Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in 16th and 17th century Dubrovnik

Ban Matovac, Lidija. (2018). Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in 16th and 17th century Dubrovnik. PhD Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Comparative Literature.
(Poslijediplomski doktorski studij književnosti, izvedbenih umjetnosti, filma i kulture) [mentor Tatarin, Milovan].

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Abstract

Pastoral poetry, and pastoral literature in general, has a long history. It flourished in the antic world of Greece and Rome, in works of Theocritus and Virgil, but it managed to lose its glow during the Middle Ages and then to be rehabilitated during the time of Renaissance, in Dante’s, Petrarca’s and Boccaccio’s eclogues and Jacopo Sanazzaro’s Arcadia. The reason pastoral poetry was rehabilitated during the Renaissance can be found in an increasing amount of discomfort life in cites inflicted upon a Renaissance man. This discomfort pushed him to desire to retreat into nature, to find an idyllic shelter, to seek harmony and eternal prosperity. As all these can be found in pastoral poetry, in its concepts of Arcadia and Golden Age, it was, in a way, an efficient means to cope with the troubles of everyday life in the growing cities. Therefore, during the Renaissance, pastoral poetry was very popular in many European cities and the situation was not at all different in the cities on the coast of Dalmatia and in The Republic of Dubrovnik. The elements of pastoral poetry in Dubrovnik can be traced back to the 15th century and Džore Držić’s eclogue Radmio i Ljubmir, written in vernacular i.e. Croatian and modelled according to Italian eclogue Egloga pastorale written by Baldassare Taccone. The eclogue written by Džore Držić, whom historians of Croatian literature celebrate as the founder of pastoral genre in the Croatian language, quite resembles Theocritus’s and Virgil’s model of eclogue – two shepherds talking about friendship, love, duties, nature, village and the city. As such, it has influenced the rest of the pastoral poetry written in Croatian. A considerable amount of pastoral poetry was written in Dubrovnik during the 16th and 17th centuries, when said genre was particularly popular. Unfortunately, the history of Croatian literature neither pays a proper amount of attention to this fact nor it describes characteristics of this poetry properly. The aim of the research presented in this doctoral thesis was therefore to systematically describe defining characteristics of pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and 17th centuries (in this research, the term pastoral lyric poetry refers to both pastoral lyric poems and eclogues, though some Croatian literary historians prefer to observe the later through the lenses of pastoral drama). The defining characteristics of the pastoral lyric poetry were identified by analysing a corpus consisting of altogether 108 pastoral lyric poems and eclogues, of which 16 were written in the 16th century and 92 in the 17th century. One part of the corpus consists mostly of unknown and unpublished poems collected and transcribed within the project Panorama of Croatian literature in 17th century Dubrovnik, by professor Milovan Tatarin from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek to whom am I sincerely grateful. That part of the corpus comprises mostly anonymous pastoral lyric poems and several pastoral lyric poems written by Vladislav Menčetić, Gabrijel Crijević, Serafin Bunić and Junije Rastić (some of them being previously published). Other parts of the corpus comprise of previously published pastoral lyric poems and eclogues collected from various sources. The main goal of the research presented in this doctoral thesis was to prove the hypothesis that the pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and the 17th century has all the most important invariable properties characteristic of the genre but that it also possesses some variable characteristic. In addition, the goal was to show that in pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the16th and 17th centuries one can find the most common pastoral lyric sub-genres. To prove the hypothesis the following was undertaken: a) an overview of the basic concepts connected to the term pastoral was given as well as the description of the diachronic development of pastoral lyric poetry, b) terms pastoral and pastorality were described and determined within the scope of terms genre and mode and the term pastoral was determined with regards to terms bucolic, eclogue and idyll, c) the main defining characteristics of pastoral lyric poetry were identified as based on the literature overview, e) a corpus consisting of pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and 17th centuries was organized, f) the corpus was analysed, collected data was interpreted and conclusions were drawn. The work undertaken and presented in this doctoral thesis is organised in the following chapters: Introduction, Pastoral and pastorality, Pastoral lyric poetry on Croatian soil, Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in the 16th century Dubrovnik, Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in the 17th century Dubrovnik, Characteristic features of the Croatian pastoral lyric poetry written in 16th and 17th century Dubrovnik, Conclusion and Literature. The opening chapter of the thesis, named Pastoral and pastorality immediately follows the Introduction; it consists of seven separate parts and it thematises the diachronic development of pastoral lyric poetry and provides an overview of the basic concepts appearing in this doctoral thesis. The first part of the first chapter, entitled The meaning of the term pastoral, deals with universal features of pastoral literature, with reasons of its popularity, with opposing visions of pastoral lyric poetry by Réne Rapin and Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle and with contemporary readings of pastoral (including anti-pastoral, post-pastoral, ecocriticism and ecofeminism). The second part of the first chapter, entitled Terminological perplexity: pastoral, bucolic, idyll, eclogue, is focused on