Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies

Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies of Neapolitan Dialect Songs
Author(s): Donna G. Cardamone

Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 86, No. 3 (Aug., 2005), pp. 357-379
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3526607 .
Accessed: 01/02/2014 06:57
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music
&Letters.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 193.190.238.2 on Sat, 1 Feb 2014 06:57:23 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Vol. 86 No. 3, ? The Author(2005).Publishedby OxfordUniversityPress.All rightsreserved.
Music& Letters,
doi:10.1093/ml/gci066,availableonlineat www.ml.oupjournals.org
EROTIC JEST AND GESTURE IN ROMAN

ANTHOLOGIES OF NEAPOLITAN DIALECT SONGS
BY DONNAG. CARDAMONE
DURING THE 1550s a closely knit circle of songwriters from the kingdom of Naples
formed in Rome, setting in motion a brief but thriving market for anthologies of
canzoni villanesche alla napolitana (see App.). Up to this point, the villanesca had
evolved in two separate but complementary directions. The first one emerged in collec-
tions of canzoni for three voices by Neapolitan poet-composers, whose crude sense of
sexual humour was derived from slang and proverbial folklore as well as from the cryp-
tic system of salacious double meanings and metaphors cultivated by humanist poets.
The second direction was established in northern Italy by composers who produced
madrigalesque arrangements for four voices of pre-existing Neapolitan canzoni. Both
idioms flourished in aristocratic salons and academies, where creative individuals,
practised in intertextual allusion and imitation, gathered to engage in the process of
group improvisation, leading inevitably to the recirculation of formulaic materials,
stock characters, and situations.
From the moment of its printed debut in 1537, the villanesca was a homogeneous
genre characterized by the equivocal use of language, whose erotic and sometimes
obscene content was hidden at a deep semantic level. As Antonio Marzo writes
concerning the erotic poetry of the period: 'The most efficacious tool in constructing
seemingly innocent texts, in reality full of allusions to scabrous subject matter, is with-
out doubt the euphemism." Even though the villanesca played a vital role in the
comic culture of the Cinquecento, its historical position with respect to the produc-
tion of double meanings has never been addressed in musicological scholarship.
Given the considerable amount of semiotic and linguistic research devoted to literary
erotica in the past decades, the time has come for new interpretative approaches to
the villanesca that can expose the genre's potential to raise laughter through erotic
jest and gesture.2
When the villanesca for three voices was transplanted to Rome, a significant generic
transformation occurred as songwriters adapted to an urban salon culture dominated
Preliminaryversionsof this articlewere presentedat the Medieval and RenaissanceMusic Conferenceat the University
of Bristolin July 2002 and at the Sixty-SeventhAnnual Meeting of the American MusicologicalSociety at Columbus,
Ohio in Nov. 2002. I would like to acknowledgethe generous assistanceof Leofranc Holford-Strevens,Cesare Corsi,
and Anthony DelDonna, who offered helpful suggestionswith respect to the translations(and subtexts)of the poems.
I am grateful to Laurie Stras and an anonymous reader for Music& Lettersfor their perceptive criticismof an earlier
version of this essay.
Antonio Marzo, Notesullapoesiaerotica delCinquecento(Lecce, 1999), 12.
2 The interpretativeapproachesused in this study are based on the following seminal investigations:Antonio Marzo,
'La lingua come distintivodi genere: II caso della letteraturaerotica del Cinquecento',in Attidelterzoconvegno
dellaSocieta
italianadi linguistica
efilologiaitaliana(Naples, 1997),417-30;Jean Toscan, Le Caravaldulangage:Lelexique despotes de
erotique
l'iquivoque de Burchielloa Marino(XVP-XVII'siecles),4 vols. (Lille, 1981); Deborah Parker, 'Towards a Reading of
Bronzino'sBurlesquePoetry',Renaissance Quarterly,50 (1997), 1011-44.
357

by single males in the service of the Church.3 The bitter complaints of cuckolds were
gradually replaced by serenades and laments of martyred lovers, leading to use of the
gentler term 'villanela' as an alternative to 'villanesca'. While the tunes retained their
traditional formulaic character, the texts became increasingly equivocal as the second
generation of Neapolitan songwriters continued to incorporate the copious lexicon of
erotic double entendres, born in Tuscany with Boccaccio as the authoritative master.
The language of equivocation flourished in the fifteenth century with notable develop-
ments in the works of Lorenzo de' Medici and Domenico di Giovanni (il Burchiello), the
latter playing an important role in the formation of Pietro Aretino's identity and that of
other burlesque poets associated with Roman academies during the first half of the
sixteenth century.4 Among them were Francesco Berni, Francesco Maria Molza,
Annibal Caro, and Giovanni Della Casa, all members of the Accademia de' Vignaiuoli,
which flourished from 1532 to 1535. Altogether they took a decidedly anti-Petrarchan
stance by exploiting a richly ambivalent poetics, whose innocuous surface masked a
scurrilous subtext to be negotiated by readers according to their levels of exposure to
literary erotica.5
Marzo has argued persuasively that literary erotica of the Cinquecento originated in
Berni's repertory of paradoxical encomia (humorous capitoliin terzarima),which served
as generic models for burlesque poets in the decades following the Sack of Rome.
Laughter was then considered a means of countering states of anguish and desperation.6
Moreover, Marzo claims that the hidden meanings of erotic poems circulating in Rome
'would have been clearly and immediately understood by contemporaries',7 thereby
paving the way for the enthusiastic reception of villanesche and villanelle in the 1550s.
Since sexual euphemisms were distinctive linguistic features of the villanesca from the
start, it seems that generations of Neapolitan songwriters were profoundly influenced by
the burlesque poems transmitted in miscellanies published between 1538 and 1555 in
Florence and Venice:
In his prefaceto II secondo

librodell'opere
burlesche
[1555], the printerFilippoGiunti, clearlyplaying
on Horace's declarationthat the object of literatureis to instructand delight,proclaimsthat the
chief goal of burlesquepoetry is 'recarpiacere et diletto alle genti' (to bring pleasureand delight
to people). Filippo'scomments, admittedlycommonplace, neverthelessunderscoreamusement
and diversion as the chief objectives of these works. Burlesqueis above all a poetry of comic
effect.8
3 Rome contained an abnormallyhigh ratio of males to females

owing to the large numbersof clergymenand young
noblemen seekingto advance in the Curia. Other substantialgroupsof single men or immigrantmales presentwithout
their families included itinerant ambassadors,envoys, soldiers, and familiarsof cardinals. For detailed demographic
information,see Peter Partner,Renaissance Rome1500-1559: A Portraitofa Society
(Berkeleyand Los Angeles, 1976), 75-84.
For informationon these academies and their erotic productions,see David O. Frantz, FestumVoluptatis: A Studyof
Renaissance Erotica(Columbus,Ohio, 1989), 24-38.
5 Frantz, ibid. 9-10, divides literaryerotica into two broad categories,learned and popular: 'learnederotica are the
productsof highly educated men, papal secretariesand humanistsof the variousItalian cities, who producedtheir works
for one another, usuallyin cenacoli or academies,... and much of the humor stems from the fact that sexual mattersare
used to make fun of the seriousscholarlyproductionsof the same humanists... popular erotica are purely commercial
endeavors, written with the hope of making money through sale and patronage. Elaborate scholarly and rhetorical
devices are avoided; obscene words are insisted upon.' The Neapolitan repertoryunder discussion here does not fit
neatly into either category,primarilybecause obscenityis maskedby double meanings and individualauthorshipis not
at issue; Roman printersinvariablyreduced composers to anonyms. However, the expression (not category) 'popular
erotica' seems fittingfor suggestivesongs that receivedwidespreaddistribution.
6Marzo, Notesullapoesiaerotica,17 f.
7 Ibid. 12.
8 Parker,'Towards a
Reading of Bronzino'sBurlesquePoetry', 1018. For a list of miscellaniescontainingburlesque
poetry, see Marzo, Notesullapoesiaerotica,189-90.
358

