{"id":3622,"date":"2017-05-14T16:19:43","date_gmt":"2017-05-14T20:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=3622"},"modified":"2017-05-14T17:03:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T21:03:03","slug":"review-of-la-morte-di-carlo-i-et-ettore-tragedie-improvvisate-dal-signor-tommaso-sgricci-e-raccolte-dagli-stenografi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=3622","title":{"rendered":"“Review of La morte di Carlo I, et l’Ettore, Tragedie Improvvisate dal Signor Tommaso Sgricci, e raccolte dagli Stenografi<\/i>“"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n
Performer Name:<\/dt>\n
Sgricci<\/dd>\n
Performance Venue:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Performance Date:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Author:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Date Written:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Language:<\/dt>\n
English<\/dd>\n
Publication Title:<\/dt>\n
Foreign Quarterly Review<\/dd>\n
Article Title:<\/dt>\n
Review of La morte di Carlo I, et l’Ettore, Tragedie Improvvisate dal Signor Tommaso Sgricci, e raccolte dagli Stenografi<\/i><\/dd>\n
Page Numbers:<\/dt>\n
239-242<\/dd>\n
Additional Info:<\/dt>\n
8 (1831)<\/dd>\n
Publisher:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Place of Publication:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Date Published:<\/dt>\n
1831<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Art. XIII. \u2014 La Morte di Carlo I, e l\u2019Ettore, Tragedie Tmprovvisate dal Signor Tommaso Sgricci, e raccolte dagli Stenografi<\/i>. (The Death of Charles I, and Hector, extemporary Tragedies of Signor To. Sgricci, taken down by short-hand writers.) Florence. 1825. <\/p>\n

We ought to apologize to our readers, for not having earlier noticed this little volume, which we have not happened to meet with till just now, and which is, we think, of considerable value to the literary world. To those wlio have never heard an improvvisatore<\/i>, it affords the means, in
\nsome measure, of appreciating the very peculiar gift so frequently met with, in a greater or less degree, both in Italy and Portugal; inasmuch as they have here more than an average sample of such extemporaneous poetry, in two tragedies taken down from the lips of the improvvisatore<\/i>, by short-hand writers. It is indeed impossible that they should hence form any idea of the rapturously enthusiastic admiration almost always excited by such effusions of instantaneous inspiration, since much of this must be ascribed to the poet\u2019s powers of declaiming, to the circumstances of his exhibition, and to the influence of that singular sympathy, which, independently of extraordinary talent, enables an individual to sway the emotions of a multitude, much in the same way that a very hearty laugher compels us to laugh with him though we know not at what, and that our jaws irresistibly distend at the sight of, a yawn. But the publication before us derives in our opinion additional value from this incapacity to awaken such an enthusiastic disposition, by thus enabling those who have formed part of such
\nenraptured audiences to appreciate the degree to which sympathy, and circumstances extraneous to the poetry, biassed their judgment of its merits. <\/p>\n

A more favourable specimen of improvisated<\/i> strains, (if we may thus Anglicize the Italian, for which we have no English verb,) could not, we believe, be found. Not only does a tragedy require genius of a far higher order than a sonnet or a few stanzas, but Signor Sgricci is allowed to be the first of modern improvvisatores<\/i>; and even in reading his productions we ourselves are fully conscious of his immeasurable superiority to all those we have heard, and who, we must say, constantly disappointed us, notwithstanding the deafening plaudits they elicited from our fellow auditors. In our opinion those improvvisatores<\/i> merely dressed the common-places of poetry in the musical sweetness of Italian words, according to the laws of metre and rhyme. This is doubtless much to do extempore; but it is to be remembered, that the
\nstructure of the Italian language, its almost invariable vowel terminations and the regular conjugation of its verbs, afford a wonderful facility in rhyming, further increased by the absence of the strict laws which fetter English genius. In illustration of this we may observe, that in
\nItalian not only are identical syllables, such as invent<\/i>, and prevent<\/i> allowed as fair rhymes, but a word may rhyme to itself, provided there be any sort of difference in its use or acceptation. Thus, according to the laws of Italian poetry, \u2018\u2018love,\u201d the noun, might rhyme to \u2018\u2018love\u201d the verb; and if the adjective ‘\u2018lovely\u2019\u2019 were more germane to the matter, instead [240] of distorting his idea to make the refractory noun or verb answer his purpose, like a luckless English versifier, the free and happy Italian songster would just write the first syllable \u201clove\u201d at the end of the line where he wanted it, and transfer the \u201cly\u201d to the beginning of the next, as is done in prose to make the most of space and paper. <\/p>\n

We have no desire by these observations to depreciate the well-merited fame of Signor Sgricci, but make them simply from the love of truth, .and a wish to explain that a gift almost common in some countries does not actually raise its possessors to rank with the Dantes and the Miltons. Sgricci\u2019s talent is, as we have said, of a higher order, and certainly very extraordinary. That any human being should, within a few minutes of a subject being proposed to him, arrange the conduct of his fable, conceive his characters, and proceed to pour forth, for nearly two hours, a stream of dramatic poetry expressing sentiments adapted to the several personages introduced, is really wouderful, and that Tommasso Sgricci has done this is indisputable. His Morte di Carlo I.<\/i> was improvisated<\/i> at Paris, before an audience, comprising the first critics and philosophers of that capital, whoso great object was to satisfy themselves that the improvvisatore<\/i> could derive no help from memory in his astounding performance. The execution of Charles I., as the subject of a tragedy was thought to answer the desired end; but in doing so it involved the poet in unnecessary and unusual difficulties; since he could hardly be supposed familiar enough with English history to treat such a subject as it ought to be treated. Accordingly Carlo I. is not a historical play; it is merely a tragedy upon the murder of an excellent king by an atrocious conspirator, to which personages the names of Charles and
\nCromwell are given. Charles, who for so many years and in so many battles fought stoutly for what he deemed his rights, is here the beau ideal<\/i> of sentimental royalty, willing to lose crown and life, rather than cause the shedding of one drop of his rebellious people\u2019s blood. Cromwell is simply Moliere\u2019s Tartuffe<\/i> in tragedy. Charles is not a prisoner negociating with and tried by his captors: as an independent though menaced king, be is betrayed by Cromwell into signing a paper which, some how or other, causes him to be tried by the parliament for something or other. Cromwell\u2019s treachery being discovered, Charles makes his
\nlast exit, escorted by Scotch troops, to break through the rebel forces and escape to France, when he is caught and beheaded before we hear of the issue of the trial. <\/p>\n

