Notes

FOREWORD

1. I must at the outset acknowledge my indebtedness to George Schoolfield and John Woodhouse, whose work on D’Annunzio’s reception in Anglo-Saxon countries, particularly in connection with the effect of the bowdlerization of his novels, catalyzed and informed this project.

2. John Woodhouse, Gabriele D’Annunzio: Defiant Archangel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 83.

3. George Schoolfield, A Baedeker of Decadence: Charting a Literary Fashion 1884–1927 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), p. 31.

4. Ibid., pp. 30–31.

5. Woodhouse, Defiant Archangel, p. 85.

6. Woodhouse, “La fortuna inglese del Piacere,” Il Piacere, Atti del XII Convegno, a cura di Edoardo Tiboni (Pescara: Centro Studi Dannunziani, 1989), p. 231.

7. See, for instance, Clarence R. Decker, “Zola’s Literary Reputation in England,” PMLA 49, no. 4 (Dec. 1934), pp. 1140–53; Raymond S. Nelson, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession and English Prostitution,” Journal of Modern Literature 2, no. 3 (1971/1972), pp. 357–66. There is a good bibliography concerning this censorship in Anthony Cummins, “Émile Zola’s Cheap English Dress: The Vizetelly Translations, Late-Victorian Print Culture, and the Crisis of Literary Value,” Review of English Studies 60, no. 243 (2009), pp. 108–32.

8. Woodhouse, “La fortuna inglese del Piacere,” p. 233.

9. Woodhouse, Defiant Archangel, p. 85.

10. Ibid.

11. Comstock: Anthony Comstock was a much-feared anti-obscenity campaigner who suppressed many authors’ works for decades in the United States in the early 1900s, both literary and other.

12. G. B. Rose, “Gabriele D’Annunzio,” The Sewanee Review 5, no. 2 (Apr. 1897), p. 148.

13. Ibid., p. 150.

14. Woodhouse, Defiant Archangel, p. 86.

15. G. B. Rose, “Gabriele D’Annunzio,” p. 152.

TO FRANCESCO PAOLO MICHETTI

1. ex-voto: An offering to show gratitude or dedication.

2. Paolo Veronese: Italian sixteenth-century artist.

3. Ajax: Mythological Greek hero; symbol of constancy and perseverance.

4. pastorals: Possible reference to musical compositions commonly played during the Christmas season, evoking rustic life.

5. semihiante labello: “With lips half open.” From Catullus’s Carmina, poem 61 (Latin).

6. January 9, 1889: In the original Italian, D’Annunzio signs with “secondo Carmine 1889,” which signifies “the second Wednesday” of 1889—namely, January 9, 1889. “Carmine” was the name given to Wednesday by Abruzzese peasants. Wednesday was the day dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and specifically to the Madonna del Carmine.

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER I

1. blue-black cobalt: Zàffara in D’Annunzio’s original text, or rather zaffera, also called Florentine blue, was an Asian blue-black cobalt pigment that came into use in Florence in the 1500s.

2. buen retiro: “Pleasant retreat” (Spanish).

3. the Pincian Hill: Monte Pincio, located in the northeast section of Rome.

4. ever-moving light: From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “The Witch of Atlas” (1820), stanza XXVII, lines 259–61: “Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is / Each flame of it is as a precious stone / Dissolved in ever-moving light.”

5. Carmelite fabric: Likely to be brown wool used to make the habits of Carmelite monks.

6. Chimeras: In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent, slain by Bellerophon.

7. Nelly O’Brien: Portrait by Joshua Reynolds, c. 1763. Nelly O’Brien was a courtesan, the mistress of the third Viscount Bolingbroke.

8. From Dreamland—A stranger hither: From the poem “To a Dragon Fly” by A. Mary F. Robinson (1878): “You hail from Dream-land, Dragon-fly? / A stranger hither? so am I, / And (sooth to say) I wonder why / We either one of us came.” In English in D’Annunzio’s original text.

9. Mona Amorrosisca or for a Laldomine: Names of beautiful ladies found in Agnolo Firenzuola’s Dialogo delle bellezze delle donne (Dialogue on the Beauties of Women, 1541) (Mona Amorrosisca); and in his Ragionamenti, “Novella terza,” 1548 (Laldomine).

10. rose: The recurring references to roses in this novel are significant. Roses have many meanings, but with regard to this novel there are two that are most significant: that of symbolizing the female sex organs, and that of being associated with the Virgin Mary. In this novel, which frequently juxtaposes the sacred and the profane, the rose could be seen to be the most representative symbol of this juxtaposition.

11. A stranger hither: Words in italics here are in English in the original Italian text.

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER II

1. Simonetta: Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci (c. 1453–1476) was reputed to be the most beautiful woman in Florence. She was the mistress of Giuliano de’ Medici, and was possibly the model for Venus in Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus.

2. Beggar King: The “Beggar King” (Re Lazzarone) was Ferdinand IV of Naples, later becoming Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

3. “Habere, non haberi”: “I possess, but I am not possessed” (Latin).

4. springtime of the dead: In Italy (and other Latinate cultures), November is considered the “month of the dead”—the mese dei morti, in which each family honors the memory of its dead relatives, especially on November 2 (the Commemoration of the Dead), when it is a tradition to visit the cemeteries where one’s loved ones are buried. This day follows November 1, All Saints’ Day.

