The Century of Columbus Part 31

Ariosto's other poems, besides his Epic, are of minor significance. He wrote a series of satires that are rather chatty essays, on subjects literary and personal, in verse, than satires in our sense of the word. Above all, Ariosto took his own disappointments in life good-humoredly, and his optimism would remind one of Cervantes in certain ways. Garnett in his "History of Italian Literature" (page 151) says, "His lyrical pieces are not remarkable, except one impressive sonnet in which he appears to express compunction for the irregularities of his life:

"How may I deem that Thou in heaven wilt hear, O Lord divine, my fruitless prayer to Thee, If for all clamor of the tongue Thou see That yet unto the heart the net is dear?

Sunder it Thou, who all behold'st so clear, Nor heed the stubborn will's oppugnancy.

And this do Thou perform, ere, fraught with me, Charon to Tartarus his pinnace steer.

By habitude of ill that veils Thy light.

And sensual lure, and paths in error trod.

Evil from good no more I know aright.

Ruth for frail soul submissive to the rod May move a mortal; in her own despite To drag her heavenward is work of G.o.d."

In Italy the _sacre rappresentazioni,_ as the Miracle and Mystery plays were called, had a distinct period of development, though not equal to that of the English, and good specimens of them have not been preserved for us. We have evidence of the influence of them, however, in the fact that some of the scholarly poets of the time wrote plays founded on the myths of the old Olympian religion after the model of some of these mystery plays. Politian's _"Orfeo"_ is perhaps the best example of this. It was little better than an improvisation composed in the short s.p.a.ce of two days at Mantua on the {446} occasion of Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga's visit to his native town in 1472, but it marks an epoch in the evolution of Italian poetry. Addington Symonds has even gone so far as to say that "it is the earliest example of the secular drama, containing within the compa.s.s of its brief scenes the germ of the opera, the tragedy and the pastoral play." It contained portions that were to be sung as well as to be spoken, and there are episodes of _terza rima,_ Madrigals, a Carnival song, a Ballata as well as the choral pa.s.sages that are distinctly operatic. After Orpheus has violated the law that he must not look upon his wife until they have reached the upper world, his complaint is of lyric quality that has something of the Grecian choric ode in it. Addington Symonds in his "Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe" has translated the pa.s.sages so as to give an excellent idea of the character of the play:

"Who hath laid laws on Love?

Will pity not be given For one short look so full thereof?

Since I am robbed of heaven, Since all my joy so great is turned to pain, I will go back and plead with Death again!

TISIPHONE

Nay, seek not back to turn!

Vain is thy weeping, all thy words are vain.

Eurydice may not complain Of aught but thee--albeit her grief is great.

Vain are thy verses 'gainst the voice of fate!

How vain thy song! For death is stern!

Try not the backward path: thy feet refrain!

The laws of the abyss are fixed and firm remain."

Addington Symonds has given a number of examples of the popular Italian poetry of the Renaissance [Footnote 44] which show the qualities of this mode of literature very well, and above all ill.u.s.trate how like in its character it is to the lighter modes of {447} verse at all times and especially our own. Politian, the great scholar whose learning filled the lecture rooms of Florence with students of all nations and whose critical and rhetorical works marked an epoch in the history of scholarship, was able to unbend at times and write _ballate,_ as they were called, though they were very different from our ballads, which were to be sung during the dances in the piazzas on summer evenings. Stanzas from some of these will serve to show their character. The last stanza, for instance, of his May Ballad is on the world-old theme, "Gather ye rose-buds while ye may."

"I went a-roaming, maidens, one bright day.

In a green garden in mid month of May.

For when the full rose quits her tender sheath.

When she is sweetest and most fair to see.

Then is the time to place her in thy wreath, Before her beauty and her freshness flee.

Gather ye therefore roses with great glee.

Sweet girls, or ere their perfume pa.s.s away.

I went a-roaming, maidens, one bright day, In a green garden in mid month of May."

[Footnote 44: "Sketches and Studies in Southern Europe,"

New York, 1880]

Many of the Italian scholars of the period gave the time to the writing of ballads, and one which has been ascribed to Lorenzo dei Medici is often quoted. In it the word _signore,_ which means lord, is used instead of the name of the lady, because she is the lord of the singer's soul.

"How can I sing light-souled and fancy-free When my loved lord no longer smiles on me?

One only comfort soothes my heart's despair.

And mid this sorrow lends my soul some cheer; Unto my lord I ever yielded fair Service of faith untainted pure and clear; If then I die thus guiltless, on my bier It may be she will shed one tear for me. {448}

How can I sing light-souled and fancy-free When my loved lord no longer smiles on me?"

These ballads were often on the pagan theme of s.n.a.t.c.hing life's opportunities while one might, a popular expression of the Renaissance time, an echo of Horace's _Carpe diem,_ "s.n.a.t.c.h the day," which the Roman had taken from his Greek models. Every now and then, however, there is a more serious note in the Carnival songs written to be sung during the revels at the Carnival time, when it is surprising to find such a thought emphasized. One of the best known of these Carnival songs is attributed to Lorenzo de' Medici:

"Fair is youth and void of sorrow; But it hourly flies away.

Youths and maids, enjoy to-day; Naught ye know about to-morrow.

Midas treads a wearier measure: All he touches turns to gold: If there be no taste of pleasure, What's the use of wealth untold?

What's the joy his fingers hold, When he's forced to thirst for aye?

