The Court and Its Critics: Anti-Court Sentiments in Early Modern Italy (Toronto Italian Studies)

Anti-courtly discourse furnished a platform for discussing some of the most pressing questions of early modern Italian society. The court was the space that witnessed a new form of negotiation of identity and prestige, the definition of masculinity and of gender-specific roles, the birth of modern politics and of an ethics based on merit and on individual self-interest. The Court and Its Critics analyses anti-courtly critiques using a wide variety of sources including manuals of courtliness, dialogues, satires, and plays, from the mid-fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. The book is structured around four key figures that embody different features of anti-courtly sentiments. The figure of the courtier shows that sentiments against the court were present even among those who apparently benefitted from such a system of power. The court lady allows an investigation of the intertwining of anti-courtliness and anti-feminism. The satirist and the shepherd of pastoral dramas are investigated as attempts to fashion two different forms of a new self for the court intellectual. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction 12 1 The Courtier 22 A new manual for a new profession 22 The legacy of anti-courtly sentiments 24 The game and its space 27 Unhappy birds born in some miserable valley 29 Conspicuous exclusions 33 The courtier-counsellor 34 Mutable selves 41 The evolution of manuals of conduct at court 42 Anti-courtliness and the Book of the Courtier’s epigones 44 Golden chains 54 2 The Lady 59 Women, anti-feminism, and anti-courtliness in the Italian Renaissance 59 The courtier’s anxious masculinity 62 The court is a woman 66 The court is a witch 67 Love and courtliness 71 Court ladies and courtly power 74 Court ladies and courtly competition 75 Training a successful court lady 77 Courtly competition and the court virtuose 80 The warrior who sang with court ladies 81 The court is a whore 91 3 The Satirist 93 A paradise for satirists 93 Classical and medieval sources 95 De curialium miseriis and the onset of “modern” anti-court sentiments 97 Satire/satirist/sat 101 Anti-court satire par excellence: Ludovico Ariosto’s Satire 104 Italian anti-court verse satire: Early examples and leitmotifs 109 The court in satires 115 Courtly Fortuna 118 Courtly payoffs 120 Courtly interactions 121 Courtly language 122 Courtly malaise 124 The courtly self 126 The courtier as Proteus 131 Anti-court satires and Renaissance society 134 The whore, the virgin, and the satyr 136 Ambition, success, and failure 139 From amusement to invective 142 Aretino’s new anti-courtliness 144 The court of heaven, the printer’s garden 149 The fate of the satirist 151 4 The Shepherd 154 Pastoral anti-courtliness 154 The villa versus the court 156 The depiction of villa life in early modern Italy 158 Anti-courtliness and agricultural literature 163 The pastoral community 165 Courtliness and anti-courtliness in pastoral plays 166 The anomaly of Tasso’s pastoral writings 168 The anti-court motif in later pastoral plays 178 Anti-courtliness in Guarini’s Pastor Fido 180 The redeemed court 186 Afterword 190 Notes 196 Bibliography 262 Index 284 "Anti-courtly discourse furnished a platform for discussing some of the most pressing questions of early modern Italian society. The court was the space that witnessed a new form of negotiation of identity and prestige, the definition of masculinity and of gender-specific roles, the birth of modern politics and of an ethics based on merit and on individual self-interest. The Court and Its Critics analyzes anti-courtly critiques using a wide variety of sources including manuals of courtliness, dialogues, satires, and plays, from the mid-fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. The book is structured around four key figures that embody different features of anti-courtly sentiments. The figure of the courtier shows that sentiments against the court were present even among those who apparently benefitted from such a system of power. The court lady allows an investigation of the intertwining between anti-courtliness and antifeminism. The satirist and the shepherd of pastoral dramas are investigated as attempts to fashion two different forms of a new self for the court intellectual."-- Provided by publisher