Matteo Bandello

“ From this, however, Shakespeare took the theme of his noble tragedy, missing, in common with his French guides, the supreme pathos of the lovers' death scene as given by Da Porto and by Bandello. Bandello makes Romeo drink the poison before he rouses Giulietta from her trance, and in the first ecstacy of their meeting, he for a time forgets that death must soon take him. For the dramatist, this surely was a sublime catastrophe; had it been suggested to Shakespeare, he would have given us a death scene infinitely more touching than the one in his play. ”

“ Certainly, as a story-teller, as a cunning narrator who has absolutely mastered the mechanism of his craft, Bandello stands with the very first. If at times extravagant and verbose, he never disregards the architecture of the tale that he is narrating, but presents the incidents rapidly and with a picturesque vehemence that often lights imagination and not infrequently transports. ”

“ Grieved beyond measure, the good man determined to leave everything and return to Padua. Feigning to share in his sorrow at such misfortune, Galeazzo offered to go with him, and indeed to accompany him whereever he wished. The Venetian thanked him for his offer, and departed; but, hearing nothing of Lucrezia, his missing daughter, he came back to Venice to find Galeazzo still there. Soon afterwards, the young man returned to his home in Lombardy, never daring to say a word to his mother about the girl that he had carried off. ”

“ His stay there, however, was brief, as he was soon called upon to accompany his uncle when in his official capacity he had to visit the various Dominican convents of France, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Travel thus brought the young monk into touch with the world, and so rare an opportunity, at this impressionable age, of studying men and manners was not wasted; indeed it may have served to shape his taste for letters. Much of Bandello's early manhood was passed at Mantua, where he became the tutor and devoted admirer of the accomplished, bewitching Lucrezia Gonzaga. ”

“ He grew up to be a gallant youth, courteous and full of spirit, with a taste not only for letters, but for music, riding, wrestling, tilting, and the like. This greatly delighted his mother, and she provided him most liberally with clothes, money, and horses, letting him want for nothing that should please him. ”

“ We know that he produced a version of the Hecuba of Euripides, that he made several translations from the Latin, and that he had amassed materials for the construction of an important Latin dictionary, which were among the manuscripts lost when the Spaniards sacked Milan. He also wrote love-sonnets and canti in ottava rima to his patroness, Lucrezia Gonzaga. But these counted only as interludes, as trifles by the way. It was by his novels that he determined to achieve a reputation, and with unfailing diligence and zeal he made them the serious business of his life. ”

“ It is true that, on working out my accounts, I find I am your debtor to the amount you state, and as calculated by your man of business. If I have not sooner settled this debt, at least by letters, it is because I only arrived here three days ago with the galleys from Syria. Now I am ready to satisfy you, but you will have to wait about eight or ten days, until I can go to Padua, where I have my wife and all my family." Galeazzo said that he was quite willing to wait, and would spend the time in seeing all the sights of Venice, which he did. ”

“ Though Da Porto used the incidents, Bandello really told the Romeo and Juliet story for the first time, clearly and fully, so that the tale may be said to belong to him: certainly no one has treated it with greater success. ”

“ Tout pour soullas might well have served him for motto. Herein, again, he emphasises the force of our fin-de-siècle law, which, in the effort to entertain, permits us to shock or to scandalise society, but absolutely forbids us to be dull. ”