Interesting question, Eileen.
I'm not sure there *is* much evidence that Donne read either Italian or
Petrarch.
(The standard study used to be _John Donne, petrarchist_ by Donald L. Guss,
but that was a time ago, so stuff may have been done since.)
The Lothian Portrait has (I think) a tag from Petrarch, but that's all I can
think of offhand.
He does allude to Castiglione in one of the Satires, but that's prolly from
Hoby's translation.
Certainly more references to French authors than Italian (Rabelais and
Montaigne, e.g) ones in his work, and when he refers to "my Spanish
authors", he's talking about Spanish theologians writing in Latin.
He would (certainly?) have known some of Petrarch through Thomas Wyatt's
translations, but unlike say Sidney or Milton, or Spenser even, I don't have
the sense that he was particularly involved in Italian, French, or
Spanish -- mostly Latin, but losts of that from (at least) Augustine to
Pico.
What *is* undeniable was that his poetry -- well the S&S anyway -- is
heavily involved in the Petrarchist (sic) tradition, but that's another
matter.
Sorry for such a fuzzy response, but it's been since forever that I did
anything on this.
Cheers,
Robin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eileen Abrahams" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2004 9:49 PM
Subject: Donne's Petrarch
> Several studies of Donne claim that Donne read Italian, but is there any
evidence that he read
> Petrarch in Italian?
|