Franco Sacchetti. “Catch. On a Fine Day.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1849?; 1861
Rhyme: irregular
Meter: irregular iambic
Genre: song
This is a “caccia”, a form for musical accompaniment and several voices.

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets, xxxv-xxxvi.

Poesie Italiane inedite, II. 184-185.

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Early Italian Poets.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

DGR's source text is Poesie Italiane inedite (II. 184-185), from which DGR makes free substantive departures. These are signalled immediately in the title DGR supplies, “On a Fine Day”. Sachetti's title is “Caccia la lupo”. It is not unlikely that DGR meant his title to carry an oblique comic overtone since his translation, though somewhat free, does not depart from the original's concluding erotic irony.

For commentary on Sachetti and his work see DGR's translation of the “Ballata. His Talk with certain Peasant Girls”.

Textual History: Composition

Probably early, 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: 206d-1861.raw.xml