III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE 143

which the poet ascribes to the bridegrooms alone; an interference quite as inopportune as that of old Le Balafré with the victory of his nephew, in the unsatisfactory conclusion of Quentin Durward. I am afraid I cannot get the casketmakers quite out of the way; but it may gratify some of my readers to know that a chronicle of the year 1378, quoted by Galliciolli,¹ denies the agency of the people of Sta. Maria Formosa altogether, in these terms: “Some say that the people of Sta. M. Formosa were those who recovered the Spoil” (“preda;” I may notice, in passing, that most of the old chroniclers appear to consider the recovery of the caskets rather more a subject of congratulation than that of the brides), “and that, for their reward, they asked the Doge and Signory to visit Sta. M. Formosa; but this is false. The going to Sta. M. Formosa was because the thing had succeeded on that day, and because this was then the only church in Venice in honour of the Virgin.” But here is again the mistake about the day itself; and besides, if we get rid altogether of the trunkmakers, how are we to account for the ceremony of the oranges and hats, of which the accounts seem authentic? If, however, the reader likes to substitute “carpenters” or “house-builders” for casket-makers, he may do so with great reason (vide Galliciolli, lib. ii. § 1758); but I fear that one or the other body of tradesmen must be allowed to have had no small share in the honour of the victory.

§ 13. But whatever doubt attaches to the particular circumstances of its origin, there is none respecting the splendour of the festival itself, as it was celebrated for four centuries afterwards. We find that each contrada spent from 800 to 1000 zecchins in the dress of the “Maries” entrusted to it; but I cannot find among how many contradas the twelve Maries were divided; it is also to be supposed that most of the accounts given refer to the later periods of the celebration of the festival. In the beginning of the eleventh

¹ [For the fuller reference to this author, see Vol. X. ch. iv. § 24.]

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