ITALIAN CARICATURE.
As soon as comic art in Italy is mentioned, we think of Pasquino, the
merry Roman tailor, whose name has enriched all the languages of Europe
with an effective word. Many men whose names have been put to a similar
use have, notwithstanding, been completely forgotten; but Pasquino,
after having been the occasion of pasquinades for four centuries, is
still freshly remembered, and travelers tell his story over again to
their readers.
Pasquino was the fashionable tailor at Rome about the time when the
discovery of America was a recent piece of news. In his shop, as
tradition reports, bishops, courtiers, nobles, literary men, were wont
to meet to order their clothes, and retail the scandal of the city. The
master of the shop, a wit himself, and the daily receptacle of others'
wit, uttered frequent epigrams upon conspicuous persons, which passed
from mouth to mouth, as such things will in an idle and luxurious
community. Whatever piece of witty malice was afloat in the town came to
be attributed to Pasquino; and men who had more wit than courage
attributed to him the satire they dared not claim.
Catholics who have seen the inside of Roman life, who have been
domiciled with bishops and cardinals, report that the magnates of Rome,
to this day, associate in the informal manner in which we should suppose
they did four centuries ago, from the traditions of Pasquino and his
sayings. The Pope sends papers of _bonbons_ to the Sisters who have
charge of infant schools, and shares among the cardinals the delicacies
and interesting objects which are continually sent to him. Upon hearing
their accounts of the easy familiarities and light tone of the higher
ecclesiastical society of recent times, we can the better understand the
traditions that have come down to us of Pasquino and his shop full of
highnesses and eminences.
Pasquino, like the "fellow of infinite jest" upon whose skull Hamlet
moralized in the church-yard, died, and was buried. Soon after his death
it became necessary to dig up an ancient statue half sunk in the ground
of his street; and, to get it out of the way, it was set up close to his
shop. "Pasquino has come back," said some one. Rome accepted the jest,
and thus the statue acquired the name of Pasquino, which it retains to
the present day. Soon it became a custom to stick to it any epigram or
satirical verse the author of which desired to be unknown. So many of
these sharp sayings were aimed at the ecclesiastical lords of Rome,
that one of the popes was on the point of having the statue thrown into
the river, just as modern tyrants think to silence criticism by
suppressing the periodical in which it appears. Pasquino, properly
enough, was saved by an epigram.
"Do not throw Pasquino into the Tiber," said the Spanish embassador,
"lest he should teach all the frogs in the river to croak pasquinades."
We can not wonder that the popes should have objected to Pasquino's
biting tongue, if the specimens of his wit which are given by Mr.
Story[38] fairly represent him. There was a volume of six hundred and
thirty-seven pages of epigrams and satires, published in 1544, claiming
to be pasquinades, many of which doubtless were such. Here is one upon
the infamous pope, Alexander Sextus:
"Sextus Tarquinius, Sextus Nero--this also is Sextus.
Always under the Sextuses Rome has been ruined."
[Footnote 38: "Roba di Roma," p. 283.]
After the sudden death of Pope Leo X., two Latin lines to the following
effect were found upon Pasquino:
"If you desire to hear why at his last hour Leo
Could not the sacraments take, know he had sold them."
The allusion is to Leo's unscrupulous use of every means within his
power of raising money.
When Clement VII., after the sack of Rome, was held a prisoner, Pasquino
had this:
"_Papa non potest errare._"
This sentence ordinarily means that the pope can not err; but the verb
_errare_ signifies also _to wander_, _to stroll_; so that the line was a
sneer both at the pope's confinement and his claim to infallibility.
One of Pasquino's hardest hits was called forth by the grasping measures
of Pius VI.:
"Three jaws had Cerberus, and three mouths as well,
Which barked into the blackest deeps of hell.
Three hungry mouths have you; ay, even four;
None of them bark, but all of them devour."
There was a capital one, too, and a just, upon the institution of the
Legion of Honor in France by Napoleon Bonaparte, not long after he had
stolen several hundred precious works of art and manuscripts from the
Roman States.
"In times less pleasant and more fierce, of old,
The thieves were hung upon the cross, we're told.
In times less fierce, more pleasant, like to-day,
Crosses are hung upon the thieves, they say."
Thus for centuries have Pasquino and his rival, Marfario, an exhumed
river-god, given occasional expression to the pent-up wrath of Italy at
the spoliation of their beautiful country. Mr. Story reports a
pasquinade which appeared but a very few years since, when all the world
was longing to hear of the death of Ferdinand II. of Naples, who, under
the name of King Bomba, was so deeply execrated by Italians. Pasquino
supposes a traveler just arrived from Naples, and asks him what he has
seen there, when the following conversation takes place:
"I have seen a tumor [_tumore_]." "A tumor? But what is a tumor?" "For
answer, take away the _t_." "Ah! a humor [_umore_]. But is this humor
dangerous?" "Take away the _u_." "He dies! what a pity! But when?
