BROWNING'S ITALY (7 page)

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GLIMPSES OF POLITICAL LIFE

A people is but the attempt of many To rise to the completer life of one; And those who live as modeis for the mass Are singly of more value than they all."

— Luria.

IN four out of the seven dramas written by Browning, he has given through the optic glass of his own vision a characteristic view of some phase of political life in Italy.

With the exceptionof "KingVictor and King Charles" — a tolerably accurate portrayal of an actual series of events in one of the side issues of Italian History, these plays have for atmosphere known historical conditions in the midst of which move beings of the poet's own imagination, such as might have existed.

To begin with "Luria," which chronologi-caily comes first, the scene is Florence, the date 14—, a sufficiently vague date to allow one's imagination to ränge through the whole of the fifteenth Century in conjuring up the setting of the play, Accordingly if we say

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that, broadly speaking, "Luria" Stands for fifteenth Century Florentine civilization, we shall come near hitting the mark.

The central event of the play is a war between Florence and Pisa. The history of the Century has two wars between Florence and Pisa to show, one near the beginning of the Century, 1406, and one near the end, about 1494. No events in either of these wars can be found exactly parallel to those Browning describes, yet he has taken hints from both to build up his imaginary Situation.

This was the Century of the Medicis in Florence and of Savonarola, the first Standing for much that was good and for much that was bad in the Renaissance spirit, the second, for much that was good and some-thing that was bad in the religious attitude of the age.

It is impossible here to go into the details of the fierce struggles which were constantly waged at this time, as well as earlier and later, between the antagonistic forces of the human spirit, the desire for freedom at odds with the desire for power making the much boasted iiberty of Florence iittle more than a shadow, and the desire for pleasure at war with religious aspiration leading to license on the one hand and finally to religious persecution

on the other. Yet out of this well nigh in-describable chaos arose industry and commerce, intellectual power and art which will be the amazement of mankind to the end of time; for did not Florence give the world Dante and Giotto and Michael Angelo as well as nourishing the Medici and Savo-narola! While her great commerce was the envy of all nations. Mrs. Oliphant in her "Makers of Florence" writes: "It is curious to step out of the disturbed and turbulent city life, in which nobles and com-mons, poets, historians, and philosophers, were revolving in a continuai turmoil, now up, now down, falling and rising and falling again, with all the bitter hopes and fears natural amid vicissitudes so painful, into the artist world where no such ups or downs seem to have existed, but where work went on placidly, whatever happened. Enough for them (the artists) that it was all to be theirs afterwards, and that when the factions and the families had done their worst and torn each other to pieces, and all the Magnificoes had had their day, they were to pass every one of them, and leave the silent painter, the patient worker in stone, omnipotent in the city which has come to belong to them — to be its princes and its potentates for everand

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ever." And again, " Internal conflicts, which showed not only in the public Square and public palace, but which convulsed every petty aliey and made a fortress of every street corner; and external assault by neigh-boring cities, by marauding emperors, by now one, now another ieague of belligerent towns, backed up by bands of mercenaries, kept up such a continual commotion that the existence of the shop, the manufactory, or the studio behind seems almost incredible. Yet that background of calm to all these fierce contentions seems to have appeared entirely natural to the Florentines. Trade flourished among them, not only as it does among ourselves, underneath the brilliant surface on which the great and wealthy and non-iaboring keep up a princely show, but in the hands of the very men who formed the surface of Florentine life: the same men who negotiated with princes, and ied armies, and had a share in all the imperial affairs of Europe, yet returned to their banking houses or their woolen manufactories unchanged, talking of the bottega, the business which gave them their standing, with the most per-fect satisfaction and content in that source of their fortune."

