Renaissance in Italy Volume IV Part 21

Lord, unto me be kind: Give me that peace of mind, Which in this world so blind And false dwells but with Thee.

Give me that strife and pain, Apart from which 'twere vain Thy love on earth to gain Or seek a share in Thee.

If, Lord, with Thee alone Heart's peace and love be known, My heart shall be Thine own, Ever to rest with Thee.

Here in my heart be lit Thy fire, to feed on it, Till burning bit by bit It dies to live with Thee.

Jesus, whoso with Thee Hangs not in pain or loss, Pierced on the cruel cross, At peace shall never be.

The second is an echo of Jacopone's eulogy of madness, prolonged and developed with amorous extravagance[384]:

Never was there so sweet a gladness, Joy of so pure and strong a fashion, As with zeal and love and pa.s.sion Thus to embrace Christ's holy madness.

They who are mad in Jesus, slight All that the wise man seeks and prizes; Wealth and place, pomp, pride, delight, Pleasure and fame, their soul despises: Sorrow and tears and sacrifices, Poverty, pain, and low estate, All that the wise men loathe and hate, Are sought by the Christian in his madness.

They who are fools for Christ in heaven, Should they be praised peradventure, mourn, Seeing the praise that to them is given Was taken from G.o.d; but hate and scorn With joy and gladness of soul are borne: The Christian listens and smiles for glee When he hears the taunt of his foe, for he Glories and triumphs in holy madness.

Many collections of Lauds were early committed to the press; and of these we have an excellent modern reprint in the _Laude spirituali di Feo Belcari e di altri_, which includes hymns by Castellano Castellani, Bernardo Giambullari, Francesco Albizzi, Lorenzo de' Medici, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and the Pulci brothers.[385] Studying this miscellany, we perceive that between the _Laude_ and _Ballate_ of the people there is often little but a formal difference. Large numbers are parodies of amatory or obscene songs, beginning with nearly the same words and intended to be sung to the same tunes. Thus the famous ballad, _O vaghe montanine e pastorelle_ becomes _O vaghe di Gesu, o verginelle_.[386]

The direction for singing _Crucifisso a capo chino_ is _Cantasi come--Una donna di fino amore_, which was a coa.r.s.e street song in vogue among the common folk.[387] _Vergine, alta regina_, is modeled upon _Galantina, morosina_; _I' son quella pecorella_ upon _I' son quella villanella_; _Giu per la mala via l'anima mia ne va_ on _Giu per la villa lunga la bella se ne va_.[388] Others are imitations of carnival choruses noted for their grossness and lewd innuendoes.[389] It is clear that the _Laudesi_, long before the days of Rowland Hill, discerned the advantage of not letting the devil have all the good tunes. Other parallels between the Florentine Lauds and the revival hymns of the present century might be pointed out. Yet in proportion as the Italian religious sentiment is more sensuous and erotic than that of the Teutonic nations, so are the Lauds more unreservedly emotional than the most audacious utterances of American or English Evangelicalism. As an excellent Italian critic has recently observed, the amorous and religious poems of the people were only distinguished by the difference of their object. Expression, versification, melody, pitch of sentiment, remained unaltered. "Men sang the same _strambotti_ to the Virgin and the lady of their love, to the rose of Jericho and the red rose of the balcony."[390] No notion of impropriety seems to have been suggested by this confusion of divergent feelings. Otherwise, Savonarola would hardly have suffered his proselytes to roam the streets chanting stanzas which are little better than echoes from the brothel or travesties of Poliziano's chorus of the Maenads. The Italians have never been pious in the same sense as the Northern nations. Their popular religious poetry is the lyric of emotion, the lyric of the senses losing self-restraint in an outpouring of voluptuous ecstasy. With them "music is a love-lament or a prayer addressed to G.o.d;" and both const.i.tuents of music blend and mingle indistinguishably in their hymns. As they lack the sublime Chorales of the Reformation period in Germany, so they lack the grave and meditative psalms for which Bach made his melodies.

The origins of the Italian theater were closely connected with the services of the _Laudesi_. And here it has to be distinctly pointed out that the evolution of the Sacred Drama in Italy followed a different course from that with which we are familiar in France and England.

