Politian’s Orpheus: Virgil’s tragic character and Ovid’s
homosexual misogynist turned into a carnival parody
The Fabula di Orfeo was written by Politian during a time of great
artistic experimentation. Today it would be called an avant-garde work,
being so conspicuous in its uniqueness. Indeed the models it proposed for
literary language and dramatic representation and for the relationship
between music, words and acting had no immediate followers.
This paper will offer an interpretation of the Fabula as a
carnivalesque parody of the Orpheus myth rather than as a disconsolate
evocation of it. This interpretation is based on the conviction that
Politian’s work is to be understood not by trying to find psychological
similarities between the author and his character, but according to his
poetics of docta varietas. Politian’s art found its generative power in the
classical principle of imitation that he practised by using different models.
This paper will show how Politian used both Virgil’s and Ovid’s very
different versions of the myth of Orpheus to suit his own needs in
producing his carnivalesque representation.
The Fabula di Orfeo was written by Politian during a time of great
artistic experimentation. Today it would be called an avant-garde work,
being so conspicuous in its uniqueness. Indeed the models it proposed for
literary language, dramatic representation and the relationship between
music, words and acting had no immediate followers.
The language model which Politian proposed was not a winning one;
those proposed by Cortesi and Bembo took that honour. 1 As for dramatic
representation, the narrative solution Politian adopted was based on
techniques from the figurative arts, a solution which did not prove effective
and which was quickly substituted by a narrative structure derived from
See Francesco Bruni, L'italiano : elementi di storia della lingua e della cultura
(Torino: Utet, 1984), Giancarlo Mazzacurati, Conflitti di culture nel Cinquecento (Napoli:
Liguori, 1977), ---, Pietro Bembo e la questione della lingua (Napoli: Liguori, 1984), ---, Il
rinascimento dei moderni : la crisi culturale del XVI secolo e la negazione delle origini
(Bologna: Il Mulino, 1985), ---, Misure del classicismo rinascimentale (Napoli: Liguori,
1990), Maurizio Vitale, La questione della lingua [1ed 1960] (Palermo: Palumbo, 1984).
1
1
models found in classical drama.2 As for the fusion of music, words and
acting, the theatrical productions of the 16 th century departed from this model
by using music as an autonomous, ornamental element rather than an
integral part of the representation. However, in spite of being a unicum – or
maybe because of it - the Fabula di Orfeo has influenced artists throughout the
centuries, becoming a basic text of reference for all those artists who use the
myth of Orpheus as the main object of their work: Monteverdi (1607), Gluck
(1762), Casella (1932) among others. Because of its complexity and the
ambiguity of its message, the Fabula has generated a series of critical
interpretations offering very different readings.
Even today there is disagreement among scholars as to the date of the
work. It is a problem that has been discussed at length, since reconstructing
the circumstances in which the work was composed and performed is
particularly relevant for its interpretation: the written text that survived into
the modern era is just one of the components of the performance. To this
must be added the music, acting, singing, staging and an idea of the public to
whom the work was directed.
A short history of criticism on this issue must start with Picotti. In his
1915 article,3 Picotti carefully reconstructed Politian’s schedule of
appointments and concluded that the Fabula di Orfeo must have been written
in the first semester of 1480 and not between 1471 and 1473 as the philologist
Del Lungo had suggested in 1897.4 Picotti believed it was composed in
Mantua where Politian resided while hoping to find a new protector in
Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga, believing he could not regain the favour of his
former protector, Lorenzo the Magnificent, who had sent him into exile. The
piece would have been commissioned to be performed at the feast held to
See Cesare Molinari, "Il teatro nella tradizione vitruviana: da Leon Battista
Alberti a Daniele Barbaro," Biblioteca teatrale 1 (1971), Marzia Pieri, La nascita del teatro
moderno in Italia tra XV e XVI secolo (Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1989).
3
Giovan Battista Picotti, "Sulla data dell'Orfeo e delle Stanze di Agnolo
Poliziano (1914)," in Ricerche umanistiche, ed. Giovan Battista Picotti (Firenze: La
Nuova Italia, 1955).
4
Isidoro Del Lungo, Florentia. Uomini e cose del Quattrocento (Firenze: Barbèra,
1897).
2
2
celebrate two engagements: that of Clara Gonzaga, daughter of Federico who
had succeeded his father in 1478, to Gilbert de Monpensier and that of Prince
Francesco Gonzaga to the very young Isabella D’Este. News of when the
couples were to arrive did not reach Mantua until the 17 th, hence Picotti
assumes that Orfeo was written between the 17 th and the 21st June.
A different reconstruction of events was proposed by Emma Tedeschi
(1925),5 who proved that on 17 th June Politian was already back in Florence,
busy with an ancient manuscript of The Lives of the Caesars by Svetonius. She
suggests that the Fabula was composed during the first half of March 1480
and that it was to be performed at the banquet which was held to celebrate
the arrival of the Sforzas’ ambassador in Mantua. However, the critic Maϊer
pointed out in 19666 that Tedeschi’s reconstruction was untenable because
she did not take into consideration Politian’s letter to Carlo Canale (which
was published together with the Fabula) wherein it was stated that the Fabula
was composed in two days amidst ‚continuous disturbances‛. Maϊer
proposes the 13th to the 15th of June for those dates. According to her
reconstruction of events, on 12 June Politian received news from Baccio
Ugolini that Lorenzo wanted him to return; he composed the Fabula as
quickly as possible so he could go back to his former protector.
Mirella Vitalini (1969)7 objects to this thesis on practical grounds, saying
that it would be very difficult for Politian to leave Mantua on the 15 th and be
in Florence by the 17 th working on a code of the Historia Augusta. She further
rejects Maϊer’s reconstruction because, if we accept it, Orfeo couldn’t
represent – as she thinks he does – the poet’s crisis brought about by having
been removed from Florence.
Vitalini proposes that the work was
commissioned by Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga in 1480 to be performed at the
end of the carnival banquet. According to Vitalini, the carnival atmosphere
justified the insertion at the end of the Fabula of a Bacchanal which otherwise
Emma Tedeschi, "La "Rappresentazione d'Orfeo" e la "Tragedia d'Orfeo"," Atti e
memorie della R. Accademia Virgiliana di Mantova n.s. 17-18 (1924-5).
6
Ida Maier, Ange Politien: La formation d'un poète humaniste (1469-1480)
(Geneva: Droz, 1966).
7
Mirella Vitalini, "A proposito della datazione dell'Orfeo del Poliziano,"
Giornale storico della letteratura italiana CXLVI (1969).
5
3
has nothing to do with the myth of Orpheus. Thus the choice of a tragic myth
for a festive occasion can be explained both by the fact that it was a myth dear
to the humanists and by the tradition of carnival feasts which usually
combined orgiastic elements with the macabre and tragedy. Vitalini, even if
she refuses to imbue such a hurried work as this with too much meaning,
even if she does not want to state too decisively that there is a parallel
between Orfeo’s defeat and Politian’s own, she nonetheless tends to see in the
Fabula a reflection of Politian’s state of mind while he was composing it.
