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Dissidence 163collaborator Salvatore Farina shows Tarchetti drifting from oneaddress to another, writing for several periodicals and publishers atonce, but constantly poor, shabbily dressed, ill—he died of typhus andtuberculosis. In a letter dated 31 January 1867, Tarchetti complained toFarina aboutle mie solite complicazioni economiche […] che ho nulla al mondo,che devo pensare da oggi a domani come pranzare, come vestirmi,come ricoverarmi.my usual economic complications […] that I have nothing in theworld, that from one day to the next I must find some way to dine,to dress, to house myself.(Farina 1913:37, 38)The letter referred to Tarchetti’s antimilitaristic novel Una nobile follia,which was currently being serialized in the periodical Il sole(November 1866 to March 1867): “aspetto sempre la completazione diquei drammi dai quali posso avere un po’ di danaro”/“every day Iexpect to finish these dramas [from the military life] which shouldyield me a little money” (ibid.:39).Farina’s memoir suggests a financial motive for Tarchetti’splagiarism by relating an incident in which his knowledge of Englishbecomes the pretext of a fraudulent scheme. Living for some weeks ina hotel in Parma, but unable to pay the bill, Tarchetti “s’improwisòprofessore di lingua inglese”/“posed as a professor of English” andannunziò per la via delle gazzette e alle cantonate di tutte le vie diParma che, trovandosi di passaggio in quella città, avrebbe dato uncorso completo di quaranta lezioni per insegnare la lingua inglesecon un suo metodo spicciativo.announced in the newspapers and on every street corner of Parmathat since he was travelling through the city, he would give acomplete, forty-lesson course in the English language with his rapidmethod.(Farina 1913:34, 35)Farina’s rather melodramatic memoir seems to be unduly minimizingTarchetti’s proficiency in English by limiting it to “pochissimo, appenail tanto da intendere alla meglio Shakespeare e Byron e tradurre ad