Il Romanticismo Infelice

A Story by Mason Lipman

Donatello and Caterina, two young lovers caught in a dilemma of Shakespearian proportions, live in Florence under intriguing circumstances.

Il Romanticismo Infelice
well, once upon a time, there were two people. their names were Donatello and Caterina, and they were destined to fall in love and live forever, but that isn't how the story starts off ofcourse, because no good story starts off happily. No, because in the beginning, Donatello was nothing but the apprentice of a watchmaker in Florence. and Caterina had the misfortune of being the middle daughter of the patron of Florence: Miguel de Miserelle.

Caterina had always dreamed of some handsome poet or swordsman coming along and sweeping her off her feet, since her father was cruel and short and didn't care for anyone or anything except himself and his fat coin pouch. The Miserelle family had originally been in the watchmaking industry themselves, but had beat out all the competition and driven every other watchmaker into poverty. Donatello was on the other end of Miguel's greed, having to scrimp and steal to earn money to take care of his mother and feed his siblings. His mentore Gadalfo was smart and wise and skilled with his hands, but as I said, he had been driven into poverty.

Donatello blamed the Miserelle's for his and his family's misfortune, as well as Gadalfo’s, and when his mother died of illness from malnourishment, he claimed he would seek revenge on them, no matter what the cost to himself. At his mother's funeral, he told his brother Alerio and his sister Isabella that he was sending them to live with their Aunt Matricia, while he pursued his career in watchmaking.

Little did they know that Donatello had actually plotted the death of the entire Miserelle family and the destruction of their entire corrupt organization, which had political control of Florence. Donatello searched and searched throughout the city for a great and wonderful swordsman who could train him in the ways of the blade, but after months of searching, had found no one. He didn't even have a blade to train with. But one day Donatello decided to go see his master Gadalfo early in the morning, and found the old man in the back room of his workshop, swinging an ancient looking blade at targets, and removing the heads of them swiftly and magnificently

Donatello was stunned, but excited at the same time, and before he let Gadalfo see what he had seen, he ran to his workbench and began fiddling with some springs, pretending that his mind was not filled with fantastical romance stories and heroes of the old days in armor that gleamed in the sun, riding on horseback to save the fair lady. No, no no no, Donatello was the apprentice of a watchmaker, not a swordsman, and most definitely not a knight of the days of old.

Donatello tried to hide the smile on his face when Gadalfo came into the room, sweating and surprised to see his apprentice so early. Gadalfo looked guilty, and apologized for hiding this secret skill from Donatello, telling him that he had not been ready to learn the way of the sword. Donatello only wished to skip past the pleasantries and learn to kill his enemies. But Gadalfo still seemed reluctant. The old bearded man simply went to his workbench and started fixing one of the many watches in the wooden crate that was full of them, talking to the occasional customer gently, in his old man ways.

Day after day, Donatello prodded his master to teach him swordplay, and day after day Gadalfo simply ignored him, pretending that he had no idea what he was talking about. But after weeks of this, Donatello had had enough, and he showed up early again, expecting Gadalfo to be practicing with his swords. He burst into the practice room, but realized it was empty except for the wooden targets and a shining steel swords. Donatello moved towards it in complete awe of the object, carefully touching its handle and blade, admiring the craftsmanship, envying the skill with which he must possess to wield it.

He picked it up off of the sword rack, and felt its weight in his hand, he swung it a few times, pretending he was lopping off the head of one of Miguel's guards, and plunging it into the heart of some imaginary monster. Donatello became lost in his own mind until a voice from behind him boomed: "FERMI DONATELLO!". Donatello jumped, dropped the sword, and turned to see Gadalfo standing in the doorway, fuming.

The Tower
At her window high above the Palazzo della Miserelle, the beautiful and intelligent Caterina Miserelle stood, brushing her elegant black hair and wishing her father had not been so cruel when he punished the young man who had tried to woo her earlier that day, after hall, he was quite handsome, and he wore a sword at his belt. Now, unfortunately, he was swimming with the fishes with an arrow in his back. her father was too harsh sometimes, when he did not get his way.