That there was no love lost between

Florence and Pisa would be understandable in such an age upon the mere ground that they were rival free cities with similar aims and ambitions, but there was an even more vital reason. Pisa was near the sea and possessed a fine port "Porto Pisana," and what would Florence do with her vast com-mercial relations in the event of Pisa and other Italian ports, Sienna and Genoa, com-bining to boycott Florence and prevent her from getting her goods to market! The policy of Florence had always been to fan the flames of rivalry and jealousy between these cities, but the fatal moment at last arrived. The cities all came under one ruler, Visconti; Florence was facing the ruin she had always dreaded when the tyrant Visconti luckily for her died. As one his-torian puts it, "They recovered as from the indulgence in a long slumber; and the reduc-tion of Pisa from that moment became the first object of their ambition." The war of 1406 resulted in a victory over Pisa and the commerce of Florence was put on a firm foundation. But the two cities did not, after the manner of the old fairy-tales, live happy ever after. A hint of the relations between them may be gained from Machi-avelli. "Pisa," he says, "should have par-

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ticipated in all the rights and privileges of Florence and thus have been attached by companionship, or eise after the Roman fashion its walls should have been destroyed; but it never should have been coerced by citadels, which are useless in the occupation of a conquered town and injurious to a native one." At last the time was ripe. The un-satisfactory rule of Piero de' Medici had brought about civil discord in Florence and weakened it so that Pisa began to think of throwing off the yoke, and finally with the help of Charles VIII of France accomplished it. Just at this moment Piero de' Medici was banished, and later Charles VIII retired from the scene after making things very uncom-fortable for Florence. Freed from these dis-turbing influences, however, Florence was able to improve the internal condition of affairs and then turn her attention to the recon-quering of Pisa. Thus came about the second war. Certain details given in the history of both these wars have been used by Browning in the development of his Situation. For exainple, we read in Napier's history, "The Florentine camp was accordingly pitched at San Piero on the river side a little below the town, under the Florentine com-missioner, Maso degli Albizzi, but more

especially Gino Capponi." Besides these com-missioners were the Commanders, with whom history records Florence had difficulties. The army was first commanded by Jacopo Sal-viati, a Florentine Citizen who after some use-ful and active Service was superseded by Bertoldo degli Orsini: but this general, show-ing more rapacity than soldiership, displeased the Florentines and was ordered to resign his command to Obizzo da Monte Carelli. Two other Commanders, Sforza da Cotignola and Tartaglia, showed such a spirit of rivalry toward each other that they were placed in distinct and distant commands with their separate forces. The attack of the Florentine forces on Pisa was repulsed, but the Pisans were so closely invested by land and sea that famine drove them to capitulation, though it was done through the secret nego-tiations of their Commander, Gambacorta, who made such good terms for himself, that his actions might be regarded as distinctly treasonable.

Of the second war, ninety years later, we read that "Ercole Bentivoglio and other condottieri were engaged with a large body of troops which under the direction of Piero Capponi and Francesco Valori, as Florentine commissaries, recovered almost all the Pisan

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territory from a badly armed and undis-ciplined peasantry, the sole defenders as yet assembled beyond the walls of Pisa; so that in a short time Vico Pisano, Cascina, and Buti were the only places that still sus-tained her independence." Again we read, "Lucca and Sienna although afraid to de-clare themselves openly against Florence sent succours clandestinely to Pisa; the first supplied her with grain and three hundred soldiers, the second with troops alone. Ludo-vico the Moor, who had at first encouraged the Pisan revolt, although afraid openly to violate his engagements with Florence, re-ferred the Pisans to Genoa, which, notwith-standing its dependence on Milan, still retained a certain liberty of national action." Later we read that notwithstanding his aid to Pisa, Ludovico "maintained an amiable intercourse with Florence" and "now ex-hibited more unequivocal signs of friendship by intimating that he wished to restore Pisa to Florentine dominion." To this Malpiero adds that "Ludovico secretly offered before this to assist Florence if she would continue the subsidy of 60,000 florins that she had paid to his brother Galeazzo, and that Florence alarmed by the interference of Venice con-sented."

It gives one an instructive glimpse into the workings of a poet's mind to see what he has done with such hints as these in the making of his play.