Miracle-plays and Mysteries, properly so called, do not appear to have been common among the Italians in the early middle ages. There is, indeed, one exception to this general statement which warns us to be cautious, and which proves that the cyclical sacred play had been exhibited at least in one place at a very early date. At Cividale, in the district of Friuli, a _Ludus Christi_, embracing the princ.i.p.al events of Christian history from the Pa.s.sion to the Second Advent, was twice acted, in 1298 and 1303. From the scanty notices concerning it, we are able to form an opinion that it lasted over three days, that it was recited by the clergy, almost certainly in Latin, and that the representation did not take place in church.[391] The Friulian _Ludi Christi_ were, in fact, a Mystery of the more primitive type, corresponding to Greban's _Mystere de la Pa.s.sion_ and to our Coventry or Widkirk Miracles. But, so far as present knowledge goes, this sacred play was an isolated phenomenon, and proved unfruitful of results. We are only able to infer from it, what the close intercourse of the Italians with the French would otherwise make evident, that Mysteries were not entirely unknown in the Peninsula. Yet it seems clear, upon the other hand, that the two forms of the sacred drama specific to Italy, the Umbrian _Divozione_ and the Florentine _Sacra Rappresentazione_, were not a direct outgrowth from the Mystery. We have to trace their origin in the religious practices of the _Laudesi_, from which a species of dramatic performance was developed, and which placed the sacred drama in the hands of these lay confraternities.

At first the _Disciplinati di Gesu_ intoned their Lauds in the hall of the Company, standing before the crucifix or tabernacle of a saint, as they are represented in old wood-cuts.[392] From simple singing they pa.s.sed to antiphonal chanting, and thence made a natural transition to dialogue, and lastly to dramatic action. To trace the steps of this progress is by no means easy; nor must we imagine that it was effected wholly within the meeting-places of the confraternities without external influence. Though the Italians may not have brought the Miracle-play to the perfection it attained among the Northern nations, they were, as we have seen, undoubtedly aware of its existence. Furthermore, they were familiar with ecclesiastical shows but little removed in character from that form of medieval art. Representations of the manger at Bethlehem made part of Christmas ceremonies in Umbria, as we learn from a pa.s.sage in the works of S. Bonaventura referring to the year 1223.[393] Nor were occasions wanting when pageants enlivened the ritual of the Church.

Among liturgical dramas, enacted by priests and choristers at service time, may be mentioned the descent of the Angel Gabriel at the feast of the Annunciation, the procession of the Magi at Epiphany, the descent of the dove at Pentecost, and the Easter representation of a sepulcher from which the body of Christ had been removed. Thus the _Laudesi_ found precedents in the Liturgy itself for introducing a dramatic element into their offices.

Having a.s.sumed a more or less dramatic form, the Laud acquired the name of _Divozione_ as early as the middle of the fourteenth century. It was written in various lyric meters, beginning with six-lined stanzas in _ottonari_, pa.s.sing through hendecasyllabic _sesta rima_, and finally settling down into _ottava rima_, which became the common stanza for all forms of popular poetry in the fifteenth century.[394] The pa.s.sion of our Lord formed the princ.i.p.al theme of the _Divozioni_; for the _Laudesi_ were bound by their original const.i.tution to a special contemplation of His suffering upon the cross for sinners. The Perugian Chronicles refer to compositions of this type under the name of _Corrotto_, or song of mourning. In its highest form it was the pa.s.sionate outpouring of Mary's anguish over her crucified Son--the counterpart in poetry to the _Pieta_ of painting, for which the Giottesque masters, the Umbrian school, Crivelli, and afterwards Mantegna, reserved the strongest exhibition of their powers as dramatists. We have already seen with what a n.o.ble and dramatic dialogue Jacopone da Todi initiated this species of composition.[395] At the same time, the _Divozioni_ and the Lauds from which they sprang, embraced a wide variety of subjects, following the pa.s.sages of Scripture appointed to be read in church on festivals and Sundays. Thus the Laud for Advent dramatized the Apocalypse and introduced the episode of Antichrist. The story of the Prodigal furnished a theme for the vigil when that parable was used. It was customary to sing these compositions in the oratories after the discipline of the confraternity had been duly performed; and that they were sung, is a fact of importance which must never be forgotten. Every Company had its own collection of dramatic Lauds, forming a cycle of sacred melodramas, composed with no literary end and no theatrical effect in view, but with the simple purpose of expressing by dialogue the substance of a Scripture narrative.

An inventory of the Perugian Confraternity of S. Domenico, dated in the year 1339, includes wings and crowns for sixty-eight angels, masks for devils, a star for the Magi, a crimson robe for Christ, black veils for the Maries, two lay figures of thieves, a dove to symbolize the Holy Ghost, a coat of mail for Longinus, and other properties which prove that not Pa.s.sion-plays alone but dramas suited to Epiphany, Pentecost and the Annunciation must have been enacted at that period. Yet we have no exact means of ascertaining when the _Laudesi_ left their oratories and began to recite _Divozioni_ with action in church or on the open square. The Compagnia del Gonfalone are said to have presented a play to the Roman people in the Coliseum in 1260; but though the brotherhood was founded in that year, it is more than doubtful whether their famous Pa.s.sion dates from so early an epoch.[396] By the year 1375 it had become customary for _Laudesi_ to give representations in church, accompanied by a sermon from the pulpit. The audience a.s.sembled in the nave, and a scaffold was erected along the screen which divided the nave and transepts from the choir. Here the brethren played their pieces, while the preacher at appropriate intervals addressed the people, explaining what they were about to see upon the stage or commenting on what had been performed.[397] The actors were the Chorus, the preacher the Ch.o.r.egus. The stage was technically called _talamo_.[398] It had a large central compartment, corresponding to the "Logeion" of the Attic theater, with several smaller rooms termed _luoghi deputati_, and galleries above reserved for the celestial personages. The actors entered from a central and two side doors called _reggi_.