In the same year, 1969, Nino Pirrotta 8 intervened in the querelle and
confirmed Vitalini’s hypothesis that it was composed for carnival. But he
does so within a very broad discourse and his interpretation of the Fabula
differs substantially from Vitalini’s. Pirotta’s book concerns the history of
music and theatre, but it is at the same time a book on the history of culture
in the strictest sense of the word. It is a collection of essays on a large number
of literary, musical, pictorial, epistolary and other genres that belong more or
less to the period between the second half of the 15 th century and the first half
of the 17th. The essays are unified by the perspective from which the different
works are analysed, that of researching and emphasising the function and
meaning of music in the types of performance that preceded opera, a genre in
which poetry, music and acting are intertwined to form an indissoluble unity,
a genre which found its first full realisation in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in 1607.
This is a work in which the recitar cantando (roughly, ‚acting by singing‛)
becomes an accepted and successful means of artistic expression. The
starting point of Pirrotta’s research is a careful analysis of Politian’s Fabula, a
work that was written to be performed and in which he sees effectively
realised – and also symbolised by the myth that forms the basis of the text –
that unity of poetry and music that will become the guiding principle of
operatic productions more than a century later. Pirrotta reconstructs with
precision the historical conditions under which the Fabula was composed and
the type of production in which it found its place (i.e. the courtly feast). In
this way he is able to highlight a series of analogies between this kind of
humanistic performance and 17th century opera (he mentions in particular the
Nino Pirrotta and Elena Povoledo, Music and theatre from Poliziano to
Monteverdi [1ed 1969] (Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
8
4
ideal of highly expressive solo singing). However he is also able to highlight
the differences between the Fabula and both the Sacre Rappresentazioni
tradition and the theatrical and musical productions of the 16 th century, a
time when there was a tendency for theatre to become increasingly literary
and to use music as an ornamental – or at least secondary – element which
was dispensable, notwithstanding its beauty.
According to Pirrotta, those who believe that the Fabula was composed
in June 1480 also tend to hold that it was never performed. However Pirrotta
claims that notes jotted on the manuscript suggest otherwise. Rather than
being stage directions, these notes record what happened during a
performance:
‚Orfeo, cantando sopra il monte in su lira e’ seguenti versi latini, il quali a proposito di messere
Baccio Ugolini attore de ditta persona d’Orfeo sono in onore del Cardinale Mantuano, fu interrotto
da uno pastore nonciatore della morte di Euridice.‛
‚Orpheus on the mountain, singing to the lyre the following Latin verses (which are intended by
Messer Baccio Ugolini who acted the part of Orpheus to be in honour of the Cardinal of Mantua),
was interrupted by a shepherd announcing the death of Eurydice.‛
Since Baccio Ugolini was not in Mantua between April and June 1480
and since in June the engagement feasts were postponed, the only possible
date for the performance is the last day of carnival 1480. Moreover, in the
Sapphic ode, there is no mention made either of Federico Marquis of Mantua
or of his marriage alliances. Hence Pirrotta proposes that the Fabula was
written to be performed at one of the sumptuous carnival banquets for which
the Cardinal was renowned. These involved scores of courses interspersed
with short performances (dancing, music, acrobats and jugglers) to entertain
the guests. Usually the longest performance was kept till last; it involved a
large cast of actors and its main function was to flatter the hosts. As the
closest antecedents to the Fabula, Pirrotta draws attention to the convivial
performances which accompanied the banquet held in Bologna in 1475 to
mark the marriage of Count Guido Pepoli to Countess Rangoni of Modena, a
banquet which Cardinal Gonzaga probably attended. There are several
similarities between these performances and Politian’s Orfeo: they were called
Fabulae, were preceded by an ‘argument’, had a mythological theme,
contained laudatory lines in Latin. According to Pirrotta the Fabula belonged
to this tradition of convivial performances and would have been the finale to
the long progression of amusements.
5
In this way, Pirrotta rejects the theory that Orfeo belongs to the tradition
of Florentine religious theatre,9 a theory that formed part of the accepted
interpretation of Italian criticism,10 at least from the time of Alessandro
D’Ancona who in fact followed Giosuè Carducci’s reading as stated in the
introduction to his edition of Orfeo in 1863. 11 In order to emphasise the vast
differences between the Sacre Rappresentazioni and Politian’s work, Pirrotta
starts his analysis of the Fabula by proposing an analogy between it and the
1474 frescoes by Andrea Mantegna in La camera degli sposi (The Wedding
Chamber) of the Gonzaga castle of St George in Mantua. He underlines two
commonalities between the two works. The first is a sense of theatrical
immediacy in which the reality represented collides with the lives of the
spectators in spite of its being set in a distant time and place; the second is
that both artists had to work in inappropriate or unfavorable conditions. In
the Camera degli sposi, which is located in a dimly lit tower, visitors get the
impression that they are standing in a pavilion surrounded on all sides by
open arcades; there is a sense of being in the middle of a lively scene of court
life which seems to involve the spectator too. In stark contrast to the Sacre
Rappresentazioni, whose themes evoked past events, the mythological and
allegorical Fabulae created a fantastic world which collided with that of the
audience. The performance would thus almost include the public, much as
This theatrical genre, very popular in the 15 th century, had succeeded the
liturgical drama and dramatic laude but it did not have any more links with liturgy.
The plays were performed not just in the churches but also in salons or in the open.
Besides the usual characters of the liturgical drama, that is saints, virgins, martyrs,
kings, princes, there were others from daily life such as peasants or innkeepers; the
metric form was generally the octave and they were always preceded by a prologue,
recited by an angel who would promise a reward for members of the audience who
paid attention. There was always an epilogue, also recited by an angel.
10
Emilio Bigi, La cultura del Poliziano e altri studi umanistici (Pisa: Nistri-Lischi,
1967), Domenico De Robertis, "L'esperienza poetica del Quattrocento," in Storia della
letteratura Italiana, ed. Emilio Cecchi and Natalino Sapegno (Milano: Garzanti, 1965),
Bruno Maier, "Agnolo Poliziano," in Letteratura italiana : I maggiori., ed. AA.VV.
(Milano: Marzorati, 1956).
11
Giosuè Carducci, ed., Le Stanze, l'Orfeo e le Rime di messer Angelo Ambrogini
Poliziano (Firenze: Barbèra, 1863), Alessandro D'Ancona, Origini del Teatro Italiano (1ed
1891), 2 vols. (Roma: Bardi Editore, 1996).
9
6
the Camera degli sposi’s frescoes did. In the Fabula di Orfeo the final chorus of
the Bacchantes had exactly this involving function.
As for the second shared characteristic, Pirrotta notes that the two
octaves recited by Mercury at the beginning are not an analogy with the Sacre
Rappresentazioni’s annunciations but a parody of them. Indeed the last two
lines are to be spoken by a Dalmatian shepherd and are surely a caricature:
Stat’attanto, brigata, bono argurio
Che di ciavolo in terra vien Mercurio
Tak’ keer, goo’ folks, it’s goo’ luck
that from haiven to airth there come Marcury.
