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The influence of Pietro Aretino on English literature of the Renaissance

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The influence of Pietro Aretino on English literature of the Renaissance

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Content THE INFLUENCE OF PIETRO ARETINO ON ENGLISH
LITERATUFE OF THE RENAIS SA CE
by
Anna Maria Jardini
A Dissertation Presented ·o the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(English)
June 1957
This diss :7rtation '7. ritt en b)
under ti, direction of ~ Gu 'da 11 · C onunitt
an d (lpproi' d by (I// its rn 111b ~ rs has b ' n pr -
sented to and accept d by th Ji acuity of th e
Gradual S /z oo / in partial fulfilln, nt of r -
quir ' nz ents for tlz d v ree of
DOCTOR OF' 1~IJII,OSOPII)
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'uidancc Co111111itt e
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I I
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······· · · ~ · ······~ ····
I
-
CHAPTER
r .
rr .
TABLE OF CO TE TS
I NTRODUCTIO
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
THE LIFE OF PIETRO
THE .TORKS OF
0
T TRO
TI 0
RETI 0
• • •
• •
• • • • •
• • • • •
The Letters
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
J ournal is a nd blackmail ..
• • • • •
Aretino , the nscour e of Princes"
• •
Aretino , t he counsellor of princes
• •
Letters of intimate life .
• • • • • •
The
ainter in words ..
• • • •
Aretino ' s t he ory of style ..... .
Aretino ' s style
• • • • • • • • • • •
The modern orose style ...... .
The baroaue style ........•
The Ragi onament i ( ialo ues)
• • • • • •
The Comedies . •
• • • • • • • • • •
• •
retina ' s innovations in c omedy .. .
La Cortigiana (On Court Life) ... .
Il aresc l c o (The 1arsh al)
La Tal anta
• • • • • • • • •
L' I pocrito (The Hy ocrite) .
Il ilos o o (The P ilosopher)
• • • • •
• • • • •
• • • • •
• • • •
z i a . . . . . .
• • • • • • • • • •
p
GE
1
5
23
23
24
25
28
32
36
41
48
48
55
60
63
64
6
73
79
9
98
106
C J; p
III .
I .
T E
E,
0 ~ TL DG OF I I . I S.A C
L D • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • •
nowled e of Italian at the courcs
of He ry III and Elizabeth ..
Familiarity of eat oets with
Italian (Sidney , Spenser, Milton)
• •
•
Fore · n lan ~ age schoo sin sixteenth
iii
E
110
110
115
ce ury London . . . . . . . . . . . 120
orei n lan ua e manu ls· John ~lorio 123
Books ublished in Italian in London
during the sixteenth c ntu y ....
talian books bro ht into En land .•
THE RE TATI OF EI I RE A SSA CE
E J L D • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
125
127
129
The Euro ean reputation of Aretino . . 129
Pro erbial re utation of Aretino in
Re n issance En land ..... .
• •
Comments on retina base on more
olid knowled e .. ..... .
• •
T~ illiam Thom s .
• • • • • • • • • •
h omas she and Aretino
• • • • • •
Tashe ' s co mens o Are ino
• • • •
A ~lratio descri tion of
retina st le • • • • • • • • •
131
133
134
134
134
35
CH T
v.
i v
p E
D e f ense of Areti no ' s ch r a ct e r . . . 138
S e cifi c r efe r enc e s t o La Corti i ana
a she ' s fi r st - hand knowled e of
retina ' s works • • • • • • • • •
Influenc e of
of a she
retino on the style
nd other El i zabethan
am hl eteers .
• • • • • • • •
M ention of retino in the ashe -
• •
rvey uarre l . .
• • • • • • • • •
Harvey on Aretino .... . . .
• • •
. . SH K SP.., RE TI 0 • • • • • • • • •
Shakespe are ' s relati on t o reti o a s
rt of a l ar er probl em : the
rel t i on of Elizabethan c om edy to
t he com edy of the Ital i an
R e ;1aiss nee
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The i ndebtedness of El i zabet 1aL to
Italian Renai s s anc e comedy . ..
The transfor mat i on of t he cl assic
tradition in t he comedy of t he
• •
140
142
145
148
157
161
161
161
I t ali an Re naissanc e . . . . . . . . 1 3
he i ntroduction of new elements . . . 163
CH
p
The t r ans
..
mation of he cla
.
0
SlC
character t
.
Itali nes ln n
Renais an ce comedy • • • •
..
• • • •
C s s i c conventions fully b oken down
in the Co edia dell ' reti o
as precursor of the Co .edia dell '
Arte . . . .
• • • • • • • • • • • •
The f miliarity of Elizabethans wit
Italian Renaissance comedy . . . . "
Testimonies to the presence o Italian
Commedi dell ' rte trounes in
V
PA
1
3
1 7
170
sixteenth century England . . . . • 171
Allusions to the Commedia dell ' Arte
in En lish writers .. • • • • • • •
Italian comedies of the Renaissance as
source material for En lish
172
playwribhts of the sixteenth century 175
Shakespeare nd the Commedi dell '
~rte . . .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • 177
Sh&~esoeare ' s knowled~e of A etino ' s
co .edies ..
• • • • • • • • • • • •
1 1
akes~eare ' know edge of Italian . $3
Par llel nass ~ es in Sh kesne re
and retino • • • • • • • • • • •
CH TE.
T I .
Conclusio
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
THE H ' RP YS OF BE JO SO D THE
co;\ , DIE OF R TI 0
• • • • • • • • • •
Jon on ' s sources .
• • • • • • • • • •
Jonso ' s _ossible kn led e of Italia
..
.
Vl
195
197
197
~enai sa ce co edy ad of Aretino . 199
Throu )h Florio .
• •
• • • • ft • • •
199
Throu _h perfo
ces of the Commedia
ell ' .rte tro )es in E fsland . • 200
Simi arit of Jo son ' s and retinas
conce tion of c~medy . . . . . . . . 201
The rea istic an satiric 1
portray 1 0f manners . . . . . . . 201
Jonson ' s ~reater mor 1 serious ess . 204
he c~sti7ation of h ors' in
~onson ' s nd · retina ' s comedies
he object o the satire in the
comedies of Jonson n Areti o
• •
• • •
The formation of the character types
in the comedies of Jonso and
retina
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
208
209
210
e i ation from classi c mo els and
reflection o contempora y society 210
C R
Th e domin nt tr it or "humo · the
combination of individu
t ic al
. . . . . . . ~
• • •
Pa r lle l ty es in the h or l, .. n .lledies
of onso a nd the comedi s of
retino-- similarities and
d ·ve r ences
• • • • • • • • • • •
The type of the miles loriosus
•
Bobadil
)
Capt ai n
.
.
t )
inca
l
•
•
T e intri uin servant
• • • • • • •
Br a i worm--Ross o
he 'fsulls • • • • • • • • • • • •
hen a d •at t hew )
o i ar o d Fun oso) ~sse r
so us ) ~ ace
ourtiers a nd allants
• • • • • • •
untarvol o )
Amorphus )
asti i ous Brisk ) Parabol a no
Gour i e of ) Polidor o
C n hia ' s Revels)
~---'
Jo son ' s a d retina ' s use of
s at i ric a l c aracter ketches
• • • •
bservanc e of cl ass ·c rule in
J onson and ret ino . . .
• • • • • •
vii
E
211
213
214
218
222
228
234
238
H T · R
Structure in the come ies o
Jonson A. d
Conclusion.
retina • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
corc1 Jsro 1 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
BIBLI RP • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . .
V ll
239
241
244
249
THE I FLUE CE OF PIETRO ARETINO ON ENGLISH
LITERATURE OF THE RENAISSANCE
I TRODUCTION
Pietro A r etino--in our day the name evokes a
legendary fi ure surrounded by a dim aura o notoriety ,
but in the sixt eenth cen ury it was one of the most
famous names in Europe . In the political , literary ,
artistic life of his a e , Aretino re resented a real
force . Kings, popes , and emperors , from fear or friend ship , paid him tribute . He was at times the counselor;
at times, as Ariosto called him , the scour e of princes .
The eo l e accepted him as heir spokes an, and, exploit in the power of his writings over public o inion , he
showed how the modern world could be ruled by the press .
As a writer and critic he revolted against literary
artificiality and the tyranny of classic conventions
and he renewed the contact of literature with life .
Passionatel y devoted to art , he was the friend and
respected critic of some of the greatest artists of the
Italian Renaiss ance and a patron of art of unbelievable
enerosity. His life was lived in the Renaissance
spirit, rul ed by the passion for beauty and personal
freedom and by the aspiration to fame and the fullness
of earthly en j oyment . In him his age saw its image and
found its consciousness .
In this study I have first of all tried to refresh
the somewhat f aded ima e of Aretino in our age and to
2
brin out those qualities of his personality that called
fo r th from his contemporaries such epithets as "divine"
and "unique . ' I have maq.e a review of his most important
wo r ks to show by what qualities he distinguished himself
in hi s critical ideas and in his writin s from the
literary men of his time , the worshi ppers of classic
models, t he imitators of Boccaccio and etrarch , who set
the literary standards of the latter part of the Italian
Renai s sance . And I have tried to show how in his literary
theory and practice Aretino was a forerunner of a more
modern literature .
I n the second part of my study I have brought Aretino
into relation with the England of the sixteenth century .
I trie d first to determine what reputation Aretino had
among t he Englishmen of this age, and to see how far this
reputation was based on hearsay and legend and how far on
an actual knowledge and understanding of Aretino's writ ings . I then looked for the possible influence of Aretino
on writers of the English Renaissance . I considered
espec i a l l y three writers--Thomas ashe, Shakespeare , and
Ben Jonson--whose work , for different reasons , seemed to
indicate at least the poss i bility of a connection , direct
or indi rect, wi th Aretino's •
Th oma s ashe, in a number of comments throu hout his
arnphlet s and in the nfortunate Traveller, expressed
enthusiastic admiration for Aretino
1
s style, professed
himself to be his disciple, and was indeed known among
his contemporaries as "the English Aretine ." Were his
comments on Aretino based on a direct k owledge of hi
works, and did Aretino's style actually influence that
of Nashe?
3
Shakespeare not only drew on the Italian novelle for
a great number of his plays but, especially in his
comedies, in the use of certain devices and situations
and in the modification of character types from their
original classic models, he hewed the influence of the
Commedia dell' Arte . Might he not then have been familiar
with the comedies of Aretino who, among the Italian
writers of the cinquecento, was one of the most notable
precursors of the Commedia dell' Arte? An interest was
added to this inquiry by certain passages in Shakespeare
which awakened reminiscences of Aretino.
The renovation of comedy, which Ben Jonson initiated
in England with Every Man in ~is Humor, had already been
carried out along similar lines by Aretino in Italy, and
Jonson's ideas of the nature and function of comedy, on
which he based his reform, coincided on many points with
Aretino's• Moreover, the humor comedies of Jonson pre
sented interesting parallels to Aretino's comedies in
their character types, their satiric portray&l of
4
contemporary manners, even in the quality of their style.
Might not Aretino have been one of the innumerable
sources on which, as one critic has put it, Jonson drew
to produce an original work?
These are the questions I have attempted to answer
in the last three chapters of this study.
CHAPTER I
THE LIFE OF PIETRO ARETINO
Pietro Aretino was born in 1492 in the little town
of Arezzo, in Tuscany. His father was perhaps a nobleman
of the vicinity, perhaps an artisan of the town--no one
seems quite sure. A recent biographer of Aretino says:
He was the son of a young member of the Bacci, or of
the Buonamici, or of Master Luca, shoemaker, but
certainly he was the son of love and of the summertime
••• born of the graces of Tita , very young, of
radiant beauty, and therefore many loves .•..
1
It was Aretino himself who chose later to be called by
the name of his native town.
Pietro had in him from boyhood the restless spirit
of his times. He could not be content to observe life
through the narrow window of Arezzo, and at the age of
fifteen set out alone and penniless from his mother's
house in search of wider experience. He turned south
ward towards the center of Renaissance life, Rome, but
he stopped first at the town of Perugia, where he became
apprenticed to a bookbinder. It was an apprenticeship
that was to prove very important for him, for it intro
duced him not only to the trade of bookbinding, but also
to the world of books. Up to then Pietro's education
1
Antonio Foschini, L'Aretino (Milano, 1951), p. $.
The passages cited from this text are my own translation.
6
had not gone beyond the el mentary school at Arezzo,
although he had learned much merely by his own sharp
observation. Suddenly a new source of the life for which
he thirsted was revealed to him: by the power of the
printed word, the stores of the anc~ent world, the poetry,
romance, philosophy of the modern were laid open to him.
It was a momentous and dizzying experience. Images of
the pagan and Christian worlds crowded together:
Secular readings echoed with the voices of liturg·cal
wisdom, in phrase and verse and ample period; and from
the words arose the spirit and flesh, the vegetation
and structure of a disordered landscape that the
exuberance of his nature piled up in confusion.2
As he progressed in the works of other writers, he
made also his own first, awkward attempts to express the
turbulent world of his sensations. Painstakingly he
linked together a string of sonnets for Chiara, a dark
eyed Perugian girl who had set his heart on fire. From
the start, it was his own thoughts and feelings that
Aretino tried to bend to the verse. Even in these first
love poems he did not, in the usual way of the times,
borrow from the ready stores of that master of love,
Petrarch. Though it was reading that had made him
realize the possibilities and the magic of words, the
model to which he looked in his writin was, from the
2
Foschini, p. 20.
7
be innin, not literature but life.
Rather th n to turn out well-made copies of old models,
he preferred, however badly at first, to carve his own
ima es from the living stone; images that were odd and
monstrous in the early days of his artistic apprentice
ship ••• crude, distorted reflections of his creative
ardour , but sin ularly expressive.3
He also tried his hand in the mediums of the plastic
arts , es ecially of paintin • He studied the rules of
pers ective and desi n, the blending of colors, compo
sition , chiaroscuro . Though he came to the conclusion
that the medium for which he was best fitted was language,
the knowledge he ained was to make him respected as an
art c1itic by the greatest artists of th age.
4
He found,
too, in he painting and sculpture of the Renaissance his
models for that immediacy in the expression of nature for
which he looked in vain in the rhetorical literature of
the time .
Aretino was to form his style of images , trying to
escape from the morass of Graeco- Latinizing literature
with its anti - plastic elaborations and verbal ara
besques •.• to present the truth naked and resplend
ent only of its own self.5
3Foschini, p . 24 .
4see Alessandro Uel Vita, L'Aretino- - 'Uomo Libero
per Grazia di Di o ' ( A re z z o , 19 5 4 ) , p • 43 . "L A re tin o J
was able to-write and speak on matters of art as few m en
of his ime, •.• and so as to influence the artistic
work of Tiziano and the critiques of Vasari , who in his
Lives made use of the theories Aretino had exposed and
the critical problems he had set up.'
5Foschini , • 26.,
After the interlude of Perugia, Aretino resumed his
journey to Rome. In our knowled e of this period of his
youthful wanderings in Italy, facts are mixed with
legends.
6
According to one story, he is su posed to
have arrived in Rome in 1511 at the a e of nineteen and
to have been for a time valet in the service of Pope
Julius II, then to have resumed his travels, going north
ward as far as Lombardy, earning his living in a variety
of picturesque ways along the road. He seems to have
been in Venice, also, for his first book, containin his
youthful verses, was published there in 1512: "ew
writings of that very talented young man, Pietro Aretino,
the painter. That is, strambotti, sonnets, capitoli,
epistles, comic poems, and a lover's lament." He is said
to have served time as a galley-slave and, at Ravenna,
to have entered a monastery and tasted for a while the
life of a capuchin friar. What is certain, however, is
that he was in Rome in 1516 and that he remained there,
with intervals of enforced absence, until 1524. These
6The only source of information for this period of
Aretino's life is a pamphlet entitled The Life of Aretino
published in 1538 by iccolo Franco, a former pr'otege of
Aretino who had become his arch enemy. It ives "a
malevolent, distorted, but on the whole, basically
accurate relation of his early years.' Thomas· c. Chubb,
Aretino, Scourge of Princes ( ew York, 1940), P• 287.
9
years were important formative ones. The experience he
gained at the Vatican court was to be an important factor
in Aretino's future life and work, and the influences to
which he was subjected there were to have a permanent
effect on him.
In 1516 the Renaissance was in its last effulgence
in Italy. Under the pontificate of Leo X, son of Lorenzo
the Magnificent and a true 1edici in his love of luxury
and art, the city of Rome was clothed in splendor and
every day was being further adorned by a host of artists
led by Raphael and Michelangelo . Aretino's passion for
beauty was fired by the relics of a past magnificence and
the incredible flowering of the new art . The Vatican
court was also the political and diplomatic center of
Europe. Here the ambassadors and legates of the various
European states met to measure their skill against one
another. Aretino , as an intelligent observer with a
flair for diplomacy, could learn much about the policies
of the great European powers, entangled as they were with
the intrigues of the Italian states. Especially , he
gained an insight into the rival ambitions of France and
Spain, who were playing out their game for power on the
chessboard of Italy. Again , Aretino was struck by the
corruption of Rome . The contrast between the misery of
the poor and the insolvent lavishness of the rich made
10
an indelible impression on his mind . He was never to
tire of satirizin the hypocrisy and arrogance , the
avarice, selfishness , and cruelty of the great lords and
prelates; nor of exposin the wretchedness of their
luckless servants and the ho eless abasement of the
courtiers, who frittered away their lives in the vain
ex ectation of favors.
In Rome, Aretino found occasion to use that art of
verbal expression which he had been develo in and bring
ing to perfection since his bookbindin days at Perugia .
·And he revealed, besides , a satiric enius that was to be
unequaled by that of any writer of the a e . The first
occasion for the exercise of his powers was offered by
the death of Pope Leo's Indian elephant. The event
caused quite a stir in the court; the animal had been
dear to the Pope; it had been a gift from the king of
Portugal and a rarity in Italy. Aretino saw his oppor
tunity; in the tradition of the mocking "Testaments" of
Villon he composed "The ill and Testament of the
Elephant." The elephant's bequests--the tusks, the jaws,
the knees, the ears--appropriately conferred on this or
that cardinal or monsi nor, devastatin ly revealed the
most intimate foibles of the various lords of the Church.
ope Leo , who ap reciated wit, received the author of
the poem into his household, in what ca acity it is not
11
certain--as a jester, buffoon , or lackey , say Aretino's
enemies . But then , "in the house of Leo , a jester was
a person of no small significance . "7 Henceforth , Aretino
resided in the palace of the Pope and there athered that
experience of court life of which his comedies give such
vivid evidence . He also accumulated a quantity of
detailed and accurate information about all the notable
personalitie s of the Vatican court, a resource upon
which he was to draw to give his satire its deadly sting .
An opportunity for the use of this material was not long
• •
in coming.
Leo X died suddenly in 1521 , and a conclave was
called to elect his successor . As the conclave held its
sessions behind closed doors, everyone speculated on the
chances and merits of the various candidates . Aretino's
speculations took the form of particularly biting sonnets ,
and for these sonnets he found a very apt mouthpiece - Pasquino . Pasquino was an ancient mutilated statue which
had been placed in Piazza Navona , a central square in
Rome . It was said to have been named for a fifteenth
century schoolmaster with a scurrilous tongue , and since
the beginning of the sixteenth century had become the
official vehicle for academic disputes . On Pasquino's
7chubb, P • 52 .
12
fe ast day, once a year , epigrams, sonnets, satirical
poems of all kinds were affixed to the pedestal of the
stat ue. hese "pasquinades' as they were called had
mostly to do with quarrels between scholars, but anyone
coul d take the opportunity to speak freely about whomever
he pleased; since the verses were not signed, Pasquino
alone had the responsibility for them . On the occasion
of the papal conclave , Aretino saw the opportunity for a
timel y use of Pasquino and took him over so completely
as to bec ome , as he said , his ''chancellor . " Under
Aretino's hand Pasquino was transformed : he became much
less aca demi c and pedantic and much more precisely
informed on to ical matters and prominent ersonalities
of Rome; he took on a new sharpness and freedom of tongue
and a much greater frequency of utterance; he acquired
the characteristics , in fact, of a modern scandal sheet .
Every day that the conclave was in session, Pasquino had
a new comment in the form of a mocking sonnet that
alluded, subt y but unmistakably , to one or other of
the candidates or to some abuse of the papal court .
Aretino's 'Pasquinades" created a sensation because,
thou h they were diabolically malicious, what they said
was undeniably true , and they were always incredibly
informed on everything that was rumored, whispered, or
hinted at anywhere in Rome. oreover, they expressed
13
public opinion so completely and aptly that as soon as
they were written they were on everyone's lips . In the
ifty-odd sonnets that constituted his "Pasquinades , "
we can see the quality that gave Aretino such an influ ence in the Renaissance world : associating himself with
what was generally thought and felt , he could express
the p blic mind with unerring accuracy and effectiveness ,
while he subtly uided its reactions . In the "Pasquin
ades," as later in the "Giudizi" (prognostications) and
in many of his letter~ , Aretino was initiating modern
journalism and foreshadowing the domination of the public
mind by the press . Although the ' Pasquinades" were
unsigned , Aretino made sure that no one ignored the name
of their author; and as they were carried to every court
and palace on the continent , the powerful men of Europe
became aware of him as a force which it would be well to
have in one's service . The papal conclave of 1521 did
not end with the election of Cardinal Giulio de ' edici ,
the candidate whom Aretino had favored , but the author
of the 'Pasquinades" had none the less attained his end:
he had become known as "the possessor of the most danger
ous ton ue in Europe . ,s
Chubb , P • 65 •
14
The election of Pope Adrian VI, whom he had merci-
lessly attacked, made it expedient fo Aretino to leave
Rome for a time. He availed himself of the hospitality
of the Duke Luigi Gonzaga and isited the court of
Mantua. It was at this time that Aretino met Giovanni
de' Medici, known as Giovanni delle Bande ere (of the
Black Bands), one of the greatest Italian condottieri
and leader of the most renowned group of armed men in
Italy. With Giovanni, Aretino fanned one of the deepest
and sincerest friendships of his life, and he was to
look back on the days spent .in the comradeship of the
captain at his camp not far from Mantua as among the
happiest he had known.
The pontificate of Adrian, however, was a short one,
and upon the succession of Pope Clement VII, thJ former
Cardinal Giulio de' 1edici , who had already befriended
him, Aretino's hopes rose up again, and he returned to
Rome. This time he was driven out of the city by a plot
contrived against his life by the papal datary, Gian
Matteo Giberti, who was moved by jealousy of the growing
fame of Aretino and fearful of his favor with the Pope.
One night, as Aretino was strolling along the Tiber , he
was attacked by men who rushed out at him wearing masks
and armed with daggers. He escaped only by swimmin
across the river. The pretext given out for the attack
15
was the scandal caused by Aretino's sixteen Erotic
Sonnets (Sonnetti Lussuriosi), which he had written to
match Marcantonio Raimondi's sixteen en ravings of
designs by iulio Romano. Clement VII made no attempt
to oppose Giberti's act by recallin Aret~no, and it m ay
be that he, too, found the 'chancellor of Pasquino' an
uncomfortable person to have in too close proximity.
Aretino now rejoined Giovanni delle Bande ere, who
was uniting his army with the forces of the French king ,
Frances I, in a plan to drive the Emperor Charles V out
of Italy. At the Vatican court, Aretino had gained
knowledge of the rival ambitions of France and Spain i n
Italy. Now, his association with Giovanni delle Bande
Nere gave him another point of view and made him share
in the great leader's ideal of forming a single nat ion
out of the warring Italian states, submerging the jeal ousies and petty rivalries that had made Italy an open
field to forei ~n aggressors. Giovanni, who placed muc h
hope in the support of the youn French king, sent
Aretino as his ambassador to Francis I to make hi m
understand how the Bande ere were not a mercenary force
at the service of any master but the manifestat i on of
the ''rebirth of a nation which in the wars agai nst
Charles V was reconstituting i ts homo eneity and f indin
16
its na e as Ita y. ,,9 But the dream was premature . In
the battle fought on February 5, 1525 at Pavia, in spite
of the heroism that justified the French king's words ,
"tout est erdu, fors l'honneur," the victory went to
the im e ial army , ad Francis I was taken prisoner .
In a se cond battle fought in 01ember of 1526 , Giovanni
de' edici received a wound that proved moral. One of
Aretino ' mos movin letters is that in which he
esc ~best e death of iovanni delle Bande ere , making
us feel his admiration for the darin , heroism , and
hi h- mindedness of his ca tain, and his own deep sorrow
a the loss of a friend and at the waning of the ideal
that seemed to die with him . I have quoted the beginning
of the letter in Chapter rr .
10
In the following passages
Aretino describes the courage with which Giovanni bore
the amputation of his leg and the manner of his death :
The hour havin come and the doctors arrived with the
instruments needed , they ordered eight or ten persons
to be found to hold him while the bone was being sawed .
'ot even twenty , " he said smiling , "could hold me ."
hen preparing himself , with a steadfast face he took
the candle i n his own hand to give them light . I ,
havin f le d and holding my hands over my ears , heard
only two cries and then my name called; and ~hen I
stood by him he told me : '
1
I am healed"; and turned to
all of us with a joyful face .
9Foschini, p . 71 .
10
see a e 54 .
17
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
And so we remained ••• until about nine a ni h on
the vi il of Saint Andrea . And becaus h~.s sufferin
was without measure , he prayed that I would ut him to
sleep by readin , and so doin , I saw him wanin from
one sleep to another . At length ••• a ousin himself ,
he said: "I drea t I was dyin , and here I am well ; if
I continue to recover thus , I will teach the ermans
how battles are fou ht and in what anner I know how to
aven e myselfe' U on thes words , the li ht rowin
troubled in his eyes began to ive way to perpetual
darkness . Then, havin himself requested extreme
unc ion and received that sacrament , he said: "I don't
want to die amon all these plasters . " So that , a
camp bed bein p epared he was laced up nit , and
while his soul slumbered , it was occupied by death .
11
retino now gave up the idea of active articipation
in military or olitical en erprises . Disgusted with
cour s , he retired to the Republic of enice, where he
lived from 1527 until his eath in 1556 • The Venetian
epublic , surnamed in reco nition of its wealth and
power, "La agnifica,' afforded its citizens a security
and l iberty unknown elsewhere in Italy . Here Aretino
lived the splendid ma urity of his life and wrote his
most import nt works--the six volumes of his le ters,
the Ragionamenti , the five comedies , and the tra edy
L'Ora zia . T kin advantage of the freedom of speech he
enjoyed in Venice , he hurled the shafts of his invective
at the Roman court and ridiculed its vices in comedies
llpietro Aretino , Lettere , ed . Fausto icolini
( Bari , 1913 ) , I , 7 , 9 •
18
that had a note of fierceness in their lau hter. From
Venice , too , he sent out the letters that influenced the
history of his time and, drawing tributes to him from
all the sovereigns of Europe, won him his title of
"Seo rge of Princes ."
I n Venice , Aretino realized his ideal of a rich,
full life . His house on the Canal Grande became famous.
Great artists and poor struggling ones, painters, sculp
tors , and poets, flocked there as to their home and
found in Aretino a new kind of patron , one who did not
try to enslave their spirit but encouraged it to find
its untrammeled expression. He prided himself on having
created a new kind of "court" where art was not starved
and abased.
retina was a consummate sensualist. He loved all
the good thins of life, from those that satisfied his
most basic appetites to those that appealed to his
hi hest sense of beauty. There was in him, says De
Sanctis , "not only the sense of pleasure but the sense
of art . In his pleasures he sought magnificence,
splendor , beauty , taste, and elegance."
12
-when .money
began to flow in, he spent it lavishly, filling his
12Francesco De Sanctis, Storia della Letteratura
Italiana (Milano , 1917), II , 99 .
19
house with food and wine, rich clothes, fine furnishings,
works of art, and beautiful women. The women were of
all types and stations, and all of them he housed,
befriended, protected, liked, nd made love to in the
wide generous spirit of the Renaissance . He was "the
living portrait of the age," De Sanctis concludes, "in
its insatiable appetites and moral anarchy.n
1
3
Aretino gained in his lifetime such a reputation as
a libertine that his name became synonymous with vicious
pleasure. In Elizabethan En land he was known as "the
filthy Aretine"--and the reputation has come down to this
day. Perhaps the sensational aspects of his personality
struck the popular fancy, making him appear an incarna
tion of the immorality of the cinquecento; and this
impression was certainly supported by the sc ndalous
legends that Aretino's enemies assiduously circulated,
legends that he did not alto ether discoura e, enjoying
as he did notoriety on any terms. A study of Aretino 's
life and writings, however, reveals that such an inter
pretation of him is far too one-sided for justice. If
he was the type of the Italian Renaissance , it was just
by the richness and cnmplexity of his personality in
which many contradictory impulses met with an equal
13ne Sanctis, II, 95.
20
force. ''. • • that is the stran e thin about Pietro,"
says Thomas Chubb at the conclusion of his bio ra hy:
He had so wide a character that it is hard to libel
him. Omit details, and every oisoned word his
adversaries spoke about him descries him eloquently.
But so too do all the eulogies of his admirers .
Truth does not lie between the two extremes, bu.tit
embraces both of them. ot thus with most men that
we read about. That probably is why he is the type
personage of the Renaissance, for that eriod was
made of contradictions. That certainly is why he is
one of the most amazing ones who ever lived.14
Aretino had breathed in the air of pa anism that blew
across the Renaissance. As, in writing of the Son of
Goct,
1
5 it was his humanity that he had exalted, so in
his own life it was his glory to live to the fullest
extent of all his capacitie s as a human being. "He
called himself," Ralph Roeder remarks, "'a miraculous
monster of rnankind'--and was it not true? His mon
strosity was his enormous humanity which made that of
normal men seem stunted and mean.n
1
6 He attested to
his faith in humanity by his wholehearted, enthusiastic
participation in life. His res onse to all the pleasures
of the senses was keen; but his vitality by no means
14chubb, P• 451.
15Aretino wrote a book called The Humanity of
Christ.
16The Man of the Renaissance ( ew York, 1933),
-----
p. 511.
21
exhausted itself there . It characterized equally his
emotional responses , which in any direction ere
impetuou and extreme . If he could be fierce in his
an er and ruthlessly vindictive , he was boundless in
generosity and had a spontaneous , inexhaustible warmth
of feeling for every human being . His friendships , in
their complete confidence and fidelity , were a realiza tion of the Renaissance ideal . If he was joyfully ,
nonchalantly ready to love any and all women , he had for
three women in his life a deep , sincere devotion , and
for one of them a passion that not indifference , ingrati
tude or betrayal could chan e. For the two daughters
born to him in his later years he had the tenderest
paternal solicitude . He shared in the passionate
intellectual life of the Renaissance , its ea erness for
knowledge , its enthusiasm for beauty and the expression
of beauty . He shared , too , its independent spirit; 'a
free man by the race of God , " as he called himself , he
felt keenly his di nity as an individual and would let
no one encroach on his right to think , speak , and live
as he pleased . It was for this that his bitterest
attacks were directed against hypocrisy , and that he
prided himself in speakin the truth to everyone ' s face .
It was this love of freedom that aroused his indi nation
. -
at t he de radation of human bein sin the still feudal
courts, and the same spirit made him the champion of
arti sti c enius against the tyranny of convention.
I t is true, as De Sanctis says, that Aretino was
a mora l anarchist; but from his own point of view--and
that of his age--he lived by the deep unreserved faith
he had i n l ife .
22
CHAPTER II
THE WORKS OF PIETRO ARETINO
The Letters
The major literary works of Aretino are the Letters ,
the Ragionamenti, the five comedies, and the tragedy ,
L'Orazia.
1
The Letters, which constitute Aretino's most
voluminous work, consist of six volumes , which he
published from 1537 to 1557 .
2
Aretino's letters are an
invaluable source of information on the sixteenth
1
Among: what may be called the minor literary works
are the following: the "Pasquinades'; the 'Giudizi"
(Prognostications); the Erotic Sonnets; the Dialogue of
the Courts and the Dialo~ue of the Steakinf Cards; the"
unfinished epics, La Mar isa-,--'L
1
Anfe-ica , -,Astolfeida;
the mock epic, L'Or°Iandino; the re igious works: The
Humanity of Christ, the Genesis, the Lives of the Virgin
Mary, Saint Catherine, Saint Thomas Aquinas; ParaEhrases
of the Seven Penitential Psalms of David .
- ----
2
The first complete edition of the Letters was
published in Paris, 1608-9. A critical edition was
begun by Fausto Nicolini but only two volumes have
appeared (Bari, Vol. I, 1913; Vol . II , 1916) . In the
Introduction to his book, Aretino , Uomo Libero her
Grazia di Dio, Alessandro del Vita states that e has
undertaKen the edition of Aretino's letters , with F .
Flora, but apparently the work has not been completed.
An English translation of a number of the letters has
been included by Samuel Putnam in his translation of a
selection from Aretino's works: Pietro Aretino--Works
Translated into English (Chica o , 1926)--published for
subscribers only by p. Covici. No complete English
translation of the letters seems to have been made.
Unless otherwise stated, the passa es cited from
the Letters in this dissertation are my translation from
the abovementioned edition by F. icolini .
24
century. They represent a corres ondence, kept u over
twenty years, with the most notable persons of the age
including Charles V, Francis I, Thomas Cromwell , Poe
Clement VII, Titian, Tintoretto, ichelangelo , princes,
prelates, ladies of the Italian courts--and even the
Turkish Soliman and the pirate, Barbarossa. Throu h his
letters Aretino exercised an extraordinary influence: he
advised rulers of states, mediated between them, directed
international policies, sometimes turne d the ide of
historical events. By these letters he carri don his
personal and extremely effective form of blackmail ,
exacting their tribute from the princes of the world .
Actually, Aretino's letters were a form of journalism,
and the influence they exercised was due to his pow r
over public opinion, a power comparable to tha of a
modern newspape r . Every letter Aretino wrote was
potentially an open one, and it was his gift for ex ress
ing what people thought, or were ready to a dopt as their
thought, as well as his unfailing possession of the
facts, that gave weight to his words. 'Nhen , in a ietter,
he threatened to attack this or that great person , the
danger was felt to be a real one; and his praise had
proportionate value. "He speculates," says De Sanctis,
"on fear •.•• He puts a price on calumny, silence ,
25
and praise ."3 Aretino himself asserted that his fame
and influence came to him because he alone in an a e of
hypocrisy dared to speak the truth out loud . The words
that in h s opinion de c ibed him were "parla male ma
dice il vero" (he speaks evil but he tells the truth).4
However that may be, he made himself so redoubtable to
the powerful men of his time that Ariosto gave him the
title of "Scour e of Princes," and he acquired a host of
illustrious "patrons' who vied with each other in winning
his favor by means of pensions and costly gifts . In a
let er of July 6, 1541, he declares: "I have 600 scudi
of income, besides another thousand that I procure myself
yearly with a sheaf of paper and a bottle of ink . ' On
a medal bearing his effi y he had the words en raved:
'The princes pay tribute to their slave . "
A few assages from the letters will illustrate
Aretino s manner of dealin with his patrons . He writes
thus to the king of France , Francis I, about the long
promised golden chain which has finally arrived after
3Francesco De Sanctis , Storia della Letteratura
Italiana (Milano , 1917), II , lOO.
4A line from La Talanta . --That Francis I had a
different o~inion or fiirn is shown in his gift to Aretino
of a necklace made u of ruby-tipped golden tongues and
bearin the inscription: 'lin ua eius loquetur mendaciurn"
(letter to Francis I, King of France, ovember 10 , 1533).
26
months of delay:
Truly , if I wished to praise the ift of the necklace,
I should not be speaking the truth, for one cannot
call that a gift for which hope has consumed itself
with waiting ••.• #ere it not that I know your
goodness to be measureless and free of guilt in the
matter , so that I am convinced you thought I had long
ago received it, I would unleash all the tongues that
are tied to the chain, and make them set up such a
clamor that the royal treasurers would feel the effects
of it for some time to come and would perhaps learn to
send prom:gtly what the kin gives readily. (November
10 , 1533)'
In a letter to Cardinal Caracciolo, he insists on the
payment of the arrears on a pension granted him by
Charles v. He so concludes:
But , did I suppose that anyone should think that my
insistence on having this money were due to the
meannes s of my nature, I would point out to him that
my just request will do more to enhance the honor of
im who granted me the pension than it can ever do to
relieve the penury to which fate destined me on the
day I was born in a charity hospi tal with the soul of
a king . (January 7, 1537)6
He write s to Antonio da Leva , a powerful lord , to
remind him of a certain promise made but not kept:
I have been elected to pronounce on which is more
useful for one who lives in the hope of another's
favor , a prompt "no" or a "yes" that lags along the
way . Certainly, in matters of this sort I have had
every possible experience, and that because I am
forever hanging on the promise of this or that lord,
5Pietro Aretino, Lettere, ed. Fausto icolini
(Bari , 1913) , I , 43 •
61ettere , I , 102-103 .
27
which all too o:ten is forgotten or shamefully denied.
And my decision in such a debate is in favor of a
prompt "no," because it kills at once and not by
minute degrees •..• What a hard thing it is for a
patron who wishes to reward a virtuous man to say:
"Go and give him thisl"--Is it possible that with a
soul so great that from knight it has made you prince,
you fear to send me what you have freely promised?
(May 2, 1535)7
The wealth that Aretino extorted in ''tributes" he
immediately spent. Besides the needs of his own extrav
agant nature, he had to feed and clothe the in umerable
proteges to whom, in a spirit of both enerosity and
ostentation, he opened his house . He describes the
concourse of people who daily crowded to his door to
make demands on his liberality:
My stairway is worn with the passing of feet, like the
pavement of the Campidoglio by the wheels of triumphal
chariots. Nor do I think Rome ••• ever saw such a
conglomeration of people as that which crowds to my
house ••• Turks, Jews, Indians, Frenchmen, Germans
and Spaniards ••• and you may well imagine if there
are Italians ••• I sometimes think I have become the
oracle of truth, since everyone comes to tell me of
the wrong done him by this prince and that prelate; so
that I have become ~ecretary to the whole world •..•
(November 17, 1537)8
Everyone runs to me, as if I were the dispenser of the
royal treasury. If a poor woman is with child, my
house provides for her needs; if one is imprisoned, I
have to see to it. Battered soldiers, woebegone
71ettere, I, 54- 55 •
8
1ettere Scelte di Pietro Aretino , ed. Guido
Battelli {Lanc1ano, 1'9T3J , P • 47 .
28
pilgrims, knights errant of all sorts , all find their
way to my house ..•• Don't wonder , then , if I a
always cryin out that I die of hun er . (March 20 ,
15 2)9
Aretino insisted that by his life he was an exam le
hat should e taken to heart by 11 men of meri • He
boa ed of the poverty in which he was born in order to
oint o t the reatness he had achieved solely by his
own en rgy and talents . By his writings , he claimed, he
had saved virtue from debasement and set her on a
pedestal:
I have written what I have written in defense of that
virtue whose lory was darkened by he a arice of the
reat. Before me ••• the virtuous had to beg the
honest comforts of life , and if anyone found refu e
from the torments of necessity , he obtained it as a
buffoon and no as a erson of merit . My pen , armed
wi hits terrors , has forced the doors o open to men
of tntelli ence .•• Therefore , the good ou ht to
hold me dear , because to the last drop of blood , I
have always fou ht for virtue, and it is thanks to me
alone if in our times she dresses in brocade , drinks
from olden cups and goes about adorned with gems •
• • • For he is a villain who does not admit that I
have restored her to her ancient state . (April 3,
1537)
10
Aretin0's influence with rulers and leaders was not,
however, solely based on the fear he ins ired in them or
the reputation they hoped he would make for them . He
91ettere Scelte, P • 48.
101ettere, I, 129 .
29
was also reco nizcd as a sagacious and shrewd adviser
