BROWNING'S ITALY (4 page)

Should fly Ferrara at the bare report.

Quieüy through the town they rode, jog-jog;

'Ten, twenty, thirty, — curse the catalogue

Of burnt Guelf houses! Strange, Taurello shows Not the least sign of life* — whereat arose A general growl: 'How? With his Victors by? I and my Veronese ? My troops and I ? Receive us, was your word ?' So jogged they on, Nor laughed their host too openly: once gone Into the trap!" —

The story of the especial relations of Frederick II to the Pope forms an interesting chapter in the great struggle of Pope and Emperor, and is thus touched upon by Browning:

"When the new Hohenstauffen dropped the mask, Flung John of Brienne's favor from his casque, Forswore crusading, had no mind to leave Saint Peter's proxy leisure to retrieve Losses to Otho and to Barbaross, Or make the Alps less easy to recross, And, thus confirming Pope Honorius' fear, Was excommunicate that very year. 'The triple-bearded Teuton come to life!' Groaned the Great League; and, arming for the strife, Wide Lombardy, on tiptoe to begin, Took up, as it were Guelf or Ghibellin, Its cry: what cry?

'The Emperor to come!"*

It has been hinted that the popes, though honestly desirous of reconquering Jerusalem, yet also had a sneaking feeling that the best way to keep Frederick out of mischief in

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Italy would be to keep him occupied in the holy land. Frederick made all sorts of promises, that he would go 011 a Crusade, and that he would keep the crowns of Ger-many and the Two Sicilies separate. He did not go on a Crusade, and he secured the two crowns for himself and his heir. Upon his renewed promise that he would go on a Crusade, Pope Honorius crowned him Emperor in 1220. Three years passed and Frederick with his crowns safely on his head still neglected his trip to Jerusalem. When Gregory IX succeeded he was exceedingly angry at the Emperor's procrastination, and Frederick at last actually set forth, under difficult conditions, too, for a pestilence had killed many of the soldiers, but in a few days it was learned that he had put about and disembarked in Italy.

Gregory's wrath now broke forth in an encyclical letter, which he sent off to various bishops in Frederick's dominions. It dwelt at length upon the Papal side of the matter and ended up with " Yet, lest like dumb dogs who cannot bark, We should seem to defer to man against God and take no vengeance upon him, the Emperor Frederick who has wrought such ruin on God's people, We, though unwilling, do publicly pronounce him

excommunicated, and command that he be by all completely shunned, and that you and other prelates who shall hear of this, publicly publish his excommunications. And, if his contumacy shall demand, more grave pro-ceeding shall be taken." From Sicily to Scot-land this ban was published. Frederick, nothing daunted, wrote to the kings of Europe his side of the matter, and expressing the opinion that the Roman Church was so con-sumed with avarice and greed that, not satis-fied with her own Church property, she was not ashamed to disinherit emperors, kings, and princes, and make them tributary.

Peace was, however, outwardly maintained, the Emperor went on a Crusade and suc-ceeded so well that he had himself crowned King of Jerusalem.

The Ecclesiastics were becoming terribly worried over his desire to put the temporal power above the spiritual power, especially when he was known to hob-nob so intimately with the Saracens.

Finally, the Lombard cities formed a league, and revolted. Frederick marched against them and won a victory in 1237. All the Guelfs in Italy now arose against him. The Pope did his share with his thunders of ex-communication, and at a Council held at

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Lyons deprived Frederick of his Imperial crown. Then an anti-emperor was set up. He was defeated later at Padua, and his son Enzio was captured and spent twenty-three years in prison, there dying. Finally, in 1250, Frederick himself died, to the joy of Papal Italy.

In Count Richard's Palace at Verona, Sordello and Palma are together the night of Richarde capture. Another vivid picture gives this imaginary Situation, for which, as the Poet himself says, the historical pictures are merely the setting.

