Page:Matteo Bandello - twelve stories (IA cu31924102029083).pdf/23

 for its very expressiveness, he was so tremendously "up to date." Indeed, if journalism be to seize the topic of the hour and give it to the world in a fresh, attractive guise, then we may almost style Bandello a triumphant journalist of the Renascence, with a keen eye for gossip of all sorts, and an infallible instinct for the materials from which good "copy" may be spun.

An interesting sign of Bandello's effort to draw character may be found in the Don Diego story, where the stubborn Ginevra fills the whole canvas and controls the entire action of the tale, until her amazing obstinacy disappears at the sudden perception of her despondent lover's unswerving fidelity. But this is a solitary instance. In most of the stories the characters are shadowy, pulseless figures, without magnetism, without life.

In the treatment of purely romantic themes, such as the delightful story of Gerardo and Elena, which we unhesitatingly include in this selection, Bandello's power and ability are best displayed. As an enchanting series of pictures of old Venice, vivid and brilliant in colouring as any by Carpaccio, it exhibits all the novelist's excellences, while it has few or none of his faults. Another tale that deserves un-