on European affairs . H had not wasted his time at the
court of Rome, which was even then the first school of
intri ue in Europe . Heh d an innate s,nse of dip omacy
and a fine psycholo ical instinct of the ri ht way to
deal with people. He was, therefore, constantly called
upon to mediate between princes, to intercede with one
for the other, to ain vanta e points by his arts of
persuasion. From his secure and quiet observatory in
Venice, Aretino wa ched with keen interest the ame
which France and Spain were playing for Europ an dominion,
and from time to time, with imperturbable confidence, he
sent out the letters that would influence the moves of
the players. When , for example, Francis I threatened to
make an alliance with the Turks to spite Charles V,
Aretino, seeing the disastrous consequences of such a
step, addressed to the kin of France some very bold
reproaches:
Your majesty has heard of the exceilent, religious and
ma nanimous deliberation taken by the Venetians . You
know how, holding as naught their riches in the Orient,
the treasures they drew from there, the blood that had
been the cost of them, the unheard of offers made them
by the Turks,they have, together with Peter and with
Caesar, turned their forces of land and sea to the
service of Christ . By reason of which, the world is
put in mind to ask you what power revails in your
royal breast: the hate you bear to others, or the love
you bear to God . If hate be the stron er, look to
your title of 'most Christian" ••• if love be
30
re ter, then behold the Holy League , which not only
opens its arms to receive you , but with the deepest
res ct embraces you . And therefore , recollect your
self, and think that God , who has given you the most
beautiful of kin doms , the most generous nature
breathin, the deepest understandin and the most
lovable race, does not merit that you should depart
from his servants to join his adversaries-- leaving
the world to think that royal virtue and goodness have
been won over by obstinate perfidy . (September 18 ,
1537)11 .
Aretino's diplomacy was put to a difficult test when
i 1527 Charles V's army of mercenaries overran Italy and
invaded Rome . The ordic barbarians, once unleashed,
became uncontrollable . They sacked the city , destroyed
art works, pilla ed, burned, plundered . The Pope was
forced to retreat to Castel Sant'Angelo , where he was
held in a state of siege . Charles V himself feared the
danger to C ristianity from the destruction of its
capital city, yet knew not how to avert it . Aretino
saw that the only hope lay in an immediate reconciliation
between the Pope and the emperor . This he brought about
by means of two letters, so skilfully contrived that he
avoided wounding the pride of either party , but made
e ch one see that his virtual triumph lay in an apparent
s11bmission to his antagonist .
To the emperor he wrote, exhorting him to liberate
Clement VII:
llLettere, I, 235 .
31
It is true that felicity waxes with more vigor as it
grows; and that is shown in the case of your majesty ,
i n whose power fort ne and virtue have placed the
liberty of the Pope , even before the doors of the
ison were shut from which you rescued the king
[Francis I] , to conquer him wi h compassion as you
had won him by rms . It is with good reason that
everyone reclaims you to ea creature of God , whose
oodness makes yo exercise His cle ency; b9cause no
one else could persevere in such a task , anl only you
have a soul ca able of receiv·n the fullness of His
mercy , which is like a scourge to the humiliated
pervers· y of the wicked , who behold themselves
unished by entleness .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
But if such clemency , shadow of the arm of God , has
descended into your mind , who doubts bu that he
Pastor of the Church is already delivered from the
captivity in which he had been placed ••• by Heaven ,
which cnose to send over the Court a wind of adversity ,
permittin that which Rome has suffered . But lest the
justice of your mercy assume the countenance of
cruelty , may it please you now that ruin should
proceed no further . Behold in your power Pity and
the Pope; retain the one and release the other ..••
Among all the crowns which you have won and those
which od and estiny owe to the remainder of your
illustrious life , there will not be found one more
worthy of admiration . ( ray 20 , 1527)12
To Clement VII , he represented the emperor as an
instrument of God , who vindicates his chosen by inscru table means:
Therefore be consoled in your afflictions , since God ' s
will has put you under the arbitration of Caesar , so
that you may at once experience divine mercy and human
clemency ••• nor doubt that God will uphold the
reli ion of His Church , and that , upholding it He will
1
2
1ettere , I , 13 - 14 .
32
sust in you and sustaining , your fall is only in the
appearance and not in fact ...• Yet it is in fact
and not in ap earance only that the mind of the Pope
must proceed t hinking of pdrdon and not of ven eance;
for i f you will choose to forgive rather than avenge ,
you set yourself an end befittin the dignity of your
office . And what act would be more apt to spread
abroad your name of ost Holy ad ost Blessed than
that of conquering hate with piety and perfidy with
liberality ••.• To Him who can do all , surrender
all , and surrendering , thank Him that as the em ror
is the sustainin force of that faith of which you are
the Father , He has - iven you up to his power so that
you may stren hen the apal intentions with the
imperial will , hat the reat increase of your honors
may shine forth in every part of the universe . (May
30 , 1527)13
Not all of Aretino's letters , however , are concerned
with matters of state . any are personal a counts of his
daily life , frank and spontaneous expressions of his
loves , jealousies , an ers , friendshi s- - of his philos
ophy of the enjoyment of life . It is in these letters
especially that one feels the warmth and life of
Aretino ' s style . They have that quality of intimacy
which Roeder considers Aretino's reatest :
It was his intimacy which made him i ortal . He was
one of the first to discover the appeal of the
personal , the di nity of the familiar and trivial ,
the si nificance of the everlasting detail of life .
He ooened the eyes of his readers to the little ,
unconsidered, obvious things which they saw without
seein them ••• Above all , his zest for life was
infectious ••• under the bluff and hollow vain-
lories of the ro het he proclaimed tat life was
enou h .14
131ettere , I , 15-16 .
14Ralph Roeder , The Man of the Renaissance
( ew York , 1933) , pp .--,02- 3-:-
33
Here is a letter to a friend in Venice , in which he
i ves his views on rowin old:
Worthy Signor Giambattista , Tiziano , brother to me as
I am to him , told you the truth , sayin that I lea a
life no less ay than if the hair of my beard rew
out of my chin as black as the hair which han s from
my tern les is white; I live so be ause I have the
impression that in so doin I am taking my reven e of
time , mockin his years , in the way that I aven e
myself on fortune by scorning her greatness . I know
well that the philosophic tribe will brand me with
madness , declaring that I lack in decorum .•• but
in saying so they are wrong .
He ends the letter saying: ' I , who never bore hatred to
any man in my youth , cannot prevent myself from lovin
all women in my old a e . ' (December , 1547)
1
5
There is much li htness and charm in the somewhat
artificial style of the let ers addressed to his
mistresses:
0 Sarra , woman impressed with entle ways and of
loving manners composed ; it is certain that as the
sun is the beauty of the day and the joy of the sky ,
so you are the happiness of lovers agd the race of
love . (To An ela Sarra , June, 1548)1
Ever since fame went trumpeting about Italy that love
had made sad havoc of me for your sake , I have always
held such favor in high esteem , for your ways are far
from all deceit . (To Angiola Zaffetta, December ,
1537)17
151et ere Scelte , pp . 24-25 .
l61ettere Scelte , p . 64 •
171ettere celte, p . 2 .
34
Si nora M arina , ·fever deformed creature that bears
vi rtue ·n itself is beautiful , how shal l you be call ed
w ho are above the fairest fair and virtuous beyond the
excellence of virtue? Nor is it fitting merely as a
oddess to address you but as such to adore you ; and
s o do I address and adore . (To Marina Basadonna , April,
154 )
18
The letters addressed to Perina Riccia , the young
girl whom Aretino loved with the deepest passion of his
life , are otherwise movin • In the following one in
which he asks her to return to Venice from a so j ourn in
the country there is a yearning tenderness beneath the
layfulness:
The old wives' sayin , my dau hter , has it that an
honest bargain does not admit deceit . Since you and
Maste r Polo , with Caterina , the boy and the maid,
aske d my permission to stay in the country eight days ,
ten have gone by . It seems to me that you are due to
return home ...• You will see whether the Gambarare
seem more wort hy of esteem than this town , or if the
Br enta be more j ocund of aspect than the Canal Grande .
To m y mind , one should stay in the country one week
and no more , for in a brief space of time , the open
air , he wildness of the place and the rustic quality
of t he people may , with their novelty , furnish agree
able f ood for thought and conversation . But upon the
expiration of such a time , the rudeness of the village
with the uncouthness of its inhabitants , turns every
pleasure into noyance , so that one must perforce
return to comfort and civilization . Therefore , I
await you, as I f eel myself in the same torment ,
havin f ive mouths less to feed , that a cardinal woul d
feel , bein f aced with one more .. . . Besides this ,
your wont ed pleasant ways , my dau hter , are a sweet
nourishment to the years that are beginning not to l et
me live .. .• (V enice , A u ust 30 , 1537 )19
1 Lett re Scelte , p . 67 •
19 e t ere, I, 21 - 219 .
35
her
.
lS to chin sincerity, too, in the letters
in which Aretino speaks of his daughters . In writing
o Sebastiano del Piombo , the odfa her of his first
child , Adria, he tells him all the precarious joys and
the solici udes of a father:
I no sooner beheld my seed , b ari my semblance, than
I was so invaded by he tend rn ss o nature that
felt at that moment all the sweetness of ties of
blood ..•• I did no sooner send you word, because
we feared at every hour that she mi ht take fli h to
Heaven . But Christ reserved her for me, to be the
solace of my tardy a e , as wi ness of the bein which
another to me and I to her ave, for which I thank
Him and pray He may rant me to live until I see her
married . eanwhile, I must needs become her playthin,
for we are the clowns of our children . In their
simplicity they are at every moment climbin over us,
ullin our beards, pummellin our faces, dishevelling
our hair--and the coin we are aid for this is the
kisses with which we devour them, the embraces with
which we bind them to us . There is no joy to equal
such a one , if the fear of the dan ers that menace
them did not keep our soul at every hour in sus ense .
Not a leaf falls , not a hair is borne throu h the air,
that it does no seem a leaden wei ht which , falling
on their heads , mi ht kill them; nor does nature ever
break their sleep or cloy their appetite , that we do
not fear for their health, so that the sweet is
stran ely mixed with the bitter , and the more lovable
they are , the sharper is the fear of their loss . God
preserve me my dau hter, for certainly, from the
indescribable race of her being , I should cease to
live were she but to suffer hurt, let alone die .
( enice , June 15, 1537)20
Aretino's most heartfelt and cordial friendships
were with the artists in whose work he took deep interest
and pleasure . His closest friends in Venice were
201ettere, I , 175 .
36
Sansovino and Titian . In celebration of their friend-
ship , Sansovino ut the likenesses of himself, Aretino,
and Titian amon the sculptured faces of the Evan elists
on the d ors of the sacris y of Saint .ark's • Here is
an invitation to dinner addressed o Titian:
A pair of pheasants and I don't know what else await
you at supper, toe her with adame Angiola Zaffetta
and myself; therefore come, so that by continually
takin our pleasure, old age , the spy of death, may
never report to her that we are old; for when we two
dis uise a e with the mask of youth, it is not so
easy to discover the burden of our years; which bein
mature , turn reen a ain for those who know how to
live them a reeably . ( ecember, 1547)21
Another to Sansovino:
Tiziano, Anichino and I await you at super, nor be
deterred from coming to us by considerations of the
res ect owed to Len, for in consequence of its
treating you so badly with its fasts, it has been
decreed that you should rather break it than that
it should break you. Therefore don't let your
friends lack your company . (February , 1550)22
In other letters, Aretino speaks to the artist of
his work and, describing a statue or paintin, tries to
ive by the power of words the same impression that the
artist has iven by form and color . ~ are reminded of
the many times Spenser and Sidney were to attempt the
same thin , moved as was Aretino by the im ossible
aspiration of iving to lan uage the same power of visual
21Lettere Scelte, P • 70.
221ettere celte, p . 70.
37
representation as the plastic arts: ut pictura poesis .
Aretino turned to the visual arts of the Renaissance
for his models , finding in them a truth and vi or in the
representation of nature that the literature of the age
en irely lacke d . In the work of the painters and sculp
tors he "was aware of a desire to carve , paint , build ,
ive form to an entire world whose aspects eluded the
rofessional men of letters , absorbed as they were in a
remote ast that could no longer live.n
2
3 In his
comments , interpretations , and wo ct-recreations of
paintin s , Aretino tried to capture their secret of
color , tone , light , harmony , rhythm , in order to bring
these qualities into his style . A letter of November 9,
1537 , to Titian praises his painting of the "Annunciation"
and re int s for him, in words , the picture as the writer
sees it . Aretino is especially impressed by the vivid
sensory details of the picture and the natural rendering
of feelin by attitude and gesture :
The Holy Spirit , surrounded by the blaze of his glory,
makes us almost hear the beating of the wings of the
dove whose shape he has taken . The rainbow that spans
the sky over the little village barely illuminated by
the li ht of dawn is more real than the one we see in
the evenin after a shower . But what are we to say of
Gabriel , the divine messen er? Fillin everything with
2
3Antonio Foschini , L'Aretino (Milano , 1951) ,
p • 1 - 2 .
light, and shining about the room with as range
brightness, he kneels so gently, with the attitude
of reverence, that we cannot but believe that in just
such fashion he presented himself to Mary. He has a
celestial majesty on his countenance .•.• His head
is turned aside in modesty, while a sweet gravity
lowers his eyes; the hair, curled in delicate rin lets
appears slightly disarran ed. The robe, of a thin
yellow stuff, covers his nakedness without conce lin
it •.• ad seems to play with the wind. or were
there ever ~een wings to equal his feathers for rich
ness and softness. A nd the lily he bears in his left
hand shines ·with a marvelous light and fra ranee.
Finally, the mouth that formed the reetin that was
our salvation, seems to express in angelic notes:
"Ave.n24
In another letter o~ October 29, 1537, speaking of
Titian's Saint Peter Martyr , h says of the prostrate
figure of the saint in the fore round that, looking upon
him, one reads "all the living terrors of death and the
true sorrows of life upon his forehead and his body.'
He notes with wonder the realism of detail: "the co d
and livid pallor that appears at the tip of the nose and
the extremities of the body" of the dyin saint and 'the
whiteness of cowardice and the pallor of fear" depicted
on the face of his fleein companion. And in the back
ground, "v1hat a quiet little village, gathered u in its
natural simplicityl What mossy stones washed by the
stream that gushes from the brush of the divine
Tiziano."
2
5
241ettere, I, 272- 273 •
2
51ettere, I, 259 .
39
Somet i m es , havin thus served an a renticeshi to
his mast er s , Aretino aints his own pictures in words .
The letter is famous in which , havin learned of
Michelan elo's i nt,ention of doi n the "Last Jud ment , "
he i ves him in full detai l a plan for the picture.
2
6
In the fo l lowin letter of M ay 1544 to Titian ,
Areti n o describes to him a sunset which he watched over
the Canal rande:
Havi n ••• contrary to my custom , dined alone , or
more precisely, i n the company of that quartan fever
that no loner lets me enjoy the flavor of any food ,
I ot up from the table filled only with that despair
with which I had sat down to it; and then , leaning my
arm s on the window- sill and reclining upon it my chest
and almost my whole body , I gave myself over to the
contemplation of the fine spectacle offered by the
innumerable boats , which , filled no less with visitors
than with townspeo le , were recreatin not merely the
s ectators but the Canal Grande itself •..• And
after the fun of the race of two gondolas , rowed by
celebrated boatmen , was finished , I found much pleasure
in the s i ht of t he crowd which , to see the regatta ,
had stopped on the bride of the Rialto, on the bank
of t he C amerlinghi and the Pescaria •..• And when
these roups with happy applause went on their way ,
I , like a m an who ha s become a burden to himself and
26see the l etter to M ichelangelo , September 15 ,
1537 . (Lettere, I , 229-231 . ) ichelan elo's answer was
rather cry tic : 'Magnifice~1t JJiaster Pietro , my lord and
brother , i n receiving your letter I experi enced both
ha i ness a d pain~ I was happy in that it came from
you w ho are uni que for your virtue in the world; and I
was rieved in that, having finished a great part of my
picture, I cannot put into execution your conception of
it , which is such that if the day of judgment had already
come and you had personally seen it , your words could not
better have ictured it -" (Rome , 1537)
40
does not know what to do with his mind or his thoughts ,
turned my eyes to the sky, which f rom the day God
created it was never adorned by so beautiful a play of
light and shadow; for the air w a s such as they would
love to paint it who envy you, no bein you , who can
see it as I tell you of it: first, the houses , which
although they are of real stone, seemed of some unreal
stuff, and then the air ••• i n some places pure and
bright, in others turbid and pale . Consider hen my
wonder in the clouds ••• which in the center were ,
some close to the roofs of t he buildin s , some further
back, while the ri ht hand was all of a vapor oin
into smoky black. I was amazed at the variety of
colors they showed. The clo sest ones blazed with the
flaming colors of the sun , and the fur hest were of the
red glow of lead when it is not yet ali ht . Oh , wi h
what beautiful strokes the brushes of nature dis laced
the air, pushin it away from th palaces in the way
that Vecellio displaces it in makin his landsca es t
There appeared in some laces a blue - reen , in others ,
a green-blue, truly mixed by the w hi m of nature , master
of masters. ith what eff cts of li ht and dark did
she not brin into relief or l une into shadow what
ever she pleased to li hten or obscure , so that three
or four times I exclaimed, "0, Tiz i ano , where are you
now?" By my faith, if you ha d painted what I am tell
ing you, you would brin men i nto that amazement that
overcame me; for in the contem lation of what I have
told you, I fed mys ul as l ong as the wonder of the
picture lasted.27
Aretino's letters descri bin Venice may well have
contributed, with the canvases of the Venetian painters,
to the formation of that cult of Venice that runs through
English literature. Many Elizabethan plays , Shakespeare's
Othello and Merchant of Venice among them , have for their
-----
background this Venice that A r et i no so vividly pictured
in words. Besides the one above quoted , there are a
2
71ettere Scelte,
• 43 - 44 •
number of Aretino's letters in which he describes the
town he had come to love . In the followin one,
addre s sed to nis landlord, he enthusias ically raises
his house an the view he has from his windows:
41
•.• For as he Canal Grande is the patriarch of
every other canal and Venice the Poe of every other
town , I can say in truth that I enjoy the most beauti
ful street and the most ·ocund v·ew in the world . I
never look out from my windows that I don't see a
thousand persons and as many ondolas ... • The
iazze on my right are ~he ecc rie and the Pescaria;
on my left are the bridge and passag of the Tedeschi;
and facin me I have the Rialto , trodden by men of
business . I have game and birds in the shops; kitchen-
ardens and vineyards in the clearin s between the
house s . or do I care about me adows watered by
streamlets , when at dawn I look ou upon the waters
covere d wi hall the fruits to be found in season .
And how amusing to watch those who brin the boatloads
of fruits and ve etables to distribute them ....
But even that is nothin to the si ht of the tw nty or
so sailbo ts filled with elons , which, havin come
to ether , form almost an island--and the crowd runs u
to test he melons , smellin hem and wei hin them i n
their h nds . Of the beau iful brides , radi ant in silk
an ol and jewels , su erbly enthroned in thei r
vessels , I do not speak , fo r fear of dimmin the
splendor of their pomp . But I can tell you, I laugh
to split my sides when uff ws and cries and the
whistles of the boatmen follow in the wake of those
who have themselves rowed by servants not wearin
scarlet stockings .••• And what of the li hts that
upon the fall of evening are like scattered stars,
where the thins are sold that furni sh our dinners
and our supers; and what of the mus · c that at night
tickles our ears with the concord of its harmonies .
. . • (October 27 , 1537)28
To ether with the Prefaces to his dramatic works,
Aretino's correspondence contains the statement of those
2 Lettere, I , 256- 258-
42
critic 1 principles which make u his lite ary canon ,
and which he opposed to the literary standards of his
day . I n the sixteenth century , the vigor and ori inality
of the Italian Renaissance were beginnin to flag .
Culture tended to become fixed and mechanical . riters
aid no attention to the livin , spoken lan uage but
used an artificial style , filled with Latin elements
and based on the vocabulary and phraseolo y of Boccaccio
and Petrarch, who were re arded as models of perfection .
he reat reoccu ation wa s to fix the achievements of
the past and to set them up as barriers against chan e .
In Florence, the A cademy La Crusca set up its vocabulary ,
based on usa e consecrated by the past 'like columns of
Hercules,' says De Sanctis , "beyond which no one should
pass ." Bembo was fixin grammatical forms; the rules
for all enres were establi shed by rhetorical treatises
which were translation s or adaptations of Aristotle,
icero , nd Quintillian . hat tendency was at work which
is "a common phenom enon in all ages when production is
exhausted and culture athers itself in its forms and
crystallizes. ,
2
9
It was a ainst thi3 rtificiality , mechanism ,
sterile imi ation--which he summed up in the one abhorred
29 e Sanctis, II , 106 •
..
43
name of "pedantry"--that Aretino irec ed his revolt .
He is an interesting fi ure in literary criticism bee use
he was one of the first to base his revolt on definite
principles which he opposed tot adition . De Sanctis
observes:
There is in him a critical conscience so direct and
decided that in that age it cannot but seem extra
ordinary •. $ • Among so many pedantic works produced
on art and writing, his artistic and literary letters
mark the first dawning of an independent criticism,
which goes beyond books and tradi ions and finds its
basis in nature.30
The critical pronouncements in Aretino's letters are
in scattered passages throu hout the correspondence, but
they illustrate a coherent view. The two mainstays of
his critical theory are Nature and Art . These are
certainly not new concepts, but he ava them a personal
interpretation and expression. To follow Nature meant
to be original, individual , independent, self-reliant .
It meant looking at things di rectly and portraying them
as one saw them, not as they had been seen and portrayed
by others. The pedants who never glanced up at the world
around them but spoke only from the authority of tradi
tion, he called "the asses of other people's books."
Art meant the study and imitation of great works of liter
ature, but the imitation must be free . Those slavish
30ne Sanctis, II 106.
44
followers of Petrarch who lifted not merely words but
entire verses from his poems , Aretino considered not
imitators but thieves . The re t masters , he believed,
should be imitated in the spirit and not in the letter
of heir works . Throu h studyin them , we acquire skil
in he art of expression , and enlar e our minds and
souls with their thou hts , but we should never surrender
our i ndividuality and our fr edorn to express ourselves
nd our a e in our own way . 3
1
In a letter of June 25, 1537 , addressed to his
isciple icolo Franco , Aretino expresses these ideas
with vivacity and ~orcefulness and with such originality
of style that the letter mi ht serve as an example of
the rinciple s it advocates:
Go unhesitatin ly along the ways that ature opens to
your studie s if you want your works to amaze the very
pa er on which they are written , and think scorn of
those who rob starveling words: for there is a reat
difference between imitators and thieves--and the
thieve s I condemn ••• Look now, the nurse feeds the
child, her char e , guides his feet in the first steps ,
puts her smiles in his eyes , her words on his ton ue,
her manners in his estures ••• so that Nature ,
31"For myself , I can swear that I try to form myself
by what I learn and discover , but that I am always m xself
and never anyone else .••• I believe asrtiuch as anyone
i n t he judgment of those two eternal spirits {Boccaccio
and Petrarca) and in so doing I also place a little faith
in my own." (Letter to Agostino Ricchi , August, 1549 . )
45
increasing his days seems to fill him wi h her
attitudes . But when he has little by little learned
to eat , walk, and talk , he begins to form a new set
of manners, leavin those of the nurse for others
which are native to him: so hat he becomes that
which he is by livin , retaining just so much of her
instruction who reared him , as the birds who fly
retain knowled e of the father and mother who tau ht
them . Tha is what they should do who model themselves
on this or that poet: takin from him only the breath
of his spirit but drawin heir music from the olce
of their own or ans .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
To tell you truly , Boccaccio and Petrarca are imitated
rightly by whoever expresses his own thou hts with the
sweetness and beau y with which hey expressed heirs,
an not by those who sack and pilla e hem •.• And
finally , if the devil does possess us to despoil some
onP. , let us try to do it in the manner of Virgil when
he stripped Homer , or Sannazzaro when he fleeced
Virgil , that is , with a usurer ' s gain: nd hen we
may hope to be forgiven .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
0 errin crowds , I tell you a ain and a ain , that
poetry is the frolic of ature in its ladness, and
consists in its own inspiration , without which , poetry
is a soundless cymbal and a bell-tower without bells .
For which reason , whoever wishes to write and has not
the _ift in him from his cradle , is like a sauce that
has become cold . If anyone does not believe this , let
him consider the alchemists who, with all the art and
industry of their atient greed , have never succeeded
in makin gold, •.• while Nature , without an effort
in the world, brings it out in the purest and fairest
form . vfuerefore , take a lesson in what I woul teach
from that wise painter who , in answer to one who asked
whom he imitated , pointed to a group of men passing by ,
wishin to indicate that he took his models from life
and truth, even as I do in speaking and writin .3
2
J
2
1ettere , I, 1 5-1 8.
46
The letter ends with the ce le bra te d maxim: "Put your
mind to bein a sculptor of the senses , not a miniaturist
in words . '
Aretino believed in the direct expression of thou ht
and had little patience for the circumlocutions of the
Ciceronians or the pedantry of those who spent their time
fittin heir ideas into the archaic forms of Petrarch
and Boccaccio . He condemned most of the erudition of
literary men of the time as sham learni and hy ocrisy .
e cold o find enou h scorn for "those who cavil about
the art of the reeks and Romans , pondering on every
period and a r
•
in about every syllable ••• makin their
re u ations by the discovery of the acute accent on a
vowel . ,33 He mocks the time wasted by the academicians
in debates over what words belong to the "pure" Italian
lan ua e : 'Every pedant is quibblin about the Tuscan
1 ngua e . If the soul s of Petrarca and Boccaccio are as
tormented in the next world as their works are in this
one, they mus be ready to forswear their baptism . n34
In reaction t o this sort of learnin , Aretino flaunted
his ignorance like a banner: "I who went to school only
lon enou h to learn to make the sign of the Cross and
33Let ere, I , 302 .
34Lettere, I , 31 .
say 'Holy Spirit help me to learn.,u35 Elsewhere,
however, he says it is not through ignorance of them
that he does not copy the accepted models:
47
I have not deviated from the ways of Boccaccio and
Petrarca through ignorance, for I know how great they
are, but in order not to lose my time, my patience
and my reputation in the madness of trying to chan e
myself into them. ~ • knowing it to be an impossible
thing. It is better to eat dry bread in one's own
house than to have it with many dishes at someone
else's table. I go my own way in the Garden of the
Muses, and there never falls from my lips a word that
has the musty smell of antiquity. I wear my wit
unmasked •.•• {Venice, December 17, 1537)36
And again he says:
It is better to drink out of one's own wooden bowl
than another's golden oblet--a man makes a braver
show in his own rags than he does in the velvet
robbed from someone else. What have we to do with
stolen goods? (Venice, December, 1546)37
It would seem, then, that althou h he reco nized
the merits of the humanist culture with its heritage
from Latin and Greek, Aretino remained attached, by birth
and inclination, to the popular tradition, with its sense
of reality and its closeness to life; its crude vigor and
spontaneity of feeling and expression. In the literature
of the English Renaissance, the link between the two
351ettere, I, 302 .
361ettere, I, 368-369•
371ettere Scelte , p . 92 .
48
traditions existed from the beginnin, and the writers
of the age of Elizabeth drew freely from popular speech
and legend. But in Italian literature, Aretino was one
of the first to show, against all the protests of the
purists and academicians, the advanta es of such a
connection.3
8
Aretino's own style is a good illustration of the
critical principles he advocated. Its most striking
quality is its vitality. "He went nearest to life of
any writer of his day," says Hutton .
'
• •
• His work
has the odour of life ••• the life of the moment lived
for the moment of which he was a part .n39 The qualities
of Aretino's style are described in a masterly way by
De Sanctis:
Such the critic such the writer. To words he does not
give a thought. He accepts them all wherever they may
come from, whatever they may be: Tuscan , local, foreign,
noble, plebeian, poetic, prosaic, harsh, sweet, humble,
sonorous. The result is a style of writing that is
still the language spoken everywhere in Italy by the
38a. Sinigaglia , Essay on Aretino, cited in the
Introduction to the Cort1g1ana' by G. Stiavelli (Rome,
1890), P• vii.
39Edward Hutton, Pietro Aretino , Scofuge of Princes
(London, 1922), p. xvi. See also Samuel tnam, Aretino,
Works Translated into English, Introduction, I, 12-13:
"He was ••• the first writer who dared break away from
the old dead, deadening, hide-bound traditions of the
classicists and academicians to write in the language of
the people, the lan uage of the street, even that of the
brothel."
49
cultured classes. He abolishes the period, breaks
its joints, dissolves the periphrase, deflates pompous
and high-flown expressions , smashes every artifice of
that mechanism which was known as literary form; and
he brings style close to natural speech •••• He does
not look for grace: he looks for expressiveness and
relief. A word is good when it renders the thing as
it is represented in~his mind; and he does not have to
search for word s : the word and the thing present them
selves to him simultaneously , such is the ease he has
in writing ...• He does not strive for magnificence
or vastness of form ••• but for the nervous style
that best fits the quickness of his perceptions ••• •
His attention is concentrated, not on the outer form
but within: he brushes aside stereotyped techniques ,
elaborations and refinements . He has such vigor and
facility of production , 3uch a wealth of conce ts and
images that everything rushes out by the straightest
channel. He is prompt and decisive in his style as
in his life; never was it more truly said or anyone
that the style is the man . 40
Almost any of Aretino's letters afford ood illus
trations of the qualities of his prose . The passages
already quoted may erve as examples · to these a few more
may be added . The following is an excerpt from a letter
commemorating Antonio da Leva, a captain who had fallen
at Marseilles . It shows the compressed quality which
often characterizes Aretino's style . A number of
thoughts, telescoped into phrases, are condensed into
two sentences:
I do not know if Alexander , starting from the low
plane from which he [Levya] started , would have risen
so high . There is no limit in the hi hest heaven
that his fame has not surpassed; whose image is in the
hearts of his soldiers that , loaded with spoils and
40ne Sanctis, II , 106- 107 -
50
decorated with honors, with the same patience with
which he bore his labors, have suffered his death;
which to the intrepid heart of so reat a captain
was neither fri htful nor grim, for accustomed to
seein it on the battlefield and at every hour, he
had no fear of its terrors. (To Si nor Luigi da Leva,
November 15, 1536)41
The same concision is in the followin passa e,
which has the effect of a whiplash smartly brought down:
It is certain, Sir, that the benefactors of men, in
giving promptly, become more glorious than is a god
who defers in ranting his races, inasmuch as
promises long in fulfilling consume the days with
hope of those who wait, and are more cruel than the
obdurate "no" which refuses to promise . ( To Gonzalo
Perez, December 20, 1536)42
The breakin up of formal periodic structure ives
a quality of informality to Aretino 's style . I also
gives it flexibility and freedom. In the followin
passage the sentences are loosely connected, one often
rowing out of the recedin as as ontaneous added
reflection. The references are sometimes va ue , but the
movement is unimpeded, the style unfoldin with the
thought, never arresting or formalizin it . He is speak
ing of those theologians who destroy faith with rational
explanation:
411ettere, I, 93-94 •
421ettere, I, 99 . On the subject of concision,
Aretino writes to Fausto Longiano (Venice, December,
1537): "The thin is to reduce, as I have done, the
length of stories and the tedium of orations, as can
be seen in my letters, and as I will do also in all the
other things that you will see." (Lettere, I, 369 - )
51
How much good it would do our souls ••• if chan in
their nature and their style, they would mount the
pulpit like preachers and not sophists. For t he ood
and simple of heart· well know that the c min of the
son of God was the revelation of the mysteries of the
prophecies. So that, whoever believes in Jesus, there
is infused into his intelligence the concep ion of the
Virgin, the immortality of the soul, the r esurr ction
of the dead. \\Thoever does not doubt his or· gin is
capable of believin every most impossible effec u on
the slightest demonstration. And therefore the reverend
fathers ought not to discuss at such len th from the
pulpits by what manne r the divine ord was incarnated
in Mary, nor what my be the nature of tha Spirit
which leaves the flesh unimpassio ed , nor on how the
dust of flesh and bone , scattered to the winds or
dispersed in the sea, shall come to ether and live
again. Certainly, he temerity of such ar umen s s ems
to reprove Christ's havin remained silent , who only
touched upon them not wantin to take i ts reward from
faith which recompens~s those who believe and o not
seek for proofs. (To Antonio ruccioli, Jov mber ,
1537)43
The vivacity ands ontaneity of retina's s yle is
partly owing to its dramatic quality. Persons and events
are not so much de~cribed as made to live before us . He
is describing Giovanni delle Bande ere , facin death ,
thinking of the world he is leavin and the mystery ahead:
So he began to talk to me, nruning Lucantonio with reat
affection; and I saying,--Shall vre not send for him,-
Think you,--he said,--that such a man would leave war to
see a sick man?--He remembered Count San Secondo, say ing;--If only he were here, he might take my place .-
Sometimes he scratched his head with his fin ers then
put them in his mouth, saying,--vvhat will be?--and
replying to himself:--I never did any vile thing .
(To Messer degli Albizzi, December, 1526)44
431ettere, I, 268.
441ettere, I, 6.
52
The followin letter of thanks to one who had sent
him some thrushes takes the form of a lively picture of
co vivial cheer:
While , Sir , I was the other day, in the company of
friends , eating some hare sent me by Captain
••• and the praises of them were rising to the skies,
behold, your thrushes appeared brought by your rnessen-
er ..•• hey were such that our esser Tiziano ,
u on seein them on the spit and smelling them with his
nose , havin iven a look at the snow which while the
table was bein repared was fallin without the
sli htest ceremony in t he world, completely for ot
about company of gentlemen who were expectin him to
dinner--and all together we gave reat praise to the
birds with the l on bill , which cooked with a bit of
dried meat , a couple of bay-leaves and plenty of
ep er , w e ate for your sake and because we liked them.
(To Count Collalto , October 10, 1532)45
Another characteristic of Aretino's style which
contribute s to its liveliness is his use of colloquial
terms , po ular expressions, and the familiar, intimate
turns of spoken intercourse . He use d these expressions,
not for want of knowledge of the more literary terms,
but because they better served his purpose, enabling him
to express himself more dramatically, pointedly, graph ically . He has a gift for coinin telling phrases, like
the followin taken at random from hi s letters:
For he is mad who does not know how to live in Paradise.
• • •
eda oguery that keeps its buttocks fast to the
bench .
5 Lett ere , I , 3 7 •
53
The time has come when you mi ht have your fill of
glory--if it sufficed you to be immortal.
And death being necessary, he chose to die at the
height of glory, this being a blessed thing.
I have become proud, ••• in the manner of certain
plucked lordlings when their master puts his hand
on their sho ;lder.
On the weariness of readers with the eternal imitations
turned out by writers, he says:
Copy to the right, copy to the left, everythin is
fodder, you mi ht say, for the compositions of most
of them; for which reas n re aders are like those who
hate abstinence and see the ta of 'fast-day" pinned
on to both Friday and Saturday. --"Brin us something
else be sides salad 1" shout those who are hungry. ( To
Fausto Longiano, December, 1537)46
Such passages illustrate what Aretino meant when,
in writing to Bernardo Tasso, he attributed the ineffec
tiveness of his (Tasso's) letters to their "angelic
style" and "celestial harmony"--which, though well enough
in hymns and epithalamiums, is not suitable in letters,
"for they need the solid contours of invention and not
the fine-work of artifice ." (October, 1548)47
In the following passages, Aretino's prose is at
its best. There is an effortless simplicity in the
expression, a complete fusion of thought and form. The
style rises to a restrained eloquence, which does not
461ettere, I, 369.
47cited by De Sanctis, II, 98-
54
depend for its effect on rhetorical devices but only on
the intensity of feelin.
He thus begins the letter on the death of Giovanni
delle Bande Nere:
As the hour drew near which the fates with the consent
of God had decreed for the end of our lord , he moved
in his accustomed ter or towards Governolo , around
which the enemy had set up fortified positions; and
while he was attending operations there ••• alas, a
musket-shot hit him in the leg already wounded by the
harquebus. or was the wound sooner felt by him than
melancholy and fear fell upon the army; whence daring
and high spirits died mthin the heart of everyone.
And each man, forgettin g himself, thinking of the loss,
wept, bemoaning that fate should thus blindly have put
to death so noble a leader, valiant beyond all memory
of time, at this dawnin of su erhuman events
0
and in
the great need of Italy . (December 10, 1526)4°
To the wife of Giovanni, aria de' edici, he writes
the followin g letter on the death of her husband and his
own dear friend.
close:
ote the concentrated bitterness of the
I will not, Lady, contend with you in sorrow. ot that
I should not win, for I rieve the death of your husband
more than any person living; ••• but should my suffer
ing yield to yours, it would be because of the worthi
ness and wisdom that fills you, so that there is reater
capacity for things in you, a woman, than in me, a man;
and this being so, the rief is greater where the
understanding is so. But ive me the second place in
sorrow, which has reached such fullness in my heart
that I have no longer wherewith to grieve . And I
should have died when I saw him render his illustrious
spirit, and when the mould of his features was taken
4
8
1ettere, I, 5-6.
55
y Giulio di R faello , and when I mys lf closed him in
the tomb; but that the comfor of his undying memory
sust ined the life in me . The fame of his virtues ,
which will be the jewels and ornaments of your widow
hood , dried my tears . The stories of his exploits not
only drive away y sadness, but they brin me joy . It
is food to me to hear reat ersons say:--He is dead,
the mir cle o nature· he is one , the model o ancient
faith; he is no more , the arm of battle .--And certainly,
there was never another who raised so reat a hoe in
he Italian army . He could have no reater claim to
lory, who has been taken from human things , than the
remembrance of Kin Francis , by whose mou h the words
have more than once been spoken:--If Si nor Giovanni
had not been wounded, Fortune would not have made me
prisoner.--Behold, hardly is he buried than barbaric
pride, raisin its head to the skies , strikes terror
into the braves; nd already fear has so laid its
hold on lement that he is learnin the folly of
