(considered as a poet);
FICINO, PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, POLITIAN,
THE PULCI, etc.
After the deaths of Petrarch and Boccaccio, the cause of learning was,
to a certain degree, lost. The study of Greek and the search for
manuscripts was discontinued. The first person who brought that language
again into notice, was Emanuel Chrysoloras, a noble Greek, who was
frequently sent into Italy on embassies by the emperor of
Constantinople, and employed his leisure in teaching his native tongue
in Florence. His disciples were numerous: among these. Poggio
Bracciolini was the most distinguished. He discovered and collected a
vast number of the most valuable manuscripts. Besides the philosophic
and beautiful poem of Lucretius, we owe to him the complete copies of
Quintilian, Plautus, Statius, Silius Italicus, Columella, and many
others. Several of these exist only from the copy found by him, and were
thus rescued from certain destruction. "I did not find them in
libraries," he says, "which their dignity demanded, but in a dark and
obscure dungeon at the bottom of a tower, in which they were leading the
life of the damned." Filelfo was also an ardent collector. The
discussions between the Roman and Greek churches brought several Greek
scholars and philosophers into Italy, and through them the Platonic
doctrines were known to the Italians.
[Sidenote: 1438.]
Gemisthus Pletho, who had been master of Chrysoloras, but who survived
him many years, was their chief promulgator. They were in opposition to
the Aristotelian philosophy, which had so long been the only one taught
in the schools of Italy; but their glowing beauty and imagination were
adapted to enchant all who heard them. Cosmo de' Medici became their
convert, and resolved to establish an academy at Florence for their
study and propagation. He caused Marsiglio Ficino, the son of his
favourite physician, to be educated for this purpose by the teachers of
Platonic philosophy.
[Sidenote: 1453.]
Cosmo was also the founder of the Medicean library. The taking of
Constantinople by the Turks aided the advancement of learning; and while
Cosmo protected many learned Greeks who took refuge at Florence, they
spread refinement and knowledge throughout the peninsula.
[Sidenote 1464.]
Cosmo died soon after; and as his son Piero did not long survive him,
Lorenzo succeeded to his wealth and political influence. Lorenzo had
been brought up with solicitous attention. He was fortunate in his
mother. Madonna Lucretia, a lady of considerable talents and
accomplishments, a lover of learning, and patroness of learned men. He
was first the pupil of Gentile d' Urbino, bishop of Arezzo; and
afterwards of Christofero Landino; and a warm attachment subsisted
between master and pupil. He soon gave manifestations of the
magnificence of his disposition; and his love of poetry developed itself
at an early age. After the death of Cosmo, and his father Piero,
however, his life was no longer one of studious leisure or youthful
enjoyment; but visited by many disastrous occurrences.
[Sidenote 1478.]
The conspiracy of the Pazzi was directed against his life and that of
his brother. Giuliano was its victim; while he with difficulty escaped
from the poniard of the assassin. He was scarcely free from these
domestic dangers, when he encountered greater foreign ones, from the
implacable enmity of Sixtus VI. This pope leagued almost all Italy
against Florence, declaring at the same time that Lorenzo was the object
of their attack; and that if he were sacrificed, Florence should obtain
peace. Lorenzo maintained the weight of this coalition with firmness and
dignity.
[Sidenote 1479.]
With heroic gallantry he took the whole responsibility on his own
person, and threw himself into the hands of the king of Naples.
[Sidenote 1480.]
His firmness and talents enabled him to induce this monarch to conclude
a treaty beneficial and honourable to Florence, and his authority in the
republic was thus confirmed greater than ever. From this time he
occupied himself by establishing an enduring peace in Italy; not
pursuing his object by pusillanimous concessions, but by an unremitted
attention to the course of events, and sound policy in preserving the
balance of power among the Italian states.
From the anxieties and cares attendant on his public life, he was glad
to find relaxation in the cultivation of poetry and the pursuits of
philosophy. He loved literature and the fine arts, and devoted much of
his time and fortune to their cultivation. He encouraged Greek learning,
and was an enthusiastic Platonist. His chief friends were literary
men--Politian, Marsiglio Ficino, and the three brothers of the name of
Pulci. He busied himself in raising and giving reputation to the
university of Pisa. He instituted a yearly celebration of the
anniversary of Plato's birth and death, and was the cause that his
refined philosophy became the fashion in Italy. All the learned wrote
and spoke Plato; and in Florence in particular, classic learning was an
indispensable qualification in a well-educated man.
