The humour of Italy

by Unknown

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].)

Paolo Ferrari, writer of comedies, was born at Modena in 1822. His father was an official in the service of the Duke, and young Ferrari’s liberal sentiments were a great disadvantage to him at the outset of his career. It is even said (with what truth I do not know) that they induced the Duke to interfere with the granting of his University degree, which was delayed for a long time. But Ferrari’s legal studies had been pursued with so little ardour as to suggest another reason for the action of the University authorities. His first comedy was written in 1847, and was called Bartolommeo the Shoemaker, a title afterwards changed to Uncle Venanzio’s Codicil. After contending with many difficulties, he wrote his Goldoni in 1852, but had to wait two years before it was produced, when it was a signal success. Since then he has given to the world a long series of works, chiefly comedies, and the Italians consider him their first comic dramatist. Some of his greatest successes are his dramas, drawn from Italian history, in which the characters—unlike those in the ordinary historical drama—are rather literary than political. Such are Dante a Verona, Parini e la Satira, and the above-mentioned Goldoni e le sue Sedici Commedie. He writes either in prose or in a kind of rhymed alexandrines called Versi Martelliani. Of his other dramas the greatest are Il Duello, Il Suicidio, Gli amici rivali, Cause ed effetti, Il Ridicolo, Gli Uomini Serii. Nearly all of his plays which are still on the stage have obtained the Government prize offered in Italy for dramatic excellence. (Page [237].)

Piero Francesco Leopoldo Coccoluto Ferrigni, better known under the name of “Yorick,” is a Tuscan writer; born at Leghorn in 1836, though of Neapolitan descent. He began his literary career in 1854 by contributing “correspondence” to some of the Florentine papers. In 1856 he first adopted the pseudonym which has become so famous—from Hamlet, not from Sterne. Indeed, when he became acquainted with the latter’s works, he felt as if he had been guilty of presumption, and thenceforth signed his articles, Yorick, son of Yorick. He took a brilliant law degree at Siena in 1857, and has made his mark as an advocate, though his reputation is principally journalistic and literary. Florentine newsboys may be heard using his name to enhance the attractions of their wares. “C’è l’articolo di Yorick,” they will say, or more briefly, “C’è Yorick!” (There’s Yorick in it). Like many living Italian writers, he bore his part in the War of Liberation. He volunteered in 1859, when, for some time, he acted as Garibaldi’s private secretary, and in 1860 he was wounded at Milazzo. He is a writer of great ease and fluency—and not in his own language only—sending contributions in French to the Indépendance Italienne, and in German to the Neue Freie Presse. He appears to be one of the few Italians who have found literature profitable. Many of his newspaper articles have been collected in volume form. The specimens here quoted are taken from “Cronache dei Bagni di Mare” (part of which was reproduced in English by the Morning Post), and “Su e giù per Firenze.” (Page [232].)

Antonio Ghislanzoni, son of a doctor at Lecco, on the Lake of Como, was born in 1824. His father first wished him to become a priest, and then sent him to study medicine at Pavia; but the youth, finding that he possessed a splendid baritone, studied singing instead, and in 1846 obtained an engagement at the Lodi Theatre. In 1848 he took to journalism, and ran two papers at Milan; the extreme political opinions advocated in which soon landed him in prison. After the return of the Austrians he was exiled, and, after another imprisonment in Corsica, continued his musical career there and in Paris, till he lost his voice (in 1854) in consequence of an attack of bronchitis, and returned to literature and Italy. He edited various papers, wrote a variety of articles, mostly of a comic character, and composed the libretti to several operas, of which the best known is Verdi’s Aida. For some time past he has resided in a little house of his own at Lecco. He edited, and in great part wrote, the Rivista Minima, which afterwards passed into the hands of his friend, Salvatore Farina. (Page [94].)

Giuseppe Giusti, born at Monsummano, in Val di Nievole (Tuscany), in 1809. He received his early education, between the ages of seven and twelve, from a priest; its results being, to use his own words, “sundry canings, not a shadow of Latin, a few glimmerings of history, discouragement, irritation, weariness, and an inward conviction that I was good for nothing.” He then attended a school in Florence, where he came under the care of more intelligent and sympathetic masters, and began to awaken to the love of knowledge. He afterwards went to the University of Pisa, but (like our own Wordsworth and others) made no special progress in the studies proper to the place. In later life he lamented the idleness and desultory habits of these years; but it is probable that, in following the bent of his intellect towards popular and general literature, and picking up songs and stories in the racy idiom of the Tuscan hills, he was laying the best possible foundation for his future career as a poet. His health was never good, and he died, comparatively young, in 1850, thus disappointing the brilliant expectations his friends had formed. What he did accomplish, however, is sufficient to secure him a place in the first rank of modern Italian literature. Besides the Poems (of which several collected editions have been published) his principal works are a collection of Tuscan proverbs (with introduction and notes) and a Discourse on the Life and Works of Giuseppe Parini, the satirist. Since his death there have been published a volume of his letters, and one of unpublished pieces in prose and verse, the principal of which is a commentary on Dante’s Divina Commedia. His poems are peculiarly difficult to translate, on account of their exceedingly idiomatic character, as well as, in many cases, of their personal and political bearing. They have a directness, vigour, and pungency rare in the literature of Italy during the first half of this century. His political satire rises sometimes into noble indignation, as in the fine poem beginning, A noi, larve d’Italia, which has been translated into English, if we mistake not, at least twice. His non-political satire is always kindly and good-humoured, and the same spirit, along with an irrepressible cheerfulness and boyish love of fun, comes out in his letters—especially those to his intimate friend, Manzoni. (Page [74].)

Count Gasparo Gozzi, elder brother of Carlo Gozzi, the dramatist, was a Venetian, and lived from 1713 to 1786. The Gozzi family might be described as that of “a penniless laird wi’ a lang pedigree,” and the Memoirs of Count Carlo contain a vivid account of the straits and shifts to which they were put. Gasparo hoped to retrieve the family circumstances by his marriage with a learned lady given to poetry, Luisa Bergalli or Bargagli (who rejoiced in the academic title of Irminda Partenide); but her extravagance and shiftlessness only made matters worse, and he was forced to do anonymous hack-work—translations from the French, and the like—for a living; or, as he calls it, to wear himself out “in unknown writings with the daily sweat of one’s brow, and drag works—either insignificant or vile—out of the Gallic idiom into the Italian language.” Notwithstanding this, he contrived to do a tolerable amount of work which has lasted. His style is simple, clear, and pure, though without much vigour; and, as Cantù says, he has the gift of “coupling fancy with observation, and wit with feeling.” He issued for some time a paper called L’Osservatore on the plan of Addison’s Spectator. He wrote a great many “Bernesque” poems—sonnets a coda, and satirical pieces in blank verse. His letters also are excellent. (Page [53].)

