NOTES

[1] An hour before the evening Ave.

[2] Professor de Gubernatis (whose work was not published till my

collection had long been in progress) fills a far more important place

than that of a mere collector of legends. His vast generalisations,

indeed, touch less upon the household tales of Italy than those of

any other country, and those which he does introduce are entirely

from Tuscany and Piedmont. I had not the advantage of seeing either

his book on 'Zoological Mythology,' or Mr. Cox's 'Mythology of

the Aryan Nations,' till after my MS. was in the printer's hands,

and was not able, therefore, to give references in my notes to the

places where their interpretation may be found, though each group to

which my stories respectively belong has been treated by them. It

is a treatment, however, which requires to be studied as a whole,

and could hardly be understood under any piecemeal reference.

[3] There are, of course, the older collections of Straparola and

Basile, referred to by Mr. Campbell and Professor De Gubernatis, not

to speak of those of Boccaccio and Sacchetti; but these were made

for quite different purposes than that of supplying Italy's quota

to the study of Comparative Mythology. The comparatively recent

'Collection of Sicilian Tales,' by Laura Gonzenbach, mentioned by

Professor De Gubernatis, I did not know of, and have not been able to

see. Straparola's collection seems, in Rome at least, to have fallen

into the oblivion which Mr. Campbell says is its merited lot. At least,

not only was it not mentioned to me at any of the depôts where rare

books are a spécialité, but my subsequent inquiry for it by name

failed to produce a copy.

[4] I gave a translation of one of them, containing legendary details

of the 'Flight into Egypt,' together with some verses of a Spanish

version of the same, in a paper on 'Street Music in Rome,' in the

'Monthly Packet' of December, 1868.

[5] Roman vernacular for a child of either sex.

[6] Whatever Biverde may mean. Possibly bel-verde, such, at least, is

the title of Pellicciaio's Madonna with the 'beautiful green' dress,

at the Servite Church, Siena. The title may also be compared with 'The

Maid of the Bright-Green Kirtle,' in Campbell's 'West Highland Tales.'

[7] This, I am inclined to think, is the case with some published

stories, as e.g. the singular medley contained in the third of the

'Tales of the West Highlands,' vol. i.

[8] Except perhaps among the Scotch Highlanders. See Campbell's

'Tales,' Preface to vol. i.

[9] See remarks in Preface to Campbell's 'Tales of the West Highlands,'

vol. i. p. c. Dr. Dasent's 'Popular Tales from the Norse,' pp. xliv,

xlv, &c.

[10] It has been observed to me that these words furnish a remarkable,

because unconscious, parallel to the well-known dictum of Minucius

Felix, on the mythical exploits of the old heathen gods and heroes,

'Quæ si facta essent fierent; quia fieri non possunt ideò nec facta

sunt.'

[11] ('And they burnt her to death in the public square.')

[12] 'Don't marry or set out on a journey on a Friday or Tuesday;'

and under the two heads brought under the rime, any other undertaking

is equally proscribed: some servants, for instance, dislike going to

a new situation on those days.

[13] In the story of 'Filagranata,' infra, pp. 6 et seq., he is

divested in a marked manner of the individuality and importance

attaching to his part in the corresponding versions of other countries.

[14] The Rev. Alfred White told me, however, an English story of the

sort, picked up from a countryman in Berkshire. The Magpie was one

day building her nest so neatly, and whispering to herself after her

wont as she laid each straw in its place, 'This upon that, this upon

that,' when the Woodpigeon came by. Now the Woodpigeon was young and

flighty, and had never learnt how to build a nest; but when she saw

how beautifully neat that of the Magpie looked, she thought she would

like to learn the art. The busy Magpie willingly accepted the office

of teaching her, and began a new one on purpose. Long before she

was half through, however, the flighty Woodpigeon sang out, 'That'll

doooo!' The Magpie was offended at the interruption, and flew away in

dudgeon, and that's why the Woodpigeon always builds such ramshackle

nests. Told well; the 'This upon that!' and the 'That'll do!' takes

just the sound of the cry of each of the birds named.

[15] This story comes from Palombara.

[16] The expression employed in this place was 'Orca;' as this is a

word of most frequent, but somewhat capricious use, I interrupted the

narrator to inquire her conception of it. 'Well, it means a species

of beast,' she said; 'but you see it must have been a bewitched

('fatata') beast, because the story says it was so rich, and had a

palace, and spoke and did all the things you shall hear.' She did

not, however, seem to identify it with the evil principle according

to its undoubted derivation, nor did she allow either that it had

any connexion with 'orso,' a bear, as the narrator of the 'il Vaso

di Persa' had expounded it, and indeed as the details of that story

required; it will be seen, therefore, that popular fancy invests

the monster with various shapes. The story of 'The Pot of Marjoram,'

it will be seen, contains one or two incidents in common with this

one. The apparently insignificant detail of the little plant--on

which, however, both stories rest for a foundation--is noteworthy,

the narrator in each instance being most positive that it was the one

she had named and no other, and in both cases insisting on showing

me the plant, that there might be no mistake about it. (See note to

the word 'Persa,' infra, p. 54.)

[17] Filagranata bella bella,

Tira giù le bionde trecce,

Ch' io son nonna vecchiarella.

'Tira giù,' or 'butta giù,' as in the next repetition, mean equally

'throw-down.' 'Biondo' expresses particularly the yellow tint in

hair. Bazzarini, 'Ortografia Enciclopedica Universale,' defines it,

'colore tra il giallo e bianco ed è proprio di capelli,' on the

authority of Petrarch's use of the word. He has also 'biondeggiante,

che biondeggia, che ingiallisce,' turning or tending to yellow;

and it is thus the yellow Tiber gets called 'il biondo Tevere.'

[18] 'Portogallo' is now the ordinary word for an orange, and points

to the introduction of the fruit from the Portuguese colonies in

the sixteenth century. The 'arancia,' 'melarancia,' or 'merangola,'

the ungrafted orange-tree, was, however, indigenous in Italy; and

the fruit, which has even a finer appearance than the edible orange,

is still grown for ornament in Roman gardens.

[19] 'Puzzo,' stink. There is no neutral word in Italian for a smell;

you must define a good or a bad smell either as a perfume or a stink.

[20] 'Camminando, camminando, camminando.' This threefold repetition

of this verb, according to the tense and person required by the story,

I have found used as a sort of sing-song refrain by all the tellers

of tales I have had to do with.

[21] 'Vecchiarella,' little old woman.

[22] 'Fata;' ethnologically Fata is the same as 'Fairy,' 'Fée,' &c.,

&c., and 'fairy' is the only translation; but it will be observed the

Italian 'fata' has always different characteristics from the English

'fairy.'

[23] 'Buzzica' is a homely word for a lamp-filler; it probably comes

from 'buzzicare,' to move gently or slowly. The narrator used the

word because she would, according to local custom, keep her oil in a

'buzzica,' without perceiving that it was most inappropriate for the

purpose of the story, which required that the oil should be poured

out quickly.

[24] 'Allagato,' inundated. I preserve the word on account of its

expressiveness--literally making a lake of the country.

[25] 'Fior di farina.'

[26] As the story was told me the dialogue was broken, and every

incident of the journey was made the subject of a separate question

and answer; all the furniture in the room also here entered into

conversation with the pigeons, brooms being particularly loquacious;

but as it became tedious, and by no means added to the poetry of the

situation, I condensed it to the dimensions in the text.

[27] 'I tre Melangoli di amore;' melangolo or merangolo, or merangola,

an ungrafted orange. See note to 'Filagranata.'

[28] 'Caccia,' though usually translated by 'hunt,' is used for

all kinds of sport. Bazzarini says it even includes 'pallone' and

other games; but it is in common use for shooting small birds as for

hunting quadrupeds.

[29] 'Mora Saracena,' a black Saracen woman; 'mora' is in constant

use for a dark-coloured person. Senhor de Saraiva tells me that a

so-called 'Mora encantada' figures as one of the favourite personages

in Portuguese traditionary tales; but she is less often an actual

Moor than a princess held in thrall by Moorish art, to be set free by

Christian chivalry. She is often represented as bound at the bottom

of a well.

[30] Mia padrona dice che son tanta brutta,

E son tanta bella,

Io rompo la brocca e la brocchetta.

This verse would be hardly comprehensible but that the incident is

better explained in the more detailed versions of other countries

mentioned in note to the last tale. The ugly 'Mora' sees the reflection

of the face of the beautiful maiden who sits in the tree overlooking

the fountain, and takes it for her own. See Campbell's Tales of the

W. Highlands, pp. 56-7, &c.

[31] Cuoco, cuoco, per chi cucinate,

Pel figlio del rè o per la mora Saracena?

Il cuoco si possa dormentar',

E le vivande si possano bruciar'.

[32] 'Palombelletta,' dear little dove.

[33] 'Spillone,' big pin. This magic use of long pins driven into the

head is one of the frequent charges against witches. See numerous

instances at various epochs given by Del Rio, 'Disquisitionum

Magicarum,' lib. iii. p. 1, 2 iv. s. II., where he mentions among

others the cases of two midwives who were convicted in Germany of

having destroyed, the one forty, the other innumerable, new-born

infants in this manner.

[34] Cuoco! cuoco! di reale cucina

Che faremo della regina?

Tutti posse a dormentar',

E la pranza posse bruciar'.

The words have been clipt in repetition. 'Posse,' in the third line,

must be a corruption of 'si pongono,' from the verb 'ponere;' and in

the fourth line, of 'si puo,' from the verb 'potere.'

[35] 'Cinderella' is a favourite in all countries, with its promise

of compensation to the desolate and oppressed. I only came across

it once, however, while making this collection, in its own simple

form, and with a name as near its own as Cenorientola. Of course the

construction of such words is quite arbitrary, and any Italian can

make a dozen such out of any name or word: even in the dictionary the

following variations are to be found--'Cenericcio,' 'Cenerognolo,'

'Cenerino,' 'Ceneroso,' 'Cenerugiolo.'

[36] Da mi tu panni belli,

Ed io te do i cencirelli.

[37] Da mi tu abiti belli

Ed io te do i stracciarelli.

The same as above: 'abiti' and 'panni' are convertible, so are 'cenci'

and 'straccj.'

[38] 'Vaccarella,' 'dear little cow,' 'good little cow.' The endearment

is expressed in the form of the diminutive.

[39] 'Maestra.'

[40] 'Basta,' 'enough,' 'to cut a long story short.'

[41] 'Fatata.'

[42] Butta sopr' alle corna a me,

E vatene far l'erba per me.

'Corno' is one of the words which (as 'muro,' 'novo,' 'braccio,'

'dito,' &c.), masculine in the singular, have a feminine plural.

[43] 'Carrèvale,' or 'corrèvale'--I could not very well distinguish

which, and do not know the word. The narrator explained it as like

'cànapa'--hemp, only finer. 'Refe' is used in the same sense in

Tuscany.

[44] Pallo dorato! Pallo dorato!

Vestimi d'oro e dammi l'innamorato.

'Dorato' is used for 'golden' as well as for 'gilt.' The change from

'palla,' a ball, to 'pallo' is a very considerable license, for the

sake of making it rime with 'innamorato;' though some words admit of

being spelt either way, as 'mattino' or 'mattina, 'botto' or 'botta'

(a blow), and others can be used with either gender without alteration,

as 'polvere.' I have never met with 'pallo' elsewhere, though it is

one of the words which take a masculine augmentative ('pallone').

[45] 'Novena,' a short service, with or without a sermon, said for

nine days before some great festival, in preparation for it.

[46] 'Pianella,' a sandal, or slipper without a heel. 'In those days

they used to wear such things instead of shoes,' commented the old

lady as she told the tale.

[47] 'Botte,' a very large wine-barrel of a certain measure.

[48] Here called 'buona figlia,' 'good daughter.' There did not seem

any reason for this designation. Possibly the narrator had forgotten

some incident of the story, introducing it.

[49] That the cellar should be, as thus appears, on the ground-floor,

is very characteristic of Rome, though there are, of course, plenty

of underground cellars too; but the one is properly 'cantino' and

'canova,' and the other 'grottino.' The distinction is, however, not

very rigidly observed in common parlance. To have an underground cellar

is so far a specialité, that it has been taken to be a sufficiently

distinctive attribute to supply the sign or title to those inns

which possess it. Rufini gives examples of above a dozen thus called

'Del Grottino.'

[50] The ground-floor being used as a cellar, the family lives

upstairs. This is a very common arrangement.

