Volume II Part 10 (1/2)
CHAPTER VIII.
CONJUGAL POETRY CONTINUED.
THE TWO ZAPPI.
We find among the minor poets of Italy, a charming, and I believe a singular instance of a husband and a wife, both highly gifted, devoting their talents to celebrate each other. These were Giambattista Zappi,[59] the famous Roman advocate, and his wife Faustina, the daughter of Carlo Maratti, the painter.
Zappi, after completing his legal studies at Bologna, came to reside at Rome, where he distinguished himself in his profession, and was one of the founders of the academy of the Arcadii. Faustina Maratti was many years younger than her husband, and extremely beautiful: she was her father's favourite model for his Madonnas, Muses, and Vestal Virgins.
From a description of her, in an Epithalamium[60] on her marriage, it appears that her eyes and hair were jet black, her features regular, and her complexion pale and delicate; a style of beauty which, in its perfection, is almost peculiar to Italy. To the mutual tenderness of these married lovers, we owe some of the most elegant among the lighter Italian lyrics. Zappi, in a Sonnet addressed to his wife some time after their union, reminds her, with a tender exultation, of the moment they first met; when she swept by him in all the pride of beauty, careless or unconscious of his admiration,--and he bowed low before her, scarcely daring to lift his eyes on the charms that were destined to bless him; ”Who,” he says, ”would then have whispered me, the day will come when you will smile to remember her disdain, for all this blaze of beauty was created for you alone!” or would have said to her, ”Know you who is destined to touch that virgin heart? Even he, whom you now pa.s.s by without even a look! Such are the miracles of love!”
La prima volta ch'io m'avenni in quella Ninfa, che il cor m'accese, e ancor l'accende, Io dissi, donna o dea, ninfa si bella?
Giunse dal prato, o pur dal ciel discende?
La fronte inchin in umil atto, ed ella La merc pur d'un sguardo a me non rende; Qual vagheggiata in cielo, o luna, o stella, Che segue altera il suo viaggio, e splende.
Chi detto avesse a me, ”costei ti sprezza, Ma un di ti riderai del suo rigore!
Che nacque sol per te tanta bellezza.”
Chi detto avesse ad ella: ”Il tuo bel core Sai chi l'avra? Costui ch'or non t'apprezza”
Or negate i miracoli d'Amore!
The first Sonnet in Faustina's Canzoniere,
Dolce sollievo delle umane cure,
is an eulogium on her husband, and describes her own confiding tenderness. It is full of grace and sweetness, and feminine feeling:
Soave cortesa, vezzosi accenti, Virt, senno, valor d'alma gentile, Spogliato hanno 'l mio cor d'ogni timore;
Or tu gli affetti miei puri innocenti Pasci cortese, e non cangiar tuo stile Dolce sollievo de' miei mali, amore!
Others are of a melancholy character; and one or two allude to the death of an infant son, whom she tenderly laments. But the most finished of all her poems is a Sonnet addressed to a lady whom her husband had formerly loved;[61] the sentiment of which is truly beautiful and feminine: never was jealousy so amiably, or so delicately expressed.
There is something very dramatic and picturesque in the apostrophe which Faustina addresses to her rival, and in the image of the lady ”casting down her large bright eyes:” as well as affecting in the abrupt recoil of feeling in the last lines.
SONETTO.
Donna! che tanto al mio bel sol piacesti!
Che ancor de' pregi tuoi parla sovente, Lodando, ora il bel crine, ora il ridente Tuo labbro, ed ora i saggi detti onesti.
Dimmi, quando le voci a lui volgesti Tacque egli mai, qual uom che nulla sente?
O le turbate luci alteramente, (Come a me volge) a te volger vedesti?
De tuoi bei lumi, a le due chiare faci Io so ch'egli a.r.s.e un tempo, e so che allora-- Ma tu declini al suol gli occhi vivaci!
Veggo il rossor che le tue guance infiora; Parla, rispondi! Ah non rispondi! taci Taci! se mi vuoi dir ch'ei t'ama ancora!