Mercury is Jupiter’s angel, not God’s. Moreover the prologue is very
similar to the arguments of the secular and convivial performances. It is just
slightly shorter. Such brevity indicates that the whole Fabula must necessarily
be short. Politian was limited to writing a short actus, much in the same way
that Mantegna had to adapt his painting to the narrow and dimly lit room.
For Pirrotta the swift transitions and the abrupt juxtapositions in the Orfeo are
a result of the restrictions the author had to face.
The critic, adopting a criterion both thematic and metric at the same
time, segments the Fabula into three main episodes: bucolic, heroic and
bacchic (these being the titles of the acts in Orphei tragoedia, a later version of
Orfeo but one which Politian was not involved in). 12 Each episode has a
peaceful beginning and a fast-paced end. The Fabula starts with the
appearance of an actor playing Mercury who recites the prologue which
quickly outlines the show that is about to begin. The first part (lines 17-137)
is an eclogue, both on account of the motifs (the search for the lost calf, the
love speeches of the shepherd Aristeo, the wise advice of the old shepherd
Mopso) and the metre used. From lines 17 to 53, we have terza rima followed
See Vincenzo Pernicone, "La tradizione manoscritta dell'Orfeo del Poliziano,"
in Studi di varia umanità in onore di Francesco Flora, ed. AA.VV (Milano: Mondadori,
1963). and also M. P. Mussini Sacchi, "La Orphei Tragoedia e il suo autore," in In ricordo
di Cesare Angelini, ed. AA.VV (Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1979), Antonia Tissoni
Benvenuti, L'Orfeo del Poliziano. Con il testo critico dell'originale e delle successive forme
teatrali [1ed 1986] (Padova: Antenore, 2000), 116-29.
12
7
by a ballad (the song of Aristeo). Then there are three octaves: one is
sdrucciola (containing lines with a dactylic ending, lines 85-92) while the
others are dialogic. From line 124 to 137, there is an irregular succession of
heptasyllables and hendecasyllables.
The plot of the first part is as follows: the shepherd Mopso asks another
shepherd, Aristeo, if he has seen a calf that has escaped. Aristeo sends his
servant Tirsi to look for the calf and invites Mopso to listen to his love woes.
Mopso tells him to leave love well alone because it is a dangerous sickness
that makes one forget one’s most important duties, especially the care of
property – in Aristeo’s case, care of his cattle, his bees, and so on. Aristeo
answers that, ‚He who is in love cannot and does not want to listen to reason
and prefers to suffer loving rather than endure loveless calm.‛ Tirsi returns
to say that he has found the calf and that he has also seen a beautiful woman
singing and picking flowers all by herself in the middle of a lawn. Aristeo
recognises by this description the object of his love and runs after her. She
flees in fear, is bitten by a snake and dies. This marks the end of the pastoral
scene, modeled on Virgil’s Bucolics.
At this point Orfeo sings an ode in Latin to the accompaniment of the
lyre. The mythical originator of singing and music, the symbol of poetry sings
his ode from a mountaintop; probably Politian wanted to symbolise that
Orfeo’s heroic verses sung in Latin accompanied by a lyre were superior to
the ordinary style of the amorous ballata sung by Aristeo and accompanied
by a pipe. Orfeo’s ode is in praise of the Cardinal as a prince who cares for
poets and poetry: ‚qui colit vate citharamque princes‛.
After this ode, a shepherd arrives and tells Orfeo of Euridice’s death: it
is an octave which marks the passage from the eclogue, which sets the mood,
to the heroic phase, the illustration of the myth itself. Upon hearing the
news, Orfeo sings of his desperation in lyrical octaves until he reaches
Tartarus (Hades) where he hopes his songs will move the infernal powers
just as his songs had moved stones, rocks and trees and tamed wild animals
on Earth. Pluto and Minos intervene with two dialogical octaves in which
they express their surprise at Orfeo’s achievements in taming wild animals
and so on. Then Orfeo sings in strambotti (not octaves; strambotti are octaves
intended to be sung and were the form of poetry for music most assiduously
cultivated by Italian men of letters as a vehicle for the most passionately
lyrical sentiments) and begs mercy for Euridice. The rulers of Tartarus, Pluto
8
and Proserpina, are moved by Orfeo’s singing. With two dialogical octaves,
they grant his wish and allow him to take Euridice back, but on one
condition: he must not look at Euridice until he reaches the gates of Tartarus.
But Orfeo cannot contain his passion and just before returning to Earth he
turns, looks upon Euridice and thus loses her forever. This scene is written
using a variety of metres and irregulars stanzas.
The third episode starts with Orfeo, who in four octaves bemoans his
fate and expresses his intention to give up all ‘feminine association’,
preferring instead ‘the springtime of the better sex’. He is heard by the
Bacchantes who in two octaves take their revenge by killing him. The Fabula
ends with a chorus of Bacchantes, a true carnival song in ottonari piani,
tronchi e sdruccioli (octosyllabic lines with alternating accented and dactylic
endings). Pirrotta points out that, ‚even if one is merely reading the text it
manages to suggest the unruly and picturesque pantomime (or moresca, as it
was called) which must have accompanied it.‛13
After this metric and thematic analysis, which clearly shows that the
Fabula does not belong to the tradition of the sacred representation, Pirrotta
turns his attention to the musical aspect of the work. Even in this respect, the
technique of the sacred theatre is not evident, a technique which would
involve an intoned rendition of the dialogue; rather, the Fabula follows the
tradition of courtly performances which alternated between pure
declamation and singing. Indeed there are many parts that are sung:
certainly the song of Aristeo is sung, as the title suggests, as is the Sapphic
ode in Latin; Orfeo reaches Hades singing and sings his prayer; to which we
can certainly add the singing of the Bacchantes. It seems that Orfeo only
sings in the heroic moment. Pirrotta doubts that the octaves where he states
his intention to forego the love of women were sung, otherwise logic dictates
that his singing would have tamed the Bacchantes too. This leads the critic to
identify in the mythological character created by Politian the symbol or
personification of the humanistic conception of poetry as song. With
persuasive argument, Pirrotta shows how all sung parts are monophonic,
even the final ditiramb of the Bacchantes. This would have followed partially
13
Pirrotta and Povoledo, 19.
9
from the humanists’ aversion to the Medieval theories of music from which
the polyphonic practice was born. This practice was a typical product of the
convoluted scholastic thought against which they were reacting. They knew
little of the music which depended on these theoretical works; music to them
was something less artificial, more spontaneous. Music for them had to be
poetry itself. For Politian, poetic language was already music, with its
harmonic constructions, recurring stresses, patterns of rhyme and
symmetrical arrangement of lines, units of metre and stanzas. All the
recurrent rhetorical images, the lyra, the singing, the plectrum, all these
instruments of the poet meant that poetic word was already music. But they
also said that an affinity exists between verbal music and the instrumental
music that might accompany it. Thus with the Fabula Politian would express
his conception of poetry as song - especially the solos that a century later
would take their place in opera.
