Rivista di Studi Italiani. Direttore

RIVISTA DI STUDI ITALIANI
INEDITI
THE EVOLUTION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE
JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES THEME
IN ITALIAN DRAMA AND ART BEFORE 1627
(CHAPTER II)
by
FRANK CAPOZZI
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Italian)
At the
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – MADISON
1975
© FRANK CAPOZZI 1975
1072
FRANK CAPOZZI
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
C
hurch prelates were summoned to Trent on December 13, 1545, by the
Papal Bull Laetare Hierusalem (November 19, 1544) to bring unity to
the religiously divided West by reaching a compromise between the
Lutheran North and the Catholic South, to purge and cleanse the Church of its
worldly corruption and paganism, to attack any heresy present in the writing
of theologians and philosophers, and to restate and clarify the doctrines and
the dogmas of the Church. By the time of the Council’s closing session some
twenty years later, on December 4, 1563, after several interruptions, one
transfer to Bologna and innumerable debates, it had become evident that the
Council marked the end of the humanistic period of the Catholic reform
movement and the beginning of the intolerant Counter-Reformation.1
The Council of Trent was the triumph of the most uncompromising
orthodoxy. The power and authority of the pronouncements of the Council
were felt not only in matters of faith and morals but also in the arts, including
the theatre. The Catholic Reformation introduced the Inquisition (1542), the
censorship of printed matter (1543), the Congregation of the Index (1571),
and, in the twenty-fifth and last session (December 4, 1563), the Council
made a pronouncement on the role of sacred images within the Church.
Protestants, in their religious fervor to purge the Church of anything which
might detract from a personal dialogue with God, destroyed in a paroxysm of
hate and hysteria paintings and statues of the saints and of the Virgin.2 Luther,
Calvin and the Anabaptists were hostile to art and culture and made no
attempt to distinguish between worshipping an image and taking pleasure in a
1
As Indro Montanelli and Roberto Gervaso say in L’Italia della
Controriforma (Milan, 1968), instead of the “humanistic” priest of the
Catholic reform movement, the Council produced the priest “inquisitor” of the
Counter-Reformation (p. 478). For a general account of the Protest
Reformation and of the Catholic Counter-Reformation see Mario Bendiscioli,
“La Riforma Protestante,” in Questioni di Storia Moderna, ed. Ettore Rota
(Milan, 1951), pp. 101-180; Delio Cantimori, “La Riforma in Italia,” in
Quetioni di Storia Moderna, pp. 181-208; H. A. Henno Van Geldern, The Two
Reformations in the 16th Century (The Hague, 1964), pp. 14-105; Paolo Prodi,
“Riforma cattolica e Controriforma,” in Nuove Questioni di Storia Moderna
(Milan, 1964), I, 357-418.
2
Eugenio Battisti, “Reformation and Counter Reformation,” Encyclopedia of
World Art (New York, 1966), XI, Cols. 900-903; John Phillips, The
Reformation of Images: Destruction of Art in England, 1535-1660 (Berkeley,
1973), passim.
1073
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
work of art.3 On the other hand the Catholic Church reasserted its own stand
on the positive role of images and the Council decreed that
great profit is derived from all holy images,
not only because the people are thereby reminded
of the benefits and gifts bestowed on them by
Christ, but also because through the saints the
miracles of God and salutary examples are set
before the eyes of the faithful, so that they may
give God thanks for those things, may fashion
their own life and conduct in imitation of the saints
and be moved to adore and love God and
cultivate piety.4
As weapons against heterodoxy, the bishops were advised to use “paintings
and other representations” for teaching articles of faith and “the images of
Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be placed
and retained especially in the churches, and that due honor and veneration is
to be given them.” Religious images were to be a powerful means of
indoctrination and propaganda; they were the open Bible for the illiterate and
uneducated, those who could not read the written word of the Bible, and an
inducement to piety and salvation. But if the Church emphasized the positive
role of religious images, it also set forth warnings against the danger of their
misuse. They were not to be adored because
divinity or virtue is believed to be in them by
reason of which they are to be venerated, or
that something is to be asked of them, or that
trust is to be placed on images, as was done
of old by the Gentiles who placed their hope in
idols; but because the honor which is shown
them is referred to the prototypes which they
represent.
3
Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art (New York, n.d.), II, 124.
The English translation of the decree on sacred images is in A Documentary
History of Art, ed. Elizabeth G. Holt (New York, 1958), II, 63-65; all
quotations are from this edition. The Latin text of the decrees of the Council,
with French translation, was published by Charles-Joseph Hefele, Histoire des
Conciles d’après les documents originaux (Paris, 1938), X, pat. 1.
1074
4
FRANK CAPOZZI
Moreover sacred images were to be completely devoid of any false doctrine,
superstition and lasciviousness, and the Council decreed “that no one is
permitted to erect or cause to be erected in any place or church, howsoever
exempt, any unusual image unless it has been approved by the bishops.” This
statement gave rise to a large number of trattati d’arte on the subject of how
to avoid religious and theological inaccuracies.5 As Hauser says, ‘art produced
for Church purposes was placed under the supervision of theologians.”6 Paolo
Lomazzo wrote that the artist should not be
ignorante delle hiftorie facre, & delle cofe
appartenenti alla Theologia, apparandole
almeno per via di frequente converfatione
con Theologi, accioche fappi come fi debba
rapprefentare Iddio, gli Angioli, l’anime, i
demoni, i luochi doue ftanno, i loro habiti,
& colori fecondo gli vfficij, & generalmente
tutte le fante, & diuote hiftorie, nel più
degno, & eccellente modo che poffa effere.7
Andrea Gilio and Raffaele Borghini took a stand against nudity and anything
which suggestive and indecent; they were especially opposed to the nude
figures painted by Michelangelo in his Last Judgment.8 Realism was desired
in all its brutality and horror, in contrast to the idealization of the Renaissance.
Christ, if the subject required, had to be represented “afflitto, sanguinoso,
pieno di sputi, depelato, piagato, difformato, livido e brutto, di maniera che
non avesse forma d’uomo.”9 By distinguishing between religious and profane
art, the Council established the iconography of the Church for the following
5
Some of the treatises relevant to the Church position on art have been
published in Trattati d’arte del Cinquecento fra manierismo e Controriforma,
ed. Paola Barocchi (Bari, 1960-1962), 3 vols.
6
Hauser, The Social History of Art, II, 121.
7
G. Paolo Lomazzo, Idea del tempio della pittura (1590; rept. Hildesheim,
1965), p. 33.
8
Luigi Grassi, Teorici e storia della critica d’arte (Rome, 1970), I, 220-221;
Giovanni Andrea Gilio, Dialogo nel quale si ragiona degli errori e degli
abusi de’ pittori circa l’historie in Barocchi, Trattati d’arte del Cinquecento,
II, 77-80.
9
Gilio, Dialogo, p. 40.
1075
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
centuries.10
One must be careful not to place the Council of Trent, as Wylie Sypher
does, at the center of two distinct movements in art and literature.11 Indeed,
Carlo Dionisotti affirms that during the period of the convening of the Council
there was an uninterrupted activity in literature, especially in the novella and
in the theatre, despite a division and a break in religious thought.12 It is true,
however, that Veronese was summoned in 1573 by the Inquisition to justify
the secular elements introduced in his religious paintings; that some of
Caravaggio’s paintings were vilified by the clergy for their indecency and
profanity; and that the Church tried to restrain the non-devotional elements in
the religious dramas and to ban totally the staging of plays.13 Nevertheless,
during the years of the Council and afterwards, art and literature did not
entirely embrace the religious and moral spirit of the Church. Artists and
writers continued to take many artistic liberties in the representation of
biblical subjects, as can be seen in the several paintings of Judith by Titian,
Veronese, and Tintoretto, and in Sacchetti’s sacra rappresentazione La
gloriosa e trionfante vittoria donata dal grande Iddio al popolo hebreo per
mezzo di Giudith fua fedelifsima serua, published in Bologna in 1564. During
the years of the Council and afterwards, although the Church tried to regulate
art and literature, it made use of them to abate the tide of Protestantism and to
glorify the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church.
The many religious orders founded during the decades of Church reform
were a great aid in carrying out the moral, political and artistic reforms: the
Theatines (1524), the Capuchins (1525), the Somaschi (1528), the Barnabites
10
Hauser, The Social History of Art, II, 122-125; Émile Mâle, L’Art religieux
de la fin du XVIe, du XVIIe et du XVIIIe siècle: Etude sur l’iconographie
après le Concile de Trente (Paris, 1951), passim.
11
Wylie Sypher, Four Stages of Renaissance Style (New York, 1955), p. 106.
12
Carlo Dionisotti, “La letteratura italiana nell’età del Concilio,” Atti del
Convegno Storico Internazionale, Il Concilio di Trento e la Riforma
Tridentina (Rome, 1965), p. 324.
