means considered a particularly joyful event. The birth of a boy is
followed by rejoicings and festivities—no notice is taken of a girl.
Of the thousands of infants annually received into the Naples
foundling hospital, the boys only remain there a short time. They are
soon adopted by families who have lost a child, but it is very seldom
that any one thinks of taking a girl from the hospital. In Santa
Lucia, when a boy is born, the whole quarter is thrown into the
greatest excitement; he is handed round to all the _comari_, friends
and neighbours—kissed, squeezed, pinched, out of sheer love and
delight. But a girl-baby lies unnoticed in the clothes-basket, which
serves as a cradle, and is neither kissed nor admired. At baptism a
boy is always carried to church on the nurse’s right arm—a girl on the
left.” (Trede, _Das Heidentum in der römischen Kirche_, iii. p. 299.)
NOTE 4, p. 169.—Small birds of all kinds—thrushes, larks, sparrows,
bullfinches, even nightingales—are looked upon as fair game in Italy,
and caught wholesale in clap-nets for the table.
NOTE 5, p. 209.—The confraternities frequently mentioned in stories
depicting Italian life may need a word of explanation. When the scene
of the story is in Tuscany, the confraternity meant is that of the
_Misericordia_ (the “Chaplain of the Misericordia” figures in
Pratesi’s sketch of “Doctor Phœbus”), whose business it is to bury the
indigent dead, and attend what in England would be pauper funerals.
The procession of ghastly black figures, their heads and faces covered
by hoods with eye-holes cut in them, is familiar to every one who has
spent any time in an Italian town. The following account of their
origin is taken from Mrs. Oliphant’s _Makers of Florence_:—“This still
active and numerous society was established in the thirteenth century
by an honest porter, one Pietro Borsi, who had the fine inspiration of
at once reforming the vices and employing the idle moments of his
brother porters, hanging on waiting for work in the Piazza of San
Giovanni, by a most characteristic and appropriate charity. He
persuaded them to fine each other for swearing, a mutual tax, half
humorous, half pious, which pleased the rough fellows; then induced
them to buy litters with the money thus collected, and to give, each
in his turn, a cast of his trade to the service of the sick and
wounded, carrying the victims of accident or disease to the hospitals,
and the dead to their burial. In so warlike a city as Florence, amid
all the disturbances of the thirteenth century, no doubt they had
occupation enough, and this spontaneous good work, devised by the
people for the people, marks one of the finest and most characteristic
features of the charity of the Middle Ages. The institution grew, as
might be expected, developing into greater formality and more extended
operations, but always retaining the same object. There are no longer
street frays in Florence, to make the charitable succour of the
Misericordia a thing of hourly necessity, and the litters are no
longer carried by the rough, homely hands of labouring men snatching a
moment for charity out of their hard day’s labours. It is said that
all classes, up to the very highest, form part of the society
nowadays; called by their bell when their services are wanted, in all
the districts of the city, prince and artisan taking their turns
alike, and it may be together, but with this modification—and with the
one addition to its aims, that the Brothers often nurse as well as
carry the sick—the porters’ original undertaking is carried out with a
firm faithfulness at once to tradition and Christian charity. The
dress is in reality no sign of mysterious shame and expiation, but
merely a precaution against any trafficking on the part of the
brethren in the gratitude of their patients, from whom they are
allowed to receive nothing more than a draught of water, the first and
cheapest of necessities.”[40] The following, from Story’s _Roba di
Roma_, may also be interesting:—“The admirable institution of the
_Misericordia_, which is to be found throughout Tuscany, does not
exist in Rome; but several of the confraternities attend to the duties
of burying their own dead, and one of them, called the
_Arciconfraternita della Morte e dell’ Orazione_, assumes the duty of
burying the bodies of all poor persons found dead in the Campagna, or
in the city. This confraternity was founded in 1551 by a Siennese
priest, Crescenzio Selva, and confirmed by Pius IV. in 1560.... It is
composed of most respectable persons, who wear a _sacco_ of black,
coarse linen. Upon information being received that a dead body has
been found on the Campagna, notice of the fact is at once given to a
certain number of the brethren, who, without delay, meet at the
oratory, where they assume the black sack, and set out without delay
in search of the corpse. Day or night, cold or wet, calm or storm,
make no difference; the moment the news is received they set off on
their pious expedition. Nor is this duty always a light one, for
sometimes they are obliged to journey in search of the body more than
twenty miles; and, under the pontificate of Clement VIII., when there
was a great inundation of the Tiber, they reclaimed bodies which had
been borne down by the current as far as Ostia and Fiumicino. They
carry with them the bier, upon which they place the body when it is
found, and bring it back on their shoulders to the city. Besides this
duty on the Campagna, they also, in common with certain other
confraternities, bury the bodies of the dead found in the city, where
families are without means. The _Mandataro_ informs the brethren where
their services are needed, and, towards evening, dressed in thin black
sacks, their heads and faces covered, and with only two holes cut in
the _cappuccio_ to look through, they may be seen passing through the
street, bearing the body on their bier to the church, preceded by a
long, narrow standard of black, on which are worked a cross, skull,
and bones, bearing torches and chanting the _Miserere_ and other
psalms.”