The exposure of Neapolitan songwriters to burlesque poetry may also have been facili-
tated by their attendance at the court of the Prince of Salerno, whose majordomo
during the 1540s was the Sienese poet Vincenzo Martelli, a facile imitator of Berni.9
Documentation for the prevalence of euphemisms in villanesche can be found in the
glossary of over 2,000 Italian words with second-level meanings compiled by Jean
Toscan in his exhaustive study Le Camavaldu langage.l0A linguistic analysis of all the
villanesche published in Rome yielded results consistent with Toscan's findings for
burlesque poetry: an appreciable number of texts are infused with double entendres and
metaphors alluding playfully to sodomitical relations." Not only did sodomy enjoy a
central position in Renaissance erotic literature, but many works (including villanesche)
also 'revolved around the delectation of engaging in a full spectrum of sexual acts, from
sodomy with both men and women to sodomy and condoned intercourse alternately
with the same partner'.12 Thus villanesche can be viewed as realistic reflections of sexual
practices that prevailed in courtly, academic, and clerical circles, no doubt encouraged
by the success of contemporary erotic texts such as Pietro Aretino's Ragionamenti(Dia-
logues), and Antonio Vignali's La cazzaria both notable for their open acceptance of
licit and illicit pleasures as an integral part of human existence.'3
Erotic humour worked effectively in Roman villanesche because it was responsive to
immediate local conditions. The prime targets of jests are figures who occupied promi-
nent places in Rome's cultural identity, namely, women constructed as sexually sophis-
ticated courtesans and the worldly churchmen and noblemen known to seek their
favours.14 The first concern of this study, then, is to define the conditions that shaped
the content of a socially situated repertory of dialect songs descended from the
burlesque tradition with respect to equivocal language and function. 'The obscurity of
burlesque poetry results largely from two factors: the use of a highly coded lexicon, and
the tendency of burlesque poets to allude to cultural ideas, social practices, and opinions
whose significance eludes most readers today.'15
Throughout the sixteenth century, the villanesca functioned as a versatile form of
popular music for the personal amusement of amateur musicians. Conceived as a high-
pitched vocal trio, it was amenable to performance by men and women of all ages. The
9 LauraCosentini,Unadamanapoletana delXVIsecolo:IsabellaVillamarina
pincipessadi Salerno(Trani, 1896),44-7. Vincenzo
Martelli'sbrotherLudovico,also an imitatorof Berni,servedFerranted'Avalosin Naples.Ludovico'sCapitolo in lodedell'altalena
and Vincenzo's Capitolo in lodedellemenzogne were publishedtogether in II secondo librodell'opere
burlesche(Florence,1555).
Ludovico'scapitolois reprintedin Marzo,Notesullapoesia 175-81, with annotationsthatclarifydoubleentendres.
erotica,
10 See
above, n. 2. The first musicological study to incorporateToscan's glossaryis ChristinaFuhrmann, 'Gossip,
Erotica,and the Male Spy in AlessandroStriggio'sII Cicalamento delledonneal bucato(1567)', in Todd M. Borgerding(ed.),
Gender, Sexualiy,andEarlyMusic(New York, 2002), 167-97.
1 See the Appendix for tabulationsof subtextsin three extant Roman anthologies.Here the designation'none' means
that the poem in questionlacksa subtextalludingto sodomy and that coded wordsdenote licit sex. The designation'sod-
omy' means that the poet drew liberallyupon euphemismssignifyingillicitsex in the erotic lexicon. The primarycriteria
for assigningthese designationsare the contextualsense of the poem, accountingfor the 'way in which languageworksas
a systemtoward an erotic effect', and the fact that context 'often determinesthe extent of a passage'sor word's ambigu-
ity' (Parker,'Towardsa Reading', 1024).
12
Fuhrmann,'Gossip',176. On culturalfactorsthat determinedvariousexpressionsof sexualidentity,especiallyamong
male adolescents, see Guido Ruggiero, 'Marriage,Love, Sex, and Renaissance Civic Morality', in James Grantham
Turner (ed.),Sexuality andGender inEarlyModer Europe: Texts,Images(Cambridge,1993), 10-30 at 23-6.
Institutions,
13Vignali's La cazzariais an apologia for sodomy in which sex between males is understoodand praised as an elite
practice, and sex with women is seen as a poor alternative.See Antonio Vignali, La Cazzaria:TheBookof thePrick,trans.
Ian FrederickMoulton (New York, 2003), 40-1. For furtherinformationon erotic worksemanatingfrom academies,see
Paula Findlen, 'Humanism,Politics,and Pornographyin RenaissanceItaly',in Lynn Hunt (ed.), TheInvention ofPornogra-
phyandtheOrigins ofModernity, 1500-1800 (New York, 1993), 49-108 at 86-94.
14 That Rome was viewed as a
city dominated by clerics and prostitutesis reinforced by a well-known proverb:
'A Roma stanno bene i frati e puttane'. See Raffaele Corso, La vitasessualenellecredenze pratichee tradizioni
popolariitaliane,
ed. Giovanni BattistaBronzini(Florence,2001), 272.
15
Parker,'Towardsa Reading of Bronzino'sBurlesquePoetry', 1023.
359

cantus traversesa medium range (rarelyexceeding d'), and the bass and tenor partsare
confined to rangesabout a fifth higher than usual. Therefore,the aria-liketunes located
in the cantus could be sung by male altos, falsettists,boys, or women who might also
take the tenor part, which often duplicatesthe tune at the third or sixth below. Textu-
ally the villanesca is a short anecdote related by an I-speaker in four stanzas, each
concluding with a refrain. The speaker-typically a frustrated male-addresses a
female interlocutorin the here and now, bringinghis recollection(orfantasy)of a sexual
encounter to a witty point at the end with a punch line. Inherentlya theatricalgenre,
the villanesca offered singersa variety of options for impersonatingthe voice and feel-
ings of the speaker, including solo performance of the tunes. It should come as no
surprise,then, that Roman printersoffered these spirited canzoni to their patrons as
giftsfor self-amusementand also for sharingwith friends.
The earliest known recipient of a Roman anthology of villanelle was Francesco
Guidobono, a tonsured priest from a prominent noble family in Tortona, then only
11 years old and abbot in commendam of the monasteryof S. Paolo in Tortona:
To the generousM. FrancescoGuidobono.Hereforyou, dearFrancesco,is an arrayof choice
villanelleby whichcharmingandgracefulshepherdesses cometo venerateyourexquisitenoble
intellect,beingportentsof thefuturein whichthatintellectwillbejustas illustrious
andsplendid
as providentialforthisworthyandexcellentartof music.So welcomethesevillanelleagreeably,
and while amusingyourselfwith them sometimes,be remindedof someonewho caresabout
you.In yourservice,ValerioDorico.
No documentationexists to verifywho commissionedthe anthology, Villanelle d'Orlando
musicilibrosecondo(1555). But negotiations with Dorico, the
di Lassuse d'altrieccellenti
printer, could conceivablyhave been overseen by Francesco'sguardianuncle, Giovan
BattistaGuidobono. He was a judge of the Rota who had previouslyruled in favourof a
majorbenefice so that Francescocould pursuean ecclesiasticalcareerin Rome.16
It appearsthat Francesco'sguardianwas willingto take responsibilityfor exposingan
adolescentboy to villanellestrewnwith euphemismsand metaphorsthat focus attention
on the lower body. Indeed, almost half the villanelle in Francesco'sbook incorporate
double entendresto suggest'unnatural'or deviantacts (seeApp., item 2). The remaining
villanellemerely expresslibidinousurges in the context of'natural' or procreativesex.17
However, when confrontingthe productionof meaning in these erotic songs, it is essen-
tial to considera theory of receptionwhich 'postulatesa direct, immediaterelationship
between the "text"and the reader,between the "textualsignals"used by the authorand
the "horizonof expectation"of those he addresses'.'8Depending on age, schooling,and
sexualpreference,some readersmight be temptedto imaginemultiplemeanings,even if
none were deliberatelyembeddedin the text. Others,forbiddento read eroticliterature,
would clearlynot have acquiredthe backgroundto decode expressionsalludingto sod-
omy. Neapolitan poets actually created a dichotomy in the responsesof insiderswith
first-handexperienceof sodomyand outsidersfor whom sodomywas alien and immoral.
For instance,a villanellain Francesco'sbook that turnson the conceit of dying could be
16
For furtherinformationon the Guidobonofamily,see Donna G. Cardamone,'The Salon as Marketplacein the 1550s:
Patronsand Collectorsof Lasso'sMusic',in PeterBergquist(ed.),Orlando
diLassoStudies
(Cambridge,1999),64-90 at 68-72.
17On sexual practicesin RenaissanceItaly and contemporarydefinitionsof 'natural'and 'unnatural'acts, seeJames
A. Brundage, 'CarnalDelight: Canonistic Theories of Sexuality',in Proceedings
of theFifthInternational ofMedieval
Congress
CanonLaw,Salamanca, 21-25 September 1976 (VaticanCity, 1980), 361-85 and Nicholas Davidson, 'Theology,Nature and
the Law: Sexual Sin and Sexual Crime in Italy from the Fourteenthto the SeventeenthCentury',in Trevor Dean (ed.),
Crime,SocietyandtheLawin RenaissanceItaly(Cambridge,1994), 74-98.
18
Roger Chartier,'Texts, Printings,Readings'in Lynn Hunt (ed.), TheNew Cultural History(Berkeleyand Los Angeles,
1989), 161.
360

