Chapter 19

[369]It is printed in Salviano's, and reproduced in Tresatti's edition. I have followed the reading offered by D'Ancona,Origini del Teatro, vol. i. p. 142. See Translation inAppendix.

[370]The wordCorrotto, used by Mary, means lamentation for the dead. It corresponds to the GreekThrenos, CorsicanVocero, GaelicCoronach.

[371]Le Poesie spirituali del Beato Jacopone da Todi.In Venetia, appresso Niccolò Miserrimi, MDCXVII. The book is a thick 4to, consisting of 1,055 pages, closely printed. It contains a voluminous running commentary. The editor, Tresatti, a Minorite Friar, says he had extracted 211Canticiof Jacopone from MSS. belonging to his Order, whereas the Roman and Florentine editions, taken together, contained 102 in all. He divides them into seven sections: (1) Satires, (2) Moral Songs, (3) Odes, (4) Penitential Hymns, (5) The Theory of Divine Love, (6) Spiritual Love Poems, (7) Spiritual Secrets. This division corresponds to seven stages in the soul's progress toward perfection. The arrangement is excellent, though the sections in some places interpenetrate. For variety of subjects, the collection is a kind of lyrical encyclopædia, touching all needs and states of the devout soul. It might supply material for meditation through a lifetime to a heart in harmony with its ascetic and erotically enthusiastic tone.

[372]Op. cit.p. 149.

[373]Ibid.p. 244.

[374]Ibid.p. 253.

[375]Op. cit.p. 266. See Translation inAppendix.

[376]Op. cit.p. 306.

[377]Ibid.p. 343.

[378]Op. cit.pp. 416, 420.

[379]Ibid.p. 433.

[380]Op. cit.p. 703.

[381]Ibid.p. 741.

[382]Ibid.p. 715.

[383]Opere di Girolamo Benivieni(Venegia, G. de Gregori, 1524), p. 151.

[384]Op. cit.p. 143. I have only translated the opening stanzas of this hymn.

[385]Published at Florence by Molini and Cecchi, 1863. Compare the two collections printed by Prof. G. Ferraro from Ferrarese MSS.Poesie popolari religiose del secolo xiv.Bologna, Romagnoli, 1877.

[386]Laude, etc.p. 105.

[387]Op. cit.p. 16. SeeCanzone a Ballo, etc. (Firenze, 1568), p. 30, on this song.

[388]Op. cit.pp. 96, 227, 50.

[389]Seeop. cit.pp. 227, 234, andpassim.

[390]Carducci,Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura Nazionale, p. 90.

[391]See Muratori,Rer. Ital. Script.xxiv. 1205, andibid.1209, Friulian Chronicle.

[392]See the frontispiece toLaude di Feo Belcari e di altri.

[393]D'Ancona,Or. del T.op. cit.vol. i. p. 109.

[394]The phases of this progress fromottonaritoottava rimahave been carefully traced by D'Ancona (op. cit.vol. i. pp. 151-165).Ottonariare lines of eight syllables with a loose trochaic rhythm, in which great licenses of extra syllables are allowed. The stanza rhymesa b a b c c. Thesesta rimaof the transition has the same rhyming structure. TheCorrottoby Jacopone da Todi, analyzed above, shows a similar system of rhymes to that of some Latin hymns:a a a b c c c b, thebrhyme inatobeing carried through the whole poem.

[395]See above,pp. 292-294, andAppendix.

[396]D'Ancona,op. cit.p. 108. At p. 282 he gives some curious details relating to the Coliseum Passion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1539 it was suppressed by Paul III., because the Romans, infuriated by the drama of the Crucifixion, were wont to adjourn from the Flavian amphitheater to the Ghetto, and begin a murderous crusade against the Jews!

[397]In the directions for a "Devotione de Veneredì sancto," analyzed by D'Ancona (op. cit.pp. 176-182), we read: "predica, e como fa signoche Cristo sia posto in croce, li Judei li chiavano una mano e poi l'altra" ... "a quello loco quando Pilato comanda che Cristo sia posto a la colona,lo Predicatore tase."

[398]Ducange explainsthalamumbytabulatum.

[399]See Appendix to vol. ii. of D'Ancona'sOrigini del Teatro.

