IV GUIDO GUINICELLI OF BOLOGNA N Tuscany the poetry had undergone a gradual change through contact with popular poetry, or, at any rate, with popular sentiment. But the further development of Italian literature cannot be primarily traced back to the people, the new school which Dante set against the old is not the direct continuation of the popular realistic tendency. The artificial poets sought their inspiration not in the simplicity and freshness of nature, but in the profundity and deep significance of their ideas. Learning is the distinctive feature of the new school. There now arose in Italy a period of growing zeal for scientific studies; the writings of Aristotle had become more generally known through the translation made at the command of Frederick II.; and philosophical studies, hitherto less favoured than the practical sciences, were now cultivated with enthusiasm, and were, indeed, recognised at the famous old University of Bologna on an equal footing with jurisprudence and grammar. In Bologna, too, the dolce stil nuovo took its rise, founded by Guido Guinicelli, whom Dante called his father, and the father of the best love-poets : Il padre Mio e degli altri miei miglior, che mai Guido Guinicelli, of the noble family of the Principi, is mentioned in documents from the year 1266, later on, with the title of judex, that is, skilled in jurisprudence. Like so many others, he suffered severely from the internal struggles of his native city; in 1247, when the Ghibelline party of the Lambertazzi, to which his family belonged, were driven out, he, too, was banished. It is not known whether he went to Faenza, in common with the majority of the exiles, or where he settled; he died young in 1276. That is all that is known of the poet's life, but it is sufficient to enable us to determine the period of his literary activity. He himself had at first followed the manner of the Sicilians, and the majority of his poems show no marked difference from those of the Southern court poets; we find in his works the same commonplaces, the same emptiness and monotony, the same images and similes. He also attempted the essentially Provençal artifice of obscure speech together with the empty triflings of the rime equivoche in the canzone, "Lo fin pregio avanzato." During that period he even acknowledged himself to be a disciple of the famous Master Guittone of Arezzo, sent him one of his poems for criticism and improvement, addressed him in the accompanying sonnet, "O caro padre meo," and assured him that he regarded him alone as master in that art. Hence, if Dante, when he eulogised Guido so much, was considering all his poems without distinction, his judgment would be incomprehensible; however, in speaking thus, he was probably thinking of the famous canzone, "Al cor gentil ripara sempre amore," of several sonnets such as Io vo' del ver la mia donna laudare," perhaps also of the song quoted by him ("De El. Vulg." ii. 6), "Tegno di folle impresa allo ver dire," with the beautiful words in praise of the lady's beneficent influence, and possibly, too, of other poems now lost. The canzoni in the conventional manner, and the panegyric of Guittone, obviously belong to an earlier period of Guido's life, after which he went his own way. This change in his poetry took place under the influence of science. Philosophy, which in that age, when Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventura were teaching, had again come to be regarded with favour, penetrated even into poetry, which drew from it its subject-matter, and even the manner of its exposition. The canzone of "Amore e cor gentile" begins, as it were, with a philosophical thesis, to the effect that Amore takes its place only in a noble heart, in a heart filled with virtue and exalted feelings, and this proposition is then illustrated by a series of comparisons. The question as to the nature, origin and influence of Amore was an old one; it had already occupied the Provençals, and, later on, the Italians had treated it very frequently and with special predilection. But the solution had always been the same, one of those trivialities which one invariably imitated from the other. Love, it was said, springs from seeing and pleasing, the image of beauty penetrates through the eyes into the soul, takes root in the heart and occupies the thoughts-which is nothing but a superficial statement, describing the subject without fathoming it. In Guido's canzone, an entirely new conception takes the place of this well-worn succession of phrases. Love seeks its place in the noble heart, as the bird in the foliage; nobility of heart and love are one and inseparable as the sun and its splendour; as the star imparts its magic power to the jewel when the sun has purified it from all gross matter, in the same way the image of the beloved lady enflames the heart, which nature has created noble and pure; and, as fire by water, so, too, every impure feeling is extinguished by the contact of love; the sentiment inspired by the loved lady shall fill him who is her devoted slave, even as the power of the Deity is transmitted into the heavenly intelligences.