Caterina was lost within her own thoughts when suddenly a large object flew past her window. It flew straight up, in fact, towards the roof of the Palazzo. She stuck her head out of the window and looked up, seeing nothing, but noticing a strange black rope coming from somewhere on the roof. She was perplexed, so she leaned back and sighed, thinking about how eventful a day it had been. She figured she must have her rest, so she prepared her bed to sleep in.

Caterina had tucked herself into bed and imagined her father coming to kiss her goodnight, as he had before he had acquired so much power, when suddenly the head of a young man appeared outside of her window. The young man's arm reached over his head and he grabbed the strange black rope and continued his apparently very long climb with a face of determination (or possibly constipation, she couldn't really tell).

The man's shoulders had gotten to the window when he noticed he was being watched, so he grabbed onto the ledge of the window and stumbled in foolishly, making Caterina giggle, which seemed to have embarrassed him. He cleared his throat, fixed his hair and announced as if reading from a piece of paper: "My name is Donatello Cavaliere!" (at this point, he put his fists on his hips and puffed out his chest) "I am here to avenge the death of my mother, whose life was claimed due to sickness brought on by Miguel de MISERELLE!" he exclaimed as he drew his sword and pointed it at Caterina.

"Euh. you're not... Miguel de Miserelle, are you?" asked Donatello disappointedly. "No, I'm not" said Caterina, swallowing down another giggle. "I'm very sorry about your mother, though." she said sincerely as she moved to stand. "No, not another step!" yelled Donatello, waving his sword at her fiercely. "No, no no. you don't have to use the sword, Donatello," said Caterina softly. Donatello was not used to this treatment, by anyone. even his mother possessed the harshness when he forgot to do his chores. It scared him and he debated whether to put down his sword or not.

It didn't matter, for when their eyes locked, as if by fate there came a furious banging on the door. "Caterina! Who is in there! OPEN THIS DOOR!" came the voice of Miguel de Miserelle. "Leave! now!" whispered Caterina loudly, moving towards the door. The door burst open before either of them could act, and the short, ornery man stormed in, accompanied by two heavily armored guards with very heavy looking swords.

Donatello, not being the type to run from a fight, raised his sword in the fencing fashion, expecting the guards to play by the rules. "Kill this man!" yelled Miguel. "No!" screamed Caterina. "he's-" "Hush, don't listen to her. KILL HIM. NOW, PLEASE" boomed Miguel. The guard to Donatello's left swung his sword ferociously at him, which he dodged, but was not so lucky when the second guard attacked. Donatello was cut viciously across the chest, and stumbled backwards.

right out of the window!!

"Nooooooooooo!" screamed Caterina, sobbing. Surely someone she had never felt so connected to in so little time before could not be gone in so little time. surely he could not die, for he was a knight coming to rescue her from her tower, was he not? As he fell, she heard him yell back the most peculiar words she thought possible to scream to a woman as you died falling from a tower: "iiiiiii looooooost theeeee gaaaaaaaaame!" came his voice. This of course made Caterina stop and think, as well as the guards and Miguel de Miserelle. all at once everyone in the room thought for a moment about these strange words

and then they were interrupted by an even more peculiar sound...

A SPLASH! A very loud splash came from below and everyone in the room ran to the window,with very different emotions all of them. Caterina was relieved and exclaiming that he could still be alive, the guards looked at eachother with astonishment, clearly thinking this was some feat of genius, and Miguel had turned the brightest red Caterina had seen in all of Florence. "MIO DIO!" he exclaimed! "He must have fallen into my pond! MY POND! KILL HIM! NOW, KILL HIM!"

The guards and Miguel left the room, but as he was leaving Caterina's fathered told her scoldingly "If something as this -ever- happens again, I will never let you leave this Palazzo again!"

Caterina wept in her tower room for the loss she had suffered. Only so soon, and the boy was gone. She was sure she loved him! if not, then what was it she felt? Maybe she had gotten sick... but no! it must have been love, true love. The kind of love that only gets talked about in plays and poems, the kind of love men like her father would never have anything to do with.