the confusion those often synonymously used terms raise as well as on their etymology and on their different and sometimes overlapping definitions that can be found in the literature. The third part of the first chapter, entitled Before pastoral: the peculiarities of pastoral literature in the culture of the ancient world, problematises different factors that may have influenced the development of pastoral literature, from the similarities between otium and hedonism in pastoral literature and in Epicurean philosophy to the influences of folk culture (from festivals and ritual hymns in honour of Artemis, Dionysus, Pan and Silenus to the oral tradition of shepherds of that time). A special attention is given to Theocritus and to the possibility that he might have been influenced by various ancient thinkers, e.g. Aristotle, Aristophanes or Plato. The fourth part of the first chapter, entitled Beginnings and development of pastoral literature, presents notable poets that wrote pastoral lyric poetry – from Theocritus, Moschus, and Bion to Virgil, Titus Calpurnius Siculus, anonymous author(s) of Eclogues from Einsiedeln, Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, Endelechius and Modoin of Autun. Development of the idea of pastoral in the poetry of these poets is described, with the emphasis on the influence Theocritus and Virgil had on them. The fifth part of the first chapter, entitled Rehabilitation of pastoral genre in the Renaissance, tries to determine which factors could have affected revitalization of that genre during the Renaissance in works of Italian authors such as Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch, as well as in works of many other authors of that time. The relation between man and nature along with the relation between man and Christian religion is observed. Attention is paid to the number of editions of Theocritus’s and Virgil’s works during the Renaissance. In the sixth part of the first chapter, entitled Pastoral as a genre and pastorality as a mode, terms genre and mode are discussed and terms pastoral and pastorality are interpreted in relation to those terms. The seventh part of the first chapter, entitled Characteristic features of pastoral lyric poetry, puts forward a list of the most representative characteristics of pastoral lyric poetry. The second chapter, entitled Pastoral lyric poetry on Croatian soil, brings an overview of the literature on the pastoral lyric poetry written within the history of Croatian literature; it also presents an overview of poets who wrote a pastoral lyric poetry or who at least partly used pastoral motives in their poetic works. This chapter seeks to find out when did pastoral motives become present in the literature of Dalmatian cities and in the literature written in Dubrovnik, both in vernacular and other languages. It also seeks to explore connections between the status summerhouses had in Dubrovnik at that time (16th and 17th century), the emergence of arts society and raising interest in the pastoral lyricism. The following chapters of the thesis are named Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in 16th century Dubrovnik and Croatian pastoral lyric poetry in 17th century Dubrovnik and they are the central part of this thesis. They start with tables listing poetry included in the analysis. All listed poems and eclogues are numbered and for each the information on the author and on the source is given. For unpublished poems and eclogues collected by professor Milovan Tatarin information on their physical location is given. In the tables, poems and eclogues are organised according to the authors and according to the source. However the analysis presented in the chapters classifies and groups all poems and eclogues according to their thematic properties. As some of the poems are heterogeneous in the themes and motifs they depict, they can belong to two or more groups (however, they are analysed in detail only once). Furthermore, in analysis of poems or eclogues, accent was put not only on the motifs and themes, but the narrative voice as well as their structure were taken into account. In the 16th century, there were not a lot of poets in Dubrovnik who indulged themselves in writing pastoral lyric poetry in Croatian language – at this point of Dubrovnik’s literary history, only Džore Držić and Dinko Ranjina are known as being productive in that genre. Altogether, they wrote 13 pastoral lyric poems and 3 eclogues, mostly in double rhymed twelvesyllable verses and in impersonal or personal narrative voice. Pastoral lyric poetry of that time, i.e. pastoral lyric poetry by Džore Držić and Dinko Ranjina, can be divided into five groups – pastoral-love poetry, pastoral-sensual poetry, pastoral panegyric, pastoral elegy, and pastoral eclogue. Love is the most prominent topic and pastoral-love poetry is therefore the most commonly written. In pastoral-love poetry a shepherd was inconsolable and he lamented over his unhappy love situation and over a cold and merciless heart of a shepherdess. There was not a single pastoral poem or an eclogue about love in which shepherdess has an active speaking role. In pastoral-sensual poetry, more precisely only in one poem which belongs to this group, a shepherd watches a nude shepherdess and talks about his desire for her. The main preoccupation of a shepherd in pastoral panegyric is to celebrate the nature, more precisely water (one of the most important aspects in life of a shepherd and his flock). In pastoral panegyric, a citizen is celebrating life and habits of shepherds as well. In pastoral elegy an element of mourning is present, irrespective of whether the loss of a beloved person is being mourned by a shepherd, with whom the nature sympathises (pathetic fallacy), or the misfortunate destiny of a couple in love is revealed through the eyes of a female narrator. Motif of death could have been known to the Dubrovnik’s authors of the 16th century from Theocritus’s and Virgil’s eclogues where the death of shepherd Dafnis is lamented. Although conversation among shepherds was a frequent topic in antic eclogue, there is only one example of pastoral eclogue written in Croatian in 16th century Dubrovnik with this