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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In the thirtieth canto of the Inferno we find a Florentine called Gianni Schicchi, whom Dante puts in Malebolge among the falsifiers for having impersonated Buoso Donati and dictated a false will. Several of the old Commentators tell the story of Gianni Schicchi (sometimes Sticchi), who, though belonging to the illustrious family of the Cavalcanti, seems to have been a notoriously unscrupulous character and particularly clever at impersonation. The best account of the story is given by the so-called Anonimo, and runs, briefly, as follows: Messer Buoso Donati being sick with a mortal sickness, wished to make his will, inasmuch as he thought he had much to return that belonged to others. Simone, his son, delayed the old gentleman until he died. Fearing then that his father might not have left a will in his favor, he sought advice from Gianni Schicchi, who said to Simone Donati : “Have a notary come, and say that Messer Buoso wants to make a will; I will enter his bed, we will thrust him behind, I will bandage myself well, will put his night cap on my head, and will make the will as you wish.” Then he added : “It is true that I want to gain by this.” Simone agreed, all was done accordingly and Gianni Schicchi in a broken voice began to dictate : “I leave twenty soldi to the Church of Santa Beparata, and five francs to the Frati Minori, and five francs to the Predicatori,” and thus he went on distributing for God, but very little money. “And I leave,” he continued, “five hundred florins unto Gianni Schicchi.” At that the son jumped up and said : “We must not put that in the will, father; I will give it to him as you leave it.” “Simone,” replied Gianni, “you will let me do with what is mine according to my judgment.” Simone, out of fear, kept silent. “And I leave unto Gianni Schicchi my mule,” for Messer Buoso had the finest mule in Tuscany. “Oh, Messer Buoso,” said Simone to his supposed father, “this man Schicchi really does not care for your mule.” At which the testator replied : “Silence, I know better than you what Gianni Schicchi wants.” Simone began to wax wrathful, but out of fear he kept silent. Gianni continued to dictate : “And I leave unto Gianni Schicchi one hundred florins which are owed to me by a certain neighbor, and for the rest I leave Simone my universal heir with this clause, that unless every bequest be executed within fifteen days, the whole heredity shall go to the Convent of Santa Croce.” And the notaries having departed, Gianni Schicchi got out of bed, the body of Messer Buoso was replaced in it, and Simone began bewailing his father's sudden death.
1 Scartazzini mentions Selmi's Anonimo, Dante's son Jacobus, Jac. della Lana, the Otttimo Commento, Benvenuto, Buti, the Cassinese and Petrus Dantis.
2 Pietro Toldo, La Frode di Gianni Schicchi, in Giornale Storico delta Letteratura Italiana, xlviii, pp. 113 f. For the value of the various old commentators see C. Hegel, über den historischen Werth der älteren Dante-Commentare, Leipzig, 1878. Unfortunately, Boccaccio's Commentary, which would have been most valuable, did not reach the thirtieth canto.
3 In some of the old commentators, for instance the Cassinese, and Petrus Dantis, the old man is killed by his son and by Gianni Schicchi. This, however, as Scartazzini notes in his commentary, was unknown to Dante. Cf. Scartazzini's Enciclopedia Dantesca, Milano, 1896-99, pp. 896 f. Moreover, for the exact relationships of the persons implicated in the story see Isidoro del Lungo, Una vendetta in Firenze, in Archivio Storico italiano, 1886, Quarta Serie, vol. xviii, p. 383, and also in his volume Dal Secolo e dal Poema di Dante, Altri ritratti e studi, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1898, p. 113. See also F. Torraca in Rassegna Bibliografica della Letteratura italiana, iii, 1895, p. 230; and G. A. Venturi, I Fiorentini nella Divina Commedia, in Rassegna Nazionale, 16 Giugno, 1898, p. 788; who does not say enough about Gianni Schicchi.
4 See Bullettino della Società Dantesca, Anno viii (1900-1901), note at the bottom of p. 284. This was kindly brought to my attention by Professor E. G. Parodi, Editor of the Bullettino, in a communication published in the Marzocco, Sep. 28th, 1913.
