Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III

Sketches and Studies in Italy and
Greece,
by John Symonds

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Title: Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Vol III.
Author: John Symonds
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SKETCHES AND STUDIES
IN ITALY AND GREECE
BY JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
AUTHOR OF "RENAISSANCE IN ITALY," "STUDIES OF THE
GREEK POETS," ETC.
THIRD SERIES
WITH A FRONTISPIECE
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1910

First Edition (Smith, Elder & Co.) December 1898 Reprinted
December 1907 Reprinted October 1910 Taken Over by John Murray
January 1917
All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain by
Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd.
London, Colchester & Eton

CONTENTS
FOLGORE DA SAN GEMIGNANO
THOUGHTS IN ITALY ABOUT CHRISTMAS

SIENA
MONTE OLIVETO
MONTEPULCIANO
PERUGIA
ORVIETO
LUCRETIUS
ANTINOUS
SPRING WANDERINGS
AMALFI, PÆSTUM, CAPRI
ETNA
PALERMO
SYRACUSE AND GIRGENTI
ATHENS
INDEX
The Ildefonso Group Frontispiece

SKETCHES AND STUDIES
IN
ITALY AND GREECE

FOLGORE DA SAN GEMIGNANO

Students of Mr. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's translations from the early
Italian poets (Dante and his Circle. Ellis & White, 1874) will not fail to
have noticed the striking figure made among those jejune imitators of
Provençal mannerism by two rhymesters, Cecco Angiolieri and Folgore
da San Gemignano. Both belong to the school of Siena, and both detach
themselves from the metaphysical fashion of their epoch by clearness
of intention and directness of style. The sonnets of both are remarkable
for what in the critical jargon of to-day might be termed realism. Cecco
is even savage and brutal. He anticipates Villon from afar, and is
happily described by Mr. Rossetti as the prodigal, or 'scamp' of the
Dantesque circle. The case is different with Folgore. There is no poet
who breathes a fresher air of gentleness. He writes in images, dealing
but little with ideas. Every line presents a picture, and each picture has
the charm of a miniature fancifully drawn and brightly coloured on a
missal-margin. Cecco and Folgore alike have abandoned the mediæval
mysticism which sounds unreal on almost all Italian lips but Dante's.
True Italians, they are content to live for life's sake, and to take the
world as it presents itself to natural senses. But Cecco is perverse and
impious. His love has nothing delicate; his hatred is a morbid passion.
At his worst or best (for his best writing is his worst feeling) we find
him all but rabid. If Caligula, for instance, had written poetry, he might
have piqued himself upon the following sonnet; only we must do Cecco
the justice of remembering that his rage is more than half ironical and
humorous:--
An I were fire, I would burn up the world; An I were wind, with
tempest I'd it break; An I were sea, I'd drown it in a lake; An I were
God, to hell I'd have it hurled; An I were Pope, I'd see disaster whirled
O'er Christendom, deep joy thereof to take; An I were Emperor, I'd
quickly make All heads of all folk from their necks be twirled; An I
were death, I'd to my father go; An I were life, forthwith from him I'd
fly; And with my mother I'd deal even so; An I were Cecco, as I am but
I, Young girls and pretty for myself I'd hold, But let my neighbours
take the plain and old.
Of all this there is no trace in Folgore. The worst a moralist could say
of him is that he sought out for himself a life of pure enjoyment. The

famous Sonnets on the Months give particular directions for pastime in
a round of pleasure suited to each season. The Sonnets on the Days are
conceived in a like hedonistic spirit. But these series are specially
addressed to members of the Glad Brigades and Spending Companies,
which were common in the great mercantile cities of mediæval Italy.
Their tone is doubtless due to the occasion of their composition, as
compliments to Messer Nicholò di Nisi and Messer Guerra Cavicciuoli.
The mention of these names reminds me that a word need be said about
the date of Folgore. Mr. Rossetti does not dispute the commonly
assigned date of 1260, and takes for granted that the Messer Nicolò of
the Sonnets on the Months was the Sienese gentleman referred to