Andreas by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Author:Hugo von Hofmannsthal [Hugo von Hofmannsthal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908968623
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2013-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

JOURNAL OF HERR VON N’S TOUR TO VENICE, 1779

I REMEMBER things very exactly—always had a good memory, won the Grand Cross of Excellence at school because I could recite the rulers of Austria forwards and backwards. I also took note of all my mother’s servants, and all my grandfather’s minerals, and the names of the stars in Orion.

Reasons for the tour to Venice: Artists, great names. Palaces, behaviour in drawing-rooms, starting a conversation. To make an appearance, to please. What I already knew about Venice: Uncle had friend whose relatives had been cast into oubliettes (with nails and razors) …

Arrival: Early morning. Hungry. Chilly. Starts out to look for lodgings. Troop of actors waiting on canal bank. An actress ogles him from the lap of a fellow-actor.

Walks through a street or two. The half-naked gentleman, he has a hat with a veil of coarse lace on his arm, a fine but tattered shirt. He addresses him, says he knows Vienna, mentions names. Declares he has gambled away everything he possesses. I lend him my cloak; he speaks very nobly of generosity, of times gone by. The gentleman tells how he took a lady of fashion to Grassalkovich’s; she said, Brutto nome, pare una bestemmia (an ugly name, it sounds like a curse), and would not have him as a lover. When he is dressed, his tone is much more sociable, less elevated.

Smell of cooking. The stranger will not let him breakfast here, promises to procure him a lodging at a nobleman’s, goes with him.

The lady of the house, the nobleman, the old man. I give money for breakfast to be brought. Am given the room of the daughter, who has left home. Everybody is connected with the theatre. Groans from above: the artist has colic. We go up, the stone is removed; meanwhile the nobleman brings the little fish in his daughter’s handkerchief. We eat real Venetian frittatura.

Up again to the artist, he shows me the portrait of a beautiful woman (for dalle Torre), promises to take me to see her. On the way, tells the story of the Duke of Camposagrado’s two pictures; when the brothers send him theirs, he laughs immoderately and assigns a sum of money for them to send him the Goya, copy the Tintorettos. Artist promises to present me to the Duke.

Arrive at the beautiful lady’s. Bird in cage, fine porcelain hyacinths in front. Camposagrado. Present; details of the Pyrenean village where the Duke is magistrate.

The young lady in the other room with him. Camposagrado very angry, devours the bird and goes. I am introduced, behave with reserve. The old woman suggests I should give a present. I withdraw, cannot take things lightly. This would be the moment for an irresponsible blackguard or a clever swindler. I invite her to supper.

Go out on to the Piazza. Miss a procession, see a patrician putting on a harlequin costume. Go to the theatre. The veiled (masked) lady. Letter received on the Piazzetta.

The Knight Sacramozo sits down beside me.

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