Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

10 va' vedere,
e par tenere,
lo suo segnore:
trovalo impeso
e disfilato.
Dunqua, M,adonna, se voi m'amate,
or mi guardate:
di me ag[g]iate,
bella pietate;
non mi lasciate
tanto ubri'ato.
Se voi, madonna, ben mi volete
como dicete,
di cib son fello,
ch'io pur atendo bocca parlando:
ben par che voi vi dilettete
di me ch'avete,
como '1 zitello
che de l'ausello va dilettando
finche l'auzide, tanto lo tira,
e poi lo mira,
forte s'adira;
ma tosto gira,
c'aisi delira
e va giocando.20
The poet first compares his beloved's actions to those of a man teasing a child, then
compares himself to a goshawk that is ignored by its owner, and finally compares his
beloved again to a thoughtless child who toys with a bird to the point of killing it. He
claims, through these comparisons, that he is, respectively, teased, neglected, and abused.
Having established that his fate depends on her whim, he continues, in the rest of the
canzone, to ask for mercy.
The reverse of this love betrayal expressed through falconry is found in an
anonymous tenzone between a man and a woman, in which the female voice (the poet
could well have been either a woman or a man) laments that her lover has left her for
'O From Contini, 377-378, vv. 1-50.