Il Canzoniere

"Il Canzoniere" (English: "Song Book"), also known as the "Rime Sparse" (English: "Scattered Rhymes"), is a poetical collection by the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch.

Though the majority of Petrarch's output was in Latin, the "Canzoniere" was written in the vernacular, a language of trade, despite Petrarch's view that Italian was less adequate for expression. [ 'Introduction' to "Canzoniere", translated by Anthony Mortimer (London: Penguin, 2002), xiv.] Of its 366 Rime , the vast majority are in sonnet form (317), though the sequence contains a number of canzoni (29), sestine (9), madrigals (4), and ballate (7). Its central theme is the poet's love for Laura, a woman Petrarch allegedly met on April 6, 1327, in the Church of Sainte Claire in Avignon. Though disputed, the inscription in his copy of Virgil records this information. Petrarch's meticulous dating of his manuscripts has allowed scholars to deduce that the poems were written over a period of forty years, with the earliest dating from shortly after 1327, and the latest around 1368. The transcription and ordering of the sequence itself went on until 1374, the year of the poet's death. [ 'Introduction', xiv-xv.] The two sections of the sequence which are divided by Laura's death have traditionally been labelled 'In vita' (In life') and 'In morte' (In death) respectively, though Petrarch made no such distinction. His work would go on to become what Spiller calls 'the single greatest influence on the love poetry of Renaissance Europe until well into the seventeenth century'. [Spiller, Michael, "The Development of the Sonnet" (London: Routledge, 1992), 2.]

Central ideas

The most evident purpose of the Canzoniere is to praise Laura, yet questions concerning the virtue of love in relation to the Christian religion and desire are always present. Antithesis are also key to the sequence and in one sense represent Petrarch's search for balance; these would later be exploited by Petrarchists in Europe but represent only one aspect of the Rimes. This leads on to the essential paradox of Petrarchan love, where love is desired yet painful: fluctuation between states is a means of expressing this instability. The changing mind of man and the passing of time are also central themes, as is the consideration of the art of poetic creation itself.

Influences on the Canzoniere

Petrarch uses the Metamorphoses of Ovid to convey themes of instability, and also sources Virgil's Aeneid. Petrarch inherited aspects of artifice and rhetorical skill from Sicilian courtly poetry, including that of the inventor of the sonnet form, Giacomo da Lentino. [ "The Development of the Sonnet", 14-15.] In addition, the troubadour poets who wrote love poems concerned with chivalry in Provencal (in the canso or canzone form) are likely to have had an influence, primarily because of the position of adoration in which they placed the female figure. Dante, and the school of the 'dolce stil nuovo' or sweet new style, developed this placement of the female and proposed that the pursuit of love was a noble virtue.

Influence of the Rime

In England

In 1380, Chaucer adopted part of the Canzoniere to form three stanzas of rhyme royal in Troilus and Criseyde, Book I. [ 'Introduction', xxv.] Over 150 years would pass until Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, would translate several Rimes in the court environment of Henry VIII. Their translations are largely credited with making the ten-syllable line normative in English, and in Puttenham's 1589 "Art of English Poesie" are credited with reforming the English language:

As novices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante, Arioste and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie, from that it had bene before, and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformers of our English meetre and stile. [Puttenham, George, "The Art of English Poesie" (London, 1589).]

Thus, their translations of Rimes from the Canzoniere paved the way for the sonnet sequences of Sidney and Shakespeare.

In France

Early French soneteers included Clement Marot and Mellin Saint Gelais. The latter spent nine years in Italy before returning to France to spread knowledge of Petrarch and Serafino. The first sonnet sequence to be published in France came in 1549 in the form of Joachim du Bellay's "L'Olive". When first published it contained 50 sonnets but the next year Bellay added more poems and raised the total number to 115 - references to Petrarch are made in fourteen of these sonnets. [ Minta, Stephen, "Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions" (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980), 156. ] Pierre de Ronsard also took up Petrarch's influence and his sonnets are credited for their originality.

elected Rhymes

1

Voi ch'ascoltate in rime sparse il suono di quei sospiri ond'io nudriva 'l core in sul mio primo giovenile errore quand'era in parte altr'uom da quel ch'i' sono,

del vario stile in ch'io piango et ragiono fra le vane speranze e 'l van dolore, ove sia chi per prova intenda amore, spero trovar pietà, nonché perdono.

Ma ben veggio or sí come al popol tutto favola fui gran tempo, onde sovente di me mesdesmo meco mi vergogno;

et del mio vaneggiar vergogna è 'l frutto, e 'l pentersi, e 'l conoscer chiaramente che quanto piace al mondo è breve sogno

[All you that hear in scattered rhymes the sound of sighs on which I used to feed my heart in youthful error when I was in part another man, and not what I am now,

for the vain hopes, vain sorrows I avow, the tears and discourse of my varied art, in any who have played a lover's part pity I hope to find, and pardon too.

But now I plainly see how I became a mocking tale that common people tell, and in myself my self I put to shame;

and of my raving all the fruit is shame, and penitence, and knowing all too well that what the world loves is a passing dream.]

Translation by Anthony Mortimer

Further reading

*Durling, Robert M., "The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics" (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976).
*Spiller, Michael R.G, "The Development of the Sonnet" (London: Routledge, 1992).
*The Canzoniere Online: [http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=1]

References