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+Project Gutenberg's Dante: His Times and His Work, by Arthur John Butler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dante: His Times and His Work
+
+Author: Arthur John Butler
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2009 [EBook #27999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+
+
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Edited, with Translation and Notes, by
+        A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PARADISE OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE HELL OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    A COMPANION TO DANTE. By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A.
+        J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Translated by C. LANCELOT SHADWELL, M.A.
+        Crown 8vo. 10_s._ net.
+
+    THE EARTHLY PARADISE OF DANTE. Translated by the same. Crown
+        8vo. 5_s._ net.
+
+    READINGS ON DANTE. By the Hon. WILLIAM WARREN VERNON, M.A.
+
+    THE PURGATORIO. With Introduction by Dean CHURCH. 2 vols. Crown
+        8vo. 24_s._
+
+    THE INFERNO. With Introduction by Rev. E. MOORE, D.D. 2 vols.
+        Crown 8vo. 30_s._
+
+    THE PARADISO. With Introduction by the Bishop of RIPON. 2 vols.
+        Crown 8vo. 21_s._
+
+    DANTE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. By R. W. CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 5_s._
+
+    LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
+
+
+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+    BY
+
+    ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+
+    LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+    ~London~
+    MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+    NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    1902
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+
+    PRINTED BY
+    WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+    LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in
+the _Monthly Packet_, and part in the Magazine of the Home Reading
+Union. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those
+whom Italians call “Dantists,” but for students at an early stage of
+their studies. To the former class there will be nothing in the book
+that is not already familiar--except where they happen to find mistakes,
+from which, in so extensive a field for blundering as Dante affords, I
+cannot hope to have kept it free. In the domain of history alone fresh
+facts are constantly rewarding the indefatigable research of German and
+Italian scholars--a research of which only the most highly specialised
+specialist can possibly keep abreast. Even since the following pages
+were for the most part in print, we have had Professor Villari’s _Two
+Centuries of Florentine History_, correcting in many particulars the
+chroniclers on whom the Dante student has been wont to rely. This book
+should most emphatically be added to those named in the appendix as
+essential to the study of our author.
+
+In connection with some of the remarks in the opening chapter, Professor
+Butcher’s Essay on _The Dawn of Romanticism in Greek Poetry_ should be
+noticed. I do not think that the accomplished author’s view is
+incompatible with mine; though I admit that I had not taken much account
+of the Greek writers whom we call “post-classical.” But it is to be
+noted, as bearing on the question raised in the second footnote on p. 9,
+that most or all of the writers whom he cites were either Asiatics or
+nearly touched by Asiatic influences.
+
+I have made some attempt to deal in a concise way with two subjects
+which have not, I think, hitherto been handled in English books on
+Dante, other than translations. One of these is the development of the
+Guelf and Ghibeline struggle from a rivalry between two German houses to
+a partisan warfare which rent Italy for generations. I am quite aware
+that I have merely touched the surface of the subject, which seems to
+me to contain in it the essence of all political philosophy, with
+special features such as could only exist in a country which, like
+Italy, had, after giving the law to the civilised world, been unable to
+consolidate itself into a nation like the other nations of Europe. I
+have, I find, even omitted to notice what seem to have been the ruling
+aims of at any rate the honest partisans on either side: unity, that of
+the Ghibelines; independence, that of the Guelfs. Nor have I drawn
+attention to a remarkable trait in Dante’s own character, which, so far
+as I know, has never been discussed--I mean his apparent disregard of
+the “lower classes.” Except for one or two similes drawn from the
+“villano” and his habits, and one or two contemptuous allusions to
+“Monna Berta e Ser Martino” and their like, it would seem as if for him
+the world consisted of what now would be called “the upper ten
+thousand.” In an ordinary politician or partisan, or even in a mere man
+of letters this would not be strange; but when we reflect that Dante was
+a man who went deeply into social and religious questions, that he was
+born less than forty years after the death of St. Francis, and was at
+least closely enough associated with Franciscans for legend to make him
+a member of the order, and that most of the so-called heretical sects of
+the time--Paterines, Cathari, Poor Men--started really more from social
+than from religious discontent, it is certainly surprising that his
+interest in the “dim, common populations” should have been so slight.
+
+The other object at which I have aimed is the introduction of English
+students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most
+eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seem to
+be quite as much opposed to common sense and knowledge of human nature
+as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound
+historical criticism. Here, again, I have but touched on the more
+salient points; feeling sure that before long some of the scholarship in
+our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek
+and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin
+texts may be worth studying though written outside of so-called
+classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further
+point of applying to mediæval literature, which hitherto has been too
+much the sport of _dilettanti_, the methods that have till now been
+reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages. Unless I
+am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study
+of early Italian will teach him “a thing or two” that he did not know
+before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost,
+even from that point of view. Then we shall get the authoritative
+edition of Dante, which I am insular enough to believe will never come
+from either Germany or Italy, or from any intervening country.
+
+    _February_, 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+
+      I. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY                               1
+
+     II. GUELFS AND GHIBELINES                               16
+
+    III. DANTE’S EARLY DAYS                                  38
+
+     IV. FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE’S EXILE               52
+
+      V. DANTE’S EXILE                                       69
+
+     VI. THE “COMMEDIA”                                      89
+
+    VII. THE MINOR WORKS                                    171
+
+    APPENDIX  I.--SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS                   189
+
+    APPENDIX II.--DANTE’S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE       198
+
+
+
+
+DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+The person who sets to work to write about Dante at the present day has
+two great difficulties to reckon with: the quantity which has already
+been written on the subject, and the quantity which remains to be
+written. The first involves the reading of an enormous mass of
+literature in several languages, and very various in quality; but for
+the comfort of the young student, it may at once, and once for all, be
+stated that he can pretty safely ignore everything written between 1400
+and 1800. The subject of commentaries, biographies, and other helps, or
+would-be helps, will be treated of later on. Here we need only say that
+the Renaissance practically stifled anything like an intelligent study
+of Dante for those four centuries; and it was not until a new critical
+spirit began to apply to it the methods which had hitherto been reserved
+for the Greek and Latin classics, that the study got any chance of
+development. How enormously it has developed during the present century
+needs not to be said. It may suffice to point out that the British
+Museum Catalogue shows editions of the _Commedia_ at the rate of one for
+every year since 1800, and other works on Dante in probably five times
+that proportion.
+
+Now, it has been said of the _Commedia_, and the remark is equally true
+of Dante’s other works, that it is like the Bible in this respect: every
+man finds in it what he himself brings to it. The poet finds poetry, the
+philosopher philosophy; the scientific man science as it was known in
+1300; the politician politics; heretics have even found heresy. Nor is
+this very surprising when we consider what were the author’s
+surroundings. Naturally, no doubt, a man of study and contemplation, his
+lot was cast in the midst of a stirring, even a turbulent, society,
+where it was hardly possible for any individual to escape his share of
+the public burdens. Ablebodied men could not be spared when, as was
+usually the case, fighting was toward; all men of mental capacity were
+needed in council or in administration. And, after all, the area to be
+administered, the ground to be fought over, were so small, that the man
+of letters might do his duty by the community and yet have plenty of
+time to spare for his studies. He might handle his pike at Caprona or
+Campaldino one day, and be at home among his books the next. Then,
+again, the society was a cultivated and quick-witted one, with many
+interests. Arts and letters were in high esteem, and eminence in them as
+sure a road to fame as warlike prowess or political distinction. From
+all this it is clear that the Florentine of the thirteenth century had
+points of contact with life on every side; every gate of knowledge lay
+open to him, and he could explore, if he pleased, every one of its
+paths. They have now been carried further, and a lifetime is too short
+for one man to investigate thoroughly more than one or two; but in those
+days it was still possible for a man of keen intelligence, added to the
+almost incredible diligence, as it appears to us, of the Middle Ages, to
+make himself acquainted with all the best that had been done and said
+in the world.
+
+This it is which forms at once the fascination and the difficulty of
+Dante’s great work. Of course, if we content ourselves with reading it
+merely for its “beauties,” for the æsthetic enjoyment of an image here
+and an allusion there, for the trenchant expression of some thought or
+feeling at the roots of human nature, there will be no need of any
+harder study than is involved in going through it with a translation.
+Indeed, it will hardly be worth while to go to the original at all. The
+pleasure, one might almost say the physical pleasure, derived from
+sonorous juxtaposition of words, such as we obtain from Milton or from
+Shelley, is scarcely to be genuinely felt in the case of a foreign
+language; and the beauties of matter, as distinguished from those of
+form, are faithfully enough rendered by Cary or Longfellow.
+
+It may, however, be safely assumed that few intelligent students will
+rest content with this amount of study. They will find at every turn
+allusions calling for explanation, philosophical doctrines to be traced
+to their sources, judgements on contemporary persons and events to be
+verified. On every page they will meet with problems the solution of
+which has not yet been attempted, or attempted only in the most
+perfunctory way. For generation after generation readers have gone on
+accepting received interpretations which only tell them what their own
+wits could divine without any other assistance than the text itself
+gives. No commentator seems yet to have realised that, in order to
+understand Dante thoroughly, he must put himself on Dante’s level so far
+as regards a knowledge of all the available literature. The more obvious
+quarries from which Dante obtained the materials for his mighty
+structure--the Bible, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle--have no
+doubt been pretty thoroughly examined, and many obscurities which the
+comments of Landino and others only left more obscure have thus been
+cleared up; but a great deal remains to be done. Look where one may in
+the literature which was open to Dante, one finds evidence of his
+universal reading. We take up such a book as Otto of Freising’s _Annals_
+(to which, with his _Acts of Frederick I._, we shall have to refer
+again), and find the good bishop moralising thus on the mutability of
+human affairs, with especial reference to the break-up of the Empire in
+the middle of the ninth century:--
+
+    “Does not worldly honour seem to turn round and round after the
+    fashion of one stricken with fever? For such place their hope of
+    rest in a change of posture, and so, when they are in pain,
+    throw themselves from side to side, turning over
+    continually.”[1]
+
+It is hard not to suppose that Dante had this passage in his mind when
+he wrote that bitter apostrophe to his own city with which the sixth
+canto of the _Purgatory_ ends:--
+
+    “E se ben ti ricorda, e vedi lume,
+       Vedrai te somigliante a quella inferma,
+       Che non può trovar posa in su le piume,
+     Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma.”
+
+It is hardly too much to say that one cannot turn over a couple of pages
+of any book which Dante may conceivably have read without coming on some
+passage which one feels certain he had read, or at the very least
+containing some information which one feels certain he possessed. A real
+“Dante’s library”[2] would comprise pretty well every book in Latin,
+Italian, French, or Provençal, “published,” if we may use the term, up
+to the year 1300. Of course a good many Latin books were (may one say
+fortunately?) in temporary retirement at that time; but even of these,
+whether, as has been suggested, through volumes, now lost, of “Elegant
+Extracts,” or by whatever other means, more was evidently known than is
+always realised.
+
+We must, however, beware of treating Dante merely as a repertory of
+curious lore or museum of literary _bric-à-brac_--a danger almost as
+great as that of looking at him from a purely æsthetic point of view. He
+had no doubt read more widely than any man of his age, and he is one of
+the half-dozen greatest poets of all time. But his claim on our
+attention rests on even a wider basis than these two qualities would
+afford. He represents as it were the re-opening of the lips of the human
+race: “While I was musing, the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my
+tongue.” The old classical literature had said its last word when
+Claudian died; and though men continued to compose, often with ability
+and intelligence, the histories and chronicles which practically formed
+the only non-theological writings of the so-called “Dark Ages,” letters
+in the full sense of the term lay dormant for centuries. Not till the
+twelfth century was far advanced did any signs of a re-awakening appear.
+Then, to use a phrase of Dante’s, the dead poetry arose, and a burst of
+song came almost simultaneously from all Western Europe. To this period
+belong the Minnesingers of Germany, the Troubadours of Provence, the
+unknown authors of the lovely romance--poetical in feeling, though cast
+chiefly in a prose form--_Aucassin et Nicolete_, and of several not less
+lovely English ballads and lyrics. Even the heavy rhymed chronicles
+begin to be replaced by romances in which the true poetic fire breaks
+out, such as the _Nibelungen Lied_ (in its definitive form) and the
+_Chronicle of the Cid_.
+
+In the new poetry two features strike us at once. The sentiment of love
+between man and woman, which with the ancients and even with early
+Christian writers scarcely ever rises beyond the level of a sensual
+passion,[3] becomes transfigured into a profound emotion touching the
+deepest roots of a man’s nature, and acting as an incentive to noble
+conduct; and, closely connected with this, the influence of external
+nature upon the observer begins for the first time to be recognised and
+to form a subject for poetical treatment.[4] Horace has several charming
+descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him
+merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he
+cannot do better than have another drink in company with a friend. So
+with Homer and Virgil. External nature and its beauty are often touched
+off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it
+is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a
+mood. You may search classical literature in vain for such passages as
+Walther von der Vogelweide’s:--
+
+    “Dô der sumer komen was
+     Und die bluomen durch daz gras
+     Wünneclîche ensprungen,
+     Aldā die vogele sungen,
+     Dâr kom ich gegangen
+     An einer anger langen,
+     Dâ ein lûter brunne entspranc;
+     Vor dem walde was sī ganc,
+     Dâ diu nahtegale sanc;”[5]
+
+or the unknown Frenchman’s:--
+
+    “Ce fu el tans d’esté, el mois de mai, que li jor sont caut,
+    lonc, et cler, et les nuits coies et series. Nicolete jut une
+    nuit en son lit, et vit la lune cler par une fenestre, et si oi
+    le lorseilnol center en garding, se li sovint d’Aucassin sen ami
+    qu’ele tant aimoit;”[6]
+
+or the equally unknown Englishman’s:--
+
+    “Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+       When spray biginneth to springe,
+     The lutel foul hath hire wyl
+       On hyre lud to synge;
+     Ich libbe in love-longinge
+     For semlokest of alle thinge,
+     He may me blisse bringe,
+       Icham in hire baundoun.”[7]
+
+But it is hardly necessary to multiply instances. By the middle of the
+thirteenth century the spring, and the nightingales, and the flowering
+meadows had become a commonplace of amatory and emotional poetry.
+
+So far, however, poetry was exclusively lyrical. The average standard of
+versifying was higher, perhaps, than it has ever been before or since.
+Every man of education seems to have been able to turn a sonnet or ode.
+Men of religion, like St. Francis or Brother Jacopone of Todi;
+statesmen, like Frederick II. and his confidant, Peter de Vineis;
+professional or official persons, like Jacopo the notary of Lentino, or
+Guido dalle Colonne the judge of Messina; fighting men, like several of
+the Troubadours; political intriguers, like Bertrand del Born--all have
+left verses which, for beauty of thought and melody of rhythm, have
+seldom been matched. But the great poem was yet to come, which was to
+give to the age a voice worthy of its brilliant performance. It is not
+only in literature that it displays renewed vitality. Turn where we
+will, in every department of human energy it must have been brilliant
+beyond any that the world has ever seen. It stood between two worlds,
+but we cannot say of them that they were
+
+                         “One dead,
+    The other powerless to be born.”
+
+The old monarchy was dying, had indeed, as Dante regretfully perceived,
+died before he was born, and the trumpet-call of the _De Monarchia_,
+wherewith he sought to revive it, was addressed to a generation which
+had other ideals of government; but it had set in a blaze of splendour,
+and its last wielder, Frederick II., was, not unfitly, known as the
+Wonder of the World. The mediæval Papacy, though about to undergo a loss
+of prestige which it never retrieved, outlived its rival, and had
+seldom been a greater force in the political world than it was in the
+hands of the ambitious and capable Boniface VIII. The scholastic
+philosophy, which had directed the minds of men for many generations,
+was soon to make way for other forms of reasoning and other modes of
+thought; but its greatest exponent, St. Thomas Aquinas, was Dante’s
+contemporary for nine years. These examples will serve to show that the
+old systems were capable to the very last of producing and influencing
+great men.
+
+Meantime the new order was showing no lack of power to be born. Two of
+our countrymen, Roger Bacon and, somewhat later, William of Ockham,
+sowed, each in his own way, the seeds which were to bear fruit in the
+science and speculation of far distant ages. In the arts, architecture
+reached its highest pitch of splendour; and painting was at the outset
+of the course which was to culminate, more than two hundred years later,
+in Titian and Raffaelle. But in no field did the energy of the
+thirteenth century manifest itself as in that of politics. With the
+collapse of the Empire came the first birth of the “nationalities” of
+modern Europe. The process indeed went on at very different rates. The
+representative constitution of England, the centralised government of
+France were by the end of the century fairly started on the lines which
+they have followed ever since. But England had never owned allegiance to
+the Emperor, while France had pretty well forgotten whence it had got
+the name which had replaced that of Gaul. In the countries where the
+Empire had till recently been an ever-present power, Germany and Italy,
+the work of consolidation went on far less rapidly; indeed, it has been
+reserved for our own age to see it completed. With Germany we have here
+nothing directly to do; but it is all-important to the right
+understanding of Dante’s position that we should glance briefly at the
+political state of Italy and especially of Tuscany during the latter
+half of the thirteenth century. By good fortune we have very copious
+information on this matter. A contemporary and neighbour of Dante’s, by
+name John Villani, happened to be at Rome during the great Jubilee of
+1300. The sight of the imperial city and all its ancient glories set him
+meditating on its history, written, as he says (in a collocation of
+names which looks odd to us, but was usual enough then), “by Virgil, by
+Sallust and Lucan, by Titus Livius, Valerius, and Paulus Orosius,” and
+moved him, as an unworthy disciple, to do for his native city what they
+had done for Rome. The result was the most genial and generally
+delightful work of history that has been written since Herodotus.
+Villani, who lived till 1348, when the plague carried him off, seems to
+have been a man of an equable disposition and sober judgement. Like
+Dante and all the Florentines of that day, he belonged to the Guelf
+party; and, unlike his great fellow-citizen, he adhered to it
+throughout, though by no means approving all the actions of its leaders.
+After the fashion of the time, he begins his chronicle with the Tower of
+Babel; touches on Dardanus, Priam, and the Trojan war; records the
+origin of the Tuscan cities; and so by easy stages comes down towards
+the age in which he lived. The earlier portions, of course, are more
+entertaining and suggestive than trustworthy in detail; but as he
+approaches a time for which he had access to living memory, and still
+more when he records the events of which he was himself a witness, he is
+our best authority.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [1] Otho Fris., _Annales_, v. 36.
+
+    [2] A useful list, with some account of the authors cited by
+    Dante, is given by Mr. J. S. Black, in a volume entitled
+    _Dante_; _Illustrations and Notes_, privately printed by Messrs.
+    T. & A. Constable, at Edinburgh, 1890. He does not, however,
+    include (save in one or two cases, and those rather doubtful)
+    authors of whom Dante’s knowledge rests on inference only.
+
+    [3] I do not forget Ulysses and Penelope, Hector and Andromache,
+    or Ovid’s _Heroïdes_; but the love of husband and wife is
+    another matter altogether. The only instance in classical
+    literature that I can recall of what may be termed the modern
+    view of the subject is that of Hæmon and Antigone. See, on this
+    subject, and in connection with these paragraphs generally,
+    Symonds, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_, ch. viii.
+
+    [4] This must be taken as referring only to European literature.
+    Such a passage as Canticles ii. 10-14 shows that Oriental poets
+    felt the sentiment from very early times. Is it possible that
+    contact with the East evoked it in Europeans?
+
+    [5] “When the summer was come, and the flowers sprang joyously
+    up through the grass, right there the birds were singing;
+    thither came I, on my way over a long meadow where a clear well
+    gushed forth; its course was by the wood where the nightingale
+    sang.”
+
+    [6] “It was summer time, the month of May, when the days are
+    warm, and long, and clear, and the nights still and serene.
+    Nicolete lay one night on her bed, and saw the moon shine clear
+    through a window, yea, and heard the nightingale sing in the
+    garden, so she minded her of Aucassin, her lover, whom she loved
+    so well” (Lang’s translation).
+
+    [7] Lud = song; semlokest = seemliest; he = she; in hire
+    baundoun = at her command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GUELFS AND GHIBELINES[8]
+
+
+Mention was made, in the last chapter, of the “Guelf” party, and this,
+with its opposite, the party of the “Ghibelines,” fills the entire field
+of Italian politics during Dante’s life, and indeed for long afterwards.
+It would be impossible in the space of these pages to follow up all the
+tangled threads which have attached themselves to those famous names;
+but since we may be, to use a picturesque phrase of Carlyle’s, “thankful
+for any hook whatever on which to hang half-an-acre of thrums in fixed
+position,” a few of the more prominent points in the early history of
+the great conflict shall be noted here.