5. “I know you love me not”: In English in original text.

6. daimyo: Japanese feudal lord (Japanese).

7. gibus: Opera hat (French).

8. Sanzio: The surname of the artist Raphael (1483–1520) of Urbino.

9. domus aurea: “Golden house,” i.e., Nero’s palace in Rome (Latin).

10. luigi: Ancient French coin of gold, first minted in 1640 under Luigi (Louis) XIII. Also has generic sense of coins, money (Italian).

11. All the perfumes: In English in the original text.

12. myrtle: Latin poets who sang of love were crowned with leaves of myrtle; hence in Italian poetic language, the term “mirto” became a metaphor for love. The laurel, especially the laurel wreath or crown, is the symbol of the poet, of victory, of wisdom.

13. Ut: Ut was, in Italy until the 1600s, the name given to the musical note that in English is called C. It is now called Do (as in Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Si). The names of the musical notes originate from the hymn “Ut queant laxis,” dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Perhaps D’Annunzio derived his sense of the note C denoting love from Christian Schubart’s Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806), which ascribed characteristics and emotions to each key: C minor, for instance, is associated with declarations of love, love-sickness and unhappy love.

14. Je crains ce que j’espère: “I fear that which I hope for” (French).

15. La cote: “The odds.” Refers to the custom of bookmakers of shouting out the odds they are willing to offer for bets (French).

16. Lucrezia Crivelli: In a portrait by Leonardo called La Belle Ferronnière, Lucrezia Crivelli was a mistress of Ludovico Sforza and bore a son by him.

17. netsuke: In Japanese custom, a small, intricately carved toggle used to secure a tobacco pouch or other container to a sash (obi); often of great value.

18. “Ich kann’s nicht fassen, nicht glauben”: “I cannot grasp this, cannot believe it” (German).

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER III

1. “Maria Leczinska”: Marie Leszczyńska was a Polish princess who married King Louis XV of France during the 1700s.

2. RUIT HORA: Literally, “the hour has fled” (Latin).

3. TIBI, HIPPOLYTA: “To you, Hippolyta” (Latin; Ippolita is pronounced “IPPOLITA”).

4. Andrea del Verrocchio: (1435–1488), Italian Renaissance sculptor and painter.

5. pao rosa: Rosewood oil used in perfumes, from the Amazonian Pao Rosa tree.

6. corsage: The bodice of a dress.

7. Alma-Tadema: “The paintings of Lawrence Alma-Tadema [1865–1940] had a real impact on the young D’Annunzio, stimulating his interest in English art, and Pre-Raphaelitism in particular. Above all, they provided him with a feminine type that he was later to develop, under the combined influence of D.G. Rossetti, into his own feminine icon.” Giuliana Pieri, “D’Annunzio and Alma-Tadema: Between Pre-Raphaelitism and Aestheticism,” Modern Language Review 96, no. 2 (April 2001), pp. 361–69.

8. She came forward: The concordances with Dante’s sonnets from Vita nuova, “Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore” (In her eyes my lady bears Love) and “Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare” (So gentle and so pure does my Lady appear) are notable in this description of Elena, which could be seen to be paralleled with the passage of Beatrice through crowds of people: the passage of the lady arousing intense interest in all those she passes; the description of the mouth, the eyes, the pallor, the thoughtfulness she inspires in men who see her pass; the effect on each person’s heart. The greatest difference is that where Beatrice inspires uplifting and sanctifying feelings of humility and sweetness in those who observe her, Elena Muti arouses feelings of disquiet, regret, and sensual agitation, as each man longs for her to become his lover.

9. “Ludovic, ne faites plus ça en dansant; je frissonne toute”: “Ludovico, don’t do that while dancing; I quiver all over” (French).

10. life of my life: Yet another example of the mingling of sacred and profane, as “life of my life” is found commonly in various prayers to Jesus.

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER IV

1. velarium: In ancient Rome, a large protective awning extended over an amphitheater against rain or sun.

2. Bonne chance: “Good luck” (French).

3. the rose petal: This expression, a variation of the Italian saying “the drop that made the pot overflow,” is the equivalent of the English “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

4. that verb: The verb “to like” in Italian is piacere—here D’Annunzio is referring to the seductiveness of the lips opening to say “piace.”

5. Goethe: Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832). Prolific German poet, playwright, novelist, and artist.

6. “Laß dich”: Goethe’s “Laß dich, Geliebte,” III, Erstes Buch, Römische Elegien, 1795.

7. Faustina’s divine elegiac poet: Goethe, during his sojourn in Italy (1786–1788), had a lover by the name of Faustina, whom he described in his Elegien.

8. a memory of love: Here, D’Annunzio’s association of Rome with love is a covert reference to Goethe’s personal philosophy, expressed in the Römische Elegien, which embraced the palindrome “Roma-Amor” (amor = love).

9. caryatids: Sculpted female figures serving as columns.

10. herms: Four-cornered pillars topped by a head or bust, usually that of the god Hermes. Statues such as these were often found in ancient Athens, used as milestones, signposts, pillars, and so on.

11. Juno, whom Wolfgang adored: A very large sculpted head of Juno, once housed in Villa Ludovisi, so admired by Goethe that he had a copy of it made for his home.