NOTE 6, p. 223.—The Roman Catholic clergy are forbidden to smoke, but
allowed to take snuff. The point of this sentence is fully brought
out, a page or two later on, by the friar’s indignant denunciations of
eating meat in Lent.
NOTE 7, p. 230.—“Come, I will show you Lucca,” is said in joke to
children, the person addressing them seizing and lifting them by the
neck. The saying is probably connected with the idiom, “I shall see
you again at Lucca”—_i.e._, ironically, “I shall never see you again;”
so that “seeing Lucca” = “seeing nothing.” Tommaseo and Bellini
(_Dizionario_) suggest that the expression may refer to the fact that
the Lucchese were great travellers.
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF WRITERS.
EDMONDO DE AMICIS, born in 1846 at Oneglia (on the Genoa coast), was
educated at Cuneo, Turin, and the Military College of Modena,
which he left, with the grade of sub-lieutenant, in 1865. In 1866
he was present at the battle of Custozza, and in 1867 edited a
military periodical at Florence. After the Italian occupation of
Rome in 1870 he left the army, and devoted himself entirely to
literature. He is in a certain sense a follower of Manzoni, who
encouraged and directed his early efforts. His “Sketches of
Military Life” (one of which is translated in the present
collection) first saw the light in the pages of the _Italia
Militare_, and were followed by a collection of _Novelle_ (or
short stories), which, however, are inferior to the first-named
work. The construction is defective, and the characterisation,
though vivacious, not very deep or subtle. Another fault which De
Amicis frequently falls into is a certain straining after pathos,
which defeats its own object—a fault which Dickens, in his desire
to draw tears, was not always exempt from. This is perhaps most
apparent in his later works, of which _Cuore_ and another
depicting the life (a most wretched one, if De Amicis is to be
believed) of an Italian elementary schoolmaster, are examples. He
has travelled extensively, and given to the world several lively
and humorous volumes recording his experiences in Holland, Spain,
Morocco, and elsewhere—besides being well known as a lecturer. We
understand he is now resident at Turin, and has, quite recently,
proclaimed himself a convert to Socialistic ideas. (_Page 199._)
LODOVICO ARIOSTO was born at Reggio (near Modena, not to be confused
with Reggio in Calabria) in 1474. He has written his own
autobiography in the _Satires_. He studied law at Padua, but never
had any taste for that profession, and never practised it. In 1503
he entered the service of the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este, who
employed him on various diplomatic missions, but left him leisure
to continue his studies. In 1516 he published his great poem, the
_Orlando Furioso_, which he had spent ten years in writing. After
the death of his patron in 1520, Ariosto transferred his services
to the cardinal’s brother, Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, who, in 1522,
appointed him governor of the mountainous district of Garfagnana,
near Lucca—a post he has humorously described in his _Satires_. In
1524 he returned to Ferrara, and spent the rest of his life in
lettered leisure at Alfonso’s court. He now wrote his five blank
verse comedies (_La Cassaria_, _I Suppositi_, _La Lena_, _Il
Negromante_, and _La Scolastica_), which were acted before the
court in a theatre built for the purpose by order of the Duke. He
died in 1533 of a lingering illness. He was never married. The
_Orlando Furioso_, says one writer, “has been translated into most
European languages, but seldom successfully. Of the English
translations, that by Harrington is spirited, and much superior to
Hook’s, but Rose’s is considered the best, and is generally
faithful.” A specimen from the _Satires_ has been given in T. H.
