[lit-ideas] Byron in Italian
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 15:47:53 -0500
Or should it rather be Byron in Italian.
In a message dated 1/17/2015 8:35:48 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
In regard to the Italian language (compared to the British), Byron writes
In the XLIV stanza of his satire "Beppo,"
I love the language, that soft bastard Latin
Which melts like kisses from a female mouth,
And sounds as if it should be writ on satin,
With syllables which breathe of the sweet South
And Gentle liquids gliding all so pat in
That not a single accent seems uncouth,
Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural,
Which we're all obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all.
I wonder if he mentions, Byron does, "Italian", because, if "Italy" is a
geographical expression, perhaps "Italian" is a linguistic expression (as
opposed to "Tuscan", which Alighieri thought the 'real thing'.
I suppose 'bastard' Latin has to be taken metaphorically.
Etymogy Online reads on 'bastard':
""illegitimate child," early 13c., from Old French bastard (11c., Modern
French bâtard), "acknowledged child of a nobleman by a woman other than his
wife," probably from fils de bast "packsaddle son," meaning a child
conceived on an improvised bed (saddles often doubled as beds while
traveling),
with pejorative ending -art (see -ard). Alternative possibly is that the word
is from Proto-Germanic *banstiz "barn," equally suggestive of low origin."
"Not always regarded as a stigma; the Conqueror is referred to in state
documents as "William the Bastard." Figurative sense of "something not pure or
genuine" is late 14c.; use as a vulgar term of abuse for a man is attested
from 1830. As an adjective from late 14c. Among the "bastard" words in
Halliwell-Phillipps' "Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words" are avetrol,
chance-bairn, by-blow, harecoppe, horcop, and gimbo ("a bastard's
bastard")."
Oddly, if Italian is the bastard child of Latin -- or 'bastard Latin' as
Byron prefers, I wonder what he thought of Latin as spoken by (as 'she is
spoke", rather) by the Pope, whom Contessa Teresa Guiccioli revered.
Of course Byron would NOT regard "Tuscan" as "Italian" par excellence, but
"Ligurian" (or "Ligure"), since it's La Spezia which is considered to be
Byron's country, as it were.
Perhaps as a tribute to "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", which as Helm notes,
Byron "end[s] in Rome" there's a nice tribute to Byron in the Villa
Borghese which somebody should make a good research on.
The inscription reads:
Byron 1788-1824
"But I have lived, and I have not lived in vain:
My mind may lose its force, my blood its fire,
And my frame perish even in conquering pain:
But there is that within me which shall tire
Torture and Time, and breathe when I expire."
--- Childe Harold IV, CXXXVII
I assume the local newspaper carried a long article about who were in
attendance on the day of the opening of such a public tribute to a 'diavolo
incarnato' (*).
Cheers,
Speranza
* -- "Inglese italianato è un diavolo incarnato".
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