BROWNING'S ITALY (10 page)

pleted with a Moorish front. At that time,

the f a9ade of this Cathedral was built only a third of the way up. They had in those days a curious fashion of leaving the fa£ade of their cathedrals until the last, with the idea of mak-ing it the crowning glory of the building. Un-fortunately, it frequently happened that the fa9ade was never built at all.

In the present instance the fa9ade was finally completed as late as 1887, the original building having been begun in 1298. The history of this cathedral is interesting, taking us back as it does to the very dawn of Italian art. The decree of the city read "The wisest men of this city do hereby opine and resolve that the Republic will undertake nothing unless with a determination that the Performance shall be commensurate with the grandeur of the idea, which has emanated from the whole community. ,, It was begun by Arnolfo di Cambio who died in 1300. The work stopped for thirty years and then Giotto was appointed Master Builder, and assisted by Andrea Pisano he continued the Cathedral according to Arnolf o's designs.

The first fa9ade was attributed to Giotto, but it seems investigations lately made have revealed the fact that it was not begun until

twenty years after Giotto's death, and that it was the Joint design of several artists, Neri di Fioravante, Benci, Cione, Francesco Salsetti, Andrea Orcagna, Taddeo Gaddi, and Nicolo Tommasi. The design was Gothic, with columns and niches containing statues of the Madonna and Child, of saints and prophets and Florentine Citizens.

We may imagine Luria gazing upon this unfinished fa9ade and in 1490, if we choose, sympathizing with the Guild of Wool in its decision that the design for this fa9ade being contrary to architectural rules, its reconstruc-tion would be resolved upon. A meeting was held in the Cathedral at which many artists attended, but in spite of the fact that Lo-renzo de' Medici was in favor of the plan, no satisfactory decision was reached and not until 1575 was the order finally issued for its demolition. Some of the frescos and statues were carried inside the Cathedral, and a new fa9ade begun which was also condemned. A final interesting bit of information in rela-tion to the Cathedral was unearthed not long ago by Mr. Ernest Radford, who found a sketch for a Moorish front in a small museum in Florence. Browning, however, did not know of this and wrote to Dr. Furnivall of the London Browning Society, that he "never

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heard nor dreamed there had been any such notion at any tinie of a Moorish Front for the Duonio, it was altogether a fancy of my own illustrative of the feelings natural to Luria and Braccio, each after his kind."

During this fifteenth Century the dorne of the Cathedral, designed by Brunelleschi, was in process of construction. This architect conceived the idea of an octagonal cupola to rest upon the dorne raised above the roof, in 1417, and in 1420 he was accepted as architect. To borrow Mrs. Oliphant's picturesque phraseology: "Thus day by day, the great dorne swelled out over the shining marble walls and rose against the beautiful Italian sky. Nothing like it had been seen before by living eyes. The solemn grandeur of the Pantheon at Rome was indeed known to many, and San Giovanni was in some sort an imitation of that; but the immense structure of the cupola, so justly poised, springing with such majestic grace from the familiär walls to which it gave new dignity, flattered the pride of the Florentines as something unique, besides delighting the eyes and imagination of so beauty-loving a race. With that veiled and subtle pride, which takes the shape of pious fear, some even pretended to tremble, lest it should be supposed to be too near an

emulation of the blue vault above, and that Florence was competing with heaven; others, with the delightful magniloquence of the time, declared that the hüls around the city were scarcely higher than the beautiful Duomo; and Vasari himself has a doubt that the heavens were envious, so persistent were the storms amid which the cupola arose."

This Florence Luria loved so well that he would fain delay the battle that was to give it peace:

" I wonder, do you guess why I delay

Involuntarily the final blow

As long as possible? Peace follows it!

Florence at peace, and the calm studious heads

Come out again, the penetrating eyes;

As if a spell broke, all's resumed, each art

You boast, more vivid that it slept awhile.