+
+As every one knows, the names originally came from Germany, and to that
+country we must turn for a short time to know their import.
+
+About seven miles to the north-east of Stuttgart, in what is now the
+kingdom of Wurtemberg, is a small town called Waiblingen, where was once
+a stronghold, near the borders of Franconia and Suabia (or Alemannia),
+belonging to the Franconian dukes. Conrad, often called “the Salic,”
+head of that house, was raised to the throne of Germany and the Empire
+in 1024. His line held the imperial crown for just a century, in the
+persons of himself and three Henries, who are known as the second,
+third, and fourth, or third, fourth, and fifth, according as we reckon
+their places among Roman Emperors or German Kings; Henry III. (or IV.)
+being famous as the great opponent of Pope Gregory VII.; Henry IV. (or
+V.) interesting to us as the first husband of the daughter of Henry I.
+of England, renowned in English history as the Empress Maud. The last
+Henry died childless in 1125. But the Franconian line was not extinct.
+Half a century or so before, Bishop Otto of Freising tells us “a certain
+count, by name Frederick, sprung from one of the noblest families of
+Suabia, had founded a colony in a stronghold called Staufen.” Staufen,
+better known as Hohenstaufen, is a lofty hill about twenty miles from
+Waiblingen, and within the Suabian frontier. Frederick had been staunch
+to Henry IV. in his time of greatest difficulty, and received as his
+reward, together with the dukedom of Suabia, which the house of
+Zähringen had forfeited through disloyalty, the hand of the Emperor’s
+daughter Agnes. By her he had two sons, Frederick, who succeeded to his
+own duchy of Suabia, and Conrad, who received from his uncle Henry V.
+that of Franconia, including no doubt the lordship of Waiblingen. At
+Henry’s death Frederick and Conrad, being then thirty-five and
+thirty-three years old respectively, were the most powerful princes of
+the Empire. Henry had designated Frederick as his successor; but the
+electors thought otherwise. At the instance of the Archbishop of Mainz,
+between whom and the Hohenstaufen there was no love lost, and, as it
+would seem, not without pressure from Lewis VI. of France, whom Henry’s
+death had just saved from having to face an alliance between England
+and Germany, they chose Lothar, Duke of Saxony.
+
+We will now quote Otto of Freising once more. “Up to the present time,”
+he says, writing of the year 1152, “two families have been famous in the
+Roman Empire, about the parts where Gaul and Germany meet, the Henries
+of Waiblingen, and the Welfs of Altdorf.” The Welfs go back to by far
+the greater antiquity. They probably did not originally belong to the
+Bajovarian stock, for we read elsewhere that they had “large possessions
+in the parts where Alemannia meets the Pyrenæan Mountains,” as Otto
+usually designates the Alps west of the Brenner. This Altdorf is a
+village near Ravensburg in Wurtemberg, between Ulm and Friedrichshafen.
+We first meet with the name in history about the year 820, when the
+Emperor Lewis I., “the Pious,” married as his second wife Judith,
+“daughter of the most noble Count Welf.” Somewhere about the middle of
+the tenth century, a Rudolf of the race was Count of Bozen. His son Welf
+took part in the insurrection of the Dukes of Worms and Suabia against
+their step-father Conrad II., “the Salic,” and lost some of his
+territories in consequence, Bozen passing to Etiko, an illegitimate
+member of the same house. The family must have soon been restored to the
+imperial favour, for before 1050 Welf III. appears as Duke of Bavaria.
+
+At his death, without issue, in 1055, he was succeeded by the son of his
+sister, who had married Azzo II. of Este. This Welf IV. fought on the
+side of Henry IV., against the revolted Saxons at the Unstrut, but soon
+rebelled himself. He became for a time the husband of the “great
+Countess” Matilda of Tuscany. Through him and his son Henry, “the
+Black,” the line was maintained; and though during the period at which
+we have arrived the head of the family for several generations bore the
+name of Henry, it is usually spoken of as “the house of the Welfs,”[9]
+and the name is borne by some member of the family at most times. At the
+accession of Lothar II. the head of the house was Henry, surnamed “the
+Proud.” With him the new emperor at once made close alliance, giving him
+his daughter Gertrude in marriage. Henry’s sister Judith was already
+married to Frederick of Suabia, but he sided with his father-in-law, and
+a struggle began which lasted for ten years, and in which the
+Hohenstaufen brothers had not entirely the worst of it. Conrad was
+actually anointed at Monza as King of Italy; but in the end, through the
+intervention of St. Bernard, peace was made, and lasted during the few
+remaining months of Lothar’s life. At his death in 1137 Conrad was
+elected. His first act was to take the duchy of Bavaria from Henry, and
+bestow it on Leopold, the Marquis of Austria, his own half-brother, and
+whole brother to Bishop Otto, the historian. Henry died very soon,
+leaving a young son, afterwards known as Henry “the lion,” and a
+brother, Welf, who at once took up the quarrel on behalf of his nephew.
+He beat Leopold; but when, emboldened by this success, he proceeded to
+attack the Emperor, who was besieging the castle of Weinsberg, in
+Franconia, he suffered a severe defeat. At this battle we are told the
+cries of the contending sides were “Welf!” and “Waiblingen!” Why the
+name of an obscure fortress should have been used as a battle-cry for
+the mighty house of Hohenstaufen, we shall probably never know; it may
+be that it was a chance selection as the password for the day. However
+that may be, the battle-cries of Weinsberg were destined to resound far
+into future ages. Modified to suit non-Teutonic lips, they became famous
+throughout the civilised world as the designations of the two parties in
+a struggle which divided Italy for centuries, and of which the last
+vibrations only died down, if indeed they have died down, in our own
+day.
+
+Of all faction-wars which history records, this is the most complicated,
+the most difficult to analyse into distinct issues. The Guelfs have been
+considered the Church or Papal party; and no doubt there is some truth
+in this view. Indeed, there seems to have been some hereditary tradition
+of the kind dating from a much earlier generation; long, in fact, before
+the Ghibeline name had been heard of. When, as we have seen, Countess
+Matilda of Tuscany, the champion of Gregory VII., was looking out for a
+second husband, she fixed upon Welf of Bavaria, presumably the “dux
+Noricorum,” who, as Bishop Otto tells us, “in the war with the Emperor,
+destroyed the cities of Freising and Augsburg.” Their union did not last
+long, for Matilda seems to have been hard to please in the matter of
+husbands; but the fact of his selection looks as if he had been a
+_persona grata_ with the Papal See. It is somewhat significant, too,
+that Machiavelli regards the contest between Henry IV. and the Papacy as
+having been “the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline races, whereby when the
+inundation of foreigners ceased, Italy was torn with intestine wars.”
+Yet we may shrewdly suspect that it was not so much any special devotion
+to the Church, as the thwarted ambition of a powerful house, which made
+the Welfs to be a thorn in the side first of the Franconian, then of the
+Suabian Emperors.[10] At any rate, when a representative of the family,
+in the person of Otto IV., at last reached “the dread summit of Cæsarean
+power,” the very Pope, whose support had placed him on the throne, found
+himself within little more than a year under the familiar necessity of
+excommunicating the temporal head of Christendom. Still, in Italy no
+doubt the Guelfs, politically at any rate, held by the Church, while the
+Ghibelines had the reputation of being, as a party, at least tainted
+with what we should now call materialism. It will be remembered that
+among the sinners in this kind, who occupy the burning tombs within the
+walls of the city of Dis, Dante places both the Emperor Frederick II.,
+the head of Ghibelinism, and Farinata degli Uberti, the vigorous leader
+of the party in Tuscany, while the only Guelf who appears there is one
+who probably was a very loose adherent to his own faction.
+
+Less justified, it would seem, is the idea that the Guelfs were
+specially the patriotic party in Italy. No doubt the Popes at one time
+tried to pose as the defenders of Italian liberties against German
+tyrants, and some modern historians, forgetting the mediæval conception
+of the Empire, have been inclined to accept this view. But when it
+suited his purpose, the Pope was ready enough to support an “anti-Cæsar”
+who was no less a German, or even to call in a French invader. The truth
+is that at that time (and for many centuries afterwards), no conception
+of “Italy” as a nation had entered into men’s minds. We do not always
+realise that until the year 1870, the territory, well enough defined by
+Nature, which forms the modern kingdom of Italy, had never, except
+indeed as part of a far wider Empire, owned the rule of a single
+sovereign. Patriotism hardly extended beyond the walls of a man’s own
+city. Even Dante feels that residence in Lucca, Bologna, or Verona is an
+exile as complete as any, and that his only _patria_ is Florence, though
+it may be safely said that to him, if to any living man, the idea of an
+Italian nation had presented itself.
+
+The one argument which we can find to support this view lies in the fact
+that while the chief Guelf names are those of burgher families, many of
+the leading Ghibeline houses were undoubtedly of German origin. At
+Florence the Uberti, at Bologna the Lamberti, show their descent in
+their names. Villani tells us that the Emperor Otto I. delighted in
+Florence, “and when he returned to Germany certain of his barons
+remained there and became citizens.” The two families just mentioned
+are specified. So far, then, the Guelfs may be regarded as representing
+native civic liberties against an alien feudal nobility, and the
+struggle between the two factions will fall into line with that which at
+a somewhat later date went on in Germany between the traders of the
+cities and the “robber-barons” of the country. In this aspect we may see
+the full meaning of Dante’s continual allusion to the sin of avarice,
+under the image of the “wolf;” an allusion, again, which the original
+name whence the Guelf party took its appellation would specially point.
+
+How and when the names first appeared in Italy we do not know. The first
+manifestation of resistance on the part of the cities to the Imperial
+control was given when Milan withstood Frederick Barbarossa--in defence,
+it may be noted, of its own right to oppress its weaker neighbours; but
+during the war which followed, and which was terminated by Frederick’s
+defeat at Legnano, the head of the Welfs, Henry the Lion, was for most
+of the time fighting on the Imperial side, and though he deserted
+Frederick at the last, he does not seem to have given any active help to
+the Lombard League. Yet it may well be that in his defection we have to
+see a stage in the transition from Welf to Guelf. It is, however, not in
+Lombardy, but in Tuscany, that the names of Guelf and Ghibeline, as
+recognised party designations, first appear. Machiavelli says--perhaps
+by a confusion with the Black and White factions, of whom we shall hear
+later--that they were first heard in Pistoia; but however this may be,
+they would seem to have been definitely accepted by 1215, to which year
+Villani assigns their introduction into Florence.
+
+We have now reached the first date, it may be said, which students of
+Dante will have to remember; a date which to him, and equally to the
+sober chronicler Villani, marked the beginning of troubles for the city
+which both loved as a mother, though to the greater son she was “a
+mother of small love.” The occasion is so important that it ought to be
+related in the historian’s own words:--
+
+    “In the year of Christ 1215, one Messer Bondelmonte, of the
+    Bondelmonti, a noble citizen of Florence, having promised to
+    take to wife a damsel of the house of the Amidei, honourable and
+    noble citizens; as this Messer Bondelmonte, who was a gay and
+    handsome cavalier, was riding through the city, a lady of the
+    Donati family called to him, speaking evil of the lady who had
+    been promised to him, how that she was not fair nor fitting for
+    him, and saying: ‘I have kept my daughter here for you,’ showed
+    him the maiden; and she was very fair. And straightway falling
+    enamoured of her, he gave her his troth, and espoused her to
+    wife; for which cause the kinsfolk of the first promised lady
+    gathered together, and being grieved for the shame that Messer
+    Bondelmonte had wrought them, they took on them the accursed
+    quarrel whereby the city of Florence was laid waste and broken
+    up. For many houses of the nobles[11] bound themselves together
+    by an oath to do a shame to the aforesaid Bondelmonte in
+    vengeance for those injuries. And as they were in council among
+    themselves in what fashion they should bring him down, Mosca of
+    the Lamberti said the ill word: “A thing done hath an end,”
+    meaning that he should be slain.[12] And so it came to pass; for
+    on the morning of Easter Day they assembled in the house of the
+    Amidei by St. Stephen’s, and the said Messer Bondelmonte, coming
+    from beyond Arno, nobly clad in new white clothes, and riding on
+    a white palfrey, when he reached the hither end of the Old
+    Bridge, just by the pillar where was the image of Mars, was
+    thrown from his horse by Schiatta of the Uberti,[13] and by
+    Mosca Lamberti and Lambertuccio of the Amidei assailed and
+    wounded, and his throat was cut and an end made of him by
+    Oderigo Fifanti; and one of the counts from Gangalandi was with
+    them. For the which thing’s sake the city flew to arms and
+    uproar, and this death of Messer Bondelmonte was the cause and
+    beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibeline parties in
+    Florence, albeit that before this the factions among the nobles
+    of the city had been plenty, and there had been the parties I
+    have said, by reason of the conflicts and questions between the
+    Church and the Empire; but through the death of Messer
+    Bondelmonte all the families of the nobles and other citizens of
+    Florence took sides with them, and some held with the
+    Bondelmonti, who took the Guelf side and were its leaders, and
+    others with the Uberti, who were head of the Ghibelines. Whence
+    followed much havoc and ruin to our city, and one may think that
+    it will never have an end if God put not a term to it.”[14]
+
+The historian proceeds to enumerate the noble families who joined either
+side. Curiously enough, they were at first evenly divided--thirty-eight
+to thirty-eight. Not much is to be inferred from the names, though it is
+somewhat significant that of those, some half a dozen families in all,
+whom Villani, himself a Guelf, notes as having only recently attained to
+nobility, all joined the Guelf party. There seems also to have been a
+tendency for Ghibeline houses to become Guelf, which is not balanced by
+any defections in the opposite sense, so that the balance of parties was
+soon disturbed in favour of the Guelfs. At first, however, though
+
+“there was a division among the nobles of the city in that one loved the
+lordship of the Church, and the other that of the Empire, yet in regard
+to the state and welfare of the commonwealth all were in concord.”
+
+This state of things did not last long. In 1220 Frederick II. was
+crowned Emperor at Rome. Up till that time he had been more or less a
+_protégé_ of the Popes. First Innocent III., then Honorius III., had
+kept a fatherly eye upon his youth and early manhood, and for a time
+Church and Empire seemed to pull together. Honorius had, indeed,
+occasion to write severely to him more than once, but there was no
+breach of the peace. The accession of Gregory IX., in 1227, changed the
+aspect of affairs. Before the year was out, Frederick, like most of his
+predecessors for 200 years past, was under the ban of the Church: and
+from this time forward there was an end of peace and quiet government in
+Northern Italy. “Before Frederick met with opposition,” Dante makes a
+Lombard gentleman of the last generation say, “valour and courtesy were
+wont to be found in the land which Adige and Po water; now may any man
+safely go that way, who through shame has left off to converse with
+good men or approach them.”[15]
+
+Florence seems to have remained longer than most of the chief cities
+aloof from the main contest. She had her own wars with Pisa, beginning
+with a private quarrel at the Emperor’s coronation (in which we are
+expressly told that both parties united), and afterwards with Siena; and
+the great houses did a certain amount of private fighting; “but still
+the people and commonwealth of Florence continued in unity, to the
+welfare and honour and stability of the republic.” In 1248, however,
+Frederick turned his attention in that direction, moved, it may be, by
+the growing strength of the Guelfs. His natural son, Frederick of
+Antioch, was sent with a force of German men-at-arms, and after some
+fierce street fighting, the Guelfs were driven out.
+
+The Ghibeline supremacy was short-lived. Their nobles, especially the
+great house of the Uberti, became unpopular by reason of the exactions
+which they enforced; they got beaten in a fight with some of the
+banished Guelfs at no great distance from the city; and before the end
+of 1250 a meeting of “the good men,” as Villani calls them, or, as we
+should say, the middle class, limited the power of the Podestà,[16] and
+appointed a Captain of the People to manage the internal affairs of the
+city, with a council of twelve Elders. Other important changes were made
+at the same time, and the new constitution--the third recorded in
+Florentine history--was known as the “Primo Popolo.” The death of
+Frederick in the same year still further weakened the Ghibelines. Some
+of them were banished, and the exiled Guelfs were recalled. Peace,
+however, seems to have been kept between the parties for some time, and
+when in 1255 Count Guido Guerra on his own account expelled the
+Ghibelines from Arezzo, the Florentines restored them, and lent the
+Aretines money to pay a fine which the Guelf chief had inflicted; “but I
+know not if they ever got it back,” says Villani.
+
+Again the compromise proved unstable. Manfred, Frederick’s natural son,
+to whom, during the childhood of his young nephew, Conradin, the
+championship of the Hohenstaufen cause had fallen, was daily increasing
+in strength. His orders came to the Ghibelines of Florence to crush the
+popular party; and the latter, being warned in time, drove out all the
+great Ghibeline families. Two years later these had their revenge. On
+September 4, 1260, a date much to be remembered in the history of these
+times, the banished Ghibelines, aided by eight hundred of Manfred’s
+German horse, seized the opportunity of hostilities between the
+Florentines and the Sienese to meet their opponents in a pitched battle.
+This took place on the Arbia, near the fortress of Montaperti, to the
+east of Siena.[17] The Guelfs were utterly routed, partly, it would
+seem, through the incompetence of some of the Elders who accompanied the
+army, and who, civilians though they were, overruled the judgement of
+the military leaders, and accepted battle under unfavourable
+conditions; and partly through the treachery of some Ghibelines who, not
+having been exiled, were serving in the Florentine host. Readers of the
+_Commedia_ will remember the name of Bocca degli Abati, placed by Dante
+in the lowest pit of hell.[18]
+
+Sixty-five of the leading Guelf families fled to Lucca, while the
+Ghibelines entered Florence, and appointed Guido Novello, of the great
+house of the Conti Guidi, Imperial Podestà. A meeting of the leaders of
+the party from Pisa, Siena, and Arezzo was held at Empoli, and a
+proposal was made on behalf of the rival cities, to raze Florence to the
+ground as a fortified city, and so preclude her revival as a Guelf
+stronghold. For once, however, a man was found to set patriotism above
+party. The great Farinata degli Uberti, whose wise counsel and warlike
+skill had mainly contributed to the victory, rose, with the same
+magnificent scorn, we may suppose, that Dante afterwards saw him display
+for the torments of Hell,[19] and let it be known that, so long as he
+had life in him, he would resist any such measure at the sword’s point.
+Count Giordano, the commander of the Germans, who had convened the
+meeting, gave in, and Florence was saved.
+
+This was the last gleam of success which the Imperial cause was to
+enjoy in Tuscany for nearly half a century. Soon after the battle of
+Montaperti, Urban IV. was elected to the Papal See. He was a Frenchman
+by birth, “son of a shoemaker, but a valiant man and wise,” says
+Villani. In view of the growing power of Manfred, vigorous steps had to
+be taken. The exiled Florentine Guelfs had made a fruitless attempt to
+effect a diversion in Germany, by inciting the young Conradin to oppose
+the acting head of his house. This old expedient having failed, Urban
+turned his eyes towards his own country. Charles of Anjou, brother of
+Saint Lewis, was at that time, next to the reigning sovereigns, the most
+powerful prince in Christendom, and to his aid the Pope appealed.
+Himself a man of Puritanical strictness in his life, and devoted to the
+Church, Charles was ready enough to accept the call, which appealed
+alike to his principles and to his ambition, and to act as the champion
+of the Holy See against the dissolute and freethinking Manfred; and the
+influence of his wife, the only one of Raymond Berenger’s four daughters
+who was not actually or in prospect a queen,[20] was thrown on the same
+side. After keeping Easter 1265 at Paris, Charles set out, and landed at
+the mouth of the Tiber in May. In December he was crowned at Rome King
+of Naples, Sicily, and Apulia. Two months later, at the end of February
+1266, Charles and Manfred met near Benevento. After some hard fighting,
+of which the German troops seem to have borne the brunt, the battle was
+decided against Manfred by the desertion of his Apulian barons, and he
+himself was slain. His defeat gave the final blow to the Ghibeline cause
+in Tuscany. Only Pisa and Siena remained faithful. In Florence an
+attempt was made to avoid civil strife by the device of doubling the
+office of Podestà. Two gentlemen from Bologna, Catalano de’ Malavolti
+and Loderingo de’ Landolò, a Guelf and a Ghibeline,[21] were appointed,
+and they nominated a council of thirty-six, chosen from both sides. But
+this plan did not work well. Party spirit had grown too violent to allow
+of half measures, and before the year was out the people rose again, and
+the Ghibelines were banished for good and all.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [8] It seems proper to say that this chapter was written, and at
+    least some of it printed, before Mr. Oscar Browning’s
+    interesting volume, _Guelphs and Ghibellines_ (Methuen),
+    appeared.