"The same night wears. Verona's rule of yore Was vested in a certain Twenty-four; And while within his palace these debate Concerning Richard and Ferrara's fate, Glide we by clapping doors, with sudden glare Of cressets vented on the dark, nor care For aught that's seen or heard until we shut The smother in, the lights, all noises but The carroch's booming: safe at last! Why stränge Such a recess should lurk behind a ränge Of banquet-rooms ? Your finger — thus — you push A spring, and the wall opens, would you rush Upon the banqueters, select your prey, Waiting (the slaughter-weapons in the way Strewing this very bench) with sharpened ear A preconcerted signal to appear; Or if you simply crouch with beating heart, Bearing in some voluptuous pageant part

To startle them. Nor mutes nor masquers now; Nor any . . . does that one man sleep whose brow The dingy lamp-flame sinks and rises oer? What woman stood beside him ? not the more Is he unfastened from the earnest eyes Because that arras feil between! Her wise And luiling words are yet about the room, Her presence wholly poured upon the gloom Down even to her vesture's creeping stir. And so reclines he, saturate with her, Until an outcry from the square beneath Pierces the charm: he Springs up, glad to breathe, Above the cunning element, and shakes The Stupor off as (look you) morning breaks On the gay dress, and, near concealed by it, The lean frame like a half-burnt taper, lit Erst at some marriage-feast, then laid away Till the Armenian bridegroom's dying day, In his wool wedding-robe."

Although this scene is near the end of Sordello's life, it is presented in the first book of the poem, after which Browning takes us back to the childhood of Sordello, telling of the events of his life and of the progress of his soul until the scene at first described is again reached. We take from the Caniberwell edition of Robert Browning the following summary of the steps in his development. The first step is when he awakes from the dream-life, described in the first book, spent in the old castle and woods

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of Goito, during which he exerted his powers of imagination within himself for his private pleasure. He lives here as a child, not know-ing who he is, in the Castle belonging to the Ecelins, where Adelaide, wife of Ecelin II is living, and also Palma, the daughter of Ecelin II and Agnes Este. The second step follows when suddenly brought into contact with the outside world at Palnia's Court of Love, there he wins the crown from the troubadour, Eglamore, is made Palma's minstrel; and thereafter exerting his powers over his fellows as a minstrel in Mantua, he finally finds that his skill is insufficient to keep himself supreme while he is swaying others for his own pleasure. He cannot make them recognize in him the power behind his song. The attempt to assert himself through his poetry finally brings himself and his art into utter conflict. He loves Palma, but she is the betrothed of Count Richard, as Taurello learns much to his surprise from Ecelin. Adelaide, having fallen sick, Old Ecelin lost heart, and feil deeper into the clutches of the Church. He writes Salinguerra of the be-trothal of his sons Ecelin III and Alberic, to Beatrix, Este's sister, and to Richard's Giglia, and of Palma as Richard's prospective bride; these alliances joining the Guelf and Ghibel-

line parties. This, with the news of Adelaide^ death reached Taurello as he was about to sail with the Emperor to the Crusades. At once he set out, but reached Ecelin's side only to find out that the marriages of the sons had been consummated, that Ecelin was him-self absorbed in making his peace before dying, and that Palma only was left him at Goito. Taurello at once goes to Mantua, where he had lived for a time with Retrude, and where his family had its origin, and the Mantuans prepared to greet him with cere-mony. Sordello is to take the opportunity to win laureis for himself as Minstrel, but his power deserts him, and excuses are made to Taurello for his non-appearance. He also finds out at this time that he is the son of a poor archer, Elcorte, who had perished in the attack upon Ecelin, in which he had saved Adelaide and the young Ecelin, leav-ing his son Sordello to be gratefully reared by his chief's family in Adelaide's private retreat, Goito. This story of Sordello's birth was found by Mrs. Caroline H. Dali, among old chronicles in the Canadian Parliament library, which relate that Sordello was "born in the Mantuan territory, of a poor knight named Elcorte/' He began to write songs early and was attached to the Court of St.

Boniface, and the lover of his wife eloping with her!

The third step in his development is de-scribed in Book III. He seeks loneliness with nature at Goito once more, and determines to experience life itself now, instead of Irving merely for art's sake. Then he is summoned by Palma to Verona. The next day at evening he reaches Verona — the moment and scene sketched at the beginning of the poem have arrived. He resolves, under her inspiration to make his art tributary to the life of others instead of making them, through his art, tributary to himself.

The fourth step described in Book IV follows as a result of his new contact, at Fer-rara, with two unreconciled social influences: the career of power exemplified in Salin-guerra, and the suffering life of the people. Having determined to devote himself toup-lifting the masses, it devolves upon him to find an efficient way to serve them. Con-cluding that the Guelf and Ghibelline pplicy are equally hard upon them, the only Solution of the question he finds is the Suggestion Rome gives of a universal and continuing city sheltering all mankind.

