For the version of Era venuta that he placed in the Vita Nuova, Dante composed a new “First beginning” that highlights precisely madonna’s remarkable ascension to paradise, thus making a point of starting the new version of the poem with the redemptive language that the first version attained only in its conclusion. In the new quatrain, given in the Vita Nuova a title, Primo cominciamento [First beginning], there is no trace of the people who watch the poet, nor of the activity in which the poet is involved. The new quatrain moves from the memory of the “gentil donna” directly to the “excellence” (“valore”) that renders her eligible to be “placed” (“posta”) by God “within the heaven of the meek, where Mary is”:
Primo cominciamento
Era venuta ne la mente mia
la gentil donna che per suo valore
fu posta da l’altissimo signore
nel ciel de l’umiltate, ov’è Maria.
(VN redaction, 1–4)
[First beginning
That lady came into my memory,
the noble one who, for her excellence,
was placed by him who reigns on high
in the heaven of the meek, where Mary is.]
Thus, the new Primo cominciamento quatrain, which was not present in the pre–Vita Nuova version of Era venuta, emphasizes the feature of the sonnet that will be of most importance for Dante’s future: God’s direct intervention in madonna’s life and death and His personal placement of her in paradise.
The labels Primo cominciamento and Secondo cominciamento, used by Dante in the Vita Nuova version of Era venuta, have generated confusion and critical debates on the relative chronology of the two cominciamenti, debates that can now be set aside because they are based on Dante’s story in the Vita Nuova prose and not on the material evidence offered by the pre–Vita Nuova redaction. We must keep clearly before our eyes the first redaction of Era venuta, a text that helps us keep at bay the gravitational field of the libello’s drive to control interpretation.
The first quatrain of the first redaction of Era venuta coincides (apart from small lexical variants)125 with the Secondo cominciamento of the Vita Nuova redaction. In other words, in the libello Dante uses the label Primo cominciamento for the quatrain that we know was added later (the one cited above), and the label Secondo cominciamento for the quatrain that we know existed first (and we know this certainly, because it is the first quatrain of the first redaction, for whose earlier existence we have material proof). This means that the Primo cominciamento of the Vita Nuova in reality corresponds to a secondary, not a primary, moment of composition. The Vita Nuova labels seem almost intentionally deceitful and misleading.
In fact the labels Primo cominciamento and Secondo cominciamento enact micro-textually, as a mise en abîme, the macrotextual deceit that governs the entire structure of the Vita Nuova. This deceit is essentially laid bare by the existence of poems in a pre–Vita Nuova redaction. Time after time the prose declares that a lyric was written in the circumstances described by the prose, as in our current chapter: “mi venne un pensero di dire parole, quasi per annovale, e scrivere a costoro li quali erano venuti a me; e dissi allora questo sonetto [the idea came to me of composing a poem, as a kind of anniversary memorial, addressed to those men who had visited me. And then I composed this sonnet]” (VN XXXIV.3 [23.3]). Instead we know that the poem already existed before the prose – and in the case of Era venuta and other poems that exist in a first redaction we know this incontrovertibly, because an earlier redaction exists materially. Thus, when Dante declares that a lyric was written in the circumstances described by the prose, he accomplishes a deliberate reversal of the actual chronology of the composition of the book.
This reversal is engineered in the most tangible and material of ways, as we see if we hold a copy of the Vita Nuova in our hands: the real chronological precedence of the lyrics to the prose – their real precedence in the history of the Dante’s life, as witnessed by the material evidence of the manuscripts – is reversed, chapter by chapter, by the placing of the prose spatially and physically before the lyrics. In other words, the prose announces the composition of a poem that is then materially written or printed upon the page, and the material presence of the poem, which appears on the page always after the prose that announces it, functions as an apparent graphic confirmation of its posteriority – in time as well as in space.