topic present, and it is the eclogue Radmio i Ljubmir by Džore Držić. Also, contrary to the ancient eclogue, singingmatch between two shepherds is not present in pastoral eclogues written in Croatian in 16th century Dubrovnik. However, with the exception of Ljubmir i Radmio, it was not usual that a shepherd had a name and that the name was of ancient background, e.g. Damon, Tirsi or Mopso. Shepherdesses did not have names and they did not have active speaking roles. During the 17th century pastoral lyric poetry in Croatian was written in Dubrovnik by the following poets: Horacije Mažibradić, Ivan Bunić Vučić, Vladislav Menčetić, Ignjat Đurđević, Gabrijel Crijević, Serafin Bunić, and Junije Rastić. Additionally, a considerable number of poems and eclogues was written by anonymous poets. In total, 68 pastoral lyric poems and 24 pastoral eclogues were written during the 17th century, mostly in eight syllables verses, rhyming couplet and alternate rhyme, and in impersonal or personal narrative voice. The pastoral lyric poetry of that time can be divided into seven groups: pastoral-love poetry, pastoral-sensual poetry, pastoral-moralizing poetry, pastoral-misogynous poetry, pastoralcomical poetry, pastoral lamentation and pastoral eclogue. Just as during the 16th century, poets showed the most interest in pastoral-love poetry. However, a relatively large number of pastoral-love poems exhibits thematic pluralism. In other words, these poems are not homogeneous and they do not consist only of a lament for an unrequited love. In pastoralsensual poetry shepherdesses and shepherds showed affection towards each other but there was no explicit depicturing of a sexual intercourse. It is interesting to observe that in such poetry not only men were seducing women, but that women were proactive too, which is a rather peculiar fact when the position of a woman in 17th century Dubrovnik society is taken into account. It is unusual for misogyny to enter the pastoral world, a world in which love and women are usually glorified. Although there is not a lot of pastoral poetry of this kind written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during 16th and 17th centuries, misogyny is worth to mention as it managed to enter into the pastoral world – a world essentially incompatible with such views and attitudes. In pastoral-comical poetry a mockery of classic patterns of love seduction is present. Though comical in pastoral was sometimes associated with persiflage of themes and motives in petrarcistic poetry, a more thorough reading of the Theocritus and Virgil shows that a similar comic disconsolate lover and a similar comical tone can be found even in the antic eclogue. In pastoral lyric poetry in Croatian written in Dubrovnik during the 17th century pastoral lamentation is present too – in contrast to the pastoral elegy, in which one’s death is mourned, in this type of poetry the central theme is a nostalgic look towards the better past, aurea aetas. Finally, in the 17th century pastoral eclogues were far more popular in Dubrovnik than a century ago. In them, two or often more than two characters talk (most often two shepherds or a shepherd and a shepherdess) or a character feigns a conversation with someone. Even though conversation among shepherds as a theme was present in pastoral lyric poetry written in Dubrovnik during the 16th century, a century later singing-matches between two shepherds and conversation in general was not that frequent theme. In pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 17th century most common names for shepherd were Radmio, Ljubmir and Ljubdrag, and for the shepherdesses Ljubica, Rakle/Raklica, Dzorka/Zorka, Dzorislava/Zorislava, Zagorka and Sunčanica. The chapter entitled Characteristic features of the Croatian pastoral lyric poetry written in 16th and 17th century Dubrovnik summarizes and presents data collected through analysis of pastoral lyric poetry included in the corpus. Each included poem or eclogue was analysed according to 248 different properties, which can be divided into several groups: a) characteristics of the character of the shepherd, b) characteristics of the character of the shepherdess, c) occurrence of other characters in a poem or an eclogue and their characteristics, d) occurrence of mythological creatures in a poem or an eclogue and their characteristics, e) characteristics of space in a poem or an eclogue, f) characteristics of time in a poem or an eclogue, g) occurrence of animals in a poem or an eclogue and their characteristics, h) characteristics of activities mentioned in a poem or an eclogue, i) state of mind and the body and abstract concepts, j) thematic properties of a poem or an eclogue, k) formal features of a poem or an eclogue. The aim of this part was to identify specific features of pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and the 17th centuries and the following conclusions were drawn: 1) more pastoral lyric poetry was written during the 17th then during the 16th centuries, 2) pastoral lyric poems in Croatian were more often written then eclogues in Croatian, 3) pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and the 17th has all the most significant invariable properties characteristic of the genre but it also has some specific characteristics, 4) deviations from the antic pastoral poetry (in themes and motifs) are present in pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and 17th centuries, 5) although the most prominent topic was love and although the pastoral-love poetry was the most commonly written, pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th and 17th centuries was not thematically homogenous and the most common pastoral lyric sub-genres are present. The thesis ends with Conclusion in which characteristics of the pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 16th century are compared to the pastoral lyric poetry written in Croatian in Dubrovnik during the 17th century. Furthermore, stated two groups of pastoral lyric poetry are compared to the antic role models. Finally, in Literature a comprehensive list of all the used sources and literature is provided.

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