Giacomo Leopardi, born at Recanati, in the Duchy of Urbino, in 1798, suffered all his life from ill-health and real or fancied uncongenial surroundings. He was heavily handicapped in the race of life, being hunchbacked, as well as constitutionally diseased; and thus the pessimistic doctrines which he imbibed from Pietro Giordani fell on a fertile soil. His father was rich and possessed a splendid library, and though he refused to allow Giacomo to go away to school, the boy threw himself into his studies at home with so much ardour that at fifteen he was a brilliant classical scholar, and wrote an ode in Greek which competent critics believed to be ancient. Yet he long remained unknown, thwarted by his father’s harshness in all his efforts to obtain a wider culture and more literary opportunities. At last he was able to escape from his hated home to Rome, where he enjoyed the society of literary men; but could not succeed, as he had hoped, in obtaining some professorship. He then, embittered and disgusted with the world, retired to Milan, where he lived in the house of a publisher and prepared his poems for the press. Here too he was unable to escape from the misery which pursued him, and his health became worse and worse. At last, in the autumn of 1831, he took his last journey—to Naples, where Antonio Ranieri, his untiring friend, received him into his house. There, worn out by dropsy and consumption, he died on July 14th, 1837. Of his philosophical works, and his splendid, gloomy verse, it is not the place to speak. I have included him in this collection on account of some of his dialogues, which are masterpieces of a subtle irony which has the air of simplicity and bites to the bone. It is keener and more delicate than Swift’s, but otherwise very difficult to describe. One cannot easily imagine that Leopardi ever laughed; but no one could read the “First Hour and the Sun,” or the “Wager of Prometheus,” and think him wanting in humour. (Page [63].)

Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine, lived from 1469 to 1527. His place in this volume is due to his comedy of La Mandragola, of which a scene is given; but this, of course, is not the work by which he is best known in history. Macaulay’s well-known essay gives a very good summary of his political and literary labours. He first took part in public affairs in 1494; in 1498 he was elected Secretary to the Florentine Republic, an office which he resigned in 1512, after the return of the Medici. Some time afterwards, being suspected of a conspiracy against the latter, he was imprisoned and put to the torture, nearly dying under it. He was included in the amnesty proclaimed by Giovanni di Medici, when raised to the Papacy under the title of Leo X. Though restored to liberty, he could take no part in politics, and finding himself unable to serve Florence, and condemned to a hateful inaction, he retired to his country-house, where he wrote the greater part of his works. The last of these was the History of Florence, written at the request of Pope Clement VII., and completed in 1525. In 1519 Leo X. consulted him about reforming the government of Florence, but his advice was not followed. In 1526, when the Constable Bourbon began to threaten Tuscany and Rome, Clement VII. again consulted Machiavelli, and entrusted him with the fortification of Florence, and with the precautions to be taken for the safety of Rome; but these precautions came too late. The Pope was taken prisoner, and the Medici once more driven from Florence; and Machiavelli being now looked upon as a partisan of that family, fell into neglect, and may be said to have died of grief and disappointment. His chief works besides the History, are the Prince, the Art of War, and the Discourses on the First Decade of Livy. Besides this, he wrote two or three comedies and a witty novella (somewhat extravagant, though, in its satire), entitled Belphegor. It relates how one of the devils, taking the form of a man, came to earth in order to try the experiment of matrimony; but was so very wretched in his married life, that, after a short trial, he preferred returning to the region whence he came. It is said that Machiavelli’s experiences in his own home gave point to his descriptions of Madonna Onesta’s folly and extravagance. The Mandragola, in spite of Macaulay’s high praise, offers scarcely anything adapted for quotation. The play is admirably constructed, but the story is one which would render it “impossible” for a modern audience. We have been forced to confine ourselves to a soliloquy of Fra Timoteo’s and one of the lyrical interludes between the acts, which has the merit of brevity, if no other. (Page [26].)

Alessandro Manzoni, born at Milan 1784, died 1873. One of the leaders of the Romantic Movement in Italy, and the founder (in that country) of the historical novel in the style of Scott. The Promessi Sposi, published in 1827 (from which we have quoted a scene or two), has probably been translated into every European language. Less widely known are his tragedies, Adelchi and Il Conte di Carmagnola, and his Odes (1815), the most famous of which is that on the death of Napoleon—Il Cinque Maggio. He was followed in the department of historical fiction by his son-in-law, D’Azeglio, and by Grossi, Guerrazzi, Rosini, Ademollo, and others. Though at first sight I Promessi Sposi might seem anything but a humorous work, there are scenes equal in this respect to some of the best in Scott’s novels. That of the attempted irregular marriage (which we have chosen for quotation) is especially good, and the character of Don Abbondio is comically conceived throughout. Perhaps the book has been somewhat neglected of late years—it has certainly, like many other masterpieces, suffered undeservedly through being used as a school-book. (Page [82].)

Filippo Pananti was born at Ronta, in the district of Mugello (Tuscany), about 1776, and studied law at Pisa, but afterwards gave himself up entirely to literature. He went abroad in 1799, and after visiting France, Spain, and Holland, obtained a position as libretto-writer to the Italian Opera in London. When returning to Italy by sea he was taken prisoner by Algerine pirates, but liberated through the intervention of the English consul. “He then came to Florence, and published his works—viz., Il Poeta di Teatro, Prose e Versi, Viaggio in Algeria, in which it may be said that he is often negligent rather than simple, and that he makes use unnecessarily of foreign expressions, or of such as are not yet accepted as current in the conversation of the best educated persons; yet he pleases, nevertheless, and deserves to do so, by his vivid and racy way of expressing himself, and his ease and fluency. He died in 1837.”—(Ambrosoli.) Il Poeta di Teatro is a lively and amusing poem descriptive of the miseries endured by a poet of small means. It is thoroughly good-humoured throughout, and has no “Grub Street bitterness” about it. We have extracted one or two passages. (Page [70].)

Girolamo Parabosco, born at Piacenza about the beginning of the sixteenth century, died at Venice, 1557. He wrote “Rime” and prose comedies, and was, moreover, esteemed one of the best musicians of his time. He was for some time organist and choirmaster at St. Mark’s, Venice. But he is best known by I Diporti, a collection of stories after the model of Boccaccio’s Decameron, supposed to be told by a fowling-party weatherbound on an island in the Venetian lagoons. (Page [14].)

