Dante's Lyric Poetry

by Dante Alighieri

  8

  audendo dire e dir di suo valore.

  in hearing and in telling of her worth.

  Or incomincia, Amor, che si convene e mòviti a far ciò ch’è la cagione

  Bestir yourself now, Love, the time is ripe, make haste to justify the reason why

  11

  che ti dichini a farmi compagnia, o vuol mercé o vuol tua cortesia; ché la mia mente il mi’ pensier dipone,

  you condescend to keep me company, through my own merit or your courtesy; for now my mind dismisses my distress,

  14

  cotal disio dell’ascoltar mi vène.

  so strong is my desire to hear of her.

  METRE: sonnet ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.

  14 Sonetto, se Meuccio t’è mostrato

  Like Se Lippo amico sè tu che mi leggi, this sonnet is sent to a friend (perhaps Meuccio Tolomei of Siena). The sonnet to Lippo accompanies the canzone stanza Lo meo servente core (“ti guido esta pulcella nuda [I bestow on you this unclothed girl]” [Se Lippo amico, 13]); similarly, Sonetto, se Meuccio has the task of bringing other poems as gifts. The sonnets are both personified, but while the one to Lippo speaks in the first person (“io che m’apello umil[e] sonetto [a humble sonnet I am called]” [10]), here it is the poet who speaks and gives instructions to his composition, so that the manner of Sonetto, se Meuccio is similar to that of an envoy to a canzone (congedo in Italian), in which the poet addresses his creation, telling it to whom to go and how to behave. In the Vita Nuova Dante defines the congedo as “una stanza quasi come ancella de l’altre, ne la quale io dico quello che di questa mia canzone desidero [a stanza that is like a handmaid to the others, one in which I state my wishes for my canzone]” (VN XIX.21 [10.32]).

  Taking account of Dante’s congedi in general, one sees that the opening move of this poem – the address to the composition, in this case “Sonetto” – is typical of many congedi. In La dispietata mente, for example, the congedo begins: “Canzone, il tuo cammin vuol esser corto [My song, your journey must be brief]” (66). And in the congedo of Doglia mi reca nello core ardire there are detailed instructions about the identity of the addressee and the comportment of the canzone when it reaches the addressee: the poet sends the canzone to “una donna / ch’è del nostro paese … Bianca, Giovanna, Contessa [a woman who is from our land … Bianca, Giovanna, Contessa]” (148–9, 153), and orders that “A costei te ne va chiusa ed onesta [You go to this woman reserved and dignified]” (154).

  The first line of Sonetto, se Meuccio t’è mostrato gives us the key to interpretation. Dante is instructing his poem as to how it ought to behave when Meuccio is pointed out to it (“t’è mostrato”): it should greet him immediately, run toward him, and throw itself at his feet, in such a way as to seem “bene acostumato [knowing the proper protocol]” (a Provençalism for “beneducato,” polite [4]). It should then take him to one side and deliver its “ambasciata” or message (7), explaining the reason for its visit: “Meuccio, que’ che·tt’am’assai / de le sue gioie più care ti manda / per acontarsi al tu’ coraggio bono [Meuccio, he who loves you well / sends some of his most precious gems to you,/so as to gain the friendship of your heart]” (9–11). From this reference to “gioie più care,” “jewels” or precious poems that the poet will send to gain access to the noble heart of his friend (“acontarsi” and “coraggio” are Gallicisms), Dante moves to the closing exhortation. There is a “primo dono [first gift]” that will arrive at once, for Sonetto, se Meuccio has “frati” – sonnet-siblings – that he has brought with him: “Ma fa’ che prenda per lo primo dono / questi tuo’ frati [But then make sure he takes as his first gift / your sibling sonnets]” (12–13).

