Dante's Divina Commedia.

LIGHIERI DANTE, by far the greatest of Italian

ALIGHIE

poets, was born in May 1265, and sprang from one of the most ancient and illustrious families in Florence. His father dying while Dante was but a child, he was placed under the care of Brunetto Latini, a learned scholar of great merit, who gave the youthful poet the rudiments of an education which he afterwards completed at several of the greatest Continental universities. Before he was nine years old, Dante conceived a passion for a little lady about his own age, belonging to the wealthy family of Portinari, whose name, Beatrice, he has immortalised. The influence thus early exercised upon Dante remained through life, and is well seen in the association of Beatrice with himself in the 'Commedia '-a conjunction which will continue while Italian literature has a habitation and a name. The earliest poetic efforts of Dante were addressed to her, and his passion was evidently both strong and sincere

so much so that his health was seriously affected first by her marriage to another, and then by her death soon after. Dante himself married Gemma de' Donati, a lady bearing no distant resemblance to Xantippe, and who became exceedingly discontented and jealous at the continuous flow of sonnets and verses to the memory of the lost Beatrice; and to so great an extent did their domestic contentions eventually prevail, that a separation ensued. It is said of her, however, that when Dante's banishment took place some time afterwards, Gemma secured a portion of her husband's property, claiming so much by right of dowry, and adding to this the efforts of her own industry, she was enabled to bring up and educate her family in comfort. With these qualities it is to be regretted that urbanity of temper was not one of her characteristics, with which to win and retain the affections of a husband whose heart she had so much reason to believe was in some measure alienated.

Early in life Dante gained military renown, having served in the battle of Campaldino, and also in an engagement near Pisa, where the Florentines took the Castle of Caprona from the Pisans. Regarding Campaldino, Leonardo Aretino states that Dante, 'young and highly esteemed, was there in arms, fighting vigor

ously on horseback in the foremost division, where he incurred serious danger. For the cavalry was first engaged in the battle, when the Aretine knights overthrew with such impetuosity the Florentine knights, that, being broken and disordered, they retreated upon the infantry. This was the cause of the Aretines losing the battle; for their victorious knights, pursuing the fugitives, left their infantry behind them at a great distance, so that afterwards they fought nowhere with their entire forces, but the horsemen fought alone, without the support of the infantry; and the infantry fought alone, without the support of the horse. But on the side of the Florentines the contrary happened; for their cavalry having taken refuge with their foot, they all became one body, and easily conquered, first the enemy's cavalry, and then its infantry.' Dante became still more eminent by the acquisition of municipal honours, being at the age of twenty-five chosen to be one of the chief magistrates of his native city, and at thirty-five was elected to the office of prior or supreme judge-from which time all the misfortunes of his afterlife are to be dated.

During the thirteenth century, in many cities of Italy, the jealous quarrels and disputes for pre-eminence of

private families were the prolific sources of schism, sedition, and proscription, and Florence, among the rest, was much distracted by the dissensions between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, to the former of which factions Dante belonged. The Guelphs, again, were divided into two parties, the Neri and Bianchi— or Blacks and Whites-who regarded each other and the Ghibellines with equal hostility. Dante strove hard to reconcile the divisions in his own party, but in vain; and not only the city, but the whole state, became eventually involved in contention-blows followed. words, and street battles were a frequent result. The leaders of the different factions were banished from the city; but peace was as distant as ever, and Dante was sent on a mission to Pope Boniface at Rome to solicit his mediation. The Pope, while temporising with Dante, secretly favoured his opponents, and sent Charles of Anjou to Florence to take possession of the city, and his first action was to exile about six hundred of the leading citizens. Charles, having an especial hatred to Dante, maliciously excited the people against him, and having caused his house to be destroyed, forbade the poet's return to Florence under the penalty of being burned alive. When tidings of his banishment reached

Dante at Rome, he saw at once the duplicity of the Pope, and immediately left the city, retiring at first to Sienna, but afterwards taking refuge with his partisans at Arezzo, and here they gradually increased in strength till they mustered about 10,000. Though thus powerful, an attempt they made in 1304 to surprise Florence was unsuccessful-owing, it is believed, to their illconcerted plans and to disagreements amongst the leaders; and the poet, thoroughly disgusted at the jealousies which continued to exist, soon after quitted the confederacy altogether.

The remainder of Dante's life was spent in wandering about from place to place, living a life of dependence on the capricious kindness of petty princes. There are traditionary accounts of visits to Paris-at that time the resort of the greatest scholars, and the seat of the most celebrated university in Europe-and to Verona, where he held a public disputation on the Elements of Earth and Water. The poet at last found a restingplace at Ravenna, under the protection of Guido Novella da Polenta, a nobleman of generous character, and here he died on the 14th of September 1321, from fever brought on by fatigue and disappointment at his failure in an embassy to Venice on behalf of his patron.