Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
GIUSTI, GIUSEPPE (1809–1850)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: GEO-GNU
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:GIUSTI, GIUSEPPE (1809–1850) , Tuscan satirical poet, was See also:born at Monsummano, a small See also:village of the Valdinievole, on the 12th of May 1809. His See also:father, a cultivated and See also:rich See also:man, accustomed his son from childhood to study, and himself taught him, among other subjects, the first rudiments of See also:music. After-wards, in See also:order to curb his too vivacious disposition, he placed the boy under the See also:charge of a See also:priest near the village, whose severity did perhaps more evil than See also:good. At twelve Giusti was sent to school at See also:Florence, and afterwards to See also:Pistoia and to See also:Lucca; and during those years he wrote his first verses. In 1826 he went to study See also:law at See also:Pisa; but, disliking the study, he spent eight years in the course, instead of the customary four. He lived gaily, however, though his father kept him See also:short of See also:money, and learned to know the See also:world, seeing the vices of society, and the folly of certain See also:laws and customs from which his See also:country was suffering. The experience thus gained he turned to good See also:account in the use he made of it in his See also:satire. His father had in the meantime changed his See also:place of See also:abode to See also:Pescia; but Giuseppe did worse there, and in See also:November 1832, his father having paid his debts, he returned to study at Pisa, seriously enamoured of a woman whom he could not marry, but now commencing to write in real See also:earnest in behalf of his country. With the poem called La Ghigliottina (the See also:guillotine), Giusti began to strike out a path for himself, and thus revealed his See also:great See also:genius. From this See also:time he showed himself the See also:Italian See also:Beranger, and even surpassed the Frenchman in richness of See also:language, refinement of See also:humour and See also:depth of satirical conception. In Beranger there is more feeling for what is needed for popular See also:poetry. His poetry is less studied, its vivacity perhaps more boisterous, more spontaneous; but Giusti, in both manner and conception, is perhaps more elegant, more refined, more penetrating. In 1834 Giusti, having at last entered the legal profession, See also:left Pisa to go to Florence, nominally to practise with the See also:advocate Capoquadri, but really to enjoy See also:life in the See also:capital of See also:Tuscany. He See also:fell seriously in love a second time, and as before was abandoned by his love. It was then he wrote his finest verses, by means of which, although his poetry was not yet collected in a See also:volume, but for some years passed from See also:hand to hand, his name gradually became famous. The greater See also:part of his poems were published clandestinely at See also:Lugano, at no little See also:risk, as the See also:work was destined to undermine the See also:Austrian See also:rule in See also:Italy. After the publication of a volume of verses at See also:Bastia, Giusti thoroughly established his fame by his Gingillino, the best in moral See also:tone as well as the most vigorous and effective of his poems. The poet sets himself to represent the vileness of the See also:treasury officials, and the See also:base means they used to conceal the necessities of the See also:state. The Gingillino has all the See also:character of a classic satire. When first issued in Tuscany, it struck all as too impassioned and See also:personal. Giusti entered See also:heart and soul into the See also:political movements of 1847 and 1848, served in the See also:national guard, sat in the See also:parliament for Tuscany; but finding that there was more talk than See also:action, that to the tyranny of princes had succeeded the tyranny of demagogues, he began to fear, and to See also:express the fear, that for Italy evil rather than good had resulted. He fell, in consequence, from the high position he had held in public estimation, and in 1848 was regarded as a reactionary. His friendship for the See also:marquis Gino See also:Capponi, who had taken him into his See also:house during the last years of his life, and who published after Giusti's See also:death a volume of illustrated See also:proverbs, was enough to See also:compromise him in the eyes of such men as Guerrazzi, See also:Montanelli and Niccolini. On the 31st of May 185o he died at Florence in the See also:palace of his friend. The poetry of Giusti, under a See also:light trivial aspect, has a lofty civilizing significance. The type of his satire is entirely See also:original, and it had also the great merit of appearing at the right moment, of wounding judiciously, of sustaining the part of the See also:comedy that " castigat ridendo mores." Hence his See also:verse, apparently jovial, was received by the scholars and politicians of Italy in all seriousness. See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] GIURGEVO (Giurgiu) |
[next] GIUSTINIANI |