Introduction 1 Writing the Biography of Petrarch: from Susanna Dobson
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Notes Introduction 1. The examples are numerous; see, e.g., Anna Seward, who found Inferno tedious, horrifying and morally useless (Seward 1936, 31 and 289-90). 2. Gardini 2001, 23. 3. Stanton 1987, 393 and 396. 4. Figures remained between 40 and 70 up to 1834. Before 1808 the number was always below 40. See the interesting graph of books published by women per year in Jackson 1993, 394. 5. Curran 1988, 188; see also Mellor 1993, 7. 6. The same can be said of Milton's role in the revival of the sonnet. Even R. D. Havens, who minimised the Italian and Petrarchan element in the revival, acknowledged that 'the main influence was certainly Italian.' In spite of this, Havens believed that the sonnets of Hayley, C. Smith, Mary Robinson and others who used the form freely gave no evidence of Italian influence. Havens's view of these authors and the Della Cruscans belongs to the disparaging trend initiated by Gifford (Havens 1922, 491 and 503-5). 7. Foscolo 1953a, 153. 8. Fontenelle 1773a and 1773b; Fontenelle n.d., 45-50 ('Dialogue II. Sapho, Laure'). Part I of the work appeared in 1683, Part II in 1684; 'Sapho, Laure' comes from part 1. The Macaroni Club in London was an association of well-travelled young men who shared an interest in foreign food and fashions. A Macaroni could be an ironic epithet for anyone with dandyish and eccentric tastes. 9. Fontenelle 1773a, 31. 10. Fontenelle 1773a, 32. 11. Fontenelle 1773b, 54. This part of the dialogue contains many Petrarchan ideas. 12. From this point to the conclusion, the translator broke down Laura's last intervention into small parts, adding in comments to each of them. 13. Fontenelle 1773b, 54. 14. This was entirely added by the translator. 15. Fontenelle 1773b, 55. 1 Writing the Biography of Petrarch: From Susanna Dobson (1775) to the Romantics 1. Foscolo 1953a, 153 (the concept is reiterated on p. 155). He also criticised the absurdity of some translations which strayed from the original (Foscolo 1953b, 119). 2. Sade was aware that his work was sensational, as he published it without his name and with a false place of publication (the real one was apparently Avignon). The Abbe was the affectionate uncle of the Marquis de Sade, who knew the Memoires and in jail had a dream of Laura, based on a passage of Petrarch's Triumph of Death, which remains a famous episode in his life (see Hayes 2000, 119, 128, 134). Together with Voltaire and Rousseau, Sade was the only French scholar who wrote on Petrarch to find an audience in England. His work was received better 157 158 Notes in England and Italy than in France. However, though some magazines reviewed and recommended each volume of his essay, it was known only to a handful of erudite readers before 1775, when Dobson's translation was published. Her translation was hailed as a major event in all magazines, which commended it without exception. Some of them reprinted long excerpts, while others extracted a series of articles from it (Mouret 1976, 22, 26-9,151-3,301). 3. Evidence and documents, reproduced mainly in the Appendix to vol. I of Sade's Memoires, were destroyed during the French Revolution. Laura's identity remains an open question, though her identification with Laura de Sade is considered plausible today. See the two major biographies of Petrarch (Wilkins 1985; Dotti 1987), Jones 1984 and, above all, Jones 1992. 4. Memoires I, 127-8. 5. 'Aux Fran~ois amateurs de la poesie e des belles-lettres', Memoires I, xcvii-xcviii. 6. Memoires I, 81, 86. 7. According to Dobson, it was 'clearly proved' (a phrase not in Sade) that Laura was married. Sade was right; it was the other scholars who fictionalised Petrarch's life (Life I, 39-40). Dobson also mentioned Laura's will and contract of marriage, which were kept in Sade's house (Life I, xxvi-xxvii). 8. Memoires I, cxii-cxiii. 9. Memoires III, 609-12. 10. Life I, xxii-xxiii, which are a sort of paraphrase of Memoires I, xcvii-xcviii. Besides inspiring many British poets, the view of Petrarch as a man of feeling found an interesting echo in the Encyclopredia Britannica. The entry 'Petrarch' in the third edition summarises the main events of his life drawing on Gibbon and Dobson with extensive quotations. In the last paragraph Petrarch is compared with Sterne's Yorick. Both 'had great wit and genius, and no less imprudence and eccentricity; both were canons, or prebendaries'; both lived in France; both were familiar with bishops. 