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ITALIAN DRAMATIC CRITICISM
OF THE RENAISSANCE |
THE
Italian Renaissance, bringing with it as it did a re-birth of
interest in the art and literature of antiquity, is the starting
point of modern literary criticism. After the discovery of the
ancient texts, commentators, translators, editors were not wanting,
and it was not long before they began to expound theories of
their own. The Ars Poetica of Horace had been the basis
of what was written on the subject of the drama between the Augustan
period and the early Renaissance. Donatus and Diomedes both quote
largely from it, and most of their ideas were based upon it.
Aristotle, on the
other hand, was practically unknown; his influence in classical
antiquity was, according to Spingarn, "so far as it is possible
to judge, very slight." The manuscript of the Poetics
was preserved in the East. The first Oriental version was translated
from the Syriac into Arabic (about 935 A.D.) by Abu-Baschar.
In the twelfth century Averroës made an abridged version;
this in turn was translated into Latin in the thirteenth century
by a German of the name of Hermann, and by Mantinus of Tortosa
in Spain in the fourteenth. One of the extremely rare references
to Aristotle is found in Roger Bacon; Petrarch just mentions
him.
Giorgio Valla published his Latin translation
of the Poetics at Venice in1498. This was followed by
the Aldine edition of the original Greek text in 1508. In 1536
Allessandro de' Pazzi published the Greek original together with
a revised Latin text, and in 1548 Robortello published the first
commentary (with a Latin translation). Bernardo Segni, in 1549,
was the first to publish an Italian translation.
Among the earliest treatises on the art
of poetry was that of Vida, whose De Arte Poetica appeared
in 1527; contrary to practically every other work of similar
title, this influential poem contains no reference to the drama.
Two years later, however, Trissino published the first four books
of his Poetica, but not until 1563, when two books were
added, did he consider the drama. Dolce's translation of Horace
in 1535 was followed the next year by the vernacular Poetica
of Daniello, whose few references to tragedy and comedy, based
upon Horace and Aristotle, are the first of their kind to appear
in the Italian language. The same year saw Pazzi's edition and
Trincaveli's Greek text. From this time on, the influence of
Aristotle as an arbiter in the art of poetry was to spread. Robortello's
In Librum Aristotelis de Arte Poetica Explicationes (1548)
is the first complete commentary on the Poetics. Segni's
translation was published the next year. In 1550 appeared Maggi's
Explicationes (written with Lombardi), similar to the
commentary of Robortello. Both are diffuse, detailed, and pedantic,
and rarely depart from what the authors understood, or misunderstood,
in Aristotle. Muzio [Mutio] published an Arte Poetica
in 1551. Varchi in his Lezzioni (1553) upheld the Aristotelian
ideals of tragedy. The Discorso sulle Comedie e sulle Tragedie
of the famous novelist Giraldi Cintio, which was written in 1543,
but not published until 1554, carried on the Aristotelian tradition
begun by Daniello. This was to continue in one form or another
throughout the Renaissance and be taken up later in France. Minturno's
two treatises, De Poeta (1559) and Arte Poetica
(1564), the first in Latin, the second in Italian, were the fullest
discussions of the theory of poetry and drama yet written. The
influence of Aristotle and Horace is everywhere evident, but,
the Italian critic expounded and amplified after his own manner.
The Commentarii of Vettori [Victorius], printed in 1560,
was another Latin treatise explaining the Poetics. The
following year Julius Caesar Scaliger, one of the most influential
theorists since antiquity, published his Latin work, Poetices
Libri Septem. As Scaliger had lived in France for some years
(his book was published at Lyons) and was acquainted with many
contemporary writers, his influence was widespread, though not
so much so during the sixteenth as the seventeenth century. The
Poetics of Scaliger, which was an "attempt to reconcile
Aristotle's Poetics, not only with the precepts of Horace
and the definitions of the Latin grammarians, but with the whole
practice of Latin tragedy, comedy, and epic poetry," is
a long, erudite and dogmatic treatise in which the canons of
Aristotle are narrowed and confined to rules of the strictest
sort. In 1563 the last two parts of Trissino's Poetica
appeared. Castelvetro was the next to enter the field of criticism.
His Poetica (a commentary on and translation of Aristotle's
Poetics) was published in 1570. This work was of prime
importance, for one reason because it contained the first formulation
of the unity of place, supposed to have been derived from Aristotle.
The immediate effect of this was to start the endless discussion
in France of the famous "three
Unities." Jean de la Taille, in 1572, was the first
to insist on them in that country. Castelvetro was likewise the
first to consider a play as limited and directly affected by
the stage representation. The Italian critics from the time of
Castelvetro to the end of the century, carried on discussions
of varying degrees of importance, though none of them exerted
an influence equal to that of Scaliger, Castelvetro or Minturno.
Piccolomini's edition of the Poetics was published in
1575, Viperano's De Arte Poetica in 1579. Patrizzi's Della
Poetica (1586), Tasso's
Discorsi dell' Arte Poetica (1587), Denores' Poetica
(1588), Buonamici's Discorsi Poetici (1597) Ingegnari's
Poesia Rappresentativa (1598), and Summo's Discorsi
Poetici (1600), testify to the prodigious activity of the
period.
Such are the outstanding works which treat
in greater or less degree the theory of the drama. If we add
the prefaces and prologues to the plays of Cecchi, Giraldi Cintio,
Gelli, Aretino, and Il Lasca (the Gelosia, Strega, and
L'Arzigoglio in particular) and the references in the
works of Speroni, Luisino, Partenio, Fracastoro, Capriano, Michele,
Beni, and Zinano, the list of writers on the subject of the drama
is nearly exhausted.
This article was originally
published in European Theories of the Drama. Barrett H.
Clark. Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd Company, 1918.
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