Abellino

“ In the union of his features were found collected in one hideous assemblage all the most coarse and uncouth traits which had ever been exhibited singly in wooden cuts, and the observer was left in doubt whether this repulsive physiognomy expressed stupidity of intellect, or maliciousness of heart, or whether it implied them both together.
“Now, then, I am satisfied,” roared Abellino, and dashed the still full goblet upon the ground. “Speak! what would you know of me? I am ready to give you answers.” ”

“ Ha, Abellino fears not Venice; ’tis Venice that fears Abellino! You would have me abjure my profession? Well, Andreas, there is one condition, which, perhaps—”
“Name it,” cried the Doge, eagerly; “will ten thousand sequins purchase your departure from the Republic?”
“I would gladly give you twice as much myself, could you recall the insult of offering Abellino so miserable a bribe! No, Andreas, but one price can pay me: give me your niece for my bride. I love Rosabella, the daughter of Guiscard of Corfu.”
“Monster—what insolence!”
“Ho! ho! Patience, patience, good uncle, that is to be. ”

“ Cinthia.—Out upon you, monster.
Abellino.—What, have you altered your mind, my pretty dear? Well, well, with all my heart, when you are in the humour, perhaps I may not have the inclination.
Baluzzo.—Death and the devil, Abellino, is this a time for talking nonsense? Prithee keep such trash for a fitter occasion, and let us consider what we are to do just now.
Pietrino.—Nay, this is no season for trifling.
Struzza.—Tell us, Abellino; you are a clever fellow; what course is it best for us to take? ”

“ That very Abellino, who not an hour before had been doomed to the scaffold by the whole assembly, now stood calm and dignified as a god before the adoring spectators; and now he viewed with complacency the men whose lives he had saved, and now his eye dwelt with rapture on the woman whose love was the reward of all his dangers.
“Abellino!” said Andreas advancing to the bravo, and extending his hand towards him.
“I am not Abellino,” replied he, smiling, while he pressed the Doge’s hand respectfully to his lips “neither am I Flodoardo of Florence. I am by birth a Neapolitan, and by name Rosalvo. ”

“ Andreas.—Be that my task. Flodoardo has demanded my niece in marriage if he performs his promise. Rosabella shall be his reward.
All gazed on each other in silence; some with looks expressing the most heartfelt satisfaction, and others with glances of envy and surprise.
Falieri (in a low voice) .—Parozzi, how will this end?
Memmo.—As I live, the very idea makes me shake as if I had a fever.
Parozzi (smiling contemptuously) .—It’s very likely that Abellino should suffer himself to be caught!
Contarino.—Pray inform me, signors, have any of you ever met this Abellino face to face? ”

“ I will traverse every path and go through every degree of human wretchedness; and whate’er may be my fate, I will still be myself; and whate’er may be my fate, I will still act greatly! Away, then, with the Count Rosalvo, whom all Naples idolised; now—now, I am the beggar Abellino. A beggar—that name stands last in the scale of worldly rank, but first in the list of the famishing, the outcast, and the unworthy. ”

“ Monsieur de Kárpáthy, the proverb ill applies to you also: you are unlucky at cards, and unlucky in love as well. Poor Abellino! Heaven help you! You owe me a thousand ducats."
"I?" asked Abellino, irritably.
"Yes, you. Did you not bet me that you would seduce Fanny? And how splendidly it has turned out! Abellino flies from the embraces of his uncle's wife like a new Joseph fleeing from a new Madame Potiphar! You had much better take care lest the lady takes a fancy to some other nice young man. Ah, ah, ah! Abellino as the protector of virtue! Abellino as a garde des dames! Why, it's sublime! ”

“ You seem irresolute? You are silent? Flodoardo, I have long watched you with attention. I have discovered in you marks of a superior genius, and therefore I am induced to make such a demand. If any one is able to cope with Abellino, thou art the man. I wait your answer.”
Flodoardo paced the chamber in silence. Dreadful was the enterprise proposed. Woe to him should Abellino discover his purpose. But Rosabella was the reward. He cast a look on the beloved one, and resolved to risk everything.
He advanced towards the Doge.
Andreas.—Now, then, Flodoardo—your resolution? ”

