Petrarch in Romantic England

256 Pages·2008·28.922 MB·English

by  Edoardo Zuccato (auth.)

Petrarch in Romantic England
Also by Edoardo Zuccato
COLERIDGE IN ITALY
THE RECEPTION OF S. T. COLERIDGE IN EUROPE (co-editor with
Elinor Shaffer)
Petrarch in Romantic
England
Edoardo Zuccato
© Edoardo Zuccato 2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-54260-0
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ISBN 978-1-349-36016-1 ISBN 978-0-230-58443-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230584433
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zuccato, Edoardo.
Petrarch in romantic England I Edoardo Zuccato.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-36016-1
1. Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374-lnfluence. 2. Petrarca,
Francesco, 1304-1374-Appreciation-England. 3. English
literature-Italian influence. 4. English literature-18th
century-History and criticism. I. Title.
PQ4537.E5Z823 2005
851 '.1-dc22 2008011822
Transferred to Digital Printing 20 II
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Abbreviations vii
Introduction ix
1 Writing the Biography of Petrarch: From Susanna
Dobson (1775) to the Romantics 1
1.1 Sade and Dobson 1
1.2 T. Warton, Gibbon, Tytler 6
1.3 The 1810s: Ginguene, Sismondi, H. Hallam 11
1.4 Hazlitt and Foscolo 14
2 'Englishing' Petrarch: The Translators' Role 25
2.1 Beginnings 25
2.2 Early translators and imitators 27
2.3 Sir William Jones and Charles Burney 34
2.4 John Nott 37
2.5 Three anthologies 40
3 Charlotte Smith and Anna Seward 52
4 The Della Cruscans and Mary Robinson 73
4.1 Mary Robinson 77
5 Charles Lloyd and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 94
5.1 The 1790s 94
5.2 Later developments 102
6 Epilogue: From Romantic to Victorian Petrarch 126
6.1 Displacing Petrarch 126
6.2 Re-placing Petrarch 135
6.3 Replacing Petrarch 144
Notes 157
Select Bibliography 218
Index 233
v
Acknowledgements
A part of Chapter 1 of this book appeared in a different form in my article
'Writing Petrarch's Biography: From Susanna Dobson (I77S) to Alexan
der Fraser Tytler (1810)', in British Romanticism and Italian Literature, ed.
L. Bandiera and D. Saglia (Rodopi, 200S). I am grateful to the publisher for
allowing me to use it. In addition, the author and publishers wish to thank
the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: Oxford Uni
versity Press for The Poems of Charlotte Smith, ed. S. Curran (1993); Harvard
University Press for Petrarch's Lyric Poems: The Rime sparse and Other Poems,
trans. and ed. R. M. Durling (© 1976 by R. M. Durling, rptd 2001); Mon
dadori for F. Petrarca, Canzoniere, ed. M. Santagata (2004). Every effort has
been made to trace rights holders, but if any have been inadvertently over
looked the publishers would be pleased to make the necessary arrangements
at the first opportunity.
This book was begun 12 years ago and has come to completion with the
help of several institutions and friends, who generously made research mater
ial available or gave me useful advice. Heartfelt thanks are due to Angela
Bruschi, Julia Flanders and the Women Writers' Research Project (Brown Uni
versity), Roger Meyenberg, Uberto Motta, Chiara Prada, Giovanni Moscati,
and all the staff of IULM University Library and the British Library. Special
thanks are due to Tim Parks, Janice Giffin and Frances Hotimsky, who gave
me some valuable advice, and to Jim Mays, whose generosity and learning
have been as precious as ever. The project could not have been developed
without the research grants of IULM University, Milan; equally important
was the encouragement I received from some of its senior members, in par
ticular Patrizia Nerozzi, Sergio Pautasso and Gianni Puglisi. Last, but not least,
my gratitude is due to my family - my parents Nando and Nanda, my sis
ter Barbara, and Rosi - and to Annalisa, who supported and encouraged me
throughout.
vi
Abbreviations
Anti-Jacobin Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, 1799 (Oxford and New York:
Woodstock, 1991)
AR (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, ed. J. Beer (London: Routledge;
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
BC The Browning Collections: A Reconstruction with Other Mem
orabilia, compiled by P. Kelley and B. A. Coley ([Waco, TX):
Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University; London:
Mansell, 1984)
BL (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria or Biographical Sketches of
My Literary Life and Opinions, ed. J. Engell and W. J. Bate,
2 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1983)
BLJ Byron's Letters and Journals, ed. L. A. Marchand, 12 vols
(London: Murray, 1973-82)
CC The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, gen. ed.
K. Coburn (London: Routledge; Princeton: Princeton Univer
sity Press, 1969-2001)
CL Collected Letters ofS amuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. E. L. Griggs, 6 vols
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956-71)
CLP 'Capel Lofft Page', ed. Roger Meyenberg, <www.rhone.ch/
rogerm/lofft.html>
CM (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Marginalia, ed. G. Whalley (vols III-VI with
H. J. Jackson), 6 vols (London: Routledge; Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1980-2001)
CN The Notebooks of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ed. K. Coburn and
