" Il Filostrato " is a poem by the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio , and the inspiration for Geoffrey Chaucer 's Troilus and Criseyde and, through Chaucer, the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida . It is itself loosely based on Le Roman de Troie , by 12th-century poet Benoît de Sainte-Maure .
35-435: Il Filostrato is a narrative poem on a classical topic written in "royal octaves" ( ottava rima ) and divided into eight cantos. The title, a combination of Greek and Latin words, can be translated approximately as "laid prostrate by love". The poem has a mythological plot: it narrates the love of Troilo ( Troilus ), a younger son of Priam of Troy, for Criseida ( Cressida ), daughter of Calcas ( Calchas ). Although its setting
70-600: A Trojan prophet, has foreseen the fall of the city and joined the Greeks. His daughter, Criseida, is protected from the worst consequences of her father's defection by Hector alone. Troilo sees the lovelorn glances of other young men attending a festival in the Palladium . But almost immediately he sees a young widow in mourning. This is Criseida. Troilo falls in love with her but sees no sign of her similar feelings in him, despite his efforts to attract attention by excelling in
105-494: A boar which he recognises as a symbol of Diomede. Troilo rightly interprets the dream to mean that Cressida has switched her affections to the Greek. But Pandaro persuades him that this is his imagination. Cressida, meanwhile, sends letters that pretend a continuing love for Troilo. Troilo has his fears confirmed when his brother Deífobo ( Deiphobus ) returns to the city with the clothes that he has snatched in battle from Diomedes; on
140-552: A força humana, E entre gente remota edificaram Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram; The feats of Arms, and famed heroick Host, from occidental Lusitanian strand, who o'er the waters ne'er by seaman crost, farèd beyond the Taprobáne -land, forceful in perils and in battle-post, with more than promised force of mortal hand; and in the regions of a distant race rear'd a new throne so haught in Pride of Place: Camões
175-583: A high-profile dispute on the proper way of translating Italian epics, which resulted in Alexander Pushkin 's ottava rima poem "The Little House in Kolomna" (1830), which took its cue from Lord Byron 's Beppo . Pushkin's poem opens with a lengthy tongue-in-cheek discussion of the merits of ottava rima. In Germany (or other German-speaking countries) ottava rima occurred not so often as in Italy, but
210-399: A lui s’oppose; e invano s’armò d’Asia e di Libia il popol misto: Chè ’l Ciel gli diè favore, e sotto ai santi Segni ridusse i suoi compagni erranti. The sacred armies, and the godly knight, That the great sepulchre of Christ did free, I sing; much wrought his valor and foresight, And in that glorious war much suffered he; In vain 'gainst him did Hell oppose her might, In vain
245-619: Is Trojan, Boccaccio's story is not taken from Greek myth, but from the Roman de Troie , a twelfth-century French medieval re-elaboration of the Trojan legend by Benoît de Sainte-Maure known to Boccaccio in the Latin prose version by Guido delle Colonne ( Historia destructionis Troiae ). The plot of the Filostrato can be read as a roman à clef of Boccaccio's love of " Fiammetta ". Indeed,
280-445: Is a verse form consisting of eight lines of eleven syllables each, called a hendecasyllable . The form is common in late medieval Italian poetry . In English poetry , iambic pentameter is often used instead of syllabics. The form has a prescribed rhyme scheme (ABABABAB). Although only the final two rhymes are different from the much more common ottava rima , the two eight-line forms evolved completely separately. According to
315-596: Is derived from the medieval strambotto and was a crucial step in the development of the sonnet , whereas the ottava rima is related to the canzone , a stanza form. Boccaccio used ottava rima for a number of minor poems and, most significantly, for two of his major works, the Teseide (1340) and the Filostrato (c. 1335). These two poems defined the form as the main one to be used for epic poetry in Italian for
