Carlo Gozzi

“ This mourning of my escort, Prince unknown,
These gloomy faces and these necks bowed down,
Are (well I know it) sweet to your hard heart;
And, mourning, I behold the altar ready.
For all my efforts to avenge the shame
Put on me yesterday, I still am helpless.
I have fought my fight. I bow my neck to fate.
CALAF.
Would you could read the heart you say is hard,
Princess, to see what wormwood your hate blends
With all its rapture. Let not your heart rue
Crowning the man with happiness who loves you
And worships you, and if it is a crime
To worship you, I beg you here: forgive! ”

“ I was perhaps blinded by the partiality I felt for her; and no man, face to face with a woman, can trust the clearness of his insight. Six years of continual assiduity, friendship, benefits, were not worth one straw against the poison she had imbibed. The woman who, with a sound education, might have become a person of true culture and a real friend, gave herself up to flattery and her own perverted inclinations; so that in the end she brought upon me troubles which the world has judged of serious importance and public gravity. ”

“ Study of the Masks, as Gozzi treated them, makes us feel what a wonderful thing of plastic beauty the Commedia dell' Arte must have been. Here, in a work of carefully considered literary art, we have its long tradition and its manifold capacities preserved for us. Reading a Fiaba is like opening a bottle of rare old wine. The bouquet of the fragrant vintage exhales into the chamber, and we taste the bloom of bygone summers. But the very conditions under which Gozzi exhibited this side of his dramatic mastery render translation impossible. In a translation the colours of the dialects are lost. ”

“ BARAK (weeps) .
Prince, say no more!
My heart is breaking. Timur, my noble King,
The Queen herself in such sad lowliness.
But are they yet alive?
CALAF.
They are alive,
Barak. They both are living. And after that,
Wandering still farther, in the end we came
Unto the city of the Carcasenes.
BARAK (rises) .
O say no more! I have heard enough of grief...
And yet I see you as a knight attired.
Tell me how fortune favoured you at last.
CALAF.
Tell you how fortune—favoured me? ”

“ Dear gossip, it is impossible that an old man of eighty can have gone so far without encouragement from you. I have often noticed that he ran away and hid himself on my approach. What reason had he for doing this? You are sowing the seeds of dissension between me and an associate of more than twenty years standing. You are painting me in false colours to that man; and this is your return for a thousand kindnesses. I have stood by you in your profession, and declared myself the champion of your honour. Now, for a satin gown, you are going to destroy the work of years. ”

“ He saw that Nature had to be loved and studied and followed by the artist. He discerned this luminous point in a period befogged by prejudice, tradition, pedantry, conventionality, subservience to antiquated humours and insurgent eccentricities. It was not Goldoni's fault that birth and fortune denied him those higher capacities and favourable openings which might have made his art-work monumental. His genial, shifty, pliable, and yet persistent personality was forced to humour obstacles and to fawn on circumstance. ”

“ A man can only do what he can
do. I can't do it; no, I can't do it.
(Exit.)
SCENE X CALAF.
CALAF.
What is this fellow warning me against?
Who is to visit me? Well, I can fight,
Yea, fight the very devil, if he come.
My thoughts are all for her. Short time remains
Of fearing and of torment: Dawn is nigh!
And can it be her heart is still so hard
And pitiless? Well, let us try to sleep.
SCENE XI ZELIMA, CALAF.
Enter ZELIMA.
ZELIMA.
My Prince, I am a slave of Turandot,
And hither come by ways which even to her
Are closed. Good news I bring you.
CALAF.
Slave, you lie. ”

“ In all this Goldoni resembles him, except only that Goldoni had a rich vein of cheerful humour. It would be therefore more just to call Longhi the Goldoni of painting than the Venetian Hogarth.
Longhi's portrait, unlike that of Goldoni, betrays no sensuousness. He seems to have had a long, refined face, with bright, benignant black eyes, a pleasantly smiling mouth, thin lips, and a look of gently subrisive appreciation rather than of irony or sarcasm. ”

“ It is a singular species of art, soaring by spasms and short gasps to dramatic sublimity, casting flashes of electric light on human nature in the garb of puppets, then passing away by abrupt transitions into mechanical improbabilities and burlesque absurdities—an art for marionettes rather than living actors, yet withal so vivid that able representation on the stage might translate it to our senses as an allegory of the masquerade world in which man lives ”

