Part 23

Ricci, Teodora, ii. 174, 324. engaged as leading actress by Sacchi, ii. 174. her personal appearance, ii. 175. her connection with Gozzi, i. 9. her connection with Gratarol, i. 10. Gozzi's tuition of, ii. 177 the opposition to her, ii. 179. her _debut_ at Venice not very successful, ii. 182. her success in "Gustavus Vasa," ii. 184. her triumph in Gozzi's "Principessa Filosofa," ii. 185. her gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 186. her merits and defects, ii. 188-192. Gozzi becomes her Cicisbeo, ii. 193. Gozzi is godfather to her child, ii. 198. her separation from her husband, ii. 199. her _liaison_ with Sacchi, ii. 202-210. her foolish conduct, ii. 216. her rapacity, ii. 221. her agreement for five years with Sacchi, ii. 221. her friendship with P. A. Gratarol, ii. 227, 241, 245. its consequences, ii. 242. Gozzi's final rupture with her, ii. 246. her annoyance of him, ii. 249, 255. she leaves Sacchi's company and goes to Paris, ii. 254. her strange manners when she returns, ii. 256. her failure as an actress when she began to ape the French, ii. 257. her conduct at the reading of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 260. her foolish conduct in connection with the play, ii. 269, 275. pretends illness in order to stop the play, ii. 275. is ordered to play by the authorities, ii. 276. her tactics which led to the withdrawal of "Le Droghe d'Amore," ii. 306. her death in a madhouse, ii. 195 _note_ 1.

Riccoboni, Luigi, i. 63.

"Riflessioni d'un Imparziale," a pamphlet in answer to Gratarol's "Narrazione," i. 13 _note_ 2, 15 _note_ 1.

Rossi, Pietro, actor, ii. 189.

Royer, Paul, i. 182.

Ruskin, John, ii. 340.

Sacchi, Antonia, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1.

Sacchi, Antonio, i. 53, 100, 101, 112 _note_ 1, 150; ii. 201, 262, 272, 282 _note_ 1, 286, 297, 306, 318. list of his company, i. 112 _note_ 1. allusion to his company in Gozzi's first "Fable," i. 127. the inventor of Truffaldino as a form of Arlecchino, ii. 131 _note_ 1. his famous company, ii. 142. ruined by the opposition of Chiari and Goldoni, ii. 132. their visit to Lisbon, ii. 132. their return to Venice, ii. 132. their success with Gozzi's pieces, i. 176; ii. 132. their gratitude to Gozzi, ii. 137. Gozzi temporarily withdraws his aid from his company, ii. 166. obtains a lease of the theatre S. Salvadore, ii. 167, 168. his passion for the Ricci, ii. 202, 214. his ill-treatment of her, ii. 207. its result, ii. 208-210. his theatre pronounced unsafe, ii. 219. his five years' agreement with Ricci, ii. 221. his difficulties with Gratarol, ii. 233. Ricci leaves his company and he engages Regina in her place, ii. 254. consents to withdraw the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 263. produces it, ii. 271. the dissolution of his company, ii. 322. his excesses and tempers, ii. 322. his last interview with Gozzi, ii. 324. his death, ii. 325 _note_ 1.

Sacchi-Zannoni, Adriana, actress, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131.

Sacchi's company-- its respectability, ii. 143. Gozzi's relations with the actors and actresses, ii. 137-155. dissensions in, ii. 164. the details of its dissolution, ii. 322-325.

Santorini, Count Francesco, i. 324, 327, 329.

Schlegel, A. W., his praise of Gozzi's "Fiabe," i. 180.

Sciugliaga, Stefano, Secretary of the University of Milan, ii. 198.

Sechellari, Giuseppe, Prince of the Accademia Granellesca, ii. 93. the tricks played on him, ii. 95.

Seghezzi, Antonio Federigo, i. 199.

Servetta, the, a character in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 48, 154.