Mario Pratesi, a Tuscan writer, was born at Santafiora, in the district of Monte Amiata, in 1842. At eighteen he became a clerk in a Government office, and remained at this distasteful employment till 1864, when he returned to his studies, and in 1872 obtained an appointment as lecturer on Italian literature at the Pavia Technical Institute, whence he passed to a similar post at Viterbo, and thence to Terni. Most of his stories, since collected in volume form, first appeared in the Nuova Antologia, and he has contributed to the Diritto, the Rassegna Settimanale, and the Nazione (Florence). He has also written poems. He is at his best when describing the scenery of his native mountains. Monte Amiata, it may be remembered, was the scene of the strange religious revival led by the insane peasant-preacher, David Lazzaretti, who was shot down by the gendarmes in August 1878. It is a wild, lonely region, lying between the river Ombrone and the Roman border—a land of craggy peaks and dark glens, inhabited by simple, serious-minded people with a touch of gloomy mysticism in their character, perhaps due to Etruscan ancestry. The immediate neighbourhood of the district where the tragedy took place is admirably described in “Sovana.” Pratesi is intensely sympathetic in his manner of depicting life. He does not aim at an “objectivity” which seems to glory in appearing cold and heartless; but he does not dwell unnecessarily on his pathetic scenes. He relates them with grim brevity, and leaves them to produce their own effect. He has an eye for the ludicrous, but it does not predominate in his view of life; he never laughs, but he often smiles quietly, and sometimes grimly. Dottor Febo is a good example of his subtle irony, and has been given entire, as no detached passage would show to advantage. He is fully alive to the great evils of priestcraft and ignorance from which Italy has suffered in the past, but he is no radical of the type which is all negation and no affirmation. His attitude towards the clergy is impartial enough—he has drawn them of all sorts, good and bad. In the story before us there are three, and those who have resided any length of time in Italy must have met them all: the spiteful, hypocritical preaching friar, the jovial, easy-going Arciprete (who would have overlooked the sin of a bit of meat on Ash Wednesday if that meddling rascal of a Franciscan had not put his finger in the pie), and the chaplain of the Confraternità, in his threadbare coat,—own brother to Chaucer’s Parson. Though in the stories here translated I have usually left all proper names in their original form, I have in this instance departed from the rule, in order to bring out the quaint incongruity of the hero’s name with his pitifully sordid life and surroundings, Febo not being perhaps readily recognisable at first sight as Phœbus. Names as classical as this are by no means uncommon in the Roman and Tuscan country districts. Romolo and its feminine Romola are frequently met with, as also Belisario, Ersilia, Flaminia, etc. Naples and the Adriatic coast show a greater preference for Church saints; and a peculiarity of the latter district is the frequent occurrence of Old Testament names, which are not usual in other parts. Perhaps this is due to Byzantine influence, and the more comprehensive calendar of the Eastern Church; thus we find Samuele, Zacchiele, Elia, etc. The subject of Christian names in rural Italy is an interesting one, and would well repay study, especially in villages where reading is almost unknown, and the names in use must be to a large extent traditional, and probably handed down from remote antiquity. (Page [206].)

“Antonio Pucci, the son of a bell-founder, was a poet, although he kept a shop; and had not a little of that easy, sparkling vein which, a century later, was so abundant in Berni, as to make the latter seem like the creator of a new style of poetry. He died in Florence, his native city, some time after 1375.” This is all I can find with regard to Pucci in Ambrosoli’s Manual of Italian Literature. The sonnet in which he describes the persecutions to which a poet is subject at the hands of his friends is a not unfavourable specimen of what the Italians call poesia bernesca. This kind of sonnet is called “sonetto a coda,” or “with a tail,” and is much used in humorous and satirical writing, as being a kind in which more licence is allowable metrically, when the idea cannot be brought within the limits of the strict sonnet form. The “tail” may be lengthened at pleasure, but always in sets of three lines—one short and two long—and sometimes attains to a greater length than the original sonnet. (Page [1].)

Francesco Redi, born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, in 1626, was a jovial physician, no less famed for his wit than for his learning and medical skill. He studied philosophy and medicine at the University of Pisa, and was then invited to Rome by the princes of the House of Colonna, in whose palace he lectured on rhetoric. He was afterwards court physician to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. During the last years of his life he was afflicted with epilepsy, and retired to Pisa, as being a healthier place than Florence. Here he died suddenly on March 1st, 1698. His published works consist of poems, scientific treatises, and a large collection of letters which show his wide learning, his shrewd sense, and the merry, genial spirit which could see a funny side to his own troubles. “To judge from the praises of his countrymen,” says Leigh Hunt, “he partook of the wit and learning of Arbuthnot, the science of Harvey, and the poetry and generosity of Garth.” His humour is rather broad than subtle—but always sweet and kindly; his laughter is the mellow mirth of one who enjoys life himself and wishes others to enjoy it also. He was passionately fond of natural history, and an acute and patient observer; his papers on vipers, on the generation of insects, and on some other subjects, were important contributions to the science of his time. His replies (usually at great length) to the patients who consulted him by letter have been preserved, and are printed among his works. In medicine, he had a wholesome faith in the healing efficacy of nature, and anticipated the modern revolt against the excessive use of drugs, or, as he himself puts it, “that hotch-potch of physic which physicians, out of sheer perversity, are accustomed to prescribe to others, but would never dream of swallowing themselves.” His poems are not numerous, nor of the most elevated kind of poetry; but the best known, the dithyrambus of “Bacco in Toscana,” with its fiery swing and rush, leap, and lilt of melody, is perhaps the most perfect thing of its kind ever done. It awakened the enthusiasm of Leigh Hunt, from whose translation we have extracted a passage, and whose critically appreciative introduction is quoted below. “Bacco in Toscana” is not a poem to be looked on with favour by total abstainers; but wine of Montepulciano is not the most pernicious form of alcohol known to the world (the wine on which the German cavalier in the ballad drank himself to death was that of Montefiascone, on the other side of the Roman border), and, moreover, the poem is no proof that the poet really was in the habit of taking more than was good for him. “The ‘Bacco in Toscana,’” says Leigh Hunt, “was the first poem of its kind, and when a trifle is original even a trifle becomes worth something.... That the nature of the subject is partly a cause for its popularity, and that, for the same reason, it is impossible to convey a proper Italian sense of it to an Englishman is equally certain. But I hope it is not impossible to impart something of its spirit and vivacity. At all events, there is a novelty in it; the wine has a tune in the pouring out; and it is hard if some of the verses do not haunt a good-humoured reader, like a new air brought from the South.... It is observable that among the friends of our author were Carlo Dati, Francini, and Antonio Malatesti, three of Milton’s acquaintances when he was in Italy. Redi was only twelve years of age when Milton visited his country; but he may have seen him, and surely heard of him. It is pleasant to trace any kind of link between eminent men. There is reason to believe that our author was well known in England. Magalotti, who travelled there with Cosmo, and who afterwards translated Phillips’s Cyder, was one of his particular friends; and I cannot help thinking, from the irregularity of numbers in Dryden’s nobler dithyrambic, as well as from another poem of his (‘Dialogue of a Scholar and his Mistress’), that the ‘Bacco in Toscana’ had been seen by that great writer. Nothing is more likely; for, besides the connection between Cosmo and Charles II., James II. made a special request by his ambassador, Sir William Trumball, to have the poem sent him. When Spence was in Italy, many years afterwards, the name of Redi was still in great repute, both for his humorous poetry and his serious, though the wits had begun to find out that his real talent lay only in the former. Crudeli, a poet of that time, still in repute, told Spence that ‘Redi’s “Bacco in Toscana” was as lively and excellent as his sonnets were low and tasteless.’ And, after all, what is this ‘Bacco in Toscana’? It is an original, an effusion of animal spirits, a piece of Bacchanalian music. This is all; but this will not be regarded as nothing by those who know the value of originality, and who are thankful for any addition to our pleasures.... I wish that, by any process not interfering with the spirit of my original, I could make up to the English reader for the absence of that particular interest in a poem of this kind which arises from its being national. But this is impossible; and if he has neither a great understanding, nor a good-nature that supplies the want of it; if he is deficient in animal spirits, or does not value a supply of them; and, above all, if he has no ear for a dancing measure, and no laughing welcome for a sudden turn or two at the end of a passage—our author’s triumph over his cups will fall on his ear like ‘a jest unprofitable.’ I confess I have both enough melancholy and merriment in me to be at no time proof against a passage like—

‘Non fia già che il Cioccolatte

V’adoprassi, ovvero il Tè’—etc.

