Renaissance in Italy Volume V Part 22

[Footnote 424: In the first book of the _Moscheis_, line 7, he says:

Gens ceratana sinat vecchias cantare batajas, Squarzet Virgilios turba pedanta suos.

The end of the _Maccaronea_ sets forth the impossibility of modern bards contending with the great poet of antiquity. Ponta.n.u.s, Sannazzarius, all the best Latin writers of the age, pale before Virgil:

Non tamen aequatur vati quem protulit Andes, Namque vetusta nocet laus n.o.bis saepe modernis.

This refrain he repeats for each poet with whimsical reiteration.

Folengo's own ambition to take the first place among burlesque writers appears in the final lines of _Mac._ book iii.:

Mantua Virgilio gaudet, Verona Catullo, Dante suo florens urbs Tusca, c.i.p.ada Cocajo: Dicor ego superans alios levitate poetas, Ut Maro medesimos superans gravitate poetas.

The induction to the _Moscheis_ points to a serious heroic poem on Mantua which he abandoned for want of inspiration. We have in these references enough to account for the myth above mentioned.]

The reason of the G.o.d's anger was that his votary had sullied the clear springs of Hippocrene:

Nescio quas reperi musas, turpesve sorores, Nescio quas turpi carmina voce canunt.

Limpida Pegasidum vitiavi stagna profa.n.u.s, Totaque sunt limo dedecorata meo.

The exordium to the _Maccaronea_ introduces us to these vulgar Muses, _grossae Camoenae_, who fill their neophytes with maccaronic inspiration:

Jam nec Melpomene, Clio, nec magna Thalia, Nec Phoebus grattando lyram mihi carmina dictet, Qui tantos olim doctos fecere poetas; Verum cara mihi foveat solummodo Berta, Gosaque, Togna simul, Mafelina, Pedrala, Comina.

Veridicae Musae sunt hae, doctaeque sorellae; Quarum non multis habitatio nota poetis.

The holy hill of Folengo's Muses is a mountain of cheese and maccaroni, with lakes of broth and rivers of unctuous sauces:

Stant ipsae Musae super altum montis ac.u.men, Formajum gratulis durum retridando foratis.

Here he seeks them, and here they deign to crown him poet:[425]

Ergo macaronicas illic cattavimus artes, Et me grossiloquum vatem statuere sorores.

[Footnote 425: Compare _Mac._ vii. p. 195.

Nil nisi cra.s.siloquas dicor scrivisse camoenas, Cra.s.siloquis igitur dicamus magna camoenis.

This _great theme_ is nothing less than monasticism in its vilest aspects.]

We have seen already that the maccaronic style involved a free use of plebeian Italian, imbedded in a mixed ma.s.s of cla.s.sical and medieval Latinity. Folengo refined the usage of his predecessors, by improving the versification, adopting a more uniformly heroic tone, and introducing sc.r.a.ps of Mantuan dialect at unexpected intervals, so that each lapse into Italian has the force of a surprise--what the Greeks called [Greek: para prosdokian]. The comic effect is produced by a sustained epical inflation, breaking irregularly into the coa.r.s.est and least pardonable freaks of vulgarity. It is as though the poet were improvising, emulous of Virgil; but the tide of inspiration fails him, he falls short of cla.s.sical phrases to express his thoughts, and is forced in the hurry of the moment to avail himself of words and images that lie more close at hand. His Pegasus is a showy hack, who ambles on the bypaths of Parna.s.sus, dropping now and then a spavined hock and stumbling back into his paces with a snort. His war-trumpet utters a sonorous fanfaronnade; but the blower loses breath, and breaks his note, or suffers it to lapse into a lamentable quaver.