read on the surface level as describing licit love-death or on the second level as alluding
to sodomy-the double meaning of morirein the erotic lexicon. Yet the poet deliberately
contrasts condoned intercourse and sodomy by using commonplace pairs of opposites
from the erotic lexicon such as fire and ice, living and dying:'9
Son morto, e moro e pur cerco morire, I'm dead, and I die even as I seek to die,
Ne per tanto morirperdo la vita. Lest throughso much dying I lose my life.
0 potenzad'amor solinfinita. Ohpowerof love,infinitesun.
Et ben ch'io moro non mor'ilmartire, And althoughI'm dying, the martyrdoesn't die,
Anzi fra ghiaccio e foco ho mort'evita. Rather, between ice and fire I hold death and life.
0 potenzad'amor solinfinita. Ohpowerof love,infinitesun.
Dunque la vita mia si pu6 ben dire, Then, my life, one can trulysay,
Peggio che mort'e chi la tien'invita. Worse than death is the one who holds it in life.
0 potenzad'amor sol infinita. Ohpowerof love,infinitesun.
Quest'e la vita de chi segue Amore, This is the life of the one who followsLove,
Fra ghiaccio e foco, e fra spem'e timore. Amid ice and fire, hope and fear.
Vivo morendo e non vivo [ne more]. Alive while dying and neither alive nor dying.
Assuming that Francesco 'amused himself by reading or singing villanelle in his

book, then he was likely to have experienced the social functions of popular music:
creating individual identity and a particular place in society, giving voice to emotions
that otherwise could not be expressed without embarrassment, and intensifying one's
experience of the present.20 Moreover, the judge may have believed that the laughter
villanelle inevitably provoked was essential to regulating his protege's emotional and
bodily health-a claim made by Castiglione in his influential conduct book, II cortegiano:
For laughteris found only in man, and it is nearlyalwaysa sign of a certainhilarityinwardlyfelt
in the mind, which by natureis attractedto pleasures,and desires,rest and relaxation.... Hence,
whatever moves to laughter restores the spirit, gives pleasure, and for the moment keeps one
from rememberingthose vexing troublesof which our life is full.21
Evidence that adolescents were particularly susceptible to the jesting in villanelle is

found in a treatise written by the papal singer Ghiselin Danckerts, an advocate of the
therapeutic value of popular music. Recalling the time he spent observing performances
of villanelle in aristocratic Neapolitan salons, Danckerts reported that the young girls
laughed so 'uncontrollably and with such great cheer, that they had to be held up.
Otherwise they would have fallen down from the pleasure they derived in hearing
them.'22It appears, then, that high-born Neapolitan girls were not sheltered from erotic
jesting as long as they participated in the socially acceptable and recreational medium
of music as listeners. Yet in many canzoni the male I-speaker constructs the female
interlocutor as a sexual predatrix or sensual seductress, which may have provided
adolescent girls with 'some carnal knowledge before marriage', if not 'clues as to the
behaviour they should avoid'.23
'9On the extensiveusageof pairsof oppositesin equivocalpoetry,see Toscan,LeCarnaval

dulangage,
i. 363-77. For numer-
ous examplesthatillustratethe hiddenmeaningsof the antonyms'vivere/morire'and 'vivo/morto',see pp. 499-502.
20 Simon Frith, 'Towards an Aesthetic of
Popular Music', in Richard Leppert and Susan McClary (eds.),Musicand
Society(Cambridge,1987), 133-149 at 140-4. Although Frithaddressesmodem pop music, he identifiessocial functions
that are equallyapplicableto popular music of the past.
21
BaldesarCastiglione, TheBookof theCourtier,
trans.CharlesS. Singleton(New York, 1959), 144-5.
22
On Danckerts'streatise, see Donna G. Cardamone, 'A Colorful Bouquet of Arie Napolitane', Recercare, 10 (1998),
133-50 at 135-6.
23I am indebted to Laurie Strasfor this
perceptiveinterpretation.
361

The behaviour of young gentlemen is addressed at length in Italian conduct manuals,
which claim jesting as an essential component in a courtier's repertory of rhetorical
strategies-provided it remain within the bounds of decorum: 'One should not, for the
sake of making someone else laugh, say obscene words, or indulge in such ignoble or
unsuitable acts as distorting one's face and disguising oneself, for no one should debase
himself in order to please others.'24 Even though villanelle are not mentioned in
discourses on wit and laughter, the poems clearly qualify as anecdotal jests complete
with epigrammatic punch lines at the end. Moreover, their allusive verbal techniques
and avoidance of vulgar words-effectively distanced from outright obscenity-could
have served as tasteful models of 'safe conversation' for Francesco and his gentlemanly
friends.25
Like the early eroticized madrigal, the villanella was a genre suited to performance by
small groups of amateur singers, gathered together in an intimate space to 'speak of sex'
through the voice of the I-speaker. Laura Macy has argued convincingly that 'madrigals
had all the necessary features for the teaching of gracious wit. Their texts were a
resource of conceits and clever phrases to be memorized, used, and incorporated into
future conversations'.26This theory can be applied to most villanelle with equal validity,
because both genres, like jests, often conclude with a punch line that Macy claims can
serve a dual purpose (here she describes the famous epigrammatic couplet of Arcadelt's
II biancoe dolcecigno,which functions like the final line or lines of a villanella):
First,it providescomic releasefrom the sexual tension that is the essence of the erotic conceit. By
concluding this almost embarrassinglyintimate confessionwith a joke, the poet undercutsthe
sexual tension and releasesus from its exquisitediscomfort:the poem's heat is doused insteadof
ignited. Second, like the punch line of a joke, it marksthe end of the privilegedspace of the text
it concludes, confirming that whatever transgressionhas taken place, or seemed about to, is
contained.27
According to Chris Holcomb, 'early modern rhetoric and courtesy manuals are
obsessed with jesting', and he has provided numerous examples from English and
Italian sources to support the proposition that 'jests of the period typically dramatize
encounters between people of divergent social origins or occupations'.28 A close look at
the villanelle in Francesco's book and other Roman anthologies bears out the notion
that there are striking similarities between early modern jests and villanelle. The charac-
ters subjected to humorous jesting in both genres are farmers and friars, noblemen and
plebeians, husbands and wives, clients and courtesans, foreigners and indigenous
folk (see App., under 'speaker' and 'interlocutor'). Thus, from Holcomb's perspective,
villanelle can be considered effective strategies for communicating across class bounda-
ries, providing yet another reason why Francesco stood to profit from exposure to them.
A newcomer to the populous city of Rome, Francesco had to navigate diverse social
situations, particularly those in which he encountered women whose origins and behav-
iour differed markedly from his own: baseborn prostitutes working the fashionable
streets where gentlemen were accustomed to stroll and eye-catching courtesans preening
24Giovanni Della
trans.Konrad Eisenbichlerand Kenneth R. Bartlett(Toronto, 1986), 36.
Casa, Galateo,
25According to Chris Holcomb, Mirth
Making:TheRhetorical
Discourse
inJestingin EarlyModernEngland(Columbia,SC,
2001), 135, 'setting an unseemly and obscene suggestion far enough off or giving it a strange grace creates distance
between the form and meaning of a jest, and this verbal distance in turn, translatesinto a social distance between the
high and the low, the seemly and the unseemly,and the gentlemanlyand the baseborn'.
26 Laura
Macy, 'Speakingof Sex: Metaphorand Performancein the ItalianMadrigal',Journal ofMusicology, 14 (1996),
1-34 at 7.
27
Ibid. 9.
28
Holcomb, Mirth Making, 5.
362

provocatively in their windows. Francesco's villanelle might then have functioned as
tools of socialization or indoctrination, because so many of them play on the tensions
and anxieties that often arise when people of divergent social backgrounds occupy the
same urban space. Indeed, on feast days honest courtesans in sumptuous attire
frequented churches accompanied by parades of admirers-a sight that could be visu-
ally alluring or morally repugnant. Moreover, according to Roman legal records, even
refined, cultured courtesans could stir up trouble when provoked, displaying belligerent,
aggressive, and duplicitous behaviour.29 On the other hand, assuming that Francesco
frequented the princely courts of popes and cardinals-spaces with limited access to
aristocratic women-then he would have observed honest courtesans flourishing as
high-class prostitutes by gracing festivities with their wit and charm.30 The prominent
place that courtesans held in Rome's cultural identity and social practice may well have
posed a moral dilemma for Francesco, especially when they were accompanied by
cardinals, whose behaviour generated a discordant tone in the following report of a
contemporary English tourist:
If I should say that under their long robes they hide the greatestpride in the world, it might hap-
pen some men would believe it, but that they are the vainest men of all other their own acts do
well declare. For their ordinarypastime is to disguisethemselves,to go laugh at the courtesans'
houses, and in the shrovingtime to ride maskingabout with them.... Briefly,by reportRome is
not without 40,000 harlots, maintainedfor the most part by the clergy and their followers.So
that the Romans themselves suffertheir wives to go seldom abroad, either to church or other
place, and some of them scarcelyto look out at a lattice window;whereof their proverbsaith, In
Romavalepiu la putanachela moglieRomana;that is to say, 'In Rome the harlot hath a better life
than she that is a Roman's wife'.31
In cities like Rome, overrun with courtesans, there was a continual demand for sere-
nades that a prospective suitor or his go-between (mezzano)might sing under the window
of a desirable woman to aid in negotiating a tryst.32 Voriache tu cantas'unacanzonafrom
Francesco's book is a saucy serenade in which a suitor imposes impudent sexual fanta-
sies upon a musical courtesan. Indecent puns on solmization syllables are juxtaposed
with euphemistic descriptions of singing and playing instruments, altogether celebrating
the pleasures of unnatural acts:33
Voria che tu cantasa una canzona, I shouldlike you to sing a song,

