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PROFESSOR  J.  S.WILL 


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DANTE 

ESSAYS  IN  COMMEMORATION 
1321-1921 


landrc 


^W^^^/^..,tt. 


^Jdu^a^rUcc  di  c)^ 


DANTE 

ESSAYS  IN  COMMEMORATION 
1321-1921 


Quanto  dime  si  dee  non  si  pub  dire, 

Che  troppo  agli  orbi  il  suo  splendor  s'accese. 


With  Illustrations 


LONDON 
UNIVERSITY    OF   LONDON    PRESS,  LTD 
18   WARWICK   SQUARE,   E.G.  4 
J921 


Edited  for  the  Dante  Sexcentenary 
Committee  by 

ANTONIO   CIPPICO 
HAROLD  E.  GOAD 
EDMUND   G.    GARDNER 
W.  P.  KER 
WALTER  SETON 


^365 


«osa6i 


CONTENTS 


/  PAGE 

V^SOME    THOUGHTS    ON    DANTE    IN    HIS    RELATION    TO 

OUR  OWN  TIME  ...  .         .         i 

Viscount  Bryce. 

CARATTERE   E   UNITX  DELLA   POESIA   DI   DANTE  .         .17 
Benedetto  Croce. 

ALLEGORY  AND  MYTH 31 

W.  P.  Ker. 

OXFORD  AND  DANTE 37 

Paget  Toynbee. 

"INFERNO,"   "THE  VOYAGE  OF  ULYSSES"      ...       75 
Laurence  Binyon.  -  {Translation) 

DANTE  AS   LITERARY   CRITIC 81 

Edmund  G.  Gardner. 

THE   ITALY   OF   DANTE  AND  THE   ITALY  OF  VIRGIL    .     105 
J.  W.  Mackail 

'♦INFERNO,"    "FARINATA" 133 

Harold  E.  Goad.  {Translation) 

NOTES   ON  THE   DATE  OF  COMPOSITION  OF  THE   ^'DE 

MONARCHIA" 141 

Cesare  Foligno. 

DANTE  AND   THE   LATIN    POETS I57 

Philip  H.  Wicksteed. 

DANTE  AND  THE   TROUBADOURS 189 

A.  G.  Ferrers  Howell. 

HUMOUR  OF  DANTE 225 

Canon  L.  Ragg. 

"A  QUEL  MODO   CHE   DITTA   DENTRO"    .         .         .         -235 
Antonio  Cippico. 

V 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 


PLATE 

PORTRAIT   OF   DANTE.     By  Amico  di  Sandro  (?). 

{Frontispiece) 


''1    "  PURGATORIO,"  CANTO  XXIX 

2 


J         (From  a  XIV.  Century  MS.) 

«' INFERNO,"  CANTO  II.    By  Sandro  Botticelli. 
"INFERNO,"  CANTO  IX.     By  Sandro  Botticelli. 
''INFERNO,"  CANTO  XV.     By  Sandro  Botticelli. 
"INFERNO,"  CANTO  XXXIII.     By  Luca  Signorelli. 
"INFERNO,"  CANTO  XXXIII.     By  William  Blake. 
'*  PURGATORIO,'^  CANTO  XXIX.    By  William  Blake. 


vil 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE   IN  HIS 
RELATION  TO  OUR  OWN  TIME 

Viscount  Bryce. 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE  IN  HIS 
RELATION  TO  OUR  OWN  TIME 

Every  great  book  has  its  message  to  other  ages  as 
well  as  to  that  in  which  it  is  produced.  When  a 
powerful  mind  addresses  itself  to  the  permanent 
problems  of  human  life, — the  life  of  the  individual  and 
the  life  of  society, — his  thoughts  are  a  recurring  stimulus 
to  one  generation  after  another,  because  they  go  down 
to  those  foundations  which  are  the  same  for  all  men  in 
all  times.  When  the  great  thinker  is  also  a  Poet,  the 
words  in  which  his  ideas  are  expressed  have  an  enduring 
charm  which  makes  them  always  fresh,  always  enjoy- 
able. The  perfection  of  form  keeps  the  ideas  alive  for 
those  who  have  imagination  and  a  sense  of  beauty, 
even  if  they  be  neither  philosophers  nor  historians. 

Dante  is  as  truly  a  Thinker  as  he  is  a  Poet,  and  were 
he  not  so  great  a  poet,  his  thought  would  be  sometimes 
too  weighty  for  his  poetry  to  bear  the  load.  He  is 
so  intensely  interested  in  the  problems  of  his  own 
time  that  he  makes  alive  and  real  to  us,  living  six 
centuries  away,  things  which  the  dust  of  oblivion 
would  otherwise  have  long  since  covered.  Hardly  any 
poet  whom  all  ages  have  valued  was  so  much  concerned 
with  his  own.  There  have  been  great  geniuses  whom 
we  can  read  without  thinking  of  the  times  in  which 

3 


DANTE 


they  wrote.  Pindar  and  Lucretius,  Chaucer  and 
Shakespeare,  Ariosto  and  MoHere,  Keats  and  Walter 
Scott,  would  in  the  essential  quality  of  their 
imaginative  work  have  been  much  the  same  when- 
ever they  had  lived ;  and  in  reading  them  we  do 
not  feel  them  to  be  children  of  their  age  and 
environment,  even  when  it  is  from  their  surround- 
ings that  their  themes  are  taken.  I  choose  by  pre- 
ference instances  of  poets  who  are  in  other  respects 
markedly  unlike  one  another.  Fewer  are  the  cases 
in  which  the  poetwas  so  profoundly  concerned  with 
or  moved  by  the  events  of  his  own  time  that  he 
compels  us  to  think  of  it  when  we  think  of  him.  Such 
are  Milton  and  Wordsworth,  Goethe  and  Schiller  and 
Victor  Hugo,  Claudian  and  even,  though  in  a  subtler 
way,  Virgil  himself.  But  is  any  at  once  so  universal, 
and  at  the  same  time  so  local  or  "  temporary,"  if 
one  may  use  that  word  in  an  unusual  sense,  as  the 
Florentine  exile  ?  He  is  so  evidently  an  Italian  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  that  great  and  wonderful  century 
of  intellectual  achievement,  that  we  cannot  think  of 
him  without  it,  nor  of  it  without  him.  Yet  he  has 
also  his  message  to  us  as  well  as  to  his  contemporaries, 
and  it  may  indeed  be  said  that  the  deepest  significance 
of  that  message  has  become  plainer  to  us  than  it  was 
to  his  contemporaries,  and  will  remain  full  of  meaning 
so  far  as  we  can  look  into  the  dim  and  distant  vistas 
of  the  future. 

Dante  may  be  called  the  most  poHtical  of  the  great 
poets.     But  he  is  also  the   most  theological — indeed 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE  5 

more  theological  than  he  is  political,  because  his 
politics  are  rooted  in  his  theology.  A  third  element, 
the  furthest  removed  from  politics,  is  Love ;  and  in 
Dante's  mind  Love  is  so  blent  v^ith  Theology  that  one 
can  hardly  say  where  Love  begins  and  Theology  ends. 
That  which  seems  to  lie  at  the  bottom  of  all  his  thinking, 
and  to  be  the  main  burden  of  his  poem,  is  Sin,  both  the 
power  of  Sin  and  the  means  provided  for  escaping  from 
its  power  and  reaching  forward  to  purity  and  quietness 
of  soul  in  this  life  with  the  hope  of  blessedness  in  the 
life  to  come.  To  his  sight  Sin  seems  to  cover  the 
whole  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea.  Sin,  and  strife 
the  offspring  of  Sin — ^strife,  hatred,  violence,  injustice 
are  spread  everywhere  in  Europe.  He  sees  tyranny  ram- 
pant in  France,  where  PhiHp  IV,  "  il  mal  de  Francia,'^^ 
was  showing  an  example  of  rapacious  ferocity  which 
shocked  even  his  own  time.  There  was  fighting  in 
Spain,  where  the  Christians  were  in  hot  battle  with  the 
Moors,  while  the  Moors  were  also  fighting  among 
themselves.  Lawless  violence  had  raged  far  and  wide 
throughout  Germany,  which  after  the  death  of  Conrad 
IV  had  relapsed  into  anarchy ;  while  in  Britain  the  Scot 
and  the  Englishman  were  engaged  in  a  furious  and  ap- 
parently interminable  conflict.^  But  injustice  and  dis- 
order were  at  their  worst  in  Italy,  the  ancient  seat  of  an 
Empire  which  had  given  Peace  to  the  world.  Dante 
had  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  poHtics  in  his  own  city, 
and  had  learnt,  as  do  most  men  who  have  had  to  swim 
that  whirlpool,  that  in  no  department  of  human  life 
^  ParadisOyCdiTito  XIX,  1.  122. 


DANTE 


does  human  nature  wear  a  less  engaging  aspect.  He 
had  wandered  alone  through  many  lands,  finding 
shelter  sometimes  in  secluded  monasteries,  sometimes 
in  the  courts  of  princes,  and  had  seen  deep  into 
the  vanity  of  human  ambitions  and  the  worthless- 
ness  of  transient  pleasures,  n  Forced  to  renounce  the 
ordinary  joys  of  life,  his  mind  turned  to  the  Past  and 
sought  for  some  explanation  of  the  Divine  Purpose 
in  the  course  of  history.  What  was  the  age  in  which 
an  almost  perfect  peace  prevailed  over  the  whole 
world,  and  why  did  it  then  prevail  ?  He  found  that 
age  at  the  time  when  the  first  Roman  Emperor  ruled 
over  a  world  reduced  to  obedience,  and  when  in 
Judaea  the  Prince  of  Peace  was  born. 

Always  isolated,  stern  and  stately  in  his  isolation, 
mingling  a  love  for  his  mother  city  with  resentment 
at  the  citizens  who  had  driven  him  forth  from  her, 
not  to  be  deemed  altogether  unhappy,  for  his  keenly 
observant  and  richly  stored  mind  gave  him  the  enjoy- 
ments of  imagination  and  reflection,  he  was  nevertheless 
filled  with  sad  meditations  upon  the  dominance  of  sin 
and  strife,  and  seems  to  have  been  brooding  for  ever 
over  the  causes  whence  sprang  the  evils  he  saw  every- 
where all  around  him  in  Italy,  and  over  the  means  for 
curing  them. 

The  closing  years  of  the  thirteenth  century  had 
given  much  cause  for  disappointment  to  patriotic  men 
and  fervent  Christians.  The  earlier  years  of  that 
century  had  seen  a  wonderful  revival  in  religion, 
as    well    as    incessant     labour    and    much    creative 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE  7 

energy  in  the  realms  of  thought.  The  two  Orders 
of  St..„. Francis  and  St.  Dominic  had  brought  the 
teachings  of  the  Church  into  the  homes  and  hearts 
of  peasants  and  the  humbler  townsfolk  in  a  way  un- 
known before.  The  great  Universities  had  given  an 
unprecedented  impulse  to  logical  and  metaphysical 
discussion.  Constructive  minds,  like  those  of  St. 
Thomas  of  Aquinum  and  St.  Bonaventura,  had  built 
up  a  compact  scheme  of  theological  doctrine  in  which 
pious  Christians  could  find  repose.  The  famous  school 
of  Bologna  had  turned  to  account  the  treasures  of 
the  ancient  Roman  jurisprudence  and  laid  the  founda- 
tion of  the  legal  systems  of  the  modern  world.  Pope 
Gregory  the  Ninth  had  followed  their  example  and 
built  up  a  parallel  system  of  law  for  the  Church. 
The  brilliant  dawn  of  poetry  in  Provence  had  been 
followed  by  an  outburst  of  song  in  Italy.  Painting 
had  escaped  from  Byzantine  formalism,  and  noble 
buildings,  unsurpassed  by  any  that  have  followed  them, 
were  rising  everywhere  in  Lombardy  and  Tuscany. 
These  were  great  achievements.  Yet  one  feels  in 
Dante,  than  whom  no  one  ever  loved  theology  and 
poetry  and  art  more  fervently,  the  note  of  disappoint- 
ment. He  sheds  no  tears  over  the  fall  of  republics, 
but  he  denounces  the  tyrants  who  had  risen  by  de- 
stroying the  republics,  and  with  whom  Italy  was 
filled.^  He  condemns  the  Ghibelline  nobles,  though 
he  had  been  compelled  to  seek  the  hospitality  of 
some   of   the    best    among   them,    as    sternly    as    he 

1  Purgatorio,  Canto  VI,  1.  124. 


8  DANTE 


J 


does  those  Black  Guelfs  who  drove  him  forth  from 
Florence.^ 

But  that  which  pained  him  most  was  the  decadence 
of  what  ought  to  have  been  at  once  the  inspiring  and 
guiding  and  restraining  force  in  human  society.  The 
Church,  or  at  least  those  who  held  power  in  the  Church, 
had  contracted  the  vices  of  the  world.  They  were 
of  the  earth,  earthy,  ensnared  by  its  temptations, 
partakers  of  its  ambitions  and  its  avarice,  many  of 
them  almost  as  deep  sunk  in  sensuality  as  the  least 
scrupulous  laymen.^  When  these  were  the  shepherds, 
when  such  a  man  as  Nicholas  III  bought  himself  into 
the  Popedom,^  and  such  a  man  as  Boniface  the  Eighth, 
was  wearing  the  tiara,  moral  influence  had  been 
divorced  from  ecclesiastical  authority.  Moreover,  the 
Church  had  (except  during  a  few  intervals  of  truce) 
been  Tor  two  centuries  at  deadly  feud  with  the  secular 
pdwef'~of  the  Emperor,  and  had  in^jthe  person  of 
pontiffs  like  Gregory  IX,  Innocent  IV,  and  above  all 
Boniface  VIII,  claimed  a  power  over-riding  or  super- 
seding, even  in  secular  matters,  that  of  the  temporal 
monarch.  If  the  light  of  the  Church  was  going  out 
in  darkness,  how  great  was  that  darkness ! 

A  mind  like  Dante's  could  not  mourn  over  these  evils 
without  seeking  a  remedy  for  them.     Perceiving  that* 
the  only  complete  and  permanent  cure  was  to  be  foundl 
in  the  purification  of  the  soul,  he  set  forth  in  his  poem| 

1  Paradiso,  Canto  VI,  1.  103. 

2  Cf.  Inferno,  Canto  XV,  1.  106. 

3  Ibid.,  Canto  XIX,  1.  52. 


\ 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE 

the  hideousness  of  sin  and  the  awful  penalties  tha 
awaited  it,  the  means  of  purging  it  away,  the  final 
blessedness  of  those  who  were  permitted,  when  purified 
to  enter  the  presence  of  God.  However  often  he 
turns  aside  in  the  course  of  the  poem  into  bypaths 
of  astronomy,  or  dogmatic  theology,  or  contemporary 
politics,  or  pensive  recollections  of  those  whom  he 
had  loved,  we  feel  this  to  be  his  main  aim  and 
purpose. 

This  is  the  centre  of  all  his  thinking.  But  though 
he  feels  as  a  Christian  that  a  return  to  primitive  faith 
and  an  absolute  subjection  of  the  individual  believer 
to  the  Divine  Will  is  the  only  way  to  perfect  virtue 
and  happiness,  he  is  concerned  also  with  the  special 
and  tangible  evils  of  his  own  time  and  tries  to  explore 
their  causes.  ^^ The  strife  which  was  ruining  Italy  by 
substituting  Force  for Justi^,  seemed  to  him  to  spring 
from  the  perversion  and  corruption  of  one  of  the  two 
authorities  which  God  had  provided  for  the  direction 
of  mankind,  and  from  the  weakness  or  slackness  of  the 
other.  The  Church  had  lost  her  heavenly  purity : 
she  was  misusing  her  authority  for  selfish  ends.  The 
imperial  power  had  been  discredited  by  a  feebleness 
which  was  largely  due  to  the  usurpations  of  the 
ecclesiastical  sovereign. 

This  theory,  which  shines  through  nearly  all  his 
writings,  is  most  explicitly  set  forth  in  the  treatise 
De  Monarchia,  It  was  written  to  show  how  God  had, 
partly  by  His  express  commands  recorded  in  Scripture, 
partly  by  directing  and  disposing  the  actual  course 


lo  DANTE 


of  events,  provided  in  the  Roman  Emperor  a  temporal 

sovereign  to  hold  the  sword,  preserve  order,  administer 

justice,  and  in  the  Universal  Bishop  at  Rome  a  spiritual 

sovereign  bearing  the  pastoral  staff,  commissioned  to 

proclaim  the  Law  of  Christ,  whose  Vicar  he  is,  and  to 

guide  the  temporal  sovereign  and  his  subjects  into  the 

path  that  leads  to  eternal  life.     This  was  the  true 

order.     But  the  Bishop,  yielding  to  the  lust  of  power, 

led  astray  by  wealth  and  the  love  of  it,  had  encroached 

on    the     province    of     his    colleague,    assuming     the 

monarch's  sword  as  well  as  the  shepherd's  staff. 

"  L'  un  1'  altro  ha  spento,  ed  e  junta  la  spada 
Col  pastorale." 

Hence  came  confusion,  no  man  knowing  whom  he 
should  obey :  hence  the  strife  of  Guelfs  and  GhibeUines, 
hence  disorder  and  tyrannies  in  Italy,  wars  all  the  world 
over.  The  supreme  need  of  Italy  and  the  world  was 
Peace.  But  Peace  can  be  secured  only  by  restoring 
the  order  established  by  God's  providence,  and 
recognising  the  imprescriptible  rights  of  the  Divinely 
appointed  Emperor,  no  less  than  the  Divine  commission 
of  the  Universal  Bishop,  who  holds  the  keys  of  Heaven 
and  Hell. 

The  Monarchy  of  Dante's  De  Monarchia  is  not  an 
Italian  kingdom,  though  there  had  been  for  centuries  a 
kingdom  of  Italy,  and  the  emperors  had  usually  re- 
ceived its  crown,  thereby  establishing  their  feudal  rights 
south  of  the  Alps.  Dante  was  not  thinking  of  Italy  as  a 
political  entity,  nor  of  ItaHan  nationaHty  and  Italian 
unity,  nor  indeed  especially  of  Italy,  except  in  so  far 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE         ii 

as  he  saw  and  felt  most  deeply  for  his  own  land  and  its 
sorrows.  Italy  was  to  him  the  Garden  of  the  Empire, 
that  choicest  part  of  his  dominions  which  ought  to 
have  been  most  cared  for  by  the  monarch,  and  had 
been  most  neglected.  The  sentiment  of  nationality, 
as  we  understand  it,  had  not  yet  become  a  definite 
and  self-conscious  factor  in  the  life  of  European 
peoples.  The  unity  he  desired  was  a  unity  that  rose 
as  a  bright  vision  of  the  whole  Christian  world  living 
in  concord  as  one  community  under  its  two  legally 
appointed  heads.  He  was  a  Christian  before  he  was 
an  Italian,  or  a  Tuscan,  or  a  Florentine,  the  greater 
patriotism  embracing,  though  not  effacing,  the  minor 
duties  and  affections.  He  would  have  said,  with  the 
men  of  old,  "Roma  communis  omnium  patria," 
because  Christian  Rome  was  the  centre  of  imperial 
glory  and  of  sanctity.  O^ 

How  came  it  then  that  Dante  was  taken  by  the  r"^  ij    £^ 
men  of  the  Risorgimento  from  1820  to  i860  as  the        \ 
earliest  champion — one  might  almost  say,  as  a  patron  f  <^"-'*^'*- ' 
saint — of  the  cause  for  which  they  wrote  and  fought 
and  died — the  independence  and  unity  of  Italy  ?     Why 
did  his  name  become  a  rallying  cry  for  the  friends  of 
liberty  ?   It  may  be  said,  and  truly  said,  that  the  struggle 
of  the  patriots  of  those  days  was  largely  a  struggle 
against  the  temporal  power  of  the  papacy,  which  then 
covered  a  large  part  of  Central  Italy,  and  was  supported 
by  Austria  and  by  Naples,  as  well  as  by  France,  and  that 
Dante,  though  strenuously  orthodox,  had  condemned 
the  secular  ambitions  of  the  pontiffs  of  his  own  time. 


12  DANTE 


But  there  was  a  larger  and  more  potent  cause.  The 
Italians  had  in  the  field  of  politics  no  national  hero ; 
it  was  in  the  field  of  literature  that  they  must  find 
a  name  who  united  them  all,  and  represented  the 
collective  greatness  of  the  nation.  They  found  such 
a  name  in  Dante.  He  was,  he  had  long  been,  a 
national  poet,  more  clearly  and  conspicuously  the  sun 
of  the  national  firmament  than  any  poet  has  been  for 
France  or  Spain  or  Germany.  Dante  was  for  the 
Italians  the  embodied  gloria  delta  lengua,  Dante  loved 
Italy,  as  Virgil  had  loved  Italy,  with  its  beauty  and 
its  fertility,  with  its  picturesque  charm  and  its  historic 
traditions : — 

Tot  congesta  manu  praeruptis  oppida  saxis 
Fluminaque  antiques  subterlabentia  muros, 

and  he  had  written  of  it  as  no  one  had  done  since 
Virgil  had  penned  those  incomparable  lines  which  end 
with  the  solemn  greeting  : — 

Salve  magna  parens  frugum,  Saturnia  tellus 
Magna  virum ;  tibi  res  antiquae  laudis  et  artis 
Ingredior,  sanctos  ausus  recludere  fontes. 

Dante  had  been  the  first  great  light  of  poetry  to 
Italy  since  Virgil,  and  what  Virgil  had  been  to  him, 
he  became  to  Italy. 

This,  however,  is  a  digression :  I  return  from  it  to 
observe  that  the  theory  of  a  universal  monarchy  was 
not  peculiar  to  Dante.  It  had  been  held  by  many 
before  him.  It  was  held  by  most  educated  men  in 
his  time,  though  most  churchmen  would  have 
subordinated  the    imperial  to  the  papal  power,   and 


SOME  THOUGHTS  ON  DANTE         13 

it  continued  to  be  held  by  many  laymen  and 
churchmen  long  after  his  time,  though  none  ever 
stated  and  argued  it  with  such  passionate  convic- 
tion. The  very  intensity  of  Dante's  belief  in  his 
doctrine  blinded  him  to  the  impossibility  of  giving 
effect  to  it.  That  impossibility  was  demonstrated 
seven  years  after  his  death  by  the  failure  of  the  only 
Emperor  who  ever  seriously  tried,  after  the  fruitless 
effort  of  Henry  VH,  to  assert  imperial  authority 
in  Italy »^  To  Dante  this  was  the  dominant  truth 
of  politics,  appearing  so  frequently  in  the  Divina 
Commedia  that  parts  of  the  poem  are  scarcely  intelli- 
gible without  a  perception  of  the  faith  he  had  in  it. 
To  us  it  is  only  the  illusion  of  a  grand  imagination 
and  of  a  faith  so  strong  as  to  make  him  believe 
that  what  ought  to  be  will,  because  it  ought  to  be, 
somehow  come  eventually  to  pass.  That  which  com- 
mands our  attention  to-day  is  not  the  form  which 
Dante's  hopes  took,  but  his  ardour  for  the  restora- 
tion of  Justice  and  Peace,  things  to  him  inseparable, 
because  without  Justice  there  can  be  no  Peace,  since 

^  In  A.D.  1328,  the  Emperor  Lewis  IV,  with  the  help  of  the 
Colonna  and  of  Castruccio  Castracani,  lord  of  Lucca,  held  a  solemn 
assembly  in  Rome  which  deposed  Pope  John  XXII,  then  residing 
at  Avignon,  and  chose  in  his  place  a  Franciscan  friar,  but  next 
year  this  audacious  scheme  collapsed  and  the  Emperor  returned  to 
Germany.  He  had  been  prompted  and  advised  by  Marsilius  of 
Padua,  who  wrote  a  famous  book  {Defensor  Pacts)  denying  papal  claims 
and  urging  those  of  the  Emperor.  Dante  may  probably  have  met 
MarsiHus  at  the  court  of  the  Delia  Scala  in  Verona,  and  one  wonders 
whether  the  poet  would  have  been  more  pleased  by  the  defence  of 
the  Empire  which  the  book  of  Marsilius  contained  or  horrified  at  its 
heresies. 


14  DANTE 


oppression  and  aggression  provoke  war,  and  without 
Peace  there  can  be  no  Justice,  since  brute  force  will 
prevail  against  it.  The  call  for  Peace  and  some 
authority  to  enforce  Peace  that  came  from  him  first 
among  laymen  was  taken  up  by  great  spirits  in  after 
ages,  such  as  Erasmus  in  the  beginning,  and  Henry  IV 
of  France  in  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  Grotius 
and  Leibnitz  in  the  seventeenth,  Kant  in  the  eighteenth. 
All  these  thought  and  worked  in  vain.  Everybody 
deplored  the  crimes  and  sufferings  and  losses  war 
brought,  but  they  were  deemed  inevitable,  and  had 
proved  to  be  equally  so  under  all  forms  of  government, 
republics  as  well  as  monarchies.  Our  own  time  has 
seen  these  evils  renewed  on  a  vaster  scale  than  ever 
before,  and  our  twentieth  century,  like  Dante's  four- 
teenth century,  opens  with  a  sense  of  disappointment. 
Wonderful  enlargements  of  human  knowledge,  immense 
additions  to  human  wealth  and  comfort,  have  been 
followed  by  widespread  slaughter  and  destruction ; 
racial  and  national  hatreds  burn  with  a  hotter  flame 
:y-'-  and  threaten  further  strife.  In  the  midst  of  disasters 
f~0'^^'^'"'  and  discouragements  not  so  great  as  ours,  Dante  raised 
his  voice  to  plead  for  Peace  as  the  world's  greatest  need. 
As  Wordsworth  in  a  noble  sonnet  invoked  the  shade 
of  his  great  predecessor  : — 

"Milton,  thou  shouldst  be  living  at  this  hour, 
England  hath  need  of  thee," 

SO  may  Italy  and  England  look  back  to  the  Florentine 
poet  and  prophet  who  saw  the  only  safety  for  the  world 


SOME  THOUGHTS   ON  DANTE         15 

in  Justice  and  Peace,  and  may  wish  that  an  equally- 
exalted  soul  and  equally  puissant  voice  were  raised 
to  plead  for  peace  to-day.  If  some  new  Pilgrim  of 
Eternity,  guided  by  a  new  Virgil  and  another  Beatrice, 
could  bring  back  from  Purgatory  or  Paradise  a  message 
to  the  peoples  of  this  vaster  world,  would  it  not  be 
that  which  Dante  delivered  to  the  peoples  of  his  own : 
"  Seek  Peace  and  ensue  it ;  seek  Peace  through  Justice, 
and  despair  not,  as  I  never  despaired  -'  ? 


CARATTERE  E  UNITA  BELLA  POESIA 
DI  DANTE 

Benedetto  Croce. 


CARATTERE  E  UNITA  BELLA  POESIA  DI 
DANTE 

Che  cosa  e  lo  spirito  dantesco,  I'ethos  e  il  pathos 
della  Commedia,  la  "  tonalita "  che  le  e  propria  ? 
E — si  puo  dire  in  brevi  e  semplici  parole — un  senti- 
mento  del  mondo,  fondato  sopra  una  ferma  fede  e  un 
sicuro  giudizio,  e  animato  da  una  robusta  volonta. 
Quale  sia  la  realta,  Dante  conosce,  e  nessuna  perples- 
sita  impedisce  o  divide  e  indebolisce  il  suo  conoscere, 
nel  quale  di  mistero  e  solo  quel  tanto  a  cui  bisogna 
piegarsi  reverente  e  che  e  intrinseco  alia  concezione 
stessa,  il  mistero  della  creazione,  provvidenza  e  volonta 
divina,  che  si  svela  solo  nella  visione  di  Dio,  nella 
beatitudine  celeste.  A  Dante  parve  forse  talora  che 
anche  questo  mistero  gli  si  diradasse,  negli  attimi  in 
cui  provo  o  immagino  mistici  rapimenti ;  senonche 
questa  mistica  cognizione  nella  sua  poesia  si  traduceva, 
e  doveva  tradursi,  in  modo  negativo,  come  racconto 
di  un'esperienza  che  si  sia  fatta  di  cose  ineffabili.  E 
parimente  egli  sa  come  convenga  giudicare  i  vari 
affetti  umani  e  come  verso  di  essi  comportarsi,  e  quali 
azioni  approvare  e  compiere,  e  quali  biasimare  e  repri- 
mere,  per  rivolgere  a  verace  e  degno  fine  la  vita ;  e  la 
sua  volonta  non  tentenna  e  oscilla  tra  ideali  discor- 
danti  e  non  e  straziata  da  desideri  che  la  tirino  in  parti 

19 


20  DANTE 


opposte.  I  dissidi  e  contrasti,  che  noi  possiamo 
scoprire  nei  suoi  concetti  e  nei  suoi  atteggiamenti, 
sono  nei  profondo  delle  cose  stesse,  si  svolgeranno  nella 
storia  ulteriore,  ma  in  lui  rimangono  in  germe,  non 
sviluppati,  e  non  appartengono  alia  sua  coscienza,  che 
e  coscienza  compatta  e  unitaria  :  fede  salda  e  abito 
costante,  sicurezza  del  pensare  e  dell'  operare.  Ma  in 
questa  robusta  inquadratura  intellettiva  e  morale  si 
agita,  come  si  e  detto,  il  sentimento  del  mondo,  il 
piu  vario  o  complesso  sentimento,  di  uno  spirito  che 
ha  tutto  osservato  e  sperimentato  e  meditato,  e  a  pieno 
esperto  dei  vizi  umani  e  del  valore,  ed  esperto  non  in 
modo  sommario  e  generico  e  di  seconda  mano,  ma  per 
aver  vissuto  quegli  affetti  in  se  medesimo,  nella  vita 
pratica  e  nei  vivo  simpatizzare  e  immaginare.  L'inqua- 
dratura  intellettiva  ed  etica  chiude  e  domina  questa 
materia  tumultuante,  che  ne  e  interamente  soggio- 
gata,  ma  come  si  soggioga  e  incatena  un  avversario 
poderoso,  il  quale,  anche  sotto  il  piede  del  dominatore, 
anche  tra  le  catene  che  lo  stringono,  tende  i  suoi 
muscoli  forti  e  si  compone  in  linee  grandiose. 

Non  altro  che  I'atteggiamento  spirituale  che  si  e  cosi 
definito  hanno  presente  e  si  sforzano  di  cogliere  e 
determinare  le  varie  altre  definizioni,  che  s'incontrano 
sparsamente  presso  critici  e  interpreti,  circa  il  carattere 
della  poesia  dantesca.  E  come  non  vedere  in  niun 
modo  cio  che  e  cosi  reale  ed  effettuale  e  patente  ?  La 
verita  si  fa  valere  sempre,  o,  per  lo  meno,  trainee  con 
molti  bagliori.  Senonche  quelle  formule  si  sforzano 
all'  intento  e  mal  vi  riescono,  perche  o  adoperano  con- 


UNITA  BELLA  POESIA  DI   DANTE      21 

cetti  inadeguati,  o  fanno  ricorso  a  metafore,  o  si  per- 
dono  in  astrattezze  e  in  cataloghi  di  astrattezze.  Si 
suol  osservare,  per  esempio,  che  Dante  ritrae  non  il 
divenire  ma  il  divenuto,  non  il  presente  ma  il  passato ; 
e  che  cos'altro  si  vuol  dire  con  questa  astrusa  distin- 
zione,  o  che  cos'altro  e  in  fondo  alle  osservazioni  che 
I'hanno  mossa,  se  non  per  I'appunto  che,  in  Dante, 
tutti  gli  affetti  sono  contenuti  e  assoggettati  a  un 
generale  pensiero  e  a  una  costante  volonta,  che  ne 
supera  la  particolarita  ?  Ma  questa  energica  rappre- 
sentazione  di  una  forza  che  supera  e  domina  una  forza 
e  pure,  come  ogni  poesia,  rappresentazione  di  un 
divenire  e  non  di  un  divenuto,  di  un  moto  e  non  di 
una  stasi.  Si  suol  dire  che  Dante  e  sommamente 
oggettivo ;  ma  nessuna  poesia  e  mai  oggettiva,  e 
Dante,  come  si  sa,  e  sommamente  soggettivo,  sempre 
lui,  sempre  dantesco ;  sicche,  evidentemente,  "  ogget- 
tivita "  e,  in  questo  caso,  una  vaga  metafora  per 
designare  I'assenza  di  turbamento  e  di  dissidio  nella 
sua  concezione  del  mondo,  il  suo  pensare  con  nitidezza 
e  il  suo  volere  con  determinatezza  e  percio  il  suo 
rappresentare  con  netti  contorni.  Si  suol  osservare 
che  e  proprio  di  Dante  I'abolire  ogni  distanza  di  tempi 
e  diversita  di  costumi,  e  uomini  e  avvenimenti  di  ogni 
tempo  collocare  sullo  stesso  piano  :  la  qual  cosa  torna 
a  dire  che  egli  misurava  le  cose  mondane  di  ogni  tempo 
e  di  ogni  sorta  con  unica  e  ferma  misura,  con  un  defi- 
nito  modello  di  verita  e  di  bene,  e  proiettava  il  tran- 
seunte  sullo  schermo  delP  eterno.  Si  enumerano  i 
caratteri  della  forma  dantesca,  I'intensita,  la  precisione, 


22  DANTE 


la  concisione  e  simili ;  e  certo  chi  domina  con  la  forza 
del  volere  le  forti  passioni  esprime  qualcosa  di  vigoroso 
e  d'intenso,  e,  poiche  le  affisa  e  conosce,  e  precise,  e, 
poiche  non  si  perde  nelle  loro  minuzie,  e  concise ;  ma 
contentarsi  di  tali  enumerazioni  di  caratteri  varrebbe 
attenersi  all'estrinseco.  Si  suol  chiamarlo  "  poeta 
scultore,"  e  non  gia  "  pittore  "  ;  e,  certo,  quando  per 
I'atto  dello  scolpire  e  per  lo  strumento  dello  scalpello 
s'intende  il  gesto  virile,  vigoroso,  robusto,  risoluto,  a 
differenza  del  dipingere  a  grand' agio  col  "  lievissimo 
pennello "  (come  Leonardo  ritraeva  la  sua  arte), 
Dante  sara  bene  scultore  e  non  pittore ;  delle  imma- 
gini,  che  place  adoperare,  non  si  disputa,  se  anche 
logicamente  e  criticamente  siano  prive  di  senso,  com'e 
privo  di  senso  il  famoso  parallelo  tra  Dante  e  Michel- 
angelo. E  noto  un  luogo  del?  Ottimo  Comento  :  "  lo, 
scrittore,  sentii  dire  a  Dante  che  mai  rima  nol  trasse 
a  dir  altro  da  quello  ch'aveva  in  suo  proponimento,  ma 
ch'elli  molte  e  spesse  volte  facea  da  vocaboli  dire  nelle 
sue  rime  altro  che  quello  che  erano  appo  gli  altri 
dicitori  usati  di  esprimere."  Ferba  sequentur,  e,  se 
non  seguono  pronte,  sono  trascinate  a  forza,  come 
aggiungeva  il  Montaigne.  Anche  quando  si  afferma 
che  il  carattere  e  I'unita  della  poesia  dantesca  stanno 
per  intero  nel  metro,  su  cui  il  poema  e  cantato,  nella 
terzina,  incatenata,  serrata,  disciplinata,  veemente  e 
pur  calma,  si  dice  e  non  si  dice  il  vero ;  come  sempre, 
del  resto,  in  simili  tentativi  di  cogliere  I'essenza  dell'arte 
nelle  forme  astrattamente  concepite,  tentativi  che 
son  ora  in  molta  voga,  specialmente  nella  critica  delle 


UNITA  BELLA  POESIA  DI   DANTE      23 

arti  figurative.  Senza  dubbio,  con  la  terzina  sola- 
mente  nasce  il  Dante  della  Commedia,  e  solo  in  essa  e 
per  essa  egli  vive  il  dramma  della  sua  anima ;  e  la 
terzina  non  pote  essere  (com'  e  stato  talora  congettu- 
rato)  da  lui  intellettualisticamente  e  volontariamente 
scelta  in  quanto  allegorica  della  Trinita,  perche,  se 
anche  egli  penso  a  codesta  allegoria,  il  suo  pensiero 
dove  questa  volta  sovrapporsi  o  allearsi  alia  necessita 
della  sua  anima,  alia  spontanea  mossa  della  sua  fantasia 
espressiva,  con  la  quale  la  terzina  fa  tutt'  uno.  Ma 
quale  terzina  ?  Non  certamente  la  terzina  in  genere, 
ma  quella  propriamente  dantesca,  impastata  col 
materiale  linguistico,  sintattico  e  stilistico  proprio  di 
Dante,  battuta  con  I'inflessione  e  I'accento  che  egli  le 
d^,  diversa  dalla  terzina  adoperata  da  altri  poeti :  con 
la  quale  ovvia  considerazione  si  fa  altresi  chiaro  che 
la  terzina  viene  ricordata  in  questo  caso  non  come 
determinatrice  per  se  stessa  di  quella  particolare  poesia, 
ma  in  quanto  richiama  tutto  Tethos  e  il  pathos  della 
Commedtay  la  sua  intonazione  o  tonalit^,  lo  spirito  di 
Dante. 

Che  questo  spirito  sia  uno  spirito  austero,  risponde 
al  concetto  che  universalmente  si  ha  di  Dante,  ed  e 
implicito  nella  caratteristica  segnata  di  sopra,  perche 
colui  che  raifrena  e  domina  le  passioni  e  austero,  e, 
come  tale,  chiude  in  se  una  grande  esperienza  di  dolore. 
Ma,  quando  I'immaginazione  dipinge  un  Dante  col 
volto  perpetuamente  contratto  dallo  sdegno,  o  quando 
i  critici  parlano,  come  hanno  parlato,  del  suo  "  umor 
nero,"  della  sua  "  misantropia,"  del  suo  "  pessimismo," 


24  DANTE 


conviene  forse  ammonire  a  non  esagerare,  e  giova 
procurar  di  ritoccare  e  di  ammorbidire  (come  ci 
siamo  provati  a  fare  nel  corso  della  nostra  esposizione) 
qualcuna  della  linee  di  quel  ritratto  tradizionale  e 
convenzionale.  Quale  che  Dante  apparisse  ai  con- 
temporanei  e  passasse  nella  leggenda,  e  pur  conce- 
dendo  che  la  sua  faccia  fosse  "  pensosa  e  malinconica," 
come  scrive  il  Boccaccio,  e  certo,  perche  il  poema  ce  lo 
prova,  che  egli  ebbe  neU'animo  una  ricchezza  e  variety 
d'interessi  che  dal  presente  lo  portavano  all'antico, 
dalla  immediatezza  del  vivere  e  soffrire  al  compiacersi 
dei  ricordi  eruditi  e  di  scuola,  e  una  ricchezza  e  variety 
di  affetti,  che  dai  piu  violenti  o  dai  piu  sublimi  giunge- 
vano  ai  dolci  e  ai  teneri  e  si  stendevano  ai  celianti  e 
giocosi.  Ed  era  poeta  :  e  il  suo  occhio  di  profugo  per 
le  terre  d'ltalia  non  guardava  solo  politicamente  e 
moralmente  le  cose  politiche  e  morali,  ma  spaziava  in 
ogni  sorta  di  spettacoli,  godendo  degli  spettacoli,  e  si 
volgeva  con  ammirazione  alle  cose  belle  e  si  chinava 
con  simpatia  anche  alle  umili.  Ed  era,  oltre  che  poeta, 
specificamente  artista  :  e  Parte  studio  sempre,  e  vi 
teorizzo  sopra,  e  si  glorio  del  "  bello  stile,"  e  assai 
gioia  ebbe  dalla  parola,  dalla  parola  appropriata,  cal- 
zante,  sensuosa,  che  e  il  pensiero  stesso  che  genera  a 
se,  con  divino  f  remito  di  creazione,  il  suo  corpo  vivente. 
Ci  furono*  dunque  nel  suo  animo  molto  piu  vari  senti- 
menti,  e  soprattutto  molto  piu  lietezza  che  non  si  pensi 
generalmente  ;  sebbene  anche  quel  sentimenti  e  quella 
lietezza  s'inquadrassero  per  sempre  nel  suo  abito 
austero  e  fossero  in  esso  temperati  e  intonati. 


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III 

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UNITA  BELLA  POESIA  DI   DANTE      25 

Su  questo  ethos  e  pathos  di  Dante,  e  suUa  conce- 
zione  intellettuale  e  le  tendenze  pratiche  che  lo  con- 
dizionano,  s'impianta  di  frequente  la  controversia, 
dibattuta  non  meno  nei  paesi  stranieri  che  in  Itaha, 
intorno  alia  "  modernita  "  o  "  non  modernita  "  del 
suo  spirito ;  il  che,  messo  in  termini  piu  esatti  e  chiari, 
vale  domandare  se  Dante  possa  o  no  essere  a  noi 
moderni  il  maestro  e  la  guida  della  vita  spirituale, 
degli  ideali  politici  e  morali,  e  di  ogni  altra  cosa.  Ora 
il  vero  e  che  tutti  i  grandi  sono  maestri  di  vita,  ma 
nessuno  puo  esser  tale  da  solo,  perche  ciascuno  di  essi 
e  un  momento  della  storia,  e  la  vera  maestra  e  la  storia 
tutta,  e  non  solo  quella  che  noi  di  continuo  ricreiamo, 
ma  anche,  e  soprattutto,  quella  che  noi,  in  ogni 
istante,  creiamo.  Eterna  nella  forma  della  poesia,  la 
Commedia  e,  per  altro  rispetto,  ossia  nella  sua  materia, 
limitata  al  momento  storico  in  cui  sorse  e  di  cui  si  e 
gia  a  suo  luogo  brevemente  delineata  la  particolare 
fisionomia.  E  la  considerazione  di  questo  storico 
nascimento  basta  a  discriminare  cio  che  in  Dante  c'e, 
che  prima  non  era,  e  cio  che  in  lui  non  e,  e  non  poteva 
essere,  perche  si  formo  di  poi,  e  a  togliere  dal  suo 
ritratto  alcune  ombre  e  colori,  che  vi  sono  stati  mala- 
mente  aggiunti. 

Non  c'e  piu  in  Dante  il  medioevo,  il  crudo  medioevo, 
cosi  quello  della  feroce  ascesi  come  1' altro  del  fiero  e 
allegro  battagliare ;  che  mai  forse  niun  altro  gran 
poema  e  come  quello  di  Dante  privo  di  passione  per  la 
guerra  in  quanto  guerra,  delle  commozioni  che  accom- 
pagnano  la  lotta  militare,  il  rischio,  lo  sforzo,  il  trionfo, 


26  DANTE 


I'avventura.  L'epopea  medievale,  il  ciclo  carolingio, 
appena  vi  romba  da  lontano,  in  una  terzina  di  paragone. 
In  cambio  dell'  ascesi  vi  si  ritrova  la  ferma  fede,  raffor- 
zata  da  pensiero  e  dottrina ;  in  cambio  dell'ardore 
guerresco,  I'ardore  civile.  Queste,  e  non  piu  quelle 
cose,  appartenevano  all'  eta  sua,  all'  Italia  del  suo 
tempo,  o,  a  ogni  modo,  appartenevano  alia  sua  coscienza 
e  formavano  oggetto  della  sua  continua  e  intensa 
sollecitudine,  della  sua  umana  passione.  E  sebbene  io 
abbia  piu  volte  manifestato  la  mia  diffidenza  e  ripu- 
gnanza  verso  le  caratterologie  etniche  dei  poeti,  pur 
diro  che,  se  il  nome  di  "  germanico,"  del  quale  Dante 
e  stato  fregiato  (e  non  solo  da  tedeschi,  e  anzi  non  da 
tedeschi  per  primi),  s'intende  simbolicamente  come 
designazione  ora  dell'  impeto  mistico  e  ascetico  ora 
dell'  impeto  guerresco,  Dante  non  fu  "  germanico," 
e  dovrebbe  denominarsi  italiano  o  latino  o  con  altret- 
tale  contrapposto.  Nella  bellissima  rievocazione  che 
Giovanni  Berchet  fece,  nelle  Fantasie^  dell'  incontro 
di  italiani  e  tedeschi  a  Costanza  pei  negoziati  della 
pace,  Dante  non  starebbe  tra  il  "  popol  biondo  "  e  tra 
i  baroni  che,  col  ferreo  cappello  e  col  busto  chiuso 
nelle  ferree  maglie,  "  emergono  segnal  di  un  di'vetusto," 
ma  in  quel  gruppo  di  avvolti  in  lunghe  e  semplici 
cappe,  "  sol  cospicui  per  negri  cigli  accorti." 

Per  altro  rispetto  bisogna  astenersi  dal  troppo 
ravvicinare,  paragonando,  Dante  alio  Shakespeare,  il 
primo  poeta  pari  a  lui  di  grandezza  che  s'incontri 
dopo  di  lui  nella  storia  della  poesia  europea ;  perche 
lo    Shakespeare,    per    I'appunto,    rappresenta,    ed    e, 


UNITA  DELLA  POESIA  DI  DANTE      27 

un'altra  epoca  dello  splrito  umano,  nella  quale  la 
concezione  dantesca  del  mondo  era  stata  sconvolta, 
e  sulla  chiarezza,  che  illuminava  anche  la  necessita  del 
mistero,  si  era  distesa  una  nuova  ombra  di  mistero, 
e  la  perplessita  della  mente  e  dell'  animo,  che  Dante 
non  conosceva  o  aveva  presto  vinta,  era  diventata  la 
nota  dominante.^  E,  quanto  ai  romantici,  che  poi 
seguirono,  che  cosa  dire  ?  II  loro  infinito  non  e  il  suo, 
il  loro  sognare  non  e  il  suo  sognare,  il  loro  stile  non  e 
il  suo  "  bello  stile,"  il  loro  "  sentimento  della  natura  " 
(che  lacopo  Grimm  percio  negava  a  Dante)  non  e  il 
suo,  e,  in  genere,  il  loro  sentimento  della  vita  e  I'opposto 
del  suo  :  chi  legge  o  declama  Dante  romanticamente 
lo  sfigura  e  tradisce.  Anche  qui,  se  "  germanico  "  si 
toglie  come  simbolo  di  "  romantico,"  Dante,  come 
non  si  puo  dire  germanico  del  medioevo,  cosi  non  fu 
dell'ottocento.  Se  egli  avesse  conosciuto  gli  eroi  del 
romanticismo,  i  Werther,  gli  Obermann  e  i  Renati,  e 
la  loro  pallida  genia,  li  avrebbe  forse  messi  nella  "  bel- 
letta  negra,"  tra  gli  "  accidiosi."  E  qualcosa  dove 
conoscere  di  questa  trista  disposizione  di  spirito,  che 
nel  periodo  romantico  propriamente  si  arricchi,  si 
complico,  si  estese  e  ottenne  ammirazione  e  apoteosi, 
ma  che  e  di  tutti  i  tempi ;  e  forse  esso  stesso,  da  gio- 
vane,  dove,  per  alcun  tempo,  soffrire  quella  malattia, 
e,  come  gli  eroi  romantici,  per  effetto  della  malinconia, 
della  tristezza,  dell'  accidia,  si  lascio  andare  alle  dissi- 
pazioni :   se  tale  e  il  significato  del  sonetto  che  I'amico 

^  Rimando   per  questa  parte  al   mio   saggio  shakespeariano,  nel 
volume :  Ariosto,  Shakespeare  e  Corneille  (Bari,  1920). 


28  DANTE 


Cavalcanti  gl'indirizzava,  rimproverandolo  della  "  vil 
vita,"  nella  quale  "  posava,"  dell'  "  anima  invilita  " 
e  dello  "  spirito  noioso,"  che  s'era  impadronito  di 
lui.  Ma,  per  ogni  caso,  egli  si  trasse  presto  fuori  da 
questo  smarrimento,  e  lo  mise  tra  le  altre  sue  esperi- 
enze ;  come  mise  tra  le  sue  esperienze  quelle  furenti 
passioni  amorose,  delle  quali  parlano  i  suoi  biografi,  e 
ne  fece  I'episodio  di  Francesca.  Nella  Commedia^  non 
c'e  sentimentalismo  di  sorta,  ma  la  gioia  e  il  dolore  e 
il  coraggio  del  vivere,  infrenato  dal  timore  morale, 
sorretto  e  animato  dall'alta  speranza. 

Tale  e,  in  rapidi  tratti,  I'immagine  di  Dante,  I'imma- 
gine  autentica,  quella  che  si  desume  dalla  sua  stessa 
opera.  Ma  non  bisogna  dimenticar  mai, — e  qui  termi- 
nando  conviene  ripetere, — che  quella  immagine,  che 
vale  a  differenziare  Dante  da  altri  poeti  e  ad  aiutare 
I'intelligenza  e  la  comprensione  della  sua  opera,  ritiene, 
come  ogni  caratteristica,  alcunche  di  angusto  e,  per 
cosi  dire,  di  prosaico,  se  non  la  si  coUochi  e  risolva 
nell'  amplitudine  della  poesia,  dell'unica  poesia,  che 
non  si  rinserra  in  cosa  alcuna  o  gruppo  di  cose  partico- 
lari,  ma  spazia  sempre  nel  cosmo.  Donde  il  nostro 
rapimento  ai  ritmi  e  alle  parole  di  Dante,  anche  alle 
piu  piccole  e  fuggevoli,  che  ci  vengono  innanzi  cir- 
confuse  di  quell'  incanto  :  o  che  mitologizzando  egli 
dica  dell'  alba,  "  la  concubina  di  Titone  antico,"  che 
esce  "  fuor  delle  braccia  del  suo  dolce  amico,"  o  che 
chiami  la  neve  la  "  sorella  bianca,"  e  simili.  Questo, 
che  poi  e  I'essenziale,  non  comporta  altra  caratteristica 
che  il  carattere  stesso  universale  della  poesia ;   e  in  tal 


UNITA  DELLA  POESIA  DI   DANTE      29 

riguardo  Dante  non  e  piu  Dante,  nella  sua  definita 
individualita,  ma  e  quella  voce  meravigliata  e  com- 
mossa,  che  tramanda  I'anima  umana  nella  perpetua- 
mente  ricorrente  creazione  del  mondo.  Ogni  diffe- 
renza,  a  questo  punto,  svanisce,  e  risuona  solo  quell' 
eterno  e  sublime  ritornello,  quella  voce  che  ha  il  mede- 
simo  timbro  fondamentale  in  tutti  i  grandi  poeti  ed 
artisti,  sempre  nuova,  sempre  antica,  accolta  da  noi 
con  sempre  rinnovata  trepidazione  e  gioia  :  la  Poesia 
senza  oggettivo.  A  coloro,  che  parlano  con  quel  divino 
o  piuttosto  profondamente  umano  accento,  si  dava  un 
tempo  il  nome  di  Geni ;   e  Dante  fu  un  Genio.^ 

1  These  pages  by  B.  Croce  will  be  issued  in  a  book  by  the  same 
author,  translated  by  Mr.  Douglas  Ainsley,  and  published  during  the 
present  year  by  Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  New  York. 


ALLEGORY  AND  MYTH 

W.  p.  Ker. 


ALLEGORY  AND  MYTH 


Dante  is  more  given  to  analytical  reasoning  than 
any  other  poet  :  what  seems  at  first  most  alien  to 
poetry,  the  process  of  analytical  division  and  explana- 
tion, accompanies  his  poems  from  the  Vita  Nuova  to 
the  Paradiso,  But  he  cannot,  any  more  than  the  most 
prosaic  scholiast,  make  analysis  do  the  v^ork  of  poetry, 
or  even  explain  it,  and  his  account  of  allegory,  in  the 
letter  to  Can  Grande,  leaves  out  the  main  thing. 
Compare  the  prose  interpretation  of  the  Psalm  In 
exitu  Israel  with  the  same  phrase  as  it  is  sung  in  the 
celestial  ship  at  the  beginning  of  Purgatorio.  The 
allegory  is  the  same  in  poetry  as  in  prose  ;  only  in  the 
poem  the  double  reference  which  is  part  of  the  nature 
of  allegory  is  absorbed  in  the  one  real  meaning  :  In 
exitu  Israel  de  Mgypto  is  not  a  text  to  be  explained 
tropologically ;  it  is  the  song  of  the  redeemed,  and 
they  are  what  they  sing.  Imaginative  and  poetical 
allegory  is  a  different  thing  from  the  common  allegorical 
interpretation  of  Scripture ;  but  there  are  no 
convenient   words  to  express  the  differences. 

Poetical  allegory  has  a  way  of  turning  into  poetical 

reality;   the  image  into  the  thing  itself.     The  Psalm 

In  convertendo  Dominus  is  not  surpassed  even  by  Dante 

in  the  transcendent  beauty  of  its  change  from  allegory 

D  33 


34  DANTE 


to  direct  utterance  :  "  When  the  Lord  turned  again 
the  captivity  of  Sion,  then  were  we  like  unto  men  that 
dream."  You  take  this,  rightly,  for  a  song  of  triumph, 
but  the  triumph  is  verily  a  dream,  a  thought,  a  hope  : 
and  the  true  passion  of  the  Church, not  yet  triumphant, 
is  heard  breaking  through  the  dream  :  "  Lord,  turn 
again  our  captivity  as  streams  in  the  South  1  " 

Much  of  the  allegory  in  Dante's  poetry  is  of  this 
sort  :  reality  breaking  through  and  sweeping  away  the 
imagery.  In  Piers  Plowman  and  the  Pilgrim's  Progress 
likewise,  often,  what  we  find  is  not  an  allegorical  pil- 
grimage, but  a  true  story.  Dante's  vision  of  eternal 
life  in  the  Paradiso  makes  use  of  allegory,  like  other 
figures  of  speech,  but  the  main  argument  is  what  he 
believed  without  any  figure.  He  has  nothing  in  verse 
or  prose  at  all  like  the  conventional  epic  allegory  which 
descended  from  the  mediaeval  moralisations  of  Ovid 
to  Tasso,  who  wrote  an  allegorical  interpretation  of 
his  Gerusalemme  liber  at  a  ;  to  Pope,  who  adopted  one 
ready-made  for  his  Iliad, 

It  is  not  easy  always  to  distinguish  allegory  from 
myth.  Myth  was  allegory  for  the  readers  of  "  Ovid 
Moralised,"  the  popular  old  French  book  which  was 
not  quite  antiquated  in  the  days  of  Rabelais.  In  a 
different  way  passages  of  mythology,  like  Narcissus  or 
the  spear  of  Peleus,  became  part  of  the  tradition  of 
the  lyrical  "  courtly  makers,"  used  in  similes  and 
comparisons,  not  strictly  allegorical.  Dante  in  his 
copious  use  of  mythology  does  not  stop  to  interpret 
allegorically.     He   does    not   point   out  that   Cain   is 


ALLEGORY  AND  MYTH  35 

historical  (Purg.  xiv.  133)  and  Aglaurus  not  so  (ibid. 
139),  if  indeed  he  thought  of  any  such  difference. 
That  he  was  not  careless  about  historical  truth  appears 
curiously  in  Monarchia  iii.  9,  where  the  allegorical 
interpretation  of  Peter's  two  swords,  which  did  not 
suit  Dante's  theory,  is  rejected  in  favour  of  plain 
historical  fact.  "  Peter,  as  usual,  answered  without 
thinking  of  any  deeper  meaning."  Dicunt  enim  illos 
duos  gladios  quos  adsignaverit  Petrus  duo  prcejata  regi- 
mina  importare :  quod  omnino  negandum  est,  turn  quia 
ilia  responsio  nonfuisset  ad  intentionem  Christi,  turn  quia 
Petrus,  de  more,  subito  respondebat  ad  rerum  superjiciem 
tantum, 

Dante  here,  of  course,  had  a  particular  motive  for 
preferring  the  literal  sense,  but  that  does  not  spoil  the 
force  of  this  example,  which  shows  clearly  that  his 
mind  was  not  confused,  as  so  many  were,  by  tropologi- 
cal  interpretations,  to  the  point  of  not  caring  whether 
historical  fact  were  fact  or  no. 

