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IMPROVISATORE
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IMPROVISATORE , a word used to describe a poet who recites verses which he composes on the See also:spur of the moment, without previous preparation. The See also:term is purely See also:Italian, although in that See also:language it would be more correctly spelt improvvisatore. It became recognized as an See also:English word in the See also:middle of the eighteenth See also:century, and is so used by See also:Smollett in his Travels (1766); he defines an improvisatore as " an individual who has the surprising See also:talent of reciting verses extempore, on any subject you propose." In speaking of a woman, the See also:female See also:form improvisatrice is sometimes used in English. Improvisation is a, See also:gift which properly belongs to those See also:languages in which a See also:great variety of grammatical inflections, wedded to simplicity of See also:rhythm and abundance of See also:rhyme, enable a poet to slur over difficulties in such a way as to satisfy the See also:ear of his See also:audience. In See also:ancient times the greater See also:part.of the popular See also:poetry with which the leisure of listeners was beguiled was of this rhapsodical nature. But in See also:modern See also:Europe it was the troubadours, owing to the extreme flexibility of the languages of See also:Provence, who distinguished themselves above all others as improvisatores. It is difficult to believe, however, that the elaborate compositions of these poets, which have come down to us, in which every exquisite artifice of versification is taken See also:advantage of, can have been poured forth without pre-meditation. These poets, we must rather suppose, took a See also:pride in the ostentation of a prodigious memory, most carefully trained, and poured forth in public what they had laboriously learned by See also:heart in private. The Italians, however, in the 16th century, cultivated what seems to have been a genuine improvisation, in which the bards rhapsodized, not as they themselves pleased, but on subjects which were unexpected by them, and which were chosen on the spot by their patrons. Of these, the most extraordinary is said to have been Silvio Antoniano (1540-1603), who from the See also:age of ten was able to pour out melodious See also:verse on any subject which was suggested to him. He was brought toe See also:Rome, where successive popes so delighted in his talent that in 1598 he was made a See also:cardinal. In the 17th century thecelebrated See also:Metastasio first attracted See also:attention by his skill as an improvisatore. But he was excelled by Bernardino Perfetti (1681-1747), who was perhaps the most extraordinary See also:genius of this class who has ever lived. He was seized, in his moments of See also:composition, with a transport which transfigured his whole See also:person, and under this excitement he poured forth verses in a miraculous flow. It was his See also:custom to be attended by a guitarist, who played a recitative See also:accompaniment. In this way Perfetti made a triumphal procession through the cities of See also:Italy, ending up with the Capitol of Rome, where See also:Pope See also:Benedict XIII. crowned him with See also:laurel, and created him a See also:Roman See also:citizen. One of the most remarkable improvisatores of modern times appeared in See also:Sweden, in the person of Karl Mikael See also:Bellman(174o-1795), who used to take up a position in the public gardens and parks of See also:Stockholm, accompanying himself on a See also:guitar, and treating See also:metre and rhythm with a virtuosity and originality which See also:place him among the leading poets of See also:Swedish literature. In See also:England, somewhat later, See also:Theodore See also:Hook (1788-1841) See also:developed a surprising talent for this See also:kind, but his verses were rarely of the serious or sentimental See also:character. of which we have hitherto spoken. Hook's See also:animal See also:spirits were unfortunately mingled with vulgarity, and his See also:clever jeux d'esprit had little but their smartness to recommend them. A similar talent, exercised in a somewhat more See also:literary direction, made See also:Joseph Wry (1798-1865) a delightful See also:companion in the Parisian society of his See also:day. It is rare indeed that the productions of the improvisatore, taken down in shorthand, and read in the See also:cold See also:light of See also:criticism, are found to justify the impression which the author produced on his See also:original audience. Imperfections of every kind become patent when we read these transcripts, and the reader cannot avoid perceiving weaknesses of See also:style and See also:grammar. The See also:eye and See also:voice of the improvisatore so hypnotize his auditors as to make them incapable of forming a sober See also:judgment on matters of See also:mere literature. IN-ANTIS, the architectural term given to those temples the entrance part of which consisted of two columns placed between the See also:antae or pilasters (see See also:TEMPLE). 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