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XVII - An Italian Hero during the Risorgimento

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2023

Silvana D'Alessio
Affiliation:
University of Salerno, Italy
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Summary

Abstract

This chapter is the first attempt ever to reconstruct Masaniello’sfortunes in the nineteenth century. It cites many essays, and especiallyliterary works, by Lady Morgan, by Alexandre Dumas, by Scribe andDelavigne, plus the historical works of Michele Baldacchini, andwritings, published only recently, of Giuseppe Mazzini; the problem ofthe reactionary plebs, which surfaced at Naples in 1799, preoccupiessuch writers, who ruminate on its potentials, and its historical roots.Meanwhile, Masaniello’s reputation soars, as popular hero, auseful mirror for the penniless, to enlist them in theRisorgimento’s battles.

Keywords: Risorgimento, popular heroes, Salvator Rosa,Mazzini, political and historical plays

General Considerations

When, after exile, in 1799 Ferdinand IV re-entered Naples, among many thingsto do, he wanted to remove from the Carmine Masaniello’s remains.This is why today we do not find the seventeenth-century tombstone, butrather an inscription, on a nearby wall, which reads:

Lying reparation

For a crime pre-ordained

The burial place of Masaniello Was here.

But it was taken away

For political ends

By a despotic sovereign

In 1799

During the Parthenopean Revolution

The king’s action did not snuff out the rebel’s memory. WithNaples still restive, the famous Capopopolo soon became ananti-Bourbon myth. The man who propelled this myth, in the period thischapter surveys, was Giuseppe Mazzini, who spoke of the seventeenth-centuryrevolt in his work on the 1799 revolution. Never finished, it was publishedonly fairly recently, by Lauro Rossi, in his Mazzini e larivoluzione napoletana del 1799. Ricerche sull’Italiagiacobina. But let us first survey what came to pass beforethat happened.

Against the Foreigners

For originality, Gian Maria Arrighi’s Saggio storico perservire di studio alle rivoluzioni politiche, e civili del regno diNapoli (1809), in its pages on the revolt has little sparkle.The author did not recruit Masaniello to champion liberty from the“foreigners”; the Saggio’s dedicationto Joachim-Napoléon Murat, Corsican-born ruler of Naples, helps tellwhy. Nevertheless, Arrighi did stoke thinking ill of the old SpanishVice-realm; that practice would go on. Some important novelties in theMasaniello myth’s adventure were introduced by an Irish writer, LadyMorgan (Sydney Owenson), the author of several works clearly inspired byGermaine de Staël: Woman, or Ida of Athens (1809)for instance, and O’Donnel (1814). Lady Morganachieved fame with Italy, a history Byron defined as“fearless and excellent.”

Type
Chapter
Information
Masaniello
The Life and Afterlife of a Neapolitan Revolutionary
, pp. 269 - 312
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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