These Umbrian _Divozioni_ form a link between the Laud of the thirteenth and the _Sacra Rappresentazione_ of the fifteenth century. They still--in form at least, if not in sacred character--survive in the _Maggi_ of the Tuscan peasantry, which are yearly acted among the villages of the Lucchese and Pistojese highlands.[399] It is difficult to say how far we are justified in regarding them as wholly different in type from the Northern Miracle-plays. That they originated in the oratories of lay brotherhoods, and that they retained the character of Lauds to be sung after they had a.s.sumed dramatic shape, may be reckoned as established points. Moreover, they lack the cyclical extension and the copious admixture of grotesquely comic elements which mark the French and English Mysteries. Yet we have already seen that such Mysteries were not entirely unknown in Italy, and that the liturgical drama, performed by ecclesiastics, had been from early times a part of Church ceremonial on holy days. We are, therefore, justified in accepting the _Divozioni_ as the Italian species of a genus which was common to the medieval nations. The development of Gothic architecture in Central Italy might furnish an ill.u.s.tration. Its differentiation from the grander and more perfect type of French and English Gothic does not const.i.tute a separate style.

To bridge the interval between the _Divozione_, used in Umbria, and the _Sacra Rappresentazione_, as it appeared at Florence, is rendered impossible by the present lack of doc.u.ments. Still there seems sufficient reason to believe that the latter was evolved from the former within the precincts of the confraternities. In the _Sacra Rappresentazione_ the religious drama of Italy reached its highest point of development, and produced a form of art peculiar to Florence and the Tuscan cities. Though it betrays certain affinities to the Northern Miracle-play, which prove familiarity with the French _Mysteres_ on the part at least of some among the playwrights, it is clearly a distinct kind. As in the case of the Umbrian _Divozioni_, so here the absence of grotesque episodes is striking; nor do we find connected series of _Sacre Rappresentazioni_, embracing the Christian history in a cyclical dramatic work. This species flourished for about fifty years, from 1470 to 1520. These dates are given approximately; for though we know that the Sacred Drama of Florence did not long survive the second decade of the sixteenth century, we cannot ascertain the period of its origin. The _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ we possess in print, almost all written within the last thirty years of the fifteenth century, present so marked a similarity of style and structure that they must have been preceded by a series of experiments which fixed and conventionalized their form. Like the _Divozioni_, they were in the hands of confraternities, who caused them to be acted at their own expense. Since these Companies were wealthy, and included members of the best Florentine families, their plays were put upon the stage with pomp. The actors were boys belonging to the brotherhoods, directed by a Chorodidascalus called _Festajuolo_.

S. Antonino, the good archbishop, promoted the custom of enrolling youths of all cla.s.ses in religious Companies, seeking by such influences to encourage sound morality and sober living. The most fashionable brotherhoods were those of San Bastiano or Del Freccione, Del Vangelista or Dell'Aquila, Dell'Arcangelo Raffaello or Della Scala--the name of the saint or his ensign being indifferently used. Representations took place either in the oratory of the Company, or in the refectory of a convent.

Meadows at Fiesole and public squares were also chosen for open-air performances.[400] The _libretti_ were composed in octave stanzas, with pa.s.sages of _terza rima_, and were sung to a recitative air. Interludes of part-songs, with accompaniment of lute and viol, enlivened the simple _cantilena_; and there is no doubt, from contemporary notices, that this music was of the best. The time selected was usually after vespers. The audience were admitted free of cost, but probably by invitation only to the friends and relatives of the young actors. _Sacra Rappresentazione_ was the generic name of the show; but we meet with these subordinate t.i.tles, _Festa_, _Mistero_, _Storia_, _Vangelo_, _Figura_, _Esemplo_, _Pa.s.sione_, _Martirio_, _Miracolo_, according to the special subject-matter of the play in question.

D'Ancona, in his book on the Origins of the Italian Drama, suggests that the _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ were developed by a blending of the Umbrian _Divozioni_ with the civic pageants of S. John's day at Florence. This theory is plausible enough to deserve investigation; especially as many points relating to the nature of the performances will be elucidated in the course of the inquiry. We must, however, be cautious not to take for granted that D'Ancona's conclusions have been proved. The researches of that eminent literary antiquarian, in combination with those made by Professor Monaci, are but just beginning to throw light on this. .h.i.therto neglected topic.

