Giraldi Cinthio on Romances

Giraldi Cinthio, Henry L. Snuggs

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780813195032
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Critica letteraria italiana

Giraldi Cinthio's Discorso intorno al comporre dei romanzi, here translated into English for the first time, was one of the most important critical works of the Renaissance. Written as a defense of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Giraldi's discourse is an inquiry both into the nature of poetry and into the characteristics of the "heroic" or epic genre, in which some of the world's richest poems fall.

Henry L. Snuggs introduces this translation with an incisive interpretation of Giraldi's critical theory. Giraldi was the first, Snuggs states, to make a significant plea in sixteenth-century criticism for the poetry of that (and our) time. The modern heroic poem cannot imitate the ancient in every respect, he held, for the principles of both decorum and verisimilitude required it to reflect the mores of its own age, although this did not mean the creation of a new genre. That which distinguishes Giraldi as a critic perhaps more than anything else, Snuggs concludes, was his recognition of a poetic unity other than that defined by Aristotle.

Giovambattista Giraldi Cinthio to the much honored Gentleman and Lord Signor Boniface Ruggieri Secretary to His Excellency the Duke of Ferrara

For many years, Signor Boniface, I have thought much about the manner of composing various kinds of poetry. Among those with whom I have shared my thoughts, both in teaching and in familiar discourse, to no one have I more liberally and more solicitously revealed my discourses and shown my industry in these matters than to M. Giovambattista Pigna. He has been more attentive to me than any other and has observed more diligently what I discussed with him and taught him concerning all kinds of poetry. Having observed this young man’s assiduity and eagerness to learn, I held him as dear as a son. Such has been my affection for him that I have never had a thought or reflected on literature or devoted myself to any composition without sharing it with him as with my own son. During the time I was his teacher, he asked me in his letters to show him how to defend Ariosto from the calumnies against his Romances. So I wrote him a long, full letter dealing with the objections that had been set forth against our excellent poet. Then it seemed to me that he would be pleased if I should assemble in more detail and in order what I had taught him and others about poetry. For his greater satisfaction and fuller understanding, I resolved to set down in an organized discourse all that I had discussed with him in various ways and at various times about the composition of Romances and other poems.

To this discourse I devoted what time I could take from my many affairs, public and private, and carried it out to completion. Then I gave it to Pigna himself, for since I had composed it expressly for him, it seemed to me I should give it to him first rather than to another. Now that for many years it has been in his possession and in mine, other young men have asked me to make this work available to them also, for although they had heard me speak of the same things, they could not remember them so well, not being able to read and ponder them. Hence I, who am always eager to please insofar as I can, seeing that I could please many with one piece of work, therefore resolved to publish my discourse. Since it was composed for the dearest pupil I had, I have decided to dedicate it to Your Lordship as one of my dearest and most honored friends, because of the rare qualities I have so long known and revered, especially when we went together to Venice as members of the legation on which His Excellency was pleased to send us. In this legation I saw mingled in Your Lordship such nobility of mind and of blood that I noted your excellent traits were not less than the gifts of fortune. Because of your courtesy and other qualities, I came to love and honor Your Lordship much more than before.

Accordingly, Signor Boniface, be pleased to receive this my little gift with the affection with which I offer it to you. I trust that the feeling with which I offer it may compensate to Your Lordship for any defect to be found in it. I kiss your hands and ask your favor.

In setting out to write about the art of composing Romances, Messer Giovambattista, I see I am undertaking a hard and fatiguing task, since, indeed, no one that I am aware of has written on this subject and since many authors have written variously in this form of poetry, not only in other nations and peoples but also among us Italians. My difficulty is increased by your ability and learning, which is such that I doubt my being able to write anything you have not already seen and considered, because, while my pupil, you studied poetry, diligently absorbed what I said, and wrote about poems of all kinds. Since then you have devoted yourself to study and writing and have continually read or written excellent works. But although my undertaking may be difficult and laborious, nevertheless the love I have had for you during the long time you were my pupil leads me to devote myself to the task.

