The Sonnets Of Michael Angelo Buonarroti And Tommaso Campanella Part 25

XLIII. Invited to write a comedy--and it will be here remembered that Giordano Bruno had composed _Il Candelaio_--Campanella replied with this impa.s.sioned outburst of belief in the approaching end of the world. It belongs probably to his early manhood.

XLIV., XLV. Adami heads these two sonnets with this t.i.tle: _Sopra i colori delle vesti_. It is a fact that under the Spanish tyranny black clothes were almost universally adopted by the Italians, as may be seen in the picture galleries of Florence and Genoa. Campanella uses this fashion as a symbol of the internal gloom and melancholy in which the nation was sunk by vice upon the eve of the new age he confidently looked for.

XLVI. The year 1603, made up of centuries _seven_ and _nine_ and years _three_, was expected by the astrologers to bring a great mutation in the order of our planet. The celestial signs were supposed to rea.s.sume the position they had occupied at Christ's nativity. Campanella, who believed in astrology, looked forward with intense anxiety to this turning-point in modern history. It is clear from the termination of the sonnet that he wrote it some time before the great date; and we are hence perhaps justified in referring the rest of his prophetic poetry to the same early period of his career.

XLVII. _Qui legit intelligat_, says Adami. Line 7: refers to the outlying va.s.sals of the Roman Empire, who destroyed it, ruled Rome, and afterwards fell under the yoke of the Roman See. Lines 9-14 are an invective against the Papacy.

XLVIII. A sonnet on his own prison. The prison or worse was the doom of all truth-seekers in Campanella's age.

XLIX. For the understanding of this strange composition Adami offers nothing more satisfactory than _mira quante contraposizioni sono in questo sonetto_. The contrast is maintained throughout between the philosopher in the freedom of his spirit and the same man in the limitations of his prisoned life. Line 12 I do not rightly understand.

Line 14 refers to Paradise.

L. There is an allusion in this sonnet to an obscure pa.s.sage in Campanella's life. It seems he was condemned to the galleys (see line 12); and this sentence was remitted on account of his real or feigned madness. We should infer from the poem itself that his madness was simulated; but Adami, who ought to have known the facts from his own lips, writes: _quando bruci il letto, e divenne pazzo o vero o finto_.

Line 12: I have translated _l'astratto_ by _the mystic_; _astratto_ is _a.s.sorto_, or _lost in ecstatic contemplation_.

LI. To this incomprehensible string of proverbs Adami adds, ironically perhaps: _questo e a.s.sai noto ed arguto e vero_. It is an answer to certain friends, officers and barons, who accused him of not being able to manage his affairs. He answers that they might as well bring the same accusation against Christ and all the sages. Line 3: I have ventured to read _e_ for _e_ as the only chance of getting a meaning.

Line 8: seems to mean that he would not accept life and freedom at the price of concealing his opinions.

LII. The same theme is rehandled. Lines 1-4: Campanella argued that a man's mental life extends over all that he grasps of the world's history. Line 5: the Italian for _mite_ is _marmeggio_, which means, I think, a cheese-worm. The eclipse of Campanella's sun is his imprisonment. Lines 7 and 8 I do not well understand in the Italian.

Line 11: 'Ye build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,' Lines 12-14: saints and sages are made perfect by suffering.

LIII. A singular argument concerning prayer. Campanella says it is impious to hope to change the order and facts of the world, arranged by G.o.d, except in the single category of time. He therefore thinks it lawful for him to ask, and for G.o.d to grant, a shortening of the season of his suffering. See the Canzone translated by me, forming Appendix I.

LIV. Another sonnet referring to his life in prison. He asks G.o.d how he can prosper if his friends all fail him for various reasons. Lines 9-11 refer to the visit of a foe in disguise who came to him in prison and promised him liberty, probably with a view to extracting from him admissions of state-treason or of heresy. See the Canzone translated in Appendix I. The last three lines seem to express his unalterable courage, and his readiness to act if only G.o.d will give him trustworthy instruments and fill him with His own spirit. The Dantesque language of the last line is almost incapable of reproduction:

Ch' io m' intua.s.si come tu t' immii.

LV. Campanella tells his friend that such trivial things as pastoral poems will not immortalise him. He bids him seek, not outside in worn out fictions, but within his own soul, for the spirit of true beauty, turn to G.o.d for praise, instead of to a human audience, and go with the _tabula rasa_ of childlike intelligence into G.o.d's school of Nature.

Compare Nos I., V.

LVI. Campanella recognised in Telesio the founder of the new philosophy, which discarded the ancients and the schoolmen. Line 3: the tyrant is Aristotle. Lines 5 and 6: Bombino and Montano are the poets.

Lines 7-9: Cavalcante and Gaieta were disciples of the Cosentine Academy founded by Telesio. Line 9: our saint, _la gran donna_, is the new philosophy. Line 12: my tocsin, _mia squilla_, is a pun on Campanella's name.

LVII. Rudolph von Bunau set himself at the age of sixteen to philosophise, travelled with Adami, and with him visited Campanella in prison at Naples. Campanella cast his horoscope and predicted for him a splendid career, exhorting him to make war upon the pernicious school of philosophers, who enc.u.mbered the human reason with frauds and figments, and prevented the free growth of a better method.

