RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI

CONTRIBUTI

GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM

PIERO GAROFALO University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire

iovanni Berchet occupies a pivotal position in the development of a Romantic aesthetic in . His meditation on the role of literature in Gsociety, Sul ‘Cacciatore feroce’ e sulla ‘Eleonora’ di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo (1816; On the “Fierce Hunter” and “Leonora” of G. A. Bürger. The Semiserious Letter from Chrysostom to His Son), was one of the most influential texts in the Classicist-Romantic polemic and provided a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between European and Italian Romanticism. In his literary works, Berchet sought to establish a dialogue with society. To achieve this goal, he employed an accessible language that spoke to a broad audience in opposition to the elaborate and artificial language that was intended for a select few and was characteristic of Italian literature. As a poet, translator, literary critic, and patriot, Berchet is also representative of a particular cultural activism that emerged during the Risorgimento in northern Italy. He spent twenty-four years in exile as a result of his political activities. His poetry was extremely influential from both a stylistic and thematic perspective on nineteenth-century lyric production; however, since the mid- twentieth century, literary critics have attributed much of the success that his poetry achieved amongst his contemporaries to its political content and to the historical moment. Berchet was born at n. 42 via Cerva in on 23 December 1783. He was the eldest of Federico and Caterina Silvestri’s eight children. The family was originally from Nantua near Geneva. Federico was rather authoritative and ran a cloth shop in which he expected Giovanni to assume his filial duties at a future date. To this end he encouraged and directed his son’s education. Berchet began his studies under the tutelage of a family friend, Don Premoli in 1790. He continued his schooling, which was decidedly classical, with the abbot Pietro Mazzucchelli who later became the prefect of the Ambrosian Library. He then enrolled in the Arcimbolde Schools run by the Barnabite order; however, before Berchet could finish the curriculum, his father had to 107 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM withdraw him in the early 1800s, because he needed his assistance. Although Federico employed his son in the family business, he continued to encourage him to study modern foreign languages  in particular, French, German, and English – because they had a commercial application that Latin and Greek lacked. Giovanni, however, was far more interested in literature than in commerce. In this period he wrote Inno per le nozze di Alberigo Rovida e di Cristina Forni (Hymn for the Wedding of Alberigo Rovida and Cristina Forni), which was published in Milan by the Stamperia di Giovanni Giuseppe Destefanis around 1807. Written in thirty-five Anacreontic strophes, the hymn displays his classical education – in particular, Horace and Catullus  and his affinity for the mythological motifs of eighteenth-century poetry. He also befriended other young Milanese literati including the painter Giuseppe Bossi (1777- 1815) and the translator Felice Bellotti (1786-1853). He composed an ode All’ulcera (To the Ulcer), which has remained unpublished because his editors deemed it too vulgar, and he co-authored with Count Giuseppe Taverna (1754-1833) Ottave a rime obbligate (Ottava Rima with Set Rhymes), a twenty-four line poem in which they alternated composing verses. That same year Berchet published his translation in hendecasyllabic blank verse of Il bardo (The Bard. A Pindaric Ode, 1757) by Thomas Gray (1716-1771). Bardic poetry along the Ossianic model was very popular in Italian literary culture and was invested with aesthetic and political signification in the early nineteenth century. Berchet’s preface to Il bardo underscored the importance of poetry in the formation of a national consciousness. In the Giornale della Società di Incoraggiamento in 1808, (1778-1827) reviewed the work favorably, though not without specific criticisms that included challenging the decision not to render the ode in prose. This review served to introduce Berchet into Milan’s literary circles and to meet the satirical poet Carlo Porta (1775-1821) with whom he developed a close friendship. The relations that Berchet formed in this period reinforced the development of his aesthetics, which were more consonant with Foscolo’s poetics than with those of Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828)  the doyen of Milanese culture. In 1808, Berchet published the satire I funerali. In addition to drawing on Horace, who is cited in the epigraph, the text bears the influence of Foscolo  especially Dei Sepolcri (1807; On Sepulchers)  and of Giuseppe Parini (1729-1799)  in particular, Il giorno (1763-1804; The Day). The poem describes the cult of the dead in a lost age of innocence and contrasts this idyll with the decadence of the present. I funerali’s 266 hendecasyllabic blank verses narrate the funeral of a rich and corrupt man named Cratero and the hypocrisy of society. Its presentation is classical and conforms to the poetic models most in vogue in the early nineteenth century. In addition, the satire’s imagery is somewhat derivative. The strong moral impetus evident in I funerali’s condemnation of the corruption of values situates the text in a 108 PIERO GAROFALO literary tradition that finds its most immediate precedent in the production of (1749-1803). The poem Amore, which he published the following year, suffers from the same stylistic limitations as I funerali. The text’s epigraph comes from the tragedy Cato (1713) by Joseph Addison (1672-1719). Composed in 504 hendecasyllabic blank verses, the satire juxtaposes the simplicity and honesty of country living to the decadence and corruption of city life where love is sacrificed to the altars of lust and wealth. The seventeen textual notes included with the composition do not serve an explanatory purpose, but instead provide a forum for authorial commentary as well as an opportunity for Berchet to display his erudition. Conventional, neoclassical, and mannered, Amore is as much a literary exercise as a poetic expression of his literary formation. While Berchet continued to work for his father, he turned to translating in order to free himself from the constraints of commercial employment. He collaborated with the Milanese publisher Giuseppe Destefanis who launched a series of modern European works in 1809. Since these translations were released without crediting the translators, the only text that can be definitively attributed to Berchet is Il vicario di Wakefield (The Vicar of Wakefield, 1766) by Oliver Goldsmith (1730?-1774), although he has been frequently credited with Il visionario (Der Geisterseher) by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805). He completed Il vicario di Wakefield before 10 March 1810. In addition to the financial compensation, Goldsmith’s novel allowed Berchet to experiment with his own poetic style. Berchet’s father realized that his eldest son’s character and interests were not suited for commercial enterprises therefore he encouraged Giovanni to pursue a government career. On 10 August 1810, Berchet left the family business and obtained a modest position as the administration office’s second clerk in the Senate chancellery of the Kingdom of Italy. His new employment facilitated his participation in the cultural life of the city. With Bossi, Bellotti, and Porta, he frequented the Scala Theater and other literary salons. In May 1811, he traveled to Florence and Rome. This brief tour, which included a meditative visit to the Church of Santa Croce, only served to reinforce his patriotic fervor. Back in Milan, he became a fixture at theatrical representations. Following the performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s (1792- 1868) Demetrio e Polibio by the Mombelli Company on 6 July 1813, Berchet published a “musical letter” titled Lettera sul dramma ‘Demetrio e Polibio’ cantata nel Teatro Carcano (1813; Letter on the Drama “Demetrius and Polibius” Sung in the Carcano Theater). In this article, which the author presents as a letter dated 27 July 1813 to a distant friend, Berchet asserts the primacy of the public’s reaction over that of the critics’ interpretation. He praises the actors, and inserts Rossini’s production into a specifically Italian context. The theoretical underpinnings of Berchet’s argument are poorly articulated; however, his preference for melodrama anticipates the 109 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM development of his own poetics. Beyond an aesthetic evaluation of melodrama, the polemic had a political undertone, and Berchet aligned himself with the “melodists” against the “harmonists”  the former associated with an Italian musical tradition, the latter with a German one. Berchet maintained this musical preference throughout his life and in fact, when in Berlin in 1834, he demonstrated a similar impatience with the compositions of (1770-1827). Following the battle of Leipzig (16-19 October 1813), ’s control over the Kingdom of Italy began to erode and effectively ceased to exist with the lynching of the finance minister Giuseppe Prina during a violent protest in Milan on 20 April 1814. Although Berchet nurtured the hope that an independent Italian state could emerge from the collapse of the French Empire, his primary concern at the time remained ’s liberation from Napoleonic oppression. Therefore when the Austrian general Bellegarde occupied Milan eight days after Prina’s execution, Berchet did not view this new political situation from an entirely negative perspective. During this turbulent period, he left the city at times to visit his younger brother Carlino in Como. While on these getaways he composed Frammenti di un poemetto sul lago di Como (Fragments of a Poem on Lake Como), which was part of a longer composition Il Lario influenced by Foscolo’s Le Grazie (The Graces). Il Lario is a neoclassical poem in both its form and content; it is comprised of 104 blank verses that contemplate the suggestive landscape of Lake Como. He published these fragments in the 30 November 1815 edition of the paper Spettatore. After the dissolution of the Kingdom of Italy, Berchet lost his clerical post and had to explore new career opportunities. On 12 June 1814, Austria annexed the Lombardo-Venetia territory, and twelve days later Berchet applied to the Habsburg government for employment. Following a thorough background check, he was hired as a German translator for the “Commissione degli Studi” on 27 September 1814. In this capacity, he also provided translation services to the chief of the High Police, the Marquis Ghislieri. On 9 December 1815, the painter Giuseppe Bossi died. To commemorate his friend’s passing, Berchet composed the letter A Felice Bellotti. In morte di Giuseppe Bossi, which he published in 1816. Following the eulogistic convention, the epistle is a verse composition that employs the language and imagery of the neoclassical tradition. He also completed the poem I Visconti (The Visconti) in the latter half of 1815, but it remained unedited until Francesco Cusani’s publication of Berchet’s works in 1863. The setting for I Visconti is Petrarch’s sojourn in Milan as a guest of Giovanni Visconti. Following his host’s death, Petrarch has a prophetic vision that convinces him to leave the city. Thematically, the poem addresses issues of morality, decadence and tyranny. Berchet struggled with I Visconti’s formal and stylistic elaboration as his poetics began to evolve from the neoclassical 110 PIERO GAROFALO model to which he had adhered toward a more Romantic sensibility. His dissatisfaction with the results of this effort perhaps explains the decision not to publish the work. In the midst of Berchet’s poetic crisis, Anna-Louise-Germaine Staël- Holstein, baronne de Necker (1766-1817) returned to Milan in 1815, with one of the principal theoreticians of German Romanticism, August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845). In addition to Madame de Staël’s divulgative essays, Schlegel’s Vorlesungen über dramatische Kunst und Litteratur (Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, 1809-1811), both in its French translation (1814) and Italian redaction (1817), had served to disseminate the ideals of European Romanticism amongst the Milanese literati. In particular, Madame de Staël’s article “Sulla maniera e l’utilità delle traduzioni” (On the Method and Manner of Translations), which appeared in the first issue of Biblioteca italiana (1 January 1816), sparked a literary polemic that quickly assumed political overtones. De Staël’s essay invited Italians to translate contemporary English and German poetry so that they might be aware of trends in European literature and culture. While many interpreted her critique as an attack on Italian literary tradition, others such as Ludovico Giuseppe Arborio Gattinara dei marchesi di Breme (1781-1820) and Pietro Borsieri (1786-1852) defended de Staël’s position and called for a new literature  the former in Intorno all’ingiustizia di alcuni giudizi letterari italiani (Milan: Giegler, 1816; Discourse Concerning the Injustice of Some Italian Literary Judgments) and the latter in Avventure letterarie di un giorno o consigli di un galantuomo a vari scrittori (Milan: Gio. Pietro Giegler, librajo, 10 September 1816; Literary Adventures of a Day or Advice from an Honest Man to Various Writers). Following these publications, both di Breme and Borsieri emerged as the Classicists principal opponents, but they also provided a point of reference for those like Berchet who were seeking ways to establish a new rapport between culture and society. Berchet was already a well-regarded and visible presence in Milanese culture. His views on Romanticism matured through his engagement in animated discussions at the Scala Theater and extensive readings including texts not yet translated into Italian such as Ästhetik (1806; Aesthetics) by Friedrich Bouterweck (1766-1828). The Romantics considered Berchet’s participation in the polemic quite a coup and included him in all significant intellectual gatherings. Di Breme invited him to a dinner party on 17 October 1816, in honor of George Gordon, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824) who was passing through Milan. Monti, Bellotti, Borsieri, John Cam Hobhouse, Baron Broughton (1786-1869), and (1783-1842) were among those guests present that evening. In October, Berchet announced a forthcoming publication on Romanticism and Classicism, and in December 1816, Berchet published the fruits of these meditations, Sul ‘Cacciatore feroce’ e sulla 111 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM

‘Eleonora’ di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo. Although the content of the essay was somewhat derivative, it emerged as one to the most significant manifestoes of Italian Romanticism. The title and subtitle refer to the dual critical perspectives assumed in the treatise: a theoretical discussion on specific poetic texts and a sarcastic assessment of the Classicist position. The pretense for the exposition is a son’s request to his father Grisostomo for an Italian translation of two ballads by Gottfried August Bürger (1747-1794). Grisostomo is presented without fanfare as a simple father writing to his son. He begins the letter by explaining why he has chosen to translate Cacciatore feroce and Eleonora in prose rather than in poetry. The essay moves beyond the debate of the need for foreign translations and takes up the critical issues inherent in translating. In responding to his son’s query, Grisostomo introduces several romantic arguments including the expansion of the poetic language to make it less exclusive and the awareness that linguistic sensibility is culturally specific. The father argues that the role of the translator is to convey the meaning and the intentions rather than to render a formal imitation of the source text. Therefore, in his view, since prose has no pretense of communicating the poetic value of the original, it provides more immediate access to the understanding of the text than poetry. In this discussion, there emerges a distinction between the languages of prose and poetry as corresponding to two distinct registers. Poetic language is based on tradition and is therefore a limited and carefully circumscribed vocabulary. Prose language, however, is in a continuous flux that requires an understanding of both the literary tradition and the current social conventions. The Lettera semiseria is itself an example of this novel and expansive awareness of the sociolinguistic possibilities of prose. Having confronted the question of language, the treatise moves on to examine an issue that had yet to be addressed in the public debates: the necessity that poetry be popular. Since the German Romantics had broached the topic, Alfredo Galletti supposes that Berchet was familiar with the works of Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) while Robert O.J. Van Nuffel suggests he read Bürger’s Herzensausguss über Volkspoesie (Observations on Popular Poetry). Other possible sources include de Staël, Schlegel, and the Swiss historian Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842), as well as Foscolo, di Breme, Borsieri, and Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), but regardless of these specific influences, Berchet’s explication, while interesting, lacks originality. Grisostomo refers to Bürger’s ballads as romanzi (romances)  a type of popular poetry that he associates with the Provençal poets as well as with English, German, and Spanish poets, but which he finds totally lacking in the Italian literary tradition. Grisostomo argues that Bürger (and others) realized that poetry should be universal, modern, popular, and useful otherwise it risks boring its audience and remaining unread. Therefore, 112 PIERO GAROFALO