Shortly?" "Take away the _m_." "Hours! In a few hours! But who, then,
has this humor?" "Take away the _o_." "King! The king! I am delighted.
But, then, where will he go?" "Take away the _r_." "E-e-e-h!"
[Illustration: King Bomba's Ultimatum to Sicily. (From _Il Don Pirlone_,
Rome, December, 1848.)]
Could there be any thing better than a pasquinade which appeared during
the conference upon Italian affairs at Zuerich between the
representatives of Austria, Italy, and France? Pasquino enters the
chamber, where he holds the following conversation with the
plenipotentiaries:
"Do you speak French?" "No." "Do you speak German?" "No." "Do you speak
Italian?" "No." "What language do you speak?" "Latin." "And what have
you got to say in Latin?" "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
shall be, for ever and ever. Amen."
Happily, Pasquino was not a prophet, and the affairs of Italy are not as
they were and had been during so many ages of despair.
From these specimens of Italian satire we should expect to find the
people of Italy effective with the satirical pencil also. The spirit of
caricature is in them, but the opportunities for its exercise and
exhibition have been few and far between. As in Spain there was an
exhaustive depletion of intellectual force, so in Italy the human mind,
during late centuries, has been crushed under a dead weight of priests.
Professor Charles Eliot Norton, in his "Travel and Study in Italy,"
tells us that Roman artists can not now so much as copy well the
masterpieces by which they are surrounded.
"The utter sterility," he says, "and impotence of mind which have long
been and are still conspicuous at Rome, the deadness of the Roman
imagination, the absence of all intellectual energy in literature and in
art, are the necessary result of the political and moral servitude under
which the Romans exist. Where the exercise of the privileges of thought
is dangerous, the power of expression soon ceases. For a time--as during
the seventeenth century in Italy--the external semblance of originality
may remain, and mechanical facility of execution may conceal the absence
of real life; but by degrees the very semblance disappears, and facility
of execution degenerates into a mere trick of the hand. The Roman
artists of the present time have not, in general, the capacity even of
good copyists. They can mix colors and can polish marble, but they are
neither painters nor sculptors."
And yet (as the same author remarks) with the first breath of freedom
the dormant capacity of the Italians awakes. In Italy, as in France,
Spain, and Cuba, caricature dies when freedom is gone, and lives again
as soon as the oppressor is removed. In 1848, when the Revolution had
gained ascendency in Rome, a satirical paper appeared, called _Il Don
Pirlone_, published weekly, and illustrated by strong, though rudely
executed, caricatures. Don Pirlone was the name of a familiar character
in Italian comedy and farce. The pictures in this work abundantly
justify the encomiums of Professor Norton and Mr. Story, who both
pronounce them to be full of spirit and vigor, proving that the satiric
fire of the early pasquinades is not extinguished.
[Illustration: He has begun the Service with Mass, and completed it with
Bombs. (From _Il Don Pirlone_, Rome, June 15th, 1849.)]
Among the specimens given in this chapter, the reader will not fail to
notice the one that made its appearance in June, 1849, when thirty
thousand French troops, under the command of General Oudinot, were about
to replace upon the heart and brain of Rome the cumbrous, fantastic
Medicine-man of Christendom. This picture, slight as is the impression
which it makes upon us, who can safely smile at the medicine-men of all
climes and tribes, was most eagerly scanned by the outraged people of
Rome, to whom the return of the Medicine-man boded another twenty years
of asphyxia. _Don Pirlone_ was obliged to print extra editions to supply
the demand. The picture exhibits the interior of a church, and the Pope
celebrating mass; General Oudinot assists him, kneeling at the steps of
the altar and holding up the pontifical robes. The bell used at the mass
is in the form of an imperial crown. Surrounding the altar, a crowd of
military officers are seen, and behind them a row of bayonets. The
candles on the altar are in the form of bayonets. The time chosen by the
artist is the supreme moment of the mass, when the celebrant elevates
the host. The image of Christ on the crucifix has withdrawn its arms
from the cross-bars, and covered its face with its hands, as if to shut
the desecration from its sight. Lightning darts from the cross, and a
hissing serpent issues from the wine-cup. On the sole of one of General
Oudinot's boots are the words, _Articolo V. della Constituzione_
(Article V. of the Constitution, _i. e._, the French Constitution),
which declared that "the French Republic never employs its forces
against the liberty of any people." Underneath this fine caricature was
printed: "He began the service with the mass, and completed it with
bombs."
[Illustration: "But, dear Mr. Undertaker, are you so perfectly sure that
she is dead?"--From _Il Don Pirlone_, Rome, July, 1849.]