12. of the market and of death: This cryptic description refers to the building speculation of those years, around 1889, which saw many green spaces and ancient constructions destroyed.

13. “Of what use is blazing nature”: In the text is my translation of D’Annunzio’s interpretation of Goethe’s “Monolog des Liebhabers” (Monologue of a Lover), which I retain for the sake of authenticity.

14. stil novo: The dolce stil nuovo, or “sweet new style,” in poetry inaugurated by Dante and his circle of literary friends; the term was first used in Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy (thirteenth-century Italian).

15. Henri Taine: Hyppolite-Adolphe Taine (1828–1893), historian and critic. D’Annunzio drew his knowledge of Elizabethan literature from Taine’s Histoire de la littérature anglaise.

16. A. S. calcographus aqua forti sibi tibi fecit: “A.S. the Chalcographer (engraver/etcher on copper) made this copper etching/engraving for himself and for you.” Aqua forti—nitric acid: a mixture of vitriolic and nitrous acids used in the engraving process (Latin).

17. a tratti liberi: “With free strokes.” Rembrandt preferred a free, fluid style in his engraving technique (Italian).

18. maniera nera: Mezzotint, a printmaking method that produces half tones through scraping and burnishing of the metal plate, rather than through hatching or stippling (Italian).

19. Green, Dixon, Earlom . . . Filippino Lippi: These are, in chronological order and grouped by technique, the engravers Gérard Audran (1604–1703), Valentine Green (1739–1813), John Dixon (1740–1811), Richard Earlom (1743–1822), and Paolo Toschi (1788–1854); the painter/engraver Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), the engraver/printmaker Marcantonio Raimondi (1480–1534), the etcher/engraver Jacques Callot (1592–1635); and the painters Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), Domenico (Bigordi) Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), Filippino Lippi (c. 1457–1504), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543), Francesco Mazzola, known as the Parmigianino (1503–1540), Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), and Guido Reni (1575–1642).

20. Arcitenens, Caper, Amphora: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius (Latin).

21. Valentinois: Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI (c. 1475–1507), was made Duke of Valence (Valentinois in French, or Valentino in Italian) in 1498.

22. Seigneur de Brântome: Pierre de Bourdeille (c. 1540–1614), who wrote lengthy memoirs after his travels.

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER V

1. adieu au grand air: “Farewell in the great outdoors” (French).

2. “Remember the snuffed-out days”: I have translated in the text, for authenticity’s sake, D’Annunzio’s interpretation of Goethe’s poem “Wechsel”—“O ruf’ sie zurücke, die vorigen Zeiten! / Es küßt sich so süße die Lippe der Zweiten, / Als kaum sich die Lippe der Ersten geküßt.” However, I would more closely translate Goethe’s text as “O, call them back, those earlier times! He kissed so sweetly the lips of the second one, the way he had just kissed the lips of the first.”

3. “With great pleasure and delight . . .”: Lorenzo the Magnificent, Canzoni a ballo, Canzone 1: “E’ si vede in ogni lato / Che ‘l proverbio dice il vero, / Che ciascun muta pensiero / Come l’occhio è separato. / Vedesi cambiare amore: / Come l’occhio sta di lunge, / Così sta di lunge il core: / Perché appresso un altro il punge. / Col qual tosto e’ si congiunge / Con piacere e con diletto . . .”

4. mascula: A masculine woman (Latin).

5. Giusto Suttermans: Also known as Justus Sustermans, he was born in Antwerp in 1597 and traveled to Florence, where he became court painter to the Medicis. He died in 1681.

6. semper: “Always” (Latin).

7. Miching Mallecho: In Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii, 146: “Marry this is Miching Malicho, that means mischeefe.” Other meanings to be found are veiled rebuke, misdeed, secret act.

8. Ecce homo novus: “Here is the new man” (Latin).

9. No doubt: In English in the original text.

10. haute école dressage: “High school” dressage, the highest form of classical horse-riding, entailing movements that the horse carries out above the ground, such as jumping, or up on its hind legs with forelegs raised in the air (French).

11. Duke of Buckingham and De Lauzun: The second Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), (1628–1687), is notorious for having killed the Earl of Shrewsbury in a duel in 1668. Links between the Duke of Buckingham and Antoine Nompar de Caumont, duc de Lauzun (1632–1723) are complex. Lauzun was imprisoned at Pignerol in 1671. The Duke of Buckingham attempted to persuade Louis XIV to release him. There are fictional links, too, in Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (1848) in the section titled “The Man in the Iron Mask,” both play a (fictional) role.

12. Musée secret: “Secret Museum”—poem by Théophile Gautier; the motif of “perfect absence” (of pubic hair) is taken up in greater depth later in this novel (French).

13. Camillo Agrippa: Renowned Renaissance fencer and theorist of fencing.

14. a contre-tierce parry: One of several types of counterparry movements in fencing (French).

15. coulé: An attack action in fencing, where the sword slides against the opponent’s blade (French).

16. “inquartata”: A kind of counterattack in fencing.

17. Barcaccia Fountain: Famous fountain in Piazza di Spagna. It is shaped like a sinking barge; the name literally means “rotten old boat” in Italian.

18. Ave, Roma, Moriturus te salutat: Parody of a gladiator’s salute to the magistrate at games: “Hail, Rome, a man about to die salutes you” (Latin).

