[That a rich Englishman should fall in love with a beautiful but poor
Roman girl, and marry her, is no impossible incident, and may have
happened more than once; but it is very curious to watch how it has
passed into the mythology of the people.
The idea of a 'Gran Signore' coming on a visit from a land where
all are rich is the first fantastic element of the tradition. The
idea that all English people are rich is very common among the Roman
lower classes, and is not an unnatural fancy for people to take up who
have seen no specimens of the creature but such as are rich. There is
one old woman whom I have never been able to disabuse of the idea. I
shall never forget the blank astonishment with which she repeated my
words the first time I broke it to her that there were poor people
in England, and she has never thoroughly grasped it.
'Io pensava che in Inghilterra tutti erano ricchi--tutti ricchi--'
(I thought everyone--everyone in England was rich) she always says,
as if in spite of me she thought so still.
That such an one should be won by the charms of a beautiful Roman girl,
and should carry her off to that unknown land bright with gold but
devoid of sun, and that in the end the fogs and the Protestantism
should prove unendurable to the child of the South, are not bad
materials for a fairy story.