John Addington Symonds (1840–1893)

As Phyllis Grosskurth points out in her introduction to this book, there’s an irony in the way we’ve largely forgotten John Addington Symonds as a literary critic and art historian, despite his distinguished contribution to both fields, and now associate his name mostly with his pioneer writings about living as a gay man in Victorian Britain, books he never expected to see published. He’s remembered for his essays “A problem in Greek ethics” and “A problem in modern ethics” and show more for this autobiography, the manuscript of which was locked up in a box in the London Library for fifty years after the death of Symonds’s literary executor.

Symonds tells us about growing up in an upper-middle-class family in Bristol in the 1840s, dreaming about naked sailors as a small boy, then going to Harrow School, which he hated. He says the ritualised sexual goings-on between boys disgusted him, and when a school friend told him about his romantic relationship with the then headmaster, Symonds told his father and the man was forced into early retirement. At Balliol, he studied under the legendary Benjamin Jowett (”One evening Jowett sat staring at the fire, and would not speak, and did not seem to want me to go. At last he said, 'When I say nothing, people fancy I am thinking about something. Generally, I am thinking about nothing. Goodnight.'”).

Although he always knew he was attracted to men, Symonds followed the advice of friends and family to find a woman and get married, something he later regretted. Presumably his wife regretted it even more (we are told she really hated being pregnant, but somehow they had four daughters). Meanwhile, Symonds discovered the joys of guardsmen, Swiss peasants and gondoliers, and wrote a seven-volume history of the Italian renaissance.

Symonds doesn’t always come across as a very attractive personality, but what is fascinating about this book is the way he is so very candid about his sexual feelings (and to a certain extent his sexual acts too) whilst still being a complete Victorian in most other respects. Unlike most autobiographers he is not addressing himself to any kind of public — his only conceivable reader is a psychologist. Grosskurth appends the case-history that Havelock Ellis took from his interviews with Symonds — it’s fascinating to see how closely it follows what Symonds writes in the memoirs, albeit with rather less flowery language. show less

“The intellectual medium formed in Italy upon the dissolution of the middle ages was irreligious and indifferent: highly refined and highly cultivated; instinctively aesthetic and superbly gifted, but devoid of moral earnestness or patriotic enthusiasms, of spiritual passions or political energy.”…….The men who made this literature and those with whom they lived, for whom they wrote, were well bred, satisfied with inactivity, open at all pores to pleasure, delighting in the show more refinements of tact and taste, but at the same time addicted to gross sensuality of word and deed”

John Addington Symonds writing in the 1880’s grits his teeth and plunges into the realms of these dissolute Italians. Symonds was a poet and literary critic who died in Rome in 1893. He produced a 7 volume history of Renaissance Italy; two volumes of which are devoted to literature. His passion for the Italian Renaissance shines through as he takes his readers on a guided tour of all that is worth reading from the period. This is much more than just biographical details of the famous as he uses his critical faculties to the full and along the way delves into much of the social history. He succeeds in producing a well rounded portrait of the literature and the life and times.

His two volumes start with providing an introduction to the romances of the middle ages and the struggle to find an acceptable national language with Latin rapidly becoming a dead language. He moves on to what he calls the Triumvirate of Italian literature; Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio and the influence they had on all those that followed them. There are chapters on popular secular and religious poetry before the excellent chapter on Lorenzo De Medici and the cult of the carnival and the pageant in Florence. The lesser known writers of epic romances are then covered before an excellent critique of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. There are good chapters on the Novellieri and the bawdy short stories that they produced, followed by the even more bawdy secular dramas. Another good chapter on Burlesque poetry, before a chapter on Pietro Aretino the ultimate perhaps in satire and bad taste. Politics and Philosophy are covered with reference to Machiavelli and Pomponazzi and there are chapters on Pastoral and Didactic poetry and a critique on the Purists.

There were many new names to me to explore further; Matteo Bandello, Giovanni Pontano, Salernitano Massucio, Teofilo Polengo, Francesco Berni and Niccolo Franco. It all got a bit dangerous for my bank balance leading to the purchase of seven more books with many other extracts downloaded from google books. John Addington Symonds writes clearly and well and in spite of what he says I get the impression he enjoyed the obscenity of the burlesque writers as much as he did the Pastoral and Religious poetry; he saves his most damming criticism for work that he finds dull. Of course he was writing from a Victorian perspective but I did not find this got in the way of my enjoyment of his book.

