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Should any person doubt these statements, let him turn to any book of Roman Catholic devotion, which contains what is called, in ecclesiastical language, “examination of the conscience.” The famous treatise, “De Matrimonio,” cited in our introduction, by the Jesuit Sanchez, for the use of confessors of married women, contains particulars so filthy, and pictures, descriptive of certain sins, so utterly disgusting and obscene, that even the Court of Rome has been obliged to order all copies of the work to be bought up and suppressed.
Sanchez has written a dissertation on the penal cases incident to marriage; he has even argued on the illegitimacy and the opportuneness of each form of indulgence; he has outlined all the duties, moral, religious and corporeal, of the married couple; in short his work would form twelve volumes in octavo if the huge folio entitled De Matrimonio were thus represented.
No, I do not proscribe certain forms of philosophical speculation which involve an approach to the absurd or the ludicrous, such as you may find, for example, in the folio of the Reverend Father Thomas Sanchez, in his famous Disputations, "De Sancto Matrimonio." I will therefore turn this levity of yours to profit by reading you a rhymed problem, wrought out by my friend the Professor.
The 'jouissances d'ange, with which at his first entrance into Italy he heard at Novara the Matrimonio Segreto of Cimarosa, marked an epoch in his life.
The editor quotes the following ceremony for blessing the wedding bed: 'Benedictio thalami ad nuptias et als, Beredic, Domine, thalamum hunc et omnes habitantes in eo, ut in tua voluntate permaneant, requiescant et multiplicentur in longitudinem dierum. Per Christum, etc. Tunc thurificet thalamum in matrimonio, postea sponsum et sponsam sedentes vel jacentes in lecto suo.
No: every one is left to settle his own account with heaven. Yet the libertinism which at present reigns in Paris is sufficient to make a deep impression on persons the least given to reflection. Il matrimonio, says the Italian proverb, e un paradiso o un inferno. In fact, nothing can be compared to the happiness of a married couple, united by sympathy.
The composer's hitherto brilliant career was doomed to a gloomy close. On returning to Naples, at the Emperor Leopold's death, Cimarosa produced several of his finest works, among which musical students place first: "Il Matrimonio per Susurro," "La Penelope," "L'Olimpiade," "II Sacrificio d'Abramo," "Gli Amanti Comici," and "Gli Orazi."
This effect is particularly conspicuous at the representation of other pieces, the music of which is by the same composer. Gianina e Bernadone, another of CIMAROSA'S productions, makes less impression, though it is in the graceful style, what Il Matrimonio Secreto is in the serio-comic.
And all of a sudden, he crashed like lightning, like a tiger: Morro!... ma vendicato ... Again when he was singing ... when he was singing that celebrated air from "Matrimonio segreto," Pria che spunti ... then he, il gran Garcia, after the words, "I cavalli di galoppo" at the words, "Senza posa cacciera," listen, how stupendous, come e stupendo!
La Molinara, however, upholds the reputation of that celebrated composer, PAESIELLO. This opera requires no eulogium. Selections from it are daily repeated in the public and private concerts in Paris. Il Matrimonio Secreto is a masterpiece of spirit and originality, while La Molinara is a model of grace, melody, and simplicity.
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