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Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind,
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend
lay

Chained on the burning lake."

"He, above the rest
In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tower: his form had yet not lost
All her original brightness, nor appeared
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscured: as when the sun new-risen
Looks through the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs: darkened so, yet shone
Above them all the Archangel."

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seemed

Far off the flying fiend."

"On the other side, Satan, alarmed, Collecting all his might, dilated stood, Like Teneriff or Atlas, unremoved:

His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plumed; nor wanted in his grasp
What seemed both spear and shield."

38. The Ottimo and Benvenuto both interpret the three faces as symbolizing Ignorance, Hatred, and Impotence. Others interpret them as signifying the three quarters of the then known world, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

45. Ethiopia; the region about the Cataracts of the Nile.

48. Milton, Parad. Lost, II. 527:

"At last his sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke
Uplifted spurns the ground."

55. Landor in his Pentameron, 527, makes Petrarca say: "This is atrocious, not terrific nor grand. Alighieri is grand by his lights, not by his shadows; by his human affections, not by his infernal. As the minutest sands are the labours of some profound sea, or the spoils of some vast mountain, in like manner his horrid wastes and wearying minutenesses are the chafings of a turbuient spirit, grasping the loftiest things, and penetrating the deepest, and moving | and moaning on the earth in loneliness nd sadness."

62. Gabriele Rossetti, Spirik Anti

papale, I. 75, Miss Ward's Tr., says'
"The three spirits, who hang from the
mouths of his Satan, are Judas, Brutus,
and Cassius. The poet's reason for se
lecting those names has never yet been
satisfactorily accounted for; but we have
no hesitation in pronouncing it to have
been this, he considered the Pope not
only a betrayer and seller of Christ,-
'Where gainful merchandise is made of
Christ throughout the livelong day,'
(Parad. 17,) and for that reason put Judas
into his centre mouth; but a traitor and
rebel to Cæsar, and therefore placed
Brutus and Cassius in the other two
mouths; for the Pope, who was ori
ginally no more than Caesar's vicar, be-
came his enemy, and usurped the capital
of his empire, and the supreme autho-
rity. His treason to Christ was not dis-
covered by the world in general; hence
the face of Judas is hidden, -' He that
hath his head within, and plies the
feet without' (Inf. 34); his treason to
Cæsar was open and manifest, there
fore Brutus and Cassius show their
faces."

He adds in a note: "The situation o. Judas is the same as that of the Popes who were guilty of simony."

68. The evening of Holy Saturday. 77. Iliad, V. 305: "With this he struck the hip of Æneas, where the thigh turns on the hip."

95. The canonical day, from sunrise to sunset, was divided into four equal parts, called in Italian Terza, Sesta, Nona, and Vespro, and varying in length with the change of season. "These hours," says Dante, Convito, III. 6,

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are short or long..... according as day and night increase or diminish." Terza was the first division after sunrise, and at the equinox would be from six till nine. Consequently mezza terza, or middle tierce, would be half-past seven.

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with Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon, the stars;" at the end of the Purgatorio and form Cocytus. See Canto XIV. 136.

138. It will be observed that each of the three divisions of the Divine Comedy ends with the word "Stars," suggesting and symbolizing endless aspiration. At the end of the Inferno Dante "re-haholds

he is "ready to ascend to the stars;" at the end of the Paradiso he feels the power of "that Love which moves the sun and other stars.” He is now look. ing upon the morning stars of Easter Sunday.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

L'OTTIMO COMENTO.

Inferno, X. 85.

I, the writer, heard Dante say that never a rhyme had led him to say other than he would, but that many a time and oft he had made words say in his rhymes what they were not wont to express for other poets.

VILLANI'S NOTICE OF DANTE.

