Renaissance in Italy Volume V Part 20

Folengo, of course, has a mistress, to whom he turns at the proper moments of his narrative. This _mia diva Caritunga_ is a caricature of the fas.h.i.+onable Laura. See v. 1, 2:

O donna mia, ch'hai gli occhi, ch'hai l'orecchie, Quelli di pipistrel, queste di bracco, etc.]

[Footnote 393: Canto ii. 9-42.]

Berta's prayer when she found herself alone upon the waters in an open boat, is so characteristic of Folengo's serious intention that it deserves more than a pa.s.sing comment.[394] She addresses herself to G.o.d instead of to any Saints:

A te ricorro, non a Piero, o Andrea, Che l'altrui mezzo non mi fa mestiero: Ben tengo a mente che la Cananea Non supplic ne a Giacomo ne a Piero.

[Footnote 394: Canto vi. 40-46. I have placed a translation of this pa.s.sage in an Appendix to this chapter.]

It is the hypocrisy of friars, Folengo says, who sacrifice to Moloch, while they use the name of Mary to cloak their crimes--it is this d.a.m.nable hypocrisy which has blinded simple folk into trusting the invocation of Saints. Avarice is the motive of these false priests: and l.u.s.t moves them to preach the duty of confession:

E qu trovo ben spesso un Confessore Essere piu ruffiano che Dottore.

Therefore, cries Berta, I make my confession to G.o.d alone and from Him seek salvation, and vow that, if I escape the fury of the sea, I will no more lend belief to men who sell indulgences for gold. So far the poet is apparently sincere. In the next stanza he resumes his comic vein:

Cotal preghiere carche d'eresia Berta facea, merce ch'era Tedesca; Perche in quel tempo la Teologia Era fatta Romana e fiandresca; Ma dubito ch'alfin nella Turchia Si trovera vivendo alla Moresca; Perche di Cristo l'inconsutil vesta Squarciata e s che piu non ve ne resta.

The blending of buffoonery and earnestness in Folengo's style might be ill.u.s.trated by the bizarre myth of the making of peasants, where he introduces Christ and the Apostles:[395]

_Transibat Jesus_ per un gran villaggio Con Pietro, Andrea, Giovanni, e con Taddeo; Trovan ch'un asinello in sul rivaggio Molte pallotte del suo sterco feo.

Disse allor Piero al suo Maestro saggio: _En, Domine, fac homines ex eo._ _Surge, Villane_, disse Cristo allora; E 'l villan di que' stronzi salt fora.

[Footnote 395: Canto v. 56-58. The contempt for country folk seems unaffected.]

His fantastic humor, half-serious, half-flippant, spares nothing sacred or profane. Even the Last Judgment receives an inconceivably droll treatment on the slender occasion of an allusion to the disasters of Milan.[396] Folengo has just been saying that Italy well deserves her t.i.tle of _barbarorum sepultura_.[397]

Che veramente in quell'orribil giorno Che in Giosafatto suonera la tromba, Facendosi sentire al mondo intorno, E i morti salteran fuor d'ogni tomba, Non sara pozzo, cacatojo, o forno, Che mentre il tararan del ciel ribomba, Non getti fuora Svizzeri, Francesi, Tedeschi, Ispani, e d'altri a.s.sai paesi; E vedera.s.si una mirabil guerra, Fra loro combattendo gli ossi suoi: Chi un braccio, chi una man, chi un piede afferra; Ma vien chi dice--questi non son tuoi-- Anzi son miei--non sono; e sulla terra Molti di loro avran gambe di buoi, Teste di muli, e d'asini le schiene, Siccome all'opre di ciascun conviene.

[Footnote 396: Canto vi. 55-57. This pa.s.sage is a caricature of Pulci's burlesque description of the Last Day. See above Part i. p.

449. Folengo's loathing of the strangers who devoured Italy is clear here, as also in i. 43, ii. 4, 59. But there is no force in his invectives or laments.

L'Italia non piu Italia appello, Ma d'ogni strana gente un bel bordello....

Che 'l cancaro mangia.s.se il Taliano, Il quale, o ricco, o povero che sia, Desidra in nostre stanze il Tramontano....

Che se non fosser le gran parti in quella, Dominerebbe il mondo Italia bella.]

