Chapter 16

[60]If I were writing the history of early Tuscan poetry, I should wish here to compare the rarely beautiful poem of Lapo Gianni,Amor eo chero, with Folgore, and the masterly sonnets of Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, especially the one beginningS'io fossi fuoco, with Cene dalla Chitarra, in order to prove the fullness of sensuous and satirical inspiration in the age preceding Dante. Lapo wishes he had the beauty of Absalom, the strength of Samson; that the Arno would run balm for him, her walls be turned to silver and her paving-stones to crystal; that he might abide in eternal summer gardens among thousands of the loveliest women, listening to the songs of birds and instruments of music. The voluptuousness of Folgore is here heightened to ecstasy. Cecco desires to be fire, wind, sea, God, that he might ruin the world; the emperor, that he might decapitate its population; death, that he might seek out his father and mother; life, that he might fly from both; being Cecco, he would fain take all fair women, and leave the foul to his neighbors. The spite of Cene is deepened to insanity.

[61]SeeParadiso, xv.; Giov. Vill. vi. 69.

[62]Rime di Guido Cavalcanti, edite ed inedite, etc., Firenze, 1813. See p. 29 for the Canzone, and p. 73 for a translation into Italian of Dino's Latin commentary.

[63]Op. cit.pp. 21-27. Two in particular,Era in pensierandGli occhi di quella gentil forosetta, may be singled out. Apastourelle,In un boschetto, anticipates the manner of Sacchetti. As for the May song, its opening lines,Ben venga Maggio, etc., are referred by Carducci to Guido Cavalcanti.

[64]SeeVita e Poesie di Messer Cino da Pistoja, Pisa, Capurro, 1813. Also Barbèra's diamond edition of Cino da Pistoja and other poets, edited by Carducci.

[65]The tomb of Cino in the Duomo at Pistoja, with its Gothic canopies and the bass-reliefs which represent a Doctor of Laws lecturing to men of all ranks and ages at their desks beneath his professorial chair, is a fine contemporary monument. The great jurist is here commemorated, not the master of Petrarch in the art of song.

[66]Cp. DanteDe Vulg. Eloq.i. 17, upon Cino's purification of Italian from vulgarisms, with Lorenzo de' Medici, who calls Cino "tutto delicato e veramente amoroso, il quale primo, al mio parere, cominciò l'antico rozzore in tutto a schifare."Lettera all'illustr. Sig. Federigo, Poesie (ed. Barbèra, 1858), p. 33.

[67]Il Canzoniere(Fraticelli's edition), p. 199.

[68]Voi che portate;Donna pietosa;Deh peregrini.

[69]See Rossetti's translation of theVita Nuova.

[70]Rossetti's translation of theVita Nuova.

[71]Donna del cielo;O benigna, o dolce;O bon Gesù. SeeRime di Fra Guittone d'Arezzo(Firenze, Morandi, 1828), vol. ii. pp. 212, 3; vol. i. p. 61.

[72]Not only the sixthÆneid, but theDream of Scipioalso, influenced the medieval imagination. The Biblical visions, whether allegorical like those of Ezekiel and Paul, or apocalyptic, like S. John's, exercised a similar control.

[73]See the little book of curious learning by Alessandro d'Ancona, entitledI Precursori di Dante, Firenze, Sansoni, 1874.

[74]See De Sanctis,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. i. chap. 5. Of theCommedia Spirituale dell'AnimaI have seen a Sienese copy of the date 1608, a reprint from some earlier Florentine edition. The Comedy is introduced by two boys, good and bad. The piece itself brings God as the Creator, the soul He has made, its guardian angel, the devil, the powers of Memory, Reason, Will, and all the virtues in succession, with corresponding vices, on the scene. It ends with the soul's judgment after death and final marriage to Christ. Dramatically, it is almost devoid of merit.

[75]SeeRevival of Learning, chapter ii.

[76]See above,Revival of Learning, chapter ii. I may also refer to an article by me in theQuarterly Reviewfor October, 1878, from which I shall have occasion to draw largely in the following pages.

[77]Par.xvi.

