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diff --git a/56988-0.txt b/56988-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bb47d87 --- /dev/null +++ b/56988-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,917 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56988 *** + + + + + + + +Franciscus Columna + + +Charles Nodier (1780-1844) + + +Perhaps you remember our friend Abbot Lowrich whom we met +in Ragusa, in Spalato, in Vienna, in Munich, in Pisa, in +Bologna, and in Lausanne. He is an excellent fellow, who is +most knowledgeable, but who knows a multitude of things that +we would be happy to forget if we knew them like he does: +the name of the printer of a bad book, the year of birth +of a fool and a thousand other details of trivial importance. +Abbot Lowrich has the glory of having discovered the real +name of Kuicknackius, who was called Starkius, and not, +please note, Polycarpus Starkius, who wrote eight fine +hendecasyllables on the thesis of Kornmannus de ritibus +(on rites) and on the thesis of Kornmannus de ritibus et +doctrina scarabeorum (on rites and the doctrine of scarab +beetles), but Martinus Starkius, the man who wrote thirty-two +hendecasyllables on fleas. Apart from that, Abbot Lowrich +deserves to be well known and liked; he is witty, has his +heart in the right place, is actively and sincerely obliging, +and he adds to these precious qualities a lively and singular +imagination, which greatly embellishes his conversation, as +long as it does not fall into enumerating minor biographical +and bibliographical details. I am reconciled to this slight +peccadillo of his, and whenever I meet Abbot Lowrich in my +constant comings and goings across Europe, I run to him from +afar. And I last met him no more than three months ago. + +I had arrived at night at the Two Towers Hotel in Treviso, but +I had only settled in very late, and I had not set foot in the +town itself. In the morning, as I was going down the stairs, +I saw in front of me one of those strange figures whose faces are +visible from every angle. It was wearing a hat that defied all +description, adjusted to its head in a way that was maladjusted, +a red and green tie knotted like a scarf, a good four inches above +the collar of the jacket on the left-hand side and a good four +inches below it on the right, a pair of trousers brushed in a +slipshod manner on one leg while the other leg billowed over the +back of a boot with a sort of coquetry. It had with it a huge +irremovable wallet in which lay so many titles of books, so many +notices, so many plans, so many sketches, so many priceless +treasures for a man of learning that, if he had dropped it, even +a rag-and-bone man would not have picked it up. There were no +two ways about it, it was Lowrich. "Lowrich!" I exclaimed, and +we fell into each other's arms. + +"I know where you're going," he said, after we had exchanged a few +friendly words, and then, when I had learned that he too had only +just arrived: "You asked for the address of a bookseller, and you +were given that of Apostolo Capoduro who resides in the strada dei +Schiavoni. I'm going there too, but I don't hold out much hope, +for I've visited his shop twice in ten years and never found books +older than the novels of Abbot Chiari. That old bookshop has died +the death, been ruined and sacked by barbarians. But did you have +in mind something in particular to ask him for?" + +"I'll admit to you," I answered, "that it would pain me to leave +Northern Italy without taking with me 'The Dream of Poliphilus', of +which I have heard it said that it is a most curious object and is +to be found in Treviso if it is to be found anywhere." + +"If it is to be found anywhere," he exclaimed, "is, to be sure, +a prudent rider, for 'The Dream of Poliphilus', or, better still, +Friar Francesco Colonna's 'Hypnerotomachia' is a book that old +bibliographers call by the epithet: Albo corvo rarior. All I +can say for sure is that if this white crow is to be found in +any aviary, as we cannot but assume, it will definitely not be +in Apostolo's. I think I'm sure enough of my facts to swear +here by the household gods of Aldus Manutius the Elder (God keep +him haloed in an everlasting glory) that, if this scamp Apostolo +succeeds in providing you with a copy of the book in question in +the 1499 first edition, for the second edition belongs, more or +less, to the run-of-the-mill type of book, I hereby affirm that +I'll make you a present of it out of my own purse, the contents +of which this generous action on my part would cause to weigh +considerably less." + +Just then we entered the shop of Apostolo, who, his quill pen +poised over a sheet of paper, seemed absorbed in deep meditation, +though he at last grew aware of our presence, and appeared to +joyfully recognize the unforgettable face of Abbot Lowrich. "Is +it indeed the Lord, dear abbot," he said, hugging him, "who has +sent you to extricate me from the most awkward predicament that +I have ever found myself in? You cannot but know that I have +been publishing, for some months now, the Adriatic Literary +Gazette, which is, as all are agreed upon, the most erudite and +witty of Europe's journals. Well! This rare scholarly journal, +which is destined to have the world admire it and to get me back +my fortune, is under threat of not appearing tomorrow for want +of six small columns of serial, for which I have had recourse +to my imagination tired out by study and business in vain. An +evil spirit must have encompassed my ruin and sown disorder in +my editor's office. The young muse who used to write my articles +on moral education has gone into labour. The composer who was +to let me have this morning a brand new type of cantata has +written to say that it will take him at least a week to finish +it, and the able financier who deals with questions of finance +and political economy was sent to jail for non-payment of debt +yesterday. For heaven's sake, my dear abbot, sit down at this +table where I've sweated blood all night without my brain being +able to yield a single line, and jot down five or six pages just +as they come to you, if only a short story that won't have been +used more than two or three times already." + +"Wait one