[Footnote 397:

For verily on that most dreadful day, When in the Valley of Jehosaphat The trump shall sound, and thrill this globe of clay, And dead folk shuddering leave their tombs thereat, No well, sewer, privy shall be found, I say, Which, while the angels roar their rat-tat-tat, Shall not disgorge its Spaniards, Frenchmen, Swiss, Germans, and rogues of every race that is.

Then shall we see a wonderful dispute, As each with each they wrangle, bone for bone; One grasps an arm, one grabs a hand, a foot; Comes one who says, "These are not yours, you loon!"

"They're mine!" "They're not!" While many a limb of brute Joined to their human bodies shall be shown, Mule's heads, bull's legs, cruppers and ears of a.s.ses, As each man's life on earth his spirit cla.s.ses.]

The birth of Orlando gives occasion for a mock-heroic pa.s.sage, in which Pulci is parodied to the letter.[398] All the more amusing for the a.s.sumption of pompous style, is the ensuing account of the hero's boyhood among the street-urchins of Sutri. When he is tall enough to bestride a broomstick, Orlandino proves his valor by careering through the town and laughing at the falls he gets. At seven he shows the strength of twelve:

Urta, fraca.s.sa, rompe, qua.s.sa, e smembra; Orsi, leoni, tigri non paventa, Ma contro loro intrepido s'avventa.

[Footnote 398: Canto vi. 8-11:

Qu nacque Orlando, l'inc.l.i.to Barone; Qu nacque Orlando, Senator Romano, etc.]

The octave stanzas become a cataract of verbs and nouns to paint his tempestuous childhood. It is a spirited comic picture of the Italian _enfant terrible_, stone-throwing, boxing, scuffling, and swearing like a pickpocket. At the same time the boy grows in cunning, and supports his mother by begging from one and bullying another of the citizens of Sutri:--

Io v'addimando per l'amor di Dio Un pane solo ed un boccal di vino; Officio non fu mai piu santo e pio Che se pascete il pover pellegrino: Se non men date, vi prometto ch'io, Quantunque sia di membra si piccino, Ne prender da me senza riguardo; Che salsa non vogl'io di San Bernardo.

Cancar vi mangi, datemi a mangiare, Se non, vi b.u.t.ter le porte giuso; Per debolezza sentomi mancare, E le budella vannomi a riffuso.

Gente devota, e voi persone care Che vi leccate di buon rosto il muso, Mandatemi, per Dio, qualche minestra, O me la trate giu dalla finestra.

In the course of these adventures Orlandino meets Oliver, the son of Rainero, the governor, and breaks his crown in a quarrel. This brings about the catastrophe; for the young hero pours forth such a torrent of voluble slang, mixed with imprecations and menaces, that Rainero is forced to acknowledge the presence of a superior genius.[399] But before the curtain falls upon the discovery of Orlandino's parentage and his reception into the company of peers, Folengo devotes a canto to the episodical history of the Prelate Griffarosto.[400] The name of this Rabelaisian ecclesiastic--Claw-the-roast--sufficiently indicates the line of the poet's satire.

[Footnote 399: Canto vii. 61-65.]

[Footnote 400: He has been identified on sufficiently plausible grounds with Ign.a.z.io Squarcialupo, the prior of Folengo's convent. In the _Maccaronea_ this burlesque personage reappears as the keeper of a tavern in h.e.l.l, who feeds hungry souls on the most hideous messes of carrion and vermin (Book xxiii. p. 217). There is sufficient rancor in Griffarosto's portrait to justify the belief that Folengo meant in it to gratify a private thirst for vengeance.]

Whatever appeared in the market of Sutri fit for the table, fell into his clutches, or was transferred to the great bag he wore beneath his scapulary. His library consisted of cookery books; and all the tongues he knew, were tongues of swine and oxen.[401] Orlandino met this Griffarosto fat as a stalled ox, one morning after he had purchased a huge sturgeon:

La Reverenzia vostra non si parta; Statemi alquanto, prego, ad ascoltare.

_Nimis sollicita es, O Marta, Marta, Circa substantian Christi devorare._ Dammi poltron, quel pesce, ch'io 'l disquarta, Per poterlo _in communi_ dispensare, Na.s.sa d'anguille che tu sei, lurcone; E ci dicendo dagli col bastone.