Since in the course of my investigation I have followed various clues kindly given to me, I take this opportunity of thanking Professors J. D. M. Ford, C. H. C. Wright, G. L. Kittredge, A. A. Howard of Harvard University, Dr. Walther Fischer of the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor F. Baldensperger, Exchange Professor at Harvard from the University of Paris, as well as Professor Parodi of Florence.
5 This is the story as given in Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, and taken from Appian's history. See also Echard's Roman History, conveniently translatetd into Trench by La Roque, and Gayot de Pitaval's Causes Célèbres, La Haye, 1738, vol. vii, p. 311, who refers to it.
6 I quote from The Lives of the First Twelve Cœsars, of C. Suetonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thomson, London, 1796, p. 436.
7 See John Colin Dunlop, History of Prose Fiction, revised by Henry Wilson, London, 1888 vol. ii, pp. 191, 192, in which, however, the Gianni Schicchi version is not mentioned at all.
8 Sonetti ed altre Rime con proposte e risposte di alcuni uomini degni e con alcune Novelle, Capitoli e Stanze: in Roma, per Antonio Blado Asolano, 1544. This edition is very rare. The six stories were reprinted from the original edition, in a limited number of copies, Novelle di Marco Cademosto da Lodi (Milano?), MDCCXCIX, p. 70. Three of Cademosto's stories were reprinted by Girolamo Zanetti in his Novelliero italiano. A very brief sketch of Cademosto and a translation of the very story in question may be found in Thomas Roscoe's The Italian Novelists, London, 1825, vol. ii, pp. 129-138.
9 La piacevol Notte et lieto Giorno, Opera morale di Nicolao Granucci di Lucca, indirizzato al molto Magnifico e Nobilissimo Sig. M. Giuseppe Arnolfini, Gentilhuomo Lucchese. Venezia, appresso Jacomo Vidali, 1574. See also Thorns Roscoe, op. cit., vol. iii, p. 225, where a very brief sketch of Granucci is given. The story here translated by Mr. Roscoe is, unfortunately, not the one in question.
10 The similarity between the Gianni Schicchi story and the Cademosto novella was noted by Professor Toldo, op. cit., p. 117, who also noted that neither Zambrini, who published the Anonimo version (in his Libro di Novelle antiche tratte da diversi testi del buon secolo della lingua, in Scelta di curiosità letterarie etc., disp. xciii, nov. lxvii, p. 177) nor Reinhold Köhler (in his study über Zambrini's Libro di Novelle antiche, in Kleinere Schriften, Ed. Boite, Berlin, 1900, vol. ii, pp. 555-569) say anything about it. I may add that Granucci is mentioned by nobody in connection with the Gianni Schicchi story, and that the latter is overlooked by Dunlop and Landau.
11 The imitative inclination of Granucci was noted by Landau in his Beiträge zur Geschichte der italienischen Novelle, Wien, 1875, p. 98.
12 Professor Werner Söderhjelm, of the University of Helsingfors, the learned author of La Nouvelle Française au XVème Siècle, would probably not agree with me in this; for he kindly writes me that he considers the Schicchi story to be as true as some of the Sacchetti stories, and that he does not think it came into oral tradition. His opinion is most valuable, but perhaps he had not taken into account the Cademosto-Granucci versions.
13 It is interesting to note that though most critics speak of it in terms of praise, Brunetière gives it no credit for originality by calling it (in his Hist. de la Litt. franc. classique, Paris, 1904-12, Vol. iii, pp. 19, 20.) “une combinaison du Malade Imaginaire, des Fourberies de Scapin et de Monsieur de Pourceaugnac”; Claretie (in his Hist. de la Litt. franc., Paris, 1907, Vol. iii, p. 334) just calls it a “curieuse comédie de gaîté un peu macabre”; and Jules Janin (in his Hist. de la Litt. dramatique, Paris, 1855, Vol. ii, p. 354) puts it still more strongly by saying: “Dans cette comédie abominable, si vous en ôtez l'esprit, la verve et la gaîté, tout ce qui n'appartient pas au gilet appartient à l'apothicaire. Jamais sujet plus triste et cependant jamais sujet plus rempli de gros rire n'avait été inventé; jamais, que je sache, on n'avait fait d'un cercueil un tréteau plus plaisant.” Note here that if M. Janin had had in mind Regnard's sources he probably would not have used the word “inventé,” nor been so emphatic with his “jamais.” Most of these critics give us their own opinion of the play and hardly ever mention the creative originality of the work. Perhaps they are right, though incomplete.