[51] The reader who has not access to a better rendering of this

beautiful legend will find one I have given from Bopp, in 'Sagas

from the Far East,' pp. 402-3; but Mr. Ralston gives us a Russian

version, in which a doll or puppet is the agent instead of the cow

(pp. 150-9). It is true, on the other hand, that he has (p. 115)

another rather different story, in which a cow also gives good gifts;

and mentions others at p. 260. In a story of the Italian Tirol, 'Le

due Sorelle,' which I shall have occasion to notice later, a cow has

also a supernatural part to play, somewhat like that of Vaccarella;

only there she acts at the bidding of a fairy, not of her own motion.

[52] 'Il Rè che va a Pranzo.'

[53] I am inclined to think there was some forgetfulness here on the

part of the narrator; such artifices always fulfil the conditions they

evade in some underhand way--they never set them utterly at defiance,

as in the instance in the text. Such conditions also always go in

threes; the third was probably forgotten in this instance.

[54] 'Pizza,' a cake made of Indian corn.

[55] 'Cartoccio,' a conical paper parcel.

[56] 'Bacchettino da comando.'

[57] 'Biocca cogli polsini d'oro,' a hen and chickens all of gold;

'biocca' is a word used by peasants for 'gallina,' and 'polsini' for

'pollastri.'

[58] 'Pescheria,' ordinarily 'fish-market,' but sometimes, as in this

place, a tank or piece of water for preserving fish for table. That

so large a fish as a whale should be kept in one, is only one of the

exaggerations proper to the realm of fable.

[59] The very incident which occurs in the stepmother story of 'How

the Serpent-gods were Propitiated,' in 'Sagas from the Far East.'

[60] 'Il vaso di persa.' Marjoram goes by the name of 'persa'

in the vernacular of Rome. Parsley, which sounds the more literal

translation, is 'erbetta.' I think the narrator believed it to be

connected with Persia.

[61] 'Fata' is a powerful enchantress. I know no English equivalent but

'fairy,' though there is this difference that a 'fata' is by no means

invariably an airy and beautiful being; she more often wears a very

ordinary appearance, and not unfrequently that of a very old wrinkled

woman, but is always goodnatured and benevolent, as distinguished

from the malevolent 'strega,' a nearer counterpart of our 'witch.'

[62] 'Le femmine sempre pigliano il peggio.'

[63] 'Non tutto il male vien' per nuocere.'

[64] 'Orgo,' the vernacular form of the classic 'Orco,' is the Italian

equivalent for 'Old Bogey;' but it is also used in place of 'orso,'

a bear (as in the precise instance of this tale being told to me),

when it is desired to give terror to his character in a tale.

[65] Has this anything to do with 'riding the cock-horse'?

[66] 'Il Vaso di Ruta.'

[67] 'Orco ed orchessa.'

[68] This was pronounced 'Uttone,' but was doubtless intended for

'King Otho.' Words which in Latin were spelt with a u, as 'Bollo,'

'pollo,' retain the sound of u in the mouth of the people; but I know

of no reason for it in the present instance.

[69] 'Precipizio,' equivalent to 'an explosion,' 'a terrible kick-up,'

&c.

[70] The blood instead of the fat is one of the variations of

this version. It is not easy to see how blood can enter into the

composition of an ointment, yet one of the most frequent charges to

be met in processes against witches was taking the blood of infants

to make various ointments.

[71] Maria di Legno.

[72] This is one of the very rare instances in which the Devil appears

in Roman stories in this kind of character, so common in Northern

popular tales.

[73] 'Colle gioie compagne.'

[74] 'Vecchiarella.'

[75] 'Gallinara.'

[76] A 'buon carnevale' chiefly implies the wish that the person to

whom it is addressed should have good success with partners at the

balls, &c.

[77] A 'festino' is the common name for a public masqued ball

commencing at midnight. There are three principal ones in the Roman

Carneval; in other parts of Italy, where the Carneval is longer,

there are probably more. It is also called 'Veglione,' because it

keeps people awake at a time when they ought to be in bed.

[78] 'How quick princes always were in falling in love in those

days!' was the running comment of the narrator.

[79] To understand the implied satire of this word it is necessary

to observe that 'Frusta' is a whip; the princess therefore says she

came from 'Frustinaia,' Whip-blow.

[80] 'Stivale,' a boot. As the prince had struck her with his boot,

she says she comes from 'Stivalaia,' Boot-kick.

[81] 'Schiaffaia' from schiaffa, a slap. The prince had given her a

slap, so she says she comes from Slap-land.

[82] Among the licenses which Italians take with the terminations

of their words, not the least is altering the gender. 'Candeliere'

(masc.), otherwise 'candelliere,' is the proper form; and I do not

think 'candeliera' will be found in any dictionary; but as the story

requires the female gender, the word is readily coined.

[83] 'I due Fratelli Gobbi.'

[84] 'Bachettone mena!' Perhaps the greatest stumbling-block in the

way of acquiring familiarity with the art of conversing in Italian is

the capricious use of the augmentative and diminutive terminations

of words. Scarcely any substantive or adjective comes out of the

mouth of an Italian without qualifications of this sort, making the

spoken quite different from the written language. A foreigner can

never arrive at the right use of these, because they have to be made

up at the moment of use, upon no established laws, but entirely by

a sort of instinctive perception of fitness. At Note 1 and 3 to 'Il

Poveretto,' and other places, I have given some specimens of some of

the most ordinary of these transformations. In the instance before

us, 'bacchettone,' from 'bacchetta,' a rod, presents two distinct

irregularities. The augmentative of a feminine noun never ought

strictly to be 'ona;' but there are numerous instances, scarcely to

be remembered under the largest practice, in which a feminine noun

takes a masculine augmentative. 'Bacchetta' happens to be one of

these. Next, the addition 'one' would ordinarily express that the

thing to whose designation it was added was particularly big; yet in

this instance it is applied to a little wand; it is clear, therefore,

that it no longer means 'big,' but 'singular,' 'remarkable' in some

way or other; best rendered in English by 'good stick.' 'Menare,'

whence 'mena,' is a word of many meanings, which, though they may

be all traced to the same original idea, must not be confounded. In

common parlance, as in the present case, it means to beat; and

'menar moglie' is a common expression too; but it does not mean 'to

beat your wife,' but 'to lead home a wife,' or, as we say, to 'take

a wife.' The primary meaning is 'to lead;' hence, to govern; hence,

to govern harshly; hence, to govern with violence; hence, to spite,

to beat. One sentence in which it is used recalls a capricious use

of our own word 'to beat.' 'Menar' il cane per l'aja' (literally,

to lead the dog all about the threshing-floor), answers exactly

to our expression, 'to beat about the bush' in talking. 'Menare'

and 'dimenare, la coda,' is said also of a dog wagging his tail. On

the other hand, 'menare per il naso' (literally, 'to lead one by the

nose'), has by no means the signification those words bear in English,

but implies a roundabout way of giving an account of anything.

[85] 'Il Rè Moro.'

[86] 'Moro' does not necessarily mean a Moor, it is continually used

for any dark-complexioned person; also commonly for dark or black,

as a pet name for a black dog, &c.

[87] The 'moccolaio.'

[88] The narrator ended this story with the following stanza:--

Si faceva le nozze

Con pane e tozze,

E polla vermiciosa,

E viva la sposa!

This is one of those rough verses with which such stories abound,

and they have been rendered rougher than they originally were

by substituting words which serve to retain the jingle after

those conveying the sense are forgotten, like many of our own

nursery-rhymes. The literal rendering of this one would be, 'So

the marriage was celebrated with bread and hunches of bread, and a

chicken stuffed with vermicelli. Long live the bride!' 'Vermiciosa'

is not a dictionary word; 'vermicoloso' is the nearest, and probably a

corruption of the same. Of course, primarily it means 'full of worms;'

but as all the forms of words compounded out of the diminutive of

'verme,' a worm, may be applied to the fine kind of maccaroni which

bears the same name, I am more inclined to think a fowl stuffed or

served up with maccaroni is meant here--if it have any meaning at

all beyond the purpose of a rhyme--rather than 'a wormy fowl,' the

literal interpretation.

I have met this same 'tag' again and again in the mouths of various

narrators at the end of stories which end in a marriage. Another such,

familiarly used by every Roman narrator, is:--

'Stretta la foglia,

Larga la via (often, 'Stretta la via'),

Dite la vostra, Larga la foglia,

Ch' ho detto la mia.'

('Narrow the leaf, broad the way. Tell me your tale, for I've told you

mine.') Perhaps originally it was 'Larga la voglia' (my willingness

is ample, but my means of amusing you are restricted).

[89] At what period the title of honour of 'Monsu' got appended to

the monster's name is more than I can fix.

[90] 'Chi è?' 'amicè.' See note 3, p. 187.

[91] The reader will bear in mind, in this and other places, that

'papa' and 'mama' are vernacular for 'father' and 'mother' among

children of the lowest classes in Italy.

[92] 'Son' io.' I have generally found these stories told with a great

deal of effect, especially to suit the tone to the dialogues. It was

particularly the case with this one, e.g. the 'son' io' was said in the

lamentable tone of a person wearied with fatigue and disappointment.'

[93] 'Vatene, brutta cornuda!'

[94] 'La Rosa fatata.'

[95] According to the narrator, there was a dish of 'pasta' heaped up

like a mountain; and 'souplis di riso con rigaglie' and 'capone con

contorni,' and several kinds of wine. I give this description verbally,

as it was given to me, as characteristic of the local colouring such

legends receive. The dishes named are the favourites of the Roman

middle class. 'Pasta' is the Roman equivalent for the 'maccaroni' of

the Neapolitan. 'Rigaglie' is the liver, &c., of poultry minced, to

put into the fried balls of rice. 'Contorni' means something more than

'garnish,' being something put round the dish, not merely for ornament,

but more or less substantial, to be eaten with it, as sausages round

a turkey.

[96] The word used in this place was 'mostro,' not 'orco,' marking

a distinct idea in the tradition, where it is the Principle of Evil

himself who is intended, and where, an unfortunate mortal subjected

by malice to his influence.

[97] 'Sciocco,' a simpleton; 'scioccolone,' a great awkward simpleton.

[98] Even in this story, where the fairies really are described as

fair to see, it will be observed it is only said they had assumed

the forms of beautiful girls for one occasion, not that they were

necessarily beautiful, like our fairies.

[99] 'Fatatura,' the virtue of enchantment.

[100] 'Villa' is more often used to express a little estate--or, as

we should say, the 'grounds' on which a country-house stands--than

for the house itself, though we have borrowed the word exclusively

in the latter sense.

[101] 'Casino' a tasteful little house.

[102] 'Dodici palmi di naso,' a nose twelve palms long. Twelve palms

make a canna and a half, equal to three mètres.

[103] 'Ciuffoletto.' 'What is a 'ciuffoletto?' I asked. 'Much the

same as a fravodo,' the narrator answered; and I remembered that from

another, in another tale, I had made out 'fravodo' to be a horn.

[104] That the second of the three sons should be the hero of the

story is, I think, an unusual variation.

[105] See Note 4, p. 146.

[106] 'Mezza canna di Naso,' half a cane of nose. A cane is the former

Roman standard measure, and was exactly equal to two mètres.

[107] 'Palmo,' was the expression used; the Canna was divided into

eight palms.

[108] 'Calava, calava, calava.'

[109] 'Adesso so' a cavallo.' 'Now I am on the way to fortune.'

[110] 'Quell' fruttivendolo'; 'quell' uomo'! 'quella donna!' a vulgar

way of calling after people.

[111] 'Spezziale,' a druggist ('droghiere' is a grocer). It is the

custom in Rome for the doctors of the poor to sit in the druggists'

shops, ready to be called for.

[112] 'Nasone,' a big nose.

[113] 'Pimperte; Pamperte! Pumperte!'

[114] 'Il Cicoriaro e la Principessa fatata.'

[115] 'Fa una zompa;' 'zompa' for 'zomba,' properly a blow, a thump;

here, 'jumped down with a noise like a thump.'

[116] Bacchettone di comando, suits this use of it better than does

the English equivalent.

[117] 'Ecco il vecchio!' such abrupt interruptions, with change of

tense, are often introduced with dramatic effect by the narrators. A

similar one occurs at p. 133. 'He sounds the horn and One comes.'

[118] 'E tutto andava benone;' 'bene,' well; 'benone,' superlatively

well.

[119] 'La Somara.'

[120] The 'mercante di Campagna' occupies the place of farmer in

the social system of Rome; that is, he produces and deals in grain

and cattle; there is 'buttaro' (cattle breeder) besides; but the

characteristics of each are so different that the one does not well

translate the other.

[121] 'Cortello' for 'coltello' (a knife). The substitution of r for

l in a good many words is a common Romanism.

[122] 'Dishperato' for 'disperato' ('out of himself with vexation'),

is another Romanism; as also

[123] 'Bashtonata' for 'bastonata' (a cudgelling); at least many

Romans, particularly old-fashioned people, when using some words

in which sp and st occur, put in an h on occasions requiring great

vehemence of expression.

