Dialogue between Alfieri and his Florentine Laundress
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DIALOGUE
BETWEEN ALFIERI AND HIS FLORENTINE LAUNDRESS,
NERA COLOMBOLI.*
A. Why, Mistress Nera, what the devil’s here?
To bring my stockings home at last undone?
N. Undone! ah! God knows if I’ve sewn and sewn;
But they so spider-web, it’s a despair.
A. So spider-web, school-mistress! Why, that’s queer.
N. How? Any thing that we put off and on,
And wear and wear, till all the stuff is gone,
Does’nt it spider-web? I think it’s clear.
A. Spider-web? I don’t take it: what d’ye mean?
N. Lord bless me, Sir, break me a spider’s web,
And see if I can sew it up again.
A. Ah! It is I that am the unlick’d cub.
I grow grey writing Tuscan, but in vain:
A sorry graft, fit only for the grub.
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A. Che diavol fate voi, Madonna Nera?
Darmi per sin co’buchi le calzette?
N. Co’buchi, eh? Dio ’l sa, s’i’l’ho rassette;
Ma elle ragnano sì, ch’è una dispéra.
A. Ragnar, cos’è, Monna vocaboliera? —
*Alfieri, a Piedmontese, writes this sonnet (which is doubtless a true re-
cital) to shew the difficulty he found in acquiring the niceties of the Tuscan
tongue, and how well they are felt and understood by the common people.
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N. Oh! la roba, che l’uom mette e rimette,
Che vien via per tropp’uso a fette a fette,
Nun ragna ella e mattina e giorno e sera?
A. Ragnar? non l’ho più udito, e non l’intendo.
N. Pur gli è chiaro: la rompa un ragnatélo;
Poi vedrem, se con l’ago i’lo rammendo.
A. Ah! son pur io la bestia! imbianco il pelo
Questa lingua scrivendo, e non sapendo:
Tosco innesto son io su immondo stelo.
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A BLESSED SPOT.
FROM AN EPIGRAM OF ABULFADHEL AHMED, SURNAMED
AL HAMADANI, RECORDED IN D’HERBELOT.
HAMADAN is my native place;
And I must say, in praise of it,
It merits, for its ugly face,
What every body says of it.
It’s children equal it’s old men
In vices and avidity;
And they reflect the babes again
In exquisite stupidity.
Ultimo aggiornamento
27.04.2025