Quando mi stai sonandobla viola, While you're playing the viol for me,
E chedicessifamila miso la.c Andthatyouwouldsayfami la miso la.
Voria lo bassodfar col violone, I would like to do the bass with the violone,
Tutto di contrapontoalla spagnola,e All of counterpointin the Spanishstyle,
E chedicessifami la miso la. Andthatyouwouldsayfami la miso la.
29
On prostitutesas active participantsin Roman social life, see ElizabethS. Cohen, 'Courtesansand Whores:Words
and Behaviorin Roman Streets', Women's Studies,19 (1991), 201-8, and 'Seen and Known:Prostitutesin the Cityscapeof
Late Sixteenth-CenturyRome', Renaissance Studies,12 (1998), 392-409. See also Thomas V. Cohen and Elizabeth
S. Cohen, WordsandDeedsin Renaissance Rome:Trialsbefore thePope'sMagistrates(Toronto, 1993).
30 On cortigiane and their participationin gatheringsof the Roman court and privatepartieshosted by curialists,
honeste
see Partner,Renaissance Rome,153-4.
31WilliamThomas, The
HistoryofItaly(1549), ed. George B. Parks(Ithaca, 1963),50.
32A letterwrittenby Lelio Capilupifrom Rome on 5 Nov. 1546 providesvaluableevidence of the role music played in
the lives of courtesansand their suitors.Capilupidisclosedthat after spendinghis firstnight ever with a courtesan,they
remained 'happilyalone together all the next day, dining in my house and singingNeapolitan songs'.The content of the
letter, which also contains a lively descriptionof relationsbetween real courtesansand their suitors,is summarizedin
GeorginaMasson, Courtesans of theItalianRenaissance (London, 1975), 138-40.
33
Annotationsto this poem, and others to follow, identifywords and expressionswith double meanings as defined in
Toscan's glossary,Le Camavaldulangage, iv.
363

Voria toccassifsempredi bordoneg, I should like you alwaysto fingerthe drone,
Sonando sol re fa, non sol fa so lah, Soundingsol re fa, not sol fa so la,
E chedicessifamila miso la. Andthatyouwouldsayfa mi la miso la.
Ch'io cantariaper accordarcon tene, Then I should sing to harmonizewith you,
Dolce conforto'mio caro, mio bene, My sweet comfort,my dearlybeloved,
Tutta la notteila sol fa re mi re.k All night long la sol fa re mi re.
a cantas' c fa mi la
(cantare):act or submitin sodomy. b sonando (suonare):engage in sodomy.
mi so la (fammel'a mi sola): do it only to me. e
d basso: buttocks. spagnola: adjective character-
isticof sodomy. f toccassi(toccare):engagein sodomy. gbordone:male sexualorgan. h sol
re fa non sol (so '1)fa sola: (my)only king (sodomite),act, I cannot do it alone. 'conforto: attain satis-
faction againstnature. i la notte: at the backside. k la sol fa re mi re: la solfa
(copulate),remire
(rimirare),to make love again and again.
In the musical setting, the solmization syllablesin the recurrent refrainare declaimed largely
on crotchets, allowing compression into words that make verbal sense. Therefore the refrain's
syllables,'fa mi la mi so la', would be understood as 'do it only to me'-a commanding gesture
that receives rhetoricalemphasis with animated repetitions,following a slow start(see Ex. 1).34
The predominant text type in Francesco's book is the lament in which an astute woman
vanquishes a desiring yet timid male, to parodic effect. Frustrated male speakers-often
left dangling metaphorically between life and death-explore emotional distress brought
on by relations with audacious women constructed as courtesans. Moreover, Petrarch's
amorous tropes are comically inverted so that the love object is imagined in circumstances
that are 'uplifting only in the physical sense'.35Licit and illicit acts are contrasted with
antitheses such as burning and freezing, living and dying. Occasionally the love object is
depicted as cruel or lustful, and thereby liable to promote contempt for women who
renege on their promises to make love or who desire aberrant relations. Most laments,
however, while bordering on the ridiculous, project a sweetly plaintive tone with which
real martyred lovers might identify. For example, Io piangoet ell'il voltosuo mi voltais a droll
parody of the commiato from Petrarch's canzone 'Quando il soave mio fido conforto' (Rime
359), in which a lover's weeping makes the loved one laugh with increasing hilarity,
whereas in Petrarch 'she flies into a rage using language that would break a stone'.
Io piango et ell'il volto suo mi volta, I weep and she turnsher face away from me,
E del mio pianto ogn'hor si fa piu lieta, And my cryingmakesher happierevery time,
Perchepresomi trovoet ella sciolta. BecauseIfind myselfcaughtandshereleased.
Io piango et ella con piacer m'ascolta, I weep and she listensto me with pleasure,
Et ride si che quasi m'acqueta, And laughs so that I'm almost appeased,
Io piango et ella ne fa festa molta, I weep and she makesmuch hilarityof it,
Et m'aggiongenel cor fiamma secreta, Increasingthe secretburningin my heart,
Io piango et ella spessofa tal canto, I weep and she often makessuch a song,
Che mi fa dolce il mio tormento e pianto, That sweetensmy tormentand tears,
34A counterpointattributedto CostanzoFestacontainsan ostinatoon 'fa mi la mi sol la' in the uppermostvoice against
an ostinatoin the lowestvoice on the famousmotif 'la sol fa re mi'. See RichardJ.Agee, 'CostanzoFesta'sGradus adPamas-
sum',EarlyMusicHistory,15 (1996), 1-58 at 12. The 'fa mi la mi sol la' motif,formedin the naturalhexachord,is not quoted
in Voriachetucantas'una
canzona, althoughthe secondrepetitionin the cantus(bars20-2) mightbe considereda musicalpun,
accountingfor mutationfrom the naturalto the soft hexachord.Lassusquoted the incipitof this villanellain his hilarious
double-choirecho piece, 0 la, o cheboneccho,and in this new contextit reinforcesa text notablefor its erotichumour.
35Frantz,FestumVoluptatis,29.
364

Ex. 1. Anon., Voriachetucantas'una
canzona.From Villanelle diLassus(cantusfrom RISM
d'Orlando
155530;tenor from RISM 155816;bass reconstructed)
c 1^ |J, r rI rcan - IJ JJ I :
Vo - ria che tu ta - s'u - na can- zo - na
T ,^ . |J. 3 Ij J IIJ
1J j IJ 1I
Vo - ria che tu can - ta - s'u - na can - zo - na
B I& I Jj I IJ j I; J I1
Vo - ria che tu can - ta - s'u - na can- zo - na
['r
Quan -
l' If
ir=' r
do mi stai so - nan - do,
r
quando
t
mi stai
R so- nan- do
r-
J J I J
Quan - do mi stai so - nan - do, quando mi stai so- nan- do
b'J I jj ,I jI j jJ I j-
Quan - do mi stai so - nan - do, quando mi stai so- nan- do
11
rf r 1? ir Hr |r r ir r f 1f
la vi - o - - la E che di - ces - si fa mi
- J
| J f IF II: I| " J Ir J IJ L
la vi - - o - Ela di - - si che ces fa mi
KJ J lo Ij IJ IJ J | IJ
J Ii
la vi - o - - la E che di - ces - si fa mi
17
iJfrr
u Jr: lrr r1 J 1.. :1
la mi so la, fa mi la mi so la, fa mi la mi so la.
ja J J IJ J 1 J j j I; I. :1
la mi so la, fa mi la mi so la [mi so la].
, . IJ j j 1i. Ji I.J j :1
la mi so la, fa mi la mi so la, fa mi la mi so la.
365

