The importance of the last line of Amore e ’l cor gentil has not been appreciated sufficiently by the critical tradition; the equality between man and woman expressed here should not be neglected. The line “E simil face in donna omo valente” – literally, “A worthy man causes a similar effect in a lady” – means that Dante does not exclude the lady from the experience theorized in this sonnet: from the world of free agents endowed with will and capable of ethically based desire. In Dante’s conception, therefore, the woman is not merely the passive object of the man’s love; according to the concluding verse of Amore e ’l cor gentil, a woman can actively love. In other words, Dante conceives of women as moral actors: not only love’s objects but also its subjects. Even if only sketched in the last line of the sonnet, and not elaborated, the idea put forward by “E simil face in donna omo valente” is important and is the basis of future representations of women in the Commedia.
Dante here anticipates his mature position, as expressed in the didactic canzone Doglia mi reca: the moral instructions directed at the ladies of Doglia mi reca, however paternalistic, indicate that the poet conceives of women as agents and interlocutors capable of acting and therefore in need of teaching.92 Moreover, Dante dramatizes the concept sketched in Amore ’l cor gentil in the sonnet Color d’amore, where a lady is decidedly the protagonist of her love affair.
Dante himself does not gloss over the idea of gender equality present in the last verse when he divides the sonnet in the prose: “Poscia quando dico: Bieltate appare, dico come questa potenzia si riduce in atto; e prima come si riduce in uomo, poi come si riduce in donna, quivi: E simil face in donna [Then when I say, Beauty appears, I tell how this potentiality is made actual in a man, then how it is made actual in a woman: The same is true of women]” (VN XX.8 [11.8]). This equality is emphasized lexically as well. Dante chooses to describe the lady precisely with the adjective “saggia” (wise) after using the same word in the masculine for Guinizzelli, “il saggio” of the second line: “sì come il saggio in suo dittare pone.” In a sonnet-tribute to Guinizzelli, the transfer of the epithet dedicated to him is significant; there is no more emphatic way of suggesting the intellectual (and therefore ethical) capacities of the lady.
34 (B XVI; FB 34; VN XX.3–5 [11.3–5])
Amore e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa, sì come il saggio in suo dittare pone, e così esser l’un sanza l’altro osa
Love and the noble heart are one sole thing, affirms the wise man in his poetry, and one can no more be without the other
4
com’alma razional sanza ragione. Falli natura quand’è amorosa, Amor per sire e ’l cor per sua magione, dentro la qual dormendo si riposa
than intellect can lack intelligence. Nature makes them when inclined to love, Love as the lord, the heart his dwelling place, wherein he lies in dormancy, at times
8
tal volta poca e tal lunga stagione.
just briefly and at others quite a while.
Bieltate appare in saggia donna pui, che piace a li occhi sì, che dentro al core
Then beauty in a worthy lady’s seen which is so pleasing to the eyes that in
11
nasce un disio de la cosa piacente; e tanto dura talora in costui, che fa svegliar lo spirito d’Amore.
the heart desire is born for what is pleasing; and this desire at times will linger there until Love’s spirit is aroused from sleep.
14
E simil face in donna omo valente.
The same is true of women as of men.
METRE: sonnet ABAB ABAB CDE CDE.
35 Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore
First Redaction
In the introductory prose to this sonnet in Vita Nuova XXI (12), Dante links Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore to the preceding sonnet, Amore e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa. While the “donna saggia” of Amore e ’l cor gentil is capable of “awakening” love that “sleeps” in the heart of the noble lover, Beatrice operates so miraculously (“mirabilmente operando”) that she can cause love to come about even where it did not exist before: “Poscia che trattai d’Amore ne la soprascritta rima, vennemi volontade di volere dire anche in loda di questa gentilissima parole, per le quali io mostrasse come per lei si sveglia questo Amore, e come non solamente si sveglia là ove dorme, ma là ove non è in potenzia, ella, mirabilmente operando, lo fa venire [After I wrote about Love in the above poem, I was taken with a wish to write something in praise of this most gracious of women, by means of which I would show how love awakens through her, and how it awakens not only where it is dormant but also where it is not even in potential: working miraculously, she brings it forth]” (VN XXI.1 [12.1]). But there is no clear trace of this miraculous comportment in a sonnet that declares, certainly, that the appearance of the beloved when she smiles is “a rare and noble miracle” (“è novo miracolo e gentile”) (14), but that lists no miraculous details beyond those already seen in other stil novo verses. Negli occhi porta is an excellent example of how Dante, himself “mirabilmente operando,” uses the framework of the Vita Nuova to make a sonnet that is a mixture of stil novo themes without great thematic novelty the occasion for celebrating a woman with literally divine characteristics.