With  regard  to  Apollo  and  the  other  gods,  he  did  not 
raise  any  question  of  historic  truth  or  falsehood.  He 
accepts  what  Jupiter  said  to  Mercury  in  the  Aeneid 
as  evidence  of  the  destiny  of  Rome.  He  does  not 
encourage  the  common  theory  of  the  ancient  gods, 
that  they  were  fiends  deceiving  the  people  through 
oracles.  He  thinks  more  nobly  of  Apollo,  though 
the  other  theory  had  been  taught  by  St.  Augustine, 
and  was  popularly  current  in  Ovide  Moralise,  and  other 
books. 

In  certain  most  miraculous  works  of  modern  poetry, 


36  DANTE 


in  Collins's  Ode  to  Evenings  in  Keats's  Autumn,  there 
is  mythological  imagination,  personifying,  and  at  the 
same  time  keeping  what  may  be  called  the  truth  of 
ordinary  experience.  Wordsworth  goes  beyond  this 
in  his  Ode  to  Duty :  "  Thou  dost  preserve  the  stars 
from  wrong  :  "  no  figurative  imagination,  but  vision  of 
the  law  of  the  world.  Dante  thinks  in  the  same  way 
of  Fortune  {Inf,  vii.),  so  intensely  that  he  sees  her  as  a 
goddess,  turning  her  sphere  in  like  manner  as  the 
Intelligences  move  the  spheres  of  the  planets.  There 
is  nothing  like  this  anywhere  else  in  his  verse  or  prose  ; 
nowhere  else  does  allegory  or  mythology  turn  into  the 
revelation  of  an  unknown  deity.  Nowhere  else  in 
Dante  is  there  more  clearly  the  accent  of  true  worship 
than  in  Virgil's  defence  of  Fortune  : 

Quest'  h  colei  ch'  e  tanto  posta  in  croce 
Pur  da  color  che  le  dovrian  dar  lode, 
Dan  dole  biasmo  a  torto  e  mala  voce. 

Ma  ella  s'  h.  beata  e  ci6  non  ode : 
Con  1'  altre  prime  creature  lieta 
Volve  sua  spera,  e  beata  si  gode. 

Words  like  allegory  and  mythology  fail  utterly  to 
describe  this  poetical  mode  of  imagination,  yet  both 
are  required  when  one  thinks  of  this  passage,  though 
it  is  as  far  removed  as  Wordsworth's  "  brave  trans- 
lunary  things "  from  the  common  fashion  of  allegory. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE 

Paget  Toynbee. 


OXFORD   AND  DANTE 


"  Fama  superstes 
Gentibus  extinctum  memorat,  populumque  per  omnem 
Vivet  et  aeterno  referetur  laudibus  aevo." 

{Benevenutus  Imol.  in  Dantem.) 

In  the  following  pages  an  attempt  is  made  to  give 
some  account,  necessarily  only  by  way  of  summary,  of 
the  part  played  by  Oxford  and  her  sons  in  the  further- 
ance of  the  study  and  appreciation  of  the  works 
of  "  I'altissimo  poeta,"  the  sixth  centenary  of  whose 
death  is  being  celebrated  throughout  the  civilised 
world  at  the  present  time. 

The  earliest  mention  of  Oxford  in  connexion  with 
Dante  occurs  in  the  Latin  commentary  on  the 
Divina  Commedia,  written  by  Giovanni  da  Serravalle, 
Bishop  of  Fermo.  This  work  was  composed  between 
February  i,  1 41 6,  and  January  16,  141 7,  during  the 
Council  of  Constance,  nearly  a  hundred  years  after 
Dante's  death,  at  the  instance  of  Serravalle's  two 
English  colleagues,  Nicholas  Bubwith,  Bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells  (1407-142 7),  and  Robert  Hallam,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury  (i 407-1 41 7),  the  latter  of  whom,  it  may  be 
noted,  had  been  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Oxford  ( 1 403-1 407). 

In  the  preamble  to  his  commentary  Serravalle,  who 

39 


40  DANTE 


had  himself  been  in  England,  as  we  learn  from  his 
comment  on  Inferno  xx.  126/  states  twice,  on  what 
authority  he  does  not  tell  us,  that  Dante  visited 
England  and  studied  at  Oxford.  This  statement  he 
makes  in  the  first  place  a  propos  of  Beatrice  and  of 
Dante's  relations  with  her  : — 

"  Notandum  quod  Dantes  dilexit  hanc  Beatricem 
hystorice  et  litteraliter ;  sed  allegorice  et  anagogice 
dilexit  Theologiam  sacram,  in  qua  diu  studuit  tam 
in  Oxoniis  in  regno  Anglie,  quam  Parisiis  in  regno 
Frantic  "  (ed.  Prato,  1891,  p.  15). 

He  repeats  it  in  the  course  of  a  discussion  as  to  the 
etymology  of  the  name  Dante  : — 

"  Dantes  dicitur  quasi  Dans  te  ad  aliqua.  Iste 
auctor  Dantes  se  in  iuventute  dedit  omnibus  artibus 
liberalibus,  studens  eas  Padue,  Bononie,  demum 
Oxoniis  et  Parisiis  "  {ed,  cit,,  p.  21). 

Twenty-seven  years  after  the  completion  of  Serra- 
valle's  commentary  a  copy  of  the  work  ^  was  presented 
(on  February  25,  1444)  to  the  library  of  the  University 
of  Oxford  by  Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  a 
former  member  of  Balliol  College,  together  with  a 
copy  of  the  Italian  text  of  the  Commedia^  Oxford 
having  thus  been  the  possessor  of  the  earliest  recorded 

^  Speaking  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  he  says :  "  Ego  iam  transivi 
per  iUud  angustum  spatium,  quando  redibam  de  regno  Anglie  ad 
partes  Ytalie  per  mare." 

2  "  Commentaria  Dantes  .  .  .  secundo  folio,  torment ahimt "  (see 
Times  Lit.  Stipp.,  March  18,  1920). 

3  "  Librum  Dantes  .  .  .  secundo  folio  a  te  "  (see  Times  Lit.  Supp., 
April  22,  1920). 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  41 

cop7  of  the  latter  in  England.  The  copy  of  Serra- 
valle's  commentary  was  still  in  the  University  library 
a  hundred  years  later,  when  it  was  seen  and  registered 
("  Commentarii  Joannes  de  Serauala  super  opera 
Dantis  Aligerii  ")  during  his  tour  through  England  as 
King's  antiquary  (1536-1542)  by  John  Leland ;  but 
the  copy  of  the  Commedia  itself  had  apparently 
disappeared. 

In  1550  William  Thomas,  said  to  have  been  a 
scholar  of  Oxford,  who  in  the  previous  year  had 
published  a  Historie  of  Italie^  in  which  he  referred  to 
Dante's  account  {Inf,  xx.  55-93)  of  the  founding  of 
Mantua,  issued  an  Italian  grammar,  the  first  attempt 
of  the  kind  in  English,  under  the  title  of  Principal 
Rules  of  the  Italian  Grammer,  with  a  Dictionarie  for 
the  better  under standyng  of  Boccace^  Pethrarcha^  and 
Dante,  which  was  three  times  reprinted,  namely  in 
1560,  1562,  and  1567. 

In  1559,  another  Oxford  scholar,  John  Foxe,  the 
martyrologist,  sometime  Fellow  of  Magdalen,  while 
engaged  as  press-reader  in  the  printing-office  of 
Johannes  Oporinus  (Johann  Herbst)  at  Basle,  saw 
through  the  press,  as  there  is  every  reason  to  believe,^ 
the  editio  princeps  of  Dante's  De  Monarchia,  which 
was  published  by  Oporinus  in  that  year,  together  with 
three  other  tracts  on  the  Roman  Empire,  in  the 
volume  entitled  Andre/  Alciati  De  Formula  Romani 
Imperii,  a  volume  from  which  Foxe  subsequently,  in 

^  See  my  note  on  "  John  Foxe  and  the  editio  princeps  of  Dante's  De 
Monarchia"  in  Atheneeum,  April  14,  1906. 


42  DANTE 


the  second  edition  of  his  Book  of  Martyrs  (1570), 
quoted  Dante's  opinion  concerning  the  donation  of 
Const  ant  ine. 

In  1567  an  Oxford  prelate,  John  Jewel,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury,  formerly  Fellow  of  Corpus,  in  his  Defence 
of  the  Apologie  of  the  Churche  of  Englande,  referred  to 
Dante's  denunciation  of  Rome  in  Purgatorio  xxxii. 
148  ff.,  this  being  the  first  citation  of  Dante  by  an 
English  author  as  a  writer  against  Rome. 

In  1 581  a  son  of  Oxford,  namely,  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
formerly  of  Christ  Church,  in  his  Apologie  for  Poetrie, 
made  the  first  mention  in  English  literature  of  Dante 
and  Beatrice  together  by  name.  "  Thus  doing,"  he 
says  (i,  ^.,  if  a  man  believe  that  poets  can  confer 
immortality),  "  your  soule  shal  be  placed  with  D aniens 
Beatrix^  or  VirgiVs  Anchises,^^ 

In  1602  the  newly-founded  Bodleian  Library 
received  from  Sir  Henry  Danvers,  afterwards  Earl  of 
Danby,  a  copy  of  the  1568  Venice  edition  of  the 
Divina  Commedia,  with  the  commentary  of  Bernar- 
dino Daniello,  which  was  registered,  together  with  a 
folio  edition  of  the  De  Monarchia  (doubtless  that 
published  at  Basle  in  1566),  and  a  copy  of  the  second 
Aldine  edition  (Venice,  1515)  of  the  Commedia,  in 
the  MS.  catalogue  compiled  by  Thomas  James, 
Bodley's  Librarian,  in  1 602-1 603.  In  the  following 
year  (1603)  a  copy  of  the  1484  Venice  edition  of  the 
Commedia,  with  Landino's  commentary,  which  had 
first  appeared  at  Florence  three  years  before,  was 
presented   to   the   library   by   Sir   Michael   Dormer. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  43 

Two  years  later  (1605)  was  published  Thomas  James's 
first  printed  Bodleian  catalogue,  in  which,  besides  the 
editions  of  the  Commedia  presented  by  Sir  Henry 
Danvers  and  Sir  Michael  Dormer,  were  registered  the 
1544  Venice  edition  with  the  commentary  of  Vellu- 
tello,  and  the  15 12  Venice  edition  with  the  commentary 
of  Landino,  these,  together  with  the  second  Aldine 
registered  in  the  MS.  catalogue,  but  now  omitted  by 
an  oversight,  making  a  total  of  five  editions  of  the 
Commedia  possessed  by  the  University  Library  at 
this  date. 

In  this  same  year  (1605)  John  Sanford,  a  graduate 
of  Balliol,  at  this  time  Chaplain  of  Magdalen,  printed 
at  Oxford  A  Grammer^  or  Introduction  to  the  Italian 
Tongue^  which  contains  sundry  quotations,  with 
translations,  from  the  Commedia  by  way  of  illustration, 
and  to  which  is  prefixed  the  following  motto  from 
Paradiso  xxvi.  130-132  : — 

"  Opera  di  natura  ^  h.  c'huom  favella, 
Ma  se  cosi  6  cosi,  natura  lascia 
Poi  fare  a  voi  secondo  che  v'abbella." 

In  1 613  Bodley's  Librarian,  James,  compiled  a 
second  MS.  catalogue,  in  which  an  addition  to  the 
previous  list  of  Dante's  works  was  made  in  the  shape 
of  the  1 610  Offenbach  edition  of  the  De  Monarchia. 
The  Basle  edition  of  1566,  which  was  registered  in 
the  catalogue  of  1 602-1 603,  does  not  figure  in  this, 
having  presumably  been  sold  or  exchanged,  as  being 
superseded  by  the  later  edition — ^a  practice  which, 
^  Misquoted,  the  correct  reading  being  "  Opera  naturale." 


44 


DANTE 


as  the  Library  knows  to  its  cost,  led  not  many  years 
later  to  the  elimination  from  its  shelves  of  the  first 
folio  of  Shakespeare,  which  was  only  recovered,  after 
nearly  three  hundred  years'  exile,  for  the  sum  of 
j^3,ooo,  raised  by  public  subscription.^  The  second 
Aldine  (1515)  edition  of  the  Commedia^  which  had 
been  omitted  from  the  catalogue  of  1605,  was  again 
overlooked,  in  spite  of  James's  description  of  this 
catalogue  as  "  catalogus  exactissimus,"  but  it  was 
restored  to  the  list  when  the  catalogue  was  printed 
in  1620. 

In  1627  James  printed  at  Oxford  an  Index  Generalis 
Lihrorum  Prohibitorum  a  Pontificiis^  arranged  alpha- 
betically, in  which,  under  the  head  of  Dante,  are 
included  the  De  Monarchia  and  the  Commedia,  the 
1564  Venice  edition  of  the  latter,  containing  the 
commentaries  of  Landino  and  Vellutello,  being 
specially  banned. 

The  next  mention  of  Dante  by  an  Oxford  author 
occurs  in  1661,  in  which  year  Barten  Holyday,  son 
of  an  Oxford  tailor,  who  was  educated  at  Christ 
Church,  and  subsequently  became  Archdeacon  of 
Oxford,  published  at  Oxford  a  poem  in  ten  books 
called  ^he  Survey  of  the  Worlds  consisting  of  about  a 
thousand  disconnected  couplets,  of  which  one  (No. 
354)  is  devoted  to  Dante  : — 

"  Heav'n,  Purgatory,  Hell,  were  Dante's  Three  Themes. 
Two  were  Wise  Melancholy ;  yet  extremes." 

^  In  March  1906.  See  Strickland  Gibson,  Some  Oxford  Libraries, 
pp.  75-76. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  45 

In  the  notes  to  a  translation  of  Juvenal  completed 
some  years  before  this  date,  but  not  published  till 
1673,  after  his  death,  Holyday  quotes  the  stricture 
upon  Dante  of  "  a  learned  Italian,"  Nogarola,  a 
"  hypercritick,"  who,  he  says,  "  does  censure  at  once 
the  whole  Italian  tongue,  even  the  Tuscan  puritie, 
terming  it  but  peregrinitas  Latini  sermonis,  et  verhorum 
colluvies  ;  and  as  for  the  three  most  famous  of  the 
ancient  poetical  wits  in  that  language,  Dante,  Petrarch 
and  Boccace,  he  requires  in  the  first  more  elegant 
words ;  in  the  second  matter  and  sentences  for  his 
words ;  and  in  the  third  discretion  (very  magis- 
terially)." 

About  this  time  (i  661-1666)  Anthony  Wood,  a 
native  of  Oxford,  formerly  a  Postmaster  of  Merton, 
compiled  his  Survey  of  the  Antiquities  of  the  City  of 
Oxford^  an  early  chapter  of  which  contains  an 
interesting  comparison  between  the  old  "  Vicus 
Scholarum  "  at  Oxford,  and  the  "  Vicus  Stramineus  " 
(Rue  du  Fouarre)  at  Paris,  "  where  the  philosophical 
professors  taught  in  the  time  of  Dantes  the  poet," 
this  being  an  obvious  reference  to  Dante's  mention 
of  the  street  (as  "  Vico  degli  Strami  ")  in  Paradiso 
X.  137,  as  the  place  where  Siger  de  Brabant  "  sillo- 
gizzo  invidiosi  veri."  It  may  be  observed  in  this 
connexion  that  if  Dante  ever  was  a  student  at  Oxford, 
as  Serravalle  alleges,  he  would  have  been  as  familiar 
with  the  "  Vicus  Scholarum "  (Schools  Street,  the 
present  Radcliffe  Street,  which  was  a  continuation  of 
the  former   Schydyerd  Street,  now  Oriel  Street)  as 


46  DANTE 


he   presumably  was    with    the    Rue    du    Fouarre    at 
Paris. 

In  1674  Thomas  Hyde,  of  Queen's  College,  who 
was  Bodley's  Librarian  from  1665  to  1701,  issued  the 
third   printed    Bodleian   catalogue.     The    meticulous 
particularity  displayed  in  this  catalogue  in  connexion 
with   Dante's    name,    who    is    described    as    "  Dante 
Alghieri,   sive   Alighieri  vel  Aligherius,   seu  Aligieri, 
vel  Alaghieri,"  was  unfortunately    not    extended  to 
the  list  of  his  works,  which  was  responsible  for   at 
least  one  long-standing  bibliographical  error.     In  this 
list  the  total  of  editions  of  the  Divina   Commedia, 
which  in  the  1620  catalogue  was  five,  is  reduced  to 
four,    the    151 5    Aldine    edition,    which     had     been 
omitted  from  the  catalogues  of  1605  and  161 3,  but 
had  been  included  in  that  of  1620,  being  once  more 
overlooked.      Per  contra^  we  now  find  registered  for 
the  first  time  an  edition  with  the  commentary  of 
Landino,  printed  at  Venice  in  1584.     This  edition, 
however,    though    duly    registered    by    Colomb    de 
Batines  in  his  Bibliografia  Dantesca,  as  I  have  shown 
elsewhere,^  has   no  existence,   the   copy  in   question 
being,  no  doubt,  the   1484  Venice  edition  presented 
by  Sir  Michael  Dormer  in  1603.     Hyde's  catalogue 
registers  no  less  than  five  editions  of  the  De  Monarchia, 
as  against  one  in  the  previous  catalogues,  among  them 
being  an  edition  printed  at  Basle  in  1557.     But  this 
edition,  like  the   1584  edition  of  the   Commedia,  is 

^  See  "  An  Apocryphal  Venice  edition  of  the  Divina  Commedia" 
in  Bulletin  Italien,  vii.  85-86. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  47 

non-existent,  the  editio  princeps  of  the  De  Monarchia^ 
of  which  a  copy  is  included  in  the  list,  having,  as  we 
have  seen,^  been  published  at  Basle  in  1559.  Hyde's 
list  is  further  noteworthy  as  including  for  the  first 
time  a  copy  of  the  Convivio,  the  edition  being  the 
latest  at  that  date,  namely,  the  third  Venice  edition 

(1531)- 

In    1746   appeared   the   first    Oxford   specimen   of 

translation  from  the  Commedia,  This  was  in  the 
shape  of  an  anonymous  poetical  rendering  of  Inferno 
xxiv.  1-18,  contributed  to  the  second  number  (April  12, 
1 746)  of  Dodsley's  Museum,  under  the  title  of  "  The 
Three  First  Stanzas  of  the  24th  Canto  of  Dante's 
Inferno  ^  made  into  a  Song,  In  Imitation  of  the 
Earl  of  Surry's  Stile."  The  author  of  this  composi- 
tion, which  is  a  decidedly  pleasing  performance,  as 
was  revealed  incidentally  fifty  years  later  by  Joseph 
Warton  in  the  fourth  volume  ^  of  his  edition  of  Pope 
(1797),  was  Joseph  Spence,  Fellow  of  New  College, 
formerly  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford  (i 728-1 738), 
and  at  that  time  Regius  Professor  of  Modern  History. 
Ten  years  later  (in  1756)  Joseph  Warton,  who  was 
a  member  of  Oriel  College,  and  Second  Master  of 
Winchester,  published  in  the  first  volume  of  his 
Essay  on  the  Genius  and  Writings  of  Pope  a  prose 
rendering  of  part  of  the  Ugolino  episode  from 
Inferno  xxxiii.  43-75,  in  which,  as  the  translator 
explains  in  a  note,  in  order  that  none  of  the  pathos 

1  See  above,  p.  41.  ^  Printed  Inferna. 

3  P.  283. 


48  DANTE 


should  be  missed,  "it  was  thought  not  unproper  to 
distinguish  the  more  moving  passages  by  italics." 

The  next  attempt  in  this  line  emanating  from 
Oxford  was  a  version  in  heroic  couplets  of  the  para- 
phrase of  the  Lord's  Prayer  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  canto  of  the  Purgatorio,  which  was  printed 
anonymously  in  1760  in  the  first  volume  (No.  5)  of 
the  British  Magazine.  A  special  interest  attaches  to 
this  piece,  inasmuch  as  it  was  published  as  a  specimen 
of  a  completed  translation  of  the  whole  poem.  The 
author  was  William  Huggins,  a  Fellow  of  Magdalen, 
who  at  his  death  in  1761  left  the  MS.  of  this  trans- 
lation to  his  executors,  with  directions  that  it  should 
be  published,  funds  being  allocated  for  the  purpose 
and  his  portrait  by  Hogarth  having  been  engraved 
for  the  frontispiece.  But  his  wishes  were  disregarded, 
and  the  work  never  saw  the  light,  with  the  conse- 
quence that  Huggins  and  his  Alma  Mater  have  been 
deprived  of  the  credit  of  producing  the  first  complete 
English  translation  of  the  Commedia — a  distinction 
which  is  commonly  claimed  for  Henry  Boyd,  of 
Dublin  University,  whose  version  was  not  published 
till  more  than  forty  years  after  Huggins's  death. 

In  1 78 1  Thomas  Warton,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of 
Trinity,  younger  brother  of  Joseph  Warton,  and  a 
former  Professor  of  Poetry  (17S7-1767),  published  the 
third  volume  of  his  History  of  English  Poetry,  in  which 
he  gave  a  lengthy  "  general  view "  of  the  Divina 
Commedia,  with  numerous  quotations  from  the 
original,  and  prose  renderings  of  the  inscription  over 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  49 

the  Gate  of  Hell  {Inf,  iii.  1-9),  and  of  the  Ugolino 
episode.  Warton's  renderings  can  hardly  be  described 
as  felicitous,  for  in  the  former  passage  he  perpetrated 
an  extraordinary  mistranslation,  involving  a  "  bull  " 
of  the  first  water,  the  last  line  but  one  being  rendered, 
"  if  not  eternal,  I  shall  eternally  remain  "  ;  v^hile  in 
his  account  of  Ugolino  he  credits  the  Count  and  his 
victim,  the  Archbishop,  v^ith  the  remarkable  feat  of 
simultaneously  "  gnawing  each  other's  sculls." 

In  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
name  appears  for  the  first  time  in  connexion  with 
Dante  of  Henry  Francis  Gary,  of  Christ  Church,  the 
most  widely  known  of  all  English  translators  of  the 
Commedia.  On  May  7,  1792,  while  still  an  under- 
graduate, he  writes  from  Oxford  to  Miss  Seward  at 
Lichfield,  advising  her  to  "  give  a  few  months  to  the 
acquisition  of  Italian,"  and  to  "  go  and  see  the  wonders 
of  Dante's  Inferno,  Purgatorio,  and  Paradiso  "  ;  and  he 
sends  her  a  prose  translation  of  two  passages  from  the 
Purgatorio,  as  being  "  less  known  than  the  Inferno^"* 
namely,  the  simile  of  the  sheep  from  the  third  canto 
(vv.  79-85),  and  of  the  meteors  from  the  fifth  (vv. 

37-39)- 

Five  years  later,  in  January  1797,  Cary  records  in 
his  journal  that  he  began  work  on  his  blank  verse 
translation,  the  work  which  was  destined  to  link  his 
name  lastingly  with  that  of  Dante. 

In  a  letter  of  September  27,  1800,  to  Rev.  Robert 
Fellowes,  of  St.  Mary  Hall,  Miss  Seward  quotes  the 
opinion    on    Dante    of    an    Oxford    dignitary,    Cyril 


so  DANTE 


Jackson,  Dean  of  Christ  Church,  namely,  that  "  of 
all,  in  every  age  and  nation,  who  have  aspired  to  the 
name  of  poet,  only  four  deserve  it  :  Homer,  Dante, 
Ariosto,  and  Shakespeare." 

In  1805  the  Bodleian  Library  purchased  the  MSS. 
of  the  classical  scholar,  James  Philip  D'Orville,  among 
which  was  a  MS.  of  the  Divina  Commedta,  this  being 
the  first  MS.  of  Dante  acquired  by  the  Library  since 
the  disappearance  of  Duke  Humphrey's  MS.^  In  the 
same  year  Cary  published  the  first  instalment  of  his 
translation,  consisting  of  Cantos  i.-xvii.  of  the  Inferno, 
accompanied  by  the  Italian  text  (now  for  the  first 
time  printed  in  England),  with  notes,  and  a  life 
of  Dante ;  the  remaining  seventeen  cantos  being 
published  in  the  following  year. 

About  the  year  1810,  Dr.  George  Frederick  Nott, 
Fellow  of  All  Souls,  and  Prebendary  of  Winchester, 
an  accomplished  Italian  scholar,  gave  a  commission  to 
the  Viennese  artist,  Josef  Anton  Koch  (i 768-1 839),  to 
make  a  series  of  drawings  from  the  Divina  Commedia, 
forty  of  which,  in  sepia,  illustrating  the  Inferno  and 
part  of  the  Purgatorio,  eventually  passed  into  the 
possession  of  King  John  of  Saxony,  the  well-known 
translator  of  the  Commedia  into  German,  under  the 
pseudonym  of  Philalethes,  and  are  now  preserved  at 
Dresden.  Nott's  library,  which  was  sold  at  Winches- 
ter in  1842,  the  year  after  his  death,  contained  a  large 
and  valuable  collection  of  Dante  literature,  including 
three  MSS.  of  the  Commedia,  a  MS.  of  Boccaccio's  Vita 

^  See  above,  pp.  40-1. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  51 

di  Dante,  and  upwards  of  eighty  printed  editions  of  the 
Commedia,  among  them  the  editio  princeps  (Foligno, 
1472),  and  six  other  fifteenth-century  editions,  besides 
several  editions  of  the  Fita  Nuova  and  Convivio,  in- 
cluding the  editio  princeps  (Florence,  1576)  of  the 
former,  as  well  as  the  first  collected  edition  of  the 
Epistolce,  namely,  that  privately  printed  by  Witte 
at  Padua  in  1827. 

On  May  8,  181 2,  Gary  noted  in  his  journal  that  he 
on  that  day  finished  his  translation  of  the  Commedia, 
on  which  he  had  been  engaged  off  and  on  for  some 
fifteen  years.  But  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of 
1 814  that  the  work  at  last  made  its  appearance  in 
three  diminutive  volumes,  printed  at  Gary's  own 
expense,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Vision ;  or  Hell, 
Purgatory,  and  Paradise  of  Dante  Alighieri,  translated 
by  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Gary,  A.M."  Among  the  earliest 
notes  of  appreciation  was  one  from  Oxford,  from  the 
Public  Orator,  William  Growe,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of 
New  GoUege,  whose  eulogy,  writes  Gary  to  a  friend, 
was  "  couched  in  such  a  strain  of  compliment  as  my 
modesty  will  not  let  me  repeat." 

In  the  same  year  (1814)  a  member  of  Balliol  GoUege 
published  anonymously  a  volume  of  Poetical  Epistles, 
which  contained,  among  other  translations,  a  rendering 
of  the  Ugolino  episode  in  Spenserian  stanzas,  the  first 
attempt  at  translation  from  the  Commedia  in  this 
metre.  The  author  was  Robert  Morehead,  who 
subsequently  contributed  to  the  Edinburgh  Review 
(December  181 8)  an  interesting  article  on  the  poetical 


52  DANTE 


character  of  Dante,  and  who  in  the  following  year 
(1819)  pi*inted  anonymously  in  the  Edinburgh  Maga- 
zine two  further  attempts  in  Spenserian  stanzas  from 
the  Inferno,  namely,  the  inscription  over  the  Gate  of 
Hell  {Inf.  iii.  1-9),  and  the  account  of  the  frozen 
lake  of  Cocytus  {Inf,  xxxii.  1-39). 

The  next  name  on  the  record  is  of  one  whose  con- 
nexion with  Oxford  in  his  lifetime  was  tragically 
brief,  namely,  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley,  who  entered 
University  College  in  October,  1810,  and  was  expelled 
in  the  following  March,  in  consequence  of  having 
circulated  a  pamphlet  on  the  Necessity  of  Atheism — 
a  sentence  which  was  reversed  in  our  own  day,  the 
counterfeit  presentment  of  the  poet  being  now  an 
object  of  reverence  within  the  walls  from  which  he 
himself  had  been  driven  out  in  disgrace.  Shelley 
was  a  close  student  of  Dante,^  whose  influence  is 
traceable  in  many  of  his  poems,  notably  in  parts  of 
Prometheus  Unbound  (1820),  in  Epipsychidion  (1821), 
and  in  the  unfinished  Triumph  of  Life  (1822).  The 
noble  tributes  to  Dante  in  his  Discourse  on  the  Manners 
of  the  Ancients  relative  to  the  Subject  of  Love  (181 8), 
and  in  his  Defence  of  Poetry  (1821)  are  well  known. 
His  love  of  translation  and  of  metrical  experiments 
found  scope  in  several  renderings  from  the  Commedia 
and   Canzoniere  of  Dante,  the  earliest  of  which,  a 


^  His  annotated  copy  of  the  Venice  1793  edition  of  the  Opere  di 
Dante  (5  vols.),  containing  the  Commedia,  Canzoniere,  and  prose 
works  (Italian  and  Latin),  was  in  the  collection  of  the  late  Lord 
Abinger,  which  was  dispersed  in  Febrpary  1920. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  53 

translation  of  the  sonnet  to  Guido  Cavalcanti  ("  Guido, 
vorrei  "),  known  as  the  "  Boat  of  Love,"  appears  to 
have  been  written  in  1816.  Other  pieces,  assigned  to 
the  year  1820,  are  the  canzone  ("  Voi  che  inten- 
dendo  ")  prefixed  to  the  second  book  of  the  Convivio  ; 
"  Matilda  gathering  flowers,"  a  rendering  in  terza  rima 
of  Purgatorio  xxviii.  1-51  ;  and  a  composite  version 
with  Medwin,  if  Medwin  is  to  be  believed,  of  part 
of  the  Ugolino  episode,  also  in  terza  rima. 

The  year  181 7  was  signalised  by  one  of  the  most 
important  events  in  the  annals  of  the  Bodleian,  an 
event  of  special  interest  in  view  of  our  immediate 
subject,  namely,  the  purchase  from  Venice  (for 
^5,444)  of  the  great  Canonici  collection  of  MSS., 
numbering  over  2,000.  Of  these  295  were  Italian, 
among  which  were  no  less  than  fifteen  Dante  MSS., 
fourteen  of  the  Commedia,  and  one  containing  the 
Fita  Nuova,  Convivio,  and  Canzoniere,  An  elaborate 
catalogue  of  this  section  of  the  collection  was  compiled 
some  thirty  years  later  at  Oxford  by  Count  Alessandro 
Mortara,  which  was  seen  through  the  press  by  Dr. 
Wellesley,  Principal  of  New  Inn  Hall,  and  eventually 
published  at  Oxford  in  1864.  By  this  purchase  the 
Bodleian  Library  became  possessed  of  the  richest 
collection  of  Dante  MSS.  in  England,  its  total  being 
sixteen,  as  against  nine  in  the  British  Museum  at 
this  date. 

In  1 819  a  second  edition  of  Gary's  Dante  was 
published,  in  response  to  a  popular  demand,  stimu- 
lated by  a  eulogistic  reference  to  the  work  by  Coleridge 


54  DANTE 


in  a  lecture  in  London,  and  by  a  highly  appreciative 
article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  This  edition,  which, 
in  marked  contrast  to  the  insignificant  first  edition, 
was  in  three  handsome  octavo  volumes,  was  followed 
by  a  third  in  1 831,  and  by  a  fourth,  in  a  single  volume, 
the  last  superintended  by  Gary  himself,  in  1844,  the 
year  of  his  death. 

In  1824,  the  year  after  his  retirement  from  public 
life.  Lord  Grenville,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  formerly  of  Christ  Church,  Prime  Minister  in 
the  administration  of  "All  the  Talents  "  (i 806-1 807), 
who  had  won  the  Chancellor's  prize  for  Latin  verse 
forty-five  years  before  (1779),  printed  privately  at 
Oxford  a  volume  of  Greek  and  Latin  verse,  chiefly 
translations,  entitled  Nugce  Metricce^  among  which 
was  a  rendering  in  Latin  elegiacs  of  Paradiso  xvii. 
55-60.  Some  years  previously,  as  Rogers  records  in 
his  Commonplace  Book,  Lord  Grenville  had  made  a 
rendering  in  English  verse  of  another  passage  from 
the  Commedia,  namely,  Dante's  address  to  Virgil  in 
Inferno  i.  79-80,  82-84. 

In  1826  another  Latin  verse  prizeman,  John 
Latham,  Fellow  of  All  Souls,  while  in  residence  at 
Oxford,  translated  in  terza  rima  the  Ugolino  episode 
(Inf.  xxxiii.  1-75),  which  was  afterwards  included  in 
a  volume  of  Poems,  Original  and  Translated,  published 
in  1836  at  Sandbach  in  Cheshire. 

In  the  following  year  (1827)  Charles  Strong,  Fellow 
of  Wadham,  published  anonymously  Specimens  of 
Sonnets  from  the  most  celebrated  Italian  Poets,  with 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  55 

Translations^  in  which  Dante  was  represented  by  a 
verse  rendering  of  Sonnet  xxiv.  ("  Deh  pellegrini  ") 
from  the  Vita  Nuova  (§41). 

In  1833  appeared  the  first  instalment,  the  Inferno^ 
with  introduction  and  notes,  of  a  new  Oxford  trans- 
lation of  the  Commedia,  in  bastard  terza  rima.  This  was 
by  Ichabod  Charles  Wright,  late  Fellow  of  Magdalen. 
The  Inferno^  of  which  a  second  edition  was  issued  in 
the  same  year,  was  dedicated  to  Lord  Brougham,  as 
"  one  of  the  most  ardent  admirers  of  Dante."  The 
Purgatorio,  dedicated  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, William  Howley,  formerly  Regius  Professor  of 
Divinity  at  Oxford,  followed  in  1836;  and  the  Para- 
diso,  dedicated  to  the  translator's  father-in-law.  Lord 
Denman,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  in  1840.  A  collective 
edition  in  three  volumes  was  published  in  1845,  and 
another  in  a  single  volume  in  1854. 

In  1835  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  former  student 
of  Christ  Church,  at  that  time  Conservative  M.P. 
for  Newark,  made  a  translation  in  terza  rima  of 
Purgatorio  xi.  1-21  ("  The  Lord's  Prayer "),  and 
Paradiso  iii.  70-87  ("  Speech  of  Piccarda  "),  which, 
together  with  a  rendering  in  the  same  metre  of 
Inferno  xxxiii.  1-78  ("  Ugolino  "),  made  in  1837,  was 
published  in  1861  in  a  volume  of  Translations  hy  Lord 
Lyttelton  and  Rt.  Hon,  W,  E.  Gladstone,  the  trans- 
lator, who  had  been  elected  an  honorary  Fellow  of 
All    Souls    three    years    before    (1858),    being     then 

^  A  certain  number  of  copies,  with  new  title-page,  on  which  the 
author's  name  was  given,  were  issued  in  the  same  year. 


S6  DANTE 


Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  in  Palmerston's  second 
administration. 

In  1840  the  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford,  Rev. 
John  Keble,  late  Fellow  of  Oriel,  devoted  one  of  his 
Latin  lectures  during  his  second  tenure  of  the  pro- 
fessorship to  an  appreciation  of  Dante  as  the  poet  of 
the  Commedia,  "  Florentinum  ilium  triplici  carmine 
nobilem,"  and  drew  a  parallel  between  him  and 
Lucretius  in  respect  of  his  love  for  the  mysterious 
and  infinite,  "  ea  quae  obscura  sunt  et  infinita." 

In  1843  was  published  the  first  volume  of  Modern 
Painters^  by  "  a  Graduate  of  Oxford."  The  second 
volume,  also  anonymous,  followed  three  years  later 
(1846).  It  was  an  open  secret  that  the  author  was 
John  Ruskin,  lately  a  gentleman-commoner  at  Christ 
Church,  who  had  graduated  in  1842.  In  the  first 
volume  Dante  is  not  mentioned.  In  the  second  the 
writer's  enthusiasm  for  the  poet  of  the  Divina  Corn- 
media  is  a  marked  feature.  From  one  point  of  view 
Dante  ranks  with  Phidias  and  Michael  Angelo,^  from 
another  with  Homer,  iEschylus,  and  Shakespeare.^ 
The  last  line  of  Francesca's  narrative  {Inf.  v.  138)  is 
singled  out  for  special  appreciation  ^ ;  while  the 
comment  on  Dante's  account  of  the  purifying  flame 
at  the  beginning  of  Purgatorio  xxvi.,  with  the  summing 
up,  "  it  is  lambent  annihilation,"  *  has  become  famous. 
It  was  during  a  visit  to  Italy  in  1845  that  Ruskin  first 
made  himself  acquainted  with  the  Commedia  ^  ;    and 

1  i.  ch.  7.  2  ii,  ch.  3.  3  7^^-^^  4  iii^^ 

5  See  Epilogue  to  vol.  ii.  of  the  1883  ed.  of  Modern  Painters. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  57 

from  that  time  forth,  for  many  years,  no  book,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Bible,  was  his  more  constant 
companion,  either  in  the  original  or  in  Gary's  trans- 
lation. To  no  single  author,  perhaps,  was  his  debt 
greater  than  to  Dante.  In  a  well-known  passage  in 
the  third  volume  of  the  Stones  of  Venice^  published  in 
1853,  he  writes  ^  :  "I  think  that  the  central  man  of 
all  the  world,  as  representing  in  perfect  balance  the 
imaginative,  moral,  and  intellectual  faculties,  all  at 
their  highest,  is  Dante."  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Ruskin's  whole-hearted  appreciation  of  the  Corn- 
media^  so  insistently  and  so  eloquently  expressed  in 
his  numerous  works,  has  played  no  small  part  in 
awakening  and  stimulating  the  widespread  interest 
in  this  country  in  the  study  of  Dante. 

The  year  1843  saw  the  issue  of  the  fifth  printed 
Bodleian  catalogue,  in  which  were  registered  thirteen 
editions  of  the  Divina  Commedia^  as  against  four  in 
the  third  (1674)  and  fourth  (1738)  catalogues;  of 
these,  seven  were  of  the  fifteenth  century,  including 
the  editio  princeps  (Foligno,  1472),  and  the  first 
Florentine  edition  (1481),  and  six  of  the  sixteenth, 
including  the  two  Aldines  (1502,  1515) ;  besides  these 
were  the  first  editions  of  the  De  Monarchia  (1559), 
and  of  the  Vita  Nuova  (1576) ;  this  last  work  now 
appearing  for  the  first  time  on  a  Bodleian  list. 

In  this  same  year  (1843)  was  published  a  translation 
in  terza  rima  of  the  Inferno^  by  John  Dayman,  for- 
merly  Fellow   of    Corpus,  this  being  the    first   com- 

'  §  ^1. 


58  DANTE 


plete  English  version  of  any  of  the  three  divisions  of 
the  Commedia  in  the  metre  of  the  original.  More 
than  twenty  years  later,  on  the  occasion  of  the  cele- 
bration of  the  sixth  centenary  of  the  birth  of  Dante 
in  1865,  Dayman  published  a  translation  of  the  whole 
poem  in  the  same  metre ;  but  he  was  not  first  in  the 
field  on  this  occasion,  no  less  than  three  other  terza 
rima  versions  having  already  appeared,  namely,  those 
of  C.  B.  Cayley,  J.  W.  Thomas,  and  Mrs.  Ramsay. 

In  January  1850  an  anonymous  article  was  published 
in  the  Christian  Remembrancer  (the  successor  of  the 
British  Critic)^  which  purported  to  be  a  review  of 
John  Carlyle's  prose  translation  of  the  Inferno,  It 
was,  in  fact,  an  exhaustive  and  illuminating  essay  on 
Dante  and  his  works,  written  with  consummate 
literary  skill  by  one  whose  knowledge  of  the  subject 
was  unrivalled.  The  author  of  this  essay,  which  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  classics  of  Dante 
literature,  was  Rev.  Richard  William  Church,  Fellow 
of  Oriel,  subsequently  (1871)  Dean  of  St.  Paul's. 
The  article  was  reprinted  in  a  volume  of  Church's 
Essays  and  Reviews  in  1854,  and  again  separately, 
with  his  son's  translation  of  the  De  Monarchia,  in 
1879,  on  which  occasion  Dean  Church  took  the 
opportunity  of  expressing  regret  for  his  neglect  of 
the  work  which  had  stood  at  the  head  of  his  article, 
a  neglect  which  was  partly  responsible  for  Carlyle's 
abandonment  of  his  intention  to  publish  a  translation 
of  the  whole  poem. 

In  185s  Henry  Hart  Milman,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's, 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  59 

formerly  Fellow  of  Brasenose,  published  his  magnum 
opus^  the  History  of  Latin  Christianity^  in  which 
necessarily  Dante  and  his  works  figure  conspicuously. 
In  the  seventh  volume  several  pages  are  devoted  to 
the  idealism  of  the  De  Monarchia,  and  in  the  ninth 
is  a  lengthy  dissertation  on  the  relation  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  to  the  popular  traditions  of  Hell,  Purgatory, 
and  Paradise.  In  the  same  volume  Milman  dwells  on 
the  "  singular  kindred  and  similitude  "  which  to  his 
mind  existed  between  Tacitus  and  Dante,  "  between 
the  last  great  Latin  and  the  first  great  Italian  writer, 
though  one  is  a  poet  and  the  other  a  historian." 

In  1 861  Rev.  Samuel  Henry  Reynolds,  Fellow  and 
Tutor  of  Brasenose,  contributed  to  the  January 
number  of  the  Westminster  Review  an  anonymous 
article  on  ''  Dante  and  his  English  Translators,"  which 
was  subsequently  (1898)  reprinted  in  a  collection  of 
his  essays  entitled  Studies  on  Many  Subjects,  A  passage 
in  this  article  gives  an  interesting  view  of  the  state 
of  Dante  studies  in  England  at  that  date.  "  Dante," 
says  the  writer,  "  is  certainly  more  studied  now  than 
he  has  been  for  very  long.  Translations,  particularly 
of  the  Inferno^  are  numerous  and  widely  circulated ; 
criticisms,  some  of  them  of  a  very  high  order,  have 
occasionally  appeared ;  and  allusions  to  his  writings 
may  be  detected  not  infrequently  in  portions  of  our 
floating  literature.  But  the  change,  whatever  its 
cause  may  be,  has  been  quite  recent  :  it  would  hardly 
be  untrue  to  say  that  there  is  more  of  Dante's  in- 
fluence traceable  in  Chaucer's  poems — more    genuine 


6o  DANTE 


evidence  that  Dante  had  been  read  and  loved — ^than 
in  the  whole  body  of  English  literature  (Milton's 
v^ritings  alone  excepted)  from  Chaucer's  time  to 
our  own." 

In  1863  Matthew  Arnold,  formerly  Fellow  of  Oriel, 
at  that  time  Professor  of  Poetry,  printed  in  Fraser^s 
Magazine  an  essay  on  "  Dante  and  Beatrice,"  which 
was  devoted  mainly  to  an  examination  of  the  theory  of 
the  relations  between  Dante  and  Beatrice  propounded 
by  Theodore  Martin  in  the  introduction  to  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Vita  Nuova  published  in  the  previous 
year. 

In  1864  James  Bryce,  Fellow  of  Oriel,  published  as 
an  amplification  of  the  essay  which  had  won  the 
Arnold  Historical  Prize  the  year  before,  his  now 
famous  work,  l^he  Holy  Roman  Empire,  which  claims 
mention  here  in  virtue  of  the  masterly  analysis,  in 
the  fifteenth  chapter,  of  Dante's  De  Monarchia,  that 
book  which,  with  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Henry  VII 
and  the  doom  of  the  Empire  in  Italy,  was  fated,  as 
the  essayist  puts  it,  to  become  "  an  epitaph  instead 
of  a  prophecy." 

In  the  following  year  (1865),  which  was  the  six- 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Dante,  Dayman, 
as  we  have  seen,  brought  out  his  terza  rima  translation 
of  the  whole  of  the  Commedia,  in  commemoration  of 
the  centenary.  With  the  same  object.  Rev.  James 
Ford,  Prebendary  of  Exeter,  formerly  of  Oriel  College, 
published  a  terza  rima  translation  of  the  Inferno,  as 
the  first  instalment  of  a  rendering  in  the  same  metre 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  6i 

of  the  whole  poem,  which  was  published  in  1870. 
In  1865  also  a  subject  relating  to  Dante  was  selected 
for  the  Latin  verse  prize  at  Oxford,  namely,  "  Dantis 
Exsilium,"  the  prizeman  being  R.  B.  Michell,  of 
Balliol.  Two  years  later  (1867)  the  Gaisford  prize 
for  Greek  verse  was  won  by  A.  M.  Bell,  of  Balliol, 
with  a  poem  on  "  Dante  Poeta  apud  Inferos." 

In  1 871  Ernest  Ridsdale  Ellaby,  Fellow  of  Wadham, 
published  a  translation  in  irregular  verse  of  the  first 
ten  cantos  of  the  Inferno^  of  which  a  revised  edition 
was  printed  in  1874.  In  the  preface  to  the  latter  it 
was  stated  that  other  cantos  had  been  translated,  which 
it  was  hoped  to  publish,  but  no  more  appeared.  In 
1872  was  published  the  well-known  Intro  due  tio7i  to 
the  Study  of  Dante  by  John  Addington  Symonds, 
formerly  Fellow  of  Magdalen,  a  second  edition  of 
which  was  issued  in  1 890.  In  the  years  1 873-1 874  Rev. 
Mandell  Creighton,  Fellow  of  Merton,  subsequently 
Bishop  of  Peterborough  (i  891-1897),  and  of  London 
( 1 897-1901),  published  in  Macmillan^s  Magazine  two 
essays  on  "  Dante,  his  Life,  his  Writings,"  which  were 
reprinted  in  1902,  after  his  death,  in  a  volume  of  his 
Historical  Essays  and  Reviews, 

In  1874  the  Clarendon  Press  for  the  first  time 
published  a  work  upon  Dante,  in  the  shape  of  a  volume 
of  Selections  from  the  "  Inferno, ^^  edited,  with  introduc- 
tion and  notes,  by  H.  B.  Cotterill — ^a  pioneer  volume, 
which  was  destined  to  be  the  forerunner  of  a  notable 
series  of  books  upon  Dante  from  the  University 
Press. 


62  DANTE 


In  1875  E.  D.  A.  Morshead,  Fellow  of  New  College, 
printed  privately  at  Winchester  an  essay  on  Dante, 
which  had  been  read  before  the  New  College  Essay 
Society  in  that  year.  This  essay  was  accompanied  by 
sundry  verse  translations  from  the  Commedia^  four  of 
which,  including  the  episodes  of  Francesca  da  Rimini 
(Inf,  V.  70-142),  Ulysses  {Inf,  xxvi.  85-142),  and 
Ugolino  {Inf.  xxxiii.  1-75),  were  in  Spenserian  stanzas, 
a  metre  which  Morshead  adopted  for  the  rendering 
of  other  passages  printed  at  intervals  in  subsequent 
years  in  the  Oxford  Magazine^  viz.,  "  Dante  and 
Casella  "  {Purg.  ii.  55-133)  in  1884  (February  20); 
"Manfred  of  Sicily"  {Purg,  iii.  91-145)  in  1885 
(February  25)  ;  and  "  Virgil  and  Statius  "  {Purg,  xxii. 
55-112)  in  1904  (March  2). 

The  year  1876  was  marked  by  an  event  of  primary 
importance  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  subject  here 
dealt  with,  namely,  the  founding  by  Rev.  Edward 
Moore,  Principal  of  St.  Edmund  Hall,  in  conjunction 
with  Signor  de  Tivoli,  Taylorian  Teacher  in  Italian, 
Rev.  H.  F.  Tozer  of  Exeter,  Rev.  G.  W.  Kitchin  of 
Christ  Church,  and  Rev.  R.  G.  Livingstone  of  Pem- 
broke, of  the  Oxford  Dante  Society — ^an  event  which 
gave  an  impulse  to  the  study  of  Dante  in  Oxford, 
and  consequentially  far  beyond  the  limits  of  Oxford, 
that  has  lasted  unimpaired  to  the  present  day,  as  the 
succeeding  pages  of  this  record  bear  witness. 

In  1877  the  Taylorian  Institution  acquired  by 
purchase  from  Naples  for  ^30  a  Cent.  XV.  MS.  of 
the  Paradiso,  with  the  Italian  commentary  of  Fran- 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  63 

cesco  da  Buti,  which  had  formerly  belonged  to  Pope 
Pius  VI,  whose  arms  are  on  the  binding.^ 

In  1879  a  former  scholar  of  New  College,  F.  J. 
Church,  son  of  Dean  Church,  published  a  translation 
of  the  De  Monarchia,  the  first  English  translation  of 
this  treatise,  which,  as  has  already  been  mentioned, 
was  reprinted  in  the  same  year  in  a  volume  containing 
his  father's  essay  on  Dante.  In  this  year  also  Baron 
Seymour  Kirkup,  to  whom  the  world  is  indebted  for 
the  preservation,  by  means  of  his  tracing  and  subse- 
quent drawing,  of  the  portrait  of  Dante  in  the 
Bargello  at  Florence,  presented  to  the  Oxford  Dante 
Society  a  cast  from  a  mask  of  Dante  in  his  possession 
which  had  been  given  to  him  by  the  sculptor 
Bartolini.2 

In  1880  Dr.  Moore,  Principal  of  St.  Edmund  Hall, 
purchased  from  Rome  a  Cent.  XV.  MS.  of  the  Divina 
Commedia,  and  a  Cent.  XV.  MS.  of  the  Convivio,  the 
latter  being  one  of  the  only  three  complete  MSS.  of 
that  treatise  in  this  country.^ 

In  1 88 1  Canon  Liddon,  of  Christ  Church,  Dean 
Ireland's  Professor  of  Exegesis,  contributed  to  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Oxford  Dante  Society  a  paper  on 
"  Dante    and   Aquinas,"   which   was   followed    by   a 

^  See  Moore's  Contributions  to  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  "  Divina 
Commedia,^^  pp.  549-550. 

2  This  cast  is  now  exhibited  in  the  Picture  Gallery  at  the  Bodleian, 
in  association  with  the  collection  of  portraits,  busts,  and  masks  of 
Dante  presented  hy  Dr.  Paget  Toynbee  in  191 7. 

3  See  Moore,  op.  cit.,  pp.  550-552;  and  Studies  in  Dante,  iv.,  pp. 
130-13 1.  After  Dr.  Moore's  death  (in  1916)  these  two  MSS.  passed 
by  his  bequest  to  the  Bodleian  Library. 


64  DANTE 


second  on  the  same  subject  in  1883,  and  by  a  third  on 
"  Dante  and  the  Franciscans  "  in  1888 — contributions 
which  were  subsequently  printed  in  a  volume  of  his 
Essays  and  Addresses,  published  in  1892,  after  his 
death.  In  1882  C.  L.  Shadwell,  Fellow  of  Oriel, 
translated  in  Marvellian  stanzas  the  episode  of 
Ulysses  from  Inferno  xxvi.  90-142/  by  way  of  experi- 
ment with  this  metre,  with  a  view  to  its  adoption  for 
a  translation  of  the  Purgatorio, 

In  1883  the  Dean  of  Wells,  Dr.  Plumptre,  formerly 
Fellow  of  Brasenose,  who  in  December  1881  had  pub- 
lished "Two  Studies  in  Dante"  in  the  Contemporary 
Review,  printed,  as  "  samples  of  a  new  translation,"  a 
rendering  in  terza  rima  of  the  first  four  cantos  of  the 
Inferno,  together  with  the  episodes  of  Francesca  and 
Ugolino.  In  the  following  year  he  contributed  an 
article  on  "  The  Purgatorio  of  Dante  :  a  Study  in 
Autobiography,"  to  the  September  number  of  the  Con- 
temporary Review  ;  and  in  1 886-1 887  he  published  two 
substantial  volumes,  the  fruits  of  thirty  years'  labour, 
containing  a  translation  of  the  Commedia  (in  terza 
rima)  and  Canzoniere  of  Dante,  accompanied  by  notes, 
essays,  and  a  biographical  introduction,  constituting 
the  most  solid  and  comprehensive  contribution  to 
the  study  of  Dante  which  had  yet  appeared  in  this 
country.  Dean  Plumptre  was  one  of  the  most  ardent 
upholders  of  the  belief  that  Dante  visited  England 
and  studied  at  Oxford,  attracted  thither,  as  he  sup- 

^  Printed  in  In  the  Footprints  of  Dante,  ed.  Paget  Toynbee,  London, 
1907. 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  65 

posed,  by  the  reputation  of  Roger  Bacon.  He  even 
persuaded  himself,  on  the  strength  of  the  mentions 
of  clockwork  in  Paradiso  x.  139  ff.  and  xxiv.  13  ff., 
that  Dante  may  have  wandered  as  far  west  as  Glas- 
tonbury (where  was  then  the  famous  clock  now  in 
Wells  Cathedral),  and  may  have  "  worshipped  within 
the  walls  of  my  own  cathedral.*' 

In  1886  Dr.  Moore  was  appointed  to  the  Barlow 
Lectureship  on  Dante  at  University  College,  London, 
the  first-fruits  of  which  were  published  in  the  following 
year  in  a  volume  on  the  Time- References  in  the  *'  Divina 
CommediaJ^  In  1887  F.  K.  H.  Haselfoot  (formerly 
Cock),  of  University  College,  Oxford,  who  claimed  to 
know  the  whole  of  the  Commedia  in  the  original  by 
heart,  published  a  translation  of  the  poem  in  terza 
rima,  with  notes,  of  which  a  revised  edition  was 
issued  in  1899. 

