Šiško Mencetic
Encyclopedia
Šišmundo Menčetić Vlahović, ʃîʃkɔ mɛ̂ntʃɛtitɕ, or Sigismondo Menze (1457–1527) was a poet from the Republic of Ragusa
, chiefly creating his opus in the 15th century.
, part of the aristocratic family of Menčetić, in what is today the city of Dubrovnik
. He spend his youth rather in a ribald and dissolute way, his name is often mentioned in law documents of the Dubrovnik archive: he was charged in court due to incidents on city streets including the harassment of the women. He served as an official in the Dubrovnik government in various positions: as a twenty year-old he entered the Ragusan Small Council, and twice (in 1521 and 1524), he was the Duke of the Republic of Ragusa
. Menčetić married in 1497 when he was 40. He died, with two of his sons, on June 25, 1527, in a major epidemic of the plague.
As opposed to Džore Držić
, Menčetić's opus contains longer lyrical narratives, and lyrical subject is more immediate, vigorous, lascivious and eroticized, and the topic of and the sensuality of reciprocated love is emphasized. The most distinguished role model is Francesco Petrarca, and that makes Menčetić, beside Džore Držić
, the first Croatian Petrarchist. He belonged to Strambottists, which detach themselves from certain Petrarchan ideas: noticeable is the absence of Neoplatonism
s, sensuality comes to be accentuated as the poets draw more close to vernacular forms (strambotto, rispetto), and sonnet
is being abandoned. Most of the opus thematically inherits Petrarchism though - beauty and the pleasures of the poet's beloved are being described, but in several poems Menčetić diverges from classical Petrarchism celebrating the happiness of a lover whose pleas have been conceded.
Beside Petrarchian elements, Menčetić's opus demonstrates clearly discernible elements of Medieval poetry
, either in terms of the Provençal
troubadour
lyric and the motif of servitude, or in terms of lexical influences of German culture (Minnesang
). In tow of Menčetić's songs lexeme frava can be found, which originates from Old High German
frouwe (confer German
Frau):Goraše svital raj u ličcu toj fravi and Pjesance, kad budeš na skutu toj fravi. Obvious is the influence of folk motifs well-spread in the Middle Ages, amplified by the influences of Strambottisms, such as the rhyme of the folk song Mnokrat reci u sebi rič, koja je ohola or in the usage of diminutives (kladencem vodice), such as in the song Moj Bože, Bože moj, molim te za rados and the bugaršćica-type verse, with 15 syllables per line.
in doubly rhymed dodecasyllable
metre of Dubrovnik typed; dodecasyllabic with intransitive rhyme
and secondary caesura
after the third and the ninth syllable, with main caesure after the sixth syllable (e.g. Koji čtiš | sej pjesni ||, molim te | veselo), with the exception of three poems with 15-syllable meter, and the poem Isusu na križu written in Marulić-style
dodecasyllabic with transitive rhyme.
motifs, often in acrostic
with the names of women the poems were dedicated to, but there is also a number of satirical
and morally reflexive, as well as 11 religious poems dedicated to Jesus
. The dominant type is of declaratory or dialogue, i.e. appellative poem, exceptions being poems such as Zoviješe zora dan a slavno prolitje where no appellative traits are found. A three poems of "woman voice" are found, in which the narrator is a woman, and are characterized by a simple poetical language, woman's lust the lover in absence, and the simulation of actually written communication.
In the first thematic unit poems like Ne mogu živjeti bez tebe are distinguished in which beloved maiden becomes a part of lyrical subject (ter tebe želeći sam sebe toj želju) or couplet
poems such Bože, šta osta tebi which platonically the beauties of the poet's beloved are described.
The second thematic unit emphasizes sensuality and the perception of love (ar se mnjah u broju ne jedan nu prvi / od Grka ki Troju puštaše u krvi), such as in the poem Ljuveno uživanje, or sensuality or lust, such as in the poem Ner tko je srcem lav i kamen u sebi. This thematic unit introduces the motif of alba, a poetical form describing the dialogue of lovers, with possible presence of a third person (the guardian), separated by the dawn.
The most famous poem of the second thematic unit is the Blaženi čas i hip, paraphrasing Petrarca's LXI. sonnet (Benedetto sia 'l giorno, e 'l mese, e l'anno). It is versified in dodecasyllabic couplets, odd verses following Petrarchan principles, and even verses emphasizing sensuality. Petrarchan platonist ending of celebrating the spiritual love towards Laura
, as hes inspiration and muse, eroticizes and mutates elegiac tone into dithyramb
ic, and the central motif is no more the lyrical subject but the erotic perception of the beloved (Blažena ljepos tva, blažena tva mlados / pokli se meni sva darova za rados).
