hollow, and my little parcel was fallen in quite out of my reach, and how far it might go in I knew not; so that, in a word, my money was quite gone, irrecoverably lost. There could be no room so much as to hope ever to see it again (1), for 'twas a vast great tree.

As young as I was, I was now sensible what a fool I was before, that I could not think of ways to keep my money, but I must come thus far to throw it into a hole where I could not reach it. Well, I thrust my hand quite up to my elbow, but no bottom was to be found, or any end of the hole or cavity. I got a stick of the tree, and thrust it in a great way, but all was one (2). Then I cried, nay, roared out, I was in such a passion. Then I got down the tree again, then up again, and thrust in my hand again till I scratched my arm and made it bleed, and cried all the while most violently. Then I began to think I had not so much as a halfpenny of it left for a halfpenny roll (3), and I was hungry, and then I cried again. Then I came away in despair, crying and roaring like a little boy that had been whipped; then I went back again to the tree, and up the tree again, and thus I did several times.

The last time I had gotten up the tree I happened to come down not on the same side that I went up and came down before, but on the other side of the tree, and on the side of the bank also (4); and, behold, the tree had a great open place in the side of it close to the ground, as old hollow trees often have; and looking into the open place, to my inexpressible joy, there lay my money and my linen rag, all wrapped up just as I had put it into the hole; for the tree being hollow all the way up, there had been some moss or light stuff, which I had not judgement enough to know

(1) Non si poteva far posto nemmeno alla speranza di rivederlo. (2) Mi procacciai dall'albero una pertica, e per un buon tratto (a great way) la ficcai nel cavo (thrust it in), ma fu tutto invano.

(3) Quindi cominciai a pensare che da quella somma non m'era rimasta nemmeno la miseria d'un soldo per potermi comprare un panino da cinque centesimi.

(4) Ma dall'altra parte dell'albero e quindi dal lato della banca, (del posto cioè dov'era andato a depositarsi il mio danaro).

was not firm, that had given way when it came to drop out of my hand, and so it had slipped quite down at once.

I was but a child, and I rejoiced like a child, for I holloed quite out loud when I saw it; then I ran to it, and snatched it up, hugged and kissed the dirty rag a hundred times; then danced and jumped about, ran from- one end of the field to the other, and, in short, I knew not what; much less do I know now what I did, though I shall never forget the thing, either what a sinking grief it was to my heart when I thought I had lost it, or what a flood of joy overwhelmed me when I had got it again.

While I was in the first transport of my joy, as I have said, I ran about, and knew not what I did; but when that was over I sat down, opened the foul clout the money was in, looked at it, told it (1), found it was all there, and then I fell a-crying as violently as I did before, when I thought I had lost it.

It would tire the reader should I dwell on all the little boyish tricks that I played in the ecstasy (2) of my joy and satisfaction when I had found my money; so I break off here. Joy is as extravagant as grief, and since I have been a man I have often thought, that had such a thing befallen a man, so to have lost all he had, and not have a bit of bread to eat, and then so strangely to find it again, after having given it so effectually over I say, had it been so with a man, it might nave hazarded his using some violence upon himself (3). Well, I came away with my money, and having taken sixpence out of it, before I made it up (4) again I went to a

cioè:

(1) To tell ha qui il significato di contare, numerare. (2) Stancherebbe il lettore se dovessi dimorare su tutte.. stancherei il lettore se dovessi fermarmi a raccontare tutte le ragazzate che feci durante l'estasi, ecc.

(3) La gioia non è meno pazza del dolore e dacchè son diventato un uomo fatto ho spesso pensato, che se un caso simile fosse capitato a un adulto, di perdere cioè a quel modo tutto quanto possedeva e non aver più un tozzo di pane da mangiare, e poi ritrovare in modo tanto singclare il proprio bene dopo di avervi rinunziato così definitivamente, se, dico, un caso simile fosse occorso ad un adulto, lo avrebbe forse spinto al cimento di usare qualche atto di violenza contro sè stesso.

(4) Prima di ravvolgerlo daccapo.

chandler's shop in Mile End and bought a halfpenny roll and a halfpenny worth of cheese, and sat down at the door after I bought it, and ate it very heartily, and begged some beer to drink with it, which the good woman gave me very freely.

Away I went then for the town, to see if I could find any of my companions, and resolved I would try no more hollow trees for my treasure. As I came along Whitechapel I came by a broker's shop over against the church, where they sold old clothes, for I had nothing on but the worst of rags; so I stopped at the shop, and stood looking at the clothes which hung at the door.

