OTHER POETS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
The three great writers whose works we have just examined, tower above
their contemporaries at an immeasurable height. Still, many able poems
were produced, and many authors are worthy of mention.
The first of these in point of time is EUSTACHIO MANFREDI, of Bologna,
who died in 1739. He was a mathematician and an astronomer, and he
added poetry to his other accomplishments. He was in love with a lady
of the name of Giulia Vandi, but she became a nun, and she was as much
lost to him as if they had been severed by death. He expressed his
sorrow in many sonnets and odes. He laboured sedulously to do justice
to his noble subject, but he had not the magic gift of genius which
alone confers immortality. His lines are not particularly melodious,
and though everything is good, nothing is enchanting.
NICCOLÒ FORTIGUERRA occupied many high posts in the Roman Curia. He
rose to great dignities, but it is said that he wished to rise higher,
and that his death in 1736 was caused by grief at not being made a
Cardinal. He amused his leisure hours with the composition of poetry,
and he gained the distinction of being the last poet to produce a long
epic in the style of Ariosto. This poem, called the _Ricciardetto,_
although the last in point of time, is by no means the last in point of
merit. He had a truly poetical mind and a genial disposition, and there
is a pleasing gaiety about his work that only wants to be expressed in
a style more rich and vigorous to achieve absolute greatness. It is
said that he made a wager that he would write his epic in as many days
as it contained cantos, and that he won his bet. The cantos are so long
that it is scarcely credible that he could have written each in a day.
Pope Clement XII took great interest in the work, and probably that
interest inspired the poet with the ambition of being raised to the
Roman purple. He published the _Ricciardetto_ under the pseudonym of
"Carteromaco."
CARLO INNOCENZO FRUGONI was born in Genoa in 1692, and died at Parma
as Court Poet in 1768. _Frugonian_ poetry has become a bye-word to
indicate abundance of so-called eloquence, poverty of thought, and
cheap and hackneyed imagery. But Frugoni himself was by no means
a man devoid of talent. He had wit, he had imagination, he had
fertility. But he was without austerity of judgment. Whatever he wrote
delighted him, and he thought it would delight his readers. He did
.not stop to correct or to condense. He gave everything with perfect
self-satisfaction to the world. His verse is often most flowing and
musical, such as Metastasio might have written in his boyhood. He is
successful in his sonnets, chiefly because the strict symmetry of
that kind of composition prevents him from indulging in his favourite
foible of prolixity. Some of his lyric poems have fancy and elegance
to recommend them, but these good qualities are drowned in an ocean
of verbiage. He delighted in blank verse, and one of his funniest
compositions in that metre is entitled _L'Ombra di Pope,_ written
on the birth of a son of Lord Holderness, British Ambassador to the
Venetian Republic. The Ghost of Pope, in answer to Frugoni's prayers,
arises and prophecies the future of the noble infant and sings the
praises of its lovely mother. After paying many compliments to
Frugoni's poetical talents the ghost finally vanishes at break of day.
ALFONSO VARANO was a more earnest and impassioned spirit than Frugoni,
and he deserves the credit of having, both by precept and example,
drawn attention to the neglected beauties of Dante. His principal work
is his _Book of Visions,_ written in the metre of Dante and redolent
of his style. Varano resolutely discarded the hackneyed mythological
allusions that disfigure the works of his contemporaries. He is
strictly Christian, and he endeavours to be medieval. But he has hardly
sufficient foundation to go upon, his Visions are about nothing in
particular, and his style is not sufficiently flexible and picturesque
to delight readers who cannot help being reminded of Dante.
The Marquis GIAMBATTISTA SPOLVERINI, of Verona, born in 1695, died
in 1763, is remarkable for one extremely well-written poem in blank
verse on the cultivation of rice. The subject, as may be imagined, had
not previously been treated in poetry, and the author made himself
complete master of the technicalities of his theme. He devoted himself
to the perusal of the great models of poetry, and to writing verses
himself in order to acquire the necessary flexibility of style. He
laboured for many years over the details of the one work by which he
hoped to be remembered, and at last, in the memorable year 1758, he
gave _La Coltivazione del Riso_ to the world. But, alas! the world
paid no heed to the slender volume and went its way as usual. Deep was
the mortification of Spolverini. He could not realise that a poem so
important to himself, should appear so insignificant to the public. His
health and spirits gave way, and he died, unnoticed and unlamented, in
1763. The utter neglect of his contemporaries was neither discerning
nor creditable, and later years did justice to the numerous, though
unobtrusive, beauties of the poem. He has the merit, rare in his age,
of going straight to life and nature, and what he observes he is able
to record in spirited verse. But the subject does not appeal to the
general reader, and hence probably the utter indifference with which it
was received.[1]
GIAMBATTISTA PASTORINI, a native of Genoa, wrote a noble sonnet on the
city of his birth.