From the Chroniclers of the fifteenth century we have abundant testimony that in all parts of Italy sacred and profane shows formed a prominent feature of munic.i.p.al festivals, and were exhibited by the burghers of the cities when they wished to welcome a distinguished foreigner, or to celebrate the election of their chief magistrates.[401] Thus Sigismund, King of the Romans, was greeted at Lucca in 1432 by a solemn triumph.

Perugia gratified Eugenius IV. in 1444 with the story of the Minotaur, the tragedy of Iphigenia, the Nativity and the Ascension.[402] The popular respect for S. Bernardino found expression at Siena in a pageant, when the Papal Curia, in 1450, issued letters for his canonization.[403] Frederick III. was received in 1452 at Naples with the spectacle of the Pa.s.sion. Leonora of Aragon, on her way through Rome in 1473 to Ferrara, witnessed a series of pantomimes, profane and sacred, splendidly provided by Pietro Riario, the Cardinal of San Sisto.[404] The triumphs of the Popes on entering office filled the streets of Rome with dramatic exhibitions, indifferently borrowed from Biblical and cla.s.sic history. At Parma in 1414 the students celebrated the election of Andrea di Sicilia to a chair in their university by a procession of the Magi.[405] When the head of S. Andrew entered Rome in 1462, the citizens and prelates testified their joy with figurative pomps.[406] Viterbo in the same year enjoyed a variety of splendid exhibitions, Cardinal vying with Cardinal in magnificence, upon the festival of Corpus Domini.[407]

The pageants above-mentioned formed but prolusions to the yearly feast of S. John at Florence.[408] Florence had, as it were, the monopoly of such shows; and we know from many sources that Florentine artists were employed in distant cities for the preparation of spectacles which they had brought to perfection in their own town. An extract from Matteo Palmieri's Chronicle, referring to the year 1454, brings this Midsummer rejoicing vividly before the reader's mind.[409] It is an accurate description of the order followed at that period in the exhibition of pantomimic pageants by the guilds and merchants of the town. "On the 22d day of June the Cross of S. Maria del Fiore moved first, with all the clergy and children, and behind them seven singing men. Then the Companies of James the wool-shearer and Nofri the shoe-maker, with some thirty boys in white and angels. Thirdly, the Tower (_edifizio_) of S.

Michael, whereupon stood G.o.d the Father in a cloud (_nuvola_); and on the Piazza, before the Signoria, they gave the show (_rappresentazione_) of the Battle of the Angels, when Lucifer was cast out of heaven.

Fourthly, the Company of Ser Antonio and Piero di Mariano, with some thirty boys clothed in white and angels. Fifthly, the Tower of Adam, the which on the Piazza gave the show of how G.o.d created Adam and Eve, with the Temptation by the serpent and all thereto pertaining. Sixthly, a Moses upon horseback, attended by many mounted men of the chiefs in Israel and others. Seventhly, the Tower of Moses, which upon the Piazza gave the show of the Delivery of the Law. Eighthly, many Prophets and Sibyls, including Hermes Trismegistus and others who foretold the Incarnation of our Lord." With this list Palmieri proceeds at great length, reckoning in all twenty-two Towers. The procession, it seems, stopped upon its pa.s.sage to exhibit tableaux; and these were so arranged that the whole Scripture history was set forth in dumb show, down to the Last Day. The representation of each tableau and the moving of the pageant through the streets and squares of Florence lasted sixteen hours. It will be observed that, here at least, a cyclical exposition of Christian doctrine, corresponding to the comprehensive Mysteries of the North, was attempted in pantomime. The Towers, we may remark in pa.s.sing, were wooden cars, surmounted with appropriate machinery, on which the actors sat and grouped themselves according to their subject. They differed in no essentials from the Triumphal Chariots of carnival time, as described by Vasari in his Lives of Piero di Cosimo and Pontormo.

From an anonymous Greek writer who visited Florence in the train of John Palaeologus, we gather some notion of the effect produced upon a stranger by these pageants.[410] He describes the concourse of the Florentines, and gives the measure of his own astonishment by saying: "They work prodigies in this feast, and miracles, or at least the representation of miracles."

Vasari in his life of Il Cecca contributes much valuable information concerning the machinery used in the shows of S. John's Day.[411] The Piazza of the Duomo was covered in with a broad blue awning--similar, we may suppose, to that veil of deeper and lighter azure bands which forms the background to Fra Lippi's "Crowning of the Virgin." This was sown with golden lilies, and was called a Heaven. Beneath it were the clouds, or _Nuvole_, exhibited by various civic guilds. They were constructed of substantial wooden frames, supporting an almond-shaped aureole, which was thickly covered with wool, and surrounded with lights and cherub faces. Inside it sat the person who represented the saint, just as Christ and Madonna are represented in the pictures of the Umbrian school. Lower down, projected branches made of iron, bearing children dressed like angels, and secured by waist-bands in the same way as the fairies of our transformation scenes. The wood-work and the wires were hidden from sight by wool and cloth, plentifully sprinkled with tinsel stars. The whole moved slowly on the backs of bearers concealed beneath the frame. Vasari attributes the first invention of these and similar _ingegni_ to Filippo Brunelleschi. Their similarity to what we know about the _pegmata_ of Roman triumphs, renders this a.s.sertion probable.