[400]In the prologues of the later comedies of learning (commedia erudita) allusions to the rude style of Fiesolan shows are pretty frequent. The playwrights speak of them as our Elizabethan dramatists spoke of Bartholomew Fair. The whole method of a FiesolanSacra Rappresentazioneis well explained in the induction to the play ofAbraam e Sara(Siena, 1581). A father and his son set out from Florence, at the boy's request:Et vo che noi andiamoa Fiesolani poggi,Ch'io mi ricordo c'hoggiuna festa non più vistaMai più el Vangelistavi fa e rappresenta.On the road they wonder, will the booth be too full for them to find places, will they get hot by walking fast up hill, will their clothes be decent? They meet the Festajuolo at the booth-door, distracted because:manca una voceEt è ito un velocea Firenze per lui.Vocewas the technical name for the actor.

On the road they wonder, will the booth be too full for them to find places, will they get hot by walking fast up hill, will their clothes be decent? They meet the Festajuolo at the booth-door, distracted because:

Vocewas the technical name for the actor.

[401]See D'Ancona,op. cit.pp. 245-267. Compare the section on "Geselligkeit und die Feste" in Burckhardt'sCultur der Renaissance in Italien.

[402]Graziani,Arch. Stor.xvi. 344.

[403]Allegretti, Muratori, xxxiii. 767.

[404]Corio, quoted by me,Age of the Despots,p. 390.

[405]See D'Ancona,op. cit.p. 245, and compare the account of a similar show in Galvano Flamma'sChronicle of Milan.

[406]Pii Secundi Commentarii(Romæ, 1584), viii. 365.

[407]Niccolò della Tuccia,Cron. di Viterbo(Firenze, Vieusseux, 1872) p. 84.

[408]Look above inchapter i.pp. 50-53, for passages from Goro Dati's Chronicle and other sources, touching on the summer festivals of Florence.

[409]This passage from Palmieri's MS. will be found, together with full information on the subject of S. John's Day, in Cambiagi,Memorie istoriche riguardanti le feste, etc.(Firenze, Stamp. Gran-ducale, 1766), p. 65.

[410]D'Ancona,op. cit.p. 205. This use of the term Miracle seems to indicate that the Florentines applied to them the generic term for Northern Sacred Plays.

[411]Lemonnier's edition, vol. v.

[412]Sacre Rappresentazioni, Florence, Lemonnier, 3 vols. 1872.

[413]It may be not uninteresting to compare thisterza rimawith a passage written fifty years later by Michelangelo Buonarroti on his father's death, grander in style but less simply Christian:Tu se' del morir morto e fatto divo,Nè tem'or più cangiar vita nè voglia;Che quasì senza invidia non lo scrivo.Fortuna e 'l tempo dentro a vostra sogliaNon tenta trapassar, per cui s'adduceFra no' dubbia letizia e cierta doglia.Nube non è che scuri vostra luce,L'ore distinte a voi non fanno forza,Caso o necessità non vi conduce.Vostro splendor per notte non s'ammorza,Nè crescie ma' per giorno, benchè chiaro,Sie quand'el sol fra no' il caldo rinforza.In theAppendixwill be found translations.

[413]It may be not uninteresting to compare thisterza rimawith a passage written fifty years later by Michelangelo Buonarroti on his father's death, grander in style but less simply Christian:

In theAppendixwill be found translations.

[414]Cecchi'sElevation of the Crossaims at the dignity of a five-act tragedy; but it was not represented until 1589.Santa Ulivaillustrates the interludes; and a very interesting example is supplied by theMiracolo di S. Maria Maddalena, where two boys prologize in dialogue, comment at intervals upon the action, and conclude the exhibition with a Laud.

[415]"L'Angelo annunzia la festa," is the common stage-direction at the beginning; and at the end "L'Angelo dà licenza."

[416]"Constantino Imperatore,"Sacre Rappr.ii. 187. "Un Giovine con la citara annunzia."

[417]Op. cit.vol. i. pp. 357-359.

[418]Sacre Rappr.i. 391. Cp. theAbraamquoted in a note above,p. 313.

[419]Compare, for example, Vespasiano'snaïveastonishment at the virginity of the Cardinal di Portogallo with the protestations of chastity in theTre Pellegrini(Sacre Rappr.iii. 467).

[420]Sacre Rappr.iii. p. 235 and p. 1.

[421]Sacre Rappr.p. 121.Shakespeare Soc. Publ.vol. xvii.

[422]For the technical termsNuvolaandParadisosee above,pp. 318,319.

[423]It is probable that the painting of the period yields a fair notion of the scenic effects attempted in these shows. Or, what is perhaps a better analogue, we can illustrate the pages of the libretti by remembering the terra-cotta groups of the Sacro Monte at Varallo. Designed by excellent artists and painted in accordance with the traditions of the Milanese school, it is not impossible that these life-size representations of Christ's birth and Passion reproduce the Sacred Drama with fidelity.

[424]Sacre Rappr.iii. 270.