“ Alone, and in the most retired arbour, sat Rosabella of Corfu, the fairest maid in Venice.
Abellino drew near the arbour; he tottered, as he passed its entrance, like one oppressed with sudden faintness, and attracted Rosabella’s attention.
“Alas, alas!” cried he, “is there no one at hand who will take compassion on the infirmity of a poor old man?”
The Doge’s fair niece quitted the arbour hastily, and flew to give assistance to the sufferer.
“What ails you, my good father?” she inquired in a melodious voice, and with a look of benevolent anxiety. ”

“ I shall tremble no more at hearing Abellino named. Rosabella shall now be called the Bravo’s Bride no longer.”
Falieri.—Is Abellino already in this palace?
Flodoardo.—He is.
Vitalba.—Then why do you not produce him? Why do you trifle so long with our impatience?
Flodoardo.—Be patient. It’s now time that the play should begin. Be seated, noble Andreas. Let all the rest arrange themselves behind the Doge. Abellino’s coming!
At that word both old and young, both male and female, with the rapidity of lightning, flew to take shelter behind Andreas. Every heart beat anxiously ”

“ Satan must certainly have appeared to his mother, and thence came her child into the world with such a frightful countenance. Ugh! it’s an absolute mask, only that I never saw a mask so hideous.”
Abellino heeded her not; he placed himself at the table, and ate and drank as if he would have satisfied himself for the next six months. The banditti eyed him with looks of satisfaction, and congratulated each other on such a valuable acquisition. ”

“ He delighted in the kind of German romance parodied by Meredith in Farina, where Aunt Lisbeth tells Margarita of spectres, smelling of murder and the charnel-breath of midnight, who "uttered noises that wintered the blood and revealed sights that stiffened hair three feet long; ay, and kept it stiff." The Bravo of Venice (1805) is a translation of Zschokke's Abellino, der Grosse Bandit, but Lewis invented a superfluous character, Monaldeschi, Rosabella's destined bridegroom, apparently with the object that Abellino might slay him early in the story—and added a concluding chapter. ”

“ She was far nearer weeping than laughing already, when a man's deep voice said behind her, in tones of commanding decision:
"Make way there for the pumps; push aside whatever stops the way."
These terrible words reduced Claudia to sinking on to her knees, but Balbilla's quelled courage found fresh wings as she heard them, for she had recognized the voice of Pontius. Now he was close behind the chariot, high on a horse. He then was the man on horseback whom she had seen dashing from the sea-shore up to the higher storehouses that were burning, down to the lake, and hither and thither. ”

“ She looked archly at him. "There is Don Abelardo. You know friends have said that his father and mine arranged for a match."
"Yes; but it is not true. You are to have the making of your own life."
"Papacito, my dueña says that more and more are people speaking of this purported engagement. I know, of course, how the story began with the peons present when Abelardo's father passed away in your arms; but, why should such sudden interest arise now?"
"The peons understood little of Señor Peralta's words, and spoke much, as Indians often do. ”

“ To the chancellor of the curia, Haymerick, he speaks chiefly of Abélard’s boast of friends at court. He transcribes the passage from his letter to Innocent; and he adds the earlier allusion to the Roman deacon, Hyacinth, who was evidently a thorn in the side of the officials of the curia. To Guido of Castello, afterwards Celestine II., who was known to be [p. 303] a friend of Abélard, he writes in an entirely new strain. ‘I should do you wrong,’ he begins, ‘if I thought you so loved any man as to embrace his errors also in your affection.’ Such a love would be animal, earthly, diabolical. ”

“ He was half suffocated at the top of them and had dropped down senseless.”
“But he is alive, the splendid boy, the image of the gods! and he is out of danger?” cried Balbilla, with much anxiety.
“He is quite well; only his hands, as I said, are somewhat burnt, and his hair is singed, but that will grow again.”
“His soft, lovely curls!” cried Balbilla. “Let us go home, Claudia. The gardener shall cut a magnificent bunch of roses, and we will send it to Antinous to please him.”
“Flowers to a man who does not care about them?” asked Pontius, gravely. ”