A great deal of the effect of poems of this kind consists in their hovering between jest and earnest.... The ‘Bacco in Toscana’ partakes more or less of the mock-heroic throughout, except in the very gravest lines of the author’s personal panegyrics. It is to the Ode and the Dithyrambic what the ‘Rape of the Lock’ is to the Epic, with all the inferiority which such a distinction implies.... The great fault of the poem is undoubtedly what his friend Ménage objected to in it—namely, that Bacchus has all the talk to himself, and Ariadne becomes a puppet by his side. Redi, partly in answer to this objection, and partly, perhaps, out of a certain medical conscience (for it must not be forgotten that his vinosity is purely poetical, and that he was always insisting to his patients on the necessity of temperance and dilutions), projected a sort of counter-dithyrambic in praise of water, in which all the talk was to be confined to Ariadne.... He wrote but a paragraph of this hydrambic. The inspiration was not the same. As to his drinking so little wine and yet writing so well upon it, it is a triumph for Bacchus instead of a dishonour. It only shows how little wine will suffice to set a genial brain in motion. A poet has wine in his blood. The laurel and ivy were common, of old, both to Bacchus and Apollo; at least Apollo shared the ivy always, and Bacchus wore laurel when he was young and innocent,

‘What time he played about the nestling woods,

Heaping his head with ivy and with bay.’”

(Page [45].)

Giovanni Sabadino degli Arienti, a Bolognese, was the author of one of those collections of short stories so numerous in Italian literature, which often furnished subjects to our Elizabethan playwrights. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but the former must have been before 1450, and the latter not earlier than 1506. Besides the Porrettane (so called because the stories are supposed to be told by a holiday party at the baths of Porretta), he wrote poems, treatises, and biographies. (Page [19].)

Franco Sacchetti was a Florentine, about contemporary with Chaucer, being born in 1335. He was brought up to a commercial life, but afterwards devoted himself to literature, and took a considerable part in politics, being sent on various embassies by the Florentine Republic. On one of them he was plundered at sea by the Pisan war-ships; and, at a later date, the property he possessed near Florence was laid waste in the war with Gian Galeazzo Visconti. The date of his death is uncertain, but it probably took place during the first few years of the fifteenth century. He wrote sonnets, canzoni, madrigals, and other poems; but his best known works are his Novelle or short stories. They were originally 300 in number, but we only possess 258, the remainder having been lost. They are not fitted into any framework, like that of Boccaccio’s Decameron. The best of them are of a humorous character; and the style is more simple and colloquial than Boccaccio’s. The story given as a specimen probably exists (under one form or another) in the folk-tales of every European nation. We possess it in the ballad of “King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.” (Page [10].)

Alessandro Tassoni was born at Modena in 1565, and died there in 1635, after many intermediate changes of abode. He belonged to a noble family, but was early left an orphan, and his very moderate patrimony was further diminished by law-suits, and by the dishonesty of his guardians. The greater part of his life was spent at court; he began his career by entering the service of Cardinal Ascanio Colonna at Rome, and ended it at the Ducal Court of Modena. He was, like so many Italians of that period, a skilled politician as well as a finished scholar, and was entrusted with various diplomatic missions. His principal works belong to the departments of reflective philosophy and literary criticism, and he was engaged in an acrimonious controversy wherein the chief bones of contention were the poetry of Petrarch and the philosophy of Aristotle, both which idols of the age he attacked unsparingly; but he is best known to posterity by his heroico-comic poem of “La Secchia Rapita” (The Stolen Bucket), said to have been written in 1611. It is based on the tradition that, during a war between Modena and Bologna, the Modenese forces (in 1325) carried off a wooden bucket from a public well in the hostile city. The trophy was hung up in the Cathedral at Modena, and remained there as a witness to the truth of the story—which, as a matter of history, is somewhat doubtful, though none the worse on that account, as the groundwork to Tassoni’s poem. Many contemporaries of the author’s are introduced under fictitious names; and, no doubt, the personal element (which is not the exclusive property of the New Journalism) contributed largely to the success of the work on its first appearance. But apart from this, it is genuine burlesque, and good of its kind, the absurdity being heightened by the introduction of the deities of Olympus in comically modern guise, to represent (and parody) the “machinery” which was considered an indispensable ingredient in a serious epic poem—the “machinery” which, to a certain extent, spoils the Jerusalem and the Lusiad. The passage describing the assembly of the gods in order to deliberate on the fortunes of Modena and Bologna, has been chosen for quotation. The translation is by James Atkinson, and was published in two volumes (London, 1825). After describing “the rape of the bucket” by the Modenese, the poem goes on to narrate how the Bolognese tried to recover it, and challenged the Modenese to a war of extermination. The latter, though seeing their danger, made no efforts to put their city in a state of defence by repairing the ruined fortifications; but contented themselves with appealing to the Emperor for help, and making alliances with Parma and Cremona. Fame having carried the report of what had occurred to Olympus, the Homeric gods assembled in council (as already mentioned), with the result that Minerva and Apollo declared for Bologna, as being a city given to arts and learning. Bacchus and Venus took the part of the merry and pleasure-loving town of Modena—Mars taking the same side for the love of Venus. These incite the various terrestrial potentates to take sides in the feud—in which, at length, the Pope himself interferes. In conclusion, the bucket is left in possession of the Modenese, while the citizens of Bologna keep Enzio, King of Sardinia—son of the German Emperor—who, in fact, ended his days in captivity there. The poem was defined by Tassoni himself as “a monstrous caprice,” intended to make game of modern poets; and it is impossible to give a concise summary of it, more especially as he wove into it all the burlesque adventures which occurred to him, whether real or fictitious. Tassoni was, according to an Italian writer, “of a lively and grotesque fancy, of a cheerful disposition, and fond of jesting, insomuch that he could not refrain from jokes even in his will.” Moreover, he was “averse from the prejudices of literary men, and a lover of novelty”—for which reason he advanced the monstrous proposition that Petrarch’s Rime were not the sole standard of poetry for all ages and all countries. (Page [39].)

Achille Torelli, dramatic author, born at Naples, 1844, is said to be of Albanian descent. His first success was the comedy, After Death, written at the age of seventeen, and acted at Naples and then at Turin. This was succeeded by several comedies, most of which were successful. La Verità, from which the scene given in this volume is extracted, was acted at Naples, Milan, and Turin in 1865. Torelli volunteered for the Italian army in the campaign of 1866, and was laid up for several months in consequence of a fall from his horse at Custozza. Since then he has produced a long list of plays, both tragedies and comedies, of which perhaps the best is Triste Realtà (1871), which won the applause of the veteran Manzoni. Angelo de Gubernatis (in the Dizionario Biografico degli Scrittori Contemporanei, whence the main facts of this notice are gathered) considers I Mariti Torelli’s masterpiece. The play is a good one, but has about as much right to be called a comedy as George Eliot’s Janet’s Repentance. He leads a very retired life, seeing only a few friends, and spends most of his time in study and writing. (Page [262].)