The adjectives “primo” and “secondo” in the headings Primo cominciamento and Secondo cominciamento mirror not the chronology of the writing but the new logic of the new life, according to which the Primo cominciamento is primary because of the story it narrates: it tells the story of a “noble lady who, for her excellence,/was placed by him who reigns on high / in the heaven of the meek, where Mary is” (Era venuta, VN redaction, 2–4). The Secondo cominciamento is, for the same reasons, secondary: the story it tells, the original story, corresponding to the opening of the original sonnet, is less important. Without doubt the Primo cominciamento is primary because it affirms the glorious eternal life of madonna. But we note that the very concept of an anniversary is a way of keeping someone alive, of conferring life on a dead person – and that this concept is already present in the older version. The alteration of the Vita Nuova therefore does not constitute, in the case of Era venuta, a flagrant ideological alteration of this sonnet as it does elsewhere. The theologized message of Era venuta is already fully visible in the first redaction of the sonnet, and not only in the meaning of the concluding words – “O nobile intelletto,/oggi fa un anno che nel ciel salisti [This day, O noble intellect,/completes a year since you rose heavenward]” (Era venuta, first redaction, 13–14) – but in the fact that they are expressed in direct discourse to madonna, as if she were still alive.
50 (B XXX; FB 50; DR 68; VN XXXIV.7–11 [23.7–11])
Two Redactions
First Redaction
First Redaction
Era venuta nella mente mia quella donna gentil cui piange Amore, entro quell’ora che lo suo valore
That lady came into my memory, the noble one because of whom Love weeps, precisely when the power of her soul
4
vi trasse a riguardar quel ch’e’ facea. Amor, che nella mente la sentia, era svegliato nel distrutto core, e dicev’ ai sospiri: “Andate fore,”
forced you to see what I was doing then. And Love, perceiving her within my mind, was roused awake within my ravaged heart and said to every sigh: “Now leave at once,”
8
per che ciascun dolente se ·n partia.
and so they all went off unhappily.
Parlando uscivan fori del mio petto con una voce che sovente mena
As they departed from my breast all spoke together with a single voice that often fills
11
le lagrime dolenti agli occhi tristi. Ma quei che ne uscian fuor con minor pena venian dicendo: “O nobile intelletto,
my saddened eyes with tears of agony. But those that issued forth with lesser pain remarked: “This day, O noble intellect,
14
oggi fa un anno che nel ciel salisti.”
completes a year since you rose heavenward.”
Vita Nuova Redaction
Vita Nuova Redaction
Primo cominciamento
First Beginning
Era venuta ne la mente mia la gentil donna che per suo valore fu posta da l’altissimo signore
That lady came into my memory, the noble one who, for her excellence, was placed by him who reigns on high
4
nel ciel de l’umiltate, ov’è Maria.
in the heaven of the meek, where Mary is.
Secondo cominciamento
Second Beginning
Era venuta ne la mente mia quella donna gentil cui piange Amore, entro ‘n quel punto che lo suo valore
That lady came into my memory, the noble one because of whom Love weeps, precisely when the power of her soul
4
vi trasse a riguardar quel ch’eo fa
cia. Amor, che ne la mente la sentia, s’era svegliato nel destrutto core, e diceva a’ sospiri: “Andate fore”;
forced you to see what I was doing then. And Love, perceiving her within my mind, was stirred awake inside my ravaged heart, and to my sighs he said: “Go forth from here,”
8
per che ciascun dolente si partia.
at which they all departed mournfully.
Piangendo uscivan for de lo mio petto con una voce che sovente mena
As they departed from my breast all wept together with a single voice that often fills
11
le lagrime dogliose a li occhi tristi. Ma quei che n’uscian for con maggior pena, venian dicendo: “Oi nobile intelletto,
my saddened eyes with tears of agony. But those that issued forth with greater pain remarked: “This day, O noble intellect,
14
oggi fa l’anno che nel ciel salisti.”
completes a year since you rose heavenward.”
METRE: sonnet ABBA ABBA CDE DCE.
