III - Portrait

Summary

Abstract

The chapter assembles the information that surfaces in seventeenthcenturysources, about, above all, Masaniello’s own history. We see hishard life, his bad experiences and the extreme poverty in which helived. We also learn his pastimes, his life in the Neapolitan tavernsclose to the Market. The plebeian youngster, long before the revolt, waskeen to risk his life not only to have the gabellelifted, but also to “do right by the canaglia,the popolo” and to relieve his city, burdened byits defeatism and general habit of just bumbling forward,catch-as-catch-can.

Keywords: Lavinaio, church of the Carmine, prostitution,taverns, bandits

“As Spirited and Vivacious as a Person Could Be”

But who was Masaniello? What do we know about his looks, his character, andhis past? Giraffi portrayed him as: “a man of spirit and easy speech,of middling height, black of eye, more thin than fat, with a shock of hair,and a blond moustache; barefoot, wearing a shirt, and cloth leggings, with acloth cap on his head in sailor fashion, but good-looking, as spirited andvivacious as a person could be, and as the effects have shown him tobe.” He then added that his “profession” was to“fish for small fish with the rod and with the hook, and to buy fish,and carry it, and to sell it to some private persons of his quarter, and inNaples such persons are called fish-mongers.” Indeed, Masanielloworked at the so-called Pietra del Pesce (Fish Rock). Nevertheless, ratherthan plying the fisherman’s craft, he sold bundles of scrap paper andcast-offs of fish, along with his brother. So, he was a labourer evenhumbler than what the chronicler describes here. For Giraffi, such low rankmay have made it rather awkward to champion his unlikely protagonist.

From other sources one learns that Masaniello also did domestic service,sometimes without pay. This was the case with Giovan Carlo Cacace, whoaccepted the bundle he had brought and told him not to show his face again,unless he wanted a good clubbing. Another time, the well-known bandit,Nicola Ametrano, left him without enough change to buy even a bite toeat.