19. taffeta: Used in bandaging.

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER I

1. Lethean bath: Reference to the river Lethe, one of five rivers of the underworld. It is the river of forgetfulness and is associated with the afterlife and the belief in rebirth.

2. Upanishad: “One of four Vedas, sacred scriptures of most Hindu traditions.

3. the Vedas: The oldest known Indo-European religious and philosophical tracts.

4. “Hae omnes creaturae in totum ego sum, et praeter me aliud ens non est”: “I am all this creation collectively and besides me there exists no other being”—from the Upanishad of the Veda, translated into Latin by the French historian and Orientalist Anquetil-Duperron and published as Oupnek’hat (Paris, 1801–1802) (Latin).

5. “I am admitted by nature . . .”: Georges Maurice de Guérin, Journal of Maurice de Guérin (Paris, 1862).

6. “The stars we never long to clasp . . .”: This verse is from Goethe’s poem “Trost in Tränen” (Solace in Tears).

7. “miro gurge”: From Dante, Paradise, canto XXX, 68, a double Latinism. Translated by Cary (1814), Sinclair (1939), and Singleton (1975) as “wondrous flood”; in current Italian it is translated as mirabile gorgo—“wondrous whirlpool” (Latinism used in Italian).

8. Titanomachia: Battle of the Titans.

9. “εuλαβεια”: Eulabeia is generally translated into English as “caution” or “concern,” with older meanings of “religious scruple,” “godly fear,” “devotion,” “dread.” D’Annunzio has translated or interpreted it in Italian as in the text above (Ancient Greek).

10. a contemporary poet: Here D’Annunzio is self-inserting or self-inscribing himself into his work—this is his own poem and undoubtedly the “contemporary poet” is himself.

11. Homer’s liturgy: For Goethe, Homer’s writings were of greater spiritual significance and guidance than the Bible.

12. Callimachus’s capital: Callimachus designed the Corinthian capital (column), decorating it with the acanthus leaf.

13. “The Verse is everything”: “Il Verso è tutto”—verse from a sonnet from D’Annunzio’s poetry collection L’Isottèo, 1886. “O Poeta, divina è la Parola; / ne la pura Bellezza il ciel ripose / ogni nostra letizia; e il Verso è tutto”—“O Poet, divine is the Word / in pure Beauty did heaven place / all of our joy; and the Verse is everything.” Once again, D’Annunzio is inscribing himself.

14. “Lightly and quickly depart”: Ballata 146 by Lorenzo de’ Medici—“Parton leggieri e pronti / del petto e miei pensieri.”

15. the note La: In Italy, as mentioned before, musical notation follows the scheme Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si, as opposed to the English and German use of letters (A, B, C, D, E, F). La corresponds to A. Commonly, the diapason, or tuning fork, is set to La or A, and musicians take their pitch from this note.

16. egipane: Mythological. Deity of the woods; equivalent of the Greek god Pan, a satyr.

17. “Pale, yes”: Original Italian “Pallido sì”—allusion to Petrarch’s Triumphi, “Mortis I,” v. 166: “Pallida no, ma piú che neve bianca” (Not pale, but whiter than snow).

18. “hyacinth”: This flower, or the color of this flower, which recurs again later with reference to Maria, is associated with the Virgin Mary, and qualities of prudence, contemplation, constancy, and benevolence.

19. “monsters”: As mentioned in the following line, these are the Sphinx, the Gorgon, and the Siren, all dual-natured monsters, a recurring motif in this novel. Of interest in this sonnet, which represents the attempt to move from perdition to redemption, is the symbolism of the monster. This represents the instinctual realm in human beings, which struggles against the realm of reason and control. This is representative of Andrea’s struggle between carnal desire and higher, more spiritual artistic aspirations.

20. “Plow with sad cries . . . songs of gladness”: From Psalms 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”

21. DIE XII SEPTEMBRIS MDCCCLXXXVI: On the day of September 12, 1886.

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER II

1. Schifanoja: Pronounced “SKEEFANOYA”—meaning “escape from boredom,” “avoiding boredom” (Italian).

2. Vignola: Jacopo Barozzi—fifteenth-century Italian architectural theorist; member of Vitruvian Academy.

3. pour en tirer neuf ou dix muytz d’eaue rose: “To derive from them nine or ten muytz of rose water.” A muytz was a French measure of capacity used in the twelfth century, used for dry or wet substances (wine, grain, etc.), of varying capacity—some instances are cited of tonnes, some of 272 liters. The word more commonly found in Old English is muid (Old French).

4. poet of the Vergier d’honneur: André de la Vigne (born c. 1470), who wrote Le Vergier d’honneur (The Orchard of Honor).

5. beauté sans traits: “Beauty without features.” Madame de Pompadour was noted for her unremarkable looks, which were, however, enlivened by her vibrant personality. (French.)

6. Elissa and Tyre: Elissa (also Alyssa) was a legendary Phoenician princess from Tyre, who established the city of Carthage. Her story is recounted by Virgil in the Aeneid, where she is named Dido. Ancient Tyre was famed for its purple dye, extracted from the Murex snail; purple Tyrian fabrics were worn by royalty across Europe. It is situated in modern-day Lebanon.