13
The minutes of Veronese’s trial are in Hold, A Documentary History of Art,
II, 66-70. To the aforementioned harassments of the artists by the Church one
should add the trials against philosophers and scientists: Tommaso
Campanella spent many years in the dungeons of Naples (1599-1626) and
Rome (1626-29) for his dreams of a natural religion; Giordano Bruno was
burnt at the stake (1600) for his naturalistic pantheism; Paolo Sarpi was
excommunicated for his condemnation of the corrupted Church of his times;
Galileo Galilei was condemned (1623) because of his experiments which
contradicted the Aristotelian tradition of the Church.
1076
FRANK CAPOZZI
(1530), and above all the Jesuits (1540) who, through their various activities,
spread the teachings of the Church. The Jesuit order, which created originally
by Ignatius of Loyola for the propagation of faith, became one of the strongest
bastions in the defense of orthodoxy and Papal authority. A major aspect of
Jesuit education in the seminaries was the school dramas written and
performed by students and professors. The plays were performed for teachers
and students according to a set of regulations expounded in the Ratio atque
institution studiorum Societatis Jesu, published for the first time in 1586 and
revised and republished several times thereafter. According to the Ratio, the
plays were to be written in Latin, they had to have a religious subject, and
women were forbidden to assist in the productions or to appear on stage.14
The plays were usually produced at the beginning and end of each
scholastic year and during certain holidays and special events. They were used
by the Jesuits for the propagation of faith, for the defense and explanation of
the dogma of the Church, and for pedagogical and didactic reasons.15 As a
matter of fact, as Schnitzler notes, “the Jesuit school theatre was a propaganda
theatre….it may be said to have been the first theatre consciously used for
propagandistic ends.”16
14
Ernest Boysse, Le Théâtre des Jésuites (Paris, 1880), pp. 18-19. For a more
detailed study of the Ratio and of the Jesuit drama in Italy see Victor R.
Yanitelli, S. J., The Jesuit Theatre in Italy, unp. Ph.D. thesis (Fordham
University, 1945), passim; Henry Schnitzler, “The Jesuit Contribution to the
Theatre,” Educational Theatre Journal, 4, No. 4 (December, 1952), 283-292;
L. Ferrari, “Appunti sul teatro tragico dei Gesuiti in Italia,” Rassegna
Bibliografica della Letterature Italiana, 7, Nos. 5-6 (May-June 1899), 124130; Per Bjurstrom, “Baroque Theater and the Jesuits,” in Baroque Art: The
Jesuit Contribution, ed. Rudolf Wittkower and Irma B. Jaffe (New York,
1972), pp. 99-110; and the several articles by M. Barbera in La Civiltà
Cattolica, especially Year 90, Vol. 1 (1939), pp. 428-436; Year 90, Vol. 4
(1939), pp. 163-171; Year 91, Vol. 2 (1940), pp. 116-122; Year 91, Vol. 3
(1940), pp. 16-25.
15
As Giorgio Calogero says: “si riteneva che i giovani rappresentando
tragedie o commedie, si sarebbero addestrati per tempo a mostrarsi in
pubblico decentemente, a gestire e atteggiarsi con garbo, a pronunziar bene i
versi, mentre i nobili affetti, risaltanti sulla scena, ne avrebbero elevato
l’animo.” Stefano Tuccio (Pisa, 1919), p. 32.
16
Schnitzler, “The Jesuit Contribution,” p. 284. Roberto Mercuri says that the
Jesuits also used the theatre for political reasons: “Uno dei modi di aggancio
del mondo esterno è costituito dalle rappresentazioni teatrali, che sono
allestite allo scopo di celebrare determinate riccorrenze: in questo modo i
Gesuiti gestiscono in prima persona gli avvenimenti importanti della città per
1077
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
One of the writers and promoters of the Ratio studiorum was the Jesuit
Stefano Tuccio. He was born in Monforte San Giorgio, Messina, in 1540.
When he was seventeen he obtained permission to enter the Society of Jesus
and study at the Collegio Mamertino in Messina, one of the first schools
organized by the order.17 Tuccio encountered some obstacles to his admission
to the college because of his age, his poverty and, above all, because of his
appearance. Several historians of the Society describe Tuccio as being ugly,
having rude manners and an unpleasant voice.18 But, despite his appearance,
Tuccio was admitted to the school and soon manifested an unexpected
intelligence for a boy of humble background. He obtained his religious orders,
taught rhetoric, theology, and Italian and Latin literature in Messina, Padua
and Rome, and he wrote various orations and six religious plays, the first of
which, Nabuchodonosor, has been lost. The critic Calogero stresses the fact
that the humanistic studies of Tuccio were influenced by the orthodoxy of the
Church which looked with disfavor upon philosophical and scientific
studies.19 Tuccio died on January 27, 1597, admired by the Pope and the
Cardinals, and during the funeral, in order to have a relic of the holy man, the
people tore his clothes and cut his beard and hair.
Though Tuccio is remembered for his participation in the writing of the
Ratio studiorum, he is also known for his religious tragedies which had a great
contemporary success. It is reported, in fact, that several spectators felt
contrite and were converted after having seen a play by Tuccio.20
As a teacher of rhetoric, he was in charge of the annual dramatic
productions for which he wrote several plays, whose subjects were all taken
from biblical sources. Tuccio’s Juditha was staged in Messina three times in
acquistare prestigio agli occhi della popolazione e guadagnarsi a livello
politico potenti alleati,” Letteratura Italiana: Storia e Testi, ed. Carlo
Muscetta (Bari, 1973), IV, Pt. 2, 101-102.
17
For the history of the Collegio Mamertino see Benedetto Soldati, Il Collegio
Mamertino e le origini del teatro gesuitico (Turin, 1908); it is interesting to
note that the first Jesuit play was presented at this college.
18
The historian of the Society of Jesus, Emanuele Aguilera, wrote about
Tuccio: “statua minima, colore subniger, enormi facie, subrustico corporis
habitu, voce iniucunda, lingua admodum barbera et incondita”; quoted by
Calogero, Stefano Tuccio, p. 9, note 4. All of my information on the life of
Tuccio is taken from this work.
19
Calogero, Stefano Tuccio, pp. 11-12.
20
Soldati, Il Collegio Mamertino, p. 23.
1078
FRANK CAPOZZI
the fall of 1564; again in 1565; and in 1579 it was presented at the expense of
the city. In 1567 it was seen in Palermo and later in Rome.21
The play is written in Latin, in hexameters, with a prologue and an
epilogue in distichs, contrary to the usual iambic meter used by other Jesuit
writers.22 In imitation of the classical tragedy of the period, it is divided into
five acts, each with several scenes, and has a cast of over thirty characters, not
including the chorus, the Angel and the Devil.
The didactic and apologetic purpose of the play is expounded by the
author in the prologue. Tuccio, following the exegetical writings of the
Church Fathers, sees in Judith a type of Mary. He describes through parallels
the actions of Judith and Mary:
Antiquo Judith Mariae praelusit ab aevo:
Illa salus Solymis, haec Dea Christigenum;
Coniugis a tumulo niveum Juditha pudorem
Non violat, Mariae cognita nulla Venus;
Judithae Gedeon avus, is quoque vellere sicco
Quam niteant Mariae candida membra notat;
Si vigil assiduis precibus Juditha vacabat,
Pulsabant Mariae crebrius astra preces;
Abstinet Assyriis Judith castissima mensis,
Et Maria a mensis abstinent, Eva, tuis;
Dum moritur Christus, Mariae non pectora terror
Perculit, in praeceps caetera turba ruit;
Illa duci Assyrio cervicem perculit ense,
Ductori Eumenidum perculit ista caput;
Si Juditha suos Syriorum servat ab armis,
Vindicat haec famulos a Phlegetonte suos.
The Prologue mentions several religious holidays in Messina (called Zancla in
Latin) devoted to the celebration of the Virgin, and it speaks of the triumphal
carts, pious works and personal vows inspired by the people’s veneration of
the Mother of God23
21
Calogero, Stefano Tuccio, pp. 37-38.
Soldati, Il Collegio Mamertino, pp. 75; this volume has as an appendix the
Latin text of Tuccio’s Juditha, from which all quotations from the play have
been taken; there is an Italian translation of the play by Giovanni Scarfì,
Giuditta (Messina, 1926).
23
Soldati, Il Collegio Mamertino, pp. 29-30.
1079
22
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Hic licet infantum videas pendere per auras
Agmina, quos circum ferreus orbis agit;
Ingentem his sequitur coniux ensata Gigantem,
Pileaque e multis rapta Camelus habet;
Hic etiam elatis pendent donaria thensis,
Suspensasque artes pertica multa gerit.
Judith-Mary is the new Muse of the poet who asks the spectators to
Curae aliae cedant, linguisque animisque favete,
Juditha Assyrium dum ferit ense caput.
In its general lines the play follows the biblical tale, and in the manner of a
sacra rappresentazione the story is explained and proceeds in linear fashion.