  Dante will make future use of familial terminology to indicate the relationship that exists between his various compositions. In the congedo of the canzone of mourning for the death of Beatrice, Li occhi dolenti, the poet refers to “le tue sorelle [your sisters]” (73): other lyrics that, in contrast to Li occhi dolenti, “erano usate di portar letizia [used to bring happiness]” (74). Similarly, in the sonnet Parole mie che per lo mondo siete there is a reference to “vostre antiche suore [your elder sisters]” (11), and in the sonnet O dolci rime che parlando andate we find the phrase “Questi è nostro frate [This one is our brother]” (4), used for the sonnet Parole mie. The genetic network among his lyrics that Dante constructs in this manner is an indicator of the high level of self-awareness that informs his poetic activities and that we see in the incipits of these texts: these openings – Sonetto, se Meuccio, Parole mie, O dolci rime – speak to us about poetic creation. In these addresses to his “sonetto,” to his “parole,” to his “rime,” we are witnessing – as also in the congedi of certain canzoni – the dialogue of a creator with his creation, of a “fattore [maker]” with his “fattura [thing he has made]” (Purg. 17.102).35

  These micro-meditations on his own “making” (and we recall that Dante will use the word “fabbro [smith, maker]” for both God and poets) will lead to the poetics of the Commedia, to the representation of the divine representation, the violation of the border between truth and truth-like, between is and as, between res and signum, between signifier and signified.36 Even if the poetic self-awareness of the Commedia is much more complex than that which we find in the lyrics (complicated, above all, by the relationship with the Prime Maker, God), its source is found in early compositions such as Sonetto, se Meuccio.

  Following this line of interpretation, it is no accident that there is direct speech in Sonetto, se Meuccio, dramatically set off by the break between octave and sestet: “e di’: ‘Meuccio, que’ che·tt’am’assai / de le sue gioie più care ti manda’ [and say: ‘Meuccio, he who loves you well / sends some of his most precious gems to you’]” (9–10). Direct speech has a specific and signature valence in Dante’s work. It operates as an index of Dante’s great enterprise of creating a virtual reality: we think not only of the “visible speech” of the sculpted reliefs on purgatory’s terrace of pride, but also of the gate to hell that speaks in the first person. Particularly intense moments of this enterprise are marked by the presence of direct speech: a humble rhetorical technique that is highly effective for crossing the border between res and signum, “sì che dal fatto il dir non sia diverso [so that the telling does not differ from the deed]” (Inf. 32.12). The autoreferentiality becomes vertiginous: if the representation – in this case the sonnet – speaks in direct speech, how does one distinguish the representation from the one who creates the representation, the artifice from the artificer, the sonnet from the poet for whom (literally) it is speaking?

  14 (B LXIII; C 17; FB 19; DR 46)

  Sonetto, se Meuccio t’è mostrato, così tosto ·l saluta come·l vedi, e va’ correndo e gittaliti a’ piedi

  Dear sonnet, when Meuccio’s pointed out, go welcome him as soon as he shows up, run up and throw yourself before his feet

  4

  sì·cche tu paie bene acostumato. E quando sè con lui un poco stato anche ·l risalutrai, non ti ricredi; e posci’ a l’ambasciata tua procedi,

  to show you know the proper protocol. And after having spent some time with him, renew your salutation, don’t be shy; and after that proceed to make your point,

  8

  ma fa’ che ·l tragghe prima da un lato,

  though first be sure to usher him aside

  e di’: “Meuccio, que’ che·tt’am’assai de le sue gioie più care ti manda

  and say: “Meuccio, he who loves you well sends some of his most precious gems to you,

  11

  per acontarsi al tu’ coraggio bono.” Ma fa’ che prenda per lo primo dono questi tuo’ frati, e a·llor sì comanda

  so as to gain the friendship of your heart.” But then make sure he takes as his first gift your sibling sonnets, and insist on this,

  14

  che stean co·llui e qua non tornin mai.

  that they remain with him and don’t come back.

  METRE: sonnet ABBA ABBA CDE EDC.


  15 Com più vi fere Amor co’ suo’ vincastri

  The more Love hits you with his rods, his “vincastri” (vincastri are the staffs used by shepherds, as in Inf. 24.14–15, where the shepherd “prende suo vincastro / e fuor le pecorelle a pascer caccia [takes his staff and drives the sheep out to pasture]”), the more he makes you ready and willing to obey him (“più li vi fate in ubidirlo presto” [2]). In other words, the more pain Love inflicts, the more we are obedient and compliant. This forceful and sexually suggestive opening is the advice (“consiglio” [3]) that Dante offers to an unknown interlocutor (in line 11 mention is made of “vostro buon trovare [your good poetry-writing],” that is, the excellent poetry of the unknown correspondent). Other counsel, declares the poet, cannot be given to you: “non vi si può già dar” (4). Therefore, let whoever is interested fix this counsel well in his mind: “chi vuol l’incastri [whoever wants should learn this well]” (4).

