MACARONIC, or MACARONIAN, a kind of burlesque poetry, consisting of a jumble of words of different languages, with words of the vulgar tongue Latinized; and Latin words modernized. Macaroni among the Italians, as has been observed by Cælius Rhodiginus, signifies a coarse clovenish man; and because this kind of poetry is patched out of several languages, and full of extravagant words, &c. the Italians, among whom it had its rise, gave it the name of macaronian or macaronic poetry. Others choose to derive it à macaronibus, from macaroon, a kind of confection made of meal not boulded, sweet almonds, sugar, and the white of eggs, accounted a great dainty among the country people in Italy; which, from their being composed of various ingredients, occasioned this kind of poetry, which consists of Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, English, &c. to be called by their name.
Example.—A bold fellow in the macaronic style, says,
Enfilaci omnes scadrones et regimandos, &c.
Another example:
Archelos pistoliferos furiamque manantum,
Et grandem esneutam quæ inopinum facta ruelle est:
Toxinumque alto troublantem corda clocherum, &c.
Theoph. Folengius, a Benedictine monk of Mantua, was the first who invented, or at least cultivated, this kind of verse. See FOLENGIO.
The best pieces of this kind are, the Baldus of Folengio, and Macaronis Forza by Stefano a Jesuit, among the Italians; and the Reatus veritabilis, super terribili esneuta pasanarum de Ruellis; among the French. The famous Rabelais first transferred the macaronic style out of the Italian verse into French prose: and on the model thereof formed some of the best things in his Pantagruel. We have little in English in the macaronian way; nothing scarce, but some little loose pieces collected in Camden's remains. But the Germans and Netherlands have had their macaronic poets; witnesses the Certamen Catholicum cum Calvinistis, of one Martinus Hameconius Frisus, which contains about 1200 verses, all the words whereof begin with the letter C.