciation of the public, and confident in +his own powers, Goldoni could afford to make this concession to his +antagonist. But it argued a generous and modest mind, different in +quality from Gozzi's.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Gozzi took up the glove of defiance thrown down by Goldoni in +his <i>Tavola Rotonda</i>. A sonnet referring to that poem contains these +lines:<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Ma acci s'abbia a decidere</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">S'io dissi il ver, sto facendo un comento,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Che prover l'assunto e l'argomento."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_104" id="page_104"></a></p> + +<p>This <i>Comento</i> led Gozzi eventually to the production of his <i>Fiabe</i>. +But a step or two remained to be taken before Gozzi resolved to meet +Goldoni on his own ground, the theatre.</p> + +<p>He began by circulating a satirical piece entitled <i>Il Teatro Comico +all' Osteria del Pellegrino tra le mani degli Accademici Granelleschi</i>, +or "The Comic Theatre at the Inn of the Pilgrim, rough-handled by the +Granelleschi." Gozzi's Memoirs contain a sufficient description of this +satire, which still exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. They also +explain why he withdrew it from publication at the request of his friend +Farsetti and Goldoni's patron Count Widman. Therefore it is not +necessary to discuss it here in detail: yet the meaning of the title may +be pointed out. Goldoni had already produced a comedy, called <i>Il Teatro +Comico</i>, setting forth his views regarding the reform of the drama.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> +Gozzi, alluding to this play, undertakes to expose the faults of +Goldoni's own theatrical writings. The satire is conceived in the broad +spirit of Aristophanic or Rabelaisian humour, and is really a +masterpiece in its kind. We feel for the first time that Gozzi has found +his proper sphere by the breadth of handling, the free play of humour, +and the precision of touch, which reveal an inborn dramatic faculty. The +unmasking of the vociferous<a name="page_105" id="page_105"></a> four-faced monster which caricatured +Goldoni, is eminently fit for scenical effect. While reading, we seem to +be present at a new act in Jonson's <i>Poetaster</i>. The four mouths of the +four-faced mask represent the four kinds of dramas written by +Goldoni—his early harlequinades and <i>scenari</i>, his domestic comedy of +the pathetic species, his heroic and Oriental melodramas, and his +transcripts from Venetian life. A fifth mouth, the mouth in the belly, +<i>la veridica bocca dell' epa</i>, as Gozzi terms it, utters Goldoni's +personal aims and views, as Gozzi chose brutally to interpret them. This +truthful witness confesses that all the four mouths of the masked head +were subservient to its carnal needs. <i>Quis expedivit psittaco suum</i> +<span title="Greek: chaire">χαἱρε</span>?... <i>Magister artis ingenque largitor, Venter negatas +artifex sequi voces.</i> "Who taught the parrot his word of welcome? That +master of art and liberal dispenser of genius, the belly." That motto +from the prologue to Persius' book of satires might be inscribed on the +title-page of Gozzi's pasquinade. The blow inflicted, in a literal and +metaphorical sense, below the belt, was unworthy of a gentleman. It +betrayed Gozzi's critical insensibility to Goldoni's actual merits. It +exhibited his aristocratic contempt for professional literature, +combined with his comedian's readiness to take advantage of a powerful +opponent. But it also revealed a literary athlete capable of striking +home, and whose method of attack was certain to be formidable.<a name="page_106" id="page_106"></a></p> + +<p>Goldoni bowed beneath the storm, and used his influence to withhold the +sanguinary satire from further publicity. At this point Gozzi showed the +courtesy which might have been expected from a man of his quality. He +dropped the point of his weapon at his antagonist's request, and +prepared himself to meet the playwright on his own ground. In fairness +to Gozzi, it is necessary to observe that this resolution indicated no +small amount of chivalry and courage. Goldoni was the idol of the +public. He kept continually pointing to the concourse which crowded the +Venetian theatres when a new piece from his pen was advertised. Gozzi +was unpractised in play-writing, a man in his fortieth year, and the +dramatic card on which he staked his luck might well be considered +hazardous. What that card was we shall presently discover.</p> + +<p>Chiari, involved in the same warfare with the Granelleschi, had hitherto +preserved a discreet silence. Now he defied them to produce a play. +Gasparo Gozzi answered with a sonnet, which betrays his personal leaning +toward Goldoni. Then Chiari resolved to make common cause with his old +rival on the stage. This shows how the dropping fire of the Academicians +had told upon their opponents. The Abb addressed Goldoni as <i>degnissimo +comico vate, poeta amico</i>, most worthy master of comedy, my good poet +friend. Goldoni reciprocated the compliment with <i>vate sublime, vate +immortale</i>,<a name="page_107" id="page_107"></a> sublime, immortal bard. Not without a touch of concealed +irony, he compared himself to Chiari in this lyric flight:<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Si, tu sei l'aquila,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Io la formica;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Tu voli all' apice</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Senza fatica,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Mia Musa ai cardini</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Salir non sa."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>We trace in these verses Goldoni's perfect clarity of vision regarding +his own powers, and his good-humoured indulgence of other people's +foibles. He recognised the practical advantage of an alliance with +Chiari. At the same time he disclaimed all honours for himself, and +gently ridiculed his new ally's pretensions.</p> + +<p>Chiari had defied the Granelleschi to produce a comedy. Goldoni had +taken up his stand upon the popularity of his own plays. Carlo Gozzi +conceived the bold idea of writing a fantastic drama upon the old lines +of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, which should fill the theatre of his +adoption and restore Sacchi's company to favour. If he succeeded, both +Chiari and Goldoni would be hit with the same stone. This was the real +origin of the celebrated <i>Fiabe Teatrali</i>. But before engaging in the +attempt,<a name="page_108" id="page_108"></a> Gozzi looked about for a suitable subject. Nothing, he +calculated, would floor his antagonists more thoroughly than the +exhibition of a dramatised nursery tale by impromptu actors. Therefore, +in the spirit of a burlesque duellist, in the true spirit of Don +Quixote, he composed his <i>Amore delle Tre Melarancie</i>.</p> + +<p>These facts about the genesis of Gozzi's <i>Fiabe</i> need to be insisted on, +since French and German critics have distorted the truth. They regard +Gozzi as a romantic playwright, gifted with innate genius for a peculiar +species of dramatic art. According to this theory, the <i>Fiabe</i> were +produced in order to manifest an ideal existing in their author's brain. +Minute attention to Gozzi's Memoirs, his explanatory Essays (Opere, +vols. i. and iv.), and the preface appended to each <i>Fiaba</i>, shows, on +the contrary, that he began to write the <i>Fiabe</i> with the simple object +of answering a certain challenge in the most humorous way he could +devise. He continued them with a didactic purpose. His keen sagacity and +profound knowledge of the Venetian public led him possibly to anticipate +success. Yet he knew that the attempt was perilous; and he made it, +without obeying preconceived principles, without yielding to any +imperative instinct, but solely with the view of giving Chiari and +Goldoni a sound thrashing.</p> + +<p>If it is worth while studying Gozzi and the <i>Fiabe</i> at all, this point +has so much importance that<a name="page_109" id="page_109"></a> I may be permitted to resume the history of +his literary conflict with the two poets. Gozzi opened fire with the +<i>Tartana</i> in 1756. Goldoni retorted that he had only made himself +ridiculous; unless he proved both his assumption and his argument, he +was nothing better than a dog barking at the moon. Gozzi then declared +that he was already engaged in the production of a commentary. This +circulated in MS. under the form of a satire called the <i>Teatro Comico</i>. +Meanwhile Goldoni parried all attacks by pointing to his popularity, and +Chiari openly defied the Granelleschi to write a comedy, instead of +condemning the plays in vogue. Finally Gozzi, who had become intimately +acquainted with the actors in Sacchi's company, resolved to write a +<i>scenario</i>, which should rehabilitate the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, parody +both Chiari and Goldoni, attract the public in crowds, and prove that a +mere fairy tale, treated with romantic gusto, was capable of arousing no +less interest than the works of professional playwrights following +new-fangled models. The <i>Amore delle Tre Melarancie</i>, produced at the +end of January in 1761, rather more than four years after the appearance +of the <i>Tartana</i>, was the result.</p> + +<p>It is mistaken to suppose that Gozzi was animated by the enthusiasm of a +literary innovator. The <i>Fiabe</i>, in spite of their fantastic form, were +the work of an aristocratical Conservative, bent on striking a shrewd +blow for the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, which he considered<a name="page_110" id="page_110"></a> to be the +special glory of the Italian race. In this respect, we might call Gozzi +the Venetian Aristophanes.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a> The <i>Fiabe</i> were his "Clouds," and +"Birds," and "Wasps." Goldoni and Chiari were his Euripides and Agathon; +perverters of the good old comedy by vulgar realism, false pathos, and +meretricious rhetoric. Rousseau, Voltaire, Helvetius, the French +<i>philosophes</i>, were his Socrates and Sophists. His art was the +expression, not of creative instinct evoking a new type of drama merely +for its beauty and romance, but of a militant, sarcastic mind, imbued +with the ironical literature of the sixteenth century. Gozzi had little +in common with Shakespeare. Truffaldino is no twin-brother of King +Lear's fool, nor is Brighella cousin to the grave-digger in <i>Hamlet</i>. +These personages belong to the family of masks, whose pedigree dates +from immemorial antiquity in Italy. The element of fable, as Gozzi +repeatedly informs us, was first adopted by him out of sheer bravado to +maintain a certain thesis, viz., that whole nations could be made to +laugh and cry over puerilities, when handled with the judgment of a +master. Gozzi's true ancestors in art were the Florentine burlesque +poets, notably Luigi Pulci. The blending of magic, phantasy, broad +comedy and serious tragic interest in the <i>Fiabe</i> allies them to the +<i>Morgante Maggiore</i> far more closely than to Marlowe's <i>Doctor<a name="page_111" id="page_111"></a> +Faustus</i>. In them, therefore, we observe the curious literary phenomenon +of what at first sight appears to be spontaneous romantic art, but what +is really the result of satirical and didactic intention. The preface to +<i>L'Augellino Belverde</i>, in which Gozzi takes leave of the <i>Fiabe</i>, +clearly explains the case.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> "I addressed myself to the task of +arousing great popular enthusiasm by a <i>tour de force</i> of fancy; and at +the same time I wished to cut short the series of my dramatic pieces, +from which I derived no profit, and the burden of producing which was +beginning to weigh heavily upon me. Besides, it seemed to me that I had +fully achieved the end I had proposed to myself from the outset, in the +indulgence of the purest capricious and poetical punctilio." <i>Punctilio</i> +was the parent of the <i>Fiabe</i>.</p> + +<p>At this point I shall introduce a translation of <i>L'Amore delle Tre +Melarancie</i>. There are several reasons for doing so. First, although it +only exists For us in the <i>compte rendu</i> of the author, and is therefore +a description rather than a literal <i>scenario</i>, a very good idea can be +gained from it of the directions given by a poet to extempore actors. +Secondly, it shows the four Venetian masks, Pantalone, Tartaglia, +Truffaldino, and Brighella, in action, together with the <i>servetta</i> +Smeraldina. Thirdly, it is interesting for the light thrown upon Gozzi's +controversy with the two poets in the critical observations he has +interspersed.<a name="page_112" id="page_112"></a> These I shall enclose in brackets, so that the <i>scenario</i> +of the play may be distinguished from extraneous matter.</p> + +<h3>V.</h3> + +<p class="c">A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS<br /> +<small>OF THE FABLE ENTITLED</small><br /> +THE LOVE OF THE THREE ORANGES.<br /> +<i>A Dramatic Representation divided into Three Acts.</i><a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="center">PROLOGUE.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center">(<i>A boy comes forward and makes this announcement.</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Your faithful servants, the old company</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Of players, feel sore shent and full of shame;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Behind the scenes they stand with downcast eye</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And hang-dog faces, dreading words of blame;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">They blush to hear the folk say: "We are dry!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Each year those fellows feed us with the same</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Musty old comedies that stink of mould!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">We will not be insulted, laughed at, sold!"</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">I swear by all the elements to you,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Kind public, that to win your love once more,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">They'd let their teeth be drawn, and eyeballs too!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">They sent me to say this—nay, do not roar,<a name="page_113" id="page_113"></a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Restrain your wrath, sweet gentle audience, do;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Lend me your ears three minutes, I implore;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">When I have spoken what I'm sent to say,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Deal with me as you list, I won't cry nay!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">We've lost all sense and knowledge how to please</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">The public on our scenes, in this mad age.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">The plays that took last year now seem to freeze;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And something quite brand-new is all the rage.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">The wheel of taste and fashion, as one sees,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Moves with a wind no prophet can presage;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">We only know that when the world's agog,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Our throats are moist and stomachs filled with prog.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Taste rules this year that all the modern plays</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Should be crammed full with intrigue, strange events,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Fresh characters, adventures that amaze,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Wild, thrilling, unexpected incidents;—</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Dumbfounded by these laws, we stand at gaze,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Huddling together timorous in our tents;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And yet because we must have bread to eat,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">We've come with our old wares your wrath to meet.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">I know not, gentle listener, who it is</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Hath rendered us unfit to charm your ear:</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">To us who once enjoyed your courtesies,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">So many and so sweet, it seems most queer.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Is Poetry perchance to blame for this?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Well, well; all things are doomed to disappear;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Mortals must learn to bear and bide their fate;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Yet, ah! your hatred is a scourge too great!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">For our part, we'll leave nothing new untried;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">We'll don the poet's singing-robes and bays,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">If this may give us back your grace denied;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Nay, we <i>are</i> poets in these latter days!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Our breeches shall be sold and ink supplied,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Our coats we'll change for paper to write plays;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And if we've got no genius, well, what's that?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">So long as you are pleased, all's right, that's flat.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Our purpose 'tis with new-pranked comedies,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Fine things, ne'er seen before, to fill our stage.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Don't ask when, where, and how we met with these,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Or who inscribed the pure Phœbean page;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">After fine weather when the deluges<a name="page_114" id="page_114"></a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Of rain descend, <i>Lo, new rain!</i> cries the sage;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Yet though he thinks it new rain, 'tis quite plain</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">That rain is nought but water, water rain.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Not all things keep one course through endless time.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">What's up to-day, to-morrow shall be down.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Your great-great-grandsire's garment Mode, the mime,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Steals from his picture-frame to deck the town.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">'Tis taste, opinion, gusto make sublime,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Make beautiful, what tickles prince and clown;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And we can swear upon the book our plays</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Have ne'er appeared in these or other days.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">We've plots and arguments to turn old folk</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Back to their infancy and nurse's arms;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Parents who kindly bear their children's yoke</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Will bring the babes to listen to our charms;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">High solemn geniuses we daren't invoke,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Nor will their absence cause us great alarms;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Why should we snuff at pence? Whether they scent</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Of ignorance or learning, we're content.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">On strange and unexpected circumstance</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">You shall sup full to-night; on wonders wild,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Whereof you may have heard or read perchance,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Yet never seen by woman, man, or child;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Beasts, birds, and house-doors shall your ears entrance</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">With verses by crowned poet's labour filed;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And if Martellian verses they shall prove,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">These <i>must</i> compel your plaudits and your love!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Your servants wait, impatient to begin;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">But first I'd like the story to rehearse;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Ah me! I quake and tremble in my skin—</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">You're sure to hiss me or do something worse!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;"><i>The Love of the Three Oranges!</i>—I'm in,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And don't repent the plunge, although you curse.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Imagine then, my darlings, heart's desires,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">You're sitting with your granddams round your fires.</span></td></tr> +</table> +<p>[The touch of satire in this prologue, directed against poets who were +trying to trample down Sacchi's company of improvisatory players, is +too<a name="page_115" id="page_115"></a> obvious, and my intention of supporting the latter by introducing +the series of my dramatised nursery-tales upon the theatre is too +evident, to call for detailed commentary. In the choice of my first +fable, which I took from the commonest among the stories told to +children, and in the base alloy of the dialogues, the action, and the +characters, which are obviously degraded of set purpose, I wanted to +ridicule <i>Il Campiello</i>, <i>Le Massre</i>, <i>Le Baruffe Chiozzotte</i>, and many +other plebeian and very trivial pieces by Signor Goldoni.]</p> + +<p class="c">FIRST ACT.</p> + +<p>Silvio, King of Diamonds,<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> the monarch of an imaginary realm, whose +habit exactly imitated that of his majesty upon the playing cards, +confided to Pantalone the deep distress caused to his royal mind by the +misfortune of his sole son and heir, Tartaglia. The Crown-Prince had +been subject, for the last ten years, to an incurable malady. The first +physicians diagnosed the case as hopeless hypochondria, and gave their +patient up. The King wept bitterly. Pantalone, sending doctors to the +devil with his sarcasms, suggested that the admirable secrets of certain +charlatans, at that time famous, might be tried. The King protested that +all such means had been employed with no result. Pantalone, letting his +fancy<a name="page_116" id="page_116"></a> play upon the hidden causes of the malady, asked his liege in +secret, so as not to be overheard by the royal bodyguard, whether his +Majesty had perhaps contracted something in his younger days, which, +being communicated to the constitution of the Prince, might still be +extirpated by the exhibition of mercury. The King, assuming an air of +stately seriousness, replied that he had been invariably faithful to his +consort's bed. Pantalone then submitted that the Prince might be +concealing, out of a befitting sense of shame, the consequence of boyish +peccadilloes. His Majesty assured him seriously that his own paternal +inspection of the patient excluded that hypothesis; the young man's +illness was solely due to hypochondria of a grave and malignant nature; +the physicians declared that, unless he could be made to laugh, he must +sink slowly into his grave; a smile upon his face would be the +favourable sign of convalescence. That was too good to be expected. To +this he added that the prospect of his own decrepitude, the sight of his +son and heir upon a death-bed, the inevitable succession to the crown of +his niece Clarice, a young woman of strange temper, bizarre fancies, and +cruel passions, caused him the deepest affliction. Thereupon he began to +bewail the future misery of his subjects, broke down into a flood of +tears, and quite forgot the dignity of his high station. Pantalone +consoled him, urged on his attention the propriety of restoring the +court to merriment and<a name="page_117" id="page_117"></a> gladness, if all depended on Prince Tartaglia's +recovering the power of laughter. Let festivities, games, masquerades, +and spectacles be set on foot. Let Truffaldino, well approved for making +people laugh and chasing the blue-devils from their brains, be summoned +to the Prince's service. The Prince had shown some inclination for +Truffaldino's society. He might succeed in bringing smiles again upon +the royal features. The remedy could but be tried, and possibly a cure +might ensue. The King allowed himself to be convinced, and began to plan +arrangements.</p> + +<p>To these persons entered Leandro, Knave of Diamonds,<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> and first +Minister of the realm. He too was dressed like his figure on a pack of +cards. Pantalone, aside, expressed his suspicion of some treachery on +the part of Leandro. The King commanded festivities, games, and Bacchic +entertainments, adding that whoever made the Prince laugh should receive +a noble prize. Leandro tried to dissuade his Majesty, and urged that +such remedies were likely to prejudice the sick man's health. The King +repeated his orders and retired. Pantalone rejoiced. Aside, to the +audience, he explained that Leandro was certainly planning the Prince's +death. Then he followed the King. Leandro remained stubborn, muttered +that he detected some opposition to his wishes, but from what quarter he +could not guess.<a name="page_118" id="page_118"></a></p> + +<p>To him appeared the Princess Clarice, niece of the King. There was never +seen upon the stage a princess of so wild, irascible, and determined a +character as this Clarice. [I have to thank Signer Chiari for furnishing +me with abundant models for such caricatures in his dramatic works.] She +had settled with Leandro to marry him, and raise him to the throne, upon +the death of her cousin. Accordingly she burst into reproaches against +her lover for his coldness. Were they to wait until Tartaglia died of a +disease so slow as hypochondria? Leandro excused himself with +circumspection. Fata Morgana, he said, his powerful protectress, had +given him certain charms in Martellian verses, which were to be +administered to Tartaglia in wafers. These would certainly work his +destruction by sure if tardy means. [This was introduced to criticise +the plays of Chiari and Goldoni, whose Martellian verses bored every one +to death by their monotony of rhyme.] Now Fata Morgana was hostile to +the King of Diamonds, having lost much of her treasure on his card. She +loved the Knave of Diamonds, because he had brought her luck in play. +She dwelt in a lake, not far from the city. Smeraldina, a Moorish woman, +who performed the <i>servetta</i> in this scenic parody, acted as +intermediary between Leandro and Morgana. Clarice fumed with fury at +hearing the slow means appointed for Tartaglia's death. Leandro +confessed that he entertained some doubts about the efficacy of +Martellian verses to<a name="page_119" id="page_119"></a> secure a happy dispatch. He was uneasy, too, at +the unexplained appearance of Truffaldino at court, a very facetious +fellow; and if Tartaglia laughed, his cure was certain. Clarice's rage +boiled over; she had seen Truffaldino, and the mere sight of him was +certain to make anybody laugh. [In this dialogue my readers will detect +a defence of the mirth-making comedy of the masks as against the +melancholy drama in verse of the poets in vogue.] Meanwhile, Leandro had +seat Brighella, his servant, to Smeraldina, to learn the explanation of +Truffaldino's appearance, and to demand assistance from Morgana.</p> + +<p>Brighella entered; and with much show of secrecy related that +Truffaldino had been sent to court by a certain wizard Celio, Morgana's +enemy, and the King of Diamonds' friend, for reasons exactly opposite to +those which had incensed Morgana against him. Truffaldino, he continued, +was an antidote to the morbific influences of Martellian verses; he had +come to protect the King, the Prince, and all the people from the +infection of those melancholic charms.</p> + +<p>[It may be pointed out that the hostility between Fata Morgana and Celio +the wizard symbolised the warfare carried on between Goldoni and Chiari. +Fata Morgana was a caricature of Chiari, and Celio of Goldoni.]</p> + +<p>Brighella's news threw Clarice and Leandro into consternation. They laid +their heads together how<a name="page_120" id="page_120"></a> to kill Truffaldino by some secret device. +Clarice suggested arsenic or a blunderbuss. Leandro was for trying +Martellian verses in wafers, or opium. Clarice objected that there was +not much to choose between Martellian verses and opium, and that +Truffaldino had the stomach to digest such trifles. Brighella added that +Morgana, informed of the festivities designed for the Prince's recovery, +meant to appear and neutralise the action of his salutiferous laughter +by a curse which should quickly send him to the tomb. Clarice retired. +Leandro and Brighella went to superintend the preparation of the shows.</p> + +<p>The next scene disclosed the chamber of the sick Prince. He was attired +in the most laughable caricature of an invalid's costume. Reclining in +an ample lounging-chair, Tartaglia leaned against a table, piled with +medicine-bottles, ointments, spittoons, and other furniture appropriate +to his melancholy condition. With a weak and quavering voice he lamented +his misfortunes, the various treatments he had tried with no success, +and the extraordinary symptoms of his incurable malady. The eminent +actor, who sustained this scene alone, kept the audience in one roar of +laughter by his exquisite burlesque and natural drollery. Then +Truffaldino entered, and tried to make the patient laugh. The extempore +performance of this duet by two of the best comic players of our day +afforded excellent mirth. The Prince looked on approvingly while +Truffaldino<a name="page_121" id="page_121"></a> exhibited his pranks. But nothing could bring a smile upon +his lips. He insisted upon returning to his illness, and asking +Truffaldino's advice. Truffaldino entered into a labyrinth of +physiological and medical arguments, highly humorous and spiced with +satire. He smelt the Prince's breath, and swore that it stank of a +surfeit of undigested Martellian verses. The Prince coughed, and asked +to spit. Truffaldino brought him the vessel, examined the expectoration, +and found in it a mass of rancid rotten rhymes. This scene lasted above +a quarter of an hour, to the continual amusement of the audience. +Instruments of music were then heard, announcing the festivities in the +great court of the palace. Truffaldino wanted to conduct the Prince to a +balcony from which he could survey them. Tartaglia protested that this +was impossible. Truffaldino, in a rage, threw all the medicines, cups, +and ointments out of window, while the Prince squealed and wept like a +baby. At last Truffaldino carried him off by main force, howling as +though he was being massacred, and bore him on his shoulders to enjoy +the show.</p> + +<p>The third scene was laid in the courtyard of the palace. Leandro +entered, and declared that he had carried out the King's commands; the +people, plunged in grief, but eager to refresh their spirits, were all +masked; he had taken precautions to make many persons assume lugubrious +disguises, in order to augment<a name="page_122" id="page_122"></a> the Prince's melancholy; the hour had +sounded for unbarring the court-gates to the populace.</p> + +<p>Morgana then entered, in the travesty of a ridiculous old woman. Leandro +expressed his astonishment that such an object should have obtained +entrance before the gates were opened. Morgana discovered herself, and +said she had come in that disguise to work the Prince's swift +destruction. Leandro thanked her, and styled her the Queen of +Hypochondria. Morgana drew to one side, and the gates were thrown wide.</p> + +<p>On a terraced balcony, in front of the spectators, sat the King, and +Prince Tartaglia, muffled in furred pelisse, Clarice, Pantalone, the +guards, and afterwards Leandro. The spectacles and games were precisely +such as are related in the fairy story. The people flocked in. There was +a tournament, directed by Truffaldino, who arranged burlesque encounters +for the knights. At every turn, he addressed himself to the balcony, +inquiring of his majesty if the Prince had laughed. The Prince only shed +tears, complaining that the air hurt him, and the noise made his head +ache. He entreated his royal sire to send him back to his warm bed.</p> + +<p>There were two fountains, one of which ran with oil, the other with +wine. Round these the rabble hustled, disputing with vulgar and plebeian +violence. But nothing moved the Prince to laughter. Then Morgana hobbled +out to fill her cruse with oil.<a name="page_123" id="page_123"></a> Truffaldino assailed the hag with a +variety of insults, and finally sent her sprawling with her legs in air. +[These trivialities, taken from the trivial story-book, amused the +audience by their novelty quite as much as the <i>Massre</i>, <i>Campielli</i>, +<i>Baruffe Chiozzotte</i>, and all the other trivial pieces of Goldoni.] On +seeing the old woman's fall, Tartaglia burst into a long sonorous peal +of laughter. Truffaldino gained the prize. The people, relieved of their +anxiety about the Prince's health, laughed uncontrollably. All the court +was glad. Only Leandro and Clarice showed wry faces.</p> + +<p>Morgana, raising herself from the ground in a spasm of fury, abused the +Prince, and hurled the following awful malediction in the true style of +Chiari at his devoted head:<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Open thine ears, barbarian! let my voice assail thy heart!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Nor wall nor mountain stay the sound my words of doom impart.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">As riving thunderbolts descend and split the solid rock,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">So may my curses split thy breast with their tremendous shock.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">As boats against a running tide the tug triumphant tows,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">So let my malediction strong still lead thee by the nose.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Oh awful curse! oh direful doom! To hear it is to die,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Like quadrupeds within the sea, or fish on flowers that lie!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">I call on Pluto, gloomy god, to Pindar winged I pray,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">That thou with the Three Oranges may'st fall in love to-day.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Threats, tears, entreaties now are nought, leaves shaken by the breeze;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Haste to the horrible acquist of the Three Oranges!"</span></td></tr> +</table> +<p><a name="page_124" id="page_124"></a></p> + +<p>Morgana disappeared. The Prince suddenly conceived a firm and resolute +enthusiasm for the love of the Three Oranges. He was led away amid the +confusion and consternation of the court.</p> + +<p>What nonsense! What a mortification for the two poets! The first act of +the fable ended at this point with a loud and universal clapping of +hands.</p> + +<p class="c">ACT THE SECOND.</p> + +<p>In one of the Prince's apartments, Pantalone, beside himself with +despair, describes the terrible effect of the hag's malediction on +Tartaglia. Nothing could be done to calm him down. He had asked his +father for a pair of iron shoes, to walk the world over, and discover +the fatal Oranges. The King had commanded Pantalone, under pain of the +Prince's displeasure, to find him such a pair. The matter was one of the +most pressing urgency. [This motive suited the theatre, and conveyed a +sprightly satire on the dramatic motives then in vogue.]</p> + +<p>Pantalone retired, and the Prince entered with Truffaldino. Tartaglia +expressed impatience at this long delay in bringing him the iron shoes. +Truffaldino asked a number of absurd questions. Tartaglia declared his +intention of going to find the Three Oranges, which, as he heard from +his grandmother, were two thousand miles away, in the power of<a name="page_125" id="page_125"></a> Creonta, +a gigantic witch. Then he called for his armour, and bade Truffaldino +array himself in mail, for he meant him to be his squire. A scene of +excellent buffoonery followed between these highly comical personages, +both of them fitting on corslets, helmets, and huge long swords, with +burlesque military ardour.</p> + +<p>Enter the King, Pantalone, and guards. One of the latter carries a pair +of iron shoes upon a salver. This scene was executed by the four +principal performers with a gravity which made it doubly ridiculous. In +a tone of high tragedy and theatrical majesty the father dissuaded his +son from this perilous adventure. He entreated, threatened, relapsed +into pathos. The Prince, like a man possessed, insisted. His +hypochondria was sure to return, unless he was allowed to set forth. At +last he burst into coarse threats against his father. The King stood +rooted to the ground with amazement and grief. Then he reflected that +this want of filial respect in Tartaglia arose from the bad example of +the new comedies. [In one of Chiari's comedies a son had drawn his sword +to kill his father. Instances of the same description abounded in the +dramas of that day, which I wished to censure.] Nothing would silence +the Prince, till Truffaldino shod him with the iron shoes. The scene +ended with a quartet in dramatic verse, of blubberings, farewells, sighs +and sobs. Tartaglia and Truffaldino took their leave. The<a name="page_126" id="page_126"></a> King fell +fainting on a sofa, and Pantalone called aloud for aromatic vinegar.</p> + +<p>Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella came hurrying upon the stage, rebuking +Pantalone for the clamour he was raising. Pantalone replied that, with a +King in a fainting fit, a Prince gone off on the dangerous adventure of +the Oranges, it was only natural to kick up a row. Brighella answered +that such matters were mere twaddle, like the new comedies, which turned +everything topsy-turvy without reason. The King meanwhile recovered his +senses, and fell to raving in true tragic style. He bewept his son for +dead; ordered the whole court to wear mourning; and shut himself up in a +little cabinet, to end his days under the weight of this crushing +affliction. Pantalone, vowing that he would share the King's +lamentations, collect their mingled tears in one pocket-handkerchief, +and bequeath to coming bards the argument for interminable episodes in +Martellian verse, withdrew in the train of his liege.</p> + +<p>Clarice, Leandro, Brighella gave way to their gladness, and extolled +Morgana to the skies. Whimsical Clarice then insisted on coming to +conditions before she raised Leandro to the throne. In time of war she +was to command the armies. Even if she suffered a defeat, she was sure +to subdue the victor by her charms; when he was drowned in love, and +lulled by her blandishments, she meant to stick a knife into his paunch. +[This was a side hit at Chiari's <i>Attila</i>.]<a name="page_127" id="page_127"></a> Clarice further reserved to +herself the right of distributing court-offices. Brighella, as the +reward of his services, begged to be appointed Master of the King's +Revels. The three personages now disputed upon the choice of different +theatrical diversions. Clarice voted for tragic dramas, with personages +who should throw themselves out of windows and off towers, without +breaking their necks, and such-like miraculous accidents (<i>id est</i>, the +plays of Chiari). Leandro preferred comedies of character (<i>id est</i>, +Goldoni's plays). Brighella recommended the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, as +very fit to yield the public innocent amusement. Clarice and Leandro +flew into a rage. What did they want with stupid buffooneries, rancid +relics of antiquity, unseemly in this enlightened age? Brighella then +began a pathetic speech, commiserating Sacchi's company, without +mentioning it by name, but making his meaning plain enough. He deplored +the misfortunes of an honourable troupe, who had done good service in +their day, but were now downtrodden, and forced to behold the affections +of the public they adored, and whom they had for many years amused, +withdrawn from them. He retired with the applause of that public, who +thoroughly understood the real drift of his discourse.</p> + +<p>The next scene opened in a wilderness. Celio the wizard was discovered +drawing circles. As the protector of Prince Tartaglia, he summoned +Farfarello, a devil, to his aid. Farfarello appeared, and<a name="page_128" id="page_128"></a> with a +formidable voice uttered these Martellian lines:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Hullo! who calls? who drags me forth from earth's drear centre dark?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">A wizard real art thou, or wizard of the stage, thou spark?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">If only of the stage thou art, I need not tell thee then</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">That devils, wizards, sprites, are out of fashion among men."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>[Allusion was here made to the two poets, who wanted to abolish the +masks, magicians, and fiends in writings for the stage.] Celio answered +in prose that he was a real wizard. Farfarello continued:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Well, be thou what thou wilt; yet if thou of the stage may be,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">At least thou might'st respond in verse Martellian to me."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Celio swore at the devil, and told him that he meant to go on talking +prose. Then he inquired whether Truffaldino, whom he had sent to the +court of the King of Diamonds, had done any good, and whether Tartaglia +had been obliged to laugh, and had lost his hypochondria. The devil +answered:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"He laughed; recovered health; but then, Morgana, thy great foe,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">With malediction spoiled thy pains, and wrought a double woe.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">With fury winged and breathless he, both burning cheeks on fire,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Is after the Three Oranges, inflamed with fierce desire.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">With Truffaldin the Prince is sped; Morgana sends a sprite</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">To wait upon the pair and blow them forward in their flight.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">A thousand miles the men have gone, and soon they will descend,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Here by Creonta's fort, half-dead, at their long journey's end."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_128_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_128_sml.jpg" width="263" height="550" alt="BRIGHELLA (1570) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" title="BRIGHELLA (1570) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">BRIGHELLA (1570)<br /></span><span class="caption2"> +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> +</p> + +<p>The devil disappeared. Celio monologised against his mortal foe Morgana, +explaining the great perils of Tartaglia and Truffaldino when they +should arrive at the castle of Creonta on the quest of the fatal<a name="page_129" id="page_129"></a> +Oranges. Then he retired to make the necessary preparations for saving +two persons of high merit and great social utility.</p> + +<p>[Celio, who stood for Goldoni in this piece of nonsense, ought not to +have protected Tartaglia and Truffaldino. I admit the error, which +deserves to be condemned, if a mere dramatic sketch of such a trivial +kind comes within the scope of criticism. At that time Chiari and +Goldoni were enemies and rivals. I wanted Morgana and Celio to +caricature their opposite dramatic styles; and I did not care to protect +myself against censure by multiplying personages more than needful.]</p> + +<p>Tartaglia and Truffaldino entered armed, and proceeding at a tremendous +pace. They had a devil with a pair of bellows following behind, and +blowing their backsides to make them skim along the ground. The devil +ceased to blow and disappeared. They sprawled on the grass at the sudden +cessation of the favouring gale.</p> + +<p>[I am under infinite obligations to Signor Chiari for this burlesque +conception, which produced a very excellent effect upon the stage. In +his dramas, drawn from the neid, Chiari made the Trojans perform long +journeys within the space of a single action, and without the assistance +of my devil and his bellows. This writer, though he pedantically +insulted everybody else who broke the rules, allowed himself singular +privileges. In his tragedy of <i>Ezelino</i>, after<a name="page_130" id="page_130"></a> the tyrant's downfall, a +captain is sent to beleaguer Treviso, and reduce Ezelino's garrison. +This takes place in one scene. In the next scene the same captain +returns victorious, having ridden more than thirty miles, captured the +town, and butchered the tyrant's troops. He delivers a rhetorical +oration, ascribing this miracle to the matchless spirit of his horse! +Tartaglia and Truffaldino had to perform a journey of two thousand +miles, and my device of the devil with the bellows explained their +exploit better than Chiari's charger.]</p> + +<p>The two comedians rose from the ground, half-stunned and astonished at +the mighty wind which wafted them. Their geographical description of the +countries, mountains, rivers, and oceans they had passed, was crammed +with burlesque absurdities. Tartaglia concluded that the Three Oranges +must be nigh at hand. Truffaldino, feeling tired and hungry, asked the +Prince whether he had brought a good stock of cash or bills. Tartaglia +spurned such low considerations and idle questions. Spying a castle on a +hill, and judging it to be Creonta's, he set manfully forward, while +Truffaldino trudged behind in the hope of finding food.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Celio entered, and sought in vain to dissuade the Prince from +his perilous adventure. He described insuperable obstacles fraught with +danger on the way. They were exactly the same as are told to children in +the story-book; but Celio enlarged<a name="page_131" id="page_131"></a> upon them with wide rolling eyes, +and magnified the molehills into mountains. There was an iron gate +rusted with time, a famished dog, a well-rope rotten with damp, a +baker's wife, who, having no broom, was forced to sweep the oven out +with her own dugs. The Prince, unterrified by these appalling objects, +determined to assail the castle. Celio, seeing his mind made up, gave +him a magic ointment to smear the bolt of the gate, a loaf to throw the +dog, and a bundle of brooms to give the baker's wife. The rope he bade +them hang out in the sun to dry. Then he added that, if by lucky chance +they should acquire the Oranges, they were to leave the castle at once, +and be mindful to open none of the Oranges except in the immediate +neighbourhood of some fountain. Finally, he promised, if they escaped +the perils of their theft, to send the same devil with the bellows, to +blow them home again. Then he recommended them to Heaven and left them. +Tartaglia and Truffaldino, carrying the articles provided by Celio, went +forward on their journey.</p> + +<p>Here a tent was lowered, which represented the pavilion of the King of +Diamonds.—What an irregularity!—Nay, what misapplied criticism!—Two +short scenes followed, one between Smeraldina and Brighella, rejoicing +over the loss of Tartaglia; the other with Morgana, who bade Brighella +inform Clarice and Leandro that Celio was assisting the Prince. This she +had learned from the devil Draghinazzo.<a name="page_132" id="page_132"></a> Then she bade Smeraldina follow +her to the lake, where Tartaglia and Truffaldino would certainly arrive +if they escaped Creonta's clutches. Some new snare might then be devised +to entrap them. The parley broke up in confusion.</p> + +<p>The next scene disclosed a courtyard in Creonta's castle. [I was able to +observe, upon the opening of this scene, with the grossly absurd objects +it contained, what an immense power the marvellous exerts over the human +mind. A gate constructed with an iron grating, a famished dog which +howled and roamed around, a well with a coil of rope beside it, a +baker's wife who swept her oven with two enormously long breasts, kept +the whole theatre in silent wonder and attention quite as effectually as +the most thrilling scenes in the works of our two poets.] Outside the +grating appeared Tartaglia and Truffaldino, engaged in smearing the +bolt; and lo! the portal swung upon its hinges. Great miracle! They +passed in. The dog barked and leapt upon them. They threw him the bread +and he was still. Great portent! Truffaldino, trembling with fright, +then hung the cord up to dry, and gave the baker's wife her brooms, +while the Prince entered the castle and came out again, capering for joy +and holding the three enormous Oranges he had seized.</p> + +<p>The moving accidents of this scene did not end so suddenly. The sky +darkened, the earth quaked, and loud claps of thunder were heard. +Tartaglia handed<a name="page_133" id="page_133"></a> the Oranges to Truffaldino, who kept trembling like an +aspen leaf. Then there issued from the castle an awful voice, which was +Creonta's own. She spoke as the story-book dictates:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"O baker's wife, O baker's wife, abide not my just ire!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Take those two fellows by the feet, and cast them in the fire."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The baker's wife, following the fable with equal fidelity, replied thus:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Not I! How many months have passed, how many months and years,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">While with my milk-white breasts I sweep, and waste my life in tears!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Thou, cruel dame, a single broom ne'er gav'st me at my need;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">These brought a bundle; let them go in peace; I will not heed."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Creonta cried:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"O rope, O rope! hang up the knaves!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And the rope, still observing the text, answered:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Hard heart! hast thou forgot</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Those many years, those many months, thou left'st me here to rot?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">By thee was I abandoned long in damp to waste away;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">These stretched me to the sun; let them go forth in peace, I say."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Creonta howled aloud:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Dog, faithful watch-dog! rend and tear those wretches limb from limb."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The dog retorted:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Nay, why, Creonta, should I rend poor fellows at thy whim?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">So many years, so many months, I've served thee without food;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">These filled my belly full; thy cries shall not control my mood."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_134" id="page_134"></a></p> + +<p>Creonta, again:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Portal of iron, close! Grind yon base knaves and thieves to dust!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>And the gate:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Cruel Creonta! vainly now your threats on me are thrust!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">So many years, so many months, in rust and woe to pine,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">You left me here; they oiled my bolts; no ingrate's heart is mine."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>It was very funny to see Tartaglia's and Truffaldino's mock astonishment +at the fine flow of the poet's eloquence. They stood dumbfounded to hear +bakers' wives, and ropes, and dogs, and gates talking in Martellian +verse. Then they thanked those courteous objects for the kindness shown +them.</p> + +<p>The audience were hugely delighted with these puerilities, and I confess +that I joined heartily in their laughter, half-ashamed the while at +being forced to relish a pack of infantile absurdities, which took me +back to the days of my babyhood.</p> + +<p>The giantess Creonta now appeared upon the stage. She was of towering +stature, and attired in a vast sweeping <i>andrienne</i>. Tartaglia and +Truffaldino fled before her horrible aspect. Then she gave vent to her +despair in Martellian verses, not forgetting to invoke Pindar, whom +Signor Chiari treated complacently as his own twin-brother:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Woe to you, faithless servants! Woe, false rope and dog and gate!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Base baker's wife, I curse thee too! Ye traitors found too late!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Alas! Sweet Oranges! Ah me! Who stole you unaware?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Dear Oranges, my hope, my soul, my love, my life, my care!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Woe's me! I burst with bitter rage; there's boiling in my breast</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Chaos, the Elements, the Sun, the Rainbow, and the rest!<a name="page_135" id="page_135"></a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">I scarce can stand against it all: O Jove, the Thunderer, send</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Thy lightnings on my pate, and me down to the slippers rend!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Help to me! Ho! Who helps me? Fiends! Who lifts me from this world?—</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">A friendly thunderbolt descends! I burn, I'm soothed, I'm hurled."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>[These last verses were no bad parody of both Chiari's sentiments and +style of writing.] A thunderbolt fell and reduced the giantess to ashes. +Here ended the second act, which had been followed with more marked +applause than the first. My bold experiment began to seem less culpable +than it had done at the commencement.</p> + +<p class="c">ACT THE THIRD.</p> + +<p>The first scene opened near Fata Morgana's lake. There was a great tree +visible and underneath it a large stone seat. Several rocks and boulders +were strewn about the meadow. Smeraldina, who talked the jargon of an +Italianised Turk, was standing at the brink of the lake impatiently +awaiting the fairy's orders, and calling out. Morgana rose from the +surface, and began to relate a journey she had made to hell, where she +learned that Tartaglia and Truffaldino, victorious in their achievement +of the Three Oranges, were coming by the help of Celio and the devil +with the bellows. Smeraldina soundly abused the fairy for her want of +skill in magic. Morgana bade her spare her breath. Owing to precautions +she had taken, Truffaldino would reach the spot where<a name="page_136" id="page_136"></a> they were +standing, separately from the Prince. Thirst and hunger, sent by +wizard's arts, should annoy him; and since the Oranges were in his +custody, great catastrophes would take place. Then she consigned two +bedevilled pins to Smeraldina, adding that she would see a fair girl +sitting on the stone beneath the tree. She was to contrive to fix one of +these needles in the girl's hair, whereupon the latter would become a +dove, and Smeraldina was to take her place upon the stone. Tartaglia +should marry her and make her Queen. During the night, while sleeping +with her husband, she was to fix the other needle in his hair, whereupon +he would become a beast, and the throne would be left vacant for Clarice +and Leandro. The Moorish woman raised some difficulties, which Morgana +easily disposed of. Then, observing Truffaldino approaching with the +infernal blast behind him, they withdrew to mature their plans.</p> + +<p>Truffaldino entered, carrying the Three Oranges in a wallet. The devil +with the bellows disappeared, and Truffaldino related how the Prince had +tripped up a little while back, and that he must wait for him. He seated +himself. Intolerable thirst and hunger tormented him. At last he +resolved to eat one of the Oranges. But conscience stung him; he +declaimed in tragic style; then, driven mad by thirst, made up his mind +to risk the sacrifice. After all, he reflected, the damage could be made +good with two farthings. So he proceeded to cut open an<a name="page_137" id="page_137"></a> Orange. Oh, +what a surprise! There issued from its rind a girl clothed in white, +who, following the text of the story-book, spoke immediately:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Give me to drink! I'm fainting! Ah! I'm dying! Quick, my dear!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Of thirst I'm dying! Oh, poor me! Quick, cruel man! Death's here!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>She fell upon the earth oppressed with mortal languor. Truffaldino, who +had forgotten Celio's directions about opening the Oranges within reach +of water, being besides a fool by nature, and not noticing the lake in +his distraction, thought he could not do better than to slice another of +the Oranges and quench the dying girl's thirst with the juice of that. +Accordingly, he went, like a donkey, and sliced another Orange, out of +which there appeared a second lovely female, exclaiming:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Woe's me! Of thirst I'm dying! Ho! Give me to drink! I rave!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Cruel! I die of thirst! Ah God! 'Twill kill me! Lord! oh save!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>She sank down exhausted like the other. Truffaldino flung himself about +in fits of desperation. He roared, screamed, leapt like a maniac, while +one of the girls spoke as follows, in an expiring voice:</p> + +<p class="r">"Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'm dying! I am dead!"</p> + +<p>Then she breathed her last, and the other continued:</p> + +<p class="r">"I'm dying! Barbarous stars! Ah me! Who'll soothe my burning head?"</p> + +<p>Then she too breathed her last. Truffaldino wept abundantly, and +murmured over them words of impassioned<a name="page_138" id="page_138"></a> tenderness. He decided to cut +the third Orange in the hope of saving both girls alive. While he was +upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped +him. Truffaldino took to his heels and left the Orange lying on the +grass.</p> + +<p>The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he +poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of +the girls, soar beyond the powers of language. The masked actors of our +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll +and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, movements, and <i>lazzi</i> +so delightful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could +surpass them.</p> + +<p>After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia caught sight of two +country bumpkins passing by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, +and bade the fellows carry them away. Then the Prince turned to gaze +upon the third Orange. To his utter amazement it had swelled to a +portentous size, and was as large now as the biggest pumpkin. Seeing the +lake at hand, and bearing Celio's injunctions in mind, he thought the +place convenient for cutting the fruit open. This he did with his long +sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in +robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the +story-book by speaking as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Who drew me from my living core? Ah God! Of thirst I die!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!"</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_139" id="page_139"></a></p> + +<p class="nind">The Prince understood upon the spot the meaning of Celio's precepts. But +he was embarrassed to find any vessel capable of holding water. The case +did not admit of ceremony. So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to +the lake, filled it with water, and making a thousand excuses for the +improvised cup, presented it to the fair damsel, who slaked her thirst, +and stood up in full vigour, thanking him for his timely assistance.</p> + +<p>She said that she was the daughter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; +Creonta, by enchantment, had enclosed her, together with her two +sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as +probable as the circumstance itself. A scene of comical love-making +followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife. +The capital was close at hand. The Princess had no decent clothes to +wear. The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, +while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to +attend her. That settled, they parted with sighs.</p> + +<p>Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered. She +saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake. Of course she +proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the +story-tale. She dropped her Italianate Turkish. Morgana had put a Tuscan +devil into her tongue. Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak +with more complete correctness. Advancing to the young<a name="page_140" id="page_140"></a> Princess, whose +name was Ninetta, she began to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her +hair, came to close quarters and betrayed her. One of the magic pins was +promptly stuck in the girl's head. Ninetta took the form of a dove and +flew away. Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the +Court.</p> + +<p>These miraculous occurrences, together with the childish simplicity of +the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the +audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses +in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity. They +followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest +interest in watching each step in the development upon the stage of such +a trifle.</p> + +<p>Then, to the music of a march, the King of Diamonds entered, with the +Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the Court. On +beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride whom he had come to fetch +away, Tartaglia flew into the wildest astonishment and fury. Smeraldina, +so altered by Morgana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she +was the Princess Ninetta. Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque +exhibition of his misery. Leandro, Clarice, and Brighella, suspecting +the real source of the mystery, rejoiced among themselves. The King of +Diamonds gravely and majestically enjoined upon his son the duty of +keeping his princely word and<a name="page_141" id="page_141"></a> marrying the Moor. The Prince submitted +with a wry face and new demonstrations of comical grief. Then the band +struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the marriage in +the palace.</p> + +<p>Truffaldino meanwhile remained behind in the royal kitchen, to the +charge of which Tartaglia had appointed him, after condoning his +mistakes about the Oranges. He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a +new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody.</p> + +<p>[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, who were present in the +theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did +their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a +commotion. They did not succeed, however. I have already said that Celio +represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari. The former of these gentlemen +had served his apprenticeship at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked +of forensic idioms. Chiari plumed himself upon his sublime pindaric +flights of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never +was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who +surpassed him in extravagant conceits and bombast.</p> + +<p>Well, Celio and Morgana, animated by mutual hostility, met together in +this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was +spoken. I must first remind my readers that parodies miss their mark +unless they are surcharged; and, keeping<a name="page_142" id="page_142"></a> this in view, I beg them to +look with indulgence upon a caprice, which was begotten by jesting +humour, without any animosity against two worthy individuals.]</p> + +<div class="blockquott"><p><span class="smcap">Celio</span> (<i>entering with vehemence, to Morgana</i>). "Wicked enchantress! +I have discovered all your base deceits. But Pluto will assist me. +Infamous beldame, accursed witch!"</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Morgana.</span> "What do you mean, you charlatan of a wizard? Do not +provoke me. I will give you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which +shall make you die foaming."</p> + +<p>C. "To me, rash witch? You shall get tit for tat from me. I defy +you in Martellian verse. Here's at you!<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"It shall be always held a vain injurious assault,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> To wit these, and whatever else, malignant, fury-fraught</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Spells by Morgana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought:</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>M. "Oh, the bad verses! Come on, you twopenny-halfpenny magician!</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"First shall the glorious rays of gold which beam from Phœbus' breast</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Be turned to lumps of vulgar lead, and East become the West;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> First shall the darkling moon on high, her silver beams so bright</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Change with the glimmering stars, and lose the empire of the night;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> The murmuring streams that purling roll along their crystal bed,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>C. "O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder!</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"On the main paragraph I'll win the verdict in this suit,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Which by the first preamble shall be made to bear its fruit:</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Princess Ninetta, changed by you into a dove, shall be</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Reconstituted in her rights and due estate by me:<a name="page_143" id="page_143"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> And through the second paragraph, which follows from the first,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> While Smeraldina, who can claim no hearing from the court,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> By mere endorsement shall be burned, to give the people sport."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>M. "Oh, the stupid, stupid versifier! Listen to me, now. See if I +don't terrify you.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"On flying plumes soars Icarus, and climbs the heaven with pride,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Treads on the clouds, then stoops, rash youth, and skims along the tide.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> O'er Pelion piled, see Ossa frown, Olympus on her back;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> This wrought the Titans, impious brood, to work high heaven wrack.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> But Icarus erelong must sink, and drown in salt sea-spume;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Jove's bolt will hurl the Titans bold in ashes to their tomb.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Clarice shall ascend the throne, false Mage, in thy despite;</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"> Tartaglia, like Acton, mock the antlered deer in flight."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>C. (<i>aside</i>). "She is trying to beat me down with poetical bombast. +If she thinks to shut me up in that way she is quite mistaken.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left">"I will not leave one plea unturned without demurrers sound,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">And 'gainst your swelling lies will file a protest firm and round."</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>M. "The realm of Diamonds avoid! Let lawful monarchs reign!"</p> + +<p class="r"> +(<i>Taking her departure.</i>)<br /> +</p> + +<p>C. (<i>crying after her</i>). "And I'll claim costs, stay execution, +file my bills again."</p> + +<p class="r"> +(<i>Here Celio went in.</i>)<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The last scene was laid in the royal kitchen. Never did mortal eyes +behold a more miserable king's kitchen than this. The remainder of the +performance followed the old story-book precisely; nevertheless, the +spectators watched it with sustained attention. The parody turned upon +some trivialities of detail and some basenesses of character in dramas +written by the two poets. Excessive poverty, dramatic impropriety, and +meanness gave the satire point.<a name="page_144" id="page_144"></a></p> + +<p>Truffaldino appeared spitting a joint. He related how, there being no +turnjack in the kitchen, he was obliged to watch the revolutions of the +spit himself. While thus engaged, a dove alighted on the window-sill, +and a conversation took place between him and the bird. The dove had +said: "Good morning, cook of the kitchen." He had replied: "Good +morning, white dove." She continued: "I pray to Heaven that you may fall +asleep, that the roast may burn, so that the Moor, that ugly mug, may +not be able to eat." A mighty slumber overcame him; he fell asleep, and +the roast was burned to cinders. This accident happened twice. In a +precious hurry he set the third joint before the fire. Then the dove +reappeared, and the conversation was repeated. Again the mighty slumber +overcame his senses. Truffaldino, honest fellow, did all he could to +keep awake. His <i>lazzi</i> were in the highest degree facetious. But he +could not resist the spell, began to nod, and the flames reduced the +third roast to ashes.</p> + +<p>You must ask the audience why and wherefore this scene afforded +exquisite amusement.</p> + +<p>Pantalone entered scolding, woke up Truffaldino; said that the King was +in a fury; soup, boiled meat, and liver had been eaten, but the roast +had not appeared at table. [All honour to a poet's daring! This outdid +the lowness of Goldoni's squabbles about a brace of pumpkins in his +<i>Chiozzotte</i>.] Truffaldino told the strange occurrence with the dove. +Pantalone<a name="page_145" id="page_145"></a> dismissed it as an idle story. But the dove at this point +reappeared and repeated her ominous speech. Truffaldino was on the point +of going off into a doze when Pantalone roused him, and they both gave +chase to the dove, which flew fluttering about the kitchen.</p> + +<p>The attempts to catch the dove, made by these facetious personages, +amused the audience above measure. At last they caught it, placed it on +a table, and began to stroke its feathers. Then they detected the +enchanted pin stuck into a knot upon its head. Truffaldino drew the pin +forth, and behold the bird was transformed into the Princess Ninetta!</p> + +<p>A scene of stupors and astonishments. His Majesty the King of Diamonds +arrived; pompously, with sceptre in hand, he rebuked Truffaldino for the +non-appearance of the roast-meat at his royal table, whereby he had been +put to shame before illustrious guests. The Prince followed, and +recognised his lost Ninetta. Joy bereft him of his wits. Ninetta related +what had befallen her; the King remained lost in amazement. Then the +Moor and the rest of the Court came crowding into the kitchen, to find +their monarch. He, with an air of haughty dignity, bade the princely +couple retire into the scullery. He chose the hearth for his throne, and +took his seat there with majestic sternness. The courtiers assembled +round him; and as it happens in the story-book, the King now performed +his part of ultimate adjudicator. What, he inquired, would be proper +punishments for<a name="page_146" id="page_146"></a> the several parties incriminated in these occurrences? +Various opinions were offered. Then the King in his fury condemned +Smeraldina to the flames. Celio appeared. He unmasked the hidden +culpability of Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella. They were sentenced to +cruel banishment. The two Princes were finally summoned from the +scullery, and universal gladness crowned the termination of this high +act of justice.</p> + +<p>Celio warned Truffaldino that it was his most solemn duty to keep +Martellian verses, those inventions of the devil, out of all dishes +served up at the royal table. His function was to make his sovereigns +laugh.</p> + +<p>The play wound up with that marriage festival which all children know by +heart—the banquet of preserved radishes, skinned mice, stewed cats, and +so forth. And inasmuch as the journalists were wont in those days to +blow their trumpets of applause over every new work which appeared from +Signor Goldoni's pen, we concluded with an epilogue, in which the +spectators were besought to use all their influence with these +journalists, in order that a crumb of eulogy might be bestowed upon our +rigmarole of mystical absurdities.</p> + +<p>It was not my fault that a courteous public called for the repetition of +this fantastic parody on many successive evenings. The theatre was +crowded, and Sacchi's company began to breathe again after their long +discouragement.<a name="page_147" id="page_147"></a></p> + +<h3>VI.</h3> + +<p>Such is Gozzi's own account of his first acted fable.</p> + +<p>The public had been invited to sit as umpires in the controversy between +him and their two favourite playwrights. They had been requested to +suspend their judgment before finally pronouncing sentence against the +<i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. The result of the experiment was a decided +triumph for the author of the <i>Three Oranges</i>, for Sacchi's company, and +for the Granelleschi. But, what was more important, Gozzi, at the +commencement of his forty-first year, now discovered himself to be +possessed of dramatic ability in no common degree, and of a peculiar +kind. The success of the <i>Three Oranges</i> suggested the notion that use +might be made of fairy tales, not only for maintaining the impromptu +style of Italian Comedy, and amusing the public with piquant novelties, +but also for conveying moral lessons under the form of allegory, and +mingling tragic pathos with the humours of the masks. Accordingly Gozzi +composed a succession of similar pieces, gradually suppressing the +burlesque elements, enlarging the sphere of didactic satire, pathos, and +dramatic action, relying less upon the mechanical attractions of +transformation scenes and <i>lazzi</i>, writing the principal parts in<a name="page_148" id="page_148"></a> full, +and versifying a considerable portion of the dialogue.</p> + +<p><i>Il Corvo</i> was produced at Milan in the summer of 1761, and at Venice in +October 1761. <i>Il R Cervo</i> appeared in January 1762; <i>Turandot</i> perhaps +in the same month; <i>La Donna Serpente</i> in October 1762; <i>Zobeide</i> in +November 1763; <i>I Pitocchi Fortunati</i> in November 1764; <i>Il Mostro +Turchino</i> in December of the same year; <i>L'Augellino Belverde</i> in +January 1765; <i>Zeim, R de'Geni</i> in November 1765. These, with <i>L'Amore +delle Tre Melarancie</i>, form the ten <i>Fiabe.</i> After the production of +<i>Zeim</i>, Gozzi judged that the vein had been worked out, and turned his +attention to adaptations of Spanish dramas for the stage.</p> + +<p>The occasional origin of the <i>Fiabe</i>, on which I have already insisted, +accounts for their want of plastic unity, their jumble of oddly +contrasted ingredients. They were not the spontaneous outgrowth of +artistic genius seeking to fuse the real and the fantastic in an ideal +world of the imagination; but monsters begotten by an accident, which +the creative originality of a highly-gifted intellect turned to +excellent account. Gozzi's predilection for burlesque, his satirical +propensity and fondness for moralising on the foibles of his age, found +easy vent in the peculiar form he had discovered by a lucky chance. But +these motives were not subordinated to the higher coherence of +imaginative poetry. His fancy, command<a name="page_149" id="page_149"></a> of dramatic situations, +intuition into character, rhetorical eloquence, and inexhaustible +inventiveness expatiated in the region of caprice and wonder. Yet we do +not feel that he has succeeded in harmonising these divers elements with +the spiritual instinct of an Aristophanes or a Shakespeare. Probably he +did not seek to do so. The numerous reflections on the <i>Fiabe</i>, which +are scattered up and down his works, prove that art for art's sake was +far from being the leading consideration in their production. They +remained with him pastimes, which had partly a practical, partly a +didactic purpose—convenient vehicles for indulging his literary bias +and airing his ethical opinions—serviceable ammunition in the battle +against men whom he regarded as impostors and pretenders—excellent +means of putting money into the purses of his protegs, the actors, and +of keeping himself in favour with his friends, the actresses. To the +last they retained something of the <i>punctilio</i>, which, as he says, +inspired him at the outset.</p> + +<h3>VII.</h3> + +<p>In all his <i>Fiabe Gozzi</i> employed the four Masks and the Servetta, +Smeraldina.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> He not unfrequently wrote the whole part of a mask, so +that nothing remained<a name="page_150" id="page_150"></a> for impromptu acting but "gag" and <i>lazzi</i>. +Truffaldino's rle, however, was invariably left to improvisation; +perhaps in compliment to Sacchi's talents and his prominent position. +The other masks were dealt with as Gozzi thought best. When the dialogue +acquired dramatic or satirical importance, he wrote it out for them. On +ordinary occasions he intrusted the whole or a considerable portion of +each scene to their extempore ability, only indicating the movement of +the plot in a <i>scenario</i>. The parts of the masks were treated in dialect +and prose. The serious actors, who had to sustain the scheme of the +fable, as lovers, magicians, queens, fairies, good and evil spirits, +spoke in Tuscan blank verse, occasionally heightened by the use of +Martellian rhymed couplets at thrilling moments of the action. Thus it +will be seen that the text of Gozzi's plays offers every condition of +dramatic utterance, from mere stage-directions, through carefully +dictated prose, up to rhetorical soliloquies and dialogues in verse of +several descriptions. His dexterity as a playwright is shown in the tact +with which he employed these various resources.</p> + +<p>The handling of the five fixed characters is masterly throughout. +Whether Gozzi writes their lines or only indicates a theme for their +impromptu declamation, he shows himself in perfect sympathy with an +intelligent and practised group of actors. The humour of the man comes +out to best advantage in this department.<a name="page_151" id="page_151"></a> His language is most +idiomatic and spontaneous here. Here too we find his raciest characters. +Powerfully conceived and boldly projected, each comic personage breathes +and moves with vivid realism. Study of the Masks, as Gozzi treated them, +makes us feel what a wonderful thing of plastic beauty the <i>Commedia +dell' Arte</i> must have been. Here, in a work of carefully considered +literary art, we have its long tradition and its manifold capacities +preserved for us. Reading a <i>Fiaba</i> is like opening a bottle of rare old +wine. The bouquet of the fragrant vintage exhales into the chamber, and +we taste the bloom of bygone summers. But the very conditions under +which Gozzi exhibited this side of his dramatic mastery render +translation impossible. In a translation the colours of the dialects are +lost. The gradations of style, passing from a laconically worded +<i>scenario</i> through half-dialogue into elaborated scenes, are bound to +disappear. Tuned to a foreign language, our inward eye and ear fail to +reconstruct the <i>lazzi</i>, which rendered this part of the drama humorous. +That is why Schiller's <i>Turandot</i> is inferior to Gozzi's; and yet, when +Schiller selected this piece for the German stage, he showed a right +artistic instinct. It is the one in which the fable predominates, and +can best be separated from the humours of the Masks.</p> + +<p>I dare not enlarge here upon the variety of shades and complexions given +to the five fixed types of<a name="page_152" id="page_152"></a> character, according as the plot demanded +more or less of serious action from the several personages. This inquiry +would be interesting, since it reveals their singular elasticity beneath +a master's touch. It must, however, be left to amateurs of curiosities +in art. The development of the subject in detail implies previous +acquaintance with the ten <i>Fiabe</i>, and would involve a lengthy +dissertation. Some general points may, nevertheless, be indicated.</p> + +<p>Pantalone retains marked psychological outlines under all his +transformations. He is the good-humoured, honourable, simple-hearted +Venetian of the middle class, advanced in years, Polonius-like, with +stores of worldly wisdom, strong natural affections, and healthy moral +impulses. Gozzi has drawn the character in a favourable light, purging +away those baser associations which gathered round it during two +centuries of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. His Pantalone recalls the +Cortesani, described in a chapter of the Memoirs; but a touch of +senility has been added, which lends comic weakness to the type.</p> + +<p>Tartaglia stammers, and preserves something of the knave in his +composition, burnished with Neapolitan abandonment to appetite and +brazen disregard for moral rectitude. This general conception of the +character explains the transformation of Tartaglia, in the <i>Three +Oranges</i>, into the Tartaglia of the <i>Augellino Belverde</i>.</p> + +<p>Brighella is an intriguing, self-interested individuality,<a name="page_153" id="page_153"></a> trying to +turn the world round his fingers, and not succeeding, or succeeding only +by some lucky accident. He frequently assumes the form of a simpleton +befooled by his short-sighted cunning.</p> + +<p>Truffaldino blossoms before us as an ubiquitous and chameleon-like +creature of caprice and humour; the liberal, carnal, careless +boon-companion; the genial rogue and witty fool; bred in the kitchen; +uttering words of wisdom from his belly rather than his brains; pliable, +fit for all occasions; a prodigious coward; trusty in his own degree; +taking the mould of fate and circumstance, adapting himself to external +conditions; understanding nothing of the higher sentiments and awful +destinies which rule the drama; but turning up at its conclusion with a +rogue's own luck in the place he started from, and on which his heart is +set, the larder. He runs like an inexpressibly comic thread of staring +scarlet through the warp and woof of Gozzi's many-coloured loom. The +most serious use made of him is when, in the <i>Augellino Belverde</i>, for +purposes of pungent parody, Gozzi invests him with the vizard of a +Machiavellian egotist. At the close of that supremely caustic scene, +Truffaldino drops his disguise, and willingly assumes the rle of a +domestic buffoon. Our author's trenchant irony, that "smile on the lips +with venom in the heart," of which Goldoni wrote so lucidly, that touch +of bitterness which renders him akin to Swift, was displayed by a stroke +of genius here. Truffaldino,<a name="page_154" id="page_154"></a> the whelp whose antics dispelled +melancholy, becomes for once in Gozzi's hands a stick wherewith to beat +the dog of modern science.</p> + +<p>Smeraldina, under her numerous manifestations, maintains the lineaments +of vulgar womanhood. Sometimes a good mother or nurse, sometimes a +shifty waiting-woman, sometimes a blustering amazon, sometimes a bad +wife or would-be virgin, she never soars into the regions of ideality, +and mates eventually with Truffaldino, if she escapes from being burned +for blundering atrocities upon the road to commonplace felicity.</p> + +<p>With these fixed characters, which form the most delightful ingredients +of the <i>Fiabe</i>, Gozzi interweaves a fairy-tale, abounding in magic, +flights of capricious fancy, marvels, transformations, perilous +adventures. There is always a conflict of beneficent and malignant +supernatural powers, ending in the triumph of good over evil, the reward +of innocence, and the punishment of crime. There is a fate to which the +heroes and heroines are subject, and which can only be overcome by +protracted trials, by patience through dark years, by sustained +endurance, terrible struggles, and faith in supernatural protectors. +Thus the texture of the <i>Fiabe</i> is similar to that of our pantomimes, +except that in the former the fairy-tale and the harlequinade are +interwoven instead of being disconnected.</p> + +<p>The fairy-tale is always treated in a serious spirit.<a name="page_155" id="page_155"></a> The didactic +allegory, on which the author set such store, and which he regarded as +the main purpose of his art, finds expression here. The fairy-tale is +romantic, pathetic, heroic, sometimes acutely tragic. Gozzi interests +himself in the creatures of fantastic fiction, and forces them to utter +tones which vibrate in our entrails. Some scenes, written under the high +pressure of dramatic œstrum, stir tears by their poignancy, by the +accents of grief and anguish on the lips of <i>fantoccini.</i> It is a +singular species of art, soaring by spasms and short gasps to dramatic +sublimity, casting flashes of electric light on human nature in the garb +of puppets, then passing away by abrupt transitions into mechanical +improbabilities and burlesque absurdities—an art for marionettes rather +than living actors, yet withal so vivid that able representation on the +stage might translate it to our senses as an allegory of the masquerade +world in which man lives:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="right"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"We are such stuff</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">As dreams are made of, and our little life</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Is rounded with a sleep."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The Masks take part in the action, generally as subordinate personages, +sometimes as persons of the first rank, never as mere accessories to +move laughter, nor as a stationary chorus. In this way the comic element +is ingeniously connected with the tragic and didactic. This sounds like +a contradiction of what I have said above, about the want of plastic +unity in<a name="page_156" id="page_156"></a> Gozzi's work. Yet the two apparently contradictory statements +are true together. Gozzi interweaves the wires of humour and romance +with remarkable skill. But he does not fuse them into one poetic +substance. He fails to create an ideal world in which both tragedy and +comedy are necessary to the spiritual order, as are the systole and +diastole of the heart to an organised being. Though interlaced, they +stand apart, each upon its own clearly defined basis. You pass from the +one sphere to the other, and have sudden shocks communicated to your +sensibility. There is a lack of atmosphere in the wonderfully brilliant +and exciting picture, an absence of spontaneous transition from this +mood to that, a suggestion that the playwright's sympathies have been +touched to diverse issues by divers portions of his task. Very probably, +the atmosphere, which I have indicated as wanting in the <i>Fiabe</i>, may +have been communicated by the interaction of the members of Sacchi's +troupe upon the stage at Venice. But this is only tantamount to +admitting that Gozzi understood the theatre. It does not prove that he +was a dramatic poet in the highest sense of that term. Had he been this, +we should have submitted to his magic wand while reading him. That is +precisely what we wish to do, and cannot always actually do. His <i>Fiabe</i> +remain stupendous sketches in a style of audacious and suggestive +originality. They are not the inevitable products of creative genius, +fusing and informing—the children<a name="page_157" id="page_157"></a> of imagination, "dead things with +inbreathed sense able to pierce."</p> + +<p>Had Gozzi been a great spontaneous poet, or a consummate artist, this +invention of the dramatised <i>Fiaba</i> might have become one of the rarest +triumphs of artistic fancy. It is difficult to state precisely what his +work misses for the achievement of complete success. Perhaps we shall +arrive at a conclusion best by inquiry into points of style and details +of execution.</p> + +<h3>VIII.</h3> + +<p>By singular irony of accident, the author of the <i>Fiabe</i>, though he +dealt so much in the fantastic, the marvellous, and the pathetic, was +far more a humorist and satirist than a poet in the truer sense. Of +sublime imagery, lyrical sweetness or intensity, verbal melody and +felicity of phrase, there is next to nothing in his plays. The style, +except in the parts written for the Masks, is coarse and slovenly, the +versification hasty, the language diffuse, commonplace, and often +incorrect. Yet we everywhere discern a lively sense of poetical +situations and the power of rendering them dramatically. The resources +of Gozzi's inventive faculty seem inexhaustible; and our imagination is +excited by the energy with which he forces the creations of his +capricious fancy on our intelligence. The passionate volcanic talent of +the<a name="page_158" id="page_158"></a> man almost compensates for his lack of the finer qualities of +genius.</p> + +<p>What he wants is not the power of poetical conception, but the power of +poetical projection; and the defects of his work seem due to the partly +contemptuous, partly didactic, mood in which he undertook them. It would +be difficult to surpass the pathos of Jennaro's devotion to his brother +in <i>Il Corvo</i>, or the dramatic intensity of Armilla's self-sacrifice at +the conclusion of that play. <i>Turandot</i> is conceived throughout +poetically. The melancholy high-strung passion of Prince Calaf passes +through it like a thread of silver. In the <i>R Cervo</i>, Angela has equal +beauty. Her love of the man in the king, and her discernment of her real +husband under his transformation into the person of a decrepit beggar, +are humanly and allegorically touching. Cherestani, the Persian fairy, +who loves a mortal in spite of the doom attending her devotion, is +admirably presented at the opening of <i>La Donna Serpente</i>. The +subterranean labyrinth of lost women, degraded to monstrous shapes by +their tyrannical seducer, in <i>Zobeide</i>, merits comparison with one of +the <i>bolge</i> in Dante's Hell. Its horror is almost appalling. The love of +Barbarina for her brother in <i>L'Augellino Belverde</i>, which melts the +stony hardness of the girl's heart, and changes her from a vain +worldling to a woman capable of facing any danger, is no less romantic +than Jennaro's love in <i>Il Corvo</i>. The picture of<a name="page_159" id="page_159"></a> Pantalone and his +daughter Sarch, in <i>Zeim R de' Genj</i>, passing their quiet life aloof +from cities on the borders of an enchanted forest, touches our +imagination with something of the charm we find in <i>Cymbeline</i>. <i>Il +Mostro Turchino</i> is romantically passionate and highly-wrought. It seems +to call for music, such music as Mozart invented for the <i>Zauberflte</i>. +Or, since Gozzi had little in common with the gracious spirit of Mozart, +we might wish that this wild fable had fallen into the hands of Verdi. +The composer of <i>Ada</i> would have given it the wings of immortality. +Gulindi, by the way, in this last fable, is a terrible portrait of the +Messalina-Potiphar's-wife.</p> + +<p>In selecting these passages for emphatic praise, I wish to call +attention to the power and beauty of Gozzi's conception. Not as finished +literature, but as the raw material of dramatic presentation, are they +admirable. They need the life of action, the adjuncts of scenery, the +illusion of the stage. And for this reason it seems to me that, by means +of prudent adaptation, the <i>Fiabe</i> might furnish excellent <i>libretti</i> to +composers of opera. This is a hint to musicians of the school of +Wagner—to that rare dramatic genius, Boito! Could the Masks be revived, +and their burlesque parts be spoken on the stage, while orchestra and +song were reserved for the serious elements of the fable, I feel +convinced that a new and fascinating work of art might still be evolved<a name="page_160" id="page_160"></a> +from such pieces as <i>La Donna Serpente</i> and <i>Il Mostro Turchino</i>.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_160_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_160_sml.jpg" width="318" height="550" alt="IL DOTTORE (1653) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" title="IL DOTTORE (1653) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">IL DOTTORE (1653)<br /></span><span class="caption2"> +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> +</p> + +<p>But this is a digression, which has for its object to indicate the +region in which Gozzi's chief merit as a playwright seems to me to lie. +The satire, which forms so prominent a feature in the <i>Fiabe</i>, impairs +their artistic harmony. So far as this is literary (in the <i>Tre +Melarancie</i>, <i>Il Corvo</i>, and elsewhere), it has lost its interest at the +present day. So far as it is philosophical and didactic (as in +<i>L'Augellino Belverde</i> and <i>Zeim</i>), it tends to break the unity of +effect by the author's over-earnestness. So far as it is purely ethical, +as in <i>Zobeide</i>, Gozzi loads his palette with colours too sinister and +sombre. Perhaps, the political touches of satire in <i>I Pitocchi +Fortunati</i> are the lightest and most genially used. Gozzi, as we have +seen already, was a confirmed conservative. An optimist as regarded the +institutions, religion, and social manners of the past, he was a bitter +pessimist in all that concerned the changes going on around him. The new +literature, the new philosophy, the new luxury, the new libertinism, +which seemed to be flooding Italy from France, were the objects of his +hatred and abhorrence. Calmon, in the <i>Augellino Belverde</i>, expresses +Gozzi's personal convictions and beliefs in their fullest extent. +But<a name="page_161" id="page_161"></a> the following speech may be extracted from <i>Zeim R de Genj</i> as +a fair summary of his social stoicism.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> A Princess of Balsora, who +has been brought up by one of the capricious tricks of fortune as a +slave is speaking:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Who am I? That I know not. An old man,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">With snows upon his beard, in snow-white robes</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Attired, of serious and austere aspect,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Reared me beneath a humble cottage roof.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">He told me that one day upon the bank</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Of foaming Tigris, wrapped in swaddling-clothes,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">He found me; peradventure by my kin</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Abandoned, the cast fruit of shame and scorn.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">This good man taught me I was born to serve,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">To suffer, to endure; and that I ought</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">To bow beneath the will of supreme Heaven.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">'Providence, holy, in her ways unknown,'</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">He said, 'rules all things: in the scale ordained</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Of human beings great folk have their seat;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And so, by steps descending through all ranks,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Down to the lowest folk, men live and work</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Subordinate. Ah! do not be seduced,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">(He often warned me) by sophistic sages,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Who bent on malice paint of liberty</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">False lures for mortals, your own place to quit,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">The order due designed by Heaven for man!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">These sophists breed confusion, anarchy,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Duty neglected at the cost of peace;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">They stir up murders, thefts, impieties,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And glut with blood the shambles of the state.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Daughter, respect the great, love them, endure</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">What in they lot seems bitter, woo content,<a name="page_162" id="page_162"></a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And stifle that snake envy in thy breast!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">In the just eyes of Heaven a great man's acts,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Rightly performed, have no superior merit</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">To those of servants rightly done; the road</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Toward immortality lies open unto kings</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And children of the people; 'tis all one.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Only the soul that suffers and is strong,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Finds happiness.' So spake the firm old man;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And firmly, in his strength of soul unshaken,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">He sold me slave; so I account me blessed,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">As you shall trust me for a faithful slave."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<h3>IX.</h3> + +<p>Gozzi drew the subjects of his <i>Fiabe</i> from divers sources. The chief of +these was a book of Neapolitan fairy-tales called <i>Il Pentamerone del +Cavalier Giovan Battista Basile, ovvero lo Cunto de li Cunti</i>. This +collection enjoyed great vogue in Italy during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, and is still worthy of attentive study by lovers +of comparative folklore. Some of the motives of the <i>Fiabe</i> have been +traced to the <i>Posilipeata di Massillo Repone</i>, the <i>Biblioteca dei +Genj</i>, the <i>Gabinetto delle Fate</i>, the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, and those +Persian and Chinese stories which were fashionable a hundred and fifty +years ago. It was Gozzi's habit to interweave several tales in one +action; and this renders researches into the texture of his dramatic +fables difficult. But the inquiry is not one of great importance, and +may well be dismissed until the star of Gozzi shall reascend<a name="page_163" id="page_163"></a> the +heavens, if time's whirligig should ever bring about this revenge.</p> + +<p><i>L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie</i> is both the simplest in construction and +also the most artistically perfect of the ten <i>Fiabe.</i> In it alone the +fairy-tale and the Masks are brought into complete harmony. No serious +note breaks the burlesque style of the piece, while a sustained parody +of Chiari's and Goldoni's mannerisms lends it the interest of satire. As +he advanced, Gozzi gradually changed the form of his original invention. +That fusion of fairy-tale and impromptu comedy in subordination to +literary satire, which distinguishes the <i>Tre Melarancie</i>, was never +repeated in his subsequent performances. The fable, with its romance, +pathos, passion, adventure, magic marvels, and fantastic +transformations, began to detach itself against the comedy. Both formed +essential factors in Gozzi's later work; but the links between them +became more and more mechanical. Satire, in like manner, did not +disappear; but this was either used occasionally and by accident, or +else it absorbed the whole allegory. The three ingredients, which had +been so genially combined in the first piece, were now disengaged and +treated separately. The sunny light of sportive humour, which bathed +that wonder-world of fabulous absurdity, darkened as the clouds of +didactic purpose gathered. The fairy-tale acquired an inappropriate +gravity. Becoming aware of his dramatic talent, Gozzi assumed the tone +of tragedy.<a name="page_164" id="page_164"></a> He treated the loves and hatreds, the trials and triumphs, +the vices and virtues, the heroism and the baseness, of his puppets +seriously. Nevertheless, he preserved the preposterous accidents of the +fable. On those enchantments, whimsical oracles of fate, metamorphoses, +talking statues, monsters, good and wicked genii, he was of course +unable to bestow the same reality as on his human characters. Yet, +having carried the latter out of the sphere of burlesque, he had to +maintain a tone of realism with the former. But he could not wield the +Prospero's wand of imaginative insight which brings the supernatural and +the incredible within the range of actualities. Thus the marvellous +elements of the fable remained stiff and artificial beside the natural +pathos and passion of humanity.</p> + +<p>Having recapitulated the chief features of the <i>Fiabe</i> in their later +form, I will now analyse <i>L'Augellino Belverde.</i></p> + +<h3>X.</h3> + +<p>Many years have elapsed since Tartaglia married Ninetta. His father is +dead, and he has fallen under the malignant influence of the +Queen-Mother, Tartagliona. She persuades him that Ninetta has given +birth to a pair of puppies, male and female, whereas the twins are +really a fine boy and girl, called Renzo and Barbarina. Ninetta is +condemned to be buried<a name="page_165" id="page_165"></a> alive; and Pantalone, Tartaglia's minister, +receives commission to drown the supposed puppies. Instead of executing +these orders, Pantalone sews the children up in oil-cloth, and sets them +floating down a river. They are found and rescued by Smeraldina, a woman +of good heart, who is married to the dissolute and worthless +Truffaldino, a pork-butcher. When the play opens, eighteen years are +supposed to have elapsed since the burial of Ninetta. All this while she +has been kept alive by the Beautiful Green Bird, who is the King of +Terradombra, condemned to take this form by magic arts. The Green Bird +also has become the lover of Barbarina. Meanwhile Tartagliona is being +courted by Brighella, who now appears in the character of a burlesque +poet and seer. His pindaric prophecies and exaggerated flights of +passion, alternating with the lowest language of the proletariate, +afford excellent opportunities for caricature.</p> + +<p>Renzo and Barbarina, growing up in the house of the pork-butcher, have +improved their minds by assiduous reading of French philosophical +treatises sold for waste paper. This education has persuaded them that +all human actions and affections proceed from self-love, and that it is +the duty of rational beings to preserve a cold impartiality, indifferent +to emotions, regardless of comfort and vain pleasures, governed only by +the dictates of the reason. Accident reveals to them that Smeraldina is +not their mother, and that they are nameless foundlings. They determine<a name="page_166" id="page_166"></a> +to go forth alone, and seek their fortunes in the world. The scene in +which they take leave of their kindly warm-hearted foster-mother is +excellent. Gozzi has painted a pair of consummate prigs, whose natural +instincts have been perverted by a false theory of life, and who have +learned to call that reason which is really inhumanity. They tell +Smeraldina that her unselfish charity to the foundling infants was a +form of self-love, and that her continued attention to them for the last +eighteen years had no higher motive.</p> + +<p>Having quitted Smeraldina, with the loftiest airs of condescension, they +set forth upon their travels. Getting lost in the wilderness, it begins +to dawn upon them that self-love is one of the cardinal facts of human +nature, to which even the most philosophical characters, when threatened +with death by cold and famine, are subject. In the midst of these +reflections, they are terrified with an earthquake and sudden darkness. +A statue appears walking toward them, who informs them that he too was +once a miserable philosopher, who petrified his own humanity and that of +others by perverse principles analogous to those which have infected +them. Consequently, he was doomed to be a statue, lying lifeless and +inert among the rubbish of neglected things, until one of Renzo's and +Barbarina's ancestors rescued him from filth and set him up in a garden +of the city. This benefit he now means to<a name="page_167" id="page_167"></a> repay by watching over the +twins. First of all, he ardently desires to save them from the +petrifaction which awaits all souls made frigid by a false philosophy. +Next, he tells them that, though he knows the secret of their parentage, +he may not reveal it. They have a dreadful doom impending over them; and +their eventual happiness can only be secured by the assistance of the +Green Bird. His own name in the world was Calmon; and he has now become +the King of Images:<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a>—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Molti viventi</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Sono forse pi statue, ch'io non sono.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Tu proverai qual forza abbia una statua,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">E come simulacro un uom diventi."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Then Calmon gives the twins a stone. They are to return to the city, and +Barbarina is to throw the stone down before the royal palace. They will +immediately become rich. In any great disaster, let them call on Calmon.</p> + +<p>In this way Gozzi allegorises his own prejudice against the cold and +shallow theories of society, which were infiltrating Italy from France.</p> + +<p>The second act reveals Tartaglia. He is the victim of remorse, haunted +by the memory of Ninetta, whom he buried alive in a hole beneath the +scullery-sink. There is the floor on which she<a name="page_168" id="page_168"></a> used to walk. There is +the kitchen where she fluttered in the form of a dove. "O spirit of +Ninetta, where art thou?" Tartaglia preserves the burlesque note of his +Mask. Only one friend remains to him, his old henchman Truffaldino; but +Truffaldino has become a pork-butcher, and forgotten him. Truffaldino at +this juncture appears. He too gives himself philosophical airs, without +concealing his gross appetites and greedy love of self. Tartaglia kicks +him out of doors, and then passes to a scene of vituperation against his +wicked mother, Tartagliona, the Queen of Tarocchi,<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a> who has been the +cause of all his misery. Tartagliona shows the worst side of her coarse +malignant nature in the ensuing altercation, and departs vowing +vengeance.</p> + +<p>Her only consolation is that she is beloved by Brighella, the most +famous poet of the age:<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a>—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Non mancano</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">In me vezzi, e lusinghe, ond' al mio fianco</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Fedel sia sempre. Ah, non vorrei, che alfine</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Le mie finezze a lui, negli altri amanti</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Destasser gelosia."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_169" id="page_169"></a></p> + +<p>A new scene introduces Renzo and Barbarina. They have returned to the +city, and are standing in front of the palace. Renzo begs his sister to +throw the magic stone. Barbarina reminds him that if they become rich, +all will be over with their philosophy. At last he persuades her to +throw it, and she does so, bidding herself be mindful that a wretched +pebble is the source of her future magnificence. In a moment a gorgeous +palace rises, fronting the royal dwelling. Renzo's and Barbarina's rags +are exchanged for splendid raiment. Moorish servants issue from the +great gates with torches, and welcome their princely masters.</p> + +<p>No sooner have the twins taken up their abode in this magic palace, than +they begin to act like <i>parvenus</i> and <i>nouveaux riches.</i> Every folly, +vanity, and false desire enters their heads. Their philosophy is +forgotten. Brighella, in his character of seer, divines, meanwhile, that +their presence threatens danger to the person of Tartagliona. He +therefore endeavours to persuade the Queen to make her will in his +favour. She very sensibly refuses, and bids him do all in his power to +prolong the life of one whom he adores. He is obliged to meet her +wishes, and divulges a plan whereby the twins shall be destroyed. The +fairy Serpentina, he reminds her, owns apples which sing, and golden +water which plays and dances. The adventure of stealing these magical +objects involves the greatest peril. Certainly Barbarina will be<a name="page_170" id="page_170"></a> ruined +if she longs to have them. Accordingly, when she appears at the window +of her palace, Tartagliona from the opposite balcony is to repeat these +rhymes:<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Voi siete bella assai; ma pi bella sareste,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">S'un de'pomi, che cantano, in una mano areste.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">. . . . . . . . . .</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Figlia voi siete bella; ma pi bella sareste,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">S'acqua, che suona e balla, nell'altra mano areste."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The scene now changes to the interior of the palace of the twins. +Barbarina is contemplating her charms in the looking-glass, when +Smeraldina suddenly enters, full of affection. She has heard of the good +fortune of her foundlings, and forgetting their recent ill-treatment of +her, has come to congratulate them. Barbarina exclaims against her +rudeness, calls the servants, throws a purse of gold at her +foster-mother, and bids her depart. Smeraldina, who cannot stifle her +affection for the ungrateful girl, changes tone, and humbly asks to be +allowed to stay and serve her. Barbarina, much to her own surprise, +feels touched by this display of feeling, and magnanimously allows the +good woman to remain as a menial. Smeraldina's soliloquy at the end of<a name="page_171" id="page_171"></a> +the scene reveals her sound sense no less than her warm heart:<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Questa quella filosofa, che andava</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Ieri per legna al bosco, ed oggi! ... basta ...</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Seco volea restar, perch l'adoro,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">E seco resto alfin; del tacer poi</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Ci proveremo; ma non sar nulla.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Non la conosco pi. Quanta superbia!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Che diavol l'ha arrichita in questa forma?</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Io non vorrei, che questa frasconcella ...</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Forse qualche milord ... ma sapr tutto."</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">[<i>Entra.</i></span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Next we have Renzo. He has fallen desperately in love with a beautiful +statue which he found in the garden of the palace. Truffaldino enters, +frankly confesses that he has come to live at ease with his quondam +foster-child, professes himself a true sage, and expounds the cynical +philosophy of interested motives. Renzo cannot resist laughing at the +knave's candour, but is not yet disposed to bear his insolence. +Truffaldino sees that he must alter his tone. So he begins to whine and +flatter. Renzo is softened, and consents to keep him as a buffoon.<a name="page_172" id="page_172"></a> His +cynicism and his hyperbolical adulation will serve to make the hours +pass pleasantly.</p> + +<p>Tartaglia and Pantalone appear upon the royal balcony. Barbarina enters +on the other side, and Tartaglia falls head over ears in love with her +at first sight. The scene is carried out with much burlesque humour, +until Tartagliona and Brighella join the group below. Tartagliona utters +the magic verses, and Barbarina becomes madly bent upon the apples which +sing and the water which plays and dances. Renzo, touched by his +sister's despair, agrees to attempt the adventure; but before he goes, +he gives her a dagger. So long as this is bright, he will be alive. If +it drops blood, that is a sign that her brother has died in the attempt.</p> + +<p>A scene between Ninetta in her living tomb and the Green Bird who brings +her food, is here interpolated, in order to prepare the audience for +what ensues.</p> + +<p>Renzo and Truffaldino arrive at Serpentina's garden, and fail in their +adventure. Then Renzo calls on Calmon, who appears, and summons a band +of statues—the female figure on the fountain at Treviso and the Moors +of the Campo de'Mori at Venice<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a>—to his aid. By their assistance a +singing apple is procured,<a name="page_173" id="page_173"></a> and some of the dancing water is bottled in +a phial. But Calmon and his band of statues remind Renzo that he is in +duty bound to be grateful. Calmon lacks his nose; the fountain of +Treviso's breasts are injured; the Moors have, each of them, some broken +limb. Renzo must undertake to restore them properly, and all will go +well with him.</p> + +<p>Renzo promises; but he very soon forgets the shattered statues. Lost in +admiration before the image of beautiful Pompea, he spends his days in +wooing her. At length Pompea finds her voice, and confides to him her +previous experience. She was the daughter of a great Italian prince, the +prince of a corrupt but mighty city; and she has now become an idol +through her self-idolatry.</p> + +<p>At this juncture enters Truffaldino with exciting news. Tartaglia has +made a declaration of his love through Pantalone to Barbarina. She +wavers between the splendid prospects of a royal match and the affection +which she feels for the Green Bird, her lover and consoler in their days +of poverty. Meanwhile Tartagliona breaks negotiations off by declaring +that Barbarina must bring the Green Bird as dower; else she can never be +Tartaglia's bride. At this announcement Barbarina falls into hysterics, +kicking Pantalone downstairs, and screaming out that nothing but the +Green Bird will satisfy her. Truffaldino, partly out of compassion for +Barbarina's state, partly from a sense of modesty, leaves her presence.<a name="page_174" id="page_174"></a> +He arrives to rouse his master to a sense of the situation. This is no +time to make platonic love to statues, &c.</p> + +<p>Renzo replies that he is quite ready to attempt the adventure of the +Green Bird. He knows from Calmon that the bird alone is capable of +solving the problem of his own parentage, and also of evoking Pompea +from her marble immobility. Consequently he has a strong personal +interest in the capture of the bird; and his sister's troubles are an +additional reason why he should no longer delay. With Truffaldino for +his squire, he will ride forth into the forest of the Goblin, who holds +the bird in meshes of diabolical enchantments. Let Smeraldina remind his +sister that the dagger which he gave her will assure her of his good or +evil fortune in the perilous essay.</p> + +<p>While Renzo is on his journey, Barbarina keeps continually gazing on the +dagger. It does not cease to shine. But Smeraldina and the speaking +statue of Pompea work upon her feelings by suggesting the perils her +brother is undergoing, to which her own vanity has exposed him. Moved at +last by simple human sympathy, she finds the situation intolerable, and +resolves to follow Renzo to the place of danger. It is this return to +nature which saves her, and brings about a happy catastrophe. Barbarina +renounces her wish to wed Tartaglia, and thinks only of arresting Renzo +in his dangerous course. She sets<a name="page_175" id="page_175"></a> off with Smeraldina; and the magic +palace is left desolate, in mourning, all its splendour gone.</p> + +<p>Renzo and Truffaldino have now reached the Goblin's hill, where the +Green Bird is seen upon a perch, chained by the leg. Trying to capture +him, Renzo turns into a statue; and there is a whole gathering of +similar statues in the place—men who essayed the same adventure, and +failed.</p> + +<p>Barbarina and <i>Smeraldina</i> arrive at the scene of action. The dagger +drops blood. Barbarina's mask of false philosophy and selfish vanity +drops off. She becomes a simple woman, filled with repentance and +anguish for her brother who is dead. She flings herself upon the bosom +of poor Smeraldina, whom she had so villainously treated. At this +juncture, when all seems lost, Calmon appears, and reads her a sound +moral lecture. Then he points to a scroll before her feet, and instructs +her what she has to do. She must walk up to within a hair's-breadth—no +more and no less—of the bird, and take good heed that he does not utter +a sound before she has read aloud the words inscribed upon the scroll. +If she succeeds in this feat, all may yet come right. There is a +breathless moment, during which Barbarina executes what Calmon told her. +The bird is captured, and begins to talk. Let her take a feather from +his tail. That will restore the statues to life.</p> + +<p>The drama is quickly wound up. By means of the bird's tail-feather, +Renzo and Pompea are made<a name="page_176" id="page_176"></a> happy lovers. Ninetta returns from her hole. +Tartagliona is changed into a tortoise, and Brighella into a donkey. The +Green Bird resumes his form as King of Terradombra and plights his faith +to Barbarina. Tartaglia recognises his lost son and daughter, and is +fain to be contented with the resuscitated wife whom he had so wantonly +condemned to a lingering death.</p> + +<p class="cb">. . . . . +. . . . . +. . . . . +. . . . . +. . . . .</p> + +<p>This analysis, if any one takes the trouble to read it, will suffice to +show the sprightliness of Gozzi's invention, and also the essential +weakness of his artistic method. The magic and the transformations at +the close are mechanical. The fate of the Green Bird is connected by no +proper motive with the fate of Tartaglia and the twins. Calmon and the +statues, allegorically useful, are in like manner independent of the +main dramatic action. Ninetta's doom is atrocious. Tartaglia is only +saved from being disgusting by his burlesque absurdity.</p> + +<h3>XI.</h3> + +<p>In the spring of 1762, having exhibited <i>Le Tre Melarancie</i>, <i>Il Corvo</i>, +<i>Il R Cervo</i>, and <i>Turandot</i>, Gozzi proved that he had won the game +against Chiari and Goldoni. Sacchi's company removed from the theatre at +S. Samuele to a more commodious<a name="page_177" id="page_177"></a> house at S. Angelo. Chiari retired to +his native city, Brescia, and left off writing for the stage. Goldoni +departed for Paris. None of Goldoni's biographers deny that he took this +step in consequence of Gozzi's triumph. In his own Memoirs he omitted +all references to the literary quarrels of the years 1756-62; and he +gives excellent reasons, quite independent of Gozzi, for his setting off +to seek fortune in the French capital. Certainly, the last piece he +presented to the Venetian public, <i>Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale</i>, +was received with enthusiasm. "It closed the theatrical year of 1761," +he says;<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> "and the evening of Shrove Tuesday brought me an ovation. +The theatre rang with thunders of applause, among which could be +distinguished these farewells: <i>A happy journey! Come back to us! Be +sure you do not fail to do so!</i> I confess that I was touched to tears." +Yet the simultaneous retirement of both Chiari and Goldoni at this +critical moment justifies our believing that the latter judged it +expedient to leave Venice after the revolution effected by Gozzi. He did +so without ill-will on either side. Count Gasparo Gozzi, Carlo's +brother, and a distinguished member of the Granelleschi, undertook the +charge of seeing a new edition of Goldoni's plays through the press in +his absence.</p> + +<p>For some years after this event, Carlo Gozzi and Sacchi's company had +the theatres of Venice pretty<a name="page_178" id="page_178"></a> much at their own disposal. But the +success of the <i>Fiabe</i> was ephemeral. Before their author's death, he +saw his own dramatic novelties cast into the shade and Goldoni's +realistic comedies restored to favour. A poet of such eminence as +Goethe, surveying all things Italian with curiosity in 1786, paid a +well-considered tribute to Gozzi's sympathy with the Venetian public, +praised the energy and nature of the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, but reserved +his highest panegyric for a representation of Goldoni's <i>Baruffe +Chiozzote</i> at the theatre of S. Luca.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a> "At last I am able to say that +I have seen a comedy," are the emphatic words with which Goethe opens a +detailed description of this piece.</p> + +<p>In the course of the last hundred years, Goldoni has secured a signal +and irreversible victory over his rival. One of the best theatres at +Venice is called by his name. His house is pointed out by gondoliers to +tourists. His statue stands almost within sight of the Rialto on the +Campo S. Bartolommeo, where people most do congregate. His comedies are +repeatedly given by companies of celebrated actors. Gozzi's <i>Fiabe</i> have +been relegated to the marionette stages, where some of their <i>scenari</i> +in a mutilated form may still be seen. There exist no memorials to his +fame in Venice. Not even a tablet with the words <i>Qui nacque Carlo +Gozzi</i> is to be<a name="page_179" id="page_179"></a> found upon the ancient palace at S. Cassiano. The +sacristan of the church, where his dust is gathered to his fathers, +cannot point to the Gozzi vault.</p> + +<p>The vicissitudes of Gozzi's reputation turn upon the different views +which have been taken of his merits in relation to Goldoni. In Italy the +balance of opinion tends to sink against him. Baretti, that fiery member +of Sam Johnson's club, the fierce opponent of Goldoni, pronounced at +first in Gozzi's favour, lamented that he could not bring Garrick to one +of his plays, proposed to translate the <i>Fiabe</i> into English, and swore +that Gozzi stood next to Shakespeare in dramatic genius. But when +Baretti read the <i>Fiabe</i> in print, he declaimed against the buffooneries +of the Masks, and dropped his enthusiasm. Tommasei found no words too +strong to express his contempt for a writer whose genius he denied, and +whose character inspired him with repugnance. Tommasei was a champion of +Goldoni. Omitting further details, it is enough to say that Italy has +elected to ignore Gozzi and to deify Goldoni. The causes are not far to +seek. Gozzi's vogue depended partly upon controversy and satire. It was +confined to the locality of Venice. His plays required the co-operation +of the Masks; and these expired in his own lifetime. Moreover, they +appealed to a rare combination of sensibilities, romantic and humorous, +which is not common in Italy. Lastly, for their proper mounting on the +stage, they demanded an expenditure<a name="page_180" id="page_180"></a> of ingenuity and money, which their +fading popularity prohibited. Goldoni, on the other hand, suited the +temper of the growing age by his simplicity, his truth to nature, his +realism, and the freshness of eternal youth which lends charm to the +facile productions of his amiable genius. His comedies can be put upon +the stage without the least difficulty; and they afford scope for the +display of varied talents in actors of several descriptions.</p> + +<p>In Germany Gozzi enjoyed wide posthumous reputation, not as a playwright +with the public, but as a poet among men of letters. He was early +chosen, during the <i>Sturm und Drang</i> period, to perform the part of +champion of Romantic against Classical forms of art. How mistaken this +view of Gozzi really is, I have attempted to prove. Yet if critics +ignore what Gozzi wrote about the origin of his <i>Fiabe</i>, and keep out of +sight his intentions while composing them—if they only regard the +printed plays—it is not difficult to make him assume this false +position. Franz A. C. Werthes translated the <i>Fiabe</i> into German so +early as 1777-79, and published them at Bern. No less than twelve +separate versions of selected plays have since appeared, up to the date +1877.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> Among these may be mentioned Schiller's <i>Turandot</i>, which was +executed from the translation of Werthes, and a reproduction of <i>I +Pitocchi Fortunati</i> by Paul Heyse. Schlegel introduced the <i>Fiabe</i><a name="page_181" id="page_181"></a> to +public notice, emphasising their value as specimens of the Romantic +style, and connecting them with the indigenous art of Italy. Hoffmann +declared his enthusiasm for Gozzi; and if he did not borrow motives from +the <i>Fiabe</i> and the <i>Memoirs</i> for his own fantastic productions, he +undoubtedly regarded their author as a genius of the same species as +himself. Wagner, I may parenthetically observe, based one of his +earliest operatic productions on <i>La Donna Serpente</i>. It was composed in +1833, and was first exhibited at Munich in 1888. To follow the several +steps by which Gozzi came to be regarded in Germany as a Romanticist, +snuffed out by the Revolution, would lead me beyond the limits of this +introduction. I suspect that he was known there mainly in the +translation of Werthes, and that his works were quarried as a mine of +motives by writers of romantic tendencies, who lacked invention. There +is a pocket edition of the <i>Fiabe</i> in Italian, 3 vols., published by +Hitzig, 1808.</p> + +<p>The German conception of Gozzi as a Romantic poet of the purest water +spread to France. It took the French imagination just when the Romantic +movement was at its height. Philarte Chasles treated his works from the +point of view of Spanish dramatic literature. Paul de Musset pounced +upon the Memoirs, condensed them into a small volume with considerable +literary ability, and so ingeniously manipulated their text in the +process as to create the illusion that Gozzi had pronounced himself to +be<a name="page_182" id="page_182"></a> in fact what his German admirers found in him. This clever travesty +of Gozzi's autobiography presented him to the world as the victim of +sprites, the creature of his own inventions, the plaything of +superstition, instead of the caustic, practical, sometimes dissembling, +and often sinister, man of thwarted passion, violent caprice, hard head, +and conservative heart, who will presently be revealed in my version of +the Memoirs. I do not blame Paul de Musset for his literary escapade. I +understand his motive, and appreciate the joke. He wanted, at one and +the same time, to place Gozzi, as the Germans had already placed him, +among the fathers of Romanticism, and also to construct a telling novel +of adventure out of the copious materials furnished by the Memoirs. But, +by so doing, Paul de Musset misled writers who had no access to the sole +edition of Gozzi's <i>Memorie</i>, or who were perhaps too careless to seek +this document out. Among these I may mention M. Paul Royer, the +translator of five of Gozzi's <i>Fiabe</i> into French,<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> and Vernon Lee, +the talented authoress of a deservedly popular book entitled <i>Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy</i>.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> Both of these distinguished +writers have fallen into the trap laid for them by Paul de Musset, and +have accepted a false conception of the man who forms the subject of +these volumes.<a name="page_183" id="page_183"></a></p> + +<p>Gozzi, who plumed himself upon his Democritean philosophy of laughter, +his Stoic-Epicurean acceptance of every wayward stroke of fortune, would +have been the first to smile sardonically, yet not without a touch of +benignant humour, upon the mask he has been made to wear by Germans and +by Frenchmen. English critics, with the exception of Vernon Lee, have +had little or nothing to do with him up to this date.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> Let the man +speak for himself in the account of his own life, which I now for the +first time present to the multitude of English readers.</p> + +<p class="nind"><i>August 8, 1888.</i></p> + +<p><a name="page_184" id="page_184"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_185" id="page_185"></a></p> + +<h2><a name="CARLO_GOZZI" id="CARLO_GOZZI"></a>CARLO GOZZI.</h2> + +<h3><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.<br /><br /> +<i>My Pedigree and Birth.</i></h3> + +<p class="nind">T<small>HERE</small> are people foolish enough to make every family history the object +of their ridicule and satire. For the sake of wits of this sort I shall +give a short but truthful account of my ancestry, in order that they may +have something to quiz.</p> + +<p>Our stock springs in the fourteenth century from a certain Pezlo +de'Gozzi. This is proved by an authentic genealogy, which we possess; +the authority of which has never been disputed, and which has been +accepted as evidence in law-courts, although it is but a dusty document, +worm-eaten and be-cobwebbed, not framed in gold or hung against the +wall. Since I am no Spaniard, I never applied to any genealogist to +discover a more ancient origin for our race. There are historical works, +however, which derive us from the family de'Gozze, extant at the present +epoch in Ragusa, and original settlers of that<a name="page_186" id="page_186"></a> venerable republic. The +chronicles of Bergamo relate that the aforesaid Pezlo de'Gozzi was a +man of weight and substance in the district of Alzano, and that he won +the gratitude of the most serene Republic of Venice for having +imperilled his property and person against the Milanese in order to +preserve that district for her invincible and clement rule. His +descendants held office as ambassadors and podests for the city of +Bergamo, which proves that they were members of its Council; while two +privileges of the sixteenth century show that two separate branches of +the family obtained admission to the citizenship of Venice.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> They +erected houses for the<a name="page_187" id="page_187"></a> living and provided tombs for their dead in the +quarter and the Church of San Cassiano, as may be seen at the present +day.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> One of these branches was honoured with adoption into the +patrician families of Venice in the seventeenth century,<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> and +afterwards expired. The branch from which I am descended remained in the +class of Cittadini Originari, on which they certainly brought no +discredit whatsoever.</p> + +<p>None of my ancestors aspired to the honourable and lucrative posts which +are open to Venetian citizens.<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> They were for the most part men of +peaceful unambitious temper, contented with their lot in life, or +perhaps averse from the disturbances of competition. Had they entered +upon a political career, I am quite sure that they would have served +their Prince faithfully, without pride and without vain ostentation.<a name="page_188" id="page_188"></a></p> + +<p>About two centuries ago, my great-great-grandfather purchased some six +hundred acres of land,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> together with buildings, in Friuli, at the +distance of five miles from Pordenone. A large portion of these estates +consists of meadow-land, and is held by feudal tenure. All the +heirs-male are bound to renew the investiture, which costs some ducats. +Upon this point the officials of the Camera de' Feudi at Udine are +extremely vigilant. If the fine is not paid immediately after the death +of the last feudatory, they confiscate the crops derived from the +meadows subject to this tenure. That happened to me after my father's +decease. A few months' negligence cost me a considerable sum in excess +of the customary fine. It is probably by right of some old parchment +that we own the title of Count, conceded to our family in public acts +and in the addresses of letters.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a> I should feel no resentment, if +this title were refused me; but it would anger me extremely, if my hay +were withheld.</p> + +<p>My father was Jacopo Antonio Gozzi; a man of fine and penetrative +intellect, of sensitive and delicate honour, of susceptible temper, +resolute, and sometimes<a name="page_189" id="page_189"></a> even formidable. His father Gasparo died while +he was yet a child, leaving this only son to the guardianship of his +mother, the Contessa Emilia Grampo, a noble woman of Padua. The estate +was sufficient to sustain his dignity with credit; but he indulged +dreams of magnificence. Sole heir, and educated by a tender mother, who +humoured every fancy of her son, he early acquired the habit of +following his own inclinations. These led him into lordly +extravagances—stables full of horses; kennels of hounds; +hunting-parties; splendid banquets—nor did he reflect upon the +consequences of a marriage, which he made without deliberation in his +early manhood, to indulge a whim of the heart. My mother was Angela +Tiepolo, the daughter of one branch of that patrician house, which +expired in her brother Almor Cesare.