moment," Abbot Lowrich riposted. "We'll have time enough +to deal with your affairs after we've dealt with our own. We did +not come to you, my friend from Paris, and myself from the fjords +of Norway, to make good a missing cantata by a lazy composer, or +to dash off a pot boiler, but to see some of these books that are +at least worth the trouble and expense of a journey, a good first +edition duly documented, a well-preserved cinquecento rarity with +its date of publication, a valuable volume printed by the Aldine +Press in which its English and French bookbinders have deigned to +arrange margins." + +"As you please," replied Apostolo. "And I am all the more willing +to consent to it as this inspection will not take us long. I have +one work only worthy of being examined by connoisseurs like you. +But what a work it is," he added, taking out of its triple wrapping +an impressive looking folio. "What a work indeed," he went on, +looking solemn, after he had quite detached it from its prison of +wrapping paper. "A work to marvel at..." And he held out the book +to Abbot Lowrich while giving him a look full of confidence and +pride. + +"Damnation!" murmured Lowrich, after having run his eye, as was +his wont, over the unfamiliar treasure. Then he turned to me, but +very different from what he had been the moment before, his arms +hanging down at his side, his eye downcast, his forehead pale. +"Damnation!" he muttered in French in a voice hardly raised and +so that he could only be heard by me. "It's that damn book that +I undertook to give you if it was here, the first edition of the +Poliphilus... It's here, the traitor, and as fine as if it had +just been printed. Things like this only happen to me..." + +"Calm down," I answered, laughing. "Perhaps we'll get it for a +price less than you think. And how much is Master Apostolo asking +for this rarity?" + +"Ah!" said Apostolo. "Times are hard and money is scarce. In times +gone by I'd have asked fifty zecchini for it from Prince Eugene, +sixty from the Duke of Abrantès, and a hundred from an Englishman. +But today I have to give it away for four hundred wretched Milan +pounds, or the exact equivalent of four hundred French francs. I +can't even knock two quarantani off the price." + +"May four hundred starving rats devour your books from first to +last!" Lowrich interrupted furiously. "Who the devil has ever had +four hundred francs asked of them for a bad book?" + +"How dare you call this a bad book!" Apostolo spat back, almost as +agitated as Lowrich. "It's a first edition of 1467, the first to +appear in Treviso, and perhaps in Italy, a true masterpiece of +typography and engraving, the illustrations in which can only be +attributed to Raphael, an admirable work, the name of whose author +has remained a mystery up until now, despite all erudite research, +a one-off, or almost unique, that you yourself, abbot, perhaps did +not know existed. And it pleases you to call that a bad book!" + +Lowrich had calmed down during this vehement tirade. He had +quietly sat down, placing his hat on the bookseller's table, and +was wiping the sweat from his brow like a man exhausted by long +and hard effort who has just found a good place to rest at his +leisure. + +"Have you finished, Apostolo?" he said in a calm tone of voice, in +which, however, there could be detected a trace of I know not what +malignant satisfaction. "The best thing I can hope for you is that +you do no more to harm your kudos and your business interests from +now on than you already have done. You have just said four very +foolish things in as many words. If you had persisted, it would +have taken me more than a day to recapitulate them one by one, +and to do that would not leave me enough time to dictate that pot +boiler, so, first of all: it isn't true that this book was printed +in Treviso in 1467. It's an edition that was printed in Venice in +1499 from which the final page has been taken to deceive you as to +the date of publication, and I didn't at first take note of that +defect, which reduces the value of your copy by more than half, +and therefore consider yourself fortunate in that I am able to +remedy this fault, for blind chance allowed me to find the other +day among some wrapping paper this precious end flyleaf, which I +carefully kept in reserve for an opportunity to use it that I +did not think would come so soon, so we'll presently see at what +price I can let you have it." + +So saying, Abbot Lowrich took from its cardboard cover the missing +plagula, and carefully fitted it into the book. "This page fits my +book perfectly," said Apostolo, "but I have to admit that it does +change the nature of it somewhat. Where the devil did I get the +idea that this was a Treviso first edition?" + +"Never mind that," Lowrich continued, "we haven't finished yet. +Let's get on to the second foolish thing you said: it isn't true +that the drawings in this book can be attributed to Raphael, +whether the edition dates back to 1467, or was only published +in 1499, as has just been proved to you. Raphael was born in +Urbino in 1483 and even the greatest admirers of this sublime +painter cannot imagine him drawing so correctly and elegantly +sixteen years before his birth. It must have been a different +Raphael who drew these fine things, and as to him, my good +Apostolo, there's only me who knows who he was. Wait. I've +only counted up to two so far. Now we come to your third +glaring error of fact: it isn't true that the author of this +book has been till today a mystery to scholars. On the contrary, +all scholars know, and the majority of non-scholars are not +ignorant of the fact that it is the work of Francesco Colonna +or Columna, a Dominican monk in the monastery of Treviso, where +he died in 1467, whatever some scatterbrained writers of life +stories have to say on the matter, who confuse him with Doctor +Francesco di Colonia, whose name is almost homonymous with him +and who survived him for all of sixty years. Both of them are +buried only a few hundred paces from your shop, Apostolo. In +view of what I've just said, I do not need to show you that you +have made a fourth huge mistake, worse than the other three, by +imagining that I did not know of the existence