Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/35

* ITALIAN LITERATURE. 23 Cinquecento — an age almost equal in glory to that of Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, and one vliieh manifests most clearly the immense artistic benefits that Italy had received from the human- istic movement of the previous century. Al- though disturbed by foreign domination in cer- tain parts of the land and by the passage of Florence from the state of a republic to that of a duchy, Italy never had a livelier national consciousness than that which actuated her at this time; and the development of art always stands in close relationship with the growth of national sentiment. The period opens with the works of Ludovico Ariosto (1474-153,3), one of its most striking figures, the author of comedies, lyrics, satires, and other poems in Italian and of some Latin verse, but famous for his Orlando furioso. This poem marks the apogee of chival- rous poetry in Italy. Starting where Boiardo's Orlando iiuinmorato ends, and presupposing that the reader is acquainted with the stoly there un- folded, Ariosto develops still further the love aflfair of Orlando and Angelica, interweaving ■nith it many other romantic episodes, especially that of Ruggiero and Bradamante. For his sub- ject-matter Ariosto is indebted to French poems and romances of the Middle Ages, to Latin classic verse, and to Italian writers of the Renaissance period; but he is most original in the way in which he has breathed new life into the old material. His style has a charm due in no slight degree to the skill with which he has combined the pomp of classic diction with a sim- plicity of expression peculiarly his own ; and his versification is satisfactory because of the ability with which he has handled the ottava rima. Ariosto had many imitators, but their poems, like that of his predecessor Boiardo. are now little read. Several attempts were made to remodel the Orlando innamorato, the most suc- cessful being that of Francesco Berni (c.1497- I.'iSS), a master of style. Seriousness of purpose still persists in the Italia liberata da' Goti of Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478-1550) and in the Amadi(ii of Bernardo Tasso (1493-1569), this latter based on the Amadis story told in the Spanish peninsula, but the spirit of parody and l>urlesque prevails in the Orlandino and the Bal- diifi of Teofilo Folengo (1492-1544), othenvise notable as a macaronic poet. Of rank equal to that of Ariosto was Torquato Tasso (1544-95; the son of Bernardo), the greatest Italian writer of the second half of the sixteenth century. A jnan of extrjiordinary genius, which reveals itself in all his works, as well in his masterpiece. La Gcrusalemme libprata, as in his lyrics, dramas, •dialogues, and letters, he suffered at times from a mental disorder which, though it necessitated placing him under restraint, did not impair his literaiy productivity. His poem, Rinnldo. is a youthful work of the category of chivalrous ])0<'nis, dealing with the adventures of the Caro- lingian hero Renaut de llontauban. But .riosto had uttered the supreme word in chivalrous story, and Tasso was to gain his laurels by per- fecting a new genre, that of the crusading or Chris- tian epic. This he did with his Gerusalcmmc liberata, a poem of markedly serious intent, pri- marily concerned with the Crusades in which Oodfrey of Bouillon jilayed a part. The author did not disdain to admit as subordinate, elements certain features of the chivalrous romance, espe- cially in connection with the love episodes, just ITALIAN LITERATURE. as he also drew from his favorite authors of classic antiquity. Like Ariosto, whom he re- sembles veiy much in his imitation of passages of ancient writers, he has also the gift of style, and like him he uses the ottava rima with ease and grace. An individual note in Tasso's work is that of melancholy, which is really an echo of the man's personal experience and of his mental anguish. Although contemporaries, like pos- terity, applauded the Gtnisalemme liberata, Tas- so was not satisfied with his work, and, yielding to religious impulses of an ascetic nature, he published a remodeled form of it. La Gerusa- lemme conquistata, which is much inferior to the original poem, and is, therefore, neglected, while the Gcrusalemme liberata remains dear to the whole Italian people. In the lyric verse of the sixteenth centurs' there soon declared itself a revolt against the too conventional nature of the Petrarchistic verse of the preceding century. In his Rime. Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) showed how better results could be obtained in lyric song if one would but go directly back to Petrarch for his inspiration, and Bembo's example was fol- lowed by a host of poets. Another very note- worthy trait of this author, seen in his Asolani and in his Prose della volgare lingua, is his desire to stress the importance of having a gen- eral literary speech for the land, that unity of style may be attained and the character of the literature be made national. In the lyrics of Torquato Tasso, the influence of Petrarch is not absolute, and the same may be said of the verse of the sculptor and painter Michelangelo Buonarotti (1475-1564). Of the other numerous lyric poets of the time, mention need be made only of Francesco Maria Molza (1489-1544, au- thor of the Xiiifa tiberina), Vittoria Colomia, (1490-1547), and Liiigi Tansillo (1510-68). Op- ponents of the Petrarchists were Niccolo Franco (1515-70) and Claudio Tolomei ( 1492-1555), the latter of whom sought to introdiice Latin metres. In his Rime Francesco Berni develops a bur- lesque and humorous vein which recalls the methods of Rustico di Filippo and Burchiello, and which he brings into use against the un- reasoning Petrarchists. This burlesque manner was adopted by not a few other poets of the time. Among the didactic poets of the (leriod were several who made Vergil's Gcorgirs their starting- point; such were Giovanni Rucellai (1475-1525, author of Le api), Luigi Alamanni, and Erasmo da Valvassone (c.1523-93). As a result of the Renaissance movement, the old dramatic form knowni as rappresentazioni sacre, disappeared from the towns in the early part of the sixteenth century, and withdrew to the cloisters and the country districts. Their place was taken by prose translations of ancient dramas, which paved the way for Italian imitations of the' works of an- tiquity. The first Italian tragedy and, in fact, the first regular tragedy in all modern literature was the Sofonisba (1515) of Gian Giorgio Tris- sino (1478-1550). This was followed by many tragedies, nearly all of them of but little origi- nality and modeled on the works of Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca; e.g. the Rosmunda and the Oreste of Giovanni Rucellai, the Cnnare of Sperone Speroni (1500-88), the Orbccchc of Gi- laldi (1504-73), the Orazia of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). Torquato Tasso's Torrismondo deals with matter of Germanic origin. Most of the tragedies were composed in blank verse