'Gainst the glad heaven, o'er the white palace-front

The interrupted scaffold climbs anew;

The walls are peopled by the painter's brush;

The statue to its niche ascends to dwell.

The present noise and trouble have retired

And left the eternal past to rule once more;

You speak its speech and read its records piain,

Greece lives with you, each Roman breathes your friend:

But Luria — where will then be Luria's place ? "

In the "Soul's Tragedy," the connection with actual history is still more remote. It is dated with the same delightful vagueness as

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"Luria," siniply 15—. It may easily be conjectured, however, that it is Italy after the Sack of Rome, Italy under the yoke of foreign rule, that Italy which was deseribed by Eng-lishmen from the court of Henry VIII as füll of greater wretchedness than was to be found anywhere eise in Christendom. The best towns were either in ruins or depopulated. The piain between Vercelli and Pavia, fifty mües in length, once so fertile in grains and vines was reduced to a desert. The fields were uncultivated. They saw "not the shadow" of a human creature except three poor women gathering a few grapes.

The political events responsible for this state of affairs are brought before the reader with such clearness and terseness by Sedg-wick in a passage in his Italian History that we cannot do better than quote it in füll:

" The struggle between the Barbarians of France and Spain for Mastery in Italy was practically decided by the battle of Pavia (1525) in which the French King lost all but life and honor. France was most reluctant to acquiesce in defeat, and from time to time marched her troops across the Alps into un-fortunate Piedmont, sometimes of her own motion, and sometimes at the invitation of an Italian state; but the Spanish grip was too

strong to be shaken off. From this time on Italian politics were determined by the pleas-ure of foreign kings. Two treaties between France and Spain, that of Cambria (1529) and that of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) em-bodied the results of their bargains and their wars. The sum and substance of them was a practical abandonment by France of her Italian claims, and the map of Italy was drawn to suit Spain.

"Milan was governed by Spanish gover-nors, Naples and Sicily by Spanish viceroys. The business of a Spanish viceroy, then as always, was to raise money. Taxes were oppressive. It was said that in Sicily the royal officials nibbled, in Naples they ate, and in Milan they devoured. In addition to regulär taxes, special imports were laid on various occasions, — when a new king suc-ceeded to the throne, when a royal heirwas born, when war was waged against the Lutherans in Germany, or the pirates in Africa."

The Pope's Legate, Ogniben, in this play remarks more than once that he has known three-and-twenty leaders of revolt. It is not surprising that such conditions should lead to the springing up of patriots and saviours of their country, who thirsted for the blood

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of their iyrants and not unfrequently mur-dered them. Florence itself was the scene of such a murder. Alessandro de* Medici, grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, was placed at the head of the government with the title of "Duke of the Republic." He proved hiniself, Napier relates, "the most detestable of tyrants, maintained absolute power by the help of foreign mercenaries, and, having disgraced his reign by the commission of every crime known even in that depraved age, was murdered in his bed, after a reign of seven years, by his cousin, Lorenzino. The latter probably hoped to pose as a saviour of his country, but lost his seif con-fidence and fled, leaving Florence once more without a government. Now would have been the time to proclaim a republic; but the oligarchy which had been the minister of Alessandro's crimes did not dare to face the populär indignation, and contrived, by means of the soldiers of the late duke, to place another Medici upon the throne before the people in general had recovered from the surprise into which Lorenzino's action had thrown theni."

The Prelate of the play, the clever Ogniben, has all the marks of the culture of the clergy of the Renaissance, with an added sense of

integrity which might well mark a man be-longing to the time of the Catholic revival. This renewal of moral f eeling strangely enough went hand in hand with the political dcgen-eration. Before the foreign invasions the prelates of Rome were conspicuous for their shameless dissoluteness. There seemed to be no crime of which they were not capable. But, to quote Sedgwick again: "At the end of the Century (the sixteenth) the Papacy stood erect and vigorous, shorn indeed of universal empire, but reestablished, the Order of Jesus (founded by Ignatius Loyola, and vowed to poverty, chastity, and obedience to the Papacy) at its right, the Holy Inquisition at its left, draped in piety by the Council of Trent, and «hobnobbing on even terms with Kings.