[124] Zecchini. The zecchino was the gold standard coin in Rome before

that of the scudo was adopted. Its value was fixed in the reign of

Clement XIII., 1758, at two scudi and twenty bajocchi--something

between 10s. and 11s.; it was current till a few years back; and

'zecchini' is a common way of saying 'money' when a large sum is

spoken of, just as we still talk of guineas.

[125] 'Merenda' is a supplementary meal taken at any time of day. It

is not exactly lunch, because the habit of taking lunch at one and

dining late has not yet obtained to any great extent in Rome; and where

it has, lunch is called 'déjeûner'; breakfast (i.e. a cup of coffee

and a roll early in the morning) is always called 'colazione.' The

established custom of Rome is dinner ('pranzo,' or 'desinare,') at

twelve, and supper ('cena') an hour or two after the Ave, varying,

therefore, according to the time of year, from six or seven till nine

or ten, and even later. 'Merenda' is a light meal between 'pranzo'

and 'cena' of not altogether general use, and chiefly on occasions of

driving outside the gates to spend the afternoon at a country villa

or casino.

[126] 'Soma' is a burden; 'somaro' or 'somura' an ass used for carrying

burdens. Thus in the next line it is spoken of as having panniers on

as a matter of course.

[127] 'Che bell' insalatina; chi vuol insalatina; che bell'

insalatina!' a common form of crying. 'Che belle mela!' 'What fine

apples!' 'Che belle persiche!' or 'What fine peaches!' may be heard

all the year round.

[128] 'Il Matrimonio di Cajusse,' I should imagine Caius was the right

reading. Italians, though they are so fond of clipping off the final

vowel of their own words, whenever they get hold of a foreign word

ending in a consonant must needs always add a syllable on to it. The

narrator in this instance could not spell, and I write the word as she

pronounced it. Meeting with so close a counterpart of 'Aladdin's Lamp,'

I cross-questioned the narrator very closely as to whether she had not

read it, but she assured me most solemnly that her mother had told it

her when she was not more than five years old; that it was impossible

she could have read it, as she could only read very imperfectly,

only a few easy sentences; she had never in her life read anything

long. I further elicited that it was possible her mother might have

read it; but I am inclined to think she said this rather to improve

my idea of her family, than because she thought it was really the case.

[129] 'Piastra.' In Melchiorri's 'Guida Metodica di Roma,' ed. 1856,

in the list of moneys current the half-scudo is put down as 'commonly

called mezza piastra.' I do not remember to have heard it so used

myself, though I have heard old people talk of piastres, the value

of which would thus be the same as a scudo, or about five francs:

an old inhabitant told me it was 7 1/2 bajocchi, more than a scudo.

[130] 'Mago.' I asked the narrator what her idea of a 'mago' was,

and she said, 'Something like a stregone (masculine of strega, witch),

only not quite so bad.'

[131] Genii having no place in modern Italian mythology, the 'Genius

of the Lamp' loses his identity here.

[132] 'Posate,' spoons and forks. I spare the reader the enumeration

of the Roman dishes which were detailed to me as figuring on the table,

as I have had to quote many of them in other stories.

[133] 'I always used to wonder,' observed the narrator very

pertinently, 'as my mother told me this, why they didn't rub the lamp

again and ask for what they wanted, instead of going about pawning

the posate. I suppose they had forgotten about it.'

[134] 'Pezzente,' a sorry fellow; literally beggar.

[135] 'Che ci penso io' is a saying ever in the mouth of a

Roman. Whatever you may be giving directions about, they always

stop you with 'Lasci far a me, che ci penso io' ('Leave it to me;

I'll manage it.')

[136] 'Tre ore di notte' means three hours after the evening Ave. If

it was summer-time this would be about 11 P.M. A subject of the 'Gran

Sultan' being supposed to measure time by the Ave Maria is not one

of the least bizarre of traditionary accretions.

[137] 'Chincaglieria,' all kinds of small articles of metal-work.

[138] 'Fravodo.' As I had never heard the word before, I was very

particular in making the narrator repeat it, to take it down. She

described it as a horn or trumpet, but I cannot meet with the word

in any dictionary.

[139] The Holy Babe.

[140] 'Date mi un po' d'allogio;' lit., Give me a small quantity of

lodging--a humble mode of expression.

[141] 'Chi è?' ('Who's there'); but the humour of the expression

here lies in its being the invariable Roman custom to sing out 'Chi

è?' and wait till 'Amici!' is answered, before any door is opened.

[142] Comp. with Legend of the Marmolata in 'Household Stories from

the land of Hofer.'

[143] 'Un pagnotto di polenta' was the expression used, meaning a

great coarse loaf of Indian corn. The Roman poor have much the same

contempt for inferior bread that we meet with in the same class at

home, none eat 'seconds' who can possibly avoid it; but the pagnotto

di polenta is only eaten by the poorest peasants.

[144] 'Strutto,' lard, enters into the composition of almost every

Roman popular dish.

[145] 'Che bolliva,' constantly applied in Roman parlance to solids

as well as liquids.

[146] The narrator was an admirable reciter, and as she uttered this

'Vi sia concessa,' in a solemn and majestic manner, she raised her

hand and made the sign of the cross with a rapid and facile gesture,

just as she might have seen the Pope do as he drove through Rome.

[147] 'Trattoria,' can only be translated by 'tavern,' but

unfortunately the English word represents quite a different idea

from the Roman. 'Tavern' suggests noise and riot, but a 'trattoria'

is a place where a poor Roman will take his family to dine quietly

with him on a festa as a treat.

[148] 'Death,' being feminine in Italian, has to be personified

as a woman. The same occurs in a Spanish counterpart of this story

which I have given under the title of 'Starving John the Doctor' in

'Patrañas.' The Spanish counterpart of the rest of the story will be

found in 'Where one can dine two can dine' ('Un Convidado invida a

ciento') in the same series.

[149] 'Olive the priest.' 'When we were children,' said the narrator,

'my father used to tell us such a lot of stories of an evening,

but of them all the two we used to ask for most, again and again,

and the only two I remember, were "Mi butto," and "Pret' Olivo." Do

you know "Mi butto"? We used to shudder at it, and yet we used to ask

for it.' I incautiously admitted I did know it, instead of acquiring

a fresh version. 'Then here is "Pret' Olivo." I don't suppose I was

more than seven then, and now I am thirty-five, and I have never

heard it since, but I'll make the best I can of it. Of course it is

not a true story; we knew that it couldn't be true, as anyone can see;

but it used to interest us children.'

[150] 'Vaene brutto prete! Questa non è roba per me.'

[151] 'Brutto Plutone!' The traditional application of the name will

not have escaped the reader.

[152] 'Holzhund,' I suppose, is used for wild dog.

[153] Unquestionably a very exaggerated tradition of the aberrations

and final submission to the Church of Abelard (Pietro Abelardo in

Italian), some of whose writings were publicly burnt in Rome by the

Inquisition in 1140.

[154] The Office of the Inquisition behind the Colonnade of

St. Peter's.

[155] 'Libro di comando.' A book of divination.

[156] St. John and Paul. The Church of the Passionists on the Coelian.

[157] I.e. St. Iago di Compostella.

[158] 'Scrittura,' a written compact.

[159] 'Chierico' of course means a cleric, but in common parlance it

is reserved for the boy who, though lay, wears a clerical dress for

the time he is serving mass, or attending to the church generally. In

the present instance it would probably be a youth in minor orders.

[160] 'Paino' and 'paina' mean one, who, according to his or her

condition, ought to be dressed in the national style, but who does

affect to dress like a gentleman or lady.

[161] 'Chi va a Loreto

E non va a Cirollo,

Vede la Madre

E non vede il figliuolo.'

[162] I took another opportunity of asking the one who was familiar

with Loreto, about Cirollo, and she explained its introduction into the

story to mean that he was not to pay a hasty visit, but a thorough one,

even though it was done so rapidly. 'Cirollo,' she said, 'is a poor

village with few houses, but the church is fine, and the Crucifix is

reckoned miracolosissimo.' In Murray's map it is marked as Sirollo,

close by the sea, without even a pathway from Loreto, about five miles

to the north; and he does not mention the place at all in his text.

Subsequently I was talking with another who called herself a

Marchegiana, i.e. from the March of Ancona, in which Loreto

is situated, and boasted of having been born at Sinigallia, the

birthplace of Pio Nono. 'Have you ever been to Loreto?' I asked by

way of beginning inquiry about Cirollo.

'Yes; six times I have made the pilgrimage from Sinigallia, and always

on foot.' she replied with something of enthusiasm. 'And you who have

travelled so far, you have been there too, of course?'

'Not yet,' I replied; 'but I mean to go one day;' and just as I was

coming to my question about Cirollo, she added of her own accord:

'Mind you do, and mind when you go you go to Sirollo too (she

pronounced it Sirollo like the spelling in the map). 'Everyone who

goes to Loreto ought to go to Sirollo. There is a Crucifix there

which is miracolosissimo.'

[163] 'Quanto la mente dell' uomo.'

[164] 'Dispetto,' an affront, rather than an injury.

[165] 'Tira via, brutta bestia,' literally 'fire away'--is used in

all senses the same as in English.

[166] The question of night flights through the air, and more,

whether in the body or out of the body, than whether they were ever

effected at all, was one of the most hotly contested questions of

demonographers. Tartarotti, lib. I. cap. viii. § vi., winds up a

long account of the subject with the following:--'... So divided was

opinion on the subject, not only of Catholics as against heterodox,

but between Catholics and Catholics, that after reading in Delrio 'qui

hæc asserunt somnia esse et ludibrio certe peccant contra reverentiam

Ecclesiæ matri debitam,' and 'Hæc opinio (somnia hæc esse) tanquam

hæretica est reprobanda;' and in Bartolomeo Spina, 'Negare quod

diabolus possit portare homines de loco in locum est hæreticum;'

you may see in Emmanuel Rodriguez, a great theologian and canonist,

'Peccat mortaliter qui credit veneficos aut veneficas vel striges

corporaliter per aëra vehi ad diversa loca, ut illi existimant;' while

Navarro mildly says, 'Credere quod aliquando, licet raro, dæmon aliquis

de loco in locum, Deo permittente, transportet non est peccatum.'

Tartarotti supplies a long list of writers who, in the course of the

sixteenth and two following centuries, took the opposite sides on this

question, and quotes from Dr. John Weir, (Protestant) physician to the

Duke of Cleves (In Apol. sec. iv. p. 582), that the Protestants were

most numerous on the side which maintained that it was an actual and

corporeal and not a mental or imaginative transaction. Cesare Cantù

has likewise given an exposition of the treatment of the question in

'Gli Eretici d'ltalia,' discorso xxxiii., and 'Storia Universale,'

epoca xv. cap. 14, p. 488. In note 1 he gives a list of a dozen of

the most celebrated Protestant writers who upheld the actuality of

the witches' congress.

[167] 'Bocca a terra.'

[168] 'Accademia' used here for 'Conversazione.'

[169] 'Pentiti!'

[170] 'Discolo,' 'wild,' 'fast.'

[171] The shrine of S. Iago di Compostella being traditionally known

to the Roman poor as 'S. Giacomo di Galizia,' Galizia was not very

unnaturally supposed by the narrator to be the name of a town.

[172] 'Dovene siete, poveri pellegrini,

Quanti son' lunghi i vostri cammini?'

[173] 'Avemo camminati monti e piani,

E siamo di Castello mont' Albano,

Andiamo cercando un figlio Giuliano.'

A walled village, whether it had an actual castle or not, had the

name of 'Castello;' and 'Castello' is the common name to the present

day in Rome for the villages in the neighbourhood.

[174] 'Mastri.'

[175] 'Noi siamo i mastri! noi siamo i mastri!

Chè tanti ponti abbiamo fatti.'

[176] 'Arruzzicatelo' was the word used. Ruzzica is a game played

by rolling circles of wood of a certain thickness along a smooth

alley. She tells him to roll the cheese in this way as an inducement

to the dog to go over to try the strength of the bridge.

[177] 'Uomicino,' a little man. As the narrator had come to the

borders of Wonderland, this must, I think, be taken to be one of

those dwarfs--little men of the mountains, 'Bergmänlein,' who have

so large a place in German, especially in Tirolean mythology, but

are so rarely to be met in that of Rome.

[178] 'Una donna maestosa con un bambino in braccia; e questa era la

Madonna, capisce.' This use of the verb capire to express 'you see,'

&c., is a favourite Romanism; in Tuscany they use the verb intendere.

[179] 'Donna trovata non fu mai buona.'