350-531: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics , scholars disagree on the origin of the Sicilian octave, but all agree that it is related to the development of the first eight lines of the sonnet (called the octave). It is not clear whether the octave emerged first and influenced the sonnet or vice versa. The form is a variant of the strambotto , which is one of the earliest verse forms in
385-509: The proem suggests it. The atmosphere of the poem is reminiscent of that of the court of Naples, and the psychology of the characters is portrayed with subtle notes. There is no agreement on the date of its composition: according to some, it may have been written in 1335, whereas others consider it to date from 1340. Boccaccio also used the name for one of the three men occurring in the character of narrators in The Decameron . Calcas,
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#1732797543169420-744: The 15th century, however, it was used often by poets in southern Italy, and was an important influence for Petrarch in his sonnets. Boccaccio , who popularized and may have invented the unrelated ottava rima, used the Sicilian octave a total of once, in his early romance Filocolo. The epitaph of Giulia Topazia is a Sicilian octave: Qui, d'Atropos il colpo ricevuto, giace di Roma Giulia Topazia, dell'alto sangue di Cesare arguto discesa, bella e piena d'ogni grazia, che, in parto, abbandonati in non dovuto modo ci ha: onde non fia giá mai sazia l'anima nostra il suo non conosciuto Dio biasimar che fè sí gran fallazia. Here, having received Atropos 's blow, lies Giulia Topazia of Rome descended from
455-621: The Italian language. The strambotto was used in Sicily and Tuscany , and consisted of either six or eight hendecasyllables. The rhyme scheme varied, but the Tuscan form generally did not use the Sicilian octave scheme; the most common was ABABCCDD. The Sicilian octave is rare in Italian after the Renaissance and has seldom been used in English except as an illustration of the form. Before
490-596: The Turks and Morians armèd be: His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutines prest, Reducèd he to peace, so Heaven him blest. In the epoch of Baroque Giambattista Marino employed ottava rima in Adone (1623). Another important work was written by a woman, Lucrezia Marinella , the author of long epic poem L'Enrico, ovvero Bisanzio acquistato ( Enrico, or, Byzantium Conquered ), that was translated into English by Maria Galli Stampino. There are also many other examples of using
525-413: The battles before Troy. Troilo's close friend Pandaro ( Pandarus ), a cousin of Criseida, senses something is distressing him. He calls on Troilo, finding him in tears. Eventually Pandarus finds out the reason and agrees to act as go-between. Troilo, with Pandaro's help, eventually wins Criseida's hand. During a truce, Calcas persuades the Greeks to propose a hostage exchange: Criseida for Antenor . When
560-565: The beginning of 19th century Dyzma Bończa-Tomaszewski attempted to write a national epic Jagiellonida . His work, however, is not longer remembered. Later Juliusz Słowacki , one of the greatest romantic poets, wrote two long poems, Beniowski and Król Duch ( King Spirit ), using the stanza. Another important attempt to write a modern epic poem in ottava rima was Maria Konopnicka 's Pan Balcer w Brazylii ( Mr. Balcer in Brazil ). Poems written in ottava rima are usually translated into Polish in
595-463: The form for The Vision of Judgment (1822). Shelley translated the Homeric Hymns into English in ottava rima. In the 20th century, William Butler Yeats used the form in several of his best later poems, including " Sailing to Byzantium " and "Among School Children". So did Kenneth Koch for instance in his autobiographical poem "Seasons on Earth" of 1987. In America Emma Lazarus wrote
630-442: The garment is a clasp that belonged to Criseida. Troilo, infuriated, goes into battle to seek out Diomedes, killing a thousand men. He and Diomedes fight many times, but never manage to kill each other. Instead Troilo's life and his suffering are ended by Achilles . Ottava rima Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in
665-479: The most important epic in the Portuguese language, is not only one of the longest poems written in ottava rima (it consists of 1,102 stanzas ), but is recognized as one of the great epics of European literature. As armas e os barões assinalados, Que da ocidental praia Lusitana, Por mares nunca de antes navegados, Passaram ainda além da Taprobana, Em perigos e guerras esforçados, Mais do que prometia
