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Cecco d'Angiolieri, da Siena. “Sonnet. He argues his case with Death.”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1861
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcdcd
Meter: iambic pentameter
Genre: sonnet

Bibliography

◦ “Introduction to Part II” (in Early Italian Poets) 212-217

◦ Lanza, ed., Rime. Cecco Angiolieri, 159-160

◦ Massera, ed., Sonetti Burleschi e Realistici, 115 (II. 130)

Annotations

Editorial glosses and textual notes are available in a pop-up window. Line numbering reflects the structure of the Early Italian Poets text.



This collection contains 10 texts and images, including:


Early Italian Poets text

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

Cecco's sonnet is topically specific at several points and DGR has mistranslated in the last case (line 14), not having grasped the obscure reference to the famous baths at Pozzuoli. His speculative note explains his translational reasoning.

DGR's source text was Trucchi (I. 274). For further general information about Cecco and his work see the commentary for “Dante Alighieri, Cecco, your good friend”).

Textual History: Composition

An early translation, probably late 1840s.

Printing History

The translation was first published in 1861 in The Early Italian Poets; it was reprinted in 1874 in Dante and his Circle.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: 57d-1861.raw.xml