[78]Carducci, "Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura Nazionale:"Studi Letterari(Livorno, 1874), p. 60.

[79]TheDivine Comedywas probably begun in earnest about 1303, and theDecameronwas published in 1353.

[80]Boccaccio was called Giovanni della Tranquillità partly in scorn. He resented it, as appears from a letter to Zanobi della Strada (Op. Volg.vol. xvii. p. 101), because it implied a love of Court delights and parasitical idleness. In that letter he amply defends himself from such imputations, showing that he led the life of a poor and contented student. Yet the nickname was true in a deeper sense, as is proved by the very arguments of his apology, and confirmed by the description of his life at Certaldo remote from civic duties (Letter to Pino de' Rossi,ibid.p. 35), as well as by the tragi-comic narrative of his discomfort at Naples (Letter to Messer Francesco,ibid.pp. 37-87). Not only in these passages, but in all his works he paints himself a comfort-lovingbourgeois, whose heart was set on his books, whose ideal of enjoyment was a satisfied passion of a sensual kind.

[81]See above, vol. ii.Revival of Learning, chap. ii. pp. 87-98.

[82]Boccaccio,Opere Volgari(Firenze, 1833), vol. xv. p. 18.

[83]Revival of Learning, p. 88.

[84]I may specially refer to the passages of theAmorosa Visione(cap. v. vi.) where he meets with Dante, "gloria delle muse mentre visse," "il maestro dal qual'io tengo ogni ben," "il Signor d'ogni savere;" also to the sonnets on Dante, and that most beautiful sonnet addressed to Petrarch after death at peace in heaven with Cino and Dante. See theRime(Op. Volg.vol. xvi.), sonnets 8, 60, 97, 108.

[85]De Sanctis,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. i. cap. 9.

[86]"Che la ragion sommettono al talento:"Infernov. Compare these phrases:Le genti doloroseChe hanno perduto il ben dell'intelletto.—Infernoiii.And Semiramis:Che libito fe lecito in sua legge.—Infernov.

[86]"Che la ragion sommettono al talento:"Infernov. Compare these phrases:

And Semiramis:

[87]In all his earlier works, especially in theFiammetta, theFilostrato, theNinfale Fiesolano, theAmorosa Visione, he sings the hymn ofIl Talento, triumphant over medieval discipline. They form the proper prelude to what is sometimes called the Paganism of the Renaissance, but what is really a resurgence of the natural man. It was thistalentowhich Valla philosophized, and Beccadelli and Pontano sang.

[88]One instance will suffice to illustrate the different methods of Boccaccio and Dante in dealing with the same material. We all know in what murk and filth Dante beheld Ciacco, the glutton, and what torments awaited Filippo Argenti, thefiorentino spirito bizzarro, upon the marsh of Styx (Infernovi. and viii.). These persons play the chief parts in Giorn. ix. nov. 8, of theDecameron. They are still the spendthrift parasite, and the brutally capricious bully. But while Dante points the sternest moral by their examples, Boccaccio makes their vices serve his end of comic humor. The inexorableness of Dante is nowhere more dreadful than in the eighth Canto of theInferno. The levity of Boccaccio is nowhere more superficial than in that Novella.

[89]See the little work, full of critical learning, by Adolfo Bartoli,I Precursori del Boccaccio, Firenze, Sansoni.

[90]SeeLe Novelle Antiche(another name forIl Novellino), per cura di Guido Biagi, Firenze, Sansoni, 1880. It is a curious agglomeration of anecdotes drawn from the history of the Suabian princes, Roman sources, the Arthurian legends, the Bible, Oriental apologues, fables, and a few ancient myths. That ofNarcis, p. 66, is very prettily told. Only one tale is decidedly cynical. We find in the book selections made from thedébrisof a vast and various medieval library. French influence is frequently perceptible in the style.

[91]Precursori del Boccaccio, p. 57 to end.

