John Cam Hobhouse, The Diary of John Cam Hobhouse

Performer Name:

Sgricci, Gianni, Bandettini

Performance Venue:

Milan

Performance Date:

1816

Author:

Hobhouse, John Cam

Date Written:

1816

Language:

English

Publication Title:

The Diary of John Cam Hobhouse

Article Title:

 

Page Numbers:

273-278

Additional Info:

Qtd. from on-line source: https://petercochran.wordpress.com/hobhouses-diary/, ed. Peter Cochran

Publisher:

Peter Cochran

Place of Publication:

 

Date Published:

 

Text:

[273] Friday October 25th 1816: Did nothing particular in the morning but < translated some of Pelico’s tragedy — Byron and I to night [ ] the Impro > wrote letters.

After dinner Byron and I went to the Opera, to hear the famous Sgricci.²⁹⁷ The theatre was very full, both pit and boxes, much more so than I had seen before. After some little time there was impatience manifested — nothing was seen in the stage but a table with a dirty green cloth covering it to the ground, and a candle at each corner. The band came into the orchestra and began to play — then appeared a candle snuffer who took off the dirty baize and placed a green stuff on the table, which Breme observed was the Countess Perticari’s footcloth. The scandal is that Sgricci has been found by Madame Perticari, Monti’s daughter, to improvise better than her husband.²⁹⁸ When the music [ended], came in a man whom they clapped thinking it was Sgricci, but who was only a servant who carried a vase like an apothecary’s black bottle, and placed it in the middle of the table. Then came the same, with a man in black, and a little boy, and placed themselves with great mystery at the table. The black man read aloud subjects for the versi sciolti,²⁹⁹ the first of which was one I [had] suggested, and Polidori gave in a bit of paper as he entered, to a person put there to receive it:³⁰⁰ [274] “The Egg of Columbus”³⁰¹ Each subject being read and folded up was thrown into the vase, which the candle-snuffer took up, and shook ceremoniously, and presented it to the little boy, who, averting his head and holding up his hand like the blue coats at the Lottery,³⁰² drew out a subject, “The Attack of Algiers”,³⁰³ which was proclaimed aloud, and the trio withdrew.

The expectation of Sgricci was now very great — loud clappings were heard on both sides — Breme, Pellico, Guarco,³⁰⁴ Borsieri, and Polidori, with ourselves, were rather inclined to titter,³⁰⁵ though Byron and I agreed that it did not become foreigners ignorant of the language to judge everybody in Italy, much less to prejudge him.

At last Sgricci came in, with wild black hair, no cravat,³⁰⁶ blue coat, white waistcoat, white pantaloons, and yellow Turkish slippers. He was received with shouts of applause, and after a bow began with great action. I caught but little except that he would not invoke the [Greek] muses but the muse of Mount Libanus,³⁰⁷ and then heard a good deal about Amphitrite and Aurora³⁰⁸ — “superbi legni” and “infame mai”³⁰⁹ was caught by Byron. The slaves were found speaking in the end of the poem, but everybody agreed that every single distinctive circumstance of the action had been left out and that Sgricci had given nothing but commonplaces — our box was triumphant. However, at the close of the recitation, which lasted without the least hesitation for twelve or fifteen minutes, a good deal of clapping was heard, and Sgricci bowed withdrew [275] and gave place to The Three, who commenced operations as before, for the terze rime.³¹⁰

The subject pulled out by the lad was “Artemisa at the tomb of Mausolus”.³¹¹ It should be mentioned that the reading of the paper gave rise to very unseemly tittering, especially when the reader gave out the “La distributione di Pompeanio”,³¹² as also that the subjects were most of them very bad, and laughed at. One was whether women were on the whole an advantage to society — the best was Polidori’s on “The Art of Improvisation”, which was clapped. Most of them were commonplace classical subjects.

On the whole it seemed a new thing to us to see so large an assembly of all classes, apparently entering into the interests of such an exhibition, and being as much “up” to the subjects as those persons who are to be found in our salons. The mouthful is certainly found here, for the admission being but thirty sous puts it into the power of all classes to come to the poet’s show.

The “Artemisa” I did not understand one word of, but heard several rhymes in “ente” and “etto”, which Breme said were the most vulgar in the language. Also I found that a “pargoletto”³¹³ of the Queen was introduced, and another Aurora rose over the weeping widow. The factions said that it was a complete failure, and that nothing was said of Artemisa swallowing the ashes,³¹⁴ nor of the name giving a name to all tombs.³¹⁵ The signor is not very much au fait. He called the Algerines “Turks”, and either had not read the Gazette, or found it not [276] to square with his commonplaces. However, he never stopped for a rhyme or a word, and went on about the same time as when attacking Algiers.

