Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: I

(See above, chapter xi.)

_Italian Comic Prologues._

The current of opinion represented by the prologues to Italian comedies deserves some further illustration.

Bibbiena, in the _Calandra_, starts with what is tantamount to an apology for the modern style of his play. "Voi sarete oggi spettatori d'una nuova commedia intitolata Calandra, in prosa non in versi, moderna non antica, volgare non latina." He then explains why he has chosen the language of his age and nation, taking great pains to combat learned prejudices in favor of pure Latin. At the close he defends himself from the charge of having robbed from Plautus, confessing at the same time that he has done so, and thus restricting his earlier boast of novelty to the bare point of diction.

In the prose _Cassaria_, which was contemporaneous with the _Calandra_, Ariosto takes the same line:

Nuova commedia v'appresento, piena
Di vari giuochi; che ne mai latine
Ne greche lingue recitarno in scena.
Parmi vedere che la piu parte incline
A riprenderla, subito ch'ho detto
Nuova, senza ascoltarne mezzo o fine:
Che tale impresa non gli par suggetto
Delli moderni ingegni, e solo stima
Quel, che gli antiqui han detto, esser perfetto.

He then proceeds to defend his own audacity, which really consists in no more than the attempt to remodel a Latin play. In the prologue to the prose _Suppositi_ Ariosto follows a different course, apologizing for his _contaminatio_ of Plautus and Terence by the argument that they borrowed from Menander and Apollodorus.

Machiavelli in the prologue to the _Clizia_ says that history repeats itself. What happened at Athens, happened yesterday at Florence. He has, therefore, laid his scene at Florence: "perche Atene e rovinata, le vie, le piazze, i luoghi non vi si riconoscono." He thus justifies the modern _rifacimento_ of an ancient comedy conducted upon classical principles.

Gelli in the _Sporta_ reproduces Ariosto's defense for the _Suppositi_. If he has borrowed from Plautus and Terence, they borrowed from Menander. Then follows an acute description of comedy as it should be: "La commedia, per non essere elleno altro ch'uno specchio di costumi della vita privata e civile sotto una imaginazione di verita, non tratto da altro che di cose, che tutto 'l giorno accaggiono al viver nostro, non ci vedrete riconoscimenti di giovani o di fanciulle che oggidi non ne occorre."

Cecchi in the _Martello_ says he has followed the _Asinaria_:

Rimbustata a suo dosso, e su compostovi
(Aggiungendo e levando, come meglio
Gli e parso; e cio, non per corregger Plauto,
Ma per accomodarsi ai tempi e agli uomini
Che ci sono oggidi) questa sua favola.

In the _Moglie_ and the _Dissimili_ he makes similar statements, preferring "la opinione di quelli maestri migliori" (probably Ariosto and Machiavelli), and also:

perche il medesimo
Ved'egli che hanno fatto li piu nobili
Comici che vi sieno.

Lorenzino de' Medici in his prologue to the _Aridosio_ tells the audience they must not be angry if they see the usual lover, miser, and crafty servant, "e simil cose delle quali non puo uscire chi vuol fare commedie."

These quotations may suffice. If we analyze them, it is clear that at first the comic playwrights felt bound to apologize for writing in Italian; next, that they had to defend themselves against the charge of plagiarism; and in the third place that, when the public became accustomed to Latinizing comedies in the vulgar tongue, they undertook the more difficult task of justifying the usage which introduced so many obsolete, monotonous, and anachronistic elements into dramatic literature. At first they were afraid to innovate even to the slight extent of adaptation. At last they were driven to vindicate their artificial forms of art on the score of prescribed usage. But when Cecchi and Lorenzino de' Medici advanced these pleas, which seem to indicate a desire on the part of their public for a more original and modern comedy, the form was too fixed to be altered. Aretino, boldly breaking with tradition, had effected nothing. Il Lasca, laughing at the learned unrealities of his contemporaries, was not strong enough to burst their fetters. Nothing was left for the playwrights but to go on cutting down the old clothes of Plautus and Terence to fit their own backs--as Cecchi puts it.