Poliziano's "Favola Di Orfeo"
In the year 1472 the Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, who had stayed long in
Bologna, returned to Mantua. He was received with jubilant celebrations.
There were banquets, processions and public rejoicings. It would have
been quite unusual if there had been no festival play of some kind. It
is uncertain whether Poliziano's "Orfeo" was written for this occasion,
but there seems to be a fair amount of reason for believing that it was.
At any rate it could not have been produced later than 1483, for we know
it was made in honor of this Cardinal and that he died in that year.
If the "Orfeo" was played in 1472 it must have been written when its
author was no more than eighteen years of age. But even at that age he
was already famous. He was born in Montepulciano on July 14, 1454. The
family name was Ambrogini, but from the Latinized name of his native
town turned into Italian he constructed the title of Poliziano, by which
he was afterward known. At the age of ten he was sent to Florence, then
governed by Lorenzo de Medici. He studied under the famous Greeks
Argyropoulos and Kallistos and the equally famous Italians, Landino and
Ficino.[13] Gifted with precocious talent, he wrote at the age of
sixteen, astonishing epigrams in Latin and Greek. At seventeen he began
to translate the "Iliad" into Latin hexameters, and his success with the
second book attracted the attention of Lorenzo himself. Poliziano was
now known as the "Homeric youth." It was not long before he was hailed
the king of Italian scholars and the literary genius of his time. When
he was but thirty he became professor of Greek and Latin in the
University of Florence, and drew to his feet students from all parts of
Europe. John Reuchlin hastened from Germany, William Grocyn from the
shades of Oxford, and from the same seat of learning the mighty Thomas
Linacre, later to found the Royal College of Physicians. Lorenzo's sons,
Piero and Giovanni, were for a time his pupils, but their mother took
them away. Poliziano was as vicious as the typical men of his time and
the prudent Clarice knew it.
[Footnote 13: John Argyropoulos, who was born at Constantinople in
1416, was one of the first teachers of Greek in Italy, where he
was long a guest of Palla degli Strozzi at Padua. In 1456 he went
to Florence, where Cosimo de Medici's son and grandson were among
his pupils. He spent fifteen years in Florence and thence went to
Rome. To this master, George Gemistos and George Trapezuntios, the
acquisition of Greek knowledge at Florence in the fifteenth
century was chiefly due. It should be particularly noted that all
of them went to Italy before the fall of the Greek empire in 1453.
Andronicus Kallistos was one of the popular lecturers of the time
and one of the first Greeks to visit France. Cristoforo Landino,
one of the famous coterie of intellectual men associated with
Lorenzo de Medici, took the chair of rhetoric and poetry at
Florence in 1454. He paid especial attention in his lectures to
the Italian poets, and in 1481 published an edition of Dante. His
famous "Camaldolese Discussions," modeled in part on Cicero's
"Tusculan Disputations," is well known to students of Italian
literature. Marsilio Ficino was a philosopher, and his chief aim
was a reconciliation of ancient philosophy with Christianity.]
Dwelling in a villa at Fiesole, provided for him by Lorenzo, Poliziano
occupied his life with teaching and writing, occasionally paying visits
to other cities. In 1492 Lorenzo passed away and Poliliziano wrote an
elegy which is to this day regarded as unique in modern Latin verse. In
1494 the famous scholar followed his patron, even while Savonarola was
setting Italy in a ferment of passionate religious reaction against the
poetic and sensuous paganism infused into the thought of their time by
Poliziano and Lorenzo. The scholar was laid in San Marco and they set
upon his tomb this epitaph: "Here lies the angel who had one head, and
what is new, three tongues."
This is not the place for a discussion of Poliziano's importance in
literature, but it is essential that we should understand the
significance of his achievement in the "Orfeo." The philosophic and
poetic spirit of the period and of this poem has already been discussed.
But we may not dismiss the subject without noting that Poliziano
powerfully forwarded the impulse toward the employment of Italian as a
literary vehicle. Too many of the Italian humanists had preferred Latin,
and had looked down upon the native language as uncouth and fit only for
the masses. But when the authority of Poliziano was thrown upon the side
of Italian and when he made such a triumphant demonstration of its
beauties in his "Stanze" and his "Orfeo," he carried conviction to all
the writers of his country.
According to Poliziano's own statement he wrote the "Orfeo" at the
request of the Cardinal of Mantua in the space of two days, "among
continual disturbances, and in the vulgar tongue, that it might be the
better comprehended by the spectators." It was his opinion that this
creation would bring him more shame than honor. There are only 434 lines
in the "Orfeo" and therefore the feat of writing it in two days was no
great one for a man of Poliziano's ability.