In  1889  was  published  by  the  Cambridge  University 
Press  Dr.  Moore's  monumental  work.  Contributions 
to  the  Textual  Criticism  of  the  "  Divina  Commedia,''^ 
which  comprised  the  text  of  the  Inferno  with  colla- 
tions of  all  the  MSS.  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  an 
account  of  each  of  the  MSS.  examined  and  collated, 
numbering  between  200  and  300,  and  a  separate 
collation  of  about  1 80  carefully  selected  test  passages 
from  each  of  the  three  cantiche  of  the  poem.  This 
work,  which  at  once  placed  Dr.  Moore  in  the  front 
rank  of  living  Dantists,  was  the  first  serious  attempt 
that  had  been  made  in  England  or  elsewhere  to  deal 
scientifically  and  methodically  with  the  complicated 


ee  DANTE 


problems  presented  by  the  text  of  the  Commedia^ 
and  it  is  still  the  chief  authority  on  the  subject. 
In  an  appendix  to  this  volume  was  printed  a  valuable 
essay  by  Rev.  H.  F.  Tozer,  Fellow  of  Exeter,  which 
had  originally  been  read  before  the  Oxford  Dante 
Society,  on  ''The  Principles  of  Metre  and  Scansion 
Observed  by  Dante  in  the  Divina  CommediaJ^ 

In  November  of  this  same  year  Dr.  John  Henry 
Bridges,  former  Fellow  of  Oriel,  delivered  a  lecture  on 
"  Dante's  Position  in  the  History  of  Humanity,"  one 
of  a  series  in  illustration  of  the  Positivist  Calendar  of 
Great  Men,  in  which  Dante  is  acclaimed  as  "  the 
herald  of  the  wider  and  loftier  Church  of  which  the 
foundations  are  already  laid,  and  which  the  coming 
centuries  will  complete."  In  a  previous  lecture  on 
"  Love  the  Principle,"  addressed  to  the  Positivist 
Society  in  October  1888,  which,  with  the  above,  was 
printed  in  a  volume  of  his  Essays  and  Addresses  (1907), 
Bridges  embodied  a  prose  translation,  with  comments,  of 
Dante's  conception  of  love,  as  explained  in  Purgatorio 
xvii.  91-139,  a  translation  which  the  late  Provost  of 
Oriel  (Dr.  Shadwell)  was  wont  to  quote  as  a  model  of 
"  what  can  be  done  by  a  real  scholar  in  reproducing 
the  language  of  a  foreign  poet  so  that  it  shall  read 
like  an  original  work."  The  year  1889  saw  also  the 
publication  by  Hon.  W.  W.  Vernon,  of  Christ  Church, 
of  his  Readings  on  the  "  Purgatorio  "  (second  edition, 
1897  ;  third,  1907),  based  mainly  on  the  Latin  Commen- 
tary of  Benvenuto  da  Imola,  which  had  been  published 
at  Florence  two  years  before,  under  the  editorship  of 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  67 

Sir  James  Lacaita,  at  Mr.  Vernon's  expense.  Readings 
on  the  '^  Inferno  ^^  followed  in  1894  (second  edition, 
1906),  and  Readings  on  the  "  Paradiso  "  in  1900  (second 
edition,  1909). 

In  1890  Dr.  Moore  published  a  second  series  of  his 
Barlow  lectures  in  the  shape  of  a  volume  on  Dante 
and  his  Early  Biographers ;  and  from  this  date 
onwards,  on  an  average,  one  or  more  volumes  on 
Dante  (to  say  nothing  of  articles  in  weekly,  monthly, 
or  quarterly  periodicals  too  numerous  to  specify)  have 
been  published  annually,  either  by  Oxford  scholars,  or 
by  the  University  Press  on  behalf  of  scholars  not  con- 
nected with  Oxford.  In  1892  C.  L.  Shadwell,  of 
Oriel,  printed  the  first  instalment  (cantos  i.-xxvii.)  of 
his  translation  of  the  Purgatorio  in  Marvellian  stanzas, 
with  an  introduction  by  Walter  Pater,  Fellow  of 
Brasenose.  In  the  same  year  Mr.  Gladstone  once  more 
discussed  the  question  "  Did  Dante  Study  in  Oxford  ?  " 
in  the  June  number  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  Maga- 
zine^ his  conclusion  being  in  the  affirmative.  In  this 
year  also  R.  R.  Whitehead,  of  Balliol,  printed  privately 
at  the  Chiswick  Press,  for  the  first  time  in  England, 
the  Italian  text  of  the  Vita  Nuova^  with  introduction 
and  notes.  In  the  next  year  G.  Musgrave,  of  St. 
John's,  published  a  translation  of  the  Inferno  in 
Spenserian  stanzas,  the  only  version  of  any  of  the 
three  cantiche  in  this  metre. 


^  In  this  article  Gladstone  makes  the  extraordinary  blunder  of 
putting  into  the  mouth  of  Sordello  the  speech  of  Nessus  in  Inferno 
xii.  1 19-120. 


68  DANTE 


In  1894  the  Clarendon  Press  published,  under  the 
editorship  of  Dr.  Moore,  an  edition  in  one  volume  of 
the  whole  works  of  Dante,  with  index  of  proper  names, 
etc.,  compiled  by  Paget  Toynbee,  of  Balliol — ^the 
now  well-known  "  Oxford  Dante."  Of  this  work, 
which  was  the  first,  and  until  the  publication  of 
Barbera's  edition  at  Florence  in  191 9,  the  only,  single- 
volume  edition  of  Dante's  works,  a  second  edition  was 
published  in  1897,  and  a  third,  very  considerably 
revised,  in  1904. 

In  1895  C.  H.  St.  John  Hornby,  of  New  College, 
printed  at  his  own  private  Ashendene  Press  an  edition 
of  the  Vita  Nuova,  which  he  followed  up  with  editions 
of  great  beauty  of  the  Inferno  in  1902,  the  Purgatorio 
in  1904,  the  Paradiso  in  1905,  and  the  Ashendene 
Dante,  a  folio  reprint  of  the  "  Oxford  Dante,"  with 
woodcuts,  in  1909,  editions  from  the  typographical 
point  of  view  worthy  to  be  ranked  with  some  of  the 
finest  productions  of  the  Cinquecento. 

In  1896  Dr.  Moore,  who  in  the  previous  year  had 
been  appointed  Taylorian  lecturer  on  Dante  at 
Oxford,  a  lectureship  which  was  created  for  him,  and 
which  he  held  for  three  years,  published  the  first  series 
of  his  Studies  in  Dante,  consisting  largely,  as  did 
the  subsequent  volumes,  of  articles  which  he  had 
contributed  to  the  Quarterly,  Edinburgh,  and  other 
reviews.  A  second  series  followed  in  1899,  a  third  in 
1903,  and  a  fourth  in  191 7,  the  year  after  his  death. 
The  most  important  articles  were  those  on  Scripture 
and  classical  authors  in  Dante,  with  elaborate  indices, 


OXFORD  AND  DANTE  69 

in  the  first  series ;  the  discussion  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  Qucestio  de  Aqua  et  Terra^  in  the  second  ;  the 
astronomy  and  geography  of  Dante,  and  the  discus- 
sion of  the  genuineness  of  the  Letter  to  Can  Grande, 
in  the  third ;  and  the  textual  criticism  of  the  Con- 
vivio^  in  the  fourth — the  whole  collection,  covering 
as  it  does  practically  the  entire  range  of  Dante's 
writings,  constituting  probably  the  most  considerable 
and  the  most  weighty  contribution  to  the  critical 
study  of  Dante  due  to  any  one  author. 

In  the  Quarterly  Review  for  July  1896  there 
appeared  a  remarkable  essay  by  the  Professor  of 
Anglo-Saxon  at  Oxford,  Rev.  John  Earle,  of  Oriel, 
containing  what  is  in  many  respects  a  wholly  original 
view  of  the  interpretation  of  the  Vita  Nuova.  In 
this  essay,  which  was  an  amplification  of  a  paper  read 
to  the  Oxford  Dante  Society,  and  which  was  subse- 
quently translated  into  Italian,  Prof.  Earle  held  that 
Dante  deliberately  composed  the  Vita  Nuova  as  a 
preliminary  to  the  Divina  Commedia^  in  order  to  be 
able  to  introduce  Beatrice,  his  central  figure  in  the 
latter,  as  a  personality  already  familiar  to  his  readers — 
an  ingenious  theory,  which  attracted  considerable 
attention  at  the  time,  but  which  has  not  met  with 
acceptance  from  Dante  scholars. 

In  1897  E.  H.  Pember,  Q.C.,  of  Christ  Church, 
printed  privately  a  volume  of  poems  {Adrastus  of 
Phrygid)  in  which  was  included  a  blank-verse  transla- 
tion of  Paradiso  xv.  A  translation,  in  the  same  metre, 
of  Purgatorio  viii.  was  printed  in  a   second  volume 


70  DANTE 


{7 he  Death-Song  of  ^hemyris)  in  1899;  and  of  the 
first  four  cantos  of  the  Inferno  in  a  third  {l^he  Finding 
of  Pheidippides)  in  190 1.  A  translation  of  Purgatorio 
xxviii.-xxxiii.  (The  Earthly  Paradise)  was  completed 
a  few  years  later,  but  was  never  printed. 

In  1898  the  Clarendon  Press  published  a  Dictionary 
of  Proper  Names  and  Notable  Matters  in  the  Works 
of  Dante^  by  Paget  Toynbee,  of  Balliol,  much  of  the 
material  for  which  had  been  published  during  the 
preceding  ten  years  in  a  number  of  articles  con- 
tributed to  the  Academy^  the  Afhenceum,  Romania^ 
the  Giornale  Storico  della  Letteratura  I  tali  ana,  and 
the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Cambridge  (U.S.A.) 
Dante  Society. 

In  the  following  year  Dr.  Shadwell  published  the 
second  instalment  (cantos  xxviii.-xxxiii.)  of  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Purgatorio  in  Marvellian  stanzas,  with 
an  introduction  by  Prof.  Earle. 

The  sixth  centenary,  in  1900,  of  the  assumed  date 
of  Dante's  Vision,  was  commemorated  by  the  publi- 
cation, under  Oxford  editorship,  of  two  editions  of 
the  Divina  Commedia,  in  honour  of  the  occasion,  the 
first  being  a  revision  of  Witte's  text,  edited  by  Paget 
Toynbee,  the  other  a  reissue  in  large  type  by  the 
Clarendon  Press  of  the  Oxford  text,  edited  by  Dr. 
Moore,  with  revised  index  of  proper  names  by  Paget 
Toynbee.  In  the  same  year  the  latter  published  a  Life 
of  Dante,  of  which  a  second  edition  was  published  in 
1 901,  a  third  in  1904,  which  was  translated  into  Italian 
in  1908,  and  a  fourth,  considerably  enlarged,  in  1910. 


OXFORD   AND   DANTE  71 

In  1 90 1  the  Clarendon  Press  published  an  English 
Commentary  on  the  "  Divina  Commedia^'^  by  the  Rev. 
H.  F.  Tozer,  of  Exeter ;  and  in  the  following  year 
T^he  Troubadours  of  Dante^  by  Rev.  H.  J.  Chaytor, 
of  All  Souls.  In  that  year  (1902)  also  v^^as  published 
Dr.  Toynbee's  Dante  Studies  and  Researches^  the 
chief  contents  of  v^^hich  appeared  in  Italian  at  Bologna 
in  1899  and  1904.  In  the  latter  year  the  Clarendon 
Press  published  a  prose  translation  of  the  Divina 
Commedia^  by  Rev.  H.  F.  Tozer ;  and  Dr.  James 
Williams,  Fellow  of  Lincoln,  printed  privately 
Thoughts  on  Dante,  containing  a  terza  rima  translation 
of  the  Francesca  episode,  which  was  followed  two 
years  later  by  the  publication  at  Oxford  of  Dante  as 
a  Jurist,  the  expansion  of  an  article  in  the  Law 
Magazine  and  Review  for  February  1897. 

In  the  year  1905  there  appeared  at  Oxford  an 
important  contribution  to  Dantesque  literature,  which, 
though  not  the  work  of  Oxford  scholars,  is  entitled 
to  a  place  in  this  record  as  having  been  printed  and 
published  by  the  Clarendon  Press,  namely,  the  Con- 
cordance of  the  Italian  Prose  Works  and  Canzoniere 
of  Dante,  which  was  compiled  by  members  of  the 
Cambridge  (U.S. A).  Dante  Society  on  the  initiative 
of  the  late  Professor  C.  E.  Norton.  This  volume,  it 
may  be  observed,  and  the  companion  Concordance 
of  the  Latin  Works  of  Dante,  produced  in  like  condi- 
tions, and  likewise  published  at  Oxford  (in  191 2),  owe 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  their  value  as  works  of 
reference  to  the  '  Oxford  Dante/  upon  which_^they  are 


72  DANTE 


dependent  for  the  line-references  to  the  prose  works. 
In  the  years  1 905-1 906  H.  B.  Garrod,  formerly  Post- 
master of  Merton,  delivered  a  series  of  lectures  on 
Dante  in  London  in  connexion  with  University 
extension,  which  with  others  were  published  in  191 3, 
after  his  death. 

During  the  next  few  years  there  is  little  to  record 
of  Oxford  achievement  in  the  field  of  Dante  beyond 
occasional  articles  in  periodicals,  till  we  come  to  1909, 
which,  by  way  of  compensation,  proved  exceptionally 
fruitful.  In  that  year  the  Clarendon  Press  published 
a  translation  of  the  Convivio,  by  Dr.  W.  W.  Jackson, 
Rector  of  Exeter ;  a  critical  text  and  translation  of 
the  Qucestio  de  Aqua  et  Terra^  by  Dr.  Sha dwell. 
Provost  of  Oriel ;  and  T^he  Moral  System  of  Daniels 
Inferno^  by  W.  H.  V.  Reade,  of  Keble.  The  same 
year  saw  the  publication  of  Dante  in  English  Literature 
front  Chaucer  to  Cary^  in  two  volumes,  by  Dr.  Toyn- 
bee,  the  introduction  to  which  had  previously  appeared 
in  the  Edinburgh  Review  (April  1908),  and  has  since 
been  translated  into  Italian ;  ^he  Use  of  Dante  as  an 
Illustrator  of  Scripture^  by  Rev.  Sir  John  Hawkins, 
Bart.,  of  Oriel ;  and  a  Handbook  to  the  Works  of  Dante, 
by  F.  J.  Snell,  of  Balliol. 

In  January  191 2  Dr.  Toynbee  published  in  the 
Modern  Language  Review  the  first  of  a  series  of  twelve 
articles  on  the  Letters  of  Dante,  of  which  the 
last  appeared  in  July  191 9,  with  a  view  to  a  critical 
edition  of  the  Epistolce.  In  191 3  Dante's  De  Monarchia 
was  taken  as  the  text  of  the  Romanes  Lecture  on  *'  The 


OXFORD   AND   DANTE  73 

Imperial  Peace,  an  Ideal  in  European  History,"  by 
Sir  W.  M.  Ramsay,  former  Fellow  of  Exeter  and 
Lincoln,  and  Professor  of  Classical  Archaeology  and  * 
Art  at  Oxford.  In  this  year  Oriel  College  received  by 
donation  from  Miss  Church  the  Dante  books  of  her 
father,  the  late  Dean  Church,  a  former  Fellow.  In 
1 91 4  the  Clarendon  Press  published  Dr.  Toynbee's 
Concise  Dante  Dictionary  ;  and  in  191 6  a  reprint  of 
the  Oxford  text  of  the  De  Monarchia,  with  an  intro- 
duction on  the  Political  Theory  of  Dante,  by  W.  H.  V. 
Reade.  In  the  previous  year  was  published  Dr.  Shad- 
well's  translation  of  the  Paradise  in  Marvellian  stanzas, 
with  an  introduction  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Mackail,  former 
Fellow  of  Balliol,  and  Professor  of  Poetry. 

In  1 91 6  the  Bodleian  received  two  Dante  MSS., 
one  of  the  Commedia  (Cent.  XV.),  the  other  of  the 
Convivio  (Cent.  XV.),  by  bequest  from  Dr.  Moore, 
late  Principal  of  St.  Edmund  Hall ;  and  350  volumes 
of  editions  of  Dante's  works  as  a  donation  from  Dr. 
Toynbee,  who  in  the  following  year  presented  a 
collection  of  portraits,  busts,  and  masks  of  Dante, 
and  about  600  volumes  of  editions,  commentaries, 
and  translations  of  Dante.  By  Dr.  Moore's  bequest 
also  Queen's  College  received  his  valuable  Dante 
library,  an  accession,  it  may  be  hoped,  which  will 
serve  to  keep  alive  in  Oxford  the  studies  to  which 
he  devoted  so  many  years   of  his  life. 

In  1 91 7  Hon.  W.  W.  Vernon,  of  Christ  Church, 
printed  privately  a  volume  of  lectures  on  Dante, 
entitled  Dante  and  his  Times  ;   and  in  the  same  year 


74  DANTE 


was  published  by  the  Clarendon  Press  the  last  series, 
the  fourth,  of  Dr.  Moore's  Studies  in  Dante,  The 
record  closes  with  the  publication  by  the  Clarendon 
Press  in  1920  of  Dr.  Toynbee's  edition,  with  critical 
text  and  translation,  of  the  Epistolce  ;  and  the  issue 
at  Oxford  of  the  privately  printed  Record  of  the  Oxford 
Dante  Society^  as  a  contribution  to  the  sexcentenary 
celebration. 

If  Oxford  may  not  claim  the  honour  of  having 
welcomed  Dante  in  person,  according  to  the  fond 
belief  of  Giovanni  da  Serravalle,  and  of  Dean  Plumptre 
and  Mr.  Gladstone,  she  can  console  herself  with  the 
thought  that  the  first  recorded  copy  in  England  of 
his  immortal  poem  came  to  Oxford,  and  that  with  his 
other  works,  as  the  foregoing  pages  abundantly  testify, 
it  has  been  the  object  of  "  lungo  studio  e  grande 
amore^"^  not  wholly  unfruitful,  on  the  part  of  many 
generations  of  her  sons. 


THE  LAST  VOYAGE  OF  ULYSSES 

Laurence  Binyon. 


THE    LAST  VOYAGE   OF  ULYSSES 

Inferno,  Canto  XXVL  1.  52. 

Who  is  in  that  fire  which  comes  so  torn  in  twain 

As  if  it  rose  out  of  the  pyre  that  hearsed 

Eteocles  beside  his  brother  slain  ? 
He  answered  me  :  Ulysses  there  is  cursed 

And  with  him  Diomed ;  as  in  wrath  erewhile 

Together,  so  together  now  amerced. 
They  in  their  flame,  tormented  for  old  guile. 

Bemoan  the  horse,  whose  wooden  ambuscade 

The  gentle  seed  of  Romans  did  exile. 
And  they  lament  the  fraud,  whereby  the  shade 

Of  Deidamia  for  Achilles  rues ; 

And  for  Palladium  stolen  are  they  paid. 
If  they  within  those  sparks  a  voice  can  use, 

Master,  I  said,  I  pray  thee  of  thy  grace — 

A  thousand  times  I  pray  thee,  if  thou  refuse — 
Forbid  me  not  to  tarry  in  this  place 

Till  that  the  horned  flame  blow  hitherward ; 

See,  toward  it  how  the  longing  bends  my  face  ! 
And  he  to  me  :  The  thing  thou  hast  implored 

Deserveth  praise,  and  for  that  cause  thy  need 

Is  answered ;  yet  refrain  thy  tongue  from  word. 
Leave  me  to  speak,  for  well  thy  wish  I  read. 

But  they,  since  they  were  Greeks,  might  turn  aside, 

It  may  be,  and  thy  voice  disdain  to  heed. 

n 


78  DANTE 


When  that  the  fire  had  come  where  to  my  Guide 
Time  and  the  place  seemed  fit,  I  heard  him  frame 
His  speech  upon  this  manner,  as  he  cried  : 

O  ye  who  are  two  within  a  single  flame, 
If  any  merit  I  of  you  have  won, 
If  merit,  much  or  little,  had  my  name. 

When  the  great  verse  I  made  beneath  the  sun, 
Move  not,  but  let  the  one  of  you  who  can 
Tell  where  he  went  to  perish,  being  undone. 

The  greater  horn  of  the  ancient  flame  began 
To  shudder  and  make  a  murmur,  like  a  fire 
When  the  wind  troubles  it  with  gusty  fan, 

Then  carrying  its  crests,  to  and  fro,  higher, 
As  it  had  been  a  tongue  that  spoke,  it  cast 
A  voice  forth  from  the  strength  of  its  desire. 

Saying  :  When  I  from  Circe  got  me  at  last. 
Who  more  than  a  year  by  Gaeta  (before 
iEneas  had  so  named  it)  held  me  fast. 

Neither  sweet  son,  nor  old  fond  father,  nor 

The  long-due  love  which  was  to  have  made  glad 
Penelope  for  all  the  pain  she  bore. 

Could  conquer  the  inward  hunger  that  I  had 
To  master  earth's  experience,  and  to  attain 
Knowledge  of  man's  mind,  both  the  good  and  bad. 

But  I  put  out  on  the  deep  open  main 

With  one  ship  only,  and  with  that  little  band 
Which  chose  not  to  desert  me ;  far  as  Spain, 

Far  as  Morocco,  either  shore  I  scanned ; 
Sardinia's  isle  I  coasted,  steering  straight. 
And  the  isles  of  which  that  water  bathes  the  strand. 


THE  LAST  VOYAGE  OF  ULYSSES       79 

I  and  my  crew  were  old  and  over-late 

When,  at  the  narrow  pass,  we  could  discern 
The  towers  that  Hercules  set  for  a  gate 

That  none  should  dare  beyond,  or  farther  learn. 
Already  I  had  Seville  on  the  right, 
And  on  the  larboard  Ceuta  lay  astern. 

Brothers,  I  said,  who  manfully,  despite 

Ten  thousand  perils,  have  attained  the  West, 
In  the  brief  vigil  that  remains  of  light 

To  feel  in,  stoop  not  to  renounce  the  quest 
Of  what  in  the  sun's  path  may  be  essayed. 
The  world  that  never  man-kind  hath  possessed. 

Think  on  the  seed  ye  spring  from  !     Ye  were  made 
Not  to  live  life  of  brute  beasts  of  the  field, 
But  follow  virtue  and  knowledge  unafraid. 

With  such  few  words  their  spirit  so  I  steeled. 
That  I  thereafter  scarce  could  have  restrained 
My  comrades  from  the  voyage,  had  I  willed ; 

And,  our  poop  turned  to  where  the  Morning  reigned. 
We  made,  for  the  mad  flight,  wings  of  our  oars. 
And  on  the  left  continually  we  gained. 

By  now  the  Night  beheld  within  her  course 
All  stars  of  the  other  pole,  and  ours  so  low, 
It  was  not  lifted  from  the  ocean  floors. 

Five  times  beneath  the  moon  re-kindled  slow 
The  light  had  been,  and  quenched  as  oft,  since  we 
Broached  the  hard  issue  we  were  sworn  to  know, 

When  there  arose  a  Mountain  in  the  sea, 
Dimm'd  by  the  distance ;  loftier  than  aught 
That  ever  I  beheld,  it  seemed  to  be. 


8o  DANTE 


Then  we  rejoiced ;  but  soon  to  grief  were  brought. 
A  storm  came  out  of  the  strange  land,  and  found 
The  ship,  and  violently  the  fore-part  caught. 

Three  times  it  made  her  to  whirl  round  and  round 
With  all  the  waves ;  and,  as  Another  chose, 
The  fourth  time,  heaved  the  poop  up,  the  prow 

drowned, 
Till  over  us  we  heard  the  waters  close. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC 

Edmund  G.  Gardner. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC 

The  literary  criticism  of  the  Middle  Ages  was 
naturally  of  a  rudimentary  character,  and  had  in  the 
main  a  practical  tendency.  It  was  directed  towards 
teaching  men  how  to  speak  well  and  write  well,  and 
how  to  compose  poetry,  rather  than  towards  the 
aesthetic  appreciation  of  works  of  art  of  the  past. 
When  such  works  were  considered,  it  was  normally 
from  the  point  of  view  elucidated  by  Dante  himself 
in  the  Letter  to  Can  Grande. 

But  in  this,  as  in  so  much  else,  Dante  frequently 
soars  beyond  the' ideas  of  his  age,  and,  from  an  early 
stage  in  his  career,  approaches  literary  questions  with 
those  same  "  luci  chiare  ed  acute "  which  were  to 
penetrate  so  deeply  into  the  mysteries  of  the  human 
spirit  in  the  Divina  Commedia, 

We  find  a  short  chapter  of  literary  criticism  in  the 
Fita  Nuova.  Dante  is  justifying  himself  for  making 
love  a  human  personification  by  appealing  to  the 
example  of  the  classical  poets,  who  similarly  personify 
inanimate  things,  and  even  things  which  have  no  real 
existence.  He  distinguishes  between  such  classical 
poets,  poete  litterati,  and  the  new  vernacular  poets, 
poete  volgari,  dicitori  per  rima  :  "  che  dire  per  rima 
in  volgare  tanto  e  quanto  dire  per  versi  in  latino, 

83 


84  DANTE 


secondo  alcuna  proporzione."  His  summary  account 
of  previous  romance  poetry  shows  that  his  knowledge 
was  at  that  time  scanty,  and  his  restriction  of  the 
matter  of  lyrical  poetry  to  love  is  one  that  he  will 
presently  outgrow;  but  the  rest  of  the  chapter  is 
legitimate  and  significant.  "  Onde,  con  cio  sia  cosa 
che  a  li  poete  sia  conceduta  maggiore  licenza  di  parlare 
che  a  li  prosaici  dittatori,  e  questi  dicitori  per  rima 
non  siano  altro  che  poete  volgari,  degno  e  ragionevole 
e  che  a  loro  sia  maggiore  licenzia  largita  di  parlare  che 
a  li  altri  parlatori  volgari ;  onde,  se  alcuna  figura  o 
colore  rettorico  e  conceduto  a  li  poete,  conceduto  e 
a  li  rimatori."  If  the  poete  have  used  these  figures  and 
rhetorical  colours,  lo  dicitore  per  rima  has  a  right  to 
do  the  same  :  "  ma  non  sanza  ragione  alcuna,  ma  con 
ragione,  la  quale  poi  sia  possibile  d'aprire  per  prosa." 
After  citing  passages  from  Virgil,  Lucan,  Horace  and 
Ovid,  he  adds  a  warning  against  abuse  of  the  practice  : 
"  Dico  che  ne  li  poete  parlavano  cosi  sanza  ragione, 
ne  quelli  che  rimano  deono  parlare  cosi,  non  avendo 
alcuno  ragionamento  in  loro  di  quello  che  dicono ; 
pero  che  grande  vergogna  sarebbe  a  colui  che  rimasse 
cose  sotto  vesta  di  figura  o  di  colore  rettorico,  e 
poscia,  domandato,  non  sapesse  denudare  le  sue  parole 
da  cotale  vesta,  in  guisa  che  avessero  verace  intendi- 
mento."  ^  It  is  at  once  a  defence  of  the  classical 
tradition  in  imagery  and  a  plea  for  sincerity  in 
literary  art.  Figures  and  rhetorical  colour  are  allow- 
able, not  for  their  own  sake,   but  when  covering  a 

^  Vita  Nuova  xxv. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  85 

real  meaning  which  is  capable  of  being  expressed  in 
prose. 

The  opening  chapters  of  the  Convivio,  where  Dante 
defends  the  writing  of  a  prose  treatise  in  the  vernacular 
as  a  commentary  upon  his  own  canzoni,  contain 
literary  criticism  of  a  higher  order.  Vernacular  prose 
in  Italy  had  not  yet  reached  a  stage  of  development 
comparable  with  that  of  the  poetry,  and  he  can  justly 
say  that  "  lo  latino  molte  cose  manifesta  concepute 
nella  mente,  che  il  volgare  fare  non  puo,"  and  that  its 
structure  is  more  beautiful.^  His  long  plea,  never- 
theless, for  a  vernacular  rather  than  a  Latin  commen- 
tary, is  based,  as  Dr.  Wicksteed  well  notes,  on  the 
principle  "  that  the  atmosphere  of  the  commentary 
should  as  much  as  possible  harmonise  with  that  of  the 
text."  Incidentally,  we  have  this  notable  passage  on 
the  translation  of  poetry  into  another  language, 
anticipating,  for  EngHsh  readers,  what  Shelley  was  to 
write  in  his  Defence  of  Poetry  : — 

"  E  pero  sappia  ciascuno,  che  nulla  cosa  per  legame 
musaico  armonizzata  si  puo  della  sua  loquela  in  altra 
trasmutare,  senza  rompere  tutta  sua  dolcezza  e 
armonia.  E  questa  e  la  ragione  per  che  Omero  non 
si  muto  di  greco  in  latino,  come  I'altre  scritture  che 
avemo  da  loro ;  e  questa  e  la  ragione  per  che  i  versi 
del  Psaltero  sono  senza  dolcezza  di  musica  e  d'armonia ; 
che  essi  furono  trasmutati  d'ebreo  in  greco,  e  di  greco 

^  Convivio  i.  5. 


86  DANTE 


in  latino,   e  nella  prima  trasmutazione  tutta   quella 
dolcezza  venne  meno."  ^ 

M£:<^^'^^  ,      Further,  Dante  has  a  most  striking  passage  on  the 

iX*^^       \  potentialities  of  Italian  prose,  which  carries  with  it  a 
^/H^y     "^  corollary  of  more  general  application,  for  he  implies 
I      /  that  the  real  beauty  and  capacities  of  a  language  are 
to  be  tested  by  its  prose  rather  than  by  its  poetry  : — 

"  Per  questo  comento  la  gran  bonta  del  volgare  di 
St  si  vedra,  pero  che  (si  come  per  esso  altissimi  e 
novissimi  concetti  convenevolmente,  sufficientemente 
e  acconciamente,  quasi  come  per  esso  latino,  si  espri- 
mono)  la  sua  virtu  nelle  cose  rimate,  per  le  accidentali 
adornezze  che  quivi  sono  connesse,  cioe  la  rima  e  lo 
ritmo  o'l  numero  regolato,  non  si  puo  bene  mani- 
festare ;  si  come  la  bellezza  d'una  donna,  quando  gli 
adornamenti  dell'azzimare  e  delle  vestimenta  la  fanno 
piu  ammirare  che  essa  medesima.  Onde  chi  vuole 
bene  giudicare  d'una  donna,  guardi  quella  quando 
solo  sua  natural  bellezza  si  sta  con  lei  da  tutto  acci- 
dentale  adornamento  discompagnata ;  si  come  sara 
questo  comento,  nel  quale  si  vedra  I'agevolezza  delle 
sue  sillabe,  la  proprieta  delle  sue  condizioni,  e  le 
soavi  orazioni  che  di  lui  si  fanno ;  le  quali  chi  bene 
agguardera,  vedra  essere  piene  di  dolcissima  ed  ama- 
bilissima  bellezza."  ^ 

^  Convivio  i.  7.  The  translations  from  Greek  prose  which  Dante 
knew  were  the  works  of  Aristotle,  the  Timceus  of  Plato,  and  some  of 
the  writings  of  Dionysius  and  John  of  Damascus. 

2  Convivio  i.  10. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  87 

Dante,  the  poet  of  the  continuity  of  the  Latin 
civilisation,  the  prophet  of  Italy's  re-vindication  of  her 
rightful  place  among  the  nations  who  owe  to  her  their 
share  in  that  civilisation,  was  the  first  romance  phil- 
ologist. The  De  Vulgar i  Eloquentia  is  the  first  treatise 
ever  written  on  romance  philology,  the  Italian  language, 
and  the  art  of  Italian  poetry.  Croce  has  observed  : 
"  Dante's  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  has  great  importance 
as  a  concomitant  symptom  of  the  new  romance 
literature  which  is  becoming  aware  of  its  own  power, 
rather  than  for  the  aesthetic  ideas  that  it  contains  or 
for  the  quality  of  its  critical  judgments."  But  we 
must  remember  that  Dante  is  labouring  as  a  pioneer 
in  a  totally  unexplored  field ;  he  has  naturally  none 
of  the  advantages  of  modern  philologists  and  students 
of  language,  but  only  his  own  intuition  and  observation 
to  guide  him.  The  fact  that  his  critical  judgments 
are  occasionally  at  fault,  his  conclusions  sometimes 
erroneous,  is  less  surprising  than  his  originality  and 
insight.  This,  perhaps,  applies  particularly  to  the 
wonderful  first  book,  in  some  respects  (as,  for  instance, 
in  his  treatment  of  the  Italian  dialects)  the  most 
modern  in  spirit  of  all  that  Dante  has  left  us.  It  is 
true  that  the  conclusion,  to  which  this  examination 
and  classification  of  the  dialects  lead  him,  is  an  erroneous 
one ;  for  he  rejects  Tuscan,  among  the  rest,  in  favour 
of  the  vulgar e  illustre,  as  a  form,  Mazzini  finely  said, 
worthy  of  representing  the  national  idea ;  an  ideal 
literary  Italian,  an  abstraction  free  from  local  character- 
istics.    In    this    he   was    influenced    mainly   by   two 


88  DANTE 


^ 


considerations  :  the  analogy  between  such  a  conven- 
tional language  and  the  mediaeval  conception  of  clas- 
sical Latin  as  grammatica  ;  and  the  fact  that  he  finds, 
or  seems  to  find,  this  abstraction  realised  in  the  lyrical 
poetry  of  certain  of  his  predecessors — Sicilians,  Apu- 
lians,  Bolognese,  Tuscans — who,  though  natives  of 
different  regions  of  Italy,  appeared  to  be  using  a 
common  literary  language.  As  D'Ovidio  well  remarks  : 
"  The  true  and  great  unity  of  the  language,  of  the 
language  sufficient  for  every  kind  of  poetry  and  of 
prose,  was  certainly  still  in  the  future.  But  a  small 
ifnd  circumscribed  unity,  the  unity  of  the  lyrical 
language,  was  already  formed.  The  one  was  to  be  in 
great  part  the  child  of  the  Divina  Commedia  ;  the 
other  had  already  inspired  the  mistakes  of  the  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia.^'*  ^ 

But  these  matters  less  directly  touch  our  present 
subject.  I  will  here  confine  myself  to  the  poetic 
theory  of  the  second  book. 

Having  evolved  his  doctrine  of  "  the  illustrious 
Italian  vernacular,"  Dante  declares  that  it  is  equally 
fit  for  use  in  prose  and  in  verse.  But,  since  not  every 
kind  of  poetry  requires  this  vulgare  illustre^  it  would 
seem  to  follow  that  there  can  be  prose  statelier  than 
certain  forms  of  poetry  (the  prose  of  which  he  was  at 
the  same  time  giving  a  practical  example  in  the 
Convivio).  Only  certain  subjects  are  worthy  to  be 
thus  treated  in  poetry.  In  the  Vita  Nuova,  he  had 
censured  "  color  o  che  rimano  sopra  altra  mater  a  che 

^  Fersificazione  italiana  e  arte  ■poetic a  medioevaUy  p.  525. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  89 

amorosa,  con  cio  sia  cosa  che  cotale  modo  di  parlare 
fosse  dal  principio  trovato  per  dire  d'amore."  ^  Now 
he  admits  a  wider  range  of  subjects  as  worthy  to  be 
sung  in  the  highest  vernacular,  and  characteristically 
links  his  theory  with  a  philosophical  conception  of 
human  life.  "  As  man  has  a  threefold  vital  activity 
(tripliciter  spirituatus  est),  to  wit,  the  vegetable,  the 
animal,  and  the  rational,  he  journeys  on  a  threefold 
way."  ^  It  is  the  old  scholastic  doctrine,  derived 
from  Aristotle,  of  the  soul  having  three  principles  or 
modes  of  energy — what  Dante  in  the  Convivio  calls 
potenze :  potenza  vegetativa  (which  Aquinas  terms 
"  nutritive  "),  concerned  with  the  maintenance  of  the 
bodily  organism  ;  potenza  sensitiva  ;  potenza  intellettiva^ 
or  rational  power. ^  We  live  by  the  first,  perceive  and 
feel  by  the  second,  know  and  understand  by  the  third. 
They  may  be  called  "  Life,"  "  Sense  "  or  "  Sensation," 
"  Reason "  or  "  Understanding."  In  man,  these 
three  powers  or  functions  are  dependent  upon  each 
other,  and  are  included  in  the  rational  soul,  which  is 
the  one  actuating  principle.  Dante  says  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  vegetative  power,  man  seeks  what  is  useful ; 
according  to  the  animal,  what  is  pleasurable ; 
"  secundum  quod  rationale,  honestum  quserit,  in 
quo  solus  est,  vel  angelicae  naturae  sociatur " ;  ^ 
"  according  as  he  is  rational,  he  seeks  what  is  spiritually 
beautiful,  in  which  he  is  alone,  or  shares  in  the  angelic 
nature."     Both   Augustine   and   Aquinas   attach   the 

1  Vita  Nuova  xxv.  "  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  2. 

3  Convivio  iii.  2.  *  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii,  2. 


90  DANTE 


meaning  of  "  spiritually  beautiful "  to  the  word 
honestum  ;  Aquinas  adopting  a  sentence  of  Augustine, 
to  the  effect  that  by  honestum  he  understands  "  intel- 
ligible beauty  which  we  properly  call  spiritual."  ^ 
We  remember  that  the  epithet  onesta  is  applied  to 
Beatrice  in  the  Vita  Nuova  :  "  Tanto  gentile  e  tanto 
onesta  pare  "  ;  and  there  is  a  passage  in  the  Convivio 
where  heltate  delV  anima  is  used  as  practically  equivalent 
to  the  present  quod  est  honestum?  In  each  of  these 
spheres,  what  is  greatest  is  worthy  of  supreme  artistic 
treatment : — 

"  First,  in  respect  of  what  is  useful ;  in  which,  if 
we  carefully  consider  the  purpose  of  all  who  seek 
utility,  we  shall  find  it  nought  else  except  safety. 
Secondly,  in  respect  of  what  is  pleasurable ;  in  which 
we  say  that  to  be  most  greatly  pleasurable  which 
delights  by  the  most  precious  object  of  the  appetite ; 
and  this  is  Love.  Thirdly,  in  respect  of  what  is 
spiritually  beautiful ;  in  which  no  one  doubts  that  it 
is  Virtue,  Therefore  these  three,  to  wit,  Safety^ 
Love  and  Virtue^  appear  to  be  those  highest  matters 
which  are  to  be  treated  most  greatly,  or  rather,  the 
things  which  are  chief  with  respect  to  them — as  valour 
in  arms^  thejlre  of  love,  and  the  direction  of  the  zvill.^^^ 

The  widening  of  Dante's  conception  of  the  legiti- 
mate subject  of  vernacular  poetry,  since  the  days  of 
the  Vita  Nuova,  was  probably  in  part  due  to  his  study 

^  Summa  Theologica,  II.  ii.,  q.  145,  a.  2. 

2  Convivio  iii.  15. 

2  Dg  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  2. 


DANTE  AS   LITERARY  CRITIC  91 

of  the  troubadours.  Taking  his  examples  from  both 
Provence  and  Italy,  he  cites  Bertran  de  Born  as  having 
written  on  arms,  Arnaut  Daniel  and  Cino  da  Pistoia 
on  love,  Giraut  de  Borneil  and  himself  ("  the  friend 
of  Cino  ")  on  rectitudo. 

Turning  now  to  consider  what  is  the  most  excellent 
form  in  which  these  subjects  can  be  treated,  Dante 
finds  it  to  be  the  canzone.  A  subject  fit  to  be  sung 
in  the  highest  or  "  tragic  "  style  must  be  dealt  with 
in  a  canzone  :  the  stateliness  of  the  lines,  the  loftiness 
of  the  construction,  and  the  excellence  of  the  words 
harmonising  with  the  weightiness  of  the  matter.^ 
Thus  a  canzone  is  a  tragic  a  conjugatio,  a  joining 
together  in  the  tragic  style  of  equal  stanzas  without 
a  refrain  and  referring  to  one  subject  (ad  unam  sen- 
tentiam).  The  words  "  without  a  refrain "  {sine 
responsorio)  are  inserted  to  distinguish  the  canzone 
proper  from  the  ballata  or  canzone  a  ballo,  which  had 
a  special  ripresa  sung  at  the  beginning  and  repeated 
after  each  stanza.  What  Dante  calls  the  tragic  a 
conjugatio  is  most  nearly  realised  in  English  poetry  by 
the  ode,  while  the  closest  counterpart  to  the  canzone 
— though  with  the  number  of  lines  varying  in  the 
stanza — is  offered  by  Spenser's  Epithalamion,^  In 
the  rules  that  Dante  lays  down  for  the  construction 
of  the  canzone  in  every  detail,  we  may  notice  his 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  4. 

2  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  8.  This,  of  course,  refers  only  to  the 
type  of  canzone  with  stanzas  divisible  into  metrical  periods ;  the  other 
type,  the  sestina,  is  familiar  to  English  poetry  from  the  Elizabethans 
to  our  own  day. 


^//(Tv-U--^^ 


92  DANTE 


predilection  for  a  stanza  ending  with  a  rhyming  couplet : 
''  Pulcerrime  tamen  se  habent  ultimorum  carminum 
desinentiae,  si  cum  rithimo  in  silentium  cadant."  ^ 

Professor  Saintsbury  has  noted  the  remarkable 
contrast  between  the  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  and 
Wordsworth's  preface  to  the  second  edition  of  Lyrical 
Ballads.  The  principal  object  proposed  in  the  Lyrical 
Ballads  was  "  to  choose  incidents  and  situations  from 
common  life,  and  to  relate  or  describe  them  through- 
out, as  far  as  was  possible,  in  a  selection  of  language 
really  used  by  men  "  ;  "  humble  and  rustic  life  was 
generally  chosen  "  ;  the  language  of  men  in  such  life 
was  adopted,  with  avoidance  of  "  poetic  diction." 
Further,  Wordsworth  lays  down  as  a  general  rule  that 
"  the  language  of  a  large  portion  of  every  good  poem, 
even  of  the  most  elevated  character,  must  necessarily, 
except  with  reference  to  the  metre,  in  no  respect 
differ  from  that  of  good  prose."  Dante,  on  the  other 
hand,  declares  that  the  illustrious  language  is  not 
suited  "  to  dwellers  in  the  mountains  dealing  with 
rustic  concerns,"  ^  and  conceives  of  his  three  noblest 
subjects,  dealt  with  in  the  highest  style,  with  deliberate 
choice  of  the  noblest  construction  and  of  the  noblest 
words,  excluding  childish  words  because  of  their 
simplicity,  and  sylvan  words  because  of  their  roughness : 
"  Consider,  reader,  how  much  it  behoves  thee  to  use 
the  sieve  in  selecting  noble  words ;  for  if  thou  hast 
regard  to  the  illustrious  vulgar  tongue,  which  poets 
ought  to  use  when  writing  in  the  tragic  style  in  the 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  13.         ^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  I. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  93 

vernacular,  thou  wilt  take  care  that  the  noblest  words 
alone  are  left  in  thy  sieve."  ^  But  the  opposition 
between  Dante  and  Wordsworth  is  not  so  complete 
as  might  thus  appear.  Dante  is  here  considering  one 
particular  form  of  poetry,  the  "  one  supreme  poem  in 
the  vulgar  tongue  which  we  call  canzone  by  super- 
excellence  "  ;  ^  and  Wordsworth  himself  gives  us  some- 
thing directly  analogous  with  the  tragica  conjugatio  in 
such  pieces  as  Intimations  of  Immortality,  the  Ode  to 
Duty,  the  Ode  "  Who  rises  on  the  banks  of  Seine." 

For  Dante,  as  for  his  contemporaries,  lyrical  poetry 
was  poetry  written  for  a  musical  setting.  In  the  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia,  he  defines  poetry  Sisjictio  rethorica 
musice  composita,  "  a  rhetorical  fiction  [or,  perhaps, 
"  fashioning  "]  musically  composed  " — and  he  tells  us, 
in  the  Convivio,  that  poets  are  "  those  who  have  bound 
their  words  with  the  art  of  music  "  :  "  i  poeti  che 
colP  arte  musaica  le  loro  parole  hanno  legate."  ^  To 
complete  this  definition  of  poetry,  we  need  the  famous 
conversation  between  Dante  and  Bonagiunta  of  Lucca 
in  the  Pur  gator  io  : — ■ 

Ma  di'  s'io  veggio  qui  colui  che  fuore 

Trasse  le  nuove  rime,  cominciando  : 

Donne,  cFavete  intelletto  d'amore. 
Ed  io  a  lui  :   Io  mi  son  un  che,  quando 

Amor  mi  spira,  noto,  ed  a  quel  modo 

Che  ditta  dentro,  vo  significando.* 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  7. 

2  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  8.     In  these  three  quotations  I  avail 
myself  of  Mr.  A.  G.  F.  Howell's  translation. 
^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  4 ;   Convivio  iv.  6. 
*  Purgatorio  xxiv.  49-54. 


94 


DANTE 


Here  poetry  is  treated  as  depending  upon  direct 
inspiration  and  artistic  correspondence  with  it.  We 
see  that  Dante  admits  two  elements  in  his  definition  : 
the  one  referring  to  inspiration  and  spiritual  content 
("  lo  mi  son  un  che,  quando  Amor  mi  spira,  noto  ") ; 
the  other  to  technique  and  external  form  ("  ed  a  quel 
modo  che  ditta  dentro,  vo  significando.")  The  first 
part  clearly  corresponds  with  what,  in  the  De  Vulgari 
Eloquentia^  he  calls  sententia. 

Again,  still  in  the  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  Dante 
curiously  contrasts  the  poets  who  write  verse  in  the 
vernacular  with  the  Latin  poets,  the  "  regular  "  or 
"  great  "  poets :  "  They  differ  from  the  great  poets, 
that  is,  the  regular  poets,  for  the  latter  were  great  in 
language  and  regular  in  art  when  they  wrote  poetry, 
whereas  the  former  compose  casually.  It  therefore 
happens  that,  the  more  closely  we  imitate  those,  the 
more  correctly  we  write  poetry."  ^  He  apparently 
means  that  the  Italian  poets  had  hitherto  composed 
without  the  perfectly  formed  language  and  clearly 
defined  metrical  rules  of  the  Latin  poets,  whom  he 
holds  up  for  imitation  in  these  respects. 

This  sentence  surely  illustrates  Dante's  own  words 
to  Virgil  in  the  Divina  Commedia  : — • 

O  degli  altri  poeti  onore  e  lume, 

Vagliami  il  lungo  studio  e  il  grande  amore, 
c      Che  m'han  fatto  cercar  lo  tuo  volume. 

Tu  se'  lo  mio  maestro  e  il  mio  autore  : 
/       Tu  se'  solo  colui  da  cui  io  tolsi 

Lo  bello  stile  che  m'ha  fatto  onore.^ 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  4.  ^  Inferno  i.  82-87. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  95 

It  has  also  a  direct  bearing  upon  the  lines  associating 
Guido  Cavalcanti  with  himself,  in  the  tenth  canto  of 
the  Inferno  ;  a  passage  of  searching  literary  criticism, 
presented  in  allegorical  fashion  : — 

Piangendo  disse  :   Se  per  questo  cieco 

Carcere  vai  per  altezza  d'ingegno,  /  LVf<jO 

Mio  figlio  ov'b  ?  e  perchfe  non  fe  teco  ?  /  ^  ' 

Ed  io  a  lui :  Da  me  stesso  non  vegno  :  /^  Jj^ 

Colui,  ch'attende  Ih,  per  qui  mi  mena,  ^^^IT     j^/JiC'^^''''^ 
Forse  cui  Guido  vostro  ebbe  a  disdegno.^  L^-''^ 

These  lines  answer  the  question  why  Guido  Caval- 
canti, with  all  his  talent,  could  not,  like  Dante,  compose 
a  Divina  Commedia,  and  thus  follow  Virgil  through 
the  other  world.  In  the  eyes  of  men  like  Guido's 
father  the  two  had  begun  alike.  They  had  appeared 
as  the  poets  of  the  dolce  stil  nuovo,  and  had  practised 
lyrical  poetry  together;  but,  whereas  Guido  had 
studied  exclusively  his  Provengal  and  Italian  pre- 
decessors, neglecting  the  classical  poets,  and  more 
particularly  the  JEneid,  Dante  could  appeal  in  addition 
to  il  lungo  studio  e  il  grande  amore  which  had  made  him 
search  through  Virgil's  volume,  had  given  him  a 
higher  flight,  the  hello  stile,  and  the  starting-point  for 
his  own  poem.^ 

It  is  clear  that  the  two  poets  whom  Dante  regarded 
as  the  greatest  among  the  Italians  of  the  thirteenth 
century  were  Guido  GuiniceUi  and  Guido  Cavalcanti 
— though  he  speaks,  in  the  De  Fulgari  Eloquentia,  of 
his  younger  contemporary,  Cino  da  Pistoia,  in  a  way 

^  Inferno  x.  58-63. 

2  Cf.  F.  D'Ovidio,  Studii  sulla  Divina  Commedia,  pp.  162-168. 


96  DANTE 


that  implies  that  the  last  named  was  at  least  their 
equal.  The  two  Guides,  Guido  of  Florence  and 
Guido  of  Bologna,  are  coupled  in  the  well-known  lines 
placed  upon  the  lips  of  Oderisi  of  Gubbio  in  the 
Purgatorio  : — 

Cosi  ha  tolto  I'uno  all'  altro  Guido 
La  gloria  della  lingua,  e  forse  t  nato 
Chi  Tuno  e  I'altro  caccer^  del  nido.^ 

I  think  that  the  full  meaning  of  the  episode  is  not 
realised  by  understanding  this  as  either  a  mere  general 
prophecy  of  a  greater  poet  to  come  or  a  specific 
reference  to  Dante  himself.  The  tone  of  the  whole 
passage,  taken  in  connexion  with  what  follows,  seems 
to  imply  that  Oderisi  is  supposed  to  be  making  a  vague 
general  statement,  but  that  Dante — for  a  moment — 
does  apply  it  to  himself ;  for,  when  presently  the 
former  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  transient  character  of 
such  renown,  the  poet  answers  : — 

Tug  vero  dir  m'incora 
Buona  umiltS,  e  gran  tumor  m'appiani.^ 

And  he  is  still  in  this  humbled  frame  of  mind  when,  in 
the  seventh  terrace,  he  looks  upon  Guido  Guinicelli  : — 

Quand'i'  odo  nomar  se  stesso,  il  padre 
Mio  e  degli  altri  miei  miglior,  che  mai 
Rime  d'amore  usar  dolci  e  leggiadre.^ 

He  is  speaking  here  of  love-poetry  only,  of  lyrical  love- 
poetry  in  which  la  gloria  della  lingua  had  originally 
been  won.     There  is  possibly  an  allusion  to  Cino  da 

^  Purgatorio  xi.  97-99.       ^  ibid.  1 1 8-1 19.        ^  ibid.  xxvi.  I97-99. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  97 

Pistoia,  who  is  nowhere  mentioned  in  the  Divina 
Commedia,  but  whom  Dante  had  exalted  in  the  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia  as  the  representative  poet  of  love, 
and  thus,  perhaps,  by  implication,  superior  in  this 
respect  to  himself.  It  is  a  little  tempting  to  associate 
with  this  the  way  Guido  Guinicelli  is  made  to  place 
Arnaut  Daniel  above  Giraut  de  Borneil  in  the  same 
canto,  for,  in  the  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  Dante  had 
coupled  Arnaut  Daniel  with  Cino,  Giraut  de  Borneil 
with  himself  : — 

O  frate,  disse,  questi  ch'io  ti  cerno 

Col  dito  (ed  addit6  uno  spirto  innanzi), 
Fu  miglior  fabbro  del  parlar  materno. 

Versi  d'amore  e  prose  di  romanzi 

Soverchio  tutti ;  e  lascia  dir  gli  stolti, 
Che  quel  di  Lemos\  credon  ch'avanzi. 

A  voce  pill  ch'al  ver  drizzan  li  volti ; 
E  cosl  ferman  sua  opinione, 
Prima  ch'arte  o  ragion  per  lor  s'ascolti. 

Cosl  fer  molti  antichi  di  Guittone, 

Di  grido  in  grido  pur  lui  dando  pregio, 
Fin  che  I'ha  vinto  il  ver  con  piu  persone.^ 

For  the  rest,  Dante's  exaltation  of  Arnaut  Daniel 
and  his  constant  depreciation  of  Guittone  d'Arezzo 
are  his  two  critical  judgments  the  least  easy  of  accept- 
ance for  the  modern  reader.  In  the  case  of  Arnaut 
Daniel,  the  metrical  skill  and  originality  of  that 
"  miglior  fabbro  del  parlar  materno,"  which  so  pro- 
foundly influenced  Dante  himself  at  the  stage  of  the 
rime  pietrose,  had  clearly  won  for  him  this  high  place 
in  the  estimation  of  his  Italian  successor.     Even  Guido 

^  Purgatorio  xxvi.  1 15-126.     Cf.  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  2. 
H 


98  DANTE 


Guinicelli  had  been  no  innovator  in  matters  of 
technique ;  his  gift  to  Dante,  and  to  Italian  poetry 
in  general,  had  been  in  the  sphere  of  the  spirit.  As 
for  Fra  Guittone,  "  qui  nunquam  se  ad  curiale  vulgare 
direxit,"  his  "  municipalia  dicta  "  would  seem  to  have 
obscured  in  Dante's  eyes  the  "  gravitas  sententiarum  " 
which  we  must  surely  recognise  in  much  of  his  verse. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  noticeable  that  the  polished 
language,  the  use  of  "  vocabula  curialiora "  in  his 
lyrics  which  Dante  perceives  in  Giacomo  da  Lentino 
(together  with  Rinaldo  d' Aquino,  whom  elsewhere  he 
seems  to  rank  higher),  does  not  save  the  Notary  from 
inclusion  by  Bonagiunta  among  those  whom  the  nodo 
(of  conventionality  or  imitation)  held  back  from  the 
dolce  stil  nuovo  : — 

O  frate,  issa  vegg'io,  diss'  elli,  il  nodo, 

Che  il  Notaro  e  Guittone  e  me  ritenne 

Di  qua  dal  dolce  stil  novo  ch'i'  odo. 
lo  veggio  ben  come  le  vostre  penne 

Diretro  al  dittator  sen  vanno  strette, 

Che  delle  nostre  certo  non  avvenne. 
E  qual  Tpih  a  riguardar  oltre  si  mette, 

Non  vede  piti  dall'  uno  all'  altro  stile.^ 

"  Versi   d'amore   e  prose   di  romanzi."     This   line 

brings  us  back  to  that  singularly  interesting  passage  in 

the  De  Vulgari   Eloquentia  where   Dante,  examining 

the  rival  claims  for  pre-eminence  of  the  three  neo- 

Latin  languages,  cites  the  vernacular  prose  of  France, 

the   alleged  chronological  primacy  of  the  poetry  of 

Provence.     Here,  for  romanzi  (the  only  place  where 

^  Purgatorio  xxiv.  55-62.     Cf.  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  10,  ii.  13. 
i.  13,  ii.  6,  i.  12. 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC  99 

Dante  uses  the  word  "  romance  "),  we  have  the  Latin 
ambages  :  "  Arturi  regis  ambages  pulcerrimae."  ^  It 
is  evident,  I  think,  that  Dante  was  from  the  beginning 
more  attracted  and  impressed  by  the  Arthurian  legends 
than  by  the  matter  of  the  Carolingian  cycle.  From 
the  Carolingian  story  we  have  indeed  one  terzina,  full 
of  romantic  feeling,  where  the  horn  of  Nimrod 
thunders  through  the  lowest  circle  of  Hell : — 

Dopo  la  dolorosa  rotta,  quando 
Carlo  Magno  perd^  la  santa  gesta, 
Non  son6  s\  terribilmente  Orlando.^ 

But  a  bare  indication  suffices  for  Ganellon.  Charle- 
magne and  Roland,  William  and  Rainouart,  flash 
through  the  ruddy  cross  of  the  sphere  of  Mars ; 
Dante's  gaze  follows  their  flight,  "  com'occhio  segue 
suo  falcon  volando  "  ;  but  that  is  all.  The  Arthurian 
glamour,  on  the  other  hand,  touched  the  poet's  spirit 
to  finer  issues.  The  magic  boat  which  Merlin  gave 
to  the  Lady  of  Shalott  supplies  the  imagery  of  his 
early  sonnet  to  Guido  Cavalcanti  (Guido,  vorrei  che 
tu  e  Lapo  ed  to)  ;  "  il  cavaliere  Lancilotto  "  is  surely 
felt  as  more  than  a  mere  name  in  one  of  the  most 
striking  passages  of  the  Convivio  ;  the  fifth  canto  of  the 
Inferno^  with  "  le  donne  antiche  e  i  cavalieri,"  has  the 
true  Arthurian  intonation ;    out  of  the  romances  of 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  i.  lo.  On  the  word  ambages^  cf.  Rajna,  in 
the  first  volume  of  Barbi's  new  series  of  Studi  Danteschi. 