Tifi Oda.s.si, who may be regarded as Folengo's master in this species of verse, confined the Maccaronic Muse to quaintly-finished sketches in the Dutch style.[426] His pupil raised her to the dignity of Clio and composed an epic in twenty-five books. The length of this poem and the strangeness of the manner render it unpalatable to all but serious students at the present time. Its humor has evaporated, and the form itself strikes us as rococo. We experience some difficulty in sympathizing with those readers of the sixteenth century, who, perfectly acquainted with Latin poetry and accustomed to derive intellectual pleasure from its practice, found exquisite amus.e.m.e.nt in so cleverly constructed a parody. Nor is it possible for Englishmen to appreciate the more delicate irony of the vulgarisms, which Folengo adopted from one of the coa.r.s.est Italian dialects, and cemented with subtle skill upon the stately structure of his hexameters. Still we may remember that the _Maccaronea_ was read with profit by Rabelais, and that much of Butler's humor betrays a strong affinity to this antiquated burlesque.

[Footnote 426: At the end of the _Maccaronea_ I think there may be an allusion to Oda.s.si conveyed in these words, _Tifi Caroloque futuris_.]

In substance the _Maccaronea_ begins with a rehandling of the _Orlandino_. Guido, peerless among Paladins, wins the love of his king's daughter, Baldovina of France. They fly together into Italy, and she dies in giving birth to a son at c.i.p.ada, near Mantua. Guido disappears, and the boy, Baldus, is brought up by a couple of peasants. He believes himself to be their child, and recognizes the rustic boor, Zambellus, for his brother. Still the hero's nature reveals itself in the village urchin; and, like the young Orlando, Baldus performs prodigies of valor in his boyhood:

Non it post vaccas, at saepe caminat ad urbem, Ac ad Panadae dispectum praticat illam; In villam semper tornabat vespere facto, Portabatque caput fractum gambasque macatas.

When he goes to school, he begins by learning his letters with great readiness. But he soon turns away from grammar to books of chivalry:

Sed mox Orlandi nasare volumina coepit: Non vacat ultra deponentia discere verba, Non species, numeros, non casus atque figuras, Non Doctrinalis versamina tradere menti: Fecit de norma scartazzos mille Donati Inque Perotinum librum salcicia c.o.xit.

Orlandi solum, nec non fera bella Rinaldi Aggradant; animum faciebat talibus altum: Legerat Ancrojam, Tribisondam, gesta Danesi, Antonaeque Bovum, mox tota Realea Francae, Innamoramentum Carlonis et Asperamontem, Spagnam, Altobellum, Morgantis facta gigantis.

And so forth through the whole list of chivalrous romances, down to the _Orlando Furioso_ and the _Orlandino_. The boy's heart is set on deeds of daring. He makes himself the captain of a band of rogues who turn the village of c.i.p.ada upside down. Three of these deserve especial notice--Fraca.s.sus, Cingar, and Falchettus; since they became the henchmen of our hero in all his subsequent exploits. Fraca.s.sus was descended in the direct line from Morgante:

Primus erat quidam Fraca.s.sus prole gigantis, Cujus stirps olim Morganto venit ab illo, Qui bachiocconem campanae ferre solebat c.u.m quo mille hominum colpo sfraca.s.set in uno.

Cingar in like manner drew his blood from Pulci's Margutte:

Alter erat Baldi compagnus, nomine Cingar, Accortus, ladro, semper truffare paratus; Scarnus enim facie, reliquo sed corpore nervis Plenus, compressus, picolinus, brunus, et atrox, Semper habens nudam testam, rizzutus et asper.

Iste suam traxit Marguti a sanguine razzam, Qui ad calcagnos sperones ut gallus habebat Et nimio risu simia cagante morivit.

Falchettus boasted a still stranger origin:[427]

Sed quidnam de te, Falchette stupende, canemus?

Tu quoque pro Baldo bramasti prendere mortem.

Forsitan, o lecor, quae dico, dura videntur, Namque Pulicano Falchettus venit ab illo Quem scripsere virum medium, mediumque catellum; Quapropter sic sic noster Falchettus habebat Anteriora viri, sed posteriora canina.

[Footnote 427: I do not recognize Pulica.n.u.s, who is said to be the ancestor of Falchettus. Is it a misprint for Fulica.n.u.s? Fulicano is a giant in Bello's _Mambriano_, one of Folengo's favorite poems of romance.]