of your splendid +tome, and I really don't know what's stopping me from proving +to you that I know it by heart." + +"Just this once," Apostolo replied smartly, "I dare you to recite +it, for it is written in a language so heterogeneous that none of +my friends from Treviso, Venice or Padua has dared to undertake to +decipher a page of it, and if, as you say, you know it by heart, +I'll give it you for nothing, a sacrifice besides I would be more +than willing to make by reason of the excellent information that +you have just given me, for I was on the point of announcing this +volume in the Adriatic Literary Gazette in a misleading way and +there was enough scope to make me lose forever the good and high +flying reputation I enjoy as a bookseller." + +"What you have just said yourself on the decidedly very strange +style of our author," replied Abbot Lowrich, "and on the wasted +efforts of so many scholars who have tried so hard to interpret +it, is ample proof that what you are asking me for is a tiresome +and fastidious demonstration that would take all day. And where +would your pot boiler be if I were to recite the Hypnerotomachia +from start to finish? I nevertheless will accept your challenge +if you are willing to content yourself with trying an experiment +which is no less conclusive, but would be quicker and easier. +The chapter headings in your book are already too numerous and +would try your patience, so I will only undertake to tell you +their initial letters, beginning with the first, on which I see +that you have just placed your finger." + +"Let it be done as you say it should," said Apostolo. "And the +first letter of the first chapter is..." + +"A P," said Lowrich. "And now look for the second." + +The list was long, but the abbot went down it to the final and +thirty-eighth chapter without being disconcerted for a moment +and without making a single mistake. + +"Guessing an initial letter out of twenty-four to choose from, +can be thought of as an outlandish freak of good fortune, with +the devil well out of it," Apostolo observed sadly, "but to do +that same trick thirty-eight times on the trot, the game must be +rigged. Take this tome, abbot, and we'll never talk of it again." + +"May God keep me, oh phoenix of bibliophiles," answered Lowrich, +"from taking advantage to such an extent of your innocence and +candour! What you have just witnessed is nothing more than a +trick hardly worthy of a schoolboy, and which shortly you will +be able to do just as well as I can. Know then that the author +of this book judged it meet to conceal in the initial letters of +his chapter headings his name, his profession and his secret +love, so that, joined together, these letters make a sentence, +the secret of which I cannot advise you to seek in the Universal +Biography in Paris, as it would make you lose the wager that I +have just won. Besides, that simple and touching sentence is +easy to remember: Poliam frater Franciscus Columna peramavit, +Friar Francesco Colonna loved Polia very much. Now you know as +much about this as Bayle and Prosper Marchand." + +"How strange it is," Apostolo said, half to himself. "This friar +of the Dominicans fell in love. There's a story there somewhere." + +"Why not?" replied Lowrich. "Pick up your quill again and let's +look for your pot boiler, being as you have to have one." + +Apostolo made himself comfortable on his chair, dipped his quill +in the ink, and wrote what follows, starting with the title I have +wandered away from in too long a digression: + +FRANCISCUS COLUMNA, +A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOVELLA. + +The Colonna family is certainly one of the most important in Rome +and in Italy, but not all its branches were equally prosperous. +Sciarra Colonna, a passionate Ghibelline, who made Boniface VIII +the prisoner of the Agnani, and got carried away, in the ecstasy +of his victory, to the point of slapping the Supreme Pontiff, was +made to suffer cruelly for his violence under John XXII. He was +exiled from Rome for life in 1328, had his children stripped of +their nobility as was he, and all his worldly goods confiscated +to enrich Stefano Colonna, his brother, who had never abandoned +the party of the Guelphs. The descendants of the unfortunate +Sciarra died, as he himself did, in Venice, in obscurity and +poverty. By 1444 only one of them was left alive to inherit +such misery. Francesco Colonna, born at the start of that year +was twice made an orphan, losing his father, killed on the day +before he was born, and his mother who died giving birth to him. +Francesco, piously adopted by none other than Jacopo Bellini, +the famous history painter, and tenderly brought up with his +own children, showed himself worthy of the generous care he had +had from his adoptive father and from the illustrious brothers +of the latter, Giovanni and Gentile Bellini. From the age of +eighteen onwards, he repeated in the history of painting the +precocious triumphs of the young Mantegna: Giotto had another +rival. Fate, however, which did not cease to dog Francesco's +life, did not allow his young successes to be wreathed in glory, +and it is under the name of Mantegna or one of the Bellinis that +the masterpieces of his brush are admired today. + +Painting, however, was far from being the exclusive focus of his +studies and affections. He only accorded it an importance that +was secondary among the arts that beautify man's earthly sojourn. +Architecture, on the other hand, which raises monuments to the +gods, solemn intermediaries between earth and heaven, took up +the greater part of his thoughts, but he did not look for its +laws and marvels in the gigantic creations of contemporary art, +the bizarre and often grotesque whims and fancies of a fantasy, +lacking, according to him, the outward grace of reason and taste. +Carried forward by the motion of the Renaissance, which was by +then starting to make itself felt in Italy, Francesco only still +belonged as far as faith went to this modern world renewed by +Christianity. He wholly admired Antiquity and worshipped at its +shrine, and a strange alliance had taken place in his mind between +the beliefs of a religious man and the aesthetics of a pagan. +He took this