Dante's own local and limited characteristics, as distinguished
from the universality of his poetic genius, have always seemed to me
quintessentially Tuscan.
Of course it is among the lower orders that such traits are chiefly
found, and among the lower orders in the country more than those
in the towns. But there is, or was, for I speak of years ago, a
considerable conservative pride in their own inherited customs and
traditions common to all classes.
Especially this is perceived in the speech of the genuine Florentine.
Quaint proverbs, not always of scrupulous refinement, old-world
phrases, local allusions, are stuffed into the conversation of your
real citizen or citizeness of _Firenze la Gentile_ as thickly as the
beads in the _vezzo di corallo_ on the neck of a _contadina_. And
above all, the accent--the soft (not to say slobbering) _c_ and
_g_, and the guttural aspirate which turns _casa_ into _hasa_ and
_capitale_ into _hapitale_, and so forth--this is cherished with
peculiar fondness. I have heard a young, elegant, and accomplished
woman discourse in very choice Italian with the accent of a
market-woman, and on being remonstrated with for the use of some
very pungent proverbial illustration in her talk, she replied with
conviction, "That is the right way to speak Tuscan. I have nothing to
do with what Italians from other provinces may prefer. But pure, racy
Tuscan--the Tuscan tongue that we have inherited--is spoken as I speak
it--or ought to be!"
I had gathered together, partly for my own pleasure, and partly in the
course of historical researches, a valuable collection of works on
_Storia Patria_, which were sold by me when I gave up my house there.
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