-To such a degree has the conception of love changed; the earthly passion has become transfigured, and has been brought into contact with the sublimest ideas known to man; it is a philosophical conception of love, and the similes that serve to illustrate and to explain it in so elaborate and diversified a manner, show no traces of the old repertory : Ferre lo Sole il fango tutto 'l giorno, Dice uomo altier: gentil per schiatta torno; Here we plainly see the thinker who desires his image to be significant and expressive, though sometimes losing sight of the beautiful. To the old school this departure from the ordinary manner appeared to be affectation, and this 1 The sun strikes the mire the whole day, it remains vile, and the sun loses no warmth; a haughty man says: "I am noble through my race; " him I compare with the mire, and noble worth with the sun.-A fourteenth century collection of maxims, the "Fiore di Virtù," chap. xxxvii., quotes the sentence: Il sole sta in su lo fango, e non se gliene appicca, e della gentilezza che presta non se n' ha se non lo nome-as a saying of Aristotle, without doubt wrongly. energetic brevity intentional obscurity, to which, it is true, it led soon enough. These accusations, together with that of artistic incapacity, were made by Buonagiunta of Lucca in a sonnet against Guido, who, however, replied to the pretentious criticism in cold and haughty words of remonstrance-"Uomo ch'è saggio non corre leggiero." And so this school is distinguished from the old by its endeavour to attain a greater depth of thought, by an inincrease of vigour and a fresh earnestness. Amore and Madonna remain abstractions, but they are imbued with a new significance. Madonna is still the sum of all perfection; but, at the same time, she becomes a symbol, the incarnation of something more exalted. The love inspired by her passes beyond her towards virtue, to the highest good; the chivalrous love of the Provençals has become spiritual love. A symbolical and allegorical character is imparted to poetry, whose real aim gradually comes to be the expression of philosophic truth, shrouded in the beautiful veil of the image, as Dante has defined it. This introduction of science is not in itself a poetic element, but the new subject-matter stands in inner relation to the personality of the poet, and is not merely adopted from without; the scientific symbolism does away with the old well-worn phrases, and in this way free rein is again given from time to time to passion. This constitutes the main point of difference from the poetry of Guittone. Guittone moralised and syllogised, and remained dry and prosaic all the time. Love and learning, thought and imagination, were not yet united as in the works of the new school. He gave nothing but the bald truth, without the beautiful veil. The poetical imagery and warmth of feeling were wanting, as we find them in Guido Guinicelli; for example, at the close of his famous canzone, the most perfect piece of his that we possess, God reproaches the soul with having likened its earthly love to heavenly things, and it excuses itself in the following terms: Donna, Dio mi dirà, che presumisti? Lo ciel passasti e fino a me venisti, Ch' a me convien la laude E alla Reina del regname degno, Dir li potrò: Tenea d'angel sembianza Che fosse del tuo regno; Non mi fue fallo, s'io le puosi amanza.1 This is the kind of passage in which Dante recognised a kindred spirit and the "sweet new style" which he adopted. The loftiness of thought and the genuine enthusiasm in Guido's poems could not fail to attract him. The wellknown canzone inspired him in one of his own on nobility, and in a sonnet ("Amore e cor gentil") in which he calls his predecessor the "Wise." Reminiscences from the same piece occur also in the "Commedia." In a sonnet that treats a favourite theme, the salutary effect of the sight of the beloved lady, Guido approaches very closely the style of his great admirer : Passa per via si adorna e sì gentile, Ch' abbassa orgoglio a cui dona salute, Null' uom può mal pensar, finchè la vede.2 These verses Dante undoubtedly had in mind when he said in the canzone Donne ch'avete intelleto d'amore": 66 1 "Woman," God will say to me, "what hast thou presumed to do?" (when my soul is before him). "Thou hast passed through the heavens, and art come unto me, and, in thy vain love, didst take me for likeness. To me is due the praise, and to the Queen of the worthy realm through whom all fraud has an end." I shall be able to say to him: "She resembled an angel, that might be a member of thy kingdom; and so I did no wrong, in setting my love on her."-The fourth verse has often been misunderstood. In his enthusiasm the poet took God himself as an image for the object of his love. This boldness he feels himself bound to justify, and his justification consists in the loftiness and purity of his love. This is no earthly passion; it is the reflection of heavenly beauty in his beloved that enthrals him. 2 She goes her way so fair and noble, that she lowers the pride of him whom she greets, and makes him of our faith, if he did not believe in it (before). And a man who is vile cannot approach her. A greater virtue still I shall tell you of her: no man can think evil, while he beholds her. 3 A still greater grace has God conferred on her: he who has spoken to her cannot come to a bad end. |