preoccupation too far to see in modern languages +themselves nothing other than rustic jargons more or less totally +corrupted by Barbarians, which were only good to allow men to +negotiate the material necessities of life, and which were not +capable of rising to translate eloquently or poetically ideas +and feelings. The result of this was that he had forged for his +own usage a sort of intimate dialect in which Italian only served +to define certain elements of syntax and the odd soft inflexion, +but which was much more redolent of the followers of Homer or of +Titus Livius and Lucan than of Petrarch and Boccaccio. This +singular turn of mind, which was at that time the defining +hallmark of original powers of organisation and a personality +destined, to all appearances, to exert a great influence on the +century, had isolated Francesco from the rest of the world. He +gave to it the general impression of being a melancholic seer +who had fallen prey to an illusory genius that had rendered him +insensitive to the gentle ways of life in society. He was +sometimes seen nevertheless in the palazzo of the illustrious +Leonora Pisani, the heiress, at the age of eight and twenty, +to the greatest fortune ever known in the whole of the Veneto +after that of her cousin Polia, the only daughter of the last +of the Poli in Treviso. The house of Leonora was then the +sanctuary of poetry and the arts, and this muse's influence +caused irresistibly to congregate around her all the talents +of her age. It was soon noticed that Francesco was going there +more often, although more absorbed in his daydreams and sadder +than usual, but his visits suddenly became less frequent, and +then he stopped coming altogether. + +Polia dei Poli, whom I have just mentioned, was then in the +palazzo of the Pisani family, where Leonora had decided her to +come to spend the mad weeks of the Carnival. Eight years +younger than her cousin, and more beautiful than Leonora was +herself, Polia, dedicated, as were a great number of young +ladies of noble birth, to serious studies, profited from her +sojourn in the capital of the scholarly world to improve +herself in areas of knowledge today quite alien to her sex, +and the habit of these solemn meditations had imparted to her +face something cold and austere which passed for pride. It +was not really to be wondered at, however, for Polia was the +last surviving remnant of the ancient Lelia family in Rome, +from whom she was descended by way of Lelius Maurus, the +founder of Treviso. She was brought up under the watchful +eye of an imperious and haughty father, so proud of the +splendour of his race, that he would have considered the +marriage of his daughter to the greatest prince in Italy as +marrying below her station, and besides, it was known that +the treasures that she would inherit one day could suffice +for the dowry of a queen. She had nonetheless granted to +Francesco, in their first meetings, a few signs of almost +affectionate benevolence, but, as time went on, she seemed +to have gradually prescribed for herself a reserve that was +severe, not to say disdainful, and when he stopped showing +himself at the palazzo Pisani, she no longer bothered with +him. + +It was during the course of the month of February 1466. Spring, +often early in that fair region, was beginning to fill it with all +its favours. Polia was about to return to Treviso, and her cousin +multiplied around her the various festivities that might enhance +her sojourn in Venice and make it harder for her to leave. One +day had been taken up by gondola outings on the Grand Canal and on +that broad and deep arm of it that separates the Serenissima from +the solitude of its Lido. But Francesco had not been overlooked +in Leonora Pisani's invitations, and the letter which he had had +from her contained such amiable and touching reproaches as to his +long absence that for him to refuse would have been inconceivable. +Polia was besides, as we have pointed out, on the point of leaving +for Treviso, and we may safely assume that Francesco wanted to see +her again in spite of the habitual coldness of her welcome. +Thinking more and more about the drastic change that had so soon +come about in the relations between them, he had ended up by +persuading himself that this capricious metamorphosis was due to +something other than hate. He found himself then on the steps of +the palazzo Pisani, the general assembly point for the departure +of the gondolas. The ladies, wearing masks and identical dominos, +came out in a crowd from the hallway at the agreed upon signal, +and each of them went to choose, as custom decreed, with the +familiar decency imparted by disguise, the companion that they +were pleased to attach to themselves for the journey. This way +of doing things, more gracious and better understood than the +one that has taken its place in balls and assemblies, also had +less serious disadvantages, women never being more attentive to +the preservation of their reputations than on those too rare +occasions when they are wholly responsible for maintaining them. +So Francesco was waiting, motionless and with downcast eyes, +for someone to take notice of him, when a pretty gloved hand +came to rest on his arm. He welcomed the unknown woman with +modest and respectful assiduity, and led her to the gondola +already prepared to receive them. A moment later the elegant +flotilla was moving to the rhythmical splash of the oars on +the calm and polished face of the canal. + +The lady, who was seated at Francesco's left, remained silent +for a time, as if she had needed to recollect herself and to +master, before she spoke, some involuntary emotion. Then she +undid the ties of her mask, threw it back upon her shoulder, +and gazed at Francesco with that gentle and serious assurance +that self-consciousness gives to elevated souls. It was Polia. +Francesco trembled and felt a sudden shiver pass through all +his veins, for he had expected nothing like this. Then he +leaned his head and covered his eyes with his hand in the fear +that it might be a kind of defilement for her to look at Polia +so closely. + +"This mask is useless," said Polia. "There is no reason for me +to take advantage of the custom which allows me