Brunelleschi's study of ancient art may have induced him to adapt a cla.s.sical device to the requirements of Christian pageantry. When designed on a colossal scale and stationary, these _Nuvole_ were known by the name of _Paradiso_. Another prominent feature in the Midsummer Show was the procession of giants and giantesses mounted upon stilts, and hooded with fantastic masks. Men marched in front, holding a pike to balance these unwieldy creatures; but Vasari states that some specialists in this craft were able to walk the streets on stilts six cubits high, without a.s.sistance. Then there were _spiritelli_--lighter and winged beings, raised aloft to the same height, and shining down like genii from their giddy alt.i.tude in sunlight on the crowd.

Whether we are right or not in a.s.suming with D'Ancona that the _Sacra Rappresentazione_ was a hybrid between the Umbrian _Divozione_ and these pageants, there is no doubt that the Florentine artists, and _Ingegnieri_, were equal to furnishing the stage with richness. The fraternities spared no expense, but secured the services of the best designers. They also employed versifiers of repute to compose their libretti. It must be remembered that these texts were written for boys, and were meant to be acted by boys. Thus there came into existence a peculiar type of sacred drama, displaying something childish in its style, but taxing the ingenuity of scene-painters, mechanicians, architects, musicians, and poets, to produce a certain calculated theatrical effect. When we remember how these kindred arts flourished in the last decades of the fifteenth century, we are justified in believing that the _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ offered a spectacle no less beautiful than curious and rare.

An examination of a few of these plays in detail will help us to understand one of the most original products of the popular Italian literature. With this object, I propose to consider the three volumes of reprints, edited with copious ill.u.s.trations by Professor Alessandro d'Ancona.[412] But before proceeding to render an account of the forty-three plays included in this collection, it will be well to give some notice of the men who wrote them, to describe their general character, and to explain the manner of their presentation on the stage.

The authors of _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ are frequently anonymous; but Lorenzo de' Medici, Antonio Alamanni, Bernardo Pulci and his wife Monna Antonia contribute each a sacred drama. The best were written by Feo Belcari and Castellano Castellani. Of the latter very little is known, except that in the year 1517 he exercised the priestly functions at Florence and was a prolific writer of Lauds. Feo Belcari, a Florentine citizen, born in 1410, held civic offices of distinction during the ascendency of Casa Medici. He was a man of birth and some learning, who devoted himself to the production of literature in prose and verse intended for popular edification. His Lauds are among the best which have descended from the fifteenth century, and his translation of the Lives of the Fathers into Tuscan is praised for purity of style. When he died, in 1484, "poor, weak, and white-haired," Girolamo Benivieni, the disciple of Savonarola and the greatest sacred singer of that age, composed his elegy in verses of mingled sweetness and fervor[413]:

Tace il celeste suon, gia spenta e morta e l'armonia di quella dolce lira, Che 'l mondo afflitto or lascia, e 'l ciel conforta.

E come parimenti si sospira Qui la sua morte, cos in ciel s'allegra Chi alla nuova armonia si volge e gira.

Felice lui che dalla infetta e negra Valle di pianti al ciel n'e gito, e 'n terra Lasciata ha sol la veste inferma ed egra, Ed or dal mondo e dall'orribil guerra De' vizi sciolto, il suo splendor vagheggia Nel volto di Colui che mai non erra.

As regards their form, the _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ are never divided into acts; but the copious stage-directions prove that the scenes were shifted, and in one or two instances secular interludes are introduced in the pauses of the action.[414] The drama follows the tale or legend without artistic structure of plot; nor do the authors appear to have aimed, except in subordinate episodes, at much development of character.