Cronica, Lib. IX. cap. 136. Tr. in Napier's

Florentine History, Book I. ch. 16.

perfect in prose and verse as he was in public speaking a most noble crator; in rhyming excellent, with the most polished and beautiful style that ever appeared in our language up to this time or since. He wrote in his youth the book of The Early Life of Love, and afterwards when in exile made twenty moral and amorous canzonets very excellent, and amongst other things three noble epistles: one he sent to the Florentine Government, complaining of his undeserved exile; another to the Emperor Henry when he was at the siege of Brescia, reprehending him for his delay, and almost prophesying; the third to the Italian cardinals during the vacancy after the death of Pope Clement, urging them to agree in electing an Italian Pope; all in Latin, with

In the month of July, 1321, died the Poet Dante Alighieri of Florence, in the city of Ravenna in Romagna, after his return from an embassy to Venice for the Lords of Polenta with whom he re-noble precepts and excellent sentences sided; and in Ravenna before the door of the principal church he was interred with high honour, in the habit of a poet and great philosopher. He died in banishment from the community of Florence, at the age of about fifty-six. This Dante was an honourable and ancient citizen of Porta San Piero at Florence, and our neighbour; and his exile from Florence was on the occasion of Charles of Valois, of the house of France, coming to Florence in 1301, and the expulsion of the White party, as has already in its place been mentioned. The said Dante was of the supreme governors of our city, and of that party although a Guelf; and therefore without any other crime was with the said White party expelled and banished from Florence; and he went to the University of Bologna, and into many parts of the world. This was a great and learned person in almost every science, although a layman; he was a consummate poet and philosopher, and rhetorician; as

and authorities, which were much commended by the wise and learned. And he wrote the Commedia, where, in polished verse and with great and subtile arguments, moral, natural, astrological, philosophical, and theological, with new and beautiful figures, similes, and poetical graces, he composed and treated in a hundred chapters or cantos of the exist ence of hell, purgatory, and paradise; so loftily as may be said of it, that whoever is of subtile intellect may by his said treatise perceive and understand. He was well pleased in this poem to blame and cry out, in the manner of poets, in some places perhaps more than he ought to have done; but it may be that his exile made him do so. He also wrote the Monarchia, where he treats of the office of popes and emperors. And he began a comment on fourteen of the above-named moral canzonets in the vulgar tongue, which in consequence of his death is found imperfect except on three, which, to judge from what is seen,

when he had given me the book, I pressed it gratefully to my bosom, and ir his presence fixed my eyes upon it with great love. But I beholding there the vulgar tongue, and showing by the fashior of my countenance my wonderment there.

would have proved a lofty, beautiful, subtile, and most important work; be cause it is equally ornamented with noble opinions and fine philosophical and astrological reasoning. Besides these he composed a little book which he entitled De Vulgari Eloquentia, of which he pro-at, he asked the reason of the same. I mised to make four books, but only two answered, that I marvelled he should are to be found, perhaps in consequence sing in that language; for it seemed a of his early death; where, in powerful difficult thing, nay, incredible, that those and elegant Latin and good reasoning, most high conceptions could be expressed he rejects all the vulgar tongues of Italy. in common language; nor did it seem to This Dante, from his knowledge, was me right that such and so worthy a scisomewhat presumptuous, harsh, and dis-ence should be clothed in such plebeian dainful, like an ungracious philosopher; garments. "You think aright," he said, he scarcely deigned to converse with lay-" and I myself have thought so. men; but for his other virtues, science, and worth as a citizen, it seems but reasonable to give him perpetual remembrance in this our chronicle; nevertheless, his noble works, left to us in writing, bear true testimony of him, and honourable fame to our city.

LETTER OF FRATE ILARIO. Arrivabene, Comento Storico, p. 379. Hither he came, passing through the diocese of Luni, moved either by the religion of the place, or by some other feeling. And seeing him, as yet unknown to me and to all my brethren, I questioned him of his wishings and his seekings there. He moved not; but stood silently contemplating the columns and arches of the cloister. And again I asked him what he wished, and whom he sought. Then, slowly turning his head, and looking at the friars and at me, he answered "Peace!" Thence kindling more and more the wish to know hand who he might be, I led him asi e somewhat, and, having spoken a few words with him, I knew him; for although I had never seen him till that hour, his fame had long since reached me. And when he saw that I hung upon his countenance, and listened to him with strange affection, he drew from his bosom a book, did gently open it, and offered it to me, saying: "Sir Friar, here is a portion of my work, which peradventure thou hast not seen. This remembrance I leave with thee. Forget me not." And

And

when at first the seeds of these matters, perhaps inspired by Heaven, began to bud, chose that language which was most worthy of them and not alone chose it, but began forthwith to poetize therein, after this wise:

'Ultima regna canam fluido contermina mundo, Spiritibus quæ lata patent; quæ præmia sol

vunt

Pro meritis cuicumque suis.'