This suggestive interpretation by Pirrotta, formulated in the tradition of
the history of culture, stresses the carnival aspect of the Favola; this
interpretation was confirmed by Ernesto Travi in his 1973 essay. 14 Travi is
convinced that the Favola was performed for a carnival banquet on 15
February 1480 because the very subject matter of the Favola, the story of lost
love complete with a drunken finale, better suits a carnival banquet than an
engagement feast. Travi emphasises some of the stylistic characteristics of
the work that follow Politian’s theory of docta varietas. But he gives the work
an interpretation which is reductive: ‚Those who understand the variety of
forms in which the lyrical aspect is embodied - pastoral eclogue in third
rhyme or in octaves, ballad, madrigal, ode, strambotti, rispetti or Bacchanal have well understood the core of Politian’s poetry, that is, a diffuse poetical
joy, a metric feast that seems to be satisfied in continuous change.‛ 15Travi’s
critical stance is very similar to that held by the 19 th century critic Francesco
De Sanctis who saw Politian as a tyrant flatterer, completely lacking in
morality, motivated only by the cult of pure form. The idea that the whole
Fabula is simply a diffuse poetical joy is not convincing, in particular because
Ernesto Travi, "L'esperienza mantovana del Poliziano: l'Orfeo," in Studi in
onore di Alberto Chiari, ed. AA.VV. (Brescia: Paideia, 1973).
15
Ibid., 1307. The translation is ours.
14
10
one of the very themes of the work is the high value and function of poetry as
a civilizing means. If it is true that what Travi calls an ‚aristocratic attitude‛
was a constant feature of Politian’s work, it is also true that, as Emilio Bigi
noted,16 this attitude was always accompanied by the humanistic ideal of art
as a civilizing element.
In stark contrast to Travi, Maria Luisa Doglio (1977)17 accentuates the
tragic elements of the Fabula. Her essay approaches the text from an
historical perspective and contains some thought-provoking observations.
However it does not seem to respect the text. For her, Politian’s Orfeo is not
just a rendition of the Virgilian and Ovidian myth of poetry that transforms
nature, a myth that was dear to the humanists, 18 but a work whose ambiguity
permits a variety of readings.
Doglio reads it as a parable of the poet, the humanist intellectual who
has fatally lost his autonomy together with the possibility of being active
politically. Politian would allude to his condition with the only means at his
disposal: through theatrical fiction. Having been ordered to produce a
theatrical text for a courtly feast, Politian would have chosen the myth of
Orpheus as one that emblematically reflects the weakness of humanistic
ideals which were destined to fail, not just the human ideals of Horace and
Ovid – beauty, youth, love – but also the heroic ones proposed by Coluccio
Salutati, that is, Orpheus as the initiator of political life. According to this
hypothesis, in lines 286-288 where Proserpina addresses Plutone, Plutone
would represent the prince of a city state:
I’ non credetti o dolce mio consorte,
che pietà mai venisse in questo regno;
or la veggio entrare in nostra corte.
Bigi.
Maria Luisa Doglio, " Mito, metamorfosi, emblema dalla Favola d’Orfeo del
Poliziano alla Festa del lauro," Lettere Italiane XXIX (1977).
18
See August Buck, Der Orpheus-Mythos in der italienischen Renaissance (Krefeld:
Scherpe, 1961), C.M. Pyle, "Le Thème d'Orphée dans les oeuvres laitines d'Ange
Politien," Bulletin de l'Association Guillame Budé XXXIX (1980), John Warden, Orpheus :
the Metamorphosis of a Myth (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982).
16
17
11
I never thought, my sweet husband,
That mercy could be allowed in our realm;
Now I see it coming in our court.
The monologue on cruel Fortune in lines 322-329 would propose the
theme of the fugacity of ideals; the insertion of the famous octave from Stanze
(I, 14) in lines 337-245, which many thought was out of place because it was
not related to the loss of Euridice, would actually accentuate the allegorical
character of Orfeo’s speech. This speech would not have been directed at
feminine fickleness but at Fortune’s changeability that forces man to change
his mind and deprive himself of freedom: Fortune would draw man into its
instability. For Doglio the death of Orfeo represents the fragility of the
supreme ideal of poetry itself and the tragic climax, which witnesses the
dismemberment of the corpse, would be attenuated by the final joy of the
sacrifice to Bacchus. This would bring to mind Pico, count of Mirandola: the
Dionysian ecstasies illuminate the obscure, the incomprehensible. The Fabula
would be framed by the two extremes of Mercury (symbol of philological
endeavours to interpret the secrets of hermetic knowledge) and Bacchus
(supernatural ability to illuminate the occult). Doglio believes that the Fabula
was never in fact performed; she surmises that Cardinal Gonzaga would
have been perplexed when faced with the intrinsic melancholy of the Fabula
and its tragic ending, that not only contrasted with expectations of a happy
ending to an engagement feast, but could also elicit, through the pedagogical
effects of catharsis, both mercy and terror, rage and ghosts. In other words,
she thinks that Cardinal Gonzaga would not have been amused by Politian’s
tragedy.
The 1981 essay by Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti19 also centres on the
question of when Orfeo was written; she rules out the possibility that the
work was performed in Mantua in the first half of 1480 because this would
have coincided with the period of mourning following the death of Marquise
Margherita. The scholar instead proposes the date already proposed by Del
Lungo, namely the years between 1471 and 73.
Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti, "Il viaggio di Isabella d'Este a Mantova nel
giugno 1480 e la datazione dell'Orfeo del Poliziano," Giornale storico della letteratura
italiana CLVIII (1981).
19
12
This view was emphatically rejected by Vittore Branca in an important
study on Politian of 1983.20 Branca’s interpretation of the Fabula is quite
similar to the melancholic and tragic one offered by Doglio. He accepts the
date proposed by Maϊer (June 1480) and in doing so rejects the carnival date
proposed by Vitalini and Pirrotta. He also rejects the theory that the work
was written in the early 1470s on the grounds that it would have been
impossible for the 18-year-old Politian, completely imbued in the theories of
Marsilio Ficino, to write a work such as Orfeo in which, besides the maturity
of the language and the complexity and virtuosity of the style – unimaginable
in an author’s first attempts – the Venetian linguistic tones clearly exclude an
early date for the composition. Branca’s reading of the Fabula is much
influenced by a biographical argument and attempts to show the Venetian
character of the work in both form and content. The formal model that
inspired the Fabula would have been that provided by the Momarie:
sumptuous performances based on mythological themes with elaborate,
large-scale stage settings, accompanied by music and songs. These were
particularly frequent during carnival. Politian was in Venice during the first
months of 1480 and certainly saw these performances. Branca points out a
number of similarities with Orfeo: they were called Fabula or festa, they
tended to accentuate choreographed action (such as a final orgiastic dance),
music, the theme of the descent to Hades, the substitution of a religious story
by a mythological fable. For the scholar the language too can be traced back
to the tradition of Venetian theatre, with its variations of Latin, vernacular,
dialect and expressionist distortions. For example the character of the
schiavone, who appeared in the Momarie as a servant or a sailor, appears in
Orfeo using a distorted Venetian dialect. Similarly, in the final chorus there
are many Venetian expressions: ti, bever, bailar, imbotar. Moreover the
influence of Andrea Mantegna, who as Pirrotta pointed out was a dominant
figure in Venetian painting, is also evident to Branca, who recognizes in the
Fabula the presence of Venetian humanist culture with its concreteness, so
Vittore Branca, Poliziano e l'umanesimo della parola (Torino: Einaudi, 1983)..