14 It is, of course, but a natural coincidence that the Gianni Schicchi story should use the very words “reda universale”; for that is the legal term. Farinelli in a work that practically sums up all previous studies on the subject, Dante e la Francia, Milan, Hoepli, 1908, Vol. II, p. 302, in a note, says that the similarity between Gianni Schicchi and the Légataire Universel had been noted in France by three Dante scholars of the eighteenth century, namely: Moutonnet de Clairfons, who published a translation of the Divine Comedy in 1776, and who, though mentioning Regnard's play in connection with Dante, states that Regnard took his subject from a contemporary occurrence (see his Enfer, p. 515); then Rivarol, whose translation of Dante appeared in 1785 (see Oeuvres, iii, p. 253); and finally Le Prévost d'Exmes, who wrote a Vie … de Dante, in 1787, in which he actually states that Regnard's story was taken from Dante (see his p. 94). A short and futile article on this source was published by Mr. Roger Peyre in the Supplément of the Journal des Débats for Dec. 1, 1912. The writer was unaware of previous studies and made no contribution at all to the subject. Another flimsy article was published under the title of Coincidenze by Giovanni Rabizzani in the Marzocco of August 31, 1913, which I answered in the Marzocco of Sep. 28, and of Nov. 16, 1913.
15 The one scholar who has contributed real information on this subject is Professor Toldo, of Turin. He was not the first, however, to note the parallel Cadamosto-Regnard, since it was mentioned at least in the edition of Regnard by Gamier Frères, Paris, 1901 (?), p. xiii. (Several books on Regnard and editions of his works are inaccessible to me). It was then treated more fully by Prof. Toldo in his Études sur le théâtre comique français du Moyen Age, in Studj di Filologia romanza publicati da E. Monaci e C. De Lollis, Torino, Loescher, Vol. ix, 1903, pp. 356-358; and in 1906 in his article in the Giornale Storico mentioned before.
16 See Toldo's Études sur le théâtre comique … mentioned before, and also his excellent Études sur le théâtre de Regnard, in Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France, x, p. 1. For Regnard's life see the account of Guido Menasci, in his rather inadequate Nuovi saggi di Letteratura francese, Livorno, 1908.
17 Published anonymously and undated at London—certainly not before 1778, and probably not much later.
18 This story may also be found in the Œuvres de J. F. Regnard, by M. Garnier, Paris, Lequien, 1820, Vol. iv, pp. 15 f. The fact that Regnard took his plot from an actual occurrence is also suggested in the Dictionnaire portatif des théâtres, in an article on the Légataire.
19 This question had been looked into before; see T. de Loray, Le Légataire de Regnard et les Jésuites, in Révue des questions historiques, Vol. vii (1869), pp. 614 f., who adds: “Le récit de cette histoire est reproduit jusqu'en 1860, dans le travail que deux érudits bisontins consacrent à la description de leur ville natale, et plus récemment encore, la Revue Germanique s'en empare … sous la rubrique A. M. D. G.” While deploring the vagueness of such references, I may state that it was M. Droz of Besançon, who with scholarly fairness examined this question.
20 See T. de Loray, op. cit., p. 616.
21 (Jean François) de Cailhava (d'Estendoux), De l'Art de la Comédie, Paris, 1786, ii, pp. 406, 407.
22 Op. cit., pp. 279 f., in the chapter called La Fausse Testatrice.
23 Op. cit., p. 285.
24 De Stendhal (Henry Beyle), Mémoires d'un Touriste, Paris, 1854, pp. 43-47. This parallel was discovered by Mr. Rabizzani, who reported it in the above mentioned article in the Marzocco.
25 See his above mentioned article in the Gior. Stor. d. lett. ital., 1906, p. 123 in a foot note, where he refers to A. Von Weilen, Eine deutsche Stegreifkomödie, in Bausteine zur roman. Phil., Festgabe für A. Mussafia, Halle, 1905, pp. 108-116.
