Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 3

[23] See Carducci, _Cantilene_, etc. (Pisa, 1871), pp. 58-60, for thirteenth-century _rispetti_ ill.u.s.trating 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, a.s.senzio, 1817; and in a critical edition of the _Codex Vatica.n.u.s_ 3793, _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 the _De Eloquio_ in his _Saggi Critici_, Napoli, 1878, may also be consulted with advantage.

[26] "Lingua Tusca magis apta est ad literam sive literaturam quam aliae linguae, 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] See _Archivio Glottologico Italiano_, vol. ii. Villani, lib. vii.

cap. 68.

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

[32] _Ibid._ pp. 18, 22.

[33] _Ibid._ pp. 39, 42.

[34] _Ibid._ pp. 43, 45.

[35] See _ibid._ p. 45, the stanza which begins, _Matre tant _.

[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 ill.u.s.trated by the occasional poems of two Florentine painters--Giotto's Canzone on _Poverty_, and Orcagna's Sonnet on _Love_. Orcagna, in the latter, criticises the conventional blind and winged Cupid, and winds up with:

L'amore e un trastullo: Non e composto di legno ne 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. called _Napolitana_, and a Tenzone between man and woman (_ib._ p. 52), which has clearly undergone a like process, is called _Ciciliana_.

[41] See Francesco d'Ovidio, _Sul Trattato De Vulgari Eloquentia_. It is reprinted in his volume of _Saggi 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, and _Purg._ 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 a.s.signed to Folgore is 1260, and the Niccol he addresses in his series on the Months has been identified with that

Nicol, che la costuma ricca Del garofano prima discoperse,

so ungently handled by Dante in the _Inferno_, 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 a.s.sign so early a date to Folgore, and whether his Brigata was really the _brigata G.o.dereccia, 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's _Rime_, 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 ill.u.s.tration.

[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 the _Poeti 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 Durer's allegory. Like the members of the _brigata G.o.dereccia_, 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 ci 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 crying _Queste carni m'ai offerte_ would have made a fine pictorial allegory.

[60] If I were writing the history of early Tuscan poetry, I should wish here to compare the rarely beautiful poem of Lapo Gianni, _Amor eo chero_, with Folgore, and the masterly sonnets of Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, especially the one beginning _S'io fossi fuoco_, with Cene dalla Chitarra, in order to prove the fullness of sensuous and satirical inspiration in the age preceding Dante. Lapo wishes he had the beauty of Absalom, the strength of Samson; that the Arno would run balm for him, her walls be turned to silver and her paving-stones to crystal; that he might abide in eternal summer gardens among thousands of the loveliest women, listening to the songs of birds and instruments of music. The voluptuousness of Folgore is here heightened to ecstasy. Cecco desires to be fire, wind, sea, G.o.d, that he might ruin the world; the emperor, that he might decapitate its population; death, that he might seek out his father and mother; life, that he might fly from both; being Cecco, he would fain take all fair women, and leave the foul to his neighbors. The spite of Cene is deepened to insanity.

[61] See _Paradiso_, xv.; Giov. Vill. vi. 69.

CHAPTER II.

THE TRIUMVIRATE.