+
+    [9] It may not be out of place here to correct the vulgar error
+    that “Guelf” is in any sense the surname of our Royal family.
+    The house of Brunswick is no doubt lineally descended from these
+    Welfs of Bavaria; but it has been a reigning house since a
+    period long antecedent to the existence (among Teutonic peoples)
+    of family or surnames, and there is no reason for assigning to
+    the Queen the Christian name of one of her ancestors more than
+    another--“Guelf” more than “George.”
+
+    [10] Hallam considers that hostility to the Empire was the
+    motive principle of the Guelf party in Lombardy; attachment to
+    the Church in Tuscany.
+
+    [11] Observe that the Bondelmonti were comparatively newcomers.
+    They had originally belonged to Valdigreve, and had only lived
+    in Florence for some eighty years at the date of this event.
+    Hence they were looked upon as upstarts, and not properly
+    speaking, nobles at all. See _Paradise_, xvi. 133-147.
+
+    [12] _Hell_, xxviii. 106.
+
+    [13] Possibly “by the Uberti lot.”
+
+    [14] Villani, _Croniche_, v. 37.
+
+    [15] _Purgatory_, xvi. 115.
+
+    [16] The name _Podestà_ originally denoted the chief authority
+    of a city or county, whether vested in one person or several.
+    Frederick I. established Imperial officers under this title
+    throughout Tuscany near the end of his reign, and for some time
+    the Podestà was regarded as the Emperor’s delegate. Before the
+    end of the century, however, they had become municipal officers,
+    gradually displacing the former consuls from the chief position.
+    About 1200 the custom of choosing them from the citizens of some
+    other town than that in which they officiated, seems to have
+    become established; the native consuls being their councillors.
+
+    [17] _Hell_, x. 96.
+
+    [18] _Hell_, xxxii. 81, 106.
+
+    [19] _Ibid._, x. 36.
+
+    [20] _Paradise_, vi. 133.
+
+    [21] They seem to have acted on the principle of filling their
+    own pockets, rather than of maintaining order; and are placed by
+    Dante among the hypocrites, in the sixth pit of Malebolge
+    (_Hell_, xxiii. 103). They belonged to the order of Knights of
+    St. Mary, popularly called Jovial Friars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+DANTE’S EARLY DAYS
+
+
+In the month when Charles of Anjou sailed up the Tiber to Rome, a child
+was born at Florence to a citizen named Alighiero, son of Bellincione.
+We do not know for certain his _casato_, or family name. Bellincione’s
+father was another Alighiero, or, as it was originally written,
+Aldighiero. His father was Cacciaguida, who had a brother named Eliseo;
+from which it has been conjectured that he may have belonged to the
+prominent house of the Elisei, which is known to have existed as far
+back as the beginning of the eleventh century, since it was not uncommon
+for members of a family to bear the founder’s name. We know, further,
+that the name of Alighiero came into the family with Cacciaguida’s wife,
+who belonged to some city near the Po, probably Ferrara, where a family
+of Aldighieri is known to have existed.[22] In any case, it was
+originally no Florentine name, and it may be doubted if it ever was
+recognised as the appellation of a family. True, Dante is once or twice
+referred to as “Dantes de Alegheriis,” but this may be due to the fact
+that he was known to have had recently two ancestors of the name. He
+himself, if we may trust the evidence of letters ascribed to him, seems
+to have written “Dantes Alligherius,” while his son calls him Dantes
+Aligherii, and himself Petrus Dantis Aligherii, “Peter, son of Dante,
+son of Alighiero.” In the official Florentine documents, where his name
+occurs, it is “Dantes Allegherii” or “Dante d’Alighiero,” “Dante the son
+of Alighiero,” and no more. The form “degli Alighieri,” which would
+indicate a true family name, we find in no undoubtedly contemporary
+document.
+
+In view of this initial uncertainty, the discussion whether the poet was
+of “noble” family or not seems a trifle superfluous. His
+great-great-grand-father, Cacciaguida, is made to say (_Par._, xv. 140)
+that he himself received knighthood from the Emperor Conrad III. (of
+Hohenstaufen). This would confer nobility; but it would appear that it
+would be possible for later generations to lose that status, and there
+are some indications that Dante was sensitive on this point. At any
+rate, it is pretty clear that his immediate ancestors were not in any
+way distinguished. The very fact that he was born in Florence during a
+period when all the leading Guelfs were in exile shows that Alighiero
+was not considered by the dominant Ghibelines a person of too great
+importance to be allowed to remain undisturbed in the city.
+
+Of Dante’s boyhood and early youth we have only stray indications, and
+those mainly gathered from his own writings. We can, indeed, form a
+pretty clear notion of what he _was_, but we know little enough about
+what he _did_. From a very early period he was made a hero of romance.
+Without going so far as some recent writers, both German and Italian,
+who seem to look upon every statement of early biographers with
+suspicion, while regarding their silence as good evidence that what
+they do not mention cannot have happened, we must admit that we cannot
+with certainty date any event in the first thirty years of Dante’s life.
+Still, we can infer a good deal. He must unquestionably, during this
+time, have read a great deal, for it would have been impossible for a
+man wandering about from place to place, and intermittently busied in
+political affairs, to have amassed in seven or eight years the amount of
+learning which the _Commedia_ by itself shows him to have possessed. He
+must have been recognised at an early age as a young man of marked
+ability. His intimacy with the old statesman Brunetto Latini, who died
+in 1294, and his friendship with Charles of Anjou’s grandson, Carlo
+Martello,[23] the young King of Hungary, who was at Florence in the same
+year and the following, are sufficient to prove this. Neither Brunetto,
+the most learned man of his age in Florence, and, as we should say, a
+man of “society” as well, nor a prince who, had he lived, would have
+been one of the most important personages in Europe, was likely to have
+distinguished with his friendship a young man of twenty-nine, not of the
+highest birth, unless he had already made himself notable for
+intellectual eminence.
+
+One event occurred during Dante’s youth, in which he is so generally
+believed to have borne a part, that it will probably come as a shock to
+many people to learn that this belief rests only on the statement of a
+writer who was not born till nearly fifty years after Dante’s death. On
+St. Barnabas’s day, June 11, 1289, the Florentine Guelfs met the
+Ghibelines of Arezzo, in whose ranks many of their own exiles were
+fighting, in a plain called Campaldino, belonging to the district of
+Certomondo, which lies in the Casentino, or upper part of the Arno
+valley. The Florentines gained a complete victory, though only after a
+hard fight, in which many of the chief Ghibeline leaders lost their
+lives. The event was one of great importance, and Villani recounts it in
+very full detail.[24] Dante also refers to it in one of the best-known
+passages of the _Purgatory_ (v. 92). It is quite possible that he
+himself may have taken part in the battle; but if he did so, it is
+somewhat strange that none of the earlier commentators, including his
+own son, nor any biographer of the fourteenth century, should have known
+of it, or, knowing of it, should have thought it worth recording; and
+that it should have been left to Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, writing after
+the year 1400, to make the first reference to so noteworthy an incident
+in Dante’s early career. Leonardo (whose “Life” will be found in
+Bianchi’s edition of the _Commedia_) quotes, indeed, a letter, said to
+have been written many years afterwards by Dante, in which reference is
+made to his presence in the battle; but this letter has long
+disappeared, and it is to be noted that the biographer does not even
+profess to have seen it himself. There is, it must be said, in the
+_Hell_ (xxii. _init._) one allusion to warlike operations in the
+Aretine territory of which Dante claims to have been an eye-witness; but
+as none of the early commentators seems to refer to Campaldino in
+connection with this passage, it tells, if anything, against the
+received story.
+
+Another event, sometimes assigned to the period of Dante’s life before
+his banishment, has somewhat more evidence in its favour. That he
+visited Paris at least once in the course of his life, the early
+authorities are agreed; but Villani, Boccaccio, and Benvenuto of Imola,
+all writing in the fourteenth century, make the visit to have taken
+place during his exile. It is not until we come to John of Serravalle,
+Lord of Fermo, who as Bishop of Rimini attended the Council of
+Constance, and there, at the request of the Bishops of Bath and Wells
+and Salisbury, prepared a Latin version of the _Commedia_ with
+commentary, that we find mention of an earlier visit. His testimony is a
+little suspicious, because in the same sentence he also asserts that
+Dante studied at Oxford, a statement which, without strong confirmation,
+it would be very hard to accept. On the other side, it may be said that
+the silence of the older biographers is not conclusive evidence against
+the early study at Paris. Dante also went to Bologna, as it would
+appear, both before and after his banishment; yet while Villani and
+Boccaccio only name the latter visit, Benvenuto speaks only of the
+former. It is therefore quite possible that all three may have ignored
+the first period of study at Paris, or, if there was but one such
+period, may have assigned it to the wrong part of Dante’s life. _Primâ
+facie_ it is more probable that he would have undertaken both the long
+journey and the course of study in his days of “greater freedom and less
+responsibility,” than when he was not only engaged upon the composition
+both of his great poem and of several prose treatises, but was taking an
+active share in political work.
+
+Again, the allusion in the _Paradise_ to the lectures of Sigier bears
+all the stamp of a personal reminiscence; just as the allusion to the
+dykes along the coast of Flanders to illustrate those which form the
+banks of the river Phlegethon, could hardly have occurred to one who had
+not seen them with his own eyes, though the biographers mention no
+journey to Flanders. But Sigier’s lectures and his life too were over by
+1300.
+
+Another little bit of evidence may be given for what it is worth. Any
+one who has read the discourses of Meister Eckhart, the founder of the
+school of German mystics, will be struck by the frequent and close
+resemblances, not of thought only, but of expression and illustration,
+which exist between him and Dante. So frequent and so close are these,
+that the reader can hardly conceive the possibility of their being due
+to mere coincidence.[25] But Eckhart preached and wrote (if he wrote) in
+German, a language which we have no reason to think that Dante knew; so
+that the exchange of ideas between them, if any, must have taken place
+by word of mouth, and in French or Latin. Now, Eckhart was for a long
+time in Paris--so long that he seems to have been known as “Master
+Eckhart of Paris”--and left that city in 1302. If he and Dante ever met,
+it must have been in Paris (for though Eckhart went to Italy in 1302, it
+appears to have been only on a journey to Rome, the last place save
+Florence where Dante would then have cared to show himself), and that at
+some time before 1300.
+
+Lastly, we may question if Dante would have chosen Paris as a place of
+residence while Philip the Fair was on the throne of France.
+
+If, then, he did visit France before his exile, we can date the visit
+with some certainty. It can hardly have been before 1290, the year of
+Beatrice’s death, nor after 1294, the year in which Carlo Martello came
+to Florence. Dante’s marriage, again, in all probability took place
+somewhere about the latter year. We know nothing directly of Dante’s
+doings in this interval; nothing, at any rate, inconsistent with his
+having been for some considerable period away from Florence.
+
+But we have kept till the last the subject which to many is the only one
+associated with Dante’s younger life. What, it will be said, about
+Beatrice? The fashionable theory nowadays seems to be that there
+undoubtedly was a lady at Florence of that name, the daughter of Folco
+Portinari, that she was married to Simone de’ Bardi, a member of that
+great family who were Edward III.’s bankers, and that she died in the
+flower of her youth. But, say the modern Italian and German writers,
+this lady--Frau Bardi-Portinari, the latter call her--had no more to do
+with Dante than any other Beatrice in history. This will seem to many
+who do not realise on how slight a basis the identification of her
+rests, to be the very wantonness of paradox. These may be startled to
+learn that the whole story depends upon the veracity of one man, and
+that a professed writer of romantic fiction. It is from Boccaccio, and
+from him alone, that we have learnt to see in Dante’s mystical guide and
+guardian, in the lost love of his early years, only the idealised and
+allegorised figure of Folco Portinari’s daughter. What, then, is his
+evidence worth? To this we can only reply, that Boccaccio was born eight
+years before Dante’s death; that he lived in Florence from his
+childhood; that he must have spoken with scores of people to whom the
+social and literary history of the years preceding 1290 was perfectly
+familiar; that both Dante and the husband of Beatrice were prominent
+men; and that Boccaccio can have had no motive for making a statement
+which, if untrue, he must have known to be so. Further, if the statement
+had been untrue, it would surely have been contradicted, and some trace
+of the contradiction would have been found. But, on the contrary, it
+seems to have been accepted from the first. It is repeated by
+Boccaccio’s younger contemporary and disciple Benvenuto of Imola, who
+himself lived for some time in Florence, before all those who would be
+able from their own recollection to confirm or deny it would have passed
+away. And Benvenuto, it may be noted, though devoted to Boccaccio, was
+no mere student, but a shrewd and critical man of the world. Dante’s son
+Pietro, indeed, says no word to show that Beatrice was anything but a
+symbol, and in this some of the other early commentators follow him. But
+this would prove too much. Whether she be rightly identified with
+Beatrice Portinari or not, it is impossible for any reader possessing
+the least knowledge of the human heart to see in the Beatrice of the
+_Commedia_ a symbol merely. Not to mention that it would be quite
+contrary to Dante’s practice thus to _invent_ a personage for the sake
+of the symbol, it is absurd to suppose that the “ten years’ thirst”
+which the sight of her relieves, “the eyes whence Love once took his
+weapons,” and such-like expressions were intended primarily as
+references to a neglected study of theology or a previous devotion to a
+contemplative life. The omission, therefore, of the commentators who
+interested themselves mainly in the allegory to tell us about the real
+Beatrice cannot be used as evidence against her existence.
+
+The first supporter of what may be called the “superior” view--namely
+that the whole story of Beatrice is purely allegorical--was one Giovanni
+Mario Filelfo, a writer of the fifteenth century, born more than a
+hundred years after Dante’s death. As a rule, where his statements can
+be tested, they are incorrect; and on the whole his work appears to be a
+mass of unwarranted inferences from unverified assertions. It was not
+till recent times that his theory on the subject found any defenders.
+
+We may, then, pretty safely continue in the old faith. After all, it
+explains more difficulties than it raises. No doubt if we cannot free
+ourselves from modern conceptions we shall be somewhat startled not only
+by the almost deification of Beatrice, but also by the frank revelation
+of Dante’s passion, with which neither the fact of her having become
+another man’s wife nor his own marriage seems in any way to interfere.
+It needs, however, but a very slight knowledge of the conditions of life
+in the thirteenth century to understand the position. As has been
+already pointed out, the notion of woman’s love as a spur to noble
+living, “the maiden passion for a maid,” was quite recent, and at its
+first growth was quite distinct from the love which finds its fulfilment
+in marriage. Almost every young man of a literary or intellectual turn
+seems to have had his Egeria; and when we can identify her she is
+usually the wife of some one else.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [22] It may be noted that the name is undoubtedly Teutonic. The
+    suggested derivations from _aliger_, “the wing-bearer,” and the
+    like, are purely fanciful. The first part of the word is
+    doubtless _alt_, “old,” which we have in our own Aldhelm; the
+    termination is the _geirr_, or _gar_, which occurs in all
+    Teutonic languages, and means “spear.” Dante (= Durante) was a
+    common Christian name.
+
+    [23] Doubts have even been thrown on Dante’s friendship with
+    this young King. To these we can only reply that, if it is not
+    implied by _Par._, viii. 55, it is impossible to draw any
+    inference whatever as to Dante’s life from any line of the poem.
+
+    [24] The conclusion of his account is picturesque enough to
+    deserve reproduction. “The news of the said victory came to
+    Florence the very day and hour when it took place; for the Lords
+    Priors having after dinner gone to sleep and rest, by reason of
+    the anxiety and watching of the past night, suddenly came a
+    knock at the door of the chamber, with a cry, ‘Rise up, for the
+    Aretines are discomfited;’ and when they were risen, and the
+    door opened, they found no man, and their servants without had
+    heard nothing. Whence it was held a great and notable marvel,
+    seeing that before any person came from the host with the news,
+    it was towards the hour of vespers.”
+
+    [25] We find close resemblances between Dante and the founder of
+    German mysticism. Not only in similes and illustrations, such as
+    the tailor and his cloth, the needle and the loadstone, the flow
+    of water to the sea, the gravitation of weights to the centre;
+    or in such phrases as Eckhart’s “nature possesses nothing
+    swifter than the heaven,” or his use of _edilkeit_ “nobility,”
+    in reference to freewill, _la nobile virtù_. These may have
+    been, in some cases were, borrowed by both from a common source,
+    though the fact of their so often borrowing the same things is
+    suggestive. So, too, both Dante and Eckhart quote St. John i. 3,
+    4, with the punctuation adopted by Aquinas, _quod factum est, in
+    ipso vita erat_--“what was made, in Him was life”--though the
+    Vulgate and St. Augustine prefer the arrangement of the words
+    familiar to us in our own version. But when we find such an
+    unusual thought as that in _Par._, viii. 103, 104, of the
+    redeemed soul having no more need to repent of its sins,
+    expressed in almost similar words by Eckhart, it is hardly
+    possible to believe that it occurred to both independently.
+    There are many other instances, but it would occupy too much
+    space if I were to give them here.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE’S EXILE
+
+
+In order to understand the extent to which Dante’s life was influenced
+by the political circumstances of his age, it will be well to carry our
+survey of events somewhat further, with special reference to the affairs
+of Florence.
+
+As we have seen, after frequent alternations of fortune, the city
+passed, within two years of Dante’s birth, for good and all to the Guelf
+side. On St. Martin’s Day, in November, 1266, Count Guido Novello and
+his German horse were driven out of the city by the burghers; and though
+in the January following a treaty of peace was made, and cemented by
+various marriages between members of the leading families on either
+side--an arrangement of which the chief result was to embitter party
+spirit among the Guelfs who had taken no share in it--anything like a
+lasting reconciliation was soon found to be out of the question. Charles
+of Anjou, moreover, fresh from his victory over Manfred, was by no means
+disposed to allow the beaten Ghibelines any chance of rallying.
+Negotiations were entered into between him and the Florentine Guelfs,
+and on Easter Day, 1267, Guy of Montfort (son of Sir Simon) entered the
+city at the head of eight hundred French cavalry. The Ghibelines did not
+venture to strike a blow, but departed on the day before his arrival. At
+Easter, says Villani, the crime was committed which first split the city
+into factions; and at Easter the descendants of the men who had
+committed the crime went into exile, never to return.
+
+The same year saw a general rally of the north Italian states to the
+Guelf side, and before many months were out even Lombardy, where, says
+Villani, there was hardly any memory of the Guelfs, followed the stream.
+In Tuscany, Pisa and Siena alone held by the tradition--for it was
+little more--of allegiance to the Empire. The Florentine exiles betook
+themselves to those cities, and before long the spirits of the party had
+revived sufficiently to allow them to play what must have been felt to
+be their last stroke in the game. Profiting by the disaffection of
+certain Apulian and Sicilian barons (whom one may imagine to have found
+the gloomy discipline of Charles a poor exchange for the brilliancy and
+licence of Frederick’s Court), they cast their eyes towards the last
+surviving representative of that Count Frederick who, some two hundred
+years before, had fixed his seat in the hill-fortress of Staufen.
