Literature as Fiction in the Italian Renaissance Stefano Jossa i P oets lie, it is well known. Vladimir Nabokov used to say that poetry was born when men rst lied: Do you know how poetry started? I always think that it started when a cave boy came running back to the cave, through the tall grass, shouting as he ran, Wolf, wolf, and there was no wolf. His baboon- like parents, great sticklers for the truth, gave him a hiding, no doubt, but poetry had been born the tall story had been born in the tall grass. 1
Many centuries earlier, Aristotle had praised Homer for teaching other poets how to lie: Above all, Homer has taught others the proper way of telling lies. 2
Renaissance poets seem to have followed Homers path. However, their novelty lies in that they question poetrys truthfulness within poetry itself. The rst poet who did so was Ludovico Ariosto, who in Canto XXXV of his Orlando furioso, rst published in 1516, had St. John the Evangelist raise the issue of poetrys truthfulness. Astolfo and St. John are on the moon to recover Orlandos mind, which he has lost because of his mad love for Angelica; there they nd all the things that men lose and waste on the earth. One of these is poetry, which is unreliable because it is made of lies. When questioned by Astolfo about the reason why poetry is there, St. John the Evangelist explains: 1. Vladimir Nabokov, in The Listener, 22 November 1962, pp. 856858. 2. Aristotle, Poetics, 1460a19, trans. Hamilton Fyfe, London and New York 1927, p. 99. the lies of poets 566 567 stefano jossa tutta al contrario listoria converti: che i Greci rotti, e che Troia vittrice, e che Penelopea fu meretrice. Da laltra parte odi che fama lascia Elissa, chebbe il cor tanto pudico; che riputata viene una bagascia, solo perch Maron non le fu amico. Non ti maravigliar chio nabbia ambascia, e se di ci diffusamente io dico. Gli scrittori amo, e fo il debito mio; chal vostro mondo fui scrittore anchio. Poets (like swans up here) are rare on earth; I mean true poets, who deserve the name. The will of God, perhaps, ordained this dearth; Or princely avarice may be to blame, Which beggars makes of those whom at their birth The Muses have endowed with sacred ame, And Good suppresses but on Evil smiles, And every true and noble art exiles. But God deprives such ignoramuses Of intellect and so bedims their sight That art to them abomination is; And so the sepulchre consumes them quite. Yet, notwithstanding all iniquities, Their reputation would be lily-white, More fragrant it would smell than nard or myrrh, If they in life the friends of poets were. Aeneas not so pious, nor so strong Achilles was, as they are famed to be; Hector was less ferocious; and a throng Of heroes could surpass them, but we see Their valour and their deeds enhanced in song, For their descendants had so lavishly Rewarded poets for their eulogies With gifts of villas, farm-lands, palaces. Son, come i cigni, anco i poeti rari, poeti che non sian del nome indegni; s perch il ciel degli uomini preclari non pate mai che troppa copia regni, s per gran colpa dei signori avari che lascian mendicare i sacri ingegni; che le virt premendo, ed esaltando i vizi, caccian le buone arti in bando. Credi che Dio questi ignoranti ha privi de lo ntelletto, e loro offusca i lumi; che de la poesia gli ha fatto schivi, acci che morte il tutto ne consumi. Oltre che del sepolcro uscirian vivi, ancor chavesser tutti i rei costumi, pur che sapesson farsi amica Cirra, pi grato odore avrian che nardo o mirra. Non s pietoso Enea, n forte Achille fu, come fama, n s ero Ettorre; e ne son stati e mille a mille e mille che lor si puon con verit anteporre: ma i donati palazzi e le gran ville dai descendenti lor, gli ha fatto porre in questi senza n sublimi onori da lonorate man degli scrittori. Non fu s santo n benigno Augusto come la tuba di Virgilio suona. Laver avuto in poesia buon gusto la proscrizion iniqua gli perdona. Nessun sapria se Neron fosse ingiusto, n sua fama saria forse men buona, avesse avuto e terra e ciel nimici, se gli scrittor sapea tenersi amici. Omero Agamennn vittorioso, e fe i Troian parer vili ed inerti; e che Penelopea da al suo sposo dai Prochi mille oltraggi avea sofferti. E se tu vuoi che l ver non ti sia ascoso, the lies of poets 568 569 stefano jossa claiming a higher degree of truthfulness to his own poetry, since he proves that he is conscious of the falsity of his own poetry. With this intriguing game, Ariosto gives to his poetry a different status with regard to truthfulness: it is only when poetry admits its own falsity that it can be taken seriously. Not