Guido Cavalcanti. “Sonnet. He speaks of a third Love of his.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?
Rhyme: abbaabbacdedce
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Introduction to Part II” (in The Early Italian Poets), 193-206

◦ Contini, Poeti de Duecento, II. 514

◦ Cassata, Guido Cavalcanti. Rime, 107-108

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

The sonnet is not one of Cavalcanti's strongest, being a highly artificial Ovidian exercise. DGR's translation is workmanlike but no more. The rhyme scheme varies from the original in the sestet.

DGR's source text was Cicciaporci (Sonnet XXXI, page 16).

Textual History: Composition

Probably an early translation, late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 118d-1861.raw.xml