[180] 'Il nonno accanto al fuoco.' Giving to understand that it was

an old traditionary tale.

[181] 'La Pescheria di San Francesco.' Pescheria, see p. 45. Many

Italian convents are provided with such.

[182] 'Sora' in this place does not mean 'sister'; it is an expression

in Roman vernacular for which we have no equivalent, and is applied

to respectable persons of the lower class who do not aspire to be

called 'Signora,' 'Mrs.,' or 'Miss,' as with us. 'Sor' or 'Ser'

is the masculine equivalent; we had it in use at p. 194.

[183] The word used was 'candida,' and not 'bianca,' as expressive

of purest white.

[184] 'Sant' Antonio ed il Santo Bambino.'

[185] I believe St. Anthony was never in Rome; but his genial winning

character made him so popular that the people speak of him as one

of themselves.

[186] St. Anthony's date is 1195-1231; so the idea of making his

observer a Protestant, and a smoker to boot, is very quaint, and is

an instance of how chronological order gets confused by tradition.

[187] 'Fraticello'; 'good little friar.' An affectionate way of

speaking of Franciscans often used.

[188] 'Magàri!' a very strong form of 'indeed.'

[189] 'La strapazzava,' a word particularly applied to overworking

a horse.

[190] 'Di una rara bellezza.'

[191] 'Era disperata.'

[192] 'Un sacco crudo,' a loose garment made of harsh sackcloth that

had not been dressed.

[193] Handkerchiefs are used so habitually for tying up parcels in

Rome, that the narrator thought it worth while to specify that this

one was a 'fazzaletto di naso.'

[194] The life is thus given in Butler:--'Margaret was a native of

Alviano in Tuscany. The harshness of a stepmother and her own indulged

propension to vice cast her headlong into the greatest disorders. The

sight of the carcase of a man, half-putrefied, who had been her

gallant, struck her with so great a fear of the Divine judgments,

and with so deep a sense of the treachery of the world, that she in

a moment became a perfect penitent. The first thing she did was to

throw herself at her father's feet, bathed in tears, to beg his pardon

for her contempt of his authority and fatherly admonitions. She spent

the days and nights in tears; and to repair the scandal she had given

by her crimes, she went to the parish church of Alviano with a rope

about her neck, and there asked public pardon for them. After this

she repaired to Cortona and made her most penitent confession to a

father of the Order of S. Francis, who admired the great sentiments of

compunction with which she was filled, and prescribed her austerities

and practices suitable to her fervour. Her conversion happened in

the year 1274, the twenty-fifth of her age.... This model of true

penitents, after twenty-three years spent in severe penance, twenty of

them in the religious habit, being worn out by austerities and consumed

by the fire of divine love, died on the 22nd of February 1297.'

[195] 'Vecchiaccia'; the addition accia implies that she was bad:

probably a witch was intended.

[196] 'La Monica Beatrice.' 'Monica,' provincialism or vulgarism for

'monaca,' a nun.

[197] 'Albagia,' self-esteem, vanity.

[198] 'Rotara,' equivalent to portress; it alludes to her having charge

of the 'ruota,' or 'turniquet,' through which things are passed in

and out and messages conveyed through a convent-wall, without the

nun having to present herself at the door.

[199] 'Fattore,' an agent employed by most convents to attend to

their secular affairs.

[200] 'Suora' is the received word for a 'Sister' in a

convent. 'Sister,' the natural relationship, is 'Sorella.'

[201] 'Grascia e annòna' are two old words meaning all kinds of

meat and vegetable (including grain) food. It was the title of one

department of the local administration. There was a great dearth in

Rome in the year 1590-1, mentioned in the histories of the times. It

is probable the people would ascribe to the head of the department

the fault of the calamity.

[202] These people generally call the popes by their family names. This

'Papa Medici' would be Pius IV., who reigned from 1559 to 1566.

[203] 'Brutte anime,' 'ugly souls.'

[204] All legends have doubtless some foundation in fact; but

unfortunately for the detail of this one, the arms up in the façade

of the said Churches, 'Dei Miracoli' and 'di Monte Santo'--are the

arms of a Cardinal Gastaldi or Castaldi, who rebuilt them about a

hundred years later than St. Philip's time. Alexander VII. having

rebuilt the Flaminian Gate, or Porta del Popolo, the insignificance

of these two churches became more noticeable than before; but he

did not survive to carry out his intention of rebuilding them. This

was subsequently performed by Cardinal Gastaldi.--Maroni, xii. 147,

xxviii. 185; Panciroli, 169; Melchiorri, 254 and 420.

[205] 'Impicciare,' 'entangle myself with,' 'interfere with'--a very

favourite Romanism.

[206] 'Impicciare,' again here.

[207] 'Campagnola,' a peasant of the Campagna near Rome.

[208] A rubbio is between four and five acres.

[209] St. Philip lived and taught for thirty-three years at the Church

of S. Girolamo della Carità, not very far from the vegetable market in

Campo de' Fiori, all the streets about containing shops much frequented

by the country people when they come up to Rome with their vegetables.

[210] 'Scocciare,' to persevere to weariness; to din.

[211] 'Vassalli,' in the older dictionaries 'vassallo' is only defined

as a vassal; but in modern Roman parlance it means a scamp, a vagabond.

[212] 'Il Perdon di Asisi.' The indulgences attached to visiting

the Church of S. Maria degli Angeli near Asisi (otherwise called the

Porziuncula), received this name on occasion of its consecration on

the 1st and 2nd August, 1225. The visit on the anniversary became

one of the most popular of Italian pilgrimages.

[213] San Felice di Cantaliccio, 1513-87, is a very popular

saint among the Romans, for one reason because he was born of poor

parentage. Though of low origin, and only a lay brother in his convent,

he was frequently consulted by important people on account of his piety

and prudence. St. Charles Borromeo took great note of his advice. He

was a contemporary of St. Philip.

[214] St. Vincent Ferrer, who is so popular a saint among the Romans,

so continually coupled with St. Philip and his acts, and always spoken

of as if he had all his life been an inhabitant of Rome, lived just

two centuries earlier (1351-1419) than the 'Apostle of Rome.' Though

he went about preaching and reforming all over Europe, and even in

England and Ireland at the invitation of Henry IV., he was yet never

in Rome at all, though much at Avignon under the so-called Benedict

XIII., his countryman, with whom he used all his influence to make

him put an end to the schism.

[215] Innocent IX., who reigned 1590-1, took a great deal of notice

of St. Philip. It is curious the narrator should have been so far

out concerning St. Vincent and so correct about this.

[216] 'Un vecchietto e un'altro.'

[217] 'Rotonda,' the vulgar name of the Pantheon, gives its appellation

to the market which is held in the 'Salita de' Cresconzi' and other

adjoining streets.

[218] 'Gola,' the throat; used for 'gluttony.'

[219] Pius VI., who reigned 1775-1799.

[220] S. Joseph Labre was born at Boulogne, of parents of the lower

middle class, in 1749, and died 1783. He came to Rome on a pilgrimage

when young, and remained here the rest of his days, passing his time

in prayer and contemplation in the various shrines of Rome. He every

year made the pilgrimage to Loreto on foot. He was supported entirely

by the alms of the people.

[221] In the Rione Monti are the streets chiefly inhabited by the

poor and working classes of Rome. Joseph Labre passed his life in

their midst, and they always speak of him with affection, as a hero of

their own order. It only needs to go to the Church of the Madonna de'

Monti on the day of his 'Patrocinio' to see how popular he is.

[222] The stations of the 'Way of the Cross' are arranged round

the interior of the Coliseum; and until out-of-door devotions were

forbidden by the new Government, the Via Crucis was constantly

performed here, led by a Capuchin and by various confraternities,

and always well attended.

[223] Le dodici Parole della Verità.

[224] 'Uno e primo è Domeniddio, che sempre c'aiuta.'

[225] 'Due sono le chiavi del cielo, c'è l'oro.'

[226] 'Tre sono tre Patriarchi Abramine, Giacobbe, e Isaache.'

[227] 'Quattro sono le quattro colonne che il mondo mantiene; Luca,

Giovanni, Marco, e Matteo.'

[228] 'Cinque sono le piaghe de Gesù Cristo.'

[229] 'Sei sono i sei galli che cantorno in Galilea.'

[230] 'Sette sono i sette cerini ch' ardorno in Gerusalemme.'

[231] 'Otto è l'ottava di Cristo.'

[232] 'Nove sono i nove cori degli angeli.'

[233] 'Dieci è la diecenna di Cristo.'

[234] 'Undici è la coronazione di spine.'

[235] 'Dodici sono i dodici Apostoli.'

[236] 'Il Morto della Quercia.'

[237] 'Camminò, camminò, camminò;' see note 6, p. 13.

[238] 'Quattro arquebuzate.'

[239] 'Frateria,' a popular word for a monastery.

[240] 'La Lettera del Morto.'

[241] 'Bussola,' a box for alms, &c.

[242] 'Painone,' 'Paino'; a sneering way of naming a well-dressed

person. 'Painone,' augmentative of the same.

[243] 'Sua Eccellenza.' The cant form of address of the Roman beggar.

[244] 'L'Anima Bianca.'

[245] 'A vitalizia' is an agreement by which persons pay a sum down

and are taken in to board for the rest of their lives.

[246] 'La Festa dei Morti,' November 2.

[247] 'Chè è ora dell' orazione.' I give this very quaint idea in

the words in which it was told to me.

[248] 'Era altro che un festino, il chiarore.' The lighting up of

a theatre for a public masqued ball would naturally be the highest

impression of brightness for a poor man in Rome. 'Altro che' is his

favourite word in the sense of 'no comparison.' 'Altro!' alone stands

for 'I should think so!' 'Isn't it indeed!' &c.

[249] Since the invasion of September 1870, Rome has been placarded

with announcements of mediums who may be consulted on every possible

occasion. I give the whole story as it was told me, but I have, of

course, no means of knowing how the séance was conducted, and there

is every likelihood the man would be so full of the strange occurrence

that he would begin by letting out all on which he came to it to seek

confirmation. The introduction of these mediums has been welcomed as

supplying the means of gratifying that craving after the supernatural

which was denied them under the former administration. 'Witchcraft

was forbidden by the former law, therefore we may suppose it was

wrong,' reason the less intelligent and those who wish to be deceived;

'spiritismo is allowed by the law which rules us to-day, therefore we

may suppose it is right;' and thus we are beginning to see here what

Cantù had written of other parts of Italy and Europe: 'But who will

feel the courage to contemn the follies of another age when he sees

the absurd credulity of our own, which upon similar manifestations

founds other theories.... Recent writers on the subject (see in

particular, Allan Kardec, 'Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression,'

'Le Livre des esprits,' &c.), themselves acknowledge that the oracles

and pythonesses of old, and the genii, sorcerers, and magicians of

later ages, were the predecessors of these mediums. We have therefore

come back to that which we ridicule in our ancestors.'

[250] 'La serpe bianca;' 'serpe' is of both genders, but is most

commonly used in the feminine as in the common saying 'allevarsi la

serpe in seno,' to nurture a serpent in one's bosom.

[251] 'Per far legna.' 'Fare' is brought in on all occasions. Bazzarini

gives 59 closely printed columns of instances of its various uses;

here it means to cut wood for burning; 'legno' is wood; 'legna,'

wood for burning.

[252] 'S'alzerà un morto.'

[253] S. Agostino is the favourite with the people of all the churches

of Rome.

[254] 'Brutti assassini.' In a country where the cultus of 'il bello'

has been so well understood, 'ugly' has naturally come to be used as

a term of deepest reproach.

[255] 'Si, si, questo è positivo, non è donnicciolara, è positivo.'

[256] This kind of spell seems analogous to one of which a curious

account is preserved by Menghi (Compendio dell'Arte Essorcista,

lib. ii. cap. xl.), which I quote, because it has a local connexion

with Rome, and there are not many such. An inhabitant of Dachono in

Bohemia, he says, brought his son, a priest, to Rome in the Pontificate

of Pius II. (1458-64) to be exorcised, as all relief failed in his own

country; a woman whom he had reproved for her bad life had bewitched

him, adding, 'that the spell (maldicio) was imposed on him by her

under a certain tree, and if it was not removed in the same way,

he could not otherwise be set free; and she would not reveal under

what tree it was.' The spell acted upon him only at such times as he

was about to exercise his sacred ministry, and then it impeded his

actions, forced him to put his tongue out at the cross, &c. &c. 'The

more earnest the devotion with which I strive to give myself to

prayer,' he said, 'so much the more cruelly the devil rends me'

(mi lacera). In St. Peter's, the narrator goes on to say, is a

column brought from the Temple of Solomon, by means of which many

possessed persons have been liberated, because our Lord had leant

against it when teaching there, and it was thought that this might

be sufficiently potent to represent the fatal tree. He was brought

to it, however, in vain. Being tied to it, and asked to point out

the spot where Christ had touched it, the spirit which possessed him

replied by making him bite it on a certain spot with his teeth and say,

'Qui stette, qui stette,' (here He stood) in Italian, although he did

not know a word of the language, and was obliged to inquire what the

words he had uttered meant. But the spell, nevertheless, was not got

rid of thus. It was then understood that the spirit must be of that

kind of which Christ had said 'he goeth not out except by prayer and

fasting;' and a pious and venerable bishop, taking compassion on the

man, devoted himself to prayer and fasting for him all through Lent;

and thus he was delivered and sent back to his own country rejoicing.