51 Videro gli occhi miei quanta pietate
First Redaction
The sonnet Videro gli occhi miei quanta pietate, which is reproduced here in the version prior to the one in the Vita Nuova, was placed by Dante in chapter XXXV (24) of the libello. It is the first of the sonnets dedicated to the episode of the so-called donna gentile or donna pietosa, a label taken from the prose. (I will use the locution donna gentile, to distinguish this lady from the other donna pietosa of the canzone Donna pietosa e di novella etate.) The episode of the donna gentile covers chapters XXXV–XXXIX (24–8) of the Vita Nuova and includes the five sonnets Videro gli occhi miei quanta pietate, Color d’amore e di pietà sembianti, L’amaro lagrimar che voi faceste, Gentil pensero che parla di vui, and Lasso, per forza di molti sospiri. Of these five sonnets, three – Videro gli occhi miei, Color d’amore, and Lasso, per forza – exist in a first redaction that guarantees their original autonomy from the Vita Nuova.
It is more important than ever to insist on that original autonomy when considering the mass of critical discourse – and critical confusion – that has arisen around the donna gentile episode. Throughout this commentary I have consistently pointed to Dante’s penchant for auto-exegesis, and to the ways in which the prose of the Vita Nuova sets about reshaping the lyrics to make them fit a new sense, that of the poet’s “new life.” The episode of the donna gentile unleashes multiple auto-exegetical possibilities, because Dante returns explicitly to the donna gentile episode in the Convivio, evoking it in order to offer an interpretation that is difficult to reconcile with the sense of the story that we read in the libello. According to the Convivio the episode of the donna gentile is no longer the story of a moment of erotic fickleness, of inconstancy and infidelity towards Beatrice, as we read in the Vita Nuova. Instead, the motivating force that pushed the poet toward the donna gentile was not a shameful eros but a virtuous desire (“non passione ma vertù” [Conv. 1.2.16]), and this because the donna gentile of the Vita Nuova was, according to the Convivio, not a woman of flesh and blood but Lady Philosophy, the same who consoled Boethius in the Consolation of Philosophy.
There is no trace of Lady Philosophy in the story of the Vita Nuova, and even less so in the sonnet Videro gli occhi miei, which is reproduced here in an early redaction that precedes the composition of the Vita Nuova.
Reading the redaction that precedes the redaction of the Vita Nuova, we are twice removed from the work of retroactive revision carried out in the Convivio. If I make reference now to the Convivio version of events it is to remind the reader that we are in a textual zone that will assume a particular archeological density in the arc of Dante’s poetic life.126 For the moment our goal is to isolate the aspects of the episode that will later set in motion Dante’s auto-revisionary impulses.
The story of the donna gentile is the most fleshed out version thus far encountered of a topos with great hold over Dante’s imagination: the topos of the “new love.” When Dante encounters Beatrice in the earthly paradise, she reproves him for having given himself to “altrui” (others) after her death: “Sì tosto come in su la soglia fui / di mia seconda etade e mutai vita,/questi si tolse a me, e diessi altrui [As soon as I was over the threshold of my second age and I changed life, he took himself from me and gave himself to others]” (Purg. 30.124–6). For Dante the core issue here is a moral question, connected to what in De vulgari eloquentia he will call the poetics of directio voluntatis (the category of poetics that he assigns to himself and uses for his moral canzoni): to what goal should the soul direct its desire? And is the soul capable, after having singled out a suitable goal, of remaining constant and not turning in a new direction?
Chapter XXXV (24) of the Vita Nuova recounts that “alquanto tempo [some time]”127 after the anniversary of Beatrice’s death, Dante is absorbed in “dolorosi pensamenti [painful thoughts],” so much that he finds himself in a condition “di terribile sbigottimento [of horrible turmoil]” (VN XXXV.1 [24.1]). The pronounced Cavalcantian lexicon of the prose picks up and amplifies Cavalcantian flourishes, already present in the sonnets, in order to describe the poet’s mourning for Beatrice’s death. While Dante finds himself in these circumstances, he sees at a window “una gentile donna giovane e bella molto [a gracious woman, young and very beautiful],” who “was watching me so compassionately, to judge by her look, that all compassion seemed gathered in her” (“mi riguardava sì pietosamente, quanto a la vista, che tutta la pietà parea in lei accolta”) (VN XXXV.2 [24.2]). Impelled by her pity to feel pity for himself, the poet begins to cry and so, feeling ashamed, decides to leave, “temendo di non mostrare la mia vile vita [fearful of making a show of my base condition]” (VN XXXV.3 [24.3]). This last expression, “la mia vile vita,” recalls Li occhi dolenti, where the poet describes his life as “sì ’nvilita [so debased]” (66) after Beatrice’s death, and also the sonnet written to Dante by Guido Cavalcanti, I’ vegno ’l giorno a·tte, where Guido refers to “la vil tua vita [your degraded life]” (9). The account of the Vita Nuova thus develops a pre-existing narrative of Beatrice’s death and Dante’s reaction to it, attested by Guido’s sonnet (for which see the introductory essays to Li occhi dolenti and Guido, i’ vorrei).
