‘Ecce superveniens rerum argumenta retexit
Mimus, et ad populum verba diserta refert.
Tum similes habitu formaque et voce Menæchmi
Dulcibus oblectant lumina nostra modis.’
The Menæchmi was also given at Ferrara in 1486, at the cost of more than 1,000 ducats. Murat. xxiv. 278.
[725] Franc. Sansovino, Venezia, fol. 169. The passage in the original is as follows: ‘Si sono anco spesso recitate delle tragedie con grandi apparecchi, comporte da poeti antichi o da moderni. Alle quali per la fama degli apparati concorrevano le genti estere e circonvicine per vederle e udirle. Ma hoggi le feste da particolari si fanno fra i parenti et essendosi la città regolata per se medesima da certi anni in quà, si passano i tempi del Carnovale in comedie e in altri più lieti e honorati diletti.’ The passage is not thoroughly clear.
[726] This must be the meaning of Sansovino, Venezia, fol. 168, when he complains that the ‘recitanti’ ruined the comedies ‘con invenzioni o personaggi troppo ridicoli.’
[727] Sansovino, l. c.
[728] Scardeonius, De urb. Patav. antiq., in Graevius, Thes. vi. iii. col. 288 sqq. An important passage for the literature of the dialects generally. One of the passages is as follows: ‘Hinc ad recitandas comœdias socii scenici et gregales et æmuli fuere nobiles juvenes Patavini, Marcus Aurelius Alvarotus quem in comœdiis suis Menatum appellitabat, et Hieronymus Zanetus quem Vezzam, et Castegnola quem Billoram vocitabat, et alii quidam qui sermonem agrestium imitando præ ceteris callebant.’
[729] That the latter existed as early as the fifteenth century may be inferred from the Diario Ferrerese, Feb. 2nd, 1501: ‘Il duca Hercole fece una festa di Menechino secondo il suo uso.’ Murat. xxiv. col. 393. There cannot be a confusion with the Menæchmi of Plautus, which is correctly written, l. c. col. 278. See above, p. 318, note 2.
[730] Pulci mischievously invents a solemn old-world legend for his story of the giant Margutte (Morgante, canto xix. str. 153 sqq.). The critical introduction of Limerno Pitocco is still droller (Orlandino, cap. i. str. 12-22).
[731] The Morgante was written in 1460 and the following years, and first printed at Venice in 1481. Last ed. by P. Sermolli, Florence, 1872. For the tournaments, see part v. chap. i. See, for what follows, Ranke: Zur Geschichte der italienischen Poesie, Berlin, 1837.
[732] The Orlando inamorato was first printed in 1496.