MORGANTE XXV. 119.

(Seepage 321).

MAIN CONTENTS

SECOND PART

[1]See Giesebrecht,De Litterarum studiis apud Italos primis medii ævi sæculis, Berolini, 1845, p. 15.

[2]See Giesebrecht,op. cit.p. 19. Wippo recommends the Emperor to compel his subjects to educate their sons in letters and law. It was by such studies that ancient Rome acquired her greatness. In Italy at the present time, he says, all boys pass from the games of childhood into schools. It is only the Teutons who think it idle or disgraceful for a man to study unless he be intended for a clerical career.

[3]See Adolfo Bartoli,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. i. pp. 142-158, and p. 167, on Guido delle Colonne and Qualichino da Spoleto.

[4]See above, vol. i.Age of the Despots, 2nd ed.chap. 2.

[5]The Italians did not even begin to reflect upon theirlingua volgareuntil the special characters and temperaments of their chief States had been fixed and formed. In other words, their social and political development far anticipated their literary evolution. There remained no center from which the vulgar tongue could radiate, absorbing local dialects. Each State was itself a center, perpetuating dialect.

[6]See Du Méril,Poésies Populaires Latines antérieures au douzième Siècle, Paris, 1843.

[7]Regarding the authorship of Latin hymns see the notes in Mone'sHymni Latini Medii Ævi, Friburgi Brisgoviæ, 1853, 3 vols. For the French origin ofCarmina BuranaseeDie lateinischen Vagantenlieder der Mittelalters, von Oscar Hubatsch, Görlitz, 1870.

[8]Du Méril,op. cit.p. 268.

[9]Dante,Paradiso, xv.

[10]SeeAge of the Despots,p. 65.

[11]xvi. 115.

[12]See D'Ancona,Poesia Popolare, p. 11, note.

[13]See Carducci,Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura Nazionale, p. 29.

[14]Romagnoli has reprinted some specimens of theIllustre et Famosa Historia di Lancillotto del Lago, Bologna, 1862.

[15]Muratori inAntiq. Ital. Diss.xxx. p. 351, quotes a decree of the Bolognese Commune, dated 1288, to the effect thatCantatores Francigenarum in plateis Communis omnino morari non possint. They had become a public nuisance and impeded traffic.

[16]In theCento Novellethere are several Arthurian stories. The rubrics of one or two will suffice to show how the names were Italianized.Qui conta come la damigella di Scalot morì per amore di Lanciallotto de Lac.Nov. lxxxii.Qui conta della reina Isotta e di m. Tristano di Leonis.Nov. lxv. In theHistoria di Lancillotto, cited above, Sir Kay becomesKeux; Gawain isGauuan. In theTavola Ritonda,Morderettestands for Mordred,Bando di Benoichefor Ban of Benwick,Lotto d'Organiafor Lot of Orkeney.

[17]See Adolfo Bartoli,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. ii. chapters iii., iv., v., vi., for a minute inquiry into this early dialectical literature.

[18]Cento Novelle, Milano, 1825, Nov. ii. and xxi.

[19]Chronica Fr. Salimbene Parmensis, ord. min., Parmæ, 1857, p. 166.

[20]See theCronache Siciliane, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1865, the first of which bears upon its opening paragraph the date 1358. Sicilian, it may be said in passing, presents close dialectical resemblance to Tuscan. Even the superficial alteration of the Sicilianuandiinto the Tuscanoande(e.g.secunduandputiriintosecondoandpotere) effaces the most obvious differences.

[21]The Italians wavered long between several metrical systems, before they finally adopted the hendecasyllabic line, which became the consecrated rhythm of serious poetry. Carducci, in his treatiseIntorno ad alcune Rime(Imola, Galeati, 1876), pp. 81-89, may be profitably consulted with regard to early Italian Alexandrines. He points out that Ciullo'sTenzone:Rosa fresc' aulentissima—c'appar' in ver' l'estate:and the Ballata of the Comari:Pur bi' del vin, comadr'—e no lo temperare:together with numerous compositions of the Northern Lombard school (Milan and Verona), are written in Alexandrines. In the Lombardo-Sicilian age of Italian literature, before Bologna acted as an intermediate to Florence, this meter bid fair to become acclimatized. But the Tuscan genius determined decisively for the hendecasyllabic.

