The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi Volume I Part 7

"Hard destiny! Of thirst to die! I'm dying! I am dead!"

Then she breathed her last, and the other continued:

"I'm dying! Barbarous stars! Ah me! Who'll soothe my burning head?"

Then she too breathed her last. Truffaldino wept abundantly, and murmured over them words of impa.s.sioned tenderness. He decided to cut the third Orange in the hope of saving both girls alive. While he was upon the point of doing this, Tartaglia entered in a rage and stopped him. Truffaldino took to his heels and left the Orange lying on the gra.s.s.

The stupor of this grotesque Prince, the inimitable reflections he poured forth over the rinds of the two Oranges and the dead bodies of the girls, soar beyond the powers of language. The masked actors of our _Commedia dell' Arte_, in situations like this, invent scenes so droll and yet of such exquisite grace, with gestures, movements, and _lazzi_ so delightful, that no pen can reproduce their effect, and no poet could surpa.s.s them.

After a long and ridiculous soliloquy, Tartaglia caught sight of two country b.u.mpkins pa.s.sing by, ordered the corpses to be decently buried, and bade the fellows carry them away. Then the Prince turned to gaze upon the third Orange. To his utter amazement it had swelled to a portentous size, and was as large now as the biggest pumpkin. Seeing the lake at hand, and bearing Celio's injunctions in mind, he thought the place convenient for cutting the fruit open. This he did with his long sword; and there stepped forth a tall and lovely damsel, attired in robes of white, who fulfilled the conditions of her part in the story-book by speaking as follows:

"Who drew me from my living core? Ah G.o.d! Of thirst I die!

Give me to drink at once, or else vain tears you'll shed for aye!"

The Prince understood upon the spot the meaning of Celio's precepts. But he was embarra.s.sed to find any vessel capable of holding water. The case did not admit of ceremony. So he unbuckled one of his iron shoes, ran to the lake, filled it with water, and making a thousand excuses for the improvised cup, presented it to the fair damsel, who slaked her thirst, and stood up in full vigour, thanking him for his timely a.s.sistance.

She said that she was the daughter of Concul, king of the Antipodes; Creonta, by enchantment, had enclosed her, together with her two sisters, in the rinds of three Oranges, for reasons which were as probable as the circ.u.mstance itself. A scene of comical love-making followed, at the close of which Tartaglia promised to make her his wife.

The capital was close at hand. The Princess had no decent clothes to wear. The Prince bade her take a seat upon the stone beneath the tree, while he went off to fetch costly raiment and summon the whole Court to attend her. That settled, they parted with sighs.

Smeraldina, astounded by what she had been witness to, now entered. She saw the form of the fair maid reflected in the lake. Of course she proceeded to do everything dictated for the Moorish woman in the story-tale. She dropped her Italianate Turkish. Morgana had put a Tuscan devil into her tongue. Thus armed, she defied all the poets to speak with more complete correctness. Advancing to the young Princess, whose name was Ninetta, she began to coax and flatter, offered to arrange her hair, came to close quarters and betrayed her. One of the magic pins was promptly stuck in the girl's head. Ninetta took the form of a dove and flew away. Smeraldina seated herself upon the stone and waited for the Court.

These miraculous occurrences, together with the childish simplicity of the successive scenes, and the burlesque humour of the action, kept the audience, instructed as they had been by their grandmothers and nurses in the days of babyhood, upon the tenter-hooks of curiosity. They followed the plot with serious attention, and took the profoundest interest in watching each step in the development upon the stage of such a trifle.

Then, to the music of a march, the King of Diamonds entered, with the Prince, Leandro, Clarice, Pantalone, Brigh.e.l.la, and the Court. On beholding Smeraldina in the place of the bride whom he had come to fetch away, Tartaglia flew into the wildest astonishment and fury. Smeraldina, so altered by Morgana's artifice that no one recognised her, swore she was the Princess Ninetta. Tartaglia continued to make a burlesque exhibition of his misery. Leandro, Clarice, and Brigh.e.l.la, suspecting the real source of the mystery, rejoiced among themselves. The King of Diamonds gravely and majestically enjoined upon his son the duty of keeping his princely word and marrying the Moor. The Prince submitted with a wry face and new demonstrations of comical grief. Then the band struck up, and the procession filed away to celebrate the marriage in the palace.

Truffaldino meanwhile remained behind in the royal kitchen, to the charge of which Tartaglia had appointed him, after condoning his mistakes about the Oranges. He was preparing the nuptial banquet, when a new scene opened, which is perhaps the boldest in this jocose parody.

