Part 40 (1/2)

Upon his a.s.s Silenus, never sated, With thick, black veins, wherethrough the must is soaking, Nods his dull forehead with deep sleep belated; His eyes are wine-inflamed, and red, and smoking: Bold Maenads goad the a.s.s so sorely weighted, With stinging thyrsi; he sways feebly poking The mane with bloated fingers; Fauns behind him, E'en as he falls, upon the crupper bind him.

We almost seem to be looking at the frescoes in some Trasteverine palace, or at the canvas of one of the sensual Genoese painters. The description of the garden of Venus has the charm of somewhat artificial elegance, the exotic grace of style, which attracts us in the earlier Renaissance work:--

The leafy tresses of that timeless garden Nor fragile brine nor fresh snow dares to whiten; Frore winter never comes the rills to harden, Nor winds the tender shrubs and herbs to frighten; Glad Spring is always here, a laughing warden; Nor do the seasons wane, but ever brighten; Here to the breeze young May, her curls unbinding, With thousand flowers her wreath is ever winding.

Indeed it may be said with truth that Poliziano's most eminent faculty as a descriptive poet corresponded exactly to the genius of the painters of his day. To produce pictures radiant with Renaissance colouring, and vigorous with Renaissance pa.s.sion, was the function of his art, not to express profound thought or dramatic situations. This remark might be extended with justice to Ariosto, and Ta.s.so, and Boiardo. The great narrative poets of the Renaissance in Italy were not dramatists; nor were their poems epics: their forte lay in the inexhaustible variety and beauty of their pictures.

Of Poliziano's plagiarism--if this be the right word to apply to the process of a.s.similation and selection, by means of which the poet-scholar of Florence taught the Italians how to use the riches of the ancient languages and their own literature--here are some specimens. In stanza 42 of the 'Giostra' he says of Simonetta:--

E 'n lei discerne un non so che divino.

Dante has the line:--

Vostri risplende un non so che divino.

In the 44th he speaks about the birds:--

E canta ogni augelletto in suo latino.

This comes from Cavalcanti's:--

E cantinne gli augelli.

Ciascuno in suo latino.

Stanza 45 is taken bodily from Claudian, Dante, and Cavalcanti. It would seem as though Poliziano wished to show that the cla.s.sic and medieval literature of Italy was all one, and that a poet of the Renaissance could carry on the continuous tradition in his own style.

A, line in stanza 54 seems perfectly original:--

E gia dall'alte ville il fumo esala.

It comes straight from Virgil:--

Et jam summa pocul villarum culmina fumant.

In the next stanza the line--

Tal che 'l ciel tutto ra.s.seren d'intorno,

is Petrarch's. So in the 56th, is the phrase 'il dolce andar celeste.' In stanza 57--

Par che 'l cor del petto se gli schianti,

belongs to Boccaccio. In stanza 60 the first line:--

La notte che le cose ci nasconde,

together with its rhyme, 'sotto le amate fronde,' is borrowed from the 23rd canto of the 'Paradiso.' In the second line, 'Stellato ammanto'