Cenciaja

Ogni cencio vuol entrare in bucato.

- Italian Proverb.

Mr. Buxton Forman received the following self-explanatory letter from Browning:

'19 WARWICK CRESCENT. W., July 27, '76.

'DEAR MR. BUXTON FORMAN: There can be no objection to such a simple statement as you have inserted, if it seems worth inserting. 'Fact,' it is. Next: 'aia' is generally an accumulative yet depreciative termination: 'Cenciaja''a bundle of rags'a trifle The proverb means 'every poor creature will be pressing into the company of his betters,' and I used it to deprecate the notion that I intended anything of the kind. Is it any contribution to 'all connected with Shelley,' if I mention that my 'Book' (The Ring and the Book) [rather the 'old square yellow book' from which the details were taken] has a reference to the reason given by Farinacci, the advocate of the Cenci, of his failure in the defence of Beatrice? 'Fuisse punitam Beatricem (he declares) poem ultimi supplicii, non quia ex intervallo occidi mandavit insidiantem suo honori, sed quia ejus exceptionem non probavi tibi. Prout, et idem firmiter sperabatur de sorore Beatrice si propositam excusationem probasset, grout non probavit.' That is, she expected to avow the main outrage, and did not: in conformity with her words, 'That which I ought to confess, that will I confess; that to which I ought to assent, to that I assent; and that which I ought to deny, that will I deny.' Here is another Cenciaja!

'Yours very sincerely,

'ROBERT BROWNING'

May I print, Shelley, how it came to pass

That when your Beatrice seemed by lapse

Of many a long month since her sentence fell

Assured of pardon for the parricide

By intercession of stanch friends, or, say,

By certain pricks of conscience in the Pope

Conniver at Francesco Cenci's guilt,

Suddenly all things changed and Clement grew

'Stern,' as you state, 'nor to be moved nor bent,

But said these three words coldly 'She must die;'

Subjoining 'Pardon? Paolo Santa Croce

Murdered his mother also yestereve,

And he is fled: she shall not flee at least!''

So, to the letter, sentence was fulfilled?

Shelley, may I condense verbosity

That lies before me, into some few words

Of English, and illustrate your superb

Achievement by a rescued anecdote,

No great things, only new and true beside?

As if some mere familiar of a house

Should venture to accost the group at gaze

Before its Titian, famed the wide world through,

And supplement such pictured masterpiece

By whisper, 'Searching in the archives here,

I found the reason of the Lady's fate,

And how by accident it came to pass

She wears the halo and displays the palm:

Who, haply, else had never suffered no,

Nor graced our gallery, by consequence.'

Who loved the work would like the little news:

Who lauds your poem lends an ear to me

Relating how the penalty was paid

By one Marchese dell' Oriolo, called

Onofrio Santa Croce otherwise,

For his complicity in matricide

With Palo his own brother, he whose crime

And flight induced 'those three words She must die.'

Thus I unroll you then the manuscript.

'God's justice' (of the multiplicity

Of such communications extant still,

Recording, each, injustice done by God

In person of his Vicar-upon-earth,

Scarce one but leads off to the selfsame tune)

'God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance,

Rests never on the track until it reach

Delinquency. In proof I cite the case

Of Paolo Santa Croce.'

Many times

The youngster, having been importunate

That Marchesine Costanza, who remained

His widowed mother, should supplant the heir

Her elder son, and substitute himself

In sole possession of her faculty,

And meeting just as often with rebuff,

Blinded by so exorbitant a lust

Of gold, the youngster straightway tasked his wits,

Casting about to kill the lady thus.

He first, to cover his iniquity

Writes to Onofrio Santa Croce, then

Authoritative lord, acquainting him

Their mother was contamination wrought

Like hell-fire in the beauty of their House

By dissoluteness and abandonment

Of soul and body to impure delight.

Moreover, since she suffered from disease,

Those symptoms which her death made manifest

Hydroptic, he affirmed were fruits of sin

About to bring confusion and disgrace

Upon the ancient lineage and high fame

O' the family, when published. Duty bound.

He asked his brother what a son should do?

Which when Marchese dell' Oriolo heard

By letter, being absent at his land

Oriolo, he made answer, this, no more:

'It must behoove a son, things haply so,

To act as honor prompts a cavalier

And son, perform his duty to all three,

Mother and brothers' here advice broke off.