TOMMASO CRUDELI wrote some pretty fables. He languished for years in
the dungeons of the Inquisition, and died at the age of forty-two in
1745.
PAOLO ROLLI is remarkable for having translated _Paradise Lost_ into
Italian. He lived for many years as teacher of Italian in London where
he seems to have been well received. He returned to Italy in 1747 and
chose Todi in Umbria as his residence, where he died twenty years later
aged eighty.
Cassiani of Modena, produced some spirited Sonnets; so did ONOFRIO
MINZONI of Ferrara, and PROSPERO MANARA may be mentioned for the same
reason.
PIGNOTTI and BERTOLA were good fabulists, and Bertola enjoyed the
further distinction of being the first to introduce German Literature
into Italy.
Some of LUDOVICO SAVIOLI'S poems are musical in diction, but no poet of
the age revels more in the threadbare mythology of poetasters.
GIAN CARLO PASSERONI wrote a burlesque _Life of Cicero_ in one
hundred and one Cantos and in Ottava Rima, full of comic digressions,
by no means without wit and sprightliness, but quite spoilt by the
preposterous length to which the poem is spun out. His career bears
much similarity to that of Parini. Like the greater poet, he was a
priest, he lived in Milan, and he suffered many privations owing to
poverty. He seems to have carried not only disinterestedness, but utter
indifference to his affairs, to a culpable extent.
The ABBE CASTI was another poet who spoilt his wit by his prolixity.
He wrote the _Animali Parlanti_ and a collection of stories in verse,
less poetical and more indelicate than the prose of Boccaccio, and
finally a bitter satire on Catherine the Second of Russia. He had wit
in abundance and a coarse and ready style. His feuds with rival poets
were frequent and bitter, and Parini wrote some stinging verses against
him. In spite of his disreputable character he was nominated by the
Court of Vienna "Poeta Cesareo" after Metastasio's death, and the
appointment caused universal surprise and reprobation. After Casti the
post was discontinued. He died in Paris in 1503.
GIOVANNI FANTONI was an elegant, but somewhat conventional, imitator
of Horace. At the outbreak of the French Revolution, he nearly lost
his reason from excessive zeal for liberty, and his advanced opinions
brought down upon him many persecutions.
LORENZO MASCHERONI, a mathematician and a man of science, is remarkable
for a pleasing poem called _L'Invito a Lesbia Cidonia._ A lady of
Bergamo, the Countess Paolina Secco Suardo Grismondi, was known in the
Arcadian Academy as "Lesbia Cidonia." She was invited to visit Rome
when Mascheroni wished her to come to Pavia where he was living, and he
tried to induce her to do so by writing his poem full of descriptions
of the beauties of Pavia and of the treasures of its Museum. This
pleasing and original poem was much admired in its day. Mascheroni
wrote other poems in Italian and Latin, but nothing to equal this
little masterpiece. He was born in 1750 at Castagnetta, a small village
near Bergamo, and died in 1800 in Paris, whither he had retired during
the political storms that convulsed his country.
In reviewing the poetry of the Eighteenth Century the most striking
fact is the remarkable advance in the art of writing blank verse.
Spolverini, Parini and Alfieri produced works in that metre more
masterly than those of former ages. These poets know how to vary their
cadences, how to sustain the melody, how to produce an impressive
close; and if Spolverini is at times a trifle prolix and Parini a
trifle heavy, Alfieri skilfully Avoids both faults, and as far as
rhythm is concerned, his verse is absolutely perfect; but only his
blank verse; his rhymes, like those of Parini, are vastly inferior and
not nearly so gratifying to the ear.
[Footnote 1: The work was dedicated to Elizabeth Farnese, widow of
Philip V of Spain. The fact of her accepting the dedication must
have given it some importance in the eyes of the world. Ambrosoli is
my authority for its cold reception. A copy of the second edition,
published 1764, is in my possession. The editor says the poem was
received with universal admiration, but perhaps his motive was to
induce the public by that statement to buy his edition. Probably the
fact of the author's death, as is so often the case, drew attention to
his poem.]