Figaro's Measure

[Pavel314]

In the opening scene of "Marriage of Figaro", Figaro is measuring for his
new bed. He calls out his measurements and pauses at 36, which I take to be
the length of that part of the room; then he says "43" which I take to be
the length of the bed, which won't fit.

What unit of measure was he using? A bed of 43 centimeters would fit a cat
or small dog and one of 43 inches would be more of a crib than a bed, but
it's doubtful that either of these units would have been used in a Spanish
story written by a Frenchman before the invention of the metric system.

At the website http://www.ca-missions.org/pauley.html I found references to
the old Spanish measurements pulgada (2.32cm or .914 inches) and a palmo
menor (7cm or 2.74 inches), but multiplying these by 43 gives a length
either too small or too large for a bed. Something half-way between the two,
about 2 inches, would be good but there's no such thing.

Converting two inches to Old French measurements at
http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/length doesn't help either.

Could it be that Mozart just picked numbers that sounded good?

Paul

[a***@hotmail.com]

a) Mozart didn't write a word of that libretto

b) A great many measurement systems were in use in the cultures that
might have been relevant (Spanish, French, Venetian, Austrian aka Holy
Roman Imperial). These include simply measuring by "hand width" of
Figaro's own hand

c) It is also unclear what exactly is being measured. In some
productions he measures the bed not against the room but against the
length of Susanna

d) In all questions regarding Figaro, it's a good idea to look at the
play on which it is based

Hans Lick

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by Pavel314
What unit of measure was he using? A bed of 43 centimeters would fit a cat
or small dog and one of 43 inches would be more of a crib than a bed, but
it's doubtful that either of these units would have been used in a Spanish
story written by a Frenchman before the invention of the metric system.
[snip]
Could it be that Mozart just picked numbers that sounded good?
Paul

I don't have an answer, but just wanted to thank you for asking a
question that it would be good to have answered, simply for the fun of
it. There may be (at least) two possible solutions: 1) as you say, Da
Ponte/Mozart found numbers that sounded good - which I think is the
most plausible solution for lack of anything more scientific; or 2)
DaP/Mozart thought they were using some approximate measurement which
in fact doesn't quite work. From what I've been able to gather looking
at information on historical weights and measures, there was a huge
variablilty of how long a particular measurement was in different
places (Castilian Spain and other parts of Spain, for instance).

[Stephen Jay-Taylor]

Beaumarchais' play opens with the measurements :

"Dix-neuf pieds sur vingt-six." [ 19 "feet" by 26 ]

Da Ponte's libretto begins with :
"Cinque...dieci...venti...trenta...trentasei...quarantatré......" [ 5, 10,
20, 30, 36, 43.]

I would reckon that Mozart's measurements are there purely for their
euphony, not their practicality..

SJT