  Love, however, is not necessarily cruel in this sonnet. On the contrary: when the right moment comes, Love with his “pleasant remedies” (the “dolci ’mpiastri” of line 5; impiastro in this sense is found, as here rhyming with vincastro, in Inf. 24.18: “e così tosto al mal giunse lo ’mpiastro [and so quickly the plaster reached the hurt]”) will dispel all torment, and the pleasure will be well worth waiting for, because Love’s suffering does not weigh a sixth of Love’s sweetness: “ché ’l mal d’Amor non è pesante il sesto / ver’ ch’è dolce lo ben [for torment caused by Love weighs but a sixth / the sweetness of his joy]” (7–8). This optimistic vein continues in the sestet, where the poet suggests his interlocutor follow the supreme power of Love (“lo suo sommo poder [his matchless power]” [10]) and not go astray, because only Love can “bring complete delight” (“tutt’allegrezza dare” [13]) and reward his servants at the right time: “e suo’ serventi meritare apunto [and recompense his servants properly]” (14).

  What distinguishes Com più vi fere Amor is its suggestive physicality at either end of the spectrum of Love’s potential treatment of his subjects: both the violence that it ascribes to Love, the menacing sexuality of Love using his vincastri to administer physical punishment, and the sonnet’s frank appeal to the “allegrezza” of requited passion. Otherwise, its themes are conventional, as can be seen from the above summary. Its form, however, is quite remarkable: Com più vi fere Amor boasts harsh and difficult rhymes (“vincastri,” “incastri,” “ ’mpiastri,” “lastri”), risky metaphors, and bracing caesuras and enjambments. Its stylistic experimentalism is noted by all commentators, who are unanimous in seeing in Com più vi fere Amor a precedent for the technical bravura of the rime petrose and for the “rime aspre e chiocce [harsh and grating rhymes]” (Inf. 32.1) of certain sections of the Commedia. I would add that its overt sexuality and reference to sexual violence recur in the petrose, especially in the canzone Così nel mio parlar vogli’esser aspro.

  Contini maintains that in this sonnet, as in the rime petrose, Dante is drawing directly on Occitan models and especially on Arnaut Daniel: “Up to now he knew the Provençal poets by ear, through their imitators; but now he goes back to the sources of the trobar clus, arriving undoubtedly at Arnaut Daniel, whose sestina he will imitate in the rime petrose” (p. 51). I do not share Contini’s belief that Dante imitates Arnaut Daniel in Com più ve fere Amor; rather, the encounter with Occitan poetry seems to me still mediated by Italians. Many Italian poets well known to Dante, including Guittone and Guinizzelli, had written verse characterized by this same harsh style.

  Almost as if to indicate its stylistic pedigree, Com più vi fere Amor echoes a noted passage of the great canzone by Guittone, Ora parrà s’eo saverò cantare, where we find the same identity rhyme punto / punto and the same use of trovare in the sense of poetare (“to write poetry”). Guittone writes that whoever is not pierced (“punto”) by Love does not know how to compose poetry (“trovare”), nor is he worth anything at all (“punto”): “trovare – non sa né valer punto / omo d’Amor non punto [he doesn’t know how to write poetry, nor is he worth anything,/a man who is not pierced by Love]” (Ora parrà, 6–7). Similarly, in the tercets of Com più vi fere Amor we find “punto [wounded]” rhyming with “punto [not even by a bit]” and, alongside the Guittonian rhyme punto/punto from Ora parrà, we find also the use of “trovare” for writing poetry: “se v’ha sì punto / come dimostra il vostro buon trovare;/e non vi disvïate da lui punto” [if he has wounded you / as deeply as your poetry makes out./Don’t stray from him, not even by a bit]” (10–12).

  Very forceful is the strong enjambment between the last line of the octave and the first line of the sestet, made even more emphatic by the use of the unusual verb lastrare (lastricare, to pave), left suspended at the end of the octave:

  Dunque ormai lastri

  vostro cor lo camin per seguitare

  lo suo sommo poder … (Com più vi fere Amor, 8–10)

  [So let your heart / prepare the path that will accommodate / his matchless power, if he has wounded you … ]

  This boldly metaphoric use of the imperative “lastri” does not end up, however, expressing a bold sentiment: the poet merely charges his interlocutor to prepare in his heart a path for following the supreme power of Love. While the harsh language of the poem’s incipit works well to suggest Love’s dominance, there is little correspondence in this latter section of the sonnet between the content – the charge to follow Love – and the form. In the rime petrose, by contrast, the stylistic innovations do not exist apart from the powerful grip of ideology; they are the logical consequence of an ideological position regarding Love’s complete dominance. Such complete synchronicity between form and content is not yet present in Com più vi fere Amor.