[92]SeeCarmina Burana(Stuttgart, 1847), pp. 1-112;Poems of Walter Mapes, by Thomas Wright (for Camden Society, 1841), pp. 1-257, for examples of these satiric poems. ThePropter Syon non tacebo,Flete Sion filiæ,Utar contra vitia, should be specially noticed. Many other curious satires, notably one against marriage and the female sex, can also be found in Du Méril's three great collections,Poésies Populaires Latines antérieures au douzième Siècle,Poésies Populaires Latines du Moyen Age, andPoésies Inédites du Moyen Age, Paris, 1843-1847. Those to whom these works are not accessible, may find an excellent selection of the serious and jocular popular Latin medieval poetry in a little volumeGaudeamus! Carmina Vagorum selecta, Lipsiæ, Teubner, 1877. The question of their authorship has been fairly well discussed by Hubatsch,Die lateinischen Vagantenlieder, Görlitz, 1870.

[93]The erotic and drinking songs of the Vagi deserve to be carefully studied by all who wish to understand the germs of the Renaissance in the middle ages. They express a simple naturalism, not of necessity Pagan, though much is borrowed from the language of classical mythology. I would call attention in particular toÆstuans interius,Omittamus studia,O admirabile Veneris idolum,Ludo cum Cæcilia,Si puer cum puellula, and fourPastoralia, all of which may be found in the little bookGaudeamuscited above. In spontaneity and truth of feeling they correspond to the Latin hymns. But their spirit is the exact antithesis of that which produced theDies Iræand theStabat Mater. The absence of erudition and classical imitation separates them from the poems of Beccadelli, Pontano, Poliziano, or Bembo. They present the natural material of neo-pagan Latin verse without its imitative form. It is youth rejoicing in its strength and lustihood, enjoying the delights of spring, laughing at death, taking the pleasures of the moment, deriding therumores senum severiorum, unmasking hypocrisy in high places, at wanton war with constituted social shams. These songs were written by wandering students of all nations, who traversed Germany, France, Italy, Spain, England, seeking special knowledge at the great centers of learning, following love-adventures, poor and careless, coldly greeted by the feudal nobility and the clergy, attached to the people by their habits but separated from them by their science. In point of faith these poets are orthodox. There is no questioning of ecclesiastical dogma, no anticipation of Luther, in their verses. This blending of theological conformity with satire on the Church and moral laxity is eminently characteristic of the Renaissance in Italy.

[94]See the last sentence of Giorn. iii. Nov. 1.

[95]Op. Volg.vol. xiv.

[96]Cap. xlix.

[97]Letter to Leigh Hunt, September 8, 1819.

[98]Op. Volg.vol. vii. p. 230. I am loth to attempt a translation of this passage, which owes its charm to the melody and rhythm of chosen words:—"With ears intent upon the music, he began to go in the direction whence he heard it; and when he drew nigh to the fountain, he beheld the two maidens. They were of countenance exceeding white, and this whiteness was blent in seemly wise with ruddy hues. Their eyes seemed to be stars of morning, and their little mouths, of the color of a vermeil rose, became of pleasanter aspect as they moved them to the music of their song. Their tresses, like threads of gold, were very fair, and slightly curled went wandering through the green leaves of their garlands. By reason of the great heat their tender and delicate limbs, as hath been saaid above, were clad in robes of the thinnest texture, the which, made very tight above the waist, revealed the form of their fair bosoms, which like two round apples pushed the opposing raiment outward, and therewith in divers places the white flesh appeared through graceful openings. Their stature was of fitting size, and each limb well-proportioned."

[98]Op. Volg.vol. vii. p. 230. I am loth to attempt a translation of this passage, which owes its charm to the melody and rhythm of chosen words:—

"With ears intent upon the music, he began to go in the direction whence he heard it; and when he drew nigh to the fountain, he beheld the two maidens. They were of countenance exceeding white, and this whiteness was blent in seemly wise with ruddy hues. Their eyes seemed to be stars of morning, and their little mouths, of the color of a vermeil rose, became of pleasanter aspect as they moved them to the music of their song. Their tresses, like threads of gold, were very fair, and slightly curled went wandering through the green leaves of their garlands. By reason of the great heat their tender and delicate limbs, as hath been saaid above, were clad in robes of the thinnest texture, the which, made very tight above the waist, revealed the form of their fair bosoms, which like two round apples pushed the opposing raiment outward, and therewith in divers places the white flesh appeared through graceful openings. Their stature was of fitting size, and each limb well-proportioned."

