The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-14 00:00:00

LITER ATU.RE.

The Englishwoman in Italy. By Mrs. G. Gretton.
2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
It is long since we have met with more agree-
able volumes than those now before us. They are
fresh and varied in their information, clear and un-
affected in their style, and evidently the production
of a writer of no common taste or talent. An ex-
tended residence in Italy, and a lengthened visit to
some relatives living at Ancona, enabled the
authoress not only to obtain a superficial knowledge
of the various localities, but to enter thoroughly
into the distinctive features of Italian domestic
and social life in a manner not often possible to
foreigners. Her warm interest in their country, her
kindly sympathy and ready conversational powers,
appear to have made her a favourite among the
Italians, of whose hospitality and kindness to her-
self she frequently speaks, and gives many in-
stances. The chief portion of her work was written
some years ago, but the latter part is of recent
date. In the former division she studiously
avoids discussing political subjects further
than their introduction is necessary to illus-
trate life and conversation ; but in the lat-
ter part of the work she gives us a brief resume
of the course of events in Ancona and the other
Pontifical possessions, and at the close of the second
volume she adds an interesting sketch of the for-
tunes of the House of Savoy. She combines a good
amount of information with a quick observation
and enlarged views, and the result has been that
she has given us very vivid and life-like pictures.
The greater part of her remarks apply to the ,
Marches of Ancona, which name, she tells us, is
derived from the term " Marchesato,” or " Marqui-
sate." The picture she gives of the inhabitants
of this district reads like a page from the records
of the middle ages. It is difficult to realise the fact
that in this busy nineteenth century the intelligence
of a whole population can be so cramped and re-
stricted as to make literature and scienceirnatters
of perfect indifference. Politics, unhappily, possess
a more painful interest, but their discussion is for-
bidden, so there is nothing left to furnish subjects
of interest and conversation for this quick-witted,
restless people, but the theatre, the lottery, the
arrangement of marriages, and minute inquiries
into their neighbours' affairs and health. The
authoress observes that her earlier pages were writ-
ten solely with a view of describing the social and
domestic part of Italy little visited by travellers,
but whose features of quaintness and originality
are not often met with at this epoch. "Even in
the Marches these peculiarities risk speedy annhila-
tion. Should they be fortunate enough to be in-
cluded in the emancipation from Pontifical govern-
ment, of which the neighbouring Legations now
seem secure, these sketches in ten years time will
be looked upon as monstrous caricatures. Should
they, on the contrary, undergo no change of
regime, what I have said will be as applicable a
hundred years hence as it was six months ago."
Certainly the portrait she draws is sad enough,
though manifestly free from prejudice and full of
kind feeling for the people. She remarks, in allu-
sion to some mournful digression from a gay sub-
ject, that she constantly finds herself painting in
sombre colours when she would fain impart a little
light and liveliness to her picture. But she says
" it must not be overlooked that I am wrting about
a country under the blight of an armed foreign in-
terventien, and kept in control by the Austrian
discipline of the stick." The feeling against the
Austrian interlopers she describes as most bitter,
which is not surprising, seeing that they add un-
provoked insult to the injury of their presence.
The incident witnessed by the writer herself at a
table d'hote is a sufficient index to their insufferable
insolence to the unfortunate Italians. The balls at
the casino, which were formerly popular during
the Carnival, have declined owing to the unwilling-
ness of the natives to mix with the Austrian garri-
son. At the first public ball to which the Austrian
officers repaired with their proverbial eagerness for
a dance, they found "a large and handsome ball-
room, brilliant lights, and excellent music, but
alas ! to their great chagrin, nought but empty
benches to receive them !" The theatre, such as it
is, is now the only neutral ground. "To an Ita-
lian," says our authoress, " the theatre is home,
senate, forum, acaclemy—all and everything in life."
The Government, impoverished as it is, with gaunt dis-
tress assailing it in the shape of houseless poor, decaying
buildings, and an exhausted treasury, never hesitates to
support and promote theatrical entertainments. The theatre,
to an Italian population, is like a sweet cake to a fretful
child : it serves to stop ins crying, and divert its attention
for a moment, and the intelligent nurse is satisfied. It is a
safe diversion : they cannot conspire or talk politics, for ,
spies, as they well know, are largely mingled with the au-
dience, and every movement or knot of whisperer would
instantly be noted. The pieces performed are carefully
selected, and none with any allusion to freedom, revolt, or
anything of the sort permitted; for instance, a chorus con-
taininc, the word liberta would be suppressed, or another
