Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 31

Non soner perche e' m'aiuti Carlo, Che per vilta mai non volli sonarlo:

his address to the knights when rushing into desperate battle at impossible odds[537]; the scene of his death, so tender in its pathos, so quaint in its piety; the agony of Charles when he comes, too late, to find him slain, and receives his sword from the Paladin's dead hands; these pa.s.sages must surely be enough to convince the most incredulous of doctrinaires.

It has been customary to explain the apparent contradictions of the _Morgante Maggiore_--Pulci's brusque transitions from piety to ribaldry, from pathos to satire--by reference to the circ.u.mstances of Florence at the date of its composition. The republic was at war with Sixtus IV., who had taken part in the Pazzi conspiracy. To his Bull of excommunication the Signoria had retorted by terming it "maledictam maledictionem d.a.m.natissimi judicis," and had described the Pope himself as "delirum senem," "leno matris suae, adulterorum minister, diaboli vicarius." It was not to be expected that even an orthodox Christian should be tender toward the vices of the clergy or careful in guarding his religious utterances at such a moment. Yet we need not go far afield to account for Pulci's profanity. The Italians of the age in which he lived, were freethinkers without ceasing to be Catholics. To begin a Canto with a prayer, and to end it with speculations on the destiny of the soul after death, was consistent with their intellectual temper. The schools and private coteries of Florence were the arena in which Platonism and Averroism waged war with orthodoxy, where questions of freewill and creation, the relation of man to G.o.d, and the essence of the human spirit, were being discussed with a philosophic indifference and warmth of curiosity that prepared the way for Pomponazzi's materialism. Criticism, the modern Hercules, was already in its cradle, strangling the serpents of sacerdotal authority: and as yet the Inquisition had not become a power of terror; the Council of Trent and the Spanish tyranny had not turned Italians into trembling bigots or sleek hypocrites. Externally they remained tenacious of their old beliefs; and from the point of view of art at least, they were desirous of adhering to tradition. For Pulci to have celebrated Orlando without a.s.suming the customary style of the _cantastorie_, would have been beside his purpose. Therefore, the mixture of magic, theology, impiety, speculation and religious fervor which perplexes a reader of the present day in the _Morgante_, corresponded to the mental att.i.tude of the educated majority at Pulci's date. On the border-land between the middle ages and the modern world the keen Italian intellect loved to entertain itself with a perpetual _perhaps_, impartially including in the sphere of doubt old dogmas and novel hypotheses, and finding satisfaction in an insecurity that flattered it with the sense of disengagement from formulae.[538] With some minds this volatile questioning was serious; with others it a.s.sumed a Rabelaisian joviality. Pulci ranked with those who made the problems of the world material for humorous debate.

A few instances of Pulci's peculiar levity might be selected from the last Cantos of the _Morgante_, where no one can maintain that his intention was burlesque. We have just heard from the minstrel's lips how Roland died, recommending his soul to G.o.d and delivering his glove in sign of feudal fealty to Gabriel. The sound of his horn has startled Charlemagne from the sleep of false tranquillity, and the Emperor is on his way to Roncesvalles. But time is short. He prays Christ that as of old for Joshua, so now for him in his sore need, the sun may be stayed and the day be prolonged[539]:

O crucifisso, il qual, gia sendo in croce, Oscurasti quel sol contra natura; Io ti priego, Signor, con umil voce Infin ch'io giunga in quella valle oscura, Che tu raffreni il suo corso veloce.

The prayer is worthy, in its solemn tone, of this exordium; and the desired effect soon follows. But now Pulci changes his note from grave to gay[540]:

E disse: Pazienzia, come Giobbe; Or oltre in Roncisvalle andar si vuole.

Che come savio il part.i.to con.o.bbe, _Per non tenere in disagio piu il sole_.