+Conrad, or Corradino, as the Italians called him, grandson of Frederick
+II., was a lad of sixteen, still under the tutelage of his mother, the
+widow of Conrad IV. Germany seems to have been loyal to him, and had it
+not been for the impatience of the Italian Ghibelines, he might well
+have looked forward to regaining, perhaps under more favourable
+auspices, the Empire which his predecessors had held. But the Tuscan
+nobles, smarting under defeat, could not wait; and in spite of his
+mother’s opposition, they carried the boy off. Money was lacking; and of
+the ten thousand German horsemen who accompanied him across the Brenner,
+only three thousand five hundred went beyond Verona. He passed through
+Lombardy, however, without opposition, and with the aid of the Genoese
+fleet reached Pisa in May, 1268. The rising of the Apulian barons had
+compelled Charles to return hastily to his kingdom, and Conradin found
+his way clear to Siena. An action in the district of Arezzo resulted in
+the defeat and capture of Charles’s “marshal,” who had come out from
+Florence in pursuit, and the German force was able to enter Rome
+unmolested. There they received a reinforcement of eight hundred good
+Spanish cavalry under Don Henry, brother of the King of Castile, and,
+elated with success, pushed on to strike a decisive blow. They marched
+eastward to Tagliacozzo, just within the frontier of the Abruzzi, while
+Charles reached the same point by forced marches from Nocera. The armies
+met on St. Bartholomew’s Eve, and at first everything seemed to go well
+for Conradin. The Spanish division defeated the Provençals, and the
+Germans crushed the French and Italians. But Charles had with him an
+experienced old knight, Alard de St. Valéry, by whose advice he held a
+picked force in reserve, concealed behind some rising ground. With this
+he now attacked the victorious Germans and Spaniards, who had got out
+of hand in the excitement of pursuit and plundering. They made a bold
+resistance, but discipline told in the end; they were utterly defeated
+and their leaders put to flight. Conradin and his immediate staff,
+comprising the Duke of Austria and some German and Italian nobles, made
+their way to Astura on the coast of the Campagna, and had succeeded in
+embarking when they were recognised by one of the Frangipani, who were
+the lords of the territory. Arrested by him and handed over to Charles,
+they were subjected to a form of trial, and beheaded in the market-place
+of Naples. This act has always been regarded as an indelible blot on
+Charles’s record. Dante couples it with the alleged murder, by his
+order, of St. Thomas Aquinas; and it seems to have been felt even by
+members of the Guelf party as something, if one may so say, beyond the
+rules of the game. Pope Clement, according to Villani, blamed Charles
+severely; and the pious historian, for his own part, sees in the King’s
+subsequent misfortunes the judgment of God upon his cruelty towards an
+innocent boy. The judge who pronounced the sentence was slain before
+Charles’s very eyes by his son-in-law, Robert, son to the Count of
+Flanders, “and not a word was said, for Robert was great with the King,
+and it appeared to the King and to all the barons that he had acted like
+a valiant gentleman.” In Conradin the Hohenstaufen line came to an end,
+and therewith all _raison d’être_ for the Ghibeline party. After this it
+became merely a turbulent faction, until the accession of Henry of
+Luxemburg; when Cæsar once more began to take interest in his Italian
+dominions.
+
+It may be conceded that party rancour had much more to do with the
+bringing of Conradin into Italy than any conscientious adhesion to views
+such as those to which Dante afterwards gave utterance in the _De
+Monarchia_, or faith in the benefit which would accrue to the world from
+the rule of a single sovereign. But it shows the hold which the Empire
+still had on men’s minds, that the Ghibeline chiefs should have
+preferred to take a boy from Germany as the figure-head of their cause,
+rather than seek a leader of more experience from among their
+fellow-countrymen. Nor does it seem to have entered any one’s mind to
+look out of Germany for an Emperor. There were, indeed, at the very
+time, two rival Cæsars-elect in existence--Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
+and Alfonso, King of Castile, the former of whom his own countrymen,
+more in derision than respect, were wont to call “King of Almayne;” but
+clearly no Ghibeline cared to call upon either of them to “heal the
+wounds which were killing Italy.” Later, when the long interregnum was
+brought to an end by the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, even the Guelf
+Villani holds that if he had been willing to pass into Italy he would
+have been lord of it without opposition; but that astute prince no doubt
+found himself much better employed in converting a petty baronial line
+into one of the great houses of Germany, and ultimately of Europe, than
+in acting up to a titular dignity which brought its bearer more
+splendour than either wealth or ease. When he did send an Imperial Vicar
+into Tuscany in 1281 his chance was gone, and the emissary was glad to
+come to terms with the Florentines.
+
+Thus, from the earliest time that Dante could remember, the Guelfs held
+an almost undisturbed supremacy throughout Tuscany. There was occasional
+fighting between Florence, as the head of the Guelf League, and Siena,
+or Pisa, as the case might be. The Sienese, though helped by Guido
+Novello and the Florentine exiles, and by some of the Spanish and German
+troops who had escaped from Tagliacozzo, were badly beaten at Colle di
+Val d’Elsa in 1269, and their commander, Provenzano Salvani (whom Dante
+afterwards met in Purgatory), taken and slain. In the following year
+this city too was purged of the Ghibeline taint, and a few Florentine
+citizens who were caught were, after a reference to Charles, duly
+beheaded. Pisa held out somewhat longer, and was able to expel its
+Guelfs in 1275, among them the famous Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi, a
+member of the house of Donoratico, one of whose counts had been captured
+and killed with Conradin; but in a year’s time a Florentine success
+brought them back. An effort made by Pope Gregory X. to reconcile the
+factions, as he passed through Florence on his way to the Council of
+Lyons, bore little or no fruit, and, as a pendant to former
+excommunications of Emperors, the city was placed under interdict. When,
+a year and a half later, Gregory died at Arezzo, “by his death,” says
+Villani, “the Guelfs of Florence were greatly cheered, by reason of the
+ill will which he had towards them;”--an interesting remark, as showing
+that the Guelfs were not prepared to support the Holy See farther than
+their own interests as a party demanded.
+
+The condition of Florence at this time cannot be better described than
+in Villani’s words. Writing of the year 1278, he says--
+
+    “In these times, the Guelf nobles of Florence, reposing from
+    their foreign wars with victory and honour, and fattened upon
+    the goods of the exiled Ghibelines, and by reason of their other
+    gains, began, through pride and envy, to quarrel among
+    themselves; whence came to pass in Florence more feuds and
+    enmities between the citizens, with slayings and woundings.
+    Among them all the greatest was the quarrel between the house of
+    the Adimari of the one part, who were very great and powerful,
+    and on the other side were the house of the Donati; in such wise
+    that nearly the whole of the city took sides, and some held with
+    one party and some with the other, whereby the city and the
+    Guelf party were in great danger.”
+
+We shall remember how, in Dante’s judgement also, pride, envy, and
+avarice were “the sparks that had set hearts on fire,” in Florence.
+
+Once again the Pope, who was now Nicholas III., interfered; and once
+again representatives of the two great factions exchanged the kiss of
+peace before a Papal Legate, this time in front of “the Preaching
+Friars’ new church of New St. Mary’s, in Florence,” of which the Legate,
+Cardinal Latino, had but lately laid the first stone. The Ghibeline
+leaders were still kept out, but the rank and file returned. The feud of
+the Adimari and Donati was patched up for the time, whereby “the said
+Cardinal had much honour, and Florence remained a good time in a
+peaceful and good and tranquil state.”
+
+Cardinal Latino had arranged for the government of Florence by a
+committee of fourteen “good men,” of whom eight were to be Guelfs and
+six Ghibelines. They were to hold office for two months. It marks the
+Cardinal as a man of some organizing capacity that his peace continued
+for four years, during which time Villani has next to nothing to relate
+about the affairs of his city. These were the years in which Dante was
+growing up to manhood. As a boy of thirteen he would doubtless have
+looked on at the scene in front of Santa Maria Novella; and during the
+next four peaceful years we may suppose that he would have begun to sit
+at the feet of the old statesman, diplomatist, and scholar Brunetto
+Latini, picking up from his lips the lore “how man becomes immortal.”
+We can picture him too, where the boys and girls were gathered together,
+a silent and reserved lad, probably unpopular unless with one or two
+special friends, paying little heed to any of his companions save one
+girl of about his own age, whose movements he would follow, and for the
+sound of whose words, though never addressed to him, he would listen,
+with the speechless devotion which perhaps is only felt at sixteen or
+seventeen, and then only by natures which fortunately are exceptional in
+this world. “The child is father to the man;” and we can be pretty
+certain from what we know of the man Dante what the boy Dante must have
+been.
+
+The tranquil period was disturbed in 1282. Pope Nicholas, who, whether
+guilty of Simony or not--and one fears that the case against him must
+have been strong, since not only Dante, but even Villani charges him
+with the offence--at least deserved the blessing pronounced on
+peacemakers, had died in the previous year at Viterbo, a town which,
+during this period, seems to have suited the Popes better than Rome as a
+place of residence. Charles, between whom and Nicholas no love had been
+lost, was resolved that the next Pope should not come from the powerful
+house of the Orsini, to a branch of which, the Guatani, the late Pontiff
+had belonged, and by an arrangement with the people of Viterbo,
+succeeded in getting the two most prominent clerical members of that
+house imprisoned. Thus he secured the election of a Frenchman, Simon of
+Brie, who, being a canon of Tours, took the name of Martin IV. His
+Papacy, though it lasted little more than three years, was eventful. He
+was elected in January, 1282, and on the following Easter Monday, March
+30th, the people of Palermo, furious at the outrages of Charles’s French
+troops, rose and massacred every Frenchman upon whom they could lay
+hands. Charles’s efforts to recapture the island were baffled, chiefly
+owing to the hostility of Manfred’s son-in-law. King Peter of Aragon,
+also, with the help of his famous admiral, Roger of Loria, began about
+this time to prove a serious thorn in the side of the Angevin King. From
+the day of the “Sicilian Vespers,” fortune turned against Charles. His
+son was taken prisoner by Loria in 1284, his life being spared only at
+the entreaty of Peter’s wife, while he did not recover his liberty till
+1289. The King himself died broken down with grief and disappointment,
+in the early days of 1285, and was followed a couple of months later by
+his creature, Martin IV., and, before the year was out, by his enemy,
+King Peter. It will be remembered that Peter and Charles were seen by
+Dante in the “Valley of Princes,” awaiting their entry into Purgatory,
+and singing their Compline hymn in friendly accord: Martin IV. being
+placed higher up the mountain, among the gluttonous.
+
+At Florence the course of affairs was not much affected by the reverses
+which befell Charles. At the same time, these, and a success gained by
+Guy of Montefeltro over John of Appia, a French officer whom Martin had
+appointed Count of Romagna, made the Guelf majority uneasy. Cardinal
+Latino’s Constitution was abandoned, and a new form of government
+adopted. The trading-class resolved to get rid altogether of the
+representatives of feudal authority, weak as they had become,[26] and to
+this end the Fourteen were abolished, and the chief power placed in the
+hands of the Priors of the Arts, or, as we should say, the Masters of
+the great trading guilds. The number of those guilds which contributed
+members to the governing body seems to have been gradually increased. At
+first only three--the Clothmakers, the Money-changers, and the
+Wool-dealers--were thus honoured; but by the end of the century, at
+least twelve, seven greater and five lesser arts, were included. The
+Priors, as the Fourteen had done, held office for two months only, and
+various devices were employed to prevent any house or any person from
+becoming dangerously powerful. Nobles, in order to qualify for office,
+had to join a guild; and as the nobles, or _grandi_, were more
+frequently on the Ghibeline side, this would yet further weaken that
+party.
+
+Florence had now fairly entered upon a period of great prosperity. Her
+bankers lent money to kings; her trade extended all over Europe. Pisa,
+her most dangerous rival, had been utterly crushed by the Genoese in the
+great sea-fight off Meloria, with a slaughter which seems to have
+struck awe into the hearts even of the victors; and though she expelled
+her Guelfs four years later, in 1288, and, in 1291, under the brilliant
+leader Guy of Montefeltro, won some successes in the field, she was
+never again a power to be feared. Arezzo gave some trouble as a
+rendezvous for the banished Ghibelines; but the battle of Campaldino, in
+1289, already referred to, broke her strength for a long time. Florence
+was thus free to attend to the arts of peace. The city walls were
+extended and new gates built; and several of the buildings, which to
+this day are among the glories of Florence, date from that period.
+Still, however, much of the old class-jealousy smouldered; and, as
+Machiavelli points out, all fear of the Ghibelines being removed, the
+powerful houses began to oppress the people. Giano della Bella, himself
+of noble family, casting in his lot with the commons, succeeded in
+carrying what were called the Ordinances of Justice, whereby, among
+other things, nobles were absolutely disqualified from taking any part
+in the government. A measure so oppressive as this was bound to bring
+about its own appeal, and, as a matter of fact, within two years from
+its promulgation, Giano was driven into exile, and the nobles were more
+turbulent than ever. It is at this time that the name of Corso Donati
+first comes into prominence.
+
+Another event, which was to influence the destinies of Florence and of
+Dante, occurred shortly before Giano’s overthrow. This was the election
+to the Papacy, in 1294, of Benedetto Guatani, known to history as
+Boniface VIII. The most vigorous Pope who had held the office for
+several generations, he soon let it be known that he intended to revive
+all the claims which his predecessors, Gregory VII. and Innocent III.,
+had made to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His first efforts
+were devoted to getting Tuscany into his hands, and to this end he seems
+to have intrigued freely with the leaders of both parties in Florence.
+In theory, of course, where all were Guelfs, the Pope ought to have had
+little trouble; but there were Guelfs and Guelfs, and it was not long
+before party differences were emphasised, and, so to say, crystallised,
+by party names. Curiously enough, these again appear first at Pistoia. A
+family feud there had led to two branches of the Cancellieri being
+distinguished as Black and White, and towards 1300 the names appear at
+Florence. The Donati headed the Black faction; their rivals, the Cerchi,
+the White. The latter represented the more orderly section of the
+community; the former reproduced all the worst features of the old
+Ghibeline aristocracy, though in the end it was the Whites who had to
+coalesce with the Ghibelines. At first, indeed, it would seem as if
+Boniface might have been willing to work with the Whites. He sent for
+Vieri de’ Cerchi, the leader of that party, and tried to induce him to
+live peaceably with the other side. Vieri, for reasons which we can only
+conjecture, replied curtly that he had no quarrel with any one; and
+Boniface resorted to the old expedient of sending a Cardinal--Matthew of
+Acquasparta--to reconcile the factions.
+
+We have now reached the critical year of Dante’s life--that in which he
+held the office of Prior. But for the events of this and the next two
+years, it may be doubted whether the _Commedia_ would ever have come
+into existence, at least in the form in which six centuries have studied
+and admired it. Henceforth Dante’s own history, rather than that of his
+times, will be our chief subject.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [26] In 1300, when the Black and White factions arose, we find
+    among the twenty-eight houses enumerated by Machiavelli, as the
+    chief on either side, only _three_ which in the old days had
+    belonged to the Ghibeline party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DANTE’S EXILE
+
+
+Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Dante’s name begins to appear
+in public documents as taking a share in the business of the State. Thus
+he spoke in the “Council of the Hundred” on December 10, 1296, and in
+the following March, in opposition, it would seem, to a proposal of a
+grant to King Charles II. of Apulia. In May, 1299, he acted as
+ambassador from Florence to the neighbouring city of San Gemignano, the
+only one of all the numerous embassies ascribed to him by some
+biographers in which modern criticism will still allow us to believe.
+Finally, in 1300, probably from June 15th to August 15th, he served his
+term as Prior.
+
+The Constitution of Florence at this time was somewhat complicated. It
+will be sufficient to say here that the government was carried on by a
+committee of six priors, who held office for two months only; and that
+in order to be eligible for the offices of State a man had to be
+enrolled in one of the twelve trading guilds known as Arts, of which
+seven ranked as “greater,” five as “less.” Dante belonged to one of the
+“greater arts,” that of the _speziali_, “dealers in spices,” which
+included the apothecaries and, as it is believed, the booksellers. The
+number of priors was so large, and their tenure of office so short, that
+the selection of any particular citizen would hardly imply more than
+that he was regarded as a man of good business capacity; but in 1300
+public affairs in Florence were in such a critical state, that one may
+well suppose the citizens to have been especially careful in their
+choice. In the previous April an accusation had been brought by Lapo
+Salterelli (afterwards one of Dante’s fellow-exiles, not held by him in
+much esteem), who then was Prior, against three citizens of
+Florence--Simon Gherardi, Noffo Quintavalle, and Cambio, son of Sesto,
+of conspiring against the State. The facts are somewhat obscure, but, as
+it appears that they were all connected with the Papal Court, and that
+Boniface made strong efforts to get the fine imposed on them remitted,
+we may conjecture that they had in some way abetted his scheme of
+“getting Tuscany into his hands.” In a remarkable letter addressed to
+the Bishop of Florence, in which a good deal of the argument, and even
+some of the language, of Dante’s _De Monarchia_ is curiously paralleled,
+of course from the opposite point of view, the Pope requires the
+attendance before him of Lapo (whom he styles _vere lapis offensionis_)
+and the other accusers. As may be supposed, no notice was taken of this
+requisition, and the fines were duly enforced.
+
+Boniface’s letter is dated from Anagni, on May 15th. Before it was
+written, the first actual bloodshed in the feud between the Black and
+White parties had taken place. Some of the young Donati and Cerchi, with
+their respective friends, were in the Piazza di Santa Trinità on May
+1st, looking on at a dance. Taunts were exchanged, blows followed, and
+“Ricoverino, son of Messer Ricovero de’ Cerchi, by misadventure got his
+nose cut off his face.” The leading Guelfs, seeing what a chance the
+split in their party would offer to the Ghibelines, sought the mediation
+of the Pope. Boniface was of course willing enough to interfere, and, as
+has been said, sent Matthew of Acquasparta, Cardinal of Ostia, a former
+General of the Franciscans, to Florence as peacemaker. He arrived just
+about the time when the new Priors, including, as we must suppose,
+Dante, were entering on office, and was received with great honour. But
+when it came to measures of pacification, he seems to have had nothing
+better to suggest than the selection of the Priors by lot, in place of
+their nomination (as had hitherto been the custom) by their predecessors
+and the chiefs of the guilds. “Those of the White party,” says Villani,
+“who controlled the government of the country, through fear of losing
+their position, and of being hoodwinked by the Pope and the Legate
+through the reform aforesaid, took the worser counsel, and would not
+obey.” So the familiar interdict was launched once more, and the Legate
+departed.
+
+In the city, things went from bad to worse. At the funeral of a lady
+belonging to the Frescobaldi, a White family, in the following December,
+a bad brawl arose, in which the Cerchi had the worst of it. But when the
+Donati, emboldened by this success, attacked their rivals on the
+highway, the Commune took notice of it, and the assailants were
+imprisoned, in default of paying their fines. Some of the Cerchi were
+also fined, and, though able to pay, went to prison, apparently from
+motives of economy, contrary to Vieri’s advice. Unluckily for them, the
+governor of the prison, one of their own faction, “an accursed Ser Neri
+degli Abati,” a scion of a family which seems, if we may trust Dante’s
+mention of some of its other members, to have made a “speciality” of
+treacherous behaviour, introduced into the prison fare a poisoned
+millet-pudding, whereof two of the Cerchi died, and two of the opposite
+party as well,[27] “and no blood-feud came about for that”--probably
+because it was felt that the score was equal.
+
+The Blacks now made a move. The “captains of the Guelf party,” who,
+though holding no official position, seem to have exercised a sort of
+_imperium in imperio_, were on their side; and a meeting was held in
+Holy Trinity Church, at which it was resolved to send a deputation to
+Boniface, requesting him to take once again what seems to us--and indeed
+was--the fatal step of calling in French aid. The stern prophecy which
+Dante puts into the mouth of Hugh Capet in Purgatory was to be
+fulfilled:--
+
+                  “I see the time at hand
+    That forth from France invites another Charles
+    To make himself and kindred better known.
+    Unarm’d he issues, saving with that lance
+    Which the arch-traitor tilted with; and that
+    He carries with so home a thrust, as rives
+    The bowels of poor Florence.”
+
+We may probably date from this Dante’s final severance from the Guelf
+party; and, at any rate, we may judge from it the real value of Guelf
+patriotism.
+
+It must be remembered that the Black faction was still but a faction.
+The conspiracy leaked out, and popular indignation was aroused. The
+_Signoria_ that is, the Priors, took action. Corso Donati and the other
+leaders were heavily fined, and this time the fines were paid. Probably
+they did not wish to taste Ser Neri degli Abati’s cookery a second time.
+A good many of the junior members of the party were banished to Castello
+della Pieve; and at the same time, “to remove all jealousy,” several of
+the White leaders were sent to Serezzano (which we now call Sarzana)--a
+weak and unlucky attempt at compromise. They were, indeed, soon allowed
+to return, their place of exile being unhealthy; so much so that one of
+them, Dante’s most intimate friend, Guido Cavalcanti, died in the course
+of the winter from illness contracted there.
+
+Cardinal Matthew seems not to have actually left Florence till after the
+beginning of 1301. We are told that among his other demands (probably
+made on this occasion), was one to the effect that Florence should
+furnish a hundred men-at-arms for the Pope’s service; and that Dante,
+who, after his term of office as Prior, remained a member of the
+council, moved that nothing should be done in the matter. Indeed, in the
+scanty notices which we have of his doings in this critical period, he
+appears as the steady opponent of all outside interference in the
+affairs of Florence, whether by Pope or Frenchman. In the face of this
+it is hard to understand how the famous story of his having gone on an
+embassy to Rome--“If I stay, who goes? If I go, who stays?”--can ever
+have obtained credence. Some words like those he may well have used, in
+the magnificent self-consciousness which elsewhere made him boast of
+having formed a party by himself; but we cannot suppose that he would at
+any time in the course of 1301 have thus put his head into the lion’s
+mouth. That Boniface was at the time of the supposed mission not at Rome
+but at Anagni is a minor detail.