[425]Sacre Rappr.i. 193. See Shakespeare Society's Publications, i. 119.

[426]Sacre Rappr.i. 255.

[427]Sacre Rappr.i. 357.

[428]All the novelists might be cited to illustrate this point.

[429]At the end of theRappresentazione di un Pellegrino(Sacre Rappr.iii. 430) a little farce is printed, bearing no relation to the play. It is a dialogue between a good and bad apprentice, who discuss the question of gambling. Here and in theFigliuol Prodigoand the induction to theMiracolo di S. Maddalenawe have the elements of comedy, which, however, unfortunately came to nothing. These scenes remind us of Heywood's tavern pictures, Marston's "Eastward Ho!" and other precious pieces of English Elizabethan farce.

[430]Sacre Rappr.i. 304.

[431]Ibid.p. 319.

[432]Sacre Rappr.i. 229.

[433]This play ends with a pretty moralization of the episode that forms its motive, addressed by Mary to the people (ib.p. 240).Figliuo' diletti, che cercate in terraTrovar il figliuol mio, pietoso Iddio,Non vi fermate in questa rozza terra,Chè Jesù non istà nel mondo rio.Chi vel crede trovar, fortement' erra,E come stolto morra nel disio.Al tempio, chi lo vuol, venghi oggi drento,Chè 'l viver vostro è come foglia al vento.

[433]This play ends with a pretty moralization of the episode that forms its motive, addressed by Mary to the people (ib.p. 240).

[434]Sacre Rappr.i. 342.

[435]Ibid.iii. 439.

[436]For these incidents we may think of Signorelli's huge angels and swarming devils at Orvieto. What follows suggests the Lorenzetti fresco at Pisa, and the Orcagna of the Strozzi Chapel. Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo also supply pictorial parallels.

[437]Poetry forced Castellani to decide where Solomon should go; Lorenzetti left it vague.

[438]Sacre Rappr.ii. 33.

[439]Sacre Rappr.iii. 140.

[440]Ibid.ii. 124.

[441]Ibid.ii. 235.

[442]Ibid.ii. 269.

[443]Ibid.ii. 323.

[444]Ibid.ii. 71.

[445]La Mort d'Arthur(Wright's edition), vol. iii. p. 331.

[446]Polidori's edition, vol. i. p. 542.

[447]The greater maturity of the plastic than of the poetic arts in the fifteenth century is apparent when we contrast theRappresentazioniwith Masaccio's, Ghirlandajo's, Mantegna's, or Carpaccio's paintings. Art, as I have frequently had to observe, emancipated the human faculties, and humanized the figments of the middle age by investing them with corporeal shape and forms of æsthetic beauty. The deliverance of the Italian genius was thus effected in painting earlier than in poetry, and in those very spheres of religious art where the poets were helpless to attain true freedom. Italian poetry first became free when it turned round and regarded the myths with an amused smile. I do not say that this was absolutely necessary, that an heroic Christian poetry might not have been produced in the fifteenth century by another race. But for the Italians it was necessary.

[448]Sacre Rappr.ii. 447.

[449]Sacre Rappr.iii. 177.

[450]Ibid.ii. 163.

[451]Sacre Rappr.iii. 235. Also edited separately with an introduction by D'Ancona.

[452]Sacre Rappr.iii. 319.

[453]Sacre Rappr.iii. 362.

[454]Ibid.iii. 485.

[455]Sacre Rappr.iii. 416.

[456]Ibid.iii. 439.

[457]Sacre Rappr.iii. 466.

[458]The date of the former is probably 1472, of the latter 1486.

[459]Lorenzo de' Medici, b. 1448, d. 1492. Poliziano, b. 1454, d. 1494. Luigi Pulci, b. 1432, d. about 1487. Boiardo, b. about 1434, d. 1494. Sannazzaro, b. 1458, d. 1530.

[460]Machiavelli, b. 1469, d. 1527. Ariosto, b. 1474, d. 1533. Guicciardini, b. 1482, d. 1540. Bembo, b. 1470, d. 1547. Castiglione, b. 1478, d. 1529. La Casa, b. 1503, d. 1556. Pietro Aretino, b. 1492, d. 1557.

[461]SeeFine Arts, p. 183.

[462]SeeRevival of Learning, pp. 215et seq.;Fine Arts, pp. 183et seq.

[463]It is right to say here that considerable portions of Southern Italy, the Marches of Ancona and Romagna, Piedmont and Liguria, remained outside the Renaissance movement at this period.