wishin for his death who, living , could keep him
alive . (December 10 , 1526149
In that controversy which took place in all European
literatures between the Ciceronian, or ornate , and the
Senecan, o ractical, style of prose , the one aimin at
rhetorical e feet , the other at direct communication ,
Aretino was, as we have seen , on the side of the Senecans
and may be considered an initiator of modern prose . Even
here , however, his versatility comes into evidence , and
491ettere, I , 10-11 . It is difficult to render in
English the economy of the Italian, one means of which
is the frequent use of verbal substantives:
__ non che io non vincessi, per dolermi la morte del
vostro marito piu che a persona viva .ff (Not that I
should not win, for I ~rieve the death of your husband
more than any person-living . )
-- 'E sarei morto mentre ho vista esalargli lo
illustre s~irito •• • e nel cFiiuaerio io ne la
sepoltura . (And I should have died wheri I saw him render
his illustrious s ·rit ••• and hen I myself closed him
in the tomb.) -
56
we find him, at times, adopting the Ciceronian style and
carryin its defects to such fantastic extremes as to be
taken as a model of seicentismo--that highly artificial ,
ornate style, characterized by fantastic conceits, which
in Italian literatu e flouri shed at the end of the
Renaissance, and which had its vogue all over Euro e
under various names .
The two styles may be found side by side in Aretino's
work, so that he may be said to represent both of t wo
opposite tendencies : a form of writin closer to speaking ,
free rom literary elaborations , aimin at the immediate
expression of the inner meaning--and a baroque style, now
flowery , now precious. De Sanctis notes that the arti
ficial style prevails where sincerity is lacking , and that
it is chiefly to be found in such religious works as the
lives of the saints , which Aretino wrote to be in the
fashion of the Counter-Reformation , and in those letters
which are panegyrics and eulogiums . 'Speaking well of ·
people was not so easy for him as speaking ill , " he
comments .
50
The following example of Aretino's baroque
style is from a letter in praise of the Duke of Urbino:
Your merits being the stars in the sky of glory , one
of them , as it were the planet of my genius , inclines
it to portray with the style of words the image of your
50ne Sanctis , II , 10$.
57
soul, so that the true countenance of its virtues , so
des· red by the world , 1nay be seen in every part . But
the power of my geniu , overwhelmed by the height of
its subject , though moved by such an influence , cannot
express in what manner the oodnes s , clemency , and
stren th of such harmony has bestowed upon you by
fatal decree the true title of Prince . (Dece ber 10 ,
1 53 7)51
Even such passages , however , have at imes vigor and
ori inality of ima ination . The followin are some of
the characteristic traits of Aretino's baroque style of
which we find parallels in sixteenth and sevent enth
century En lish literature:
he periodic sentence , developed by parallel
clauses and phrases , and ending with a coda , reminding
us of many sentences in the Arcadia . (He is speaking
here of Francesco Sforza):
.. • ho may be said to be happy , because he , who
be an his wanderings before he was six years old , and
knew exile before he knew hi country; after so many
conflicts of peoples; after so many events of war ,
disease , fa ine ; after so many labors on his part and
that of his followers; after all the afflictions which
the necessity of the times brought upon the peoples
who obeyed him; in the most tranquil State that could
be desired; amidst the warmest love Milan could bring
511ettere, I, 1 . De Sanctis observes : 'It is a
period accordin to tle imitators of Boccaccio , drawn
out in form and concept . It is not here a question of
writin things as they come , but of forcing what will
not come--the result is an em hatic tone , far- fetched
conceits , a lan uage that is precious--composed entirely
of pearls , but false ones . " (De Sanctis , II , 109.)
58
him; most assured in that whi ch most ma ters , the
feeling of the friendship of Caesar; havin the favor
of Italy; being untouched by a e;--has r ndered his
spirit to God who gave it him; and so without strife ,
without fear, without hate, he fias left in his
succession the most just , hi h, and hap y emperor
that ever was or will be. (To Count tampa, ovember
25, 1535)52
--The use of parallelism and antithesis in the
manner of the Euphuists:
And of such a mistake, I derived both pleasure and
displeasure: I was pleased , because I had from it your
letter which I cherish m ore than those from kins; and
I was displeased, because I know it troubled you--not
to think of a way to satisfy the desire you thought
mine, but to think you had not already done it. (To
Monsignor Guidiccione, January 15 , 1535)53
The Emperor, whose majesty is guided by od; protected
by Fortune; moved by intelli ence ; and armed by sorrow .
(To A. Leva, May 2, 1535)5 4
--The arrangement of parallelisms and antitheses
to form an intricate pattern:
I give you now, as a reward for always havin both
accompanied and succoured me with your intelli ence ,
your person, your powers,--the consolation of my
happiness, the cause of which will now draw as many
tears from your eyes by its sweetness, as my adversities
have already drawn from you by their 2itifulness.
(To Messer Lazzara , October 25 , 1537)?5
5
2
1ettere
'
I,
65 -
531ettere
'
I, 51 .
541ettere
'
I, 54 .
551ettere
'
I, 256.
- . .
59
--The arran ement of parallel elements in a
•
ro ression :
The hour has come when your eminent spirit, armed by
its own judgment , will teach the army how one fi hts;
and fi htin , how one wins; and winning, how one
triumphs . (To A. Leva, June 4, 1536)56
--The use of conceits, as we have seen in the letter
to the Duke of rhino , above. They es ecially abound in
- .. ... ..
the letters of praise to this or that rince. To the
Emperor Charles V he writes:
he Emperor alone soars beyond the stars on the wings
of his humility .
and:
••• they say that the pens and the tongues that arm
themselves wi h steel and with fire that forever cuts
and flames are as capable of enlarging the bounds of
your fame as your ca tains the confines of your empire.
(June 4, 1536)57
To Count Rangone:
Had he Duke of Ferrara pinned the banners of his
courtesies on the ramparts of your sublime spirit,
without a doubt the breath , which praise would have
iven his name , had unfurled them then to the eyes
of the whole world. (January 29, 1535)58
To Michelan elo:
You are the tar et of wonders in which the tourney
561ettere, I, 75 .
571ette~, I, 76-77 •
581ettere , I , 52 .
of the favor of the stars has shot all the arrows
of their graces. (September 15 , 1537)59
To the Doge, Andrea Gritti:
Gather up my affection in the folds of your
compassion.bO
To the Duke of Mantua:
Your Excellency seeks from me some idle gossip to
use as a fan in the heat that burns up our days.61
The Ragionamenti (Dialo ues)
60
In discussing Aretino's style, I have drawn examples
and illustrations from his letters , because in them both
his natural and his artificial vein are re resented. W e
have from them a fair idea of Aretino's style in all the
other works. Before taking up a consideration of the
innovations in dramatic technique shown by Aretino's
comedies, I shall make a brief mention of the
Ragionamenti, which has become the best known of all
Aretino's works and upon which much of his reputation as
an obscene writer is based .
The Ragionamenti was published in two parts: Part I
in 1534, Part II in 1536• It was published in Italian
591ettere , I , 229 .
60cited by De Sanctis, II , 108 .
6lne Sanctis, II , 10 •
61
in England by John Wolf in three parts: Parts I and II
appearing in 1584, Part III in 1589. The first English
translation was published in Paris by Isidore Liseux in
1889. The Ragionamenti is a work in the tradition of he
Decameron, in which various persons discuss a subject by
telling stories and anecdotes. Each of the two parts of
the work are divided into three afternoons. In Part I,
the interlocutors are anna and Antonia , two former
courtesans, who sit in the shade of a fi tree and
discuss, on consecutive days, the three ossible states
for a woman--nun, wife, courtesan. In Part II, anna
instructs her daughter Pippa , on the first afternoon , on
the art of being a courtesan and on the second tells her
of the tricks and betrayals of men. On the last day,
Nanna and Pippa listen to a conversation between the nurse
and the comare (old gossip) about the art of the pro curess. Because of its scabrousness of subject and
outspokenness of treatment, the Ragionamenti has become
notorious. It did much to create for Aretino that
reputation for indecency by which he was chiefly known
in Elizabethan Englanct.
62
Modern criticism tends to see
6
2
rn his dedication to the First Book of the
Ragionamenti, Aretino himself proclaimed his purpose to
be the chastisement of vice. It was not the ideal of
religious life or matrimony that he was attacking , he
said, but the profanation of them, an all-too common
62
in the work other qualities. It is praised as one of
the best expressions of Aretino's realism, of his dramatic
portrayal of character and milieu, of his modern prose
style. Thomas Chubb spe ks thus of the Ragionamenti in
his biography of Aretino:
.•• it is not simply as a lewd treatise that these
"fantastic and pleasant" bits of reporting are to be
regarded. Aretino's object may have been to titillate
the corrupt lords; but the reat artist that lay within
him forced his hand ••• he breathed the breath of
life into what under less inspired hands would have
been a catalo ue of dull obscenities. Pippa and anna
are very real people. Their speech is real speech.
It has the cadence, the vocabulary, and the sound and
taste of the lan ua e of the tough eople of his day .
• • • The swift pace of their various adventures
carries the conviction of episodes that have truly
taken place. The lan ua e is completely outspoken •
. • • Though the episodes are Boccaccian, there is
none of Giovanni's raceful araphrasing.63
62 (Continued)
spectacle in the age: "Janna does not speak of the true
observers of the vows of chastity as she herself says to
Antonia ...• Indeed, I could not have even dared to
think, let alone write what I have put on pa er about the
nuns, if I did not think that the burning fire of my en
should purify the stains that lasciviousness has made in
their lives who should be as lilies in the ardens of the
convents, and who have s o soi l ed themselves in the filth
of the world that Hell itself is revolted, let alone
Heaven. Whence I hope that my words will be like that
cruelly merciful instrument with which the skillful
surgeon cuts away the infected l imb, so that the others
may remain sound-" How much of truth there is in this
and how much of Aretino's di plomacy is a difficult
question.
63Aretino, Scourge of Princes ( ew York, 1940),
p. 362.
3
For dw rd Hutton , too , he Ra ionamenti is a
•
irro ,
though it may distort much in malice :
The Dialo ues have the robustness of the world they
depict ••• they have the vi or of life , •.• naked
and dramatic •.• they ex ose objectively , at top
voice, the corru tion of the time ••• but it was a
time when truth could be uttered not with se iousness
and grimness but with a shout of lau hter . So in the
Dial ogues : there is devilish lee •.• a mali nity
and malice of observ tion which finds e
4
ression in
an exube r a nce of sarcastic particulars.6
. ntonio Foschini says :
In the dialo ues o anna ad ntonia; anna and Pippa ·
the ossi and the nurse--there is a crowded move ent
of facts , people , places , thins , all depicted in a
rakish lan u e , hi hly-colored and su_ estive , hich
draws from the ointed ex ressiveness of ·ar on a
novelty of . hrase , a liveliness of re artee . 5
The Ra ionament i shows retino ' s rose at its best :
natural nd s ontaneo s , compressed and i orous; it is
dramatically true to the v rious s eakers and shows an
astonishin mastery of all levels of lan ua e .
The Comedies
Aretino wrote five comedies : La Car i giana (1526) ,
-
Il arescalco (1 533 ), La Talanta (1542) , L'Ipocrito
(1 542) , Il ilosofo (1546) , and one tra edy , L' Orazia
(1546) . Four of the comedies (all but Il Filosofo) were
64pietro retino , Scour e of Princes, pp . 253 , 256 .
651 , Aretino, P· 9 •
4
printed in Italian in London by John Wol in 15
•
The comedies of Aretino are a departure from theat
rical convention, just as the lan ua e and style of his
letters w s a departu e from the acce ted standard of the
a e . I alian comedy of the sixteenth century was written
accordin to classical rescription: the favorite models
were Plautus and Terence; the plot consisted of a attern
of well-worn equivocations, reco nitions , intri ues; the
characters were the conventional types of Latin comedy :
the courtesan, the reedy servant, the a-between , the
rodi al son, the avaricious father , the miles gloriosus ,
the usurer. Aretino, as De Sanctis says, "entered into
all this mechanism and smashed it up . "6 He paid no
attention to rules . In the Preface to the Cortigiana,
he announces:
If you see t he characters appear on the stage more than
five times, don't lau h , because the chains that hold
the mills on the streams would not bind the madmen we
have today. Besides, don't wonder if the style of
comedy is not observed with the required strictness
•. • because we live otherwise in Rome than they used
to live in Athens.
What Aretino chiefly aimed at was life and movement .
Without formalities , introductions, monologues, his
comedies open in medias res, puttin on the stage the
characters from whom the action and the situations arise .
e Sanctis, II, 109 .
65
Ins ead of using the classi c types , he ortrayed the
people of the I t aly of his tim e , the world of the court
nd town . His characters are unerrin ly true to life ;
they are sket che s without depth of psycholo ical study ,
but they are none the l ess alive . Nhat he comedies
basical ly lack is unity . hey are sequences of scenes
which a e never brou ht to ethe r into an or anic whole-
Aretino lacke d this const r uctive power: 'the totality of
effect elu es him ; he see s the world piecemeal and so
r e resents i • ,
6
7 B ut t he ift he did have eeminently
was that of observa ion . In his loosely connected ,
helter- skelter s cenes , we find the varied life of his
day , rendered in the minut es detail , with all its
animation and its rue accent and ges ure . Turnin away
from the imitation of classic comedy , Aretino gave to
t he Italian t heatre some very good examples of the comedy
of m anners .
A satirical vein r uns through Aretino ' s comedies as
through all of his work . The objects of his satire
remain the same : the vices and mise r y of the court ; the
avarice of ri ch atrons; the i norance of edants ;
hypocrisy and sham in every f orm . Aretino ' s sa ire , in
t he comedies as elsewhere , i s distin uished by its close
7ne Sanct is, II , 110 .
66
all i nee with reality. He was no satisfied to hold up
vice in an abst act or ener lized form for chactisement .
He ictured i in its local and conte orary as ect , with
concrete instances, forcing the world around him to see
it s i a e in the lass of his comedies .
La Cortigiana (Life at Court)
La Cortigiana, the earliest of the comedies, has for
its subject , as the title indica es , the life of the
court . Aretino ' s satire in it is at its most bitin , and
his references have a erciless
• •
rec1.s1.on . One feels in
it the author of the "Pasquinades," the man who is
embi tered b his quarrel with Rome and is aking his
even e . The humor of the iece is far from bein a
li ht-hearted one .
68
The Corti iana might be likened to
one of the picture sequences of Hogarth in its wealth of
detail and incisiveness of style . It has also been
called a parody of Casti lione ' s Cortigiano in that, as
the one illustrates the manners and character of the
ideal courtier , so the o her tears aside the veils and
points sardonically to the actual courtier and the sordid
reality behind t he ompous show of the court . If the
6 ui i onelli , Il Teatro Italiano (Milano , 1924),
P• 104-105 -
67
comedy may be said to have a certain unity , i is in the
sense that every detail of the ction contributes to this
otal impression . ut of unity of structure there is very
lit le . he reat number of short scenes into which the
ac s a e divi ed contributes to the fr gmentary effect of
he play . 9
1
e have the imp ession of a succession of
ic ures r her than a unified plot . These ictures are
sim ly strun onto parallel threa s : the story of
esse aco , a Sienese , a sort of provincial 11 come
to Roe to be m de a courtier and ossibly a cardinal ,
who falls into the hands of 1esser Andrea and is fleeced
nd ade a lau hin stock into the bar ain; and the
amorous a ven ure of Si nor Parabolano, an upstart noble man of the cour of Rome , who has all the insolence ,
conceit , and self-indulgence of his class . Both aco and
Parabolano are involved in love affairs--Si nor Parabolano
with a lay called Livia, and esser 1aco with a certain
Camilla whom he has seen looki out from a window on a
Ro an street . Bo hare led a wild- oose chase--Parabolano
b his rascally ervant Rosso and aco by esser Andre
and bo h end up utterly discomfited and made fool s of.
aco 's adventu e is like a burlesque of Parabolano ' s ,
9 c I-- 23 scenes; Act II-- 22 scenes; Act III--1 5
scenes · Act I --21 scenes; Act V-- 25 scenes.
Mace's i gnorance and rustic clumsines s of manner and
speech being a travesty of the mannered refinement of
the courtier Parabolano.
68
The lay opens on the lessons given to Maco by
M esser Andrea on the art of being a courtier. Under the
pretext of teaching his pupil the pre cepts of courtier
ship, M esser Andrea (i.e., Aretino) takes occasion to mak e
the most cynical observations about the court , which Maco
gravely repeats and learns by heart without understanding
their import:
M. Andrea: The main thing a courtier must know is to
swear, to be a gambler , to be envious, to
whore, to be a heretic, to fawn, speak ill,
be ungrateful, ignorant, an ass ...•
M:. M aco: I think I understand. But how does one
become a heretic? That's the point .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
M. Andrea: When someone tells you there is goodness,
discretion, love, conscience at court, say,
"I don't believe it."
M . M aco: I don't believe it.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
M . Andrea: To sum it up: whoever tells you anything
good of the court, say, "You are a liar ."
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
M. ifaco: Why do courtiers swear , Master?
M . Andrea: In order to give themselves an air, and
because of the cruelty of whoever dispenses
court favors who, gi ving every opportunity
to poltroons and making good servants live
in misery, drives courtiers to such a
point of despair that they are all ready
to forswear their baptism. (I.xxii)
The comedy proceeds, addin touch after touch to
69
complete the picture of court life . e are iven a vi rid
impression of the arro ance, foppery, and avarice of the
lords of the court in the conversations of the lackeys,
who slyly turn to their advanta e the vices they so
closely observe in their masters:
Cappa: Certainly, whoever says that he [the aster] is
not a blackguard lies in his throat; I have
found out another skinflint habit of his: he
says to the servants who come to work for him:
you try working for me a month , and I will try
your service a month; then if you like me you
stay; if I don't like you, you o. At the end
of the month he says: you won't do.
Rosso: I see his drift: in this way he is well served
and pays no salary .
Cappa: It's enough to make you burst with lau hter
and cursing at the same time when, supported
by two servants, he has his stockings laced,
and if the laces are not even and the points
not just ri ht , he cries out to hi h heaven .
• • • And how I laugh to see him in church
•.• taking the holy water: a page, kissin
his hand, dips it into the font and touches,
with a most S anish curtsey, the tip of his
finger, with which the traitor crosses his
forehead ...• (I .vii )
We have thus an impression both of the higher levels of
the court and of that shrewd world of the servants' hall
through whose eyes they are seen.
The denunciation of the vices of the court is most
direct and outspoken in the words of Valerio and Flaminio,
70
Parabolano's attendants , whom the author uses s his
mouthpieces . When a friend consults him about placing
his son at court , Flaminio launches into a bitter
diat r ibe in which he touches on all the various miseries
of court life which aroused the author's indi nation .
At court, he says,
.. • five or six ersons sleep in a room ten feet l ong
and eight feet wide; whoever does not like sleeping on
the floor provides his own bed ..• horses become
chameleons , if we do not provide oats and hay for them
out of our own purses •••• if one falls ill in the
service of his master , he is as a great favor iven a
place in the charity hospital •..• Benefices go to
those who were never at Court , or are divided into so
many shares that we get a ducat apiece ••• and we
would hold ourselves happy , if we did not have to
fi ht ten years to et the ducat ..•• We servants a r e
ready to devour one another , with such mutual hatred do
we all sit around a single loaf of bread and one bottle
of wine •.. . (II .vi)70
At another time , Valerio tells Flaminio that his
habit of criticizin is what has ruined his prospects of
advancement . Flaminio objects that all he wants is to
tell the truth:
Valerio: This tellin the truth is what they dislike •
. . • Of the great , one must say that the
evil they do is good • . .• They are allowed
to do everythin , but we are not permitted
to say everythin •
Flaminio: 1 y should I be ashamed to say what they are
not ashamed to do?
70Rosso 's len thy outburst on the horrors of t ne
serv n d hall ( .xv) adds naturalistic details to this
icture .
Valerio:
71
Because the r eat are the reat . (III .vii")
Valerio , findin himself for an unknown cause
suddenly in dis race with his master , thus reflects on
the uncertainty of court favor:
How stran e is the nature of masters , the life of
servants , the custom of the ourt. The master in
everythin obeys his impulse; the servant's destiny
always han son the chan in humor of another; and
the Court has no reater deli ht than to torment this
or that one with the stin of envy, which was born in
the same hour as the Court and will die when the Court
dies . (IV .vii)
When Parabolano confides to Valerio his desire for
a lady oft e court , Valerio tells him sadly that in
these days such desires are all too easy to satisfy , and
openly , since "the wars have so corrupted all of Italy
that no one has a shred of conscience left . " (II .x) The
l ow level of court morals is ironically confirmed by the
exultation of the lackey Rosso, who finds this world
extremely suitable to his system of living at other
people's expense; for at court, "whoever wrongly accuses
others , calumnies, slanders •.• is believed , and
whoever is innocent is accused . " (IV .xvii)
All through the comedy , fiercely bitter comments on
the court are put into the mouth of this or that person:
It is really incredible , the effrontery of your Court-
it wears the mitre and it is not ashamed . (III .vi)
Set your mind at rest--"poltroon" in Rome is a holiday
term . (I .ii)
72
Alvigia: Come, speak--don't be ashamed .
Rosso: What--abhamed?--at Court? (I.iv)
Perverse, ungrateful, graceless nature of the Court1
Is there mali gnity in the world? Is there deceit in
the world? Is there cruelty in the world--which does
not rule in you? (V.i)
At the end of the comedy, Signor Parabolano, as a
result of his sad experiences, sees himself in a new
light and realizes his fatuousness in takin it for
granted that all women should be madly in love with him ,
and his injustice in mistreating the faithful servant
Valerio to shower his favors on the rascal Rosso , who
pandered to his vices. He has the grace to lau hat
himself and, speaking for the author, resolves all the
accumulated bitterness of the comedy in his laughter:
"Put dowr1 that knife," he tells the irate baker, whose
wife he had been beguiled into taking for his paramo r,
"it would be a shame if such a fine comedy were to end
up as a tragedy." (V.xxi)
The main fi gures of the play are surrounded by types
vividly suggestive of the Roman scene: the aged courtesan
Alvigia, who has turned procuress and deals in ne cromancy;
the faithless shrew Togna, who stands on her right to
betray her husband because he is a frequenter of taverns ,
a gambler, and jealous into the bargain; the Jewish
ragman; the politic fishmonger; the newsvendor who goes
73
up and down the streets crying his wares , the 'stories,
fine stories' he has to sell on the Council of Trent,
the Em pe r or , the Sack of Rome . There are besides count-
1 ss allusions Celling to mind the shops , brothels ,
taverns, streets of R ome and creatin a realistic setting
for the action .
Il Marascalco (The Marshal)
I l arescalco , written three years after La
-
Cortigiana (1529) , thou h published a year before it
(1533 ) , belon s also to the earlier period of the comedies
and is i n many ways a parallel piece to La Cortigiana .
Althou h the scene is laid in Mantua instead of Rome , the
ob j ect of the author' s satire is the same , court life .
And the satire has the same sharpness of personal rancor .
As in the Cortigiana , the author's bitter commentary on
the ways of the court runs through the lay:
How m uc h better were it for me to have attended my shop ,
from whi ch I let the cloud-like visions of the Court
lure me; I could have lived in style with what I earned,
and I have chosen rather to live like a wretch, losing
everyt hin · and yet I was told that nothin but envy
and t re a chery is to be found in these cursed courts .
( I .viii )
Certainly I thou ht to have died a thousand times on
m y straw at Court , as the reater part of the courtiers
do . ( I . i x)
Thes e lords have strange whims ...• They are like
women, who ursue those who would escape them , and
fly from those who pursue them, and have no other
pleasure han to drive mad their poor servants.
(II .iii)
?4
I confess to you that I should be put to a beas ly
concern to imitate a gentleman of the Court, because
i I were such a one (which God forbid) I should never
be able to bring myself, as they do, to d"sre ard
faithfulness in servants, benefits of friends, kinshi
of blood ; nor could I, with all my sim licity touch
even the hem of their, shall I call it, i noranc e .
(Prologue}
As in the Cortigiana, the characters are vividly
drawn by a few tellin traits that also su est the local
scene: iannico, the mischievous stable boy; the
arescalco 's old nurse, who has an undiminish d relish
for life and is inexhaustible on the theme of the joys
of matrimony , which she sets forth in pictures of the
mos hearty and unreserved realism; the m iso nist ,
Ambro io , who is there to show the other side of the
med 1 of married life ; the pedant , with his lon -winded
and rotesque Latinisms; the Jewish peddler; the pages
and attendants, and gentlemen and ladies of the duke's
court at Mantua . The action takes place in the square
between the duke's palace and the stables. The
Marescalco serve s as a center around which the other
chara ters , sin ly or in groups, revolve; and their
movements , as in turn they a roach, withdraw, return ,
have somethin of the rhythm of a dance--as if the whole
piece were in itself the representation of a play , 'a
75
play performed in a town square , as 1n a paintin of the
quattrocento . ,
71
In spite of the thrusts of satire, the
comedy is pervaded by a holiday mood, as if it were a
part of the entertainment for a festive season. Perha s
it was in this sense that De Sanctis likened it to
Shakespeare 's Twelfth Night . 7
2
The Marescalco is the best knit of any of Aretino's
comedies . The plot (the same that Jonson was to use in
he Silent oman) consists of a hoax marriage forced on
a man who h tes women . In Aretino's comedy, the victim
is the arescalc o , or had stable-keeper to the D uke of
antua , who is ordered by his lord to enter into a sudden
marria e . H e first hears the news from his stable boy,
Giannico , who comes to his work maliciously sin in:
y master will take a wife ·
y mas er will take a wife this evenin,
upon this earth .
He will take her, he will no take her;
He will have her , he will not have her,
upon this evenin • (I .i)
Upon bein questioned by the Marescalco , Giannico
7
1
M rio A ollonio , Storia del Teatro Italiano
(Firenze , 1951), p • 88-89 .
7
2
see De Sanctis, · II , 111; also Arthur Symonds, The
Renaissance in Italy, II , 269 : "This play is conducted
with so muchSpirit that we may not be wrong in su posing
Shakes eare in Twelfth ight and Ben Jonson in Epicoene
to have ovved something to its humor . '
explains that he is alludin to "the wife my lord is
ivin you .
arescalco: Ah , these are jests of the Court .
Giannico: You wills e .
Marescalco : Who tol you this nonsense?
76
Giannico: The gentlemen , the a es , the secretaries,
he faulconers , the ushers , and th rug
that is s read on the table . (I . i)
Therea ter , the comedy develops with the increasing
uneasiness of the 1arescalco as the realization of his
master ' s se iousness of intention grows upon him . His
torments are exacerbated by the merry comments of every
one he mee S • His old nurse drives him into a frenzy
by the fond pictures she conjures of his future marital
bliss:
••• the ood wife meets you at the head of the
stairs with smiles of love and heartfelt welcome; she
takes your coat and , joyfully ministerin to you ,
••• she wipes the sweat from your face with cloths
so white and soft , that to your very soul you feel
comforted .
Then , at the evening meal , the nurse continues, she sets
before him 'such tempting morsels , such delicacies , as
would tickle the appetite of a dead man'; and at ni ht
she lovin ly ·washes his feet "with water made fragrant
with bay leaf and sa e and rosemary . ' She is to her
husband such consolation "as in Paradise we have from
the an els .
When in conclusion the nurse asks fondly ,
77
"When shall I see you so married?" the exasperated
1 arescalco answers , 'On the day of Saint Bindo , whose
feas falls hree days after the Jud ment.' (I .vi)
The nurse's picture of matrimony is comically
counterbalanced by the one drawn by Ambro io , a courtier
whose views on women coincide with those of the
Marescalco . Givin as many ra hie instances as the
nurse had done , Ambr io descants on the shrewishness of
wives , their ossiping , flirtin , vanity , disobedience ,
and selfishness . I is as eech like that which Truewit
makes to 1orose (Epicoene II .i) for the purpose of
deterrin him from marriage .
The Jewish peddler now enters colorfully upon the
scene, cryin his wares:
To whom shall I sell them , my pretty trifles , my lovely
knick- knacks, to whom shall I sell them ••.•
( III .i)
and is incited by Giannico to exasperate the arescalco
by pressing trinkets upon him for his new bride . Even
the pedant, with his absurdly hi h-flown discourses, adds
to the poor man's a ony by citing passa es from the
Scriptures in testimony of man's duty to marry:
Pedante: Bene vivere et laetari: I brin you good
tidin s ...• His Excellency , His Most
Illustrious Lordship , loves you and , this
evenin, layin u on you the matrimonial
bond, joins you to so rare a lady as
mi ht be envied by totum orbem .
78
arescal co: Do you speak in seriousness or to try my
patience?
Pedante : Per Deurn Verum, our lord is ivin her to
you in all certainty.
Marescalco: I shall never accept her.
Pedante : Ah, friend, do but call to mind the words
of Holy Gospel.
arescalco: Does the Gospel speak a ainst wives?
Pedante: How , against? Immo, on the contrary •.•
the maker coeli et terrae in the Gospel
says that a tree that does not bear fruit
shall be cut down and cast into the fire;
therefore our most magnanimous Duke, in
order that you who are as the tree, may
bear fruit, has elected you to enjoy a
most virtuous consort ...• (I.ix}
Meanwhile, Giannico keeps up the constant pin-pricks
of his teasin :
I should never have thought that, just because I told
you about your wife, you would wish to kill me.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Is it so bad a thing to say that you are oing to take
a wife?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
If you must take a wife, may I not say it as well as
another?
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
You mustn ' t swear, just because of a wife.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The Duke is to blame for your wife, not Giannico ....
His Excellency , not the boy, is iving you a wife
... • (II .vii )
79
--until the Marescalco is d iven out of his mind with
fury, while the duke's entlemen stroll across the square
to congratulate him on his good fortune or to assure him
of the duke's disfavor should he refuse it . The action
precipitates to its climax: the revolution of the char-
-
acters around the Marescalco is intensified until all
surround him, and he 1s dra ged into the palace where his
bride awaits and all is ready for the weddin --only to
discover to his inexpressible joy , that his lord has
played a joke on him and that the "wife" is only a a e
boy.
La Talanta
La Talanta has even less unity of structure than the
other comedies of Aretino, and ives even more the
impression of a haphazard succession of scenes. The
intrigue is tedious and involved and has no originality.
It turns on the old device of identical twins (in this
case triplets) who are disguised so that their sexes are
mixed up , and who have been separated and dispersed (two
of the children, a "Saracen boy" and a "slave girl ," had
been stolen b the Turks and sold as slaves); and there
is the usual to-do about the reco nition and reestablish
ment of the proper sex, relationships , and so on. It is
0
the old stuff of Latin comedy. The real theme, however,
is courtesans, a subject in which Aretino felt thoroughly
at ease, and the interest of the play is in the masterly
portrayal he ives of the species in the heroine, Talanta.
The comedy is written to give her an op portunity to
display all her arts and to play the many shifting aspects
of her personality on her various lovers, each of whom it
is her intention to exploit to the maximum.
As the comedy opens, Talanta, chattin with her maid,
Aldella, explains to her the philosophy of her profession:
••• For you must know, sister, that the practice of
such as I had its origin from the meanness of those
who force us to be mercenary ..•• So that we are not
good, because they were evil; and therefore to do them
the greatest possible ill is but a charity to them ..•.
Old age comes, Aldella, and when your forehead begins
to wrinkle, purses are tightened and loves begin to
cool ...•
She goes on to describe the lovers whom we are to
meet in the play, mocking their foibles, of which she
takes such shrewd advantage:
Talanta: But what do you say of the Captain? How can
you keep from dying of laughter when he tells
about the order of his battles, hurling him
self about and brandishing his arms as if he
were there?
Aldella: He and the Venetian ought to be granted free
entrance: they are such fun to have in the
house.
Talanta: There is another onel How I love to torment
him when he swears to me there is not another
1
in the world s eautiful as I, and I pretend
to be an ry, as if to say that he is mockin
me •..• And whats ort it is when the ood
man asks if he speaks Tuscan correctly,
affirming he has ke ta Florentine wi .h him
for two years in order to erfect himself in
the lan uage.
Aldella: I wonder his servant or that of the Ca tain
doesn't appear to bring you some me ssa e and
make Orfinio row hot and cold •.•
Talanta: He is foolin himself if he thinks that one
thousand would satisfy me , let alone one; I
speak from a ractical stand oint .
Aldella: Still, Orfinio loves you.
Talanta: Orfinio loves not me , bu h·s p stime; and
spends not for me, but for his pleasure:
here is a lutton who buys a delicacy not
for the love h bears it but for the desire
he has to eat it; so he eat s me in the
pleasure he derives from what I am . (I .i)
The lovers are more fully portrayed in the followin
scenes, each being hi hli hted in turn in his relationship
to La Talanta. Messer Vergolo, like Messer Maco of La
-
Cortigiana, is the st ran er in Rome , ,,,ho trin s with him
all the peculiarities of his own re ion . Ver olo is a
Venetian. He walks the Roman streets si hing for the
canals of Venice. When , with considerable difficulty,
he is mounted on a mule, heh ndles it as if it were a
gondola. Gazing on the monuments and marvels of Rome ,
he has always at his fingerti s Venetian comparisons
which surpass them:·
82
er olo : at a fine column that is t
Ponzio: Trajan had it erected .
Ve r olo: There are two on our Piazza which would not
yield to it .
Ponzio: Pause here and look at the Arch of Septimius ,
under which he passed with his triumphant
hosts .
Ver olo: It is su erb , very superb-- the ucintoro ,
too, is a marvelous thin • (I .iii)
esser Ver olo , as is not unusual in a middle-a ed
bur her , is stin y: in Rome he hires only one mule and
akes his servant walk behind wearin the spurs ("So it
will seem that you are ridin ") . hen M esser Vergolo's
mount ets loose and strays away while his servant sleeps ,
Me sser Ponzio is concerned for the dis race of his
friend's p edicament . Vergolo's attitude is more
practical :
Ponzio : Jill you think more of the fifty scudi that
the mule cost you than of the mockery of so
losin it?
Vergolo: ockery is mockery , and a mule is a mule .
(I .vi)
Orfinio is an impulsive and passionate youth , who
sees the madness of his love for Talanta but cannot free
himself of it :
I think that the spirit , motions , and thou hts and
senses , to ether with what else makes up the lives
of lo ers are all composed of quicksilver , so that
Cu id would lose more time in tryin to stop them
83
than the alchemists waste in trying to freeze that
element. I speak so, because I myself cannot stay
one fraction of a moment without seeing Talanta. (I.ii)
Talanta plays a skillful game of fast and loose with
Orfinio. In the following scene, she lures him back
after having mortified him and cast him off. The cynical
comments of Pizio, who wants to dissuade his friend from
his infatuation, come into the dialogue with a counter
point effect:
Talanta: Certainly, Orfinio is a fool, if he thinks
to fight without his heart and to win me
who hold it prisoner.
Pizio: Don't let her take away your courage in
order to frighten you with it.
Orfinio: Since that is how it is and goes--so let
it go and let it be.
Talanta: The words 01 my Orfinio so delight me that
I seem still to hear them.
Pizio: Cursed woman.
Talanta: Well met, dream of my slumbers.
Pizio: Ill for him who crosses your path.
Talanta: Will you not answer me, haven of my hopes?
Orfinio: How should I answer? ith the boldness that
you give me, since the favor I have from you
so far overtops all others, that even your
pride must yield to me.
Talanta: There was no wrong.
Pizio: She speaks true, for until she has you
crucified, she holds every other wrong
as nothing. (I.xiii)
84
Soon, Talanta has won back Orfinio and his consent
to all her wishes:
Talanta: My heart, shall I have my way?
Orfinio: How should you not have it?
Talanta: But answer me .
Orfinio: If you wish to make a trial of the love I
bear you, ask me for the thins that are
in my power to ive, and not for those that
are already yours. (I.xiii)
Captain Tinca is the ty e of the miles gloriosus,
but there is a Spanish flavor to his oaths and in his
ceremonious ostentation. In an Italy more and more
dominated by the Spanish influence, the Roman miles had
taken on some of the mannerisms of the new masters.
Tinca is characteristically sure of his power over
Talanta, and his parasite Branca does nothin to deflate
his illusions. Here is Branca iving his master an
exalted account of Talanta's reception of the slave girl
that Tinca had sent her as a ift:
Tinca: So the ift ravished her soul , did it?
Branca: I couldn't begin to tell you.
Tinca: And those wretches who brought other things,
were cursin their luck, ah?
Branca: You may well say so .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Tinca:
\\That thanks did she render to those others
who gave her presents?
Branca: The sam that the Ti er would render to
those w ho cast a reasure in his waters .
Tinca: a nifyin only my ma nificent magnificence,
eh?
Branca: Master , yes . (III .xii)
Talanta thus pr ac ices her seductions on Tinca,
-
adapting her manne r of speech to his, while Branca com-
ments on the style of both:
Talanta: Here is the Captain coming to me •••
Tinca: ell met, 0 Durlindane of your Orlando 1
Branca: A true military salutation .
5
Tinca : What ho l helmet of my head , armor of my body,
cuirass of my thigh , and ca arisen of m
steedt
Branca: From now on I am gain to carry my inkhorn
with me, for it is a shame that such fine
expressions should be lost .
Tinca : You don't reply , tassel of my standards .
Talanta: I am submerged in the sea of your conceits .
(III :xiii)
It is Talanta ' s aim , b playing her lovers one
against the other, to obtain from Vergolo the Saracen
boy , from Tinca the slave girl , from another Roman
gentleman the means to support both , and from Orfinio
his patience and forbearance until she has gained her
ends with the others . Her way of carryin out all this
makes a divertin s ectacle and shows her technique .
There is an amusin scene (II .vii) when the servants of
6
the lovers all arrive at the same time at Talanta's door
with .,heir masters' presents . They argue as to who has
precedence, and Talanta appears on the balcony:
Talanta: What is all that chatterin and noise down
there?
Pizio : It's us, with the presents .
Talanta : o's there?
Pizio : Fora , Raspa , Branca , and Pizio , whom I should
have mentioned first.
alanta :
Pi io :
Talanta :
Pizio :
Raspa :
Fora :
ranca :
Talanta :
Branca :
Pizio :
Fora :
hat have you ot? What are you bringing me?
.. • the necklace, the money , the Saracen
boy , and the slave girl .
Oh
• • •
here are they?
ere it isl
Here t
Look at him 1
See her1
r- e
shall deign to accept the gifts.
The door opens
• • •
ith your kind
•
.
penn1ss1on
• •
•
Let's 0 in--it doesn't matter who goes
first. (II.vii)
Talanta is told by Biffa that her lovers Orfinio
and Armileo have fou ht a duel on her account and are
both wounded . She laughs:
Biffa : So , you drive men to cut themselves to
ieces, and then you lau h?
Talanta: What is it to me , if they are mad? And is
it the fault of my beauty that they are
jealous? It would be pretty if those who
make themselves drunk with wine should
pretend to be restored by it .
Biffa: My heart l
Talanta : Did they really draw blood?
Biffa : He is a traitor who embroils himself with
you l (II .xiv)
87
Later , when Costa brings her the news of his master
Orfinio ' s sad state as a result of the duel, Talanta
pretends not to believe it , and to take it as a bad joke
Orfinio is playing on her :
I for one am not of those who swell and strut on hearin
swords clash for their love and are never so ha py as
when they see people being hacked up. Certainly , I like
quiet natures , and it does me ood to see peace amon
my friends ; so commend me to Orfinio and tell him I
rejoice he should so amuse himself at the expense of my
simplicity . (II .xv)
Talanta uses anger as well as suavity as her weapon .
