[392] See the frontispiece to Laude di Feo Belcari e di altri.
[393] D'Ancona, Or. del T. op. cit. vol. i. p. 109.
[394] The phases of this progress from ottonari to ottava rima have been carefully traced by D'Ancona (op. cit. vol. i. pp. 151-165). Ottonari are lines of eight syllables with a loose trochaic rhythm, in which great licenses of extra syllables are allowed. The stanza rhymes a b a b c c. The sesta rima of the transition has the same rhyming structure. The Corrotto by Jacopone da Todi, analyzed above, shows a similar system of rhymes to that of some Latin hymns: a a a b c c c b, the b rhyme in ato being carried through the whole poem.
[395] See above, [pp. 292-294], and [Appendix].
[396] D'Ancona, op. cit. p. 108. At p. 282 he gives some curious details relating to the Coliseum Passion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In 1539 it was suppressed by Paul III., because the Romans, infuriated by the drama of the Crucifixion, were wont to adjourn from the Flavian amphitheater to the Ghetto, and begin a murderous crusade against the Jews!
[397] In the directions for a "Devotione de Veneredì sancto," analyzed by D'Ancona (op. cit. pp. 176-182), we read: "predica, e como fa signo che Cristo sia posto in croce, li Judei li chiavano una mano e poi l'altra" ... "a quello loco quando Pilato comanda che Cristo sia posto a la colona, lo Predicatore tase."
[398] Ducange explains thalamum by tabulatum.
[399] See Appendix to vol. ii. of D'Ancona's Origini del Teatro.
[400] In the prologues of the later comedies of learning (commedia erudita) allusions to the rude style of Fiesolan shows are pretty frequent. The playwrights speak of them as our Elizabethan dramatists spoke of Bartholomew Fair. The whole method of a Fiesolan Sacra Rappresentazione is well explained in the induction to the play of Abraam e Sara (Siena, 1581). A father and his son set out from Florence, at the boy's request:
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Et vo che noi andiamo a Fiesolani poggi, Ch'io mi ricordo c'hoggi una festa non più vista Mai più el Vangelista vi fa e rappresenta. |