Ben si potra tener avventurato
Chi sia marito di si bella moglie;
Ben si potra tener in buon di nato
Chi ara quel fioraliso senza foglie;
Ben si potra tenersi consolato
Che si contenti tutte le sue voglie
D’ aver la Nencia, e tenersela in braccio
Morbida e bianca, che pare un sugnaccio.

* * * * *

Nenciozza mia, vuo’ tu un poco fare
Meco a la neve per quel salicale?—­
Si, volentier, ma non me la sodare
Troppo, che tu non mi facessi male.—­
Nenciozza mia, deh non ti dubitare,
Che l’ amor ch’ io ti porto si e tale,
Che quando avessi mal, Nenciozza mia,
Con la mia lingua te lo leveria.

This form of composition at once became fashionable.  Luigi Pulci[37] composed his Beca di Dicomano, which attained almost equal success and passed for the work of Lorenzo.  It is, however, a far inferior production, in which the quaintness of the model is replaced by coarse caricature and its delicate rusticity by a cruder realism.  Other imitations followed, but none bear comparison with Lorenzo’s poem[38].  It is in thought and expression rather than in actual language that these poems distinguish themselves from the literary pastoral.  More noticeably dialectal is an anonymous Pescatoria amorosa printed about 1550.  It is a Venetian serenade sung in the persons of fishermen, and possesses a certain grace of language: 

    Cortese donne, belle innamorae,
      Donzelle, vedovette, e maridae,
      Ascholte ste parole, che le no se cortelae,
      Che intendere la causa del vegnir in ste contrae[39].

Symonds and D’Ancona alike remark, with perfect truth, that Lorenzo’s rustic style, in spite of its sympathetic grace, is not altogether dissociated from burlesque.  While free from the artificiality of court pastoral, it is equally distinct from the natural simplicity of the Theocritean idyl.  Its flavour depends upon the half cynical, half kindly, amusement afforded by the contrast between the naivete of the country and the familiar and conventional polish of town life.  This theme had already caught the fancy of the song-writers of the fourteenth century, who produced some of the most delightful examples of native and unconventional pastoral anywhere to be found[40].  Franco Sacchetti the novelist, for example, gives us a series of charming vignettes of country life and scenery, but always from the point of view of the town observer.  One poem of his in particular gained wide popularity, and a modernized and somewhat altered version was iater printed among the works of Poliziano.  It was originally a ballata, but I prefer to quote some stanzas from the traditional version: 

    Vaghe le montanine e pastorelle,
      Donde venite si leggiadre e belle?—­

    Vegnam dall’ alpe, presso ad un boschetto;
      Picciola capannella e il nostro sito;
      Col padre e colla madre in picciol tetto,
      Dove natura ci ha sempre nutrito,
      Torniam la sera dal prato fiorito
      Ch’ abbiam pasciute nostre pecorelle.—­