Two weeks more of life were vouchsafed to _Il Don Pirlone_ after the
publication of this caricature. On July 2d, 1849, the French army
marched into Rome, and the paper appeared no more. The last number
contained an engraving of Liberty, a woman lying dead upon the earth,
with a cock on a neighboring dunghill crowing, and a French general
covering over the prostrate body. Under the picture was printed: "But,
dear Mr. Undertaker, are you so perfectly sure that she is dead?"
These were certainly vigorous specimens of satiric art, and increase
both our wonder and our regret at the mental degradation of the
beautiful countries of Southern Europe. They increase our wonder, I say,
because the ascendency of priests in a nation is more an effect than a
cause of degeneracy. When the canker-worm takes possession of a New
England orchard, and devours every germ and green leaf, covering all the
trees with loathsome blight, it is not because the canker-worm there is
more vigorous or deadly than on the next farm, but because the soil of
the blasted orchard is wanting in some ingredient or condition needful
for the vigorous life of fruit-trees. It is not priests, beggars, and
banditti that _make_ Mexico, Peru, Italy, and Spain what we find them.
Priests, beggars, and banditti are but the vermin whose natural prey is
a low moral and mental life; and hence the wonder that Italy, so long a
prey to such, should still produce originating minds.
Other caricatures in _Il Don Pirlone_ were remarkable. The alliance
between Austria and France in May, 1849, suggested a picture called "A
Secret Marriage," which was also a church scene, the altar bearing the
words "_Ad minorem Dei gloriam_" ("To the _lesser_ glory of God"), a
parody of the words adopted by the Inquisition, "_Ad majorem Dei
gloriam_." The Pope is marrying the bridal pair, who kneel at a
desk--the groom, a French officer with a cock's head, and for a crest an
imperial crown; the bride, a woman with long robes, and on her head the
Austrian double eagle. Upon the desk are an axe, a whip, a skull, and
crossbones.
[Illustration: Bomba at Supper. Effect of Impressions. (From _Il Don
Pirlone_, Rome, May, 1849.)]
Mr. Norton describes another, called the "Wandering Jew." "Flying to the
verge of Europe, where the Atlantic washes the shores of Portugal, is
seen the tall figure of the unhappy Carlo Alberto, driven by skeleton
ghosts, over whose heads shine stars with the dates 1821, 1831, 1848. In
the midst of the sky, before the fugitive, are the flaming words '_A
Carignano Maledizione Eterna!_' ('Cursed be Carignano forever!') to
which a hand, issuing from the clouds, points with extended forefinger.
The grim and threatening skeletons, the ghosts of those whom Carignano
had betrayed, the tormented look of the flying king, the malediction in
the heavens, the solitude of the earth and the sea, display a
concentrated power of imagination rare in art."
The ruling theme of these powerful sketches is the foul union of priest
and king for the common purpose of spoiling fair Italy. The moral of the
work might be summed up in the remark of an Italian soldier whom Mr.
Norton met one day near Rome. "Are the roads quiet now?" asked the
American traveler. "Ah, excellency," replied the man, "the poor must
live, and the winter is hard, and there is no work!" "But how was the
harvest?" "Small enough, signore! There is no grain at Tivoli, and no
wine; and as for the olives, a thousand trees have not given the worth
of a _bajocco_." "And what does the Government do for the poor?"
"Nothing, nothing at all." "And the priests?" "_Eh!_ They live well,
always well; they have a good time in this world--but?"
[Illustration: "Such is the Love of Kings." (From _Il Don Pirlone_,
Rome, 1849.)]
One striking picture in _Il Don Pirlone_ represents Italy in the form of
a huge military boot lying prostrate on the earth, with Liberty half
astride of it, holding a broom. She has just knocked off the boot a
French general, who lies on the ground with his hat at some distance
from him, and she has raised her broom to give a second blow. But at
that critical moment, the Pope thrusts his hands from a cloud, seizes
the broom, and holds it back. Inside the boot is seen ambushed a
cardinal with two long daggers, waiting to strike Liberty to the heart
when she shall be disarmed. Underneath is printed: "Impediments to
Liberty."
In a similar spirit was conceived a picture called "A Modern Synod,"
which reflected upon the diplomatic conference in Belgium on Italian
affairs between the representatives of Austria, France, and England.
There sits Italy in the council-chamber, bound and naked to the waist,
for the scourge. At the table are seated, Austria, with head of double
eagle; France, with a cock's head and crest, but a woman's bosom and
extremely low-necked dress; and England, with a head compounded of
unicorn and donkey. Underneath the table are the Pope and King Bomba,
with hidden scourges, only waiting for the conference to end to resume
their congenial task of lashing helpless Italy.
[Illustration: Mr. Punch.]