Nhen the theft of her two slave children is discovered,
she bursts into a spectacular ra c.
Run , find Tinca, find the old man , find the plague to
take them--yell, swear , threaten , spread it about they
have only given us gifts to take them again--but make
a clamor l (III .xiii}
hen poor r~sser Vergolo falls into her hands , he gets
a rough shaking up :
Vergolo : Talanta , my mistress , lady , and queen •••
Talanta : Fine thin s 1
Ver olo: Very fine •.•
88
Talanta : To ive and take again l
Ver olo : have iven you my heart ad I am not the
man to take it back a ain , though I should
be dyin for lack of it; now , consider what
you say .
Talanta : That do I care for your hearts; I am a woman
not a bird of prey; but for the Saracen I did
c r e l nd I ke pt him because I was worthy
t he ift and to spread abro d your liberality .
Ver olo: B y thi s holy sin of the Cross , I have iven
him to you Venetianly and irrevocably .
Talan a : Have you no soul? Look int o your bre ast .
Ver olo : I look , but find none bec ause you are she .
Talan a : I ne i ther am nor wis h to be . And if you so
m uch a s pass by my house again I will teach
you to cheat mel v,Jhat do you think of me?
I have owe r with such a one that could
aven e me over ten princes--n ow go , toothless,
decre it carcass l (IV.vii)
hen alanta see s that there is little more to be
ained from her othe r lovers , she be ins to consider the
advanta es o se cur i ty and prepares the way for makin a
er a1ent sett l ement wi th Orfinio . As mi ht be expected ,
she takes a r oundabout way, broaching the m atter to Pizio ,
but as if she were thi nking re retfully of breaking with
Orfinio :
Talanta : It i s not that I bear him a grudge , or
r emember the injury he had done me in breaking
int o my house , but I must begin to think of
marryin and .••
Pizio : This is all we needed .
9
Talanta: It is no small ain to free oneself at once
of blame and sin; no loner to have to sleep
or wake at another ' s bidding . Look-- if I am
not always of that humor of which one cannot
always be , he says , if it were such and such
a one you would be ready enou h ; if I am
dressed in my best , he comments: you are
ri ht to make yourself sleek to please I know
whom; if I ha pen to be pleasant at his
expense , he be ins to blow and swear ••• so
that I can and will no longer put up with him .
Pizio: Where there is no jealousy there is no love
••• I may tell him , then , that peace is
declared?
Talanta : I have no quarrel wi h anyone •.• ( .xiii)
Of course she wins her point , and the final word of
the lay is Pizio's: 'Since the travails of this story
have been brou ht to a ha y close , it may be calle a
matter of comedy .
L'Ipocrito (The Hypocrite)
Like La Talanta , L'Ipocrito is a lon piece with a
tediously involved story . Again the device of twins is
used: Lisee and Brizio , separated in infancy and long
lost to each other , are finally brought together by the
chance return of Brizio to his native town of Milan where ,
unknown to him , his brother resides . The simultaneous
presence of both twins in ilan gives rise to all sorts
of quid-pro-quos until the scene of recognition takes
place . The situation is that used by Plautus in th
Menaechmi and by many others after him . But the rrors
90
and m·su derstandin s that arise in Aretino's comedy
have an ori inal and irresistibly comic quality , due to
the ersonalities involved , who are themselves in no way
artificial.
In the Ipocrito , unlike the Cortigiana and the
Talanta, the scene is not court or town life in general ,
but a middle-clas s Milanese household . The action
centers around the affairs of Lisee , the henpecked
husband , his shrewish wife , Maia , and his five lively
dau hters . The 1 y opens on the preparation of festiv i ies for the imminent marria es of two of the dau hters .
The house i s in a bustle : Lisee is frantic; raia is
rushin about doin errands and deliverin invitations;
the servants are talkative and waste time with a reat
air of business . Everything is thrown into a state of
worse confusion by the arrival in Milan of the twin
brother Brizio, who is everywhere taken for Li see , so
that messa es and objects are misdelivered with consequent
domestic turmoil . Liseo and Maia almost come to blows
over a necklace which aia , unwittin ly , has handed over
to the twin brother:
Lisee : But I deserve this and more , since I suffered
you to wear the pants which I should be wear
i n .--Where did you say you ave me the pearls
and the chain?
Maia : In the street , in the presence of these two.
91
Perdel iorno: That is true, sir.
Lisee: You are lyin a thousand times in your
throat.
Malanotte: You may say what you like.
Maia: Remember, you had another servant with
you •••
Lisee: The pla~ue take you1
Perdelgiorno: M ost certainly you did.
Lisee: Thie esl
Malanotte: Don't you remember that adonna, here,
·n iving them to you told us to o
al on wi th her?
Lisee: Traitorsl
Maia: Either we are mad or else we have one
out of our minds. (III.ix)
Lisee is in a constant state of a itation over his
family problems. Like a typical bourgeois he is miserly
and sure that his servants with their laziness are going
to ruin him:
73
Do you suppose that amon so m ny that are robbin me
of their salaries there is anyone by? Whoever wants
to be badly served has only to kee a number of
servants, for conniving with one another, they make
their master the victim of their poltrooneryl (I.i)
The situation of his lost twin brother preys upon him-
"Since I have taken it into my head that he is alive, I
73The servants have the icturesque names of
alanotte (bad ni ht), Perdel iorno (waster of dayli ht),
Guardalbasso (han do look), etc.
92
consider myself lost, for to tell you the truth, I would
be ruined having to divide the property with him."
Moreover, the matrimonial activities of his dau hters are
always getting out of hand. There are constantly
intrigues in course--'music by night and aiety by day."
Matters have reached a critical point:
The eldest daughter , married to a man who, "stung
by some frenzy" abandoned her after the weddin , is
tonight, upon the expiration of the prescribed period of
time, to be married to another--unless the husband should
suddenly return.
The second dau hter, affianced to "a youn gallant
who loves her as his eyes," is also to be married, unless
by a great mischance her former suitor should arrive, to
whom she had pledged herself, on condition that he bring
her the feathers of the Phoenix bird from "Araby." The
term of his quest, too, expires tonight.
Frantic with anxiety, Liseo seeks aid and moral
support of Don Ipocrito, a man who "speaks deliberately
and with thought ••• who is something between the
priest and the friar ••• wears a little black thread
bare mantle that fastens in front ••• tall and thin
••• with his head poked forward and a breviary under
his ann." Liseo's servant, finding him, thus addresses
him:
93
G uar albasso : I w s just lookin for Your Reverence .
Ipoc rito: Well met .
uardalbasso : The mast er would like to s eak to you .
I ocrito: Gladly .
uardalbas so : He is just over the way .
I ocrito : In nomine Dei .
uardalbasso : See him , at the door .
I pocrito : So much the better .
Guardalbasso : ere he comes .
I pocrito : Lie an arrow flying . (I .iii)
And Lisee appeals to him :
Lisee:
Ipocrit o:
Lisee:
I pocrit o:
Liseo:
Nelcome and reetin S •
Charity be with you .
May your oodness for ive me if I
interru t your devotions .
The good of our nei hbor comes before
prayer ; and charity has pre cedence over
fasting .
. ow ••• I who do not know how to swim ,
find myself in such waters , that if your
aid does not become a vessel for me , I
will sink to the bottom . (I .iii)
In the name of charity , Ipocrito proceeds to get every
th i n possible out of Liseo , from eatin his meals and
enjoyin his oods to panderin for his dau hters . His
counsel to Lisee is to take a nonchalant attitude towards
the ca ri ces of Fortune , fortifying himself by the con sideration of the universal nullity of thins : the
94
philoso hy sums itse f up in the Sp nish formul --"todos
es nada . ' Lisee embraces this doctrine so wholeheart dly
th the under oes a remarkable transformation. Hence-
orth, he is unmoved by the most catastrophic occurrences.
He st nds impassive in the most furiou domestic sto s,
im erturbably repeatin "todos es nada . " This iv s ris
to some very divertin scenes .
His wife Maia announces to him the escape rom home
of two dau ?hters . Liseo's answers are in a tone of
complete detachment . The conversation is rendered droller
by the interpolated remarks of the servant uard lbasso,
who a rees with each of the speakers in turn:
Maia : In the end your dau hters were wise to
et away from you .
Guardalbasso: And that is no joke .
Lisee: If you consider them so , well, and if
you do not consider them so , well .
uardalbasso: You are admirable .
Maia : So , you don ' t give any thou ht to etting
them back?
uardalbasso: It's no use talking to him about it.
Liseo : The door which they found open to leave ,
they will find open to return. If they
want to come , let them come; if th~y
don't want to come let them not come.
aia : I will have to see to it myself.
uardalbasso : That is clear .
Liseo It ' s u to you if you want to see to
it , and up to you if you don ' t want
to see to it .
Guardalbasso: Solomon himself .
Maia: Add madness to the stran eness of a
husb nd an sign yourself the wife .
uardalbasso: I really pity you . (IV .vi)
The last minute return of Artice , the vanished
husband of the elde t dau hter , just a the moment of
her remarria e , leaves Liseo e ually unruffled . 'The
95
same concern I have had u to this day for his not re urn
in , I have now in his return . ' (IV .vii)
The epilo ue , pronounced by Liseo , is a humorous
apotheosis of Ipocrito ' s philoso hy:
Kind sirs , since he who made the comedy has always been
of the s me mind as I intend to be from now on , I know
that I do him a reat f vor in tellin you that if the
fable has pleased you , he is very hap y; and i it has
not pleased you , he is very happy; since in its pleasing
you he shows his little concern for it; and in its not
pleasin you his less concern , for 'todos es nada , " and
everythin being nothing , he weighs blame equally with
praise; for certainly , "todos es nada , ' and therefore
who dies , let hi ie , and who is born let him be born ,
and , without takin more account of the sun than of the
rain , who oes to ruin let him go to ruin , and who holds
finn let him hold firm , for "to os es nada . ' Bu since
nada es todos except od w o is all , I shall o and
see the nuptial madness .
Ipocrito is the central figure in the play and is a
very ori inal character portrayal . Like Moliere's
Tartufe who was o follow him , he has the elements of a
sinister character . He introd ces himself with th se
96
cynical wor ds :
W ho does not know h ow to fei n , does not know how to
live , be e u se pretense is a shield that blunts every
weap on , rathe r a weapon that breaks every shield and ,
availin it se l f of an apparent humility , turns reli ion
int c aft and t akes over the goods , t h e honor , and the
souls of othe r s . (I .ii)
He oes on t o lory in his ski l l in evil doin : "Under
the cloak of oodne ss , I avail myself of every vice . One
must a dmit i t is a re a talent of the devil ' s to make
himself a dored a s a saint . ' He is proud of the fact that
his me t hod is not that of gross flatterers :
C rtainl y I on' t r aise my arms in wonder at my patrons ,
exaltin the stupidity of their words with that long
'Oh l" that adds emphasis to admiration . But I praise
them f or their pi ous works , their virtue , their life of
charity . A nd to reassure them in their vices , their
pleasures, and usuries , I shrug my shoulders sli htly
and , wi t h a tolerant smile , speak of the frailty of the
flesh •. • for who does not show himself a friend to
vice be come s t he enem y of m an . (I .ii)
The dark t ones of the portrait are not deepened , however ,
and the comi c note i s maintained in the contrast between
the evil Ipocrito woul d do and the good that comes out of
it despite his best intentions . In the case of Liseo ,
Ipocrito ' s counsels, _iven from nothin but the most
dubious m ot ·ves , seem to bring about the happy solution
of all Liseo' s problems : the dau hters are happily
married , all t he suitors are satisfied , the lost j ewels
are recovered, and even the missin twin brother , when
he turns u , i s fou d to be fabulously rich .
97
L' I ocrito has a particular interest amon retina ' s
comedies . ot only is it , like the othe r s , a t r a sition
fro classical come dy to the comedy of manners ; it also
re re sents, to a certain de ree , a transition to romantic
comedy . The plot consists partly of errors arisin from
the conventional device of mistaken identity , but it also
contains elements of love and adventure which are in quite
a romantic strain . Such , for example , is the story of
Prelio , t he suitor of Porfiria , who is sent to far lands
on a f abul ous quest and returns just at the ex iration of
the time allotted to find Porfiria about to marry a rival .
Porfiria , who will be true to her led ed word to Prelio
in spite of her love for Corebo , and who , in ord r to be
faithful to both , decides to poison herself before gi ving
herse l f t o Prelio , is a romantic heroine . Corebo ' s
determinat ion to die with his intended bride ; Prelio ' s
generosit y in ivin u Porfiria and contenting himself
with a sin le kiss- - all this is in a romantic vein that
contrasts with the dry , satiric spirit of Latin comedy .
The source fr om which Aretino drew such themes was
po ular t radition , the store of folklore and legend f r om
which t he novellieri had already drawn .
in his introduction to the Ipocrito says :
ario A ollonio ,
• . • the Marescalco and the Corti iana abounded in
sat i r i cal expres
0
1ons and pointe d re f erences to persons
and t hin s . Here everythin is placed in a remote ,
9
va ea mos here; as if ilano , where the action ake
lace ••• were at an incommensurable distance .• .•
Comedy for Aretino turns to Romantic themes ••• o ens
itself to fantastic adventures .74
The introduction of popular inspiration into
humanistic comedy points the way to the Elizabethan
theatre and to uch romantic comedies as those of Dekker,
reene , and Shakespeare .
11 Filosofo (The Philosopher)
Il Filosofo is a relatively shorter and more com act
comedy . It cannot be said to have any more unity than the
o hers , bee use the plot is split into two parts tha are
never really joined to ether , so that there seem to be two
separa e comedies runnin along side by side . The theme
is the satire of edants . Plataristotile , whose name
su ests a compound of the hilosophical schools, is the
representative of the sect . He is long- winded , arro ant,
conceited , and intolerant , and uses an abstruse , erudite
jar on to iscuss the most everyday matters , with a
grotesq e effect . He is more , however , than just a
caricature . He has an individual character, the comedy
of w ich rises from the contrast between his enormous
erudition and he foolishness that is almost the
74commedia Italiana , da Cielo d
1
Alcamo a oldoni
( ilano , 1947}, P • 203 . -
99
inevitable conse uence of it . So in rained in him is
he hil os op ic al habit of roceedin from the particular
fact to t he abstraction , that he is forever losin si ht
of racti cal reality . The action of the comedy brin s
about his comica l retribution . A s Lui i Tonelli puts it :
Primum hi l osophari •• • t hat is the principle of
Pl tar istotil e , who forgets his matrimonial duties ,
le s himself be hoodwinked by his irrepressible wife
Te ssa , and havin one day surprised her with her lover ,
loses so much recious time thinkin about the nature
of hi s pro ose d vengeance , that when he finally acts ,
he finds in the place of the lover a brayin ass . 75
Platarist otil e enters on the scene pronouncin a
series of maxims on the chastity of wives . His servant ,
Salvalaglio , who is , m uch more tha n his m aster , informed
on what goes on in the house , punctuates every observation
with an ironical compliment on the wisdom of the philos
opher , who is so deep in theory and so woefully lacking
in practi cal knowl edge:
Platari s oti l e: oman is the guide to evil and the
teacher of iniquity .
Salval li o: ho knows it let him not speak it .
Platarist otile : The heart of woman is composed of
deceit .
Salvala li o: Sa d it is for him who has not found
it out .
75Tonel l i , P • 111 .
100
Plataristotile: Only she is chaste who has not been
tempted.
Salvalaglio: That I readily believe.
Plataristotile : As the moth consumes the wood so the
fractious wife consumes the husband.
Salvalaglio: So said Aesop .
Plataristotile: Who supports the perfidy of his wife
learns to suffer the injuries of his
enemies.
Salvalaglio: Fine reci e for oltroons .
At last, unwittin ly , the philosopher touches on the
very source of his own troubles:
Plataristotile: Those husbands who do not indulge
their wives in the pleasures of
marria e do but ive them license
to satisfy themselves with others.
Salvala lio: I was waitin for you to come to
that 1 ( I .v )
The contrast between philosophical abstraction and
concrete reality is brou ht out with an even greater
comical effect in a
~
olieresque scene of reductio ad
absurdum: the philosopher is meditating cosmically on
the subject of generation , comparin the act in man to
that of the seven planets who generate the seeds of the
world--while, at the same moment , his wife in the next
room plans a practical application of his theories with
her lover olidoro .
The hero of the second plot is Messer Boccaccio,
who is, once a ain , the provincial in the bi city
1
whom
101
misadventure awaits. Boccaccio is a Peru ine and , like
Maco and Vergolo, middle-aged and amorously inclined.
Though he is mercilessly gulled, he is no fool, and he
never loses his mercantile shrewdness in a bargain. The
comedy of Boccaccio's adventures is lar ely in his
reactions of a comfort-loving bourgeois , lacking in
heroism and well supplie d with human frailties, who is
moreover endowed with a picturesquely direct way of
expressin himself in the opular lan ua e of his re ion .
Hardly has he arrived in town than he falls into the hands
of Tullia, a formidable courtesan. This is the way
Tullia's messenger , Lisa, with exquisite art , lures him :
Lisa: Worthy gentleman , is this the apartment of
a Peru ian merchant from Peru ia?
Boccaccio: I am he, my daughter.
Lisa: Dear sir, her ladyship , my mistress , who is
rather in appearance a oddess than a
woman, bes that you will dei n hear four
little words from her , four and no more .
Boccaccio: If I knew where she lived I would say: go,
I will come; but not knowing, my pretty
puss, if you don't mind, I will o with you.
Lisa: Far from mindin, I beseech you to do so .
Boccaccio: Let's o then .
Lisa: What a man l
Boccaccio: at cause moves your lady t o wish to
spe k to me who am a stran er here?
Lisa: Perhaps it is the race that is in you;
my faith, yes , it is indeed .
Boccaccio : You are pleased to flatter .
Lisa: ay I perish if she is not agonizing to
speak to you . . • en you see her you
will consider as nothing the beauty of
every other woman .
Boccaccio: Is it truly so?
Lisa: Do ' t make mes eak of it .
102
Boccaccio: And some people never want to o out and
see the world l •.•
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Lisa : Sto ••• look now at the sun , the moon
and the star that rise there upon that
doorway t
occaccio: Oh , brave ap arition 1 ••• Provided I am
the man she seeks •••
Lisa : You cannot doubt it .
Bocc acc·o: Sometimes names are mistaken .
Lis : Yours is so sweet it clin s to the lips .
Look how she runs to meet you •.••
(II .xiii)
The radiant vision is of brief duration , however ,
and Boccaccio soon finds himself on the street in his
ni htshirt , minus five hundred golden ducats , and further
mortified by a fall into the open sewer . He is full of
bloody thoughts of ven eance , but the ap pearance at the
window of Tullia's man , Cacciadiavoli , puts them to sudden
fli ht . He makes his retre t , thus vindicating his honor
as a Perugian:
103
Being without a shred of a weapon, in my shirt , in an
unknown place, makes my Peru ine nature shrug its
shoulders and turn bastard ••• which otherwise God
knows, is able enou h to take care of itself. (III.ix)
Boccaccio is next caught up by a couple of grave
stealers, who first lower him into a well to wash him and
next into the vault where a bishop is buried whom they
mean to rob of his jewels . Thou h terrified by both
experiences, he has still the pre ence of mind to conceal
the largest jewel for himself . Havin secured the loot,
the thieves close him in the vault, from which he is o ly
by chance delivered by a second company of grave - stealers .
Upon finding himself in th open air again, Boccaccio
breaks out into a ludicrous hymn of jubilation :
••• And now for a gambol in honor of my resurrexit et
non est hie. Boccaccio, poor devil, althou hit was
high time, I did not think you would get out before the
third day •••• But, I said to myself, while the fear
of death drove from my heart the other fear that I had
of the dead man: was it I who sharpened the arrows ,
teeth, and knives that transfixed, harrowed and flayed
Saint Bartholomew, Saint Blaise , and Saint Sebastian?
The sewer into which I fell throu h folly , and the well
into which I was lowered through necessity, were but a
treat in comparison to the vault •.•• But because the
comedies scholars make sooner or later end in gaudeamus ,
I, telling myself valete and plaudite , con ratulate
myself. (V.i)
Besides Plataristotile and Boccaccio , the comedy has
a number of vigorously drawn types . One of the most
fully delineated is the dandy and fop, Polidoro, who makes
love to the philosopher's madcap wife, Tessa . He is
described by his ser, ant who knows him well:
104
Who gave my m ster the name of Polidoro knew what he
was about . Certainly no other man , however handsome
is worth a istachio beside him , and there is no bride
who did not suffer a loss in not ettin him . The very
mirror is ready to s it in seein how he practices in
it half smiles , full smiles , wise looks , rave demean
ors , and the art of makin himself u most courtesan-·
like . There is nos ork that can raise his feet up
with the majes y that he raises them , nor , if he were
settin them down in cotton- wool would he set them down
ore delicate y . Hes eaks ravely , in slices .•.•
But what is most astonis in is the fury into which he
is driven by whoever does not address him as "Your
Lordship . ' • . • (I .iii)
Both Plataristotile nd Polidoro are always accom
panied by their servants alvala lio and Radicchio , who
act as foils and brin out in greater relief the
peculiarities o their masters' characters . Here is a
typical dialo ue between olidoro and Radicchio :
Polidoro: Is i evident that I am sprinkled and
sprayed with fra rant waters and powders?
Radicchio: Even those afflicted with the severest
cold could testify to it .
Polidoro: /\That think you of the divine and super
celestial image of my desires?
Radicchio: She is all right .
Polidoro: Have you noted in her creamy cheeks that
elicate flush that comes ot of shame but
of amorous desire?
Radicchio: I did not look so closely. (I .iv)
nd a ain , s eakin of Polidoro's conquests:
Polidoro: You saw it yourself . . •
Radicchio: I thou ht surely she would throw herself
u on ou from the balcony .
105
Polidoro: I you will reme 1ber to take note of it ,
you ill see any number of others lose
their heads because of ha race that in
their oodness the heaves have bestowed
on me •..• How many are near to aintin
in the churches , and how many at the balls
•.• And my dancing at weddin sis he
passion of the airest, since •.• I mov
throu the steps with such li h ness and
a ility o my most slim and handsome person
••• hat from the choir of the fair those
si hs o up of "alas' and "alack' tha slay
without killin •
R a icchio: us as slee and hun er draw the yawns
fro t e mouth that would like to eat or
slee , so he capers and ambols of your
a lantry draw burnin desire from the
en rails of e fair ones in velvet and
the nym hs in brocade . (II .iv)
here is also he im lacable mother-in-law , ona
P pa, and her ossip , ona ruida, w o hold a arvelous
conversation on the sins of husbands , illustrating each
by a lively dramatic sketch . nd there is the group of
townswomen who surround esser Boccaccio as their
legitimate prey: Lisa , 1 ea , Betta, the courtesan Tullia .
The openin lines of the play , a casual dialogue between
Mea and Betta, ive a wonderful impression of that world
of tenements ad city streets into which the unsuspectin
Boccaccio has strayed:
ea: refrom and wh re to, 0 etta?
Betta: From lettin a room to Ciencia who is , thou h
I hate to say it, as bi as the world .
ea: an it be so?
Betta: ould it were not.
106
ea: nd ye she oes to sermons , and fasts .
eta: Every cat has its season , sister .
ea: ow tell me how you are doin with the rooms
to let?
etta: .•• as well as may be ; only yesterday one was
taken by a merchant of precious stones and
jewelry , who , by the Cross , is well lined wit h
money , and I know because at every other word
he slips from his sleeve as fat a pu seas you
would care to see .
Mea : Let him take care of pickpurses ••• (I .i)
As a final observation on retina's comedi s , here
is the comment of Lui i Tonelli:
All tol d , Pietro Aretino is an excellent writer of
comedie • e has the sense of dramatic movement , draws
lar ely from reality and the popular tradition , does
no reco nize the authority of a priori rules , and makes
but little use of the intrigues of Latin comedy . fuat
is more , he creates , or re - elaborates , ivin them new
color, a large number of characters : aso , Parabolano ,
lvigia, arescalco , Talanta , Ipocrito , Lisee ,
Plataristotile , Boccaccio . . • • at was lackin in
his work to make it a masterpiece? Two things : the
spirit of synthesis by which to fuse into a unity
characters and action; and psycholo ical depth . Though
Aretino can sketch and paint ma nificent portraits , he
cannot represent them , that is make them live and act
with the same lyrical impulse •.•• He seems artis tically closer to a La Bruyere than to a oliere . 76
L' Orazia
I shall make only brief mention of the Orazia ,
Aretino's one at em tat tra edy . Amon the last of his
7 Tonelli, pp . 112- 113 -
works, it shows the artist 's increasin concern for
perfection of form and expression . It far surpasse s
107
the comedies in solidity of structure , but the tend ncy
to reflection and restraint, and an increasin self consciousness deprive the style of Aretino ' s usual
spontaneous vivacity . The subject , drawn from Roman
history, concerns the conflict between the Orazii and
the Curiazii in the early heroic days of Rome . The oet
has chosen for treatment a sin le climacti c episode:
Orazio, returnin in triumph to Rome after the def at
of the Curiazii, is moved to an er by his sister Celia's
grief for the death of her husband , one of the Curiazii
and her brother's enemy , slain in battle . iolently
indignant at Celia's refusal to rejoice in the vie ory
of Rome, Orazio kills her and is consequently, by the
laws of Rome , condemned to death for fratricide. The
prayers of Public, his father and a noble citizen of
Rome, finally win the Roman people to absolve Orazio,
but only at the price, terrible to him , of bowin
•
in
humility and admittin his fault . The sim le randeur
of the theme emerges unspoiled from the drama , which is
written with a classical economy of style unusual in
Aretino . The spirit of ancient Rome vibr tes throu hout
the play . It is in Orazio's exalted pride in the reat
ness of Rome , which makes him smother the sentiment of
10
bro herly love in his he rt ; in the noble bnegation of
Public , who rejoi ces in the vi ctory Rome has aine d
throu h his son Orazio , thou h the victory has cost him
the lives of his other children ; and in the austere
patriotism of the Roman peo le , their exaltation of
virtue built on the respect for law .
The Orazia represents one of the first attempts , in
Rn issance tra edy , at the reproduction of historical
characters and settin • Lui i Tonelli hus sums up the
merits of the play :
The tra edy is not without a number of defects : long
and tedious passa es , uninspired rationalizations ,
obscurities , and artificialities ; but it has as many
merits of form : absence of monolo ues , exclusion of
the chorus ad them ssen ers from the action •••
an , what is of reater value , it presents three
characters who are truly alive : Celia , passionate ,
impulsive , sincere , for etful of everything exc t
her love; Orazio , splendid in his pride and in his
an er , in his contempt of death and l ove of countr y ;
Publio , civis- r omanus and father--characters which
are living , even i f roughly hewed , without psychological
refinement; and skilfully set in the Roman environment ,
surrounded by the Roman people . The Roman populace
itself is excellently con ceived , with essent i al , if not
formal fidelity to history •.•• The style , b its
bold and vi orous ima es , often almost totally stripped
of sonorous quality , assumes a stron relief and rises
to the hei ht of its argument . 77
e have thus far made a brief acquaintance with one
of the most extraordinary ersonalities of the Italian
cinquece to , Pietro Aretino . We have made a rapid survey
77Tonelli , p • 177- 17 •
109
of his ost im o tan literary works--the Letters , the
Ra ionamenti , the comedies , the Orazia--notin some of
his cha ac eristic~ a awrier , and is de artures , bo h
in literary style and dramatic technique , rom the
classic standards of his a e . e have also lanced at
the critical theories which were at the basis of the
innovations in Aretino 's work . Te shall now turn to
six een h century ngland to see , first , how well knom
Aretino was , as am n nd a writer , to En lishmen of
this eriod; and next , whether his influence can b
aced in any of the writers of the En lish Renaissance .
..
CHAP E III
.H 01 LEDGE OF IT LI I R I0 AC I GL D
o En lish translation o Aretino's works sees o
have been ade before the nine eenth centu , when an
En lish e ition of the Ragionamenti was issued in London
ty Isodo e Liseux (1 9) .
1
On the other hand , four of
the come ie (La Corti iana , La alanta , L'I ocrito, Il
arescalco) were ublish in I alian ·n London durin
the sixteen h century as were all thee narts of the
a ionamen i . It would seem reasona le to suppose,
herefore , that these and possi ly othe works of Aretino
must have been known o En lishmen of this a e in their
ori inal lan ua e . this oin the question becomes
pertinent , ho widespread was the knowledge of the Italian
lan ua e in Renaissance En land?
Interest in Italy , which had suffered a decline in
England after the time of Chaucer , was revived durin the
rei of Henry VII . Amon the factors that contributed
to the new im ortance It ly assumed for En lishmen were
the commercial treaties concluded with the reat Italian
lThe Ra ionamenti or ialogues of the Divine Pietro
retino literall translated into Engiish . Accordin to
ward Hutton ietro Aretino , Scourge of Princes
[London , 1922] , p . 264) , an English tran1at1on of a
art o the Ra ionamenti was published in n land in
156 under the title of The Craft~ Whore . o such work
is list d , however , b o ard n rave .
111
mercantile cen ers , Venice and enoa; the influx of
Italia bankers , w o settled in such numbers in London
that Lombard Street was named for them; he practice ,
first adopted by Henry VII and followed by Henry VIII ,
of employin Italians as diplomatic a ents . ith the
rowth of humanism in England in the fifteenth century ,
Italy became in the eyes of scholars the c nter of
culture and civilization , the reat source of the redis
covered treasures of the ancient world . From this time ,
the Italian influence on the development of the En lish
Renaissance was preponderant .
Henry VIII himself was a lover of Italy and every
thin I ali n . He invited humanist oets from Italy-
Silvestro Giglio , Adrian de Castello , Ammonio , and
others-- to reside at his court where the Italian langua e
was increasin ly cultivated . Speaking of the cult for
Italy that thus rapidly developed in England at the end
of the fifteenth and during the sixteenth century , ary
u usta Scott says , 'It is really wonderful how fa iliar
Italy and things Italian were in Tudor times . Considering
its far-reachin and profound effect on English letters ,
no forei n vogue before it ever took such a hold on
English society . ,2 R. c. Simonini , Jr . states , 'Italian
2Elizabethan Translations from the Italian
(Cambri , • xxxv 11 .
112
culture soon formed a vital part of the educational
atmos here of the Tudors ." nd of t he knowled e of the
Italian lan ua e in the court of Henry VI I , he says
further :
Kin Henry himself knew Italian as did other distin-
uished members of the court includin Lord Rochford,
Lord orely , the Earl of Surrey , the Earl of liltshire,
Sir Thomas yatt , and the Princesses Mary and
Elizabeth . 3
That Sir Thomas v yatt and the Earl of Surrey knew
Italian is evident from their translation and imitation
of Petrarch and other Italian Renaissance poets . Regard
in them as the a ostles of Italian poetry in England,
John Berdan quotes Richard Puttenham :
In the latter end of the same king' s reign spran up
a new company of courtly makers of whom Sir Thomas
yatt the elder and the Earl of Surrey were the two
chieftains who havin travelled into Italy and there
tasted the sweet and stately measures and stile of
Italian poetry , as novices newly ere tout of the
schools of Dante , Ariosto , and Petrarch they reatly
poli shed our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie
from what it had been before , and for that cause may
be justly said the first reformers of our English
meter and stile . 4
By the Elizabethan a e , Italian had become the
second langua e of the English court . 'The knowled e of
3Italian Scholarship in Renaissance England
(Chapel Hill , 1952) , P • l9:-
4The Art of Engl ish Poetni, Arber's Reprint , p . 77,
quoted in Early Tudor Poetry:ew York , 1920) , p . 456 •
Italian was wides read ••• ," says Lewis Einstein ,
'a those who h d not some smatterin of it were
exce tions . " e cites the testimony of the Venetian
113
envoy invited by W illiam Cecil to a dinner where the
entire Privy Council was resent , and the conversation
was carried on chiefly in Italian . 5 illiam Thomas , who
published the first Italian ramrnar and dictionary in
En land (1550), remarks in the preface to this work that ,
in his estimati on , Italian was comin to be considered
by En lishmen on an equal plane with Latin and reek :
•• • for besides the auctours of this tyme (whereof
there be manie woorthie) you shal almoste finde no
arte of the sciences , no part of eloquence , nor any
art of fine poesie , that ye have not in the Italian
on ue .
Amon the distin uished persons of Elizabeth ' s court
who spoke Italian , Simonini mentions Burghley , !alsingham ,
Robert Ce cil ; the Earls of Rutland , Leicester , and
Southampton; the poets Spenser , Sidney , Daniel , and Lyly .
He quotes a statement of William Harrison cited in
Holinshed's Chronicles , 1577:
Truly it is a rare thin with us now to hear of a
courtier which hath but his own l an uage . And to
5The Italian Renaissance in England ( ew York , 1902) ,
pp . 93-:-g-g .
oted by Simonini , P • 43 •
114
say how many gentlewomen an ladies there are, that
besides sound knowledge of the Greek and Latin ton ues
are thereto no less skillful in Spanish , Itali n and
French , or in some one of them it resteth not in me . 7
Of Q ueen Elizabeth's proficiency in Italian , the
testimonies are numerous . First of all , the ell-known
one of Ro er Ascham ;n The Scholemaster:
It is your shame (Is eak to you all , you youn
gentlemen of England) that one maid should go beyond
you all in excellency of learnin and knowledge of
divers ton ues •••• ea , I believe that , beside
her perfect readiness in Latin , Italian , French and
S anish , sh readeth here now at Windsor more reek
every day than some prebendary of this church doth
read La in in a whole week .
In the same work , scham expresses his own partiality to
Italian , describin
.
l as "a ton ue which next to reek
and L tin ••• I like and love above all other . ,B
Paul Hentzner, a sixteenth century erman tourist in
En land , also attests to Elizabeth's mastery of Italian
as well as of other lan ua es . He is describin the
queen's pro ress from the p esence chamber to the chapel
for Sunday mornin rayers:
As she wen along in all this state and magnificence ,
she spoke very graciously , first to one , then to
another {whether forei n ministers , or those who
attend for different reasons) in En lish , French and
7rtalian Scholarship in Renaissance England , • 20 .
8
The English orks of Ro er Ascham (Cambrid e
Unive- sity Press, 1904) ,P • ,~ ~23 •
115
Italian · for besides bein well skill din reek ,
Latin and the lan ua es I have mentioned , she is
mistress of S anish , Scotch and Dutch .9
ary Au usta Scott cites the statement of Pietro Bizari ,
e historian- oet , re ardin ueen Elizabeth that 'she
is a perfect mistress of our Italian tongue in the
learnin of which Si nor Casti lioni was her principal
master .
110
nd Jon Florio , s eaking of the Italian
lan ua e in the English court , says that "the best speak
it best , and her majesty none better . ,ll
Of the eat oets of the lizabe han period who
were familiar with Italian , we might mention Sidney and
SJenser at the be innin , and ilton at the end of the
a e . Sir Phili Sidney s pent some months in Italy in
he course of a two years' s ojourn on the continent
ranted him by the queen for the purpose of attainin
the knowled e of foreign lan uages . From ovember 1573
to July 574 he was at V enice and Padua , etting a
knowled e of ast ronomy and music , from what his letters
tel us , and frequenting the houses of the Venetian
9Travels in England , quoted by John Dover Wilson in
Life in Shakespe"are's gpgland (London , 1949) , P • 245 .
lOElizabethan Translations from the Italian ,
P • XXXV111 •
llPreface to Sftg_ond F:cu:te.s_!.1591) , c ·ted by
Simo i ni , • 20 .
116
nobility.
12
' He be an to cquire," says A. Lytton
Sells, "an extensive knowl de of Italian . " And he adds :
He must have stee ed himself in Petrarch Sannazzaro
and Tasso and read many of the Italian lyrists and
neo-Latinists of the uattrocento and cinquecento ....
It was apparently during t e ..• months he spent at
Padua that he acquired the extraordinary knowled e of
Italian poetry which appears throughout his work .13
Spenser's knowled e of Italian is evidenced as early
as 15 69 when , at the a e of seventeen , he translated and
published anonymously he seven sonnets entitled
"Petrarch's Visions ." Spenser' s most im ortant Italian
mode l s for the Faerie Q ueene were the epic romances:
Boiardo's Orlando I namorato· Ariosto's Orlando Furioso;
Tasso's Gerusale mme Liberata · Trissino's L' Italia
Liberata dai Goti. As none of the se works ap ears to
have been translated into English before the first books
of the Faerie Q ueene were ublished (1590) , Spenser must
have known them in the Italian .
14
~ oreover , the studies
that have been made of the Italian influences on Spenser ' s
12
see Frederick J . Boas , Sir Philip Sidney ,
Representative Elizabethan (London , 1955), P • 31 .
1
3The Italian Influence in English Poetry (Indiana
University Press, 1955) , P • 132 .
14The Orlando Furioso was translated into En lish
in 1591; the Orlando Innamorato in 1598 · the Gerusalemme
Liberata in 1604 -
117
Faerie Queene oint out instanc s of parall lisms and
direct translation from the Italian sources which would
leave no doubt that S enser worked from the ori inal
talian exts . hus R. E. eil Dode in the article
entitled ' enser ' s Imita ions rom Ariosto 's ys :
I wish to discuss those specific imitations of the
F rioso which are o be found in the Faerie Q ueene
and indicate how Spenser made direct use of his
o iginal .15 .
nd A. Lytton Sells oints ou how , in ook II of the
Faerie Q ueene , S enser , havin
•• • enriched a story taken from the Italia Liberata
Trissino] with details that had struck him when
readin the rlando Innamorato nd the O r lando Furioso ,
im roved the picture by translatin some of the best
stanzas in Tas so ' s recent romance ••••
The sa e writer co eludes , "It seems clear that
annazzaro was amili ar to Sidney , and Boiardo , Ari osto
and Tasso to Spenser , before an¥ of the a peared in
English . ,l
John Milton was one of the group of poets who had
made the "Italian journey . n From 163 to 1639 he spent
15Publications of the M odem Language Association ,
12 : 152 , 1847 • Se e aiso • H. Blanchard , 'Spense r and
Boiardo ,. u Publications of the Jlodern Language Association ,
40 :830- 831 , 1925; and "Irriitations from Tasso in the
Faerie Q ueene , ' Studies in Philology , 22 :198-221 , 1925 .
lso Sells , PP • 163-176.-
l~T e Italian Influence i n n lish Poetr:1 ,
p • 171 , 119 . -
-
1 8
sixteen months in Italy . He was at Rome , raples ,
Florence , Venice; visited alileo in pr·son , associated
with Italian men of letters , winning their friendship
and esteem .17 That he could converse with his Italian
friends easily in their own tongue is attested by
numerous tributes from t em to his ski 1 in 1 n ua es .
Among sch tributes , whi h ilton cited in the preface
to the La in oems (1645) , bein unwillin , as he said,
that the extraordinary ood will of such eminent men
tow rds him sho ld remain unknown , is the followin from
the Ode to ilton' by Antonio Francini , a Florentine
gentleman : ••• you , from whose li snot En land only ,
bu Sain , France , Tuscany , reece , and Rome hear each
her noblest idiom • • • nl and another from a letter
from Ch~r -e D ti , a Florentine patrician:
To the poly lot , in whose mouth lan ua es that are
dead recover such life that all idioms are inadequate
for his praise; and who is so accurately versed in
them all that he com rehends the utterances of
admiration and applause evoked amon the nations y
the wisdom which he alone ossesses .19
17Mention should be made , too , of ilton ' s friend
ship with Charles Diodati , be n from their boyhood days
at S . Paul's School . Though reared in n land , Diodati
was of It lian descent and back round .
1 John Milton , Paradise Regained ,
nd Samson Agonistes , ed . Merrit Y . -Hu
7 ), P • 9 .
19 • 13 .
Poems ,
York ,
119
~ilton ' s Italian journey , indeed , only fected a
knowle d e of the t lan ua e that heh d 1 ady
.
l
ac uir d , probably in e ly outh , ho g the c reful
e ucation provided im by hi f ther . In he Re~son of
Church --2.vernme n , i lton sa s ,
I had ram my first years , byte ceaseless dili ence
and care of faGher , •.. bee n exercised to the
ton ?ues , an . some sc i e ces , a s my e would suffer ,
b sundr maste s a nd teachers , both at ome nd t
the s hools . 20
din the Latin poem ' d at rem , H ·n which he pays a
tribute o h nks to hi s f ther for the ift of le rnin
so liberally bestowe on him , M ilton al so speaks of hi s
ins ruct io in lan age s , which , be innin
0
with 'the
r ces of Latin' a d the lofty ee ch of the ma nilo uent
reeks ," vent on to inclu e 'the flower which France
boasts
1
and the !eloquence" of the modern It alian .
21
- .
Milt on was probably thi Kin of his own studies , in the
essay "Of Education , ' hich ,
.
in avin outlined a
formidable program of re adin s in Latin and reek , he
recommended that the student , 'in an odd hour' should
2
0complete
rv odern Librar
goniste's ,