+
+If all the White party had possessed Dante’s energy, Florence might have
+been saved. Vieri de’ Cerchi had, indeed, as we have seen, spirit enough
+to tell the Pope in effect to mind his own business, and he was not
+devoid of shrewdness; but he seems to have been incapable of any
+sustained vigour in action. The party as a whole were probably as
+corrupt as their rivals, and less astute--“an evil and foolish company,”
+as Dante afterwards called them by the mouth of Cacciaguida. Corso
+Donati, on the other hand, was a bold and reckless intriguer. He
+followed up the conspiracy of the Santa Trinità by hastening to the
+Papal Court, and inducing Boniface to send at once for Charles of
+Valois, brother of the French king, Philip the Fair. Charles obeyed the
+summons readily, in the hope, says Villani, of the Imperial crown. After
+a visit to the Pope at Anagni, he entered Florence on All Saints’ Day,
+1301. All opposition on the part of the Whites was disarmed by the
+assurance that he came only as “peacemaker;” and a meeting, “at which I,
+the writer, was present,” was held in the Church of Santa Maria Novella.
+Charles, “with his own mouth, undertook and swore, and promised as a
+King’s son to maintain the city in peace and good estate; and
+incontinently by him and by his people the contrary was done.” Armed men
+were introduced; Corso Donati, though under sentence of banishment,
+entered with them, Vieri de’ Cerchi, in foolish confidence, forbidding
+his arrest. The populace, promptly seeing who were the masters, raised a
+shout of “Long live Lord Charles and the Baron” (the name given to
+Corso); and the city was given up for a week to burning and pillage. A
+second visit from the Cardinal of Acquasparta produced no result, save a
+momentary truce and another interdict. Throughout the early months of
+1302, killings and slayings went on, Corso’s only son, among others,
+being mortally wounded in the act of murdering one of the Cerchi.
+Finally, one of the French knights, acting in the capacity which to this
+day is regarded as peculiarly suited to the French genius, that of
+_agent provocateur_, induced some of the White party, by offers of help,
+to form some kind of conspiracy against Charles’s person. This plot
+being duly reported, the conspirators fled on April 4th, some to Pisa,
+some to Arezzo, some to Pistoia, and joined the already exiled
+Ghibelines. They were condemned as rebels, and their houses destroyed.
+From this time the Whites and Ghibelines form one party.
+
+Whether Dante actually went with them is a perplexing question which has
+never been thoroughly solved, but is of sufficient interest to delay us
+for a while. In the short biography of the poet which Villani gives when
+recording his death, we read: “This Dante was a citizen of Florence,
+honourable and of old family, belonging to the ward of St. Peter’s Gate,
+and a neighbour of ours. His exile from Florence was for the reason that
+when Lord Charles of Valois, of the house of France, came to Florence in
+1301 and drove out the White party, as is mentioned above under the
+date, the said Dante was one of the chief governors of our city, and
+belonged to that party, Guelf though he was; and therefore, _for no
+other fault_, he was driven forth and banished with the said White party
+from Florence.” This seems very explicit, but there are difficulties in
+the way of taking it quite literally. A document exists, dated January
+27, 1302, in which the Podestà, Cante de’ Gabrielli of Gubbio, charges
+Dante Alighieri and three others with various offences, the chief being
+_baratteria_ (or corrupt jobbery in office), the use of public money to
+resist the entrance of Charles of Valois, and interference in the
+affairs of Pistoia with the view of securing the expulsion from that
+city “of those who are called Blacks, faithful, men devoted to the Holy
+Roman Church,” which had taken place in May, 1301. It is stated that,
+having been duly summoned, they had contumaciously absented themselves,
+which seems to show that they were not in Florence; and they are
+sentenced to pay five thousand florins apiece within three days, or, in
+default, be banished and have their houses destroyed and their goods
+confiscated; and in any case they were banished for two years. A second
+decree of March 10th condemns Dante and fourteen others, among them Lapo
+Salterelli, if they fall into the power of the Commonwealth, to be burnt
+to death.
+
+As has been said, Dante must clearly have been out of Florence when this
+document was launched. Leonardi Bruni says he was at Rome on an embassy
+when the Whites left Florence, and that he hastened to join his party at
+Siena; but for the reasons already given, this story of the embassy
+cannot be accepted. Some have suggested that as at Florence the old
+style prevailed, under which March 26th was New Year’s Day, the two
+sentences really belong to what we should now call 1303, when Dante had
+undoubtedly been in exile for some months, and this is corroborated by
+Benvenuto’s statement, “bannitus fuit anno MCCCIII.”--“bannitus”
+meaning, no doubt, “placed under ban,” as distinct from voluntary exile.
+But it appears that Cante de’ Gabrielli went out of office in June,
+1302. So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong--and there is
+some little ground for suspecting it--we must assume that, though a
+Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante,
+with some few others of the leading White Guelfs, was compelled to fly
+sooner than the bulk of his party. He may very well have been regarded
+as a specially dangerous opponent.
+
+That there was any foundation for the charge of corruption it is
+impossible to believe. Dante’s faults were many, but they did not lie in
+that direction; and the honest Villani, though he appears to have sided
+with the Black party, and indeed held office himself as Prior only a few
+years later, seems to have introduced the words which we have italicised
+in the passage given above, with the express intention of indicating
+this. On the other hand, it may be noted that the charge was ingeniously
+devised. Dante is known to have been in debt, for some of his
+notes-of-hand exist, belonging to the years preceding 1300; while in the
+course of 1301 he was engaged in superintending the performance of
+certain public works in the city. Thus it would be matter of common
+knowledge both that he was short of money and that he had recently been
+in a position offering good opportunities for peculation, a fact of
+which his unscrupulous adversaries would naturally avail themselves. We
+may perhaps see, in the large space which he devotes, in the _Hell_, to
+the crime of _baratteria_, evidence of a wish to express his especial
+detestation of it.
+
+What, however, we know for certain is that, after some date early in the
+year 1302, Dante never saw Florence again. Several attempts were made by
+the exiles to win their way back, but they were uniformly unsuccessful,
+and only led to fresh sentences against those who took part in them.
+Whether Dante was among these, at all events during the earlier years of
+his exile, seems very doubtful. We know from his own words that he had
+no sympathy with the men with whom he was thrown. Indeed, it was a
+curious irony of fate which linked in one condemnation his name and that
+of Lapo Salterelli, a man whom he selects (_Par._, xv. 128) as an
+example of the degradation into which the Florentine character had
+fallen. During this first period he was probably eating his heart, and
+watching for the coming of the deliverer who, by bringing all the world
+under one impartial sway, should put an end to faction and
+self-seeking--the _invidia_ and _avarizia_ against which he is for ever
+inveighing--and permit every man “to sit at ease and perfect himself in
+prudence and wisdom;” thus fulfilling his proper task of “making himself
+immortal,” or, as St. Paul phrases it, coming “to the measure of the
+stature of the fulness of Christ.” It is a noble conception, though the
+six hundred years which have elapsed since Dante looked for its
+fulfilment do not seem to have brought us very much more forward in that
+direction. Still, we can give him the honour due to a lofty standard of
+political and social conduct in a violent and profligate, if brilliant,
+age; and we can still read with interest and profit that wonderful
+repertory of political wisdom, dialectical argument (after the manner of
+the schoolmen), and passionate pleading for good government, which he
+calls the _Treatise on Monarchy_.
+
+The date at which the _De Monarchia_ was composed is uncertain, but it
+would seem to belong most fitly to the years which immediately succeeded
+Dante’s banishment. The Empire was in the hands of the incapable Albert
+of Hapsburg while the Pope, from 1305, was the creature of the French
+King. Cæsar and Peter seemed both alike to have abdicated, and the world
+was going from bad to worse. With the election of Henry of Luxemburg, in
+1308, better times may seem to have dawned, when practice might
+supersede abstract theories. The letter which Dante actually wrote to
+Henry in 1311 is couched in a far less meditative tone.
+
+During Henry’s short reign the Ghibeline cause looked up; nor was his
+death in 1313 so fatal a blow to it as might have been expected. Several
+powerful leaders arose, one of whom, Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa,
+won back most of Tuscany for his party. In 1315 he inflicted a severe
+defeat on the Florentines and their allies at Montecatini, on the border
+of the Florentine and Lucchese territories; but he was unable to follow
+up his success so far as to enter the city. Some two months later a
+third sentence went forth against Dante, in which his sons were
+included, condemning them, as Ghibelines and rebels against the
+Commonwealth and people of Florence and the statutes of the Guelf party,
+to be beheaded whenever taken. It has been plausibly suggested that the
+two events were not unconnected; and as it is hardly likely that at the
+age of fifty Dante would have taken a prominent part in the actual
+fighting, we must suppose it to have been as a leading adviser of the
+enemy that he was specially obnoxious to the ruling powers at Florence.
+
+The chief importance, however, which Dante’s exile has for us, is that
+with it his great literary activity began. He had, of course, written
+all his life; and it is quite possible even that some portion of the
+_Commedia_ had been composed before he left Florence. The story told by
+Boccaccio is well known. Commenting upon the opening words of Canto
+viii., he tells us that the preceding portion of the poem had been
+written before the final catastrophe, and left behind by Dante in his
+flight, not being discovered for some years. In any case, the _Vita
+Nuova_ was written, as he himself tells us, before he was twenty-five;
+and a good deal of the _Convito_, a work which looks very much as if it
+had first come into existence as the contents of notebooks, in which
+materials to be afterwards worked into the great poem were jotted down,
+was no doubt in writing. But it is to Dante’s twenty years of exile
+that we owe in their completed form the works which place him not only
+among the world’s five or six greatest poets, but in an eminent position
+among philosophers, theologians, statesmen, and men of science.
+
+We have but little certain information as to Dante’s life during his
+exile. Legends innumerable have sprung up as to his residence here,
+there, and elsewhere; but most of these are based on the fancies of
+later writers; or in some cases even on local vanity, which was
+flattered by the remotest connection with the great name. We can say for
+certain that he passed some time at Verona, some at Lucca, some at
+Ravenna, where his sepulchre remains to this day; and with some approach
+to probability we can place him at Paris, at Bologna, and perhaps at
+Milan. He may possibly have spent some time in the Lunigiana, and some
+in the Casentino. All we know is that his life was spent in wandering,
+that he had no settled home, that he lived on other men’s bread, and
+went up and down other men’s stairs. He was honoured, it is true. Great
+nobles were glad to employ his services, and, as we have said, the fact
+of his being so often selected by the rulers of Florence for
+condemnation, shows that at least they regarded him as a man to be
+reckoned with. But probably the strongest evidence of the estimation in
+which he was held is to be found in Villani’s obituary chapter, wherein
+his character and accomplishments are set forth with a fulness which the
+historian elsewhere reserves for Popes and sovereigns; a fulness all the
+more noteworthy since his name never occurs in the chronicle of events
+in which he undoubtedly took a leading part.
+
+Only when Italy and Florence had lost him beyond hope of recovery was it
+realised that he was one of his country’s greatest glories. Then chairs
+were founded from which the most eminent literary men of the age should
+expound his works; and commentator after commentator--nine or ten before
+the end of the fourteenth century--cleared up some obscurities and made
+others more obscure. Of course, so far as historical allusions go, the
+writers who were nearly or quite contemporary with the events are often
+of great service; but it is otherwise, as a rule, when a knowledge of
+books is wanted. We are never so much impressed with the vastness of
+Dante’s reading, as when we see the utter failure of these learned men
+even to observe, in many cases, that any explanation or illustration of
+an allusion is wanted. This, however, brings us back to the point from
+which we started, namely, that much as has been written about Dante, the
+possible fields of research are by no means exhausted.
+
+The interest of the events which moulded Dante’s career and influenced
+his work has perhaps led to their occupying too large a share of these
+pages; but it has been thought best to go into the history at some
+length, as being after all the first and most essential step towards a
+thorough comprehension of the position which his writings, and
+especially the _Commedia_, hold in European literature. This is quite
+unique of its kind. Never before or since has a poem of the highest
+imagination served--not merely as a political manifesto, but--as a party
+pamphlet; and we may safely say that no such poem will in future serve
+that purpose, at all events until the conditions under which it was
+produced occur. Whether that is ever likely to be the case, those who
+have followed the history may judge.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [27] So I understand an obviously corrupt passage in Villani,
+    viii. 41. One of the unlucky Blacks was a Portinari, doubtless a
+    kinsman of Beatrice--a fact which curiously seems to have
+    escaped the conjectural commentators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE “COMMEDIA”
+
+
+So many good summaries of the _Commedia_ exist that to give another may
+appear superfluous. At the same time, experience shows not only that
+such a summary is found by most readers to be the best of all helps to
+the study of the poem, but also that every fresh summariser treats it
+from a somewhat different point of view. It is therefore possible that
+in the following pages answers, or at least suggestions of answers, may
+be found to some questions which previous writers, in England at all
+events, have passed over; and that they may serve in some measure as a
+supplement to the works which will be mentioned in the appendix.
+
+
+§ 1. HELL.
+
+The first eleven cantos of the _Hell_ form a very distinct subdivision
+of the poem. They embrace, first, the introduction contained in Canto
+i.; secondly, the description of the place of punishment up to a point
+at which a marked change in the character of the sins punished is
+indicated. In one sense, no doubt, an important stage in the journey is
+completed when the City of Dis is reached, in Canto viii.; but it will
+be observed, when we reach that point, that the class of sinners who are
+met with immediately within the walls of the City, the Epicureans or, as
+we should now say, the Materialists, bear really a much stronger
+affinity to those who are outside the walls, those whose sin has been
+lack of self-restraint in one form or another, than they do to the worse
+criminals who have “offended of malicious wickedness,” and who lie at
+and below the foot of the steep guarded by the Minotaur. The former
+class at all events have been, to use a common phrase, “their own worst
+enemies;” their sins have not been, at any rate in their essence, like
+those of the latter, of the kind which break up the fabric of society,
+and with them the heretics may most naturally be considered. It can
+hardly be doubted that some such view as this led Dante to make the
+first great break of level in his scheme of the lower world at a point
+which would leave the freethinkers and materialists actually nearer to
+the sinners of whom he holds that their sin “men Dio offende,” even
+though theological exigencies compel him to place them within the walls
+of the “red-hot city.” We may thus conveniently take these eleven cantos
+for consideration as a group by themselves.
+
+In the earlier cantos, as indeed throughout the poem, the main
+difficulties with which we meet depend far more on interpretation than
+on the mere “construing” of the words; and even if it were otherwise,
+all purely linguistic difficulties have been so fully dealt with over
+and over again in commentaries and translations that it would, as has
+been said, be quite superfluous to enter here upon any discussion of
+them. The opening canto, as every reader will at once perceive, is
+symbolism and allegory from beginning to end, from the “dark wood” in
+which the action of the poem begins to the “hound” who is to free Italy.
+These, more especially the latter, have given as much trouble to the
+interpreter as anything in the whole poem; indeed it may be said that in
+the matter of the _Veltro_ we have not made much advance on Boccaccio,
+who frankly admitted that he could not tell what was meant. But between
+these two points we have some hundred lines in nearly every one of
+which, beside its obvious and literal interpretation, we must look for
+all the others enumerated by Dante in the famous passage of his letter
+to Can Grande. The second canto is of much the same character, in some
+respects almost in more need of close study. The significance of the
+three beasts who hinder Dante is easier to make out than that of the
+three heavenly ladies who assist him. Meantime, if we are content to
+read the poem as narrative merely, there is no great difficulty to be
+overcome. The language is straightforward on the whole, almost the only
+_crux_ being ii. 108, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained,
+nor is the imagery other than simple.
+
+With Canto iii. and the arrival within the actual portal of Hell (though
+hardly in Hell properly so called) we enter upon a fresh subdivision of
+the poem; and are very soon brought up by the first, and one of the most
+perplexing, of the allusions to contemporary history with which it
+abounds. The elucidation of these would constantly offer almost
+hopeless difficulties, were it not for the early commentators, who are
+often able to explain them from personal knowledge. Now and then,
+however, it happens that they differ, and then the modern student is at
+a loss. This has been in some measure the case with the famous “gran
+rifiuto,” iii. 60; so that while we may with a high degree of
+probability accept the more usual view that the allusion is to the
+abdication of Celestine V., we cannot without further evidence feel so
+certain about it as we could wish. The whole conception of this canto
+seems to be due to Dante’s own invention; only to a nature like his,
+keenly alive to the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and
+burning with zeal in the cause of right, could it have occurred to mark
+off for special ignominy people whose sole fault seems to have been that
+they “took things too easily.” When, in Canto iv., we pass the river of
+Acheron, and find ourselves for the first time actually on the border of
+Hell itself, we are conscious at first of an alleviation. Melancholy
+there is, but it is a dignified melancholy, as different from the sordid
+misery of the wretches we have just left, as the “noble city” and the
+green sward enclosed by it are different from the murky air and the
+foul mud among which they have to dwell. Both in this and in the second
+circle we have punishment indeed but without degradation, even with some
+mitigation. Virgil at least enjoys the converse of the sages and great
+men of old and, in so far as non-Christians go, of recent times; while
+Francesca is solaced by the perpetual companionship of him for whose
+sake she has lost her soul. Even the penalty which she suffers, of being
+whirled for ever on the storm, is not exactly humiliating. From this
+point, however, we are conscious of a change. The gluttons seated or
+lying on putrid earth and exposed to lashing rain; the misusers of
+wealth, with all human lineaments effaced, and engaged in a foolish and
+wearisome scuffle; the ill-tempered, floating on the surface of the foul
+marsh of Styx or lying submerged in it according as their disposition
+was to fierce wrath or sullen brooding--all these are not merely
+tormented but degraded as well.
+
+After crossing the Styx (Canto viii.) we find a further change. Thus far
+the sins punished have differed only in degree from those which we shall
+find being expiated in Purgatory. They are indeed the simpler forms, so
+to speak, of the defects common to all animal nature. They are the same
+which, in one of their interpretations, the three symbolical beasts of
+Canto i. denote. Henceforth we find sins which are only possible to the
+higher intelligence of humanity. It will be observed, too, that at this
+point what may be called pictorial description begins. Hitherto we have
+had merely a general impression of murky air and miry soil, sloping
+perhaps a little toward the centre, and intersected now and again by a
+stream. Now the City of Dis with minarets and towers rises in front of
+us, and, as we shall see in future cantos, from this time onwards the
+character of the scenery is indicated with great preciseness, even to
+its smallest details. Here, too, actual devils, beings whose will, as
+Aquinas says, is obstinately set upon evil, appear for the first time,
+as distinct from the personages of classical mythology, who act as
+warders of the various circles. Virgil, or human reason, is no longer
+sufficient of himself to secure a passage. Both at the gates of the
+fiery city and on subsequent occasions he is as helpless, without
+superior aid, as his disciple and follower.
+
+The ninth canto contains a piece of allegory, that involved in the
+introduction of Medusa and the Furies, which has earned perhaps a
+greater reputation for obscurity than it deserves, from the fact that
+Dante himself calls special attention to it.
+
+Cantos x. and xi. are both very important, the former for its bearing on
+the history of Florence. Those who have read the sketch of that history
+in the preceding chapters will understand the full force of Farinata’s
+discourse with Dante. We have had a brief passage of the same kind in
+Canto vi., but here the subject is treated at greater length, and with
+some marvellous dramatic touches.
+
+Canto xi. must be thoroughly mastered if Dante’s scheme of ethics is to
+be understood. It forms, indeed, a summary of and key to the arrangement
+of the penalties, and a thorough comprehension and retention of it in
+the memory will be found a wonderful help to a recollection of the whole
+Cantica.
+
+At the conclusion of the discourse in which Dante, speaking by the mouth
+of Virgil, has set forth this ethical system, the poets move forward
+along the brink of the pit until they arrive at a spot where they can
+reach the lower level. The descent is rendered possible by a steep and
+broken slope of loose rock, which Dante compares to the great landslip
+between Trent and Verona, known as the Slavino di Marco.[28] Virgil
+explains that this was due to the “rending of the rocks” at the time of
+the Crucifixion. The descent is guarded by the legendary Minotaur, the
+Cretan monster, part bull, part man. In this connection it may be
+noticed that the beings suggested by classical mythology, who are met
+with in the division of Hell which lies between the wall of the City of
+Dis and the brink of Malebolge, the Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Harpies,
+and Geryon (as Dante conceives him), all belong to the semi-bestial
+class. In spite of the opinion held by some of the most eminent
+Dante-scholars, that Dante in his classification of sins does not follow
+Aristotle’s grouping of them into incontinent, malicious, and brutal,
+but recognises the first two only, it seems difficult not to see in
+this, especially when it is taken in connection with expressions
+scattered throughout his writings, an indication that in the sins of
+the seventh circle he found the equivalent of the Greek philosopher’s
+θηριότης--the result of giving a free range to the brutal, as
+distinct from the common animal, impulses.
