Item 32 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to C[harles Trevelyan]

1 item

Hotel Byron, Ravenna: - Arrived here on Saturday evening, and arranged to 'stay en pension for five days', until Thursday. Will try to be at Mürren, or wherever else Charles is next Saturday; will head to Mürren if he does not hear from him. Hopes Charles has 'found the Belle Alpe as pleasant as Zermatt'; supposes he will go to Mürren today and may find Bertram there. Charles should have come over to Italy: the weather is 'not at all unbearably hot', especially in the lakes. Robert 'cannot tell everything' which has happened to him here, so will only tell 'two most remarkable experiences'.

Firstly, at the hotel at Domodossola, he 'fell among Trevelyans' the 'Irish branch, i.e. Walter Raleigh Trevelyan, his wife, son, and three daughters'. They have been 'travelling for some years', partly because of Leslie's health. The father is 'very odd and talkative, but even in his oddness he is a Trevelyan'. The son is twenty, 'very agreeable and rather like Frank, but he has been too much out of England'. One of the daughters 'did all the talking when the father was not on' so Robert has little idea what the other two are like; they are 'not beautiful'. They say Leslie met Charles in Ireland, and 'liked him very much'; hopes Charles is 'flattered by this testimonial. They are currently staying at the Hotel Mount Rose, Zermatt, if Charles wishes to see this 'flourishing branch of our family'.

His other experience was seeing 'a company of Italian actors play Othello here' yesterday: the 'whole thing was so extraordinary' that he cannot describe it in a letter, but one thing particularly interested him. Charles will remember that Macaulay says in his Machiavelli that an Italian audience would probably 'sympathise not with Othello, but with Iago, and would tend to despise the stupidity and gross blundering cruelty of Othello'. The actors he saw were not 'actually bad' but 'unsatisfactory': Othello was 'far too violent, and often not dignified enough', while Iago was 'all too obvious a villain', though perhaps Robert's 'expectations of what the part acted by an Italian would be were too high'. But the audience 'evidently enjoyed seeing Iago act; he was their idea of a good actor': does not think, as Macaulay seems to, that they sympathise with his villainy, 'they looked on him as a bad man, but an Italian, and could understand and appreciate him'. They 'could not quite understand Othello', though most were 'awed by him, and evidently rather admired him'; some however laughed.

If Charles writes he may as well address letters to the hotel, but Robert will also look in the poste restante.