My regard has indeed grown greater as you have continued to go ahead in your studies. This causes me to congratulate myself for the efforts I made for you while you were in my charge more than for those I made for any other pupil. Even though many of my pupils have succeeded notably, no one more than you has joined the serious with other delightful studies. Walking felicitously in my footsteps, not neglecting your major studies, you have also shown the strength of your natural talents in those that are delightfully sweet. For this reason you have become dearer to me day by day. In you more than in any other, it seems I, though grown old, regain my youth. And if indeed I am aware of not now having the powers to set down all that ought to be said about this matter, nevertheless I shall rejoice that this testimony of my love may remain with you. Furthermore, the little I shall treat of now may wake some happy genius to accomplish that which I failed to do and, by lighting a great light from a tiny spark, will illumine the darkness that until now surrounds this mode of composition. For up to this time many writers of Romances have written more often by natural practice than by art. And the benefits that will arise from the discussion of such things makes me hope that out of it may arise such able writers that I shall be among them as a tiny flame is to the sun.

Perhaps I myself, having at some later time more leisure and peace of mind than I now have, may complete with greater diligence what now remains imperfect. In truth I am so occupied with many pursuits—both my private affairs, my domestic duties, the load of public affairs that I bear in the service of my illustrious and excellent master, and my function as public lecturer—that if it were not for gratifying you, I would rather put myself to doing anything else than this heavy task. I hope, however, you may wish me a little more diligence so that at the least I may not seem to be lacking in—I shall not say, common friendship—but rather that love which has always made me hold you no less dear than if you were my son.

In writing what you have asked of me, I shall make no effort to show whether it is better in our times to write in Latin or in the vulgar. Perhaps Bembo¹ and Alessandro Citolini² have abundantly resolved that question. Nor shall I undertake to show the necessity of knowledge of philosophy and of all those other arts and disciplines that your own range of knowledge includes. These things, however, are so necessary to good writing that without them one cannot create anything worthy of being read. Nevertheless so much have the Greeks, the Latins, and our Italian authors of today written of them that, it seems to me, to try to add anything to what is already written would be like carrying firewood into a forest. Nor shall I speak here of all that Aristotle wrote in his Poetics, which has been made so happily clear in the public lectures of our mutual friend Vincentio Maggio,³ who is especially excellent in this subject as in all others belonging to rare philosophy, since it seems to me enough has been said about these matters in my Poetics.⁴

Having to speak just now on only one subject, namely, the composition of Romances, I shall only pray that I may be alert to this subject and to the gratifying of your demand. But before we proceed further, we should seek to discover what this term Romance signifies and at the same time to study its mode of composition and its relation to Greek and Latin poetry; then we should show why these poems are divided into cantos; finally, we should determine what mode in composing verses ought to be maintained by one who wishes to achieve excellence in this kind of poetry with respect to invention or subject, to the arrangement of parts, to the diction and style, and to its other important aspects.

The Name Romance

As to the name, this is the first topic we have proposed. I believe that this name of Romance (besides the other derivations I have discussed with you at length on other occasions when we happened to converse of such matters) came from the term Pώμη, which in Greek signifies strength; but some Latins prefer to derive it from the word Roma, because of the immense strength of the Roman people, and also from the name of those who among the Romans were called Ramnes, a word that some have said is derived from Roma, others from Romulus, as the Tatiensi from Tatius and the Lucensi from Lucumone. But leaving this question to those who search into Roman antiquities and remaining of that opinion which seems to me better than all others, I judge that one should not speak of works of Romance but of poems and compositions about the brave knights.

This same term may signify for us the heroic composition as it does for the Latins, although there is one who would derive this word from Remensi, others from Turpin, who in their opinion more than anyone gave material to such poems with his writings. Since he was Archbishop of Rheims (Remense), they maintain that these compositions have been called Romances. And I am easily persuaded that this mode of composing Romances has for us taken the place of the heroic poems of the Greeks and the Latins. Just as those poets in their languages wrote of the illustrious and renowned deeds of the brave knights, so those who have devoted themselves to writing Romances treat with feigned materials of knights whom they call errant. In their compositions are seen virtuous and courageous deeds, mingled with love affairs, with acts of courtesy, with games, with strange events in the manner of the Greeks and the Latins in their compositions.

