Timms Lindgren Steff..

88 LOWELL LINDGREN AND COLIN TIMMS
opens and uses it at will. 'I see the better way, but follow the worse.' Do they [the Catholics?]
thus feign respect for protestants in Germany?
Keep me in your precious affection, and believe that I have for you the most sincere
respect, &c.
[f. 1141 Se mi ricordo del mio gentilissimo monsignore? Se me ne ricordo? Potrei mancar io ad un obbligo
che tanta bonta e cortesia hanno fissato in me come in asse chiodo? Ella non creda gii che il passaggio di
Calais sia quello del fiume Lete. Veramente, dopo il Suo ritorno in Italia io non Le ho mai scritto, ma
non ho lasciato di pregar sovente il Signor Marchese di Cortance a ricordarLe il mio rispetto in
occasione ch'egli Le scrivera.
Ho letta la Sua lettera a1 nostro Signor Bononcino, il quale rammemorandoLe sempre l'infinita sua
stima ed il suo sincero ossequio, dice che siccome in questo teatro i luoghi sono occupati da tre donne,
cosi non esservi occasione per la Signora Sorosina, che se per altro questa signora fosse qui o ch'egli
fosse in Italia, si farebbe un particolar onore d'insegnare ad una persona da Lei raccomandata, e di
tenerla lontana da que' musicali difetti che ora regnano in Italia con grave detriment0 del vero buon
gusto. Qui pur troppo [f. 114vj la peste serpeggia, e con arcigogoli si cava l'applauso dal volgo ignorante,
e che si pasce di vento e di vesce. E sebbene la Cuzzoni potrebbe far dimeno, e tirare a se colla verita
gl'ignoranti, pure ancor ella fa di tempo in tempo i suoi giuochi artificiali.
Qui per forza de' partiti che sono I'anima di questo agitato paese, che tiene della natura dell'ele-
mento che 10 circonda, abbiamo oltre Bononcino ed Hendel un terzo cornpositore di musica nella persona
del Signor alias Padre Attilio Ariosti, un'opera del quale ha avuto un buonissimo incontro. Bononcino
restera qui ancor l'anno venturo, essendo impegnato, e poi lascieri il campo libero. Spera egli di
riverirLa e di passar sec0 alcuni giorni.
11 re fra pochi giorni parte per Hanover. 10 non ho ancor ricevuti i miei ordini.
Colla prigionia perpetua di Plunchet e di Kelley, con l'esiglio del vescovo di Rochester e colla morte
dell awocato [f. 1151 Lear sono castigati i complici della passata (con riverenza parlando conspirazione).
I poveri cattolici stanno da frigere. 11 Bill contro di loro per la straordinario contribuzione di lOOlm
sterline L! passato nelle due camere, nonostante gli ufici dell'Imperatore, del re di Francia e del re di
Spagna. I membri dell'una e dell'altra camera conoscono l'ingiustizia, ma non hanno il coraggio di andar
contro a Monsieur Walpool, di cui questa contribuzione L! impegno, e che, avendo la Borsa in mano,
I'apre e serva a suo talento. Bona video, et peiora sequor. E poi pretendono rignardi per i protestanti in
&Xmania?
Ella mi continui il prezioso Suo affetto, e mi creda con sincerissimo rispetto, &c.