  15 (B LXII; C 16; FB 7; DR 43)

  Com più vi fere Amor co’ suo’ vincastri più li vi fate in ubidirlo presto, ch’altro consiglio, be·llo vi protesto,

  The more Love strikes you with a shepherd’s stick the quicker you must do as you are told, for – mark my words – no better counsel can

  4

  non vi si può già dar: chi vuol l’incastri. Poi, quando fie stagion, coi dolci ’mpiastri farà stornarvi ogni tormento agresto, ché ’l mal d’Amor non è pesante il sesto

  be had: whoever wants should learn this well. Then when the time is ripe, he’ll medicate your aches and pains with pleasant remedies, for torment caused by Love weighs but a sixth

  8

  ver’ ch’è dolce lo ben. Dunque ormai lastri

  the sweetness of his joy. So let your heart

  vostro cor lo camin per seguitare lo suo sommo poder, se v’ha sì punto

  prepare the path that will accommodate his matchless power, if he has wounded you

  11

  come dimostra il vostro buon trovare; e non vi disvïate da lui punto, ch’elli sol può tutt’allegrezza dare

  as deeply as your poetry makes out. Don’t stray from him, not even by a bit, for he alone can bring complete delight

  14

  e suo’ serventi meritare apunto.

  and recompense his servants properly.

  METRE: sonnet ABBA ABBA CDC DCD.

  16 No me poriano zamai far emenda [Non mi poriano già mai fare ammenda]

  Two Redactions

  This sonnet with a playful, anecdotal tone, called “la Garisenda” from the name of the famous tower in Bologna that it mentions, was transcribed, in Bolognese and without attribution, by the Bolognese notary Enrichetto delle Querce in his city record of 1287 (Memoriale Bolognese 69 [1287], c. 203v). It was then preserved under the name of Dante in various codices, of which the oldest is Chigiano L VIII 305 (a Tuscan codex produced between 1350 and 1375).37 The attribution of No me poriano to Dante is accepted by Barbi, whose reasons, based on the authority of the Chigiano codex, are available in the Barbi-Maggini commentary (pp. 186–92) and now also in De Robertis.

  While accepting the authority of Chigiano L VIII 305 and attributing No me poriano to Dante, De Robertis, following in the footsteps of H
. Wayne Storey, confers a new and legitimate dignity on the Memoriale Bolognese, which he calls “the first unqualified witness of a composition by Dante” (ed. comm., p. 308). De Robertis in his edition therefore transcribes the text of No me poriano in its “Emilian form” (ed. crit., Testi, p. 330). For ease of reading, I have followed the Emilian version of the text edited by De Robertis with the Tuscan version edited by Contini.38

  Among the elements in this poem that make one think of Dante, the most obvious is the description of the same tower in the Inferno: “Qual pare a riguardar la Carisenda / sotto ’l chinato, quando un nuvol vada / sovr’essa sì, ched ella incontro penda [As when one looks at the Garisenda / under its leaning side, when a cloud passes/over it such that the tower leans the more]” (Inf. 31.136–8). Necessarily composed before 1287, No me poriano attests stylistically to the deftness of the young poet, little more than twenty-one; from the biographical point of view, it indicates at least one visit to Bologna, if not that period of study in the Emilian city conjured by a previous generation of commentators.

  The poet scolds his eyes: they will never be able to make amends, other than by going blind, for their “gran fallo” (great offence) (2). What is the “fallo” in question? Looking at the Garisenda tower, they didn’t notice “the one (they’ll pay for this!)/who ranks supreme among those talked about” (“quella, ma· lor prenda!,/ch’è la maçor dela qual se favelli”//“quella (mal lor prenda)/ch’è la maggior de la qual si favelli”) (5–6). The problem here is how to interpret “quella … ch’è la maçor”//“quella … ch’è la maggior”: are the poet’s eyes guilty of having neglected another Bolognese tower, the higher Asinelli one, or for not having recognized a lady celebrated for her beauty?