Sonnets | Page 6

philosophy burned
in his powerful nature with incalculable and explosive force. He moved
restlessly from place to place, learning and discussing, drawing men
towards him by the magnetism of a noble personality, and preaching
his new gospel with perilous audacity. His papers were seized at
Bologna; and at Rome the Holy Inquisition condemned him to
perpetual incarceration on the ground that he derived his science from
the devil, that he had written the book 'De tribus Impostoribus,' that he
was a follower of Democritus, and that his opposition to Aristotle
savoured of gross heresy. At the same time the Spanish Government of
Naples accused him of having set on foot a dangerous conspiracy for
overthrowing the vice-regal power and establishing a communistic
commonwealth in southern Italy. Though nothing was proved

satisfactorily against him, Campanella was held a prisoner under the
sentence which the Inquisition had pronounced upon him. He was, in
fact, a man too dangerous, too original in his opinions, and too bold in
their enunciation, to be at large. For twenty-five years he remained in
Neapolitan dungeons; three times during that period he was tortured to
the verge of dying; and at last he was released, while quite an old man,
at the urgent request of the French Court. Not many years after his
liberation Campanella died. The numerous philosophical works on
metaphysics, mathematics, politics, and aesthetics which Campanella
gave to the press, were composed during his long imprisonment. How
they came to be printed, I do not know; but it is obvious that he cannot
have been strictly debarred from writing by his jailors. In prison, too,
he made both friends and converts. We have seen that we owe the
publication of a portion of his poems to the visit of a German knight.
V.
The sonnets by Campanella translated in this volume might be
rearranged under four headings--Philosophical; Political; Prophetic;
Personal. The philosophical group throw light on Campanella's relation
to his predecessors and his antagonism to the pseudo-Aristotelian

scholasticism of the middle ages. They furthermore explain his
conception of the universe as a complex animated organism, his

conviction that true knowledge can only be gained by the interrogation
of nature, his doctrine of human life and action, and his judgment of the
age in which he lived. The political sonnets fall into two groups-- those
which discuss royalty, nobility, and the sovereignty of the people, and
those which treat of the several European states. The prophetic sonnets
seem to have been suggested by the misery and corruption of Italy, and
express the poet's belief in the speedy triumph of right and reason. It is
here too that his astrological opinions are most clearly manifested; for
Campanella was far from having outgrown the belief in planetary
influences. Indeed, his own metaphysical speculations, involving the
principle of immanent vitality in the material universe, gave a new
value to the dreams of the astrologers. Among the personal sonnets
may be placed those which refer immediately to his own sufferings in
prison, to his friendships, and to the ideal of the philosophic character.
I have thought it best, while indicating this fourfold division, to
preserve the order adopted by Adami, since each of the reprints
accessible to modern readers--both that of Orelli and that of
D'Ancona-- maintains the arrangement of the editio princeps. Two
sonnets of the prophetic group I have omitted, partly because they have
no bearing on the world as it exists for us at present, and partly because
they are too studiously obscure for profitable reproduction.[13] As in
the case of Michael Angelo, so also in that of Campanella, I have left
the Canzoni untouched, except by way of illustration in the notes
appended to my volume. They are important and voluminous enough to
form a separate book; nor do they seem to me so well adapted as the
sonnets for translation into English.
To give reasons for my choice of certain readings in the case of either
Michael Angelo's or Campanella's text; to explain why I have
sometimes preferred a strictly literal and sometimes a more
paraphrastic rendering; or to set forth my views in detail regarding the
compromises which are necessary in translation, and which must vary
according to the exigencies of each successive problem offered by the
original, would occupy too much space. Where I have thought it
absolutely necessary, I have referred to such points in my notes. It is
enough here to remark that the difficulties presented to the translator by

Michael Angelo and by Campanella are of different kinds. Both, indeed,
pack their thoughts so closely that it is not easy to reproduce them
without either awkwardness or sacrifice of matter. But while
Campanella is difficult from the abruptness of his transitions and the
violence of his phrases, Michael Angelo has the obscurity of a