Similarly Emilio Bigi does not find Tissoni Benvenuti’s argument convincing. See
Emilio Bigi, "Umanità e letterarietà nell'Orfeo del Poliziano," Giornale storico della
letteratura italiana 159 (1982).
20
13
different from the symbolizing intellectualism of Florence, dominated by
Marsilio Ficino’s thought. If the links that Branca establishes with the
Venetian tradition are quite convincing, not so is the interpretation of the
myth that he offers. He comes to his interpretation of the myth by linking
Politian’s life experience with that of his character. Thus Orfeo becomes
‚poet and lover, alive and concrete, depicted by Politian with
autobiographical nuances (unhappy love, incomprehension, exile)‛; the
chorus of the Bacchantes becomes a ‚disconsolate ending‛; Orfeo’s descent
into Hades becomes his defeat; the tearing apart of his body by the
Bacchantes represents the defeat of poetry and its fragility.21 All this because,
according to Branca, when Politian was writing the Fabula, he had lost faith in
the power of poetry and fame as a result of the trauma of the Pazzi
conspiracy and of his exile. For Politian, poetry was but a beautiful illusion.
However this interpretation is unconvincing; firstly because Politian never
lost faith in the formative value of poetry as demonstrated by the fact that he
wrote not only the Fabula, which is a work of poetry, but also a series of
poetical works, in particular Nutricia de poetica e poetis, the sylva, in which
there is a true profession of faith in the educative and creative value of
poetry. 22 It seems that both Branca and Doglio turn a work that is not tragic
into a tragedy, both in terms of the author’s intention and its actual
realization. Indeed, whether Politian composed it for an engagement feast
or, as is more likely, for a carnival banquet, the very fact that it was to be a
courtly feast demanded that it not have ‚a disconsolate ending‛. In order to
justify her reading, Doglio is forced to come up with the unconvincing
argument that the work was not performed in Mantua because of the
Cardinal’s objection to its intrinsically tragic nature. It is most unlikely that
Politian, when commissioned to produce entertainment for a feast by the
same signore who he hoped would give him a job, would deliberately try to
disillusion him.
Since trying to find presumed analogies or differences between the
character and the author has not proved a satisfactory interpretive tool, it
Branca, 63.
See Eugenio Garin, "L'ambiente del Poliziano (1954)," in Il Poliziano e il suo
tempo, ed. Istituto nazionale di studi sul Rinascimento (Firenze: Sansoni, 1957).
21
22
14
might be more fruitful to study the relationship between the character and
other literary characters to whom the text openly refers. In an art like
Politian’s, an art that finds its generative element in the principle of imitation,
it is essential to establish precisely its relationship with the models that
inspired it. 23 We are of course referring to Politian’s two main sources of the
treatment of Orfeo: book IV of the Georgics by Virgil and books X and XI of
Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Often, criticism on the Fabula skims over this point,
limiting itself to noting the existence of these sources but not taking into
proper account either the noteworthy differences between Virgil’s
interpretation and Ovid’s nor the novelty of Politian’s re-elaboration.
Antonia Tissoni Benvenuti in the long essay which accompanies her
1986 critical edition of Orfeo24 reaffirmed her preference for the early 1470s as
the date of composition, but puts into doubt the place of composition: in fact
there is nothing to prove that Politian wrote it in Mantua. In any event, the
scholar states that arriving at the correct interpretation rests not only on
knowing the precise date of its composition but also on its similarity to the
beginning of the Stanze per la giostra di Giuliano de’ Medici, because the two
works have the same inspiring motif. Since the Stanze were certainly
composed between 1475 (the date of the giostra won by Giuliano) and 1478
(the death of Giuliano in the Pazzi conspiracy), then the Orfeo must have
been written during these years, if not before. Tissoni Benvenuti interprets
the story of Orfeo and Euridice as it is presented in the Fabula as an
exemplum of the deadly effects of love. In the Stanze (I. 13-21) too love is
defined as ‚van furore‛ (vain fury), ‚dolce insania‛ (sweet insanity), ‚ceca
peste‛ (blind plague), having a bad influence that ‚toglie ogni pensier
maschio‛ (takes away any virile thought), it makes man forget his ‚alta
natura‛ (high nature). Emilio Bigi saw unrestrained love as the cause of all
On this subject see Hermann Gmelin, "Das Prinzip der Imitation in den
romanischen Literaturen der Rennaisance," Romanische Forschungen 46 (1932). and
Eugenio Battisti, Rinascimento e Barocco (Torino: Einaudi, 1960)., especially the chapter
entitled Il concetto di imitazione nel Cinquecento italiano.
24
Tissoni Benvenuti, L'Orfeo del Poliziano. Con il testo critico dell'originale e delle
successive forme teatrali [1ed 1986]. We will refer to this edition for the remainder of
this essay.
23
15
the deaths in the Fabula: Euridice’s double deaths are due first to Aristeo’s
uncontrolled passion and then to Orfeo’s equally unbounded love; Orfeo’s
death is due to the distortion of emotions that afflicted him after Euridice’s
second death.25 Tissoni Benvenuti instead points out that the cause of all the
deaths in the Fabula is not limitless love but love for a woman. According to
the scholar, Politian is reusing the classical topos of love for a woman seen in
opposition to the golden age – or at least as bringing about its end. In the
Christian tradition such a topos was substituted by paradise lost due to Eve’s
weakness; however it was already used in Latin literature, for example by
Juvenal in his sixth satire where it is also linked to the exaltation of
homosexual love. While in the Middle Ages only half the myth endured – the
misogynist part, that is – Politian restored in toto Juvenal’s combined myth
and in doing so was the first to write an explicit exaltation of ephebic love in
the vernacular. Politian’s is an attitude which testifies to the influence of
Classical culture on 15 th century high-culture mentality: before a select
audience, Politian has his character sing in the vernacular in praise of such a
love, not so much to make obvious autobiographical references, but above all
to flaunt his antiquarian recovery. This part of Tissoni Benvenuti’s discourse
is completely convincing but not so her conclusion: ‚Thus in the Fabula, if
Orfeo represents The Poet, Poetry’s defeat in the fight against death could not
have been more complete‛.26 The scholar’s allegorical interpretation sees in
the Fabula a representation of Politian’s and his fellow contemporaries’ failure
to call back to life ancient poetry. For Politian in fact such an effort can be
successful only through the philological study of classical civilizations.
This interpretation is in certain respects quite similar to that given in
1995 by Mario Martelli27 who also proposes the early 1470s as the date of
composition – 1473 to be precise. That is to say, he places the date of
composition during the years when the interests of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s
circle were strongly oriented towards religion. He thus reads the Fabula as an
allegory of the failure of the three Orpheuses that Politian had inherited from
Bigi, "Umanità e letterarietà nell'Orfeo del Poliziano," 190-2.
Tissoni Benvenuti, L'Orfeo del Poliziano. Con il testo critico dell'originale e delle
successive forme teatrali [1ed 1986], 80. The translation is ours.
27
Mario Martelli, Angelo Poliziano: storia e metastoria (Lecce: Conte, 1995).
