Dear Colleagues, I have received the following query regarding Hume's
(David, I suppose) use of the expression/concept "dolce piccante." I and
my correspondent would be grateful for any elucidation on its possible
derivation. Thanks. Sante Matteo
"In paragraph 17 of his 'Of Tragedy', Hume illustrates a point of
psychology by
>noting that a measure of jealousy and some absence from one's
>inamorata strengthen love and 'compose the dolce piccante of the
>Italians, which they suppose so essential to all pleasure'. In later
>editions the phrase gets corrupted to 'peccante'.
>
>The question is to what concept Hume is referring. Does it have a
>place in Italian renaissance or baroque criticism, or is it just folk
>wisdom? Hume was well read in Ariosto et al., and generally when
>he says something like this there is a published precedent. Can
>someone tell what Hume had in the back of his mind?"
Sante Matteo
Professor of Italian
Dept. of French and Italian
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
tel. 513/529-5932
fax: 513/529-1807
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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