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> He died, a Senator of the +Republic, about the year 1749.<a name="page_190" id="page_190"></a></p> + +<p>I shall perhaps have wearied my readers with these facts about my +pedigree and birth. Satirists will not, however, find in them anything +to excite ambition in myself or to wing their pen with ridicule. Social +ranks have always been regarded by me as accidental, though necessary +for the proper subordination on which our institutions depend. As for my +birth, I think less of whence I came than of whither I am going. Conduct +unworthy of a decent origin might cause sorrow to my deceased parents, +whose memory I hold in honour, and might cover myself and all my +posterity with shame.</p> + +<p>My name is Carlo. I was the sixth child born by my mother into the +light, or shall I say the shadows of this world. I am writing on the +last day of April in the year 1780. I have passed fifty, and not yet +reached the age of sixty.<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a> I shall not put the sacristan to trouble +in order to view the register of my baptism, being quite sure that I was +christened, and not<a name="page_191" id="page_191"></a> having the stupid vanity to pass for a curled +dandy. That is obvious, and has been always obvious, from the fashion of +my clothes and the way I dress my hair. Besides, I set no value on the +age of men. Human beings die at all ages; and I have seen boys who are +adult, while grown-up men or grey-beards are often nothing better than +peevish and ridiculous children.</p> + +<h3><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.<br /><br /> +<i>My Education and Circumstances down to the Age of +Sixteen—Concerning the Art of Improvisation, and my Literary +Studies.</i></h3> + +<p>Our family consisted of eleven children, male and female. I could record +nothing but what is creditable of my brothers and sisters, had I +proposed to write their memoirs. But this is not my thought; and they +are capable of writing their own, if the whim should take them; for the +epidemic of literature was always chronic in our household.</p> + +<p>A succession of priests with little learning were our domestic +pedagogues up to a certain age. I say a succession advisedly; each in +turn having earned his dismissal by impertinent behaviour and intrigues +with the serving-maids.</p> + +<p>From early childhood I was always a silent observer of men and things, +by no means insolent, of imperturbable<a name="page_192" id="page_192"></a> serenity, and extremely +attentive to my lessons. My brothers used my taciturn and peaceable +temper to their own advantage. They accused me to our common tutor of +all the naughtinesses of which they had been guilty. I did not +condescend to excuse myself or to accuse them, but bore my unjust +punishments with stoicism. I venture to affirm that no boy was ever more +supremely indifferent than I was to the terrible penalty of being sent +away from table just as we were sitting down to dinner. Smiling +obedience was my only self-defence. Enemies may conclude from these +traits of character that I was a stupid lout, and friends that I was a +philosopher in embryo. Nothing is rarer than the eye of equal justice. +Yet any one who takes the trouble to inquire of my acquaintances and +servants, will learn that my taciturnity, my tolerance, my stoical +endurance, have not changed with years—that I continue to view the +events of this life with a smile, and that only those have nettled me +which touched my honour.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_192_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_192_sml.jpg" width="376" height="550" alt="SCARAMOUCH (1645) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" title="SCARAMOUCH (1645) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">SCARAMOUCH (1645)<br /></span><span class="caption2"> +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy</span> +</p> + +<p>The growing disorder in our family affairs did not at first deprive us +boys of a sound education. My two elder brothers, Gasparo and Francesco, +went to public schools,<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> and were in time to drink at all the +fountains of the regular curriculum. Extravagant expenditure, however, +combined with the needs of a numerous progeny, soon rendered anything +like<a name="page_193" id="page_193"></a> an adequate course of studies impossible for the younger +children. I was intrusted for some years to a learned country-parson, +and then to a priest in Venice, of decent acquirements and excellent +morality. After this I entered the academy of two Genoese priests, who +supplied instruction to some youths of noble birth, and to some of no +nobility whatever. There were about twenty-five pupils in this academy. +We pursued the same studies, with some difference according to our +classes. Here I had the opportunity of observing that teachers are very +valuable guides to youths who love learning, and mere images of +ineffectual deities to such as hate it. For my part, being fond of books +and eager for information, I imbibed my fill of such instruction as a +boy can acquire before the age of fourteen. But sloth and vicious habits +extirpate the seeds of learning planted by preceptors in the minds of +ill-conditioned lads. Therefore I saw, and still see, more than +two-thirds of my fellow-pupils sunk in a slough of baseness. Grammar, +the classics, and rhetoric only taught them to get drunk in taverns, to +carry sacks for hire upon their shoulders, and to cry "<i>Baked apples, +plums, and chestnuts!</i>" about the streets, with a basket on their heads +and a pair of scales slung round their waists. Wretched fate to be a +father!</p> + +<p>When I became aware that our domestic difficulties would prove an +obstacle to my remaining<a name="page_194" id="page_194"></a> long at school, I determined to utilise the +little I had already learned, and to carry on my education by myself. My +elder brother Gasparo's example, whose passion for study had won public +recognition, and my own good-will, kept me nailed to books of all sorts; +nor could I imagine any pleasure worth a thought, beyond reading, +meditating, and writing.</p> + +<p>Poetry, choice Italian, and correct style were then in vogue. The young +men of Venice met to discuss these three topics, which have now been +utterly forgotten—possibly for the greater advantage and convenience of +our citizens. I see crowds of young people, hair-brained, conceited, +idle, frivolous, presumptuous, and harmful to society. Heaven knows what +their studies are! Not poetry, not the niceties of the Italian language, +not correction of style. And then, forsooth, I am to admire a +hurly-burly of well-born persons, who claim in their foolhardiness to be +omniscient, who produce nothing whatsoever, who cannot write three lines +of a letter which shall express their sentiments, and which shall not +swarm with revolting faults of grammar and of spelling!</p> + +<p>I will omit to observe that respect for nobles in a state is necessary; +but that the respect shown simply for their birth and wealth is not +respect but false feigned adulation. I will refrain from asserting that +a daily correspondence, maintained with a large variety of +persons—people who may not perhaps be<a name="page_195" id="page_195"></a> scientific, but who understand +whether a letter is well written or ridiculous—may be capable of +securing a large part of the regard, or of occasioning a large part of +the contempt, bestowed on nobles. I make no mention of the rich man in +Signor Mercier's comedy of Indigence, who found it impossible to write a +letter of the utmost importance because his secretary was away from +home. I will say nothing to those scientific tutors of the scions of our +aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and +the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, moulding +them into geometricians, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, +astronomers, algebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of +sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what +they have taught or what the common business of life requires.</p> + +<p>All these things, and everything which imposture has presented to my +senses and impressed upon my mind, must remain unwritten in my pen. I +have no wish to make enemies.</p> + +<p>Yet we cannot prevent drops of ink from falling sometimes from the pen +and making blots upon our papers. Just so, while I am dictating these +memoirs of my life, I shall not be able to avoid splutterings, however +out of place and inconvenient.</p> + +<p>I am almost ashamed to confess the intense assiduity with which I +applied myself to those frivolous literary studies of which I have been +speaking.<a name="page_196" id="page_196"></a> They brought on a hmorrhage from the nostrils, so violent +and so frequent, that I was more than once or twice given up for dead in +the manner of Seneca.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> In their anxiety about my health, my friends +hid away all my books, and deprived me of paper and inkstand; but I was +the cleverest of thieves in searching for them, and went on doggedly +reading and writing by stealth in the uninhabited attics of our mansion. +After relating this fact about my boyhood, malicious people may think +that I am claiming to be considered worthy of a panegyric. They are +quite mistaken. I fix them with my eyeglass, and assure them that it is +rather my intention to provide them with another good reason for +quizzing me. The famous Doctor Tissot angrily rebukes excessive +application to those studies which are universally esteemed as useless. +He reserves his praise for folk who ruin their health in pursuits +considered beneficial to humanity; and such, I do not doubt, are the +studies affected by himself and his admirers.</p> + +<p>The Abb Giovan Antonio Verdani, keeper of the select and extensive +library of the patrician family Soranzo, was a man of vast literary +erudition. He felt compassion for my weakness, which coincided with his +own, and directed my reading by lending me the rarest books, +masterpieces of pure Italian diction in prose and poetry. To estimate +the quantities<a name="page_197" id="page_197"></a> of paper which I covered with my thoughts in verse and +prose, would be beyond my powers. I tried to imitate the style of all +the early Tuscan writers who are most admired. Assuredly I never +approached the perfection of their language; but I am none the less sure +that the diligent and attentive perusal of a mass of the best works, +treating of a vast variety of subjects, cannot fail to furnish a better +head than mine with instruction and ideas, with the power of making just +reflections and probable conjectures, and with the principles of sound +morality. I am also convinced that the imitation of style in writing, +pursued methodically, enables a man to express his own thoughts with +facility, propriety of colouring, exactitude of phrase and term, +according to the variety of images, grave or gay, familiar or dignified, +which we desire to develop and to communicate under their true aspect in +prose or poetry.</p> + +<p>Without attaining to the mastery of style at which I aimed, I acquired +the miserable satisfaction of finding myself in the very select group of +persons who know this truth. I also earned the wretchedness of being +forced to read with insuperable aversion and disgust the works of many +modern Italian authors, which are full of false fancies and sophisms, +the rhetoric and diction of which never vary however the subject-matter +changes, which are defiled by all manner of gibberish, bombast, +nonsense, with periods involved in unintelligible vortices, and with +preposterous<a name="page_198" id="page_198"></a> phraseology. The sciences, the discoveries, the branches +of new knowledge which are now so loudly vaunted, ought to be accepted +as useful, and are worthy of respect. For this reason it is wrong to +profane them and to render them contemptible by barbarous impurity and +impropriety of diction. Francesco Redi, that great man, great +philosopher, great physician, great naturalist, confirms my doctrine by +his written works.<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> As regards the literature of art and wit and +fancy, it is obvious that without correction of style this is absolutely +worthless and condemned to merited oblivion. No one could count the fine +and ample sentiments which perish, smothered in the mire of inartistic +writing. Not less numerous, on the other hand, are the small but +brilliant thoughts, duly coloured with appropriate terms, and placed at +the right point of view by a master-hand, which sparkle before the eyes +of every reader, be he learned or simple.</p> + +<p>There is no disputing about tastes. Yet I think it could be easily +maintained that our century has lapsed into a shameful torpor with +regard to these things. I have written and printed quite enough upon the +subject; without effect, however; and now I see no reason why I should +not utter a last funeral lament over the mastery of art I longed to +possess.<a name="page_199" id="page_199"></a> That mastery, which nowadays is reckoned among the inutilities +of existence, has been freely conceded to me by the verdict of +contemporaries—blind judges, governed not by intelligence but by +ignorant assumption—so that their opinion does not sustain me with the +sure conviction of having attained my purpose. Nevertheless I am +grateful even to the blind and deaf, who see and hear what gives them +pleasure in my writings.</p> + +<p>My pursuit of culture advanced on the lines I have described, whether +for my happiness or my misfortune it is worthless to inquire. I read +continually, and wasted enormous quantities of ink; paid close attention +to men and manners; profited by the encouragement of the Abb Verdani +and Antonio Federigo Seghezzi; walked in the steps of my brother +Gasparo; and frequented a literary society which met daily at our house. +From a Piedmontese, who knew how to read and nothing more, I learned the +first rudiments of French; not that I wished to talk French in Italy, an +affectation which I loathed; but because it was my desire, by the help +of grammar and dictionary, to study the books, most excellent in part, +in part injurious to society, which issue daily from the French press. +It was thus that I formed those literary tastes, to which I have always +clung for innocent and disinterested amusement, and which, now that my +hairs are grey, will be my solace till the hour of death. The giants of +science, to whom I<a name="page_200" id="page_200"></a> dare not raise my quizzing-glass for fear of +committing an unpardonable sin, will perceive that in describing the +scanty sources of my education, I am only painting the portrait of a +literary pigmy in all humility.</p> + +<p>As regards my moral training, it is only necessary to observe that the +family of which I was a member has always cherished a deep and fervent +reverence for the august image of religion, and that my father, careless +as he was in matters of economy, never neglected religious duties or the +good ensample of honourable conduct. He was a bitter enemy of falsehood. +His delicate susceptibility detected a lie by the inflection of the +voice, and he punished it upon the spot with sounding boxes on the ears +of his offspring.</p> + +<p>Being a bold rider and passionately fond of horses, he taught us to +ride, and liked to see us every day on horseback during our summer +visits to the country. It was useless to plead timidity, or to shrink +from the snortings and jibbings of some half-broken beast he wanted us +to back. Up we went; a cut or two of the switch across our legs set us +off at a gallop; and there we were in full career, without a thought for +broken shins or necks. Some jockeys, who came to break in vicious colts, +put me up to tricks for mastering a hard-mouthed bolting animal. One of +these tricks stood me in good stead upon an occasion I shall afterwards +relate. Indeed, I may say that I owe my life to a jockey.<a name="page_201" id="page_201"></a></p> + +<p>We had a little theatre of no great architectural pretensions in our +country-house; and here we children used to act.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> Brothers and +sisters alike were gifted with some talent for comedy; and all of us, +before a crowd of rustic spectators, passed for players of the first +quality. Beside tragic and comic pieces learned by heart, we frequently +improvised farces with a slight plot upon some laughable motive. My +sister Marina and I had the knack of imitating certain married couples +notorious in the village for their burlesque humours. We used to +interpolate our farces with scenes and dialogues in which the famous +quarrels of these women with their drunken husbands were reproduced to +the life. Our clothes were copied from the originals; and the imitation +was so exact that our bucolic audience hailed it with Homeric peals of +laughter, measuring their applause by the delight it afforded their +coarse natures. My father and mother took a fancy to see themselves +represented in this way. My sister and I were shy at first, but we had +to obey our parents. Finally, we regaled them with a perfect +reproduction of their costume, their gestures, their way of talking, and +some of their<a name="page_202" id="page_202"></a> familiar household bickerings. Their astonishment was +great, and their laughter was the only punishment of our dutiful +temerity.</p> + +<p>I learned to twang the guitar with a certain amount of skill, and vied +with my brother Gasparo in improvising rhymed verses, which I sang to +music in our hours of recreation. This was done with all the +foolhardiness inseparable from a display which the vulgar are only too +apt to regard as miraculous. Since I have touched upon the point, I will +digress a little on this so-called miracle. In my opinion, the immense +crowds of people hanging with open mouths upon the lips of an +<i>improvisatore</i> only prove that, in spite of the contempt into which +poetry has fallen, it still possesses that power over the minds and the +brains of men which their tongues deny it. Cristoforo Altissimo, a poet +of the fifteenth century, is said to have publicly improvised his epic +in octave stanzas on the Reali di Francia; the words were taken down +from his lips, just as he composed them at the moment. The book was +published; and though it is extremely rare, I have read it through the +kindness of the Abb Verdani. Only a few stanzas, out of all that ocean +of verse, are worthy of the name of poetry; and yet we may believe that +before the work was given to the press, some pains had been bestowed +upon it. I have listened to many extempore versifiers, male and female, +the most famous of our century. It has always struck me that if the<a name="page_203" id="page_203"></a> +deluges of verses which they spout forth with face on fire, to the +applause of frantic multitudes, were written down, they would have very +little poetical value, and that nobody would have the patience to read +the twentieth part of them. Padre Zucchi, of the Olivetan Order, whom I +heard in my youth, surpassed his rivals; now and then he produced +sensible stanzas; but he improvised so slowly that reflection may have +had some part in the result. I do not deny that these extempore +rhymesters may be people of culture and learning, qualified to discourse +well upon the themes proposed to them. Yet they would not be listened +to, if they spoke ever so divinely in prose. In order to draw a crowd, +they are forced to express their thoughts and images, just as they come, +with voluble rapidity, in bad rhymed verses, which often are no better +than a gabble of words without sense. This throws their audience into a +trance of astonishment. Humanity has always quested after the marvellous +like a hound. If a painter sought to depict foolhardiness or imposture +wearing the mask of poetry, I could recommend nothing better than the +portrait of an improvisatore, with goggle-eyes and arms in air, and a +multitude staring up at him in stupid dumb amazement. These being my +sentiments, I am willing, out of mere politeness and good manners, to +approve the coronation of a Cavaliere Perfetto or a Corilla on the +Capitol. But I can only accept with cordial and serious enthusiasm<a name="page_204" id="page_204"></a> the +honours of that sort paid to a Virgil, a Petrarch, and a Tasso.</p> + +<p>The Arcadians will laugh when I proceed to speak about an improvisatore, +whom I knew and whom I have listened to a hundred times. Yet I should be +committing an injustice if I did not mention him, and declare my opinion +that he was the single really wonder-worthy artist in this kind, with +whom I ever came in contact. He used to pour forth anacreontics, octave +stanzas, any and every metre, extempore, to the music of a well-touched +guitar. His verses rhymed, but had no <i>Clio</i>, <i>Euterpe</i>, <i>Plettro</i>, +<i>Parnaso</i>, <i>Aganippe</i>, <i>Ruscelletto</i>, <i>Zefiretto</i>, and such stuff, in +them. They composed a well-developed discourse, flowing evenly, not +soaring, but with abundance of well-connected images, and natural, +lively, graceful thoughts. He invariably used either the Venetian or the +Paduan dialect; which will augment the derisive laughter of Arcadia, and +make the Campidoglio ring. On one occasion, while he was improvising on +the theme: <i>diligite inimicos vestros</i>, it happened that two enemies +were present. At another time, he dilated on his own grief for a +cavaliere<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> who had been kind to him, and who was then dying, given +over by the doctors. Not only did the audience hang upon his lips with +rapt attention;<a name="page_205" id="page_205"></a> but in the former case, the enemies were reconciled, +while in the latter tears were freely shed for the poet's expiring +benefactor. Such influence over the passions of the heart reveals a true +poet; for such a man I reserve the laurel crown upon my Campidoglio. His +name was Giovanni Sibiliato, brother of the celebrated professor of +literature in the University of Padua.</p> + +<p>Returning from this digression, I will resume the narrative of my +boyhood. I learned to fence and to dance; but books and composition were +my chief pastime. Before a numerous audience in our literary assemblies +I felt no shyness. In private visits, among people new to me, the +reserve of my demeanour often passed for savagery. My first sonnet of +passable quality was written at the age of nine. Beside the applause it +won me, I was rewarded with a box of comfits; and for this reason I have +never forgotten it. The occasion of its composition was as follows. A +certain Signora Angela Armano, midwife by trade, had a friend at Padua +whose pet dog died and left her inconsolable. Signora Angela wished to +comfort her friend; indulged in condolements for her loss; and sent a +little spaniel of her own, called Delina, to replace the defunct pet. +Delina was to be given as a present, and a sonnet was to accompany the +gift, expressing all the sentiments which a lady of Signora Angela's +profession might entertain in a circumstance of such importance. Though +our<a name="page_206" id="page_206"></a> family was a veritable lunatic asylum of poets, no one cared to +translate the good creature's gossipping garrulity into verse. Moved by +her entreaties, I undertook the task; and the following Bernesque sonnet +was the result:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Madama io vi vorrei pur confortare</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Con qualche graziosa diceria,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ma la sciagura vuole, e vostra, e mia,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Che in un sonetto la non vi pu stare.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Non vi state, mia cara, a disperare,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Che la sarebbe una poltroneria,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">L'entrar per un can morto in frenesia;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Chi nasce muor, convien moralizzare.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Vi sovvenite, ch' egli avr pisciato</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Alcuna volta in camera, o in cucina,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Che in quell' istante lo avreste ammazzato.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Io vi spedisco intanto la Delina</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Che pi d'un cane ha d'essa innamorato,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">E pu farvi di cani una dezina.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 5.5em;"> bella, e picciolina;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Di lei non voglio pi nuova, o risposta,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Servitevi per razza, o di supposta."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Two years later, a new edition of the poems of Gaspara Stampa appeared +in Venice, at the expense of Count Antonio Ramboldo di Collalto of +Vienna, a prince distinguished for his birth and writings. Scholars know +that this sixteenth-century Sappho sighed her soul forth in love-laments +to a certain Count Collaltino di Collalto, doughty warrior and polished +versifier, and that she was reputed to have died of hopeless passion in +her youth.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> The<a name="page_207" id="page_207"></a> ladies of our century will hardly believe her +story; for Cupid has changed temper since those days, and kills his +victims with far different and less honourable weapons. Some verses by +contemporary writers in praise of our literary heroine were to be +appended to this edition of her works. I dared to enter the lists, and +wrote a sonnet in the style of the earliest Tuscan poets. Such as it is, +the sonnet may be found printed in the book which I have indicated. It +appears from this juvenile production that I already acknowledged a +mistress of my heart; compliance with fashion was alone responsible for +my precocity.</p> + +<p>This trifling composition was read by the famous Apostolo Zeno. He +deigned to inquire for the author, who had reproduced the antique +simplicity of Cino da Pistoja, Guittone d'Arezzo, and Guido Cavalcanti. +On my presenting myself, Signor Zeno politely expressed surprise at +discovering a mere boy in the learned writer of the sonnet, treated me +with kind attention, and placed his choice library at my disposal.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +The encouragement of this distinguished<a name="page_208" id="page_208"></a> poet, true lover of pure style, +and foe to seventeenth-century conceits, added fuel to the fire of my +literary passion. From that day forward not one of those collections of +verses appeared, in which marriages, the entrance of young ladies into +convents, the election of noblemen to offices of state, the deaths of +people, cats, dogs, parrots, and such events, are celebrated in Venice +and other towns of Italy, but that it contained some specimen of my Muse +in grave or playful verse.</p> + +<p>Books, paper, pens and ink formed the staple of my existence. I was +always pregnant, always in labour, giving birth to monsters in remote +corners of our mansion. I scribbled furiously, God knows how, up to my +seventeenth year. Besides innumerable essays in prose and multitudes of +fugitive verses, I wrote four long poems, entitled <i>Berlinghieri</i>, <i>Don +Quixote</i>, <i>Moral Philosophy</i> (based upon the talking animals of +Firenzuola), and <i>Gonella</i> in twelve cantos. The Abb Verdani took a +fancy to this last, and wished to see it printed. Signor Giulio Cesare +Beccelli, however, had published a poem at Verona on the same subject, +which robbed my work of novelty; and though mine was richer in facts +drawn from good old sources, I did not venture to enter into competition +with him. The three years' absence from home, which I shall presently +relate, and the revolution in our domestic affairs which surprised me on +my return, exposed these boyish literary<a name="page_209" id="page_209"></a> labours to ruin and +dispersion. It is probable that pork-butchers and fruit-vendors +exercised condign justice on the children of my Muse.</p> + +<h3><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.<br /> +<i>The Situation of my Family, and my Reasons for Leaving Home.</i></h3> + +<p>In the course of these years, the early deaths of a brother and a sister +had reduced our numbers from eleven to nine. Meanwhile, our annual +expenditure exceeded the resources at our command, and left but little +for the needs of a numerous offspring, too old to be contented with a +toy or plaything. Some lawsuits, which we lost, diminished the estate. +Clouds of doubt and care began to obscure the horizon, and in a few +years the family was plunged in pecuniary embarrassment.</p> + +<p>My brother Gasparo had taken a wife in a fit of genial poetical +abstraction. Even poetry has its dangers. This man, who was really +singular in his absolute self-dedication to books, in his indefatigable +labours as an author, and in a certain philosophical temper or +indolence, which made him indifferent to everything which was not +literary, learned to fall in love from Petrarch. A young lady, ten years +older<a name="page_210" id="page_210"></a> than himself, named Luigia Bergalli,<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a> better known among the +shepherdesses of Arcady as Irmenia Partenide, a poetess of romantic +fancy, as her published works evince, was my brother's Laura. Not being +a canon, like Petrarch, he married her in Petrarch's spirit, but with +due legal formalities. This woman, of fervent and soaring imagination, +which fitted her for high poetic flights, undertook to regulate the +disorder in our affairs. Impelled by the instincts of a good nature, +with something of ambition and a flattering belief in her own practical +ability, she did the best that in her lay. Yet all her projects and +administrative measures revolved within a circle of romantic raptures +and Pindaric ecstasies. Thirsting with soul-passion after an ideal +realm, she found herself the sovereign of a state in decadence. It was +the desire of her heart to make us all happy, in the most disinterested +way. Yet she accomplished nothing beyond involving every one, and +herself<a name="page_211" id="page_211"></a> to boot, in the meshes of still greater misfortune. Her +husband, poring perpetually upon his books, could only oppose her at the +sacrifice of ease and quiet. This he was incapable of doing.—In order +to judge people equitably, it is necessary that character, temperament, +and circumstances should be thoroughly explained.</p> + +<p>I know how unphilosophical it is to ascribe the discords of a family to +malignant planetary influences. Our domestic circle consisted of a +father, a mother, four brothers, and five sisters, all of them +good-hearted, honourable, mutually well-inclined; and yet it became the +very mirror of infelicity at every moment and in each of the persons who +composed it. Minute investigation into the causes of this painful fact +would probably reveal them. But it is better to adopt the language of +the vulgar, and to say that a bad star pursued our family. Otherwise, +analysis might lead one into acts of unkindness, and involve one in +hatred.</p> + +<p>The confusion in which we lived at that period, and the bitter +discomforts we had to bear, were augmented by expenses due to my +brother's increasing progeny. Our worst disaster, however (and this +wound I carry in my heart even to the present day), was a cruel stroke +of apoplexy which laid my beloved father low. He continued to exist, an +invalid, for about seven years after the sad event; dumb and paralytic, +but in possession of all his mental faculties<a name="page_212" id="page_212"></a>—a circumstance which +rendered his deplorable condition almost unbearable to a man of my +father's extreme sensibility.</p> + +<p>The tears of five sisters, the births of nephews and nieces, a house +swarming with female go-betweens, brokers, and the Hebrew ministers of +our decaying realm—all this whirlpool of economical extravagance and +folly, to utter one word against which was reckoned mutiny or treason, +drove my second brother, Francesco, into exile. He went into the Levant +with the Provveditore Generale di Mare,<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a> his Excellency the +Cavaliere Antonio Loredano, of happy memory. At that period I was about +thirteen.</p> + +<p>Letters written from Corfu by this brother describing the kindness shown +him by his Provveditore, and the rank of ensign to which he soon +attained, awoke in me a burning desire to escape like him from those +domestic turmoils, the gravity of which I felt in experience and +measured by<a name="page_213" id="page_213"></a> anticipation, but which my state of boyhood rendered me +unable to remedy. Our uncle on the mother's side, Almor Cesare Tiepolo, +recommended me to his Excellency Girolamo Quirini, Provveditore Generale +elect for Dalmatia and Albania. Furnished with a modest outfit, in which +my book-box and guitar were not forgotten, I bade farewell to my parents +at the age of seventeen,<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> and went across seas as volunteer into +those provinces, to study the ways and manners of my fellow-soldiers, +and of the peoples among whom we were quartered.</p> + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I Embark upon a Galley, and Cross the Seas to Zara.</i></p></div> + +<p>I was not slow to perceive that I had adopted a career by no means +suited to my character, the proper motto for which was always the +following verse from Berni:</p> + +<p class="r">"Voleva far da se, non commandato."</p> + +<p>My natural dislike of changeableness kept me, however, from showing by +outward signs of any sort that I repented of my choice; and I reflected +that abundant opportunities were now at least offered for observations +on the men of a world new to me.<a name="page_214" id="page_214"></a> This thought sufficed to keep me in +good spirits and a cheerful humour through all the vicissitudes of my +three years' sojourn in Illyria.</p> + +<p>According to orders received from his Excellency, the Provveditore +Generale Quirini, I embarked before him on a galley called +<i>Generalizia</i>, which was riding at the port of Malamocco. There I was to +wait for his arrival. A band of military officers received me with +glances of courtesy and some curiosity. In a Court where all the members +are seeking fortune, each newcomer is regarded with suspicion. Whether +he has to be reckoned with or may be disregarded on occasions of +promotion, concerns the whole crew of officials, who, like him, are +dependent on the will of the Provveditore. It was perhaps insensibility +which made me indifferent to these preoccupations; this the sequel of my +narrative will show; and yet such thoughts are very wood-worms in the +hearts of courtiers.</p> + +<p>I had to swallow a great quantity of questions, to which I replied with +the laconic brevity of an inexperienced lad upon his guard. Some of +those gentlemen had known my brother Francesco at Corfu. When they +discovered who I was, they seemed to be relieved of all anxiety on my +account, and welcomed me with noisy demonstrations of soldierly +comradeship. I expressed my thanks in modest, almost monosyllabic +phrases. They set me down for an awkward young fellow, unobliging, and +proud. This<a name="page_215" id="page_215"></a> was a mistake, as they freely confessed a few months later +on. I had retired into myself, with the view of studying their +characters and sketching my line of action. The quick and penetrative +intuition with which I was endowed at birth by God, together with the +faculty of imperturbable reserve, enabled me in the course of a few +hours to recognise in that little group some men of noble birth and +liberal culture, some nobles ruined by the worst of educations, and some +plebeians who owed their position to powerful protection.</p> + +<p>Gaming, intemperance, and unbridled sensuality were deeply rooted in the +whole company. I laid my plans of conduct, and found them useful in the +future. My intimacies were few, but durable. The vices I have named, +clung like ineradicable cancers to the men with whom I associated. Sound +principles engrafted on me in my early years, regard for health, and the +slenderness of my purse helped me to avoid their seductions. At the same +time, I saw no reason why I should proclaim a crusade against them. +Holding a middle course, I succeeded in winning the affection of my +comrades. They invited me to take part in their orgies. I did not play +the prude. Without yielding myself to the transports of brutal appetite, +I proved the gayest reveller at all those lawless meetings. Some of my +seniors, on whom a career of facile pleasure had left its inevitable +stigma, used to twit me with being a reserved young simpleton.<a name="page_216" id="page_216"></a> I did +not heed their raillery, but laughed at the inebriation of my comrades, +studied the bent of divers characters, observed the animal brutality of +men, and used our uproarious debauches as a school for fathoming the +depths of human frailty.</p> + +<p>Now I will return to the point of my embarkation on the galley +<i>Generalizia</i> in the port of Malamocco. While awaiting the arrival of +the Provveditore, I had two whole days and nights to spend in sad +reflections on humanity. These were suggested by the spectacle of some +three hundred scoundrels, loaded with chains, condemned to drag their +life out in a sea of miseries and torments, each of which was sufficient +by itself to kill a man. An epidemic of malignant fever raged among +these men, carrying away its victims daily from the bread and water, the +irons, and the whips of the slavemasters. Attended in their last passage +by a gaunt black Franciscan friar, with thundering voice and jovial +mien, these wretches took their flight—I hope and think—for Paradise.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_216_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_216_sml.jpg" width="386" height="550" alt="THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY +Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze" title="THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY +Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze" /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY<br /></span><span class="caption2"> +Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze</span> +</p> + +<p>The Provveditore's arrival amid the din of instruments and roar of +cannon roused me from my dismal reveries. I had visited this gentleman +ten times at least in his own palace, and had always been received with +that playful welcome and confidential sweetness which distinguish the +patricians of Venice. He made his appearance now in crimson—crimson +mantle, cap, and shoes—with an air of haughtiness unknown to me, and +fierceness stamped upon his features. The<a name="page_217" id="page_217"></a> other officers informed +me that when he donned this uniform of state, he had to be addressed +with profound and silent salaams, different indeed from the reverence +one pays at Venice to a patrician in his civil gown.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> He boarded the +galley, and seemed to take no notice whatever of the crowd around him, +bowing till their noses rubbed their toes. The affability with which he +touched our hands in Venice had disappeared; he looked at none of us; +and sentenced the young captain of the guard, called Combat, to arrest +in chains, because he had omitted some trifle of the military salute. My +comrades stood dumbfounded, staring at one another with open eyes. This +singular change from friendliness to severity set my brains at work. By +the light of my boyish philosophy I seemed to comprehend why the noble +of a great republic, elected general of an armament<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> and governor of +two wide provinces, on his first appearance in that office, felt bound +to assume a totally different aspect from what was natural to him in his +private capacity. He had to inspire fear and a spirit of submission into +his subordinates. Otherwise they might have taken liberties upon the +strength of former courtesy displayed by him,<a name="page_218" id="page_218"></a> being for the most part +presumptuous young fellows, apt to boast about their favour with the +general. For my own part, since I was firmly bent on doing my duty +without ambitious plans or dreams of fortune, this formidable attitude +and the harsh commands of the great man made a less disheartening +impression on me than on my companions. I whispered to myself: "He +certainly inspires me with a kind of dread; but he has taken immense +trouble to transform his nature in order to produce this effect; I am +sure the irksomeness which he is suffering now must be greater than any +discomfort he can cause me."</p> + +<p>The general retired to his cabin in the bowels of our floating hell, and +sent Lieutenant-Colonel Micheli, his major in the province, to make out +a list of all the officers and volunteers on board, together with the +names of their protectors. Nobody expected this; for we had been +personally presented to the general at Venice, and had explained our +affairs in frequent conversations. Once more I reflected that this was +his way of damping the expectations which might have been bred in +scheming brains before he exchanged the politenesses of private life for +the austerities of office. The Maggiore della Provincia Micheli—a most +excellent person and very fat—bustled about his business, sweating, and +scribbling with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as though the matter was +one of life or death. Everybody began to shy and grumble and chafe with +indignation at<a name="page_219" id="page_219"></a> passing under review in this way. When my turn came, I +answered frankly that I was called Carlo Gozzi, and that I had been +recommended by the patrician Almor Cesare Tiepolo. I withheld his title +of senator and the fact that he was my maternal uncle, deeming it +prudent not to seem ambitious.</p> + +<p>The <i>Generalizia</i>, convoyed by another galley named <i>Conserva</i> and a few +light vessels of war, got under way for the Adriatic;<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a> and the night +fell very dark upon the waters. I shall not easily forget that night, +because of a little incident which happened to me, and which shows what +a curious place of refuge a galley is for young men leaving their homes +for the first time. A natural necessity made me seek some corner for +retirement. I was directed to the bowsprit; on approaching it, an +Illyrian sentinel, with scowling visage, bushy whiskers, and levelled +musket, howled his "<i>Who goes there?</i>" in a tremendous voice. When he +understood my business, he let me pass. My next step lighted on a soft +and yielding mass, which gave forth a kind of gurgling sound, like the +stifled breath of an asthmatic patient, into the dark silent night. +Retracing my path, I asked the<a name="page_220" id="page_220"></a> sentinel what the thing was, which +responded with its inarticulate gurgling voice to the pressure of my +feet. He answered with the coldest indifference that it was the corpse +of a galley-slave, who had succumbed to the fever, and had been flung +there till he could be buried on the sea-shore sands in Istria. The hair +on my head bristled with horror. But my happy disposition for seeing the +ludicrous side of things soon came to my assistance.</p> + +<p>After twelve days of much discomfort, and twelve noisome nights, passed +in broken slumbers under the decks of that galley, which only too well +deserved its name, our little fleet entered the port of Zara. We went on +shore at first privately and quietly; and after a few days the public +ceremonies of official disembarkation were gone through. The +Provveditore Generale Jacopo Cavalli handed his baton of command over to +the Provveditore Generale Girolamo Quirini with all the formalities +proper to the occasion. This solemnity, which is performed upon the open +sea, to the sound of military music, the thunder of artillery, and the +crackling of musket-shots, deserves to be witnessed by all who take an +interest in imposing spectacles. An old man, fat and short of stature, +with a pair of moustachios bristling up beneath his nostrils, a merry +and most honest fellow to boot, who bore the name of Captain Girolamo +Visinoni, was appointed master of these ceremonies, on account of his +intimate acquaintance with<a name="page_221" id="page_221"></a> their details. I had no other duty that day +but to wear my best clothes, which did not cost much trouble.</p> + +<h3>V.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>I Fall Dangerously Ill; Recover; Form the only Intimate +Acquaintance I made in Dalmatia.</i></p></div> + +<p>When the new Regency had been established and the Court settled, I had +but eight days to learn my duties as volunteer or adjutant<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> to his +Excellency, as it is called there, before I fell ill of a fever which +was declared to be malignant. Alone among people whom I hardly knew, at +the commencement of my career, poorly provided with money, and lying in +a wretched room, the windows of which were closed with torn and rotten +paper instead of glass, I could not but compare my present destitution +with the comforts of our home. Here I was battling with a mortal disease +in solitude. There, at the least touch of illness, I enjoyed the tender +solicitude of a sister or a servant at my pillow, to brush away the +flies which settled on my forehead. Fortunately, I was not so strongly +attached to life as to be rendered miserable by unavailing recollections +and gloomy forebodings.<a name="page_222" id="page_222"></a></p> + +<p>It happened one day, as I lay there burning, that a convict presented +himself at the door of my miserable den, and asked me if I wanted +anything which he could fetch me. He was one of those men who prowl +around the officers' quarters, wrapped in an old blanket with a bit of +rope about the waist, ready to do any dirty business and to pilfer if +they find the opportunity. I gave him a few farthings and told him to +send me a confessor—an errand very different from what he had expected. +Before long a good Dominican appeared, who prepared me to die with the +courage of an ancient Roman. Our modern sages may laugh at this plebeian +wish of mine to make my peace with Heaven; but I have never been able to +dissociate philosophy from religion. Satisfied to remain a little child +before the mysteries of faith, I do not envy wise men in their +disengagement from spiritual terrors.</p> + +<p>The chief physician, Danieli, a man of prodigious corpulence and +blackness, who had been sent to my assistance by the Governor, spared no +attentions and no remedies. As usual, they proved unavailing; and he +bade me prepare myself for death by receiving the holy sacrament. I +summoned what remained to me of vital force, and went through this +ceremony with devotion. There seemed to be so little difference between +a sepulchre and the room in which my body lay, that I felt no disgust at +relinquishing my corpse to the grave-diggers. I was now ready for the<a name="page_223" id="page_223"></a> +last unction, when an attack of hemorrhage from the nostrils, like those +which had already nearly brought me to death's door, recalled me for the +nonce to life. All the ordinary remedies—ligatures, powders, herbs, +astringent plasters, sympathetic stones, muttered charms, old wives' +talismans—were exhibited in vain. After filling two basons with blood, +I lapsed into a profound swoon, which the doctor styled a syncope. To +all appearances I was dead; but the blood stopped; in a quarter of an +hour I revived; and three days afterwards I found myself, weak indeed, +but wholly free from fever and on the road to recovery. My ignorance +could not reconcile this salutary crisis with Danieli's absolute +prohibition of blood-letting in my malady. But I suppose that a score of +learned physicians, each of them upon a different system of hypotheses, +conjectures, well-based calculations, and trains of lucid argument, +would be able to demonstrate the phenomenon to their own satisfaction +and to the illumination or confusion of my stupid brain. Stupendous +indeed are the mental powers which Almighty God has bestowed on men!</p> + +<p>The readers of these Memoirs will hardly need to be informed that my +slender purse had nothing in it at the termination of this illness. +Under these painful circumstances I found a cordial and open-hearted +friend in Signor Innocenzio Massimo, nobleman of Padua, and captain of +halbardiers at the<a name="page_224" id="page_224"></a> Dalmatian Court. This excellent gentleman, of rare +distinction for his mental parts, the quickness of his spirit, his +courage, energy, and honour, was the only intimate friend whom I +possessed during my three years' absence from home. When they were over, +our friendship continued undiminished by lapse of time, distance, and +the various vicissitudes of life. I have enjoyed it through thirty-five +years, and am sure that it will never fail me. Some qualities of his +character have exposed him to enmity; among these I may mention a +particular sensitiveness to affronts, an intolerance of attempts to +deceive him, and a quick perception of fraud, together with a firm +resolve to stem the tide of extravagance and fashionable waste in his +own family. His many virtues, the decent comfort of his household, his +hospitality to friends and acquaintances, his careful provision for the +well-being of his posterity, his benevolence to the poor and afflicted, +his successful efforts as a peacemaker among discordant fellow-citizens, +his expenditure of time and trouble upon all who come to him for advice +or assistance, have not sufficed to disarm the malignity of a vulgar +crowd, corrupted by the false philosophy of our century, which goes from +bad to worse in dissolution and ill manners.<a name="page_225" id="page_225"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.<br /><br /> +<i>Short Studies in the Science of Fortification and Military +Exercises.—Some Reflections which will pass for Foolishness.</i></h3> + +<p>On the restoration of my health, his Excellency placed me under +Cavaliere Marchiori, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, to learn +mathematics as applied to fortification. This gentleman sent for me, and +said that he had heard from my uncle of my aptitude for study, adding +that the subject he proposed to teach me was of the greatest consequence +to a soldier. I perceived at once that I was being treated on a +different footing from the other volunteers, and that the studied +forgetfulness of the Provveditore had been, as I suspected, a politic +device to humble ambitious schemers. I thanked Signor Marchiori, and +followed his instructions with pleasure, without however abandoning my +own interest in literature.</p> + +<p>He questioned me regarding my knowledge of arithmetic, which was only +elementary; and when I saw that I must master it, in order to pursue the +higher branch of study, I gave my whole head to the business. In the +space of a month, I could cipher like a money-lender, and was ready to +receive my master's teaching. My friend Massimo possessed a good +collection of instruments for engineering<a name="page_226" id="page_226"></a> draughtsmanship, and a +library of French works on geometry, mathematics, and fortification, +both of which he placed at my disposal. Signor Marchiori's lectures, +long discussions with Signor Massimo, perusal of Euclid, Archimedes, and +the French books, soon plunged me in the lore of points and lines and +calculations. I burned with the enthusiasm, droll enough to my way of +looking at the world, which inspires all students of this science. Yet I +did not, like them, regard moral philosophy and humane literature as +insignificant frivolities. I bore in mind for what good reasons the +Emperor Vespasian dismissed the mathematicians who offered their +assistance in the building of his Roman edifices. I knew that +innumerable vessels, fabricated on the principles of science, have +perished miserably in the tempests; that hundreds of fortresses, built +by science, have been destroyed and captured by the same science; that +inundations are continually sweeping away the dykes erected by science, +to the ruin of thousands of families, and that the inundations +themselves are attributable to the admired masterpieces of science +bequeathed to us by former generations; that, in spite of science and +her creative energy, the buildings she erects are not secured from +earthquakes, conflagrations, and the thunderbolt. It remains to be seen +whether Professor Toaldo's lightning-conductors will prove effectual +against the last of these disasters. Then I reckoned up the<a name="page_227" id="page_227"></a> blessings +and curses which this vaunted science has conferred on humanity, +arriving at the conclusion that the harm which she has done infinitely +exceeds the good. I shuddered at the hundreds of thousands of human +beings ingeniously massacred in war or drowned at sea by her devices; +and took more pleasure in consulting my watch, her wise invention, for +the dinner-hour than at the hour of keeping an appointment with my +lawyer. Without denying the utility of sciences, I stuck resolutely to +the opinion that moral philosophy is of more importance to the human +race than mechanical inventions, and deplored the pernicious influence +of modern Lyceums and Polytechnic schools upon the mind of Europe.</p> + +<p>Signor Massimo and I kept house together in a little dwelling on the +city walls, facing the sea. The sun, in his daily revolutions, struck +this habitation on every side; and there was not an open space of wall +or window-sill without its dial, fabricated by my skill, and adorned +with appropriate but useless mottoes on the flight of time. A lieutenant +named Giovanni Apergi, upright and pious, especially when the gout he +had acquired in the world's pleasures made him turn his thoughts to +Heaven, gave me friendly lessons in military drill. I soon learned to +handle my musket, pike, and ensign; and sweated a shirt daily, fencing +with Massimo, who was ferociously expert in that fiendish but +gentlemanly art. We also spent some hours together over a great +chessboard<a name="page_228" id="page_228"></a> of his, covered with wooden soldiers, which we moved from +square to square, forming squadrons, and studying the combinations which +enable armies to kill with prodigality and to be killed with +parsimony,—fitting ourselves, in short, for manuring cemeteries in the +most approved style.</p> + +<p>I was already half a soldier, and meant to make myself perfect in my +profession; not, however, without a firm resolve to quit the army<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> +at the expiration of my three years' service. Twelve months spent in +studying my comrades convinced me that, though some worthy fellows might +be found among them, their society as a whole was uncongenial to my +tastes. I had neither the ambition nor the greed of gain which might +have sapped this resolution; and my persistence during the appointed +time was mainly due to a dislike of seeming fickle. I wanted to gain the +respect of my relatives, whom I hoped to help one day with my counsel, +my credit, and the example of my perseverance.</p> + +<p>After eight months spent in the study of fortification, I lost my poor +master. He died suddenly of a fit of spleen a few days after winning his +company in a regiment called Lagarde. This promotion he<a name="page_229" id="page_229"></a> obtained by +competition; and some insulting words dropped upon the occasion, which +he was unable to resent, caused his mortal illness. Every one deplored +the death of Marchiori; but no one more than I did. His goodness, +sweetness, affability, and friendly patience left a powerful impression +on my memory. Gradually my interest in geometry declined, and I resumed +my former studies with fresh ardour, attending meanwhile to my military +duties, and waiting philosophically till the three years should be over.</p> + +<h3><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.<br /><br /> +<i>This Chapter proves that Poetry is not as useless as people +commonly imagine.</i></h3> + +<p>I am bound to confess that my weakness for poetry and Italian literature +was great. In the Venetian service, and particularly in Dalmatia, there +were very few indeed who shared these tastes. I wrote and read my +compositions to myself, without seeking the applause of an audience or +boring my neighbours with things they do not care for, as is the wont of +most scribblers.</p> + +<p>The secretary of the Generalate, Signor Giovanni Colombo, took some +interest in literature. I may mention, by the way, that he afterwards +rose to high dignity, which involved a calamity for him, sweetened,<a name="page_230" id="page_230"></a> +however, by a splendid funeral; in other words, he died Grand Chancellor +of our most serene Republic.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> This man, of gentle spirit and jovial +temper, knowing the epidemic of poetry which possessed the Gozzi family, +encouraged me to read him some of my trifles, and seemed to take +pleasure in listening to them. He owned a small but well-chosen library, +which he courteously allowed me to use. My verses, satirical for the +most part and descriptive of characters—without scurrility indeed, +though based on accurate observation of both sexes—were communicated to +him and Massimo alone.</p> + +<p>The town of Zara was bent on testifying its respect for our Provveditore +Generale Quirini by a grand public display. A large hall of wood was +accordingly erected on the open space before the fort, and hung with +fine damask. Tickets of invitation were then distributed to various +persons, who were to compose an Academy upon the day of the solemnity. +Every academician had to recite two compositions in prose or verse, as +he thought fit. The subjects were set forth on the tickets, and were as +follows:—First, Is a prince who preserves, defends, and improves his +dominions in peace, more praiseworthy than one<a name="page_231" id="page_231"></a> who seeks to extend them +by force of arms? The second was to be a panegyric of the Provveditore +Generale. An old nobleman of Zara, named Giovanni Pellegrini, was chosen +to preside in the Academy and to dispense the invitations. He wore a +black velvet suit and a huge blonde wig, done up into knotted curls, and +possessed a fund of eloquence in the style of Father Casimir +Frescot.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>I did not receive an invitation, which proves either that I was an +amateur of poetry unknown to fame, or that Signor Pellegrini, in his +gravity and wisdom, judged me a mere boy, unworthy of consideration in +an enterprise which he treated with true Illyrico-Italian seriousness. +Signor Colombo and my friend Massimo urged me to prepare two +compositions on the published themes; but I reminded them that I had no +right to appear uninvited. Nevertheless, I amused myself by scribbling a +couple of sonnets, which I consigned to the bottom of my pocket. As may +be imagined, I defended peace in the one, and did my best to belaud his +Excellency in the other.</p> + +<p>The Provveditore Generale, attended by his officers and by the magnates +of the city, entered the temporary hall, and took his seat upon a rich +fauteuil raised many steps above the ground. A covey of literary +celebrities, collected Heaven knows where,<a name="page_232" id="page_232"></a> ranged their learned backs +along a row of chairs, which formed a semicircle round him.</p> + +<p>Strolling outside the damasked tabernacle, I saw some servants who were +preparing beverages and refreshments with a mighty bustle. I was +thirsty, and thought I should not be committing a crime if I asked one +of them for a lemonade. He replied that express orders had been given +not to quench the thirst of anybody who was not a member of the Academy. +This discourteous rebuff, repeated to the <i>sitio</i> of several officers, +raised a spirit of silent revolt among us. I resolved to put a bold face +on the matter, and to proclaim myself an academician, thinking that the +title of poet might win for me the lemonade which was denied to the +dignity and the weapons of an officer.</p> + +<p>This little incident confirmed my opinion of the usefulness of poetry +against the universal judgment which regards it as an inutility. Poetry +stood me in good stead by procuring me a lemonade and saving me from +dying of thirst. Having swallowed the beverage, I proceeded to one of +the seats in the assembly, exciting some surprise among its members, who +were, however, kind enough to tolerate my presence. For three whole +hours the air resounded with long inflated erudite orations and poems +not remarkable for sweetness. A yawn from the General now and then did +honour to the Academy and the academicians. I must in justice say that +some tolerable<a name="page_233" id="page_233"></a> compositions, superior to what I had expected, struck my +ears. A young abb in holy orders gushed with poetic eloquence. I have +heard that he is now become a bishop. Who knows whether poetry was not +as serviceable to him in the matter of his mitre, as she was to me in +the matter of my lemonade!</p> + +<p>I declaimed my sonnets in their turn; the second of which, by Apollo's +blessing, pleased his Excellency, and consequently was received with +general approval. It established my reputation among the folk of Zara, +and led to a comic scene two days later. The Provveditore Generale was +in the habit of riding in the cool some four or five miles outside the +city; a troop of officers galloped at his heels, and I galloped with +them. While we were amusing ourselves in this way, his Excellency took a +fancy to hear my sonnet over again; for it had now become famous, as +often happens with trifles, which go the round of society upon the +strength of adventitious circumstances. He called me loudly. I put spurs +to my horse, while he, still galloping, ordered me to recite. I do not +think a sonnet was ever declaimed in like manner since the creation of +the world. Galloping after the great man, and almost bursting my lungs +in the effort to make myself heard, with all the trills, gasps, +cadences, semitones, clippings of words, and dissonances, which the +movement of a horse at full speed could occasion, I recited the sonnet +in a storm of sobs<a name="page_234" id="page_234"></a> and sighs, and blessed my stars when I had pumped +out the fourteenth line. Knowing the temper of the General, who was +haughty and formidable in matters of importance, but sometimes whimsical +in his diversions, I thought at the time that he must have been seeking +a motive for laughter. And indeed, I believe this was the case. Anyhow, +he can only have been deceived if he hoped to laugh more at the affair +than I did. Yet I was rather afraid of becoming a laughing-stock to my +riding-companions also. Foolish fear! These honest fellows, like true +courtiers, vied with each other in congratulating me upon the partiality +of his Excellency and the honour he had done me. They were even jealous +of a burlesque scene in which I played the buffoon, and sorry that they +had not enjoyed the luck of performing it themselves.</p> + +<h3><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.<br /><br /> +<i>Confirmation of a hint I gave in the Second Chapter of these +Memoirs relating to a great danger which I ran.</i></h3> + +<p>I related in the second chapter of this book that I once owed my life to +a trick taught me by a jockey. The incident happened during one of our +cavalcades with the Provveditore Generale.</p> + +<p>At the hour appointed for riding out, all the officers of the Court sent +their saddles and bridles to the<a name="page_235" id="page_235"></a> General's stables, and each of us +mounted the animal which happened to be harnessed with his own gear. Now +the Bashaw of Bosnia had presented the governor with a certain Turkish +stallion, finely made, but so vicious that no one liked to back the +brute. One day I noticed that the grooms had saddled this untamable Turk +for me. Who knows what motives determine the acts of stable-boys? I am +not accustomed to be easily dismayed; besides, I had ridden many +dangerous horses in my time, and this was not the minute to show the +white feather before a crowd of soldiers. I leapt upon the animal like +an antique paladin, without looking to see whether the bit and trappings +were in order. Our troops started; but my Bucephalus reared, whirled +round in the air, and bolted toward his stable, which lay below the +ramparts. Pulling and working at the reins had no effect upon the brute; +and when I bent down to discover the cause, I found that the bit had not +been fastened, either through the negligence or the malice of the +grooms.</p> + +<p>Rushing at the mercy of this demon through the narrow streets and low +doors of the city, I began to reflect that I was not likely to reach the +stables with my head upon my shoulders. Then I remembered the jockey's +advice, and rising in my stirrups, leaned forwards, and stuck my fingers +into the two eyes of the stallion. Suddenly deprived of sight, and not +knowing whither he was going, he dashed furiously<a name="page_236" id="page_236"></a> up against a wall, +and fell all of a heap beneath me. I leapt to earth with the agility of +a practised rider, and made the Turk get up; he was trembling like a +leaf, while I with shaky fingers fastened the bit firmly; then I mounted +again, and rejoined my company among the shouts of applause which always +greet dare-devil escapades of this kind. The middle finger of my left +hand had been flayed by striking against the wall. I still bear the scar +of this glorious wound.</p> + +<h3><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.<br /><br /> +<i>Little incidents, trifling observations, moral reflections of no +value, gossip which is sure to make the reader yawn.</i></h3> + +<p>Our forces had little to occupy them in those provinces, so that my +sonnet in praise of peace exactly fitted. Some interesting incidents, +and several journeys which I undertook, furnished me, however, with +abundant matter for reflection. I shall here indulge myself by setting +down a few observations which occur to my memory.</p> + +<p>The regular troops which garrison the fortresses of Dalmatia had been +recalled to Italy, in order to defend the neutrality of Venice during +the wars which then prevailed among her neighbours. In these +circumstances the Senate commissioned our Provveditore Generale to levy +new forces from the subject tribes,<a name="page_237" id="page_237"></a> not only for maintaining the +military establishment of Dalmatia, but also for drafting a large number +of Morlacchi<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> into Italy. It was a matter of no difficulty to enrol +garrisons for the Illyrian fortresses; but the exportation of the +Morlacchi cost his Excellency the greatest trouble. These ruffianly wild +beasts, wholly destitute of education, are aware that they are subjects +of Venice; yet their firm resolve is to indulge lawless instincts for +robbery and murder as they list, refusing obedience in all things which +do not suit their inclinations. To reason with them is the same as +talking in a whisper to the deaf. They simply resisted the command to +form themselves into a troop and leave their lairs for Italy.</p> + +<p>Their chiefs, who were educated men, brave and loyal to their prince, +strained every nerve to carry out these orders. It was found needful to +recall the bandits, who swarm throughout those regions, outlawed for +every sort of crime—robberies, homicides, arson, and such-like acts of +heroism. Bribes too were offered of bounties and advanced pay, in order +to induce the wild and stubborn peasants to cross the seas. I was +present at the review of these Anthropophagi; for indeed they hardly +merited a more civilised title. It took place on the beach of Zara under +the eyes of the Provveditore, with ships under sail, ready for the +embarkation of the conscripts. Pair<a name="page_238" id="page_238"></a> by pair, they came up and received +their stipend; upon which they expressed their joy by howling out some +barbarous chant, and dancing off together with uncouth gambols to the +transport ships. I revered God's handiwork in these savages while +deploring their bad education, and felt a passing wish to explore the +Eden of eternal beatitude in which the Morlacchi dwell.</p> + +<p>It is certain that the Italian cities under our benign government were +more disturbed than guarded by these brutal creatures. At Verona, in +particular, they indulged their appetite for thieving, murdering, +brawling, and defying discipline, without the least regard for orders. +At the close of a few months, they had to be sent back to their caves, +in order to deliver the Veneto from an unbearable incubus. Even at the +outset, their spirit of insubordination let itself be felt. Scarcely had +the transports sailed, when the sight of the Illyrian mountains made +them burn to leap on shore. The seamen did their best to restrain the +unruly crew; but finding that they ran a risk of being cut in pieces, +they finally unbarred the pens before this indomitable flock of rams.</p> + +<p>What I am now writing may seem to have little to do with the narrative +of my own life, and may look as though I wished to calumniate the +natives of Dalmatia. The rulers of those territories will, however, bear +me out in the following remarks. I<a name="page_239" id="page_239"></a> have visited all the fortresses, +many districts, and many villages of the two provinces. In some of the +cities I found well-educated people, trustworthy, cordial, and liberal +in sentiment. In places far removed from the Provveditore Generale's +Court the manners of the population are incredibly rough. All the +peasants may be described as cruel, superstitious, and irrational wild +beasts. In their marriages, their funerals, their games, they preserve +the customs of pagan antiquity. Reading Homer and Virgil gives a perfect +conception of the Morlacchi. They hire a troop of women to lament over +their dead. These professional mourners shriek by turns, relieving one +another when voice and throat have been exhausted by dismal wailings +tuned to a music which inspires terror. One of their pastimes is to +balance a heavy piece of marble on the lifted palm of the right hand, +and hurl it after taking a running jump. The fellow who projects this +missile in a straight line to the greatest distance, wins. One is +reminded of the enormous boulders hurled by Diomede and Turnus.</p> + +<p>In their mountain homes the Morlacchi are fine fellows, useful to the +State of Venice on occasions of war with the Turks, their neighbours, +whom they cordially detest. The inhabitants of the coast make bold +seamen, apt for fighting on the waters. Toward Montenegro the tribes +become even more like savages. Families, who have been accustomed for<a name="page_240" id="page_240"></a> +some generations to die peaceably in their beds or kennels, and cannot +boast of a fair number of murdered ancestors, are looked down upon by +the rest. On the beach outside the city walls of Budua, for which these +men and brothers leave their hills in summer-time to taste the coolness +of sea-breezes, I have witnessed their exploits with the musket and have +seen three corpses stretched upon the sands. A member of one of the +pacific families I have described, being taunted by some comrade, burned +to wipe out the shame of his kindred, and opened a glorious chapter in +their annals by slaughtering and being slaughtered. Fierce battles and +armed encounters between village and village are frequent enough in +those parts. The men of one village who kill a man of the next village, +have no peace unless they pay a hundred sequins or discharge their debt +by the death of one of their own folk. Such is the current tariff, fixed +without consulting their sovereign, among these people, who regard +brutality as justice. I learned much about these traits of human nature +from a village priest of Montenegro, who conversed with me nearly every +day upon the beach at Budua. He talked a strange Italian jargon, +narrated the homicides of his flock with complacency, and let it be +understood that a gun was better suited to his handling than the vessels +of the sanctuary.</p> + +<p>The thirst for vengeance is never slaked there.<a name="page_241" id="page_241"></a> It passes from heir to +heir like an estate in tail. Among the Morlacchi, who are less +bloodthirsty than the Montenegrins, I once saw a woman of some fifty +years fling herself at the feet of the Provveditore Generale, extract a +mummied head from a game-bag, and cast it on the ground before him, +weeping as though her heart would burst, and calling aloud for pity and +justice. For thirty years she had preserved this skull, the skull of her +mother, who had been murdered. The assassins had long ago been brought +to justice, but their punishment was insufficient to lay the demon of +ferocity in this affectionate daughter. Accordingly, she presented +herself indefatigably through a course of thirty years before each of +the successive Provveditori Generali, with the same maternal skull in +her game-bag, with the same shrieks and tears and cries for justice.</p> + +<p>I liked seeing the Montenegrin women. They clothe themselves in black +woollen stuffs after a fashion which was certainly not invented by +coquetry. Their hair is parted, and falls over their cheeks on either +shoulder, thickly plastered with butter, so as to form a kind of large +shiny bonnet. They bear the burden of the hard work of the field and +household. The wives are little better than slaves of the men. They +kneel and kiss the men's hands whenever they meet; and yet they seem to +be contented with their lot. Perhaps it would not be amiss if some +Montenegrins came to Italy and changed our<a name="page_242" id="page_242"></a> fashions with regard to +women; for ours are somewhat too marked in the contrary direction.</p> + +<p>Climate renders both the men and women of those provinces extremely +prone to sensuality. Legislators, recognising the impossibility of +controlling lawless lust here, have fixed the fine for seduction of a +girl with violence at a trifle above the sum which a libertine in Venice +bestows on the purveyor of his venal pleasures. At the period of my +residence in Dalmatia, the cities retained something of antique +austerity. This did not, however, prevent the fair sex from conducting +intrigues by stealth. It is possible that, since those days, enlightened +and philosophical Italians, composing the courts of successive +Provveditori Generali, may have removed the last obstacles of prejudice +which gave a spice of danger to love-making.</p> + +<p>In Dalmatia the women are handsome, inclining for the most part toward a +masculine robustness; among the Morlacchi of the villages, a Pygmalion +who chose to expend some bushels of sand in polishing the fair sex up, +would obtain fine breathing statues for his pains. These women of +Illyria are less constant in their love than those of Italy; but merit +less blame for their infidelity than the latter. The Illyrian is blinded +and constrained by her fervent temperament, by the climate, by poverty +and credulity; the Italian errs through ambition, avarice, and caprice. +I consider myself qualified for speaking<a name="page_243" id="page_243"></a> with decision on these points, +as will appear from the chapter I intend to write upon the +love-adventures of my youth.</p> + +<p>The land of those provinces is in great measure mountainous, stony, and +barren. There are, however, large districts of plain which might be +extremely fertile. Neither the sterile nor the fertile regions are under +cultivation, but remain for the most part fallow and unfruitful. Onions +and garlic constitute the favourite delicacies of the Morlacchi. The +annual consumption of these vegetables is enormous; and it would not be +difficult to raise a large supply of both at home. They insist, however, +on importing them from Romagna; and when one takes the peasants to task +for this sluggish indifference to their own interests, they reply that +their ancestors never planted onions, and that they have no mind to +change their customs. I often questioned educated inhabitants of those +regions upon the indolence and sloth which prevail in rural Dalmatia. +The answer I received was that nobody, without exposing his life to +peril, could make the Morlacchi do more than they chose to do, or +introduce the least reform into their agriculture. I observed that the +proprietors might always import Italian labour and turn those fertile +plains into a second Apulia. This remark was met with bursts of +laughter; and when I asked the reason, my informants told me that many +Dalmatian gentlemen had brought Italian peasants over, but that a<a name="page_244" id="page_244"></a> few +days after their arrival, they were found murdered in the fields, +without the assassins having ever been detected. I perceived that my +project was impracticable. Yet I wondered at my friends laughing rather +than shedding tears, when they gave me these convincing answers.</p> + +<p>It is a pity that Illyria and Dalmatia cannot be rendered fertile and +profitable to the State. As it is, they cost our treasury more than they +yield, through the expenses incidental to their forming our frontier +against Turkey. But I never made it my business to meddle in affairs of +public policy; and perhaps there are good reasons why these provinces +should be left to their sterility. The opinion I have continually +maintained and published, that we ought to begin by cultivating heads +and hearts, has raised a swarm of hostile projectors against me. Such +men take the truths of the gospel for biting satires, if they detect the +least shadow of opposition to their views regarding personal interest, +personal ambition, or particular prejudice. Yet the real miseries which +I noticed in Dalmatia, the wretched pittance which proprietors draw from +their estates, and the dishonesty of the peasants, suffice to +demonstrate my principles of moral education beyond the possibility of +contradiction.</p> + +<p>During my three years in Dalmatia I used to eat superb game and +magnificent fish for a mere nothing; often against my inclination, and +only because the<a name="page_245" id="page_245"></a> opportunity could not be neglected. When you are in +want of something, you rarely find it there. The fishermen, who live +upon the rocky islands,<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> ply their trade when it pleases them. They +take no thought for fasts, and sell fish for the most part on days when +flesh is eaten. The fish too is brought to market stuffed into sacks. I +could multiply these observations; but let what I have already said +suffice. It is my firm opinion that the economists of our century are at +fault when they propose material improvements and indulge in visions of +opulence and gain, without considering moral education. Wealth is now +regarded by the indigent with eyes of envy and the passions of a pirate; +rich people act as though they knew not what it was to possess wealth, +and make a shameless abuse of it in practice. The one class need to +learn temperance, moderation, and obedience to duty; the other ought to +be trained to reason and subordination. The sages of the present day +entertain very different views from these. In their eyes nothing but +material interest has any value; and instead of deploring bad morals and +manners, they seem to glory in them.<a name="page_246" id="page_246"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.<br /><br /> +<i>I am enrolled in the Cavalry of the Republic.—What my military +services amounted to.</i></h3> + +<p>Some fifteen months of my three years' service had elapsed, when the +recall of our regular troops and the enrolment of fresh forces in +Dalmatia, which have been described by me above, took place. I have now +to mention that the Provveditore Generale chose this moment for placing +me upon the roll of the Venetian service.</p> + +<p>He had me inscribed as a cadet noble<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> of cavalry. Accordingly I +blossomed out into a proper soldier at the age of about eighteen. Signor +Giorgio Barbarigo, the paymaster,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> a short, fat, honest fellow, +informed me that my commission was registered, and that I was qualified +to draw the salary of thirty-eight lire in good Venetian coin monthly at +his office. The news surprised me, and I went at once to pay my +acknowledgments to his Excellency.</p> + +<p>He told me that, nearly all the regular troops having been recalled to +Italy, he saw no prospect of awarding me a higher rank during the term +of his<a name="page_247" id="page_247"></a> administration, a considerable part of which had already +elapsed. To this he added some ironical remarks to the following +effect—"Although, indeed, I do not think you mean to follow a military +career, having observed from many points in your behaviour that you are +rather inclined to assume the clerical habit." I chose to interpret the +irony of my chief to my advantage, and answered cheerfully that although +I felt little inclination for the military profession, nothing would +ever induce me to become an ecclesiastic; meanwhile I was glad to have +studied human nature as one finds it in an army and in those provinces; +above all things, I recognised the advantage of having been allowed to +serve his Excellency during the three years of his office. I perceived +that this reply had not been unacceptable, and retired after making the +regulation bow.</p> + +<p>I discharged my military duties with punctuality; and if my courage had +been put to the test, I feel sure that I should have faced death with +romantic enthusiasm. Yet I cannot boast of having earned my monthly pay +by any particular services. In addition to the daily and nightly routine +of discipline, I attended his Excellency upon visits of inspection by +sea and land to the various fortified places of the territory. When the +plague broke out, I spoiled my shirts and ruffles in fumigating the mass +of correspondence which used to reach the Provveditore Generale from +infected villages. I delivered sentences of arrest by<a name="page_248" id="page_248"></a> word of mouth to +Venetian patricians, noblemen, and officers—always much against the +grain. I lay, together with several of my comrades, under arrest on a +false charge of malpractice, and owed my liberation after a few hours to +the intercession of a gentle lady of the Veniero family. While +enumerating these martial deserts, I ought not perhaps to include the +sufferings endured upon my journeys, whether riding the worst of nags +under a fierce sun and sleeping in jackboots upon the open fields, or +rocking at sea all night aboard some galley on a coil of cable, half +devoured by myriads of bugs. Great as these sufferings were, I must +admit that I endured greater in the disorderly garrison amusements which +I joined of my own accord. Some account of these I intend to give in +another chapter.</p> + +<p>It will be observed that my services to the State were but slender. Yet +many men have gained promotion or a pension on the strength of nothing +better. And now I think upon it, I will mention one notable achievement, +which, though it be not martial, might have put some other soldier +laddie in the way of rising to his colonelcy. I hardly expect to be +believed, but I am telling the truth, when I affirm that I acquired +renown throughout Dalmatia as a <i>soubrette</i> in improvised comedy upon +the boards of a theatre.<a name="page_249" id="page_249"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.<br /><br /> +<i>My theatrical talents; athletic exercises; imprudences of all +kinds; dangers to which I exposed myself; with reflections which +are always frivolous.</i></h3> + +<p>All through the carnival, tragedies, dramas and comedies used to be +performed by amateurs in the Court-theatre, for the amusement of his +Excellency, the patricians on the civil staff, officers of the garrison, +and the good folk of Zara.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> + +<p>Our troop was composed exclusively of male actors, as is the case in +general with unprofessional theatres; and young men, dressed like women, +played the female parts. I was selected to represent the <i>soubrette</i>.</p> + +<p>On weighing the tastes of my audience, and taking into account the +nation for whom I was to act, I invented a wholly new kind of character. +I had myself dressed like a Dalmatian servant-girl, with hair divided at +the temples, and done up with rose-coloured ribbands. My costume +corresponded at all points to that of a coquettish housemaid of<a name="page_250" id="page_250"></a> +Sebenico. I discarded the Tuscan dialect, which is spoken by the +<i>soubrettes</i> of our theatres in Italy, and having learned Illyrian +pretty well by this time, I devised for my particular use a jargon of +Venetian, altering the pronunciation and interspersing various Illyrian +phrases. This produced a very humorous effect, and lent itself both in +dialogue and improvised soliloquies to the expression of sentiments in +keeping with my part. Courage and loquacity were always at my service; +after studying the plot of a comedy, which had to be performed +extempore, I never found my readiness of wit at fault. Accordingly, the +new and unexpected type of the <i>soubrette</i> which I invented was welcomed +with enthusiasm alike by Italians and natives. It created a <i>furore</i> in +my audience, and won for me universal sympathy.</p> + +<p>My sketches of Dalmatian manners studied from the life, my satirical +repartees to the mistresses I served, my piquant sallies upon incidents +which formed the talk of town and garrison, my ostentatious modesty, my +snubs to impertinent admirers, my reflections and my lamentations, made +the Provveditore Generale and the whole audience declare with tears of +laughter running down their cheeks that I was the wittiest and most +humourous <i>soubrette</i> who ever trod the boards of a theatre. They often +bespoke improvised comedies, in order to enjoy the amusing chatter and +Illyrico-Italian jargon of Luce; for I ought to add that I adopted this +name, which is the same as<a name="page_251" id="page_251"></a> our Lucia, instead of Smeraldina, Corallina, +or Colombina.</p> + +<p>Ladies in plenty were eager to know the young man who played Luce with +such diablerie and ready wit upon the stage. But when they met him face +to face in society, his reserve and taciturnity were so unlike the +sprightliness of his assumed character, that they fairly lost their +temper. Now that I am well stricken in years, I recognise that their +disappointment was anything but a misfortune for me. The conduct of +those few who concealed their feelings and pretended that my +self-control and seriousness had charms to win their heart, justifies +this moral reflection. Meanwhile my talent for comedy relieved me of all +military duties so long as carnival lasted. Each year, at the +commencement of this season, the Provveditore Generale sent for me, and +affably requested me to devote my time and energy to his amusement in +the Court-theatre.</p> + +<p>During summer he set the fashion of pallone-playing, which had hitherto +been unknown at Zara.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> I had made myself an adept in this game at +our Friulian country-seat. Accordingly his Excellency urged me to +display my accomplishments for the entertainment<a name="page_252" id="page_252"></a> of the public. In a +short time my seductive costume of fine white linen, with a waistband of +black satin and fluttering ribands, cut a prominent figure among the +competitors in this noble sport. My turn for study, literary talent, +grave demeanour, and seriousness of character made far less impression +on the fair sex than my successes on the stage and the pallone-ground. +It was these and these alone which put my chastity to the test and +conquered it, as will appear in the chapter on my love-adventures. I +might here indulge in a digression hardly flattering to women. But I +prefer to congratulate them on their emancipation from the ideality of +Petrarch's age. Now they are at liberty to float voluptuously on the +tide of tender and electrical emotions, in company with youths congenial +to their instincts, who have abandoned tedious studies for occupations +hardly more exacting than a game at ball or the impersonation of a +waiting-maid.</p> + +<p>The truth of history compels me to touch upon some incidents which put +my boyish courage to the proof; yet I must confess that my deeds of +daring in Dalmatia were nothing better than mad and brainless acts of +folly. While recording them, I dare hardly hope—although I should +sincerely like to do so—that they will prove useful to parents by +exposing the kind of life which young men lead on foreign service, or to +sons by pointing out the errors of my ways.<a name="page_253" id="page_253"></a></p> + +<p>We had no war on hand, and our valour was obliged to find a vent for +itself. I should have passed for a poltroon if I had not joined the +amusements and adventures of my comrades. These consisted for the most +part in frantic gambling, serenading houses which returned our serenades +with gunshots, entertaining women of the town at balls and +supper-parties, brawling in the streets at night, disguising ourselves +to frighten people, and breaking the slumbers of the good folk of the +towns and fortresses where the Court happened to be fixed. I remember +that one summer night in the city of Spalato, eight or ten of us dressed +up for the latter purpose. Each man put on a couple of shirts, thrusting +his legs through the sleeves of one and his arms through the other, with +a big white bonnet on his head and a pole in his hand. Thus attired, we +scoured the town like spectres from the other world, knocking at doors, +uttering horrid shrieks to rouse the population, and striking terror +into the breasts of women and children. Now it is the custom there to +leave the stable-doors open, because of the great heat at night. +Accordingly we undid the halters of some fifty horses, and drove them +before us, clattering our staves upon the pavement. The din was +infernal. Folk leaped from their beds, thinking that the Turks had made +a raid upon the town, and crying from their windows: "Who the devil are +you? Who goes there? Who goes there?" They screamed to the deaf, while +we<a name="page_254" id="page_254"></a> went clattering and driving on. In the morning the whole city was in +an uproar, discussing last night's prodigy and skurrying about to catch +the frightened animals.</p> + +<p>My guitar-playing accomplishments made me indispensable in these +dare-devil escapades of hair-brained boys, which by some miracle never +seemed to reach the Provveditore Generale's ears. Had they done so, I +suppose they would have been punished, as they deserved; for he was a +man who knew how to maintain discipline. The Italians and Illyrians do +not dwell together without a certain half-concealed antipathy. This +leads to frequent trials of strength and valour, in which the Italians +are most to blame. They insult the natives and pick quarrels with a +people famous for their daring and ferocity. The courage displayed in +maintaining these quarrels and facing their attendant dangers deserves +the name of folly rather than of bravery. After stating this truth, to +which indeed I was never blind, I dare affirm that no one met +musket-shots and menaces with a bolder front than I did. Physicians +versed in the anatomy of the human frame may be able to explain my +constitutional imperturbability under all circumstances of peril. I am +content to account for it as sheer stupidity.</p> + +<p>We were at Budua, toward Montenegro, my friend Massimo and I. In this +city women are guarded with a watchful jealousy of which Italians<a name="page_255" id="page_255"></a> have +no notion; while homicides occur with facility and frequency. Massimo +began a gallant correspondence from the window of our lodging with a +girl who was our neighbour. She belonged to one of the noblest families +of the place, and was engaged to a gentleman of the city. Nevertheless, +she returned my friend's advances with the eagerness of one who has been +kept in slavery. I must add that the future bridegroom obtained some +inkling of this arial intrigue. He was a rough Illyrian of no breeding. +One morning this fellow opened conversation with us officers in a little +square, where we were seated together on stone benches. With much +circumlocution and a kind of awkward sprightliness, addressing himself +to Massimo, and smiling half-sourly and half-sillily, he expressed his +own stupid contempt for Italian customs with regard to women. The long +and the short of this involved discourse was simply that all the men in +Italy were cuckolds, and all the women no better than they should be. +Massimo took care not to emphasise the meaning of the fellow's +innuendoes, which would have called for blood and vengeance; but +contented himself with bluntly defending our social institutions. In the +course of his argument he proved that the barbarity and tyranny of men +toward women, who are always sharp of wit and full of cleverness in +every climate, caused more of immorality and intrigue in Illyria than +freedom of intercourse between the sexes caused in Italy. To<a name="page_256" id="page_256"></a> my mind, +he spoke what was partly true and partly false; for it cannot be +maintained that the facilitation and toleration of licentiousness remove +it from our midst. The Illyrian, however, lacked eloquence, and felt ill +at ease in carrying on a wordy warfare. So he did not attempt to confute +Massimo; but rolled his head and knit his brows, and told him that he +might soon be taught at his own cost how badly the Italians conduct +themselves in this respect.</p> + +<p>Nothing more was wanted in the way of challenge to set us Italians on +our mettle. A trifle of this sort turned us at once into knights-errant, +championing our nation's cause among half-savages, who murder men with +the same indifference as they kill quails or fig-peckers. Massimo turned +to me and said that, when night fell, I must take my guitar and follow +him. Obeying the rash romantic impulse of my heart, I replied that +nothing should prevent me from attending on him. The other Italians who +were present at this interview, with more prudence than ourselves, +affected to hear nothing.</p> + +<p>It happened that a young Florentine named Steffano Torri was at this +time clerk in the secretary's office of the Generalato. He played female +parts in our comedies and tragedies with much ability, and sang like a +nightingale. In order to give our nocturnal enterprise the character of +a serenade—a thing quite alien to the customs of that district—Massimo +invited this poor lad to warble, without informing<a name="page_257" id="page_257"></a> him of what, had +happened. He was only too glad to let his fine voice be heard; and being +besides an obliging creature, he gave his promise on the spot.</p> + +<p class="figcenter"> +<a href="images/ill_256_lg.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill_256_sml.jpg" width="286" height="550" alt="IL CAPITANO (1668) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy." title="IL CAPITANO (1668) +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy." /></a> +<br /> +<span class="caption">IL CAPITANO (1668)<br /></span><span class="caption2"> +Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy.</span> +</p> + +<p>Night came. It was September; the season warm, and the moon shining +brightly. We girt our swords, stuck a brace of pistols in our belts, and +took up our station in the principal street, which was long and +straight, beneath the windows of Massimo's Dulcinea. Torri sent melody +after melody forth into the silent air, while I twanged my +guitar-strings for a good hour's space. Suddenly a window, belonging to +the mansion we were honouring with our duet, flew violently open. A +great black head appeared, from which there issued a hoarse voice like +that of Charon in Dante's Inferno. "What insolence!" it uttered with a +bad Italian accent. We knew that the huge skull was consecrate, and +belonged to a certain Canon, uncle of the girl. But something more was +needed than the big bovine voice of an ecclesiastic to disturb our +tranquillity. Torri, however, being a civilian and no soldier, began to +be aware that his melodious airs were out of place. The prudence which +is born of fear made him reflect upon the situation, and he asked leave +to retire. We persuaded him to stay awhile, pointing out that the street +was public, that our amusement was lawful and innocuous, and that it +conferred an honour on our nation. He resumed his singing; but from this +moment the melodies had a certain quaver in them, which the composer had +not calculated. The first<a name="page_258" id="page_258"></a> assault by the Canon was sustained and +repulsed; for after roaring out "What insolence!" three or four times, +he shut the window in our faces with a crash.</p> + +<p>The second attack upon our obstinacy was something very different and +far more formidable than a priest's voice, however horrible. It +effectually shut the mouth up of our young musician. By the light of the +moon we could discern six men at a distance entering the street with six +lowered and gleaming muskets; the cowls of their cloaks concealed their +faces, and they advanced at a slow pace toward us. At this apparition +our musician took to his heels, and did not stop running till he reached +his lodging. Massimo and I stood our ground like Orlando and Rodomonte. +I went on playing; my friend, to keep the singing up, howled out some +rustic ditties in a bold voice, which was however, I am bound to say, +even less agreeable than the Canon's. His discords were enough to cast +eternal shame upon Italian music; and if the young lady heard them, they +must have frightened her out of her wits instead of giving her the +pleasure of a serenade.</p> + +<p>Observing our determination to stand firm, the six cowled men advanced +to within twenty paces. We heard the click of their six gunlocks, as +they cocked them, ready to give fire. At this point our intrepidity +deserved no other name than madness; it called for the lancet, +hellebore, strait-jackets, a<a name="page_259" id="page_259"></a> good drubbing. Without budging an inch, we +raised our pistols at the muffled band. They looked at us, we looked at +them, for good two minutes. Then they made their minds up to defile +past, leaving us at a little distance, but always keeping their eyes +fixed with a haughty defiance on our faces. We, on our part, made our +minds up to let them pass, returning no less haughty glances. Perhaps +they wished to give us time for repentance, or for wholesome +reflections, which should make us quit our post. Anyhow, they moved +onward till they reached the end of the street, when once again they +turned and faced us.</p> + +<p>Little did those cowled and mantled fellows know the length and breadth +of our stupidity! We recommenced our duet with a more hideous din than +ever. They retraced their steps, and advanced steadily toward us. But +when they found the pair of little fighting-cocks still standing with +raised pistols on the watch, they judged it wiser to pursue their course +and disappear. The removal of the Court from Budua, which took place one +day after this memorable exploit, probably saved us from being shot down +by an ambuscade. I also imagine that the men only wished to frighten us +away. Possibly our expected departure from the city, or else respect for +our staff-uniform, restrained their fingers on the trigger. Such +considerations had certainly more weight with those fierce natives than +the insane<a name="page_260" id="page_260"></a> bravado of two insects armed with pistols. Anyhow, I have +always regarded our courage in this danger as fool-hardiness rather than +magnanimity.</p> + +<p>I could relate an infinity of such adventures, in all of which we risked +our lives on some puerile point of honour, or in pursuit of some +impertinence which called for castigation. One night at Spalato our +serenading party was welcomed with a storm of heavy stones, which made +us skip like kids, but could not drive us from our post. We were paying +this compliment to a handsome girl of Ragusa, the mistress of one of the +chief nobles of the city, and we maintained our station for the honour +of Italy, with skulls unbroken, till the day rose.</p> + +<p>In the society of unemployed and lazy officers, a young man may be said +to have worked miracles who preserves the good principles implanted in +him at home. Unless he conforms to the tone and fashion of his comrades, +he is sure to be derided and despised. If he does conform, he is likely +to lose substance, health and reputation at cards, with women, or by +drinking. Besides this, he constantly risks life and limb in the +so-called pastimes I have just described.</p> + +<p>I am able to boast without exaggeration that I never played for high +stakes, that I never surrendered myself to debauchery, that I preserved +the sound principles of my home education, and yet that I was popular +with all my comrades, owing to the clubbable<a name="page_261" id="page_261"></a> and fraternal attitude +which I assumed at some risk, it is true, yet always with the firm +determination to leave a good character behind me when my term of +service ended.</p> + +<h3><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.<br /><br /> +<i>Shows how a young Cadet of Cavalry is capable of executing a +military stratagem.</i></h3> + +<p>Having described the dangers to which my system of conduct in the army +exposed me, I ought in justice to myself to show that I was able on +occasion to reconcile our absurd code of honour with prudence and +diplomacy. With this object I will relate an incident, which is neither +more nor less insignificant than the other events of my life.</p> + +<p>The city of Zara is traversed by a main street of considerable length, +extending from the piazza of San Simeone to the gate called Porta +Marina. Several lanes and alleys, leading downwards from the ramparts on +the side toward the sea, debouch into this principal artery. It so +happened that some of the officers, wishing to traverse one of these +lanes on their way to the promenade upon the ramparts, had been +intercepted by a man muffled in a mantle, who levelled an eloquent +enormous blunderbuss at their persons, and forced them to change their +route. This act of violence ought to have been reported to<a name="page_262" id="page_262"></a> the +Provveditore Generale, and he would have speedily restored order and +freedom of passage. Our military code of honour, however, forbade +recourse to justice as an act of cowardice; albeit some of my comrades +found it not derogatory to their courage to recoil before a blunderbuss.</p> + +<p>My readers ought to be informed that a girl of the people, called +Tonina, one of the loveliest women whom eyes of man have ever seen, +lived in this lane. She had multitudes of admirers; and the cozening +tricks she used to wheedle and entice a pack of simpletons, made her no +better than any other cheap and venal beauty. Yet she contrived to sell +her favours by the sequin. A gentleman, whom I shall mention lower down, +was madly in love with this little baggage. Wishing to keep the treasure +to himself, he adopted a truly Dalmatian mode of testifying his +devotion, and stood sentinel in her alley. On two consecutive evenings +the passage was barred; we talked of nothing else in the ante-chamber of +the General, and laid plans how to reassert our honour. A number of +officers agreed to face the blunderbuss; I received an invitation to +join the band; and acting on my system of good-fellowship, I readily +consented.</p> + +<p>Our discussion took place in the ante-chamber; silence was enjoined; we +settled that each of the conspirators should wear a white ribband on his +hat, and that three hours after nightfall we should assemble under arms +at our accustomed mustering-place.<a name="page_263" id="page_263"></a> This was a billiard-saloon, whence +we were to sally forth to the assault of Budua.</p> + +<p>An Illyrian nobleman, Signor Simeone C——, of handsome person, +honourable carriage, and a resolute temper, which inspired even soldiers +with respect, although he held no military grade, was sitting in a +corner of the ante-chamber, half-asleep, and apparently inattentive to +our project. I knew him to be frank and genial, and he had often +professed sentiments of sincere friendship for myself. After our scheme +had been concerted, I passed into the reception-room of the palace. He +followed, and opened a conversation on indifferent topics, in the course +of which he drew me aside, changed his tone, and began to speak as +follows:—</p> + +<p>"The moment has arrived for me to testify the cordial friendship which I +entertain for you. I regret that you have promised to join those +fire-eaters this evening. On your honour and secrecy I know that I can +count. I am sure that you will not reveal what I am about to disclose; +else the higher powers, whom we are bound to regard, might be involved, +and cowardice might be suspected in those whose courage is indisputable. +This preamble will enable you to judge what I think of you, and to +measure the extent of my friendship. I am the man in the mask. To-night +there will be four blunderbusses in the alley. I shall lose my life; but +several will lose theirs before the lane is forced. I am sorry that you<a name="page_264" id="page_264"></a> +are in the affair. Contrive to get out of your engagement. Let the rest +come, and enjoy their fill of pastime at the cost of life or limb."</p> + +<p>This blunderbuss of an oration took me by surprise. But I did not lose +my senses or my tongue, and answered to the following effect:—</p> + +<p>"I am amazed that you should have begun by professing friendship and +preaching caution. You do not seem to understand the first elements of +the one or the simple meaning of the other. I am obliged to you for one +thing only, your belief that I am incapable of divulging what you have +just told me. Upon this point alone your discernment is not at fault. I +would rather die than expose you. Yet you want me, under threats, to +break my word, and to render myself contemptible in the eyes of all my +comrades. This you call a proof of friendship. It is as clear as day, +too, that you have yielded to a hussy's importunities, risking your own +life and the lives of your friends upon a silly point of honour in a +shameful quarrel. This is the proof of your prudence. If you withdraw +from the engagement, no harm will be done, and cowardice will only be +imputed to a nameless mask. But if I break my word, you cannot free me +from the imputation of having proved myself a renegade and a dastard. I +shall become an object of scorn and abhorrence to the whole army. If I +act as you desire, my oath of secrecy to you will violate the laws of +friendship, prudence, everything which<a name="page_265" id="page_265"></a> men hold sacred. Your promise of +secrecy again puts my honour in peril. How can you be sure that one of +your accomplices will not privily inform his Excellency of your name and +your mad enterprise? Where shall I then be? No: it is clearly your duty +to obey the counsels dictated by my loyal friendship and my sound +prudence. Leave the alley open; and then you will in truth oblige me. +Make love to your Tonina with something more to the purpose than a +blunderbuss. Her physical shape excuses your weakness for her; her mind +deserves your scorn; but I am not going to preach sermons on objects +worthy or unworthy of love; I feel compassion for human frailty."</p> + +<p>It was obvious that Signor Simeone C—— felt the force of these +arguments. But he writhed with rage under them, and showed no sign of +consenting. In his fierce Dalmatian way he burst into bare +protestations, swore that he would never quit the field, and wound up +with a vow to sell his life as dearly as man ever did.</p> + +<p>At this point I judged it needful to administer a dose of histrionic +artifice. After gazing at him for some seconds with eyes which spoke +volumes, I assumed the declamatory tone of a tragedian, and exclaimed: +"Well then, I promise to be the first to enter the lane this evening, +and, without attacking you, I shall offer my breast to your fire. I have +only this way left of proving to you that you are in no<a name="page_266" id="page_266"></a> real sense of +the word my friend." Then I turned my back with a show of passion, +taking care, however, to retire at a slow pace. Except for the ferocity +instilled by education, he was at bottom an excellent good-hearted +fellow. Seizing me by the arm, he begged me wait a moment. I saw that he +was touched, and maintaining the tragic tone, I persuaded him to leave +the access to the alley free, without resigning his exclusive right to +the Tonina. For my part, I undertook never to reveal our secret. This +promise I have kept for thirty-five years. Lapse of time and the +probability of his decease—for he was much older than I—excuse me for +now breaking it.</p> + +<p>On three following nights I joined the allied forces at the +billiard-room, armed to the teeth, and with a white ribbon flying from +my hat-band. I was always the first to brave the blunderbusses, being +sure that no resistance would be offered. Indeed, the victory, on which +we piqued ourselves, had been won beforehand in my battle of words. The +culpable conduct of Tonina, a girl of the people, who had exposed so +many gentlemen to serious danger, remained fixed in my mind. I shall +relate the sequel to this incident, which took a comic turn, in the next +chapter. For the present, it is enough to add that Signer Simeone C——'s +infatuation for this corsair of Venus rapidly declined, as is the wont +of passions begotten by masculine appetite and feminine avarice. +Tonina,<a name="page_267" id="page_267"></a> however, did not lack lovers, and the badness of her nature +continued to spread discord and foment disorder in our circle.</p> + +<h3><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.<br /><br /> +<i>The fair Tonina is rudely rebuked by me upon an accidental +occasion in the theatre.—My reconciliation with the young +woman.—Reflections on my life in Dalmatia.</i></h3> + +<p>One evening during the last carnival of my three years' service, the +Provveditore Generale bespoke an improvised comedy at the Court-theatre. +The officers arranged a supper-party and a ball in private rooms, +intending to pass the night gaily when the farce was over. I had to play +the part of Luce, married to Pantalone, a vicious old man, broken in +health and fortune. I was reduced to extreme poverty, with a daughter in +the cradle, the fruit of my unhappy marriage.</p> + +<p>There was a night-scene, in which I had to soliloquise, while rocking my +child and singing it to sleep with some old ditty. This lullaby I +interrupted from time to time with the narrative of my misfortunes and +with sallies which made the audience die of laughter. Bursts of applause +brought the house down as I told my story, enlarged upon my reasons for +marrying an old man, related the incidents of my life, alluded in<a name="page_268" id="page_268"></a> +modest monosyllables to what I had to bear, described what a fine figure +of a woman I had been, and what a scarecrow matrimony had made me. I +complained of cold, hunger, evil treatment. I did not make milk enough +to suckle my baby; and what I made was sour, nay, venomous from fits of +rage and all the sufferings I had to go through. This bad milk gave my +darling, the fruit of my womb, the stomach-ache. It kept bleating all +night like a lamb, and would not let me close an eye. The night was far +advanced. I was waiting for my old fool of a husband. What could be +keeping him abroad? He must surely be in the Calle del Pozzetto, +notorious at Zara for its evil fame. I had a presentiment of coming +troubles, moralised upon the woes of life, and burst into a flood of +tears, which made everybody laugh. The truth was that one of our +officers, Signor Antonio Zeno, who played the part of Pantalone +excellently, had not turned up at the proper time to enter into dialogue +with me. Until he arrived, I was forced to continue my soliloquy, which +had already occupied the attention of the audience full fifteen minutes. +A good extempore actor ought never to lose presence of mind, or to be at +a loss for material. In order to prolong the scene, I pretended that my +baby was crying, and that it would not go to sleep for all my lullabies +and cradle-rocking. In a fit of impatience I took it up, unlaced my +dress, and laid it with endearing<a name="page_269" id="page_269"></a> caresses to my breasts to quiet it. +This fresh absurdity, together with my lamentations over the +non-existent teats I said the greedy little thing was biting, kept my +audience in good-humour. From time to time I turned my eyes to the +sides, being really disturbed at Signor Zeno-Pantalone's non-appearance, +and racking my brains in vain for some new matter to sustain the +soliloquy.</p> + +<p>Just then I happened to catch sight of Tonina seated in one of the front +boxes of the theatre, resplendent with beauty, and attired in a gala +dress which cast a glaring light upon her dubious career. She was +laughing with more assurance and sense of fun than anybody at my jokes. +The catastrophe which she had nearly caused flashed suddenly across my +mind. I felt that I had discovered a treasure; and plunged like +lightning into a new subject. What I proceeded to do was bold, I admit, +yet quite within the limits of good taste upon our amateur stage, where +personal allusions were allowed perhaps a little too liberally. I called +my doll-baby by the name of Tonina, and addressed my speech to it. I +caressed it, admired its features, flattered my maternal heart with the +hope that Tonina would grow up a lovely girl. So far as I was concerned. +I vowed to give her a good education, by example, precepts, +chastisement, and watchful care. Then, taking a tone of gravity, I +warned her that if, in spite of all my trouble, she fell into such and +such<a name="page_270" id="page_270"></a> faults, such and such acts of imprudence, such and such immoral +ways, and caused such and such disturbances, she would be the worst +Tonina in the world, and I prayed God to cut her days short rather in +the cradle. All the evil things I mentioned were faithfully copied from +anecdotes about Tonina in the front box, with which my audience were +only too well acquainted.</p> + +<p>Never in my whole life have I known an improvised soliloquy to be so +tumultuously applauded as this of mine was. The spectators at one point +of the speech turned their faces with a simultaneous movement towards +Tonina in her gala dress, clapping their hands and laughing till the +theatre rang again. His Excellency, who had some inkling of the siren's +ways, honoured my unexpected satire with explosions of unconcealed +merriment. Tonina backed out of her box in a fit of fury, and escaped +from the theatre, cursing my soliloquy and the man who made it. +Pantalone finally arrived, and the comedy ended without any episode more +mirthful than the scene between me and my baby.</p> + +<p>Do not imagine that I have related this incident to brag about it. +Although the young woman in question was a girl of the people, whose +dissolute behaviour and ill-nature had been the cause of many +misadventures, and though the Provveditore Generale applauded my +performance, I blamed myself, when it was over, for yielding to a mere +impulse of vanity,<a name="page_271" id="page_271"></a> and exhibiting my power as a comedian at the cost of +committing an act of imprudence and indiscretion. Much has to be +condoned to youth which is never conceded to maturity.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that a ball and supper-party had been arranged by us +officers after the play, and that I was a member of the company. I went +in my costume of Luce, partly to save time, and partly to carry on the +joke. Tonina was among the guests. She did not expect me, and was +sitting in a corner, angry and out of spirits. When she saw me, one +would have thought she had set eyes on the fiend; she looked as though +she meant to leave the room. I took her hand, and protested I would +rather go than that the company should lose its loveliest ornament. I +vowed that she was adorably beautiful, and that it was a pity she was +not equally good. I begged her in gentle terms to take the accident of +the evening into account, to reflect upon the universal verdict given by +the audience on her ways of life, and to guard against the private +flatterers who blinded her to the truth. I told her that God had meant +to send in her an angel, and not a devil into this world. I interwove so +many praises with so many insolences, and with such complete frankness, +that she could not but laugh. Everybody laughed, down to her very +lovers. She expressed a wish to dance with me. I accepted the +invitation. This looked like a token of peace; but it was only +treachery. While dancing,<a name="page_272" id="page_272"></a> she exerted all the charms, enticements, +captivating humours, pressures of the hand, and so forth, which her bad +vindictive and seductive nature could suggest to enslave me.</p> + +<p>A woman's coquetries directed to some purpose of revenge are always +blind, and give the best advantage to a clever rou. The reason is that +the woman, piqued to the point of seeking a victory at any price, lowers +herself to the utmost, without being aware of what she is conceding. I +was not a rou; and woe to me if I had let myself be snared by the wiles +and artifices of that viper smarting under the sense of recent insult!</p> + +<p>Our pleasure party was resumed soon after supper, during which my fair +foe kept me at her side. We broke up about sunrise; and Tonina never +ceased to call me her accursed little devil; that was the sweet +Dalmatian term of endearment which she used. Compelled by these +compliments, I promised to pay her a visit, but I did not keep my word.</p> + +<p>I have now given some general notion of my ways of thinking and acting, +my character and conduct, up to the age of eighteen on to twenty. +Nothing but the truth has dictated these reminiscences, from which I +have undoubtedly omitted many things of similar importance. I am sure +that if I had been guilty of anything really wrong during this period, +it would not have escaped either my memory or my pen. I have never +hardened my heart against the<a name="page_273" id="page_273"></a> stings of remorse, and I would far rather +frankly record facts to my discredit than bear the stings of conscience +by suppressing what is true. Reviewing the veracious picture of myself +which I have painted, friends will see in me a somewhat eccentric young +man, but of harmless disposition; enemies will take me for a worthless +scapegrace; the indifferent, who know me superficially by sight, will +discover some one very different from their conception based on my +external qualities. At the proper place and time I shall account for +this not unreasonable and yet fallacious conception formed of me by +strangers. The reasons will appear clearly in the detailed portrait I +intend to execute of myself, and which will surpass the best work of any +painter.</p> + +<h3><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.<br /><br /> +<i>The end of my three years' service.—I cast up my accounts, and +reckon debts; calculate upon the future, with a sad prevision of +the truth.—My arrival in my home at Venice.</i></h3> + +<p>The three years of my military service were nearly at an end, when I +contracted a slow fever, not dangerous to life, but tedious. The time +had come for settling accounts, and seeing how I stood. My family, since +I left home, had furnished me with only<a name="page_274" id="page_274"></a> two bills of exchange, one for +fourteen, the other for six sequins. My useless duties to the State had +brought me thirty-eight lire per month. Against these receipts I +balanced my expenses: so much for my daily food; so much for my lodging, +clothing, and washing; so much for a servant, indispensable in my +position; so much for two illnesses, together with the small sums spent +on unavoidable pleasures of society. The result was that I found myself +in debt to my friend Massimo for exactly the sum of fifty-six sequins +and sixteen lire, or 200 ducats.<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + +<p>If the necessities of life are not to be considered vices, this debt was +certainly a modest one. Still it weighed upon my mind. I consoled myself +by recalling my friend's nobleness of nature, and felt sure that I +should be able to repay him on reaching home. I computed that the gross +sum I had received during those three years amounted to 480 ducats; and +I did not think I had been a spendthrift in consuming about 150 ducats a +year on my total expenditure. I could indeed have saved something by +attending the table which the Provveditore Generale kept daily for the +officers of his Court and guard, but which his sublime Excellency never +honoured with his presence.<a name="page_275" id="page_275"></a> Little did he know what a gang of ruffians, +with the exception of a few patient souls constrained by urgent need, +defiled his table, or what low tricks were perpetrated at it. Since the +day of my arrival I had heard the infamous and compromising talk which +went on there, had watched the squabbles between guest and guest, and +guests and serving-men, had seen the cups and platters flying through +the air—and, like a naughty boy perhaps, I preferred to contract a debt +of 200 ducats rather than accept a hospitality so prostituted to vile +uses. I attended this table of Thyestes, as it seemed to me, only when I +could not help it, on the days when I had to mount guard.</p> + +<p>The financial statement I have just made will appear to many of my +readers a mere trifle, unworthy of recording here. They are mistaken. +When they have learned in what a state of desolation I found my father's +house, and how I strove to stem the tide of prodigality and waste which +was bringing our family to ruin, they will understand my reasons for +insisting on these trifles. Heads heated by anger and resentment are +only too ready to invent false accusations; and I shall soon be made to +appear a prodigal, a reckless gambler, a consumer of the substance of my +family during the three years I spent abroad. This is why I am so +scrupulous in telling the plain truth about my cost of living in +Dalmatia. I have never been ashamed of letting the<a name="page_276" id="page_276"></a> whole world know how +modest are my fortunes. I should think it a greater shame to pretend to +possess more than I really own. Riches have always seemed to me to be a +name, and to reside in the imagination. If I cast my eyes on a +carpenter, then raise them to a duke, and finally lift them to a king, I +obtain convincing demonstration of the fact that he alone is rich who +has the mental wealth—to be contented with his lot. Alas! that only I +and many millions upon their deathbed recognise this truth.</p> + +<p>My three years were over. The new Provveditore Generale, Jacopo Bold, +arrived in Dalmatia, and received the staff of office with the usual +formalities from his Excellency Quirini. In my moments of leisure I had +composed several poems in honour of the latter, and had procured others +from Venice. These I copied out in the beautiful handwriting which I +then possessed, sewed them together, added a respectful dedication, and +had them bound in a fine velvet cover. Then I paid my respects to his +Excellency in company with my friend Massimo, and laid my literary +tribute at his feet. I was no Virgil, nor was I born in the golden age +of Augustus. Only my fanaticism for the art of poetry made me imagine +that verses could be anything worth offering as a gift.</p> + +<p>The Cavaliere accepted my donation with affability. He said: "I thank +you. At least I have the wherewithal to show that, while a member of my +Court, you have remained at school."<a name="page_277" id="page_277"></a></p> + +<p>Afterwards I learned that he made a present of this book to the Very +Eminent Cardinal, his uncle, Bishop of Brescia. His Excellency inquired +whether I preferred to return to Venice or to stay in Dalmatia, +occupying the post of cadet noble of cavalry on my promotion. I begged +him to take me in his train to Venice, and he graciously accepted.</p> + +<p>Some one else than I would have looked around for testimonials little to +be trusted, which might have kept me fraudulently drawing pay upon the +muster-roll of Venice from a too indulgent Government. But I had +renounced the military career, and had no mind to spunge upon the public +treasury. Our Prince I regarded as a common father, but did not think it +just to saddle him with thievish sons, each one of whom by coaxed +protections, adulations, hypocrisies, and the vilest offices, eats into +the common patrimony of the nation, which ought to be reserved for +urgent needs. I was a poor lad, with a debt of 200 ducats; but I knew +that the services rendered to the State by me constituted no claim upon +the public purse. If I was poor, this came from our being too many in +our family and from the maladministration of our property.</p> + +<p>My wants were moderate. I flattered myself that I could satisfy them by +attending to the management of the estate; and I felt sure that my +father, paralysed and speechless as he was, would never refuse to pay +the trifling debt I had contracted. Meanwhile it is not<a name="page_278" id="page_278"></a> improbable that +my name remained upon the muster-roll long after I left Dalmatia. +Somebody may have pocketed my pay and pilfered from the treasury to this +extent. I was not responsible for this, and had no right to inquire into +the matter, since I never asked to be cashiered in form. Poor I was, +poor I am, and poor I expect to die. At any rate, I am sure that I +should die in desperation if I felt on my deathbed that I had earned a +fortune by deceit, injustice, and intrigue.</p> + +<p>It was in the month of October when at last I embarked for Venice on the +galley of his Excellency. Wind and weather were against us. After a +painful voyage of twenty-two days, we came in sight of home, and I drew +breath again. After paying my respects and returning thanks to the +Cavaliere who had brought me back, I set off for our ancestral mansion +at San Cassiano, accompanied by Signor Massimo, whom I had invited to +stay with me upon his way to Padua. There I hoped to be able to pay my +friend some attention by giving him good quarters during his sojourn in +Venice.<a name="page_279" id="page_279"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.<br /><br /> +<i>Disagreeable discoveries relating to our family affairs, which +dissipate all illusions I may have formed.</i></h3> + +<p>Leaving the horrors of the galley for the ancient home of my ancestors, +I palpitated between pleasure at escaping into freedom, hope of being +able to make my friend comfortable, and uneasiness lest this hope might +prove ill-founded.</p> + +<p>We reached the entrance, and my companion gazed with wonder at the +stately structure of the mansion, which has really all the appearance of +a palace. As a connoisseur of architecture, he complimented me upon its +fine design. I answered, what indeed he was about to discover by +experience, that attractive exteriors sometimes mask discomfort and +annoyance. He had plenty of time to admire the faade, while I kept +knocking loudly at the house-door. I might as well have knocked at the +portal of a sepulchre. At last a woman, named Eugenia, the +guardian-angel of this wilderness, ran to open. To my inquiries she +answered, yawning, that the family were in Friuli, but that my brother +Gasparo was momently expected. Our luggage had now been brought from the +boat, and we began to ascend a handsome marble staircase. No one could +have expected<a name="page_280" id="page_280"></a> that this fine flight of steps would lead to squalor and +the haunts of indigence. Yet on surmounting the last stair this was what +revealed itself. The stone floors were worn into holes and fissures, +which spread in all directions like a cancer. The broken window panes +let blasts from every point of the compass play freely to and fro within +the draughty chambers. The hangings on the walls were ragged, smirched +with smoke and dust, fluttering in tatters. Not a piece remained of that +fine gallery of pictures which my grandfather had bequeathed as +heirlooms to the family. I only saw some portraits of my ancestors by +Titian and Tintoretto still staring from their ancient frames. I gazed +at them; they gazed at me; they wore a look of sadness and amazement, as +though inquiring how the wealth which they had gathered for their +offspring had been dissipated.</p> + +<p>I have hitherto omitted to mention that our family archives contain an +old worm-eaten manuscript, in which are registered the tenths<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> paid +to the public treasury. From this document it appears that the father of +my great-grandfather was taxed on upwards of ten thousand ducats of +income. It is perhaps a folly to moralise on such things; yet the +recollection of those mournful portraits gazing down upon me in the +squalor of our ancient habitation prompts me to tell an idle truth. +Nobody will be the wiser for it;<a name="page_281" id="page_281"></a> certainly none of our posterity in +this prodigal age. My grandfather left an only son and a good estate +settled in tail on heirs-male in perpetuity. Four excellent residences, +all of them well-furnished, one in Venice, another in Padua, another in +Pordenone, another in the Friulian country-town of Vicinate, were +included in this entail, as appears from his last will and testament. +Little did he think that the solemn appointments of the dead would be so +lightly binding on the living.</p> + +<p>I had informed my friend Massimo of the exact state of our affairs at +home, so far as these were known to me. I could not acquaint him with +the grave disasters which had happened in my three years' absence, being +myself in blessed ignorance as yet. The news that my two elder sisters +had been married inclined me to expect that our domestic circumstances +were improving. Cruel deception wrapped me round, and a hundred +speechless but eloquent mouths were now proclaiming, from the walls and +chambers of my home, how utterly deceived I had been.</p> + +<p>Before long I broke, as usual, into laughter, and gaily begged my +comrade's pardon for bringing him to such a wretched hostelry. I assured +him that my heart, at any rate, was not so ruined as my dwelling, and +engaged him in conversation, while we roamed around its chambers, every +nook of which increased my mirth by some new aspect of dilapidation. +Then I bade him refresh his spirits with a survey of the noble<a name="page_282" id="page_282"></a> faade; +till at last we settled down as well as circumstances permitted. Two +days afterwards, my brother Gasparo arrived. I presented the stranger I +had brought to share our hospitality, frankly expressing my sense of his +worth and my obligations to him as a friend. Upon this we established +ourselves in a little society of three, enlivened by the conversation of +my brother, who, even with a fever on him, never failed to be witty.</p> + +<p>Gasparo and I were anxiously awaiting an opportunity to talk alone like +brothers after my long absence. When the moment came, I inquired after +my poor father, our mother, and the circumstances of the family. What I +had already seen on my arrival prepared me for the disagreeable news I +had to hear. With his usual philosophy, but not without an occasional +sign of painful emotion, he gave me the following details. The family +was reduced to really tragic straits. Our father lived on, but +speechless and paralytic, in the same state as when I left him. My two +elder sisters, Marina and Giulia, were married respectively to the Conte +Michele di Prata and the Conte Giovan-Daniele di Montereale. About ten +thousand ducats had been promised for their dowries. To raise this sum, +such and such portions of the estate had been sold, and a debt of more +than two thousand ducats had been contracted. A lawsuit was pending +between the family and the Conte Montereale concerning part of the dowry +still<a name="page_283" id="page_283"></a> due to him. Our other three sisters, Laura, Girolama, and Chiara, +were growing into womanhood, and gave much to think of for their future.</p> + +<p>I saw, to my great annoyance, that it would be impossible to liquidate +my debt upon the spot. But all these terrifying details did not make me +regret my resignation of the post of cadet noble in the cavalry. A few +days later, Signor Massimo left for Padua, with the assurance that his +two hundred ducats would be paid in course of time by me. Upon this +matter he only expressed the sentiments of cordial friendship.</p> + +<p>It was not too late in the season for a visit to the country. I felt a +strong desire to reach Friuli, and to kiss the hands of my unhappy +father. Thither then I went, together with my brother, armed with a +giant's fortitude, which was not long in being put to proof.</p> + +<h3><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.<br /><br /> +<i>Fresh discoveries regarding the condition of our family.—Vain +hopes and wasted will to be of use.—I abandon myself to my old +literary studies.</i></h3> + +<p>Our country-house had been originally constructed on an old-fashioned, +roomy, and convenient scale, with numbers of out-buildings. It was now +reduced to one of those dilapidated farms, which I have described<a name="page_284" id="page_284"></a> in my +burlesque poem <i>La Marfisa Bizzarra</i>, canto xii., stanza 126.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> +Two-thirds of the edifice had been demolished, and the materials sold. +The remaining fragments were inhabited, but bore written on their front: +"Here once was Troy."</p> + +<p>Prepared as I was by the misery of our town-house for the desolation of +this rural mansion, I hardly cared to cast a glance upon it. What I +noticed on arriving was a certain air of jollity and gladness, breathing +health, betokening contentment, which all the faces of the village +people wore. Amid the jubilations of relatives, guests, serving-folk and +lads about the farm, not omitting a pack of barking dogs, I descended +from the calche with my brother. A whole crowd of people, whom I did +not know and could not number, fell upon my neck to bid me welcome. +Something of a military carriage, which I had picked up abroad, but +which had no relation to<a name="page_285" id="page_285"></a> my real self, made our farm-folk stare upon me +like a comet.</p> + +<p>Then I raised my eyes, and saw my poor father at a window in the upper +storey, with trembling limbs, dragging himself forward on his stick to +catch a glimpse of me. All the blood turned suddenly and galloped +through my veins. I rushed up the stairs, burst into the room where he +was standing, seized one of his hands, and kissed it in a transport of +filial affection. He fell upon my shoulder, more paralytic than he had +been when I last embraced him, and, in his inability to speak, broke +into a piteous fit of weeping. The effort I made to restrain my own +tears, lest they should add to his unhappiness, made me feel as though +my lungs would burst. Leaning on my arm, he slowly tottered after me, +and little by little we reached another room which he frequented. +October was nearly over, and the cold in that Friulian climate was very +sensible. A good fire burned on the hearth, near which stood the +arm-chair of my father, who for seven years had dragged his life out in +this wretched state. All the resources of medical science had been tried +in vain. Physicians sometimes agreed and sometimes differed about his +treatment. But their concord and their discord were equally impotent to +effect a cure; and he had not yet reached the age of fifty-five.