Part 24

[66] Gratarol has printed his petition to the Inquisitors (_Narr. Apol._, i. 81). It is not very injurious to Gozzi, if the document is really what he sent. The reference to Gozzi runs thus: "Umana debolezza scossa da circonstanze troppo puerili e indegne di riferirsi alla maesta di questo Supremo Tribunale indusse il Sig. Co. Carlo Gozzi a sparger di satira una sua commedia tolta dallo Spagnuolo ed intitolata Le Droghe d'Amore, e ad innestarvi un carattere apposito unicamente per fare scherno e ridicolo dileggio dell'umilissima persona di me," &c.

[67] This interview is related at length by Gratarol (_Narr. Apol._, vol. i. pp. 97-110). His account differs in several minor particulars from Gozzi's. But one can see that Gozzi had it before him while writing what follows above.

[68] Light is thrown on this paragraph by a passage in Gratarol's _Narr. Apol._, i. 99. He there says that Signor Maffei had reported Gozzi's great distress at the unexpected effect of his comedy, adding that Sacchi professed his willingness to abandon the play if Gozzi wished it and was able to arrange matters.

[69] In the _Narr. Apol._ Gratarol gives a different turn to this incident. He does not represent himself as refusing the prologue; and indeed he asserts that on the night of the 17th he was extremely disgusted at not hearing it. See vol. i. p. 114.

[70] Gratarol intimates that Gozzi acted with bad faith in this negotiation, "operando in modo che altri consigliassero a resistere." He calls the meeting at Mme. Tron's "l'infernal conciliabolo [che] si tenne in ora piu tarda nelle soglie della regnante Matrona." _Loc. cit._, p. 114.

[71] This letter is reported in the _Narr. Apol._, vol. i. p. 123.

[72] It is amusing to read Gozzi's _Memorie_ and Gratarol's _Narrazione_ side by side. Gratarol exclaims: "Conte, voi dovete la vita ad un qualche angelo tutelare che benedimmi accio potessi frenare il cieco impeto," &c. He meditates an _aperta vendetta_, and so forth. _Op. cit._, pp. 115-117. And yet these two swelling turkey-cocks did not think of fighting a duel.

[73] Though this is told to his own advantage, Gozzi must have known that he was placing a new weapon in the hands of Gratarol's worst enemy when he consigned to Mme. Tron the letter of defiance.

[74] Gozzi here alludes, I think, to the attack on the actor Vitalba at Milan, which will be related farther on.

[75] Why did he not call Gratarol out? This is very comedian-like.

[76] Paolo Renier was one of the most striking figures in the last years of the Republic. A man of brilliant and versatile abilities, widely read and profoundly instructed by experience of the world, he possessed eloquence so weighty and persuasive that one speech from his lips had power to sway conflicting parties in the State and bring their heated leaders to his lure. (See Romanin, vol. viii. chap. vii., for an extraordinary instance of his oratory.) Yet Renier's character does not inspire respect. Before he became Doge, he had pursued a tortuous course in politics, and had only escaped serious entanglements by his extraordinary intellectual finesse. He married a woman off the stage, who impaired his social credit; and when he appeared as candidate for the ducal cap, he lavished bribes with cynical shamelessness. Gratarol has penned two pungent pages upon Renier's character, which are worth attention. "Talent and art," he says, "both fail me in describing this man of hundred colours. An intellect of the highest, a heart of the proudest, a face of the most deceptive; such are his component parts. A more fraudulently plausible orator, a more turbulent politician, I have never known. Whether fortune or some charm defends him, he always escapes unhurt from the mortal perils into which he wilfully plunges."--_Op. cit._, p. 77.

[77] Gozzi publishes a copy of his memorial to the Inquisitors of State. Since the document is long, and repeats what is already known to the readers of his Memoirs, I have not judged it necessary to translate it. The text will be found on pp. 395-399 of the second volume of the _Memorie Inutili_.

[78] Gratarol reports this letter, but expressly states that he was obliged by Signor Zon, secretary to the Inquisitors of State, to omit the words _dimenticando il passato_. His account of how he was compelled to sit down and scribble off the apology, while Zon stood over him, is very amusing. He taught his servant, on delivering the letter into Gozzi's hands, to repeat these words: "el mio paron xe sta comanda de scriverghe sto viglietto." In fact, Gratarol was forced by the supreme authority in Venice to send this apology, and refusal to do so would have involved his immediate imprisonment. According to his own confession, Gratarol, after hearing the ultimatum of the Supreme Tribunal, went to his writing-table and penned the above letter, expressing at the same time his readiness to kiss Count Gozzi's ... on the piazza, or to do anything else ridiculous which the Inquisitors might impose upon him. The Republic of S. Mark had reached the last stage of decrepitude, and well deserved to be swept into the lumber-room of bygone greatnesses, when Gratarol's and Gozzi's squabble about a woman and a play brought the machinery of state thus into action. Venice, always an artificial power (in the same sense as the Greek cities of antiquity were artificial), subsisting mainly upon commerce and on the tribute levied from dependencies, had in the eighteenth century dwindled into dotage, through lack of natural resources and revolutions in the world-trade. The rulers of Venice, reduced to insignificance among the powers of Europe, occupied their brains with parochial affairs and the contests of comedians. _Op. cit._, pp. 130-134.

