Canst thou indeed be he that still would sing. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 1848?; 1861
abbaabbacdecde iambic pentameter sonnet
<artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>See commentary for the pair of this sonnet, <xref doc="a.53d-1861.raw"> <title level="wrk">“You that thus wear a modest countenance” . The remarkable wit of Dante's opening lines is difficult to see in DGR's translation, probably in any translation: “Se' tu colui, ch' hai trattato sovente/ Di nostra donna” instantiates the style of writing “in seconda persona” by making the verb in the subordinate clause agree with “tu” rather than with “colui”. The question asks the paired sonnet if it (or its voice?) is the same person (so to speak) as the one who addressed the ladies in the canzone “Ladies that have intelligence in love” . Simply to ask that question in this way is to force readers to attend to the stylistic and rhetorical program being constructed in these remarkable poems. That DGR is fully aware of what is happening in his source texts can hardly be doubted. As in so many of the translations, DGR's consciousness comes most clearly to view when he departs from literal translation: in this case, for example, in line 4. The elaborate construction, not in Dante, carries the suggestion that “another witness” might be this very sonnet, which is the sympathetic mirror of its paired sonnet spoken by the ambiguous “tu colui”. The mistranslation—for it is that—in lines 5-6 underscores DGR's purpose here.

DGR's source text was “Se' tu colui, ch'hai trattato sovente” in the third volume of Fraticelli's <hi rend="i">Opere Minori di Dante Alighieri</hi> (pages 311-312).

Textual History: Composition

This is an early translation, late 1840s.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in <hi rend="i">The Early Italian Poets</hi> ; it was reprinted in 1874 in <hi rend="i">Dante and his Circle</hi> .

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

“Introduction to Part II” (in Early Italian Poets), 189-193 Foster and Boyd, <xref doc="a.pq4309.a1.1967.rad" link="dead" from="66" to="67"> <hi rend="i">Dante's Lyric Poetry</hi> </xref> , I. 66-67 . De Robertis, ed., Vita Nuova , 149-151 .

Early Italian Poets text. Early Italian Poets text. The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), the Fitzwilliam Proof Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), the Alderman annotated copy Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), Presentation Copy to Frederick Shields. Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300) (the Princeton illustrated copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets from Ciullo d'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300) (Proof Copy) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), the Wrenn Proof Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 The Early Italian Poets From Ciullo D'Alcamo to Dante Alighieri (1100-1200-1300), the Yale University Beinecke Library Proof Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1861 0 Dante and His Circle: With the Italian Poets Preceding Him (1100—1200—1300). Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1874 0 The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 2 (1886) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1886 0 The Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911) Dante Gabriel Rossetti William Michael Rossetti 1911 0