XVI. CHAP. only sixteen years of age, entered into the order of Benedictines, on which occasion he relinquished his baptismal name of Girolamo and took that of Teofilo.(a) His religious vows did not, however, extinguish his amorous passions, and a violent attachment which he soon afterwards formed for a young lady named Girolama Dieda, induced him to desert his monastery. After passing for several years an irregular and wandering life, he published his macaronic poems, in which by a singular mixture of the Latin and Italian with the various dialects of the populace, and by applying the forms of one language to the phrases of another, he has produced a kind of mongrel tongue, which from its singularity and capricious variety has attracted both admirers and imitators.(b) How it was possible for A. D. 1518. A. Et. 43. His macaronic poems and other works. (a) Tiraboschi. Storia della Lett. Ital. vii. i. 302. (b) Tiraboschi informs us that the first edition is that of Venice, in 1519, but Fontanini and Zeno have cited an edition containing his eclogues, and the first seventeen books of his poem of Baldo, printed at Venice in 1517, 8vo. They were afterwards reprinted at Venice, in 1520; and by Alexander Paganini, TUSCULANI APUD LACUM BENACEN SEM, for a person possessed of the talents and learn- CHAP. ing by which Folengi was undoubtedly dis XVI. tinguished, SEM, in 1521, ornamented with grotesque prints from blocks of wood, with the following title: OPUS MERLINI COCALI Poeta Mantuani Macaronicorum, tolum in pristinam formam per me Magistrum Acquarium Lodolam optime redactum, in his infra notatis titulis divisum. ZANITONELLA, quæ de amore Tonelli erga Zaninam tractat. Quæ constat ex tredecim Sonolegiis, septem Ecclogis, et una Strambottolegia. PHANTASIA Macaronicon, divisum in vigintiquinque Macaronicis, tractans de gestis magnanimi et pru dentissimi Baldi. MOSCHEE, Facetus liber in tribus partibus divisus, et carum. LIBELLUS Epistolarum, et Epigrammatum ad varias per- HEXASTICON Joannis Baricocola. Merdiloqui putrido Scardaffi stercore nuper Me tamen Acquarii Lodolæ sguratio lavit, Folengi A. D. 1518. A. Pont. VI. XVI. CHAP. tinguished, to sacrifice to these compositions such a portion of time as they must from their number and prolixity have required, it is not easy to conceive, and certainly a much smaller specimen might have satisfied the curiosity of most of his readers. It has, indeed, been said, that it was his first intention to compose an epic poem in Latin, which should far surpass the Æneid; but finding, from the decision of his friends, that he had scarcely rivalled the Roman bard, he committed his poem to the flames and began to amuse himself with these extravagant compositions; some of which, however, occasionally display such a vivacity of imagery and description, and contain passages of so much poetical merit, that if he had devoted himself to more serious compositions, he might probably have ranked A. D. 1518. A. Et. 43. Folengi afterwards reformed and altered this work, for the purpose of correcting its satirical tendency, and a new edition was printed without note of year, place, or printer; but which was printed at Venice, in 1530. The edition of 1521 is, however, considered as the best, and has been the usual model of those since reprinted, particularly that of Venice, apud Joannem Variscum et Socios, 1573. A splendid edition of the Macaronics of Folengi, in two vols. 4to. was published at Mantua, in 1768 and 1771, with the life of the author, by Gianagostino Gradenigo bishop of Ceneda. age. XVI. ranked with the first Latin poets of the CHAP. rors, (a) This poem, divided into eight cantos, has been several times reprinted after the first edition of the Sabbii, in Venice, 1526, particularly by Gregorio de' Gregori, at the same place, and in the same year: in Rimini, by Soncino, 1527 (Ed. castrata), in Venice, by Sessa, 1530, and 1539, and at the same place by Bindoni, in 1550: which last edition has been counterfeited by an impression of the same date of much inferior execution. At the close, is an apologetical address from the author, in which he has attempted to vindicate himself from the charge of impiety, in having satirized the clergy under the character of Monsignore Griffarostó; and, what was much more dangerous, in having shewn a partiality to the cause of the reformers. v. Zeno, annot. al Fontan, i, 303. A. D. 1518. A. Et. 43. A. XVI. CHAP. rors, or wearied with his disorderly conduct, Folengi soon afterwards returned to his cell, where his first occupation was to write an account of the aberrations and vicissitudes of his past life, which he printed under the title of Chaos de tri per uno, and which is yet more capricious and extravagant than his former writings.(a) As the fire of his fancy or the ardour of his passions decreased, he turned his talents to religious subjects, and composed a poem Dell' Umanità del figliuolo di Dio, which has probably attracted much fewer readers than his former works.(b) Having been appointed principal of the small monastery of S. Maria A. D. 1518. A. Pont. VI. A. Et. 43. (a) His Triperuno, is intended to exhibit the three different periods of the life of its author, and was first printed at Venice, in 1527, and again in 1546. (b) Printed at Venice, per Aurelio Pincio, 1533. This work is divided into ten cantos, in the first of which Homer and Virgil are introduced conversing together in favour of the four christian poets who have written on the humanity of the son of God, who it appears are, il Folgo, or Folengi himself, Sanazzaro, Vida, and Scipione Capece. Folengi seems to have imbibed some of the notions of the reformers, which he did not dare more openly to avow; and like David before Achish, to have feigned himself mad, and "scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle "fall down upon his beard." |
