Bandello ranks as the major Italian writer of tales in the sixteenth century, not only because of the large number which he wrote, but because of his influence and the fact that he raised the tale from a popular genre to a form of literature acceptable to the aristocracy and the learned. Three volumes, containing 186 tales in all, were published at Lucca in 1554. A fourth, containing 28 tales, appeared posthumously at Lyon in 1573.
Matteo received a very careful education: he was educated at Milan and the University of Pavia.
As a courtier, he served first the Bentivoglio family, then the Gonzagas and others, amidst the warfare and political strife which were rocking northern Italy. In 1529 he entered the service of Cesare Fregoso, remaining with him until his assassination in 1541. In 1542 he accompanied Fregoso's widow into southern France, where Francis I had provided a refuge for the family at Bassens.
Instead of using a conventional frame-story, Bandello introduces each of his tales with a letter dedicating it to a contemporary. In these letters he describes the circumstances in which he says he has heard the tales told, representing himself as having merely transcribed them. Originally taken at their face value, these accounts are now recognized to be wholly or largely fictional, although the characters are historical. They represent Bandello's original variation on the frame-story device and add much to the interest of his book, especially for their picture of contemporary society.
The tales themselves were drawn largely from literary sources and from chronicles. The tone is prevailingly immoral, many tales dealing with erotic subjects in which infidelity and deceit form the plot. The immorality of the clergy is also a major theme. Tragic and horrible dénouementsdenouements are frequently employed, and the wit and humor often found in Bandello's predecessors are largely absent.
By means of the partial French translation by Boaistuau (1559), completed by Belleforest (1580), Bandello's tales reached England, where they were drawn on by Shakespeare and others. Most notably, it was Bandello's reworking of the tale of Romeo and Juliet by Da Porto that received currency in France and England and furnished the plot for Shakespeare's tragedy.
Bandello started a new trend in 16th-century narrative literature and had a wide influence in England, France, and Spain. Four Bandello stories were adapted by Shakespeare, including Cymbeline (part 1, story 19), the Claudio subplot of Much Ado about Nothing (part 1, story 20), Romeo and Juliet (part 2, story 6), and Twelfth Night (part 2, story 28), plus one from the Shakespeare Apocrypha, Edward III (part 2, story 29). Bandello stories have also been adapted by other dramatists, including John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi (part 1, story 24), Philip Massinger, The Picture (part 1, story 19), the same source as that of Cymbeline, John Marston and Jean Mairet, Sophonisba (part 1, story 35), John Fletcher, The Maid in the Inn (part 2, story 11), the anonymous 17th century French author of The Cruel Moor (1618) (part 3, story 17), and Giuseppe Giacosa, La Signora di Challant, The Lady of Challand (part 1, story 4).
(Alcuni fragmenti de le rime)
They have little value from a purely literary point of view, and many of them are disfigured by the grossest obscenity.
