(_Cavalleria Rusticana._)
Turiddu Macca, _gna_ Nunzia's son, after returning from the army, used
every Sunday to strut like a peacock through the square in his
bersegliere uniform and red cap, looking like the fortune-teller as he
sets up his stand with his cage of canaries. The girls on their way to
Mass gave stolen glances at him from behind their mantellinas, and the
urchins buzzed round him like flies.
He had brought back with him, also, a pipe with the king on horseback
carved so naturally that it seemed actually alive, and he scratched
his matches on the seat of his trousers, lifting his leg as if he were
going to give a kick.
But in spite of all this, Lola, the daughter of _massaro_ Angelo, had
not shown herself either at Mass or on the balcony, for the reason
that she was going to wed a man from Licodia, a carter who had four
Sortino mules in his stable.
At first, when Turiddu heard about it, _santo diavolone!_ he
threatened to disembowel him, threatened to kill him--that fellow from
Licodia! But he did nothing of the sort; he contented himself with
going under the fair one's window, and singing all the spiteful songs
he knew.
"Has _gna_ Nunzia's Turiddu nothing else to do," asked the neighbors,
"except spending his nights singing like a lone sparrow?"
At length, he met Lola on her way back from the pilgrimage to the
Madonna del Pericolo, and when she saw him, she turned neither red nor
white, just as if it were none of her affair at all.
"Oh, _compare_ Turiddu, I was told that you returned the first of the
month."
"But I have been told of something quite different!" replied the
other. "Is it true that you are to marry _compare_ Alfio, the
carter?"
"Such is God's will," replied Lola, drawing the two ends of her
handkerchief under her chin.
"God's will in your case is done with a snap and a spring; to suit
yourself! And it was God's will, was it, that I should return from so
far to find this fine state of things, _gna_ Lola!"
The poor fellow still tried to bluster, but his voice grew hoarse, and
he followed the girl, tossing his head so that the tassel of his cap
swung from side to side on his shoulders. To tell the truth, she felt
really sorry to see him wearing such a long face, but she had not the
heart to deceive him with fine speeches.
"Listen, _compare_ Turiddu," she said to him at last, "Let me join my
friends. What would be said in town if I were seen with you?"
"You are right," replied Turiddu, "Now that you are going to marry
_compare_ Alfio, who has four mules in his stable, it is best not to
let people's tongues wag about you. But my mother, poor soul, was
obliged to sell our bay mule, and that little plot of vineyard on the
highway while I was off in the army. The time 'when Berta spun,' is
over and gone, and you no longer think of the time when we used to
talk together from the window looking into the yard, and you gave me
that handkerchief before I went away, and God knows how many tears I
shed into it at going so far that even the name of our place is lost!
So good-by, _gna_ Lola,--Let's pretend it's rained and cleared off,
and our friendship is ended."[12]
[12] _Facemu cuntu ca chioppi e scampau e la nostra amicizia finiu._
_Gna_ Lola married the carter, and on Sundays used to go out on the
balcony with her hands crossed on her stomach, to show off all the
heavy gold rings that her husband gave to her. Turiddu kept up his
habit of going back and forth through the street with his pipe in his
mouth, his hands in his pockets, and an air of unconcern, and
ogling the girls; but it gnawed his heart that Lola's husband had so
much money, and that she pretended not to see him when he passed.
"I'll get even with her, under her very eyes; the vile beast," he
muttered.
Opposite _compare_ Alfio lived _massaro_ Cola, the vinedresser, who
was as rich as a pig, and had one daughter at home. Turiddu said and
did all he could to become _massaro_ Cola's workman, and he began to
frequent the house, and make sweet speeches to the girl.
"Why don't you go and say sweet things to _gna_ Lola?" asked Santa.
"_Gna_ Lola is a fine lady. _Gna_ Lola has married a crowned king
now!"
"I don't deserve crowned kings!"
"You are worth a hundred Lolas, and I know some one who wouldn't look
at _la gna_ Lola or her saint when you are by, for _gna_ Lola isn't
worthy to wear your shoes, no, she isn't!"
"The fox when he couldn't get at the grapes said, 'How beautiful you
are, _racinedda mia_,' my little grape!"
"Ohe! hands off, _compare_ Turiddu!"
"Are you afraid that I will eat you?"
"I'm not afraid of you or of your God."
"Eh! your mother was from Licodia, we all know that! You have
quarrelsome blood. Uh! How I could eat you with my eyes!"
"Eat me then with your eyes, for we should not have a crumb left, but
meantime help me up with this bundle."
"I would lift up the whole house for you, yes, I would!"
She, so as not to blush, threw at him a stick of wood which was within
reach, and by a miracle didn't hit him.
"Let's have done, for chattering never picked grapes."
"If I were rich I should try to get a wife like you, _gna_ Santa."
"I shall never marry a crowned king like _gna_ Lola, but I have my
dowry as well as she, whenever the Lord shall send me anyone."
"We know you are rich, we know it."
"If you know it, say no more, for father is coming, and I shouldn't
like to have him find me in the court-yard."
The old father began to turn up his nose, but the girl pretended not
to notice it, because the tassel of the bersegliere's cap had set her
heart to fluttering, and was constantly dancing before her eyes. When
the _babbo_ put Turiddu out of the house, his daughter opened the
window for him, and stood chatting with him all the evening long, so
that the whole neighborhood talked of nothing else.
"I'm madly in love with you," said Turiddu, "and I am losing my sleep
and my appetite."
