Chapter XIII: Introduction (12)

GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO was born at Paris in 1313. His father, a native of
Certaldo, near Florence, brought him to the latter city when quite
a child, intending to educate him for commerce, in which he was
himself engaged. He escaped from this life at the age of twenty by
promising to study canonical law, which, however, proved not much
more to his taste than business, and his principal pursuits at the
University of Naples were Greek (then beginning to be studied in
Italy), Latin, and mathematics. At Naples, too, he made the
acquaintance of Petrarch, and fell in love with the Princess
Maria, a natural daughter of King Robert, for whom he wrote his
poem of the _Teseide_, containing the tale of “Palaemon and
Arcite,” afterwards made use of by Chaucer. In 1350 Boccaccio
returned to Florence, and appears to have gradually changed his
way of life, and become known as a quiet and orderly citizen. In
1361 he retired from the world altogether, and became a priest. He
visited Petrarch at Milan, and again (in 1363) at Venice, and kept
up his friendship with him to the end of his life. In 1373 he was
appointed by the Republic of Florence to give public readings,
with comments, of Dante’s _Divina Commedia_; but these lectures
were often interrupted by ill-health, and Boccaccio died in
December 1375. His earliest work was in verse, but finding that he
could not hope to attain first-rate excellence in poetry he turned
his attention chiefly to prose. The _Decameron_ was one of the
earliest prose works written in Italian, and is esteemed a classic
for its style. The plan, perhaps, suggested that of Chaucer’s
_Canterbury Tales_; the hundred tales of which it consists being
supposed to be told by ten persons on ten different days—hence the
name (from the Greek words for _ten days_). The introduction
relates how the narrators—seven ladies and three knights—having
fled to the country to escape from the plague which desolated
Florence in 1348, enlivened the solitude of their villa by telling
stories. Some of these tales are lively and humorous, some
pathetic and tragic. Many of them, as is well known, are better
left in oblivion; some, indeed, being good comedy spoilt by that
which renders it unquotable; while others, if ever they were found
amusing, must have been so by reason of their coarseness, for they
have no other claim. Others, again, reach a very high level, as
that of “Nathan and Mithridanes”; or that other of the three
rings, on which Lessing founded his drama of _Nathan der Weise_.
The story of “Calandrino and the Heliotrope” is, we believe, one
of the best farcical ones. Buffalmacco and his practical jokes
seem to have been the common property of the comic writers of the
period, and probably all “_burle_” or “japes” which were thought
more than commonly amusing were indiscriminately fathered upon
him. His real life is given by Vasari, from whom we have also
culled one or two of the more celebrated _burle_, which, however,
belonging to popular tradition, had previously been related by
Sacchetti. In the same way, at a later period, every witty saying
and ridiculous adventure current in Florence was attributed to the
dramatist G. B. Fagiuoli (1660–1742). Anecdotes of the latter may
be picked up among the Florentine populace even now; but the
practical joke related of him (we hope falsely) in Pitré’s
collection of folk-tales will not bear repetition. Other Joe
Millers of Italy are the Florentine Piovano Arlotto, Gonnella, and
Barlacchia, various collections of whose jests have from time to
time been published. The translation given (as also in the case of
the selections from Parabosco and Sabadino degli Arienti) is
Thomas Roscoe’s. (_Page 2._)

LUIGI CAPUANA, Sicilian novelist and critic, born at Mineo, in the
province of Catania, May 27, 1839. His first published works were
poems, among others an imitation of Tommy Moore’s _Loves of the
Angels_. In 1864 he went to Florence, where he was for two years
dramatic critic to _La Nazione_. The best of the articles written
for that paper he afterwards published in volume form, under the
title, _Teatro italiano Contemporaneo_. In 1868 he returned to his
native place, and remained there till 1876. During this time he
was chosen Syndic of the district, and in 1875 published an
official report on _The Commune of Mineo_, which is really worthy
of the name of a contribution to literature. In 1877 he removed to
Milan, and resumed his literary labours, writing critical articles
in the _Corriere delle Sera_, and also a number of sketches,
afterwards collected in volume form, under the title, _Profili di
donne_. Since then he has issued various works of fiction, mostly
collections of short stories—or rather character-sketches—for some
of them have scarcely any story to speak of. The specimens in the
present volume are taken from a collection entitled _Fumando_.
Capuana is a great admirer of Émile Zola, and aims at his style
and methods; but his Italian (or perhaps Greek, since he is a
Sicilian!) sense of beauty and proportion preserve him from the
grossest faults of the extreme naturalist school. He needs,
however, to guard against the dangers of Impressionism; at least
we suppose that is the name for the tendency to give detached
“bits” instead of pictures—a tendency which appears to excess in
his short stories. He has written two complete novels, _Giacinta_,
and _Storia Fosca_; and a charming collection of popular fairy
tales, retold for children under the title of _C’era una volta_
(“Once upon a time”). (_Page 107._)

