Nuddu si lassa e nuddu si pigghia si ’un s’assumigghia

Nuddu si lassa e nuddu si pigghia si ’un s’assumigghia is a Sicilian proverb: people do not leave or choose one another unless they resemble each other. Set against the Bourbon restoration after the revolts of 1848, the saying links personal likeness to political allegiance, suggesting how shared interests can keep people attached even when the conditions around them are unstable and oppressive.

Meaning and Form

The proverb’s paired verbs, leaving and choosing, make resemblance the condition behind both separation and attachment. It offers no simple celebration of affinity: likeness can explain why people come together, but also why they remain within the same patterns. The statement is presented as a Sicilian proverb, giving it the compressed, generalizing authority of inherited communal speech rather than the status of a private judgment.

Political Context

The proverb appears as the narrative turns to the period after the 1848 revolts. While pro-independence movements elsewhere in Europe struggle to regroup, Ferdinand II seeks to restore unity in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His government imposes a heavy national debt and suspends the constitution promulgated by the Sicilian Parliament in March 1848. Weary of prolonged instability, the people and local administrations accept the taxes; the aristocrats, for their part, distance themselves from rebellion.

Resonance and Significance

That political withdrawal is not absolute: rebellions continue, but remain isolated, chiefly rural, and without substantial resonance in the cities. British pressure to reduce the tax burden and the repression does little to alter the situation. The proverb’s reflection on resemblance therefore resonates with a society in which shared interests and established loyalties help sustain the existing order, even amid unease. The narrative describes the Bourbon reign as reactionary and troubled at home and abroad, and notes that Francesco II, who ascends the throne in 1859, inherits an often reactionary aristocracy protective of its privileges and continues his father’s political tendencies, impeding economic and social progress in the south.