We find the Florentine forces encamped between Florence and Pisa, with Braccio, a Florentine Commissary, and Luria, a Moor, the Commander of the Florentine forces. Around these chief characters are grouped Jacopo, Luria's secretary, Husain, Luria's Moorish friend, Puccio, the old Florentine Commander, now Luria's chief officer, Tiburzio, Commander of the Pisans, and Domizia, a noble Florentine lady and a spy, a position frequently given to women at that time.

At first sight it would look as if Browning had taken from history the Suggestion of a Moor interested in Florentine and Pisan affairs and made him the Florentine Commander. Ludovico was of course actually not a Moor, the name being merely a pseudonym, bestowed upon him because of his dark com-plexion. One is tempted to draw a parallel here with the Christopher Moro who has been brought forward by some as furnishing hints to Shakespeare for his Othello. His name was also derived from his complexion. Ludovico was an Italian of the Sforza family and

the Duke of Milan, and his interest in Floren-tine and Pisan affairs was all with the end in view of making them subject to Milan. Per-haps Browning had in mind, however, his double dealing with Florence and Pisa, when he makes the Pisan Commander, Tiburzio, off er Luria the command of the Pisan forces, after revealing to him the underhanded intentions of the Florentines to indite and try him off hand as soon as the battle is won.

The plot in the play hangs upon the in-tegrity of Luria, and Browning, instead of making him what the Commanders and rulers of that day only too frequently were — utterly selfish, scheming and untrustworthy, has made him stand firm amidst suspicion and treacheiy. The question may very well be asked why the poet chose to make this paragon of military honor and virtue a Moor ?

One feels upon first reading Luria as if Browning desired to vindicate the character of the Moor against all the insults heaped upon it in Shakespeare's "Othello," and had undertaken to show how supreme could be the action of an Oriental nature when placed in the most trying circumstances. Luria like Othello is a mercenary captain. Mercenary troops were the chief soldiers up to the fifteenth Century, and mercenary captains

were also frequent — one of the most noted in Florentine history being the Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood; but no Moorish captain flourishes in the pages of Florentine history. Moors there had been in plenty in Sicily in the days of Frederick II. He had colonies at Nocera and Luceria, and fought all his battles with Moorish troops. Learned Moors and Moorish ladies thronged his court, and through his close association with Moorish culture, which was in most respects far ahead of European culture, he Stands out as one of the intellectual pioneers in the Renaissance movement, a fact already mentioned in Part I. But, as Draper points out, "In the eye of Rome all this was abomination. Were human laws to take the precedence of the law of God ? Was this new-born product of the insolence of human intellect — this so-called science — to be brought into competition with theology, the heaven descended? Frederick and his parliaments, his laws and universities, his libraries, his statues, his pictures and sonnets were denounced. ,, But, as Draper goes on to say, the fall of Frederick was not followed by the destruction of the influences he repre-sented. These not only survived him, but were destined in the end to overcome the power which had transiently overthrown them.

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While the Moors are not prominent in Italian history after this, there is every reason to suppose that there were many of them still in Italy at the time of this play, so that Browning would be quite justified in having a Moorish captain, though it is a little doubt-ful if the Florentines would have entrusted their forces to a so-called barbarian. In connection with this subject it is interesting to note that as early as 812 the Moors not only attacked Corsica and Sardinia, but in order to revenge a defeat which they had suffered from a Frankish general invaded Nice in the Narbonese Gaul and Civita Vecchia in Tuscany. This comes near Florence; but still nearer to Florence did they come in the twelfth Century, according to a writer of that time who reproaches Pisa with the Jews, the Arabians and other monsters of the sea who thronged in her streets.

With a poet's prerogative, Browning has taken a universal view of the forces at work in historical development, rather than an indi-vidual view of persons acting in the midst of historical events. His portrayal of the noble Luria has all the sympathy which we might expect from a Frederick II who appreciated the fine qualities of intellect and heart, possessed by the Moors. The Florentines