Forty-three is the woman at the balcony. Italian lists print la donna al balcone and gloss her as loud and nosy, the kind who leans out to inspect the street.
Neapolitan sources print a longer name, 'onna pèreta fore 'o balcone, which is a good deal coarser and untranslatable without losing either the insult or the rhythm. The polite version and the rude version are the same square; which one a list gives tells you who compiled it.
- 43
- 'Onna ô balcone
- the woman on the balcony
- Row 41–50 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
No stated reason for the number, but the figure is old: Zezza's 1835 Naples smorfia already has Donna al balcone at 43.
Other things filed on 43
In Neapolitan life
The balcony is not an idle detail. Neapolitan street life is conducted vertically as much as horizontally, with baskets lowered on strings and conversations held between floors, and a woman at a balcony is a fixed institution rather than a passing image.
43 in the smorfia — frequently asked
She is in the 1835 Naples edition by Michele Zezza, which makes 43 one of the better-dated squares on the board.
One is polite and one is not. The fuller Neapolitan name is obscene; Italian reference tables clean it up.