Egle satira di M. Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinthio da Ferrara

THE FIRST MODERN EXAMPLE OF PASTORAL DRAMA

8vo (150x99 mm). 48 leaves. Collation: A-F⁸. On title page woodcut portrait of the author in a rectangular frame with the figures of four satyrs in each corner. Roman and italic types. Woodcut decorative initial. Modern flexible vellum, inked title on spine. On the front pastedown bookplate Sergio Colombi. Some occasional marginal foxing, but a very good copy.

Rare first edition (the work was published again only after the 18^th century).

“With his Egle (1545) [Giraldi] aimed to create the first modern example of the ancient satyr-play and stimulate its revival” (L. Sampson, Pastoral Drama, in: “A History of Italian Theatre”, Cambridge, 2006, p. 95).

In the dedicatory letter to Bartolomeo Cavalcanti Giraldi states that the play was first staged in his house in Ferrara on 24 February 1545 and then again on March 4^th, at the presence of Duke Ercole Il and his brother Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. From the dedication we also learn that the play was produced by Sebastiano Clarignano da Monte Falco, the music was composed by Antonio del Cornetto, the architect and painter of the scenery was Girolamo Carpi of Ferrara, and finally the production was paid by the “Università delli scolari delle leggi” (“University of law's students”).

The autograph manuscript of the play, which predates the printing and presents remarkable differences in respect of the printed edition like the absence of the prologue (cf. R. Drusi, Sul Prologo dell' ‘Egle' di Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinzio, in: “Quaderni Veneti”, 2, 2013, pp. 307-318), is still preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale of Ferrara (Classe I 331). In the library of the Archiginnasio at Bologna is preserved a copy of the present edition (16.a.II.70), in whose margins Giraldi has penned frequent corrections and alterations, the nature and extend of which suggest that it was his intention to bring out an improved version of the text, which, however, was never published. Therefore three different versions of the play are known, all of which can be traced back to the author (cf. C. Molinari, La vicenda redazionale dell' ‘Egle' di G.B. Giraldi Cinzio, in: “Studi di Filologia italiana”, 37, 1979, pp. 295-343; see also P.R. Horne, The Three Versions of G.B. Giraldi's satyr-play ‘Egle', in: “Italian Studies”, XXIV, 1969, pp. 32-43).

The printed version is based on the autograph manuscript version, reducing it from 2686 to 2274 verses and improving its scenic effectiveness according to the dictates that Giraldi himself would later theorize in his Lettera sopra il comporre le satire atte alla scena (1554) (C. Molinari, Introduzione, in G.B. Giraldi, “Egle; Lettera sovra il comporre le satire atte alla scena; Favola pastorale”, Bologna, 1985, pp. VII-XXXIII).

The printing place and the printer were identified by D.E. Rhodes in his paper The Printer of Giraldi's ‘Egle', in: “Italian Studies”, XLI, 1986, pp. 82-84. The date of printing has to be placed between March 1545 and 1747.