r y nd Selected Prose of John M ilton ,
---- o- n TNe Yor k, n. d. ) , p-:-535 .
ai ned , The inor P ems , a nd Sarnson
120
le rn the Italian ton ue . 22
il on ' s m astery of Italian
is, of course, evidenced by his sonnets in that lan a e ,
which errit Hu hes, on he au ority of J . s. Smar ,
asserts to "have been wri ten certainly before , and
proba ly lon before the Italian journey and [to show]
how articulate ilton was , perha s while still an under
graduate , in the formal lan uage of Petrarch . ,
2
3 Milton
himself tells, in The eason of Church overnment , how ,
----
"in the private a emies of I aly ••• so~e trifles
which I had in emory, composed at u. der twenty or there
abo t ••• me with acce tance above what was looked
for
• •
. n24
To s read t e knowled e of Italian in sixteenth
century n land, there ppears to have been no lack of
teachers . The measures of the Counter Reformation and
especially the Inquisition , establi hed in 1542 , sent
numerous Italian refu ees to n land , many of whom found
employment as te achers of their native tongue . The first
one to make a reputation for himself was ichelan elo
22complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Milton ,
• 670 .
2
3 "In reducti on to the inor Poems, Paradise
egained , Te i or oems , and Samson ~onistes ,
P • xviii . The reference is to the edition by Johns .
Smart , of he Sonnets o ohn ilton , Glas ow , 1921 .
24com lete oetry and Selected Pros of John ilton ,
• 53 5 •
1 21
lori o (father of John Florio) , who was appointed
preacher in t he Italian church in London about 1554 , and
who also tau ht Italian , numberin among his upils such
celebritie s a s Henry Herbert , Earl of Pembroke and Lady
Jane Grey .
uri n the reign of Elizabeth many private lan ua e
schools were set up by forei n tutors in London , chiefly
in the section around Saint Paul ' s . Simonini mentions
amon the many te achers of French , I0alian , and S anish
who were located at aul ' s , Claudius ollyband (who had
his school 'a t the sin of the olden bell") ; G. de la
othe ( ho tau ht under 'the sine of the helmet");
Robert Fontai e , Jac ques Bellot , John Love , John Minsheu ,
and #illi am Stepney (who speaks of his classes bein held
"in he Church of Sainct Paule') .
2
5 Until the end of the
Stuart period , mo ern foreign langua es were not art of
the curriculum of the p blic schools or the universities .
t both Oxford and Cambridge , however , foreign languages
seem t o have been widely studied by means of private
tut ors . Thi s was especially true of Oxford ; Simonini
says that amon the students durin the late sixteenth
century , int erest in living lan uages was so reat that
an active roup of tutors in French and Italian attached
2
5rtalian Scholarshi in Renaissance En land , p . 35 .
-
122
itself t o the university . Some of these teachers , bo h
forei ners and natives , ccompanied youn no lemen to
Oxfor as tutors ; some indep den lyes ablished p ivate
schools for l an ua e instruction at the university .
John l orio , for exam le , w s tutor in Italian and
F ench at~ dalen Colle e , Oxford , bout 1576 . ~lthou h
fore i n l an ua e tutors were less encoura ed at C mbr · d e
than at Oxford , consi erable interest in modern lan ,ua es
reviled there , also . In a letter of ~abriel Harvey's
from C mbrid ewe read that students
••• have deserted homas Acqui as and the whole
rabblement of schoolmen for modern Frech and Italian
works •••• You cannot step into a schollars s udye
but (ten t o on) you shall finde o_en eithe r Bodin
e Republic a or Le Rayes exposition upon Aristotles
ol1t1ques , or some other like French or Italian
Politique Dis courses . 26
The churches which were established in London for
forei ne r s also became centers for the learnin of
forei n l an uages . They were attended not only by the
persons of t he particular nationalities for which they
were meant, but also by En lishmen who went there to
hear sermons and rayers in a forei n lan ua e in order
to perfect t heir pronunciation . Ro er Ascham , in the
Scholema s er, protested a ainst this unholy use of the
Lord's se r vi ce by Italianate En lishmen 'who cum thither
26 .uoted by Simoni i , • 33 .
123
to heare the Italian ton ue n turally s oke , no heare
ad ' s doctrine trewly preached . n27
One of the reatest incentives for learnin Italian ,
as well as the most popular way of doin it , was travel
in Italy .
The early n lish humanists travelled to Italy for
scholarship and learnin and were for the most part
interested in classical lan ua es . However , contact
with the reat bod of 1·t rature ro uced by Italy
durin the Renaissance and he eneral hi h level of
culture in that country soon made it desira le for
travellers to learn modern I alian . 28
The o ularity of travel in I aly is ates ed by the
number of travel books published in En land at this time ,
and by the frequent allusions in Elizabethan literature
to the ' I alian journe "wi hits deli hts and its erils ,
and to the 'I alianate En lishman" that was one of its
results .
The interest in Italian in Renaissance England is
also shown by the number of books published for learning
the lan uage . Simonini lists twelve Italian rammars and
lan uage manuals and four dictionaries that a eared in
En land between 1550 and 1657 .
2
9 The manuals taught by
27 ~ uo ed by Simonini , P • 37 •
28
simonini , PP • 38- 39 ·
2
9pp . 110- 114 .
124
the "conversational method"--they contained dialo ues
on various subjects , iven both in the foreign lan ua e
and in English , and furnished the student with the proper
vocabulary nd hraseolo y for different occasions in
life . The first Italian lan uage manual was publis 1ed
by he French teacher Claudius Hollyband , who followed
in it he model of hi French manuals , which had met with
success . The most notable of the Italian lan ua e books
were John Floria's :
--Flori o his Firste Frutes : which yeelde familiar
s eech , merie Proverbes , wittie Sentences , and
olden sayings . Also a Perfect Induction to the
Italian and English tongue . (1578)
--Florio his Se cond Frutes , to be gathered of twelve
Trees of divers but deli htsome tastes to the
ton ues of Italians and En l ishmen . (1591)
To the econd Frutes was attached the "Gardine of
Recreation,' a collection of six thousand Italian
proverbs , which the ~uthor believed to be most useful in
learnin the idiomatic use of the language . Simonini
ives a detaile d description of Floria ' s Se cond Frutes ,
which he considers particularly interestin for its
many-sidedness . It was a manual of style which , in
conformity with the current vo ue of Petrarchism ,
furnished poe s with the epithets and figures that they
would need . It was also a courtesy book , which aimed
at i vin En lish readers an Italian polish, not only
125
in their discourse but also in their manners. The
dialogues in it are mostly concerned with courtly life
and the interests of the entility. There are a number
of allusions to contemporary people and happenings at
court, which ive the book a to ical, journalistic char
acter. "The Second Frutes," says Simonini , "can stand
with the Nashe, Harvey and Greene pamphlets as one of the
earliest pieces of journalism.n30 John Florio also wrote
an Italian-En lish dictionary of about six hundred pa es:
A Worlde of lordes or The most conious and exact Die -
- --- - ---
tionarie in Italian and English collected E_r John Florio
{1598). Lewis Einstein observes that "the fact that so
important a work should have been com iled at that time
indicates the demand for similar works.n31
That works of Italian literature were to a con
siderable extent read in the original lan uage in
Elizabethan En land may be concluded from the number of
books that were printed in Italian in London. John W olf,
who had been to Italy, was the chief publisher of such
books. The first work to appear in Italian in E land
was the Opusculum Plane Divinum by John Clerk (1545),
JOrtalian Scholarship in Renaissance England,
PP• 0-64• -
31The Italian Renaissance in England , • 99 .
which was rinted in L tin , French nd Italian . In
15 1 a pea ed La Vi a i Carlo f1a no by Ubaldini . In
the reface the author announced: You will be able
o have oth r such works , by the printer ohn olfe .'
Amon the o her such works that followed were
astiglione ' s Una Esortazione all ' Amor di Dio and the
Aminta of Tasso nd the Pastor Fido o uarini (which
126
appeared in one vo ume in Italian at least eleven years
before the res ec ive translations of these works were
made) • iordano Bruno ' s Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante
and Deli Eroici Furori were printed for the first time
n ondon in 15 4 and 15 5, as well as the Cena delle
Ceneri (15 4) , in which Bruno gives his impressions of
Lo don and the En lish court . 3
2
In 15 8 ap eared a
collection of Italian madri als , printed by • Yonge .
e have already mentioned (pa es 63 and 4 above) John
W olf ' s publication of for of Aretino's comedies in
Italian (15 ) · he also printed the complete Ragionarnenti
3
2
Giordano Bruno went to En land in 15 3 to escape
the Inquisition and resided two years at the English
court . He lectured at Oxford and was the friend of
Fulke Ireville and Sidney , to whom he dedicated the
first to orks above mentioned .
127
(P rts I and II in 15 , Part III in 15 9) .
33
Even a
book ritten in n lish , such as he iscourse of Royal
anarchy by Charles erbury , was published with a preface
in Italian an concluded wit h a collection of Italian
roverbs , o lease 'all courtiers and entlemen con
versa t in Italian . ,3 4
Beside s such It alian books as were actually printed
in London , many others were brou ht into England . In
th preface o his Dictionarie John Florio ives, as one
of the reasons for learnin Italian, the impossibility ,
without knowin that l an uage thorou hly , of readin
retina or Deni , or even underst ndin Castelvetro or
Caro . This would seem to indicate that , in cultured
circles , a cq aintance with such Italian writers was
considered an important par of one's education, and that
it was not considered unusual to read such works in
Italian . G. Gre ory Smith , in El i zabethan Critical
Essays , states that "the English essayist-critics show
an acquaintance with even the lesser k own Italian poets
33 ee A. 1. Pollard and G. R. Re d rave , Short-Title
Ca alo~ue of Books Printed in En , Scotland , and
Irelan , ancI of En~lish BooKS Prine A broad , 1475-1640
(London , ID Jo
34Einstein , • 106 .
12
and prose writersn35 whose works they almost surely
must have been obli ed to read in the ori inal .
It sees clear from he fore oin brief examination
that , from the time of Henry VIII , the literature and
lan ua e of Italy were cultivated with some enthusiasm
at the English court , that works of Italian literature
were easily available o English readers , and that,
amon the cultured classes , such works were commonly
read in It lian .
Returnin now to Pietro Aretino , how well known
were his books in En land an how ct·d the Elizabethans
regard the man and his works?
35(oxford , 1904) , P • 2 .
CHA IV
TH REPUT TIO OF ARETI O I
RE~AISSA C EGLAND
W e have seen how A retino had become one of the best
known fi ures of sixteenth century Europe . His erson
ality , in its various aspects , was as familiar as the
Renaissance itself , whose multi le irn ulses he seemed to
re lect : Aretino , scour e and counsellor of princes,
patron of arts , oad of avaricious patrons , cham ion of
virtue , and ex o ent of a life lived unrestrainedly ,
ma nificently , lavishly .
1
s the man was known , so his
writin s were celebr ted , in and out of Italy . Thomas
Chubb says:
In Italy his books had an amazing popularity ..••
They were sou ht by the most celebrated persons . . .•
In spite of Aretino ' s often expressed contempt for the
'masters of literature" various academies , Siena,
1
we have seen how Aretino ' s corres ondence att sts
to the variety and splendor of his Euro ean connections .
Besides the six volumes of his own letters , Aretino
publishe d two volumes of Letters ritten to Aretino
which further bri out hi s rel t1ons witnall the
notables of Europe . Arthur Symonds says of them: "They
came rom forei n kins and princes , from cardinals and
bisho s , from Italian dukes and noblemen , from illustrious
ladies and reat artists and from the most distin ished
e of letters of his day • . •• One and all raise him
s the ost owerful , the most virtuous , the wittiest,
he wisest, or , to use their favorite hrase , the
' ivinest' an of his century . " (The Renaissance in
Italy ( ew York , 1935 ) , II , 39 , n . 28 .
Padua , Florence , elected him as member . Even his
reli ious works , Psalms , Genesis , Lives of Saints
•• • for all their over-writin and exagerations ,
were so popular that , when after Aretino ' s death
they were placed under apal ban , they were brou ht
out under another name "Partenio Etiro" [ana ram
for Pietro Aretino] . 2
130
Rear in the fame of Aretino ' s reli ious works , del Vita
confirms that 'the rintin presses put them out in
repeated editions , throu hout Italy and Europe . " Of
Aretino ' s comedies hes ys that t hey were "ea er y
awaited , an performed an d praised all over Italy; and
their com lete success added enormously to his fame and
popularity . , 3 Aretino was opular in Hun ary , Poland ,
the etherlands , ermany . 1/Jhen Charles V, on his visit
to Italy in 1543 , honored Areti o with hiss ecial favor ,
he told him: "Every man in Spain knows your writings . I
read everythin of yours a s f ast as it is printed ." His
works were translated into French , the first part of the
Ragionamenti bein published in Paris before its ublica
tion in Italy . 4 Confirming Aretino ' s po ularity in
France , Samuel Putnam says that he was "almost a household
2Thomas c. Chubb , Aretino, Scourge of Prince s
( ew York , 1940) , P • 342 . -
3Alessandro del Vita , L' Aretino-- 'U omo Li bero per
razia di Dio ' ( rezzo , 1954) , p . 22 , 148.
4chubb , p • 344 , 365 -
131
author" there, and he quotes from a lett wrjtten to
Aretino from France by Giusep e Horlo i: "I do not go
into a place where I do not find some of your works on
the table •..• I can show you the Life of the Virgin
Mary, Saint Catherine , the Humanity of Christ , Psalms ,
Genesis translated into this lan ua e. ,5
The fame of Aretino , of course, spread to En land .
Henry VIII became one of his atrons , sendin hi , in
1538, a tribute of two hundre crovms . Jhen r etina , in
acknowledgment, dedicated the second volume of his
letters (1542) to Henry VIII , refacin it with a three
page eulogy of the En lish king , he made him another
gift of three hundred crowns.6 References to Aretino
in the English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries are very numerous. Edward M eyer , in his study
Machiavelli and the Elizabethan Drama , calls Aretino
"the most cited and c a~lumniated author in Elizabethan
literature,n and states t hat he has counted five hundred
references and allusi ons to him . 7 Evidently the re uta-
5The orks of retina Translated into English
(Chicago, I926T,--r, 26; II, 284.
6Thomas ashe , in the Unfortunate Traveller , refers
to this ift as "a pension of 400 crowns yearly ." orks,
ed. Ronald cKerrow (London, 1910) , II , 264 -
7( eima r , 1 97) , Introduction, • ix-xxii .
tion Are i o had ade for himself in En land was on a
par wi h that heh in other 'rts of Euro e . at
was the nature of his En lish re utation?
Meyer says that Aretino became as y ical of
sensuality as 1achiavelli of villainy to the
Elizabethans . ,S Edward Hutton , confirmin the number
of times Aretino is mentioned by lizabethan writers ,
obser es that t e allusions are all of a kind : "They
132
reat him as a rea. exemplar of the obscene ..•• To
make a list [of the references] would be rofitless and
monotonous . ,9 J . B. Fletcher , in Literatu e of the
talian Renaissance , says that in early seven eenth
century En lish literature Aretino's nae was telescope
with achiavelli ' s into '1ach-Are ine'--the vicious man
com lete .
10
Te may conclude that most Elizabethans used the
name of Aretino as loosely as they did that of
achiavelli , and with as little real knowled e of him .
'Aretino' was to them a byword--a symbol for sensuality
Brntrod ction , p . x .
9Pie ro Aretino , Scourge of rinces (London , 1922) ,
- ----
• 2 7.
10( ew ork , 1954) , • 274 .
133
and all t~at was orrifyin and fascinatin in the
It lian
•
enaissance . They spoke libly of "the filthy
retine . ' I n this sense Gabriel arvey , wishing to
allu e o reene ' s loo eness of life , calls him "an
abominable Aretinist . " In another place , he condemns
retina , fiercely--and va uel - - as 'a hell - hound
i nc rnate . n
11
The literary association most commonly made with
the name of Aretino wa s that of his 'rotic onnets'
written to match the famous en ravin s of arcantonio
Raimondi on the postures of love . Sir Epicure ammon ,
in Jonson 's The Alchemist , for example , hopes to buy
such volupt ous pictures with his old that they will
surpass Aretino's ima es of love :
And then mine oval room
Filled with such ictures as Tiberius took
From Elephantis , and dull Aretine
But coldly imitated . (II .ii)
arston , in his sec ond satire , mentions Aretino ' s
sonnets :
Aretine pictures some stran e luxury
And new- f ound use of Veni ce venery .
Allusio s of this sort , which probably make up a
reat part of M eyer's list of five hundred , do not
ll~orks, ed . A.
•
rosart (London , 1884) , I , 190 ,
290 .
134
indicate a profound knowledge of the man or his work.
There are English writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, however, whose references to Aretino ive the
impression of a direct knowled e of the life and person ality of the man , as well as an ap reciation of his
literary significance. One such is illiam Thomas , the
author of the first Italian rammar in En land (see pa e
113 above ) . Thomas , who lived in Italy from 1544 to
1548 and wrote a Historie of Italie published in 1549 ,
-
wrote also in Italian a defense of Henry VIII in dialogue
f orm, which was published in Venice in 1552 under the
title of Il Pellegrino Ingle e (The Pilgrim). Dedicatin
- ------ ----
this work to ietro Aretino , he showed his reco nition of
Aretino 's essential quality as a writer , callin him 'a
right natural poet whose virtue consisteth in nature
without any art.'
Two other Elizabethans who spoke a reat deal of
Aretino and generally not in a conventional way were
Gabriel Harvey and Thomas ashe . ashe is the reat
Elizabethan cham ion of retina . In The Unfortunate
Traveller (1594), he ima ines that his hero , Jack ilton,
together with his master has reached Venice , and that ,
in consequence of some amorous intrigue , both have been
thrown into prison . Aretino is appealed to , as "chief
searcher and inquisitor to the Colle e of Curtizans,"
135
an he promptly rin sabot heir elease . He is also
instrument 1 in deliverin to Jack ilton his Venetian
para our , once she hAs been rovidentially widowed . t
this point , ashe in errupts hiss ory :
Before I oe anie further , let me speake a word or
two of this Aretine .
e then b rsts into a eulo y of Aret·no , exalting his
enius as a writer and his virtues as a man . He notes ,
first of all , the marvelous effectiveness o Aretino ' s
style :
If out of so base a thin as inke there maybe
extracted as irite , hee wri with nou ht but he
spirite of inke , and his stile was the spiritualitie
of artes , an nothing else · whereas all others of his
a e were but the lay tern oraltie of inkehorne tearmes .
For indeede thy were meere temporizers , and no better .
His pen was shar ointed lyke a poinyard · no leafe
he wro eon but was lyke a burning glasse to set on
fire all his re ders . With more than musket shot did
he char e his uill, where hee meant to inuei h . o
houre but ee sen a whole le ion of deuils in o some
heard of swine or other •..• nere a line of his bu
was able to make a man dronken with admiration .
( orks, II , 2 4)
hou h ashe writes with his usual extrava ance,
he picks out quite accurately those quali ies of style
which Aretino himself upheld in his critical pronounce
ments and which , as we have seen , distinguished his
writin~s from the stereotyped and lifeless productions
of his contempora. ies : their incisiveness and directness;
their at times terrible intensity and vigor; above all ,
the life th t infor ed them .
136
ashe expresses his admirat·on of Aretino ' s style
in other works besides The nfor unate Traveller . In
L ten tuf f (1599) , i the 'dedica i to hi Reade s , '
he praises the full - blooded vi or of Aretino , declarin
that he has chaser him to be his model . Hes eaks with
the same warmth and enthusiasm as in The Unfortunate
Tr veller :
fall stiles I most affect and striue to imitate
retines , not carin for his demure , soft mediocre
enus , that is like water and wine mixt to ither;
but iue me ure wine of itself and that beets ood
bloud , and heates the brain thorowly : I had as leave
haue no sunne as haue it shine faintly , no fire , as
a smotherin fire o small coales , no cloa hes rather
then we re linsey wolsey . (Works , III , 152)
In Pierce Penilesse His Supplication o the Devil (1592)
ashe boasts of the extemporaneousness of his own style:
'quid uid in buccam venerit , as fast as hose can trot
. . • "; and ' . • • if yo knew how extemporall it were
at his instant and with what haste it is writ .. .• '
(Works , I , 195) He seems to be lookin back complacently
to his model Aretino , who also rided himself on his
ability as an improviser :
I used to wri e forty stanzas in one mornin; in
seven mornin s I composed the Psalms ; ••• in ten ,
the Cortigiana and the Marescalco .• . • 12
- --------
12
Pietro Aretino , Lettere , ed . Fausto icolini
( ari , 1913 - 1916), I , 150 .
1J7
Co inuin his eulo y of A etino in ortun te
Travelle r , ashe admires him for havin achieve d the
osition he did ins ite of the shortcomin s of i
education, or , he says , "most of his 1 arnin he ot y
hearin t e lectures at Florence . . • • " By t he 'lee ures
at Florence' . ash may , with chronolo ·cal nonchalance,
be alluding to the sermon Savonarola w s deliverin at
the time of re ·ino's childhood . At any r ate , ashe
shows hi ap reciation of the extraordin ry extent to
hich reti o , without f o al education , by his in ense
recep iveness to 11 the varied manifestations of the
new learnin around him , absorbed the culture of his age .
Jashe ' s next statement shows his a preciation of
one of Aretino 's essential qualities as a writer , his
abili y to condense , top t things in the fewest telling
words :
It is sufficient that learnin he ha d , and a conceit
exceedin all learning to quintescence everie thin
which hee heard . ( tlorks , II , 265)
e are reminded of reti o ' s words in his letter to
Fausto Longiano (December 1537):
The thin is to reduce , a s I have done , the len th
stories and the t edium of orations , as you can see
my letters , and as I will do also in all the other
thins that will be seen . 13
131et ere , I , 369 •
of
•
in
138
ash then comes to retino ' s personal mer·ts as the
champi on of virtue and the exposer of vice: "His si ht
pierced into the entrails of all abuses ," he says; and
he espec·ally commends th t quality which retina , at
le st , ha d always liked to consider su reme in himself :
his coura e to tell he truth to everyone's face:
He was no ti erous se uile flatterer of the
commonwealth wherein he liued . His ton ue and
his inuention were foreborne ; what they thou ht ,
they would confidently utter . Princes hee s ard
not , that in the least point trans rest . H"s lyfe
he contemned i comparison of the libertie of speech .
In confirmation of this , ashe points to the famous ift
made to Aretino by Francis I (see pa e 25 footnote 4
above) :
The French Kin Francis I he kept in such awe that
to chaine his ton ue he sent him a huge c aine of
olde , in the forme of ton ues fashioned . (Works ,
I , 2 5)
Undertakin , then , the defense of Aretino's moral
character , a she gives an impressive enumeration of
Aretino ' s religious works:
Sin _ularly hath he commented of the humanitie of
Christ . Besides as Moses set forth in his Genesis ,
so hath hee set forth his Genesis also , includin
the contents of the whole Bible . A notable treatise
hath he compiled called I Sette Psalmi Paenetentiarii;
all Thomases have cause to love him because hee hath
dilate d so ma nificently of the lyfe of Saint Thomas .
There is a ood thin that hee hath set foorth La
ita della irgine Maria , thou hit somewhat smell of
superstition; with a numbe r more , which here for
tediousness I suppresse . (#orks , II , 2 .5- 2 6)14
As to the notorious reputation of the Italian writer ,
Nashe rnaint ins that slander has exa gera ed t e
magnitude of Aretino'_s vices:
If lasciuious he were, hem y answere with Ovid:
"Vita verecunda est , musa jocosa est"; y lyfe is
chast though wanton be my verse . Tell mee , who is
trauelled in histories, what good poet is or euer
was there, who hath not h dde a lyttle spice of
wantonnesse in his dayes ••••
He ends with a warm a ostrophe to his hero:
I neuer thou ht of Italy more reli iously than
England till I heard of thee.
139
--and with the vision of Aretino's "indefinite spirit'-
"penning ditties to archan els in another world.' ( orks,
II, 266)15
Finally, in The Unfortunate Traveller, 1ashe refers
to Aretino's "epitaph"--protestin indi nantly that
Too much gall dyd that wormwood of ibeline wittes
put in his ink, who in raued that rubarbe Epitaph
on this excellent poets tombstone . ( orks, I, 265)
The reference may be to an epi ram written a ainst
Aretino by one of his enemies, probably Berni, but which
1
4The fact that ashe ives the titles of many of
these works in Italian mi ht seem another argument in
favor of his havin known the works of Aretino in their
original langua e .
15 ashe also says , in the same lace, "Aretyne as
lon~ as the world lives thou shalt liv • Tully , irgil,
Ovid, Seneca were never such ornaments to Italy as thou
hast been . '
was never, of course , actuall e raved on is tomb .
The verses ran thus :
ui iace l ' retin , oet a Tosco :
Di tutti disse mal , fuor· che i Cristo
Scusandosi col dir: ' on lo co osco . ,16
As we have seen ( a e 2 above) , Aretino claimed
that with the "terrors of his en' he forced patrons to
recognize and reward men of merit . In a p ssa e in
Pierce Penilesse , ashe exalts this po r i him . He
is enumerating for the devil u be efi unpunished
capital sins that w alk the stree s of London and , comi
to avarice , finds it supremely exemplified in the
niggardliness of cour t atrons . Ten he thinks of the
one man who could m ake them ch n e their ways :
e want an Aretine here amon us that m ght strip
these golden asses out of their aie trappin s , and
after he had r idden them to death with railing , leaue
them on the dun hill for carion . But I will wri e to
his host by my carrier , and I hope hele repaire his
whip, and use it a ainst our En lish eacock ( larks ,
I, 242)
In two of his works ashes eaks of Aretino ' s comedy
La Cortigiana in a way that in ica es a real knowled e
of the play . In the 'E istle to the Reader' before
Strange News of the Intercepting of Certain Letters, he
-
1
6Here lies Aretino , uscan poet
Nhose evil t on ue spared no e exceptin Christ
nd that only because he id not know him .
141
is s eakin of he comment ors of ierce Penilesse who
is o t the meaning of the work with their _losses , an ,
er a propriately , he quote the ords of Aretino in
the r olo u to~ Cortigiana , a plyin them to his own
case .
vivid :
is rendition of the Italian is oth accura e an
re ine , in a Co ~die of his , witti y complaineth
h us art Cornmenters , with thei r Annotations and
loses , ad e tarted that sense and 1orall out of
Pet r arch , which if Petrarch were a iue , a hundred
rappa oes mi ht not make him confesse ors bscribe
too; So ay I com laine that r ash he ads , upstart
Inter reters , haue e tor ed and rake tha unreuerent
mean· n out of my ines , which a thousand deaths
ca not make mee ere ~rant tha I dreamd off . ( orks ,
I , 259- 2 0) 17
In Summer's Last ill and Testament, as e mentions
retine of late in Italie
Those Cortigiana toucheth bawdes their trade .
( arks , III , 277)
The referenc e a ai n is accurate and shows ashe ' s
familiarity with retina's comedy as aw ole. In La
Cortigiana , one of the most i cturesque characters is
the su r nnuated courtesan lvigia, who has turned
proc ess to make a livin and, i some poi nant passages ,
com ares her present with her p st . A good part of the
comedy is concerned with the intri ues of Alvi ia , who
1
7The talia is ' · .• i crocifissori del Petrarca ,
i uali li fanno ir cose con i loro co menti che non
liene fa iano confess re ieci tratti i corda .·
142
tricks P rabolano while pretendin to satisfy him in
his esire for Livia .
The conclusion that I believe one may draw fr om
these citations is that Nashe did have a direct knowled e
of Aretino's works and that he must have known them in
the ori inal . I we consider ashe ' s admiration for
Aretino (re eatedly ex r essed) and Aretino's fame (which
had not aned at the time ashe was writin ) , nothin~
is more probable than that as e should have been tempted
t peruse Aretino ' s books . ht these books were easily
availa l e we h ve seen , a s some (four comedies and the
Ragio amenti) were actually printed in London in 15 8
and 15 9, a d the others could not but have been mong
the great number of books brought into En land from Italy
at that time , if one considers the fact th t Aretino ' s
works were on a level of popularity with the reading
public com arable to that of the 'best sellers" of today .
Since no English translation of retina was m a de
before the nineteenth century (see page 110 above) , we
ust suppose ashe to have read Aretino ' s works in the
Italian . That he could have known them throu h excerpts ,
translate an includ din Elizabethan collections seems
improbable , firstly , be cause th re is no indication of
the ex·stence of any such excerpts , and , secondly , because
ashes f iliari y with retina is su ch that it could
143
not be accounted for by the readin of a few isolated
fragments in an antholo y. And indeed, it is difficult
to conceive that Nashe s hould not have been sufficiently
familiar with Italian to read Aretino's works in their
original lan uage. s we have seen, Italian was almost
a second language at the court of Elizabeth, was taught
in numerous schools in London, and was cultivated at
the universities. At a time when practically no one with
a certain degree of culture did not understand and speak
it, it is difficult to believe that Nashe , a university
man and one with an extraordinarily alert and inquisitive
mind, should have been an exception by i gnorin a lan uage
that would have given him the key to the newest trends
and fashions in literature.
Moreover, the quality of ashe 's comments on Aretino,
which we have considered ab ove , makes it difficult to
dismiss them as mere repetition of literary hearsay.
There is in them a warmth and enthusiasm which we have
no reason not to accept as genuine , and which could
spring only from a personal contact with Aretino's per
sonality throu h his writings. He shows an awareness of
the complexity of Aretino's personality that distinguishes
him from those who knew "the Aretine " only through his
reputation and could only add to the store of horrified
comments on his obscenity an d ini quity. ashe ap reciates
144
the existence of much that was reat alon with m uch
that was re rettable in Aretino : his assion for freedom ,
his fearlessne s s to speak his mind , his devotion to art ,
his coura eous defen ,e of its rights and its di nity .
In speakin of retina' s style (as in the passage
from The U nfortunate Traveller quoted on page 135 above),
Nashe analyze its qualities in the defin i te , explicit
way of one who has his text at hand , or clearly in mind .
And he describes the effects of Aretino's style as one
who has ex erienced them himself : the poniard-like
thrust of the pen ; the c ondensed heat "lyke a burning
glass"; the violence of the invective, charged with
"more than musket-shot"; the power "to make a man dronken
with admiration . " ashe admires the qualities that made
Aretino original in his time and distinguished his
writings from those of his contemporarie : his power to
render life throu h words, as if he wrote with "nou ht
but the spirite of inke"; his faculty for cutting
straight to the heart of a matter , the 'conceit to
quintescence euerie thing . "
In view of the accuracy and soundness of all his
remarks on them , it would seem unreasonable to deny that
Nashe did have a direct knowledge of Aretino's works .
The question that is much more difficult to answer is
that of the extent t o which Aretino mi ht have influenced
ashe .
145
e mi ht broaden the sco e of the uestion and
ask whether Aretino , as the 'f~fst journalist , ' had ny
influence on the roup of Eliz bethan pam hleteers of
which ashe was one and which included also Robert reene ,
Thomas Lode, and later , Tho as Dekker . In its eneral
character, the style of all of these writers has this
connection with Aretino ' s: it marks in En lish prose the
chan e that Aretino had brou ht into Italian prose ~ the
chan e from artificiali y to then turalness and direct
ness of the spoken word . c. s. Lewis points out that ,
within the last decade of the sixteenth century , there
occurred in each of the Elizabethan journalistic writers
a departure from the rhetoric of Euphuism to a more
colloquial, spontaneous style.
18
Lewis attributes the
chan e to the Anti-Mar inist controversy which engaged
18
n reene's career can roughly be divided into a
rhetorical period and a period be inning in 1591 in
which he attempts a more colloquial style . Lodge •••
thou h revealin a command of the colloquial style as
early a s 1584 does not venture to exploit it fully until
159 • ashe, who was toying with a kind of semi
euphuism in 1589, achieves his own unmistakable manner
in 1592 . Thus, very rou hly , we may distinguish
stylistically an earlier period when formal rhetoric
dominated the amphlet and a later period in which the
illusion of extempores eech is attempted . The dividin
line comes somewhere about the year 1590.' En lish
Literature in the Sixteenth Century (Oxford, ;r,-
• 404-40 5 -:-
these ri ers fro 15 to 1590 , forcin them to use
a rose more direct and opular in its a eal . This
does note elude he possibility that they mi ht have
found t e odel for a new type of writin in Aretino ,
whose vi or a nd o cefulness of style ashe so often
146
extols . U on examini the rose of the En lish w iters ,
h owever , one concludes that , a s far as rticular simi-
la i ies to the pros style o Aretino are conce r ned , one
mi ht a pl to them all cKerrow's observ tion about
she : "It ma be th t she , in settin ~ him [ Aretino] u
as an exemplar to be followed meant no ore th .nth the
wishe his own work in En lish to have somethin of the
vivacity a nd f or ce of retina ' s in It li n . nl9
It is true that the style of the Elizabethan
pa hleteers has a colloquial flavor , a raciness , a n
immediacy and 'exte oraneousness' which they mi ht have
in a measure le rned from retina , but the resultin
product of these elements in the Italian writer and in
the En lish ones is quite different . The prose of
retina has La in l ucidity , a clear- cut , lapidary
uali y that the En lish writers entirely lack . It has
the concen ration t hat rashe discerned and admired but
19Ronald M cKerrow, ed ., The ~arks of Thomas
I trod ction , , 28- 29 .
she ,
147
could not imitate. It has control. There is nothin
of the violence and madcap wildness of Nashe about it,
or the whimsical di ressiveness of Dekker, or the
looseness and formlessness of Greene's "plain" style.
The ima es in Aretino are always the fully li hted,
clearly outlined forms of reality. The English writers
tend to obscure outlines, transform and distort ima es
by fanciful associations. The sunlit, noon-day world of
Aretino is at an immense distance from the ni htmarish
world of Nashe, made up, as c. s . Lewis says, of 'ima es
of somewhat ludicrous and sometimes frightful incoherence
boiling up from a dark voict.n20 The influence of
Aretino's style on ashe and the other pamphleteers ,
therefore, if it was exerted at all , does not seem to
have gone beyond the exem lification of a more informal
type of writing. "Some doubt," says C. S . Le\\ris,
"whether in clai1 ing to follow Aretine 's 'stile' Nashe
meant anything more definite than that he aimed at the
greatest possible violence."
21
If that was the case,
he had more capacity to discern the essential qualities
of Aretino's prose than power to imitate them.
20English Literature in the Sixteenth Century,
p . 416.
21
P. 411.
148
Consi erin reene , Lode , ashe , D ekker as
satirists , the influence of reti o mi ht be tr ced
in the dire ction t aken by their satire , which in every
case turned from a cademi c models and conventional themes
to the observation o contemporary life . I n t his sense
Aretino mi ht be considered their precursor , since it
was he who in Ital i an literature completed the liberation
of satire from classic convention and set it free to deal
directly with the evils of the times .
22
A ain , however ,
the influence is a eneral and remote one , since the
Elizabethan writers had more immediate Engli sh recursors
in realistic satire .
The name of Aretino enters fre quently in the "paper
war" that was wa ed between Gabriel Harvey and Th omas
Nashe between 1592 and 1595 . he works throu h which
the "war" w a s fought were t he followin :
22
see G. Stiavelli , ed ., La Cortigi ana , Introduction ,
pp . xvii - xviii: "[Satire] treated by him as sumed new
f orms , was amplified an d invi orated . Limited in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to turns of wit or
pleasant tales , it broke out in the sixteenth century
with Ariosto , Folen o and Berni to open warfare . But its
form remained stilted and its types ••• genera l ized .
. • • There was need of an energetic talent that having
see n where the evil lay , should so strike i t with the
scourge of laughter , as to make the exam le plain to all .
Such a talent was retina ' s • '
.
149
ashe - -Pierce Penilesse (1592)
Harvey--Four Letters and Certain Sonnets (1 592)
Nashe--Stran e ews of the Interceptin of Certain
Letters (1593)
Harvey--Pierce's Supererogation (1593)
New Letter of otable Contents (1 593 )
Nashe--Have W ith You to Saffron alden (1595)
-
The allusions made to retina
•
these works
.
in ive
•
the impression of a eal knowled e of him , for the most
part , althou h the facts are often bent to suit t he
purposes of the a r gument . Perhaps be cause ashe praises
Aretino in Pierce Penilesse , the work with which he
entered the quarrel , Harvey constantly associates ashe
with Aretino
2
3 and involves them both i one condemna
ti on . Aretino (and always , by implication Nashe also ,
as his admirer , disciple , and successor) is denounced
by Harvey as an unprincipled satirist whose impudent and
shameless 'railing" oversteps all bounds of human decency,
23rt was not , however , only Harvey who assoc i ate d
Nashe with Aretino . ashe was generally known (and by
his own declaration) as the disciple of Aretino: "the
English Aretine . " Dekker, for instance, said of him:
"Thou into whose soul (if ever there were a Pytha orean
metempsychosis) the raptures of that fierce inconfinable
Italian spirit were bounteously and boundlessly infused .
• • · " Quoted by A. Grosart, ed . , The orks of Gabriel
------
Harveyr Introduction, III, xxxiii.
..
150
nd as the creator of n impossibly ex erated,
fantastical , hy erbolical style .
In the se cond of the Four Letters (addressed to
Master Christopher Bird) , ar ey s1 ee to ethe Tully ,
Horace , Archilocus , Arista h nes , Luci a n , Julian , and
retino--and br nds them all as a venomous and vinerous
~
brood of old and new aylers ' or their abuse of the
we pon of satire . ( orks , I , 1 4)
2
4 In the third letter ,
referrin to Jashe's ttack on his brother Richard in
Pierce enilesse , H rvey accuses a he of bein the
worst of railers after
II
retino : 'Had not Are tine bene
Aretine , when he was , undoubtedlie thou hadst beene
Are tine . " ( \Jorks , I , 201) she ' s attack on Richard
Harvey had be un with these words:
Put case ••• some tired Iade belon ing to the
Presse , whom I neuer wron ed in my life , hath na ed
me expressely in Print ••• and accused me of ant
of learnin , upbraidin me for reuiuin , in an
epistle of mine , the reuerent memory of Sir Thomas
· ·Moore • • • • To shewe how I can raile , thus would
I begin to raile on him . ( arks , I , 195)
nd H rvey · ' s furious comment wa s :
2
4rn the third letter (I , 190) arvey calls
Greene "a desperate Lucianist, n abhomi nable Aretinist , "
probably with the same eference , to Jreene ' s violence
in satire--thou h by "Aretinist" hem y be referrin to
the lewdness of reene ' s life with which he ·lso ch res
him .
151
God, or good Order, circumcise the Ton ues , nd
Pennes, that slauner without cause, and raile without
effect, even in the superlative de ree of ravin .
Aretine and the Divel's Oratour might very well bee
spared in Christian, or oliticke Commonwe althes .
(works, I, 203 )
Of Tashe 's invocation to Aretine in ierce Penjlesse ,
------
in which he exhorts him to bring his whi to bear a ainst
English patrons , Harvey , considering ashe a s the self ap ointed successor to Aretino , says indi nantly :
A frolicke mind , and a braves irite to bee em loyed
with his strip in instru ent , in supply of that
onely want of a divine retine , the reat rider of
~olden sses . ( orks, II , 54 )
Of Aretino himself, Harvey says in ierce ' s Supereroga tion: "Vfuom durst he not ap each , revile or blas heme . '
( ·v1orks, II , 270)
One wonders why Harvey, in all the writin s connected
with the quarrel , insists on seein Aretino under the
single aspect of a vicio s "rai er ." Perhaps it was
be cause Nashe had invoked retino s his atron in the
work in which he had inserte the notorious railin
passage against Richard Harvey . But .while Aretino
exercised a re at power throu h his writings , violence
of style was not the only source of this power , which
lay rather , as we have seen , in a manner that could be
inexorable but was bove all subtle and flexible ,
skilful in adaptin itself to erson and circumstance,
with a keen sense of the ri ht word a t the ri ht time.
152
Aretino owed his fame to a consummate di lomacy rather
than to railing in a "superlative de ree ." It is true,
Aretino had had his own "pape r wars.' He ha d bitter
personal enemies, amon them icolo Franco, who, havin
been his secretary and prote ~ , turne d a ainst him and
published a defamatory Life that was res onsible for
much of the scandal that spread abroad about Aretino;
and Doni, another disciple who attacked him vi ciously
in a work called Te remoto. The langua e of invective
used in these quarrels , says Arthur Symonds, "ori inatin
with Aretino and imp r oved upon by Doni and Franco , became
the model of vituperative style in Europe. ,
2
5 Perhaps
it was with this aspect of Aretino ' s writin in mind ,
that Harvey magnified him as a "railer."
The other point about retin a t hat Harvey stresses
in the Four Letters, ew Lette r of Not able Contents , and
- -------
Pierce's Supererogation is the hyperbolical quality of
his style--which in this respect also he associates with
Nashe's. In Pierce's Supererogation, he accuses Na she
of surpassing even Aretino in the bombastic vein:
"Aretine •
• •
that bestowed the surmountin est amplifi-
cations at his pleasure , and was a meere Hyperbole
2
5The Renaissance in Italy ( ew York, 1935), II ,
