Guido Cavalcanti[?]. “Ballata. Of his Lady among other Ladies.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?; 1861
Rhyme: abacdcddee
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: ballata

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

This poem is no longer accepted as Cavalcanti's. The translation is close to the original and follows the rhyme scheme except in the final couplet, where the Italian text reverts to the a rhyme. DGR does, however, break the text into sections, a feature calling attention to the rhyme scheme (but not the punctuation scheme) of the original. The Italian text is punctuated into units of three lines, two pairs of lines, and then three lines.

DGR's source text was Cicciaporci (Ballate II, page 18).

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: 111d-1861.raw.xml