A few lines further he describes the carnage in the dolorous valley, and finds this comic phrase to express the confusion of the field[541]:

Chi mostra sanguinosa la percossa, Chi il capo avea quattro braccia discosto, _Da non trovarli in Giusaffa si tosto_.

Pulci's grotesque humor gives an air of false absurdity to many incidents which, together with his hearers, he undoubtedly took in good faith. During the slaughter of the Christians he wishes to impress the audience with the mult.i.tude of souls who crowded into Paradise. S. Peter is tired to death with opening the door for them and deafened with their jubilations[542]:

E cos in ciel si faceva apparecchio D'ambrosia e nettar con celeste manna, E perche Pietro alla porta e pur vecchio, Credo che molto quel giorno s'affanna; E converra ch'egli abbi buono orecchio, Tanto gridavan quelle anime Osanna Ch'eran portate dagli angeli in cielo; Sicche la barba gli sudava e 'l pelo.

In the same spirit is the picture of the fiends seated like hawks upon the bell-towers of a little chapel, waiting to pounce upon the souls of Pagans.[543]

Sometimes a flash of purely Bernesque humor appears in Pulci; as when he says that the Saracens:

Bestemmiavano Dio divotamente,

or when Oliver, after a pathetic love-lament, complains that it is impossible:

Celar per certo l'amore e la tossa.

According to modern notions his jokes not unfrequently savor of profanity. Rinaldo and Ricciardetto are feasting upon ortolans, and give this punning reason for their excellence[544]:

Cioe che Cristo a Maddalena apparve In ortolan, che buon sozio gli parve.

On the same occasion Rinaldo is so pleased with his fare that he exclaims:

Questi mi paion miracoli; Facciam qui sei non che tre tabernacoli.

Such expressions flash forth from mere Florentine sense of fun in pa.s.sages by no means deliberately comic.

The most diverting character of the _Morgante_ is Margutte, an eccentric heteroc.l.i.te creature, the prototype of Folengo's Cingar and Rabelais' Panurge, whom the giant met upon his wanderings and adopted for a comrade. It has been supposed with some reason that Pulci here intended to satirize the Greeks who flocked to Florence after the fall of Constantinople, and that either Marullo, the personal enemy of Poliziano, or Demetrius Chalcondylas, his rival in erudition, sat for Margutte's portrait. The character of the rogue, described by himself in thirty stanzas of fantastic humor, contains a complete epitome of the abuse which the scholars of those days used to vomit forth in their reciprocal invectives.[545] Part of the comic effect produced by his speech is due to this self-attribution of qualities which supplied the a.r.s.enals of humanistic combatants with poisoned arrows. But Margutte has far more than a merely ill.u.s.trative or temporary value. He is the first finished humoristic portrait sketched in modern literature, the first broadly-conceived and jovially-executed Rabelaisian study. Though it is very improbable that Pulci had any knowledge of Aristophanes, though he died eight years or thereabouts before the Cure of Meudon was born, his Margutte is cousin-german of the Sausage-seller and Panurge.[546]

Margutte takes an impish pride in reckoning up his villanies and vices.

When Morgante asks him whether he believes in Christ or Appollino, he replies:

A dirtel tosto, Io non credo piu al nero ch' all'azzurro, Ma nel cappone, o lesso, o vuogli arrosto ...

E credo nella torta e nel tortello, L'una e la madre, e l'altro e il suo figliuolo; Il vero paternostro e il fegatello, E possono esser tre, e due, ed un solo, E diriva dal fegato almen quello.

He explains his disengagement from all creeds by referring to his parentage:

Che nato son d'una monaca greca, E d'un papa.s.so in Bursia la in Turchia.

Beginning life by murdering his father, he next set out to seek adventures in the world:

E per compagni ne menai con meco Tutt'i peccati o di turco o di greco, Anzi quanti ne son giu nell'inferno: Io n'ho settanta e sette de' mortali, Che non mi lascian mai la state o 'l verno; Pensa quanti io n'ho poi de' veniali!

