Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5 (of 7)

Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5 (of 7) - Italian Literature, Part 2

This e-book contains a few phrases in ancient Greek, which may not display properly depending on the fonts the user has installed. Hover the mouse over the Greek phrase to view a transliteration, e.g., . Orlando Furioso and Divina CommediaAriosto expresses the Renaissance as Dante the Middle AgesDefinition of Romantic, Heroic, Burlesque, Heroic-comic, and Satiric PoemsAriosto's Bias toward RomanceSense of Beauty in the Cinque CentoChoice of Boiardo's unfinished ThemeThe Propriety of this ChoiceAriosto's Irony and HumorThe Subject of the FuriosoSiege of ParisOrlando's MadnessLoves of Ruggiero and BradamanteFlattery of the House of EsteThe World of ChivalryAriosto's Delight in the Creatures of his FancyClose Structure of the PoemExaggeration of MotivesPower of Picture-paintingFaculty of VisionMinute DescriptionRhetorical AmplificationRapidity of MovementSolidityNicety of Ethical AnalysisThe Introductions to the CantosEpisodes and NovelleImitations of the ClassicsPower of Appropriation and TransmutationIronyAstolfo's Journey to the MoonAriosto's PortraitS. Michael in the MonasteryThe Cave of SleepHumorPathos and SublimityOlimpia and BirenoConception of Female CharacterThe HeroinesPassion and LoveAriosto's MoralityHis StyleThe Epithet of DivineExquisite FinishAriosto and TassoLittle Landscape-PaintingSimilesRealismAdaptation of Homeric ImagesAriosto's Relation to his Age. Ariosto's Satires make us know the man intus et in cuteto the very core. The lyrics have a breadth and amplitude of style that mark no common master of the poet's craft. Yet neither the Satires nor the Lyrics reveal the author of the Furioso. The artist in Ariosto was greater than the man; and the Furioso, conceived and executed with no reference to the poet's personal experience, enthroned him as the Orpheus of-2- his age. The Orlando Furioso gave full and final expression to the cinque cento, just as the Divina Commedia uttered the last word of the middle ages. The two supreme Italian singers stood in the same relation to their several epochs. Dante immortalized medieval thoughts and aspirations at the moment when they were already losing their reality for the Italian people. Separated from him by a short interval of time, came Petrarch, who substituted the art of poetry for the prophetic inspiration; and while Petrarch was yet singing, Boccaccio anticipated in his multifarious literature the age of the Renaissance. Then the evolution of Italian literature was interrupted by the classical revival; and when Ariosto appeared, it was his duty to close the epoch which Petrarch had inaugurated and Boccaccio had determined, by a poem investing Boccaccio's world, the sensuous world of the Renaissance, with the refined artistic form of Petrarch. This he accomplished. But even while he was at work, Italy underwent those political and mental changes, in the wars of invasion, in the sack of Rome, in the siege of Florence, in the Spanish occupation, in the reconstruction of the Papacy beneath the pressure of Luther's schism, which ended the Renaissance and opened a new age with Tasso for its poet. Those, therefore, who would comprehend the spirit of Italy upon the point of transition from the middle ages, must study the Divine Comedy. Those who would contemplate the genius of the Renaissance, consummated and conscious of its aim, upon the very verge of transmutation and eventual ruin, must turn to the Orlando Furioso. It seems to be a law of intellectual development that-3- the highest works of art can only be achieved when the forces which produced them are already doomed and in the act of disappearance.[1] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 36448
Author: Symonds, John Addington
Release Date: Jun 16, 2011
Format: eBook
Language: English