Croker’s version. Of the _Orlando Furioso_, it has been thought
best, after consideration, to give a free prose translation
(selected and slightly adapted from _Stories from Ariosto_, by H.
C. Hollway-Calthrop[41]) of the passage describing Astolfo’s visit
to the moon, which is one of the best for exhibiting the humorous
side of Ariosto’s genius. The poem is a gigantic one, with legions
of characters, and a perfect maze of episodes more or less closely
connected with the main thread of the story: the war between
Charlemagne and the Saracens, ending with the defeat of the latter
and the death of their king, Agramante. If those who are in at the
death of Spenser’s Blatant Beast are very few and very weary, we
should imagine that those who have followed Agramante to his
bitter end must be fewer and wearier still. (_Page 30._)
FRANCESCO BERNI, a Tuscan, was born in 1490, and died in 1536 as canon
of the cathedral at Florence. He was a priest, and spent the
greater part of his life at the court of Rome, in the service of
various cardinals and prelates. A writer in the _National
Encyclopædia_ says, “Berni is one of the principal writers of
Italian jocose poetry, which has ever since retained the name of
_Poesia Bernesca_. This style had been introduced before him” (see
Note on _Pucci_), “but Berni carried it to a degree of perfection
which has rarely been equalled since.... His satire is generally
of the milder sort, but at times it rises to a bitter strain of
invective. His humour may be said to be untranslatable, for it
depends on the genius of the Italian language, the constitution of
the Italian mind, and the habits and associations of the Italian
people. His language is choice Tuscan. The worst feature in
Berni’s humorous poems is his frequent licentious allusions and
equivocations, which, though clothed in decent language, are well
understood by Italian readers.” It is, perhaps, curious that
another great offender in this respect—Casti—was also an
ecclesiastic. But we cannot help remembering in this connection a
remark made by a writer in an English magazine, who had been
invited to a wedding in an Italian country town—viz., that of the
congratulatory verses sent in by friends (some of which were very
far from being in accordance with our notions of propriety) the
most objectionable were written by priests. Three volumes of
Berni’s _Poesie Burlesche_ were collected and published after his
death. He also wrote what he called a _rifacimento_ of Bojardo’s
_Orlando Innamorata_, altering the diction of the poem into what
he considered purer Italian, and adding some stanzas of his own.
More satisfactory productions, perhaps, are _La Catrina_ and _Il
Migliazzo_, dramatic scenes written in the rustic dialect of
Tuscany. (_Page 35._)
GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO was born at Paris in 1313. His father, a native of
Certaldo, near Florence, brought him to the latter city when quite
a child, intending to educate him for commerce, in which he was
himself engaged. He escaped from this life at the age of twenty by
promising to study canonical law, which, however, proved not much
more to his taste than business, and his principal pursuits at the
University of Naples were Greek (then beginning to be studied in
Italy), Latin, and mathematics. At Naples, too, he made the
acquaintance of Petrarch, and fell in love with the Princess
Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert, for whom he wrote his
poem of the _Teseide_, containing the tale of “Palaemon and
Arcite,” afterwards made use of by Chaucer. In 1350 Boccaccio
returned to Florence, and appears to have gradually changed his
way of life, and become known as a quiet and orderly citizen. In
1361 he retired from the world altogether, and became a priest. He
visited Petrarch at Milan, and again (in 1363) at Venice, and kept
up his friendship with him to the end of his life. In 1373 he was
appointed by the Republic of Florence to give public readings,
with comments, of Dante’s _Divina Commedia_; but these lectures
were often interrupted by ill-health, and Boccaccio died in
December 1375. His earliest work was in verse, but finding that he
could not hope to attain first-rate excellence in poetry he turned
his attention chiefly to prose. The _Decameron_ was one of the
earliest prose works written in Italian, and is esteemed a classic
for its style. The plan, perhaps, suggested that of Chaucer’s
_Canterbury Tales_; the hundred tales of which it consists being
supposed to be told by ten persons on ten different days—hence the
name (from the Greek words for _ten days_). The introduction
relates how the narrators—seven ladies and three knights—having
fled to the country to escape from the plague which desolated
Florence in 1348, enlivened the solitude of their villa by telling
stories. Some of these tales are lively and humorous, some
pathetic and tragic. Many of them, as is well known, are better
left in oblivion; some, indeed, being good comedy spoilt by that
which renders it unquotable; while others, if ever they were found
amusing, must have been so by reason of their coarseness, for they
have no other claim. Others, again, reach a very high level, as
that of “Nathan and Mithridanes”; or that other of the three
rings, on which Lessing founded his drama of _Nathan der Weise_.