Poems not of love theme are chiefly concerned with the absence of earthly love and the turn towards spiritual, which is manifested as eleven songs dedicated to the Jesus, and one song dedicated to Virgin Mary (Uzmožna gospođe, tko milos ku žudi). Sertain satirical poems are also found, with misogynical
elements of resignation (Uzdarje u ženu, Mrzim na žene), but also poems of general character, confrontation of wealth and niggardness, and similar topics (Zlo od Kotora, the first poetical trace of a traditional antagonism between Dubrovnik
and Kotor
).
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
, chiefly creating his opus in the 15th century.
Biography
Menčetić was born in 1458 in Republic of RagusaRepublic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
, part of the aristocratic family of Menčetić, in what is today the city of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
. He spend his youth rather in a ribald and dissolute way, his name is often mentioned in law documents of the Dubrovnik archive: he was charged in court due to incidents on city streets including the harassment of the women. He served as an official in the Dubrovnik government in various positions: as a twenty year-old he entered the Ragusan Small Council, and twice (in 1521 and 1524), he was the Duke of the Republic of Ragusa
Republic of Ragusa
The Republic of Ragusa or Republic of Dubrovnik was a maritime republic centered on the city of Dubrovnik in Dalmatia , that existed from 1358 to 1808...
. Menčetić married in 1497 when he was 40. He died, with two of his sons, on June 25, 1527, in a major epidemic of the plague.
Influences
Menčetić belongs to the first generation of Croatian lyrical poets, and most of his poems (512) have been preserved in Ranjina's Miscellany, in which he is the most represented poet.As opposed to Džore Držić
Džore Držic
Džore Držić was a Croatian poet and playwright, one of the fathers of Croatian literature.This respectable citizen of Dubrovnik, the uncle of the greatest Croatian playwright Marin Držić, the rector of the Church of All Saints, the chancellor of the Dubrovnik chapter, a contemporary of the poet...
, Menčetić's opus contains longer lyrical narratives, and lyrical subject is more immediate, vigorous, lascivious and eroticized, and the topic of and the sensuality of reciprocated love is emphasized. The most distinguished role model is Francesco Petrarca, and that makes Menčetić, beside Džore Držić
Džore Držic
Džore Držić was a Croatian poet and playwright, one of the fathers of Croatian literature.This respectable citizen of Dubrovnik, the uncle of the greatest Croatian playwright Marin Držić, the rector of the Church of All Saints, the chancellor of the Dubrovnik chapter, a contemporary of the poet...
, the first Croatian Petrarchist. He belonged to Strambottists, which detach themselves from certain Petrarchan ideas: noticeable is the absence of Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
s, sensuality comes to be accentuated as the poets draw more close to vernacular forms (strambotto, rispetto), and sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
is being abandoned. Most of the opus thematically inherits Petrarchism though - beauty and the pleasures of the poet's beloved are being described, but in several poems Menčetić diverges from classical Petrarchism celebrating the happiness of a lover whose pleas have been conceded.
Beside Petrarchian elements, Menčetić's opus demonstrates clearly discernible elements of Medieval poetry
Medieval poetry
Because most of what we have was written down by clerics, much of extant medieval poetry is religious. The chief exception is the work of the troubadours and the minnesänger, whose primary innovation was the ideal of courtly love. Among the most famous of secular poetry is Carmina Burana, a...
, either in terms of the Provençal
Provençal literature
Occitan literature — still sometimes called Provençal literature — is a body of texts written in Occitan in what is nowadays the South of France. It originated in the poetry of the 11th- and 12th-century troubadours, and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval...
troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
lyric and the motif of servitude, or in terms of lexical influences of German culture (Minnesang
Minnesang
Minnesang was the tradition of lyric and song writing in Germany which flourished in the 12th century and continued into the 14th century. People who wrote and performed Minnesang are known as Minnesingers . The name derives from the word minne, Middle High German for love which was their main...
). In tow of Menčetić's songs lexeme frava can be found, which originates from Old High German
Old High German
The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
frouwe (confer German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Frau):Goraše svital raj u ličcu toj fravi and Pjesance, kad budeš na skutu toj fravi. Obvious is the influence of folk motifs well-spread in the Middle Ages, amplified by the influences of Strambottisms, such as the rhyme of the folk song Mnokrat reci u sebi rič, koja je ohola or in the usage of diminutives (kladencem vodice), such as in the song Moj Bože, Bože moj, molim te za rados and the bugaršćica-type verse, with 15 syllables per line.
