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Updated: June 6, 2025
But there was a perfectly applied censorship which suppressed all diplomatic leaks. So one read with perfect confidence that Prince von Buelow had driven to the Consulta at eleven-fifteen yesterday, and having been closeted with Baron Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister, or with the Premier, Signor Salandra, or with both, for forty-seven minutes, had emerged upon the street smiling.
There is no such thing as robbing the classics. They are our literary fathers, and what they have left behind them is our common heritage; we may adapt, borrow, or steal from them as much as will suit our purpose; to acknowledge such 'thefts' is sheer pedantry and ostentation. But Salandra and the rest of them were Milton's contemporaries.
All the winter he had kept out of Rome, leaving the Salandra Government to work out a solution of the knotty tangle in which he had helped to involve his country. Nobody knew precisely what Giolitti's views were, but it was generally accepted that he preserved the tradition of the Crispi statesmanship, which had made the abortion of the Triple Alliance.
The next morning, be it remembered, the politician sneaked away, and two days afterwards the Salandra Government returned to power. Rome, all Italy, became suddenly calm, purged of its passion, awaiting confidently the reopening of Parliament. The Government had won. The people had won. The poet had beaten the politician. For his was the voice to which the great mass of his countrymen responded.
Altogether, Zicari has observed that Rolli, although unacquainted with the 'Adamo Caduto, has sometimes inadvertently hit upon the same words in his Italian translation of Milton which Salandra had used before him. Eve's altered complexion after the eating of the forbidden fruit is noted by both poets: Torbata ne la faccia? Non sei quella Thus Eve with countenance blithe her story told;
Salandra then describes the council of the rebel angels, their fall from heaven into a desert and sulphurous region, their discourses. Man is enviously spoken of, and his fall by means of stratagem decided upon; it is resolved to reunite in council in Pandemonium or the Abyss, where measures may be adopted to the end that man may become the enemy of God and the prey of hell. The same with Milton.
In Italy, it has been said with truth, the conviction prevailed that Roumania would descend into the arena as soon as the Salandra Cabinet had declared war against Austria, and a good deal of disappointment was caused by M. Bratiano's failure to come up to this expectation. But the expectation was gratuitous and the disappointment imaginary.
That was by way of warning, possibly as much to the Government as to the populace. Then the decision was made, and after the Salandra Ministry, in whom the people had confidence, had returned to power, the ministry that had broken with Austria and refused her grudging compromises, the piazza purred like doves and listened to long patriotic speeches from "representative citizens."
The speeches of Lucifero, to be sure, read rather like a caricature it must not be forgotten that Salandra was writing for lower-class theatrical spectators, and not for refined readers but the elements which Milton has utilized are already there. Here is a coincidence: Here we may reign secure . . . Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
So much was due to the leading politician of Italy, who controlled, supposedly, a majority of the existing Parliament. In a sense he held the Salandra Government in his hand, after the opening of the Chamber, which could not be long delayed. Then the politician spoke. Rather, to be precise, he wrote a little note to a faithful intimate, which was meant for the newspapers and got into them at once.
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