BROWNING'S ITALY (3 page)

"Lo, the past is hurled In twain: up-thrust, out-staggering on the World. Subsiding into shape, a darkness rears Its outline, kindles at the core, appears Verona. Tis six hundred years and more Since an event. The Second Friedrich wore The purple, and the Third Honorius filled The holy chair. That autumn eve was stilled: A last remains of sunset dimly burned

O'er the far forests, like a torch-flame tumed

By the wind back upon its bearer's hand

In one long flare of crimson; as a brand,

The woods beneath lay black. A single eye

From all Verona cared for the soft sky.

But, gathering in its ancient market-place,

Talked group with restless group; and not a face

But wrath made livid, for among them were

Death's staunch purveyors, such as have in care

To feast him. Fear had long since taken root

In every breast, and now these crushed its fruit,

The ripe hate, like a wine: to note the way

It worked while each grew drunk! Men grave and gray

Stood, with shut eyelids, rocking to and fro,

Letting the silent luxury trickle slow

About the hollows where a heart should be;

But the young gulped with a delirious glee

Some foretaste of their first debauch in blood

At the fierce news: for, be it understood,

Envoys apprised Verona that her prince,

Count Richard of Saint Boniface, joined since

A year with Azzo, Este's Lord, to thrust

Taurello Salinguerra, prince in trust

With Ecelin Romano, from his seat

Ferrara, — over zealous in the feat

And stumbling on a peril unaware,

Was captive, trammelled in his proper snare,

They phrase it, taken by his own intrigue.

Immediate succor from the Lombard league

Of fifteen cities that affect the Pope,

For Azzo, therefore, and his fellow-hope

Of the Guelf cause, a glory overcast!

Men's faces, late agape, are now aghast.

•Prone is the purple pavis; Este makes

Mirth for the devil where he undertakes To play the Ecelin; as if it cost Merely your pushing by to gain a post Like his! The patron teils ye, once for all, There be sound reasons that preferment fall On our beloved.' . . .

'Duke o* the Rood, why not?'

This passage places before us a crisis in the struggles of the Guelfs and the Ghibel-lines. It will be worth while to pause a moment here to try and gain a clear notion of the historical events that form the back-ground of the poem.

Various origins of the terms Guelf and Ghibelline have been suggested, but the most authentic is probably that sanctioned by Cabot's History of Italy, which traces their derivation to Germany. Here they had been the rallying words of faction for more than half a Century before they appeared on Italian soil. The name of Guelf belonged to an illustrious family, several of whom had been dukes of Bavaria in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The heiress of the last of these intermarried with a younger son of the house of Este, a noble family settled near Padua, and the owners of great estates on each bank of the lower Po. The name of Ghibelline is supposed to have been derived

from a village in Franconia, whence Conrad the Salic came, the progenitor, through females, of the Suabian emperors. At the election of Lothaire in 1125, the Suabian family were disappointed of what they considered almost an hereditary possession; and at this time a hostility appears to have commenced be-tween them and the house of Guelf, which was nearly related to Lothaire. The eider branch of this house flourished in Italy. When, about the year 1200, the cities of Lombardy wanted some designations by which they could distinguish the two leading par-ties, and though füll of mutual animosity had no general subject of contention, they chose these appellations. Generally speak-ing, the Guelfs were on the side of the Pope and the Ghibellines on the side of the Emperor.

