Giacomino Pugliesi. “Canzone. Of his Dead Lady.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?; 1861
Rhyme: ABABCCBCCB (with variations)
Meter: iambic
Genre: canzone

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets, xxvii.

◦ Valeriani and Lampredi, Poeti del primo secolo, I. 230-232.

◦ Panvini, Le rime della scuola siciliana, I. 179-181.

◦ Contini, Poeti de duecento I. 146-148; II. 814.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

DGR's source text, from the Poeti del Primo Secolo collection, is highly imperfect, but DGR follows its rhyme scheme exactly nonetheless—in accordance with his general translation procedures. The close adherence to the source produces odd variances in the prosodic form of the first, second, and fourth stanzas, which should be following the metrical structure proper (as exemplified for instance in stanza 2).

Although DGR's notes say that this is “the only instance, among Dante's predecessors, of a poem. . .written on a lady's death”, Pier della Vigna's planctus“Amando con fin core” is another (though less distinguished) example.

Textual History: Composition

As with most of DGR's translations of the early Italian poets, the date of this one cannot be determined with certainty. It is probably one of the early translations.

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: 198d-1861.raw.xml