ENRICO CASTELNUOVO, born at Florence, 1839, has passed the greater
part of his life at Venice, where he appears to be still resident.
From 1853 to 1870 he was engaged in business, but in the latter
year became editor of a political paper, _La Stampa_. Since then
he has published several novels and collections of short stories,
some of which have appeared in the _Perseveranza_. Some of the
best known of them are: _La Casa Bianca_, _Vittorina_, _Lauretta_
(1876), _Il Professõr Romualdo_ (1878), _Nuovi Racconti_, _Alla
Finestra_, and _Sorrisi e Lacrime_, from which the sketch in the
present volume is taken. Most of his stories deal with Venetian
life. (_Page 191._)

GIOVANNI BATTISTA CASTI, 1721–1803, was an ecclesiastic, and the
author of many satirical works, of which the best known is _Gli
Animali Parlanti_ (The Speaking Animals), which has, I believe,
been translated as _The Court and Parliament of Beasts_. He also
wrote a sequence of a hundred sonnets, entitled _I Tre Giuli_,
which is surely the most striking instance extant of an idea
ridden to death. The sonnets (of which one here and there is
fairly amusing) are all on the subject of a debt of about
eighteenpence which the author owed a friend. They hardly merit
the extremely laudatory language used about them by the
translator, M. Montague (1841). A much greater contribution to the
gaiety of nations is the “opera buffa” of _Il Re Teodoro_, for
which Paisiello wrote the music, and from which we have given an
extract. Casti wrote other comic operas, one of the best of which
is _Catiline’s Conspiracy_, in which the famous exordium of
Cicero’s oration, _Quousque tandem_, is rendered (and pretty
closely too) into burlesque verse. Cicero is shown in his study,
preparing his oration with infinite pains. When at length it is
delivered, the interruptions of Catiline and others are faithfully
reported.

_Cicero._ Fin a quando, o Catilina

L’esterminio e la rovina

Contro a noi mediterai?

Fino a quando abuserai

Con cotesta impertinenza

Della nostra pazienza?

Va, rubello, evadi, espatria,

Traditore, della patria,

Conciofossecosachè....

_Catil._ Traditor rubello a me?

_Cic._ Conciofossecosachè.

_People._ Si ch è’ ver....

_Others._ No chè non è!

_Cic._ Conciofossecosachè...

This is pretty good fooling, and the compound conjunction (a sort of
double-barrelled _Forasmuch as_, often used in legal phraseology),
to which the orator clings desperately, when so rudely thrown out
in his speech, comes in with the happiest effect. But the effect
of the rapid rush of the double-rhymed octo-syllables would be
quite lost in a translation. They have somewhat the character of
the smart and fluent verse in Mr. W. S. Gilbert’s operas. Besides
verse, Casti wrote prose _Novelle_, to which Cantù (_Letteratura
Italiana_, vol. ii.) gives the worst character. Of the _Animali
Parlanti_, the same author says that it “satirised Governments
with the liberalism of the _café_” (as we might say “of taproom
politicians”) “and in the style of an _improvisatore_.” It is a
somewhat long-winded work in six-line stanzas. (_Page 57._)

BALDASSARE CASTIGLIONE, born in the Mantuan territory in 1478, was
attached, first to the court of Lodovico the Moor, at Milan;
afterwards, in succession to those of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis
of Mantua, and Guidobaldo, Duke of Urbino. He was a polished
gentleman and brilliant scholar, “a perfect knight, second to none
either in intellect or culture.” Charles V. pronounced him “one of
the best knights in the world.” The court of Urbino, at that time
“a school of courtesy and valour, as well as of learning,” was a
fitting home for such a man. He took part in more than one
campaign, and was sent as ambassador to England, to Milan, and to
Rome. He died at Toledo in 1529, while on a diplomatic mission to
the Emperor Charles V., it is said, of grief at the sack of Rome
by the Spaniards under the Constable de Bourbon. Raphael painted
his portrait in life; Guido Romano designed his tomb after his
death, and Pietro Bembo wrote his epitaph. He wrote many elegant
and scholarly poems, both in Latin and Italian; but his fame as an
author rests entirely on the book entitled _Il Cortigiano_ (The
Courtier). It consists of a series of dialogues in which the
qualities necessary to the character of a perfect courtier are
discussed. It seems to have been written at Mantua, during the
short period of his happy wedded life (his wife, Ippolita Torelli,
married in 1516, died three years later). The style is courtly and
polished, though with a certain simplicity in its stateliness. The
interlocutors sometimes relieve their grave philosophy by humorous
anecdotes, of which a few specimens are given in the text. (_Page
27._)

FRANCESCO CERLONE lived during the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and wrote an immense number of plays of the _Commedia
dell’ Arte_ type. His works were published, in a collected form,
at Bologna in 1787, and again (in twenty-two volumes) at Naples,
in 1825–29. Little seems to be known about him. Symonds calls him
“a plebeian poet of Naples.” The distinguished Italian critic,
Michele Scherillo, “discovered” him not many years ago. (_Page
49._)