Bürger derived the content and form of his ballads from popular sources in order to construct an artistic expression that would respond to the needs of the people. The results of his efforts are romanzi that share a straightforward narration and an accessible language. Grisostomo acknowledges the complexity of the issue and promises to send his son several works by Cesare Beccaria, Bouterweck, Edmund Burke, Vincenzo Cuoco, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Schiller, Schlegel, de Staël, and Vico, so that he might further pursue the topic on his own. Superficially but explicitly following Vico’s intuition, the treatise argues that everyone possesses a “tendency toward poetry”. Those few who possess it in an active form are poets, while the vast majority of people have a passive capacity to feel poetry. In order to move people, poets must understand their audience’s degree of sensitivity to poetry. Grisostomo identifies two extremes amongst the passive groups: the “Ottentotti” (Hottentots) who are too brutish to feel and the “Parigini” (Parisians) who are too desensitized and have displaced poetry with philosophy. He argues that neither of these groups is capable of experiencing poetry, but emphasizes that there is a broad range of sensitivity between these two extremes. A poet who addresses his poetry to two hundred Parisians is limited by the literary tradition through which his texts will be evaluated; however, a poet who addresses his poetry to the entire populace is forced to reach out and engage his audience in new ways. Grisostomo states that the judgment of the masses, which is identifiable with the nation, is of far greater import than the inconsequential views of a cultural elite, and therefore, the only true poetry is popular. From these presuppositions, Grisostomo explains, the distinction arose in Germany between Classic and Romantic poetry. He traces this differentiation from medieval times to the present by juxtaposing poetry of self-examination that spoke to the spirit of the times to poetry founded on imitation of ancient authors. While he associates Romanticism with the middle ages and Classicism with the Renaissance, Grisostomo emphasizes that the terms are arbitrary and that the two practices have frequently coexisted. In fact, he refers to Classicism as poesia dei morti (poetry of the dead) and Romanticism as poesia dei vivi (poetry of the living) arguing that ancient authors were romantics, but that imitation of their works has spawned purely literary exercises that speak to no one. German writers, Grisostomo argues, understood that the pleasure of poetry should not be limited to a select few, and that it could serve the moral edification of the German people. In order to accomplish this goal, they studied the Greek poets and realized that these authors followed no set rules and did not imitate literary models, but instead, the ancient poets took their inspiration from the world around them and from their own self-examination. If the Germans were able to develop what amounts to a national literature, Grisostomo asks, then why should Italians not do the same? To this end, the 113 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM treatise evokes a transparent authorial alter ego, the curate of Monte Atino, who incites the Italian people to shake off their lethargy and fatuous idolatry of the classics and to be as one with the present not with the past. The remainder of Sul ‘Cacciatore feroce’ e sulla ‘Eleonora’ di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo reaffirms the value of popular poetry as well as its civic role. Following the translations of Bürger’s two ballads, the treatise provides suggestions for the development of popular poetry in Italy. In an ironic twist, the text’s semiserious conclusion retracts everything that Grisostomo has argued and defends the Classicist position: “My dear son,…I am sure that you will have realized that my letter to this point has been facetious”. The concluding palinode is so convincing that, according to di Breme in his autobiographical Grand Commentaire (1817; Grand Commentary), some of their contemporaries were taken in by the ruse. While the philosophical tenets of Berchet’s argument are tenuous at best, the modern language it employed is at such odds with the literary tradition that it constitutes a philosophical statement in and of itself. The treatise failed to generate significant interest immediately following its publication in part because the Classical-Romantic polemic had begun to attenuate. Nevertheless, Sul ‘Cacciatore feroce’ e sulla ‘Eleonora’ di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo opened many doors for Berchet. During this period, he became actively engaged in Milan’s three principal literary circles: Porta’s group, which included (1790-1853), Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869), and Giovanni Torti (1774-1852); di Breme’s group, which included Count Luigi Porro Lambertenghi (1780-1860), Silvio Pellico (1789-1854), and Pietro Borsieri; and, in particular, the via Marone group that convened at the home of (1785-1873) and which included Torti, Ermes Visconti (1784-1841), and Giovanni Battista De Cristoforis. Manzoni held Berchet in high esteem and sent a copy of Lettera semiseria to Claude Charles (1772-1844) on 19 March 1817. Toward the end of the year, Berchet’s friend, the neoclassical painter Andrea Appiani, passed away. Asked to address the public, Berchet’s funeral oration exposed his continued affinity for neoclassicism in the figurative arts. While this might have seemed contradictory given the recent publication of Lettera semiseria, Berchet had manifested a similar consonance in his praise of Giuseppe Bossi and in his attachment to musical tradition during the Rossini debate. He concluded the allocution by calling Appiani “the painter par excellence of the century” and effectively ceased to display any further sympathies for neoclassicism. He published his address that same year under the title Allocuzione di Giovanni Berchet nei funerali del pittore Andrea Appiani: celebrati nella Chiesa della Passione il giorno 10 novembre 1817. Berchet’s participation in Milan’s most prestigious literary circles was somewhat problematic since the groups shared several literary, political, and 114 PIERO GAROFALO religious interests, but were frequently not in agreement on specific issues. Berchet, however, managed to assuage the various constituencies, and this ability allowed him to play an important mediating role, which was instrumental in assuring collaboration on particular projects such as the founding of the paper Il Conciliatore. Pellico, di Breme, and Borsieri launched this initiative because they recognized the need for a newspaper to explore the most recent European advances in the fields of literature, art, society, science, and economics. They conceived of the paper as a forum for their Romantic ideals in polemical opposition to the Biblioteca Italiana, a Classicist monthly journal edited by Giuseppe Acerbi (1773-1846) under the aegis and financing of the Austrian government. Berchet participated in this initiative from its inception along with Porro, (1785-1846), and Monti  though Monti politely distanced himself from the paper, which he feared might compromise his good standing with the authorities. They chose the name Il Conciliatore because one of their goals was to conciliate the two primary Romantic groups in Milan: the di Breme circle and the via Marone circle. Porro and Confalonieri financed the paper, while di Breme and Pellico served as the principal compilers. They organized the paper into four sections: 1) moral sciences; 2) literature and criticism; 3) statistics, economics, manufacturing, agriculture, art, and science; 4) miscellaneous. Di Breme, Borsieri, Berchet, and Pellico edited