- Performer Name:
- La Fantastici
- Performance Venue:
- Florence
- Performance Date:
- Author:
- Forsyth, Joseph
- Date Written:
- Language:
- English
- Publication Title:
- Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters during an Excursion in Italy, in the Years 1802 and 1803
- Article Title:
- Page Numbers:
- 49-53
- Additional Info:
- 2nd edition
- Publisher:
- Murray
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Date Published:
- 1816
Text:
[49] Florence has long been renowned for Improvvisatori. So early as the fifteenth century the two blind brothers Brandolini excelled here in singing Latin extempore. The crowned and pensioned Corilla drew lately the admiration of all Italy, and Signora Fantastici is now the improvvisatrice of the day.
This lady convenes at her house a crowd of admirers, whenever she chooses to be inspired. The first time I attended her accademia, a young lady of the same family and name as the great Michael Angelo began the evening by repeating some verses of her own composition. Presently La Fan-[50]tastici broke out into song in the words of the motto, and astonished me by her rapidity and command of numbers, which flowed in praise of the fair poetess, and brought her poem back to our applause. Her numbers, however, flowed irregularly, still varying with the fluctuation of sentiment; while her song corresponded, changing from aria to recitativo, from recitativo to a measured recitation.
She went round her circle and called on each person for a theme. Seeing her busy with her fan, I proposed the Fan as a subject; and this little weapon she painted as she promised, 'col pennel divino di fantasia felice.' In tracing its origin she followed Pignotti, and in describing its use she acted and analyzed to us all the coquetry of the thing. She allowed herself no pause, as the moment she cooled, her estro would escape.
So extensive is her reading that she can challenge any theme. One morning, after other classical subjects had been sung, a Venetian count gave her the boundless field of Apollonius Rhodius, in which she displayed a minute acquaintance with all the Argonautic fable. Tired at last of demigods, I proposed the sofa for a task, and sketched to her the introduction of Cowper's poem. She set out with his idea, but, being once entangled in the net of mythology, she soon transformed his sofa into a Cytherean couch, and brought Venus, Cupid and Mars on the scene; for such embroidery [51] enters into the web of every improvvisatore. I found this morning-accademia flatter than the first. Perhaps Poetry, being one of the children of pleasure, may, like her sisters, be most welcome in the evening.
I remarked that La Fantastici, when speaking of her art, gave some cold praise to her rival La Bandettini; but she set an old Tuscan peasant above all the tribe, as first in original and poetic thinking. She seemed then to forget her once-admired Gianni, the Roman Stay-maker. This crooked son of Apollo was the contested gallant of the first beauties in Florence, where he displayed powers yet unequalled in impromptu; defying all the obbligazioni or shackles that the severest audience could impose on him. The very idea, however, of imposition is a violence fatal to genius; and the poetical commands thus executed, like laureate odes and other tasks, may shew skill, practice, talent; but none of the higher felicities of art.
Such 'strains pronounced and sung unmeditated, such prompt eloquence,' such sentiment and imagery flowing in rich diction, in measure, in rhyme, and in music, without interruption, and on subjects unforeseen, all this must evince in La Fantastici a wonderful command of powers; yet, judging from her studied and published compositions, which are dull enough, I should suspect that this impromptu-exercise seldom leads to poetical [52] excellence. Serafino d'Acquila, the first improvvisatore that appeared in the language, was gazed at in the Italian courts as a divine and inspired being, till he published his verses and dispelled the illusion.
An Italian improvvisatore has the benefit of a language rich in echoes. He generally calls in the accompaniment of song, a lute, or a guitar, to set off his verse and conceal any failures. If his theme be difficult, he runs from that into the nearest common-place, or takes refuge in loose lyric measures. Thus he may always be fluent, and sometimes by accident be bright.
I once heard a little drama given extempore with great effect, from the acting talent of the poet: but dramatic poetry is not so much the subject of Italian impromptu, as it was among the Greeks. The Greek language and the Italian appear to me equally favourable to this talent. Equally rich and harmonious and pliant, they allow poets to alter the length and the collocation of words, to pile epithets on epithets, and sometimes to range among different dialects.
In attending to the Italian improvvisatori, I began to find out, or perhaps only to fancy, several points in which they resemble their great predecessor Homer. In both may be remarked the same openness of style and simplicity of construction, the same digressions, rests, repetitions, anomalies. [53] Homer has often recourse to shifts of the moment, like other improvvisatori.* Like them he betrays great inequalities. Sometimes when his speech is lengthening into detail, he cuts it short and concludes. Sometimes when the interest and difficulty thicken, the poet escapes, like his heroes, in a cloud. I once thought of Homer in the streets of Florence, where I once saw a poor cyclic bard most cruelly perplexed in a tale of chivalry. He wished to unravel; but every stanza gave a new twist to his plot. His hearers seemed impatient for the denouement, but still the confusion increased. At last, seeing no other means of escape, he vented his poetical fury on the skin of his tambourine, and went off with a 'maledetto.'
*Homer seems to have kept a stock of hemistichs, which recur incessantly at the close of verses; as έπεα πτερόεντα προσηύδα θεά γλαυϗώπις ΄Αθήνη &c.; expletive epithets δϊος—δαιμονίη which appear in so many, and so opposite meanings that they cease to have any meaning at all; expletive phrases which he applies indiscriminately, as the όρχαμος άνδρών, both to the monarch and the swine-herd; set forms which introduce his speeches, as, Τόν δ΄ άπαμριβόμενος προσέφη &c.—or else begin them, as Άνέϱες έϛε Φέλοι, &c., and thus leave him time to collect thoughts for the speech itself. When he has killed one warrior, in comes the Δούπησεν δε πεσων &c., and allows him a moment to look about for another victim. How often does he serve up, particularly in the gluttonous Odyssey, the same τ΄ άρα τ΄ άλλα feast, to refresh himself as well as his heroes! How often does the ΉΗμος δ΄ Ήριγένεια Φάνη &c. begin the business of the day! The return of such passages was a breathing-place to the improvvisatore. The names and titles which he heaps on his Gods, were only, says Lucian, an expedient to fill up a verse. Such was Homer and such is the Italian; both literally singers; and the harp of the ΄αοιδός is now most generally represented by a guitar.
Notes:
- Collected by:
- AE