The Prince of Capestrano

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The Prince of Capestrano is a novella by the Austrian writer Franz Karl Ginzkey . It first appeared in 1918 under the title Maddalena Gondi . The first edition under the new title came out in 1921 with stone drawings by Karl Alexander Wilke . It is a historical narrative that in Florence the Renaissance plays and deals with the fate of a mother.

At the beginning there is the question on which the story is based:

“It is often the most inconspicuous events that influence or determine the fate of a person and sometimes inexorably push him on the path of ascent or decline. But there is probably a fallacy in the fact that, when looking back at later years, it is precisely this one event that should be ascribed particular guilt; for this, too, required the earlier, as every minute requires the preceding, and finally one thing supplements the other imperceptibly from second to second, whereby among all the innumerable moments perhaps only two may be of one decisive importance: those of birth and death. "

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The adversaries Bianca Capello and Johanna von Österreich The adversaries Bianca Capello and Johanna von Österreich
The adversaries Bianca Capello and Johanna von Österreich

The historical novella takes place at the time of Johanna von Österreich , Grand Duchess of Tuscany , and her rival Bianca Cappello , the mistress of her husband Francesco I de Medici , in Florence in the 16th century. It deals with the mysterious birth of Bianca Cappello's son, Antonio de 'Medici (1576–1621), the Prince of Capestrano. With the exception of the description of the mother, the story is based on historical tradition.

But the heroine of the story is the orphan and unhappy virgin Maddalena Gondi. She lived with an old woman as a servant. One morning when she tries to close the shutter in a lightly clothed state, she is seen by a rider who will also be passing by her window for the next few days. Longing is now awakening in Maddalena too, and curiously she goes to meet the rider at the hour when the rider used to come. At the Arno Bridge she witnesses the clash between the pale and unhappy Grand Duchess and the bold Bianca Cappello. Now she really meets the rider who leads her to a tavern a bit outside of town. She drinks copiously from the wine on offer and is uncomfortably touched by a prostitute singer who keeps repeating a strange stanza:

What am i doing?
All night long my feet in the cradle,
I have no husband and my name is Mama.

The rider seduces Maddalena and when he does not appear as usual for the next few days, her hopes for love are destroyed. Soon she was sure that she was pregnant. She decides to endure the shame, but to take her child to the foundling house after the birth. When she is looking at the house in front of it, she is approached by a woman in dark clothes. She promised her that the child would grow up with a noble woman and that she would receive five hundred gold pieces if she would leave the child to her. But she must never return to Florence and tell no one about it.

Maddalena goes into the deal. With the money she returns to her home village in Abruzzo and marries there. But she is very unhappy. A cat's love for her boy makes her sad and, contrary to the agreement, she goes back to Florence. But she becomes aware of the absurdity of her wish to find out something about her child. When she is back in her village, a misfortune happens there. A coach had been ambushed, the coachman murdered, and a noble lady badly wounded in it. She recognizes the woman to whom she gave her child. Before she dies, she confesses to witnesses that she is Bianca Cappello's maid and that the child is growing up as her son Antonio de Medici. Bianca had tried to strengthen the Grand Duke's bond with her.

Maddalena, contrary to the agreement, goes back to Florence and tries to see her child there. She is discovered, comes in front of Bianca Cappello and is blocked as a fool in the tower. When the Grand Duchess finally gives birth to a child, the Medici turns back to his wife. Bianca leaves the city with Antonio and Maddalena is released. Only with difficulty does she find her way back into her old life. But fate turns again, and when Bianca returns and the Grand Duchess dies, Bianca is the Grand Duke's wife and her son legitimized as Prince of Capestrano. The mother is happy about that. One day, already elderly and sick, she found out that Antonio was hunting with a court party near the village in the mountains. She doesn't let herself be dissuaded from looking for him and she really finds him. Still dying, she reveals herself to her child.

expenditure

  • Maddalena Gondi ; in: Three women. Jos. A. Kienreich, 1918.
  • The Prince of Capestrano . Vienna Literary Institute, Vienna 1921.
  • From strange ways . Seven stories. L. Staackmann , Leipzig 1922.
  • The Prince of Capestrano . Weltgeist books, Berlin 1928.
  • The thirty dancers . Stories. Bischoff, Berlin 1942.
  • Master tales . Paul Zsolnay, Vienna 1950.
  • Selected works in four volumes . Vol. 2 novellas. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1960.
  • The Toothache Lord God and other short stories . Book club Donauland, Vienna 1982.

literature

  • Robert Blauhut : Austrian Novellistics of the 20th Century , Braumüller, Stuttgart 1966, p. 60 [1] .
  • Helene Hofmann: Franz Karl Ginzkey. The poet's life and work. Univ. Diss., Vienna 1923.
  • Robert Hohlbaum : Franz Karl Ginzkey. His life and work. Staackmann, Leipzig 1921.