<< Well, young gentleman », says a man that stood at the door, « you look wishfully. Do you see anything you like, and will your pocket compass a good coat now (1), for you look as if you belonged to the ragged regiment? » I was affronted at the fellow (2). « What's that to you », says I, « how ragged I am? If I had seen anything I liked, I have money to pay for it; but I can go where I shan't be huffed at for looking ».

While I said this pretty boldly to the fellow, comes a woman out. « What ails you », says she to the man, « to bully away our customers so? (3) A poor boy's money is as good as my Lord Mayor's. If poor people did not buy old clothes, what would become of our business? » And then turning to me, « Come hither, child », says she; « if thou hast a mind to anything I have, you shan't be hectored by him. The boy is a pretty boy, I assure you », says she to another woman that was by this time come to her. « Ay », says the other, << so he is, a very well-looking child, if he was clean and well dressed, and may be as good a gentleman's son, for anything we know, as any of those that are well dressed. Come, my dear », says she, « tell me what is it you would have ». She pleased me mightily to hear her talk of my being a gentleman's son, and it brought former things to my

(1) E può il tuo taschino ora permetterti d'acquistare una buona giacca, ecc.

(2) Mi sentii ingiuriato da quell'uomo.

(3) Ma che ti piglia di allontanare così i clienti insultandoli?

mind; but when she talked of my being not clean and in rags, then I cried.

She pressed me to tell her if I saw anything that I wanted. I told her no, all the clothes I saw there were too big for me. « Come, child », says she, « I have two things here that will fit you, and I am sure you want them both; that is, first, a little hat. and there », says she (tossing it to me), << I'll give you that for nothing. And here is a good warm pair of breeches; I dare say », says she, « they will fit you, and they are very tight and good; and », says she, « if you should ever come to have so much money that you don't know what to do with it, here are excellent good pockets », says she, << and a little fob to put your gold in, or your watch in, when you get it ».

It struck me with a strange kind of joy that I should have a place to put my money in, and need not go to hide it again in a hollow tree, that (1) I was ready to snatch the breeches out of her hands, and wondered that I should be such a fool never to think of buying me a pair of breeches before, that I might have a pocket to put my money in, and not carry it about two days together in my hand, and in my shoes and I knew not how; so, in a word, I gave her 2s. for the breeches, and went over into the churchyard and put them on, put my money into my new pockets, and was as pleased as a prince is with his coach and six horses.

La fossa comune durante la peste che infierì a Londra nell'anno 1665 (2).

I WENT all the first part of the time freely about the streets, though not so freely as to run myself into apparent danger, except when they dug the great pit in the church

(1) Ha il valore di so that, tanto che, sì che.

(2) Tratto dal Journal of the Plague Year. La malinconica descrizione del flagello che imperversò a Londra richiama alla mente quella della peste di Milano. Se DEFOE O MANZONI riesca ad essere più efficace e commovente pittore, giudichi chi legge. Per un tale ragguaglio converrà prendere in esame l'intero Journal of the Plague Year di cui si offre qui soltanto un breve saggio.

yard of our parish of Aldgate; a terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. As near as I may judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or sixteen feet broad; and at the time I first looked at it, about nine feet deep; but it was said they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards in one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had, it seems, dug several large pits before this; for though the plague was long a-coming (1) to our parish, yet when it did come, there was no parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the two parishes of Aldgate and Whitechapel.

They had dug several pits in another ground, when the distemper began to spread in our parish, and especially when the dead-carts began to go about, which was not in our parish till the beginning of August. Into these pits they had put perhaps fifty or sixty bodies each; then they made larger holes, wherein they buried all that the cart brought in a week. which, by the middle to the end of August, came to (2) from 200 to 400 a week; and they could not well dig them larger, because of the order of the magistrates, confining them to leave no bodies within six feet of the surface; and the water coming on at about seventeen or eighteen feet, they could not well, I say, put more in one pit. But now, at the beginning of September, the plague raging in a dreadful manner, and the number of burials in our parish increasing to more than was ever buried in any parish about London of no larger extent, they ordered this dreadful gulf to be dug, for such it was, rather than a pit.

It was about the 10th of September that my curiosity led, or rather drove, me to go and see this pit again, when there had been near 400 people buried in it; and I was not content to see it in the day-time, as I had done before, for then there would have been nothing to have been seen but the loose earth, for all the bodies that were thrown in were immediately covered with earth (3) by those they called the buriers, (1) Tardò molto a venire.

(2) Ammontava.

(3) Perchè allora non ci sarebbe stato da vedere altro che terra sparsa, stante che tutti i cadaveri che erano gettati dentro, venivano immediatamente coperti di terra da....

Letture inglesi.

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