The alley of Madama Lucrezia

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The alley of Madama Lucrezia (French: Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia ) is a novella by the French writer Prosper Mérimée from 1846. The first-person narrator, a young man from Paris, is mistaken for his Italian guest in Rome.

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When the narrator, then 23 years old, set off from Paris on an educational trip to Rome, he received a pack of letters of recommendation from his father. The most extensive of these letters is addressed to a certain Marchesa Aldobrandi in the Piazza di San Marco. Because the mother tightened her lips and the father looked serious when the son asked curiously, the young man in the Marchesa suspects something like a childhood friend of his father and goes to Rome to get to the bottom of the matter. In her palazzo , the newcomer is warmly welcomed by the Marchesa. The woman appoints her son Don Ottavio as the tour guide for the guest. On their forays through Rome, the two young men are constantly accompanied by an Abbate . The clergyman should be careful that Don Ottavio doesn't fall in love with a young girl on the way. Because according to the will of the Marchesa, the son should soon become a priest. The narrator immediately thought Don Ottavio was a "pious pucker".

At midnight, on the dark path from Palazzo Aldobrandi to his hotel, a young Roman signorina throws a rose from a window at the narrator's feet. The next day the narrator wants to meet the - presumably beautiful - lady. He finds the alley. It is called "Il vicolo di Madama Lucrezia". Unfortunately, the relevant front door number 13 is locked. On one of the cultural-historical walks in Rome with the Abbate, Don Ottavio reacted in embarrassment when he was asked by the narrator about the dilapidated house number 13. The biased answer is that it used to be the summer house of Lucrezia Borgia , a daughter of Alexander VI. , been. Don Ottavio spreads - evasively - through Lucrezia's brother Cesare Borgia , but the narrator is more interested in the young woman at the midnight window.

Over the next few nights, the narrator repeats his stroll through that alley without success. Once again on the way to the hotel, he receives a note from a stranger. Lucrezia then assures him of her love and urges caution. The love affair is discovered. Finally, from the summer house number 13, the narrator is shot from a rifle. The victim gets away with a bruise. Don Ottavio appears out of nowhere.

The solution to the riddle: Don Ottavio never wants to put on the “wretched robe”, but instead wants to flee to Florence with his lover Lucrezia Vannozzi, sister of “a very wealthy farmer”, with the support of the narrator. That's how it happens. The dilapidated house number 13 was the love nest of the two lovebirds Don Ottavio and Lucrezia Vannozzi.

The reader is drawn into the picture about three mix-ups. In each case, the narrator was mistaken for Don Ottavio - first, when Lucrezia Vannozzi threw the rose at the nocturnal pedestrian's feet, second, when the messenger delivered the message on the note, and third, when Lucrezia's brother shot the sister's supposed lover.

Prosper Mérimée closes with a punch line prepared at the beginning of the novella. The narrator wonders why he was mistaken for the host three times. A monstrous answer comes to mind: Don Ottavio and the narrator have the same father. He's in Paris.

Used edition

See also

The statue "Madama Lucrezia" in Rome.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Edition used, p. 359, 6th Zvu
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 372, 17. Zvo
  3. ↑ eng. Madama Lucrezia