Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 24

[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. See _Canzone a Ballo_, etc. (Firenze, 1568), p. 30, on this song.

[388] _Op. cit._ pp. 96, 227, 50.

[389] See _op. cit._ pp. 227, 234, and _pa.s.sim_.

[390] Carducci, _Dello Svolgimento della Letteratura n.a.z.ionale_, p.

90.

[391] See Muratori, _Rer. Ital. Script._ xxiv. 1205, and _ibid._ 1209, Friulian Chronicle.

[392] See the frontispiece to _Laude di Feo Belcari e di altri_.

[393] D'Ancona, _Or. del T._ _op. cit._ vol. i. p. 109.

[394] The phases of this progress from _ottonari_ to _ottava rima_ have been carefully traced by D'Ancona (_op. cit._ vol. i. pp.

151-165). _Ottonari_ are lines of eight syllables with a loose trochaic rhythm, in which great licenses of extra syllables are allowed. The stanza rhymes _a b a b c c_. The _sesta rima_ of the transition has the same rhyming structure. The _Corrotto_ by Jacopone da Todi, a.n.a.lyzed above, shows a similar system of rhymes to that of some Latin hymns: _a a a b c c c b_, the _b_ rhyme in _ato_ being carried through the whole poem.

[395] See above, pp. 292-294, and Appendix.

[396] D'Ancona, _op. cit._ p. 108. At p. 282 he gives some curious details relating to the Coliseum Pa.s.sion 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 Venered sancto," a.n.a.lyzed by D'Ancona (_op. cit._ pp. 176-182), we read: "_predica, e como fa signo_ che 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 explains _thalamum_ by _tabulatum_.

[399] See Appendix to vol. ii. of D'Ancona's _Origini 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 Fiesolan _Sacra Rappresentazione_ is well explained in the induction to the play of _Abraam e Sara_ (Siena, 1581). A father and his son set out from Florence, at the boy's request:

Et vo che noi andiamo a Fiesolani poggi, Ch'io mi ricordo c'hoggi una festa non piu vista Mai piu el Vangelista vi 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 voce Et e ito un veloce a Firenze per lui.

_Voce_ was 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's _Cultur der Renaissance in Italien_.

[402] Graziani, _Arch. Stor._ xvi. 344.

[403] Allegretti, Muratori, x.x.xiii. 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's _Chronicle of Milan._

[406] _Pii Secundi Commentarii_ (Romae, 1584), viii. 365.

[407] Niccol della Tuccia, _Cron. di Viterbo_ (Firenze, Vieusseux, 1872) p. 84.

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

[409] This pa.s.sage 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 this _terza rima_ with a pa.s.sage 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, Ne tem'or piu cangiar vita ne voglia; Che quas senza invidia non lo scrivo.

Fortuna e 'l tempo dentro a vostra soglia Non tenta trapa.s.sar, per cui s'adduce Fra no' dubbia letizia e cierta doglia.

Nube non e che scuri vostra luce, L'ore distinte a voi non fanno forza, Caso o necessita non vi conduce.

Vostro splendor per notte non s'ammorza, Ne crescie ma' per giorno, benche chiaro, Sie quand'el sol fra no' il caldo rinforza.

In the Appendix will be found translations.

[414] Cecchi's _Elevation of the Cross_ aims at the dignity of a five-act tragedy; but it was not represented until 1589. _Santa Uliva_ ill.u.s.trates the interludes; and a very interesting example is supplied by the _Miracolo 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 da 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. the _Abraam_ quoted in a note above, p. 313.

[419] Compare, for example, Vespasiano's _nave_ astonishment at the virginity of the Cardinal di Portogallo with the protestations of chast.i.ty in the _Tre 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 terms _Nuvola_ and _Paradiso_ see 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 a.n.a.logue, we can ill.u.s.trate 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 Pa.s.sion reproduce the Sacred Drama with fidelity.