It seems to me it can be said that this kind of poetry had its origin from the French, from whom perhaps it also had its name. Since in their language are many Greek words, these perhaps may have been used also by those Druids who in France (as Caesar informs us⁵) spoke the Greek language. From the French, then, this manner of writing poetry was passed to the Spaniards, and finally was received by the Italians, whose better authors, unlike those of other nations, have written these works not in prose but in verse and have divided them not into books but into cantos. It may happen that some have divided their works into both cantos and books, others into books only; but I am speaking of the better and more judicious who have made their divisions into cantos only.

Origin of the Canto

Nor did this name canto, given to such poems, originate among us so that through the piazzas and public places these compositions might be sung among the benches in the manner of those nowadays who with lyre on arm sing their idle nonsense to earn their bread; this name had a higher and more honorable origin. Among the Greeks and the Latins (as the writers of both testify, especially Cicero in his book of famous orators⁶ and in the fourth of his Tusculan Disputations,⁷ and, following him, Valerius Maximus, where he discusses the ancient institutions),⁸ it was the custom to sing at banquets and dinner tables, accompanied by the lyre, of the glorious deeds of the great masters and of the mighty exploits of virtuous and brave men. So the Italians, following this ancient custom (I speak of the better poets), have ever feigned to sing their poems before princes and noble company. This custom so developed among the Greeks that their singers, called rhapsodes, did not otherwise divide the Homeric poems—according to some, to make them suitable for singing, as the theatrical poets made their plots into acts, or perhaps as our poets made their Romances into cantos.*

From this Greek and Latin usage, then, our Italian poets have drawn their division into cantos, not from the singing of those plebeians who with their nonsense spread their nets for the purses of whoever would listen to them. And each canto is bound by the limit of what can be spoken conveniently at one time and what will without boredom hold the attention of those to whom the poets feign to direct their discourses. Our poets who have thus divided their compositions frequently intended them to speak to those persons before whom they feign to sing. This practice would not be suitable for the Greek and the Latin and for the vulgar poets who would compose in the manner of Vergil and Homer, since they themselves are the narrators and do not have this characteristic, except in introducing the one narrating his own wanderings or his own deeds or those of others, as is seen in Homer’s Ulysses and Vergil’s Aeneas. But for now, that is enough of this discussion of the name of Romances, their origin, and the division of the poems into cantos.

It remains for us to speak of the mode of composing them and to show what is to be considered and observed in such writing. Since it would take too long to try to explain all that could be considered in this part (let us set aside those matters which serve for examples of ancient writing, referring to what I have written elsewhere on the works of these poets), for the present I shall touch on that which seems to me more necessary and pertinent to the satisfying of what you have asked me regarding the writers of Romances.

The Subject

The first consideration, then, of one who would devote himself to composing in this form of poetry is the subject or the fable or the matter (as we wish to call it) with which the poet is to work. For above everything else the poet should have prepared the matter on which he may afterward use the powers of his genius.^† In the composition of Romances the fable should be founded upon one or more illustrious actions, which the poet may imitate suitably with pleasant language, to teach men honest life and good customs, which should be the foremost end of composing for any good poet. To that end Aristotle believed that the fable is the most essential part to be considered by the poet, indeed to be considered above anything else.⁹

The material which the talented man uses and the art with which he writes being, then, of greatest importance, he ought to exercise the utmost care in choosing the material with which a writer may work laudably, such as has the potential of ornament and splendor, such as can be pleasing and useful to one who will devote himself to reading his composition. One who does not do this would, first of all, show little judgment in his choice and then would lose his labor, just as one who tills barren ground gathers no fruit and finds in the end that he has toiled in vain; this would happen likewise to one who would put his study and talent into dealing with material so arid and sterile in itself that it would not be fit to receive any ornament.* Indeed, in this matter, it seems to me, Count Matheo Maria Boiardo and our Ariosto were very prudent and farseeing. The former was a very pleasing and noble inventor; the latter, who created his material in such a way that after his invention his work was received by the world as marvelously delightful, was an imitator worthy of the greatest praise. These two are leaders in their achievements. Those who out of feigned materials would write well in such poetry ought to follow in their footsteps with all diligence. Although those who wrote before them may have shown some talent and dealt with many similar matters, as can be seen by anyone who has the leisure to read them, nevertheless all of them have written inattentively of their materials. Yet it may have appeared to some that Luigi Pulci in his Morgante was worthy of praise,...