BOOKS.

THE OLD YELLOW BOOK.*

THE collection of documents, known as The Old Yellow Book, referring to a Roman tnurder trial of the late seventeenth century, upon which Browniag founded The Bing and the Book, is now for the first time made accessible to the general public.

In the middle of winter, 213 years ago, all Rome was buzzing with the story of a murder. The family of the Comparini—an old merchant and his wife, with their adopted daughter—had been literally cut to pieces by Guido Franceschini, a Tuscan nobleman, and four young despe- radoes from his estates. Everyone knows the use that Browning made of the story in his greatest poem. The bare facts are as follows : The Comparini desired to make a fine match for their daughter, Pompilia. Guido Fmnceschini desired a rich wife to mend the fortunes of his house. The marriage was arranged, and the old people, loth to part from their child, accompanied her and her husband to Tuscany. These merchant folk had been deceived as to the revenues of the Franceschini. Bitter poverty had engendered a grinding meanness in the hearts of these proud aristocrats. Their meagre manner of life, their sparing habits, their unsocial dispositions, were all alike unbearable to the town- bred couple. Quarrels ensued, and Guido turned the old people out of the house. A man of innate cruelty, he no sooner saw his wife deprived of her natural protectors than he began to torment her : her unknown origin and her bourgeois upbringing aroused his contempt, while her beauty excited his jealousy. She, driven to distraction and going in fear of her life, conceived the plan of running away to her parents in :company with Caponsacchi, a young priest. Guido, in hot pursuit of the runaways, came up with them on the road to Rome. He took no violent vengeance upon them apparently because he was afraid. He had them arrested, and began an 'action against them for "flight." Very slight punish- inents were imposed upon the delinquents. Capon- sacchi was sent into nominal exile for a short period and Pompilia was placed under nominal arrest in the house of her parents. Thither came Guido with his assassins and murdered his young wife and her old parents in cold blood.

'or seven weeks his trial continued in Rome and was a cause 430bre. Pleadings, counter-pleadings, depositions, summaries of evidence, and pamphlets for and against, written by :anonymous critics from the outside, were all bound up together after the trial was over—probably by one of the lawyers employed in the case. The bound volume is The Old -Yellow Book, as more than a century and a half later, in 1862, it fell into the hands of the English poet.

The chief interest of the documents at the present day

' "The Old Yellow Book. "Everyman's Library."—Londoa DL Deal and

Von% [18]

is, of course, the light they throw upon a great work of art.

A great part a the book is actually embodied in the poem. but the first things which strike the reader are differences

rather than likenesses. The Pope," by far the greatest figure in The Bing and the Book, does nob exist in the original account of the trial; be is merely alluded to as referee.

Again, we do not get quite so repulsive an impression of Guido as Browning gives us. For good or evil he is a much smaller man ; Pompilia's perfection is not quite conclusively proved. The discrepancies in her evidence and Caponsacchi's are glaring—and the priest himself is a shadowy though chivalrous figure—it was Browning who made him a hero. But apart from poetry there is still much that is worth reading in The Old Yellow Book, if only for the crude picture we get of aristocratic life in Tuscany and of human nature all the world over.

Take, first, the 6epositions of Angelica, a maidservant in the Franceschini family, at the time of the Comparini visit.

The poor old people, accustomed to every comfort, felt them- selves to be badly lodged, but "though stiff with cold the room was without a fire." The maid took coals "from my own brazier," apparently in the kitchen, and carried them to the guests, but to this extravagance their hostess (Guido's mother) objected, "and snatched the shovel from my hands." The result was a very pretty quarrel, in which the guests de- fended the maid, which recalls Pepys's Diary rather than Browning's poem. Braziers in bedrooms were not allowed, and it is quoted as an instance of cruelty by almost all of Pompilia's advocates that she was not permitted to have her bed warmed.