----
407.
153
incarnate." ( orks, II, 55) L ter in the same wok , he
comments on Aretino's writing: "I never read a more
surpassing hyperbolicall stile . r ( orks, II , 270) And ,
speaking of the "im udent hyp erbolicall stile" of Nashe's
Pierce Penilesse, his Supplication to the Devil , Harvey
says:
Good Lorde what fantasticall pa es are these? ho
ever endi hted in such a stile but one divine Aretine
in Italy and two heavenly Tarletons in En land--the
sole platformers of odd Elocution and only singularities
of the plaine worlde . (1 orks, I , 217)2b
W e have seen that, chiefly in his pane yrical writings ,
Aretino did use a highly artificial style , abounding in
conceits. This is probably what Harvey had in mind in
speaking of Aretino ' s "hyperboles"--which, however , differ
considerably from ashe's with which he insists on com
paring them.
In A New Letter of Notable Contents , Harvey ,
-
delivering his judgment of Aretino ' s character , pronounces
him an arch-dissembler. He is speaking of certain peace
offers which Nashe had made him, probabl y at first in a
private letter, then in the 'Epistle to the Reader" before
Christ's Tears over Jerusalem . H arvey replies that if
2
6Richard Tarleton wa s a clownish comedian, very
popular in the Elizabethan a e and f amous for his ability
to improvise do erel .
154
ashe is sincere in his peace offers , he ou ht to show
it by redressing his "public a nd private enormities";
it is here that he brin sin etino--as the su reme
exemplar of du licity:
I ould be loth , He should be an Aretin : th at
Para hrased t he inesti able bookes of oses , and
discoursed the Capricious Di lo es of r ankest
Bawdry: th t penn done A polo y of the divinity of
Chris·v, and nother of Pederast ice, • • • that
published the Li fe of the blessed Virgin , and the
Le gende of the Errant Putana : that recorded the
history of s . Thoms of Aquin, and f or ed the most
detestable Bl cke-b ooke de tribus im ostoribus
mundi •••• ( larks, I , 2 9- 290)27
A nd Harvey ends with the half- a irin ejaculation: "0
monster of extrem i tye s ; and abomination of outra ious
witt. It was his lory , to be a hellhounde inc arnate ."
Thomas ashe , t kin u his own defense a ainst
Harvey's Four Letters , with Strange e,~s of the
2
7or the works mentioned in the passa e , the
"Apology of Pederast ice" a nd the "Bl acke-booke de tribus
impostoribus mundi" are not identifiable amon Aretino's
writings. Of the latter , ashe , probably with a Jlance
at Harvey, says in The Unfor unate rave ler (II , 265) :
"Whereas some dull braine m aTi ners of his a ccuse him of
that Treatise , de tribus impostoribus uni , which w a s
neuer contriue d without a ge nerall counsell of deuils , I
am verily perswaded it wa s none of his; and of m y minde
are a number of the ost iu ici A-1 It a.li ns . One re ason
is this , because it w s ubli shed fortie yeres fter his
death, a nd hee neuer in his lyfe tim e wrote anie thin
in Latin.' The Errant ut t a na (La ut t ana Errante) is
by one of Areti no 's "discipl es, ' Lorenzo Veniero ( s ee
A. del Vita , L' Aretino , Uom o Libero per Jrazia di Dio ,
P • 432) . -
155
In erceptin of Certain Letters (1592) , undertake also
the defense of his fellow-victim , Aretino . He oi ts
out to arvey the self-contradiction in his attacks ,
sinc e tone time he admires retina for those qualitie s
for which, when it suits his purpose , he condemns him :
on the one han , in the Four Letters , Harvey calls
Aretino, with Julia , Lucian , and others , 'a venemous
and viperous brood of railers" because , ashe says ,
ttthey have b ou ht in a new kind of a quick fight which
your decrepit slow-moving capacity cannot fade wi h '-
but , ashe triumphantly proc eds , in 'the fortie one a e ,
line two' of Epistles to Colin Clout , Harvey h d said :
'I like your' reames' passing well and the rather because
hey savour of that sin ular extrao dinary vaine of
invention which I ever fancied most and in a manner
admired only in Lucian , Petrarch , Are ine and Pasquil ."
ashe comments :
I cannot see how the Doctours may ell bee reconcild ,
one while to commend a man because his writin s sauor
of that singular extraordinarie vaine which he onely
admired in Lucian , Petrarch , Aretine , Pasquil : and
the in anot er booke a terward , to come and call
those sin?ular extraordinarie admired men , a venemous
and viperous broo of railers . . . • ( forks , I , 2 4)
as e himself , however , is o above self-co tradiction .
La er on in the same pamphlet , when it suits him to
ss e the role of efender of the faith , he ravely
renounces he followin denu cia ion :
156
Lucian , uli n , retine , all three admi ably blest in
the abundant iftes of rt and ature : yet Reli ion ,
wh "ch you sou ht to ruinate , hath ruinated your ood
names , n the o osin of your eyes a ainst the
bri ht sunne , hath causd the worlde condemne your
s · ht in al l other thin es . I protest , were you
ou ht else but abhominable theistes I would obstinately
defende you , onely bee use Laureate abriell articles
a ainst you . ( orks , I , 285)
Yet , 'in another booke" written only two years later ,
The U nfortunate Traveller , ashe gives the glowing
account we have noted (see page 138 above) of Aretino ' s
reli ious works , and f ar from considerin Aretino an
atheist , envisions him pennin ditties to archan els,"
and assures his spirit : "I neuer thou ht of Italy more
reli io sly than England till I heard of thee . " (Narks ,
II , 266 )
If Jashe had a basis for considerin Aretino an
atheist , other than simply the notorious reputation which
caused every iniquity to be attributed to him , it must
have been the attacks of enemies--such as Berni ' s
satiri cal 'epita h" mentioned in The Unfortunate
raveller (see a e 139 above) . Though Aretino freely
attacke the Pope and ecclesiastical lords , and the
vices of the Vatican court , he never wrote anything that
could in any way be called atheistical . He was singular
(or erha s very re resentative of his age) in the way
he reconciled the amorality of his life with a ve r y warm
and heartfelt piety and a c mplete alle iance to the
157
Church. He was, in fact, t e arch e my o L ther nd
the "scismatics" and considered himself very sincerely
a defender of the true faith.
2
8
In Strange ews, a he, like arvey , terms Aretino
a "railer," but he does not by any means use the term
in a derogatory sense. On the contrary, perfection in
this art is his ideal and oal:
Thou saist I professe the art of railin : thou shalt
not say so in vaine, for if there ee any art or depth
in it, more than retine or Ari a haue discouered or
diu'd into, looke that I will sound it and search it
to the uttermost. (Works, I, 320)
And again:
If I scold if I raile, I do but cum r tione insanire ;
Tully, Ovid, and all the olde Poets , A rippa, Aretine,
and the rest are all scolds and railers •.• I doe
no more than their exam les do warrant ee . ( ~orks ,
I, 3 24)
Outside the quarrel ith ashe , Harvey ( s ashe
pointed out) does not always speak damnin ly of Aretino.
A reference to retina in the reco nizes his
merit of independence and ori inality:
[It was] Aretine's glory, to be himself : to speake,
and write like himself: to imitate none , but him selfe
28
H rvey, too, follows the eneral trend in speakin
of Aretino as an atheist, in Four Letters. Advisin
Nashe not to tamper with divine subjects (as in the
supplication to the devil in Pierce Penilesse) , he bids
him take a warnin from the example of Aretino "that so
wantonly played with the hi hest nd dee est subiectes
of spirituall contemplation " and has now one to his
jujgment. (Works, I, 217)
and ever to maintaine his own sin ularity yet ever
with commendation, or com ssion of other.29
15
This comment seems also to indicate an awareness of
Aretino's doctrine of free imitation : that one may be
molded by what one learns from others but should retain
one's essential character intact. There is in Harvey 's
words an echo of Aretino's , quoted earlier (see page 44
footnote 31 above):
For myself, I can swear that I try to form myself by
what I le rn and discover , but that I always myself
and never anyone else .
In several places , Harvey speaks in praise of
Aretino's comedies. In a letter to Spenser wherein he
is trying to persuade his friend to engage himself in
that genre , he says:
You know, it hath bene the usual practise of the most
exquisite and odde wittes in all nations, and
especially in Italie rather to shewe and advance
themselves in that way [by writin comedies], than
any other: as namely those three notorious dyscoursin
heads, Bibiena, ~achiavel and Aretine • ~ • with the
great admiration, and wonderment of the whole countrey :
being indeede reputed matchable in all points, both for
conceyt of witte and eloquent decy hering of matters ,
either with Aristophanes an d enander in reek , or with
Plautus and Terenc e in Latin, or with any other, in any
other ton • ( Jorks, I , 95)
In the Marginalia , he commends the way Aretino sustains
the elements of surprise and suspense in his comedies:
2
9Ed. c. G. oore Smith (Stratford , 1913) , P · 156 •
159
To coosen expectation, o e notable oint in a Comedie:
and one of the sin ularities of Unico Aretino in his
courting Italian Comedies •
..
And further he says:
Unicus Aretinus erat scriptoris hyperbole et actoris
paradoxum . Illius affectatissima foelicitas fuit,
omnia scriptitare hy erbolice , sin ula actitare ex
inopinato .
--this time endin on a note of enthusiastic praise :
ui velit Unicum vincere, eum opo tet esse miraculum
eloquentiae , oraculum prudentiae , solem industriae .30
In another letter to Spenser , in which he ;s retesting
about some writings of his which his friends have hustled
through the p ess without his knowledge , Harvey glances
at Aretino's fame as a comedian . He tells Spenser , who
h s been so solicitous of Harvey 's fame as to send off
to the printer his scribbled verses , that he supposes
next he will send him a troupe of comedians for an
Interlude--" • •• by cause peradventure thou imaginest
Unico retino and the pleasurable Cardinal Bibiena that
way especially attrayn'd to be so singularly famous . "
(W orks, I , 125)
Still writin to Spenser , Harvey acknowledges
Aretino's European celebrity and his influence over
monarchs:
Who but knowes retyne , w she not halfe Prince
to the Prices?
160
We are reminded of Aretino ' s proud en ravin on his
medal: 'The Pr ine s , who are aid tribute by the people ,
pay tribute to their slave . " Finally , in the arginalia ,
Harvey speaks admirin ly , if not a provingly , of
retina ' s political enius , cou lin it with Machia-
velli ' s :
Machiavelli and Aretino knew f asshions and were
acquainted with ye cunnin of ye world . ac iavelli
and Aretino were not to lerne how to play their artes
but ••• knew ye lessons by hart and were not to
seeke how to use ye wicked world , y flesh and ye
Divel . They had lerned cunnin enow h : and cowd and
woold use both , with a dvanta enow h . Two curtisan
politi ues .31
I should say that , on the whole , Harvey ' s allusions
to retina , except when he is merely usin him as a
means of condemnin Jashe , s how both a scholarly knowled e
of Aretino ' s writin sand an appreciation of the s i n ular
role he playe d in the history of his a e . Harvey mi ht
very easily have read Aretino's works in Italian . That
his knowledge of the lan uage w a s quite sufficient is
attested by the many comments in Italian scattered
throu h his works and particularly found in the
3lp . 147 •
CHAPTER
SHAKESPEA EA D ARETI 0
Did Shakespeare know retina's lays? As one reads
the comedies of Aretino, one is struck by a number of
passages which awaken Shake pearean echoes . John Lothi an,
in an article entitle d ''Shakespeare ' s Knowled e o~
Aretino's Plays ,"l points out a r allel passa es in the
works of Aretino and Shakespeare to sho how Shakes eare
might have derived ideas , situations , and devices from
the plays of Aretino . The quest ion of Shakes eare
relationship to Aretino, however, is only one as ect of
a larger problem, involving the relationshi p of Eliza
bethan comedy, and that of Shakespeare in particular, to
the comedy of the Italian Renaissa ce . It will e bet er
to consider Shakespeare's possible connection ith
Aretino within the f r amework of this lar er problem .
Italian comedy of the cinquecento initiated the
transfonnation of the classic comedy tradition ; thus it
gave to the modern European theatre its earliest models,
and had an influence on Elizabethan drama that ·s bein
increasingly rec o nized . In the introduction to
Representative En lish Comedies, c •• ayley speaks of
1
odern Lan uage Review, 25 : 415- 424 , 1930 .
162
the infl ence on Elizabethan plays of romanti c intri ue
of the It lian romantic comedies which at the end of the
fifteenth century succeeded the Latin comedy of the
humanist s .
2
R. a wick Bod , in Early Plays from the
Italian , oints out "the re t im ortanc of Italian
Renai sance Comedy in handin on the classical form and
substance to modern Euro e , while introd cin considerable
modifi cations of it' · and he adds : 'to Lat·n comedy the
En lish ta e owes a direct debt the full extent of which
is hardly reco ni zed · i also owes an indirect debt ,
throu h the m edium of Italian work . "3
2
(Lon on , 1903-1906), I , xvii -xviii .
3(0xford, 1911) , Introduction , • iii . Ti ifred
Smith , at t he opening of her essay on 'Italian and
E iza ethan Comedy , " odern Philology , 5: 555- 567 , A ril ,
190 , says: 'I wish to i ve a few facts that o to rove
that this connection between n lish drama and Italian
is far more funda~ental and far- reachin than has hitherto
been supposed . ' (p . 555 ) Dr . Furness , referring to the
visit of the Italian players in England in 1578 , remarks
that it i s e idence of "an intimate relationship at that
early date between the English and the Italian sta e of
which too little account is made by those who wish to
exp ain Shakespeare ' s knowled e of Italian manners and
ames -' ( .uch A do bout othinf , Variorum ed., Intro
uction , • xxvii . ) Mario Apo lonio in Storia della
Commedia dell ' Arte (Roma , 1930) , speaks of the format ive
infl ence of Italian comedy on Elizabethan drama : In
En land [the Co edia dell' Are] served to ive vi or
to the still scattered and confused elements of the reat
En li h drama; it probably had a art in forrnin or
reformin opular t aste •.. •" ( _ • 315)
163
Along wh t lines id the transformation of the
material fro classic sources rocee in Itali n
Renaissance comedy?
4
Chiefly , it was by the infusion
of elemen~s from the opul rad novelistic tra itions
as well as by closer connection with contemporary life .
Two diver ent ays were thus opened for the development
of modern comedy: the influence of the novelle , with
their atmos here of s ranneness , their va aries of time
ad place , their antastic adventures , led comedy towards
romanticis · the witty and satirical ortraiture of
reality ointed towa ds th modern comedy of man ers .
t h s me time , and especially with the improvisations
of the Commedia ell' rte , t ere entered into comedy a
vei o opular humor that was rue and i artistic but
full of vi or . The traditional types of Latin comedy
were modified, in Ita in Renaissance comedy , to reflect
new condi ions of political , social , and domestic life ,
nd some new cha acter t es were added . This trans
form tion o the .raditional types of comedy was realized
most fully i the Commedia ell' Arte , which eventually
developed its own conventional character types or 'masks . '
4rn s eakin of Italian Renaissance Comedy , I shall
use he terms , Commedia rudita , or written corned½ and
Comme ia dell' rte , 1m roviseo comedy .
164
h s , the clas ic type of the mi
---
lorios s , whil he
retai ed his basic character , lost his military rudeness
in Italian comedy, o acqui e the ce emoniousness of
speech and man er and the fantastic flamboyance of Italy ' s
Spanish conquerors . I the Commedia ell' Arte , he was
"Capitan Spavento ," ho ha a notable precurso
.
in
Capitan inca of Aretino ' s La Talanta , ad whose traits
-
have been discove ed in Armada of Love ' s Labour's Los ,
and in Parolles of 11 s
1
ell that Ends .ell . 5 In Rosso
of retinas La ortigiana , we have seen the intri in
servan of Latin comedy localized ad transfo ed into a
1 ckey o the ixteenth century Roman court; and in the
Comm dia dell' Arte , the type evolved into Zani , who was
5see o. J . Campbell, 'Love's Labour ' s Lost Re
studied , Studies in Shakespeare , Milto and Donne ,
University of Michigan Publications, Vol . I ( ew ork ,
1925) , p . 22; Mario raz , 'Shakes eare's Italy , "
Shakespeare Survey , No . 7 (London , 1954) , P • 98 · Joseph
Spencer Kennar, asks an arionettes ( ew York , 1935),
• 36 .
1
.A!inifred Smitfi, in "Italian and Elizabethan
Comedy,' points out that Thomas Kyd probabl derived the
nae an model for Basilisco , the braggart and coxcomb
of Soliman and erseda,from the bra art Basilisco of
an old Italian scenario published in 1619 as Gli Amorosi
Inganni . She sug ests that the play had very likely
been given as an improvis d comedy i London and seen
by Kyd; and she ads , Basilisco as a new variation of
he m·les is a forerunner of Armado and Parolles .
( . ))
165
sometimes a slow- wi t e d clown an sometime a ro uish
servan , the comic con rast be ween the two types
becomin one of the Commedia ' s raditions .
6
One of the
most opular character ty es introduced by Italian comedy
was that of the edant , a fi ur e o uced y the new
Renais ance lear
.
in . At first , the edant represented
the medieval scholasti c philosopher , who had become a
b tt for the ridi cule of the humanists , but later , the
raits of the h a -ists themselves were satirized in him .
The pedant w s then represented as a man whose zeal for
learnin had made him a fanatic , who had lost touch with
prac ical life throu h she e r devotion to abstract study .
An early representation of the type is Plataristot ile in
Aretino 's Il Filosofo . The pedant was also one of the
t pical fi ures o the Commedia dell' Arte , where he was
knO"'(ffi as t e 'Dettore , " and his distinctive traits were
"an ignor ant pretension to learnin , stupid etymologizing ,
-
rotesque mispronunciation of words , and the buffoonery
60 . J . Ca pbell , 'The Two Gentlemen of Verona and
Italian Comedy , " Studies in Shakespeare , gflton and
Donne , p . 60 . To the rustic type of Zanni , Campbell
traces Cost rd and L unce of Love's Labour ' s Lost and
The Two e tlemen of Verona; and to the cle ver intri uing
type , oth and Spe'ea of the same comedies .
166
of Latin quotations .n
7
1 any of these traits are already
in the pedant of Aretino's Il arescalco , who loved
- ------
nothing more than to displ ay hi s learnin in lon -winded
speeches and to mystify his he arers with his grotesque
Latin. The "Dettore" of the Commedia ha s been seen as
the prototy e of Shakespeare's Holofernes .
8
Another
modification of a classi c model in Italian comedy is
Pantaloon, the type either of the deceive d father or the
duped husband . He is, says W inifred mith ,
••• a distinct variation of the classic senex and is
fairly constant in Italian comedy both written and
improvised. He is old, stupid , avaricious , amorous,
and jealous , and •.• is always the due of the youn
lovers and their allies . 9
One of the Italian types which became universally opular
in Renaissance comedy wa s t he heroine who put on male
disguise to follow he r love r . She was a product, a s
Campbell explains , of t he social customs of the I t alian
cinquecento:
The male disguise of t he girl was t he authori ze d
solution of a universa l prob lem of stage realism . The
71ui i Rasi , I Comici Ital i ani (Fire nze , 1 97), I,
407--cited b y C am '6"ell i "Love' s Labour 's Lost Re studied," P • 40 .
8
see 'Love 's L bour ' s Lost Re - studied," pp . 40-42;
Praz, ''Shakespeare ts It aly," p . 98 .
9nrt alian and Elizabethan Com edy , P • 565 •
scene of all the action in Italian comedy , both
learned and professional , forb de the appearance
of a respectable citizen ' s dau hter on the street
with the men . If the irl , therefore , was to have
any sort of extended speech with the men in these
comedies, she had either to talk with them from a
window or balcony , or to assume some sort of male
disguise. Consequent y , all Ren issance comedy is
filled with these situations . To brin the girl
into intimate relation with the love intri ue , she
was often dis _uised as a page attached to one of
the amorosi--sometimes the one she loved .10
167
Often associated with the heroine i Renaissance comedy
is the nurse--an outs _ oken , popula ty e , of rather
coarse honesty and morality , yet ossessin a certain
earthy wisd om and a measure of devotion . The nurse in
Aretino ' s Il ~arescalco is an exa le of the ty e , which
Shakespeare immortalized in the nurse of Romeo and
Juliet .
The de ree of originality in the treatment of
traditional themes and character types varied with the
individual authors of the Commedie Erudite . Although
most had the inte tion of creatin a modern type of
comedy , in many this intention did not o beyond the
declarations in the prefaces , or was evident only in a
superficial modification of the classic models .
Actually , it was in the Commedia dell' Arte that the
conventions of classic drama were most decidedly broken
lOnThe Two Gentlemen of Verona and Italian Comedy , "
• 56 -
----------
..
1
down . The peculiar technique , introduced by the
Comrnedia dell ' Arte , of im rovisin action and dialo ue
on the ba sis of a skeleton scenario , brou ht a current
of freshness ad spontaneity into comedy . he con-
ventional intrigue lost i ortance , exce t as a thread
to bind the action , and the emphasis was on the liveli ess
of single scenes taken from life . The masks , which
re curred in all the Comrned · e , ada ted the classic odel s ,
as we have seen , to the local manners and customs of the
various towns of Renaissance Italy; nd the 'lazzi'
(farci ca l tricks) characteristic of the Commedie arose
out of the po ular comic inst inct , whose expressions ·n
mimicry , arody , f a r ce are of a 1 a es . The Commedi
fess i onal compa ies of actors in sixteenth century Italy .
Although the origin s of its te chnique are considered to
be very remote,
11
certainly its immediate recursors
were those writers of Italia · 1 Renaissance comedies 'Who
introduced the speech and actions of local peo le i nto
the framework of t he conventionalized classic plots .
Foremost amon these by the nature of hi comic theory
llK . M . Lea , in Italia Po ular Comedy , A ytu~y in
t he C ommedia dell ' Arte 1560-1 620 {Ox1ord , 19J4 , , -
m, speaks of the relations of the Co edia dell ' Arte
to the mimes of sia ad urope and to the po ular comedy
o f Rome in t he third d fourth centuries .
1 9
an ractice vv s , as we have seen , Pietro retina •
12
His comedies , with their looseness of structure and
their em hasis on the liveliness of action and dialo ue
within the individual scenes , were already a evelopment
of the technique of improvised comedy . Com arin Aretino
with the other writers of Commedie Erudite in the
sixteenth century , R. arwick Bond says of hi:
retino is the most independent of them all .•.•
is impatience of structure and restr·int , his
unbounded flow of dialo ue , his variety of allusio ,
produce almost a new type , fusi the Commedia Erudita
with t e popular extern ore Commedi dell ' Arte .13
nether critic obs rve s , "If retina di d not advance far
o he new road , at least he set foot on it and marked
· t out for others . nl4 nt onio Foschin ·, who considers
retina an importa t precursor of the Commedia dell'
rte says :
12
rn this respect Aretino influenced both his
contemporaries and his successors who sou ht to escape
from a slavish imitation of the classics . His influe ce
has especially been point e d out in the free dom and frank ness of riorda. o Bruno's satirical comedy Il Candelaio-
see ntonio Foschi i , L' Aretino e I Ragio 1arrienti (~1ilano ,
1951) , pp . 99- 100; rthur Symonds,-The Renaissance in
Italy ( ew York , 1935) , II , 782 . -
13 arly Plays from the Italian, Introdu ct ion ,
.
P • XXl •
14 unzio acarrone , ed., Te atro di Pietro Aretino
( anciano, 1914) , Introduz·one , I, i.-
170
The characters of the Aretinesque comedy surge up
with such buoyancy that a new matter henceforth
takes possession of the stages and squares ...•
The old decrepit scenarios crumble .•• and from the
dust arises, with ardor and warmth of life and
vivacity of pointed dialogue, the company of the masks,
which will glorify the Commedia dell' Arte.15
It would not, therefore, be too much to say that, in so
far as the Comrnedia dell' Arte was an influence on
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, we may trace through
it the direct influence of Aretino.
Having seen how the comic tradition of the classic
theatre was renovated in Italian Renaissatce comedy, we
have still to ask how well known was this Italian comedy
in Elizabethan England and how real was its influence on
Elizabethan playwrights? Finally, what was the relation
of Shakespeare to Italian comedy and to the comedies of
Aretino? The evidences of the po ularity of Italian
Renaissance comedy in sixteenth century England are
numerous. An interesting piece of testimony is the
indignant protest of Stephen Gosson against Italian plays
in The School of Abuse.
----
The devil, Gosson says, in
ord·Jr to corrupt Englishmen, first ave them wanton
Italian books to read, but "not contented with the number
he ha1 corrupted with Italian bawdry, because all cannot
read, presented us with comedies cut by the same
151,Aretino, p. 102.
171
pattern . ' And he continues , "Compare London to Rome
and England to Italy . You shall find the theatres of
the one , the abuses of the other to be rife among us . n
16
An important means by which Englishmen were
familiarized with Italian Renaissance comedy were the
erformances iven in England by the troupes of the
Commedia dell' Arte , whose repertories included both
written and improvised comedies . After 1570 , these
troupes were banned from Italy as a result of the Counter
Reformation , and many took refuge in France; they estab lished themselves in Paris and from there visited various
courts of Europe . In her study on the Commedia dell '
Arte , Katherine • Le a lists various testimonies to the
presence of Italian players in England in the sixteenth
century . The earliest reference to them is in the
Chamberlain's account for 1546- 1547 in Norwich . The
revels accounts for 1573-1574 also refers to the "Italian
players that followed the progress and made past ime first
at Windsor and then at Reading . ' In 1576 , another entry
refers to the presence of the Italian players at court ,
collaborating with Ferrabosco , the queen's Bolognese
16cited by Campbell in "Love ' s Labour's Lost
Re - studied," p . 29 .
musician .
1
7 Ando . J . Cm·
1
ell notes the followin
entry in the Acts of the Privy Council, x. 144 , for
January 18 , 1578 :
The Lord 1ayor of London to give orders that one
Drousiano , the Italian , a commediante , and his
companye may play within the Cittie ad the
liberties of the same between this and the first
weeks of Lent . 18
1 2
Both K. r . Lea , in Italian Popular Comedy , and
Winifred Smith , in her article 'Italian and Elizabethan
Comedy , " point out allusions by Elizabethan writers to
the Comme dia dell' Arte and its typical masks , showin
the familiarity of authors and audiences wi h the Italian
comedies . Thomas Kyd , for example , has the followin
description of the Italian players :
The Italian tra edians were so shar of wit
That in one hour's meditation
They would perform anythin in action .
(Spanish Tragedy , v .i)
In Middleton and Rowley's The Spanish ypsy , there is the
followin reference to the Commedia dell ' Arte :
The scenical school
Hath been my tutor lon in Italy . (III . i)
And a quite accurate explan tion of the met od of the
"sceni cal school' follows :
17rtalian ~pular Comedy , I , 351-352 •
18
"Love ' s Labour ' s Lost Re-st died , " • 27- 2 •
173
There is a way which t e I t lians ad the
Frenchmen use ,
That is , on word iven or some slight lot ,
The actors will extempo e fa hion out
Scenes neat and witty . (IV . iv)
here are frequent llusions in Elizabethan 1 ys to
Za y' (Zan~) , the comics rvan , often also the clown ,
of the Co edia ell ' Arte . Several such re f ere ces are
fou din Jonson , sin Cynthia ' s Revels where Mercury
escribin Asotus , the worship pi g followe of mor hus ,
says of h·m :
The ot er · llant is his y
A d dot most of these tricks after
(II . i)l9
•
im .
•
or i ve y Man Out of His or , where ~
•
ci e te says
---
of Brisk 's attem ts to emulate courtiers:
He ' s like a Za y to a Tumbler
at tries tricks after him , to make men
lau h . (I .i)20
To as Heywood , in The General History of .Tomen , speaks
of
Some Zanie with his mimick action ,
To breed mirth and laughter •.•
a lequin , another vell known Commedia
i mentioned in The Isle of ulls :
-- --- - - - -
19 ited by Smith , PP • 559 , 5 4 •
20cited by Lea , II , 379 .
11 ' rte type ,
--
ilst I , like Harlakenes in an Italia
comedy,
Stand makin faces at both their follies .
( I I.i) 21
174
And Marston, in The . alcontent , allude s to "the French
Harlakene . n
22
Shakespeare refers several time to
Lucentio describe s Grumio a s 'Old Pa t aloon ," alludin
to the old man ' s ject ousy in l ove ·
2
3 ad Ja o, in
Othello, is su gesting the same thin when he refers
to Brabantio as the 'Old 'Ia ifico" ( anothe r te for
Pantaloon) . 24
In Heywood ' s If You Know not e Yo Know
- -- ---
Nothing, Hobson speaks of his ap re t i ces that" eepe
like Ital i an Pantelownes behind an arr as .n
2
5 Jonson in
Volpone (II.i) brings together in one reference Pantaloon
and two othe r fi ures of the Comn1edia dell ' Arte--th
amorous servant girl , Frances china , ad the lover ,
21
cited by Lea, II , 374 , 380 .
22
sn1ith , p . 564 • The epithet "Fre ch' is explained
by the establishment of the Italian troupes in Fr ance
after 1570.
231ea, p . 391 . i if red Smith , in "Italian and
Elizabethan Comedy ," p . 565 , says: ' Grumio , in The Tamin_g
of the Shrew, is a direct transcri pt of the Italian
'Pantaloon of the Suppositi . '
24smith, • 565 .
2
51ea, II , 3 5.
175
Flaminio. Volpone , dis uised as a mou teba k and
attended by his Zany , ano , is performin under Celia's
window, when her husband Corvi o furiously breaks in on
the scene and drives off the would-be lover with shouts
and blows:
Spight o' the devil , and my shame t Come
do1:m, here;
Come down;-- o house but mine to make your
scene?
Si nior Flaminio , will you down , sir? down?
What , is my wife your Fra c i sci a , sir?
o widows on the wlole Piazza , here ,
To make your roperties but mine? but mine?
Heart l ere to- morrow I shal be ew-christn ' d ,
And call'd the Pa talone di Be o niosi ,
About the town .
The scene itself , Winifred Smith remarks , is a typical
Commedia dell' Arte one . 26
Another sign that Italian Renaissance comedies were
well known is the use that Elizabetha writers made of
them as source material . Winifred Smith states that
"many an E glish play which has been traced to a novella
goes back more directly to an Italian play founded on
the novella ," and she mentions seven English comedies
which have been traced to Italian originals as tra sla tions or adaptations and suggests that the full indebted
ness of Elizabethan to Italian playwrights is only
26
Smi th , • 563 .
176
beginnin to be appreciatect .
2
7 In Italia lar
Comedy, K. M . Lea confirms the influe ce of Italian
comedy, especially Gommedia dell' Arte , on Elizabethan
playwrights , but de ides that the influence of the
tradition as a wh ole rathe than of the sin le comedies
was important. "The improvisi comedians , " she states ,
"kept i n circ lation a stock of dramatic material riche r
ad in a more cove int form than a ythi fou di
col l ections of ovelle . n
2
This mate ial , moreover ,
showed , as we have see , a ew combi ation of the o
traditional eleme ts ith roma tici mad ealism ,
satire and po ular humor . Traces of the Commedia dell '
Arte are eve rywhere i Eliza eth co edy ,
•
• L a
says further . A times its i flue ceca e seen i the
tendency t owards symmetry ad p ttern , hich was a
traditi on of the Commedia ; or in the u e of certain
themes ad devices ; or in eculiarly Italian character
2
7Pp . 565- 5 7. The comedies mentio ed are the
followi : ascoigne ' s Supposes and he Taming of the
Shrew from Ariosto ' s I Su ositi ; The Bugbears Irom
Grazzi i's La Spiritat a ; Munday ' s The Deceipt's of Two
Italian Gentiemen (and, indirectly, The Two G ntiemen of
Verona ) from Fidel ad Fortu io; Twelfth NBght from -
Gl
1
I n~annati of Piccolomi i; Chapma
1
s Mak u~ from
Picco omini ' s lessandro ; Abumazar by Tom isfrom della
Porta' s L' strolo o .
28
rI , 453 .
177
traits that ca ot be accou ted for by the atio al or
cl ssic traditio s. But , except i seco ct-rate plays,
where the haste or overty of ideas of the playwri ht
made him use the Italian seen rios without transforming
them, the i fluence of the Commedia , rather than in a y
particular element , resides mainly in 'an elusive
Italian flavor which revails i spite of the E glish
details of manner and settin '; and in "broad lies of
action trace ble not to a yo e see ario but to the
tradition established by many . ,
2
9 It is in this form ,
mainly, that the influence of the Commedia can be traced
in Shakespeare.
A number of studies have been made relati the
comedies of Shakes eare to the Commedia dell' Arte .
K. M . Lea finds evidences of such relatio ship in The
Merry Wives of indsor, The Comedy of Errors, and The
Tempest.30 In The Merry Wives she oints out parallels
to a Commedia scenario entitled Li Tre Becchi; that the
- -- ----
Italianate material in this comedy of Shakespeare's is
only half absorbed by the English settin she attributes
to the fact that i t was hastily written. In_ Comedy of
Errors , on the other had , the resemblances are not to
2
9rI , 410-411 , 431 .
3□rr , 431-453 .
17
a ny one scenar·o but r ather show the i flue ce of he
Commedia tradition as whole . This influence is seen
chiefly in t he mplifications of the .aenech i theme :
in the addition of the twin servants ho ~ive rise to
further com lications o misunderstandi s , 1 · deli
.
ies
of letters , and so forth , nd who a e uch more the
Zannis of the ommedia th n the slaves of L tin c ome y ·
and in the add "tion of the two a ents , w ose a er nee
provides fo the closin see e o . amily reunion , which
is complete yin the Commedia dell ' Arte tradition.
Referrin to the study of ofessor Fe a·na ndo
•
eri ,
Scenarii delle 1aschere in rcadia , K •• Lea oin s out
the relationshi between The Tempest a nd a
of Commedia s een rios:
s oral ty e
The central situation of The Tempest ••• the shipwreck
of two rou s of st r angers on an enchanted isla nd where
a magician rules , a nd the dramatic possibilities of
supposin a rel tions i p bet een the s r an _ers and the
ma ician • • • were precisely the dramatic materials of
the pastoral tradition of the Commedia dell ' Arte . 31
Q. J. Cam bell lso a rees with Professor eri ' s
conclusions:
It has recen ly been shown th at the story of The
Tempest and many of its distinctive the atrical features
are undoubtedly derived from a romantic t e of Com edia
dell' Arte. roup of five seen rios , ritten down
first in 1622 but re resentin much olde t aditions o
3
1
rr , 444 .
179
the masked pl yers , contai s rac ically all of the
co structive a dis i ctiv histrionic features of
Te Tempest , i a combination that mak s the vidence
f or t1ie i r i lue ce u o Shakespeare absolutely
co vi ci . 32
Selma uttm n , i The Foreign Sou ces of Sh kespeare ' s
Works , a a otated biblio raphy of the comme tary
writte on the subject betwee 1904 ad 1940 , lists a
umber of studies of the Commedia dell ' rte a a source
of he Tempest . 33
3
2
"Love ' s Labour ' s Lost Re- stu ied , " p . 31 . See
also Praz , "Shakespeare ' s t ly , " p . 104 : 'The Tempest
has been convincingly traced by Ferdinando eri to a
roup of see arias of the Commedia dell ' rte . Eve the
clowns , who as a rule are portrayed as Elizabethan
Lo doers ·n Shakespeare ' s other plays , here seem to
have been borrowe from a reapolita farce . Ad
nollo io , Storia della ornmedia dell ' rte , p . 315 :
" The Commedia dell ' Arte ] may fiave su :'.)gested to
Shakes eare some of his most famous then1es , a1d also , in
The Tempest , the very architecture of the drama . "
33( Tew York , 1947) , pp . xii ff . The studies
mentioned , besides those of K. 1. Lea and o. J . Camobell ,
are the following : H. n. ray , 'he Sources of The
Tempest , odern Lan uage otes , 35 (1920 :321- 3 ;
• • olf , a espeare und die Commedia dell ' rte , '
Jahrbuch er Deutsche Shakes eare Gesellschaft , 46
: - 2 ; • o art , ur uelle kunde von
Shakes eare ' s Sturm,' Beiblatt Zur A _ glia , 37 (192 : 337-
342) . The following studies deny the influe~ce of the
Commedia dell ' Arte o Shakespeare : E . K. Chambers ,
e te rity o he Tern est , ' Review of English
Stu ies , pp . 129- 1 ; •• e eber er-;-Proxi ate
ources for the Italianate Elements i Shakespear
1 ois , 1 ) . -
o. J . Cam bell , · n ' Love ' s La our ' s Lost
Re - studied ,n34 otes parallels betw e t e cha act r
1 0
dell Arte ad the ~rou of comics
-
in Love ' s L hour ' s Lost ; an in "The Two men of
Vero a an Italian Comedy , ' he makes a detailed study of
the devices ad structural eleme ts of the comedy in
order to show that 'practically all is im ortant
tructural elements are pattered a ter recurrent
features of Ita ian Comedy.' He co eludes that :
Shakespeare must hav either modeled The __ entlemen
on a thoroughly talia ate Comedy , or usin he thread
o Felix ad Felisme a from Mo temayor ' s Diana , e
must have made all his ad itio s to it from devi ces
chosen from the wi es read traditio s of Italian
comedy . 35
Wini red Smith finds typical Co edia dell ' rte see es
in The amin of the
-- ___ .,:;;... - - -
hrew : in III . i , where Lucentio ,
disguised as a edant , makes love to Bianca u der
prete ce o reading her a Lati lesson ; ad in I .ii ,
where Gr mio pretends not to understa d Petrucchio ' s
comma d to k ock: 'Whom shall I knock sir?"--a d the
scene eds with rumio ' s receiving his master ' s lows ,
34p . 1- 7.
35 • 53; see al
Pra , PP • 97- 9 •
as in a typic 1 Commedi n1 zzo . "3 For Twelfth
a number of sources have been su ested , includin a
novella by Bandello , its French tr nslation by
Bellefo est , an its A n l icized version in arnabe
1 1
ht
Rich ' s ' A olo ius an \.Jilla . " he mot ct · rect source ,
however , has been found in a sixteenth centur It l i an
corned by less andro Piccolomini from which
all the ot er works mentioned were derived .37
The general conclusi on th t may be drawn ram all
these studies is that hakes e .re not only \~as f mili r
with I lian comedy , but lso , like his contem oraries ,
sho ed ~reat i terest in it , since he us d its situa-
tions , de ices , an character ty es in a number of
.
lS
lays . It oes ot appe rim ossible , therefore , that
he should have had some knowled e of the comedies of
retina . These comedies were , as e have seen , amon
the most lively of the Comrnedie Erudite , a nd they were
still so pop l ar (ins ite of the f act that the Index
had condemned Aretino ' s v-1orks · n Italy) that John 1 ol
36 ,Italian a nd Eli zabethan Com edy , ' • 561- 5 2 ,
565 -
37see Henry R. nders , Shakespeare ' s Books (Berlin ,
1904) , • 8 ; ~ini red Smith , 'It lian and +e;li zabethan
r ma , p . 5 6 ; Furriess , Introduction to Twelfth ight ,
e~ Va · o um ed . (London , 1901) , XIII , x ·x-xx .
182
thou ht i worth while top it fou of them in Ita in
in London . Shakespea em y have seen the co dies of
retino er armed y the I alian layers in London; or
hem y haver ad them either in the editio s 01ililished
by t ol or in others brou ht into E land . Perhaos , as
. c. Simoni i , Jr . su ests , John Florio s the channel
b which Sh kes ea . . :e vr brou ht in o contac with
reti o ' s comedies as ·tho he works of talian lier -
t re . That Shakes eare was robabl acquainted with
Florio , Simonini infers from the commonl ccepted
bel · e that both were in the household of the Er o
outhampton as poet and tutor , res ,ectively , from 1591
to 1594 , an th t they h d friends in common .
Throu h his a cquaintance with Florio , hakespe e mi~ht
have had access not only to the many works of Italian
l~terature in Floria ' s library , but also to his help in
inter retin them .3
8
·,aria Praz als o speaks of a
possible connection bet een hakespeare an Florio .
H e notes the similarity between the Italian sentences
that occur in the T of the Shrew and the hrases
in Florio ' s Italian 1 n.;)u e manuals , First Frutes
(1578) a econd Frutes ( 591) , a rema ks that F orio ,
1 3
who was called 'the aid o his uses ' y Be Jonso ••.
probably would have deserved
akes eare . 39
similar a pellati n from
he uestio hat aturally arises here is the
much- debated o e of Shakes are ' s k owled e of Italian .
Althou the q estio has ever b en settled , we may
apply to Shakes eare as ~e did to ashe what we have
already sai rear i the e eral knowledge of Italian
in sixteenth century E lad (see pa es 110- 115 above),
ad we shall fi d it e ually im rob able that Shakespeare
should ot h ve had some kno\ledge of a lan uage so
gener lly cultivated in the society of his time . ore -
over , studies of Shake s eare 's literary sources have
sho hat , hough e erally , i drawi from works of
I alian literature , he had recourse to English transla tio sand imitat ions , there are certain cases in which
no E lish version of his source has bee fou d to exist .
I have alrea y mentioned the possible derivation of The
Tempest rom Commedi a dell ' Arte see arios (pages 17 -179
above) and t e Italia play l'Inga ati as the most
39"Shakespe re
1
Italy ," p . 104-105 . See also
Fra ces Yates , Joh Flori o (1934) , for exam les of
Shakespeare ' s famfiiarity with Florie's dictionaries .
1 4
i ec source of w lfth ight (pa~e 181 above) . The
ercha o Ve ice has its u timate source in a ovella
- -------
by iova i iorenti o, i eluded i a collection c lled
Il Pecoro e (1378) for which o E lish tra slation is
known prior to 755 . Though it has een supposed that ·
Shakes eare learned the story from an earlier E lis
l ay , no such lay has been fou d . 40 Of the source of
Othello , Selma u tma says: o English version has been
fou d which could have served in place of Cinthio ' s tale ,
the s ve th of the third decade of the ecatommithi . 41
ario Praz notes that the lines in Othello in which Ia o
ex resses-his joy in takin Othello and Desdemo a i his
snare :
Thus credulous fools are caught
Ad many worthy and chaste dames even thus ,
All uiltless meet reproach .
reproduce almost literally inthio ' s words in the moral
of his story:
0
Tucker Brooke , J •• Cunliffe , He ry cCracken,
I troduction to hakes eare's Pri cinal Plays ( ew York,
1935) , • 165 • • ur ess , he Merchant of Venice, ew
V rior ed . (1 ), p . 297 , 315, co siders II Pecora e
as the so rce of the Bond story in the Merchant of
e ice ad the esta Ro a orum as he source of tne
story of the caskets .
4
1
The Foreign Sources of Shake peare ' s Works,
P • xii .
1 5
vvie e alora che , senza col~a , fedele et amorevole
don a , per i si ie tesele da a imo malva io , et er
le erezza di c i pi - crede che no biso erebbe , a
edel ma ito riceve morte .
( It sometime h p er:s that , without uilt on her ar ,
a faithful an lovin woman , throu ha deceit e gi ed
by an evil soul , and the folly of som credulous
perso , is k·11ed by a loyal hus a ct . )
Praz co eludes: "This almost literal translation of