</p> + +<p>I found my mother in the same apartment. She uttered sentiments which +were not inappropriate to<a name="page_286" id="page_286"></a> her maternal character, but in a frigid tone +and with an air of stately self-control. I always loved and respected +her, not merely from a sense of duty, but with a true filial instinct. +She, on her side, used frequently to protest when there was no need for +protestation, that she loved all her nine children with exactly the same +amount of affection. She often repeated the following words with +gravity, raising her eyebrows as she spoke: "Cut off one of my fingers +and I suffer pain; cut off a second and I suffer;" and so on through +nine fingers, amputated by the same figure of speech, with equal agony +in each case. Notwithstanding this, I believe that the loss of eight +fingers would not have given her the same pain as that of the first-born +finger, in other words, of my brother Gasparo. He is still alive, a man +of honour, and a sage if ever sage existed; and I feel sure that he +would admit the truth of this statement, if called on to confirm it.</p> + +<p>In my long and anxious study of human nature, I have seen so many +mothers with the weakness of my own, that I never dreamed of blaming +her. It seemed right to me that my brother's mental gifts and noble +qualities should earn for him more of her love than she bestowed on all +her other eight children. Mothers, however, who are so devoted to a son +generally spoil him, notably by extolling what is good in his character, +but also by defending his natural frailties. Acting thus, my mother +favoured<a name="page_287" id="page_287"></a> Gasparo's marriage, which subjected her beloved son to a real +martyrdom. Her lifelong devotion to him, and the prejudice displayed in +his favour by her will, only served to increase the unhappiness of a man +whom I always loved, loved still, and shall love as friend and brother +till the end of my days on earth. This digression was rendered necessary +by what will follow in my Memoirs.</p> + +<p>The room was soon full of relatives and intimate friends, all curious +about me. My father strove to ply me with questions, but his tongue +refused its office, and he relapsed into weeping. Sad at heart as I was +for him, I contrived to relate the most amusing anecdotes I could +remember concerning my life in Dalmatia and my travels. In this way I +kept him laughing, together with the whole company, through the rest of +that day.</p> + +<p>The perfect country air; a table abundantly served with rural dainties, +though somewhat deficient in elegance; the joviality, wit, and pleasant +sallies which never failed in our domestic circle,—all this prevented +me from attending to the defects of our establishment. Next day I began +to discover that the real cause of trouble was not in the building, but +in the minds of its inhabitants. I could not have explained why, but I +seemed to be a person of importance in the eyes of everybody. My three +sisters confided to me in secret that my brother Gasparo's wife, in +close alliance with my mother, who doted on her as the<a name="page_288" id="page_288"></a> consort of her +favoured first-born, ruled all the affairs of the family, which were +rapidly going from bad to worse. My father's authority as head of the +house had ceased to be more than a mere instrument for carrying out what +my sister-in-law advised and my mother sanctioned. Unless I managed to +stem the tide of extravagance, we should all be plunged into an abyss of +ruin. One of my sisters, Girolama, a girl devoted to reading, writing, +and translating from the French—for she too was bitten with our family +cacoethes—spoke like a sibyl, gravely and eloquently, on these painful +topics. At the same time, my brother's wife contrived secret interviews, +in which she explained to me that her husband was indolent, torpid, +drowned in fruitless studies, devoted to the company of a certain clever +person, and wholly averse from thoughts or cares about domestic matters. +She had done everything in her power—God knew she had. She would go on +doing her best—God should see she would. Then she described her plans +and projects, which, to tell the truth, were pure poetical stupidities. +She vowed that she was not in any sense the mistress of the +establishment, the administrator of the estate, or the disposer of its +revenues; she merely gave advice, made suggestions, and exerted herself +for the common benefit and to supply the needs of the family in general. +She exhorted me to speak seriously to her husband; I was to make him +abandon his unprofitable studies, make him,<a name="page_289" id="page_289"></a> above all things, give up +those visits of taste and soul, which did so much harm; in fine, I was +to force him to sustain his wife in her stupendous labours, and to +concentrate his thoughts upon his children, who were five in number.</p> + +<p>When I came to analyse the curious compound of truths, lies, and fancies +which issued from the fevered brains of this poor lady—always hard at +work, always embarrassed in a labyrinth of business—I seemed to +perceive that what moved her most was the fear of being made herself +responsible for our financial failure. It was also clear that her +original ambition of acting the part of prime minister in a realm which +only existed in her own imagination, kept her always on the stretch; +while a certain little devil of feminine jealousy against her husband +added to her disquietude. He, good fellow, had forgotten the long +collection of Petrarchan poems written by him for her honour in the +past, and which she had repaid with the gift of five children. Not the +least little sonnet issued from his pen to celebrate her now. His lyrics +were addressed to another idol of the moment.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile she set great store upon her personal importance. Every member +of our family, who wanted a ducat, a pair of shoes, or something of the +sort, came to her with humble supplications, imploring her good offices +at head-quarters—and Heaven knew where head-quarters were. This honour +and glory made up to her for all her heroic labours in<a name="page_290" id="page_290"></a> the little +realm, which she administered with real authority, though her right to +do so was contested, and her schemes were pindarically unpractical.</p> + +<p>My younger brother, Almor,<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a> was also at our villa, on a holiday +from school—the non-existent school he never went to. His education +seemed to have been of the slightest, and his wardrobe left even more to +be desired. A boy of good heart and parts, however; gay-spirited and +innocent; he was not old enough and had not time to reflect upon our +troubles; setting snares for little birds was all his pastime, and when +he talked to me, I heard only of the number and the kinds of birds he +caught, and the important adventures he had met with in his fowling +expeditions.</p> + +<p>My father did not converse with me, because he could not; my mother, +because she would not. Gasparo's five children with their quarrels and +their games broke in upon the only solace which I had, that of reading +and writing.</p> + +<p>To all the complaints I heard, to all the exhortations which were daily +heaped upon me, I gave one only answer: we will see and think it over.</p> + +<p>One thing emerged with distinctness from this hurlyburly of our family. +If I attempted any salutary innovation in the wasp's nest of my +relatives, I should find no difficulty in gaining supporters to<a name="page_291" id="page_291"></a> assist +me in my opposition to the government; but the government was in the +hands of women, under the shadow of my father's authority; I should +therefore be misrepresented to him, prejudiced as he was by education, +susceptible and hot-blooded by temperament, enfeebled by chronic +illness; and he was still the master, still my father, loved and +respected by me. I doubted whether anything which I could do would not +prove ineffectual or worse. I was afraid of becoming the object of +everybody's hatred; for I observed that personal considerations, rather +than wise reflection and moderate ambitions, were the motive principles +of all the folk I had to deal with. Finally I dreaded giving such a +shock to my father's declining frame as would cut short the few days of +life which still remained to him. The sequel will show that these +anticipations were not ill-founded.</p> + +<p>In these circumstances I determined to exercise the strictest +self-control, and to bear with everything during my father's lifetime. +Literature and my favourite studies of the world meanwhile would suffice +to entertain me. Knowing that my uncle Almor Cesare Tiepolo was in the +country on an estate of his not far from where we lived, I went to pay +him my respects. He inquired how I had been treated in Dalmatia by his +Excellency Quirini. I answered that he had treated me very well indeed, +but that he could not give me any permanent commission,<a name="page_292" id="page_292"></a> because our +troops had been drafted into Italy. He then proposed to recommend me to +his Excellency the Provveditore Generale at Verona. I replied that I was +grateful for his interest on my behalf, but that Mars had not inspired +me with a vocation for military service. I foresaw that I should have to +employ all my energies upon the affairs of my family, which were calling +loudly for my assistance. Shaking his head and pursing up his lips, he +answered that what I said was only too true.</p> + +<h3><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.<br /><br /> +<i>Return from Friuli to Venice with my family.—I pursue my chosen +path in life, and open new veins of experience.—Yet further +painful discoveries as to our circumstances.—The beginnings of +domestic discord.</i></h3> + +<p>The month of November was wearing away when our family began to think of +Venice. It amused me to watch the preparations for our journey and our +luggage, which in no wise resembled that of the General's suite I had +been used to. My father, an invalid; my mother, serious and +diplomatical; my sister-in-law, the woman of business; my brother +Gasparo, wool-gathering; our little sisters, intent upon the custody of +their old-fashioned bonnets; Almor, plunged in grief at leaving his +birds and<a name="page_293" id="page_293"></a> cages, which he consigned by something like a last will and +testament to the bailiff; I, giving myself military airs, quite out of +season; some serving-maids and men in worn-out livery; a few cats and +dogs; these composed our travelling party, which might have been +compared to a troupe of comedians upon the march.</p> + +<p>I shall perhaps be told that there was no reason to enumerate these +humiliating circumstances. But I have never had to blush for unworthy +actions in my family; and it seems to me a poor philosophy that feels +ashamed where no shame is. Such as it was, our caravan arrived in +Venice, joking and laughing all the way. There we installed ourselves +with as much disorder and as little comfort as was proper to a fine +large mansion with nothing to fill its empty spaces.</p> + +<p>For my own use I chose out a little room at the top of the house, where +I set up a rickety table, provided myself with a huge inkstand and +plenty of pens and paper, and spent at least six hours a day in reading +and scribbling poetic nonsense. This was my best amusement; but I ought +to add that I devoted some of my time to the cafs, studying types of +character and listening to conversation; nor did I neglect our theatres, +where I saw the various tragedies and comedies which appeared. My +brother Gasparo had already given several serious pieces to the stage. +They pleased the public then; and<a name="page_294" id="page_294"></a> though they may be out of fashion +now, they would not fail to please me still. I know the instability of +taste too well to change my old opinions.</p> + +<p>I had mixed with all sorts of men and learned to know their +characters—generals, admirals, noblemen, great lords, officers, +soldiers, the people of Illyrian cities, the Morlacchi of the villages, +Mainotti, Pastrovicchi, convicts, galley-slaves. It was time, I thought, +to become acquainted with my own Venetians. I began by cultivating a set +of men who go in Venice by the name of Cortigiani.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> My companions of +this kind were chiefly shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, with a priest or +two among the number; clever fellows, respectable, and versed in all the +ways of our Venetian world. Their courage and readiness to take part in +quarrels won them the respect of the common people, and they carried the +art of getting the maximum of pleasure at a minimum of outlay to +perfection. On certain holidays I joined their boating-parties, and went +to shoot birds on the marshes with them. Or else we lunched together on +the Giudecca, at Campalto, Malcontenta, Murano, Burano, and other +neighbouring islands. My share<a name="page_295" id="page_295"></a> of the expense on these occasions was +not much above sixpence, and I gained the hearty good-will of my +companions by contributing some slices of excellent Friulian ham to our +common table. The characters and manners of these men delighted me; I +took pleasure in listening to the stories of their quarrels, +reconciliations, love-adventures, misfortunes, accidents of all kinds, +told in racy Venetian dialect, with the liveliness which is natural to +our folk. What is more, I learned much from them. Alas! the race of +Cortigiani has degenerated, like everything else in this corrupt age. +When I chance to meet a survivor of the honest jolly crew, he strikes +his forehead, and confesses that the good days of his youth are +irrecoverable, and that the Cortigiano is an extinct species.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile I took good care to interfere with nobody and nothing in the +household. This I did for my poor father's sake. But I kept my eyes open +to observe the intrigues, schemes, and movements of the government. Some +Jews, some brokers, and a crowd of women were always coming and going on +secret conferences with my sister-in-law. These attracted my attention, +and formed the subject of my earnest cogitations. It grieved me to see +my brother Gasparo immersed in his philosophy and poetry, never for one +moment giving the least thought to domestic economy. It grieved me; but +I grieved in silence. There was one circumstance, however,<a name="page_296" id="page_296"></a> which fairly +put me out of patience. We had three sisters in the house; and a swarm +of drones, hulking young fellows of the freest manners, kept buzzing +round them. When I came home and found these visitors at their +accustomed chatter, I used to scowl at them, lift my hat and put it on +again, turn my back, and climb the stairs to my own den, with the fixed +intention of making the gentlemen perceive how little their company +attracted me. This manœuvre had its effect. My sister-in-law took it +upon her to read me a matronly lecture on the impropriety of insulting +friends of the family by my rough ways. I replied that I knew very well +what friendship was, but that I could distinguish the false from the +true; I was not conscious of having been rude to anybody; my father was +the master, and if he did not mind some things which seemed to my +inexperience imprudent and irregular, a mere lad's opinions were not +worthy of consideration. This hint of my displeasure made all the women +of the house regard me like a serpent. Even my three sisters, who loved +me sincerely, and were excellent creatures, imbued with the soundest +religious principles, could not help harbouring a trifle of suspicion in +their feminine brains. For the rest, I said what I thought when I was +consulted upon affairs of no importance. My advice in such matters +pleased nobody. I ran on little errands if these were intrusted to me; +and above all, I devoted some hours of every evening<a name="page_297" id="page_297"></a> to my father, who +always received me with tenderness and tears.</p> + +<p>From conversation with my sisters I learned that the five thousand +ducats raised by sale of lands in Friuli, ostensibly to make up portions +for my married sisters, had either not been paid by the purchasers or +had only reached the hands of the husbands in part. The same had +happened with the drapery, linen, and jewels, for which a large debt had +been contracted with a company of merchants. These and similar +confidences made it clear to my mind that the marriages of my two +sisters had not been arranged for their settlement in life so much as +with the view of raising money under colourable pretexts, and of +alienating entailed property with some show of legality. In fact, I +scented disastrous dealings of the sort which are known at Venice by the +name of <i>stocchi</i>.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> As natural consequences of this crooked<a name="page_298" id="page_298"></a> policy, +urgent needs for ready money and embarrassments of all sorts had ensued, +which led to fresh expedients and ever-growing financial distress.</p> + +<p>Without attributing malice to any one, I merely blamed the bad luck of +our family, owing to which my grandfather's fine estate had passed into +the hands of women under two administrations, and had been wasted by a +course of insane irregularities. I took care to send an accurate report +of our domestic circumstances to my brother Francesco at Corfu. And now +I must embark upon the sea of my worst troubles.</p> + +<h3><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.<br /><br /> +<i>I become, without fault of my own, quite unjustly, the object of +hatred to all members of my household.—Resolve to return to +Dalmatia.—My father's death.</i></h3> + +<p>It had not escaped my notice that my mother and sister-in-law were in +the habit of going abroad together in the mornings. During the five +winter months they wore masks, and their proceedings had all the +appearance of some secret business.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> Now Carnival was over. We had +reached the month of March 1745, a date which will be always painful<a name="page_299" id="page_299"></a> to +my recollection. Every morning the two ladies left the house together, +no longer masked, but wearing the <i>zendado</i>.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> I asked my sisters if +they knew the object of these daily expeditions. They answered to the +following effect: all they knew for certain was that my father's invalid +condition made a residence in Venice irksome to him; now that the spring +was advancing, he wished to go into Friuli with my mother, leaving our +sister-in-law at the head of affairs in Venice; meanwhile the treasury +was empty, the barns and cellars of our country-house had nothing left +in them. I shrugged my shoulders, and kept silence.</p> + +<p>A few days afterwards, while I was attempting to drive away care by +study in my little upper chamber, my three sisters entered. They were +weeping, and my first fear was lest my father should have died. +Reassuring me upon this point, they passionately besought me to +interpose between the family and shameful ruin. I alone was capable of +doing this. The secret expeditions of my mother and sister-in-law had +resulted in a contract with a certain Signor Francesco Zini, cloth +merchant. He undertook to pay down six hundred ducats in exchange for +our ancestral mansion, agreeing, moreover, to hand over<a name="page_300" id="page_300"></a> a little +dwelling of his own in the distant quarter of San Jacopo dall' Orio. +They added that my father was ready to give his assent to this bargain, +and my brothers Gasparo and Almor would offer no opposition. I felt +deeply moved by the distress of these poor girls as well as by my own +keen sense of humiliation; and when they concluded by enjoining the +strictest secrecy upon myself in the transaction, a gulf of dissensions, +disagreeableness, and misery of all kinds seemed to yawn before my feet. +Our pressing want of money, the contract verbally completed by my mother +and sister-in-law, my father's consent, the adhesion of my brothers to +the scheme, the obligation to secrecy laid upon me by my sisters, my own +bad reputation in the household as a disturber of domestic quiet, my +lack of friends and supporters in Venice, all filled me with terror. Yet +I resolved to try what I could do to gratify my father's desire for the +country, and to put a stop to this humiliating contract. With that +object in view I also undertook a secret mission and went to visit +Signor Francesco Zini.</p> + +<p>I laid myself open to him in terms of flattering politeness, appealing +to his excellent disposition, and pointing out that he was about to +enter on a business which would expose him to risk and us to notable +humiliation. I told him that my father had been an invalid for many +years, that our ancestral mansion was subject to a strict entail, that +on my<a name="page_301" id="page_301"></a> father's death he would lose his money and the house, that all +the sons of the family were not prepared to sanction the contract, that +one of them was in the Levant, that I had not the least intention of +assenting, and that the utmost I could do would be to abandon the house +at my father's express command. Then I passed to the pathetic. I +described a numerous family departing with their scanty bundles from the +loved paternal nest, bowed down with grief and shame before the eyes of +all their neighbours, who would be exclaiming: "See those gentlefolk +upon the move, because their home has been sold over their heads!" I +proved to him that if he gained a fine house to live in, he would also +gain an odious and ugly reputation. Finally, I besought him, as a man of +worth, to seize some plausible pretext for breaking a bargain which, +happily for his advantage and our own, had not been ratified.</p> + +<p>Over the fat, red, small-pox-pitted features of Signor Zini spread +amazement and perplexity. He did not understand my rigmarole, he said; +he was an honest man, pouring out his blood, not water, to obtain the +house; my mother and sister-in-law, together with the broker of this +honourable bargain, had assured him that my father wished to conclude +it, and that all his sons were prepared to emancipate themselves from +the paternal authority, in order to be able to sign the contract, thus +giving it validity, and securing the rightful interest of the innocent +purchaser.<a name="page_302" id="page_302"></a> The affair had been settled, the necessary deeds were +waiting on the bureau of Marchese Suarez, his advocate. Most assuredly, +unless my father's male heirs procured their emancipation, in order to +give validity to the contract in perpetuity, he would not unbutton his +pockets to disburse a penny; he was not a fool, to be imposed upon with +fibs and fables.</p> + +<p>I commended the fat gentleman's perspicacity and caution; repeated that +I had no intention of procuring my emancipation, and that nothing on +earth would force me to consent; once more I begged him to find some +excuse for breaking off the bargain; and wound up by imploring him to +keep silence upon my interference in the matter. I made it clear that +only a brute, devoid of Christian charity, would reject a son's +entreaties, and render him odious to mother and father without any +advantage to himself. He promised to respect my secrecy, wagging his +huge scarlet jowl and lifting his night-cap, with so many protestations +of being touched to the heart, that I ought to have been put upon my +guard. I did not yet know human nature, and retired as happy as if I had +taken Gibraltar by assault, feeling confident that my prudence and +discretion had averted a lamentable catastrophe.</p> + +<p>Nothing was said by me about the course which I had followed, even to my +three sisters. I reflected that they were women, and awaited a quiet +termination of the affair, trusting to Signor Zini's humanity.<a name="page_303" id="page_303"></a> +Meanwhile I ruminated how to procure my father's removal to the country, +and how to help the family without waiting for the harvest, which would +be finished in three months. I computed the value of my clothes, my +watch, my snuff-box; prepared as I was then, to sell everything I +possessed. But these calculations only reduced me to despair. My one +real friend was Signor Massimo, then at Padua. I remembered that I +already owed him two hundred ducats, and that he was living on an +allowance from his father. Yet I knew that both father and son, as well +as a brother of my comrade, were no less generous toward persons on +whose character for loyalty and friendship they relied, than they were +suspicious of intriguers and impostors. I was also aware that they were +in a position to render me substantial services. How often, during the +tempestuous vicissitudes of my existence, have I not had the opportunity +to verify this fact!</p> + +<p>While thus engaged in studying ways and means, Signor Zini broke rudely +in upon my meditations. Possessed with the desire to obtain our dwelling +for his own, he divulged the secret of my visit, and exposed what I had +said to him in terms of his own choosing. My belief is that his +communication amounted to this:—unless the hot-headed impetuous young +fellow, who had come to treat with him, were brought to reason, and +compelled to sign the contract, he refused to disburse two shillings.<a name="page_304" id="page_304"></a></p> + +<p>I was in my upper chamber, studying as usual, and talking with my +brother Almor about his wretched schooling, when my mother appeared one +day. Something of philosophical severity in her toilette, something +imposing in her manner, which concealed, however, an internal +irritation, proclaimed the gravity of her mission. She addressed herself +pointedly to me, with the features of a judge rather than a mother, and +began a long narration of the straits to which we were reduced. She said +that, God be blessed, she had been inspired and assisted to discover six +hundred ducats in the hands of a benevolent merchant, which would be +placed immediately at her disposal upon such and such conditions. The +notary was ready to engross the necessary deeds; and she begged me to +declare what I thought about this special providence.</p> + +<p>At the bottom of her heart I read Signor Zini's act of treason, and saw +that I was lost. However, I answered respectfully that a contract of +this kind struck me as anything but providential; still my father had +full power to do what he thought fit, without rendering an account of +his actions to his sons. She flamed up, and cried with a threatening air +that my consent was also needed; she could not believe that I should be +so rash and headstrong as to prevent a plan which would relieve my +father and the family in our present painful circumstances. I could have +uttered several truths without a wish to wound;<a name="page_305" id="page_305"></a> but certain truths, +once spoken, wound incurably. Therefore, I contented myself with +observing that I was ready to shed my blood for my father, but that I +could not assent to a contract so humiliating and ruinous, the last of a +whole series dictated by suicidal policy. People who understood economy +were in the habit of calculating and making provision for the future, +not of selling or mortgaging their property to meet embarrassments +created by their own extravagance. The latter course was rapidly +bringing our whole family to the workhouse. Under a disastrous financial +system our income had been reduced to three thousand ducats; yet I could +not comprehend how we were in such straits as she had described. When +people were unable to maintain a decent state in the capital, they could +live at ease in the country at one-third of the same cost. Houses ought +to be let, and not sold. Still my father had the power to make any +contract he thought right; only I did not believe him capable of forcing +me to give consent against my will and judgment.</p> + +<p>The gestures of submission, respect, and supplication with which I +accompanied this speech had no power to mollify the pungency of its +significance. My mother rose, with her arms akimbo, and inquired who it +was I meant to blame for our misfortunes. Instead of telling the bitter +and irrefutable truth, I said that I only blamed fate and the +misfortunes themselves. "I reckon," she replied with a smile of<a name="page_306" id="page_306"></a> fury, +"that you will give in your adhesion." "Indeed I shall not," was my +answer; and the profound bow with which I spoke these words had the +appearance of impertinent irony, although God knows I did not mean it. +This was enough to fan the smothered flames into a Vesuvius in eruption. +My mother bent her stormy brows upon me—upon the sixth finger of her +maternal hands—and broke into the following declamation. "From the +moment of my return she had prophesied, like Cassandra, that I should +turn the household upside down. She did not know me for one of her own +children. The intimacy of a certain friend to whom I had attached myself +was ruining the family, as it had ruined me. (Poor innocent generous +Signor Massimo!) If I had behaved well during my three years' service, +his Excellency Quirini would certainly have rewarded me with some good +military situation. As it was, my excursion into Dalmatia had been a +source of burdensome expense. I had led a vicious life there ... she +knew ... she did not mean to speak ... but ... enough ... and my debt of +two hundred ducats to Massimo was merely a sum lost by me at basset."</p> + +<p>Now this debt had not yet been paid, and had therefore been of no +inconvenience to my family. Such extravagant accusations took me by +surprise; and the reader will now perceive the reason of the accounts +which I rendered in a former passage of these Memoirs. I should perhaps +have flown into a fury<a name="page_307" id="page_307"></a> alien to my real nature, if these reproofs had +been based on truth. The wounding allusion to Signor Massimo nearly +roused me, but I preserved my self-control. It was clear that my mother +had been deeply prejudiced and cruelly instigated against me. The +consciousness of my innocence and a sense of duty made me stand before +her rigid and mute as a statue. With an impulse of affection, maternal +as it seemed, my mother took my brother Almor by the arm, and gazing at +me with contempt, which strove to be compassionate, she addressed these +words to him: "Come away, my dear boy; let us leave that madman to the +error of his ways!" Then she turned her back and led him from the room, +as though she were saving an innocent creature from some fearful danger.</p> + +<p>Convinced by this tragi-comedy that I was the victim of a family cabal, +I saw no other course open but to resume my commission as a cadet of +cavalry. I left my room, went downstairs, and found all the family +(except my father) assembled in commotion, listening to the +commiserations of their usual friends enraged against me. It had been +proclaimed aloud that I had called them all thieves, retorted against my +mother with scandalous and impious audacity, and betrayed my +determination to make myself the tyrant of the household. Even my three +sisters, who had urged me into opposition, showed themselves sulkily +scornful; and though I might have exposed them<a name="page_308" id="page_308"></a> before the whole +company, I did not deign to do so. Confirmed in my resolve to leave +Venice for Dalmatia, I buckled on my sword, wasted no words about my +intention, and repaired to the Riva dei Schiavoni, to see if I could +find a ship for Zara. There I discovered that a <i>trabacolo</i> would set +sail in four or five days. The captain was a certain Bernetich. I took +down his name, and, wrapped up in my own dark thoughts, spent all that +day in exile, wandering far from home.</p> + +<p>On my return, I noticed that, though everybody wore a crabbed face +against me, something had happened to their satisfaction. Signor Zini, +it appeared, was willing to execute the contract without requiring my +consent. I did not know that my brother Francesco had left a power of +attorney to act for him in Gasparo's hands. With voices of triumph they +all exclaimed together that the great sacrifice was to be solemnly and +legally performed next day. I did not care to inquire how things had +been brought to this conclusion; but putting on as cheerful a face as +possible, I went to keep my poor father company as usual for a few hours +in the evening.</p> + +<p>It will be as well at this point to describe the topography of our +house. It was originally built for two separate residences, with double +entrances upon the street and water-side, two staircases and two +cisterns. At the time when it was planned, the Gozzis formed two +families, which were afterwards<a name="page_309" id="page_309"></a> reduced to one. We occupied the lower +floor and some apartments in the highest storey. The second floor was +let for 150 ducats a year to an honest iron-monger called Uccelli; but +this portion of the mansion had also been sold upon my father's life, by +one of those contracts which were only too frequent in our family, for +the sum of 1200 ducats to his Excellency the Procuratore Sagredo.</p> + +<p>I did all in my power to avoid the least allusion to the painful scenes +of the preceding day; but my dear father kept gazing earnestly at me, +and shedding tears from time to time. In vain I tried to inspire him +with happier thoughts. Would that I could banish all recollection of +that night, which was one of the most sombre, the most painful, in the +whole course of my existence. Paralysed and dumb for seven long years, +he yet retained his mental faculties in their full vigour. Summoning all +his force, by signs and stammerings and tears, he made it only too clear +how much he suffered from the miserable straits to which the family had +been reduced. He also continued to express his sympathy with me for my +dislike to sign the projected contract. To my surprise and grief, he +intimated that I had only a brief time to wait; his swift approaching +death would restore to us the upper dwelling, which had been sold upon +his life, and which was much better than the one we occupied. This +inarticulate but eloquent discourse ended in a flood of tears. Deeply +moved to the bottom of<a name="page_310" id="page_310"></a> my heart, I strove to tranquillise his mind, and +direct his thoughts from such afflicting topics. I perceived that no +pains had been spared to make me odious in my father's eyes, and that +this had been done without the least regard for his infirmity. Yet I did +not attempt to justify my conduct, and said nothing about my firm +resolve to leave home. His departure for Friuli had been fixed on the +third day after this fatal evening, and I mentally decided to set out +for Dalmatia two days later on. My assumed cheerfulness, and the merry +turn I gave to all those dismal subjects of reflection, seemed to +tranquillise him. Then he tried to lift himself from his arm-chair, as +though to get to bed. I helped to raise him, but he tottered more than +usual, and sank with his knees toward the ground. I took him in my arms +to keep him from falling. Agonising moment! It was clear that a last +stroke of apoplexy was carrying away my father from my arms. In a loud +voice and with perfect articulation he pronounced the words: "I am +dying!" They fell like lead upon my heart, with such cruel force that I +nearly dropped. My mother, who was present, fled from the room. I called +aloud for aid. Servants hurried in; one of these I dispatched for +medical assistance, while the others helped me to place my poor dear +father, now quite incapable of any movement, on his bed. A physician, +Doctor Bonariva by name, had him bled at once. But nothing could be done +to save his life. Assisted<a name="page_311" id="page_311"></a> by Don Pietro Pighetti, now Canon of S. +Marco, in the last religious duties of our creed, he displayed all the +signs of Christian resignation and intelligence; and after eight hours +of oppression, toilsome suffering, and the pangs of death, my unhappy +parent closed his eyes upon the vast obscurity in which his family was +plunged.</p> + +<h3><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.<br /><br /> +<i>My attempts at pacification defeated.—Useless philosophical +reflections.—A terrible domestic storm begins to brew.</i></h3> + +<p>No sooner had my father breathed his last than my lady sister-in-law, +all activity and bustle, issued from the room of mourning, and took upon +her to console his sorrowing children with the convincing statement that +he was the most lovely corpse which eyes of men had ever seen. This +wholly unexpected statement, which had nothing of humanity, morality, or +philosophy in it, and which she kept repeating and affirming upon oath +for our relief, filled me then, and fills me now, with such fury, that I +should be angry to think that any of my readers could laugh at it.</p> + +<p>One disastrous thought kept breaking in upon our sorrow at this tragic +moment. Am I to record it? We had neither the wherewithal to provide a +decent<a name="page_312" id="page_312"></a> interment for my father, nor the credit to obtain it. The +habitus of the house gave words in abundance, but no pecuniary aid. I +had only one friend, Massimo, my creditor, the object of my relatives' +calumnies. Grief inspired me with the thought of writing to lay our +difficulties before his generous mind. The special messenger by whom I +sent this letter returned with a sum of money more than sufficient to +defray the expenses of a becoming funeral. On receiving it, I took my +brother Gasparo apart, placed the money in his hands, and told him who +had given it. Then I begged him not to misinterpret what I was about to +say. He was my elder, and I willingly acknowledged him to be the head of +our family. He could not be blind to the deplorable condition into which +we had declined. Duty required that he should take the reins with manly +resolution, and should withdraw the management of our affairs from the +hands of those who had brought us to utter shipwreck. My brother +accepted the money and my speech as well as might have been expected +from a man of his excellent disposition and superior intelligence. He +admitted that he saw the necessity of a thorough economical reform, +carried through with virile firmness. Some increase of income, owing to +the expiration of contracts made upon my father's life, would facilitate +the undertaking. He was willing to relinquish literary occupations, +which were neither appreciated nor remunerated in Italy, for the<a name="page_313" id="page_313"></a> sake +of being able to devote his energy and time to the administration of our +common property.</p> + +<p>I did not flatter myself that anything so much to be desired would come +to pass. I knew how impossible it is for people to change their +character and nature. I knew his wife's meddlesome, restless, imperious +thirst for ruling—his own peaceable temperament, averse from +opposition, addicted to the habits of a student. Yet I saw the necessity +of taking the step I did, if only to correct the bad impression of +myself, which had grown up under malevolent influences in the family.</p> + +<p>I had no heart to follow my father to the grave, but shut myself up in +my little chamber, where I gave way through three days and three nights +to grief, not unmingled with remorse for having innocently helped to +hasten his death. Nothing less than this tragedy was needed to cancel +Signor Francesco Zini's contract.</p> + +<p>I feel some repugnance at sitting down to write what happened at this +epoch in my family. I wish that I could tell the tale without appearing +to censure any of my relatives and without seeming to draw a +vain-glorious picture of myself. The truth at any cost has to be +reported; but I protest with emphasis, and this is also true, that I +always experienced real pain when I beheld the disastrous consequences +which the faults of others brought upon themselves, and that I neither +took pleasure in revenge, nor<a name="page_314" id="page_314"></a> cherished sentiments of ambition in doing +good to my family—if indeed I did do good. The reader will be able to +judge of that from the sequel of these Memoirs.</p> + +<p>When a group of closely related persons in one household fall to +quarrelling, all the causes which perpetuate faults of character and +conduct begin to operate. Each member of the company is perfectly +acquainted with the weak side of his neighbour, and knows exactly how to +sting him to the quick. Exacerbated tempers and prejudiced minds judge +everything awry, while partisans and flatterers add fuel to the fire. +Zeal is misconstrued into craft and tyranny; no protestations and no +arguments suffice to remove such false impressions. The torment of the +hell in which one has to live blinds reason and enslaves the freedom of +volition; years of unhappiness pass by before the weapons of vindictive +rage are blunted by constant acts of toleration and disinterested deeds +of kindness, and the innocent are seen in their true light. To blame the +doings of a family divided against itself is much the same as blaming +the actions of somnambulists.</p> + +<p>We had never used the outward demonstrations of affection, kisses and +caresses, in our domestic circle. Yet we were bound together by real +sentiments of friendliness and love on all sides. Unluckily the seeds of +discord had already begun to germinate in our brains. Besides my mother, +three<a name="page_315" id="page_315"></a> brothers and three sisters, my sister-in-law was there, with her +hot, headstrong, vindictive temperament, her aptitude for colouring +everything to suit her own purpose, and her established dominion over +the minds of my relations. During my father's long illness there had +been no real head in the household. Everybody passed for master. No one +learned the virtues of submission and filial obedience. Each member of +the family had his own engagements, his own separate obligations, +together with the passions proper to himself as a human being. There was +no defect of intelligence or mental energy. But lacking a central +authority which might have brought man's egotistic passions into +wholesome subjection, self-love and caprice turned the individuals of +the group into so many political agents, bent on achieving their own +ends, without regard for the common interest. I must not omit the +chronic malady under which we suffered—that predilection for poetry, +which tinged all we thought and planned with romanticism. During a +period of many years no records had been kept either of the income +derived from our estate, or of the sales which had been made. With +perfect justice each in turn denied that he had directed our affairs. In +such circumstances the death of the father leaves a family exposed to +direst intestine warfare; and I should be both indiscreet and inhuman if +I were to lay the whole blame of what ensued upon any of the six +relatives whom I have mentioned.<a name="page_316" id="page_316"></a></p> + +<p>A young man like myself, of little more than twenty years, prone to +thinking rather than to speaking, with a military air acquired abroad, +when he found himself in the middle of so many working brains, and +attempted to effect a total revolution, could not but raise +irascibilities of all sorts and expose himself to odious suspicions. The +portrait which I mean to paint of my own physical and other qualities +will perhaps reveal defects which rendered such suspicions, unjust as +they are, at any rate excusable.</p> + +<p>My mother was not so overwhelmed by the recent loss of her husband as to +be unable to think of business. She demanded the repayment of her dowry, +small as it was, like one who feels the coming shipwreck and seeks a +skiff for his salvation. My sister-in-law, bent as usual on displaying +her talent for affairs, called the brokers, Jews, and female go-betweens +around her. My sisters were always conferring in secret among +themselves, or with my sister-in-law, who kept promising them husbands +and marriage-portions. My brother Gasparo, at the very moment when he +solemnly promised to assume the reins of government, handed over the +money I had got from Padua to his wife, to do as she thought best with, +reserving only a few coins for his own purse. Then he relapsed into his +ordinary ways of life, his literary studies, his society of wit and +genius, and gave no signs of any firm intention to make himself the +master.<a name="page_317" id="page_317"></a></p> + +<p>About twenty days had passed since my father died, when I was summoned +to a serious conference with my elder brother, my mother, and my +sister-in-law. We seated ourselves upon four straw-bottomed rickety +chairs, and my sister-in-law, with an air betokening the gravity of the +occasion, moved the following resolution. Signor Massimo ought to be +repaid (this, mark well, was meant to gain me over). With a view to +discharging the debts we owed him, and for other urgent necessities, it +would be advisable to sell the upper dwelling in our town-house for the +sum of 1200 ducats on the lives of us four brothers. A purchaser was +ready (possibly Signor Francesco Zini). The capital left over would +enable us to put our affairs in order, and to go forward swimmingly upon +a new and proper method of administration. My mother blinked approval of +this fine idea. My brother declared that it was the only course left +open to us. They all looked at me and waited for my assent. I did not +comprehend by what right my mother and sister-in-law took part in the +conference, or how my brother was not ashamed of cutting the figure he +did there, and of following his wife's suggestions with such docility. A +hell of squabbling yawned before me, and I answered as coldly as I could +that, so far as Signor Massimo was concerned, I could trust his generous +indulgence towards a friend in difficulties, and that I did not approve +of selling property upon our joint lives.<a name="page_318" id="page_318"></a> Such a step seemed to me mere +progress on the former road to ruin. I should prefer to let our mansion, +removing the whole family to the country, where we could live for +one-third of the expense, until our debts were paid and the estate was +nursed into comparative prosperity.</p> + +<p>This scandalous ultimatum, which wounded the inclinations and the +self-interest of every member in the family, won me the reputation of a +very Dionysius of Syracuse. Day by day, in secret conclaves, the storm +against me grew and gathered strength. My brother Francesco, however, +had written from Corfu that he was coming home, and I judged it prudent +to await his arrival. Until I gained his support, I stood alone, hated +and dreaded like a fatal comet by my kindred. To distract my mind from +painful thoughts, I summoned all my mental forces, and poured forth +torrents of verse and prose and bizarre fancies upon paper. All through +my long and troubled life I have drawn relief from two main sources. One +is my own robust and democratic<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> bent of mind. The other is my +aptitude for studying human nature and for writing. I may truly say +that<a name="page_319" id="page_319"></a> the exercise of fancy and the art of composition have been to my +mental pains what opiates are to physical torments.</p> + +<h3><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.<br /><br /> +<i>We plunge from bad to worse, deeper and deeper into the mire.</i></h3> + +<p>When my brother Francesco arrived from the Levant, I explained to him +the state of our affairs, and my own wishes with regard to their +administration. We both decided that he should repair to Friuli, and +undertake the management of our estates there. Gasparo was to remain +titular head of the family, while Francesco received rents, kept strict +accounts, and provided for the common household. Meanwhile we begged our +mother to charge herself with certain domestic duties, and our +sister-in-law with certain others, hoping by this apportionment of +officers to introduce harmony and order into the establishment. My +sister-in-law displayed a really exemplary resignation, merely +expressing her desire that, at this juncture, the account-book of +expenditure which she had kept for some years past should be signed by +her husband and his three brothers, in token of approval and in +discharge to her of all pecuniary obligations.</p> + +<p>I strove to make her understand that there was no need for such a +receipt in form; nobody would<a name="page_320" id="page_320"></a> dream of calling her to account, and we +were all very grateful for her services. She would not listen to my +arguments, but insisted on our signing a certain notebook scrawled with +cabalistic characters and numbers. Francesco observed that we might +safely sign, for the sake of peace and quiet. Having entered our family +without a farthing, accompanied by her father and mother, whom we had +supported for many years and buried at our own charges, she was +incapable of making claims on the estate. To this he added that he had +consulted lawyers, and that he was quite convinced of the propriety of +yielding to her wishes.</p> + +<p>The sequel of this history will show that his reasoning, though +plausible enough, was faulty, and that the policy he recommended led to +further complications. Gasparo and Almor had already signed; Francesco +was prepared to follow suit; I did not care to take the odium of +standing out alone. Accordingly, four signatures were generously +appended to the mass of undecipherable hieroglyphics, without any +attempt on our part to examine the accounts, which by this act we +formally accepted.</p> + +<p>Francesco set off for Friuli, after promising to maintain a detailed +correspondence with Gasparo on the state and management of our farms +there, and not to let himself be wheedled out of money or produce at the +demand of every one and anybody. I did not then know what a worthless +coadjutor I<a name="page_321" id="page_321"></a> had summoned to support my policy. Without the least +intention to defraud, he was governed by an insect's blind instinct for +his own particular advantage. Under a compliant exterior, he concealed +the subtlety of a diplomatist. His sole aim was to temporise and make +concessions, with the view of bringing matters to a rupture and of +obtaining his own share in the division of our common patrimony. This +end he pursued in secrecy and silence, without reflecting on his duties +to the family, or the position of our three unmarried sisters, and the +discords which his pursuit of self-interest was bound to foment.</p> + +<p>What followed after his departure for Friuli seemed conclusively to +prove that a plan had been laid to drive him to the Levant and me to +Dalmatia by involving us in embarrassments of all sorts. I accuse +nobody; the heated passions which raged round us, and the injuries from +which I suffered, deserve compassion more than blame.</p> + +<p>Scarcely a day passed without letters being sent from Venice, begging my +brother to dispatch provisions or money on various pretences. He +complied with every application, whether it bore the name of Gasparo or +of my mother or my sister-in-law. In the course of some seven months he +had exhausted the whole harvest of that year, without asking for +accounts or disputing the claims made upon the property he managed. In +like manner the profits of<a name="page_322" id="page_322"></a> certain houses in Venice, and of some farms +at Bergamo and Vicenza, amounting to 800 ducats, had been dissipated. +When letters still kept coming, demanding supplies and setting forth our +urgent needs, my brother could only answer that there was nothing left +to send. It was vain to inquire how the casks of wine and sacks of corn +and bags of cash had vanished. Everybody had taken something to defray +his own particular expenses. One said, "I got only so much;" another, "I +got so much; I did this, and I did that." Gasparo knew less than anybody +how matters had been managed, and had kept no account of the least +article. The conclusion arrived at was that we must all die of hunger +unless we sold some piece of the estate upon our joint lives.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"Ora incomencian le dolenti note."</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"And now begins the Iliad of our woes."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<h3><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI.<br /><br /> +<i>My attitude of patient calm is useless.—Volcanic eruptions, +machinations, tragi-comic civil wars within our household.</i></h3> + +<p>At this point I resolved to step forth boldly and to take the whole +weight of our affairs upon my shoulders, without troubling my head about +being called a tyrant and disturber of domestic peace. I proclaimed +aloud that the family must retire for some<a name="page_323" id="page_323"></a> time into the country and +economise. Nothing would induce me to consent to sales or mortgages. +Then I began to contract debts on my own account, and to part with my +personal trifles for the support of the household. I soon saw that it +was impossible in this way to keep fifteen people, servants included, at +Venice. Whenever I insisted upon the necessity of leaving for the +country, all the women rose in revolt, and turned their backs without a +word of answer. Our dining-table became the scene of daily quarrels, +sullen faces, surly glances, biting speeches. I was deeply grieved to +observe that a final division of the estate was drawing nearer and +nearer. To avert this catastrophe seemed impracticable, and I reflected +gloomily upon the condition to which my brother Gasparo would be +reduced, with a wife and five children to support upon the fourth part +of our encumbered property. Meanwhile I could not blame him except for +his incurable indolence and absolute immersion in studies for which I +shared his weakness.</p> + +<p>Among the habitus of the house, none of them friends of mine, were +certain lawyers. I noticed that these gentlemen had frequent conferences +with the ladies of the family who ruled my brother. They were clearly +plotting against me, and seeking means to set the machinery of the law +in movement in order to hamper my free action. There was also a lady to +whom the female members of my family paid visits<a name="page_324" id="page_324"></a> every evening. She was +the Countess Elisabetta Ghellini of Vicenza, widow of the patrician +Barbarigo Balbi, who died some years before this epoch, leaving her the +mother of an only son. It is exceedingly rare to find a lady endowed +with the excellent qualities of heart and head which she possessed in a +supreme degree. About forty years of age, infirm of health, and exposed +to constant litigation through various claims advanced against her +moderate estates, she bore the trials of life with steady courage and +constant trust in Heaven. Her chief interest was the education of her +son, a boy of eight or nine, for whom she had provided masters, while +she herself instilled into his mind the principles of sound religion and +morality. Gifted with a lively intellect, and fond of literature, she +spent a large part of the day in reading poetry, and opened her house to +a society composed mainly of persons who had suffered in the battles of +life. Her extreme sympathy for the afflicted led her to despoil herself +with admirable intrepidity, and to bestow on others what was needed for +her own support. This compassionate and pious lady had for her adviser +and advocate in the numerous lawsuits to which she was condemned, the +celebrated Conte Francesco Santorini.</p> + +<p>It will appear from the sequel that this digression upon the Countess +Ghellini was needed to explain an important passage in my life. Amid the +din and squabbles of our home, I used at times to catch fragments<a name="page_325" id="page_325"></a> of +the panegyrics poured forth by my female relatives and Gasparo upon this +lady, and heard them rehearse the sonnets which they intended to recite +in her honour, or to offer for her recreation. Such was the common +custom at that period, observed by poets in the houses they frequented. +I speedily divined that a plot was in process of formation to secure the +assistance of a very famous advocate against me. Trusting this +intuition, I resolved to introduce myself, although I had received no +invitation, to the lady whom my enemies so warmly praised.</p> + +<p>She received me, and asked who I might be. On giving my name, the noble +and yet kindly distance of her manner changed suddenly to sternness. A +few phrases which I thought it right to utter about her interest in my +relatives increased this expression of reserve; and she began to speak +as follows, with the happy choice of words which was peculiar to her: +"Sir, I am a poor woman as regards the wealth of this life, but by the +grace of God I am rich in the possession of good sentiments and a sound +education. Your family is cultivated, and deserves to meet with kindly +feeling and esteem from all the world. It is a pity that such a family +should be annoyed and brought to sorrow by a certain individual bound to +it by ties of blood, duty, and respect. A mother of very noble birth +treated with contempt, sisters domineered over, persons of merit +regarded with hatred—all kinds of extravagances and injustice—such +things<a name="page_326" id="page_326"></a> dishonour the individual of whom I speak." This preamble made me +feel inclined to bow myself out of the room in silence, since I am by +nature far from prone to justify my innocence; but politeness and a fear +that a certain famous advocate, if prejudiced against me, might upset my +plans, kept me where I was. I suffered, however, keenly from the +barbarous picture which had been presented to me, and began to plead in +self-defence. She interrupted me by saying that she did not believe me +to be entirely bad-hearted, and that if I ceased to follow the counsels +of a certain friend of mine, I might become a rational and right-feeling +young man. So then, here was Signor Massimo once more made a +scape-goat—the friend who had assisted me in Dalmatia, succoured my +family in our distress, and who still remained our uncomplaining +creditor. The impropriety of this attack stung me so sharply that I +could not hold my tongue. I had been treated as a knave and fool without +losing patience; but never in my life have I heard my friends insulted +without resenting the injustice.</p> + +<p>I told the lady, knitting my brows and speaking seriously, that she was +bound to listen to me: unless, as I thought not, she was indifferent to +equity. Prejudice, I said, is a very unjust judge, and I did not wish +her to fall into that category. Then I entered into a candid narration +of our family affairs. I described the ill results of reckless +mal-administration.<a name="page_327" id="page_327"></a> I related what had already happened and was sure to +happen, what I wanted, how I was opposed, my honourable intentions, the +plots and schemes to thwart me, the services rendered by my friend and +his guiltlessness of any machinations. I could see that she was both +surprised and penetrated by my reasoning. Just at this point Conte +Francesco Santorini entered the apartment, tired and drowsy. We +exchanged greetings, and the lady spoke to him in this way: "Count, you +were quite right to doubt about the Gozzi. This gentleman has put a very +different face upon the matter, and I know not what to think." The Count +sank sleepily into a chair, murmuring: "Did I not tell you that you +ought to hear both sides? The chatter of women, heated brains" ... And +having said these words, he subsided into slumber.</p> + +<p>I begged this noble lady to continue her protection to our family, and +to receive the visits which I hoped to pay her; if she sought to help +us, she could do so by allaying the fever which was burning in so many +irritated bosoms. For my part, I cultivated her friendship through many +long years, until death forced me to deplore the loss of one whom I +esteemed and reverenced. My relatives, on the other hand, gradually +relaxed in their attentions, ceased to visit her, and changed their +eulogistic sonnets into petty satires.<a name="page_328" id="page_328"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII.<br /><br /> +<i>The dogs of the law are let loose on me by my family.—It is +impossible to avoid a separation.</i></h3> + +<p>As time went on, my steady intention to remove our family into the +country, and my other plans of reform, roused my domestic antagonists to +various pettifogging stratagems. The black-robed seedy myrmidons of the +courts began to haunt our dwelling, taking inventories of every nail on +the pretext of my mother's dowry, delivering demands in form from my +three sisters for maintenance and marriage portions, presenting bills +for drapery and jewels furnished by a company of merchants to the tune +of 1500 ducats, and suing on the part of my two brothers-in-law for some +4000 ducats owed to them. Little creditors of all descriptions rose in +swarms around us; and what was still more astounding, my sister-in-law +advanced a claim of 900 ducats, due to her, she said, upon the statement +of accounts which we had signed so negligently. One would have thought +the myrmidons and ban-dogs of the law had been unleashed by hunters bent +on driving a wild beast from his lair; while the satisfaction and +triumph depicted on the faces of my relatives showed too clearly who +were the real authors of this legal persecution.<a name="page_329" id="page_329"></a></p> + +<p>I bore the brunt of these attacks with my habitual philosophy of +laughter, drew closer to my brother Almor, and informed Francesco by +letter of what was being conspired against us. Count Francesco Santorini +helped me at this pinch with excellent advice. Under his direction I +took the following measures. Francesco received instructions to hold +fast by every rood of our Friulian property, and to send me copies of +any writs which might be served upon him there. I recognised my mother's +dowry, and offered annual payments to the merchants and my +brothers-in-law. To my sisters I replied in writing that their +maintenance should be duly attended to, but that it was impossible to +create marriage portions for them under the conditions of entail to +which the estate was subjected. With regard to the monstrous claims +advanced by my sister-in-law, I flatly denied their validity until they +had been submitted to a court of justice. Then I proceeded to meet the +current expenditure of our establishment as well as I was able, while +waiting for the time of harvest; and all this I did without mooting the +question of Gasparo's separation from our brotherhood, in the hope that +little by little things would settle down in peace and quietness. Vain +and idle expectation! My reforms, by cutting at the root of vested +interests, and checking the arbitrary sway of Heaven knows whom, merely +fanned the flames of rage which burned against me. In a private +memorial, addressed to my<a name="page_330" id="page_330"></a> mother, brother, sister-in-law, and sisters, +I finally explained the impossibility of supporting the family any +longer at Venice, exposed as I was to annoying and expensive litigation +with the very persons who ate and drank at the same table. I might just +as well have talked to images. Writs issued by my mother, my +sister-in-law, my sisters, fell in showers. Slights and insults +thickened daily. Our common table had become a pit of hell, worthy to be +sung by Dante. To such a state of misery had irrational dissensions +brought a set of relatives who really loved each other.</p> + +<p>In order to shelter Almor and myself from the wordy missiles which fell +like hail all dinner-time, I had a little table laid for us two in a +separate apartment. The covers were removed with rudeness, on the +pretext that the linen, plates, dishes, &c., belonged to my mother's +dowry, and that if I wanted such furniture I must buy it. Pushed in this +way to extremities, I decided to leave a house which had become for me a +hell on earth. Perhaps it was impolitic to take this step. But I could +not stand these petty persecutions longer. Before quitting the infernal +regions, I begged permission from my mother to take away the beds in +which my brother Almor and I enjoyed our troubled slumbers, offering to +pay their price to the credit of her dowry. She replied with a sardonic +smile of discontent that she could not grant my request, since the beds +were<a name="page_331" id="page_331"></a> needed by the family. I accepted this refusal with hilarity.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 1em;">"E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle."</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"And thence we issued to review the stars."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<h3><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII.<br /><br /> +<i>Calumnious reports, negotiations, a legal partition of our family +estate, tranquillity sought in vain.</i></h3> + +<p>I had hardly settled down with my brother Almor in the remote quarter +of S. Caterina, where lodgings are cheap in proportion to their +inconvenience and discomfort, before the whole town began to talk about +our doings. Three of the brothers Gozzi, it was rumoured, had laid +violent hands upon the family estate; their eldest brother with his wife +and five children, their three unmarried sisters, and their mother, a +Venetian noblewoman worthy of all respect, had been plunged in tears and +indigence by the barbarous inhumanity of these unnatural monsters. The +hovel I had hired, and where I suffocated with Almor in the smoke of a +miserable kitchen, ill-furnished and waited on by an old beldame called +Jacopa, was besieged by the myrmidons of the law. Everything was done to +dislodge me from the city, and to make me abandon the line of action on +which I had resolved. Democritus and my innocence came to<a name="page_332" id="page_332"></a> my aid; and I +determined to stand firm with silent and passive resistance.</p> + +<p>In these painful circumstances I heard to my great sorrow that my +brother's wife had persuaded him to become the lessee of the theatre of +S. Angelo at Venice.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> Her romantic turn of fancy, together with her +love of domination, made her conceive wild hopes of profit from this +scheme. A company of actors were engaged at fixed salaries; and she was +to play the part of controller, purse-holder, and stage-manager for the +troupe at Venice and on the mainland. Moved by pity for my brother and +his innocent children, I did everything I could, without appearing +personally in the matter, to dissuade this hot-headed woman from so +perilous an enterprise. She repelled all such attempts with scorn, being +firmly convinced that she would gain a fortune and make her +brothers-in-law bite their nails with envy.</p> + +<p>I saw that the division of our patrimony could no longer be postponed, +and civilly intimated to Gasparo that the time was come for taking this +supreme step. Articles were accordingly drawn up, whereby the several +parcels of our estate in Friuli, Venice, Bergamo, and Vicenza were +partitioned into four lots. Provision was made for the repayment of my +mother's dowry and for the proper maintenance of my three<a name="page_333" id="page_333"></a> sisters, all +of whom elected to reside with Gasparo. A fund was formed for the +liquidation of debts, the charge of which devolved on me. I undertook to +render an annual report of this operation, showing how I had bestowed +the monies in my hands as trustee for the family. Nothing was fixed +about my sister-in-law's claims for reimbursement; but it will be seen +that when her theatrical speculation proved a ruinous failure, I had to +take these also into account. Gasparo expressed a wish to obtain the +upper dwelling in our mansion as part of his share. The lower dwelling +was conceded to Francesco, Almor and myself. To my mother and sisters +we offered the hospitality of sons and brothers, in case at any time +they should repent of their decision to abide with Gasparo.</p> + +<p>It might be imagined that, while these negotiations were in progress, I +had no time to spend on literary occupations. Nothing could be further +from the fact. I found in them my solace and distraction, pouring forth +multitudes of compositions, for the most part humorous and alien to the +cares which weighed upon my mind. The course of my Memoirs will bring to +light many curious incidents which these literary pastimes occasioned, +and the narration of which will prove, I hope, far from saddening to my +readers.<a name="page_334" id="page_334"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV.<br /><br /> +<i>I enter on a period of toilsome litigation, and become acquainted +with Venetian lawyers.</i></h3> + +<p>I should have been an arrant fool had I flattered myself with the hope +that this partition would introduce the olive-branch of peace into our +midst. On the contrary, I looked forward, and with justice, to all kinds +of coming troubles. Two-thirds of the estate were saved from extravagant +administration by the process; but the minds of Gasparo's family had +been almost incurably embittered by the same cause. When I wanted to lay +my hands upon our documents, in order to study the nature of various +entails and trusts under which the estates were settled, I found that +all these papers had been sold out of spite. Who had done this I did not +learn, but I was informed in great secrecy by a servant-maid that they +had been sold to a certain pork-butcher. I repaired immediately to his +shop, and was only just in time to repurchase some abstracts and wills, +which had not yet been used to wrap up sausages. Then I set to work in +the cabinets of notaries and advocates and in the public archives, +following the scent afforded by my recovered papers. More than eighty +bulky suits in my own handwriting<a name="page_335" id="page_335"></a> remain to show how patiently I +studied the rights and claims of our estate, and now I prepared myself +for the task of laying these before the courts.</p> + +<p>At this epoch I made acquaintance with the celebrated pleader, Antonio +Testa, under whose direction and advice I embarked upon a series of +litigations which kept me fully occupied for eighteen years, and in the +course of which I became acquainted with the men who haunt our palace of +justice, and learned the chicaneries of legal warfare. Inveterate +abuses, introduced in the remote past, and complicated by the ingenuity +of lawyers through successive generations (most of them men of subtle +brains, some of them devoid of moral rectitude), have been built up into +a system of pleading as false as it is firmly grounded and imbued with +ineradicable insincerity. This system consists, for the most part, of +quibbling upon side-issues, throwing dust in the eyes of judges, +cavilling, misrepresenting, taking advantage of technical errors, doing +everything in short to gain a cause by indirect means. And from this +false system neither honourable nor dishonest advocates are able to +depart.</p> + +<p>In justice to the legal profession, I must, however, say that I found +many practicians who combined the gifts of eloquence and intellectual +fervour with urbanity, cordiality, prudence, and disinterested zeal. +Outside the vicious circle of their system they were men of loyalty and +honour. Among these I ought<a name="page_336" id="page_336"></a> to pay a particular tribute to my friendly +counsel and defender, Signor Testa. Knowing my circumstances and my +upright motives, he refused to take the fees which were his due, and not +unfrequently opened his purse to me at a pinch in my necessities. I have +never met with a lawyer more quick at seizing the strong and weak points +of a case, more rapid in his analysis of piles of documents, more +sagacious in divining the probable issue of a suit, or more acute in +calculating the mental powers, the bias, and the equity of judges. Time +and the circumstances of our several lives have drawn us somewhat apart. +But nothing can diminish the feeling of deep gratitude which I shall +always cherish for one who helped to heal the distractions and to +improve the fallen fortunes of my family.</p> + +<p>The final result of eight or nine tedious lawsuits, carried through with +the assistance of Signor Testa, was that I received several parcels of +our estates in Friuli, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Venice, which had been +alienated by fraudulent evasions of entail.<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> Meanwhile I found time +to visit my mother and<a name="page_337" id="page_337"></a> Gasparo's family. The latter were busily engaged +in concocting and translating plays for my brother's theatre. These +visits, paid with cordiality and frankness on my side, were usually the +occasions of requests for money on my mother's. She begged with maternal +dignity for little loans. I complied to the best of my ability, and +forgot to remind her of her debts. My sister-in-law forced herself to +treat me with an affectation of flattery. My sisters looked upon me with +real affection, checked in its expression by I know not what untoward +influence. My brother accepted me with philosophical indifference.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV.<br /><br /> +<i>A collision with my brother's family, due to old grudges and to +present needs.—They make me a married man without my having taken +a wife.</i></h3> + +<p>My brother Gasparo's income, derived from his portion of the family +estates, from the interest on my mother's dowry and the annual allowance +for my sisters' maintenance, together with the profits of his writing +and of certain literary services rendered to his Excellency Marco +Foscarini,<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> late Doge of glorious memory, amounted to about 1500 +ducats, free<a name="page_338" id="page_338"></a> of all debts and obligations. This was certainly nothing +very splendid; but neither would the wealth of Crœsus have been +anything to boast of in the hands of an extravagant family, ruled only +by the caprice of its component members.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned above that Gasparo obtained the upper dwelling in our +house at Venice, which was let for 150 ducats, while we three brothers +received the lower dwelling, at that time inhabited by him. Some few +months were allowed him to remove from the one apartment to the other. +But no sooner had he entered into legal possession of his new habitation +than he, or perhaps I ought to say his wife, let it again to the noble +lady Ginevra Loredan Zeno. She paid the rent of several years in +advance, and installed herself in Gasparo's part of the mansion, while +he, with all his family, continued to inhabit our part with the utmost +sang-froid, taking no further heed of the engagement he was under to us +three brothers. Now we had resolved to put this tenement into good +repair and to let it for some years, until the debts of the estate had +been discharged and we could go to live in it at peace. With this view +we had already found a tenant, who was no other than the Contessa +Ghellini Balbi. She, on her side, had given up her old apartment, which +was already let in advance to other tenants by her landlord. Time went +on, and I saw no sign of our house being abandoned to our use, according +to the family agreement. It appeared<a name="page_339" id="page_339"></a> only too clearly that the +partition I had demanded, my resolve to pay the family debts out of +income without resorting to sale or mortgage, and my application to the +courts for annulment of contracts made during my father's lifetime, were +all of them unpardonable offences in the eyes of those who had made the +debts, the mortgages, the contracts.</p> + +<p>I began by gently asking for the house which was our portion, seeing +that we had resigned the upper dwelling to our brother at his particular +request. No answer reached me; but rumours ran around the city that I +was now attempting to turn my old mother, my three marriageable sisters, +my brother, his wife, and five innocent children into the streets. At +this point I expected that one of those interminable lawsuits, which are +the dishonour of the legal profession, but which never lack advocates to +keep them going, would be commenced against me. In order to lend colour +and substance to their false report, my relatives determined to give me +a wife without consulting me. It was impossible to fix definite +calumnies upon Mme. Ghellini Balbi, because of her exemplary life and +conspicuous piety. But my daily visits to her house offered a pretext +for injurious insinuations; and I soon heard it announced that I was +secretly married to this lady, and that all my plots had only this one +end in view. Such gossip did me honour in some respects. Yet I was +grieved that a lady of excellent conduct, devoted to her only<a name="page_340" id="page_340"></a> son, and +old enough to be my mother, should be made the butt of malignant +animosity.<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a></p> + +<p>Without wasting time or breath in contradicting these unjust and lying +vociferations of my private enemies, I made my mind up to obtain +possession of my house by all the straightforward means in my power. +Accordingly I managed to meet my brother apart from the din of women, +and laid a clear statement before him of my obligations to Mme. Ghellini +Balbi (who ran the risk of remaining without a roof to shelter her) and +of my well-founded rights which were being iniquitously set at nought. +The poor fellow seemed on the point of weeping. His gestures reminded me +of patient Job, while he protested that he had nothing whatever to do +with a state of affairs the injustice of which he frankly admitted. He +added that he had to put up with infernal clamourings—that he was +called a chicken-hearted poltroon, a father without entrails for his +offspring—in short, that he was neither obeyed nor listened to at home. +Then, to convince me that it was not he who opposed my entrance into our +part of the house, he took a pen and wrote and signed a declaration to +the effect that he fully acknowledged the title of his brothers +Francesco, Carlo, and Almor, and that he would never interfere to +prevent our taking possession of our lawful property.<a name="page_341" id="page_341"></a></p> + +<p>All these steps proved fruitless. Time pressed, and I found myself +obliged to bring my cause before a judge, who chanced to be his +Excellency Count Galean Angarano, at that time Avvogador del +Comune.<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> What was my astonishment when I saw my sister-in-law, like +an advocate in petticoats, at the head of my mother and my sisters, with +my hen-pecked brother to bring up the rear, come marching into court. I +will not dwell upon this too too comic scene—</p> + +<p class="c">"For my Thalia takes no thought to sing."</p> + +<p>The judge recognised that my claims were indisputable. But before +pronouncing sentence in my favour he strove to settle matters by +mediation. Conferences took place; first between the bench and his +Excellency the Senator Daniele Reniero, who acted for Mme. Ghellini +Balbi; then between the Senator and my sister-in-law, who was the rock +and stone of our vexation. I was curious to know the upshot of these +whispered confabulations. At length Senator Reniero came up and told me +that if I was willing to disburse sixty ducats, which my sister-in-law +had pressing need of, I might enter at once into possession<a name="page_342" id="page_342"></a> of the +house without a verdict from the bench. Such a verdict would be appealed +against and would certainly lead to indescribable delays. I thanked his +Excellency for suggesting this arrangement. My sister-in-law received +her ducats, and we obtained our dwelling. I had it straightway put into +repair, for it looked as though it had sustained a siege. Mme. Balbi +went at once to live there with a lease of five years only, while I +retired with my brothers into a cheap house, which I had taken at S. +Ubaldo and furnished with strict regard to economy. Here I arranged for +Almor's tuition by an excellent ecclesiastic. For my own part, I went +on paying off debts, rebuilding such of our houses as needed it, +prosecuting my lawsuits, and amusing myself in leisure hours with +literature.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI.<br /><br /> +<i>A serious event, depicting the character of my uncle, the Senator +Almor Cesare Tiepolo.</i></h3> + +<p>A very long time had elapsed since I visited my maternal uncle, the +Senator Almor Cesare Tiepolo. I imagined that my mother and the persons +about her, who were assiduous in paying court to him from motives wholly +alien to my nature, might have prejudiced the good old man against me. +Still I did not<a name="page_343" id="page_343"></a> choose to undergo the mortification of defending +myself, especially as I could only do so by accusing those for whom at +the bottom of my heart I felt both love and reverence. I knew, moreover, +that our Venetian patricians, though just and dispassionate upon the +bench in their capacity of judges, were singularly liable to be +influenced by what they heard in private at their own homes from suitors +or clients, and that it was extremely difficult to remove impressions +which had once been made upon their minds. This weakness I have always +ascribed to their amiability, and have regarded the nobles of our +Republic as really adorable for qualities of the heart, in spite of the +sentimental bias I have mentioned.</p> + +<p>My habitual taciturnity and solitary ways of life, my neglect of petty +social duties, my habit of asking and desiring nothing from fortune, +together with the freedom of my pen, might have won me formidable +enemies, if any such had deigned to look down upon a person of so little +consequence as I am.</p> + +<p>My wise and good uncle, who was suffering from a dropsy in the chest, +and not far from death's door, let me know that he should like to see +me. I went at once to his house; and was bidden to take a seat at his +bedside. He began to complain gently that I had so long neglected to +visit him. I answered frankly that I had stayed away through fear of his +having been wrongfully prejudiced against me, and also because I heard +that he was angry with me,<a name="page_344" id="page_344"></a> perhaps on account of my prolonged absence. +"If I complained," he said, "that my sister and your mother was being +exposed to ill-treatment and affronts, this was no reason why you should +suspend your visits." "I see," I replied, "that my suspicions and my +fears are not without foundation. But this is not the proper time to +trouble you with lengthy narratives in self-defence. Your health is a +matter of concern to me for your sake and for my own. I have tried +everything in my power to avert discords and divisions, even to the +point of doing violence to my naturally pacific temper. I feel sure, +when you recover, as I hope you will with all my heart, that I shall +make it clear to you that I have hurt nobody and attacked nobody, and +that I am only doing all I can to benefit our family, without the least +regard for my mere private interest; nay, that I am bearing the burden +of enormous cares and weighty business, not to speak of exposing myself +to risks and dangers, for the common good."</p> + +<p>He was just, prudent, a philosopher, and ill. Therefore he made no +immediate answer. I renewed my daily visits, and had the satisfaction of +hearing afterwards that the venerable old man expressed himself in these +words to my mother: "Believe me, your son Carlo is a good young fellow."</p> + +<p>His illness kept increasing, and I perceived, by the persons whom he +urged to visit him, that he was anxious to be reconciled with all of his +acquaintances<a name="page_345" id="page_345"></a> who might be under the impression that he bore a grudge +against them. A certain Frate Bernardo of the Gesuati, who then passed +for a learned ecclesiastic, acted as his spiritual director, and used to +read at his request portions of the Holy Scriptures aloud to him. +Observing his indifference upon the point of death, this excellent friar +was moved to say: "I do not want you to prepare yourself for death too +much like a philosopher."</p> + +<p>Though he had filled important posts in the Government, and had +frequently sat as member of the sublime Council of Ten, he was never +heard, throughout his last illness, to utter the least word regarding +the tribunals of justice or the state.</p> + +<p>During his whole lifetime he had taken delight in gathering company +around his hospitable board, and seeing the table furnished with good +cheer, especially with the choicest kinds of fish. Now that he was sick +unto death, and could only take some spoonfuls of such broth as are +administered to dying persons, he still would have the table served as +formerly for guests. Every morning he used to send for one of his +gondoliers, and inquire what sorts of fine fish were that day in the +market. On receiving the man's report, he commented in praise or blame, +as this might be, upon the season and the quality of the fishes for +sale, and the various waters in which they had been caught. After +settling these affairs of the household, he proceeded to religious +exercises,<a name="page_346" id="page_346"></a> grave discourses with his spiritual director, and prayers of +fervent piety. I ought further to testify that he breathed his last in +the spirit of a great man, philosophically Christian, and that his +example inspired me with the desire to imitate his end.</p> + +<p>He possessed the virtue of patience in the highest degree. No one ever +saw his temper stirred by any untoward accident which happened to him. +In order to give a single instance of his intrepid constancy, I will +relate an event which happened some years before his death. One evening, +while alighting from his gondola, he caught his foot in the long and +ample robes of the patrician mantle, and was upon the point of falling +into the canal. The gondolier, in his anxiety to catch and keep him up, +let the oar go which he was holding in his hands. The oar fell with +violence upon the right arm of his master, and broke it. The gondolier +was not aware of what had happened; and my uncle, though he knew very +well, uttered no complaint. He ascended the stairs, and when he reached +his apartment, the valet came forward to help him off, as usual, with +his cloak. Then at last he remarked with imperturbable long-suffering: +"Pull gently, for my right arm is in two pieces." The uproar among the +servants, who were greatly attached to him, was tremendous. The +gondolier ran up, weeping bitterly and begging to be pardoned. He bade +them all be calm, and said to the man: "You did me harm when you were +meaning to do<a name="page_347" id="page_347"></a> me good. What fault have you committed, which requires my +pardon?" After this he had to lie forty days in bed without altering his +position, at the surgeon's orders; yet he never uttered a syllable that +betrayed any impatience. I could relate a number of such traits of +character, but they have nothing to do with the Memoirs of my life.</p> + +<p>After his death, which I felt very deeply, as every one could see, a +certain Signor Giovannantonio Guse came to call on me. This man +practised as notary, land-surveyor, advocate, registrar, and judge in +certain courts of Friuli. He was known to be more wily than the old +Greek Sinon, and had assisted my brother's wife in procuring the +alienation of certain portions of our entailed estates. Now he suggested +that it would do me great honour, as a sign of affectionate remembrance, +if I were to contribute ten sacks of flour and two casks of wine +annually to my mother, in addition to her dowry. I saw at once from whom +this proposal emanated, and admired the address with which the proper +moment had been chosen for working on my feelings. Such artifices, +however, were repugnant to my nature; and changing my tone from sadness +to cold reserve, I replied to the following effect. "I thought my +mother's preference for my brother Gasparo's family unfortunate; my own +house was always open to her, and here she would be revered and loved by +three respectful sons. Here she would enjoy her yearly maintenance, and<a name="page_348" id="page_348"></a> +the income of her dowry. By refusing our offer, she only affronted us. +By accepting it, she would confer a benefit on Gasparo, the number of +whose family would be diminished. Meanwhile, the obligation I was under +of reducing debts, repairing buildings on the property, and reclaiming +parts of the entailed estates, rendered it impossible that I should +weaken the insufficient resources at my command by any such donation as +Signor Guse had proposed." This answer set tongues wagging again, and +revived the opinion that I was a downright Phalaris.</p> + +<p>The estate of my uncle Tiepolo had gained nothing by his regency of +Zante and by other lucrative appointments. The probity of his character +did not suffer him to enrich himself at the expense of the State. +Accordingly, he provided by will that all his debts should be paid off, +appending a schedule of his creditors. The residue he bequeathed to his +sister Girolama for her lifetime, with reversion to my mother. On the +same sad occasion my mother inherited a portion of some landed property +in Friuli, which had belonged to an old aunt Tiepolo, who died +intestate. This, united to her dowry, formed a sufficient fund for her +establishment.</p> + +<p>My mother continued to regard me as her sixth finger, amputated without +any suffering on her part. Of course she had the right to dispose of her +affections as she felt inclined, and to keep her tender heart open for +the persons who possessed her favour. It was<a name="page_349" id="page_349"></a> my misfortune not to +possess it, but I did not envy those who had that privilege; and I can +assure my readers that what caused me the greatest annoyance with regard +to my mother, was seeing her always without a ducat to spend according +to her fancy. This state of things continued when the whole property of +that branch of the Tiepolos passed into her hands upon the death of her +sister Girolama, who left furniture and a considerable amount of money +to my mother, jointly with my brother Gasparo and his children.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII.<br /><br /> +<i>It is decided that I was a husband, though I had no wife.—Some +anecdotes of a serious character.</i></h3> + +<p>An event happened which clenched the gossip of my imaginary marriage to +the Contessa Ghellini Balbi. The patrician Benedetto Balbi, Canon of +Padua and Abbot of Lonigo, a gentleman abundantly endowed with gifts of +nature and of fortune, who was this lady's brother-in-law, had caused +himself to be legally appointed sole guardian of his nephew Paolo, the +widow's only son. The lad may have been about ten years old at this +epoch; and his uncle resolved to separate him from his mother, and to +place him in a school kept by the Somascan fathers, at San Cipriano<a name="page_350" id="page_350"></a> on +the island of Murano.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a> His mother, who was tenderly devoted to her +son, did not oppose his entrance into this college, but resented his +being torn from the arms which had nursed and fostered him till now, as +though she were a peril to his youth and had no claim to supervise his +education in the school. Sharp and angry words passed; and Mme. Balbi +applied to the courts, demanding to be nominated guardian together with +her brother-in-law. The conflagration spread, and I, innocent as I was, +found myself involved in it. With the object of strengthening his case, +the Cavaliere went about the town, loudly protesting that his +sister-in-law had contracted a second alliance with Count Carlo Gozzi; +that she had ceased thereby to be a Balbi, and had lost all rights over +the boy, who belonged to his family. I laughed, as usual, with the lady +over the pertinacity of folk in thinking we were married. But my +laughter was turned to seriousness, when the Cavaliere finally declared +his intention to be free of legal quarrels, and to abandon all the +schemes which he<a name="page_351" id="page_351"></a> had formed for his nephew's advantage, leaving him +entirely to his mother's authority.</p> + +<p>Assuming a Catonian gravity, I pointed out to Mme. Balbi that she ought +to waive her just claims and to stomach her natural resentment for the +sake of her son. I firmly believed in my own soul that an ounce of +sincere love was worth more than a hundred pounds of gold. Yet I +reminded her that she was not in the position to make up to her boy for +the loss of his uncle's property. This reasoning, which I regard as mere +sophistry, but which the world accepts as irrefutable, made the lady +burst into a flood of tears and then exclaim: "You are right! I am a +poor woman, and should be condemned by everybody, perhaps even in the +future by my own son. I am ready to sacrifice my rights; I will bury in +my breast the stirrings of maternal love, the sense of insult and of +injury, all that may prove prejudicial to the interests of my adored +son, on whom I am unable to confer those benefits which lie within his +uncle's power. Pray do me the further kindness of undertaking to explain +the unalterable decision at which I have arrived."</p> + +<p>I praised her virtuous resolution, and reported to the noble gentleman, +her brother-in-law, from whom I have always received distinguished marks +of politeness, the decision she had come to. In doing so, I attempted to +draw a picture of her merits, and to maintain that her feelings were not +merely excusable,<a name="page_352" id="page_352"></a> but worthy of the highest commendation. The Cavaliere +replied with some emotion: "You must not take me for a wild beast! I +mean that the boy shall be visited by his mother, and looked after in +all his wants, the charge of supplying which I take for the future on +myself. I am quite willing to let her bring him back from time to time +to dine with her, and only stipulate that her demonstrations of +tenderness shall not interfere with his education and discipline." These +solemn words of covenant having been exchanged, I was the instrument of +separating the boy from his mother's embraces, and of conducting him to +his appointed school. His behaviour on this occasion, in which firmness +blent with filial emotion, made me feel sure that he was destined to +reward his mother's virtues and his uncle's benevolence with conduct +worthy of the highest honours of his country. Only death, which spared +neither of his relatives, and which prevented them from reaping the +fruits of their respective love and kindness, defeated these +prognostications. The mother died twelve, and the uncle fifteen years +after the events I have narrated. Young Balbi grew up to be an ornament, +by his intellectual and moral qualities, by his probity and purity of +manners, by his sympathy for the oppressed, and by his thoroughly +national temper, to the Venetian Republic, in the administration of +which his birth opened for him a career of usefulness and honour.<a name="page_353" id="page_353"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII.<br /><br /> +<i>I should not have believed what is narrated in this chapter, if I +had not seen it with my own eyes.</i></h3> + +<p>Family jars and discords have this effect upon embittered minds that +each member, wherever the wrong may really lie, is apt to think, not +only that he is in the right, but that the right is absolutely and +wholly on his side. For my part, I am not altogether sure that I was +justified in doing what I did, and what I have described above with +perfect candour.</p> + +<p>I was aware that the theatrical speculation into which my brother had +been induced to enter had taken a bad turn, and that worse might be +expected in the future. A malignant and vindictive spirit would have +found some satisfaction in these circumstances. As it was, I felt +sincerely sorry, and flattered myself on being therefore free from +malice. In proportion as things went from bad to worse, the rancour +against myself increased, as though I had been responsible for an +enterprise which I had always solemnly condemned by act and word.</p> + +<p>I kept up relations with my brother's family, wishing to maintain the +links of relationship unbroken, and to explain from time to time what I +was doing<a name="page_354" id="page_354"></a> for the common good. In spite of these demonstrations of a +kindly feeling, which I admit were never very gushing, I saw to my deep +regret that the wounds caused by the partition of our patrimony had not +ceased to bleed.</p> + +<p>The youngest of my sisters, Chiara by name, induced perhaps by some +presentiment of coming trouble, asked me one day to take her under the +protection of us three brothers. I cordially acceded to her request, and +would have done the like by my mother and our two other sisters, had +they not spurned the acceptance of what they had hitherto rejected as a +great misfortune.</p> + +<p>I told this youngest of my sisters that, our mother not being under my +roof, my brother Francesco occupied with the estates in Friuli, Almor a +mere boy engaged in studies, and I absorbed in legal affairs for the +common interests of the family, she could not with any propriety be left +to the custody of a rough and stupid serving-woman. I therefore begged +her to enter a convent for a while, until we should have changed our +mode of living, and should be in a position to receive her more suitably +and to take thought for her proper establishment. My sisters are neither +foolish nor ill-natured. Chiara accepted my proposal, and was placed in +the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli at Pordenone, as a young lady in +charge of the Superior.</p> + +<p>Any one exposed, as I was, to the rage of angry<a name="page_355" id="page_355"></a> tongues, blackening me +with the epithets of unjust, inhumane, tyrannical, marrying me against +my will, and capable of insinuating the worst of charges against me for +my guardianship of a sister, would act rightly if he took the +precautions I did. Yet the precautions of the most prudent man on earth +do not always bear the good results expected of them. I speak with +experience derived from long study of ill-inclined men and +worse-inclined women, who have invariably taken my unalterable good +faith for venomous maliciousness.</p> + +<p>I was excessively pained to observe that the bitterness created in my +brother Gasparo's family by the events I have narrated remained +unconquerable. It is true that they concealed, as far as possible, their +grudge against me, whenever I paid them visits and treated them with +brotherly good-will. This grudge, however, could not help showing itself +in public; and it did so in a monstrous fashion, which I should not have +credited unless I had been an eye-witness of the scandal.</p> + +<p>My brothers and I were in the habit, during carnival-time, of frequently +attending the theatre of S. Angelo, which was under the direction of my +sister-in-law far rather than her husband. Amusement was less our object +than the wish to support, so far as in us lay, a speculation to which we +feared our brother had been sacrificed. We persuaded Mme. Ghellini Balbi +to accompany us; and she entered<a name="page_356" id="page_356"></a> into our designs by applauding as +heartily as any of the audience.</p> + +<p>They had given at this theatre a translation of the French comedy called +<i>Esop at the Court</i>, which succeeded partly by the elegance of my +brother's Italian version, and partly by its novelty. Rumour told us +that the sequel, by the same French author, entitled <i>Esop in the Town</i>, +was being translated and would soon appear. We were eager to be present +at the first night, to back the piece with our approval, and to witness +its triumph.</p> + +<p>A worthy fellow, who aired his eloquence at Gasparo's house and also in +our own, took me apart one day, and spoke with an air of secrecy and +consternation to the following effect: "You must know that the +forthcoming play of <i>Esop in the Town</i> will contain a scene, +interpolated, not translated from the original, in which you, your +brothers Francesco and Almor, and Mme. Ghellini Balbi, are held up in a +cruel satire to the public scorn. Do not let my name transpire; but take +means to prevent this scandal; the comedy will be represented in five +days from now." I was far from disbelieving that what my friend said was +the truth; yet I took care to let no sign of my belief escape me. I +thanked him for the friendly interest which had prompted him to warn me, +but laughed the matter off as something beyond the range of possibility. +He strained every nerve to convince me, but got nothing for his pains<a name="page_357" id="page_357"></a> +beyond smiles and ironical protestations of gratitude. I left him there +fuming with anger at my obstinate hilarity.</p> + +<p>I kept guard over my tongue in the presence of my brothers and the lady, +and made a show of great anxiety to see the new play produced upon the +boards. At last the first night came, and we all provided ourselves with +a convenient box for the occasion. We were disappointed to find the +theatre ill-attended, and to notice that the comedy dragged. <i>Esop at +the Court</i> had caught the public by something piquant in its chief +character, by his grotesque, crook-backed figure, and by the appropriate +fables which had been written with real dramatic skill for the part. +<i>Esop in the Town</i> was no less worthy of attention, but the novelty had +evaporated; it seemed a plagiarism of the former piece, and wearied the +audience like a composition which has lost its salt. At length the +interpolated scene, of which my friend had warned me, came on.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + +<p>An ancient dame, attired in black, made her entrance, and unfolded the +tale of her self-styled calamities to Esop. Pouring forth an +interminable catalogue of woes, she enumerated all the lies which<a name="page_358" id="page_358"></a> had +been circulated against myself and Mme. Balbi at the period of our +family dissensions. The ancient dame summed up by saying that she had +been turned out of house and home, together with a loving son, three +daughters, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren, by three of her +own male children, the barbarous perverted offspring of her womb. Then +she appealed with tears for counsel and advice to Esop, who expressed +his sympathy in a frigidly elaborated fable. The ancient dame, attired +in black, was an exact image of our poor mother, who had been blinded by +a touch of spite against me and by the mud-honey of her favouritism into +allowing herself to be exposed in this way on a public stage for the +mirth of the populace.</p> + +<p>The scene was very long; it had nothing to do with the action of the +piece, having been foisted in to gratify a private animosity. The +audience, ignorant of what it meant, began to yawn; and it contributed +in no small measure to the failure of the play.</p> + +<p>While this indecent and malignant episode was dragging its slow length +along, I saw Mme. Ghellini Balbi becoming momently more taciturn and out +of humour, my two brothers flaming into anger and preparing for some act +of violence. The shouts of laughter with which I greeted this abortion +of a satire added fuel to their fire, and Francesco, spurred by martial +ardour, was on the point of defying the players. He only made me laugh +the louder; but I<a name="page_359" id="page_359"></a> had some difficulty in persuading my companions to +quench their indignation in a cup of water, and to wrap themselves +around with imperturbable indifference. They obeyed me. If we had made a +disturbance, we should have put the cap on our own heads. As it was, our +cold behaviour snuffed out the whole episode, without awaking anybody's +interest. And such will, peradventure, be the fate of these Memoirs I am +writing of my life.</p> + +<p>In after days I was glad to have laughed at this indecent exhibition. +The perusal of an anecdote in lian confirmed my self-congratulation. It +was to the following effect. "When," says he, "a firm courageous spirit +is attacked before the public in quizzical caricatures and gibing +insults, these trifles vanish like mist before the wind; but if they +meet with a nature which is base and proud and abject all at one and the +same time, they fill it with melancholy and madness, which often lead it +to the grave.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> Take the proof of these remarks. Socrates, when he +was ridiculed upon the public stage by Aristophanes, enjoyed the fun and +laughed at it. Poliagros, under the same circumstances, went mad and +hanged himself."</p> + +<p>In concluding this episode, which I leave my readers to characterise +with stronger epithets than I<a name="page_360" id="page_360"></a> shall use, I wish to affirm that I never +have believed, or can believe, that my brother Gasparo lent his pen or +his assent to the production of the scene in question.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX.<br /><br /> +<i>A disagreeable action at law brought against me.</i></h3> + +<p>While busily engaged in prosecuting my many lawsuits, I was unpleasantly +surprised by the revival of my sister-in-law's old claim for +reimbursement of monies expended by her in the management of our affairs +during my father's lifetime.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> This preposterous claim had long been +lying dormant, and the better terms on which we were gradually coming to +live together made me forget it as a chimera of the past.</p> + +<p>My brother Gasparo's direction of the theatre of which he was the sole +lessee bore such fruits as every one predicted. Instead of the pecuniary +profits he had been encouraged to expect, the poor fellow was worried +with vexatious and aggressive opposition, peculiarly trying to one of +his gifts and temperament, but only too usual in enterprises of this +kind.</p> + +<p>Wounded pride and thirst for vengeance, together with the hideous +necessity of meeting debts contracted<a name="page_361" id="page_361"></a> in this unsuccessful speculation, +were the causes which roused his wife to bring her alleged claims upon +the family into a law-court. The defendants in this suit were myself and +my two brothers Francesco and Almor. It will be remembered that she had +induced us to sign her cabalistic book of magic numbers with the sole +object of freeing her from any possible pretensions upon our side. My +elder brother, who had been the first to sign, in order to give a good +example to his juniors, was not prosecuted by his wife.</p> + +<p>Our legal advisers maintained, with some show of reason, that Gasparo +was the real mover in this matter. For my part, knowing as I did his +peaceful character, I felt certain, that though he was capable of +countenancing irregularities through indolence and the desire to live a +quiet life, he was incapable of stirring up litigious strife on such +foundations. I was not ignorant that he had stooped to the theatrical +speculation in order merely to escape from a vortex of domestic +intrigues. I knew, moreover, that, after the partition of our patrimony, +his wife and family had changed their residence at least six times, +through restlessness, without informing him; so that he had gone to +knock at empty house-doors, and had casually learned from neighbours in +what quarter of the town his flighty brood had nested last. It also +reached my ears that his wife was selling property upon his life, and +that he had finally been driven by the<a name="page_362" id="page_362"></a> tempest of his home to take a +distant lodging of two rooms,<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> where he installed himself with his +little heap of books and abandoned himself to study, seeking the peace +he could not find. After all, the father of a family who flies domestic +cares, only brings upon himself more carping cares than those which he +has fled from. All these considerations put together enabled me to +convince my counsel that Gasparo had no share in the proceedings of his +wife.</p> + +<p>In the pleadings which set forth my sister-in-law's cause, Signor Guse, +already named by me above, deposed on obviously false oath that he had +been commissioned by us three brothers to examine her accounts, and that +he had found her claim for reimbursement in the sum demanded to be just. +To cut a long story short, our arguments upon the other side were +useless. It was in vain that we expounded the inability of a woman who +had entered our family without dowry, and had got the management of +affairs into her hands through the indolence of its real head, to +constitute herself its creditor; in vain that we denounced the collusion +of one brother with his wife against the interests of three innocent +brothers, who had been absent many years without burdening the estate; +in vain that we showed how the father and the mother of the plaintiff +had been received into our house and maintained for full<a name="page_363" id="page_363"></a> fifteen years +until their death, and how her relatives had been more the masters there +than its legitimate owners; in vain that we brought forward the chaotic +account-book, signed by us in compliance with our elder brother for the +sole sake of calming troubled tempers; in vain that we pointed out +figures, garbled, cancelled, altered in these precious documents; in +vain that we offered to discharge sums due to creditors for money or +goods rendered to the plaintiff in her administration of the family +affairs. All these solid pleas were like words thrown to the winds +before the impudence of two scoundrelly pettifoggers, the very scum of +the Venetian law-courts, who managed to convince our sapient judges that +men ought to open their eyes wide before they signed papers. From that +moment until now, I have always read my letters through ten times before +appending my signature.</p> + +<p>As usual, I consoled myself by laughing over the inevitable. Nor did I +dream of complaining to Francesco, who had drawn me into the affair by +his desire to settle matters. He, good fellow, met my laughter with a +sorry countenance, protesting that he could never have anticipated such +an abominable trick of fortune.</p> + +<p>Seven hundred ducats were passed to my sister-in-law's credit on the +termination of this suit. They did my brother's family no good. Debts to +comedians had eaten up the capital beforehand; and I was<a name="page_364" id="page_364"></a> obliged to pay +a set of hungry fellows with the consent of him and his wife. The +annoyance, however, did not stop here. In order to bolster up her claim, +my sister-in-law had raked together a multitude of soi-disant creditors, +who pretended to have supplied money or goods to our family; and +declarations signed by them, recognising her as their sole debtor, were +put into court as evidence. When they found their expectations +frustrated, the wasp's nest swarmed out against us three brothers, and +sequestrated our house-property for payment of their alleged debts. +Before I succeeded in finally shaking them off, I had to transact much +tiresome business and to fight several lawsuits.</p> + +<h3><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX.<br /><br /> +<i>A long and serious illness.—My recovery.—The doctors +differ.—One of my sisters takes the veil.—Beginnings of literary +squabbles, and other trifles.</i></h3> + +<p>In the midst of these annoyances, I found the time and strength to +pursue my literary studies, especially in the now neglected art of +poetry, and enjoyed excellent health; when suddenly, one night, a +violent hemorrhage from the lungs warned me that the life of mortals +hangs upon the frailest thread.</p> + +<p>Bleeding, vegetable diet, and a frugality in food, which few, I think, +are capable of continuing for as<a name="page_365" id="page_365"></a> long a space of time as I can, +together with my philosophical indifference to death, restored me to +something like a tolerable state of health.</p> + +<p>It seemed to me at this period that my two brothers and I, who always +kept together, were in a position to settle down again into our paternal +home. Mme. Ghellini Balbi, who had rented the house for more than five +years, politely retired at my request, and found another habitation at +S. Agostino. I furnished our ancestral nest as decently as I was able; +and we were soon installed there. It was then that I invited my youngest +sister to leave her convent and join us, travelling myself to Pordenone +for this purpose.</p> + +<p>Whether through weakness, or human influence, or Divine inspiration, I +know not; but I found the good girl obstinate against my prayers, my +anger, and my threats. She entreated with a holy stubbornness to be left +in prison, to be indulged in her desire to pass her lifetime in that +blessed aviary of virgins. I commanded her to come home for at least +three or four months. At the end of that time, if she still persisted in +her pious fanaticism, I promised to play the part of executioner at her +request. She replied with a serious enthusiasm, which made me laugh, +that she knew enough of the world to be experienced in its wickedness; +and when I insisted, she met me with rather less than heavenly +doggedness by remarking that nothing short of cutting her in pieces +would<a name="page_366" id="page_366"></a> make her quit the convent-gratings. Though I did not believe that +this ultimatum was dictated by the angels, I bent my head in order to +avoid a scandal. On taking the veil, she received those appointments and +allowances which are usually bestowed upon the brides of Christ.</p> + +<p>Were I to fix my thoughts upon the troubles which my four married +sisters have had to suffer and still suffer—and I am only too well +informed about them—I should be obliged to admit that the youngest +chose the better part in life. They were always in straits, always +weeping, with their gentle natures and their illimitable powers of +endurance. One of them died before my eyes, to my deep sorrow, only +because she was a wife. Meanwhile, the nun, beloved by her sisters, +placidly smiled at things which we, refined in pleasures, finding +nowhere solid pleasure for our satisfaction, would call barbarous +tortures, and took delight in little treats, which we philosophers, +past-masters in the arts of greed, are wont to scorn and turn our backs +upon. In due course she attained the highest rank of Abbess in her +convent; and I believe she was more gratified with this honour than +Louis XVI. with his titles of King of France and of Navarre.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a></p> + +<p>Time had at length allayed the discords of our family. My two remaining +sisters found husbands.<a name="page_367" id="page_367"></a> My brother Gasparo obtained a post at the +University of Padua, which brought him six hundred ducats a year, +besides pecuniary gratifications for extraordinary services.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a> This +proves that literature is not wholly unremunerated in Venice. In +addition to these emoluments, he found another way, legitimate indeed, +but one which seems incredible, for accumulating the sequins so much +needed after his theatrical disaster. There was not a marriage, a taking +of the veil among our noble families, an election of a Doge, or +procurator, or grand chancellor, without my brother being engaged to +produce the panegyrics or poems which are usual on such occasions—more +sought perhaps by fashion than by studious readers. The patricians made +it their custom to reward him with a hundred sequins, which contributed +to the splendour of their families, but did him little good, for in his +hands money found wings and flew away.</p> + +<p>These details have little to do with my Memoirs; yet they are honourable +to my nation, and are not without a certain bearing on my subject. +Poetical trifles, published by me in collections, found favour by some +aspect of novelty and by genial satire on contemporary fashions. +Unluckily, they got me the reputation of a good poet and good writer. +Accordingly, many of our lords tried to press me into the ranks of the +<i>Raccoglitori</i>—collectors and compilers<a name="page_368" id="page_368"></a> of occasional verse-books. +They did not know that I had adopted for my motto that line of Berni:—</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Voleva far da se, non comandato."</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"His master he would be, and no man's man."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>Whenever they did me the honour to force this function on me, I civilly +declined, and sent their messengers on to my brother, without, however, +refusing compositions of my own, which swelled the collections, to their +gain or loss as chance might have it.</p> + +<p>I never abandoned the scheme I had formed of moving at law against the +Marchese Terzi of Bergamo in a suit for the recovery of lands and rights +belonging to us.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> But while I was engaged on the preliminary +business, a fresh attack of pulmonary hemorrhage cooled my ardour. Many +learned physicians whom I consulted, looked upon me as a victim of +consumption, at the point of death. Beggars in the street, when they saw +me pass, promised to pray for my life if I would fling them a copper. +The cleverest professors of medicine at Padua prescribed ass's milk, +which was tantamount to saying: "Phthisical creature, go and make your +peace with Heaven!" My own doctor in ordinary, Arcadio Cappello by name, +now dead—an old man, experienced, well<a name="page_369" id="page_369"></a> acquainted with my +constitution, and a philosopher to boot—forbade me milk as though it +had been poison. "You," he said, "are suffering from a nasty malady. Yet +it has not the origin, nor has it made the progress, which these eminent +physicians fancy. If you let your illness prey upon your mind, you will +die. If you have the strength and heart to throw aside all thoughts +about it, you will recover. It has in you no other basis than a +hypochondriacal habit, which you have contracted by a sedentary life of +worry, business, and excessive study. Raw milk of any kind is a pure +poison in your case. Live regularly, cast aside reflections on your +symptoms, take horse-exercise two or three hours a day. These are your +best medicines."</p> + +<p>Marchese Terzi owes no thanks to my malady. Bloodless as I was, through +what I lost by hemorrhage and venesection, my intellect enjoyed the +highest qualities of penetration and acumen. Stretched out upon my bed, +I had the necessary papers for my lawsuit brought to me—abstracts and +wills recovered from the pork-butcher—a whole paraphernalia of +documents forbidden by my doctors—and set up a scheme of proofs and +arguments, so clear and so convincing that they subsequently drove my +enemy to desperate measures.</p> + +<p>These annoying relapses of my malady continued for two years and a half +to fall upon me when I least expected them. They were enough to +dishearten<a name="page_370" id="page_370"></a> any man less stupid than myself, and make him despair of +living. Contrary to the advice of several physicians, who protested with +wide-open horror-stricken eyes that riding would inflame my blood and +burst the arteries of my lungs, I followed the prescription of Doctor +Arcadio Cappello, half-suffocated as I was with hemorrhage. He proved to +be right. Regular diet, contempt for my symptoms, and horse-exercise +completed my cure. It is now twenty years and more since I have been +reminded that I was ever subject to this indisposition.</p> + +<p>As I have often had occasion to remark, no business, no quarrels, no +lawsuits, and no illnesses prevented me from devoting some hours every +day to poetry. This being the case, when controversies arose in Venice +on philology and the higher Italian literature—controversies of which I +mean to render some account in the following chapters—I went on +vomiting blood from my veins, and scribbling sonnets, satires, essays in +defence of our great writers, treatises on style, polemics against +Chiari and Goldoni and their followers. All these trifles, when I read +them aloud, made my friends laugh, as well as my doctor and the surgeon +who attended on me.</p> + +<p>Before engaging in the circumstances which led to my becoming a writer +for the theatre, I will wind up the history of our private affairs. +First of all, I let the lawsuit with Marchese Terzi drop. My reasons +were as follows:—With the best intentions<a name="page_371" id="page_371"></a> in the world, and the +strongest desire to reunite the scattered members of our family under +one roof, I found this task impossible. My sisters married. My brothers +Francesco and Almor in course of time took wives and begat children. My +mother's inheritance of the Tiepolo property (though strictly speaking +it ought to have been treated as entailed upon her sons) ran to waste in +the hands of Gasparo and his wife. I had the old debts of our estate +still weighing on my shoulders. It seemed to me, in this condition of +affairs, best to remain a bachelor, and to devote myself to the duties I +had undertaken, without ambitious projects and without assuming heavier +obligations. Freed from further responsibilities to my family, whom I +had loyally served in their material interests, and against none of whom +I harboured any rancour, I was master of my time and could devote myself +to the literary exercises which were so congenial to my temper.</p> + +<p class="c"><br /><br /><br />END OF VOL. I.</p> + +<p class="c"><br /><br /><br /><small>PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.<br /> +EDINBURGH AND LONDON.</small></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="transcriber" +style="border:2px dotted gray;margin-top:5%;"> +<tr><td>The following typographical errors have been corrected by the etext transcriber:</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">Many years have elasped since Tartaglia married=>Many years have elapsed</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">since Tartaglia married</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">twirls his moustachioes=>twirls his moustachios</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">Philarete Chasles=>Philarte Chasles</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">whence we were to sally forth to the assault of Buda.=>whence we were to</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">sally forth to the assault of Budua.</td></tr> +</table> + +<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" summary="" +style="border:2px dotted gray;"> +<tr><td align="center">This index appears at the end of Volume 2, but is shown here for the convenience of the reader.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">{note of etext transcriber}</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="cb"><a href="#A">A</a>, +<a href="#B">B</a>, +<a href="#C">C</a>, +<a href="#D">D</a>, +<a href="#E">E</a>, +<a href="#F">F</a>, +<a href="#G">G</a>, +<a href="#H">H</a>, +<a href="#I-a">I</a>, +<a href="#L">L</a>, +<a href="#M">M</a>, +<a href="#N">N</a>, +<a href="#P">P</a>, +<a href="#Q">Q</a>, +<a href="#R">R</a>, +<a href="#S">S</a>, +<a href="#T">T</a>, +<a href="#V">V</a>, +<a href="#W">W</a>, +<a href="#Z">Z</a></p> + +<p class="nind"> +<a name="A" id="A"></a> +Academy de' Granelleschi, at Venice, i. 89, 99.<br /> + +Actors, Italian, their character, ii. <a href="#page_137">137</a>.<br /> + +Actresses, Italian, their character, ii. <a href="#page_137">137</a>.<br /> + +Agazi, Francesco, Censor of Plays, ii. <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_268">268</a>.<br /> + +Albergati, Marchese Francesco, ii. 240;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notes on his career, ii. 240 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> + +Altissimo, Cristoforo, poet and <i>improvisatore</i>, i. 202.<br /> + +"Amore delle Tre Melarancie," Gozzi's first <i>Fiaba</i>, i. 109; ii. <a href="#page_129">129</a>, <a href="#page_133">133</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translation of, i. 112-146.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its triumphant success, i. 146, 147; ii. <a href="#page_130">130</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his best Fable, artistically, i. 163.</span><br /> + +Andreini, Francesco, a celebrated actor, i. 51.<br /> + +Andrich, Carlo, ii. <a href="#page_076">76</a>.<br /> + +Angaran, Zorzi, Avogadore, i. 13.<br /> + +Angarano, Count Galeaso, i. 341.<br /> + +Apergi, Lieutenant Giovanni, i. 227; ii. <a href="#page_016">16</a>.<br /> + +Aretino, Pietro, i. 29.<br /> + +Arlecchino, i. 35,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of, in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 46.</span><br /> + +"Augellino Belverde," one of Gozzi's "Fiabe," analysis of, i. 164-176.<br /> + +<a name="B" id="B"></a> +Bada, Gianbattista, i. 100 <i>note</i> 2.<br /> + +Balbi, Benedetto, Canon of Padua, i. 349-352.<br /> + +Balbi, Countess Elisabetta Ghellini, <i>see</i> Ghellini Balbi, Countess.<br /> + +Balbi, Paolo, i. 349-352; ii. <a href="#page_089">89</a>, <a href="#page_295">295</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sudden death, ii. <a href="#page_326">326</a>.</span><br /> + +Balestra, Antonio, painter, ii. <a href="#page_342">342</a>.<br /> + +Baretti, Giuseppe, his opinion of Gozzi, i. 179.<br /> + +Barsanti, Domenico, actor, ii. <a href="#page_216">216</a>, <a href="#page_323">323</a>.<br /> + +Bartoli, Adolfo, his "Scenari Inediti," i. 57.<br /> + +Bartoli, Francesco, husband of Teodora Ricci, ii. 195 <i>note</i> 1, 249-252.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ill-health and separation from his wife, ii. <a href="#page_199">199</a>.</span><br /> + +Battagia, Maddalena, actress, ii. <a href="#page_174">174</a>.<br /> + +Benedetti, Luigi, actor, ii. <a href="#page_209">209</a>, <a href="#page_269">269</a>, <a href="#page_288">288</a>.<br /> + +Beolco, Angelo, a Paduan writer of simple rustic comedies, i. 33.<br /> + +Bergalli, Luisa Pisana, wife of Gasparo Gozzi, <i>see</i> Gozzi, Luisa Pisana.<br /> + +Bettinelli, Abb Xavier, his attempted revolution in literary taste, ii. <a href="#page_104">104</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shown up by the Granelleschi, ii. <a href="#page_105">105</a>.</span><br /> + +Bevilacqua, Doctor Bartolommeo, ii. <a href="#page_314">314</a>.<br /> + +Bold, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 276.<br /> + +Borrommeo, Carlo, his crusade against the Comedians, i. 70.<br /> + +Bragadino, Cavaliere, the curious occurrence that earned Gozzi his friendship, ii. 80-84.<br /> + +Brescia, Bishop of, i. 277.<br /> + +Brighella, i. 35; description of, in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 47.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as employed by Gozzi, i. 152.</span><br /> + +Burchiello, an obscure Florentine poet, ii. <a href="#page_116">116</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="C" id="C"></a> +Caloger, Padre, ii. <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> + +Canale, or Canaletti, Antonio, ii. <a href="#page_338">338</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his defects, ii. <a href="#page_338">338</a>.</span><br /> + +Canziani, Maria, dancer, ii. <a href="#page_075">75</a>.<br /> + +Capitano, the, a character in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 35, 50.<br /> + +Capocomico, manager of the Comedians, his functions, i. 58-60, 64.<br /> + +Cappello, Arcadio, physician, i. 368.<br /> + +Casali, Gaetano, comedian, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Casanova, Ignazio, comedian, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Casanova, Jacques, i. 4, 73, 350 <i>note</i> 1; ii. 99 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Cavalli, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 220.<br /> + +Cecchi, playwright, i. 33.<br /> + +Cenet, Madame Jeanne Sarah, ii. <a href="#page_310">310</a>.<br /> + +Cerlone, Francesco, poet, i. 35 <i>note</i> 3.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">fixed the type of Pulcinella, i. 49.</span><br /> + +Chasles, Philarete, i. 181.<br /> + +Chausse, Nivelle de la, his sentimental comedies, i. 87.<br /> + +Chiari, Abb Pietro, playwright, i. 2.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his rivalry with Goldoni, i. 97.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's attacks on, i. 99.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">makes common cause with Goldoni against Gozzi, i. 106, ii. <a href="#page_127">127</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his popularity in Venice, ii. <a href="#page_110">110</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's opinion of, ii. <a href="#page_113">113</a>, <a href="#page_114">114</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated by Gozzi, gives up play-writing, i. 177, ii. <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a>.</span><br /> + +Cicucci, Regina, actress, ii. <a href="#page_170">170</a>.<br /> + +Colombani, Paolo, bookseller, his shop the headquarters of the Granelleschi, ii. <a href="#page_127">127</a>.<br /> + +Colombo, Giovanni, i. 229.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grand Chancellor of the Venetian Republic, i. 230.</span><br /> + +Comedian, qualifications of a good Italian, i. 61.<br /> + +Comedians, their degraded social position, i. 70.<br /> + +Comedy, Italian—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its origin during the Renaissance, i. 26.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its dependence on Latin models, i. 26, 28.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, i. 27, 39.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the first attempts at National Italian comedy, i. 28.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its stock characters, i. 28.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Commedia dell'Arte all'Improviso</i>, its causes, and its distinctive features, i. 30-32.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its great antiquity, i. 32.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its relation to the <i>Commedia Erudita</i>, i. 32, 55.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">farces in relation to the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 33.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i> trusted to the improvisatory talent of the actors, i. 34.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the actors in it wore masks, i. 34.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the principal masks—Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella, i. 34.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of the masks, i. 43-54.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the less important masks, i. 52.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relation of the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i> to the old Latin comedy of mimes and <i>exodia</i>, i. 36-40.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lombard, Neapolitan, and Florentine ingredients in it, i. 40.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its culmination and decay, i. 43.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">modifications introduced into the fixed characters of the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i> by celebrated actors, i. 53.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the plots and subjects of improvised comedies, i. 54.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its indecency and buffoonery, i. 56.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of the <i>scenari</i> of the comedies, i. 56.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">how they were arranged or rehearsed, i. 58.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">qualifications of the actors, i. 61.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">stock speeches, which were not left to the inspiration of the comedians, but were written, i. 62.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>lazzi</i> (sallies of buffoonery), i. 63.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its tendency to degenerate, i. 64, 69.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the widespread popularity of the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 65.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its success in Paris, Spain, Portugal, and London, i. 65, 67.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">probably the model on which Tarleton and Wilson formed their Drolls, i. 68.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's praise of it, i. 68.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its decadence, i. 69, 87.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the degraded social position of the actors, i. 70.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Garzoni's description of the strolling comedians, i. 73-80.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superseded by the <i>Comdie Larmoyante</i>, i. 87.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's "Fiabe Teatrali," an attempt to rehabilitate the impromptu comedy, i. 109.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translation of Gozzi's first "Fiaba," i. 112-146.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">character of the actors in Italian Comedy, ii. <a href="#page_137">137</a>.</span><br /> + +<i>Commedia dell'Arte.</i> <i>See</i> Comedy, Italian.<br /> + +Comparetti, Doctor Andrea, ii. <a href="#page_300">300</a>.<br /> + +Contarini, Francesco, Gratarol's uncle, ii. <a href="#page_292">292</a>, <a href="#page_293">293</a>.<br /> + +Coralli, actor, ii. <a href="#page_201">201</a>, <a href="#page_208">208</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>.<br /> + +Cornaro, Giorgio, physician, ii. <a href="#page_327">327</a>.<br /> + +Cortigiani, the Venetian, or Men of the World, i. 294 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Coviello, a mask in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 50.<br /> + +Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, ii. <a href="#page_342">342</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="D" id="D"></a> +Dalmatia, the character of the natives of, i. 238.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the women of, i. 242.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the nature of the country, i. 243.</span><br /> + +Danieli, chief physician to the Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 222.<br /> + +Da Ponte, Lorenzo, i. 4.<br /> + +Darbes, Cesare, comedian, i. 95, 112 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_169">169</a>.<br /> + +Della Bona, Professor, ii. <a href="#page_310">310</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his skilful treatment of Gasparo Gozzi's illness, ii. <a href="#page_316">316</a>.</span><br /> + +Despriers, Bonaventura, ii. 7 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Dialects, different, spoken in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 35.<br /> + +Dolfin-Tron, Caterina, i. 11; ii. <a href="#page_264">264</a>, <a href="#page_287">287</a>, <a href="#page_312">312</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her character and influence, i. 9.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her enmity towards Gratarol, i. 9.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruins Gratarol, i. 12, 13.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gratarol's "Narrazione" bitterly attacks her, i. 13.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's relations with, ii. 266 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi intercedes with her to have "Le Droghe d'Amore" stopped, ii. <a href="#page_288">288</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her refusal, ii. <a href="#page_290">290</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi shows her how he has been insulted by Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_208">208</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her interest in Gasparo Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_308">308</a>.</span><br /> + +<i>Doti</i>—stock passages in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i> which were not left to improvisation, i. 62; ii. <a href="#page_144">144</a>.<br /> + +Dottore, the, a character in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 34.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of, i. 45.</span><br /> + +"Droghe d'Amore, Le," Gozzi's comedy which caused the quarrel between Gratarol and Gozzi, i. 10; ii. <a href="#page_225">225</a>, <a href="#page_252">252</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">licensed for the stage, ii. <a href="#page_259">259</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the cast changed by the actors in order to attack Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_260">260</a>, <a href="#page_269">269</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">read to the actors, ii. <a href="#page_260">260</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gratarol's foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, and makes all Venice talk of it, ii. <a href="#page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its production, ii. <a href="#page_270">270</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the excitement it causes, ii. <a href="#page_274">274</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gratarol's distress at its success, ii. <a href="#page_277">277</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's efforts to have it stopped, ii. 286-294.</span><br /> + +Drousiano, an Italian comedian in London in 1577-8, i. 67.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="E" id="E"></a>" +Esop in the Town," a play in which Gozzi and the Countess Balbi were attacked, i. 356.<br /> + +<a name="F" id="F"></a> +Farces, popular during the Renaissance, i. 33.<br /> + +Farsetti, Daniele, Gozzi dedicates his "Tartana degl' influssi" to, ii. <a href="#page_116">116</a>.<br /> + +Farsetti, Giuseppe, ii. <a href="#page_124">124</a>.<br /> + +"Fiabe Teatrali," Gozzi's celebrated plays, i. 107; ii. 129-137.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an endeavour to rehabilitate the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 109.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of his first Fable, i. 146, 147.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">list of the remaining nine Fables, i. 148.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">critical account of, i. 148-176.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sources of, i. 162.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their success but ephemeral, i. 178.</span><br /> + +Fiorelli, Agostino, comedian, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_169">169</a>.<br /> + +Fiorelli, Tiberio of Naples, the famous Scaramouch, i. 51, 53.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his wonderful acting described, i. 66.</span><br /> + +Florentine burlesque poets, Gozzi's true ancestors in art, i. 110.<br /> + +Florentine ingredients in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 40.<br /> + +Foscarini, Marco, Doge of Venice, i. 337.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="G" id="G"></a> +Galante, avvocato fiscale dell'Avogaderia, i. 13.<br /> + +Garzoni, his description of the strolling comedians, in his "Piazza Universale," i. 73-80.<br /> + +<i>Generici</i>—or common-places—in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 62.<br /> + +Ghellini Balbi, Countess Elisabetta, i. 324, 338, 342, 355, 365.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her interest in the Gozzi family, i. 324.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi calls upon her, i. 325.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi reported to be married to her, i. 339, 349.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her anxieties about her son, i. 349-352.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacked in a play called "Esop in the Town," i. 356.</span><br /> + +Gherardi, his "Theatre Italien," i. 61, 66.<br /> + +Goethe, his estimate of Goldoni and Gozzi, i. 178.<br /> + +Goldoni, Carlo, dramatist, i. 2, 4, 87.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his severe condemnation of the Italian Comedy, i. 72.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his undoubted genius, i. 89.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his excellent character, i. 89.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his qualities and defects, i. 89-91.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sketch of his career, i. 92.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his desire to reform Italian Comedy, i. 93.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the steps which he took in that direction, i. 93-95.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">joins the company of Medebac, i. 95.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first comedy of character, as opposed to impromptu comedy, i. 95.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the fortunes of his crusade against the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 95; ii. <a href="#page_128">128</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his contest with Chiari, i. 97.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's hatred for him as a corrupter of the language, i. 99.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's first attack on him, i. 99; ii. <a href="#page_116">116</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his reply to Gozzi, i. 101; ii. <a href="#page_117">117</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the long-continued warfare between him and Gozzi, i. 102; ii. 119-128</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Chiari makes common cause with him against Gozzi, i. 106; ii. <a href="#page_127">127</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">defeated by Gozzi, goes to Paris, i. 177; ii. <a href="#page_155">155</a>, <a href="#page_156">156</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ultimate success and fame, i. 178.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his popularity in Venice, ii. <a href="#page_110">110</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's opinion of him, ii. 111-113.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his superiority over Chiari, ii. <a href="#page_114">114</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the various publications in which Gozzi attacked him, ii. 119-128.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">himself writes a "Fable," ii. <a href="#page_150">150</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his similarity in art with Longhi the painter, ii. <a href="#page_350">350</a>.</span><br /> + +Gozzi family, i. 185;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Cittadini Originari</i> of Venice, i. 186.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Almor, younger brother of Carlo, i. 290, 320, 329, 330, 331, 354; ii. <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_162">162</a>.<br /> + +Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo, mother of Carlo, i. 189, 285, 304.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her maladministration of the family affairs, i. 297.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her quarrels with Carlo Gozzi, i. 304.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her dislike for Carlo, i. 348.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Carlo—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his autobiography, entitled "Memorie inutili della vita di Carlo Gozzi." i. 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">design of his autobiography, i. 3, 19;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">its value historically, i. 4.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Droghe d'Amore" supposed to contain a caricature of Gratarol. i. 10.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attacked by Gratarol in his "Narrazione Apologetica, i. 14.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">writes a reply—"Epistola Confutatoria," i. 14;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">but is not allowed to publish it, i. 15.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">publishes his memoir and, under provocation, the "Epistola Confutatoria," after the fall of the Venetian republic, i. 16-19.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his autobiography, its form, its merits and defects, and its reliability, i. 19-24.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his personal characteristics, i. 22.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Fiabe," i. 43.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his eulogy of the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 68.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his description of the contest between Goldoni and Chiari, i. 98.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translation of his first Fable, i. 112-146.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its triumphant success, i. 146, 147.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his other "Fiabe," i. 148.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">critical account of his "Fiabe Teatrali, i. 148-176.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his use of the Masks, i. 149-154.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his mixture of the comic element with the fairy-tale, i. 154.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">not a great imaginative poet, i. 156.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his merits as a playwright, i. 157-160.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conservative philosophy of life, i. 160.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the sources of his "Fiabe," i. 162.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">analysis of "L'Augellino Belverde," i. 164-176.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his victory over Goldoni and Chiari, i. 176.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his fame ephemeral, i. 178.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">German translation of his plays, i. 180.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his pedigree, i. 2, 185-190.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his birth, i. 190 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the exact trustworthiness of his Memoirs, i. 190 <i>note</i> 1.[I?]</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his brothers and sisters, i. 191.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his education, i. 192.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">injures his health by study, i. 196.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his endeavours after a good literary style, i. 197.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his moral and physical training, i. 200, 205.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his acting as a child, i. 201.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">shows skill as an <i>improvisatore</i>, i. 202.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first poetical productions, i. 205-207.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his early productions, i. 208.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the family difficulties, i. 209.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the discomforts of his home, i. 212.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he leaves home and becomes a soldier, i. 213.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first experiences as a soldier, i. 214-221.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">has a dangerous illness, i. 221.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">studies Fortification, i. 225.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his love of poetry, i. 229.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sonnet in praise of Provveditore Quirini, i. 233.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">an exciting adventure with a horse, i. 234.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he is enrolled as a <i>Cadet noble</i> of cavalry, i. 246.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">what his military services amounted to, i. 247.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his success as a <i>soubrette</i> in the military theatricals at Zara, i. 249-251.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">some of his escapades as a youth, i. 252-273.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the adventures in connection with the courtesan Tonina, i. 262-272.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his finances at the close of his military service, i. 273.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">returns to Venice, i. 278.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the state of his family and home, when he returns, i. 279.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first meeting with his family, i. 284.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his difficulty in interfering in the management of the family affairs, i. 290.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his negotiations with Francesco Zini, i. 300.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes the object of hatred to all his family, i. 307, 318.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in continual quarrels with his family, i. 322.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his interview with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 325.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his family set the law in motion against him, i. 328.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he leaves home, i. 330.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lies spread about him, i. 331.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the family property divided, i. 332.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is dragged into tedious lawsuits, i. 334-342.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his friendship with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 339, 349.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sister-in-law's vexatious lawsuit against him, i. 360-364.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">has violent hmorrhage from the lungs, i. 364, 368.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his illnesses and occupations, i. 370.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his account of his own physical and mental qualities, ii. 1-9.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accepted no payment for any of his works, ii. <a href="#page_003">3</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his love-tales—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">his first love, ii. 11-27;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">his second love, ii. 28-33;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">his third love, ii. 33-69.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his reflections on his love affairs, ii. <a href="#page_069">69</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his object in relating them, ii. 72 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the absurdities and contrarieties to which his star made him subject, ii. 73-89.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his unfortunate experience as a landlord, ii. 85-89.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the origin and progress of his literary quarrels, i. 2; ii. <a href="#page_090">90</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his views upon Italian literature, ii. <a href="#page_091">91</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his dissertation on Prejudice, ii. <a href="#page_099">99</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his humorous attack on Bettinelli, ii. <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the motives of his attacks upon Chiari and Goldoni, ii. <a href="#page_115">115</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first attack on Goldoni and Chiari in his "Tartana degli Influssi," i. 100, 109; ii. <a href="#page_116">116</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Goldoni's reply, i. 101, 109; ii. <a href="#page_117">117</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled "Il Teatro Comico," i. 104, 109; ii. <a href="#page_120">120</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he withdraws this satire at Goldoni's request, i. 106; ii. <a href="#page_124">124</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the origin of his celebrated "Fiabe Teatrali," i. 107; ii. <a href="#page_128">128</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first Fable, "The Love of the Three Oranges (L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie)," i. 109; ii. <a href="#page_129">129</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the various publications in which he carried on the war against Goldoni and Chiari, ii. 119-128.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his relations with Sacchi's company of comedians, ii. 137-155.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his tuition of the actresses, ii. <a href="#page_145">145</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his lawsuit against the Marchese Terzi, ii. <a href="#page_160">160</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its successful issue, ii. <a href="#page_164">164</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">he withdraws his aid temporarily from Sacchi's company, ii. <a href="#page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">comes to their assistance again, ii. <a href="#page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">undertakes to tutor Teodora Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_177">177</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the successful result of his tuition, ii. <a href="#page_185">185</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his defence of his character and conduct in connection with Teodora Ricci, and the actresses of Sacchi's company, ii. 187, 192 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes Cicisbeo to Ricci, i. 9; ii. <a href="#page_193">193</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is godfather to her child, ii. <a href="#page_198">198</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his troublous relations with the Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_200">200</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his excuse for submitting to the worries caused by the Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_218">218</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his adaptations of Spanish plays, ii. <a href="#page_225">225</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Droghe d'Amore," i. 10; ii. <a href="#page_225">225</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his and Gratarol's versions of the quarrel between them, ii. 229 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gratarol's first visit to him, ii. <a href="#page_238">238</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his final rupture with Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_246">246</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">annoyed by her, ii. <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">annoyed by her husband, ii. <a href="#page_250">250</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">completes his comedy "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. <a href="#page_252">252</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is pestered into giving it to Sacchi, ii. <a href="#page_258">258</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his innocence of an intention to caricature Gratarol in "Le Droghe d'Amor," ii. <a href="#page_258">258</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reads the piece to the actors, ii. <a href="#page_260">260</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tries to have it withdrawn, ii. <a href="#page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 266 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forbidden by the Censor to withdraw his play, ii. <a href="#page_268">268</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his distress at the play's vogue, ii. <a href="#page_274">274</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">waited on by Carlo Maffei on behalf of Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_277">277</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">interview between him and Gratarol, ii. 279-285.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his futile efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his further squabbles with Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_294">294</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his cause espoused by the Supreme Tribunal, which forces Gratarol to apologise to him, ii. <a href="#page_303">303</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gratarol's conduct to him subsequently, ii. <a href="#page_307">307</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">goes to Padua, where his brother Gasparo lies dangerously ill, ii. <a href="#page_309">309</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uses his influence in Gratarol's behalf, ii. <a href="#page_319">319</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his reflection on Gratarol's flight, ii. <a href="#page_321">321</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his last interview with Sacchi, ii. <a href="#page_324">324</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sorrow at the death of his friends, ii. <a href="#page_325">325</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">has a bad attack of fever, ii. <a href="#page_327">327</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">lays down his pen, ii. <a href="#page_330">330</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a review of his life and an estimate of his character, ii. <a href="#page_330">330</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his old age, ii. <a href="#page_332">332</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his will, ii. <a href="#page_333">333</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, ii. <a href="#page_337">337</a>.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Chiara, sister of Carlo, i. 354.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes a nun, i. 365.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Francesco, brother of Carlo, i. 319, 320, 329, 354; ii. <a href="#page_079">79</a>, <a href="#page_162">162</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes a soldier, i. 212.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his bad character, i. 321.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, ii. <a href="#page_326">326</a>.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Gasparo, grandfather of Carlo, i. 189.<br /> + +Gozzi, Gasparo, brother of Carlo, i. 282, 286, 288, 293, 312, 320, 329; ii. <a href="#page_301">301</a>, <a href="#page_319">319</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his personal leaning towards Goldoni, i. 106.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">undertakes to superintend a new edition of Goldoni's plays, i. 177.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his passion for study, i. 194.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his marriage, i. 209.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes lessee of the theatre of S. Angelo at Venice, i. 332.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his helpless position in his own house, i. 340.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theatrical speculation is unsuccessful, i. 353, 360.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlo Gozzi and the Countess Balbi attacked on his stage, i. 357.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">obtains a post at the University of Padua, i. 367.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Defence of Dante" against the Abb Bettinelli, ii. <a href="#page_106">106</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his lack of spirit, ii. <a href="#page_162">162</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. <a href="#page_267">267</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his serious illness, ii. <a href="#page_308">308</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in his delirium throws himself from a window, ii. <a href="#page_308">308</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his recovery, ii. <a href="#page_317">317</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, ii. <a href="#page_327">327</a>.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Girolama, i. 288.<br /> + +Gozzi, Giulia, i. 282.<br /> + +Gozzi, Jacopo Antonio, father of Carlo, i. 188.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">has a stroke of apoplexy, i. 211.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his feeble state of health, i. 284.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the unhappiness of his position amid the family quarrels, i. 309.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, i. 310.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Luisa Pisani Bergalli, wife of Gasparo, i. 210.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the ruler of the Gozzi family affairs, i. 287.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her mismanagement, i. 299, 317.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her dishonourable conduct, i. 319, 328.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tries to manage her husband's theatre, i. 332.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">brings a lawsuit against Carlo, i. 360-364.</span><br /> + +Gozzi, Marina, sister of Carlo, i. 201, 282.<br /> + +Gradenigo, Cavaliere Andrea, ii. <a href="#page_076">76</a>.<br /> + +Grampo, Contessa Emilia, i. 189.<br /> + +Granelleschi, Academy of the, i. 89, 99, 102.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its warfare with Goldoni and Chiara, i. 102.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the founding of the Academy, ii. <a href="#page_093">93</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its burlesque Prince, ii. <a href="#page_093">93</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its more serious objects, ii. <a href="#page_097">97</a>, <a href="#page_108">108</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its attack on the Abb Bettinelli, ii. <a href="#page_105">105</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its headquarters in the shop of the bookseller, Paolo Colombani, ii. <a href="#page_127">127</a>.</span><br /> + +Gratarol, Pier Antonio, i. 359 <i>note</i> 1; ii. 10, 72 <i>note</i> 1, 79, 227, 263.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his quarrel with Gozzi, i. 2, 6.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account of his life, i. 7-16.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">nominated as Venetian Resident at Naples, i. 8.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his quarrel with Caterina Dolfin Tron, i. 9.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">becomes lover to Teodora Ricci, i. 10; ii. <a href="#page_229">229</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his version of his quarrel with Gozzi compared with Gozzi's statement, ii. 229 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his presence behind the scenes of Sacchi's theatre, ii. <a href="#page_230">230</a>, <a href="#page_233">233</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his entertainment to the actors and actresses, ii. <a href="#page_237">237</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his first visit to Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_238">238</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ricci compromised by him, ii. <a href="#page_242">242</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">caricatured in "Le Droghe d'Amore," but not by Gozzi's wish, i. 10; ii. <a href="#page_258">258</a>, <a href="#page_259">259</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, ii. <a href="#page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is present on its production and sees himself caricatured, ii. <a href="#page_272">272</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his distress, ii. 275 <i>note</i> 1, 277.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his intrigues against Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_278">278</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his interview with Gozzi, ii. 279-285.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the further squabbles between him and Gozzi, ii. 294-300.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">forced by the Supreme Authority to apologise to Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_303">303</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his own account of the letter which he was forced to write, ii. 303 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conduct to Gozzi subsequently, ii. <a href="#page_307">307</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suspected of having the actor Vitalba assaulted, ii. <a href="#page_319">319</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his appointment to Naples cancelled, ii. <a href="#page_319">319</a>, <a href="#page_320">320</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his withdrawal from Venice and consequent outlawry, i. 12; ii. <a href="#page_321">321</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his "Narrazione Apologetica" published at Stockholm, i. 13.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">published at Venice after the fall of the Republic, i. 16.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, i. 16.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">book entitled "Last Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol," i. 17.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's reflections on his character, ii. <a href="#page_321">321</a>.</span><br /> + +Grazzini, Anton-Francesco, his Carnival song of the Zanni and Magnifichi, i. 41.<br /> + +Gritti, Francesco, ii. <a href="#page_076">76</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his play of <i>Gustavus Vasa</i>, ii. <a href="#page_184">184</a>.</span><br /> + +Guardi, Francesco, ii. <a href="#page_338">338</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the interest of his paintings historically, ii. <a href="#page_340">340</a>.</span><br /> + +Guso, Giovannantonio, a notary, i. 347, 362.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="H" id="H"></a> +Hoffmann, E. T. W., his enthusiasm for Gozzi, i. 181.<br /> + +Hogarth, William, contrasted with Pietro Longhi, ii. <a href="#page_350">350</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="I-a" id="I-a"></a> +Illyria, the nature of the country, i. 244.<br /> + +Improvisation, Gozzi's views on, i. 202.<br /> + +I Rozzi, a company at Siena, who performed farces, i. 33.<br /> + +Italian Comedy. <i>See</i> Comedy, Italian.<br /> + +Italian Literature, ii. <a href="#page_091">91</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="L" id="L"></a> +Lami, Signor, ii. <a href="#page_117">117</a>.<br /> + +Laveleye, Emil de, ii. 99 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Lazari, V., ii. 347 <i>note</i> 1, 353 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +<i>Lazzi</i>—or humorous sallies—in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 63.<br /> + +Lee, Vernon, i. 23, 182.<br /> + +Lombard ingredients in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 40.<br /> + +Longhi, Alessandro, son of Pietro, ii. <a href="#page_346">346</a>, <a href="#page_357">357</a>.<br /> + +Longhi, Pietro, ii. 338-361.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the interest of his works, ii. 338 <i>note</i> 1, 341, 347.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his parentage, ii. <a href="#page_342">342</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his early training, ii. <a href="#page_342">342</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Fall of the Giants</i>, ii. <a href="#page_343">343</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">finds his true vocation as a painter in studies of contemporary Venetian life, ii. <a href="#page_344">344</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the difference in his handiwork, ii. <a href="#page_346">346</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his similarity in art with Goldoni the dramatist, ii. <a href="#page_350">350</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the strong contrast between him and Hogarth, ii. <a href="#page_350">350</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his portrait, ii. <a href="#page_351">351</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">filled the Chair of Painting in the Pisani Academy, ii. <a href="#page_353">353</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a picture representing the Pisani family attributed to him, ii. <a href="#page_354">354</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frescoes in the Palazzo Sina attributed to him, ii. <a href="#page_356">356</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sketch-book, a collection of 140 drawings, ii. <a href="#page_357">357</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its great value, ii. <a href="#page_357">357</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of its contents, ii. <a href="#page_358">358</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its merits and its limitations, ii. <a href="#page_358">358</a>, <a href="#page_359">359</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">summary of his work, ii. <a href="#page_360">360</a>.</span><br /> + +Loredano, Cavaliere Antonio, i. 212.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="M" id="M"></a> +Machiavelli, Niccol, i. 29.<br /> + +Maffei, Carlo—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">account of his character, ii. <a href="#page_276">276</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his intervention on Gratarol's behalf in the dispute regarding the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 277-285.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sudden death, ii. <a href="#page_326">326</a>, <a href="#page_327">327</a>.</span><br /> + +Manzoni, Caterina, actress, ii. <a href="#page_170">170</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her excellent qualities, ii. <a href="#page_192">192</a>.</span><br /> + +Marchiori, Cavaliere, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, i. 225.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi studies Fortification under, i. 225.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, i. 228.</span><br /> + +Marsili, Professor Giovanni, ii. <a href="#page_308">308</a>.<br /> + +Martelli, Pier Jacopo, i. 97 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Martellian verses, i. 97 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Masi, Ernesto, i. 99 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Masks, the, as employed by Gozzi, i. 149.<br /> + +Massimo, Innocenzio, i. 226, 227, 278, 326; ii. <a href="#page_028">28</a>, <a href="#page_162">162</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his friendship with Gozzi, i. 223, 283.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his character, i. 224.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a foolish adventure, i. 254-260.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his generous kindness to Gozzi, i. 312.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his sudden death, ii. <a href="#page_327">327</a>.</span><br /> + +Medebac (master of a company of comedians), engages Goldoni to write for his company, i. 95.<br /> + +Messer Grande, the Chief Constable of Venice, ii. 89 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Micheli, Maggiore della Provincia, i. 218.<br /> + +Montenegrins, the women of the, i. 241.<br /> + +Morlacchi, a tribe of Dalmatians, i. 237 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their barbarism, i. 237, 239.</span><br /> + +Musset, Paul de, his travesty of Gozzi's real character, i. 23, 24 <i>note</i> 1, 181, ii. 89 <i>note</i> 2.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="N" id="N"></a> +Neapolitan ingredients in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 40.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="P" id="P"></a> +Pallone, the game of, i. 251 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Pantalone, i. 34; description of, in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 43.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as employed by Gozzi, i. 152.</span><br /> + +Paruta, the Patrician, Gozzi mistaken for, ii. <a href="#page_074">74</a>.<br /> + +Perrucci, Andrea, his description of the rehearsal of an impromptu comedy, i. 58.<br /> + +Pisani family, their Academy for the Study of the Art of Design, ii. <a href="#page_353">353</a>.<br /> + +Pozzobon, Giovanni, i. 100 <i>note</i> 2.<br /> + +Prata, Count Michele di, i. 282.<br /> + +Prejudice, Gozzi's dissertation on, ii. <a href="#page_099">99</a>.<br /> + +Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, the office of, i. 212 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Provveditore Generale di Mare, the head of the Venetian forces in the Levant, i. 212 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Pulcinella, i. 35;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">description of, i. 49.</span><br /> + +Punch (Pulcinella), i. 50.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="Q" id="Q"></a> +Quirini, Girolamo, Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 213, 216, 247, 277, 278.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the town of Zara gives a grand public display in his honour, i. 230.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi presents a volume of his poems to him, i. 276.</span><br /> + +<br /> +<a name="R" id="R"></a> +Regina, the actress engaged by Sacchi to fill Ricci's place, ii. <a href="#page_254">254</a>.<br /> + +Renier, Paolo, ii. <a href="#page_301">301</a>, <a href="#page_305">305</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his brilliant abilities, and his career, ii. 301 <i>note</i> 1, 306 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> + +Reniero, Senator Daniele, i. 341.<br /> + +Ricci, Marianna, sister of Teodora, ii. <a href="#page_242">242</a>.<br /> + +Ricci, Teodora, ii. <a href="#page_174">174</a>, <a href="#page_324">324</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">engaged as leading actress by Sacchi, ii. <a href="#page_174">174</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her personal appearance, ii. <a href="#page_175">175</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her connection with Gozzi, i. 9.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her connection with Gratarol, i. 10.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's tuition of, ii. 177</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the opposition to her, ii. <a href="#page_179">179</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her <i>dbut</i> at Venice not very successful, ii. <a href="#page_182">182</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her success in "Gustavus Vasa," ii. <a href="#page_184">184</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her triumph in Gozzi's "Principessa Filosofa," ii. <a href="#page_185">185</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her gratitude to Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_186">186</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her merits and defects, ii. 188-192.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi becomes her Cicisbeo, ii. <a href="#page_193">193</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi is godfather to her child, ii. <a href="#page_198">198</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her separation from her husband, ii. <a href="#page_199">199</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her <i>liaison</i> with Sacchi, ii. 202-210.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her foolish conduct, ii. <a href="#page_216">216</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her rapacity, ii. <a href="#page_221">221</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her agreement for five years with Sacchi, ii. <a href="#page_221">221</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her friendship with P. A. Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_227">227</a>, <a href="#page_241">241</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its consequences, ii. <a href="#page_242">242</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's final rupture with her, ii. <a href="#page_246">246</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her annoyance of him, ii. <a href="#page_249">249</a>, <a href="#page_255">255</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">she leaves Sacchi's company and goes to Paris, ii. <a href="#page_254">254</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her strange manners when she returns, ii. <a href="#page_256">256</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her failure as an actress when she began to ape the French, ii. <a href="#page_257">257</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her conduct at the reading of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. <a href="#page_260">260</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her foolish conduct in connection with the play, ii. <a href="#page_269">269</a>, <a href="#page_275">275</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">pretends illness in order to stop the play, ii. <a href="#page_275">275</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">is ordered to play by the authorities, ii. <a href="#page_276">276</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her tactics which led to the withdrawal of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. <a href="#page_306">306</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her death in a madhouse, ii. 195 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> + +Riccoboni, Luigi, i. 63.<br /> + +"Riflessioni d'un Imparziale," a pamphlet in answer to Gratarol's "Narrazione," i. 13 <i>note</i> 2, 15 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Rossi, Pietro, actor, ii. <a href="#page_189">189</a>.<br /> + +Royer, Paul, i. 182.<br /> + +Ruskin, John, ii. <a href="#page_340">340</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="S" id="S"></a> +Sacchi, Antonia, actress, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Sacchi, Antonio, i. 53, 100, 101, 112 <i>note</i> 1, 150; ii. 201, 262, 272, 282 <i>note</i> 1, 286, 297, 306, 318.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">list of his company, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">allusion to his company in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 127.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the inventor of Truffaldino as a form of Arlecchino, ii. 131 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his famous company, ii. <a href="#page_142">142</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ruined by the opposition of Chiari and Goldoni, ii. <a href="#page_132">132</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their visit to Lisbon, ii. <a href="#page_132">132</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their return to Venice, ii. <a href="#page_132">132</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their success with Gozzi's pieces, i. 176; ii. <a href="#page_132">132</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">their gratitude to Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_137">137</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi temporarily withdraws his aid from his company, ii. <a href="#page_166">166</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">obtains a lease of the theatre S. Salvadore, ii. <a href="#page_167">167</a>, <a href="#page_168">168</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his passion for the Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_202">202</a>, <a href="#page_214">214</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his ill-treatment of her, ii. <a href="#page_207">207</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its result, ii. 208-210.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his theatre pronounced unsafe, ii. <a href="#page_219">219</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his five years' agreement with Ricci, ii. <a href="#page_221">221</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his difficulties with Gratarol, ii. <a href="#page_233">233</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ricci leaves his company and he engages Regina in her place, ii. <a href="#page_254">254</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">consents to withdraw the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. <a href="#page_263">263</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">produces it, ii. <a href="#page_271">271</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the dissolution of his company, ii. <a href="#page_322">322</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his excesses and tempers, ii. <a href="#page_322">322</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his last interview with Gozzi, ii. <a href="#page_324">324</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his death, ii. 325 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> + +Sacchi-Zannoni, Adriana, actress, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_131">131</a>.<br /> + +Sacchi's company—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its respectability, ii. <a href="#page_143">143</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's relations with the actors and actresses, ii. 137-155.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dissensions in, ii. <a href="#page_164">164</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the details of its dissolution, ii. 322-325.</span><br /> + +Santorini, Count Francesco, i. 324, 327, 329.<br /> + +Schlegel, A. W., his praise of Gozzi's "Fiabe," i. 180.<br /> + +Sciugliaga, Stefano, Secretary of the University of Milan, ii. <a href="#page_198">198</a>.<br /> + +Sechellari, Giuseppe, Prince of the Accademia Granellesca, ii. <a href="#page_093">93</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tricks played on him, ii. <a href="#page_095">95</a>.</span><br /> + +Seghezzi, Antonio Federigo, i. 199.<br /> + +Servetta, the, a character in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 48, 154.<br /> + +Sibiliato, Giovanni, a wonderful <i>improvisatore</i> and a true poet, i. 204.<br /> + +Smeraldina (Servetta), as employed by Gozzi, i. 154.<br /> + +Somascan Order of Monks, i. 350 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Stampa, Gaspara, poetess, i. 206.<br /> + +Stock speeches in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 62.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="T" id="T"></a> +Tartaglia, a mask in the <i>Commedia dell'Arte</i>, i. 35, 50.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as employed by Gozzi, i. 152.</span><br /> + +Terzi, Marchese, of Bergamo, i. 368, 369, 370.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's lawsuit against, ii. <a href="#page_160">160</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its successful issue, ii. <a href="#page_164">164</a>.</span><br /> + +Testa, Antonio, a famous lawyer, i. 335; ii. <a href="#page_163">163</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his kindness to Gozzi, i. 336.</span><br /> + +Theatres, private, in the houses of the Venetian nobility, i. 201 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Tiepolo family, i. 189 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Tiepolo, Almor Cesare, i. 213, 291, 342.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his just and excellent character, i. 344-347.</span><br /> + +Tiepolo, G. B., painter, ii. <a href="#page_338">338</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">a genius of the first order, ii. <a href="#page_339">339</a>.</span><br /> + +Tiepolo, Nicol Maria, his condemnation of comedians, i. 71.<br /> + +Tiepolo Gozzi, Angela, mother of Carlo Gozzi—<i>See</i> Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo.<br /> + +Toaldo, Professor, ii. <a href="#page_075">75</a>.<br /> + +Todeschini, Raffaelle, ii. <a href="#page_295">295</a>, <a href="#page_326">326</a>.<br /> + +Tommassei, his contempt for Gozzi, i. 179.<br /> + +Tonina, a courtesan of Zara, i. 262.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's impromptu attack on, in the theatre, i. 269.</span><br /> + +Tron, Andrea, Procuratore di San Marco, i. 9, 14; ii. 264 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Tron, Caterina Dolfin, see Dolfin-Tron, Caterina.<br /> + +Truffaldino, the mask, a modification of Arlecchino, i. 46, 150; ii. 131 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as used by Gozzi, i. 153.</span><br /> + +<br /> +<a name="V" id="V"></a> +Vendramini, Antonio, proprietor of the theatre of S. Salvadore, ii. <a href="#page_167">167</a>, <a href="#page_173">173</a>, <a href="#page_276">276</a>.<br /> + +Venice—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its decadence, i. 7 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its political and social state about the middle of the 18th century, i. 82.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conflict of liberalism and conservatism in literature and the theatre, i. 86.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">success of the <i>Comdie Larmoyante</i>, i. 87.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">foundation of the Academy de' Granelleschi, i. 89.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the granting of citizenship in, i. 186 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the position of the <i>Cittadini Originari</i>, i. 186 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">posts open to the <i>Cittadini</i>, i. 187 <i>note</i> 3.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gozzi's remarks on the degeneration of the Venetian youth, i. 194.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">robes of the Dignitaries, i. 217 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the office of Grand Chancellor, i. 230 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the values of the sequin and lira, i. 274 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Decime</i> (taxes), i. 280 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its theatres, i. 332 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_167">167</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its law of entail, i. 336 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the <i>Avogadori del Comun</i>, i. 341 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">decay of literary taste in, ii. 108-110.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the length of the theatrical year, ii. 146 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its decrepitude, as shown in State interference in Gratarol's quarrel with Gozzi, ii. 303 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the influence of the French Revolution on, ii. <a href="#page_328">328</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">partial revival of art in, in the 18th century, ii. <a href="#page_338">338</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Longhi's paintings of contemporary life in, ii. 338 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_341">341</a>, <a href="#page_347">347</a>, <a href="#page_358">358</a>.</span><br /> + +Verdani, Abb Giovan Antonio, i. 196.<br /> + +Vilio, Count, of Desenzano, ii. <a href="#page_024">24</a>.<br /> + +Vinacesi, Elisabetta, actress, ii. <a href="#page_213">213</a>.<br /> + +Vincentini, Tommaso, his excellence as Harlequin, i. 67.<br /> + +Vitalba, Giovanni, actor, ii. <a href="#page_269">269</a>.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the actor who caricatured Gratarol in the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. <a href="#page_272">272</a>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assaulted by a ruffian in Milan, ii. <a href="#page_318">318</a>.</span><br /> + +<br /> +<a name="W" id="W"></a> +Wagner, Richard, his "Fairies," a setting of Gozzi's "Donna Serpente," i. 160 <i>note</i> 1, 181.<br /> + +Werthes, Franz A. C., translator of Gozzi's "Fiabe" into German, i. 180.<br /> + +Widiman, Count Ludovico, a patron of Goldoni, ii. <a href="#page_124">124</a>.<br /> + +<br /> +<a name="Z" id="Z"></a> +Zanche, Daniele, advocate, ii. <a href="#page_161">161</a>.<br /> + +Zanerini, Petronio, the best actor of Italy, ii. <a href="#page_323">323</a>.<br /> + +Zanoni, Atanagio, comedian, i. 112 <i>note</i> 1; ii. <a href="#page_131">131</a>, <a href="#page_323">323</a>.<br /> + +Zannuzzi, Francesco, of the Comdie Italienne at Paris, ii. 211, 212 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Zeno, Apostolo, encourages Gozzi in his poetical attempts, i. 207.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his influence in the drama, i. 207 <i>note</i> 1.</span><br /> + +Zini, Francesco, a cloth merchant, wishes to buy the Gozzis' house, i. 299.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Carlo Gozzi tries to prevent the purchase, i. 300.</span><br /> + +Zon, Signer, Secretary to the Inquisitors of State, ii. 303 <i>note</i> 1.<br /> + +Zucchi, Padre, an <i>improvisatore</i>, i. 203.<br /> +</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="cb"><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Under date August 31, 1885, with the assumed signature of +E. H. Westbourne. See <i>Academy</i>, No. 696, Sept. 5, 1885.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See Romanin, <i>Storia Documentata di Venezia</i>, vol. viii. +ch. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This +appears from several passages of his <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i>. It may, +however, be here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to +matrimony formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between +1782 and 1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions +for divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at +one time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a +dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 23; and +Macchi, <i>Storia del Concilio dei Dieci</i>, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that +the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in +these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as +indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to +enter a convent.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> A short while before, he had been appointed Resident at +Turin, and had received the usual equipment for that service. +Circumstances independent of his own will in the matter prevented him +from assuming the office. His political ill-wishers were able to point +to the unused grant which he had pocketed.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but +impoverished house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a +member of the Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married +her lover, Andrea Tron.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> It may be read in Gratarol's <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i>, vol. +ii. p. 78, &c.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> These magistrates acted for the Fisco or Treasury of the +Republic.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> It has been suggested that Gratarol so heavily mortgaged +his lands before leaving Venice that they were not worth more than this +sum, after allowing for rent charges on them and <i>fidei commissa</i>. See +the observations of a self-styled impartial writer printed at the end of +the <i>Narrazione Apologetica</i>, ed. 1797. I must, however, observe that +this writer is by no means impartial. The essay in question is a piece +of skilful special pleading in defence of Mme. Tron, her husband, the +oligarchs of Venice, and the officers who executed the <i>bando</i> against +Gratarol.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Gratarol pays high tribute to Gozzi's genius. But he sticks +to the conviction that the <i>Droghe d'Amore</i> was meant to turn him into +ridicule, and that its author could, if he had chosen, have withdrawn it +from the stage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> He tells us that he began the Memoirs on April 30, 1780. +<i>Memorie</i>, vol. i. p. 3. The passage occurs in Gozzi's manifesto, of +which more anon. I may add that the manifesto is not included in all +copies of the Memoirs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> An anonymous answer, entitled <i>Riflessioni d'un +Imparziale</i>, appeared at Lugano. This was ascribed to Carlo Gozzi's pen; +but he repudiated the pamphlet, and it does not bear the mark of his +style. It may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Gratarol's <i>Narr. +Apol.</i>, ed. 1797, Venice, Silvestro Gatti.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Memorie</i>, vol i. pp. 3-15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> This is evident from the appearance of the <i>Ragionamento +del Cittadino Carlo Gozzi a' Cittadini amici della Memoria di P. A. +Gratarol</i> at the beginning of the <i>Memorie</i>, vol. ii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>Memorie Ultime</i>, p. 39; Gozzi's <i>Memorie</i>, vol. ii. p. +x.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The family of Widiman or Widman was of patrician rank in +Venice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Vol. i. p. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Vol. ii. p. xvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the +precursor of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the +chapter on <i>Contrattempi</i> in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to +have extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned +his <i>Fiabe</i>—in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought +upon the stage were resolved to be revenged on him—from a letter +addressed to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (<i>Mmoires de Charles Gozzi</i>, pp. +184-188). De Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged +letter, which is mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor +Ernesto Masi informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have +failed to discover it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several +plays, Gozzi gives a very different account of the reasons why he +stopped producing <i>Fiabe</i>. I am loth to draw the conclusion that the +letter in question was a deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further +researches may bring it still to light, but at present it has to be +regarded with the greatest possible suspicion.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: +<i>Renaissance in Italy</i>, vol. v. ch. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> The full title would be <i>Commedia dell' Arte all' +Improviso</i>. It is also called <i>Commedia a soggetto</i>, <i>Commedia non +scritta</i>, <i>Commedia improvisa.</i> The written comedy, beside <i>Commedia +Erudita</i>, was also called <i>Commedia sostenuta, scritta</i>, or +<i>letteraria</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> See what I have said at length upon this point in my +<i>Shakespeare's Predecessors</i>, p. 259, and <i>Renaissance in Italy</i>, vol. +v. p. 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> To Maurice Sand, in his <i>Masques et Bouffons</i>, vol. ii. p. +77 <i>et seq.</i>, is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this +great local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's +influence in the creation of impromptu comedy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> See Collier's <i>English Dramatic Poetry</i> (ed. 1879), vol. +iii. p. 197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the +word <i>mask</i> in a double sense,—both to indicate the fixed character +assumed by a certain species of actor, and also the vizard which +concealed his features.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain +the names of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and +Punch. Our Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the <i>Servetta</i> or +soubrette. Our Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, +which obtained great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our +pantomimes has to be classed with the <i>Villano</i>, or rather with one of +the Zanni, I am uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of +Pantaloon seems to indicate the latter alternative.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (<i>Li Diversi Linguaggi</i>, +Venezia, 1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, +Bolognese, Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects +were spoken. See Bartoli, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. lxxix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. +Thus the plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of +Don Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here +the man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued +by other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See +Scherillo's <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, chap, iii., for the history of Don +Fastidio). This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When +Casanova wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, +he had to choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio +and Sicilian Battipaglia (<i>Mmoires</i>, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, +as I have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Fescenninus</i> is variously derived from the town Fescennia +in South Etruria, or from <i>fascinum</i>, the Latin form of <i>phallus</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> The common meaning of <i>satura</i> and <i>farsa</i>, both of which +have reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at +Montepulciano.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo +(<i>Arch. Stor.</i>, vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these +Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth +century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the +vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> It was included in the first edition of the <i>Canti +Carnascialeschi</i>, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of +Grazzini's <i>Rime Burlesche</i>, Firenze, Sansone, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the +whole world over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are +all of us Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors +of our troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind +to guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so +mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of +laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of +new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this +country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you +will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the +sweetness and the pleasure of our sports."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> The other channels were French plays, modifications of +English plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the +compiler of the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be +well contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would +willingly make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed +trousers-makers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the +symbol of old age in <i>As You Like It</i>, knew him already in decrepitude.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos +in the summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from +Bergamo, who were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to +help at the hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque +hills. Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at +Arlecchino's simplicity and suppleness.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Carlo Gozzi at Zara in his youth created a new type of the +Servetta, adapted to Dalmatian circumstances, under the name of Luce.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Scherillo, in his <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>, has resuscitated +Cerlone's fame, as Maurice Sand made us acquainted with Beolco.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> See above, <a href="#page_038">p. 38</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> For a short notice of these curious Maccaronic poems, <i>I +Cantici di Fidentio Glottogrysio Ludimagistro</i>, see my <i>Renaissance in +Italy</i>, vol. v. p. 328. The obscurity of their jargon veiled +considerable indecency. It is noticeable that this book, now exceedingly +rare, should have become the text-book of the Pedante. But see Bartoli, +<i>op. cit.</i>, pp. lii., lvii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Burattino is so kaleidoscopic that at last he becomes the +patronymic hero of marionettes in Italy. <i>I Burattini</i> are the acting +dolls.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> In the <i>Ragionamento Ingenuo</i> and <i>Appendice</i>, Op., 1772, +vols i. and iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> <i>Scenari Inediti</i>, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> It has to be mentioned that in plays of a more serious +description, the parts of character were frequently written out, and +only the parts of the masks left to improvisation. This was the method +pursued by Gozzi in his <i>Fiabe</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Andrea Perrucci, <i>Dell' Arte Rappresentativa premeditata +ed all' improvviso</i>, Napoli, 1699, quoted by Bartoli, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. +lxxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>Histoire Anecdotique du Thtre Italien</i>, Paris, 1769, +quoted by Bartoli, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. lxxvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> <i>Le Thtre Italien</i>, quoted by Bartoli, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. +lxx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> These phrases are used by Gozzi in his <i>Memorie Inutili</i>. +Compare what he says in his <i>Appendice al Ragionamento Ingenuo</i>, Op., +1772, vol. iv. p. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Quoted by Bartoli, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. lxxi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> I am indebted to Maurice Sand, <i>Masques et Bouffons</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Vol. iii. p. 201.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Ragionamento Ingenuo</i>, Op., 1772, vol. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Scherillo, in his book on <i>La Commedia dell' Arte</i>, ch. +vi., has given the history of San Carlo's efforts to suppress the +theatre at Milan.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Nicol Maria Tiepolo, about 1778, quoted by Molmenti in +his Essay on Goldoni, Venezia, Ongania, 1880, p. 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Pasquali's edition, 1761; also, <i>Teatro Comico</i>, act i. +sc. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> <i>Mmoires de Jacques Casanova</i>, Bruxelles, Rozez, vol. i. +ch. <small>II</small>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> <i>Mmoires de M. Goldoni</i>, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1787, +vol. i. ch. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> A common inn-sign. This reminds us of the earliest +performances of plays in the yards of London hostelries.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Ed. cit., vol i. p. 228.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> See his Mmoires, part i. ch. 40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> This is perhaps the proper place to explain the meaning of +Martellian verses. They owe their name to Pier Jacopo Martelli +(1665-1725), who revived them, and used them for the drama. Metrically +speaking, Martellian verses are twelve-syllable lines of the Alexandrine +type. These long lines had been commonly employed in Italy during the +thirteenth century, before the heroic verse of eleven syllables obtained +ascendancy. It is difficult to say why the Alexandrine, which Italy in +the thirteenth century shared with France, died out in the former +country and became the standard heroic line of the latter. Possibly the +reason may be found in the Italian tendency toward double rhymes; the +so-called <i>versi piani</i> of Dante being decasyllabic iambics with a +redundant syllable rather than hendecasyllabics. Anyhow, the Alexandrine +has not flourished south of the Alps. Martelli's revival did not +prosper; and Carducci, in his <i>Su' Campi di Marengo</i> (<i>Nuove Poesie</i>, p. +91), is the only recent poet who has attempted them with success.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Opere, ed. 1772, tom. viii. p. 27. "The partisans on both +sides gathered forces daily. One swears by <i>Original</i> (a name for +Goldoni), the other by <i>Plunder</i> (Chiari, because of his plagiarisms). +The whole city was turned upside down, and indeed it is no laughing +matter. Brothers fought with brothers, wives did worse with their +husbands. Everywhere the wrangling was fierce; nought but confusion, +nought but discord."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> The details of the controversy between Gozzi and Goldoni +are given at fuller length than I have attempted in Signor Ernesto +Masi's masterly Introduction to his edition of the <i>Fiabe Teatrali</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Opere, vol. viii. <i>Tartana</i> is a large merchant vessel.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> The editor of this Venetian Zadkiel was originally +Giovanni Pozzobon. After his death it was continued by Giambattista +Bada. Pozzobon was nicknamed Schieson. The almanac was adorned with a +ridiculous portrait of a doctor in a huge wig. Owing to this fact, +Schieson came to signify any one with rumpled hair. See Boerio's +<i>Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Opere, vol. viii. p. 164.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> The original exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. Goldoni +wrote the poem on the occasion of S. E. Bastian Venier's return from the +rectorship of Bergamo. When he reprinted it in the edition of his +poetical works (Pasquali, Venezia, 1764), he omitted the passage +referring to Gozzi's <i>Tartana</i>. The lines above are given in Magrini's +and Masi's essays. I add a translation. "I have seen a certain <i>Tartana</i> +in print, full of rancid and insipid verses, verses bad enough to +terrify a goblin, verses seasoned by the wise plagiary with acrid salt +of evil-speaking, full of false arrogant sentiments. One can, however, +condone this licence in one who is out of temper with Fortune, she being +not greatly well-affected toward him. He who speaks evil without any +reason shown, he who does not prove his assumptions and his arguments, +acts like the dog who barks against the moon."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> It was written for the marriage of Contarini Venier. "A +Lombard who pretends to be a Delia Cruscan, with a smile on his lips and +venom in his heart."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> "Only too well I know that I am not a good writer, and +that I never drank at the best fountains. I write and reason as my style +dictates, and sometimes by good chance I also have afforded pleasure. +But woe to me if the Florentine sieve should be applied to sifting my +productions."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Opere, vol. viii. p. 183. "I am engaged in preparing a +commentary which shall prove both the assumption and the argument."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> <i>Il Teatro Comico</i> was the first of the famous sixteen +comedies of 1749-50. The list of the pieces to be expected was announced +in it. See Goldoni's <i>Memoirs</i>, part i. ch. 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> "Yes, thou art the eagle, I am the ant. Thou soarest to +the zenith without exertion; my Muse cannot rise to the poles of the +universe."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Only in this respect, however; otherwise, as artist, Gozzi +differs widely from Aristophanes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Opere, vol. iii. p. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> The actors in Sacchi's company were: Antonio Sacchi, +<i>Truffaldino</i>; Atanagio Zanoni, <i>Brighella</i>; Agostino Fiorelli, +<i>Tartaglia</i>; Cesare Darbes, <i>Pantalone</i>; Adriana Sacchi Zanoni, +<i>Smeraldina</i>; Antonia Sacchi, <i>Beatrice</i>; together with Ignazio Casanova +and Gaetano Casali. How the parts of Leandro, Clarice, R di Coppe, +Celio, Morgana, Creonta, Ninetta were distributed, we do not know. +Antonia Sacchi (the <i>Beatrice</i> of the troupe) probably played Clarice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> In Italian, <i>R di Coppe</i>. The Italian suits are <i>Coppe</i> +or cups, <i>Danari</i> or coins, <i>Spade</i> or swords (whence our Spades), +<i>Bastoni</i> or clubs.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> In Italian, <i>Cavaliere di Coppe</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> I have adopted the old English fourteen-syllable line for +the translation of Gozzi's Martellian verses. It seemed to me that the +lumbering effect of this metre lent itself to the spirit of his parody. +What Martellian verses were has been explained at p. 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> I cannot pretend to give a literal translation of these +gross parodies of Goldoni's forensic verbiage. The most I can do is to +stuff the verse with more or less of legal phraseology.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> See above, <a href="#page_112">p. 112</a>, for the names of the five actors who +sustained these parts in Sacchi's company.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> I wrote this in the spring of 1888, before I was aware +that Wagner had set the <i>Donna Serpente</i> to music. His early piece, <i>The +Fairies</i>, was composed in 1833, and first performed this year in June at +Munich.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Act ii. sc. 5. In Masi's edition, vol. ii. p. 458. Readers +who care for further diatribes <i> la Gozzi</i> on these topics, may be +referred to the <i>Astrazione</i> which serves as introduction to his +translation of Boileau, Op., vol. vii. p. 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 6em;">"Many are now alive,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Who haply are more statues than I am.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Thou shalt experience what power hath a statue,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">And how a live man may become an image."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> <i>Tarocchi</i> is the name for the cards, seventy-eight in +number, used in a now well-nigh forgotten game. Fifty-six cards of the +whole series consist of the four Italian suits: Coppe, Spade, Bastoni, +and Danari. The remaining twenty-two are properly called <i>Tarocchi</i>, and +in the game of Taroc take precedence of any cards of the four ordinary +suits.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"I too have charms,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Sweet flatteries, dulcet wiles; and to my side</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">He shall be faithful ever. Yet I would not</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">That, loving him, my kindness should arouse</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">In hearts of others jealousy."</span></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"Fair, yea, most fair thou art in sooth; yet still more fair wouldst be</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Didst thou an apple hold which sings, plucked from the magic tree.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 4em;">. . . . . . . . . .</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Daughter, I trow that thou art fair; yet still more fair wouldst be</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Didst thou that water hold which plays and dances merrily."</span></td></tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">"So! this is my philosopher, who went</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Yesterday picking sticks, and now! ... But patience!...</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">I wished to stay with her, for I adore her;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">And stay with her I shall. We must contrive</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">To hold our tongue; and yet this may not be.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">I vow I scarcely knew her! What grand airs!</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Some devil must have daubed her o'er with gold.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">'Twould vex me sorely if the little hussy ...</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: .25em;">Some rich milord perhaps.... Well, I'll know all."</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">[<i>Exit.</i></span></td></tr> +</table> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> There are five of these old statues, painted, in Moorish +costumes. One of them has the name Rioba carved above his head. +Everybody in Venice, of course, knew them; and their appearance on the +stage must have been mirth-promoting.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> <i>Mmoires</i>, part ii. cap. 45.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Letters from Italy, dated October 4, October 6, and +October 10, 1786.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> See Masi's Essay, p. cxxxii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <i>Carlo Gozzi, Thtre Fiabesque, Alphonse Royer.</i> Paris, +Michel Lvy, 1865.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> London, W. Satchell & Co. 1880.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Through the courtesy of Mr. John P. Anderson of the +British Museum I am able to state that, besides a short article in the +<i>Encyclopdia Britannica</i>, he can only discover an essay in +<i>Lippincott's Magazine</i> (vol. xx. p. 347, &c.), entitled "A Venetian of +the Eighteenth Century," which deals with Carlo Gozzi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> The Gozzi family were thus <i>Cittadini Originari</i> of +Venice. These <i>Cittadini</i> had to prove legitimate birth in the city; +three generations during which the family had exercised no mechanical +arts; freedom from any criminal stain, debts to the state, or factious +behaviour. Citizenship, as in the case of the Gozzi, was also granted by +privilege. The <i>Cittadini</i> formed a class of burgher aristocracy, +ranking below the patricians and taking no part in the actual government +of the State, since they did not vote in the Consiglio Grande. Their +names, pedigrees, and arms were enrolled in a book, of which many copies +exist, and which was commonly called the <i>Libro d'Argento</i>, to +distinguish it from the <i>Libro d'Oro</i> of the patricians. In a MS. of the +seventeenth century, which belonged to Cicogna, now at the Museo Civico, +entitled <i>Le Due Corone della Nobilt Veneziana, Corona Seconda</i>, the +Gozzi arms are blazoned thus: "Or, on the topmost branches of an +olive-tree vert a dove ppr., and round the stem of the tree a scroll +argent inscribed Signum Pacis." The family is described as wealthy; but +no pedigree is given: <i>Non vi albero</i>. Carlo Gozzi, in his <i>Lettera +Confutatoria, Memorie</i>, vol. iii. p. 31, asserts that the privilege of +citizenship was given to his ancestors by the Doge Cicogna (1585-95). It +is neither impossible nor improbable that the Gozzi of Bergamo were +derived from the same stock as the Gozze or Gozzi of Ragusa. These +latter drew their pedigree from Herzegovina, and were therefore Slavs. +We know that the patrician families of Polo and Sagredo came originally +from Sebenico.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Their palace is still inhabited by a Conte Gozzi. The +<i>arca</i>, or family sepulture, can no longer be traced in the church. It +was at the foot of the altar in the Chapel of the Madonna. Here Carlo +Gozzi was buried.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> In a voluminous MS. written by Cicogna, embodying all he +could collect about the <i>Famiglie Cittadine</i> (now at the Museo Civico), +we find that <i>Alberto Gozi detto delle Sede</i> was inscribed among the +patricians in 1646. I may mention that Cicogna tricks the arms of Gozzi +without the dove.</p></div> +lass="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> The Grand Chancellor, the Ducal Notaries, and the +Secretaries of many Magistracies, were chosen from the <i>Cittadini</i>, who +were also sent, after holding such posts, as ambassadors of the second +class, or Residents, to foreign Courts.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> The word, which I have translated acre, is <i>campo</i>. Now +the <i>campo</i> differed in different provinces of Lombardy. But the <i>Campo +Padovano</i> corresponded pretty nearly to an English acre; and from +another passage in Gozzi (<i>Memorie</i>, vol. iii. p. 226) it appears that +he was in the habit of using the Paduan standard.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> The Gozzi were what are called in Venice <i>Conti di Terra +Ferma</i>, and their title seems to have been dependent upon these feudal +tenures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> At the time when Gozzi wrote, this was the eldest branch, +called Di San Fantin. Two remote branches, of S. Apollinare and San +Polo, survived. They descended from a collateral ancestor, Girolamo +Tiepolo, who died in 1516. The branch of S. Polo expired in 1820. See +Litta, <i>Famiglie Celebri</i>. The Tiepolo family was one of the oldest and +most illustrious among the patrician houses. It ranked with the <i>Case +vecchie</i>, as distinguished from the <i>Case nuove</i>. These <i>Case vecchie</i> +were also called tribunizie, from having exercised the highest offices +of State at the time when Venice was still governed by tribunes, and +before the foundation of the Dogeship. Of these oldest and purest noble +houses there were twenty-four. The closing of the Grand Council in 1297, +which determined the oligarchical character of the Venetian government, +led to an attempted revolution in the State by Baiamonte Tiepolo. +Tiepolo's conspiracy was really an effort in the interests of the old +aristocracy to throw off the yoke which <i>novi homines</i> were fixing on +the commonwealth. An excellent essay on Baiamonte Tiepolo will be found +in H. F. Brown's <i>Venetian Studies</i>. I may add to this note that the +Gozzi had previously intermarried with the Corner, Zuccato, Don, and +Morosini, patrician houses of high respectability.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Carlo Gozzi was born December 13, 1720. He probably knew +that he was in his sixtieth year; and this passage enables us to measure +the exact amount of duplicity which he thought venial in composing his +Memoirs. It was Gozzi's object to extenuate the fact that his <i>liaison</i> +with Teodora Ricci had been carried on when he was past the age of +fifty. When he asserts that he had "not yet reached the age of sixty," +he was just within the bounds of veracity; for he wanted more than seven +months to complete his sixtieth year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> <i>Collegi.</i> Gasparo was educated in the Somaschan +establishment at S. Cipriano on the island of Murano.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> Casanova, in the first chapter of his Memoirs, says that +he suffered during his boyhood from the same violent hmorrhages.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> <i>Gozzi</i> might have cited Galileo, whose style, formed by +the study of the "divine" Ariosto, is a model of exquisite and urbane +Italian diction.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Compare what Goldoni says about the marionette theatre at +his grandfather's country-seat. In some of the great villas of the +Venetian nobility these private stages were built on an enormous scale. +The account of Marco Contarini's theatre at Piazzola near Padua, and of +the sumptuous dramatic performances which took place there, reads like a +passage from the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. See Romanin's <i>Storia di Venezia</i>, +vol. vii. p. 550.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> I may here say that the title of cavaliere, or knight, +was commonly given to members of patrician families at Venice, +irrespective of their being laymen or in orders.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Gaspara Stampa was born at Padua, but was a gentlewoman +of Milan by descent. She died about 1554, at the age of thirty. If this +edition of Gaspara Stampa's <i>Rime</i> is the one prepared for publication +by Luisa Bergalli (Gozzi's sister-in-law), there is the same confusion +of dates here as I have noticed above. It was published when Gozzi had +reached his seventeenth year.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> A tablet over the entrance to the restaurant at the +Calcina on the Zattere, records that Apostolo Zeno dwelt there. It was, +perhaps, to this house that young Gozzi paid his visit. Zeno (b. 1668, +d. 1750) exercised considerable influence over the Italian drama. He +wrote plays for music and oratorios. For some years he held the post of +Cesarean poet at Vienna, which he resigned to the more celebrated +Metastasio.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Luisa Pisana Bergalli was born at Venice in 1703, of +humble parentage, being descended from a Piedmontese shoemaker. Luigi +Mocenigo and Pisana Cornaro held her at the font, and gave her their two +Christian names. She showed distinguished talents in early youth, and +was educated by the painter Rosalba Carriera, afterwards by Caterino and +Apostolo Zeno. At twenty-three she published a tragedy and an anthology +of Italian poems by female writers; at twenty-five another tragedy; at +thirty a translation of Terence, and a comedy dedicated to Count Jacopo +Antonio Gozzi. It appears from this dedication to <i>Le avventure del +poeta</i> that she was the protege of both Count Gozzi and his wife, and +on the best of terms with their children. She was thirty-five and +Gasparo was twenty-five when they married. See Tommasei, <i>Storia Civile +nella Letteraria</i>, pp. 185-188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> The title <i>Provveditore Generale di Mare</i> was given to +the supreme head of the Venetian naval and military forces in the +Levant. He resided at Corfu, where he maintained a princely court, and +ruled like a sovereign, being only responsible for his actions to the +Senate. Next in importance to this functionary was the <i>Provveditore +Generale di Dalmazia</i>, of whose Court we shall hear much in Gozzi's +Memoirs. Casanova, who went to Corfu in the train of the Prov. Gen. +Dolfino, called Il Bucentoro because of his grand manner, and the father +of the famous Caterina Dolfin Tron, gives an excellent account of the +Court there, its military, naval, and civil establishment. Chapters +xiii.-xvi. of the first volume of his Memoirs deserve to be compared +with the corresponding part of Gozzi's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Not at seventeen, but at twenty. Gozzi was born in 1720, +and Quirini took the government of Dalmatia in 1740.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> <i>Togato.</i> The State dignitaries of Venice wore robes of +various colours and forms, according to their office. A simple nobleman +was bound to go abroad in a flowing robe of silk, or toga, ample enough +to conceal whatever costume he may have worn beneath it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> <i>Armata</i>, composed of naval and military forces, to act +equally on sea and shore.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> It seems from the names of these larger galleys that they +were the official ships of the Provveditore, his own flag-ship and her +attendant convoy. Romanin (vol. viii. p. 372) says that at this epoch +Venice kept fifteen heavy galleys, ten lighter, nine sailing ships of +the frigate build, and twenty-four armed craft of other descriptions. +The galleys and sailing ships were commanded only by patricians. This +was her peace establishment.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Gozzi says <i>adjutante</i> alone. <i>Adjutante di campo</i> is +aide-de-camp.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> This word is in the Italian <i>armata</i>. The <i>armata</i>, to +which Gozzi belonged, was properly an armament of mixed naval and +military forces, and <i>armata</i> would naturally be translated "navy." He +was attached to it, however, in the quality of soldier, and was eligible +(as we shall afterwards see) for transfer into the land forces of the +State in Lombardy. Thus he belonged to the Venetian army.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> This was the highest office in the State to which a +<i>cittadino</i> could aspire. It conferred the rank of cavaliere. The Grand +Chancellor could open public despatches; he attended the sittings of the +Grand Council and the Senate, but without a vote, and was the official +chief of all the civil servants.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> Probably Freschot, the author of several works on Venice, +a Frenchman by birth.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> The native Dalmatians of Slav origin, inhabiting the +inland villages and country districts, were called by this name.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> <i>Scogli.</i> A long low island opposite the harbour of Zara +is so called.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> This and other French terms show to what extent the +military system of Venice had been modernised.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> Razionato.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> This chapter will be read with interest by students of +the <i>Commedia dell' Arte</i>. It throws light upon the way in which an +actor of originality could adapt one of the fixed characters of that +comedy, in this case the <i>servetta</i>, to his own talents and to local +circumstances.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> <i>Pallone</i> is a game played with a large leather ball, +filled with air, and something like our football. In Italy it is struck +with the hand, which is armed for the purpose with gloves or a flat +short bat fixed on the palm. Sides are chosen, and the game roughly +resembles tennis on a large scale. Pallone is the original of our +balloon.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> The sequin at this time was worth twenty-two <i>lire +Venete</i>. The worth of the <i>lira</i> was about half a franc, says Romanin +(vol. viii. p. 302). Romanin in the same place fixes the ducat at eight +<i>lire</i>. Gozzi's debt amounted to 1248 <i>lire</i>. This would make only 156 +ducats at the above rate. But the relation of the ducat to the sequin +and the <i>lira</i> is very obscure, and seems to have varied according to +the kind of ducat.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> <i>Decime.</i> Taxes annually raised upon the whole property +of a Venetian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> Opere, vol. vii. p. 393. This is the stanza— +</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poetry"> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Gli antichi di provincia tuoi fedeli</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Son quasi tutti fuggiti alle ville,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">In castellacci discoperti a' cieli,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Con figli e figlie e nipoti e pupille,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Ripieni di pensieri acri e crudeli,</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Allor che suonan mezzod le squille.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Educazion non han, mangiar, n bere;</span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span style="margin-left: 0em;">Pensa se daran nerbo alle tue schiere!</span></td></tr> +</table> + +<p> +This is said to the burlesque Carlo Magno of the poem. The passage in +the text confirms the theory that Gozzi intended his Carlo Magno to +represent the decrepit majesty of Venice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Almor is the Venetian form of the name Ermolao.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> Gozzi's description of the Venetian <i>Cortesan</i> may serve +as illustration to a popular play of Goldoni's, <i>Momolo Cortesan</i>. This +was the first comedy of character Goldoni composed. Its title-rle was +written for a celebrated Pantalone, Golinetti (see Goldoni's <i>Memoirs</i>, +part i. ch. 40). When he printed it, he translated the title into +<i>L'Uomo di Mondo</i>, finding no exact equivalent for the Venetian phrase +<i>Cortesan</i>. Goldoni's account of the character tallies with Gozzi's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> In these and several passages which follow, Gozzi +ascribes the pecuniary embarrassments of his family to the +maladministration of his mother, aided by his sister-in-law. It it only +fair to say, that Gasparo Gozzi's correspondence confirms his veracity. +That favourite and favoured eldest son complains bitterly that, even to +the last days of her life, his mother insisted on managing the property, +and that she made underhand contracts to the prejudice of himself and +his children. It was, in fact, a misfortune for the Gozzi that their +father, Jacopo Antonio, married into a patrician family of higher rank +and pretensions than his own. Angela Tiepolo, knowing herself to be one +of the last representatives of a very noble house, with considerable +expectations from her childless brother, drove her easy-going husband +into ruinous expenditure, and domineered over her kindred by right of a +marriage which savoured of a msalliance. See the article upon her in +Litta's <i>Famiglie Celebri</i>, sub tit. "Tiepolo."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> The <i>bautta</i> and the mask were permitted at Venice from +the first Sunday in October until Ash Wednesday.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> This was a very long scarf of black silk, which, draped +above the head, and fulling over the shoulders, was tied in a knot, and +allowed to hang on both sides of the wearer's skirts. The mask or +<i>bautta</i> was only permitted during the prolonged Venetian Carnival.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> The Italian is <i>democraziano</i>. Perhaps Gozzi wrote +<i>democriziano</i>, from Democritus, the sage who laughed at all things. In +either case the adjective is wrongly formed. It ought to be either +<i>democratico</i> or <i>democritico</i>. But <i>democrazia</i> may have led him to +<i>democraziano</i>. He not infrequently employs this phrase, which always +puzzles me, because nobody was really less democratic than Carlo Gozzi, +and as yet, in 1780, he had no reason, under the pressure of the +Revolution, to dissemble.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> The theatres of Venice were called by the names of the +parishes in which they stood, or of non-parochial churches to which they +were contiguous. S. Angelo was one of the smaller.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> I have condensed in this sentence the details of a long +and tiresome chapter (chap. xxix.). It is worth adding here that the law +of Venice with regard to entail was very strict; time gave no title to a +purchaser who had obtained possession of an estate subject to <i>fidei +commissa</i>. One of Goethe's most interesting letters from Venice (October +5, 1786) contains the full description of a cause he heard pleaded in +the Ducal palace for the recovery of illegally alienated real property. +Goethe remarks upon the extraordinary permanence of trusts in Venice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> The author of an unfinished work on Venetian literature.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> It seems probable that Gozzi was really at one time on +the point of marrying this lady.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> The Avvogadori del Comune, or <i>Advocatores Comunis</i>, +corresponded in a certain sense to the modern Procuratori di Stato, and +had some resemblance to the Roman tribunes. They formed a High Court of +Justice for the guardianship of property accruing to the Exchequer, for +the protection of private rights in property, rights of minors and +widows, the superintendence of registers of births and marriages, &c. +Three patricians formed the board.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> The Somascan Order was founded about 1540 by Girolamo +Miani, a Venetian senator, upon the model of the Theatines. Its object +was education, principally of the poor. With regard to the school at S. +Cipriano, it is worth mentioning that the famous adventurer, Casanova, +was placed there by his guardian the Abb Grimani in the year 1740 or +thereabouts. He gives a full account of the institution in his Memoirs +(vol. i. ch. vi.), from which it appears that at this epoch about 150 +youths were educated by the Somascan monks. Readers of Casanova need +hardly be reminded that he was expelled from the seminary after a few +weeks' residence. Gasparo Gozzi was also educated here.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> This scene has actually been preserved and printed in +Gasparo Gozzi's works. Opere, Minerva, Padova, vol. vii. It forms the +6th scene of the 3rd act of <i>Esopo in Citt</i>, and is very much as Carlo +Gozzi describes it. The ancient lady throws the principal blame for her +domestic sufferings upon a certain "Sicofante, Dottor legista di questa +citt," whom I take to be Carlo's lawyer, Testa.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> Gozzi can hardly not have been thinking of poor Gratarol, +when he penned these lines. Mentally he contrasts his own conduct under +the inconvenience of a stage-satire with Gratarol's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> See above, <a href="#page_319">p. 319</a>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> On the Fondamenta Nuove, looking across Murano to the +mountains of the Dolomites. See Tommasei, <i>op. cit.</i>, p. 258.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> This was written in 1780, but when it was printed in +1797, Louis XVI. had little reason to be proud of his titles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> He was made secretary to the Riformatori dello Studio.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> Gozzi here resumes a portion of the 29th chapter of his +Memoirs, which I have condensed in Chapter XXIV. above (see note to p. +336). It seemed unnecessary to burden the translation of his +autobiography with more of legal details than was absolutely necessary +for understanding the tenor of his life-experience.</p></div> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; +Volume the first, by Count Carlo Gozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + +***** This file should be named 38266-h.htm or 38266-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/6/38266/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the first + +Author: Count Carlo Gozzi + +Illustrator: Alphonse Lalauze + Maurice Sand + A. Manceau + +Translator: John Addington Symonds + +Release Date: December 10, 2011 [EBook #38266] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + +THE MEMOIRS +OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +VOLUME THE FIRST + + + + +_PUBLISHERS' NOTE._ + +_Five hundred and twenty copies of this book printed for England, +and two hundred and sixty for America. Type distributed. Each +copy numbered._ + +_No._ 606 + +[Illustration: Carlo Gozzi] + + + + +THE MEMOIRS OF +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + +TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH +BY +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + +With Essays on Italian Impromptu Comedy, Gozzi's Life, +The Dramatic Fables, and Pietro Longhi + +BY THE TRANSLATOR + +_WITH PORTRAIT AND SIX ORIGINAL ETCHINGS_ +BY ADOLPHE LALAUZE + +_ALSO ELEVEN SUBJECTS ILLUSTRATING ITALIAN COMEDY BY MAURICE SAND +ENGRAVED ON COPPER BY A. MANCEAU, AND COLOURED BY HAND_ + +IN TWO VOLUMES +VOLUME THE FIRST + +NEW YORK +SCRIBNER & WELFORD +743 & 745 BROADWAY +MDCCCXC + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +_VOLUME THE FIRST._ + +The Etchings designed and etched by AD. LALAUZE. The Masks, illustrating +the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, by MAURICE SAND, engraved by A. MANCEAU, +and coloured by hand. + +I. PORTRAIT OF CARLO GOZZI (_etching_) _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + +II. THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY 25 + +III. COLOMBINA (1683) 48 + +IV. TARTAGLIA (1620) 96 + +V. BRIGHELLA (1570) 128 + +VI. IL DOTTORE (1653) 160 + +VII. SCARAMOUCH (1645) 192 + +VIII. THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY (_etching_) 216 + +IX. IL CAPITANO (1668) 256 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +After the appearance of my work on Benvenuto Cellini, Mr. J. C. Nimmo +proposed that I should undertake a translation of Count Carlo Gozzi's +_Memorie Inutili_. + +The suggestion that such a book might be of interest to the English +public emanated originally, I believe, from Mr. E. Hutchings of +Manchester, in a letter addressed to the _Academy_.[1] + +To this gentleman my warmest thanks are due, not only for starting the +idea, which I have carried out, but also for the interest he has shown +in my work during its progress, and for the assistance he has liberally +rendered by the loan of rare books. + +I entertained the proposal with some doubt. What I already knew about +Carlo Gozzi amounted to little; and it seemed to me improbable that the +world would willingly have left his Memoirs in oblivion if they +possessed solid qualities. + +At the same time, the little that I did know of Gozzi roused my +curiosity. The picturesque aspects of Venetian decadence allured my +fancy. I foresaw that I should have to handle the attractive subject of +Italian impromptu comedy. Finally, it so happens that autobiographies +have always exerted a peculiar fascination for my mind. I rate them +highly as historical and psychological documents. The smallest fragment +of a genuine autobiography seems to me valuable for the student of past +epochs. + +I had strong inducements, therefore, to undertake the proposed task. + +The first thing to do was to procure a copy of the Memoirs, which exist +only in one edition of three volumes. Mr. Hutchings placed the first two +volumes of the book at my disposal; but the third was missing. It had +been purloined while its owner was stationed in one of the South +American cities. Mr. Nimmo and I waited through four months, making +continued applications to the best European dealers in old books, before +a complete copy was at last disinterred from a Venetian library. + +The extraordinary rarity of the _Memorie_ stimulated my growing +interest. After making a preliminary study of the text, I perceived that +this was no common specimen of self-portraiture. In some respects it +seemed to me to be a masterpiece. I felt no doubt that it possessed both +psychological and historical value. A man of a very marked type stood +forth from those pages. He was, moreover, the Venetian representative of +a well-defined social and literary period. This period corresponded +pretty closely with that of our own Samuel Johnson, Fielding, Goldsmith, +Reynolds, David Hume. It was the period which ended with the earthquake +of the French Revolution, the signs of which catastrophe were felt more +ominously in Italy than in our own land. At the same time I recognised +salient qualities of healthy moral sense, of analytical acumen, of +vigorous intelligence, and of caustic humour in the author, mingled with +literary merit of no ordinary kind, vivid transcripts from contemporary +life, dramatic narration, incisive sketches of character, original +reflections on society. + +According to my own standard in such matters, Gozzi's Memoirs ranked as +an important document for the study of Italy in the last century. + +But was the book worth translating? Would it not suffice to leave the +few existing copies in their obscurity, and to indicate their value for +historians by composing a critical treatise on the author and his times? + +My own predilection for autobiographies, and my sense of their utility, +caused me to reject this alternative. I decided to translate, and to +illustrate my translation by tolerably copious original essays. + +While engaged upon the work, I have not, however, felt always quite at +ease. It has recurred to my mind that many readers of these volumes will +exclaim: "An English version of Gozzi's self-styled 'useless memoirs' +cannot fail to be twice as useless as the original!" Not all people +share that partiality for autobiographies which in me amounts almost to +a passion. + +Besides, I had to face other difficulties. The three chapters which +contain the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures could not be omitted. +They are too valuable for the light they throw upon his age, and too +important in the man's estimate of his own character. Their suppression +would have been unfair to Gozzi, and would have shorn his Memoirs of +some brilliant bits of local colour. Nevertheless, I knew that the +frankness and the cynical humour of these episodes are out of tune with +modern taste. Much is pardoned by the virtue of our age to classics--to +Plato or Cellini--which would not be excused in a writer of inferior +eminence. But Gozzi is no classic. The fact of his neglect by his own +nation proves that overwhelmingly. Why drag him from deserved oblivion +if these love-stories are indispensable to the rehabilitating process? + +My answer to this perplexing query was that the debated passages are +good in literature, true to nature, sound in moral feeling. Their +candour is the candour of a cleanly heart, resolved to bare its secret +by an effort of self-portraiture. Gozzi describes passions common to +that age, and ours, and every age; but he also shows how a determined +character, upright and honourable, can free itself from the +entanglements of natural frailty. The lesson may be somewhat harsh, but +it is salutary. Gozzi has written no single word unworthy of a man of +principle--nothing which is calculated to make vice alluring. Only one-- + + "Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up + From common sense of what men were and are, + Who would not know what men must be:"-- + +only such an one can take exception to the narratives of Gozzi's +love-adventures. + +Reasoning thus, I determined to include the love-tales in my +translation, having already decided that no translation could be given +to the world without them, and that the book was worthy of +resuscitation. But I felt myself justified in removing those passages +and phrases which might have caused offence to some of my readers. + +To translate Gozzi with the minute attention to his style which I +bestowed upon Cellini would have been unpractical. I should even have +inflicted an injury upon my author. It is in many respects an annoying +style; redundant, unequal, diffuse; bearing the stamp of garrulous +senility and imperfect (though copious) command of language. + +To condense and manipulate the Memoirs at my own free will, following +the plan of Paul de Musset's abridgement, seemed to me unscrupulous, +even if I abstained from that amusing writer's deliberate +mystifications. + +I resolved to convert the larger portion of the book into equivalent +English, allowing myself the license of curtailing certain passages, and +rearranging the order of some chapters. All cases of important +condensation or omission have been indicated in my notes. My account of +the Memoirs and the causes which led to their publication (Introduction, +Part i.) sufficiently explains my right to transpose material from one +place to another. Readers of the Introduction will perceive how +carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique +edition was put together. It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's +indifference and haste of compilation that so curious a specimen of +autobiography fell into almost absolute oblivion. + +We have only one edition of the _Memorie_, that of Palese, under the +date Venezia, 1797. Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of +bibliography. I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare +book which have fallen under my inspection present some features of +difference, indicating the random way in which the sheets were made up +for publication. + +Among English critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, +has mentioned Gozzi's Memoirs. That is Vernon Lee, in her _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_. But Vernon Lee knew the book only +through Paul de Musset's "perversion." Accordingly, what she has to say +about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, +account she gives of his _Fiabe_. + +The volumes I am now presenting to the public claim at least one +merit--that of dealing with a hitherto almost untouched document of +historical and literary importance. + +I flatter myself that readers will be found to appreciate the brilliant, +though prolix and desultory, portraiture of life in Venice during the +last century which these "useless memoirs" offer to their imagination. + +Finally, I wish here to record my mature opinion about Carlo Gozzi's +character for veracity and general uprightness. I think that I have been +hardly just, and certainly not generous, to Gozzi in the Introduction +and the notes appended to my version. Wishing to avoid the _lues +biographica_, I assumed a somewhat too purely critical attitude while +writing. Careful perusal of the proofs makes me feel that the truth +would not have suffered had I entirely suppressed some suspicions and +concealed some personal want of sympathy with the man. Allowing for his +peculiar and occasionally repellent character--the character of an +"original" and a confirmed old bachelor--Gozzi seems to me now to have +been as honest and open-hearted as a gentleman should be. + + JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. + +AM HOF, DAVOS PLATZ, + +_March 25, 1889_. + + + + +_BOOKS USED AND REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK._ + + + 1. CARLO GOZZI. "Memorie Inutili." 3 vols. Venice. 1797. + + 2. CARLO GOZZI. "Opere." 10 vols. Venice. Colombani and other + publishers. 1772-1791. + + 3. ERNESTO MASI. "Le Fiabe di Carlo Gozzi." 2 vols. Bologna. + Zanichelli. 1885. + + 4. PIER ANTONIO GRATAROL. "Narrazione Apologetica." 2 vols. + Venezia. Gatti. 1797. + + 5. PAUL DE MUSSET. "Memoires de Charles Gozzi." Paris. Charpentier. + 1848. + + 6. GIOV. BATT. MAGRINI. "Carlo Gozzi e le Fiabe." Cremona. + Feraboli. 1876. The same work, second edition: "I Tempi la Vita e + gli Scritti di Carlo Gozzi." Benevento. De Gennaro. 1883. + + 7. MICHELE SCHERILLO. "La Commedia dell' Arte in Italia." Torino. + Loescher. 1884. + + 8. ADOLFO BARTOLI. "Scenari Inediti della Commedia dell' Arte." + Firenze. Sansone. 1880. + + 9. ALFONSE ROYER. "Carlo Gozzi, Theatre Fiabesque." Paris. Michel + Levy. 1865. + + 10. CARLO GOLDONI. "Memoires." 3 vols. Paris. Veuve Duchesne. 1787. + + 11. FERDINANDO GALANTI. "Carlo Goldoni e Venezia nel Secolo xviii." + Padova. Samin. 1882. + + 12. P. G. MOLMENTI. "Carlo Goldoni." Venezia. Ongania. 1880. + + 13. VERNON LEE. "Studies of the Eighteenth Century in Italy." + London. Satchell. 1880. + + 14. MAURICE SAND. "Masques et Bouffons." 2 vols. Paris. A. Levy + 1862. + + 15. S. ROMANIN. "Storia Documentata di Venezia." Vols. vii.-ix. + Venezia. Naratovitch. 1860. + + 16. GIUSEPPE BOERIO. "Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano." Venezia. + Cocchini. 1856. + + 17. PHILARETE CHASLES. "Etudes sur l'Espagne, etc." ("D'un Theatre + Espagnol-Venitien au xviii^{me.} Siecle et de Charles Gozzi"). + Paris. Amyot. 1847. + + 18. N. TOMMASEO. "Storia Civile nella Letteraria." Roma, Torino, + Firenze. E Loescher. 1872. + + 19. EUGENIO CAMERINI. "I Precursori del Goldoni." Milano. Sonzogno. + 1872. + + 20. "Memoires de Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, ecrites par + lui-meme. Bruxelles. Rozet. 1876. + + + + +THE MEMOIRS + +OF + +COUNT CARLO GOZZI + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + + +PART I. + +_CARLO GOZZI AND PIERO ANTONIO GRATAROL._ + + 1. The ancestry and social standing of Count Carlo Gozzi--His + collision with Piero Antonio Gratarol, Secretary to the Venetian + Collegio--How this quarrel led to the composition of Gozzi's + Memoirs--Their importance as a document for the social history of + Venice in the eighteenth century.--2. The interweaving of this + episode in Gozzi's Life with his literary warfare against Goldoni, + which culminated in the production of his ten dramatic fables.--3. + Sketch of Gratarol's life, and his relation to Andrea and Caterina + Tron--Gozzi's _liaison_ with the actress Teodora Ricci--Gozzi's + comedy, _Le Droghe d'Amore_--Turned by Mme. Tron into a satire upon + Gratarol--Gratarol flies from Venice to Stockholm, is proscribed by + the Republic, and loses all his fortune--His _Narrazione + Apologetica_--Gozzi takes up the pen in self-defence--The + Inquisitors of State forbid the publication of his autobiographical + polemic--Gratarol's death in Madagascar--Circumstances which + induced Gozzi in 1797, after the fall of the Republic of St. Mark, + to complete and publish his Memoirs.--4. Gozzi's literary style and + personal character--The false conception of the man and his work + which has been diffused by Paul de Musset. + + +I. + +In the year 1797 there appeared at Venice a book entitled _Memorie +inutili della vita di Carlo Gozzi, scritte da lui medesimo e pubblicate +per umilta_, "Useless Memoirs of the Life of Carlo Gozzi, written by +himself and published from motives of humility." Its author, though he +bore the title of Count, and belonged to an honourable family in +Venice, was not of patrician descent. That is to say, none of his lineal +ancestors had acquired the right of voting in the Grand Council or of +holding the highest offices of state. They ranked with the citizens of +the Republic, who took no direct part in the government, but who were +permitted to discharge important functions as secretaries of several +departments and as ambassadors of the second class. By his mother he +drew half of his blood from one of the oldest and proudest of Venetian +noble families, the Tiepolos. Thus, socially, if not politically, birth +placed him almost on a level with the best Venetian aristocracy. + +In the year 1797 he was seventy-seven; and although he had been a man of +some mark in his early days, the public had lost sight of him for the +last seventeen years. His reputation depended upon a large number of +dramatic pieces, satirical poems, and prose compositions, mostly of a +controversial kind. Two main episodes in his literary life conferred a +slightly dubious notoriety upon his name. The first of these was the +long and bitter war he waged against the two playwrights, Chiari and +Goldoni, between the years 1756 and 1762. The other was an unfortunate +series of events which brought him into collision with a certain Pier +Antonio Gratarol in 1777. Gratarol, like his adversary, was a Venetian +citizen, allied by descent to the great patrician family of Contarini. +Unlike Gozzi, he early embarked on a political career, was one of the +secretaries of the Collegio, and looked forward to the highest +appointments which were open to a man of his rank. The collision with +Count Gozzi, which I shall have to describe with some minuteness, ended +in Gratarol's voluntary exile from Venice, the confiscation of his +property by the State, and a public scandal of sufficient importance to +attract the attention of serious historians.[2] Had it not been for this +tragi-comic episode in his past life, Gozzi would never have written his +Memoirs; and had the memory of the scandal not been revived some years +after Gratarol's death, when the old Republic of S. Mark had fallen in +the crash of the French Revolution, he would never have published them. + +This autobiography is distinctly an apologetical work, a portrait drawn +by Gozzi in self-defence, and intended to vindicate himself from the +aspersions cast by Gratarol upon his character. Its main object is to +set forth in the fairest light his own conduct during the unlucky +collision to which I have alluded. Yet though so limited in aim, the +interest which it possesses for us at the present time, is far wider +than belongs to that unhappy squabble, long since buried in oblivion. +Gozzi's conception of an _Apologia pro vita sua_ was a comprehensive +one. He resolved to reveal his character under all its aspects, from +his childhood until the date 1777, dealing now with matters of general +importance, now with the private affairs of his home, touching upon the +literature of his age, discussing fashions, criticising philosophy, +entering into minute particulars regarding theatres and actors, +describing his love-affairs with a frankness worthy of Rousseau, and +painting a series of lively portraits in which a large variety of +individuals from all classes are presented to our notice. The result is +that his autobiography, although in the strictest sense of that term an +occasional production, forms one of the most valuable documents we +possess for a study of Venetian society during the decadence of the +Republic. Gozzi was gifted with a penetrative and observant mind, strong +sense of humour, and a power of brilliant description. On the faults of +his style and the defects of his character, I shall speak hereafter. At +present it is enough to indicate the importance of the Memoirs as +furnishing a vivid picture of Venetian life in the eighteenth century. +Venice, at that period, was fortunate in autobiographers. She possessed +Goldoni and Casanova as well as Gozzi, not to mention smaller folk like +Da Ponte, the poet of Mozart's _Don Giovanni_. But when we compare the +three life-records of Goldoni, Casanova, and Gozzi, by far the deepest +historical interest, in my opinion, belongs to the last. Casanova's +Memoirs are almost excluded from general use by the nature of their +predominant pre-occupation. Moreover, they deal but partially with +Venice, and only with limited aspects of its social life. Goldoni's, +though more humane, and in all that concerns tone impeccable, turn too +exclusively upon the history of his dramatic works to be of great +importance as an historical document. Moreover, the scene is laid in +several provinces of Italy and transferred before its close to France. +Gozzi, on the contrary, never quits the soil of Venice. Except when he +served as a soldier for three years in the Venetian province of +Dalmatia, he does not appear to have travelled further than to Pordenone +on one side and to Padua on the other. Of strong aristocratic instincts, +but condemned to comparative poverty by the reckless expenditure of his +parents and grandparents, Gozzi enjoyed opportunities of studying the +society of Venice from several points of view. His enthusiasm for +literature and partiality for professional actors brought him acquainted +with the scholars and the Bohemians of that epoch. His management of the +encumbered estates of his family introduced him to advocates, +solicitors, brokers, Jews, tenants, and all manner of strange people. +His birth made him the companion of patricians. His military service +involved him in the wild pleasures and perils of scapegrace lads upon a +foreign soil. Consequently, the records of a life so varied in +experience, while strictly confined within the narrow circuit of +Venetian society, could not fail to be rich in details for the student. +It may be regretted that Gozzi chose to write in a didactic spirit. We +could willingly have exchanged his long-winded excursions into the +sphere of moral philosophy for a few more graphic sketches in the style +of his Dalmatian adventures. + + +II. + +This biographical and historical interest, far more than Gozzi's quarrel +with Goldoni or his collision with Gratarol, is the reason why I thought +it worth while to translate a book which has become excessively rare in +the original. Nothing can be duller or more contemptible, to my mind, +than the chronicle of literary quarrels. The Goldoni-Gozzi episode would +be devoid of permanent attraction were it not for the curious light +thrown by it upon the obscure subject of impromptu comedy, and for the +ten extraordinary _Fiabe Teatrali_ from Gozzi's pen to which it gave +rise. Again, the Gratarol-Gozzi episode, as we shall presently see, is +almost humiliating in the pettiness of its details, and painful through +its tragic termination. + +The Memoirs contain a full and tolerably accurate account of the +Gratarol incident. Yet I cannot dispense with a summary of this affair, +based upon a comparison of Gozzi's story with that of Gratarol in his +_Narrazione Apologetica_. The extreme importance of the event in the +lives of both men, and the fact that it constitutes the subject of +Gozzi's autobiography in quite as serious a sense as that in which the +Persian war forms the subject of Herodotus' history, render this +unavoidable. + + +III. + +Pier Antonio Gratarol was a young man between thirty and forty in the +year 1776. He had grown up with an ample fortune and without a father's +control; had imbibed French ways of thinking and French customs; had +married, and after marriage had separated from his wife.[3] He +represented that class of intellectual and political Liberals whom +Gozzi, with his Conservative prejudices, regarded as dangerous to the +well-being of the State. He was an open libertine in his relations with +women, and did not strive to conceal those principles of personal +liberty which the _philosophes_ were spreading throughout Europe. At the +same time he represented a family which had served the Republic in +distinguished offices for many generations; he possessed excellent +abilities, and had every reason to expect a brilliant future. There was +nothing in his conduct or in his domestic circumstances to distinguish +him unfavourably from a multitude of gay livers and free-thinkers in the +corrupt Venice of that epoch. He had recently become eligible for the +post of ambassador at a foreign Court; and was already nominated as +Resident in Naples. This nomination required, however, to be confirmed +by the Grand Council; and circumstances, which need not be enlarged +upon, rendered the grant of money for his embassy a matter of debate.[4] +Unfortunately, Gratarol was a person of vain, imperious temper, puffed +up with the sense of his own merits, and incapable of correcting his +antipathies. His French tendencies--political, moral, social, +literary--fashionable for the most part--prejudiced the minds of +influential people in the highest departments of the government against +him. Finally, he had made an implacable enemy of a great lady, who at +that time exercised almost dictatorial control over the councils of the +State. This was Caterina Dolfin Tron, the wife of Andrea Tron, +Procuratore di San Marco, whose immense influence in the Council of Ten, +the Consulta, and the Senate enabled him to do what he liked with the +Grand Council.[5] Caterina's husband was popularly known as _Il +Padrone_, or the Master of Venice, and he doted on her with a blind +affection. She was a woman of brilliant parts, imbued, like Gratarol, +with advanced French notions, meddlesome in public matters, aspiring to +manage the politics of Venice and to dictate laws to society from her +own reception-rooms. Gratarol began by paying her wise attentions; but +for some reason unknown to us, he had lately dropped his courtship and +indulged in satirical comments upon Caterina's private conduct. She +vowed to effect his ruin, and circumstances enabled her to do so. + +Gozzi, meanwhile, had for the last five years or so assumed the position +of titular protector to a married actress called Teodora Ricci. He does +his best to persuade us that the _liaison_ was one of friendship; but it +is clear that, upon whatever footing he stood toward the Ricci, he felt +a real affection for this woman. For her he composed the dramatic works +of his second or Spanish manner. He attended her in public, introduced +her to the houses of his friends, and stood godfather to her second +child. We are, in fact, met here by an obscurity not unlike that which +involves the more famous connection of Congreve with Mrs. Bracegirdle. +Gratarol, pursuing the usual course of his amours, made the Ricci's +acquaintance, became her lover, compromised her reputation, and wounded +Gozzi so deeply in his sense of honour, that he broke off familiar +relations with the actress. + +Such was the position of affairs when Gozzi, who wrote assiduously for +the theatre, produced a drama modelled on a Spanish piece by Tirso da +Molina. It was called _Le Droghe d'Amore_, and contained a minor part, +which might well have passed either for a sketch of manners or for a +personal satire on Gratarol. Gozzi vehemently and persistently denied +that he had any intention of caricaturing his rival on the stage; and if +we trust what he relates about the composition of the play in question, +it is hardly possible that he can have had Gratarol in view when he +designed it. At the same time, we are bound to concede that the +offensive part of Don Adone fitted nicely on to Gratarol. Mme. Ricci, +smarting under Gozzi's withdrawal from her intimacy, took for granted +that a satire was intended. This woman's hysterical imagination turned a +mere _jeu d'esprit_ of her old friend into a formidable weapon of +attack against her new lover. Through her dangerous interference it +became an instrument, in the hands of other parties, to annoy Gozzi and +to overwhelm Gratarol. She began by poisoning the latter's mind with +gossiping insinuations. Gratarol's fretful vanity and sense of +self-importance made him boil with fury at the thought of being put upon +the stage. He moved heaven and earth to get the play suspended; +imprudently, as it turned out, because this step brought him face to +face with his real enemy, Mme. Tron. The manager of the theatre, to whom +Gozzi had given his comedy, took the manuscript at once to that lady. +This unscrupulous person now saw her opportunity for inflicting +vengeance upon Gratarol. She induced the manager to redistribute the +parts so that the _role_ of Don Adone should be assigned to an actor who +resembled Gratarol. She taught this man how to imitate Gratarol's dress +and gestures, and turned what may in fact have been an innocent +production of Gozzi's pen into a satire of the most insulting pungency. +At that point the _Droghe d'Amore_ passed out of the control of those +whom it privately concerned. + +After this, Gratarol, driven mad by wounded self-conceit, floundered +from one imprudence into another. He applied to the highest tribunal of +the State, and laid an information against Gozzi. Whether the +Inquisitors did not choose to cancel the license already granted for +the _Droghe d'Amore_, or whether they were influenced by Mme. Tron, does +not greatly signify. At any rate, the comedy continued to be acted. +Gratarol grew more and more irritated, uttered indignant invectives +against the tyrants of the State, and displayed a spirit of +insubordination which was perilous in Venice. Mme. Tron followed up her +advantage, and caused his appointment to the embassy at Naples to be +suspended. Thereupon Gratarol made up his mind to quit Venice. He knew +that this act would expose himself to outlawry and his family to ruin. A +civil servant of the Republic had no legal right to sever himself from +his engagements without permission. The mere fact of doing so caused him +to be treated as a contumacious rebel. But instead of assuming an +indifferent attitude, instead of biding his time in patience and letting +the storm blow over--which it certainly would have done, since a popular +reaction had already begun to operate in his favour--he departed for +Padua on the 11th of September 1777, proceeded to Ceneda, crossed the +frontier on the 25th, travelled to Munich, thence to Brunswick, and +finally to Stockholm, where he arrived in March. Meanwhile a +proclamation was issued against him at Venice. This curious document is +a relic from the savage days of the Middle Ages.[6] It set a price upon +his head, offered rewards to any one who should bring him alive to +Venice or should prove his assassination, cancelled all contracts made +by him during twelve months before the date of December 22, 1777, +confiscated his property during his lifetime, and ordered the whole of +it to be sold by public auction. The latter portions of the ban were +carried into effect. Everything which belonged to Gratarol was sold by +the Avogadori;[7] and what seems really scandalous in this transaction +is that his furniture and jewels passed into the possession of an +Avogadore, Zorzi Angaran, while his landed estates fell to the share of +the Avvocato fiscale dell' Avogaderia, Galante, at the ridiculously low +sum of 2000 ducats.[8] Even his wife, who possessed a dowry of 25,000 +ducats, had to institute long and costly lawsuits for the recovery of +what belonged to her and formed no part of the outlaw's estate. + +Caterina Dolfin Tron, aided by her victim's rashness and impatience, had +succeeded in her plan to ruin him. But a retribution awaited this lady +in the form of an eloquent invective hurled by Gratarol against his +enemies from Stockholm. The so-called _Narrazione Apologetica_ was +printed there in 1779, and soon found its way to Venice. It contained a +detailed account of the events which had induced him to take flight, +arraigned his powerful enemies in terms of the bitterest sarcasm, +exposed their private foibles, and flashed a sharp light upon the +political corruption of the decadent Republic. Gozzi, of course, came in +for his share of abuse;[9] but Gratarol's most telling shafts were +directed against Mme. Tron and the patrician ring which tyrannised over +Venice. It is believed that the scandal of this pamphlet was one reason +why Andrea Tron failed to be elected Doge in 1779. + +On perusing Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, Count Carlo Gozzi +determined to clear his own character and to lay his version of the +story before the public. With this view he composed a lengthy _Epistola +Confutatoria_, taking up each of Gratarol's points in detail, and +discussing his arguments with a strange mixture of acuteness, fury, and +contemptuous severity. He also conceived the notion of writing his +Memoirs, in order that the whole tenor of his life might be clearly +understood.[10] The Confutation and the larger part of the Memoirs were +finished in 1780. But the Government decided that Gratarol's scandalous +pamphlet should be left unanswered. No Venetian pen was allowed to +notice it;[11] and Gozzi received information that the Inquisitors of +State would take the matter up if he attempted to show further fight. +The authorities acted with prudence in this matter. Nobody but Gozzi had +anything to gain by his refutation of Gratarol. With regard to the +corruption of Venice, the despotism of a few leading patricians, and the +back-stairs influence of Mme. Tron, Gratarol had only told the truth. He +had told it indeed emphatically, bitterly, and probably with some +exaggeration. Yet, unhappily, it was the truth. No amount of +apologetical rhetoric could have broken down his arguments. A public +discussion would have disturbed the public mind, and many dark secrets +and dirty jobs must certainly have come to light. + +Gozzi had to choose between the _piombi_ or the sacrifice of his already +finished manuscripts. Of course he did not hesitate. Both Confutation +and Memoirs were thrown at once aside; and they might even now have +been lying in some neglected corner of his ancient mansion had it not +been for the events which have to be related. + +Gratarol never returned to Venice. From Sweden he passed to England, +where he was hospitably received and befriended by members of our +aristocracy. Failing, however, to get any appointment in London, he +crossed to North America, travelled southwards to Brazil, and again left +that country in the train of some political adventurers. The party were +betrayed and robbed by the captain of their vessel, and cast ashore upon +the coast of Madagascar. Here Gratarol perished miserably in October +1785. His English friends sent information of this event to the Venetian +Government; but the evidence was judged insufficient, and the +restitution of his estates to two female cousins, who were his only +heirs, was refused until the fall of the Republic. When that took place, +Gratarol's friends immediately republished the _Narrazione Apologetica_ +at Venice, and appealed to General Bonaparte for justice. This was in +1797. + +Gozzi, who had now nothing to fear from Inquisitors of State, and whose +reputation was again exposed to calumny, took his manuscripts from their +drawer, dusted them, and placed them in the hands of a publisher. In the +month of July 1797 he issued a manifesto to the Venetian public, +proclaiming his intention.[12] "Availing myself of the beneficent +freedom now permitted to the press, I have drawn my manuscript from the +tomb in which it has lain during the past seventeen years." He refers to +the recent republication of Gratarol's _Narrazione_, and declares that +this alone has forced him to resuscitate the memory of bygone quarrels +and offences. At the same time he pays a high tribute to Gratarol's +work. "This book, which appeared at Stockholm in 1779, and which I had +forgotten, without however forgetting the unjust tricks and jobs by +which its truly pitiable author was overwhelmed with ruin, contains a +great number of indubitable truths, and it is only to be regretted that +he dictated it under the influence of blind anger and venomous +resentment, instead of philosophic calm." + +It appears that at this time Gozzi did not intend to publish his +_Epistola Confutatoria_, written in 1780, and certainly dictated under +the influence of anger as hot, hatred as fierce, and resentment as +venomous as any which inspired his adversary. Indeed, it may here be +observed that Gratarol, though he calls Gozzi a hypocrite, a huckster, +an impostor, and so forth, is more measured in his language than the +latter. Yet, while Gozzi was passing the sheets of his Memoirs through +the press,[13] Gratarol's friends issued another book entitled _Last +Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol, with documents relating to +his death_. In this they expressed a hope that Gozzi would not proceed +with the publication announced by his manifesto, and incautiously +printed a document alluding to Gozzi in the following by no means +flattering terms: "the infernal hypocrisy of a satirical liar."