Sibiliato, Giovanni, a wonderful _improvisatore_ and a true poet, i. 204.

Smeraldina (Servetta), as employed by Gozzi, i. 154.

Somascan Order of Monks, i. 350 _note_ 1.

Stampa, Gaspara, poetess, i. 206.

Stock speeches in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 62.

Tartaglia, a mask in the _Commedia dell'Arte_, i. 35, 50. as employed by Gozzi, i. 152.

Terzi, Marchese, of Bergamo, i. 368, 369, 370. Gozzi's lawsuit against, ii. 160. its successful issue, ii. 164.

Testa, Antonio, a famous lawyer, i. 335; ii. 163. his kindness to Gozzi, i. 336.

Theatres, private, in the houses of the Venetian nobility, i. 201 _note_ 1.

Tiepolo family, i. 189 _note_ 1.

Tiepolo, Almoro Cesare, i. 213, 291, 342. his just and excellent character, i. 344-347.

Tiepolo, G. B., painter, ii. 338. a genius of the first order, ii. 339.

Tiepolo, Nicolo Maria, his condemnation of comedians, i. 71.

Tiepolo Gozzi, Angela, mother of Carlo Gozzi--_See_ Gozzi, Angela Tiepolo.

Toaldo, Professor, ii. 75.

Todeschini, Raffaelle, ii. 295, 326.

Tommassei, his contempt for Gozzi, i. 179.

Tonina, a courtesan of Zara, i. 262. Gozzi's impromptu attack on, in the theatre, i. 269.

Tron, Andrea, Procuratore di San Marco, i. 9, 14; ii. 264 _note_ 1.

Tron, Caterina Dolfin, see Dolfin-Tron, Caterina.

Truffaldino, the mask, a modification of Arlecchino, i. 46, 150; ii. 131 _note_ 1. as used by Gozzi, i. 153.

Vendramini, Antonio, proprietor of the theatre of S. Salvadore, ii. 167, 173, 276, 286.

Venice-- its decadence, i. 7 _note_ 1. its political and social state about the middle of the 18th century, i. 82. conflict of liberalism and conservatism in literature and the theatre, i. 86. success of the _Comedie Larmoyante_, i. 87. foundation of the Academy de' Granelleschi, i. 89. the granting of citizenship in, i. 186 _note_ 1. the position of the _Cittadini Originari_, i. 186 _note_ 1. posts open to the _Cittadini_, i. 187 _note_ 3. Gozzi's remarks on the degeneration of the Venetian youth, i. 194. robes of the Dignitaries, i. 217 _note_ 1. the office of Grand Chancellor, i. 230 _note_ 1. the values of the sequin and lira, i. 274 _note_ 1. _Decime_ (taxes), i. 280 _note_ 1. its theatres, i. 332 _note_ 1; ii. 167. its law of entail, i. 336 _note_ 1. the _Avogadori del Comun_, i. 341 _note_ 1. decay of literary taste in, ii. 108-110. the length of the theatrical year, ii. 146 _note_ 1. its decrepitude, as shown in State interference in Gratarol's quarrel with Gozzi, ii. 303 _note_ 1. the influence of the French Revolution on, ii. 328. partial revival of art in, in the 18th century, ii. 338. Longhi's paintings of contemporary life in, ii. 338 _note_ 1; ii. 341, 347, 358.

Verdani, Abbe Giovan Antonio, i. 196.

Vilio, Count, of Desenzano, ii. 24.

Vinacesi, Elisabetta, actress, ii. 213.

Vincentini, Tommaso, his excellence as Harlequin, i. 67.

Vitalba, Giovanni, actor, ii. 269. the actor who caricatured Gratarol in the "Droghe d'Amore," ii. 272. assaulted by a ruffian in Milan, ii. 318.

Wagner, Richard, his "Fairies," a setting of Gozzi's "Donna Serpente," i. 160 _note_ 1, 181.

