A history of Italian literature

Name: A history of Italian literature
Author: Garnett, Richard

Garnett, Richard

Italian literature -- History and criticism

_The herb and floweret of my verdant shore,
        Shepherd, thy pasturing flock’s possession be;
        And thine the olive and the mulberry
      That mantle these fair hillocks o’er and o’er.
      But be my fountain’s fresh and sparkling store
        Of gushing waters undisturbed by thee,
        For they are vowed to Muses’ ministry,
      And whoso drinks is poet evermore.
      Solely for these and for Apollo fit,
        And Loves and Nymphs the sacred stream doth burst,
        Or haply some fair swan may drink of it;
      But thou, if not a swain untutored, first
        Thy dues to Love in melody acquit,
        Then with the bubbling coolness quench thy thirst._

Another poet of the time vies with Bernardo Tasso in nobility of
character, evinced in his case by the fervour of his patriotism.
The bulk of the verse of GUIDO GUIDICCIONI, Bishop of Fossombrone
(1500-41), consists of insipid love-strains in the style of Bembo and
Molza; but when he touches upon the wrongs and misfortunes of his
country he becomes inspired, and speaks in tones of alternate majesty
and pathos, to which the following sonnet superadds the charms of fancy:

      _The Arno and the Tiber and the Po
        This sad lament and heavy plaint of mine
        I hear, for solely I my ear incline,
      Accompany with music sad and low.
      No more Heaven’s light on sunny wave doth glow,
        No more the dwindled lamps of virtue shine;
        Dark western tempests, dank and foul with brine,
      Have swept the meads and laid the flowerets low.
      The myrtle, Rivers, and the laurel-spray,
        Delight and diadem of chosen souls,
        And sacred shrines the blast hath borne away;
      No more unto the sea your torrent rolls
        Exulting, or your Naiades display
        Their snowy breasts and shining aureoles._

If other Italian poets felt like Guidiccioni, they shunned to give
their sentiments utterance. The chief original poem of ANNIBALE CARO
(1507-66), the accomplished translator of Virgil and Longus, and one
of the best letter-writers of his age, was a panegyric on the house of
Valois--_Venite all’ombra dei gran gigli d’oro_ (“_Hither, where spread
the golden fleurs-de-lis_”). A few years later, with equal genius and
equal insensibility to the part that became an Italian, Caro turned to
celebrate the Spanish conqueror. Whatever may be thought of the theme
of his poem, it is in execution one of the great things of Italian
poetry:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

A history of Italian literatureGarnett, Richard

History

A history of Italian literature

Garnett, Richard

Italian literature -- History and criticism

_The herb and floweret of my verdant shore,
        Shepherd, thy pasturing flock’s possession be;
        And thine the olive and the mulberry
      That mantle these fair hillocks o’er and o’er.
      But be my fountain’s fresh and sparkling store
        Of gushing waters undisturbed by thee,
        For they are vowed to Muses’ ministry,
      And whoso drinks is poet evermore.
      Solely for these and for Apollo fit,
        And Loves and Nymphs the sacred stream doth burst,
        Or haply some fair swan may drink of it;
      But thou, if not a swain untutored, first
        Thy dues to Love in melody acquit,
        Then with the bubbling coolness quench thy thirst._

Another poet of the time vies with Bernardo Tasso in nobility of
character, evinced in his case by the fervour of his patriotism.
The bulk of the verse of GUIDO GUIDICCIONI, Bishop of Fossombrone
(1500-41), consists of insipid love-strains in the style of Bembo and
Molza; but when he touches upon the wrongs and misfortunes of his
country he becomes inspired, and speaks in tones of alternate majesty
and pathos, to which the following sonnet superadds the charms of fancy:

      _The Arno and the Tiber and the Po
        This sad lament and heavy plaint of mine
        I hear, for solely I my ear incline,
      Accompany with music sad and low.
      No more Heaven’s light on sunny wave doth glow,
        No more the dwindled lamps of virtue shine;
        Dark western tempests, dank and foul with brine,
      Have swept the meads and laid the flowerets low.
      The myrtle, Rivers, and the laurel-spray,
        Delight and diadem of chosen souls,
        And sacred shrines the blast hath borne away;
      No more unto the sea your torrent rolls
        Exulting, or your Naiades display
        Their snowy breasts and shining aureoles._

If other Italian poets felt like Guidiccioni, they shunned to give
their sentiments utterance. The chief original poem of ANNIBALE CARO
(1507-66), the accomplished translator of Virgil and Longus, and one
of the best letter-writers of his age, was a panegyric on the house of
Valois--_Venite all’ombra dei gran gigli d’oro_ (“_Hither, where spread
the golden fleurs-de-lis_”). A few years later, with equal genius and
equal insensibility to the part that became an Italian, Caro turned to
celebrate the Spanish conqueror. Whatever may be thought of the theme
of his poem, it is in execution one of the great things of Italian
poetry:

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A history of Italian literature

A history of Italian literature

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