i NOLA : YOUNG IMPRESSIONS 5 



unspeakable joy. 1 Perhaps the suggestion of Bar- 

 tholmess is not groundless, that the volcanic soil 

 and air of Nola influenced the character of the 

 people as of the wine. " Hence the delicacy of 

 their senses, vivacity of gesture, mobility of humour, 

 and passionate ardour of spirit. 2 



Of the childhood of Bruno little is to be learned, childhood 

 Cicala, his home, he describes as a " little village of 

 four or five cottages not too magnificent." 3 In all 

 probability his upbringing was simple, his surroundings 

 homely. We need not go further, and suppose that 

 his surroundings were not only homely, but degraded 

 and vicious. 4 His father, although a soldier by pro- 

 fession, seems to have been a man of some culture ; at 

 least he was a friend of the poet Tansillo, who excited 

 the admiration of the young Bruno, and first turned 

 his mind towards the Muses. Tansillo's poetry, follow- 

 ing the taste of the age, was not too refined, but its 

 passion called forth a ready reflection in the ardent 

 nature of the lad. It was perhaps the only door to 

 the higher artistic life of the time which was open to 

 Bruno ; the neighbours, if we may judge from satiric 

 references in the Italian Dialogues, were of a rough 

 homely type. Bruno tells, for example, 5 how Scipio 

 Savolino (perhaps his uncle) used to confess all his sins 

 to Don Paulino, Cure of S. Primma that is in a village 

 near Nola (Cicala), on a Holy Friday, of which 

 " though they were many and great," his boon com- 

 panion the Cure absolved him without difficulty. Once 

 was enough, however, for in the following years, with- 

 out many words or circumstances, Scipio would say to 

 Don Paulino, " Father mine, the sins of a year ago 



1 Berti, Vita di S. B., p. 28. 2 Bartholmess, vol. i. p. 26. 



3 Lagarde, 452. 23. 4 V. additional note. 5 Lagarde, Op. Ital., p. 101. 