Werthes, Franz A. C., translator of Gozzi's "Fiabe" into German, i. 180.

Widiman, Count Ludovico, a patron of Goldoni, ii. 124.

Zanche, Daniele, advocate, ii. 161.

Zanerini, Petronio, the best actor of Italy, ii. 323.

Zanoni, Atanagio, comedian, i. 112 _note_ 1; ii. 131, 323.

Zannuzzi, Francesco, of the Comedie Italienne at Paris, ii. 211, 212 _note_ 1.

Zeno, Apostolo, encourages Gozzi in his poetical attempts, i. 207. his influence in the drama, i. 207 _note_ 1.

Zini, Francesco, a cloth merchant, wishes to buy the Gozzis' house, i. 299. Carlo Gozzi tries to prevent the purchase, i. 300.

Zon, Signer, Secretary to the Inquisitors of State, ii. 303 _note_ 1.

Zucchi, Padre, an _improvisatore_, i. 203.

PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Desperiers lived in France between 1480 and 1544. He was servant to Marguerite de Navarre, and a writer of Rabelaisian humour. His two principal works are called _Cymbalum Mundi_ and _Nouvelles, Recreations et Joyeux Devis_.

[2] The Orco was a huge sea-monster, shaped like a gigantic crab. It first appeared in Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_ (Bk. iii. Cant. 3), and was afterwards developed by Ariosto, _Orl. Fur._ (Cant. 17).

[3] This was one of Gozzi's own comedies.

[4] These words have so much local colouring that they must be left in the text and explained in a note. A _sotto portico_ at Venice is formed by the projection of houses over the narrow path which skirts a small canal or _rio_; the first floor of the houses rests on pillars at the water-side. A _ponte storto_ is a bridge built askew across a _rio_, not at right angles to the water, but slanting. A _riva_ is the quay of stone which runs along the canals of Venice, here and there broken by steps descending into the water and serving as landing-places.

[5] See above, vol. i. p. 299.

[6] The narrow foot-paths between lines of houses at Venice are so called. They frequently have scarcely space enough for two men to walk abreast.

[7] One of Pietro Longhi's pictures in the Museo Civico at Venice represents exactly such a scene as this in the workroom of a tailoress. The beau is there, and the woman prepared for flirtation.

[8] Gozzi had a distinct object in writing these chapters on his love-affairs. Gratarol's accusation of his having been a hypocrite and covert libertine lay before him. He wished to make a clean breast of his frailties. To suppress this portion of his _apologia pro vita sua_ would have been to do him grave injustice. The Memorie must always be read as an answer to Gratarol's _Narrazione_. See Introduction, Part i.

[9] There is a good deal said about this man in Casanova's Memoirs.

[10] The translator of this narrative has taken the trouble to make this tedious detour on foot. The quarter in which Gozzi lived, remains exactly in the same condition as when he described it. His old palace has not altered; and the whole of the above scene can be vividly presented to the fancy by an inspection of the localities.

[11] The following paragraphs, to the end of the chapter, are extracted and condensed from vol. iii. chap. v. of the _Memorie_.

[12] A magistracy composed of four patricians, who controlled the manners of the town in matters of lawless and indecent living.

[13] Messer Grande corresponded to the Bargello at Rome, and was the chief of catchpoles and constables.

[14] This chapter on Gozzi's contrarieties, which I have supplemented with a few passages from the incoherent notes at the end of the _Memorie_, has received undue attention from Paul de Musset and critics who adopt his untrustworthy version of Gozzi's autobiography. De Musset strove to base upon it a theory that Gozzi was the victim of his own fabulous sprites. See Introduction, vol. i. p. 23.

[15] Gozzi alludes to the _Ragionamento Ingenuo_ prefixed to the first volume of Colombani's edition of his works.

[16] That is, the authors of the seventeenth century, during which an extravagant and affected style prevailed in Italy.