[99]The description of the nymph Lia in theAmeto(Op. Volg.xv. 30-33) carries Boccaccio's manner into tedious prolixity.

[100]Boccaccio was a great painter of female beauty and idyllic landscape; but he had not the pictorial faculty in a wider sense. The frescoes of theAmorosa Visione, when compared with Poliziano's descriptions inLa Giostra, are but meager notes of form. Possibly the progress of the arts from Giotto to Benozzo Gozzoli and Botticelli may explain this picturesque inferiority of the elder poet; but in reading Boccaccio we feel that the defect lay not so much in his artistic faculty as in the limitation of his sympathy to certain kinds of beauty.

[101]Dante (De Vulg. Eloq.ii. 2) observed that while there were three subjects of great poetry—War, Love, Morality—no modern had chosen the first of these themes. Boccaccio in the last Canto of theTeseideseems to allude to this:Poichè le muse nude cominciaroNel cospetto degli uomini ad andare,Già fur di quelli che le esercitaroCon bello stilein onesto parlare,Ed altri inamorosole operaro;Ma tu, o libro, primo a lor cantareDi Martefai gli affanni sostenuti,Nel volgar Lazio mai più non veduti.

[102]How far Boccaccio actually created the tale can be questioned. In the dedication to Fiammetta (Op. Volg.ix. 3), he says he found a very ancient version of his story, and translated it into rhyme and thelatino volgarefor the first time. Again, in the exordium to the first Book (ib.p. 10), he calls it:una storia anticaTanto negli anni riposta e nascosaChe latino autor non par ne dicaPer quel ch'i' senta in libro alcuna cosa.We might perhaps conjecture that he had discovered the legend in a Byzantine MS.

We might perhaps conjecture that he had discovered the legend in a Byzantine MS.

[103]Carducci, "Cantilene, etc.,"Op. cit.pp. 168, 170, 171, 173.

[104]Op. cit.p. 160.

[105]See above,p. 114.

[106]This appears from the conclusion (Op. Volg.viii. 376). Fiammetta was the natural daughter of Petrarch's friend and patron, King Robert. Boccaccio first saw her in the church of S. Lawrence at Naples, April 7, 1341.

[107]The history of this widely popular medieval romance has been traced by Du Méril in his edition of the thirteenth-century French version (Paris, 1856). He is of opinion that Boccaccio may have derived it from some Byzantine source. But this seems hardly probable, since Boccaccio gained his knowledge of Greek later in life. Certain indications in theFilocopopoint to a Spanish original.

[108]SeeOp. Volg.vii. 6-11. Compare with these phrases those selected from the humanistic writings of a later date,Revival of Learning, p. 397.

[109]This is the climax (Parte Terza, stanza xxxii.):A cui Troilo disse; anima mia,I' te ne prego, sì ch'io t'abbia in braccioIgnuda sì come il mio cor disia.Ed ella allora: ve' che me ne spaccio;E la camicia sua gittata via,Nelle sue braccia si raccolse avvaccio;E stringnendo l'un l'altro con fervore,D'amor sentiron l'ultimo valore.

[109]This is the climax (Parte Terza, stanza xxxii.):

[110]TheAmorosa Visioneends with these words,Sir di tutta pace; their meaning is explained in previous passages of the same poem. At the end of cap. xlvi. the lady says:Io volli ora al presente far quietoIl tuo disio con amorosa pace,Dandoti l'arra che finirà il fleto.Again in cap. l. we read:E quel disio che or più ti tormentaPorrò in pace, con quella bellezzaChe l'alma al cor tuttora ti presenta.The context reveals the nature of the peace to be attained. It is the satisfaction of an orgasm. We may compare the invocation to Venus and her promise at the end of theCaccia di Diana, canto xvii. (Op. Volg.xiv.). The time-honored language about "expelling all base thoughts" is here combined with the anticipation of sensual possession.