Again he gave way to The Triumvirate, who performed their part again, and we heard a sort of transcript of the annual bills of mortality for the subjects of a tragedy³¹⁶ — the death of this man and that man sounded in our ears every moment. Polidori had given in “Jacopo Ortis”, the Italian Werther of Foscolo,³¹⁷ but this was not read, because, said Breme, the police, who had the inspection of the subjects over-looked, most probably by Monti, who would not allow any chance of praising Foscolo, whom he hates.³¹⁸

I forgot to mention that for the terze rime was heard “The Apotheosis of Vittorio Alfieri”, which was received with a loud shout — in the very city where his plays are forbidden to be acted.³¹⁹

“The Death of Socrates” was chosen — Sgricci came forth after some time, and, approaching the pit, made an apology, and begged the benissimo publico would consider “The Death of Socrates” was not “tragediabile”, and entreated that the urn might again be applied to, which was complied with by a shout of “To the lots! — to the lots!”.³²⁰ In came The Three, shook, chose, and gave out “The Death of Montezuma” – Sgricci again came forward, and said he could not treat of Montezuma without offending the costume of the country,³²¹ and that if the public pleased he would try Socrates — some cried out “Montezuma!” — some “Socrates!”

Sgricci came forward again, amidst some hisses and whistling and clapping, and asked for a third trial of the urn, which, after some disturbance, was granted, [277] and The Trio entered amidst great discourtesy. “Eteocles and Polinices” now turned up,³²² but the Signor did not recommence immediately, so that there was much shouting and hissing, and calling on the names of the several heroes — a loud shrill voice from the fifth circle called “Socraté!” in a tone which made the whole house resound and laugh, but at last Sgricci began in a low tone to tell us that he laid his scene in the palace of Thebes, and that the personages were Eteocles, Polinices, their sister,³²³ Jocasta,³²⁴ Tiresias, Manto (a messenger), and chorus of Theban Women. He then announced that he entered as one of those characters — I do not know which — and, tossing up his head and hands as usual, began — the table and chairs being first placed to the side to give room for the poet, who, when he changed his character walked to it and turned round in a new character.

All I could make out was that he copied Æschylus verbatim, nearly, in the description of the chiefs attacking Thebes,³²⁵ and either three or four times ended his verse by “Intorno … intorno”.³²⁶ He went on his knee once, in the character of the sister, and was excessively impassioned in that of Jocasta. Nevertheless, the pit began to thin, much to the delight of Breme, who cried out “Voyez les auditeurs qui filent!”³²⁷ and the stage box emptied also. We began to yawn — I skipped the chorus³²⁸ — the whole lasted nearly fifty minutes.

Sgricci was once or twice applauded, and had some praise at the end, but it was a dull affair, apparently, to the whole audience, and the faction triumphed completely. Monti was said to have been behind the scenes with Perticari,³²⁹ and [278] to have given him his excuses for “Socrates”, which, however, is tragedy³³⁰ — for me Scævola³³¹ has made a tragedy of it.

Monti wishes to raise Sgricci, or any other improvvisatori, because he hates Gianni,³³² the great Roman improvvisatore, who is now at Paris in a state of imbecility writing religious poems. He was a real genius, and some of his improvisations have been printed and are beautiful. Breme says that La Bandettina³³³ is a great genius compared with Sgricci — who to me, what with his yellow slippers and commonplaces, does seem a charlatan. The air with which he pulled off his white gloves and placed them on the table before he began the “Artemisa” reminded me of Lord Grizzle’s death.³³⁴

Byron and I came home and laughed, but owned that speaking so rapidly was a strange talent.³³⁵ — Forsyth seems to think that there are signs of improvisation in Homer’s frequent repetition and eternal epithets.³³⁶

 