Giorgio Vasari, born at Arezzo, 1512. Studied drawing under Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, and others. Between 1527 and 1529, driven by necessity, and having several relations in need of help, he worked as a goldsmith at Florence, but afterwards returned to painting. Like Ruskin in our own day, however, he was rather a writer on art than an artist. He was the author of several works on painting and architecture, of an autobiography, and, above all, of the celebrated Lives of Famous Painters. The anecdotes quoted in this volume were traditionally current in Vasari’s time, and had already been recorded by Franco Sacchetti. The translation quoted is from Stories of the Italian Artists, by the author of Belt and Spur (Seeley & Co., 1884). (Page 21.)

Giovanni Verga, born at Catania, Sicily, in 1840. He wrote Storia d’una Capinera, Eva, Nedda, Eros, Tigre Reale, Primavera. He has also written two masterly collections of stories and sketches from Sicilian life, entitled, Vita dei Campi, and Novelle Rusticane, and a continued story, I Malavoglia, which has recently been translated under the title, The House of the Medlar. A Neapolitan journal describes him as “thin and pale ... with iron-grey hair and moustache. His lips are thin, chin somewhat too long, the mouth retreating, the nose straight, the forehead spacious. He is not handsome, but has a noble face, a little like that of Dante. His appearance is that of a man of cold temperament. Some of his speeches—some pages in his books—are those of a sceptic. As to the coldness, I do not know whether it would be correct to apply the old image of Etna—the fire under the snow, But as to the scepticism, I would take my oath that—contrary to generally received opinion—it is only apparent. Verga is not an effusive man—certainly not. But he feels, and he respects—rather, he venerates feeling even under its most formal manifestations. I met him at a time when he had recently lost, first, a sister, and then his mother. His grief was severe and restrained, but deeply felt and lasting. He is not by any means a sentimental man. Sentimentalism in others always contracts his lips in that fleeting, ironical smile which has given him the name of a sceptic.... He is a slow worker. He observes at his leisure, reflects for a long time, and then retires into the quiet of his own home to work; but he works not with the fire of inspiration, but with the sure hand of an artist who has his picture clearly traced in his mind.” Verga’s most successfully-drawn characters are taken from the peasantry. Jeli, the horseherd; Rosso Malpelo, the red-haired waif who had never had any one to care for him save the father who was buried in the sand-pits; poor Lucia in Pane Nero, slowly driven to throw herself away by sheer dread of starvation; La Santa, bewitched by the love of Gramigna the brigand,—these, and many more, are living, breathing figures. But Verga, according to the critic above quoted, “is ambitious of attaining a perfect knowledge of ‘high life,’ and describing it truthfully. But in this he is not always successful. If he draws from life, he certainly does not choose the best models.” Certainly “Il Come, il Quando, e il Perchè,” is not a happy effort, and “Jeli il Pastore” is worth a dozen of it. (Page [137].)

THE WALTER SCOTT PRESS, NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

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[1]. A tolerable specimen of the humour of the “Morgante” is to be found in Mr. J. A. Symonds’ “Renaissance in Italy” (vol. iv., Italian Literature, p. 543). The passage translated contains the giant Morgante’s confession of faith. He is a true believer (as he details at great length) in the creed of “fat capons boiled or maybe roasted.”

[2]. Roba di Roma, i. pp. 202, 203, 269–279.

[3]. From Roba di Roma, ii. 221. (See also the Note to the story of “The Hermit and the Thieves” on p. 251 of the same.) “These are certainly views of heaven, angels, and good hermits, which are rather extraordinary; but Rosa” (the contadina who related the story), “on being asked if the story she told was founded on fact, replied, ‘Chi lo sa?—who knows? I did not see it, but everybody says so. Perchè no?’”

[4]. In the original, these lines are a barbarous mixture of Spanish and Italian.

[5]. Jupiter.

[6]. See note at end of volume.

[7]. An Italian expression for the Golden Age.

[8]. Didimo Chièrico is a fictitious character, upon whom Foscolo has fathered most of his opinions and experiences, in a curious piece of writing purporting to be a sketch of Didimo and an account of his works. It contains numerous references to Sterne, by whom Foscolo was greatly influenced.

[9]. “Il cavallo di San Francesco” is a proverbial expression for going on foot—like “Shanks’ mare” in Ireland.

[10]. A favourite comic character at Florence. See Notes at end.

[11]. Athens.

[12]. I.e., the pigs, which, for some reason or other, Italians do not think fit to mention in polite society.

[13]. This is what usually happens when there is an outbreak of cholera in Southern Italy.

[14]. I.e., that he had really died of malarial fever.

[15]. See Note 4 at end.

[16]. The confusion is between Flavio Gioja, inventor of the mariner’s compass (c. 1300), and Melchiorre Gioja (1767–1829), author of a well-known manual of good breeding.

[17]. Since 1870, of course, Italian priests have, as a rule, been hostile to the Government.

[18]. See Note 5 at end.

[19]. See Introduction.

[20]. Dumplings, sometimes made of meat.

[21]. A kind of bun, filled with pine kernels inside.

[22]. Chestnuts boiled in the shell.

[23]. A sour kind of pear or plum.

[24]. A kind of flat cake, very popular in rural Tuscany.

[25]. See Note 6 at end.

[26]. “Peaches and apples!” See remarks on oaths, adjurations, etc., in Introduction.

[27]. See Note 7 at end.

[28]. A rustic proverb.

[29]. Vol. i., pp. 254 et seq.

[30]. When the French army advanced against Rome, they found the road from Civita Vecchia strewn with large placards, on which this clause of their constitution was printed; so that they were literally obliged to trample its provisions under foot, in making as unjustifiable an attack upon the liberties of a people as was ever recorded in history.

[31]. Used in the same sense as by our sixteenth and seventeenth century writers. The old medical terminology still survives to a great extent in Italy; as does, or did till recently, the ancient practice of medicine which consisted chiefly in blood-letting.

[32]. The meaning is, “The Cardinal is going away with the Cask (Barile), but he will come back with the flask,”—the word fiasco having this sense as well as that in which it is sometimes employed by us, of “failure,” or “disaster.” Needless to add, the above was written before the establishment of the Regno in 1870.

[33]. I.e., the obelisk in the Piazza di S. Pietro.

[34]. The skin of the fig is supposed to be injurious, that of the peach wholesome.

[35]. The original is a ludicrous mixture of Latin and Italian.

[36]. The prison and court of justice.

[37]. A town in the south of Sicily.

[38]. This (pronounced in English spelling chew) is the local rendering of the owl’s tu-whoo, and also the Sicilian and Calabrian dialectical form of più, which means more. The same joke is current, in a different form, in another part of Sicily, where an old church was haunted by owls, and a countryman, taking their lamentable cries for those of souls in purgatory, asked how many masses were required to set them free, and got the answer “More” to every number he suggested.

[39]. The famous brigand chief.

[40]. Pp. [232], [233].

[41]. Macmillan & Co., 1882.