25
26
16
tradition: ‚*the Orpheus+ who, as civilizer of the wild aspect of humanity,
was the symbol of political life; the Orpheus who in his failed attempt to
bring Euridice back from Hades was the symbol of the ineffectiveness of
political life as a means to reach a contemplative life; and finally the Orpheus
who as the initiator of paederastic love dismembered by the Bacchantes was
the symbol of corruption and the punishment that inevitably follows such a
failure.‛28 Therefore Martelli concludes that Politian, by creating a character
who thinks vita activa is enough and inevitably fails, wanted to make an
allusion to the inadequacy of heathen civilization to elevate itself ‚beyond the
limits of the earth and the body‛ because it lacked Christian Revelation.
Both Martelli’s and Tissoni Benvenuti’s readings are very suggestive
and extremely useful, the first for its historical and cultural reconstruction of
15th century Florence and the second for its philological restoration of the text.
However in their anxiety to provide a coherent allegorical interpretation, it
seems that their analyses of the relationship between Politian and his sources
do not take sufficient account of the parodic character of one of those sources
– The Metamorphosis by Ovid, that is.
A suggestive reading of the Fabula has been offered by Bodo
Guthmüller29 who rightly links it to the courtly feasts that were so common in
the Italian Renaissance state cities. According to him, the Fabula was a drama
about married life, written as an imitation of the nuptial plays that were
commonly performed and that showed confrontations between legitimate
and free love. Thus Orfeo was punished by the Bacchantes not because he
had scorned women nor because he had chosen homosexuality, but because
he had insulted marriage. However such an interpretation is not convincing
because Guthmüller too does not take into consideration the parodic
character of Ovid’s Orpheus.30
Ibid., 101. The translation is ours.
Bodo Guthmüller, "Di nuovo sull'Orfeo del Poliziano," in Poliziano nel suo
tempo, ed. Luisa Secchi Tarugi (Firenze: Franco Cesati Editore, 1996).
30
Similarly unconvincing interpretations have been given by Mia Cocco, "Il
sacrificio di Orfeo nell'Orfeo del Poliziano," Quaderni d'Italianistica VI (1985),
Francesco Tateo, "'Questioni d'amore' in teatro: l'esempio di Orfeo nel Poliziano,"
Critica letteraria XVIII (1990). An accurate summary of the criticism on Politian can be
28
29
17
On the divergence between Virgil’s Orpheus and Ovid’s, William S.
Anderson wrote an illuminating essay in 1982.31 He points out the way that
Ovid, through continuous allusions to and by parodic overturning of the
story contained in the Georgics, transforms the tragic Virgilian character
(represented as a symbol of irrational love, seen as furor, guilty even if
pathetic) into an Orpheus whose love is in fact very weak and whose poetic
abilities have been reduced to the level of a cheap orator. We give here three
examples of Ovid’s ironic treatment of his character according to Anderson’s
analysis. While Virgil limits himself to describing the effects of Orpheus’
song rather than actually producing the song itself, Ovid has Orpheus sing
for 23 lines (X. 17-39). Of course we certainly cannot believe that Ovid
thought that the song of his Orpheus could equate with that which by
definition could only exist in the myth, that is, a song capable of moving
deities. Indeed the song that Ovid puts in Orpheus’ mouth is a banal suasoria
that ‚makes no emotional appeal whatsoever, but works with cheap, flashy,
and specious rhetoric to persuade Hades to go against his own nature. As a
consequence, Orpheus strikes us as a third-rate-poet-orator who, assigned the
task of creating an inimitable song and trying to regain Eurydice, can only
mouth commonplaces or try to devise clever but lifeless points (‘colores’) and
so win applause‛. 32
Another significant difference between Virgil’s Orpheus and Ovid’s is
found in the aftermath of Eurydice’s second death. Virgil says that no
(feminine) love, no promise of nuptials would persuade Orpheus’ animus
(‚Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere imenei‛, IV. 516); after three lines of
continuous lamentation, his Orpheus is taken by the Thracian women who,
indignant at having been rejected (‚spretae matres‛, IV. 520), tear him to
pieces. Ovid recalls the same rejection of feminine sex in a much more
found in Attilio Bettinzoli, "Rassegna di studi sul Poliziano (1972-1986)," Lettere
Italiane XXXIX (1987), ---, "Rassegna di studi sul Poliziano (1987-1993)," Lettere Italiane
XXXXV (1993).
31
William S. Anderson, "The Orpheus of Virgil and Ovid: flebile nescio quid," in
Orpheus. The Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. John Warden (Toronto Buffalo London:
University of Toronto Press, 1982).
32
Ibid., 40.
18
pronounced manner: he specifies redundantly femmineam Venerem (X. 80); he
registers the women’s resentment multae doluere repulsae (X. 82). Ovid’s
Orpheus reacts against women and matrimony, deciding to dedicate himself
to the love of tender young boys (‚ille etiam Tracum populis fuit auctor, amorem
/ in teneros transferre mares citraque iuventam / aetatis breve ver et primos carpere
flores‛, X. 83-85). Ovid makes him the founder (auctor) of male homosexuality
to which he immediately attaches a violent misogyny. All this of course has
consequences for the way we perceive Orpheus. We do not feel the
compassion we felt when faced with the pain of the Virgilian Orpheus; we
are not too concerned by the subsequent resentment of the Thracian women
and their savage attack on the singer. Not only has he rejected them, as in
Virgil, to remain faithful to Euridice, but he also actively attacked them and
viciously scorned the idea of feminine sexuality. He deserves their hostility.
The detached attitude of Ovid regarding his character, in stark contrast to the
sympathy expressed in Virgil, is particularly evident at the end of the story
when Orpheus’ head is tossed about in the waves of the Hebrus River. Given
his previous attitude, Ovid’s Orpheus of course cannot sing with his last
breath about poor Euridice. He had forgotten her quite some time previously
and had quickly found consolation with young men. This is why Ovid
transformed the highly moving lament of the Virgilian character:
Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice revulsum
Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus
Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua
a miseram Eurydicen anima fugiente vocabat,
Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae (IV. 523-527)
Then too his head was torn from his marble-white neck, and as the Thracian Hebrus carried it along,
rolling it in the midst of its wild waters, ‘Eurydice’ the voice and cold tongue called out, ‘poor
Eurydice’, with its failing breath; and the banks along the river echoed back, ‘Eurydice’.
into the ironic:
membra iacent diversa locis; caput, Hebre, lyramque
excipis, et (mirum!), medio dum labitur amne,
flebile nescio quid queritur lyra, flebile lingua
murmurat examinis, respondent flebile ripae (XI. 50-53,
His limbs lie here and there about the fields; but his head and lyre are welcomed by you, river
Hebrus, and – a veritable marvel – while they float down the river, the lyre laments something or
other tearful, the lifeless tongue mutters a tearful message, and that tearful something is echoed back
by the riverbanks.
