Italian Poetry and Music in Daniel Deronda

Abstract

In her last novel, George Eliot incorporates a number of musical settings of texts in Italian. The most important of these are three lines from Dante’s Inferno V (‘There is no greater pain than to recall the happy time in misery’ (121–3)); ‘Per pieta non dirmi addio’ [‘For pity’s sake say not Farewell’] by Metastasio and the patriotic ode All’Italia [‘To Italy’] by Giacomo Leopardi.¹ The lines by Dante, particular favourites of Eliot’s, have already been touched on in Chapters 6 and 7 but we shall return to them here. Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) was well known as a poet and composer of libretti for operas. His work was familiar in England, was often included in anthologies of Italian literature and, particularly during the years of the Italianate fashion, was a favourite with those who wished to sing arias from his operas. Leopardi, on the other hand, was comparatively unknown in England. Between 1800 and 1850, there were at least 26 translations and editions of Dante published in England, 17 of Metastasio but none of Leopardi. In 1848, an article in Frazer’s Magazine affirmed that the name of Giacomo Leopardi ‘is a mere sound signifying nothing’.²