7. Rosa rosarum: “Rose of roses” (Latin).

8. “Thus he distributed the roses and the words”: From Petrarch’s sonnet 245, “Così partìa le rose e le parole,” Il Canzoniere (fourteenth-century Italian).

9. “Story of Nastagio degli Onesti”: In Boccaccio’s Decameron, Day 5, Story 8.

10. turris eburnea: “Ivory tower” (Latin).

11. vas spirituale: “Spiritual vessel.” Reference to the Virgin Mary, who is the instrument and vessel of the Holy Spirit (Latin).

12. “”: Ioploch’ agnameilichomeide—from Alcaeus, fragment 384—“violet-haired, holy, sweetly smiling.” The original verse continues with the word “Sappho.” (Ancient Greek.)

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER III

1. Adoremus: “Let us adore/worship” (Latin).

2. Termini: Plural of Terminus, a boundary stone or post.

3. genius loci: In ancient Roman times, a genius loci was the guardian spirit of a place.

4. quattrocento: The fifteenth century (Italian).

5. escutcheon: A shield portraying a coat of arms.

6. alerion: An eagle, used as a symbol in heraldry.

7. Obermann’s words: From Selections from Letters to a Friend: Novel by Étienne Pivert de Senancour (1770–1846), translated and republished in 1901. “Unhappy in the years of joy, what can I expect from future years? I am like those old men from whom all things have taken flight; but more unfortunate than they, I have lost everything long before I have myself reached the consummation of life.”

8. chryselephantine: Made of gold and ivory.

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER IV

1. Luigi Rameau’s gavotte: Some critics believe this to refer to Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) and this gavotte to derive from his ballet Naïs (1749). Others believe that this gavotte and this composer are sheer invention on the part of D’Annunzio.

2. punctum saliens: The essential or most notable point (Latin).

3. Memling: The German-born painter, Hans Memling (c. 1430–August 1494).

4. Be simple as a dove: D’Annunzio has inverted the original quote from Matthew 10:16, which has been variously translated in different versions of the Bible; one of these, in its full extent, is “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves: therefore be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

5. Silver key of the fountain of tears: Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Fragment: To Music,” 1817.

6. such as dreams are made on: In English in the original text. From William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4, scene 1, 148–58.

7. This allegory: The passage in the text I translated from D’Annunzio’s interpretation of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “An Allegory” (1824), which reads as follows: “I. A portal as of shadowy adamant / Stands yawning on the highway of the life / Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt; / Around it rages an unceasing strife / Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt / The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high / Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky. / II. And many pass it by with careless tread, / Not knowing that a shadowy . . . / Tracks every traveller even to where the dead / Wait peacefully for their companion new; / But others, by more curious humour led, / Pause to examine;—these are very few, / And they learn little there, except to know / That shadows follow them where’er they go.”

8. “Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”: In English in the original.

9. Monte Cassino: Montecassino Abbey is a Benedictine monastery founded in approximately A.D. 529 by Saint Benedict, on the mountain Monte Cassino, about eighty miles south of Rome. It has had a turbulent history, having been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and is now a national monument. It houses a five-thousand-reed organ.

10. ostensorium: The ostensorium, also called ostensory or monstrance, is a vessel used to display the host (Blessed Sacrament), made of gold, silver, brass, or copper. It usually takes the form of a sun emitting rays.

11. each pond seemed . . . undulating there: From Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem “To Jane: The Recollection” (1822), stanza 5: “We paused beside the pools that lie / Under the forest bough,— / Each seemed as ’twere a little sky / Gulfed in a world below; / A firmament of purple light / Which in the dark earth lay, / More boundless than the depth of night, / And purer than the day— / In which the lovely forests grew, / As in the upper air, / More perfect both in shape and hue / Than any spreading there.”

12. And delicate views . . . gentler than the one above: The rest of this paragraph also echoes Shelley’s poem, as it continues in the same stanza.

13. And forget me, for I can never Be thine!: In English in the original. From a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Magnetic Lady to Her Patient” (1822).

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER I

1. Amie avec les hanches: “Female friend with hips” (French).

2. Claudio Lorenese: Claude Lorrain (Gellée) (c. 1600–1682), also called le Lorrain, Claudio Lorenese, or Claude. A French painter who lived mostly in Italy and was noted for his landscapes full of harmony and light.

3. demi-mondaines: Literally, “half-world”; referring to women in the late nineteenth century who were generally divorced or single, and led an active social life supported by rich lovers (French).

4. Gratulor tibi!: “I congratulate you” (Latin).

5. O douce barbe feminine: “O sweet feminine beard” (French).

6. le drap de la blonde qui dort: “The sheet of the sleeping blonde” (French).

7. Philippe de Bourgogne: Philippe III de Bourgogne, Duke of Burgundy (1396–1467), founded the Order of the Golden Fleece.

8. sans plume et sans duvet: “Without feathers and without down” (French).

9. Anabasis: Term stemming from the retreat of Greek mercenaries in Asia Minor, described in the Anabasis of Xenophon; a difficult, perilous military retreat.

10. speculum voluptatis: “Mirror of pleasure” (Latin).

11. voluptatis ocellus: “The little eye of pleasure” (Latin).

12. Breviarium Arcanum: “Secret/mysterious breviary” (Latin).

13. cabinets particuliers: A private room where a man could meet his lover (French).