19
Politian, following his poetics of docta varietas (cultivated variety),
which required the use of different and undifferentiated models, fused
together the two different treatments of the myth. This fusion attests to his
clear understanding of the specifics of the two versions: he took from each the
elements that were best suited to his aim, that of composing a work for a
courtly feast in which the myth is interpreted as a parody of the mysteric and
mystic figure of Orpheus adopted in the neoplatonic circles in Florence. 33 As
Eugenio Garin pointed out, 34 Politian differs from Giovanni Pico, count of
Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino and the other neoplatonic Florentine
contemporaries. Their indifference to earthly, historically and civilly
determined life, their escape from reality into mysticism, their idea of poetry
as revelation of transcendental truths, all these are completely lacking in
Politian’s writings. It is true that, unlike Lorenzo Valla, he was not overly
interested in political and religious reformation, however he certainly was
very interested in worldly and historical life: for him philology becomes an
historical science and poetry has the function of building civil society through
words. In the Fabula Politian, like Virgil, puts together the mythical characters
of Orfeo and Aristeo, but the only connection between the two characters is
that the latter causes the death of Euridice. After this, there is no further
mention of Aristeo in the Fabula. In the Georgics, Aristaeus is a much more
important character. The story of Orpheus is incorporated into Aristaeus’ and
Orpheus’ experiences acquire meaning through contrast with Aristaeus’.
They are both hit by misfortune: Aristaeus loses his bees and Orpheus loses
Euridice. But Aristaeus answers by asking the gods for help in the name of
family and he faithfully follows all the instructions that he is given; he is
On the differences between Politian and Ficino see André Chastel, Art et
Humanisme à Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique. Etudes sur la Renaissance et
l’Humanism platonicien (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1959), ---, "The Artist,"
in Renaissance Characters, ed. Eugenio Garin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1991), Eugenio Garin, "The Philosopher and the Magus," in Renaissance Characters, ed.
Eugenio Garin (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1991), ---, Ritratti
di umanisti (Milano: Bompiani, 2001), John Warden, "Orpheus and Ficino," in Orpheus.
The Metamorphosis of a Myth, ed. John Warden (Toronto Buffalo London: University of
Toronto Press, 1982).
34
Garin, "L'ambiente del Poliziano (1954).".
33
20
rewarded. Orpheus moves the gods with his song, but his furor (‚frenzied
state‛) – which is contrasted with Aristaeus’ pietas (‚obedience to tradition‛)
– does not allow him to respect the law imposed on him. The very furor, the
passion, which allowed him to move the gods, caused him to disobey and
thereby see the effect of his song, however powerful, disappear. Politian
transforms the epic hero of the Georgics into a bucolic character of very little
importance, almost a comical figure. However, Politian abandons the
Virgilian text and uses Ovid’s caricature, which better suits the setting of a
courtly feast. If we read the Fabula in this light, the insertion of the famous
octave from the Stanze (1. 14)35 is not out of place, and we no longer need to
give it an allegorical interpretation as Doglio did:
Quant'è misero l'huom che cangia voglia
per donna o mai per lei s'allegra o dole,
o qual per lei di liberta si spoglia
o crede a suo' sembianti, a suo parole!
Che sempre è piu leggier ch'al vento foglia
e mille volte el dì vuole e disvole;
segue chi fugge, a chi la vuol s'asconde,
e vanne e vien come alla riva l'onde. (Orfeo. 277-284)
Ah, how miserable is the man who changes his mind// for a woman or ever becomes happy or sad
on her account! //who strips himself of his freedom for her,// or believes in her looks and words!//For
she is ever flightier than a windswept leaf,//and she wishes and unwishes a thousand times a day://
she pursues the man who flees, hides from one who desires her,// she comes and goes like waves
upon the shore.
Our reading is further confirmed by an analysis of the sources for the
bacchanal that ends the Fabula. Certainly the dismembering of Orfeo is
derived not only from the episode in Ovid, but also from other classical
sources, specifically the scene in Euripides’ Bacchae where Agave, together
The octave from the Stanze appears in Orfeo with minor changes. It contains
misogynistic commonplaces as found in Virgil (Aen. IV. 569-70 ‚varium et mutabile
semper/femina‛), Calpurnius (III. 10 ‚Mobilior ventis o femina‛) Ovid (Her. 109-10 ‚Tu
levior foliis, tum cum sine pondere suci/mobilibus ventis arida facta volant‛) and of course
in the vernacular tradition. See Emilio Bigi, "Impegno civile e allegorie neoplatoniche
nelle "Stanze"," in Poliziano nel suo tempo, ed. Luisa Secchi Tarugi (Firenze: Franco
Cesati, 1996). and Tissoni Benvenuti, L'Orfeo del Poliziano. Con il testo critico
dell'originale e delle successive forme teatrali [1ed 1986], 162.
35
21
with the other bacchantes, tear apart Pentheus’ body. 36 It might be useful to
compare the texts by Politian, Ovid and Euripides: 37
Orfeo:
Ecco quel che l’amor nostro disprezza!
O, o, sorelle! O, o, diamoli morte!
Tu scaglia il tirso; e tu quel ramo spezza;
tu piglia o sazo o fuoco e gitta forte;
tu corri e quella pianta là scavezza.
O, o, facciam che pena el tristo porte!
O, o, caviangli il cor del pecto fora!
Mora lo scellerato, mora, mora!
Orfeo:
Here is the one who scorns our love!
O, o, sisters! O, o, let’s kill him!
You, throw the thyrsus; and you, break that branch;
You, take a stone or fire and heave it;
You, run and uproot that tree.
O, o, let’s make him sorry, the rascal!
O, o, let’s tear his heart from his breast!
Let the rogue die, die, die!
Torna la Baccante con la testa di Orpheo e dice:
The Bacchante returns with Orpheus’ head and says,
O, o! O, o! mort’è lo scelerato!
Euoè! Bacco Bacco, i’ ti ringrazio!
Per tutto ‘l bosco l’habbiam stracciato,
tal ch’ogni sterpo è del suo sangue sazio.
L’habbiam a membro a membro lacerato
In molti pezzi con crudele strazio.
Or vada e biasmi la teda legittima!
Euoè Bacco! Accepta questa vittima!
O, o. O! O! The rogue is dead!
Euoè! Bacchus, Bacchus, I thank you!
We have scattered him throughout the forest,
And every bush is soaked with his blood.
We tore him apart, limb by limb,
Into many pieces as cruel torture.
Now let him go and complain about his wife!
Euoè, Bacchus! Accept this victim!
Metamorphoses:
En – ait – en hic est nostri contemptor (XI, 7)
Metamorphoses:
See, see! the hater of our sex, she cry'd.
Vatemque petunt et fronde virentes
Coniiciunt thyrsos, non haec in munera factos;
Hae glaebas, illae direptos arbore ramos,
Pars torquent silices (XI, 27-30)
The women launched their attack on the poet hurling
their leaf-decked thyrsi, made for a different purpose.
Some threw sods of earth, others tore branches from
the trees, others flung stones.