[110]TheAmorosa Visioneends with these words,Sir di tutta pace; their meaning is explained in previous passages of the same poem. At the end of cap. xlvi. the lady says:

Again in cap. l. we read:

The context reveals the nature of the peace to be attained. It is the satisfaction of an orgasm. We may compare the invocation to Venus and her promise at the end of theCaccia di Diana, canto xvii. (Op. Volg.xiv.). The time-honored language about "expelling all base thoughts" is here combined with the anticipation of sensual possession.

[111]Op. Volg.vi. 21, 89, 91.

[112]Bonucci in his edition of Alberti's works, conscious of that author's debt to Boccaccio, advances the wild theory that he wrote theFiammetta. SeeOpere Volgari di L.B. Alberti, vol. iii. p. 353.

[113]Laberinto d'Amore(Firenze, Caselli), p. 153, and p. 127.

[114]Ibid.p. 174.

[115]SeeAge of the Despots,p. 186, note.

[116]See Sonnets vii. and viii. of theRime.

[117]The same motive occurs in theAmeto, where the power of love to refine a rustic nature is treated both in the prose romance and in the interpolatedterza rimapoems. See especially the song of Teogapen (Op. Volg.xv. 34).

[118]Boccaccio breaks the style and becomes obscenely vulgar at times. See Parte Quarta, xxxvi. xxxvii., Parte Quinta, xlv. xlvi. The innuendoes of theUgellinoand theNicchioare here repeated in figures which anticipate the novels andcapitoliof thecinque cento.

[119]Students may consult the valuable work of Vincenzo Nannucci,Manuale della Letteratura del primo secolo della Lingua Italiana, Firenze, Barbèra, 1874. The second volume contains copious specimens of thirteenth-century prose.

[120]Nannucci,op. cit.vol. ii. p. 95.

[121]The journals of Matteo Spinelli, ascribed to an Apulian of the thirteenth century, were long accepted as the earliest vernacular attempt at history in prose. It has lately been suggested, with good show of argument, that they are fabrications of the sixteenth century. With regard to the similar doubts affecting the Malespini Chronicles and Dino Compagni, I may refer to my discussion of this question in the first volume of this work,Age of the Despots, pp.251,262-273.

[122]Nannucci,op. cit.p. 137.

[123]Of Villani's Chronicle I have already spoken sufficiently in theAge of the Despots,chap. 5, and of theVita Nuovain this chapter (above,pp. 67-70).

[124]Vita Nuova, cap. 2.

[125]Filocopo,Op. Volg.vii. 4.

[126]Fioretti di S. Francesco(Venezia, 1853), p. 104.

[127]See below, the chapter on the Purists.

[128]See Capponi'sStoria della Repubblica di Firenze, lib. iii. cap. 9, for a very energetic statement of this view.

[129]SeeRime di M. Cino da Pistoja e d'altri del Secolo xiv.(Firenze, Barbèra, 1862), p. 528. It begins:Ora è mancata ogni poësiaE vote son le case di Parnaso.It contains the famous lines:Come deggio sperar che surga DanteChe già chi il sappia legger non si trova?E Giovanni che è morto ne fe scola.Not less interesting is Sacchetti's funeral Ode for Petrarch (ibid.p. 517). Both show a keen sense of the situation with respect to the decline of literature.

[129]SeeRime di M. Cino da Pistoja e d'altri del Secolo xiv.(Firenze, Barbèra, 1862), p. 528. It begins:

It contains the famous lines:

Not less interesting is Sacchetti's funeral Ode for Petrarch (ibid.p. 517). Both show a keen sense of the situation with respect to the decline of literature.

[130]I may refer to theAge of the Despots, 2nd edition,pp. 58-65, for a brief review of the circumstances under which the Nation defined itself against the Church and the Empire—the ecclesiastical and feudal or chivalrous principles—during the Wars of Investiture and Independence. In Carducci's essayDello Svolgimento delta Letteratura nazionalewill be found an eloquent and succinct exposition of the views I have attempted to express in these paragraphs.

