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190 Music of the Waters. |
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patronized him, a legend of the Virgin, which seemed to have no beginning or end, to a slow version of the valse movement closing the lovely concerted piece, ' O Guar-date,' from Rossini's ' Turco in Italia.' Many accidental sharps and flats were added to this, probably resulting from his extreme age and hunger ; but, nevertheless, the monotonous repetition of this travestied melody seemed to afford him much comfort."
Byron in " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage " says :—
"In Venice, Tasso's echoes are no more ;"
and in a note on this line in an early edition of Mr. Murray's, the following occurs: " The well-known song of gondoliers, of alternate stanzas from Tasso's ' Jerusalem/ has died with the independence of Venice. Editions of the poem, with the original on one column, and the Venetian variation on the other, as sung by the boatmen, were once common, and are still to be found ; the following extract will serve to show the difference between the Tuscan epic and the Canta alia Barcariola :— |
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THE ORIGINAL.
Canto 1' arme pietose, e '1 capitano Che '1 gran Sepolcrolibero di Christo, Molto edi opro col senno, e con la
mano, Molto soffri nel glorioso acquisto; E in van 1' Inferno a lui s' oppose, e
in vano L' Arno d' Asia, edi Libia il popol
i Santi, Segni ridusse i suol compagni erranti. |
VENETIAN VERSION.
L' arme pietose de cantar gho
vogia, Ede goffredo la immortal braura Che al fin 1' ha libera co strassia, e
dogia Del nostao buon Gesu la Sepoltura I)e mezo mondo unito, e de quel
Bogia Missier Pluton no 1' ha bu mai paura : Dio 1' ha aginta, e i compagni spar-
pagnai Tutti '1 gh' i ha messi in si eme i di
del Dai. |
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Some of the elder gondoliers will, however, take /up and continue a stanza of their once familiar bard."
Lord Byron and another Englishman rowed once to the Lido ; in the boat they had two singers, one a carpenter, the other a gondolier. They sang " The Death of Clorinda," and " The Palace of Armida," in Tuscan verse. The carpenter knew three hundred stanzas, and had a voice of |
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