The full set of Symonds Renaissance Italy is available for free download at the Gutenburg Project. His critique of literature is contained in volumes four and five. Some of his examples and extracts remain in the original language and many of the translated pieces I found to be incomplete, however this was not a serious problem as the flow of his writing is not seriously disrupted. This is really a very good introduction to the literature of the period with enough context provided to enable the reader to make his own judgements on what to follow up.

Edit | More show less

"John Addington Symonds (5 October 1840 – 19 April 1893) was an English poet and literary critic. Although he married and had a family, he was an early advocate of male love (homosexuality), which he believed could include pederastic as well as egalitarian relationships. He referred to it as l'amour de l'impossible (love of the impossible). A cultural historian, he was known for his work on the Renaissance, as well as numerous biographies about writers and artists. He also wrote much show more poetry inspired by his homosexual affairs." from wiki

Who better then, to write a biography of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Symonds does a superb job. His lifetime interest, love and knowledge of the Renaissance combines with his sensitive translations of the Italian used by Michelangelo and his compatriots to provide an intimate portrait of one of the greatest artists of the Italian renaissance. The Woeful Victorian is how Phyllis Grosskurth (biographer) describes John Addington Symonds and assuming that this refers to Symond's melancholia then Symonds finds a like minded subject in Michelangelo.

His biography is exhaustive; following the long life of Michelangelo and dealing equally with his triumphs and failures. Symonds in typical Victorian style can be gushing about Michelangelo's unique talent, but he never loses his critical eye when studying a particular work of art. For example his description of the giant David reveals issues that surprised me so much that it led me to look again at the statue (the internet is a wonderful thing). It is the sort of commentary that I would like to refer to when next I am in Florence.

Symonds punctuates his biography with translations of a selection of Michelangelo's sonnets where they comment on issues raised in the book. There are also extracts from letters written by and to his subject, so that the reader is able to make up his own mind as to the character of the man without having to wade through numerous footnotes. Symonds is a master of integrating relevant material into his text. This can lead to an over embellishment of points made, but this is a biography published in 1893 and so the reader should not be too surprised. Symonds has a style of writing that might not suit every reader, concise he is not, but it suits my temperament and I was happy to follow him through.

Symonds does an excellent job of building in the historical background, his feel for the culture of the Italian renaissance allows him to place Michelangelo firmly in his milieu and so the reader can understand Michelangelo's actions, his panics, his irascibility, his deeply religious mindset that towards the end of his life provided him with much comfort. Michelangelo emerges as a man whose immense talent led him into a life that revolved only around his art, there was little time for anything else. His fame and reputation which he seems not to have considered overmuch himself was a bugbear, as his patrons (a succession of Popes) were instrumental in leading him away from the work that he wanted to do. He became an architect because of his intellectual ability and skill in fashioning objects, which were the requirements that his patrons saw fit to use.

Michelangelo was no iconoclast he worked within the system and culture of his times, but it was his unique vision that set him apart from other artists. His continual obsession with the human form that produced such wonderful art eventually led him down a blind alley and his later works seemed mannered. His solitary disposition and his desire not to share his skills meant that unlike many of his fellow artists he did not become the head of a school or workshop. He was a man who wanted to do things his own way and he was reluctant to share out duties. This meant that many of his projects remained unfinished.

There is little to be said about his private life. He felt no attraction to the opposite sex and although he loved and admired the physicality of well formed young men there is very little evidence that this led to sexual relationships. Symonds thinks that Michelangelo's solitary and at times austere characteristics along with his sincere religious beliefs and his obsession with his art filled his life. I have recently read Ross King's [Michelangelo and the Popes ceiling], which provided a good snapshot of the life and times of Michelangelo, but Symonds biography is for those that want to delve deeper and get a fuller picture of a long and productive life. show less

An excellent resource for understanding male homosexuality, this also is full of vivid revelations of Victorian life in general and in particular among the middle and upper classes. Symonds (1840-93) was a prominent man of letters in 19th century England. His memoirs are intimate, but not erotic or titillating, and he is an earnest ethicist.