Pursuing this clue toward a way of serving the people, in Book V he seeks to act upon it

by reconciling the two opposite influences he has just recognized, attempting to use his poetic gift to persuade Salinguerra to Champion the Guelf cause, since that serves Rome's. In doing this, Salinguerra's sudden con-ferring of the Emperor's badge upon Sor-dello, and Palma's revelation that he is Salinguerra's son, brings upon himself the bürden of the decision he is urging upon the old soldier. Sordello's struggle over the decision described in Book VI results, finally, in a conquest over his own personal self-seeking, and he dies stamping the imperial badge beneath his foot, but in a failure to seize the one chance of centuries, to pacify the war of Barons against People, to reconcile in his own person the conflicting influences of in-dividual and social welfare.

So, it will be seen, Browning brings together the artistic and political issues of the time. Sordello is brought into close personal con-tact with the Ghibelline cause by being made the lost son of Taurello and Retrude. He represents Adelaide, alone, as knowing of this, and keeping Sordello's birth secret be-cause she was afraid of his superiority to her own son. Finding himself by birth a Ghibelline, by sympathy a Guelf, and with the oppprtunity to win preferment in the Em-

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peror's cause, he triumphs spiritually over the temptation.

In the sketch of the real Sordello, it de-veloped that he joined the forces of Charles of Anjou and helped him secure the throne of the Two Sicilies. What, at first sight, appears so unpatriotic has a different color if we look a little more closely into the history of the time, and really brings him more into touch with Sordello as Browning has repre-sented him.

Of the two sons of Ecelin II, between whom he had divided his possessions, Ezze-lino was destined to play the most important part in the struggles between Pope and Emperor. After Richard had been re-in-stated in his city of Verona, as Muratori says, "only a few months passed ere many nobles and leading men of his faction in that city, corrupted by Salinguerra's money, united with the Montecchi, Ghibellines, and ex-pelled him. Then it was that Ezzelino da Romana, who in dosest league with Salin-guerra bore a part in these negotiations, hurried to Verona to reenforce the Montecchi, and began to exercise some little authority in the city." Soon this man was to become what Burckhard describes as a usurper of the most peculiar kind. "He Stands as the

representative of no System of government or administration, for all his activity was wasted in struggles for supremacy in the eastern part of upper Italy; but as a political type he was a fignre of no less importance for the future than his imperial protector Frederick. The conquests and usurpations which had hitherto taken place in the Middle Ages rested on real or pretended inheritance and other such clainis, or eise were effected against unbelievers and excommunicated per-sons. Here for the first time the attempt was openly made to found a throne by whole-sale murder and endless barbarities, by the adoption, in short, of any means with a view to nothing but the end pursued. None of his successors, not even Caesar Borgia, rivaled the colossal guilt of Ezzelino; but the example once set was not for-gotten, and his fall led to no return of justice among the nations, and served as no warning to future transgressors. Frederick and Ezzelino were, and remain for Italy, the great political phenomena of the thir-teenth Century."

Against this outrageous tyrant, Pope Alexander IV preached a Crusade. It was so much the custom at that time for rulers to indulge in any tyrannies they wished to per-

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petrate, that advances against him could only be made on political grounds.

Alexander stirred up the Guelfic cities to attack him. He was a good soldier and had Ghibelline alliances, and he defended him-self bravely. But while he was ravaging the territory of a Guelfic neighbor, the enemy took Padua. Great was the horror when upon opening the dungeon where his maimed and starving prisoners were kept, they came upon a crowd of helpless children, which had been blinded by this cruel fiend. Even his Ghibelline allies deserted him, and joining the Guelfs tumed their arms against him, and finally, brought to bay, he killed himself.

Such a fiend as this did not help the cause of the Empire, and after the death of Frederick, already recorded, the Hohen-stauffens went quickly to their ruin. Manfred, an illegitimate son of Frederick's, first acting as regent for Conradin, the lawful heir, then tried to establish himself in the Two Sicilies as King. The Popes, however, deter-mined to destroy this last of the "Vipers* brood" as they called the Hohenstauffens, so they invited the French prince, Charles of Anjou, to come and depose Manfred. A Crusade against Manfred was proclaimed, and with an army furnished by the Pope,