Part 10 (1/2)
Oh, love in lands so far away, My heart is yearning, yearning....
as songs to the Madonna; but it is a matter of indifference to the lover whether his heart's impulse, translated into metaphysic, is projected on an unknown Countess of Tripoli, or a still more unknown Lady of Heaven.
It is not the loved woman who is of importance--what do we know of the ladies who inspired the exquisite mediaeval poetry? They have long been dust, and we may be sure that their perfection was no greater than is the perfection of their grand-daughters. But the love of the poets is alive to-day, an eternal doc.u.ment of the human heart, representing one of the great phases through which the relations.h.i.+p between man and woman has pa.s.sed.
The following are a few stanzas by the German minnesinger, Steinmar, which were later on adapted to the Holy Virgin:
In summer-time how glad am I When over lea or down A country la.s.s mine eyes espy, Of maidens all the crown.
Oh! Paradise! How glad am I When o'er the heavenly down G.o.d and G.o.d's Mother I espy, Of women all the crown.
The Italian poets, far more profound than the Provencals, saw a G.o.ddess in the beloved (whom they always addressed as Madonna), and humbled themselves before her. Social differences, which played such a prominent part in the North, are here ignored. The impecunious poet no longer extols the princess, the wife of his lord and master. There is no question of such a relations.h.i.+p; the poet is a free citizen of the town, subject only to the emotion of the heart, and his song carries its own reward. It has ceased to be the married woman's privilege to be lauded and extolled; the maiden of unaristocratic origin, who to the poets represents more strongly the ideas of purity and perfection, has usurped her place. We know that Lapo Gianni, Dino Frescobaldi, Guinicelli and Dante wors.h.i.+pped a maiden untouched by as much as a sensuous thought, and Frescobaldi decided the question whether it were better to love a married woman or a maiden, in favour of the latter. The feeling of those lovers was pure and lofty, and they had the power of giving it perfect expression.
In a canzone, the authors.h.i.+p of which is ascribed to both Cavalcanti and Cino da Pistoia, it is said of the beloved dead that G.o.d needed her presence to perfect Heaven, and that all the saints now wors.h.i.+p her.
She was a miracle of perfection while she was yet on earth, but now:
Look thou into the pleasure wherein dwells Thy lovely lady, who is in heaven crowned, Who is herself thy hope in heaven, the while To make thy mem'ry hallowed she prevails.
Of thee she entertains the blessed throngs, And says to them, while yet my body thrave On earth, I gat much honour which he gave, Commending me in his commended songs.
(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)
At the conclusion of his finest poem, ”Al Cor Gentil,” Guinicelli, next to Dante doubtless the greatest poet of the Middle Ages, says: ”G.o.d will ask me after my death: 'How could'st thou have loved aught but Me?' And I will reply: 'She came from Thy realm and bore the semblance of an angel. Therefore in loving her, I was not unfaithful to Thee!'” Here we have the perfection of metaphysical eroticism: the beloved woman is G.o.d; he who loves her, loves G.o.d in her.
Cavalcanti maintained in a poem that an image of the Madonna actually bore the features of his lady.
Guido, an image of my lady dwells At San Michele, in Orto, consecrate, And daily wors.h.i.+pped. Fair, in holy state, She listens to the tale each sinner tells.
And among them who come to her, who ails The most, on him the most does blessing fall; She bids the fiend men's bodies abdicate; Over the curse of blindness she prevails, And heals sick languors in the public squares....
(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)
And Guido Orlandi replies to him from the ecclesiastical standpoint, as to a lost man: ”Had'st thou been speaking of Mary, thou would'st have spoken the truth. But now I must bewail thy errors.”
A complete blending of sensuality and Mary-wors.h.i.+p was achieved in an Italian poem of the fifteenth century. The author of this poem addressed Mary as ”queen of my heart,” and ”blossom of loveliness,” and goes on to say: ”I can tell by your gestures and your face that you respond to my love; when you look at me, you smile, and when you sigh, your eyes are full of tenderness.... Sometimes, in the evening, I stand below your balcony; you hear my sighs, but you make no reply.... When I gaze at your beauty, I burn with love, but when I think of your cruelty, I call on death to release me.” In this poem we have a caricature of metaphysical eroticism.