+
+In this seventh circle, too, we first meet with _fire_ as an instrument
+of Divine wrath. Indeed, with the single exception of the suicides, for
+whom a specially significant chastisement is devised, all the sinners in
+this group, from the heretics in their red-hot tombs to the usurers
+tormented on one side by the fiery rain, and on the other by the
+exhalations from the deeper pit, are punished by means of heat. At the
+foot of the slope is a great circular plain, ringed with a river of
+boiling blood in which spoilers, robbers, and murderers, some famous,
+some obscure, are plunged more or less deeply in proportion to the
+heinousness of their crimes; for, like earthly streams, this has its
+deep and shallow. At the latter point they cross, on the back of Nessus
+the Centaur, and at once enter (Canto xiii.) a wood of gnarled and sere
+trees, in which the Harpies have their dwelling. These trees have sprung
+from the souls of suicides, and retain the power of speech and
+sensation. From one of these, who in life had been the famous statesman
+Peter de Vineis, Dante learns that at the judgement they will recover
+their bodies, like others, but will not be allowed to reassume them. The
+body will be hung on the tree to which it belongs. Here, as in the case
+of the avaricious and the wrathful, the spirits of other sinners take a
+part in the infliction of the punishment. The wood is inhabited by the
+souls of those who had wasted their substance in life, and these are
+constantly chased through it by hounds, with much destruction of leaves
+and twigs.
+
+On issuing from the wood (Canto xiv.), they find themselves at the edge
+of a great circular plain of sand, upon which flakes of fire are
+ceaselessly dropping. Skirting the wood for some distance they reach the
+bank of the stream of blood which, having circled all round the outer
+margin of the wood, now comes flowing through it, and crosses the sandy
+plain in a channel carefully built of shaped stone. Virgil takes
+occasion to explain the origin of the rivers of Hell. Thick fumes rise
+from it which quench the falling flames, so that along its bank, and
+there only, can a way be found. As they proceed they find sinners lying
+prone or running under the fiery shower. These are they who had done
+violence to God, either directly by open blasphemy, or indirectly by
+violating the divinely appointed natural order whereby both the race of
+mankind and its possessions should increase and multiply. Many famous
+Florentines are among these sinners (Cantos xv. and xvi.); and Dante
+talks long with the famous statesman and philosopher, Brunetto Latini,
+who had been his early friend and adviser, and with sundry great
+captains and men of renown. After this they reach the point where the
+river falls with a mighty roar down to the next level. There is no
+natural means of descent here available; and Dante hands to Virgil a
+cord with which he is girt. The meaning of this cord is very obscure. He
+says: “I once thought to capture the leopard with it;” and if the
+leopard denotes the factions of Florence, the cord may perhaps symbolise
+justice or equity. When Virgil has thrown it down they wait a short
+time, and presently a monster appears whose name we find to be Geryon,
+and who symbolises fraud or treachery. It is perhaps not unnatural that
+when the power to enforce justice has been cast away, treachery should
+raise its head. This monster draws near the brink (Canto xvii.), but
+before they mount on him, Virgil allows Dante to walk a few paces to the
+right, in order that he may take note of the last class of “violent”
+sinners, namely, the usurers. These hold an intermediate position
+between the violent and the treacherous; just as the heretics did
+between the incontinent and the violent. Here again are many
+Florentines. Like the other misusers of money in Canto vii. their
+features are unrecognisable, and they are only to be known by the arms
+embroidered on their money bags. After hearing a few words from one of
+them, Dante returns to Virgil, and both take their place on the croup of
+Geryon, who bears them downwards to the eighth circle. This (Canto
+xviii.), from its configuration, is known as Malebolge, or Evilpits. It
+is divided into ten concentric rings, or circular trenches, separated by
+a tract of rocky ground. From various indications we gather that each
+trench is half a mile across, and the intervening ground a mile and a
+quarter. The trenches are spanned by rocky ribs, forming bridges by
+which the central cavity can be reached. Here we find for the first time
+devils, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, employed as tormentors.
+The sinners in this circle are those who have been guilty in any way of
+leading others into sin, deceiving or cheating them, without any
+aggravating circumstances of ingratitude or breach of natural ties. In
+the first pit are those who have led women astray; these are scourged by
+fiends. In the next lie flatterers immersed in the most loathsome filth.
+In each Dante notes two examples: one of recent times--indeed, in both
+cases an acquaintance of his own,--and one taken from ancient history or
+legend. Jason, for his desertion of Hypsipyle and Medea, is the
+classical example of the first offence. Of this use of mythological
+persons we have many examples, but the typical flatterer of old time is
+a more curious selection, being a character in a play, whom Dante has
+borrowed from Cicero.
+
+In the next, or third pit (Canto xix.), we again find fire as the
+instrument with which the sinners are punished. Those who have made
+money by misuse of sacred offices are buried head downwards in holes
+with their feet projecting, and fire plays about their soles. Naturally
+an opportunity is here presented for some strong invective against the
+recent unworthy occupants of the See of Rome.
+
+Canto xx. brings us to the fourth pit, in which those who have professed
+to foretell the future march in a dismal procession with their heads
+turned round so that they look down their own backs. The sight of Manto,
+daughter of Tiresias, suggests a description of the origin of the city
+of Mantua. The last lines of this canto contain one of the most
+important indications of time which Dante gives in this part of the
+poem.
+
+The sinners of the fifth pit correspond in some degree with those of the
+third, except that in their case the traffic which is punished has to do
+with secular offices. Canto xxi. opens with the famous description of
+the work in the arsenal of Venice, which is introduced in order to
+afford an image of the boiling pitch in which sinners of this class are
+immersed. For some reason, which is not very clear, Dante devotes two
+whole cantos to this subdivision of the subject. There is no doubt that
+_baratteria_, peculation or jobbery, was rampant throughout Southern
+Europe at the time, and, as has been said, it was one of the charges
+brought against the poet himself at the time of his banishment.[29] We
+find here again one of “the torments of heat;” with one exception, that
+of the evil counsellors in Canto xxv., the last instance in which heat
+plays a part. It would be interesting, by comparison of the various sins
+into the punishment of which it enters, to see if any ground can be
+suggested for its employment in their case.
+
+Cantos xxi. and xxii. are also noteworthy as bringing into prominence
+the agency of devils, and showing them actually at work. Ten are
+introduced and named; and some indication is given of their
+organisation. Dante’s skill is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the
+way in which he has surmounted the difficulty of depicting beings in
+whom there is no touch of any good quality. They are plausible; and
+their leader, Malacoda, appears at first sight almost friendly. It is
+not until later that his apparent friendliness turns out to be a
+deliberate attempt to mislead.
+
+At the opening of Canto xxiii. we find the poets exactly half-way
+through Malebolge, on the rocky table-land, so to call it, which
+separates the fifth and sixth pits. They are quite solitary, for the
+first time in the course of their journey out of sight and hearing of
+any other beings; but still in fear of pursuit from the fiends whom they
+have just left. These do not, however, come up until just as the poets
+have begun the descent into the sixth pit, and here their power is at an
+end.
+
+In this pit are punished the hypocrites, who go in slow procession clad
+in cowls of gilded lead. Contrary to the usual practice the poets have
+in this case to descend to the bottom of the pit, the bridges being all
+broken away. Malacoda, the leader of the fiends in the last _bolgia_,
+had mentioned one, but (falsely) assured them that they would find a
+sound one further on. He also informed them that the destruction of the
+bridges had taken place 1266 years ago on the previous day, but five
+hours later than the time of speaking. This gives an important
+“time-reference.” There can be no doubt that the allusion is to the
+rending of the rocks at the moment of Our Lord’s death (_cf._ xii.
+31-45), which took place at 3 P.M., so that we have 10 A.M. on Easter
+Eve fixed as the hour at which the poets meet with the devils of the
+fifth pit. Among the hypocrites Dante talks with two men who had jointly
+held the office of _Podestà_, or chief magistrate, at Florence in the
+year after his birth.[30] They belonged to opposite parties, and the
+double appointment had been one of the many expedients devised to
+restore peace; but it had not answered, and the two were suspected of
+having sunk their own differences of opinion, not to conciliate the
+factions, but to enrich themselves at the expense of the State. While
+talking to them Dante sees a figure fastened to the ground with three
+stakes, as though crucified. This, it is explained, is Caiaphas; Annas
+being similarly placed at another point of the circle. Dante and Virgil
+have to leave this pit as they entered it, by climbing over the rocks
+(Canto xxiv.); and from the minuteness with which this process is
+described (even to so characteristic a touch as “I talked as I went, to
+show that my wind was good,”) it has been thought that Dante was not
+without experience in mountain-craft.
+
+The seventh pit is appointed for the punishment of thieves. Serpents and
+dragons are here introduced. In some cases the body is reduced to ashes
+in consequence of the bite, and presently recovers its shape; in others
+man and serpent blend; in others, again, they exchange natures, the
+sinners themselves being transmuted into the reptiles, and becoming the
+instruments of torment to their fellows. A kind of reckless and brutal
+joviality seems to characterise the malefactors whom we meet with in
+this region. Among them are many Florentines, a fact which prompts Dante
+to an apostrophe full of bitter irony, with which Canto xxvi. opens. In
+the following pit a curious change of tone is manifest. The image chosen
+to illustrate the scene is an agreeable one--fireflies flitting in
+summer about a mountain valley; and the punishment though terrible is in
+no way loathsome or degrading, like most of those which have hitherto
+been described in the present circle. The sinners, too, who are
+mentioned are men who on earth had played heroic parts; the manner of
+their speech is dignified, and Dante treats them with respect. They are
+those who have sinned by giving wicked counsel to others, and so
+leading them to commit sin; and the two who are especially distinguished
+and who relate their stories at length are Ulysses (Canto xxvi.) and
+Count Guy of Montefeltro, a great Ghibeline leader (xxvii.). The former
+probably owes his place here to Virgil’s epithet _scelerum inventor_,
+deviser of crimes. In a passage which has deservedly become famous, he
+gratifies Dante’s curiosity as to the manner of his end. The passage,
+apart from its poetic beauty, is remarkable as being, so far as can be
+traced, due entirely to the poet’s own invention. At all events, beyond
+two or three words in the _Odyssey_, nothing in either classical or
+mediæval legend is known which can have given the suggestion for it. In
+the case of the Count of Montefeltro, who is alleged to have given
+treacherous counsel to Boniface VIII., it also appears difficult to
+understand how the facts, if facts they are, became known to Dante.
+Villani no doubt gives the story, but in language so similar to that of
+the poem that a suspicion arises whether he may not be relying on it as
+his authority.
+
+The next canto (xxviii.) introduces us to one of Dante’s most ghastly
+conceptions. The ninth pit is peopled by those who have on earth caused
+strife and divisions among mankind. They are not, as often stated,
+schismatics in the technical sense of the word. Mahommed and Ali are
+there, obviously not on religious grounds however, but as having brought
+about a great breach between divisions of the human race; and though Fra
+Dolcino, who is introduced as it were by anticipation, was a religious
+schismatic, it was no doubt his social heterodoxy which earned him a
+commemoration in this place. The punishment of these sinners is
+appropriate. They are constantly being slashed to pieces by demons; the
+wounds being closed again before they complete the circuit. Curio, who
+as Lucan narrates, spoke the words which finally decided Cæsar to enter
+upon civil war, Mosca de’ Lamberti, the instigator of the crime which
+first imported especial bitterness into the strife of factions at
+Florence, and one Peter of Medicina, who seems to have devoted himself
+to keeping party-spirit alive in Romagna, are here. Last of all,
+carrying his own head like a lantern, is Bertrand of Born, the famous
+troubadour, who is charged with having promoted the quarrel between
+Henry II. of England and his son. It is worth noting that at this point
+we get the first definite indication of the dimensions which Dante
+assumes for the present division of Hell. We are told that this ninth
+pit of Malebolge has a circumference of twenty-two miles. From the next
+canto we learn that the last or innermost pit has half this measure; and
+from this basis it has been found possible to draw an accurate plan of
+Malebolge, and to conjecture, with an approach to certainty, the
+conception formed by Dante of Hell generally.[31]
+
+In the last pit (Cantos xxix. and xxx.) are found those who have been
+guilty of personation with criminal intent, or of bearing false witness,
+or of debasing the coinage or pretending to transmute metals. These
+suffer from leprosy, dropsy, raving madness, and other diseases. Before
+leaving the pit, a quarrel between two of the sinners attracts Dante’s
+attention more than Virgil thinks seemly; and a sharp reprimand follows.
+Dante’s penitence however earns speedy forgiveness.
+
+We are now drawing near the lowest pit; and through the dim air is heard
+the sound of a great horn (Canto xxxi.) Going forward, they find that
+the final descent, which appears to be a sheer drop of about thirty-five
+feet, is guarded by a ring of giants. Those of them who are seen are
+Nimrod, and the classical Ephialtes and Antæus; but we learn that others
+famous in Greek mythology are there also. Antæus being addressed by
+Virgil in courteous words, lifts the poets down the wall and lands them
+on the lowest floor of Hell. This (Canto xxxii.) is of ice, and must be
+conceived as a circular plain, perhaps about two miles in diameter. In
+this are punished all who have been guilty of any treachery towards
+those to whom they were bound by special ties of kindred,
+fellow-citizenship, friendship, or gratitude. Each of these various
+grades of crime has its own division, and these are arranged
+concentrically, with no very definite boundaries between the different
+classes. At the same time each division has its appropriate name, formed
+from some famous malefactor who had specially exemplified that class of
+crime. Thus the first ring is Caina; the second, Antenora, from Antenor,
+who, according to a late version of the Trojan legend, had betrayed Troy
+to the Greeks; the third, Toommea, from that Ptolemy, son of Abubus,
+who treacherously slew the Maccabees at a feast; the last, in which
+Lucifer himself abides, is Giudecca. No distinction appears to exist
+between the penalties inflicted on the two first classes; all are alike
+plunged up to the shoulders in the ice, the head being free. Dante
+speaks with more than one, most of them persons who had belonged to the
+Ghibeline party; though in the case of one, Bocca degli Abati, the
+treachery had been committed to the detriment of the Guelfs.[32] The
+mention of Bocca and Dante’s behaviour to him, may remind us that the
+whole question of Dante’s demeanour towards the persons whom he meets in
+the first part of the poem is interesting. For some he is full of pity,
+towards some he is even respectful; occasionally he is neutral; while in
+some cases he displays anger and scorn, amounting as here to positive
+cruelty. The expressions of pity, it will be observed, practically cease
+from the moment that Malebolge, the “nethermost Hell,” is reached.
+Similarly, after reaching the City of Dis, the tone of Virgil towards
+the guardians of the damned, which up to that point has been
+peremptory, becomes almost suppliant. The reason for this is indeed
+somewhat obscure: one does not at once see why the formula “So it is
+willed there, where will is power,” should not be as good for the Furies
+or for Malacoda as it has proved for Charon and Minos. Perhaps the clue
+is to be found in the fact that the sins punished _inside_ the walls of
+the city (sins which, it will be seen, are not represented in Purgatory
+at all) are to be regarded as the result of a will obstinately set
+against the will of God; while the sins arising from the frailty of
+human nature may be checked by the “right judgement” recalling, before
+it is too late, what the will of God is. This, however, is a different
+question, and we must not here pursue it too far. To revert to that of
+Dante’s various demeanour, it will be seen that, with the limitation
+indicated above, his sympathy with the sinner does not vary with the
+comparative heinousness of the sin. Almost his bitterest scorn, indeed,
+is directed towards some whose chief sin is lack of any positive
+qualities, good or bad. One infers that he would almost rather wander in
+a flame with Ulysses, or lie in the ice with Ugolino, than undergo the
+milder punishment of Celestine and his ignoble companions. For the
+simply self-indulgent, Francesca or Ciacco, he has pity in abundance;
+Farinata, Brunetto, and the other famous men who share the fates of
+these, may probably come into the same category. In such cases as these,
+while he has not a word to say against the justice of God, he has no
+desire to add “the wrath of man” thereto. In the one instance in
+Malebolge where he shows any sympathy (and is reproved by Virgil for
+doing so) it is for the soothsayers, whose sin would not necessarily
+involve the hurt of others. But his conduct is very different to those
+whose sin has been primarily against their fellow-man, or against kindly
+human intercourse. His first fierce outbreak is against the swaggering
+ruffian Filippo Argenti, who seems to have been in Florentine society
+the most notable example of a class now happily extinct in civilised
+countries, at all events among adults; a kind of bully, or “Mohock,”
+fond of rough practical jokes, prompted, not by a misguided sense of
+humour, but by an irritable man’s delight in venting his spite. One can
+sympathise, even after six hundred years, in Dante’s pious satisfaction
+when he saw the man, of whom he may himself have once gone in bodily
+fear, become in his turn the object of persecution. It is, however,
+after Malebolge is reached, and Dante is among the sinners who have by
+dishonest practices weakened the bond of confidence which should bind
+human society together, that he lets his wrath and scorn have full play.
+His imagery even takes on a grotesque, at times even a foul aspect. He
+was not one to mince his words, and if he means to sicken his readers,
+he goes straight to his aim.
+
+It is to be noted, too, that the language and demeanour of the sinners
+themselves have in many cases changed. Above Malebolge, at all events
+till the usurers are reached, a certain dignity of speech and action is
+the rule. Now we find flippant expressions and vulgar gestures. Nothing
+is omitted which can give a notion, not merely of the sinfulness, but of
+the sordidness of dishonesty. Curiously enough, the one denizen of this
+region who is thoroughly dignified and even pathetic, is the pagan
+Ulysses; and to him Dante does not himself speak, leaving the pagan
+Virgil to hold all communication with him. Besides Ulysses, Guy of
+Montfeltro and Ugolino are presented in such a way as to enlist, in
+some degree, the sympathy of the reader; and it may further be noted
+that in each case a representative of the family in the next generation
+is placed in Purgatory; as though Dante, while bound to condemn the
+elder men, had held the houses in such esteem that he wished to balance
+the condemnation by assigning a better fate to their successors.
+
+The opening of Canto xxxiii. brings us to the famous episode of Count
+Ugolino, which shares with the earlier one of Francesca da Rimini the
+widest renown of any passage in the whole poem. It is curious, by the
+way, that the structure of the two shows many marked parallelisms; only
+the tender pity which characterises Dante’s treatment of the former is
+wholly lacking in the latter. There is no need to dwell on so well-known
+a story; but it may be noted that Ugolino, though a Guelf leader, and
+condemned here no doubt for his intrigues with the Ghibeline Archbishop
+Roger, came of a Ghibeline family, and thus forms only a partial
+exception to the rule stated above. The only genuine Guelf who is named
+in this division is Tesauro de’ Beccheria, the Abbot of Vallombrosa.
+
+This will perhaps be the best point at which to say a few words on a
+subject about which much misconception has prevailed. It has often been
+supposed that Dante was just a Ghibeline partisan, and distributed his
+characters in the next world according to political sympathies. The
+truth is, that under no circumstances, so far as we can see, does he
+assign to any one his place on political grounds--that is, merely for
+having belonged to one or other of the great parties which then divided
+Italy. He himself, as we know, belonged to neither. His political ideal
+was a united world submitting to the general direction of the Emperor in
+temporal matters, of the Pope in spiritual. On the other hand, he would
+have had national forms of government retained. Brought up as he had
+been, the citizen and afterwards the official of a Guelf republic, there
+is no reason to suppose that a republican form of government was in any
+way distasteful to him, provided that it was honestly administered. It
+was not until the more powerful faction in the Guelf party called in the
+aid of an external power, unconnected with Italy, and hostile, or, as he
+would doubtless hold, rebellious, to the Empire, that he, along with the
+more “constitutional” branch of the Guelfs, threw in his lot with the
+long-banished Ghibelines. But neither then nor at any time did he belong
+to the Ghibeline party. So far from it, that he takes that party (in
+_Par._, vi. 105) as the example of those who follow the imperial
+standard in the wrong way, and make it a symbol of iniquity. The
+greatest and most heroic figure in the whole history of the Ghibelines,
+the man whose love for the rebellious city was as great as Dante’s own,
+who when he had by his prowess in arms recovered it for the Empire,
+stood resolutely between it and the destruction which in the opinion of
+his comrades it had merited, is condemned to share with a Pope and an
+Emperor the penalty of speculative heterodoxy. On the other hand, we
+find Charles of Anjou, the foreign intruder, the bitter foe of the
+Empire and pitiless exterminator of the imperial race, a man in whom
+later historians, free from personal or patriotic bias, have seen hardly
+any virtue to redeem the sombre cruelty of his career, placed, not
+indeed in Paradise, but in Purgatory, and waiting in sure and certain
+hope of ultimate salvation, as one who in spite of many faults had led a
+pure and ascetic life in a profligate and self-indulgent age. It would
+be interesting to know, if Dante had met Charles somewhat later, in
+which of the Purgatorial circles he would have placed him. He seems to
+evade the difficulty of classifying him by finding him where he does.