[17] These names require explanation. _Granelli_, _coglioni_, and _testicoli_ are words for the same things, and have the secondary meaning of _simpleton_. Thus _Arcigranellone_ is the Arch-big-simpleton. The crest of the Academy carries an allusion to the same things. Apropos of this not very edifying topic, it is worth mentioning that the canting arms of the noble Bergamasque family of Coglioni consisted of three _granelli_ counterchanged upon a field party per fesse gules and argent. I cannot recall a parallel instance in heraldry.

[18] Calandrino was a famous fool and butt in the _Decameron_ of Boccaccio.

[19] What follows in the text above might be largely illustrated. It is curious to find Casanova, for example, agreeing with Gozzi on a point of morality: "Une mechante philosophie," he says, "diminue trop le nombre de ce qu'on appelle prejuges" (vol. i. p. 97). Compare the ludicrous account of the rogue Squaldo-Nobili, who shared Casanova's prison in S. Mark, and who had purged himself of prejudice by reading _La Sagesse de Charon_ (vol. iii. p. 70). While I am writing, an article by M. Emile de Laveleye on "How bad books may destroy States" (_Pall Mall Gazette_, June 9, 1888) falls into my hands with a pertinent passage, which I shall here extract:--

"The following are the terms in which, in an eighteenth century romance, Count Clitandre explains to the Marquise Cidalise all the services that philosophy has rendered to refined and elegant society. 'Thanks to philosophy,' he says, 'we have the happiness to have found the truth, and what does not this entail for us? Women have never been less prudish under pretext of duty, and there has never been so little affectation of virtue. A man and a woman please each other and a _liaison_ is formed; they tire of it, and separate with as little ceremony as they commenced it; if they come again to regret the separation, their former relations may recommence, and with the same enthusiasm as the first time. These again cease; and all this takes place without any quarrellings or disputes! It is true that there has been no question whatever of _love_; but after all, what is _love_ save a mere desire that people chose to exaggerate, a physical sentiment of which men, in their vanity, chose to make a virtue? Nowadays the desire alone exists, and if people, in their mutual relations, speak of love, it is not because they really believe in it, but because it is a politer way of obtaining what they reciprocally wish for. As there has been no question of love at the onset, there is no hatred at parting, and from the slight liking mutually inspired rests a mutual desire and readiness to oblige each other. I think, all things considered, that it is wise to sacrifice to so much pleasure a few old-fashioned prejudices which bring but little esteem and an infinite amount of worry to those who still make them their rule of conduct.'"

[20] This paragraph reads amusingly like a satire upon English "aesthetes."

[21] See above, vol i. p. 367.

[22] See above, chap. xxxi.

[23] The first or Paris edition bears, however, the date 1756.

[24] I have to say that what follows in this chapter has been very considerably abridged from Gozzi's text. Apology is owed to him by the translator for condensing his narrative and confining it to points of permanent interest, if indeed there is any interest at all in bygone literary squabbles, while retaining the first person.

[25] This poem is printed in vol. viii. of Colombani's edition of Carlo Gozzi's Works.

[26] I may remind my readers that Truffaldino was the specific form invented for the mask of Arlecchino by Sacchi. See above, vol. i. p. 53. Truffaldino was originally a character in Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_, where he played the part of a consummate rogue, traitor, and coward, and was killed by the paladin Rinaldo (Bk. i. Cant. 26).

[27] This passage indicates Gozzi's justice, his habit of conceding the _suum cuique_, however grudgingly. Goldoni, as we learn from his Memoirs, piqued himself upon the study he made of actors like Darbes, Golinetti, and Collalto.

[28] A singular piece of self-criticism. Gozzi appeals to posterity on points which seem to us the least noteworthy in his work. Nothing is needed beyond the above sentences to dispel the illusion of his having been a free romantic genius.