What they found ready to their hand in prose, they versified. The same fixed personages, and the same traditional phrases recur with singular monotony, proving that a conventional framework and style had become stereotyped. The end in view was religious edification. Therefore mere types of virtue in saints and martyrs, types of wickedness in tyrants and persecutors, sufficed alike for authors, actors, and audience. True dramatic genius emerges only in the minor parts, where a certain freedom of handling and effort after character-drawing are discernible. The success of the play depended on the movement of the story, and the attractions of the scenery, costumes and music. It was customary for an angel to prologize and to dismiss the audience[415]; but his place is once at least taken by a young man with a lute.[416] A more dramatic opening was occasionally attempted in a conversation between two boys of Florence, the one good and the other bad; and instead of the _licenza_ the scene sometimes closed with a _Te Deum_, or a Laud sung by the actors and probably taken up by the spectators. Castellani in his _Figliuol Prodigo_ made good use of the dramatic opening, gradually working the matter of his play out of a dialogue which begins with a smart interchange of Florentine chaff.[417] It would be useless even to attempt a translation of this scene. The raciness of its obsolete street-slang would evaporate, and the fiber of the piece is not strong enough to bear rude handling. It must suffice to indicate its rare dramatic quality. Students of our own Elizabethan literature may profitably compare this picture of manners with similar pa.s.sages in _Hycke Scorner_ or _l.u.s.ty Juventus_. But the Florentine interlude is more fairly representative of actual life than any part of our Moralities. Castellani's Prodigal Son, however, rises altogether to a higher artistic level than the ordinary; and the same may be said about the _Miracolo di S. Maria Maddalena_, where a simple dramatic motive is interwoven with the action of the whole piece and made to supply a proper ending.[418]

As a rule, the _Sacre Rappresentazioni_ partook of the character of a religious service. Their tone is uniformly pious. Yet the spirit of the age and the nature of the Italians were alike unfavorable to piety of a true temper. Here it is unctuous, caressing, sentimental--anything but vigorous or virile. The monastic virtues are highly extolled; and an unwholesome view of life seen from the cloister by some would-be saint, who "winks and shuts his apprehension up" to common facts of experience, is too often presented. Vice is sincerely condemned; yet the morality of these exhibitions cannot be applauded. Instead of the stern lessons of humanity conveyed in a drama like that of Athens or of England, the precepts of the pulpit and confessional are enforced with a childish simplicity that savors more of cloistral pietism than of true knowledge of the world. Mere belief in the intercession of saints and the efficacy of relics is made to cover all crimes; while the anti-social enthusiasms of dreamy boys and girls are held up for imitation. We feel that we are reading what a set of feeble spiritual directors wrote with a touch of conscious but well-meaning insincerity for children. The glaring contrast between the professed asceticism of the fraternities and the future conduct of their youthful members in the world of the Renaissance leaves a suspicion of hypocrisy.[419] This impression is powerfully excited by Lorenzo de' Medici's _Rappresentazione di S. Giovanni e Paolo_, which was acted by his children. The tone is not, indeed, so unctuous as that of Castellani. Yet when we remember what manner of man was Lorenzo; when we reflect what parts were played by his sons, Piero and Leo X., upon the stage of Italy; the sanctimonious tone of its frigid octave stanzas fails to impose on our credulity.

An adequate notion of the scenic apparatus of the _Rappresentazioni_ may be gathered from the stage-directions to _S. Uliva_ and from the interludes described in Giovanmaria Cecchi's _Esaltazione della Croce_.[420] The latter piece was acted in Florence on the occasion of Ferrando de' Medici's marriage to Cristina of Lorraine, in 1589. It belongs, therefore, to the very last of these productions. Yet, judging by Vasari's account of the _Ingegni_, we may a.s.sume that the style of presentation was traditional, and that a Florentine Company of the fifteenth century might have put a play upon the stage with at least equal pomp. The prose description of the apparatus and the interludes reads exactly like the narrative portion of Ben Jonson's Masks at Court, in which the poet awards due praise to the "design and invention" of Master Inigo Jones and to the millinery of Signor Forobosco.[421] It was indeed, a custom derived by England from Italy for the poet to set forth a minute record of his own designs together with their execution by the co-operating architects, scene-painters, musicians, dress-makers, and morris-dancers. The architect, says Cecchi, was one Taddeo di Leonardo Landini, a member of the Compagnia, skilled in sculpture as well as an excellent machinist. He arranged the field, or _prato_, of the Compagnia di S. Giovanni in the form of a theater, covered with a red tent, and painted with pictures of the Cross considered as an instrument of shameful death, as a precious relic, and as the reward of virtue in this life. Emblems, scrolls and heraldic achievements completed the adornment of the theater. When the curtain rose for the first time, Jacob was seen in a meadow, "asleep with his head on certain stones, dressed in costly furs slung across his shoulder, with a thin shirt of fine linen beneath, cloth-of-silver stockings and fair buskins on his feet, and in his hand a gilt wand." While he slept, heaven opened, and seven angels appeared seated upon clouds, and making "a most pleasant noise with horns, greater and less viols, lutes and organ ... the music of this and all the other interludes was the composition of Luca Bati, a man in this art most excellent." When they had played and sung, the cloud disclosed, and showed a second heaven, where sat G.o.d the Father.[422] All the angels worshiped Him, and heaven increased in splendor. Then a ladder was let down, and G.o.d, leaning upon it, turned to Jacob and "sang majestically to the sound of many instruments, in a sonorous ba.s.s voice." Thereupon angels descended and ascended by the ladder, singing a hymn in honor of the Cross; and at last the clouds closed round, heaven disappeared and Jacob woke from sleep. Such was the introduction to the drama. Between the first and second acts was shown, with no less exuberance of scenical resources, the exodus of Israel from Egypt; between the second and third, the miracle of Aaron's rod that blossomed; between the third and fourth, the elevation of the Brazen Serpent; between the fourth and fifth, the ecstasy of David dancing before the ark "to the sound of a large lute, a violin, a trombone, but more especially to his own harp."