At the time when the second Frederick wore the purple, and the third Honorius was Pope, the contest between Pope and Emperor was nearing that climax which was to end in the downfall of the temporal power in Italy. • Frederick II was one of the most remark-able figures in Italian history, and though himself doomed to destruction, he as much as Dante was the torch-bearer of the Coming intellectual awakening. If Sordello was the

DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE 19

forerunner of Dante, Frederick might well have been called the forerunner of the Medicis. The description given of him by Sedgwick in his "Short History of Italy" brings his qualities before us vividly. "Frederick him-self is the central figure of the period. In his lifetime he excited love and hate to extrava-gance and he still excites the enthusiasm of scholars." Dante Gabriel Rossetti places him among the poets in Dante's circle. Sedgwick goes on "His is the most interest-ing Italian personality between St. Francis and Dante, for though he inherited the Hohen-stauffen vigor and energy, he got his chief traits from his Sicilian mother. Poet, law-giver, soldier, statesman, he was the wonder of the world. Impetuous, terrible, voluptu-ous, refined, he was a kind of Csesarian Byron. In most ways he outstripped con-temporary thought, in many ways he outstripped contemporary sympathy. He was sceptical of the Athanasian creed, of Com-munal freedom, and of other things which his Italian countrymen believed devoutly while they were sceptical of the divine right of the Empire, of the blessing of a strong central government, and of other matters which he believed!"

After several years of skirmishing, the

hatred of Frederick II and his policy among the Guelf cities of Lombardy, broke out in a protracted war. Among the Lombardy cities engaged in this warfare the most im-portant to us is the city of Verona. It falls into a group along with Vicenza, Padua, and Treviso — all inclined to Guelf interests. But there was a powerful body of small nobility who had fortified themselves in the hilly countiy in the neighborhood, and who had never been forced to quit their fortresses or to reside within the walls. These attached themselves to the side of the Emperor. Among those who became important in the civil feuds of that time, the Ecelins were con-spicuous, and, as we shall see later, Ezzel-lino da Romano or Ecelinlllwasof soferocious a nature, that even his supporters turned against him. The Ecelin mentioned in this passage was the father of Ecelin III, Alberic and Palma, his wife being the Adelaide of the poem. Ecelin II, called the hillcat, was the representative of the Emperor and head of the Ghibelline party, but in 1223 he divided his lands between his two sons and himself became a monk. Browning repre-sents him at this time as dozing at Oliero,

"with dry lips Telling upon his perished finger-tips

DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE 21

How many ancestors are to depose

Ere he be Satan's Viceroy when the doze

Deposits him in hell."

Taurello Salinguerra was Ecelin's chief lieutenant, and head of the Ghibelline party at Ferrara. Opposed to these Ghibelline leaders were Azzo VII, Marquis of Este and Ancona, and Count Richard of St. Boniface, Prince of Verona. History explains that the Marquises of Este were by far the most powerful nobles in eastern Lombardy, and about the end of the twelfth Century began to be considered the heads of the church party in their neighborhood. They were frequently chosen for the chief magistrate or Podestä, by the cities of Romagna, and in 1208 the people of Ferrara set the fatal ex-ample of sacrificing their freedom for trän-quillity by electing Azzo VII, Marquis of Este, as their lord or sovereign.

Such was the general state of äffairs — all that ordinary history usually goes into, when the event happened that Browning describes in this passage, and for the history of which we may glean a little in Muratori's "Annais," made accessible by W. M. Rossetti's trans-lations. Browning describes the life of Tau-rello leading up to this event in a passage in Book IV, where he teils how Taurello dwelt

at Ferrara, representing, of course, the side of the Emperor. The Estes did not inter-fere with him until Linguetta Marchesalla, left heiress of her house, was about to be married to Taurello. The Guelfs of Ravenna, afraid that if this marriage was consummated, Ferrara would fall into the hands of Taurello, attacked Ferrara and car-ried off the bride. Azzo VI was invited to the city, and while Taurello was sent off hunting, entered with the bride Linguetta. Taurello took refuge in the court of Sicily, ruled over at that time by Henry (VI). He married Retrude, of Henry's family, and suddenly returned to Ferrara, powerfully be-friended by Ecelin and the Emperor. He built a fine palace for his bride. But Azzo and Boniface, afraid of trouble, took the initiative, and attacked Taurello and Ecelin when conferring together at Vicenza, where Ecelin was Podestä. Here Retrude was mortally wounded and her child supposed to be lost; but the Guelfs were at last re-pulsed and Taurello became only second in control to Ecelin.