[257] 'Fattore,' an agent; a man who attends to the business and

pecuniary affairs of a convent.

[258] 'Suora Maria tale.' Mary being such a favourite name, it has

to be generally qualified by a second name being appended to it by

way of distinction.

[259] 'Fiaccole di paglia.'

[260] 'Ma che!' is a very strong and indignant form of 'No!' about

equivalent to 'What are you thinking of?' 'How can you?' In Tuscany

they say, 'Che! Che!'

[261] 'Fantasimi,' for 'fantasmi,' apparitions.

[262] 'Spirito.'

[263] 'Il fantasimo di S. Giovanni.'

[264] 'Cacciatore' is a huntsman or sportsman of any kind; but in

Rome it designates especially a man of a roving and adventurous class

whose occupation in life is to shoot game for the market according

to the various seasons, as there are large tracts of country where

game is not preserved.

[265] 'Falcaccio,' a horrid, great hawk.

[266] Cancellieri (Mercato, § xvi.) mentions the actual finding of

such a treasure; or at least of 'thousands of pieces of gold money,

in a hole leading to a drain of the fountain in Piazza Madama, on

May 30, 1652, by a boy who had accidentally dropped a toy into this

hole.' One such fact would afford substance to a multitude of such

fictions: though they doubtless had their origin in the discovery of

mineral wealth.

[267] See conversation at the end of the 'Serpe bianca.' Further

details of a similar nature were given me in connection with a number

of brigand stories which I have in MS.

[268] 'Monti,' Rione Monti, the most populous district in Rome.

[269] 'Papetto,' equal to two pauls; about three halfpence more than a

(silver) lira or franc. In use in Rome until the monetary convention

with France in 1868.

[270] 'Cataletto,' a kind of large roomy coffin, with a hollow

wagonheaded lid, in which dead or wounded persons are carried.

[271] 'Barretta' or 'bara,' is the bier on which the 'cataletto'

is carried; but it is most often made all in one, and either word is

used for either, as also 'feretro.' 'Aver la bocca sulla bara,' is

'to have one foot in the grave.'

[272] 'Paino,' see n. 3, p. 264.

[273] It must be a very quaint condition of mind which can imagine

that a fortune of something like three millions sterling can be

quietly removed in secret in gold coin from a cellar to a bedroom in

the small hours of the night. But then to persons like the narrator

a few pieces of gold seem a fortune.

[274] I do not give the names because, though the tradition is probably

true enough of somebody, the particular names introduced were decidedly

incorrect historically.

[275] Litta, 'Storia delle Famiglie italiane,' traces that from

the beginning the Colonna family was always Ghibeline. The present

representatives of the house, however, are reckoned Papalini.

[276] 'Zoccolo,' a wooden sandal kept on the foot by a leather strap

over the instep. It is worn by certain 'scalsi' or 'barefooted'

friars, hence called by the people 'zoccolanti.' The street near

Ponte Sisto in Rome, called Via delle Zoccolette, received its name

from a convent of nuns there who also wore 'zoccoli.'

[277] That Sciarra Colonna headed a band of 'spadassini' against

Boniface VIII., and made himself the tool of Philippe le Bel, is of

course true to history, as also that he held him imprisoned for a

time at Anagni. The Pontiff's biographer, Tosti, mentions however

only to refute them, 'le favole Ferretiane,' to which Sismondi,

'Storia delle Republiche italiane,' gives currency, and which embody

the floating tradition in the text. 'Ferreto da Vicenza,' writes Tosti,

'narrates that a kind of poison was administered to this great Pontiff,

which put him in a state of phrenzy; the servant who waited on him,

also, was sent away, and being left alone in the room he is supposed

to have gnawed at a stick (in another allusion to the same fable--at

page 293--he says, 'his fingers' as in the text), and struck his

head against the wall so desperately that his white hairs were

all stained with blood; finally, that he suffocated himself under

the counterpane invoking Beelzebub. But when we think how Boniface

arrived at extreme old age, enfeebled with reverses; how, shut up in

a room alone, there was no one to be witness to the alleged gnawing

and knocking and Satanic invocations, and how that the manner of his

death was quite differently related by eye-witnesses, I do not know

for whom Sismondi could have thought he was writing when he marred

his history by inserting such a fable. What certainly happened, and

it is certified by Cardinal Stefaneschi, who was present, and by the

Report afterwards drawn up of the acts of Boniface--was, that 'he

was lodged in the Vatican at the time of his death, and breathed his

last tranquilly. The bed of the dying Pontiff was surrounded by eight

cardinals and by other distinguished persons (Process. Bonif. p. 37,

p. 15), to whom, according to the custom of his predecessors, he made

confession of faith, affirming, however enfeebled his voice, that he

had lived in that faith, and wished to die in it, a Catholic. Consoled

with the Viaticum of the Sacraments he gave up his soul to God,

weary with the prolonged struggle he had sustained for the rights of

the Church, ... thirty-five days after his imprisonment at Anagni'

(vol. ii. p. 286-7). Platina goes into less detail, but also records

that he died in Rome (Le vite de' Pontefici, Venice, 1674, p. 344). The

magnanimous stedfastness evinced by Boniface when attacked by Colonna

and Nogaret, all abandoned as he was by human aid (detailed by Tosti,

p. 276, et seq.), could not but have been succeeded by a grander

closing scene than that imagined by Ferreto. Maroni (vi. 17-18) not

only narrates that he survived the Anagni affair to return to Rome,

but that with great Christian charity he ordered Nogaret, who had

been taken prisoner by the Romans in the meantime, to be released

from confinement; and [xiv. 283] that he could have had no poison

administered to him at Anagni, for all the time he was imprisoned he

would eat nothing but eggs on purpose to be proof against it. The best

disproof of the story, however, is that given by Tosti (p. 296-7). In

the clearing for the rebuilding of the nave of St. Peter's, 302 years

after the death of Boniface, his sepulchre was opened and the grave

then revealed the truth. It so happened that his body had scarcely

undergone any change, and those who stood by could hence depose that

both his head and his hands were quite perfect; there were no marks

or blows on the former, and so far from his finger-tips being gnawed,

they noticed that the nails even were particularly long. The face

also wore a peculiarly placid expression.

Several contemporary writers cited by Tosti tell, however, that

Benedict XI., Boniface's successor, died of poison believed to have

been administered by Sciarra Colonna at the instigation of Philippe le

Bel. But unfortunately for the tradition in the text Moroni [xiv. 283],

who also mentions this, adds that Sciarra Colonna died in exile as he

deserved. The two Cardinals Colonna, however, who had been exiled with

the rest of the family, were reinstated by Benedict XI., and Clement

V. in 1305 restored the other members of it to their possessions in

the Roman States, where they made themselves obnoxious enough during

the Papal residence at Avignon, and were as hostile to Rienzi as they

had ever been to the Popes.

[278] Donna Olimpia Pamfili, nata Maidalchini, wife of the brother

of Innocent X.

[279] Cancellieri Mercato, § ix. note 7.

[280] He had not, however, been originally intended for the Church;

had been General of the Pontifical forces before he was Cardinal,

and was only in Deacon's orders.

[281] His simplicity was the subject of many contemporary mots and

anecdotes; e.g. at the time of his elevation to the purple the Pasquin

statue had been temporarily lost to view by a hoarding put up for the

erection of a neighbouring palace; 'Marforio' was supposed to express

his condolence for the eclipse of his rival in the following distich:

'Non piangere Pasquino

Chè sarà tuo compagno Maidalchino.'

His want of capacity seems however to have been compensated by his

goodness of heart.

[282] Cancellieri Mercato, § viii. As I have been desirous to put

nothing in the text but what has reached myself by verbal tradition,

I will add some no less interesting details collected by Cancellieri,

in this place.

It was at her house in Piazza Navona that Bernini was rehabilitated

in his character of first sculptor and architect of his time. 'Papa

Pamfili,' though only the son of a tailor, (A certain Niccolo Caferri

was much ridiculed for the spirit of adulation with which he pretended

to trace up Innocent X.'s genealogy to Pamphilus, king of Doris, 300

years before the birth of Rome. But the Pope himself was so little

ashamed of his origin that Cancellieri tells us he took a piece of

cloth for one of his armorial bearings in memory of it.) was yet a

patron of art. Highly famed under Urban VIII. the preceding Pontiff,

Bernini had been misrepresented by his rivals to Innocent. In an

unpublished Diary of Giacinto Gigli, Cancellieri finds that he was

taken so seriously ill on St. Peter's Day, 1641 (This date, however,

must be incorrect, as Innocent X. only began to reign in 1644. This

grandiose Campanile is described at length, and a plate of it given

in Fontana, 'Descrizione del tempio Vaticano,' p. 262, et seq. It was

360 ft. in height.) that his life was for some time despaired of,

in consequence of his Campanile--a specimen one of two he had designed

for St. Peter's--being disapproved by the Pope and ordered to be taken

down. Another cognate tradition he gives from a MS. Diary of Valerio

is, that in digging the foundations for this tower a 'canale d'acqua'

was discovered deeper than the bed of the Tiber and wide enough to

go on it in a boat; Mgr. Costaguti, maggiordomo of his Holiness,

told me about it himself, and he had had himself let down to see

it. As it had a sandy bottom, it washed away the foundations of the

tower, and rendered it impossible to leave it standing. The water

came from Anguillara' (on Lake Bracciano, about 28 miles) 'and the

Pope had the old conduit reconstructed and used the water for many

fountains in imitation of Sixtus V. (He does not specify what pope,

and the wording used seems to imply Innocent X., but this aqueduct

is always ascribed to Paul V., twenty years earlier, and is called

the Acqua Paola.) He goes on to add an extraordinary account of

a Dragon quite of the legendary type, that was found in charge of

this water, and was killed, not by a hero or a knight, but, by the

labourers working at the conduit.

It was Innocent X.'s ambition to remove the great obelisk (since

called 'Obelisco Pamfilio') which lay in three pieces in the

Circo di Massenzio, near the Appian Way, and to set it up in Piazza

Navona. Bernini being, as I have said, in disfavour, other architects

were commissioned to offer designs for the work; but the Pope was

not satisfied with any of them, and the matter stood over. Meantime

Piombino (Niccolò Ludovisi) who had married a niece of the Pope's, and

who was a great friend of Bernini, privately instructed him to send him

a model of what he would suggest for the purpose, saying he wanted it

for his own satisfaction, lest Bernini should refuse the unauthorised

competition. Bernini then produced the elaborate conception which has

been so warmly extolled by some and so hastily blamed by others, but

which cannot be judged without a prolonged study of all the poetical

allegories and conceits it was his intention to embody.

The Pope went to the house of Donna Olimpia in Piazza Navona to dine

after the Procession to the Minerva on the Annunciation, (Described

in Cancellieri, 'Descrizione delle Cappelle Ponteficie,' cap. x.)

and she placed the model in a room through which the Pope must pass

after dinner. It did not fail to arrest his notice, and he was so much

struck with it that he spent half an hour examining it in detail and

listening to the explanation of its emblematical devices. At last he

exclaimed, 'It can be by no other hand than Bernini's! and he must be

employed in spite of all that may be said against him!' From that time

Bernini was once more all that he had been before in Rome (Mercato,

§ ix.). When Innocent saw the great work completed, and the water of

the four rivers for the first time gushing from it, he declared to

Bernini he had given him pleasure great enough to add ten years to

his life; and he sent over to Donna Olimpia for a hundred 'Doppie'

(In Melchiorri's table of Roman moneys he gives the value (in 1758,

a hundred years later) of a doppio as 4 scudi 40 bajocchi; and of

a doppia at 6 scudi, 42 bajocchi. It appears to be the latter the

Pope sent for.) to distribute among the workmen. Subsequently he

had a medal struck with the inscription Agonalium cruore abluto Aqua

Vergine, in allusion to the games of which Piazza Navona is supposed

(Dyer says it was the Stadium of Domitian, and Becker, that there

is no proof it was ever a circus.) to have been the scene, and the

'Vergine' aqueduct from which the fountains were supplied. 'Papa

Pamfili' also restored St. John Lateran, and undertook many other

works, but was somewhat hampered by the discontent of the people at

the expense, expressed in the following pasquinades:

'Noi volemo altro che guglie e fontane:

Pane volemo, pane! pane! pane!'

and

'Ut lapides isti panes fiant!'

