◦
“Introduction
to Part II” (in
Early Italian Poets)
212-217
◦
Lanza, ed.,
Rime. Cecco Angiolieri, 214-216
◦
Massera, ed.,
Sonetti Burleschi e Realistici,
130 (II. 133-134)
This collection contains 10 texts and images, including:
Early Italian Poets text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
DGR mistranslates this sonnet, misunderstanding the syntax of the opening pair of lines. He was deceived by his source text in Raccolta di Rime Antiche Toscane (II. 154), which prints dà instead of the received dir. As a result, the proper reading of the opening is missed: “Dante Alighieri, I want to stop writing poems about Becchina and speak (instead) of the Marshall, etc”. The sonnet is thus not an attack on Dante but on a figure both Dante and Cecco hold in contempt.
This is one of the three sonnets written by Cecco to Dante and translated by DGR (see the commentary for “Dante Alighieri, Cecco, your good friend”). Although it comes second in DGR's listing, Cecco scholars understand it to be the earliest of the three, probably dating from 1290 or so.
Textual History: Composition
Probably one of DGR's last translations: the Huntington Library's holograph copy of the source text is on paper watermarked 1860. There is another copy in the library of the National Gallery ofd South Africa.
Printing History
The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.