Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 38

Non puesc mudar q'un chantar non esparja.

This fact will seem to many minds conclusive on the point in question.

But, following the investigations of recent scholars, we find this form of verse pretty generally referred to the watch-song of the Modenese soldiers. Thus Professor Adolfo Bartoli, after quoting two lines of that song,

O tu qui servas armis ista moenia, Noli dormire, moneo, sed vigila,

adds: "qu apparisce per la prima volta il nostro verso endecasillabo, regolarmente accentato." If this, which is the view accepted by Italian critics, be right, he ought to have added that each line of the Modenese watch-song is a _sdrucciolo_ verse. Otherwise, the rhythm bears the appearance of a six-foot accentual iambic, an appearance which is confirmed by the recurrence of a single rhyme or a.s.sonance in _a_ throughout the poem. Still the strong accent on the antepenultimate syllable of every verse is sufficient to justify us in regarding the meter as _endecasillabo sdrucciolo_.

Going further back than the Modenese watch-song (date about 924), the next question is whether any of the cla.s.sic meters supplied its precedent. By reading either Horatian Sapphics or Catullian hendecasyllables without attention to quant.i.ty, we may succeed in marking the beat of the _endecasillabo piano_.[629] Thus:

Cui do|no lep|idum | novum | libellum?

and:

Serus | in coe|lum red|eas, | diuque Laetus | inter|sis po|pulo | Quirini.

When these lines are translated into literal Italian, the metamorphosis is complete. Thus:

Cui don|o il lep|ido | nuovo | libretto?

and:

Tardo in | ciel ried|i e di|utur|no serba Fausto il | tuo aspet|to al pop|ol di | Quirino.

Even Alcaics, unceremoniously handled by a shifting of the accent, which is violent disregard of quant.i.ty, yield like results. Thus:

Atqui | scie | bat quae | sibi | barbarus.

Or in Italian:

Eppur | con.o.b|be ci | ch'il man|igoldo.

The accentual Sapphics of the middle ages throw some curious light upon these trans.m.u.tations of meter. In a lament for Aquileia (tenth century) we find these lines:

Bella sublimis inclyta divitiis, Olim fuisti celsa aedificiis.

Here, instead of the Latin Sapphic, we get a loose _sdrucciolo_ rhythm.

The meter of the Serventese seems built upon this medieval Sapphic model. Here is an example[630]:

O Jeso Cristo, padre onipotente, Aprestame lo core con la mente Che rasonare possa certamente Un servientese.

When the humanistic Italians tried to write Italian Sapphics, they produced a meter not very dissimilar. Thus in the _Certamen Coronarium_[631]:

Eccomi, i' son qui Dea degli amici, Quella qual tutti li omini solete Mordere, e falso fuggitiva dirli Or la volete.

What seems tolerably certain is that the modern Italian hendecasyllable was suggested by one of the Latin eleven-syllabled meters, but that, in the decay of quant.i.tative prosody, an iambic rhythm a.s.serted itself. It has no exact correspondence in any cla.s.sic meter; but it was early developed out of the accentual Latin measures which replaced quant.i.tative meter in the middle ages. Signor Rubieri points out that there may be traces of it in the verses of Etruscan inscriptions.[632]

Nor is it impossible that the rhythm was indigenous, persisting through a long period of Graeco-Roman culture, to reappear when the rustic language threw out a modern idiom.

FOOTNOTES:

[629] See Ermolao Rubieri, _Storia della Poesia Popolare Italiana_, p.

45.

[630] Carducci, _Intorno ad Alcune Rime_, p. 107.

[631] _Opere Volgari di L.B. Alberti_, vol. i. p. ccxxv.

[632] See pa.s.sage referred to above, p. 524, note.

APPENDIX II.

_Ten Sonnets translated from Folgore da San Gemignano._

(See Chapter I. p. 55.)

_ON THE ARMING OF A KNIGHT._

I.

This morn a young squire shall be made a knight; Whereof he fain would be right worthy found, And therefore pledgeth lands and castles round To furnish all that fits a man of might.

Meat, bread and wine he gives to many a wight; Capons and pheasants on his board abound, Where serving men and pages march around; Choice chambers, torches, and wax-candle light.

Barbed steeds, a mult.i.tude, are in his thought, Mailed men at arms and n.o.ble company, Spears, pennants, housing-cloths, bells richly wrought.

Musicians following with great barony And jesters through the land his state have brought, With dames and damsels whereso rideth he.

II.

Lo Prowess, who despoileth him straightway, And saith: "Friend, now beseems it thee to strip; For I will see men naked, thigh and hip, And thou my will must know and eke obey; And leave what was thy wont until this day, And for new toil, new sweat, thy strength equip; This do, and thou shalt join my fellowship, If of fair deeds thou tire not nor cry nay."

And when she sees his comely body bare, Forthwith within her arms she him doth take, And saith: "These limbs thou yieldest to my prayer; I do accept thee, and this gift thee make, So that thy deeds may shine for ever fair, My lips shall never more thy praise forsake."

III.

Humility to him doth gently go, And saith: "I would in no wise weary thee; Yet must I cleanse and wash thee thoroughly, And I will make thee whiter than the snow.

Hear what I tell thee in few words, for so Fain am I of thy heart to hold the key; Now must thou sail henceforward after me; And I will guide thee as myself do go.

But one thing would I have thee straightway leave: Well knowest thou mine enemy is pride; Let her no more unto thy spirit cleave: So leal a friend with thee will I abide That favor from all folk thou shalt receive; This grace hath he who keepeth on my side."

IV.

Then did Discretion to the squire draw near, And drieth him with a fair cloth and clean, And straightway putteth him the sheets between, Silk, linen, counterpane, and minevere.

Think now of this! Until the day was clear, With songs and music and delight the queen, And with new knights, fair fellows well-beseen, To make him perfect, gave him goodly cheer.

Then saith she: "Rise forthwith, for now 'tis due, Thou shouldst be born into the world again; Keep well the order thou dost take in view."

Unfathomable thoughts with him remain Of that great bond he may no more eschew; Nor can he say, "I'll hide me from this chain."

V.

Comes Blithesomeness with mirth and merriment, All decked in flowers she seemeth a rose-tree; Of linen, silk, cloth, fur, now beareth she To the new knight a rich habiliment; Head-gear and cap and garland flower-besprent, So brave they were, Maybloom he seemed to be; With such a rout, so many and such glee, That the floor shook. Then to her work she went; And stood him on his feet in hose and shoon; And purse and gilded girdle neath the fur That drapes his goodly limbs, she buckles on; Then bids the singers and sweet music stir, And showeth him to ladies for a boon And all who in that following went with her.