Pleasure (44 page)

14
.
stil novo:
The
dolce stil nuovo,
or “sweet new style,” in poetry inaugurated by Dante and his circle of literary friends; the term was first used in
Purgatory
in Dante's
Divine Comedy
(thirteenth-century Italian).

15
.
Henri Taine
:
Hyppolite-Adolphe Taine (1828–1893), historian and critic. D'Annunzio drew his knowledge of Elizabethan literature from Taine's
Histoire de la littérature anglaise
.

16
. A. S.
calcographus aqua forti sibi tibi fecit:
“A.S. the Chalcographer (engraver/etcher on copper) made this copper etching/engraving for himself and for you.”
Aqua forti
—nitric acid: a mixture of vitriolic and nitrous acids used in the engraving process (Latin).

17
.
a tratti liberi
:
“With free strokes.” Rembrandt preferred a free, fluid style in his engraving technique (Italian).

18
.
maniera nera:
Mezzotint, a printmaking method that produces half tones through scraping and burnishing of the metal plate, rather than through hatching or stippling (Italian).

19
.
Green, Dixon, Earlom . . . Filippino Lippi:
These are, in chronological order and grouped by technique, the engravers Gérard Audran (1604–1703), Valentine Green (1739–1813), John Dixon (1740–1811), Richard Earlom (1743–1822), and Paolo Toschi (1788–1854); the painter/engraver Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), the engraver/printmaker Marcantonio Raimondi (1480–1534), the etcher/engraver Jacques Callot (1592–1635); and the painters Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), Domenico (Bigordi) Ghirlandaio (1449–1494), Filippino Lippi (c. 1457–1504), Hans Holbein the Younger (1497–1543), Francesco Mazzola, known as the Parmigianino (1503–1540), Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), and Guido Reni (1575–1642).

20
.
Arcitenens, Caper, Amphora:
Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius (Latin).

21
.
Valentinois:
Cesare Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI (c. 1475–1507), was made Duke of Valence (Valentinois in French, or Valentino in Italian) in 1498.

22
.
Seigneur de Brântome:
Pierre de Bourdeille (c. 1540–1614), who wrote lengthy memoirs after his travels.

FIRST BOOK, CHAPTER V

1
.
adieu au grand air:
“Farewell in the great outdoors” (French).

2
.
“
Remember the snuffed-out days
”:
I have translated in the text, for authenticity's sake, D'Annunzio's interpretation of Goethe's poem “Wechsel”—
“O ruf' sie zurücke, die vorigen Zeiten! / Es küßt sich so süße die Lippe der Zweiten, / Als kaum sich die Lippe der Ersten geküßt.”
However, I would more closely translate Goethe's text as “O, call them back, those earlier times! He kissed so sweetly the lips of the second one, the way he had just kissed the lips of the first.”

3
.
“With great pleasure and delight . . .”:
Lorenzo the Magnificent,
Canzoni a ballo,
Canzone 1:
“E' si vede in ogni lato / Che ‘l proverbio dice il vero, / Che ciascun muta pensiero / Come l'occhio è separato. / Vedesi cambiare amore: / Come l'occhio sta di lunge, / Così sta di lunge il core: / Perché appresso un altro il punge. / Col qual tosto e' si congiunge / Con piacere e con diletto . . .”

4
.
mascula:
A masculine woman (Latin).

5
.
Giusto Suttermans:
Also known as Justus Sustermans, he was born in Antwerp in 1597 and traveled to Florence, where he became court painter to the Medicis. He died in 1681.

6
.
semper:
“Always” (Latin).

7
.
Miching Mallecho:
In Shakespeare,
Hamlet,
III, ii, 146: “Marry this is Miching Malicho, that means mischeefe.” Other meanings to be found are veiled rebuke, misdeed, secret act.

8
.
Ecce homo novus:
“Here is the new man” (Latin).

9
.
No doubt:
In English in the original text.

10
.
haute école
dressage:
“High school” dressage, the highest form of classical horse-riding, entailing movements that the horse carries out above the ground, such as jumping, or up on its hind legs with forelegs raised in the air (French).

11
.
Duke of Buckingham and De Lauzun:
The second Duke of Buckingham (George Villiers), (1628–1687), is notorious for having killed the Earl of Shrewsbury in a duel in 1668. Links between the Duke of Buckingham and Antoine Nompar de Caumont, duc de Lauzun (1632–1723) are complex. Lauzun was imprisoned at Pignerol in 1671. The Duke of Buckingham attempted to persuade Louis XIV to release him. There are fictional links, too, in Alexandre Dumas'
The Three Musketeers
(1844) and
The Vicomte de Bragelonne
(1848) in the section titled “The Man in the Iron Mask,” both play a (fictional) role.

12
.
Musée secret:
“Secret Museum”—poem by Théophile Gautier; the motif of “perfect absence” (of pubic hair) is taken up in greater depth later in this novel (French).

13
.
Camillo Agrippa:
Renowned Renaissance fencer and theorist of fencing.

14
.
a contre-tierce parry:
One of several types of counterparry movements in fencing (French).

15
.
coulé:
An attack action in fencing, where the sword slides against the opponent's blade (French).

16
.
“inquartata”:
A kind of counterattack in fencing.

17
.
Barcaccia Fountain:
Famous fountain in Piazza di Spagna. It is shaped like a sinking barge; the name literally means “rotten old boat” in Italian.

18
.
Ave, Roma, Moriturus te salutat
:
Parody of a gladiator's salute to the magistrate at games: “Hail, Rome, a man about to die salutes you” (Latin).

19
.
taffeta:
Used in bandaging.

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER I

1
.
Lethean bath:
Reference to the river Lethe, one of five rivers of the underworld. It is the river of forgetfulness and is associated with the afterlife and the belief in rebirth.

2
.
Upanishad:
“One of four Vedas, sacred scriptures of most Hindu traditions.

3
.
the Vedas:
The oldest known Indo-European religious and philosophical tracts.

4
.
“Hae omnes creaturae in totum ego sum, et praeter me aliud ens non est”:
“I am all this creation collectively and besides me there exists no other being”—from the Upanishad of the Veda, translated into Latin by the French historian and Orientalist Anquetil-Duperron and published as
Oupnek'hat
(Paris, 1801–1802) (Latin).

5
.
“I am admitted by nature . . .”:
Georges Maurice de Guérin,
Journal of Maurice de Guérin
(Paris, 1862).

6
.
“The stars we never long to clasp . . .”:
This verse is from Goethe's poem “Trost in Tränen” (Solace in Tears).

7
.
“miro gurge”:
From Dante,
Paradise,
canto XXX, 68, a double Latinism. Translated by Cary (1814), Sinclair (1939), and Singleton (1975) as “wondrous flood”; in current Italian it is translated as
mirabile gorgo
—“wondrous whirlpool” (Latinism used in Italian).

8
.
Titanomachia:
Battle of the Titans.

9
. “
εuλαβεια
”:
Eulabeia
is generally translated into English as “caution” or “concern,” with older meanings of “religious scruple,” “godly fear,” “devotion,” “dread.” D'Annunzio has translated or interpreted it in Italian as in the text above (Ancient Greek).

10
.
a contemporary poet:
Here D'Annunzio is self-inserting or self-inscribing himself into his work—this is his own poem and undoubtedly the “contemporary poet” is himself.

11
.
Homer's liturgy:
For Goethe, Homer's writings were of greater spiritual significance and guidance than the Bible.

12
.
Callimachus's capital:
Callimachus designed the Corinthian capital (column), decorating it with the acanthus leaf.

13
.
“The Verse is everything”:
“Il Verso è tutto”
—verse from a sonnet from D'Annunzio's poetry collection
L'Isottèo,
1886.
“O Poeta, divina è la Parola; / ne la pura Bellezza il ciel ripose / ogni nostra letizia; e il Verso è tutto”
—“O Poet, divine is the Word / in pure Beauty did heaven place / all of our joy; and the Verse is everything.” Once again, D'Annunzio is inscribing himself.

14
.
“Lightly and quickly depart”:
Ballata 146 by Lorenzo de' Medici—
“Parton leggieri e pronti / del petto e miei pensieri.”

15
.
the note
La:
In Italy, as mentioned before, musical notation follows the scheme Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si,
as opposed to the English and German use of letters (A, B, C, D, E, F).
La
corresponds to
A.
Commonly, the diapason, or tuning fork, is set to
La
or
A,
and musicians take their pitch from this note.

16
.
egipane:
Mythological. Deity of the woods; equivalent of the Greek god Pan, a satyr.

17
.
“Pale, yes”:
Original Italian
“Pallido sì”
—allusion to Petrarch's
Triumphi
,
“Mortis I,” v. 166:
“Pallida no, ma piú che neve bianca”
(Not pale, but whiter than snow).

18
.
“hyacinth”:
This flower, or the color of this flower, which recurs again later with reference to Maria, is associated with the Virgin Mary, and qualities of prudence, contemplation, constancy, and benevolence.

19
.
“monsters”:
As mentioned in the following line, these are the Sphinx, the Gorgon, and the Siren, all dual-natured monsters, a recurring motif in this novel. Of interest in this sonnet, which represents the attempt to move from perdition to redemption, is the symbolism of the monster. This represents the instinctual realm in human beings, which struggles against the realm of reason and control. This is representative of Andrea's struggle between carnal desire and higher, more spiritual artistic aspirations.

20
.
“Plow with sad cries . . . songs of gladness”:
From Psalms 126:5: “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.”

21
.
DIE XII SEPTEMBRIS MDCCCLXXXVI
:
On the day of September 12, 1886.

SECOND BOOK, CHAPTER II

1
.
Schifanoja:
Pronounced “
SKEEFANOYA
”—meaning “escape from boredom,” “avoiding boredom” (Italian).

2
.
Vignola:
Jacopo Barozzi—fifteenth-century Italian architectural theorist; member of Vitruvian Academy.

3
.
pour en tirer neuf ou dix muytz d'eaue rose:
“To derive from them nine or ten
muytz
of rose water.” A
muytz
was a French measure of capacity used in the twelfth century, used for dry or wet substances (wine, grain, etc.), of varying capacity—some instances are cited of tonnes, some of 272 liters. The word more commonly found in Old English is
muid
(Old French).

4
.
poet of the
Vergier d'honneur:
André de la Vigne (born c. 1470), who wrote
Le
Vergier d'honneur
(The Orchard of Honor).

5
.
beauté sans traits
:
“Beauty without features.” Madame de Pompadour was noted for her unremarkable looks, which were, however, enlivened by her vibrant personality. (French.)

6
.
Elissa and Tyre:
Elissa (also Alyssa) was a legendary Phoenician princess from Tyre, who established the city of Carthage. Her story is recounted by Virgil in the
Aeneid,
where she is named Dido. Ancient Tyre was famed for its purple dye, extracted from the Murex snail; purple Tyrian fabrics were worn by royalty across Europe. It is situated in modern-day Lebanon.

7
.
Rosa rosarum:
“Rose of roses” (Latin).

8
.
“Thus he distributed the roses and the words”:
From Petrarch's sonnet 245, “Così partìa le rose e le
parole,”
Il Canzoniere
(fourteenth-century Italian).

9
.
“Story of Nastagio degli Onesti”:
In Boccaccio's
Decameron,
Day 5, Story 8.

10
.
turris eburnea:
“Ivory tower” (Latin).

11
.
vas spirituale
:
“Spiritual vessel.” Reference to the Virgin Mary, who is the instrument and vessel of the Holy Spirit (Latin).

12
. “
”
: Ioploch' agnameilichomeide
—from Alcaeus, fragment 384—“violet-haired, holy, sweetly smiling.” The original verse continues with the word “Sappho.” (Ancient Greek.)