The story of “Calandrino and the Heliotrope” is, we believe, one
of the best farcical ones. Buffalmacco and his practical jokes
seem to have been the common property of the comic writers of the
period, and probably all “_burle_” or “japes” which were thought
more than commonly amusing were indiscriminately fathered upon
him. His real life is given by Vasari, from whom we have also
culled one or two of the more celebrated _burle_, which, however,
belonging to popular tradition, had previously been related by
Sacchetti. In the same way, at a later period, every witty saying
and ridiculous adventure current in Florence was attributed to the
dramatist G. B. Fagiuoli (1660–1742). Anecdotes of the latter may
be picked up among the Florentine populace even now; but the
practical joke related of him (we hope falsely) in Pitré’s
collection of folk-tales will not bear repetition. Other Joe
Millers of Italy are the Florentine Piovano Arlotto, Gonnella, and
Barlacchia, various collections of whose jests have from time to
time been published. The translation given (as also in the case of
the selections from Parabosco and Sabadino degli Arienti) is
Thomas Roscoe’s. (_Page 2._)
LUIGI CAPUANA, Sicilian novelist and critic, born at Mineo, in the
province of Catania, May 27, 1839. His first published works were
poems, among others an imitation of Tommy Moore’s _Loves of the
Angels_. In 1864 he went to Florence, where he was for two years
dramatic critic to _La Nazione_. The best of the articles written
for that paper he afterwards published in volume form, under the
title, _Teatro italiano Contemporaneo_. In 1868 he returned to his
native place, and remained there till 1876. During this time he
was chosen Syndic of the district, and in 1875 published an
official report on _The Commune of Mineo_, which is really worthy
of the name of a contribution to literature. In 1877 he removed to
Milan, and resumed his literary labours, writing critical articles
in the _Corriere delle Sera_, and also a number of sketches,
afterwards collected in volume form, under the title, _Profili di
donne_. Since then he has issued various works of fiction, mostly
collections of short stories—or rather character-sketches—for some
of them have scarcely any story to speak of. The specimens in the
present volume are taken from a collection entitled _Fumando_.
Capuana is a great admirer of Émile Zola, and aims at his style
and methods; but his Italian (or perhaps Greek, since he is a
Sicilian!) sense of beauty and proportion preserve him from the
grossest faults of the extreme naturalist school. He needs,
however, to guard against the dangers of Impressionism; at least
we suppose that is the name for the tendency to give detached
“bits” instead of pictures—a tendency which appears to excess in
his short stories. He has written two complete novels, _Giacinta_,
and _Storia Fosca_; and a charming collection of popular fairy
tales, retold for children under the title of _C’era una volta_
(“Once upon a time”). (_Page 107._)
ENRICO CASTELNUOVO, born at Florence, 1839, has passed the greater
part of his life at Venice, where he appears to be still resident.
From 1853 to 1870 he was engaged in business, but in the latter
year became editor of a political paper, _La Stampa_. Since then
he has published several novels and collections of short stories,
some of which have appeared in the _Perseveranza_. Some of the
best known of them are: _La Casa Bianca_, _Vittorina_, _Lauretta_
(1876), _Il Professõr Romualdo_ (1878), _Nuovi Racconti_, _Alla
Finestra_, and _Sorrisi e Lacrime_, from which the sketch in the
present volume is taken. Most of his stories deal with Venetian
life. (_Page 191._)
GIOVANNI BATTISTA CASTI, 1721–1803, was an ecclesiastic, and the
author of many satirical works, of which the best known is _Gli
Animali Parlanti_ (The Speaking Animals), which has, I believe,
been translated as _The Court and Parliament of Beasts_. He also
wrote a sequence of a hundred sonnets, entitled _I Tre Giuli_,
which is surely the most striking instance extant of an idea
ridden to death. The sonnets (of which one here and there is
fairly amusing) are all on the subject of a debt of about
eighteenpence which the author owed a friend. They hardly merit
the extremely laudatory language used about them by the
translator, M. Montague (1841). A much greater contribution to the
gaiety of nations is the “opera buffa” of _Il Re Teodoro_, for
which Paisiello wrote the music, and from which we have given an
extract. Casti wrote other comic operas, one of the best of which
is _Catiline’s Conspiracy_, in which the famous exordium of
Cicero’s oration, _Quousque tandem_, is rendered (and pretty
closely too) into burlesque verse. Cicero is shown in his study,
preparing his oration with infinite pains. When at length it is
delivered, the interruptions of Catiline and others are faithfully
reported.