Cinthio ' s moral coul be ••• o e of the proofs that
hake speare knew Ita ian . ,,42
lthou h Meas re for
Meas re , based o the fifth tale of the t 1enty- eighth
deca e of inthio 's ecatommithi , has its immediate
.
source 1 eor e
details which are in Shakespeare d not in fue sto e
have bee traced to Cinthio's play pitia , based on his
own story . 43 Of Shakespeare's possible kno ledge of
Italian , Mario Praz remarks:
The conclusion can har ly be resisted that Shakespeare
not o ly had a acquai tance with Italian things but
that he actually knew Italian .••• Since Italian
4
2 1
shakespeare's Italy , p . 103 .
43see uttman , The Foreig Sources of Shakes eare 's
orks , • xi . See also Praz , p . 104: 'ITIMeasure for
Measure ••• Shakespeare m st have taken the idea of
the substitutio of the bodies from Ci hio 's drama
pitia , since that substitution does not occur in the
story of the Hecatornmi hi ••• of which Epitia is a
drama ic versio . T'either oes it occur 1 etsto e's
reha dli of i thio's stor .
1 6
bo ks ere widel read in the society in whose midst
hakesneare lived , there is nothing extraordinary in
his a c uaintance with Italian liter ture; rather the
contrary woul d be sur~ ·sin . 44
nd ohn Lo hi a th s sums u the c se :
s to he ••• hynothesis that Shakes re knew
Italian , it is difficult to discover wha t kind of
p oaf the objectors would like . It is admitted th at
J nson , h man , Daniel a nd many others knew It a ian;
th t there were many Italians in London , nd that
Itali n w a s one of the lan, ua es r ctised at court;
hat Shakes e e himsel f u es many Italian nd
It lianate words and hrases ; and that he shows
knowled e of talian works of which , so far as it is
possible for us to know , tr nslations into En ish
had not been made when he was writin . The conclusion
from the ab ove -mentione d evidence would ap ear to be
that--so far as it is possible for us to know--
hakespeare knew Ital i a n . 45
e may now turn to he consideration of par allel
pass es in hakes eare ad retina . Lothi n compares
the s cene in entlemen of erona , in which Juli a
receives Proteus ' letter from Lucetta , to the passa e in
the prol ogue to t he ares calco in which Histrio imper sonates affected coyness in ' a do na Schifa il Poco . '
retina ' s brief dr atic sketch is the following :
s soo a s the s aid ba~d sho 1 have ut the etter in
y hand , I would look at her , first in this way , and
then in tha t , nd then , cursin her for an old ha , I
ould tell her , hidi n my f ace in my hands , 'I , I-- seem
44 ~hakes e re ' s Italy , ' • 104 .
45Tshakesoea e ' s Knowle d e of Aretino ' Plays ,
• 415 .
to you to be such a o e?--Old witch1 cor r u ter of
children 1 worse than a devil l"--A d havi to up
the paper and stamped on it , I would pus t he ol
woman dovvn the stairs- -and as soo as I ha got r i d
of her , takin up the pieces , I wo 1 fit them
together and , havin rionceived thei r im ort, I
should take the course that wise wome n t ake .
1 7
I The Two Gentlemer \I .ii) , Lucetta te l ls he r mist ess
that she has acce ted a letter rom Proteus f or he ·
J ulia flies into a pretended ra e and accus sher maid
of bein a bawd :
ow , by my modesty , a oodly broke r 1
Dare you presume to harbou wa t o l i es?
To whispe ad conspire a a i nst m y youth?
ow , trust me , 'tis an office of reat worth
Ad you a officer fit for the lace .
She sends Lucetta away , but soon recalls her , admitti g
t o herself her duplicity :
How an erly I taught my brow to frown ,
vhe inward joy enforced my heart to smi le t
After s ome skirmish of wits on the subject of love notes ,
Jul ia , in a fit of perversity , picks up t he letter ad
tears it to pieces . A s soon as ucetta has departed ,
however , she picks u each several piece , embroidering
every word with lovin and fanciful lamentation :
0 hateful hands , to tear such lovin words l
0 injurious wasps , to feed on s uch sweet honey ,
And kill the bees , tha t yield i t , with your
stin s t
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Look , here · s writ, "ki_ d Juli a . n U kind
Juli 1
A s in reve e of thy i ratitu de ,
188
I throw thy name a a ·nst the bruisin sto es ,
Tr in J contem tuously on thy disdain .
nd here i writ 'love wounded roteus' :
Poor woun ed name t y bosom , a s a bed
hall lode thee , till thy wound be throu hly
he ' ;
Ad th s I se r c h it -with a soverei n kiss ,
But t ice or thrice was "Proteus" ·vvri tten down .
B e calm
0
0 0d ind , blow not a word awa ,
i 1 I h ve found each letter in the letter
Exce t mine own n me : that some whirlwind bear
nto r ,_ ed , fearful - ha n in rock ,
nd hro i hence into the r in se a .
d she ends b foldin her name to ether with Proteus ':
1
o kiss , embrace , contend , do what you will.' Lothian
observes :
Sh kes ere was su osed to have taken the incident
and the outline o the lot from , ontem yor ' Dina
n mor da (one ' s transl tion . He mi ht equ Ily
well have ta en thi situation fro Aretino , and there
re certain de ils , such as the t earin and iecin
to et er of the etter th t re not in onte ayor .
He conclu es , It seems robable that both Shakespe re
ad onte mayor knew this [Aretino ' s] pa ssa e ."4 If this
is true , Shakes ere , of cour se , took fro Aretino only
some ideas for the a ction a nd t he behaviour of Julia .
He transforme , she always did , his source materi 1 by
the indescri able 0
1
er of ima ·native su estion e
ave to his lines . ! e note , also , that Shakespeare uses
the s me devices in an entirely different context.
4
6
,sh es eare ' s Knowled e of Aretino ' s Pl ays,'
. 417 .
1 9
retina ' s ' do a ' is a con umma e co rtesan an
cynically wears the dis uise off minine modesty ; whereas
in Julia , Shakespeare gives one o the first of his
charmin portrayal s of youthful love , with its self
contradicti ons , hesitations, ransparent dis uises, and
its consumin ardor .
nether of the vypes impersonated by Histrio in the
rolo ue to the arescalco is the ''Ass s inato d ' ore
(Victim of Love) , who describes how he wold woo his
lady :
..• I sho ld come into he field followed y pa e
and wearin the colors ½ iven me by my goddess-- and at
every step ••• vailin my banner , with melancholy
voice , circlin her walls , I would chant : 'ach lace
is a desert where I o not see her . I should have
madrigals written in her praise and Tromboncino to se
them t o music .47
Lothian fins an echo of this in Viola's famous answer
to Olivia:
Oli : .Thy , what "Ould you?
Vio : ake me a willow cabin at your ate ,
And call upon my soul within t e house ·
, r ite loyal cantons of contemned love
And sin the. loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverber te hills
n make the babblin gossip of the air
Cry out "Olivia t ' ...• (I .v)
47, • . • verrei in cam o col pa io dietro , vestito
dei colori donatimi dalla diva , ..• e s ouassando ·1
pennacchio con voce sommessa a ~ ira domi intorno alle sue
mur a biscan erei: ' 0 i luo o mi attrista ove io on
ve io t ' Farei fare madri ali in sua lau e dal
'
rom o cino com onervi suso i c nti . "
190
Three passa es in .retina's com dies are reminisc n
of Falstaff's lines in Shakespeare , both in the ttitude
expressed and , to a certain exte t , in th form of the
ex ression . In the _±:alaT'ta , rergola a ora a praise ,
from the unheroic oint of view , he adv nta ,es of honor :
--fut doe the eart do when the clas of battle
is at hand?
--Forebodes .
--In what way?
-- ow do I kno?
d when they see the spear points t rned their ay ,
what do the le s th·nk about?
--Sur endering , since he who loses is as much pointed
at as he who wins · ad there is one wisdom of shame
that stays alive and another of honor that dies .
(II .xvi)
Falstaff , on seeing the body o Sir
1
Jal ter Blunt o the
field , has much the same reflections :
Sir Jalter Blunt : there's honour for you 1
here ' s no vanity t
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
I like not such rinning honour as Sir Walter
hath : ive me life •.• • (I Henry IV , v .iii)
I the Ipocrito , the following dialo ue takes place
between Liseo and Guardabasso on woman's virtue :
--~ , \That is honesty , what sha e has it , what is its
office at court?
-- T one .
-- hereforc it is nothing •.•• ( .vii)
It is ab iefer version of Falstaff ' s a gument on the
subje ct of honor (I He ry IV) , eachin the same con
cl sion by a similar catechism:
19
••• ~an honour set to le? no : or an ar? o : or
take away the rief of a wound? no . Honour hath no
skill in sur ery , then? no .
1
at is honour? a word .
at is in that word honour? What is that honour?
air . trim reckonin t vho hath it? he that die o '
...
#ednesday . Doth he feel it? no . Doth he hear it? no .
' Tis insensible , then? Yes , to he dea • But will it
not live with the living? no . y? detraction will
no suffer it . Therefore I 'll none of it . onour is
a mere scutcheon : a d so ends my catechis . (V .ii .131-
140)
In the Fi osofo , Plataristotile ' s servant ,
Salvalaglio , in a soliloquy , elaborating on the text
"everyone who says so oes not know how to drink,'
describes the joyo s pro ress of wine through the body ,
arousin the or ans , enlivenin the speech and outward
aspe ct:
•.• a si p being taken with that sm eking of the lips ,
p rsi n of the mou h , ad raising of the rows that
bet okens the solemnity of the drink , and one half the
gl a ss then emptied , for such miracles are not perfo ed
on a small scale , the palate is refreshed , the urns
_ s rinkled , the teeth w shed , while the tongue , darting
into the little pool that is not swallowed suddenly ,
con ratulates its lf with the teeth , the urns and the
palate ..•• A which deli ht , the stomach , the lungs ,
t e lier , the spleen and the bowels , s reading the
alarm , rise to the surface; whereupon the senses of the
spirits and the spirits of the senses make the face of
the drinker rubicund , steamin , ay , proud , sleek ,
sere e , and 1 sty . By the same race the ton ue is
loosened , the eyes sparkle , the breath quickens , the
veins swell , the ulses boil , the skin smooths itself
an the nerve s are invi orated . (I .v)
192
One is inevitably led to thi k of Falstaff 's famous
apolo y fo sack (II Henry IV) :
ood sherris-sack ath a two-fold operation in it .
It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the
foolish a nd dull a nd crudy va ours which env·ron it;
makes it apprehe nsive , quick , for etive , full of
nimble fiery a nd delectable shapes ; which , deliver ' d
o ' er to the voice , the ton ue , which is the birth ,
becomes excelle twit . The second roperty of your
excellent sherris is, the warmin of the blood; which
before cod and settled , left the liver white and pale ,
which is the bade of pusill nimity and cowardice; but
the sherris warms it and makes it cours e from the
inwards to ~hep rts extreme : it illumineth the face ,
which as a beacon gives warnin to all the rest of this
little kin dom , man , to arm; and then the vital
commoners a ~d inland petty spirits muster me all to
their captain , the heart , who , great and puff ' d up
w"th this retinue , doth any deed of coura e; and this
valor comes of sherris . (IV .iii)
Behind nhakespeare 's ima ery is the conception of man as
a microcosm , which does not seem to enter into retino ' s
description . On the hole , however , w e find in the two
passages much the same raw material , thou h in Shakespeare
it has under one a much reater imaginative transforma-
tion .
In the first scene of the Talanta , t he courtesan
and her maid , Aldella , discuss alanta's v rious suit ors ,
their a pearance a nd i iosyncrasies (see pages 80- 81
above) . The scene might be taken as a prototy e of those
in the Two entlemen of Verona and The Me rchant of Venice
in which Julia and Portia , in similar fashion , name over
and comment on their suitors with their maids , Lucetta
193
and Nerissa .
Two other examples of parallelism note y Lothian
are worth mentionin , thou h the assa es are not drawn
from retina 's comedies , but from his tragedy L' razia .
The first refers to the famous lines of ortia in The
Merchant of Venice :
-
And earthly ower doth then show likest ad ' s
en mercy se asons justice . (IV .i)
The lines in the Orazia compared to these are the
following :
erche a Dio si avvicinano
Color che ogni her pietosi
Si rival ono inverse i falli altrui ,
Tal che chi sta nel at tQ di perdono
D' uom diventa Dio. (V)48
The concept of both passages is the same , that of man
bec oming godlike in the act of pardon .
The second exam l e refers to Shakespeare ' s descri -
tion of the stallion and mare in enus and Adoni s :
But lo , from forth a copse that neighbours by ,
A breedin · jennet , lusty , youn , and proud ,
Adonis' tramplin courser doth es y ,
And forth she rushes , snorts , and nei hs aloud ;
he strong- neck'd steed , bein tied un o a tree,
Breaketh his rein , and to he r straight oes he .
48For they a proach to od
. !\Tho at every hour with mercy
Turn towards the faults of others ,
Such th at whoever pardons
From man turns very JOd •
Imperiously he leaps, he nei hs, he bounds,
And now his woven girths he breaks asunder;
The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds,
AJhose hollow womb resounds like heaven's
thunder;
The iron bit he crusheth 'tween his teeth,
Controlling what he was controlled with.
His ears up-prick'd; his braided han ing mane
Upon his compass'd crest now stand on end;
His nostrils drink the air, and forth a ain,
As from a furnace, vapours doh he send:
His eye, which scornfully glisters like fire,
Shows his hot coura e and his high desire.
(Lines 259-276)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sometimes he scuds far off, and there he stares;
Anon he starts at stirrin~ of a feather;
To bid the wind a base he now prepares,
And whe'r he run, or fly they know not whether;
For thro' his mane and tail the hi h wind sings,
Fannin _ the hairs, who wave like feather'd
wings. (Lines 301-306)
The passa e compared to this occurs in the Orazia,
where Public is pleading for his son and holdin out his
youth and rashness as extenuation of his crime. To
brin out his point, he compares his son's youth to a
stallion in the followin lines, which in the descriptive
details and general spiritedness of the picture do bear
a strikin resemblance to Shakespeare's:
La ioventu furor della natura
Che in l'esser suo un animal fiero sembra
Dai legami disciolto in un bel prate
Che in se ritroso la giumenta vista
ei campi aperti, alza su i crini folti,
Le nare allarga, e la bocca disserra,
Fr . i ta , ringe , calcitra , vanne i a .
oi dopo alcuni salti e forti e destri
os so il a liardo e furioso corso,
e preciptio u trabocc a r si possa ,
195
e tronco dove dar di etto de bia,
e sasso o al ro i vi in suo danno uarda . ( )49
Althou ht ese parallelism s are interestin and at
times striki
'
i t is difficult to est blish on such a
basis any efinite co clusion as to akes eare 's
i ndebtedness to Aretino . Perha s the only defini te
statement w e c a n make r e _arding reti o's influence on
hakes e are is that retina' s comedies were im ortant
·n f ormin the comi c r adition from w ich Shakespe are
undoubtedly drew. Still, from what we have seen of the
general kn l edge of It ali n Renaissance comedy in
Eli zabethan En lan , the widespre a d influence of Italian
comedies , a nd Shakes ear e ' s ovn knowled e of them , it is
q i t e possible t hat Shakespe are knew the l ays of
49Youth , wild fre nzy of nature
That in its being like a roud horse seems,
Set l oose i a fair field ,
Tha t wi th dis ainful eye the jennet seein
In ope s a ce , his t hick m ane does u rear ,
And ope - m out he d , nostrils wide ,
Trembles , snorts , st amps , and u j rears .
Then afte r many bold and vi gorous leaps
St a r t s fort h upon a wild and joyous race,
or preci i ce in which himself m ay hurl ,
or tree t o stop his course ,
or stone or harmful obstacle he sees .
196
retina nd that , i some o t e as
s me tioned
ab ove , he may actually have een echoing some passa e
hath d remai ed in is mind . Althou h the resemblances
entione are fo the most part i cidental , they are
int r sting a ossible ad i ions to our k owle e of
t li n and El i zabe h n relationshi s during this perio •
CH PT R VI
TH H 1 0R PLAYS OF BE JONSO AND
TH "' CO DIE OF E I 0
Area ing of Jonson
1
s early comedies of humor
(Every Man In .. is H umor: , ~very Man Out of His Humor ,
Cynthia ' s Revels) br in s to mind many arallels with the
---
comedies of Pietro Aretino which we have discussed .
onson ' s intention was to bring somethin new into
En. lish comedy , to re vive the classic enre , yet to
transform it , maki g it a reflection and criticism of
contemporary l ife . W ith the se views , it is not surpris
in that he should have looked back not only to classic
comedy , but also to t he com edy of the Italian Renaissa nce
which was base on it , and to the comedy of retina which
afforded an example in Italian literature of the tr ns
formation of classic come dy by the realisti c portrayal
of manners that Jonson wa s attempting in En lish litera ture .
To speak of Jonson ' s sources is to touch on a
difficult and muc· disputed question . Jonson borrowed
much , et he so converte d to his own use wha t he borrowed
as t stand as a cham ion for both the upholders of
imitation and of ori inality . As c. R. Baskervill
o serves , onson drew from many sources to produce an
19
ori inal work .
1
Or , as Dryden puts it , "e invades
authors like a monarch , and hat woul b heft in ot er
noets is only victory to him . ,2 Jonso often drew on
many differen literatures of many a~ s for a si le
play; sometimes his basis is La in or Italian · often a
classic or forei . n source is de i ved from a more recent
n lish one in which the foreign traits have alre dy
become conventionalized; he "seized pon ideas ad
methods that had been almost unconsciously in English
literature and gave them consciousness and the di nity
of a ty e . ,,3 It would seem evident that Jonson , in
establis in his new ty e of English comedy , would not
be unawa e of Italian enaissance comedy as one of its
back roun s . His fi st humor play , verz 1vTan In His
Humor , was , in is first version , 'superficially another
Italian comedy . n4 The names of the characters were
1
English Elements in Jonson s Early Comedy ( ustin ,
Texas , April , 1911} , p .L3 . -
2John Dryden , 'LJssay of Dramatic Poesy' in Literar
riticis , Plato to Dryden , ed . llan • Iilbert (New
or , 0) , p . 6 •
3Baskervill , p • 6, 144-145 •
4 ucker Brooke , he Renaissance in Literary
of E land , ed ~ lbert c. Buh ( ew York , 194 ) ,
----
•
199
Italian , the settin va uely Flore ntine . In Every an
ut of His umor the char acters retain their It lian
names . 5 In particul ar , i f one re ads the humor comedies
of Jonson in conjunction with the comedies of Aretino ,
one is struck y similari ti es , both of intention and
e ecution , a by such parallelisms of character and
situation as m i ht le ad one to thi nk t hat Jonson had
retina ' s comedi es i n mi nd .
A s to the meas of Jonson' f amiliarity i t h It alian
Renaiss ance comedy , • c. Simonini , J r . s uggests t hat
the intern1e iary may have bee n John Flo r io , w hose library
comprised a wide ssor t me nt of Itali a n R enaissance
works . 6 'here ar e severa l documents , imonini states ,
5T ese names are semi - allegorical , derived from
adjectives and retaining the ori ginal connot ations--e . g .
" /facilente "--lean , mea er , barr en ; "Puntarvolo '--nice,
coy , self- conceited; " Deli r a '--doted, r aved , become a
fool ; "Savi olina"--self-conceited, ulin , coy; 'Sordido"
--ni gardly , m i serly , covet ous; 'Fun oso"--s ongy , li ht
as a mushr oom; 'So liardo '--slovenly, sluttish , ho gish;
etc . The adje ct ive s , mo stly archaic , are in Florie ' s
dictionary The / orlde of or des , where Jonson found them .
----
6These were l i ste d in t he biblio r aphy at the end
of The orlde of W or des . The comprised over two hundred
books , includin ork s by Cinthia , Bandello , Boccaccio ,
da Porto , achiave l l i , A r i osto, Sannaz z ro , Castiglione ,
as well as Aretino . Italia n Schol arship in Renaissance
En land ( hape l Hi 1 , 1952) , P • 104.
200
"which indicate that a close friend hip existed b tween
Jonson and Florio . ' vidence of such a friendship is
J onson ' s inscri tion in a resentation coy of olpone :
To his lovin Fathe r & worthy Freind
r John Florio :
The ayde of his 1uses .
Ben: Jonson seales this testemony
of Freindship Love .
Simonini su ests that "Jonson may have one to Florio
for aid in readin the Italian cr·tics of the Renaissance
or Italian plays . In this , Florio m a have been the
' ayde of his JJfuses '. " And he adds , ' e may have here
an explanation of Jonson ' s first - hand knowled e of
Italian comedy and es ecially the Commedia dell ' rte . '
As a further indication of the friendship of Jonson and
Florio , Simonini notes that both began their court
service at the same time , about 1604 , Florio as room ,
reader in Italian , an private secretary to the queen;
J onson as poet and producer of plays and masques . They
ha d many friends in c ommon , such as the Countess of
Bedfor d, the Countess of Rutland , the Earl of Pembroke .
Simonini also points out several parallelisms between
passages in Jonson ' s comedies and Florie ' s Italian
dialo ues in the Se cond Frutes , indi atin Jonson ' s
familiarity with this work as well as with The lorlde
201
of tlorde s. 7
-
Another way in which Jonson may have be c ome familiar
with Italian Renaissance comedies and possibly tho e of
Aretino was seein them played by the troupes of the
Commedia dell' Arte which, a s we have seen , visited
England at various times in the sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries (see pa es 171-172 above) .
1
Let us return, however, to the comedies of Aretino
and to a consideration of the similar"ties in t heory and
practice between these and the humor comedies of Ben
Jonson. ve have said that retina 's comedy represented
an innovation in that he changed the conventional type
of humanistic comedy, written on the pattern of Pl utus
and Terence, into a modern comedy of manners, realisti
cally and satirically portraying the life of the day .
, fuen Jonson in 1598 wrote Every an In His Humor, he
-
proceeded to renovate English comedy along the same
lines. He turned his back on the conventional absurdities
of romantic comedy and set himself to make a living
picture ou of:
Deeds and lan uage such as men do use
And persons such as comedy would choose
en she would show an image of the times .
7rtalian Scholarship in Renaissance England,
P• 104-109.
202
Aretino, in his comedies, was turnin away from a
fossilized classicism; Jonson was returnin to classic
tradition as an antidote against an equally fossilized
romanticism. They met on the common round of a
classicism revitaljzed by contact with actual life. Of
Jonson's Every Man In His Humor, Eric Linklater says, "It
was a magnificent achievement. Comedy, the Cinderella of
the stage, was brought out of her kitchen and
•
1ven a
language and attire of her own: with nothin behind but
tentative experiment, realism emer ed whole and trium
phant. ,,B Jonson did, of course, have behind him the
Commedia dell' Arte which, though it developed its own
conventions, introduced a new freedom into action and
dialogue, and a certain truth to life in the portrayal
of contemporary manners. And behind the Commedia dell'
Arte, as we have seen, was the revolt of Aretino and the
example of his comedies.
Like Aretino, Jonson was clearly conscious of the
innovation he was bringing about in comedy. Both wanted
comedy to be a reflection of life, not a mere exercise
on a classic theme. "W e live otherwise in Rome than
they used to live in Athens," Aretino had said in the
8
Ben Jonson and King James (~ew York , n.d.),
pp· 54::s5 •
203
prolo ue to La Corti iana; and Jonson , in the induction
t o
verY.
an Out of His Humor, demanded that comedy hold
-----
up a mirror to the times . s the prolo ue to Every an
In had introduced Jonson ' s new comedy , so the ind ction
--
to Every n Out , the se cond com e yin the new manner ,
--
ave a further exposition of Jonson ' s theories and
intentions . s er , the spokesman for the author , expl ains
that the comedy will not only presen reality in its true
aspect , but also pain out efe ts and flaws . It is a
s ecial irror that th author is 1 ci - before the
audi ence:
• . • a mirror
s la e is t e sta e whereon we act
There they shall see the time ' s deformity
natomised • . •
Speakin in a "furor poeticus '--Jonson's mood-- sper
declares that no one can see the vices of the world and
remain silent; therefore , h h s take n his decision:
••• with an armed and resolved hand
I 'll strip the ra d follies of the time
ake d as at their birth .
tor will he stop at the exposure of follie s, but
••• it1 a wh i of steel ,
Prin~ woun i g lashes in their ion ribs .
The exposure of folly a nd vice nd the vindication of
the ri ht order of thins throu h the unishment of
wron , all this is included in Jon on ' s conception of
the f nction o come y .
The serious mar 1 concern i n Jonson ' s com edy
distinguishes it from retina's . A r etino ha d a sharp
critical intell i gence which seized unerringly on
discre ancies--he saw the immoral a s r idicul ous and
204
rotes que . It aroused his crit ic a l sense , it i nspi r ed
him to satirical r emonstrance , but a l way from the
intellectual viewpoint . Aretino ' s age was one , a s
Edward Hutton s ays , when 't ruth could be viewed not with
seriousness and grimness but vd th a shout of l aughter . ,9
Laughter is r arely absent from retina's satire . 'How
the rascal enjoys all the ro ueries th at he puts on the
scene," De Sanctis excl ai ms .
10
It is true that even in
La Cortigiana, where Aretino ' s s ati r e is the harshest ,
we cannot read , for example, the scene s in which the
lackeys Rosso and Ca pa desc r ibe th e fopperies of their
master and of courtiers in eneral , no r t hose in which
M esser aco makes himself a bi ger and bi gger fool in
the pursuit of entility , without fee l in the glee of
t he author in the ludicrousness of the pict ure he is
9Pietro retina , Scourge of Princes (London , 1922) ,
p . 2 53 •
1
°Francesco De Sanctis , Storia della Letteratura
Italiana ( ilano , 1917), II , 11d.
205
painting. Throughout the play, as we have noted,
caustic observations on the court are made , and the
tone rises at times to a n ry denunciation (as in the
speeches of Valerio and Flaminio), but even then ,
Aretino's anger is rather the expression of a personal
resentment than moral indi gnation . Aretino rem ins an
intelli ent critic, without ever being , like Jonson, a
"censor morum"--for this he lacks the necessary basis
of principle. This accounts for a great difference of
tone in their comedies. If Areti no shows us the casti a tion of vice, his satisfaction is evidently in the
ingenuity by which the punishment is brought about and
in the ridiculous s ectacle of the dis comfited victims .
He is hardly interested in the wider moral a lication
of the lesson--as Jonson is always . The play in which
Jonson comes nearest to Aretino' s moral nonchalance is
Every :Man In His Humor, where the final arbiter , Justice
Clement, is a "mad merry fellow, f who is willing to
forgive all Brainworm's tricks in view of "the wit of
the offence," and who lets off the sham poet and soldier
with an evenin ' s fast, and the rest of the humorous
crowd sim ly with the admonition to "put off all dis content" and be merry in ood harmony .
In Every a n Out of His Humor and Cynthia 's Revels ,
however, Jonson introduces jud es who are much more
206
ri orous to _renounce on folly . The humors of the
vario s characters a e not only mercilessly exposed , but
t oroughly whi ed out of them . Jonson makes it clear,
she ha announced in the induction of Every an Out ,
that t he presentati n of humors is one h alf of his
o r am--the othe r h lf being th ir c sti tion . In
a n O t of His Humor , the characters are cau ht
o e by one in t he m e sh of their folly : unt arvolo , of
hi s wh i msic ali y; Fastidi ous , of his vanity; Lady
S ioli a , of her conceit; Carlo Buffone , of his evil
ton ue · allace , of her snobbish discontent; Shift , of
his fraud lent s a erin · Fun oso of his foolish worship
of fash i on . hou h the puni hments come a s a lo ical and
a r opri ate conse quence of the follies , the author ha s
provided an i ns t r ent of ·ustice in the person of
acile nte , a ca stic , malevolent being who is eager , out
of his e nvy , to l ash the folli s of others . Iacilente
h s none of the me l low tolerance of Justice Clement , and
ice at hi s hands
himsel f in the end
oes not esc ape easily . acilente is
unished for his tyranny and m de to
s eak a i ece of humility , by way of epilo ue , to the
a ience , but none t e less , Jonson does not hesit ate in
t e pl ay to use his vitriolic humor as well as Buffone ' s
barbe t on ue t o carry out sper's p o ram of scour in
foll .
207
In Cynthia ' s evels , the moral ideal behind the
distorted mask of humors in Jonson ' s comedy has its
clearest revelation . The spokesman for the author is
Crites , the just man , in whom all humors are min led in
h rmony and proportion . Crites is with rete ( irtue)
ap ointed by Cynthia to punish th e fo11 · es of the sham
courtiers who have intruded into her revels . In this
role , Crites voices Jonson ' s indi Jn tion at the van·ties
a n frivolities that usurp the minds of men , making them
oblivious of what is hi hest and most divi e in their
natures . Crites , like sper , s eaks in a 'furor
poeticus'--he vents "the etna of his fires' to infl e
men with a "worthier love" than of "outw rd and effemi nate shades" so th t the time may come when
••• these vain joys , in which their wills
consume
Such powers of wit and soul as are of force
To raise their bei ngs to eternity ,
~ay be converted on works fitting me n :
nd , for the prac ice of a forced look ,
An anti c sture , or a fustian phrase ,
Study the ative fr ame of a true heart ,
n inward co eliness of bounty , kno led e ,
nd spirit that may conform them actually
To od' s i gh figures , which they have in
power;
W hich to neglect for a self- loving neatnes ,
Is s c_i ege of a n unpardon ' d greatness . (V . ii)
The punishments dealt by rites are not malevolent , like
those of 1 acilente ; ut if the sentence passed on the
cou tiers is not er el it is dr asti c , comporti nothin
less than the restoration in each one of his true a nd
20
hi her self. Chantin the c .fession of their aults
in the Palinode , they re made to march , in a penitential
procession , to the well of Helicon--
\fuere, pured of your present maladies,
Which are not few, nor slender , you become
Such as you fain would seem ••• (V.iii)
Jonson's metho~ for the casti ation of folly is
overned by the theory of humors , hich he th s ra idly
sums up, in its physiolo ical a nd sycholo ical implica
tions:
••• in every human body,
The choler, melancholy , phlegm , and blood ,
By reason that they flow continually
In some one part , a ct are not continent,
eceive the name of humors . o thus far
I may, b metaphor, apply itself
Unto the eneral disposition:
A s when some one peculiar quality
Doth so possess a man , that it doth draw
All his affects , his spirits , and his powers ,
In their confluctions, all to run one wa y ,
This may be truly said t o be a humor . 11
A humor bein a deformity of character , a disproportion
in the elements that compose the" eneral dis osition,"
its punishment , accordin to Jonson , is brought about
throu hits own excess, causin it to fall into ridicule
and discomfiture . The norm is always vindicated, for
only what is in true proportion a nd conformity \vith the
ideal order of things can endure. Thou h Aretino's
11 very 1an Out of His Humor, Induction .
209
comedies preceded Jonson ' s theory of humors , their
characters seem overned by the same formula , and often
we find "humors" in them punished according to Jonson ' s
precepts . In La Cortigiana, for exam le , arabolano ' s
fatuousness and blind conceit make him an easy dupe to
Rosso's flattering deceits , until he is involved in so
absurd a n affair that he is forced at last to see himself
s l au hable. aco's i norance , with his infatuated
worship of courtiers, makes him run a parallel course,
to his final discomfiture . The ypocrite is ironically
punished by havin his would-be evil intents, his pre tended goodness and benevolence , turn to ood indeed, in
spite of him . In Il Filosofo , Plataristotile ' s conceit
of his own wisdom so blinds him that his wife betrays
him under his very nose , while he theorizes on the
faithlessness of women--until reality forces him to
recognize himself a a learned fool .
There is a coincidence oft e objects of satire in
the comedies of Jonson and retino . Both attack the
follies of t own nd court in eneral , but reserve their
sharpest arrows for hy ocrisy , sham , vanity , affectation
--for whoever in his own eyes or in the eyes of the
world substitutes retense for truth . For both Jonson
nd Aretino , 'humor' is , above all , what Cash defined
it: "a entleman-like monster bred • • • by affectation
and
12
ed by folly . _ . _ . .
210
rrhe social e
iromnents from
hich Jonson a nd Aretino drew matter for their sati1e
were e ssential l y similar , i site of the differe ce of
country , an the century that lay between them . Aretino ,
.,
t the
• •
e innin of the sixteen h century , fou hi self
in the decline of the Italian Renaiss nee , amidst he
injustices , selfishness , an corru tion of the de ner ted
oman court . Jonson , i the Lo don of the latter six teenth ce tury , breathed in much the sam atmosphere : the
disill sionment tha a tended the end of Elizabeth ' s
rein ; the thousand inj sticev of a society characterized
by unscrupulousness , ruthle s ambitions , greed · n all
he affectations , frivolities , and excesses tat were t e
le acy of the degenerated Italian Renaissance . It mi ht
almost be said that Jonson wore the satirical cloak th t
dropped from the shoulders of Aretino .
Related to the coincidence of satirical intention
in the come die s of Jonson and retina is the correspond ence in the types of characters through which it finds
ex ression . In both , we have bra art soldiers who build
a reputation on exploits they have not performed and
valor they do not possess ; "gulls who woul be gllA ts
12 very an In Hi · H III· ·
umor , •ll •
211
and think to ac ire bre edi at an easy rte , or who
simulate it y ew ricks of manners , so e oaths , and
a suit of cot es · courtiers vmose sense of values does
not i ea o e the frivolity of the · r lives . a ny of
these types derive from Latin conedy , but both Jonson
and retina have t ansformed them , a nd b oth alo o- the
s me li : by ivin them the manners and traits t hat
ref ect contempora societ a d c arry o t he uthor ' s
satiric 1 intention . Te followin descri tion of
Jonson ' c characters mi ht e qually well pply to those
of retina' s comedies :
Jonson depicted ty e s but with a difference ••.•
His characters tend to be simple and on one plane
bec a se his mind saw men as a collection of roups ,
seized cha rac er under one aspect , ne lecting the
cross-play of i m ulses , inconsistencies and conflicts ,
the mi led stre ngth and we akne s of which they are
normally com osed . His observation was prodi giously
active and ac te ; but its ener y wa s sent in ac cumu
lating illustrations of a single dominant trait , not
in distin uishing fine h ades . The vast complexes of
detail w ich his veracious eye collected and his
unsurnassed memory etained grouped themselves about
a few nuclei of ludicrous character .•.• But Jonson
did not nortray abstract moral types . His portrayal
of character is b sed upon the individual life about
hi m •• • • He may a e had in mind classical types ,
b the drew from the welte r of Jacobean London life ,
with the crowd of men in its streets a nd taverns-- so
that he gives a partly ty ical , artly individual
prese tation of character .13
13c . H. Her ord , p . Sim son , The 7orks of Ben Jonson
(Oxfor , 1925) , Introduction , I , 3W.
212
re ino ' s c racters , oo , the essential quali y is
a combi ation oft e individual and typical . ith
Jonson , he character is sk tched in around its dominant
tr it · the portrait is not co pletely filled ·n; there
is no rofou dine ior stud of its comnlexities ad
sh des , but the shar observation and re reduction of
out ard etails ive the sketch an unfo gettable vivid-
ess . The author" eizes the rotesq e or comical
attitudes of those that pass efore his eyes an fixe
them ,·th a few e ec ive strokes . 14 r iJs of speech ,
manner , a titu e serve at once to indivi ualize the
characte and set him in a richl loc alized back rou d .
Like Jonson , Aretino h d "an eye for individua and local
traits a the very habit of mind ad body in which each
man livect . nl5
c. R. Baskervill su~gests vario s sources for
Jonson ' s humor conceotion of character--some drawn from
classical , some from En li h tradition : the Renaissance
critical precept of decorum , which stres ed truth to
ty e rather than indi idual traits; the types of Latin
comedy that were ruled by it ; the heophrastan character
14 unzio accarro e , ed ., Teatro i Pietro Aretino
(Lanciano , 1914) , Introduzione , I, ix .
15 er ord and impso, Introd ction , I , 34 .
213
sketch , with its one dominant trait nderlyin a umber
of details; the personiiied abstractions of me ieval
le or , notably those of t he moral i ty pl ys that i
n lish literature survived into the Renaissance period·
and the character sketches of the English satirists of
theed of the sixteenth century- - Da ies , Mar ton , H 11 ,
uilpin , Lode , Donne , in verse ; ashe , reene , Lode ,
in prose - - who modeled o the heophrastan cha acters and
n the works of the oman satirists , their brillia t
pictures o London life .
16
' m ong the possible sources
of classical ori in we mi ht include retina ' s comedies ,
in which onson could have found , already developed a n
in he framework of satirical , realistic corned , char
act rs having distinctive features of his humors , a nd
which , derived f r om classic 1 ty es , were modified a
partly individualized by trait d a from contem orary
On consi erin the par llelis so character and
situ tion in the h o comed·es of Jonson and the
comedies of Areti o , it is interestin to ate how
characters which derive a similarity from their common
our ce a nd r am the corres ondin satiri c 1 intentions
oft e authors have ne ertheless be co e stron ly
1
1
n lish Elements in onson ' s arly Com edie s p . 2 .
214
loc l i zed , e ach i hi society a nd a e .
From the Latin comedy type of the m i les glori osus ,
retino de ived C a t ain inca in La Talanta ; Jonson ,
obadil in Jvery 'Ian In His Humor . Both Captain Tinca
--· -
a nd Bob di l are rodi ious talkers and bo ster in a
la ~ua e o gre at vigor . Bobadil ' s spee ch ha s an
unmi s•akably En lish fl avor , a s in the following lines
i n hich e delive r s hi s opinion of Downright :
Hang h im , rook l he l why he has no m ore judgment than
a malt horse : By Saint eor e , I wonder you ' d lose a
tho ght upon such an animal; the most peremptory
bsur lown of Christendom ••• I protest to you ,
a s I am a gentleman and a soldier , I ne ' er chan ed
word s wit h his like . By his di course , he should eat
not hing but hay .•.• (I .iv)
e tri es , however , to ive himself a allant , traveled
a i r by a l avish use of Spanish and Italian terms from
the duel: the 'passado , " the 'bastinado , ' the "stocc ata , '
"im rocc ato . " Ca tain Tinc a tries to p·ive his equally
boi sterou s It alian a flair by a use of far- fetche
conce i t s in the Spanish manner (the Spanish being at
the t ime virtual m sters in It aly and arbiters of
ele ance) : he addresses Talanta as 'helmet of my head;
"armor of my body ; ncuirass of my thi h"; "caparison of
m y steed'; "chariot of my triumph . . • ' (III .xiii) .
Both Bobadil and Tinca are iven to ima ining
ext r a or inary feats of arms in whi ch they have cove ed
themsel es with g ory: Boba il astonishes tephen with
215
his account of the b lea uerin of trigonium , "wher
in less than two hours, seven hundred resolute entlemen
as any were in Euro e lost their lives," and where
Bobadil was the first man that entered the breach.
(III.iii ) Captain Tinca 's phantasy, still more airy ,
imagines metaphorical combats in which he descends u on
his enemies with an army made up of his warlike disposi t ions (his servant Branca interpolates the usual ironical
comments) :
Tinca :
Branca:
Tinca :
To be in with, the curses that I shower on
him ••• shall rise up in arms .
A )ood be
. .
innin .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
y boilin wrath will be the drums .
Branca : T .ell .
Tinca : The banners I fly are the ri hts which incite
me to battle .
Branca : One could imagine nothin better .
Tinca : The standard -bearers re the angry passions
that beat in my bre ast ••• arme d men will
sprin from the formidable thou hts of my
brain .•.• (V.ii)
Bobadil is capable of military projects that are e ually
fantastic , but he clothes them in the sober garb of
mathematical terminology, as when he ex lains his lan
for the defense of Her M ajesty ' s kin dom, a ainst all
enemies whatever, by i mself with nineteen more ,
"gentlemen of ood spirit" a nd trained by him in the
"special rules":
216
••• say the enemy were forty-thousand stron _, we
twenty would come into the field the tenth of arch ,
or thereabouts; and we would challen e twenty of the
enemy; they could not in their honor refuse us:
Well, we would kill them ; challe nge twenty more, kill
them; twenty more, kill them ••• too; and thus we
would kill every man his twenty a day, that's twenty
score; twenty score , that 's two undred · two hundred
a day, five days a thousand; f rty thousand; forty
times five, five times forty, two hundred days kills
them all up by computation . (I .vi)
Both Bobadil and Tinca a s s ume on occasion a n air of
impressive dignity and deal with lesser mortals in a
lordly fashion. Bob· dil thus presents himself to Edward
Knowell:
Sir, I must tell you this , I am no
for master ellbred' s sake (you may
what hei ht of favor you please ,) I
with you, and conceive you to be a
parts; I love few words . (III.i)
eneral man; but
embrace it at
do communicate
entleman of some
Tinca, upon being informed that a wealthy Si nor has
asked the ha nd of his dau hter , thus replies :
Tinc a : Certainly the fame of my exploits must have
reached his ears, thou h I marvel how in so
reat a re quest he has not said that my lory
is sufficient dowry.
Br anca: Perhaps he will s ay so upon your consentin .
Tinca: j e shall reflect u on i t , for the wisdom of
the captain cannot be so hastily resolved.
(IV.xvi)
Both Aretino and Jonson preserve the core of the
miles gloriosus in their characters by givin them a
217
hair-raisin truculence in the a se nce of an er . inc a
thus vents his rage on the emp y ir , upo hearin of
the escape of his dau hter and her maid:
Alive, alive, I want to roast the servant , a nd as for
her whom I do not even wish to cal l y au hte r , I
shall te ar her to shreds; a n should I f ind t he wretch ,
let no one attempt to deliver her from me , for I with
the ruthless soul with which I enter i to battle , am
dis osed to deal unishment to her · or shall I shed
her blood otherwise than if she were a pagan · and if
my wi fe utters wo d of retest , I shall cut the veins
of her throat •.•• (IV .xx)
In s imil ar manner, obadi l rails ma nifi centl a ainst
the harmle s s ob , who h as lucklessly t tered some dis para in rem rks on tobacco :
A whoreson filth slave , a dun - wo , excrement t