The first act introduces Holofernes; and the reasons for the siege of Bethulia
are disclosed by him and other characters. Judith is seen for the first time in
the second act. She is praying, unable to help her besieged country:
Extremum hunc patriae, extremum Juditha laborem
Prosequere, inferiasque tuae da tristior urbi.
Heu Betulia domus, domus opportuna Tonanti,
Heu superis dilecta domus, domus inclyta sacris.
Relligione domus foelix ac numine vero,
Clara atavis, et adhuc redolens pietate priorum,
Siccine lapsa cadit, nulloque inhibente ruinas
Una tot Assyriis deflet populata maniplis
Cur, Pater Indigetum, rerum cui summa potestas,
Extremam hanc visum est Betulis addere sortem,
Hostilique tuos perdendos dedere ferro?
Non genus, hoc, Abrahame, tuum, non esse fatemur
Te nobis, Isaac, patrem? non haec tua, David,
Moenia, cum Solymas torqueres aequus habenas?
Da patribus tantis aliquos superesse nepotes,
Summe Deus, sacram serves per secula gentem!
(II.5)
In one of the author’s several attempts to underscore the relationship
between Judith and Mary, the angel Raphael appears and, in a scene
analogous to the Annunciation, tells Judith of her mission. The Bethulian
woman is perplexed and perturbed by the sudden apparition of the celestial
messenger, and although she does not doubt the Angel’s words, she prudently
inquires how she, a woman and not a warrior, can accomplish her mission:
1080
FRANK CAPOZZI
Quia, precor, arte queam mulier sine viribus ullis
Hoc facinus, caedemque novam molirier unquam?
Unde mihi pharetrae? quaeve ars vibrare sagittas
Nota mihi?
(II.6)
The Angel dispels all her doubts; to her objections which stress the
uncertainty and the apprehension of the heroine, the Angel replies with a
statement of assurance that God will help her. Judith will be able to destroy
her enemy Holofernes as David killed Goliath (I Samuel 17; she will
accomplish her mission through her prayers as Moses liberated the Jewish
people from Egyptian slavery; she will be escorted safely inside the enemy
camp the way Habakkuk was transported to the Assyrian camp;24 alone she
will vanquish the enemy just as Samson brought to destruction the Philistines
(Judges 16.28-31); she will return to her city untouched and unharmed as
Sidrach (Ananias) and his companion were untouched by the flames of the
furnace (Daniel 3.1-30; and just as Joseph was able to flee away from the
seductive attempts of Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39), and Sarai (Sarah) was
freed from the Pharaoh’s harem (Genesis 12), so Judith will escape the
lascivious desires of Holofernes. Judith must submit to God’s will; and she
accepts the order to decapitate the tyrannical invader. The angel Raphael
disappears while Judith, perplexed by the events, though happy of her divine
mission, raises a prayer of thanks to the Lord:
Rerum tibi, maxime princeps,
Gloria, qui laceram miseratus respicis urbem,
Et meliora paras, quam quisquam optaverit usquam!
Illud non potero satis admirarier unquam:
Hoc quod sit placitum dextraque operaque puellae
Hostibus incautis tantas inferre ruinas.
Quandoquidem id placuit, sequimur quocumque vocamur!
(II.6)
In an attempt to parallel Judith’s mission with that of the Virgin, Tuccio
has made the heroine’s initial experience a mystical one; the analogy is
underscored when Ozias greets Judith with words reminiscent of Elizabeth’s
salutation to Mary:
Tu, diva, salutis
Spes aliqui es. Fracti bello cessere lacerti
Arma iacent, iuvenum torpent in proelia vires,
24
It is not clear to which incident from the Old Testament Tuccio is referring.
1081
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Omnia dira sitis populat: tu sola superstes
In te oculos, in the mentes convertimus unam,
Insignis pietas nullos violata per annos:
Sola potes tantos urbis componere luctus. (III.1)
Surprise and joy, doubt and resolution, fear and courage are all present in
the heroine’s speech, but her sentiments and feelings are stereotyped and she
does not show any passionate desire for action. She accepts the calling
because it has been decreed and she is ready to face the perils of her mission,
of Mars—“duri discrimina Martis.”
She shows more resoluteness in her rebuke of the city leaders who had
planned to surrender after five days; and the humble, confused heroine
expresses audacity and determination in her plan to defeat the enemy:
Iuvat in casus ruere, et caput ipsis
Ensibus obiectare, novis iuvat artibus uti. (III.1)
During her preparations for the mission Judith humbles herself before
God, covers herself with sack cloth, dusts her head with ashes, and recalls the
great miracles of the past, performed by God through his elect, among whom
Judith includes herself. Her evocation, however, is marred by the empty
rhetoric of classical scholarship and by pictorial descriptions;25 and her prayer
is not effective in creating a mood of humility and compliance with the Lord’s
will. It becomes instead a pretentious and ostentatious display of academic
language.
At the end of the prayer, as abruptly as she had started it, “nunc clamore
opus est, imo nun corde gemendum,” Judith expresses her desire to finish
praying and start acting: “Oratum satis.” It is time to clean herself, put on
transparent clothes and cover her body with jewels. She orders her servant
Abra to attend her:
25
When Judith narrates how the Egyptians were submerged by the waters of
the Red Sea, the heroine describes a beautiful vision of men and horses in
motion and then their stillness under the calm waters which have closed over
the unfortunate pursuers of the Hebrews:
Illi multa quidem cinxerunt plaustra quadrigis,
Plurimus ardet eques, ruere in certamina Martis
Exultat sonipes, sonitu tremit excita tellus:
Ecce furens Nereus rapido vorat aequore currus,
Et dudum horrendi procures latuere sub undis. (III.2)
1082
FRANK CAPOZZI
Nunc mihi promineat caleandra in vertice summo,
Gemmiferae torques, aurata monilia collo,
Annulus in digitis, et inaures auribus adsint,
Brachia praecurrant dextra laevaque per orbem
Armillae, et tenui rarescat syndone pectus. (III.2)
The devout woman, known and respected for her piety and chastity, becomes
a wanton temptress, ready to envelope in a tangle of false promises the
gullible Holofernes.
At the beginning of the fourth act the two women, Abra and Judith, are
seen approaching the Assyrian camp. The heroine sings an idyllic description
of a world which does not know war and sufferings ut only pleasant work and
love:26
Iam caput Titan mediis ab undis
Extulit, nostro fugiunt ab orbe
Astra, gemmatum Venerisque sydus
Sydera pellit.
Albicant colles nemorum pruinis,
Rore nocturno maduere frugum
Culta; nox atras, redeunte Phoebo,
Contrahit alas.
Laeta demisso grege iam bubulcus
Pabula in saltu viridante carpit,
Iam procul saeptis gelida vagatur
Haedus in herba,
Iam novo pennas Philomena soli
Pandit, et laetas varium per auras
Murmur instaurat, teneroque pendet
Stridula ramo;
Iam Palestini per amoena collis
Ardet effusum iubar, et secundo
Omine exsurgens agitat quadrigis
Delius heros. (IV.1)
She enters the camp under the impression that she will soon be the first
lady in the harem of Holofernes:
26
It is interesting to note that this bucolic description—the idealization of
country life—will be one of the major motifs developed in Tasso’s Aminta
(1573) and in Guarini’s Pastor Fido (1590).
1083
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Salutis
Certum pignum habes: vives gratissima regi
Ante alias.
(IV.2)
Judith knows how to entice Holofernes and beguiles him with her ambiguous
promises of sexual pleasures and future military victories:
Me (conscia numina testor)
Hebraeum Deus huc referat, quo singula mittit,
Ipse mihi retegat, quando sint ultima genti
Supplicia, et subeas Solymorum moenia victor. (IV.3)
Nox haec tibi, maxime princeps,
Talis eat, qualem non unquam expertus in aevum es.
(V.2)
Judith describes the killing of Holofernes, emphasizing the thrusting of the
sword, the beheading, the covering of the body, at the same time that she
prays for help for a steady hand, and curses Holofernes to eternal damnation:
Procedam. Pendet levis annexusque columnae
Ensis, et Assyrio flavescit balteus auro:
Hot tibi, dira lues, hoc tibi colla recidam.
Da, Deus, huic ensi vires, da vulnere solvat
Cervicem domino, fauces iugulumque revellat.
Nunc age te propius, vaginaque eripe ferrum,
Fida comes, tua me faciat custodia tutam;
Iamque caput ferias, laeva cohibente capillos.
Dirige tela, Deus, ferrumque in pectora conde!
Iam licet aeternos ducas in secula somnos,
Bellua dira, tibi cape missum vulnus ab astris;
Iam lacerum convulse tegant canopeia truncum.
(V.3)
This description of the bloody killing of a helpless drunken leader does not
create either horror or pity, although the author of the tragedy has tried to
create for the spectators an atmosphere of dramatic terror and suspense—
“linguisque animisque favete.” The gruesome decapitation neither succeeds in
creating a mood of participation in Judith’s action nor does it give any insight
into the emotions of the heroine. The gory execution of Holofernes appears
1084
FRANK CAPOZZI
more like a lesson in surgery. The critics Calogero and Soldati emphasize the
ritual aspect of the killing, which explains for them the cold, unimpassioned
and unheroic action—the killing of a man while asleep.27 According to them
the decapitation is shown on stage, but because the play emphasizes the oral
description of events rather than their actual staging, I assume that the action
was simply narrated by Judith.
On her return to Bethulia Judith incites the soldiers to hang the head of
Holofernes high on a pole and to assail the enemy. She knows that the
Assyrians will be dismayed and frightened and will run away from the battle
scene. After the victorious battle, Judith receives the spoils of the war, which
she returns to the temple of Jerusalem. The heroine’s confidence as expressed
in her last prayer of thanksgiving contrasts with the helplessness she manifests
when she appears for the first time on stage. At the beginning of the play
Judith was helpless and despaired for the safety of the city; but after the
beheading of Holofernes she is joyful and thankful and promised that the
Jewish people will continue offering sacrifices to celebrate the power and the
glory of the Lord.
Judith appears to go through a series of emotional changes, but as the play
progresses it becomes more evident that everything is stages for the pleasure
of the audience, if not for the display of classical and biblical erudition;28 and
the language which is intended to appeal to the spectators’ emotions or
religiousness never reaches the heart or the intellect.
Just as the heroine fails to involve the spectator emotionally and spiritually
in the destruction of evil, Holofernes fails to create an atmosphere of terror. In
the first scene, the general introduces himself as brutal, bloodthirsty
conqueror:
Sat mihi caede natant Nabathaei cardinis arva,
Iam satis Eoum terrore implevimus orbem;
Stragibus Eufrates rebuit, gemuitque per undas
Assyrios vicisse duces, concussaque bello
Terra Lycissa mihi croceas substravit aristas;
27
Soldati, Il Collegio Mamertino, p. 81; Calogero, Stefano Tuccio, p. 45.
During the banquet an epithalamium is sung, accompanied by music.
Mercuri (Letteratura Italiana, p. 102) emphasizes the entertainment aspect of
the Jesuit theatre: “lo spettacolo viene allestito nei collegi e anche nelle chiese
per attirare il maggiore pubblico possibile: non solo la rappresentazione in sé,
ma anche la presenza dei notabili e di tanti personaggi illustri contribuiva a far
partecipare i cittadini che quindi godono anche di quello spettacolo mondano;
essi inoltre sono curiosi di vedere i propri figli o i figli degli amici
protagonisti della recitazione.”
1085
28
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Militis arma mei summo de vertice Taurus
Horruit, inque caput retulit sua flumina Cydnus.
(I.1)
Iam pridem nullo maduit mihi sanguine ferrum,
Quandoquidem innumeras accepi in foedera gentes:
Haec iugulos franget fodietque haec ferrea vestrum
Cuspis adacta latus; spumantes sanguine muros
Concutiam, vastis extructas molibus arces
Disiiciam, ruet ad nutus gens barbara nostros. (I,1)
All through the play he is introduced as “ferox Olofernes….immanis,
furibundus, atrox, ferus, horridus, amens…Tigridis effoetae vultus” (I.7).
Before he meets Judith, for example, Holofernes describes the slaughter
which his soldiers will perpetrate when they enter the besieged city:
Infantum cuneos nullo discrimine miles,
Matribus avulsos, scopulisque et cautibus altis
Illidet: sparso canescent saxa cerebro;
Pertrahet e laribus lacerato crine puellas
Raptor, et ante virum discissis vestibus uxor
Victorum excipiet furias: per compita luctus
Infelix, ululatus, et illaetabile murmur. (IV.3)
But Holofernes is easily deceived and overcome by the beautiful Judith;
he cuts a poor figure as a truculent leader and he becomes clumsy and almost
contemptible as a lover. How easily he gets drunk and starts snoring, unable to
carry out his amorous plans. How ridiculous are the fears of Holofernes’ men
at the end of the play when they argue about who is going to awaken their
sleeping leader. When the eunuch Vagaone finally enters the tent and
announces in a state of consternation
Ille, ille Assyriis Olofernes inclytus armis
Truncus humi recubat, penitus cervice revulsa, (V.5)
those fearful soldiers can only run from the approaching Hebrew army.
The other characters are even less fully developed. Abra is seen as the
faithful servant, always obedient, always worrying about the safety of her
mistress, and Achior fulfills the usual role of the narrator of the Jewish
history. His soliloquy in the forest, with the echo repeating the last word, is
ironic, if not amusing; and his calling for help is more a description of the life
1086
FRANK CAPOZZI
of the shepherds than an appeal for aid (I.5). Safe and protected in Bethulia,
he laments not being able to meet his wife and his child and to see his land
again (IV.3). Then, at the end of the play, he is converted, having seen the
power of the true God:
Nos alios ego thure Deos venerabor in aevum,
Nos alios ritus gens Ammonitidis orae
Accipient quam, Diva, tuos; quod numen Hebraeis,
Sit mihi, sitque meis. (V.4)
Ozia, the king of Bethulia, sees in the suffering of his people the beginning of
a new slavery. He has trusted in his God, but at the same time he does not
foresee any end to the war which is at the gates of his city. At the demands of
the citizens he agrees to surrender the city within five days, when “Nulli
integra coniux, Nulla natus erit” (II.4).
When Judith returns with her gory prize, Ozia, who has almost lost faith in her
return, greets her with cries of exuberance and joy. If Achior is the typical
unbeliever who is converted, Ozia is the believer who doubts of his
salvation.29
The characters, as mentioned, are all one-dimensional. Tuccio never seems
able to go beyond a façade of superficial emotions, this being one of the
weaknesses of the Jesuit theatre as a whole.30 This one-dimensional quality is
also evident in a brief attack by Arach and Roboam, two prominent Hebrew
leaders, against women and especially against Abra, “Vilior in servis animus”
(III.3). This attack against women is another of many arguments which Tuccio
mentions but never develops.
If Tuccio is ineffective in fashioning strong characters, he is also unable to
achieve pathos in the several descriptions of the suffering of the citizens of
Bethulia (II.3; II.4). A bloody scene is always followed by a description of
peace and quiet. In consequence, the idyllic vision becomes part of a reality
filled with violence and destruction, and the cathartic effect which Tuccio
intends to achieve in one scene is soon mitigated by the following scene.
When the Assyrians strike the citizens of Bethulia with terror, the leader
Zarzan orders his tired soldiers, “Sternite membra soli, fessos et corporis
artus” (II.1), and the spectators are left with a vision of soldiers who are
resting their tired bodies after having accomplished their mission, although
29
The conversion of Achior, who has finally seen the truth, is similar to an
incident in the life of the author. Tuccio was a great orator and debater; once
he convinced a Greek heretic of the truth of the Catholic faith and converted
him to Catholicism. Calogero, Stefano Tuccio, p. 16.
30
Yanitelli, The Jesuit Theatre, p. 42.
1087
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
terrible and reprehensible. However, this fusion of descriptions of a simple
untrammeled life and of the actuality of the sufferings and death is part of the
Arcadian myth. Besides innocence and happiness, human suffering is also
present in the utopian realm of Arcady. As Panofsky says about Virgil’s
Eclogues, “tragedy no longer faces us as a stark reality but is seen through the
soft, colored haze of sentiment either anticipatory or retrospective.”31 Indeed
calumny, jealousy, “romantic complications” and even death are present in the
Italian pastoral literature.32 Tuccio’s Juditha is a composite of various
contrasting elements taken from pastoral and classical literature, and the sacra
rappresentazione.
The tragedy is too didactic for an audience already imbued with the
teachings expounded. Although intended to evoke pity and terror and to
inspire reverence for Judith, the play fails to arouse any emotions. The plot
has no psychological action; rather, the characters seem to declaim their lines
like puppets. As Yanitelli says, “Father Tucci would have created a
masterpiece if only he had been able or willing to depict the intimate and
interior psychological processes that goaded the heroine to the heroic killing
of the enemy that sustained her spirit to the end.”33
The allegorical interpretation is too obvious in the continuous insistence
on drawing parallels between Judith and Mary. At the end of the fourth act the
chorus of Prophets praises the glory of Judith, immortalizing her through the
centuries. Judith has become a forerunner of Mary. As Judith decapitates
Holofernes, the allegorical serpent, so Mary will crush the head of the infernal
enemy (IV.6). In the epilogue, when Tuccio advises the people of Messina to
follow the moral lesson provided by the heroine’s actions, it is said that it is
with prayer and hope in God that man can saves himself. Besides the
apparition of the Angel Raphael, who takes Judith high in the sky so she can
scan the enemy troops (II.6), in the fourth act the Devil Asmodeus, symbol of
lust, appears to warn Holofernes of the presence of Judith, in order to be sent
back to hell by Raphael (IV.6). In other words the individuality of the
characters is overshadowed by the pervasive exaltation of dogmatism and by
the intrusion of the supernatural, which reminds men of their insignificance
and need of divine help.