even the major classical epic masterpieces, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid can be taken as reliable sources of the way things are; instead, their main value lies in the questions and the suspicion they raise in the minds of the critical readers. History and poetry are unequivocally separated. No problem, thus, in making St. John the Evangelist the means to this reection on poetry: Ariosto is not discrediting Johns Gospel, but claiming that even the truth of the Gospels should be understood on a different level rather than in the mere facts. The same game with poetrys truthfulness was conceived by Teolo Folengo in his Baldus, a macaronic poem rst published in 1517. At the end of the poem, in book 25, Baldo, the protagonist, enters a huge gourd, or you may call it a pumpkin, which is the abode of poets, minstrels and astrologers who invent, sing and interpret peoples dreams; they have lled books with fables and worthless novelties. They who made up so many whoppers just to please their masters by the parasitic art, emasculating and diddling them thoroughly, will be punished there tremendously: as many lies as they have told, so many teeth must they lose, day after day. 4
Why does Folengo, who is a poet himself, blame poets for their falsehood? Is he denouncing their hypocrisy, thus denouncing his own hypocrisy? Is he just teasing poetrys pretensions to truth? Baldo is the counter-gure of the author, and in the pumpkin he nds all the things that are useless, exactly as, in Ariostos Orlando furioso, Astolfo found on the moon all the things that were lost or wasted on the earth. The idea that poets are liars implies that Folengo himself is a liar. On the other hand, since he denounces the falsehood of poetry, he is the only one who can be reliable. The paradox is the same we nd in Ariosto: it is only when the poet lies, but at the same time shows that he is lying, that poetry achieves its truthfulness. This truthfulness is, of course, not to be 4. All quotations in this paragraph are from Teolo Folengo, Baldo, trans. Ann E. Mullaney, II, Florence 2008, p. 481. Not so benecent Augustus was As Virgils epic clarion proclaimed. His taste in poetry must be the cause Why his proscriptions were left uncondemned. No one would know of Neros unjust laws, Nor would he for his cruelties be famed (Though he had been by Heaven and earth reviled) If writers he had wooed and reconciled. Homer makes Agamemnon win the war; The Trojans cowardly and weak he shows. Although the suitors so persistent are, Penelope is faithful to her spouse. But if for truth you are particular, Like this, quite in reverse, the story goes: The Greeks defeated, Troy victorious, And chaste Penelope notorious. Consider Dido; she, whose heart was pure, Was faithful to Sichaeus to the end; But she is thought by all to be a whore, Because Vergilius was not her friend. And do not be amazed that I deplore The fate of writers and on them expend So many words: I love them, and I do But pay my debt: I was a writer too. 3 Tutta al contrario listoria converti: Ariosto is suggesting that poets write what their patrons want. Intellectuals are not free speakers, but write according to the prescriptions set by their protectors and sponsors. Independence does not belong to the literate. Consequently, however, Ariosto is also arguing that his own poem is not entirely true, because it depends on his pleasing his patrons, the Este of Ferrara. Yet, while denouncing the lack of truthfulness of the other poets, Ariosto is also 3. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso, XXXV.2328; trans. Barbara Reynolds, Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando): A Romantic Epic by Ludovico Ariosto, Harmondsworth 1977, pp. 341343. the lies of poets 570 571 stefano jossa de lalme cose a noi celar si suole e stassi in maest de la natura: ella il fece, ella il sa, ella nha cura. 9
Of arms and love the truthful ctions I come to sing in plain and simple words, but saying nothing of the birth of thunder, the wanderings of the moon, and the Suns toils, because the secret of the lofty causes of holy things is hidden from us, by and large, and rests within the authority of Nature: she made it, she knows it, she cares for it. From the beginning Aretino shows his awareness that poetry is not only ction, but true ction. Aretinos poetics begins to question the humanistic assumption of poetrys truth by admitting the possibility that poets can hide the most important things because these things are not part of poetical discourse. Claiming the separation between poetry and