We have not room for such an analysis as might enable our readers to judge of Sgricci\u2019s dramatic merits; (though what we have said, in pointing out his deviations from history, may give them some notion of the style of his plot, and its conduct;) but as a specimen of his poetical powers we shall translate part of one of the scenes that seems to have most deeply impressed his French auditors. It is between Henrietta, who is brought back from France, and her confidant Isabella. <\/p>\n

\u201cIsabella<\/i>. My queen, behold the day of triumph ripens,
\nBehold the moment of our victory!
\nThe faithful bands of Douglas fill the city; [241]
\nImpetuously rushing on the palace,
\nSoon from death\u2019s satellites they\u2019ll snatch the king.
\nHenrietta<\/i>. My gentle friend, the throbbings of my heart
\nSpeak other language. Into thy true breast,
\nOh let me pour the terror that subdues me!
\nI dare not tell my husband. \u2019Twere too cruel
\nTo add imaginary pains to his,
\nSo many and so real. Iron souls
\nHave they, who joy t\u2019enhance th\u2019afflicted\u2019s sorrows;
\nYet of this hidden torture I, perforce,
\nMust ease my heart.
\nIsabella<\/i>. Speak on, my queen. No bliss
\nHas earth for me like tempering thy tears,
\nBy mingling them with mine.
\nHenrietta<\/i>. Hither returning,
\nWeary and panting with the tedious way,
\nAnd quite subdued by tenderness and pity,
\nWhich, as I met my consort, woke within me,
\nAlmost resistlessly mine eyelids closed.
\nYet doubtfully, and scarcely closed they were,
\nEre shaken were the curtains of my bed \u2014
\nShaken and opened \u2014 then me seemed \u2014 me seemed
\nOr \u2019twas so \u2014 that before me present stood
\nA royal dame, of countenance majestic
\nAs melancholy. Brow, and eyes, and hair
\nThat hung dishevelled, shone resplendently
\nIn mystic light. Hast thou observed the moon
\nWith a circumfluous white crown in Heaven?
\nSuch she appeared. She looked on me, and smiled
\nA smile of anguish \u2014 So, \u2019twixt clouds and rain
\nGlimmers a pallid sunbeam. Then my hand
\nShe took, to her unmoving gelid breast
\nPressing it, and my heart throbbed at the touch
\nWith deadly palpitation. Thus she spoke:
\n\u2018Lady, perchance in early youth thine eye
\nHas tearfully on my sad image dwelt,
\nPlaced in the palace of thine ancestors.
\nOnce Scotland\u2019s queen was J, and of the fair
\nWas fairest deemed by an admiring world.
\nThe thought, the sigh, of every royal heart,
\nOf each exalted soul, I was \u2014 I saw
\nFlashing upon my brow three kingdoms\u2019 crowns,
\nAnd gloried in\u2019t, and my presumptuous folly
\nIn youthfulness bewildered me. From God
\nI turned away, wand\u2019ring deliriously
\nIn worldly paths. Thus long from precipice
\nTo precipice I strayed \u2014 lost my heart\u2019s peace,
\nMine own esteem \u2014 and all\u2014 all, save that virtue
\nWhich, buried in the inmost heart, awaits
\nFit place and season o\u2019er the conquered senses
\nHer empire to recover. In my heart
\nShe spoke, misfortune her interpreter \u2014
\nMe this abhorrent land received. A dungeon
\nFor twenty winters was my palace. Then, \u2014
\nShe said, and pausing grasped with both her hands [242]
\nHer beauteous head, from off her beauteous neck
\nLifted, and placed it in my hands-\u2014
\nIsabella<\/i>. Oh horror!
\nHenrietta<\/i>. Soul-stricken by the terrors of the vision
\nI started from my pillow, and mine eyes
\nBent on my husband\u2019s picture. To the neck
\nIt was illumined by the sun\u2019s glad beam:
\nThe head was wrapt in shadow, and appeared
\nAs from the shoulders it were separated.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must observe, that in translating this scene, we have omitted a great many lines that lengthened the speeches without supplying additional images or sentiments, or giving increased intensity to those already produced. We are not sure that the Ettore<\/i> is not the better piece of the two; but it has not the same certainty of extemporaneousness; and indeed in its best passages we recognised so much plundered property of our friends Homer and Virgil, as would expose any other poet than an improvvisatore<\/i> to the reproach of plagiarism. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
Collected by:<\/dt>\n
AE<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this review of the published version of two improvised tragedies by Sgricci, the reviewer reflects on the art of improvising poetry in Italian, comments on Sgricci’s performance in Paris, and translates a sample passage of Morte<\/i> into English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,134],"tags":[73],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3622"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3644,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3622\/revisions\/3644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}