Chi e costui che con s dolce nota Muove l' abisso, e con l' ornata cetra?

Io veggo ferma d' Ission la rota,...

Ne piu P acqua di Tantalo s' arretra; E veggo Cerber con tre bocche intente, E le furie acquietar il suo lamento.

At length he stands before Pluto's throne, the seat of the G.o.d of the _sacre rappresentazioni_, the rugged rock-seat surrounded by the monstrous demons of Signorelli's _tondo_[157]. Here in presence of the grim ravisher and of his pale consort, in whom the pa.s.sionate pleading of the Thracian bard stirs long-forgotten memories of spring and of the plains of Enna, Orfeo's song receives adequate expression. It is closely imitated from the corresponding pa.s.sage in Ovid, but the lyrical perfection and pa.s.sionate crescendo of the stanzas are Poliziano's own. Addressing Pluto, Orfeo discovers the object of his quest:

Non per Cerber legar fo questa via, Ma solamente per la donna mia.

May not love penetrate even the forbidden bounds of h.e.l.l?--

se memoria alcuna in voi si serba Del vostro celebrato antico amore, Se la vecchia rapina a mente avete, Euridice mia bella mi rendete.

Why should death grudge the few years at most which complete the span of human life?--

Ogni cosa nel fine a voi ritorna; Ogni vita mortal quaggiu ricade: Quanto cerchia la luna con sue corna Convien che arrivi alle vostre contrade--

or why reap amid the unmellowed corn?--

Cos la ninfa mia per voi si serba, Quando sua morte gli dara natura.

Or la tenera vite e l' uva acerba Tagliata avete con la falce dura.

Chi e che mieta la s.e.m.e.nta in erba E non aspetti ch' ella sia matura?

Dunque rendete a me la mia speranza: Io non vel chieggio in don, questa e prestanza.

Next he invokes the pity of the stern G.o.d by the name of Chaos whence the world had birth, and by the dread rivers of the nether world, by Styx and Acheron: 'E pel sonante ardor di Flegetonte'; and lastly, turning to 'the faery-queen Proserpina,'

Pel pome che a te gia, Regina, piacque, Quando lasciasti pria nostro orizzonte.

E se pur me la niega iniqua sorte, Io no vo' su tornar, ma chieggio morte![158]

h.e.l.l itself relents, and, as Boccaccio had written,

forse lieta gli rendeo La cercata Euridice a condizione--

the condition being that he shall not turn to behold her before attaining once again to the land of the living. The condition, of course, is not fulfilled. Orfeo seeks to clasp 'his half regain'd Eurydice,' with the triumphant cry of Ovid holding the conquered Corinna in his arms:

Ite triumphales circ.u.m mea tempora lauri.

Vicimus: Eurydice reddita vita mihi est.

Haec est praecipuo Victoria digna triumpho.

Hue ades, o cura parte triumphe mea[159].

He turns, and his unsubstantial love sinks back into the realm of shadows with the cry:

Oime che 'I troppo amore Ci ha disfatti ambe dua.

Ecco ch' io ti son tolta a gran furore, Ne sono ormai piu tua.

Ben tendo a te le braccia; ma non vale, Che indietro son tirata. Orfeo mio, _vale_.

As he would follow her once more a fury bars the road.

Desperate of his love, the bard now forswears for ever the company of women (Act V of the revised text).

Da qui innanzi vo corre i fior novelli ...

Ouesto e piu dolce e piu soave amore; Non sia chi mai di donna mi favelli, Poi che morta e colei ch' ebbe il mio core.

Now that she is dead, what faith abides in woman?--

Quanto e misero l' uom che cangia voglia Per donna, o mai per lei s' allegra, o duole!...

Che sempre e piu leggier ch' al vento foglia, E mille volte il di vuole e disvuole.

Segue chi fugge; a chi la vuol, s' asconde, E vanne e vien come alla riva l' onde.

The cry wrung from him by his grief antic.i.p.ates the cynical philosophy of later pastorals. Upon this the scene is invaded by 'The riot of the tipsy Baccha.n.a.ls,' eager to avenge the insult offered to their s.e.x[160]. They drive the poet out, and presently returning in triumph with his 'gory visage,' break out into the celebrated chorus 'full of the swift fierce spirit of the G.o.d.' This gained considerably by revision, and in the later text runs as follows:

Ciascun segua, o Bacco, te; Bacco, Bacco, oe oe.

