{"id":195,"date":"2016-05-03T23:07:25","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T03:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=195"},"modified":"2017-04-03T09:27:57","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T13:27:57","slug":"suid054","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=195","title":{"rendered":"Gabriele Rossetti, Gabriele Rossetti: A Versified Autobiography<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
\n
Performer Name:<\/dt>\n
Quattromani; Rossetti<\/dd>\n
Performance Venue:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Performance Date:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Author:<\/dt>\n
Rossetti, Gabriele<\/dd>\n
Date Written:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Language:<\/dt>\n
English<\/dd>\n
Publication Title:<\/dt>\n
Gabriele Rossetti: A Versified Autobiography<\/dd>\n
Article Title:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Page Numbers:<\/dt>\n
31-35<\/dd>\n
Additional Info:<\/dt>\n
Trans. and ed. William Michael Rossetti<\/dd>\n
Publisher:<\/dt>\n
Sands<\/dd>\n
Place of Publication:<\/dt>\n
London<\/dd>\n
Date Published:<\/dt>\n
1901<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

[31] I interrupt the verse-narrative for a moment, to point out that Rossetti here recounts—what was of leading importance in his Neapolitan career—how he came to be an improvising poet. Luigi Quattromani was a renowned improvisatore, and (so far as I infer) little or [32] not at all an author of verse written and published. The date when Rossetti first knew him, and soon afterwards began improvising, is not here defined; I suppose it may have been towards 1810. When my father came to London in 1824 he resolved not to prolong the practice; thinking, and no doubt rightly, that, although he might excite some surprise and attention by improvising, it would on the whole lower his position as a serious professional man in the teaching and literary vocation. Yet he did occasionally give a specimen of his prowess as an extempore poet; the latest notice I find of such a performance was in his family-circle, in 1840. If I myself ever heard him improvise, I have forgotten it. The observations which he here makes on the dangers of the habit, both to health and to purity of poetic style, are worth noting. He first proceeds with a description of Quattromani's doings.<\/p>\n

Whenso I heard him touch on David's harp,
\nAll fervid with extemporaneous power,
\nUpon his face shone out the impassioned soul
\nWhich spread around spontaneous bursts of light:
\nAnd that same flame I saw a-shine in him
\nOn mine own spirit did I feel descend.
\nYes, what I heard meseemed not possible;
\n'Twas ecstasy to me, enchantment, dream.
\n[33] But what appeared incredible almost
\nWas coming to be realized in myself.
\nOn my way home I tried to do the like,
\nAnd oh astonishment! I also sang
\nLine after line: so strange the upshot seemed
\nThat I renewed the essay for several days.
\nBy daytime and by night assiduously
\nDid I repeat that same experiment.
\nOften with Quattromani I conferred,
\nWho gave my verses not a little praise;
\nAnd once the blind old man exclaimed to me—
\n'Alternate with me in an improvise.'
\nAnd, after a few trials and demands,
\nHe took me up with so much ardent zest
\nThat 'mid the pomp of images produced
\nHe gave me many a 'viva' from his heart.
\nHe closed by saying: 'For poetic strifes
\nNature has given you athletic power.'
\n'Persist,' he often said to me, 'persist,
\nAnd let no sloth impede you on your road.
\nA poet you were born, and those who seek
\nTo change your course—believe this—envy you.
\nWhat you at your commencement do with me
\nMight seem the fruit of lengthy studying.'
\nAnd often did our verses alternate
\nIn choice assemblies with co-equal praise,
\nSo much men's judgments wavered in the scales
\nThat 'twixt us victory remained in doubt.
\nBut this impressed on me the stamp of worth—
\nWhat honour to contend with such a man!
\n[34] He, like a living mirror, faces me,
\nAnd, seeing myself in him, I can but grieve.
\nHe old and blind, and I too blind and old:
\nAnd he died poor, and I am dying poor.
\nBut which of us the more deplorable?
\nHe in his country, I exiled by fate!<\/p>\n

Oft on this foreign shore I've asked myself,
\nDid my addiction to extempore song
\nHarm me, or profit? I remain in doubt.
\nBut this, without nice solving, I'll affirm—
\nI was becoming palsied and in spasms.
\nA Galen's rigour ought to cry it down,
\nAnd thus prevent so miserable an end.
\n'Twas so my Brother Dominick expired,*
\nWho in such efforts was expert and apt.
\nI never heard that brother of mine recite—
\nHe left me a child, but I remember him;
\nAnd well I know that he at Parma's bar
\nWas greeted as a re-born Cicero.
\nYouthful he died, far from his family—
\nAnd wherefore died? Because he improvised.
\nMore than one symptom has convinced me clear
\nThat, through my leaving off that exercise,
\nExile, in that alone, has been my friend:
\nAnd so, from much reflection I can say,
\nThat mental strain leads to paralysis.
\nNor only with regard to healthful life
\n[35] Makes it the nerves uncertain and unstrung,
\nBut as to writing with correctness too
\nI fear at last it worsens toward neglect.
\nYes, that it harms the style I can but think:
\nTo work a-sudden is not working well.
\nThou who wouldst merit the Phœbean wreath,
\nO youth, take caution 'gainst this same abuse;
\nFor these my verses, written slipshod-like,
\nPerhaps derive from that ill-wont of mine;
\nFor now I hurry verse to follow verse,
\nAnd reel them off as 'twere a kind of talk.
\nGood composition craves a needful space,
\nNot emulous capricious fantasy.<\/p>\n

*He died in Parma in July 1816, aged forty-three. The paralysis which killed him had been going on for about a twelvemonth. My father had himself more than one stroke of paralysis in his closing years.—W. [editor's note]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
Collected by:<\/dt>\n
DP<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a verse autobiography with prose commentary by his son W. M. Rossetti, Gabriele Rossetti writes about learning to improvise from his mentor Quattromani, and emphasizes that improvisation is ultimately bad for one’s health. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,134],"tags":[162,76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=195"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3552,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195\/revisions\/3552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}