First Italian Readings. Autori vari
A un fiore secco
PREFACE.
IN the study of Italian, as in that of French, "doubtless the best method of learning to read... is to read." Copious reading should accompany and supplement the study of the essentials of grammar; and it is to supply material for such early reading that the present book has been prepared. The chief object has been, not to offer select specimens that should be representative of Italian literature, but to furnish easy, interesting stories and sketches for beginners.
Complete selections have in all cases been preferred to extracts; and these selections have, as far as possible, been arranged according to their degree of difficulty. In the interests of the class-room—as the editor understands them—a special endeavor has been made to introduce stories that are bright and animated in tone, and to avoid, for the most part, the pathetic and melodramatic. It is, perhaps, not superfluous to add that in this respect there has been much to avoid.
The first two stories, from the French of Perrault, have been chosen because of the familiarity of their contents and because of their readableness. At this day it is certainly not necessary to offer any apology for the publication of translations in a reader of this scope. Translations of this kind have done such excellent service in French and German readers, that it is safe to say they can be equally useful in Italian.
In conformity with the strictly elementary character of this book, annotations of a literary or biographical nature have been almost entirely dispensed with. The notes are purposely brief, it having seemed preferable to render, under the proper word in the vocabulary, many expressions which, in other circumstances, might find a place in the notes. In constructing the vocabulary it has not been deemed necessary to insert all the forms, of article and pronoun, which are commonly listed in the first few pages of a grammar. Careful attention has been given to the irregular verb-forms, especially those occurring in the earlier selections.
The editor is indebted to Professor Joynes's French Fairy Tales for hints touching the annotation of the first two stories, and to Professor Grandgent's Italian Grammar and Composition for the wording of two or three statements in the notes and vocabulary; also to Professor Matzke of Stanford University for suggestions as to various series of racconti.
B. L. B.
Ohio State University,
Columbus, November 12, 1896.
FIRST ITALIAN READINGS
I.
IL GATTO COGLI STIVALI.
UN mugnajo, venuto a morte, non lasciò altri beni ai suoi tre figliuoli che aveva, se non il suo mulino, il suo asino e il suo gatto.
Così le divisioni furono presto fatte: nè ci fu bisogno dell'avvocato e del notaro; i quali, com'è naturale, si sarebbero mangiata[1] in un boccone tutt'intera la piccola eredità.
Il maggiore ebbe il mulino;
Il secondo, l'asino;
E il minore dei fratelli ebbe solamente il gatto.
Quest'ultimo non sapeva darsi pace,[2] per essergli toccata[3] una parte così meschina.
—I miei fratelli,—faceva egli a dire,[4]—potranno tirarsi avanti onestamente, menando vita in comune; ma quanto a me, quando avrò mangiato il mio gatto, e fattomi un manicotto della sua pelle, bisognerà che mi rassegni a morir di fame.—