^  Inferno  xxxi.  16-18.  Since  writing  this,  I  find  the  following 
appreciation  of  these  lines  in  Croce,  La  foesia  di  Dante,  p.  93  :  "  La 
terzina  in  cui  par  che  si  raddensi  e  si  componga  nella  sua  maggior 
linea  I'epica  delle  chansons  de  geste" 


100  DANTE 


Lancelot  and  Tristram  alike  came  the  ineffable  episode 
of  Paolo  and  Francesca. 

There  can,  I  think,  be  little  doubt  that  Dante 
intended  to  dedicate  the  De  Fulgari  Eloquentia  to 
Cino  da  Pistoia,  as  he  had  previously  dedicated  the 
Vita  Nuova  to  Guido  Cavalcanti.  We  remember  how 
Cino  himself,  in  a  sonnet  after  his  friend's  death, 
describes  the  Divina  Commedia  as  the  book  "  che 
mostra  Dante  signor  d'ogni  rima."  What,  then,  is 
its  relation  to  the  poetic  theories  of  the  De  Fulgari 
Eloquentia  P 

We  read  in  the  Letter  to  Can  Grande  :  "  There  are 
six  things  which  must  be  inquired  into  at  the  beginning 
of  any  work  of  instruction  :  to  wit,  the  subject^  agent, 
form,  and  end,  the  title  of  the  work,  and  the  branch  of 
philosophy  it  concerns."  ^  This  illustrates  the  spirit 
in  which  the  mediaeval  critic  approached  a  great 
literary  work.  It  is  not  peculiar  to  Dante.  A  slightly 
older  contemporary,  Albertino  Mussato  of  Padua, 
about  1 3 14,  wrote  a  Latin  tragedy,  the  Ecerinis,  on 
the  subject  of  the  tyranny  of  Ezzelino  and  Alberico 
da  Romano,  and  we  possess  the  commentary  composed 
upon  it  in  1317  (a  year  or  two  before  the  Letter  to 
Can  Grande)  by  a  Bolognese  grammarian,  Guizzardo. 
This  commentary  begins  with  precisely  the  same 
indication  of  treatment  as  the  Letter  to  Can  Grande  : 
"  In  the  beginning  of  this  book,  which  is  the  Ecerinis, 
as  is  the  fashion  of  commentators,  the  six  usual  things 
must  be  said  :  to  wit,  the  efficient  cause,  the  final 
^  Epistola  X.  6  (Dr.  Wicksteed's  translation). 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC        loi 

cause ^  th.Q  formal  cause ^  the  material  cause ^  under  what 
part  of  philosophy  it  falls,  and  what  is  the  title  of  the 
book.^^  The  efficient  cause  is  the  author  (or,  as  Dante 
puts  it,  the  agent),  the  final  cause  is  what  Dante  calls 
the  end,  the  formal  cause  is  the  form  of  the  poem,  the 
material  cause  is  the  subject.  But  the  method  and 
phraseology  are  similar.  Just  as  the  end  of  the  Divina 
Commedia  is  "to  remove  those  living  in  this  life  from 
the  state  of  misery,  and  to  lead  them  to  the  state  of 
felicity,"  so  the  final  cause  of  the  Ecerinis  is  "to 
instruct  those  present  or  to  come  to  preserve  free 
governments  and  to  shun  tyrannies."  ^ 

Under  the  title  of  the  work,  Dante  still  retains  more 
or  less  the  theory  of  style  that  he  had  maintained  in 
the  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  :  tragedy  being  an  exalted 
and  sublime  mode  of  speech,  comedy  lax  and  humble ; 
and,  therefore,  the  Divina  Commedia  falls  under  the 
latter  head.  Also,  we  know  from  the  De  Vulgari 
Eloquentia  that  he  intended,  in  its  unwritten  fourth 
book,  to  treat  the  discernment  to  be  exercised  with  a 
subject  fit  to  be  sung  in  the  comic  style,  in  which 
sometimes  the  middle  and  sometimes  the  lowly  ver- 
nacular should  be  used,  and  also,  dealing  with  poems 
in  the  middle  vulgar  tongue,  to  treat  specially  of 
rhyme.^  In  the  Letter  to  Can  Grande,  speaking  of 
the  form,  Dante  does  not  touch  the  metre  of  the 
Divina  Commedia  ;  but  there  is  extant  what  is  prac- 
tically   a    contemporary    criticism    of     the    subject. 

^  Albertino  Mussato,  Ecerinide,  ed.  L.  Padrin,  pp.  78-83. 
2  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  4,  ii.  13. 


102  DANTE 


Antonio  da  Tempo,  a  Paduan  judge,  in  1332  dedicated 
to  Alberto  della  Scala  (the  nephew  of  Can  Grande)  a 
treatise  on  Italian  poetry,  Summa  artis  rithimici  or  De 
Rithimis  vulgarihus.  It  is  written  in  Latin,  but  with 
examples  of  Italian  verse  composed  by  the  author 
himself.  Antonio  da  Tempo  had  read  the  Divina 
Commedia^  but  knew  nothing  of  the  De  Fulgari 
Eloquentia,  and  thought  that  he  was  the  first  writer 
on  "  vernacular  rhythms " ;  his  work  had  a  wide 
circulation,  whereas  the  De  Fulgari  Eloquentia  fell  out 
of  sight  until  the  Cinquecento.  The  book  is  an 
important  supplement  to  the  De  Fulgari  Eloquentia, 
because,  although  Antonio  da  Tempo  deals  scantily 
and  superficially  with  the  canzone,  he  treats  certain 
minor  kinds  of  vernacular  rhythms  very  fully — the 
sonnet  (of  which  he  distinguishes  sixteen  varieties),  the 
ballata,  the  serventese,  the  madrigal,  and  others. 
When  he  comes  to  the  serventese  (a  species  of  popular 
poetry,  what  we  should  now  call  occasional  verse, 
originally  used  more  particularly  for  satirical  and 
political  purposes  as  distinguished  from  the  stately 
canzone  of  love),  he  says  that  it  is  probably  called 
'*  serventese  "  because  it  serves  all  men,  including  those 
who  have  not  a  more  subtle  intellect.  It  is  thus  a 
deviation  from  its  normal  character  when  the  serven- 
tese depicts  history  or  is  subtly  fashioned  from  histories 
or  ancient  deeds,  "  as  was  the  method  of  Master  Dante 
Alighieri.  For  although  in  its  arrangement  of  rhymes 
that  manner  of  Dante  had,  as  it  were,  the  form  of  a 
serventese,  it  nevertheless  was  not  a  serventese,  but 


DANTE  AS  LITERARY  CRITIC        103 

could  rather  be  called  tragedy,  albeit  he  himself  called 
his  book  a  comedy."  ^ 

Modern  scholarship  has  confirmed  the  Paduan 
judge,  and  regards  the  ter7:,a  rima  of  the  Divina  Corn- 
media  as  the  development  of  a  particular  form  of 
serventese — though  so  entirely  transfigured  that  its 
humble  origin  is  concealed.  No  doubt  the  serventese 
was  one  of  the  kinds  of  poetry  to  be  dealt  with  in  the 
fourth  book  of  the  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  But, 
whatever  its  metrical  origin,  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  Dante  would  have  thus  consigned  to  a  humble 
corner  of  his  treatise 

II  poema  sacro 
Al  quale  ha  posto  mano  e  cielo  e  terra. 

Rather  must  we  suppose  that,  as  he  advanced  with  the 
Divina  Commedia,  Dante's  views  on  vernacular  poetry 
had  undergone  modification.  As  far  as  we  know,  he 
wrote  no  canzoni  in  later  life ;  the  tragica  conjugatio 
was  no  longer  his  ideal  of  poetry.  All  kinds  of  speech 
find  their  place  in  the  poem,  which  is  at  times  epical 
in  intonation,  at  others  moving  with  the  freedom  of 
familiar  conversation,  at  others  rising  on  exquisite 
flights  of  lyrical  interbreathing.  "  Armorum  pro- 
bitas,"  "  amoris  accensio,"  "  directio  voluntatis,"  all 
receive  due  utterance,  and  the  Divina  Commedia  ^^ 
prepared  the  way  for  that  unity  of  Italian  literature  * 
in  the  illustrious  vernacular  that  Dante  had  already 
sought,    not   quite   successfully,   in   the   De    Vulgari 

^  Delle  rime  volgari  trattato  di  Antonio  da  Tempo,  ed.  G.  Grion, 
p.  147. 


104  DANTE 


Eloquentia,  as  a  worthy  medium  for  the  expression  of 
the  national  idea. 

It  is  obvious  that  characterisation,  when  based  upon 
literary  sources,  may  be  essentially  an  exercise  of 
literary  criticism.  There  is  a  chapter  in  the  De 
Monarchia,  reconstructing  the  character  of  St.  Peter 
— with  his  "  puritas  et  simplicitas  naturalis  " — out 
of  the  Gospels,^  which  anticipates  such  creation  of 
character  in  the  Divina  Commedia.  The  presentation 
of  Virgil  himself  is  an  example.  Discarding  the 
medieval  legends  of  Virgil  the  magician,  Dante  gave 
the  world  a  figure  of  his  master  and  predecessor, 
"  I'altissimo  poeta,"  derived — at  least  in  its  main 
features — from  the  long  and  loving  study  of  the  jEneid 
and  the  fourth  Eclogue.  The  delineation  of  Cato — 
when  the  allegorising  tendencies  of  the  Convivio  have 
been  left  behind — is  surely  a  critical  appreciation  of 
the  noblest  aspect  of  the  Pharsalia.  The  somewhat 
enigmatical  figure  of  Sordello,  and  the  part  he  plays 
in  the  Purgatorio,  is  nothing  but  an  imaginative 
reconstruction  of  the  troubadour's  personality  from 
his  own  great  poem  on  the  death  of  Blacatz.  It  would 
not  be  hard  to  show  that  the  function  and  character 
of  certain  of  the  blessed  in  the  Paradiso — notably 
Thomas  Aquinas,  Peter  Damian,  and  St.  Bernard — 
are  so  based  upon  their  own  writings  as  to  furnish 
an  interpretation  and  illumined  criticism.  We  turn 
from  the  Paradiso  to  their  works  upon  our  shelves  as 
to  the  books  of  a  personal  friend  of  our  own. 
^  De  Monarchia  iii.  9. 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  THE  ITALY 
OF   VIRGIL 

J.  W.  Mackail. 


.^^ 


THE   ITALY  OF   DANTE   AND   THE   ITALY 
OF  VIRGIL 

It  is  matter  of  common  consent  that  Dante  is,  not 
only  the  greatest  of  the  poets  produced  by  Italy  since 
the  age  of  Virgil,  but  also  a  national  Italian  poet  in 
the  fullest  and  most  vital  sense.  From  the  begin- 
nings of  the  Risorgimento  until  now,  he  has  been 
accepted  and  proclaimed  as  the  poet  and  prophet  of 
Italy.  Writers  and  thinkers  of  all  types,  ranging  from 
Leopardi  to  Mazzini,  were  at  one  in  so  regarding  him. 
To  this  view,  when  once  it  had  been  firmly  established 
and  had  spread  through  the  common  consciousness  of 
the  civilised  world,  is  very  largely  due  the  extraordinary 
growth,  both  in  extent  and  in  depth,  of  the  study  of 
Dante  during  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years.  There 
were  many  contributory  reasons  for  it :  the  general 
widening  of  the  intellectual  horizon ;  the  development 
of  the  historical  method  as  a  new  calculus  for  searching 
and  interpreting  the  past ;  the  revival  of  interest  in 
the  medieval  Empire  and  in  the  institutions  or  ideals 
of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and,  it  may  be  added,  a  better 
appreciation  both  of  poetry  as  an  art  and  of  art  as 
not  merely  an  expression,  but  a  function  of  life.  But 
among  all  these  and  other  reasons  stands  prominent 
this :  that  Dante  was  one,  and  one  of  the  most  impor- 


io8  DANTE 


^y 


tant,  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  which 
went  to  create  Italian  unity  and  nationality,  and  to 
show  the  path  for  the  mission  of  Italy  as  well  as  for  her 
effective  existence. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  paper  is  not  to  analyse 
this  claim.  It  is  rather  to  attempt  some  closer  defini- 
tion of  it,  and  to  mention  some  lines  of  thought  which 
it  suggests.  To  weigh  it  more  fully  would  be  a  task 
at  once  intricate  and  immense.  It  will  be  sufficient 
for  the  moment  to  indicate,  without  pursuing  them 
into  detail,  some  of  these  lines  of  thought  and  their 
interconnexion,  and,  more  particularly,  to  observe,  as 
has  perhaps  not  hitherto  been  clearly  enough  done, 
the  analogies  in  this  respect  between  Dante  and 
Dante's  master.  The  more  we  study  these,  the  more 
fertile  they  will  appear  in  suggestion,  the  more  potent 
in  illumination,  not  as  regards  the  two  poets  and  their 
work  only ;  for  they  bear  directly  on  the  question, 
no  mere  abstract  one,  how  far  Italian  nationality  and 
Italian  unity  are  a  new  creation,  and  how  far  the 
recapture  of  an  ancient  ideal,  or  even  the  renewal  of 
an  ancient  achievement. 

Questions  which  at  once  occur  in  our  reading  of 
Dante  are,  among  others,  these.  First,  what  precise 
meaning  is  to  be  attached  to  the  term  Italy  as  he 
uses  it  ?  Secondly,  in  what  sense  was  Dante,  or  in 
what  sense  did  he  feel  himself  to  be,  an  Italian,  as 
distinct  from  a  Florentine  on  the  one  hand  and  an 
Imperialist  on  the  other  ?  Thirdly,  what  influence 
was   exercised  on  him  by   his   conception   of   Italy, 


THE   ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL     109 

and  what  influence  did  he  in  turn  exercise  on  that 
conception  in  other  minds,  in  his  own  time  and 
afterwards  ? 

All  these  questions  may  be  asked  about  Virgil 
likewise  ;  and  in  exactly  the  same  terms,  if  "  Mantuan  " 
be  substituted  for  "  Florentine."  With  regard  to  all 
three,  the  parallel  between  Dante  and  Virgil  is  striking 
and  highly  significant,  quite  apart  from  the  further 
and  equally  interesting  study  of  the  direct  influence 
of  Virgil  on  Dante  in  the  whole  matter.  In  so  large 
a  subject,  all  that  can  be  done  here  is  to  sketch  its 
outlines  and  indicate  some  of  the  primary  conclusions 
to  be  drawn  from  the  inquiry.  Further  study  would 
lead  on  to  the  still  larger  question  of  the  relation  of 
poetry  to  history.  That  has  two  sides.  It  involves 
the  extent  to  which  political  and  civic  institutions  or 
ideals  mould  poetry,  and  the  extent  to  which,  con- 
versely, the  poets  mould  them.  And  yet  more ;  it 
leads  on  to  a  still  higher  claim — perhaps  the  highest — 
which  can  be  made  for  poetry ;  namely,  that  poetry  is 
the  ultimate  expression  of  history,  as  of  philosophy. 

Geographically,  Italy  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
instances  of  a  country  with  definite  natural  boundaries. 
It  is,  in  the  classic  phrase  of  Petrarch, 

il  bel  paese 
Ch'  Apennin  parte  e  '1  mar  circonda  e  V  Alpe. 

It  lies,  with  but  one  gap,  within  a  ring-fence  of  sea 
and  mountain-wall.  That  gap  is  the  open  gateway 
on  the  north-eastern  frontier,   through  which  from 


no  DANTE 


time  immemorial  the  peninsula  has  again  and  again 
been  invaded  and  re-populated,  and  in  whose  fortunes 
lies  the  main  key  to  Italian  history.  On  its  importance, 
both  in  Virgil's  time  and  in  Dante's,  as  long  before 
Virgil  and  down  to  the  present  day,  something  more 
will  have  to  be  said.  Otherwise  the  Italian  peninsula 
is  to  the  geographer  a  single  country,  clean-cut  and 
well  defined.  Sicily  and  Sardinia  are  separate 
countries,  connected  with  or  disconnected  from  it 
politically  by  changes  of  events.  The  Alpine  frontier 
on  north  and  north-west  has  varied  from  time  to  time, 
but  the  precise  line  followed  by  it  at  one  time  or 
another  has  been  chiefly  a  matter  of  the  occupation 
of  strategic  points ;  otherwise  the  changes  in  it  have 
been  neither  extensive  nor  important. 

But  seldom,  if  indeed  ever,  has  this  single  geogra- 
phical entity  been  fully  either  a  single  nation  or  a  single 
state  until  the  unification  of  the  nineteenth  century ; 
and  that  unification,  though  now  politically  secured, 
is  still  nationally  far  from  complete.  Italy,  through- 
out history,  has  been  the  seat  of  kingdoms,  republics, 
principalities,  confederacies,  which  were  all  local  and 
partial,  and  generally  in  acute  conflict,  racial  and 
cultural,  as  well  as  political,  among  one  another.  And 
when  it  approached  unity  most  nearly,  it  was  not  as 
a  self-developed  and  independent  state,  but  as  a 
portion  or  province  of  a  larger  empire. 

At  the  dawn  of  systematically  recorded  history — 
behind  which  it  is  needless  to  go  for  the  present 
purpose — Italy  was   occupied    by  four    main   groups 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    in 

among  many  others   of  smaller  importance.     These 
were  : — 

(i)  The  Celtic  tribes  of  the  north  and  north-west. 
They  never  coalesced  into  either  a  state  or  a  nation. 

(2)  The  Etruscan  League,  a  powerful  and  well- 
organised  confederacy,  stretching  slantwise  across  the 
peninsula  from  the  north-eastern  frontier  down  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Tiber,  and  at  its  greatest  extension 
some  way  further.  Its  dominions  covered  the  whole 
of  the  territory,  and  rather  more,  which  was  under 
the  rule  of  the  great  Countess  Matilda  in  the  twelfth 
century. 

(3)  The  Central-Italian  populations.  They  were  all 
seemingly  of  kindred  blood,  but  were  divided  by 
language  and  tradition  into  the  three  groups  of 
Oscans,  Sabellians,  and  Umbro-Latins.  It  was  among 
them  that  municipal  organisation  and  conscious  citizen- 
ship began.  They  had  some  sense  of  kinship,  though 
not  enough  to  keep  them  from  perpetual  warfare 
among  one  another;  and  they  had  a  tendency  to 
combine  into  leagues  of  smaller  groups.  The  most 
important  among  these  was  the  Latin  league,  within 
or  rather  on  the  edge  of  which  grew  up  the  unique 
city-state  of  Rome.  But  Rome  was  a  city,  not  a 
nation.  For  the  Latins  themselves,  no  less  than  for 
the  successive  circles  of  tribes  or  peoples  beyond  them, 
Rome  was  the  stone  cut  out  without  hands  which 
smote  them  to  pieces,  and  became  a  great  mountain 
and  filled  the  whole  earth. 

(4)  The  Greek  colonies  in  the  south.     The  string 


112  DANTE 


of  Greek  towns  with  their  territories  was  so  nearly 
Continuous  all  round  the  coast  from  Cumae  to  Bari 
that  it  received  a  common  name,  Magna  Graecia,  the 
Greater  Greece  beyond  the  seas.  The  native  popula- 
tion along  this  strip  of  coast  was  more  or  less  Hellenised  ; 
but  Greek  control  nowhere  reached  far  inland,  and 
Greek  influence  not  much  further. 

Among  all  these  populations  there  was  no  trace 
and  no  sense  of  unity.  The  name  of  Italy  (itself  of 
uncertain  origin)  was  for  long  used  loosely  and  with  a 
fluctuating  sense.  Records  of  the  growth  both  of  the 
name  and  of  the  thing  it  meant  are  almost  wholly 
Roman.  Beyond  the  Greek  colonies  on  the  southern 
coasts,  the  peninsula  lay  outside  of  the  Greek  world 
and  of  any  special  Greek  interest.  We  do  not  know 
when  the  Romans  began  to  use  the  word  Italia,  or 
what  extent  of  country  the  name  covered  in  its  earliest 
use.  At  the  time  of  the  Pyrrhic  wars  it  appears  to 
have  applied,  though  still  very  loosely,  to  the  whole 
peninsula  exclusive  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  and  Liguria ;  it 
covered,  that  is  to  say,  pretty  nearly  the  "  leg  "  of 
Italy,  south  of  the  transverse  section  of  the  Apennine 
range.  Its  first  definite  extension  to  the  full  geo- 
graphical sense,  the  country  "  which  the  sea  and  the 
Alps  surround,"  is  found  in  Polybius.  At  the  time 
of  the  Second  Punic  War,  "  the  Romans,"  he  says,  "  had 
subdued  all  Italy  except  the  land  of  the  Gauls "  ;  and 
Hannibal,  when  he  crossed  the  Alps,  descended  the 
valley  of  the  Dora  "  into  Italy."  For  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  more,  usage  continued  to  fluctuate,  often 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    113 

perplexingly,    between    the    larger    and    the    more 
restricted  meaning. 

But  in  whichever  sense  the  term  "  Italy "  were 
taken,  Rome  did  not  either  then,  or  for  long  afterwards, 
identify  herself  with  Italy,  or  seek  to  merge  the  Roman 
in  an  Italian  state.  The  Roman  primacy  was  that  of 
a  conqueror.  Italy  remained  a  complex  aggregation 
of  tribes,  communities  and  municipalities,  under 
Roman  control,  with  a  status  ranging  from  that  of 
full  allies  to  that  of  mere  subjects.  It  was  dotted 
over  at  strategic  points  with  Roman  colonies  sharing 
the  full  citizenship.  The  defeat  of  Pyrrhus,  as  stated 
by  historians,  "  put  an  end  to  the  last  war  which 
the  Italians  had  waged  for  their  independence "  ;  ^ 
but  the  independence  sought  was  in  no  sense  the 
independence  of  a  united  Italy,  of  a  nation  or  a 
commonwealth. 

As  Roman  control  became  more  oppressive,  and 
her  Italian  allies  were  treated  more  as  subjects,  a 
common  desire  to  shake  off  this  yoke  led  to  a  feeling 
towards  joint  Italian  nationality.  Concurrently,  a 
movement  arose  at  Rome  for  the  incorporation  of  Italy 
in  the  Roman  republic.  Legislation  in  this  sense 
was  repeatedly  brought  forward.  The  question 
remained  a  burning  one  for  a  full  generation.  The 
assassination  of  Livius  Drusus,  in  91  b.c,  before  he 
had  brought  in  his  proposed  law  extending  Roman 
citizenship  to  all  the  allies,  was  followed  at  once  by 

^  The  words  are  those  of  Mommsen,  Roman  History^  Book  IV. 
ch.  vii. 


114 


DANTE 


that  general  Italian  revolt  known  as  the  Social  War. 
An  Italian  Government,  the  first  in  history,  v^as  set 
up.  Samnite  and  Latin  were  adopted  as  the  joint 
official  languages  of  the  new  state.  Italian  coinage 
was  issued ;  and  the  town  of  Italica  (afterwards  known 
as  Corfinium)  was  founded  in  the  centre  of  the 
peninsula  as  the  new  capital.  It  was  the  first  of  the 
disastrous  attempts  made  in  the  course  of  history  to 
create  a  unified  Italy  from  which  Rome  was  excluded. 

Rome  conquered  in  the  field ;  but  as  the  result  of 
the  war  Roman  citizenship  was,  two  years  later, 
extended  over  Italy  including  Cispadane  Gaul.  The 
status  of  the  north,  however,  remained  anomalous 
and  confused.  In  the  eye  of  the  law  all  the  territory 
beyond  the  Rubico  was  still  a  province.  The  admission 
of  the  Transpadanes  to  citizenship  was  proposed  in 
65  B.C.,  but  not  effected  until  49  b.c.  Cisalpina  only 
ceased  to  be  technically  a  province  in  42  b.c,  the  year 
of  Philippi.  A  unified  Italy  then  at  last  existed; 
and  the  Latin  language,  though  still  subject  to  local 
variations  of  dialect,  soon  became  the  common  speech 
of  the  whole  peninsula. 

Virgil  was  born  in  70  b.c,  midway  in  the  process 
of  fusion.  He  combined  in  himself,  in  a  very  singular 
and  significant  way,  all  the  strains  which  have  been 
noted  as  the  main  elements  in  the  complex  fabric  of 
an  earlier  period.  He  was  a  native  of  the  Cisalpina. 
Mantua  had  been  an  important  Etruscan  city,  and 
there  is  much  reason  to  believe  that  Virgil  himself 
was,  on  one  side  at  least,  of  Etruscan  blood.     On  more 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    115 

doubtful  evidence,  drawn  partly  from  his  name  and 
partly  from  the  temper  and  romantic  quality  of  his 
genius,  he  has  been  claimed,  and  very  widely  accepted, 
as  Celtic  by  parentage.  He  was  either  born,  or  became 
very  early  in  life,  a  Roman  citizen.  In  his  youth 
he  absorbed  Greek  culture,  and  in  later  years  lived  at 
Tarentum,  and  finally  settled  at  Naples,  both  originally 
Greek  towns  of  the  south. 

The  dominant  ideal  in  his  poetry,  the  keynote  both 
of  the  Georgics  and,  more  definitely,  of  the  ^neid^  is 
the  reconciliation  and  coalescence  of  Rome  and  Italy. 
In  the  Georgics  he  is  perhaps  more  an  Italian  than  a 
Roman.  The  laudes  Italice,  the  matchless  panegyric 
at  the  end  of  the  Second  Book,  became  a  sort  of  sub- 
title for  the  whole  poem.  Yet  it  is  interesting  to  note 
that  the  word  Romanus  occurs  in  the  Georgics  much 
oftener  than  Italus,  In  the  Mneid  their  frequency 
is  almost  the  same.  Of  set  purpose,  they  are  used  as 
far  as  may  be  interchangeably.  The  synthesis,  as  a 
doctrine,  a  faith,  and  a  prophecy,  has  become  com- 
plete. It  is  the  running  motive  of  the  Mneid  through- 
out, emphasised  over  and  over  again  in  a  hundred 
passages.  The  most  striking  in  their  setting  are  two 
at  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  poem.  In  the 
prologue  Virgil  gives  his  whole  argument  in  the 
seven  majestic  lines  which  begin  on  the  word  Italiam 
and  end  on  the  word  Romce,  At  the  conclusion  he 
concentrates  it  into  a  single  line  in  the  scene  of  the 
reconciliation  of  the  Gods,  at  once  a  prayer,  a  decree, 
and  a  benediction  :    Sit  Romana  potens  Itala  virtute 


ii6  DANTE 


propago.  And  midway  between  these  he  crystallises 
it  into  two  words,  Romula  tellus,  almost  the  last  which 
come  (vi.  876)  from  the  glorified  spirit  of  Anchises. 
It  was  this,  even  more  than  his  quality  as  an  artist, 
which  secured  for  Virgil  his  unique  place  among  the 
poets  of  the  whole  world  through  age  after  age.  He 
may  be  called,  in  a  very  real  sense,  the  creator  for  all 
time  of  Italian  Rome  and  Roman  Italy. 

The  unified  Italy  of  Augustus  and  Virgil  had 
reached  its  definite  natural  boundaries  except  at  the 
open  gates  of  the  north-eastern  frontier.  From  the 
prologue  to  the  third  Georgic  may  be  inferred,  in 
the  difficult  years  between  36  and  31  b.c,  a  contem- 
plated retirement  and  consolidation  of  that  frontier 
upon,  or  but  little  in  advance  of,  the  short  and  easily 
defensible  line  of  the  Mincio.  Something  similar  had 
to  be  contemplated,  as  possibly  inevitable,  by  the 
Italian  Chief  Command  in  the  autumn  of  191 7,  after 
the  disaster  of  Caporetto.  But  the  situation  was 
changed  some  years  later  by  the  successful  offensive 
campaigns  of  Tiberius  and  Drusus.  The  frontier, 
instead  of  being  drawn  back,  was  pushed  well  forward 
into  the  Tyrol  and  Istria,  up  beyond  Trent  on  the 
left,  down  beyond  Trieste  on  the  right.  The  Region 
of  Venetia,  numbered  X  in  the  Augustan  organisation, 
included  pretty  nearly  the  whole  of  what  until  recently 
was  known  as  Italia  Irredenta.  On  west  and  south 
the  Adige  was  the  boundary  between  it  and  Region 
XI,  Gallia  Transpadana.  Its  northern  limit  was 
advanced   from    the    foothills    of   the  Venetian  Alps 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    117 

up  to  the  watershed  of  the  mountain  chain,  running 
roughly  east  and  west,  on  the  southern  slopes  of  which 
are  the  sources  of  the  Bacchiglione,  Piave,  and  Tag- 
liamento.  From  the  further  end  of  that  line,  in  the 
mountains  above  the  sources  of  the  Isonzo,  the  frontier 
turned  at  a  right  angle  and  ran  almost  due  south. 
It  followed,  at  least  approximately,  the  watershed 
between  the  basins  of  the  Isonzo  and  the  upper  Save ; 
it  crossed  the  plateau  of  the  Carso  near  its  south- 
eastern end ;  and  it  apparently  reached  the  sea  at  the 
mouth  of  the  little  river  Arsa,  on  the  further  side  of 
the  Istrian  peninsula,  just  outside  the  mouth  of  the 
Quernero  channel.  It  thus  followed  almost  exactly 
the  line  traced  by  the  Treaty  of  London  in  191 5.  In 
later  years  the  upper  half  of  this  north-to-south  line 
was  again  thrown  forward  in  a  deep  salient,  comprising 
the  upper  valley  of  the  Save  and  its  tributary  streams, 
and  extending  at  its  apex  a  good  way  east  of  Laibach. 
Beyond  this  frontier  were  the  provinces  of  Noricum 
to  the  north  and  Pannonia  to  the  south  of  the  Save. 
The  covering  legions  were  quartered  far  forward  in 
these  provinces,  along  the  line  of  the  Drave.  Italy. 
was  unified  and  complete ;  and  except  for  trifling 
modifications,  the  Augustan  limits  remained  good  for 
more  than  three  hundred  years. 

But  that  unified  Italy,  impressive  and  majestic  as 
it  was,  could  hardly  be  called  either  a  state  or  a 
nationality.  It  was  the  central  core  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  which  itself  was  the  state,  and  in  which  dis- 
tinctions of  nationality  tended  to  become  obliterated. 


ii8  DANTE 


Fecisti  patriam  diversis  gentibus  unam,  says  the  last 
classical  panegyrist  of  the  Imperial  achievement. 
Italy  continued  to  have  an  administrative  and  a 
fiscal  system  differing  from  those  of  the  provinces, 
but  the  distinction  grew  less  and  less.  Its  practical 
disappearance  is  registered,  as  an  accepted  fact  which 
had  to  be  regularised,  by  the  historic  Edict  of  Cara- 
calla  in  212  a.d.  The  Latin  language  and  culture  had 
before  then  spread  over  the  entire  West.  Gaul, 
Spain,  Africa  ranked  side  by  side  with  Italy ;  and  while 
Rome  was  still  the  caput  orbis^  the  centre  of  the 
system  and  the  seat  of  the  central  government,  Italy 
was  otherwise  little  more  than  one  of  the  provinces. 

Under  Constantine's  reorganisation  of  the  Empire 
Italy  becomes  once  more,  as  it  was  to  be  again  in  later 
ages,  a  geographical  expression.  Unity  is  lost.  For 
other  purposes  than  those  of  the  geographer,  the 
word  Italy  is  used  in  three  wholly  different  senses. 
The  Prefecture  of  Italy  included,  besides  the  Italian 
peninsula,  Rhaetia  {i,e.  Switzerland,  and  Bavaria  up  to 
the  line  of  the  Danube),  Sicily,  Corsica,  and  Sardinia, 
and  the  portion  of  Northern  Africa  now  covered  by 
Algeria,  Tunisia,  and  Tripolitana.  The  Diocese  of 
Italy  was  the  Italian  peninsula ;  but  it  was  little  more 
than  an  administrative  coupling-up  of  two  Vicariates, 
corresponding  in  substance  to  the  old  Italy  of  the 
later  Republic  and  to  Cisalpine  Gaul ;  and  now  it  is 
the  latter,  not  the  former,  that  bears  the  specific 
name  of  Italy.  North  and  South  have  fallen  asunder 
again ;  and  the  capital  is  no  longer  Rome,  but  Milan. 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    119 

The  visit  of  Constantius  to  Rome  in  357,  so  vividly 
described  hy  Ammianus,  is  a  transitory  apparition, 
like  that  of  some  Saxon  or  Swabian  Emperor  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  We  are  passing  from  the  ancient  to 
the  medieval  and  modern  world.  The  Vicariate  of 
Italy  comprised  the  sub-provinces  of  Emilia,  Flaminia, 
Liguria,  Venetia,  Istria,  and  the  Cottian  and  Rhaetian 
Alps.  The  remainder  of  the  peninsula,  south  of  it, 
constituted  the  Vicariate  of  Rome.  The  Virgilian 
unity  of  Italy,  like  the  Virgilian  ideal  of  the  identifi- 
cation or  consubstantiation  of  Italy  with  Rome,  had 
failed  to  accomplish  itself. 

To  trace,  even  in  brief  summary,  the  course  of 
Italian  history  between  the  fourth  and  the  thirteenth 
centuries  would  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of  this 
paper.  But  a  few  salient  points  may  be  noted,  as 
landmarks  in  the  wide  tract  which  lies  between  the 
Italy  of  Virgil  and  the  Italy  of  Dante. 

The  deposition  of  Romulus  Augustulus  by  Odovakar 
in  476  registers,  as  it  were,  the  disappearance  of  the 
old  Virgilian  and  Augustan  world,  while  it  emphasises 
the  complete  severance  of  Italy  and  Rome.  Odovakar 
took  the  title,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  of  King  of 
Italy.  But  his  kingdom  was  practically  the  Con- 
stantinian  Vicariate,  and  the  seat  of  government  was 
Pavia.  At  the  same  time,  the  Senate  and  People  of 
Rome  formally  renounced  their  traditional  world- 
sovereignty;  and  while  they  nominally  accepted  the 
position  of  a  diocese  of  the  Byzantine  Empire,  left 
the  way  clear  for  the  growth  of  the  Temporal  Power. 


120  DANTE 


The  Gothic  kingdom  founded  by  Theodoric 
seventeen  years  later  was  larger  and  more  of  a  reality. 
With  better  fortune  it  might  gradually  have  taken 
effective  possession  of  the  peninsula  and  developed 
in  it  a  nascent  sense  of  common  Italian  nationality. 
But  the  fates  were  adverse ;  when  it  was  smashed  to 
pieces  by  the  military  genius  of  Narses,  Italy  fell  again 
into  a  bundle  of  fragments,  under  the  general  control 
of  the  exarchs  of  Ravenna.  A  few  years  later  came 
the  Lombard  invasion  and  the  foundation  of  a 
Lombard  kingdom,  also  with  its  capital  at  Pavia,  which 
lasted  for  two  centuries.  At  its  greatest  extent  it 
covered  the  bulk  of  the  peninsula,  exclusive  of  Genoa 
and  Venice  in  the  north,  Rome  and  the  Patrimony  of 
Peter  in  the  centre,  and  the  coast  towns  of  the  South 
with  their  territories.  But  it  was  essentially,  like  its 
Gothic  predecessor,  a  North-Italian  kingdom ;  the 
duchies  of  Spoleto  and  Benevento  being  only  in  loose 
feudal  adherence  to  it,  and  the  divorce  of  Rome  from 
Italy  which  has  lasted  until  modern  times  having 
taken  full  effect. 

The  resettlement  of  Italy  by  Charlemagne  is  obscure. 
But  under  the  provisions  of  the  Peace  of  Verdun  in 
843,  the  kingdom  of  Italy  stretched,  nominally  at 
least,  from  the  Alps  to  Terracina.  The  kings  of  Italy 
had  little  or  no  control  over  their  feudatories ;  and 
later  in  that  century  the  Eastern  Empire  re-estab- 
lished itself  in  the  south,  with  Bari  as  the  Greek 
capital.  The  last  futile  attempt  towards  the  creation 
of  an  independent  and  unitary  Italy  was  made  by 


THE   ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    121 

Berenger,  Marquis  of  Ivrea,  about  the  middle  of  the 
tenth  century.  But  the  hour  of  Piedmont  had  not 
yet  come.  Berenger  ceded  his  kingdom  to  Otto  the 
Great,  who  assumed  the  Iron  Crown  at  Milan  the 
year  before  he  was  crowned  as  Emperor.  The 
kingdom  of  Italy  as  a  substantive  thing  then  ceased  to 
exist  for  just  nine  hundred  years. 

During  the  three  centuries  from  this  point  to  the 
birth  of  Dante,  the  most  important  points  to  be  noted 
as  bearing  on  the  Italian  problem  are  perhaps  these  : — 

(i)  The  development  within  the  peninsula  of  five 
prominent  powers  which  were  in  some  .sense  states. 
These  were  the  republics  of  Milan,  Florence,  and 
Venice,  the  Patrimony  of  Peter,  and  the  kingdom  of 
Naples. 

(2)  The  re-emergence  of  the  Italian  municipal 
instinct  which  had  been  developed  and  fostered  by 
the  policy  and  genius  of  Rome.  It  was  accompanied 
by  the  growth  of  civic  life  and  institutions  and  by 
the  expansion  of  commerce.  With  these  there 
gradually  arose  the  consciousness  of  an  Italian  race, 
though  not  of  an  Italian  nation. 

(3)  A  further  separation  between  north  and  south 
brought  about  by  the  Norman  conquests  in  lower 
Italy.  These  began  early  in  the  eleventh  century; 
but  the  Norman  dukes  did  not  assume  the  title  of 
king  until  11 30,  and  then  called  themselves  kings  of 
Sicily.  This  became  later  the  joint  kingdom  of  Sicily 
and  Apulia. 

(4)  A  series  of  transitory  republics  at  Rome,  which 


122  DANTE 


served  to  keep  alive  some  memory  of  the  great  Roman 
past. 

(5)  The  irreconcilable  hostility  between  the  Papacy 
and  the  Empire,  from  the  time  of  Hildebrand  (1073- 
1085)  onwards. 

Between  these  two  last  great  forces  the  heap  of 
fragments  into  which  Italy  had  fallen  were  used  as 
gambling  counters.  Each  of  them  passed  from  one 
side  to  the  other  according  to  the  momentary  prepon- 
derance of  Guelfs  or  Ghibellines.  LAny  latent  sense  of 
nationality  was  swallowed  up  by  the  forces  of  municipal 
autonomy,  which  never  re-combined  except  in  shift- 
ing and  short-lived  confederacie§Ji  After  the  battle 
of  Legnano,  in  11 76,  historians  note  that  the  name 
Italy  is  not  once  used  in  the  terms  of  pacification. 
But  the  idea  of  an  independent  Italy  still  lurked  in 
the  background.  When  Charles  of  Anjou  was  called 
in  to  crush  Manfred,  he  received,  in  1265,  investiture 
in  the  indivisible  regno — the  kingdom  of  Italy — on 
condition  that  it  should  not  be  held  together  with  the 
Empire.  But  from  that  so-called  indivisible  kingdom, 
Rome,  with  the  Patrimony  of  St.  Peter  and  the  duchy 
of  Benevento,  was  reserved ;  and  he  was  to  hold  the 
kingdom  thus  mutilated  as  a  fief  of  the  Church. 

In  the  course  of  these  three  centuries,  with  the 
growth  of  inter-civic  and  foreign  commerce,  came 
wealth.  With  wealth  and  the  extension  of  relations 
to  other  countries  and  races  came  culture.  Culture 
could  not  be  confined  within  municipal  or  provincial 
limits.     The  sense  of  common  nationality  grew  up 


THE   ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    123 

concurrently  with  the  spread  of  a  highly  internation- 
alised civilisation.  At  the  court  of  Frederick  II 
"  Italian  came  into  being  as  a  language."  Dante 
wrote  in  Tuscan ;  but  the  Tuscan  in  which  he  wrote 
was  also  Italian.  He  created  Italian  literature ;  and 
the  immense  power  of  words  over  human  affairs  is 
nowhere  shown  more  remarkably  than  in  the  influence 
exercised  on  later  history  by  that  great  achievement. 
In  the  De  Vulgar i  Eloquentia  there  is  an  extremely 
interesting  passage  illustrative  of  the  interrelation 
between  a  common  language  and  a  common  organised 
state.  In  the  Italy  of  his  own  time,  he  says,  there 
are  fourteen  distinct  regional  dialects,  while  the  local 
sub-dialects  run  to  not  less  than  a  thousand.  The 
object  of  his  inquiry  is  the  discovery  and  definition 
of  an  established  and  regulated  Italian  language,  the 
vulgare  illustre,  as  he  calls  it.  One  of  the  notes  of 
such  a  language  is  that  it  should  be  curiale^  the 
accepted  language  of  a  court.  But  here  he  anticipates 
an  objection ;  is  it  not  idle — videtur  nugatio — to  speak 
of  a  curial  Italian,  cum  curia  careamus^  when  there  is 
no  such  thing  as  an  Italian  court  ?  And  his  answer 
to  this  objection  is  very  striking  :  licet  curia  in  Italia 
non  sit^  membra  tamen  eius  non  desunt :  curiam 
habemus,  licet  corporaliter  sit  dispersa  :  though  there  is 
no  Italian  court,  there  are  the  elements  of  one.  These 
are  "  corporeally  severed  " ;  but  in  the  mass  of  frag- 
ments there  is  the  material  for,  the  potentiality  of, 
the  movement  towards,  an  Italian  court  as  the 
functional  organ  of  an  Italian  state  or  nation. 


124  DANTE 


We  may  now  turn  to  Dante's  writings,  and  attempt 
'  to  examine  in  them  both  how  he  defines  or  describes 
Italy  geographically,  and  also  in  what  terms  he  speaks 
of  it  either  as  an  organised  community  or  as  a  nation ; 
how  it  sorts  itself  in  the  ascending  series  {De  Mon- 
archia  i.  3)  of  vicinia,  civitas,  regnum,  genus  humanum, 
or  in  the  collateral  organism  (ibid.  14)  of  nationes,  regna 
et  civitates, 

Italia,  Europce  regio  nobilissima,  as  he  calls  it  else- 
where with  national  pride,^  extends  "  a  lanuensium. 
Jinibus  usque  ad  promontorium  illud  qua  sinus  Adriatici 
maris  incipit  et  Siciliam  "  (De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  i.  8). 
The  area  so  defined  is  there  named  as  that  over  which 
"  St  affirmando  loquuntur.^^  It  is  based,  that  is  to 
say,  on  the  ground  of  a  common  language  rather  than 
of  a  common  race  or  citizenship.  Thus  likewise,  in  a 
corresponding  passage  in  the  Inferno  (xxxiii.  79),  its 
inhabitants  are  referred  to  as  le  genti,  not  la  gente, 

Del  bel  paese  la  dove  il  si  suona. 

From  east  to  west  it  extends  tra  due  liti  (Paradiso  xxi. 
106).  Lo  dosso  d"* Italia  (Purgatorio  xxx.  86)  is  the 
backbone  of  the  Apennines,  running  right  from  end 
to  end  of  it.  The  I anuensium  fines  are  practically 
the  same  as  the  Augustan  boundary  between  Italy  and 
Gallia  Narbonensis,  which  was  fixed  at  the  river  Var. 
From  that  point  its  northern  frontier  is  approximately 
defined  in  the  lines  (Inferno  xx.  61-3), 

I  De  Monarfhia  ii.  3. 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    125 

Suso  in  Italia  bella  giace  un  laco 
Appie  deir  Alpe,  che  serra  Lamagna 
Sopra  Tiralli,  ch'  ha  nome  Benaco  ; 

it  includes,  that  is,  the  whole  of  the  Lago  di  Garda, 
and  marches  with  "  Germany  "  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  term  includes  Teutonic-speaking  Switzerland.  Its 
north-eastern  limit  is  precisely  assigned  in  another 
passage  of  the  Inferno  (ix.  113): — 

a  Pola  presso  del  Quarnaro 
Che  Italia  chiude  e  suoi  termini  bagna. 

The  channel  of  Quarnero  divides  Istria  from  the 
island  of  Cherso.  Outside  of  it,  at  the  tip  of  the 
promontory  of  the  Istrian  peninsula,  is  Pola.  Thus 
Pola  is  placed  definitely  in  Italy.  But  if  Dante's 
words  are  pressed  closely,  his  frontier  does  not  reach 
up  to  the  head  of  the  Istrian  Gulf  beyond  the  Quarnero 
channel,  and  a  fortiori  does  not  include  Fiume,  which 
is  further  on  round  the  corner  of  the  Gulf.  North- 
west of  this,  and  in  the  debateable  land,  Dante's  Italy 
includes  the  sources  of  the  Brenta  and  Piave  (Paradiso 
ix.  27) ;  in  other  words,  it  reaches  up  to  the  watershed 
of  the  Carnic  Alps.  The  much-debated  meaning  of 
the  umile  Italia  of  Inferno  i.  106,  does  not  affect  the 
question  of  geographical  boundaries. 

Virgil  had,  with  a  conscious  and  definite  purpose,^ 
made  the  words  Roman  and  Italian  as  nearly  as  might 
be  interchangeable  and  equivalent.  Dante  uses  the 
words  Latin  and  Italian  indiscriminately;  they 
coalesce  with  him  into  a  single  meaning  less  as  a 
matter  of  deliberate  doctrine  than  at  the  prompting 


126  DANTE 


of  a  mixed  poetical  and  historical  instinct.  Sordello 
calls  Virgil  (Purgatorio  vii.  i6)  gloria  de^  Latin.  The 
terra  Latina  of  Inferno  xxviii.  71,  quella  dolce  terra 
Latina  in  line  26  of  the  previous  canto,  is  not  Latium, 
but  Italy.  The  Sienese  Omberto  says  {Purgatorio  xi. 
58),  io  fui  Latino.     When  Virgil  asks  {Inferno  xxix.  88 

foil.) 

Dinne  s'  alcun  Latino  e  tra  costoro 
Che  son  quinc'  entro, 

Grifolino  of  Arezzo  answers  for  himself  and  Capocchio 
of  Siena,  Latin  sem  noi  amhedue.  So  also  to  the 
question  {Inferno  xxii.  65) 

Conosci  tu  alcun  che  sia  Latino 
Sotto  la  pece  ? 

the  reply  given  {ibid.  1.  97)  is 

Se  voi  volete  vedere  o  udire.   .  .  . 
Toschi  o  Lombardi,  io  ne  far6  venire. 

The  identification  is  even  more  pointedly  made  by 
the  wording  of  the  question  {Purgatorio  xiii.  92), 
Ditemi  .  .  .  s^anima  e  qui  tra  voi  che  sia  Latina^  and 
the  reply  given  to  it, 

O  frate  mio,  ciascuna  h  cittadina 
D'  una  vera  cittd  :  ma  tu  vuoi  dire, 
Che  vivesse  in  Italia  peregrina. 

The  supreme  expression  of  the  unity  and  solidarity 
of  Italy  in  Dante  is,  of  course,  the  magnificent  outburst 
beginning  Ahi  serva  Italia  in  the  sixth  canto  of  the 
Purgatorio,  which  was  a  storm-beacon  through  the 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    127 

centuries,  and  became  the  watchword  of  the  Risor- 
gimento.  Next  to  it  in  importance  come  the  vision 
of  the  Emperor  Rudolf  in  the  next  canto  (vii.  91-6), 

imperador  che  potea 
Sanar  le  piaghe  ch'  hanno  Italia  morta, 

but  who  neglected  his  task  and  calling;  and  that  of 
the  Emperor  Henry  VII  (Paradiso  xxx.  137),  who 

a  drizzare  Italia 
Verra  in  prima  che  ella  sia  disposta. 

Striking  also  is  the  bitter  cry  (Paradiso  xxvii.  57-60) 
from  the  lips  of  St.  Peter, 

O  difesa  di  Dio,  perch^  pur  giaci  ? 
Del  sangue  nostro  Caorsini  e  Guaschi 
S'apparecchian  di  bere  :   o  buon  principio, 
A  che  vil  fine  convien  che  tu  caschi ! 

It  is  not  only  an  expression  of  the  Italian  loathing  for 
the  French  Popes,  John  XXII  and  Clement  V,  but  a 
sombre  prophecy  of  the  Age  of  Invasions,  beginning 
with  that  of  1494,  when  once  more,  as  in  1265,  Carlo 
venne  in  Italia. 

The  apostrophe  to  Italy  in  the  De  Monarchia  ii. 
13,  "  O  Ausoniam  gloriosam  si  nunquam  infirmator 
tile  imperii  tui  " — the  Emperor  Constantine — "  natus 
fuisset !  "  identifies  "  Ausonia,"  the  whole  of  Italy, 
with  Rome  or  the  Populus  Romanus  to  which  {ibid,  i.  2) 
belonged  by  divine  ordinance  the  monarchy  of  the 
world.  It  is  in  this  sense  probably  that  Dante  calls 
Italy  (Purgatorio  vi.  78)  donna  di  provincie  ;  though 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  eleven  regions  into 


128  DANTE 


which  Italy  itself  was  divided  by  Augustus  also  came 
to  be  called  provinces  (as  with  modifications  they  still 
are)  as  early  as  the  fourth  century.  The  title  donna 
di  provincie  has  in  any  case  imposed  itself  on  the 
imagination  of  the  world ;  the  "  lady  of  lands,"  the 
"  donna  e  reina^''  ^  has  ever  since  been  named  and 
passionately  loved  as  such. 

It  would  be  beyond  the  present  scope  to  trace  the 
faith  and  doctrine  of  a  unified  Italy  and  a  single 
Italian  nation  through  the  times  after  Dante  had 
given  them  vital  expression.  Through  the  successive 
periods  which  fill  these  six  hundred  years — the  Age 
of  the  Despots,  the  Age  of  the  Invasions,  the  Age 
of  Spanish-Austrian  ascendancy,  the  revolutionary 
Napoleonic  changes,  the  reinstated  Austrian  pre- 
dominance, the  complex  movements  which  resulted 
in  the  creation  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy  in  1861,  and 
the  extension  of  the  kingdom  to  its  full  natural 
boundaries  which  has  only  now  been  completed — 
Dante's  vision  has  been  a  spiritual  influence,  a  con- 
structive force,  which  has  waxed  or  waned,  but  has 
never  ceased  to  operate. 

Nor  would  it  be  possible  here  to  follow  out  the 
equally  important  history  of  the  politico-ecclesiastical 
relations  between  Italy  and  Rome,  or  to  trace  more 
fully  the  causes  and  results  of  that  inherent  duality 
which  goes  back,  as  we  have  seen,  to  the  beginnings 
of  Roman  and  Italian  history.     The  solution  of  that 

■^  Swinburne,  T^he  Song  of  the  Standard  ;  Leopardi,  So-pra  il  Monu- 
mento  di  Dante. 


THE   ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    129 

duality  in  a  higher  synthesis  was  the  prophetic  message 
of  Virgil,  and,  in  a  different  way,  of  Dante  also.  It 
still  remains  an  unrealised  ideal.  The  Fortuna  Urhis 
of  the  Roman  Empire  never  became  a  Fortuna  Italia, 
Rome,  the  city,  has  for  just  fifty  years  been  the  Italian 
capital;  but  the  spiritual  Rome,  like  her  imperial 
predecessor,  has  reached  out  beyond  and  become 
separated  from  Italy  in  the  gigantic  effort  to  include 
the  world. 

In  the  Augustan  age  the  canonisation  of  Rome  was 
the  work  of  Livy.  Virgil's  greater  aim  was  the  inter- 
substantiation  of  Rome  and  Italy,  the  creation  of  a 
Roman  Italy  which  should  also  be  an  Italian  Rome. 
That  this  was  never  effected  has  been  the  tragedy  of 
history  since.  If  we  try  to  define  Virgil's  position  on 
the  graded  scale  of  patriotism,  we  may  say  that  he  was 
first  and  foremost  an  Italian;  that  he  was  a  Roman 
in  so  far  as  he  identified  the  mission  and  the  glory  of 
Rome  with  the  glory  and  the  mission  of  Italy;  and 
that  he  was  a  Cisalpine,  and  more  particularly  a 
Mantuan,  mainly  by  blood,  birth,  and  early  associa- 
tions. Of  Mantua  he  speaks  over  and  over  again  with 
a  thrill  of  pride  and  affection:  in  the  superet  modo 
Mantua  nobis  of  the  Eclogues  (ix.  27) ;  in  the  Et 
qualem  infelix  amisit  Mantua  campum  of  the  Georgics 
(ii.  198) ;  and  most  conspicuously  in  two  great  passages : 
the  proem  to  the  third  Georgic^  11.  12-39,  beginning 
with 

Primus  Idumeas  referam  tibi,  Mantua,  palmas, 
K 


130  DANTE 


and  the  passage  in  the  tenth  Mneid  (11.  198-203) : — 

Tusci  filius  amnis 
Qui  muros  matrisque  dedit  tibi,  Mantua,  nomen, 
Mantua,  dives  avis, 

where  the  personal  note  of  local  patriotism  in 

Ipsa  caput  populis,  Tusco  de  sanguine  vires, 

is  clear  and  unmistakable.  But  the  cariia  del  natio 
locOy  though  strong,  was  not  nearly  as  powerful  in  him 
as  that  of  Florence  in  Dante.  It  does  not  appear 
that  he  ever  lived  in  northern  Italy  after  the  period  of 
the  Eclogues.  His  Hfe  was  passed,  his  poetry  written, 
mainly  in  the  centre  or  the  south.  Even  in  the 
second  Georgic  the  reference  to  his  birthplace  quoted 
above  is  coupled  with  one  to  the  extreme  south, 
saltus  et  saturi  longinqua  T^arenti^  as  a  rival  affection ; 
and  the  years  of  the  composition  of  the  Mneid  were 
mainly  spent  in  Campania. 