to keep it. Our +friendship does not need it and its feelings are too pure for it +to blush to express them. Do not be surprised, Francesco," she +continued after a moment of silence, "to hear me speak of my +friendship for you after so many days of rigorous constraint +in which I may have given you grounds to doubt it. My sex is +subject to certain laws of decorum which do not permit it to +manifest its most legitimate sympathies to the interpretations +of the crowd, and there is nothing more difficult than to feign +to a correct extent an indifference one does not feel. Today +I shall leave Venice, and although I am destined to live very +near to you, it is quite probable that we will never see each +other again. Henceforth there is no longer any possible way for +us to communicate with each other than by memory, and I did not +want to leave you with a false idea of me, or to take away of +you an anxious and painful idea that would trouble my peace of +mind. I have provided for the first eventuality by giving you +an explanation that I thought I owed you. I expect from your +sincerity that you will reassure me as to the second point by +confiding in me, which is something that you owe to me perhaps. +Don't be alarmed, Francesco. You yourself shall be the sole +judge of whether my questions are appropriate or not." + +Just before she had said this Francesco had opened his downcast +eyes. He dared to look at Polia. He drank in her words avidly. +"Ah!" he cried. "As God is my witness, my soul has no secret +that does not belong to you." + +"Your soul has a secret," replied Polia, "a secret that besets +your friends and that certain people among those you love best +may find it of use to fathom. Endowed with all the advantages +that augur for a happy future: youth, ingenio, knowledge and +already glory, you nonetheless abandon yourself to the languor +of a mysterious sadness, you are consumed by a secret care, +you neglect the works on which your reputation is based, you +flee from a world that seeks you out in order to hide in almost +opaque solitude days that so much success should make resplendent +and, finally, if the rumours that are circulating are worthy of +credence, you are on the point of breaking entirely with human +society and retiring to a monastery. Is what I have just said +to you true?" + +Francesco seemed agitated by a thousand conflicting emotions. +He needed a few moments to gather his strength. "Yes," he +replied, "that is true. At least, all of it was true this +morning. An event which has happened since has changed the +course of my ideas without changing my resolutions. I will go +to a monastery and my commitment is irrevocable, but I will go +with a mind that is fully consoled and joyful, for my existence +is complete and I cannot conceive of any other one so happy +on earth that it would render me jealous. Born into obscurity +and poverty, but stronger than my fate, I had only measured my +unhappiness by the immensity of the void into which my heart +had plunged. This void has been filled by the most delightful +of hopes: you will remember me!" + +Polia looked at him sweetly. "I want," she said, "not to see +in your words a simple game of the imagination or one of those +flattering condescensions of courtesy with which people think +to have repaid friendship. It seems to me that this artificial +language of the cold should not be applied to us. I therefore +think that I begin to grasp a fraction of the things that you +have said to me, with the exception of your resolve, but," she +added smiling, "I do not understand them sufficiently." + +"You shall understand them better," said Francesco, encouraged, +"for I shall tell you everything. Forgive however the troubled +nature and the lack of resolution in my words, for, of all the +vicissitudes in my life, this is the most unexpected. The +strange position into which I was born, without parents, without +a guardian, almost without a friend, fallen from a great name +and an independent fortune, would doubtless be enough to explain +my natural melancholy. It's a cruel thing to say to yourself +that your unhappiness started in the cradle and stayed with you +the rest of your life. But that idea was the first I was able +to be aware of. I had to acquit myself of the material debt of +gratitude before I could think for a single moment of myself, +and I do not need to tell you that I succeeded in that. From +that time on my courage grew. I had few regrets for the grandeur +and the opulence that had faded away forever. I went further. +I congratulated myself sometimes, in my childish pride, on owing +all my illustriousness to myself, and on being able one day to +force the family that had rejected me to envy the celebrity of +my once repudiated name. Such are the illusions of inexperience +and vanity. One day was to destroy all and to recall me to +misfortune and oblivion. Alas!" Francesco went on, "this is the +mystery your overly benevolent curiosity has expressed the desire +to know, and which reason made for me a law of keeping hidden +in my breast. But how can I dare to reveal to you those sad and +deep secrets of sick hearts that wisdom and philosophy regard as +a puerile infirmity of the mind, and over which the elevation of +your character keeps you too high for you to deign to bestow on +them any other feeling apart from pity? I fell in love..." + +Hereupon Francesco stopped for a time, but reassured by a look +from Polia, he continued as follows: + +"I loved without having thought about it, without appreciating +the consequences of my extravagant passion, without fearing them +for the future, for I lived completely in the impressions of the +present. I loved a woman who would be universally recognizable +were I to depict the rare qualities that she is clothed with, +combining with beauty all the perfections of intelligence and +soul, and that heaven seems only to have entrusted to earth to +remind us of the ineffable joy of the condition we have lost. +I loved her without remembering that she was, of all aristocrats, +the noblest, of all the affluent, the most affluent and that I +was only Francesco Colonna, the unknown pupil of Bellini, and +that all my efforts to be happy in my work would only ever lead +me