26 Professor Toldo, who is so familiar with this subject, also searched in vain, and Miss Winifred Smith, of Vassar, who published the excellent book The Cornmedia dell' Arte, (New York, 1912), kindly writes to me that she does not remember ever running into this kind of plot. Nor do I find it even mentioned in such works as Agresti's Studii sulla Commedia italiana del secolo XVI, Napoli, 1871, or G. Pellizzaro's La Commedia del secolo XVI e la novellistica anteriore e contemporanea in Italia, Vicenza, 1901.
27 Thomas King, Wit's Last Stake, a farce, as it is performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, 1769. This has not been reprinted and is rather rare.
28 For more information on King see D. E. Baker's Biographia Dramatica, London, 1812, Vol. i, part 2, pp. 435-440 and the Dictionary of National Biography.
As this study is going to press I note a little article by Georges Eoth, Une adaptation anglaise du Légataire Universel, in Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, Janv.-Mars, 1914, pp. 174 ff., in which he discusses this very play by Thomas King. I am glad to see that in his criticism of this farce Mr. Eoth agrees with the opinions I here express.
29 This had been noticed by W. W. Vernon, see his Readings on the Inferno of Dante, Vol. ii, p. 499, in a foot-note.
30 E. Downey in his Charles Lever, His Life in his Letters, London, 1906, pp. 287, 288, publishes a letter of Lever dated Bagni di Lucca, Jan. 20th (1849?) in which he says: “ … . Have you received Con Cregan? Of course its paternity was plain to you.” Here Lever is obviously referring to the authorship of the whole book, however, and not to the source of the first chapter. In another letter (p. 291) he remarks “Con Cregan is a secret, and I hope it will remain so. It is atrociously careless and ill-written, but its success depending on what I know to be its badness, my whole aim has been to write down to my public.” This is not very clear information. W. J. Fitzpatrick in The Life of Charles Lever, London, 1879, Vol. ii, p. 169, says: “Con Cregan … was undertaken at the suggestion of the ‘same old school-fellow’ of whom Lever makes honourable mention in his Preface to The Daltons. ‘I happened at the time,’ writes Major D——–, ‘to get a Spanish version of Gil Blas, which I preferred very much to the original French; and I wrote to Lever saying so, and adding that he ought to try something in the Gil Blas style. It was while he was living at Bregenz … It was a regular pot-boiler. Con Cregan was therefore a failure.” I find nothing more definite than that concerning Lever's sources, and I do not find this story in Gil Bias.
31 Jonson's Volpone has really no connection with the plot in question. I am at a loss to explain why Eugenio Camerini, in his Divina Commedia, Milano, 1887, p. 240, commenting on Gianni Schicchi, should quote from The Rival Twins of George Farquhar. This play has not the slightest connection with the Gianni Schicchi story, no more than dozens of will-plots. Much closer is the parallel kindly suggested to me by Professors J. W. Cunliffe and J. Erskine, of Columbia University, namely, Thomas Hardy's story called Netty Sargent's Copyhold in his Life's Little Ironies. Here a young girl places the body of her uncle, who had just died intestate, on a chair by a table and pretending to guide his feeble hand actually signs a will in her own favor, while the notary, who is kept out of the room, watches the scene from the garden, and then ratifies the will. For a similar case, which actually happened, see Maurice Méjan, Recueil des Causes Célèbres, Paris, 1810, Vol. ix, pp. 13 f. But as such stories do not have the element of impersonation and mercenary dictation of a false will, they strictly cannot be included in my study.
32 Professor W. A. Neilson, in criticizing this play for The Harvard Crimson, said, “It was a pretty piece of pathos with a bit of delightful farce in the middle . . . the central situation was uproariously funny.” This play is still unpublished. Another unpublished one-act play, taken directly from Gianni Schiechi, and called The Shearer of Sheep, was written in 1910, without the slightest knowledge of Mr. Hatch's, by Mr. Karl Schmidt, of New York, and myself.
33 See Journal des Débats, Revue Hebdomadaire, Feb. 13th, 1914, p. 257 f.
34 This play was briefly reported by The Boston Herald of March 8th.
35 I do not find anything even similar to it in such works, for instance, as W. A. Clouston's Popular Tales and Fictions, or in J. A. Macculloch's The Childhood of Fiction.