Folgore da San Geminiano. “Seven Sonnets. Of the Week.”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
General Description
Date: 1855-56; 1861
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: poem group
General Description of
Date: 1861
Subject: “There is among my thoughts the joyous plan” (“Io ho pensato di fare un gioiello”)
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description of
Date: 1861
Subject: “Now with the moon the day-star Lucifer” (“Quando la luna e la stella diana”)
Rhyme: abbaaccadeffed
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description of
Date: 1861
Subject: “To a new world on Tuesday shifts my song” (“E il Martedi li do un nuovo mondo”)
Rhyme: abbaaccadedede
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description of
Date: 1861
Subject: “And every Wednesday, as the swift days move” (“Ogni Mercoledi corredo grande”)
Rhyme: abbaabbacdedce
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description
Date: 1861
Subject: “For Thursday be the Tournament Prepared” (“Ed ogni Giovedì torniamento”)
Rhyme: abbaaccadefedf
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description
Date: 1861
Subject: “Let Friday be your highest hunting-tide” (“Ed ogni Venerdi gran caccia e forte”)
Rhyme: abbaabbacdeecd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description
Date: 1861
Subject: “I've jolliest merriment for Saturday” (“E il Sabato diletto ed allegranza”)
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
General Description
Date: 1861
Subject: “And on the morrow, at first peep o' the day” (“Alla domane al parere del giorno”)
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcddc
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet
Electronic Archive Edition: 1
This collection contains 91 texts and images, including:
Dante and his Circle
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This sequence is a companion work to Folgore's longer (and better) sequence on the twelve months, also translated by DGR. As with the latter, DGR's source was Poeti del primo secolo (II. 186-194). The translations in all cases are free, except—as usual—DGR adheres closely to the original metrics and rhyme schemes.
See also the commentary for the translation of Folgore's “Twelve Sonnets. Of the Months”.
The historical references in Folgore's dedicatory sonnet establish the terminus ad quem date for its composition: 1308. Carlo di Messer Guerra Cavicciuoli was a violent Florentine Guelph, of the family Adimari. “Lombard Esté” was Azzo VIII d'Este (d. 1308).
Textual History: Composition
A manuscript of DGR's translation of the Friday sonnet is extant in the corrected holograph of “The Staff and the Scrip” in the Harry Ransom Library, U. of Texas. This manuscript was being written in 1855-1856.
Printing History
The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.