Folcachiero de' Folcachieri “Canzone. He speaks of his Condition through Love.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?;1861
Rhyme: a5b5c3a5b5 c3d3e3e3d5
Meter: iambic
Genre: canzone

Bibliography

Poeti del Primo Secolo1 Text I. 15-17

◦ Panvini I. 359-362.

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Dante and His Circle text.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

DGR includes this canzone as an example of Siculo-Toscani verse, in this case a Sienese example. His translation follows his usual way of rendering the Italian hendeccasyllables and setenarii as imabic pentameters and iambic trimeters. DGR varies slightly the canzone's closing rhymes from dede to deed.

DGR's source is the text in Poeti del Primo Secolo (I. 15-17).

Folcachiero (or Folcachieri) was a member of the powerful Sienese family that supported the cause of Frederick II and that fought on his behalf. He was still alive in 1277.

Textual History: Composition

As with most of DGR's translations, this one cannot be exactly fixed. It is probably a fairly early work, however, given its close relation to his translation of Ciullo d'Alcamo's “Dialogue. Lover and Lady”, which we know was one of the earliest of DGR's translations.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Literary

DGR's discussion of his source text dates the canzone much too early. It was composed sometime in the dugento and probably late in Folcachiero's life—perhaps shortly after 1266, after the defeat of Frederick's son Manfred at the battle of Benevento.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 144d-1861.raw.xml