[The rival partisans of Chiari and Goldoni, who were present in the theatre, and saw that a strong stroke of satire was about to fall, did their best to excite the indignation of the audience, and to stir up a commotion. They did not succeed, however. I have already said that Celio represented Goldoni, and Morgana Chiari. The former of these gentlemen had served his apprentices.h.i.+p at the Venetian bar, and his style smacked of forensic idioms. Chiari plumed himself upon his sublime pindaric flights of poetry; but I may submit, with all respect, that there never was a tumid and irrational author of the seventeenth century who surpa.s.sed him in extravagant conceits and bombast.

Well, Celio and Morgana, animated by mutual hostility, met together in this scene, which I will transcribe literally, just as the dialogue was spoken. I must first remind my readers that parodies miss their mark unless they are surcharged; and, keeping this in view, I beg them to look with indulgence upon a caprice, which was begotten by jesting humour, without any animosity against two worthy individuals.]

CELIO (_entering with vehemence, to Morgana_). "Wicked enchantress!

I have discovered all your base deceits. But Pluto will a.s.sist me.

Infamous beldame, accursed witch!"

MORGANA. "What do you mean, you charlatan of a wizard? Do not provoke me. I will give you a rebuff in Martellian verses, which shall make you die foaming."

C. "To me, rash witch? You shall get t.i.t for tat from me. I defy you in Martellian verse. Here's at you![80]

"It shall be always held a vain injurious a.s.sault, Fraudulent, without proper grounds, in justice real at fault; To wit these, and whatever else, malignant, fury-fraught Spells by Morgana cast, with all etceteras basely wrought: And as these premises declare, what bane may hence ensue Is cancelled, quashed, estopped, made void, condemned by order due."

M. "Oh, the bad verses! Come on, you twopenny-halfpenny magician!

"First shall the glorious rays of gold which beam from Phbus' breast Be turned to lumps of vulgar lead, and East become the West; First shall the darkling moon on high, her silver beams so bright Change with the glimmering stars, and lose the empire of the night; The murmuring streams that purling roll along their crystal bed, With Pegasus aloft shall fly, and on the clouds be spread; But thou, base slave of Pluto's power, shall never have the force To scorn the sails and rudder of my pinnace in her course."

C. "O fustian fairy, blown out like a bladder!

"On the main paragraph I'll win the verdict in this suit, Which by the first preamble shall be made to bear its fruit: Princess Ninetta, changed by you into a dove, shall be Reconst.i.tuted in her rights and due estate by me: And through the second paragraph, which follows from the first, Clarice and Leandro shall sink into want accursed; While Smeraldina, who can claim no hearing from the court, By mere endors.e.m.e.nt shall be burned, to give the people sport."

M. "Oh, the stupid, stupid versifier! Listen to me, now. See if I don't terrify you.

"On flying plumes soars Icarus, and climbs the heaven with pride, Treads on the clouds, then stoops, rash youth, and skims along the tide.

O'er Pelion piled, see Ossa frown, Olympus on her back; This wrought the t.i.tans, impious brood, to work high heaven wrack.

But Icarus erelong must sink, and drown in salt sea-spume; Jove's bolt will hurl the t.i.tans bold in ashes to their tomb.

Clarice shall ascend the throne, false Mage, in thy despite; Tartaglia, like Actaeon, mock the antlered deer in flight."

C. (_aside_). "She is trying to beat me down with poetical bombast.

If she thinks to shut me up in that way she is quite mistaken.

"I will not leave one plea unturned without demurrers sound, And 'gainst your swelling lies will file a protest firm and round."

M. "The realm of Diamonds avoid! Let lawful monarchs reign!"

(_Taking her departure._)

C. (_crying after her_). "And I'll claim costs, stay execution, file my bills again."

(_Here Celio went in._)

The last scene was laid in the royal kitchen. Never did mortal eyes behold a more miserable king's kitchen than this. The remainder of the performance followed the old story-book precisely; nevertheless, the spectators watched it with sustained attention. The parody turned upon some trivialities of detail and some basenesses of character in dramas written by the two poets. Excessive poverty, dramatic impropriety, and meanness gave the satire point.

Truffaldino appeared spitting a joint. He related how, there being no turnjack in the kitchen, he was obliged to watch the revolutions of the spit himself. While thus engaged, a dove alighted on the window-sill, and a conversation took place between him and the bird. The dove had said: "Good morning, cook of the kitchen." He had replied: "Good morning, white dove." She continued: "I pray to Heaven that you may fall asleep, that the roast may burn, so that the Moor, that ugly mug, may not be able to eat." A mighty slumber overcame him; he fell asleep, and the roast was burned to cinders. This accident happened twice. In a precious hurry he set the third joint before the fire. Then the dove reappeared, and the conversation was repeated. Again the mighty slumber overcame his senses. Truffaldino, honest fellow, did all he could to keep awake. His _lazzi_ were in the highest degree facetious. But he could not resist the spell, began to nod, and the flames reduced the third roast to ashes.