Noteworthy in Negli occhi porta is the word miracolo of the concluding verse, a word that Dante will use in the sonnet that for him represents the perfection of his new style, Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare, a sonnet with which Negli occhi porta shares both themes and lexical elements. The prose of Vita Nuova XXI (12) plays on the etymological link between miracolo and mirabile – as Dante will do more extensively in the prose that precedes Tanto gentile – and underscores the importance of the declaration that this woman is a “novo miracolo e gentile.”
In this way, Dante theologizes this slight sonnet. These are the verses of Negli occhi porta that can lend themselves to the idea of the lady as a faber/maker who, “mirabilmente operando,” creates love ex nihilo: “Ogni dolcezza, ogni pensiero umìle / nasce nel core a chi parlar la sente [All sweetness and all humble thoughts are born / within the heart of those who hear her speak]” (9–10). Perhaps the verb “nasce” in line 9 may have suggested to Dante the completely artificial link established in the Vita Nuova between this sonnet and its predecessor: in Amore e ’l cor gentil love sleeps in the lover’s heart; in Negli occhi porta love is born there.
Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore (here printed in a pre–Vita Nuova redaction that does not contain notable divergences from the version in the libello), presents the typical effects induced by the stil novo lady when she walks along the street:
per che si fa gentil ciò ch’ella mira;
là dove passa, ogn’om ver’ lei si gira
e cui saluta fa tremar lo core,
sì che sbassando il viso tutto smore
e d’ogni suo difetto allor sospira:
fugge dinanzi a·llei Superbia e Ira.
(Negli occhi porta, 2–7)
[which renders noble all she looks upon;
all turn to look at her when she walks by,
and when she greets someone his heart beats fast,
he bows his head as colour leaves his face,
and then he sighs remembering his faults:
before her, pride and wrath are forced to flee.]
We hear echoes of Cavalcanti’s Chi è questa che vèn (“Chi è questa che vèn, ch’ogn’om la mira,/che fa tremar di chiaritate l’âre [Who’s this who comes along, whom all admire,/who sets the air atremble with bright light]”) and of Guinizzelli’s Io voglio del ver la mia donna laudare (“Passa per via adorna, e sì gentile / ch’abassa orgoglio a cui dona salute [She passes by adorned, with so much grace / that she curtails the pride of those she greets]” [9–10]). There are clear similarities with the third stanza of Donne ch’avete, where Dante lists the salvific influences of madonna, and with the sonnet Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare, with which Negli occhi porta shares the rhyme mira / sospira and the idea of the lady-miracolo.
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br /> The unusual imperative “aiutatemi” addressed at the end of the octave to ladies heretofore not present – “Aiutatemi, donne, farle onore [My ladies, help me now to honour her]” (8) – gives a pinch of dramatic tension to the sonnet’s framework of stilnovist chorality, in which ladies in the plural often act as a passive background to the single lady about whom the poet is writing. (The imperative “aiutatemi” also anticipates the invocation to the Muses of Inferno 2: “O muse, o alto ingegno, or m’aiutate [O muses, o high genius, now help me]” [Inf. 2.7].) If the task of a stil novo poem, not now in the generic sense but in the sense elaborated by Dante in the Vita Nuova and confirmed in Purgatorio 24, includes the elimination of the presence of the self (taking as the norm Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare), then the strong presence of the “I” in the imperative “aiutatemi” indicates a fissure in the total adherence of Negli occhi porta to the new style.