For  Dante,  to  be  out  of  Florence  was  to  be  in  exile. 
Florence  was  not  only  his  city,  but  his  f  atria  terra^  a 
microcosm  of  the  Italy  of  his  ideals  or  dreams.  He 
speaks  of  Florence  {Inferno  xvi.  9)  as  nostra  terra  prava, 
just  as  in  the  line  of  the  Paradiso  already  quoted  he 
speaks  of  the  terra  frava  Italica.  Further,  the  Italy 
that  he  actually  knew  and  cared  about  was  northern 
Italy.  The  south,  the  corno  d^Ausonia,  as  he  calls  it 
(Paradiso  viii.  61),  is  hardly  taken  into  account  by 
him.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  separate  kingdom.  It  does 
not  appear  that  he  was  ever  in  it,  or  indeed  that  he 
was  ever  even  as  far  south  as  Rome  except  on  the 


THE  ITALY  OF  DANTE  AND  VIRGIL    131 

embassy  of  1300.  When  he  writes  {Convivio  i.  3) 
that  after  his  banishment,  per  le  parte  quasi  tutte  alle 
quali  questa  lingua  si  stende  peregrino  quasi  mendicando 
sono  andato,  the  words  must  be  taken  with  this  qualifi- 
cation ;  and  even  so,  stress  must  be  laid  on  the  original 
as  well  as  the  acquired  sense  of  the  word  peregrinus. 
In  these  wanderings  he  felt  himself  an  exile  in  the  full 
sense ;  not  only  a  pilgrim,  but  a  foreigner. 

The  Homeric  poems  gave  some  sense  of  unity,  and 
even  of  common  nationality,  to  Hellas.  Virgil  and 
Dante,  more  directly  and  more  powerfully,  created  a 
sense  of  the  nationality  and  unity  of  Italy.  The 
effect  of  poetry  on  history  is  incalculably  great :  not 
immediately,  it  may  be,  but  in  its  cumulative  and  often 
long-deferred  action.  As  poetry  is  the  final  distilla- 
tion of  both  history  and  philosophy,  the  ideal  expres- 
sion towards  which  both  tend,  so  it  re-descends  from 
its  own  empyrean  and  acts  as  a  germinal  force,  vital 
and  constructive  (the  "  shaping  spirit  "  of  Coleridge, 
the  "  elan  vital "  of  modern  thought)  to  create  new 
philosophy  and  make  new  history.  The  Italy  of 
Virgil  and  Dante  is  not  yet  fully  substantialised.  This 
means  that  their  work  is  not  yet  fully  done.  That  it 
will  be  completed  is  the  faith  and  the  assured  hope  of 
England  as  well  as  of  Italy. 


'  FARINATA  '—TRANSLATION 

Harold  E.  Goad. 


"  FARINATA  " 
Canto  X 


Now  by  a  secret  passage  that  did  wind 

Between  the  towers  and  the  tormenting  fire 
My  Master  moves  and  I  hold  close  behind. 

"  O  highest  Worth,  who  thro'  these  circles  dire 
Guides t  me  as  it  please  thee,  now  reply," 
I  prayed,  "  and  satisfy  my  heart's  desire  ! 

Might  they  be  seen,  the  wretched  folk  who  lie 
Within  these  tombs  ?     For  all  the  lids  are  wide 
And  there  is  no  one  near  us  to  deny." 

"  All  shall  be  shut  down  one  day,"  he  replied, 
"  When  from  Jehoshaphat  they  sink  to  gloom 
With  the  old  flesh  they  laid  on  earth  aside. 

In  this  part  Epicurus  hath  his  tomb 

With  all  his  followers,  who  in  life  professed 
That  soul  and  body  have  a  common  doom. 

So  thou  shalt  have  thy  will  in  this  request 
Which  thou  hast  proffered  to  me,  and  beside 
In  the  desire  thou  holdest  unexpressed." 
•  ••••• 

"  O  Tuscan,  passing  thro'  the  fiery  heat 
Of  this  fell  city,  living,  stay  and  rest 
Awhile  with  me,  for  so  thy  words  are  sweet ! 

135 


136  DANTE 


pv,i4iJ!MX 


For  by  thy  gentle  speech  thou  art  confessed 
A  native  of  that  noble  fatherland 
Which  haply  I  too  sorely  did  molest." 

This  voice  so  sudden  issued  close  at  hand 
From  a  dark  coffer,  that  I  shrank  in  doubt 
Nearer  to  him  who  led  me  thro'  that  strand. 

Said  he  to  me,  "  What  dost  thou  ?     Turn  about ! 
Lo  !  there  is  Farinata  ;  to  thy  sight 
^X^-^^g        Erect  waist  upward  he  is  raised  without." 


^  '"^^  Mine  eyes  already  fronted  his  :   upright 

Proudlj  his^  brow  and^  b  he  rear 

As  he  had  very  Hell  in  high  despite. 

Then  with  bold  hands  my  Master  thrust  me  near 
To  him  among  the  Sepulchres  and  said, 
*'  Take  heed  thy  words  be  ready  now  and  clear  !  " 

When  I  had  reached  the  foot  of  his  dark  htdi^^jf/fj^0 J\ 
Regarding  me  awhile  with  some  disdain,       //i'V-^' ' 
He  asked  me,  "  Say,  from  whom  then  wast  thpvi 
bred?"  ,  ^^^'^^  '•"    '^"^"^f^hA 

Frankly  I  told  him  all,  for  I  was  fain 
To  do  him  favour ;  whereupon  in  pride 
He  slightly  raised  his  eyebrows,  and  again, 

"  Fierce   foes,"     quoth    he,    "  were    they   unto    my 
.jjty^^r         side,  ,(/ 

Alike  to  kindred,  party  and  my  heart. 
Yet  twice  I  scattered  them  !  "     But  I  replied, 

"  If  they  were  driven  forth,  from  every  part 
Each  time  did  they  return,  but  until  now 
Your  friends  have  not  so  aptly  learned  that  art !  " 


f 


'-d. 


# 


,^.v 


'FARINATA'  137 

And  then  beside  a  Shadow  rose,  its  brow  jai^*' 

Down  to  the  chin  unto  my  sight  showed  plain,  ^  '  C  fy^'^ 

For  it  had  raised  it  on  its  knees,  I  trow.  ^"^  * 

It  peered  around  me  eagerly,  as  fain 
To  know  if,  chance,  another  came  with  me, 
But  knew  at  last  that  its  desire  was  vain. 

And  wept  and  said  :   "  If  it  be  thine  to  see 
This  gloomy  prison  by  exalted  mind. 
Where  is    my    son  ?     Why    comes    he    not    with 
thee  ?  " 

"  Not  of  myself  I  come ;  I  could  not  find 
Save  he  who  waits  me  yonder  told,  the  road. 
Haply  your  Guido  to  his  worth  was  blind.'* 

I  answered  him  thus  fully,  for  he  showed 
His  name  to  me  by  speaking  in  this  wise. 
And  by  the  penalty  of  his  abode. 

"  How  saidst  thou  ?     Was  ?     Lives  he  no  more  ?  '^  he 
cries, 
And  for  an  instant  all  erect  upbore, 
"  Doth  the  sweet  light  no  longer  strike  his  eyes  ?  " 

And  then  perceiving,  I  delayed  before 
I  found  an  answer,  to  his  dolorous  rest 
Swift  he  fell  backwards  and  appeared  no  more. 

But  that  exalted  Soul,  at  whose  request 

I  tarried  there,  had  never  turned  his  head. 

And  never  a  change  his  pose  nor  mien  expressed. 
And  he  pursued  his  former  speech  and  said, 

"  And  if  my  party  have  but  badly  learned 

That  art,  it  more  torments  me  than  this  bed. 


138  DANTE 


* 


But  fifty  times  the  face  shall  not  have  burned 
Of  her  who  reigneth  in  this  world  of  sin 
Ere  thou  have  tried  it  and  its  weight  discerned. 

Now  so  unto  the  sweet  world  mayst  thou  win 

As  thou  shalt  tell  me  why  this  race  to-day  .^^Q- 

Shows  in  its  laws  so  hostile  to  my  kin  ?  "      0  ff)W 

I  said,  "  The  havoc  and  the  bloody  fray 
That  dyed  the  Arbia  crimson  are  the  cause, 
Why  such  vows  in  our  temples  yet  we  pay." 
y  He  shook  his  head  and  sighed ;  then  after  pause, 
"  Not  sole  was  I  in  that,  nor  had  I  stirred 
With  others  in  it,"  quoth  he,  "  without  cause  ! 

Nay,  but  alone  I  stood  when  all  conferred 
To  blot  away  fair  Florence ;  undismayed 
Sole  I  defended  her  with  open  word." 

"  So  may  thy  race  have  sometime  rest,"  I  prayed, 
"  Vouchsafe  to  solve  me  of  the  knot  that  ties 
My  judgment  and  about  my  mind  is  laid. 

Meseems  you  see  beforehand  that  which  lies 
Still  in  Time's  bosom, — if  I  hear  aright, — 
But  with  the  present  it  is  otherwise." 

"  We  see,"  he  said,  "  like  one  that  hath  weak  sight : 
And  unto  things  afar  we  are  not  blind. 
For  still  the  great  God  gives  us  so  much  light. 

But  when  events  draw  nigh,  or  are,  our  mind 
Is  vain  and  void  of  all,  and  nothing  knows 
Save  others  bring  us  tidings  of  mankind. 

So  mayst  thou  see  how  all  our  knowledge  goes 
To  darkness  one  day,  from  the  moment  when 
The  future's  gate  for  evermore  shall  close." 


FARINATA 


139 


Then  with  remorse  my  fault  came  to  my  ken ; 

I  said,  "  Now  pray  you  tell  that  fallen  shade 

That  still  his  child  is  joined  unto  men. 
And  when  he  asked  before,  if  I  delayed. 

Tell  him  it  was  because  I  did  debate 

That  very  error  that  your  words  have  laid." 

And  now  my  Master  called  me  back,  whereat  HAJ^^  / 

I  pressed  that  spirit  with  more  eager  prayer  PjiliJy^ 

To  tell  what  souls  were  joined  with  him  in  fate.       ^j^^  WCl 

"  Beyond  a  thousand  are  with  me,  and  there,"  J  a/i  //?£a/ f^'^'^^^^ 
Said  he,  "  the  second  Frederick  lies  in  pain,  ^^"^^^  ^JK 
The  Cardinal,  and  many  that  I  spare."  (h/IU^  c-^^"^^ 

Wherewith  he  sank  and  passed  from  sight  again.  -  q/x^I^^ 

.  /      /^/^  • 


NOTES   ON  THE   DATE  OF  COMPOSITION 
OF  THE   'DE  MONARCHIA' 

Cesare  Foligno. 


NOTES   ON  THE   DATE   OF   COMPOSITION 
OF  THE  "DE  MONARCHIA" 

According  to  Boccaccio,  Dante  wrote  the  De 
Monarchia  during  the  Italian  expedition  of  Henry 
VI I,^  but  the  treatise  was  scarcely  known  until 
Louis  of  Bavaria  availed  himself  of  it  in  order  to 
justify  his  disloyal  behaviour  towards  the  Pope  of  the 
time.^  In  modern  days  Boccaccio's  account  was  chal- 
lenged, and  different  dates  of  composition  were 
suggested,  so  that  it  would  seem  a  task  equally  pre- 
sumptuous and  hopeless  to  attempt  a  solution  of  the 
problem.  Nevertheless  each  student  of  Dante  has 
been  compelled  to  accept  one  of  the  solutions  which 
had  been  previously  proposed,  or  to  suggest  a  new, 

1  Giovanni  Boccaccio,  La  Vita  di  Dante,  edited  by  A.  Solerti, 
Milan,  Vallardi,  s.a.  ("  Storia  letteraria  d'ltalia  scritta  da  una  society 
di  professor! "),  §  i6,  p.  6l  :  "  Similmente  questo  egregio  autore 
nella  venuta  di  Arrigo  VII  imperadore  fece  un  libro  in  latina  prosa, 
il  cui  titolo  h.  Monarchia.''^  P.  62  :  "  E  nata  poi  in  molti  casi  della 
sua  (of  Louis  of  Bavaria)  autorita  questione,  egli  e'  suoi  seguaci,  trovato 
questo  libro,  .  .  .  molti  degli  argomenti  in  esso  posti  cominciarono 
a  usare ;  per  la  qual  cosa  il  libro,  il  quale  fino  allora  appena  era  saputo, 
divenne  famoso." 

2  For  a  bibliography  of  the  subject  the  following  may  be  consulted  : 
A.  d'  Ancona,  //  "  De  Monarchia,''  Lectura  Dantis.  Le  opere  minori. 
Florence,  Sansoni,  1906,  p.  247, «.  2  ;  C.  Sauter,  Dante's  "  Monarchic  " 
uhersetztu.  erkldrt,  Freiburg  i.  B.,  Herder,  191 3,  pp.  74seq. ;  Zingarelli, 
Dante  ("  Storia  letteraria  d'ltalia  scritta  da  una  societa  di  professori "), 
Milan,  Vallardi,  s.a.  (1899-1903),  pp.  731-2. 

H3 


144  DANTE 


answer  to  the  riddle,  because  our  conception  of 
Dante's  political  ideals  and  their  historical  develop- 
ment hangs  upon  it.  Even  Dr.  Vossler  and  Prof. 
Gentile — and  no  one  is  less  inclined  to  linger  upon 
minute  points  of  irrelevant  scholarship — have  been 
forced  to  face  this  difficulty. 

In  such  circumstances  the  re-statement  of  the 
question  may  not  be  fruitless  (I  have  no  more  ambitious 
object  in  view),  even  though  it  may  lead  very  little 
farther  than  the  simple  acceptance  of  Boccaccio's 
account.  1300,  1310-11,  1313,  1314,  1315,  1317, 
1 3 19  and  1320  have  all  been  suggested  as  possible 
birth  years  of  the  De  Monarchia.  It  was  Karl  Witte 
who  first  effectively  challenged  tradition,^  and  the 
main  internal  objections  were  clearly  seen  by  him. 
He  pointed  out  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
treatise  Dante  wrote  :  "  Quumque  .  .  .  temporalis 
monarchia  notitia  utilissima  sit,  et  maxime  latens  et 
.  .  .  ab  omnibus  intentata,"  ^  and  that  such  a  state- 
ment cannot  be  explained  unless  Dante  was  writing 
it  before  Boniface's  bull  "  Unam  Sanctam  "  (1302),  so 
that  Dante  would  have  entered  the  fray  practically  at  a 
time  when  Pope  Boniface  VIII  and  his  supporters  were 
counteracting  the  controversial  onslaught  engineered 
by  the   King  of   France.^     Dr.  Witte   also  saw  the 

^  Karl  Witte,  Dantis  Alligherii  "  De  Monarchia,'"  libri  II  codicum 
manuscriptorum  ope  emendati^  ed.  altera,  Vindobonae,  Braumiiller, 
1874,  pp.  XXXV.  seq. 

2  'Tutte  le  opere  di  Dante  Alighieri,  ed.  Moore  (Oxford  Dante), 
3rd  edition,  Oxford  University  Press,  1904,  p.  341,  De  Monarchia  i. 
I,  14-19  and  27-35. 

®  For  this  controversy  see  Carlo  Cipolla,  //  trattato  "Z)^  Monarchia  " 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    145 

objection  based  on  the  reading  of  the  manuscripts  in 
De  Monarchia  i.  8,  41/  which  contains  a  reference  to 
the  Paradiso,  but  did  not  think  it  strong  enough  to 
weaken  the  convincing  effect  of  his  previous  remarks, 
especially  as  he  considered  the  reading  of  the  manu- 
scripts to  be  the  interpolation  of  a  marginal  note.  It 
was  Dr.  Witte  who  suggested  the  emendation  which 
is  still  printed  in  the  "  Oxford  Dante,"  but,  as  was 
natural,  other  scholars  felt  more  strongly  impressed 
by  that  passage,  and  it  was  found  that  in  De  Monarchia 
iii.  4  Dante  favours  those  theories  about  the  spots  in 
the  moon  which  Beatrice  explains  in  Paradiso  ii.  58  seq., 
refuting  in  that  canto  the  explanation  he  had  pre- 
viously accepted  in  Convivio  ii.  14.  As  these  Dantist's 
held  the  Paradiso  to  have  been  begun  not  earlier  than 
1315  or  131 7,  the  composition  of  the  De  Monarchia 
was  forced  forward  to  131 7  or  1319  or  later .^ 


di  Danti  Alighieri  e  Vopiscolo  "  De  ptestate  regia  et  papali  "  di  Giovanni 
da  Parigi,  in  "  Memorie  della  R.  Accademia  delle  Scienze  di  Torino," 
Serie  II,  classe  di  scienze  morali,  storiche,  filologiche,  T.  XLII, 
pp.  325-419 ;  and  P.  Scholz,  Die  Publizistik  zur  Zeit  Philipp  des 
schonen  u.  Bonifaz  VIII^  Stuttgart,  1903. 

^  Karl  Witte,  Dantis  Alligherii  "  De  Monarchia,''  p.  49.  "  Gravis- 
simum  certe  omnium,  quae  contra  me  pugnare  videntur,  est  argu- 
mentum,  quod  ipse  primus  in  luce  protraxi,  et  quo  neminem  adver- 
sariorum  usum  esse,  profecto  miror  :  citatio  inquam  Paradisi,  quam 
libri  I,  cap.  12,  textus  latini  codici  fere  omnes  .  .  .  exhibent.  .  .  . 
Qui  contrarium  sentit,  necessario  Monarchies  compositionem  in 
ultimos  omnino  vitae  Dantis  annos  rejicere  debet  quod  fieri  non  posse 
hodie  omnes  consentiunt." 

^  Franz  Xavier   Kraus,  Dante.    Sein  Leben  u.   sein  Werk,  sein 
Verhdltniss  zur  Kunst  u.  Politik,  Berlin,  Grote,  1897,  pp.  275  and  277 ; 
Nicola  Zingarelli,  op,  cit.,  pp.  426-7 ;  C.  Sauter,  op,  cit.,  p.  y6. 
L 


146  DANTE 


Yet  another  passage  of  Paradiso  ^  has  been  pointed 
out  in  which  Dante  seems  to  correct  an  opinion  he 
had  expressed  in  the  De  Monarchia  ii.  8,  and  in  order 
to  reconcile  the  various  conflicting  theories  Professor 
Villari  proposed  a  compromise,  by  suggesting  that  the 
first  and  second  books  were  written  at  an  early  date, 
Witte's  date,  and  that,  after  a  long  interruption, 
Dante  added  a  third  book  during  the  imperial 
expedition.^ 

Villari's  was  the  last  attempt  to  save  any  part  of 
Witte's  theory  ^ ;  most  students  of  the  question  prefer 
either  the  traditional  or  the  later  date.  Dr.  Vossler 
favours  the  later  date,  being  impressed  by  a  change 
in  Dante's  philosophical  opinions,  which  he  traces  in 
the  De  Monarchia,  as  though  Dante  were  following 
less  obediently  Aquinas  and  accepting  some  Aver- 
rhoistic  ideas.^  Professor  Gentile,  on  the  other  hand, 
does  not  lay  special  stress  on  the  solution  of  the 
chronological  problem  and  does  not  give  any  new 

^  ParadisOy  xix.  64-9. 

Lume  non  ^,  se  non  vien  dal  Sereno 
che  non  si  turba  mai ;   anzi  ^  ten^bra, 
od  ombra  della  came,  o  suo  veleno. 

Assai  t'^  mo  aperta  la  latebra 
che  t'ascondeva  la  giustizia  viva, 
di  che  facei  question  cotanto  crebra. 

2  Pasquale  Villari,  //  "  De  Monarchia  "  di  Dante  Alighieri^  in 
"  Nuova  Antologia,"  February  i,  191 1. 

^  H.  Grauert,  Dante  u.  die  Idee  des  Weltfriedens,  Munich,  1909, 
pp.  5-42,  also  favours  the  date  suggested  by  Dr.  Witte,  in  this  as 
well  as  in  other  Dantesque  works. 

*  Karl  Vossler,  Die  gottliche  Komodie,  i  Band,  II  Teil,  Heidelberg, 
Carl  Winter,  1907,  pp.  552-3. 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    147 

reasons  in  support  of  the  theory  he  favours/  but  the 
close  study  of  other  Dantesque  questions  brought  to 
light  many  facts  which  seem  consistent  with  the 
traditional,  but  not  with  a  later  date.  Dr.  Witte  had 
realised  from  the  outset  that  Dante  used  in  his  political 
letters  ^  several  of  the  arguments  which  he  expanded 
in  the  De  Monarchta,  but  he  considered  it  unlikely 
that  Dante  should  use  the  same  line  of  reasoning  twice 
at  the  same  date,  first  in  an  epistle,  and  later  in  a 
general  treatise.  Dr.  Witte's  facts  were  right,  but  his 
inferences  were  clearly  mistaken ;  and  his  error  was 
easily  proved.  It  was  left  for  Professor  Parodi  to 
expound  a  closely-knitted  theory  showing  that  Dante's 
political  thought  evolved  by  degrees ;  that  the 
identity  of  political  opinions,  when  clearly  demon- 
strable, is  the  strongest  possible  argument  in  favour  of 
contemporaneous  composition,  and  that  the  De 
Monarchta  must  have  been  written,  therefore,  at  the 
same  time  as  the  letters.  Professor  Parodi  is  even 
averse  to  accepting  the  slightly  later  date  suggested 
by  Professor  Chiappelli.^  Of  course,  the  discussion 
was  not  primarily  chronological,  it  depended  upon 

*  Giovanni  Gentile,  La  profezta  di  Dante,  in  "  Nuova  Antologia," 
May  I,  1918,  pp.  10-12. 

^  The  three  letters  are  dated  September  or  October  1310  (V.), 
March  31,  13 11  (VI.);  April  17,  131 1  (VII.).  See  Dantis  Alagherii 
efistolce,  emended  text,  by  Paget  Toynbee,  M.A.,  D.Litt.  Oxford 
at  the  Clarendon  Press,  1920,  pp.  42,  63  and  82. 

3  E.  G.  Parodi,  review  of  Egidio  Gorra,  Quando  Dante  scrisse  la 
"  Divina  Commedia"  in  "  Bulletino  della  societi  dantesca,"  N.S.,  vol. 
XV.,  1908,  pp.  1 1-24 ;  and  review  of  Franz  Kampers,  Dantes  Kaiser- 
traum,  etc.,  in  "  Bullettino  della  societi  dantesca,"  N.S.,  vol.  xvi., 
1909,  pp.  286-9. 


148  DANTE 


entirely  different  views  about  the  treatise.  In  point 
of  fact,  Chiappelli,  in  the  course  of  a  special  study 
which  was  intended  to  test  Dante's  knowledge  of  law, 
became  convinced  that  Dante  was  well  versed  in 
Roman  law  and  familiar  with  the  principal  currents 
of  juridical  study  in  his  age,^  and  he  urged  that  the 
De  Monarchia  was  a  reply  to  the  main  plea  contained 
in  a  message  sent  by  King  Robert  of  Naples  to  the 
Pope,^  and  that  the  relation  between  the  two  works 
was  too  close  to  be  accidental.^ 

It  became  highly  probable  that  Dante's  treatise 
was,  if  only  in  part,  a  reply  to  King  Robert's  message, 
and  therefore  slightly  later  than  the  message  itself. 
The  juridical  tone  of  this  document  suggests  that  the 
writer  was  the  lawyer  Jacopo  Bel  Viso,^  and  by 
internal  evidence  the  date  was  limited  to  the  first 
months  of  131 3.  On  the  contrary,  Parodi  maintains 
that  no  such  occasional  source  of  inspiration  can  be 
accepted  because  the  substance  of  the  treatise  is  to 
be  found  in  the  political  letters,  and  he  affirms  that 
Dante,  from  the  day  of  Henry's  arrival  in  Italy,  had 
been  meditating  upon  the  problem  of  the  relations 
between  the  Empire  and  the  Papacy. 


^  LiHGi  Chiappelli,  Dante  in  raff  or  to  alle  fonti  del  diritto  ed  alia 
letteratura  giuridica  del  suo  tempo,  in  "  Archivio  storico  italiano," 
Serie  V,  vol.  xli.,  1908,  pp.  I  seq. 

2  F.  BoNAiNi,  Jcta  Henrici  VII,  Florence,  1877,  No.  CXLII, 
pp.  233  seq. 

2  LuiGi  Chiappelli,  SulV  eta  del  "  De  Monarchia,^^  in  "  Archivio 
storico  italiano,"  Serie  V,  T.  XLIII,  1909,  pp.  237-56. 

*  p.  239,  Ibid.f  note. 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    149 

Signer  Chiaudano,  by  seeking  to  disprove  Chiap- 
pelli's  conclusions  about  Dante's  knowledge  of  Roman 
law  and  urging  that  the  De  Monarchia  is  a  philoso- 
phical, not  a  juridical  treatise/  called  forth  a  reply 
from  Chiappelli  which  contains  further  instances  of 
passages  in  Dante's  work  which  seem  to  evince  a  close 
familiarity  with  the  Digestum,^  and  Chiappelli  further 
explained  that,  in  his  view,  Dante  did  not  intend  to 
write  a  juridical,  but  a  philosophical  treatise,  and  to 
derive  from  general  principles,  by  philosophical 
reasoning,  the  conclusions  which  formed  the  object 
of  legal  controversy.  In  this,  according  to  Professors 
Solmi^  and  Ercole,^  lies  the  novelty  of  the  De  Monarchia 
and  the  justification  of  the  words  written  by  Dante 
in  its  first  chapter.  Yet  another  document  has  been 
discovered  which  seems  clearly  connected  with  the 
De  Monarchia^  and  which  is  dated  1313.^  Hence  it 
may  be  assumed  that  by  two  rational  demonstrations, 
independent  of  one  another,  the  issue  was  narrowed 
down,     to     all     practical     purposes,    to     the    years 

^  Mario  Chiaudano,  Dante  e  il  diritto  romano,  in  "  II  giornale 
dantesco,"  vol.  xx.,  191 2,  pp.  37-56,  94-119. 

2  LuiGi  Chiappelli,  Ancora  su  Dante  e  il  diritto  romano^  in  "  II 
giornale  dantesco,"  vol.  xx.,  191 2,  pp.  202-6. 

3  Arrigo  Solmi,  review  of  FritTi.  Kern,  Acta  Imperii  Anglice  et 
FrancicE,  1267-13 13,  in  "  Bullettino  della  societa  dantesca,"  N.S., 
vol.  xviii.,  191 1,  pp.  251-4. 

*  Francesco  Ercole,  review  of  Mario  Chiaudano,  Dante  e  il  diritto 
romano,  in  "  Bullettino  della  societa  dantesca  italiana,"  N.S.,  vol.  xx., 
1913,  p.  171. 

5  Fritz  Kern,  Acta  Imperii  Anglice  et  Francice,  ah  a.  1267  ^^^.1313, 
Tubingen,  Mohr,  191 1,  pp.  244  seq.,  No.  295.  The  document  is 
incomplete  and  is  connected  with  the  sentence  passed  by  Henry  VII 
on  Robert  of  Anjou  on  April  26,  1313. 


150  DANTE 


1311-1314.  Thus  the  date  of  composition  which 
was  traditionally  accepted  upon  Boccaccio's  authority, 
is  corroborated  by  internal  evidence,  as  shown  by  Pro- 
fessor Parodi ;  it  is  accepted  by  many  scholars,^  it  seems 
consistent  with  the  contemporary  political  conditions 
and  with  Dante's  position  at  that  period,  and  is  further 
endorsed  by  an  independent  research  on  the  history 
of  law.  Gentile  does  not  seem  to  press  strongly  for 
a  later  date ;  Vossler's  strictures  seem  insufficient  to 
outweigh  the  facts  which  run  counter  to  them,  and 
Dr.  Kraus,  and  especially  Professor  Zingarelli,  rely 
mainly  on  the  evidence  of  a  passage  which  seems  to 
allow  for  another  explanation.  And  since  the  approxi- 
mate date  1 31 3  is  favoured  by  an  overwhelming  array 
of  facts  and  inferences,  and  stands  out  as  by  far  the 
most  probable,  one  may  consider  it  a  legitimate 
process  to  explain  away  the  one  fact  which,  at  first 
sight,  prevents  the  general  acceptance  of  that  date. 

Henry's  plans  and  promises  had  stirred  up  new 
hopes ;  they  were  hailed  with  enthusiasm  by  all  those 
who  were  distressed  by  contemporary  conditions  or 
suffered  from  them ;  by  none  other  with  more  con- 
fident expectation  than  Dante.  He  followed  the 
Emperor  in  person  for  a  time,  and  he  followed  him 
constantly  in  thought ;  he  endeavoured  even,  to  the 
best  of  his  abilities,  to  remove  some  of  the  difficulties 

^  Also  Fritz  Kern  {Humana  Civilitas  [Staat  Kirche  und  Kultur]  : 
eine  Dante  Untersuchung,  Leipsic,  Kohler,  191 3,  ch.  II)  accepts  the  date 
1313-1314;  see  also  E.  G.  Parodi,  Del  concetto  delV  Im-pero  in  Dante  e 
del  sua  averroismo,  in  "  BuUettino  della  societa  dantesca,"  N.S., 
vol.  xxvi.,  1919,  p.  133. 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    151 

of  Henry's  imperial  policy  by  writing  the  political 
letters.  By  gradual  steps  he  adapted  to  the  new 
conditions  the  political  theories  which  he  had  derived 
from  Aristotle  and  Aquinas ;  he  was  constantly  in 
fear  lest  the  support  of  Clement  V,  never  truly  cordial 
and  unqualified,  should  be  withdrawn  from  the 
Emperor,  and  he  became  convinced  that  the  Pope 
had  no  right  to  oppose  the  well-meant  plans  that  the 
sovereign  proposed  to  carry  out.  According  to  Dante, 
such  a  position  was  insufficiently  demonstrated  by 
mere  legal  arguments,  and  he  developed  a  philosophical 
theory  by  which  his  hopes  and  the  imperial  intentions 
and  contentions  were  proved  just  and  necessary.  In 
this  way  the  requirements  of  his  intellect,  trained  as 
it  was  on  philosophical  thought,  were  satisfied,^  and 
he  wished  that  all  his  contemporaries,  or  at  least 
those  among  them  who  took  a  side  in  politics  by 
conviction,  and  not  only  on  account  of  factious 
sentiment  or  interests,  would  share  the  advantage  of 
a  theory  which  seemed  to  him  true,  and,  as  such, 
completely  satisfied  his  intellectual  needs.  From 
internal  conviction  he  drew  the  moral  force  to  write 
his  political  letters,  and  in  the  letters  he  gave  clear 
hints  of  his  theory;  but  meanwhile  he  perfected  his 
political  theory,  perhaps  during  1311  and  131 2,  or 
even  put  it  on  paper  in  part.  When  he  became 
acquainted  with  King  Robert's  letter  which  embodied 
the  lawyer's  Bel  Viso  specious  pleading,  he  borrowed 
from  the  lawyers  some  of  their  phraseology,  but  meant 
1  De  Momrchia  i.  i,  32-9. 


152  DANTE 


to  write,  and  did  write,  a  work  that  was  new  ("  ah 
omnibus  intentatum  "),  which  probed  deeper  into  the 
matter  than  any  lawyer  had  attempted  to  probe  in 
the  past,  and  the  treatise  he  called  De  Monarchia. 

We  must  face  now  the  crucial  objection  to  the 
1 31 3  date.  Dr.  Bertalot's  edition  shows  that  all 
manuscripts  contain  the  incidental  sentence  ^  that 
Dr.  Witte  partly  excised  and  after  him  was  generally 
omitted  or  amended  by  the  editors  of  the  De  Monarchia. 
The  correct  reading  of  De  Monarchia  i.  12,  41  is 
"  sicut  in  Paradiso  Comoedice  iam  dixi^"^  and  not,  as 
the  sentence  runs  in  the  "  Oxford  Dante,"  among 
other  editions,  "  sicut  dixit P  Professor  Chiappelli 
was  impressed  by  the  implicit  reference  to  Paradiso  v. 
in  the  passage,  even  though  he  accepted  the  emended 
reading,  and  suggested  a  date  rather  later  than  mere 
considerations  of  fact  require.  King  Robert's  message 
must  have  been  written  between  January  i  and 
April  26,  1 31 3,  for  reasons  that  ChiappeUi  explains; 
Dante  appears  to  have  been  cognisant  of  the  Angevin 
document,  at  least  when  he  wrote  the  second  and 
third  books  of  his  treatise,  and  alludes  indirectly  to 
King  Robert's  refusal  to  appear  before  the  imperial 
court,  a  fact  which  led  to  his  condemnation  on 
April  26 ;  he  gives  no  hint  of  the  bull "  Pastoralis  cura  " 
(March  13,  1314),  so  that  Chiappelli  suggests  that  the 
De  Monarchia  cannot  have  been  composed  later  than 

^  Dantis  Alagherii  ^^  De  Monarchtay"  libri  III,  rec.  Ludovicus 
Bertalot,  Friedrichsdorf  in  Monte  Tauno  apud  Francofurtum  apud 
editorem,  19 1 8,  p.  27. 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    153 

March  1 3 14,  nor  earlier  than  April  1313.^  It  seems 
scarcely  credible  that  Dante  should  have  written  any 
considerable  part  of  his  treatise,  and  far  less  initiated 
such  a  work,  after  Henry's  death.  Though  it  is  not 
an  occasional  writing,  an  item  in  a  long  controversy, 
the  book  was  composed  with  only  one  conceivable 
object — to  uphold  imperial  claims  against  the  debaters 
belonging  to  the  Church  party.  Dante  may  well 
have  continued  the  composition  of  the  Commedia 
(some  say  begun)  after  Henry's  death,  but  what  could 
have  prompted  him  to  undertake  such  a  work  as  the 
De  Monarchia  while  the  Imperial  throne  was  vacant  ? 
One  may  grant  the  possibility  that  he  completed  some 
small  section  of  it  after  the  tragedy  of  Buonconvento 
(August  24,  1 31 3),  but  he  would  surely  not  have  been 
so  foolhardy  as  to  circulate  such  a  work  in  circum- 
stances so  perilous.  Chiappelli's  suggestion  that 
perhaps  the  condemnation  of  the  Florentine  exiles 
of  November  6,  1315,  and  the  exclusion  of  some  of 
them  from  the  benefits  of  the  amnesty  granted  in 
1 316  to  many  of  them,  are  to  be  taken  as  King  Robert's 
revenge  against  Dante  for  the  writing  of  the  De 
Monarchia^  is  a  suggestion  which  seems  equally  unlikely 
and  unnecessary.^  More  probably,  while  still  waiting 
for  an  occasion  to  circulate  his  treatise,  or  perhaps 
while  still  composing  the  last  paragraphs  of  it,  Dante 
learned  of  the  Emperor's  demise.  The  treatise  lost 
any   immediate   value    and,    if   known,    would   have 

1  Chiappelli,  Suir  eta  del  "  De  Monarchia^"^  op.  cit.^  p.  253. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  252. 


154  DANTE 


rendered  more  dangerous  the  position  of  an  exile  who 
had  no  reason  to  look  confidently  to  the  future,  and 
who,  from  the  letter  to  a  friend  in  Florence,^  would 
appear  to  have  entertained  some  vague  hope  of  being 
recalled  to  Florence. 

And  yet  the  incidental  sentence  of  i.  12,  41  shows 
that  the  manuscript  whence  all  the  extant  copies  of 
the  De  Monarchia  derive  was  still  in  Dante's  hands 
at  a  later  date.  No  one  would  argue  that  before 
August  1 31 3  Dante  had  already  written  five  cantos 
of  the  ParadisOy  and  the  sentence  can  scarcely  be 
explained  away  as  an  interpolated  marginal  note,^  so 
that  we  are  compelled  to  find  an  occasion  for  the 
insertion  of  such  a  sentence  by  Dante  himself.  It  is 
generally  held  that  Dante  was  not  given  to  correcting 
and  polishing  his  works ;  the  more  cogent  therefore 
the  reason  to  suggest  an  explanation  for  the  departure 
from  custom  that  we  note  in  this  case.  We  know  that 
the  Paradiso  was  dedicated  to  Cangrande  della  Scala, 
and  that  Dante  must  have  sent  the  first  cantos  of 
the  poem  to  Cangrande,  together  with  the  dedicatory 
letter,^  and  it  would  seem  natural  to  think  that  the 
De  Monarchia  also  was  given  or  sent  by  Dante  to  the 
lord  of  Verona,  as  no  one  else  could  quite  as  probably 
have  been  expected  to  be  familiar  with  a  canto  of 
the  Paradiso^  nor  so  keen  on  reading  a  treatise  in  which 
the  rights  of  the  Emperor  were  upheld.     Was  not 

^  Paget  Toynbee,  op.  cit.,  pp.  148  seq. ;  see  especially  p.  152. 

*   ZiNGARELLI,  Op.  Ctt.,  p.  42/. 

^  Paget  Toynbee,  op.  cit.y  pp.  160-21 1 ;  especially  p.  165. 


THE  DATE  OF  THE  'DE  MONARCHIA'    155 

Cangrande  the  mainstay  of  the  Ghibelline  party  in 
Italy,  and  was  he  not  Vicarius  imperialis  since  1312 
and  captain-general  of  the  Ghibelline  league  in  Lom- 
bardy  since  1318  ?  The  reasons  which  Professor 
Zingarelli  assigns  in  support  of  his  dating  the  com- 
position of  the  De  Monarchia  13 19  or  later  could  be 
repeated,  with  a  greater  force,  as  favouring  the  circu- 
lation of  the  treatise  about  that  time.^  Any  attempt 
to  reach  a  more  precise  date  would  probably  be  both 
irrelevant  and  pedantic ;  one  might  think  that,  in 
discharge  of  his  obligations  as  a  guest  and  a  protege, 
the  poet  offered  to  Cangrande,  at  the  first  favourable 
opportunity,  the  treatise  he  had  written  some  time 
previously,  just  as  he  had  offered  to  Cangrande  the 
first  cantos  of  the  Paradiso  before  the  completion  of 
the  poem ;  or  one  might  connect  such  a  presentation 
with  a  renewal  of  political  controversial  writings  such 
as  Zingarelli  mentions,  and  one  might  even  think  of 
such  an  occasion  as  the  debate  which  gave  rise  to  the 
"  Qucestio  de  aqua  et  terra^'*  which  was  also  sent  to 
Cangrande ;  but  any  such  suggestion  would  lack 
corroboration.  It  has  been  pleaded  ^  that  the  inci- 
dental sentence  is  not  Dantesque  in  manner  because 
Dante  does  not  quote  in  the  De  Monarchia  any  part 
of  the  Convivio,  where  he  had  dealt  with  some  of  the 
most  relevant  points  on  which  he  was  touching  again, 
and  would  not  have  been  likely  to  quote  the  Paradiso, 
an  incomplete  poem,  on  a  side  issue.     Once  more  the 

^  Zingarelli,  op.  at.,  pp.  424-5,  426-7. 
2  Sauter,  of.  cit.j  p.  106,  note  l. 


iS6  DANTE 


facts,  not  the  conclusions,  are  correct.  But  the  facts 
would  allow  for  an  explanation  if  the  De  Monarchia 
was  sent  or  given  to  Cangrande  together  with,  or 
shortly  after  the  tenth  letter,  because  the  Lord  of 
Verona  could  well  be  supposed  to  have  been  un- 
acquainted with  the  Convivio^  but  must  have  been 
familiar  with  the  first  cantos  of  the  Paradiso} 

It  might  also  be  argued  further,  if  even  this  were 
not  really  of  little  import,  that  Dante  offered  the 
De  Monarchia  after  he  had  composed  the  fifth,  and 
before  he  completed  the  nineteenth,  canto  of  the 
Paradiso,  because  in  the  latter  canto  he  seems  at 
pains  to  correct  (U.  64  seq.)  what  he  had  written  in 
De  Monarchia  ii.  8  about  the  limitations  of  human 
reason.^ 

^  Of  course  most  of  the  upholders  of  a  late  composition  think  that 
the  book  treatise  was  written  at  Verona  or  sent  to  Cangrande.  Zin- 
GARELLi,  op.  cit.,  p.  427 ;  Hermann  Grauert,  Zur  Danteforschungy  in 
"  Historisch.  Jahrbuch,"  vol.  xiv.  (1895),  p.  539;  A.  Gaspary, 
Storia  della  letteratura  italtana,  Italian  edition,  vol.  i.,  pp.  248  seq. 

2  MicHELE  ScHERiLLo,  Tcview  of  Ttto  Bottagtsto,  II  limbo  danUsco, 
in  "  Bullettino  della  societa  dantesca,"  N.S.,  vol.  viii,  p.  14. 


DANTE  AND  THE   LATIN  POETS 

p.  H.  WiCKSTEED. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS  i 

Great  literature  was  open  to  Dante  in  three 
vernacular  languages  :  in  French  there  were  the 
"  bewitching  meanderings "  of  Arthurian  Romance  ; 
in  Proven  gal  there  was  the  finished  art  with  which 
the  troubadours  sang  of  Love  and  War ;  and  the 
Italian  successors  of  the  Provencal  poets,  with  their 
wider  outlook  and  their  profounder  thought,  had 
learned  that  the  courtly  graces  of  valour,  gallantry  and 
generosity  did  not  in  themselves  fill  up  the  measure 
of  greatness  in  human  character.  What  Dante  calls 
"  Virtue  " — ^we  may  paraphrase  it  as  "  nobility  of 
character  " — touched  them  to  finer  issues  and  drew, 
them  into  nearer  fellowship  with  the  sovran  poets  of 
antiquity. 

But  who  were  these  sovran  poets  ?  Homer  was 
only  a  great  name  to  Dante  and  his  compatriots,  and 
Greek  poetry  was  a  sealed  book.     Moreover  Dante, 

^  For  a  full  treatment  of  the  quotations  from  the  Latin  poets  and 
the  references  to  them  in  Dante's  works,  Dr.  Moore's  great  essay  in 
the  first  series  of  his  Dante  Studies  (Oxford,  1896)  and  the  several 
articles  in  Dr.  Paget  Toynbee's  Dante  Dictionary  are  the  classical 
authorities. 

De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  1.  10:  19;  ii.  2:  70-98  (where,  however, 
Dante's  distinction  between  the  Troubadours  and  the  Italians  does 
not  coincide  with  the  one  I  have  drawn). 

159 


i6o  DANTE 


at  least,  well  knew  that  whatever  beauty  in  the 
Hebrew  poets  had  survived  translation,  all  the 
"  charm  of  music  and  harmony "  had  necessarily 
vanished.  The  Latin  poets  alone  were  left.  And  of 
them  two  of  the  greatest,  in  modern  estimation,  were 
unknown  to  Dante ;  for  in  spite  of  at  least  one 
striking  coincidence  of  imagery,  it  seems  clear  that 
he  was  unacquainted  with  Lucretius ;  and,  unlike  his 
contemporary,  Albertino  Mussato,  he  shows  no  trace 
of  familiarity  with  Catullus. 

This  leaves  Virgil  as  the  one  poet  whom  posterity 
has  placed  in  the  supreme  rank  (not  quite  unchal- 
lenged) with  whose  work  Dante  was  intimate  at 
first  hand. 

I  suppose  this  is  the  explanation  of  the  passage  in 
the  first  Canto  of  the  Inferno  which  has  given  the 
commentators  so  much  trouble.  Dante  there  declares 
to  Virgil  that  he  owes  to  him,  and  to  no  other,  that 
"  beauteous  style  that  has  won  him  honour."  What 
traces  of  Virgil's  poetic  style  or  diction — ^as  compared 
with  those  of  the  two  Guidos,  for  instance — can  be 
found  in  Dante's  work  before  1300,  or  even  before 
the  date,  whatever  it  may  be,  of  the  actual  composi- 
tion of  the  Comedy,  to  justify  this  declaration  ? 
The  only  answer  seems  to  be  that  Virgil  had  taught 
Dante  what  great  style  is,  and  that  it  was  only  under 
the  pressure  of  the  immeasurably  larger  and  fuller 

Convivio  i.  7  :  9 1 -103. 

De  Rerum  Nat.  ii.  114  sqq. ;  Paradiso  xiv.  112  sqq. 

Inferno^  i.  85  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     i6i 

vein  of  the  great  Epic  that  the  imagination  of  the 
vernacular  poet,  pressing  against  the  limits  of  the 
Canzone  (the  highest  recognised  form  of  Italian 
poetry),  could  bring  it  to  its  stateliest  height. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  this  suggestion,  it  is 
certain  that  Virgil's  influence  upon  Dante  is  not  only 
greater  than  that  of  all  the  other  Latin  poets  put 
together,  but  that  it  is  distinguished  by  a  certain 
intimacy  of  penetration  that  makes  it  stand  alone. 
Virgil  affected  much  more  than  Dante's  "  style,"  and 
furnished  him  with  much  more  than  models  and 
materials  for  his  epic.  He  heightened  the  native 
power  of  his  imagination  and  ennobled  his  thought  and 
feeling,  as  well  as  enriching  his  power  of  expression. 
Hence  we  can  often  say  of  Dante  that  where  he  is 
most  closely  or  obviously  Virgilian  he  is  at  the  same 
time  most  truly  himself.  Who  would  dream  of 
saying,  for  instance,  that  the  great  scene  in  which 
Cavalcante  interrupts  the  dialogue  between  Dante 
and  Farinata  lacks  originality,  or  has  not  the  specific 
Dantesque  note  ?  To  feel  the  close  parallel  between 
it  and  the  meeting  of  ^Eneas  and  Andromache  in  the 
third  Mneid  is  only  to  deepen  the  intensity  of  its 
appeal.  Even  where  the  parallel  is  so  close  as  to 
enable  us  to  determine  a  disputed  reading,  we  can 
speak  of  influence,  but  hardly  of  imitation.  I  refer 
to  a  passage  in  the  third  Canto  of  the  Inferno.  Virgil 
speaks  in  the  second  Georgic  of  the  fruit-tree  on  which 
an  alien  shoot  had  been  grafted  looking  up  with  glad 

Inferno  x.  52  sqq.     ALneid  iii.  306  sqq. 


i62  DANTE 


wonder  at  the  mighty  branch  that  has  sprung  from  it, 
and  on  the  "  fruits  that  are  not  its  own."  Hence 
when  Dante  compares  the  flitting  ghosts  falling 
feebly  into  Charon's  boat  to  the  leaves  that  drop 
from  a  branch,  till,  naked  and  desolate,  it  "  gazes 
upon  all  its  stripped-off  foliage  "  lying  at  its  feet,  we 
know  that  vede^  not  the  rival  reading  of  Tender  is 
what  Dante  wrote.  The  passage  is  no  imitation  of 
Virgil,  though  but  for  him  it  might  never  have  been 
v^ritten,  and  he  can  give  us  a  touchstone  to  tell  us 
how  it  was  phrased.  It  is  needless  to  multiply 
examples.  They  crowd  upon  the  mind.  This  in- 
timate transfusion  of  Virgil's  greatness  into  the  very 
sap  of  Dante's  poetic  vitality  is  the  more  remarkable 
because  of  the  divergence,  amounting  often  to  the 
sharpest  contrast,  between  the  methods  and  charac- 
teristics of  the  genius  of  the  two  poets.  An  instance 
of  this  may  be  found  in  the  treatment  of  the  monsters 
of  mythology  in  the  sixth  Mneid  and  the  Inferno 
respectively.  Virgil's  imaginative  power  is  nowhere 
more  apparent  than  in  the  atmosphere  he  creates  as 
-^neas  stands  in  the  very  jaws  of  hell.  All  images  of 
gloom  and  misery.  Death,  Disease  and  Dismal  Eld, 
Foul  Imaginations  of  Evil,  and  death-like  Torpor,  are 
just  touched  into  semi-personification,  as  they  crowd, 
together  with  Centaurs,  Harpies,  the  threefold  Geryon 
and  twi-form  Chaemeras,  to  create  a  vague  atmos- 
phere of  horror  ;  but  there  is  not  a  word  of  description. 
It   is   all  impressionist.     We   see  nothing   distinctly, 

Georgic  ii.  82.     Inferno  iii.  114. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     163 

but  we  feel  the  deepening  effect  of  every  stroke. 
Now  mark  the  strict  "  economy  "  with  which  Dante 
introduces  his  Harpies,  his  Centaurs  and  the  rest, 
just  where  each  has  its  specific  meaning  and  gives  its 
definite  support  to  the  architecture  of  the  poem. 
And  note  how  Dante  makes  us  see  each  one  of  the 
uncanny  forms  with  a  vivid  distinctness  that  is  the 
despair  of  artists.  In  this  instance  Virgil's  stupendous 
imagination  is  of  no  use  to  Dante.  He  wants  the 
material  for  other  purposes.  He  takes  it  clean  out  of 
the  marvellous  atmosphere  with  which  Virgil  has 
surrounded  it  and  deals  with  it  in  quite  other  fashion. 
And  he  can  afford  to  do  so ;  for  Virgil's  imagination 
has  impregnated  his  own,  and  will  vitalise  it  every- 
where. It  need  not  be  imported  in  its  fixed  mould. 
Dante  has  moulds  of  his  own  to  fill. 

But  having  said  all  this,  we  have  still,  in  a  sense, 
only  touched  on  the  relatively  superficial  aspects  of 
Virgil's  influence  on  Dante  ;  for  it  was  in  very  truth 
Virgil  that  brought  Dante  back  to  Beatrice  and  so 
gave  us  the  Comedy.  That  Dante  had  that  in  him 
which  must  have  found  great  utterance  even  had  he 
never  met  Beatrice  or  read  Virgil,  it  would  be  rash 
indeed  to  deny;  but  that  without  them  he  could 
have  written  the  Comedy  is  plainly  impossible. 
And  of  these  two  our  immediate  concern  is  with 
Virgil. 

I  do  not  think  any  one  can  read  the  Convivio  with 

Mneid  vi.  273  sqq. 

Inferno  ix.  46  sqq.,  52;  xii.  55  sqq.;  xiii.  10;  xvii. 


i64  DANTE 


an  open  mind  and  fail  to  accept  Dante's  very  frank 
confession — ^with  whatever  formal  reservation  it  is 
made — ^that  when  he  wrote  it  he  had  (to  state  it 
baldly)  outgrown  the  Vita  Nuova  and  Beatrice's 
dominating  influence.  He  had  formless  enthusiasms 
and  aspirations  struggling  within  him  that  could  no 
longer  be  kept  within  the  limitations  of  that  early 
vow  which  embalmed  the  tender  memories  of  youth, 
already  half-submerged  under  the  storm  and  pressure 
of  manhood.  But  there  is  no  coherence  in  the  differ- 
ent motives  that  inspire  the  author  of  the  Convivio, 
Self- justification  as  to  his  own  private  character  and 
his  political  record,  a  missionary  and  prophetic  ardour 
as  a  teacher  of  Philosophy  to  the  laity  and  a  preacher 
of  righteousness  to  all  and  sundry,  a  loving  desire  to 
handle  his  own  poems  and  talk  to  the  world  about 
them,  together  with  an  uneasy  sense  that  some  of 
them  tell  a  tale  that  scarcely  harmonises  with  his 
present  role  as  a  preacher,  the  promptings  of  the 
mere  smith  and  wielder  of  words  within  him,  urging 
him  to  show  what  Italian  can  do  in  prose,  as  he  has 
already  shown  what  it  can  do  in  rhyme — ^all  these  and 
other  impulses  jostle  each  other  in  this  amazing  work, 
the  formlessness  of  which  is  as  astonishing  as  its  wealth 
and  beauty.  In  this  gorgeous  jungle  there  is  only  one 
really  formative  indication  of  the  plan  for  which  its 
exuberant  vitality  was  ultimately  to  make  way.  It 
is  to  be  found  in  the  two  chapters  of  the  fourth 
Treatise,  in  which  the  character  and  significance  of 

Convivio  ii.  i6 :  48  sqq;  i.  2  :  1 14-130. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     165 

the  Roman  Empire  are  sketched.     And  this  he  owed 
to  Virgil. 

Before  he  came  under  Virgil's  deeper  influence  (as 
we  can  read  quite  clearly  on,  or  between,  the  lines  of 
the  De  Monarchid)  the  history  of  the  human  race  was 
divided  for  Dante  by  a  sharp  line  into  sacred  and 
secular.  The  history  of  Israel,  culminating  in  the 
manifestation  of  the  Incarnate  Word  and  the  founding 
of  the  Church,  was  divinely  guided  in  every  smallest 
incident ;  and  accordingly  every  detail  was  significant. 
It  was  not  only  something  that  God  did,  but  also,  if 
we  could  rightly  interpret  it,  something  that  he  said 
for  our  guidance  or  instruction.  But  the  secular 
history  of  the  world  was  a  mere  welter  of  senseless 
violence  that  had  no  scheme,  no  development,  and 
no  purpose.  Into  this  chaos  Virgil  brought  order. 
No  Roman  writer  ever  had  so  clear  a  vision  of  Rome's 
mission  as  had  he.  It  was  he  who  taught  Dante  that 
force  was  only  the  instrument  of  Roman  power,  and 
that  Law  was  its  soul.  Justinian  lived  five  centuries 
and  more  after  Virgil,  but  nevertheless  it  was  Virgil 
whose  description  of  Rome's  mission  taught  Dante 
to  find  in  the  great  law-giver  its  truest  representative. 
In  all  his  mature  work  you  will  find  that  by  the  Roman 
Empire  Dante  means  the  supremacy  of  Roman  law, 
and  by  the  Roman  Emperor  the  God-commissioned 
administrator — ^faithful  or  faithless  as  the  case  may  be — 
of  that  most  august  of  all  instruments  for  regulating 

Convivio  iv.  4,  5. 

De  Monarchia  ii.  i :  11-17 ;  5  :  15-42  ;  7  :  59-77.     Paradiso  vi. 


1 66  DANTE 


the  relations  of  men  and  of  nations  under  the 
guidance  of  justice  and  along  the  paths  of  peace. 

What  a  flood  of  light  this  reclaiming  of  secular  history, 
as  within  the  range  of  the  providential  government  of 
the  world,  threw  back  upon  all  Dante's  own  past  life  ! 
The  obscure  conflicts  of  Florentine  factions  were  now 
seen  (as  they  had  always  been  darkly  felt)  to  turn 
upon  the  re-vindication  of  the  Roman  tradition  of 
industrial  civilisation  against  the  feudal  barbarism  of 
the  military  invaders ;  for — ^let  it  once  again  be  said — 
the  inner  meaning  of  Roman  history  was  not  that  of 
victorious  war,  but  that  of  established  peace.  Hence- 
forth there  were  two  sacred  histories  to  Dante,  the 
history  of  Palestine  and  the  history  of  Rome. 