Sismondi[14] regards this work as an eclogue rather than a drama. He
says: "The universal homage paid to Virgil had a decided influence on
the rising drama. The scholars were persuaded that this cherished poet
combined in himself all the different kinds of excellence; and as they
created a drama before they possessed a theater, they imagined that
dialogue rather than action, was the essence of the dramatic art. The
Buccolics appeared to them a species of comedies or tragedies, less
animated it is true, but more poetical than the dramas of Terence and of
Seneca, or perhaps of the Greeks. They attempted indeed to unite these
two kinds, to give interest by action to the tranquil reveries of the
shepherds, and to preserve a pastoral charm in the more violent
expression of passion. The Orpheus, though divided into five acts,
though mingled with chorus, and terminating with a tragic incident, is
still an eclogue rather than a drama."
[Footnote 14: "Historical View of the Literature of the South of
Europe," by J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi, translated by Thomas
Roscoe. London, 1895.]
Sismondi's perception of the survival of the pastoral character in this
new form of entertainment is something we can appreciate, for this
character has survived all the experiments made on the "Orfeo" legend
and it dominates even the epoch-making work of Gluck.
Symonds, who had a broader view of art than Sismondi, had no difficulty
in perceiving that the true genius of this new drama was lyric. He says:
"To do the 'Orfeo' justice we ought to have heard it with its own
accompaniment of music." He enlarges upon the failure of the author to
seize the opportunity to make much of the really tragic moment in the
play, namely that expressing the frenzied grief of Orfeo over the loss
of Euridice. Yet, he notes, "when we return from these criticisms to
the real merit of the piece, we find in it a charm of musical language,
a subtlety of musical movement, which are irresistibly fascinating.
Thought and feeling seem alike refined to a limpidity that suits the
flow of melody in song. The very words evaporate and lose themselves
in floods of sound." Surely, here is the description of an ideal opera
book.
Two editions of the play are known and both are published in a volume
edited by Carducci.[15] The first version is that originally printed in
1494 and reprinted frequently up to 1776. In the latter year the second
version was brought out by Padre Ireneo Affo at Venice. This was in all
probability a revision of the poem by Poliziano. In this version the
division into five acts is noted and there are additional poetic
passages of great beauty. It may be worth a note in passing that in 1558
a version of the "Orfeo" in octave stanzas was published for the use of
the common people and that as late as 1860 it continued to be printed
from time to time for the use of the Tuscan contadini.
[Footnote 15: "Le Stanze, l'Orfeo e le Rime di Messer Angelo
Abrogini Poliziano," per Giosue Carducci. Firenze, 1863.]
The main movement of Poliziano's poem is intrusted to the traditional
octave stanza, but we find passages of terza rima. There are also choral
passages which suggest the existence of the frottola, the carnival song
and the ballata. The play is introduced by Mercury acting as prologue.
This was in accordance with time honored custom which called for an
"announcer of the festival." The first scene is between Mopsus, an old
shepherd, and Aristæus, a young one. Aristæus, after the manner of
shepherds, has seen a nymph, and has become desperately enamored. Mopsus
shakes his head and bids the young man beware. Aristæus says that his
nymph loves melody. He urges Mopsus:
"Forth from thy wallet take thy pipe and we
Will sing awhile beneath the leafy trees;
For well my nymph is pleased with melody."
Now follows a number which the author calls a "canzona"--song. The first
stanza of the Italian text will serve to show the form.
"Udite, selve, mie dolce parole,
Poi che la ninfa mia udir non vole.
La bella ninfa e sorda al mio lamento
E'l suon di nostra fistula non cura:
Di cio si lagna il mio cornuto armento,
Ne vuol bagnare il grifo in acqua pura
Ne vuol toccar la tenera verdura;
Tanto del suo pastor gl'incresce e dole."
The two introductory lines preface each stanza. This first one is thus
translated by Symonds,[16] whose English version is here used
throughout.
"Listen, ye wild woods, to my roundelay;
Since the fair nymph will hear not, though I pray.
The lovely nymph is deaf to my lament,
Nor heeds the music of this rustic reed;
Wherefore my flocks and herds are ill content,
Nor bathe the hoof where grows the water weed,
Nor touch the tender herbage on the mead;
So sad because their shepherd grieves are they."
[Footnote 16: In "Sketches and Studies in Italy," pp. 217-224.]
There are four stanzas. The nymph who has bewitched Aristæus is Euridice
and the second scene shows us the shepherd pursuing her. It appears that
in trying to escape from the shepherd she was bitten by a deadly snake,
for in the third scene a dryad tells the story of the tragedy to her
sisters. In the first edition, "dei codici chigiano e Riccardiano," the
next scene introduces Orpheus, who sings a song with Latin text
beginning thus:
"O meos longum modulata lusus
Quos amor primam docuit juventam,
Flecte nunc mecum numeros novumque
Dic, lyra, carmen."
