The Old Yellow Book Part 27

25. "_To keep to this home of Pietro ... as a prison_," _Domus pro Carcere_ (p. 159). For a month after the sentence against Caponsacchi, Pompilia was kept prisoner in the refuge called the _Scalette_--a provision for her safekeeping, not a punishment. On October 12, she was permitted to give bond to keep the home of her foster parents, the Comparini, as a prison, _Domus pro carcere_, sentence against her being suspended.

26. _The Scalette._ The _Conservatorio di S. Croce della Penitenza alla Lungara_ was an inst.i.tution for penitent women, founded 1615, and popularly called _Scalette_, because of the two adjoining stairways.

Browning confuses this inst.i.tution with the Convert.i.tes (Note 10).

27. _Baptismal Record of Pompilia_ (p. 159). This note, taken from the parish record of San Lorenzo, in Lucina, enables Browning to make the exact statement of Pompilia's age and her full name, as given in the opening lines of her monologue.

28. _Pompilia's Letter_ (p. 160) to her foster parents, written from prison at Castelnuovo only two days after her arrest, is her plea to them for a.s.sistance. It was probably cited as evidence in the Process of Flight.

29. _The Will of Pietro Comparini_ (pp. 160-1), evidently drawn up after he had learned Pompilia was not his own daughter, and before her return to Rome, aimed to prevent her being disinherited for that reason. Its personal tone is good, and it is almost the only first-hand evidence of the character of Pietro to be found in the _Book_.

30. _Power of Attorney_ (p. 162). Under date of October 7, 1694, Guido grants full power of attorney to Abate Paolo, who was representing him in the lawsuits in Rome and in other matters of business.

31. _Arcangeli's Ma.n.u.script Letter_ (pp. 235-6). On February 22, 1698, only a few hours after the execution of Guido, Signor Arcangeli, his legal defender, announces the end of the case to Signor Cencini, the Florentine lawyer who collected the _Book_, and who seems to have been professionally related to the Franceschini family, as he had sent certain "proofs" to a.s.sist the cause of Guido, probably including the report of the criminal condemnation of Pompilia in the Tuscan courts.

(_See_ Note 3). This letter is reproduced by Browning, _R. B._ XII.

239-98.

32. _The Other Letters_ (pp. 237-8), written on the same day and to Signor Cencini, give a few additional details. The writers seem to have been professionally a.s.sociated with the Franceschini family.

33. _Francesca Pompilia_, foster daughter of the Comparini, _b._ July 17, 1680; was married to Guido Franceschini, December 1693; fled from her husband's home in Arezzo, April 29, 1697; arrested at Castelnuovo, May 1; wrote to her foster parents from her prison at Castelnuovo, May 3; made deposition in Rome concerning her flight, May 13; was on trial for flight and adultery during the summer of 1697; was placed in the convent of the _Scalette_, September 1697; removed to the home of the Comparini as prison, October 12, 1697; gave birth to a son, Gaetano, December 18, 1697; was a.s.sa.s.sinated January 2, 1698; died January 6.

34. _Giuseppe Maria Caponsacchi_, _b._ May 26, 1673, was invested Canon of the Church of Santa Maria della Pieve, November 26, 1693, and resigned "of his own accord," May 15, 1702. He is referred to in the _Book_ as a man of courage, and his words as he faced Guido at Castelnuovo are significant: "I am a man, and have done what I have that I might save your wife from death." His affidavit is convincingly straightforward, in spite of certain discrepancies with Pompilia's statements, and there is evident moral indignation in his replies under cross-examination. His partic.i.p.ation in the dangerous flight in mere amorous intrigue seems unbelievably foolish, and could hardly have been carried through save on the motive he a.s.signs, courageous "Christian compa.s.sion." In September 1697 he went to Civita Vecchia under sentence of three years' relegation.

35. _Canon Conti_, called the "mediator in the flight," was brother of Count Aldobrandini, who had married Guido's sister, and Conti is accordingly spoken of as a "relative and frequenter of the Franceschini home." He had been invested Canon of the Pieve, August 14, 1692. He must have been fully informed of Pompilia's sufferings, and to him she turned at last for help. Deeming it improper for himself to afford her relief, he urged his friend Caponsacchi to accompany her. No criminal procedure was inst.i.tuted against him in Arezzo when Pompilia and Guillichini were accused. He died January 1698, and the Second Anonymous Pamphleteer hints that this was due to foul play.