To  readers  of  the  De  Monarchia  and  the  Comedy  it 
is  not  necessary  to  dwell  upon  the  elaborate  parallels 
between  the  two  providentially  guided  histories  that 
are  motived  in  the  former  work  and  developed  all 
through  the  latter,  from  the  first  bracketing  of  -^neas 
and  Paul  onwards.  Of  this  parallelism  the  Convivio 
contains  the  germ,  but  the  germ  only,  and  when  we 
notice  that  in  that  work  all  the  stress  is  laid  on  the 
secular  side  (the  sacred  side  being  taken  for  granted, 
quite  heartily,  even  fervently,  but  receiving  no  dis- 
tinctive impress),  we  are  led  to  the  closer  considera- 
tion of  a  curious  feature  in  the  Convivio  that  has 
constituted  a  standing  perplexity  to  Dantists,  and 
that  brought  confusion  into  Witte's  memorable 
attempt     to     co-ordinate     Dante's    works    in    some 

Inferno  ii.  13  sqq.,  28  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     167 

intelligible  and  organic  relation  to  each  other.  I  refer 
to  the  fact  that  though  Dante,  when  he  wrote  the 
Convimo,  was  already  an  eager  student  of  Aquinas 
and  accepted  in  perfect  faith  the  supreme  authority 
of  the  Church — ^the  "  secretary  and  spouse  of  God," 
as  he  calls  her — ^and  though  he  expressly  places  Reve- 
lation above  Reason,  yet  the  flow  of  his  active  thought 
and  affection  seems  to  run  almost  exclusively  within 
the  realm  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  and  to  fer- 
tilise the  secular  side  of  life  and  government.  Even 
when  he  is  speaking  of  the  martyrs  and  confessors  who 
held  all  material  things  cheap  in  comparison  with 
truth  and  holiness,  Dante's  examples  are  taken  from 
the  lives  of  Pagan  philosophers,  not  of  Christian 
saints ;  and  the  passages  of  splendid  eloquence  which 
he  borrows  from  the  discourses  of  Aquinas  on  the 
truths  of  Revelation  and  the  supreme  authority  of 
the  Pope  he  applies  (in  this  last  instance  even  in  the 
De  Monarchid)  to  the  speculations  of  Philosophy  and 
the  authority  of  the  Emperor. 

In  like  manner,  in  the  Convivio,  the  Lady  of  Dante's 
"  Second  Love  "  is  "  Wisdom  "  herself.  Her  range 
is  vaguely  comprehensive.  She  stands  alike  for 
Grammar  and  Arithmetic  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  for  the  supreme  and  queenly  science  of 
Theology,  and  whereas  at  one  time  she  can  be  ade- 
quately symbolised  by  a  Gentle  Lady  whose  pitying 

Convivio  ii,  15  :  124-127;  iv.  30  :  24-30;  ii.  4 :  30-32 ;  6  :  33  sq. 
iv.  15  :  90-96 ;  ii.  6 :  16-20 ;  iii.  14 :  69-86 ;  i.  i.  Contra  Gentiles  i.  4. 
De  Monarchia  i.  14  :  38-65.     Contra  Gentiles  iv.  yS. 


1 68  DANTE 


sympathy  gives  Dante's  grieving  soul  the  relief  of 
tears,  at  another  she  is  the  Divine  Wisdom's  self,  the 
Word  who  became  incarnate  for  our  salvation.  But 
through  it  all  the  centre  of  gravity  is  still  on  the 
secular  side,  and  v^e  feel  that  both  Dante's  heart  and 
his  mind  draw  their  true  nourishment  from  the 
sages  of  the  Pagan  world.  The  Christian  contrast 
between  the  Active  life  of  good  works  and  the  ministra- 
tions of  religion  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Contemplative 
life  of  the  saintly  mystic  on  the  other,  has  not  yet 
disengaged  itself  in  his  thought  from  the  Aristotelian 
distinction  between  the  social  activities  of  the  citizen 
and  the  devotion  of  philosophic  leisure  to  speculation 
ranging  over  the  whole  realm  of  truth.  So,  too,  the 
distinction  between  Reason  and  Revelation,  though 
quite  explicitly  recognised,  leads  up  to  no  distinction 
between  Church  and  State,  and  is  practically  merged 
in  the  Aristotelian  contrast  just  referred  to  between 
the  civic  and  the  philosophic  life. 

What  then  is  the  exact  position  in  which  we  find 
Dante  at  this  point  of  his  career  ?  The  Vita  Nuova 
stands  as  the  record  of  his  impressionable  youth.  He 
will  not  cancel  it,  but  his  mind  is  now  full  of  other 
things  suiting  the  robuster  fibre  of  maturity.  Aris- 
totle has  inspired  him  with  a  passion  for  study.  His 
own  participation  in  the  affairs  of  his  city  has  widened 
his  outlook  upon  the  practical  side  of  life  and  quick- 
ened his  insight  into  human  character.     And  Virgil 

Convivio  ii.  14  :  47-66  ;  iii.  14  :  61-64 ;  15  :  182  sqq. ;  ii.  9  :  126  sqq.  ; 
iii.  7  :   161-166;  i.  I  :   11 1  sqq. 


PLATE    VI.— Inferno,  Canto  XXXIII. 
{Luca  Signorelli) 
Reproduced  by  kind  permission  of  the  Trustees  of  the  British  Museum. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     169 

is  beginning  to  teach  him  to  look  upon  a  social  and 
political  life  of  ordered  peace  and  harmony,  giving 
scope  to  the  nobler  faculties  and  affections,  as  a  holy 
thing,  designed  by  the  Creator  from  the  beginning 
for  man  to  enjoy. 

But  the  equilibrium  of  the  Convivio  is  in  all  respects 
unstable,  and  it  is  no  accident  that  the  work  remained 
a  fragment.  Dante  was  a  Christian,  and  as  such  he 
inherited  that  Christian  conception  of  holiness  which 
tends  to  make  every  great  emotion,  at  its  highest, 
partake  of  the  nature  of  worship.  But  hitherto  his 
mysticism,  if  we  may  so  call  it,  though  of  heavenly 
origin,  had  breathed  itself  most  fully  into  earthly 
things.  The  Empire  was  in  fact,  if  not  in  theory, 
more  to  Dante  than  the  Church,  science  dearer  than 
contemplation,  and  the  Temporal  more  real  than  the 
Eternal.  Even  his  study  of  theology  bore  its  first- 
fruits  only  in  a  heightened  sense  of  the  significance 
of  Politics. 

This  was  the  beginning,  but  it  could  not  be  the 
end.  A  Christian  believer  who  in  his  ardour  for 
knowledge,  in  his  ideal  of  personal  greatness  of 
character,  and  in  his  practical  political  inspirations, 
was  uplifted  and  stimulated  by  the  greatest  theologian 
of  his  day,  must  sooner  or  later  turn  his  thoughts 
directly  to  the  problems  of  the  Church  herself,  to 
the  relations  of  the  Temporal  to  the  Spiritual  Power, 
and  to  the  direct  bearing  of  the  dogmas  and  devotions 
of  the  Church  upon  the  actual  life  of  the  human  soul. 
In  a  word,  he  cannot  permanently  confine  his  intensest 


170  DANTE 


feeling  within  the  world  of  Ethnic  philosophy;  but 
must  explore  and  assimilate — not  only  acknowledge — 
the  realms  of  Christian  truth.  Virgil,  having  brought 
Dante  from  Athens  to  Imperial  Rome,  must  see  him 
pass  out  of  his  care  into  regions  beyond  his  range. 
The  Roman  chapters  of  the  Convivio  must  reveal 
themselves  as  the  stepping-stones  to  the  De  Monarchia 
and  the  Comedy. 

The  direct  occasion  of  this  development  was  the 
election  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg  in  1309  and  his 
avowed  purpose  of  coming  to  Italy  as  a  peace-maker, 
to  restore  the  exiles,  to  reconcile  the  factions,  and  to 
inaugurate  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  distracted 
Italy.  The  attitude  assumed  by  the  Pope  to  Henry 
might  be  of  critical  importance  to  the  issue,  and 
Dante's  thoughts  were  necessarily  directed  to  it.  Of 
the  mission  of  the  Roman  Empire  he  had  already  a 
clear  conception,  but  what  was  its  relation  to  the 
mission  of  the  Church  ?  The  answer  to  this  question 
was  already  held  in  solution  in  his  mind  and  only 
needed  precipitation.  As  the  Empire  had  charge 
of  all  happenings  and  successions  that  took  place  in 
time,  so  the  Church  was  the  appointed  guide  to  the 
eternal  life  of  the  soul.  As  the  Fall  of  man  had  thrown 
in  the  parenthesis  of  mortal  life  between  Eden  and 
the  Beatific  Vision,  so  also  it  had  thrown  the  long  and 
dismal  parenthesis  of  human  history  between  the  loss 
and  the  recovery  of  Eden  itself.  The  Church  was 
the  appointed  organ  of  revealed  truth,  commissioned 
to  hold  man  in  touch,   through  all  his  wanderings, 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS      171 

with  his  eternal  destiny,  and  in  like  manner  the 
Roman  Empire  was  commissioned  to  hold  men  in 
peaceful  and  helpful  relations  with  each  other,  guided 
by  all  such  truth  as  could  keep  their  hearts  in  touch 
with  the  life  of  Eden. 

This  connection  between  the  ideal  Empire,  fos- 
tering and  protecting  the  natural  expansion  of  the 
higher  faculties  of  man,  and  the  life  of  Innocence 
before  the  Fall,  is  formulated  with  the  utmost  pre- 
cision and  earnestness  by  Dante  in  the  concluding 
passages  of  the  De  Monarchia,  He  verily  believed 
that  the  poetic  pictures  of  the  Golden  Age  preserved 
a  dim  tradition  of  that  life  of  innocence  in  which 
human  passion  and  delight  had  needed  no  jealous 
watching  and  could  never  betray ;  and  he  believed, 
too,  that  in  proportion  as  the  spirit  of  justice  and 
zeal  for  the  common  good,  as  manifested  in  the 
history  and  the  Law  of  Rome,  were  faithful  and  vic- 
torious, in  that  proportion  would  mankind,  in  the 
progress  of  civilisation,  receive  the  consecration  and 
recover  the  atmosphere  of  Eden. 

This  life  of  earthly  innocence,  as  a  stage  in  the 
experience  of  man,  seemed  to  Dante  no  less  essential 
to  the  full  realisation  of  the  creative  plan  than  did 
the  heavenly  glory  as  its  goal.  And  if,  at  best,  civi- 
lisation could  only  give  an  imperfect  reflection  of 
Eden  during  this  mortal  life,  then  its  realisation  in 
its  fullness  of  freedom  and  beauty  must  be  held  in 
store  for  the  souls  of  the  blessed,  as  an  incident  in 

De  Monarchia  iii.  i6  and  passim. 


172  DANTE 


their  path  to  heaven.  It  might  not  be  that  a  divine 
thought  and  purpose  for  man,  so  tender  and  so  tem- 
pered to  his  native  powers,  should  be  wholly  cancelled 
and  obliterated  by  the  Fall — and  forgotten  in  the 
Redemption. 

All  this  is  more  than  foreshadowed  in  the  De 
Monarchia  ;  and  it  is  integral  to  the  inmost  structure 
and  spirit  of  the  Comedy ;  for  the  place  which  the 
Earthly  Paradise  occupies  in  Dante's  poem  has  always 
been  recognised  as  an  outstanding  feature  in  his 
conception  of  the  after  life.  It  is  wholly  without 
ecclesiastical  authority  and  it  determines  the  poet's 
bold  and  original  conception  of  the  site  of  Purgatory, 
not  in  the  dismal  purlieus  of  Hell,  but  on  the  sides  of 
the  mountain  pedestal  of  Eden.  The  repentant  souls 
climb  it  to  recover  the  life  of  Innocence.  In  no  merely 
allegorical  sense  did  Virgil  lead  Dante  to  the  Earthly 
Paradise,  for  it  was  he  who  had  first  taught  him  so  to 
apprehend  the  ideals  and  ideal  possibilities  of  the  earthly 
life  that  he  must  perforce  link  them  close  to  Heaven 
at  the  Summit  of  the  mount  of  Purgation.  Virgil  was 
Beatrice's  emissary  and  had  brought  him  back  to  her. 

So  now  the  mists  have  cleared.  The  blurred 
divisions  of  the  Convivio  are  superseded  by  the 
dominating  contrasts  and  alliances  between  Revela- 
tion and  Reason,  the  Eternal  and  the  Temporal,  the 
Church  and  the  Empire ;  and  the  contrast  between 
the  civic  and  the  speculative  life,  the  statesmanship 
of  a  Frederick  and  the  philosophic  authority  of  an 
Convivio  iv.  6. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     173 

Aristotle,  sinks  into  a  subdivision  of  the  domain  of 
human  reason.  Above  and  beyond  it  rise  the  divine 
truths  of  Revelation. 

One  more  step  remains.  The  De  Monarchia  dis- 
integrates without  replacing  the  symbolism  of  the 
Convivio,  It  disintegrates  it  because  its  constructive 
ideas  and  contrasts  break  up  the  symbol  of  an  un- 
differentiated Philosophy  the  theoretically  higher 
aspect  of  which  (the  divine)  is  practically  subordinated 
to  the  lower  (the  human).  It  does  not  replace  it  be- 
cause it  is  itself  entirely  without  symbolism.  But  the 
scheme  symbolised  in  the  Comedy,  is  already  here  in 
its  completeness.  Reason  and  Revelation  are  already 
the  appointed  guides.  The  only  step  that  remains 
is  to  make  Virgil  and  Beatrice  their  personified 
symbols.  If  we  may  trust  the  obvious  indica- 
tions of  history  and  psychology,  that  step  was  taken 
under  the  terrible  experience  of  hopes  disappointed 
and  prophetic  fervours  chilled  that  followed  upon 
the  disastrous  failure  of  Henry's  intervention  in  the 
affairs  of  Italy.  To  compare  the  great  series  of  the 
Political  Letters  with  the  opening  canto  of  the  Inferno, 
and  with  such  passages  as  the  D  V  X  cypher  in  the 
Purgatorio,  or  the  close  of  Justinian's  discourse  in  the 
Paradiso,  is  to  find  Dante's  faith  constant  and  un- 
shaken, but  his  hopes  and  his  affections  turned  wist- 
fully to  a  vague  and  uncertain  future.  In  the 
Comedy  the  Roman  Empire  is  still  the  appointed 
organ    of    temporal    government,    and    the    political 

Purgatorio  xxxiii.  43.  Paradiso  vi.  97  sqq. 


174  DANTE 


Messiah  who  shall  realise  its  ideal  possibilities  and 
secure  the  conditions  of  human  blessedness  upon 
earth  is  still  to  be  looked  for ;  but  Henry  came  "  ere 
Italy  was  ready  to  his  hand,"  and  the  crown  laid  up 
for  him  in  heaven  was  never  firmly  planted  on  his 
earthly  brow.  The  vision  of  the  Imperial  Hound 
who  shall  chase  the  wolf  of  greed  back  to  hell  is  a 
vision  for  many  days.  The  corruption  of  the  Church, 
the  faithlessness  of  the  Empire,  and  the  discords 
between  them  have  made  havoc  of  earthly  happiness, 
and  obscured  its  prophecy  of  heavenly  bliss.  He 
who  would  escape  from  the  tangled  forest  of  the  world 
as  it  is,  must  look  for  guidance  and  support  elsewhere 
than  to  the  official  organs  of  Reason  and  Revelation. 
He  must  fall  back  upon  the  eternal  principles  them- 
selves and  be  his  own  Emperor  and  Pope.  Earthly 
blessedness,  until  the  political  Messiah  comes,  can 
only  be  found  in  the  recovered  Eden  beyond  the 
grave ;  and  they  who  would  hear  by  anticipation  the 
harmonies  of  heaven  amid  the  discords  of  earth  must 
look  into  their  own  souls,  must  strengthen  them  by 
contemplation  and  support  them  by  divine  promises 
that  cannot  fail.  To  them  the  path  of  redemption 
is  still  open ;  and  Reason  and  Revelation,  though 
renounced  and  betrayed  by  those  to  whose  guardian- 
ship they  have  been  entrusted,  are  still  at  hand  with 
their  divine  testimony  for  such  as  can  hear  their 
voice,   and  the  poet   braces  himself   to  the  task  of 

Paradiso  xxx.  133  sqq.     Inferno  i.  loi  sqq. 
Purgatorio  xxxii.  34 — xxxiii.  12,  and  elsewhere. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     175 

"  drawing  them  who  are  living  the  life  on  earth  out 
of  their  misery  and  leading  them  to  the  state  of 
bliss." 

When  Dante  fell  back  upon  these  inner  lights  and 
ideal  hopes  and  found  in  them  a  deeper  peace  and  the 
promise  of  a  fuller  and  more  divine  fruition  than  his 
most  ecstatic  Messianic  fervours  had  ever  inspired,  he 
recognised  a  note  in  this  music  of  the  soul  which  he 
had  heard  long  since  in  the  innocence  of  his  childhood 
and  early  manhood,  when  beauty,  truth  and  goodness 
had  seemed  to  walk  the  earth  incarnate  in  one  whom 
many,  without  realising  what  they  were  saying,  had 
called  "  the  giver  of  blessing " — Beatrice.  Many 
waters  had  flowed  over  Dante's  soul  since  then  and 
had  seemed  almost  to  wash  away  that  blessed  and 
consecrated  memory,  for  his  very  studies  and  ex- 
panding powers  had  seemed  to  lead  him  away  from 
Beatrice.  And  so  in  a  sense  they  had,  for  in  their 
undisciplined  violence  they  had  full  often  led  him 
astray.  But  now  that  he  had  at  last  found  himself 
again,  he  once  more  found  Beatrice,  not  as  a  distant 
memory,  but  as  a  living  presence.  That  child,  that 
maiden  who  had  left  the  earthly  life  in  the  beauty  of 
her  early  womanhood — she,  more  than  all  the  saints — 
was  his  guide  to  the  heavenly  life  of  which  her 
earthly  presence  had  been  the  promise  and  the 
symbol. 

But  it  was  Virgil  who  had  called  him  back  to  her ; 
for  it  was  he  who,  in  the  thought  of  the  divine  mission 
of  the  Empire,  had  opened  to  his  vision  at  once  the 


176  DANTE 


meaning  and  the  limitations  of  the  earthly  Hfe,  and  in 
leading  him  to  the  Earthly  Paradise  had  brought  him 
into  the  presence  of  a  guide  whom  he  himself  was 
forbidden  to  follow.  Virgil  brought  Dante  back  to 
Beatrice.  Then  he  vanished  in  silence  from  his  side, 
but  left  in  his  heart  a  passionate  protest,  which  heaven 
itself  could  but  half  silence,  against  the  exclusion  from 
heavenly  bliss  of  the  Pagan  saints  who  seemed  to  fill 
the  measure  of  human  wisdom  and  goodness,  and 
whose  only  defect  was  that  they  were  ignorant  of 
that  which  by  their  very  nature  and  destiny  they 
could  not  know. 


"  What  can  the  man  do  who  cometh  after  the  king  ?  " 
— or  what  can  we  others  say  of  him  ?  Dante's 
"  Canonical  "  poets,  so  to  speak,  are  Virgil,  Horace, 
Ovid,  Lucan  and  Statins.  Of  these  Horace  need  not 
detain  us.  Dante  knew  the  Ars  Poetic  a  well,  and 
repeatedly  refers  to  it  as  an  authority;  but  the  only 
passage  that  seems  to  have  touched  his  imagination  is 
the  beautiful  analogy  of  falling  leaves  to  the  words 
that  wither  and  fall  out  of  use  in  our  languages,  to 
be  succeeded  by  fresh  and  living  growths.  There  is 
no  clear  evidence  that  Dante  was  acquainted  at  first 
hand  with  any  other  of  the  works  of  Horace,   and 

Paradiso  xix.  22  sqq. ;  xxvi.  137  sq. 
Ars  Poetica  60  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     177 

Juvenal,  who  is  outside  his  Canon,  seems  to  have 
touched  him  more  to  the  quick.^ 

With  the  other  three  the  case  is  very  different. 
Each  one  of  them  is  strongly  felt  in  the  Comedy  with 
a  specific  influence  of  his  own. 

Statins  is  the  only  poet  except  Virgil  who  has  a 
definitely  symbolic  significance  and  a  considerable 
actual  part  in  the  action  of  the  poem.  He  is  a  kind 
of  Christianised  Virgil,  and  it  hardly  seems  fanciful  to 
say  that  if  Virgil  stands  for  Philosophy  unilluminated 
by  revelation,  though  at  its  highest  on  its  own  ground, 
Statins  stands  for  the  Aristotelian  side  of  the  philosophy 
of  the  Christian  Schoolmen.  In  his  main  discourse,  on 
the  nature  of  the  intelligence,  he  refutes  Averrhoes 
and  gives  precision  to  the  teaching  of  Aristotle  just 
at  the  point  where  natural  philosophy  most  closely 
touches  the  boundary  that  separates  it  from  Revelation. 
On  this  point,  if  I  am  right  in  my  interpretation, 

^  Dante's  references  to  Juvenal,  and  his  quotations  from  him,  are 
few,  but  significant.  There  is  a  note  of  passionate  assent  in  his  citation 
of  5^/.  viii.  6-32,  in  Convivio  iv.  29  :  37  sq.  A  few  precious  lines  in 
the  Purgatorio  (xxii.  13-18)  tell  us  that  it  was  Juvenal,  on  his  descent 
to  Limbo,  who  first  told  Virgil  how  Statins  loved  and  honoured  him, 
and  who  thus  woke  in  the  master  a  reciprocal  affection  for  the  disciple. 
Juvenal's  personality  therefore  is  associated  with  one  of  the  most 
moving  incidents  of  the  Purgatorio,  and  at  the  same  time  with  the 
one  glimpse  that  is  allowed  us  of  the  life  and  converse  of  that  great 
society  of  sages,  heroes  and  poets  in  the  Limbo.  It  may  be  noted, 
too,  that  Juvenal  is  the  only  contemporary  author  who  mentions 
Statins,  and  he  speaks  of  the  dulcedo  of  his  verse  (vii :  82  sqq.).  Hence 
doubtless  Dante's  description  of  Statins  as  il  doles  foeta  {Conv.  iv.  25  : 
60)  and  his  ascription  to  Statins  himself  of  the  words :  "  Tanto  fu 
dolce  mio  vocale  spirito." 

Purgatorio  xxi.  88,  xxv.  61  sqq. 
N 


178  DANTE 


Dante  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  Christian  doctors 
alone  are  to  be  fully  trusted  as  guides.  Having  a  clear 
knowledge  of  the  truths  that  human  reason  cannot 
reach,  and  having  themselves  expatiated  in  them, 
they  can  return  to  the  lower  range  with  energies 
braced  to  higher  efficiency,  and  at  the  same  time  with 
a  clearer  sense  of  the  limitation  of  the  powers  of 
reason.  Combined  courage  and  humility  give  firmness 
and  security  to  their  steps. 

As  a  poet  Statins  had  a  marked  influence  upon 
Dante ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  bring  his  verses  into 
any  direct  connection  with  his  symbolic  character  in 
the  Comedy,  except  in  the  one  point  of  his  supposed 
secret  conversion  to  Christianity.  In  a  striking  and 
beautiful  passage  in  the  Thehaid  Statins  describes  an 
altar  of  refuge  at  Athens,  dedicated  to  dementia. 
There  was  no  image  or  likeness  of  the  deity  there,  and 
the  crowd  of  suppliants  that  found  asylum  in  the 
grove  could  only  feel  the  divine  influence  in  their 
hearts,  and  count  themselves  blessed  by  the  protection 
of  the  "  un-named  altar."  Little  wonder  that  this 
passage  should  have  been  regarded  as  a  cryptic  reference 
to  the  altar  dedicated  to  "  the  unknown  God  "  which 
S.  Paul  saw  at  Athens !  Was  Statins,  then,  a  Chris- 
tian ?  Had  he  read  the  secret  of  Virgil's  fourth 
Eclogue,  which  Virgil  himself  had  never  understood  ? 
Had  Virgil  thus  been  the  vehicle  to  him  of  the  salva- 
tion he,  Virgil,  could  give  but  could  not  receive  ? 
And  had  fear  of  persecution  prevented  him,  Statins, 

Thebaid  xii.  481  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     179 

from  openly  avowing  his  faith  ?  So  Dante  believed, 
and  on  that  belief  he  based  his  gracious  fiction  that 
Statins  had  spent  long  centuries  expiating  his  timidity 
on  the  terrace  of  the  Laggards,  and  was  overtaken  by 
the  pilgrim  and  his  guide  on  the  way  to  the  Earthly 
Paradise,  at  the  very  moment  when  his  release  at  last 
arrived.  Few  passages  in  the  Comedy  rival  the  tender 
beauty  and  pathos  of  the  lines  in  which  Statins  meets 
Virgil  and  tells  him  how  it  was  from  him  that  he 
received  the  gift  of  salvation  which  the  loved  giver 
himself  might  never  share — like  one  who  paces  through 
the  night  bearing  a  light  behind  him  that  shines  on 
the  path  of  another,  but  not  upon  his  own. 

It  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  that  Dante's  descrip- 
tion of  the  Mount  of  Purgatory  itself  owes  more  than 
a  hint  to  Statins. 

The  real  Statins  is  amazingly  unequal  in  his  poems. 
Extravagance  and  sentimental  absurdity,  coupled 
with  a  want  of  poetic  taste  that  will  allow  him  to 
speak — in  a  really  fine  passage  too — of  a  mountain 
being  so  lofty  that  no  birds  can  reach  its  sum- 
mit, and  it  only  serves  for  the  stars  to  sit  down 
upon  when  they  are  tired,  alternate  or  intertwine 
with  strains  of  gloomy  splendour  and  images  of  true 
beauty  and  tenderness.  Dante  appears  to  have  been 
insensible  to  his  defects,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
is  startling  to  find  how  many  outstanding  passages, 
chiefly  in  the  Inferno^  are  founded  upon  hints  caught 
PuTgatorio  xxii.  64-73.  Thebaid  ii.  32  sqq. ;  36, 


i8o  DANTE 


from  his  poems.  A  few  examples  must  suffice.  The 
splendid  description  of  the  Angel  that  crosses  the 
Styx  to  rebuke  the  fiends  who  would  close  the  city  of 
Dis  to  Dante  and  Virgil  is  taken — but  "  with  a  dif- 
ference "  that  makes  it  what  it  is — ^from  a  similar 
description  by  Statius  of  Mercury  carrying  a  divine 
mandate  to  the  infernal  regions.  The  removal  of 
Achilles  from  the  care  of  Chiron  was  known  to  Dante 
from  Statius.  It  was  from  the  same  source  that  he  drew 
his  conception  of  the  blasphemer  Capaneus.  It  was  a 
line  in  Statius  that  brought  the  cleft  flame  that  swathed 
Ulysses  and  Diomede  before  Dante's  pregnant  gaze  ; 
and  lastly,  it  was  from  the  merely  loathsome  scene  in 
Statius,  where  in  bestial  rage  the  dying  Tydeus  gnaws 
the  head  of  Melanippus,  that  Dante  drew  that  death- 
less picture  of  Ugolino  and  Ruggiero,  in  which  blended 
horror  and  tenderness  seem  to  speak  their  last  word. 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  though  the  symbolic 
significance  of  Statius  in  Dante's  poem  is  based  on  an 
intellectual  and  philosophical  conception,  his  poetic 
influence  betrays  itself  entirely  on  the  imaginative 
side.  It  is  far  othervdse  with  Lucan,  who  profoundly 
affects  Dante's  personal  estimates,  and  obviously  helps 
to  guide  and  develop,  if  he  does  not  actually  form,  some 
of  his  characteristic  poetic  habits.     The  influence  of 

Inferno  ix.  82  sqq.  Thebaid  ii.  I  sq.  Purgatorio  ix.  34-39.  Achille  id 
i.  247  sqq.  ^ 

Inferno  xiv.  46  sqq.  Thehaid  iii.  660  sq. ;  x.  904  sqq. 
Inferno  xxvi.  52  sqq.  Thehaid  i.  33  sq. ;  xii.  429  sqq. 
Inferno  xxxii.  124  sqq.     Ilhehaid  viii.  739  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS       i8i 

Lucan,  taken  in  the  broad,  is  far  less  incidental  and 
detached  than  is  that  of  Statins.  Thus  his  concep- 
tion of  Cato  and  the  place  he  occupies  in  the  spiritual 
economy  of  the  after  life,  though  it  has  many  con- 
tributory sources,  is  founded  in  the  main  on  the 
representations  of  Lucan.  Even  the  description  of 
his  personal  appearance  is  closely  modelled  on  Lucan's. 
This  is  the  more  noteworthy  because  there  are  so 
many  reasons  why  Cato  should  not  be  the  guardian 
spirit  who  receives  the  souls  on  the  island  basis  of 
Purgatory.  He  was  a  Pagan.  He  was  a  suicide.  He 
was  the  arch  opponent  of  Caesar,  who  stands  on  the 
temporal  plane  as  the  earthly  analogue  of  Christ  in 
the  spiritual  order,  so  that  Brutus  and  Cassius 
share  the  fate  of  Judas.  Cato,  it  is  true,  was  no 
traitor,  but  he  was  the  determined  opponent  of  the 
prime  representative  of  the  Roman  Empire,  which  in 
its  turn  is  the  antitype  of  that  very  life  of  Eden  which 
the  repentant  spirits  seek.  How  then  can  Cato,  of 
all  men,  be  the  shepherd  of  this  pilgrim  flock  ?  The 
answer  to  these  questions  has.  never  been  given  in 
detail  with  any  convincing  force  ;  but  for  our  present 
purpose  it  is  enough  to  treat  them  as  difficulties  that 
Dante  overcame  or  ignored,  and  to  ask  what  urged 
him  to  go  apparently  out  of  his  way  to  encounter 
them  by  choosing  Cato  for  this  office.  What  was  the 
force  majeure  which  made  Cato  inevitable  ?  To  this 
question  Lucan,  more  than  any  other,  gives  the 
answer.  The  keynote  of  the  Purgatorio  is  ethical, 
Purgatono  i.  34  sqq.    Pharsalia  ii.  372  scjq. 


1 82  DANTE 


not  mystic.  Justice  is  the  foundation  of  all  virtue. 
Neither  justice  nor  any  true  virtue  is  possible  without 
freedom.  No  man  who  is  a  slave  of  his  pleasures  is 
free.  It  is  this  moral  liberty  that  the  repentant  souls 
are  seeking  to  recover.  And  Cato  stands  alone  as  the 
one  man  who  had  realised  the  Stoic  ideal  of  this 
perfect  freedom.  For  him,  as  Lucan  testifies,  "  no 
pleasure  had  any  say  on  its  own  account,"  and  even  his 
most  intimate  personal  relations  were  regarded  by 
him  primarily  in  their  social  and  civic  aspects.  So 
to  Dante  he  was  inevitably  the  appropriate  guardian 
of  the  Mount.  His  opposition  to  Caesar  must  be 
regarded  as  a  defence  of  freedom,  not  as  an  opposition 
to  law  and  order  ;  and  his  very  suicide  must  be  under- 
stood allegorically  as  the  delivery  of  the  spirit  from 
the  tyranny  of  the  flesh. 

But  Lucan,  in  his  own  person,  has  no  feeling  at  all 
for  the  idealising  of  the  Empire,  or  for  Caesar  as  its 
representative.  He  hates  the  Empire,  and  though 
he  cannot  restrain  a  certain  admiration  for  the 
firmness  and  rapidity  of  Caesar's  dauntless  advance  to 
his  goal,  yet  he  uniformly  represents  it  as  a  kind  of 
daemonic  energy  that  worked  with  baleful  force 
against  all  better  influences ;  and  it  can  hardly  be 
denied  that  whereas  Lucan  in  no  way  affects  Dante's 
estimate  of  the  mission  of  Rome,  he  does  very  notably 
affect  his  representations  of  Caesar.     Dante  borrows 

Pharsalia  ii.  387  sq.  (where  Henry  Fielding — in  Amelia — and  Lord 
Macaulay  are  surely  right,  as  against  the  grammarians,  in  taking  the 
dative  in  urbi  fater  est  not  as  fro  genitivOy  but  as  the  dative  of 
"interest"  or  "advantage"). 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     183 

more  than  one  touch  from  Lucan  in  his  personal 
references  to  Caesar,  and  the  result  is  an  absence  of 
warmth  in  them,  to  say  the  least,  which  we  should 
hardly  have  anticipated.  They  strike  us  as  almost 
unfriendly. 

For  the  rest,  note  Lucan's  description  of  how 
Pompey,  springing  from  his  neglected  and  but  half- 
burned  ashes,  and  seeking  the  ethereal  abode  of  heroic 
spirits,  "  when  he  had  gathered  his  soul  to  the  eternal 
orbs  and  filled  himself  with  very  light,  looking  down 
upon  the  wandering  planets  and  the  stars  that  hold 
fixed  places  on  the  pole,  perceived  how  deep  the 
darkness  under  which  what  we  call  light  abides,  and 
smiled  at  the  insults  offered  to  his  lifeless  trunk." 
Here,  and  so  far  as  I  can  remember  here  alone  amongst 
the  ancient  poets  known  to  Dante,  we  catch  something 
akin  to  the  "  note  "  of  the  Paradiso.  Dante  is  able 
to  quote  him,  too,  as  supplying  an  Ethnic  scripture  to 
confirm  the  belief  in  the  omnipresence  of  God.  It  is 
the  wonderful  passage  in  which  Lucan  summarises  the 
Stoic  creed  at  its  highest,  and  (anticipating  almost 
the  very  words  of  Wordsworth,  though  not  his  passion) 
declares :  "  The  seat  of  God  is  there  where  earth  and 
sea  and  air  and  virtue  are.  Why  do  we  seek  the  Gods 
beyond  ?  Whatever  you  see,  wherever  you  go,  is 
Jupiter." 

I  can  only  touch  upon  the  obvious  influence  of 
Lucan    on    those    elaborate    astronomical    circum- 

Pharsaliaix.  1-14.  Paradiso  xxii.  133  sqq.  Pharsaliau..  578  sqq. 
Epst.  ad  Kan,  Grand,  22  (412-426). 


1 84  DANTE 


locutions  that  are  a  weariness  of  the  flesh  to  most 
readers  of  the  Comedy,  but  are  so  full  of  poetic  beauty 
to  the  "  other  few  "  who  have  mastered  the  alphabet 
and  grammar  of  the  speech.  The  hint  for  the  striking 
scene  in  which  Dante  is  bewildered  by  the  astrono- 
mical appearances  of  the  southern  hemisphere  is 
found  in  a  line  in  which  Lucan  represents  certain 
soldiers  in  Pompey's  army,  supposed  to  have  come 
from  below  the  Line,  as  "  marvelling  not  to  see  the 
shadows  go  round  to  the  left " — i  e.  not  travel 
counter  clockwise,  as  they  do  in  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere. All  the  elaborate  synchronisms  of  the  Comedy 
spring  from  this  root.  And  lastly  Dante's  eye  for 
great  tracts  of  country  marked  out  by  their  river 
basins  or  mountain  ridges,  and  his  interest  in  the  life 
history  of  a  stream  may  have  been  trained,  and  must 
certainly  have  been  delighted,  by  the  fine  though  less 
perfect  passages  in  Lucan  which  they  recall. 

Ovid  remains.  We  note,  without  surprise,  that 
his  love-poetry,  which  had  such  enormous  influence 
on  the  French  poets  of  the  twelfth  century,  appears 
to  have  left  Dante  altogether  cold.  And  though  on 
other  grounds  he  would  seem  superficially  to  owe 
more  to  him  than  to  all  the  other  poets  except  Virgil 
put  together,  yet  his  direct  influence  seldom  if  ever 
goes  deep.  He  gave  him  a  vast  store  of  illustrations 
and  associations ;    but  the  scenes  and  incidents  that 

Pharsalia   iv.    56   sqq. ;    viii.    467    sqq.     Paradiso    xxix.    I    sqq. ; 
X.  28  sqq.     Pharsalia  i.  65 1  sqq.     Canzone,  "  lo  son  venuto." 
Pharsalia  iii.  247  sqq. ;  ix.  537.     Purgatorio  iv.  82  and  passim, 
Pharsalia  i.  399  sqq.     Inferno  xvi,  97  sqq. 


'x  )•• 


« 


DANTE  AND  THE  LATIN  POETS     185 

Ovid  presented  to  Dante,  Dante  saw  with  his  own 
eyes,  not  Ovid's.  He  placed  them  in  his  own  context 
and  inspired  them  with  his  own  imagination  or  passion. 
Nowhere  more  markedly  than  here  is  the  principle 
illustrated  that  the  thing  that  matters  most  in  a 
builder  is  not  where  he  got  his  stones,  but  where  he 
put  them.  Ovid  is  indeed  a  quarry,  but  Dante  is  his 
own  architect.  The  ghastliness  of  Hell  is  heightened 
by  the  reference  to  Narcissus  as  much  as  the  tender- 
ness of  Purgatory  is  deepened  by  that  to  Pyramus,  or 
the  scarce  supportable  glory  of  heaven  brought  home 
by  that  to  Semele.  Ovid's  stories  constantly  enrich 
Dante's  imagery,  geographical  or  natural.  As  we 
watch  for  the  sunrise,  we  are  awaiting  the  first  point 
of  "  the  chariot  pole  that  Phaeton  erst  misguided  "  ;  as 
we  look  from  aloft  upon  the  Levant,  it  is  the  coast  on 
which  "  Europa  made  herself  a  sweet  burden  "  (the 
phrase  is  supplied  by  Statius — Blanda  juvenci  Pondera 
— but  the  tale  is  Ovid's),  and  in  the  description  of  a 
double  rainbow,  when  Echo  is  called  in  as  an  illus- 
tration, she  is  "  the  wandering  nymph  whom  love 
consumed  as  doth  the  sun  the  vapours,"  but  nowhere 
that  I  can  recall  is  Dante  really  stirred  by  Ovid's 
presentation  of  his  matter  as  distinct  from  the  mere 
telling  of  the  tale.  It  is  the  situation,  and  no  more, 
that  Ovid  supplies.  Nor  is  this  strange.  For  Ovid, 
in  his  treatment  of  his  subjects,  is  often  tenderly 
human,  especially — and  perhaps  unexpectedly — in  his 
depicting  of  matrimonial  love,  faithful  to  the  end. 
fbebaid  i :  i8i  scj. 


1 86  DANTE 


The  story  of  Baucis  and  Philemon  does  not  stand 
alone.  But  this  same  Ovid  has  carried  to  its  extremest 
limit  the  art  of  robbing  mythology  of  any  trace  of 
mystery  or  reminiscent  significance,  and  of  bleaching 
every  suggestion  of  awe  out  of  legends  of  the  Gods. 
And  the  strange  thing  is  that  Dante  seems  to  be  quite 
unaware  of  this  weakness.  When  Ovid  gives  him  a 
situation  he  sees  its  possibilities  so  inevitably  that  he 
thinks  Ovid  saw  them  too  and  even  that  he  has  already 
developed  them  for  him.  Thus  he  refers  to  the  story 
of  Argus  lulled  to  sleep  by  Mercury,  who  is  telling 
him  the  tale  of  Syrinx,  as  though  Ovid  had  carried  as 
far  as  human  power  can  take  it  the  vain  attempt  to 
depict  the  very  act  of  dropping  asleep,  which  in  its 
nature  cannot  be  made  to  sit  for  its  portrait.  He 
seems  to  be  unconscious  of  the  fact  that  he  has  himself 
performed  that  miracle  in  an  earlier  canto  with  touches 
for  which  Ovid's  finest  brush  would  be  no  better  than 
a  besom.  Yet  more  striking  is  it  that  he  refers  his 
reader  to  Ovid,  where  he,  Dante,  is  himself  helpless. 
It  is  when  he  is  trying  to  describe  the  "  passing 
beyond  humanity  "  of  the  soul  caught  into  the  atmos- 
phere of  heaven.  Such  an  experience  cannot  be 
expressed  in  human  speech,  but  it  was  like  that  of 
Glaucus  in  Ovid's  story.  The  reader  turns  to  that 
story  of  the  fisherman  who,  by  tasting  the  magic 
herb  that  had  re-animated  the  expiring  fishes  he  had 

Pur  gator  io  xxxii.  6^-6g.    Metamorphoses  i.  685-714. 
Purgatorio  xviii.  139-145. 
Paradiso  i.  67-72. 


DANTE  AND   THE  LATIN  POETS     187 

caught  and  enabled  them  to  leap  back  into  the  sea, 
is  himself  inwardly  transformed  into  divine  kinship 
with  the  ocean,  and  plunges  into  its  depth,  no  longer 
a  man  but  a  deity.  But  reading  the  story  in  Ovid 
does  but  show  us  how  infallibly  Ovid  misses  the  spiritual 
suggestions  of  his  material,  and  how  instinctively  Dante 
feels  them. 

It  would  be  ungracious  to  close  on  a  note  of  de- 
preciation. Ovid  never  pretends  to  more  than  he 
attains,  and  he  attains  much.  If  Dante  saw  more  in 
him  than  was  really  there,  it  is  our  gain.  To  all 
students  of  the  Comedy  the  Metamorphoses,  charming 
in  themselves,  have  a  special  added  charm  thrown 
back  upon  them  by  that  further  "  metamorphosis " 
which  they  themselves   owe  to  Dante. 

Metamorphoses  xiii.  920  sqq. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS 

A.  G.  Ferrers  Howell. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS 

In  studying  the  works  of  Dante,  especially  the 
Vita  Nuova  and  the  lyrical  poems  in  general,  we 
cannot  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  evident  influence  of 
the  troubadours  upon  him  ;  and  not  only  by  their 
influence,  but  by  the  equally  notable  contrast  between 
their  view  of  life  and  his.  It  may,  therefore,  not 
be  unprofitable  to  attempt  to  establish  the  relation 
between  them.  But  before  entering  on  this  attempt 
it  will  be  well  to  set  forth  briefly  the  nature  of  the 
love  which  was  the  predominant  theme  of  the  trou- 
badours' poetry  at  its  most  brilliant  period,  the  latter 
half  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  it  was  being  enthu- 
siastically cultivated  at  the  courts  of  the  sovereigns 
and  the  nobles  of  greater  or  lesser  degree  in  the  south 
of  France  and  the  north-east  of  Spain.^  For  the 
illustration  of  the  nature  of  this  love  I  shall  rely  chiefly 
on  the  authority  of  its  most  celebrated  and  gifted 
votary,  Bernart  de  Ventadorn,  from  whose  chansos 
the  whole  lore  of  chivalrous  love  in  its  most  splendid 
development  may  be  gathered.  "  No  other  of  the 
prominent  troubadours,"  it  has  been  well  said,  "  is 
so  singly  and  exclusively  a  poet  of  love  ;  without  a 
thought  of  the  business  of  this  world,  or  the  claims 

^  Cf.  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia,  i.  8  :  42-44;  ii.  12  :  20,  21. 
191 


192  DANTE 


of  another ;    without  a  word  of  politics,  morality,  or 
piety  in  his  whole  works."  ^ 

The  love  extolled  by  the  troubadours  of  the  early 
and  middle  periods — say,  from  iioo  to  1209 — ^how- 
ever sometimes  disguised  by  high-flown  language,  was 
the  love  founded  on  sexual  passion.  This  is  made 
plain  by  the  nature  of  the  reward  that  the  lover  looked 
for  at  his  mistress's  hand.  This  reward  might  vary  in 
its  degree  according  to  the  greater  or  lesser  intimacy 
or  opportunity  in  the  particular  case  ;  but  it  was  always 
of  the  same  kind.  "  I  languish  in  grievous  distress," 
cries  Bernart,  '*  for  the  sake  of  her  whom  Beauty  willed 
to  fashion ;  for  her  body  is  formed  of  the  best  that 
Nature  could  select ;  her  hips  are  slender  and  graceful ; 
her  face  appears  fresh  as  a  rose,  wherewith  she  might 
easily  revive  me  if  I  were  dead.  Shall  I  tell  you  how  ? 
I  am  not  bold  enough.  .  .  .  When  I  see  her  go  away 
from  me,  so  great  is  the  chill  that  I  am  undone,  for 
the  fire  coming  from  her  which  is  wont  to  warm  me 
flies,  and  I  remain  colourless.  .  .  .  High  is  the  reward 
vouchsafed  me  in  that  she  but  deigned  to  greet  me. 
Much  thanks  !  God  protect  her  for  it.  Lady,  if 
you  would  listen  to  me  with  that  same  tenderness 
with  which  I  am  speaking,  we  would  at  the  beginning 
of  our  love  make  an  exchange  of  our  souls.  Then  a 
delightful  consciousness  would  be  mine,  for  I  should 
forthwith  understand  how  it  is  with  you,  and  you, 

^  C.  Appel,  Bernart  von  Ventadorn,  p.  Ixxi  (Halle,  191 5).  This 
work  contains  Bernart's  complete  poems,  with  facsimile  reproductions 
of  twenty-three  of  their  melodies. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS     193 

how  it  is  with  me,  in  perfect  unanimity,  and  our  two 
hearts  would  be  joined  in  one."  ^ 

Again  :  "  And  since  you  were  pleased  to  do  me  such 
honour  the  day  that  with  a  kiss  you  gave  me  your 
love,  contrive,  if  it  please  you,  that  still  more  [than  a 
kiss]  may  be  mine."  ^  And  this  is  amplified  in  the 
most  explicit  language  in  other  passages.^  A  poem 
by  Peire  Rogier,  a  contemporary  of  Bernart,  also 
throws  light  on  the  point  we  are  considering.  He 
begins  by  professing  that  such  is  his  mistress's  excel- 
lence, that  the  most  ill-conditioned  churl,  did  he  but 
speak  a  word  or  two  with  her,  would  become  courteous ; 
next,  after  expressing  his  utter  devotion  to  her  service, 
and  congratulating  himself  on  his  sagacity  in  choosing 
such  an  object  for  his  homage,  he  bewails  the  misery 
he  endures  in  her  absence,  and  in  his  failure  to  win  her 
favour.  Finally  his  aim  is  disclosed,  namely,  that 
he  may  "  enjoy  her."  ^ 

This  love  was  the  troubadour's  supreme  good. 
"  Through  nothing,"  says  Bernart,  "  is  a  man  so 
excellent  as  through  love  and  gallantry ;  for  from 
hence  proceed  gaiety  and  song,  and  all  that  chivalry 
implies.  Wherefore  I  would  not  have  the  lordship 
of  all  the  world  unless  I  could  secure  the  rapture  of 

^  Can  lo  boschatges  es  jioritZy  11.  25  ff.  (Appel,  No.  40). 

2  Bern  cuidei  de  chantar  sofrtr,  st.  ii.  (Appel,  No.  13).     Cf.  Can  la 
f re f  aura  (al.  douss^aura)  venta,  st.  v.  (Appel,  No.  37). 

3  Pos  freyatz  me  Senhor,  st.  iv.  (Appel,  No.  36).     Lone  terns  a  qti'eu 
no  chantei  mat,  st.  v.,  vi.  (Appel,  No.  27). 

*  Ges  non  puesc  en  bon  vers  faillir.     Appel,  Das  Leben  u.  die  Lieder 
des  Trobadors  Peire  Rogier,  pp.  54-57  (Berlin,  1882). 
O 


194  DANTE 


love."  ^  Here  we  have  in  a  nutshell  the  troubadours' 
philosophy  of  life. 

In  the  Court  circles  of  those  days  the  young  girl 
was  kept  completely  in  the  background,  and  the 
troubadours  invariably  paid  their  homage  to  some 
married  lady  of  high  station  ;  and  when  we  remember 
that  there  were  some  460  troubadours  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  whose  poems  have  survived, 
we  may  be  sure  that  there  was  a  good  deal  of  "  com- 
mon form "  and  simulated  passion  in  their  songs. 
But  Appel  explodes  the  extravagant  thesis  main- 
tained by  some,  that  nearly  all  the  troubadours'  love- 
songs  were  mere  poetic  exercises  without  any  emotional 
foundation,  and  that  the  ladies  celebrated  in  them  were 
"  purely  imaginary  phantoms."  ^ 

The  south  of  France  in  the  twelfth  century  was  a 
comparatively  peaceful  region,  and  the  courtly  society 
there  led  a  cultivated,  gay,  frivolous  existence  which 
has  been  vividly  depicted  in  the  charming  poem  of 
Flamenca.^  It  was  a  non-moral,  if  not  an  immoral 
world,  and  though  sacred  names  often  occur  in  the 
troubadours'  poems,  they  are  seldom  met  with  save 
as  expletives  or  adjurations.  The  most  remarkable 
example  of  this  is  found  in  the  famous  Alha  of  Giraut 
de  Bornelh,  which  begins  with  a  magnificent  invoca- 
tion of  God,  that  He  may  be  pleased  to  protect  the 
person  of  the  singer's  companion,  who  is  passing  the 

*  Ges  de  chantar  nom  -pren  talans,  11.  25-30  (Appel,  No.  21). 

2  Bernart  von  Ventadorn,  xxiv.  ff. 

^  P.  Meyer,  Le  roman  de  Flamenca  (Paris,  1901). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS     195 

night  with  his  mistress.^  In  something  of  the  same 
spirit  we  find  B.  de  Ventadorn  thus  enjoining  unselfish- 
ness from  a  selfish  motive  :  "  For  her  sake  it  is  right 
and  seemly  that  I  should  serve  every  creature  :  even 
my  enemy  I  ought  to  call  my  lord  ;  for  by  fair  speech 
you  may  win  over  even  him  who  is  most  opposed  to 
love  to  further  the  lover's  interest."  ^ 

In  connection  with  this  subject  we  may  briefly  refer 
to  the  troubadour  known  as  the  Monk  of  Montaudon, 
who,  after  delighting  the  courts  of  the  nobility  around 
with  his  minstrelsy,  and  enriching  his  monastery  with 
the  presents  he  received,  obtained  permission  to  visit 
Alfonso  II,  King  of  Aragon  (1162-1196).  This 
monarch  "  commanded  him  to  eat  flesh  and  pay  court 
to  the  ladies,  and  sing,  and  compose  poetry ;  and  this 
he  did."  We  possess,  in  fact,  some  twenty  pieces  by 
him — love-songs  and  other  poems. ^ 

When,  however,  we  come  to  the  troubadours  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  we  see  that  the  treatment  of  the 
theme  of  chivalrous  love  has  undergone  a  transforma- 
tion. The  later  poems  of  Giraut  de  Bornelh  {ft. 
1 1 70  ?-i  220  ?)  clearly  indicate  the  beginning  of  the 
transition  from  the  old  chivalry  to  the  new.  The 
peculiar  social  conditions  amid  which  the  earlier  trou- 
badours had  sung  in  the  courts  of  the  princes  and 
nobles  of  southern  France  had  been  swept  away  by 

^  A.  Kolsen,  Sdmtliche  Lieder  des  Trobadors  Giraut  de  Bornelh^ 
No.  54  (Halle,  1907).     See  below,  p.  215. 

2  Bern  cuidei  de  chantar  sofrir,  11.  41-45  (Appel,  No.  13). 

3  Published  in  E.  Philippson,  Der  Monch  von  Montaudon  (Halle, 
1872). 


196  DANTE 


the  Albigensian  War,  which  had  raged  intermittently 
from  1209  till  1229  ;  and,  partly  in  consequence  of  this, 
partly  in  consequence  of  the  action  of  the  Inquisition 
and  of  the  preaching  of  the  Friars,  the  spiritual  and 
moral  elements  began  to  prevail  over  the  carnal  in 
the  love-lyrics  of  the  later  troubadours,  whose  most 
meritorious  compositions  indeed  were  not  love-songs 
(chansos),  but  pieces  on  political,  moral,  or  personal 
topics  (sirventes).  Take,  for  example,  the  troubadour 
Bertran  d'Alamanon,  who  flourished  at  the  court  of 
the  Count  of  Provence  under  Raymond  Berenger  IV 
(d,  124s)  and  his  successor,  Charles  of  Anjou.  Of  the 
twenty-one  poems  of  his  which  we  possess,  three  only 
are  love-songs,  and  in  one  of  them  an  entirely  fresh 
note  is  sounded.  The  love-lorn  poet  laments  that  his 
mistress  will  not  attend  to  him  because  of  her  absorp- 
tion in  her  religious  duties  !  ^  His  contemporary, 
G.  Montanhagol  {d,  about  1258),  expresses  the  newer 
doctrine  of  love  in  very  plain  terms  :  "  Truly,"  he 
says,  "  lovers  should  give  willing  service  to  love ;  for 
love  is  not  sin,  but  contrariwise  a  virtue  which  makes 
the  wicked  good,  and  the  good  better,  and  sets  men 
in  the  road  to  act  well  day  by  day.  Moreover,  love  is 
the  source  of  chastity,  for  he  who  realises  what  love 
is  cannot  afterwards  conduct  himself  ill."  ^  And 
Aimeric  de  Pegulhan  says,  in  the  course  of  an  elaborate 
apology  for  love,  that  without  her  (i,  e.  love)  he  can 

1  Nuls  horn  non   deu    eser   meraveilaz,  st.  i.     Salverda  de  Grave, 
Le  Troubadour  Bertran  d'Jlamanon,  No.  XX.  (Toulouse,  1902). 

2  Ar  ab  lo  coinde  pascor,  11.  11  ff.     Coulet,  Le  Troubadour  Guilhem 
Montanhagol^  No.  II.  (Toulouse,  1898). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    197 

have  no  honour,  and  that  many  times  she  keeps  him 
from  baseness  from  which  he  could  not  keep  himself 
otherwise.-^  The  feeling  expressed  by  this  and  other 
of  the  later  troubadours,  that  love  needed  any  apology, 
shows  the  strength  of  the  reaction  in  favour  of  religion 
and  morality  that  had  set  in  ;  and  it  would  have  moved 
Bernart  de  Ventadorn  to  incredulous  contempt.  A 
comparison  of  this  poem  with  the  two  chansos  of 
Bernart  cited  above  (p.  193,  note  3)  is  instructive. 
We  shall  see  Dante  under  the  influence  of  both  these 
opposite  doctrines  of  love. 

The  later  troubadours  continued  to  employ  all  the 
old  formulas  of  their  predecessors'  love-songs ;  and 
their  attempt  to  adapt  them  to  the  new  conception  of 
love  inevitably  led  to  affectation  and  conventionality. 
Morality  gained  at  the  expense  of  poetry  :  and  the 
early  Italians  who,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  took 
over  the  stock-in-trade  of  the  late  Provencals,  found 
themselves  entangled  in  the  "  knot  "  from  which  it 
required  all  the  subtlety  of  Guido  Guinizelli  and  the 
other  poets  of  the  dolce  stil  nuovo  to  deliver  them.^ 

The  pastime  of  chivalrous  love  was  carried  on  under 
certain  well-understood  rules  and  conventions.  The 
first  and  most  important  was,  that  the  identity  of  the 
object  of  the  poet's  love  and  homage  should  not  be 
disclosed,  under  the  stress  of  whatsoever  temptation. 
This  is  very  clearly  explained  by  B.  de  Ventadorn  : 

^  Selh  que  spirals  ni  guerrey*  ah  amor,  st.  iv.    Monaci,  Testi  antichi 
frovenzali,  col.  60  (Rome,  1889). 
*  Pur  gat  or  to  f  xxiv.  49  if. 


