GANTO V. of gold bullion! who is he?' And she (whether deceiving, or herself deceived, is not said) answered at once: it is the Signor Malatesta your ladyship's bride-groom (1).' Hereupon Madonna Francesca became enamoured; and expressed the gratitude and content of her heart at her dearest parents' choice. Indeed when we consider the usual fate of Princesses, and the secluded education given to young ladies in Italy, nothing is more natural than this anecdote: and it is very likely that a cloistered virgin of sixteen should fall deeply in love, on beholding a youth of wondrous comeliness surpassing all of whom she had ever heard, or read, in ballads, novels, or fairy-tales, and realizing even her own pure dreams; to whom she was about to be allowed not only to speak, but whom she was to honor and regard as the future companion of her life. If it requires the sagest guardian to defend the heart of one, like her, young, innocent, replete with hope and fancy, and unconscious of any kind of guile, against the brilliant illusions of existence, what shall be able to control it when that guardian himself not only permits, but prescribes its surrender to a beauteous object pronounced to be of still more sterling, than apparent value, to be still worthier in reality, than in idea? The nuptial ceremony over, it is said that a conversation between the interesting couple made the conquest (1) Both Boccaccio, and M. S. ut supra. CANTO V. of her affections irretrievable; but, since it took place in public, nothing transpired to undeceive her. It is said by some that Paul also was as deceived; and the conjecture that he was so, is strengthened by several circumstances, but particularly by that of both he and Scanatus being younger brothers; so that, as long as the claims of primogeniture prevailed, the eldest, Malatestino, was to be Lord of Rimini, and neither of them. Each however was splendidly provided for by their munificent father; so that 'Paul the beautiful,' with all his personal advantages, and acknowledged pretensions, might well have considered his union with the heiress of Ravenna as very natural. That he conceived an ardent attachment to her from the first moment of their meeting, and that she received his soothing attentions during that entire day as the first flattering tribute of connubial tenderness, is certain; and that he too was foully maltreated and, unaware of any procuration, was lulled with the persuasion that he was courting his own bride, is highly probable. Notwithstanding maiden bashfulness, and knighthood's proverbial delicacy, it is not imaginable, that, during the lapse of many hours, with their hands already linked in wedlock, their mutual affection should have been unrevealed, even had no words been tollerated between them: for there are other interpreters of admiration quite as eloquent as words; nor could sighs, or blushes, be condemned by the most fastidious on CANTO V. an occasion like the present, when a couple already joined by the holiest bonds, were every moment expecting to be left at sacred liberty. Whether their conversation had lieu in Ravenna, or on the road to Rimini (1), is not stated, nor whether it was in this latter that the fraudulent spousals were consummated, or whether the sacrilege was shared between both those towns, nor to what precise extent the brutal ravisher was guilty; but if he was so profoundly implicated in the crime, as to post secretly to Ravenna, and, Tarquin-like, take advantage of the obscurity of night, then indeed the diabolical malefaction attained its full complement of horror, and not only the profanation of the marriage-vow, and the awful conspiracy of a father against his own virgin daughter, but even the last of infamies, her rape, was made to violate the sanctity of the paternal roof. Of the Mother's criminality I say nothing; for she was an unwilling instrument in the hands of a relentless, ambitionblinded lord and master: and those who would blame her pliability ought first to reflect on the unlimited power, which, which, in that age, a feudal sove (1) Since writing this article, I have seen the novelle of Giraldo Giraldi; who in substance coincides with most of my relation, because he follows Boccaccio, and because the novella-writers in Italy possess much historical accuracy. Still Giraldi cannot be received when he adds any thing to Boccaccio and cites no authority; so that when he tells us the conversation ensued during the ride to Rimini, to which Francesca went in company with Paul and his escort of Gentlemen, we must take it, not as historical matter of fact, but as sufficiently probable for a novella. Novelle di Giral. Giral. Nov. 3. p. 25. Ed. 1819. CANTO V. reign had over his family; and on the power a husband will always have over a wife, who (as seems to have been the case in this instance) continues to love him, notwithstanding her disaproval of his conduct. If then the poor mother, in conducting her girl to the nuptial chamber and making her ascend the decorated couch, gave vent to a bitter flood of conscious sorrow, it was not strange Francesca should attribute it exclusively to their approaching separation; and if the maid too trembled, and let fall some natural drops, ' it is what frequently occurs on similar occasions: but few mothers had ever such real cause to weep; and few brides ever advanced to such a ruinous catastrophe, under the false impression that none ever had her timidity balanced by more exquisite hopes, nor her grief, at parting from those who gave her birth, by the consolation of yielding to such an engaging spouse. . When her eyes re-opened, it was all over and recognising her loss as utterly irretrievable, she uttered a frantic shriek on descrying, whether, ere dawn, by the light of à taper (1), or, later, by tha t of the offended sun, the features of him she had embraced, and who was now rising from the bed (2); --not her charming suitor, not he to (1)... e trovandosi la sera allato Gianciotto. M. S. ut supra, CANTO V. whom her faith had been pledged upon the altar, where God-like beauty and the solemnity of Religion joined in kindling up her heart and brain, but one of the most loathsome, severe, and deformed of men, and whose base stratagem had just proved his mind to be as ill-fashioned as his body. None but a female can form any adequate conception of the o'er-whelming misery of such a moment, when the brain must be agonized by the simultaneous rush of all the most excruciating feelings of our nature, the past, the future, crushed hopes, everlasting regrets, the sense of remediless disaster, the prospect of an entire life to be consumed in the inseparable fetters of a close junction with a wretch, whom it is criminal not to love and honor yet impossible not to despise and abhor: for me, I can do no better than follow the reserve of my good old Author, fully convinced, as I am, that no man, whatever calamities may befall him, can ever suffer any blow half so calculated to create despair. 'Madonna' (is the only observation hazarded) 'perceiving herself cheated declined into a state of deep discontent (1).' Her attachment however to the youth who had received her plighted hand, and who was probably, like herself, a victim of duplicity, did not fade; on the contrary, that guente al di delle nozze levar da lato a se Gianciotto. Boccaccio, ut supra. (1)... fu male contenta, e vidde ch' ella era stata ingannata. M. S. ut supra |