LVIII. Adami, to whom we owe the first edition of these sonnets, visited Campanella in the Castle of S. Elmo, having wandered through many lands, like Diogenes, in search of a man. Line 5: this, says Adami, 'refers to a dream or vision of a sword, great and marvellous, with three triple joints, and arms, and other things, discovered by Tobia Adami, which the author interpreted by his primalities'--that is, I suppose, by the trinity of power, love, wisdom, mentioned in No. VII.

Line 6: Abaddon is the opposite of Christ, the lord of the evil of the age. Cp. note to No. XLI.

LIX. This is in some respects the most sublime and most pathetic of Campanella's sonnets. He is the Prometheus (see last line of No. I.) who will not slay himself, because he cannot help men by his death, and because his belief in the permanency of sense and thought makes him fear lest he should carry his sufferings into another life. G.o.d's will with regard to him is hidden. He does not even know what sort of life he lived before he came into his present form of flesh. Philip, King of Spain, has increased the discomforts of his dungeon, but Philip can do nothing which G.o.d has not decreed, and G.o.d never by any possibility can err.

LX. Arguments from design make us infer an all wise, all good Maker of the world. The misery and violence and sin of animate beings make us infer an evil and ignorant Ruler of the world. But this discord between the Maker and Ruler of the world is only apparent, and the grounds of the contradiction will in due time be revealed. See No. XIII. and note.

APPENDIX I

I have translated one Canzone out of Campanella's collection, partly as a specimen of his style in this kind of composition, partly because it ill.u.s.trates his personal history and throws light on many of the sonnets. It is the first of three prayers to G.o.d from his prison, ent.i.tled by Adami _Orazioni tre in Salmodia Metafisicale congiunte insieme_.

I.

Almighty G.o.d! what though the laws of Fate Invincible, and this long misery, Proving my prayers not merely spent in vain But heard and granted crosswise, banish me Far from Thy sight,--still humbly obstinate I turn to Thee. No other hopes remain.

Were there another G.o.d with vows to gain, To Him for succour I would surely go: Nor could I be called impious, if I turned In this great agony from one who spurned, To one who bade me come and cured my woe.

Nay, Lord! I babble vainly. Help! I cry, Before the temple where Thy reason burned, Become a mosque of imbecility!

II.

Well know I that there are no words which can Move Thee to favour him for whom Thy grace Was not reserved from all eternity.

Repentance in Thy counsel finds no place: Nor can the eloquence of mortal man Bend Thee to mercy, when Thy sure decree Hath stablished that this frame of mine should be Rent by these pangs that flesh and spirit tire.

Nay if the whole world knows my martyrdom-- Heaven, earth, and all that in them have their home-- Why tell the tale to Thee, their Lord and Sire?

And if all change is death or some such state, Thou deathless G.o.d, to whom for help I come, How shall I make Thee change, to change my fate?

III.

Nathless for grace I once more sue to Thee, Spurred on by anguish sore and deep distress:-- Yet have I neither art nor voice to plead Before Thy judgment-seat of righteousness.

It is not faith, it is not charity, Nor hope that fails me in my hour of need; And if, as some men teach, the soul is freed From sin and quickened to deserve Thy grace By torments suffered on this earth below, The Alps have neither ice, I ween, nor snow To match my purity before Thy face!

For prisons fifty, tortures seven, twelve years Of want and injury and woe-- These have I borne, and still I stand ringed round with fears.

IV.

We lay all wrapped with darkness: for some slept The sleep of ignorance, and players played Music to sweeten that vile sleep for gold: While others waked, and hands of rapine laid On honours, wealth, and blood; or s.e.xless crept Into the place of harlots, basely bold.-- I lit a light:--like swarming bees, behold!

Stripped of their sheltering gloom, on me Sleepers and wakers rush to wreak their spite: Their wounds, their brutal joys disturbed by light, Their broken b.e.s.t.i.a.l sleep fill them with jealousy.-- Thus with the wolves the silly sheep agreed Against the valiant dogs to fight; Then fell the prey of their false friends' insatiate greed.

V.

Help, mighty Shepherd! Save Thy lamp, Thy hound, From wolves that ravin and from thieves that prey!

Make known the whole truth to the witless crowd!

For if my light, my voice, are cast away-- If sinfulness in these Thy gifts be found-- The sun that rules in heaven is disallowed.

Thou knowest without wings I cannot fly: Give me the wings of grace to speed my flight!

Mine eyes are always turned to greet Thy light: Is it my crime if still it pa.s.s me by?

Thou didst free Bocca and Gilardo; these, Worthless, are made the angels of Thy might.-- Hast Thou lost counsel? Shall Thine empire cease?

VI.

With Thee I speak: Lord, thou dost understand!

Nor mind I how mad tongues my life reprove.

Full well I know the world is 'neath Thine eye.

And to each part thereof belongs Thy love: But for the general welfare wisely planned The parts must suffer change;--they do not die, For nature ebbs and flows eternally;-- But to such change we give the name of Death Or Evil, whensoe'er we feel the strife Which for the universe is joy and life, Though for each part it seems mere lack of breath.-- So in my body every part I see With lives and deaths alternate rife, All tending to its vital unity.

VII.