BETROTHED, The ( Promessi SposP). There are three redactions of this masterpiece of Alessandro Manzoni. The first (1821-23) bore the title 'Fermo e Lucia' and constituted a vast historical canvas, rich in digressive epi sode of Milanese life around 1630, the year of the great pestilence. In the second, entitled in manuscript 'Gil sposi promessP and published in 1827 as promessi sposi,' we have a thor ough critical revision. The historical materials extraneous to the story proper are made more proportionate to the imaginative content, while the ethical purpose of the novel more rigidly controls. In preparation for the third and final edition (1840-42) Manzoni had 'washed his duds in the Arno," as be modestly avers. It ex presses the Manzonian theory, now triumphant, of the national Italian language. promessi sposi' in this form is the leading classic model of modern Italian speech. This romance is the best Italian effort in prose of the Romantic period. It substituted sound historical scholar ship and studied psychological portraiture for the sentimentality of the mal du Aide and the purposeless adventures of the old romanesque novels. It gave a typical and evolved interpre tation of Italian middle-class idealism, demo cratic (civilc) in outlook, Roman Catholic in inspiration, conservative and evolutionary in tactic. In artistic mood, it shows a kindly, ironical scepticism toward human nature, ex pressed subtly in the conception of the plot and i more openly in frequent epigrammatic flashes. The conviction that man's efforts are powerless to win happiness leads Manzoni to a pessimism essentially passive and inactive; save that this feeling is but the groundwork for something more positive. Through faith in God and in the triumph of righteousness we may take refuge in a peaceful and segue optimism. °When troubles come, deserved or undeserved, trust in God softens them and makes them useful to a better life." In lifting the veil delicately from the hidden vanities of his char acters to reveal their helplessness in their pride, Manzoni finds a source of a rich humor, dis cerning but free from bitterness. The plot,
baldly summarized, is amusingly melodramatic. Renzo and Lucia, two naive and simple peasants, by the wickedness• of a bold, bad baron, and the deliciously human weakness of a priest, Don Abbondio — the most popular figure of the novel—are prevented from marrying; and compelled to flee from their homes, they are caught up in the turmoil of great events occur ring in their province. This review of 17th century society is accurate and sound. Its various traits and tendencies are incarnated in characters elaborated in detail. Hardly one of them but has become in some aspect or phrase proverbial; for belonging exactly to their own ancient period, they reflect Manzoni's charac teristic view of life, and are universally typical of humanity. The sagaciously worldly saint, Padre Cristoforo; the unwilling nun (monaca formic) Gertrude; the converted reprobate called l'lnnominato; the officious and wisely blundering mother, Agnese, are all famous and engaging personages. • Perhaps the best-known section of the book is the lurid description of the pestilence at Milan, with its weird super stitious terrors. In the portrayal of feudal Italy, crushed by foreign oppression, modern Italian patriotism has always found much stim ulus. Nevertheless, the complexity and deli cacy of Manzoni's humorous touch makes the full richness of promessi sposi' accessible only to maturer minds. It seemed disappoint ingly oppressive and quiescent to the more tur bulent spirits even of its own age. Forced, by its linguistic prestige, upon Italian children, it presents to them the conventional requisites of the textbook: dullness and sublimity. promessi sposi' is not only the 'Ivanhoe,' but the 'Vicar of Wakefield' of Italians. A dis tinguished American, Andrew D. White, has called it the best novel ever written; which means simply that it can be read over and over again with increasing pleasure, due to ever new discoveries, though it will never have for Amer icans the glamour of sanctity with which the Italian scholastic tradition surrounds it as the principal model of the mother tongue.