[14] +Furthermore, upon the 29th of August, having obtained a decree for the +restitution of Gratarol's property to his cousins, they published this +edict together with a preface, signed Widiman,[15] in which they had the +folly to rake up the whole tedious story of Gratarol's wrongs again. +Once more Gozzi was annoyed with well-worn phrases like the following: +"The persecuting furies of a haughty woman, the talent and the passion +of a very famous author, made him (Gratarol), to the horror of all +right-minded people, become the object of scorn and ridicule upon a +public theatre prostituted to the uses of a vile and infamous buffoon." +This was more than Gozzi could stand. Firmly holding to the opinion that +it was only Gratarol's folly and Mme. Tron's vindictiveness which had +caused the scandal of _Le Droghe d'Amore_, he now resolved to publish +everything which could establish the truth of his own story. Therefore +he incorporated the _Epistola Confutatoria_ in the third volume of the +Memoirs, and printed the notorious comedy for the first time at the end +of the book. Meantime he invited Gratarol's friends to inspect the MS. +of this play, which he declared to be the sole and original autograph, +in order that they might convince themselves that his statements +regarding its composition were accurate. Having now made up his mind to +supplement the two parts of his book with a third, he carried down his +Memoirs to the date of March 1798, when they came to a sudden +termination. All three volumes bear the date 1797; but their pagination +and some other trifling matters lead me to believe that the first two +were printed in that year, the third in the following spring. + + +IV. + +The circumstances under which Gozzi's _Memorie_ were produced +sufficiently account for their peculiar form, or rather formlessness. He +wrote hurriedly, with a polemical object in view, and paid no attention +to style. This he confesses in the manifesto.[16] "I have not striven to +express myself with the exactitude, the raciness, and the elegances of +our language." As a literary performance, this autobiography is +remarkably unequal, a thing of rags and patches, some of which are of +fine silk or velvet, others of rough sackcloth. Their main defect as +regards composition is prolixity. Gozzi does not know when to stop, and +he uses three phrases where one would have sufficed. He is also very +incoherent, spinning interminable periodic sentences, which sometimes do +not hang together grammatically or logically. While insisting so +magisterially upon the purity of Italian diction, he indulges in uncouth +Lombardisms, and slips at times into Venetian dialect. We must remember +that he grew up practically without education. He acquired his +knowledge, cultivated his taste, and formed his style by reading without +discrimination and by writing without fixed purpose. This accounts for +the digressive, irregular, improvisatory manner of his prose. It has its +own merits, however, of vehemence, a copious vocabulary, dramatic vigour +in narration, and occasionally graphic descriptions. + +It may be asked why he called his Memoirs "useless." Partly no doubt out +of an ironical self-consciousness, which marked his peculiar species of +humour; but partly also as a slap in the face to his readers. He tells +them candidly in one of his prefaces that he considers the moral +reflections with which the book is filled to be both sound and valuable, +but that the false science of the age is certain to render them of no +effect.[17] In like manner, when he asserts that the Memoirs were +published out of humility, this is partly true and partly false. Gozzi +piqued himself on being what I may call a Stoic-Democritean philosopher. +It was his pride to bear everything with endurance and to laugh at +everything, himself and his own concerns included, with contemptuous +indulgence. Yet he deserved the stinging epigram which Goldoni uttered +on his character: "A smile upon his lips and venom in his heart." His +light-heartedness and risibility were often assumed to hide bitter +resentment or boiling indignation. No man had less of genuine humility +than Gozzi, or more of the "pride which apes humility." _Umilta_ upon +his title-page has much the same effect as _Umilta_ in huge Gothic +letters beneath the coronets and crests of the Borromeo family above +their haughty palace-portals. As a single instance, I might select the +supercilious condescension with which he invariably treats his friends +the actors. They are _canaille_, to be consorted with by a gentleman +merely for amusement. His repeated boast that he gave his literary work +away, and his sneers at his brother Gasparo for making money, do not +savour of a really humble spirit. At the bottom of all he says about his +foolhardiness in Dalmatia there lurks a proud self-satisfaction. + +To what extent was he truthful? That is a difficult question to answer. +I believe that in the main he tried to be, and was, veracious throughout +the Memoirs; but that he considered a certain economy of statement, a +certain evasion of direct facts, and a certain forensic chicanery to be +permissible in openly controversial composition. This renders his +account of the Gratarol episode somewhat suspicious, particularly when +we remember that he was writing with the _Narrazione Apologetica_ before +his eyes. It is clear that he wished to conceal his real age, that he +falsified the date of his departure for Dalmatia, and that he somewhat +misstated the nature of his intimacy with Mme. Tron. In each of these +cases it was his object to put himself in as favourable a light as +possible face to face with Gratarol, first by making it appear that he +was ten years or so younger than his actual age when he began the +liaison with Mme. Ricci, and secondly by slurring over the fact of a +partial collusion with Gratarol's deadly enemy. It would take up too +much space to expand the arguments by which I have arrived at these +conclusions; but the notes to my translation will make each point clear +in its proper place. + +On the whole, Gozzi strikes me as rather inclined to the vices of too +open speech and cynicism than to those of dissimulation and hypocrisy. +He can hardly have been a lovable man. His language about his mother +proves that. She treated him ill, it is true, and gave him but a scanty +share of her maternal kindness. Yet this does not justify the freezing +sarcasms with which he refers to her. They are no doubt humorous, but +their humour is of a savage kind. Toward the rest of his family he +behaved with fairness, candour, and uprightness. He devoted himself to +the task of repairing their ruined fortunes, and discharged the duties +of solicitor and estate-agent for all of them through a long series of +years. He bore their bad tempers and frivolities with good-humoured +contempt, and did not even resent being satirised by Gasparo in a comedy +upon the public stage of Venice. Gasparo, his weak but genial elder +brother, he truly loved, although, with characteristic acidity, he +always lets us understand what a poor creature he was. Women had not the +privilege of being highly appreciated by Gozzi. He treats them in all +his writings as inferior creatures, and exposes their frailties with +ruthless severity. Either he only knew the worst side of the fair sex, +or was incapable of seeing the best. To men he shows himself more just +and sympathetic. Though he made but few intimate friends, these remained +firmly attached to him till death. + +We must divest our minds of the false conception of Gozzi's character +with which Paul de Musset hoaxed the French critics and Vernon Lee. He +was no dramatic dreamer and abstract visionary, but a keen hard-headed +man of business, caustic in speech and stubborn in act, adhering +tenaciously to his opinions and his rights, acidly and sardonically +humorous, eccentric, but fully aware of his eccentricities, and apt to +use them as the material of burlesque humour. Nobody would have laughed +more loudly at De Musset's fancy picture of his fairy-haunted palace +than Gozzi would have done, or have more keenly relished the joke of +turning his practical self into a sprite-tormented idealist.[18] + +The Memoirs lie now before English readers, and Carlo Gozzi will be +known to them for the first time--certainly for the first time as he +really was. It is not necessary, therefore, to spin out this +introduction. Otherwise, it would have been interesting to compare the +portraits painted of themselves by those four eminent Italian +contemporaries--Goldoni, Gozzi, Casanova, and Alfieri. Four characters +more diverse in quality, and more admirably placed upon the literary +canvas, could hardly, I think, be found in any other nation or in any +other century. + +[Illustration: THE + +ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE, OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY] + + + + +Part II. + +_THE ITALIAN COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE OR IMPROMPTU COMEDY._ + + 1. A brief sketch of the origins of written comedy during the + Italian Renaissance--Its dependence upon Latin models.--2. Further + description of the so-called _Commedia Erudita_.--3. Emergence of + dialectical literature in Italy during the period of the Catholic + reaction--Improvised comedy begins to supersede the written drama + of the Renaissance.--4. Farces at Naples and Florence--The Sienese + company of I Rozzi--The Paduan Beolco--The four principal + masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella.--5. Relation + of modern impromptu comedy to the old Latin comedy of mimes and + exodia--the Osci Ludi, Fescennini Verses, Satura, &c.--In what + sense the modern masks are descended from those antique + elements--Infusion of fixed characters adopted from the plays of + Plautus and Terence.--6. Lombard, Neapolitan, Florentine + ingredients in the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Lasca's carnival song of + the Zanni and Magnifichi about the year 1550.--7. A review of the + principal masks and their subordinate species, as these were + finally developed--Modifications introduced into the masks, or + fixed parts, of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, by men of genius who + supported them.--8. The plots and subjects of improvised + comedies--Buffoonery and indecency.--9. Description of the scenari + or plays in outline which were acted impromptu by the comic + companies--Method of concerting a comedy and distributing its + parts--The function of the Capo Comico.--10. Qualifications of a + good impromptu comedian--Stock repertories, commonplaces, speeches + to be introduced on set occasions, soliloquies, &c.--The Lazzi or + sallies of buffoonery and byeplay--Tendency to degeneration in this + improvisatory art of comedy.--11. European celebrity of the Italian + comedians--In Paris, Spain, Portugal, London--References to + Italian companies in England during the sixteenth century.--12. The + decadence of the _Commedia dell' Arte_--Moral and artistic germs of + dissolution--Goldoni's severe criticism--Garzoni's description of + strolling actors, and their association with quacks, mountebanks, + and clowns. + + +I. + +The history of the Italian theatre is closely connected with the history +of the Classical Revival.[19] The literary drama--as distinguished from +performances by tumblers, mimes, and masquers, from sacred plays and +from plebeian farces--began with the representation of Latin tragedies +and comedies. At the close of the fifteenth century it was usual to +crown courtly festivals with scenic recitations of favourite pieces by +Terence and Plautus. Rome vied with Florence, Venice with Naples, +Ferrara with Urbino, in the magnificence of these spectacles. At a time +when humanistic erudition formed the main preoccupation of society, and +when to be illiterate was unfashionable, princes and great prelates +afforded their guests the refined amusement of seeing the _Menoechmi_ +or _Amphitryon_, the _Eunuchus_ or _Miles Gloriosus_, on their private +stages. At the same time, obeying the decorative instinct of the +Renaissance, they set these jewels of classical antiquity in arabesques +of the richest and most fantastic workmanship. Allegorical masques, +dances with musical accompaniment and pantomimic interludes, were +interposed between each of the five acts, enhancing the simplicity of +the Roman plays and gratifying the vulgar by an appeal to their senses. +These hybrid spectacles, eminently characteristic of Italian taste in +the age which produced them, contained the germs of several dramatic +species, afterwards known as the _Commedia Erudita_, the pastoral play, +the ballet, and the opera. Meanwhile Italian literature, stimulated and +powerfully influenced by humanism, acquired independence; and the +comedies of Plautus and Terence were translated and performed in the +vernacular. During the last years of the fifteenth century these +translations began to take the place of the originals upon the temporary +stages of princely patrons. As yet there were no public theatres. + +Such, briefly sketched, was the origin of Italian comedy; and the +specific character of the _Commedia Erudita_, or written comedy of the +sixteenth century, may be ascribed to the peculiar conditions out of +which it grew. The genius of men like Ariosto, Machiavelli, and Aretino +never wholly freed the form they handled from subservience to Latin +models. It remained, in spite of their close imitation of contemporary +life and their audacious realism, a sub-species of that dramatic art +which the Romans adapted to their uses from the new comedy of the Attic +stage. + + +II. + +The first attempts at national Italian comedy were the _Calandra_ of +Bibbiena and Ariosto's _Cassaria_. The former appeared at Urbino between +1503 and 1508; the latter, in its earlier prose form, at Ferrara in +1508. During the next fifty years a large number of comedies were +produced by a great variety of authors. Men of letters like Machiavelli, +Cecchi, Dolce, and Il Lasca, men of fashion like Lorenzino de'Medici, +philosophers like Bruno, free lances of the pen like Aretino and Doni, +artisans like Gelli, devoted themselves to this species of composition. +The type remained fixed, although some notable exceptions, especially in +the case of Aretino's plays, arrest attention. Taking the intrigue of +Latin comedy for their ground material, these playwrights adapted it to +conditions of Italian society. The avaricious father, the cunning +courtesan, the parasite, the slave merchant, the swaggering soldier, the +young spendthrift in love with a virgin of unknown parentage, the astute +serving-man, the faithless wife, the pedant, the cynical priest or +friar, the vicious old man in his dotage, the reckless adventurer, the +pirate, the country-girl exposed to the corruptions of the town; such +are the stock characters of this dramatic hybrid. Everywhere we find the +plots of Terence or of Plautus interwoven with a Novella in the style +of Boccaccio. As in Latin comedy, the knot is frequently loosed by +unexpected discoveries of lost relatives; and the magnificent realism +with which contemporary manners are depicted, clashes too often with the +stiff and antiquated _ossatura_, or dramatic mechanism, to which the +authors felt themselves obliged by fashion to adhere. From hints in +prologues and prefaces we are able to discern that playwrights chafed +against these traditional limitations of the _Commedia Erudita_. + +Aretino, as I have just observed, broke the fetters of convention, and +presented scenes of pure Italian life; but his plays were too hastily +composed or ill-constructed to start a new style. The originality of +Machiavelli in his _Mandragora_ was not of the sort to encourage a +departure from the beaten track. Like many other masterpieces of Italian +art, the _Mandragora_ stands forth by itself, a sole inimitable monument +of genius; peculiar and personal; accomplished by one single act of +vigorous expression. Before a really national species of written comedy +emerged into distinctness from the _Commedia Erudita_, the literary +impulse of the Renaissance began to decline, and the Italians in the +middle of the sixteenth century entered upon that new phase of +intellectual evolution which is marked by the Tridentine Council and the +subsequent metamorphosis of Catholicism. + + +III. + +One prominent feature of this transitional epoch was the reappearance of +popular forms of art and literature in Italy. The Italian provinces had +retained their local characteristics with undiminished vitality through +centuries of civic conflict and the dominance of humanistic culture. Now +that this culture was decaying, each district and each city contributed +some novelty of its own local vintage. Things which had been overgrown +and screened by scholarship put forth their native vigour. A rich jungle +of dialectical poetry sprouted from long-hidden roots. Men of birth and +breeding began to pique themselves upon the use of their provincial +language. A polite public, tired perhaps of too much polish, yielded to +the charm of realism. The habits of the peasantry and artisans were +transmitted to writing by educated pens. Scenic representations of a +simple character, which had formed the delight of villagers from time +immemorial, claimed the attention of learned coteries. Farces and +morris-dances became fashionable. The buffoons and mimes and masquers, +against whom the Church had fulminated in the Middle Ages, and whom the +scholars of the Revival looked down upon with condescending indulgence, +now lifted up their heads. Suddenly, by an imperceptible process of +development, which it is impossible to trace in all its stages, Italy +found herself in possession of what looked like a novel type of comedy. +This improvised comedy, or _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we must henceforth +call it, was not really new.[20] On the contrary, the elements out of +which it sprang were among the oldest, most vital, most national +possessions of the race. Yet it was due to the peculiar conditions of +the last years of the Renaissance, to the reaction against exhausted +forms of artificial literature, and to the fresh interest in dialects, +that this hitherto neglected plaything of the proletariate assumed a +rare and bizarre shape of beauty. The Italians, still capable of +exquisite artistic creation, had just now lost their liking for the +_Commedia Erudita_. Public theatres were beginning to be built. These +naturally introduced a more popular tone into the drama. Spectacles were +adapted to the taste of a mixed audience. Improvised comedy succeeded to +the heritage of written comedy. This younger daughter of Thalia invested +the motley characters and masks of her invention with the cast-off +mantle of her elder sister. She entered the sphere of the fine arts by +continuing the tradition of Italian comedy upon an altered system, and +with novel elements of humour. + +To talk of younger and elder with reference to these two types of comedy +involves some confusion of ideas. Nothing is more significant of Italy +than the antiquity and complexity of all the forms of art which +flourished there. The _Commedia Erudita_, as we have seen, was derived +from Latin, and through Latin from Athenian sources. The _Commedia dell' +Arte_ had an even longer pedigree than this. In a powerfully mimetic +race like the Italians, the rudiments out of which it was constructed +were, as we shall see, indigenous. Before Rome rose upon the Tiber, the +comedy of masks and improvisation had, in some shape or other, amused +the people. The fall of the Empire, the formation of the Christian +polity, the centuries of the Middle Ages, the culture of the +Renaissance, did not extirpate it. Though we know but little of its +history during that long period, there is every reason to believe that +the elements which gave it individuality survived all changes. To this +topic I shall have to return. For the present, it is enough to point out +that the blending of the vulgar improvised comedy of vintage festivals +and market-places with what remained of polite written comedy after the +middle of the sixteenth century, determined the _Commedia dell' Arte_, +considered as a specific and strongly marked type of dramatic art. In +this sense, and in this sense only, it may be denominated the younger +sister of the _Commedia Erudita_. + + +IV. + +Farces formed a popular species of entertainment all through the years +of the Renaissance. At Naples they had the name of _Coviole_, at +Florence of _Farse_. The playwright Cecchi has left us several specimens +of the written _Farsa_, together with a general description of the type, +which proves it to have been not unlike the earliest of our own romantic +plays.[21] A company formed itself at Siena, called I Rozzi, for the +representation of rustic farces. Composed of artisans and mechanics, +this company acquired such celebrity that Leo X. invited them in 1517 to +the Vatican; and their influence must be reckoned in the evolution of +the new Italian drama. A Paduan actor and playwright also deserves +mention here. Angelo Beolco, born in 1502, made himself known upon the +stage as Il Ruzzante, or the Frolic. He wrote rustic comedies with +simple plots, distinguished by their realistic humour and their strong +incisive pathos; and created the ideal character of the peasant or Il +Villano. Beolco formed a school in the Venetian provinces, and died in +1542.[22] + +Such are some of the traces we possess of a dramatic type in growth, +which, after the middle of the sixteenth century, obtained predominance +in Italy. It is not possible, however, for the critical historian to +explain the several steps whereby the _Commedia dell' Arte_ arrived at +maturity. Like Harlequin, bounding from the sides and capering before +the footlights, this new species makes a sudden apparition. We find it +in full energy, possessing the public theatres and claiming the +attention of all classes, at the close of the cinque cento. Described +briefly, this comedy trusted to the improvisatory talent of trained +actors and made use of masks. Companies were formed under the direction +of a _Capocomico_, who took his name from one of the masks. Their stock +in trade was a collection of plays in outline, _scenari_ or _plats_ (to +use an old English phrase),[23] which the troupe studied under the +direction of their leader. The development of the intrigue by dialogue +and action was left to the native wit of the several players, and the +performance varied according to the personal qualities of the members +who composed the company. The masks or fixed characters were derived +from all provinces of Italy, and represented types peculiar to each +district.[24] Venice contributed Pantalone; Bologna lent the Dottore; +Bergamo supplied the two Zanni--Arlecchino and Brighella; Naples gave +Pulcinella, Tartaglia, and the Captain. Tuscany made up the characters +of the comedy with the soubrette and lovers. These Tuscan personages +were unmasked and spoke Florentine Italian.[25] The masks reproduced +their native dialects.[26] Like Harlequin in his coat of many colours, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ wore motley. Displacing the literary drama, +which reduced contemporary life in Italy to the conventional standard of +classical Rome or Athens, this new drama brought into salience local +oddities and notes of provincial eccentricity. The masks were permanent; +yet they admitted of genial handling, since these parts in the comedy +were rarely written, and every fresh sustainer of a mask had the +opportunity of impressing his own individuality upon the type he +represented.[27] In this way, as will soon appear, each mask multiplied +and made a hundred. Plasticity and adaptability were the essential +qualities of a dramatic species which relied on improvisation, and had +only the unwritten code of immemorial tradition. + + +V. + +At this point it is necessary to inquire into the relation between the +modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_ and the old Italian comedy of mimes +and _exodia_. Much has been written, with meagre and dubious results, +about the origins of the Latin drama. One thing, however, appears +certain, after shaking the dust from ponderous tomes of erudition. The +Romans, like the modern Italians, had their _Commedia Erudita_ and +_Commedia dell' Arte_. Of the two species, in classical times as +afterwards, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was indigenous and popular, the +_Commedia Erudita_ derived and literary. The latter, whether it affected +Greek manners, as in the so-called _Fabula palliata_, or Roman manners, +as in the so-called _Fabula togata_, remained in the hands of scholarly +authors and serious actors (_histriones_). The former had its natural +origin in popular habits, and only at a comparatively late period +submitted to regular artistic treatment. It was represented by masked +buffoons, _Sanniones_, _Planipedes_, _Stupidi_, and so forth. We hear of +_Osci ludi_ and _Fescennini versus_, the former pointing to Campania and +the vintage, the latter to Etruria and village sports.[28] The _Satura_, +which seems to have been an offshoot from the _Fescennina_, corresponded +pretty closely to what we now call farce, and eventually developed into +the _exodia_ or _hors d'oeuvre_ of the later Roman theatre.[29] Out of +these indigenous elements, but with special relation to the _Osci ludi_, +grew a literary form of comedy which obtained the name of _Atellana_. It +is supposed to have originated in the Oscan city of Atella, close to +Acerra, Pulcinella's birthplace. In all these native forms of drama, +dialects were spoken and masks were used; and this is a main point of +connection between them and the modern Italian _Commedia dell' Arte_. +Another feature in common is the rank realism and open obscenity which +marked the humours of both species. + +Among the ancient Roman masks four types are known to us by +name--_Maccus_, a Protean fool or Harlequin; _Bucco_, a garrulous clown +or blockhead; _Pappus_, a miserly, amorous, befooled old man; +_Dossenus_, a moralising charlatan. We also hear of the _Stupidus_ and +_Morio, Manducus_, a notable glutton, and the _Sanniones_, so called +possibly from their grin. + +Further familiarity with the modern _Commedia dell' Arte_ will make it +clear how tempting it is to conjecture a direct transmission of these +Roman masks from ancient to modern times. Maccus and Bucco bear a strong +resemblance to the two Zanni. The very word Zanni seems to suggest +Sanniones; although it is probably derived from the Bergamasque name for +a varlet--Jack; Zanni being a contraction of Giovanni. Pappus looks +uncommonly like Pantalone, and Dossenus like the Dottore. The _Stupidus_ +has an air of our clown or Mezzettino or Il Villano. Manducus might be +any glutton with a huge pair of champing jaws. Yet nothing could be more +uncritical than to assume that the Italian masks of the sixteenth +century A.D. boasted an uninterrupted descent from the Roman masks of +the fifth century B.C. That assumption closes our eyes to a far more +interesting aspect of the phenomenon. The fact seems to be that ancient +and modern Italy possessed the same mimetic faculty and used it in the +same fashion. The peasants of modern Tuscany indulged in their +Fescennine jibes, stained themselves with wine-lees, and jumped through +bonfires, like their most remote ancestors.[30] The grape-gatherers of +modern Nola and Capua ridiculed their neighbours with obscene jests, and +pranked themselves in travesty, like the earliest Oscans or the first +colonists from Hellas.[31] Out of the same persistent habits emerged the +same kind of native drama; and just as the Atellanae of ancient Rome +eventually brought the comedy of the proletariate upon the public stage +in cities, so at the close of the sixteenth century the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ worked up the rudiments of popular farce and satire into a new +form which delighted Europe for two hundred years. + +Many details derived from the _Commedia Erudita_ rendered the +resemblance between the modern improvised drama and the vernacular +comedy of ancient Rome superficially striking. The conventional +characters of Plautus and Terence, the _senex_, the _servus_, the +_meretrix_, the _mango_, the _ancilla_, the _miles gloriosus_, and the +_parasitus_ reappeared. In truth, this peculiar and highly complex +hybrid combined strains of manifold varieties. Upon the wild and native +briar, which in former times produced the _Osci ludi_, _Fescennini +versus_, and _Satura_, and which went on living its own natural life +beneath the drums and tramplings of so many conquests, was now grafted +the cultivated rose of the _Commedia Erudita_. This, in its turn, +contained elements of the _Fabula palliata and togata_. The result was a +species eminently characteristic of sixteenth-century Italy, and similar +to the Atellan farces of the Romans. + + +VI. + +The _Commedia dell' Arte_ yields, upon analysis, three chief component +factors. The four leading masks, Arlecchino and Brighella, Pantalone and +Il Dottore, came respectively from Bergamo, Venice, and Bologna. These +were the contribution of Northern Italy. Pulcinella, Tartaglia, +Coviello, and the Captain came from Naples. They were subsidiary +characters of great importance, contributed by the South. The lovers, +_primo amoroso_ and _prima amorosa_, upon whose adventures the intrigue +turned, and the _Servetta_, came from Tuscany, or rather from the +tradition of written comedy, which adhered to the literary Italian +tongue. If priority in time is to be sought for any of these factors, we +must look to Lombardy. The four masks which were indispensable to this +dramatic species, and which survived all its vicissitudes, had an +undoubted Lombardo-Venetian origin. The Neapolitan masks were +superadded, and the Tuscan intrigue formed little more than a +conventional framework for the humours of the fixed characters. Scarcity +of documents makes it impossible to speak with absolute authority on any +of these points; yet we have good reason to credit the tradition which +connects the origin of the _Commedia dell' Arte_ with Northern Italy. + +A carnival song, composed by Anton-Francesco Grazzini, called Il Lasca, +at Florence some time before the year 1559, throws light upon the +subject.[32] It is entitled "Canto di Zanni e Magnifichi." The Magnifico +corresponded to Pantalone; and I need not repeat that the Zanni were +best known as Arlecchino and Brighella. Lasca makes it clear in this +poem that the Lombard masks were strangers to Tuscany, and that they +performed comedies upon a public stage:[33] + + "_Facendo il Bergamasco e il Veneziano,_ + _N'andiamo in ogni parte,_ + _E'l recitar commedie e la nostra arte._" + +He also shows how the buffoon parts in these plays were interwoven with +the intrigue of the regular drama: + + "E Zanni tutti siamo, + Recitatori eccellenti e perfetti; + Gli altri strioni eletti, + Amanti, Donne, Romiti e Soldati, + Alla stanza per guardia son restati." + +Furthermore, he lets us know that acting was combined with dancing and +mountebank performances, and drops the information that women in +Florence were not allowed to attend the theatres where Zanni played: + + "Commedie nuove abbiam composte in guisa + Che quando recitar le sentirete, + Morrete delle risa, + Tanto son belle, giocose, e facete; + E dopo ancor vedrete + Una danza ballar sopra la scena, + Di varj e nuovi giuochi tutta piena." + +It is therefore obvious that, at the middle of the sixteenth century, +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ had already taken shape and earned popularity. +The companies who introduced it into Tuscany were recognised as hailing +from Bergamo and Venice. Before another fifty years had passed away, +this species absorbed the attention of Italy, adopted elements from +every district, and settled down into a definite form of comedy, which +lasted until the period of Goldoni's reform of the stage. It culminated +about the middle of the seventeenth century, and maintained a high +degree of excellence during the first half of the eighteenth. But when +Goldoni attacked it, and Gozzi rose in its defence, the type was already +on the wane. Depending, as any kind of improvised drama must necessarily +do, upon the personal talents of successive actors, the _Commedia dell' +Arte_ died of inanition when theatrical genius was diverted into other +channels.[34] Originality of humour then yielded to conventional +buffoonery. The masks became more and more stereotyped, more and more +insipid. Were it not for Gozzi's _Fiabe_, we should hardly be able to +form a conception of the part they actually played for two centuries in +Europe. + + +VII. + +Let us watch the carnival procession of the masks defile before us. We +may imagine that they are crossing the stage of a theatre, while we sit +idle in our stalls. First comes Pantalone, the worthy Venetian merchant, +good-hearted, shrewd, and canny, yet preserving a certain child-like +simplicity, which long acquaintance with the world has not +contaminated. His full title is Pantalone de'Bisognosi. Sometimes he is +called Il Magnifico, sometimes Babilonio; and old tradition gives a +singular derivation for his name of Pantalone. Instead of having +anything to do with the Saint called Pantaleone, he ought really to be +known as Piantaleone, or Plant-the-lion. In fact, he is one of those +patriotic _cittadini_ who, partly out of zeal for S. Mark and partly +with a view to commerce, were reputed to hoist flags with the Venetian +lion waving to the breeze on every rock and barren headland of Levantine +waters.[35] Pantalone wears a black mantle, woollen cap, short trousers, +socks and slippers of bright red. A black domino conceals half of his +face. He is sometimes a bachelor, but more frequently a widower with one +daughter, who engrosses all his time and care. Easy-going indulgence for +the foibles of his neighbours, combined with homely mother-wit, is the +fundamental note of his character. But as time goes on, he degenerates, +dotes, yields to senile vices. At last he becomes the shuffling +slippered Pantaloon of our Christmas pantomimes.[36] + +After Pantaloon walks the Doctor in his Bologna gown; a hideous black +mask covers his whole face, smudged with red patches, like skin-disease +or wine-stains, on the cheeks. He is Graziano, Baloardo Graziano, or +Prudentio, and has a kind of bastard brother called the Dottor Balanzon +Lombardo. Boasting his D.C.L. or M.D. or LL.D. degree from the august +University, Graziano makes a vast parade of learning. _Bononia docet_ is +always on his lips or in his thoughts; yet he cannot open his mouth +without letting fall some palpable absurdity. Law jargon, quibbles, +quiddities, preposterous syllogisms, fragments of distorted Latin, +misapplied quotations from the Pandects, mingle with metaphysics, +astrology, and physical chimaeras about the spheres and elements and +humours, in his talk. He is a walking caricature of learning, and the +low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes +of erudition. To sustain this mask with spirit taxed the genius of a +comedian. He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber +always ready, to blunder with wit and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the +whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases. + +Pantalone and the Doctor were only half-masks; that is to say, they held +something in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, +and took a decided part in the action of the play. As the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ coalesced with the _Commedia Erudita_, they approached more +and more nearly to the type of the _senes_ in Latin comedy. The present +generation has seen them both in Rossini's _Barbiere di Siviglia_. + +Next come the two Zanni. These are thorough-going masks; twin-brothers +from the country-side of Bergamo, strongly contrasted in their +characters, yet holding certain points in common.[37] First comes +Arlecchino, the eldest and most typical of Italian masks, and the one +who has preserved its outlines to the present day. His party-coloured, +tight-fitting suit reproduces the rags and patches of a rustic servant. +On his head is a little round cap, with a tuft made out of a hare's or +rabbit's scut. He is always on the move, light-headed, gluttonous, gay, +pliable, credulous, ingenuously naive and silly. The glittering +ubiquitous Harlequin of our pantomimes transforms him into a mute +ballet-dancer; but when the type was created, Arlecchino spoke and +amused the audience as much by his absurdities and uncouth jokes as by +his perpetual mobility. + +Time would fail to tell of the infinite modifications which this type +assumed under the hands of successive able actors. Truffaldino, the +delight of Venice, Zaccagnino, Trivellino, Mestolino, Bagattino, +Guazzetto, Stoppino, Burattino, and the idiotic Mezzettino, were all +descended from this parent stock. + +Side by side with Arlecchino goes his more astute and knavish brother +Brighella. He is also Bergamasque of the purest breed. But he holds +something from the Davus and Geta of Latin comedy. He is the roguish, +clever, cowardly, pimping servant of the young spendthrift, who helps +his master to deceive his father and seduce his neighbour's wife or +daughter. Brighella wears a loose white shirt trimmed with green, and +wide white trousers. On his head is a conical hat, plumed with red +feathers, which yields place in course of time to the white cap of our +clowns. His mask is brown, cut off above the upper lip, over which a +pair of short moustachios bristle. Like Arlecchino, Brighella gave birth +to a great variety of assimilated types. Unscrupulous Pedrolino, +Beltramo, Bagolino, Frontino, Sganarello, Mascarillo, Figaro, Finocchio, +Fantino, Gradellino, Traccagnino are his more or less legitimate +offspring. He enters French comedy under the names of Scapin, +Sganarelle, and Frontin. He creates a character of opera with Figaro. +Unlike Arlecchino, who becomes at last a silent ballet-dancer, Brighella +grows more vocal and distinct as time advances, until, in the plays of +Moliere and Beaumarchais, he is hardly distinguishable from a _servus_ +of Latin comedy modernised. Indeed, just as Pantalone and Il Dottore +approximate to the _senes_, so Arlecchino and Brighella shade off into +the _servi_; and all their countless progeny are variations on the theme +of stupid or roguish varlets. + +The four main masks, with their attendant groups of subordinates, have +passed before us; but a multitude whom no man can number and no words +can describe press on from behind. Perhaps the first place should be +given to the _Servetta_. Her names are legion. Colombina, the sweetheart +of Arlecchino and Pulcinella, Rosetta, Florentine Pasquella, Argentina, +Diamantina, Venetian Smeraldina, Saporita, Carmosina; under all her +titles, and with every shade of character ascribed to her by the free +handling of successive actresses, she remains the sprightly, witty, +shifty pendant to the Zanni.[38] Not a true mask, however; for the +Servetta wears her own face and form, only assuming the costume and +dialect of the region she prefers to hail from. Like her lover +Arlecchino, Colombina underwent a long series of transformations before +she became the fairy-like being who flits behind the footlights of our +theatres on winter evenings. And, like Brighella, written comedy blended +her with the fixed characters of drama under the name of the soubrette. +Susanna in the _Nozze di Figaro_ is a familiar example of Colombina in +her latest dramatic development. + +[Illustration: COLOMBINA (1683) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The _Servette_ in their many-coloured _Contadina_ dresses have +passed by. Close upon their heels press forward a chattering grimacing +group from Naples. Pulcinella leads the way, for he must still keep +Colombina in sight. In him, far more than in Arlecchino, the genius of a +nation lives incarnate; and this he partly owes to a poor artisan of +Naples, Francesco Cerlone, who fixed the type with inimitable humour in +the last century.[39] Pulcinella has had whole volumes written on his +pedigree. Some authors find him depicted on the walls of Pompeii; others +trace him in statuettes and masks of antiquity. The one point which +seems to be certain is, that he made his appearance on the public stage +toward the end of the sixteenth century, wearing the white shirt and +breeches of a rustic from Acerra. His black mask, long nose, humpback, +protruding stomach, dagger and truncheon, were later additions. Whatever +connection there may be between Pulcinella and the masks of classical +antiquity--and I have already attempted to show how I think that +connection ought to be conceived[40]--he was, at his debut, regarded as +the type of a Campanian villager, established at Naples in the quality +of servant. Pulcinella is thus the Southern analogue of Bergamasque +Brighella and Arlecchino. Gradually he absorbed the humours of the +Neapolitan proletariate, and became the burlesque mirror of their +manners and ways of thinking. Time's whirligig has made him the hero of +our puppet-shows, and he enjoys cosmopolitan celebrity under the name of +Punch. + +Coviello goes along with him, a Calabrian mask, which was sustained with +applause by Salvator Rosa at Rome. He belongs to the buffoon class, and +is distinguished by his mandoline and ballad-singing. After him walks +Tartaglia, afflicted with an incurable stammer, which renders his +magisterial airs and graces ludicrous. Tartaglia has something in him of +the Doctor; but this part lent itself to great varieties of treatment. +We shall see what play Gozzi made with it. + +But now our ears are deafened with a clash of arms, rumbling of drums, +pistol-shots, and shouted execrations. A fantastic extravagant troop of +soldiers march upon the stage. At their head goes the swaggering +Capitano. He is a Spaniard, armed to the teeth, loaded with outlandish +weapons, twirling huge moustachios, frowning, swearing, boasting, +quarrelling, thieving, wenching, and shrinking into corners when he +meets a man of courage. Sometimes he affects the melancholy grandeur of +Don Quixote. Sometimes he leans to the garrulity of Bobadil. Sometimes +he assumes the serious ferocity of a brigand chief or the haughty +punctiliousness of a hidalgo. Still he remains at bottom the caricature +of professional soldiers, as they plagued and infested Italy under the +Spanish domination. His language soars into the wildest hyperboles and +euphuisms. He cannot speak without new-coined oaths and frothy metaphors +and vaunts that shake heaven, earth, and sea. But the slightest trial of +his valour breaks the bubble, and he cringes like a whipped hound. + +The Capitano talked a mixture of Neapolitan and Spanish. His part, which +required to be sustained at a high pitch of burlesque upon a single note +of bragging insolence, was not unfrequently written, and none of these +fixed characters assumed more stereotyped outlines. The _Miles +Gloriosus_ of Latin comedy reappeared in him, and helped to mould the +modern type. The ramifications of this character were innumerable. A +celebrated actor, Francesco Andreini (born at Pistoja in 1548), helped +to create its form. He called himself "Capitan Spavento da Valle +Inferna." Then followed Ariararche, Diacatolicon, Leucopigo and +Melampigo (white and black buttocks), Coccodrillo, Matamoros, +Scaramuccia (created by Tiberio Fiorelli of Naples), Fracassa, +Rinoceronte, Giangiurgolo, Bombardon, Meo Squaquara, Spezzaferro, +Terremoto. The list might be prolonged until the page was filled. Every +variety of the burlesque son of Mars, from a delicate Adonis to a +fire-eater, obtained impersonation from one or other able sustainer of +the part. And a host of minor bastard braggarts, like the Trasteverine +Meo Patacco, perpetuated the fun long after the great Capitano had +quitted the public stage. Some of these types survive in literature. +Scaramouche is known to us, and Gautier has immortalised Fracasse. + +In the rabble which follows this noisy band of warriors we discern +several buffoons of the long-robed tribe--Neapolitan Pancrazio, +Biscegliese, and Cucuzzietto, Sienese Cassandro and Roman +Cassandrino--who have more or less affinity with the Dottore. Il Pedante +walks apart, and attracts attention by his Maccaronic Latin and +eccentric morals. He has the poems of Fidenzio Glottogrysio in his +hands, which he presses on the attention of a smooth-chinned pupil.[41] +Don Fastidio distinguishes himself from the vulgar herd by his enormous +nose, and lantern jaws, and long lean figure, and preposterous citations +from the law reports of Naples. Cavicchio tells silly tales and sings +his Norcian songs. Il Desavedo burlesques the "dude" of Parma, and +Narcisino plays the "masher" of Bologna to the life. Burattino comes +upon the stage in a score of disguises, now gardener, now shopkeeper, +now valet, always the fool and knave combined, impostor and imposed +on.[42] The Notajo, with huge spectacles upon his nose and swan's quill +stuck behind his spreading ears, murmuring a nasal drawl, and tripping +himself up at every step in his long skirts, leads up the rear. +Rope-dancers, ballerini, Pasquarielli, Pierrots, conclude the show, +dancing and pirouetting after their more vocal comrades. + +It is impossible, in a sketch like this, to do justice to the manifold +and motley crowd of the Italian masks. Even Callot, whose burin has +bequeathed to us so many salient portraits of the types he saw in +action, leaves the imagination cold. As I have remarked above, the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ combined fixity of outline in the masks with +illimitable plasticity in the details communicated by the genius and +personality of their sustainers. The mask, the traditional character, +was something which a comedian assumed; but he dealt with it as he found +it suited to his physical and mental qualities. Each distinguished actor +re-created the part he represented. The improvised extempore rule of the +game allowed him boundless license. Therefore, while the masks +persisted, they varied with the men who wore them. Arlecchino became +Truffaldino in the hands of Antonio Sacchi. The Capitano appeared as +Scaramuccia in the person of Tiberio Fiorelli. Parts crossed and +intercrossed. Pulcinella borrowed something from Arlecchino; Brighella +patched himself with rags from Coviello's wardrobe. The dialect and +local humours of South Italy were engrafted on types conventionalised +in Lombard provinces. Tuscany took them up, and added her own biting +wit. As in a kaleidoscope, the constituent fragments of the changeful +whole assumed shapes and forms of infinite variety by clever shifting of +each particle. Each company established for the performance of this +comedy gave a fresh nuance to the combinations which the show permitted. +In each district it adopted a new local colour. The mask was recognised; +the man who wore it was expected to remodel it upon himself. Folk came +to the theatres, less to see the masks, than to see how an Andreini or a +D'Arbes or a Costantini or a Riccoboni would sustain them. We who have +lost the men, and lost well-nigh the memory of their performance, cannot +hope to reconstruct the comedy in its entirety. Histrionic art always +and everywhere suffers from the ephemeral conditions under which it has +to be externalised. But this disadvantage is crushing in the case of an +art which was left to the spontaneous creativeness of its great +representatives. + + +VIII. + +Intrigue of a simple kind formed the staple of these improvised +comedies. Anything like refined studies of character or the development +of calculated motives was rendered impossible by the conditions under +which they were presented to the public. An artist pleased or displeased +by the exhibition of his personality in masquerade, and his creation of +a shade of difference for some known type. The plot, whether borrowed +from the written drama, from Latin plays, or from the gossip of the +market-place, was always of an amorous complexion. Fathers, lovers, +guardians, varlets, priests, and panders played their parts in it. The +action proceeded by means of disguises, sleeping-potions, changelings, +pirates, sudden recognitions of lost relatives, phantoms, demoniacal +possessions, burlesque exorcisms, shipwrecks, sacks of cities, bandits, +kidnapped children. It is singular in what a narrow circle the machinery +revolves. Unlike our own Romantic drama, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ made +but few excursions into the regions of history, fable, mythology, and +fancy. Its scene was an Italian piazza; and though we hear of thrilling +adventures by land and sea, in forest and on fell, these are only used +to loose a knot or to elucidate the transformation of some personage. We +ought not to marvel at the limitations of this drama. They are explained +by that close connection, on which I have already insisted, between the +_Commedia dell' Arte_ and the _Commedia Erudita_. The new comedy +supplied little but its masks; and these masks, as we have seen, were +types of bourgeois and rustic characters, capable of infinite +modification within prescribed boundaries. The end in view was not the +delectation of the audience by a scenic drama, but the caricature and +travesty of life as it appeared to every one. That caricature, executed +with inexhaustible finesse and piquant sallies of fresh personality, +accommodated itself to the antiquated framework of plots as old as +Plautus. + +If the _Commedia dell' Arte_ lacked fancy and invention in its +ground-themes, this defect was compensated by audacious realism and +Gargantuan humour. The indecency of these plays cannot be described. Men +and women appeared naked on the stage. Unmentionable vices were boldly +paraded. Buffoonery of the vilest description enhanced the finest +strokes of burlesque sarcasm. Actors who created types which made the +spirit of a nation live in effigy, condescended to tricks unworthy of a +Yahoo. We have to accept the species, not as a branch of the legitimate +drama, but as a carnival masquerade, in which humanity ran riot, jeering +at its own indignities and foibles. + + +IX. + +The stock in trade of an acting company consisted of some scores of +plots in outline. Gozzi, writing in the eighteenth century, calculates +that there may have been from three hundred to four hundred dramatic +situations.[43] We possess a certain number of these scenari, as they +were technically called Flaminio Scala published a collection of fifty +in his _Teatro delle Favole Rappresentative_ (Venetia, 1611). The titles +of about one hundred others survive from the archives of Basilio +Locatelli and Domenico Biancolelli, incorporated in eighteenth-century +histories of the Italian stage. The records of the theatres where +Italians played at Paris supply titles of another set, and a few have +been disinterred from miscellaneous sources. Quite recently a complete +collection of well-formed _scenari_ was given to the press by Signor +Adolfo Bartoli from a Magliabecchian MS. of the last century.[44] It +contains twenty-two pieces. + +Comparative study of these _scenari_ shows that the whole comedy was +planned out, divided into acts and scenes, the parts of the several +personages described in prose, their entrances and exits indicated, and +what they had to do laid down in detail. The execution was left to the +actors; and it is difficult to form a correct conception of the acted +play from the dry bones of its _ossatura._ "Only one thing afflicts me," +said our Marston in the preface to his _Malcontent_: "to think that +scenes invented merely to be spoken, should be inforcively published to +be read." And again, in his preface to the _Fawne_, "Comedies are writ +to be spoken, not read; remember the life of these things consists in +action." If that was true of pieces composed in dialogue by an English +playwright of the Elizabethan age, how far more true is it of the +skeletons of comedies, which avowedly owed their force and spirit to +extemporaneous talent! Reading them, we feel that we are viewing the +machine of stakes and irons which a sculptor sets up before he begins to +mould the figure of an athlete or a goddess in plastic clay.[45] + +The _scenario_, like the _plat_ described for us by Malone and Collier, +was hung up behind the stage. Every actor referred to it while the play +went forward, refreshing his memory with what he had to represent, and +attending to his entrances. But before the curtain lifted a previous +process had been gone through. This was called _Concertare il soggetto_. +The company met in their green-room. What followed may be told in the +words of a seventeenth-century writer on the technique of the _Commedia +dell' Arte_.[46] "The Choregus, who rules and guides the troupe by his +ability and experience, has to plan the subject, to show how the action +shall be conducted, the dialogues concluded, and new sallies of wit or +humour introduced. It is not merely his business to read the plot aloud, +but also to set forth the personages with their names and qualities, to +explain the drama, describe localities, and suggest extemporaneous +additions. For instance, he shall begin by saying: 'The comedy we have +to represent is so-and-so; the personages such-and-such; the houses are +on this side and on that.' Then he will unfold the argument. He will +impress upon his comrades the necessity of bearing well in mind the +place where they are supposed to be, the names of people and the +business they are engaged in, so that they shall not confound Rome with +Naples, or say that they have come from Spain when they are bound from +Germany. A father must not forget his son's name, nor a lover his +lady's. It is also most important that the houses in which the action +has to take place should be accurately known. To knock at the wrong +door, or to take refuge in the home of your enemy, would spoil all. +Afterwards, the planner of the subject must indicate occasions suited to +the sallies of the several characters. 'Here a piece of buffoonery is +right. A metaphor, or sarcasm, or hyperbole, or innuendo, would make a +good effect there.' In fact, he has to show each actor how to play his +part to best advantage in the circumstances of the piece. Then he must +look to preventing inconvenient entrances and exits, providing that the +stage be not left empty, and indicating proper ways of bringing scenes +to their conclusion. After the Choregus has read this lecture to the +troupe, they will meet and sketch the comedy in outline. Then they have +the opportunity of bringing their own talents forward, and combining new +effects. Yet, at such rehearsals, they must all be mindful to maintain +the outlines of the subject, not to exceed their roles, nor yet to trust +their recollection of similar plays performed under different +conditions. The piece has each time to be produced afresh by the +concerted action of the players who will bring it on the boards." + +The Choregus was usually the _Capocomico_ or the first actor and manager +of the company. He impressed his comrades with a certain unity of tone, +brought out the talents of promising comedians, enlarged one part, +curtailed another, and squared the piece to be performed with the +capacities he could control. "When a new play has to be given," says +another writer on this subject,[47] "the first actor calls the troupe +together in the morning. He reads them out the plot, and explains every +detail of the intrigue. In short, he acts the whole piece before them, +points out to each player what his special business requires, indicates +the customary sallies of wit and traits of humour, and shows how the +several parts and talents of the actors can be best combined into a +striking work of scenic art." + + +X. + +More than natural cleverness and native humour went to the making of a +good comedian. To begin with, he had to be a man of sense, tact, and +obliging disposition. "When we speak of a good comedian in the Italian +style," says Gherardi,[48] "we mean a man of solid parts, who depends on +imagination more than memory in his performance, and composes everything +he says upon the spot; he is one who knows how to play up to his +companions on the stage, combining his words and gestures so well with +theirs that he responds at a touch to their hints, and who is so ready +with a repartee or movement that the audience believes the scene to have +been concerted beforehand." In truth, fertility of fancy, quickness of +intelligence, a brain well stocked with varied learning, facility of +utterance, command of language, and imperturbable presence of mind, were +required in a first-rate improvisatory actor. When he undertook to +sustain one of the masks, he had first of all to live himself into the +character. If, for instance, he chose the Dottore, nothing might escape +his lips upon the stage out of harmony with that character, nothing +which could remind the audience that anybody but a pedant from Bologna +was speaking. His every gesture had to contribute to the same effect. +The second nature of his part had so to supersede his own instincts, +that no sudden accidents, the maladroitness of a comrade, an unexpected +turn in the dialogue, or any of the inconveniences to which +unpremeditated acting was liable, should throw him off his guard. + +It was further necessary that he should stock his mind with what the +actors called the _doti_ of a play, and with a repertory of what they +called _generici._[49] The _doti_ or dowry of a comedy consisted of +soliloquies, narratives, dissertations, and studied passages of +rhetoric, which were not left to improvisation. These existed in +manuscript, or were composed for the occasion. They had to be used at +decisive points of the action, and formed fixed pegs on which to hang +the dialogue. The _generici_ or common-places were sententious maxims, +descriptions, outpourings of emotion, humorous and fanciful diatribes, +declarations of passion, love-laments, ravings, reproaches, declamatory +outbursts, which could be employed _ad libitum_ whenever the situation +rendered them appropriate. Each mask had its own stock of common topics, +suited to the personage who used them. A consummate artist displayed his +ability by improving on these, introducing fresh points and features, +and adapting them to his own conception of the part. They had to become +incorporated with the ideal self he represented, and not to betray their +origin in study. The tradition of the drama and the daily practice of +rehearsing together made each member of a company know when such +premeditated pieces were to be expected. They did not therefore break +the general style of the performance. Habit enabled the actors to lead +up to them and pass away from them upon the stream of impromptu +dialogue. + +Another highly important branch of the art was what were called the +_lazzi_. "We give the name of _lazzi_," says Riccoboni in his history of +the theatre, "to those sallies and bits of by-play with which Harlequin +and the other masks interrupt a scene in progress--it may be by +demonstrations of astonishment or fright, or by humorous extravagances +alien to the matter in hand--after which, however, the action has to be +renewed upon its previous lines." It was precisely in these _lazzi_ that +a comic actor displayed his personal originality to best advantage; but +it required great tact and sense of the dramatic situation to render +them natural, appropriate, and to keep them within bound and measure. + +We have now seen what was expected of a first-rate artist, and +understand to what extent the _Commedia dell' Arte_ depended upon study +and premeditation. Long familiarity with their own repertory +undoubtedly reduced the improvisatory element to a minimum in the case +of troupes who were accustomed to play together for years. Yet they +strove to gain novelty by inventing fresh situations, giving unexpected +turns to dialogue, and varying their action on successive nights. The +best companies were those in whose hands a hackneyed comedy was always +plastic, and who kept their improvisatory powers in exercise. + +The defect of the art was that it tended to become stereotyped. The +Zanni repeated their jokes. The Dottore used the same malapropisms over +and over again. The _primo amoroso_ served up the _crambe decies +repetita_ of his monologues. The _lazzi_ degenerated into unmeaning +horse-play and buffooneries, which had nothing to do with the action of +the piece. Nature was forgotten. Every actor over-played his part, +ranted, raged, turned caricature into burlesque, spoke in and out of +season, exaggerated his gestures, diction, gait, and declamation, until +a pack of madmen seemed to have run wild upon the stage. To control +these tendencies towards a false and artificial style of presentation, +which formed the inherent vice of improvisatory acting, was the duty of +an able Capocomico. It could only be done by forcing the members of the +troupe to study and reflect on what they had to represent, by compelling +them to subordinate their several parts to the general effect, and by +raising the tone of their intelligence. Thus there was the greatest +difference between a well-conducted company, intent on the perfection of +their art, and a wandering rabble, satisfied with appealing to the +lowest instincts of the proletariate. The value of these remarks will be +apparent after reading what Gozzi has to say about Antonio Sacchi's +company and the causes of its dissolution. + + +XI. + +There is no doubt that during their flourishing period the companies of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_ afforded the rarest amusement, not only to the +vulgar, but also to refined and cultivated audiences throughout Europe. +They were especially appreciated at Paris. From the year 1572, when the +_Confidenti_ and _Gelosi_ made their first appearance, to the close of +the eighteenth century, Italian troupes at the Hotel de Bourbon, the +Hotel de Bourgogne, the Palais Royal, and the Opera Comique, formed the +delight of the French court and the Parisian public. Under various +names, _Uniti_, _Fedeli_, _Barbieri's_, _Bianchi's_, and Cardinal +Mazarin's men, actors who had learned their trade in Italy continued to +seek larger profits and a wider audience in that capital. "The way in +which Italian comedians compose, study, and represent their plays," says +a French critic in the year 1716,[50] "is quite beyond the powers of +language to describe. I might venture to call it inconceivable; with +such a wealth of new and agreeable sallies and of unpremeditated +dialogue do they adorn their scenes." Many anecdotes regarding these +Italian players in their French homes have been transmitted to us, with +detailed descriptions of their qualities. I will confine myself to two +extracts.[51] One is taken from Constantini's Life of Tiberio Fiorelli +(1608-1694), the famous Scaramouche. "He was one of the most perfect +mimes who have appeared in these last centuries. I call him mime +advisedly, because he played his part by action more than speaking. +Scaramouche was not satisfied with making what he represented +intelligible by speech; he translated everything into movements of his +face and body, adapting his gestures to his words and his words to his +gestures with incomparable art. Everything became vocal in this man, his +feet, his hands, his head; the slightest attitude he took had meaning +and significance." Gherardi adds that "he could keep an audience in fits +of laughter for a long quarter of an hour without uttering a word. A +great prince, who saw him act at Rome, uttered these words, +'_Scaramuccia does not talk, and yet he says everything_,' and at the +end of the performance presented him with his coach and six horses." Of +Tommaso Vicentini, called Il Tommasino, who made his debut at Paris as +Harlequin in 1716, we read: "His suppleness, his natural gaiety, his +graceful airs of rustic simplicity, made him a first-rate Harlequin. But +nature had also made him an excellent actor in the more extended sense +of that phrase. True, naive, original, pathetic, amid the laughter he +excited by his buffooneries, a single trait, a single reflection which +became a sentiment by his manner of expressing it, drew tears from the +audience, and surprised the author of the piece no less than the public, +and that too in spite of the mask, which seemed intended to inspire as +much fear as merriment. Often, when one had begun to laugh at his way of +simulating grief or pain, one finished by being melted with the +tenderness of the emotion which came from the bottom of his heart." + +Italian companies delighted the court of Spain during the reign of +Philip II., and were welcomed in Portugal. We find them in Bavaria, at +Dresden, and in other parts of Germany. Nor were they entirely unknown +in England. Collier, in his "History of the English Drama," speaks of a +certain Drousiano, who played with his troupe in London during the +winter of 1577-78.[52] This was probably Drusiano Martelli. The +extempore plays of the Italians are mentioned by Whetstone, Kyd, Jonson, +and Brome; and it seems probable that the plat-comedies, ascribed to +the famous fools Tarleton and Wilson, were modelled on Italian _Commedie +a Soggetto_. Kyd, in the _Spanish Tragedy_, shows that the method of +studying an improvised play was well understood. Hieronymo, who wishes +to have a certain subject mounted in a hurry, says to his confidant-- + + "The Italian tragedians were so sharp of wit, + That in one hour's meditation + They would perform anything in action." + +Lorenzo replies-- + + "I have seen the like + In Paris, among the French tragedians." + +The full history of Italian companies in foreign lands still remains to +be written; but I have said enough in this place to prove their wide +popularity. + +In its native country, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was long regarded as +the special glory and the unique product of Italian dramatic genius. +Gozzi, though he wrote as its apologist, only expressed common opinion +when he said:[53] "I reckon improvised comedy among the particular +distinctions of our nation. I look upon it as quite a different species +from the written and premeditated drama; nor have I the shameless +audacity to stigmatise with the title of an ignorant rabble those noble +and cultivated persons whom I see with my own eyes following and +enjoying a play of this description. I esteem the able comedians who +sustain the masks, far higher than those improvisatory poets, who, +without uttering anything to the purpose, excite astonishment in crowds +of gaping listeners." + + +XII. + +This essay would be incomplete if I failed to describe the decadence of +the _Commedia dell' Arte_, and the various inconveniences which attended +its performance by incompetent or wilfully scurrilous actors. Without +such a sequel to the history of its development, Goldoni's reform of the +theatre, and Gozzi's energetic attempts to sustain the old style by +works of a peculiar and hybrid character, will not be intelligible. + +In its higher manifestations, this comedy, as we have seen, allied +itself to fine art by singularly delicate links of connection. More than +in other kinds of drama, where actors make themselves the mouthpieces of +poets whose creations they incarnate, the performers of improvised +comedy had to be complete and finished works of living art in their own +persons. So long as they were conscious of their mission, and earnestly +aspired to the highest points within the range and scope of their +achievement, they supplied a scenic travesty of actual life unequalled +for its freshness and its truth to nature--sparkling with salient +traits of character, seasoned with mirthful sarcasm, and pungent by its +satire of contemporary manners. But the roots of this unique and +singular species of the drama were grounded in a deep sub-soil of vulgar +instincts and dishonest proclivities. It clung to the tradition of +mountebanks and mimes, acrobats and jongleurs, circus-clowns and +rope-dancers. The rare flower of racy humour and refined parody, which +fascinated Paris in the age of Louis XIV., sprang from a stock +discredited and outcast through fifteen centuries of Christian teaching. +The Church in council and in synod had anathematised the ancestors of +Andreini and Fiorelli, Sacchi and Darbes. Burial with the sanctities of +religion was forbidden them, as it is forbidden to suicides. They were +reckoned among the enemies of social order and civil discipline. The +State, in its sumptuary laws, forbade their entrance into decent houses, +relegating them to dark corners of the city, where they lurked with +thieves and prostitutes. Saintly pastors of the flock, like Carlo +Borrommeo, carried on a crusade against these corruptors of public +morals.[54] Even in Venice, the city of their adoption--the sea-Sodom, +as Byron called it, of carnival licentiousness, the mart of pleasure for +all Europe, the modern Corinth--an Inquisitor of State scourged them +with these words of stinging reprobation:[55] "Bear in mind, you +actors, that you are folk beneath the ban of blessed God's almighty +hatred, and that the prince allows you only as pasture for the common +people, who take pleasure in your ribaldries." With such a record of +contempt and disesteem and outlawry, the _Commedia dell' Arte_ was +always sinking back into the slime from which it rose. Unhappily, the +same eyes which delighted in its glory during the years when genius shed +brilliant lustre on its noblest representatives, had only to look on +this side or on that, and a crowd of shameless merry-andrews, the scum +and dregs of the histrionic profession, made the evidences of its +inherent immorality only too apparent. + +I have already touched upon the scurrilities and obscenities which were +common in improvised comedy. To enlarge upon the topic is not necessary. +Everybody can perceive that a drama relying in great part upon +buffoonery, restrained by no obligation to literary precedents, +dependent on the favour of mixed audiences, among whom women scarcely +showed their faces, and varying at each performance with the whims and +humours of masked actors, who were _ex hypothesi_ beyond the pale of +social decency, may have allowed itself licenses which were well-nigh +intolerable. + +I have already described the tendencies toward exaggerative emphasis, +stilted declamation, ill-concerted action, impertinent extravaganza, and +wearisome repetition of exhausted motives, to which the species was +peculiarly liable. There is no need to expand those observations. They +justify the severe remarks of Goldoni in the preface to his theatrical +works, which, as these have a direct bearing upon the subject of my next +essay, I will summarise here:[56]--"The comic theatre of Italy for more +than a century past had so degenerated that it became a disgusting +object for general abhorrence. You saw nothing on public stages but +indecent harlequinades, dirty and scandalous intrigue, foul jests, +immodest loves. Plots were badly constructed, and worse carried out in +action, without order, without propriety of manners. If translations of +French or Spanish pieces were given, the improvisatory comedians +mutilated and deformed them beyond recognition. The same fate befell the +plays of Plautus and Terence, and of our elder Italian dramatists. +People of culture, nay, the common folk, cried out against these +miserable travesties. Every one was wearied with the insipidities and +conventionalities of an art upon the wane. You knew what Harlequin or +Pantaloon was going to say before he opened his lips." + +Readers of Gozzi's Memoirs, to which these pages serve as a prolusion, +have means of judging, on the testimony of a very partial critic and +avowedly Quixotical defender of the old _Commedia dell' Arte_, to what +extent the system of the theatre in Italy was faulty. Students of +Casanova's Memoirs will remember the dark picture of the actress whom he +met at Ancona, with her epicene brood of children and of changelings +exposed to indiscriminate contamination.[57] The lighter pages of +Goldoni's Memoirs reveal a spectacle less revolting, but far from +edifying, of a comic troupe in its passage from one Italian capital to +another.[58] Leaving these accessible sources of information regarding +the social status of the dramatic profession in Italy untouched, I will +close this chapter with some extracts from a well-nigh forgotten +book--Garzoni's _Piazza Universale_. One of the most frequent charges +brought against the acting companies was that they dressed their women +up in men's clothes, and sent them about the public squares of cities to +attract the rabble. "No sooner have they made their entrance," says +Garzoni, "than the drum beats to let all the world know that the players +are arrived. The first lady of the troupe, decked out like a man, with a +sword in her right hand, goes round, inviting the folk to a comedy or +tragedy or pastoral in the precincts of the Pellegrino.[59] The +populace, inquisitive by nature and eager for any new thing, hurries to +take places. Paying their pennies down, they crowd into a hall, where a +temporary stage has been erected, the scenes scrawled with charcoal as +chance and want of sense will have it. An orchestra of tongs and bones, +like the braying of asses or the caterwauling of cats in February, +performs the overture. Then comes a prologue in the manner of a +quack-doctor's oration to his gulls. The piece opens; you behold a +Magnifico, who is not worth the quarter of a farthing; a Zanni, who +straddles like a goose; a Gratiano, who squirts his words out from a +clyster-pipe; a lover, who acts like a narcotic on the senses of his +neighbours; a Spanish captain, with nothing but a couple of musty oaths +in his whole repertory; a stupid and foul-mouthed bawd; a pedant, who +trips up in Tuscan phrases at each turn; a Burattino, whose whole humour +consists in taking off and putting on his greasy cap; a prima donna, who +goes yawning, drawling, twaddling through her mumbled part, with eyes +well open to the chance of selling her overblown charms in quite another +market than the theatre. The show is seasoned with loathsome +buffooneries and interludes which ought to send their performers to the +galleys." Enlarging on this theme, Garzoni proceeds as follows: "These +profane comedians pervert the noble use of their ancient art by +presenting nothing which is not openly disreputable and scandalous. The +filth which falls continually from their lips infects themselves and +their profession with the foulest infamy. They are less civil than +donkeys in their action, no better than pimps and ruffians in their +gestures, equal to public prostitutes in their immodesty of speech. +Knavery and lewdness inspire all their motions. In everything they stink +of impudicity and villainy. When occasions offer for veiling grossness +under a cloak of decorum, they do not take these, but pique themselves +on bringing beastliness to sight by barefaced bawdry and undisguised +indecency." + +One of the degradations to which these comedians willingly submitted was +that of playing jackals to quack-doctors on the squares of the Italian +cities. Goldoni in his Memoirs[60] speaks of a certain Buonafede Vitali +who "maintained at his own cost a troupe of actors. It was their +business to collect the money thrown to them in pocket-handkerchiefs, +and to return the handkerchiefs filled with pots of ointment and boxes +of pills to the purchasers, after which they performed plays in three +acts with a certain kind of pomp under the light of wax candles." In +order to form a conception of the scenes which were enacted on an +Italian piazza crowded with charlatans, mountebanks and players, we must +have recourse again to Garzoni. It is almost impossible to understand +or to reproduce his language at the present day. Sarcastic sallies, +which were doubtless piquant in their time, but to which the key has now +been lost, abundance of ephemeral slang and racy innuendo, allusions to +forgotten people and obsolete customs, topical jests, the coarsest +Lombard patois seasoned with the salt of euphuistic rhetoric, all +combine to render his motley descriptions untranslatable. Garzoni and +writers of his class still lack the pains which Casaubon bestowed on +Athenaeus, and perhaps their matter is not worthy of such vast +expenditure of industry. Yet the pith may be seized; and following our +garrulous cicerone, we stroll out on the piazza. "In one corner of it +you will see our swaggering Fortunato and his boon companion Fritata +spinning yarns, and keeping the whole populace agape into the night with +stories, songs, improvisations, dialogues; quarrelling, making-up, dying +of laughter, coming to blows again, bustling about their stage, settling +the dispute by fisticuffs and violent language, and lastly handing round +the cap to reap the harvest of the pennies they have earned. In another +corner, Burattino sets up his bray of brass. You would think that the +hangman had got hold of you, to hear him yell into your ears. He carries +a scavenger's bag and a common sailor's cap, and screams until the whole +world gathers around him. The people crowd, the groundlings jostle, men +of quality press forward to the platform. When the burlesque prologue +comes to a conclusion, Burattino's master puts in his appearance. It is +our old friend the Doctor, with his Bolognese jargon, long-winded +citations, insipid tomfooleries, and absurd pretensions to omniscience. +The droning of this arrant humbug drives as many of the audience away as +the zany's merry pranks and roguish whiskers and apish tricks have drawn +together. Meanwhile the curtains of the booth open, and the Tuscan comes +forth with his tumbling girl. He begins some silly story in the +Florentine tongue, during which the girl draws her circle and puts +herself in position, straddling with arms and legs abroad, flinging her +body backwards to pick up a piece of money with her mouth from two +crossed swords, and tickling the greasy varlets of the market-place by +the exhibition of her lascivious graces. Not far away, you may see the +Milanese quack, dressed like a noble gentleman, velvet cap on head and +white Guelf feathers waving to the wind. He is telling his man Gradello +some story of his hapless love. The groom cuts indecent jokes and gibes +in the background; then swaggers forward, twirls his moustachios, vows +to uphold his master's cause against all rivals, and bristles like an +enraged bloodhound; but, on a sudden, feigning to see foemen near, he +drops his arms, knocks his knees together, befouls his breeches on the +stage, and lets himself be soundly drubbed. When that interlude is +over, Gradello acts another part. He is a blind man squalling out a +ditty, and thrumming on a puppy in his lap instead of a theorbo. The +climax of all this buffoonery is a panegyric of some famous pills, which +lasts an hour or two, and leaves the charlatan wrangling over cents and +farthings with his swiftly dwindling audience. Toward evening the crowd +of quacks and blind musicians and acrobats thicken. Here is Zan della +Vigna with his performing monkey; there Catullo and his guitar; in +another corner the Mantuan merry-andrew, dressed up like a zany, Zottino +singing an ode to the pox, and the pretty Sicilian rope-dancer. +Tamburino spins eggs on a stick; the Neapolitan capers about with +brimming bowls of water on his pate; and Maestro Paolo da Arezzo makes +his solemn entry with a waving banner, on which you see St. Paul, +holding a huge falchion in one hand, while the rest of the field is +painted over with twining hissing serpents. The mountebank clears his +throat and relates his fabulous pedigree. St. Paul was his great +ancestor, and ever since that accident upon the island of Malta, all the +family have possessed miraculous powers over the snaky tribe. Hereupon +boxes are opened, and horrid vipers, water-snakes, and adders are drawn +forth to the terror of the bystanders. 'Do not be afraid,' continues +Maestro Paolo; 'I have delivered your fields and woods from these +plagues and their poison.' The trembling country-lads creep up and buy a +box of powders from the condescending hands of the impostor. After the +sight of all those asps and crocodiles, stuffed basilisks, tarantulas, +and Indian armadilloes, there is not one of them would venture out into +the country lanes without a prophylactic. Meanwhile, Settecervelli has +laid his mantle on the pavement, and is making his little bitch go +through her tricks, bark at the worst-dressed fellow in the circle, howl +at the name of the Grand Turk, dance for joy in honour of her master's +sweetheart, and carry round the cap for pennies in her mouth. The +Parmesan is not to be outdone by these performances; he has his +nanny-goat, whose antics are at least as sight-worthy as the puppy's. +The Turkish athlete climbs the campanile, lets his brawny chest be +hammered like an anvil, dislodges a stout pillar by the strength of his +huge arms and shoulders, and wins a bag of coppers heavy enough to pay +his expenses to the holy town of Mecca. The baptized Jew wails in a +lamentable tone of voice, _goi, goi, badanai, badanai_, till he has +attracted a crowd round him; then he tells the romance of his conversion +to the true faith, which leaves a strong impression on our mind that if +he has become a sincere Christian, which is more than doubtful, he has +certainly not lost the arts of an accomplished cheat. Soon the whole +piazza is swarming with folk of this sort; pills and powders, for all +the ills that flesh is heir to, are being hawked about; men are eating +fire, and swallowing tow, and pulling yards of twine from their +throats, and washing their faces in molten lead, and finding cards in +the pockets of their unsuspecting neighbours; every conceivable article, +which ingenuity can force on the attention of simpletons, is flirted in +one's face, and vaunted with a deafening din by hoarse and squeaking +salesmen." + +Garzoni has carried us somewhat astray from the main subject of this +essay. Yet it is not amiss to have gained a full conception of the +medium out of which the _Commedia dell' Arte_ emerged, and into which it +always tended to relapse, as well as of the various low and ignoble +branches of industry with which the players were associated. + + + + +Part III. + + _GOZZI'S DRAMATIC FABLES, OR FIABE TEATRALI; TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF + HISTORY OF HIS QUARREL WITH GOLDONI AND CHIARI._ + + 1. Venice in the last century--The Liberals and + Conservatives--Invasion of French theories in politics, philosophy, + and social manners--Prevalence of French taste in + literature--Conservative resistance to this revolutionary state of + things.--2. Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi--Popularity of French + sentimental dramas--The Academy of the Granelleschi founded in 1747 + by literary Conservatives, to restore a taste for pure Italian + style, and to promote the study of the Tuscan classics--Carlo Gozzi + belongs to this Academy, and becomes one of its chief + supporters--Goldoni, and the qualities of his genius--His + perception that nature has to be closely followed in the drama.--3. + A sketch of Goldoni's career, and of the steps whereby he became a + professional playwright--Settles at Venice in 1747 as poet to + Medebac's company--Goldoni's Venetian comedies, comedies in the + French manner, melodramas--Goldoni's rivalry with the Abbe + Chiari--Chiari's bombastic pseudo-Pindaric style--Martellian + verses.--4. Indignation of the Granelleschi with both Goldoni and + Chiari--Carlo Gozzi confounds them in one common hatred as + corruptors of the language--His particular dislike for Goldoni, who + had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, of which Gozzi + professed himself the champion--Publication of Gozzi's satirical + poem _La Tartana degli Influssi_ in 1756--Return of Sacchi's + company of impromptu comedians to Venice in that year--Vigorous + warfare carried on by the Granelleschi against both Goldoni and + Chiari during the next four years--Gozzi first shows his dramatic + faculty in a severe Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled _Il + Teatro Comico_--Chiari makes up his differences with Goldoni, and + both playwrights now join forces against their conservative + antagonists--Chiari defies the Granelleschi to produce a + comedy--Goldoni appeals from their criticisms to the public, who + idolise him--Gozzi determines to write a satirical play upon a + nursery-tale, which shall prove no less popular than Goldoni's + comedies--The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ appears in January + 1761--The true character of Carlo Gozzi's dramatic fables--It is a + mistake to suppose that he was actuated by spontaneous Romantic + genius--His affinity with the elder Tuscan burlesque poets--His + wish to rehabilitate the Comedy of Masks--His conservative and + didactic spirit.--5. A translation of Gozzi's own account of _The + Love of the Three Oranges_, important in the history of the + _Commedia dell' Arte_, and illustrative of the way in which Gozzi + handled his fabulous material.--6. Success of _L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie_--Production and dates of the remaining nine dramatic + _Fiabe_.--7. Gozzi's method of writing, and employment of the Four + Masks and the Servetta--Interweaving of the comic element with the + fairy-tale--Gozzi does not rise to the height of imaginative + poetry.--8. His satire, humour, feeling for poetic situations--His + conservative philosophy of life.--9. Sources of the _Fiabe_--The + artistic superiority of _L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_.--10. + Analysis of _L'Augellino Belverde_.--11. Gozzi's temporary + success--Goldoni retires to Paris, and Chiari to Brescia--Posterity + has reversed the verdict of contemporary Venice--Fate of the + _Fiabe_--Vicissitudes of Gozzi's fame in Italy, Germany, + France--Paul de Musset's condensed abstract of the Memoirs, and + their distorted picture of Carlo Gozzi. + + +I. + +About the middle of the eighteenth century, Venetian society was divided +into two main parties, representing what we should now call Liberal and +Conservative principles in politics and thought. The Liberals were +imbued with French philosophical ideas, French fashions, and French +phrases. The boldest of them, men like Angelo Querini, Carlo Contarini, +Giorgio Pisani, openly aimed at remodelling the constitution. They aired +new-fangled theories of government, based upon the Social Contract and +the Rights of Man, within ear-shot of the terrible Inquisition of State. +Some of them went in consequence to end their days in the dungeons of +Cattaro or Verona. These patricians created a body of restless +opposition in the Grand Council, agitated the bourgeoisie and +proletariate with the expectation of impending changes, and succeeded in +effecting some salutary but superficial reforms. Outside the sphere of +politics, that spirit of innovation which in France was silently but +surely working toward the Revolution, made itself felt among the +educated classes. The University of Padua, while preserving external +forms of mediaevalism in its discipline and teaching, fermented with the +physical hypotheses of modern science. The deism of the Encyclopaedists +and Voltaire came into vogue. Sentimentalism, thinly cloaking a desire +for liberty and license, ruled in morals. Rousseau's speculations and +the humanitarian utopias of the _philosophes_ disturbed the old +foundations on which social institutions rested. The word _prejudice_ +was upon the lips of everybody, to indicate the restraining influences +of public order in the state and of ethics in the family. These new +ideas permeated society and saturated literature. In the drawing-rooms +of great ladies, the clubs and coffee-houses of the gentry, the +theatres, concert-rooms, and little houses, where men and women +congregated, French books were discussed, French fashions were +affected, the French language was engrafted on the old Venetian dialect. +Frivolous butterflies of pleasure in that great mart of the world's +amusement assumed fine airs of philosophy and science. Wide-sweeping and +far-reaching theories, which called in question the whole groundwork of +man's previous beliefs, were freely ventilated by chatterers, who caught +their jargon from flippant manuals of science and popular essays, poured +forth by thousands from the press of Paris. Unhealthy novels spread +subversive moral doctrines flavoured with a spice of philanthropic +sentiment. It was considered _rococo_ to admire the old Italian +classics. Staunch Liberals paraded their independence of precedent and +prejudice by adopting a masquerade style which set the traditions of the +language at defiance. + +All this indicated a deep and irresistible fermentation in society. The +great catastrophe of the eighteenth century was preparing. The stage of +Europe was being made ready for that transformation-scene which opened a +new era. But few could foresee the inevitable future; few could +distinguish what was wholesome progress from the delirious or +somnambulistic ravings of the moment. Therefore the Conservatives clung +fast to their prejudices and precedents; to established forms of +government, the national religion, the traditional customs of civil and +domestic life. To superficial observers it appeared that these men held +the strongest cards. Yet even rigid Conservatives were bound to admit +that there was something ominously rotten in the state of Venice. Her +commerce dwindled year by year. Her provinces were ill-administered, and +yielded less and less to the exchequer. Social demarcations disappeared +in the luxury and corruption which invaded all classes. Pauperism +assumed appalling dimensions. In the decay of industries and +manufactures thousands of workpeople were thrown famished upon public +charity. The ranks of the Barnabotti, or impoverished nobles, who +claimed state support, swelled, grew clamorous in the Grand Council, +gave signs of insubordination, and contaminated the fountain-head of +government by their venality. Meanwhile, the old machinery of the +constitution had fallen into the hands of a close oligarchy or +commission of a few powerful patricians. These corruptors of the State +pulled wires, bought votes, and manipulated the College and the Senate +to secure their own ends in the Consiglio Grande. The more far-sighted +among the Conservatives felt the necessity of temporising. Influenced by +the all-pervasive spirit of the age, but not prepared to join the +Liberal forces, they compromised, tampered with institutions, and tried +by stopping leaks to keep the deep sea out. This was the attitude of men +like Marco Foscarini, Alvise Emo, and Paolo Renier. + +Apart from politics, the Conservatives stood on firmer ground. There is +no doubt that the so-called philosophy of the eighteenth century, both +in its principles and in its consequences, offered points of patent +weakness to hostile criticism. It was subversive without being +reconstructive. Its foundations were sentimental and fanciful rather +than logical and reasoned. Hazy in the minds of its projectors, it was +almost universally misunderstood by the multitude which it illuded. +Immorality was encouraged; not that any speculative system is inherently +immoral, but that the confused postulates regarding personal liberty, +the right of private judgment in matters of conduct, the light of +Nature, and the tyranny of custom and prejudice, from which this +philosophy started, enabled foolish or ill-minded people to hide their +vices and caprices beneath the specious mask of systematic thinking. +Again, the literature which sprang into existence under the predominance +of such theories, was in some respects pernicious, and in many points of +view ridiculous. The Conservatives had a definite course before them +when they determined to vindicate the purity of Italian diction, to +maintain the traditions of a glorious past in art, and to expose the +foibles of the Liberal school of thinkers and of writers. + + +II. + +This brings me to the proper subject of the present chapter, which is +the conflict of Liberalism with Conservatism in the theatre at Venice. +The two protagonists are Carlo Goldoni and Carlo Gozzi, both Venetians, +and both of nearly the same age. Goldoni was born in 1707, Gozzi in +1720. Gozzi entered the lists against Goldoni in 1756, when the latter +had been working for the Venetian stage since 1748, and when he had +already turned the heads of the public by his brilliant dramatic +novelties. + +The old _Commedia dell' Arte_, as we have seen, had sunk into +decrepitude. It was not merely that the type itself was exhausted, +though subsequent circumstances proved this to be the case. What was +more important is, that the popular taste veered round against it. Under +the prevailing dominance of French fashions, a style of drama, hitherto +unknown to the Italians, came into vogue. The so-called _Comedie +Larmoyante_, or pathetic comedy (of which Nivelle de la Chaussee, a +now-forgotten archimage of middle-class sentimentalities and +sensibilities, is the reputed inventor), caught the ear of Europe. The +Pere la Chaussee, to adopt an epigram of Piron's, preached every evening +from his pulpit in a score of theatres through Europe. The titles of his +most famous plays, _Melanide_, _La Gouvernante_, _Prejuge a la Mode_, +_L'Ecole des Meres_, remind us of the revolution in the drama which +converted the public stage from a place of amusement into a platform for +the dissemination of political or social sentiments. Saurin's +_Beverley_, Mercier's _Deserteur_ and _L'Indigent_, De Falbaire's +_Honnete Criminel_, Voltaire's _Ecossaise_, Diderot's _Pere de Famille_, +carried on La Chaussee's tradition. Regarding their popularity at +Venice, enough is related in the verbose and bilious diatribes prefixed +by Gozzi to his dramatic works. Among plays of this description, an +adaptation of our _George Barnwell_--much in the style of Thackeray's +parody upon Lord Lytton's novels--attracted great attention by the +pathos with which a nephew murdering his uncle from the highest motives +was exalted to the rank of hero. The Conservatives not unjustly +protested against the contamination of public morals by the false +sentiment of these tearful dramas. The perversion of taste by low +domestic arguments and clumsy realism, which had nothing real but its +vulgarity, seemed to them no less a sin. + +They were particularly sensitive, moreover, upon the point of language, +diction, style. Translations and adaptations of French plays confirmed +the growing carelessness of authors. Gallicisms were so fashionable that +a stage-hack allowed himself all license in that direction. The jargon +of science introduced unheard-of phrases, which would have made the +fathers of the Della-Cruscan Academy shudder in their tombs. Moreover, +the prevalent affectation of independence and the fashionable revolt +against prejudice led ignorant scribblers to plume themselves upon their +solecisms and plebeian lapses into dialect. + +With the main object, therefore, of maintaining a standard of propriety +in style, and with the secondary object of opposing theatrical +innovations, the Venetian Conservatives (in literature) founded their +Academy de'Granelleschi. It came into existence about 1747; and I need +not enlarge upon its constitution, except to say that it was an academy +of the good old Tory type, like the _Gelati_, _Sonnacchiosi_, +_Storditi_, and so many scores of literary clubs with absurd names and +trivial customs, whose members wasted their time over pedantic studies, +and occasionally issued a piece of solid work among their otherwise +ephemeral transactions. A sufficient account of this Academy is given in +Gozzi's Memoirs. Its importance at the present moment is that out of +this little camp Carlo Gozzi marched like David to attack the Goliath of +Philistinism, Carlo Goldoni. + +It is difficult to speak adequately and fairly of Goldoni. In making +this man, Nature cast her glove down in the face of criticism, and +defied analysis. He possessed indubitable genius; what is more, his +genius obeyed generous enthusiasms, unselfish aims, pure-hearted +sentiments. He perceived instinctively and correctly that a new age was +dawning for the literature of Europe. He devoted his life to creating a +comic drama adequate to the intellectual dignity of his nation. Goldoni +was a good man, a modest man, a man complete in all the social virtues. +But he was not a great man. And his genius, that innovatory force of +his, that infinite adaptability, that inexhaustible scenic faculty which +he possessed, that intuition into the necessity of change, was, after +all, a genius of thin and threadbare quality. Can we point to a single +masterpiece produced by Goldoni? After allowing the sediment to settle +down of his prolific works and various experiments, can we select any +one play which bears the stamp of the supreme master? I think not. I +shrink from placing Goldoni, as a peer, in the company of Shakespeare, +Moliere, Calderon, and Schiller. But, while saying this, it is +impossible to deny his actual achievement. It is impossible not to +recognise the honest motives which prompted him to copy Nature's book. +That was his great discovery; and that keeps the memory of Goldoni ever +green among us. He saw that Nature had to be loved and studied and +followed by the artist. He discerned this luminous point in a period +befogged by prejudice, tradition, pedantry, conventionality, +subservience to antiquated humours and insurgent eccentricities. It was +not Goldoni's fault that birth and fortune denied him those higher +capacities and favourable openings which might have made his art-work +monumental. His genial, shifty, pliable, and yet persistent personality +was forced to humour obstacles and to fawn on circumstance. As an +inevitable consequence, his productions are mediocre and unsatisfactory. +Mediocrity of talent and of character is stamped upon his plays, and +self-revealed in his good-humoured Memoirs. But what confounds +criticism is that this mediocrity in the man and his equipment was +combined with undeniable originality. His genius, though not of the +purest water, was genuine. He had a correct perception of the +requirements of his age, a clear intuition into the practical +possibilities of the dramatic art he handled, and a vivid consciousness +of the ground-principle that no artist can afford to lose sight of +reality in practice. What would Goldoni not have been, we say, after +summing up the survey of his qualities, had he been gifted with a finer +fibre, a wider range of knowledge, a deeper philosophy, a more robust +temper, a poetic talent equal to the task of externalising his just +perceptions in forms of meditated art? As it is, he presents the curious +spectacle of a man born to inaugurate a new epoch, but without the +faculty to impose his own ideal successfully upon his contemporaries. +The general public acclaimed him, and understood his aims. But the +aristocrats of literature were able to inflict telling blows in their +fight against him. We, who stand aloof, when all the dust of that +conflict has subsided, see that Goldoni really won the day. It is only +to be regretted that a champion of such small dimensions, soft heart, +and feeble sinews, was commissioned to effect the revolution. + + +III. + +Goldoni's instinct led him by an irresistible bias to the stage. He +vainly attempted to form himself for the more lucrative profession of +the law. During his youth he studied at a college in Pavia, but was +expelled for giving free vent to his literary propensities in satire. He +practised as an advocate at the Venetian bar, practised at Pisa in the +same capacity, acted as Genoese Consul at Venice. Still though he +courted Themis, his real predilections drew him toward Thalia. The first +piece which revealed his leading talent was a comedy in outline; _Il +Gondoliere Veneziano_, represented at Milan in 1733. In the next year he +produced a painfully bad tragedy at Verona entitled _Belisario_. Several +pieces of a mixed character, between comedy and tragedy, followed. Yet +he had not taken to the theatre as a profession; and it was not until +the year 1746, when he joined the comic company of Medebac, at Leghorn, +in the capacity of their paid playwright, that he entered definitely +upon the career of author for the stage. + +During the years when Goldoni was thus wavering between law and +literature, he attempted many kinds of dramatic composition--operettas +for music, tragedies, tragi-comedies, farces, _scenari_ for improvised +comedies, and comedies of which the dialogue was partly written. His +facile talent adapted itself to every style in turn. All this while he +recognised that his strength lay neither in the direction of poetry nor +in that of serious drama. Nature had bestowed on him a genius for +comedy; and he felt born to educate Italian taste in that species. We +have already seen how deeply he deplored the degeneration of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_; and yet some of his pieces had been performed by +the best improvisatory actors then alive, Sacchi the famous Truffaldino, +and Darbes the no less celebrated Pantalone. + +While scribbling Harlequinades, Goldoni never lost sight of the reform +he had long meditated; and this was to substitute written comedies of +character, in the style of Moliere and the ancients, for the old +comedies _all' improvviso_. But he saw the necessity of proceeding +cautiously. On the one hand, he had to consider the adherents of the +elder style. On the other hand, he was forced to humour the comedians, +who were jealous of changes which increased their dependence upon +professional playwrights.[61] Accordingly, he advanced with +circumspection. In the _Momolo Cortesan_, which he composed for the +Pantalone of Sacchi's company (a certain Golinetti), only the leading +part was written. The rest was left to improvisation. Nevertheless, +this piece was constructed on different principles from those which +governed the _Commedia dell' Arte_. It aimed at being a comedy of +character; and thus Goldoni hoped by gradual steps to wean his actors +from their bad old ways. Copying his mistress Nature, he saw that +nothing could be done _per saltum_. It was necessary to prepare +transitions, and to pass through the development of imperfect species to +the exhibition of the type he had in view. This seems to have been the +principle on which he acted. But Goldoni was so pliable and easy-going, +so apt to take the cue from casual suggestions offered to his versatile +ability, that he frequently lost sight of this leading principle. His +Muse wore Harlequin's robe of many colours, and assumed the mask while +waiting to effect the meditated revolution. This indecision at the +commencement of his career exposed him to Gozzi's piratical attacks, and +exercised, I think, a prejudicial influence over his subsequent career +as playwright. But it was not in the character of the man to act +otherwise. He could not divest himself of ready sympathy, fluency, and +genial adaptability to the circumstances in which he was placed from +time to time. Some natures are destined to achieve their ends by +condescension. Goldoni's was essentially a nature of this kind. And the +fact remains that, amid all his excursions into regions alien from his +purpose, he kept one aim in view and finally achieved it. What survives +of solid in his work, is the select series of plays produced upon the +lines of the reform he calculated. + +It was at Pisa in 1746 that the _Capocomico_ Medebac induced Goldoni to +join his troupe. The proposal was that a theatre at Venice should be +hired for five or six years, and that Goldoni should dedicate his whole +talents to the composition of plays. Sufficiently good pecuniary offers +were made; for it seems that each comedy was paid at the rate of thirty +sequins, or about L12 sterling. Goldoni accepted. Then travelling with +his new partners by the road through Modena, he reached Venice in July +1747. His first venture, with a play called _Tognetto_ or _Tonino bela +grazia_, was a failure. A couple of pathetic pieces which followed, won +more favour with the public. Darbes, whom Goldoni learned to appreciate +and use with excellent effect, seconded his efforts admirably; and in +1748 circumstances seemed propitious for attempting the long-cherished +scheme of a revolution in the theatre. Accordingly he wrote the _Vedova +Scaltra_, which is distinctly a comedy of character. It was performed +during the carnival season of 1749, and was received with intelligent +sympathy by the Venetians. This induced Goldoni to pursue the course he +had begun. _La Putta Onorata_ obtained a similar success, and met with +emphatic approval from the gondolier class, whose sentiments and manners +had been studied in its composition. Goldoni's novelties had by this +time roused the jealousy of rivals and the opposition of Conservatives. +A parody of the _Vedova Scaltra_ appeared at the theatre of S. Samuele. +This was clever enough, and scurrilous enough, to attract attention. +Goldoni received a check in mid-career, which became serious when the +Carnival of 1749 closed with the total failure of a new piece from his +pen, _L'Erede Fortunata_. Upon this occasion, stung to the quick, and +piqued in his self-esteem, with the sense of his own inexhaustible and +facile forces rendering the hazard light, Goldoni publicly declared his +intention of producing sixteen new comedies within the next twelve +calendar months. + +He kept his promise, but at a considerable cost both to his position as +playwright and his health. With the general public, the man's +indomitable pluck, his good-humour, and the variety of subjects treated +in his famous sixteen plays, created an indescribable enthusiasm. The +end of the Carnival, 1750, brought well-earned laurels to Goldoni, +together with the good-will of the fickle multitude. But unforgiving +enemies, the supporters of the old drama, the literary purists, and the +Conservatives who could not stomach sentimental comedies, were watching +him with Argus eyes. In the heat of volcanic combustion, he had thrown +up cinders and rubbish along with several felicitous and brilliant works +of art. The worst of his performances were remembered and scored up +against him by critics like Carlo Gozzi. The best were confounded +in one plausible condemnation. + +[Illustration: TARTAGLIA (1620) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell' Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +From this point forward for the next six years Goldoni met with no +formidable opposition, except from a rival playwright. The man in +question was the Abbe Chiari, a relic of the seventeenth century, +pompous and bombastic in style, a blatant member of the Arcadian +Academy, a bastard brother of Pindar in the matter of mixed metaphors +and wild Icarian flights, a prolific scribbler of melodramatic pieces in +rhymed Martellian verses,[62] and, after all his qualifications are +summed up, a mere pretentious windbag. Chiari caught the public ear. +Venice divided itself into factions for Chiari and Goldoni. On a smaller +scale, the Bononcini and Handel conflicts of London, the Gluck and +Piccini riots of Paris, were repeated. The most damaging feature of this +contest for Goldoni, was that Chiari, less gifted with originality, +aped each of his new inventions. Against Goldoni's _Pamela Nubile_ +Chiari brought out a _Pamela Maritata_, against his _Avventuriere +Onorato_ an _Avventuriere alla Moda_, against his _Padre per Amore_ an +_Inganno Amoroso_, against his _Moliere_ a _Moliere marito geloso_, +against his _Terenzio_ a _Plauto_, against his _Sposa Persiana_ a +_Schiava Chinese_, against his _Filosofo Inglese_ a _Filosofo +Veneziano_, against his _Scozzese_ a _Bella Pellegrina_. In spite of +their mutual hostility, this game of battledore and shuttlecock between +Chiari and Goldoni enabled the literary Conservatives to regard both +playwrights as flying under one flag. But before the Granelleschi opened +fire in earnest, Venetian society continued for five years to be pretty +equally divided in its sympathies. The best judges sided with Goldoni, +while Chiari's glaring faults, which passed for brilliant qualities with +the vulgar, won him numerous admirers. Carlo Gozzi has described this +state of contention:[63] + + "I partigiani ogni giorno crescevano, + Chi vuole _Originale_ et chi _Saccheggio_; + Tutto il paese a romore mettevano, + Sicche la cosa non e da motteggio. + Nelle case i fratelli contendevano, + Le mogli co' mariti facean peggio, + In ogni loco acerba e la tenzone, + Tutto e scompiglio, tutto e dissensione." + + +IV. + +The Granelleschi, in their zeal for sound literature, were justly +enraged against the ranting, arrogant, bombastic Chiari. Although the +more discreet Academicians, men like Gasparo Gozzi, recognised Goldoni's +merits, they resented his slovenly and slipshod style. Carlo Gozzi, less +tolerant and far more satirical than his elder brother, confounded both +poets in a common loathing. This was obviously unfair to Goldoni, who, +whatever his faults of diction may have been, ranked immeasurably higher +than the Abbe. But Goldoni was guilty of an unpardonable sin in Gozzi's +eyes. He had declared war against the _Commedia dell' Arte_, for which +Gozzi entertained the partiality of one who was himself an excellent +impromptu actor. The other reasons of this bitter hatred are +sufficiently explained in those chapters of the Memoirs which describe +the beginning of his career as playwright. + +At last Gozzi thought the time had come for striking a decisive +blow.[64] The Granelleschi professed sincere admiration for an obscure +burlesque Florentine poet of the fifteenth century called Burchiello. +Taking some of this man's enigmatical sentences for prophecies, Gozzi +compiled a sort of comic almanac, in which the various woes impending +over Venice in the year 1756 were described. It was entitled _La Tartana +degl' Influssi per l'anno bisestile_ 1756,[65] and was modelled upon an +almanac for country-folk, published at Treviso under the name of a +certain Schieson.[66] For each quarter of the year a _capitolo_ in +_terza rima_ was written, and a prophecy in octave stanzas was dedicated +to each month. Although the _Tartana_ contained satires upon society in +general, a considerable part was directed specially against Chiari and +Goldoni. The introductory address to the readers strikes the keynote. +The month of February deals with comedies, the month of November with +Martellian verses, and the month of December invokes the speedy return +of Sacchi and his company of masks from Portugal. Finally, in the sonnet +addressed to the bookseller at the end of the book, the two poets are +mentioned by name. Gozzi declared himself an implacable enemy of the +plays in vogue, an opponent of rhymed verses imitating the French +Alexandrine measure, and a zealous adherent of the old _Commedia dell' +Arte_. The prophecy with regard to Sacchi's company was speedily +fulfilled; for the earthquake of Lisbon happening in 1755, they were +obliged to quit the scene of that lugubrious disaster. Soon after their +return to Venice, Gozzi appears to have courted their friendship. This +we gather from the _Canto Ditirambico de'Partigiani del Sacchi +Truffaldino_ which he published in 1761.[67] + +Irritated by the _Tartana degli Influssi_, Goldoni, who usually kept +silence under literary attacks, took up the pen and wrote as +follows:[68]-- + + "Ho veduta stampata una Tartana + Piena di versi rancidi sciapiti, + Versi da spaventare una befana, + Versi dal saggio imitator conditi + Con sale acuto della maladicenza, + Piena di falsi sentimenti arditi; + Ma conceder si puo questa licenza + A chi in collera va colla fortuna, + Che per lui non ha molta compiacenza. + Chi dice mal senza ragione alcuna, + Chi non prova gli assunti e gli argomenti, + Fa come il can che abbaia alla luna." + +I have transcribed these verses for several reasons; first, that my +readers may judge for themselves of Goldoni's poetical style; secondly, +because the last six lines profoundly irritated Gozzi; and thirdly, +because they engaged him in the production of his first semi-dramatic +pasquinade upon their author. + +We need not describe the battle of sonnets, squibs, and pamphlets which +raged after the appearance of Gozzi's _Tartana_. The Granelleschi were +now committed to crush their antagonists; and they spared no pains to do +so. Men of birth and parts condescended to the filthiest ribaldry and +the most savage personalities. On the whole, it must be allowed that the +Granelleschi displayed superior wit and style. Gozzi, in particular, +showed real powers for burlesque satire in his _Marfisa Bizzarra_; and +some of his occasional pieces are composed with a terseness and +directness worthy of the classical age of Florentine literature. Goldoni +replied from time to time, but feebly. In a poem entitled _La Tavola +Rotonda_, he described his formidable antagonist as:[69] + + "Un Lombardo che affetta esser cruscante + Col riso in bocca e col veleno in petto." + +This seems to me a fair, if somewhat pungent, description of Carlo +Gozzi, who, in spite of his theoretical purism, rarely succeeded in +writing with correctness or distinction, and who veiled a really caustic +temper under the mask of Democritean philosophy. Touching upon the +charges brought against himself of being neither a scholar nor a poet, +Goldoni admits their truth with frankness:[70] + + "Pur troppo io so che buon scrittor non sono + E che ai fonti miglior non ho bevuto; + Qual mi detta il mio stil scrivo e ragiono, + E talor per fortuna ho anch' io piaciuto; + Ma guai a me se il fiorentin frullone + A sceverare i scritti miei si pone." + +Strong in the unwavering appreciation of the public, and confident in +his own powers, Goldoni could afford to make this concession to his +antagonist. But it argued a generous and modest mind, different in +quality from Gozzi's. + +Meanwhile Gozzi took up the glove of defiance thrown down by Goldoni in +his _Tavola Rotonda_. A sonnet referring to that poem contains these +lines:[71] + + "Ma accio s'abbia a decidere + S'io dissi il ver, sto facendo un comento, + Che provera l'assunto e l'argomento." + +This _Comento_ led Gozzi eventually to the production of his _Fiabe_. +But a step or two remained to be taken before Gozzi resolved to meet +Goldoni on his own ground, the theatre. + +He began by circulating a satirical piece entitled _Il Teatro Comico +all' Osteria del Pellegrino tra le mani degli Accademici Granelleschi_, +or "The Comic Theatre at the Inn of the Pilgrim, rough-handled by the +Granelleschi." Gozzi's Memoirs contain a sufficient description of this +satire, which still exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. They also +explain why he withdrew it from publication at the request of his friend +Farsetti and Goldoni's patron Count Widman. Therefore it is not +necessary to discuss it here in detail: yet the meaning of the title may +be pointed out. Goldoni had already produced a comedy, called _Il Teatro +Comico_, setting forth his views regarding the reform of the drama.[72] +Gozzi, alluding to this play, undertakes to expose the faults of +Goldoni's own theatrical writings. The satire is conceived in the broad +spirit of Aristophanic or Rabelaisian humour, and is really a +masterpiece in its kind. We feel for the first time that Gozzi has found +his proper sphere by the breadth of handling, the free play of humour, +and the precision of touch, which reveal an inborn dramatic faculty. The +unmasking of the vociferous four-faced monster which caricatured +Goldoni, is eminently fit for scenical effect. While reading, we seem to +be present at a new act in Jonson's _Poetaster_. The four mouths of the +four-faced mask represent the four kinds of dramas written by +Goldoni--his early harlequinades and _scenari_, his domestic comedy of +the pathetic species, his heroic and Oriental melodramas, and his +transcripts from Venetian life. A fifth mouth, the mouth in the belly, +_la veridica bocca dell' epa_, as Gozzi terms it, utters Goldoni's +personal aims and views, as Gozzi chose brutally to interpret them. This +truthful witness confesses that all the four mouths of the masked head +were subservient to its carnal needs. _Quis expedivit psittaco suum_ +[Greek: chaire]?... _Magister artis ingenique largitor, Venter negatas +artifex sequi voces._ "Who taught the parrot his word of welcome? That +master of art and liberal dispenser of genius, the belly." That motto +from the prologue to Persius' book of satires might be inscribed on the +title-page of Gozzi's pasquinade. The blow inflicted, in a literal and +metaphorical sense, below the belt, was unworthy of a gentleman. It +betrayed Gozzi's critical insensibility to Goldoni's actual merits. It +exhibited his aristocratic contempt for professional literature, +combined with his comedian's readiness to take advantage of a powerful +opponent. But it also revealed a literary athlete capable of striking +home, and whose method of attack was certain to be formidable. + +Goldoni bowed beneath the storm, and used his influence to withhold the +sanguinary satire from further publicity. At this point Gozzi showed the +courtesy which might have been expected from a man of his quality. He +dropped the point of his weapon at his antagonist's request, and +prepared himself to meet the playwright on his own ground. In fairness +to Gozzi, it is necessary to observe that this resolution indicated no +small amount of chivalry and courage. Goldoni was the idol of the +public. He kept continually pointing to the concourse which crowded the +Venetian theatres when a new piece from his pen was advertised. Gozzi +was unpractised in play-writing, a man in his fortieth year, and the +dramatic card on which he staked his luck might well be considered +hazardous. What that card was we shall presently discover. + +Chiari, involved in the same warfare with the Granelleschi, had hitherto +preserved a discreet silence. Now he defied them to produce a play. +Gasparo Gozzi answered with a sonnet, which betrays his personal leaning +toward Goldoni. Then Chiari resolved to make common cause with his old +rival on the stage. This shows how the dropping fire of the Academicians +had told upon their opponents. The Abbe addressed Goldoni as _degnissimo +comico vate, poeta amico_, most worthy master of comedy, my good poet +friend. Goldoni reciprocated the compliment with _vate sublime, vate +immortale_, sublime, immortal bard. Not without a touch of concealed +irony, he compared himself to Chiari in this lyric flight:[73] + + "Si, tu sei l'aquila, + Io la formica; + Tu voli all' apice + Senza fatica, + Mia Musa ai cardini + Salir non sa." + +We trace in these verses Goldoni's perfect clarity of vision regarding +his own powers, and his good-humoured indulgence of other people's +foibles. He recognised the practical advantage of an alliance with +Chiari. At the same time he disclaimed all honours for himself, and +gently ridiculed his new ally's pretensions. + +Chiari had defied the Granelleschi to produce a comedy. Goldoni had +taken up his stand upon the popularity of his own plays. Carlo Gozzi +conceived the bold idea of writing a fantastic drama upon the old lines +of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which should fill the theatre of his +adoption and restore Sacchi's company to favour. If he succeeded, both +Chiari and Goldoni would be hit with the same stone. This was the real +origin of the celebrated _Fiabe Teatrali_. But before engaging in the +attempt, Gozzi looked about for a suitable subject. Nothing, he +calculated, would floor his antagonists more thoroughly than the +exhibition of a dramatised nursery tale by impromptu actors. Therefore, +in the spirit of a burlesque duellist, in the true spirit of Don +Quixote, he composed his _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_. + +These facts about the genesis of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ need to be insisted on, +since French and German critics have distorted the truth. They regard +Gozzi as a romantic playwright, gifted with innate genius for a peculiar +species of dramatic art. According to this theory, the _Fiabe_ were +produced in order to manifest an ideal existing in their author's brain. +Minute attention to Gozzi's Memoirs, his explanatory Essays (Opere, +vols. i. and iv.), and the preface appended to each _Fiaba_, shows, on +the contrary, that he began to write the _Fiabe_ with the simple object +of answering a certain challenge in the most humorous way he could +devise. He continued them with a didactic purpose. His keen sagacity and +profound knowledge of the Venetian public led him possibly to anticipate +success. Yet he knew that the attempt was perilous; and he made it, +without obeying preconceived principles, without yielding to any +imperative instinct, but solely with the view of giving Chiari and +Goldoni a sound thrashing. + +If it is worth while studying Gozzi and the _Fiabe_ at all, this point +has so much importance that I may be permitted to resume the history of +his literary conflict with the two poets. Gozzi opened fire with the +_Tartana_ in 1756. Goldoni retorted that he had only made himself +ridiculous; unless he proved both his assumption and his argument, he +was nothing better than a dog barking at the moon. Gozzi then declared +that he was already engaged in the production of a commentary. This +circulated in MS. under the form of a satire called the _Teatro Comico_. +Meanwhile Goldoni parried all attacks by pointing to his popularity, and +Chiari openly defied the Granelleschi to write a comedy, instead of +condemning the plays in vogue. Finally Gozzi, who had become intimately +acquainted with the actors in Sacchi's company, resolved to write a +_scenario_, which should rehabilitate the _Commedia dell' Arte_, parody +both Chiari and Goldoni, attract the public in crowds, and prove that a +mere fairy tale, treated with romantic gusto, was capable of arousing no +less interest than the works of professional playwrights following +new-fangled models. The _Amore delle Tre Melarancie_, produced at the +end of January in 1761, rather more than four years after the appearance +of the _Tartana_, was the result. + +It is mistaken to suppose that Gozzi was animated by the enthusiasm of a +literary innovator. The _Fiabe_, in spite of their fantastic form, were +the work of an aristocratical Conservative, bent on striking a shrewd +blow for the _Commedia dell' Arte_, which he considered to be the +special glory of the Italian race. In this respect, we might call Gozzi +the Venetian Aristophanes.[74] The _Fiabe_ were his "Clouds," and +"Birds," and "Wasps." Goldoni and Chiari were his Euripides and Agathon; +perverters of the good old comedy by vulgar realism, false pathos, and +meretricious rhetoric. Rousseau, Voltaire, Helvetius, the French +_philosophes_, were his Socrates and Sophists. His art was the +expression, not of creative instinct evoking a new type of drama merely +for its beauty and romance, but of a militant, sarcastic mind, imbued +with the ironical literature of the sixteenth century. Gozzi had little +in common with Shakespeare. Truffaldino is no twin-brother of King +Lear's fool, nor is Brighella cousin to the grave-digger in _Hamlet_. +These personages belong to the family of masks, whose pedigree dates +from immemorial antiquity in Italy. The element of fable, as Gozzi +repeatedly informs us, was first adopted by him out of sheer bravado to +maintain a certain thesis, viz., that whole nations could be made to +laugh and cry over puerilities, when handled with the judgment of a +master. Gozzi's true ancestors in art were the Florentine burlesque +poets, notably Luigi Pulci. The blending of magic, phantasy, broad +comedy and serious tragic interest in the _Fiabe_ allies them to the +_Morgante Maggiore_ far more closely than to Marlowe's _Doctor +Faustus_. In them, therefore, we observe the curious literary phenomenon +of what at first sight appears to be spontaneous romantic art, but what +is really the result of satirical and didactic intention. The preface to +_L'Augellino Belverde_, in which Gozzi takes leave of the _Fiabe_, +clearly explains the case.[75] "I addressed myself to the task of +arousing great popular enthusiasm by a _tour de force_ of fancy; and at +the same time I wished to cut short the series of my dramatic pieces, +from which I derived no profit, and the burden of producing which was +beginning to weigh heavily upon me. Besides, it seemed to me that I had +fully achieved the end I had proposed to myself from the outset, in the +indulgence of the purest capricious and poetical punctilio." _Punctilio_ +was the parent of the _Fiabe_. + +At this point I shall introduce a translation of _L'Amore delle Tre +Melarancie_. There are several reasons for doing so. First, although it +only exists For us in the _compte rendu_ of the author, and is therefore +a description rather than a literal _scenario_, a very good idea can be +gained from it of the directions given by a poet to extempore actors. +Secondly, it shows the four Venetian masks, Pantalone, Tartaglia, +Truffaldino, and Brighella, in action, together with the _servetta_ +Smeraldina. Thirdly, it is interesting for the light thrown upon Gozzi's +controversy with the two poets in the critical observations he has +interspersed. These I shall enclose in brackets, so that the _scenario_ +of the play may be distinguished from extraneous matter. + + +V. + +A REFLECTIVE ANALYSIS + +OF THE FABLE ENTITLED + +THE LOVE OF THE THREE ORANGES. + +_A Dramatic Representation divided into Three Acts._[76] + + +PROLOGUE. + +(_A boy comes forward and makes this announcement._) + + Your faithful servants, the old company + Of players, feel sore shent and full of shame; + Behind the scenes they stand with downcast eye + And hang-dog faces, dreading words of blame; + They blush to hear the folk say: "We are dry! + Each year those fellows feed us with the same + Musty old comedies that stink of mould! + We will not be insulted, laughed at, sold!" + I swear by all the elements to you, + Kind public, that to win your love once more, + They'd let their teeth be drawn, and eyeballs too! + They sent me to say this--nay, do not roar, + Restrain your wrath, sweet gentle audience, do; + Lend me your ears three minutes, I implore; + When I have spoken what I'm sent to say, + Deal with me as you list, I won't cry nay! + We've lost all sense and knowledge how to please + The public on our scenes, in this mad age. + The plays that took last year now seem to freeze; + And something quite brand-new is all the rage. + The wheel of taste and fashion, as one sees, + Moves with a wind no prophet can presage; + We only know that when the world's agog, + Our throats are moist and stomachs filled with prog. + Taste rules this year that all the modern plays + Should be crammed full with intrigue, strange events, + Fresh characters, adventures that amaze, + Wild, thrilling, unexpected incidents;-- + Dumbfounded by these laws, we stand at gaze, + Huddling together timorous in our tents; + And yet because we must have bread to eat, + We've come with our old wares your wrath to meet. + I know not, gentle listener, who it is + Hath rendered us unfit to charm your ear: + To us who once enjoyed your courtesies, + So many and so sweet, it seems most queer. + Is Poetry perchance to blame for this? + Well, well; all things are doomed to disappear; + Mortals must learn to bear and bide their fate; + Yet, ah! your hatred is a scourge too great! + For our part, we'll leave nothing new untried; + We'll don the poet's singing-robes and bays, + If this may give us back your grace denied; + Nay, we _are_ poets in these latter days! + Our breeches shall be sold and ink supplied, + Our coats we'll change for paper to write plays; + And if we've got no genius, well, what's that? + So long as you are pleased, all's right, that's flat. + Our purpose 'tis with new-pranked comedies, + Fine things, ne'er seen before, to fill our stage. + Don't ask when, where, and how we met with these, + Or who inscribed the pure Phoebean page; + After fine weather when the deluges + Of rain descend, _Lo, new rain!_ cries the sage; + Yet though he thinks it new rain, 'tis quite plain + That rain is nought but water, water rain. + Not all things keep one course through endless time. + What's up to-day, to-morrow shall be down. + Your great-great-grandsire's garment Mode, the mime, + Steals from his picture-frame to deck the town. + 'Tis taste, opinion, gusto make sublime, + Make beautiful, what tickles prince and clown; + And we can swear upon the book our plays + Have ne'er appeared in these or other days. + We've plots and arguments to turn old folk + Back to their infancy and nurse's arms; + Parents who kindly bear their children's yoke + Will bring the babes to listen to our charms; + High solemn geniuses we daren't invoke, + Nor will their absence cause us great alarms; + Why should we snuff at pence? Whether they scent + Of ignorance or learning, we're content. + On strange and unexpected circumstance + You shall sup full to-night; on wonders wild, + Whereof you may have heard or read perchance, + Yet never seen by woman, man, or child; + Beasts, birds, and house-doors shall your ears entrance + With verses by crowned poet's labour filed; + And if Martellian verses they shall prove, + These _must_ compel your plaudits and your love! + Your servants wait, impatient to begin; + But first I'd like the story to rehearse; + Ah me! I quake and tremble in my skin-- + You're sure to hiss me or do something worse! + _The Love of the Three Oranges!