sections one, two, and four, while Porro, and Confalonieri edited section three. Il Conciliatore, or foglio azzurro (“blue sheet”) as it became known, quickly developed into an important forum for the dissemination of Romantic ideals in northern Italy. Its collaborators included Visconti, Giuseppe Nicolini, Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Giuseppe Pecchio, Adeodato Ressi, Sismonde de Sismondi, De Cristoforis, Giuseppe Longhi, Girolamo Primo, Camillo Serristori, and Giovanni Rasori  in other words, the principal proponents of Italian Romanticism. The biweekly paper (Thursdays and Sundays at noon) was launched on Thursday, 3 September 1818, and it attracted the immediate attention of the Austrian authorities. Throughout the brief existence of Il Conciliatore, Berchet remained an assiduous contributor. His articles, which he signed Grisostomo, dealt with literary topics and often expanded upon insights first proposed in Lettera semiseria such as the abstract concept of popolo (people) that he now articulated to refer explicitly to the bourgeoisie. In the paper’s first year he published “Del criterio dei discorsi” (13 September 1818; On the Criteria of Arguments), “Scortesie maschili al Teatro della Scala” (17 September 1818; Male Rudeness at the Scala Theater), “Sulla Storia della poesia e dell’eloquenza del Bouterweck” (1 and 15 October, and 12 November 1818; On the “History of Poetry and Eloquence” by Bouterweck), “Intorno al significato del vocabolo estetica” (4 October 1818; Concerning the Meaning 115 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM of the Word “Aesthetics”), “Di un libro sulla romanticomachia” (29 October 1818; Concerning a Book on Romantic Battles), “Guerre letterarie in Italia” (5 November 1818; Literary Wars in Italy), “Lettera di Grisostomo al molto reverendo signor canonico don Ruffino” (29 November 1818; A Letter by Chrysostom to the Very Reverend Canonical Sir Ruffino), “Intorno alle Origini delle lettere del Roscoe” (24 December 1818; Concerning the “Origin of Letters” by Roscoe), and “Articolo sopra un articolo” (27 December 1818; Article on an Article). The following year, Berchet continued to contribute regularly to the paper. His most significant articles included: “Idee del signor Sismondi sul poema di Dante” (7 January 1819; Ideas of Mister Sismondi on Dante’s Poem), “Intorno a un poemetto di C. Tedaldi-Fores” (7 February 1819; Concerning a Poem by C. Tedaldi-Fores), “Lettera a una signora milanese gentile sì, nobile no” (11 February 1819; A Letter to a Milanese Lady, Kind Yes, Noble No), “Sulla Sacontala ossia l’anello fatale, dramma indiano di Calidasa (4 and 11 March 1819; Concerning the Sacontala or The Fatal Ring, an Indian Drama by Calidasa), “Sulla Storia della letteratura italiana del Ginguené” (1 April 1819; On “The History of Italian Literature by Ginguené), “Benedetto Castelli” (29 April 1819), “Intorno alla Servitù dei popoli antichi e moderni del Grégoire (13 May 1819; Concerning the Servitude of Ancient and Modern Peoples by Grégoire), “Sopra un manoscritto inedito degli autori del foglio periodico Il Caffè” (15 July 1819; Concerning an Unpublished Manuscript by the Authors of the Periodical Il Caffè), “Sulla Filosofia delle scienze del Juillen (18 July 1819; On Philosophy and Science by Juillen), and “Quadro storico della poesia castigliana” (12 August and 23 September 1819; Historical Summary of Castilian Poetry). In addition to numerous reviews and the signed articles, in all likelihood, Berchet also authored several of the unsigned articles that the paper routinely published. From Berchet’s contributions to Il Conciliatore a Romantic poetic emerges that is founded in history. Several of his essays argue for a literature that is historically related to its own time and capable of assimilating contemporaneous cultural elements. The true poet must then mold this material in the original pursuit of a personal poetic expression through which to communicate with the people and the nation. Berchet turns to writers such as Dante and Shakespeare to demonstrate that a historically and geographically determined literature is able to attain universal relevance when it is true poetry. Therefore, Il Conciliatore provides Berchet with a forum to elaborate and to refine ideas that he first proposed in Lettera semiseria, but he is able to revisit these issues under the auspices of foreign writers and the insights provided by their works. Il Conciliatore’s patent anti-Austrian leanings and its dissemination of libertarian and liberal ideals made the paper and its contributors the object of government surveillance. Habsburg officials exercised a vigilant censorship 116 PIERO GAROFALO over Il Conciliatore’s contents rather than prohibit its publication. When officials threatened Pellico with deportation, however, the editorial board decided to suspend operations rather than to succumb to government pressure. Il Conciliatore officially ceased publication on 10 October 1819 with the Sunday edition (n. 116). With the demise of Il Conciliatore, Berchet continued to perform his activities as a government translator and began to devote himself to other projects. Most critics attribute two of his poetic compositions  Il cavaliere bruno (The Dark Knight) and Il castello di Monforte (The Castle of Monforte)  to this period (1819). He composed fifty-two ottave of the first canto of Il cavaliere bruno before abandoning the project. The poem is set in medieval times in Marseilles. It opens in a church with a young woman named Olivia praying to the Virgin Mary that her mother’s soul might be received in heaven. A vision ensues that confirms the answer to her prayer. Night has already fallen when she leaves the church, and a young knight named Guiscardo appears and declares his love for Olivia, but she rejects him. She remains silent and refuses all of his advances. The narrative concludes with the knight falling into despair with only his page to console him. Most likely that same year, Berchet composed 332 verses of Il castello di Monforte, but was unable to complete the poem. Also set in medieval times, the poem follows a solitary young man on a pilgrimage from Spain to the Holy Land. Because of a terrible storm, he stops for hospitality in at the Castle of Monforte. He spends a week in Monforte where he is moved by his hosts’ kindness. Later, as he makes his way back to Spain, the young man looks back on that moving experience with nostalgia and decides to return to the castle to visit with his old friends. When he reaches Monforte, however, he finds only ruin and destruction. Berchet took the story from an episode in 1028, when Ariberto d’Intimiano attacked the Cathars at Monforte. Both Il cavaliere bruno and Il castello di Monforte attempt unsuccessfully to establish a new poetic language along the model that Berchet had theorized in Lettera semiseria and Il Conciliatore. His inability to achieve this popular poetry perhaps explains his abandonment of these literary experiments. Berchet’s most significant creative work that dates from these years is the poem I profughi di Parga (The Refugees of Parga). He composed the 554 verse patriotic poem between 1819 and 1820. The composition is divided into three sections: La disperazione (Desperation), Il racconto (The Story), and L’abbominazione (The Abomination). In each part, the meter varies: hendecasyllabic six-line stanzas comprise La disperazione; decasyllabic tercets and stanzas with six syllable lines comprise Il racconto; decasyllabic eight-line stanzas comprise L’abbominazione. The metrical variation employed in I profughi di Parga is in part Berchet’s reaction to the hendecasyllabic blank verse of his earlier compositions because he began to identify that meter with the Classical tradition. 117 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM

The contemporary historical backdrop to I profughi di Parga provides the poetic material from which Berchet constructs a narrative that addresses issues beyond the present historical circumstances. A city in Epirus, Parga, had appealed to England for protection against the onslaught of the Turks. At first Parga had received assistance, but then, without warning, the English decided to abandon the city in 1819. Left at the mercy of their enemies, the citizens had no other options but to burn the bones of their dead and go into voluntary exile. The poem’s narrative opens with an Englishman, Arrigo, approaching the shores of Corfu where he spies a man throwing himself into the sea despite the vain attempts of a woman to stop him. Arrigo is able to save the man, who, however, is unconscious, and bring him to shore. That evening, as the woman nurses her husband back to health, she recounts to the Englishman their story. They are exiles from Parga, a city betrayed by the English who ceded it to the Turks. At dawn, the man awakens. Arrigo conveys his sympathy for their situation and his shame for the actions of his people. The man, however, refuses Arrigo’s sympathy and condolences because, whether personally guilty or not, Arrigo is an Englishman. The poem concludes describing the sad life of Arrigo as he wanders from town to town forever ashamed of his country’s actions. The poetic appropriation of this historical episode allowed Berchet to express solidarity with Greece and concern for Italy. The sentiments expressed by the people of Parga such as the intense hatred for the foreign occupation, love of country, and the desperation of the exiles, are transparently applicable to Italy’s political situation. That Berchet was conscious of the composition’s ethical and political intent is evident in his letter to Fauriel on 3 June 1822, when he suggests that I profughi di Parga could find success in England: “not for its literary merit, but for the popularity of its subject matter”. In an effort to give the composition a sense of immediacy, the poem’s formal presentation is somewhat unpolished. Nevertheless, I profughi di Parga is an important attempt to put into practice the poetic ideals that Berchet articulated in Lettera semiseria and in Il Conciliatore. Between 1818 and 1821, the government authorities commissioned Berchet to translate several administrative and scholastic texts including: Elementi di storia degli Stati d’Europa (Rudiments of History of the European States), Codice ginnasiale (Grammar School Code), Discipline per gli esami delle scuole elementari (Examination Subjects for Elementary School), Elementi di storia moderna ad uso delle scuole (Rudiments of Modern History at Use in the Schools), and Libretto dei nomi (Book of Names). During this period, a number of Berchet’s associates from Il Conciliatore began to enlist in the secret society known as the Carboneria (charcoal-burners – a clandestine association whose aim was to liberate Italy from foreign domination). Silvio Pellico joined the movement in February or March of 1820, and Berchet, 118 PIERO GAROFALO although an employee of the Austrian government, underwent the initiation process in September of that same year. The Carboneria adopted the practices of the Freemason movement. Members in the society referred to each other as buoni cugini (good cousins) and used secret signs to communicate with each other. Berchet enlisted in the Federazione Italiana (Italian Federation, also known as Federati) branch of the Carboneria – a militant sect active primarily in Lombardy and Piedmont that sought to establish a constitutional monarchy in northern Italy. Count Federico Confalonieri (1785-1846) was the leader of the Federati in Milan. Berchet joined the movement just as the group was planning an insurrection in order to establish a provisional government in Lombardy. For the liberal conspiracy to succeed, the Federati were relying on the tacit assistance of Carlo Alberto of Savoy, second in line to the throne of the and Piedmont. On 6 March 1821, Carlo Alberto met with five of the conspirators including Santorre di Santarosa and Carlo Asinari di San Marzano. As a result of this clandestine conference, the Federati mistakenly assumed that they could rely on the leadership of the young prince. Three days later a group of revolutionaries seized the fortress in Alessandria and proclaimed the Spanish Constitution of 1812. Carlo Alberto, however, vacillated and without his assistance the insurrection could not succeed. Austrian reprisals followed on the heels of the failed revolution. Pellico had already been arrested on 13 October 1820, while Borsieri and Confalonieri were taken into custody in 1821. Others, like Porro, managed to flee the country in the spring of 1821, before their arrest orders arrived. Berchet was fortunate. Having been warned a few hours in advance that he had been implicated in anti-Austrian activities, he fled from Milan with the aid of a French shopkeeper, C. Descamps, on 13 December 1821 – the same day that the police seized Confalonieri. Berchet immediately crossed the border into Switzerland where he took refuge for a few days before continuing on to Paris. He arrived in the French capital on 28 December 1821. The brief warning that he had received was enough for him to destroy all his papers and correspondence, so that when the authorities entered his home shortly after his hasty departure, they found no compromising evidence and nothing to confiscate. Many Italian exiles had already taken refuge in Paris, so Berchet entered a small but warm intellectual community. In addition, thanks to his friendship with Manzoni, he met and socialized with several leading Parisian cultural figures including Fauriel, Victor Cousin, Madame Cabanis, and Sophie de Condorcet. Fauriel was familiar with Berchet’s work because Manzoni had sent him a copy of Lettera semiseria on 19 March 1817, to which Fauriel had responded with a positive evaluation on 21 June 1819. Therefore, when Berchet wanted I profughi di Parga to go to press, he turned to Fauriel. The latter edited the text and provided a French translation for its first edition, which was published after 119 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM some delay in Paris in 1823. The most significant friendship that Berchet formed during his Parisian sojourn, however, was with the exiled spouses Giuseppe (Peppino) Arconati and Costanza Trotti. He had already met them at Manzoni’s house in via Marone, but nothing had developed from those chance encounters. Arconati was a Milanese nobleman who had been condemned to death in absentia for his patriotic activities. The Marquis and his wife’s rooms at the Hôtel de Hollande provided a cultural reference point for the ex-patriot community in the capital city. Two days after his arrival in Paris, Berchet went to visit the Arconati. Under these new and difficult circumstances, they developed an immediate affinity that endured until Berchet’s death. Over time his feelings for Costanza grew well beyond friendship, but out of respect and decency he refrained from ever referring to these sentiments as love. While the Marchesina, as Berchet called her, was extremely fond of him, her affection does not appear to have superseded the threshold of friendship. The two, however, did engage in a copious correspondence that they sustained for thirty years. In addition to documenting in typical early nineteenth-century style their communion, this epistolary has served as the primary source material for critics in their reconstruction of Berchet’s biography. The letter writing began in early February 1822, when the Arconati left Paris for their newly inherited castle of Gaesbeek near Brussels. Shortly thereafter, Berchet was also forced to leave the country because Austria had requested from the French government his extradition. He passed through Brussels and Holland before arriving on 4 May 1822, in London where he remained until 31 July 1829. England was another common destination for Italian exiles. Foscolo’s Digamma Cottage provided a point of reference for new arrivals. Santarosa, Antonio Panizzi (1797-1879), with whom Berchet frequently corresponded in the ensuing years, Camillo Ugoni (1784-1855), Giuseppe Pecchio (1785- 1835), and others were residing in London, but Berchet did not integrate himself into the ex-patriot community. He felt isolated and uncomfortable in the company of these men. Berchet also maintained his distance from Foscolo whom he criticized for what Berchet perceived as a willingness to accept questionable literary assignments. Berchet entertained the prospect of supporting himself as a journalist, but he was unsuccessful in pursuing this career. Although as Alberto Cadioli has noted, some critics have argued that two articles (“Filicaia” and “Cristina e il Monaldeschi”) attributed to Foscolo were instead authored by Berchet. During this period, his health deteriorated and he was taken up by bouts of melancholy. Because of his precarious economic conditions, he was forced to seek employment as a clerk for a Milanese businessman named Ambrogio Obicini and had little time to devote to his writing. His only consolations throughout these trying times were the occasional visits of the Arconati and of Antonio Trotti, Costanza’s brother, as well as his own infrequent trips to Gaesbeek. 120 PIERO GAROFALO

