[408] Look above in [chapter i.] [pp. 50-53], for passages from Goro Dati's Chronicle and other sources, touching on the summer festivals of Florence.
[409] This passage from Palmieri's MS. will be found, together with full information on the subject of S. John's Day, in Cambiagi, Memorie istoriche riguardanti le feste, etc. (Firenze, Stamp. Gran-ducale, 1766), p. 65.
[410] D'Ancona, op. cit. p. 205. This use of the term Miracle seems to indicate that the Florentines applied to them the generic term for Northern Sacred Plays.
[411] Lemonnier's edition, vol. v.
[412] Sacre Rappresentazioni, Florence, Lemonnier, 3 vols. 1872.
[413] It may be not uninteresting to compare this terza rima with a passage written fifty years later by Michelangelo Buonarroti on his father's death, grander in style but less simply Christian:
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Tu se' del morir morto e fatto divo, Nè tem'or più cangiar vita nè voglia; Che quasì senza invidia non lo scrivo. Fortuna e 'l tempo dentro a vostra soglia Non tenta trapassar, per cui s'adduce Fra no' dubbia letizia e cierta doglia. Nube non è che scuri vostra luce, L'ore distinte a voi non fanno forza, Caso o necessità non vi conduce. Vostro splendor per notte non s'ammorza, Nè crescie ma' per giorno, benchè chiaro, Sie quand'el sol fra no' il caldo rinforza. |
In the [Appendix] will be found translations.
[414] Cecchi's Elevation of the Cross aims at the dignity of a five-act tragedy; but it was not represented until 1589. Santa Uliva illustrates the interludes; and a very interesting example is supplied by the Miracolo di S. Maria Maddalena, where two boys prologize in dialogue, comment at intervals upon the action, and conclude the exhibition with a Laud.
[415] "L'Angelo annunzia la festa," is the common stage-direction at the beginning; and at the end "L'Angelo dà licenza."