The Wizard With Red Teeth

“And dost thou fear to greet
The Dead with me. They graced our wedding sweet.”

—MOORE, _The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan_.

The following ballad may be classed as Florentine, since it was in Florence that I heard it sung, but it is not attached to any particular place. It is one of those compositions which are either sung or simply recited, and quite as often intoned in a manner which is neither singing nor speaking. In such chant, when a rhyme happens to fall in by chance, the utmost is made of it by dwelling on the word or drawling it out. Sometimes, as in the following, there are verses of four lines each, but only the concluding line of every verse rhymes, _i.e._, with the preceding last line of the previous stanza:

IL STREGHONE COI DENTI ROSSI.

“C’era un gran signore
Che una bella figlia aveva,
Far la felice lo credeva,
Col far la maritar.

“‘Babbo, no’voglio marito,
Prendo uno soltanto,
Se si uomo coi dente rossi,
Di famelo trovar.’

“‘Figlia, non e possibile
A me mi strazzi il cuor
Avanti di morire
Vo farti tranquillo il cuor.’

“Un giorno allor comparvi,
Un giovane assai bello,
E denti rossi li teneva,
La sua figlia, Amelia,
‘Mi dica dove ella.’

“‘Io lo vo sposare,
E con me la vo’ portare.’
‘Dimmi dove la porti,
Giovane sconosciuto,
La mia figlia no ti rifiuto,
Coi denti rossi lo vuol sposar?’

“Sposa la siora Amelia,
E se la porta via.
La casa dove sia,
Questo poi non lo sa.

“La porta in una capanna,
Di foglie, legno, e fieno,
‘Ortello fa sapere,
Se vuoi saper chi sono.

“‘Io sono un’ streghone,
Te’l giuro in verita,
La notte a mezzanotte
Io ti faccio levar.

“‘Ti porto al camposanto,
A sotterar i morti;
E se tu vuoi mangiar,
Quel sangue, bella mia,
Tu l’ai da succiar.’

“La giovana disperata,
Piange, grida e si dispera,
Ma rimedio più non v’era
Anche lei una strega,
Toccava diventar.”

TRANSLATION.

“There was a grand signore
Who had a daughter fair;
He longed to see her happy,
And wished that she were wed.

“‘Oh, father! I would not marry,
I have vowed to have for my husband
One with teeth as red as coral.
Oh! find him for me,’ she said.

“‘My daughter, it is not possible,
You wring and pain my heart.
Ere I die and pass away
I would fain be at peace,’ said he.

“One day there appeared before her
A knight of goodly seeming,
His teeth were red as coral.
Said the beautiful Amelia,
‘There is the spouse for me.’

“‘I will marry her,’ said the knight,
‘And bear her with me away.’
‘Tell me where wilt thou take her,
Thou strange and unknown man.
I do not refuse her to thee,
But whither wilt thou roam?’

“He married fair Amelia,
And carried her far away.
“Where is the house thou dwell’st in?
And say where is thy home?’

“He took her to a cabin,
All leaves and sticks and hay,
‘My true name is Ortello.
To-night, at the hour of midnight,
I will carry thee away.

“‘I will bear thee to the graveyard
To dig up the newly dead;
Then if thou hast thirst or hunger
Thou mayst suck the blood of the corpses,’
To her the Sorcerer said.

“She wept in desperate sorrow,
She wrung her lily hand,
But she was lost for ever,
And in the witches’ band.”

This was, and is, a very rude ballad; its moral appears to be that feminine caprice and disregard of parental love must be punished. It is very remarkable as having to perfection that Northern or German element which Goethe detected in a Neapolitan witch-song given in his Italian journey. {224} It has also in spirit, and somewhat strangely in form, that which characterises one of Heine’s most singular songs. It impresses me, as I was only yesterday impressed in the Duomo of Siena at finding, among the wood-carvings in the choir, Lombard grotesques which were markedly Teutonic, having in them no trace of anything Italian.

“Quaint mysteries of goblins and strange things,
We scarce know what—half animal half vine,
And beauteous face upon a toad, from which
Outshoots a serpent’s tail—the Manicore,
A mixture grim of all things odd and wild,
The fairy-witch-like song of German eld.”