[79] This reads like a satire upon Renier, whose elevation to the Dogeship was attended with a pomp and profligate expenditure, not to mention a lavish use of bribes, pernicious to all public and private morals. Compare Gratarol's account of an interview he had with Renier (_op. cit._, p. 79). The man made on Gratarol exactly the same sort of impression by his eloquence, philosophy, urbanity, and learning, mixed with a sense of untrustworthiness, that he did on Gozzi.

[80] See above, p. 267. Mme. Tron called Gasparo _Father_ and Carlo _Bear_.

[81] The Riformatori dello Studio di Padova were three noblemen of Venice, who controlled the university in that city and other educational establishments belonging to the State.

[82] Gratarol indignantly denies that he had anything to do with this attack upon Vitalba, and says he was at Vienna when it happened. _Op. cit._, p. 178.

[83] Gozzi has, in fact, told the story of Mme. Ricci's return to Venice, but it is without importance.

[84] Sacchi, the last great representative of the _Commedia dell'Arte_, was a Ferrarese, born at Vienna in 1708. After leaving Venice he sank into poverty, and died at sea in 1788 between Genoa and Marseilles. His body was committed to the waters.

[85] Compare the pregnant phrase at the close of the _Memorie_ (vol. iii. p. 290; translation, above, p. 329) with the tone of the _Manifesto_ and the address _A' suoi amati concittadini_ (vol. i. pp. 3-15 and iii.-xv.), and the close of the _Ragionamento del cittadino Carlo Gozzi_, vol. ii. p. xvii.

[86] See Masi's Essay, _Fiabe_, vol. i. p. clxxxix.; Malamanni, _Nuova Rivista di Torino_, Nos. lviii.-x.

[87] _Memorie_, vol. iii. ch. vii.

[88] If I wished to comment on Gozzi's humour--subrisive, slightly bitter, acid and yet genial, preserving the main points of humane feeling intact, scoffing at revolutions in politics and fashion--I should select the above-translated passage as combining its essential qualities, together with something of the man's graphic power of description.

[89] The matter is not of importance. But when Gozzi speaks of a house at S. Benedetto, he probably means the Campo di S. Angelo. Part at least of that Campo is in the parish of S. Benedetto.

[90] I wrote this essay on Longhi at a time when I hoped to be able to illustrate my work on Gozzi profusely from the painter's sketch-book. This scheme had to be abandoned owing to difficulties connected with the proper reproduction of Longhi's drawings by photography. But should any of my readers be interested in the details of Gozzi's life, I counsel them to make a careful study of Longhi's works at Venice, and more especially of the deeply-interesting sketch-book at the Museo Civico. Those who can read between the lines of original drawings will find this book a real assistance toward the understanding of Venetian society in the last century. The moral purity and the moderation of the artist give value to his transcripts from the life he saw around him.

[91] G. B. Tiepolo; b. 1692, d. 1769. Antonio Canale, or Canaletti; b. 1697, d. 1768. Pietro Longhi; b. 1702, d. about 1780. Francesco Guardi; b. 1713, d. 1793.

[92] This is the bias of our scientific age. We do not want idealism, however meritorious--the idealism, for example, of the Caracci--the idealism which is supplied in academies. What we demand is a transcript from life or a piercing arrow from the genius of an epoch. We are keen, and rightly keen for documents of art, which hold up mirrors of an age in its external presentment, or betray the secret of its spiritual qualities.

[93] See V. Lazari, _Elogio di Pietro Longhi_. Venezia, 1862.

[94] I have followed Lazari above. But examination of the Pisani pedigree (published for the _Nozze Giusti-Giustiniani_, Rovigo, Tip. Minelliana, 1887) shows that none of the Doge's sons was Procuratore di S. Marco, and that none of them had a son who died before marriage. The only Procuratore Pisani of this period was Giorgio Pisani (1739-1811), of the branch surnamed _In Procuratia_. He played a prominent part in the political history of the last days of the Venetian Republic. But he also had no son who can be connected with Lazari's story regarding the foundation of the Academy. I am obliged, therefore, to suppose that Lazari's account, though substantially correct as to the existence of the Academy in question, was based on a confused tradition regarding members of the Pisani family.

[95] The picture now hangs on the wall of Mme. Pisani's drawing-room in the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal of Venice. I may add, with regard to the signature, that the uncontested frescoes at the Sagredo Palace are signed _Pietro Longo_, and not _Longhi_.

[96] The eldest of these children was born in 1753, and may have been about seven when the picture was painted.

Typographical errors corrected by the ebook transcriber:

Agostino Fiorilli => Agostino Fiorelli

Truffaldini => Truffaldino

Mariana => Marianna

Stra => Stra