The first case includes the poetry which may be called "humanistic"
or "classicistic": not the classicism and humanism of pedants without
talent or taste, but that lively humanism and classicism which we
are wont to admire and enjoy in several poets of our Renaissance in
the Latin language, such as Sannazaro, Politian and Pontano, and also
in later times those extremely lettered writers in Italian, of whom
Monti, in his best work, may be said to be the greatest representative
and we might add to him Canova, although he has not poetised in verse.
What is there that pleases us in them, in their imitations, their
re-writing, their cantos of classical phrases and measures? And what
was it that warmed and carried them away, so that they were able to
transmit their emotion to us and obtain our delighted sympathy? It
has been answered that this was due to their remaining faithful to
the already sacred traditions of beautiful form, handed down by the
school; but this answer is not satisfactory, because pedants also can
be mechanically faithful in repeating; we have alluded to these and
shown that on the contrary they weary and annoy us. The truth is that
the former hold to those forms of art, because they are the suitable
symbol, the satisfactory expression of their feeling, which is one
of affection for the _past,_ as being venerable, glorious, decorous,
national or super-national and cultural; and their content is not
literary form by itself, but love for that past, love for some one or
other _historical_ age of art. And if this be true, we must place those
romantic archaisers in the same class of art with the humanists or
classicists, when considering the substantial nature of things. For the
former nourish the same feeling and employ the same procedure, not in
relation to the Greek and Roman past, but in relation to the Christian
and medieval past, particularly in Germany, where they let us hear
again the rude accent of the medieval epic, and represent the ingenuous
forms of pious legends and sacred dramatic representations, and make
themselves the echo of ancient popular songs: this re-writing has often
something in it of the pastiche (as the humanists and classicists also
have something of the pastiche, which with them is pedantry), yet
sometimes produce passages of delicate art, which if not profound, were
certainly agreeable to the heart that remembers, to the eternal heart
of childhood which is in us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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