Margutte's humor consists in the baboon-like self-contentment of his infamous confessions, and in the effect they produce upon Morgante, who feels that he has found in him a finished gentleman. After amusing his audience with this puppet for a while, Pulci flings him aside. Margutte, like Pietro Aretino, dies at last of immoderate laughter.[547]

Another of Pulci's own creations is Astarotte, the proud and courteous fiend, summoned by Malagigi to bring Rinaldo from Egypt to Roncesvalles.

This feat he accomplishes in a few hours by entering the body of the horse Baiardo. The journey consists of a series of splendid leaps, across lakes, rivers, mountains, seas and cities; and when the paladin hungers, Astarotte spreads a table for him in the wilderness or introduces him invisible into the company of queens at banquet in fair Saragossa. The humor and the fancy of this magic journey are both of a high order.[548] Yet Astarotte is made to serve a second purpose. Into his mouth Pulci places all his theological speculations, and makes him reason learnedly like Mephistophilis:

Of Providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.

He is introduced in these lines[549]:

Uno spirto chiamato e Astarotte, Molto savio, terribil, molto fero, Questo si sta giu nell'infernal grotte; Non e spirto folletto, egli e piu nero.

Of his n.o.ble descent from the highest of created intelligences Astarotte is well aware[550]:

Io era Serafin de' princ.i.p.ali ...

Io fui gia Serafin piu di te degno.

He is in earnest to prove that courtesy exists in h.e.l.l[551]:

Che gentilezza e bene anche in inferno ...

Non creder, nello inferno anche fra noi Gentilezza non sia.

When Malagigi questions him concerning divine foreknowledge and his own state in h.e.l.l, he replies with a complete theory of sin and punishment founded upon the doctrine of freewill.[552] The angels sinned with knowledge. Therefore for them there is no redemption. Adam sinned in ignorance. Therefore there is hope for all men, and a probability of final rest.i.tution for the whole human race[553]:

Forse che 'l vero dopo lungo errore Adorerete tutti di concordia.

E troverete ognun misericordia.

Astarotte's own torment in h.e.l.l causes him bitter anguish; but he recognizes the justice of G.o.d; and knowing that the sentence of d.a.m.nation cannot be canceled, he is too courageous to complain. When Rinaldo offers to intercede for him, he answers[554]:

Il buon volere accetto; Per noi fien sempre perdute le chiavi, Maesta lesa, infinito e il difetto: O felici Cristian, voi par che lavi Una lacrima sol col pugno al petto, E dir; Signor, tibi soli peccavi; Noi peccammo una volta, e in sempiterno Rilegati siam tutti nello inferno.

Che pur se dopo un milione e mille Di secol noi spera.s.sim rivedere Di quell'Amor le minime faville, Ancor sarebbe ogni peso leggiere: Ma che bisogna far queste postille?

Se non si pu, non si debbe volere; Ond'io ti priego, che tu sia contento Che noi mutiamo altro ragionamento.

There is great refinement in this momentary sadness of Astarotte, followed by his return to more cheerful topics. He is the Italian counterpart of Marlowe's fiend, that melancholy demon of the North, who tempts his victim by the fascination of mere horror.[555] Like Mephistophilis, again, Astarotte is ready to satisfy the curiosity of mortals, and condescends to amuse them with elfish tricks.[556] He explains to Rinaldo that it is quite a mistake to suppose that there are no inhabited lands beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. The earth, he says, is round, and can be circ.u.mnavigated; and cities full of people, worshiping our planets and our sun, are found in the antipodes. Hercules ought to blush for having fixed his pillars where he did.[557] The good understanding established between Astarotte and Rinaldo on their journey is one of the prettiest incidents of this strange poem. When they part, the fiend and the paladin have become firm friends. Astarotte vows henceforth to serve Rinaldo for love; and Rinaldo promises to free him from Malagigi's power.[558]