[464]SeeAge of the Despots, pp.277,520,542;Revival of Learning, pp. 314-323;Fine Arts, pp. 263, 387. See alsoSketches and Studies in Italy, Article onFlorence and the Medici.

[465]Op. Lat.p. 423.

[466]Poesie di Lorenzo de' Medici(Firenze, Barbèra, 1859), pp. 10-19.

[467]Ibid.pp. 24-34. Notice especially the verdict on Cino and Dante, p. 33.

[468]Read for instance No. xii. in the edition cited above, "Vidi madonna sopra un fresco rio;" No. xviii., "Con passi sparti," etc.; No. xlvii., "Belle fresche e purpuree viole."

[469]Ibid.p. 97.

[470]"Tolsi donna ... ovvero mi fu data," from theRicordiprinted in the Appendix to Roscoe'sLife.

[471]"Innamoramento,"Poesie, pp. 58-62. Compare "Selve d'Amore,"ib.pp. 172-174.

[472]Poesie, pp. 206-213.

[473]Ibid.p. 236.

[474]Poesie, pp. 190-194, 200-204.

[475]See the peroration toAmbra, in theSylvæ; Poliziano,Prose Volgari e Poesie Latine, etc. (Firenze, 1867), p. 365: Et nos ergo illi, etc.

[476]Poesie, p. 238.

[477]Ibid.p. 239.

[478]Poesie, p. 294.

[479]If anything had to be quoted fromI Beoni, I should select the episode of Adovardo and his humorous discourse on thirst, cap. ii.ib.p. 299. For a loathsome parody of Dante see cap. v.ib.p. 315.

[480]The date is 1489.

[481]Especially "O Dio, o sommo bene," and "Poi ch'io gustai, Gesù;"ib.pp. 444, 447. Likewise "Vieni a me;"ib.p. 449.

[482]Guicciardini, in hisStoria Fiorentina(Op. Ined.vol. iii. 88), writes of Lorenzo: "Fu libidinoso, e tutto venereo e constante negli amori suoi, che duravano parecchi anni; la quale cosa, a giudicio di molti, gli indebolì tanto il corpo, che lo fece morire, si può dire, giovane." Then, after describing his night-adventures outside Florence, he proceeds: "Cosa pazza a considerare che uno di tanta grandezza, riputazione e prudenza, di età di anni quaranta, fussi sì preso di una dama non bella e già piena di anni, che si conducessi a fare cose, che sarebbono state disoneste a ogni fanciullo."

[483]Canzone per andare in maschera, facte da più persone.No place or date or printer's name; but probably issued in the lifetime of Lorenzo from Mongiani's press. There is a similar woodcut on the title-page of theCanzone a Ballo, Firenze, 1568. It represents the angle of the Medicean Palace in the Via Larga, girls dancing in a ring upon the street, one with a wreath and thyrsus kneeling, another presenting Lorenzo with a book.

[484]Ist. Fior.viii.;Stor. Fior.ix.

[485]Trattato circa il Reggimento e Governo della Città di Firenze(Florence, 1847), ii. 2.

[486]Tutti i Trionfi, Carri, etc., Firenze, 1559. See the edition dated Cosmopoli, 1750.

[487]In this place should be noticed a sinister Carnival Song, by an unknown author, which belongs, I think, to the period of Savonarola's democracy. It is calledTrionfo del Vaglio, or "Triumph of the Sieve" (Cant. Carn.p. 33):To the Sieve, to the Sieve, to the Sieve,Ho, all ye folk, descend!With groans your bosoms rend!And find in this our SieveWrath, anguish, travail, doom for all who live!To winnow, sift and purge, full well we know,And grind your souls like corn:Ye who our puissance scorn,Come ye to trial, ho!For we will prove and showHow fares the man who enters in our Sieve.Send us no groats nor scrannel seed nor rye,But good fat ears of grain,Which shall endure our strain,And be of sturdy stuff.Torment full stern and roughAbides for him who resteth in our Sieve.Who comes into this Sieve, who issues thence,Hath tears and sighs, and mourns:But the Sieve ever turns,And gathers vehemence.Ye who feel sin's offence,Shun ye the rage, the peril of our Sieve.A thousand times the day, our Sieve is crowned;A thousand times 'tis drained:Let the Sieve once be strained,And, grain by grain, aroundYe shall behold the groundCovered with folk, cast from the boltering Sieve.Ye who are not well-grained and strong to bear,Abide ye not this fate!Penitence comes too late!Seek ye some milder doom!Nay, better were the tombThan to endure the torment of our Sieve!

[488]Life of Piero di Cosimo.

[489]Life of Pontormo.

[490]Revival of Learning, pp. 345-357, 452-465.

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