[29] Gozzi uses the word _squarci_ for these stock passages. The expression is partly explained by what follows in the paragraph, and has been further illustrated by me above: vol. i. p. 62. See Bartoli's _Scenari_, pp. lxxv. _et seq._

[30] After the Carnival, until the following October. The theatrical year in Venice began on the first Sunday in October, and ended with the next Ash-Wednesday. It corresponded to the months in which masks were allowed.

[31] Translated in chaps. xxxii., xxxiii., xxxiv.

[32] There is some inaccuracy here. See vol. i. p. 148, for the dates of Gozzi's _Fiabe_.

[33] Page 33 in vol. ii. of Gozzi is a good specimen of an interminable sentence broken up by me. It has thirty-nine lines of about eight words apiece, or 312 words, without a full stop. It begins with _Un' ammasso_, and ends on p. 34 with _commiserazione_.

[34] See above, cap. xxx.

[35] This theatre was also called S. Luca.

[36] This looks as though Gozzi had reason to believe that Mme. Manzoni would write her autobiography. Whether she did so or not, I am unable to say. But the remark shows how popular and common self-indited Memoirs had become.

[37] That is, the Venetian noble Antonio Vendramini.

[38] Printed in vol. ix. of the _Opere_, ed. cit.

[39] It cannot be denied that Gozzi has spun out the history of his liaison with Teodora Ricci to a tedious length, giving the episode of Pier Antonio Gratarol an importance which it is far from deserving. I intend therefore to abridge the chapters which he invites his readers to skip. But, with the view of preserving unity of style, I shall not drop the first person singular, and shall select, so far as this is possible, nothing but phrases of Gozzi to translate.

[40] By the playwright Arneau.

[41] Printed in vol. v. of the _Opere_, ed. cit.

[42] Francesco Gritti, of the ancient patrician family, was born in 1740 and died in 1811. His translations of French plays appeared in two vols. at Venice in 1788. Some of his poems in Venetian dialect were published in 1815. Venezia, Alvisopoli.

[43] Gozzi is here answering Gratarol, who had called him a hypocrite in his _Narrazione_.

[44] This and the ensuing chapters throw light upon Gozzi's intention when he wrote chaps. xl. xli. above. The generalities of the earlier chapters square point by point with the particularities of the later. It looks as if he wished to prepare his readers for a special self-apologetical statement of his case against Mme. Ricci. We need not impute to him insincerity or false suggestion. When he wrote these Memoirs, the manners and customs of comedians were patent to the world, and he probably uttered no more than the truth about them. Yet the forensic cleverness of a pleader may be detected in the account he gives of his relations with this woman. Considering their intimacy, he does not act quite chivalrously in the exposure of its dissolution. At this distance of time we cannot ascertain the facts. Gozzi was perhaps consistent and veracious in his disclaimer of more than a liaison of friendship. The reader of the following chapters must decide for himself whether the writer of them was carefully manipulating and colouring circumstances he wished to attenuate.

[45] Gozzi means that he had assumed the role of Cicisbeo to Mme. Ricci.

[46] This man was called Francesco Bartoli. We owe to his pen a valuable collection of biographical notes on Italian actors and actresses: _Notizie Istoriche dei Comici Italiani che fiorirono intorno al MDL fino ai giorni presenti_ (Padova, Conzatti, 1781). This work contains a life of Teodora Ricci and the author's own autobiography. After the events of 1777 he separated from his wife, and only acknowledged the first of her three children. Critics may pause to wonder, at this point, whether Gozzi's relations to Mme. Ricci were as Platonic as he painted them. In 1782 Bartoli retired from the stage and lived at Rovigo. On Teodora's leaving the profession in 1793, he took her back, and endured her hysterical tempers until the date of his own death in 1806. She died mad about the year 1824 in the asylum of S. Servilio at Venice.

[47] Zannuzzi was _premier amoureux_ at the Comedie Italienne in Paris. It was he who invited Goldoni to visit that city, and offered him an engagement for two years from the Court. See Goldoni's _Memoirs_, part ii. chap. xliii.