to the acquisition of a sterile reputation. Such is the +effect of that passion that dazzles, that blinds, that kills. +When reflection had restored me to myself, when I had sounded +with a frightened eye, with the bitter laughter of despair, +the chasm towards which I had made so much headway without +even knowing it, it was too late to go back: I was lost. +The first thought of a wretch is to die. That thought is as +commodious as it is natural because it answers all questions and +remedies all inconveniences. But might not this desperate death, +far from hastening to bring about the day when I may draw nearer +to her in a better world, separate me from her forever? It was +a totally new idea that held back my arm when it was ready to +strike; I took in the future that my inability to endure a few +days without her was going to deprive me of. I was painfully +condemned to live without hope, but without fear, to reach that +moment when two souls, freed from all the ties that have weighed +down on them, look for each other, recognize each other and are +then brought together for all time. I made of her I loved an +object of worship my whole life long. I raised to her an +inviolable altar in my heart and dedicated myself to her as an +everlasting sacrifice. Can I say that, under my invincible +sadness, this plan, once decided upon, was mingled with some joy? +I grasped that this marriage, which started with widowhood to +end up having, was perhaps preferable to ordinary marriages, +which shatter on bad days. I no longer saw in the years that +remained to me to spend among men anything other than a long +engagement that death would crown with an eternal felicity. +I felt the need to isolate myself from the world to recollect +myself in a nevertheless delightful feeling of austerity that +I would not have to share, and that is why I embraced the duties +of the would-be monk. May God pardon his creature's weakness! +The oath that will bind me to Him in three days' time is the +oath that will bind me indissolubly to her I love and that will +only give me rights over her in heaven. Allow me to repeat, +by way of conclusion, that the accomplishment of this plan will +now cost nothing to my resignation since a generous compassion +has let me conceive of the hope of not being forgotten." + +"In only three days!" exclaimed Polia. "In effect," she went on, +"I have had too little time to reflect on the secret you have just +confided in me to dare to form an opinion and even less a +judgement, but it seems to me that if the woman for whom you +resolved to do such things does not remain in ignorance of them +as I was ignorant of them before now, she did not deserve to +inspire them." + +"She is ignorant of them," replied Francesco, "because she does +not know that I love her. Oh! Without a doubt, my heart could +have found ineffable consolations in the idea that my love was +known to her, that she was not entirely insensitive to it, and +that she might, at the very least, remember it with pity! Of +all the torments of love, the most cruel perhaps is to remain +an unknown quantity to the person one loves; of all the feelings +one inspires that dull feeling of indifference for a stranger is +perhaps the most painful that love has to fear. But why throw +into a heart that is peaceful and happy pains that one is hardly +capable of bearing oneself? Either my passion will be rejected, +as I suppose, and what will I have gained from having this sad +intuition confirmed, or it will be mutual and I will have to +suffer for both of us. What am I saying: suffer for both of us? +My despair is my life since I have found in myself enough +strength to live with it. Hers would have killed me already." + +"You take your suppositions too far, Francesco," Polia replied +buoyantly. "Who can know if she does not feel the same sorrows +and the same anguish as you do? Who can know if she does not +aspire to find a moment to tell you that? What would you say +if this noble and rich female whose shine dazzles you, but +whose soul is probably no calmer than yours, what would you +say, Francesco, if she came to offer you her hand freely, if, +subject to a sway both respectable and inflexible, she came to +promise it you in marriage?" + +"What would I say, Polia?" Francesco answered with cold dignity, +"I would refuse it. In order to dare love her I love, one needs +to be to a certain extent worthy of her, and my most constant +application has been to ennoble my soul so that it would be +closer to hers. What right would I have to accept the perks +of a high position that society denies me? With what impudence +could I take my seat at the banquet of fortune, I who have only +obscurity and misery as my prerogatives? Oh! I would a thousand +times rather have the horrid sorrow that consumes me than the +shameful reputation of an adventurer rebuffed by the world and +made rich by love!" + +"I had not finished," Polia broke in. "You are overscrupulous, +but I understand your scruple and share it. The world as it +goes demands odd sacrifices and one would perhaps be asked of +you by reason of your character, but a character of the same +calibre as yours might answer with a different sort of denial. +Greatness and fortune are accidents of fate one can get rid +of if one wants to. The artist and the poet are everywhere +the same. Everywhere they have success and glory, but beyond +an arm of the sea the woman who is rich and titled who has +known how to shake off these vain privileges of birth is no +more than a woman. If this woman came to say to you: I +renounce my greatness, I abandon my fortune, I am ready to +become even humbler and poorer than you, and to commit to +your charge, as to my sole source of support, the whole of +my life's destiny, what would you say to that, Francesco?" + +"I would fall at her knees," said Francesco, "and answer thus: +Heavenly angel, keep the rank and the advantages that heaven +has conferred on you; you must be and stay what you are, and +the wretch who would be capable of letting himself be carried +along by this tender and sublime urge of your heart would never +have deserved to occupy a place in it. He can no longer raise +himself up to you except by constant resignation, easy for one +who