[Footnote 401: In the play on the word _lingue_ there is a side-thrust at the Purists.]

The priest was compelled to disgorge his prey, and the fame of the boy's achievement went abroad through Sutri. Rainero thereupon sent for Griffarosto, and treated the Abbot to such a compendious abuse of monks in general as would have delighted a Lutheran.[402] Griffarosto essayed to answer him with a ludicrous jumble of dog Latin; but the Governor requested him to defer his apology for the morrow. The description of Griffarosto's study in the monastery, where wine and victuals fill the place of books, his oratory consecrated to Bacchus, the conversation with his cook, and the _ruse_ by which the cook gets chosen Prior in his master's place, carry on the satire through fifty stanzas of slas.h.i.+ng sarcasm. The whole episode is a pendent picture to Pulci's Margutte. Then, by a brusque change from buffoonery to seriousness, Folengo plunges into a confession of faith, attributed to Rainero, but presumably his own.[403] It includes the essential points of Catholic orthodoxy, abjuring the impostures of priests and friars, and taking final station on the Lutheran doctrine of salvation by faith and repentance. Idle as a dream, says Folengo, are the endeavors made by friars to force scholastic conclusions on the conscience in support of theses S. Paul would have rejected. What they preach, they do not comprehend. Their ignorance is only equal to their insolent pretension. They are worse than Judas in their treason to Christ, worse than Herod, Anna, Caiaphas, or Pilate. They are only fit to consort with usurers and slaves. They use the names of saints and the altar of the Virgin as the means of glutting their avarice with the gold of superst.i.tious folk. They abuse confession to gratify their l.u.s.ts. Their priories are dens of dogs, hawks, and reprobate women.

They revel in soft beds, drink to intoxication, and stuff themselves with unctuous food. And still the laity intrust their souls to these rogues, and there are found many who defraud their kith and kin in order to enrich a convent![404]

[Footnote 402: Canto viii. 23-32.]

[Footnote 403: Canto viii. 73-84. This pa.s.sage I have also translated and placed in an Appendix to this chapter, where the chief Lutheran utterances of the burlesque poets will be found together.]

[Footnote 404: In addition to the eighth Canto, I have drawn on iii.

4, 20; iv. 13; vi. 44, for this list.]

It would not be easy to compose an invective more suited to degrade the objects of a satirist's anger by the copiousness and the tenacity of the dirt flung at them. Yet the _Orlandino_ was written by a monk, who, though he had left his convent, was on the point of returning to it; and the poem was openly printed during the pontificate of Clement VII. That Folengo should have escaped inquisitorial censure is remarkable. That he should have been readmitted to the Benedictine order after this outburst of bile and bold diffusion of heretical opinion, is only explicable by the hatred which subsisted in Italy between the rules of S. Francis and S. Benedict. While attacking the former, he gratified the spite and jealousy of the latter. But the fact is that his auditors, whether lay or clerical, were too accustomed to similar charges and too frankly conscious of their truth, to care about them. Folengo stirred no indignation in the people, who had laughed at ecclesiastical corruption since the golden days of the Decameron. He roused no shame in the clergy, for, till Luther frightened the Church into that pseudo-reformation which Sarpi styled a deformation of manners, the authorities of Rome were nonchalantly careless what was said about them.[405] An atrabilious monk in his garret vented his spleen with more than usual acrimony, and the world applauded. _Ha fatto un bel libro!_ That was all.

Conversely, it is not strange that the weighty truths about religion uttered by Folengo should have had but little influence. He was a scribbler, famous for scurrility, notoriously profligate in private life. Free thought in Italy found itself too often thus in company with immorality. The names of heretic and Lutheran carried with them at that time a reproach more pungent and more reasonable than is usual with the epithets of theological hatred.[406]

[Footnote 405: Leo X.'s complacent acceptance of the _Mandragola_ proves this.]

[Footnote 406: The curious history of Giulio Trissino, told by Bernardo Morsolin in the last chapters of his _Giangiorgio Trissino_ (Vicenza, 1878), reveals the manner of men who adopted Lutheranism in Italy in the sixteenth century. See above, p. 304. I shall support the above remarks lower down in this chapter by reference to Berni's Lutheran opinions.]

