Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/522

 500 ITALY [LITERATURE. was smothered by the ancient Sicilian literature. Its dis tinguishing point was its possessing all the opposite qualities to the poetry of the rhymers of what we shall call the Sicilian school. Vigorous in the expression of feelings, it seems to come fr om a real sentiment. The conceits, which are sometimes most bold and very coarse, show that it proceeded from the lowest grades of society. Everything is original in Ciullo s Contrasto. Convention ality has no place in it. It is marked by the sensu ality characteristic of the people of the South. The reverse of all this happened in the Siculo-Provengal school, at the head of which was Frederick II. Imitation was the fundamental characteristic of this school, to which belonged Enzio, king of Sardinia, Pier delle Vigne, Inghilfredi, Guido and Odo delle Colonne, Jacopo d Aquino, Rugieri Pugliese, Giacomo da Lentino, Arrigo Testa, and others. These rhymers never moved a step beyond the ideas of chivalry; they had no originality; they did not sing of what they felt in their heart ; they abhorred the true and the real. They only aimed at copy ing as closely as they could the poetry of the Provencal troubadours. 1 The art of the Siculo-Provengal school was born decrepit, and there were many reasons for this, first, because the chivalrous spirit, from which the poetry of the troubadours was derived, was now old and on its death bed; next, because the Provengal art itself, which the Sicilians took as their model, was in its decadence. It may seem strange, but it is true, that when the emperor Frederick II., a philosopher, a statesman, a very original legislator, took to writing poetry, he could only copy and amuse himself with absolute puerilities. His art, like that of all the other poets of his court, was wholly con ventional, mechanical, affected. It was completely wanting in what constitutes poetry, ideality, feeling, sentiment, inspiration. The Italians have had great disputes among themselves about the original form of the poems of the Sicilian school, that is to say, whether they were written in Sicilian dialect, or in that language which Dante called &quot;volgare, illustre, aulico, cortigiano&quot;; and the question is not yet settled. But now the critics of most authority hold that the primitive form of these poems was the Sicilian dialect, modified for literary purposes with the help of Provengal and Latin ; the theory of the &quot; lingua illustre &quot; has been almost entirely rejected, since we cannot say on what rules it could have been founded, when literature was in its infancy, trying its feet, and lisping its first words. The Sicilian certainly, in accordance with a tendency common to all dialects, in passing from the spoken to the written form, must have gained in dignity ; but this was not enough to create the so-called &quot;lingua illustre,&quot; which was upheld by Perticari and others on grounds rather political than literary. place in Italy, of which the rise of the two great orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominic was at once the cause and the effect. Around Francis of Assisi a legend has grown up in which naturally the imaginative element prevails. Yet from some points in it we seem to be able to infer that its hero had a strong feeling for nature, and a heart open to the most lively impressions. Many poems are attributed to him. The legend relates that in the eighteenth year of his penance, when almost rapt in ecstasy, he dictated the Cantico del Sole. Even if this hymn be really his, it cannot be considered as a poetical work, being written in a kind of prose simply marked by assonances. As for the other poems, which for a long time were believed to be by Saint Francis, their qjuriousness is now generally recognized. The true poet 1 See Gaspary, I&amp;gt;ic Sicilianischc Dichterschulc des IBten Jahrhun- deris, Berlin, 1878. who represented in all its strength and breadth the religious feeling that had made spe-cial progress in Umbria was Jacopo dei Benedetti of Tocli, known as Jacopone. The story is that sorrow at the sudden death of his wife had disordered his mind, and that, having sold all he possessed and given it to the poor, he covered himself with rags, and took pleasure in being laughed at, and followed by a crowd of people who mocked him and called after him &quot; Jacopone, Jacopone.&quot; We do not know whether this be true. What we do know is that a vehe ment passion must have stirred his heart and maintained a despotic hold over him, the passion of divine love. Under its influence Jacopone went on raving for years and years, subjecting himself to the severest sufferings, and giving vent to his religious intoxication in his poems. There is no art in him, there is not the slightest indication of deliberate effort ; there is only feeling, a feeling that absorbed him, fascinated him, penetrated him through and through. His poetry was all inside him, and burst out, not so much in words as in sighs, in groans, in cries that often seem really to come from a monomaniac. But Jacopone was a mystic, who from his hermit s cell looked out into the world and specially watched the papacy, scourging with his words Celestine V. and Boniface VIII. He was put in prison and laden with chains, but his spirit lifted itself up to God, and that was enough for him. The same feeling that prompted him to pour out in song ecstasies of divine love, and to despise and trample on himself, moved him to reprove those who forsook the heavenly road, whether they were popes, prelates, or monks. In Jacopone there was a strong originality, and in the period of the origins of Italian literature he was one of the most characteristic writers. The religious movement in Umbria was followed by Tl.c another literary phenomenon, that of the religious drama, reli; In 1258 an old hermit, Raniero Fasani, leaving the cavern ^ ra in which he had lived for many years, suddenly appeared at Perugia. These were very sad times for Italy. The quarrels in the cities, the factions of the Ghibellines and the Guelphs, the interdicts and excommunications issued by the popes, the reprisals of the imperial party, the cruelty and tyranny of the nobles, the plagues and famines, kept the people in constant agitation, and spread abroad mysterious fears. The commotion was increased in Perugia by Fasani, who represented himself as sent by God to disclose mysterious visions, and to announce to the world terrible visitations. Under the influence of fear there were formed &quot;Compagnie di Disciplinanti,&quot; who, for a penance, scourged themselves till they drew blood, and sang &quot; Laudi &quot; in dialogue in their confraternities. These &quot; Laudi,&quot; closely connected with the liturgy, were the first example of the drama in the vulgar tongue of Italy. They were written in the Umbrian dialect, in verses of eight syllables, and of course they have not any artistic value. Their development, however, was rapid. As early as the end of the same 13th century we have the Devozioiri del Giovedl e Venerdl Santo, which have some dramatic ele ments in them, though they are still connected with the liturgical office. Then we have the representation di im Monaco die ando al servizio di Dio (&quot;of a monk who entered the service of God&quot;), in which there is already an approach to the definite form which this kind of literary work assumed in the following centuries. In the 13th century Tuscany was peculiarly circum- T IIS stanced both as regards its literary condition and its poli- poel tical life. The Tuscans spoke a dialect which most closely resembled the mother-tongue, Latin, one which afterwards became almost exclusively the language of literature, and which was already regarded at the end of the 13th century as surpassing the others ; &quot; Lingua Tusca magis apta est
 * In the 13th century a mighty religious movement took