_--I'm in, + And don't repent the plunge, although you curse. + Imagine then, my darlings, heart's desires, + You're sitting with your granddams round your fires. + +[The touch of satire in this prologue, directed against poets who were +trying to trample down Sacchi's company of improvisatory players, is +too obvious, and my intention of supporting the latter by introducing +the series of my dramatised nursery-tales upon the theatre is too +evident, to call for detailed commentary. In the choice of my first +fable, which I took from the commonest among the stories told to +children, and in the base alloy of the dialogues, the action, and the +characters, which are obviously degraded of set purpose, I wanted to +ridicule _Il Campiello_, _Le Massere_, _Le Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and many +other plebeian and very trivial pieces by Signor Goldoni.] + + +FIRST ACT. + +Silvio, King of Diamonds,[77] the monarch of an imaginary realm, whose +habit exactly imitated that of his majesty upon the playing cards, +confided to Pantalone the deep distress caused to his royal mind by the +misfortune of his sole son and heir, Tartaglia. The Crown-Prince had +been subject, for the last ten years, to an incurable malady. The first +physicians diagnosed the case as hopeless hypochondria, and gave their +patient up. The King wept bitterly. Pantalone, sending doctors to the +devil with his sarcasms, suggested that the admirable secrets of certain +charlatans, at that time famous, might be tried. The King protested that +all such means had been employed with no result. Pantalone, letting his +fancy play upon the hidden causes of the malady, asked his liege in +secret, so as not to be overheard by the royal bodyguard, whether his +Majesty had perhaps contracted something in his younger days, which, +being communicated to the constitution of the Prince, might still be +extirpated by the exhibition of mercury. The King, assuming an air of +stately seriousness, replied that he had been invariably faithful to his +consort's bed. Pantalone then submitted that the Prince might be +concealing, out of a befitting sense of shame, the consequence of boyish +peccadilloes. His Majesty assured him seriously that his own paternal +inspection of the patient excluded that hypothesis; the young man's +illness was solely due to hypochondria of a grave and malignant nature; +the physicians declared that, unless he could be made to laugh, he must +sink slowly into his grave; a smile upon his face would be the +favourable sign of convalescence. That was too good to be expected. To +this he added that the prospect of his own decrepitude, the sight of his +son and heir upon a death-bed, the inevitable succession to the crown of +his niece Clarice, a young woman of strange temper, bizarre fancies, and +cruel passions, caused him the deepest affliction. Thereupon he began to +bewail the future misery of his subjects, broke down into a flood of +tears, and quite forgot the dignity of his high station. Pantalone +consoled him, urged on his attention the propriety of restoring the +court to merriment and gladness, if all depended on Prince Tartaglia's +recovering the power of laughter. Let festivities, games, masquerades, +and spectacles be set on foot. Let Truffaldino, well approved for making +people laugh and chasing the blue-devils from their brains, be summoned +to the Prince's service. The Prince had shown some inclination for +Truffaldino's society. He might succeed in bringing smiles again upon +the royal features. The remedy could but be tried, and possibly a cure +might ensue. The King allowed himself to be convinced, and began to plan +arrangements. + +To these persons entered Leandro, Knave of Diamonds,[78] and first +Minister of the realm. He too was dressed like his figure on a pack of +cards. Pantalone, aside, expressed his suspicion of some treachery on +the part of Leandro. The King commanded festivities, games, and Bacchic +entertainments, adding that whoever made the Prince laugh should receive +a noble prize. Leandro tried to dissuade his Majesty, and urged that +such remedies were likely to prejudice the sick man's health. The King +repeated his orders and retired. Pantalone rejoiced. Aside, to the +audience, he explained that Leandro was certainly planning the Prince's +death. Then he followed the King. Leandro remained stubborn, muttered +that he detected some opposition to his wishes, but from what quarter he +could not guess. + +To him appeared the Princess Clarice, niece of the King. There was never +seen upon the stage a princess of so wild, irascible, and determined a +character as this Clarice. [I have to thank Signer Chiari for furnishing +me with abundant models for such caricatures in his dramatic works.] She +had settled with Leandro to marry him, and raise him to the throne, upon +the death of her cousin. Accordingly she burst into reproaches against +her lover for his coldness. Were they to wait until Tartaglia died of a +disease so slow as hypochondria? Leandro excused himself with +circumspection. Fata Morgana, he said, his powerful protectress, had +given him certain charms in Martellian verses, which were to be +administered to Tartaglia in wafers. These would certainly work his +destruction by sure if tardy means. [This was introduced to criticise +the plays of Chiari and Goldoni, whose Martellian verses bored every one +to death by their monotony of rhyme.] Now Fata Morgana was hostile to +the King of Diamonds, having lost much of her treasure on his card. She +loved the Knave of Diamonds, because he had brought her luck in play. +She dwelt in a lake, not far from the city. Smeraldina, a Moorish woman, +who performed the _servetta_ in this scenic parody, acted as +intermediary between Leandro and Morgana. Clarice fumed with fury at +hearing the slow means appointed for Tartaglia's death. Leandro +confessed that he entertained some doubts about the efficacy of +Martellian verses to secure a happy dispatch. He was uneasy, too, at +the unexplained appearance of Truffaldino at court, a very facetious +fellow; and if Tartaglia laughed, his cure was certain. Clarice's rage +boiled over; she had seen Truffaldino, and the mere sight of him was +certain to make anybody laugh. [In this dialogue my readers will detect +a defence of the mirth-making comedy of the masks as against the +melancholy drama in verse of the poets in vogue.] Meanwhile, Leandro had +seat Brighella, his servant, to Smeraldina, to learn the explanation of +Truffaldino's appearance, and to demand assistance from Morgana. + +Brighella entered; and with much show of secrecy related that +Truffaldino had been sent to court by a certain wizard Celio, Morgana's +enemy, and the King of Diamonds' friend, for reasons exactly opposite to +those which had incensed Morgana against him. Truffaldino, he continued, +was an antidote to the morbific influences of Martellian verses; he had +come to protect the King, the Prince, and all the people from the +infection of those melancholic charms. + +[It may be pointed out that the hostility between Fata Morgana and Celio +the wizard symbolised the warfare carried on between Goldoni and Chiari. +Fata Morgana was a caricature of Chiari, and Celio of Goldoni.] + +Brighella's news threw Clarice and Leandro into consternation. They laid +their heads together how to kill Truffaldino by some secret device. +Clarice suggested arsenic or a blunderbuss. Leandro was for trying +Martellian verses in wafers, or opium. Clarice objected that there was +not much to choose between Martellian verses and opium, and that +Truffaldino had the stomach to digest such trifles. Brighella added that +Morgana, informed of the festivities designed for the Prince's recovery, +meant to appear and neutralise the action of his salutiferous laughter +by a curse which should quickly send him to the tomb. Clarice retired. +Leandro and Brighella went to superintend the preparation of the shows. + +The next scene disclosed the chamber of the sick Prince. He was attired +in the most laughable caricature of an invalid's costume. Reclining in +an ample lounging-chair, Tartaglia leaned against a table, piled with +medicine-bottles, ointments, spittoons, and other furniture appropriate +to his melancholy condition. With a weak and quavering voice he lamented +his misfortunes, the various treatments he had tried with no success, +and the extraordinary symptoms of his incurable malady. The eminent +actor, who sustained this scene alone, kept the audience in one roar of +laughter by his exquisite burlesque and natural drollery. Then +Truffaldino entered, and tried to make the patient laugh. The extempore +performance of this duet by two of the best comic players of our day +afforded excellent mirth. The Prince looked on approvingly while +Truffaldino exhibited his pranks. But nothing could bring a smile upon +his lips. He insisted upon returning to his illness, and asking +Truffaldino's advice. Truffaldino entered into a labyrinth of +physiological and medical arguments, highly humorous and spiced with +satire. He smelt the Prince's breath, and swore that it stank of a +surfeit of undigested Martellian verses. The Prince coughed, and asked +to spit. Truffaldino brought him the vessel, examined the expectoration, +and found in it a mass of rancid rotten rhymes. This scene lasted above +a quarter of an hour, to the continual amusement of the audience. +Instruments of music were then heard, announcing the festivities in the +great court of the palace. Truffaldino wanted to conduct the Prince to a +balcony from which he could survey them. Tartaglia protested that this +was impossible. Truffaldino, in a rage, threw all the medicines, cups, +and ointments out of window, while the Prince squealed and wept like a +baby. At last Truffaldino carried him off by main force, howling as +though he was being massacred, and bore him on his shoulders to enjoy +the show. + +The third scene was laid in the courtyard of the palace. Leandro +entered, and declared that he had carried out the King's commands; the +people, plunged in grief, but eager to refresh their spirits, were all +masked; he had taken precautions to make many persons assume lugubrious +disguises, in order to augment the Prince's melancholy; the hour had +sounded for unbarring the court-gates to the populace. + +Morgana then entered, in the travesty of a ridiculous old woman. Leandro +expressed his astonishment that such an object should have obtained +entrance before the gates were opened. Morgana discovered herself, and +said she had come in that disguise to work the Prince's swift +destruction. Leandro thanked her, and styled her the Queen of +Hypochondria. Morgana drew to one side, and the gates were thrown wide. + +On a terraced balcony, in front of the spectators, sat the King, and +Prince Tartaglia, muffled in furred pelisse, Clarice, Pantalone, the +guards, and afterwards Leandro. The spectacles and games were precisely +such as are related in the fairy story. The people flocked in. There was +a tournament, directed by Truffaldino, who arranged burlesque encounters +for the knights. At every turn, he addressed himself to the balcony, +inquiring of his majesty if the Prince had laughed. The Prince only shed +tears, complaining that the air hurt him, and the noise made his head +ache. He entreated his royal sire to send him back to his warm bed. + +There were two fountains, one of which ran with oil, the other with +wine. Round these the rabble hustled, disputing with vulgar and plebeian +violence. But nothing moved the Prince to laughter. Then Morgana hobbled +out to fill her cruse with oil. Truffaldino assailed the hag with a +variety of insults, and finally sent her sprawling with her legs in air. +[These trivialities, taken from the trivial story-book, amused the +audience by their novelty quite as much as the _Massere_, _Campielli_, +_Baruffe Chiozzotte_, and all the other trivial pieces of Goldoni.] On +seeing the old woman's fall, Tartaglia burst into a long sonorous peal +of laughter. Truffaldino gained the prize. The people, relieved of their +anxiety about the Prince's health, laughed uncontrollably. All the court +was glad. Only Leandro and Clarice showed wry faces. + +Morgana, raising herself from the ground in a spasm of fury, abused the +Prince, and hurled the following awful malediction in the true style of +Chiari at his devoted head:[79] + + "Open thine ears, barbarian! let my voice assail thy heart! + Nor wall nor mountain stay the sound my words of doom impart. + As riving thunderbolts descend and split the solid rock, + So may my curses split thy breast with their tremendous shock. + As boats against a running tide the tug triumphant tows, + So let my malediction strong still lead thee by the nose. + Oh awful curse! oh direful doom! To hear it is to die, + Like quadrupeds within the sea, or fish on flowers that lie! + I call on Pluto, gloomy god, to Pindar winged I pray, + That thou with the Three Oranges may'st fall in love to-day. + Threats, tears, entreaties now are nought, leaves shaken by the breeze; + Haste to the horrible acquist of the Three Oranges!" + +Morgana disappeared. The Prince suddenly conceived a firm and resolute +enthusiasm for the love of the Three Oranges. He was led away amid the +confusion and consternation of the court. + +What nonsense! What a mortification for the two poets! The first act of +the fable ended at this point with a loud and universal clapping of +hands. + + +ACT THE SECOND. + +In one of the Prince's apartments, Pantalone, beside himself with +despair, describes the terrible effect of the hag's malediction on +Tartaglia. Nothing could be done to calm him down. He had asked his +father for a pair of iron shoes, to walk the world over, and discover +the fatal Oranges. The King had commanded Pantalone, under pain of the +Prince's displeasure, to find him such a pair. The matter was one of the +most pressing urgency. [This motive suited the theatre, and conveyed a +sprightly satire on the dramatic motives then in vogue.] + +Pantalone retired, and the Prince entered with Truffaldino. Tartaglia +expressed impatience at this long delay in bringing him the iron shoes. +Truffaldino asked a number of absurd questions. Tartaglia declared his +intention of going to find the Three Oranges, which, as he heard from +his grandmother, were two thousand miles away, in the power of Creonta, +a gigantic witch. Then he called for his armour, and bade Truffaldino +array himself in mail, for he meant him to be his squire. A scene of +excellent buffoonery followed between these highly comical personages, +both of them fitting on corslets, helmets, and huge long swords, with +burlesque military ardour. + +Enter the King, Pantalone, and guards. One of the latter carries a pair +of iron shoes upon a salver. This scene was executed by the four +principal performers with a gravity which made it doubly ridiculous. In +a tone of high tragedy and theatrical majesty the father dissuaded his +son from this perilous adventure. He entreated, threatened, relapsed +into pathos. The Prince, like a man possessed, insisted. His +hypochondria was sure to return, unless he was allowed to set forth. At +last he burst into coarse threats against his father. The King stood +rooted to the ground with amazement and grief. Then he reflected that +this want of filial respect in Tartaglia arose from the bad example of +the new comedies. [In one of Chiari's comedies a son had drawn his sword +to kill his father. Instances of the same description abounded in the +dramas of that day, which I wished to censure.] Nothing would silence +the Prince, till Truffaldino shod him with the iron shoes. The scene +ended with a quartet in dramatic verse, of blubberings, farewells, sighs +and sobs. Tartaglia and Truffaldino took their leave. The King fell +fainting on a sofa, and Pantalone called aloud for aromatic vinegar. + +Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella came hurrying upon the stage, rebuking +Pantalone for the clamour he was raising. Pantalone replied that, with a +King in a fainting fit, a Prince gone off on the dangerous adventure of +the Oranges, it was only natural to kick up a row. Brighella answered +that such matters were mere twaddle, like the new comedies, which turned +everything topsy-turvy without reason. The King meanwhile recovered his +senses, and fell to raving in true tragic style. He bewept his son for +dead; ordered the whole court to wear mourning; and shut himself up in a +little cabinet, to end his days under the weight of this crushing +affliction. Pantalone, vowing that he would share the King's +lamentations, collect their mingled tears in one pocket-handkerchief, +and bequeath to coming bards the argument for interminable episodes in +Martellian verse, withdrew in the train of his liege. + +Clarice, Leandro, Brighella gave way to their gladness, and extolled +Morgana to the skies. Whimsical Clarice then insisted on coming to +conditions before she raised Leandro to the throne. In time of war she +was to command the armies. Even if she suffered a defeat, she was sure +to subdue the victor by her charms; when he was drowned in love, and +lulled by her blandishments, she meant to stick a knife into his paunch. +[This was a side hit at Chiari's _Attila_.] Clarice further reserved to +herself the right of distributing court-offices. Brighella, as the +reward of his services, begged to be appointed Master of the King's +Revels. The three personages now disputed upon the choice of different +theatrical diversions. Clarice voted for tragic dramas, with personages +who should throw themselves out of windows and off towers, without +breaking their necks, and such-like miraculous accidents (_id est_, the +plays of Chiari). Leandro preferred comedies of character (_id est_, +Goldoni's plays). Brighella recommended the _Commedia dell' Arte_, as +very fit to yield the public innocent amusement. Clarice and Leandro +flew into a rage. What did they want with stupid buffooneries, rancid +relics of antiquity, unseemly in this enlightened age? Brighella then +began a pathetic speech, commiserating Sacchi's company, without +mentioning it by name, but making his meaning plain enough. He deplored +the misfortunes of an honourable troupe, who had done good service in +their day, but were now downtrodden, and forced to behold the affections +of the public they adored, and whom they had for many years amused, +withdrawn from them. He retired with the applause of that public, who +thoroughly understood the real drift of his discourse. + +The next scene opened in a wilderness. Celio the wizard was discovered +drawing circles. As the protector of Prince Tartaglia, he summoned +Farfarello, a devil, to his aid. Farfarello appeared, and with a +formidable voice uttered these Martellian lines: + + "Hullo! who calls? who drags me forth from earth's drear centre dark? + A wizard real art thou, or wizard of the stage, thou spark? + If only of the stage thou art, I need not tell thee then + That devils, wizards, sprites, are out of fashion among men." + +[Allusion was here made to the two poets, who wanted to abolish the +masks, magicians, and fiends in writings for the stage.] Celio answered +in prose that he was a real wizard. Farfarello continued: + + "Well, be thou what thou wilt; yet if thou of the stage may be, + At least thou might'st respond in verse Martellian to me." + +Celio swore at the devil, and told him that he meant to go on talking +prose. Then he inquired whether Truffaldino, whom he had sent to the +court of the King of Diamonds, had done any good, and whether Tartaglia +had been obliged to laugh, and had lost his hypochondria. The devil +answered: + + "He laughed; recovered health; but then, Morgana, thy great foe, + With malediction spoiled thy pains, and wrought a double woe. + With fury winged and breathless he, both burning cheeks on fire, + Is after the Three Oranges, inflamed with fierce desire. + With Truffaldin the Prince is sped; Morgana sends a sprite + To wait upon the pair and blow them forward in their flight. + A thousand miles the men have gone, and soon they will descend, + Here by Creonta's fort, half-dead, at their long journey's end." + +[Illustration: BRIGHELLA (1570) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The devil disappeared. Celio monologised against his mortal foe Morgana, +explaining the great perils of Tartaglia and Truffaldino when they +should arrive at the castle of Creonta on the quest of the fatal +Oranges. Then he retired to make the necessary preparations for saving +two persons of high merit and great social utility. + +[Celio, who stood for Goldoni in this piece of nonsense, ought not to +have protected Tartaglia and Truffaldino. I admit the error, which +deserves to be condemned, if a mere dramatic sketch of such a trivial +kind comes within the scope of criticism. At that time Chiari and +Goldoni were enemies and rivals. I wanted Morgana and Celio to +caricature their opposite dramatic styles; and I did not care to protect +myself against censure by multiplying personages more than needful.] + +Tartaglia and Truffaldino entered armed, and proceeding at a tremendous +pace. They had a devil with a pair of bellows following behind, and +blowing their backsides to make them skim along the ground. The devil +ceased to blow and disappeared. They sprawled on the grass at the sudden +cessation of the favouring gale. + +[I am under infinite obligations to Signor Chiari for this burlesque +conception, which produced a very excellent effect upon the stage. In +his dramas, drawn from the AEneid, Chiari made the Trojans perform long +journeys within the space of a single action, and without the assistance +of my devil and his bellows. This writer, though he pedantically +insulted everybody else who broke the rules, allowed himself singular +privileges. In his tragedy of _Ezelino_, after the tyrant's downfall, a +captain is sent to beleaguer Treviso, and reduce Ezelino's garrison. +This takes place in one scene. In the next scene the same captain +returns victorious, having ridden more than thirty miles, captured the +town, and butchered the tyrant's troops. He delivers a rhetorical +oration, ascribing this miracle to the matchless spirit of his horse! +Tartaglia and Truffaldino had to perform a journey of two thousand +miles, and my device of the devil with the bellows explained their +exploit better than Chiari's charger.] + +The two comedians rose from the ground, half-stunned and astonished at +the mighty wind which wafted them. Their geographical description of the +countries, mountains, rivers, and oceans they had passed, was crammed +with burlesque absurdities. Tartaglia concluded that the Three Oranges +must be nigh at hand. Truffaldino, feeling tired and hungry, asked the +Prince whether he had brought a good stock of cash or bills. Tartaglia +spurned such low considerations and idle questions. Spying a castle on a +hill, and judging it to be Creonta's, he set manfully forward, while +Truffaldino trudged behind in the hope of finding food. + +Meanwhile Celio entered, and sought in vain to dissuade the Prince from +his perilous adventure. He described insuperable obstacles fraught with +danger on the way. They were exactly the same as are told to children in +the story-book; but Celio enlarged upon them with wide rolling eyes, +and magnified the molehills into mountains. There was an iron gate +rusted with time, a famished dog, a well-rope rotten with damp, a +baker's wife, who, having no broom, was forced to sweep the oven out +with her own dugs. The Prince, unterrified by these appalling objects, +determined to assail the castle. Celio, seeing his mind made up, gave +him a magic ointment to smear the bolt of the gate, a loaf to throw the +dog, and a bundle of brooms to give the baker's wife. The rope he bade +them hang out in the sun to dry. Then he added that, if by lucky chance +they should acquire the Oranges, they were to leave the castle at once, +and be mindful to open none of the Oranges except in the immediate +neighbourhood of some fountain. Finally, he promised, if they escaped +the perils of their theft, to send the same devil with the bellows, to +blow them home again. Then he recommended them to Heaven and left them. +Tartaglia and Truffaldino, carrying the articles provided by Celio, went +forward on their journey. + +Here a tent was lowered, which represented the pavilion of the King of +Diamonds.--What an irregularity!--Nay, what misapplied criticism!--Two +short scenes followed, one between Smeraldina and Brighella, rejoicing +over the loss of Tartaglia; the other with Morgana, who bade Brighella +inform Clarice and Leandro that Celio was assisting the Prince. This she +had learned from the devil Draghinazzo. Then she bade Smeraldina follow +her to the lake, where Tartaglia and Truffaldino would certainly arrive +if they escaped Creonta's clutches. Some new snare might then be devised +to entrap them. The parley broke up in confusion. + +The next scene disclosed a courtyard in Creonta's castle. [I was able to +observe, upon the opening of this scene, with the grossly absurd objects +it contained, what an immense power the marvellous exerts over the human +mind. A gate constructed with an iron grating, a famished dog which +howled and roamed around, a well with a coil of rope beside it, a +baker's wife who swept her oven with two enormously long breasts, kept +the whole theatre in silent wonder and attention quite as effectually as +the most thrilling scenes in the works of our two poets.] Outside the +grating appeared Tartaglia and Truffaldino, engaged in smearing the +bolt; and lo! the portal swung upon its hinges. Great miracle! They +passed in. The dog barked and leapt upon them. They threw him the bread +and he was still. Great portent! Truffaldino, trembling with fright, +then hung the cord up to dry, and gave the baker's wife her brooms, +while the Prince entered the castle and came out again, capering for joy +and holding the three enormous Oranges he had seized. + +The moving accidents of this scene did not end so suddenly. The sky +darkened, the earth quaked, and loud claps of thunder were heard. +Tartaglia handed the Oranges to Truffaldino, who kept trembling like an +aspen leaf. Then there issued from the castle an awful voice, which was +Creonta's own. She spoke as the story-book dictates: + + "O baker's wife, O baker's wife, abide not my just ire! + Take those two fellows by the feet, and cast them in the fire." + +The baker's wife, following the fable with equal fidelity, replied thus: + + "Not I! How many months have passed, how many months and years, + While with my milk-white breasts I sweep, and waste my life in tears! + Thou, cruel dame, a single broom ne'er gav'st me at my need; + These brought a bundle; let them go in peace; I will not heed." + +Creonta cried: + + "O rope, O rope! hang up the knaves!" + +And the rope, still observing the text, answered: + + "Hard heart! hast thou forgot + Those many years, those many months, thou left'st me here to rot? + By thee was I abandoned long in damp to waste away; + These stretched me to the sun; let them go forth in peace, I say." + +Creonta howled aloud: + + "Dog, faithful watch-dog! rend and tear those wretches limb from limb." + +The dog retorted: + + "Nay, why, Creonta, should I rend poor fellows at thy whim? + So many years, so many months, I've served thee without food; + These filled my belly full; thy cries shall not control my mood." + +Creonta, again: + + "Portal of iron, close! Grind yon base knaves and thieves to dust!" + +And the gate: + + "Cruel Creonta! vainly now your threats on me are thrust! + So many years, so many months, in rust and woe to pine, + You left me here; they oiled my bolts; no ingrate's heart is mine." + +It was very funny to see Tartaglia's and Truffaldino's mock astonishment +at the fine flow of the poet's eloquence. They stood dumbfounded to hear +bakers' wives, and ropes, and dogs, and gates talking in Martellian +verse. Then they thanked those courteous objects for the kindness shown +them. + +The audience were hugely delighted with these puerilities, and I confess +that I joined heartily in their laughter, half-ashamed the while at +being forced to relish a pack of infantile absurdities, which took me +back to the days of my babyhood. + +The giantess Creonta now appeared upon the stage. She was of towering +stature, and attired in a vast sweeping _andrienne_. Tartaglia and +Truffaldino fled before her horrible aspect. Then she gave vent to her +despair in Martellian verses, not forgetting to invoke Pindar, whom +Signor Chiari treated complacently as his own twin-brother: + + "Woe to you, faithless servants! Woe, false rope and dog and gate! + Base baker's wife, I curse thee too! Ye traitors found too late! + Alas! Sweet Oranges! Ah me! Who stole you unaware? + Dear Oranges, my hope, my soul, my love, my life, my care! + Woe's me! I burst with bitter rage; there's boiling in my breast + Chaos, the Elements, the Sun, the Rainbow, and the rest! + I scarce can stand against it all: O Jove, the Thunderer, send + Thy lightnings on my pate, and me down to the slippers rend! + Help to me! Ho! Who helps me? Fiends! Who lifts me from this world?-- + A friendly thunderbolt descends! I burn, I'm soothed, I'm hurled." + +[These last verses were no bad parody of both Chiari's sentiments and +style of writing.] A thunderbolt fell and reduced the giantess to ashes. +Here ended the second act, which had been followed with more marked +applause than the first. My bold experiment began to seem less culpable +than it had done at the commencement. + + +ACT THE THIRD. + +The first scene opened near Fata Morgana's lake. There was a great tree +visible and underneath it a large stone seat. Several rocks and boulders +were strewn about the meadow. Smeraldina, who talked the jargon of an +Italianised Turk, was standing at the brink of the lake impatiently +awaiting the fairy's orders, and calling out. Morgana rose from the +surface, and began to relate a journey she had made to hell, where she +learned that Tartaglia and Truffaldino, victorious in their achievement +of the Three Oranges, were coming by the help of Celio and the devil +with the bellows. Smeraldina soundly abused the fairy for her want of +skill in magic. Morgana bade her spare her breath. Owing to precautions +she had taken, Truffaldino would reach the spot where they were +standing, separately from the Prince. Thirst and hunger, sent by +wizard's arts, should annoy him; and since the Oranges were in his +custody, great catastrophes would take place. Then she consigned two +bedevilled pins to Smeraldina, adding that she would see a fair girl +sitting on the stone beneath the tree. She was to contrive to fix one of +these needles in the girl's hair, whereupon the latter would become a +dove, and Smeraldina was to take her place upon the stone. Tartaglia +should marry her and make her Queen. During the night, while sleeping +with her husband, she was to fix the other needle in his hair, whereupon +he would become a beast, and the throne would be left vacant for Clarice +and Leandro. The Moorish woman raised some difficulties, which Morgana +easily disposed of. Then, observing Truffaldino approaching with the +infernal blast behind him, they withdrew to mature their plans. + +Truffaldino entered, carrying the Three Oranges in a wallet. The devil +with the bellows disappeared, and Truffaldino related how the Prince had +tripped up a little while back, and that he must wait for him. He seated +himself. Intolerable thirst and hunger tormented him. At last he +resolved to eat one of the Oranges. But conscience stung him; he +declaimed in tragic style; then, driven mad by thirst, made up his mind +to risk the sacrifice. After all, he reflected, the damage could be made +good with two farthings. So he proceeded to cut open an Orange. Oh, +what a surprise! There issued from its rind a girl clothed in white, +who, following the text of the story-book, spoke immediately: + + "Give me to drink! I'm fainting! Ah! I'm dying! Quick, my dear! + Of thirst I'm dying! Oh, poor me! Quick, cruel man! Death's here!" + +She fell upon the earth oppressed with mortal languor. Truffaldino, who +had forgotten Celio's directions about opening the Oranges within reach +of water, being besides a fool by nature, and not noticing the lake in +his distraction, thought he could not do better than to slice another of +the Oranges and quench the dying girl's thirst with the juice of that. +Accordingly, he went, like a donkey, and sliced another Orange, out of +which there appeared a second lovely female, exclaiming: + + "Woe's me! Of thirst I'm dying! Ho! Give me to drink! I rave! + Cruel! I die of thirst! Ah God! 'Twill kill me! Lord! oh save!" + +She sank down exhausted like the other. Truffaldino flung himself about +in fits of desperation. He roared, screamed, leapt like a maniac, while +one of the girls spoke as follows, in an expiring voice: + + "Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'm dying! I am dead!" + +Then she breathed her last, and the other continued: + + "I'm dying! Barbarous stars! Ah me! Who'll soothe my burning head?" + +Then she too breathed her last. Truffaldino wept abundantly, and +murmured over them words of impassioned tenderness. He decided to cut +the third Orange in the hope of saving both girls alive. While he was +upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped +him. Truffaldino took to his heels and left the Orange lying on the +grass. + +The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he +poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of +the girls, soar beyond the powers of language. The masked actors of our +_Commedia dell' Arte_, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll +and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, movements, and _lazzi_ +so delightful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could +surpass them. + +After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia caught sight of two +country bumpkins passing by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, +and bade the fellows carry them away. Then the Prince turned to gaze +upon the third Orange. To his utter amazement it had swelled to a +portentous size, and was as large now as the biggest pumpkin. Seeing the +lake at hand, and bearing Celio's injunctions in mind, he thought the +place convenient for cutting the fruit open. This he did with his long +sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in +robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the +story-book by speaking as follows: + + "Who drew me from my living core? Ah God! Of thirst I die! + Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!" + +The Prince understood upon the spot the meaning of Celio's precepts. But +he was embarrassed to find any vessel capable of holding water. The case +did not admit of ceremony. So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to +the lake, filled it with water, and making a thousand excuses for the +improvised cup, presented it to the fair damsel, who slaked her thirst, +and stood up in full vigour, thanking him for his timely assistance. + +She said that she was the daughter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; +Creonta, by enchantment, had enclosed her, together with her two +sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as +probable as the circumstance itself. A scene of comical love-making +followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife. +The capital was close at hand. The Princess had no decent clothes to +wear. The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, +while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to +attend her. That settled, they parted with sighs. + +Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered. She +saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake. Of course she +proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the +story-tale. She dropped her Italianate Turkish. Morgana had put a Tuscan +devil into her tongue. Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak +with more complete correctness. Advancing to the young Princess, whose +name was Ninetta, she began to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her +hair, came to close quarters and betrayed her. One of the magic pins was +promptly stuck in the girl's head. Ninetta took the form of a dove and +flew away. Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the +Court. + +These miraculous occurrences, together with the childish simplicity of +the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the +audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses +in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity. They +followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest +interest in watching each step in the development upon the stage of such +a trifle. + +Then, to the music of a march, the King of Diamonds entered, with the +Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brighella, and the Court. On +beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride whom he had come to fetch +away, Tartaglia flew into the wildest astonishment and fury. Smeraldina, +so altered by Morgana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she +was the Princess Ninetta. Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque +exhibition of his misery. Leandro, Clarice, and Brighella, suspecting +the real source of the mystery, rejoiced among themselves. The King of +Diamonds gravely and majestically enjoined upon his son the duty of +keeping his princely word and marrying the Moor. The Prince submitted +with a wry face and new demonstrations of comical grief. Then the band +struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the marriage in +the palace. + +Truffaldino meanwhile remained behind in the royal kitchen, to the +charge of which Tartaglia had appointed him, after condoning his +mistakes about the Oranges. He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a +new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody. + +[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, who were present in the +theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did +their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a +commotion. They did not succeed, however. I have already said that Celio +represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari. The former of these gentlemen +had served his apprenticeship at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked +of forensic idioms. Chiari plumed himself upon his sublime pindaric +flights of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never +was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who +surpassed him in extravagant conceits and bombast. + +Well, Celio and Morgana, animated by mutual hostility, met together in +this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was +spoken. I must first remind my readers that parodies miss their mark +unless they are surcharged; and, keeping this in view, I beg them to +look with indulgence upon a caprice, which was begotten by jesting +humour, without any animosity against two worthy individuals.] + + CELIO (_entering with vehemence, to Morgana_). "Wicked enchantress! + I have discovered all your base deceits. But Pluto will assist me. + Infamous beldame, accursed witch!" + + MORGANA. "What do you mean, you charlatan of a wizard? Do not + provoke me. I will give you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which + shall make you die foaming." + + C. "To me, rash witch? You shall get tit for tat from me. I defy + you in Martellian verse. Here's at you![80] + + "It shall be always held a vain injurious assault, + Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault; + To wit these, and whatever else, malignant, fury-fraught + Spells by Morgana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought: + And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue + Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due." + + M. "Oh, the bad verses! Come on, you twopenny-halfpenny magician! + + "First shall the glorious rays of gold which beam from Phoebus' breast + Be turned to lumps of vulgar lead, and East become the West; + First shall the darkling moon on high, her silver beams so bright + Change with the glimmering stars, and lose the empire of the night; + The murmuring streams that purling roll along their crystal bed, + With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread; + But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force + To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course." + + C. "O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder! + + "On the main paragraph I'll win the verdict in this suit, + Which by the first preamble shall be made to bear its fruit: + Princess Ninetta, changed by you into a dove, shall be + Reconstituted in her rights and due estate by me: + And through the second paragraph, which follows from the first, + Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed; + While Smeraldina, who can claim no hearing from the court, + By mere endorsement shall be burned, to give the people sport." + + M. "Oh, the stupid, stupid versifier! Listen to me, now. See if I + don't terrify you. + + "On flying plumes soars Icarus, and climbs the heaven with pride, + Treads on the clouds, then stoops, rash youth, and skims along the tide. + O'er Pelion piled, see Ossa frown, Olympus on her back; + This wrought the Titans, impious brood, to work high heaven wrack. + But Icarus erelong must sink, and drown in salt sea-spume; + Jove's bolt will hurl the Titans bold in ashes to their tomb. + Clarice shall ascend the throne, false Mage, in thy despite; + Tartaglia, like Actaeon, mock the antlered deer in flight." + + C. (_aside_). "She is trying to beat me down with poetical bombast. + If she thinks to shut me up in that way she is quite mistaken. + + "I will not leave one plea unturned without demurrers sound, + And 'gainst your swelling lies will file a protest firm and round." + + M. "The realm of Diamonds avoid! Let lawful monarchs reign!" + + (_Taking her departure._) + + C. (_crying after her_). "And I'll claim costs, stay execution, + file my bills again." + + (_Here Celio went in._) + +The last scene was laid in the royal kitchen. Never did mortal eyes +behold a more miserable king's kitchen than this. The remainder of the +performance followed the old story-book precisely; nevertheless, the +spectators watched it with sustained attention. The parody turned upon +some trivialities of detail and some basenesses of character in dramas +written by the two poets. Excessive poverty, dramatic impropriety, and +meanness gave the satire point. + +Truffaldino appeared spitting a joint. He related how, there being no +turnjack in the kitchen, he was obliged to watch the revolutions of the +spit himself. While thus engaged, a dove alighted on the window-sill, +and a conversation took place between him and the bird. The dove had +said: "Good morning, cook of the kitchen." He had replied: "Good +morning, white dove." She continued: "I pray to Heaven that you may fall +asleep, that the roast may burn, so that the Moor, that ugly mug, may +not be able to eat." A mighty slumber overcame him; he fell asleep, and +the roast was burned to cinders. This accident happened twice. In a +precious hurry he set the third joint before the fire. Then the dove +reappeared, and the conversation was repeated. Again the mighty slumber +overcame his senses. Truffaldino, honest fellow, did all he could to +keep awake. His _lazzi_ were in the highest degree facetious. But he +could not resist the spell, began to nod, and the flames reduced the +third roast to ashes. + +You must ask the audience why and wherefore this scene afforded +exquisite amusement. + +Pantalone entered scolding, woke up Truffaldino; said that the King was +in a fury; soup, boiled meat, and liver had been eaten, but the roast +had not appeared at table. [All honour to a poet's daring! This outdid +the lowness of Goldoni's squabbles about a brace of pumpkins in his +_Chiozzotte_.] Truffaldino told the strange occurrence with the dove. +Pantalone dismissed it as an idle story. But the dove at this point +reappeared and repeated her ominous speech. Truffaldino was on the point +of going off into a doze when Pantalone roused him, and they both gave +chase to the dove, which flew fluttering about the kitchen. + +The attempts to catch the dove, made by these facetious personages, +amused the audience above measure. At last they caught it, placed it on +a table, and began to stroke its feathers. Then they detected the +enchanted pin stuck into a knot upon its head. Truffaldino drew the pin +forth, and behold the bird was transformed into the Princess Ninetta! + +A scene of stupors and astonishments. His Majesty the King of Diamonds +arrived; pompously, with sceptre in hand, he rebuked Truffaldino for the +non-appearance of the roast-meat at his royal table, whereby he had been +put to shame before illustrious guests. The Prince followed, and +recognised his lost Ninetta. Joy bereft him of his wits. Ninetta related +what had befallen her; the King remained lost in amazement. Then the +Moor and the rest of the Court came crowding into the kitchen, to find +their monarch. He, with an air of haughty dignity, bade the princely +couple retire into the scullery. He chose the hearth for his throne, and +took his seat there with majestic sternness. The courtiers assembled +round him; and as it happens in the story-book, the King now performed +his part of ultimate adjudicator. What, he inquired, would be proper +punishments for the several parties incriminated in these occurrences? +Various opinions were offered. Then the King in his fury condemned +Smeraldina to the flames. Celio appeared. He unmasked the hidden +culpability of Clarice, Leandro, and Brighella. They were sentenced to +cruel banishment. The two Princes were finally summoned from the +scullery, and universal gladness crowned the termination of this high +act of justice. + +Celio warned Truffaldino that it was his most solemn duty to keep +Martellian verses, those inventions of the devil, out of all dishes +served up at the royal table. His function was to make his sovereigns +laugh. + +The play wound up with that marriage festival which all children know by +heart--the banquet of preserved radishes, skinned mice, stewed cats, and +so forth. And inasmuch as the journalists were wont in those days to +blow their trumpets of applause over every new work which appeared from +Signor Goldoni's pen, we concluded with an epilogue, in which the +spectators were besought to use all their influence with these +journalists, in order that a crumb of eulogy might be bestowed upon our +rigmarole of mystical absurdities. + +It was not my fault that a courteous public called for the repetition of +this fantastic parody on many successive evenings. The theatre was +crowded, and Sacchi's company began to breathe again after their long +discouragement. + + +VI. + +Such is Gozzi's own account of his first acted fable. + +The public had been invited to sit as umpires in the controversy between +him and their two favourite playwrights. They had been requested to +suspend their judgment before finally pronouncing sentence against the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. The result of the experiment was a decided +triumph for the author of the _Three Oranges_, for Sacchi's company, and +for the Granelleschi. But, what was more important, Gozzi, at the +commencement of his forty-first year, now discovered himself to be +possessed of dramatic ability in no common degree, and of a peculiar +kind. The success of the _Three Oranges_ suggested the notion that use +might be made of fairy tales, not only for maintaining the impromptu +style of Italian Comedy, and amusing the public with piquant novelties, +but also for conveying moral lessons under the form of allegory, and +mingling tragic pathos with the humours of the masks. Accordingly Gozzi +composed a succession of similar pieces, gradually suppressing the +burlesque elements, enlarging the sphere of didactic satire, pathos, and +dramatic action, relying less upon the mechanical attractions of +transformation scenes and _lazzi_, writing the principal parts in full, +and versifying a considerable portion of the dialogue. + +_Il Corvo_ was produced at Milan in the summer of 1761, and at Venice in +October 1761. _Il Re Cervo_ appeared in January 1762; _Turandot_ perhaps +in the same month; _La Donna Serpente_ in October 1762; _Zobeide_ in +November 1763; _I Pitocchi Fortunati_ in November 1764; _Il Mostro +Turchino_ in December of the same year; _L'Augellino Belverde_ in +January 1765; _Zeim, Re de'Geni_ in November 1765. These, with _L'Amore +delle Tre Melarancie_, form the ten _Fiabe._ After the production of +_Zeim_, Gozzi judged that the vein had been worked out, and turned his +attention to adaptations of Spanish dramas for the stage. + +The occasional origin of the _Fiabe_, on which I have already insisted, +accounts for their want of plastic unity, their jumble of oddly +contrasted ingredients. They were not the spontaneous outgrowth of +artistic genius seeking to fuse the real and the fantastic in an ideal +world of the imagination; but monsters begotten by an accident, which +the creative originality of a highly-gifted intellect turned to +excellent account. Gozzi's predilection for burlesque, his satirical +propensity and fondness for moralising on the foibles of his age, found +easy vent in the peculiar form he had discovered by a lucky chance. But +these motives were not subordinated to the higher coherence of +imaginative poetry. His fancy, command of dramatic situations, +intuition into character, rhetorical eloquence, and inexhaustible +inventiveness expatiated in the region of caprice and wonder. Yet we do +not feel that he has succeeded in harmonising these divers elements with +the spiritual instinct of an Aristophanes or a Shakespeare. Probably he +did not seek to do so. The numerous reflections on the _Fiabe_, which +are scattered up and down his works, prove that art for art's sake was +far from being the leading consideration in their production. They +remained with him pastimes, which had partly a practical, partly a +didactic purpose--convenient vehicles for indulging his literary bias +and airing his ethical opinions--serviceable ammunition in the battle +against men whom he regarded as impostors and pretenders--excellent +means of putting money into the purses of his proteges, the actors, and +of keeping himself in favour with his friends, the actresses. To the +last they retained something of the _punctilio_, which, as he says, +inspired him at the outset. + + +VII. + +In all his _Fiabe Gozzi_ employed the four Masks and the Servetta, +Smeraldina.[81] He not unfrequently wrote the whole part of a mask, so +that nothing remained for impromptu acting but "gag" and _lazzi_. +Truffaldino's role, however, was invariably left to improvisation; +perhaps in compliment to Sacchi's talents and his prominent position. +The other masks were dealt with as Gozzi thought best. When the dialogue +acquired dramatic or satirical importance, he wrote it out for them. On +ordinary occasions he intrusted the whole or a considerable portion of +each scene to their extempore ability, only indicating the movement of +the plot in a _scenario_. The parts of the masks were treated in dialect +and prose. The serious actors, who had to sustain the scheme of the +fable, as lovers, magicians, queens, fairies, good and evil spirits, +spoke in Tuscan blank verse, occasionally heightened by the use of +Martellian rhymed couplets at thrilling moments of the action. Thus it +will be seen that the text of Gozzi's plays offers every condition of +dramatic utterance, from mere stage-directions, through carefully +dictated prose, up to rhetorical soliloquies and dialogues in verse of +several descriptions. His dexterity as a playwright is shown in the tact +with which he employed these various resources. + +The handling of the five fixed characters is masterly throughout. +Whether Gozzi writes their lines or only indicates a theme for their +impromptu declamation, he shows himself in perfect sympathy with an +intelligent and practised group of actors. The humour of the man comes +out to best advantage in this department. His language is most +idiomatic and spontaneous here. Here too we find his raciest characters. +Powerfully conceived and boldly projected, each comic personage breathes +and moves with vivid realism. Study of the Masks, as Gozzi treated them, +makes us feel what a wonderful thing of plastic beauty the _Commedia +dell' Arte_ must have been. Here, in a work of carefully considered +literary art, we have its long tradition and its manifold capacities +preserved for us. Reading a _Fiaba_ is like opening a bottle of rare old +wine. The bouquet of the fragrant vintage exhales into the chamber, and +we taste the bloom of bygone summers. But the very conditions under +which Gozzi exhibited this side of his dramatic mastery render +translation impossible. In a translation the colours of the dialects are +lost. The gradations of style, passing from a laconically worded +_scenario_ through half-dialogue into elaborated scenes, are bound to +disappear. Tuned to a foreign language, our inward eye and ear fail to +reconstruct the _lazzi_, which rendered this part of the drama humorous. +That is why Schiller's _Turandot_ is inferior to Gozzi's; and yet, when +Schiller selected this piece for the German stage, he showed a right +artistic instinct. It is the one in which the fable predominates, and +can best be separated from the humours of the Masks. + +I dare not enlarge here upon the variety of shades and complexions given +to the five fixed types of character, according as the plot demanded +more or less of serious action from the several personages. This inquiry +would be interesting, since it reveals their singular elasticity beneath +a master's touch. It must, however, be left to amateurs of curiosities +in art. The development of the subject in detail implies previous +acquaintance with the ten _Fiabe_, and would involve a lengthy +dissertation. Some general points may, nevertheless, be indicated. + +Pantalone retains marked psychological outlines under all his +transformations. He is the good-humoured, honourable, simple-hearted +Venetian of the middle class, advanced in years, Polonius-like, with +stores of worldly wisdom, strong natural affections, and healthy moral +impulses. Gozzi has drawn the character in a favourable light, purging +away those baser associations which gathered round it during two +centuries of the _Commedia dell' Arte_. His Pantalone recalls the +Cortesani, described in a chapter of the Memoirs; but a touch of +senility has been added, which lends comic weakness to the type. + +Tartaglia stammers, and preserves something of the knave in his +composition, burnished with Neapolitan abandonment to appetite and +brazen disregard for moral rectitude. This general conception of the +character explains the transformation of Tartaglia, in the _Three +Oranges_, into the Tartaglia of the _Augellino Belverde_. + +Brighella is an intriguing, self-interested individuality, trying to +turn the world round his fingers, and not succeeding, or succeeding only +by some lucky accident. He frequently assumes the form of a simpleton +befooled by his short-sighted cunning. + +Truffaldino blossoms before us as an ubiquitous and chameleon-like +creature of caprice and humour; the liberal, carnal, careless +boon-companion; the genial rogue and witty fool; bred in the kitchen; +uttering words of wisdom from his belly rather than his brains; pliable, +fit for all occasions; a prodigious coward; trusty in his own degree; +taking the mould of fate and circumstance, adapting himself to external +conditions; understanding nothing of the higher sentiments and awful +destinies which rule the drama; but turning up at its conclusion with a +rogue's own luck in the place he started from, and on which his heart is +set, the larder. He runs like an inexpressibly comic thread of staring +scarlet through the warp and woof of Gozzi's many-coloured loom. The +most serious use made of him is when, in the _Augellino Belverde_, for +purposes of pungent parody, Gozzi invests him with the vizard of a +Machiavellian egotist. At the close of that supremely caustic scene, +Truffaldino drops his disguise, and willingly assumes the role of a +domestic buffoon. Our author's trenchant irony, that "smile on the lips +with venom in the heart," of which Goldoni wrote so lucidly, that touch +of bitterness which renders him akin to Swift, was displayed by a stroke +of genius here. Truffaldino, the whelp whose antics dispelled +melancholy, becomes for once in Gozzi's hands a stick wherewith to beat +the dog of modern science. + +Smeraldina, under her numerous manifestations, maintains the lineaments +of vulgar womanhood. Sometimes a good mother or nurse, sometimes a +shifty waiting-woman, sometimes a blustering amazon, sometimes a bad +wife or would-be virgin, she never soars into the regions of ideality, +and mates eventually with Truffaldino, if she escapes from being burned +for blundering atrocities upon the road to commonplace felicity. + +With these fixed characters, which form the most delightful ingredients +of the _Fiabe_, Gozzi interweaves a fairy-tale, abounding in magic, +flights of capricious fancy, marvels, transformations, perilous +adventures. There is always a conflict of beneficent and malignant +supernatural powers, ending in the triumph of good over evil, the reward +of innocence, and the punishment of crime. There is a fate to which the +heroes and heroines are subject, and which can only be overcome by +protracted trials, by patience through dark years, by sustained +endurance, terrible struggles, and faith in supernatural protectors. +Thus the texture of the _Fiabe_ is similar to that of our pantomimes, +except that in the former the fairy-tale and the harlequinade are +interwoven instead of being disconnected. + +The fairy-tale is always treated in a serious spirit. The didactic +allegory, on which the author set such store, and which he regarded as +the main purpose of his art, finds expression here. The fairy-tale is +romantic, pathetic, heroic, sometimes acutely tragic. Gozzi interests +himself in the creatures of fantastic fiction, and forces them to utter +tones which vibrate in our entrails. Some scenes, written under the high +pressure of dramatic oestrum, stir tears by their poignancy, by the +accents of grief and anguish on the lips of _fantoccini._ It is a +singular species of art, soaring by spasms and short gasps to dramatic +sublimity, casting flashes of electric light on human nature in the garb +of puppets, then passing away by abrupt transitions into mechanical +improbabilities and burlesque absurdities--an art for marionettes rather +than living actors, yet withal so vivid that able representation on the +stage might translate it to our senses as an allegory of the masquerade +world in which man lives:-- + + "We are such stuff + As dreams are made of, and our little life + Is rounded with a sleep." + +The Masks take part in the action, generally as subordinate personages, +sometimes as persons of the first rank, never as mere accessories to +move laughter, nor as a stationary chorus. In this way the comic element +is ingeniously connected with the tragic and didactic. This sounds like +a contradiction of what I have said above, about the want of plastic +unity in Gozzi's work. Yet the two apparently contradictory statements +are true together. Gozzi interweaves the wires of humour and romance +with remarkable skill. But he does not fuse them into one poetic +substance. He fails to create an ideal world in which both tragedy and +comedy are necessary to the spiritual order, as are the systole and +diastole of the heart to an organised being. Though interlaced, they +stand apart, each upon its own clearly defined basis. You pass from the +one sphere to the other, and have sudden shocks communicated to your +sensibility. There is a lack of atmosphere in the wonderfully brilliant +and exciting picture, an absence of spontaneous transition from this +mood to that, a suggestion that the playwright's sympathies have been +touched to diverse issues by divers portions of his task. Very probably, +the atmosphere, which I have indicated as wanting in the _Fiabe_, may +have been communicated by the interaction of the members of Sacchi's +troupe upon the stage at Venice. But this is only tantamount to +admitting that Gozzi understood the theatre. It does not prove that he +was a dramatic poet in the highest sense of that term. Had he been this, +we should have submitted to his magic wand while reading him. That is +precisely what we wish to do, and cannot always actually do. His _Fiabe_ +remain stupendous sketches in a style of audacious and suggestive +originality. They are not the inevitable products of creative genius, +fusing and informing--the children of imagination, "dead things with +inbreathed sense able to pierce." + +Had Gozzi been a great spontaneous poet, or a consummate artist, this +invention of the dramatised _Fiaba_ might have become one of the rarest +triumphs of artistic fancy. It is difficult to state precisely what his +work misses for the achievement of complete success. Perhaps we shall +arrive at a conclusion best by inquiry into points of style and details +of execution. + + +VIII. + +By singular irony of accident, the author of the _Fiabe_, though he +dealt so much in the fantastic, the marvellous, and the pathetic, was +far more a humorist and satirist than a poet in the truer sense. Of +sublime imagery, lyrical sweetness or intensity, verbal melody and +felicity of phrase, there is next to nothing in his plays. The style, +except in the parts written for the Masks, is coarse and slovenly, the +versification hasty, the language diffuse, commonplace, and often +incorrect. Yet we everywhere discern a lively sense of poetical +situations and the power of rendering them dramatically. The resources +of Gozzi's inventive faculty seem inexhaustible; and our imagination is +excited by the energy with which he forces the creations of his +capricious fancy on our intelligence. The passionate volcanic talent of +the man almost compensates for his lack of the finer qualities of +genius. + +What he wants is not the power of poetical conception, but the power of +poetical projection; and the defects of his work seem due to the partly +contemptuous, partly didactic, mood in which he undertook them. It would +be difficult to surpass the pathos of Jennaro's devotion to his brother +in _Il Corvo_, or the dramatic intensity of Armilla's self-sacrifice at +the conclusion of that play. _Turandot_ is conceived throughout +poetically. The melancholy high-strung passion of Prince Calaf passes +through it like a thread of silver. In the _Re Cervo_, Angela has equal +beauty. Her love of the man in the king, and her discernment of her real +husband under his transformation into the person of a decrepit beggar, +are humanly and allegorically touching. Cherestani, the Persian fairy, +who loves a mortal in spite of the doom attending her devotion, is +admirably presented at the opening of _La Donna Serpente_. The +subterranean labyrinth of lost women, degraded to monstrous shapes by +their tyrannical seducer, in _Zobeide_, merits comparison with one of +the _bolge_ in Dante's Hell. Its horror is almost appalling. The love of +Barbarina for her brother in _L'Augellino Belverde_, which melts the +stony hardness of the girl's heart, and changes her from a vain +worldling to a woman capable of facing any danger, is no less romantic +than Jennaro's love in _Il Corvo_. The picture of Pantalone and his +daughter Sarche, in _Zeim Re de' Genj_, passing their quiet life aloof +from cities on the borders of an enchanted forest, touches our +imagination with something of the charm we find in _Cymbeline_. _Il +Mostro Turchino_ is romantically passionate and highly-wrought. It seems +to call for music, such music as Mozart invented for the _Zauberfloete_. +Or, since Gozzi had little in common with the gracious spirit of Mozart, +we might wish that this wild fable had fallen into the hands of Verdi. +The composer of _Aida_ would have given it the wings of immortality. +Gulindi, by the way, in this last fable, is a terrible portrait of the +Messalina-Potiphar's-wife. + +In selecting these passages for emphatic praise, I wish to call +attention to the power and beauty of Gozzi's conception. Not as finished +literature, but as the raw material of dramatic presentation, are they +admirable. They need the life of action, the adjuncts of scenery, the +illusion of the stage. And for this reason it seems to me that, by means +of prudent adaptation, the _Fiabe_ might furnish excellent _libretti_ to +composers of opera. This is a hint to musicians of the school of +Wagner--to that rare dramatic genius, Boito! Could the Masks be revived, +and their burlesque parts be spoken on the stage, while orchestra and +song were reserved for the serious elements of the fable, I feel +convinced that a new and fascinating work of art might still be evolved +from such pieces as _La Donna Serpente_ and _Il Mostro Turchino_.[82] + +[Illustration: IL DOTTORE (1653) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +But this is a digression, which has for its object to indicate the +region in which Gozzi's chief merit as a playwright seems to me to lie. +The satire, which forms so prominent a feature in the _Fiabe_, impairs +their artistic harmony. So far as this is literary (in the _Tre +Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, and elsewhere), it has lost its interest at the +present day. So far as it is philosophical and didactic (as in +_L'Augellino Belverde_ and _Zeim_), it tends to break the unity of +effect by the author's over-earnestness. So far as it is purely ethical, +as in _Zobeide_, Gozzi loads his palette with colours too sinister and +sombre. Perhaps, the political touches of satire in _I Pitocchi +Fortunati_ are the lightest and most genially used. Gozzi, as we have +seen already, was a confirmed conservative. An optimist as regarded the +institutions, religion, and social manners of the past, he was a bitter +pessimist in all that concerned the changes going on around him. The new +literature, the new philosophy, the new luxury, the new libertinism, +which seemed to be flooding Italy from France, were the objects of his +hatred and abhorrence. Calmon, in the _Augellino Belverde_, expresses +Gozzi's personal convictions and beliefs in their fullest extent. +But the following speech may be extracted from _Zeim Re de Genj_ as +a fair summary of his social stoicism.[83] A Princess of Balsora, who +has been brought up by one of the capricious tricks of fortune as a +slave is speaking: + + "Who am I? That I know not. An old man, + With snows upon his beard, in snow-white robes + Attired, of serious and austere aspect, + Reared me beneath a humble cottage roof. + He told me that one day upon the bank + Of foaming Tigris, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, + He found me; peradventure by my kin + Abandoned, the cast fruit of shame and scorn. + This good man taught me I was born to serve, + To suffer, to endure; and that I ought + To bow beneath the will of supreme Heaven. + 'Providence, holy, in her ways unknown,' + He said, 'rules all things: in the scale ordained + Of human beings great folk have their seat; + And so, by steps descending through all ranks, + Down to the lowest folk, men live and work + Subordinate. Ah! do not be seduced, + (He often warned me) by sophistic sages, + Who bent on malice paint of liberty + False lures for mortals, your own place to quit, + The order due designed by Heaven for man! + These sophists breed confusion, anarchy, + Duty neglected at the cost of peace; + They stir up murders, thefts, impieties, + And glut with blood the shambles of the state. + Daughter, respect the great, love them, endure + What in they lot seems bitter, woo content, + And stifle that snake envy in thy breast! + In the just eyes of Heaven a great man's acts, + Rightly performed, have no superior merit + To those of servants rightly done; the road + Toward immortality lies open unto kings + And children of the people; 'tis all one. + Only the soul that suffers and is strong, + Finds happiness.' So spake the firm old man; + And firmly, in his strength of soul unshaken, + He sold me slave; so I account me blessed, + As you shall trust me for a faithful slave." + + +IX. + +Gozzi drew the subjects of his _Fiabe_ from divers sources. The chief of +these was a book of Neapolitan fairy-tales called _Il Pentamerone del +Cavalier Giovan Battista Basile, ovvero lo Cunto de li Cunti_. This +collection enjoyed great vogue in Italy during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries, and is still worthy of attentive study by lovers +of comparative folklore. Some of the motives of the _Fiabe_ have been +traced to the _Posilipeata di Massillo Repone_, the _Biblioteca dei +Genj_, the _Gabinetto delle Fate_, the _Arabian Nights_, and those +Persian and Chinese stories which were fashionable a hundred and fifty +years ago. It was Gozzi's habit to interweave several tales in one +action; and this renders researches into the texture of his dramatic +fables difficult. But the inquiry is not one of great importance, and +may well be dismissed until the star of Gozzi shall reascend the +heavens, if time's whirligig should ever bring about this revenge. + +_L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_ is both the simplest in construction and +also the most artistically perfect of the ten _Fiabe._ In it alone the +fairy-tale and the Masks are brought into complete harmony. No serious +note breaks the burlesque style of the piece, while a sustained parody +of Chiari's and Goldoni's mannerisms lends it the interest of satire. As +he advanced, Gozzi gradually changed the form of his original invention. +That fusion of fairy-tale and impromptu comedy in subordination to +literary satire, which distinguishes the _Tre Melarancie_, was never +repeated in his subsequent performances. The fable, with its romance, +pathos, passion, adventure, magic marvels, and fantastic +transformations, began to detach itself against the comedy. Both formed +essential factors in Gozzi's later work; but the links between them +became more and more mechanical. Satire, in like manner, did not +disappear; but this was either used occasionally and by accident, or +else it absorbed the whole allegory. The three ingredients, which had +been so genially combined in the first piece, were now disengaged and +treated separately. The sunny light of sportive humour, which bathed +that wonder-world of fabulous absurdity, darkened as the clouds of +didactic purpose gathered. The fairy-tale acquired an inappropriate +gravity. Becoming aware of his dramatic talent, Gozzi assumed the tone +of tragedy. He treated the loves and hatreds, the trials and triumphs, +the vices and virtues, the heroism and the baseness, of his puppets +seriously. Nevertheless, he preserved the preposterous accidents of the +fable. On those enchantments, whimsical oracles of fate, metamorphoses, +talking statues, monsters, good and wicked genii, he was of course +unable to bestow the same reality as on his human characters. Yet, +having carried the latter out of the sphere of burlesque, he had to +maintain a tone of realism with the former. But he could not wield the +Prospero's wand of imaginative insight which brings the supernatural and +the incredible within the range of actualities. Thus the marvellous +elements of the fable remained stiff and artificial beside the natural +pathos and passion of humanity. + +Having recapitulated the chief features of the _Fiabe_ in their later +form, I will now analyse _L'Augellino Belverde._ + + +X. + +Many years have elapsed since Tartaglia married Ninetta. His father is +dead, and he has fallen under the malignant influence of the +Queen-Mother, Tartagliona. She persuades him that Ninetta has given +birth to a pair of puppies, male and female, whereas the twins are +really a fine boy and girl, called Renzo and Barbarina. Ninetta is +condemned to be buried alive; and Pantalone, Tartaglia's minister, +receives commission to drown the supposed puppies. Instead of executing +these orders, Pantalone sews the children up in oil-cloth, and sets them +floating down a river. They are found and rescued by Smeraldina, a woman +of good heart, who is married to the dissolute and worthless +Truffaldino, a pork-butcher. When the play opens, eighteen years are +supposed to have elapsed since the burial of Ninetta. All this while she +has been kept alive by the Beautiful Green Bird, who is the King of +Terradombra, condemned to take this form by magic arts. The Green Bird +also has become the lover of Barbarina. Meanwhile Tartagliona is being +courted by Brighella, who now appears in the character of a burlesque +poet and seer. His pindaric prophecies and exaggerated flights of +passion, alternating with the lowest language of the proletariate, +afford excellent opportunities for caricature. + +Renzo and Barbarina, growing up in the house of the pork-butcher, have +improved their minds by assiduous reading of French philosophical +treatises sold for waste paper. This education has persuaded them that +all human actions and affections proceed from self-love, and that it is +the duty of rational beings to preserve a cold impartiality, indifferent +to emotions, regardless of comfort and vain pleasures, governed only by +the dictates of the reason. Accident reveals to them that Smeraldina is +not their mother, and that they are nameless foundlings. They determine +to go forth alone, and seek their fortunes in the world. The scene in +which they take leave of their kindly warm-hearted foster-mother is +excellent. Gozzi has painted a pair of consummate prigs, whose natural +instincts have been perverted by a false theory of life, and who have +learned to call that reason which is really inhumanity. They tell +Smeraldina that her unselfish charity to the foundling infants was a +form of self-love, and that her continued attention to them for the last +eighteen years had no higher motive. + +Having quitted Smeraldina, with the loftiest airs of condescension, they +set forth upon their travels. Getting lost in the wilderness, it begins +to dawn upon them that self-love is one of the cardinal facts of human +nature, to which even the most philosophical characters, when threatened +with death by cold and famine, are subject. In the midst of these +reflections, they are terrified with an earthquake and sudden darkness. +A statue appears walking toward them, who informs them that he too was +once a miserable philosopher, who petrified his own humanity and that of +others by perverse principles analogous to those which have infected +them. Consequently, he was doomed to be a statue, lying lifeless and +inert among the rubbish of neglected things, until one of Renzo's and +Barbarina's ancestors rescued him from filth and set him up in a garden +of the city. This benefit he now means to repay by watching over the +twins. First of all, he ardently desires to save them from the +petrifaction which awaits all souls made frigid by a false philosophy. +Next, he tells them that, though he knows the secret of their parentage, +he may not reveal it. They have a dreadful doom impending over them; and +their eventual happiness can only be secured by the assistance of the +Green Bird. His own name in the world was Calmon; and he has now become +the King of Images:[84]-- + + "Molti viventi + Sono forse piu statue, ch'io non sono. + Tu proverai qual forza abbia una statua, + E come simulacro un uom diventi." + +Then Calmon gives the twins a stone. They are to return to the city, and +Barbarina is to throw the stone down before the royal palace. They will +immediately become rich. In any great disaster, let them call on Calmon. + +In this way Gozzi allegorises his own prejudice against the cold and +shallow theories of society, which were infiltrating Italy from France. + +The second act reveals Tartaglia. He is the victim of remorse, haunted +by the memory of Ninetta, whom he buried alive in a hole beneath the +scullery-sink. There is the floor on which she used to walk. There is +the kitchen where she fluttered in the form of a dove. "O spirit of +Ninetta, where art thou?" Tartaglia preserves the burlesque note of his +Mask. Only one friend remains to him, his old henchman Truffaldino; but +Truffaldino has become a pork-butcher, and forgotten him. Truffaldino at +this juncture appears. He too gives himself philosophical airs, without +concealing his gross appetites and greedy love of self. Tartaglia kicks +him out of doors, and then passes to a scene of vituperation against his +wicked mother, Tartagliona, the Queen of Tarocchi,[85] who has been the +cause of all his misery. Tartagliona shows the worst side of her coarse +malignant nature in the ensuing altercation, and departs vowing +vengeance. + +Her only consolation is that she is beloved by Brighella, the most +famous poet of the age:[86]-- + + "Non mancano + In me vezzi, e lusinghe, ond' al mio fianco + Fedel sia sempre. Ah, non vorrei, che alfine + Le mie finezze a lui, negli altri amanti + Destasser gelosia." + +A new scene introduces Renzo and Barbarina. They have returned to the +city, and are standing in front of the palace. Renzo begs his sister to +throw the magic stone. Barbarina reminds him that if they become rich, +all will be over with their philosophy. At last he persuades her to +throw it, and she does so, bidding herself be mindful that a wretched +pebble is the source of her future magnificence. In a moment a gorgeous +palace rises, fronting the royal dwelling. Renzo's and Barbarina's rags +are exchanged for splendid raiment. Moorish servants issue from the +great gates with torches, and welcome their princely masters. + +No sooner have the twins taken up their abode in this magic palace, than +they begin to act like _parvenus_ and _nouveaux riches._ Every folly, +vanity, and false desire enters their heads. Their philosophy is +forgotten. Brighella, in his character of seer, divines, meanwhile, that +their presence threatens danger to the person of Tartagliona. He +therefore endeavours to persuade the Queen to make her will in his +favour. She very sensibly refuses, and bids him do all in his power to +prolong the life of one whom he adores. He is obliged to meet her +wishes, and divulges a plan whereby the twins shall be destroyed. The +fairy Serpentina, he reminds her, owns apples which sing, and golden +water which plays and dances. The adventure of stealing these magical +objects involves the greatest peril. Certainly Barbarina will be ruined +if she longs to have them. Accordingly, when she appears at the window +of her palace, Tartagliona from the opposite balcony is to repeat these +rhymes:[87]-- + + "Voi siete bella assai; ma piu bella sareste, + S'un de'pomi, che cantano, in una mano areste. + + * * * * * + + Figlia voi siete bella; ma piu bella sareste, + S'acqua, che suona e balla, nell'altra mano areste." + +The scene now changes to the interior of the palace of the twins. +Barbarina is contemplating her charms in the looking-glass, when +Smeraldina suddenly enters, full of affection. She has heard of the good +fortune of her foundlings, and forgetting their recent ill-treatment of +her, has come to congratulate them. Barbarina exclaims against her +rudeness, calls the servants, throws a purse of gold at her +foster-mother, and bids her depart. Smeraldina, who cannot stifle her +affection for the ungrateful girl, changes tone, and humbly asks to be +allowed to stay and serve her. Barbarina, much to her own surprise, +feels touched by this display of feeling, and magnanimously allows the +good woman to remain as a menial. Smeraldina's soliloquy at the end of +the scene reveals her sound sense no less than her warm heart:[88] + + "Questa e quella filosofa, che andava + Ieri per legna al bosco, ed oggi! ... basta ... + Seco volea restar, perche l'adoro, + E seco resto alfin; del tacer poi + Ci proveremo; ma non sara nulla. + Non la conosco piu. Quanta superbia! + Che diavol l'ha arrichita in questa forma? + Io non vorrei, che questa frasconcella ... + Forse qualche milord ... ma sapro tutto." + + {_Entra._ + +Next we have Renzo. He has fallen desperately in love with a beautiful +statue which he found in the garden of the palace. Truffaldino enters, +frankly confesses that he has come to live at ease with his quondam +foster-child, professes himself a true sage, and expounds the cynical +philosophy of interested motives. Renzo cannot resist laughing at the +knave's candour, but is not yet disposed to bear his insolence. +Truffaldino sees that he must alter his tone. So he begins to whine and +flatter. Renzo is softened, and consents to keep him as a buffoon. His +cynicism and his hyperbolical adulation will serve to make the hours +pass pleasantly. + +Tartaglia and Pantalone appear upon the royal balcony. Barbarina enters +on the other side, and Tartaglia falls head over ears in love with her +at first sight. The scene is carried out with much burlesque humour, +until Tartagliona and Brighella join the group below. Tartagliona utters +the magic verses, and Barbarina becomes madly bent upon the apples which +sing and the water which plays and dances. Renzo, touched by his +sister's despair, agrees to attempt the adventure; but before he goes, +he gives her a dagger. So long as this is bright, he will be alive. If +it drops blood, that is a sign that her brother has died in the attempt. + +A scene between Ninetta in her living tomb and the Green Bird who brings +her food, is here interpolated, in order to prepare the audience for +what ensues. + +Renzo and Truffaldino arrive at Serpentina's garden, and fail in their +adventure. Then Renzo calls on Calmon, who appears, and summons a band +of statues--the female figure on the fountain at Treviso and the Moors +of the Campo de'Mori at Venice[89]--to his aid. By their assistance a +singing apple is procured, and some of the dancing water is bottled in +a phial. But Calmon and his band of statues remind Renzo that he is in +duty bound to be grateful. Calmon lacks his nose; the fountain of +Treviso's breasts are injured; the Moors have, each of them, some broken +limb. Renzo must undertake to restore them properly, and all will go +well with him. + +Renzo promises; but he very soon forgets the shattered statues. Lost in +admiration before the image of beautiful Pompea, he spends his days in +wooing her. At length Pompea finds her voice, and confides to him her +previous experience. She was the daughter of a great Italian prince, the +prince of a corrupt but mighty city; and she has now become an idol +through her self-idolatry. + +At this juncture enters Truffaldino with exciting news. Tartaglia has +made a declaration of his love through Pantalone to Barbarina. She +wavers between the splendid prospects of a royal match and the affection +which she feels for the Green Bird, her lover and consoler in their days +of poverty. Meanwhile Tartagliona breaks negotiations off by declaring +that Barbarina must bring the Green Bird as dower; else she can never be +Tartaglia's bride. At this announcement Barbarina falls into hysterics, +kicking Pantalone downstairs, and screaming out that nothing but the +Green Bird will satisfy her. Truffaldino, partly out of compassion for +Barbarina's state, partly from a sense of modesty, leaves her presence. +He arrives to rouse his master to a sense of the situation. This is no +time to make platonic love to statues, &c. + +Renzo replies that he is quite ready to attempt the adventure of the +Green Bird. He knows from Calmon that the bird alone is capable of +solving the problem of his own parentage, and also of evoking Pompea +from her marble immobility. Consequently he has a strong personal +interest in the capture of the bird; and his sister's troubles are an +additional reason why he should no longer delay. With Truffaldino for +his squire, he will ride forth into the forest of the Goblin, who holds +the bird in meshes of diabolical enchantments. Let Smeraldina remind his +sister that the dagger which he gave her will assure her of his good or +evil fortune in the perilous essay. + +While Renzo is on his journey, Barbarina keeps continually gazing on the +dagger. It does not cease to shine. But Smeraldina and the speaking +statue of Pompea work upon her feelings by suggesting the perils her +brother is undergoing, to which her own vanity has exposed him. Moved at +last by simple human sympathy, she finds the situation intolerable, and +resolves to follow Renzo to the place of danger. It is this return to +nature which saves her, and brings about a happy catastrophe. Barbarina +renounces her wish to wed Tartaglia, and thinks only of arresting Renzo +in his dangerous course. She sets off with Smeraldina; and the magic +palace is left desolate, in mourning, all its splendour gone. + +Renzo and Truffaldino have now reached the Goblin's hill, where the +Green Bird is seen upon a perch, chained by the leg. Trying to capture +him, Renzo turns into a statue; and there is a whole gathering of +similar statues in the place--men who essayed the same adventure, and +failed. + +Barbarina and _Smeraldina_ arrive at the scene of action. The dagger +drops blood. Barbarina's mask of false philosophy and selfish vanity +drops off. She becomes a simple woman, filled with repentance and +anguish for her brother who is dead. She flings herself upon the bosom +of poor Smeraldina, whom she had so villainously treated. At this +juncture, when all seems lost, Calmon appears, and reads her a sound +moral lecture. Then he points to a scroll before her feet, and instructs +her what she has to do. She must walk up to within a hair's-breadth--no +more and no less--of the bird, and take good heed that he does not utter +a sound before she has read aloud the words inscribed upon the scroll. +If she succeeds in this feat, all may yet come right. There is a +breathless moment, during which Barbarina executes what Calmon told her. +The bird is captured, and begins to talk. Let her take a feather from +his tail. That will restore the statues to life. + +The drama is quickly wound up. By means of the bird's tail-feather, +Renzo and Pompea are made happy lovers. Ninetta returns from her hole. +Tartagliona is changed into a tortoise, and Brighella into a donkey. The +Green Bird resumes his form as King of Terradombra and plights his faith +to Barbarina. Tartaglia recognises his lost son and daughter, and is +fain to be contented with the resuscitated wife whom he had so wantonly +condemned to a lingering death. + + * * * * * + +This analysis, if any one takes the trouble to read it, will suffice to +show the sprightliness of Gozzi's invention, and also the essential +weakness of his artistic method. The magic and the transformations at +the close are mechanical. The fate of the Green Bird is connected by no +proper motive with the fate of Tartaglia and the twins. Calmon and the +statues, allegorically useful, are in like manner independent of the +main dramatic action. Ninetta's doom is atrocious. Tartaglia is only +saved from being disgusting by his burlesque absurdity. + + +XI. + +In the spring of 1762, having exhibited _Le Tre Melarancie_, _Il Corvo_, +_Il Re Cervo_, and _Turandot_, Gozzi proved that he had won the game +against Chiari and Goldoni. Sacchi's company removed from the theatre at +S. Samuele to a more commodious house at S. Angelo. Chiari retired to +his native city, Brescia, and left off writing for the stage. Goldoni +departed for Paris. None of Goldoni's biographers deny that he took this +step in consequence of Gozzi's triumph. In his own Memoirs he omitted +all references to the literary quarrels of the years 1756-62; and he +gives excellent reasons, quite independent of Gozzi, for his setting off +to seek fortune in the French capital. Certainly, the last piece he +presented to the Venetian public, _Una delle ultime sere di Carnovale_, +was received with enthusiasm. "It closed the theatrical year of 1761," +he says;[90] "and the evening of Shrove Tuesday brought me an ovation. +The theatre rang with thunders of applause, among which could be +distinguished these farewells: _A happy journey! Come back to us! Be +sure you do not fail to do so!_ I confess that I was touched to tears." +Yet the simultaneous retirement of both Chiari and Goldoni at this +critical moment justifies our believing that the latter judged it +expedient to leave Venice after the revolution effected by Gozzi. He did +so without ill-will on either side. Count Gasparo Gozzi, Carlo's +brother, and a distinguished member of the Granelleschi, undertook the +charge of seeing a new edition of Goldoni's plays through the press in +his absence. + +For some years after this event, Carlo Gozzi and Sacchi's company had +the theatres of Venice pretty much at their own disposal. But the +success of the _Fiabe_ was ephemeral. Before their author's death, he +saw his own dramatic novelties cast into the shade and Goldoni's +realistic comedies restored to favour. A poet of such eminence as +Goethe, surveying all things Italian with curiosity in 1786, paid a +well-considered tribute to Gozzi's sympathy with the Venetian public, +praised the energy and nature of the _Commedia dell' Arte_, but reserved +his highest panegyric for a representation of Goldoni's _Baruffe +Chiozzote_ at the theatre of S. Luca.[91] "At last I am able to say that +I have seen a comedy," are the emphatic words with which Goethe opens a +detailed description of this piece. + +In the course of the last hundred years, Goldoni has secured a signal +and irreversible victory over his rival. One of the best theatres at +Venice is called by his name. His house is pointed out by gondoliers to +tourists. His statue stands almost within sight of the Rialto on the +Campo S. Bartolommeo, where people most do congregate. His comedies are +repeatedly given by companies of celebrated actors. Gozzi's _Fiabe_ have +been relegated to the marionette stages, where some of their _scenari_ +in a mutilated form may still be seen. There exist no memorials to his +fame in Venice. Not even a tablet with the words _Qui nacque Carlo +Gozzi_ is to be found upon the ancient palace at S. Cassiano. The +sacristan of the church, where his dust is gathered to his fathers, +cannot point to the Gozzi vault. + +The vicissitudes of Gozzi's reputation turn upon the different views +which have been taken of his merits in relation to Goldoni. In Italy the +balance of opinion tends to sink against him. Baretti, that fiery member +of Sam Johnson's club, the fierce opponent of Goldoni, pronounced at +first in Gozzi's favour, lamented that he could not bring Garrick to one +of his plays, proposed to translate the _Fiabe_ into English, and swore +that Gozzi stood next to Shakespeare in dramatic genius. But when +Baretti read the _Fiabe_ in print, he declaimed against the buffooneries +of the Masks, and dropped his enthusiasm. Tommasei found no words too +strong to express his contempt for a writer whose genius he denied, and +whose character inspired him with repugnance. Tommasei was a champion of +Goldoni. Omitting further details, it is enough to say that Italy has +elected to ignore Gozzi and to deify Goldoni. The causes are not far to +seek. Gozzi's vogue depended partly upon controversy and satire. It was +confined to the locality of Venice. His plays required the co-operation +of the Masks; and these expired in his own lifetime. Moreover, they +appealed to a rare combination of sensibilities, romantic and humorous, +which is not common in Italy. Lastly, for their proper mounting on the +stage, they demanded an expenditure of ingenuity and money, which their +fading popularity prohibited. Goldoni, on the other hand, suited the +temper of the growing age by his simplicity, his truth to nature, his +realism, and the freshness of eternal youth which lends charm to the +facile productions of his amiable genius. His comedies can be put upon +the stage without the least difficulty; and they afford scope for the +display of varied talents in actors of several descriptions. + +In Germany Gozzi enjoyed wide posthumous reputation, not as a playwright +with the public, but as a poet among men of letters. He was early +chosen, during the _Sturm und Drang_ period, to perform the part of +champion of Romantic against Classical forms of art. How mistaken this +view of Gozzi really is, I have attempted to prove. Yet if critics +ignore what Gozzi wrote about the origin of his _Fiabe_, and keep out of +sight his intentions while composing them--if they only regard the +printed plays--it is not difficult to make him assume this false +position. Franz A. C. Werthes translated the _Fiabe_ into German so +early as 1777-79, and published them at Bern. No less than twelve +separate versions of selected plays have since appeared, up to the date +1877.[92] Among these may be mentioned Schiller's _Turandot_, which was +executed from the translation of Werthes, and a reproduction of _I +Pitocchi Fortunati_ by Paul Heyse. Schlegel introduced the _Fiabe_ to +public notice, emphasising their value as specimens of the Romantic +style, and connecting them with the indigenous art of Italy. Hoffmann +declared his enthusiasm for Gozzi; and if he did not borrow motives from +the _Fiabe_ and the _Memoirs_ for his own fantastic productions, he +undoubtedly regarded their author as a genius of the same species as +himself. Wagner, I may parenthetically observe, based one of his +earliest operatic productions on _La Donna Serpente_. It was composed in +1833, and was first exhibited at Munich in 1888. To follow the several +steps by which Gozzi came to be regarded in Germany as a Romanticist, +snuffed out by the Revolution, would lead me beyond the limits of this +introduction. I suspect that he was known there mainly in the +translation of Werthes, and that his works were quarried as a mine of +motives by writers of romantic tendencies, who lacked invention. There +is a pocket edition of the _Fiabe_ in Italian, 3 vols., published by +Hitzig, 1808. + +The German conception of Gozzi as a Romantic poet of the purest water +spread to France. It took the French imagination just when the Romantic +movement was at its height. Philarete Chasles treated his works from the +point of view of Spanish dramatic literature. Paul de Musset pounced +upon the Memoirs, condensed them into a small volume with considerable +literary ability, and so ingeniously manipulated their text in the +process as to create the illusion that Gozzi had pronounced himself to +be in fact what his German admirers found in him. This clever travesty +of Gozzi's autobiography presented him to the world as the victim of +sprites, the creature of his own inventions, the plaything of +superstition, instead of the caustic, practical, sometimes dissembling, +and often sinister, man of thwarted passion, violent caprice, hard head, +and conservative heart, who will presently be revealed in my version of +the Memoirs. I do not blame Paul de Musset for his literary escapade. I +understand his motive, and appreciate the joke. He wanted, at one and +the same time, to place Gozzi, as the Germans had already placed him, +among the fathers of Romanticism, and also to construct a telling novel +of adventure out of the copious materials furnished by the Memoirs. But, +by so doing, Paul de Musset misled writers who had no access to the sole +edition of Gozzi's _Memorie_, or who were perhaps too careless to seek +this document out. Among these I may mention M. Paul Royer, the +translator of five of Gozzi's _Fiabe_ into French,[93] and Vernon Lee, +the talented authoress of a deservedly popular book entitled _Studies of +the Eighteenth Century in Italy_.[94] Both of these distinguished +writers have fallen into the trap laid for them by Paul de Musset, and +have accepted a false conception of the man who forms the subject of +these volumes. + +Gozzi, who plumed himself upon his Democritean philosophy of laughter, +his Stoic-Epicurean acceptance of every wayward stroke of fortune, would +have been the first to smile sardonically, yet not without a touch of +benignant humour, upon the mask he has been made to wear by Germans and +by Frenchmen. English critics, with the exception of Vernon Lee, have +had little or nothing to do with him up to this date.[95] Let the man +speak for himself in the account of his own life, which I now for the +first time present to the multitude of English readers. + +_August 8, 1888._ + + + + +CARLO GOZZI. + + + + +I. + +_My Pedigree and Birth._ + + +There are people foolish enough to make every family history the object +of their ridicule and satire. For the sake of wits of this sort I shall +give a short but truthful account of my ancestry, in order that they may +have something to quiz. + +Our stock springs in the fourteenth century from a certain Pezolo +de'Gozzi. This is proved by an authentic genealogy, which we possess; +the authority of which has never been disputed, and which has been +accepted as evidence in law-courts, although it is but a dusty document, +worm-eaten and be-cobwebbed, not framed in gold or hung against the +wall. Since I am no Spaniard, I never applied to any genealogist to +discover a more ancient origin for our race. There are historical works, +however, which derive us from the family de'Gozze, extant at the present +epoch in Ragusa, and original settlers of that venerable republic. The +chronicles of Bergamo relate that the aforesaid Pezolo de'Gozzi was a +man of weight and substance in the district of Alzano, and that he won +the gratitude of the most serene Republic of Venice for having +imperilled his property and person against the Milanese in order to +preserve that district for her invincible and clement rule. His +descendants held office as ambassadors and podestas for the city of +Bergamo, which proves that they were members of its Council; while two +privileges of the sixteenth century show that two separate branches of +the family obtained admission to the citizenship of Venice.[96] They +erected houses for the living and provided tombs for their dead in the +quarter and the Church of San Cassiano, as may be seen at the present +day.[97] One of these branches was honoured with adoption into the +patrician families of Venice in the seventeenth century,[98] and +afterwards expired. The branch from which I am descended remained in the +class of Cittadini Originari, on which they certainly brought no +discredit whatsoever. + +None of my ancestors aspired to the honourable and lucrative posts which +are open to Venetian citizens.[99] They were for the most part men of +peaceful unambitious temper, contented with their lot in life, or +perhaps averse from the disturbances of competition. Had they entered +upon a political career, I am quite sure that they would have served +their Prince faithfully, without pride and without vain ostentation. + +About two centuries ago, my great-great-grandfather purchased some six +hundred acres of land,[100] together with buildings, in Friuli, at the +distance of five miles from Pordenone. A large portion of these estates +consists of meadow-land, and is held by feudal tenure. All the +heirs-male are bound to renew the investiture, which costs some ducats. +Upon this point the officials of the Camera de' Feudi at Udine are +extremely vigilant. If the fine is not paid immediately after the death +of the last feudatory, they confiscate the crops derived from the +meadows subject to this tenure. That happened to me after my father's +decease. A few months' negligence cost me a considerable sum in excess +of the customary fine. It is probably by right of some old parchment +that we own the title of Count, conceded to our family in public acts +and in the addresses of letters.[101] I should feel no resentment, if +this title were refused me; but it would anger me extremely, if my hay +were withheld. + +My father was Jacopo Antonio Gozzi; a man of fine and penetrative +intellect, of sensitive and delicate honour, of susceptible temper, +resolute, and sometimes even formidable. His father Gasparo died while +he was yet a child, leaving this only son to the guardianship of his +mother, the Contessa Emilia Grampo, a noble woman of Padua. The estate +was sufficient to sustain his dignity with credit; but he indulged +dreams of magnificence. Sole heir, and educated by a tender mother, who +humoured every fancy of her son, he early acquired the habit of +following his own inclinations. These led him into lordly +extravagances--stables full of horses; kennels of hounds; +hunting-parties; splendid banquets--nor did he reflect upon the +consequences of a marriage, which he made without deliberation in his +early manhood, to indulge a whim of the heart. My mother was Angela +Tiepolo, the daughter of one branch of that patrician house, which +expired in her brother Almoro Cesare.[102] He died, a Senator of the +Republic, about the year 1749. + +I shall perhaps have wearied my readers with these facts about my +pedigree and birth. Satirists will not, however, find in them anything +to excite ambition in myself or to wing their pen with ridicule. Social +ranks have always been regarded by me as accidental, though necessary +for the proper subordination on which our institutions depend. As for my +birth, I think less of whence I came than of whither I am going. Conduct +unworthy of a decent origin might cause sorrow to my deceased parents, +whose memory I hold in honour, and might cover myself and all my +posterity with shame. + +My name is Carlo. I was the sixth child born by my mother into the +light, or shall I say the shadows of this world. I am writing on the +last day of April in the year 1780. I have passed fifty, and not yet +reached the age of sixty.[103] I shall not put the sacristan to trouble +in order to view the register of my baptism, being quite sure that I was +christened, and not having the stupid vanity to pass for a curled +dandy. That is obvious, and has been always obvious, from the fashion of +my clothes and the way I dress my hair. Besides, I set no value on the +age of men. Human beings die at all ages; and I have seen boys who are +adult, while grown-up men or grey-beards are often nothing better than +peevish and ridiculous children. + + + + +II. + + _My Education and Circumstances down to the Age of + Sixteen--Concerning the Art of Improvisation, and my Literary + Studies._ + + +Our family consisted of eleven children, male and female. I could record +nothing but what is creditable of my brothers and sisters, had I +proposed to write their memoirs. But this is not my thought; and they +are capable of writing their own, if the whim should take them; for the +epidemic of literature was always chronic in our household. + +A succession of priests with little learning were our domestic +pedagogues up to a certain age. I say a succession advisedly; each in +turn having earned his dismissal by impertinent behaviour and intrigues +with the serving-maids. + +From early childhood I was always a silent observer of men and things, +by no means insolent, of imperturbable serenity, and extremely +attentive to my lessons. My brothers used my taciturn and peaceable +temper to their own advantage. They accused me to our common tutor of +all the naughtinesses of which they had been guilty. I did not +condescend to excuse myself or to accuse them, but bore my unjust +punishments with stoicism. I venture to affirm that no boy was ever more +supremely indifferent than I was to the terrible penalty of being sent +away from table just as we were sitting down to dinner. Smiling +obedience was my only self-defence. Enemies may conclude from these +traits of character that I was a stupid lout, and friends that I was a +philosopher in embryo. Nothing is rarer than the eye of equal justice. +Yet any one who takes the trouble to inquire of my acquaintances and +servants, will learn that my taciturnity, my tolerance, my stoical +endurance, have not changed with years--that I continue to view the +events of this life with a smile, and that only those have nettled me +which touched my honour. + +[Illustration: SCARAMOUCH (1645) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy_] + +The growing disorder in our family affairs did not at first deprive us +boys of a sound education. My two elder brothers, Gasparo and Francesco, +went to public schools,[104] and were in time to drink at all the +fountains of the regular curriculum. Extravagant expenditure, however, +combined with the needs of a numerous progeny, soon rendered anything +like an adequate course of studies impossible for the younger +children. I was intrusted for some years to a learned country-parson, +and then to a priest in Venice, of decent acquirements and excellent +morality. After this I entered the academy of two Genoese priests, who +supplied instruction to some youths of noble birth, and to some of no +nobility whatever. There were about twenty-five pupils in this academy. +We pursued the same studies, with some difference according to our +classes. Here I had the opportunity of observing that teachers are very +valuable guides to youths who love learning, and mere images of +ineffectual deities to such as hate it. For my part, being fond of books +and eager for information, I imbibed my fill of such instruction as a +boy can acquire before the age of fourteen. But sloth and vicious habits +extirpate the seeds of learning planted by preceptors in the minds of +ill-conditioned lads. Therefore I saw, and still see, more than +two-thirds of my fellow-pupils sunk in a slough of baseness. Grammar, +the classics, and rhetoric only taught them to get drunk in taverns, to +carry sacks for hire upon their shoulders, and to cry "_Baked apples, +plums, and chestnuts!_" about the streets, with a basket on their heads +and a pair of scales slung round their waists. Wretched fate to be a +father! + +When I became aware that our domestic difficulties would prove an +obstacle to my remaining long at school, I determined to utilise the +little I had already learned, and to carry on my education by myself. My +elder brother Gasparo's example, whose passion for study had won public +recognition, and my own good-will, kept me nailed to books of all sorts; +nor could I imagine any pleasure worth a thought, beyond reading, +meditating, and writing. + +Poetry, choice Italian, and correct style were then in vogue. The young +men of Venice met to discuss these three topics, which have now been +utterly forgotten--possibly for the greater advantage and convenience of +our citizens. I see crowds of young people, hair-brained, conceited, +idle, frivolous, presumptuous, and harmful to society. Heaven knows what +their studies are! Not poetry, not the niceties of the Italian language, +not correction of style. And then, forsooth, I am to admire a +hurly-burly of well-born persons, who claim in their foolhardiness to be +omniscient, who produce nothing whatsoever, who cannot write three lines +of a letter which shall express their sentiments, and which shall not +swarm with revolting faults of grammar and of spelling! + +I will omit to observe that respect for nobles in a state is necessary; +but that the respect shown simply for their birth and wealth is not +respect but false feigned adulation. I will refrain from asserting that +a daily correspondence, maintained with a large variety of +persons--people who may not perhaps be scientific, but who understand +whether a letter is well written or ridiculous--may be capable of +securing a large part of the regard, or of occasioning a large part of +the contempt, bestowed on nobles. I make no mention of the rich man in +Signor Mercier's comedy of Indigence, who found it impossible to write a +letter of the utmost importance because his secretary was away from +home. I will say nothing to those scientific tutors of the scions of our +aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and +the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, moulding +them into geometricians, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, +astronomers, algebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of +sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what +they have taught or what the common business of life requires. + +All these things, and everything which imposture has presented to my +senses and impressed upon my mind, must remain unwritten in my pen. I +have no wish to make enemies. + +Yet we cannot prevent drops of ink from falling sometimes from the pen +and making blots upon our papers. Just so, while I am dictating these +memoirs of my life, I shall not be able to avoid splutterings, however +out of place and inconvenient. + +I am almost ashamed to confess the intense assiduity with which I +applied myself to those frivolous literary studies of which I have been +speaking. They brought on a haemorrhage from the nostrils, so violent +and so frequent, that I was more than once or twice given up for dead in +the manner of Seneca.[105] In their anxiety about my health, my friends +hid away all my books, and deprived me of paper and inkstand; but I was +the cleverest of thieves in searching for them, and went on doggedly +reading and writing by stealth in the uninhabited attics of our mansion. +After relating this fact about my boyhood, malicious people may think +that I am claiming to be considered worthy of a panegyric. They are +quite mistaken. I fix them with my eyeglass, and assure them that it is +rather my intention to provide them with another good reason for +quizzing me. The famous Doctor Tissot angrily rebukes excessive +application to those studies which are universally esteemed as useless. +He reserves his praise for folk who ruin their health in pursuits +considered beneficial to humanity; and such, I do not doubt, are the +studies affected by himself and his admirers. + +The Abbe Giovan Antonio Verdani, keeper of the select and extensive +library of the patrician family Soranzo, was a man of vast literary +erudition. He felt compassion for my weakness, which coincided with his +own, and directed my reading by lending me the rarest books, +masterpieces of pure Italian diction in prose and poetry. To estimate +the quantities of paper which I covered with my thoughts in verse and +prose, would be beyond my powers. I tried to imitate the style of all +the early Tuscan writers who are most admired. Assuredly I never +approached the perfection of their language; but I am none the less sure +that the diligent and attentive perusal of a mass of the best works, +treating of a vast variety of subjects, cannot fail to furnish a better +head than mine with instruction and ideas, with the power of making just +reflections and probable conjectures, and with the principles of sound +morality. I am also convinced that the imitation of style in writing, +pursued methodically, enables a man to express his own thoughts with +facility, propriety of colouring, exactitude of phrase and term, +according to the variety of images, grave or gay, familiar or dignified, +which we desire to develop and to communicate under their true aspect in +prose or poetry. + +Without attaining to the mastery of style at which I aimed, I acquired +the miserable satisfaction of finding myself in the very select group of +persons who know this truth. I also earned the wretchedness of being +forced to read with insuperable aversion and disgust the works of many +modern Italian authors, which are full of false fancies and sophisms, +the rhetoric and diction of which never vary however the subject-matter +changes, which are defiled by all manner of gibberish, bombast, +nonsense, with periods involved in unintelligible vortices, and with +preposterous phraseology. The sciences, the discoveries, the branches +of new knowledge which are now so loudly vaunted, ought to be accepted +as useful, and are worthy of respect. For this reason it is wrong to +profane them and to render them contemptible by barbarous impurity and +impropriety of diction. Francesco Redi, that great man, great +philosopher, great physician, great naturalist, confirms my doctrine by +his written works.[106] As regards the literature of art and wit and +fancy, it is obvious that without correction of style this is absolutely +worthless and condemned to merited oblivion. No one could count the fine +and ample sentiments which perish, smothered in the mire of inartistic +writing. Not less numerous, on the other hand, are the small but +brilliant thoughts, duly coloured with appropriate terms, and placed at +the right point of view by a master-hand, which sparkle before the eyes +of every reader, be he learned or simple. + +There is no disputing about tastes. Yet I think it could be easily +maintained that our century has lapsed into a shameful torpor with +regard to these things. I have written and printed quite enough upon the +subject; without effect, however; and now I see no reason why I should +not utter a last funeral lament over the mastery of art I longed to +possess. That mastery, which nowadays is reckoned among the inutilities +of existence, has been freely conceded to me by the verdict of +contemporaries--blind judges, governed not by intelligence but by +ignorant assumption--so that their opinion does not sustain me with the +sure conviction of having attained my purpose. Nevertheless I am +grateful even to the blind and deaf, who see and hear what gives them +pleasure in my writings. + +My pursuit of culture advanced on the lines I have described, whether +for my happiness or my misfortune it is worthless to inquire. I read +continually, and wasted enormous quantities of ink; paid close attention +to men and manners; profited by the encouragement of the Abbe Verdani +and Antonio Federigo Seghezzi; walked in the steps of my brother +Gasparo; and frequented a literary society which met daily at our house. +From a Piedmontese, who knew how to read and nothing more, I learned the +first rudiments of French; not that I wished to talk French in Italy, an +affectation which I loathed; but because it was my desire, by the help +of grammar and dictionary, to study the books, most excellent in part, +in part injurious to society, which issue daily from the French press. +It was thus that I formed those literary tastes, to which I have always +clung for innocent and disinterested amusement, and which, now that my +hairs are grey, will be my solace till the hour of death. The giants of +science, to whom I dare not raise my quizzing-glass for fear of +committing an unpardonable sin, will perceive that in describing the +scanty sources of my education, I am only painting the portrait of a +literary pigmy in all humility. + +As regards my moral training, it is only necessary to observe that the +family of which I was a member has always cherished a deep and fervent +reverence for the august image of religion, and that my father, careless +as he was in matters of economy, never neglected religious duties or the +good ensample of honourable conduct. He was a bitter enemy of falsehood. +His delicate susceptibility detected a lie by the inflection of the +voice, and he punished it upon the spot with sounding boxes on the ears +of his offspring. + +Being a bold rider and passionately fond of horses, he taught us to +ride, and liked to see us every day on horseback during our summer +visits to the country. It was useless to plead timidity, or to shrink +from the snortings and jibbings of some half-broken beast he wanted us +to back. Up we went; a cut or two of the switch across our legs set us +off at a gallop; and there we were in full career, without a thought for +broken shins or necks. Some jockeys, who came to break in vicious colts, +put me up to tricks for mastering a hard-mouthed bolting animal. One of +these tricks stood me in good stead upon an occasion I shall afterwards +relate. Indeed, I may say that I owe my life to a jockey. + +We had a little theatre of no great architectural pretensions in our +country-house; and here we children used to act.[107] Brothers and +sisters alike were gifted with some talent for comedy; and all of us, +before a crowd of rustic spectators, passed for players of the first +quality. Beside tragic and comic pieces learned by heart, we frequently +improvised farces with a slight plot upon some laughable motive. My +sister Marina and I had the knack of imitating certain married couples +notorious in the village for their burlesque humours. We used to +interpolate our farces with scenes and dialogues in which the famous +quarrels of these women with their drunken husbands were reproduced to +the life. Our clothes were copied from the originals; and the imitation +was so exact that our bucolic audience hailed it with Homeric peals of +laughter, measuring their applause by the delight it afforded their +coarse natures. My father and mother took a fancy to see themselves +represented in this way. My sister and I were shy at first, but we had +to obey our parents. Finally, we regaled them with a perfect +reproduction of their costume, their gestures, their way of talking, and +some of their familiar household bickerings. Their astonishment was +great, and their laughter was the only punishment of our dutiful +temerity. + +I learned to twang the guitar with a certain amount of skill, and vied +with my brother Gasparo in improvising rhymed verses, which I sang to +music in our hours of recreation. This was done with all the +foolhardiness inseparable from a display which the vulgar are only too +apt to regard as miraculous. Since I have touched upon the point, I will +digress a little on this so-called miracle. In my opinion, the immense +crowds of people hanging with open mouths upon the lips of an +_improvisatore_ only prove that, in spite of the contempt into which +poetry has fallen, it still possesses that power over the minds and the +brains of men which their tongues deny it. Cristoforo Altissimo, a poet +of the fifteenth century, is said to have publicly improvised his epic +in octave stanzas on the Reali di Francia; the words were taken down +from his lips, just as he composed them at the moment. The book was +published; and though it is extremely rare, I have read it through the +kindness of the Abbe Verdani. Only a few stanzas, out of all that ocean +of verse, are worthy of the name of poetry; and yet we may believe that +before the work was given to the press, some pains had been bestowed +upon it. I have listened to many extempore versifiers, male and female, +the most famous of our century. It has always struck me that if the +deluges of verses which they spout forth with face on fire, to the +applause of frantic multitudes, were written down, they would have very +little poetical value, and that nobody would have the patience to read +the twentieth part of them. Padre Zucchi, of the Olivetan Order, whom I +heard in my youth, surpassed his rivals; now and then he produced +sensible stanzas; but he improvised so slowly that reflection may have +had some part in the result. I do not deny that these extempore +rhymesters may be people of culture and learning, qualified to discourse +well upon the themes proposed to them. Yet they would not be listened +to, if they spoke ever so divinely in prose. In order to draw a crowd, +they are forced to express their thoughts and images, just as they come, +with voluble rapidity, in bad rhymed verses, which often are no better +than a gabble of words without sense. This throws their audience into a +trance of astonishment. Humanity has always quested after the marvellous +like a hound. If a painter sought to depict foolhardiness or imposture +wearing the mask of poetry, I could recommend nothing better than the +portrait of an improvisatore, with goggle-eyes and arms in air, and a +multitude staring up at him in stupid dumb amazement. These being my +sentiments, I am willing, out of mere politeness and good manners, to +approve the coronation of a Cavaliere Perfetto or a Corilla on the +Capitol. But I can only accept with cordial and serious enthusiasm the +honours of that sort paid to a Virgil, a Petrarch, and a Tasso. + +The Arcadians will laugh when I proceed to speak about an improvisatore, +whom I knew and whom I have listened to a hundred times. Yet I should be +committing an injustice if I did not mention him, and declare my opinion +that he was the single really wonder-worthy artist in this kind, with +whom I ever came in contact. He used to pour forth anacreontics, octave +stanzas, any and every metre, extempore, to the music of a well-touched +guitar. His verses rhymed, but had no _Clio_, _Euterpe_, _Plettro_, +_Parnaso_, _Aganippe_, _Ruscelletto_, _Zefiretto_, and such stuff, in +them. They composed a well-developed discourse, flowing evenly, not +soaring, but with abundance of well-connected images, and natural, +lively, graceful thoughts. He invariably used either the Venetian or the +Paduan dialect; which will augment the derisive laughter of Arcadia, and +make the Campidoglio ring. On one occasion, while he was improvising on +the theme: _diligite inimicos vestros_, it happened that two enemies +were present. At another time, he dilated on his own grief for a +cavaliere[108] who had been kind to him, and who was then dying, given +over by the doctors. Not only did the audience hang upon his lips with +rapt attention; but in the former case, the enemies were reconciled, +while in the latter tears were freely shed for the poet's expiring +benefactor. Such influence over the passions of the heart reveals a true +poet; for such a man I reserve the laurel crown upon my Campidoglio. His +name was Giovanni Sibiliato, brother of the celebrated professor of +literature in the University of Padua. + +Returning from this digression, I will resume the narrative of my +boyhood. I learned to fence and to dance; but books and composition were +my chief pastime. Before a numerous audience in our literary assemblies +I felt no shyness. In private visits, among people new to me, the +reserve of my demeanour often passed for savagery. My first sonnet of +passable quality was written at the age of nine. Beside the applause it +won me, I was rewarded with a box of comfits; and for this reason I have +never forgotten it. The occasion of its composition was as follows. A +certain Signora Angela Armano, midwife by trade, had a friend at Padua +whose pet dog died and left her inconsolable. Signora Angela wished to +comfort her friend; indulged in condolements for her loss; and sent a +little spaniel of her own, called Delina, to replace the defunct pet. +Delina was to be given as a present, and a sonnet was to accompany the +gift, expressing all the sentiments which a lady of Signora Angela's +profession might entertain in a circumstance of such importance. Though +our family was a veritable lunatic asylum of poets, no one cared to +translate the good creature's gossipping garrulity into verse. Moved by +her entreaties, I undertook the task; and the following Bernesque sonnet +was the result:-- + + "Madama io vi vorrei pur confortare + Con qualche graziosa diceria, + Ma la sciagura vuole, e vostra, e mia, + Che in un sonetto la non vi puo stare. + Non vi state, mia cara, a disperare, + Che la sarebbe una poltroneria, + L'entrar per un can morto in frenesia; + Chi nasce muor, convien moralizzare. + Vi sovvenite, ch' egli avra pisciato + Alcuna volta in camera, o in cucina, + Che in quell' istante lo avreste ammazzato. + Io vi spedisco intanto la Delina + Che piu d'un cane ha d'essa innamorato, + E puo farvi di cani una dezina. + E bella, e picciolina; + Di lei non voglio piu nuova, o risposta, + Servitevi per razza, o di supposta." + +Two years later, a new edition of the poems of Gaspara Stampa appeared +in Venice, at the expense of Count Antonio Ramboldo di Collalto of +Vienna, a prince distinguished for his birth and writings. Scholars know +that this sixteenth-century Sappho sighed her soul forth in love-laments +to a certain Count Collaltino di Collalto, doughty warrior and polished +versifier, and that she was reputed to have died of hopeless passion in +her youth.[109] The ladies of our century will hardly believe her +story; for Cupid has changed temper since those days, and kills his +victims with far different and less honourable weapons. Some verses by +contemporary writers in praise of our literary heroine were to be +appended to this edition of her works. I dared to enter the lists, and +wrote a sonnet in the style of the earliest Tuscan poets. Such as it is, +the sonnet may be found printed in the book which I have indicated. It +appears from this juvenile production that I already acknowledged a +mistress of my heart; compliance with fashion was alone responsible for +my precocity. + +This trifling composition was read by the famous Apostolo Zeno. He +deigned to inquire for the author, who had reproduced the antique +simplicity of Cino da Pistoja, Guittone d'Arezzo, and Guido Cavalcanti. +On my presenting myself, Signor Zeno politely expressed surprise at +discovering a mere boy in the learned writer of the sonnet, treated me +with kind attention, and placed his choice library at my disposal.[110] +The encouragement of this distinguished poet, true lover of pure style, +and foe to seventeenth-century conceits, added fuel to the fire of my +literary passion. From that day forward not one of those collections of +verses appeared, in which marriages, the entrance of young ladies into +convents, the election of noblemen to offices of state, the deaths of +people, cats, dogs, parrots, and such events, are celebrated in Venice +and other towns of Italy, but that it contained some specimen of my Muse +in grave or playful verse. + +Books, paper, pens and ink formed the staple of my existence. I was +always pregnant, always in labour, giving birth to monsters in remote +corners of our mansion. I scribbled furiously, God knows how, up to my +seventeenth year. Besides innumerable essays in prose and multitudes of +fugitive verses, I wrote four long poems, entitled _Berlinghieri_, _Don +Quixote_, _Moral Philosophy_ (based upon the talking animals of +Firenzuola), and _Gonella_ in twelve cantos. The Abbe Verdani took a +fancy to this last, and wished to see it printed. Signor Giulio Cesare +Beccelli, however, had published a poem at Verona on the same subject, +which robbed my work of novelty; and though mine was richer in facts +drawn from good old sources, I did not venture to enter into competition +with him. The three years' absence from home, which I shall presently +relate, and the revolution in our domestic affairs which surprised me on +my return, exposed these boyish literary labours to ruin and +dispersion. It is probable that pork-butchers and fruit-vendors +exercised condign justice on the children of my Muse. + + + + +III. + + _The Situation of my Family, and my Reasons for Leaving Home._ + + +In the course of these years, the early deaths of a brother and a sister +had reduced our numbers from eleven to nine. Meanwhile, our annual +expenditure exceeded the resources at our command, and left but little +for the needs of a numerous offspring, too old to be contented with a +toy or plaything. Some lawsuits, which we lost, diminished the estate. +Clouds of doubt and care began to obscure the horizon, and in a few +years the family was plunged in pecuniary embarrassment. + +My brother Gasparo had taken a wife in a fit of genial poetical +abstraction. Even poetry has its dangers. This man, who was really +singular in his absolute self-dedication to books, in his indefatigable +labours as an author, and in a certain philosophical temper or +indolence, which made him indifferent to everything which was not +literary, learned to fall in love from Petrarch. A young lady, ten years +older than himself, named Luigia Bergalli,[111] better known among the +shepherdesses of Arcady as Irmenia Partenide, a poetess of romantic +fancy, as her published works evince, was my brother's Laura. Not being +a canon, like Petrarch, he married her in Petrarch's spirit, but with +due legal formalities. This woman, of fervent and soaring imagination, +which fitted her for high poetic flights, undertook to regulate the +disorder in our affairs. Impelled by the instincts of a good nature, +with something of ambition and a flattering belief in her own practical +ability, she did the best that in her lay. Yet all her projects and +administrative measures revolved within a circle of romantic raptures +and Pindaric ecstasies. Thirsting with soul-passion after an ideal +realm, she found herself the sovereign of a state in decadence. It was +the desire of her heart to make us all happy, in the most disinterested +way. Yet she accomplished nothing beyond involving every one, and +herself to boot, in the meshes of still greater misfortune. Her +husband, poring perpetually upon his books, could only oppose her at the +sacrifice of ease and quiet. This he was incapable of doing.--In order +to judge people equitably, it is necessary that character, temperament, +and circumstances should be thoroughly explained. + +I know how unphilosophical it is to ascribe the discords of a family to +malignant planetary influences. Our domestic circle consisted of a +father, a mother, four brothers, and five sisters, all of them +good-hearted, honourable, mutually well-inclined; and yet it became the +very mirror of infelicity at every moment and in each of the persons who +composed it. Minute investigation into the causes of this painful fact +would probably reveal them. But it is better to adopt the language of +the vulgar, and to say that a bad star pursued our family. Otherwise, +analysis might lead one into acts of unkindness, and involve one in +hatred. + +The confusion in which we lived at that period, and the bitter +discomforts we had to bear, were augmented by expenses due to my +brother's increasing progeny. Our worst disaster, however (and this +wound I carry in my heart even to the present day), was a cruel stroke +of apoplexy which laid my beloved father low. He continued to exist, an +invalid, for about seven years after the sad event; dumb and paralytic, +but in possession of all his mental faculties--a circumstance which +rendered his deplorable condition almost unbearable to a man of my +father's extreme sensibility. + +The tears of five sisters, the births of nephews and nieces, a house +swarming with female go-betweens, brokers, and the Hebrew ministers of +our decaying realm--all this whirlpool of economical extravagance and +folly, to utter one word against which was reckoned mutiny or treason, +drove my second brother, Francesco, into exile. He went into the Levant +with the Provveditore Generale di Mare,[112] his Excellency the +Cavaliere Antonio Loredano, of happy memory. At that period I was about +thirteen. + +Letters written from Corfu by this brother describing the kindness shown +him by his Provveditore, and the rank of ensign to which he soon +attained, awoke in me a burning desire to escape like him from those +domestic turmoils, the gravity of which I felt in experience and +measured by anticipation, but which my state of boyhood rendered me +unable to remedy. Our uncle on the mother's side, Almoro Cesare Tiepolo, +recommended me to his Excellency Girolamo Quirini, Provveditore Generale +elect for Dalmatia and Albania. Furnished with a modest outfit, in which +my book-box and guitar were not forgotten, I bade farewell to my parents +at the age of seventeen,[113] and went across seas as volunteer into +those provinces, to study the ways and manners of my fellow-soldiers, +and of the peoples among whom we were quartered. + + +IV. + + _I Embark upon a Galley, and Cross the Seas to Zara._ + + +I was not slow to perceive that I had adopted a career by no means +suited to my character, the proper motto for which was always the +following verse from Berni: + + "Voleva far da se, non commandato." + +My natural dislike of changeableness kept me, however, from showing by +outward signs of any sort that I repented of my choice; and I reflected +that abundant opportunities were now at least offered for observations +on the men of a world new to me. This thought sufficed to keep me in +good spirits and a cheerful humour through all the vicissitudes of my +three years' sojourn in Illyria. + +According to orders received from his Excellency, the Provveditore +Generale Quirini, I embarked before him on a galley called +_Generalizia_, which was riding at the port of Malamocco. There I was to +wait for his arrival. A band of military officers received me with +glances of courtesy and some curiosity. In a Court where all the members +are seeking fortune, each newcomer is regarded with suspicion. Whether +he has to be reckoned with or may be disregarded on occasions of +promotion, concerns the whole crew of officials, who, like him, are +dependent on the will of the Provveditore. It was perhaps insensibility +which made me indifferent to these preoccupations; this the sequel of my +narrative will show; and yet such thoughts are very wood-worms in the +hearts of courtiers. + +I had to swallow a great quantity of questions, to which I replied with +the laconic brevity of an inexperienced lad upon his guard. Some of +those gentlemen had known my brother Francesco at Corfu. When they +discovered who I was, they seemed to be relieved of all anxiety on my +account, and welcomed me with noisy demonstrations of soldierly +comradeship. I expressed my thanks in modest, almost monosyllabic +phrases. They set me down for an awkward young fellow, unobliging, and +proud. This was a mistake, as they freely confessed a few months later +on. I had retired into myself, with the view of studying their +characters and sketching my line of action. The quick and penetrative +intuition with which I was endowed at birth by God, together with the +faculty of imperturbable reserve, enabled me in the course of a few +hours to recognise in that little group some men of noble birth and +liberal culture, some nobles ruined by the worst of educations, and some +plebeians who owed their position to powerful protection. + +Gaming, intemperance, and unbridled sensuality were deeply rooted in the +whole company. I laid my plans of conduct, and found them useful in the +future. My intimacies were few, but durable. The vices I have named, +clung like ineradicable cancers to the men with whom I associated. Sound +principles engrafted on me in my early years, regard for health, and the +slenderness of my purse helped me to avoid their seductions. At the same +time, I saw no reason why I should proclaim a crusade against them. +Holding a middle course, I succeeded in winning the affection of my +comrades. They invited me to take part in their orgies. I did not play +the prude. Without yielding myself to the transports of brutal appetite, +I proved the gayest reveller at all those lawless meetings. Some of my +seniors, on whom a career of facile pleasure had left its inevitable +stigma, used to twit me with being a reserved young simpleton. I did +not heed their raillery, but laughed at the inebriation of my comrades, +studied the bent of divers characters, observed the animal brutality of +men, and used our uproarious debauches as a school for fathoming the +depths of human frailty. + +Now I will return to the point of my embarkation on the galley +_Generalizia_ in the port of Malamocco. While awaiting the arrival of +the Provveditore, I had two whole days and nights to spend in sad +reflections on humanity. These were suggested by the spectacle of some +three hundred scoundrels, loaded with chains, condemned to drag their +life out in a sea of miseries and torments, each of which was sufficient +by itself to kill a man. An epidemic of malignant fever raged among +these men, carrying away its victims daily from the bread and water, the +irons, and the whips of the slavemasters. Attended in their last passage +by a gaunt black Franciscan friar, with thundering voice and jovial +mien, these wretches took their flight--I hope and think--for Paradise. + +[Illustration: THE FRANCISCAN FRIAR ON THE GALLEY + +_Original Etching by Ad. Lalauze_] + +The Provveditore's arrival amid the din of instruments and roar of +cannon roused me from my dismal reveries. I had visited this gentleman +ten times at least in his own palace, and had always been received with +that playful welcome and confidential sweetness which distinguish the +patricians of Venice. He made his appearance now in crimson--crimson +mantle, cap, and shoes--with an air of haughtiness unknown to me, and +fierceness stamped upon his features. The other officers informed +me that when he donned this uniform of state, he had to be addressed +with profound and silent salaams, different indeed from the reverence +one pays at Venice to a patrician in his civil gown.[114] He boarded the +galley, and seemed to take no notice whatever of the crowd around him, +bowing till their noses rubbed their toes. The affability with which he +touched our hands in Venice had disappeared; he looked at none of us; +and sentenced the young captain of the guard, called Combat, to arrest +in chains, because he had omitted some trifle of the military salute. My +comrades stood dumbfounded, staring at one another with open eyes. This +singular change from friendliness to severity set my brains at work. By +the light of my boyish philosophy I seemed to comprehend why the noble +of a great republic, elected general of an armament[115] and governor of +two wide provinces, on his first appearance in that office, felt bound +to assume a totally different aspect from what was natural to him in his +private capacity. He had to inspire fear and a spirit of submission into +his subordinates. Otherwise they might have taken liberties upon the +strength of former courtesy displayed by him, being for the most part +presumptuous young fellows, apt to boast about their favour with the +general. For my own part, since I was firmly bent on doing my duty +without ambitious plans or dreams of fortune, this formidable attitude +and the harsh commands of the great man made a less disheartening +impression on me than on my companions. I whispered to myself: "He +certainly inspires me with a kind of dread; but he has taken immense +trouble to transform his nature in order to produce this effect; I am +sure the irksomeness which he is suffering now must be greater than any +discomfort he can cause me." + +The general retired to his cabin in the bowels of our floating hell, and +sent Lieutenant-Colonel Micheli, his major in the province, to make out +a list of all the officers and volunteers on board, together with the +names of their protectors. Nobody expected this; for we had been +personally presented to the general at Venice, and had explained our +affairs in frequent conversations. Once more I reflected that this was +his way of damping the expectations which might have been bred in +scheming brains before he exchanged the politenesses of private life for +the austerities of office. The Maggiore della Provincia Micheli--a most +excellent person and very fat--bustled about his business, sweating, and +scribbling with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as though the matter was +one of life or death. Everybody began to shy and grumble and chafe with +indignation at passing under review in this way. When my turn came, I +answered frankly that I was called Carlo Gozzi, and that I had been +recommended by the patrician Almoro Cesare Tiepolo. I withheld his title +of senator and the fact that he was my maternal uncle, deeming it +prudent not to seem ambitious. + +The _Generalizia_, convoyed by another galley named _Conserva_ and a few +light vessels of war, got under way for the Adriatic;[116] and the night +fell very dark upon the waters. I shall not easily forget that night, +because of a little incident which happened to me, and which shows what +a curious place of refuge a galley is for young men leaving their homes +for the first time. A natural necessity made me seek some corner for +retirement. I was directed to the bowsprit; on approaching it, an +Illyrian sentinel, with scowling visage, bushy whiskers, and levelled +musket, howled his "_Who goes there?_" in a tremendous voice. When he +understood my business, he let me pass. My next step lighted on a soft +and yielding mass, which gave forth a kind of gurgling sound, like the +stifled breath of an asthmatic patient, into the dark silent night. +Retracing my path, I asked the sentinel what the thing was, which +responded with its inarticulate gurgling voice to the pressure of my +feet. He answered with the coldest indifference that it was the corpse +of a galley-slave, who had succumbed to the fever, and had been flung +there till he could be buried on the sea-shore sands in Istria. The hair +on my head bristled with horror. But my happy disposition for seeing the +ludicrous side of things soon came to my assistance. + +After twelve days of much discomfort, and twelve noisome nights, passed +in broken slumbers under the decks of that galley, which only too well +deserved its name, our little fleet entered the port of Zara. We went on +shore at first privately and quietly; and after a few days the public +ceremonies of official disembarkation were gone through. The +Provveditore Generale Jacopo Cavalli handed his baton of command over to +the Provveditore Generale Girolamo Quirini with all the formalities +proper to the occasion. This solemnity, which is performed upon the open +sea, to the sound of military music, the thunder of artillery, and the +crackling of musket-shots, deserves to be witnessed by all who take an +interest in imposing spectacles. An old man, fat and short of stature, +with a pair of moustachios bristling up beneath his nostrils, a merry +and most honest fellow to boot, who bore the name of Captain Girolamo +Visinoni, was appointed master of these ceremonies, on account of his +intimate acquaintance with their details. I had no other duty that day +but to wear my best clothes, which did not cost much trouble. + + +V. + + _I Fall Dangerously Ill; Recover; Form the only Intimate + Acquaintance I made in Dalmatia._ + +When the new Regency had been established and the Court settled, I had +but eight days to learn my duties as volunteer or adjutant[117] to his +Excellency, as it is called there, before I fell ill of a fever which +was declared to be malignant. Alone among people whom I hardly knew, at +the commencement of my career, poorly provided with money, and lying in +a wretched room, the windows of which were closed with torn and rotten +paper instead of glass, I could not but compare my present destitution +with the comforts of our home. Here I was battling with a mortal disease +in solitude. There, at the least touch of illness, I enjoyed the tender +solicitude of a sister or a servant at my pillow, to brush away the +flies which settled on my forehead. Fortunately, I was not so strongly +attached to life as to be rendered miserable by unavailing recollections +and gloomy forebodings. + +It happened one day, as I lay there burning, that a convict presented +himself at the door of my miserable den, and asked me if I wanted +anything which he could fetch me. He was one of those men who prowl +around the officers' quarters, wrapped in an old blanket with a bit of +rope about the waist, ready to do any dirty business and to pilfer if +they find the opportunity. I gave him a few farthings and told him to +send me a confessor--an errand very different from what he had expected. +Before long a good Dominican appeared, who prepared me to die with the +courage of an ancient Roman. Our modern sages may laugh at this plebeian +wish of mine to make my peace with Heaven; but I have never been able to +dissociate philosophy from religion. Satisfied to remain a little child +before the mysteries of faith, I do not envy wise men in their +disengagement from spiritual terrors. + +The chief physician, Danieli, a man of prodigious corpulence and +blackness, who had been sent to my assistance by the Governor, spared no +attentions and no remedies. As usual, they proved unavailing; and he +bade me prepare myself for death by receiving the holy sacrament. I +summoned what remained to me of vital force, and went through this +ceremony with devotion. There seemed to be so little difference between +a sepulchre and the room in which my body lay, that I felt no disgust at +relinquishing my corpse to the grave-diggers. I was now ready for the +last unction, when an attack of hemorrhage from the nostrils, like those +which had already nearly brought me to death's door, recalled me for the +nonce to life. All the ordinary remedies--ligatures, powders, herbs, +astringent plasters, sympathetic stones, muttered charms, old wives' +talismans--were exhibited in vain. After filling two basons with blood, +I lapsed into a profound swoon, which the doctor styled a syncope. To +all appearances I was dead; but the blood stopped; in a quarter of an +hour I revived; and three days afterwards I found myself, weak indeed, +but wholly free from fever and on the road to recovery. My ignorance +could not reconcile this salutary crisis with Danieli's absolute +prohibition of blood-letting in my malady. But I suppose that a score of +learned physicians, each of them upon a different system of hypotheses, +conjectures, well-based calculations, and trains of lucid argument, +would be able to demonstrate the phenomenon to their own satisfaction +and to the illumination or confusion of my stupid brain. Stupendous +indeed are the mental powers which Almighty God has bestowed on men! + +The readers of these Memoirs will hardly need to be informed that my +slender purse had nothing in it at the termination of this illness. +Under these painful circumstances I found a cordial and open-hearted +friend in Signor Innocenzio Massimo, nobleman of Padua, and captain of +halbardiers at the Dalmatian Court. This excellent gentleman, of rare +distinction for his mental parts, the quickness of his spirit, his +courage, energy, and honour, was the only intimate friend whom I +possessed during my three years' absence from home. When they were over, +our friendship continued undiminished by lapse of time, distance, and +the various vicissitudes of life. I have enjoyed it through thirty-five +years, and am sure that it will never fail me. Some qualities of his +character have exposed him to enmity; among these I may mention a +particular sensitiveness to affronts, an intolerance of attempts to +deceive him, and a quick perception of fraud, together with a firm +resolve to stem the tide of extravagance and fashionable waste in his +own family. His many virtues, the decent comfort of his household, his +hospitality to friends and acquaintances, his careful provision for the +well-being of his posterity, his benevolence to the poor and afflicted, +his successful efforts as a peacemaker among discordant fellow-citizens, +his expenditure of time and trouble upon all who come to him for advice +or assistance, have not sufficed to disarm the malignity of a vulgar +crowd, corrupted by the false philosophy of our century, which goes from +bad to worse in dissolution and ill manners. + + + + +VI. + + _Short Studies in the Science of Fortification and Military + Exercises.