hopes, and especially for one who is loved. It is not I +who would make you come down from the position in which God +did not put you without a motive, in order to submit you to +the varying fortunes of an anxious existence, poisoned by needs +incessantly renewed, and perhaps one day by incurable regrets. +My happiness is complete now. It exceeds all my hopes since +you have granted to me all that you could take from the duties +that your name imposes on you. You love me, I'd add, and you +will always love me since you have not recoiled from resolving +to give your life to mine. Your life, my beloved, I accept +and take as a sacred pledge for which I will render an account +before my Lord and Judge, for life is short, even for those +who suffer, whatever weak hearts have to say about it. This +earth is just a place of transit where souls come to be tested, +and if your soul, as faithful as it is devoted, stays married +to mine during the years that time still allows us, the whole +of eternity is ours..." + +Polia was silent for a time. "Yes! Yes!" she exclaimed exaltedly. +"God has not instituted a holier or more inviolable sacrament. It +is in this way that a love such as yours must have reconciled its +hopes and its duties in a marriage of the heart that the rest of +mankind does not know, and your heavenly spouse would speak to you +as I speak to you if she had heard you." + +"She has heard me, Polia," Francesco replied, letting his head at +that moment fall into his hands with a torrent of tears. + +"So," Polia went on, as if she had not understood the last words +he had spoken, "you will assume in three days the habit of one +of the religious orders to be found in Venice?" + +"In Treviso," said Francesco. "I have not gone as far as to +forbid myself the happiness of still seeing her sometimes." + +"In Treviso, Francesco? There you only know me..." + +"Only you!" said Francesco. + +At that moment the hand of the young princess found itself +joined to that of the young painter and the princess spoke. +"We did not notice," she said smiling, "that the gondola +was stopping and that it has already returned to the palazzo +of the Pisani. Now we have nothing further to say to each +other on earth. Our final farewell, however, is not without +sweetness if we have understood each other correctly, and +our first heavenly meeting will be even sweeter." + +"Goodbye forever!" said Francesco. + +"Goodbye for always!" said Polia. Then she re-attached her mask +and got down from the gondola. + +The following day Polia was in Treviso. Three days later they +tolled at the monastery of the Dominicans that symbolic funeral +knell which announces the profession of faith of a new postulant +and his death to the world. Polia spent the day in her oratory. + +Francesco acquiesced easily to his new destiny. Sometimes he +looked back on his talk with Polia as a dream, but, more often, +he went over the finest details of it with a childlike enthusiasm, +and he went as far as to pat himself on the back for having given +rise to, in his misery, a love that was oblivious to the ups and +downs of fortune and of age. He accustomed himself after only +a few days to divide his time between the duties of a religious +and the leisured labour of an artist, at times painting those +pure and naive frescos which may still be admired in the monastery +of the Dominicans, though the cavalier arrogance of modern art +has let them deteriorate, at times writing down in a book, the +favourite object of his studies, all the impressions susceptible +to him because of his talent and above all of his love. He had +taken as the frame for this vast and bizarre work, in which he +hoped to live again in his entirety, the somewhat vague form of +a dream, and there could be nothing more apt, according to him, +to represent, in its apparent disorder, the haphazard ideas of +a solitary. We know that, due to one of the rare moments in +which he was allowed to have a tender exchange of words with +Polia, she had assured him that she would accept his dedication +to her of this strange poem, and he tells us himself that she +helped him with advice. So it was that he gave up completely +the use of the vernacular Italian in which he had first thought +out his plan and started it, and 'lasciando il princiniato stilo', +he gave himself over to that scholarly language where there were +neither models nor imitators for him and the words of which were +furnished to his flowing quill by his erudite interest in ancient +matters. A year went by in these sweet works mixed with sweet +illusions, and Francesco had just put the finishing touches to +his work, when the most distressing and heartbreaking news came +through the walls where the Dominicans were. The young Antonio +Grimani, later admiral and doge of Venice, but already the most +brilliant of its nobles and its highest hope, had just asked +for the hand of Polia in marriage, and, it was added, the hand +of Polia had been granted to him. + +It was the day that Francesco was to present his book to Polia. +He stood up to the blow that had just struck him, went to her +palazzo and stopped on the threshold of her apartment. "Come, my +brother," said Polia when she saw him. "Come to communicate to us +these secret wonders of your art, a true treasure that Christian +humility refuses to the world, and which is to be confided only to +us." At the same time she shooed away her women and her servants, +and Francesco was alone with her. + +His legs gave way under him, a cold sweat broke out on his brow, +his arteries beat violently, his breast swelled fit to burst. + +Polia raised her eyes from the manuscript to look at the monk. +Francesco's pallor, the bloody halo girding his eyes worn out +with crying, the shaking of his livid hands hanging loosely, +revealed to her what was happening in the heart of her lover. +She smiled proudly. + +"You have heard," she said, "of my forthcoming marriage with +prince Antonio Grimani?" + +"Yes, madam," replied Francesco. + +"And what did you think, Francesco, of this alliance?" + +"That no man is worthy to contract such an alliance with you, +but that the prince Antonio had more rights than anyone, and +that the marriage appeared to be what Venice wanted... and +what