After the fifth act the play was concluded with a pageant of religious chivalry--the Knights of Malta, S. James, S. Maurice, and the Teutonic Order--who had fought for the Cross, and to whom, amid thunderings and lightnings, as they stood upon the stage, was granted the vision of "Religion, habited in purest white, full of majesty, with the triple tiara and the crossed keys of S. Peter, holding in her hand a large and most resplendent cross, adorned with diamonds, rubies and emeralds." The resources of a theater which could place so many actors on the stage at once, and attempt the illusion of clouds and angels, bringing into play the machinery of transformation scenes, and enriching the whole with a varied accompaniment of music, must have been considerable. Those who have spent an hour in the Teatro Farnese at Parma, erected of wood for a similar occasion, may be able to summon by the aid of the imagination a shadow of this spectacle before their eyes. That the effect was not wholly grotesque, though the motives were so hazardous, can be understood from Milton's description of the descent of Mercy in his Christmas Ode.[423]

For the play of _S. Uliva_, though first known to us in a Florentine reprint of 1568, we may a.s.sume a more popular origin than that of Cecchi's Mystery of the Cross. It abounds in rare Renaissance combinations of pagan with Christian mythology. The action extended over two days and was interrupted at intervals by dumb shows and lyrical interludes connected only by a slight thread with the story. At one time a chase was brought upon the stage. On other occasions pictures, described with minute attention to details, were presented to the audience in Tableaux Vivants. These pictures vividly recall the style of Florentine masters, Piero di Cosimo or Sandro Botticelli. "In the interval," say the stage-directions to the players, "you will cause three women, well-beseen, to issue, one of them attired in white, one in red, the other in green, with golden b.a.l.l.s in their hands, and with them a young man robed in white; and let him, after looking many times first on one and then on another of these damsels, at last stay still and say the following verses, gazing at her who is clad in green." This is the Mask of Hope. In another part the fable of Narcissus has to be presented, and directions are given for the disappearance of Echo, who is to repeat the final syllables of the boy's lament. "After he has uttered all these complaints, let him thrice with a loud voice cry slowly Ahime, Ahime, Ahime! and let the nymph reply, and having thus spoken let him stretch himself upon the ground and lie like one dead; and within a little s.p.a.ce let there issue forth four or more nymphs clad in white, without bows and with dishevelled hair, who, when they have come where the youth lies dead, shall surround him in a circle and at last having wrapped him in a white cloth, carry him within, singing this song[424]:

"Fly forth in bliss to heaven, Thou happy soul and fair, To find thy planet there, and haunt the skies; Leaving the tears and sighs Of this low-lying earth, Where man hath sorry mirth, as thou dost know!

Bask in the fervent glow Of that pure light divine, Which on thy path shall shine, and be thy guide.

Nay, soul, thou hast not died, But still more life hast thou, Albeit unbodied now thou art at rest.

O soul, divinely blest, Enjoy the eternal mind, There dwelling unconfined through nights and days!

Heaven's angels stand and gaze Upon thy glorious eyes, Up there in Paradise! In crowds they come!

Now hast thou found thy home; Now art thou blithe and blest; Dwell now for aye at rest, pure placid soul!"

For another interlude a May-day band of girls attired in flower-embroidered dresses and youths with crowns of ivy on their heads are marshaled by Dan Cupid. They sing a song of which the following is a free translation:

Let earth herself adorn With gra.s.ses and fresh flowers, And let cold hearts, these hours, in love's fire burn.

Let field, let forest turn To bloom this morn of May, That the whole world to-day may leap and sing.

Let love within us spring, Banishing winter's smart, Waking within our heart sweet thoughts and fair.

Let little birds in air Sing yonder boughs above; Each young man tell his love to his own maid; And girls through mead and glade, With honest eyes and meek Fixed on their lovers, seek true troth to plight.

From field and mountain height To-day cold snows are fled; No clouds sail overhead; up springs clear morn.

Let violets be born, Let leaves and gra.s.ses sprout, And children wander out, garlands to twine.

In every dingle shine Flowers white and blue and red, Roses and lilies shed perfume around.

Maidens with May-blooms crowned Through copse and meadow stray, Singing their thoughts to-day, their sweet thoughts pure.

Let none be too demure; Innocence marries mirth, And from the jocund earth green laurels spring.

