Il Canzoniere
Il Canzoniere (Italian pronunciation:
Though the majority of
Central ideas
The central theme in the Canzoniere is Petrarch's courtly love for Laura, with whom he reportedly fell in love at first sight on 6 April 1327 and who died on that date in 1348. The poems however are so sparing of facts that Petrarch had to write his friend Giacomo Colonna to assert her existence against a charge that she was a fictional creation.[4]
The most evident purpose of the Canzoniere is to praise Laura, yet questions concerning the virtue of love in relation to the Christian religion and desire are always present. Antithesis are also key to the sequence and in one sense represent Petrarch's search for balance; these would later be exploited by Petrarchists in Europe but represent only one aspect of the Rimes. This leads on to the essential paradox of Petrarchan love, where love is desired yet painful: fluctuation between states is a means of expressing this instability. The changing mind of man and the passing of time are also central themes, as is the consideration of the art of poetic creation itself. Some other themes are desire, isolation, unrequited love, and vanity of youth.
In any case, it would be improper to see Canzoniere as uniquely inspired by love for Laura. Other themes are important: religion, poetry, politics, time, glory. The love theme itself should be considered as the nucleus around which Petrarch develops his deep psychological analysis: thanks to his poems inspired by Laura (laurus is the symbol for poetry) the poet aspires to reach glory, which in turn can fight the all-destroying power of time. Even glory, however, cannot guarantee real eternity, because in Christianity, only faith in Jesus Christ can guarantee it.
Influences on the Canzoniere
Petrarch uses
Influence of the Rime
In England
In 1380,
As novices newly crept out of the schooles of Dante, Arioste and Petrarch, they greatly polished our rude and homely manner of vulgar poesie, from that it had bene before, and for that cause may justly be sayd the first reformers of our English meetre and stile.[8]
Thus, their translations of Rimes from the Canzoniere paved the way for the sonnet sequences of Sidney and Shakespeare.
In France
Early French sonneteers included
Further reading
- Durling, Robert M., The Rime Sparse and Other Lyrics (Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976).
- Spiller, Michael R.G, The Development of the Sonnet (London: Routledge, 1992).
- The Canzoniere Online: [1]
- (in Italian) Full text of the Canzoniere: [2]
- The Oregon Petrarch Open Book: [3] Hypertext in and around the Rerum vulgarium fragmenta
References
- ^ 'Introduction' to Canzoniere, translated by Anthony Mortimer (London: Penguin, 2002), xiv.
- ^ 'Introduction', xiv-xv.
- ^ Spiller, Michael, The Development of the Sonnet (London: Routledge, 1992), 2.
- ^ Durling pp5-6
- ^ The Development of the Sonnet, 14-15.
- ^ 'Introduction', xxv.
- ^ Comparison between Petrarca's sonnets and translations by Wyatt and Surrey:http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/poetic.htm
- ^ Puttenham, George, The Art of English Poesie (London, 1589).
- ^ Minta, Stephen, Petrarch and Petrarchism: the English and French Traditions (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980), 156.