Food in the Franceschini household was scarce and not very appetizing :—

" Every morning and evening at the table I served the said Signori Franceschini, Signora Francesca Pompilia, Signor Pietro, and Signora Violante Comparini. For the food of all this tableful, the Franeesehini bought on Saturday a sucking lamb, on which they spent, at most, twelve or fourteen gratis. Then Signora Beatrice cooked it and divided it out for the entire week. And the head of the lamb she divided up for a relish three times, and for the relish at other times she served separately the lights and intestines. During the days of the week when they ate there was no other sort of meat on the table to satisfy the needs of all the tableful. When he did not buy the lamb on Saturday, as I have said, Signor Guido gave money to Joseph, the houseboy, to buy two pounds of beef. Signora Beatrice herself put this to cook every morning, nor was she willing for the rest to meddle with it, and they ate therefrom at the table and carved for the evening meal. And because this meat was so tough that Signor Pietro could not eat it (as they had not cooked it enough), Signor Pietro did without eating meat, for the most part, and ate only a little bread, toasted and in bad condition, and a morsel of cheese. Thus Signor Pietro passed the days when they bought beef. On fasting days he ate vegetable soup with a little salted pike, and sometimes a few boiled chestnuts. But always, whether on fast- ing days or not, the bread was as black as ink, and heavy, and ill-seasoned. Then the wine which served for the table was but a single flask; and as soon as the wine was poured into this, Signora Beatrice made me put in as much more of water. And so I made out to fill the wine flask, half of it being water, and very often there was more water than wine. This flask she put on the table, and ordinarily it sufficed for all those eating, although at most the flask did not hold more than 31 foghliette [half-pints] according to Roman measure."

The poor Comparini got very tired of cold lamb, and we are told by a witness on the other side that Signora Violante, "a very shrewd woman of great loquacity," "presumed to domineer over the house," hoping, no doubt, to improve the commissariat. Meanwhile the old merchant, missing "the throngs and the shops, places of his accustomed resort," went down to the village inn to get a square meal and some talk, but "took it ill that he was rebuked for leaving the company of the noble class and associating in taverns with the commonest persons in town, to the scandal of well-born men." Then, when be came home, be and his wife "laughed at all the proceedings of the Franceschini," and, as one can well believe, "disturb- ances of considerable importance arose in that house- hold." One day old Pietro, returning from the tavern, found that Guido had locked him out, and soon the pair were not sorry to take their son-in-law's orders and go home. Browning has weaved these details of parsimony into his poem. Our readers may remember the passage in which Guido describes his poverty : "I was poor who should be rich

Or pay that fault to the world which trifles not When lineage lacks the flag yet lifts the pole?'

He came of an ancient house : . . . "none o' the line Having a single gift beyond brave blood, Or able to do aught but give, give, give In blood and brain, in house and land and cash, Not get and garner as the vulgar may."

He was sick of hearing "how very poor The Franceschini had become at last,

The meanness and misery of each shift

To save a soldo, stretch and make ends meet."

He feels he will never hear the last of his mother's economy : "How she can dress and dish up—lordly dish Fit for a duke, lamb's-head and purtenance- With her proud hands, feast household so a week?'

In the midst of such gossip he grew up : "The enviable youth with the old name, Wide chest, stout arms, sound brow and pricking veins, A heartful of desire, man's natural load,

A brainful of belief, the noble's lot—

All this life, cramped and gasping, high and dry I' the wave's retreat—the misery, good my lords,

Which made you merriment at Rome of late—

It made me reason."

The life of a young woman in such a household as that of the Franceschini would seem to have been even duller than that of an old one. Pompilia had little to entertain or occupy her besides looking out of the window, and even that entertain- ment was soon forbidden her.

"My husband began to be jealous of me, and forbade me to show my face at the window. And to remove that occasion of jealousy I never showed my face save when it was absolutely necessary. So one day, while we were en the loggia, he said to me that I was staying up there to make love without telling me with whom. I replied that these were mere pretexts, and that from that place one could see only the street, without looking into the windows of the houses ; for the loggia was entirely on the roof. And then because the Canon Caponsacchi, with other young men of the place, used to pass before our house and stop to talk with certain hussies, who were standing there in front, my husband began to fume with anger at me because the said Canon kept passing there as above, although I was not at all to blame."

Now and again they went to the play, and Porapilia tells how the young gallants of the place threw confetti at the ladies they admired, and how the pastime annoyed her husband.

Browning said of The Old Yellow Book, "The thing's re- storative," its "pure, crude fact "delighted him ; even the touch and sight of the cover pleased him—so he says. On the other hand, when the Pope has to read through the law reports therein contained, he says :—

" I have worn through this sombre wintry day, With winter in my soul beyond the world's, Over these dismalest of documents Which drew night down on me ere eve befell— Pleadings and counter-pleadings, figure of fact Beside fact's self, these summaries to wit— How certain three were slain by certain five : I read here why it was, and how it went."

We leave it to the reader to choose between Browning and Browning's Pope.