Renaissance in Italy Volume V Part 33

We have learned to look upon it as the biography of man. To trace the continuity of civilization through the labyrinths of chance and error and suspended energy, apparent to a superficial glance or partial knowledge, but on closer observation and a wider sweep of vision found to disappear, is the highest aim of the historian. The germ of this new notion of man's life upon our planet was contained in the cardinal intuition of the Renaissance, when the ancient and the modern worlds were recognized as one. It a.s.sumed the dignity of organized speculation in the German philosophies of history, and in the positive philosophy of Auguste Comte. It has received its most powerful corroboration from recent physical discoveries, and has acquired firmer consistency in the Darwinian speculation. Whether we approach the problem from a theological, a positive, or a purely scientific point of view, the force of the hypothesis remains unaltered. We are obliged to think of civilized humanity as one.

In this unbroken sequence of events, a place of prime importance must be a.s.signed to the Renaissance; and the Italian race at that moment must be regarded, for a short while at least, as the protagonist of the universal drama. The first stage of civilization is by common consent a.s.signed to the Eastern empires of remote antiquity; the second to the h.e.l.lenic system of civic liberty and intellectual energy; the third to Roman organization. During the third period a new spiritual force was evolved in Christianity, and new factors were introduced into Europe by the immigration of the Northern races. The fourth historical period is occupied by the Church and feudalism, the first inheriting Roman organization, the second helping to const.i.tute the immigrant races into new nationalities. The fifth great epoch is the emanc.i.p.ation of modern Europe from medieval influences. We may be said to live in it; for though the work of liberation has in large measure been accomplished, no new social principle or comprehensive system has yet supervened. Three movements in the process can, however, be discerned; and these are respectively known by the names of Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution. It was in the first of these three stages that Italy determined the course of civilization. To neglect the work achieved by Italy, before the other nations of Europe had emerged from feudalism, is tantamount to dropping a link indispensable to the strength and cohesion of the whole chain.

Accustomed to regard the Church as a political member of their own confederation, and withdrawn from the feudal system by the action of their communes, the Italians were specially fitted to perform their task. The conditions under which they lived as the inheritors of Rome, obliged them to look backward instead of forward; and from this necessity emerged the Revival of Learning, which not only restored the interrupted consciousness of human unity, but supplied the needful starting-point for a new period of intellectual growth. The connection between the study of cla.s.sical literature, scientific investigation, and Biblical criticism, has been already insisted on in this work.

From the Renaissance sprang the Reformation, veiling the same spirit in another form, before the Church bethought herself of quenching the new light in Italy. Without the skeptical and critical industry of the Italians; without their bold explorations in the fields of philosophy, theology and political science; without their digging round the roots of human knowledge; without their frank disavowal of past medieval transcendentalism; neither the German Reformation nor the advance of speculative thought in France, Holland and England, would have been possible.

To pursue the subject further is not necessary. How the Revolution was linked to the Reformation by the intermediate action of Holland, England and America; and how the European peoples, educated after the type designed by Italian humanists, formed their literatures, built up philosophies, and based positive inquiry on solid foundations, are matters too well known and have too often been already noted to need ill.u.s.tration. It is enough for a student of the Renaissance to have suggested that the peculiar circ.u.mstances and sympathies of the Italians, at a certain moment of this modern evolution, forced and enabled them to do what was imperatively demanded for its after progress. That they led the van of liberation; that, like the Jews and Greeks, their predecessors, they sacrificed their independence in the very triumph of achievement; are claims upon our everlasting grat.i.tude. This lends the interest of romance or drama to the doleful tale of depredation and enslavement which concludes the history of the Italian Renaissance.

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX I.

(See above, chapter xi.)

_Italian Comic Prologues._

The current of opinion represented by the prologues to Italian comedies deserves some further ill.u.s.tration.

Bibbiena, in the _Calandra_, starts with what is tantamount to an apology for the modern style of his play. "Voi sarete oggi spettatori d'una nuova commedia int.i.tolata Calandra, in prosa non in versi, moderna non antica, volgare non latina." He then explains why he has chosen the language of his age and nation, taking great pains to combat learned prejudices in favor of pure Latin. At the close he defends himself from the charge of having robbed from Plautus, confessing at the same time that he has done so, and thus restricting his earlier boast of novelty to the bare point of diction.