Notes:
297: Tommaso Sgricci (1789-1836) the improvvisatore. For B.’s reaction to the evening, see letter to Moore, 6 Nov 1816: “There was a famous improvvisatore who held forth while I was there. His fluency astonished me; but, although I understand Italian, and speak it (with more readiness than accuracy), I could only carry off a very few commonplace mythological images, and one line about Artemisa, and another about Algiers, with sixty words of an entire tragedy about Eteocles and Polynices. Some of the Italians liked him – others called his performance “seccatura” (a devilish good word, by the way) and all Milan was in controversy about him” (BLJ V 124-5). For Breme’s account of this evening, see his letter to de Staël, 30 Oct 1816 (Camporesi 386-9).
298: See 15 Oct 1816 and 17 Oct 1816.
299: Blank verse.
300: The suggestions have to be vetted politically before being read out.
301: L’Uovo di Columbo: joke obscure; perhaps combines a pun on Columbo and colomba (“dove”) and a reference to the United States.
302: Italy (I 44) has our abolished lotteries.
303: The “heroic” events of 26 Aug 1816, when the Europeans bombarded Algiers to free the Christian slaves: see 21 Nov 1817.
304: Carlo Guarco, an advocate friend of di Breme’s and Beyle’s.
305: Sgricci, being regarded as a creature of Monti and thus of the Austrians, is unlikely to get a good reception from anyone in di Breme’s box.
306: The hair and absence of cravat quite Byronic.
307: A mountain in Syria, home perhaps of a suitably free (“liber”) alternative muse, for Sgricci’s supposedly unshackled improvising.
308: Names (i) of sea and dawn-goddesses (ii) of two of the English ships at the Algiers action.
309: “Superb vessels!” – “Never an atrocity!”
310: The rhyme-scheme of the Divine Comedy: Sgricci’s technical challenge is now much stiffer than mere versi sciolti.
311: Mausolus was King of Caria, defeated and killed by the Greeks in 353 BC: his widow / sister Artemisa erected a huge marble “Mausoleum” to him, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. As he died fighting imperialist expansion, a political motive may have been behind the prompt.
312: For Distruzione (“destruction”): though Pompey was “distributed”, after decapitation.
313: “A little child”.
314: “She [Artemisa] was so fond of her husband, that at his death she drank in her liquor his ashes after his body had been burnt …” (John Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary, entry for “Artemisa”).
315: “Mausoleo” — “Mausoleum”.
316: Similar to the dozens of tragedies read and rejected annually at Drury Lane.
317: Read by H. the following month: see 28 Nov 1816.
318: “An Englishman wished, when at the Scala theatre at Milan in 1816, to give the Death of Ortis as a subject for an improvvisatore; but a friend said to him, ‘It will not be chosen; Monti is behind the scenes, and will hear nothing in favour of Ortis or of Foscolo’” — Illustrations, 481. Foscolo had (i) criticised Monti’s Homer and (ii) bedded Monti’s wife, even using her name, Teresa, as that of the heroine of Ortis.
319: See 13 Oct 1816.
320: “Alla sorte! Alla sorte!”
321: The “manners” of the country. Like Mausolas, Montezuma, last King of the Aztecs (1466-1520) died defending his people against imperialist aggression.
322: The sons of Oedipus both died — one, however, attacking, the other defending, his country — and not in an imperialist context: a safer theme politically for Sgricci.
323: But they have two sisters — Antigone and Ismene.
324: Jocasta was their grandmother as well as their mother; a source for the idea of her surviving them might be Euripides’ Phoenician Women.
325: Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, 375-642.
326: He relied too frequently on an easy rhyme.
327: “Watch out! You’re losing them!”
328: H. went for a stroll in the lobby behind the boxes.
329: If Sgricci was his wife’s lover, Perticari’s assiduity is striking.
330: Underlined twice.
331: Luigi Scævola (1770-1818) tragic poet. His Socrate was performed in 1804. H. probably got the information from di Breme.
332: Francesco Gianni (1750-1822) a jacobinical improvvisatore favoured by Napoleon. He had competed with Monti in a poem called La Morte di Giuda (The Death of Judas). Suspected of preparation in advance.
333: Teresa Bandettini-Landucci (1763-1837) ballerina, writer and (part-) improvising poetess, admired by Monti, Alfieri, Parini et al.
334: But the death of Lord Grizzle at the hands of Princess Huncamunca in Fielding’s Tom Thumb is over in a split second, sandwiched between his murder of the protagonist’s ghost and Doodle’s murder of Huncamunca. See BLJ II 23 and IV 248.
335: In a letter to Augusta written the following day (BLJ V 119) B. describes Sgricci’s art as “not an amusing though a curious effort of human powers”. But we may wonder whether he thought of him just under a year later, when he wrote most of the artfully apolitical Beppo in two nights.
336: “Homer has often recourse to shifts of the moment, like other improvvisatori” — Forsyth / Crook 33 (and n).

Notes:

Collected by:

DP