While in London, Berchet’s views on the relationship between literature and nation evolved. He began to consider the role of literature as a secondary process in nation formation that could only be subsequent to a political liberation from oppression. From this perspective he also reconsidered his use of poetic forms and began to display a preference for a political poetry of pain and anger over the Romantic verse novella that he had favored. He began to compose romanze, or verse ballads, and in August 1822, he completed his first one, Clarina, which he sent to the Marchesina on 2 November 1822. The meter is comprised of octosyllabic six-line stanzas (aba cbc). The text first circulated in London that same year as a flyer, which he signed with his initials. It is an example of the new poetry, both linguistically and stylistically, that Berchet was attempting to compose and relates the story of Clarina’s sorrow because Gismondo, the man she loves, is living in exile. He had placed his trust in Carlo Alberto and fought for Italy’s liberation, but had been betrayed. In addition to the theme of exile, the poem also includes an invective against Carlo Alberto. The characters and the setting take second stage to the poetic expression of the Zeitgeist. All individual actions and sentiments are subsumed in the collective to elicit a united response to the political injustices. Clarina was well received in Italy where it assumed the status of a patriotic hymn – a success shared by subsequent romanze. Similar stylistic and thematic motifs characterize the romanza Il romito di Cenisio (The Hermit of Mount Cenis) which he composed in July 1823. The rhyme scheme (abc adc) differs slightly from Clarina (aba cbc). The poem tells the story of a foreigner who comes to Italy from northern Europe. While he contemplates the tranquil beauty of the Po valley, an angry hermit – who is clearly intended to be the father of Silvio Pellico, Onorato Pellico (1763- 1838) – appears and explains the true state of the peninsula to the visitor. After listening to this bleak description of Italy’s state, the traveler is unable to continue his journey and returns to the lands from whence he came. Between December 1823 and early 1824, Berchet completed Il rimorso (The Remorse). This new romanza’s meter – twelve stanzas of eight decasyllabic verses with an ababcded rhyme scheme – differed from that of Clarina and Il romito del Cenisio in that it displayed less variation. Thematically it also varied from the previous romanze. Il rimorso is about an Italian woman who marries an Austrian and then finds herself and her son shunned by society. Feelings of remorse and guilt ravage her life. Again the characters are secondary and serve to advance a specific political agenda: the declamation of Italy’s oppression by foreign domination. Berchet became increasingly solitary and spent most of 1824, in almost total isolation. The extent of his social contact was limited to a club that he frequented when he had a few free hours. He wrote the romanza Matilde between the end of 1824 and early 1825. In this fifty-verse composition, a young Italian woman named Matilde awakens still trembling from a 121 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM nightmare in which she was forced to marry an Austrian. In a reversal of the situation in Il rimorso, Matilde begs her father not to give her hand to the foreigner. Berchet resorted to a meter much in vogue in the eighteenth century: five stanzas of ten six-syllable dactylic verses with an abacbdedfc rhyme scheme. “Matilde” enjoyed less public success than his previous romanze. In 1825, he went to Brussels and visited the Arconati. On this trip he resigned himself to the fact that his relationship with the Marchesina could only be platonic. This experience is reflected in Berchet’s next composition, Il trovatore (The Troubadour), which several critics have considered to be one of his most felicitous poetic expressions. While it was completed after Matilde and before Giulia, the precise date of the romanza has not been definitively determined. The lyric is comprised of forty-eight verses divided into twelve four-line stanzas of three septenarii and a concluding five-syllable verse with an abba rhyme scheme. Unlike the previous poems, Il trovatore does not address political themes explicitly, but instead focuses on the sentiments of the title character. It tells the story of a troubadour who is secretly in love with the lady of the castle. He dares to reveal his true feelings through a love song, and as a result, the lord of the castle has him banished from the domain. The troubadour’s dream is shattered, and both his life and song are reduced to sorrow. Berchet’s own sentimental situation is rather transparent in the trials and tribulations of his protagonist. Of all of Berchet’s romanze, the critical reception afforded, Giulia, was perhaps the least kind because of a perceived artificiality in the poem’s attempts to appear dramatic. He composed the text in August 1826. The setting is a town in the Lombardo-Venetia territory where the names of seven youths must be drawn so that they can serve in the Austrian army. The drawing is to take place in a church. Amidst the women’s tears and the crowd’s insensitivity, there is a suffering mother named Giulia. One of her son’s is already in exile, and now she fears that she will lose her other one so that some day the two brothers might have to confront each other in battle. Fate decrees that his name be drawn from the urn. The meter in Giulia is different from the previous romanze: dodecasyllabic six-line stanzas with an aabccb rhyme scheme. Throughout the period in which he composed these romanze, Berchet found his poetic interests most consonant with the literary production of Manzoni and Grossi. In 1826, he oversaw the first edition of his poetry, Poesie, which included Clarina, Il romito del Cenisio, Il rimorso, Matilde, Il trovatore, and Giulia, and was published in London that same year. Although an edition circulated with the publication date of 1824, this appears to be an 1826 edition that has been predated. The patriotic content of the lyrics as well as their linguistic and stylistic innovations brought Berchet considerable recognition. Nonetheless, financially, his situation remained rather precarious. He had 122 PIERO GAROFALO played the stock market in 1825, and after registering initial gains suffered considerable monetary losses. In addition, he was in debt to his employer Obicini and had to resort to the generosity of the Arconati who came to his financial assistance. Despite the success of his Poesie Berchet’s intellectual isolation continued to grow. He found himself at odds with Manzoni’s views on history and religion, and this ideological position tainted his interpretation of I promessi sposi (1827; The Betrothed), which he read in 1827. Berchet felt that literature could engage in politics and considered Manzoni’s approach to art an act of resignation. In this sense, Berchet articulated a criticism similar to that of Giovita Scalvini (1791-1843), another exile with whom he was in close contact throughout his London years. Berchet consigned the manuscript of Le fantasie (The Visions) to Scalvini who edited the text for publication in Paris in 1829. Berchet’s financial difficulties persisted and in 1827, he was banned from the club that he had been frequenting for years because of his social status. His health also continued to deteriorate. In 1828, he assisted the Countess Teresa Confalonieri in formulating a plan to free her husband Federico from the Spielberg prison, but the attempt failed. Following his father’s death in June 1827, Berchet returned to his literary pursuits and began to work on Le fantasie, which he completed in early October 1828. He introduced the poetic text with a letter “Agli amici miei in Italia” (To My Friends in Italy), which he dated Piccadilly, 5 January 1829, but most likely composed in December 1828. The introductory letter is a meditation that affirms the importance of a communion between a writer and the public. He argues that through their shared experiences and concerns emerges a literary subject that has meaning and relevance for its audience. The new poetry that he proposes in Le fantasie is founded on the assimilation of history, invention and documentation, but at the same time, the letter attempts to affirm literature’s independence from historiography. In this preface, the reader is explicitly called upon to interpret the historical circumstances cited in the poetry in order to construct a personalized literary and political experience. At times, “Agli amici miei in Italia” contradicts the affirmations of Lettera semiseria, but it provides a significant theoretical statement on how Berchet understands the relationship between history and imagination – a tension that he resolves at the expense of history. As with other writers of the period, Berchet has begun to recognize the difficulties in reconciling literary aesthetics with ideological engagement. Le fantasie was thematically and stylistically somewhat similar to the romanze, and like the latter, brought its author considerable recognition. The language employed is a hybrid of traditional lyric vocabulary and popular speech. The five sections of Le fantasie, each characterized by a distinct vision, display a broader range of meters and rhyme schemes than in Poesie. History, rather than individuals, occupies center stage as the poem’s subject 123 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM matter. The lyric opens with a description of an Italian exile, who is plagued by dreams of Italy. These visions evoke past and present joys and sorrows. He sees a man in medieval garb announce that the Lombards have taken the oath at Pontida where they have sworn to defeat Federico Barbarossa and free their lands. The vehemence of the speech captures the sense of both love of country and hatred of occupation. This glorious vision dissolves into a new dream that takes shape. The exile sees the fields and