1569-1625.
Giambattista Marini was born at Naples on the 18th of October, 1569. His
father, a celebrated jurisconsult, was desirous of bringing up his son
to the same profession; but the youth felt an unconquerable distaste to
the career of the law. Marini possessed a fervid and lively imagination,
and a facility in the composition of poetry which determined, without a
question, his destiny in life. There are many poets even, we may say, of
a higher class than Marini--many more sublime, more earnest, more
pathetic--but, in his degree, Marini is a genuine poet, and gave himself
up with confidence and ardour to the pursuit of that fame of which he
reaped so large a harvest. His father, angry at his resistance to his
wishes, was doubly indignant when he gave open testimony of his new
career, and actually published a volume of poetry: he turned him from
his house, and refused to supply him with the necessaries of life.
But Marini was born under a more fortunate star than usually smiles upon
men who give themselves to the fervent aspirations of genius. Amiable
and generous as he was, he did not possess that stern independence of
disposition, nor that self-engrossed intensity of feeling, which often
render poets an intractable race. Several noblemen stepped forward to
assist and patronise the young adventurer in the groves of Parnassus.
[Sidenote: 1589.
Ætat.
20.]
The duke of Bovino, the prince of Conca, and the marquess of Manso, the
friend of Tasso, offered him protection and shelter. He became
acquainted with Tasso, who encouraged him to pursue his poetic career;
and he published his Canzoni de' Baci, which acquired for him a great
reputation.
He was concerned in some youthful scrapes; and having assisted a friend
to escape, who had been imprisoned on account of a love adventure, he
was himself thrown into a prison. He amused himself there by writing gay
and light-hearted verses; but soon after he escaped from confinement,
and fled to Rome, where he took up his abode with monsignore Crescenzi.
With him he visited Venice, but returned to Rome after a short absence,
and entered the service of cardinal Aldobrandini. At Venice he published
a volume of lyrical poetry, which established his fame.
Marini was always a popular man, and beloved and esteemed by his
friends. When Paul V. was created pope, his patron, cardinal
Aldobrandini, was sent as legate to Ravenna, and Marini accompanied him.
He frequently visited Venice and Bologna, and formed intimacies with the
men of reputation and talent residing in those cities. He was devoted to
the cultivation of poetry; and here he first conceived the idea of the
"Adone." He accompanied the cardinal to Turin, where Charles Emanuel,
duke of Savoy, received him at his court with the most flattering marks
of distinction. Marini repaid him by a panegyric, which he called "Il
Ritratto" or the Portrait, and was rewarded by the gift of a gold chain,
and made cavalier of the order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus. When
cardinal Aldobrandini returned to Ravenna, the poet was invited to
remain at the Piedmontese court; and, with the consent of his former
patron, he accepted the offer.
Marini's life was chiefly diversified by literary quarrels, in which he
came off with his usual good fortune. He had already sustained several
skirmishes with various authors, when the most deadly war was declared
against him by Gasparo Murtola, a Genoese, and secretary to the duke. He
believed himself to be the first poet of the age, and was indignant at
the favour shown to Marini. He levelled an attack of epigrams and
satirical sonnets against him, which Marini answered, and was considered
to have the best of the battle: they published these collectively
afterwards, under the title of the Murtoleide and the Marineide: but
Murtola, still more angry at the advantages gained by his adversary in
this paper hostility, took a more injurious mode of showing his enmity:
he shot at him as he was walking in the public square, but, missing his
aim, wounded a favourite of the duke who was with him. Murtola was
thrown into prison, and condemned to death. Marini generously interceded
in his favour, and at his solicitation he was pardoned and liberated.
Murtola, more angry and envious than ever, brought forward a poem of his
enemy, which satirised the duke of Savoy. In vain Marini represented
that this work had been written at Naples in his youth, many years
before. He was thrown into prison, nor liberated till the marchese Manso
sent his testimony of the truth of what he had declared, as to the
period of its composition. His tranquillity does not appear to have
suffered by this persecution. He continued to devote himself to learning
and poetry: he applied himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures and
the writings of the Fathers, and published his poem on the Murder of the
Innocents, which he considered his best production.
