Renaissance in Italy, Volume 4
By John Addington Symonds, 1888 [Excerpt]
Ballads [Excerpt]
To comparative mythologists in general, and to English students in particular, the most interesting of these rare Italian Ballads is undoubtedly one known as ' L'Avvelenato.'[1] So far as I am aware, it is unique in the Italian language; nor had its correspondences with Northern Ballad literature been noticed until I pointed them out in 1879.[2] In his work on popular Italian poetry, Professor D' Ancona included the following song, which he had heard upon the lips of a young peasant of the Pisan district: [3]
Dov' eri 'ersera a cena
Caro mio figlio, savio e gentil
Mi fai morire
Ohime!
Dov' eri 'ersera a cena
Gentile mio cavalier?—
Ero dalla mia dama;
Mio core sta male,
Che male mi sta!
Ero dalla mia dama;
'L mio core che se ne va.—
Che ti dienno da cena,
Caro mio figlio, savio e gentil?
Mi fai morire,
Ohime!
Che ti dienno da cena,
Gentile mio cavalier ?—
Un anguilletta arrosto,
Cara mia madre;
Mio core sta male,
Che male mi sta!
Un anguilletta arrosto,
'L mio core che se ne va.
Other versions of the same poem occur in the dialects of Venice, Como and Lecco with such variations as prove them all to be the offshoots from some original now lost in great antiquity. That it existed and was famous so far back as the middle of the seventeenth century, is proved by an allusion in the Cicalata in lode della Padella e della Frittura,' recited before the Accademia della Crusca by Lorenzo Panciatichi in 1656.[4] A few lines are also quoted in the incatenatura of the Cieco Fiorentino, published at Verona in 1629.[5] Anyone who is familiar with our Border Minstrelsy will perceive at once that this is only an Italian version of the Ballad of Lord Donald or Lord Randal.[6] The identity between the two is rendered still more striking by an analysis of the several Lombard versions. In that of Como, for example, the young man makes his will; and this is the last verse[7]:
Cossa lasse alla vostra dama,
Figliuol mio caro, fiorito e gentil,
Cossa lasse alla vostra dama?
La fórca da impiccarla,
Signora mama, mio cor sta mal!
La fórca da impiccarla:
Ohimè, eh' io moro, ohimè!
The same version furnishes the episode of the poisoned hounds:
Coss' avi fa dell' altra mezza,
Figliuol mio caro, fiorito e gentil?
Cossa avi fa dell' altra mezza?
L' hó dada alla cagnòla:
Signóra mama, mio core sta mal!
L' hó dada alla cagnòla:
Ohimè, eh' io moro, ohimè!
Cossa avi fa della cagnòla,
Figliuol mio caro, fiorito e gentil?
Cossa avi fa della cagnòla?
L' è morta drè la strada;
Signora mama, mio core sta mal I
L' e morta dré la strada:
Ohimè, eh' io moro, ohimè!
It is worth mentioning that the same Ballad belongs under slightly different forms to the Germans, Swedes, and other nations of the Teutonic stock; but so far as I have yet been able to discover, it remains the sole instance of that species of popular literature in Italy.[8] The phenomenon is singular, and though conjectures may be hazarded in explanation, it is impossible, until further researches for parallel examples have been made, to advance a theory of how this Ballad penetrated so far south as Tuscany.
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1 It does not occur in the Canti Monferrini.
2 See my letter to the Rassegna Settimanale, March 9, 1879, on the subject of this ballad. Though I begged Italian students for information respecting similar compositions my letter only elicited a Tuscan version of the Donna Lombarda.
3 Op. cit. p. 106.
4 D' Ancona, op. (At. p. 106.
5 Ibid. pp. 99, 105.
6 See Child's English and Scottish Ballads, vol. ii. pp. 244 ct seqq.
7. Bolza, Cam. Pop. Comaschc, No. 49. This is the Scotch version of Lord Donald;
What will ye leave to your true-love, Lord Donald, my son?
What will ye leave to your true-love, my jollie young man?
The tow and the halter, for to hang on yon tree,
And lat her hang there for the poisoning o' me.
This is the Scotch version, with the variant of Lord Randal:
What gat ye to your dinner, Lord Randal, my son?
What gat ye to your dinner, my handsome young man?
I gat eels boiled in broo; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down.
What became of your bloodhounds, Lord Randal, my son?
What became of your bloodhounds, my handsome young man?
O, they swelled and they died; mother, make my bed soon,
For I'm weary wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down.
8. In Passano's I Novellieri Italiani in Verso I find, at p. 20, the notice of a poem, in octave stanzas, which corresponds exactly to the Heir of Lynn. Published at Venice, 1530, 1531, 1542, it bears this title: 'Essempio dun giovane ricchissimo; qual consumata la ricchezza disperato a un trave si sospese. Nel qual il padre previsto il suo fatai corso già molti anni avanti infinito tesoro posto havea, et quello per il carico fracassato, la occulta moneta scoperse.' The young man's name is Fenitio. I have not seen this poem, and since it is composed in ottava rima it cannot be classed exactly with the Avvelenato. Passano also catalogues the Historia di tre Giovani disperati e di tre fate, and the Historia di Leon Bruno, which seem to contain ballad elements.