You must ask the audience why and wherefore this scene afforded exquisite amus.e.m.e.nt.

Pantalone entered scolding, woke up Truffaldino; said that the King was in a fury; soup, boiled meat, and liver had been eaten, but the roast had not appeared at table. [All honour to a poet's daring! This outdid the lowness of Goldoni's squabbles about a brace of pumpkins in his _Chiozzotte_.] Truffaldino told the strange occurrence with the dove.

Pantalone dismissed it as an idle story. But the dove at this point reappeared and repeated her ominous speech. Truffaldino was on the point of going off into a doze when Pantalone roused him, and they both gave chase to the dove, which flew fluttering about the kitchen.

The attempts to catch the dove, made by these facetious personages, amused the audience above measure. At last they caught it, placed it on a table, and began to stroke its feathers. Then they detected the enchanted pin stuck into a knot upon its head. Truffaldino drew the pin forth, and behold the bird was transformed into the Princess Ninetta!

A scene of stupors and astonishments. His Majesty the King of Diamonds arrived; pompously, with sceptre in hand, he rebuked Truffaldino for the non-appearance of the roast-meat at his royal table, whereby he had been put to shame before ill.u.s.trious guests. The Prince followed, and recognised his lost Ninetta. Joy bereft him of his wits. Ninetta related what had befallen her; the King remained lost in amazement. Then the Moor and the rest of the Court came crowding into the kitchen, to find their monarch. He, with an air of haughty dignity, bade the princely couple retire into the scullery. He chose the hearth for his throne, and took his seat there with majestic sternness. The courtiers a.s.sembled round him; and as it happens in the story-book, the King now performed his part of ultimate adjudicator. What, he inquired, would be proper punishments for the several parties incriminated in these occurrences?

Various opinions were offered. Then the King in his fury condemned Smeraldina to the flames. Celio appeared. He unmasked the hidden culpability of Clarice, Leandro, and Brigh.e.l.la. They were sentenced to cruel banishment. The two Princes were finally summoned from the scullery, and universal gladness crowned the termination of this high act of justice.

Celio warned Truffaldino that it was his most solemn duty to keep Martellian verses, those inventions of the devil, out of all dishes served up at the royal table. His function was to make his sovereigns laugh.

The play wound up with that marriage festival which all children know by heart--the banquet of preserved radishes, skinned mice, stewed cats, and so forth. And inasmuch as the journalists were wont in those days to blow their trumpets of applause over every new work which appeared from Signor Goldoni's pen, we concluded with an epilogue, in which the spectators were besought to use all their influence with these journalists, in order that a crumb of eulogy might be bestowed upon our rigmarole of mystical absurdities.

It was not my fault that a courteous public called for the repet.i.tion of this fantastic parody on many successive evenings. The theatre was crowded, and Sacchi's company began to breathe again after their long discouragement.

VI.

Such is Gozzi's own account of his first acted fable.

The public had been invited to sit as umpires in the controversy between him and their two favourite playwrights. They had been requested to suspend their judgment before finally p.r.o.nouncing sentence against the _Commedia dell' Arte_. The result of the experiment was a decided triumph for the author of the _Three Oranges_, for Sacchi's company, and for the Granelleschi. But, what was more important, Gozzi, at the commencement of his forty-first year, now discovered himself to be possessed of dramatic ability in no common degree, and of a peculiar kind. The success of the _Three Oranges_ suggested the notion that use might be made of fairy tales, not only for maintaining the impromptu style of Italian Comedy, and amusing the public with piquant novelties, but also for conveying moral lessons under the form of allegory, and mingling tragic pathos with the humours of the masks. Accordingly Gozzi composed a succession of similar pieces, gradually suppressing the burlesque elements, enlarging the sphere of didactic satire, pathos, and dramatic action, relying less upon the mechanical attractions of transformation scenes and _lazzi_, writing the princ.i.p.al parts in full, and versifying a considerable portion of the dialogue.

_Il Corvo_ was produced at Milan in the summer of 1761, and at Venice in October 1761. _Il Re Cervo_ appeared in January 1762; _Turandot_ perhaps in the same month; _La Donna Serpente_ in October 1762; _Zobeide_ in November 1763; _I Pitocchi Fortunati_ in November 1764; _Il Mostro Turchino_ in December of the same year; _L'Augellino Belverde_ in January 1765; _Zeim, Re de'Geni_ in November 1765. These, with _L'Amore delle Tre Melarancie_, form the ten _Fiabe._ After the production of _Zeim_, Gozzi judged that the vein had been worked out, and turned his attention to adaptations of Spanish dramas for the stage.