Teofilo Folengo

Teofilo Folengo (1491–1544) was born in Mantua and joined the Benedictine order, but became a runaway monk and a satirist of monasticism. In 1517 he published, under the pseudonym Merlin Cocaio, the first version of his macaronic narrative poem Baldo, later enlarged and elaborated. It blended Latin with various Italian dialects in hexameter verse, inventing a deliberately droll language whose humor depends on the mixture of high and low tonalities. An important example of the mock-heroic epic, the work was a model for Rabelais and was frequently reprinted. Baldo, the hero of these picaresque adventures, is a descendant of French royalty who starts out as something of a juvenile delinquent. The poem narrates episodes that include imprisonment; battles with local authorities, pirates, shepherds, witches, and demons; and a journey to the underworld. Throughout Baldo is accompanied by various companions, among them a giant, a centaur, a magician, and his best friend Cingar, a wickedly inventive trickster (“practicus ad beffas”). This edition provides the first English translation of this hilarious send-up of ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance.

Teofilo Folengo (1491-1544) was born in Mantua and joined the Benedictine order, but became a runaway monk and a satirist of monasticism. In 1517 he published, under the pseudonym Merlin Cocaio, the first version of his macaronic narrative poem Baldo, later enlarged and elaborated. It blended Latin with various Italian dialects in hexameter verse, inventing a deliberately droll language whose humor depends on the mixture of high and low tonalities. An important example of the mock-heroic epic, the work was a model for Rabelais and was frequently reprinted. Baldo, the hero of these picaresque adventures, is a descendant of French royalty who starts out as something of a juvenile delinquent. The poem narrates episodes which include imprisonment; battles with local authorities, pirates, shepherds, witches, and demons; and a journey to the underworld. Throughout Baldo is accompanied by various companions, among them a giant, a centaur, a magician, and his best friend Cingar, a wickedly inventive trickster ("practicus ad beffas"). This edition provides the first English translation of this hilarious send-up of ancient epic and Renaissance chivalric romance.

Je ne vois par le monde que les gens portant capuce. Chacun vole se faire frere, chacun veut le capuce. Apres qu'ils ont joue leur argent, vide leur bourse, quand le pain manque dans la corbeille et le vin dans le baril, ils se ruent chez les freres, et on leur donne aussitot le capuce. Ils ont partout ces freres, partout, ces capuces: on ne sait pas qui ils sont, et nul n'arrive a distinguer tant de formes et tant de couleurs de robes. Il en est de bleu fonce, de noirs et de bruns, des blancs, des roux, des gris et des cendres. Telle est a tout bout de champ la variete de ces freres, que je distingue mal qui est du Christ, et qui est de Mahomet. Autant d'etoiles au ciel, de feuilles dans les forets, autant de regles chez les freres, autant de capuces. Si je voyage par voie de terre, je vois des capuces. Je regarde les places d'armes, j'y vois des capuces. J'entre sur la place, dans une barque, a la taverne, aussitot devant mes yeux je vois quelque capuce. Je ne vois par les rues que capuces trotter. (Baldus VIII, 475-494.) Mario Chiesa est professeur de litterature italienne a la faculte de langues et litteratures etrangeres de l'Universite de Turin. Gerard Genot et Paul Larivaille sont professeurs emerites a l'Universite de Paris X - Nanterre.