624 linda l. carroll
the long-lost child of a highborn character and thus eligible for various
privileges of the highborn including marrying the highborn beloved. the
greek romance, which was revived in this period, assumed importance
because of the prestige of classical literature. Popular were spinoffs from
it and from spanish romances.
expressionistic literature encompassed a significant element of satire,
including the satire of learned genres; indeed, some texts were so con-
troversial that they were first published as individual folios. at the head
of this heterogeneous and, given the extent to which many of its partici-
pants played with the reformist notions current in the period, heterodox
activity was Pietro aretino. he arrived in Venice in 1527, having alienated
both the papal court and the marquis of Mantua. until his death in 1556,
aretino capitalized on the increased nonconformism and expressionism
engendered by the wars and consequent political earthquake, while pro-
tecting his interests through his ability to both flatter and pressure the
powerful. he invented forms of political and social commentary including
the pasquinade, a kind of oracular text satirizing public figures; the prog-
nostication, a faked astrological prediction that manipulated the powerful
by threatening to influence public opinion against them; and collections
of private correspondence with important figures. his comedies, such as
the Marescalco [The Stablemaster] and Cortigiana [The Courtesan], and
dialogues, such as Sei giornate or Ragionamenti [Six Days or Discussions],
indulged in describing the seamy aspects of life.
in these decades Venetian patricians became more personally involved
in literary life, some forming sub-groups around aretino and bembo,
although aretino seemed to influence both. the principals in aretino’s
circle were father and son Lorenzo and Maffio Venier, who engaged in
scatological poetry that included a number of pieces directed at courte-
sans, especially Veronica Franco. she herself was an accomplished poet-
ess and one of a number of women writers to whom Lorenzo’s brother
domenico extended the patronage of his own literary salon.
rooted in the frank and even coarse descriptions of female eroticism
of the earlier tradition including the poetry of giustinian, the plays of
ruzante and the anonymous Veniexiana [the Venetian Matron] describ-
ing the competition of two Venetian patrician women for the sexual favors
of a young foreigner, the scatological works expressed an anger against
women whose actions did not conform to the patricians’ wishes (both
beloveds who refused their erotic favors and courtesans who bestowed
them at their own choosing to increase their wealth and prestige). its
intensity, reaching even rage, betrayed a deeper and more inchoate
source, the decline of the power and wealth of the republic and its lead-