cities of Lombardy, but now the men are cowards taking refuge in hedonistic distractions. The dream shifts again to the battle of Legnano where the League has defeated Barbarossa. A dying soldier warns that the people must know how to preserve their hard fought freedom. In his fourth vision, the exile sees a northern city along the shores of a lake, which he recognizes as Lake Constance. The representatives of the Lombard League arrive to sign the peace treaty with Barbarossa. They celebrate the peace and dignity that they have acquired and curse their descendants if they should allow foreigners to once again dominate the homeland. In the final dream, the exile revisits the lands of his youth and sees the servile squalor and decadence into which Italians have fallen. Le fantasie was published in Paris in 1829, and a London edition immediately followed. That same year, the publisher Bettoni reissued Berchet’s translation of Il vicario di Wakefield. Also in 1829, the Arconati extended to him the position of preceptor to their son Carlo – an offer Berchet readily accepted. He left London for Gaesbeek on 13 July 1829. One of the reasons for his eagerness to move to Belgium was because Fauriel was residing there. During this period Berchet had been contemplating the possibility of translating some Spanish romances. The poems were quite popular in Romantic circles, and Berchet hoped that he might enlist Fauriel’s assistance in this project. In Gaesbeek, he found other visitors including his friends Scalvini, Giovanni Arrivabene ((1787-1881), and Fauriel. In this relaxing and comfortable atmosphere he regained his strength and in December 1829, he accompanied Carlo to Bonn where he sat in on the courses of Schlegel, Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776-1831), and Friedrich Diez (1794-1876) – the German translator of the Spanish romances. He became interested in German folklore and, in particular, the Nibelungenlied, which he attempted to render into both modern German and Italian. Niebuhr encouraged him to continue to work on the Spanish romances. Berchet also attempted to translate several Danish ballads, which, although unpublished until after his death, confirm his continued interest in popular poetry. He returned to Gaesbeek in April 1830, but departed for Paris in July of that same year in order to observe the political developments in France. Because of the political revolts in Modena and Bologna in 1831, he went to Geneva to meet with other exiles and to better evaluate the situation. In a state of optimism, he composed the extremely popular hymn All’armi! All’armi! (To Arms! To Arms!), which was 124 PIERO GAROFALO published in Antologia repubblicana in March 1831. He left Geneva on 13 April 1831, and returned to Paris with a heavy heart and bitter disappointment over the failure of these uprisings. Berchet assumed a moderate political position and refused to be drawn into the programs that other exiles were formulating in the French capital. He considered the only effective course of action at the moment to be the promulgation of moral propaganda in order to raise the political consciousness of the Italian people. From 1832 to March 1834, Berchet divided his time between Gaesbeek and Germany. He went to Baden to have his eyes treated, then to Munich where he met Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling (1775-1854), and hence to Berlin with the Arconati – on 23 March 1834, they were asked to leave the city because of pressure from . Between 1834 and 1845, Berchet spent time in Switzerland, Gaesbeek, Paris, Bonn, Heidelberg, Düsseldorf, Hannover, Göttingen, London, and Edinburgh – many of these sojourns were in the company of Carlo Arconati. During this period, Berchet for the most part abandoned his literary pursuits with the exception of the translation of the Vecchie romanze spagnuole (Old Spanish Ballads). Berchet had first conceived of translating these poems as early as 1819. While in London, he had received encouragement from Fauriel, but only when he was employed in Gaesbeek was he able to devote the necessary time and energy to the undertaking. He completed the translation in 1835, and two years later it appeared in print with an extensive dedication to Costanza Arconati. Berchet assumes authorial control over the ballads and shapes them to his sensibilities. In the first redaction of the preface to the Vecchie romanze spagnuole, Berchet argues for the autonomy of the translator: “rewriting rather than translation I call my work”. After completing this lengthy project, Berchet composed only a few more poems. L’amore illecito (Illicit Love) is a fifteen stanza dialogue between a brother and a sister – with the exception of the introductory and concluding stanzas, their speeches alternate stanzas. He wrote Elegia rabbiosa (Furious Elegy) in 1837, while in Heidelberg in the company of Carlo Arconati. The narrative is in the first person and is an invective against the German city. A Giuseppe Gando (To Giuseppe Gando) is the last poem that can be definitively attributed to Berchet. The composition is dated Sainte-Germain- en-Laye, 18 July 1842. It encourages the youth of Italy to trust in the future. In the autumn of 1837, he went with Carlo Arconati to Edinburgh where he met the philologist James Pillans (1778-1864), the philosopher Sir William Hamilton (1788-1856), and the founder of the Edinburgh Review, Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850). Following a brief illness, Carlo Arconati died at Gaesbeek unexpectedly on 10 June 1839. Berchet had served as his preceptor for ten years. Several months later, the Arconati decided to take advantage of an amnesty and moved to Milan in 1840. Berchet spent the next five years in Paris where he took some courses at the university. On this as 125 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM well as on prior visits to Paris, he encountered several Italian exiles including Niccolò Tommaseo (1802-1874), Vincenzo Gioberti (1801-1852), and his old friend Pietro Borsieri. In 1845, he obtained a residence permit from the Kingdom of Piedmont and returned to Italy on 15 November 1845. He stayed in Nice for the winter months and then went to Genoa and Florence where he stayed with the Arconati between 1846 and 1847. He received an enthusiastic reception in the different cities that he visited and discovered that his patriotic poetry was popular throughout the peninsula. After the cinque giornate (five-day insurrection, 18-23 March 1848), he returned to Milan and engaged in the political life of the city. Because he vociferously supported Carlo Alberto and the annexation of Lombardy by Piedmont, Berchet alienated the radicals and the supporters of Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872), as well as other activists such as Daniele Manin (1804- 1857) and Tommaseo. He was conscious of his political turnabout, but considered this course of action necessary for the greater public good. Following Milan’s brief liberation in 1848, he was made Director of Public Instruction in Lombardy on 8 April 1848, but when Austria returned to power on 2 August 1848, he was forced to flee and took refuge in Turin. Without presenting himself as a candidate, he was elected to parliament by the college of Monticelli d’Ongina on 10 October 1848. Because of his conservative views, he found himself increasingly isolated politically and alienated some of his admirers. The chamber dissolved on 30 December 1848, and he moved to Florence. He was again nominated a deputy on 20 March 1849, but the parliament dissolved before he could attend the first meeting. During this period, he limited his activities to patriotic speeches and articles in which he called the people to action and affirmed his adherence to a Realpolitik whose aim was the liberation of northern Italy. In an effort to treat his physical ailments, he spent much of 1850 and 1851, in Pallanza, Nice, Vichy, Baveno, Florence, and Pisa. After a protracted illness, Giovanni Berchet died in Turin with Costanza Arconati by his side on 23 December 1851. The day after his death, Giovanni Prati (1814-1881) celebrated his memory in an ode. Because of the popularity of Berchet’s poetry amongst his contemporaries and its enormous influence on nineteenth-century patriotic literature, early critics tended to consider it from a purely political rather than a literary perspective although Francesco De Sanctis did attempt to provide a balanced interpretation. Following the publication of Egidio Bellorini’s1912 edition of his works, Berchet attracted renewed critical attention, which was deeply divided on his poetry’s literary merits with detractors such as Giuseppe Prezzolini and Cesare De Lollis and defenders such as . Throughout the twentieth century, there has been a sustained critical interest in his literary production. Scholars, in particular Robert O.J. Van Nuffel, have drawn attention to the importance of Berchet’s correspondence and translations for an understanding of his poetics. In general, critics have 126 PIERO GAROFALO considered the romanze and Le fantasie to be his most successful literary compositions. While innovative, Berchet’s linguistic and metric experimentation did not construct the new poetic language that he had theorized. His efforts to transform traditional literature into a new national poetry instead produced a melodramatic language that was consonant with the literary production of the time. Critics such as Alberto Cadioli have also emphasized the significance of Berchet’s Il Conciliatore articles to the development of his poetics within the context of both Italian and European Romanticism. Berchet’s most significant contribution to the historiography of nineteenth-century literature remains Sul ‘Cacciatore feroce’ e sulla ‘Eleonora’ di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo. This influential manifesto articulates the literary and political ideals that Berchet advocates throughout his lifetime and provides a necessary point of reference for any critical discussion on Italian Romanticism.