philosophy, Aretino goes a step further towards the idea of the autonomy of poetry. In so doing, he does not deny poetry its truthfulness, but places it on a different level, which does not depend on facts. Thus, with his Marsa, traditionally considered a parody rather than a continuation of Ariostos poem, Aretino shows his awareness that modern poets have to deal with the issue of poetrys truthfulness raised by Orlando furioso. Later, in the proem of his Orlandino, another chivalric poem, published in 1540, Aretino himself will stress the matter: Le eroiche pazzie, li eroichi umori, le traditore imprese, il ladro vanto, le menzogne de larmi e de gli amori, di che il mondo coglion sinebria tanto, i plebei gesti e i bestiali onori 9. Pietro Aretino, Marsa, I.1, in idem, Poemi cavallereschi, ed. Danilo Romei, Rome 1995, p. 48. There is no published English translation; my special thanks go to Yulia Ryzhik for her invaluable help with the translations from Aretino in this essay. intended literally, but on a different level, which is allegorical: veritade ascosa sotto bella menzogna (a truth hidden under a beautiful lie) was the meaning of literature for Dante in his Convivio. 5 Dante himself advised the readers of his Divina commedia that in poetry falsity is only apparent on a supercial level, but under the veil of lies there is a deeper and more substantial truth: poetry is a ver chha faccia di menzogna (truth which has the face of a lie). 6 Ariosto will remember this verse by Dante when he deals with the idea that lies will be understood by the readers who know how to read poetry: A voi so ben che non parr menzogna, / che l lume del discorso avete chiaro (I know that you, my sharp, clear-headed listeners, will see the shining truth of my tale). 7 Poetical truth lies in discourse rather than in matters of fact or historical evidence: it depends on poetical construction. Once more, lie is only apparent, but clever readers can get to the meaning beyond the surface. Dante will be explicitly quoted later on in the poem: E se non che pur dubito che manche / credenza al ver cha faccia di menzogna, / di pi direi; ma di men dir bisogna (Did I not fear to go beyond the span / of what can be believed, I would say more, / but here the truth the face of falsehood wore). 8 Ariosto advises the reader that the more he says, the more he would appear as a liar; yet, in so doing, he is showing his awareness of the ctitious nature of poetrys truth. One of the rst revolutionary followers of Ariosto, Pietro Aretino, will remark on this mixture between falsehood and truthfulness in the proem of his Marsa, a chivalric poem rst published in 1532: Darme e damor veraci zioni vengo a cantar con semplice parole, tacendo come in ciel nascano i tuoni, gli error di Cinzia e l faticar del Sole, perch l secreto de le gran cagioni 5. Dante Alighieri, Il convivio, II.1.3; trans. Christopher Ryan, The Banquet, Stanford 1989, p. 42. 6. Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia, Inferno, XVI.124; trans. Charles Singleton, The Divine Comedy, Princeton 1970, p. 171. 7. Ariosto, Orlando furioso, VII.2, 34, trans. Guido Waldman, Oxford 1974, p. 60. 8. Ariosto (as in n. 3), XXVI.22, 68. the lies of poets 572 573 stefano jossa every poet and worthy charlatan tells so many lies in the high style that Truth is ashamed to open her mouth. Because of you, you ignorant chronicler, at broke, to boot, archbishop Turpin, Pulcis Morgante and Boiardo and the divine Furioso leave us in the dust chasing after them; because of your many prattles and fables the great Pietro Aretino (an evangelist and prophet, no less!) is forced to sing of Marsa and such a lie that a monsignor would be ashamed of it. Aretino is like an evangelist, but he is forced to lie because he needs to follow the ctional source of all romance tradition, Archbishop Turpin. However, like Ariostos St. John the Evangelist, Aretino knows that his poetrys truthfulness does not lie in facts, but should be found at a deeper level. Poetry is ultimately similar to religion, with the difference that it has its own truth rather than religious truth. His poem will succeed in delivering the truth, because it is a poem. Only in poetry can the very form and structure of sentences be manipulated to express signicance. Only in poetry are single words able to create an image that changes the meaning of a harmless tale to something deeper. Because it is a poem, it encourages readers to look for meaning and so is ideal for conveying truth. No surprise, therefore, when Giovan Battista Pigna, in his treatise on how to write romances (I romanzi, 1554), proclaims that una bugia di un buon poeta ogni verit seppellisce (a lie of a good poet buries every truth). 11