+
+It is necessary to insist rather strongly on this point, since even so
+accomplished a scholar as the late Professor Bartoli, when dealing with
+Dante’s reference to the Emperor Henry VII. (in _Par._, xxx. 133, sqq.),
+forgets that all the saints in Paradise have their allotted seat in the
+Rose of the highest heaven, and speaks as though Dante had honoured
+Henry above all but the greatest saints and foretold his “direct flight
+from the earth to the Empyrean.” Of course there is not a word of this.
+All that we are entitled to say is that Dante held Henry to be an
+Emperor who was doing his duty, and would earn his reward like any other
+Christian and before Dante himself. It will be observed that he sees no
+other Emperor in Paradise, save Charlemagne; one, Rudolf of Hapsburg, is
+in, or rather just outside of, Purgatory; one, the great Frederick II.,
+in Hell. Of the Popes one only, and he a Pope who in his life lay under
+grievous suspicion of heterodoxy, and moreover only occupied the Papal
+See for a few months, is placed in Heaven. This is “Peter of Spain,”
+Pope John XXI. Two are in Purgatory; one of them, Martin IV., being a
+man who, as a Frenchman by birth, and a strong partisan of Charles of
+Anjou, might be supposed to have been specially obnoxious to Dante. No
+doubt Popes appear in what may seem an unfair proportion among the
+guilty souls below; but even for this distribution Dante could probably
+have pleaded orthodox authority and certainly scriptural support. “To
+whom much is given, of the same shall much be required.” It is true, as
+Professor Bartoli points out, that Dante’s “reverence for the supreme
+keys” was compatible with a very low estimate of their holders; but is
+not this exactly what we should expect from a man of high ideals and
+intolerant of failure in proportion to the dignity of the aim? His
+treatment of Pope Celestine, the one Pope of his time from whom, _prima
+facie_, something other than political partisanship might have been
+hoped, and who having put his hand to the plough had looked back, is
+sufficient to indicate his attitude in this matter.
+
+Once realise that Dante was, like our own Milton, a man with a keen
+sense of what ought to be, and an equally keen appreciation of the fact
+that things in his time were by no means as they ought to be, that he
+was fallen on evil days and evil tongues--an appreciation which
+doubtless most great souls, short of the few greatest, have had at most
+periods of the world’s history--and you have the key to much that no
+ordinary theory of party-spirit will explain. Men of this temper care
+little for the party cries of everyday politics; and yet they cannot
+quite sit outside the world of affairs and watch the players, as we may
+imagine Shakespeare to have done, in calm consciousness that the shaping
+of our rough-hewn ends was in other hands than ours. No great historian
+of Shakespeare’s time devoted a whole chapter to his memory, as did
+Villani to that of Dante; yet we can hardly doubt that in the education
+of the world Shakespeare has borne the more important share, and Dante,
+with his deep conviction of the higher dignity of the “contemplative
+life,” would be the first to own it.
+
+The third subdivision, known as Tolommea, has, as one of its inmates
+says, the “privilege” of receiving the souls of sinners while their
+bodies are yet alive on earth, animated by demons. With this horrible
+conception we seem to have reached the highest mark of Dante’s inventive
+power. Only two names are mentioned, but one feels that if the owners of
+them ever came across the poem in which they had earned so sinister a
+commemoration, their sentiment towards the poet would hardly be one of
+gratitude.[33] These are the last of his contemporaries whom Dante
+brands, the last, indeed, whom he recognises. In Giudecca (Canto xxxiv.)
+the sinners are wholly sunk below the ice, and only show through like
+straws or other small impurities in glass. An exception is made in the
+case of the three persons whom Dante regards as having carried the sin
+of ingratitude to its highest point. Lucifer, who, as has been said, is
+fixed at the lowest point, has three faces. In the mouth of the central
+one he for ever gnaws Judas Iscariot, while in the others are Brutus and
+Cassius.
+
+The journey to the upper world is begun by a climb down the shaggy sides
+of the Archfiend himself. On reaching his middle, which is also the
+centre of the earth, the position is reversed, and the ascent begins.
+For a short distance they climb up by Lucifer’s legs, then through a
+chimney in the rock; lastly, it would appear, following the course of a
+stream which winds spirally down through the earth, they reach the
+surface, and again come in sight of the stars.
+
+
+§ 2. PURGATORY.
+
+After the invocation to the Muses, a curious survival of classical
+imagery with which in one form or another each division of the poem
+begins, Dante relates how, on emerging from the lower world, as Easter
+Day was dawning the poets found themselves on an island with the first
+gleam of day just visible on the distant sea. Venus is shining in the
+eastern heaven; and four stars, “never seen save by the earliest of
+mankind,” are visible to the south. No doubt some tradition or report of
+the Southern Cross had reached men’s ears in Europe; but the symbolical
+meaning is more important, and there can be no doubt that the stars
+denote the four “cardinal” or natural or active virtues of fortitude,
+temperance, justice, and prudence. In the evening, as we shall see later
+on, their place is taken by three other stars, which symbolise the
+theological or Christian or contemplative virtues--faith, hope, charity.
+
+On turning again Dante sees close at hand an old man of venerable
+countenance, who questions them by what right they had come. Virgil
+recognises him for Cato of Utica, the Roman Republican patriot. His
+position here, as warder of the mount of purification, is very curious,
+and has never been thoroughly explained. Among other things it is
+probable that Dante was influenced by the Virgilian line in which Cato
+is introduced as the lawgiver of good men in the after-world. Being
+satisfied with the explanation given, Cato directs them to the shore,
+where Virgil is to wash the grime of Hell from Dante’s face, and gird
+him with a rush, as an emblem of humility. When this has been done and
+as the sun is rising (Canto ii.) a light is seen approaching over the
+water. As it draws near, it is seen to be an angel. His wings form the
+sails to a boat which comes to the shore, freighted with more than a
+hundred souls on their way to Purgatory. They are chanting the Easter
+Psalm _In exitu Israel_; at the sign of the cross made by the angel they
+come ashore, and begin by inquiring the way of Virgil. While he is
+explaining that he is no less strange to the country than they are, some
+of them perceive that Dante is a living man, and all crowd around him.
+Among them he recognises a friend, the musician Casella, who, after some
+affectionate words have passed between them, begins at Dante’s request
+to sing one of the poet’s own odes; and the crowd listen intently. But
+Cato comes up, and bidding them delay no longer, drives them like a
+flock of frightened pigeons towards the mountain.
+
+Even Virgil is somewhat abashed on account of his participation in the
+delay (Canto iii.); but soon recovers his equanimity, and resumes his
+usual dignified pace. Dante for the first time observes that his
+companion casts no shadow on the ground, and Virgil explaining that the
+spiritual form, while capable of feeling pain, has not the property of
+intercepting light, takes occasion to point out that there are mysteries
+for which the human reason is unable to account, and that this very
+inability forms the chief unhappiness of the great thinkers whom they
+saw among the virtuous heathen on the border of Hell. With this they
+reach the foot of the mountain of Purgatory. As is explained elsewhere,
+this occupies a position exactly opposite to the conical pit of Hell;
+being indeed formed of that portion of the earth which fled at the
+approach of Satan when he fell from Heaven. Some of its features are no
+doubt borrowed from the legendary accounts which Pliny and others have
+preserved of a great mountain seen by navigators to the west of the
+Straits of Gibraltar; these accounts being probably based on imperfect
+descriptions of Atlas or Teneriffe, or both confused together. Its
+summit is exactly at the Antipodes of Jerusalem, a point which must be
+carefully borne in mind if the various astronomical indications of time
+given in the course of the journey are to be rightly understood.
+
+The mountain-side, which Dante compares to the steepest and most rugged
+parts of the Genoese Riviera, appears at first, quite inaccessible; but
+before long they meet a company of spirits, who, after recovering from
+their first astonishment at seeing from Dante’s shadow that he is not
+one of themselves, indicate to them the point at which the cliff may be
+attacked. Before they proceed further, one of the shades addressing
+Dante makes himself known as Manfred, son to the Emperor Frederick II.,
+and gives an account of his end, explaining that excommunication--for he
+had died under the ban of the Church--is powerless to do more than
+protract the interval between the soul’s admission to Purgatory. After
+this (Canto iv.) they enter a steep and narrow cleft in the rock, from
+which they emerge upon a ledge on the mountain face, and a further climb
+up this lands them about noon on a broader terrace. Hitherto they have
+been mounting from the eastward, and on looking back in that direction,
+Dante is surprised to find the sun on his left hand. Virgil explains the
+topography; and is saying, in order to encourage Dante, that the labour
+of climbing will diminish as they get higher, when a bantering voice
+interrupts with the assurance that he will need plenty of sitting yet.
+The poet recognises in the speaker a Florentine friend. Another playful
+sarcasm on his thirst for information makes Dante address the shade and
+inquire as to his state. He, like Manfred, is debarred from entering
+Purgatory, but on the ground that he had led an easy life, and taken no
+thought of serious matters till his end drew near. In the following
+cantos (v. and vi.) we meet with many spirits who are from various
+causes in a similar position. First come those who have been cut off in
+the midst of their sins, but have sought for mercy at the last. The most
+noteworthy of these is Buonconte of Montefeltro, son of that Count Guy
+whom we met in the eighth pit of Malebolge. He was slain fighting
+against the Florentines at the battle of Campaldino (1289), in which
+Dante himself may possibly have borne arms.[34] Four lines at the end of
+this canto are among the most famous in the poem. In a few words they
+commemorate one of the domestic tragedies which were only too familiar
+in mediæval Italy. Passing through the crowd, they fall in, as evening
+is drawing on, with a solitary shade, who replies to Virgil’s inquiry
+for the best road by asking whence they come. At the answer, “Mantua,”
+the shade springs up, and reveals himself as the famous warrior-poet of
+that city, Sordello. The affectionate greeting which follows between
+the fellow-citizens moves Dante to a splendid denunciation of the
+internecine quarrels then raging throughout Italy, and of the neglect on
+the part of the divinely ordained monarch, the Roman Emperor, which has
+allowed matters to come to such a pass. Lastly he directs his invective
+especially against his own city, Florence, and in words of bitter
+sarcasm upbraids her with the perpetual revolutions which hinder all
+good government.
+
+Sordello is an example of those whom constant occupation in affairs of
+state had caused to defer any thought for spiritual things, and who are
+expiating the delay in the region outside the proper entrance to
+Purgatory. In Canto vii., after explaining that they will not be able to
+stir a step after sunset (“the night cometh when no man can work”), he
+leads the poets to a spot where they may pass the night. This is a
+flowery dell on the hillside, occupied by the spirits of those who in
+life had been sovereign princes and rulers. There they see the Emperor
+Rudolf and his adversary, Ottocar of Bohemia; Charles of Anjou, King of
+Naples and Sicily, Philip III. of France, Peter III. of Aragon, Henry
+III. of England, and many other famous men of the last generation.
+Sordello, in pointing them out, takes occasion to enlarge on the
+degeneracy of their sons, making a special exception in favour of
+Edward, son of Henry.
+
+The sun sets (Canto viii.) and the shades join in the Compline hymn. At
+its conclusion, two angels clad in green robes descend, and take up
+their position on either side of the little valley. Dante, with his
+companions, goes down to join the “mighty shades,” and is met by one
+whom he at once recognises as an old friend, the Pisan noble Giovanni,
+or Nino de’ Visconti, “judge” or governor of the Sardinian province
+called Gallura, nephew of Count Ugolino. After some talk Dante notices
+the three stars spoken of above, and at the same moment Sordello draws
+Virgil’s attention to an “adversary.” They see a serpent making its way
+through the grass; and immediately the angels start in pursuit, putting
+it to flight. After this episode another shade announces himself as
+Conrad Malaspina, of the house with whom Dante was to find shelter
+during a part of his exile.
+
+The night wears on, and Dante falls asleep (Canto ix.). He dreams that
+he is being carried by an eagle up to the empyrean heaven. On awaking
+he finds that the sun has risen some time, and learns from Virgil that
+at daybreak St. Lucy (who has already come under notice as taking an
+interest in his welfare) had appeared and borne him to the place where
+they now are, in front of the gate of Purgatory. This is approached by
+three steps of variously-coloured stone. The first is white marble, the
+second a dark and rough rock, the third blood-red porphyry, indicating
+probably the three stages of the soul’s progress to freedom through
+confession, contrition, and penance. On the topmost step sits an angel,
+who having marked seven P’s (_peccata_ sins) on Dante’s forehead, admits
+them within the gate.
+
+Thus far, except in the passage, Canto viii. 19 sqq., to which Dante
+himself draws the reader’s attention, the allegorical interpretation has
+not afforded any very great difficulty. With this particular passage
+readers will do well to compare _Inf._, ix. 37 sqq., where a very
+similar indication is given of an underlying allegory, and draw their
+own conclusions. But on the whole, the main interest of the first nine
+cantos of the _Purgatory_ is more of a personal nature. Sordello alone
+may give an excuse for a good deal of historical research. For example,
+no one has yet explained Dante’s reasons for so distinguishing a person
+who, from all the records that we have, does not seem to have made any
+great figure in the eyes of his contemporaries.
+
+It will hardly be necessary to follow Dante step by step through the
+stages of the mountain of purification. We shall probably do best to
+consider the general plan on which Purgatory is arranged, the nature of
+the various penances, with their adaptation to the offences which they
+expiate, and the light thrown in this division of the poem on Dante’s
+opinions about the elements of political and moral science.
+
+We find, then, seven cornices, or ledges, on the mountain, connected
+with each other by stairways cut in the rock. Each stairway is guarded
+by an angel, and each, as it would appear, is shorter and less steep
+than the previous one. Thus the passage from the first to the second
+circle takes a considerable time, enough at all events to allow of some
+conversation between Dante and Virgil between the moment of their
+passing the angel and that at which they reach the top of the stairway.
+On the other hand, when they come to the final ascent, from the seventh
+circle to the level of the Earthly Paradise which occupies the summit, a
+few steps are sufficient to bring them to their halting-place, which, as
+appears afterwards, is practically on the summit level. Each angel, as
+Dante passes, erases from his forehead one of the P’s which the warder
+of the first gate had inscribed there, and utters one of the Scriptural
+Beatitudes appropriate to the circle which they are quitting. Thus,
+“Blessed are the peacemakers” accompanies their departure from the
+circle of the wrathful; “Blessed are they that hunger after
+righteousness” is heard as they leave that where gluttony is expiated.
+
+The ritual, so to speak, is very precise throughout. Besides the
+Beatitudes, which are recited by the angel-guards, and in some cases it
+would seem repeated by a chorus of voices, we find in each circle
+commemoration variously contrived of notable instances, both of the sins
+punished and of their “contrary virtues.” These are perhaps worth going
+through in detail. In the circle of Pride, where it is necessary to go
+in a stooping posture, the pavement is engraved with representations of
+humility. The first is the Annunciation, (and here it should be noted
+that in every group an event from the life of the Virgin holds the first
+place); next comes David dancing before the Ark; and lastly, Trajan
+yielding to the widow’s prayer that he would perform an act of justice
+before setting out with the pomp of a military expedition. Further on in
+the same circle are found examples of the punishment of pride, taken
+alternately from Scripture and from classical mythology. The next circle
+is that of Envy. Here the penalty consists of the sewing up of the eyes,
+so that pictured representations would be of no use; and, accordingly,
+the task of calling the examples to mind is discharged by voices flying
+through the air. Yet another method is adopted in the third circle,
+where the Angry are punished by means of a dense smoke. Here the
+pictures are conveyed to Dante’s mind by a kind of trance or vision, in
+which he sees the various scenes. We must suppose that the spirits pass
+through some similar experience. In the fourth circle, the examples of
+activity and warnings against Sloth are delivered by the souls
+themselves. As it is night while Dante is in this circle, he is himself
+unable to move; but the discipline being to run at speed, the souls pass
+him in their course. The fifth circle, of the Avaricious and Prodigal,
+follows much the same rule as the fourth, except that here the instances
+of virtue are recited in the day, those of sin at night, so that Dante
+does not actually hear the latter. In this case the souls lie prostrate.
+The Gluttonous, in the sixth circle, are punished by having to pass
+under trees laden with fruit, which they cannot reach; and the examples
+and warnings are conveyed by voices among the branches of these trees.
+The seventh circle follows the fashion of the fourth, except that the
+souls (who are punished by fire for having in life failed to hold in due
+restraint the flames of passion) seem to address the warning
+reminiscences to each other as they meet in the circuit. An instance of
+the system on which the examples are introduced has been given from the
+first circle. Perhaps that for the sixth is even more typical. On first
+entering this they come to a tree, among the branches of which a voice
+is heard recording the conduct of the Virgin at the feast in Cana, when
+“she thought more of the success of the banquet than of her own mouth;”
+the custom of drinking only water prevalent among the Roman women, and
+the abstemiousness of Daniel and the Baptist. Then, after passing
+through a portion of the circle, and holding converse with its inmates,
+they reach another tree, from which a second voice comes to them bidding
+them remember the trouble that came from the drunkenness of the Centaur
+at the wedding of Pirithous, and the rejection by Gideon of the men who
+had drunk immoderately. This coupling of a classical and Scriptural
+instance is quite invariable.
+
+To pass on to the subject of the light thrown upon Dante’s speculative
+views in the _Purgatory_. It is not too much to say that from that point
+of view it is the most important division of the whole poem. This,
+perhaps, follows naturally from its subject. The Purgatorial existence
+bears more affinity to the life of this world than does that of those
+who have reached their eternal abode; and human affections and human
+interests still have much of their old power. This, then, would
+naturally be the division in which questions arising from the conditions
+of man’s life with men would be likely to suggest themselves.
+
+In the _Hell_ we had indeed a statement of Dante’s view of Ethics, so
+far as was necessary to explain his attitude towards breaches of the
+moral law and their punishment. In the _Purgatory_ he goes more deeply
+into the question, and expounds in Cantos xvi., xvii., and xviii., a
+theory with regard to the origin of morals and knowledge. According to
+this the soul when created is a _tabula rasa_, but having certain
+capacities inherent in it in consequence of the nature of its Creator.
+The Creator being absolutely veracious, the information imparted by the
+senses is infallible. Further, the Creator being absolutely happy, the
+soul naturally seeks happiness, and is said to love that in which it
+expects to find happiness. So far there is no room for error. Where it
+can come in is in the inferences which the mind draws from the
+information which the senses give, and in either its choice of an object
+to love, or the vigour with which it pursues that object. It must be
+further noted that the soul is endowed at the outset with a knowledge
+of good and evil, _i.e._ conscience, and with free-will; though this
+latter has to struggle with the conditions which the influence of the
+heavenly bodies imposes on the individual. With due culture, however, it
+can ultimately prevail over these; but it must also be aided in its
+struggle by the check of law and the guidance which should be afforded
+by spiritual pastors. In order that these may have their full effect, it
+is desirable that the secular and spiritual authorities should be in
+different hands: and thus we are brought to the same conclusions as in
+the treatise _De Monarchia_.
+
+To return, however, to the moral question. All action, as has been said,
+is directed to an end, and (in the words of Aquinas, following
+Aristotle) the end for each individual is that which he desires and
+loves. If the end is rightly selected, and the love duly proportioned,
+the action does not incur blame. But it may happen that the end may be
+evil; in which case evil becomes the object of the love, or the love is
+turned to hatred. Now, no created being can hate its Creator, nor can
+any man hate himself; therefore the sins arising from this cause must be
+sins against fellow-men. These, so far as Purgatory is concerned, are
+pride, envy, anger, which, when carried into action, become the sins
+that are punished within the City of Dis, though in Purgatory they would
+appear on the whole to be regarded as the less grave offences.