Come, Love, and blessings bring; Chase sorrow, scatter care; Make all men happy there, soul-full of ease.

Soothe pain, soothe jealousies, That with their restless flame Feed on man's heart: no shame, no grief be near.

Night and the G.o.d of Sleep again amuse the audience with an allegorical mask; and the seven deadly sins, figured as men, women and beasts, march across the stage. At no great distance from a vision of Judgment, the Sirens are introduced after this fashion: "Now goes the King to Rome; and you, meanwhile, make four women, naked, or else clothed in flesh-colored cloth, rise waist-high from the sea, with tresses to the wind, and let them sing as sweetly as may be the ensuing stanzas twice; in the which while shall two or three of you come forth, and seem to fall asleep on earth at the hearing of the song, except one only, who shall be armed, and with closed ears shall pa.s.s the sea unstayed, and let the said women take those who sleep and cast them in the waves."

When we reach Uliva's wedding, we meet with the following quaint rubric: "If you wish to beguile the weariness caused by the length of the show, and to make the spectators take more delight in this than in any other interlude, then you must give them some taste of these bridals by providing a general banquet; but if you mislike the expense, then entertain the players only." It would seem that _S. Uliva_ was acted on the _prato_ of the confraternity, where a booth had been erected.

The forty-three plays comprised in D'Ancona's volumes may be arranged in three cla.s.ses--those which deal with Bible stories or Church doctrine based on Scripture; dramatized Legends of the saints; and _Novelle_ transformed into religious fables. Among the first sort may be mentioned plays of Abraham and Isaac, Joseph, Tobias and Raphael, and Esther; the Annunciation, the Nativity, S. John in the Desert, Christ preaching in the Temple, the Conversion of the Magdalen, the Prodigal Son, the Pa.s.sion and Resurrection of our Lord, and the Last Judgment. The _Nativita di Cristo_ opens with a pastoral reminding us of French _Mysteres_ and English Miracle-plays.[425] The shepherds are bivouacking on the hills of Bethlehem when the angel appears to them. For Tudde, Harvye, Houcken, and Trowle of our Chester play, we find these southern names, Bobi di Farucchio, Nencio di Pucchio, Randello, Nencietto, and so forth. But the conduct of the piece is the same. The Italian hinds discuss their cheese and wine and bread just as the clowns of Cheshire talk about "ale of Hatton," "sheep's head sowsed in ale," and "sour milk." Such points of similarity are rare, however; for the _Rappresentazioni_ were the growth of more refined conditions, and showed their origin in sentiment and pathos. The anonymous play of _Mary Magdalen_ rises to a higher level of dramatic art than any sacred play in English.[426] Her story, as told in these scenes, is the versified _novella_ of a Vittoria Accoramboni or a Bella Imperia converted by the preaching of S. Bernardino or Savonarola. It might have happened in Rome or Florence or Perugia. Magdalen, the lady of n.o.ble blood but famous with ill-fame, fair of person and of heaven-bright countenance, who dresses splendidly and lives with many lovers, spending her days in the pleasure of rich banquets and perfumed baths, delighting her heart with the music of lyres and flutes and the voices of young men, appears before us with a reality that proves how deep a hold upon the poet's fancy her picturesque tale had taken. Martha, her good but commonplace sister, forms a foil to the more impa.s.sioned and radiant figure of Magdalen. She has been cured by Christ, and has heard Him preach. Now she entreats her sister but to go and listen, for never man spake words like His. Magdalen scoffs: "Why should I be d.a.m.ned because I do not follow your strange life? There is time for me to enjoy my youth, and then to make my peace with G.o.d, and Paradise will open wide for me at last." Her friend Marcella enters with another argument: "O Magdalen, if you did but know how fair and gracious are his eyes! Surely he has come forth straight from heaven; could you but see him once, your heart would never be divided from him." This touches the right spring in Magdalen's mind. She will not go to hear the words of Christ, but the face and form that came from Paradise allure her. Besides, in the church where Christ will preach, there will be found new lovers and men in mult.i.tudes to gaze at her. Her maidens array her in gold and crimson, and bind up her yellow hair; and forth she rides in all her bravery surrounded by her suitors. What follows may best be told by a translation of the stage-directions and a pa.s.sage of the play itself.

And at these last verses Jesus enters the temple; and having gone up into the pulpit, he begins to preach and to say with a loud voice, "h.o.m.o quidam peregre proficiscens vocavit servos suos et tradidit illis bona sua." Now comes Magdalen with her company, and her young men prepare for her a seat before the pulpit, and she in all her pomp takes her place upon it, regarding her own pleasure, nor paying heed as yet to Jesus.

Afterward, Jesus looks at her and goes on preaching, always keeping his most holy gaze bent upon her; and she, after the first stanza of the sermon, looks at him, and her eyes meet those of Jesus. Then he goes on preaching, and says as follows: