Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-01-10
Fraucesca da Rfmfnt.

All Rlminl Is now put As setting
for Paolo and Francesca. love. And,
when the places filled with their asso-
Citations have been visited, the seat of
the Malatestas is dull and done. They
who have been within its walls are apt
70 believe that they have sacrificed to
Cytheraa and her eternal son, and so
secured their fealty and favor. 81 am
always lucky in the game OF hearts,"
SAYS the FrenchwOman; 81 have bathed
fifty times in the waves that kiss the
shore of Fraucesca's home"
"Never doubt me, murmurs the pas
sionate Italienne; al have stood where
Polenta's daughter died.
81 am no novice in love-" exclaims
the fair American; 81 have been where
that monster Malatesta killed his
charming wife,"
Francesca, it must be acknowledged,
was not r.-;tern of cOnjugal fidelity;
but say the ultraromantic, she was 10y
al to love, if not to her husband, and,
while marriage is an accident love is an
essential. Hands may be given where
they are ordered, but We cannot COM
mand the soul. The fault was less in
Francesca than i'm her circumstances.
She atoned by death for her great sin,
and, being dead, 1t is only natural that
lovers in every land should mourn the
memory of her who died for love.
This may be the sentimental view,
and sentimen: springs from the lapse
OF years. The grave questions animosi-
ties and annuls scandals. Convention
ality is contemporaneous; but nature is
everlasting. To obey both is sometimes
hard. We reprove those who offend
the former, we execrate them that
transgress the latter.
Had Francesca been called Mrs. Mala-
tesla, and lived across the street-but
the subject, declares Mrs. Grundy, is
not proper for discussion in the light of
to-day. The indiscreet young lady
should not be brought from Rimini to
be sent to Coventry. She must be al
lowed to slumber in her medieval
tomb in order that distance in time
may lend her the hues of enchantment
or grace of conformation.
Perhaps Mrs. Grundy is right. Five
centuries contain enormous power, not
of idealization alone, but OF assuage-
ment and absolution. We refuse to tol-
crate, or to pardon in the Now, what
we sympathise with and reverence in
the Remote. She who would be hOr-
rid creature in the Present becomes a
suffering saint, seen through the dim
ness of departed years. Time teaches
charity because it stiles passion and
expels prejudice. Blessed, therefore, be
time. History is more than philosophy
teaching by example, it is humanity
enforcing its lessons by illustration.
One always learns much of what has
happened by going to the place where
the happening has been-no matter
how long after. Ii is impossible to tell
in what proportions the information is
true or false; but the same may be said
of everything you have not witnessed
yourself; and sometimes even of that.
l have learned great deal about
Francesca by visiting Rimini, and was
surprised upon arriving there, how very
little knew of her beyond her sad fate
Such things as have mentioned were
gathered i'm the town. They may be
old but they were new to me. Chroni'
cles of love, particularly when they
have a local habitation and name
never cease to be related, never lost
their interest or freshness, in Italy
They spring spontaneous from the soil
the warm sun yields them nOurishment
the blue sky bends over them in bene
diction. The people narrate them from
generation to generation, and thus th'
| tradition Of ages becomes the sentimen
. tai gossip of the hour.
While you listen to the prattle of tn
crone respecting Francesca, you may b
getting the but slightly-altered facts o
five hundred wears before.