One of the chief merits of Lorenzo is derived from the revival of his
native language. A century had elapsed since the golden age of Petrarch
and Boccaccio, but the Italian language, instead of redeeming the
promise of its birth, had remained mute and inglorious. The neglect
which so speedily darkened the native literature, may be attributed to
these very men, and especially to Petrarch, who cast disgrace over what
he called the vulgar tongue, and taught that Latin was the only worthy
medium by which learned men should communicate their ideas--and such
Latin! However, the spirit of improvement, which is the most valuable
attribute of human nature, led the students who succeeded him to
cultivate and understand the implement he placed in their hands. They
applied themselves to a critical examination of Latin; and after all, it
is perhaps, to the bald, unformed Latinity of Petrarch, that we owe the
knowledge which the scholar of the present day possesses of the
construction and delicacies of that language. If he had not taught the
world, that the object chiefly worthy of their ambition was to imitate
the works of Virgil and Cicero, no one had spent the labour necessary to
the entire understanding of the language of the Romans.
Yet, while this advantage was derived from his mistake, imagination and
genius were silenced; little prose and no poetry, either in Latin or the
vulgar tongue, appeared in Italy. The writers educated by Cosmo,
Politian, and Ficino, still adhered to the hereditary error, and wrote
in Latin. Lorenzo first broke through these rules, and expressed in his
native language the fragile and delicate ideas inspired by a poetic
imagination. He ranks high as a poet: he does not possess the sublimity
and grace of Dante, nor the elegance, tenderness, and incomparable
sweetness of Petrarch; but his merits are original and conspicuous:
simplicity and vivacity adorn his verses. His love poems are full of
fire, and come from the heart; his descriptions are delightful, from
their truth, elegance, and flow of fancy throughout; his diction is that
of a genuine poet.
It is singular, that although Lorenzo possessed the germ of real poetry
in his mind, he began to work himself up to writing verses in a manner
that appears cold to our northern imaginations: he resolved to love, and
resolved to write verses on her he loved; yet, being a poet, and a man
whose heart easily opened itself to the warmer affections, no doubt a
great deal of real feeling accompanied his aspirations. He himself gives
the account of all these circumstances in a commentary written on his
first sonnets.
His brother Guiliano had been deeply attached to a lovely girl named
Simonetta, who died in the bloom of beauty: it is supposed, that he
alludes to her when he describes the excitement caused by the public
funeral of a beautiful young lady, whose admirers crowded round her open
bier, and gazed, for the last time, on the pallid face of the object of
their adoration, which was exposed uncovered to their view, accompanying
the funeral with their tears. All the eloquence and talent of Florence
were exerted to pay honour to her memory in prose and verse. Lorenzo
himself composed a few sonnets, and to give them greater effect, he
tried to imagine that he also was a lover, mourning over the untimely
end of one beloved, and then again he reflected that he might write
still more feelingly, if he could discover a living object, to whom to
address his homage. He looked round among the beauties of Florence, to
discover one whose perfections should satisfy his judgment, as worthy of
inspiring a sincere and constant attachment. At last, at a public
festival, he beheld a girl so lovely and attractive in her appearance,
that, as he gazed on her, he said to himself, "If this person were
possessed of the delicacy, the understanding, and accomplishments of her
who is lately dead, most certainly she excels her in personal charms."
On becoming acquainted with her, he found his fondest dreams realised:
she was perfectly beautiful, clever, vivacious, yet full of dignity and
sweetness. It is a pity that this account rather chills us as we read
his sonnets, and we feel them rather as coming from the head than heart:
yet they are tender and graceful; and it is not difficult for a youth of
an ardent disposition, and an Italian, to love a beautiful girl, even at
the word of command.
One of these sonnets possesses the simplicity and grace which
distinguish Lorenzo's poetry: we give Mr. Roscoe's translation of it,
and yet are not satisfied. Mr. Roscoe wrote at a time when the
common-places of versification, brought in by the imitators of Pope,
were still in vogue; but this observation applies chiefly to the
beginning of the sonnet; the conclusion is better, yet the whole wants
the brightness and spring of the original. Happy are those who can refer
to that.[78]
"Seek he who will in grandeur to be blest,
Place in proud halls, and splendid courts, his joy;
For pleasure or for gold his arts employ,
Whilst all his hours unnumber'd cares molest.
A little field in native flowrets drest,
A rivulet in soft numbers gliding by,
A bird, whose love-sick note salutes the sky,
With sweeter magic lull my cares to rest.
And shadowy woods, and rocks, and towering hills,
And caves obscure, and nature's freeborn train,
And some lone nymph that timorous speeds along,
Each in my mind some gentle thought instils
Of those bright eyes that absence shrouds in vain;
Ah, gentle thoughts! soon lost the city cares among."