As mentioned previously, one of the effects of the Council of Trent was an
orthodoxy of thought which, at times, impeded artistic expression and
scientific progress. But this orthodoxy was needed to bring together the
31
Erwin Panofsky, “Et in Arcadia Ego: Poussin and the Elegiac Tradition,” in
Meaning in the Visual Arts (1955; rept. Woodstock, N.Y., 1974), p. 301.
32
Marvin T. Herrick, Tragicomedy (Urbana, Ill., 1962), pp. 125-142.
33
Yanitelli, The Jesuit Theatre, p. 42.
1088
FRANK CAPOZZI
faltering Church, which had to defend itself from the Lutheran rebellion and
the Anglican schism. It could do so only by reaffirming and strengthening,
without any substantial alteration, its religious and philosophical tenets and by
delineating them clearly. Tuccio’s play is thus an example of the
subordination of art to Church dogmatism and a response to the Lutherans
denial of the canonicity of the Book of Judith (whose authority and
authenticity was reaffirmed at the Sixth Session of the Council, April 8, 1546)
and the special role played by Mary in salvation. In showing that Judith is a
figura and a type of Mary, it indirectly attacks the Protestant position on these
two women.34
Tuccio’s Juditha utilizes all the spectacular element of the biblical story,
and it succeeds in its didactic and apologetic purpose. It reinforces the
importance of Judith as a religious heroine, as a defender of her temple
against the barbarian enemy (and, by extension, an upholder of Catholicism
against Protestantism), and as a type of Mary. The Prologue asks the
spectators to take part emotionally in the action of the plot, and to make the
religious and moral ideals of the story their own.
While religious drama in the hands of the Jesuits became an arid,
uninteresting exercise in language, rhetoric and dogmatism, the medieval
sacra rappresentazione continued to be performed in Florence and other cities
of Italy. In fact, for the arrival of Giovanna of Austria in Florence in 1566 the
Annunziazione was performed to please the distinguished visitor and the
people of the city.35
By the middle of the sixteenth century the Florentine sacra
rappresentazione had almost totally lost its original religious purpose. Many
profane and irreverent elements and characters were introduced; and
comically realistic scenes in which scoundrels take advantage of others, in
which old ladies quarrel among themselves and soldiers brawl, pushed to the
background the religious scenes and theme.36
By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, major writers, except for Belcari,
Pulci and Lorenzo de’ Medici, never tried to write sacre rappresentazioni.
This fact, coupled with the increasing appreciation of classical tragedy and of
34
For some comments on Protestant plays which attacked the papacy and
Catholic doctrine see Leicester Bradner, “The Latin Drama of the Renaissance
(1340-1564),” Studies in the Renaissance, 4 (1957), 39-41; also Minna Ploug
Cardoza, The Presentation of Women in Sixteenth-Century Lutheran Biblical
Drama, unpublished Ph.D. thesis (University of California, Los Angeles,
1968), passim.
35
Alessandro D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano (1891; rept. Rome, 1966),
I, 334-335.
36
D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, Chapts. xv and xvi.
1089
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
pastoral drama, was significant in explaining the literary and artistic decline of
the sacre rappresentazioni. Vito Pandolfi asserts that “le Sacre
Rappresentazioni fin dal loro sorgere venivano considerate divulgazioni per i
semplici, per i fedeli incapaci di leggere.”37 According to Tonelli, Vasari
wrote in 1547 that the sacre rappresentazioni were out of style, though the
population still enjoyed them.38 D’Ancona saw the reasons for the decline of
interest for the sacre rappresentazioni in the literary, political and religious
problems of the sixteenth century. According to D’Ancona the Cinquecento
saw the rise of the classical theatre, the study and imitation of Greek and
Roma comedies and tragedies. While the general public still enjoyed biblical
tales, the noblemen and the intellectuals preferred the plays of Terence,
Plautus and Seneca.39 Croce indeed minimized, without ignoring completely,
the political and literary causes, and argued that the end of the religious plays
must be found in the “esaurirsi del fervido o ingenuo sentimento religioso che
non risorse mai più.”40 Al Mondrone, in a review of a collection of sacre
rappresentazioni edited by De Batholomaeis, corroborates Croce’s statement:
monotony and repetition of the same subjects, which D’Ancona and other
critics list among the causes for the decadence of the sacra rappresentazione,
were not equal in importance to “l’aver abbandonato il suo originario e
genuine spirito di rappresentazione sacra, di devozione, per degenerare in
farsa, al punto da accogliere nel tempio mimi, giullari e danzatrici, che
dovevano naturalmente provocare l’intervento dell’autorità ecclesiastica.”41
Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries religious and political leaders
attempted various times to restrain the non-devotional elements in the drammi
sacri or to condemn the staging of any drama in churches or anywhere else.
Already in 1421 an ordnance of the civic authorities of Orvieto forbade in
religious buildings the “ballamenta et ioca saecularia et mundana” and
imposed a fine of one hundred soldi upon those who organized the staging of
37
Vito Pandolfo, Storia universale del teatro drammatico (Turin, 1964), I,
446.
38
Luigi Tonelli, Il teatro italiano dalle origini ai nostri giorni (Milan, 1924),
p. 54.
39
D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, II, Chapts. ii and iii.
40
Benedetto Croce, “La fine delle sacre rappresentazioni,” La Critica, 41
(1943), 309-317.
41
Al Mondrone, “Pubblicazioni sul dramma sacro in Italia,” La Civiltà
Cattolica, Year 94, Vol. 4 (1943), p. 251.
1090
FRANK CAPOZZI
“Representationes sive Devotiones.”42 The restrictions became more explicit
and effective during the second half of the sixteenth century after the closing
of the Council of Trent. In 1573 Pope Gregory XIII prohibited the staging of
rappresentazioni for moral reasons. One of the staunchest opponent of the
performance of any kind of drama was Cardinal Borromeo who in 1565
prohibited performances of the Passion in Milan and in 1582 ordered hotel
keepers not to give lodgings to criminals and, above all, to actors: “caupo ne
lenones, meretrices, histriones, mimos et ceteros malae conditionis homines
nugatoresve apud se diutius hospitari patiatur.”43 According to the Cardinal,
performances of religious and non-religious dramas represented many profane
and lascivious actions and were a cause for public immorality.44
Notwithstanding, however, the several interdictions against actors or dramatic
performances, plays continued to be staged; and the sacred rappresentazioni,
42
L. Fumi, Statuti e Regesti dell’Opera di Santa Maria d’Orvieto (Rome,
1891), p. 56, as quoted by Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis, Origini della poesia
drammatica italiana (Turin, 1952), pp. 284-285, from which I cite.
43
Quoted by Charles Dejob, De l’influence du Concile de Trente sur la
literature et les beaux-arts chez les peoples catholiques (1884; rept. Geneva,
1969), p. 213; the text of the prohibition of the Passion is published by
Ferdinando Taviani, La Commedia dell’arte e la società barocca (Rome,
1969), p. 10; Taviani, speaking about the various prohibitions against the
theatre, says (p. 8) that “lo spettacolo è visto…come contrario all’ideale di
dignità e grandezza che accompagnava la concezione religiosa del Borromeo,
e, in genere, del periodo controriformistico. Oltre che come possibile
elemento perturbatore dell’ordine e della morale, esso appare anche come
contrario all’ideale di società proprio della Riforma cattolica che è, appunto,
riforma di costume e restaurazione di dottrina….La proibizione delle
rappresentazioni sacre nasce non soltanto dal fatto che esse affondano le loro
radici in un materiale leggendario che la nuova agiografia cinquecentesca (si
pensi, ad esempio, alle opere del Mombrizio e del Lippomano) faceva
apparire come privo di basi filologiche e quindi molto vicino alle credenze
superstiziose; ma anche e soprattutto perchè queste presentavano
un’immagine del fatto religioso assolutamente lontana dalla visione
cinquecentesca secondo cui il concetto della Santità veniva fatto combaciare
con quello classico ed aristotelico dell’eroico.”
44
Although Cardinal Borromeo opposed the staging of play for social,
religious and moral reasons, he also wanted a reform of the theatre, a return to
the original religious character of drama; see Taviani, La commedia dell’arte,
pp. 1-9.
1091
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
although in a minor way and under different names, were performed and
reprinted various times during the period of the Council and afterwards.45
The Florentine rappresentazione was copied and imitated throughout Italy,
especially in Bologna where there were a few religious organizations whose
function was the staging and presentation of various allegorical and didactic
plays.46 One of the writers of sacre rappresentazioni there was Cesare
Sacchetti.
Of Sacchetti little is known except that he was from Bologna, wrote
several eulogistic poems and tried to imitate the Florentine
rappresentazione.47 In 1564, the same year that saw the production of
Tuccio’s Juditha, Sacchetti published La gloriosa e trionfante vittoria donata
dal grande Iddio al popolo hebreo per mezzo di Giudith fua fedelifsima
serua.48 While Tuccio’s play is a religious tragedy imbued with the moral
didacticism of the Catholic Reformation, the rappresentazione by Sacchetti is
a social drama which satirizes different aspects of the society of the sixteenth
century.