'In their attachments to Laura and Eliza, both married women, these two prebendaries were equally warm, and equally innocent.' After death, the bones of both Petrarch and Yorick - it was rumoured - were stolen, Petrarch's to be sold, whereas Yorick's skull was exhibited at Oxford (EB vol. 14). 11. Life II, 559. 12. Life II, 560. 13. Life I, xix. Three articles, made mostly of translated passages from Petrarch's poems, anticipated the core of the English interest, which concentrated on his love story and marginalised the rest. They were taken from Sade, as is showed by the French spelling of Petrarch and the repetition of some of his theses. The author of the articles, who signed the first as 'Lucia', only added some details, such as an excursion round Vaucluse when Laura met Petrarch and asked him, '''have you ceased to love me?'" (Lucia 1774b, 417). The articles end with Laura's death. See Lucia 1774a, 1774b, 1774c. 14. Life I, xx-xxi. 15. Sade pointed out that, in comparison to the classical love poets, Petrarch has been admired mainly for the delicacy and honesty of his passion, which was of a Platonic purity. 'Sa manU~re de traiter l'amour, lui donne encore un grand avantage sur les Anciens, c'est que la Vierge la plus scrupuleuse peut Ie lire d'un bout a l'autre sans rougir.' (The italicised phrase is by Francesco Panigarola, Bishop of Asti in the sixteenth century. Memoires I, c-ci.) Analogously, Sade defended the Decameron, which was written in a very particular period, after the Black Death, and did not need to be censored later (Memoires III, 609-12). He argued that it was Notes 159 composed to entertain the fair sex, whereas Dobson more cautiously said that it was written as a divertissement (Life II, 421). 16. Life 1,33-4. When Dobson talked about Petrarch's son, she did not mention the fact that he was illegitimate (Life 1,386-7). This was part of her campaign to render the story morally suitable for her contemporaries. 17. Life I, 36-7: 'Her person was delicate, her eyes tender and sparkling, and her eyebrows black as ebony. Golden locks waved over her shoulders whiter than snow; and the ringlets were interwoven by the fingers of Love. Her neck was well formed, and her complexion animated by the tints of nature, which art vainly attempts to stimulate. [... J Nothing was so soft as her looks, so modest as her carriage, so touching the sound of her voice. An air of gaiety and tenderness breathed around her, but so and happily tempered, as to inspire every beholder with the sentiments of virtue: for she was chaste as the spangled dew-drop of the morn.' Dobson's description, supposedly the first impression Laura made on Petrarch, is a patchwork of lines from his poems. Dobson only added the last sentence (from 'for she was chaste'; see Memoires I, 122-3). 18. Life I, 118. 19. Life II, 421. 20. Life II, 419-20. This was Dobson's version. In fact, Sade only stated that eventually she went back to him, as he convinced her of his innocence (Memoires I, 294-5). 21. Dobson 1807, 335-6. For Sade, see Memoires I, 117-18, a passage omitted by Dobson. 22. Dobson 1807, 373-4. 23. Life I, 538. 24. Life 1,117. 25. Life II, 553-6. This section was entirely added by Dobson. 26. Memoires I, 44 (Appendix); Life 1,289. 27. Life 1,421, which corresponds, with that characteristic interpolation, to Memoires I, Appendix, Note VI. On his part, Sade argued that, out of sympathy with Laura, Petrarch too aged quickly (Memo ires II, 62-3). 28. Memoires II, 68, which refers to Giovannini's Li due petrarchisti (Venice, 1623). 29. Memoires III, 80 (Appendix, Note XXI, 'Sur la nature de l'amour de petrarque'). 30. Memoires I, 11. This part was omitted by Dobson. 31. Life I, xxix. 32. Memoires I, cvii-cviii. 33. See, e.g., Memoires I, 178 ff., on Petrarch's puns and sonnets on Laura/lauro; and Memoires I, 182 for an extremely condensed version of PC, 148. 34. See Watson 1967, 41. 35. The complete text runs as follows (Life II, 159): 'Zephyr returns; he brings with him the mild season, the flowers, herbs, and grass, his dear children. Progne warbles, Philomela sighs, the heavens become serene, and the valleys smile. Love re-animates the air, the earth, and the sea: all creatures feel his sovereign power. But alas! this charming season can only renew my sighs! The melody of the birds, the splendour of the flowers, the charms of beauty, are in my eyes like the most gloomy desarts; for Laura is no more!' For Sade's version, Memoires III, 209. See Chapter 2 in this volume for the Italian text and its English translation. 36. Memoirs I, 189-90; Life I, 69-70. The passage is italicised in Sade; Dobson translated it closely.