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This volume will treat of the form and structure of volcanic mountains, the materials of which they are composed; of volcanic islands; of tertiary volcanic rocks of the British Isles, Europe, and America; recently extinct or dormant volcanic areas; Etna, Vesuvius; causes of volcanic action and connection with earthquakes, etc. Besides maps and plans, the volume will contain a large number of illustrations showing structure of volcanic mountains, etc., etc.

XX. PUBLIC HEALTH. By Dr. J. F. J. Sykes. With numerous Illustrations.

(In Preparation.)

The increased knowledge of the internal and external influences upon health obtained within recent years, and the practical applications of which it is capable in the prevention of disease, gives rise to many interesting problems, some of which are being solved, some are only partially touched, and others remain unelucidated. In this volume an attempt will be made to summarise and bring to a focus the essential points in evolution, environment, parasitism, prophylaxis, and sanitation bearing upon the preservation of the public health.

---

The following Writers are preparing Volumes for this Series:—

Prof. E. D. Cope, Prof. G. F. Fitzgerald, Prof. J. Geikie, Prof. A. C. Haddon, Prof. C. H. Herford, Prof. J. Jastrow (Wisconsin), Dr. J. B. Longstaff, Prof. James Mavor, Prof. Aug. Weismann, etc.

IBSEN’S FAMOUS PROSE DRAMAS.

Edited by WILLIAM ARCHER.

Complete in Five Vols. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3/6 each.

Set of Five Vols., in Case, 17/6; in Half Morocco, in Case, 32/6.

“We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are; and at first it is more than we can endure.... All Ibsen’s characters speak and act as if they were hypnotised, and under their creator’s imperious demand to reveal themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before. It is too terrible.... Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery, his remorseless electric-light, until we, too, have grown strong and learned to face the naked—if necessary, the flayed and bleeding—reality.”—Speaker (London).

Vol. I. “A DOLL’S HOUSE,” “THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH,” and “THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY.” With Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by William Archer.

Vol. II. “GHOSTS,” “AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,” and “THE WILD DUCK.” With an Introductory Note.

Vol. III. “LADY INGER OF ÖSTRÅT,” “THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND,” “THE PRETENDERS.” With an Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen.

Vol. IV. “EMPEROR AND GALILEAN.” With an Introductory Note by William Archer.

Vol. V. “ROSMERSHOLM,” “THE LADY FROM THE SEA,” “HEDDA GABLER.” Translated by William Archer. With an Introductory Note.

The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronological; the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in chronological order.

“The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the present version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.), among the very best achievements, in that kind, of our generation.”—Academy.

“We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely idiomatic.”—Glasgow Herald.

AUTHORISED VERSION.

Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 6s.

PEER GYNT: A Dramatic Poem.

By HENRIK IBSEN.

TRANSLATED BY

WILLIAM AND CHARLES ARCHER.

This Translation, though unrhymed, preserves throughout the various rhythms of the original.

“In Brand the hero is an embodied protest against the poverty of spirit and half-heartedness that Ibsen rebelled against in his countrymen. In Peer Gynt the hero is himself the embodiment of that spirit. In Brand the fundamental antithesis, upon which, as its central theme, the drama is constructed, is the contrast between the spirit of compromise on the one hand, and the motto ‘everything or nothing’ on the other. And Peer Gynt is the very incarnation of a compromising dread of decisive committal to any one course. In Brand the problem of self-realisation and the relation of the individual to his surroundings is obscurely struggling for recognition, and in Peer Gynt it becomes the formal theme upon which all the fantastic variations of the drama are built up. In both plays alike the problems of heredity and the influence of early surroundings are more than touched upon; and both alike culminate in the doctrine that the only redeeming power on earth or in heaven is the power of love.”—Mr. P. H. Wicksteed.

Foolscap 8vo, Cloth, Price 3s. 6d.

THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL

(Or “REVIZÓR.”)

A RUSSIAN COMEDY.

By NIKOLAI VASILIYEVICH GOGOL.

Translated from the original Russian, with Introduction and Notes, by A. A. SYKES, B.A., Trinity College, Cambridge.

Though one of the most brilliant and characteristic of Gogol’s works, and well-known on the Continent, the present is the first translation of his Revizór, or Inspector-General, which has appeared in English. A satire on Russian administrative functionaries, the Revizór is a comedy marked by continuous gaiety and invention, full of “situation,” each development of the story accentuating the satire and emphasising the characterisation, the whole play being instinct with life and interest. Every here and there occurs the note of caprice, of naïveté, of unexpected fancy, characteristically Russian. The present translation will be found to be admirably fluent, idiomatic, and effective.

London: Walter Scott, Limited, 24 Warwick Lane.

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WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD IS ALSO.

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WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN?

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WHERE LOVE IS, THERE GOD IS ALSO.

THE GODSON.

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IF YOU NEGLECT THE FIRE, YOU DON’T PUT IT OUT.

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MASTER AND MAN.

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TOLSTOY’S PARABLES.

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A STUDY OF RECENT EARTHQUAKES.

By CHARLES DAVISON, D.Sc., F.G.S., Author of “The Hereford Earthquake of December 17th, 1896.”

The aim of the author, who is a leading authority on this subject, is to provide a series of studies of a few earthquakes that have been investigated recently by scientific methods—such as the Neapolitan earthquake of 1857, the Ischian earthquakes of 1881 and 1883, the Charleston earthquake of 1886, the Riviera earthquake of 1887, the Japanese earthquake of 1891, the Hereford earthquake of 1896, the Indian earthquake of 1897, etc.

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MORALS: Their Psycho-Sociological Bases.

Translated from the French of Duprat’s La Morale,

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The field of psychological research has been widened by the triple alliance of psychology, physiology, and sociology—an alliance at once of the most intimate and fundamental nature, and productive of far-reaching results. It need, therefore, occasion no surprise that among the volumes of a scientific series is to be found a treatise dealing with ethical questions. Recent works on ethics have not been numerous, and the writers seem more anxious to soar into the realm of lofty thought than to lay the foundations of work that will be positive and lasting. It would seem that the time has come for a system of ethics less ambitious in its aims, more restricted in its scope, and based on a more rigorous method of treatment.

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THE MAKING OF CITIZENS: A Study in Comparative Education.

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It is instructive and interesting to have a complete and comprehensive account of both our own and foreign systems of education, based upon an exhaustive study of authoritative and official data. Mr. Hughes has set himself the task of showing in detail and by a series of pictures, so to speak, what the four leading nations of the world—England, France, Germany, and America—are doing in the way of manufacturing citizens. The primary and secondary systems are described in detail, and the social problems of national education are described and diagnosed.

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History of Geology and Palæontology to the end of the Nineteenth Century.

By KARL VON ZITTEL, Professor of Geology in the University of Munich.

Translated by MARIE M. OGILVIE-GORDON, D.Sc., Ph.D.

This work is recognised as the most complete and authoritative history of geology. It is brought down to the end of the nineteenth century. With the author’s advice and assistance the work has been slightly abridged by the omission of the less generally interesting matter.

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LANDSEER, Sir Edwin. By the Editor.

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REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua. By Elsa d’Esterre-Keeling.

