ABSTRACT

The poets of the Academy do not as a group show much real power or originality, and only two, Angelo Poliziano and Lorenzo de’ Medici, have won any widespread fame. The emotion that stirs them most deeply is regret that their joys cannot endure; and their loveliest lines are burdened with the sense of “the lapse of hours.” The poem is conventional enough and would not claim one’s attention if it were not for the commentary that Benivieni appends to it. The ecstatic state in which the soul is temporarily freed from the body is the utmost beatitude that man can know, yet contemplation that does not issue in right action and notably in social action, is imperfect and, except with a few rare minds, may even be dangerous. The Stoics and Cynics held that happiness could be found in active virtue, but Marsilio points out that this is accompanied by pain and cannot, therefore, be an end in itself.