Youths and maids, enjoy to-day; Naught ye know about to-morrow."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PALMA VECCHIO, POET (SOMETIMES CALLED ARIOSTO)]

After Lorenzo's death one of these Carnival songs, to express the grief of his people for him, written by Antonio Alamanni, was sung by maskers habited as skeletons who rode on a car of death, the music to it being that of a dead march. As a contrast to the less serious songs it is worth quoting:

"Sorrow, tears, and penitence Are our doom of pain for aye: This dead concourse riding by Hath no cry but penitence! {449}

E'en as you are, once were we: You shall be as now we are: We are dead men, as you see: We shall see you dead men, where Naught avails to take great care.

After sins, of penitence.

We too in the Carnival Sang our love-songs through the town Thus from sin to sin we all Headlong, heedless, tumbled down;-- Now we cry, the world around.

Penitence! oh, penitence!

Senseless, blind, and stubborn fools!

Time steals all things as he rides: Honors, glories, states, and schools, Pa.s.s away, and naught abides; Till the tomb our carca.s.s hides.

And compels this penitence."

Strange as it may seem, the Italian prose of Columbus' Century has had a wider vogue and influence than its poetry. Two literary springs in prose have flowed out of Italy--fiction and history. The greatest of modern historical writers is undoubtedly Machiavelli. His name has been so much deprecated because of the doctrines that he is thought to have suggested that very few people realize what a profound student of human nature he was and how deep was his philosophy. His famous book, _"Il Principe"_ (The Prince), was written within a decade of Columbus'

death and at once attracted wide attention. This great political monograph is a calm a.n.a.lysis of the various methods whereby an ambitious conscienceless man may rise to sovereign power. It is usually supposed to be a setting forth of his own absolutely principleless philosophy. As a matter of fact, it is quite as much a lesson in politics for all the world, and while it might be studied faithfully by a man who wanted to usurp sovereign authority in a free state, it contains a series of lessons, which he who {450} runs may read, for all citizens to know just how the downfall of their liberties may be brought about. There probably was never a contribution to political philosophy that has attracted so much attention. It is one of the few books that the serious politicians of all countries and nearly every generation since Machiavelli's time have considered it worth while to read. As a matter of fact, it is esteemed so highly as a human doc.u.ment that it is almost considered a serious defect in scholarship for anyone who claims to be educated to confess ignorance of it.

After a set of discourses on Livy, Machiavelli was commissioned to write the history of Florence. This is the first attempt in any literature to trace the political life of a people, showing all the forces at work upon them and the consequent effects. He places the portrait of Florence on the background of a very striking group of pictures drawn from Italian history. Necessarily, since he was employed at their suggestion for the purpose, the Medici are given a place of first rank and very great prominence. This was not mere subserviency, however, but was a very proper estimation of the role played by that house in the fortunes of Florence. He puts into the mouths of his historical characters speeches after the manner of Livy and Thucydides, and some of these speeches are masterpieces of Italian oratory. His style is vigorous and without any thought of ornamentation, informed only by the effort to express his meaning completely and forcibly. Later he wrote a play which John Addington Symonds, the English critic whose deep knowledge of Italian literature gives his opinion much weight, did not hesitate to call "the ripest and most powerful single play in the Italian language." There may be difference of opinion as to Machiavelli's place in philosophy, and above all in ethics, but there can be no doubt about his genius as an historian and a writer, as a profound student of men and their ways and one of the greatest contributors to political philosophy.

We have come to discount all that has been said in derogation of Machiavelli's personal character, though it must not be forgotten that even in the older time there were men who realized that his book was an essay in political philosophy that {451} made a wonderful revelation and not in any sense a confession of personal opinions. It has been said that we owe the expression, "Old Nick," as used familiarly for the devil, to the fact that Machiavelli's first name Was Nicholas. Sam Butler long ago wrote:

"Nick Machiavelli had ne'er a trick, Though he gave his name to our old Nick."

In our own time some of the men whose wide knowledge and large experience have best fitted them to express an opinion on Machiavelli have been most emphatic in their high estimation of his character and influence. Above all, they have insisted on the enduring character of his work and the fact that it appeals to the essential in human nature, not to the pa.s.sing fads of any single generation. Two such different men in intellectual training as John Morley and Lord Acton are agreed on this as they could not have agreed on most other things.

Morley said that "Machiavelli was a contemporary of any age and a citizen of any country." Lord Acton said that he was "no vanishing type, but a constant and contemporary influence."

Besides a novel, which we quote from later in this chapter, and his political and historical works, Machiavelli wrote a series of plays and poems which are of high literary value. Garnett in his "Italian Literature" says that "he came nearer than any contemporary, except Leonardo da Vinci, to approving himself a universal genius. No man of his time stands higher intellectually, and his want of moral elevation is largely redeemed by his ample endowment with the one virtue chiefly needful to an Italian of his day, but of which too many Italians were dest.i.tute--patriotism."

Another of Columbus' great contemporaries among Italian writers was Guicciardini, the Italian historian (1483-1540). Unlike most of the great historians, he was a man of affairs. When less than twenty he was sent as Florentine Amba.s.sador to the King of Spain, and in his early twenties, under Pope Leo X, governed Modena and Reggio with such talent as drew wide attention to him. He was the Lieutenant-General of the Anti-Imperial Army in 1527, later was one of the Eight at {452} Florence, and from 1531 to 1534 ruled Bologna as Papal Vice-Legate. He tells the story of Italy from 1492 to 1534 in great detail. He writes as an eye-witness who had himself been prominent in most of the scenes that he describes. The ma.s.s of matter is not allowed to obscure the picture as a whole, and the work has distinct literary value. Probably never in the world's history has such a description of events come from a man who was himself one of the most prominent actors in them.

His work has been declared "the greatest historical work that had appeared since the beginning of the modern era" ("Encyclopaedia Britannica").