Sacchetti’s sacra rappresentazione or “comedia,” as he called it, follows,
in its general lines, the biblical tale, but the two figures, Judith and
Holofernes, appear only in sixteen out of the sixty-six scenes. It is written in
Italian prose, with some characters talking in Bolognese dialect, and is divided
into five acts; it has a prologue and an epilogue entitled “L’autore ai finti
amici”; and it has a cast of over thirty characters, among them rogues,
physically handicapped persons, jesters and musicians.
The prologue is recited by an allegorical figure representing Time, who
states that everyone should always turn his thoughts toward God, who
constantly guides and helps man, as exemplified in the victory given to the
Jews through the hands of Judith, and that this victory is what the play will
represent. Time then asks the spectators to pay attention to the “festa” and
bids the audience farewell.
The action of the play starts in media res. The Assyrian ambassadors have
already left and Hozia, prince of Bethulia, is discussing with Hionada, the
45
See the chapter “Dei varj nome delle Sacre Rappresentazioni,” in
D’Ancona, Origini del teatro italiano, I, 369-379.
46
De Bartholomaeis, Origini della poesia drammatica italiana, Ch. X.
47
Giovanni Fantuzzi, Notizie degli scrittori Bolognesi (Bologna, 1781-1794),
VII, 247-248; IX, 181-182.
48
Cesare Sacchetti, La gloriosa e trionfante vittoria donata dal grande Iddio
al popolo hebreo per mezzo di Giudith fua fedelifsima serua, ridotta in
commedia (Florence, 1575); all quotations from the play are taken from this
edition.
1092
FRANK CAPOZZI
captain of the Hebrew camp, and with Cambri and Charmi, two priests, what
to do to stop the demands of the enemy. Although several characters mention
Judith during the first and the second act, the heroine does not appear until the
middle of the third act. Judith is described by Agerio, Hozia’s servant, as a
woman surrounded by a halo of mysticism and sanctity:
Mi parue a prima vifta, quafi leuata
dall’oratione tutta fpirituale, rapprefentarmiffi
a guifa che fuol fare la ifteffa fantità,
nelle prefenza d’alcun deuoto.
(I.9)
And later Abbra speaks of Judith as a pious and religious person, given to
penance and the study of the sacred books:
non fi puo leuare la mia padrona Giudith
da due giorni in quà. dall’oratione
affiduamente, oh, gli e pure la deuota
giouine, di beltà poi, eguale a gli
Angioli di paradifo, di coftumi non e vn
altra al mondo fimile a lei, piaceuole,
domeftica, fauia, e fempre fuori del orare
legge, & ftudia, i libri di Mofe, difcorrendo
tutti i profeti, inueftigando, & confiderando
ad vna, ad vna tutte le parole fcritte, e
dette da fapienti.
(II.6)
When Judith appears for the first time, besides being a pious and religious
woman, she is also a bold woman who dares to condemn and denounce the
leaders of Bethulia for their plan to surrender; she reproaches their weakness
and their lack of faith in their God, who has saved them many times in the
past from slavery. The heroine declares that she has a plan, the details of
which she cannot disclose, and then she asks them to pray for her and let her
go to the Assyrian camp. Sacchetti’s Judith does not wait for a celestial
messenger. She starts her dangerous mission, sure that God will not leave her
alone and unprotected. She manifests the strength and power of a heroine
ready to face any peril in order to save her city.
When she meets the Assyrian guards, she knows how to appeal to their
cravings for gold; she tells them of the wealth of the city of Bethulia, and
deceived them by saying that every one of them will be able to become rich
when the city is taken. She displays her jewels and admits that she is one of
the poorest Jewish women:
1093
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Io ero la minore, fi può dire, che fi
trouaua drento, & mi uedete, nell’abito,
ch’io fono, penfate le gioie, le perle,
i fmiraldi & groffe margerite, che
poffeggono le maggiori di me, quāto è
il fuo valore.
(IV.6)
With artful promises of an imminent victory she seduces Holofernes, and
with skillful coyness she intensifies the expectations of her new lover:
Io ti offerifco di nouo l’amor mio
la uita e il corpo a ogni commodo,
& piacer tuo, poi contentandoti,
quefta notte, entraro a te come uorrai.
Holoferne: Piu deletteuole, & dolce fono,
non mi gionfe all’orecchio, &
quefta propria fera ottenerai
la promeffa, a chi ti adora in
terra.
Giudith: Vn hora mi par mill’anni.
Holoferne: Se non fosse per l’intereffo
del noftro honore, io ti darei
vn bacio.
Giudith: L’honefta non cōporta in tāta
gente.
(V.7)
She accepts his invitation to dinner, knowing that it will be the best occasion
to put her plan in operation. During the sumptuous banquet she uses the
appeal of her beautiful body in order to keep Holofernes pining for her. She
seems to enjoy the feat given in her honor, especially the madrigals played for
her; and afterwards she gives her hand to Holofernes and follows him into his
tent, while Abbra discretely follows behind. When the time comes for Judith
to act, she implores God not to let her fail:
Quando Iddio vuol aiutar le perfone
truoua fempre noui, & ottimi mezzi
alla falute loro, (V.9);
1094
FRANK CAPOZZI
and then, without any scruples or uncertainty, she takes the sword and
decapitates Holofernes. Later, when Judith and Abbra are waiting by the gates
of Bethulia, the heroine explains that she did not think twice about killing
Holofernes, even though he looked menacing in his sleep.
In these few scenes in which Judith appears, she reveals herself as a
respectable woman of many qualities: beauty, wealth, piety, daring. She
knows how to act and she accomplishes her mission with all the charm and
cunning she can muster, always guarding her honor and chastity. She is a
woman of action, strongly contrasting with the allegorical Judith of Tuccio.
Like Judith, Holofernes in Tuccio’s Juditha is an allegorical figure,
representing the impious barbarian, the snake to be crushed. In Sacchetti’s
play Holofernes is seen not only as the bloodthirsty, cruel, diabolical leader,
ready to destroy whatever and whomever is in his path, but also a general who
likes to be surrounded by his men and by his jesters. He worries and cares
about their safety, and takes into consideration their advice on how to lay
siege to Bethulia. He acts at the beginning of the play as a leader who has
never met any resistance to his plan of conquest. Indeed, having found the city
of Bethulia opposed to his conquering plans, he has to show inhumanity and
savagery in order to appear as the ungodly conqueror, master of the situation:
Qvefta farra vna delle rare vitorie, che
haueffi mai, io non vo pace ne tregua con
loro, poi che hebbero ardire mandarmi rifpofta
fi vilana, e fconueneuole appreffo la
grandezza del magnanimo Re Nabuchdonofor,
non mi leuaro di qua intorno, fin tanto
ch’ogni cofa veda ruoinata e diftrutta, con
que’ ftracii maggiori, che vfar fi possono,
impetuofi & crudelli, tanto ne gli huomini,
quanto nelle donne, e fanciulli infieme,
vo che fi notifichi vn bando per tutto il
campo, che in quefta guerra, non ti facci
alcun pregione, ma tutti fiano tratti a
fil di fpade.
(II.10)
And the proclamation of Niobe, the trumpeter, bears witness to the plans
ordered by Holofernes:
Per commiffione, & ferma volunta dell’
eftrenuo, & digniffimo Prencipe noftro
Holoferne, fi manifefta il prefente Bando,
ch’alcun Capitano, o foldato, Cauallieri,
o pedoni di qua lungue grado, ftato, e
1095
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
conditione poffa effere, o fia, che non
ardifchino in quefta guerra mortale, &
fanguinofa (offerendofi la oceafione) di
far pregioni, in alcuna maniera gli nemici,
ma con quella piu gran crudeltà, che vfar
fi poffi, occidere generalmente huomini,
donne, & fanciulli, ftrozzando, e sbarando
in pezzi tutti quelli, che da la città di
Bethuglia fono cinti intorni, & chi
contraffarà, quanto nel prefente fi e
narrato fubito fara pofto nelle fiamme
ardentiffime del fuoco, pero fi eforta
ciafcun ad offeruare il precetto del fuo
Signore, e viua Nabuchdnofor Re
preclaiffimo.
(III.1)
But all these plans of violence do not conceal from the spectator the
essential human qualities of Holofernes. He is the first to get up in the
morning; and, anxious and thoughtful, he wants this jesters, Livio and Plinio,
to be safe from the perils of the war and idleness, which destroy men. With
fatherly solicitude he calls them “my little babies,” “zucarini miei.” When he
meets Judith, he falls easy prey to her charms. He has never been frightened
or intimidated by the sounds of a battle, but the sight of Judith fills him with a
burning passion. He gives her the best tent, the one where his treasury is kept;
and he allows her to move around the camp at her own pleasure. Above all, he
respects her. As a lover he cannot conduct himself in any other way but as a
knight of gentle manners.
