I Promessi Sposi [The Betrothed] (Italian)
Title
I Promessi Sposi [The Betrothed] (Italian)
Text Read
I Promessi Sposi [The Betrothed] (Italian)
Author
Manzoni, Alessandro
Original Source
London: Bentley, 1853
Publication Date
1853
Date(s) of Reading
- 1869-01-27; 1869-02-06; 1880-08-10
Evidence
1869-01-27: "27. The last two days I have been writing a rhymed poem on Boccaccio's story of Lisa. Aloud I have read Bright's speeches and "I promessi sposi". To myself I have read Mommsen's Rome." Diary 1861-1877 134
1869-02-06: "Feb. 6. The last few days I have been looking through Matthew Arnold's poems, and find his earlier ones very superior to the later. Yesterday I wrote the song of Minuccio in Lisa. Today at verse 404, "who meetly told that lovetale meet to know". We went to the third concert, which was rather spoiled by Piatti's absence and the inferiority of his substitute Pezzi. Madame Schumann played finely in Mendelssohn's Quintett, and a Trio of Beethoven's. As a solo she played the Sonata in D minor. In the evening I read aloud a short speech of Bright's on Ireland, delivered 20 years ago, in which he insists that nothing will be a remedy for the woes of that country unless the Church Establishment be annulled: after the lapse of 20 years the measure is going to be adopted. Then I read aloud a bit of the "Promessi Sposi", and afterwards the Spectator, in which there is a deservedly high appreciation of Lowell's Poems." Diary 1861-1877 134-135
1880-08-10: "TUESDAY 10. Delicious day. Walk in the morning. Drive to Hampton Ponds in the afternoon. Called at Mrs. Lathbury's and Mrs. Burrowes'. Sayce and Promessi Sposi." Diary 1880 210
1869-02-06: "Feb. 6. The last few days I have been looking through Matthew Arnold's poems, and find his earlier ones very superior to the later. Yesterday I wrote the song of Minuccio in Lisa. Today at verse 404, "who meetly told that lovetale meet to know". We went to the third concert, which was rather spoiled by Piatti's absence and the inferiority of his substitute Pezzi. Madame Schumann played finely in Mendelssohn's Quintett, and a Trio of Beethoven's. As a solo she played the Sonata in D minor. In the evening I read aloud a short speech of Bright's on Ireland, delivered 20 years ago, in which he insists that nothing will be a remedy for the woes of that country unless the Church Establishment be annulled: after the lapse of 20 years the measure is going to be adopted. Then I read aloud a bit of the "Promessi Sposi", and afterwards the Spectator, in which there is a deservedly high appreciation of Lowell's Poems." Diary 1861-1877 134-135
1880-08-10: "TUESDAY 10. Delicious day. Walk in the morning. Drive to Hampton Ponds in the afternoon. Called at Mrs. Lathbury's and Mrs. Burrowes'. Sayce and Promessi Sposi." Diary 1880 210
Citation
Manzoni, Alessandro, I Promessi Sposi [The Betrothed] (Italian), George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57750