Volume I Part 1 (1/2)

The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi

Vol 1

by Count Carlo Gozzi

PREFACE

After the appearance of my work on Benvenuto Cellini, Mr J C Nimmo proposed that I should undertake a translation of Count Carlo Gozzi's _Meht be of interest to the English public es of Manchester, in a letter addressed to the _Acadeentle the idea, which I have carried out, but also for the interest he has shown in ress, and for the assistance he has liberally rendered by the loan of rare books

I entertained the proposal with some doubt What I already knew about Carlo Gozzi amounted to little; and it seely have left his Memoirs in oblivion if they possessed solid qualities

At the same time, the little that I did know of Gozzi roused my curiosity The picturesque aspects of Venetian decadence allured my fancy I foresaw that I should have to handle the attractive subject of Italian iraphies have always exerted a peculiar fascination for ical docuraphy seems toinducements, therefore, to undertake the proposed task

The first thing to do was to procure a copy of the Memoirs, which exist only in one edition of three volus placed the first two volu It had been purloined while its oas stationed in one of the South Ah fourcontinued applications to the best European dealers in old books, before a complete copy was at last disinterred from a Venetian library

The extraordinary rarity of the _Me a preliminary study of the text, I perceived that this was no common specimen of self-portraiture In some respects it seemed to me to be a ical and historical value A es He was, moreover, the Venetian representative of a well-defined social and literary period This period corresponded pretty closely with that of our own Sa, Goldsmith, Reynolds, David Hume It was the period which ended with the earthquake of the French Revolution, the signs of which catastrophe were felt more ominously in Italy than in our own land At the sanised salient qualities of healthy ence, and of caustic huled with literary merit of no ordinary kind, vivid transcripts from contemporary life, drainal reflections on society

According to my own standard in such matters, Gozzi's Memoirs ranked as an important document for the study of Italy in the last century

But was the book worth translating? Would it not suffice to leave the few existing copies in their obscurity, and to indicate their value for historians by co a critical treatise on the author and his tiraphies, and my sense of their utility, caused me to reject this alternative I decided to translate, and to illustrate inal essays

While engaged upon the work, I have not, however, felt always quite at ease It has recurred to my lish version of Gozzi's self-styled 'useless inal!” Not all people share that partiality for autobiographies which in me amounts almost to a passion

Besides, I had to face other difficulties The three chapters which contain the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures could not be oht they throw upon his age, and too important in the man's estimate of his own character Their suppression would have been unfair to Gozzi, and would have shorn his Memoirs of some brilliant bits of local colour Nevertheless, I knew that the frankness and the cynical humour of these episodes are out of tune with e to classics--to Plato or Cellini--which would not be excused in a writer of inferior elect by his own nation proves that overwhel him from deserved oblivion if these love-stories are indispensable to the rehabilitating process?

My answer to this perplexing query was that the debated passages are good in literature, true to nature, sound inTheir candour is the candour of a cleanly heart, resolved to bare its secret by an effort of self-portraiture Gozzi describes passions coe; but he also sho a deterht and honourable, can free itself frolements of natural frailty The lesson may be sole word unworthy of awhich is calculated toOnly one--

”Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up From common sense of what men were and are, Who would not knohat men must be:”--

only such an one can take exception to the narratives of Gozzi's love-adventures

Reasoning thus, I deter already decided that no translation could be given to the world without them, and that the book orthy of resuscitation But I felt es and phrases which ht have caused offence to some of my readers

To translate Gozzi with the minute attention to his style which I bestowed upon Cellini would have been unpractical I should even have inflicted an injury uponstyle; redundant, unequal, diffuse; bearing the stah copious) coe

To condense andthe plan of Paul de Musset's abridgement, see writer's deliberate er portion of the book into equivalent English, allowing es, and rearranging the order of some chapters All cases of important condensation or omission have been indicated in my notes My account of the Memoirs and the causes which led to their publication (Introduction, Part i) sufficiently explains ht to transpose material from one place to another Readers of the Introduction will perceive how carelessly and accidentally, to serve occasion, the original and unique edition was put together It is due in part, I think, to Gozzi's indifference and haste of coraphy fell into almost absolute oblivion

We have only one edition of the _Memorie_, that of Palese, under the date Venezia, 1797 Therefore nothing need be said upon the topic of bibliography I may, however, mention that the few copies of this rare book which have fallen underthe random way in which the sheets were lish critics of distinction, one only, so far as I am aware, has mentioned Gozzi's Mehteenth Century in Italy_ But Vernon Lee knew the book only through Paul de Musset's ”perversion” Accordingly, what she has to say about the man is less valuable than the vivid, if not always accurate, account she gives of his _Fiabe_

The volu to the public clai with a hitherto almost untouched document of historical and literary importance