It would be too long to relate how Baldus received knightly education from a n.o.bleman who admired his daring; how, ignorant of his ill.u.s.trious blood, he married the village beauty Berta; and how he made himself the petty tyrant of c.i.p.ada. The exploits of his youth are a satire on the violence of local magnates, whose manners differed little from those of the peasants they oppressed. In course of time Baldus fell under the displeasure of a despot stronger than himself, and was shut up in prison.[428] In the absence of his hero from the scene, the poet now devotes himself to the exploits of Cingar among the peasants of c.i.p.ada. Without lowering his epic tone, Folengo fills five books with whimsical adventures, painting the manners of the country in their coa.r.s.est colors, and introducing pa.s.sages of stinging satire on the monks he hated.[429] Cingar, finding himself on one occasion in a convent, gives vent to a long soliloquy which expresses Folengo's own contempt for the monastic inst.i.tutions that filled Italy with rogues:

Quo diavol, ait, tanti venere capuzzi?

Nil nisi per mundum video portare capuzzos: Quisquam vult fieri Frater, vult quisque capuzzum Postquam giocarunt nummos, tascasque vodarunt, Postquam pane caret cophinum, celaria vino, In Fratres properant, datur his extemplo capuzzus.

Undique sunt isti Fratres, istique capuzzi.

Qui sint nescimus; discernare nemo valeret Tantas vest.i.tum foggias, tantosque colores: Sunt pars turchini, pars nigri, parsque morelli, Pars albi, russi, pars gialdi, parsque bretini.

Si per iter vado telluris, cerno capuzzos: Si per iter pelagi, non manc.u.m cerno capuzzos; Quando per armatos eo campos, cerno capuzzos; Sive forum subeo, sive barcam, sive tabernam, Protinus ante oculos aliquem mihi cerno capuzzum.

[Footnote 428: _Mac._ iii. The edition I quote from is that of Mantua (?) under name of Amsterdam, 1769 and 1771, 2 vols. 4to. See vol. i.

p. 117, for a satire on the frauds and injustice of a country law-court, followed by a mock heroic panegyric of the Casa Gonzaga.

The description of their celebrated stud and breed of horses may be read with interest.]

[Footnote 429: The episode of Berta's battle with her sister Laena (_Mac._ iv. p. 144), the apostrophe to old age (_Mac._ v. p. 152), the village ball (_ibid._ p. 163), the tricks played by Cingar on Zambellus (_ibid._ p. 168, and _Mac._ vi.), the description of the convent of Motella (_Mac._ vii. 196), the portrait of the ignorant parish-priest (_Mac._ vii. p. 202), the Carnival Ma.s.s (_Mac._ viii. p.

212), followed by a drunken _Ker Mess_ (_ibid._ p. 214), are all executed in the broad style of a Dutch painter, and abound in realistic sketches of Lombard country-life.]

There will soon be no one left to bear arms, till the fields, or ply the common handicrafts. All the villains make themselves monks, aspiring to ecclesiastical honors and seeking the grade of superiority denied them by their birth. It is ambition that fills the convents:

Illic n.o.bilitas sub rusticitate laborat, Ambitio quoniam villanos unica brancat.

This tirade is followed by the portrait of Prae Jacopinus, a village parson whose stupidity is only equaled by his vices. Jacopino's education in the alphabet is a masterpiece of Rabelaisian humor, and the following pa.s.sage on his celebration of the Ma.s.s brings all the sordidness of rustic ceremonial before our eyes:[430]

Praeterea Missam foggia dicebat in una, Nec crucis in fronte signum formare sciebat.

Inter Confiteor parvum discrimen et Amen Semper erat, jam jam meditans adjungere finem; Incipiebat enim nec adhuc in nomine Patris, Quod tribus in saltis veniebat ad Ite misestum.

[Footnote 430: _Mac._ vii. p. 204.]

From generalities Folengo pa.s.ses to particulars in the following description of a village Ma.s.s:[431]

Inde Jacopinus, chiamatis undique Pretis, Coeperat in gorga Missam cantare stupendam; Subsequitant alii, magnisque cridoribus instant.