New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-11-28
ITALIAN FOLK SONGS.
A NOBLE EDITION OF MISS ALEXANDER'S
ANTHOLOGY.

TUSCAN SONGS. Collected, Translated and Illus;
and Eight Photogravures from the Original De-
signs. Large uarto, PIP vii Houghton, Mhiin
Quando passate il giorno della fiesta,
ALA fnestra mia 10 capoino;
vi VedO tantO bella,
How limpidly the phrases fall and how sweet
Is their intonaton But we lave no excuse for
quoting them in this FORM inasmuch as Miss
Alexanders English equivalent is beautifully
executed and doubtless many readers will pre-
fer it. Be this as it may, this collection of folk
songs from the roadsides and fields of Italy is
one OF the most enchanting ever made. Long
ago Mr. Ruskin wrote a rhapsody over some of
Miss Alexander's drawings. 1t is interesting to
see them here reproduced in considerable num-
Der and IN perfect form. They not the fine
works Of art ii is true, that Mr.. Ruskin would
have persuaded TO take them for one re-
calls the tiny volume in which Miss Alma
Strettcll put together of the Italian lispetu
and stornelli and the fantastic but eminently
artistic illustrations which were made for the
book by Mr.. Sargent, Mr.. Abbey, Signor Morelli
and others. But in her text Miss Alexander need
fear no comparison. She drew her songs from
authoritative sources, one Of them unique. Be
atrice di Plan degli Ontani was peasant OF no
education, who used TO carry stones on her head
for the walls and bridges that her father
stone mason, built The gift OF poesy was born
in her Lyrical lines whole lyrical stanzas
sprang almost unbdden from her lips, and she
became the most famous improvisatrice of mod
ern Italy. From her Miss Alexander learned
many Of the songs enshrined in the present
beautiful volume. She gathered them also from
years Of intercourse with the Tuscan contadini
and that she knew the latter intimately is shown
not only by the spontaneity OF her text but by
the fidelity of her drawings.
Ruskin was bound TO admire such work as
this, for it is exactly in line with his teaching
Miss Alexander was something OF Pre-
Raphaelite. When she made these pictures she
not thinking OF their effect, she was think
Ing Of the facts before her and of how she could
render them with the simplicity that appealed
10 her in them She succeeded. Her peasants
are true peasants OF Tuscany. and added TO the
careful portraiture is that naive charm which
lies in all really sympathetic studies OF the
Italian rustic. The effect OF the pictures and OF
the teXt-whiCh latter is reproduced in fac
simile from Miss Alexanders beautiful script
is enhanced too by the lovely floral decorations
flung gracefully on every page. Altogether the
study Of these songs Is rendered more and
more delightful by the editors artistic accom-
paniment. The songs themselves belong among
the tenderest and most exquisite flowers Of art
less poetry. 1t is not that the thoughts eX-
pressed are always of high poetic significance,
nor for that matter, that the expression is al
ways fclictous. The reader is warned TO take
these fragments dispassionatcly. There IS no
cant like the cant Of presupPosinG everything
exotic TO be- beautiful, unless it De the cant
OF assuming that only the Elizabethan Wrists
wrote gems Of lyrism Tuscan folk songs are
like the folk songs Of other lands, notably Spain
and France; they have quaint imagery now and
then, sentiment often falling into bathos, and,
usually, a certain directness Of epithet. But
they are superior to the songs Of either France
or Spain in the possession OF that ndescrlbable.
impondcrable and haunting note which speaks OF