In the _Orlandino_, Ariosto's irony is degraded to buffoonery. The prosaic details he mingled with his poetry are made the material of a new and vulgar comedy of manners. The satire he veiled in allegory or polite discussion, bursts into open virulence. His licentiousness yields to gross obscenity. The chivalrous epic, as employed for purposes of art in Italy, contained within itself the germs of this burlesque. It was only necessary to develop certain motives at the expense of general harmony, to suppress the n.o.ble and pathetic elements, and to lower the literary key of utterance, in order to produce a parody. Ariosto had strained the semi-seriousness of romance to the utmost limits of endurance. For his successors nothing was left but imitation, caricature, or divergence upon a different track. Of these alternatives, Folengo and Berni, Aretino and Fortiguerra, chose the second; Ta.s.so took the third, and provided Ta.s.soni with the occasion of a new burlesque.

While the romantic epic lent itself thus easily to parody, another form of humorous poetry took root and flourished on the ma.s.s of Latin literature produced by the Revival. Latin never became a wholly dead language in Italy; and at the height of the Renaissance a public had been formed whose appreciation of cla.s.sic style insured a welcome for its travesty. To depreciate the humanistic currency by an alloy of plebeian phrases, borrowed from various base dialects; to ape Virgilian mannerism while treating of the lowest themes suggested by boisterous mirth or satiric wit; was the method of the so-called Maccaronic poets. It is matter for debate who first invented this style, and who created the t.i.tle _Maccaronea_. So far back as the thirteenth century, we notice a blending of Latin with French and German in certain portions of the _Carmina Burana_.[407] But the two elements of language here lie side by side, without interpenetration.

This imperfect fusion is not sufficient to const.i.tute the genuine Maccaronic manner. The jargon known as Maccaronic must consist of the vernacular, suited with Latin terminations, and freely mingled with cla.s.sical Latin words. Nothing should meet the ear or eye, which does not sound or look like Latin; but, upon inspection, it must be discovered that a half or third is simple slang and common speech tricked out with the endings of Latin declensions and conjugations.[408]

In Italy, where the modern tongue retained close similarity to Latin, this amalgamation was easy; and we find that in the fifteenth century the hybrid had already a.s.sumed finished form. The name by which it was then known, indicates its composition. As maccaroni is dressed with cheese and b.u.t.ter, so the maccaronic poet mixed colloquial expressions of the people with cla.s.sical Latin, serving up a dish that satisfied the appet.i.te by rarity and richness of concoction. At the same time, since maccaroni was the special delicacy of the proletariate, and since a stupid fellow was called a _Maccherone_, the inept.i.tude and the vulgarity of the species are indicated by its t.i.tle. Among the Maccaronic poets we invariably find ourselves in low Bohemian company.

No Phoebus sends them inspiration; nor do they slake their thirst at the Castalian spring. The muses they invoke are tavern-wenches and scullions, haunting the slums and stews of Lombard cities.[409] Their mistresses are of the same type as Villon's Margot. Mountains of cheese, rivers of fat broth, are their Helicon and Hippocrene. Their pictures of manners demand a coa.r.s.er brush than Hogarth's to do them justice.

[Footnote 407: The political and ecclesiastical satires known in England as the work of Walter Mapes, abound in pseudo-Maccaronic pa.s.sages. Compare Du Meril, _Poesies Populaires Latines anterieures au xiime Siecle_, p. 142, etc., for further specimens of undeveloped Maccaronic poetry of the middle ages.]

[Footnote 408: Those who are curious to study this subject further, should consult the two exhaustive works of Octave Delepierre, _Macaroneana_ (Paris, 1852), and _Macaroneana Andra_ (Londres, Trubner, 1862). These two publications contain a history of Maccaronic verse, with reprints of the scarcer poems in this style. The second gives the best text of Oda.s.si, Fossa, and the _Virgiliana_. The _Maccheronee di Cinque Poeti Italiani_ (Milano, Daelli, 1864), is a useful little book, since it reproduces Delepierre's collections in a cheap and convenient form. In the uncertainty which attends the spelling of this word, I have adopted the form _Maccaronic_.]