Nevizanus, Ariosto, Florio, Harington, and DrummondAuthor(s): Allan H. GilbertSource: Modern Language Notes, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Feb., 1947), pp. 129-130Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2909140 .

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THE BLANK-VERSE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE 129

deserving notice that Samuel Rogers's Italy anticipated the blank- verse dramatic monologue which Browning developed into a mature form.'

RIcHARD R. WE1RRY Wayne University

NEVIZANUS, ARIOSTO, FLORIO, HARINGTON, AND DRUMMOND

Sir John Harington indicates his sixteenth Epigram as "trans- lated out of Casaneus his Catalogus gloriae mundi." The Latin is found in Part 2, Consideration 22: "Mulier propter eius pulchritudinem, & formositatem laudanda est," p. 51v of the edition of Venice, 1576:

Triginta haec habeat, quae vult formosa vocari Femina, sic Helenam fama fuisse refert.

Alba tria, & totidem nigra, & tria rubra puella, Tres habeat longas res, totidemq'; breves.

Tres crassas, totidem graciles, tria stricta, tot ampla; Sint ibidem huic formae, sint quoq'; parva tria.

Alba cutis, nivei dentes, albique capilli, Nigri oculi, cunnus, nigra supercilia.

Labra, genae atque vngues rubri, sit corpore longa, Et longi crines, sit quoque longa manus.

Sintq'; breves dentes, auris, pes, pectora lata. Et clunes, distent ipsa supercilia.

Cunnus, & os strictum, stringunt ubi cingula, stricta: Sint coxae, & collus, vulvaq; turgidula.

Subtiles digiti, crines, & labra puellis. Parvus sit nasus, parva mamilla, caput.

Cum nullae aut rarae sint hae, formosa vocari Nulla puella potest, rara puella potest.

As Cassaneus indicates, he found the poem in the Sylva Nuptiatis of Johannes Nevizanus (Nevizzano), first published in 1516.

1 S. S. Curry in his consideration of the history of the monologue (Browning and the Dramatic Monologue, Boston, 1908, 113-132) treats as logical antecedents of the form "monologue lyrics," and cites as specimens Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His- Love, Drayton's " Come, let us kiss and part," other Elizabethan lyrics, and many of Burns' poems, notably " John Anderson, my Jo " and " Afton Water." Certainly, " Monte Cassino" and "An Adventure" bear more resemblance to the Browning monologue than any lyric does.

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130 MODERN LANGIUAGE NOTES, FEBRIUARY, 1947

Harington was not the first to present this poem in England. In 1591 it was printed in a free Italian version, accompanied by a closely parallel English translation, in the Second Frutes of John Florio (pp. 130-131), with no acknowledgment of indebtedness. There seems to be no reason to suspect any influence of Florio's version on Harington. In the Second Frutes, Florio uses other borrowed matter without acknowledgment, though I have observed no other instance so striking as this.

In 1614 (?) William Drummond published among his Madrigalls and Epigrams fourteen lines in couplets entitled Beauties Idea. This is a rendering of Nevizanus' poem, with the omission of the first six lines, except for their reference to Helen, and of the last two. Drummond applies his verses to Chloris "my Hope, and only Joy," and brings in also a reference to Venus. Otherwise he follows his original closely, though with rearrangement of material.' Beauties Idea, then, should be added to the list of Drummond's translations.2

The poem evidently belongs to the tradition of describing by enumeration of which Lessing wrote in the Laocoon, chap. 20. Indeed Lessing's chief instance, Ariosto's Alcina (Orlando Furioso 7. 11-15), has some of the qualities of Nevizzano's lady. She has white teeth, breast, neck, and hand. Though her hairs are blonde (not quite albi), her eyes and brows are black. Her cheeks and mouth are red. Augusta applied to her body may be interpreted as long, and her hand and hair are long. Her foot is short, her hand slender, and her breast largo, equivalent to pectora lata. Perhaps both descriptions owe something to a common convention.

ALLAN H. GILBERT Duke University

1 In his note on the poem, L. E. Kastner, following Wm. C. Ward (Poems of Drummond, New York, 1894, vol. 1, p. 164), writes of line 3: "White is her Haire, etc.: both the edition of 1616 and the one privately issued in ?1614 read 'Haire' in this line. This is obviously incorrect; probably Hand should be read " (The Poetical Works of Drummond, Manchester, 1913, p. 232). But Baire is correct, being a translation of capilli. It is curious, however, that in line 6 Drummond renders pes as Bellie (1616) and Wombe (1614, 1656 and 1659, 1711) ; is it a mere slip or did he have an incorrect text of the original?

2Kastner (ed. cit., 1. xxx) does not list Nevizanus among Drummond's neo-Latin sources.

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