In the prose _Ca.s.saria_, which was contemporaneous with the _Calandra_, Ariosto takes the same line:

Nuova commedia v'appresento, piena Di vari giuochi; che ne mai latine Ne greche lingue recitarno in scena.

Parmi vedere che la piu parte incline A riprenderla, subito ch'ho detto Nuova, senza ascoltarne mezzo o fine: Che tale impresa non gli par suggetto Delli moderni ingegni, e solo stima Quel, che gli antiqui han detto, esser perfetto.

He then proceeds to defend his own audacity, which really consists in no more than the attempt to remodel a Latin play. In the prologue to the prose _Suppositi_ Ariosto follows a different course, apologizing for his _contaminatio_ of Plautus and Terence by the argument that they borrowed from Menander and Apollodorus.

Machiavelli in the prologue to the _Clizia_ says that history repeats itself. What happened at Athens, happened yesterday at Florence. He has, therefore, laid his scene at Florence: "perche Atene e rovinata, le vie, le piazze, i luoghi non vi si riconoscono." He thus justifies the modern _rifacimento_ of an ancient comedy conducted upon cla.s.sical principles.

Gelli in the _Sporta_ reproduces Ariosto's defense for the _Suppositi_. If he has borrowed from Plautus and Terence, they borrowed from Menander. Then follows an acute description of comedy as it should be: "La commedia, per non essere elleno altro ch'uno specchio di costumi della vita privata e civile sotto una imagin.a.z.ione di verita, non tratto da altro che di cose, che tutto 'l giorno accaggiono al viver nostro, non ci vedrete riconoscimenti di giovani o di fanciulle che oggid non ne occorre."

Cecchi in the _Martello_ says he has followed the _Asinaria_:

Rimbustata a suo dosso, e su compostovi (Aggiungendo e levando, come meglio Gli e parso; e ci, non per corregger Plauto, Ma per accomodarsi ai tempi e agli uomini Che ci sono oggid) questa sua favola.

In the _Moglie_ and the _Dissimili_ he makes similar statements, preferring "la opinione di quelli maestri migliori" (probably Ariosto and Machiavelli), and also:

perche il medesimo Ved'egli che hanno fatto li piu n.o.bili Comici che vi sieno.

Lorenzino de' Medici in his prologue to the _Aridosio_ tells the audience they must not be angry if they see the usual lover, miser, and crafty servant, "e simil cose delle quali non pu uscire chi vuol fare commedie."

These quotations may suffice. If we a.n.a.lyze them, it is clear that at first the comic playwrights felt bound to apologize for writing in Italian; next, that they had to defend themselves against the charge of plagiarism; and in the third place that, when the public became accustomed to Latinizing comedies in the vulgar tongue, they undertook the more difficult task of justifying the usage which introduced so many obsolete, monotonous, and anachronistic elements into dramatic literature. At first they were afraid to innovate even to the slight extent of adaptation. At last they were driven to vindicate their artificial forms of art on the score of prescribed usage. But when Cecchi and Lorenzino de' Medici advanced these pleas, which seem to indicate a desire on the part of their public for a more original and modern comedy, the form was too fixed to be altered. Aretino, boldly breaking with tradition, had effected nothing. Il Lasca, laughing at the learned unrealities of his contemporaries, was not strong enough to burst their fetters. Nothing was left for the playwrights but to go on cutting down the old clothes of Plautus and Terence to fit their own backs--as Cecchi puts it.

APPENDIX II.

(See above, chapter xiv.)

_Pa.s.sages translated from Folengo and Berni, which ill.u.s.trate the Lutheran opinions of the Burlesque Poets._

ORLANDINO VI. 41.

"To Thee, and not to any Saint I go; How should their mediation here succeed?

The Canaanitish woman, well I know, Prayed not to James or Peter in her need; She had recourse to only Thee; and so, Alone with Thee alone, I hope and plead.

Thou know'st my weal and woe; make plain the way Thou, Lord, for to none other dare I pray.