Form
Poems are usually versifiedVersification
Versification may be*the art of making verses, see poetry*the theory of the phonetic structure of verse, see meter *the rendition of a prose work into verse, especially of classical works during the Middle Ages, see medieval poetry...
in doubly rhymed dodecasyllable
Dodecasyllable
Dodecasyllable verse is a line of verse with twelve syllables. 12 syllable lines are used in a variety of poetic traditions, including Italian and French poetry, and in poetry of the Southern Slavs...
metre of Dubrovnik typed; dodecasyllabic with intransitive rhyme
Rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words and is most often used in poetry and songs. The word "rhyme" may also refer to a short poem, such as a rhyming couplet or other brief rhyming poem such as nursery rhymes.-Etymology:...
and secondary caesura
Caesura
thumb|100px|An example of a caesura in modern western music notation.In meter, a caesura is a complete pause in a line of poetry or in a musical composition. The plural form of caesura is caesuras or caesurae...
after the third and the ninth syllable, with main caesure after the sixth syllable (e.g. Koji čtiš | sej pjesni ||, molim te | veselo), with the exception of three poems with 15-syllable meter, and the poem Isusu na križu written in Marulić-style
Marko Marulic
Marko Marulić |Split]], 18 August 1450 – Split, 5 January 1524) was a Croatian national poet and Christian humanist, known as the Crown of the Croatian Medieval Age and the father of the Croatian Renaissance. He signed his works as Marko Marulić Splićanin , Marko Pečenić, Marcus Marulus ...
dodecasyllabic with transitive rhyme.
Themes
His poems mostly contain loveLove
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
motifs, often in acrostic
Acrostic
An acrostic is a poem or other form of writing in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out a word or a message. As a form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aid memory retrieval. A famous...
with the names of women the poems were dedicated to, but there is also a number of satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and morally reflexive, as well as 11 religious poems dedicated to Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
. The dominant type is of declaratory or dialogue, i.e. appellative poem, exceptions being poems such as Zoviješe zora dan a slavno prolitje where no appellative traits are found. A three poems of "woman voice" are found, in which the narrator is a woman, and are characterized by a simple poetical language, woman's lust the lover in absence, and the simulation of actually written communication.
In the first thematic unit poems like Ne mogu živjeti bez tebe are distinguished in which beloved maiden becomes a part of lyrical subject (ter tebe želeći sam sebe toj želju) or couplet
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of meter in poetry. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter.While traditionally couplets rhyme, not all do. A poem may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic...
poems such Bože, šta osta tebi which platonically the beauties of the poet's beloved are described.
The second thematic unit emphasizes sensuality and the perception of love (ar se mnjah u broju ne jedan nu prvi / od Grka ki Troju puštaše u krvi), such as in the poem Ljuveno uživanje, or sensuality or lust, such as in the poem Ner tko je srcem lav i kamen u sebi. This thematic unit introduces the motif of alba, a poetical form describing the dialogue of lovers, with possible presence of a third person (the guardian), separated by the dawn.
The most famous poem of the second thematic unit is the Blaženi čas i hip, paraphrasing Petrarca's LXI. sonnet (Benedetto sia 'l giorno, e 'l mese, e l'anno). It is versified in dodecasyllabic couplets, odd verses following Petrarchan principles, and even verses emphasizing sensuality. Petrarchan platonist ending of celebrating the spiritual love towards Laura
Laura de Noves
Laura de Noves was the wife of Count Hugues de Sade . She could be the Laura that the Humanist poet Francesco Petrarch wrote about extensively; however, she has never been positively identified as such. Laura had a great influence on Petrarch's life and lyrics...
, as hes inspiration and muse, eroticizes and mutates elegiac tone into dithyramb
Dithyramb
The dithyramb was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god: Plato, in The Laws, while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb." Plato also...
ic, and the central motif is no more the lyrical subject but the erotic perception of the beloved (Blažena ljepos tva, blažena tva mlados / pokli se meni sva darova za rados).
Poems not of love theme are chiefly concerned with the absence of earthly love and the turn towards spiritual, which is manifested as eleven songs dedicated to the Jesus, and one song dedicated to Virgin Mary (Uzmožna gospođe, tko milos ku žudi). Sertain satirical poems are also found, with misogynical
Misogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
elements of resignation (Uzdarje u ženu, Mrzim na žene), but also poems of general character, confrontation of wealth and niggardness, and similar topics (Zlo od Kotora, the first poetical trace of a traditional antagonism between Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea coast, positioned at the terminal end of the Isthmus of Dubrovnik. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Adriatic, a seaport and the centre of Dubrovnik-Neretva county. Its total population is 42,641...
and Kotor
Kotor
Kotor is a coastal city in Montenegro. It is located in a secluded part of the Gulf of Kotor. The city has a population of 13,510 and is the administrative center of the municipality....
).