United States or Nicaragua ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Your hat is very safe, I promise you; I shall not touch it. What of SIGNOR Francisco?" "SIGNOR Francisco I may, without impropriety, call him," said the Improvisatore, "for he is likely to become rich enough to command the title from those who might not otherwise respect his merit."
A merry poet he was and without conceit and his good humor merited the extra silver pieces I gave him, which caused him, to wish me "Buon appetito e un sorriso della Madonna!" Yet some of the quaint conceits strung together by such a fellow as this improvisatore might furnish material for many of the so called "poets" whose names are mysteriously honored in Britain.
Then Metastasio is reached, whose youthful genius as an improvisatore early gained him applause, which was followed up by his successful writing of three-act dramas for the opera, and a subsequent calm and prosperous life at Vienna, under the successive protection of the Emperor Charles VI., Maria Theresa, and Joseph II. The contrast of the even prosperity of Metastasio's life with that of some of the great poets is striking.
"The same," said the Improvisatore; "the same, though in a better dress, which I should not have thought would have made so much difference in your eyes, though it makes all the difference between man and man in the eyes of the stupid vulgar. My genius has broken through the clouds of misfortune of late.
Of this Peppo we have a most unamiable portrait. His withered legs are fastened to a board, and he shuffles himself along with his hands, which were armed with a pair of wooden hand clogs. He used to sit upon the steps of the Piazza de Spagna. "Once I was witness," says the Improvisatore, who tells his own story, "of a scene which awoke in me fear of him, and also exhibited his own disposition.
At length eight well-armed horsemen arrived, the postilion cracked his whip, and the carriage and the out-riders vanished through the gate between the tall yellow rocks." "Only a Fiddler" proceeds, in part, on the same plan as "The Improvisatore."
That my Improvisatore and Only a Fiddler did not please him, is a matter of taste, and to that I must submit myself.
His marvellous powers as a conversationalist and improvisatore made him a favourite in the highest circles. In 1812 he received the appointment of Accountant-General of Mauritius, which he held for 5 years, when serious irregularities were discovered, and he was sent home in disgrace, prosecuted by Government for a claim of £12,000, and imprisoned.
"Yes," said I, slowly; and then, with all the provoking nonchalance of an Italian improvisatore, who always halts at the most exciting point of his narrative, I begged a listener near me to fill my glass from the iced punch beside him.
The hero of the tale was an ardent and imaginative Italian; at once a painter and an improvisatore; a man of powerful and expansive intellect; and glowing with intense enthusiasm for classic and ancient lore, and for the beautiful in art and nature.
Word Of The Day