Bacchae
ὡς δ' εἶδον ἐλάτῃ δεσπότην ἐφήμενον,
πρῶτον μὲν αὐτοῦ χερμάδας κραταιβόλους
ἔρριπτον, ἀντίπυργον ἐπιβᾶσαι πέτραν,
Bacchae
When they saw my master perched on the fir tree,
they first climbed a cliff that towered opposite him,
hurled stones at him, and launched fir branches
See Saverio Orlando, "Note sulla Fabula di Orfeo di Angelo Poliziano,"
Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 143 (1966). and also Tissoni Benvenuti, L'Orfeo
del Poliziano. Con il testo critico dell'originale e delle successive forme teatrali [1ed 1986],
163-67. We are indebted to the latter commentary for the textual observations that
follow.
37
Excerpts from Bacchae taken from David Kovacs, ed., Euripides "Bacchae,
Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus", 6 vols., vol. 6 (Cambridge, Mass.- London: Harvard
University Press, 2002).
36
22
ὄζοισί τ' ἐλατίνοισιν ἠκοντίζετο.
ἄλλαι δὲ θύρσους ἵεσαν δι' αἰθέρος
Πενθέως, στόχον δύστηνον: ἀλλ' οὐκ ἤνυτον
(1095—1100)
against him like javelins while others threw wands
through the air at him, and what a woeful sight was
their aiming at him.
ἡμεῖς δέ γ' αὐτῇ χειρὶ τόνδε θ' εἵλομεν,
χωρίς τε θηρὸς ἄρθρα διεφορήσαμεν. (12091210)
We caught the beast with our bare hands and tore him
limb from limb
κεῖται δὲ χωρὶς σῶμα, τὸ μὲν ὑπὸ στύφλοις
πέτραις, τὸ δ' ὕλης ἐν βαθυξύλῳ φόβῃ, (11371138)
His body lies scattered, some of it under the rough
cliffs, other parts in thick-growing woods.
In the Bacchae – as tragic a work as there can be – this scene is followed
by a chorus which in content and form is obviously consistent with the rest of
the piece, that is, it is tragic. In Orfeo, on the other hand, the scene where
Orfeo is dismembered is followed by a canivalesque song (refrain of two lines
and stanzas of octasyllables, xx ababbx) that is not so much an anthem to
Bacchus as an invitation to get drunk:
El coro delle Baccante:
The chorus of the Bacchantes:
Ognun segua, Bacco, te!
Bacco, Bacco, euoè!
Let everyone follow you, Bacchus!
Bacchus, Bacchus, euoè!
Chi vuol bevere, chi vuol bevere,
venga a bevere, venga qui.
Voi ‘mbottate come pevere:
i’ vo’ bevere ancor mi!
Gli è del vino ancor per ti,
lascia bevere imprima a me.
Those who want to drink, those who want to drink,
Come here to drink, come here.
You fill yourself like a funnel,
Me, I wanna drink too!
There is wine for you too,
But let me drink first.
Ognun segua, Bacco, te!
Bacco, Bacco, euoè!
Let everyone follow you, Bacchus!
Bacchus, Bacchus, euoè!
Io ho voto già il mio corno:
damm’un po’ ‘l bottazzo qua!
Questo monte gira intorno,
e ‘l cervello a spasso va.
Ognun corra ‘n za e in là
Come vede fare a me.
I have already emptied my horn:
Hand me the bottle here!
This mountain spins
And my mind goes off on its own.
Let everyone run hither ‘n thither
Just like me.
Ognun segua, Bacco, te!
Bacco, Bacco, euoè!
Let everyone follow you, Bacchus!
Bacchus, Bacchus, euoè!
I’ mi moro già di sonno:
son io ebria, o sì o no?
Star più ritte in piè non ponno:
voi siate ebrie, ch’io lo so!
Ognun facci come io fo:
I am dead tired:
Am I drunk, yes or no?
You can’t stand up any more:
You are drunk, I know it!
Let everybody do as I do:
23
ognun succi come me!
Let everybody guzzle as I do.
Ognun segua, Bacco, te!
Bacco, Bacco, euoè!
Let everyone follow you, Bacchus!
Bacchus, Bacchus, euoè!
Ognun cridi: Bacco, Bacco!
E pur cacci del vin giù.
Po’ co’ suoni faren fiacco:
bevi tu, e tu, e tu!
I’ non posso ballar più.
Ognun gridi: euoè!
Let everybody shout out: Bacchus, Bacchus!
And knock back the wine.
Then we’ll wreck the place with noise:
You, drink, and you and you!
I can’t dance any more.
Let everybody cry: euoè!
Ognun segua, Bacco, te!
Bacco, Bacco, euoè! (309-342)
Let everyone follow you, Bacchus!
Bacchus, Bacchus, euoè!
As usual the sources are composite, but Nemesianus’ third eclogue and
especially the ‚drunken scene‛ of Euripide’s Cyclops stand out:38
Orfeo:
Io ho voto già il mio corno:
damm’un po’ ‘l bottazzo qua!
(I have already emptied my horn:
Hand me the bottle here!)
Nemesianus:
Tum Satyri, lasciva cohors, sibi pocula quisque
obvia corripiunt: quae fors dedit, arripit usus.
Cantharon hic retinet, cornu bibit alter adunco. (III.46-48)
Cyclops:
Κύκλωψ: ἔγχει, πλέων δὲ τὸν σκύφον δίδου μόνον. (556)
(Just pour, give me the cup when you have filled it!)
Κύκλωψ: ἀπολεῖς: δὸς οὕτως. (558)
(You'll be the death of me! Just hand it over!).
We used the following editions, Heather J. Williams, ed., The Eclogues and
Cynegetica of Nemesianus (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986). and David Kovacs, ed., Euripides:
"Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea", 6 vols., vol. 1 (Cambridge, Mass - London: Harvard
University Press, 1994).
38
24
______________________
Orfeo:
Questo monte gira intorno,
e ‘l cervello a spasso va.
(This mountain spins
And my mind goes off on its own.)
Cyclops:
Κύκλωψ: ‚ἰοὺ ἰού://ὡς ἐξένευσα μόγις: ἄκρατος ἡ χάρις.//ὁ δ' οὐρανός μοι
συμμεμιγμένος δοκεῖ// τῇ γῇ φέρεσθαι, τοῦ Διός τε τὸν θρόνον (578-9)
(Cyclops: ‚Calloo, callay! How close I was to drowning in it! This is pleasure
unalloyed. I think I see the heaven and the earth swimming around I see
Zeus's throne together.‛)
______________________
Orfeo:
Ognun facci come io fo:
ognun succi come me!
(Let everybody do as I do: / Let everybody guzzle as I do).
Cyclops:
Σιληνός: ‚θές νυν τὸν ἀγκῶν' εὐρύθμως κᾆτ' ἔκπιε,/ὥσπερ μ' ὁρᾷς
πίνονταῲχὤσπερ οὐκέτι. (563-64)
(Silenus: ‚Lie gracefully on your elbow and drink it off, just as you see me
drink--or see me not!)
______________________
Orfeo:
I’ mi moro già di sonno:
(I am dead tired:)
Cyclops:
εἰς ὕπνον βαλεῖ, (574)
([wine] will put you to sleep).
Such a carnival song modeled on this ‘drunken scene’ of Eurpides’
satyr play is certainly not a disconsolate ending, but the happy conclusion to
a feast that leaves the audience satisfied.
25
Franco Manai
University of Auckland
26
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29