ABSTRACT
Luigi Pirandello scorns much of Cecco Angiolieri's poetry, but the manner in which he interprets the poet's derision of his father and other individuals interests people most. Pirandello maintains the theoretical internal consistency of the essays by explaining the poet's mistreatment of others in terms of his incorrigible personality. On a different level, the language of vituperation may also have tapped into an increasing concern of the clergy during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with the verbal sins, the so-called 'sins of the tongue'. A series of sonnets which seemingly highlight the unflattering traits of his fellow citizens comprises Rustico's comic production. Constructed around a three part structure, the sonnet clearly draws the haughtiness of the merchant into sharp relief. In the last strophe, the sonnet uses the subjunctive and future tenses to project the eventual outcome. Angiolieri writes the poem using the stanzaic divisions to structure his language.