198  DANTE 


"  So  much  does  the  ecstasy  of  love  overpower  and 
conquer  me  that  it  is  a  marvel  how  I  can  endure  not 
to  tell  and  declare  on  account  of  whom  I  am  so  joyful 
and  exultant.  But  scarce  will  you  see  any  true  love 
free  from  apprehension  and  misgiving ;  for  a  man  is 
always  fearful  of  failing  in  his  duty  to  his  beloved ; 
wherefore  I  dare  not  be  bold  to  speak.  As  to  one 
point,  my  understanding  helps  me ;  namely,  that  no 
one  ever  questioned  me  concerning  my  joy  without 
my  readily  lying  to  him  about  it  :  for  it  does  not 
appear  to  me  to  be  sound  sense,  but  rather  childish 
folly,  for  one  that  is  happy  in  love  to  disclose  his  heart 
to  another  unless  he  can  thereby  be  of  service  to  him. 
There  is  no  discourtesy  (enois)  nor  transgression 
greater  than  that  of  him  who  spies  upon  another's 
love."  ^  Hence,  in  the  troubadours'  lyrics  the  poet's 
mistress  is  designated  by  some  fanciful  nickname,  such 
as  Aziman  (magnet),  Conort  (consolation).^  The 
secret  was  doubtless  often  an  open  secret,  but  so  far 
as  poetry  was  concerned  it  was  always  kept.  The 
reason  for  this  rule  was,  of  course,  the  damage  that 
might  be  caused  to  the  reputation  of  the  lovers  by  the 
envy  of  slanderers  and  backbiters.  Bernart  accordingly 
protests  to  his  lady  :  "  If  those  false  envious  ones  who 
have  robbed  me  of  many  a  good  day  should  set  them- 
selves in  ambush  to  discover  how  things  stand  between 
us,  be  not  dismayed  by  the  talk  of  base  scoundrels, 

^  Abjoi  mou  lo  vers  el  comens,  11.  9-30  (Appel,  No.  i). 
2  The  poets'  patrons  and  men  friends  are  also  often  referred  to  in 
the  same  way. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS     199 

for  our  love  shall  not  be  known  through  me ;  be  well 
assured  of  that."  ^ 

Next,  the  lover  must  be  devoted  and  constant  to 
the  service  of  his  mistress  :  "  I  will  always  wish  her 
honour  and  her  good,  and  will  be  to  her  a  vassal, 
a  friend,  and  a  servant."  ^  "  Among  lovers,"  says 
G.  de  Bornelh,^  "  the  highest  praise  is  secrecy  and 
constancy.  Let  him  be  blotted  out  from  among  the 
faithful,  and  let  him  renounce  the  best  that  love  has 
to  give,  who  follows  not  her  rule  and  law,  but  asso- 
ciates himself  with  many,  so  that  one  is  of  no  concern 
to  him." 

Absolute  submission  to  the  desires,  and  even  the 
whims  of  the  lady  were  enjoined  :  "  I  welcome  her  love 
which  takes  me  captive  for  her  sake,  though  she  makes 
me  a  hard  prison,  for  she  is  always  reproaching  me  for 
that  which  /  have  cause  to  complain  of.  She  is  wrong  ; 
but  I  forgive  her,  for  I  know  her  to  be  so  fair  and  good 
that  all  ills  from  her  are  good  to  me."  *  Still,  if  the 
mistress  remained  persistently  obdurate,  or  betrayed 
her  lover,  he  was  not  doomed  to  languish  in  perpetual 
desolation,  but  was  free  to  turn  his  attention  else- 
where. "  I  had  served  her  very  well,"  says  Bernart, 
"  until  her  heart  was  fickle  toward  me  :  but  since  she 
is  not  destined  for  me,  I  am  very  foolish  if  I  serve  her 
any  more."  ^    Most  of  the  troubadours,  in  fact,  wor- 

'^  A  !  tantas  bonas  chansos,  St.  vi.  (Appel,  No.  8). 

2  Be  trCan  ferdut  lai  enves  Ventadorn,  st.  iv.  (Appel,  No.  12). 

3  Qui  chantar  sol,  st.  vi.  (Kolsen,  No.  44). 

*  B.  de  Ventadorn,  Bel  mes  can  eu  vei  la  brolha,  st.  iii.  (Appel,  No.  9). 
^  La  dousa  votz  at  auztda,  11.  32-36  (Appel,  No.  23). 


200  DANTE 


shipped  at  different  altars  at  different  times,  and  would 
have  yielded  a  hearty  assent  to  the  comfortable 
doctrine,  "  amorem  huius  posse  torpescere  atque  denique 
interire^  nee  non  huius  ,  ,  ,  in  anima  reJormariP  ^ 

Some  troubadours  adopted  an  obscure  and  subtle 
style  of  composition  (trohar  clus^  or  sotil)  character- 
ised by  unusual  words  and  constructions,  rare  rhymes 
and  every  metrical  artifice  that  their  ingenuity  could 
suggest.  The  supreme  master  in  this  style  was 
Dante's  favourite,  Arnaut  Daniel,  whom  I  shall  discuss 
later.  The  motives  leading  to  the  adoption  of  the 
obscure  style  were  two  :  first,  a  striving  after  origin- 
ality, which,  naturally,  became  harder  and  harder  to 
attain  as  time  went  on.  Peire  d'Alvernhe,  a  noted  artist 
in  the  trohar  clus  (whom  Dante  mentions  in  De  Vulgari 
Eloquentia,  i.  lo),  whose  muse  was  evidently  somewhat 
intractable,  sets  forth  his  difficulty  quite  frankly  at 
the  beginning  of  one  of  his  poems.  "  I  will  sing," 
says  he,  "  since  I  see  I  must,  a  new  song  which  is 
buzzing  in  my  mouth.  I  have  been  sore  puzzled  how 
I  might  sing  in  such  wise  that  my  song  should  not 
resemble  any  one  else's ;  for  no  song  was  ever  worth 
anything  if  it  resembled  those  of  other  people.^  The 
second  motive  was  a  practical  one,  namely,  the  desire 
to  guard  against  the  danger  of  the  words  being  tam- 
pered with  in  performance,  by  making  them  as  diffi- 
cult as  possible.     This  appears  from  another  quotation 

^  Dante,  Epistola,  iii.,  §  2  (ed.  Paget  Toynbee,  p.  23). 
2  Chantarai  pus  vei  qu^a  far  vCer^  st.  i.,  in  Zenker,  Die  Lieder  Peires 
von  Juvergnej  No.  V.  (Erlangen,  1900). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    201 

from  Peire  d'Alvernhe  :  "  It  is  pleasing  and  agree- 
able to  me  when  any  one  applies  himself  to  sing  in 
close  and  guarded  words  which  people  are  afraid  to 
misquote."  ^ 

We  now  open  the  Vita  Nuova,  We  begin  with  the 
narrative  of  the  first  appearance  to  Dante  of  "  the 
glorious  lady  of  his  mind,"  and  the  origin  of  that  love 
for  his  ideal  mistress,  to  whom,  in  spite  of  much 
stumbling,  falling,  and  backsliding,  he  remained  con- 
stant until  his  life's  end.  Here  we  find  delineated  the 
dawn  of  a  genuine  passion,  free  alike  from  the  carnal 
taint  of  the  earlier  troubadours  and  from  the  frigid 
conventionality  of  the  later.  From  the  outset,  the 
rule  of  secrecy  is  so  effectually  kept  that  the  first 
sentence  in  which  the  name  Beatrice  occurs  has 
proved  one  of  the  most  puzzling  places  in  the  whole 
book. 

We  turn  the  page  and  find  that  the  poet's  devotion 
to  his  mistress  has  entered  on  a  new.  phase  :  it  is 
brought  within  the  domain  of  the  conventions  of 
chivalrous  love.  The  poetry  of  the  troubadours,  as 
Appel  points  out,^  was  social  poetry.  The  troubadour 
did  not  pour  out  his  soul  in  the  solitude  of  his  own 
chamber,  but  brought  his  emotions  into  the  common 
stock,  and  performed  his  composition,  or  had  it  per- 
formed, in  public.  Dante  accordingly  makes  his  passion 
a  subject  of  literary  discussion,  and  comes  before  "  all 
the  faithful  people  of  love,"  proposing  to  them  in  a 

1  Zenker,  o-p.  cit.,  No.  XIV.,  st.  i.  {Be  mes  plazen). 

2  Bernart  von  Ventadom,  p.  Ix. 


202  DANTE 


sonnet  a  dream  of  which  he  solicits  the  interpretation. 
Many  answers  were  returned,  and  he  notes  that  the 
true  meaning  was  hidden  from  all,  "  though  now,"  he 
adds,  "  it  is  plain  even  to  the  simplest."  The  dream, 
in  fact,  contained  a  forecast  of  the  issue  of  the  poet's 
love.  We  are  reminded  of  Giraut  de  Bornelh's  dream 
which  he  related  to  his  friend,  who  interpreted  it  as 
a  prediction  that  Giraut  would  enjoy  the  love  of  a 
mistress  of  exalted  rank.^ 

The  incidents  of  the  two  "  screen-ladies,"  with 
their  attendant  circumstances,  further  illustrate  the 
maintenance  of  the  rule  of  secrecy ;  but  as  regards 
the  second  lady,  Dante  confesses  himself  to  have  been 
guilty  of  a  grave  transgression  of  chivalrous  convention 
in  having  given  occasion  for  scandalous  gossip  con- 
cerning her.  This  coming  to  his  lady's  ears,  she, 
the  foe  of  every  violation  of  the  conventions  of 
chivalrous  love  (contraria  di  tutte  le  noie),  fearing  that 
Dante  had  become  even  as  one  of  the  enoios  so  often 
girded  at  by  the  troubadours,  refused  to  greet  him ; 
which  greeting  had  been  wont  to  fill  him  with  such 
bliss  that  he  could  scarce  endure  it.  Then,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  rules  of  the  pastime,  Dante  sat  down  to 
compose  an  exculpatory  poem,  such  as  the  troubadours 
denominated  escondig,  Dante's  escondig  takes  the 
form  of  a  hallata  ;  he  has  not  yet  that  assured  mastery 
of  style  to  which  he  afterwards  attained,  and  there  is  a 
certain  laboured  affectation  about  the  piece,  which 
lacks  the  simple  grace  and  elegance  of  the  poem  which 
^  No  -pose  sofrir  c'a  la  dolor  (Kolsen,  No.  40). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    203 

the  troubadour  Pons  de  Capduoill  composed  on  some 
similar  occasion.^  There  is  one  interesting  point 
about  this  ballata.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 
music  was  an  essential  part  alike  of  Provencal  and  of 
Italian  lyrics ;  ^  and  Dante  seems  to  intimate  (Fita 
Nuova  xii.)  that  he  employed  a  professional  minstrel 
to  set  his  ballata  to  music.  This  was  the  practice 
of  such  troubadours,  Bertran  de  Born,  for  example, 
as  were  not  themselves  musicians  :  whether  it  was 
Dante's  usual  procedure,  we  do  not  know.  He  was 
devotedly  fond  of  music,  as  the  most  cursory  perusal 
of  the  Purgatorio  and  the  Paradiso  shows,  and 
De  Vulgar i  Eloquentia  ii.  10  implies  that  he  pos- 
sessed a  theoretical  knowledge  of  it ;  but  there  is 
nothing  in  his  writings,  so  far  as  I  know,  to  lead  us 
to  suppose  that  he  was  a  composer  and  a  performer 
himself. 

The  next  division  of  the  Vita  Nuova  marks  a  pause 
in  the  poet's  development.  In  the  four  sonnets  it 
contains  he  is  entirely  self-centred,  and  they  set  forth 
the  painful  conflict  he  endured  before  he  could  resolve 
to  renounce  the  wooing  of  his  mistress  in  the  trouba- 
dour manner,  and  to  devote  himself  thenceforth  to 
singing  her  praises  without  the  thought  of  winning 
anything  from  her  in  return.  From  the  point  of  view 
of  Dante's  progress  as  a  lyric  poet,  this  portion  of  the 
Vita  Nuova  would  seem  to  adumbrate  the  period  of 

^  S'ieu  jis  ni  dis  nuilla  saisso,  in  Von  Napolski,  Leben  und  Werke  des 
Trobadors  Pons  de  Capduoill,  No.  VIII.  (Halle,  1879). 

2  See  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  8 ;  and  Beck,  La  musique  des 
troubadours  (Paris,  H.  Laurens). 


204  DANTE 


gestation  and  travail  which  preceded  the  great  trans- 
formation set  forth  in  §  xix.  when  he  had  accomplished 
the  passage  from  the  Provencal,  or  chivalrous,  to  the 
Guinizellian,  or  philosophic  conception  of  love,  and 
fuore  trasse  le  nuove  rime  cominciando  ;  Donne  cWavete 
intelletto  d^amore.  He  says,  it  is  true,  concerning  the 
beginning  of  this  canzone ^  "  la  mia  lingua  parU 
quasi  come  per  se  stessa  mossa  "  ;  but  it  cannot  be  that 
such  a  momentous  change  in  his  whole  view  of  love 
as  we  see  in  comparing  this  canzone  with  the  preceding 
poems  was  not  the  result  of  prolonged  study  and 
meditation  during  which  he  had  found  himself  in 
amorosa  erranza}  The  Provencal  setting  of  the  earlier 
part  of  the  Vita  Nuova  is  now  cast  aside  as  inapplicable 
and  outworn,  and  the  poet,  in  the  exquisite  lyrics  which 
follow,  soars  to  heights  of  philosophic  mysticism  far 
beyond  the  troubadours'  ken.  Frequent  verbal  reminis- 
cences of  the  troubadours,  however,  still  occur,  to  attest 
the  strong  grip  they  held  on  Dante's  mind,  but  though 
his  language  may  seem  at  times  to  be  but  a  reflection 
of  theirs,  it  is  animated  by  a  new  spirit  and  a  deeper 
meaning.^  We  may  perhaps  except  the  dirge  (or  planh, 
to  use  the  Proven9al  term)  which  as  a  good  troubadour 
Dante  composed  on  his  lady's  death  :  I  mean  the  can- 
zone "  Gli  occhi  dolentiJ^  ^  This  may  well  be  compared 
with  Pons  de  Capduoill's  planh  on  the  death  of  his 

1  Ftta  Nuova,  sonnet  vi. 

2  These  parallels  are  worked  out  in  detail  in  Scherillo's  excellent 
edition  of  the  Fita  Nuova  (Milan,  191 1). 

•  Fita  Nuova,  §  xxxii. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    205 

lady,  Azalais  de  Mercoeur.^  The  tone  and  sentiments 
of  the  two  poets  are  very  similar  :  each  dwells  upon 
the  abiding  of  his  lady  with  the  angels  in  heaven ; 
but  while  Pons  bewails  the  loss  which  the  whole  world 
has  sustained,  not  less  than  his  own  distress,  Dante 
seems  more  absorbed  in  his  personal  desolation,  sharing 
his  grief  only  with  those  sympathetic  donne  e  donzelle 
to  whom  the  poem  is  addressed. 

In  the  MS.  song-books  wherein  the  troubadours' 
poems  are  preserved,  some  of  the  poems  ^  are  preceded 
by  explanatory  prose  narratives,  much  later  in  date, 
called  razos.  Observing  that  Dante  in  three  passages 
of  the  Vita  Nuova  ^  refers  to  the  prose  narrative  as 
ragione,  some  have  thought  that  the  composition  of 
this  narrative  may  have  been  suggested  to  him  by  the 
Provencal  razos ;  but  it  is  equally  likely  that  the 
razos  in  Boethius's  De  Consolatione  Philosophic,  to  the 
study  of  which  Dante  tells  us  that  he  applied  himself 
for  comfort  after  Beatrice's  death,^  may  have  given 
the  suggestion. 

We  now  turn  from  the  Fita  Nuova  to  consider 
Dante's  relation  to  the  troubadour  whom  he  seems  to 
honour  and  admire  above  all  others — I  mean  Arnaut 
Daniel.  Arnaut  is  referred  to  four  times  in  the  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia,  first  (ii.  2  :  80)  as  the  typical  Pro- 
vencal singer  of  love,  next  (ii.  6  :  60)  as  a  master  of  style, 

^  De  totz  chaitius  son  eu  aicel  que  plus,  Napolski,  op.  cit..  No.  XXIV. 
2  About    seventy    in    number.     Chabaneau,    Les   Biographies   des 
Troubadours,  p.  2  (Toulouse,  1885). 
2  xxxvi.,  xxxviii.,  xl. 
*  Convivio  ii.  13  :   15. 


2o6  DANTE 


and  again  (ii.  lo  and  ii.  13)  as  an  authority  on  the 
technique  of  the  canzone;  while  in  Purgatorio  xxvi. 
1 1 7-1 1 9  he  is  preferred  before  even  Guido  Guinizelli 
as  "  a  better  craftsman  of  the  mother-tongue  "  ;  and 
is  declared  to  have  surpassed  "  all  verses  of  love  and 
proses  of  romances  " — sl  much-discussed  phrase,  the 
meaning  of  which  probably  is,  that  in  respect  of 
technical  skill  Arnaut  surpassed  all  writers  both  in 
southern  and  in  northern  France.^  It  is  interesting, 
therefore,  to  try  to  discover  on  what  foundation 
Dante's  opinion  of  him  is  based.  As  material  for  this 
inquiry  we  possess  only  eighteen  poems  by  Arnaut,^ 
one  of  which  may  be  left  out  of  account,  since  it  is 
merely  a  very  coarse  satirical  piece,  and  without  metrical 
interest,  being  composed  of  simple  mono-rhymed 
stanzas.  It  is  probably  an  early  production,  and  to  be 
taken  more  or  less  as  a  joke,  but  it  may  account  for 
Dante's  choice  of  the  particular  group  of  sinners 
among  whom  to  place  Arnaut  in  Purgatory.  The  other 
seventeen  poems  arc  all  chansos,  and  as  a  specimen 
of  Arnaut's  handling  of  his  theme  I  give  a  literal 
version  of  one  of  them  ^  (omitting  the  tornado),  which 
presents  less  formidable  difficulties  to  the  translator 
than  most  of  the  others. 

I.  Before  the  tips  of  the  branches  are  left  dry  and 

^  See  Paget  Toynbee,  Dante  Studies  and  Researches,  7,  n.  2, 
262 ;  and  Torraca,  in  Bullettino  delta  Societd  Dantesca  Italiana,  N.  S., 
xii.  336.        ^ 

2  Printed  in  Canello,  La  vita  e  le  opere  del  trovatore  Arnaldo  Daniello 
(Halle,  1883),  a  work  to  which  I  am  much  indebted. 

^  Ans  quel  cim  reston  de  branch  as  (Canello,  No.  16). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    207 

stript  of  leaves,  I  will  sing,  for  Love  so  bids  me,  a 
brief  song  on  an  ample  theme.  For  Love  has  in- 
structed me  graciously  in  the  arts  of  her  school ;  so 
much  know  I  that  I  stop  the  stream  flowing  against 
me,  and  my  ox  is  much  swifter  than  a  hare.^ 

2.  With  pleasing,  friendly  discourse  Love  has  bid 
me  not  depart  from  her  [i,  e,  his  lady],  nor  serve  nor 
woo  another,  since  she  does  me  such  a  favour  as  to 
welcome  me  to  her ;  and  Love  tells  me  that  I  am  not 
to  seem  to  her  a  violet  which  soon  withers  though 
winter  be  not  yet  come,  but  rather  that  for  her  sake 
I  should  be  a  bay-tree  or  juniper. 

3.  Love  said  :  "  Thou  who  tarriest  not  elsewhere 
for  another  who  may  deign  to  desire  thee,  do  thou 
avoid  and  reject  any  intrigue  in  any  place,  whoever 
may  invite  thee.  He  who  maims  himself  does  him- 
self great  harm ;  but  do  thou  make  no  mistake  which 
may  lead  men  to  mock  thee  ;  and  next  after  God,  do 
thou  honour  and  celebrate  her. 

4.  "  And  thou,  faint-hearted  one,  be  not  dismayed  for 
fear  she  may  not  love  thee  :  pursue,  if  she  flies  thee  or 
avoids  thee  ;  for  he  who  persists  in  his  entreaties  and 
does  not  leave  off  can  scarce  fail  to  attain  his  end.  For 
I  [to  gain  such  a  lady]  would  pass  amid  the  marsh  of 
Lerna  as  a  pilgrim,  or  yonder  through  the  land  where 
Hebrus  flows." 

5.  If  I  have  crossed  rivers  and  torrents  for  her, 

^  Allusion  to  his  having  said  in  a  former  poem,  in  reference  to  his 
then  hopeless  love,  that  he  was  "  hunting  the  hare  with  an  ox  and 
swimming  against  the  stream." 


2o8  DANTE 


think  you  that  I  repent  it  ?  Not  I ;  for  with  Love's 
joy  alone,  without  other  food,  she  can  make  me  the 
sweet  medicine  of  her  embrace  and  kisses ;  and  my 
heart,  e'en  though  it  flies,  parts  not  from  her  who 
guides  and  governs  it.  Heart,  whithersoever  I  go, 
leave  her  not,  nor  sever  thyself  from  her  ! 

6.  From  Nile  to  Sanehas  ^  no  fairer  lady  clothes 
and  unclothes  herself  ;  for  so  great  is  her  beauty  that 
the  report  of  it  would  seem  to  you  a  lie.  Prosperous 
am  I  in  love  since  she  kisses  and  embraces  me  ;  cold 
nor  frost  nor  fog  chills  me,  nor  does  gout  nor  fever 
hurt  me  ! 

I  may  note  that  the  far-fetched  reference  to  the 
Hebrus  in  Thrace,  and  the  rather  prosaic  mention  of 
gout  and  fever  {gota  ni  febres)^  are  due  to  the  rare 
rhyme  in  ehres  which  occurs  in  the  last  line  of  every 
stanza.  Similarly  the  rhyme  in  erna  may  account  for 
the  allusion  to  the  Lernean  marsh. 

The  mention  in  this  chanso  of  kissing  and  embrac- 
ing, and  other  still  more  ardent  expressions  elsewhere, 
leave  no  room  for  doubt  as  to  the  carnal  nature  of  the 
love  that  is  the  theme  of  Arnaut's  song  ;  and  this  seems 
to  supply  the  clue  to  the  meaning  of  Dante's  eulogy  of 
him  in  the  passage  of  the  Purgatorio  already  referred 
to.  On  account  of  the  love  which  he  had  celebrated 
— or,  rather,  the  abuse  of  it — ^he  is  represented  as 
undergoing  the  purgatorial  discipline ;  but  at  the 
same  time  Dante  speaks  of  his  poetic  achievement  in 
^  Locality  and  reading  doubtful. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    209 

the  language  already  quoted.  It  seems  therefore  to 
follow,  that  the  eulogy  applies  not  to  the  subject- 
matter  of  his  poetry,  which  Dante  is  there  condemn- 
ing, but  to  his  treatment  of  it — in  other  words,  to  his 
supreme  technical  skill.  Therefore  no  disparagement 
can  be  intended  of  quel  di  Lemost  (G.  de  Bornelh),  except 
only  in  respect  of  technique  ;  ^  and  this  harmonises  per- 
fectly with  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  2,  where  Giraut  is 
associated  with  Dante  and  "  his  friend  "  Cino  of  Pistoia 
as  a  singer  of  virtus^  rectitudo,  and  directio  voluntatis ^ 
whereas  Arnaut  appears  as  the  singer  of  Fenus,  accensio 
amorisy  and  amor,  which,  I  take  it,  must  here  be 
limited  to  carnal  affection.  Dante's  praise  of  Arnaut 
attests  the  great  importance  he  attached  to  technical 
skill  in  poetry.  He  saw  that,  since  G.  Guinizelli  had 
infused  a  new  spirit  into  the  infant  vernacular  poetry 
hidebound  by  worn-out  Provencal  tradition,  the 
one  thing  needful  was  to  complete  the  formation  of 
a  literary  language  which  should  be  a  fit  vehicle  for 
the  expression  of  the  new  philosophy  of  love  ;  and  to 
this  task  he  devoted  himself  both  by  precept  in  the 
De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  and  by  example  in  his  own 
lyrical  compositions. 

As  regards  metrical  technique,  Dante  mentions  a 
device  which  is  very  characteristic  of  A.  Daniel.^ 
The    practice   of   leaving   one   or   more    "  isolated " 

^  Note  that  the  speech  of  Limoges  was  held  to  be  the  best  of  all 
for  chansos  and  sirventes  (Raimon  Vidal,  Las  razos  de  trobar  in 
Monad,  op.  cit.,  5). 

^  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  13  :  22  ff. 
P 


210  DANTE 


rhymes  in  a  stanza,  answered  by  rhymes  in  the  follow- 
ing stanza  or  stanzas,  was  followed  by  the  troubadours 
from  the  first,  and  sometimes  with  the  happiest  effect. 
But  Arnaut  used  this  device  more  freely  than  any  of 
his  predecessors.  In  six  of  his  chansos  we  find  from 
three  to  thirteen  isolated  rhymes,  and  in  no  less  than 
eight  all  the  rhymes  are  isolated.  Here  he  compen- 
sates for  the  absence  of  rhyme  within  the  stanza  by  a 
scheme  of  subtle  assonances.  This  practice  was  not 
followed  by  Dante  nor  by  the  Italians  in  general ; 
but  he  speaks  in  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  13  of  one 
Gotto  of  Mantua,  who  always  put  an  isolated  rhyme 
into  his  stanza. 

The  musical  setting  of  the  canzone  determined  the 
structure  of  the  stanza  in  accordance  with  the  rules  given 
in  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  10,  where  Arnaut 's  practice 
in  regard  to  it  is  likewise  adverted  to.  With  the  object 
of  avoiding  the  monotonous  iteration  of  short  musical 
phrases,  Arnaut  usually  set  his  poems  to  an  undivided 
melody,  and  consequently  adopted  the  undivided  form 
of  stanza  which,  though  already  in  use,  had  not  been  so 
lavishly  employed  before.^  But  his  crowning  achieve- 
ment was  the  Sestina,^  a  form  in  all  probability  in- 
vented by  him.  Here  rhyme  is  discarded  altogether, 
and  the  same  six  words  occur  as  line-endings  in  each 
of  the  six  stanzas,  and  in  the  tornada  (or  envoy)  accord- 
ing to  a  particular  scheme.     The  metrical  structure 

^  See  Canello,  op.  cit.  23-25 ;  and  Appel,  Bernart  von  Ventadom^ 
xcviii.  if. 

^  Canello,  No.  xviii. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    211 

of  this  poem  was  imitated  (with  two  slight  modifica- 
tions) by  Dante  in  his  canzone  ''Al  poco  giorno^'^  ^  and 
even  surpassed  by  him  in  the  extraordinary  composition 
"  Amor  tu  vedi  hen^^  ^  which  he  viewed  with  so  much 
complacency.  Another  interesting  development  of  the 
Sestina  form  is  seen  in  the  poem  ''Al  prim  pres  dels 
breus  jorns  hraus^"*  ^  by  Aimeric  de  Belenoi,  another  of 
whose  poems  is  cited  in  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  6,  12. 
Arnaut  Daniel's  chansos  smell  strongly  of  the  lamp, 
and  more  than  once  he  alludes  to  his  care  in  com- 
position. He  uses  a  large  number  of  words  not  met 
with  in  any  other  troubadour,  and  a  large  number 
in  an  unusual  sense,  while,  as  might  be  expected  in 
the  supreme  artist  of  the  trohar  clus,  difficult  inversions 
and  complicated  constructions  are  not  wanting. 
There  is  also  a  wonderful  variety  in  the  length  of  his 
lines,  which  range  from  one  to  eleven  syllables.  The 
rhymes  are  excessively  difficult ;  sometimes,  indeed,  he 
has  to  "cook"  them,  as,  for  instance,  where  he  says 
Roam  for  Roma,  and  Luna-pampa  for  Pampaluna.* 
The  result  of  all  this  is  that  his  style  is  often  cramped 
and  affected  ;  as  when  he  declares,  "  A  thousand  times 
a  day  I  yawn  and  stretch  for  that  fair  dame  who 
surpasses  all  others  as  much  as  delight  surpasses  sorrow 
and  vexation."  ^     After  this  astonishing  performance 

1  See  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia^  ii.  lo  :  15-28,  and  ii.  13  :  5-14. 

2  "  Oxford  Dante,"  p.  160. 

3  Appel,  Provenzalische  Chrestomathie,  p.  71  (Leipzig,  1902), 
and  see  Chaytor,  The  Troubadours  of  Dante^  p.  171  (Oxford,  1902), 
in  which  book  the  poem  is  also  printed. 

*  Dous  brais  e  critz,^  11.  36,  40  (Canello,  No.  xii). 
'^  Ibid,  13-16. 


212  DANTE 


we  are  not  surprised  that  the  poet  finds  it  necessary 
to  protest  that  his  fervent  affection  is  not  due  to 
intoxication,  or  as  he  phrases  it,  "  issues  not  from  the 
bottle."  1 

In  his  references  to  Nature,  Arnaut,  though  brief, 
is  less  perfunctory  than  most  of  the  troubadours,  and 
gives  evidence  of  his  sympathetic  observation  of  her  ; 
though  there  is  nothing  in  his  poems  comparable  to 
Bernart  de  Ventadorn's  famous  description  of  the 
lark's  song.2 

The  personification  of  Love,  of  which  a  good 
example  occurs  in  the  poem  above  translated  (p.  206), 
is  more  thoroughly  worked  out  by  Arnaut  than  by 
most  of  the  troubadours.  It  is  noticeable  that  in  the 
seemingly  needless  digression  in  the  Vita  Nuova^ 
where  Dante  justifies  his  personification  of  Love,  he 
does  not  refer  to  Arnaut  nor  to  any  other  dicitor  per 
rima,  but  boldly  appeals  to  the  practice  of  the  great 
Roman  poets,  thus  exalting  the  despised  vernacular 
to  the  august  level  of  Latin. 

Arnaut's  influence  over  Dante  is  distinctly  percept- 
ible in  the  so-called  rime  pietrose,  that  is  to  say,  the 
canzoni  '^Jlpoco  giorno,''^  "Amor  tu  vedi  ben,^^  "  Cost  nel 
mio  parlar,^^  "lo  son  venuto  al  punto  delta  rota^'^  and  the 
sonnet  "jE'  non  e  legno  di  siforti  nocchi,^^  The  love  which 
inspired  them  was  the  same  love  of  which  Arnaut  sang, 

^  This  occurs  in  ^^  Sim  fos  Jmors"  (Canello,  No.  17),  cited  in  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia,  ii.  13. 

2  Can  vei  la  lawLeta  mover  (Appel,  No.  43). 

3  XXV.     Cf.  De  Vulgari  Eloquential  ii.  6  :  78  ff. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    213 

and,  as  Canello  remarks/  Dante's  psychological  condi- 
tion was  at  the  time  of  their  composition  similar  to 
Arnaut's,  and  disposed  him  to  a  sympathetic  study  of 
that  poet.  Arnaut  plays  upon  the  name  of  Laura, 
Dante  plays  still  more  persistently  upon  the  word 
pietra,  which  has  led  to  the  belief  that  Pietra  was  the 
name  of  the  lady  by  whom  he  had  been  infatuated. 

The  almost  entire  absence  from  the  Vita  Nuova 
poems  and  from  those  written  in  honour  of  Philosophy 
of  references  to  the  aspects  of  Nature,  is  remarkable, 
and  not  easy  to  explain.  In  "  Alfoco  giorno^''  and  still 
more  in  "  lo  son  venuto^'^  Dante  was  led — and,  it  may 
be,  under  Arnaut's  guidance — ^to  perceive  the  poetic 
value  of  Nature,  and  to  turn  his  keen  eye  in  that 
direction.  The  elaborate  descriptions  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  Nature  in  winter  in  each  of  the  five  stanzas 
of  "  lo  son  venuto  "  give  us  a  foretaste  of  the  splendid 
results  of  Dante's  Nature-study  which  meet  us  on 
every  page  of  the  Comedy. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  Dante's  technical  achieve- 
ments in  "^/  foco  giorno  "  and  "Amor  tu  vedi  hen^"* 
and  only  add  that  they  are  real  poems,  and  not,  like 
their  prototype,  little  better  than  an  exercise  in 
metrical  gymnastics.  "  lo  son  venuto  "  seems  to  be  a 
preliminary  essay  in  this  style,  for  we  find  that  the 
last  two  lines  of  every  stanza  end  with  the  same  word 
in  the  same  sense  :  the  words  are,  pietra^  donna^  tempo^ 
sempre,  dolce,  and  the  first  three  of  them  are  used  as 
end-words  in  ''Amor  tu  vedi  hen^  In  "  Cost  nel  mio 
1  Of,  cit.y  p.  47. 


214  DANTE 


parlar  "  the  structure  of  the  stanza  is  relatively  simple  ; 
we  may,  however,  note  the  difficult  rhymes  aspro, 
diaspro  ;  scorza,  forza  ;  corro,  borro,  soccorro  ;  and  the 
equivocal  rhyme  latra  (adj.)  and  latra  (verb)  in  lines 
58,  59.  In  the  ethical  canzoni  "  Doglia  mi  reca^'* 
"  Le  dolci  rime  "  (on  which  the  fourth  treatise  of  the 
Convivio  is  a  comment),  and  "  Poscia  che  Amor  "  the 
indirect  influence  of  Arnaut  Daniel  may  perhaps  be 
traced  in  the  extreme  complication  of  the  structure 
of  the  stanzas  and  in  the  varied  length  of  their  lines. 
Having  seen  how  Dante,  under  the  stress  of  an  over- 
powering passion,  was  influenced  by  Arnaut  Daniel 
in  the  composition  of  certain  poems,  we  now  come  to 
the  troubadour  whom  he  associates  with  himself  and 
"  his  friend  "  as  a  singer  of  righteousness,  and  with 
whom,  in  his  better  moments,  he  was  in  far  greater 
sympathy  than  with  Arnaut — I  mean  Giraut  deBornelh. 
Little  is  authentically  known  of  Giraut 's  life,  save  that 
he  frequented  the  courts  of  the  sovereigns  of  Navarre, 
Castile  and  Aragon ;  and  that  he  took  part  with 
Richard  Cceur-de-Lion  in  the  Third  Crusade.  He  was 
a  man  of  learning ;  ^  and  the  razo  to  one  of  his  poems 
mentions  that  he  was  robbed  of  his  house  and  of  his 
books  by  the  satellites  of  Guy  V,  Viscount  of  Limoges, 
in  1211.^  Another  razo  informs  us  that  he  would 
spend  the  winter  in  study,  and  the  summer  in  visiting 
various  courts,  accompanied  by  two  minstrels  to  per- 
form his  songs ;  and  that  he  gave  his  earnings  to  his 

1  Can  branch al  hrondels  e  rama^  st.  vii  (Kolsen,  No.  39). 

2  Chabaneau,  of.  cit.  16,  n.  3. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    215 

poor  relations  and  to  the  church  of  his  native  place. ^ 
But  if  we  are  scantily  informed  as  to  his  outward  life, 
his  poems,  of  which  nearly  eighty  have  survived,  tell 
us  much  of  his  character  and  views.  He  was  of  a 
proud  and  sensitive  disposition ;  his  career  as  a  lover 
was  on  the  whole  unhappy,  and  he  bitterly  felt  and 
deeply  resented  the  slights  which  his  mistress  put  upon 
him.^  There  is  hardly  a  trace  of  sensuality  in  his 
affection ;  thrice,  indeed,  he  expressly  disclaims  it,^ 
and  in  a  fourth  passage  reprobates  it.^  His  Alba 
(above,  p.  194)  is  quite  out  of  keeping  with  the  tone  of 
all  his  other  poems,  and  must  be  regarded  as  a  singular 
concession  to  popular  taste.  He  is,  in  fact,  the  pro- 
phet of  chivalrous  love  at  its  best,  free  from  the  baser 
emotions  of  some  of  his  predecessors  and  contempo- 
raries, and  from  the  conventional  affectation  of  his 
successors.  But  it  is  his  moral  poems  which  chiefly 
attracted  Dante's  sympathy;  and  their  influence  on 
the  canzoni  "  Le  dolci  rime^^  and  "  Poscia  ch^Amor  "  is 
unmistakable.  The  latter,  indeed,  might  be  described 
as  an  attempt  to  write  in  Giraut's  manner,  and  the 
closeness  of  the  imitation  is  intensified  by  the  use  of 
the  Provengalisms  messione^  fallenza^  and  coraggi ; 
while  donneare  and  sollazzo  are  the  Italian  equivalents 
of  domnejar,  solatz,  technical  terms  in  the  language  of 

1  Chabaneau,  op.  cit.  14. 

2  See  especially  lois  e  chans,  st.  vi  (Kolsen,  No.  47). 

3  Amars^  onrars  e  charteners,  St.  iv  (Kolsen,  No.  6)  ;  Chans  en  brolh, 
St.  vii  (Kolsen,  No.  22) ;  Si  sotils  sens,  st.  iii  (Kolsen,  No.  51). 

*  Ges  aisi  del  tot  nom  lais,  st.  vi,  vii  (Kolsen,  No.  45),  and  cf.  the 
Pastorela  Valtrer  lo  'primer  jorn  d'aost  (Kolsen,  No.  56). 


2i6  DANTE 


chivalrous  love.  By  way  of  illustration  I  quote  a  short 
passage  from  one  of  Giraut's  finest  moral  sirventes^ 
cited  in  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  6,  as  the  first  example 
of  an  "  illustrious  canzonet  "  The  v^orld  w^as  good 
w^hen  joy  was  everywhere  welcomed,  when  nobleness 
was  united  to  high  rank.  But  now  it  is  the  worst 
men  who  are  called  good,  and  he  is  said  to  be  '  superior  ' 
who  is  least  filled  with  joy,  while  the  man  will  be  most 
envied  who  gathers  as  much  of  other  people's  pro- 
perty as  ever  he  can.  .  .  .  Reason  has  gone  astray, 
since  men  have  deemed  the  bad  good  and  judged  the 
noble,  the  courteous,  and  the  true  to  be  the  worst." 
The  fourth  stanza  of  this  poem  should  also  be  compared 
with  the  second  of  "  Poscia  cWAmorT  ^  Similarly  the 
germ  of  the  doctrine  of  nobleness  set  forth  in  ''^Le  dolci 
rime^^  and  Convivio  iv.  is  to  be  found  in  Giraut's 
^' Molt  era  dolz  e  plazens^^  (Kolsen,  No.  64);  while, 
as  I  have  pointed  out  elsewhere,^  the  canzone  "  ^re 
donne  "  is,  as  to  its  dramatic  form,  a  direct  imitation 
of  "  Z<?  dolz  chans  d^un  auzelP  ^ 

As  I  have  already  mentioned,  there  is  little  sense  of 
religious  obligation  in  the  songs  of  most  of  the  twelfth- 
century  troubadours ;  but  it  is  far  otherwise  with 
Giraut  de  Bornelh,  in  whose  poems  the  note  of 
religious  exhortation  is  not  infrequently  heard.  Two 
of  his  poems  (Kolsen,  Nos.  70,  74)  are  entirely  religious ; 

^  5z  fer  mon  Sobu-Totz  nofos  (Kolsen,  No.  73). 

2  Reference  may  also  be  made  to  Nos  fot  sofrir  ma  lenga  qu^ilh  non 
dia  (Kolsen,  No.  69). 

3  Dante,  his  Life  and  Work,  p.  60  (Jack  &  Nelson,  1920). 
*  Kolsen,  No.  55. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    217 

as, of  course, are  the  two  crusading  songs .■'■  Like  Dante,^ 
Giraut  blames  the  Pope  for  not  bestirring  himself  in 
the  holy  cause.  The  Pope,  he  says,  is  so  fast  asleep 
between  Tierce  and  Nones  that  he  has  no  leisure  to  urge 
the  barons  to  go  against  the  Saracens.  But  whereas 
with  Dante  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy  Land  was  a 
matter  important  indeed,  but  secondary,  in  Giraut's 
eyes,  it  was  a  valuable  means  of  grace,  and  almost  the 
central  point  of  the  Christian  religion. 

Giraut  essayed  both  the  trohar  clus  and  the  trohar 
leu,  and  his  utterances  on  their  respective  merits  are 
conflicting.  In  one  place  he  declares  that  a  song 
lacks  its  full  worth  unless  all  can  enjoy  it,  and  that  he 
likes  to  hear  his  songs  in  the  mouths  of  the  water- 
carriers  on  their  way  to  the  spring.^  Again,  in  a  tenso 
with  his  friend  and  patron  Linhaure  (Raimbaut,  Count 
of  Orange),  he  asks  what  is  the  good  of  composing 
poetry  unless  any  one  can  understand  it  at  once  ?  ^ 
Elsewhere,  however,  he  deliberately  charges  his  lan- 
guage with  "  a  strange  and  noble  meaning,  though  all 
do  not  understand  with  what  meaning  "  ;  ^  and  in 
another  place  he  deprecates  "  singing  for  all  in  com- 
mon." ^  It  must  be  confessed  that  in  whatever  style 
he  may  be  writing,  Giraut  is  nearly  always  difficult, 
though  the  difficulty  arises  as  frequently  from  a  natural 

^  Kolsen,  Nos.  60,  61. 

-  Inferno  xxvii.  89;  Paradiso  ix.  124-142. 

^  A  fenas  sat  comensar,  st.  ii  (Kolsen,  No.  4). 

*  Kolsen,  No.  58. 

^  Si  m  sentisjizels  amies,  st.  vi  (Kolsen,  No.  27). 

®  Lajlors  del  verjan,  st.  iii  (Kolsen,  No.  26). 


21 8  DANTE 


originality  of  expression  as  from  intentional  obscurity ; 
and  in  one  place  lie  allows  that  it  is  harder  to  write 
clearly  than  to  write  obscurely.^  We  can  now 
guess  why  it  is  that  Dante  makes  no  mention  of 
Bernart  de  Ventadorn,  a  fact  which  has  often  caused 
surprise,  seeing  that  to  modern  taste  Bernart  would 
probably  stand  first  in  merit  among  the  troubadours. 
But  he  was  not  the  sort  of  poet  whom  Dante  most 
admired.  Though  his  technique  fully  reaches  the 
high  standard  of  the  troubadours  generally,  he 
does  not  attempt  to  compete  with  other  poets  in 
metrical  ingenuities  which  would  indeed  be  quite 
incompatible  with  his  style ;  nor  is  this  blemish 
— ^for  blemish  it  would  be  in  Dante's  estimation — 
redeemed  by  any  moral  or  religious  fervour  or 
philosophic  subtlety.  This  being  so,  the  prominent 
place  given  in  the  Purgatorio  to  so  second-rate  a  poet 
as  Sordello  is  at  first  sight  puzzling,  and  needs  explana- 
tion. Dante's  first  mention  of  this  troubadour  is  in  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia  i.  15,  where  he  appears  to  intimate 
that  Sordello,  after  some  literary  attempts  in  his  local 
Mantuan  dialect,  forsook  his  native  tongue  entirely.  He 
had,  in  fact,  after  numerous  wanderings  and  adventures 
(including  an  intrigue  with  the  too-famous  Cunizza), 
secured  a  footing  at  the  court  of  Raymond  Berenger 
IV,  Count  of  Provence,  by  1233  ;  and  must  thence- 
forward be  considered  a  Provencal.  The  forty-two 
poems  of  his  that  we  possess  are  all  in  the  Provencal 
tongue.  They  comprise  chansos,  tensos,  sirventes, 
^  Leu  chansonef  e  vily  st.  i  (Kolsen,  No.  48). 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    219 

and  a  long  didactic  poem  known  as  ''U ens enh amen 
d^onorP  ^  His  love-poems  are  of  no  special  interest  or 
importance.  They  are  in  the  conventional  style  of 
the  thirteenth  century ;  but  Sordello  rather  over-acts 
the  part  of  the  devout  lover,  and  is  at  times  very 
affected.  His  sirventes  and  tensos  have  greater 
individuality;  the  Ensenhamen  may  rank  with 
Tupper's  once  famous  Proverbial  Philosophy!^  But  one 
happy  inspiration  visited  Sordello,  and  procured  him 
the  sort  of  pinchbeck  immortality  he  now  enjoys. 
On  the  occasion  of  the  death  (probably  in  1237)  of  his 
patron  Blacatz,  one  of  the  chief  nobles  of  Provence, 
instead  of  composing  a  dirge  in  the  approved  solemn 
style,  with  an  intricate  melody,  it  occurred  to  him  to 
write  in  simple  mono-rhymed  stanzas,  set  to  an  easy 
tune,  a  satire  on  the  chief  sovereigns  of  the  time,  the 
Emperor  (Frederick  n),the  Kings  of  France  (Louis  IX), 
England  (Henry  HI),  Castile  (Ferdinand  HI),  Aragon 
(James  I),  Navarre  (Thibaut  I),  and  the  Counts  of 
Toulouse  (Raymond  VH)  and  Provence  (Raymond 
Berenger  IV),  who  are  bidden  to  eat  of  the  heart  of 
Blacatz  in  order  to  gain  a  martial  spirit  and  make  head 

^  Forty  of  the  poems,  including  the  Ensenhamen,  were  published  by 
de  Lollis  in  his  Vita  e  Poesie  di  Sordello  di  Goito  (Halle,  1896)  ;  and  two 
others  subsequently  discovered  by  Bertoni  were  published  by  him  in 
the  Giornale  Storico  della  Letter atur a  Italiana,  xxxviii.  269  ff.  He  also 
published  in  the  same  article  a  poem  in  a  north  Italian  dialect, 
which  he  considered  might  have  been  written  by  Sordello. 

2  One  passage  (11.  909-928),  where  Sordello  describes  the  rich 
"  poor-spirited  and  void  of  understanding,"  who  "  living  are  dead," 
affords  a  pretty  close  parallel  to  Inferno  iii.  61-64.  Extracts  from  the 
Ensenhamen  are  given  in  Chaytor,  ofi.  cit.  77  ff. 


220  DANTE 


against  their  foes.  Henry  III  must  "  eat  much  of  the 
heart,"  for  that  he  is  poor-spirited  ;  Louis  IX  will  only 
eat  of  it  if  his  mother  will  let  him ;  while  James  I 
must  eat  it  on  the  sly,  for  if  his  mother  heard  of  it  she 
would  give  him  a  thrashing.  The  correspondence 
between  this  list  of  sovereigns  and  that  of  those  whom 
Sordello  rebukes  in  Purgatorio  vii.  91  ff  .^  leaves  us  in  no 
doubt  that  it  was  the  sirventes  on  the  death  of  Blacatz 
which  suggested  to  Dante  the  employment  of  Sordello 
in  the  function  assigned  to  him  in  the  Purgatorio.  His 
sojourn  in  the  Ante-purgatory  had  been  long  enough 
to  improve  the  historical  Sordello  almost  beyond 
recognition,^  and  Dante's  presentment  of  him  would 
have  caused  some  merriment  among  his  fellow-poets 
at  the  court  of  the  Count  of  Provence  ;  but  a  trace  of 
the  old  insolent  levity  is  discernible  where  he  uses  the 
nicknames  Big-nose  and  Little-nose  {Nasuto,  Nasetto) 
to  designate  Charles  of  Anjou  and  Philip  III  of 
France. 

Of  the  greater  troubadours,  two  others  must  be 
briefly  referred  to,  Bertran  de  Born  and  Folquet  of 
Marseilles.  Bertran's  turbulent  character  and  war- 
like career  earned  him  his  place  in  the  Inferno  among 
the  sowers  of  discord,  and  are  faithfully  reflected  in 
his  sirventes.  His  dirge  on  the  death  of  Prince  Henry 
of  England — ^the  "  young  king  " — is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  pieces  in  the  whole  range  of  Provencal 
literature,  while  his  few  love-poems  are  distinguished 

^  It  is  worked  out  in  detail  by  de  Lollis,  of.  cit.  91,  92. 

2  The  date  of  his  death  is  unknown,  but  he  was  living  in  1269. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    221 

by  characteristic  vigour  and  originality.  His  technical 
skill  is  of  the  high  order  one  would  expect  from  a  friend 
of  Arnaut  Daniel,  as  Bertran  probably  was.  His  poem 
"  Non  pose  mudaty^  cited  in  De  Vulgari  Eloquentia  ii.  2 
as  a  specimen  of  a  war-song,  is  in  its  metrical  structure 
an  imitation  of  Arnaut's  "  Sim  fos  Amors  ^^  (above, 
p.2i2,n.i).  In  Convwio  W.  II  :  128,  Dante  includes  him 
among  various  potentates  as  an  example  of  munificence,-'- 
which  virtue  is  there  designated  by  the  Provencal  term 
messione. 

Folquet,  son  of  a  Genoese  merchant  settled  at 
Marseilles,  inherited  a  fortune  from  his  father,  and 
followed  the  career  of  a  troubadour,  his  chief  patrons 
having  been  Alfonso  H  of  Aragon,  Richard  Coeur-de- 
Lion,  Raymond  VH  Count  of  Toulouse,  and  Barral 
Viscount  of  Marseilles.  His  earlier  life,  if  we  may 
believe  the  razos  to  two  of  his  poems,^  was  not  free 
from  scandal,  but  in  maturer  age  he  renounced  the 
world  and  became  a  Cistercian  monk.  In  or  after 
1 201  he  became  Abbot  of  Toronet,  and  Bishop  of 
Toulouse  in  1205,  which  see  he  held  till  his  death 
in  1 23 1.  As  bishop  he  was  distinguished  by  his  vigour 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  Albigensian  crusade  against 
heresy,  and  by  the  assistance  he  gave  to  St.  Dominic 
in  the  establishment  of  the  Friars  Preachers.  Dante 
pondered  this  story,  and  from  it  evolved,  with  extra- 
ordinary skill  and  subtlety,  the  scene  in  Paradiso  ix. 

^  See  Paget  Toynbee,  Dante  Studies  and  Researches ^  p.  143. 
2  Printed  in   Stronski,  Le  troubadour  Folquet  de  Marseille^  pp.  4-6 
(Cracow,  1910). 


222  DANTE 


82  ff.,  as  Zingarelli  has  pointed  out.^  The  elaborate 
geographical  paraphrasis  with  which  the  passage  opens 
indicates  the  scenes  of  Folquet's  poetic  activity ; 
the  significance  of  the  word  arse  (1.  97)  comes 
from  his  chanso  "En  chantan  nCaven  a  memhrar "  ;  ^ 
Dido,  Phyllis  and  lole  point  to  the  three  ladies  said 
to  have  been  loved  by  him ;  the  invective  against 
Florence  was  suggested  by  a  poem  composed  by 
him  in  11 95  to  exhort  the  princes  of  the  West  to 
succour  the  Kings  of  Castile  and  Aragon  against  the 
victorious  Arabs ;  ^  while  the  rest  of  the  passage  is 
elicited  in  subtle  fashion  from  the  story  of  Folquet's 
conversion  and  his  ecclesiastical  career. 

Folquet's  poems  are  remarkable  for  their  artificiality, 
and  he  may  perhaps  be  claimed  as  a  precursor  of  the 
Guinizellian  school  in  virtue  of  his  "  methodical 
application  of  the  processes  of  scholasticism  to  the 
ancient  commonplaces  of  the  chansoP  ^  This  would 
be  a  passport  to  Dante's  favourable  consideration,  and 
account  for  the  honourable  place  assigned  to  Folquet 
in  De  Vulgar i  Eloquentia  ii.  6. 

Enough  has  now  been  said  in  illustration  of  the 
troubadours'  influence  on  Dante.  They  furnished 
him  with  examples  of  technical  skill  in  vernacular 
lyric    poetry   immeasurably   surpassing   any  that    his 

^  La  personalitd  stone  a  di  Folchetto  di  MarsigUa  nella  Commedia 
di  Dante  (Bologna,  1899). 

2  Stronski,  of.  cit.  No.  V.  (p.  27). 

s  Ibid.,  op.  cit.  No.  XIX.  (p.  83). 

*  A.  Jeanroy,  in  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  February  i,  1903,  p.  681 ; 
and  cf.  Stronski,  op.  cit.  73*  ff. 


DANTE  AND  THE  TROUBADOURS    223 

Italian  predecessors  could  supply ;  and  if  in  their 
chansos  they  were,  as  to  subject-matter,  rather  a 
hindrance  than  a  help,  as  we  saw  in  speaking  of  the 
earlier  part  of  the  Vita  Nuova,  their  sirventes  furnished 
models  for  such  outbursts  of  invective  as  Purgatorio  vi. 
y6  if.  and  Paradiso  xxii.  70  ff .,  which  are,  in  fact, 
sirventes  embodied  in  the  structure  of  the  Comedy. 
But  there  is  more  than  this  :  the  vanished  life  of 
courtly  chivalry,  which  was  the  background  of  the 
troubadours'  lyrics,  had  a  powerful  attraction  for 
Dante.^  He  could  sympathise  with  Giraut  de  Bor- 
nelh's  longing  for  the  good  old  days,  when  "  for  the 
sake  of  a  glove  thrown  among  the  young  courtiers  a 
chivalrous  contest  arose  which  lasted  for  all  the  rest 
of  the  year."  ^  But  while  Giraut  could  only  turn  his 
despairing  glance  backward,  Dante,  with  his  wider 
moral  vision,  comforted  himself  in  the  words  with 
which,  in  the  famous  canzone  of  the  Three  Ladies  ^ 
"  Amore  "  heartened  his  disconsolate  kinswomen : — 

"  Drizzate  i  colli  .  .  . 
Larghezza  e  Temperanza  e  I'altre  nate 
Del  nostro  sangue  mendicando  vanno, 
Pero  se  questo  e  danno 
Pianganlo  gli  occhi,  e  dolgasi  la  bocca 
Degli  nomini  a  cui  tocca 
Che  sono  a'  raggi  di  cotal  ciel  giunti ; 
Non  noi,  che  semo  dell'  eterna  rocca." 

^  See,  for  instance,  Purgatorio  xiv.  103  ff. ;  Convivio  iv.  1 1. 
2  Lo  dolz  chans  d^un  auzel,  st.  v.  (Kolsen,  No.  55). 
8  "  Oxford  Dante,"  p.  171. 


HUMOUR  OF  DANTE 

IiONSDALE    RaGG, 


HUMOUR  OF  DANTE 


"  Cicero  hath  observed,"  says  the  Spectator  of 
November  5,  1714,  "that  a  jest  is  never  uttered  with 
a  better  grace  than  v^hen  it  is  accompanied  v^ith  a 
serious  countenance." 

If  v^^e  combine  this  v^th  Burton's  citation  from 
Aristotle  in  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  that  "  melan- 
choly men  of  all  others  are  most  witty,"  we  seem  to 
have  proved  a  prima  facie  case  for  the  possibility  of 
a  humorous  strain  in  the  austere-faced  poet  of  the 
Divine  Comedy,  whom  Boccaccio  describes  (Fita,  §  8) 
as  "  nella  faccia  sempre  malinconico  e  pensoso." 

Aristotle's  "  witty  " — if  we  rightly  trace  the  quota- 
tion to  the  De  Divinatione  per  Somnum  (ii.  464^  :  33) 
— is  not  exactly  witty  in  our  modern  sense,  yet  it  is 
really  germane  to  the  subject,  for  it  implies  imagina- 
tive gifts — a  swift  intuition,  such  as  graces  the  scientific 
inventor,  and  the  power  of  seeing  quaint  and  happy 
analogies  {evoxoxCa,  cf.    Rhet.  iii.  li  :  1412^). 

