L'Italo-Americano

www.italoamericano.org 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 L'Italo-Americano O n t h e f i r s t W e d n e s d a y o f e v e r y month, a club of shirtsleeve intellectuals, advanced in c u l t u r e a s w e l l a s y e a r s , meets in the Sala Rossa, a r e d - d a m a s k e d s a l o n i n A n t i c o C a f f è G r e c o . C a l l e d L a L i b e r i s s i m a Università, the Free Uni- versity, this club discusses t h e b e s t v e n u e s f o r a r t e x h i b i t s , d e b a t e s w h i c h palazzi should be restored, a n d p o n d e r s w h i c h f o u n - tains to clean. Naturally, as Rome's most opinionated monument, I have been an ex officio member from the beginning. Founded on January 14, 1919, four days before the opening of the Paris Peace Conference, La Liberissima Università is egalitarian. The first article of our charter, which I dictated, reads: "IN THIS UNIVERSITY, THERE ARE NO TEACHERS, NO STUDENTS. EVERYONE IS AN AUTODIDACT." We sought to exorcise the s n o b b e r y a n d p r e t e n s i o n that had tainted Rome's cul- tural life in the thirty deca- d e n t y e a r s p r e c e d i n g t h e Great War and, we main- tained, had contributed to that calamity. The source of this poison, i n m y o p i n i o n , w a s t h e Circolo della Regina, the Queen's Circle, a coterie of reactionary highbrows and hacks surrounding Queen Margherita of Italy. Their toxic influence transformed H e r M a j e s t y f r o m L a d y Bountiful to Lady Macbeth. Nearly all dilettantes, these appointed advisors might as w e l l h a v e s e r v e d a r s e n i c with her tea. I remember Margherita's allure in the first years of her reign. On the threshold of thirty, she finally had shed the last vestige of an adoles- c e n t g a w k i n e s s t h a t h a d v e i l e d h e r n a t u r a l g r a c e . Soon, she would grow fat a n d l o o k m o r e a n d m o r e like a penguin, but when the poet Giosuè Carducci met her in 1878, she was tall and stately. With soulful blue eyes and a battering ram of a f o r e h e a d , s h e w a s a n enchanting blend of gentle- n e s s a n d f i e r c e n e s s , t h e d o v e a n d t h e e a g l e . B e w i t c h e d , d e s p i t e h i s r e p u b l i c a n s e n t i m e n t s , Carducci compared her to t h e w a r r i o r p r i n c e s s C é l a n i r e , d a u g h t e r o f V i t i k u n d , c h i e f o f t h e Saxons. Propagandists used the Queen's beauty to glamorize t h e H o u s e o f S a v o y , Italy's new regime. I don't blame them. Everything else was so shabby, not only the parliamentary politics but also the overcoats and caps of the soldiers, the coats of arms of the state, even the postage stamps. As compen- sation, everyone pretended that Margherita was Isabella d'Este: Renaissance woman, p a t r o n o f t h e a r t s , a n d leader of fashion. Actually, s h e r e c i t e d D a n t e a n d P e t r a r c h l i k e a g i r l i n a p a g e a n t , b a r e l y k n e w enough Latin to get through a mass, and spelled atro- ciously. A s h a m e d o f h e r i g n o - rance, Margherita collected erudite men of proper rank and opinion. "No other nine- t e e n t h c e n t u r y q u e e n , " remarked her friend Juliette Adam, "surrounded herself with so many scholars and so few cavalry officers." The circle met Thursday after- noons in the Quirinale. If t h e c o n v e r s a t i o n w a s n ' t stimulating, the medals cer- tainly were. These beribboned savants taught Margherita Latin and schooled her in autocracy. D e m o c r a c y , t h e y s a i d , threatened the Kingdom of Italy. Liberals were insuffer- a b l e : f o o l i s h w h e n t h e y voted, mad when they gov- erned, disgusting when they c r a s h e d s o c i e t y . O n l y unquestioning obedience to t h e H o u s e o f S a v o y a n d complete immersion in high culture could redeem the masses. Italy needed fewer unions and more Dante and string quartet societies. Occasionally, these pro- n o u n c e m e n t s w e r e i n t e r - rupted by King Umberto, M a r g h e r i t a ' s h u s b a n d . A complete dunderhead, as far as the circle was concerned. He once burst into the sanc- t u m t o a s k i n r o u g h n e c k P i e d m o n t e s e : " W h a t ' s a g o o d b o o k I c a n r e a d i n bed?" Margherita gave him a c o p y o f D a n i e l e C o r t i s , a t r a s h y p o l i t i c a l n o v e l , smoothed his walrus mus- tache, and locked the door. The Queen's hand-picked sages only fed her ignorance. A s t h e y e a r s p a s s e d , I w a t c h e d i n h o r r o r a s s h e became bigoted and cruel. Her adulation of Francesco Crispi, her despotic Prime Minister, and her appetite f o r c o l o n i a l e x p a n s i o n caused military defeats in Ethiopia. When protests and strikes erupted at home, she vowed "to cleanse Italians in a p u r g e o f b l o o d . " A f t e r G e n e r a l F i o r e n z o B a v a Beccaris massacred a crowd at a food riot in Milan, she blamed the Socialists and justified the violence. "We are not fighting a political party," she explained, par- roting her tutors, "but a set of murderers of all contem- porary spiritual culture." The last time I saw Her Majesty was in May 1915 at t h e c e l e b r a t i o n o f F e l d Marshall Luigi Cadorna's leaving for the Slovenian f r o n t . T h e r e c e p t i o n w a s held in the salon of her rival, D o n n a E r s i l i a C a e t a n i - Locatelli, but it was really Margherita's party. After all, s h e h a d n a g g e d h e r s o n Victor Emanuel III into join- ing the Triple Alliance, fatal- l y e n t a n g l i n g I t a l y i n European affairs, for which it was unprepared. A s u s u a l , t h e Q u e e n D o w a g e r w o r e b l a c k t o honor the memory of her assassinated husband, King U m b e r t o . A f t e r a l l o w i n g Cadorna to kiss her hand, Margherita presented him with her personal copy of C a e s a r ' s G a l l i c W a r s . Pressed between its pages was a marguerite daisy, a touching pun on her name. Surviving votaries of her cir- cle wept and applauded. Would these pince-nezed p r o f e s s o r s h a v e b e e n s o m o v e d , I w o n d e r , i f t h e y knew that she had read, or rather, skimmed, this Latin classic merely to impress them? Two years later, they all scattered poppies, not daisies, on the graves of the dead. Neither I nor the other m e m b e r s o f t h e F r e e University of Antico Caffè Greco will ever forgive them. They had sacrificed a gener- ation on the altar of their pedantry. Pasquino's secretary is Anthony Di Renzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at diren- zo@ithaca.edu. ANTHONY DI RENZO Giovedì della Regina Pasquino crashes a salon The Sala Rossa at iconic Caffé Greco, in Via Condotti in Rome (Photo: /Dreamstime) HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS PEOPLE

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