To return to Donna Olimpia. One of the pasquinades on her preserved in

Cancellieri from Gigli's diary, refers to an accusation against her,

that she had been very liberal both to religious communities and to

the people until her brother-in-law (Cancellieri calls Innocent

her cognato, and cognato in common conversation now is used for a

cousin. Bazzarini explains it as 'any relationship by marriage.')

was made Pope, and that when that object was attained she ceased

her bounty. Pasquin wrote upon this, 'Donna Olimpia fuerat olim pia,

nunc impia.'

Another declared that the said brother-in-law 'Olympiam potius quam

Olympum respicere videbatur,' an accusation he declares to have been

invented solely for the sake of punning, and without any truth, on

faith of the character given him by his biographers, and of the fact

that he was more than seventy-one when raised to the Papacy, and so

deformed and ugly that Guido put his portrait under the feet of the

archangel in his famous picture of St. Michael. (Mercato, Appendix,

n. 4 to N. x.) She was, however, sometimes inexcusable in her haughty

caprices, as, for instance, when she invited five and twenty Roman

ladies to see a pageant, and then asked only eight of them to sit down

to table with her, leaving the remainder 'mortificate alle finestre;'

and frequently more free than choice in her mots. Her grandchildren

seem to have inherited this freedom of speech; Gigli (quoted by

Cancellieri, Mercato § xvi. and xx.) records in his Diary that the

eldest of them, Giambattista, being asked one day by the Pope, who

took great notice of him, if he had seen St. Agnese in Piazza Navona,

which he was then building, replied (though only seven years old), 'I

have not seen it yet; but you, if you don't make haste, won't live to

see it completed.' It would seem to have been a popular prophecy which

the child had caught up, and it so happens that the event bore it out.

There is nothing, however, which shows the heartless character of Donna

Olimpia more glaringly than her refusal to pay a farthing to bury the

Pope, alleging she was 'only a poor widow!' and this, though the Pope

had not only 'favoured her so much as to endanger his reputation,'

(MS. life of his successor Alex. VII. by Card. Pallavicini, quoted

by Novaes: Storia de' Sommi Pontefici, x. 61.) but had handed to her

all his disposable property on his deathbed. Donna Olimpia so utterly

abandoned his body that it was carried down into a lumber-room where

workmen kept their tools, and one poor labourer had the charity to

buy a tallow candle to burn beside it, and another paid some one

to watch it, to keep the mice off which abounded there. Finally,

a Mgr. Scotti, his maggiordomo, paid for a coffin of 'albuccio,'

(Nothing better than deal, I believe.) and a former maggiordomo,

whom he had dispossessed, gave five scudi (returning good for evil)

to pay the expenses of burying him. It was not till twelve years

later that he had a fitting funeral in S. Maria dell' Anima.

When a few months after Innocent's death Donna Olimpia endeavoured

to put herself on her old footing at the Vatican Court, by sending

a valuable present of some gold vases to Alexander VII., that

Pope testified his appreciation of her by returning her offering;

adding the message that she was not to take the trouble to visit his

palace, as it was no place for women. (Mercato, § xxi.) There was

subsequently some angry correspondence between her and this Pope

concerning the delays occasioned by her parsimony in completing

the church in Piazza Navona, and the consequent obstruction of the

Piazza, a great inconvenience to the public on account of its use as a

market-place. Finally he banished her from Rome, fixing her residence

at Orvieto, where she fell a victim to the plague two years after.

Her palace in Piazza Navona became in 1695 the residence of Lord

Castlemaine, ambassador of James II. to the Holy See. He had an ox

roasted whole before it, and other bounties distributed to the people

on occasion of the birth of 'The Pretender.'

[283] An argument worthy to take rank beside the famous one of

'Mrs. Brown' concerning Noah's Ark.

[284] I said this, really thinking at the moment there was such a

statue surmounting the apex of the pediment of the façade; but it

afterwards came to mind and I have since verified it on the spot,

that the statues on the pediment represent the twelve Apostles with

Christ in the centre, and there is no female figure there. Among the

numerous statues of saints surmounting the colonnade, are a small

proportion of female saints, but no one at all prominent.

[285] The Marescotti were a noble family of Bologna, the second city

of the Pontifical Dominions; there were two cardinals of the name.

[286] 'Il buon uomo di loro padre.'

[287] 'Faceva il diavolo,' lit. 'raised the devil.'

[288] 'In quei tempi antichi ubbedirono le figlie, capisce.' 'Capisce,'

lit. 'understand,' equivalent to 'you see.'

[289] 'Puzza--puzza di peccato!' Lit. 'It stinks--it stinks of

sin.' (See n. 5, p. 13.)

[290] I give the story, as near as possible, in the words which

the pious faith of the narrator prompted her to use. The success of

the final results of a measure may prove that what seemed tyranny

was really prudent foresight; the contemporary views of parental

responsibility must also be taken into account. But it is impossible

for the modern English mind to sympathise readily with so violent an

interference with natural instincts.

[291] 'A mano, a mano.'

[292] 'Catenella,' lit. 'little chain,' an instrument of penance worn

by some persons on the arm or waist.

[293] The following are briefly the authentic particulars of her life

from Moroni, xxx. 194. She was daughter of Marc Antonio Mariscotti

and Ottavia Orsini, born in 1535, and baptised by the name of

Clarice. Although brought up in the fear of God and led to appreciate

holiness, her youth was passed in worldliness and vanity. Her younger

sister having been asked in marriage before her, she was so much vexed

and annoyed that she became insupportable at home, on which account her

father proposed to her to become a nun in the convent of S. Bernardino

at Viterbo, where she had been educated, and she adapted herself

to his counsel, though without any personal inclination for it. At

the end of her noviciate she made her father arrange that she should

have a room of her own magnificently furnished. Sister Giacinta lived

ten years thus a religious in name but not in mind. Nevertheless she

was not without virtue, for she was always obedient to her superior

as she had been to her parents; and her modesty, purity, and respect

for holy things was observed by all. A serious illness was to her the

call of grace; having given up to the abbess of the convent all the

things that had been brought in for her use by special privilege,

she devoted herself to severe penance and continual meditation. On

occasion of a contagious disease with which Viterbo was afflicted,

she gave abundant proof of her charity towards her neighbour, for

she founded two societies, the object of one of which was to collect

assistance for the convalescent and those who had fallen into reduced

circumstances; the other to support a hospital built to receive the

sick. These two societies, which she called 'Oblates of Mary,' still

continue (the date of Moroni's work is 1845) in full activity.

[294] The statue called by this name was not originally found

in its present situation. The shop of the tailor Pasquino was in

the Via in Parione, a turning out of the Via del Governo Vecchio,

some little distance off, nor was it discovered at all till after

Pasquino's death. At his time it was buried unperceived in the

pavement of the street, and the inequalities of its outline afforded

stepping-stones by means of which passengers picked their way through

the puddles! Cancellieri (Mercato, appendix, N. iii.)] quotes a passage

from a certain Tibaldeo di Ferrara, quoted in a book, his dissertation

concerning the author of which is too long to quote. This Tibaldeo,

however, says, 'as the street was being repaired, and I had the shop

that was Pasquino's made level, the trunk of a statue, probably of a

gladiator, was found, and the people immediately gave it his name.' He,

however, quotes from other writers mention of other sites for its

discovery mostly somewhat nearer to the present situation. The site of

the present Palazzo Braschi was then occupied by the so-called Torre

Orsini, a building of a very different ground-plan. Cancellieri quotes

from more than one MS. diary that at the time the Marquis de Créquy

came to Rome as ambassador of Louis XIII. in 1633, the Palazzo de'

Orsini, where he was lodged, was designated as 'sopra Pasquino.' And

again from another MS. diary, that in 1728, when the palace was

bought by the Duca di Bracciano-Odoscalchi, the same designation

remained in use. In the Diary of Cracas, under date March 19, 1791,

is an entry detailing the care with which the Pasquino statue was

removed to a pedestal prepared for it in front of Palazzo Pamfili

during the completion of the contiguous portion of the Palazzo

Braschi, and its restoration is duly entered on the 14th March of

the same year. (There is clearly a typographical error about one

of these dates, which could doubtless be corrected by reference to

'Notizie delle due famose statue di un fiume e di Patroclo dette

volgarmente di Marforio e di Pasquino,' by the same author, Rome,

1789, which I have not been able to see. Moroni, vi. 99, gives 1791

as the year in which it was bought by Duke Braschi, the nephew of

Pius VI. while the Pope was in exile in France, and the completion

by the rebuilding must, therefore, have been some years later.

The date of its discovery is told in the following inscription by

the cardinal inhabiting Torre Orsini at the time, and who saved it

from destruction:--

Oliverii Caraffa

Beneficio hic sum

Anno Salvati Mundi--MDI.)

It was Adrian VI. (not Alexander VI. as Murray has it), who proposed

to throw it into the Tiber. Adrian VI. was a victim of pasquinades

for two reasons,--the first, because born at Utrecht and tutor of

Charles V., and afterwards viceroy in Spain, during all Charles'

absence in Germany Rome feared at his election that he would set up

the Papal See in Spain; and it is not altogether impossible that the

popular satires may have had some influence in deciding him on the

contrary to repair immediately to Rome,--the second, because he was

an energetic and unsparing reformer; and those who were touched by

his measures were just those who could afford to pay the hire of the

tongues of popular wags.

Nor was it only during his life that he was the subject of such

criticisms. When his rigorous reign was suddenly brought to

a close after he had worn the tiara but twenty months, on the

door of his physician was posted this satire, 'Liberatori Patriæ

S.P.Q.R.' (Giovio; Vit. Hadr. VI.); and his tomb in St. Peter's,

between that of Pius II. and Pius III., was disgraced with this

epitaph: 'Hic jacet impius inter Pios,' till some years later, when

his body was removed to a worthier monument in S. Maria del Anima.

[295] I have not been able to make out the origin of this name. It

is possibly, a mere combination of Cecco, short for Francesco, and a

family name, or the name of the village of which he was native which

I do not recognise.

[296] 'Nei tempi di prima.'

[297] It is very likely Cècingùlo was some generations older even than

the narrator's 'papa.' I have thought it worth while to put this much

about him on record, as he was doubtless one of those who have given

the local colouring to these very tales. The old women whose heads

are their storehouse, as they repeat them over the spinning-wheel,

say them with no further alteration than want of memory or want of

apprehension necessarily occasions. It is the professional wag who,

sitting in the midst of the vegetable market amid a peasant audience,

will ascribe to a cicoriaro the acts of a paladin, and insert 'a casino

in the Campagna' in the place of an oriental palace. I have met various

people who had heard as much as the above about Cècingùlo, but no more.

[298] 'Lo Sposalizio di Sor Cassandro.' For 'Sor' see p. 194.

[299] The 'Via di Panìco' is so called, according to Rufini, because

on a bit of ancient sculpture built into the wall of one of the

houses where it had been dug up as is so commonly done in Rome, the

people thought they saw the likeness of some ears of millet, panìco,

and birds pecking them.

[300] Just as at Oxford, men say 'the High' and 'the Corn,' &c, it is

very common in Rome to use the name of a street omitting the word Via.

[301] 'Friggitoria,' an open shop where all manner of fried dishes very

popular among the lower classes, and varying according to the time

of year, are made and sold; three or four or more enormous pans of

oil and of lard are kept boiling, and at one season fish, at another

rice-balls, at another artichokes, &c. &c, always previously dipped

into light batter, are cooked therein to a bright gold colour. On

St. Joseph's Day, as it always falls in Lent, a meagre festa-dish

is made of balls of batter fried in oil, in as universal request as

our pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. A writer in the 'Giovedi' mentions

two popular traditions on the connexion between the 'frittelle' or

'frittatelli' and St. Joseph. One is that St. Joseph was wont to make

such a dish for his meal by frying them with the shavings from his

bench, in the same dangerous way that you may see those of his trade

heating their glue in any carpenter's shop in Rome. The other, that on

occasion of the Visitation, the B. Virgin and St. Elizabeth remained

so long in ecstatic conversation that the dinner was forgotten,

and St. Joseph took the liberty allowed to so near a relation of

possessing himself of a frying-pan and preparing a dish of 'frittelle.'