Here the poet has blended some elementsof burlesquepoetrywith the refinedlanguage
of the lyric as a means of gently satirizingPetrarch.'Unlike the world of the Petrarchan
lyric, in which consummation is never a possibility, sexual gratification [in this
villanella]is immediate and ubiquitous.'36 The recurrenceof feminine laughteralludes
to a social practice expressed in a Roman proverb of long-standingcurrency, which
claims that women who laugh are whores: 'Donna risarella,puttana, puttanella'.37In
this context, readersfamiliarwith the erotic lexicon might then interpretcoded words
and expressionslike 'lieta', 'ride', 'fa festa', and 'tal canto' as signifyingheterosexual
sodomy.38Others might read it at the surface level as a conventional but witty love
poem, because words that recur in the refrain-'caught' and 'released'(not coded)
enhance the contrastbetweenthe I-speaker'sbittersweetpleasureand the woman'sexhil-
aration.No matterat what level the poem is perceived,contrastingmusicalgesturessuch
as the slow tearfulfigureat the beginningand descendingfiguresinjaunty dottedrhythms
at the refrainrealisticallyinvokethe protagonists'respectivestates(seeEx. 2).
Clearly the villanelle in Francesco'sbook could serve multiple functions simultane-
ously, depending on the occasion, the venue, and the interpretative responses of
listeners.39For example, villanelle that, in Bakhtin'swords, 'shift downward in focus
from the head and face to the genital organs, belly, and buttocks',40could have pro-
vided comical outlets for represseddesires during carnivalfestivities,which celebrated
temporaryliberationfrom the establishedorder. But Bakhtinfailed to account for the
socially conservativerepresentationsof laughter in widely read Italian conduct manu-
als by Castiglione and Della Casa, wherein jesting is presented as a vehicle for con-
trolling dangerous energies, precisely because it exposes behaviours that threaten the
dominant system of values. 'According to this perspective, laughter is not a release
from the constraintsof the official world; rather it is in the service of, and reinforces
the established order.'41In Francesco's book the notion of control is implicit in six
complaints, four of which function as moralizing monologues addressed directly to
listeners. Among the speakers are a deflowered peasant girl terrified of facing her
mother, and lovers duped or rejected by deceptive women. One of these complaints
quotes proverbsthat criticize delinquent members of the clergy for their gluttony and
wicked lasciviousness:
Non te fidarede santo che magnia, Don't put your trustin a holy man who devours,
Ca se te fidi ne resti gabato, Because if you trust,you may be deceived,
Cridiloa meperchel'aggioprovato. Believeme, becauseI haveexperienced
it.
Chi di sputarin chiesa si sparagnia, He who refrainsfrom spittingin church,
Non li fidaruna monaca allato, Do not entrusta nun at his side,
Cridiloa meperchel'aggioprovato. Believeme, becauseI haveexperienced
it.
Lo tiempo che discopreogni magagnia, Time disclosesevery imperfection,
Chiuid'uno cuolo stuortoha derezato, More than one crookedrump has straightenedup,
36 Parker,'Towardsa
Reading of Bronzino'sBurlesquePoetry', 1030.
37 Corso, La vitasessuale,
105.
38 Toscan, Le Caravaldu iv (Glossaire).
langage,
39For a model of explanation that preservesmultiple interpretationsand recognizesjests as sites where meaning is
negotiatedand contested,see Holcomb, MirthMaking,100-1. This model has informedmy understandingof Roman vil-
lanelle as analogousto jests, because villanelle 'are primed for enacting inversionsand reversals,exploringareas of ten-
sion in social structure, and capturing liminal moments when two social types [e.g. gentleman and courtesan]
communicateacrossthe boundarythat normallyseparatesthem' (p. 101).
40MikhailBakhtin,Rabelaisandhis World,trans.Helen
Iswolsky(Bloomington,1984), 10.
41 Holcomb, Mirth
Making,23.
366

Ex. 2. Anon., Io piangoet ell'il voltosuomi volta.From Villanelle di Lassus(cantusfrom
d'Orlando
RISM 155530;tenor from RISM 155816;bass from BritishLibrary,Royal App. 62)
C
(^I?1I r r " rrr r -
Io pian - go, iopian go et el 'il
T ~,,, ?I,
Io pian -
, lib(- rio'
go,
10
pian - go et
r el- l'ilr
B -"( I? 0 ' r I' Ir rr I I I
1-1?
Io pian - go, io pian go et el- l'il
6
'l JS6IrJ iIJJ J JJ I11 lf
L J r f I'
vol- to suo mi volta Et del mio pian-t'o- gnhor si fa piu
'.i -i J j J r:IIJ
llfJ fL Irr v si
vol- to suo mi_ vol - ta Et del mio pian-t'o- gnhor fa piu
^ r
vlos
vol- to
r
suo mi
r
vol
J
ta Et
ir
del mio piano-t'o- gnhor
r i^ r
si
r
fa piu
I
11
~7r r" It-. r I r - r H, J I

lie - ta Per- che pre-so mi tro - vo et el - la sciol - ta.
1^7 r r J ir-C<
lie - ta Per- che pre-so mi tro - vo et
J IJ J
el - la
J
sciol
J ; -
J ta.
J 1
i17 _
!r2 .I Jr - .1!r. 11
lie - ta Per- che pre-so mi tro vo et el la sciol - ta.
Cridiloa meperchel'aggio
provato. I haveexperienced
Believeme,because it.
Lo pari buono e come l'alchimista, The good partneris like the alchemist,
Che sempre s'affaticastillae pista, Who alwayswears himselfout with distillingand
smashing,
Ne cosa fa che la prova resista. Nor does anythingwithstandthe test.
To summarize thus far, betrayal and breaches of sexual norms are the central topoi
to which Francesco was exposed through the stereotypical characters constructed in
Roman villanelle. It seems clear that, like comedy, many villanelle dealt realistically
with low life in order to point out a moral of a somewhat ambiguous kind as well as to
entertain. Perhaps they helped precipitate the identity crisis that Francesco suffered in
late adolescence, when he suddenly abandoned his ecclesiastical career and married. In
so doing he renounced his lucrative office of abbot in perpetuity at the monastery of
367

S. Paolo, which the judge had retained for him despite Pope Paul IV's strict measures
for reform of this abuse.42 Francesco remained in Rome throughout the Neapolitan
pope's so-called reign of terror (1555-9), witnessing the Inquisition's relentless pur-
suit of sodomy, simony, and heresy. As a reformer, Paul IV laboured with fanatical
zeal to stamp out immorality in the Eternal City.43Yet these efforts did not extend to
censorship of erotic songs in his native language, and no evidence exists to suggest
that he was offended by the proliferation of Neapolitan songs that centred on sexual
desire.
In 1556, when the Pope decided to ally himself with France and make war against
Spain, Henri II sent his nuncio Olivier Le Crec to Rome. A year later the distinguished
clergyman was presented with an anthology of Neapolitan songs, Secondolibrodellemusea
tre voci. Canzonvillaneschealla napolitana,by the printer Antonio Barre (see App., item 5).
In his dedicatory letter, Barre urged Le Crec to share the songs with his friends in Rome
and at Henri's court:
To the most Reverend Signor Oliviero [Le] Crec, Abbot ofJovis and OrdinaryNuncio of Henri
II of France. Having collected some new villanellein these hot days, I wanted to bring them to
light for the amusement of virtuous persons. And knowing that beside your other talents how
much you enjoy music, I wanted to dedicate and offer them to you so that you may entertain
yourselfwith them some time and share them with your friendsboth here and at His Majesty's
court, where I understand similar pleasing little songs are valued for their charming
qualities.... And also make Monsignorof St Martin enjoy them, so that even he, throughYour
Excellency, may count me among his admirers,in whose grace I pray that he may alwayshold
me, promisingthat we will soon send him some others.And offeringmyself to Your Excellency
and to him, I kissyour hands, Antonio Barre.
Yet for the Neapolitan exiles who flocked to Henri's court, hoping for a French reconquest
of the kingdom of Naples, villanelle also functioned as expressions of solidarity. There can
be no doubt that Barre, an enterprising anthologist, was familiar with the multiple uses and
meanings of villanelle, and the roles they played in the private and political lives of high-
ranking clergy. The amicable tone of his letter confirms knowledge of Le Crec's habits and
musical taste that may have been attained through personal observation.
At the Roman court there were many men in the clerical ranks and humanist staffs
whose ambition to advance precluded marriage-but not carnal desires-leading them
to seek the company of honest courtesans.44Thus it should come as no surprise that the
number of villanelle celebrating the sensual appearance of these women increased
steadily in the Roman repertory, reaching a peak in Le Crec's book. Fourteen of the
eighteen anonymous villanelle appear to be addressed to courtesans, because the inter-
locutors are constructed as sensually provocative creatures. Five are serenade catalogues
praising the parts of their bodies they laboured to perfect with the help of dyes, creams,
and perfumed waters.45All these catalogue songs are unified by the stockpiling of similar
42 Notarial records drawn

up in 1556 describe Francesco as 'clericusTerdonen[sis] abbas perpetuus [in] commen-
dam'. On the Pope's measures in 1555 for limiting the holding of monasteries in commendam, see Ludwig Pastor, The
Histoy ofthePopes(London, 1924),xiv. 178.
43Ibid. 240. See also App., no. 15, 'Edictof the Governorof Rome, 1555', which underlinesthe Pope's threatsof dra-
conian punishmentfor the moral abusesthen prevalentin Rome.
44Cortigianehoneste
were groomed and educatedwith the goal of servicingmen of statuswith the style and accomplish-
ments worthy of their rank,includingrecitingpoetry, singing,and playingstringedinstruments.The adjectivehoneste was
a sign of their respectabilitythrough social rank and income. For further informationon the social roles of Roman
courtesans,see Paul Larivaille,La Viequotidienne descourtisanes
enItalieautempsdela Renaissance
(Paris,1975), 27-35.
45Ibid. 73-5.
368