Di corimbi e di verd' edere Cinto il capo abbiam cos Per servirti a tuo richiedere Festeggiando notte e d.

Ognun beva: Bacco e qu; E lasciate here a me.

Ciascun segua, ec.

Io ho vuoto gia il mio corno: Porgi quel cantaro in qua.

Questo monte gira intorno, O 'l cervello a cerchio va: Ognun corra in qua o in la, Come vede fare a me.

Ciascun segua, ec.

Io mi moro gia di sonno: Sono io ebra o s o no?

Piu star dritti i pie non ponno.

Voi siet' ebri, ch' io lo so; Ognun faccia com' io fo; Ognun succe come me.

Ciascun segua, ec.

Ognun gridi Bacco, Bacco, E poi cacci del vin giu; Poi col sonno farem fiacco, Bevi tu e tu e tu.

Io non pos...o...b..llar piu; Ognun gridi Evoe.[161]

Ciascun segua, o Bacco, te; Bacco, Bacco, oe oe.

Lyrical beauty rather than dramatic power was, it has already been remarked, Poliziano's aim and achievement. The want of characterization in the hero, the insignificance of the part allotted to Euridice, the total inadequacy of the tragic climax, measure the author's power as a dramatist. It is the lyrical pa.s.sages--Aristeo's song, Orfeo's impa.s.sioned pleading, the baccha.n.a.lian dance chorus--that supply the firm supports of art upon which rests the slight fabric of the play.

The same simplicity of construction, a simplicity in nature rather narrative than dramatic, characterizes Niccol da Correggio's _Cefalo_.

The play was represented in state in the great courtyard of the ducal palace at Ferrara, on the occasion of the marriage of Lucrezia d' Este with Annibale Bentivogli, on January 21, 1487[162]. Like the _Orfeo_, the piece exhibits traces of its origin in the religious shows, though, unlike the original draft of Poliziano's play, it is divided into five acts each of some length, and is provided with regular choruses on the cla.s.sical model. In spite of its inferiority to the _Orfeo_ in lyric power and its possibly even greater deficiency from a dramatic point of view, it will be worth while giving some account of the piece in order to get as clear an idea as possible of the nature and limitations of the mythological drama, and also because it has never, I believe, been reprinted in modern times, and is in consequence practically unknown to English readers.

The author, a descendant of the princely house of Correggio, was born about 1450, and married the daughter of the famous _condottiere_ Bartolommeo Colleoni. He lived for some years at Milan at the court of Lodovico Sforza; later he migrated to that of the Estensi. In 1493 he sent an allegorical eclogue to Isabella Gonzaga at Mantua, which may possibly have been represented, though we have no note of the fact, and the poem itself has perished[163]. He died in 1508.

After a prologue which resembles that of the _Orfeo_ in giving an argument of the whole piece, the first act opens with a scene in which Aurora seeks the love of Cefalo. Offended at finding her advances repulsed, the G.o.ddess hints that the wife to whom Cefalo is so careful of his faith is, for her part, more free of her favours; and upon Cefalo indignantly refusing credence to the slander, suggests that he should himself in disguise make trial of her fidelity. This the unfortunate youth resolves to do. He approaches Procri in the habit of a merchant, with goods for sale, and takes the opportunity thus afforded of declaring his love. She turns to fly, but the pretended pa.s.sion of his suit stays her, and she is brought to lend an ear to his cunning. He retails the commonplaces of the despairing lover:

Deh, non fuggire, e non si altiera in vista; Odime alquanto, e scolta i preghi mei.

Che fama mai per crudelta se acquista?

Bellissima sei pur, cruda non dei.

Non sai che Amor non vol che se resista A colpi soi? cos vinto mi dei Subito ch' io ti viddi; eh, non fuggire, Forza non ti far; deh, stammi audire.

Not Jove or Phoebus he to a.s.sume strange shapes for her love; he is but her slave, and can but offer his pedlar's pack; but he knows of hidden treasure in the earth, and hers, too, shall be vesture of the fairest.

After gold and soft raiment comes the trump card of the seducer--secrecy:

Cosa secreta mai non se riprende; El tempo che si perde mai non torna; Qui non serai veduta, or che se attende Quel se ha a dolere, che al s...o...b..n sogiorna.

Secreto e il loco, el sol pur non vi splende; Bella sei tu, sol manca che sii adorna Di veste come io intendo ultra il tesoro.

Deh, non mi tener piu; vedi ch' io moro.