Marino - Marino (English spelling) Giambattista (Giovan Battista) Marino

Italian poet. Born to a lawyer's family in Naples. Aiming to become a poet from an early age, he came into conflict with his father who forced him to study law, and was eventually disowned. Relying on the support of literature-loving aristocrats, he returned to his hometown to study literature and spend his youth in a dissolute and carefree life, which was marked by two periods of imprisonment. During this time, he became acquainted with the great poet Tasso in his later years, and was involved in the publication of his dialogues. In 1600, he fled his hometown and went to Rome, where he served a cardinal from 1602. In the same year, he published his first collection of poems in Venice. In 1606, he followed his master to Ravenna, but in 1608 he gained the favor of the Duke of Savoy in Turin and was welcomed into his court. He was knighted and rapidly rose in status and fame, even as he was shot by a fellow poet after a heated debate over a poem, but was also forced to spend over a year in prison for slandering his master. In 1815 he was invited by the French Empress Dowager to travel to Paris, where he eventually gained the patronage of King Louis XIII, enjoying the honor of being a court poet. Many of his works were completed and published during this period. In 1823 he dedicated his greatest work, Adonis, to Louis XIII before returning to Italy, where he died two years later in 1825 at the height of his glory in his hometown.

He produced a huge amount of works, mainly in verse, but his main works include the lyric poem collection "The Lyre" (1608, expanded and definitive edition 1614), an expanded and revised version of his debut work "Poems" (1602), the pastoral collection "The Windpipe" (1620), and his masterpiece, the epic poem "Adonis" (1623), which consists of 20 songs. This is a lengthy work of over 40,000 lines that uses the love story of the Greek goddess Aphrodite and the beautiful boy Adonis as its basic plot, but mixes in various episodes borrowed from the classics, and its main features are its unusual metaphors, exaggerated expressions, and unexpected developments, all of which were devised based on his unique poetics, which require the reader to be constantly surprised. What made Marino the darling of his time was in fact this new poetic style known as Marinismo, which he perfected in "Adonis," and which would go on to decisively shape the direction of 17th century Italian Baroque literature.

[Kazuhiro Hayashi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イタリアの詩人。ナポリの弁護士の家に生まれる。早くから詩人を志して、法律の勉強を強制する父親と対立、ついには勘当を受け、文学を愛好する貴族たちの援助に頼りながら、文学修業と二度の投獄にみられる放蕩(ほうとう)無頼の青春を故郷に送った。この間、晩年の大詩人タッソを知り、その対話編の出版に携わる。1600年に故郷を逃げ出してローマへ赴き、02年から枢機卿(すうききょう)に仕えた。なおこの年、処女詩集をベネチアで刊行している。06年、主人に従ってラベンナへ移ったが、08年にはトリノのサボイア公に取り入って宮廷へ迎え入れられた。激越な論争詩を闘わした同僚詩人から未遂に終わったものの拳銃(けんじゅう)で撃たれる事件が起きたりするなかで、騎士の称号を受けるなど急速に地位と名声を高めていったが、他方、主君を誹謗(ひぼう)したかどで1年余りの獄中生活を強いられもした。15年フランスの皇太后に招かれてパリに渡り、やがて国王ルイ13世の庇護(ひご)も得て、ここに宮廷詩人の光栄をほしいままにした。作品の多くはこの時期に完成し、発表された。23年、畢生(ひっせい)の大作『アドニス』をルイ13世に献じたのを最後にイタリアへ帰り、2年後の25年、まさに栄光の絶頂において故郷の地に没した。

　作品は韻文を中心に膨大な量に上るが、おもなものは、処女作の『詩集』（1602）を増補改訂した叙情詩集『竪琴(たてごと)』（1608、増補決定版1614）と牧歌集『風笛(ふうてき)』（1620）、そして代表作の長編叙事詩『アドニス』（1623）20歌である。これは、ギリシア神話の女神アフロディテと美少年アドニスの恋の物語を基本の筋に用いながら、そこに古典から借りたさまざまな挿話を混入させた4万行を超える長大な作品で、絶えず読者を驚かさなければいけないという独自の詩学に基づいて案出された、奇抜な隠喩(いんゆ)、誇張した表現、意表をつく展開が重要な特色をなしている。マリーノを時代の寵児(ちょうじ)たらしめたものも、実は、『アドニス』において極められたマリニズモとよばれるこの新しい詩法であり、それは17世紀イタリアのバロック文学を決定的に方向づけることになった。

［林　和宏］

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