Volume I Part 18 (1/2)

In after days I was glad to have laughed at this indecent exhibition

The perusal of an anecdote in aelian confir effect ”When,” says he, ”a fireous spirit is attacked before the public in quizzical caricatures and gibing insults, these trifles vanish like mist before the wind; but if they meet with a nature which is base and proud and abject all at one and the same time, they fill it with rave[143] Take the proof of these ree by Aristophanes, enjoyed the fun and laughed at it Poliagros, under the saed hi this episode, which I leave er epithets than I shall use, I wish to affirm that I never have believed, or can believe, that my brother Gasparo lent his pen or his assent to the production of the scene in question

XXIX

_A disagreeable action at law brought againstmy many lawsuits, I was unpleasantly surprised by the revival of my sister-in-law's old claiebeen lying dor to live together et it as a chimera of the past

My brother Gasparo's direction of the theatre of which he was the sole lessee bore such fruits as every one predicted Instead of the pecuniary profits he had been encouraged to expect, the poor felloorried with vexatious and aggressive opposition, peculiarly trying to one of his gifts and temperament, but only too usual in enterprises of this kind

Wounded pride and thirst for vengeance, together with the hideous necessity ofdebts contracted in this unsuccessful speculation, were the causes which roused his wife to bring her alleged claims upon the family into a law-court The defendants in this suit were myself and my two brothers Francesco and Aln her cabalistic book ofher from any possible pretensions upon our side My elder brother, who had been the first to sign, in order to give a good example to his juniors, was not prosecuted by his wife

Our legal advisers maintained, with some show of reason, that Gasparo was the realas I did his peaceful character, I felt certain, that though he was capable of countenancing irregularities through indolence and the desire to live a quiet life, he was incapable of stirring up litigious strife on such foundations I was not ignorant that he had stooped to the theatrical speculation in order ues I knew, moreover, that, after the partition of our patried their residence at least six ti hione to knock at ehbours in what quarter of the town his flighty brood had nested last It also reachedproperty upon his life, and that he had finally been driven by the te of two rooms,[145] where he installed himself with his little heap of books and abandoned hi the peace he could not find After all, the father of a fas upon hi cares than those which he has fled froether enabled me to convince s of his wife

In the pleadings which set forth nor Guse, already named by me above, deposed on obviously false oath that he had been commissioned by us three brothers to examine her accounts, and that he had found her claim for reimburse story short, our arguments upon the other side were useless It was in vain that we expounded the inability of a woot the h the indolence of its real head, to constitute herself its creditor; in vain that we denounced the collusion of one brother with his wife against the interests of three innocent brothers, who had been absentthe estate; in vain that we showed how the father and the mother of the plaintiff had been received into our house and maintained for full fifteen years until their death, and how her relatives had been itiht forward the chaotic account-book, signed by us in co troubled tearbled, cancelled, altered in these precious docue suoods rendered to the plaintiff in her administration of the family affairs All these solid pleas were like words thrown to the winds before the iers, the very scued to convince our sapient judges that ned papers Froh ten tinature

As usual, I consoledover the inevitable Nor did I drea to Francesco, who had drawn ood fellow,that he could never have anticipated such an abominable trick of fortune

Seven hundred ducats were passed to my sister-in-law's credit on the terood Debts to coed to pay a set of hungry felloith the consent of him and his wife The annoyance, however, did not stop here In order to bolster up her claiether a multitude of soi-disant creditors, who pretended to have supplied ned by the her as their sole debtor, were put into court as evidence When they found their expectations frustrated, the wasp's nest swarainst us three brothers, and sequestrated our house-property for payed debts

Before I succeeded in finally shaking theht several lawsuits

xxx

_A long and serious illness--My recovery--The doctors differ--One of s of literary squabbles, and other trifles_

In the th to pursue lected art of poetry, and enjoyed excellent health; when suddenly, one night, a violent hes warned s upon the frailest thread

Bleeding, vegetable diet, and a frugality in food, which few, I think, are capable of continuing for as long a space of tiether with my philosophical indifference to death, restoredlike a tolerable state of health

It seemed to me at this period that ether, were in a position to settle down again into our paternal home Mme Ghellini Balbi, who had rented the house for more than five years, politely retired at ostino I furnished our ancestral nest as decently as I was able; and ere soon installed there It was then that I invited est sister to leave her convent and join us, travelling h weakness, or human influence, or Divine inspiration, I know not; but I found the good girl obstinate against er, and my threats She entreated with a holy stubbornness to be left in prison, to be indulged in her desire to pass her lifetiins I commanded her to come home for at least three or four months At the end of that time, if she still persisted in her pious fanaticism, I promised to play the part of executioner at her request She replied with a serious enthusiash of the world to be experienced in its wickedness; and when I insisted, shethat nothing short of cutting her in pieces would h I did not believe that this ultiels, I bentthe veil, she received those appointments and allowances which are usually bestowed upon the brides of Christ