"Nor will I wander with the common kind, Who, clogged with falsehood and credulity, Make vows to Gothard or to Roch, and mind I know not what Saint Bovo more than Thee; Because some friar, as cunning as they're blind, Offering to Moloch, his dark deity, Causes Thy Mother, up in heaven, a Queen, To load with spoil his sacrifice obscene.

"Beneath the husk of piety these friars Make a huge harvest for themselves to hold; The alms on Mary's altar quench the fires Of impious greed in priests who burn for gold: Another of their odious laws requires That year by year my faults should still be told To a monk's ears:--I who am young and fair!-- He hears, and straightway flogs his shoulders bare:

"He flogs himself because he feels the sting My words, impregnate with lasciviousness, Send to his heart; so sharp are they, and wring His l.u.s.t so nearly, that, in sore distress, With wiles and wheedling ways, he seeks to bring Me in his secret will to acquiesce; And here confessors oft are shown to be More learned in pimping than divinity.

"Therefore, O Lord, that know'st the heart of man, And seest Thy Church in these same friars' grasp, To Thee with contrite soul, as sinners can, Who hope their faults forgiven, my hands I clasp; And if, my G.o.d, from this mad ocean Thou'lt save me, now, as at my latest gasp, I vow that never more will I trust any Who grant indulgences for pound or penny."

Such prayers, chock-full of rankest heresy, Prayed Berta; for she was a German wench: In those days, you must know, theology Had changed herself to Roman, Flemish, French; But I've my doubts that in the end she'll be Found squatting _a la_ Moor on some Turk's bench, Because Christ's seamless coat has so been tattered Its rags have long since to the winds been scattered.

ORLANDINO VIII. 22.

"I do not marvel much," Rainero cried, "If the lambs suffer scandals and the fold Be ruined by these wolves of l.u.s.t and pride, Foemen to G.o.d beneath G.o.d's flag enrolled: But for the present need I'll soon provide-- Ho! to my presence drag yon Prior bold!"

Sharp were the words; the sheriff in a skurry, He and his serjeants to the convent hurry,

Drag forth that _monstr'horrendum_ from his lair, And lead him straight to Rayner on his throne; Folk run together at the brute to stare, You never saw an ox so overgrown; And not a man but stops his nostrils there From the foul stench of wine, sweat, filth unknown; One calls him Bacchus, and Silenus one, Or hog, or bag of beastliness, or tun.

"Stand forth before my face," Rainero cries, "Thou man of G.o.d, prophet most reverend!

I know that thou in all the lore art wise, Of things divine, and what the stars portend; With thee the freedom of S. Peter lies, Great freedom though but little pelf to spend!

Stand forth, I say, before me, Father blest; There are some doubts I'd fain have put to rest.

"Truly thou know'st e'en better how much tripe Must go to stuff the cupboard of thy prog: 'Tis there are stowed more fish, flesh, onions ripe, Than there be leaves in forest, field, or bog: Thy scores of partridge, pheasant, woodc.o.c.k, snipe, Outnumber the sea sands, thou gorging dog!

Therefore I honor thee no more nor less Than a beast filled with filth, a stinking cess.

"Bundle of guts, hast thou no shame to show Thy visage to the eyes of living wight?

Think'st thou that 'tis for nothing thou dost owe Thy calling to Christ's sheepfold? By this light, Judas the traitor did no worse, I know, Than thou what time he sold his Lord at night; Caiaphas, Annas, Herod, Pilate, all Helped Pluto less than thou man's soul to thrall.

"Think'st thou the Benedicts, Pauls, Anthonies, Gave rules like thine unto their neophytes?

They fed on lentils, beans, peas, cabbages, Curbing their own rebellious appet.i.tes, Not merely preaching how the spirit flees From Satan's fraud and his accursed rites; They slept on sand and marble cold, and sang Psalms that through night and day unceasing rang.

"Quiet within their cells they stayed, nor dealt On street or square with idle loitering bands; Kindly to wayfarers and meek, they knelt To wash their feet, and not, like you, their hands; And when they left the cloisters where they dwelt, To traverse hills or plains in foreign lands, A staff or crutch upon their pilgrimage Sufficed to prop the faltering steps of age.