sexualized images, typically cast in the diminutive form ('-ella'), attesting to coterie col-
laboration, for example:
O dolceapiu che l'uva moscatella, Oh sweeter than the muscat grape,
O bianca piu che perla margarita, Oh whiter than a pearly daisy,
Tusei la mortemia,tusei la vita. Youaremy death,youare life.
O bionde treccielunghe e riciutielle, Oh blond tresses, long and curly,
O come il milodece colorita, Oh painted like the vermilion pear,
Tuseila mortemia,tusei la vita. Youaremy death,youarelife.
Non credo che si trovila piu bella, I don't think that a more beautiful,
La piu galantecne la piu compita, Elegant or accomplished woman may be found,
Tuseila mortemia,tusei la vita. Youaremy death,youare life.
O fronte d'alabastroo boccado dente Oh brow of alabaster, oh mouth, oh teeth,
Di perle e di corallid'oriente, Of pearls and oriental corals,
Quando 'sto coreemio faraicontiente. When will you satisfy this heart of mine?
a
dolce: one who procures sensual pleasure. b bianca:
adjective characteristic of femininee
buttocks. c galante: adjectivecharacteristicof sodomy. d bocca: female sexual organ.
core: male sexual organ.
Thus there remains the possibility that Barre collected canzoni in Le Crec's tempor-
ary Roman household, where curialists, courtesans, and songwriters may have mingled,
generating a new song type with the potential to incite carnal desires. Situated conspic-
uously on the first page in Le Crec's book is a serenade, which not only sets the tone for
the entire volume but also effectively reflects the power of artful seduction wielded by
courtesans peeking provocatively from their windows. Here the poet jests equivocally
with the second-level meanings of 'core' to eroticize the discourse; yet the literal mean-
ing of 'core' emerges in some verse lines, despite prior usage in an equivocal sense:4
Coreamio bello, core inzuccarato,b My beautifulheart, sugaredheart,
Core che mi stai semprein fantasia, Heart that remainsin my fantasyfor ever,
Pigliatzquantovoila vitadmia. Takemylifeas muchasyou want.
Core che lo mio core m'hai legato, Heart that you havejoined to my heart,
Con quissatua beltad'e leggiadria,e With this beauty and elegance of yours,
Pigliatiquantovoila vitamia. Takemylifeas muchasyouwant.
Core che lo mio core m'hai tirato, Heart that you have drawnto my heart,
Con mille crocchi da 'ssa gelosia, With a thousandhooks from this shutter,
Pigliatiquantovoila vitamia. Takemylifeas muchasyouwant.
Perche son certo che con grand'amore, For I am certainthat with great love
Terrai la vita mia e lo mio core, You will hold my life and my heart,
Che te son stato e son bon servitore. Because I have been and I am your good servant.
a
core: female (or male) sexual organ. b inzuccarato: denotes sensual pleasure. "pigliati
d vita:male sexual
(pigliare):receivethe phallus. organ. eleggiadria:qualitycharacteristicof sex.
We can assume that Roman music printers, operating as insiders, collected villanesche
with the hope of making money through sale and patronage. To acquire an authorial
role in promoting the genre, printers invariably reduced songwriters to anonyms, while
4 I am indebted to Parker,'Towards a Reading of Bronzino'sBurlesquePoetry', 1024 for emphasizingthe need for

attentionto context. She also claims,withjustification,that 'reducingthe readingof burlesquepoetry to an act of decod-
ing ultimatelyoverlooksthe lightheartedirreverenceand humor which constitutesone of the most distinctivecharacter-
istics of these works'(p. 1026).
369

at the same time protecting their privacy.47Some were low-level clerics or church musi-
cians (e.g. Lassus, whose name appears on the cover of Francesco's book, but not in
connection with any composition within). Ironically, it was the print medium that
permitted widespread distribution of musical erotica, while at the same time allowing
users private encounters with the texts.48
A final point remains to be made about the villanesca's metaphorical discourse,
which I believe motivated singers to clarify equivocal expressions with hand gestures or
facial expressions and even to take on the vocal quality of the character delivering the
text.49Persuasive support for this hypothesis is found in the rhetorical style of Neapolitan
dialect itself. Whether used in speech or song, this unique language is marked by par-
ticular liveliness of expression and extensive use of metaphor, both of which find paral-
lels in gesture (see P1. 1).50 In this linguistic tradition, not only do gestures replace
speech, but speech and gesture are also used in relation to one another to make an
interaction more conspicuous and dramatic. Thus it is likely that villanesche, loaded
with vibrant verbs and animated commands, were conceived with the expectation that
they would be enhanced by gestures traditionally used as mediums of communication
along with vocal imitations of the I-speakers' emotive discourse. This notion is rein-
forced by Vincenzo Galilei, who recommended that musicians of his time model their
impersonations of various characters on acting practices:
When they go for entertainmentto the tragedies and comedies recited by the Zanni, let them
restrain their immoderate laughter and instead observe if they would in what manner and at
what pitch (high or low), volume of sound, accents and gestures, speed or slowness of articula-
tion a gentleman speaks quietly with another.... Let them consider when this happens to
be,... a suppliantpleading, how a furious or excited person speaks, how a married woman, a
girl, a mere tot, a clever harlot, someone in love speaking to his beloved when he is trying to
bend her to his will, how someone who laments, or one who cries out, how a timid person or
one exulting in joy sounds. From these characteristics,observed with attention and diligently
examined, they could take the norm of what suits the expression of any other idea that might
come to hand.51
Of all the Roman anthologies, the one reprinted by Dorico in 1557, Canzonialla
napolitanadi diversieccellentissimi
autori,contains the highest level of canzoni inviting per-
formative gestures (see App., item 4). The theatrical qualities of these canzoni suggest
origins within a coterie of singer-actors trained in Naples, but active in Rome during
the early 1550s, namely, Don Luigi Dentice, his son Fabrizio, and Orlandus Lassus.
Making its debut in Dorico's anthology was the hit tune of the century, Chipassaper 'sta
47 On the notion of a
printer-anthologizerassumingauthorialpower, see Martha Feldman, 'Authorsand Anonyms:
Recovering the Anonymous Subjectin Cinquecento VernacularObjects',in Kate Van Orden (ed.),MusicandtheCultures of
Print(New York, 2000), 163-199 at 169-75. For more informationon this topic, see my article 'Orlando di Lasso etal.:
A New Reading of the Roman VillanellaBook (1555)', in Bruno Bouckaertand Eugeen Schreurs(eds.),Proceedings of the
17thCongress of theInternational
Musicological Society
(Neerpelt-Leuven,2004).
48Bette Talvacchia, TakingPositions: OntheEroticinRenaissance Culture
(Princeton,1999), 73-4.
49 Giovanni BattistaDel Tufo, a keen observerof Neapolitan musical traditions,extended the highest
praiseto singers
trainedin Naples: 'If his song is about gaiety, fun, or pleasure,he shows merrimentand gusto in his face. If it is about sor-
row, he makes one see his own sadness.'Ritrattoo modellodellegrandezze, delizie,e maraviglie
dellanobilissima cittddi Napoli
(1588),Naples, Bibliotecanazionale,MS XIII.C.96, fo. 54".
50 Andrea de Jorio, Gesture in Naplesand Gesturein ClassicalAntiquiy,trans. Adam Kendon (Bloomington, 2000),
p. lxxxviii. See also Corso, La vitasessuale,259.
51 Vincenzo Galilei,
DialogueonAncientandModernMusic,trans. Claude V. Palisca (New Haven, 2003), 224-5. Nicola
Vicentino implies that imitating 'the many voices of mankind'was not only a common practice but that it also caused
performersto sing out of tune. See Nicola Vicentino, Ancient MusicAdapted toModemPractice, trans. Maria Rika Maniates
(New Haven, 1996), 441.
370

i)
PL. 1. Neapolitan gestures:(1) Silenzio:silence; (2) Negativa: negative;(3) Bellezza:beauty; (4)

Fame: hunger; (5) Beffeggiare:teasing; (6) Fatica: tiredness;(7) Stupido: stupid; (8) Guercio:
squint, to be untrustworthy;(9) Ingannare:deception; (10) Astuto: astuteness.From de Jorio,
Gesturein Naplesand Gesturein ClassicalAntiquity.Reproduced by permission of the Syndics of
CambridgeUniversityLibrary.
strada,destined to be sung by Lassus in 1568 to express the senile lasciviousness of the

