As for me, I have come safe to port."
DON LORENZO PEROSI
The winter that held Italian thought in its cold clasp is over, and
great trees that seemed to be asleep are putting out new life in the
sun. Yesterday it was poetry that awaked, and to-day it is music--the
sweet music of Italy, calm in its passion and sadness, and artless in
its knowledge. Are we really witnessing the return of its spring? Is it
the incoming of some great tide of melody, which will wash away the
gloom and doubt of our life to-day? As I was reading the oratorios of
this young priest of Piedmont, I thought I heard, far away, the song of
the children of old Greece: "The swallow has come, has come, bringing
the gay seasons and glad years. Ear ede." I welcome the coming of Don
Lorenzo Perosi with great hope.
[Illustration: greek207]
* * * * *
The abbe Perosi, the precentor of St. Mark's chapel at Venice and the
director of the Sistine chapel, is twenty-six years old.[192] He is
short in stature and of youthful appearance, with a head a little too
big for his body, and open and regular features lighted up by
intelligent black eyes, his only peculiarity being a projecting
underlip.
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