By which advice informed and fortified

As he professed himself since bound by birth

To bear God's voice in primogeniture

Paolo, who kept his mother company

In her domain Subiaco, straightway dared

His whole enormity of enterprise,

And, falling on her, stabbed the lady dead;

Whose death demonstrated her innocence,

And happened, by the way, since Jesus Christ

Died to save man, just sixteen hundred years.

Costanza was of aspect beautiful

Exceedingly, and seemed, although in age

Sixty about, to far surpass her peers

The co'taneous dames, in youth and grace.

Done the misdeed, its author takes to flight,

Foiling thereby the justice of the world:

Not God's however, God, be sure, knows well

The way to clutch a culprit. Witness here!

The present sinner, when he least expects,

Snug-cornered somewhere i' the Basilicate,

Stumbles upon his death by violence.

A man of blood assaults a man of blood

And slays him somehow. This was afterward:

Enough, he promptly met with his deserts,

And, ending thus, permits we end with him,

And push forthwith to this important point

His matricide fell out, of all the days,

Precisely when the law-procedure closed

Respecting Count Francesco Cenci's death

Chargeable on his daughter, sons and wife.

'Thus patricide was matched with matricide,'

A poet not inelegantly rhymed:

Nay, fratricide those Princes Massimi!

Which so disturbed the spirit of the Pope

That all the likelihood Rome entertained

Of Beatrice's pardon vanished straight,

And she endured the piteous death.

Now see

The sequel what effect commandment had

For strict inquiry into this last case,

When Cardinal Aldobrandini (great

His efficacy nephew to the Pope!)

Was bidden crush ay, though his very hand

Got soil i' the act crime spawning everywhere!

Because, when all endeavor had been used

To catch the aforesaid Paolo, all in vain

'Make perquisition,' quoth our Eminence,

'Throughout his now deserted domicile!

Ransack the palace, roof and floor, to find

If haply any scrap of writing, hid

In nook or corner, may convict who knows?

Brother Onofrio of intelligence

With brother Paolo, as in brotherhood

Is but too likely: crime spawns everywhere.'

And, every cranny searched accordingly,

There comes to light O lynx-eyed Cardinal!

Onofrio's unconsidered writing-scrap,

The letter in reply to Paolo's prayer,

The word of counsel that things proving so,

Paolo should act the proper knightly part,

And do as was incumbent on a son,

A brother and a man of birth, be sure!

Whereat immediately the officers

Proceeded to arrest Onofrio found

At football, child's play, unaware of harm,

Safe with his friends, the Orsini, at their seat

Monte Giordano; as he left the house

He came upon the watch in wait for him

Set by the Barigel, was caught and caged.

News of which capture being, that same hour,

Conveyed to Rome, forthwith our Eminence

Commands Taverna. Governor and Judge,

To have the process in especial care,

Be, first to last, not only president

In person, but inquisitor as well

Nor trust the by-work to a substitute:

Bids him not, squeamish, keep the bench, but scrub

The floor of justice, so to speak, go try

His best in prison with the criminal:

Promising, as reward for by-work done

Fairly on all-fours, that, success obtained

And crime avowed, or such connivency

With crime as should procure a decent death

Himself will humbly beg which means, procure

The Hat and Purple from his relative

The Pope, and so repay a diligence

Which, meritorious in the Cenci-case,

Mounts plainly here to Purple and the Hat.

Whereupon did my lord the Governor

So masterfully exercise the task

Enjoined him, that he, day by day, and week

By week, and month by month, from first to last

Toiled for the prize: now, punctual at his place,

Played judge, and now, assiduous at his post,

Inquisitor pressed cushion and scoured plank,

Early and late. Noon's fervor and night's chill,

Naught moved whom morn would, purpling, make amends!

So that observers laughed as, many a day,

He left home, in July when day is flame,

Posted to Tordinona-prison, plunged

Into a vault where daylong night is ice,

There passed his eight hours on a stretch, content,

Examining Onofrio: all the stress

Of all examination steadily

Converging into one pin-point, he pushed

Tentative now of head and now of heart.

As when the nut-hatch taps and tries the nut

This side and that side till the kernel sound,

So did he press the sole and single point

What was the very meaning of the phrase

'Do as beseems an honored cavalier'?