you yourself wanted. May it always bring you happiness!" + +"I refused it this morning," said Polia. + +Francesco looked at her as if to seek in Polia's eyes if her +mouth had not betrayed her thought. + +"You know better than anyone," Polia went on, "that I have +pledged my troth elsewhere and that my decision to do so is +irrevocable. But I must forgive your suspicions for yours +is guaranteed by the oath that binds you to an altar and I +have never given you a guarantee like that. Listen, Francesco. +Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day you made your first +vows, and it will be during the last morning mass that you +will render them even more binding and more sacred by renewing +them before the Lord. Have you, now a year has passed, changed +your way of thinking about the nature of this sacrifice and +the need for it?" + +"No, no, Polia!" cried Francesco, falling to his knees. + +"It is enough," continued Polia. "My thinking has not changed +either. I shall be present tomorrow at the last morning mass, +and I shall support with all the strength of my soul the vow +that you will repeat then, so that henceforth you will know, +Francesco, that between the heart of Polia and inconstancy +there are also perjury and sacrilege." + +Francesco tried to reply, but when the words came to his lips, +Polia had disappeared. + +The young monk found it almost as difficult to bear his joy as +he did his misfortune. He felt that he no longer had enough +strength to be happy, for the mainspring of his life, worn by +so many conflicting emotions, had almost reached breaking point. + +The following morning, at the final mass, when the monks entered +the choir, Polia was sitting in her usual place, in the first +row of benches set aside for the nobility. She got up and went +to kneel in the middle of the pavement of the central nave. + +Francesco had noticed her. He renewed his vows with an assured +voice, went back down the altar steps, and prostrated himself +on the floor. At the moment of the elevation of the host, he +stretched out completely, throwing his crossed hands before his +head. + +Once mass was over, Polia left the church. The monks passed, +one after the other, before the sanctuary, genuflecting deeply. +But Francesco did not leave his position, and no-one was taken +aback, for he had often been seen to prolong like this, in a +motionless ecstasy, the duration of his prayer. + +When the evening service came, Francesco had not changed his +posture. A young friar came out of the choir stalls, approached +him, bent down to him and took one of his hands in his, pulling +his body towards him to recall it to its accustomed duties. +Then he got up again, and, turning towards the assembled monks, +said: "He's dead!" + +This event, one of those which are so swiftly effaced in the +collective memory of a new generation, had happened more than +thirty-one years before when, on a winter evening in 1498, a +gondola stopped in front of the shop of Aldo Pio Manucci, whom +we refer to as the Elder. A moment later a visit from the +princess Hippolita Polia of Treviso was announced in the study +of the scholarly printer. Aldo ran to meet her, ushered her in, +made her sit down, and was struck by admiration and respect for +this celebrated beauty, whom half a century of life and sorrows +had rendered more solemn, without taking anything away from her +brilliance. + +"Wise Aldo," she said to him after having had placed on his +table a bag containing 2,000 gold coins and a weighty manuscript, +"you will be in the eyes of the most remote posterity, the most +erudite and skilful printer of all time and the author of this +book that I am entrusting you with will leave behind the renown +of the greatest painter and the greatest poet of this century +now drawing to a close. You are the sole repository of this +treasure, which I will ask you to give me back once your art +has reproduced it. I have not wanted to deprive of its presence +completely those minds favoured by heaven who know how to view +the concepts of genius, but I have waited, to multiply the copies +of it, the moment I could turn to a great printer. You know now, +wise Aldo, what I expect of you: a masterpiece worthy of your name +and capable just by itself of perpetuating your memory through +ages to come. When this gold has been used up, I will bring more." +Afterwards Polia got up and leaned with both hands on the women +who had come with her. Aldo followed her to her gondola, showing +his agreement with her by respectful gestures, but without talking +to her, because he was not ignorant of the fact that, having lived +in total solitude for more than thirty years, she had eschewed +both the business and the conversation of men. + +The book we must consider here is entitled the 'Hypnerotomachia +di Poliphilo, sive pugna d'amore in sogno', that is to say 'Love's +combat in a dream' and not 'The Combat of Love and Sleep' as Mister +Ginguené, author of 'The Literary History of Italy', has in error +translated it. We do not pretend, heaven forbid, that Mr Ginguené, +author of 'The Literary History of Italy', did not know Italian. +We are more indulgent towards talent's lapses. + +"Sign that as you will," said Lowrich getting up. "I am not in +the habit of putting my name to such trifles, and, as God is my +witness, I have never granted such lightweight stories to sellers +of books for any other purpose than to get books." + +"May all the stories that you have before you," said Apostolo, +"go to enrich your library with a volume like this one! It is +yours and I owe it to you twice over." + +"It is mine," said Lowrich, taking hold of it enthusiastically. +"Or rather it belongs to you," he went on gaily, passing it +from his hands to mine. "I promised it to you this morning!" + +And so it is that the most magnificent copy of the Poliphilus, +the giant of my Lilliputian collection, figures in it today +nec pluribus impar. I submit it voluntarily to the gazes of +book lovers, who cannot stop themselves from seeing in it a +magnificent book... and one I did not pay the earth for! + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Franciscus Columna, by Charles Nodier + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 56988 *** |