“To the series entitled ‘The Makers of British Art’ Miss Elsa d’Esterre-Keeling contributes an admirable little volume on Sir Joshua Reynolds. Miss Keeling’s style is sprightly and epigrammatic, and her judgments are well considered.”—Daily Telegraph.

TURNER, J. M. W. By Robert Chignell, Author of “The Life and Paintings of Vicat Cole, R.A.”

ROMNEY, George. By Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., F.R.S., M.P.

“Likely to remain the best account of the painter’s life.”—Athenæum.

WILKIE, Sir David. By Professor Bayne.

CONSTABLE, John. By the Right Hon. Lord Windsor.

RAEBURN, Sir Henry. By Edward Pinnington.

GAINSBOROUGH, Thomas. By A. E. Fletcher.

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VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED—

1 ROMANCE OF KING ARTHUR. 2 THOREAU’S WALDEN. 3 THOREAU’S “WEEK.” 4 THOREAU’S ESSAYS. 5 ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER. 6 LANDOR’S CONVERSATIONS. 7 PLUTARCH’S LIVES. 8 RELIGIO MEDICI, &c. 9 SHELLEY’S LETTERS. 10 PROSE WRITINGS OF SWIFT. 11 MY STUDY WINDOWS. 12 THE ENGLISH POETS. 13 THE BIGLOW PAPERS. 14 GREAT ENGLISH PAINTERS. 15 LORD BYRON’S LETTERS. 16 ESSAYS BY LEIGH HUNT. 17 LONGFELLOW’S PROSE. 18 GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS. 19 MARCUS AURELIUS. 20 TEACHING OF EPICTETUS. 21 SENECA’S MORALS. 22 SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA. 23 DEMOCRATIC VISTAS. 24 WHITE’S SELBORNE. 25 DEFOE’S SINGLETON. 26 MAZZINI’S ESSAYS. 27 PROSE WRITINGS OF HEINE. 28 REYNOLDS’ DISCOURSES. 29 Papers of Steele and Addison. 30 BURNS’S LETTERS. 31 VOLSUNGA SAGA. 32 SARTOR RESARTUS. 33 WRITINGS OF EMERSON. 34 LIFE OF LORD HERBERT. 35 ENGLISH PROSE. 36 IBSEN’S PILLARS OF SOCIETY. 37 IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. 38 ESSAYS OF DR. JOHNSON. 39 ESSAYS OF WILLIAM HAZLITT. 40 LANDOR’S PENTAMERON, &c. 41 POE’S TALES AND ESSAYS. 42 VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. 43 POLITICAL ORATIONS. 44 AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 45 POET AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 46 PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. 47 CHESTERFIELD’S LETTERS. 48 STORIES FROM CARLETON. 49 JANE EYRE. 50 ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 51 WRITINGS OF THOMAS DAVIS. 52 SPENCE’S ANECDOTES. 53 MORE’S UTOPIA. 54 SADI’S GULISTAN. 55 ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. 56 NORTHERN STUDIES. 57 FAMOUS REVIEWS. 58 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS. 59 PERICLES AND ASPASIA. 60 ANNALS OF TACITUS. 61 ESSAYS OF ELIA. 62 BALZAC. 63 DE MUSSET’S COMEDIES. 64 CORAL REEFS. 65 SHERIDAN’S PLAYS. 66 OUR VILLAGE. 67 MASTER HUMPHREY’S CLOCK. 68 TALES FROM WONDERLAND. 69 JERROLD’S ESSAYS. 70 THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. 71 “THE ATHENIAN ORACLE.” 72 ESSAYS OF SAINTE-BEUVE. 73 SELECTIONS FROM PLATO. 74 HEINE’S TRAVEL SKETCHES. 75 MAID OF ORLEANS. 76 SYDNEY SMITH. 77 THE NEW SPIRIT. 78 MALORY’S BOOK OF MARVELLOUS ADVENTURES. 79 HELPS’ ESSAYS & APHORISMS. 80 ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE. 81 Thackeray’s BARRY LYNDON. 82 SCHILLER’S WILLIAM TELL. 83 CARLYLE’S GERMAN ESSAYS. 84 LAMB’S ESSAYS. 85 WORDSWORTH’S PROSE 86 LEOPARDI’S DIALOGUES. 87 THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL 88 BACON’S ESSAYS. 89 PROSE OF MILTON. 90 PLATO’S REPUBLIC. 91 PASSAGES FROM FROISSART. 92 PROSE OF COLERIDGE 93 HEINE IN ART AND LETTERS. 94 ESSAYS OF DE QUINCEY. 95 Vasari’s Lives of Italian Painters. 96 LESSING’S LAOCOON. 97 PLAYS OF MAETERLINCK. 98 WALTON’S COMPLETE ANGLER. 99 LESSING’S NATHAN THE WISE. 100 STUDIES BY RENAN. 101 MAXIMS OF GOETHE. 102 SCHOPENHAUER. 103 RENAN’S LIFE OF JESUS. 104 Confessions of Saint Augustine. 105 PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESS IN LITERATURE (G. H. Lewes). 106 WALTON’S LIVES. 107 POLITICAL ECONOMY. 108 RENAN’S ANTICHRIST. 109 ORATIONS OF CICERO. 110 REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE (E. Burke). 111 LETTERS OF THE YOUNGER PLINY. (Series I.) 112 Do. (Series II.) 113 SELECTED THOUGHTS OF BLAISE PASCAL. 114 SCOTS ESSAYISTS. 115 J. S. MILL’S LIBERTY. 116 DESCARTES’ DISCOURSE ON METHOD, ETC. 117 SAKUNTALA. BY KALIDASA. 118 NEWMAN’S (John Henry Cardinal). UNIVERSITY SKETCHES. 119 NEWMAN’S SELECT ESSAYS. 120 RENAN’S MARCUS AURELIUS. 121 FROUDE’S NEMESIS OF FAITH.

VAGABOND PAPERS.

By JOHN FOSTER FRASER.

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The Canterbury Poets.

