From the Dubrovnik archives
Marian Dživić, the greatest name of Croatian literature in the 16th century and the best playwright in the history of Croatian literature, was born most likely in 1508 in Dubrovnik. He was one of twelve children (in life, five sons and two daughters survived) of Marin Dživić and Anuhla, the daughter of the wealthy merchant Marin Kotruljević.
According to archival documents, it can be concluded that the bourgeois lineage of the Dživić family descended from Dživa Dživić, the illegitimate son of nobleman Marin Dživić. Since he had no other children, Marin acknowledged Dživa as his son and left him his property and surname. Dživa had a son named Marin and a grandson named Nikola. Nikola had four sons: Džora, a famous Petrarchan poet, Vlaho, Andrija, and Marin, the father of the playwright.
Držić’s nickname was Vidra. It is believed that he was called that because of his frequent stays in the natural landscape of Dubrovnik River. The nickname refers to an animal, a type of otter, which could be seen in that area. According to another opinion, a nickname Vidra would have marked a cunning beast plotting against the Dubrovnik nobility, so perhaps that could have been a pseudonym Držić could have taken as a member of a theater company.
It is important to note at the beginning that very little is known about Držić’s life, and what we do know we owe to numerous researchers of Dubrovnik and other archives. He is mentioned in documents only in the year 1526, when he was appointed as one of the rectors of the church Domino (All Saints). Namely, the Držić family had long had the right to rectory in two churches, in the church of All Saints in the city itself and in the church of St. Peter on Koločep. In 1538, he becomes an organist in the cathedral and the church of St. Blaise at his own request. In archival documents from those years, Držić’s name is associated with many debts, loans, and the like. This testifies to the financial troubles of the Držić family. In August of that year, the Council of the Begged approves a one-time assistance to Marino for studying in Italy. That autumn, Držić goes to the Tuscan city of Siena.
Siena was a Renaissance center and a city with a long University traditions where students from all over Europe came. It is assumed that Držić studied law, literature, and philosophy there. In 1541, he was appointed rector of the student dormitory and vice rector of the university, which was the most prestigious student duty in Siena. It is also known that the following year he was punished, albeit with a mere reprimand, for interpreting the main character in a prohibited play in a private home. At that time, the Držić family business in Dubrovnik definitively failed.
We know that in 1545 Marin was back in Dubrovnik. During those years, his name was associated with Count Kristof von Rogendorf, a member of an old Styrian noble family. Rogendorf was a controversial figure, in conflict with the Viennese court, and intended to defect to the Turks. He was also connected to the Bučinčić family, a banished Dubrovnik family. In Rogendorf’s service, Držić went to Vienna, but soon he asked the count to release him and returned to Dubrovnik. However, soon again, this time as his This interpreter, goes to Constantinople with the count. However, he realizes once again that this is not the company for him and returns to Dubrovnik. Later, during the trial of the Dubrovnik government which suspected Držić of working against the Republic, he explains that the goal of his journey with Rogendorf was to see the world.
The Basilica of San Zanipolo in Venice.
The Great Playwright
From 1548 to 1562, Držić resides in Dubrovnik, and this is a period of his fruitful literary and theatrical work, but also a period of debts, scarcity, and changing poorly paid jobs (he was, for example, a scribe in the city’s saltworks). He writes pastoral and carnival plays, Plautus-style comedies, and one tragedy. His works are performed on stage by voluntary acting troupes Pomet-družina, Gardzarija, and Njarnjasi. His pastoral dramas include Tirena, Venera and Adon, Grižula (Plakir), and Džuho Kerpeta. He was accused of plagiarizing Mavro Vetranović for Tirena, his first work, but the old poet personally denies authorship of that work and writes the famous poem Marinu Držiću u pomoć (To Marin Držić for help). It was the first known example of a Croatian writer helping a colleague in need. In addition to mythological beings, fairies, satyrs, and others appear in pastoral plays along with peasants from the Dubrovnik area. Everything happens between illusion and reality, and it ends happily and harmlessly. However, there is also criticism, for example, the bad treatment of servants by their masters. The Carnival game “Novela od Stanca” is the real masterpiece in miniature. The main theme in “Novela” is the contrast between youth and old age. Some authors see the reproduction of ancient sun myths and jokes at the expense of the old dying sun represented in the Middle Ages as an old man (symbol of the winter land). Plautus’ comedies include “Pomet” (lost, would have formed a dialogue with “Dundo Maroje”), “Dundo Maroje,” “Skup” (based on Plautus’ “Aulularia” – mocks greed and stinginess among the Dubrovnik nobility), “Pjerin,” “Arkulin,” and “Mande” (Tripče from Utolče). The Plautus comedy is inspired by Plautus and Terence, and even further by Menander. In it, there is a constant type… We (stingy, lovestruck old man, young lovers, skillful servant) have typical relationships that are resolved in typical ways. The theme is contemporary, and its goal is not only to make people laugh but also to point out corruption and depravity. It is important to emphasize that Držić’s comedies are by no means constrained by the external rules of Plautus’ comedy. On the contrary, the situations and characters in his comedies are extremely lifelike, and he uses the existing framework only to express authentic reality and, above all, criticism of that reality – criticism of bourgeois stupidity and political injustice. Držić’s comedies are sharp and provocative, true highlights of the entire European literature of that time. This especially applies to Dundo Maroje. His only tragedy, Hecuba, is the last thing he wrote.