But when I recalled the condition of the present age, and saw the songs of the illustrious poets esteemed almost as naught, and knew that the generous men, for whom in better days these things were written, had abandoned, ah me! the liberal arts unto vulgar hands, I threw aside the delicate lyre, which had armed my flank, and attuned another more befitting the ear of moderns ;--for the food that is hard we hold in vain to the mouths of sucklings.'

دو

Having said this, he added with emotion, that if the occasion served, I should make some brief annotations upon the work, and, thus apparailed, should forward it to you. Which task in truth, although I may not have extracted all the marrow of his words, I have nevertheless performed with fidelity; and the work required of me I frankly send you, as was enjoined upon me by that most friendly man; in which work, if it ap pear that any ambiguity still remains, you must impute it to my insufficiency, for there is no doubt that the text is per fect in all points.

certain sum of money, and submit to

PASSAGE FROM THE CONVITO, the humiliation of asking and receiving

I. iii.

Leigh Hunt, Stories from the Italian Poets, p. 12.

absolution: wherein, my father, I see two propositions that are ridiculous and

impertinent. I speak of the impertiditions to me; for in your letter, dictated by judgment and discretion, there is no such thing. Is such an invitation, then, to return to his country glorious to Dante Alighieri, after suffering in exile almost fifteen years? Is it which all the world knows, and the thus they would recompense innocence labour and fatigue of unremitting study? Far from the man who is familiar with philosophy be the senseless baseness of a heart of earth, that could act like a little sciolist, and imitate the infamy of some others, by offering himself up as it were in chains: far from the man who cries aloud for justice, this com

nence of those who mention such con

Ah! would it had pleased the Dispenser of all things that this excuse had never been needed; that neither others had done me wrong, nor myself undergone penalty undeservedly, - the penalty, say, of exile and of poverty, For it pleased the citizens of the fairest and most renowned daughter of Rome-Florence-to cast me out of her most sweet bosom, where I was born, and bred, and passed half of the life of man, and in which, with her good leave, I still desire with all my heart to repose my weary spirit, and finish the days allotted me; and so I have wandered in almost every place to which our language extends, a stranger, almost a beggar, exposing against my will the wounds given me by promise by his money with his persefortune, too often unjustly imputed to the sufferer's fault. Truly I have been a vessel without sail and without rudder, driven about upon different ports and shores by the dry wind that springs out of dolorous poverty; and hence have I appeared vile in the eyes of many, who, perhaps, by some better report had conceived of me a different impression, and in whose sight not only has my person become thus debased, but an unworthy opinion created of everything which I did, or which I had to do.

DANTE'S LETTER TO A
FRIEND.

Leigh Hunt, Stories from the Italian Poets, p. 13.
From your letter, which I received
with due respect and affection, I observe
how much you have at heart my restora-
tion to my country. I am bound to you
the more gratefully, inasmuch as an exile
rarely finds a friend. But after mature
consideration I must, by my answer, dis-
appoint the wishes of some little minds;
and I confide in the judgment to which
your impartiality and prudence will lead
you. Your nephew and mine has written
to me, what indeed had been mentioned
by many other friends, that by a decree
concerning the exiles I am allowed to
return to Florence, provided I pay a

cutors. No, my father, this is not the way that shall lead me back to my country. I will return with hasty steps, if you or any other can open to the fame and honour of Dante; but if me a way that shall not derogate from by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall never enter. What! shall I not everywhere enjoy the light of the sun and stars? and may I not seek and contemplate, in every corner of the earth, under the canopy of heaven, consoling and delightful truth, without first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous, to the people and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will no fail rae.

PORTRAITS OF DANTE.

By Charles E. Norton. In his Life of Dante, Boccaccio, the earliest of the biographers of the poet, describes him in these words: "Our poet was of middle height, and after reaching mature years he went somewhat stooping; his gait was grave and sedate; always clothed in most becoming garments, his dress was suited to the ripeness of his years; his face was long, his nose aquiline, his eyes rather large than small, his jaw heavy, and his

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