"The same spirit that caused the Reformation in the North, started the Catholic Revival in the South. A wave comparable to the old movement for Church reform in Hilde-brand's time, swept over the Catholic Church, and lifted the reformers within the church into power. The South emulated the North. Catholic zeal rivaled Protestant ardor. Bigotry followed zeal. Moreovcr, a reformed Papacy found ready allies. The logical con-sequence of Protestantism was personal in-

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dependence in religion, and the next logical step was personal independence in politics. Protestant subjects, more especially when their rulers were Catholic, tended to become disobedient; and monarchs, who stood for absolutism, found themselves drawn close to an absolute and conservative Pope. The Kings of Spain and the Popes of Rome be-came friends and allies."

Such we may suppose to be the political conditions in which Chiappino, the hero of "A Soul's Tragedy" and a leader of revolt, lived his little day. The play does not exist for the sake of these conditions, but in order that this particular leader of revolt may show whereof he is made. He turns out to be a patriot of very poor stuff indepd — a man, bent upon his own gain, which he hides under a cloak of righteousness, deceiving not only to others but to himself. He could slay a tyrant and with the turn of fortune become himself a tyrant, and produce logical argu-ments to prove that it is a sign of his own extraordinary development, and probably be-lieve them, for an egotist of this type sincerely believes any interpretation of himself which will bolster him up in serving his own ends.

As a matter of fact, Chiappino did not kill the tyrant of the play, who was Struck

down by his friend Luitolfo. He helps his friend to escape and takeä the deed upon himself — not in his inmost soul because he wants to save his friend, but because he wants the glory; proved by the fact that, when the populace infests the house of Luitolfo, and instead of arresting Chiappino, proclaim him their saviour, he does not disabuse them, but takes the triumph which should have been his friend's.

(Enter the Populace.)

Ch. I killed the Provost!

The Populace. [Speaking together.] Twas Chiappino, friends! Our savior! The best man at last as first! He who first made us feel what chains we wore, He also strikes the blow that shatters them, He at last saves us — our best Citizen! — Oh, have you only courage to speak now ? My eldest son was christened a year since " Cino" to keep Chiappino's name in mind — Cino, for shortness merely, you observe! The city's in our hands. The guards are fled. Do you, the cause of all, come down — come up — Come out to counsel us, our chief, our king, Whate'er rewards you! Choose your own reward! The peril over, its reward begins! Come and harangue us in the market-place!

Eu. Chiappino ?

Ch. Yes — I understand your eyes!

You think I should have promptlier disowned This deed with its stränge unforeseen success,

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In favor of Luitolfo. But the peril, So far from ended, hardly seems begun. To-morrow, rather, when a calm succeeds, We easily shall make him füll amends: And meantime — if we save them as they pray, And justify the deed by its effects ?

Eu. You would, for worlds, you had denied at once.

Ch. I know my own intention, be assured! All's well. Precede us, fellow-citizens!

Before this he had shown forth his nature in his subtle insinuations that his love for Luitolfo's betrothed, Eulalia, was greater than his friend's. He sings his own praises to Eulalia in the following manner after she assures him that she has never loved him:

Ch. That's sad. Say what I might,

There was no help from being sure this while You loved me. Love like mine must have return, I thought: no river starts but to some sea. And had you loved me, I could soon devise Some specious reason why you stifled love, Some fancied self-denial on your part, Which made you choose Luitolfo; so, excepting From the wide condemnation of all here, One woman. Well, the other dream may break! If I knew any heart, as mine loved you, Loved me, though in the vilest breast 'twere lodged, I should, I think, be forced to love again: Else there's no right nor reason in the world.