In a similar manner to the necromancer in the Prologue of The Longnose, Dživo speaks in the Assembly: “My God, strange is the animation of man, who thinks well, and the differences in nature are evident in him, who uses his mind well. Some, – let me leave the rest, – have calm natures with whom one can Reason, the reason they hear, the reason they receive and follow, the light they understand, the true people who tear me apart. Others are hard by nature, made of stone, to whom it seems that they are reasonable, but you can’t talk to them. Quiet people make me crazy with their silence; they carry authority in their heads with arrogance, wanting everything to be their way, and that’s what is called barbarism; they crave and desire, and they consider their desire to be reason. There is no place for reason in their heads, arrogance sits there and stubbornness. These people are indiscreet, without mercy; they defend justice with words and arrogance, but they are not right when they are indiscreet. And everyone is unjust and indiscreet who doesn’t understand others and who doesn’t measure the world and conditions of people with a true, wise, and merciful measure.”
World is conquered by skill – conspiracy
In 1562, he went to Venice. After that, he will rarely visit Dubrovnik. In 1563, he received the title of chaplain of the Archbishopric of Venice and will remain in that position until his death.
It is important to mention a frequently overlooked fact. Imagine that the last thing the great comedic playwright wrote was a tragedy. It was a translation of Euripides’ Hecuba, based on a revision by Lodovico Dolce. Its performance in Dubrovnik was banned twice! What drove the comedy writer to express himself through tragedy? One analyst of Držić’s works believes that it was the intense ethical tension that had developed into a conflict so great that it could only be resolved through a tragic form.
In 1566, we find him in Florence, where he arrived with the intention of establishing contact with the Florentine-Tuscan ruler, Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. He wanted Cosimo to use his political and personal influence to help him overthrow the exclusive aristocratic regime in the Republic of Dubrovnik, in order to share power between the nobility and the citizens (referring to the higher echelons of the citizenry). In return, the Medici would retain ultimate authority over the city. He sent three letters to Duke Cosimo de’ Medici (the first of which was lost), in which he extensively informed him about the shortcomings of the Dubrovnik government and the poor state of affairs. In Dubrovnik’s foreign policy, which, according to Držić, serves the Turks and harms the Western world. He also provides detailed suggestions on how to carry out this coup. He apparently found inspiration for this conspiratorial act by reading many contemporary theoretical works, such as Machiavelli’s The Prince, The Art of War, etc. – it is interesting to note that Machiavelli himself addressed the Medicis – as well as observing contemporary developments in Dubrovnik and Europe. Držić has a complex relationship with his hometown. He loves and criticizes Dubrovnik. In his works, the city is both a magical Arcadia and a city with limited, narrow-minded administration, a city led by “twenty crazy monsters”, but he wants to change that, he gets involved, seeks help from the most relevant figures of the Renaissance world, and actually longs for the realization of his homeland in earnest, starting from the given, concrete reality of the Dubrovnik Republic in the 16th century (a period of Dubrovnik’s greatest economic progress!). Since he does not receive responses, Dear Francesco Medici,
I am writing to you, your father Cosimo. I have realized that I made a mistake, as obviously the time is not ripe for such actions. I beg for forgiveness if I have done anything wrong and commend myself to you.