word of different signification substituted for it. Auber's
:Vesta di Partici is not allowed to be represented, because
its hero, Masaniello, is the leader of a poloilar insurrection;
nor Rossini's anglielmo Tell, for similar reasons; besides
many °then!, that it would take too much space to enume •
rate. Verdi's Ernani is no longer given, although in the
early days of Pius IX., when, after grantinc, the amnesty
to all political offenders, he was hailed as the regenerator
of Italy, the scene in which Charles V. pardons the con-
spirators, and exclaims, 'Pardono a tatti, was received in
every theatre of Italy with a frenzy of enthusiasm that
must have been perfectly electrifying. It has often been
described to me how in Ancona the whole audience used to
sit hushed in reverential awe till the expected words had
been pronounced, when, as with one voice and impulse,
they would break forth into a wild clamour of applause,
which had in it something inexpressibly thrilling and
sublime.
The national love of society is amusingly described.
Every house of importance holds a regular con-
versazione every evening, where friends are ex-
pected to attend to form the society. livery lady
receives some half-dozen gentlemen, either at her
own house or in her box at the theatre, as the case
may be. "In general, every one had at least two
or three houses where he was expected to show
himself every evening ; and from a long course of
habit each house had its own hour assigned to it.
Many of these intimacies had subsisted for twenty,
nay, even thirty years, without any perceptible
variation in the usual tenor of intercourse : they
always kept up the same ceremony, assembled in
the same half-lighted comfortless saloons, and sat
and talked, lamented the good old times, and grew
grey together." It is not wonderful that the do-
mestic circle should not he very inviting; when we
reflect on the mode in which marriages are con-
ducted, of which frequent anecdotes are given in
these volumes. The domestic discomfort is greatly
increased by the highly objectionable system of
young married couples living With the husband's
family, and being kept in strict discipline, like
mere children. "We knew a family, one of the
most ancient and wealthy in Ancona, where the
eldest
thanson,
10 7
though upwards
was
snonft 3a6t,
lainhdortmyation
married for
more
any friend of his own to the family table without
his father's permission ; neither could he nor his
wife, for any convenience of their own, anticipate
or retard the fixed hour for dinner, or order that
meal to be served in their apartments. All their
expenditure was regulated for them, a pair of car-
riage horses kept at their disposal, their servants'
wages paid—even their subscription to the theatre
provided for, and a sum assigned for their dress
and pocket money—being 20 dollars a month to ,
the heir of this noble house, and to his wife 15.
This was considered very liberal." The constant
interference and vexatious tyranny of the suocera,
mother-in-law, is another fruitful source of do-
mestic misery. Her authority is supreme over the
young wife and mother, and as " she is almost in-
variably ignorant, prejudiced, and bigoted—such
being the characteristics of the greater part of
Italian women from 50 or 60 years ago"—the
results of her rule are often most unfortunate.
The education of their families is a source of much
anxiety to the superior class of Italians, but the
difficulties as? ith which they have to contend are most
disheartening. The girls are generally sent very
young to a convent, where they remain for
eight or ten years, and where the following sys-
tem of elaborate instruction is carried on. Our
authoress was speaking to a young lady of noble
family just returned to her home :
,
Not knowing what else to speak of, IFbreegnach.
n about her re-
cent studies and inquired if she knew
"No, signora," with downcast eyes. "they did not teach
that in the convent."
" Did you learn history er geography ?"
"No, signora."
?au"ght us that, and we worked
a beautiful asßui
itsfir
uygo usoerctaao—nf
tevestments
for the priest who said Mass int
our church."
" And what did you learn besides ?"
"To read and write, and the Catechism."
"And have you read many pretty books ?"
"No, signora ; only the Lives of the Saints.' "
" Where was this convent ?—was it near Loretto, or Jesi,
or Macerata ?"
"I do not know, signora."
" You do not know !—was it very far off, then ?"
" Not very, signora ; it took four hours to go there from
Ancona in a carriage. I remained ten years; I never wen
out all the time, and I returned home the same way that I
went."

It is no wonder that they are so ready to quit
their convents and accept of the most unattractive
parti whom their parents have provided, as a means
of escaping into the world of theatres and societa.
For the young nobles of the Roman States the case
is equally hopeless. " Debarred by the prejudices
of caste from entering any profession but that of
the Church; conscious that he will never have a
field on which to display his abilities, -without sti-
mulus to exertion or prospects for the future, the
young noble seems to resign himself to the convic-
tion that his safest course is to vegetate unthink-
ing, unquestioning, unknowing, and unknown."
Such a course is, indeed, the safest in a country
groaning under such miserable misrule. On one
occasion, our authoress was conyeroing with An in-