A terrific picture is one representing the Pope with a scourge in his
hand, riding high in the air over Rome, mounted upon a hideous flying
dragon with four heads. One of the heads is Austria's double eagle;
another, the Gallic cock; the third, Spain; the fourth, Bomba. The papal
crown is carried in the coil of the monster's forked tail. Under the
picture are words signifying "Such is the love of kings!"
Imagine endless variations upon this theme in _Il Don Pirlone_, executed
invariably with force, and sometimes with a power that, even at this
distance of time, rouses the soul.
Laying aside the caricatures of the Revolution, of which considerable
volumes have been collected, I may say a word or two of the comic
entertainment that has now become universal, Punch, which, if Italy did
not originate it, received there its modern form and character. Punch is
now exhibited daily in every civilized and semi-civilized land or
earth--in China, Siam, India, Japan, Tartary, Russia, Egypt, everywhere.
A New York traveler, well known both for the extent of his journeys and
for the excellent use he has made of them, tells me that he saw, not
long ago, a performance of Punch at Cairo, in a tent, in Arabic, a small
coin being charged for admission. The people entered with a grave
demeanor, sat in rows upon the sand, listened to the dialogue without a
smile, and at the close filed out in silence, as if from a solemnity.
The performance was similar to that with which we are acquainted. The
American reader, however, may not be very familiar with the exploits of
Punch, for he has made his way slowly in the New World, and was rarely,
if ever, seen here until within the last ten years.
Much second-hand erudition could be adduced to show that Punch, besides
being universal, dates back to remote antiquity. The bronze figure could
be mentioned which was found at Herculaneum some years ago, with the
Punchian nose and chin; as well as a drawing on the wall of a
guard-house at Pompeii, in which there is a figure costumed like Punch.
Even the name Punch, which some derive from _Paunch_, is supposed by
others to be a corruption of the first name of Pontius Pilate. The
weight of probability favors the conjecture that Punch really did
originate in India, at least three thousand years ago, and came down,
through other Oriental lands, to Greece, part of the stock of traditions
that gather about Bacchus and his comic audacities--jovial and impudent
Vice triumphant over unskillful Virtue. Punch is a brother of Don Juan,
except that Punch is victorious to the very end; and the fable of Don
Juan is among the oldest of human imaginings.
[Illustration: Return of the Pope to Rome. (From _Il Don Pirlone_, Rome,
1849.)]
It is agreed, however, that the Punch of modern European streets is
Neapolitan; and even to this day, as travelers report, nowhere in the
world is the drama of Punch given with such force of drollery as in
Naples. What Mr. D'Israeli, in the "Curiosities of Literature," where
much Punch learning may be found, says of the histrionic ability of the
Italian people, has been often confirmed since his day. He adds an
incident:
"Perhaps there never was an Italian in a foreign country, however deep
in trouble, but would drop all remembrance of his sorrows should one of
his countrymen present himself with the paraphernalia of Punch at the
corner of a street. I was acquainted with an Italian, a philosopher and
a man of fortune, residing in England, who found so lively a pleasure in
performing Punchinello's little comedy, that, for this purpose, with
considerable expense and curiosity, he had his wooden company, in all
their costume, sent over from his native place. The shrill squeak of the
tin whistle had the same comic effect on him as the notes of the
_ranz-des-vaches_ have in awakening the tenderness of domestic emotion
in the wandering Swiss. The national genius is dramatic."
Through the joint labors of Mr. George Cruikshank and Mr. Payne Collier,
we now know exactly what the Punchian drama is, as performed by the best
artists. Mr. Cruikshank explains the truly English process by which this
valuable information was obtained:
"Having been engaged by Mr. Prowett, the publisher, to give the various
scenes represented in the street performances of Punch and Judy, I
obtained the address of the proprietor and performer of that popular
exhibition. He was an elderly Italian, of the name of Piccini, whom I
remembered from boyhood, and he lived at a low public-house, the sign of
'The King's Arms,' in the 'Coal-yard,' Drury Lane. Having made
arrangements for a 'morning performance,' one of the window-frames on
the first floor of the public-house was taken out, and the stand, or
Punch's theatre, was hauled into the 'Club-room.' Mr. Payne Collier (who
was to write the description), the publisher, and myself, formed the
audience; and as the performance went on, I stopped it at the most
interesting parts to sketch the figures, while Mr. Collier noted down
the dialogue; and thus the whole is a faithful copy and description of
the various scenes represented by this Italian."
The drama thus obtained, which has since been published with Mr.
Cruikshank's illustrations, must at least be pronounced the most popular
of all dramatic entertainments past or present. It is now in the
thirtieth century of its "run;" and even the modern Italian version
dates back to the year 1600. It is a rough, wild caricature of human
life.