--Some Reflections which will pass for Foolishness._ + + +On the restoration of my health, his Excellency placed me under +Cavaliere Marchiori, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, to learn +mathematics as applied to fortification. This gentleman sent for me, and +said that he had heard from my uncle of my aptitude for study, adding +that the subject he proposed to teach me was of the greatest consequence +to a soldier. I perceived at once that I was being treated on a +different footing from the other volunteers, and that the studied +forgetfulness of the Provveditore had been, as I suspected, a politic +device to humble ambitious schemers. I thanked Signor Marchiori, and +followed his instructions with pleasure, without however abandoning my +own interest in literature. + +He questioned me regarding my knowledge of arithmetic, which was only +elementary; and when I saw that I must master it, in order to pursue the +higher branch of study, I gave my whole head to the business. In the +space of a month, I could cipher like a money-lender, and was ready to +receive my master's teaching. My friend Massimo possessed a good +collection of instruments for engineering draughtsmanship, and a +library of French works on geometry, mathematics, and fortification, +both of which he placed at my disposal. Signor Marchiori's lectures, +long discussions with Signor Massimo, perusal of Euclid, Archimedes, and +the French books, soon plunged me in the lore of points and lines and +calculations. I burned with the enthusiasm, droll enough to my way of +looking at the world, which inspires all students of this science. Yet I +did not, like them, regard moral philosophy and humane literature as +insignificant frivolities. I bore in mind for what good reasons the +Emperor Vespasian dismissed the mathematicians who offered their +assistance in the building of his Roman edifices. I knew that +innumerable vessels, fabricated on the principles of science, have +perished miserably in the tempests; that hundreds of fortresses, built +by science, have been destroyed and captured by the same science; that +inundations are continually sweeping away the dykes erected by science, +to the ruin of thousands of families, and that the inundations +themselves are attributable to the admired masterpieces of science +bequeathed to us by former generations; that, in spite of science and +her creative energy, the buildings she erects are not secured from +earthquakes, conflagrations, and the thunderbolt. It remains to be seen +whether Professor Toaldo's lightning-conductors will prove effectual +against the last of these disasters. Then I reckoned up the blessings +and curses which this vaunted science has conferred on humanity, +arriving at the conclusion that the harm which she has done infinitely +exceeds the good. I shuddered at the hundreds of thousands of human +beings ingeniously massacred in war or drowned at sea by her devices; +and took more pleasure in consulting my watch, her wise invention, for +the dinner-hour than at the hour of keeping an appointment with my +lawyer. Without denying the utility of sciences, I stuck resolutely to +the opinion that moral philosophy is of more importance to the human +race than mechanical inventions, and deplored the pernicious influence +of modern Lyceums and Polytechnic schools upon the mind of Europe. + +Signor Massimo and I kept house together in a little dwelling on the +city walls, facing the sea. The sun, in his daily revolutions, struck +this habitation on every side; and there was not an open space of wall +or window-sill without its dial, fabricated by my skill, and adorned +with appropriate but useless mottoes on the flight of time. A lieutenant +named Giovanni Apergi, upright and pious, especially when the gout he +had acquired in the world's pleasures made him turn his thoughts to +Heaven, gave me friendly lessons in military drill. I soon learned to +handle my musket, pike, and ensign; and sweated a shirt daily, fencing +with Massimo, who was ferociously expert in that fiendish but +gentlemanly art. We also spent some hours together over a great +chessboard of his, covered with wooden soldiers, which we moved from +square to square, forming squadrons, and studying the combinations which +enable armies to kill with prodigality and to be killed with +parsimony,--fitting ourselves, in short, for manuring cemeteries in the +most approved style. + +I was already half a soldier, and meant to make myself perfect in my +profession; not, however, without a firm resolve to quit the army[118] +at the expiration of my three years' service. Twelve months spent in +studying my comrades convinced me that, though some worthy fellows might +be found among them, their society as a whole was uncongenial to my +tastes. I had neither the ambition nor the greed of gain which might +have sapped this resolution; and my persistence during the appointed +time was mainly due to a dislike of seeming fickle. I wanted to gain the +respect of my relatives, whom I hoped to help one day with my counsel, +my credit, and the example of my perseverance. + +After eight months spent in the study of fortification, I lost my poor +master. He died suddenly of a fit of spleen a few days after winning his +company in a regiment called Lagarde. This promotion he obtained by +competition; and some insulting words dropped upon the occasion, which +he was unable to resent, caused his mortal illness. Every one deplored +the death of Marchiori; but no one more than I did. His goodness, +sweetness, affability, and friendly patience left a powerful impression +on my memory. Gradually my interest in geometry declined, and I resumed +my former studies with fresh ardour, attending meanwhile to my military +duties, and waiting philosophically till the three years should be over. + + + + +VII. + + _This Chapter proves that Poetry is not as useless as people + commonly imagine._ + + +I am bound to confess that my weakness for poetry and Italian literature +was great. In the Venetian service, and particularly in Dalmatia, there +were very few indeed who shared these tastes. I wrote and read my +compositions to myself, without seeking the applause of an audience or +boring my neighbours with things they do not care for, as is the wont of +most scribblers. + +The secretary of the Generalate, Signor Giovanni Colombo, took some +interest in literature. I may mention, by the way, that he afterwards +rose to high dignity, which involved a calamity for him, sweetened, +however, by a splendid funeral; in other words, he died Grand Chancellor +of our most serene Republic.[119] This man, of gentle spirit and jovial +temper, knowing the epidemic of poetry which possessed the Gozzi family, +encouraged me to read him some of my trifles, and seemed to take +pleasure in listening to them. He owned a small but well-chosen library, +which he courteously allowed me to use. My verses, satirical for the +most part and descriptive of characters--without scurrility indeed, +though based on accurate observation of both sexes--were communicated to +him and Massimo alone. + +The town of Zara was bent on testifying its respect for our Provveditore +Generale Quirini by a grand public display. A large hall of wood was +accordingly erected on the open space before the fort, and hung with +fine damask. Tickets of invitation were then distributed to various +persons, who were to compose an Academy upon the day of the solemnity. +Every academician had to recite two compositions in prose or verse, as +he thought fit. The subjects were set forth on the tickets, and were as +follows:--First, Is a prince who preserves, defends, and improves his +dominions in peace, more praiseworthy than one who seeks to extend them +by force of arms? The second was to be a panegyric of the Provveditore +Generale. An old nobleman of Zara, named Giovanni Pellegrini, was chosen +to preside in the Academy and to dispense the invitations. He wore a +black velvet suit and a huge blonde wig, done up into knotted curls, and +possessed a fund of eloquence in the style of Father Casimir +Frescot.[120] + +I did not receive an invitation, which proves either that I was an +amateur of poetry unknown to fame, or that Signor Pellegrini, in his +gravity and wisdom, judged me a mere boy, unworthy of consideration in +an enterprise which he treated with true Illyrico-Italian seriousness. +Signor Colombo and my friend Massimo urged me to prepare two +compositions on the published themes; but I reminded them that I had no +right to appear uninvited. Nevertheless, I amused myself by scribbling a +couple of sonnets, which I consigned to the bottom of my pocket. As may +be imagined, I defended peace in the one, and did my best to belaud his +Excellency in the other. + +The Provveditore Generale, attended by his officers and by the magnates +of the city, entered the temporary hall, and took his seat upon a rich +fauteuil raised many steps above the ground. A covey of literary +celebrities, collected Heaven knows where, ranged their learned backs +along a row of chairs, which formed a semicircle round him. + +Strolling outside the damasked tabernacle, I saw some servants who were +preparing beverages and refreshments with a mighty bustle. I was +thirsty, and thought I should not be committing a crime if I asked one +of them for a lemonade. He replied that express orders had been given +not to quench the thirst of anybody who was not a member of the Academy. +This discourteous rebuff, repeated to the _sitio_ of several officers, +raised a spirit of silent revolt among us. I resolved to put a bold face +on the matter, and to proclaim myself an academician, thinking that the +title of poet might win for me the lemonade which was denied to the +dignity and the weapons of an officer. + +This little incident confirmed my opinion of the usefulness of poetry +against the universal judgment which regards it as an inutility. Poetry +stood me in good stead by procuring me a lemonade and saving me from +dying of thirst. Having swallowed the beverage, I proceeded to one of +the seats in the assembly, exciting some surprise among its members, who +were, however, kind enough to tolerate my presence. For three whole +hours the air resounded with long inflated erudite orations and poems +not remarkable for sweetness. A yawn from the General now and then did +honour to the Academy and the academicians. I must in justice say that +some tolerable compositions, superior to what I had expected, struck my +ears. A young abbe in holy orders gushed with poetic eloquence. I have +heard that he is now become a bishop. Who knows whether poetry was not +as serviceable to him in the matter of his mitre, as she was to me in +the matter of my lemonade! + +I declaimed my sonnets in their turn; the second of which, by Apollo's +blessing, pleased his Excellency, and consequently was received with +general approval. It established my reputation among the folk of Zara, +and led to a comic scene two days later. The Provveditore Generale was +in the habit of riding in the cool some four or five miles outside the +city; a troop of officers galloped at his heels, and I galloped with +them. While we were amusing ourselves in this way, his Excellency took a +fancy to hear my sonnet over again; for it had now become famous, as +often happens with trifles, which go the round of society upon the +strength of adventitious circumstances. He called me loudly. I put spurs +to my horse, while he, still galloping, ordered me to recite. I do not +think a sonnet was ever declaimed in like manner since the creation of +the world. Galloping after the great man, and almost bursting my lungs +in the effort to make myself heard, with all the trills, gasps, +cadences, semitones, clippings of words, and dissonances, which the +movement of a horse at full speed could occasion, I recited the sonnet +in a storm of sobs and sighs, and blessed my stars when I had pumped +out the fourteenth line. Knowing the temper of the General, who was +haughty and formidable in matters of importance, but sometimes whimsical +in his diversions, I thought at the time that he must have been seeking +a motive for laughter. And indeed, I believe this was the case. Anyhow, +he can only have been deceived if he hoped to laugh more at the affair +than I did. Yet I was rather afraid of becoming a laughing-stock to my +riding-companions also. Foolish fear! These honest fellows, like true +courtiers, vied with each other in congratulating me upon the partiality +of his Excellency and the honour he had done me. They were even jealous +of a burlesque scene in which I played the buffoon, and sorry that they +had not enjoyed the luck of performing it themselves. + + + + +VIII. + + _Confirmation of a hint I gave in the Second Chapter of these + Memoirs relating to a great danger which I ran._ + + +I related in the second chapter of this book that I once owed my life to +a trick taught me by a jockey. The incident happened during one of our +cavalcades with the Provveditore Generale. + +At the hour appointed for riding out, all the officers of the Court sent +their saddles and bridles to the General's stables, and each of us +mounted the animal which happened to be harnessed with his own gear. Now +the Bashaw of Bosnia had presented the governor with a certain Turkish +stallion, finely made, but so vicious that no one liked to back the +brute. One day I noticed that the grooms had saddled this untamable Turk +for me. Who knows what motives determine the acts of stable-boys? I am +not accustomed to be easily dismayed; besides, I had ridden many +dangerous horses in my time, and this was not the minute to show the +white feather before a crowd of soldiers. I leapt upon the animal like +an antique paladin, without looking to see whether the bit and trappings +were in order. Our troops started; but my Bucephalus reared, whirled +round in the air, and bolted toward his stable, which lay below the +ramparts. Pulling and working at the reins had no effect upon the brute; +and when I bent down to discover the cause, I found that the bit had not +been fastened, either through the negligence or the malice of the +grooms. + +Rushing at the mercy of this demon through the narrow streets and low +doors of the city, I began to reflect that I was not likely to reach the +stables with my head upon my shoulders. Then I remembered the jockey's +advice, and rising in my stirrups, leaned forwards, and stuck my fingers +into the two eyes of the stallion. Suddenly deprived of sight, and not +knowing whither he was going, he dashed furiously up against a wall, +and fell all of a heap beneath me. I leapt to earth with the agility of +a practised rider, and made the Turk get up; he was trembling like a +leaf, while I with shaky fingers fastened the bit firmly; then I mounted +again, and rejoined my company among the shouts of applause which always +greet dare-devil escapades of this kind. The middle finger of my left +hand had been flayed by striking against the wall. I still bear the scar +of this glorious wound. + + + + +IX. + + _Little incidents, trifling observations, moral reflections of no + value, gossip which is sure to make the reader yawn._ + + +Our forces had little to occupy them in those provinces, so that my +sonnet in praise of peace exactly fitted. Some interesting incidents, +and several journeys which I undertook, furnished me, however, with +abundant matter for reflection. I shall here indulge myself by setting +down a few observations which occur to my memory. + +The regular troops which garrison the fortresses of Dalmatia had been +recalled to Italy, in order to defend the neutrality of Venice during +the wars which then prevailed among her neighbours. In these +circumstances the Senate commissioned our Provveditore Generale to levy +new forces from the subject tribes, not only for maintaining the +military establishment of Dalmatia, but also for drafting a large number +of Morlacchi[121] into Italy. It was a matter of no difficulty to enrol +garrisons for the Illyrian fortresses; but the exportation of the +Morlacchi cost his Excellency the greatest trouble. These ruffianly wild +beasts, wholly destitute of education, are aware that they are subjects +of Venice; yet their firm resolve is to indulge lawless instincts for +robbery and murder as they list, refusing obedience in all things which +do not suit their inclinations. To reason with them is the same as +talking in a whisper to the deaf. They simply resisted the command to +form themselves into a troop and leave their lairs for Italy. + +Their chiefs, who were educated men, brave and loyal to their prince, +strained every nerve to carry out these orders. It was found needful to +recall the bandits, who swarm throughout those regions, outlawed for +every sort of crime--robberies, homicides, arson, and such-like acts of +heroism. Bribes too were offered of bounties and advanced pay, in order +to induce the wild and stubborn peasants to cross the seas. I was +present at the review of these Anthropophagi; for indeed they hardly +merited a more civilised title. It took place on the beach of Zara under +the eyes of the Provveditore, with ships under sail, ready for the +embarkation of the conscripts. Pair by pair, they came up and received +their stipend; upon which they expressed their joy by howling out some +barbarous chant, and dancing off together with uncouth gambols to the +transport ships. I revered God's handiwork in these savages while +deploring their bad education, and felt a passing wish to explore the +Eden of eternal beatitude in which the Morlacchi dwell. + +It is certain that the Italian cities under our benign government were +more disturbed than guarded by these brutal creatures. At Verona, in +particular, they indulged their appetite for thieving, murdering, +brawling, and defying discipline, without the least regard for orders. +At the close of a few months, they had to be sent back to their caves, +in order to deliver the Veneto from an unbearable incubus. Even at the +outset, their spirit of insubordination let itself be felt. Scarcely had +the transports sailed, when the sight of the Illyrian mountains made +them burn to leap on shore. The seamen did their best to restrain the +unruly crew; but finding that they ran a risk of being cut in pieces, +they finally unbarred the pens before this indomitable flock of rams. + +What I am now writing may seem to have little to do with the narrative +of my own life, and may look as though I wished to calumniate the +natives of Dalmatia. The rulers of those territories will, however, bear +me out in the following remarks. I have visited all the fortresses, +many districts, and many villages of the two provinces. In some of the +cities I found well-educated people, trustworthy, cordial, and liberal +in sentiment. In places far removed from the Provveditore Generale's +Court the manners of the population are incredibly rough. All the +peasants may be described as cruel, superstitious, and irrational wild +beasts. In their marriages, their funerals, their games, they preserve +the customs of pagan antiquity. Reading Homer and Virgil gives a perfect +conception of the Morlacchi. They hire a troop of women to lament over +their dead. These professional mourners shriek by turns, relieving one +another when voice and throat have been exhausted by dismal wailings +tuned to a music which inspires terror. One of their pastimes is to +balance a heavy piece of marble on the lifted palm of the right hand, +and hurl it after taking a running jump. The fellow who projects this +missile in a straight line to the greatest distance, wins. One is +reminded of the enormous boulders hurled by Diomede and Turnus. + +In their mountain homes the Morlacchi are fine fellows, useful to the +State of Venice on occasions of war with the Turks, their neighbours, +whom they cordially detest. The inhabitants of the coast make bold +seamen, apt for fighting on the waters. Toward Montenegro the tribes +become even more like savages. Families, who have been accustomed for +some generations to die peaceably in their beds or kennels, and cannot +boast of a fair number of murdered ancestors, are looked down upon by +the rest. On the beach outside the city walls of Budua, for which these +men and brothers leave their hills in summer-time to taste the coolness +of sea-breezes, I have witnessed their exploits with the musket and have +seen three corpses stretched upon the sands. A member of one of the +pacific families I have described, being taunted by some comrade, burned +to wipe out the shame of his kindred, and opened a glorious chapter in +their annals by slaughtering and being slaughtered. Fierce battles and +armed encounters between village and village are frequent enough in +those parts. The men of one village who kill a man of the next village, +have no peace unless they pay a hundred sequins or discharge their debt +by the death of one of their own folk. Such is the current tariff, fixed +without consulting their sovereign, among these people, who regard +brutality as justice. I learned much about these traits of human nature +from a village priest of Montenegro, who conversed with me nearly every +day upon the beach at Budua. He talked a strange Italian jargon, +narrated the homicides of his flock with complacency, and let it be +understood that a gun was better suited to his handling than the vessels +of the sanctuary. + +The thirst for vengeance is never slaked there. It passes from heir to +heir like an estate in tail. Among the Morlacchi, who are less +bloodthirsty than the Montenegrins, I once saw a woman of some fifty +years fling herself at the feet of the Provveditore Generale, extract a +mummied head from a game-bag, and cast it on the ground before him, +weeping as though her heart would burst, and calling aloud for pity and +justice. For thirty years she had preserved this skull, the skull of her +mother, who had been murdered. The assassins had long ago been brought +to justice, but their punishment was insufficient to lay the demon of +ferocity in this affectionate daughter. Accordingly, she presented +herself indefatigably through a course of thirty years before each of +the successive Provveditori Generali, with the same maternal skull in +her game-bag, with the same shrieks and tears and cries for justice. + +I liked seeing the Montenegrin women. They clothe themselves in black +woollen stuffs after a fashion which was certainly not invented by +coquetry. Their hair is parted, and falls over their cheeks on either +shoulder, thickly plastered with butter, so as to form a kind of large +shiny bonnet. They bear the burden of the hard work of the field and +household. The wives are little better than slaves of the men. They +kneel and kiss the men's hands whenever they meet; and yet they seem to +be contented with their lot. Perhaps it would not be amiss if some +Montenegrins came to Italy and changed our fashions with regard to +women; for ours are somewhat too marked in the contrary direction. + +Climate renders both the men and women of those provinces extremely +prone to sensuality. Legislators, recognising the impossibility of +controlling lawless lust here, have fixed the fine for seduction of a +girl with violence at a trifle above the sum which a libertine in Venice +bestows on the purveyor of his venal pleasures. At the period of my +residence in Dalmatia, the cities retained something of antique +austerity. This did not, however, prevent the fair sex from conducting +intrigues by stealth. It is possible that, since those days, enlightened +and philosophical Italians, composing the courts of successive +Provveditori Generali, may have removed the last obstacles of prejudice +which gave a spice of danger to love-making. + +In Dalmatia the women are handsome, inclining for the most part toward a +masculine robustness; among the Morlacchi of the villages, a Pygmalion +who chose to expend some bushels of sand in polishing the fair sex up, +would obtain fine breathing statues for his pains. These women of +Illyria are less constant in their love than those of Italy; but merit +less blame for their infidelity than the latter. The Illyrian is blinded +and constrained by her fervent temperament, by the climate, by poverty +and credulity; the Italian errs through ambition, avarice, and caprice. +I consider myself qualified for speaking with decision on these points, +as will appear from the chapter I intend to write upon the +love-adventures of my youth. + +The land of those provinces is in great measure mountainous, stony, and +barren. There are, however, large districts of plain which might be +extremely fertile. Neither the sterile nor the fertile regions are under +cultivation, but remain for the most part fallow and unfruitful. Onions +and garlic constitute the favourite delicacies of the Morlacchi. The +annual consumption of these vegetables is enormous; and it would not be +difficult to raise a large supply of both at home. They insist, however, +on importing them from Romagna; and when one takes the peasants to task +for this sluggish indifference to their own interests, they reply that +their ancestors never planted onions, and that they have no mind to +change their customs. I often questioned educated inhabitants of those +regions upon the indolence and sloth which prevail in rural Dalmatia. +The answer I received was that nobody, without exposing his life to +peril, could make the Morlacchi do more than they chose to do, or +introduce the least reform into their agriculture. I observed that the +proprietors might always import Italian labour and turn those fertile +plains into a second Apulia. This remark was met with bursts of +laughter; and when I asked the reason, my informants told me that many +Dalmatian gentlemen had brought Italian peasants over, but that a few +days after their arrival, they were found murdered in the fields, +without the assassins having ever been detected. I perceived that my +project was impracticable. Yet I wondered at my friends laughing rather +than shedding tears, when they gave me these convincing answers. + +It is a pity that Illyria and Dalmatia cannot be rendered fertile and +profitable to the State. As it is, they cost our treasury more than they +yield, through the expenses incidental to their forming our frontier +against Turkey. But I never made it my business to meddle in affairs of +public policy; and perhaps there are good reasons why these provinces +should be left to their sterility. The opinion I have continually +maintained and published, that we ought to begin by cultivating heads +and hearts, has raised a swarm of hostile projectors against me. Such +men take the truths of the gospel for biting satires, if they detect the +least shadow of opposition to their views regarding personal interest, +personal ambition, or particular prejudice. Yet the real miseries which +I noticed in Dalmatia, the wretched pittance which proprietors draw from +their estates, and the dishonesty of the peasants, suffice to +demonstrate my principles of moral education beyond the possibility of +contradiction. + +During my three years in Dalmatia I used to eat superb game and +magnificent fish for a mere nothing; often against my inclination, and +only because the opportunity could not be neglected. When you are in +want of something, you rarely find it there. The fishermen, who live +upon the rocky islands,[122] ply their trade when it pleases them. They +take no thought for fasts, and sell fish for the most part on days when +flesh is eaten. The fish too is brought to market stuffed into sacks. I +could multiply these observations; but let what I have already said +suffice. It is my firm opinion that the economists of our century are at +fault when they propose material improvements and indulge in visions of +opulence and gain, without considering moral education. Wealth is now +regarded by the indigent with eyes of envy and the passions of a pirate; +rich people act as though they knew not what it was to possess wealth, +and make a shameless abuse of it in practice. The one class need to +learn temperance, moderation, and obedience to duty; the other ought to +be trained to reason and subordination. The sages of the present day +entertain very different views from these. In their eyes nothing but +material interest has any value; and instead of deploring bad morals and +manners, they seem to glory in them. + + + + +X. + + _I am enrolled in the Cavalry of the Republic.--What my military + services amounted to._ + + +Some fifteen months of my three years' service had elapsed, when the +recall of our regular troops and the enrolment of fresh forces in +Dalmatia, which have been described by me above, took place. I have now +to mention that the Provveditore Generale chose this moment for placing +me upon the roll of the Venetian service. + +He had me inscribed as a cadet noble[123] of cavalry. Accordingly I +blossomed out into a proper soldier at the age of about eighteen. Signor +Giorgio Barbarigo, the paymaster,[124] a short, fat, honest fellow, +informed me that my commission was registered, and that I was qualified +to draw the salary of thirty-eight lire in good Venetian coin monthly at +his office. The news surprised me, and I went at once to pay my +acknowledgments to his Excellency. + +He told me that, nearly all the regular troops having been recalled to +Italy, he saw no prospect of awarding me a higher rank during the term +of his administration, a considerable part of which had already +elapsed. To this he added some ironical remarks to the following +effect--"Although, indeed, I do not think you mean to follow a military +career, having observed from many points in your behaviour that you are +rather inclined to assume the clerical habit." I chose to interpret the +irony of my chief to my advantage, and answered cheerfully that although +I felt little inclination for the military profession, nothing would +ever induce me to become an ecclesiastic; meanwhile I was glad to have +studied human nature as one finds it in an army and in those provinces; +above all things, I recognised the advantage of having been allowed to +serve his Excellency during the three years of his office. I perceived +that this reply had not been unacceptable, and retired after making the +regulation bow. + +I discharged my military duties with punctuality; and if my courage had +been put to the test, I feel sure that I should have faced death with +romantic enthusiasm. Yet I cannot boast of having earned my monthly pay +by any particular services. In addition to the daily and nightly routine +of discipline, I attended his Excellency upon visits of inspection by +sea and land to the various fortified places of the territory. When the +plague broke out, I spoiled my shirts and ruffles in fumigating the mass +of correspondence which used to reach the Provveditore Generale from +infected villages. I delivered sentences of arrest by word of mouth to +Venetian patricians, noblemen, and officers--always much against the +grain. I lay, together with several of my comrades, under arrest on a +false charge of malpractice, and owed my liberation after a few hours to +the intercession of a gentle lady of the Veniero family. While +enumerating these martial deserts, I ought not perhaps to include the +sufferings endured upon my journeys, whether riding the worst of nags +under a fierce sun and sleeping in jackboots upon the open fields, or +rocking at sea all night aboard some galley on a coil of cable, half +devoured by myriads of bugs. Great as these sufferings were, I must +admit that I endured greater in the disorderly garrison amusements which +I joined of my own accord. Some account of these I intend to give in +another chapter. + +It will be observed that my services to the State were but slender. Yet +many men have gained promotion or a pension on the strength of nothing +better. And now I think upon it, I will mention one notable achievement, +which, though it be not martial, might have put some other soldier +laddie in the way of rising to his colonelcy. I hardly expect to be +believed, but I am telling the truth, when I affirm that I acquired +renown throughout Dalmatia as a _soubrette_ in improvised comedy upon +the boards of a theatre. + + + + +XI. + + _My theatrical talents; athletic exercises; imprudences of all + kinds; dangers to which I exposed myself; with reflections which + are always frivolous._ + + +All through the carnival, tragedies, dramas and comedies used to be +performed by amateurs in the Court-theatre, for the amusement of his +Excellency, the patricians on the civil staff, officers of the garrison, +and the good folk of Zara.[125] + +Our troop was composed exclusively of male actors, as is the case in +general with unprofessional theatres; and young men, dressed like women, +played the female parts. I was selected to represent the _soubrette_. + +On weighing the tastes of my audience, and taking into account the +nation for whom I was to act, I invented a wholly new kind of character. +I had myself dressed like a Dalmatian servant-girl, with hair divided at +the temples, and done up with rose-coloured ribbands. My costume +corresponded at all points to that of a coquettish housemaid of +Sebenico. I discarded the Tuscan dialect, which is spoken by the +_soubrettes_ of our theatres in Italy, and having learned Illyrian +pretty well by this time, I devised for my particular use a jargon of +Venetian, altering the pronunciation and interspersing various Illyrian +phrases. This produced a very humorous effect, and lent itself both in +dialogue and improvised soliloquies to the expression of sentiments in +keeping with my part. Courage and loquacity were always at my service; +after studying the plot of a comedy, which had to be performed +extempore, I never found my readiness of wit at fault. Accordingly, the +new and unexpected type of the _soubrette_ which I invented was welcomed +with enthusiasm alike by Italians and natives. It created a _furore_ in +my audience, and won for me universal sympathy. + +My sketches of Dalmatian manners studied from the life, my satirical +repartees to the mistresses I served, my piquant sallies upon incidents +which formed the talk of town and garrison, my ostentatious modesty, my +snubs to impertinent admirers, my reflections and my lamentations, made +the Provveditore Generale and the whole audience declare with tears of +laughter running down their cheeks that I was the wittiest and most +humourous _soubrette_ who ever trod the boards of a theatre. They often +bespoke improvised comedies, in order to enjoy the amusing chatter and +Illyrico-Italian jargon of Luce; for I ought to add that I adopted this +name, which is the same as our Lucia, instead of Smeraldina, Corallina, +or Colombina. + +Ladies in plenty were eager to know the young man who played Luce with +such diablerie and ready wit upon the stage. But when they met him face +to face in society, his reserve and taciturnity were so unlike the +sprightliness of his assumed character, that they fairly lost their +temper. Now that I am well stricken in years, I recognise that their +disappointment was anything but a misfortune for me. The conduct of +those few who concealed their feelings and pretended that my +self-control and seriousness had charms to win their heart, justifies +this moral reflection. Meanwhile my talent for comedy relieved me of all +military duties so long as carnival lasted. Each year, at the +commencement of this season, the Provveditore Generale sent for me, and +affably requested me to devote my time and energy to his amusement in +the Court-theatre. + +During summer he set the fashion of pallone-playing, which had hitherto +been unknown at Zara.[126] I had made myself an adept in this game at +our Friulian country-seat. Accordingly his Excellency urged me to +display my accomplishments for the entertainment of the public. In a +short time my seductive costume of fine white linen, with a waistband of +black satin and fluttering ribands, cut a prominent figure among the +competitors in this noble sport. My turn for study, literary talent, +grave demeanour, and seriousness of character made far less impression +on the fair sex than my successes on the stage and the pallone-ground. +It was these and these alone which put my chastity to the test and +conquered it, as will appear in the chapter on my love-adventures. I +might here indulge in a digression hardly flattering to women. But I +prefer to congratulate them on their emancipation from the ideality of +Petrarch's age. Now they are at liberty to float voluptuously on the +tide of tender and electrical emotions, in company with youths congenial +to their instincts, who have abandoned tedious studies for occupations +hardly more exacting than a game at ball or the impersonation of a +waiting-maid. + +The truth of history compels me to touch upon some incidents which put +my boyish courage to the proof; yet I must confess that my deeds of +daring in Dalmatia were nothing better than mad and brainless acts of +folly. While recording them, I dare hardly hope--although I should +sincerely like to do so--that they will prove useful to parents by +exposing the kind of life which young men lead on foreign service, or to +sons by pointing out the errors of my ways. + +We had no war on hand, and our valour was obliged to find a vent for +itself. I should have passed for a poltroon if I had not joined the +amusements and adventures of my comrades. These consisted for the most +part in frantic gambling, serenading houses which returned our serenades +with gunshots, entertaining women of the town at balls and +supper-parties, brawling in the streets at night, disguising ourselves +to frighten people, and breaking the slumbers of the good folk of the +towns and fortresses where the Court happened to be fixed. I remember +that one summer night in the city of Spalato, eight or ten of us dressed +up for the latter purpose. Each man put on a couple of shirts, thrusting +his legs through the sleeves of one and his arms through the other, with +a big white bonnet on his head and a pole in his hand. Thus attired, we +scoured the town like spectres from the other world, knocking at doors, +uttering horrid shrieks to rouse the population, and striking terror +into the breasts of women and children. Now it is the custom there to +leave the stable-doors open, because of the great heat at night. +Accordingly we undid the halters of some fifty horses, and drove them +before us, clattering our staves upon the pavement. The din was +infernal. Folk leaped from their beds, thinking that the Turks had made +a raid upon the town, and crying from their windows: "Who the devil are +you? Who goes there? Who goes there?" They screamed to the deaf, while +we went clattering and driving on. In the morning the whole city was in +an uproar, discussing last night's prodigy and skurrying about to catch +the frightened animals. + +My guitar-playing accomplishments made me indispensable in these +dare-devil escapades of hair-brained boys, which by some miracle never +seemed to reach the Provveditore Generale's ears. Had they done so, I +suppose they would have been punished, as they deserved; for he was a +man who knew how to maintain discipline. The Italians and Illyrians do +not dwell together without a certain half-concealed antipathy. This +leads to frequent trials of strength and valour, in which the Italians +are most to blame. They insult the natives and pick quarrels with a +people famous for their daring and ferocity. The courage displayed in +maintaining these quarrels and facing their attendant dangers deserves +the name of folly rather than of bravery. After stating this truth, to +which indeed I was never blind, I dare affirm that no one met +musket-shots and menaces with a bolder front than I did. Physicians +versed in the anatomy of the human frame may be able to explain my +constitutional imperturbability under all circumstances of peril. I am +content to account for it as sheer stupidity. + +We were at Budua, toward Montenegro, my friend Massimo and I. In this +city women are guarded with a watchful jealousy of which Italians have +no notion; while homicides occur with facility and frequency. Massimo +began a gallant correspondence from the window of our lodging with a +girl who was our neighbour. She belonged to one of the noblest families +of the place, and was engaged to a gentleman of the city. Nevertheless, +she returned my friend's advances with the eagerness of one who has been +kept in slavery. I must add that the future bridegroom obtained some +inkling of this aerial intrigue. He was a rough Illyrian of no breeding. +One morning this fellow opened conversation with us officers in a little +square, where we were seated together on stone benches. With much +circumlocution and a kind of awkward sprightliness, addressing himself +to Massimo, and smiling half-sourly and half-sillily, he expressed his +own stupid contempt for Italian customs with regard to women. The long +and the short of this involved discourse was simply that all the men in +Italy were cuckolds, and all the women no better than they should be. +Massimo took care not to emphasise the meaning of the fellow's +innuendoes, which would have called for blood and vengeance; but +contented himself with bluntly defending our social institutions. In the +course of his argument he proved that the barbarity and tyranny of men +toward women, who are always sharp of wit and full of cleverness in +every climate, caused more of immorality and intrigue in Illyria than +freedom of intercourse between the sexes caused in Italy. To my mind, +he spoke what was partly true and partly false; for it cannot be +maintained that the facilitation and toleration of licentiousness remove +it from our midst. The Illyrian, however, lacked eloquence, and felt ill +at ease in carrying on a wordy warfare. So he did not attempt to confute +Massimo; but rolled his head and knit his brows, and told him that he +might soon be taught at his own cost how badly the Italians conduct +themselves in this respect. + +Nothing more was wanted in the way of challenge to set us Italians on +our mettle. A trifle of this sort turned us at once into knights-errant, +championing our nation's cause among half-savages, who murder men with +the same indifference as they kill quails or fig-peckers. Massimo turned +to me and said that, when night fell, I must take my guitar and follow +him. Obeying the rash romantic impulse of my heart, I replied that +nothing should prevent me from attending on him. The other Italians who +were present at this interview, with more prudence than ourselves, +affected to hear nothing. + +It happened that a young Florentine named Steffano Torri was at this +time clerk in the secretary's office of the Generalato. He played female +parts in our comedies and tragedies with much ability, and sang like a +nightingale. In order to give our nocturnal enterprise the character of +a serenade--a thing quite alien to the customs of that district--Massimo +invited this poor lad to warble, without informing him of what, had +happened. He was only too glad to let his fine voice be heard; and being +besides an obliging creature, he gave his promise on the spot. + +[Illustration: IL CAPITANO (1668) + +_Illustrating the Italian Commedia dell'Arte, or Impromptu Comedy._] + +Night came. It was September; the season warm, and the moon shining +brightly. We girt our swords, stuck a brace of pistols in our belts, and +took up our station in the principal street, which was long and +straight, beneath the windows of Massimo's Dulcinea. Torri sent melody +after melody forth into the silent air, while I twanged my +guitar-strings for a good hour's space. Suddenly a window, belonging to +the mansion we were honouring with our duet, flew violently open. A +great black head appeared, from which there issued a hoarse voice like +that of Charon in Dante's Inferno. "What insolence!" it uttered with a +bad Italian accent. We knew that the huge skull was consecrate, and +belonged to a certain Canon, uncle of the girl. But something more was +needed than the big bovine voice of an ecclesiastic to disturb our +tranquillity. Torri, however, being a civilian and no soldier, began to +be aware that his melodious airs were out of place. The prudence which +is born of fear made him reflect upon the situation, and he asked leave +to retire. We persuaded him to stay awhile, pointing out that the street +was public, that our amusement was lawful and innocuous, and that it +conferred an honour on our nation. He resumed his singing; but from this +moment the melodies had a certain quaver in them, which the composer had +not calculated. The first assault by the Canon was sustained and +repulsed; for after roaring out "What insolence!" three or four times, +he shut the window in our faces with a crash. + +The second attack upon our obstinacy was something very different and +far more formidable than a priest's voice, however horrible. It +effectually shut the mouth up of our young musician. By the light of the +moon we could discern six men at a distance entering the street with six +lowered and gleaming muskets; the cowls of their cloaks concealed their +faces, and they advanced at a slow pace toward us. At this apparition +our musician took to his heels, and did not stop running till he reached +his lodging. Massimo and I stood our ground like Orlando and Rodomonte. +I went on playing; my friend, to keep the singing up, howled out some +rustic ditties in a bold voice, which was however, I am bound to say, +even less agreeable than the Canon's. His discords were enough to cast +eternal shame upon Italian music; and if the young lady heard them, they +must have frightened her out of her wits instead of giving her the +pleasure of a serenade. + +Observing our determination to stand firm, the six cowled men advanced +to within twenty paces. We heard the click of their six gunlocks, as +they cocked them, ready to give fire. At this point our intrepidity +deserved no other name than madness; it called for the lancet, +hellebore, strait-jackets, a good drubbing. Without budging an inch, we +raised our pistols at the muffled band. They looked at us, we looked at +them, for good two minutes. Then they made their minds up to defile +past, leaving us at a little distance, but always keeping their eyes +fixed with a haughty defiance on our faces. We, on our part, made our +minds up to let them pass, returning no less haughty glances. Perhaps +they wished to give us time for repentance, or for wholesome +reflections, which should make us quit our post. Anyhow, they moved +onward till they reached the end of the street, when once again they +turned and faced us. + +Little did those cowled and mantled fellows know the length and breadth +of our stupidity! We recommenced our duet with a more hideous din than +ever. They retraced their steps, and advanced steadily toward us. But +when they found the pair of little fighting-cocks still standing with +raised pistols on the watch, they judged it wiser to pursue their course +and disappear. The removal of the Court from Budua, which took place one +day after this memorable exploit, probably saved us from being shot down +by an ambuscade. I also imagine that the men only wished to frighten us +away. Possibly our expected departure from the city, or else respect for +our staff-uniform, restrained their fingers on the trigger. Such +considerations had certainly more weight with those fierce natives than +the insane bravado of two insects armed with pistols. Anyhow, I have +always regarded our courage in this danger as fool-hardiness rather than +magnanimity. + +I could relate an infinity of such adventures, in all of which we risked +our lives on some puerile point of honour, or in pursuit of some +impertinence which called for castigation. One night at Spalato our +serenading party was welcomed with a storm of heavy stones, which made +us skip like kids, but could not drive us from our post. We were paying +this compliment to a handsome girl of Ragusa, the mistress of one of the +chief nobles of the city, and we maintained our station for the honour +of Italy, with skulls unbroken, till the day rose. + +In the society of unemployed and lazy officers, a young man may be said +to have worked miracles who preserves the good principles implanted in +him at home. Unless he conforms to the tone and fashion of his comrades, +he is sure to be derided and despised. If he does conform, he is likely +to lose substance, health and reputation at cards, with women, or by +drinking. Besides this, he constantly risks life and limb in the +so-called pastimes I have just described. + +I am able to boast without exaggeration that I never played for high +stakes, that I never surrendered myself to debauchery, that I preserved +the sound principles of my home education, and yet that I was popular +with all my comrades, owing to the clubbable and fraternal attitude +which I assumed at some risk, it is true, yet always with the firm +determination to leave a good character behind me when my term of +service ended. + + + + +XII. + + _Shows how a young Cadet of Cavalry is capable of executing a + military stratagem._ + + +Having described the dangers to which my system of conduct in the army +exposed me, I ought in justice to myself to show that I was able on +occasion to reconcile our absurd code of honour with prudence and +diplomacy. With this object I will relate an incident, which is neither +more nor less insignificant than the other events of my life. + +The city of Zara is traversed by a main street of considerable length, +extending from the piazza of San Simeone to the gate called Porta +Marina. Several lanes and alleys, leading downwards from the ramparts on +the side toward the sea, debouch into this principal artery. It so +happened that some of the officers, wishing to traverse one of these +lanes on their way to the promenade upon the ramparts, had been +intercepted by a man muffled in a mantle, who levelled an eloquent +enormous blunderbuss at their persons, and forced them to change their +route. This act of violence ought to have been reported to the +Provveditore Generale, and he would have speedily restored order and +freedom of passage. Our military code of honour, however, forbade +recourse to justice as an act of cowardice; albeit some of my comrades +found it not derogatory to their courage to recoil before a blunderbuss. + +My readers ought to be informed that a girl of the people, called +Tonina, one of the loveliest women whom eyes of man have ever seen, +lived in this lane. She had multitudes of admirers; and the cozening +tricks she used to wheedle and entice a pack of simpletons, made her no +better than any other cheap and venal beauty. Yet she contrived to sell +her favours by the sequin. A gentleman, whom I shall mention lower down, +was madly in love with this little baggage. Wishing to keep the treasure +to himself, he adopted a truly Dalmatian mode of testifying his +devotion, and stood sentinel in her alley. On two consecutive evenings +the passage was barred; we talked of nothing else in the ante-chamber of +the General, and laid plans how to reassert our honour. A number of +officers agreed to face the blunderbuss; I received an invitation to +join the band; and acting on my system of good-fellowship, I readily +consented. + +Our discussion took place in the ante-chamber; silence was enjoined; we +settled that each of the conspirators should wear a white ribband on his +hat, and that three hours after nightfall we should assemble under arms +at our accustomed mustering-place. This was a billiard-saloon, whence +we were to sally forth to the assault of Budua. + +An Illyrian nobleman, Signor Simeone C----, of handsome person, +honourable carriage, and a resolute temper, which inspired even soldiers +with respect, although he held no military grade, was sitting in a +corner of the ante-chamber, half-asleep, and apparently inattentive to +our project. I knew him to be frank and genial, and he had often +professed sentiments of sincere friendship for myself. After our scheme +had been concerted, I passed into the reception-room of the palace. He +followed, and opened a conversation on indifferent topics, in the course +of which he drew me aside, changed his tone, and began to speak as +follows:-- + +"The moment has arrived for me to testify the cordial friendship which I +entertain for you. I regret that you have promised to join those +fire-eaters this evening. On your honour and secrecy I know that I can +count. I am sure that you will not reveal what I am about to disclose; +else the higher powers, whom we are bound to regard, might be involved, +and cowardice might be suspected in those whose courage is indisputable. +This preamble will enable you to judge what I think of you, and to +measure the extent of my friendship. I am the man in the mask. To-night +there will be four blunderbusses in the alley. I shall lose my life; but +several will lose theirs before the lane is forced. I am sorry that you +are in the affair. Contrive to get out of your engagement. Let the rest +come, and enjoy their fill of pastime at the cost of life or limb." + +This blunderbuss of an oration took me by surprise. But I did not lose +my senses or my tongue, and answered to the following effect:-- + +"I am amazed that you should have begun by professing friendship and +preaching caution. You do not seem to understand the first elements of +the one or the simple meaning of the other. I am obliged to you for one +thing only, your belief that I am incapable of divulging what you have +just told me. Upon this point alone your discernment is not at fault. I +would rather die than expose you. Yet you want me, under threats, to +break my word, and to render myself contemptible in the eyes of all my +comrades. This you call a proof of friendship. It is as clear as day, +too, that you have yielded to a hussy's importunities, risking your own +life and the lives of your friends upon a silly point of honour in a +shameful quarrel. This is the proof of your prudence. If you withdraw +from the engagement, no harm will be done, and cowardice will only be +imputed to a nameless mask. But if I break my word, you cannot free me +from the imputation of having proved myself a renegade and a dastard. I +shall become an object of scorn and abhorrence to the whole army. If I +act as you desire, my oath of secrecy to you will violate the laws of +friendship, prudence, everything which men hold sacred. Your promise of +secrecy again puts my honour in peril. How can you be sure that one of +your accomplices will not privily inform his Excellency of your name and +your mad enterprise? Where shall I then be? No: it is clearly your duty +to obey the counsels dictated by my loyal friendship and my sound +prudence. Leave the alley open; and then you will in truth oblige me. +Make love to your Tonina with something more to the purpose than a +blunderbuss. Her physical shape excuses your weakness for her; her mind +deserves your scorn; but I am not going to preach sermons on objects +worthy or unworthy of love; I feel compassion for human frailty." + +It was obvious that Signor Simeone C---- felt the force of these +arguments. But he writhed with rage under them, and showed no sign of +consenting. In his fierce Dalmatian way he burst into bare +protestations, swore that he would never quit the field, and wound up +with a vow to sell his life as dearly as man ever did. + +At this point I judged it needful to administer a dose of histrionic +artifice. After gazing at him for some seconds with eyes which spoke +volumes, I assumed the declamatory tone of a tragedian, and exclaimed: +"Well then, I promise to be the first to enter the lane this evening, +and, without attacking you, I shall offer my breast to your fire. I have +only this way left of proving to you that you are in no real sense of +the word my friend." Then I turned my back with a show of passion, +taking care, however, to retire at a slow pace. Except for the ferocity +instilled by education, he was at bottom an excellent good-hearted +fellow. Seizing me by the arm, he begged me wait a moment. I saw that he +was touched, and maintaining the tragic tone, I persuaded him to leave +the access to the alley free, without resigning his exclusive right to +the Tonina. For my part, I undertook never to reveal our secret. This +promise I have kept for thirty-five years. Lapse of time and the +probability of his decease--for he was much older than I--excuse me for +now breaking it. + +On three following nights I joined the allied forces at the +billiard-room, armed to the teeth, and with a white ribbon flying from +my hat-band. I was always the first to brave the blunderbusses, being +sure that no resistance would be offered. Indeed, the victory, on which +we piqued ourselves, had been won beforehand in my battle of words. The +culpable conduct of Tonina, a girl of the people, who had exposed so +many gentlemen to serious danger, remained fixed in my mind. I shall +relate the sequel to this incident, which took a comic turn, in the next +chapter. For the present, it is enough to add that Signer Simeone C----'s +infatuation for this corsair of Venus rapidly declined, as is the wont +of passions begotten by masculine appetite and feminine avarice. +Tonina, however, did not lack lovers, and the badness of her nature +continued to spread discord and foment disorder in our circle. + + + + +XIII. + + _The fair Tonina is rudely rebuked by me upon an accidental + occasion in the theatre.--My reconciliation with the young + woman.--Reflections on my life in Dalmatia._ + + +One evening during the last carnival of my three years' service, the +Provveditore Generale bespoke an improvised comedy at the Court-theatre. +The officers arranged a supper-party and a ball in private rooms, +intending to pass the night gaily when the farce was over. I had to play +the part of Luce, married to Pantalone, a vicious old man, broken in +health and fortune. I was reduced to extreme poverty, with a daughter in +the cradle, the fruit of my unhappy marriage. + +There was a night-scene, in which I had to soliloquise, while rocking my +child and singing it to sleep with some old ditty. This lullaby I +interrupted from time to time with the narrative of my misfortunes and +with sallies which made the audience die of laughter. Bursts of applause +brought the house down as I told my story, enlarged upon my reasons for +marrying an old man, related the incidents of my life, alluded in +modest monosyllables to what I had to bear, described what a fine figure +of a woman I had been, and what a scarecrow matrimony had made me. I +complained of cold, hunger, evil treatment. I did not make milk enough +to suckle my baby; and what I made was sour, nay, venomous from fits of +rage and all the sufferings I had to go through. This bad milk gave my +darling, the fruit of my womb, the stomach-ache. It kept bleating all +night like a lamb, and would not let me close an eye. The night was far +advanced. I was waiting for my old fool of a husband. What could be +keeping him abroad? He must surely be in the Calle del Pozzetto, +notorious at Zara for its evil fame. I had a presentiment of coming +troubles, moralised upon the woes of life, and burst into a flood of +tears, which made everybody laugh. The truth was that one of our +officers, Signor Antonio Zeno, who played the part of Pantalone +excellently, had not turned up at the proper time to enter into dialogue +with me. Until he arrived, I was forced to continue my soliloquy, which +had already occupied the attention of the audience full fifteen minutes. +A good extempore actor ought never to lose presence of mind, or to be at +a loss for material. In order to prolong the scene, I pretended that my +baby was crying, and that it would not go to sleep for all my lullabies +and cradle-rocking. In a fit of impatience I took it up, unlaced my +dress, and laid it with endearing caresses to my breasts to quiet it. +This fresh absurdity, together with my lamentations over the +non-existent teats I said the greedy little thing was biting, kept my +audience in good-humour. From time to time I turned my eyes to the +sides, being really disturbed at Signor Zeno-Pantalone's non-appearance, +and racking my brains in vain for some new matter to sustain the +soliloquy. + +Just then I happened to catch sight of Tonina seated in one of the front +boxes of the theatre, resplendent with beauty, and attired in a gala +dress which cast a glaring light upon her dubious career. She was +laughing with more assurance and sense of fun than anybody at my jokes. +The catastrophe which she had nearly caused flashed suddenly across my +mind. I felt that I had discovered a treasure; and plunged like +lightning into a new subject. What I proceeded to do was bold, I admit, +yet quite within the limits of good taste upon our amateur stage, where +personal allusions were allowed perhaps a little too liberally. I called +my doll-baby by the name of Tonina, and addressed my speech to it. I +caressed it, admired its features, flattered my maternal heart with the +hope that Tonina would grow up a lovely girl. So far as I was concerned. +I vowed to give her a good education, by example, precepts, +chastisement, and watchful care. Then, taking a tone of gravity, I +warned her that if, in spite of all my trouble, she fell into such and +such faults, such and such acts of imprudence, such and such immoral +ways, and caused such and such disturbances, she would be the worst +Tonina in the world, and I prayed God to cut her days short rather in +the cradle. All the evil things I mentioned were faithfully copied from +anecdotes about Tonina in the front box, with which my audience were +only too well acquainted. + +Never in my whole life have I known an improvised soliloquy to be so +tumultuously applauded as this of mine was. The spectators at one point +of the speech turned their faces with a simultaneous movement towards +Tonina in her gala dress, clapping their hands and laughing till the +theatre rang again. His Excellency, who had some inkling of the siren's +ways, honoured my unexpected satire with explosions of unconcealed +merriment. Tonina backed out of her box in a fit of fury, and escaped +from the theatre, cursing my soliloquy and the man who made it. +Pantalone finally arrived, and the comedy ended without any episode more +mirthful than the scene between me and my baby. + +Do not imagine that I have related this incident to brag about it. +Although the young woman in question was a girl of the people, whose +dissolute behaviour and ill-nature had been the cause of many +misadventures, and though the Provveditore Generale applauded my +performance, I blamed myself, when it was over, for yielding to a mere +impulse of vanity, and exhibiting my power as a comedian at the cost of +committing an act of imprudence and indiscretion. Much has to be +condoned to youth which is never conceded to maturity. + +I have mentioned that a ball and supper-party had been arranged by us +officers after the play, and that I was a member of the company. I went +in my costume of Luce, partly to save time, and partly to carry on the +joke. Tonina was among the guests. She did not expect me, and was +sitting in a corner, angry and out of spirits. When she saw me, one +would have thought she had set eyes on the fiend; she looked as though +she meant to leave the room. I took her hand, and protested I would +rather go than that the company should lose its loveliest ornament. I +vowed that she was adorably beautiful, and that it was a pity she was +not equally good. I begged her in gentle terms to take the accident of +the evening into account, to reflect upon the universal verdict given by +the audience on her ways of life, and to guard against the private +flatterers who blinded her to the truth. I told her that God had meant +to send in her an angel, and not a devil into this world. I interwove so +many praises with so many insolences, and with such complete frankness, +that she could not but laugh. Everybody laughed, down to her very +lovers. She expressed a wish to dance with me. I accepted the +invitation. This looked like a token of peace; but it was only +treachery. While dancing, she exerted all the charms, enticements, +captivating humours, pressures of the hand, and so forth, which her bad +vindictive and seductive nature could suggest to enslave me. + +A woman's coquetries directed to some purpose of revenge are always +blind, and give the best advantage to a clever roue. The reason is that +the woman, piqued to the point of seeking a victory at any price, lowers +herself to the utmost, without being aware of what she is conceding. I +was not a roue; and woe to me if I had let myself be snared by the wiles +and artifices of that viper smarting under the sense of recent insult! + +Our pleasure party was resumed soon after supper, during which my fair +foe kept me at her side. We broke up about sunrise; and Tonina never +ceased to call me her accursed little devil; that was the sweet +Dalmatian term of endearment which she used. Compelled by these +compliments, I promised to pay her a visit, but I did not keep my word. + +I have now given some general notion of my ways of thinking and acting, +my character and conduct, up to the age of eighteen on to twenty. +Nothing but the truth has dictated these reminiscences, from which I +have undoubtedly omitted many things of similar importance. I am sure +that if I had been guilty of anything really wrong during this period, +it would not have escaped either my memory or my pen. I have never +hardened my heart against the stings of remorse, and I would far rather +frankly record facts to my discredit than bear the stings of conscience +by suppressing what is true. Reviewing the veracious picture of myself +which I have painted, friends will see in me a somewhat eccentric young +man, but of harmless disposition; enemies will take me for a worthless +scapegrace; the indifferent, who know me superficially by sight, will +discover some one very different from their conception based on my +external qualities. At the proper place and time I shall account for +this not unreasonable and yet fallacious conception formed of me by +strangers. The reasons will appear clearly in the detailed portrait I +intend to execute of myself, and which will surpass the best work of any +painter. + + + + +XIV. + + _The end of my three years' service.--I cast up my accounts, and + reckon debts; calculate upon the future, with a sad prevision of + the truth.--My arrival in my home at Venice._ + + +The three years of my military service were nearly at an end, when I +contracted a slow fever, not dangerous to life, but tedious. The time +had come for settling accounts, and seeing how I stood. My family, since +I left home, had furnished me with only two bills of exchange, one for +fourteen, the other for six sequins. My useless duties to the State had +brought me thirty-eight lire per month. Against these receipts I +balanced my expenses: so much for my daily food; so much for my lodging, +clothing, and washing; so much for a servant, indispensable in my +position; so much for two illnesses, together with the small sums spent +on unavoidable pleasures of society. The result was that I found myself +in debt to my friend Massimo for exactly the sum of fifty-six sequins +and sixteen lire, or 200 ducats.[127] + +If the necessities of life are not to be considered vices, this debt was +certainly a modest one. Still it weighed upon my mind. I consoled myself +by recalling my friend's nobleness of nature, and felt sure that I +should be able to repay him on reaching home. I computed that the gross +sum I had received during those three years amounted to 480 ducats; and +I did not think I had been a spendthrift in consuming about 150 ducats a +year on my total expenditure. I could indeed have saved something by +attending the table which the Provveditore Generale kept daily for the +officers of his Court and guard, but which his sublime Excellency never +honoured with his presence. Little did he know what a gang of ruffians, +with the exception of a few patient souls constrained by urgent need, +defiled his table, or what low tricks were perpetrated at it. Since the +day of my arrival I had heard the infamous and compromising talk which +went on there, had watched the squabbles between guest and guest, and +guests and serving-men, had seen the cups and platters flying through +the air--and, like a naughty boy perhaps, I preferred to contract a debt +of 200 ducats rather than accept a hospitality so prostituted to vile +uses. I attended this table of Thyestes, as it seemed to me, only when I +could not help it, on the days when I had to mount guard. + +The financial statement I have just made will appear to many of my +readers a mere trifle, unworthy of recording here. They are mistaken. +When they have learned in what a state of desolation I found my father's +house, and how I strove to stem the tide of prodigality and waste which +was bringing our family to ruin, they will understand my reasons for +insisting on these trifles. Heads heated by anger and resentment are +only too ready to invent false accusations; and I shall soon be made to +appear a prodigal, a reckless gambler, a consumer of the substance of my +family during the three years I spent abroad. This is why I am so +scrupulous in telling the plain truth about my cost of living in +Dalmatia. I have never been ashamed of letting the whole world know how +modest are my fortunes. I should think it a greater shame to pretend to +possess more than I really own. Riches have always seemed to me to be a +name, and to reside in the imagination. If I cast my eyes on a +carpenter, then raise them to a duke, and finally lift them to a king, I +obtain convincing demonstration of the fact that he alone is rich who +has the mental wealth--to be contented with his lot. Alas! that only I +and many millions upon their deathbed recognise this truth. + +My three years were over. The new Provveditore Generale, Jacopo Boldu, +arrived in Dalmatia, and received the staff of office with the usual +formalities from his Excellency Quirini. In my moments of leisure I had +composed several poems in honour of the latter, and had procured others +from Venice. These I copied out in the beautiful handwriting which I +then possessed, sewed them together, added a respectful dedication, and +had them bound in a fine velvet cover. Then I paid my respects to his +Excellency in company with my friend Massimo, and laid my literary +tribute at his feet. I was no Virgil, nor was I born in the golden age +of Augustus. Only my fanaticism for the art of poetry made me imagine +that verses could be anything worth offering as a gift. + +The Cavaliere accepted my donation with affability. He said: "I thank +you. At least I have the wherewithal to show that, while a member of my +Court, you have remained at school." + +Afterwards I learned that he made a present of this book to the Very +Eminent Cardinal, his uncle, Bishop of Brescia. His Excellency inquired +whether I preferred to return to Venice or to stay in Dalmatia, +occupying the post of cadet noble of cavalry on my promotion. I begged +him to take me in his train to Venice, and he graciously accepted. + +Some one else than I would have looked around for testimonials little to +be trusted, which might have kept me fraudulently drawing pay upon the +muster-roll of Venice from a too indulgent Government. But I had +renounced the military career, and had no mind to spunge upon the public +treasury. Our Prince I regarded as a common father, but did not think it +just to saddle him with thievish sons, each one of whom by coaxed +protections, adulations, hypocrisies, and the vilest offices, eats into +the common patrimony of the nation, which ought to be reserved for +urgent needs. I was a poor lad, with a debt of 200 ducats; but I knew +that the services rendered to the State by me constituted no claim upon +the public purse. If I was poor, this came from our being too many in +our family and from the maladministration of our property. + +My wants were moderate. I flattered myself that I could satisfy them by +attending to the management of the estate; and I felt sure that my +father, paralysed and speechless as he was, would never refuse to pay +the trifling debt I had contracted. Meanwhile it is not improbable that +my name remained upon the muster-roll long after I left Dalmatia. +Somebody may have pocketed my pay and pilfered from the treasury to this +extent. I was not responsible for this, and had no right to inquire into +the matter, since I never asked to be cashiered in form. Poor I was, +poor I am, and poor I expect to die. At any rate, I am sure that I +should die in desperation if I felt on my deathbed that I had earned a +fortune by deceit, injustice, and intrigue. + +It was in the month of October when at last I embarked for Venice on the +galley of his Excellency. Wind and weather were against us. After a +painful voyage of twenty-two days, we came in sight of home, and I drew +breath again. After paying my respects and returning thanks to the +Cavaliere who had brought me back, I set off for our ancestral mansion +at San Cassiano, accompanied by Signor Massimo, whom I had invited to +stay with me upon his way to Padua. There I hoped to be able to pay my +friend some attention by giving him good quarters during his sojourn in +Venice. + + + + +XV. + + _Disagreeable discoveries relating to our family affairs, which + dissipate all illusions I may have formed._ + + +Leaving the horrors of the galley for the ancient home of my ancestors, +I palpitated between pleasure at escaping into freedom, hope of being +able to make my friend comfortable, and uneasiness lest this hope might +prove ill-founded. + +We reached the entrance, and my companion gazed with wonder at the +stately structure of the mansion, which has really all the appearance of +a palace. As a connoisseur of architecture, he complimented me upon its +fine design. I answered, what indeed he was about to discover by +experience, that attractive exteriors sometimes mask discomfort and +annoyance. He had plenty of time to admire the facade, while I kept +knocking loudly at the house-door. I might as well have knocked at the +portal of a sepulchre. At last a woman, named Eugenia, the +guardian-angel of this wilderness, ran to open. To my inquiries she +answered, yawning, that the family were in Friuli, but that my brother +Gasparo was momently expected. Our luggage had now been brought from the +boat, and we began to ascend a handsome marble staircase. No one could +have expected that this fine flight of steps would lead to squalor and +the haunts of indigence. Yet on surmounting the last stair this was what +revealed itself. The stone floors were worn into holes and fissures, +which spread in all directions like a cancer. The broken window panes +let blasts from every point of the compass play freely to and fro within +the draughty chambers. The hangings on the walls were ragged, smirched +with smoke and dust, fluttering in tatters. Not a piece remained of that +fine gallery of pictures which my grandfather had bequeathed as +heirlooms to the family. I only saw some portraits of my ancestors by +Titian and Tintoretto still staring from their ancient frames. I gazed +at them; they gazed at me; they wore a look of sadness and amazement, as +though inquiring how the wealth which they had gathered for their +offspring had been dissipated. + +I have hitherto omitted to mention that our family archives contain an +old worm-eaten manuscript, in which are registered the tenths[128] paid +to the public treasury. From this document it appears that the father of +my great-grandfather was taxed on upwards of ten thousand ducats of +income. It is perhaps a folly to moralise on such things; yet the +recollection of those mournful portraits gazing down upon me in the +squalor of our ancient habitation prompts me to tell an idle truth. +Nobody will be the wiser for it; certainly none of our posterity in +this prodigal age. My grandfather left an only son and a good estate +settled in tail on heirs-male in perpetuity. Four excellent residences, +all of them well-furnished, one in Venice, another in Padua, another in +Pordenone, another in the Friulian country-town of Vicinate, were +included in this entail, as appears from his last will and testament. +Little did he think that the solemn appointments of the dead would be so +lightly binding on the living. + +I had informed my friend Massimo of the exact state of our affairs at +home, so far as these were known to me. I could not acquaint him with +the grave disasters which had happened in my three years' absence, being +myself in blessed ignorance as yet. The news that my two elder sisters +had been married inclined me to expect that our domestic circumstances +were improving. Cruel deception wrapped me round, and a hundred +speechless but eloquent mouths were now proclaiming, from the walls and +chambers of my home, how utterly deceived I had been. + +Before long I broke, as usual, into laughter, and gaily begged my +comrade's pardon for bringing him to such a wretched hostelry. I assured +him that my heart, at any rate, was not so ruined as my dwelling, and +engaged him in conversation, while we roamed around its chambers, every +nook of which increased my mirth by some new aspect of dilapidation. +Then I bade him refresh his spirits with a survey of the noble facade; +till at last we settled down as well as circumstances permitted. Two +days afterwards, my brother Gasparo arrived. I presented the stranger I +had brought to share our hospitality, frankly expressing my sense of his +worth and my obligations to him as a friend. Upon this we established +ourselves in a little society of three, enlivened by the conversation of +my brother, who, even with a fever on him, never failed to be witty. + +Gasparo and I were anxiously awaiting an opportunity to talk alone like +brothers after my long absence. When the moment came, I inquired after +my poor father, our mother, and the circumstances of the family. What I +had already seen on my arrival prepared me for the disagreeable news I +had to hear. With his usual philosophy, but not without an occasional +sign of painful emotion, he gave me the following details. The family +was reduced to really tragic straits. Our father lived on, but +speechless and paralytic, in the same state as when I left him. My two +elder sisters, Marina and Giulia, were married respectively to the Conte +Michele di Prata and the Conte Giovan-Daniele di Montereale. About ten +thousand ducats had been promised for their dowries. To raise this sum, +such and such portions of the estate had been sold, and a debt of more +than two thousand ducats had been contracted. A lawsuit was pending +between the family and the Conte Montereale concerning part of the dowry +still due to him. Our other three sisters, Laura, Girolama, and Chiara, +were growing into womanhood, and gave much to think of for their future. + +I saw, to my great annoyance, that it would be impossible to liquidate +my debt upon the spot. But all these terrifying details did not make me +regret my resignation of the post of cadet noble in the cavalry. A few +days later, Signor Massimo left for Padua, with the assurance that his +two hundred ducats would be paid in course of time by me. Upon this +matter he only expressed the sentiments of cordial friendship. + +It was not too late in the season for a visit to the country. I felt a +strong desire to reach Friuli, and to kiss the hands of my unhappy +father. Thither then I went, together with my brother, armed with a +giant's fortitude, which was not long in being put to proof. + + + + +XVI. + + _Fresh discoveries regarding the condition of our family.--Vain + hopes and wasted will to be of use.--I abandon myself to my old + literary studies._ + + +Our country-house had been originally constructed on an old-fashioned, +roomy, and convenient scale, with numbers of out-buildings. It was now +reduced to one of those dilapidated farms, which I have described in my +burlesque poem _La Marfisa Bizzarra_, canto xii., stanza 126.[129] +Two-thirds of the edifice had been demolished, and the materials sold. +The remaining fragments were inhabited, but bore written on their front: +"Here once was Troy." + +Prepared as I was by the misery of our town-house for the desolation of +this rural mansion, I hardly cared to cast a glance upon it. What I +noticed on arriving was a certain air of jollity and gladness, breathing +health, betokening contentment, which all the faces of the village +people wore. Amid the jubilations of relatives, guests, serving-folk and +lads about the farm, not omitting a pack of barking dogs, I descended +from the caleche with my brother. A whole crowd of people, whom I did +not know and could not number, fell upon my neck to bid me welcome. +Something of a military carriage, which I had picked up abroad, but +which had no relation to my real self, made our farm-folk stare upon me +like a comet. + +Then I raised my eyes, and saw my poor father at a window in the upper +storey, with trembling limbs, dragging himself forward on his stick to +catch a glimpse of me. All the blood turned suddenly and galloped +through my veins. I rushed up the stairs, burst into the room where he +was standing, seized one of his hands, and kissed it in a transport of +filial affection. He fell upon my shoulder, more paralytic than he had +been when I last embraced him, and, in his inability to speak, broke +into a piteous fit of weeping. The effort I made to restrain my own +tears, lest they should add to his unhappiness, made me feel as though +my lungs would burst. Leaning on my arm, he slowly tottered after me, +and little by little we reached another room which he frequented. +October was nearly over, and the cold in that Friulian climate was very +sensible. A good fire burned on the hearth, near which stood the +arm-chair of my father, who for seven years had dragged his life out in +this wretched state. All the resources of medical science had been tried +in vain. Physicians sometimes agreed and sometimes differed about his +treatment. But their concord and their discord were equally impotent to +effect a cure; and he had not yet reached the age of fifty-five. + +I found my mother in the same apartment. She uttered sentiments which +were not inappropriate to her maternal character, but in a frigid tone +and with an air of stately self-control. I always loved and respected +her, not merely from a sense of duty, but with a true filial instinct. +She, on her side, used frequently to protest when there was no need for +protestation, that she loved all her nine children with exactly the same +amount of affection. She often repeated the following words with +gravity, raising her eyebrows as she spoke: "Cut off one of my fingers +and I suffer pain; cut off a second and I suffer;" and so on through +nine fingers, amputated by the same figure of speech, with equal agony +in each case. Notwithstanding this, I believe that the loss of eight +fingers would not have given her the same pain as that of the first-born +finger, in other words, of my brother Gasparo. He is still alive, a man +of honour, and a sage if ever sage existed; and I feel sure that he +would admit the truth of this statement, if called on to confirm it. + +In my long and anxious study of human nature, I have seen so many +mothers with the weakness of my own, that I never dreamed of blaming +her. It seemed right to me that my brother's mental gifts and noble +qualities should earn for him more of her love than she bestowed on all +her other eight children. Mothers, however, who are so devoted to a son +generally spoil him, notably by extolling what is good in his character, +but also by defending his natural frailties. Acting thus, my mother +favoured Gasparo's marriage, which subjected her beloved son to a real +martyrdom. Her lifelong devotion to him, and the prejudice displayed in +his favour by her will, only served to increase the unhappiness of a man +whom I always loved, loved still, and shall love as friend and brother +till the end of my days on earth. This digression was rendered necessary +by what will follow in my Memoirs. + +The room was soon full of relatives and intimate friends, all curious +about me. My father strove to ply me with questions, but his tongue +refused its office, and he relapsed into weeping. Sad at heart as I was +for him, I contrived to relate the most amusing anecdotes I could +remember concerning my life in Dalmatia and my travels. In this way I +kept him laughing, together with the whole company, through the rest of +that day. + +The perfect country air; a table abundantly served with rural dainties, +though somewhat deficient in elegance; the joviality, wit, and pleasant +sallies which never failed in our domestic circle,--all this prevented +me from attending to the defects of our establishment. Next day I began +to discover that the real cause of trouble was not in the building, but +in the minds of its inhabitants. I could not have explained why, but I +seemed to be a person of importance in the eyes of everybody. My three +sisters confided to me in secret that my brother Gasparo's wife, in +close alliance with my mother, who doted on her as the consort of her +favoured first-born, ruled all the affairs of the family, which were +rapidly going from bad to worse. My father's authority as head of the +house had ceased to be more than a mere instrument for carrying out what +my sister-in-law advised and my mother sanctioned. Unless I managed to +stem the tide of extravagance, we should all be plunged into an abyss of +ruin. One of my sisters, Girolama, a girl devoted to reading, writing, +and translating from the French--for she too was bitten with our family +cacoethes--spoke like a sibyl, gravely and eloquently, on these painful +topics. At the same time, my brother's wife contrived secret interviews, +in which she explained to me that her husband was indolent, torpid, +drowned in fruitless studies, devoted to the company of a certain clever +person, and wholly averse from thoughts or cares about domestic matters. +She had done everything in her power--God knew she had. She would go on +doing her best--God should see she would. Then she described her plans +and projects, which, to tell the truth, were pure poetical stupidities. +She vowed that she was not in any sense the mistress of the +establishment, the administrator of the estate, or the disposer of its +revenues; she merely gave advice, made suggestions, and exerted herself +for the common benefit and to supply the needs of the family in general. +She exhorted me to speak seriously to her husband; I was to make him +abandon his unprofitable studies, make him, above all things, give up +those visits of taste and soul, which did so much harm; in fine, I was +to force him to sustain his wife in her stupendous labours, and to +concentrate his thoughts upon his children, who were five in number. + +When I came to analyse the curious compound of truths, lies, and fancies +which issued from the fevered brains of this poor lady--always hard at +work, always embarrassed in a labyrinth of business--I seemed to +perceive that what moved her most was the fear of being made herself +responsible for our financial failure. It was also clear that her +original ambition of acting the part of prime minister in a realm which +only existed in her own imagination, kept her always on the stretch; +while a certain little devil of feminine jealousy against her husband +added to her disquietude. He, good fellow, had forgotten the long +collection of Petrarchan poems written by him for her honour in the +past, and which she had repaid with the gift of five children. Not the +least little sonnet issued from his pen to celebrate her now. His lyrics +were addressed to another idol of the moment. + +Meanwhile she set great store upon her personal importance. Every member +of our family, who wanted a ducat, a pair of shoes, or something of the +sort, came to her with humble supplications, imploring her good offices +at head-quarters--and Heaven knew where head-quarters were. This honour +and glory made up to her for all her heroic labours in the little +realm, which she administered with real authority, though her right to +do so was contested, and her schemes were pindarically unpractical. + +My younger brother, Almoro,[130] was also at our villa, on a holiday +from school--the non-existent school he never went to. His education +seemed to have been of the slightest, and his wardrobe left even more to +be desired. A boy of good heart and parts, however; gay-spirited and +innocent; he was not old enough and had not time to reflect upon our +troubles; setting snares for little birds was all his pastime, and when +he talked to me, I heard only of the number and the kinds of birds he +caught, and the important adventures he had met with in his fowling +expeditions. + +My father did not converse with me, because he could not; my mother, +because she would not. Gasparo's five children with their quarrels and +their games broke in upon the only solace which I had, that of reading +and writing. + +To all the complaints I heard, to all the exhortations which were daily +heaped upon me, I gave one only answer: we will see and think it over. + +One thing emerged with distinctness from this hurlyburly of our family. +If I attempted any salutary innovation in the wasp's nest of my +relatives, I should find no difficulty in gaining supporters to assist +me in my opposition to the government; but the government was in the +hands of women, under the shadow of my father's authority; I should +therefore be misrepresented to him, prejudiced as he was by education, +susceptible and hot-blooded by temperament, enfeebled by chronic +illness; and he was still the master, still my father, loved and +respected by me. I doubted whether anything which I could do would not +prove ineffectual or worse. I was afraid of becoming the object of +everybody's hatred; for I observed that personal considerations, rather +than wise reflection and moderate ambitions, were the motive principles +of all the folk I had to deal with. Finally I dreaded giving such a +shock to my father's declining frame as would cut short the few days of +life which still remained to him. The sequel will show that these +anticipations were not ill-founded. + +In these circumstances I determined to exercise the strictest +self-control, and to bear with everything during my father's lifetime. +Literature and my favourite studies of the world meanwhile would suffice +to entertain me. Knowing that my uncle Almoro Cesare Tiepolo was in the +country on an estate of his not far from where we lived, I went to pay +him my respects. He inquired how I had been treated in Dalmatia by his +Excellency Quirini. I answered that he had treated me very well indeed, +but that he could not give me any permanent commission, because our +troops had been drafted into Italy. He then proposed to recommend me to +his Excellency the Provveditore Generale at Verona. I replied that I was +grateful for his interest on my behalf, but that Mars had not inspired +me with a vocation for military service. I foresaw that I should have to +employ all my energies upon the affairs of my family, which were calling +loudly for my assistance. Shaking his head and pursing up his lips, he +answered that what I said was only too true. + + + + +XVII. + + _Return from Friuli to Venice with my family.--I pursue my chosen + path in life, and open new veins of experience.--Yet further + painful discoveries as to our circumstances.--The beginnings of + domestic discord._ + + +The month of November was wearing away when our family began to think of +Venice. It amused me to watch the preparations for our journey and our +luggage, which in no wise resembled that of the General's suite I had +been used to. My father, an invalid; my mother, serious and +diplomatical; my sister-in-law, the woman of business; my brother +Gasparo, wool-gathering; our little sisters, intent upon the custody of +their old-fashioned bonnets; Almoro, plunged in grief at leaving his +birds and cages, which he consigned by something like a last will and +testament to the bailiff; I, giving myself military airs, quite out of +season; some serving-maids and men in worn-out livery; a few cats and +dogs; these composed our travelling party, which might have been +compared to a troupe of comedians upon the march. + +I shall perhaps be told that there was no reason to enumerate these +humiliating circumstances. But I have never had to blush for unworthy +actions in my family; and it seems to me a poor philosophy that feels +ashamed where no shame is. Such as it was, our caravan arrived in +Venice, joking and laughing all the way. There we installed ourselves +with as much disorder and as little comfort as was proper to a fine +large mansion with nothing to fill its empty spaces. + +For my own use I chose out a little room at the top of the house, where +I set up a rickety table, provided myself with a huge inkstand and +plenty of pens and paper, and spent at least six hours a day in reading +and scribbling poetic nonsense. This was my best amusement; but I ought +to add that I devoted some of my time to the cafes, studying types of +character and listening to conversation; nor did I neglect our theatres, +where I saw the various tragedies and comedies which appeared. My +brother Gasparo had already given several serious pieces to the stage. +They pleased the public then; and though they may be out of fashion +now, they would not fail to please me still. I know the instability of +taste too well to change my old opinions. + +I had mixed with all sorts of men and learned to know their +characters--generals, admirals, noblemen, great lords, officers, +soldiers, the people of Illyrian cities, the Morlacchi of the villages, +Mainotti, Pastrovicchi, convicts, galley-slaves. It was time, I thought, +to become acquainted with my own Venetians. I began by cultivating a set +of men who go in Venice by the name of Cortigiani.[131] My companions of +this kind were chiefly shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, with a priest or +two among the number; clever fellows, respectable, and versed in all the +ways of our Venetian world. Their courage and readiness to take part in +quarrels won them the respect of the common people, and they carried the +art of getting the maximum of pleasure at a minimum of outlay to +perfection. On certain holidays I joined their boating-parties, and went +to shoot birds on the marshes with them. Or else we lunched together on +the Giudecca, at Campalto, Malcontenta, Murano, Burano, and other +neighbouring islands. My share of the expense on these occasions was +not much above sixpence, and I gained the hearty good-will of my +companions by contributing some slices of excellent Friulian ham to our +common table. The characters and manners of these men delighted me; I +took pleasure in listening to the stories of their quarrels, +reconciliations, love-adventures, misfortunes, accidents of all kinds, +told in racy Venetian dialect, with the liveliness which is natural to +our folk. What is more, I learned much from them. Alas! the race of +Cortigiani has degenerated, like everything else in this corrupt age. +When I chance to meet a survivor of the honest jolly crew, he strikes +his forehead, and confesses that the good days of his youth are +irrecoverable, and that the Cortigiano is an extinct species. + +Meanwhile I took good care to interfere with nobody and nothing in the +household. This I did for my poor father's sake. But I kept my eyes open +to observe the intrigues, schemes, and movements of the government. Some +Jews, some brokers, and a crowd of women were always coming and going on +secret conferences with my sister-in-law. These attracted my attention, +and formed the subject of my earnest cogitations. It grieved me to see +my brother Gasparo immersed in his philosophy and poetry, never for one +moment giving the least thought to domestic economy. It grieved me; but +I grieved in silence. There was one circumstance, however, which fairly +put me out of patience. We had three sisters in the house; and a swarm +of drones, hulking young fellows of the freest manners, kept buzzing +round them. When I came home and found these visitors at their +accustomed chatter, I used to scowl at them, lift my hat and put it on +again, turn my back, and climb the stairs to my own den, with the fixed +intention of making the gentlemen perceive how little their company +attracted me. This manoeuvre had its effect. My sister-in-law took it +upon her to read me a matronly lecture on the impropriety of insulting +friends of the family by my rough ways. I replied that I knew very well +what friendship was, but that I could distinguish the false from the +true; I was not conscious of having been rude to anybody; my father was +the master, and if he did not mind some things which seemed to my +inexperience imprudent and irregular, a mere lad's opinions were not +worthy of consideration. This hint of my displeasure made all the women +of the house regard me like a serpent. Even my three sisters, who loved +me sincerely, and were excellent creatures, imbued with the soundest +religious principles, could not help harbouring a trifle of suspicion in +their feminine brains. For the rest, I said what I thought when I was +consulted upon affairs of no importance. My advice in such matters +pleased nobody. I ran on little errands if these were intrusted to me; +and above all, I devoted some hours of every evening to my father, who +always received me with tenderness and tears. + +From conversation with my sisters I learned that the five thousand +ducats raised by sale of lands in Friuli, ostensibly to make up portions +for my married sisters, had either not been paid by the purchasers or +had only reached the hands of the husbands in part. The same had +happened with the drapery, linen, and jewels, for which a large debt had +been contracted with a company of merchants. These and similar +confidences made it clear to my mind that the marriages of my two +sisters had not been arranged for their settlement in life so much as +with the view of raising money under colourable pretexts, and of +alienating entailed property with some show of legality. In fact, I +scented disastrous dealings of the sort which are known at Venice by the +name of _stocchi_.[132] As natural consequences of this crooked policy, +urgent needs for ready money and embarrassments of all sorts had ensued, +which led to fresh expedients and ever-growing financial distress. + +Without attributing malice to any one, I merely blamed the bad luck of +our family, owing to which my grandfather's fine estate had passed into +the hands of women under two administrations, and had been wasted by a +course of insane irregularities. I took care to send an accurate report +of our domestic circumstances to my brother Francesco at Corfu. And now +I must embark upon the sea of my worst troubles. + + + + +XVIII. + + _I become, without fault of my own, quite unjustly, the object of + hatred to all members of my household.--Resolve to return to + Dalmatia.--My father's death._ + + +It had not escaped my notice that my mother and sister-in-law were in +the habit of going abroad together in the mornings. During the five +winter months they wore masks, and their proceedings had all the +appearance of some secret business.[133] Now Carnival was over. We had +reached the month of March 1745, a date which will be always painful to +my recollection. Every morning the two ladies left the house together, +no longer masked, but wearing the _zendado_.[134] I asked my sisters if +they knew the object of these daily expeditions. They answered to the +following effect: all they knew for certain was that my father's invalid +condition made a residence in Venice irksome to him; now that the spring +was advancing, he wished to go into Friuli with my mother, leaving our +sister-in-law at the head of affairs in Venice; meanwhile the treasury +was empty, the barns and cellars of our country-house had nothing left +in them. I shrugged my shoulders, and kept silence. + +A few days afterwards, while I was attempting to drive away care by +study in my little upper chamber, my three sisters entered. They were +weeping, and my first fear was lest my father should have died. +Reassuring me upon this point, they passionately besought me to +interpose between the family and shameful ruin. I alone was capable of +doing this. The secret expeditions of my mother and sister-in-law had +resulted in a contract with a certain Signor Francesco Zini, cloth +merchant. He undertook to pay down six hundred ducats in exchange for +our ancestral mansion, agreeing, moreover, to hand over a little +dwelling of his own in the distant quarter of San Jacopo dall' Orio. +They added that my father was ready to give his assent to this bargain, +and my brothers Gasparo and Almoro would offer no opposition. I felt +deeply moved by the distress of these poor girls as well as by my own +keen sense of humiliation; and when they concluded by enjoining the +strictest secrecy upon myself in the transaction, a gulf of dissensions, +disagreeableness, and misery of all kinds seemed to yawn before my feet. +Our pressing want of money, the contract verbally completed by my mother +and sister-in-law, my father's consent, the adhesion of my brothers to +the scheme, the obligation to secrecy laid upon me by my sisters, my own +bad reputation in the household as a disturber of domestic quiet, my +lack of friends and supporters in Venice, all filled me with terror. Yet +I resolved to try what I could do to gratify my father's desire for the +country, and to put a stop to this humiliating contract. With that +object in view I also undertook a secret mission and went to visit +Signor Francesco Zini. + +I laid myself open to him in terms of flattering politeness, appealing +to his excellent disposition, and pointing out that he was about to +enter on a business which would expose him to risk and us to notable +humiliation. I told him that my father had been an invalid for many +years, that our ancestral mansion was subject to a strict entail, that +on my father's death he would lose his money and the house, that all +the sons of the family were not prepared to sanction the contract, that +one of them was in the Levant, that I had not the least intention of +assenting, and that the utmost I could do would be to abandon the house +at my father's express command. Then I passed to the pathetic. I +described a numerous family departing with their scanty bundles from the +loved paternal nest, bowed down with grief and shame before the eyes of +all their neighbours, who would be exclaiming: "See those gentlefolk +upon the move, because their home has been sold over their heads!" I +proved to him that if he gained a fine house to live in, he would also +gain an odious and ugly reputation. Finally, I besought him, as a man of +worth, to seize some plausible pretext for breaking a bargain which, +happily for his advantage and our own, had not been ratified. + +Over the fat, red, small-pox-pitted features of Signor Zini spread +amazement and perplexity. He did not understand my rigmarole, he said; +he was an honest man, pouring out his blood, not water, to obtain the +house; my mother and sister-in-law, together with the broker of this +honourable bargain, had assured him that my father wished to conclude +it, and that all his sons were prepared to emancipate themselves from +the paternal authority, in order to be able to sign the contract, thus +giving it validity, and securing the rightful interest of the innocent +purchaser. The affair had been settled, the necessary deeds were +waiting on the bureau of Marchese Suarez, his advocate. Most assuredly, +unless my father's male heirs procured their emancipation, in order to +give validity to the contract in perpetuity, he would not unbutton his +pockets to disburse a penny; he was not a fool, to be imposed upon with +fibs and fables. + +I commended the fat gentleman's perspicacity and caution; repeated that +I had no intention of procuring my emancipation, and that nothing on +earth would force me to consent; once more I begged him to find some +excuse for breaking off the bargain; and wound up by imploring him to +keep silence upon my interference in the matter. I made it clear that +only a brute, devoid of Christian charity, would reject a son's +entreaties, and render him odious to mother and father without any +advantage to himself. He promised to respect my secrecy, wagging his +huge scarlet jowl and lifting his night-cap, with so many protestations +of being touched to the heart, that I ought to have been put upon my +guard. I did not yet know human nature, and retired as happy as if I had +taken Gibraltar by assault, feeling confident that my prudence and +discretion had averted a lamentable catastrophe. + +Nothing was said by me about the course which I had followed, even to my +three sisters. I reflected that they were women, and awaited a quiet +termination of the affair, trusting to Signor Zini's humanity. +Meanwhile I ruminated how to procure my father's removal to the country, +and how to help the family without waiting for the harvest, which would +be finished in three months. I computed the value of my clothes, my +watch, my snuff-box; prepared as I was then, to sell everything I +possessed. But these calculations only reduced me to despair. My one +real friend was Signor Massimo, then at Padua. I remembered that I +already owed him two hundred ducats, and that he was living on an +allowance from his father. Yet I knew that both father and son, as well +as a brother of my comrade, were no less generous toward persons on +whose character for loyalty and friendship they relied, than they were +suspicious of intriguers and impostors. I was also aware that they were +in a position to render me substantial services. How often, during the +tempestuous vicissitudes of my existence, have I not had the opportunity +to verify this fact! + +While thus engaged in studying ways and means, Signor Zini broke rudely +in upon my meditations. Possessed with the desire to obtain our dwelling +for his own, he divulged the secret of my visit, and exposed what I had +said to him in terms of his own choosing. My belief is that his +communication amounted to this:--unless the hot-headed impetuous young +fellow, who had come to treat with him, were brought to reason, and +compelled to sign the contract, he refused to disburse two shillings. + +I was in my upper chamber, studying as usual, and talking with my +brother Almoro about his wretched schooling, when my mother appeared one +day. Something of philosophical severity in her toilette, something +imposing in her manner, which concealed, however, an internal +irritation, proclaimed the gravity of her mission. She addressed herself +pointedly to me, with the features of a judge rather than a mother, and +began a long narration of the straits to which we were reduced. She said +that, God be blessed, she had been inspired and assisted to discover six +hundred ducats in the hands of a benevolent merchant, which would be +placed immediately at her disposal upon such and such conditions. The +notary was ready to engross the necessary deeds; and she begged me to +declare what I thought about this special providence. + +At the bottom of her heart I read Signor Zini's act of treason, and saw +that I was lost. However, I answered respectfully that a contract of +this kind struck me as anything but providential; still my father had +full power to do what he thought fit, without rendering an account of +his actions to his sons. She flamed up, and cried with a threatening air +that my consent was also needed; she could not believe that I should be +so rash and headstrong as to prevent a plan which would relieve my +father and the family in our present painful circumstances. I could have +uttered several truths without a wish to wound; but certain truths, +once spoken, wound incurably. Therefore, I contented myself with +observing that I was ready to shed my blood for my father, but that I +could not assent to a contract so humiliating and ruinous, the last of a +whole series dictated by suicidal policy. People who understood economy +were in the habit of calculating and making provision for the future, +not of selling or mortgaging their property to meet embarrassments +created by their own extravagance. The latter course was rapidly +bringing our whole family to the workhouse. Under a disastrous financial +system our income had been reduced to three thousand ducats; yet I could +not comprehend how we were in such straits as she had described. When +people were unable to maintain a decent state in the capital, they could +live at ease in the country at one-third of the same cost. Houses ought +to be let, and not sold. Still my father had the power to make any +contract he thought right; only I did not believe him capable of forcing +me to give consent against my will and judgment. + +The gestures of submission, respect, and supplication with which I +accompanied this speech had no power to mollify the pungency of its +significance. My mother rose, with her arms akimbo, and inquired who it +was I meant to blame for our misfortunes. Instead of telling the bitter +and irrefutable truth, I said that I only blamed fate and the +misfortunes themselves. "I reckon," she replied with a smile of fury, +"that you will give in your adhesion." "Indeed I shall not," was my +answer; and the profound bow with which I spoke these words had the +appearance of impertinent irony, although God knows I did not mean it. +This was enough to fan the smothered flames into a Vesuvius in eruption. +My mother bent her stormy brows upon me--upon the sixth finger of her +maternal hands--and broke into the following declamation. "From the +moment of my return she had prophesied, like Cassandra, that I should +turn the household upside down. She did not know me for one of her own +children. The intimacy of a certain friend to whom I had attached myself +was ruining the family, as it had ruined me. (Poor innocent generous +Signor Massimo!) If I had behaved well during my three years' service, +his Excellency Quirini would certainly have rewarded me with some good +military situation. As it was, my excursion into Dalmatia had been a +source of burdensome expense. I had led a vicious life there ... she +knew ... she did not mean to speak ... but ... enough ... and my debt of +two hundred ducats to Massimo was merely a sum lost by me at basset." + +Now this debt had not yet been paid, and had therefore been of no +inconvenience to my family. Such extravagant accusations took me by +surprise; and the reader will now perceive the reason of the accounts +which I rendered in a former passage of these Memoirs. I should perhaps +have flown into a fury alien to my real nature, if these reproofs had +been based on truth. The wounding allusion to Signor Massimo nearly +roused me, but I preserved my self-control. It was clear that my mother +had been deeply prejudiced and cruelly instigated against me. The +consciousness of my innocence and a sense of duty made me stand before +her rigid and mute as a statue. With an impulse of affection, maternal +as it seemed, my mother took my brother Almoro by the arm, and gazing at +me with contempt, which strove to be compassionate, she addressed these +words to him: "Come away, my dear boy; let us leave that madman to the +error of his ways!" Then she turned her back and led him from the room, +as though she were saving an innocent creature from some fearful danger. + +Convinced by this tragi-comedy that I was the victim of a family cabal, +I saw no other course open but to resume my commission as a cadet of +cavalry. I left my room, went downstairs, and found all the family +(except my father) assembled in commotion, listening to the +commiserations of their usual friends enraged against me. It had been +proclaimed aloud that I had called them all thieves, retorted against my +mother with scandalous and impious audacity, and betrayed my +determination to make myself the tyrant of the household. Even my three +sisters, who had urged me into opposition, showed themselves sulkily +scornful; and though I might have exposed them before the whole +company, I did not deign to do so. Confirmed in my resolve to leave +Venice for Dalmatia, I buckled on my sword, wasted no words about my +intention, and repaired to the Riva dei Schiavoni, to see if I could +find a ship for Zara. There I discovered that a _trabacolo_ would set +sail in four or five days. The captain was a certain Bernetich. I took +down his name, and, wrapped up in my own dark thoughts, spent all that +day in exile, wandering far from home. + +On my return, I noticed that, though everybody wore a crabbed face +against me, something had happened to their satisfaction. Signor Zini, +it appeared, was willing to execute the contract without requiring my +consent. I did not know that my brother Francesco had left a power of +attorney to act for him in Gasparo's hands. With voices of triumph they +all exclaimed together that the great sacrifice was to be solemnly and +legally performed next day. I did not care to inquire how things had +been brought to this conclusion; but putting on as cheerful a face as +possible, I went to keep my poor father company as usual for a few hours +in the evening. + +It will be as well at this point to describe the topography of our +house. It was originally built for two separate residences, with double +entrances upon the street and water-side, two staircases and two +cisterns. At the time when it was planned, the Gozzis formed two +families, which were afterwards reduced to one. We occupied the lower +floor and some apartments in the highest storey. The second floor was +let for 150 ducats a year to an honest iron-monger called Uccelli; but +this portion of the mansion had also been sold upon my father's life, by +one of those contracts which were only too frequent in our family, for +the sum of 1200 ducats to his Excellency the Procuratore Sagredo. + +I did all in my power to avoid the least allusion to the painful scenes +of the preceding day; but my dear father kept gazing earnestly at me, +and shedding tears from time to time. In vain I tried to inspire him +with happier thoughts. Would that I could banish all recollection of +that night, which was one of the most sombre, the most painful, in the +whole course of my existence. Paralysed and dumb for seven long years, +he yet retained his mental faculties in their full vigour. Summoning all +his force, by signs and stammerings and tears, he made it only too clear +how much he suffered from the miserable straits to which the family had +been reduced. He also continued to express his sympathy with me for my +dislike to sign the projected contract. To my surprise and grief, he +intimated that I had only a brief time to wait; his swift approaching +death would restore to us the upper dwelling, which had been sold upon +his life, and which was much better than the one we occupied. This +inarticulate but eloquent discourse ended in a flood of tears. Deeply +moved to the bottom of my heart, I strove to tranquillise his mind, and +direct his thoughts from such afflicting topics. I perceived that no +pains had been spared to make me odious in my father's eyes, and that +this had been done without the least regard for his infirmity. Yet I did +not attempt to justify my conduct, and said nothing about my firm +resolve to leave home. His departure for Friuli had been fixed on the +third day after this fatal evening, and I mentally decided to set out +for Dalmatia two days later on. My assumed cheerfulness, and the merry +turn I gave to all those dismal subjects of reflection, seemed to +tranquillise him. Then he tried to lift himself from his arm-chair, as +though to get to bed. I helped to raise him, but he tottered more than +usual, and sank with his knees toward the ground. I took him in my arms +to keep him from falling. Agonising moment! It was clear that a last +stroke of apoplexy was carrying away my father from my arms. In a loud +voice and with perfect articulation he pronounced the words: "I am +dying!" They fell like lead upon my heart, with such cruel force that I +nearly dropped. My mother, who was present, fled from the room. I called +aloud for aid. Servants hurried in; one of these I dispatched for +medical assistance, while the others helped me to place my poor dear +father, now quite incapable of any movement, on his bed. A physician, +Doctor Bonariva by name, had him bled at once. But nothing could be done +to save his life. Assisted by Don Pietro Pighetti, now Canon of S. +Marco, in the last religious duties of our creed, he displayed all the +signs of Christian resignation and intelligence; and after eight hours +of oppression, toilsome suffering, and the pangs of death, my unhappy +parent closed his eyes upon the vast obscurity in which his family was +plunged. + + + + +XIX. + +_My attempts at pacification defeated.--Useless philosophical +reflections.--A terrible domestic storm begins to brew._ + + +No sooner had my father breathed his last than my lady sister-in-law, +all activity and bustle, issued from the room of mourning, and took upon +her to console his sorrowing children with the convincing statement that +he was the most lovely corpse which eyes of men had ever seen. This +wholly unexpected statement, which had nothing of humanity, morality, or +philosophy in it, and which she kept repeating and affirming upon oath +for our relief, filled me then, and fills me now, with such fury, that I +should be angry to think that any of my readers could laugh at it. + +One disastrous thought kept breaking in upon our sorrow at this tragic +moment. Am I to record it? We had neither the wherewithal to provide a +decent interment for my father, nor the credit to obtain it. The +habitues of the house gave words in abundance, but no pecuniary aid. I +had only one friend, Massimo, my creditor, the object of my relatives' +calumnies. Grief inspired me with the thought of writing to lay our +difficulties before his generous mind. The special messenger by whom I +sent this letter returned with a sum of money more than sufficient to +defray the expenses of a becoming funeral. On receiving it, I took my +brother Gasparo apart, placed the money in his hands, and told him who +had given it. Then I begged him not to misinterpret what I was about to +say. He was my elder, and I willingly acknowledged him to be the head of +our family. He could not be blind to the deplorable condition into which +we had declined. Duty required that he should take the reins with manly +resolution, and should withdraw the management of our affairs from the +hands of those who had brought us to utter shipwreck. My brother +accepted the money and my speech as well as might have been expected +from a man of his excellent disposition and superior intelligence. He +admitted that he saw the necessity of a thorough economical reform, +carried through with virile firmness. Some increase of income, owing to +the expiration of contracts made upon my father's life, would facilitate +the undertaking. He was willing to relinquish literary occupations, +which were neither appreciated nor remunerated in Italy, for the sake +of being able to devote his energy and time to the administration of our +common property. + +I did not flatter myself that anything so much to be desired would come +to pass. I knew how impossible it is for people to change their +character and nature. I knew his wife's meddlesome, restless, imperious +thirst for ruling--his own peaceable temperament, averse from +opposition, addicted to the habits of a student. Yet I saw the necessity +of taking the step I did, if only to correct the bad impression of +myself, which had grown up under malevolent influences in the family. + +I had no heart to follow my father to the grave, but shut myself up in +my little chamber, where I gave way through three days and three nights +to grief, not unmingled with remorse for having innocently helped to +hasten his death. Nothing less than this tragedy was needed to cancel +Signor Francesco Zini's contract. + +I feel some repugnance at sitting down to write what happened at this +epoch in my family. I wish that I could tell the tale without appearing +to censure any of my relatives and without seeming to draw a +vain-glorious picture of myself. The truth at any cost has to be +reported; but I protest with emphasis, and this is also true, that I +always experienced real pain when I beheld the disastrous consequences +which the faults of others brought upon themselves, and that I neither +took pleasure in revenge, nor cherished sentiments of ambition in doing +good to my family--if indeed I did do good. The reader will be able to +judge of that from the sequel of these Memoirs. + +When a group of closely related persons in one household fall to +quarrelling, all the causes which perpetuate faults of character and +conduct begin to operate. Each member of the company is perfectly +acquainted with the weak side of his neighbour, and knows exactly how to +sting him to the quick. Exacerbated tempers and prejudiced minds judge +everything awry, while partisans and flatterers add fuel to the fire. +Zeal is misconstrued into craft and tyranny; no protestations and no +arguments suffice to remove such false impressions. The torment of the +hell in which one has to live blinds reason and enslaves the freedom of +volition; years of unhappiness pass by before the weapons of vindictive +rage are blunted by constant acts of toleration and disinterested deeds +of kindness, and the innocent are seen in their true light. To blame the +doings of a family divided against itself is much the same as blaming +the actions of somnambulists. + +We had never used the outward demonstrations of affection, kisses and +caresses, in our domestic circle. Yet we were bound together by real +sentiments of friendliness and love on all sides. Unluckily the seeds of +discord had already begun to germinate in our brains. Besides my mother, +three brothers and three sisters, my sister-in-law was there, with her +hot, headstrong, vindictive temperament, her aptitude for colouring +everything to suit her own purpose, and her established dominion over +the minds of my relations. During my father's long illness there had +been no real head in the household. Everybody passed for master. No one +learned the virtues of submission and filial obedience. Each member of +the family had his own engagements, his own separate obligations, +together with the passions proper to himself as a human being. There was +no defect of intelligence or mental energy. But lacking a central +authority which might have brought man's egotistic passions into +wholesome subjection, self-love and caprice turned the individuals of +the group into so many political agents, bent on achieving their own +ends, without regard for the common interest. I must not omit the +chronic malady under which we suffered--that predilection for poetry, +which tinged all we thought and planned with romanticism. During a +period of many years no records had been kept either of the income +derived from our estate, or of the sales which had been made. With +perfect justice each in turn denied that he had directed our affairs. In +such circumstances the death of the father leaves a family exposed to +direst intestine warfare; and I should be both indiscreet and inhuman if +I were to lay the whole blame of what ensued upon any of the six +relatives whom I have mentioned. + +A young man like myself, of little more than twenty years, prone to +thinking rather than to speaking, with a military air acquired abroad, +when he found himself in the middle of so many working brains, and +attempted to effect a total revolution, could not but raise +irascibilities of all sorts and expose himself to odious suspicions. The +portrait which I mean to paint of my own physical and other qualities +will perhaps reveal defects which rendered such suspicions, unjust as +they are, at any rate excusable. + +My mother was not so overwhelmed by the recent loss of her husband as to +be unable to think of business. She demanded the repayment of her dowry, +small as it was, like one who feels the coming shipwreck and seeks a +skiff for his salvation. My sister-in-law, bent as usual on displaying +her talent for affairs, called the brokers, Jews, and female go-betweens +around her. My sisters were always conferring in secret among +themselves, or with my sister-in-law, who kept promising them husbands +and marriage-portions. My brother Gasparo, at the very moment when he +solemnly promised to assume the reins of government, handed over the +money I had got from Padua to his wife, to do as she thought best with, +reserving only a few coins for his own purse. Then he relapsed into his +ordinary ways of life, his literary studies, his society of wit and +genius, and gave no signs of any firm intention to make himself the +master. + +About twenty days had passed since my father died, when I was summoned +to a serious conference with my elder brother, my mother, and my +sister-in-law. We seated ourselves upon four straw-bottomed rickety +chairs, and my sister-in-law, with an air betokening the gravity of the +occasion, moved the following resolution. Signor Massimo ought to be +repaid (this, mark well, was meant to gain me over). With a view to +discharging the debts we owed him, and for other urgent necessities, it +would be advisable to sell the upper dwelling in our town-house for the +sum of 1200 ducats on the lives of us four brothers. A purchaser was +ready (possibly Signor Francesco Zini). The capital left over would +enable us to put our affairs in order, and to go forward swimmingly upon +a new and proper method of administration. My mother blinked approval of +this fine idea. My brother declared that it was the only course left +open to us. They all looked at me and waited for my assent. I did not +comprehend by what right my mother and sister-in-law took part in the +conference, or how my brother was not ashamed of cutting the figure he +did there, and of following his wife's suggestions with such docility. A +hell of squabbling yawned before me, and I answered as coldly as I could +that, so far as Signor Massimo was concerned, I could trust his generous +indulgence towards a friend in difficulties, and that I did not approve +of selling property upon our joint lives. Such a step seemed to me mere +progress on the former road to ruin. I should prefer to let our mansion, +removing the whole family to the country, where we could live for +one-third of the expense, until our debts were paid and the estate was +nursed into comparative prosperity. + +This scandalous ultimatum, which wounded the inclinations and the +self-interest of every member in the family, won me the reputation of a +very Dionysius of Syracuse. Day by day, in secret conclaves, the storm +against me grew and gathered strength. My brother Francesco, however, +had written from Corfu that he was coming home, and I judged it prudent +to await his arrival. Until I gained his support, I stood alone, hated +and dreaded like a fatal comet by my kindred. To distract my mind from +painful thoughts, I summoned all my mental forces, and poured forth +torrents of verse and prose and bizarre fancies upon paper. All through +my long and troubled life I have drawn relief from two main sources. One +is my own robust and democratic[135] bent of mind. The other is my +aptitude for studying human nature and for writing. I may truly say +that the exercise of fancy and the art of composition have been to my +mental pains what opiates are to physical torments. + + + + +XX. + +_We plunge from bad to worse, deeper and deeper into the mire._ + + +When my brother Francesco arrived from the Levant, I explained to him +the state of our affairs, and my own wishes with regard to their +administration. We both decided that he should repair to Friuli, and +undertake the management of our estates there. Gasparo was to remain +titular head of the family, while Francesco received rents, kept strict +accounts, and provided for the common household. Meanwhile we begged our +mother to charge herself with certain domestic duties, and our +sister-in-law with certain others, hoping by this apportionment of +officers to introduce harmony and order into the establishment. My +sister-in-law displayed a really exemplary resignation, merely +expressing her desire that, at this juncture, the account-book of +expenditure which she had kept for some years past should be signed by +her husband and his three brothers, in token of approval and in +discharge to her of all pecuniary obligations. + +I strove to make her understand that there was no need for such a +receipt in form; nobody would dream of calling her to account, and we +were all very grateful for her services. She would not listen to my +arguments, but insisted on our signing a certain notebook scrawled with +cabalistic characters and numbers. Francesco observed that we might +safely sign, for the sake of peace and quiet. Having entered our family +without a farthing, accompanied by her father and mother, whom we had +supported for many years and buried at our own charges, she was +incapable of making claims on the estate. To this he added that he had +consulted lawyers, and that he was quite convinced of the propriety of +yielding to her wishes. + +The sequel of this history will show that his reasoning, though +plausible enough, was faulty, and that the policy he recommended led to +further complications. Gasparo and Almoro had already signed; Francesco +was prepared to follow suit; I did not care to take the odium of +standing out alone. Accordingly, four signatures were generously +appended to the mass of undecipherable hieroglyphics, without any +attempt on our part to examine the accounts, which by this act we +formally accepted. + +Francesco set off for Friuli, after promising to maintain a detailed +correspondence with Gasparo on the state and management of our farms +there, and not to let himself be wheedled out of money or produce at the +demand of every one and anybody. I did not then know what a worthless +coadjutor I had summoned to support my policy. Without the least +intention to defraud, he was governed by an insect's blind instinct for +his own particular advantage. Under a compliant exterior, he concealed +the subtlety of a diplomatist. His sole aim was to temporise and make +concessions, with the view of bringing matters to a rupture and of +obtaining his own share in the division of our common patrimony. This +end he pursued in secrecy and silence, without reflecting on his duties +to the family, or the position of our three unmarried sisters, and the +discords which his pursuit of self-interest was bound to foment. + +What followed after his departure for Friuli seemed conclusively to +prove that a plan had been laid to drive him to the Levant and me to +Dalmatia by involving us in embarrassments of all sorts. I accuse +nobody; the heated passions which raged round us, and the injuries from +which I suffered, deserve compassion more than blame. + +Scarcely a day passed without letters being sent from Venice, begging my +brother to dispatch provisions or money on various pretences. He +complied with every application, whether it bore the name of Gasparo or +of my mother or my sister-in-law. In the course of some seven months he +had exhausted the whole harvest of that year, without asking for +accounts or disputing the claims made upon the property he managed. In +like manner the profits of certain houses in Venice, and of some farms +at Bergamo and Vicenza, amounting to 800 ducats, had been dissipated. +When letters still kept coming, demanding supplies and setting forth our +urgent needs, my brother could only answer that there was nothing left +to send. It was vain to inquire how the casks of wine and sacks of corn +and bags of cash had vanished. Everybody had taken something to defray +his own particular expenses. One said, "I got only so much;" another, "I +got so much; I did this, and I did that." Gasparo knew less than anybody +how matters had been managed, and had kept no account of the least +article. The conclusion arrived at was that we must all die of hunger +unless we sold some piece of the estate upon our joint lives. + + "Ora incomencian le dolenti note." + "And now begins the Iliad of our woes." + + + + +XXI. + + _My attitude of patient calm is useless.