At the time of the episode described in the passage quoted from the poem, Azzo VTI had succeeded to the Azzo who stole the young Taurello's bride. He, according to

DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE 23

Muratori, resided frequently in Ferrara, as

being head of the Guelf f action and possess-ing here great plenty of property and vassals, — one of whom was Salinguerra, himself, head of the Ghibellines. It was ill brooked by his adherents that Salinguerra and his partisans should enjoy the best offices of the Republic. Consequently, in the month of August (1221), taking up arms they assailed the party of Salinguerra, and after a severe fight they forced him to abandon the city. Or, as Muratori adds, "This Guelf success led to a treaty which resulted in an agree-ment reinstating the Guelfs." The next year (according to Browning, next week) Salinguerra returned and Azzo with his Guelfic party had to quit the city. To recover from this affront the Marquis got together an army collected at Rovigo and from his other states, and from Lombardy and the march of Verona, and went to pitch his camp under Ferrara. This was in 1222. In 1224 there was a renewed attack with an army, collected "from his own states and from his friends in Mantua, Padua, and Verona, bent upon vengeance." The siege was ended by the capture of Boniface as described in the poem, and of which Muratori gives this account:

"The astute Salinguerra exerted himself so much by affectionate letters and em-bassies that he induced Count Richard of San Bonifazio, with a certain number of horsemen, to enter Ferrara under the pretext of concluding a friendly pact. But, on entering, he was at once made prisoner with all his Company; and therefore the Marquis of Este, disappointed, retired from the siege."

In the poem this bit of history is further enlarged upon by an envoy.

"Taurello," quoth an envoy, "as in wane Dwelt at Ferrara. Like an osprey fain To fly but forced the earth his couch to make Far inland, tili his friend the tempest wake, Waits he the Kaiser's Coming; and as yet That fast friend sleeps, and he too sleeps: but let Only the billow freshen, and he snuffs The aroused hurricane ere it enroughs The sea it means to cross because of him. Sinketh the breeze? His hope-sick eye grows cum; Creep closer on the creature! Every day Strengthens the Pontiff; Ecelin, they say, Dozes now at Oliero, with dry lips Telling upon his perished finger-tips How many ancestors are to depose Ere he be Satan's Viceroy when the doze Deposits him in hell. So, Guelfs rebuilt Their houses; not a drop of blood was spilt When Cino Bocchimpane chanced to meet Buccio Virtü — God's wafer, and the street

DAWN OF THE RENAISSANCE 25

Is narrow! Tutti Santi, think, a-swarm

With Ghibellins, and yet he took no härm!

This could not last. Off Salinguerra went

To Padua, Podesta, 'with pure intent,'

Said he, 'my presence, judged the single bar

To permanent tranquillity, may jar

No longer' — so! his back is fairly turned!

The pair of goodly palaces are buraed,

The gardens ravaged, and our Guelfs laugh, drunk

A week with joy. The next, their laughter sunk

In sobs of blood, for they found, some stränge way t

Old Salinguerra back again — I say,

Old Salinguerra in the town once more

Uprooting, overturning, flame before,

Blood fetlock-high beneath him. Azzo fled;

Who 'scaped the carnage followed; then the dead

Were pushed aside from Salinguerra's throne,

He mied once more Ferrara, all alone,

Till Azzo, stunned awhile, revived, would pounce

Coupled with Boniface, like lynx and ounce

On the gorged bird. The burghers ground their teeth

To see troop alter troop encamp beneath

I' the standing com thick o'er the scanty patch

It took so many patient months to snatch

Out of the marsh; while just within their walls

Men fed on men. At length Taurello calls

A parley; *let the Count wind up the war!

Richard, light-hearted as a plunging star,

Agrees to enter for the landest ends

Ferrara, flanked with fifty chosen friends,

No horse-boy more, for fear your timid sort