700-654: The next two centuries. For instance, ottava rima was used by Poliziano and by Boiardo in his 1486 epic poem Orlando Innamorato . The following year, Luigi Pulci published his Morgante Maggiore in which the mock-heroic, half-serious, half-burlesque use of the form that is most familiar to modern English-language readers first appeared. However, poets such as Ludovico Ariosto and Torquato Tasso continued to use ottava rima for serious epic poetry. Canto l’arme pietose, e ’l Capitano Che ’l gran sepolcro liberò di Cristo. Molto egli oprò col senno e con la mano; Molto soffrì nel glorioso acquisto: E invan l’Inferno
735-523: The poem An Epistle that consists of thirty four ottava rimas. Earlier Richard Henry Wilde used the stanza in his long poem Hesperia . In keeping with the "mock-heroic" tone, Kevin McAleer wrote his 2018 biography of actor Errol Flynn entirely in ottava rima. From Frere 's Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work , commonly known as The Monks and the Giants But chiefly, when
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#1732797543169770-549: The rapt circle gathered round thy knee Thy sacred vials of learning thou didst pour. By the large lustre of thy wisdom orbed Be my black doubts illumined and absorbed. The Spanish poets Boscán , Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga and Lope de Vega all experimented with ottava rima at one time or another. It is also the meter of several medieval Yiddish epic poems, such as the Bovo-Bukh (1507–1508), which were adaptations of Italian epics. In Russia, Pavel Katenin instigated
805-529: The same form. Lately La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla was translated in such a way by Czesław Ratka . In Czech poetry, Jaroslav Vrchlický , generally considered to be the greatest poet of the second half of 19th century, used ottava rima several times, for example in short poem Odpověď ( An Answer ) that is composed of only two stanzas. Vrchlický was well trained in the use of the stanza as he translated Ludovico Ariosto 's Orlando Furioso ( Roland Enraged ) into Czech. In Slovenian literature ottava rima
840-513: The scheme freely and often used, for example, the sequence ABABBACC instead of ABABABCC. In Swedish poetry ottava rima was used by Esaias Tegnér in his epic Frithiof's Saga . In Finnish literature ottava rima was used by Eino Leino in some parts of book Juhana Herttuan ja Catharina Jagellonican lauluja ( Songs of Prince John and Catherine the Jagellonian ). Sicilian octave The Sicilian octave ( Italian : ottava siciliana )
875-447: The shadowy moon had shed O'er woods and waters her mysterious hue, Their passive hearts and vacant fancies fed With thoughts and aspirations strange and new, Till their brute souls with inward working bred Dark hints that in the depths of instinct grew Subjection not from Locke 's associations, Nor David Hartley 's doctrine of vibrations. From Byron 's Don Juan "Go, little book, from this my solitude! I cast thee on
910-680: The stanza. Many classic works were translated into ottava rima. It was later used in Italian libretti ; perhaps the most famous example ends with the title of the comic opera Così fan tutte (1789). In English, ottava rima first appeared in Elizabethan translations of Tasso and Ariosto. The form also became popular for original works, such as Michael Drayton 's The Barons' Wars , Thomas Heywood 's Troia Britannica , or Emilia Lanier 's Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum . William Browne 's Britannia's Pastorals also contains passages in ottava rima. The first English poet to write mock-heroic ottava rima
945-425: The two lovers meet again, Troilo suggests elopement, but Criseida argues that he should not abandon Troy and she should protect her honour. Instead she promises to meet him in ten days' time. The Greek hero Diomedes , supervising the hostage exchange, sees the parting looks of the two lovers and guesses the truth. But he falls in love with Criseida, and seduces her. She misses the appointment with Troilo who dreams of