The most significant matter connected with this scene in the early
version of the poem is the stage direction, which reads thus: "Orfeo
cantando sopra il monte in su la lira e seguente versi latini fu
interotto da un pastore nunciatore della morte di Euridice." The name of
the actor of Orfeo is mentioned as Baccio Ugolino. This stage "business"
in English reads: "Orpheus singing on the hill to his lyre the following
Latin verses is interrupted by a shepherd announcing the death of
Euridice." Thirteen verses of the song are given before the entrance of
the shepherd, and immediately after the announcement Orpheus descends
into Hades. In the Padre Affo's later version of the work this song of
Orpheus does not appear, but a dryad announces to her sisters the death
of Euridice and then follows a chorus:
"L'Aria di pianti s'oda risuonare,
Che d' ogni luce e priva:
E al nostro lagrimare
Crescano i fiumi al colmo della riva--"
The refrain, "l'aria di pianti" is repeated at the end of each stanza.
At the conclusion of this chorus the dryads leave the stage. Orpheus
enters singing a Latin stanza of four lines beginning:
"Musa, triumphales titulos et gesta canamus
Herculis."
In Padre Affo's edition it is at this point that a dryad tells Orpheus
of Euridice's death. Mnesillus, a satyr, mocks him. The hero now sings
in the vernacular:
"Ora piangiamo, O sconsolata lyra," etc.
"Let us lament, O lyre disconsolate:
Our wonted music is in tune no more."
The story now moves similarly in both editions. Orpheus determines to
descend to Hades to try to move the infernal powers "with tearful songs
and words of honey'd woe." He remembers that he has moved stones and
turned the flowing streams. He proceeds at once to the iron gates and
raises his song. Pluto demands to know
"What man is he who with his golden lyre
Hath moved the gates that never move,
While the dead folk repeat his dirge of love."
These words leave no doubt that Orpheus sang. Even Proserpine, the
spouse of Pluto, confesses to her lord that she feels the new stirrings
of sympathy. She desires to hear more of this wondrous song. Now Orpheus
sings in octave stanzas. The last stanza of his song is thus translated
by Symonds:
"I pray not to you by the waves forlorn
Of marshy Styx or dismal Acheron,
By Chaos, where the mighty world was born,
Or by the sounding flames of Phlegethon;
But by the fruit that charmed thee on that morn
When thou didst leave our world for this dread throne!
O queen, if thou reject this pleading breath,
I will no more return, but ask for death."
Pluto yields up Euridice according to the well-known condition that
Orpheus keep silence and look not back till out of Hades. The poet again
sings four Latin lines and with his bride starts for the upper world.
The catastrophe is treated in much the same manner as it has been in
subsequent versions of the story. Euridice disappears. Orpheus is about
to turn back, but he is stopped by Tisiphone. He then breaks into
virulent raillery, swears he'll never love woman more and advises all
husbands to seek divorce. All this is in resounding octave rime. Then a
Mænad calls upon her sisters to defend their sex. They drive Orpheus off
the stage and slay him. Returning they sing a chorus, which is the
finale of the opera.
"Ciascun segua, O Bacco, te;
Bacco, Bacco, oé, oé!
Di corimbi e di verd'edere
Cinto il capo abbiam cosi
Per servirti a tuo richiedere
Festiggiando notte e di.
Ognun breva: Bacco e qui:
E lasciate bere a me.
Ciascun segua, O Bacco, te."
This chorus is translated by Symonds. The first stanza, above given in
the original Italian, is translated thus:
"Bacchus! we must all follow thee!
Bacchus! Bacchus! Ohe! Ohe!
With ivy coronals, bunch and berry,
Crown we our heads to worship thee!
Thou hast bidden us to make merry
Day and night with jollity!
Drink then! Bacchus is here! Drink free,
And hand ye the drinking cup to me!
Bacchus! Bacchus! we must all follow thee!
Bacchus! Bacchus! Ohe! Ohe!"
This is a sketch of the poem of Poliziano, on a story which became the
subject of many operas, down to the time of Gluck. This is the story set
by Monteverde in his famous work, which has recently been revived in
Italy with success. This story was utilized by Peri and Caccini in their
"Euridice," which is accepted as the first opera written in the new
representative style of the sixteenth century to receive a public
performance.
But, as we have already noted, in this "Orfeo," performed at the Mantuan
court, there was so much of the material of a genuine lyric drama that
it now becomes our business to examine more closely the character of the
musical features and the manner of the performance. The points at which
music must have been heard are clearly indicated by the text. Before
proceeding to a consideration of this music, let us picture to ourselves
how the work was performed.