Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-05-17
TIE MARRIAGE PLATE.

1t was a very old plate old rs the hills, or
so the people thought; one of those sacred
plates. with circular well in the centre to
hold sweatmeats. which were called marriage
plates in the old time, and were painted for
brave bridal festivities by Maestro Georgia
and Orazio Fontane, and all their lesser broth
er artists III Urbino and Gubbio, Pesaro and
Pavia, Castelli and Savonna, Faenza and Fer
rara, and all the other art towns, where the
ceramic painters dwelt in peace amidst the
turmoil of tumutuous ages.
1t hung, framed in round worm-eaten bit
| of wood, on n rusty nail, among the dried
| herbs and the kitchen-ware in the house of
Giudctta Bernacco and it was an article of
| faith with Giudetta and all her kith and kin
that it must never be touched, or evil would
come dust all round it they might, but
touch it never. That it brought good luck
hanging there, and would bring evil if re-
moved, they believed as devouty as they did
| in their priests and their saints. II asked
why. they said because they did so their
| fathers had done so before them-a reason
strong enough to satisfy the most skeptical
inquiry.
Giudetta would cross herself sometimes
when she looked ut the plate as if it Were a
pieta.
1T brings good fortune" she would say,
always.
She was over eighty years of age. She had
lost her husband in her youth her two sons
had been killed, one in battle, the other by
| lightning She had known sickness, sorrow,
priyaton, pain of all kinds, summer and win
ter; still she thought the plate brought good
fortune. Il have lived to bring up Faello,' -
she would say, and think all mercies of Heav-
en- comprised in that phrase
Faelo (RaiTaelle) was her grandson, the
only male left of her stock, though n tribe of
his little sisters had clustered round the soup
pot and grown up with him-rosy, vigorous
little maidens, strong AS donkeys, and useful
indoors and ont as Tuscan country girls al
ways are from their infancy. Faello was n
youth now, manly and strong, handsome and
robust honest and brave, and the Obedient
right hand of his grandmother. Their cot
tage stood ON wind-swept hill Just under
meath the village of Impruneta; their sole
wealth was two mules and q cart, and their
means of livelihood came from carrying to
and fro the city the earthen vases and pots
for which Impruueta is famous, Giudetta,
when Faello was baby, and her sons were
both dead had been obliged to keep lad to
drive the mules, and had had many weary
hour, and terrible trouble to keep the soup
pot full for all the tumbling babies, and wool
en- clothes on their little bodies in the hard
winter times; but now Faelo, for space OF
four years, had been old enough to be trusted
with this.labor, and so the carrying of the pots
was now all profit The little stout maidens
plated straw, fetched water, hoed the plot of
ground, gathered fire wood in the fir woods,
and cut fodder for the mules They managed
to live, and had bit of meat sometimes for
Sundays and feast-days.
The saints are so good to MS - would Gil
udetta say, in all seriousness and content
"and the plate brings fair fortune, you
know"
Faello and all his sisters were in great awe
and reverence of the Marriage Plate. 1t was
curiousy painted in polychrome, like most OF
these plates, with a Scriptural theme-the
nuptials of Rebekah and of Isaac; all the
personages We're in sixteenth century garb,
! and tue whole was brilliant with those irides
cent hues, those reflections as of mother-of
pearl and of gold, of which these early artists
had the mastery A motto ran round its out
er rim in black-letter, and the bridegroom Of
fered to his bride shield emblazoned witt
many gorgeous quarterings and the corone
of n duke
They could hardly see it, hung up in th,
dark over dresser as it was, with bundles Of
dried ar5oram and thyme but now ant
then they held lamp up TO it and saw the
light glow ON the colors, and the black-lettel
, inscription, which they could not read, an(
then would tremble as Giudetta told then
how it had been always there in her father
fathers time, and of how some did say tina
they themselves came of the great family
whose cdronet and arms were on it not bu
what that was nonsense, no doubt.
Was it nonsense thought Faello. He die
not much care but he was n proud, silen
boy, and was called 'superbo" by his com
rades, because lie never was much inclined t
drink and play and 60 trapping birds on Sun
days, and chatter Mt the wine-shOp door
through summer nights as they did. Faell'
. got up while the east was still dark, harnesseG