La Nautica, of Baldi. 14. Among the longer poems which Italy produced in this period two may be selected. The Art of Navigation, La Nautica, published by Bernardino Baldi in 1590, is a didactic poem in blank verse, too minute sometimes and prosaic in its details, like most of that class, but neither low, nor turgid, nor obscure, as many others have been. The descriptions, though never very animated, are sometimes poetical and pleasing. Baldi is diffuse; and this conspires with the triteness of his matter to render the poem somewhat uninteresting. He by no means wants the power to adorn his subject, but does not always trouble himself to exert it, and is tame where he might be spirited. Few poems bear more evident marks that their substance had been previously written down in prose.
Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso. 15. Bernardo Tasso, whose memory has almost been effaced with the majority of mankind by the splendour of his son, was not only the most conspicuous poet of the age wherein he lived, but was placed by its critics, in some points of view, above Ariosto himself. His minor poetry is of considerable merit.[1156] But that to which he owed most of his reputation is an heroic romance on the story of Amadis, written about 1540, and first published in 1560. L’Amadigi is of prodigious length, containing 100 cantos, and about 57,000 lines. The praise of facility, in the best sense, is fully due to Bernardo. His narration is fluent, rapid, and clear; his style not in general feeble or low, though I am not aware that many brilliant passages will be found. He followed Ariosto in his tone of relating the story: his lines perpetually remind us of the Orlando; and I believe it would appear on close examination that much has been borrowed with slight change. My own acquaintance, however, with the Amadigi is not sufficient to warrant more than a general judgment. Ginguéné, who rates this poem very highly, praises the skill with which the disposition of the original romance has been altered and its canvas enriched by new insertions, the beauty of the images and sentiments, the variety of the descriptions, the sweetness, though not always free from languor, of the style, and finally recommends its perusal to all lovers of romantic poetry, and to all who would appreciate that of Italy.[1157] It is evident, however, that the choice of a subject become frivolous in the eyes of mankind, not less than the extreme length of Bernardo Tasso’s poem, must render it almost impossible to follow this advice.
[1156] “The character of his lyric poetry is a sweetness and abundance of expressions and images, by which he becomes more flowing and full (più morbido e più pastoso, metaphors not translatable by single English words) than his contemporaries of the school of Petrarch.” Corniani, v. 127.
A sonnet of Bernardo Tasso, so much admired at the time, that almost every one, it is said, of a refined taste had it by heart, will be found in Panizzi’s edition of the Orlando Innamorato, vol. i. p. 376, with a translation by a lady well known for the skill with which she has transferred the grace and feeling of Petrarch into our language. The sonnet, which begins, Poichè la parte men perfetta e bella, is not found in Gobbi or Mathias. It is distinguished from the common crowd of Italian sonnets in the sixteenth century by a novelty, truth, and delicacy of sentiment, which is comparatively rare in them.
[1157] Vol. v. p. 61-108. Bouterwek (vol. ii. 159), speaks much less favourably of the Amadigi, and, as far as I can judge, in too disparaging a tone. Corniani, a great admirer of Bernardo, owns that his morbidezza and fertility have rendered him too frequently diffuse and flowery. See also Panizzi, p. 393, who observes that the Amadigi wants interest, but praises its imaginative descriptions as well as its delicacy and softness.
Satirical and burlesque poetry; Aretin. 16. The satires of Bentivoglio, it is agreed, fall short of those by Ariosto, though some have placed them above those of Alamanni.[1158] But all these are satires on the regular model, assuming at least a half-serious tone. A style more congenial to the Italians was that of burlesque poetry, sometimes poignantly satirical, but as destitute of any grave aim, as it was light and familiar, even to popular vulgarity, in its expression, though capable of grace in the midst of its gaiety, and worthy to employ the best master of Tuscan language.[1159] But it was disgraced by some of its cultivators, and by none more than Peter Aretin. The character of this profligate and impudent person is well known; it appears extraordinary that, in an age so little scrupulous as to political or private revenge, some great princes, who had never spared a worthy adversary, thought it not unbecoming to purchase the silence of an odious libeller, who called himself their scourge. In a literary sense, the writings of Aretin are unequal; the serious are for the most part reckoned wearisome and prosaic; in his satires a poignancy and spirit, it is said, frequently breaks out; and though his popularity, like that of most satirists, was chiefly founded on the ill-nature of mankind, he gratified this with a neatness and point of expression, which those who cared nothing for the satire might admire.[1160]
[1158] Ginguéné, ix. 198. Biogr. Univ. Tiraboschi, x. 66.
[1159] A canzon by Coppetta on his cat, in the twenty-seventh volume of the Parnaso Italiano, is rather amusing.
[1160] Bouterwek, ii. 207. His authority does not seem sufficient; and Ginguéné, ix. 212, gives a worse character of the style of Aretin. But Muratori (della Perfetta Poesia, ii. 284), extols one of his sonnets, as deserving a very high place in Italian poetry.