See Ill. 8. Riva's reply to Steffani's first letter from Italy is given complete. The Italian text of para-
graphs 2-3 was printed in Timms, 'Music and Musicians', 35-6. During the year between nos. 25
and 28, Riva may have 'often asked Marquis Courtance' to convey his respects in letters to Steffani;
but the six letters that Courtance wrote during this period (three during the month after no. 25, one in
January 1723, and two during the month before no. 28) do not convey greetings from Riva or men-
tion him. The 'arch-gurgling' or 'playful artifice' by which Cuzzoni gained applause from the
'ignorant' was presumably the new, pre-Classic style of singing, the leading exponent of which was
Faustina Bordoni (see Tosi, Observations, 171, cited in our Introduction, section 5). Attilio
Ariosti (1 6661 729) was mainly employed in Berlin (1 697-1 703) and Vienna (1 703-1 1) before he
arrived in London in 1716 and composed Tito Manlio in 1717 (Lowell Lindgren, 'Ariosti's London
Years, 171&29', Music & Letters, 62 (19811, 331-51, and idem, in New Grove 2, i, 9014). Coriolano,
his first work for the Royal Academy, was performed thirteen times between 19 February and 11
May 1723 (Avery, London Stage, 723). Christopher Layer was publicly hanged on 17 May 1723,
while his co-conspirator, James Plunket, and the most insidious Jacobite agent, Rev. George Kelly,
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF AGOSTINO STEFFANI AND GIUSEPPE RIVA, 1720-1728 89
were sentenced to life imprisonment in the Tower (Bennett, Tory Crisis, 262-73). The revenue to be
raised by additional, penal taxation of Catholics was £100,000; on 19 November 1722 Carteret
addressed a letter to Alexander Campbell (Lord Polwarth) and Baron Charles Whitworth, explaining
why this was 'not so unsupportable and ruinous to the Catholics as they pretend' (David Bayne Horn
and Mary Ransome, English Historical Documents, 1714-83 (London, 1957), 3983400). In the end,
Walpole persuaded Parliament to suspend Habeas Corpus for a year and impose a fine of £10,000 on
Roman Catholics, explaining that this was to pay for the heavy costs of their assumed support of the
Pretender (Hatton, George 1, 257). 'Bona video, et peiora sequor' is based on Ovid's
Metamorphoses, Book 7, lines 20-1, where Medea, planning to betray her father for love, says: 'video
meliora proboque; deteriora sequor' ('I see the better and approve it, but I follow the worse'). This
concept was borrowed by Petrarch in the final line of his Canzone no. 264 ('et veggio'l meglio, ed a1
peggior m'appiglio'); the poem begins Part 2 of his Canzoniere, in which Petrarch mourns the death
of his ideal, Madonna Laura. We are grateful to Jasper Griffin and Diego Zancani, Fellows of Balliol
College, Oxford, who respectively told us of the Ovid and Petrarch citations.
29. Steffani to Riva Padua, 10 August 1724 [Thursday, hand B]
If I reflect on my meagre merit, it seems certain that you no longer remember the bishop of
Spiga; but if I consider the kindness with which you wanted me to hope for some place in
your revered memory, I flatter myself that I still enjoy this happy fate. Be that as it may, the
value I attach to your most esteemed benevolence is too great for me not to hazard these few
lines in order to free myself from the very painful doubt in which I am held by your exces-
sively long silence. And I do this so much more gladly, because I have been given an opportu-
nity of urging you to serve, something to which you are spurred by natural instinct.
I know that the directors of the London theatre [the Royal Academy of Music] have
great faith in your excellent taste and are currently beating the drum in Italy; all the more
important, therefore, that they enlist here not common soldiers, but monarchs of the first
rank, who, rather than representing such characters for only a few hours a day, never cease
to sustain them. I know, moreover, that they are negotiating with a certain [Francesco]
Borosini, but my sources conjecture that he may set his demands so high that it may be
difficult for the London company to meet them. In case they do not agree, and the directors
do not absolutely need [to engage] a tenor, I should like to recommend to your patronage a
contralto perfectly well known to me in Venice, where he lives on a pension from Empress
Amalia. He is called Angelo Poli-truly an angel in his habits as in his name. When you hear
his voice, you will think you are hearing that of [Francesco] Ballarini, unless his [Ballarini's?]
is much more flexible. As for his manner of singing, I would say only that he sings to my
taste; but since perhaps my assertion may seem of little importance, I will tell you that the
aforesaid Angelo sings to the taste of all those who hear him, for he can easily sing according
to the taste of whoever asks him to perform. You may trust these sincere words of mine, and
if you can find a niche for him, believe, on my good faith, that you will be honoured
[in London] for your recommendation. For me this would be a most distinguished obliga-
tion, for the man certainly deserves success on all counts, the more so because that which
would be done for him would not be unconnected with that done for the directors them-
selves. Please do everything you can, therefore, to give me this token of your most esteemed
friendship, and let me promise you again that from my side I will do whatever is necessary, so
that you will remain convinced of the most ardent desire that I nourish to fulfil your many
precious commands.