[48] The Greek rogue in Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_.

[49] Gozzi here refers directly to the Gratarol episode.

[50] Printed in vol. ix. of the _Opere_, ed. cit.

[51] _Il Salvatico_, one of the very oldest hostelries of Venice, dating from the Middle Ages.

[52] Printed at the end of the third volume of the unique edition of the _Memorie Inutili di Carlo Gozzi_, 1797.

[53] These will be found in Gozzi's _Opere_, ed. cit. The prefaces are printed before the plays.

[54] From this point forward Gozzi relates the series of events which Gratarol had already described in his _Narrazione Apologetica_. The two accounts agree in essentials, the fundamental difference between them being Gratarol's firm belief that Gozzi meant to satirise him in the _Droghe d'Amore_, which Gozzi vehemently denies. It must be remembered that Gozzi had the _Narrazione_ before him while writing these Memoirs.

[55] _Diavoloni_ is the Italian word. We hear of these comfits also from Gratarol. They are big sugar-plums containing liqueur.

[56] That is, Council of Ten with the Inquisitori di Stato at its head.

[57] Albergati was born at Bologna in 1728. The circumstances of his private life were curious. In 1748 he married a wife from whom he was divorced in 1751. In 1769 he married a second wife at Venice, who committed suicide. In 1789 he married a third wife. He lived principally at Venice and at his country seat at Zola, where he had a famous private theatre. He composed and translated a great many plays. His works were collected and published in an edition of several volumes at Bologna in 1827.

[58] The relation of gossip or _Compare di San Giovanni_ is reckoned sacred at Venice.

[59] See above, p. 227.

[60] This lady was the celebrated Caterina Dolfin Tron, wife of the Procuratore Andrea Tron. Her husband exercised such influence in the State that he was called _Il Padrone_. A terrible portrait is drawn of her by Gratarol in his _Narrazione_, vol. i. pp. 23 and 44. To him she certainly behaved with cruel tyranny. But she was a woman of brilliant talents and fascinating person, who gave tone to literary and political society in Venice.

[61] Gozzi has not perhaps quite told the whole truth about his relations to Mme. Tron. They were certainly more intimate at one period than he here admits. He formed a member of the society whom she received on Monday evenings at the Casino di San Giuliano, and dedicated his _Marfisa Bizzarra_ to her in terms of high compliment (V.E. non e nimica, non e ignorante, non e dispettosa, non e sospettosa, e sa essere benefattrice volontaria anche di coloro che non le chiedono favori). At the same time he disagreed with Mme. Tron's liberal opinions, and disapproved of her philosophising turn of mind. It is quite possible that before the date 1776 their former intimacy may have cooled. Gratarol himself observes that Gozzi had not frequented her society during the seven years prior to these events.

[62] This magistracy exercised control over the morals of Venice.

[63] Gratarol gives a vivid picture of this throng. "Many hundreds of persons were sent away from the doors, since the vast area of the theatre was crammed full. Boxes, which on ordinary nights were paid two pauls, this evening brought a couple of sequins, and not a single one was empty."--_Narrazione_, vol. i. p. 68.

[64] Gratarol asserts plainly (_Narr. Apol._, vol. i. pp. 63, 65, 66) that Mme. Tron induced Sacchi to change the roles and to dress up Vitalba in clothes resembling his own. Gozzi tacitly admits the truth of this.

[65] Gratarol describes the public excitement of Venice. "In the houses, the shops, the open squares, all sorts and conditions of folk were chattering about the play. When I entered the Piazza di S. Marco, the idle people who crowd the coffee-houses under the Procuratie Vecchie, lacqueys, barbers, players, spies, pimps, and baser beings, if such there be, came swarming out by tens and twenties to stare at me, walked in front, lagged behind, dogged my steps, jostled me, compared notes with each other as to my resemblance to the vile actor travestied to mimic me."--_Narrazione_, vol. i. p. 73.