“ Should she find herself in need, through the failure of her monthly salary to meet expenses, she might count upon my purse. If, in spite of my good counsels, she increased her reputation for light conduct, I should be obliged to break with her at once and for ever. On the other hand, if my principles were distasteful to her, she had only to speak the word, and I would leave her absolutely at liberty. So long as I supported her in public and championed her honour as a woman and her fame as an artist, I had the right to expect conduct from her conformable to my avowed philosophy of life. ”

“ Be you the King, and I will be your subject.
Only flee, death. Only deliver me.
And I will conquer even my love, which now,
Crimson with shame, I have confessed.....
Day dawns!
Day dawns! My head swims.... Stranger, flee with me!
CALAF.
In vain. I have resolved to stay and die.
ADELMA.
Then I will, too, stay for a little while
In slavery yet. And soon it will be seen
Which of us two is readier to die.
(Aside.)
Often persistent love attains at last!
Calaf, Timur's son?
(Aloud.)
Stranger Prince, good-night!
(Exit.)
CALAF.
Oh, will this night of horrors never end? ”

“ I will say nothing to those scientific tutors of the scions of our aristocracy, who instil derision and disdain for polite literature and the art of elegance in diction into the brains of their pupils, moulding them into geometricians, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, astronomers, algebraical professors, naturalists, a whole deluge of sciences, but who cannot after all their labour express in writing what they have taught or what the common business of life requires. ”

“ Pray reflect that old Sacchi has a viper for his wife, with two daughters, who hate and vilify and slander you. Do you imagine that you will conceal your intrigues from their curious eyes? No indeed. They will assail you with their tongues, and having caught you in so vile an act, will spare nothing to cast the truth in your teeth, as previously they spread abroad their lies behind your back. I am speaking far more for you than for myself. I can always save my honour by quitting you without an open scandal. ”

“ It was thus that I formed those literary tastes, to which I have always clung for innocent and disinterested amusement, and which, now that my hairs are grey, will be my solace till the hour of death. The giants of science, to whom I dare not raise my quizzing-glass for fear of committing an unpardonable sin, will perceive that in describing the scanty sources of my education, I am only painting the portrait of a literary pigmy in all humility. ”

“ Injustice. And know you: your chivalrous
Demeanour and fair features have o'ercome
This stubborn heart. Live then, live and be proud:
I am your prize.
ADELMA (in pain, aside) .
Oh, torment worse than death....
CALAF (casts his dagger to the floor) .
Mine! You! Oh, do not kill me, supreme joy!
ALTOUM (descends from his throne) .
Let me embrace thee, daughter. This one hour
Makes good the pain you heaped upon my heart.
PANTALONE.
Wedding! Wedding! Reverend doctors, your
presence is no longer required here.
TARTAGLIA.
Have the goodness to withdraw to the posterior apartment. ”

“ I am sorry to see you exposing yourself to fresh calumnies, and to be no longer able to defend you. With Signor Gratarol, much as I differ from him upon certain points, I should be glad to enter into social relations anywhere but under your roof. You must have observed that I treat him with esteem and respect when we come together behind the scenes. It is impossible, however, that he can be ignorant of the open friendship I have professed for you during five whole years. All Venice knows it. I desire nothing more than that he should continue to treat you like a queen, as you say he does. ”

“ He is a walking caricature of learning, and the low stupid cunning of his nature contrasts with the vain pomp he makes of erudition. To sustain this mask with spirit taxed the genius of a comedian. He had to keep a voluminous repertory of pedantic lumber always ready, to blunder with wit and pun in paradoxes, seasoning the whole with broad Bolognese dialect and plebeian phrases.
Pantalone and the Doctor were only half-masks; that is to say, they held something in common with the stationary characters of written comedy, and took a decided part in the action of the play. ”

“ Two doves, thou sayest, doves so tender-hearted
That they are always paired and never parted;
Scarce grown enough to bear their weight aloft,
And yet already plump, and firm, and soft;
Two smooth, white doves to which my yearning wings,
To which by night my secret dreaming sings.
These two white doves which hold me free from scaith,
These doves my fortune—they are: HOPE and FAITH.
PANTALONE.
He's hit the mark, my dear Lord Chancellor! ”

“ I am only jealous for your honour and for mine. I shall certainly do what I have often threatened, and shall do it without breaking my heart, although 'tis true I have a warm affection for you. What right have I to lay the law down and to preach to you? None. But you have no right to imagine that a man like me, your gossip and your friend, will play the part of screen to your disgraceful traffic. My remedy is to leave you absolute mistress of yourself by withdrawing from your intimacy. ”