Jacopo da Lentino. “Sonnet. Of his Lady's Face.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1848?; 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdecde
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

“Table of Poets” in Early Italian Poets vol. 1, xxvi-xxvii.

◦ Valeriani and Lampredi, Poeti del primo secolo vol. 1, 291.

◦ Panvini, Le rime della scuola siciliana vol. 1, 50.

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Like his translation of the canzonetta “Of his Lady, and of his making her Likeness”, this is quite a free rendering, particularly in the octave. DGR doesn't even hold strictly to Lentino's rhyme scheme. DGR's source text is Poeti del primo secolo (I. 291).

Textual History: Composition

As with most of DGR's translations of the early Italian poets, the date of this cannot be precisely determined. DGR probably wrote it early, in the 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: 166d-1861.raw.xml