The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni: Day 35
Chapter 28 (through p.467: “their hands from hunger.”)
Manzoni turns now to what he calls “a rough account of public events,” which will take us through the next few chapters. While our fictional characters may briefly disappear, he relates the historical circumstances shaping their lives in an equally compelling manner.
The masses and the government work in tandem, though in opposition, to continue an untenable situation:
“The masses had wanted to bring back the days of plenty through looting and arson. The government wanted to maintain them through the galleys and the strappado. These methods were complementary, but did they help achieve the goal?”
The “strappado” was a method of torture. The Italian word for galley, “galera,” can mean both jail and the galleys: during this period, convicts were still being sentenced to rowing on galleys.
The laws become more perverse:
“As the consequences of the decrees began to be felt, the authorities had to remedy each one, with a law that prohibited people from doing exactly what the previous law had encouraged.”
Manzoni blames the “mob” for the extremes of the French Revolution, to which he would later dedicate an (unfinished) volume:
“Allow me to observe in passing a singular coincidence. In a country and period closer to our own, during the most clamorous and remarkable period in modern history, recourse was made in similar circumstances to similar expedients (substantially the same, you might say—varying only by degree—and in almost the same order), despite it being a different era, with a growth of learning in Europe, and especially in that country. This was mainly because the mob, which had not received the benefit of that learning, was able to impose its judgment for so long and forcer la main, force the hand—as they say in that country—of the lawmakers.”
Page 461. The pitiable horde, “la deplorabile turba.”
Join us on April 10 for a virtual discussion of The Betrothed with Michael F. Moore.
I like Manzoni's wry comment about Ferrer's proclamation and new regulations, saying that if every decree issued in those days were to be carried out, "the Duchy of Milan would have to send as many men out to sea as the British fleet does today". It's a nice comparison between one imperial power in the past and a greater one in the present.
Perhaps the most poignant moment is when Manzoni, quoting Ripamonti, describes the dead body of a woman with chewed grass sticking out of her mouth. I was reminded of a poem, also based on historical fact and set during the Irish famine.
https://poets.org/poem/quarantine
Descriptions of the “pitiable throng” pouring into Milan brought to mind the hundreds of migrants arriving daily to the U.S: “People kept pouring into the city, first from neighboring villages, then from the wider countryside, then from other cities in the state, and finally even from cities outside the state.” Also of migrants all over the world right now fleeing war and other forms of violence, famine, climate catastrophe, etc. and who receive less than a warm welcome wherever they end up. A never ending historical cycle.