The concluding tercet – “Quel ch’ella par quand’un poco sorride / non si può dicer né tenere a mente,/tant’è novo miracolo e gentile [What she looks like when she begins to smile / cannot be told or held within the mind,/so rare and noble is this miracle]” (12–14) – makes effective use of the verb parere, which Dante will use in the opening of Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare. As in Tanto gentile, the verb parere means “to manifest oneself.” Here what manifests is the miraculous presence of the lady when “un poco sorride” – literally, when “she smiles a little.” The smile, which is not a motif of Tanto gentile, constitutes the most original feature of this sonnet and closes the thematic circle that opens in the incipit with her eyes.
35 (B XVII; FB 35; DR 63; VN XXI.2–4 [12.2–4])
First Redaction
Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore, per che si fa gentil ciò ch’ella mira; là dove passa, ogn’om ver’ lei si gira
My lady carries Love within her eyes, which renders noble all she looks upon; all turn to look at her when she walks by,
4
e cui saluta fa tremar lo core, sì che sbassando il viso tutto smore e d’ogni suo difetto allor sospira: fugge dinanzi a·llei Superbia e Ira.
and when she greets someone his heart beats fast, he bows his head as colour leaves his face, and then he sighs remembering his faults: before her, pride and wrath are forced to flee.
8
Aiutatemi, donne, farle onore.
My ladies, help me now to honour her.
Ogni dolcezza, ogni pensiero umìle nasce nel core a chi parlar la sente,
All sweetness and all humble thoughts are born within the heart of those who hear her speak,
11
ond’è laudato chi prima la vide. Quel ch’ella par quand’un poco sorride non si può dicer né tenere a mente,
and therefore he who saw her first is blessed. What she looks like when she begins to smile cannot be told or held within the mind,
14
tant’è novo miracolo e gentile.
so rare and noble is this miracle.
VN 3. Ov’ella p. – 5. bassando – 14. Sì è
METRE: sonnet ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.
36 Voi che portate la sembianza umile
This sonnet and its companion piece, Se’ tu colui c’ hai tratto sovente, belong to the same narrative moment in the Vita Nuova, where they are anthologized together by Dante in chapter XXII (13). They belong to a group of four sonnets, of which two are included in the Vita Nuova and two are left out of it, thus offering the critic a rare and important opportunity to reflect on Dante’s editorial choices with respect to the libello. We will return to the question of inclusion / exclusion in the comments on the excluded sonnets, Onde venite voi così pensose? and Voi donne, che pietoso atto mostrate.
According to the prose of Vita Nuova XXII (13), Voi che portate la sembianza umile was occasioned by the death of Beatrice’s father and by the suffering caused by this loss; in the context provided by the Vita Nuova, then, the ladies in the sonnet are Beatrice’s female friends who accompany her in mourning. The sonnets, however, do not offer any such information: no mention is made of the identity of the dead person – no hint as to the person’s sex or age – nor of the identity of the lady who is mourning the death. The reader knows only that she, “nostra donna gentile [our worthy lady]” (5), is loved by the poet. The sonnet describes collective suffering, publicly manifested in the act of ritual weeping, and shared not only by the ladies but also by the poet. The poet’s desire to participate in mourning is the theme of this group of sonnets, with the result that they are situated on the borderline between the world of public ritual and that of private suffering.
The narrator of the Vita Nuova relates the gathering of the mourning ladies around Beatrice: “molte donne s’adunaro colà dove questa Beatrice piangea pietosamente [many women gathered where this Beatrice was weeping pitifully].” Because he is “in a place where most of the women passed who were coming from her” (“in luogo onde se ne giano la maggiore parte di quelle donne che da lei si partiano”) (VN XXII.4 [13.4]), the poet can hear the women talking among each other. Because he remains “in the same place” (“nel medesimo luogo”), the ladies pass near to him: “dimorando ancora nel medesimo luogo, donne anche passaro presso di me [as I was staying where I was other women passed by near to me]” (VN XXII.5 [13.5]). Given their physical proximity to Dante, the women note that he is weeping. (One wonders how Dante’s first readers construed this unspecified “luogo,” where so much physical proximity between male and female can occur under such circumstances.) The ladies note the unusual participation on the part of the poet, a man, for weeping is typically reserved for women’s ritual grieving. They comment very precisely, asking who is this man who weeps as though he had participated in mourning as much as they? They further comment on his distraught appearance: “‘Questi ch’è qui piange né più né meno come se l’avesse veduta, come noi avemo.’ Altre poi diceano di me: ‘Vedi questi non pare esso, tal è divenuto!’ [‘This man is crying neither more nor less than he would if he had seen her, as we have.’ Still others were saying nearby, ‘Look at how this man is so changed he doesn’t seem himself!’]” (VN XXII.6 [13.6]).
