- Performer Name:
- Sgricci
- Performance Venue:
- Lucca
- Performance Date:
- 1821
- Author:
- Shelley, Mary
- Date Written:
- 1821
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- The Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Article Title:
- Page Numbers:
- 1:175-77,178-79
- Additional Info:
- Ed. Betty T. Bennett
- Publisher:
- Johns Hopkins
- Place of Publication:
- Baltimore
- Date Published:
- 1980
Text:
[175] I mentioned that on thursday Sgricci was to give an Accademia which I had little hope of attending* — teusday and wednesday came, and I had still less — for Shelleys boils got worse — his face swelled dreadfully, and though not very ill he was in no travelling condition — However at his persuasian I cooked up a party with Pacchiani & thursday evening at 6 o'clock I, Babe, Pacchiani & Maria set out for Lucca. It has rained the whole day & the day before besides — but it held up as we went and we had a pleasant ride — It was eight when we arrived, and we hastened to the theatre — We entered the box of a friend of P. — there was no Sgricci — but a bad Orchestra — a screaming Prima donna & a worse Basso pouring forth melifluous notes on an inattentive audience. The Accademia was put off until the following night — & Pacchiani who had already missed one lesson in that week was obliged to return the next morning to Lucca — And how could I stay & go alone?
Pacchiani introduced me at the theatre to a friend of his called Georgine — a Mathematician & a man of talent — & very very gentlemanly in his way — It would seem that this gentleman took compassion on me, and he came early the next morning with a message from one of the first ladies of Lucca a friend of his to offer me her box & company if I would stay. So I staid and Pacchiani, to my infinite relief, returned to Pisa.
The Marchesa Eleonora Bernardini who was thus polite to me is thus described by Pacchiani — È richissima, ma questa nulla — è la prima donna di Lucca; buona come un angelo — ha piu genio che alcuna altra donna [176] d'Italia — quando parla è come un bel libro — e scrive lettere venissime — come la Viviani; la stessa a cosa — ma ha l'uso del mondo — e poi è richissima, ma questa nulla — **
She is thus described by Sgricci è ricca assai — ma sicuro questa è nulla per lei perche spende quasi niente — le di lei erudizione e quella che nasce delle giornale — Lei è la piu gran' politica in Italia — ogni sera alla ma conversazione legge con voce alta le gazette — una dopo l'altra dal capo fin al ultimo — è dogmatica assai.***
I have seen so little of her that I can hardly decide between the two opinions, yet I will tell you what I think. I think that she is most exceedingly polite, easy mannered & pleasing — A Blue she certainly is — from her remarks on Sgricci's improvisaing and her evident struggles to bring all things into her square & height I should instantly decide that she had no genius — Her love of journals is probably true since she sent me a couple to amuse me — Well — she sent to ask me when I wd have her carrige & sent her secretary to conduct {me} to see some pictures in the town — and in the evening came for me to go with her to the theatre.
We went late and Sgricci had nearly finished his canzone — When it was over some one came to the box to call out — our male attendant — un certo cavaliere (who had known L.B. at Rome who had made him a Regalo**** of his works) who presently returned to say that the duchess of Lucca who was present had ordered S. [Sgricci] to treat the subject of Ignez di Castro and that he did not know the story — Ignez is not as you said the daughter of Count Julian — I knew nothing of the story — the Sigra B. [Bernardini] little — so we made out a story among us which by the bye is little like the Ignezs of Camoens as I have since found though it may bear some affinity to the French tragedies on that subject. However while S. delivered the argument I heard someone in the pit say — Ha fallito nel 'istorica.***** However unhistorical the argument of his tragedy might be Sgricci acquitted himself to admiration in the conduct and passion & poetry of his piece. As he went on he altered the argument as it had been delivered to him and wound up the tragedy with a scene both affecting and sublime. Peter of Arragon wished to marry his son Sancho to a Princess of France but Sancho obstinately refused and neither his mother's tears His fathers menaces curses or entreaties could induce him to comply. In truth he was already married to Inez and had two children. Pietro irritated by his sons opposition casts him into prison, and then Ignez to save her husband comes forward & confesses that she is the obstacle which causes his disobedience The Sigra B. had said that the story was that this came to late for that Sancho had already been put to death by his father who now put Ignez to death also. But Sgricci — as one inspired became possessed of the truth as he continued to improvise, and leaving this false route came upon that which was the real one without knowing it — Was he not inspired? — While Ignez is trying to move the compassion of the king, Sancho who had been freed by his mother comes in wild and aghast — The king pretended to {be} moved by their [177] prayers — said that he would sanctify their marriage, & takes Ignez & the two children under his care giving orders for the ceremonial — the moment comes Sancho arrives in confidence and his bride is produced by his inexorable father — dead. — It seems impossible that a tragedy represented by one man should in any way create illusion — others complained of the want of it — yet when Pietro unveiled the dead Ignez, when Sancho died in despair on her body, it seemed to me as if it were all there; so truly & passionately did his words depict the scene he wished to represent. The Sigra B. said that it was una cosa mediocra to me it appeared a miracle. Of course this lady was not quite silent during the whole time & I lost much of the poetry though nothing of the scenic effect of this exhibition.
The next morning I returned early to Pisa and found S. a great deal better; though not well & still tormented with boils.
I like Pacchiani less & less. there is no truth in him–but a love of wealth and a boasting infinitely disgusting. It would require volumes to tell you all the <violance> proofs that dayly occur of this disposition. What think you of his relating how when David,****** the divine David, first came out, how he seeing that he failed in some points of melody went to him & put him right, & how the applause of the Florentine audience crowned his instructions, & how the old David came to thank him. Emilia will perhaps relate to you the coin in which he intends to make her pay for his friendship so through her he is to gain favour & dinners from the English When he talks of any one the first words are — è ricco, ma questo e nullo — ma poi è richissimo. And then his innumerable host of great acquaintances! — he would make one believe that he attracts the great as a milk pail does flies on a summer morning.
Of Emilia I have seen little since I last wrote, but she was in much better spirits when I did see her than I had found her for a long time before. Sgricci is returned from Lucca and will I fancy soon proceed to Florence — We want very much to cook up an Accademia for him here — but we have no power — P. says that he can — perhaps he will — we shall see. To me, I own it is no slight delight to be a spectator (to use such a term) of the rich & continuous flow of his poetic extasies — I do believe them to be something divine — In a room he is amusing — I believe him to be good — time will shew if that be frankness which now looks like it — for as I read the other day in Sophocles — You may know whether a man be bad in a day but length of time alone discovers virtue. But on the theatre he is as a god —
[178] […]*Mary Shelley's Journal records: for 11 January 1821, trip to Lucca; for 12 January, attendance of Sgricci's "Ignez di Castro"; 13 January, return to Pisa; 14 January, letter to Claire Clairmont.
**"She is extremely rich but this is not important — she is the first lady of Lucca; as good as an angel — she has more talent than any other woman in Italy — when she speaks it is like a beautiful book — and she writes the finest letters — like la [179] Viviani; the same — but she has a knowledge of the world — and then she is very rich, but this is not important."
***"She is very rich — but surely this means nothing to her, since she spends almost nothing — her erudition is that which comes from the papers — She is the biggest politician in all of Italy — every evening at the conversazione she reads the journals aloud — one after the other from start to finish — she is very dogmatic."
****"Gift."
*****"He was not faithful to the history." The story of Inês de Castro appears in the epic Os Lusíadas [The Portuguese] (1572), by Portuguese poet Luis Vaz de Camões (1524-80).
******See 13 May 1818.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- DP