980-814: The waters – go thy ways! And if, as I believe, thy vein be good, The world will find thee after many days." When Southey 's read, and Wordsworth understood, I can't help putting in my claim to praise – The four first rhymes are Southey's every line: For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine. From Constance Naden 's A Modern Apostle (1887) For she, with innocent clear sight, had found That those about her merely thought of thinking, And felt they ought to feel; with quick rebound She drew her life away from theirs, and shrinking From windy verbiage, craved some solid ground, Trying to satisfy her soul by linking Truths abstract; no vague talk of liberal views Can alter cosine and hypotenuse. From Anthony Burgess 's Byrne: A Novel He thought he
1015-535: The writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio . The ottava rima stanza in English consists of eight iambic lines, usually iambic pentameters . Each stanza consists of three alternate rhymes and one double rhyme, following the ABABABCC rhyme scheme . The form is similar to the older Sicilian octave , but evolved separately and is unrelated. The Sicilian octave
1050-409: Was John Hookham Frere , whose 1817-8 poem Prospectus and Specimen of an Intended National Work used the form to considerable effect. Lord Byron read Frere's work and saw the potential of the form. He quickly produced Beppo , his first poem to use the form. Shortly after this, Byron began working on his Don Juan (1819–1824), probably the best-known English poem in ottava rima . Byron also used
1085-532: Was a kind of living myth And hence deserving of ottava rima, The scheme that Ariosto juggled with, Apt for a lecherous defective dreamer. He'd have preferred a stronger-muscled smith, Anvilling rhymes amid poetic steam, a Sort of Lord Byron. Byron was long dead. This poetaster had to do instead. From Emma Lazarus 's An Epistle Master and Sage, greetings and health to thee, From thy most meek disciple! Deign once more Endure me at thy feet, enlighten me, As when upon my boyish head of yore, Midst
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1120-547: Was not the only Portuguese poet to use ottava rima. Many Portuguese and Brazilian poets wrote great epic poems using the stanza, for example Gabriel Pereira de Castro (1571–1632): Ulisseia ou Lisboa Edificada (1636), Vasco Mouzinho de Quevedo (16th/17th century): Afonso Africano , Francisco de Sá de Meneses (1600–1664): Malaca Conquistada (1634), António de Sousa Macedo (1606–1682): Ulissipo (1640), Brás Garcia de Mascarenhas : Viriato Trágico and José de Santa Rita Durão (1722–1784): Caramuru (1781). Ottava rima
1155-505: Was used by France Prešeren , the greatest romantic poet, sometimes, among others, in Krst pri Savici ( The Baptism on the Savica ), that is considered to be a national epic of Slovenian people. Prologue to the poem is written in terza rima . In Danish literature ottava rima was used by Frederik Paludan-Müller and others. He used the stanza in his long poem, Adam Homo . The poet implemented
1190-659: Was used in long works. Paul Heyse , a Nobel Prize laureate for the year 1910, used it in his poems ( Die Braut von Cypern ). Rainer Maria Rilke , regarded as the greatest German language lyric poet of the 20th century, wrote Winterliche Stanzen in ABABABCC scheme. Nun sollen wir versagte Tage lange ertragen in des Widerstandes Rinde; uns immer wehrend, nimmer an der Wange das Tiefe fühlend aufgetaner Winde. Die Nacht ist stark, doch von so fernem Gange, die schwache Lampe überredet linde. Laß dichs getrösten: Frost und Harsch bereiten die Spannung künftiger Empfänglichkeiten. Luís de Camões 's 16th-century epic Os Lusíadas ,
1225-644: Was very popular in the Polish literature of the 17th century, which was under strong influence of Italian poetry. The scheme ABABABCC was introduced into Polish poetry by Sebastian Grabowiecki and made widespread by Piotr Kochanowski , who translated Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso . It was used by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn , Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski , Wespazjan Kochowski , Samuel Twardowski and Wacław Potocki . During The Enlightenment bishop and poet Ignacy Krasicki wrote his mock-epics ( Monachomachia , Antymonachomachia and Myszeida ) in ottava rima. In
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