"How absurd!"
"I wish I were Victor Emmanuel's son, so as to marry you."
"How absurd!"
"By the Madonna, I would eat you like bread!"
"How absurd!"
"Ah! on my honor!"
"Ah! _mamma mia!_"
Lola, who was listening every evening, hidden behind the vase of
basil, and turning red and white, one day called Turiddu:--
"And so, _compare_ Turiddu, old friends don't speak to each other any
more?"
"_Ma!_" sighed the young man, "blessed is he who can speak to you."
"If you have any desire to speak to me, you know where I live,"
replied Lola.
Turiddu went to see her so frequently that Santa noticed it, and shut
the window in his face. The neighbors looked at him with a smile or
with a shake of the head when the bersegliere passed. Lola's husband
was making a round of the fairs with his mules.
"Sunday I am going to confession, for last night I dreamed of black
grapes," said Lola.
"Put it off, put it off" begged Turiddu.
"No, Easter is coming, and my husband will want to know why I haven't
been to confession."
"Ah," murmured _massaro_ Cola's Santa, as she was waiting on her knees
before the confessional for her turn, while Lola was making a clean
breast of her sins. "On my soul, I will not send you to Rome for your
punishment!"
_Compare_ Alfio came home with his mules; he was loaded with money,
and he brought to his wife for a present, a handsome new dress for the
holidays.
"You are right to bring her gifts," said his neighbor Santa, "because
while you are away your wife adorns your house for you."
_Compare_ Alfio was one of those carters who wear their hats over one
ear, and when he heard his wife spoken of in such a way he changed
color as if he had been knifed.
"_Santo diavolone!_" he exclaimed, "if you haven't seen aright, I will
not leave you eyes to weep with, you or your whole family."
"I am not used to weeping!" replied Santa, "I did not weep even when
I saw with these eyes _gna_ Nunzia's Turiddu going into your wife's
house at night!"
"It is well," replied _compare_ Alfio, "many thanks!"
Turiddu, now that the cat was at home, no longer went out on the
street by day, and he whiled away the tedium at the inn with his
friends; and on Easter eve they had on the table a dish of sausages.
When _compare_ Alfio came in, Turiddu realized, merely by the way in
which he fixed his eyes on him, that he had come to settle that
affair, and he laid his fork on the plate.
"Have you any commands for me, _compare_ Alfio?" he asked.
"No favors to ask, _compare_ Turiddu; it's some time since I have seen
you, and I wanted to speak concerning something you know about."
Turiddu at first had offered him a glass, but _compare_ Alfio refused
it with a wave of his hand. Then Turiddu got up and said to him,--
"Here I am, _compare_ Alfio."
The carter threw his arms around his neck.
"If to-morrow morning you will come to the prickly pears of la
Canziria, we can talk that matter over, _compare_."
"Wait for me on the street at daybreak, and we will go together."
With these words they exchanged the kiss of defiance. Turiddu bit the
carter's ear, and thus made the solemn oath not to fail him.
The friends had silently left the sausages, and accompanied Turiddu to
his home. _Gna_ Nunzia, poor creature, waited for him till late every
evening.
"Mamma," said Turiddu, "do you remember when I went as a soldier, that
you thought I should never come back any more? Give me a good kiss as
you did then, for to-morrow morning I am going far away."
Before daybreak he got his spring-knife, which he had hidden under the
hay, when he had gone to serve his time in the army, and started for
the prickly-pear trees of la Canziria.
"Oh, Gesummaria! where are you going in such haste!" cried Lola in
great apprehension, while her husband was getting ready to go out.
"I am not going far," replied _compare_ Alfio. "But it would be better
for you if I never came back."
Lola in her nightdress was praying at the foot of the bed, and
pressing to her lips the rosary which Fra Bernardino had brought to
her from the Holy places, and reciting all the Ave Marias that she
could say.
"_Compare_ Alfio," began Turiddu, after he had gone a little distance
by the side of his companion, who walked in silence with his cap down
over his eyes, "as God is true I know that I have done wrong, and I
should let myself be killed. But before I came out, I saw my old
mother, who got up to see me off, under the pretence of tending the
hens. Her heart had a presentiment, and as the Lord is true, I will
kill you like a dog, so that my poor old mother may not weep."
"All right," replied _compare_ Alfio, stripping off his waistcoat.
"Then we will both of us hit hard."
Both of them were skilful fencers. Turiddu was first struck, and was
quick enough to receive it in the arm. When he returned it, he
returned it well, and wounded the other in the groin.
"Ah, _compare_ Turiddu! so you really intend to kill me, do you?"
"Yes, I gave you fair warning; since I saw my old mother in the
hen-yard, it seems to me I have her all the time before my eyes."
"Keep them well open, those eyes of yours," cried _compare_ Alfio,
"for I am going to give you back good measure."
As he stood on guard, all doubled up, so as to keep his left hand on
his wound, which pained him, and almost trailing his elbow on the
ground, he swiftly picked up a handful of dust, and flung it into his
adversary's eyes.
"Ah!" screamed Turiddu, blinded, "I am dead."
He tried to save himself, by making desperate leaps backwards, but
_compare_ Alfio overtook him with another thrust in the stomach, and a
third in the throat.
"And that makes three! that is for the house which you have adorned
for me! Now your mother will let the hens alone."
Turiddu staggered a short distance among the prickly pears, and then
fell like a stone. The blood foaming, gurgled in his throat, and he
could not even cry, "_Ah! mamma mia!_"