--Volcanic eruptions, + machinations, tragi-comic civil wars within our household._ + + +At this point I resolved to step forth boldly and to take the whole +weight of our affairs upon my shoulders, without troubling my head about +being called a tyrant and disturber of domestic peace. I proclaimed +aloud that the family must retire for some time into the country and +economise. Nothing would induce me to consent to sales or mortgages. +Then I began to contract debts on my own account, and to part with my +personal trifles for the support of the household. I soon saw that it +was impossible in this way to keep fifteen people, servants included, at +Venice. Whenever I insisted upon the necessity of leaving for the +country, all the women rose in revolt, and turned their backs without a +word of answer. Our dining-table became the scene of daily quarrels, +sullen faces, surly glances, biting speeches. I was deeply grieved to +observe that a final division of the estate was drawing nearer and +nearer. To avert this catastrophe seemed impracticable, and I reflected +gloomily upon the condition to which my brother Gasparo would be +reduced, with a wife and five children to support upon the fourth part +of our encumbered property. Meanwhile I could not blame him except for +his incurable indolence and absolute immersion in studies for which I +shared his weakness. + +Among the habitues of the house, none of them friends of mine, were +certain lawyers. I noticed that these gentlemen had frequent conferences +with the ladies of the family who ruled my brother. They were clearly +plotting against me, and seeking means to set the machinery of the law +in movement in order to hamper my free action. There was also a lady to +whom the female members of my family paid visits every evening. She was +the Countess Elisabetta Ghellini of Vicenza, widow of the patrician +Barbarigo Balbi, who died some years before this epoch, leaving her the +mother of an only son. It is exceedingly rare to find a lady endowed +with the excellent qualities of heart and head which she possessed in a +supreme degree. About forty years of age, infirm of health, and exposed +to constant litigation through various claims advanced against her +moderate estates, she bore the trials of life with steady courage and +constant trust in Heaven. Her chief interest was the education of her +son, a boy of eight or nine, for whom she had provided masters, while +she herself instilled into his mind the principles of sound religion and +morality. Gifted with a lively intellect, and fond of literature, she +spent a large part of the day in reading poetry, and opened her house to +a society composed mainly of persons who had suffered in the battles of +life. Her extreme sympathy for the afflicted led her to despoil herself +with admirable intrepidity, and to bestow on others what was needed for +her own support. This compassionate and pious lady had for her adviser +and advocate in the numerous lawsuits to which she was condemned, the +celebrated Conte Francesco Santorini. + +It will appear from the sequel that this digression upon the Countess +Ghellini was needed to explain an important passage in my life. Amid the +din and squabbles of our home, I used at times to catch fragments of +the panegyrics poured forth by my female relatives and Gasparo upon this +lady, and heard them rehearse the sonnets which they intended to recite +in her honour, or to offer for her recreation. Such was the common +custom at that period, observed by poets in the houses they frequented. +I speedily divined that a plot was in process of formation to secure the +assistance of a very famous advocate against me. Trusting this +intuition, I resolved to introduce myself, although I had received no +invitation, to the lady whom my enemies so warmly praised. + +She received me, and asked who I might be. On giving my name, the noble +and yet kindly distance of her manner changed suddenly to sternness. A +few phrases which I thought it right to utter about her interest in my +relatives increased this expression of reserve; and she began to speak +as follows, with the happy choice of words which was peculiar to her: +"Sir, I am a poor woman as regards the wealth of this life, but by the +grace of God I am rich in the possession of good sentiments and a sound +education. Your family is cultivated, and deserves to meet with kindly +feeling and esteem from all the world. It is a pity that such a family +should be annoyed and brought to sorrow by a certain individual bound to +it by ties of blood, duty, and respect. A mother of very noble birth +treated with contempt, sisters domineered over, persons of merit +regarded with hatred--all kinds of extravagances and injustice--such +things dishonour the individual of whom I speak." This preamble made me +feel inclined to bow myself out of the room in silence, since I am by +nature far from prone to justify my innocence; but politeness and a fear +that a certain famous advocate, if prejudiced against me, might upset my +plans, kept me where I was. I suffered, however, keenly from the +barbarous picture which had been presented to me, and began to plead in +self-defence. She interrupted me by saying that she did not believe me +to be entirely bad-hearted, and that if I ceased to follow the counsels +of a certain friend of mine, I might become a rational and right-feeling +young man. So then, here was Signor Massimo once more made a +scape-goat--the friend who had assisted me in Dalmatia, succoured my +family in our distress, and who still remained our uncomplaining +creditor. The impropriety of this attack stung me so sharply that I +could not hold my tongue. I had been treated as a knave and fool without +losing patience; but never in my life have I heard my friends insulted +without resenting the injustice. + +I told the lady, knitting my brows and speaking seriously, that she was +bound to listen to me: unless, as I thought not, she was indifferent to +equity. Prejudice, I said, is a very unjust judge, and I did not wish +her to fall into that category. Then I entered into a candid narration +of our family affairs. I described the ill results of reckless +mal-administration. I related what had already happened and was sure to +happen, what I wanted, how I was opposed, my honourable intentions, the +plots and schemes to thwart me, the services rendered by my friend and +his guiltlessness of any machinations. I could see that she was both +surprised and penetrated by my reasoning. Just at this point Conte +Francesco Santorini entered the apartment, tired and drowsy. We +exchanged greetings, and the lady spoke to him in this way: "Count, you +were quite right to doubt about the Gozzi. This gentleman has put a very +different face upon the matter, and I know not what to think." The Count +sank sleepily into a chair, murmuring: "Did I not tell you that you +ought to hear both sides? The chatter of women, heated brains" ... And +having said these words, he subsided into slumber. + +I begged this noble lady to continue her protection to our family, and +to receive the visits which I hoped to pay her; if she sought to help +us, she could do so by allaying the fever which was burning in so many +irritated bosoms. For my part, I cultivated her friendship through many +long years, until death forced me to deplore the loss of one whom I +esteemed and reverenced. My relatives, on the other hand, gradually +relaxed in their attentions, ceased to visit her, and changed their +eulogistic sonnets into petty satires. + + + + +XXII. + + _The dogs of the law are let loose on me by my family.--It is + impossible to avoid a separation._ + + +As time went on, my steady intention to remove our family into the +country, and my other plans of reform, roused my domestic antagonists to +various pettifogging stratagems. The black-robed seedy myrmidons of the +courts began to haunt our dwelling, taking inventories of every nail on +the pretext of my mother's dowry, delivering demands in form from my +three sisters for maintenance and marriage portions, presenting bills +for drapery and jewels furnished by a company of merchants to the tune +of 1500 ducats, and suing on the part of my two brothers-in-law for some +4000 ducats owed to them. Little creditors of all descriptions rose in +swarms around us; and what was still more astounding, my sister-in-law +advanced a claim of 900 ducats, due to her, she said, upon the statement +of accounts which we had signed so negligently. One would have thought +the myrmidons and ban-dogs of the law had been unleashed by hunters bent +on driving a wild beast from his lair; while the satisfaction and +triumph depicted on the faces of my relatives showed too clearly who +were the real authors of this legal persecution. + +I bore the brunt of these attacks with my habitual philosophy of +laughter, drew closer to my brother Almoro, and informed Francesco by +letter of what was being conspired against us. Count Francesco Santorini +helped me at this pinch with excellent advice. Under his direction I +took the following measures. Francesco received instructions to hold +fast by every rood of our Friulian property, and to send me copies of +any writs which might be served upon him there. I recognised my mother's +dowry, and offered annual payments to the merchants and my +brothers-in-law. To my sisters I replied in writing that their +maintenance should be duly attended to, but that it was impossible to +create marriage portions for them under the conditions of entail to +which the estate was subjected. With regard to the monstrous claims +advanced by my sister-in-law, I flatly denied their validity until they +had been submitted to a court of justice. Then I proceeded to meet the +current expenditure of our establishment as well as I was able, while +waiting for the time of harvest; and all this I did without mooting the +question of Gasparo's separation from our brotherhood, in the hope that +little by little things would settle down in peace and quietness. Vain +and idle expectation! My reforms, by cutting at the root of vested +interests, and checking the arbitrary sway of Heaven knows whom, merely +fanned the flames of rage which burned against me. In a private +memorial, addressed to my mother, brother, sister-in-law, and sisters, +I finally explained the impossibility of supporting the family any +longer at Venice, exposed as I was to annoying and expensive litigation +with the very persons who ate and drank at the same table. I might just +as well have talked to images. Writs issued by my mother, my +sister-in-law, my sisters, fell in showers. Slights and insults +thickened daily. Our common table had become a pit of hell, worthy to be +sung by Dante. To such a state of misery had irrational dissensions +brought a set of relatives who really loved each other. + +In order to shelter Almoro and myself from the wordy missiles which fell +like hail all dinner-time, I had a little table laid for us two in a +separate apartment. The covers were removed with rudeness, on the +pretext that the linen, plates, dishes, &c., belonged to my mother's +dowry, and that if I wanted such furniture I must buy it. Pushed in this +way to extremities, I decided to leave a house which had become for me a +hell on earth. Perhaps it was impolitic to take this step. But I could +not stand these petty persecutions longer. Before quitting the infernal +regions, I begged permission from my mother to take away the beds in +which my brother Almoro and I enjoyed our troubled slumbers, offering to +pay their price to the credit of her dowry. She replied with a sardonic +smile of discontent that she could not grant my request, since the beds +were needed by the family. I accepted this refusal with hilarity. + + "E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle." + "And thence we issued to review the stars." + + + + +XXIII. + + _Calumnious reports, negotiations, a legal partition of our family + estate, tranquillity sought in vain._ + + +I had hardly settled down with my brother Almoro in the remote quarter +of S. Caterina, where lodgings are cheap in proportion to their +inconvenience and discomfort, before the whole town began to talk about +our doings. Three of the brothers Gozzi, it was rumoured, had laid +violent hands upon the family estate; their eldest brother with his wife +and five children, their three unmarried sisters, and their mother, a +Venetian noblewoman worthy of all respect, had been plunged in tears and +indigence by the barbarous inhumanity of these unnatural monsters. The +hovel I had hired, and where I suffocated with Almoro in the smoke of a +miserable kitchen, ill-furnished and waited on by an old beldame called +Jacopa, was besieged by the myrmidons of the law. Everything was done to +dislodge me from the city, and to make me abandon the line of action on +which I had resolved. Democritus and my innocence came to my aid; and I +determined to stand firm with silent and passive resistance. + +In these painful circumstances I heard to my great sorrow that my +brother's wife had persuaded him to become the lessee of the theatre of +S. Angelo at Venice.[136] Her romantic turn of fancy, together with her +love of domination, made her conceive wild hopes of profit from this +scheme. A company of actors were engaged at fixed salaries; and she was +to play the part of controller, purse-holder, and stage-manager for the +troupe at Venice and on the mainland. Moved by pity for my brother and +his innocent children, I did everything I could, without appearing +personally in the matter, to dissuade this hot-headed woman from so +perilous an enterprise. She repelled all such attempts with scorn, being +firmly convinced that she would gain a fortune and make her +brothers-in-law bite their nails with envy. + +I saw that the division of our patrimony could no longer be postponed, +and civilly intimated to Gasparo that the time was come for taking this +supreme step. Articles were accordingly drawn up, whereby the several +parcels of our estate in Friuli, Venice, Bergamo, and Vicenza were +partitioned into four lots. Provision was made for the repayment of my +mother's dowry and for the proper maintenance of my three sisters, all +of whom elected to reside with Gasparo. A fund was formed for the +liquidation of debts, the charge of which devolved on me. I undertook to +render an annual report of this operation, showing how I had bestowed +the monies in my hands as trustee for the family. Nothing was fixed +about my sister-in-law's claims for reimbursement; but it will be seen +that when her theatrical speculation proved a ruinous failure, I had to +take these also into account. Gasparo expressed a wish to obtain the +upper dwelling in our mansion as part of his share. The lower dwelling +was conceded to Francesco, Almoro and myself. To my mother and sisters +we offered the hospitality of sons and brothers, in case at any time +they should repent of their decision to abide with Gasparo. + +It might be imagined that, while these negotiations were in progress, I +had no time to spend on literary occupations. Nothing could be further +from the fact. I found in them my solace and distraction, pouring forth +multitudes of compositions, for the most part humorous and alien to the +cares which weighed upon my mind. The course of my Memoirs will bring to +light many curious incidents which these literary pastimes occasioned, +and the narration of which will prove, I hope, far from saddening to my +readers. + + + + +XXIV. + + _I enter on a period of toilsome litigation, and become acquainted + with Venetian lawyers._ + + +I should have been an arrant fool had I flattered myself with the hope +that this partition would introduce the olive-branch of peace into our +midst. On the contrary, I looked forward, and with justice, to all kinds +of coming troubles. Two-thirds of the estate were saved from extravagant +administration by the process; but the minds of Gasparo's family had +been almost incurably embittered by the same cause. When I wanted to lay +my hands upon our documents, in order to study the nature of various +entails and trusts under which the estates were settled, I found that +all these papers had been sold out of spite. Who had done this I did not +learn, but I was informed in great secrecy by a servant-maid that they +had been sold to a certain pork-butcher. I repaired immediately to his +shop, and was only just in time to repurchase some abstracts and wills, +which had not yet been used to wrap up sausages. Then I set to work in +the cabinets of notaries and advocates and in the public archives, +following the scent afforded by my recovered papers. More than eighty +bulky suits in my own handwriting remain to show how patiently I +studied the rights and claims of our estate, and now I prepared myself +for the task of laying these before the courts. + +At this epoch I made acquaintance with the celebrated pleader, Antonio +Testa, under whose direction and advice I embarked upon a series of +litigations which kept me fully occupied for eighteen years, and in the +course of which I became acquainted with the men who haunt our palace of +justice, and learned the chicaneries of legal warfare. Inveterate +abuses, introduced in the remote past, and complicated by the ingenuity +of lawyers through successive generations (most of them men of subtle +brains, some of them devoid of moral rectitude), have been built up into +a system of pleading as false as it is firmly grounded and imbued with +ineradicable insincerity. This system consists, for the most part, of +quibbling upon side-issues, throwing dust in the eyes of judges, +cavilling, misrepresenting, taking advantage of technical errors, doing +everything in short to gain a cause by indirect means. And from this +false system neither honourable nor dishonest advocates are able to +depart. + +In justice to the legal profession, I must, however, say that I found +many practicians who combined the gifts of eloquence and intellectual +fervour with urbanity, cordiality, prudence, and disinterested zeal. +Outside the vicious circle of their system they were men of loyalty and +honour. Among these I ought to pay a particular tribute to my friendly +counsel and defender, Signor Testa. Knowing my circumstances and my +upright motives, he refused to take the fees which were his due, and not +unfrequently opened his purse to me at a pinch in my necessities. I have +never met with a lawyer more quick at seizing the strong and weak points +of a case, more rapid in his analysis of piles of documents, more +sagacious in divining the probable issue of a suit, or more acute in +calculating the mental powers, the bias, and the equity of judges. Time +and the circumstances of our several lives have drawn us somewhat apart. +But nothing can diminish the feeling of deep gratitude which I shall +always cherish for one who helped to heal the distractions and to +improve the fallen fortunes of my family. + +The final result of eight or nine tedious lawsuits, carried through with +the assistance of Signor Testa, was that I received several parcels of +our estates in Friuli, Vicenza, Bergamo, and Venice, which had been +alienated by fraudulent evasions of entail.[137] Meanwhile I found time +to visit my mother and Gasparo's family. The latter were busily engaged +in concocting and translating plays for my brother's theatre. These +visits, paid with cordiality and frankness on my side, were usually the +occasions of requests for money on my mother's. She begged with maternal +dignity for little loans. I complied to the best of my ability, and +forgot to remind her of her debts. My sister-in-law forced herself to +treat me with an affectation of flattery. My sisters looked upon me with +real affection, checked in its expression by I know not what untoward +influence. My brother accepted me with philosophical indifference. + + + + +XXV. + + _A collision with my brother's family, due to old grudges and to + present needs.--They make me a married man without my having taken + a wife._ + + +My brother Gasparo's income, derived from his portion of the family +estates, from the interest on my mother's dowry and the annual allowance +for my sisters' maintenance, together with the profits of his writing +and of certain literary services rendered to his Excellency Marco +Foscarini,[138] late Doge of glorious memory, amounted to about 1500 +ducats, free of all debts and obligations. This was certainly nothing +very splendid; but neither would the wealth of Croesus have been +anything to boast of in the hands of an extravagant family, ruled only +by the caprice of its component members. + +I have mentioned above that Gasparo obtained the upper dwelling in our +house at Venice, which was let for 150 ducats, while we three brothers +received the lower dwelling, at that time inhabited by him. Some few +months were allowed him to remove from the one apartment to the other. +But no sooner had he entered into legal possession of his new habitation +than he, or perhaps I ought to say his wife, let it again to the noble +lady Ginevra Loredan Zeno. She paid the rent of several years in +advance, and installed herself in Gasparo's part of the mansion, while +he, with all his family, continued to inhabit our part with the utmost +sang-froid, taking no further heed of the engagement he was under to us +three brothers. Now we had resolved to put this tenement into good +repair and to let it for some years, until the debts of the estate had +been discharged and we could go to live in it at peace. With this view +we had already found a tenant, who was no other than the Contessa +Ghellini Balbi. She, on her side, had given up her old apartment, which +was already let in advance to other tenants by her landlord. Time went +on, and I saw no sign of our house being abandoned to our use, according +to the family agreement. It appeared only too clearly that the +partition I had demanded, my resolve to pay the family debts out of +income without resorting to sale or mortgage, and my application to the +courts for annulment of contracts made during my father's lifetime, were +all of them unpardonable offences in the eyes of those who had made the +debts, the mortgages, the contracts. + +I began by gently asking for the house which was our portion, seeing +that we had resigned the upper dwelling to our brother at his particular +request. No answer reached me; but rumours ran around the city that I +was now attempting to turn my old mother, my three marriageable sisters, +my brother, his wife, and five innocent children into the streets. At +this point I expected that one of those interminable lawsuits, which are +the dishonour of the legal profession, but which never lack advocates to +keep them going, would be commenced against me. In order to lend colour +and substance to their false report, my relatives determined to give me +a wife without consulting me. It was impossible to fix definite +calumnies upon Mme. Ghellini Balbi, because of her exemplary life and +conspicuous piety. But my daily visits to her house offered a pretext +for injurious insinuations; and I soon heard it announced that I was +secretly married to this lady, and that all my plots had only this one +end in view. Such gossip did me honour in some respects. Yet I was +grieved that a lady of excellent conduct, devoted to her only son, and +old enough to be my mother, should be made the butt of malignant +animosity.[139] + +Without wasting time or breath in contradicting these unjust and lying +vociferations of my private enemies, I made my mind up to obtain +possession of my house by all the straightforward means in my power. +Accordingly I managed to meet my brother apart from the din of women, +and laid a clear statement before him of my obligations to Mme. Ghellini +Balbi (who ran the risk of remaining without a roof to shelter her) and +of my well-founded rights which were being iniquitously set at nought. +The poor fellow seemed on the point of weeping. His gestures reminded me +of patient Job, while he protested that he had nothing whatever to do +with a state of affairs the injustice of which he frankly admitted. He +added that he had to put up with infernal clamourings--that he was +called a chicken-hearted poltroon, a father without entrails for his +offspring--in short, that he was neither obeyed nor listened to at home. +Then, to convince me that it was not he who opposed my entrance into our +part of the house, he took a pen and wrote and signed a declaration to +the effect that he fully acknowledged the title of his brothers +Francesco, Carlo, and Almoro, and that he would never interfere to +prevent our taking possession of our lawful property. + +All these steps proved fruitless. Time pressed, and I found myself +obliged to bring my cause before a judge, who chanced to be his +Excellency Count Galean Angarano, at that time Avvogador del +Comune.[140] What was my astonishment when I saw my sister-in-law, like +an advocate in petticoats, at the head of my mother and my sisters, with +my hen-pecked brother to bring up the rear, come marching into court. I +will not dwell upon this too too comic scene-- + + "For my Thalia takes no thought to sing." + +The judge recognised that my claims were indisputable. But before +pronouncing sentence in my favour he strove to settle matters by +mediation. Conferences took place; first between the bench and his +Excellency the Senator Daniele Reniero, who acted for Mme. Ghellini +Balbi; then between the Senator and my sister-in-law, who was the rock +and stone of our vexation. I was curious to know the upshot of these +whispered confabulations. At length Senator Reniero came up and told me +that if I was willing to disburse sixty ducats, which my sister-in-law +had pressing need of, I might enter at once into possession of the +house without a verdict from the bench. Such a verdict would be appealed +against and would certainly lead to indescribable delays. I thanked his +Excellency for suggesting this arrangement. My sister-in-law received +her ducats, and we obtained our dwelling. I had it straightway put into +repair, for it looked as though it had sustained a siege. Mme. Balbi +went at once to live there with a lease of five years only, while I +retired with my brothers into a cheap house, which I had taken at S. +Ubaldo and furnished with strict regard to economy. Here I arranged for +Almoro's tuition by an excellent ecclesiastic. For my own part, I went +on paying off debts, rebuilding such of our houses as needed it, +prosecuting my lawsuits, and amusing myself in leisure hours with +literature. + + + + +XXVI. + + _A serious event, depicting the character of my uncle, the Senator + Almoro Cesare Tiepolo._ + + +A very long time had elapsed since I visited my maternal uncle, the +Senator Almoro Cesare Tiepolo. I imagined that my mother and the persons +about her, who were assiduous in paying court to him from motives wholly +alien to my nature, might have prejudiced the good old man against me. +Still I did not choose to undergo the mortification of defending +myself, especially as I could only do so by accusing those for whom at +the bottom of my heart I felt both love and reverence. I knew, moreover, +that our Venetian patricians, though just and dispassionate upon the +bench in their capacity of judges, were singularly liable to be +influenced by what they heard in private at their own homes from suitors +or clients, and that it was extremely difficult to remove impressions +which had once been made upon their minds. This weakness I have always +ascribed to their amiability, and have regarded the nobles of our +Republic as really adorable for qualities of the heart, in spite of the +sentimental bias I have mentioned. + +My habitual taciturnity and solitary ways of life, my neglect of petty +social duties, my habit of asking and desiring nothing from fortune, +together with the freedom of my pen, might have won me formidable +enemies, if any such had deigned to look down upon a person of so little +consequence as I am. + +My wise and good uncle, who was suffering from a dropsy in the chest, +and not far from death's door, let me know that he should like to see +me. I went at once to his house; and was bidden to take a seat at his +bedside. He began to complain gently that I had so long neglected to +visit him. I answered frankly that I had stayed away through fear of his +having been wrongfully prejudiced against me, and also because I heard +that he was angry with me, perhaps on account of my prolonged absence. +"If I complained," he said, "that my sister and your mother was being +exposed to ill-treatment and affronts, this was no reason why you should +suspend your visits." "I see," I replied, "that my suspicions and my +fears are not without foundation. But this is not the proper time to +trouble you with lengthy narratives in self-defence. Your health is a +matter of concern to me for your sake and for my own. I have tried +everything in my power to avert discords and divisions, even to the +point of doing violence to my naturally pacific temper. I feel sure, +when you recover, as I hope you will with all my heart, that I shall +make it clear to you that I have hurt nobody and attacked nobody, and +that I am only doing all I can to benefit our family, without the least +regard for my mere private interest; nay, that I am bearing the burden +of enormous cares and weighty business, not to speak of exposing myself +to risks and dangers, for the common good." + +He was just, prudent, a philosopher, and ill. Therefore he made no +immediate answer. I renewed my daily visits, and had the satisfaction of +hearing afterwards that the venerable old man expressed himself in these +words to my mother: "Believe me, your son Carlo is a good young fellow." + +His illness kept increasing, and I perceived, by the persons whom he +urged to visit him, that he was anxious to be reconciled with all of his +acquaintances who might be under the impression that he bore a grudge +against them. A certain Frate Bernardo of the Gesuati, who then passed +for a learned ecclesiastic, acted as his spiritual director, and used to +read at his request portions of the Holy Scriptures aloud to him. +Observing his indifference upon the point of death, this excellent friar +was moved to say: "I do not want you to prepare yourself for death too +much like a philosopher." + +Though he had filled important posts in the Government, and had +frequently sat as member of the sublime Council of Ten, he was never +heard, throughout his last illness, to utter the least word regarding +the tribunals of justice or the state. + +During his whole lifetime he had taken delight in gathering company +around his hospitable board, and seeing the table furnished with good +cheer, especially with the choicest kinds of fish. Now that he was sick +unto death, and could only take some spoonfuls of such broth as are +administered to dying persons, he still would have the table served as +formerly for guests. Every morning he used to send for one of his +gondoliers, and inquire what sorts of fine fish were that day in the +market. On receiving the man's report, he commented in praise or blame, +as this might be, upon the season and the quality of the fishes for +sale, and the various waters in which they had been caught. After +settling these affairs of the household, he proceeded to religious +exercises, grave discourses with his spiritual director, and prayers of +fervent piety. I ought further to testify that he breathed his last in +the spirit of a great man, philosophically Christian, and that his +example inspired me with the desire to imitate his end. + +He possessed the virtue of patience in the highest degree. No one ever +saw his temper stirred by any untoward accident which happened to him. +In order to give a single instance of his intrepid constancy, I will +relate an event which happened some years before his death. One evening, +while alighting from his gondola, he caught his foot in the long and +ample robes of the patrician mantle, and was upon the point of falling +into the canal. The gondolier, in his anxiety to catch and keep him up, +let the oar go which he was holding in his hands. The oar fell with +violence upon the right arm of his master, and broke it. The gondolier +was not aware of what had happened; and my uncle, though he knew very +well, uttered no complaint. He ascended the stairs, and when he reached +his apartment, the valet came forward to help him off, as usual, with +his cloak. Then at last he remarked with imperturbable long-suffering: +"Pull gently, for my right arm is in two pieces." The uproar among the +servants, who were greatly attached to him, was tremendous. The +gondolier ran up, weeping bitterly and begging to be pardoned. He bade +them all be calm, and said to the man: "You did me harm when you were +meaning to do me good. What fault have you committed, which requires my +pardon?" After this he had to lie forty days in bed without altering his +position, at the surgeon's orders; yet he never uttered a syllable that +betrayed any impatience. I could relate a number of such traits of +character, but they have nothing to do with the Memoirs of my life. + +After his death, which I felt very deeply, as every one could see, a +certain Signor Giovannantonio Guseo came to call on me. This man +practised as notary, land-surveyor, advocate, registrar, and judge in +certain courts of Friuli. He was known to be more wily than the old +Greek Sinon, and had assisted my brother's wife in procuring the +alienation of certain portions of our entailed estates. Now he suggested +that it would do me great honour, as a sign of affectionate remembrance, +if I were to contribute ten sacks of flour and two casks of wine +annually to my mother, in addition to her dowry. I saw at once from whom +this proposal emanated, and admired the address with which the proper +moment had been chosen for working on my feelings. Such artifices, +however, were repugnant to my nature; and changing my tone from sadness +to cold reserve, I replied to the following effect. "I thought my +mother's preference for my brother Gasparo's family unfortunate; my own +house was always open to her, and here she would be revered and loved by +three respectful sons. Here she would enjoy her yearly maintenance, and +the income of her dowry. By refusing our offer, she only affronted us. +By accepting it, she would confer a benefit on Gasparo, the number of +whose family would be diminished. Meanwhile, the obligation I was under +of reducing debts, repairing buildings on the property, and reclaiming +parts of the entailed estates, rendered it impossible that I should +weaken the insufficient resources at my command by any such donation as +Signor Guseo had proposed." This answer set tongues wagging again, and +revived the opinion that I was a downright Phalaris. + +The estate of my uncle Tiepolo had gained nothing by his regency of +Zante and by other lucrative appointments. The probity of his character +did not suffer him to enrich himself at the expense of the State. +Accordingly, he provided by will that all his debts should be paid off, +appending a schedule of his creditors. The residue he bequeathed to his +sister Girolama for her lifetime, with reversion to my mother. On the +same sad occasion my mother inherited a portion of some landed property +in Friuli, which had belonged to an old aunt Tiepolo, who died +intestate. This, united to her dowry, formed a sufficient fund for her +establishment. + +My mother continued to regard me as her sixth finger, amputated without +any suffering on her part. Of course she had the right to dispose of her +affections as she felt inclined, and to keep her tender heart open for +the persons who possessed her favour. It was my misfortune not to +possess it, but I did not envy those who had that privilege; and I can +assure my readers that what caused me the greatest annoyance with regard +to my mother, was seeing her always without a ducat to spend according +to her fancy. This state of things continued when the whole property of +that branch of the Tiepolos passed into her hands upon the death of her +sister Girolama, who left furniture and a considerable amount of money +to my mother, jointly with my brother Gasparo and his children. + + + + +XXVII. + + _It is decided that I was a husband, though I had no wife.--Some + anecdotes of a serious character._ + + +An event happened which clenched the gossip of my imaginary marriage to +the Contessa Ghellini Balbi. The patrician Benedetto Balbi, Canon of +Padua and Abbot of Lonigo, a gentleman abundantly endowed with gifts of +nature and of fortune, who was this lady's brother-in-law, had caused +himself to be legally appointed sole guardian of his nephew Paolo, the +widow's only son. The lad may have been about ten years old at this +epoch; and his uncle resolved to separate him from his mother, and to +place him in a school kept by the Somascan fathers, at San Cipriano on +the island of Murano.[141] His mother, who was tenderly devoted to her +son, did not oppose his entrance into this college, but resented his +being torn from the arms which had nursed and fostered him till now, as +though she were a peril to his youth and had no claim to supervise his +education in the school. Sharp and angry words passed; and Mme. Balbi +applied to the courts, demanding to be nominated guardian together with +her brother-in-law. The conflagration spread, and I, innocent as I was, +found myself involved in it. With the object of strengthening his case, +the Cavaliere went about the town, loudly protesting that his +sister-in-law had contracted a second alliance with Count Carlo Gozzi; +that she had ceased thereby to be a Balbi, and had lost all rights over +the boy, who belonged to his family. I laughed, as usual, with the lady +over the pertinacity of folk in thinking we were married. But my +laughter was turned to seriousness, when the Cavaliere finally declared +his intention to be free of legal quarrels, and to abandon all the +schemes which he had formed for his nephew's advantage, leaving him +entirely to his mother's authority. + +Assuming a Catonian gravity, I pointed out to Mme. Balbi that she ought +to waive her just claims and to stomach her natural resentment for the +sake of her son. I firmly believed in my own soul that an ounce of +sincere love was worth more than a hundred pounds of gold. Yet I +reminded her that she was not in the position to make up to her boy for +the loss of his uncle's property. This reasoning, which I regard as mere +sophistry, but which the world accepts as irrefutable, made the lady +burst into a flood of tears and then exclaim: "You are right! I am a +poor woman, and should be condemned by everybody, perhaps even in the +future by my own son. I am ready to sacrifice my rights; I will bury in +my breast the stirrings of maternal love, the sense of insult and of +injury, all that may prove prejudicial to the interests of my adored +son, on whom I am unable to confer those benefits which lie within his +uncle's power. Pray do me the further kindness of undertaking to explain +the unalterable decision at which I have arrived." + +I praised her virtuous resolution, and reported to the noble gentleman, +her brother-in-law, from whom I have always received distinguished marks +of politeness, the decision she had come to. In doing so, I attempted to +draw a picture of her merits, and to maintain that her feelings were not +merely excusable, but worthy of the highest commendation. The Cavaliere +replied with some emotion: "You must not take me for a wild beast! I +mean that the boy shall be visited by his mother, and looked after in +all his wants, the charge of supplying which I take for the future on +myself. I am quite willing to let her bring him back from time to time +to dine with her, and only stipulate that her demonstrations of +tenderness shall not interfere with his education and discipline." These +solemn words of covenant having been exchanged, I was the instrument of +separating the boy from his mother's embraces, and of conducting him to +his appointed school. His behaviour on this occasion, in which firmness +blent with filial emotion, made me feel sure that he was destined to +reward his mother's virtues and his uncle's benevolence with conduct +worthy of the highest honours of his country. Only death, which spared +neither of his relatives, and which prevented them from reaping the +fruits of their respective love and kindness, defeated these +prognostications. The mother died twelve, and the uncle fifteen years +after the events I have narrated. Young Balbi grew up to be an ornament, +by his intellectual and moral qualities, by his probity and purity of +manners, by his sympathy for the oppressed, and by his thoroughly +national temper, to the Venetian Republic, in the administration of +which his birth opened for him a career of usefulness and honour. + + + + +XXVIII. + + _I should not have believed what is narrated in this chapter, if I + had not seen it with my own eyes._ + + +Family jars and discords have this effect upon embittered minds that +each member, wherever the wrong may really lie, is apt to think, not +only that he is in the right, but that the right is absolutely and +wholly on his side. For my part, I am not altogether sure that I was +justified in doing what I did, and what I have described above with +perfect candour. + +I was aware that the theatrical speculation into which my brother had +been induced to enter had taken a bad turn, and that worse might be +expected in the future. A malignant and vindictive spirit would have +found some satisfaction in these circumstances. As it was, I felt +sincerely sorry, and flattered myself on being therefore free from +malice. In proportion as things went from bad to worse, the rancour +against myself increased, as though I had been responsible for an +enterprise which I had always solemnly condemned by act and word. + +I kept up relations with my brother's family, wishing to maintain the +links of relationship unbroken, and to explain from time to time what I +was doing for the common good. In spite of these demonstrations of a +kindly feeling, which I admit were never very gushing, I saw to my deep +regret that the wounds caused by the partition of our patrimony had not +ceased to bleed. + +The youngest of my sisters, Chiara by name, induced perhaps by some +presentiment of coming trouble, asked me one day to take her under the +protection of us three brothers. I cordially acceded to her request, and +would have done the like by my mother and our two other sisters, had +they not spurned the acceptance of what they had hitherto rejected as a +great misfortune. + +I told this youngest of my sisters that, our mother not being under my +roof, my brother Francesco occupied with the estates in Friuli, Almoro a +mere boy engaged in studies, and I absorbed in legal affairs for the +common interests of the family, she could not with any propriety be left +to the custody of a rough and stupid serving-woman. I therefore begged +her to enter a convent for a while, until we should have changed our +mode of living, and should be in a position to receive her more suitably +and to take thought for her proper establishment. My sisters are neither +foolish nor ill-natured. Chiara accepted my proposal, and was placed in +the convent of S. Maria degli Angeli at Pordenone, as a young lady in +charge of the Superior. + +Any one exposed, as I was, to the rage of angry tongues, blackening me +with the epithets of unjust, inhumane, tyrannical, marrying me against +my will, and capable of insinuating the worst of charges against me for +my guardianship of a sister, would act rightly if he took the +precautions I did. Yet the precautions of the most prudent man on earth +do not always bear the good results expected of them. I speak with +experience derived from long study of ill-inclined men and +worse-inclined women, who have invariably taken my unalterable good +faith for venomous maliciousness. + +I was excessively pained to observe that the bitterness created in my +brother Gasparo's family by the events I have narrated remained +unconquerable. It is true that they concealed, as far as possible, their +grudge against me, whenever I paid them visits and treated them with +brotherly good-will. This grudge, however, could not help showing itself +in public; and it did so in a monstrous fashion, which I should not have +credited unless I had been an eye-witness of the scandal. + +My brothers and I were in the habit, during carnival-time, of frequently +attending the theatre of S. Angelo, which was under the direction of my +sister-in-law far rather than her husband. Amusement was less our object +than the wish to support, so far as in us lay, a speculation to which we +feared our brother had been sacrificed. We persuaded Mme. Ghellini Balbi +to accompany us; and she entered into our designs by applauding as +heartily as any of the audience. + +They had given at this theatre a translation of the French comedy called +_Esop at the Court_, which succeeded partly by the elegance of my +brother's Italian version, and partly by its novelty. Rumour told us +that the sequel, by the same French author, entitled _Esop in the Town_, +was being translated and would soon appear. We were eager to be present +at the first night, to back the piece with our approval, and to witness +its triumph. + +A worthy fellow, who aired his eloquence at Gasparo's house and also in +our own, took me apart one day, and spoke with an air of secrecy and +consternation to the following effect: "You must know that the +forthcoming play of _Esop in the Town_ will contain a scene, +interpolated, not translated from the original, in which you, your +brothers Francesco and Almoro, and Mme. Ghellini Balbi, are held up in a +cruel satire to the public scorn. Do not let my name transpire; but take +means to prevent this scandal; the comedy will be represented in five +days from now." I was far from disbelieving that what my friend said was +the truth; yet I took care to let no sign of my belief escape me. I +thanked him for the friendly interest which had prompted him to warn me, +but laughed the matter off as something beyond the range of possibility. +He strained every nerve to convince me, but got nothing for his pains +beyond smiles and ironical protestations of gratitude. I left him there +fuming with anger at my obstinate hilarity. + +I kept guard over my tongue in the presence of my brothers and the lady, +and made a show of great anxiety to see the new play produced upon the +boards. At last the first night came, and we all provided ourselves with +a convenient box for the occasion. We were disappointed to find the +theatre ill-attended, and to notice that the comedy dragged. _Esop at +the Court_ had caught the public by something piquant in its chief +character, by his grotesque, crook-backed figure, and by the appropriate +fables which had been written with real dramatic skill for the part. +_Esop in the Town_ was no less worthy of attention, but the novelty had +evaporated; it seemed a plagiarism of the former piece, and wearied the +audience like a composition which has lost its salt. At length the +interpolated scene, of which my friend had warned me, came on.[142] + +An ancient dame, attired in black, made her entrance, and unfolded the +tale of her self-styled calamities to Esop. Pouring forth an +interminable catalogue of woes, she enumerated all the lies which had +been circulated against myself and Mme. Balbi at the period of our +family dissensions. The ancient dame summed up by saying that she had +been turned out of house and home, together with a loving son, three +daughters, a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren, by three of her +own male children, the barbarous perverted offspring of her womb. Then +she appealed with tears for counsel and advice to Esop, who expressed +his sympathy in a frigidly elaborated fable. The ancient dame, attired +in black, was an exact image of our poor mother, who had been blinded by +a touch of spite against me and by the mud-honey of her favouritism into +allowing herself to be exposed in this way on a public stage for the +mirth of the populace. + +The scene was very long; it had nothing to do with the action of the +piece, having been foisted in to gratify a private animosity. The +audience, ignorant of what it meant, began to yawn; and it contributed +in no small measure to the failure of the play. + +While this indecent and malignant episode was dragging its slow length +along, I saw Mme. Ghellini Balbi becoming momently more taciturn and out +of humour, my two brothers flaming into anger and preparing for some act +of violence. The shouts of laughter with which I greeted this abortion +of a satire added fuel to their fire, and Francesco, spurred by martial +ardour, was on the point of defying the players. He only made me laugh +the louder; but I had some difficulty in persuading my companions to +quench their indignation in a cup of water, and to wrap themselves +around with imperturbable indifference. They obeyed me. If we had made a +disturbance, we should have put the cap on our own heads. As it was, our +cold behaviour snuffed out the whole episode, without awaking anybody's +interest. And such will, peradventure, be the fate of these Memoirs I am +writing of my life. + +In after days I was glad to have laughed at this indecent exhibition. +The perusal of an anecdote in AElian confirmed my self-congratulation. It +was to the following effect. "When," says he, "a firm courageous spirit +is attacked before the public in quizzical caricatures and gibing +insults, these trifles vanish like mist before the wind; but if they +meet with a nature which is base and proud and abject all at one and the +same time, they fill it with melancholy and madness, which often lead it +to the grave.[143] Take the proof of these remarks. Socrates, when he +was ridiculed upon the public stage by Aristophanes, enjoyed the fun and +laughed at it. Poliagros, under the same circumstances, went mad and +hanged himself." + +In concluding this episode, which I leave my readers to characterise +with stronger epithets than I shall use, I wish to affirm that I never +have believed, or can believe, that my brother Gasparo lent his pen or +his assent to the production of the scene in question. + + + + +XXIX. + + _A disagreeable action at law brought against me._ + + +While busily engaged in prosecuting my many lawsuits, I was unpleasantly +surprised by the revival of my sister-in-law's old claim for +reimbursement of monies expended by her in the management of our affairs +during my father's lifetime.[144] This preposterous claim had long been +lying dormant, and the better terms on which we were gradually coming to +live together made me forget it as a chimera of the past. + +My brother Gasparo's direction of the theatre of which he was the sole +lessee bore such fruits as every one predicted. Instead of the pecuniary +profits he had been encouraged to expect, the poor fellow was worried +with vexatious and aggressive opposition, peculiarly trying to one of +his gifts and temperament, but only too usual in enterprises of this +kind. + +Wounded pride and thirst for vengeance, together with the hideous +necessity of meeting debts contracted in this unsuccessful speculation, +were the causes which roused his wife to bring her alleged claims upon +the family into a law-court. The defendants in this suit were myself and +my two brothers Francesco and Almoro. It will be remembered that she had +induced us to sign her cabalistic book of magic numbers with the sole +object of freeing her from any possible pretensions upon our side. My +elder brother, who had been the first to sign, in order to give a good +example to his juniors, was not prosecuted by his wife. + +Our legal advisers maintained, with some show of reason, that Gasparo +was the real mover in this matter. For my part, knowing as I did his +peaceful character, I felt certain, that though he was capable of +countenancing irregularities through indolence and the desire to live a +quiet life, he was incapable of stirring up litigious strife on such +foundations. I was not ignorant that he had stooped to the theatrical +speculation in order merely to escape from a vortex of domestic +intrigues. I knew, moreover, that, after the partition of our patrimony, +his wife and family had changed their residence at least six times, +through restlessness, without informing him; so that he had gone to +knock at empty house-doors, and had casually learned from neighbours in +what quarter of the town his flighty brood had nested last. It also +reached my ears that his wife was selling property upon his life, and +that he had finally been driven by the tempest of his home to take a +distant lodging of two rooms,[145] where he installed himself with his +little heap of books and abandoned himself to study, seeking the peace +he could not find. After all, the father of a family who flies domestic +cares, only brings upon himself more carping cares than those which he +has fled from. All these considerations put together enabled me to +convince my counsel that Gasparo had no share in the proceedings of his +wife. + +In the pleadings which set forth my sister-in-law's cause, Signor Guseo, +already named by me above, deposed on obviously false oath that he had +been commissioned by us three brothers to examine her accounts, and that +he had found her claim for reimbursement in the sum demanded to be just. +To cut a long story short, our arguments upon the other side were +useless. It was in vain that we expounded the inability of a woman who +had entered our family without dowry, and had got the management of +affairs into her hands through the indolence of its real head, to +constitute herself its creditor; in vain that we denounced the collusion +of one brother with his wife against the interests of three innocent +brothers, who had been absent many years without burdening the estate; +in vain that we showed how the father and the mother of the plaintiff +had been received into our house and maintained for full fifteen years +until their death, and how her relatives had been more the masters there +than its legitimate owners; in vain that we brought forward the chaotic +account-book, signed by us in compliance with our elder brother for the +sole sake of calming troubled tempers; in vain that we pointed out +figures, garbled, cancelled, altered in these precious documents; in +vain that we offered to discharge sums due to creditors for money or +goods rendered to the plaintiff in her administration of the family +affairs. All these solid pleas were like words thrown to the winds +before the impudence of two scoundrelly pettifoggers, the very scum of +the Venetian law-courts, who managed to convince our sapient judges that +men ought to open their eyes wide before they signed papers. From that +moment until now, I have always read my letters through ten times before +appending my signature. + +As usual, I consoled myself by laughing over the inevitable. Nor did I +dream of complaining to Francesco, who had drawn me into the affair by +his desire to settle matters. He, good fellow, met my laughter with a +sorry countenance, protesting that he could never have anticipated such +an abominable trick of fortune. + +Seven hundred ducats were passed to my sister-in-law's credit on the +termination of this suit. They did my brother's family no good. Debts to +comedians had eaten up the capital beforehand; and I was obliged to pay +a set of hungry fellows with the consent of him and his wife. The +annoyance, however, did not stop here. In order to bolster up her claim, +my sister-in-law had raked together a multitude of soi-disant creditors, +who pretended to have supplied money or goods to our family; and +declarations signed by them, recognising her as their sole debtor, were +put into court as evidence. When they found their expectations +frustrated, the wasp's nest swarmed out against us three brothers, and +sequestrated our house-property for payment of their alleged debts. +Before I succeeded in finally shaking them off, I had to transact much +tiresome business and to fight several lawsuits. + + + + +XXX. + + _A long and serious illness.--My recovery.--The doctors + differ.--One of my sisters takes the veil.--Beginnings of literary + squabbles, and other trifles._ + + +In the midst of these annoyances, I found the time and strength to +pursue my literary studies, especially in the now neglected art of +poetry, and enjoyed excellent health; when suddenly, one night, a +violent hemorrhage from the lungs warned me that the life of mortals +hangs upon the frailest thread. + +Bleeding, vegetable diet, and a frugality in food, which few, I think, +are capable of continuing for as long a space of time as I can, +together with my philosophical indifference to death, restored me to +something like a tolerable state of health. + +It seemed to me at this period that my two brothers and I, who always +kept together, were in a position to settle down again into our paternal +home. Mme. Ghellini Balbi, who had rented the house for more than five +years, politely retired at my request, and found another habitation at +S. Agostino. I furnished our ancestral nest as decently as I was able; +and we were soon installed there. It was then that I invited my youngest +sister to leave her convent and join us, travelling myself to Pordenone +for this purpose. + +Whether through weakness, or human influence, or Divine inspiration, I +know not; but I found the good girl obstinate against my prayers, my +anger, and my threats. She entreated with a holy stubbornness to be left +in prison, to be indulged in her desire to pass her lifetime in that +blessed aviary of virgins. I commanded her to come home for at least +three or four months. At the end of that time, if she still persisted in +her pious fanaticism, I promised to play the part of executioner at her +request. She replied with a serious enthusiasm, which made me laugh, +that she knew enough of the world to be experienced in its wickedness; +and when I insisted, she met me with rather less than heavenly +doggedness by remarking that nothing short of cutting her in pieces +would make her quit the convent-gratings. Though I did not believe that +this ultimatum was dictated by the angels, I bent my head in order to +avoid a scandal. On taking the veil, she received those appointments and +allowances which are usually bestowed upon the brides of Christ. + +Were I to fix my thoughts upon the troubles which my four married +sisters have had to suffer and still suffer--and I am only too well +informed about them--I should be obliged to admit that the youngest +chose the better part in life. They were always in straits, always +weeping, with their gentle natures and their illimitable powers of +endurance. One of them died before my eyes, to my deep sorrow, only +because she was a wife. Meanwhile, the nun, beloved by her sisters, +placidly smiled at things which we, refined in pleasures, finding +nowhere solid pleasure for our satisfaction, would call barbarous +tortures, and took delight in little treats, which we philosophers, +past-masters in the arts of greed, are wont to scorn and turn our backs +upon. In due course she attained the highest rank of Abbess in her +convent; and I believe she was more gratified with this honour than +Louis XVI. with his titles of King of France and of Navarre.[146] + +Time had at length allayed the discords of our family. My two remaining +sisters found husbands. My brother Gasparo obtained a post at the +University of Padua, which brought him six hundred ducats a year, +besides pecuniary gratifications for extraordinary services.[147] This +proves that literature is not wholly unremunerated in Venice. In +addition to these emoluments, he found another way, legitimate indeed, +but one which seems incredible, for accumulating the sequins so much +needed after his theatrical disaster. There was not a marriage, a taking +of the veil among our noble families, an election of a Doge, or +procurator, or grand chancellor, without my brother being engaged to +produce the panegyrics or poems which are usual on such occasions--more +sought perhaps by fashion than by studious readers. The patricians made +it their custom to reward him with a hundred sequins, which contributed +to the splendour of their families, but did him little good, for in his +hands money found wings and flew away. + +These details have little to do with my Memoirs; yet they are honourable +to my nation, and are not without a certain bearing on my subject. +Poetical trifles, published by me in collections, found favour by some +aspect of novelty and by genial satire on contemporary fashions. +Unluckily, they got me the reputation of a good poet and good writer. +Accordingly, many of our lords tried to press me into the ranks of the +_Raccoglitori_--collectors and compilers of occasional verse-books. +They did not know that I had adopted for my motto that line of Berni:-- + + "Voleva far da se, non comandato." + "His master he would be, and no man's man." + +Whenever they did me the honour to force this function on me, I civilly +declined, and sent their messengers on to my brother, without, however, +refusing compositions of my own, which swelled the collections, to their +gain or loss as chance might have it. + +I never abandoned the scheme I had formed of moving at law against the +Marchese Terzi of Bergamo in a suit for the recovery of lands and rights +belonging to us.[148] But while I was engaged on the preliminary +business, a fresh attack of pulmonary hemorrhage cooled my ardour. Many +learned physicians whom I consulted, looked upon me as a victim of +consumption, at the point of death. Beggars in the street, when they saw +me pass, promised to pray for my life if I would fling them a copper. +The cleverest professors of medicine at Padua prescribed ass's milk, +which was tantamount to saying: "Phthisical creature, go and make your +peace with Heaven!" My own doctor in ordinary, Arcadio Cappello by name, +now dead--an old man, experienced, well acquainted with my +constitution, and a philosopher to boot--forbade me milk as though it +had been poison. "You," he said, "are suffering from a nasty malady. Yet +it has not the origin, nor has it made the progress, which these eminent +physicians fancy. If you let your illness prey upon your mind, you will +die. If you have the strength and heart to throw aside all thoughts +about it, you will recover. It has in you no other basis than a +hypochondriacal habit, which you have contracted by a sedentary life of +worry, business, and excessive study. Raw milk of any kind is a pure +poison in your case. Live regularly, cast aside reflections on your +symptoms, take horse-exercise two or three hours a day. These are your +best medicines." + +Marchese Terzi owes no thanks to my malady. Bloodless as I was, through +what I lost by hemorrhage and venesection, my intellect enjoyed the +highest qualities of penetration and acumen. Stretched out upon my bed, +I had the necessary papers for my lawsuit brought to me--abstracts and +wills recovered from the pork-butcher--a whole paraphernalia of +documents forbidden by my doctors--and set up a scheme of proofs and +arguments, so clear and so convincing that they subsequently drove my +enemy to desperate measures. + +These annoying relapses of my malady continued for two years and a half +to fall upon me when I least expected them. They were enough to +dishearten any man less stupid than myself, and make him despair of +living. Contrary to the advice of several physicians, who protested with +wide-open horror-stricken eyes that riding would inflame my blood and +burst the arteries of my lungs, I followed the prescription of Doctor +Arcadio Cappello, half-suffocated as I was with hemorrhage. He proved to +be right. Regular diet, contempt for my symptoms, and horse-exercise +completed my cure. It is now twenty years and more since I have been +reminded that I was ever subject to this indisposition. + +As I have often had occasion to remark, no business, no quarrels, no +lawsuits, and no illnesses prevented me from devoting some hours every +day to poetry. This being the case, when controversies arose in Venice +on philology and the higher Italian literature--controversies of which I +mean to render some account in the following chapters--I went on +vomiting blood from my veins, and scribbling sonnets, satires, essays in +defence of our great writers, treatises on style, polemics against +Chiari and Goldoni and their followers. All these trifles, when I read +them aloud, made my friends laugh, as well as my doctor and the surgeon +who attended on me. + +Before engaging in the circumstances which led to my becoming a writer +for the theatre, I will wind up the history of our private affairs. +First of all, I let the lawsuit with Marchese Terzi drop. My reasons +were as follows:--With the best intentions in the world, and the +strongest desire to reunite the scattered members of our family under +one roof, I found this task impossible. My sisters married. My brothers +Francesco and Almoro in course of time took wives and begat children. My +mother's inheritance of the Tiepolo property (though strictly speaking +it ought to have been treated as entailed upon her sons) ran to waste in +the hands of Gasparo and his wife. I had the old debts of our estate +still weighing on my shoulders. It seemed to me, in this condition of +affairs, best to remain a bachelor, and to devote myself to the duties I +had undertaken, without ambitious projects and without assuming heavier +obligations. Freed from further responsibilities to my family, whom I +had loyally served in their material interests, and against none of whom +I harboured any rancour, I was master of my time and could devote myself +to the literary exercises which were so congenial to my temper. + +END OF VOL. I. + +PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON. + + + + +INDEX. + +This index appears at the end of Volume 2, but is shown here for the +convenience of the reader. {note of etext transcriber} + + +Academy de' Granelleschi, at Venice, i. 89, 99. + +Actors, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Actresses, Italian, their character, ii. 137. + +Agazi, Francesco, Censor of Plays, ii. 264, 268. + +Albergati, Marchese Francesco, ii. 240; + notes on his career, ii. 240 _note_ 1. + +Altissimo, Cristoforo, poet and _improvisatore_, i. 202. + +"Amore delle Tre Melarancie," Gozzi's first _Fiaba_, i. 109; ii. 129, 133. + translation of, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147; ii. 130. + his best Fable, artistically, i. 163. + +Andreini, Francesco, a celebrated actor, i. 51. + +Andrich, Carlo, ii. 76. + +Angaran, Zorzi, Avogadore, i. 13. + +Angarano, Count Galeaso, i. 341. + +Apergi, Lieutenant Giovanni, i. 227; ii. 16. + +Aretino, Pietro, i. 29. + +Arlecchino, i. 35, + description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 46. + +"Augellino Belverde," one of Gozzi's "Fiabe," analysis of, i. 164-176. + +Bada, Gianbattista, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Balbi, Benedetto, Canon of Padua, i. 349-352. + +Balbi, Countess Elisabetta Ghellini, _see_ Ghellini Balbi, Countess. + +Balbi, Paolo, i. 349-352; ii. 89, 295. + his sudden death, ii. 326. + +Balestra, Antonio, painter, ii. 342. + +Baretti, Giuseppe, his opinion of Gozzi, i. 179. + +Barsanti, Domenico, actor, ii. 216, 323. + +Bartoli, Adolfo, his "Scenari Inediti," i. 57. + +Bartoli, Francesco, husband of Teodora Ricci, ii. 195 _note_ 1, 249-252. + his ill-health and separation from his wife, ii. 199. + +Battagia, Maddalena, actress, ii. 174. + +Benedetti, Luigi, actor, ii. 209, 269, 288, 323. + +Beolco, Angelo, a Paduan writer of simple rustic comedies, i. 33. + +Bergalli, Luisa Pisana, wife of Gasparo Gozzi, _see_ Gozzi, Luisa Pisana. + +Bettinelli, Abbe Xavier, his attempted revolution in literary taste, ii. 104. + shown up by the Granelleschi, ii. 105. + +Bevilacqua, Doctor Bartolommeo, ii. 314. + +Boldu, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 276. + +Borrommeo, Carlo, his crusade against the Comedians, i. 70. + +Bragadino, Cavaliere, the curious occurrence that earned +Gozzi his friendship, ii. 80-84. + +Brescia, Bishop of, i. 277. + +Brighella, i. 35; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 47. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Burchiello, an obscure Florentine poet, ii. 116. + + +Calogera, Padre, ii. 117. + +Canale, or Canaletti, Antonio, ii. 338. + his defects, ii. 338. + +Canziani, Maria, dancer, ii. 75. + +Capitano, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + +Capocomico, manager of the Comedians, his functions, i. 58-60, 64. + +Cappello, Arcadio, physician, i. 368. + +Casali, Gaetano, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Ignazio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Casanova, Jacques, i. 4, 73, 350 _note_ 1; ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Cavalli, Jacopo, Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, i. 220. + +Cecchi, playwright, i. 33. + +Cenet, Madame Jeanne Sarah, ii. 310. + +Cerlone, Francesco, poet, i. 35 _note_ 3. + fixed the type of Pulcinella, i. 49. + +Chasles, Philarete, i. 181. + +Chaussee, Nivelle de la, his sentimental comedies, i. 87. + +Chiari, Abbe Pietro, playwright, i. 2. + his rivalry with Goldoni, i. 97. + Gozzi's attacks on, i. 99. + makes common cause with Goldoni against Gozzi, i. 106, ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of, ii. 113, 114. + defeated by Gozzi, gives up play-writing, i. 177, ii. 155, 156. + +Cicucci, Regina, actress, ii. 170. + +Colombani, Paolo, bookseller, his shop the headquarters +of the Granelleschi, ii. 127. + +Colombo, Giovanni, i. 229. + Grand Chancellor of the Venetian Republic, i. 230. + +Comedian, qualifications of a good Italian, i. 61. + +Comedians, their degraded social position, i. 70. + +Comedy, Italian-- + Its origin during the Renaissance, i. 26. + its dependence on Latin models, i. 26, 28. + the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 27, 39. + the first attempts at National Italian comedy, i. 28. + its stock characters, i. 28. + _Commedia dell'Arte all'Improviso_, its causes, and its + distinctive features, i. 30-32. + its great antiquity, i. 32. + its relation to the _Commedia Erudita_, i. 32, 55. + farces in relation to the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 33. + the _Commedia dell'Arte_ trusted to the improvisatory + talent of the actors, i. 34. + the actors in it wore masks, i. 34. + the principal masks--Pantalone, Il Dottore, Arlecchino, Brighella, i. 34. + description of the masks, i. 43-54. + the less important masks, i. 52. + relation of the _Commedia dell'Arte_ to the old Latin comedy + of mimes and _exodia_, i. 36-40. + Lombard, Neapolitan, and Florentine ingredients in it, i. 40. + its culmination and decay, i. 43. + modifications introduced into the fixed characters of the _Commedia + dell'Arte_ + by celebrated actors, i. 53. + the plots and subjects of improvised comedies, i. 54. + its indecency and buffoonery, i. 56. + description of the _scenari_ of the comedies, i. 56. + how they were arranged or rehearsed, i. 58. + qualifications of the actors, i. 61. + stock speeches, which were not left to the inspiration of the comedians, + but were written, i. 62. + _lazzi_ (sallies of buffoonery), i. 63. + its tendency to degenerate, i. 64, 69. + the widespread popularity of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 65. + its success in Paris, Spain, Portugal, and London, i. 65, 67. + probably the model on which Tarleton and Wilson formed their Drolls, i. 68. + Gozzi's praise of it, i. 68. + its decadence, i. 69, 87. + the degraded social position of the actors, i. 70. + Garzoni's description of the strolling comedians, i. 73-80. + superseded by the _Comedie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + Gozzi's "Fiabe Teatrali," an attempt to rehabilitate the impromptu + comedy, i. 109. + translation of Gozzi's first "Fiaba," i. 112-146. + character of the actors in Italian Comedy, ii. 137. + +_Commedia dell'Arte._ _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Comparetti, Doctor Andrea, ii. 300. + +Contarini, Francesco, Gratarol's uncle, ii. 292, 293. + +Coralli, actor, ii. 201, 208, 214, 216. + +Cornaro, Giorgio, physician, ii. 327. + +Cortigiani, the Venetian, or Men of the World, i. 294 _note_ 1. + +Coviello, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 50. + +Crespi, Giuseppe Maria, ii. 342. + + +Dalmatia, the character of the natives of, i. 238. + the women of, i. 242. + the nature of the country, i. 243. + +Danieli, chief physician to the Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 222. + +Da Ponte, Lorenzo, i. 4. + +Darbes, Cesare, comedian, i. 95, 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169. + +Della Bona, Professor, ii. 310. + his skilful treatment of Gasparo Gozzi's illness, ii. 316. + +Desperiers, Bonaventura, ii. 7 _note_ 1. + +Dialects, different, spoken in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35. + +Dolfin-Tron, Caterina, i. 11; ii. 264, 287, 312, 319. + her character and influence, i. 9. + her enmity towards Gratarol, i. 9. + ruins Gratarol, i. 12, 13. + Gratarol's "Narrazione" bitterly attacks her, i. 13. + Gozzi's relations with, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + Gozzi intercedes with her to have "Le Droghe d'Amore" stopped, ii. 288. + her refusal, ii. 290. + Gozzi shows her how he has been insulted by Gratarol, ii. 208. + her interest in Gasparo Gozzi, ii. 308. + +_Doti_--stock passages in the _Commedia dell'Arte_ which were not left to + improvisation, i. 62; ii. 144. + +Dottore, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 34. + description of, i. 45. + +"Droghe d'Amore, Le," Gozzi's comedy which caused the quarrel between + Gratarol and Gozzi, i. 10; ii. 225, 252, 258. + licensed for the stage, ii. 259. + the cast changed by the actors in order to attack Gratarol, ii. 260, 269. + read to the actors, ii. 260. + Gratarol's foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, and + makes all Venice talk of it, ii. 263. + its production, ii. 270. + the excitement it causes, ii. 274. + Gratarol's distress at its success, ii. 277. + Gozzi's efforts to have it stopped, ii. 286-294. + +Drousiano, an Italian comedian in London in 1577-8, i. 67. + + +"Esop in the Town," a play in which Gozzi and the Countess + Balbi were attacked, i. 356. + +Farces, popular during the Renaissance, i. 33. + +Farsetti, Daniele, Gozzi dedicates his "Tartana degl'influssi" to, ii. 116. + +Farsetti, Giuseppe, ii. 124. + +"Fiabe Teatrali," Gozzi's celebrated plays, i. 107; ii. 129-137. + an endeavour to rehabilitate the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 109. + success of his first Fable, i. 146, 147. + list of the remaining nine Fables, i. 148. + critical account of, i. 148-176. + the sources of, i. 162. + their success but ephemeral, i. 178. + +Fiorelli, Agostino, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 169, 323. + +Fiorelli, Tiberio of Naples, the famous Scaramouch, i. 51, 53. + his wonderful acting described, i. 66. + +Florentine burlesque poets, Gozzi's true ancestors in art, i. 110. + +Florentine ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Foscarini, Marco, Doge of Venice, i. 337. + + +Galante, avvocato fiscale dell'Avogaderia, i. 13. + +Garzoni, his description of the strolling comedians, + in his "Piazza Universale," i. 73-80. + +_Generici_--or common-places--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + +Ghellini Balbi, Countess Elisabetta, i. 324, 338, 342, 355, 365. + her interest in the Gozzi family, i. 324. + Gozzi calls upon her, i. 325. + Gozzi reported to be married to her, i. 339, 349. + her anxieties about her son, i. 349-352. + attacked in a play called "Esop in the Town," i. 356. + +Gherardi, his "Theatre Italien," i. 61, 66. + +Goethe, his estimate of Goldoni and Gozzi, i. 178. + +Goldoni, Carlo, dramatist, i. 2, 4, 87. + his severe condemnation of the Italian Comedy, i. 72. + his undoubted genius, i. 89. + his excellent character, i. 89. + his qualities and defects, i. 89-91. + sketch of his career, i. 92. + his desire to reform Italian Comedy, i. 93. + the steps which he took in that direction, i. 93-95. + joins the company of Medebac, i. 95. + his first comedy of character, as opposed to impromptu comedy, i. 95. + the fortunes of his crusade against the _Commedia + dell'Arte_, i. 95; ii. 128. + his contest with Chiari, i. 97. + Gozzi's hatred for him as a corrupter of the language, i. 99. + Gozzi's first attack on him, i. 99; ii. 116. + his reply to Gozzi, i. 101; ii. 117. + the long-continued warfare between him and Gozzi, i. 102; ii. 119-128 + Chiari makes common cause with him against Gozzi, i. 106; ii. 127. + various satirical allusions to him in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 112-146. + defeated by Gozzi, goes to Paris, i. 177; ii. 155, 156. + his ultimate success and fame, i. 178. + his popularity in Venice, ii. 110. + Gozzi's opinion of him, ii. 111-113. + his superiority over Chiari, ii. 114. + the various publications in which Gozzi attacked him, ii. 119-128. + himself writes a "Fable," ii. 150. + his similarity in art with Longhi the painter, ii. 350. + +Gozzi family, i. 185; + _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice, i. 186. + +Gozzi, Almoro, younger brother of Carlo, i. 290, 320, 329, 330, + 331, 354; ii. 79, 162, 336. + +Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo, mother of Carlo, i. 189, 285, 304. + her maladministration of the family affairs, i. 297. + her quarrels with Carlo Gozzi, i. 304. + her dislike for Carlo, i. 348. + +Gozzi, Carlo-- + his autobiography, entitled "Memorie inutili della vita di + Carlo Gozzi." i. 1. + design of his autobiography, i. 3, 19; + its value historically, i. 4. + his "Droghe d'Amore" supposed to contain a caricature of Gratarol. i. 10. + attacked by Gratarol in his "Narrazione Apologetica, i. 14. + writes a reply--"Epistola Confutatoria," i. 14; + but is not allowed to publish it, i. 15. + publishes his memoir and, under provocation, the "Epistola Confutatoria," + after the fall of the Venetian republic, i. 16-19. + his autobiography, its form, its merits and defects, and its + reliability, i. 19-24. + his personal characteristics, i. 22. + his "Fiabe," i. 43. + his eulogy of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 68. + his description of the contest between Goldoni and Chiari, i. 98. + translation of his first Fable, i. 112-146. + its triumphant success, i. 146, 147. + his other "Fiabe," i. 148. + critical account of his "Fiabe Teatrali, i. 148-176. + his use of the Masks, i. 149-154. + his mixture of the comic element with the fairy-tale, i. 154. + not a great imaginative poet, i. 156. + his merits as a playwright, i. 157-160. + his conservative philosophy of life, i. 160. + the sources of his "Fiabe," i. 162. + analysis of "L'Augellino Belverde," i. 164-176. + his victory over Goldoni and Chiari, i. 176. + his fame ephemeral, i. 178. + German translation of his plays, i. 180. + his pedigree, i. 2, 185-190. + his birth, i. 190 _note_ 1. + the exact trustworthiness of his Memoirs, i. 190 _note_ 1.[I?] + his brothers and sisters, i. 191. + his education, i. 192. + injures his health by study, i. 196. + his endeavours after a good literary style, i. 197. + his moral and physical training, i. 200, 205. + his acting as a child, i. 201. + shows skill as an _improvisatore_, i. 202. + his first poetical productions, i. 205-207. + his early productions, i. 208. + the family difficulties, i. 209. + the discomforts of his home, i. 212. + he leaves home and becomes a soldier, i. 213. + his first experiences as a soldier, i. 214-221. + has a dangerous illness, i. 221. + studies Fortification, i. 225. + his love of poetry, i. 229. + his sonnet in praise of Provveditore Quirini, i. 233. + an exciting adventure with a horse, i. 234. + he is enrolled as a _Cadet noble_ of cavalry, i. 246. + what his military services amounted to, i. 247. + his success as a _soubrette_ in the military theatricals at Zara, + i. 249-251. + some of his escapades as a youth, i. 252-273. + the adventures in connection with the courtesan Tonina, i. 262-272. + his finances at the close of his military service, i. 273. + returns to Venice, i. 278. + the state of his family and home, when he returns, i. 279. + his first meeting with his family, i. 284. + his difficulty in interfering in the management of the family + affairs, i. 290. + his negotiations with Francesco Zini, i. 300. + becomes the object of hatred to all his family, i. 307, 318. + in continual quarrels with his family, i. 322. + his interview with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 325. + his family set the law in motion against him, i. 328. + he leaves home, i. 330. + lies spread about him, i. 331. + the family property divided, i. 332. + is dragged into tedious lawsuits, i. 334-342. + his friendship with the Countess Ghellini Balbi, i. 339, 349. + his sister-in-law's vexatious lawsuit against him, i. 360-364. + has violent haemorrhage from the lungs, i. 364, 368. + his illnesses and occupations, i. 370. + his account of his own physical and mental qualities, ii. 1-9. + accepted no payment for any of his works, ii. 3. + his love-tales-- + his first love, ii. 11-27; + his second love, ii. 28-33; + his third love, ii. 33-69. + his reflections on his love affairs, ii. 69. + his object in relating them, ii. 72 _note_ 1. + the absurdities and contrarieties to which his star made him + subject, ii. 73-89. + his unfortunate experience as a landlord, ii. 85-89. + the origin and progress of his literary quarrels, i. 2; ii. 90. + his views upon Italian literature, ii. 91. + his dissertation on Prejudice, ii. 99. + his humorous attack on Bettinelli, ii. 106. + the motives of his attacks upon Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 115. + his first attack on Goldoni and Chiari in his "Tartana degli Influssi," + i. 100, 109; ii. 116. + Goldoni's reply, i. 101, 109; ii. 117. + his Aristophanic satire upon Goldoni, entitled "Il Teatro Comico," + i. 104, 109; ii. 120. + he withdraws this satire at Goldoni's request, i. 106; ii. 124. + the origin of his celebrated "Fiabe Teatrali," i. 107; ii. 128. + his first Fable, "The Love of the Three Oranges (L'Amore delle Tre + Melarancie)," i. 109; ii. 129. + the various publications in which he carried on the war against Goldoni + and Chiari, ii. 119-128. + his relations with Sacchi's company of comedians, ii. 137-155. + his tuition of the actresses, ii. 145. + his lawsuit against the Marchese Terzi, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + he withdraws his aid temporarily from Sacchi's company, ii. 166. + comes to their assistance again, ii. 168. + undertakes to tutor Teodora Ricci, ii. 177. + the successful result of his tuition, ii. 185. + his defence of his character and conduct in connection with Teodora Ricci, + and the actresses of Sacchi's company, ii. 187, 192 _note_ 1. + becomes Cicisbeo to Ricci, i. 9; ii. 193. + is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + his troublous relations with the Ricci, ii. 200. + his excuse for submitting to the worries caused by the Ricci, ii. 218. + his adaptations of Spanish plays, ii. 225. + his "Droghe d'Amore," i. 10; ii. 225. + his and Gratarol's versions of the quarrel between them, ii. 229 _note_ 1. + Gratarol's first visit to him, ii. 238. + his final rupture with Ricci, ii. 246. + annoyed by her, ii. 249, 255. + annoyed by her husband, ii. 250. + completes his comedy "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 252. + is pestered into giving it to Sacchi, ii. 258. + his innocence of an intention to caricature Gratarol in "Le Droghe d'Amor," + ii. 258. + reads the piece to the actors, ii. 260. + tries to have it withdrawn, ii. 263. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 266 _note_ 1. + forbidden by the Censor to withdraw his play, ii. 268. + his distress at the play's vogue, ii. 274. + waited on by Carlo Maffei on behalf of Gratarol, ii. 277. + interview between him and Gratarol, ii. 279-285. + his futile efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + his further squabbles with Gratarol, ii. 294. + his cause espoused by the Supreme Tribunal, which forces Gratarol to + apologise to him, ii. 303. + Gratarol's conduct to him subsequently, ii. 307. + goes to Padua, where his brother Gasparo lies dangerously ill, ii. 309. + uses his influence in Gratarol's behalf, ii. 319. + his reflection on Gratarol's flight, ii. 321. + his last interview with Sacchi, ii. 324. + his sorrow at the death of his friends, ii. 325. + has a bad attack of fever, ii. 327. + lays down his pen, ii. 330. + a review of his life and an estimate of his character, ii. 330. + his old age, ii. 332. + his will, ii. 333. + his death, ii. 337. + +Gozzi, Chiara, sister of Carlo, i. 354. + becomes a nun, i. 365. + +Gozzi, Francesco, brother of Carlo, i. 319, 320, 329, 354; ii. 79, 162. + becomes a soldier, i. 212. + his bad character, i. 321. + his death, ii. 326. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, grandfather of Carlo, i. 189. + +Gozzi, Gasparo, brother of Carlo, i. 282, 286, 288, 293, 312, 320, 329; + ii. 301, 319, 350. + his personal leaning towards Goldoni, i. 106. + undertakes to superintend a new edition of Goldoni's plays, i. 177. + his passion for study, i. 194. + his marriage, i. 209. + becomes lessee of the theatre of S. Angelo at Venice, i. 332. + his helpless position in his own house, i. 340. + his theatrical speculation is unsuccessful, i. 353, 360. + Carlo Gozzi and the Countess Balbi attacked on his stage, i. 357. + obtains a post at the University of Padua, i. 367. + his "Defence of Dante" against the Abbe Bettinelli, ii. 106. + his lack of spirit, ii. 162. + his friendship with Madame Dolfin Tron, ii. 267. + his serious illness, ii. 308. + in his delirium throws himself from a window, ii. 308. + his recovery, ii. 317. + his death, ii. 327. + +Gozzi, Girolama, i. 288. + +Gozzi, Giulia, i. 282. + +Gozzi, Jacopo Antonio, father of Carlo, i. 188. + has a stroke of apoplexy, i. 211. + his feeble state of health, i. 284. + the unhappiness of his position amid the family quarrels, i. 309. + his death, i. 310. + +Gozzi, Luisa Pisani Bergalli, wife of Gasparo, i. 210. + the ruler of the Gozzi family affairs, i. 287. + her mismanagement, i. 299, 317. + her dishonourable conduct, i. 319, 328. + tries to manage her husband's theatre, i. 332. + brings a lawsuit against Carlo, i. 360-364. + +Gozzi, Marina, sister of Carlo, i. 201, 282. + +Gradenigo, Cavaliere Andrea, ii. 76. + +Grampo, Contessa Emilia, i. 189. + +Granelleschi, Academy of the, i. 89, 99, 102. + its warfare with Goldoni and Chiara, i. 102. + the founding of the Academy, ii. 93. + its burlesque Prince, ii. 93. + its more serious objects, ii. 97, 108. + its attack on the Abbe Bettinelli, ii. 105. + its headquarters in the shop of the bookseller, Paolo Colombani, ii. 127. + +Gratarol, Pier Antonio, i. 359 _note_ 1; ii. 10, 72 _note_ 1, 79, 227, 263. + his quarrel with Gozzi, i. 2, 6. + account of his life, i. 7-16. + nominated as Venetian Resident at Naples, i. 8. + his quarrel with Caterina Dolfin Tron, i. 9. + becomes lover to Teodora Ricci, i. 10; ii. 229. + his version of his quarrel with Gozzi compared with Gozzi's statement, + ii. 229 _note_ 1. + his presence behind the scenes of Sacchi's theatre, ii. 230, 233. + his entertainment to the actors and actresses, ii. 237. + his first visit to Gozzi, ii. 238. + Ricci compromised by him, ii. 242. + caricatured in "Le Droghe d'Amore," but not by Gozzi's wish, + i. 10; ii. 258, 259. + his foolish conduct forces the piece on the stage, ii. 263. + is present on its production and sees himself caricatured, ii. 272. + his distress, ii. 275 _note_ 1, 277. + his intrigues against Gozzi, ii. 278. + his interview with Gozzi, ii. 279-285. + Gozzi's efforts to have the play stopped, ii. 286-294. + the further squabbles between him and Gozzi, ii. 294-300. + forced by the Supreme Authority to apologise to Gozzi, ii. 303. + his own account of the letter which he was forced to write, + ii. 303 _note_ 1. + his conduct to Gozzi subsequently, ii. 307. + suspected of having the actor Vitalba assaulted, ii. 319. + his appointment to Naples cancelled, ii. 319, 320. + his withdrawal from Venice and consequent outlawry, i. 12; ii. 321. + his "Narrazione Apologetica" published at Stockholm, i. 13. + published at Venice after the fall of the Republic, i. 16. + his death, i. 16. + book entitled "Last Notices regarding Pietro Antonio Gratarol," i. 17. + Gozzi's reflections on his character, ii. 321. + +Grazzini, Anton-Francesco, his Carnival song of the Zanni and + Magnifichi, i. 41. + +Gritti, Francesco, ii. 76. + his play of _Gustavus Vasa_, ii. 184. + +Guardi, Francesco, ii. 338. + the interest of his paintings historically, ii. 340. + +Guseo, Giovannantonio, a notary, i. 347, 362. + + +Hoffmann, E. T. W., his enthusiasm for Gozzi, i. 181. + +Hogarth, William, contrasted with Pietro Longhi, ii. 350. + + +Illyria, the nature of the country, i. 244. + +Improvisation, Gozzi's views on, i. 202. + +I Rozzi, a company at Siena, who performed farces, i. 33. + +Italian Comedy. _See_ Comedy, Italian. + +Italian Literature, ii. 91. + + +Lami, Signor, ii. 117. + +Laveleye, Emil de, ii. 99 _note_ 1. + +Lazari, V., ii. 347 _note_ 1, 353 _note_ 1. + +_Lazzi_--or humorous sallies--in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 63. + +Lee, Vernon, i. 23, 182. + +Lombard ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + +Longhi, Alessandro, son of Pietro, ii. 346, 357. + +Longhi, Pietro, ii. 338-361. + the interest of his works, ii. 338 _note_ 1, 341, 347. + his parentage, ii. 342. + his early training, ii. 342. + his _Fall of the Giants_, ii. 343. + finds his true vocation as a painter in studies of contemporary + Venetian life, ii. 344. + the difference in his handiwork, ii. 346. + his similarity in art with Goldoni the dramatist, ii. 350. + the strong contrast between him and Hogarth, ii. 350. + his portrait, ii. 351. + filled the Chair of Painting in the Pisani Academy, ii. 353. + a picture representing the Pisani family attributed to him, ii. 354. + frescoes in the Palazzo Sina attributed to him, ii. 356. + his sketch-book, a collection of 140 drawings, ii. 357. + its great value, ii. 357. + description of its contents, ii. 358. + its merits and its limitations, ii. 358, 359. + summary of his work, ii. 360. + +Loredano, Cavaliere Antonio, i. 212. + + +Machiavelli, Niccolo, i. 29. + +Maffei, Carlo-- + account of his character, ii. 276. + his intervention on Gratarol's behalf in the dispute regarding + the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 277-285. + his sudden death, ii. 326, 327. + +Manzoni, Caterina, actress, ii. 170. + her excellent qualities, ii. 192. + +Marchiori, Cavaliere, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, i. 225. + Gozzi studies Fortification under, i. 225. + his death, i. 228. + +Marsili, Professor Giovanni, ii. 308. + +Martelli, Pier Jacopo, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Martellian verses, i. 97 _note_ 1. + +Masi, Ernesto, i. 99 _note_ 1. + +Masks, the, as employed by Gozzi, i. 149. + +Massimo, Innocenzio, i. 226, 227, 278, 326; ii. 28, 162, 310. + his friendship with Gozzi, i. 223, 283. + his character, i. 224. + a foolish adventure, i. 254-260. + his generous kindness to Gozzi, i. 312. + his sudden death, ii. 327. + +Medebac (master of a company of comedians), engages Goldoni to + write for his company, i. 95. + +Messer Grande, the Chief Constable of Venice, ii. 89 _note_ 1. + +Micheli, Maggiore della Provincia, i. 218. + +Montenegrins, the women of the, i. 241. + +Morlacchi, a tribe of Dalmatians, i. 237 _note_ 1. + their barbarism, i. 237, 239. + +Musset, Paul de, his travesty of Gozzi's real character, i. 23, + 24 _note_ 1, 181, ii. 89 _note_ 2. + + +Neapolitan ingredients in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 40. + + +Pallone, the game of, i. 251 _note_ 1. + +Pantalone, i. 34; description of, in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 43. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Paruta, the Patrician, Gozzi mistaken for, ii. 74. + +Perrucci, Andrea, his description of the rehearsal of an + impromptu comedy, i. 58. + +Pisani family, their Academy for the Study of the Art of Design, ii. 353. + +Pozzobon, Giovanni, i. 100 _note_ 2. + +Prata, Count Michele di, i. 282. + +Prejudice, Gozzi's dissertation on, ii. 99. + +Provveditore Generale di Dalmazia, the office of, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Provveditore Generale di Mare, the head of the Venetian + forces in the Levant, i. 212 _note_ 1. + +Pulcinella, i. 35; + description of, i. 49. + +Punch (Pulcinella), i. 50. + + +Quirini, Girolamo, Provveditore di Dalmazia, i. 213, 216, 247, 277, 278. + the town of Zara gives a grand public display in his honour, i. 230. + Gozzi presents a volume of his poems to him, i. 276. + + +Regina, the actress engaged by Sacchi to fill Ricci's place, ii. 254. + +Renier, Paolo, ii. 301, 305. + his brilliant abilities, and his career, ii. 301 _note_ 1, 306 _note_ 1. + +Reniero, Senator Daniele, i. 341. + +Ricci, Marianna, sister of Teodora, ii. 242. + +Ricci, Teodora, ii. 174, 324. + engaged as leading actress by Sacchi, ii. 174. + her personal appearance, ii. 175. + her connection with Gozzi, i. 9. + her connection with Gratarol, i. 10. + Gozzi's tuition of, ii. 177 + the opposition to her, ii. 179. + her _debut_ at Venice not very successful, ii. 182. + her success in "Gustavus Vasa," ii. 184. + her triumph in Gozzi's "Principessa Filosofa," ii. 185. + her gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 186. + her merits and defects, ii. 188-192. + Gozzi becomes her Cicisbeo, ii. 193. + Gozzi is godfather to her child, ii. 198. + her separation from her husband, ii. 199. + her _liaison_ with Sacchi, ii. 202-210. + her foolish conduct, ii. 216. + her rapacity, ii. 221. + her agreement for five years with Sacchi, ii. 221. + her friendship with P. A. Gratarol, ii. 227, 241, 245. + its consequences, ii. 242. + Gozzi's final rupture with her, ii. 246. + her annoyance of him, ii. 249, 255. + she leaves Sacchi's company and goes to Paris, ii. 254. + her strange manners when she returns, ii. 256. + her failure as an actress when she began to ape the French, ii. 257. + her conduct at the reading of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 260. + her foolish conduct in connection with the play, ii. 269, 275. + pretends illness in order to stop the play, ii. 275. + is ordered to play by the authorities, ii. 276. + her tactics which led to the withdrawal of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 306. + her death in a madhouse, ii. 195 _note_ 1. + +Riccoboni, Luigi, i. 63. + +"Riflessioni d'un Imparziale," a pamphlet in answer to Gratarol's + "Narrazione," i. 13 _note_ 2, 15 _note_ 1. + +Rossi, Pietro, actor, ii. 189. + +Royer, Paul, i. 182. + +Ruskin, John, ii. 340. + + +Sacchi, Antonia, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi, Antonio, i. 53, 100, 101, 112 _note_ 1, 150; ii. 201, + 262, 272, 282 _note_ 1, 286, 297, 306, 318. + list of his company, i. 112 _note_ 1. + allusion to his company in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 127. + the inventor of Truffaldino as a form of Arlecchino, ii. 131 _note_ 1. + his famous company, ii. 142. + ruined by the opposition of Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 132. + their visit to Lisbon, ii. 132. + their return to Venice, ii. 132. + their success with Gozzi's pieces, i. 176; ii. 132. + their gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 137. + Gozzi temporarily withdraws his aid from his company, ii. 166. + obtains a lease of the theatre S. Salvadore, ii. 167, 168. + his passion for the Ricci, ii. 202, 214. + his ill-treatment of her, ii. 207. + its result, ii. 208-210. + his theatre pronounced unsafe, ii. 219. + his five years' agreement with Ricci, ii. 221. + his difficulties with Gratarol, ii. 233. + Ricci leaves his company and he engages Regina in her place, ii. 254. + consents to withdraw the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 263. + produces it, ii. 271. + the dissolution of his company, ii. 322. + his excesses and tempers, ii. 322. + his last interview with Gozzi, ii. 324. + his death, ii. 325 _note_ 1. + +Sacchi-Zannoni, Adriana, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131. + +Sacchi's company-- + its respectability, ii. 143. + Gozzi's relations with the actors and actresses, ii. 137-155. + dissensions in, ii. 164. + the details of its dissolution, ii. 322-325. + +Santorini, Count Francesco, i. 324, 327, 329. + +Schlegel, A. W., his praise of Gozzi's "Fiabe," i. 180. + +Sciugliaga, Stefano, Secretary of the University of Milan, ii. 198. + +Sechellari, Giuseppe, Prince of the Accademia Granellesca, ii. 93. + the tricks played on him, ii. 95. + +Seghezzi, Antonio Federigo, i. 199. + +Servetta, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 48, 154. + +Sibiliato, Giovanni, a wonderful _improvisatore_ and a true poet, i. 204. + +Smeraldina (Servetta), as employed by Gozzi, i. 154. + +Somascan Order of Monks, i. 350 _note_ 1. + +Stampa, Gaspara, poetess, i. 206. + +Stock speeches in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62. + + +Tartaglia, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. + as employed by Gozzi, i. 152. + +Terzi, Marchese, of Bergamo, i. 368, 369, 370. + Gozzi's lawsuit against, ii. 160. + its successful issue, ii. 164. + +Testa, Antonio, a famous lawyer, i. 335; ii. 163. + his kindness to Gozzi, i. 336. + +Theatres, private, in the houses of the Venetian nobility, i. 201 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo family, i. 189 _note_ 1. + +Tiepolo, Almoro Cesare, i. 213, 291, 342. + his just and excellent character, i. 344-347. + +Tiepolo, G. B., painter, ii. 338. + a genius of the first order, ii. 339. + +Tiepolo, Nicolo Maria, his condemnation of comedians, i. 71. + +Tiepolo Gozzi, Angela, mother of Carlo Gozzi--_See_ Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo. + +Toaldo, Professor, ii. 75. + +Todeschini, Raffaelle, ii. 295, 326. + +Tommassei, his contempt for Gozzi, i. 179. + +Tonina, a courtesan of Zara, i. 262. + Gozzi's impromptu attack on, in the theatre, i. 269. + +Tron, Andrea, Procuratore di San Marco, i. 9, 14; ii. 264 _note_ 1. + +Tron, Caterina Dolfin, see Dolfin-Tron, Caterina. + +Truffaldino, the mask, a modification of Arlecchino, i. + 46, 150; ii. 131 _note_ 1. + as used by Gozzi, i. 153. + + +Vendramini, Antonio, proprietor of the theatre of S. Salvadore, + ii. 167, 173, 276, 286. + +Venice-- + its decadence, i. 7 _note_ 1. + its political and social state about the middle of the 18th century, i. 82. + conflict of liberalism and conservatism in literature and + the theatre, i. 86. + success of the _Comedie Larmoyante_, i. 87. + foundation of the Academy de' Granelleschi, i. 89. + the granting of citizenship in, i. 186 _note_ 1. + the position of the _Cittadini Originari_, i. 186 _note_ 1. + posts open to the _Cittadini_, i. 187 _note_ 3. + Gozzi's remarks on the degeneration of the Venetian youth, i. 194. + robes of the Dignitaries, i. 217 _note_ 1. + the office of Grand Chancellor, i. 230 _note_ 1. + the values of the sequin and lira, i. 274 _note_ 1. + _Decime_ (taxes), i. 280 _note_ 1. + its theatres, i. 332 _note_ 1; ii. 167. + its law of entail, i. 336 _note_ 1. + the _Avogadori del Comun_, i. 341 _note_ 1. + decay of literary taste in, ii. 108-110. + the length of the theatrical year, ii. 146 _note_ 1. + its decrepitude, as shown in State interference in Gratarol's + quarrel with Gozzi, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + the influence of the French Revolution on, ii. 328. + partial revival of art in, in the 18th century, ii. 338. + Longhi's paintings of contemporary life in, ii. 338 _note_ 1; + ii. 341, 347, 358. + +Verdani, Abbe Giovan Antonio, i. 196. + +Vilio, Count, of Desenzano, ii. 24. + +Vinacesi, Elisabetta, actress, ii. 213. + +Vincentini, Tommaso, his excellence as Harlequin, i. 67. + +Vitalba, Giovanni, actor, ii. 269. + the actor who caricatured Gratarol in the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 272. + assaulted by a ruffian in Milan, ii. 318. + + +Wagner, Richard, his "Fairies," a setting of Gozzi's "Donna Serpente," + i. 160 _note_ 1, 181. + +Werthes, Franz A. C., translator of Gozzi's "Fiabe" into German, i. 180. + +Widiman, Count Ludovico, a patron of Goldoni, ii. 124. + + +Zanche, Daniele, advocate, ii. 161. + +Zanerini, Petronio, the best actor of Italy, ii. 323. + +Zanoni, Atanagio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 323. + +Zannuzzi, Francesco, of the Comedie Italienne at Paris, ii. 211, + 212 _note_ 1. + +Zeno, Apostolo, encourages Gozzi in his poetical attempts, i. 207. + his influence in the drama, i. 207 _note_ 1. + +Zini, Francesco, a cloth merchant, wishes to buy the Gozzis' house, i. 299. + Carlo Gozzi tries to prevent the purchase, i. 300. + +Zon, Signer, Secretary to the Inquisitors of State, ii. 303 _note_ 1. + +Zucchi, Padre, an _improvisatore_, i. 203. + + * * * * * + +The following typographical errors have been corrected by the etext +transcriber: + +Many years have elasped since Tartaglia married=>Many years have elapsed +since Tartaglia married + +twirls his moustachioes=>twirls his moustachios + +Philarete Chasles=>Philarete Chasles + +whence we were to sally forth to the assault of Buda.=>whence we were to +sally forth to the assault of Budua. + + * * * * * + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Under date August 31, 1885, with the assumed signature of E. H. +Westbourne. See _Academy_, No. 696, Sept. 5, 1885. + +[2] See Romanin, _Storia Documentata di Venezia_, vol. viii. ch. 7. + +[3] Gratarol was not formally divorced from his wife. This appears from +several passages of his _Narrazione Apologetica_. It may, however, be +here observed that scandalous irregularities with regard to matrimony +formed one of the main signs of Venetian decadence. Between 1782 and +1796 the Council of Ten received no fewer than 264 petitions for +divorce, and the Patriarch is said to have had 900 applications at one +time before him, requiring his decision in matters relating to a +dissolution of the marriage tie. See Magrini, _op. cit._, p. 23; and +Macchi, _Storia del Concilio dei Dieci_, vol. ii. p. 355. It seems that +the most shameless reasons were collusively alleged by the parties in +these cases for breaking a tie which the Church regarded as +indissoluble. In 1782 the Ten passed a law requiring a divorced woman to +enter a convent. + +[4] A short while before, he had been appointed Resident at Turin, and +had received the usual equipment for that service. Circumstances +independent of his own will in the matter prevented him from assuming +the office. His political ill-wishers were able to point to the unused +grant which he had pocketed. + +[5] Caterina was the daughter of the ancient and noble, but impoverished +house of Dolfin. She contracted her first marriage with a member of the +Tiepolo family, obtained a divorce from him, and married her lover, +Andrea Tron. + +[6] It may be read in Gratarol's _Narrazione Apologetica_, vol. ii. p. +78, &c. + +[7] These magistrates acted for the Fisco or Treasury of the Republic. + +[8] It has been suggested that Gratarol so heavily mortgaged his lands +before leaving Venice that they were not worth more than this sum, after +allowing for rent charges on them and _fidei commissa_. See the +observations of a self-styled impartial writer printed at the end of the +_Narrazione Apologetica_, ed. 1797. I must, however, observe that this +writer is by no means impartial. The essay in question is a piece of +skilful special pleading in defence of Mme. Tron, her husband, the +oligarchs of Venice, and the officers who executed the _bando_ against +Gratarol. + +[9] Gratarol pays high tribute to Gozzi's genius. But he sticks to the +conviction that the _Droghe d'Amore_ was meant to turn him into +ridicule, and that its author could, if he had chosen, have withdrawn it +from the stage. + +[10] He tells us that he began the Memoirs on April 30, 1780. _Memorie_, +vol. i. p. 3. The passage occurs in Gozzi's manifesto, of which more +anon. I may add that the manifesto is not included in all copies of the +Memoirs. + +[11] An anonymous answer, entitled _Riflessioni d'un Imparziale_, +appeared at Lugano. This was ascribed to Carlo Gozzi's pen; but he +repudiated the pamphlet, and it does not bear the mark of his style. It +may be found at the end of vol. ii. of Gratarol's _Narr. Apol._, ed. +1797, Venice, Silvestro Gatti. + +[12] _Memorie_, vol i. pp. 3-15. + +[13] This is evident from the appearance of the _Ragionamento del +Cittadino Carlo Gozzi a' Cittadini amici della Memoria di P. A. +Gratarol_ at the beginning of the _Memorie_, vol. ii. + +[14] _Memorie Ultime_, p. 39; Gozzi's _Memorie_, vol. ii. p. x. + +[15] The family of Widiman or Widman was of patrician rank in Venice. + +[16] Vol. i. p. 4. + +[17] Vol. ii. p. xvi. + +[18] De Musset, in order to support his view of Gozzi as the precursor +of Romanticism and of Hoffmann, strains to the utmost the chapter on +_Contrattempi_ in the Memoirs. He furthermore professes to have +extracted a very bizarre account of the reasons why Gozzi abandoned his +_Fiabe_--in plain words, because the elves and spirits he brought upon +the stage were resolved to be revenged on him--from a letter addressed +to Gasparo by Carlo Gozzi (_Memoires de Charles Gozzi_, pp. 184-188). De +Musset adds no reference to the source of this alleged letter, which is +mentioned by neither Magrini nor Masi. Indeed, Signor Ernesto Masi +informs me that he knows nothing about it. I too have failed to discover +it. In his Memoirs, and in the prefaces to several plays, Gozzi gives a +very different account of the reasons why he stopped producing _Fiabe_. +I am loth to draw the conclusion that the letter in question was a +deliberate forgery of Paul de Musset's. Further researches may bring it +still to light, but at present it has to be regarded with the greatest +possible suspicion. + +[19] I have treated the subject of the Italian drama elsewhere: +_Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. ch. 11. + +[20] The full title would be _Commedia dell' Arte all' Improviso_. It is +also called _Commedia a soggetto_, _Commedia non scritta_, _Commedia +improvisa._ The written comedy, beside _Commedia Erudita_, was also +called _Commedia sostenuta, scritta_, or _letteraria_. + +[21] See what I have said at length upon this point in my _Shakespeare's +Predecessors_, p. 259, and _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. v. p. 188. + +[22] To Maurice Sand, in his _Masques et Bouffons_, vol. ii. p. 77 _et +seq._, is due the merit of having resuscitated the fame of this great +local dramatist, yet I think M. Sand exaggerates Beolco's influence in +the creation of impromptu comedy. + +[23] See Collier's _English Dramatic Poetry_ (ed. 1879), vol. iii. p. +197. + +[24] It is impossible to avoid the awkwardness of using the word _mask_ +in a double sense,--both to indicate the fixed character assumed by a +certain species of actor, and also the vizard which concealed his +features. + +[25] It may here be mentioned that in English we still retain the names +of some of these masks, as Zany, Harlequin, Pantaloon, and Punch. Our +Columbine is the Neapolitan form of the _Servetta_ or soubrette. Our +Scaramouch is one of the numerous forms of the Captain, which obtained +great popularity at Paris. Whether the Clown of our pantomimes has to be +classed with the _Villano_, or rather with one of the Zanni, I am +uncertain. His traditional connection with the part of Pantaloon seems +to indicate the latter alternative. + +[26] In a comedy by Virgilio Verucci (_Li Diversi Linguaggi_, Venezia, +1609), French, Venetian, Bergamasque, Roman, Sicilian, Bolognese, +Neapolitan, Matriccian, Perugian, and Florentine dialects were spoken. +See Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxix. + +[27] Conversely, masks were sometimes created out of persons. Thus the +plebeian poet of Naples, Francesco Cerlone, moulded the mask of Don +Fastidio upon a barber of his acquaintance, Francesco Massaro. Here the +man became a type; and after he had made it famous, it was continued by +other players, who adapted themselves to his humours. (See Scherillo's +_Commedia dell' Arte_, chap, iii., for the history of Don Fastidio). +This mask was very popular for a time in Southern Italy. When Casanova +wanted to engage a troop at Otranto for performance at Corfu, he had to +choose between the rival companies of Neapolitan Don Fastidio and +Sicilian Battipaglia (_Memoires_, vol. i. ch. xv.). The Capocomici, as I +have previously mentioned, were known by the names of their masks. + +[28] _Fescenninus_ is variously derived from the town Fescennia in South +Etruria, or from _fascinum_, the Latin form of _phallus_. + +[29] The common meaning of _satura_ and _farsa_, both of which have +reference to stuffing, is somewhat singular. + +[30] I have seen them doing this with reticence and decorum at +Montepulciano. + +[31] A curious passage in the Life of Don Pietro di Toledo (_Arch. +Stor._, vol. ix. p. 23) shows what a startling impression these +Dionysiac revels made upon a Spanish Viceroy in the early seventeenth +century. Pontano's Latin poems are full of matter bearing on the +vitality of antique rustic habits in the neighbourhood of Naples. + +[32] It was included in the first edition of the _Canti +Carnascialeschi_, 1559, and is reprinted in Verzone's edition of +Grazzini's _Rime Burlesche_, Firenze, Sansone, 1882. + +[33] "Acting the Bergamasque and the Venetian, we roam the whole world +over, and the recitation of comedies is our trade.... We are all of us +Zanni, excellent and perfect players; the other choice actors of our +troupe, lovers, ladies, hermits, and soldiers, have stayed behind to +guard our booth.... We have a stock of new comedies, so fine, so +mirthful, and so witty, that when you hear them you will die of +laughing. Afterwards you will see a dance upon our stage, all full of +new and varied sports.... But since there is a certain custom in this +country, ladies, which prevents your coming to our public show, if you +will open your house-doors to us, we will let you taste in part the +sweetness and the pleasure of our sports." + +[34] The other channels were French plays, modifications of English +plays, adaptations of Spanish plays, and musical melodramas. + +[35] I do not vouch for this etymology, which Boerio, the compiler of +the Venetian Glossary, has adopted. For myself, I should be well +contented with the derivation from San Pantaleone, and would willingly +make him the patron saint of pantaloons and professed trousers-makers. + +[36] It is singular that Shakespeare, who uses Pantalone as the symbol +of old age in _As You Like It_, knew him already in decrepitude. + +[37] It was my good fortune, while writing these pages at Davos in the +summer of 1888, to become acquainted with two brothers from Bergamo, who +were living representatives of the Zanni. They had come to help at the +hay-harvest, leaving their own farm in the Bergamasque hills. +Brighella's wit and knavery amused me. I marvelled at Arlecchino's +simplicity and suppleness. + +[38] Carlo Gozzi at Zara in his youth created a new type of the +Servetta, adapted to Dalmatian circumstances, under the name of Luce. + +[39] Scherillo, in his _Commedia dell' Arte_, has resuscitated Cerlone's +fame, as Maurice Sand made us acquainted with Beolco. + +[40] See above, p. 38. + +[41] For a short notice of these curious Maccaronic poems, _I Cantici di +Fidentio Glottogrysio Ludimagistro_, see my _Renaissance in Italy_, vol. +v. p. 328. The obscurity of their jargon veiled considerable indecency. +It is noticeable that this book, now exceedingly rare, should have +become the text-book of the Pedante. But see Bartoli, _op. cit._, pp. +lii., lvii. + +[42] Burattino is so kaleidoscopic that at last he becomes the +patronymic hero of marionettes in Italy. _I Burattini_ are the acting +dolls. + +[43] In the _Ragionamento Ingenuo_ and _Appendice_, Op., 1772, vols i. +and iv. + +[44] _Scenari Inediti_, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880. + +[45] It has to be mentioned that in plays of a more serious description, +the parts of character were frequently written out, and only the parts +of the masks left to improvisation. This was the method pursued by Gozzi +in his _Fiabe_. + +[46] Andrea Perrucci, _Dell' Arte Rappresentativa premeditata ed all' +improvviso_, Napoli, 1699, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[47] _Histoire Anecdotique du Theatre Italien_, Paris, 1769, quoted by +Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxvi. + +[48] _Le Theatre Italien_, quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxx. + +[49] These phrases are used by Gozzi in his _Memorie Inutili_. Compare +what he says in his _Appendice al Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. +iv. p. 40. + +[50] Quoted by Bartoli, _op. cit._, p. lxxi. + +[51] I am indebted to Maurice Sand, _Masques et Bouffons_. + +[52] Vol. iii. p. 201. + +[53] _Ragionamento Ingenuo_, Op., 1772, vol. i. + +[54] Scherillo, in his book on _La Commedia dell' Arte_, ch. vi., has +given the history of San Carlo's efforts to suppress the theatre at +Milan. + +[55] Nicolo Maria Tiepolo, about 1778, quoted by Molmenti in his Essay +on Goldoni, Venezia, Ongania, 1880, p. 68. + +[56] Pasquali's edition, 1761; also, _Teatro Comico_, act i. sc. 2. + +[57] _Memoires de Jacques Casanova_, Bruxelles, Rozez, vol. i. ch. II. + +[58] _Memoires de M. Goldoni_, Paris, Veuve Duchesne, 1787, vol. i. +ch. 5. + +[59] A common inn-sign. This reminds us of the earliest performances of +plays in the yards of London hostelries. + +[60] Ed. cit., vol i. p. 228. + +[61] See his Memoires, part i. ch. 40. + +[62] This is perhaps the proper place to explain the meaning of +Martellian verses. They owe their name to Pier Jacopo Martelli +(1665-1725), who revived them, and used them for the drama. Metrically +speaking, Martellian verses are twelve-syllable lines of the Alexandrine +type. These long lines had been commonly employed in Italy during the +thirteenth century, before the heroic verse of eleven syllables obtained +ascendancy. It is difficult to say why the Alexandrine, which Italy in +the thirteenth century shared with France, died out in the former +country and became the standard heroic line of the latter. Possibly the +reason may be found in the Italian tendency toward double rhymes; the +so-called _versi piani_ of Dante being decasyllabic iambics with a +redundant syllable rather than hendecasyllabics. Anyhow, the Alexandrine +has not flourished south of the Alps. Martelli's revival did not +prosper; and Carducci, in his _Su' Campi di Marengo_ (_Nuove Poesie_, p. +91), is the only recent poet who has attempted them with success. + +[63] Opere, ed. 1772, tom. viii. p. 27. "The partisans on both sides +gathered forces daily. One swears by _Original_ (a name for Goldoni), +the other by _Plunder_ (Chiari, because of his plagiarisms). The whole +city was turned upside down, and indeed it is no laughing matter. +Brothers fought with brothers, wives did worse with their husbands. +Everywhere the wrangling was fierce; nought but confusion, nought but +discord." + +[64] The details of the controversy between Gozzi and Goldoni are given +at fuller length than I have attempted in Signor Ernesto Masi's masterly +Introduction to his edition of the _Fiabe Teatrali_. + +[65] Opere, vol. viii. _Tartana_ is a large merchant vessel. + +[66] The editor of this Venetian Zadkiel was originally Giovanni +Pozzobon. After his death it was continued by Giambattista Bada. +Pozzobon was nicknamed Schieson. The almanac was adorned with a +ridiculous portrait of a doctor in a huge wig. Owing to this fact, +Schieson came to signify any one with rumpled hair. See Boerio's +_Dizionario del Dialetto Veneziano_. + +[67] Opere, vol. viii. p. 164. + +[68] The original exists in MS. at the Marcian Library. Goldoni wrote +the poem on the occasion of S. E. Bastian Venier's return from the +rectorship of Bergamo. When he reprinted it in the edition of his +poetical works (Pasquali, Venezia, 1764), he omitted the passage +referring to Gozzi's _Tartana_. The lines above are given in Magrini's +and Masi's essays. I add a translation. "I have seen a certain _Tartana_ +in print, full of rancid and insipid verses, verses bad enough to +terrify a goblin, verses seasoned by the wise plagiary with acrid salt +of evil-speaking, full of false arrogant sentiments. One can, however, +condone this licence in one who is out of temper with Fortune, she being +not greatly well-affected toward him. He who speaks evil without any +reason shown, he who does not prove his assumptions and his arguments, +acts like the dog who barks against the moon." + +[69] It was written for the marriage of Contarini Venier. "A Lombard who +pretends to be a Delia Cruscan, with a smile on his lips and venom in +his heart." + +[70] "Only too well I know that I am not a good writer, and that I never +drank at the best fountains. I write and reason as my style dictates, +and sometimes by good chance I also have afforded pleasure. But woe to +me if the Florentine sieve should be applied to sifting my productions." + +[71] Opere, vol. viii. p. 183. "I am engaged in preparing a commentary +which shall prove both the assumption and the argument." + +[72] _Il Teatro Comico_ was the first of the famous sixteen comedies of +1749-50. The list of the pieces to be expected was announced in it. See +Goldoni's _Memoirs_, part i. ch. 7. + +[73] "Yes, thou art the eagle, I am the ant. Thou soarest to the zenith +without exertion; my Muse cannot rise to the poles of the universe." + +[74] Only in this respect, however; otherwise, as artist, Gozzi differs +widely from Aristophanes. + +[75] Opere, vol. iii. p. 9. + +[76] The actors in Sacchi's company were: Antonio Sacchi, _Truffaldino_; +Atanagio Zanoni, _Brighella_; Agostino Fiorelli, _Tartaglia_; Cesare +Darbes, _Pantalone_; Adriana Sacchi Zanoni, _Smeraldina_; Antonia +Sacchi, _Beatrice_; together with Ignazio Casanova and Gaetano Casali. +How the parts of Leandro, Clarice, Re di Coppe, Celio, Morgana, Creonta, +Ninetta were distributed, we do not know. Antonia Sacchi (the _Beatrice_ +of the troupe) probably played Clarice. + +[77] In Italian, _Re di Coppe_. The Italian suits are _Coppe_ or cups, +_Danari_ or coins, _Spade_ or swords (whence our Spades), _Bastoni_ or +clubs. + +[78] In Italian, _Cavaliere di Coppe_. + +[79] I have adopted the old English fourteen-syllable line for the +translation of Gozzi's Martellian verses. It seemed to me that the +lumbering effect of this metre lent itself to the spirit of his parody. +What Martellian verses were has been explained at p. 97. + +[80] I cannot pretend to give a literal translation of these gross +parodies of Goldoni's forensic verbiage. The most I can do is to stuff +the verse with more or less of legal phraseology. + +[81] See above, p. 112, for the names of the five actors who sustained +these parts in Sacchi's company. + +[82] I wrote this in the spring of 1888, before I was aware that Wagner +had set the _Donna Serpente_ to music. His early piece, _The Fairies_, +was composed in 1833, and first performed this year in June at Munich. + +[83] Act ii. sc. 5. In Masi's edition, vol. ii. p. 458. Readers who care +for further diatribes _a la Gozzi_ on these topics, may be referred to +the _Astrazione_ which serves as introduction to his translation of +Boileau, Op., vol. vii. p. 53. + +[84] + + "Many are now alive, + Who haply are more statues than I am. + Thou shalt experience what power hath a statue, + And how a live man may become an image." + + +[85] _Tarocchi_ is the name for the cards, seventy-eight in number, used +in a now well-nigh forgotten game. Fifty-six cards of the whole series +consist of the four Italian suits: Coppe, Spade, Bastoni, and Danari. +The remaining twenty-two are properly called _Tarocchi_, and in the game +of Taroc take precedence of any cards of the four ordinary suits. + +[86] + + "I too have charms, + Sweet flatteries, dulcet wiles; and to my side + He shall be faithful ever. Yet I would not + That, loving him, my kindness should arouse + In hearts of others jealousy." + + +[87] + +"Fair, yea, most fair thou art in sooth; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou an apple hold which sings, plucked from the magic tree. + + * * * * * + +Daughter, I trow that thou art fair; yet still more fair wouldst be +Didst thou that water hold which plays and dances merrily." + +[88] + +"So! this is my philosopher, who went Yesterday picking sticks, and now! +... But patience!... I wished to stay with her, for I adore her; And +stay with her I shall. We must contrive To hold our tongue; and yet this +may not be. I vow I scarcely knew her! What grand airs! Some devil must +have daubed her o'er with gold. 'Twould vex me sorely if the little +hussy ... Some rich milord perhaps.... Well, I'll know all." + +{_Exit._ + +[89] There are five of these old statues, painted, in Moorish costumes. +One of them has the name Rioba carved above his head. Everybody in +Venice, of course, knew them; and their appearance on the stage must +have been mirth-promoting. + +[90] _Memoires_, part ii. cap. 45. + +[91] Letters from Italy, dated October 4, October 6, and October 10, +1786. + +[92] See Masi's Essay, p. cxxxii. + +[93] _Carlo Gozzi, Theatre Fiabesque, Alphonse Royer._ Paris, Michel +Levy, 1865. + +[94] London, W. Satchell & Co. 1880. + +[95] Through the courtesy of Mr. John P. Anderson of the British Museum +I am able to state that, besides a short article in the _Encyclopaedia +Britannica_, he can only discover an essay in _Lippincott's Magazine_ +(vol. xx. p. 347, &c.), entitled "A Venetian of the Eighteenth Century," +which deals with Carlo Gozzi. + +[96] The Gozzi family were thus _Cittadini Originari_ of Venice. These +_Cittadini_ had to prove legitimate birth in the city; three generations +during which the family had exercised no mechanical arts; freedom from +any criminal stain, debts to the state, or factious behaviour. +Citizenship, as in the case of the Gozzi, was also granted by privilege. +The _Cittadini_ formed a class of burgher aristocracy, ranking below the +patricians and taking no part in the actual government of the State, +since they did not vote in the Consiglio Grande. Their names, pedigrees, +and arms were enrolled in a book, of which many copies exist, and which +was commonly called the _Libro d'Argento_, to distinguish it from the +_Libro d'Oro_ of the patricians. In a MS. of the seventeenth century, +which belonged to Cicogna, now at the Museo Civico, entitled _Le Due +Corone della Nobilta Veneziana, Corona Seconda_, the Gozzi arms are +blazoned thus: "Or, on the topmost branches of an olive-tree vert a dove +ppr., and round the stem of the tree a scroll argent inscribed Signum +Pacis." The family is described as wealthy; but no pedigree is given: +_Non vi e albero_. Carlo Gozzi, in his _Lettera Confutatoria, Memorie_, +vol. iii. p. 31, asserts that the privilege of citizenship was given to +his ancestors by the Doge Cicogna (1585-95). It is neither impossible +nor improbable that the Gozzi of Bergamo were derived from the same +stock as the Gozze or Gozzi of Ragusa. These latter drew their pedigree +from Herzegovina, and were therefore Slavs. We know that the patrician +families of Polo and Sagredo came originally from Sebenico. + +[97] Their palace is still inhabited by a Conte Gozzi. The _arca_, or +family sepulture, can no longer be traced in the church. It was at the +foot of the altar in the Chapel of the Madonna. Here Carlo Gozzi was +buried. + +[98] In a voluminous MS. written by Cicogna, embodying all he could +collect about the _Famiglie Cittadine_ (now at the Museo Civico), we +find that _Alberto Gozi detto delle Sede_ was inscribed among the +patricians in 1646. I may mention that Cicogna tricks the arms of Gozzi +without the dove. + +[99] The Grand Chancellor, the Ducal Notaries, and the Secretaries of +many Magistracies, were chosen from the _Cittadini_, who were also sent, +after holding such posts, as ambassadors of the second class, or +Residents, to foreign Courts. + +[100] The word, which I have translated acre, is _campo_. Now the +_campo_ differed in different provinces of Lombardy. But the _Campo +Padovano_ corresponded pretty nearly to an English acre; and from +another passage in Gozzi (_Memorie_, vol. iii. p. 226) it appears that +he was in the habit of using the Paduan standard. + +[101] The Gozzi were what are called in Venice _Conti di Terra Ferma_, +and their title seems to have been dependent upon these feudal tenures. + +[102] At the time when Gozzi wrote, this was the eldest branch, called +Di San Fantin. Two remote branches, of S. Apollinare and San Polo, +survived. They descended from a collateral ancestor, Girolamo Tiepolo, +who died in 1516. The branch of S. Polo expired in 1820. See Litta, +_Famiglie Celebri_. The Tiepolo family was one of the oldest and most +illustrious among the patrician houses. It ranked with the _Case +vecchie_, as distinguished from the _Case nuove_. These _Case vecchie_ +were also called tribunizie, from having exercised the highest offices +of State at the time when Venice was still governed by tribunes, and +before the foundation of the Dogeship. Of these oldest and purest noble +houses there were twenty-four. The closing of the Grand Council in 1297, +which determined the oligarchical character of the Venetian government, +led to an attempted revolution in the State by Baiamonte Tiepolo. +Tiepolo's conspiracy was really an effort in the interests of the old +aristocracy to throw off the yoke which _novi homines_ were fixing on +the commonwealth. An excellent essay on Baiamonte Tiepolo will be found +in H. F. Brown's _Venetian Studies_. I may add to this note that the +Gozzi had previously intermarried with the Corner, Zuccato, Dona, and +Morosini, patrician houses of high respectability. + +[103] Carlo Gozzi was born December 13, 1720. He probably knew that he +was in his sixtieth year; and this passage enables us to measure the +exact amount of duplicity which he thought venial in composing his +Memoirs. It was Gozzi's object to extenuate the fact that his _liaison_ +with Teodora Ricci had been carried on when he was past the age of +fifty. When he asserts that he had "not yet reached the age of sixty," +he was just within the bounds of veracity; for he wanted more than seven +months to complete his sixtieth year. + +[104] _Collegi._ Gasparo was educated in the Somaschan establishment at +S. Cipriano on the island of Murano. + +[105] Casanova, in the first chapter of his Memoirs, says that he +suffered during his boyhood from the same violent haemorrhages. + +[106] _Gozzi_ might have cited Galileo, whose style, formed by the study +of the "divine" Ariosto, is a model of exquisite and urbane Italian +diction. + +[107] Compare what Goldoni says about the marionette theatre at his +grandfather's country-seat. In some of the great villas of the Venetian +nobility these private stages were built on an enormous scale. The +account of Marco Contarini's theatre at Piazzola near Padua, and of the +sumptuous dramatic performances which took place there, reads like a +passage from the _Arabian Nights_. See Romanin's _Storia di Venezia_, +vol. vii. p. 550. + +[108] I may here say that the title of cavaliere, or knight, was +commonly given to members of patrician families at Venice, irrespective +of their being laymen or in orders. + +[109] Gaspara Stampa was born at Padua, but was a gentlewoman of Milan +by descent. She died about 1554, at the age of thirty. If this edition +of Gaspara Stampa's _Rime_ is the one prepared for publication by Luisa +Bergalli (Gozzi's sister-in-law), there is the same confusion of dates +here as I have noticed above. It was published when Gozzi had reached +his seventeenth year. + +[110] A tablet over the entrance to the restaurant at the Calcina on the +Zattere, records that Apostolo Zeno dwelt there. It was, perhaps, to +this house that young Gozzi paid his visit. Zeno (b. 1668, d. 1750) +exercised considerable influence over the Italian drama. He wrote plays +for music and oratorios. For some years he held the post of Cesarean +poet at Vienna, which he resigned to the more celebrated Metastasio. + +[111] Luisa Pisana Bergalli was born at Venice in 1703, of humble +parentage, being descended from a Piedmontese shoemaker. Luigi Mocenigo +and Pisana Cornaro held her at the font, and gave her their two +Christian names. She showed distinguished talents in early youth, and +was educated by the painter Rosalba Carriera, afterwards by Caterino and +Apostolo Zeno. At twenty-three she published a tragedy and an anthology +of Italian poems by female writers; at twenty-five another tragedy; at +thirty a translation of Terence, and a comedy dedicated to Count Jacopo +Antonio Gozzi. It appears from this dedication to _Le avventure del +poeta_ that she was the protegee of both Count Gozzi and his wife, and +on the best of terms with their children. She was thirty-five and +Gasparo was twenty-five when they married. See Tommasei, _Storia Civile +nella Letteraria_, pp. 185-188. + +[112] The title _Provveditore Generale di Mare_ was given to the supreme +head of the Venetian naval and military forces in the Levant. He resided +at Corfu, where he maintained a princely court, and ruled like a +sovereign, being only responsible for his actions to the Senate. Next in +importance to this functionary was the _Provveditore Generale di +Dalmazia_, of whose Court we shall hear much in Gozzi's Memoirs. +Casanova, who went to Corfu in the train of the Prov. Gen. Dolfino, +called Il Bucentoro because of his grand manner, and the father of the +famous Caterina Dolfin Tron, gives an excellent account of the Court +there, its military, naval, and civil establishment. Chapters xiii.-xvi. +of the first volume of his Memoirs deserve to be compared with the +corresponding part of Gozzi's. + +[113] Not at seventeen, but at twenty. Gozzi was born in 1720, and +Quirini took the government of Dalmatia in 1740. + +[114] _Togato._ The State dignitaries of Venice wore robes of various +colours and forms, according to their office. A simple nobleman was +bound to go abroad in a flowing robe of silk, or toga, ample enough to +conceal whatever costume he may have worn beneath it. + +[115] _Armata_, composed of naval and military forces, to act equally on +sea and shore. + +[116] It seems from the names of these larger galleys that they were the +official ships of the Provveditore, his own flag-ship and her attendant +convoy. Romanin (vol. viii. p. 372) says that at this epoch Venice kept +fifteen heavy galleys, ten lighter, nine sailing ships of the frigate +build, and twenty-four armed craft of other descriptions. The galleys +and sailing ships were commanded only by patricians. This was her peace +establishment. + +[117] Gozzi says _adjutante_ alone. _Adjutante di campo_ is +aide-de-camp. + +[118] This word is in the Italian _armata_. The _armata_, to which Gozzi +belonged, was properly an armament of mixed naval and military forces, +and _armata_ would naturally be translated "navy." He was attached to +it, however, in the quality of soldier, and was eligible (as we shall +afterwards see) for transfer into the land forces of the State in +Lombardy. Thus he belonged to the Venetian army. + +[119] This was the highest office in the State to which a _cittadino_ +could aspire. It conferred the rank of cavaliere. The Grand Chancellor +could open public despatches; he attended the sittings of the Grand +Council and the Senate, but without a vote, and was the official chief +of all the civil servants. + +[120] Probably Freschot, the author of several works on Venice, a +Frenchman by birth. + +[121] The native Dalmatians of Slav origin, inhabiting the inland +villages and country districts, were called by this name. + +[122] _Scogli._ A long low island opposite the harbour of Zara is so +called. + +[123] This and other French terms show to what extent the military +system of Venice had been modernised. + +[124] Razionato. + +[125] This chapter will be read with interest by students of the +_Commedia dell' Arte_. It throws light upon the way in which an actor of +originality could adapt one of the fixed characters of that comedy, in +this case the _servetta_, to his own talents and to local circumstances. + +[126] _Pallone_ is a game played with a large leather ball, filled with +air, and something like our football. In Italy it is struck with the +hand, which is armed for the purpose with gloves or a flat short bat +fixed on the palm. Sides are chosen, and the game roughly resembles +tennis on a large scale. Pallone is the original of our balloon. + +[127] The sequin at this time was worth twenty-two _lire Venete_. The +worth of the _lira_ was about half a franc, says Romanin (vol. viii. p. +302). Romanin in the same place fixes the ducat at eight _lire_. Gozzi's +debt amounted to 1248 _lire_. This would make only 156 ducats at the +above rate. But the relation of the ducat to the sequin and the _lira_ +is very obscure, and seems to have varied according to the kind of +ducat. + +[128] _Decime._ Taxes annually raised upon the whole property of a +Venetian. + +[129] Opere, vol. vii. p. 393. This is the stanza-- + + Gli antichi di provincia tuoi fedeli + Son quasi tutti fuggiti alle ville, + In castellacci discoperti a' cieli, + Con figli e figlie e nipoti e pupille, + Ripieni di pensieri acri e crudeli, + Allor che suonan mezzodi le squille. + Educazion non han, mangiar, ne bere; + Pensa se daran nerbo alle tue schiere! + +This is said to the burlesque Carlo Magno of the poem. The passage in +the text confirms the theory that Gozzi intended his Carlo Magno to +represent the decrepit majesty of Venice. + +[130] Almoro is the Venetian form of the name Ermolao. + +[131] Gozzi's description of the Venetian _Cortesan_ may serve as +illustration to a popular play of Goldoni's, _Momolo Cortesan_. This was +the first comedy of character Goldoni composed. Its title-role was +written for a celebrated Pantalone, Golinetti (see Goldoni's _Memoirs_, +part i. ch. 40). When he printed it, he translated the title into +_L'Uomo di Mondo_, finding no exact equivalent for the Venetian phrase +_Cortesan_. Goldoni's account of the character tallies with Gozzi's. + +[132] In these and several passages which follow, Gozzi ascribes the +pecuniary embarrassments of his family to the maladministration of his +mother, aided by his sister-in-law. It it only fair to say, that Gasparo +Gozzi's correspondence confirms his veracity. That favourite and +favoured eldest son complains bitterly that, even to the last days of +her life, his mother insisted on managing the property, and that she +made underhand contracts to the prejudice of himself and his children. +It was, in fact, a misfortune for the Gozzi that their father, Jacopo +Antonio, married into a patrician family of higher rank and pretensions +than his own. Angela Tiepolo, knowing herself to be one of the last +representatives of a very noble house, with considerable expectations +from her childless brother, drove her easy-going husband into ruinous +expenditure, and domineered over her kindred by right of a marriage +which savoured of a mesalliance. See the article upon her in Litta's +_Famiglie Celebri_, sub tit. "Tiepolo." + +[133] The _bautta_ and the mask were permitted at Venice from the first +Sunday in October until Ash Wednesday. + +[134] This was a very long scarf of black silk, which, draped above the +head, and fulling over the shoulders, was tied in a knot, and allowed to +hang on both sides of the wearer's skirts. The mask or _bautta_ was only +permitted during the prolonged Venetian Carnival. + +[135] The Italian is _democraziano_. Perhaps Gozzi wrote _democriziano_, +from Democritus, the sage who laughed at all things. In either case the +adjective is wrongly formed. It ought to be either _democratico_ or +_democritico_. But _democrazia_ may have led him to _democraziano_. He +not infrequently employs this phrase, which always puzzles me, because +nobody was really less democratic than Carlo Gozzi, and as yet, in 1780, +he had no reason, under the pressure of the Revolution, to dissemble. + +[136] The theatres of Venice were called by the names of the parishes in +which they stood, or of non-parochial churches to which they were +contiguous. S. Angelo was one of the smaller. + +[137] I have condensed in this sentence the details of a long and +tiresome chapter (chap. xxix.). It is worth adding here that the law of +Venice with regard to entail was very strict; time gave no title to a +purchaser who had obtained possession of an estate subject to _fidei +commissa_. One of Goethe's most interesting letters from Venice (October +5, 1786) contains the full description of a cause he heard pleaded in +the Ducal palace for the recovery of illegally alienated real property. +Goethe remarks upon the extraordinary permanence of trusts in Venice. + +[138] The author of an unfinished work on Venetian literature. + +[139] It seems probable that Gozzi was really at one time on the point +of marrying this lady. + +[140] The Avvogadori del Comune, or _Advocatores Comunis_, corresponded +in a certain sense to the modern Procuratori di Stato, and had some +resemblance to the Roman tribunes. They formed a High Court of Justice +for the guardianship of property accruing to the Exchequer, for the +protection of private rights in property, rights of minors and widows, +the superintendence of registers of births and marriages, &c. Three +patricians formed the board. + +[141] The Somascan Order was founded about 1540 by Girolamo Miani, a +Venetian senator, upon the model of the Theatines. Its object was +education, principally of the poor. With regard to the school at S. +Cipriano, it is worth mentioning that the famous adventurer, Casanova, +was placed there by his guardian the Abbe Grimani in the year 1740 or +thereabouts. He gives a full account of the institution in his Memoirs +(vol. i. ch. vi.), from which it appears that at this epoch about 150 +youths were educated by the Somascan monks. Readers of Casanova need +hardly be reminded that he was expelled from the seminary after a few +weeks' residence. Gasparo Gozzi was also educated here. + +[142] This scene has actually been preserved and printed in Gasparo +Gozzi's works. Opere, Minerva, Padova, vol. vii. It forms the 6th scene +of the 3rd act of _Esopo in Citta_, and is very much as Carlo Gozzi +describes it. The ancient lady throws the principal blame for her +domestic sufferings upon a certain "Sicofante, Dottor legista di questa +citta," whom I take to be Carlo's lawyer, Testa. + +[143] Gozzi can hardly not have been thinking of poor Gratarol, when he +penned these lines. Mentally he contrasts his own conduct under the +inconvenience of a stage-satire with Gratarol's. + +[144] See above, p. 319. + +[145] On the Fondamenta Nuove, looking across Murano to the mountains of +the Dolomites. See Tommasei, _op. cit._, p. 258. + +[146] This was written in 1780, but when it was printed in 1797, Louis +XVI. had little reason to be proud of his titles. + +[147] He was made secretary to the Riformatori dello Studio. + +[148] Gozzi here resumes a portion of the 29th chapter of his Memoirs, +which I have condensed in Chapter XXIV. above (see note to p. 336). It +seemed unnecessary to burden the translation of his autobiography with +more of legal details than was absolutely necessary for understanding +the tenor of his life-experience. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; +Volume the first, by Count Carlo Gozzi + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEMOIRS OF COUNT CARLO GOZZI V.1 *** + +***** This file should be named 38266.txt or 38266.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/6/38266/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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