The 1848-1849 revolutions and the Italian body politic : Barrett Browning & Clough, Garibaldi & Mazzini

Abstract

Margaret Fuller, in her 2 December 1848 "Dispatch" from Rome, presents a bitingly satiric portrait of the city's predicament at that moment. She writes of a performance by Don Tirlone: The Punch of Rome has just come in. This number represents the Fortress of Gaeta; outside hangs a cage containing a parrot .... the plump body of the bird is surmounted by a noble head with benign face and Papal head-dress. He sits on the perch now with folded wings, but the cage door, in the likeness of a loggia, shows there is convenience to come forth for the purposes of benediction, when wanted. Outside the King of Naples, dressed as Harlequin, plays the organ for instruction of the bird (unhappy penitent, doomed to penance) and grinning with sharp teeth observes: "He speaks in my way now." In the background a young Republican holds ready the match for a barrel of gunpowder, but looks at his watch waiting the moment of ignite it. This potent image epitomizes contemporary Italian concerns, including anxieties about the authoritarianism of Rome's papal government, fears of Neapolitan intervention, and concern over the democratic solution, which promised a better, though some feared an explosive, republican future.