In the fourth act Lesbione, a captain of the Assyrian army, advises
Holofernes that there is not time to fall in love:
…quefti penfieri, non fono da tenire
al prefente, che nelle cofe importanti,
non bifogna tendere agli amori, & maffime
vno che in fua vita ha fatto, & fa
continuamente la profeffione di vero
foldato, & di piu che ha il carico fopra
di fe d’un tanto grand’efercito. (IV.13)
According to Lesbione, the Jewish woman will be a contributing cause to the
ruin of the army. He advises Holofernes to act toward Judith in the same
manner he would behave toward other women or subjects:
1096
FRANK CAPOZZI
Odi Signor mio, non hai tu quefta donna
a tuo dominio & piacere? s’ella e venuta
a te per feruirti, amarti, & reuerirti
non poi disporre d’un tuo fuddito come
vuoi? fenza tanti faftidi, tormenti,
paffioni, timore & dolorofi perturbamenti,
d’un animo feroce com’e il tuo. (IV.13)
The captain suggests that Holofernes should attempt to seduce Judith as
Amone seduced Thamar, “perchè in tali accidenti, ogni inamorato e
fcufabile.”49 But Holofernes remains unmoved by Lesbione’s arguments; and,
to the example given by him, Holofernes answers, “Quefti non fono amori, ma
peruerfi furori, crudeli, ftolti, ciechi, & beftiali, uedi poi come Amone, ne fu
punito.”
In his infatuation, Holofernes reveals himself to be a man who has always
been absorbed in matters of war and has become careless and unguarded in
matters of love. When he dies, though Judith describes him as wicked and
corrupt, one feels pity for the unfortunate general. When his men find his
decapitated body, they quickly put it in a box and run away from the battle
scene.
The scenes with Judith and Holofernes are very few and the other
characters, about forty of them, play the most important role in this play. The
sacra rappresentazione has steadily moved away from its religious purpose in
order to become, besides an entertainment for the public, a vehicle for social
comments. The religious and moral teachings of the biblical tale are still
evident in Sacchetti’s play. Nevertheless, the author’s interests are in the
human aspects of the tale, rather than in its divine elements, and in the social
condition of the characters, be they tragic or comic. Sacchetti’s prologue
points to the didacticism of the Book of Judith, but the major theme of the
rappresentazione is a strong criticism of some aspects of life of the period.
The play is a kaleidoscope of Cinquecento society: noble leaders, soldiers
complaining about the hardships of the war, servants dissatisfied with ther
masters, rogues and parasites taking advantage of others.
Hionada is the man of action who, like Judith, does not approve of the plan
to capitulate to the Assyrians. Similar to Holofernes, Hionada is not only a
leader of soldiers, but he is also concerned about the future and the safety of
those around him, especially Chrichio, the young boy whom he has raised and
taken care of:
Qvefto fanciulli m’hò alleuato in cafa,
49
I have been unable to identify those two lovers.
1097
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
e quando molte volte fon ftato alla
guerra, fempre hò voluto che ftia
à canto, dilche hà prefo tanto d’audacia,
& viril animo, che vn giorno dubito nō mi
venghi mala noua d’alcun fuo pericolo,
che Iddio gli ne guardi.
(I.2)
With affection he calls the young boy “frafcuccia,” “tender leaf.”
The young Chrichio looks upon the war as an opportunity to prove that he
is not a child, and pleads with his master to let him fight:
odete padrone; fe glie vere di quefta
guerra, voglio vi prego, mi lafciate vfcir
fuori vn tratto alla bufca, chio n’hò la
maggior voglia di menar le mani, ch’vn
hora mi fembra le migliaia: trouarmi à
qualche groffe fcaramuzza per sbizarirmi
vn tratto.
(I.1)
When Hionada allows him to enlist as a soldier, Chrichio soon starts
complaining about his pay, the hardships caused by the siege, and the
rationing of wine and food.
The many personal hardships caused by the war between the Assyrians
and the Hebrews are also mentioned by the soldiers of both camps. Carpi and
Coronide, two Hebrew soldiers, are concerned because the soldiers are young
and inexperienced. With regrets they comments that one cannot rely on the
faithfulness of soldiers who are paid for their duty, an apparent attack on the
old Italian tradition of hiring mercenary troops, which, as Machiavelli wrote,
was one of the causes for the decadence of Italian power and independence.
When a small group of soldiers is ordered to protect the water supplies on the
mountains, the soldiers become apprehensive of the great danger in which
they find themselves, so far away from the main body of the Hebrew army. If
the enemy arrives they will put up small resistance and then run away from
the battle. The soldiers agree that life comes before any honorable sentiments.
The feelings of the soldiers are well expressed by Agerio, the servant of
Hozia, prince of Bethulia:
Sia maladetta la guerra, & chiūnque
la defidera.
(I.4)
1098
FRANK CAPOZZI
Besides the complaints against the war or the life of a soldier, the satire
and criticism of women who are unfaithful is very important. When Judith
departs from Bethulia “in abito da regina, proffumata, lifciata, che hauerefti
detto miradola quefta e la dea delle bellezze, da trauagliare ogn’animo
ripofato,” Coronide wonders about that beautiful, pious, chaste woman, who
now appears in seductive clothes on her way to a military camp. He expresses
his desire to meet a good woman, but complains that there are too many who
ruin the family because of their caprices and whims:
per il dir il vero, mi piace vna donna
honefta bella e acoftumata me poi per il
contrario, certe ilcia vifi ornate, piu
che non preuiene al grado fuo, quali
fouente rouinano le cafe per le pōpe
iftraordinare, non le uorei ueder
dipinte, non ch’al mondo, quefte tali. (IV.4)
Chrichio is very happy that his master Hionada does not have any woman
around:
benedetto fia il mio Signore Hionoda che
femine nō gli cacano per cafa, ne vicine
alla porta dieci braccia, & per quefto
fra noi mai fi ode vna parola.
(II.7)
Vago discloses similar fears about women after he sees Holofernes so trustful
of Judith. He has been in love before and he knows how women behave;
therefore he is not like a young lover who has not experienced life and who
sighs day and night about his beloved:
Se Holoferne fi fida di femine facilmente
reftera gabbato, a me non la farebbero gia
che non gli credo, che quanto piu ti
ridono in vifo, tāto piu maliffino
fegno fi dimoftra nel tuo cuore: io mi
raccordo, da che pur fiamo a dire, ch’
anch’io fon ftato la mia parte innamorato,
prima, che foffi Eunnuco, fi come fono
quefti incauti giouani, moderni, che
fpinti dalle fiamme amorofe, da tutte le
parti n’ardono, & confumanfi giorni, &
notti non ceffando mai di lachrimare,
1099
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
fofpirare, imaginare, confiderare, &
penfare mo fopra quefto, mo fopra quello,
dicendo la puo effere, la non puo effere,
nō mi guardò l’altr’hieri, come fuole,
ella non mi parlò, non mi dette cenno
d’amoreuolezza, non mi fece del capo,
altri godono il mio amore, la mia vita
il mio bene, l’anima mia, ohime io fon
morto, la uo lafciare, quefti tormenti
non fanno per me, & fimile, parole cōtinuo
da martellarti, hor lieti, hor mefti, hor
difperati, chiamano la morte in foccorfo,
& fon talmente guafti delle fue diue che
non poffono magnare perche non hàno famme
ne men dormire, per non hauer fonno, odi
Holoferne fe fari vno de quefti tali,
l’efercito di Nabuchdonofor hauera tratto,
che fo ben io l’aftutie, malitie, &
fintioni di donne a fuo commodo, fe egli
vorra configliarfene meco gli apriro
l’armario de i fecreti, in quefto cafo. (IV.8)
When Formidabile, the parasite, is asked by Agerio if he is married as the law
proscribes, he answers: “Dio me ne guardi, piu prefto magnarei due tordi.”
