On 19 December 1849 as the first number of The Germ was being prepared for press, WMR noted in his PRB
diary that Ford Madox Brown brought this sonnet for the number (see
WMRprb 34). Unlike the poems by Woolner, which opened the first number
of The Germ immediately preceding this
sonnet, Brown makes no effort to construct a pastiche of a more
primitive poetic style. The formal contemporaneity of the sonnet
underscores its relation to Pre-Raphaelitism as a set of cultural
attitudes consciously seeking inspiration in earlier materials.
The argument of the sestet is especially interesting. It
intimates a relation between the artist and an ideal Nature that is
mediated by an intense love-relation with a beloved woman—in this
case, Boccaccio's Fiammetta. The thought parallels a characteristic
pattern of DGR's thinking.
The historical Fiammetta was reputed to be Maria d'Aquino,
the daughter of the Count and Countess of Aquino. He is said to have
met her and fallen in love with her in 1338 when he saw her in church.
This kind of biographical speculation was regularly accepted by
nineteenth-century readers like Brown and DGR, although now the formal
convention of such a love-relation has thrown these matters into serious
doubt.
DGR took an intense interest in Boccaccio's
Fiammetta, who is his Beatrice figure. He included six translations
of Boccaccio's sonnets in Appendix II of The Earlu
Italian Poets, including three sonnets dealing with Fiammetta.
There are as well two major pictorial works, Fiammetta (1866) and A Vision of
Fiammetta (1878), the latter a double work
accompanied by a sonnet, Fiammetta. (For a
Picture.).
This collection contains 2 texts and images, including:
Germ text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
On 19 December 1849 as the first number of The Germ was being prepared for press, WMR noted in his PRB diary that Ford Madox Brown brought this sonnet for the number (see WMRprb 34). Unlike the poems by Woolner, which opened the first number of The Germ immediately preceding this sonnet, Brown makes no effort to construct a pastiche of a more primitive poetic style. The formal contemporaneity of the sonnet underscores its relation to Pre-Raphaelitism as a set of cultural attitudes consciously seeking inspiration in earlier materials.
The argument of the sestet is especially interesting. It intimates a relation between the artist and an ideal Nature that is mediated by an intense love-relation with a beloved woman—in this case, Boccaccio's Fiammetta. The thought parallels a characteristic pattern of DGR's thinking.
The historical Fiammetta was reputed to be Maria d'Aquino, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Aquino. He is said to have met her and fallen in love with her in 1338 when he saw her in church. This kind of biographical speculation was regularly accepted by nineteenth-century readers like Brown and DGR, although now the formal convention of such a love-relation has thrown these matters into serious doubt.
Printing History
First printed in The Germ 1, page 10.
Literary
DGR took an intense interest in Boccaccio's Fiammetta, who is his Beatrice figure. He included six translations of Boccaccio's sonnets in Appendix II of The Earlu Italian Poets, including three sonnets dealing with Fiammetta. There are as well two major pictorial works, Fiammetta (1866) and A Vision of Fiammetta (1878), the latter a double work accompanied by a sonnet, Fiammetta. (For a Picture.).