36. _Guido Franceschini_, _b._ January 24, 1658, the youngest son of an impoverished, second-rate, n.o.ble family of Arezzo, had sought his fortunes in Rome, where he became secretary of Cardinal Nerli. He dropped out of this service in middle life, with hardly a dollar in his pocket, and planned to recoup his fortunes by marriage with Pompilia, the heiress of the well-to-do Comparini. After the marriage in December 1693, the Comparini accompanied him back to Arezzo. He seems to have been unattractive and saturnine, and later on proved himself both crafty and brutal.

37. _Abate Paolo Franceschini_, _b._ October 28, 1650, the older, shrewder, and more able brother of Guido, was more successful in seeking his fortunes in the official world of Rome. He became secretary of the powerful Cardinal Lauria, and on the death of the latter, November 30, 1693, obtained the lucrative office of Secretary of the Order of St. John of Malta. He a.s.sisted Guido in effecting the marriage with Pompilia, and was his active agent in Rome during the lawsuits which followed. In 1697 he lost his secretarys.h.i.+p because of the ignominy which had come upon him in Guido's shameful troubles, and left Rome, possibly, as he is accused by the Second Anonymous Pamphleteer, to a.s.sist in planning the murder of the Comparini.

38. _Honoris Causa._ As the fact of the murders by Guido and his cut-throats was subject to no dispute, the whole law case turns on the question whether these murders had been _for the sake of honour_, the ever repeated plea of the unwritten law for the right of the husband to slay a wife sinning against her wifehood. The lawyer's devote themselves to ascertaining the limitations and privileges of this plea.

39. _Incontinenti, Ex Intervallo._ There is much argument on the justification for honour's sake in murder done _immediately_ after the insult, or _after an interval_ of time has elapsed. In the latter case, the murder becomes premeditated, and is not justifiable on the ground of excusable heat of pa.s.sion at an insult.

40. _The Aggravating Circ.u.mstances._ The prosecution makes much of the attendant criminal circ.u.mstances which surrounded the main crime of murder. These are first, the a.s.sembling of a band of armed men, const.i.tuting the crime of rebellion; second, the murder of a prisoner while under the care of the courts, Pompilia being technically a prisoner detained in the Process of Flight; third, the a.s.sault upon opponents in a pending lawsuit, the Comparini then being at law with Guido; fourth, the violent breaking into a private home; fifth, the commission of crime under cover of disguise; sixth, the use of certain types of barbarous weapon, the very possession of which was a capital offence. The first three of these were _laesa majestas_, criminal insult to the majesty of the law.

41. _San Lorenzo in Lucina._ This church in the heart of Rome just off the Corso, and not very far from the home of the Comparini at the corner of Via Vittoria, and Strada Paolina, was evidently the parish church of the Comparini, as both the birth and death of Pompilia are entered in its register.

42. _Castelnuovo._ A village of but a few houses, fifteen miles north of Rome. The inn and posthouse where Pompilia and Caponsacchi were overtaken by Guido thus became one of the most important scenes in the tragedy.

43. _Torture of the Vigil._ Guido and his companions were tortured thus, to get fuller testimony from them. This torture consisted originally in merely keeping the victim awake until he told his crime.

Later on his confession was accelerated by auxiliary devices for intensifying the suffering of the subject.

44. Browning has taken the peroration used in the first lawyer's monologue, _R. B._ VIII. 1637-1736, directly from the peroration of Arcangeli in Pamphlet 8, p. 130.

45. The description of the execution as given in _R. B._ XII. 113 _et seq._, is taken from the additional Italian pamphlet, pp. 265-6.

46. In like manner _R. B._ VIII. 587-683, is closely drawn from the _Book_, pp. 153-4, with an interpolation in lines 640-57 from page 226. More than fifty of such word to word borrowings from the _Book_ are made in this monologue.