Many sonnets and canzoni were written to celebrate this lady's
perfections and his passion, but he never mentions her name. From
contemporary poets, Politian and Verini, who addressed her, and Valori,
who wrote a life of Lorenzo, we learn, that her name was Lucretia, of
the noble family of Donati; an ancestor of whom, Cuzio Donato, had been
celebrated for his military enterprises. But it is mutual love that
excites our sympathy, and there is no token that Lucretia regarded her
lover with more fervour than he deserved; for, however Verini may
undertake to prove that he was worthy of a return for his attachment, a
different opinion must be formed, when we find that he married a short
time after, not the sighed for Lucretia, but Clarice degli Orsini; and
although the usual excuse is given, that this marriage was consented to
by him to please his relatives, and as he expresses it, "I took for a
wife, or rather was given me;" yet as Lucretia must have been the victim
of his obedience, it is agreeable to find that she gave slight ear to
his empty or deceptive protestations.
His other poems were composed as recreation during a busy life, and many
of them are animated by glowing sensibility or light-hearted hilarity.
Among them the most celebrated is "La Nencia da Barbarino," where he
makes a swain praise his mistress in rustic phrase; this is a dangerous
experiment, but Lorenzo perfectly succeeded. His poem is totally devoid
of affectation, and is so charming for its earnestness and simplicity,
that it was repeated and sung by every one in Florence. Many tried to
imitate the style, but vainly; and they complained that, though many
peasant girls were celebrated, La Nencia da Barbarino was the only
rustic beauty who could gain the popular favour.
His Canzoni Carnaleschi are animated and original; he was the inventor
of this style of song. He exerted himself, on all occasions, to vary and
refine the public amusements of Florence, and during the carnival, the
period of gaiety and pleasure in Catholic countries, introduced
processions and dances of a novel and delightful description. It was the
custom of the women to form themselves into bands of twelve, and, linked
hand with hand, to sing as they danced in a circle. Lorenzo composed
several canzoni a ballo, which became favourites for these occasions.
One of these,--
"Ven venga Maggio
E 'l Gonfalon selvaggio," &c.
"Welcome, May,
And the rustic banner," &c.--
is the prettiest and most spirited song for May ever written. His
processions and masquerades afforded also subjects for verse. Bands of
people paraded the city in character, personating triumphs, or
exhibitions of the arts; and Lorenzo wrote songs, which they chanted as
they passed along. It is singular, that, free and energetic as the
Florentines were, yet the songs composed for them never spoke of
liberty, but turned upon love only: love was all their theme--love that
was often licentiousness, and yet described with such truth and beauty,
as must have tended greatly to enervate, and even to vitiate, the
various persons that formed these gay companies. Lorenzo's canzoni are
tainted with this defect.
Lorenzo was a faithful and kind, though not a fond husband. His feelings
were always held in discipline by him; and if he were too sensitive to
the influence of beauty, yet his actions were all regulated by that
excellent sense of justice and duty which is his admirable
characteristic. There are some elegiac stanzas preserved of his, which
prove that he suffered at one time the struggles and errors of passion,
and was subdued by it to other thoughts than those which his reason
approved. How different is this poem to those addressed to Lucretia
Donati. There is no Platonic refinement, no subtlety, no conceit, no
imitation of Petrarch; its diction is clear and sweet; truth and
strength of feeling animate each expression; it bears the stamp of
heartfelt sincerity, and is adorned by all the delicacy which real
passion inspires. "Ah!" he exclaims, "had we been joined in marriage!
Had you been earlier born, or had I come later into the world!" These
stanzas are even left unfinished, and probably were concealed, as
revealing a secret which it would have been fatal to have discovered to
the world.
Besides the animated and gay songs, and choruses, in which Lorenzo is
unrivalled, he wrote several descriptive poems: one long one relates the
history of how his favourite country house, named Ambra, was carried
away by the overflowing of the Ombrone. He figures the villa to be a
nymph, of whom the river god is enamoured, and, like one of Ovid's
heroines, she falls a victim to his pursuit. The descriptions in this
poem are lively, true, and graceful. The "Caccia di Falcone" gives a
spirited detail of the disasters that befall falconers: he bring in
several of his friends by name. "Where is Luigi Pulci," he cries, "that
we do not hear him? He is gone before in that grove, for some whim has
seized him, and he has retreated to meditate a sonnet."
[Sidenote: April
8.
1492]
Lorenzo died at the early age of forty-four, of a painful and
inexplicable disorder, which, attacking his stomach, gave rise to the
idea that he was poisoned. He was considerate and affectionate to the
last; endeavouring to impress his system of policy on his son's mind,
and exerting himself to lighten the grief of those around him. Potents
and wonders followed his death, which even Machiavelli, then a very
young man, deemed miraculous. He was universally lamented; and the
downfall of his family, which occurred soon after, through the
misconduct of his eldest son, Piero, renewed the grief of the friends
who survived him.