[131]Revival of Learning.

[132]It is not quite exact, though convenient, to identify Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio severally with the religious, chivalrous and national principles of which I have been speaking. Petrarch stands midway. With Dante he shares the chivalrous, with Boccaccio the humanistic side of the national element. Though Boccaccio anticipates in his work the literature of the Renaissance, yet Petrarch was certainly not less influential as an authority in style. Ariosto represents the fusion of both sections of the national element in literature—Italian is distinguished from Tuscan.

[133]SeeAge of the Despots,chap. 2.

[134]See above,p. 138. All that is known about Sacchetti's life may be found in the Discourse of Monsignor Giov. Bottari, prefixed to Silvestri's edition of theNovelle.

[135]For Sacchetti's conception of a citizen's duty, proving him a son of Italy's heroic age, see the sonnetAmar la patria, in Monsignor Bottari's Discourse above mentioned.

[136]See the SonnetPien di quell'acquawritten to Boccaccio on his entering the Certosa at Naples.

[137]Here too he mentions a translation of theDecameroninto English.

[138]This should also be the place to mention theNovelleof Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca. They have lately been re-edited by Professor d'Ancona, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1871. They are short tales, historical and moral, drawn from miscellaneous medieval sources, and resembling theNovellinoin type. Two of them (Novelleix. and x.,ed. cit.pp. 62-74) are interesting as forming part of the Legend of Dante the Poet.

[139]For example, the first Novel of the fourth day is the story which Shakspere dramatized inThe Merchant of Venice, and forms, as every one can see, the authentic source of that comedy.

[140]It must be remarked that the text ofIl Pecoroneunderwent Domenichi's revision in the sixteenth century, which may account for a certain flatness.

[141]See Carducci,Cantilene e Ballate, Strambotti e Madrigali nei Secoli xiii e xiv, Pisa, Nistri, 1871. Pp. 176-205 contain a reprint of these lyrics. Carducci's workIntorno ad alcune Rime, Imola, 1876, may be consulted at pp. 54et seq.for the origin, wide diffusion, and several species of the popular dance-song.

[142]Cantilene, etc.pp. 196, 199, 204.

[143]Cantilene, etc.p. 211.

[144]Cantilene, etc.p. 220.

[145]Ibid.p. 219. ComparePassando con pensierin theRime di Messer Cino e d'altri(Barbèra), p. 563.

[146]Ibid.p. 233.

[147]Ibid.p. 231.

[148]Ibid.p. 214 and note. The popularity of this dance-poem is further proved by a pious parody written to be sung to the same air with it: "O vaghe di Gesù, o verginelle." SeeLaudi Spirituali(Firenze, Molini, 1863), p. 105.

[149]Ibid.pp. 217, 218.

[150]Seeibid.pp. 252-256, 259, 263.

[151]It is enough to mentionExit diluculo,Vere dulci mediante,Æstivali sub fervore.

[152]I must briefly refer to Carducci's Essay on "Musica e Poesia nel mondo elegante italiano del secolo xiv," in hisStudi Letterari, Livorno, Vigo, 1874, and to my own translations from some of the there published Madrigals inSketches and Studies in Italy, pp. 214-216.

[153]Carducci,Cantilene, pp. 265-296.

[154]Op. cit.p. 298.

[155]Op. cit.p. 301.

[156]Op. cit.p. 300.

[157]It may be worth mentioning that Soldanieri and Donati as well as Sacchetti belonged to the old nobility of Florence, the Grandi celebrated by name in Dante'sParadiso.

[158]See Trucchi'sPoesie Inedite, and theRime Antiche Toscane, cited above, for copious collections of these poets.

[159]This can be seen in Carducci'sCantilene, pp. 115, 116, 150, and in hisStudi Letterari, pp. 374-446.

[160]O pellegrina Italia.Rime di Cino e d'altri(Barbèra), p. 318. I shall quote from this excellent edition of Carducci, as being most accessible to general readers. TheSerminteseorServentese, it may be parenthetically said, was a form of satirical and occasional lyric adapted from the ProvençalSirvente.

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