Venetian merchant Pantalone in the comedy he conceived for the Munich court:52
Chi passa per 'sta strad'enon sospira, Whoeverpassesthroughthis streetand does not sigh,
Viato s'e, Is a lucky one,
Viato quillo che lo pote fare. Luckyis that fellow who could do it.
Pernaa rale, Royalpearl,
Affacciatemo,se nonchemoromo. Showyourself rightnow,if notI die.
Et io ci passo de ser'e matina, And I pass by here night and day,
Meschino me, Wretchedme,
Et tu crudel non tence affaccimai. And you, cruel one, never show yourself.
Perche lo fai? Why do you do it?
Affacciatemo, se nonchemoromo. Showyourself rightnow,if notI die.
52 This version is in
Neapolitan dialect, but the version that Lassussang was undoubtedlyone that circulatedin Vene-
tian dialect. See Donna G. Cardamone, TheCanzonevillanesca alla napolitana
andRelatedForms,1537-1570 (Ann Arbor,
1981), ii. 81-2. Despite linguisticvariations, all the extant versions contain words from the erotic lexicon, e.g. strada
(femalesexual organ or anus),meschino and riale/reale(adjectivescharacteristicof sodomy),morire
(to act or submitin sod-
omy),piagha(metaphorfor anus).Nevertheless,the contextualsense of the poem suggeststhat the I-speakeris not imag-
ining an illicit sexual encounter,but ratherexperiencesanguishand longing provokedby deception.
371

Affacciatenceche tu mi dai la vita, Show yourselfthere for you give me life,
S'el cielobmi ti possa consolare. If heaven lets me console you.
Pernariale, Royalpearl,
Affacciatemo,se nonchemoromo. Showyourselfrightnow,if notI die.
ComparcBasile che stai luco suso, Comrade Basilewho staysup there,
Viato s'e, Is a lucky one,
Salutam'unopoco la commare. Give the mistressmy little greeting.
Pera riale, Royalpearl,
Affacciatemo,se nonchemoromo. Showyourselfrightnow,if notI die.
Et dince che c'imprest'un po di filo, And say that you'll lend a little thread,
Quanto mi cuso 'sta piagha mortale. Enough to close this fatalwound of mine.
Pernariale, Royalpearl,
mo,se nonchemoromo.
Affacciate Showyoursef rightnow,if notI die.
a
perna (Neapolitanfor perla):a woman who refusesno one favours. b cielo: male sexual
c
organ. compar:accomplicein a dishonestaffair.
The interlocutor, 'perna riale', is a stubborn courtesan lurking behind a lattice window
(see P1. 2). By refusing to show herself out of loyalty to her amicofermo(compar Basile),
she incites pathetic sighs from an aroused fellow passing by. His passionate demand for
PL.2. Pantalone serenading a courtesan behind a shuttered window. Mural from the Fools
Staircaseat TrausnitzCastle, Landshut,Bavaria.Reproduced by permissionof the Bayerische
Verwaltungder staatlichenSchlosser,Garten, und Seen, Munich.
372

gratification, 'affacciate mo, se non che moro mo', invites a range of expressive gestures
to signify both frustrated desire and deception. Lassus reportedly sang Chipassa twice
and then, as an eyewitness recounts, 'sets aside the lute and begins to bemoan Love, cry-
ing: "O poor Pantalone, who cannot pass down this street without filling the air with
sighs and watering the ground with his tears!" All roar with laughter, and for as long as
Pantalone is on stage nothing is heard but uncontrollable laughter.'53 Perhaps at this
point, motivated by the pathos in the song, he grafted one gesture upon another to
amplify the old man's predicament. Having generated laughter while singing, Lassus
may have been particularly successful in nuancing qualities of anguish in the speaker's
voice.
Another socially situated topos of humour that flourished in Naples and spread to
Rome was duelling.54 The following villanesca from Dorico's anthology features a
bizarre duel between a-cock and a cricket, 'armed from head to foot', which descended
from a subtype cultivated by Neapolitan songwriters during the 1540s. They derived
this topos from the Farza de li massariby the Neapolitan bard Velardiniello, which con-
tains a series of burlesque ottavedepicting animals, birds, fish, and insects engaged in
absurd acts such as dancing, playing musical instruments, and, above all, fighting.55
Ridiculous gestures abound in the duel of the cock and the cricket, inviting improvised
antics on the part of singers to uphold the ludic spirit of exaggeration, apparent at the
surface level. But there is a subtext that relies on double entendres alluding to sex-as-
warfare between males, in which one of the principles of the game is to force one's
opponent-here the cricket-into a passive feminine role.56 The bodily gestures by
which this encounter could be magnified are as varied as the many different ways by
which blows may be delivered.57
'No galloacon 'no grillobl'altrasera The other evening a cock with a cricket
Eran'intrat'incampoca 'no stecchato, Went into a field surroundedby a palisade,
Da cap'da piedie l'un e l'altro armato. Both of them armed from head to foot.
Lo grillofa 'na pont'falla visera The cricketmade a stab at the mask
Dell'elmo dello gallo sfortunato, Of the unfortunatecock'shelmet,
Che s'issol'arrivav'eravarato. Who himselfwas ruined coming onto it.
Et falli dar le spall'allabarrera And when he made his shouldershit the barrier
Che troppo grandementefu tacciato, Which was so deeply notched,
E lo grillorest6 troppo honorato.g The cricketremainedvery much honoured.
Ma lo bonhgallo tanto s'intertenne But the good cock was so amused
Che allo grilloli de tre botte'nette,? That he gave three preciseblows to the cricket,
Et in questo sonarokle trombette. And in this they sounded the trumpets.
a b grillo: c campo: sexual zone. d
gallo: male sexual organ. metaphorfor phallus. capo:
malesexualorgan. e piedi:posteriorregion. fponta:
metaphorformalesexualorgan. g
honorato:adjectivemeaningsodomized hbon: characteristic
of 'botte:
adjective
Jnette:adjective sodomy. sug-
k sonar6
gestiveof sodomitical
relations. of sodomy.
characteristic (suonare):
copulate.
5 For Massimo Troiano's eyewitnessaccount of Lassus'sperformance,see Kenneth Richards and Laura Richards,
TheCommedia dell'Arte:A DocumentaryHistory(Oxford, 1990),50.
54For eyewitness accounts, see Donald Weinstein, 'Fightingor Flyting?Verbal
Duelling in Mid-Sixteenth-Century
Italy', in Dean (ed.), Crime,Society
andtheLawin RenaissanceItal, 204-20 at 213.
55 See Benedetto Croce, 'La farza de li massari',AttidellaAccademia 40 (1910), 19-21. Velardiniello'sottave
Pontaniana,
are derivedfrom a kind of burlesquepoetryknown asfantasieburchiellesche, with models providedby I1Burchiello.
56 Frantz,FestumVoluptatis, 112.
57DeJorio, Gesture inNaples,111-13.
373

Dorico's anthology contains two villanesche characterized by vicious invective and
threatening gestures directed at Moorish whores-a kind of discourse that sets them
apart from all the other canzoni in the Roman repertory. Nonetheless, they still
function as vehicles for modelling situations in which speakers are portrayed as commu-
nicating with people whose geographical or social origins differ from their own. They
feature male speakers who deride treacherous women not only by asserting their other-
ness, but also by reinforcing their own social superiority. Moors, then broadly defined as
Muslims or narrowly as inhabitants of the Barbary coast, often ended up as slaves in the
households of wealthy Romans, having been acquired by war or trade with Muslim
countries. Destitute female Moors were forced into prostitution, and at mid-century
'una Giovanna Turca' even flourished as an honest courtesan.58When Moorish prosti-
tutes became the butt of musical jests, they were constructed metaphorically as sodo-
mites and literally as grotesque bitches. Both expressions are present in the opening
stanzas of the two villanesche under discussion; here they work together to nuance the
hidden meanings of other coded words and to reinforce the presence of political
enemies as well:
Tu sei la causa della morteamia, You are the cause of my death,

Et saccialolo cielobcon la terra.c And let the sky know it with the earth.
Cagnazza pieranat'inbarbaria, FerociousbitchborninBarba?y,
Tuseila causadellamortemia. Youarethecauseofmydeath.
a morte: bcielo: male sexual organ.
rapportin sodomy. c terra:buttocks.
Che faiache non mi rendi lo mio core,b What are you doing that you won't return
my heart to me,
Canaza ladra turcactraditora,d Thieving bitch, Turkishtraitress,
Me l'hairobatoti vogl'accusare, Youhavestolenitfiom meandI wanttoaccuseyou,
E d'assassina
tefaroimpiccare.e AndI willhaveyouhanged as a murderess.
a b
fai (fare): act in sodomy. core: male sexual organ. c turca: adjective characteristicof
d traditora:
sodomite.
sodomy. penetratewiththephallus.
e impiccare:
The determining factor in this insidious construction of female Moors may have been
anxiety raised at this time by the continual presence of the formidable Ottoman fleet in
the eastern Mediterranean, raiding and plundering coastal towns. Even the rhythmic
locution of Chefai che non mi rendiseems gesturally contrived to elicit an apprehensive
reaction from listeners (see Ex. 3). The verse line 'canaza ladra turca traditora' opens
with lively declamation in crotchets to underscore the thieving image, then closes in a
more deliberate manner to ensure that the woman's ethnic origin and otherness be
understood. In the final line, the patter declamation comes to an abrupt halt at the
expression 'd'assassina', which is set in prolonged notes to focus attention on the brutal-
ity of the gesture.
To conclude, historians have often remarked on the restraintwith which criminal sexual
offences, such as sodomy, were punished by the judicial system in Renaissance Italy. Even in
Rome, where the Counter-Reformation generated an official climate of moral repression,
punishment for sexual crimes did not increase in line with the new severity.59Clearly the
authorities understood that some forms of sexual behaviour could not be eliminated entirely.
58Pio
Pecchiai,RomanelCinquecento(Bologna, 1948), 306.
59Davidson, 'Theology, Nature and the Law', 97.
374