14. we will not have to resign ourselves: “As for women, there is no indication that women of any class were admitted to the Caffe Greco.” Margaret Farrand Thorp, “Literary Sculptors in the Caffe Greco,” American Quarterly 12, no. 2, pt. 1 (Summer 1960), p. 172.

15. Caffè di Roma: D’Annunzio is undoubtedly referring to the Caffè Greco in Via de’ Condotti, a gathering place of intellectuals and artists, which he often frequented (and which still exists). As women were not encouraged to visit the caffè, Andrea Sperelli would have to “resign” himself to the erotic stimulation of a painting. Many artworks did not survive after the 1890s, so it is unclear whether the two paintings (Judith and the Bather) actually exist. However, one painting portrays a woman in scanty garments sitting next to a waterfall.

16. I love you more . . . : In English in the original.

17. keepsake: In English in the original.

18. Adolphus Jeckyll: It is commonly accepted by critics that this figure is based on Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

19. Sibylla palmifera: “Palm-bearing sibyl” (prophetess). Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted a picture by this name. (Latin.)

20. Madonna of the Lily: This could represent Rossetti’s painting Ecce Ancilla Domini, in which the handmaiden of the Lord is shown with a lily stalk in her hand.

21. in Boccaccio’s story: Decameron, Day 4, Story 5.

22. Who would have thought: In the original, this sentence is in English, but in an English so distorted I deemed it better to correct it, since an Englishwoman, such as Clara Green is, would not speak in such stilted, incorrect language. The original text reads: “Who would have thought we should stand again together, Andrew.”

23. white rose: In English in the original.

24. Love me this evening, Andrew!: In English in the original.

25. Ecce: “Behold!”; “Here is” (Latin).

26. Ancilla Domini, Sibylla palmifera, candida puella: “Handmaiden of the Lord, Palm-bearing sibyl, pure girl.” Could once again be a reference to Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s painting Sibylla palmifera and his sonnet by the same title, and his painting Ecce Ancilla Domini. (Latin.)

27. Ora pro nobis: “Pray for us.” Response during the litany in church, directed at the Virgin Mary. (Latin.)

28. chica pero guapa: Small but pretty (Spanish).

29. Pinturicchio: The fifteenth-century painter Bernardo di Betto, who painted Giulia Farnese, the mistress of Pope Alexander VI, above a door in the pope’s apartments in the Vatican City. This fresco was considered scandalous and blasphemous, as it depicted Giulia as the Madonna holding the baby Jesus, and the pope holding the baby’s foot.

30. Sala Quinta: The Fifth Hall, most likely of the Appartamenti Borgia in the Vatican. See http://www.1911
encyclopedia.org/Pinturicchio, accessed March 1, 2010.

31. olla podrida: A Spanish stew made with various meats, legumes, and vegetables (Spanish).

32. Sal y pimiento: “Salt and pepper” (Spanish).

33. Madame de Parabère: Marie Madeleine de la Vieuville (1693–1750), wife of the Marquis de Parabère, was the mistress of Philippe II, Regent of France, from 1715 to 1723.

34. Julia: This is the Latin form of the name Giulia (deriving from the name of the ancient patrician family “gens Iulia” at Rome, the family of Julius Caesar). “Julia” is pronounced “Yulia,” whereas “Giulia” is pronounced as the English name Julia, with a hard J.

35. San Bernardino: Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444) was a Franciscan priest and theologian who preached all over Italy, seeking to combat lawlessness, strife, and immorality. The play on words that Andrea proceeds to make is a reference to one of the saint’s famous sermons against sins of the tongue (e.g., gossip, gluttony, lying, etc.), but Andrea is obviously distorting the saint’s pure intent for his own profane ends.

36. linguatica: “Tongued” (Latin).

37. “Rosa linguatica, glube nos”: “Tongued rose, unpeel us” (glubere = “peel, strip” in Latin). Glube also has more obscene connotations, possibly referring to the foreskin or stimulation of male genitals.

38. a Violante and an Imperia: Names of courtesans.

39. À ma chimère: “About my chimera” (French).

40. hetaerae: Courtesans or concubines in ancient Greece, but distinguished from ordinary prostitutes by their sophistication and the respect they generally garnered from men for their education and influence (Ancient Greek).

41. Peek Frean: A brand of biscuits produced by Peek, Frean and Co., established in Britain in 1857.

42. “Quia nominor Bébé”: “Because my name is Bébé” (Latin).

43. “Semper parata”: “Always ready,” “always prepared” (Latin).

44. “Diu saepe fortiter”: “For a long time, always bravely/strongly” (Latin).

45. “Non timeo dona ferentes”: “I do not fear the bearers of gifts.” Play on “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”—“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”—from Virgil, Aeneid, II; referring to the Trojan Horse. (Latin.)

46. “Rarae nates cum gurgite vasto”: Were this phrase spelled Rari nantes in gurgite vasto, it would mean “only the few swim in whirlpools/the rough sea”; found in Virgil, Aeneid, I, 118. However, the way D’Annunzio has spelled this phrase signifies “Between two widely spread buttocks there is a vast whirlpool.” (Latin.)