Rosa fresc' aulentissima—c'appar' in ver' l'estate:

and the Ballata of the Comari:

Pur bi' del vin, comadr'—e no lo temperare:

together with numerous compositions of the Northern Lombard school (Milan and Verona), are written in Alexandrines. In the Lombardo-Sicilian age of Italian literature, before Bologna acted as an intermediate to Florence, this meter bid fair to become acclimatized. But the Tuscan genius determined decisively for the hendecasyllabic.

[22]See theAppendixto this chapter on Italian hendecasyllables.

[23]See Carducci,Cantilene, etc. (Pisa, 1871), pp. 58-60, for thirteenth-centuryrispettiillustrating the Sicilian form of the Octave Stanza and its transformation to the Tuscan type.

[24]The poetry of this period will be found in Trucchi,Poesie Inedite, Prato, 1846;Poeti del Primo Secolo, Firenze, 1816;Raccolta di Rime Antiche Toscane, Palermo, Assenzio, 1817; and in a critical edition of theCodex Vaticanus3793,Le Antiche Rime Volgari, per cura di A. d'Ancona e D. Comparetti, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1875.

[25]The most important modern works upon this subject are three Essays by Napoleone Caix,Saggio sulla Storia della Lingua e dei Dialetti d'Italia, Parma, 1872;Studi di Etimologia Italiana e Romanza, Firenze, 1878;Le Origini della Lingua Poetica Italiana, Firenze, 1880. D'Ovidio's Essay on theDe Eloquioin hisSaggi Critici, Napoli, 1878, may also be consulted with advantage.

[26]"Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam quam aliæ linguæ, et ideo magis est communis et intelligibilis." Antonio da Tempo, born about 1275, says this in his Treatise on Italian Poetry, recently printed by Giusto Grion, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1869. See p. 17 of that work.

[27]This fact was recognized by Dante. He speaks of the languages of Si, Oil, and Oc, meaning Italian, French, and Spanish.De Eloquio, lib. i. cap. 8. Dante points out their differences, but does not neglect their community of origin.

[28]De Vulg. Eloq.i. 16.

[29]Ibid.i. 18.

[30]SeeArchivio Glottologico Italiano, vol. ii. Villani, lib. vii. cap. 68.

[31]Cantilene e Ballate, Strambotti e Madrigali nei Secoli xiii. e xiv.A cura di Giosuè Carducci (Pisa, 1871), pp. 29-32.

[32]Ibid.pp. 18, 22.

[33]Ibid.pp. 39, 42.

[34]Ibid.pp. 43, 45.

[35]Seeibid.p. 45, the stanza which begins,Matre tant ò.

[36]Ibid.pp. 47-60.

[37]Ibid.pp. 62-66.

[38]The practical and realistic common sense of the Italians, rejecting chivalrous and ecclesiastical idealism as so much nonsense, is illustrated by the occasional poems of two Florentine painters—Giotto's Canzone onPoverty, and Orcagna's Sonnet onLove. Orcagna, in the latter, criticises the conventional blind and winged Cupid, and winds up with:L'amore è un trastullo:Non è composto di legno nè di osso;E a molte gente fa rompere il dosso.

[39]See Carducci,op. cit.pp. 52-60, for early examples of Tuscanized Sicilian poems of the people.

[40]The Tuscanized Sicilian poems in Carducci's collection referred to above, are extracted from a Florentine MS. calledNapolitana, and a Tenzone between man and woman (ib.p. 52), which has clearly undergone a like process, is calledCiciliana.

[41]See Francesco d'Ovidio,Sul Trattato De Vulgari Eloquentia. It is reprinted in his volume ofSaggi Critici, Napoli, 1879. The subject is fully discussed from a point of view at variance with my text by Adolf Gaspary,Die Sicilianische Dichterschule, Berlin, 1878.

