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GIRALDI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1504-1573)
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See also:GIRALDI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1504-1573) , surnamed CYNTHIus, CINTIIIO or CINTIO, See also:Italian novelist and poet, See also:born at See also:Ferrara in See also:November 1504, was educated at the university of his native See also:town, where in 1525 he became See also:professor of natural See also:philosophy, and, twelve years afterwards, succeeded Celio Calcagnini in the See also:chair of belles-lettres. Between 1542 and 156o he acted as private secretary, first to Ercole II. and afterwards to Aiphonso II. of See also:Este; but having, in connexion with a See also:literary See also:quarrel in which he had got involved, lost the favour of his See also:patron in the latter See also:year, he removed to See also:Mondovi, where he remained as a teacher of literature till 1568. " Subsequently, on the invitation of the See also:senate of See also:Milan, he occupied the chair of See also:rhetoric at See also:Pavia till 1573, when, in See also:search of See also:health, he returned to his native town, where on the 3oth of See also:December he died. Besides an epic entitled Ercole (1557), in twenty-six cantos, Giraldi wrote nine tragedies, the best known of which, Orbecche, was produced in 1541. The sanguinary and disgusting See also:character of the See also:plot of this See also:play, and the See also:general poverty of its See also:style, are, in the See also:opinion of many of its critics, almost fully redeemed by occasional bursts of genuine and impassioned See also:poetry; of one See also:scene in the third See also:act in particular it has even been affirmed that, if it alone were sufficient to decide the question, the Orbecche would be the finest play in the See also:world. Of the See also:prose See also:works of Giraldi the most important is the Hecatommithi or Ecatomiti, a collection of tales told somewhat after the manner of See also:Boccaccio, but still more closely resembling the novels of Giraldi's contemporary See also:Bandello, only much inferior in workmanship to the productions of either author in vigour, liveliness and See also:local See also:colour. Something, but not much, however, may be said in favour of their professed claim to represent a higher See also:standard of morality. Originally published at Monteregale, See also:Sicily, in 1565, they were frequently reprinted in See also:Italy, while a See also:French See also:translation by Chappuys appeared in 1583 and one in See also:Spanish in 1J90. They have a See also:peculiar See also:interest to students of See also:English literature, as having furnished, whether directly or in-directly, the plots of Measure for Measure and Othello. That of the latter, .which is to be found in the Hecalommithi (iii. 7), is conjectured to have reached See also:Shakespeare through the French translation; while that of the former (Hecat. viii. 5) is probably to be traced to See also:Whetstone's Promos and See also:Cassandra (1578), an See also:adaptation of Cinthio's See also:story, and to his Heptamerone (1582), which contains a See also:direct English translation. To Giraldi also must be attributed the plot of See also:Beaumont and See also:Fletcher's See also:Custom of the See also:Country. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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