CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA ()Rustic Chivalry)). The title of a famous short sketch of how an ((affair of honor) was settled in a country place in Sicily, by Giovanni Verga. The story first appeared in 1880 in a collection of tales entitled (Vita dei campi) ()Life in the Fields)) and subsequently when the stories were reprinted gave its name to the collection. The direct way story is told, without any elaboration, leaving to the imagina tion precisely what is necessary, makes the tragedy a model of this kind of realistic writ ing, a kind, which has given Verga a very high rank among modern Italian writers. Turiddu, a young soldier, returns from military duty to find that his sweetheart, Lola, during his absence has given her hand to a well-to-do villager, Alfio. To revenge himself Turiddu wins the affection of a young girl, Santa, living directly opposite Lola, and then endeavors to make the latter jealous. He succeeds, abandons Santa, wins back Lola and pays for his treachery with his life in a duel with Alfio. Such are the bare facts. The way they are presented in rapid succession leading up to the tragedy is realism of the highest order. More over, the local coloring is so strong as to give the sketch a flavor that is peculiarly Italian and which characterizes thoroughly everything that is presented in the tragedy: Turiddu's uniform and red 'cap with the tassel worn by the Bersaglieri that strangely agitate the young girls and attract the small boys; his reproach in Sicilian dialect to Lola, just before her mar riage; the ostentation of the latter after her marriage, of her jewels and ornaments at the balcony of her house in order to proclaim her wealth; the courtship of Turiddu and Santa, broken by Lola's jealousy, and the resulting consequences, that is the challenge of Alfio to Turiddu; the binding of the promise to fight the duel by embracing and by Turiddu's biting Alfio's ear; the duel at sunrise in the Indian fig field, where Alfio, wounded, stoops down, picks up a handful of dust, throws it into his op ponent's eyes, thus blinding Turiddu, making it possible for Alfio to wreak his revenge by dis patching the betrayer of his honor. In 1884
Verga dramatized (Cavalleria rusticana) as a one-act play containing nine scenes. Several minor characters appear and Santa is called Santuzza. The whole action takes place Easter morning in the village pioszetta, where the wine shop of Turiddu's mother, Nunzia, is seen and the village church. Although Verga's dramatized version is effective, the drama is hardly the equal of the novella, the charm of which in no small degree lies in the merely suggested background. Undoubtedly much of the celebrity of (Cavalleria rusticana' is due to Pietro Mascagni's opera of the same name, the libretto for which was written by Targioni Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, shortly before 1890. Although the original version of the story is followed Suite closely, several lyrics are introduced serving as texts for arias and choruses, which, admirable as they are in their way, by reason of their development, rather detract from the original dramatic effect. A readily available text of (Cavalleria rusticana,> with English notes and commentary, by Pro fessors Wilkins and Altrocchi of Chicago Uni versity, will be found in a collection: 'Italian Short Stories) (Boston 1912). An English translation by Alma Stretell appeared in Eng land in 'Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Tales of Sicilian Life) (London 1893), and in this country by Nathan Haskell Dole, in a volume entitled (Under the Shadow of Etna) (Bos ton 1896).