“ He remembered Roscelin’s experience. There were famous schools in Italy; but some of his most brilliant pupils at the Paraclete, such as Arnold of Brescia, had little good to say of Italy. The evil lay in Christianity itself—in that intolerance which its high claim naturally engendered.
One does not like to accept too easily this romantic proposal to find refuge under the protection of the crescent, yet Abélard’s words compel us to do so. ‘God knows,’ he says, ‘that at times I fell into so deep a despair that I proposed to go forth from Christendom and betake me to the heathens ... ”

“ Abelard, so famous for his writings and his amours with Eloisa, ranks amongst the Heretics for opinions concerning the Trinity! His superior genius probably made him appear so culpable in the eyes of his enemies. The cabal formed against him disturbed the earlier part of his life with a thousand persecutions, till at length they persuaded Bernard, his old friend, but who had now turned saint, that poor Abelard was what their malice described him to be. Bernard, inflamed against him, condemned unheard the unfortunate scholar. ”

“ All the books of the famous Abelard were burnt by order of Pope Innocent II.; but it was his Treatise on the Trinity, condemned by the Council of Soissons about 1121, and by the Council of Sens in 1140, which chiefly led St. Bernard to his cruel persecution of this famous man. That great saint, using the habitual language of ecclesiastical charity, called Abelard an infernal dragon and the precursor of Antichrist. Among his heresies Abelard [6] seems to have held the opinion that the devil has no power over man ”

“ A poor rascal who had many mouths to fill, and was no more than two fingers of his master's hand. This must be altered. He would not reduce his sister's comforts in any way but he must break with Papias, and stand henceforth on his own feet. His courage mounted fast, and when at last, Arsinoe returned from her sister, he had resolved that he must first finish Balbilla's bust with all diligence in his own workshop, and that then he would model his beloved; these two female heads he could not fail in. ”

“ On this occasion, however, he is building a statue out of a very queer mixture of materials."
"Verus may very well call our new acquaintance a bird," interrupted Balbilla, "for as we approached the screen behind which he is working he was whistling a tune with his lips, so pure and cheery, and loud, that it rang through the empty hall above all the noise of the workmen. A nightingale does not pipe more sweetly. We stood still to listen till the merry fellow, who had no idea that we were by, was silent again; and then hearing the architect's voice, he called to him over the screen. ”

“ All the sisters, charmed with seeing and hearing you, would think of nothing but practicing your rules and directions. The young nun had never formed so criminal a design as that of breaking her vows, had you been at our head to exhort us to live holily. If your eyes were witnesses of our actions, they would be innocent. When we slipt, you would lift us up, and establish us by your counsels; we should march with sure steps in the rough paths of virtue. I begin to perceive; Abelard, that I take too much pleasure in writing to you. ”

“ The whole figure of Abel prostrate on the earth, but especially the touching, the more than human expression of his face as he looks up at his brother and his murderer, is one of the finest things I ever beheld in painting. It is in that upward look of pathetic supplication and unutterable feeling that Guido is unrivalled—it is his characteristic excellence. ”

“ De Soto has told me about your quarrel in Venice. The great masters were pleased with you and this, you Hotspur, you forfeited! Ferrara for Venice! A poor exchange. Filippi—understands drawing; but otherwise.... Michael Angelo’s pupil! Does he still write on his back? Every monk is God’s servant, but in how few does the Lord dwell! What have you drawn with Sebastiano?”
Ulrich answered these questions in a subdued tone; and Coello listened with only partial attention, for he heard his wife telling the duenna Catalina in an adjoining room what she thought of her husband’s conduct. ”

“ Verus. "He is a man of at least average height."
"Let us admit it to satisfy your sense of justice," returned Balbilla. "Let us admit it—a man of average height, with a papyrus-roll in his right-hand and a stylus in the left, controls them. Now, does my way of stating it please you better?"
"It can never displease me," answered the praetor. "Let Balbilla go on with her story," commanded the Empress. ”

“ If Héloïse was forced to be a nun, Abélard should be fit for nothing but a monk.
The perpetrators of this Draconian vengeance fled. Paris was all agog with the shame of the brilliant philosopher. There were partisans in plenty on his side, and Abélard takes pleasure in telling us that two of the perpetrators of the crime, including his servant, were captured, blinded, and mutilated as he had been. The justice of the Middle Ages never erred on the side of mercy. Abélard fell into the most abject despair, but still we see in him the same dominant regard to his career in the world. ”