Next, in 1567, on May 2nd, the poet and playwright Marin Držić dies in Venice. He is buried in the Church of San Zanipolo, the Dominican basilica of St. John and St. Paul, one of the most beautiful and prestigious churches in Venice. It was traditionally the burial place of the Doges and has long been considered the Venetian Pantheon.
Prologue of “Dundo Maroje”
“Dundo Maroje” is the most famous and most performed comedy by Držić. It was first performed on stage by the Pomet company in 1551, in the City Hall. The comedy has five acts and two prologues. In the prologue, the writer presents his literary, philosophical, and social views. In this regard, the first prologue of “Dundo Maroje” is particularly interesting, known as the speech of the necromancer Long Nose, which many consider to be the best prose text of Croatian Renaissance literature. It is expressed in mythological language. In the retold allegory from Ancient India, a necromancer speaks about two types of people, true people and false people. Regarding true people, he says: “Here there is no such thing as ‘mine’ and ‘yours’, but everything is common to all, and each is the master of everything. And those who enjoy these sides are gentle people, quiet people, wise people, reasonable people. Nature, as adorned by their minds, has also civilized them with beauty: they are made of all age groups; they are not bothered by hatred or greed; their eyes gaze directly, and their hearts do not deceive; they carry their hearts in front of their eyes, so that everyone can see their good thoughts; and, without tiring you with my lengthy speech, these are the people called true people.” He further describes false people: “False people, along with necromancers, came to our side, and this cursed seed – crooks, scoundrels, tricksters, parrot-faced, from mosquitoes, from frogs, donkeys and beaten from goats, false people – settled in our world at a time when the gentle, quiet, wise, good old man Sa died.” Once upon a time, during the golden age when people were without malice, even the less wise kings of Saturn welcomed people with ill intentions. They mingled among the good, wise, and beautiful. And so, the lowly folk, spying and scheming, bore that detestable seed: a greater number of people with ill intentions than people of true character came into being. The age of gold passed, and everyone chased after iron, and people with ill intentions began to fight those of true character for dominion. And today, the people of true character are true human beings and gentlemen, while those with ill intentions are just that, and will always be downtrodden.”
In the Prologue of “Dugo Nosa,” Držić develops his most important antithesis: people of true character – people with ill intentions. And these ideas, Držić’s own, are further developed in the comedy itself by the servant Pomet Trpeza. Pomet is the liveliest character in our most beautiful comedy; he is intelligent but perpetually hungry. He serves masters who are greedy, foolish, and incapable, craving money and sensual pleasures. They are people with ill intentions, while Pomet, belonging to people of true character, is determined to overcome fickle and ever-changing Fortune. He feels the strength of his intelligence and knows that luck is on his side. Only a virtuoso can gain (lat. virtus – virtue). And indeed, intelligence triumphs over stupidity – a person genuinely defeats people cunningly and deservedly changes their status, thus embodying the Renaissance idea of achieving humanity. However, this also involves a direct critique of the Dubrovnik aristocracy.
Who is Držić to us?
Although there is very little information about his life, and what remains, especially his works, comedies in which he speaks through the characters and prologues, as well as his conspiratorial letters to Duke Medici, allow us to recognize the spirit of a great, rebellious and restless, exceptional talent, who created quickly and easily, with a deep sense of surrounding reality, which he does not fail to sharply criticize. After all, comedy is the literary genre that, more than any other, allows a writer to directly criticize the wrongs in society, call out those responsible, and ultimately, mock the backwardness and stupidity of people cunningly. And stage performance is the most immediate and unpleasant (for those who recognize themselves) way of conveying this. In the Dubrovnik archives, there have been recorded several physical or verbal attacks on the playwright. Could it be that those who recognized themselves in Marin’s comedies felt called out and offended? Most likely. The first such attack happened shortly after the performance of “Pomet”.
To grasp the significance of Držić’s works in the wider European cultural context, let us paraphrase our foremost English scholar, expert, and translator of Shakespeare, Josip Torbarina. If it were a realistic and impossible hypothesis, he says, that Shakespeare knew the Croatian language and read Marina Držić’s works, we could write a scholarly doctoral dissertation on Držić’s influence on Shakespeare. And someone surely would have already written a very scholarly dissertation on Shakespeare’s influence on Držić, had Držić only lived after Shakespeare. Sorry, but I’m unable to provide a translation without any context or text to work with.