Not the least important branch of popular poetry in its bearing on the future of Italian literature was the strictly lyrical. In treating of these Volkslieder, it will be necessary to consider them under the two aspects of secular and religious—the former destined to supply Poliziano and Lorenzo de' Medici with models for their purest works of literary art, the latter containing the germs of the Florentine Sacred Play within the strophes of a hymn.
If we return to the golden days of the fourteenth century, we find that Dante's, Boccaccio's and Sacchetti's Ballate descended to the people and were easily adapted to their needs.[321] Minute comparison of Dante's dance-song of the Ghirlandetta with the version in use among the common folk will show what slight alterations were needed in order to render it the property of 'prentice lads and spinning maidens, and at the same time how subtle those changes were.[322] Dante's song might be likened to a florin fresh from the mint; the popular ditty to the same coin after it had circulated for a year or two, exchanging something of its sharp lines for the smoothness of currency and usage. The same is true of Boccaccio's Ballata, Il fior che 'l valor perde; except that here the transformation has gone deeper, and, if such a criticism may be hazarded, has bettered the original by rendering the sentiment more universal.[323] Sacchetti's charming song O vaghe montanine pasturelle underwent the same process of metamorphosis before it assumed the form in which it passed for a composition of Poliziano.[324] Starting with poems of this quality, the rhymsters of the market-place had noble models, and the use they made of them was adequate. We cannot from the wreck of time recover very many that were absolutely written for the people by the people; but we can judge of their quality by Angelo Poliziano's imitations.[325] He borrowed so largely from all sources, and his debts can be so accurately traced in his rispetti, that it is fair to credit the popular Muse with even such delicate work as La Brunettina, while the disputed authorship of the May-song Ben venga Maggio and of the Ballata Vaghe le montanine e pastorelle is sufficient to prove at least their widespread fame.[326] Whoever wrote them, they became the heirlooms of the people. If proof were needed of the vast number of such compositions in the fifteenth century—erotic, humorous, and not unfrequently obscene—it might be derived from the rubrics of the Laude or hymns, which were almost invariably parodies of popular dance-songs and intended to be sung to the same tunes.[327] Every festivity—May-morning tournaments, summer evening dances on the squares of Florence, weddings, carnival processions, and vintage-banquets at the villa—had their own lyrics, accompanied with music and the Carola.
The dance-songs and canzonets, of which we have been speaking, were chiefly of town growth and Tuscan. Another kind of popular love-poem, common to all the dialects of Italy, may be regarded as a special production of the country. Much has lately been written concerning these Rispetti, Strambotti and Stornelli.[328] Ample collections have been made to illustrate their local peculiarities. Their points of resemblance and dissimilarity have been subjected to critical analysis, and great ingenuity has been expended on the problem of their origin. It will be well to preface what has to be said about them with some explanation of terms. There are, to begin with, two distinct species. The Stornello Ritornello or Fiore, called also Ciure in Sicily, properly consists of two or three verses starting with the name of a flower. Thus[329]:
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Fior di Granato! Bella, lo nome tuo sta scritto in cielo, Lo mio sta scritto sull'onda del mare. |
Rispetto and Strambotto are two names for the same kind of song, which in the north-eastern provinces is also called Villotta and in Sicily Canzune.[330] Strictly speaking, the term Strambotto should be confined to literary imitations of the popular Rispetto. In Tuscany the lyric in question consists, in its normal form, of four alternately rhyming hendecasyllabic lines, followed by what is technically called the ripresa, or repetition, which may be composed of two, four, or even more verses. Though not strictly an octave stanza, it sometimes falls into this shape, and has then two pairs of three alternate rhymes, finished up with a couplet. In the following instance the quatrain and the ripresa are well marked[331]:
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Quando sarà quel benedetto giorno, Che le tue scale salirò pian piano? I tuoi fratelli mi verranno intorno, Ad un ad un gli toccherò la mano. Quando sarà quel dì, cara colonna, Che la tua mamma chiamerò madonna? Quando sarà quel dì, caro amor mio? Io sarò vostra, e voi sarete mio! |
In Sicily the Canzune exhibits a stanza of eight lines rhyming alternately throughout upon two sounds. Certain peculiarities, however, in the structure of the strophe render it probable that it was originally a quatrain followed by a ripresa of the same length. Thus[332]:
In the north-east the Villotta consists of a simple quatrain. Of this form the following is an example[333]:
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Quanti ghe n'è, che me sente a cantare, E i dise;—Custia canta dal bon tempo.— Che prego 'l ciel che me possa agiutare; Quando che canto, alora me lamento. |