47. Love me tonight, Andrew!: Clara Green is speaking in English in the original text.

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER II

1. Cui bono?: “To whose benefit?” (Latin).

2. Comprends et prends: “Understand and take” (French).

3. been familiar with him: In the original, the text says “he had called him tu”—namely, he had addressed the servant with the familiar tu, as opposed to the more formal voi. This is termed the “T-V Distinction” in sociolinguistics.

4. Ciociaria: Area of Italy between Rome and Naples, in the province of Frosinone.

5. Capuchins: The Church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, or Our Lady of the Conception of the Capuchins, is situated on Via Veneto, hence close to where Andrea was walking through Piazza Barberini.

6. liqueur hawkers: Acquavitari in Italian. Vendors would go around selling small glasses of various types of liqueur.

7. Centocelle: The name derives from Centum Cellae, literally “one hundred rooms,” dating back to ancient Rome. In the nineteenth century it was still wild and well stocked with foxes, favored by D’Annunzio himself for his foxhunts. It is a suburb of Rome.

8. Not at the Four Fountains: The joke here plays on the fact that Elena’s home in Palazzo Barberini is found in Via delle Quattro Fontane (Four Fountains Road), where Andrea attempted vainly to go “hunting,” whereas his friends went foxhunting in the area south of Rome called Tre Fontane (Three Fountains).

9. Menelaus: Menelaus, husband of Helen (of Sparta, later of Troy), was cuckolded when Paris lured Helen away from him.

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER III

1. Musa paradisiaca palm: Banana plant.

2. Quirinal Palace: Palazzo Quirinale—originally the papal residence, then the residence of Italian kings, now the official residence and workplace of presidents of the Italian Republic.

3. Montecitorio: Building that houses the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

4. Dogali case: Battle that had taken place the week before, on January 26, 1887, at Dogali in Eritrea, which Italy had colonized in 1879. More than four hundred Italian soldiers died, as well as several hundred Eritreans.

5. Au pays du Tendre?: A reference to the 1660 novel Clélie, Histoire romaine, by Madeleine de Scudéry, which describes an imaginary country, Tendre. (French.)

6. Far, far away: In English in the original.

7. Via dei Due Macelli: Literally, “Street of the Two Butcheries” (Italian).

8. Via del Tritone: Literally, “Street of the Triton” (Italian).

9. Nunc: “Now” (Latin).

10. “Asperges me”: From Psalms 51:7: “Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Latin).

11. Rosa mystica: “Mystical Rose.” At the summit of the Column of the Immaculate Conception in Piazza di Spagna there is a bronze statue of the Madonna, also known as Mystical Rose. The rose is associated with the Virgin Mary, as it is with the rosary. (Latin.)

12. Piranesi: Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778), an Italian artist.

13. dux: In the original Italian, duca, with the common meaning of “duke.” One of the meanings of duca, however, is “guide,” referring to its ancient derivation from the Latin dux (from the verb ducere, which in Italian is condurre, meaning “to lead, guide, conduct”). The words duce and doge also derive from this. Other ancient meanings of duca are spiritual guide, and ruler or leader.

14. Virgilian excursion: In the original Italian vergiliato, a term coined by D’Annunzio to signify a route followed by two people, as in the case of Dante, who was accompanied or guided by Virgil through Hell and Purgatory in the Divine Comedy.

15. Perugino: Pietro Perugino (1446–1524), Umbrian artist.

16. Caffè Nazzarri: A coffeehouse in Piazza di Spagna that had a pastry shop and confectioner’s attached to it.

17. Barberini factory: Cardinal Barberini founded a tapestry factory at Palazzo Barberini in Rome in about 1630.

18. Pieter van Laer: Pieter van Laer (1592–1642), nicknamed “Il Bamboccio,” lived in Rome. His style of humorous/grotesque paintings were called “Bambocciate.”

19. Le papillon s’est envolé: “The butterfly has flown away” (Bizet’s Tarantelle) (French).

20. Fantasia sonatas: Piano Sonata no. 13 in E-flat major, op. 27, no. 1. Quasi una fantasia (In the Manner of a Fantasy); Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 27, no. 2. Moonlight Sonata.

21. Giulietta Guicciardi: Beethoven’s student, with whom he fell in love. He proposed to her but her parents forbade the marriage.

22. Ariostean architecture: A reference to Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, in which he creates an enchanted castle that represents illusion, ambiguity, the falsity of ephemeral things, and above all the elusiveness of the objects of men’s desires, which, as soon as they are satisfied, make way for new ones.

23. candida super nivem: “Whiter than snow.” Could be a reference to a poem, “The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,” by Adam of Saint Victor, a twelfth-century French poet who composed liturgical hymns. In the poem, the phrase is super nivem candida (white beyond snow).

24. “incedit per lilia et super nivem”: “Advances through lilies and over snow” (Latin).

25. “Comis suis obumbrabit tibi et sub comis peccabit”: “He will cover you up with his fleece and he will commit sin under the covers.” Possible distortion of Psalms 91:4: “Scapulis sui obumbrabit tibi, et sub pennies ejus sperabis”: “He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.” (Latin.)

26. Symphonie en blanc majeur: “Symphony in White Major,” poem by Théophile Gautier (French).

27. “Pro amore curriculum / Pro amore cubiculum”: “The vehicle or small carriage for love / the bedchamber for love” (Latin).