Pulci dealt with the Carolingian Cycle in what may be termed a _bourgeois_ spirit. Whether humorous or earnest, he maintained the tone of Florentine society: and his _Morgante_ reflects the peculiar conditions of the Medicean circle at the date of its composition. The second great poem on the same group of legends, Boiardo's _Orlando Innamorato_, transports us into a very different social and intellectual atmosphere. The highborn Count of Scandiano, reciting his cantos in the huge square castle surrounded by its moat, which still survives to speak of medieval Italy in the midst of Ferrara, had but little in common with Luigi Pulci, whose Tuscan fun and satire amused the merchant-princes of the Via Larga. The value of the _Orlando Innamorato_ for the student of Italian development is princ.i.p.ally this, that it is the most purely chivalrous poem of the Renaissance. Composed before the French invasion, and while the cla.s.sical Revival was still unaccomplished, we find in it an echo of an earlier semi-feudal civility. Unlike the other literary performances of that age, which were produced for the most part by professional humanists, it was the work of a n.o.bleman to whom feats of arms and the chase were familiar, who disdained the common folk (_popolaccio_, _canaglia_, as he always calls them), and whose ideal both of life and of art was contained in this couplet[559]:

E raccontare il pregio e 'l grande onore Che donan l'armi giunte con l'amore.

Matteo Maria Boiardo was almost an exact contemporary of Pulci. He was born about 1434 at his hereditary fief of Scandiano, a village seven miles from Reggio, at the foot of the Apennines, celebrated for its excellent vineyards. His mother was Lucia Strozzi, a member of the Ferrarese house, connected by descent with the Strozzi of Florence. At the age of twenty-eight he married Taddea Gonzaga, daughter of the Count of Novellara. He lived until 1494, when he died at the same time as Pico and Poliziano, in the year of Charles VIII.'s invasion, two years after the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, and four years before Ficino. These dates are not unimportant as fixing the exact epoch of Boiardo's literary activity. At the Court of Ferrara, where the Count of Scandiano enjoyed the friendship of Duke Borso and Duke Ercole, this bard of chivalry held a position worthy of his n.o.ble rank and his great talents.

The princes of the House of Este employed him as emba.s.sador in diplomatic missions of high trust and honor. He also administered for them the government of Reggio and Modena, their two chief subject cities. As a ruler, he was celebrated for his clemency and for his indifference to legal formalities. An enemy, Panciroli, wrote of him: "He was a man of excessive kindness, more fit for writing poems than for punishing crimes." He is even reported to have held that no offense deserved capital punishment--an opinion which at that period could only have been seriously entertained in Italy, and which even there was strangely at variance with the temper of the petty tyrants. Well versed in Greek and Latin literature, he translated Herodotus, parts of Xenophon, the _Golden a.s.s_ of Apuleius, and the _a.s.s_ of Lucian into Italian. He also versified Lucian's _Timon_ for the stage, and wrote Latin poems of fair merit. His lyrics addressed to Antonia Caprara prove that, like Lorenzo de' Medici, he was capable of following the path of Petrarch without falling into Petrarchistic mannerism.[560] But his literary fame depends less upon these minor works than on the _Orlando Innamorato_, a masterpiece of inventive genius, which furnished Ariosto with the theme of the _Orlando Furioso_. Without the _Innamorato_ the _Furioso_ is meaningless. The handling and structure of the romance, the characters of the heroes and heroines, the conception of Love and Arms as the double theme of romantic poetry, the interpolation of _novelle_ in the manner of Boccaccio, and the magic machinery by which the poem is conducted, are due to the originality of Boiardo. Ariosto adopted his plot, continued the story where he left it, and brought it to a close; so that, taken together, both poems form one gigantic narrative, of about 100,000 lines, which has for its main subject the love and the marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante, mythical progenitors of the Estensi. Yet because the style of Boiardo is rough and provincial, while that of Ariosto is by all consent "divine," Boiardo has been almost forgotten by posterity.