_Cicero._ Fin a quando, o Catilina
L’esterminio e la rovina
Contro a noi mediterai?
Fino a quando abuserai
Con cotesta impertinenza
Della nostra pazienza?
Va, rubello, evadi, espatria,
Traditore, della patria,
Conciofossecosachè....
_Catil._ Traditor rubello a me?
_Cic._ Conciofossecosachè.
_People._ Si ch è’ ver....
_Others._ No chè non è!
_Cic._ Conciofossecosachè...
This is pretty good fooling, and the compound conjunction (a sort of
double-barrelled _Forasmuch as_, often used in legal phraseology),
to which the orator clings desperately, when so rudely thrown out
in his speech, comes in with the happiest effect. But the effect
of the rapid rush of the double-rhymed octo-syllables would be
quite lost in a translation. They have somewhat the character of
the smart and fluent verse in Mr. W. S. Gilbert’s operas. Besides
verse, Casti wrote prose _Novelle_, to which Cantù (_Letteratura
Italiana_, vol. ii.) gives the worst character. Of the _Animali
Parlanti_, the same author says that it “satirised Governments
with the liberalism of the _café_” (as we might say “of taproom
politicians”) “and in the style of an _improvisatore_.” It is a
somewhat long-winded work in six-line stanzas. (_Page 57._)
BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE, born in the Mantuan territory in 1478, was
attached, first to the court of Lodovico the Moor, at Milan;
afterwards, in succession to those of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis
of Mantua, and Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino. He was a polished
gentleman and brilliant scholar, “a perfect knight, second to none
either in intellect or culture.” Charles V. pronounced him “one of
the best knights in the world.” The court of Urbino, at that time
“a school of courtesy and valour, as well as of learning,” was a
fitting home for such a man. He took part in more than one
campaign, and was sent as ambassador to England, to Milan, and to
Rome. He died at Toledo in 1529, while on a diplomatic mission to
the Emperor Charles V., it is said, of grief at the sack of Rome
by the Spaniards under the Constable de Bourbon. Raphael painted
his portrait in life; Guido Romano designed his tomb after his
death, and Pietro Bembo wrote his epitaph. He wrote many elegant
and scholarly poems, both in Latin and Italian; but his fame as an
author rests entirely on the book entitled _Il Cortigiano_ (The
Courtier). It consists of a series of dialogues in which the
qualities necessary to the character of a perfect courtier are
discussed. It seems to have been written at Mantua, during the
short period of his happy wedded life (his wife, Ippolita Torelli,
married in 1516, died three years later). The style is courtly and
polished, though with a certain simplicity in its stateliness. The
interlocutors sometimes relieve their grave philosophy by humorous
anecdotes, of which a few specimens are given in the text. (_Page
27._)
FRANCESCO CERLONE lived during the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and wrote an immense number of plays of the _Commedia
dell’ Arte_ type. His works were published, in a collected form,
at Bologna in 1787, and again (in twenty-two volumes) at Naples,
in 1825–29. Little seems to be known about him. Symonds calls him
“a plebeian poet of Naples.” The distinguished Italian critic,
Michele Scherillo, “discovered” him not many years ago. (_Page
49._)
C. COLLODI is the pseudonym of a brilliant Tuscan writer, Carlo
Lorenzini, a frequent contributor to _Fanfulla_. He was for some
time theatrical censor to the Prefecture of Florence. He has also
written children’s books, and one or more volumes of short
stories. (_Page 90._)
NAPOLEONE CORAZZINI, born in Tuscany about 1840, had a natural bent
towards humorous writing, but was prevented by circumstances from
following it out, though a farce (or rather parody) of his, called
_The Duel_, is sometimes acted. He spent some time in Herzegovina
as a newspaper correspondent, but was forced, on his return, to
forsake literature for commerce. (_Page 103._)