______

BOOKS:

Sul Cacciatore feroce e sulla Eleonora di Goffredo Augusto Bürger. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo, Milan: Tipi di Giuseppe Bernardoni, 1816. I profughi di Parga, with accompanying French translation by Claude Fauriel, Paris: Firmin Didot, 1823. Clarina e Il romito del Cenisio: romanze due, London: R. Taylor, 1823. “Il romito del Cenisio translated as The Hermit of Mount Cenis” by Joseph Tusiani, in From Marino to Marinetti. An Anthology of Forty Italian Poets, Translated into English Verse with an Introduction by Joseph Tusiani, New York: Baroque Press, 1974, pp. 129-33. Poesie, London, 1824. In all likelihood the edition was published in 1826 and predated to 1824. “Il trovatore translated as The Troubadour by Joseph Tusiani, in From Marino to Marinetti. An Anthology of Forty Italian Poets, Translated into English Verse with an Introduction by Joseph Tusiani, New York: Baroque Press, 1974, pp. 134-35. Le fantasie, romanza. Preceduta da ragguagli storici, edited by Giovita Scalvini, Paris: Delaforest, 1829.

LETTERS:

Lettere ad Antonio Panizzi di uomini illustri e di amici italiani (1823- 1870), edited by Luigi Fagan, Florence: Barbèra, 1880. Aldobrandino Malvezzi de’ Medici. Il Risorgimento italiano in un carteggio di patrioti lombardi, 1821-1860, Milan: Hoepli, 1924. 127 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM

Giovanni Berchet. Lettere alla marchesa Costanza Arconati (febbraio 1822-luglio 1833), edited by Robert O.J. Van Nuffel, Series 2, Volume 38, Rome: Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano. Biblioteca scientifica, 1956. Giovanni Berchet. Lettere alla marchesa Costanza Arconati (agosto 1833- maggio 1851, edited by Robert O.J. Van Nuffel, Series 2, Volume 40, Rome: Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento italiano. Biblioteca scientifica, 1962. Alberto Cento. “Fauriel agente dei romantici italiani ovvero le disavventure editoriali di due poeti”, in Giornale storico della Letteratura italiana 406- 407 (1957). Robert O.J. Van Nuffel. “Lettere di Berchet a Claude Fauriel”, in Giornale storico della Letteratura italiana 409 (1958).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES:

Luigi Baldacci. “Giovanni Berchet. Bibliografia”, in Poeti minori dell’Ottocento, Volume 1, Milan-Naples: Riccardo Ricciardi Editore, 1958, pp. 115-16. Egidio Bellorini, “Saggio bibliografico su Giovanni Berchet”, in Atti della Accademia Pontaniana, Naples: Atti della Accademia Pontaniana, 1912; Alberto Cadioli, “Bibliografia”, in Introduzione a Berchet, Rome-Bari: Gius. Laterza & Figli, 1991, pp. 163-69.

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES:

Egidio Bellorini. Giovanni Berchet, Messina: Principato, 1917. Giuseppe Fustelli. Della vita e degli scritti di G. Berchet, Florence: Collini, 1871. Ettore Li Gotti. Giovanni Berchet. La letteratura e la politica del Risorgimento italiano (1783-1851), Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1933. Mario Passanisi. Giovanni Berchet, Turin: Bocca, 1888. Ferdinando Santoro. Giovanni Berchet, Leghorn: Giusti, 1915. Alessandrina Tolio-Campagnoli. Giovanni Berchet. Studio biografico, con particolare riguardo agli anni dell’esilio, Turin: Bocca, 1911.

REFERENCES:

Armando Balduino. “Giovanni Berchet”, in Dizionario critico della letteratura italiana, edited by Vittore Branca, Turin: UTET, 1986. Ludovico di Breme. Grand Commentaire, edited by Giovanni Amoretti, Milan: Marzorati, 1970.

128 PIERO GAROFALO

Alberto Cadioli. Introduzione a Berchet, Rome-Bari: Gius. Laterza & Figli, 1991. Carmelo Cappuccio, “Giovanni Berchet”, in Letteratura italiana. I minori, Volume 3, Milan: Marzorati, 1974, pp. 2345-380. Mario Fubini. Romanticismo italiano, Bari: Laterza, 1953. Sabina Gola. Un demi-siècle de relations culturelles entre l’Italie et la Belgique (1830-1880), Volumes 2, Brussels: Institut historique Belge de Rome; Turnhout: Diffusion, Brepols Publishers, 1999. Liceo-Ginnasio ‘Giovanni Berchet’ di Milano (ed.), Studi sul Berchet pubblicati per il primo centenario della morte, Milan: Tipografia Grafica, 1951. Vittorio Spinazzola. “La poesia come spettacolo di Giovanni Berchet”, in Storia della letteratura italiana, Volume 7, edited by Emilio Cecchi and Natalino Sapegno, Milan: Garzanti, 1969, pp. 972-84.

EDITIONS:

Opere di Giovanni Berchet edite e inedite, edited by Francesco Cusani Milan: Pirotta e comp., 1863. Opere di Giovanni Berchet, Volumes 2, edited by Egidio Bellorini, Scrittori d’Italia, Bari: Laterza, 1911-1912  comprises olume 1, Poesie (1911); comprises volume 2, Scritti critici e letterari (1912). Lettera semiseria, edited by Alfredo Galletti, Lanciano: R. Carabba, 1913. Liriche, edited by Attilio Momigliano, Florence: Vallecchi, 1926. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo, edited by Natale Caccia, Milan: Carlo Signorelli, 1939. Lettera semiseria di Grisostomo al suo figliuolo, in I manifesti romantici del 1816 e gli scritti principali del Conciliatore sul Romanticismo, edited by Carlo Calcaterra, Turin: UTET, 1951. Il Conciliatore. Foglio scientifico-letterario, 2 Volumes, reprint edited by Vittore Branca, Florence: Ed. Felice Le Monnier, 1953-1954; Opere, edited by Marcello Turchi, Naples: Casa Editrice Fulvio Rossi, 1972.

OTHER:

I funerali, Milan: Tipi Cairo e compagno, 1808. Amore, Milan: Tipi Cairo e compagno, 1809. Lettera sul dramma Demetrio e Polibio cantata nel Teatro Carcano, Milan: Coi Tipi di Giovanni Pirotta, 1813. A Felice Bellotti. In morte di Giuseppe Bossi, Milan: Tipi di Anton Fortunato Stella, 1816.

129 GIOVANNI BERCHET AND EARLY ITALIAN ROMANTICISM

Allocuzione di Giovanni Berchet nei funerali del pittore Andrea Appiani: celebrati nella Chiesa della Passione il giorno 10 novembre 1817, Milan: Tip. del dott. G. Ferrario, 1817. Sul dramma indiano La Sacontela, saggio, Milan: Dalla tipografia di Vincenzo Ferrario, 1817. Il Conciliatore. Foglio scientifico-letterario n. 1-118, Milan: Tip. di Vincenzo Ferrario, 3 September 1818-17 October 1819. Robert O.J. Van Nuffel, “Documenti per la storia del Risorgimento italiano. Inediti berchettiani del castello di Gaesbeek: Il Romancero”, in Convivium 24.1 (1956), pp. 81-90. Robert O.J. Van Nuffel, “Inediti di Berchet. Le ballate danesi”, in Rivista di letterature moderne e comparate 9 (July-September 1956), pp. 180-99.

TRANSLATIONS:

Thomas Gray, Bardo, Milan, 1807. Oliver Goldsmith, Vicario di Wakefield, Milan: Giuseppe Destefanis, 1810. Vecchie romanze spagnuole, Brussels: Hauman, Cattoir e Compagni, 1837.

130