The writer already quoted narrates in another paper that the

'friggitori' formerly plied their trade in the open air, but one day

a cat escaping from the attentions of an admirer she did not choose to

encourage, sprang from a low roof adjoining, right into the frying-pan

of a 'friggitore' full as it was of boiling oil and spluttering

'frittelle'; the cat overturned the frying-pan, setting herself on

fire, and carrying a panic together with a stream of flaming oil into

the midst of the crowd in waiting for their 'frittelle.' Since that

day the 'friggitore' fries under cover, though still in open shops.

[302] Great part of the fun of the story consisted of jokes upon these

technicalities which it would be too tedious to reproduce and explain.

[303] 'Brutto vecchiaccio!' ugly, horrid old man.

[304] 'Bella e ricca quanto il sole.'

[305] 'Mosca' and 'neo' both mean either a mole or a patch.

[306] 'Sicario,' hired assassin.

[307] 'I Matrimonio del Signor Cajusse.' This story, it will be

seen, is altogether disconnected with the other of the same name at

p. 158-69, and it is curious so similar a title should be appended to

so dissimilar a story. It has not half the humour of Mr. Campbell's

'Baillie Lunnain,' No. xvii. b. Vol. i., but is sufficiently like to

pair off against it. It is also observable for representing exactly

the proceeding of the 'Marquis di Carabas' in 'Puss in Boots.'

[308] 'Mercante di Campagna,' see n. 2, p. 154.

[309] 'Tenuta,' a farm; a holding.

[310] 'Merenda,' see n. 7, p. 155.

[311] This story, again, is perhaps more curious for the sake of the

repetition of the name of Lattanzio, in so different a story as that at

p. 155, than for its contents. There is doubtless a reason why this

name should come into this sort of use as with that of 'Cajusse,'

but I have not as yet been able to meet with it.

[312] '21 o'clock,' three hours before the Ave.

[313] 'Gisbuse' are high boots of unblackened leather reaching up to

the thighs, worn by sportsmen about Rome.

[314] 'Viva!' or 'Evviva!' is a not very uncommon, though rather

old-fashioned, mode of hearty greeting.

[315] 'Curiale,' a lawyer, a pleader.

[316] 'Scimmia,' a monkey. In England we usually speak of a cat as

of feminine gender, and in Germany the custom is so strong that the

well-known riddle pronounces the 'Kater' (tom cat) 'keine Katze' (no

cat), while in France, Spain and Italy the normal cat is masculine. In

Italian, on the other hand, the monkey is always spoken of in the

feminine gender; it becomes noteworthy in this instance when we

consider the termination of the story. 'Bellacuccia,' 'dear little

pretty one.'

[317] I do not know at what period the transfer took place, but

in the edition of 1725, of Panciroli's book on Rome, the church is

named as built and served by the 'Eremiti scalsi di S. Agostino,'

corroborating this part of the story.

[318] 'Fatato.'

[319] 'You know what a "selvaggio" is, I suppose?' asked the

narrator. 'Yes; a wild man,' I answered, thinking of the German

myths. 'No, they weren't altogether men, they were those creatures

there used to be in old times, half men with legs like goats, but

they walked on two legs, and had heads and arms like men.' After

this description, I thought I might take the license of adopting the

title for a word incidentally used by the narrator in telling the

story. The shepherds and goatherds about Rome with their goatskin

leggings covering leg and thigh, readily suggest to the eye how the

idea of a satyr may have first arisen.

[320] 'Appassionata,' 'of a broken heart.'

[321] 'Ferraiuola,' the light cloak with a shoulderpiece which priests

wear out of doors in Rome in summer. It was formerly worn by others

besides priests.

[322] Sgramfia, or granfa or gramfia, is a claw of a beast, or of

a bird of prey, most often used for the latter. I hardly know how

this came to be ascribed to a satyr, unless she meant simply that

his nails were rather strongly developed.

[323] Bazzarini gives 'salvatico' as synonymous with 'satiro.'

[324] 'Mi volete bene,' literally, only 'do you wish me well?' but the

accepted form of saying, 'do you love me?' when therefore the girl says

the words at last she is supposed to make a sort of compromise by means

of which she saves the prince and her own good taste at the same time.

[325] Though I believe there is no rule or ground for the distinction,

in conversational language, 'fratello' is used for 'brother,'

and 'frate' for 'monk' (as 'sorella' usually means any sister and

'suora' a nun). 'Frate,' again, is usually, though not by any rule,

or exclusively, reserved for the mendicant Franciscans. A Capuchin

is called 'padre cappucino,' and a Dominican, generally, a 'padre

domenicano.'

[326] 'Laico.'

[327] 'Guercino.' There is no very definitely expressed distinction in

Italian in the way of saying weak-sighted, or one-eyed, or squinting;

'guercio' is used to express all. The termination 'ino' here is not

an actual diminutive, but means 'he who is one-eyed,' or 'he who is

weak-sighted,' or 'he who squints,' with an implied expression of

sympathy (see Note 5, p. 379). In this case the conclusion shows that

'one-eyed' was intended.

[328] 'Posate,' plural of 'posata,' knife, fork, and spoon.

[329] 'Ecco servito, Excellenza.' 'It is all done as you desire.'

[330] The poor, badly fed themselves, delight to dilate on a

description of good living, just as dreaming of eating is said to arise

from a condition of hunger. I have not added a word here in the text to

those of the narrator of the story, and her enumeration is a very fair

rendering of the usual repertory of a Roman innkeeper. Broth or thin

soup ('minestra'); a dish of boiled meat ('lesso'), of 'arrosto,' that

is, grilled or baked, and of 'fritto' (fried) is the regular course:

'gallinaccio spezzato' is a turkey cut up in joints and served with

various sauces, and is much more esteemed than if cooked whole,

a rather unusual dish; 'frittata,' omelette; 'crescione,' watercresses.

[331] 'Beato a te, Francesco.'

[332] 'Born,' an Italianism for 'laid.'

[333] 'Fritto dorato.' Romans, though not eminent in the culinary art,

fry admirably. They always succeed in making their fried dishes a

rich golden colour, and they ordinarily express a fried dish by the

two words together, 'fritto dorato.'

[334] 'Beato a te, Francesco,

Che quando morirai

Un occhio serrerai

E l'altro no!'

[335] The merit of this story consists much in the mode of telling. The

narrator should be able to imitate the peculiar tone to which the

'Preface' is sung, and to supply the corresponding notes for the

additional insertion. It was very effectively done by the person who

told it to me.

[336] 'Asino o porco.'

[337] 'Padre Guardiano' is the ordinary title of the Superior in

Franciscan convents.

[338] 'Zicherte! Zacherte!'

[339] 'I sette Villani.'

[340] 'Un po' di mistuanza.' 'Mistuanza' is a word in use among the

poor for a mixture of herbs of which they make a kind of poor salad.

[341] 'Un po' di bove, un po' di porchi, un po' di galline.'

'Un po' (un poco) a little. The effect of the story depended a good

deal on the tones of voice in which it was told. The deprecatory tone

of the penitent as he says, 'un po' di bove,' &c., and the horror of

the priest as he cries out, 'Signori della mistuanza!'

This same story in quite another dress was told me one evening in

Aldershot Camp; and as it is a very curious instance of the migration

of myths, I give the home version.

It would seem that in Aldershot lingo, or in the lingo of a

certain regiment once stationed there, to 'kill a fox' means to get

drunk. Possibly the expression was acquired during the Peninsular war,

as 'tomar una zorrilla' has an equivalent meaning in Spanish. The

story was this. Once during the brief holiday of the chaplain of

the regiment, a French priest who knew a little English took his

place. At confession the chief fault of which, according to the

story, the men accused themselves was that they had 'killed a fox,'

an expression perfectly well understood by their own pastor. The

good French priest, however, instead of being shocked at finding how

often men got drunk, was highly edified at the angelic simplicity of

these Angles, who showed so much contrition for having indulged in the

innocent pastime--in France, not even an offence among sportsmen--of

having killed a fox.

At last there came one of a more humorous turn of mind than the rest,

and the surnois air with which he pronounced the expression revealed to

the good Frenchman that the words meant something more than they said.

'Vat mean you ven you say, "kill de fox?"' now inquired the Frenchman

of his penitent with fear and trembling. And the blunt soldier had

no sooner expounded the slang than the bewildered foreigner threw

open the front wicket of the confessional and cried aloud:

'Come back! all you dat have killed de foxes! Come back! come back!'

[342] 'L'uccelletto,' the little bird.

[343] 'Terrino,' a high earthen dish with a cover, probably the origin

of our 'tureen,' almost the only kind of Italian dish that ever has

a cover.

[344] 'Il Diavolo che prese Moglie.'

[345] 'Il Capo diavolo.'

[346] 'Il più bravo.'

[347] Witches were generally accused of communicating with the Devil,

going to midnight meetings with him, &c., by means of ointments. See

'Del Rio,' lib. ii. Q. xvi. p. 81, col. 1, C., and lib. iii. P. 1,

2, ii. p. 155, col. 1, B., &c., &c.

[348] 'La Regina e la Triparola;' 'Triparola,' female tripe-seller.

[349] 'Vicolo,' a narrow dirty street.

[350] 'Due gocciette d'acqua,' two little drops of water, the Roman

equivalent for 'as like as two peas.'

[351] 'Triparolo,' a male tripe-seller.

[352] 'Un bajocco di tripa-gatto,' the worst part of the tripe,

sold for cats' and dogs' meat.

[353] 'La Regina Cattiva.'

[354] 'La Sposa Cece,' the simple wife. 'Cece' among the common

people seems to mean pretty nearly the same as 'tonto,' 'silly,'

'idiotic;' in this place more exactly 'simple' or 'half-witted.'

[355] It is a characteristic of the Roman people that as a rule

they never call people by their names; the 'casato' or married name,

and the 'cognome' or family name, are used indifferently when such

a name is called in request at all, by married people. If they must

give a name to a stranger it is always the Christian name that comes

first to their lips; among themselves, however, it is seldom the

genuine name that is used. They have some 'sopranome' or nick-name

for everybody, or at least a shortening of the Christian name,

as 'Checca' and 'Checco' for Francesca and Francesco; 'Pippo' for

Filippo; 'Pepe' for Giuseppe; 'Cola' for Niccola; 'Maso' for Tomaso;

'Teta' for Teresa; 'Lalla' for Adelaide; 'Lina' for Carolina; 'Tuta'

for Geltrude; the abbreviations for Giovanni are innumerable.

But what they most love to designate people by is a description

of their persons. When you come home from your walk, your servant

does not tell you Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so have called, but it will

be 'Quel signore vecchio ingobbato' (that old hump-backed kind of

gentleman), if he be the least grey and high-shouldered, however

young he may be; or 'Quel bel giovane alto' (that tall, handsome,

young gentleman), whatever his age, if he be only bien conservé. Then

'Quella signora alta, secca, che veste di lutto' (that tall thin

lady dressed in mourning). 'Quella signora bella bionda, giovane'

(that lady, pretty, fair, young). Or 'Quello che porta il brillante'

(he who wears a brilliant), because the same friend happened to have

a diamond stud in his cravat one day; or 'Quella contessa che veste

di cilestro,' because the lady happened once to wear a blue dress,

and so on, with all manner of signs and tokens which it may take you

half-an-hour to recognise a person by, if you ever make it out at

all. Or, if there is no distinctive mark of the kind to seize upon,

it will be 'Quel signore,' or 'quella signora di Palazzo,' or 'Via,'

or 'Piazza' So-and-so. And this not from the difficulty of catching

a foreign name, because it is still more in vogue when designating

their own people; if you are asking for the address of a servant,

a tailor, a dressmaker, &c., it is in vain you try to make them out

by the name, you must do your best to describe them, and then they

will break out with an exclamation hitting it off for themselves:

'Ah! si, quel scimunito' (that silly-looking fellow); 'quel gobbo'

(that high-shouldered fellow--lit. 'hunchbacked'); 'quella strega'

(that ugly old woman, cunning woman--lit. 'witch'); 'quella bella

giovane alta' (that tall handsome girl); 'quella donna bassetta'

(that short little woman), for with their descriptions as with their

names they must super-add a diminutive or a qualification, and 'basso'

(short) is pretty sure to be rendered by 'bassetto,' 'piccola'

(little) by 'piccinina,' 'vecchio' (old) by 'vecchietto.' 'Quella

scimia' or 'scimietta' (that old woman, or that little old woman

who looks like a monkey). 'Quella donna anziana' (that respectable

old woman). 'Quella donniciuola' (that nasty little old woman,

contemptible old woman). 'Quel ragazzino, tanto carino, tanto caruccio'

(that nice boy, that very nice boy). 'Quel vecchietto' (that nice

old man); and in this way the hero of this story is designated as

'The man who has a daughter to marry.'

