Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2

uch upon the old material, in his handling of the
familiar form. The qualities of style, sympathy, sentiment, selection in
the use of phrase and image, which determined his individuality as a
poet, rendered the _Rinaldo_ a novelty in literature. It will be
therefore well to concentrate attention for a while upon those
subjective peculiarities by right of which the _Rinaldo_ ranks as a
precursor of the _Gerusalemme_.

The first and the most salient of these is a pronounced effort to
heighten style by imitation of Latin poets. The presiding genius of the
work is Virgil. Pulci's racy Florentine idiom; Boiardo's frank and
natural Lombard manner; Ariosto's transparent and unfettered modern
phrase, have been supplanted by a pompous intricacy of construction.

[Footnote 65: Canto vi. 64-9.]

The effort to impose Latin rules of syntax on Italian is obvious in
such lines as the following:[66]

Torre ei l'immagin volle, che sospesa
Era presso l'altar gemmato e sacro,
Ove in chiaro cristal lampade accesa
Fea lume di Ciprigna al simulacro:

or in these:

Umida i gigli e le vermiglie rose
Del volto, e gli occhi bei conversa al piano,
Gli occhi, onde in perle accolto il pianto uscia,
La giovinetta il cavalier seguia.

Virgil is directly imitated, where he is least worthy of imitation, in
the details of his battle-pieces. Thus:[67]

Si riversa Isolier tremando al piano,
Privo di senso e di vigore ignudo,
Ed a lui gli occhi oscura notte involve,
Ed ogni membro ancor se gli dissolve.

* * * * *

Quel col braccio sospeso in aria stando,
Ne lo movendo a questa o a quella parte,
Che dalla spada cio gli era conteso,
Voto sembrava in sacro tempio appeso.

* * * * *

Mentre ignaro di cio che 'l ciel destine,
Cosi diceva ancor, la lancia ultrice
Rinaldo per la bocca entro gli mise,
E la lingua e 'l parlar per mezzo incise.

This Virgilian

John Addington Symonds (October 5, 1840 - April 19, 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. He was an early advocate of the validity of male love which included for him pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships, and which he would refer to as lamour de limpossible.

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