XIV - A Voice During the Revolt

Summary

Abstract

This chapter reviews the seventeenth-century fortunes of Masaniello. Heis praised in encomiastic poetry and evoked in political writings aimingto incite the popular faction to combat the Spaniards. Masaniello istransformed into an anti-Spanish patriot, who counsels from beyond thegrave. As the revolt continues, some men of the people are encouraged tofight to avenge his death. The Duke of Guise, French interloper whohopes in vain to rule, although he puts to death the butcher who killedPeppe Carafa, nevertheless helps Masaniello’s widow; he tries atonce to court the nobles and the plebs.

Keywords: seventeenth-century poetry, Popular hero, warwriting, political literature

The First Phase

Masaniello was honoured not only by his funeral, but also by shortencomiastic poems. Donzelli remarks – as does Agostino Nicolai, awriter not of the people’s faction – these writings were“infinite in number.” Some of these anagrams,“epitaphs,” and short poetic texts still survive. They areexpressions of gratitude, verses that accord Masaniello a hero’srole. In one of the anagrams written for him – “Tommaso Anelloof Amalfi, Neapolitan, I have freed Naples of the soma andthe dazio” – it notes that he had, indeed,freed Naples of its taxes. Viewed together, these texts bear witness to ayearning on the part of many Neapolitans not to deny Masaniello, but ratherto enlist him in their battle to secure the claims that the viceroy hadsworn to respect. Sometimes, the poetry raised him higher. A Latin epigraphpictures him as stronger than Hector: To Tommaso of Amalfi, plebeiancitizen of Naples / in spirit, in forces, stronger than Hector. Restorerof the fatherland and liberator of the People of Naples/ Tamer of thenobles, and triumph-bearer. A poem calls him not a“hero” but a “theatre [an exemplary exhibit] ofheroes”: “In fame he is greater than all others/ You might saythat in this man one sees a theatre of all heroes, those who were, and thosewho now are.”

The author of “Parthenope, made young again by the glorious SanGennaro,” declares that the city, hitherto “ill” and“languishing,” has now returned to health thanks to theintervention of its guardian saint, via his use of Masaniello.