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1 CHRISTIAN YEAR 2 COLERIDGE 3 LONGFELLOW 4 CAMPBELL 5 SHELLEY 6 WORDSWORTH 7 BLAKE 8 WHITTIER 9 POE 10 CHATTERTON 11 BURNS. Songs 12 BURNS. Poems 13 MARLOWE 14 KEATS 15 HERBERT 16 HUGO 17 COWPER 18 SHAKESPEARE’S POEMS, etc. 19 EMERSON 20 SONNETS OF THIS CENTURY 21 WHITMAN 22 SCOTT. Lady of the Lake, etc. 23 SCOTT. Marmion, etc. 24 PRAED 25 HOGG 26 GOLDSMITH 27 LOVE LETTERS, etc. 28 SPENSER 29 CHILDREN OF THE POETS 30 JONSON 31 BYRON. Miscellaneous 32 BYRON. Don Juan 33 THE SONNETS OF EUROPE 34 RAMSAY 35 DOBELL 36 POPE 37 HEINE 38 BEAUMONT & FLETCHER 39 BOWLES, LAMB, etc. 40 SEA MUSIC 41 EARLY ENGLISH POETRY 42 HERRICK 43 BALLADES and RONDEAUS 44 IRISH MINSTRELSY 45 MILTON’S PARADISE LOST 46 JACOBITE BALLADS 47 DAYS OF THE YEAR 48 AUSTRALIAN BALLADS 49 MOORE 50 BORDER BALLADS 51 SONG-TIDE 52 ODES OF HORACE 53 OSSIAN 54 FAIRY MUSIC 55 SOUTHEY 56 CHAUCER 57 GOLDEN TREASURY 58 POEMS OF WILD LIFE 59 PARADISE REGAINED 60 CRABBE 61 DORA GREENWELL 62 FAUST 63 AMERICAN SONNETS 64 LANDOR’S POEMS 65 GREEK ANTHOLOGY 66 HUNT AND HOOD 67 HUMOROUS POEMS 68 LYTTON’S PLAYS 69 GREAT ODES 70 MEREDITH’S POEMS 71 IMITATION OF CHRIST 72 NAVAL SONGS 73 PAINTER POETS 74 WOMEN POETS 75 LOVE LYRICS 76 AMERICAN HUMOROUS VERSE 77 SCOTTISH MINOR POETS 78 CAVALIER LYRISTS 79 GERMAN BALLADS 80 SONGS OF BERANGER 81 RODEN NOEL’S POEMS 82 SONGS OF FREEDOM 83 CANADIAN POEMS 84 CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH VERSE 85 POEMS OF NATURE 86 CRADLE SONGS 87 BALLADS OF SPORT 88 MATTHEW ARNOLD 89 CLOUGH’S BOTHIE 90 BROWNING’S POEMS Pippa Passes, etc. Vol. 1. 91 BROWNING’S POEMS A Blot in the ‘Scutcheon, etc. Vol. 2. 92 BROWNING’S POEMS Dramatic Lyrics. Vol. 3. 93 MACKAY’S LOVER’S MISSAL 94 HENRY KIRKE WHITE 95 LYRA NICOTIANA 96 AURORA LEIGH 97 TENNYSON’S POEMS In Memoriam, etc. 98 TENNYSON’S POEMS The Princess, etc. 99 WAR SONGS 100 JAMES THOMSON 101 ALEXANDER SMITH 102 EUGÈNE LEE-HAMILTON 103 PAUL VERLAINE

Ibsen’s Prose Dramas

Edited by WILLIAM ARCHER

Complete in Five Vols. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3s. 6d. each.

Set of Five Vols., in Case, 17s. 6d.; in Half Morocco, in Case, 32s. 6d.

‘We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are; and at first it is more than we can endure.... All Ibsen’s characters speak and act as if they were hypnotised, and under their creator’s imperious demand to reveal themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before; it is too terrible.... Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery, his remorseless electric-light, until we, too, have grown strong and learned to face the naked—if necessary, the flayed and bleeding—reality.’—Speaker (London).

Vol. I. ‘A DOLL’S HOUSE,’ ‘THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH,’ and ‘THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY.’ With Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by William Archer.

Vol. II. ‘GHOSTS,’ ‘AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,’ and ‘THE WILD DUCK.’ With an Introductory Note.

Vol. III. ‘LADY INGER OF ÖSTRÅT,’ ‘THE VIKINGS AT HELGELAND,’ ‘THE PRETENDERS.’ With an Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen.

Vol. IV. ‘EMPEROR AND GALILEAN.’ With an Introductory Note by William Archer.

Vol. V. ‘ROSMERSHOLM,’ ‘THE LADY FROM THE SEA,’ ‘HEDDA GABLER.’ Translated by William Archer. With an Introductory Note.

The sequence of the plays in each volume is chronological; the complete set of volumes comprising the dramas presents them in chronological order.

Great Writers

A NEW SERIES OF CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

Edited by ERIC ROBERTSON and FRANK T. MARZIALS.

A Complete Bibliography to each Volume, by J. P. Anderson, British Museum, London.

Cloth, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top. Price 1s. 6d.

VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED.

LIFE OF LONGFELLOW. By Professor Eric S. Robertson.

LIFE OF COLERIDGE. By Hall Caine.

LIFE OF DICKENS. By Frank T. Marzials.

LIFE OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. By J. Knight.

LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. By Colonel F. Grant.

LIFE OF DARWIN. By G. T. Bettany.

LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË. By A. Birrell.

LIFE OF THOMAS CARLYLE. By R. Garnett, LL.D.

LIFE OF ADAM SMITH. By R. B. Haldane, M.P.

LIFE OF KEATS. By W. M. Rossetti.

LIFE OF SHELLEY. By William Sharp.

LIFE OF SMOLLETT. By David Hannay.

LIFE OF GOLDSMITH. By Austin Dobson.

LIFE OF SCOTT. By Professor Yonge.

LIFE OF BURNS. By Professor Blackie.

LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO. By Frank T. Marzials.

LIFE OF EMERSON. By Richard Garnett, LL.D.

LIFE OF GOETHE. By James Sime.

LIFE OF CONGREVE. By Edmund Gosse.

LIFE OF BUNYAN. By Canon Venables.

LIFE OF CRABBE. By T. E. Kebbel.

LIFE OF HEINE. By William Sharp.

LIFE OF MILL. By W. L. Courtney.

LIFE OF SCHILLER. By Henry W. Nevinson.

LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT. By David Hannay.

LIFE OF LESSING. By T. W. Rolleston.

LIFE OF MILTON. By R. Garnett, LL.D.

LIFE OF BALZAC. By Frederick Wedmore.

LIFE OF GEORGE ELIOT. By Oscar Browning.

LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. By Goldwin Smith.

LIFE OF BROWNING. By William Sharp.

LIFE OF BYRON. By Hon. Roden Noel.

LIFE OF HAWTHORNE. By Moncure D. Conway.

LIFE OF SCHOPENHAUER. By Professor Wallace.

LIFE OF SHERIDAN. By Lloyd Sanders.

LIFE OF THACKERAY. By Herman Merivale and Frank T. Marzials.

LIFE OF CERVANTES. By H. E. Watts.

LIFE OF VOLTAIRE. By Francis Espinasse.

LIFE OF LEIGH HUNT. By Cosmo Monkhouse.

LIFE OF WHITTIER. By W. J. Linton.

LIFE OF RENAN. By Francis Espinasse.

LIFE OF THOREAU. By H. S. Salt.

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THE STORY OF ORATORIO. By ANNIE W. PATTERSON, B.A., Mus. Doc.

THE STORY OF NOTATION. By C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS, M.A., Mus. Bac.

THE STORY OF THE ORGAN. By C. F. ABDY WILLIAMS, M.A., Author of “Bach” and “Handel” (“Master Musicians’ Series”).

THE STORY OF CHAMBER MUSIC. By N. KILBURN, Mus. Bac. (Cantab.), Conductor of the Middlesbrough, Sunderland, and Bishop Auckland Musical Societies.

THE STORY OF THE VIOLIN. By PAUL STOEVING, Professor of the Violin, Guildhall School of Music, London.

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THE STORY OF THE HARP. By WILLIAM H. GRATTAN FLOOD.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in spelling.
2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
3. Re-indexed footnotes using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.