Body o' Caesar , but that I scorn to l et forth soma
as irit , I ' d have stabbed hi m tote earth . (III .iii)
Both Bobadil and Tinc a , however , are sudde y subdued
u on the leas t sign of a challe ge . Bobadil allows
himself to be disarmed a nd beaten by the plain citi zen
Downright , without a esture of protest . (IV . v ) nd
Tinca is so appalled when esser Vergolo a ccepts hi s
challenge to battl e that he promptly dism o nts from his
mule and t ak
~li ht . I .iv)
Aretino has departed further tha n Jonson from t e
classic attern in ivin Captai n Tinca the role of a
lover a nd suitor to Talanta . Jonson ' to m·lites
glori osi , ob a il nd Shift , rem in s i m ly t he tr dition 1
218
swa erers and men on the town .
'-
hift , howe er, is a
var·ation
.
that he
.
not exclusively soldie but l lS a
'
cl
.
rather to be 'tall
n . '
He bra s 1 a m s 0
r o beries ad che a s as well as milita y exploits , nd
.
s his reput tion b skill
.
okin and tricks at l in
cards as well s y vaunted dee s 0 arms.
The intri guing serva t
•
another t thct oth lS pe
Jo son n Areti no took from Latin corned and tr nsformed
into a local and contempora y fig re . The best examples
re Rosso of Aretino's La Cortigiana , a n Brainwonn of
-
Every an In His H or . In Rosso we have a l ackey of
the Roman co rt in the talian cinque cento, and Br ain orm
is the right- hand man of an English country squire of a
century l ater ; they h ve , ho ever , many points in common .
Both a e equi ped with a n admirable readiness of wit and
a n incredible skill in weavin intrigues . Both are the
movin powers of the machinery of their respective plays .
Rosso , in La Cortigiana , is uises himself as his
m aster and , with the aid of the unwitti g sacristan of
S int Peter ' s , tricks a fishmon er out of a quantity of
lam reys · next he steals a robe from a ewish clothes
dea er , havin first persuaded him to put on a friars
tunic--so that when the poor man calls 'Stop thief
after Rosso , he is himself arrested for contempt of the
hurch . All this is done out of the efferve cence of
21
osso ' s i ention n as ar ish to his
.
al e ter-
prise : n el aborate lot , with the aid of the proc res
and alf-witch Alvi ia , to tan le u his master ' s ove
affairs a n be uile him into spendin a ni ht with the
baker ' s wife o na inste a d of the hau hty an divine
1 ·vin for ~ o h a n uishes .
Br ainworm' s esi n to follow the elder Knoell in
disg ise to Lo don and kee him from interferin with
his son rows by ropitious circumstance and Brainworm' s
own react · ess to e come complications , until final y he
has drawn into his lot the jealous husband Kit ly nd
his wife , t he water-carrier Cob with ib , the gulls
Stephen and atthew and Captain Bobadil , t ereby becoming
the means or t he castigation of the humors and the
re s olut ion of the piece .
Both Brainworm and Rosso are motivated by their
sheer e l i ht in intri ue and in hoodwinkin their
fell ows, quite apart !rom the ends to be gained . U on
the success of his first deceit practiced on old Knowell ,
Brainworm thus le f ul l y con r atulates himself :
O that m bell were hooped now , for I am ready to
burst wi h l au ~ hin t , ever was bottle or bag ·pe
fuller . ' Slid; wa s there ever seen a fox in years
to bet r ay himself thus t .•• let the world think me
a bad counte eit , if I cannot c i ve him the sli at
an i nst ant: ...• , how I lon t o be employed t
( I . i ii )
220
In the end , brou ht before Justice Cle ent , he declares :
If yo ' 11 pardon me only , I 'll lory in all the
rest o my ex loi ts . (V .i)
Ros s o ' s lee is n less i rrepressible u on the successful
c omin of of his lans . De arting from the luckless
fishmon er , he meets 1 esser Andrea :
Ha , ha , ha ,--a divine jest- - a fishmon er •.• ha , ha ,
•.• I ill tell ou at leisure--I must hurry to
enosi these l ampreys you see me carryin , half t o
whom they are destined , h lf for me in the t avern .
Farewel l . (I . xx )
either r ainworm nor Rosso is bothered by any exces s of
scr les-- the wor d is for whoever can take it . "
Br ai nworm, me itating on how to beguile the elder Knowell
in order to help the youn er , thus coolly defines his
m ot ive :
ell , the troth is , my ol aste r intends to follow my
oun aster , dryfoot , over oorfields to London , this
mering · now , I knowin of this hunting- match , or
rather cons iracy , and to insinuate with m y youn
master (for so must we that are blue waiters , and men
of hope and service do , or perhaps we may wear motley
at the year ' s end , and who wears motley , you know) ,
have ot me afore i n thi s ct·sguise •.•• et c . (II .ii)
osso has no more hesitation in conspirin against his
master a n brin in the innocent and faithful Valeri o
into disgrace for treason than he has in cheatin the
fishmo n er ad the Je ish clothes eddler . His justifi
cation is that it is the way of the court : "A t court
whoever wro n ly censures ••• is believed and whoever
i i nocent is c used . ' (I .xvii) The main differe nce
221
between the two is that Brainwonn, with his back round
of English country-house life, is a li hthearted,
irresponsible rogue, while in Rosso there is a bitterness
bred of his long experience with the injustices of the
court, which gives to the triumphs of his wit the added
zest of vengeance.
Both Jonson and Aretino are obviously channed with
the wit of the rogues they have created, so that neither
Brainworm nor Rosso is punished for his mischief.
Brainworm saves himself from commitment to prison by
relating all his enterprises to the deli hted Justice
Clement, after which the sentence is--a cup of sack
drunk in his honor and the verdict: "Thou hast done or
assisted to nothing but deserves to be pardoned for the
wit of the offense." (V.i) llien Parabolano , at the end
of La Cortigiana, discovers all the contrivances of his
lackey, Rosso, he cannot help laughing, despite the
damage he has suffered from them. Pronouncing judgment
on the assembled characters, as Justice Clement does at
the end of Every Man In His Humor, arabolano forgives
Rosso for the same reason that Clement does Brainwonn:
I forgive you, Rosso, because being a Greek , you have
acted with the astuteness of one. As for you, Valerio,
be content to make your peace with Rosso , since I have
forgiven him, and because he was witty enough to lead
me the merry chase I will tell you of. (V.xxv)
222
A avo ite object of Jonson ' s satire is that of
'' ulls' or would-be gallants . They are either rustics
or provincials who worship entility and are the d es
of those who claim to teach it by a few a ic rules; or
they are less naive etende s who hav b co e dept t
simulatin llantry by 'a silver-hilted sword , a few
picturesque oaths , a ' melancholy' silence . n
1
7 The ull
is represented in each of the comedies of Jonson of which
we have spoken: Stephen and Matthew in Every an In His
Humor , un oso and So liardo in Every Man Out of His
Humor , Asotus in Cynthia ' s evels . All of them hav
trait s in common with that i antic "gull' o Aretino ' s
Cortigiana , M esser 1 aco , and these traits are often
brou ht out in similar situations . Of course , the
affectations Jonson!s ulls assume are culiar to
manners in the late Elizabethan eriod , while esser aco
is satirically trained in the vices of the Roman court of
the cinquecento .
Ste hen , the country cousin in Every an In His
Humor , is convinced that being a entleman ' is a matter
of satisfying a few practical re quirements , one of the
m ost important bein that of keeping a hawk . Hee lains
1
7Herford and Si son , Introducti n to The W orks of
Ben Jonson , I , 347 •
his views to his not too sympathetic uncle :
Step : Uncle , afore I o in , c n you tell me , an he
have e'er book of the sciences of hawkin
nd huntin; I would fain borrow it .
Know:
1
y , I hope you will not a hawking now , will
you?
223
Step : o , wusse ; but I 'll practise against next year ,
uncle . I have bou ht me a hawk , and a hood ,
and bells , nd all; I lack not hin but a book
to keep it by •
Know: O, most ridiculous t
Step : Nay , look you now , you are angry , uncle: - -why ,
you know an a man have not skill in the hawking
and huntin ~ langua es nowa days , I 'll not ~ive a
rush for him : they are more studied than the
reek , or the Latin . He is for no gallants
company without them; ••• ' Slid , a entleman
mun shov1 himself like a gentleman . Uncle , I
pray you be not an ry; I know what I have to do,
I trow , I am no novice . (I .i)
Stephen's attitude i s similar to that of esser ~aco in
La Cortigi a na , when he e a erly accepts the pro osal of
-
Andrea to m ake him a courtier by ivin him lessons out
of a book :
Andrea : The truth is one must first be a courtier ,
then a Cardinal . I am a master of courtier ship . I have made M ansi nor de la Storta ,
the most reverend Baccano , the Patriarch of
La ~a liana , and a thousand others ••• a nd ,
with your consent , I can make a courtier out
of Your orshi , bec~use you have an air of
reat romise .
aco : fuen vrill you be in?
Andrea : Today , tomorrow , when it will please Your
orship .
1aco: It will please me now.
ndre a : .ell. I will o and et the book th t
teaches how to be a c urtier, and I will
fly back to Your W orshi • (I.ii)
224
Bein a Sienese bur her and not an En lish squire, Esser
a co does not think , like Ste hen , of kee in a hawk ,
but he is fully ersuaded by A ndrea of the infallibility
of another device--the s ecial form into which one enters
to be moulded into a entleman :
'
• • •
for Your Torshi
will consider that even cannons, bells and towers are
made in moulds." (III.ix) Both Stephen nd 1atthew, in
Every an In His Humor , are l ike ~esser Taco in their
-
cultivation of oetry as one of the a purte nances of
gallantry. esser Andrea leefully discovers aco's
sonnets to Camilla Pisana :
Sorrow itself would laugh to hear him burst into
song ••• he ~as cm osed some of the most rascally
verses you have ever heard . (II.xi)
He goes on to quote from the prose of aco's love letters ,
which is jewelled with Petrarch n conceits , most stran ely
transformed:
Hail queen , ••• be merciful to me , for your
odoriferous eyes and ma ore n brow , distilling
mellifluous m nna slay me , even a s your scattered
_old and pe rls subdue me to your love •.•• (I.xii)
here is somet in of the sa e Petr rchism" in the
oetry ( "a toy of mine own in my nona e •• • the
infancy of my muses") which 1 atthew reads to Bobadil •
22 5
(I . iv) t hen , too , con sses that he lov s such
things out of measure , ' nd nowell's comment , "I ' faith ,
better than in measure , I ' ll undertake , " is borne out
by the sample Stephen ives of his ve r se . (II .ii) here
are parallel scene s i n retina ' s Cortigiana a nd Jonson ' s
Eve ry I '· a n In __ umor , in which the would-be poets
re cite verse s which re imme iately r eco nized a s havin
been stolen from well known authors . In La Cort igi ana ,
Daco ' s recitation of some Latin verses which he ives
out his ndre a to
•
sh o tin as own , C u es
J
up
•
•
Andre a : St op t Stop l hief 1 hief t
Maco : T hy do you shout for help like that?
_ ndrea : Because a ma heroic oet ha s tolen your
verses l (I .xxii)
In Everz n In His Humor , atthew read s some line s to
- --
M istress Brid et , protesting modestly th the wrote them
"in a humor t:
are cre ature , l et me spe ak ithout offence
~ould od my rude wor ds had he infl ence
o rul e thy thou hts , as t hy f air looks do m i ne
he n shouldst thou be his prisoner , who is
thine . (I . i v)
Knowe l l immedi tely reco ni zes the lines f om Hero and
Le ander , and afte hearin some further s amples , bursts
out with: ' vell , I 'll have him free of the i brokers ,
for he utters nothin~ but stolen rem nants ..
• •
filch in ro u , ha n. ::) hi 1--and f rom the de a d 1 It ' s
22
or than s crile e . '
The co nterparts to Matthew and Ste hen in ery
a n Out o His Humor are the j lls Sogliardo and Fu oso .
So liardo is na n essential clown , yet so enamored of the
name of entleman that he 't/lill have it thou h he buys
it"--who 'c omes to town to tobacco and see new
motions . ' un oso is "one th t has revelled in h · s time
ad follows the fashion afar off like asp . He makes
it the whole bent of his endeavors to wring sufficient
means fro his wretched father to put him in the
courtier ' cut at hich he earnestly aims •... ,18
C arlo B ffone ' s instructions to So liardo on the art of
be i n a courtier remind one again of iesser .ndrea ' s to
1aco ( age 68 above) . Both the masters are mockin their
pu ils , w o take their ironical recepts in all serio s ness and with utmost docility . Buffone ' s instructions
are more lengthy and detailed than Andrea ' s ,
1
9 but in
both there is the same satire of the manners of the
court (of which the pupils are of course unaware) . ere
1
8
From the 'Character of he Persons' prefixed to
the play .
1
9The prece ts Buffo e gives to ogliardo are
derived from Er smus' Colloquies , but Jonson has
a aoted the to the s ecifi social and economic
conditions of the En land of his time .
227
is as mple of uffone ' s instructions on how an
lizabethan
oes to plays :
uffo e :
llant conv rses , lays cards , swears ,
So liardo , if ou affect to be a ~entleman
indeed , you mus ~ observe all the rare
qualities , humo s , a nd com liments of a
entleman .
o liar o: I now it , Si nior , and if you lease to
instruct , I am not too ood to learn , I 'll
ass re you .
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
uffone : First , to be a n a complished entleman ,
that is , a e tlema of the time , you must
ive over housekee in in the country , and
live alto ether in the city amon st
allants; where , at your first appearance,
'twere good you turn 'd four or five
hundre cres of your best land into two
or three tuns of apparel--you may do it
1ithout oin to a conjurer--and be sure
yo mix o rself still with such as
f ourish in the spring of the fashion ..•
learn to pl y at primero and pas a e , a nd
ever (when you lose) have two or three
eculiar oaths to swear by , that no man
e 1 se swears . . . •
Sogliar o: 0 a mirable rare t He cannot choose but
be a entleman that has these excellent
ift : more , more , I beseech you .
Buffone : You must endeavor to feed cleanly at your
ordinary , sit elancholy, and pick your
teeth whe n you cannot speak : and when you
co e to plays , be humorous, look with a
So liardo :
. ood starch 'd face and ruffle your brow
ike a new boot, lau hat nothin but your
own jests , or else as the noblem en lau h .
That's s eci 1 r ace ou must observe •
I warr
•
t you , sir .
228
uffone: Ay , and sit on the st e and flout,
provided you have a ood suit •..• (I.i)
In Cynthia's evels , Jonson brings on the scene a thron
of "false" courtiers and :,allants--"the stran est
paP-eant f shioned like a court"--whose fop eries,
- ""----c- 6nceit·s, and-affect tions ,. are~ · det -iled totfle ·mrnute.st'-
degree of folly . Correspondin to the ulls of very
Man In and very ut , is Asotus , a an er-on of
courtiers and tireless purser of fashion . He also t kes
instructions in allantry from the courtier a nd tr veler
Amor hus . ,,Jhat distinguishes these lessons from ndrea ' s
to aco and B ff one'. s to So liardo is that Amorphus ,
Asotus' m ster , is a convinced courtier and has ~o ide a
of mockin either his upil or the court in the recepts
he P-ives. Te satire is there , but it comes of Jonson's
irony, of which in this case both master and upil re ai n
quite unaware . 1 ere is Amo phus ' ex lan tion of how
courtiers devel op the art of conversation:
Amor hus : ••• a s your ears do meet with a new
phr se , or a n acu e jest , take it in : a
quick nimble me ory will lift it away , and ,
t your next blic me 1 , it is your own .
• . • I . is yo r shiftin. a e for -wit, nd ,
I assure you , men must be prudent . After
this you may to court , and there f all in ,
first vvith the wai tin - wo an , then with the
lay . Put case they do ret ain you there ,
as a fit pro erty , to hire coaches some
air of months , or so ; or to r ead them
sle p i the afternoons u on some re~ty
pam hlet , to breathe you · hy , it shall in
sot us :
229
time embol en you to o e fart er
achievement : ·n the int im yo ma ashion
yo rself to be ca eless nd im ude t .
How if t y would have me to ma
verses ? .
• •
o hus: .fuy , you m st prove the aptitude of your
.... - - - - - _ -- ~ "'4-14.-, .. •·-••it y-0 , ..... -r.:t .. R .. n-one·, you must he rken
·- but · a vein,· and buy ; provide you pay for
the silence as for the work ••.• (III .ii)
or hus stresses the i mportanc e for the courtier of
learnin to assume the propar expression of face :
For , let your soul be a s sured of this , in any rank or
profession whatever , the more g neral or m jo part
of o inion goe s with t e face and sim ly respects
nothin else . (II . i )
In Scene ii i , ct III , sots is made a ·nstakingly to
practice the art of accostin and addressin ._ a l ady , with
all the r o er m i cing nicety of phrase and gest re .
Throu hout , Jonson ' s irony su ests the inanity of
courtly practices , which Crites openly and vigorously
denounc e s :
I
•.• such c obweb stuff
A s ould enforce the common ' st sense abhor
Th ' Arachnean workers . (III .ii)
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • mere lunacy . or would any reasonable
creature make these his serious studies and
perfections , much less , only to live wit
t es e ends? ( • ii )
ynthi a ' s evels and Every ____ t of His liumor ,
there are many reflections of the arro a nc ~ , co ceit ,
230
vanity , and fatuousness of courtie s , such as we have
seen the exe lified in retina ' s a abola o (La
orti 1ana) nd Polidoro (Il Filosofo)--(see
es 69 , 104
----· - - -----
above) • he courtier Puntarvolo of Every Man Out is ,
like Parabolano , imperious ad high- handed with his
servants:
Sirr h , take my cloak · and you , sir knave , follow me
clo er . If thou losest my og , thou shalt die a dog ' s
death; I will hang thee . (I I .i)
Compare Cappa's and Rosso 's description of their masters
lordly ways (La Cortigiana , r .vii- - see pa e 69 above) .
Like Parabolano , P ntarvolo is vastly conceited , being ,
Jo son tells us , "so alpably affected to is o,,..,n raise
that for want of flatterers he commends himself .
20
at distin
manifestin
as when he
if it were
lord of the
uishes
•
self l
rides up
a castle
castle ,
Puntarvolo is a certain quixot·c vein,
in an affectation of kni ht- e rantry ,
to the door of his country house as
g te , sounds his horn , calls for the
and pays court to his wife as if she
were a lady never before encountered (III .ii) · or in a
love of bizarre enterprises , such as that of makin a
tour of the world on a wage with a do and a cat .
21
20character sketches prefixed to the play .
21
Herford ad Simpson note that 'r velli upon a
vent .ce' was a sin ular form of i s ranee on forei n
tr vel common at that tie , but Puntarvolo ' s rticular
a plic tion of it is none the less whimsic 1 . The orks
of __ onson , IX , 439 .
ar bola o ,
231
ough he ado ts a Spanish ex r va ance of
ceremonial , shows no such f nt stic whimsica ity .
asti ious Brisk of Every an Out of His Humor
recRlls in m y \-'Ta s the vanity nd fo ery of Aretino ' s
allant , Polidoro . Impec~a y fashionab e and meticulous
in h · s dress , he is terme by uffone " ~ rmp adoro in the
white vir in boot" ; he ism n ered nd a fected , and
"practiseth by hi lass ho o salute . ,
22
All this is
very like the descri tion of Polidoro given br his m n
R dicchio in Il Filosofo :
-----
he very mirror is re dy to slit seein how he
practices in it ha f - smiles , full smiles , wise looks ,
gr ve demeanors , and the art of making himself u
most courtesan- like . There is nos ark that lifts
up is eet with the majesty that he lits them , nor ,
wee he ste pin on cotton wool wou d he set them
down more circums ectly . (I .iii 23
The af ectations of the courtier and traveler , A orphus,
in Cynthia ' s Revels re similarl described :
••• e walks most commonly with a clove or pick- tooth
in his mouth , he is the very mint of compliment , all
his behaviors are rinted ..•• . e speaks of all
ere m - skimm ' d , and more affected than a dozen waiting women . (II . i)
22n haracter of the Persons . n
2
3 ote also i Cynthia ' s Revels (II .i) the descri -
tion of Asotus : 'His eyes and his raiment confer much
together as he ~oes on the st eet . He reads nicely
like the ellow thav walks upon ropes , es ecially the
first unda of his silk stockin s · when he is most net
and ne , ou shall stri him vr.i h com end tions . '
232
mor hus ha , h owe v r , in addition , he c liarly
E izabeth n a fect a ions of the traveled entl em n' :
• • • a
shreds
(II .i)
traveller , one so m de out of the mixt re of
nd ors , t t himsel is t ly defo ' d .
Fastidi ou~ risk h s also Poli oro ' f atuous con viction of his power over wome • . olidoro descr·bes to
adicchio the hav0c his r cefulness wreaks at balls and
the fat 1 effect of his mere a ear nee at ass (see
pa es 104-105 above) . Brisk ' s conve r s tion habitually
ru son the same theme :
here was a 0ountess e me her h nd to kiss today ,
i ' the nresence : did me mor e ood by that li ht than-
ad yester-night sent her coa ch t ·ce to my lod in _,
to intreat me a ccom any her , a nd my sweet m i stre s,
with some two or three nameless ladi s more : O, I have
been grace d by t em beyond all a im of a fection •.•
(II .ii)
U on untarvolo ' s asking him whether he knows "t1 dona
Savioli a " :
F stidious : Lord , Sir , my mist ress?
Puntarvolo: Is she yo r mistress?
astidious : F ith here be some sli ht f avors of hers ,
sir , that do speak it; as this s carf ,
sir , or this ibbon in my ear, or so;
this feather rew i n her sweet f a n some times , though now it be my poor fortune
to wear it , as you see , sir : sli ht ,
sli ht , a foolish toy . (II.i)
uffone
1
s 0arcastic co ent on Bris ' s account of his
exalted con e ctions--
233
There's ne' er a one of these but mi ht lie a week o
the rack, ere they could bring forth his n e · and
yet he pours them out as famili arly , s if he had see
them stand by the fire in the presence , or ta ' en
tobacco with them over the sta e , in the lord's room .
(II.i)
--is reminiscent of the more veiled mockery of Radicchio ' s
interpolations in his master Polidoro's lyrical account
of his conquests:
Polidoro: You saw it yourself •..•
Radicchio: I thou ht sure she wold throw herself
u on you from the b lcony .
Polidoro: If you will remember to take note of i ,
you will see any number of others lose
their heads because of th at race that in
their goodness the he ave ns have best owed
on me •••• How many are near t o f ainti
in the churches , and h ow many at the balls
•••• I move throu h the ste s with that
li htness and gr ce of my most slim n
handsome person •.• that from the choir
of t he fair those sighs go up of 'alas"
and "al ck" that slay without killin .
Radicchio: Just as sleep a nd hunger draw the y awns
from th e mouth that would like to eat or
sleep, so the capers a nd gambols of your
gallantry draw burnin de si re from the
entrails of the f air ones in velvet and
the ny. mphs in brocade . (La Cortigiana,
II .iv) -
e are also reminded of Polidoro by Amorphus of Cynthia ' s
Revels, with his tale of the Lady Annabel , 'niece to
the empre:s and sister to the Kin of Arra on ,
••• who havin never before eyed me , but only heard
the common report of my virtue , learnin , and travel ,
fell into th t extremity of assion for my love , tat
she there immediately swooned : hysicians ere sent
234
for , she h to hr ch mber , so to her be d ; where ,
lan uishing s ome fe ays , after many times callin
upon me , with my name in her lips , she ex ired . (I .i)
n in La Cortigiana , arabol a no is accused by lvi ia
of e qual f atuousness :
Oh , he is a re ~ boa ter t •.• o you kno what
surprises me most? •.• T at he who profe sses to
die fo r Livia should believe that she , hardly having
ee n h im , s houl also be dyi for him .
Upon which Rosso re _lies :
That should not sur rise you , for such a lord •••
m ost absol tely believes that al l the world a ore s
him , a n •.• he is ready to blame himsel f for h ving
looke l ovin~l on Livi , or that to his mind makes
it im ossi le for her not to l an uish for him , as we
have led him to believe that she does . (III . vi )
All the nf lse courtiers" of Cynthia ' s Revels ,
Hedon, nai de s , orphus , re emb l e P r abolano a nd
Pol i doro in courtl y affe ctatio s . heir traits are
summed up by M ercury (who with Cupid is a dis uised
observe r t C ynthi 's co rt) in sharply drawn sketches
th ta e animat ed by the same satirical spiri v to ards
the co rt a s retina ' s Cortigiana . Here are the ortraits
of two of the courtiers :
(Hed n ) :
uch one a s ••• I dare not af firm to be anythin
le s s t ha a cou ier . So much he is durin this o en
time of r evels , nd would be loner , but that his
means are to leave him shortly after ••• a all nt
wholly c onsecrated to his pleas res •..• H e is
t ou ht very necessary erf e for the resence ,
••• six m i ~liner ' s sh o s afford you ot the like
s cent . He courts 1 dies with how many r at horse
he hath rid th mornin , or how o the hath done
the whole , or half the pomm do in seven- ni ht
before •.•• He doth kee a b rber and monkey ;
•.• h~ loves to have a fencer , a e ant and a
musici n seen in his lo ~ in a -mornings . (rr .i)
(Anaides):
•.• he ha s two essentia l parts of the courtier ,
p ide a nd i norance; ••• one th at spe aks all th at
c omes in his cheeks , and will blush no more t han a
sackbut .••• He will censure or discourse of any
th·n , but a s absurdly s you would wish . His
f shion is not to t ake knowled e of him that is
bene th him in clothes . (II .i)
This brilliant series of e i r a atic portraits vhich
occupies virt ally all of t he second ct of Cyn hia '
23 5
evels represe nts Jo son ' s attem t to transfer into the
body of the co edy the heo r ~stan character ske t ch
th the had already used to desc r ibe the 'cha r cte r of
the persons
1
before the play , in verz ·a n Out of His
Humor . Such e pi rammatic ortr its are also us ed by
Aretino in his comedies , especially to describe erson
before he appears on t he s cene , a s when Radicchio
des crib s Polidoro (Il ilosofo , I .iii--page 104 bove);
or osso and Cappa describe Parabolano (~ Cortigia na ,
I .vii- - a e 9 above) . ~e lso find rapid sketches of
types in retina ' s prolo ues . In that to La Ta l anta ,
-
for exam le , the uthor , in the erson of Cu id , is
observin the "thron of those ho love' and notes
among them,
236
•.• a certain lack daisical 11 nt , o , leanin
against a pillar with l a n. ui d air , draws from his
breast a letter envelo ed in re en ilk nd , h ving
considered its dly, put s it back ; then , tossin u
his handkerchief in the a i r catches it in a scar ful
way, nd pulling at it t wic with his teet .. , gives
to understand the c uelty of his mistress and the
spite of fate • • . •
In the rologue to the _arescalco , Histrio , in order to
prove to the audience his t alent a s an actor , imperson
ates one aft e r anothe r the co ventional types of
Re naiss nee comedy, in a series of satirica sketches
of which the fol l owin is one:
A miles gloriosus can be imitated in this humor :
I would fian my sword at my hip , ferociously , and ,
11ith my hose un art ered, fallinf- about my legs ,
I would move my steps, thus, a s one who walks to
the sound of a drum; with an arrogant look , eyeing
the world askance , a nd pullin at my beard- -woe
to that stone which so much as nudged my foot;
and as to the first man who should cross my path,
I would cut him in two and put him to ether back
wards, sendin him out in the world like a monster .
Ah, ever merciful . other of r ace l Ah , blessed
Godt Take this mirror from before my eyes , for my
very shad ow fills me with fear .
Aretino, however , does not use the device as system
atically as Jonson, who, in hi s humor comedies , leans
more and more to the 'character- book ' technique . ~e
have mentioned his preliminary sketch of the characters,
entitled "r:'he Character of the Pe : 1."·sons an prefixed to
Every an Out of His Humor; and a so the series of
satirical portraits in t~e se cond act of Cynthia ' s
Revels, where Cu id and ~ere .ry anatomize' each of the
237
co rtier . F rther on in the same lay (III .ii) th
logs eech of Crites consists of another set of
characte analyse s . There is t us a r~dual incre ase of
nalysis nd descri tion in Jonson's humor comedies , a s
Herford ad impson observe , "the satiric , moralizin
and rbstract elements of Jo son ' s mind a c uirin a
steady domination over the d amatic enius pro er . ,
2
4
uch r ponderance of the descriptive over the drAJnatic
nresentation of character is not true of the comedies of
~
retino, though there are occasional lengthy descri tive
or expository scenes , a s in Flaminio ' s diatribe a ainst
the co rt ( a Corti i ana , I I I .vii) , or osso's haran ue
-
on the servants ' uarters (_ Cortigi ana , .xv) . But
generally , in retino , it is action hat is set above
words ,
2
5 and the satire , which can be as shar and
2
4uin Every }an In , the comic genius is still
supreme , and the abstract humor philos ophy is rlent with
observe humanity to delightful purpose . In Every Man
Out , philoso hy more freely ind 1 ed , ha s half stran l ed
the dr matic life , while dramatic structure is plainly
traceable . In Cynthia 's evels , s tire , moralizing ,
an alle ory entirely overpower a nd extinguish dra atic
ction , while the dr matic elements of character a nd
dial o ue s rvive in reat vi our but owe their vi t lity
mainly to brilli nt descri tion and vivacious re artee . n
The Woks o Be Jonson , I trod c io, I , 396-3 97 •
2
5Jons on , in the prolo ue , described Cynthia ' s
Revels as' ors above acti on; matte r above words .''
s stained in Jonson, is incide tal to the action .
eneral poi t of ag eeme t betwee .r .tino and
the Jonson of the humor co edie is in their attitude
to ards the cla sic rules . \e have seen reti o's
inde endence in this re ard . Jonson , in Every an In
23
His Humor , seems to be ritin~ a e~ular com dy . The
action is fai ly nified , the lace does not extend
beyond t e vicinity of London , and Jonson seems to lay
a pe culiar stress on time throu ~out the lay , to show
that it does ot excee the len th of one da . owever ,
in the fuller exposition of his conception of comedy in
the induction to .~very Jvan Out of His Humor , Jonson
declares that he is writin classic comedy with a diffe -
ence . M:i tis sks if the author of the comedy has
conformed strictly to the classic rules :
• .• the equal division of it into acts and scenes ,
ac cording to the Terentian manner , his true number of
actors; the furnishin of the scene with rex or
Choru~ , and that the whole argument fall within
compass of a day's business .
Jonson, like Aretino before him, answers , throu h the
mout of Cordatus: 0 no , thee are too nice observa-
tions . ' Jonson , ho ever , justifie himself for his
denatures from rule more ela orately than retino had
done,
2
6 . ivin~ a historical sketch of the develo ment of
26 retino had simpl said :
ome than they id in thens .
n 1 e live other ise in
olo ~ e to La Cortigiana .
23 9
classic com dy to sho th t o rules h d existed , ully
perfected , tab initio , n but that the whole history of
come f om i ts earli est eriod a s nothi but a co -
tinued e vol utio o_ form . H e re ches , howeve r , the s ame
conclusion as retina , the principle of the liberty of
modern genius :
I see not then but we should en ·oy the same license,
or free power to ·11ustrate and hei hten our invention
as they did ; a nd not be tied to those strict and
regu~ar ~orms wh"ch the niceness of a few , who a e
not i. but form , would th ust upon us -
e have seen ho the comedies of retina con isted
mainly of a string of inci ents , each o e complete i n
i self and dramati cally alive , but loosely connecte to
the whol e . he d · sinte r
on the sep rate see es i
on of structu ea d emphasi s
ret ina ' s c 1edie 1 d t he ay ,
as \ve have mentione d , t o the Commedia dell ' rte .
Jonson ' s humor comedi es , on the other hand , although
they do not yet have t he marvel ous unity in com le ity ,
the "massive articulated coherence , ,
2
7 of such l a t er
master i~ces a s Vol one or The lchem i st , show con-
iderab e fi ness of structure and are f ar more unified
and better built th n Aretino ' s . Every a n In His Humor
shows th most successful kni tin to g ther of the
various parts of the plot : t e _ l an of the elder Knowell
2
7Herford and Simpson, Introd ction, I , 33 ~
240
o follow his son to Lo don , t e difficul ies between
the jealous Kitely and his wif , the qua rels of
· ellb ed and DowL.;.'ight , the iscomfiture oft e
' ulls "
'
Bobadil , Matthew , and Ste hen , the elopement of young
Knowell and Bridget--all these are resolved through the
intri ues of Br inworm , which like a net radually draw
all the ch racters together and brin~ them before Justice
Clement , who pronounces the final word on all . ~very
an Out of His tumor seems to have no plot for the first
four acts . Like a typical comedy of Aretino , it consists,
th s far , of a series of more or less unrelated episodes
setting off the various 'h ors' ; but both action and
nity are redeemed in ct V when 1acilente's lot to
catch the humors is set in motion , and the movement is
then very sift to the end . The tyi up of threads is
more skilful and ela orate than is ever the case in
Aretino t s comedies . The plot of fv1acilente , which at the
start urports only to pu ish the conceited humor o
Lady Saviolina , spreads and ramifies until Sogliardo ,
Punta vo o , Fungoso , Deliro and Fallace , and Fastidinus
are all cau ht in it , the punishme t of one being some
times in eniously contrived to be the exposure of anothe ,
until 11 are 'whipped out of their humors . ' Cynthia s
Revels is
special case : a combination of comedy and
m sque · consisting as it does of disparate elements
241
(rlle oric~1 , mytholo~ical , as ell s r alis ic and
s tirical) which are never quite fused , it is the least
inte rat d of the comedies discussed . Its lack of unity
does not , however , ive it reater resemblance to the
comedi s of retina , for while these , in their disinte -
gration , are all movemen Cynthia ' s Revels
.
static - -a
'
lS
•
of portrai w· th
brilliant analyses satirical
series
an
descri tions , having vivacious renar ee but no action .
Ins , both Jonson ad retina achieved , in their
res ective ages and countries , the fusion of the human
ist i c tradition of comedy with the reali~m and vi or of
the popular tradition . Both bridged the gap bet~reen
classic theory and modern life . Starting with the model
of classic comedy and reserviDg its intellectu 1 and
satirical elements , they liberated it from the accumu-
1 ted dust of conve tional an meaningless imitation and
renovated it thro ph the contact with ac ual life . Both
reac ed ag inst outworn intri~ues , and , shifting the
emphasis in comedy to the presentation of character and
settin , brought the intri ue into organic relation wit
these . I stead of the conventional tv es of classic
.,
o dy , no grown li eless , they put o the scene ne~
types that reflected contemoorary society with accuracy
and vividness of det il nd at the same time conveyed
the thor s satirica judfsTilent of his world . Both
242
Jonson and Aretino brou ht into the ialogue of their
comedies the spontaneity nd naturalness , the very color
and flavor , of spoken lan~uage , while e ervin a
classical lucidity and precision , at times an epigram
matic brilliance of style . Both were creators of an
effective comedy of manners in which the society of their
time still lives .
To establish a direc influe ce between retina and
Jonson would be difficult . et it is equally difficult
to Jhink that retina should not have had at least an
indirect in luence on Jonson . ve have seen ho on many
points their comic theories coincided and how their
innov tion of comedy ran along parallel lines . As
satirists , both turned a keen observation on contemporary
society portrayin~ it in sketches that were minutely true
to life yet brou~ht out foibles in shar relief . Jonson
is the only
1
nglish sixteenth century writer whose style
can in any way be com a ed to Aretino ' s in its hardness
and lucidity • . he special objects of their satire , as
, e have seen , were the s me . Despite great differences
in temperament , both Jonso and Aretino had a passionate
devotion to a r aid intense scorn for the fals
nrete ders in its re ~lm . fter t e wave of excessive
sub ission to cla sic a thority which followed upon the
Renaissance , r~tino wa s one of the first to expre s
243
inderendent i e s o ite ary cr·t·ci m; nd they ere
ides with hich Jons on , in spite of his tho ou ~ hgoin
classicism , a on the whole in a ccorct .
28
Considerin
all this , one feel that Aret i o could not have be n
totally unk own to ~ n of s wide a liter a y b ckground
as Jon on . Certainly retino' s comedi s , _ · h poi d
the ay tote u re development of com dy in It aly- - nd
in
1
uro -- e r e part oft e tradition from which r nson
so bundantly drew .
28 en Jonso , for exa · le , s ys in Ti mber : 'I othin
is more ri iculous tha n to make a n author a dictator a s
the chools have done i totle ...• For to m ny
thi gs a a n sh oul d o e b t t emporary belie f ••• not
an bsolute resi gnation of hi mself or perpetual captiv-
ity . L ri totle and others have their dues , but if
e c n make farther discov ries o tr th and fitness
than they , why are we envied?" ( ~ orks , III , 27) This
· s muc_ alon the li e of etino' s i deas on the l i mits
of ·mitation and the i mp o t ance of preservin t he
liberty of the creative s irit (see Chapter II , pages
43 - 45 above ) .
CO CLlSIO
"What c nclusions may be drawn fro the fore oin
study as to A r et ino' s eputation and influence in
Renaissance En land? In eneral , we may say th t,
althou h the al.lusions to retina in Elizabethan writin
are many , showin t hat his f me was as reat in En land
as in the r est of Europe in the sixteenth century , most
of these al lusions are b sed on hearsay rather than on
direct knowled e and merely helped to sprea the le end
of Aretino as he incarnation of Italian licentiou~ness
a nd sensu lity . Yet , Aretino's works ust ave been
availab l e to En lish readers . I alian was idely cul
tivated by t he educated classes and a reat n ber of
books , com risi ng most of the important works of Italian
literature , were brought into En land . From the opu
larity of Aretino' s works in Italy and in all Europe , we
may well su pose them to have been amon these . 1oreover,
four of Aretino's comedies and the ialog es were printed
in Italian i n London . Ne find, in fact , a few En lish
writers of t his t i me whose comments on A etino a near to
be based on a real knowled e of the man and his writin s .
otable amon these re abriel Harvey and Thomas ashe .
Of arvey e ay say that , outside of polemical outbursts
in which he uses Aretino as a pretext for c ndemnin
ashe , his r e arks show a scholctrly knowled e and a re-
ciation of retina ' s qualities as a writer and of his
si ni icance as an historical fi jure .
245
From the uality of Thomas ashe ' s numerous comme ts
on retina ' s works , it a pears that he knew these works
a first hand and in their ori inal lan ua e . ashe ' s
nal sis of Areti o ' s s yle seems to proceed from a
direct examination of the tex; he very accu ately oints
ou those uali ies which constitu edits eculiar
character and ma e for Aretino ' originality and stren th
s awrier . tashe also sho s an ap reciation of the
complexity of re ino ' s personality and of hose traits
ht made him a unique fi ure in his e . The influence
of retina on ashe , however , is not detec able in the
uality o she ' s own prose style . Perha s ashe , as
well s the other Eliz beth n pamphleteers , such as
Jreene , Lode , and Dekker , in their reaction a ainst
euphuism , may have looked to Aretino as a model for a
prose style tha was close to the s oken lan uage in its
info ality , directness , an spontanei y . But none of
them achieved in their writin anythin resemblin the
uality of retino s rose .
Fro the investiga ion of the ossible relation of
Shakespeare and en Jonson to Aretino , we must conclude
that there is not .s fficie t basis for establishin a
direct influence in eithe case . Interestin arallels
have been ointed out between the woks of A retino nd
the comedies of Shakes eare · possibly Shakespea e may
h ve had a kno l ed e of retina's comedies throu h the
perfo mances of the Com edia dell ' Arte t ou es i Lo don
---
or throu h his own readin o Italian comedie s , erha s
with the help of John Florio . Ho ever, the only certain
rel tionshio of which we cans eak between Sakes eare
nd Areti o is the indirect o e const·tu ed by retina ' s
art in the evolution of Itali n comedy and in the forma tio of a Re aissance comic tradi . .1ion . This tradition,
es ecially throu h the Co edia dell ' rt~ , had a
reco n· ed influence on En ish Renaissance co edy in
eneral and on the early comedies o ~hakespeare .
There are notable similarities be ween Areti o's
come ies and Jonson ' s comedies of humor , despite reat
differences in structure and moral one . Both Aretino
and Jonson aimed at a r en vation of comedy . Both used
the cl scic tradition of comedy as a basis but trans formed it throu h the contact with actual life; both
presented a realistic and satirical ort~ait of con-
tem. orary societ • In both , the classic ch racte ty es,
odi ied to eflect contempor ma ers , are constr11cted
wi h the s e tirical focus on humo raits; ad in
bo h , the s tire has the s _ e ener 1 objec : he
hynocrisy , vanity , a fectation , false re .enses of
de ener te society , es ecially in the milieu of the
court . There is in Jonson ' s style some hin, of the
247
ualit o retina ' s , in its combina ion o classical
lucidity and conciseness with the vi or and fl vor of
spoken lan~ua e . Jonson may have come in con act ith
fireti o ' s comedies , perhaps through the erfo ances of
the It2li n clayers , perhap in rinted e itions which ,
like hakespeare , he may have known throu~h ohn Florio .
Altha h we may su ose that Aretino was known to Jonson ,
the only thin ., we cans y with certainty is that
retina ' s comedies were a oart of the literary back~roun
of Jonson ' s .
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~ountries , 16U - 1700 . 3 vol s . New ~orK , 1945-1951 -
olff , Sam el L. tt Robert reene and the Italian
Re naissance." En lische Studien , 37 :321- 374 , 1907 .
Yates , Frances . ohn F orio . Lo don , 1934 .

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Asset Metadata

Creator Jardini, Anna Maria (author)

Core Title The influence of Pietro Aretino on English literature of the Renaissance

School College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program English

Degree Conferral Date 1957-06

Publication Date 06/01/1957

Defense Date 06/01/1957

Publisher Los Angeles, California (original), University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Digitized from microfilm by the USC Digital Library in 2023 (provenance)

Advisor Arnold, Aerol (committee chair), Bellé, René (committee member), McCorkle, Julia Norton (committee member), McElderry, Bruce R., Jr. (committee member), Poujol, Jacques (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113174181

Unique identifier UC113174181

Identifier Ph. D. E 57 J37 (call number),etd-JardiniAnna-1957.pdf (filename)

Legacy Identifier etd-JardiniAnna-1957

Document Type Dissertation

Format theses (aat)

Rights Jardini, Anna Maria

Internet Media Type application/pdf

Type texts

Source 20230616-usctheses-microfilm-box8 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu