Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

No. III.

On the Origin of Verso Sciolto.

THE invention of Italian blank verse has been attributed to Trissino, but, I think, without foundation. We find the productions of Boccaccio, and his contemporaries, sprinkled with verso sciolti. Even St. Francis, the founder of the order which bears his name, wrote in blank verse. His Cantico del Sole, which appeared in the beginning of the thirteenth century, is in that measure. The arguments of the Comedia Amicitia of Jacopo Nardi, which was printed, without date, in Florence, and, which, from the doubtful evidence of the stanzas annexed to it, has been referred to the year 1494, are also in verso sciolto. Indeed it would seem from the following passage in the dedication to the Sofonisba, that blank verse had been known before the time of Trissino, and that he merely adopted that measure, because he deemed it best calculated for such productions as are intended to move, or express the workings of, the passions. Quanto poi al non aver per tutto accordate le rime, non dirò altra ragione; perciò, ch'io mi persuado, che se a V. B. non spiacerà di voler alquanto le orecchie a tal numero accommodare, che la troverà, e mig

[ocr errors]

e migliore, e più nobile, e forse men facile ad asseguire di quello, che per avventura è riputato. E lo vederà non solamente ne le narrazioni, ed orazioni utilissimo, ma nel muover compassione necessario; perciò che quel sermone, il quale suol muover questa, nasce dal dolore, ed il dolore manda fuori non pensate parole, onde la rima, che pensamento dimostra, è veramente a la compassione contraria." Yet Palla Rucellai, in the dedication to his brother's Api, publickly tells Trissino, "voi foste il primo che questo modo di scrivere in versi materni liberi dalle rime poneste in luce." But if Trissino did not invent this fabric of verse, he was unquestionably the first who employed it in "longer works." This is admitted by Maffei, and not denied by any other writer of eminence. Before the time of Trissino, "the jingling sound of like endings," was thought so essentially necessary in every poetical production, that few writers ventured to drop, even occasionally, these musical shackles. "Les pre

miers poëtes italiens, à l'exemple des provençaux," says the abbé de Sade,“ s'assujettirent à cette contrainte, parce qu'elle étoit nécessaire dans leur langue, pour distinguer les vers de la prose. Dante sentit le joug, et n'osa pas le secouer; s'il n'avoit pas employé la rime, les esprits grossiers de son temps ne l'auroient pas regardé comme poëte." But Trissino, with the confidence of true genius, marched boldly on through two long poems, defying, like our Milton, "the troublesome and modern bondage of riming." In the invocation.

to

to his Italia Liberata, he alludes to the new path he has taken :

Ch'io mi son posto per novella strada,

Non più calcata da terrene piante.

The example set by Trissino, was followed by several original dramatic and didactic writers, and by some translators of the Greek and Roman classics. But the Ottava Rima is so soothing to the Italian ear, that the epic muse of Italy, has not again ventured to clothe herself in the loose and flowing garb of verso sciolto..

I ought not to close this article without observing, that the biographers of Luigi Alamanni, assert his claim to the honor of inventing Italian blank verse. But when they make this assertion, they seem to forget, that the first production of Alamanni, in that measure, did not appear till 1532, and that Trissino's Sofonisba, was publickly represented in 1515, and printed in 1524.

On turning to that chapter in the Istoria della volgar poesia, which treats of versi sciolti, I find, that the fears of the early Italian poets, were not totally groundless. The Cantico del sole of S. Francis passed down to the time of

Crescimbeni,

Crescimbeni, as a prose composition, and would probably be considered as such at the present day, if that learned writer had not discovered that, through the ignorance of transcribers, it was poetry in disguise. What happened to the verso sciolto of the holy bard, befel the blank verse of Shakspeare in the hands of his first editors. "Prose from verse they did not know," says Pope; "and they accordingly printed one for the other throughout the volume." Dr. Johnson praises a critic who observes, that "blank verse seems to be verse only to the eye." But we find, that without the aid of the ear, blank verse may deceive the eye.

No.

No. IV.

Description of the House of Trissino near Vicenza.

THIS house stands in that part of the suburbs of Vicenza, called Cricoli, at the distance of half a mile from the gate of Saint Bartholomew. The flanking towers wear the appearance of an age more remote than that of Trissino. But the house is allowed to have been designed by the poet himself, It is supposed that the Sofonisba was finished, and part of the Italia Liberata, written in the tranquillity of this elegant retreat; and it may be conjectured, that it was here Trissino instructed Palladio in the rudiments of architecture. Having called in the aid of the pencil (see the frontispiece) to assist me in describing this house, so dear to the muses, I shall only briefly observe, that it consists of two stories, the first of which retires a little, and leaves a space which is occupied by a collonade divided into three arches, and supported by Ionic pilasters, resting on pedestals. A suitable freeze fills up the interval between each story. And pilasters corresponding to those below, adorn the front of the second story, and support, with Corinthian capitals, the roof. Over the entrance is the following inscription, which probably alludes to the literary meetings held here during the occasional residence of Trissino. ACCADEMICA TRISSINE. LUX ET Rus.

Charmed

« ÎnapoiContinuă »