His fame, spread beyond the Alps, had induced queen Marguerite of France
to invite him to her court. Marini accepted her invitation; but by the
time he arrived in Paris his patroness had died. Queen Mary de' Medici
stepped forward, however, in her room, and the place of gentleman to the
king, with a pension of 2000 crowns, was bestowed on him. He became very
popular among the French nobility; many learnt Italian for the express
purpose of reading his works. He lived a happy and honourable life. His
great pleasure consisted in forming a valuable and extensive library,
and collecting pictures by the best artists. The queen showed him many
marks of favour: if she met him in the street, she was in the habit of
stopping her carriage, for the sake of conversing with him; and such
generosity was shown him by her, and his other noble patrons, that he
was enabled to buy a villa near Naples, on Mon Posilippo, whither he
intended at some future time to retire, and end his days. No doubt, in
the chill climate of Paris, under the dusky atmosphere of the north, his
lively imagination recurred with yearning to the beautiful and genial
land of his nativity.
[Sidenote: 1623.
Ætat.
54.]
He published his "Adone" while at Paris. The popularity of this poem was
extraordinary; nothing was spoken of but it and its author, and the
rapid sale enriched Marini, though it also exposed him to much literary
enmity, and the censures of the church. Italian critics have since
become exceedingly indignant, and consider it the origin of the false
taste, the conceits, and flowery style of the seicentisti. But, while it
must be allowed that the imitators of Marini form a school of poetry
remarkable for its corrupt style, its mannerism, and false and
metaphoric imagery, it is impossible not to admit that the "Adone"
itself is a work of great beauty and imagination: it wants sublimity,
and deep pathos and masculine dignity; but its fancy, its descriptions,
its didactic passages, are animated by the undeniable spirit of poetry.
Marini possessed an extreme ease of versification, and a versatility and
fecundity of style that carries the reader along with it. The "Adone" is
founded on the well-known mythological story of Venus and Adonis. Cupid,
having been chastised by his goddess mother, in revenge, resolves to
wreak on her the miseries of love. He brings the son of Myrrha to the
shores of Cyprus, and while the Queen of Beauty is regarding the
beautiful youth as he sleeps, her wily son pierces her heart with his
love-poisoned arrow. She falls in love on the instant, and Adonis, on
awakening, is not slow to return her passion. Venus conducts him to her
palace, where Cupid relates to him his adventures with Psyche, and
Mercury those of Narcissus, Hylas, Actæon, and other victims of love.
He is then led through the gardens of pleasure, into the tower of
delight; but the loves of the goddess and her favourite are interrupted
by the jealousy of Mars, and Adonis flies in alarm from the angry god.
He falls afterwards into the hands of a fairy, who imprisons and annoys
him: he escapes, and, after many wanderings and adventures, returns to
Venus. It is then that he departs on that fatal hunting expedition which
brings on the catastrophe. Mars and the malicious fairy unite in sending
the hoar against him, by which he is destroyed: his death--the grief of
Venus--his interment--and the combats with which the goddess celebrates
his funeral, conclude the poem. Its chief fault is, that it is terribly
wiredrawn, even in the particular descriptions; for as to the story
itself, that forms but a slender portion of the whole composition.
Besides this, we are told that an allegory of youth is contained in the
temptations, pleasures, and fatal catastrophe of the young lover; and
this, as well as the unreal and fantastic nature of the personages,
deprives it of all vivid interest. It is far removed from the fire of
Ariosto, or the pathos and dignity of Tasso; still it is pleasing,
varied, and imaginative, and but for its length would to this day be a
more general favourite.
The cardinal Ludovisio, nephew of pope Gregory XV., earnestly entreated
Marini to forsake Paris and repair to Rome. The king and queen of France
permitted him to accept the invitation; and he returned to Italy,
unterrified by the accusation that hung over his head, on account of the
licentiousness of his work. He was received at Rome with enthusiasm, and
his society was courted by every person of distinction. Here, as
elsewhere, however, he was involved in literary squabbles; so that at
last he resolved to retreat to the home he had prepared for himself at
Naples. The tribunal, meanwhile, demanded alterations in his poem,
accused of licentiousness and a tendency to impiety. Two of his friends
appeared to answer for him; but he permitted two stanzas only to be
altered. The poem of Marini is certainly in its very texture soft,
effeminate, and amorous; but there are no passages so reprehensible as
many in Ariosto: the "Orlando Furioso" was never denounced; and it is
singular that so pertinacious an outcry should have been raised against
the "Adone."
Its author, however, was not destined to suffer persecution, nor to
enjoy his success for any long time. Soon after his return to Naples, he
established himself at his delightful villa at Posilippo, where his life
came to a sudden close: he fell ill of a painful malady, and died on the
25th of March, 1625, aged fifty-six. He was buried in the cloister of
the Theatin Fathers, to whom he had bequeathed his valuable library.