Which one persistent question-torture, plied

Day by day, week by week, and month by month,

Morn, noon and night, fatigued away a mind

Grown imbecile by darkness, solitude,

And one vivacious memory gnawing there

As when a corpse is coffined with a snake:

Fatigued Onofrio into what might seem

Admission that perchance his judgment groped

So blindly, feeling for an issue aught

With semblance of an issue from the toils

Cast of a sudden round feet late so free,

He possibly might have envisaged, scarce

Recoiled from even were the issue death

Even her death whose life was death and worse!

Always provided that the charge of crime,

Each jot and tittle of the charge were true.

In such a sense, belike, he might advise

His brother to expurgate crime with . . . well,

With blood, if blood must follow on 'the course

Taken as might beseem a cavalier.'

Whereupon process ended, and report

Was made without a minute of delay

To Clement, who, because of those two crimes

O' the Massimi and Cenci flagrant late,

Must needs impatiently desire result.

Result obtained, he bade the Governor

Summon the Congregation and despatch.

Summons made, sentence passed accordingly

Death by beheading. When his death-decree

Was intimated to Onofrio, all

Man could do that did he to save himself.

'Twas much, the having gained for his defence

The Advocate o' the Poor, with natural help

Of many noble friendly persons fain

To disengage a man of family,

So young too, from his grim entanglement:

But Cardinal Aldobrandini ruled

There must be no diversion of the law.

Justice is justice, and the magistrate

Bears not the sword in vain. Who sins must die.

So, the Marchese had his head cut off,

With Rome to see, a concourse infinite,

In Place Saint Angelo beside the Bridge:

Where, demonstrating magnanimity

Adequate to his birth and breed, poor boy!

He made the people the accustomed speech.

Exhorted them to true faith, honest works,

And special good behavior as regards

A parent of no matter what the sex,

Bidding each son take warning from himself.

Truly, it was considered in the boy

Stark staring lunacy, no less, to snap

So plain a bait, be hooked and hauled ashore

By such an angler as the Cardinal!

Why make confession of his privity

To Paolo's enterprise? Mere sealing lips

Or, better, saying 'When I counselled him

'To do as might beseem a cavalier,'

What could I mean but 'Hide our parent's shame

As Christian ought, by aid of Holy Church!

Bury it in a convent ay, beneath

Enough dotation to prevent its ghost

From troubling earth!'' Mere saying thus, 'tis plain,

Not only were his life the recompense.

But he had manifestly proved himself

True Christian, and in lieu of punishment

Got praise of all men! so the populace.

Anyhow, when the Pope made promise good

(That of Aldobrandini, near and dear)

And gave Taverna, who had toiled so much,

A Cardinal's equipment, some such word

At this from mouth to ear went saucily:

'Taverna's cap is dyed in what he drew

From Santa Croce's veins!' So joked the world.

I add: Onofrio left one child behind,

A daughter named Valeria, dowered with grace

Abundantly of soul and body, doomed

To life the shorter for her father's fate.

By death of her, the Marquisate returned

To that Orsini House from whence it came:

Oriolo having passed as donative

To Santa Croce from their ancestors.

And no word more? By all means! Would you know

The authoritative answer, when folk urged

'What made Aldobrandini, hound-like stanch,

Hunt out of life a harmless simpleton?'

The answer was 'Hatred implacable,

By reason they were rivals in their love.'

The Cardinal's desire was to a dame

Whose favor was Onofrio's. Pricked with pride,

The simpleton must ostentatiously

Display a ring, the Cardinal's love-gift,

Given to Onofrio as the lady's gage;

Which ring on finger, as he put forth hand

To draw a tapestry, the Cardinal

Saw and knew, gift and owner, old and young;

Whereon a fury entered him the fire

He quenched with what could quench fire only blood.

Nay, more: 'there want not who affirm to boot,

The unwise boy, a certain festal eve,

Feigned ignorance of who the wight might be

That pressed too closely on him with a crowd.

He struck the Cardinal a blow: and then,

To put a face upon the incident,

Dared next day, smug as ever, go pay court

I' the Cardinal's antechamber. Mark and mend,

Ye youth, by this example how may greed

Vainglorious operate in worldly souls!'

So ends the chronicler, beginning with

'God's justice, tardy though it prove perchance,

Rests never till it reach delinquency.'

Ay, or how otherwise had come to pass

That Victor rules, this present year, in Rome?