“The scene of Egle is Arcadia. The dramatis personae include satyrs, fauns, dryads, naiads, hamadryads, Pan, Silvanus, and Silenus. Egle, who gives her name to the play, is a nymph and consort of Silenus. The chorus is made up of satyrs. Cinthio's dedication leaves no doubt of his intention to represent a pastoral ideal: ‘I hope, and my hope will not be in vain, that in our time the name pastoral will be even as it once was in the golden age'. The prologue, which is in the detached Terentian manner and not an integral part of the action, gives the Arcadian setting. The audience is asked to return to nature, to the idealized nature of the golden past. There is no pretense of realistic representation. The plot of Egle resembles the Terentian pattern. The protasis, occupying Acts 1 and 2, introduces most of the principal characters and sets up the action. The epitasis runs throughout Acts 3 and 4 and into Act 5. The catastrophe occupies the last two scenes of Act 5. The chorus follows the pattern of classical tragedy; like the Senecan chorus, it closes each act; like the Greek chorus, it sometimes takes an active part in the dialogue. Silvanus opens Act 1 by explaining the situation existing in Arcadia: the nymphs have been spurning all advances of the satyrs, who are now close to despair. Various satyrs and fauns are introduced. Egle appears. The bibulous Silenus, true to his portrait in Euripides' satyr-drama, urges everyone to drown his unrequited love in drink. The satyrs, however, prefer love to wine. The chorus appeals to Bacchus to help the distressed sylvan gods. Egle opens Act 2 in soliloquy. She prefers the delights of Venus and Bacchus to those of Diana and sympathizes with the frustrated satyrs and fauns. In the next scene she proposes a stratagem, that the sylvan gods prepare an ambush while the nymphs are not hunting and are without their weapons. The chorus joins in the scheme. The nymphs first appear at the beginning of Act 3; they are debating with Egle, who argues for wine versus water, displaying a wide knowledge of classical mythology. But the nymphs reject Egle's advice. Then Egle tells them that the satyrs have all gone away, leaving only the little satyrs and fauns. The nymphs feel kindly enough toward the small fry. Now Egle is confident that her trap is laid. She encourages the chief satyr and the chief faun to hope for success, and the members of the chorus now believe that their longings will be relieved. Pan appears in soliloquy at the beginning of Act 4. The chief god of Arcadia has his troubles, too, for he is suffering from the coldness of the nymph Syringa. In the next scene, Pan renews his pleadings to the nymph, but Syringa is inflexibly chaste. When Pan tries to seize her she cries out to Diana for help. In the third scene, Pan berates Diana and laments his own unhappy state. Then Silvanus brings him good news; he tells him that the sylvan gods have not actually left Arcadia but are planning to ambush and capture the nymphs. In the next scene, Egle assembles the nymphs and the little satyrs, who begin to dance and play. Egle reports to Silenus that the nymphs are now in the net. The free and easy companionship of Silenus and Egle provides a good contrast with the frustrated longing of the gods for the nymphs. At the beginning of Act 5, Egle tells the satyrs that the time to draw the net is now at hand. The satyrs creep up to watch the dancers with lustful eyes, but are held back for the moment by the chief satyr. Then Pan and Silenus enter. Silenus is drunk, as usual, and makes so much noise that the nymphs become suspicious. Before the satyrs can rise from ambush the nymphs take alarm and fee. All is confusion as nymphs and pursuing satyrs scatter through the woods. Silenus is too drunk to run if he would. Finally, Pan, more unhappy than before, enters to report failure of Egle's fine scheme. Fickle fortune has betrayed the sylvan gods, for all the fleeing nymphs have been transformed into rivers, fountains, flowers, and plants. Just as Pan himself was about to grasp Syringa, she was changed into a reed. Hereafter Pan will use this reed as a pipe upon which to sound his doleful lament for his lost love. Obviously Cinthio's Egle is not much like Euripides' Cyclops. The theme is love, and there is none of the banter and rough jesting that enliven the ancient satyr-play. Cinthio's Silenus, it is true, is a comic character, and Egle is at least a cheerful, lighthearted personage. But Cinthio's play for the most part is a series of rhetorical arguments and love-sick complaints. As such it points ahead to Tasso's Aminta and Guarini's Pastor Fido rather than backward to the Cyclops. Cinthio's practice as well as his theory anticipated the development of the Renaissance pastoral tragicomedy, though Cinthio himself would never have called Egle a tragicomedy. Nevertheless, the structure of his plot, the use of the chorus in the tragic manner, the sententious rhetoric, and the complaints of despairing lovers were all reflected in the later pastoral plays. Even Cinthio's characters may well have furnished some hints to Tasso and Guarini. Certainly Tasso's Satyr, and Guarini's as well, may have descended from the Chief Satyr in Egle. Also, Tasso's Dafne is comparable to Egle; his Silvia to Syringa. It is true, however, that Beccari's Sacrifizio (1554) had a more direct influence upon the pastoral drama developed by Tasso and Guarini. It is also true that Cinthio was not trying to introduce a modern dramatic form in Egle; he was trying to adapt an antique form to the Italian stage. The influence of the ancient satiric drama was a factor, but it was hardly enough of itself to have launched Renaissance tragicomedy; it merely provided a considerable amount of dramatic theory and a few important features of the pastoral tragicomedy” (M.T. Herrick, Tragicomedy, Urbana, 1962, pp. 12-13).

Giovanni Battista Giraldi was born in Ferrara and educated at the university of his native town, where he became professor of natural philosophy in 1525 and where, twelve years later, he succeeded Celio Calcagnini in the chair of belles-lettres. Between 1542 and 1560, he served as private secretary, first to Ercole II and afterwards to Alfonso d'Este, whose favour he ultimately lost due to his (Giraldi's) involvement in a literary quarrel. He then moved to Mondovì, where he remained as a teacher of literature until 1568. Upon the invitation of the senate of Milan, he subsequently assumed the chair of rhetoric at Pavia, a position he held until 1573. That year he returned to his native town in an attempt to improve his health but passed away on December 30. Apart from the tales collection Hecatommithi (1565), his most significant work, Giraldi authored a disquisition on the methods to be observed in the composition of epic, romance, and drama (1554), which shows him to be one of the leading literary critics of the time. He ventured into pastoral drama with the Egle (1543), and the epic genre with the Creole (1557). His dramatic endeavours extended to the creation of one comedy, Eudemoni, and nine tragedies, including Didone, Cleopatra, Selene, as well as his highly acclaimed Orbecche, the first original tragedy in classical style to be staged in Italy, in 1541 (cf. P. Cherchi, M. Rinaldi & M. Tempera, eds., Giovan Battista Giraldi Cinzio gentiluomo ferrarese, Florence, 2008, passim).

Edit 16, CNCE21254; C. Sartori, I libretti italiani a stampa dalle origini al 1800, Cuneo, 1990-1993, no. 8690; Adams, G-702; Gamba, 1433.

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