(I.4)
Sacchetti introduces several interesting characters who, although they are
never analyzed psychologically, give us a brief glimpse of some of the lowest
members of sixteenth-century society. Formidabile, “il piu dindifcreto, &
fconzio magnatore, che fia per l’vnierfo,” dies after a large dinner, to which
he had invited himself. Drunk and unable to control his movements he falls
down the stairs and “dete l’vltimo crollo, & paffo via.” After the herald
announces that
in termine di due giorni proffimi la citta
fia fgombrata, da vagabondi, furbi e
altre generationi fenza efercitio,
impotenti all’arte della guerra, fotto
pena della vita trouati che faranno fuor
del detto termine, (I.5)
1100
FRANK CAPOZZI
the spectator witnesses the departure from Bethulia of various characters
prohibited by the ban to live in the city. Lesbia, an old servant, grumbles and
murmurs about her misfortune; she deplores the unpleasant and demeaning
status of the servants:
Mifera la vita mia mefchina, che gionta
alla Vecchaia mi trouo, e priua di roba
& d’amici, qual donna fi trouò mai ò
trouaraffi per vniuerfo, piu fcontenti
di te, Lesbia infelice? quando pel mio
longo feruire hò fperato degna mercede,
io fon premiata d’un vati cò Dio, cofi
interuiene, a che ferue fedelmēte padroni
ingrati, qual reffuggio ferra il mio forte
peruerfa? v, v, v, vomene andare come
difperata, cercādo altri paefi, e mai piu
effer veduta in quefte parti, imparino i
ferui & le ferue, a quali al prefente
farro efempio, che quando hauranno
feruito, trenta o quaranta anni vna cafa,
fi conducono poi morire all’hofpitale, fe
fi fapeffe in giouentu quello che’è
manifefto nella vecchiezza dal tempo
fatta efperta, tal fi troua in faftidio,
che farria fuor di penna, fe la citta ha
da effere affediata. non fi faluarà pe
fei pani di manco il giorno che mi
toccauano in parte, oh, padron crudelle,
quefti fono i feruici riceuuti da me, &
le malle notti, fpefe per tuoi figliuoli,
e poi dire Lesbia in quefta eftremita non
hauemo bifogno di tante bocche, vati
provede? vh, vh, vh, horfu me n’andero
con pacientia, che non trouo rimedio in
altro modo.
(II.1)
The handicapped Scapolo and the blind Bacolo bewail the lack of generosity
and their banishment from their native city. They say that scoundrels have
posed as handicapped persons and that now the people, having discovered the
fraud, refuse to give alms. It would be better if every town could provide
shelter and food for those who cannot take care of themselves:
1101
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
i vagabondi hanno guafto l’animo delle
genti a far lemofine: perche facendone
arte ridota in forbaria, molti fe ne
fono auueduti, & hanno guafta la ftrada
per li boni: come fiamo noi, & è
ftabilito in molte città, che alcuno non
habbi, d’andare mendicando, ma gli danno
vn luogo agiato per allogiare, & nodrire
ogni bifognofo.
(II.2)
Scapolo, Bacolo and his son Scelto leave the stage singing a song:
Quà fian tre sfortunati
Che andremo per il mōdo peregrini,
Alla ventura noftra.
C’haurà pietà di noi pouer mefchini
S’il chielo hoggi fi moftra
Scarfo del fuo fauor, deh nō mancate
Auditori di qualche Caritate.
Two scoundrels, Trinca and Troco, describe to each other their cleverness
and resourcefulness in dealing with others, especially women. Indeed, the two
comment on women who do whatever pleases them when their husbands are
not around. Frusto is a quarrelsome, instinctive peasant, who speaks in
Bolognese dialect. Introduced at the beginning of the third act, he arrives on
stage cursing the war as others have done before. He comes from afar because
he is hungry and he has to wander around looking for food for his survival. He
is persuaded by an Assyrian to join the army, but he does not find the life of a
soldier very exciting. He has to clean and feed the animals; he is unable to
sleep for a long time, and he is beaten at times by the soldiers. We see him at
the end of the play after the battle when he falls upon the running Tibio, as
Assyrian soldier, and robs him of his money. Sacchetti also denounces
pedants, “i very padri della fteffa ignoranza.”
The rappresentazione ends with Chrichio who tells the spectators that the
play is over: ambassadors have been sent to give everyone the news of the
Jewish victory; the Assyrian army has been defeated; Achior has been
converted and he will be circumcised. Because this will take some time, the
1102
FRANK CAPOZZI
spectators are advised to leave and not to worry about anything because, as
always, Chrichio himself is in charge of everything.50
Sacchetti uses the language to create some comic effects. One effect is
achieved by the misunderstanding of words—“comico del significato,” as the
critic Biagi describes this characteristic.51 At times a comic situation is created
by the foolishness of one character who does not understand another. For
example, Holofernes complains about the love sickness which afflicts him and
the doctor, thinking his ailment is physical, wants to administer an enema.
And finally a comic situation is created when a character is made a fool by
others, as when the parasite Formidabile is tricked into eating owls, “civette,”
when he expects to eat quails, “quaglie.”
Another kind of comedy is created by nonsense words and sentences, as
when Formidabile gives an enumeration of succulent Foods which he likes to
eat:
Non e alcuno piu di me, che gli piaccia
il ben viuere, & maffime di trouarfi
a vna tauola, ben compofta, fontuofa, e
richa, di delicate viuande: doue a primo
incontro ti fi raprefenta la-rofte
faporofa, in tanta varietà d’Animali,
faluatici, & domeftica, che gli e vn piacere,
e a quefto vi fi accōpagna poi, vn aguzza
petito di guazzetti, faporini e infinite
altre cofe da trangugliarfi due di & due
notti, fenza eferne mai fatio…
…non mi garba il tracanare cofi a vn
fubito, ma pian piano guftarlo, a guida
d’un latante Bambino, che riceue nella
bocchina dolce, quel spiracolo del fuo
notrimento fuaue, dalla pietofa Mamma
fua amoreuole.
(I.4)
50
The play has an epilogue, “L’autore ai finti amici,” but it is not clear what
the author is talking about.
51
M. L. Altieri Biagi, “Appunti sulla lingua della commedia del ‘500,” Atti
del Convegno sul tema: Il teatro classico italiano nel ‘500 (Rome, 1971),
253-300. In this article Biagi elaborates on the distinction between “comique
de mots” and “fantaisie verbale” made by Robert Garapon, La fantaisie
verbale et le comique dans le théâtre français (Paris, 1957), pp. 7-13.
1103
CHAPTER II
Didacticism and Realism during the Years of the Council of Trent
Or through a verbal fantasy of sounds—“comico del significante”—which
don’t mean anything, as when Trinca and Troco decide to act as foreigners
and Troco shows how he will imitate the Chaldean language:
Bre, bre, geldi, geldi, grich, faldan,
mari, cardas, cardas, aliert, perpem,
childus, tanes, ah, ah, ah.
(II.3)
In analyzing Sacchetti’s rappresentazione we have strayed from the main
topic in order to illustrate how the biblical Book of Judith became
contaminated by various extraneous elements. Not only were the two major
figures tainted by various factors, but the biblical tale itself is hardly
recognizable.
Tuccio’s Juditha, like many Jesuit plays, is only an exercise in exposition,
in dogmatic doctrine. Written in a language understood only by a few, it fails
to reach the general public; nor does it touch the sensitivity of the spectators
or acknowledge their intellectual and moral preoccupations. The play does not
demand any participation; it expects only silence and consent. Judith and
Holofernes are tainted by the splendor, the pomp and the opulence which
Tuccio employs in order to entertain. The two main figures have become two
abstract allegories representing good and evil, but in their allegorical
symbolism they have been contaminated by extraneous luxurious and
sensuous elements, which we find also in the paintings on the same subject.
Giovanni Busi, called Cariani, painted during the first half of the sixteenth
century one of the first semi-nude Judiths.52 And the tale of Judith and
Holofernes became, for Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese, another subject to
decorate the walls or the ceilings of palaces.53
On the other hand, Sacchetti’s rappresentazione is unconcerned with
religious didacticism. It may not have unity of structure or purpose, but it is
more provocative and interesting than Tuccio’s tragedy, and it is very
amusing at times. In it the humanity of every character, including Judith and
Holofernes, is well delineated. The play is not a religious lesson but a sociopolitical satire of the society of the sixteenth-century. The play introduces,
especially through the secondary characters, many realistic motifs: the poverty
52
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School
(London, 1957), II, Pl. 735.
53
Although the Judiths by Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto could have a
religious or a republican message for Venice, as much as the Judith by
Donatello had for Florence, there is no indication that the works were
intended either for a church building or for any political ideal.
1104
FRANK CAPOZZI
of the people, the hardships brought by war, the desired of everyone to survive
in a world of injustice.54 Judith and Holofernes are not two allegorical
abstractions but two human figures living in a world inhabited by both noble
and contemptible characters.55
The theme of Judith and Holofernes predominates whenever political and
religious issues are at stake. During the years of political upheavals in
Florence, Judith became a symbol of freedom and republicanism. In the
middle of the sixteenth century, when religious and social changes became the
issue, Judith was an allegorical figure representing the Church fighting the
advance of Protestantism, or, as in Sacchetti’s play, indirectly, a vehicle for
social criticism. In many respects the world of Tuccio and Sacchetti is the
same world represented either in the pastoral literature of the times or that
described by Ruzzante, Lasca, Aretino and other comedy writers of the
Cinquecento. Judith and Holofernes have been removed from the oriental
biblical world and have been placed either among the refined and cultured
Italian aristocracy or among the Italian peasants and outcasts.
__________
54
See especially the scene of Abbra and Judith before the dinner when the
servant comments that there is no gold on the tables of the poor people (IV.5).
55
It is interesting to note that in a marquetry by G. F. di Capodiferro, from
designs by Lorenzo Lotto, Judith fleeing from the Camp of Holofernes
(Bergamo, Santa Maria Maggiore, 1523-25) in the background there are a few
soldiers who are defecating and urinating.
1105