A. J. Harding, 5 vols (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1957-2002)
DNB Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-
EB Encyclopcedia Britannica, 3rd edn, 18 vols (Edinburgh: Bell &
MacFarquhar, 1797)
EOT(CC) S. T. Coleridge, Essays on his Times, in The Morning Post and The
Courier, ed. D. V. Erdman, 3 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978)
Fiori I Fiori del Parnasso Italiano; owero una Raccolta di Rime Estratta
dall'Opere de' piu Celebri Poeti Italiani - Extracts from the Works
of the Most Celebrated Italian Poets. With Translations by Admired
English Authors (London: Rivington & Hatchard, 1798)
Florence The Florence Miscellany (Florence, 1785)
vii
viii Abbreviations
Friend (CC) S. T. Coleridge, The Friend, ed. B. E. Rooke, 2 vols (London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1969)
Histoire P. L. Ginguene, Histoire litteraire d'Italie, 9 vols (Paris: Freres,
1811-19)
Laura C. Lofft (ed.) Laura: or An Anthology of Sonnets (on the
Petrarchan Model,) and Elegiac Quatorzains: English, Italian,
Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German, 5 vols (London:
Taylor, 1813-14) (cited by volume and poem number)
Lects 1808-1819 S. T. Coleridge, Lectures 1818-1819: On Literature, ed.
(CC) R. A. Foakes, 2 vols (London: Routledge; Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1987)
Life The Life of Petrarch, Collected from Memoirs pour la vie de
Petrarch, trans. S. Dobson, 2 vols (London: Buckland, 1775)
LS (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Lay Sermons, ed. R.]. White (London: Rout
ledge & Kegan Paul; Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1972)
Memoires J. F. P. A. de Sa de Memoires pour la vie de Fran~ois Petrar
que, tires de ses ceuvres et des auteurs contemporains; Avec
des Notes ou Dissertations, et les Pieces justificatives, 3 vols
(Amsterdam: Arskee et Mercus, 1764)
P Lects (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Lectures 1818-1819: On the History of Phil
osophy, ed. J. R. de]. Jackson, 2 vols (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2000)
PC F. Petrarca, Canzoniere, nuova edizione aggiornata, ed.
M. Santagata (Milan: Mondadori, 2004) (cited by poem
number)
PEL Poems by Eminent Ladies, vol. II (London: Baldwin, 1755)
Prose F. Petrarca, Prose, ed. G. Martellotti, P. G. Ricci, E. Carrara
and E. Bianchi (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi, 1955)
PWBLC The Poetical Works of Bowles, Lamb, and Hartley Coleridge,
ed. William Tirebuck (London and Newcastle: Walter
Scott, 1887)
PW (CC) S. T. Coleridge, Poetical Works, ed. J. C. C. Mays, 3 vols
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)
Sappho M. Robinson, Sappho and Phaon, in Robinson 2000a
SW&F(CC) S. T. Coleridge, Shorter Works and Fragments, ed.
H. J. Jackson and J. R. de J. Jackson, 2 vols (London:
Routledge; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995)
TBC The Brownings' Correspondence, ed. P. Kelley and R. Hudson
(Winfield, KS: Wedgestone Press, 1984-)
Introduction
Petrarca
is again
in sight
Paul Celan
Petrarch in Romantic England? Surely that must be a misprint for Renaissance
England. Few readers, or even scholars, would think of Romanticism as a
Petrarchan age. And they would be right for every European country except
England. The Petrarchan revival in late eighteenth-century England was a
unique phenomenon which involved an impressive number of scholars,
translators and poets. Its effects on poetry, fiction and scholarship were mani
fold and continued to make themselves felt right up to the 1830s. Though a
small number of Romanticists are indeed aware of the length and depth of
this fashion, a complete study of its impact on literary culture has never been
attempted.
The importance of Petrarch for the Romantic age has been obscured by
other writers, like Dante and Sappho, whose revivals have long been con
sidered more relevant. So much has been written on the Romantic rediscovery
of Dante that even scholars often forget that at the turn of the century he was
far less popular than Petrarch. There are several reasons for this forgetfulness.
In the first place, the influence of Dante was crucial for all of the Canonic
Six with the exception of Wordsworth who disliked the Italian poet. The
reception of Dante has been studied in several excellent essays, but his influ
ence looks significantly less important when compared to the reception of
Petrarch in the same period.
It is striking that virtually all the best women poets of the time were
involved in the revival of Petrarch and the sonnet, whereas they generally
disliked Dante.1 While Dante was a territory for males only, Petrarch attracted
men and women alike. A comparative analysis of the translations and imita
tions from Petrarch, which have so far languished in the wasteland of minor
verse, will help us define the character of those versions made by women
poets. The situation looks strangely similar to the sixteenth century, when
both men and women were involved in a Petrarchan vogue, interpreting
source texts in very different ways.
Dante and Petrarch offered not only two alternative poetics; they were two
radically different types of poet and intellectual. Dante was a major model of
the prophet-poet; Petrarch was a model of the scholar-poet and melancholy
lover. Dante was a politician and an exile, a man of ideological certainties
ix