The narrator of the Vita Nuova at this point transitions to a description of the poet’s interior life. After hearing the comments of the ladies about himself, Dante imagines that he can speak to them, and in his imagination he invents the queries he would put to them if such a dialogue were acceptable within Florentine social norms. The sonnet Voi che portate is portrayed as the fruit of this fantasy, as the questions he would have asked the ladies were it not improper to do so: “Onde io poi, pensando, propuosi di dire parole, acciò che degnamente avea cagione di dire, ne le quali parole io conchiudesse tutto ciò che inteso avea da queste donne; e però che volentieri l’averei domandate se non mi fosse stata riprensione, presi tanta matera di dire come s’io l’avesse domandate ed elle m’avessero risposto [Thinking about it later, I planned to write some verses, since I had a theme worthy of poetry, in which I would put all I had heard these women saying. And since I would have liked to ask them something, if it were not considered improper to do so, I arranged my subject matter as if I had questioned them and they had responded]” (VN XXII.7 [13.7]).
Dante immediately establishes the link between the two sonnets of Vita Nuova XXII (13), explaining that he had written one in which to pose his imaginary questions and a second in which he imagines the ladies’ responses: “E feci due sonetti; che nel primo domando, in quello modo che voglia mi giunse di domandare; ne l’altro dico la loro risponsione, pigliando ciò ch’io udio da loro sì come lo mi avessero detto rispondendo [I wrote two sonnets. In the first I ask in the way the wish to ask came over me; in the other I give their response, taking what I heard them saying as if they had responded to me]” (VN XXII.8 [13.8]).
In the Vita Nuova, therefore, Voi che portate and its companion Se’ tu colui are explicitly presented as compensatory acts in which the poet can allow himself an experience prohibited by the society in which he lives.
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As I have pointed out previously, the prose of the Vita Nuova, although intentionally vague and imprecise (substituting, for example, “la sopradetta cittade” for the name “Firenze”), reveals social and quotidian pressures that are not as clearly visible in the poems. Besides explaining that the reason for the collective sorrow is the death of the beloved’s father – a fact that cannot be verified in the sonnet – the prose offers a rich background of elements gathered from daily life, including the separation of men and women in the choreography of mourning: “secondo l’usanza de la sopradetta cittade, donne con donne e uomini con uomini s’adunino a cotale tristizia [in keeping with the customs of the city mentioned earlier, women with women and men with men come together on such sad occasions]” (XXII.3 [13.3]).
Although not as rich as the prose, the sonnet too offers a social context that would merit further historical or anthropological investigation. In many premodern societies women as a group act as spokespeople for the suffering of the community, a function that is discharged both by their comportment and by their appearance, as in the first verses of Voi che portate: “Voi che portate la sembianza umile,/con li occhi bassi, mostrando dolore [You who bear a mournful countenance,/with downcast eyes, revealing your distress]” (1–2). They engage in rigorously choreographed movements, as described throughout Voi che portate, where we move from “onde venite che ’l vostro colore / par divenuto de pietà simile? [where do you come from that your colour seems / to have become so similar to pity?]” (3–4), to “perch’io vi veggio andar sanz’atto vile [for I can see you move with dignity]” (8), and finally to “e veggiovi tornar sì sfigurate [and I see that you return in such distress]” (13). Taken together, these verses allude to precisely scripted ritual movement – a coming, a going, a returning from and towards prescribed places and locales – as described in the pages of Davidsohn:
Dante's Lyric Poetry: Poems of Youth and of the 'Vita Nuova' Page 28