In the sonnets of Petrarch, metaphysical love has become stereotyped.
Adoration has become a phrase (as Cupid has become a phrase with the earlier poets). It is obvious that he loves Laura because the play on the word Laura and _lauro_ (laurel) caught his fancy. I can find no spontaneous feeling in the famous Canzoniero; all I see is erudition and perfection of form. But among the few sincere specimens there is one beautiful poem addressed to Mary: ”_Vergine bella che di sol vestida!_”
which is not without erotic warmth. But the singer and humanist expresses himself judiciously:
Oh, Thou, the Queen of Heaven and our G.o.ddess (If it be fitting such a phrase to use).
So far we have observed the current which, emanating from the beloved woman, lifted her into supernal regions and endowed her with perfection--the mistress is stripped of everything earthly, the longing which can never be stilled on earth, soars heavenward. Now we will examine the opposite current; the current which emanates from the Madonna of dogma, the Lady of Heaven who is the same to all men, in her last stage, that is to say when she is finally enthroned by the side of G.o.d. Many a monk--earthly love being denied to him--was driven to a purely spiritual, metaphysical love by the fact of his being permitted to love the Lady of Heaven without hesitation or remorse. She was the fairest of women, and he was at liberty to interpret the meaning of ”the fairest” in any sense he chose.
The climax of the emotional wors.h.i.+p of the ecclesiastical Mary was reached by St. Bernard, the _Doctor Maria.n.u.s_ mentioned on a previous occasion. He was the author of sermons and homilies in honour of Mary, and has been instrumental in dogmatising her wors.h.i.+p by placing her side by side with the Saviour. ”It was more fitting that both s.e.xes should take part in the renewal of mankind,” he says, ”because both were instrumental in bringing about the fall....” ”Man who fell through woman, can be raised only by her.” ”Humanity kneels at Thy feet, for the comfort of the wretched, the release of the prisoners, the delivery of the condemned, the salvation of the countless sons of Adam depend on a word from Thy lips. Oh! Virgin, hasten to reply! Speak the word for which the earth, the nethermost h.e.l.l, and the heavens even, are waiting; yea, the King and Ruler of the universe, greatly as He desires Thy loveliness, awaits Thy consent, in which He has laid the salvation of the world.” Basing his description on the Revelation of St. John the Divine, he draws her picture as follows: ”Brilliant and white and dazzling are the garments of the Virgin. She is so full of light and radiance that there is not the least darkness about her, and no part of her may be described as less brilliant, or not glowing with intense light.” And with increasingly p.r.o.nounced erotic emphasis, pa.s.sing from the Church dogma of salvation to pa.s.sionate fervour, he goes on to say: ”A garden of sacred delight art Thou, oh, Mary! In it we gather flowers of manifold joys as often as we reflect on the fulness of sweetness which through Thee was poured out on the world.... Right lovely art Thou, oh, perfect One! A bed of heavenly spices and precious flowers of all virtues, filling the house of the Lord with sweet perfume! Oh! Mary, Thou violet of humility! Thou lily of chast.i.ty! Thou rose of love!” etc.
St. Bernard inaugurated that extraordinary blending of eroticism with half-crazy, inconceivable allegories and fantasies, which lasted for centuries. Here, again, we perceive the ideal of metaphysical eroticism, which in the case of a loyal son of the Church could only refer to the official Queen of Heaven, and consisted partly of the genuine emotion of love, partly of allegorically constructed connections with the Church dogma.
St. Bernard's emotional outbursts were comprehended and admired. His authority was sufficient to override all scruples that might have stood in the way of this downright description of Mary's charms. He became the model for all her later wors.h.i.+ppers; Suso, for instance, often quotes him, and Brother Hans called him _the harpist and fiddler of her praise_.
The great ecstatic poet, Jacopone da Todi, sang Mary's praise as follows:
Hail, purest of virgins, Mother and maid, Gentle as moonlight, Lady of Aid!
I greet thee, life's fountain, Fruitladen vine!