Excessive Poetry: The Use of Superchio in Michelangelo’s Verses

Donna me prega, – per ch’eo voglio direD’un accidente – che sovente è feroEd è sì altero – ch’è chiamato amore.

(G. Cavalcanti)

Introduction

The term superchio, more or less translatable as “excessive,” appears in Michelangelo’s poetry a total of thirteen times, mainly as an adjective, but also as a noun (three times), and once as an adverb. Here is a list of its occurrences.¹

1. 1. “quand’el superchio ardor troppo l’accende” (45); “when the excessive heat lightens up [the heart] too much.”

2. 2. “l’infinita beltà, ’l superchio lume” (113); “infinite beauty, excessive light.”

3. 3. “d’un superchio piacer morte n’aspetta” (148); “death comes right after an excessive pleasure.”

4. 4. “con tal superchia aita” (149); “with such an excessive help.”

5. 5. con superchia pietà mi rasserena (150); “it reassures me with her excessive mercy.”

6. 6. “c’al don superchio debil virtù muore” (150); “under the excessive gift the weak virtue dies.”

7. 7. “col suo superchio, e solo a quello arriva” (151); “with its excess, and only to that it gets.”

8. 8. “cela il superchio della propria carne” (152); “it hides the excess of its own flesh.”

9. 9. “tornan superchi al cuor gli spirti sparti” (157); “the lost spirits come back in excess to the heart.”

10. 10. “l’umil peccato che ’l superchio bene” (162); “the humble sin than the excessive good.”

11. 11. “l’arme degli anni e de’ superchi giorni” (182); “the weapons of the excessive years, and days.”

12. 12. “se ’l poco accresce, e ’l mie superchio lima” (236); “if it increases it a bit, it also smoothens my excess.”

13. 13. “c’ogni superchio indugio amor perdoni” (294); “may love forgive every excessive delay.”

The importance of this term for Michelangelo’s poetry seems to have gone undetected on scholars’ radars, to the point that the anthologies published in languages other than Italian either leave the term untranslated,² or exclude the poems that contain it.³ In this paper I would like to challenge this exclusion and show how the term plays a strategic role in some of the crucial moments of Michelangelo’s poetry, especially when it refers to grace or art.

I shall begin with its etymology. Superchio comes from the vulgar Latin *supĕrculum, a non-attested voice based on the Latin adjective superus and the adverb super which mean literally “over,” or “what remains over,” “what goes beyond,” “what surpasses.”⁴ Perhaps excessive—from excedere⁵—best renders its meaning in English. According to the Dizionario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana, superchio first appears in Dante’s Vita nuova (XI.3), although some occurrences ensue in Monte Andrea de la Firenze, Cino da Pistoia, and Guido Cavalcanti. Superchio also appears several times in Petrarch’s Canzoniere.⁶ Given the veneration that Michelangelo had for Dante and Petrarch, it is likely that he borrowed from them the use of this term. With respect to English translations, here is a brief list of attempts to cope with this term.

John Symonds translates: 150 “joy so poignant,” and 151 “superfluous shell.”⁷

Joseph Tusiani translates the expressions of superchio each time differently (or not at all) depending on the context: 45 (no translation); 113 (no translation); 148 “unpromised joy”; 149 “so much grace”; 150 “more grace than now”; 150 “fortune’s lavish touch”; 151 “in its care”; 152 “the involucre of our flesh”; 162 (no translation); 236 “files off my dross”; 294 “so long.”⁸

James Saslow finds a different solution; he chooses the word “excess” and uses it consistently: 45 “excessive ardor”; 113 “exceeding light”; 148 “excess of delight”; 150 “excessive gifts”; 150 “excessive mercy”; 151 “its excess”; 152 “excess mass of its own flesh”; 157 “in excess”; 162 “sheer good”; 182 “excess days”; 236 “my excess”; 294 “excess delay.”⁹

What did Michelangelo mean when he used this term? We might begin by looking at poems 45, 149, and 152, where superchio indicates respectively: the feeling of the poet before he receives divine grace (poem 45, incomplete and written in terza rima); the main property of this grace (madrigal 145...