[356] 'Boccione,' a large coarse glass bottle commonly used in Rome

for carrying wine. When it is covered with twisted rushes--like the

oil-flasks that come to England--it is called a 'damigiana,' a young

lady, a little lady.

[357] 'Mettetevelo addietro.' Lit. 'Put it behind you,' a way of saying

'Never mind it,' 'don't care about it.' But the woman is supposed to

be so foolish that she understands it literally.

[358] The Italian custom of the newly married couples continuing to

live with the parents of one or other of them is here brought in.

[359] 'Tegame,' a flat earthen pan much in vogue in Roman kitchens;

'ova in tegame' is a favourite and not a bad dish. A little fresh

butter is oiled, and the eggs are dropped into it as for poaching,

and very slowly cooked in it; when scarcely set they are reckoned done.

[360] Such notions are not altogether so impossible as they seem. I

myself heard a very intelligent little boy one day say to his mother,

'Mama, I should so like to see a horse's egg.' 'A horse's egg, my

dear--there are no such things,' was the reply of course. 'Oh yes,

there must be,' rejoined the child, 'because I've heard Pa several

times talk about finding a mare's nest.'

[361] 'Uovo,' by the way, is a word with which great liberties are

taken. The correct singular is 'uovo' and the plural 'uova,' but

it is very common to make the plural in 'i' and also to say 'uova'

for the singular, and 'uove' for plural, while the initial 'u' is

most usually dropped out.

[362] 'Brodo' is beef-tea or clear broth with nothing in it; broth

with vermicelli or anything else in it is 'minestra;' 'zuppa,' which

sounds most like 'soup,' is rather 'sop,' and when applied to broth,

means strictly only broth with bread in it, from 'inzuppare,' to steep,

soak, or sop; but it is also used for broth with anything else in it

besides bread, but never without anything in it.

[363] 'La Donna Mattarella.' 'Matto' is simply 'mad,' with the

diminutive

'ella' it comes to mean 'slightly mad,' 'simple.'

[364] 'Il Tonto.'

[365] 'Chiodacci;' 'chiodi,' nails; 'chiodacci,' old rusty nails.

[366] 'La Ragazza Golosa;' 'goloso' means, in particular, greedy of

nice things.

[367] 'Codiche di presciúto.'

[368] 'Mercante di Campagna.' See Note 2, p. 154.

[369] 'Voi pensate a voi ed io penso a me!' 'Pensare' is much used

in Rome in the sense of 'to attend to,' 'to provide for.'

[370] 'Guèrcia,' see Note 3 to 'The Two Friars;' in this case squinting

seems intended.

[371] 'La Figlia Ghiotta.' 'Ghiotta' and 'golosa' have much the

same meaning.

[372] 'Compare-lupo' (lit. had a wolf for godfather); 'compare' for

'compadre,' godfather, gossip. Lycanthropy had an important place in

the mediæval as in the earlier mythologies; witches were often accused

of turning people into wolves by the use of their ointments. Our

'Little Red Riding Hood' is connected with it, and several in the

German and Tirolese Stories, but it is too wide a subject to enter

upon here.

[373] 'Il Vecchio Avaro.' (The Avaricious Old Man.)

[374] 'Che campasse d'aria,' who should subsist on air.

[375] 'Abbi pazienza,' have patience; equivalent to 'please,' 'pray

excuse me,' &c.

[376] 'Trattoria,' an eating-house, but one where, as a rule, dinners

are sent out.

[377] 'Giovedi grasso,' Thursday in Carneval week, a day of a little

extra feasting.

[378] 'La Vecchia Avara.' This story was told in emulation of the last,

otherwise it is hardly worth reproducing. The only merit of the story

consisted in the liveliness of the pantomime with which the words of

the third wife were rendered. To the poor, however, such a story is

a treasure, as it tells of the condign punishment of an oppressor;

and there are few of them who have not some experience of what it is

to be trampled on.

[379] According to the local custom prevailing among all classes,

of married sons and daughters continuing to live in the same house

with their parents.

[380] 'Dispensa,' store-room.

[381] 'Pizza,' a cake; 'ricotta,' curds of sheep's milk.

[382] 'Il Poverello del Cece.' The termination of the word 'Poverello'

is one of those which determine the sentiment of the speaker in a way

it is impossible to put into English. We use 'poor' (e.g. joined to the

name of a deceased friend) to express sympathy and endearment; if we

put 'poor' in this sense before the expression 'povero,' 'a poor man,'

'poverello,' 'a poor poor man,' we have the nearest rendering. Dante

calls St. Francis, apostle of voluntary poverty, 'Quel poverel' di

Dio.' It is the common expression in Rome for a beggar. The 'Poverello'

in this story, however, was not one that merited much compassion.

[383] 'Cece,' vetch, produces a very large pea in the south of

Europe, and provides a staple article of food much liked among the

lower orders. In Italy it is mostly eaten plain boiled, often cold,

or else in soup and stews. All day long men go about the streets in

Rome selling them (plain boiled) in wooden pails. Boys buy a handful

as they would cherries, and eat them as they go along. In Spain,

where it bears the name of 'garbanzo,' the favourite mode of cooking

it is stewed in oil, with a large quantity of red pepper.

[384] 'Coratella,' nice little heart.

[385] 'O la vitella,

O la zitella.'

'Vitella,' a calf; 'zitella,' an unmarried person.

[386] 'Berretta,' (also written 'biretta') is used for any kind of cap

worn by men or boys. It would appear that no kind of head-covering

except a hood to the cloak, enabling the wearer to cover the head,

or leave it bare at pleasure, was in common use in Italy before the

sixteenth century, though the 'berretta' is mentioned in documents

as part of ecclesiastical, particularly of the pontifical, dress,

as early as the tenth century. The round 'berretta' coming to be

commonly used by the people, their superiors adopted the quadrated

form, which, with some modifications, is that still adopted by the

Catholic clergy. Graduates and doctors were privileged to wear it,

hence its use by Doctor Grillo; and though monks generally are not,

some of those engaged in preaching and teaching have a special

permission to do so. The Superior of the Theatine Convent of Naples

alone, among all superiors of nuns, has the privilege of wearing the

'berretta.' Orsola Benincasa, the founder, was called to Rome that

the Pope (Gregory XIII., 1576) might examine whether the reputation

she had acquired for learning and piety was well founded. Not only

was the Pope well satisfied with her, but St. Philip Neri also gave

her many tokens of approval, and, among others, in his playful way,

put his 'berretta' on her head. This honour has been commemorated by

her successors retaining its use.

[387] 'Vale più un oncia di fortuna che una libbra di sapere.'

[388] 'Un saccentuzze.'

[389] 'Garbatezza.'

[390] 'Sassata,' in Italian, has a more terrible significance than

'stone-throwing,' in English, conveys. The art of throwing and slinging

stones with dexterity and accuracy of aim would seem to have been as

favourite a pastime among the peasantry in Italy and Spain as archery

among our own. For the purposes of the present volume, it needs only

to allude to the Roman development of the practice. P. Bresciani,

who has taken more pains than any writer of the present age in

illustrating the local customs of Rome, tells us the 'sassate'

continued a favourite diversion of the youth of Rome almost down

to our own day, and it was only by the most strenuous and vigorous

measures that Cardinal Consalvi was enabled to put an end to it; being

impelled thereto by the barbarous tone of feeling it engendered, and

the frequent casualties resulting from it. The most idle and dissolute

raggamuffins of the Monti and Trastevere quarters were among the most

dexterous of marksmen. Whenever they aimed a throw, 'fosse di fionda

o fosse di soprammano' (whether from a sling or from the hand) they

were sure to hit the mark; so that any one of them might have written,

like the Greek archer on his arrow, 'for the right eye of Philip,' on

his 'ciotto.' ('Ciotto' is a stone such as would be used for throwing

from a sling, and thus 'ciottolo' means equally a road made with rough

stones and a 'sassata.' What is more to our present purpose is, that

'ciotto' means also 'lame,' suggesting how often persons may have

been lamed by 'sassate'). It is said that in the Balearic islands,

it was the custom for mothers to tie the meals of their children to

a branch of a tree, and none got anything to eat till he had hit the

string with a stone, and thus they were trained to 'fiondeggiare'

(to throw from a sling) perfectly. The Roman raggamuffins, instead of

their food, used to have for their mark the features of donna Lucrezia

and Marforio, and they 'ciottolavanle' (pelted them) with stones from

far and near. At other times their aim would be directed against a

tuft of herbage dangling down from the arches of the aqueducts of

Nero or Claudius, nor would they rest from their aiming till they had

rooted it out with their stones. Their highest ambition was to direct

a stone right through one of the small window-openings in the loftiest

range at the Coliseum. After such practice, we may well believe the

stones fell true when they had a living adversary before them.

'And as it is the evil custom of the sons of Adam to strive one against

the other, and for the excitement of contention every village loves

to keep up warfare with its next neighbouring village, so the "Rioni"

of Rome delighted in trials of skill one against the other. Thus

on every holiday a hundred or two of Montegiani and Trasteverini

were to be found arrayed against each other, and all arranged in due

order of battle, with its skirmishers and reconnoitring parties, its

van-guard and rear-guard. One side would take the Aventine for its

base of operations, and another the Palatine....' After describing

very graphically the tactics in vogue, our author goes on to say,

'The adults of both factions stood by the while and backed up the boys,

and often the strife which had begun as boys' pastime ended in serious

maiming of grown up men. Hence, not a holiday passed but some mother

had to mourn over a son brought home to her with a broken head or an

eye knocked out; or some wife over a husband riddled (sforacchiato)

with wounds....' Hence it was that Cardinal Consalvi, as we have seen,

put an end to such rough play.

[391] 'Quella,' in the original, lends itself better to the purposed

misunderstanding of the story, meaning 'that one,' 'such an one as

that!' in the feminine gender; and the master would think the servant

said it in contempt because he spoke of a miller's daughter.

[392] 'La Buona Grazia del Gobbo.'

[393] 'In mezzo alla strada.'

[394] 'Good Grace,' also the 'good favour,' the 'good graces.'

[395] 'Cortile,' inner court of palaces and houses that are built in

a quadrangle.

[396] 'Saccoccia di polenta.' 'Polenta' is a porridge made of Indian

corn meal, which makes a staple article of food of the Italian

peasantry. It is, however, used for the meal of which the porridge is

going to be made, though that is more usually called 'formentone,'

or 'grano turco.' 'Saccroccia di polenta' would be a large pouch in

which poor country labourers carry a provision of meal, when going

out to work in the Campagna. The girl takes Giuditta's bag in the

picture for such a 'saccoccia' as she had been used to see.

[397] 'Tramezzo.'

[398] 'Pupazza,' a doll, a stuffed figure.

[399] 'Mi date la vostra buona grazia,' a common expression of

no particular meaning; a compliment, equivalent to, 'We part good

friends,' 'Give me your good favour.'

[400] In a wine country the idea of wine being almost a necessity of

existence occurs more readily than in England, where, however general

its use, it is still a luxury.

[401] 'Era stufa,' a way of saying, she was 'worn out,' 'wearied out.'

[402] 'Palazzo.'

[403] 'Credenziere,' confidential servant.

[404] 'Aia,' upper nurse, nursery governess.

[405] 'Combinazione.'

[406] 'E così fece' (and thus he did) is another of the expressions

in universal use in Rome in tale-telling, forming a sort of refrain.

[407] 'I sposi Felici.'

[408] 'Esempio,' see preface. 'Esempiuccio,' a termination of

endearment, meaning in this place 'a nice "esempio".'

[409] 'Vecchiaccia,' bad old woman.

[410] 'Forma di formaggio,' a whole cheese. 'Cacio,' the proper word

for cheese, is almost entirely superseded by 'formaggio,' which comes

from 'forma,' the press or mould in which it is made.

[411] 'Una Camera di Locanda.'

[412] 'Combinazione.'

[413] 'Credenziere.'

[414] 'Un ora di notte'; an hour after the evening 'Ave.'

[415] 'Il Gatto della Contessa.'

[416] 'Il gatto non dissi niente, ma guardava con certi occhi grossi,

grossi, fissi.'

[417] 'Strozzato,' throttled; killed by wounding the strozzo, throat.

[418] 'E questo è un fatto vero, sa; perchè il gatto è traditore

sempre. Il cane e fedele si, ma il gatto è traditore.'

[419] 'Perchè litigano sempre i Cani ed i Gatti.'

[420] 'Dàlli! Dàlli ai cani!'

[421] 'Contes Populaires des anciens Bretons, précédés d'un Essai sur

l'origine des Epopées chevaleresques de la Table Ronde.' Par Th. de

la Villemarqué. Paris et Leipzig, 1842.