28. Fuga: Ferdinando Fuga, who designed the Palazzo della Consulta between 1732 and 1737.

29. Dioscuri: Twin brothers Castor and Polydeuces/Pollux, depicted in great marble statues in Piazza del Quirinale. Mythologically, they are the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, all born to Leda, wife of Tyndareus, seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan.

30. the Mani: Spirits of the dead, revered by the ancient Romans as gods.

31. Genii: Plural of Genius. See Second Book, Chapter III, note 3 (Latin).

THIRD BOOK, CHAPTER IV

1. Pausias: Reference to poem by Goethe: “Der neue Pausias und sein Blumenmädchen” (The New Pausias and His Flower Maiden) (1797).

2. “Immer allein sind . . .”: “Lovers are always alone unto themselves in the largest gathering / but when they are a twosome, a third one joins them” (German).

3. “Amor, ja!”: “Love, yes!”

4. “A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudabile nomen Helles”: “From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same: the name of Helen is to be praised.” (The name Helen is to be linked to that of Elena, its Italian equivalent.) The origin of this phrase is liturgical, from Psalms 112:3: A solis ortu usque ad occasum laudabile nomen Domini: “From the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same: the name of the Lord is to be praised” (Latin).

5. “I always loved . . .”: Petrarch, Il Canzoniere, Sonnet 85, “Io amai sempre ed amo forte ancora.”

6. “Ahora y no siempre”: “Now and not forever” (Spanish).

7. Die ultima februarii 1885: “Last day of February 1885” (Latin).

8. Helena Amyclaea: Literally, “the Spartan Helen.” Reference to Helen of Troy, who was from Sparta. (Latin.)

9. Academy building: Villa Medici has housed the French Academy for the arts since 1803.

10. “with you”: Until this point in the novel, in every exchange between Andrea and Donna Maria, they have used the formal voi, which creates social and psychological distance between interlocutors, instead of the familiar (informal) tu, which breaks down this barrier and allows for intimacy; “with you” in the original Italian is expressed as “con te”—using the familiar tu form for the first time.

11. “And from her lips”: Percy Bysshe Shelley, from the poem “Epipsychidion” (1821).

12. mystical familiar “you”: Here, Andrea is about to use the familiar form tu rather than the formal voi with Donna Maria, and it is a significant moment, because it symbolizes a new, unprecedented intimacy.

FOURTH BOOK, CHAPTER I

1. in quarto: Reference to format of printed book, namely how the paper on which a volume is printed has been folded, and the size of the original paper. “In folio” means that the paper has been folded once; “in quarto” means that it has been folded twice, producing eight pages. It is also written as “in-4°.”

2. Lampsaque: Lampsaque was a fictitious publishing house in Paris in the 1700s and 1800s, specializing in erotic material: bibliographical references cite “A Lampsaque [Paris]” followed by the year. It published all libertine material that otherwise would have been subject to censorship, such as Nerciat’s Les Aphrodites. This name is that of the town Lampsacus in ancient Greece, home to the god Priapus, and associated with erotica.

3. Nerciat: 1734: This reference by D’Annunzio to Andrea (André-Robert) de Nerciat’s Les Aphrodites is incorrect; all bibliographical references to Nerciat show that he lived from 1739 to 1800, and various sources show the work as dated at 1793 or 1794.

4. De Concubitu—libri tres: “On sleeping together—book three” (Latin).

5. god of Lampsacus: Here the reference is to the ancient Greek town, origin of the cult of the fertility god Priapus, son of Aphrodite and possibly of Dionysus.

6. Salve, sancte pater: Reference to Tibullus’s Elegiae, I, 4, which begins “Salve, sancte pater Priape rerum, salve” (Hail, Priapus, primal father).

7. his own language: English.

8. rictus: Gaping grimace, open mouth (Latin).

9. Sicinnide dance: A dance carried out by satyrs and menads in honor of Dionysus and the goddess Cybele.

10. De verberatione amatoria: “On love beating” (Latin).

11. In Sperelli’s imagination: In this paragraph, D’Annunzio’s “borrowings” from other authors become evident. D’Annunzio’s knowledge of de Sade’s work is derived from the Goncourts’ Journal and from French translations of the English journalist William T. Stead’s articles “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” serialized in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1885. Transcription errors in the French versions are worsened by D’Annunzio: Halfmoon Street (Halfsoon Street in French) becomes Halfousn Street in Il piacere. The paragraph refers to shocking practices uncovered by Stead, of pedophilia and child prostitution in London.

12. Black Army: This reference is from Stead’s “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon,” referring to the large numbers of young women recruited to become prostitutes; they are referred to therein as the “Black Army.”

13. Anna Rosemberg: Anna Rosenberg is referred to in Stead’s “Maiden Tribute,” with regard to the practice of strapping down women in order to violate them, in her brothel in Liverpool. Text of novel shows the author’s misspelling.

14. Jefferies woman: Mary Jeffries (1854–1907) was engaged in running brothels in London, in abducting girls and young women and selling them to foreign countries. Text of novel shows the author’s misspelling.

FOURTH BOOK, CHAPTER II

1. Lucius Verus: A Roman emperor.

2. attendre pour atteindre: “Wait in order to achieve” (French).

3. “Death is here”: “Death” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1824.

4. “These are two friends”: Shelley’s “Epitaph,” also inscribed on his grave. The last phrase in the original text is given in English.