The house on the Verona Bridge
The house on the Veronabrücke is a novella by the Austrian writer Friedrich Halm from 1864 and takes place in Venice in the first half of the 16th century . An old war veteran, unable to produce offspring himself, tries to couple his young wife with a lover, in the hope that his wealth will one day go to the son he has created and not his failed nephew. All of his attempts fail because of the unshakable virtue of his wife.
main characters
- Messer Ruggiero Malgrati , an old noble Venetian and former officer
- Ambrosia , his young wife
- Anselmo , his nephew
- Heinrich Ilsung , a German merchant
content
The young Ambrosia Minelli quickly experienced how her father died, her brother died in the war and her mother followed them. As an orphan, Ambrosia, who has meanwhile grown into a blooming young woman, leads a quiet and withdrawn life on the upper floor of her parents' house, which is too large and empty, called the house on the Verona Bridge , and rents the lower floor to Messer Ruggiero Malgrati, who is over 60 years old, but still sprightly former officer. Even childless and never married, he must expect that after his death his fortune will go to his only ailing nephew Anselmo. After a short time, Ruggiero asked in all forms for Ambrosia's hand, which he gladly granted him after a short period of reflection. The unequal couple initially lived outside Venice on Ruggiero's country estate. Their marriage was not exactly characterized by passionate love, but rather by mutual respect and affection. The hoped-for children's blessing does not materialize, but that is not a problem, since Anselmo has now grown into a healthy boy and the Malgrati house is no longer directly threatened with extinction.
The quiet happiness is suddenly disturbed by news of Anselmo's wild debauchery and by increasing demands from his creditors. As a man of honor, Ruggiero sees it as his duty to lead his nephew back to the path of virtue as the last offspring of the Malgrati family. Anselmo is only interested in gambling, women and alcohol, and Ruggiero is scorned and scorned for his well-intentioned advice. Anselmo demands money more and more impudently from his uncle on the grounds that this money will soon go to him anyway and that he will only receive an advance from his future inheritance. Ruggiero is deeply affected, but does not want to give up completely yet and relies on the gradual wear down of his nephew by refusing him any further financial support for the time being.
Meanwhile, Anselmo's goings-on became so bad that Ruggiero had him arrested in a watchtower for three months. He uses the time to prepare a lovingly furnished apartment for Anselmo in the house on the Veronabrücke. After serving his imprisonment, Anselmo meets Ruggiero, almost exhausted but unbroken, and rejects his efforts to get better with mockery, as he would rather live in freedom than in a golden cage. When he insults Ruggiero with a shoddy remark about his young wife, the situation escalates and Ruggiero reveals that Anselmo owes him his prison sentence, whereupon Anselmo beats his uncle with a stick and runs away. Ruggiero's feelings now turn to hatred for his nephew, and he tries, with Ambrosia's help, to become a father quickly in order to push Anselmo out of the line of succession. His weakening constitution alone soon destroys this plan.
An old fisherman with a very young son gives Ruggiero the supposedly saving idea: Ambrosia is to conceive a child from another man, which Ruggiero then officially wants to pass off as his son, in order to end the longed-for death. Under the pretext of concern for the well-being of his young wife, he urged her to give up her secluded life and take part in the events of the Venetian society, albeit without him, whose health no longer permitted such pleasure. However, Ruggiero himself also goes to the balls in domino disguise to see whether his plan comes true and his wife finds a young lover. Indeed, a German merchant named Heinrich Ilsung soon began to be interested in ambrosia. As a decent married woman, however, she fights off all his advances and ultimately even stays away from the masked balls.
Ruggiero decides to help out, approaches the young Ilsung in his disguise and encourages him not to give up on Ambrosia, which only wants to be conquered and takes a little longer to consent. He provides Ilsung with poems, musicians and bouquets of flowers to promote his advertising. But Ambrosia remains steadfast. Ruggiero finally urges Ilsung to write a letter to Ambrosia in which he frankly declares his love for her. Ambrosia is indignant about this letter and immediately shows it to her husband Ruggiero. However, he is by no means angry about the content, rather he shows his wife that he would not mind if she took a lover, as long as the beautiful appearance is preserved on the outside. In the eagerness of his speech, however, Ruggiero reveals his very own intention, namely to get a patron and a tool for his revenge on Anselmo via this detour. Ambrosia is appalled by this plot and threatens to leave Ruggiero forever.
The situation got stuck when Ruggiero found out that his nephew was already forging building plans with the architect Andrea Palladio in anticipation of his imminent death . This spurs Ruggiero on to his last action: He tells Ilsung that Ambrosia now finally wants to give in and locks him in a room in the house on the Verona Bridge, where he will meet Ambrosia. He also brings Ambrosia there under a pretext and at the same time orders murderers who are to silence Ilsung forever after they have had sex. However, the planned coupling does not take place, rather Ambrosia and Ilsung speak out, and it becomes clear to both that Ambrosia's own man was the domino who repeatedly drove Ilsung to conquer Ambrosia. Ilsung can leave the house through a secret exit and thus escapes Ruggiero's pursuits.
Ruggiero, who is waiting for his success, learns that Anselmo was executed in Rome for high treason and that his entire production has therefore become obsolete. He goes mad for unnecessarily making himself a cuckold and eventually takes his own life.
After the year of mourning was over, Ambrosia and Ilsung married and from then on lived in Augsburg .
History of origin
Halm received the inspiration for this, his longest novella, as in other cases, from his friend and later editor Faust Pachler , who allegedly experienced a similar event himself and knew the main character. Halm worked on the work from 1862–1864, moved the plot to Venice and enriched it with motifs from Macchiavelli's comedy Mandragola . The novella only appeared posthumously in volume 11 of the complete edition arranged by Faust Pachler and Emil Kuh .
rating
With around 90 printed pages, the novella is actually a small novel. Halm uses local Venetian flavor to create an increasingly morbid atmosphere that reflects Ruggiero's mental state. The tragic figure is Ruggiero himself, who climbs into his monomania in such a way that he is ready to sacrifice the honor of his wife and does not even shrink from murder, although even if his attacks (unlikely) succeed, the hoped-for fathering of a son is still highly uncertain would. As a leitmotif, the house on the Verona Bridge appears again and again as the setting for the most important plot points in the novel:
- Ambrosia's parents passed away
- Advertising Ruggieros to Ambrosia
- Ruggiero's shameful insult by Anselmo
- Planned coupling of Ambrosia with Ilsung
- Ruggiero's suicide
Halm uses an authorial narrative situation with a fluid, almost report-like style, to which the excessive and almost textbook-like use of indirect speech contributes significantly. Anton Schönbach judges in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie 22 (1885), pp. 718–725 "The stories put Halm among the first German prose writers."
literature
- Friedrich Halms works , 12 volumes, ed. by Faust Pachler and Emil Kuh . Vienna 1856–72
- Friedrich Halms selected works in four volumes , ed. and with introductions by Anton Schlossar . Leipzig undated (1904)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Anton Schlossar : Introduction to Volume 4 by Fr. Halms selected works
- ^ Anton Schönbach: Halm, Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 718-725.