Mary Shelley, The Journals of Mary Shelley: 1814-1844

Performer Name:

Sgricci; Rossetti

Performance Venue:

Lucca; Pisa

Performance Date:

1820, 1821, 1830

Author:

Shelley, Mary

Date Written:

1820, 1821, 1830

Language:

English

Publication Title:

The Journals of Mary Shelley: 1814-1844

Article Title:

 

Page Numbers:

1:341-44,348-50,515

Additional Info:

Qtd from vol. 1; ed. Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert.

Publisher:

Clarendon Press

Place of Publication:

Oxford

Date Published:

1987

Text:

[341] Friday — Dec.1 [1820] […] Sgricci is introduced […]

Teusday 5th […] Sgricci in the evening. […]

Thursday 7th […] Sgricci dines with us. […]

[342] Teusday 12th […] Sgricci in the evening

[343] Thursday 21st […] go to the theatre & hear the Improvise of Sgricci–A most wonderful & delightful exhibition — He poured forth a torrent of poetry clothed in the most beautiful language*

Friday 22nd […] Pacchiani & Sgricci. […]

[344] Monday 25 — […] Sgricci & Mr. Taaffe in the evening

Teusday 26th […] Sgricci to dinner —

[348] Friday 5 [January 1821] […] Sgriccis Accademia at Lucca tonight. […]

**

[349] Friday 12 […] Sgricci calls […]

Saturday 13th […] Sgricci & afterwards Pacchiani call in the evening.

Friday 19th […] Pacchiani & Sgricci Mr. Taaffe call […]

[350] Saturday 20th […] Sgricci & Mr. Taaffe

Teusday 23rd […] Sgricci comes. […]

Wednesday 24th Sgricci calls to take leave. […]

[515] 24 Sep — [1830] […] Rosetti [Gabriele] is there [at the home of John Dean Paul and Georgiana Beauclerk] to improvisare*** one night […]

*Sgricci improvised a canzone on the theme of Pyramus and Thisbe and then a tragedy, 'Iphigenia in Tauris'. (C, pp. 198-9.) Mary was delighted with the performance, which she described to Leigh Hunt in her letter of 29 December, but the rest of the audience did not share her enthusiasm: the theatre was half-empty and some of the professors at the University wished to 'put Sgricci down' by abusing his performance. An Irishman (presumably John Taaffe) compelled the ringleader, Professor Rossini, to remain silent, and the recital finished without incident. (MWS L1. 171-2.) Medwin in the Life records that Shelley was much impressed by Sgricci's performance: 'I remember Shelley's admiring greatly his comparing Orestes to one high column, all that remained for the support of a house. Shelley said that "his appearance on the stage, his manner of acting, the intonations of his voice, varied to suit the characters he impersonated, had a magical effect, and that his Chorusses in the most intricate metres, were worthy of the Greeks".' (Medwin, Life, p.266.) In the Conversations of Lord Byron (1824), Medwin makes Byron select the same passage for comment in a discussion between Byron and Shelley on Sgricci's merits, but it is more likely that the remark was Shelley's, since there is no record of Byron's ever seeing Sgricci's performance on this theme. In Milan in 1816 Byron and Polidori had heard Sgricci on the theme of Eteocles and Polynices, and according to Polidori's account had not been greatly impressed. (Polidori, Diary, pp. 183-6.)

**Mary wished to attend Sgricci's Academia at Lucca on the evening of 11 January, but Shelley was suffering from boils and was not well enough to take her, so at his suggestion she was taken to Lucca by Pacchiani the following day. When they arrived at the theatre they found that the performance had been put off until 12 January. Pacchiani was forced to return to Pisa, but arranged for Mary to stay until the next day [349] and attend Sgricci's performance in the box of a friend of his, the Marchesa Bernardini. (MWS L1.175-6, 178n., 179n.)

***Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti (1783-1854) was an expatriate Italian poet and father of Dante Gabriel, William Michael, and Christina Rossetti. He had made a name for himself as a lyrical improvisator in Italy but refused to employ his gift for monetary gain in England. Rather he used it to extend his introductions. He felt that 'Although this sort of marvel is so difficult of accomplishment, still the effect it produces is very transitory. It astonishes, true; but in the long run a man who does it for pay loses dignity…' Nevertheless, there is a record of his having given a private family performance as late as 1840.

In addition to the meeting recorded in this entry, Mary saw Rossetti at least twice more at the Stanhopes' on 30 March 1832 and on 24 October 1833 (see Godwin's diary, Abinger reel 2). She wrote to him twice in 1835 (see MWS L (Jones) II.93-6), seeking information about Alfieri and Monti for the Italian Lives she was writing for Dr. Lardner and asking Rossetti to arrange a meeting for her with Rossetti's father-in-law, Gaetano Polidori, who had been Alfieri's secretary betweeen 1785 and 1789. For more information about Rossetti see Appendix III.

Notes:

Collected by:

DP