The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni: Day 40
Chapter 32 (through p.534: “purpose of the conflict.”)
“Anointers,” with its religious connotations, does not quite carry the foul overtones of the Italian “untori.” I first heard this word being used during the AIDS crisis, when some individuals were accused of deliberately spreading the virus.
Let me leave you with two images of the dreaded “monatti”:
Previati (ca. 1895-99):
Guttuso (from the 1960 Einaudi edition, with an introduction by Alberto Moravia, who disliked the novel):
Join us on April 10 for a virtual discussion of The Betrothed with Michael F. Moore.
More of Manzoni's irony when he comments, saying how everyone now "recognising Nevers as the new Duke of Mantua, when the whole purpose of the war had been to keep him out of Italy". A prescient remark that might also be applied to the war in Europe at the moment.
Manzoni's comments on the day of the procession are good...'piety clashing with evil etc'. He finishes with "In truth, it was feeble human intellect clashing with its oiwn delusions.
The more I think about the novel, I am feeling more symathetic towards Don Abbondio. He is 'l'homme moyen sensuel' à la Bloom in Joyce's Ulysses. All these princes and prelates and war lords, and Don A. just wants to live a quiet life. A lot of the powerful characters in the novel remind me of Cesare Pavese's observation when he wrote that all sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition.
So what is it with humankind that needs some wicked “other” to blame? Do I see myself as a justified good guy if there is a concrete person to blame rather than taking on some public health responsibility? The public beatings remind me of accusations of witches. Has anyone else found a way to work “unguent” into your conversations?