Poets have the licence to lie because their lies are not without truth. Some years later, when writing his Gerusalemme liberata, Torquato Tasso will have no doubts. Lies are always more beautiful than bare truth: Magnanima menzogna, quand il vero / s bello che si possa a te preporre? (Oh noble lie! Did ever truth presume / to claim with fairer title virtues throne?). 12 11. Giovan Battista Pigna, I romanzi, ed. Salvatore Ritrovato, Bologna 1997, p. 27. 12. Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, II.22, 34; trans. Max Wickert, The Liberation of Jerusalem, Oxford 2009, p. 26. de tempi antichi ad alta voce canto, canto di Carlo e dogni paladino le gran coglionerie di cremesino. Sta cheto, ser Turpin, prete poltrone, mentre squinterno il vangelo alla gente; taci, di grazia, istorico ciarlone, chogni cronica tua bugiarda mente. Merc vostra, pedante cicalone, ciascun poeta e ciarlatan valente dice tante menzogne in stil altiero che di aprir bocca si vergogna il Vero. Per colpa tua, cronichista ignorante, nulla tenensis, vescovo Turpino, drieto carotte ci caccia il Morgante et il Boiardo <e l> Furioso divino; per le ciacchiere tue e fole tante fa dir Marsa al gran Pietro Aretino, vangelista e profeta, [e] tal bugia che un monsignor se ne vergognaria. 10
The heroic madnesses, the heroic tempers, the treacherous deeds, the thieving pride, the lies both of arms and of loves, on which the asshole world gets drunk so much, the plebeian acts and the bestial honors of ancient times I sing in a loud voice, I sing of Charlemagne and of every paladin great bits of bullshit bedecked in crimson. Keep quiet, sir Turpin, you idler priest, while I ing open the Gospel for the people; shut up, for Gods sake, babbler historian, since every chronicle of yours falsely lies. Thanks to you, pedantic prater, 10. Pietro Aretino, Orlandino, I.13, in idem, Poemi cavallereschi (as in n. 10), pp. 217218. There is no published English translation. 574 stefano jossa Aesthetics overcomes history. Poets have a duty to follow beauty rather than truthfulness. Whether this beauty can contain some truth, different from what appears at rst glance, Tasso does not say; but he is clearly building his poetics in the tradition of the previous liars, his predecessors and fellow poets. Whether todays intellectuals are also liars, and whether their lies can pave the way to new truths, is still a matter of debate. Here I would like to suggest to all patrons that the homage they receive from poets or intellectuals, however false it might be, can still open the road to new truths, which go beyond the homage itself. This truth is to be found not in the bow and the reverence to those in power, but in the feelings that facts cannot express. As Roland Barthes wrote in 1961: We can make literature into an assertive value either in repletion, by reconciling it with societys conservative values, or in tension, by making it the instrument of a struggle for liberation; conversely, we can grant literature an essentially interrogative value; literature then becomes the sign (and perhaps the only possible sign) of that historical opacity in which we live subjectively; admirably served by that inconclusive signifying system which, to my mind, constitutes literature, the writer can then at one and the same time profoundly commit his work to the world, to the worlds questions, yet suspend the commitment precisely where doctrines, political parties, groups, and cultures prompt him to an answer. The interrogation of literature is then innitesimal (in relation to the worlds needs) and essential (since it is this interrogation which constitutes it). This interrogation is not: what is the meaning of the world? nor even perhaps: does the world have a meaning? but only: here is the world: is there meaning in it? Literature is then truth, but the truth of literature is at once its very impotence to answer the worlds questions and its power to ask real questions, total questions, whose answer is not somehow presupposed in the very form of the question: an enterprise which no philosophy, perhaps, has brought off and which would then belong, truly, to literature. 13
13. Roland Barthes, Literature Today: Answers to a Questionnaire in Tel Quel [1961], in idem, Critical Essays, trans. Richard Howard, Evanston 1972, p. 155.
Yale Classics - Ancient Greek Literature: Mythology, History, Philosophy, Poetry, Theater (Including Biographies of Authors and Critical Study of Each Work)