Ex. 3. Anon., Chefaichenonmirendilo miocore.From Canzoniallanapolitana
(RISM 155719;cantus
only)
C
i't LJ A 1 _ - J IIJ IIjJ J I
Che ?Che
fai che
fai che fai
fai che fai che fai che non mi rendi lo mio co
6
f:
g^ ii~p r r IF J idi L
-re Ca - na- za la-dra tur- cha tra - di - to - ra Me
10
. J
-
I J o J IiL
1 1_- J I
l'hai ro ba - to me l'hai ro - ba - to ti vo - gl'ac- cu - sa
15 J
I4-L rJ l J J
U 1 j I. lj
re E d'as sas - si na te fa- rim- pic - ca re.
Thus it may be possible to posit a causal connection between this tolerant attitude and the
popularity of erotic songs that played wittily on prevailing truths about sexual transgressions.
As I have demonstrated, Neapolitan songwritersworked effectively to sustain existing social
relations by exploiting an encoded gesturallanguage that served as a potent source of ambiv-
alent laughter and a means to manage relationships between public and private emotional
lives. Finally, close readings of villanesca texts in social perspective have offered a unique
opportunity to observe the confrontation between licit and illicit practices that arose in Italy
during the sixteenth century.
ABSTRACT
This study calls attention to the vital role that the villanesca played in the erotic comic
culture of the Cinquecento. Neapolitan songwriters, influenced by the equivocal lan-
guage of burlesque poets, appropriated their copious lexicon of sexual euphemisms to
raise laughter through erotic jesting. Given the considerable amount of semiotic and lin-
guistic research devoted to literary erotica in the past decades, the villanesca can now be
fully served by new interpretative approaches and theories of reception that address the
production of multiple meanings. Erotic humour worked effectively in Roman villane-
sche because the prime targets of jests are figures who occupied prominent places in
Rome's cultural identity-courtesans, clerics, and noblemen in the service of the
Church. Readings of villanesche, selected from three extant Roman anthologies, dem-
onstrate the ways in which songwriters eroticized licit and illicit sexual encounters,
thereby motivating singers to clarify equivocal terms with performative gestures or vocal
nuances.
375

APPENDIX
Roman Anthologies of Villanesche and Villanelle
1. [Villanelled'Orlandodi Lassuse d'altrieccellentimusicilibroprimo]. Rome: Valerio Dorico, [1555?]. Not

2. Villanelled'Orlandodi Lassuse d'altrieccellentimusicilibrosecondo.Rome: Valerio Dorico, RISM 155530,r
Guidobono.
Incipit Speaker Interlocutor Text type
1. Credo sia meglio leader singer-songwriters framing device

ca se risolvimo
2. Tu hai pii anni young man old woman complaint
ca mastro Pasquino
3. Non te fidare de rejected suitor love object moralizing compla
santo che magnia
4. Basta madonna rejected suitor courtesan complaint
mia che tu pensavi
5. Se tu non mi voi martyred suitor courtesan lament
ben o faccia penta
6. Come t'haggio lassat'o nobleman noblewoman lament-proposta
vita mia
7. Chi me l'havesse dett'o noblewoman nobleman lament-risposta
vita mia
8. Son morto e moro e pur martyred suitor love object lament
cerco morire
9. Io piango et ell'il volto martyred suitor courtesan lament
suo mi volta
10. Amor pietad'hormai al martyred suitor Cupid lament
mio martire
11. Meschina me che nova young peasant girl audience moralizing compla
la lancella
12. Tal par '1visco che preso cuckold audience moralizing compla
l'augiello
13. Donna crudel tu m'hai martyred suitor courtesan lament
robat'il core

APPENDIX (cont.)
14. Canzona mia fame 'no martyred suitor courtesan lament

favore
15. Voria che tu cantas'una suitor courtesan serenade
canzona
16. S'io canto e tu mi spacci martyred suitor courtesan lament
per cicala
17. Ogni villano e ric'et io farmer audience moralizing compla
meschino
18. Bona sera como stai core Pasquarello signora lament
mio bello (Vecchio)
19. Tu traditora m'hai post'a martyred suitor courtesan lament
'sto core
20. Se Dio ti guarde non mi martyred suitor courtesan lament
c~ far morire
21. La manza mia si chiama suitor whore serenade
saporita
22. Latra traitora tu mi fai martyred suitor courtesan lament
morire
3. [Canzonialla napolitanadi diversieccellentissimiautorilibroprimo]. Rome: Valerio Dorico, [1556?]. Not e

4. Canzonialla napolitanadi diversieccellentissimi
autorinovamenteristampatilibroprimo. Rome: Valerio Dorico
1. Dispietto de 'sto mese traditore martyred suitor courtesan lament

2. E se viver non si p6 senza del core martyred suitor courtesan lament
3. Mill'anni sono che non t'aggio vista martyred suitor courtesan lament
4. Deh perch'abandonasti mi crudel rejected suitor courtesan lament
5. Madonna co' quess'occhi m'hai martyred suitor courtesan serenade
ucciso
6. Pieta ti mova'e giusto amor ti sforza martyred suitor courtesan serenade
7. Tu sei la causa della morte mia suitor Moorish prostitute complaint

APPENDIX (cont.)
8. O Dio fammi passar 'sta fantasia suitor courtesan complaint

9. Che fai che non mi rendi lo mio core suitor Moorish prostitute complaint
10. Haveva 'na gallina capelluta narrator audience lament
11. Ti parlo e tu me ridi e poi stai citta martyred suitor courtesan lament
12. D'ogn'erba fate fasci'alla pagliaro suitor courtesan complaint
13. Dolci sospir che m'uscite del petto martyred suitor courtesan lament
14. 'No gallo con 'no grillo l'altra sera narrator audience love battl
15. Chi passa per 'sta strada martyred suitor courtesan lament
16. 'No police m'intrat'intro l'orecchia suitor courtesan lament
17. Marito mo m'a ditto ch'io sia bona, malmaritata audience complaint
non non non
18. Quis'occhi e quisa bocca basarella suitor courtesan serenade
w 19. Sappi madonna ch'io l'agio a martyred suitor courtesan lament
oI dispetto
20. 'Sto mondo traditor tutt'e appetito suitor audience moralizing
complaint
21. Beato chi d'amor non sente pena suitor audience lament
22. Occhi leggiadri dov' amor fa nido martyred suitor Cupid lament
5. Secondolibrodellemuse a tre voci. Canzon villaneschealla napolitanadi nuovoraccolteet date in luce. Conpri
155722. Dedicated to Olivier Le Crec; reprinted under the title II secondolibrodellevillottealla napolitan
voci.Venice: Antonio Gardano, RISM 1560'3.
Incipit Speaker Interlocutor Text typ
1. Core mio bello core inzuccarato suitor courtesan serenad

2. Se pensando al partirpens'al morire martyred suitor courtesan lament
3. 0 biancolellacome gelsomino martyred suitor courtesan serenad
4. Crudel se sai che per te mor'et ardo martyred suitor courtesan lament
5. Se la pieta per me gia fosse spenta martyred suitor courtesan serenad
6. 0 dolce pii che l'uva moscatella suitor courtesan serenad

APPENDIX (cont.)
Incipit Speaker Interlocutor Text ty
7. Basciami vita mia ogn'hora suitor courtesan serenad

8. Conto de l'orco chi ha danar' fa nave suitor audience compla
9. 0 faccia d'una luna rotondella martyred suitor courtesan serenad
10. 0 dolce saporita cianciosella martyred suitor courtesan serenad
11. Perche mi dai martir vita mia d'oro martyred suitor courtesan lament
12. Poi che pato per te tanto dolore martyred suitor courtesan lament
13. Sempre ch'io vegio 'sa faccia lucente suitor courtesan serenad
14. Bella che tieni capigli d'oro martyred suitor courtesan serenad
15. 0 occhi manza mia cigli dorati suitor courtesan serenad
16. Me voglio fare homai lo fatto mio suitor courtesan compla
17. 0 villanella quand'a l'acqua vai suitor peasant girl serenad
18. Vorria 'sto mondo fatt'a voglia mia suitor audience fantasy


Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Erotic Jest and Gesture in Roman Anthologies of Neapolitan Dialect Songs

Author(s): Donna G. Cardamone

This content downloaded from 193.190.238.2 on Sat, 1 Feb 2014 06:57:23 AM