We  beHeve  that  Professor  Sannia  was  right  in  his 
main  contention,  when  in  1909  he  claimed  that  the 
popular  tradition  of  a  humourless  Dante  is  a  travesty 
and  a  libel.  Dante  was  at  once  too  great  and  too 
human  to  be  devoid  of  this  saving  grace,  though  the 

227 


228  DANTE 


very  sublimity  of  his  work  tends  to  draw  our  atten- 
tion away  from  the  playful  flashes,  the  subtler  ironies, 
the  masterly  handling  of  the  grotesque,  and  from  that 
readiness  to  turn  the  flashlight  upon  his  own  weak- 
nesses and  to  look  at  himself  from  outside  which 
redeem  him  at  once  from  affinity  to  the  "  cattivo 
coro  "  of  those  who  "  take  themselves  too  seriously," 

"  Laughter,"  says  Dante  himself  {Convivio  III.  viii. 
96),  "  is  a  coruscation  of  the  soul's  delight."  And 
such  "  coruscation  "  is  described  by  Boccaccio,  when 
he  pictures  to  us  the  poet  as  "  sorridendo  alquanto," 
when  he  overhears  the  gossips  of  Verona  commenting 
on  the  crisped  hair  and  darkened  complexion  of  the 
man  who  "  goes  down  to  Hell  and  returns  at  will  to 
bring  back  word  of  those  below." 

A  like  smile — only  not  so  self-betraying  as  the 
"  lampeggiar  di  riso  "  of  Purgatorio  xxi.  114 — must 
have  followed  on  his  own  famous  utterance  on  the 
road  from  Porciano,  when,  according  to  tradition,  the 
poet's  ready  wit  saved  him  at  once  from  bodily  arrest 
and  from  verbal  mendacity.  "  Is  Dante  Alighieri  at 
Porciano  ?  "  asks  the  Florentine  envoy  of  the  escaping 
refugee.  "  Quando  io  era,  v'era "  ("  When  I  was 
there,  he  was  "),  came  out  the  deliciously  ironical 
reply. 

The  group  of  would-be  humorous  stories  about  him 
collected  in  Dr.  Paget  Toynbee's  Life  (3rd  ed.,  pp. 
176  sqq.),  authentic  or  otherwise,  strike  one  in  the 
main  as  clumsy  and  heavy,  and  unworthy  of  the 
author  of  the  Divine  Comedy,  though  they  witness 


HUMOUR  OF  DANTE  229 

to  a  popular  tradition  that  Dante's  severe  austerity- 
had  another  side.  But  such  a  tradition  as  that  recorded 
by  the  Anonimo  Fiorentino  on  the  episode  of  Belacqua  ■ 
(Purgatorio  iv.  106  sqq,)  has  a  more  convincing  ring4 
Belacqua  excuses  his  own  laziness,  quoting  Aristotle  to^^ 
the  effect  that  "  by  repose  and  quiet  the  mind  attains j 
to  wisdom."  "  Certainly,"  rips  out  his  friend,  "  if  | 
repose  will  make  a  man  wise,  you  ought  to  be  thej 
wisest  man  on  earth." 

When  we  turn  to  Dante's  own  works,  we  meet  at 
once  flashes  of  humour  of  a  grim  sort  that  would  be 
recognised  and  acknowledged  by  all — the  biting  satire 
of  his  invectives  against  degenerate  Florence  and  the 
Papal  Court,  concentrated  now  and  again  upon  indi- 
viduals, as  upon  the  Simoniacal  Popes,  and  particularly 
on  Boniface  VIII.  These  are  too  obvious  to  need 
more  than  a  general  and  passing  reference.  The 
grotesque  horseplay  of  the  Demons  in  Inferno  xxi- 
xxiii.,  at  first  sight  unworthy  of  any  self-respecting 
poet,  and  descending  ultimately  to  the  level  of  sheer 
vulgarity,  acquires  a  new  interest  if  we  regard  it  as 
a  delicately  adjusted  attempt  to  pour  appropriate 
scorn  and  ridicule  on  the  revolting  foolishness  of  sin. 
We  may  interpret  it  in  the  light  of  Dante's  own  com- 
ment on  a  similar  scene — the  vulgar  harlequinade  of 
Sinon  and  Maestro  Adamo  in  Inferno  xxx.,  where  the 
poet  depicts  himself  as  blushing  with  shame  when 
Virgil  reproves  his  childish  absorption  in  the  unworthy 
spectacle  {Inferno  xxx.  131).  This  habit  of  visualising 
his  own  shortcomings — his  hesitation,  his  falterings,  his 


230  DANTE 


cowardice — of  drawing  our  attention  to  a  puny  Dante 
hiding  behind  a  rock,  or  a  faint-hearted  poet  needing 
the  spur  of  Virgil's  tongue  or  the  encouragement  of 
his  leadership — -is  in  some  ways  the  surest  guarantee 
that  the  sense  of  humour  is  not  wanting. 

The  man  whose  attitude  towards  himself  is  such,  is 
evidently  far  removed  from  that  pompous  self-import- 
ance which  takes  itself  so  seriously  that  its  only  relation 
to  the  humorous  is  that  of  supplying  unconscious 
material  for  legitimate  ridicule.  If  there  is  irony  here 
it  is  not  of  the  mordant,  trenchant  kind — that  response 
"  not  with  words,  but  with  a  knije^''  which  in  the 
Convivio  (IV.  xiv.  105)  he  declares  to  be  a  meet  retort 
to  senseless  stupidity.  And  the  genial  irony  which 
sometimes  plays  about  his  own  figure  as  we  accompany 
him  on  the  mystic  pilgrimage,  gives  place  to  the  most 
delightful  playfulness  in  those  inimitable  scenes  where 
Virgil  and  Statins  are  together  his  companions  in  the 
twenty-first  and  twenty-second  cantos  of  Purgatorio, 

The  charming  situation  which  arises  out  of  the  fact 
that  Virgil  and  Dante  know  who  Statins  is,  while  he 
as  yet  is  not  aware  that  he  is  in  the  presence  of  that 
author  of  the  Mneid  for  whose  acquaintance  in  the 
world  below  he  protests  he  would  gladly  have  under- 
gone an  extra  year  of  purgatorial  discipline,  is  matched 
later  on  by  the  scene  in  the  Earthly  Paradise  where 
Matilda  gravely  discourses  to  Dante,  in  the  presence 
of  the  two  Roman  poets,  of  those  "  who  in  ancient 
days   sang  of   the  Golden   Age "   {Purgatorio  xxviii. 

139-47)- 


HUMOUR  OF  DANTE  231 

Dante  turns  round,  and  sees  a  smile  pass  from  one 
to  another  of  his  poet  companions. 

Less  exquisite,  but  perhaps  more  remarkable  in  its 
way,  is  his  attribution  of  laughter  to  spirits  who  have 
not  yet,  like  Statins,  won  their  release — the  mirth 
that  rises  to  the  lips  of  penitents  still  "  serving  their 
time  "  in  purgatorial  discipline.  On  the  Terrace  of 
Avarice,  Midas's  self-inflicted  distress — "  per  la  qual 
sempre  convien  che  si  rida  " — is  a  constant  source  of 
glee  (Purgatorio  xx.  108),  as  is  also  the  fate  of  Crassus — 
his  dead  mouth  crammed  full  of  the  gold  for  which 
in  hfe  he  had  been  so  hungry  :  "  Tell  us,  Crassus,  for 
thou  knowest,  what  is  the  flavour  of  gold  ?  "  (xx. 
116  sq). 

Dante  is  not  only  ready  to  poke  fun  at  himself 
when  occasion  serves,  he  is  also  bold  enough  to  intro- 
duce a  similar  situation  into  Heaven  itself,  and  to 
picture  St.  Gregory  the  Great  "  waking  up  "  in  his 
proper  celestial  sphere  to  a  sense  of  the  absurdity  of 
his  own  mistake  in  deviating  from  the  "  Dionysian  " 
scheme  of  the  Angelic  Hierarchy  {Paradiso  xxviii.  135). 

It  is  unnecessary  to  labour  the  point  by  quotations 
from  the  Convivio — where  each  of  the  four  Trattati 
might  furnish  us  with  instances — or  from  the  De 
Vulgari  Eloquentia^  where  he  makes  mischievous 
allusions  to  the  quaint  phonetics  of  the  various  Italian 
dialects  of  his  day.  Here,  too,  as  in  the  Commedia^ 
there  are  touches  of  bitter  sarcasm,  especially  when 
political  themes  are  touched,  as  in  the  references  to 
Azzo  of  Este  (in  II.  vi.)  and  to  Charles  of  Valois. 


232  DANTE 


In  a  more  playful  strain  he  drives  home  a  lesson 
against  over-ornate  versifying,  taking  up  a  phrase  of 
Horace. 

"  Optat  ephippia  bos  piger  .  .  .,"  he  declares.  "  We 
do  not  speak  of  an  ox  caparisoned  as  a  horse,  or  a 
belted  pig  as  ornatus,  we  laugh  at  them,  and  v^rould 
rather  apply  the  term  deturpatus.^^ 

There  are  limits  to  the  incongruity  of  adornment 
w^hich  cannot  be  tolerated  1 

Dante,  after  all,  was  a  Florentine  :  a  native  of  that 
city  of  which  the  poet's  elder  contemporary,  the  jovial 
Friar  Salimbene  of  Parma,  declared  that  its  citizens 
were  the  greatest  wags  of  their  generation  :  "  Floren- 
tini  maximi  trufatores  sunt."  Similarly  Prof.  Sannia 
reminds  us  that  the  poet  must  have  inherited  a  strain 
of  humour  in  his  Tuscan  blood — "  il  genio  comico  e 
satirico  fu  in  lui  impronta,  eredita  etnica." 

His  humour  is,  on  the  whole,  wonderfully  restrained. 
There  is  none  of  the  boisterous  jollity  of  Shakespeare's 
comic  scenes,  nor  of  the  rollicking  breadth  of  Sacchetti's 
or  Boccaccio's  style  of  humour.  In  the  Convivio  he 
expressly  deprecates  the  "  cackling "  laughter  that 
argues  utter  want  of  restraint. 

In  the  Inferno,  as  we  have  seen,  he  most  nearly 
"  lets  himself  go  "  to  the  verge  of  vulgarity — but  with 
a  definite  purpose.  And  Benedetto  Croce  has  pointed 
out,  even  in  this  first  Cantica,  instances  of  a  light  and 
mischievous  playfulness  (La  Poesia  di  Dante,  p.  57), 
more  in  the  vein  of  what  we  find  in  the  second. 

It  has  seemed  worth  while  to  draw  attention  to 


HUMOUR  OF  DANTE  233 

this  subject  when  Dante's  name  is  in  every  mouth  as 
the  "  altissimo  poeta."  For  without  a  sense  of  humour 
—  that  "  giftie  "  which  takes  us  out  of  ourselves,  opens 
for  us  a  true  perspective,  enables  us  to  sympathise 
with  human  frailty,  and  "  going  through  the  Vale  of 
Misery  "  to  "  use  it  for  a  well "—  a  man  cannot  be  a 
full  man,  nor  a  poet  a  full  poet.  It  is  because  he 
possesses  this  gift  that  his  poem  touches  the  imagination 
as  it  does,  and  thrills  the  heart  :— 

Sunt  lacrymse  rerum,  et  mentem  mortaha  tangunt. 


'A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO ' 

Antonio  Cippico. 


"A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  " 

A  don  Gelasio  Caetani, 

FuoRi  quasi  della  soglia  di  questo  libro  di  omaggio 
all'  Alighieri,  nel  quale  abbiamo  convitati,  in  questo 
anno  santo  del  sesto  centenario  della  sua  morte, 
a  modesto  ma  festevole  simposio,  alcuni  spiriti 
devoti  all'  alta  poesia,  desidero  d'auguralmente  porre 
il  tuo  nome,  amico  mio  molto  caro,  die,  disceso 
del  piu  nobile  sangue  d' Italia  e  d'lnghilterra,  sei, 
a  mezzo  dell'  avo,  insigne  dantista,  e  dell'  atavo 
tuo,  1'  ottavo  Bonifacio,  cosi  intimamente,  oltre  che 
per  lo  studio  diuturno,  per  me  coUegato — alia  opera 
immortale  di  Dante.  E  in  queste  poche  pagine  che 
nel  volgare  nostro  chiudono  il  volume  mio  e  degli 
altri  "  miei  migliori,"  poi  che  arduo  sarebbe  alia  mia 
coscienza,  ne  di  settator  d'ignoranza  ne  di  professore 
"  sudante  in  traccia  del  veltro,"  scoprire  o  dire  cose 
mai  prima  dette,  voglio  continuare  certi  nostri  coUoqui 
dilettosi,  iniziati,  meno  di  un  anno  fa,  in  una  loggetta 
aperta  sopra  uno  spiazzo  arborato,  per  oltre  al  quale 
scorreva,  senza  quasi  voce,  la  Bormida  verde  sotto 
quattro  grandi  archi  di  acquedotto  romano.  Ricordi  ? 
Eravamo  ambedue,  inferme  le  membra,  con  la  speranza 

237 


238  DANTE 


della  guarigione,  presso  al  bulicame  di  uno  di  quegli 
spenti  vulcani  die  sono  testimoni  perenni  del  grande 
fuoco  die  tuttora  e  nelle  viscere  piu  profonde  della 
nostra  terra,  del  fuoco  originario  in  cui  I'ltalia  ingenera 
la  nostra  stirpe  aspra  e  crucciosa,  del  fuoco  ond'  e  tutto 
"  cio  die  fummo  e  saremo."     Era  naturale,  forse,  in 
quella   nostra   solitudine,    tra   la   folia  degl'  infermi, 
dentro  al  cratere  stesso  del  morto  vulcano,  d'onde 
solforose  e  fumose  affiorano  perpetuamente  le  calde 
misteriose  acque  di  sotterra,  die  nei  tramonti  di  sangue 
appaiono  vive  d'un  "  boUor  vermiglio,"  noi  confortas- 
simo  con  Dante  i  nostri  ozi  e  i  nostri  lunghi  conversari. 
lo    estraevo — ricordi  ? — a    quando    a    quando    dalla 
tasca  una  Commedia  di  piccolo  formato,  ch'e  viatico 
fedele  della  mia  esistenza  :    e  da  mane  e  da  sera,  il 
cantare   di   Dante   comentava   a   noi   ogni   pensiero, 
colorava  ogni  discussione,  illuminava  i  fatti  del  mondo 
tuttavia  sospeso  fra  la  guerra  e  la  pace.     Nelle  fresdie 
notti  di  stelle  o  di  luna,  saliti  faticosamente  le  lacclie 
e  i  gironi  di  qualcuna  di  quelle  dantesdie  coUine,  arse 
e  pure  lussureggianti  di  vigne  e  di  messi,  cli'  impen- 
dono  suUe  Terme,  simili  a  minuscole  montagne  di 
PuTgatorio,  ci  rifugiavamo,  soli  o  con  un  dolce  amico, 
sotto  la  pergola  pampinosa  di  qualdie  osteria  campa- 
gnuola,  a  riposarci  dell'  aspra  via  e  a  riepilogare,  con 
la  lettura  di  qualdie  terzina  dantesca,  i  nostri  discorsi. 
Qualdie  falena  sperduta  cozzava,  per  ebrieta  di  luce, 
nel   vetro   della   fioca   lampana   appesa   a   un   tronco 
fronzuto.    Tra  la  frasca  ammiccavano  altissime,  ora 
si  ora  no,  sopra  di  noi  le  stelle.     Tu  mi  parlavi  de'  tuoi 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    239 

grandi  antenati,  con  quella  secura  conoscenza  storica 
che  di  loro  hai,  oltre  che  dallo  studio,  dal  tuo  stesso 
sangue.  E  il  terribile  guerriero  pontefice,  gloria  prima 
della  tua  casata,  "  che  gitto  in  terra  Penestrino  "  e 
I'aro,  mi  appariva,  cosi,  fra  luce  e  ombra,  suUo  sfondo 
della  notte,  oltre  che  nelle  tue  parole,  nella  vivezza 
degli  occhi  e  nel  tuo  volto  affilato  e  saldo  e  glabro,  in 
cui  e  il  sigillo  fiero  della  tua  specie.  Bonifacio  m'era 
presente  e  vivo  a  quel  modo,  assai  piu  formidabile  che 
nell'  affresco  giottesco,  come  mai  prima  nella  vita, 
come  mai  prima  nella  storia  letta.  II  buon  Moscato 
di  Strevi,  cosi  dolce  e  frizzantino,  indorava  i  bicchieri. 
Tutt'  intorno,  per  i  colli  e  su  dalle  valli,  saliva  il  canto 
insonne  e  assiduo  dei  grilli,  intermesso  nei  silenzi 
succeduti  a  una  terzina  o  a  una  tua  evocazione  della 
1'  antica  istoria,  che  ne  appariva  recente  come  se  con- 
temporanea.  II  tempo  era  per  noi,  in  quelle  ore, 
abolito.  Lo  sostituiva  con  la  sua  luce  senza  ombre, 
la  Poesia. 

Riusciti  all'  aperto,  giu  per  la  china,  tu,  sotto  quella 
pioggia  delle  vergini  stelle,  mi  narravi  ancora  i  casi 
della  tragedia  famigliare  della  donna  dei  Tolomei. 
L'ombra  di  lei  n'era  a  paro  nella  discesa,  assurta  su  di 
non  so  qual  burratello.  Ci  ricantava  nei  cuori,  pie- 
tosa  :  "  Ricordati  di  me  che  son  la  Pia."  E  riera 
quasi  non  ombra  piu,  ma  viva  e  dolente,  come  gia  in 
Maremma,  nella  sua  vita  triste. 

*  *  #  #  # 

Se  noi,  volevo  dunque  dirti,  in  questo  sesto  cente- 
nario,    publicamente    celebriamo   la    "  grande    anima 


240  DANTE 


redita  "  dell'  Alighieri,  non  e  per  colore  con  i  quali 
sempre  ella  e  stata  ed  e,  si  perche  all'  obliosa  umanita 
giova  trarre  il  pretesto  di  una  data,  a  ridarle,  sia  pure 
per  un  giorno,  la  conoscenza  del  suoi  Luminari — che 
I'abitudine  quotidiana  la  fa  cieca  al  sole  e  alle  stelle, — 
a  accennarle  le  vette  piu  alte  dello  spirito,  a  incitarla, 
se  possibile,  verso  nuove  ascension!.  "  Ascensiones  in 
corde  meo  disposui,"  consiglia  e  comanda  I'alto  Sal- 
mista.  Onde  se  Dante,  da  oggi,  da  questo  suo  anno 
di  giubileo,  potra  riapparir  tutta  nova  e  limpida  luce, 
e  contemporanea  perche  perpetua,  a  coloro  che  a  lui 
con  studio  e  ingegno  s'avvicineranno,  queste  sue  feste 
centenarie,  pur  con  I'eccesso  della  straripante  rettorica 
che  inevitabilmente  le  accompagna,  non  saranno  state 
in  vano. 

Che  la  lettura  e  I'interpretazione  e  la  conoscenza 
della  sua  opera  sono  giunte,  o  m'inganno,  finalmente, 
oggi,  a  un  bivio.  Da  un  lato  e  la  strada  lunga  e 
tortuosa,  percorsa,  nei  secoli  della  varia  ammirazione 
o  della  crassa  dimenticanza,  dai  fedeli  zelatori  del 
Poeta,  piu  quasi  sempre  teneri  di  proprie  ideologie 
individuali  settarie,  filosofiche  o  teologiche  o  storiche 
o  filologiche  o  politiche.  Dall'  altro  e  il  cammino 
diritto  di  tutti  coloro  che  nell'  opera  di  Dante  hanno, 
nei  secoli,  quasi  con  timoroso  pudore  e  senza  con- 
fessarlo,  null'  altro  cercato  di  trovare  che  la  consola- 
zione  della  poesia. 

"  La  grandezza  di  questo  divin  poeta,  che  in  molti 
modi  largamente  si  manifesta  a  chi  I'attende  con 
diligenza,   tanto   piu   veramente    e    mirabile,   quanto 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    241 

piu  nella  sua  Commedia  abbondantissimamente  si 
trova  da  satisfarsi  e  da  contentarsi  in  qualunque  si 
voglia  cosa  che  intrattenere  e  dilettar  possa  la  mente." 
II  GiambuUari,  che  queste  parole  ha  scritte  in  una 
epoca  in  cui  I'ammirazione  per  Dante  era  venuta 
rapidamente  scemando,  accenna  qui  a  quella  ch'e 
virtu  massima  del  Poema,  all'  universality,  ma  porge 
facile  pretesto  a  chi  voglia  o  non  voglia,  di  cercare  in 
esso,  o  piuttosto,  come  quasi  sempre  e  avvenuto,  di 
porre  "  qualunque  si  voglia  cosa  "  :  a  cercarvi  cioe 
tante  altre  cose  che  non  sono  la  poesia  dell'  Alighieri, 
e  a  mettervi,  con  la  scusa  della  critica  o  dell'  interpreta- 
zione,  ogni  sorta  cose  che  nulla  hanno  a  che  fare  con 
quella  poesia. 

Sviati  f orse  dallo  stesso  Dante,  che  in  una  sua  sentenza 
antepone  il  vero  litterale  o  "  fittizio  "  ("  sempre  lo 
litter  ale  dee  andare  inanzi ")  agli  altri  veri,  perche  li 
contiene,  pure  i  migliori  e  piu  puri  devoti  della 
Commedia  hanno  posto  in  non  cale  o  obliato, 
quasi  sempre,  il  senso  e  il  vero,  ch'e  ben  piu  alto  e 
illuminante,  della  poesia.  La  moltitudine  grande,  poi, 
ha  preferito  arrabattarsi  faticosamente,  ahime  sempre, 
intorno  al  vero  anagogico  o  "  sovrapposto,"  o,  ch'e 
quasi  peggio,  all'  allegorico  o  unico  "  verace."  E 
come  in  vaso  senza  fondo,  ognuno  ha  voluto  specchiare 
o  versare  in  esso  la  propria  piccolezza.  Quest  a  sorte 
toccata  al  Poema  Sacro  e,  dunque,  unica  nella  storia 
della  grande  poesia.  Che,  per  quanti  esegeti  abbiano 
ponzato  e  Bibbia  e  Omero  e  Shakespeare,  nessuno  di 
questi  testi  e  stato  tanto  fondamentalmente  e  voluttuo- 


242  DANTE 


samente  svisato  e  falsato  nei  secoli,  quanto  il  Dante. 
Dagl'  interpret!  teologici  filosofici  e  pietisti,  da  Ben- 
venuto  imolese  a  Francesco  da  Buti,  dal  Filelfo  al 
Landino,  da  Leonardo  Aretino  a  Jacopo  Mazzoni,  dal 
Vellutello  a  Jason  de  Nores,  che  s'armeggiarono  a 
concordare  element!  discordi,  scolastica  e  umanesimo, 
tomismo  e  Platone,  allegoria  e  poesia,  per  darci  I'imagine 
di  un  Dante  loico,  etico  e  teologo  e  filosofo ;  sino  ai 
settatori  della  nostra  storia  nazionale,  al  Gioberti,  al 
Balbo,  al  Mazzini,  al  Rosmini  e  specialmente  a  Gabriele 
Rossetti,  che  su  dall'  opera  sua  per  amor  d' Italia 
estrassero,  tutta  sola  ne'  suoi  bassi  tempi,  I'alma  sdegnosa 
del  primo  e  maggiore  patriotta  italiano,  del  primo 
profeta  della  nazione ;  per  finire  coi  molti,  coi  troppi 
dottori  sottilissimi,  che,  negli  ultimi  cinquant'anni, 
s'accanirono  a  discettare  con  i  ferruzzi  della  grammatica, 
deir  erudizione  e,  ahime,  della  filologia  pura,  le  tre 
cantiche  e  le  minori  opere  dell'  Alighieri — e  gran  merce 
se  oggi  ci  sia  dato  di  volere  e  di  potere  ripristinare  nelle 
anime  nostre  la  religione  del  Poeta,  alia  quale  sono 
necessari,  si,  studio  ingegno  e  conoscenza  storica,  ma 
solo,  come  altamente  ha  scritto  Benedetto  Croce,  "  in 
funzione  di  poesia." 

#  #  #  #  4C 

Ho  voluto  leggere,  negli  ultimi  tempi,  quasi  a 
affogare  nella  loro  aridezza  capziosa  la  tragedia  della 
anima  mia  per  la  sorte  toccata  alia  mia  terra  natale 
dopo  la  guerra  vittoriosa  dell'  Italia,  non  so  quanti 
mai  testi,  che  non  avevo  prima  che  sfuggevolmente 
sfogliati,  di  comentatori  e  esegeti  della  Commedia. 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    243 

Giunto,  con  fra  le  mani  Benvenuto,  a  "  quelfgiorno 
piu  non  vi  leggemmo  avante  "  di  Francesca,  e  letto  il 
comentario  "  Et  dicit  "  :  "  Soli  eravamo  .  .  .,"  ecce 
aliud  incitamentum,  quia  proverbialiter  dicitur  quod 
opportunitas  facit  homines  fures  et  foeminas  mere- 
trices,"  ah,  per  Dio,  non  ho  piu  letto  avante,  ne  piu 
mai  leggero,  I'Imolese. 

Apersi  altro,  non  piu  moderno,  libraccio,  altra  volta, 
il  quale  per  filologicamente  dimostrarmi  che  ben 
"  Dante  "  (che  da,  per  il  Boccaccio  stesso,  "  con  libe- 
rale  animo  le  cose  di  grazia  ricevute  da  Dio  ")  era 
accorciativo  di  "  Durante  " — importantissima  verit^ 
lapalissiana — affermava  che  I'emistichio  "  mar  di  tutto 
il  senno"  dell'  ottavo  canto  dell'  Inferno  includeva 
I'accorciamento  di  "  Marone  "  (Vergilio). 

E  cosi  dall'  Anonimo  delle  Chiose  del  1337  al  grande 
"  fanciullino,"  ma  maggiore  poeta,  che  fu  il  nostro 
Giovanni  Pascoli,  io  mi  sono  quasi  sperduto,  per  alcuni 
mesi,  nella  selva  veramente  oscura  della  ponderosa  o 
ridevole  "  erudizione "  dantesca,  per  esserne  tratto 
fuori  in  tempo  a  salvamento  solo  dalla  misericordia 
dello  stesso  Dante,  che,  a  comento  di  quegl'  inutilissimi 
o  ingenui  o  gaglioffi  o  presuntuosi  comenti,  riconsegno 
alia  mia  nausea  e  al  mio  dispetto  la  lucerna  unica 
possibile,  atta  a  penetrare  il  suo  regno  trino  :  quella 
della  poesia. 

Ah  non  piu,  ora,  mi  lambiccheranno  e  tortureranno 
il  cervello  gli  enigmisti,  i  fossilizzatori,  i  fossori,  i 
cabalisti,  i  geologi,  e  gl'indovini  delle  tre  fiere,  delle 
"  tre  disposizioni,"  delle  "  tre  rovine,"  del  "  veltro  "  e 


244  DANTE 


dei  semplici  o  duplici  "  schemi  penali."  Non  piu 
vorro  suUe  loro  orme  indagare,  perche,  senza  irriverenza 
a  alcuno,  e  tanto  meno  a  Dante,  in  verita  non  me  ne 
importa  un  bel  corno,  se  colui  del  "  gran  rifiuto  "  sia 
o  non  sia  Celestino  o  Pilato  o  Diocleziano  o  Romolo 
Augustolo  o  Giano  della  Bella  o  Esau  o  Vieri  dei 
Cerchi ;  se  la  Bice  sia  o  non  sia  Sapienza  o  Virtu  o 
Idea  o  Teologia,  o  la  madre  della  Gontessa  Matilde 
(che  "  fu  figlia  dello  imperator  di  Constantinopoli "  e 
"  moritte  in  Pisa  nel  1116  ")  o  la  *'  favolosa  Pandora  " 
filelfiana,  o  I'lmpero  contrapposto  dal  Rossetti  alia 
Meretrice  vaticana,  o  "  intelligenza  attiva  illumi- 
natrice  del?  intelletto  possibile,"  o  "  oggettivazione 
di  una  intima  e  profonda  soggettivita  "  ;  se  Vergilio 
sia  studio  o  sia  scienza,  se  gli  spiriti  ostili  all'  apparizione 
di  Bice  siano  i  "  contrasti,"  se  le  compagne  di  lei 
"  discipline  dello  spirito  "  ;  se  la  morte  del  padre  della 
gentilissima  di  Dante  sia,  ahime,  la  morte  di  Brunetto. 
Ah  no,  il  messo  di  Dio,  che  passa  Stige  a  aprire  Dite, 
la  Citt^  roggia  delle  immani  tombe,  con  una  sua 
verghetta  verde,  non  sar^  piu  per  me,  pure  per  un 
istante,  Enea ;  ne  Matelda,  tra  la  gran  variazion  dei 
freschi  mai,  sara  Mechtild  von  Magdeburg  o,  se  meglio 
vi  piaccia,  la  Contessa  Matilde  stessa  (la  figlia,  dunque, 
della  Beatrice  identificata  da  Francesco  da  Buti !), 
consobrina  di  Enrico  IV,  stirpe  saHca,  difesa  del 
Papato. 

A  proposito  di  Matelda.  Piu  di  venti  anni  or  sono, 
la  mia  ammirante  e  fervida  giovinezza  ebbe  I'onore 
d'incontrarsi  col  Pascoli.     In  una   trattoria  romana, 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    245 

present!  la  sua  sorella  Mariu  e  il  poeta  nobilissimo 
fra  tutti,  Adolfo  de  Bosis,  io,  giovinetto,  con  nella 
anima  canora  le  musiche  di  "  Myricae  "  e  del  "  Poe- 
metti,"  pendevo,  muto,  dalle  labbra  del  semplice  e 
grande  ultimo  "  figlio  di  Vergilio."  Questi  parlo  di 
poesia  antica  e  moderna  alia  mia  beatitudine.  A  un 
tratto,  pero,  egli,  cosi  schivo  e  modesto  nel  parlar  della 
sua  propria  poesia,  prese  a  vantarsi,  come  ne'  suoi  libri 
danteschi  piu  tardi  ha  voluto  fare,  di  aver  trovato  "  tra 
i  roghi  e  i  bronchi  che  la  nascondevano,  la  porticciuola 
del  gran  tempio  mistico "  di  Dante.  Una  strana 
fiamma  gl'illuminava  i  piccoli  ma  vividi  occhi.  Affermo, 
quasi  con  ira  :  "  Io  ho  veduto."  E  degli  altri  disse 
poi  che  "avevano  veduto,  senz'  entrare,"  ma  ch'egli 
solo,  con  la  sua  chiave  scoperta,  v'era  entrato. 

Attonito  e  ammirato,  ma  senza  comprendere, 
fissavo  il  volto  acceso  del  mio  buon  Poeta.  Ma  la  mia 
ammirazione  cedette  alio  smarrimento,  quando  egli 
voile  persuadermi  che  nessuno  aveva  mai  potuto  com- 
prendere il  "  vero  "  di  Matelda  prima  di  lui,  e  che 
quella  Beata,  il  cui  nome  egli  faceva  derivare  dalla 
etimologia  di  "  fiavBduto^''^  non  era  altra  che  una 
"  Maestra  della  scuola  e  dell'  arte." 

Non  quella,  no,  poteva  essere,  pur  nel  mio  rispetto 
al  Maestro,  interpretazione  di  poesia,  degna  di  una 
delle  piu  alte  e  pure  "  bellezze,"  che  Jacopo  di  Dante 
offeriva  nel  calendimaggio  del  1322  a  Guido  da  Polenta, 
col  testo  primo  della  Commedia, 

"Che  mia  sorella  nel  suo  lume  porta." 


246  DANTE 


Ben  e  vero  die  il  Pascoli  stesso,  il  quale  mai  non  va 
confuso  con  la  gente  dispetta  a  meraviglia,  che  nasce 
e  vive  "  in  prosa,"  come  il  Balbo  la  defini,  a  mal  grado 
della  sua  letifica  infatuazione  dantesca,  ebbe  altra 
volta  magnificamente  a  dire  :  "  Solo  ora  che  il  tempo 
dei  santi  sembra  gia  molto  lontano,  e  lontano  e  quello 
degli  asceti  e  dei  teologi,  solo  ora  il  Poema  Sacro,  che 
stupl  e  commosse,  ispira  quel  sentimento  che  non  si 
deve  confondere  con  nessun  altro,  e  si  chiama  '  poesia.' 
Che  *  poesia  '  e  rivivere  cio  che  f u,  riviverlo  improvvisa- 
mente  e  pienamente,  avanti  un  tempio  dalle  colonne 
corcate  a  terra,  avanti  un  poema  dal  linguaggio  antico 
e  disusato,  rialzando  a  un  tratto  con  la  leva  del  sogno 
quelle  gigantesche  colonne  e  ricreando,  col  soffio  del 
pensiero,  quel  mondo  immenso." 

Col  pensiero,  cioe,  ma  piu,  se  possibile,  con  la  leva 
stessa  e  con  la  luce  del  sogno  :  come  Dante,  poco  edotto, 
com'  egli  confessa,  dell'  arte  di  grammatica,  aveva 
operato,  a  acquistar  altezza  d'ingegno,  sopra  i  sudati 
testi  delle  sue  letture  al  tempo  della  decenne  sete.  Che 
la  dove  grammatica  e  ingegno  non  lo  soccorrevano,  egli 
suppliva  col  sogno,  con  I'intuizione  cioe  vivificata  dalla 
poesia  :  "  per  lo  quale  ingegno  molte  cose,  quasi  come 
sognando,  gia  vedea,"  egli,  il  disegnatore  di  spiriti. 
Quello  che  usa,  dunque,  chiamare  il  "  mondo  "  del 
Poema  altro  non  e  che  la  storia  del  suo  proprio  tempo, 
e  quella  conosciuta  ai  tempi  del  Poeta.  L'interpreta- 
zione,  pero,  di  quel  "  mondo"  dev'  essere  fatta  risalire, 
piu  quasi  che  a  quella  storia  stessa,  alle  fonti  della 
ispirazione  di  Dante,  le  quali,  piu  e  meglio  assai  dei 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    247 

libri  da  lui  letti,  piu  e  meglio  della  sua  cultura,  sono 
nella  sua  poesia  e  nel  nostro  sogno. 

#  #  #  #  # 

Gia,  dunque,  da  quel  tempo  della  mia  immaturita, 
per  quanto  bramoso  di  penetrare  ogni  velame  con  un 
continuo  studio,  s'era  venuta  radicando  in  me  la  diffi- 
denza  delle  quasi  sempre  contrarie  glosse  del  Poema. 
Non  ignoravo  che,  in  vita,  I'Alighieri,  "  quasi  a  guisa 
di  filosofo  mal  grazioso  non  sapea, — come  Giovanni 
Villani  afferma  di  lui, — conversare  coi  laici,"  e  che 
quindi  a  nessun  comento  d'altri,  posteriore  alia  sua 
morte,  ci  si  convenisse  ciecamente  d'affidarci.  Sapevo 
che  la  vera  sentenza,  d'altronde,  com'  e  scritto  nel 
Convivio,  "  per  alcuno  vedere  non  si  puo,  s'io  non 
la  conto,"  e  che  ne  critica  filologica  ne  letteraria  ne, 
quasi,  storica  stessa  potevano  illuminarmi  adeguata- 
mente  i  passi  nei  quali  "  il  piu  divin  s'invola,"  se  non 
li  avessi  interpretati  io  stesso  con  lume  solo  di  poesia, 
che  unico  puo  illuminare,  meglio  d'ogni  altro,  pure  la 
storia.  E  ricordavo  certa  risposta  del  poeta  tedesco 
della  Messiade^  il  quale  a  chi  I'importunava  volesse 
spiegare  certi  passi  oscuri,  rispondeva  :  "  AUora  che  li 
scrissi,  lo  sapevamo  io  e  Dio  :  ora,  se  non  se  ne  ricorda 
lui,  io,  per  me,  me  ne  sono  scordato." 

La  Commedia^  visione  di  "  alte  cose,"  e  ben  piu 
che  fiore  e  frutto  degli  studi  dall'  Alighieri  compiuti 
nella  sua  "  decenne  sete."  Rileggendo  i  suoi  testi,  la 
ciceroniana  De  Amicitia  o  il  Sogno  di  Scipione,  rileg- 
gendo il  De  Consolatione  di  Boezio,  San  Bernardo, 
Sant'  Agostino,  Pietro  Lombardo,  Alberto  Magno,  la 


248  DANTE 


Visio  ^undali,  San  Bonaventura,  Ugo  e  Riccardo  di 
San  Vittore,  Brunette  e  I'Aquinate,  Aristotile  etico  e 
la  Lettera  ai  Corinti,  I'Apocalisse  e  "  lo  Genesi " 
stesso,  ci  avvicineremo  assai  meno  al  piu  vero  e  mag- 
giore  Dante,  che  se  ci  accostiamo  a  lui  con  verginita 
d'anima  e  d'intuizione. 

Qualcuno,  che  pur  di  Dante  conosce  profondamente 
"  lo  fondo,"  il  d'Ovidio,  per  esempio,  ha  scritto  :  "  Si 
pongono  i  problemi  come  sciarade,  si  vogliono  scio- 
gliere  piu  o  meno  astrattamente  con  qualche  bel  ritro- 
vato.  Si  vuol  addentrarsi  nel  mondo  del  poema,  senza 
aver  I'occhio  al  mondo  del  poeta  :  alle  sue  letture 
predilette,  alle  dottrine  dei  suoi  maestri,  alle  fantasie 
dei  suoi  autori,  le  quali  furono  come  la  materia  greggia 
rilavorata  dalla  fantasia  sua."  Non  nego  che  la 
conoscenza  delle  letture,  delle  dottrine,  delle  fantasie 
dei  probabili  autori  dell'  Alighieri  possano  essere  utili 
alia  comprensione  della  cultura  del  Poeta.  Ma  queste, 
ahime,  se  isolate,  anzi  che  avvicinarci,  ci  fanno  retro- 
cedere  piu  d'una  volta  da  quello  ch'e,  a  noi,  Dante, 
ce  ne  complicano  e  a  volte  oscurano  I'intelligenza. 
Legger  cronisti  o  storici,  da  Ricordano  a  Dino  Com- 
pagni  e  al  Villani,  ci  agevola  la  cognizione  del  suo  mondo 
storico,  senza  dubbio  :  ma  sarebbe  assurdo,  cosi  da 
essi  come  dai  suoi  autori,  attenderci  la  chiarificazione 
di  quanto  e  tenebroso  o  enimmatico  o  controverso 
nella  Commedia,  Quel  suoi  autori  rimangono  per 
se,  quello  ch'  essi  sono.  Sono,  in  qualche  modo,  chi 
piu  chi  meno,  estrinseci  alia  sua  opera,  come  Svetonio 
e  Plutarco    sono    estrinseci    all'  opera    immane  dello 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    249 

Shakespeare,  come  lo  Spencer  e  il  Chapman  traduttore 
di  Omero  sono  esteriori  al  favoloso  mondo  lirico  del 
Keats.  Questa  delle  ricerche  delle  fonti  diviene,  parmi, 
fatica  sempre  piu  oziosa,  da  tesi  scolastiche  (ne  bene 
storiche,  ne  bene  estetiche),  quando  sia  ben  piu  neces- 
sario  solo,  mettendoci  a  petto  a  petto  con  i  piu  ardui 
poeti  dell'  umanita,  vedere  profondamente  in  essi  e, 
per  la  nostra  consolazione,  continuare  nel  nostro  sogno 
il  loro,  far  rifiorire,  tutta  verde  e  nuova,  e  fruttificare 
la  pianta  immortale  della  loro  poesia. 

Dante,  a  volte,  e  illogico  :  come  il  sogno.  Tanto 
meglio.  Dante  ci  lascia,  innumere  volte,  dubitosi, 
non  dei  simboli  soli,  ma  degli  stessi  agonisti  storici  del 
suo  Poema.  Quella  dubbiezza  e  vaghezza  sono  parte 
viva  a  noi  della  sua  poesia.  Dante  ci  nasconde  nomi 
volti  gesti  di  persone.  Poiche  egli  ha  voluto  che  cosi 
fosse,  perche  lamentarcene,  perche  voler  violare,  con 
testardaggine  peggio  che  puerile,  il  suo  alto  segreto, — • 
fascino,  e  non  dei  minori,  della  sua  fantasia  ?  La 
Commedia  e  sogno,  realta  cioe  piu  vera  e  intensa 
della  vita  nostra  mortale, — o  non  e.  In  questo  la  sua 
quasi  inaccessibile  grandezza.  Egli,  unico  fra  i  gran- 
dissimi  poeti — -come  nemmeno  il  suo  Vergilio — ha 
trasportato  di  sana  pianta,  Giustiziere  implacabile  e 
mirifico  Poeta,  con  gesto  solo  consentito  a  un  Die 
creatore  e  di  giustizia,  la  nostra  vita,  la  nostra  aiuola 
picciola,  la  nostra  morale  fra  cristiana  e  pagana,  nei 
tre  Regni  della  Morte.  Di  lassu,  di  tra  le  luci  fisse 
dei  Gemelli,  egli  ha  contemplato,  quasi  in  iscorcio  di 
beatifica  lumiera,  il  Cosmo  fisico  e  il  morale,  come 


250  DANTE 


nessun  altro  poet  a  mai  ne  prima  ne  dopo,  salito  su, 
per  la  sua  scala  di  poesia,  dalP  umano  al  divino,  come 
vuole  la  nostra  natura  storica,  realista  e  idealista  a  un 
tempo,  di  gente  enotria,  di  gente  nata  della  terra  piu 
varia  e  chiara  e  travagliosa  d'Europa.  Che  cosa  chie- 
dergli,  dunque,  di  piu  ?  Egli  ha  abolito  per  noi,  come 
la  grande  arte  unica  fa,  spazi  e  tempi :  Vergilio  e 
contemporaneo  di  Sordello,  Capaneo  di  Farinata, 
Cesare  di  Cacciaguida.  E  sono  di  uno  stesso  luogo  : 
Arrigo  d'Inghilterra  e  Carlo  Martello,  Ulisse  e  Lano 
da  Siena,  Maometto  e  Pier  da  Medicina.  E  tutti 
favellano  in  una  lingua  sola, — ombre  vane,  ma  quasi 
tutte  con  volto  e  voce  di  vivi, — in  quella  dell'  umanita 
ritornata  alia  sua  origine  :  in  quella  di  Dante.  Ma  in 
quel  tempo  senza  tempo,  in  quello  spazio  senza  spazio, 
e  I'Uomo,  e  tutta  I'umanita,  ignuda  di  vesti  e  d'ipocri- 
sia,  I'umanit^  esteriore  e  interiore,  sottomessa  a  un 
identico  immutabile  destino  :  e  a  dark  risalto,  sono 
la  storia  antica  e  la  recente,  I'lmpero  e  la  Chiesa, 
1' Italia  e  le  citt^  spartite,  le  sormontanti  fazioni,  le 
passioni  degli  uomini,  i  loro  traviamenti,  la  Fortuna. 
Due  misure,  finito  e  infinito,  la  cosmica  e  la  terrena,  in 
una  sola,  due  mondi  in  uno,  il  mistico  e  il  naturale, 
due  sistemi,  I'allegorico  e  il  politico,  mescolati  e  fusi 
insieme,  colti  di  la  e  di  qua  dal  "  velo  "  contempora- 
neamente,  in  una  unita  superiore  a  ogni  trattato  d'etica, 
di  teologia,  di  filosofia  e  di  politica  :  in  quella  della 
poesia,  "  presente  eterno,"  immobile  nella  parola, 
ma  estendentesi  nell'  eternita,  prolungantesi  nella 
musica,  ma  fissa  in  uno  schema  in  cui  ogni  "  metafora 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    251 

e  realt^,"  ogni  "  figura  e  lettera."  La  chiave  storica 
del  Poema  Sacro  possono  essere,  si,  Roma  eterna, 
"  caput  mundi,"  e  Fimperiale  Vergilio  ;  ma  la  lucerna 
che  ci  segnera  securamente  la  via  per  le  sue  ascensioni, 
non  potra  essere  che  quella  della  poesia,  che  ognuno 
di  noi  ha,  varia,  nel  profondo  cuore,  e  ch'  e  not  piu 
della  nostra  stessa  esistenza  :  "  a  quel  modo  che  ditta 
dentro,"  dunque, — come  usava  far  Dante  stesso  con  la 
sua  poesia. 

Dunque  ?  Non  disconosco,  fra  il  ciarpame  molto, 
le  grandi  benemerenze  acquistate,  per  la  conoscenza 
della  vita,  della  cultura  e  dei  tempi  di  Dante,  da 
parecchi  instauratori  della  critica  storica,  italiani  e 
stranieri,  dal  Foscolo  al  Vossler.  Ma,  fra  tutti,  se  io 
volessi  essere  condotto  da  qualche  fida  scorta  per  mano 
a  Dante,  preferirei  rileggermi  alcune  pagine  prestigiose 
del  Tommaseo,  del  Carlyle,  del  De  Sanctis  e  del 
Carducci,  a  citare  alcuni  degli  esegeti-poeti  che 
meglio  appagano  la  mia  sete  d'interpretazione  estetica 
o  lirica. 

E  non  disconosco,  che  sarebbe  ingratitudine  e 
idiozia,  gli  alti  meriti  di  tutti  quel  pazientissimi  ricer- 
catori  delle  migliori  lezioni  dell'  opera  dantesca,  dal 
Witte  al  Barbi,  dal  Moore  al  Del  Lungo,  dal  Vernon 
al  Parodi,  dal  Toynbee  al  Passerini,  grazie  al  cui 
indefesso  e  laborioso  amore  riusciremo,  fra  qualche 
mese  o  anno,  parrebbe,  a  avere  fra  le  mani  il  testo 
definitivo  della  Commedia.  Essi  soli  avranno,  coi 
loro  studi,  compiuto  piu  di  quanto,  forse,  sei  secoli 


252  DANTE 


interi  hanno  operate  a  onorare  Dante.  Grazie  a  loro, 
la  maggiore  fatica  sara  stata  compiuta.  E,  se  Dio 
voglia,  non  dovremo  udire  piu  parlare  di  comenti 
nuovi  e  di  nuove  originali  esegesi  di  Dante.  Saremo 
soli,  anche  una  volta,  finalmente,  con  lui,  col  Poeta  no- 
stro,  a  faccia  a  faccia  col  suo  testo  piu  probabile,  liberi 
di  leggerlo  e  d'interpretarlo,  ciascuno  a  seconda  della 
1'  "  anima  dantesca  "  che  ci  saremo  venuti  formando  nel 
quotidiano  studio  o  amore  del  suo  Poema,  nella  misura 
della  nostra  intuizione,  in  relazione  diretta  e  immediata 
con  la  nostra  piu  squisita  facolta  intellettiva  :  la  poesia. 
Siamo,  dunque,  arrivati  oggi,  in  questo  Centenario 
dantesco,  al  bivio  fatale.  II  Croce,  col  suo  bel  volume 
recente,  apre  la  strada  maestra,  die  qualche  spirito 
solitario  aveva  divinato  nei  secoli  morti.  Chiunque 
studiera  Dante  nell'  avvenire,  per  la  gioia  e  la  pace 
dell'  anima  sua  solamente,  dovra  mettersi  per  quella. 
Gli  altri,  e  sara  giusta  pena,  continueranno  a  incana- 
gliarsi  e  a  dannarsi  per  le  ambagi  ridevoli  della  loro 
propria  selva  oscura. 

Ricordi,  amico  mio,  una  nostra  visita  al  tempietto 
della  Valle  Giulia,  in  Roma,  in  cui  s'e  temporanea- 
mente  rifugiato,  sorto  su  dal  suo  silenzio  e  dal  suo 
esilio  sotterraneo  di  almeno  ventitre  secoli,  I'ApoUo 
etrusco  di  Vei  ?  II  cielo  di  settembre  era  vivo  turchese, 
sopra  e  intorno  a  noi.  II  sole  del  meriggio  stagliava 
netti  ogni  edificio  ogni  pietra  ogni  pianta  ogni  fiore, 
contro  quell'  azzurro  di  cristallo.  La  nostra  guida,  il 
Giglioli,  direttore  valentissimo  del  Museo    ci  prece- 


'  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    253 

dette,  fra  le  lucide  siepi  di  bosso  e  di  mortella,  sino  al 
colonnato  dipinto.  Apri  la  grande  porta.  E  la, 
contro  I'ombra  cerula,  avvolto  fulmineamente  dalla 
gran  luce  del  suo  astro,  il  terribile  Iddio  chiomato  e 
clamidato  e  coturnato  d'Etruria,  die  un  lucumone  di 
Vei,  contemporaneo  forse  di  Demarato  Corinzio  o  di 
Tarquinio  Prisco,  aveva  fatto  plasmare  e  colorare  da 
qualche  etrusco  discepolo  di  un  peloponnesiaco  o 
corinzio  scultore  Buona-Mano,  o  di  un  pittore  Buon- 
Disegno,  o  di  un  architetto  Misura-di-Giove,  per  la 
sua  feroce  satrapia  religiosa,  ci  apparve,  alto  e  proteso 
come  a  procedere,  subitamente  vendicativo,  verso  di 
noi, — con  fra  i  piedi,  ostacolo  unico,  una  muta  lira 
senza  corde,— immortalmente  vivo  sul  suo  zoccolo.  La 
fissita  ermetica  dello  sguardo  chino,  1' enigma  crudele 
del  suo  sorriso  incuterono  nelle  nostre  anime,  come 
nessuna  cosa  viva  o  morta  mai,  un  terrore  inesprimi- 
bile.  E  io,  non  so  perche,  ho  pensato,  allora,  a  Dante, 
romano  e  langobardo,  ma  piu  forse  misterioso  epigone 
dei  gravi  cittadini  etruschi,  a  Dante  e  al  suo  sorriso  di 
segreta  e  malevola  gioia  di  fronte  a  Filippo  Argenti,  a 
Farinata  e  agli  altri  dannati  di  Fiorenza  o  d'altrove, 
che  il  Poeta  nostro  seppe  crudelissimamente  odiare. 

Poscia,  di  suUe  tavole  vicine,  sopra  le  quali  erano 
disordinatamente  raccolti  i  piu  recenti  scavi  di  Vei, 
fra  le  antefisse  delle  ironiche  Meduse  variodipinte  e 
fra  le  maschere  dei  barbuti  Acheloi,  trascelsi,  a  caso, 
una  meravigliosa  testina  di  terracotta.  Non  m'era 
nuovo,  quel  delicato  e  forte  viso  di  giovinetto  sorri- 
dente  appena,  del  sesto  secolo  prima  di  Cristo.     Lo 


254  DANTE 


avevo  veduto  prima.  Quando  ?  L'identica  modella- 
tura  della  creta,  la  squisita  e  meticolosa  grazia  stessa 
dei  capelli  cesellati  e  un  poco  inanellati  mi  fecero 
affiorare  nella  memoria  rapita  un  nome.  E  a  voce  alta 
dissi :  "  Verrocchio."  II  Giglioli  sorrise  lievemente. 
E  annul. 

Quell'  Apollo  e  gl'  idoli  coUeghi  e  contemporanei  suoi 
erano  stati  seppelliti  nella  notte  della  terra  etrusca, 
per  secoli  lunghi,  sino  a  ieri.  Ne  il  Verrocchio,  ne 
Jacopo  della  Querela,  ne  il  Donatello,  ne  il  Ghiberti 
conobbero  n^i  quelli  ne  altri  simili  a  loro.  Pure  dalla 
misteriosa  terra  stessa,  d'onde  erano  nati,  in  cui  erano 
sprofondate  le  radici  della  loro  stirpe,  essi,  quegli 
artefici,  trassero  inconsapevolmente  I'ispirazione  prima 
e  lo  stile  d'ineffabile  grazia  e  di  forza  schietta  della 
loro  magica  arte.  E  cosl  e  avvenuto,  naturalmente, 
all'  etrusco  Dante.  Nella  terra  da  cui  egli  e  nato, 
nell'  arte  che  da  quella  terra  e  stata  nei  lontani  secoli 
espressa  in  marmo,  in  bronzo,  in  colori,  in  parole,  nella 
poesia,  in  una  parola,  di  quella  sua  terra  natale  potremo, 
amico,  ritemprare,  come  in  fucina  sempre  ardente,  la 
nostra  stessa  individuale  poesia.  E  ubbidiremo,  cosi, 
al  monito  delio  saviamente  interpretato  da  Enea : 
"  Antiquam  exquirite  Matrem." 

Ma  di  questo,  con  orazion  meno  breve  e  picciola, 
m'intratterro  piu  a  lungo,  spero,  insieme  a  te,  fra  due 
o  tre  settimane,  quando,  ritornato  nella  patria  nostra, 
tu  mi  condurrai,  come  mi  hai  promesso,  a  Anagni  e  a 
Sermoneta,  a  ritrovarvi  la  grande  Ombra  del  tuo 
antenato. 


*  A  QUEL  MODO  CHE  DITTA  DENTRO  '    255 

Passeremo  anche,  confido,  allora,  sotto  alle  verdi  pur 
mo'  nate  chiome  della  nova  Primavera,  dalla  tua 
Ninfa  feudale,  piu  che  storia,  mito  semisepolto  nella 
selvatica  rigogliosa  e  febbricosa  maremma  pontina. 
In  quel  silenzio  della  citta  morta,  riviva  e  lussureg- 
giante,  fra  le  stagnant!  acque,  di  mille  fiori  e  uccelli  e 
serpi  e  farfalle,  interprete  meglio  eloquente  di  quale 
si  sia  scritta  parola,  riapriremo  il  Dante.  La  storia 
antica  e  la  contemporanea  saranno  una  cosa  sola 
senza  intermittenza,  a  noi,  quali,  in  realta,  esse  sono, 
tranne  che  ai  ciechi  e  all'  oltracottata  schiatta  dei 
pedanti.  E  storia  e  leggenda,  insieme  fuse  inestrica- 
bilmente,  dittateci  dentro  dalla  Madre  Antica,  saranno 
chiave  e  lucerna  a  noi  nell'  interpretazione  del  Poema 
Sacro. 

Rileggeremo,  per  forse  la  millesima  volta,  assisi 
sopra  un  rudere  pezzato  di  gromme,  il  canto  eroico  di 
Ulisse,  quel  giorno.  E,  tesi  gli  orecchi  al  largo  moUe  e 
profumato  vento  del  Tirreno,  udiremo,  distinto,  in 
quel  silenzio,  giungerci,  sul  vento  istesso,  dal  selvoso 
Circeo,  il  canto  immortale  della  Maga. 

Ave  valeque,  amico  mio  molto  caro,  Ulisside  della 
Alaska  e  del  Col  di  Lana. 


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Dante;  essays  in 
commemoration 


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