[42]Rime di Fra Guittone d'Arezzo, Firenze, Morandi, 1828, 2 vols.

[43]De Vulg. Eloq.ii. 6; ii. 1; i. 13, andPurg.xxvi. 124.

[44]His poems will be found in the collections above mentioned,p. 26, note.

[45]Purg.xxvi.

[46]Purg.xxiv.

[47]Purg.xxvi.

[48]De Vulg. Eloq.i. 15.

[49]Fauriel,Dante et les origines, etc. (Paris, 1854), i. 269.

[50]D'Ancona,La Poesia Popolare Italiana(Livorno 1878), p. 36, note.

[51]Giov. Vill. vii. 89.

[52]Stefani, quoted by D'Ancona,op. cit.p. 36.

[53]Ibid.p. 37, note.

[54]Giov. Vill. x. 216.

[55]Giov. Vill. vii. 132.

[56]Storia di Firenze di Goro Dati(Firenze, 1735), p. 84.

[57]The date commonly assigned to Folgore is 1260, and the Niccolò he addresses in his series on the Months has been identified with thatNicolò, che la costuma riccaDel garofano prima discoperse,so ungently handled by Dante in theInferno, Canto xxix. I am aware that grave doubts, based upon historical allusions in Folgore's miscellaneous sonnets, have been raised as to whether we can assign so early a date to Folgore, and whether his Brigata was really thebrigata godereccia, spendereccia, of Siena alluded to by Dante. See Bartoli,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. ii. cap. II, for a discussion of these points. See also Giulio Navone's edition of Folgore's and Cene'sRime, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1880. This editor argues forcibly for a later date—not earlier at all events than from 1300 to 1320. But, whether we choose the earlier date 1260 or the later 1315, Folgore may legitimately be used for my present purpose of illustration.

[57]The date commonly assigned to Folgore is 1260, and the Niccolò he addresses in his series on the Months has been identified with that

so ungently handled by Dante in theInferno, Canto xxix. I am aware that grave doubts, based upon historical allusions in Folgore's miscellaneous sonnets, have been raised as to whether we can assign so early a date to Folgore, and whether his Brigata was really thebrigata godereccia, spendereccia, of Siena alluded to by Dante. See Bartoli,Storia della Letteratura Italiana, vol. ii. cap. II, for a discussion of these points. See also Giulio Navone's edition of Folgore's and Cene'sRime, Bologna, Romagnoli, 1880. This editor argues forcibly for a later date—not earlier at all events than from 1300 to 1320. But, whether we choose the earlier date 1260 or the later 1315, Folgore may legitimately be used for my present purpose of illustration.

[58]This is equally true of Cene dalla Chitarra's satirical parodies of the Months, in which, using the same rhymes as Folgore, he turns each of his motives to ridicule. Cene was a poet of Arezzo. His series and Folgore's will both be found in thePoeti del Primo Secolo, vol. ii., and in Navone's edition cited above.

[59]These remarks have to be qualified by reference to an unfinished set of five sonnets (Navone's edition, pp. 45-49), which are composed in a somewhat different key. They describe the arming of a young knight, and his reception by Valor, Humility, Discretion, and Gladness. Yet the knight, so armed and accepted, is no Galahad, far less the grim horseman of Dürer's allegory. Like the members of thebrigata godereccia, he is rather a Gawain or Astolfo, all love, fine clothes, and courtship. Each of these five sonnets is a precious little miniature of Italian carpet-chivalry. The quaintest is the second, which begins:Ecco prodezza che tosto lo spoglia,E dice: amico e' convien che tu mudi,Per ciò ch'i' vo' veder li uomini nudi,E vo' che sappi non abbo altra voglia.This exordium makes one regret that the painter of the young knight in our National Gallery (Giorgione?) had not essayed a companion picture. Valor disrobing him and taking him into her arms and cryingQueste carni m'ai offertewould have made a fine pictorial allegory.

This exordium makes one regret that the painter of the young knight in our National Gallery (Giorgione?) had not essayed a companion picture. Valor disrobing him and taking him into her arms and cryingQueste carni m'ai offertewould have made a fine pictorial allegory.

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