Videro gli occhi miei recounts an episode very similar to the one narrated by the prose, without the specific details (absent are the window, the new lady’s beauty, the cause of his suffering, and so forth). The sonnet takes as its starting point the vision of the lady – “Videro gli occhi miei quanta pietate / era apparita in la vostra figura [My eyes were witness to the great compassion / that was evident upon your face]” (1–2) – which is immediately connected with a mutual glancing at each other: “quando guardaste gli atti e la statura / ch’io faccio per dolor molte fïate [when you observed the attitude and look / I show so frequently because of grief]” (3–4). The lady, characterized simply by her “pietate” (1) – feminine pity is a quality that Dante likes, as we recall from the canzone Donna pietosa – looks at him, mirroring and in this way legitimizing his mourning. What could be more seductive than that?
But the sense of legitimization felt by the poet, a feeling that is social in nature and that originates in the reciprocity that he experienced from the donna gentile, is swept away by another thought: this one, too, social and originating in reciprocity, but disquieting. Let us take note of the steps in this complex dance. In the first qua-train the poet sees the lady who is looking at him, thus obtaining a positive reciprocity that comforts him. In the second quatrain the poet realizes that the lady is thinking of him, and specifically of “la qualità de la mia vita oscura”: “Allor m’accorsi che voi pensavate / la qualità de la mia vita oscura [And then I saw that you were pondering / the sorry circumstances of my life]” (5–6). From the thought of her thinking about his “vita oscura” he obtains a sense of negative reciprocity that shames him. The feeling provoked by this thought causes him “fear” of “showing” (rendering visible through his tears) his “viltate�
�� (we remember Cavalcanti’s identical reproof regarding “la vil tua vita”): “sì che mi giunse ne lo cor paura / di dimostrar con gli occhi mia viltate [and this aroused a fear within my heart / of showing my dejection through my eyes]” (7–8). The word “viltate,” the last word rhyming with the “pie-tate” of the incipit, seals the sentimental distance traversed by the poet in the span of the octave: from the affective height of the beginning of the sonnet, where he sees and enjoys the lady’s “pietate,” he transitions to the depths of the realization of his own “viltate.”
The sestet of Videro gli occhi miei replays the same conflictual dance between distance and nearness, shame and approval. The poet pulls back, so moved by the pity showing in the face of the donna gentile that he cannot hold back the tears and then the shame he feels for having wept and the resulting need to withdraw from her sight: “E tolsimi d’inanzi a voi, sentendo / che si partian128 le lagrime dal core,/ch’era somosso da la vostra vista [So I retreated from your presence then / as tears began to overflow my heart,/which was unsettled by the sight of you]” (9–11). But at the same time he reaffirms his nearness to the new lady, in fact the intimate nature of his relationship with her, insofar as “quella donna” is accompanied by “quello Amore” who, forcing him to tears and to grief, is but a projection of his own interiority: “Io dicea poscia nell’anima trista:/‘Ben è con quella donna quello Amore / lo qual mi face andar così piangendo’ [And then I said within my anguished soul:/‘So with that lady dwells the very Love / who makes me go about expressing grief’]” (12–14).
Dante's Lyric Poetry: Poems of Youth and of the 'Vita Nuova' Page 39