+
+When the object is good, but the love is lacking in due vigour, we have
+the sin of sloth, or, as our forefathers called it, “accidie.” This
+occupies a somewhat anomalous position. Those who have allowed it to
+grow to moodiness and given way to it past hope of repentance, lie in
+Hell at the bottom of the Stygian marsh, and nothing is seen of them but
+the bubbles which are formed by their sighs; while the wrathful or
+ill-tempered lie in the same marsh, but appear above the water. Both
+sins alike render the man full of hatred for his fellows, and make him
+insensible to the joy of life. In Purgatory, on the other hand, the
+anger which is punished seems rather to be the fault of hasty temper;
+while in the case of sloth, the souls who expiate it are represented as
+running at great speed, and proclaiming instances of conspicuous
+alertness. For our present purpose, then, it must be regarded as merely
+slothfulness or indolence.
+
+Finally, we have the cases in which the object is natural, or even
+laudable. A fair share of this world’s goods, our daily food, the love
+between man and woman, all these are objects to which the desires may
+lawfully be directed, so long as they are duly restrained. When,
+however, they become the main aim, they are sinful, and lead to the sins
+for which the discipline of the three upper cornices is required; the
+most severe of all that is undergone in Purgatory. Yet these are the
+sins which in Hell “incur less blame,” as being sins involving rather
+the animal than the spiritual part of man. But there is not space here
+to discuss this aspect of the subject. Readers will find much interest
+in working it out for themselves.
+
+The physiological sketch given by Statius in the twenty-fifth canto,
+introduced to account for the spiritual body, is in logical order an
+introduction to Dante’s ethics and psychology; and is remarkable both in
+its agreement with Aristotle and its divergence from him. The occasion
+for it is found in a question raised by Dante, and suggested to him by
+the appearance of the shades in the circle which they have just left:
+namely, how beings who have no need to go through the ordinary process
+of nutrition, can feel the desire for food (as Forese has explained that
+they do) and grow lean through the deprivation of it. In order to solve
+this difficulty, Statius sketches briefly the stages of the development
+of the human being, from his first conception until he has an
+independent existence, showing how the embryo progresses first to
+vegetative then to animal life, and how finally, when the brain is
+complete (this being the last stage in the organisation), the “First
+Mover” breathes the human soul into the frame. The soul, having thus an
+independent existence, when the frame decays sets itself loose
+therefrom, taking with it the senses and passions, as well as the mental
+faculties of memory, understanding, and will. The latter are still in
+full activity, but the former have only a potential existence until such
+time as the soul has found its place in the other world. Then it takes
+to itself a bodily shape, formed out of the surrounding air (as a flame
+is formed by the fire), and equips it with organs of sense; and
+thenceforward this shape is adapted to express all the natural emotions
+and desires, including of course those of hunger and thirst. This
+remarkable exposition is based on Aristotle’s theory of the generation
+of the body, and the introduction into it of the soul; but there is an
+important difference. The Greek philosopher, though his language is not
+very explicit, has apparently no idea of any survival of the personal
+identity after death. At all events, so he was interpreted by Averroes
+and later by Aquinas. With him the source of all movement is the father,
+from whom only (though here again Aristotle is not quite clear) comes
+the gift of a soul. Dante, on the contrary, refers these back to the
+Prime Mover, namely God, and conceives a special creative act as
+performed on behalf of every human being that is brought into the world.
+As will be easily seen, this conception is the necessary complement to
+Dante’s system of ethics, based on individual free-will, and postulating
+a newly-created soul, fresh from the Maker’s hand; a _tabula rasa_, with
+no attributes save the natural propension towards that which gives it
+pleasure.
+
+We may now pass to the six cantos which conclude this division of the
+poem, and form a most important stage in the development of the whole
+plan. Dante has now proceeded as far as human reason, typified by
+Virgil, is able to guide him. He is on the threshold of Heaven; but
+before he can be admitted among the blessed, another conductor must be
+provided, to whom the way to the Divine Presence shall be freely open.
+This, of course, can only be knowledge informed by faith, or, as we may
+say for shortness, theology, not in the sense of a formal science, but
+in one approaching more nearly to what Aristotle calls _Theoria_, or
+contemplation. From certain expressions in the earliest cantos of the
+poem, it is clear that Dante looked upon the woman whom in his youth he
+had loved, and who had, at the supposed date of these events, been ten
+years dead, as symbolising this _Theoria_, and as being in some special
+way entrusted with the task of saving him from spiritual ruin. She
+accordingly appears, and takes up the duties which Virgil is
+surrendering. The manner of her appearance must be noticed--showing as
+it does the almost inextricable web in which Dante combines fact and
+allegory. That the “Beatrice” who is introduced is primarily none other
+than an actual woman of flesh and blood, whom hundreds of then living
+people had known, who had gone about Florence for twenty-four years and
+married a prominent citizen, and whom Dante had loved with the romantic
+passion of the Middle Ages, only the misplaced ingenuity of paradoxical
+critics can doubt.[35] Yet at her entry she is escorted by a procession,
+the members of which represent the books of the Bible, the seven
+virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; while the car on which she is
+borne (which itself denotes the Church) is drawn by a mystical figure,
+in which we cannot fail to see a symbol of the second Person of the
+Trinity. If it be objected that the salvation of Dante is a small matter
+about which to set in motion so stupendous a machinery, we may answer
+that, in the first place, his own salvation does not seem unimportant to
+the man himself; and further, which is of more weight, that Dante
+himself is here no less symbolical than Beatrice, or Virgil, or the
+mystic Gryphon. He is the typical human soul; his experiences, his
+struggles, his efforts to shake himself free of the trammels of the
+world and the flesh, are familiar features in the spiritual history of
+the great majority of Christians. Thus the wonderful pageant described
+in this canto must be regarded as being displayed, not to him only, but
+to all Christendom in his person.
+
+A few words with regard to this pageant may afford a little help to its
+comprehension. After the arrival of Beatrice, a scene follows in which
+she upbraids Dante for his forgetfulness of her, and receives an avowal
+of his fault. He is then bathed in the stream of Lethe--another curious
+employment of pagan mythology--and brought back to the presence of
+Beatrice. Hitherto she has been veiled; but now, at the special entreaty
+of her attendant nymphs (those nymphs who are also the four stars in
+heaven, and denote the cardinal virtues), she withdraws the veil, and
+discloses again the smile for which her “faithful one” had yearned
+during ten years.
+
+Soon, however, his attention is called away to new and strange sights.
+The procession, of which Dante and his remaining companion Statius now
+form part, moves forward through the wood of the Earthly Paradise; the
+car is attached to a tree, identified with the “tree of knowledge,”
+which since Adam’s disobedience has been leafless and fruitless. After
+this Dante falls into a short sleep, and on waking finds that Beatrice
+with her attendants is alone left, as a guardian to the car. Then follow
+a series of strange transformations, the general plan of which is
+clearly suggested by the Apocalypse; but their interpretation is to be
+sought in the relations of the Church to the Empire, down to the time of
+the “Babylonish captivity,” or transference of the Papal See to Avignon.
+This is symbolised by the departure of the car, drawn this time by a
+giant (Philip the Fair of France), and occupied no longer by Beatrice,
+but by a harlot, to denote (again with allusion to the Apocalypse) the
+corrupt rule under which the Church had fallen.
+
+In the final scene of all, Beatrice, in phrases hardly less obscure than
+the vision itself, indicates to Dante the lesson which he is to learn
+from it, and repeats in another form Virgil’s prediction of a champion
+who is to come and set the world to rights. Much has been written about
+the first of these, the _Veltro_; hardly less about the “five hundred,
+ten, and five,” or DXV. The usual interpretation takes these letters as
+intended merely to suggest _Dux_, a leader; but this seems a little
+weak. Elsewhere I have given reasons for thinking that Dante had a
+special motive for wrapping up his meaning in this numerical form.
+
+Lastly, in a passage which, though ostensibly only one of Dante’s usual
+time-indications, seems intended to suggest repose after the labours
+through which he has brought his readers, and the agitation of the last
+canto, he tells us that at noon they reached the edge of the forest.
+Here he is made to drink of another stream, Eunoe, or “right mind,”
+after which he is ready for the upward journey.
+
+It is too much to expect readers to work through the voluminous
+interpretations which have been offered of the very difficult and
+perplexing mysticism of these cantos. Some points are perhaps plainer to
+the student who considers them with a fair knowledge of the Bible and
+history, than to the commentator who wishes to establish a new and
+original theory. But they are so important (particularly Cantos xxx. and
+xxxi.) to any one who wishes to understand Dante’s whole position as
+man, poet, scholar, and politician, that they should not be passed over
+as mere futile mediæval fancies. It should be said, too, that they
+contain some passages which will never be out of date until the poetic
+taste of mankind has altogether changed.
+
+
+§ 3. PARADISE.
+
+The first point which will strike the reader on entering upon the third
+division of the poem is the sudden change in the conditions under which
+the action is carried on. Hitherto Dante has been moving on solid earth,
+subject to the usual limitations which are enforced by physical laws
+upon all human action. Henceforth, as he tells us (_Par._, xxx. 123),
+God operates directly, and physical laws have no longer any place. “It
+is Beatrice,” he elsewhere says, “who leads on so swiftly from one stage
+of blessedness to a higher;” and we shall notice that the transference
+from sphere to sphere is effected by Dante’s fixing his eyes on hers,
+while she gazes upwards.
+
+A word as to the various spheres may not be out of place here. According
+to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, as adapted to the requirements of
+mediæval belief, the earth was at the centre, and concentric with it
+were ten hollow spheres. In the first eight of these were placed
+consecutively the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
+and the fixed stars. In order to explain the irregular movements of the
+planets, “epicycles” or smaller spheres borne by the principal spheres,
+and bearing the planets, were devised, but these need not be considered
+here. Outside of the fixed stars came the _primum mobile_, which gave
+the diurnal revolution of the heavens, and beyond this the Empyrean, or
+fixed heaven, in which was the special abode of God, and in which all
+the blessed had their places. Between the earth and the innermost
+sphere, that of the Moon, lie the regions of water, air, and fire. The
+Mountain of Purgatory, on the summit of which Dante at the conclusion of
+the second _Cantica_ was standing, lifts its head as far as the third of
+these. Through this accordingly, Beatrice and Dante have to rise in
+order to reach the first step in the celestial ascent. It must be noted
+that there is no reason to suppose that in every case the actual planet
+is visited. The “heaven” of the planet embraces the whole “sphere” in
+which it is set, and its characteristics may be conceived as extending
+to the whole of that sphere.
+
+The fact of rising without apparent motive force through a medium
+lighter than his own body, at once forms a subject for enquiry on
+Dante’s part; and Beatrice, as she has frequently to do in the course of
+their journey, resolves his doubt. Those who are reading the poem for
+the first time will probably pass lightly over these difficult
+metaphysical passages. They must be read sooner or later by any one who
+wishes thoroughly to understand Dante’s place in the history of
+speculative thought; but in the first instance it will probably be
+better to “take them as read” and endeavour to get a clear notion of the
+general arrangement. There are obvious reasons why this portion of the
+poem should consist as largely as it does of these subtle disquisitions.
+There is far less room, in the first place, for variety of description.
+In a region where there are no shadows, it is impossible to give a
+detailed picture; and terms indicative of simple brightness are limited.
+Nor, again, is it easy where all are perfect to depict individual
+character. Consequently two great elements of interest in the first two
+parts of the poem are far less available here; and their place must be
+filled by other matter. What this matter should be is suggested by the
+natural division of speculative science into Ethics, or the study of
+man’s conduct as a moral being; Politics, or the science relating to his
+behaviour in regard to the social order; and Metaphysics, which for
+Dante is synonymous with theology, the investigation of all that
+concerns his spiritual part, as well as the Divine order generally. With
+the first two we have dealt in the _Hell_ and the _Purgatory_
+respectively; the third is reserved for the _Paradise_. Once or twice
+indeed Dante touches on matters that would seem more fitly to belong to
+the others; as, for instance, the magnificent passage in Canto vi.,
+where Justinian, after sketching the triumphant course of the Roman
+Eagle, inveighs against the party feuds of the time; or Carlo Martello’s
+reference to the Sicilian Vespers, and the misdeeds of his brother
+Robert. But of these the first leads up to an elaborate exposition of
+the scheme of Redemption, the second seems intended directly to
+introduce a dissertation on matters lying at the very root of human
+nature.
+
+To the same difficulty in varying the methods (to use a phrase of
+Ginguéné’s) must be attributed the occurrence of a good many
+conceptions which to our taste appear somewhat grotesque. Yet the better
+we know the poem the more we shall feel that in this third part the
+author’s genius rises to its sublimest efforts, and agree with the late
+Dean of St. Paul’s, that it is the true _pierre de touche_ of the
+student of Dante.
+
+To go briefly through the various stages. The heaven of the Moon is that
+in which appear the spirits of those who having taken vows have under
+compulsion or persuasion abandoned them; Mercury contains statesmen and
+men of affairs; Venus those who have been over-much swayed by indulgence
+in earthly love. It must be observed that, according to the astronomy of
+the time, the shadow of the Earth, cast into space by the Sun, extended
+as far as the orbit of Venus. The spirits in these three spheres
+therefore form a group by themselves: being distinguished by the fact
+that they had allowed earthly cares and pleasures to obtain too strong
+hold of them, to the injury of their spiritual development. In these
+three spheres respectively the representative speakers are Piccarda
+Donati, sister of Dante’s friend Forese, and of Corso, the leader of
+the “Black Guelfs;” the Emperor Justinian; and Carlo Martello, the
+titular king of Hungary, son of Charles II., king of Naples, who is
+followed by Cunizza, sister of the Ghibeline chief, Ezzelino da Romano,
+and Folco of Marseilles, who began as a troubadour and became bishop of
+his native city.
+
+Although in one sense the inhabitants of the three lower spheres may be
+said to have attained a less perfect blessedness than those to whom the
+rest of heaven is assigned, it must not be supposed that they are
+conscious of any lack. All have their places in the highest or Empyrean
+heaven, and all sense of sorrow for past imperfections is at an end. We
+must indeed suppose that, as with Dante himself, the imperfections have
+been effaced by the discipline of Purgatory, and their remembrance
+washed away by the water of Lethe.
+
+With the sphere of the Sun, however, we arrive for the first time in the
+presence of those who have lived so as to earn the full honour of
+sanctity, and find ourselves amongst canonised saints. Even here Dante
+has shown himself, as usual, independent of conventional or official
+restrictions. In his introduction of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
+Bonaventura he merely anticipates the formal decision of the Church; but
+in “Peter of Spain,” that is Pope John XXI. (the only historical Pope
+whom he places in Paradise), he selects for special honour a man who was
+by no means free from grave suspicion of heresy, and who has never been
+canonised. As Dante never did anything without a reason we must suppose
+that some now forgotten merit earned for the Spanish logician a place
+beside Nathan, Chrysostom, and Anselm. It is by these and such men as
+these, great teachers and thinkers, that the heaven of the Sun is
+occupied; the reason no doubt being that as the Sun is the source of
+light and the promoter of growth in the physical world, so are these in
+the spiritual.
+
+The tenth canto is specially notable as bringing Dante into the presence
+of the greatest exponent of the Scholastic philosophy, and the master
+whom he followed more closely than any other, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the
+eleventh, the illustrious Dominican recounts the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi, the founder of the rival order. This is one of the most notable
+passages in the whole poem, rising as it does to a sustained
+magnificence of diction which especially characterises those portions of
+the _Paradise_ where the poet allows full play to his genius.
+Justinian’s roll-call of the Roman achievements in Canto vi. is another.
+Nothing at all like them is found in the two former divisions of the
+poem; and it is to them that students who wish to feel the attraction
+which the _Paradise_ undoubtedly exercises over those who know it well,
+should first turn.
+
+The sphere of the Sun, in which we now are, is, it should be noted, one
+of the two regions of Heaven in which Dante makes the longest stay, the
+other being that of the Fixed Stars. The passage to it marks a distinct
+stage in his progress. Looking back to the end of Canto ix. we see that
+it forms a kind of peroration; while the first twenty-seven lines of
+Canto x. are, as it were, the introduction to a fresh division of the
+poem, and recall certain phrases which occurred in the opening canto. It
+is difficult to say why these two spheres should be made of so much more
+importance than the rest. Mars is the only one which approaches them;
+but this is selected by Dante as the scene of his interview with his
+ancestor Cacciaguida, which gives the occasion for the magnificent
+contrast between the old days of Florence and its present state, and the
+prophecy of his own exile; subjects which might well occupy a
+considerable space. On the other hand, the eulogy of St. Francis,
+already referred to, which St. Thomas Aquinas delivers, and that of St.
+Dominic, with which St. Bonaventura, “vying with the courtesy of so
+mighty a paladin,” responds to it, fine as they are, do not appear
+indispensable in the scheme of the poem. But the whole plan of the
+_Paradise_ is, so far as can be seen, arranged with much less of obvious
+symmetry than is to be found in the two former _Cantiche_. No doubt the
+plan is there; but just as “time-indications” for the most part fail us,
+or can be extracted only by elaborate and somewhat uncertain
+calculations, so it would seem as if the poet, no longer hampered by the
+necessities of time and space, had wished to show how he could work with
+no self-made restrictions.
+
+After his discourse in praise of the founder of the rival order,
+immediately followed by its counterpart--an eloquent summary of the
+career of St. Dominic, put into the mouth of the Franciscan
+Bonaventura--St. Thomas speaks again (Canto xiii.), in order to explain
+an apparent over-estimate of Solomon’s greatness among mankind which an
+expression used by him in naming the spirits present with him might have
+seemed to imply. As happens more than once in this division of the poem,
+a piece of what at first sight looks rather like logical quibbling is
+made the introduction to some profound teaching in reference to the
+workings of the human mind--teaching which is at least as needful in the
+present day as it ever was in Dante’s own time. Solomon himself then
+speaks, answering a question put by Beatrice on Dante’s behalf as to the
+nature of the glorified body; and then Dante, having looked upon the
+countenance of Beatrice, and being by this means (as in every other
+case) raised “to a higher salvation,” finds by the ruddy light which
+surrounds him that he has entered the sphere of Mars.
+
+A new feature appears here. In each of the three planets exterior
+(according to the astronomy of that age) to the Sun, we find some
+special image displayed. In the case of Mars, it is a vast crucifix,
+composed of spirits, who are darting in all directions within the
+figure, like motes in a sunbeam. One of them glides from the arm to the
+foot of the cross, and makes himself known to Dante as his
+great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, probably (though this is not
+certain) of the family of the Elisei.[36] He had been, like all the
+other spirits, as it would seem, of this sphere, a soldier, and had died
+in battle as a Crusader. The latter half of this, the fifteenth canto,
+together with the two following, form what is probably the best-known
+and most frequently quoted portion of the _Paradise_. First we have a
+beautiful picture of the simple and kindly life of old Florence, before
+party-spirit and luxury had entered and corrupted its citizens. The
+picture is, of course, one of those which people in every age have drawn
+of earlier times, supposed to have been free from the corruptions which
+each man’s experience teaches him are rife in his own day; but none the
+less it is of value as showing Dante’s ideal of social life.
+
+The next canto continues to deal with the same topic; but enters more
+into detail with regard to the various families, and the vicissitudes
+in their fortunes. This leads up to the existing strife of parties, and
+this again naturally to Dante’s own share in it, and his exile. It must
+be remembered that this did not actually come about till two years after
+the date at which the action of the _Commedia_ is supposed to take
+place; so that the whole is cast into a prophetic form. The language
+used, however, must be taken as expressing the feeling with which Dante
+looked back after an interval of nearly twenty years--for the _Paradise_
+was probably completed very shortly before the poet’s death--upon the
+events in which he had borne a somewhat prominent part. Whether he was
+ever a personage of the first importance in Florence we may be allowed
+to doubt. No doubt he was a man of some consideration; but still the
+office of Prior was one which nearly every eligible citizen must have
+held;[37] and Villani, who devotes a chapter to his memory, does not
+mention his name among the political leaders of an earlier period.
+Probably he occupied among the exiles of 1302 a far less important place
+in their own eyes and those of contemporaries than he does in ours; but
+if not a leader, he was in the front rank, and must have been aware of
+all that went on. The passages relating to his exile, to the
+worthlessness of his companions, to his gratitude towards those who
+helped him, gain immensely in force and pathos if we regard them as an
+aging man’s reminiscences of a long by-gone time.
+
+With the passage to the sphere of Jupiter (Canto xviii.) the imagery
+becomes yet more daring. This is the region specially devoted to the
+spirits of the righteous; and these as they fly are forming letters,
+which ultimately spell out the opening words of the Book of Wisdom:
+“Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram.” When the final M is reached a
+further transformation takes place; the letter is gradually modified
+into the shape of the imperial eagle. Righteousness, or justice, is, it
+should be remembered, in Dante’s view (as indeed in that of most
+moralists) the source and foundation of all that goes to establish human
+society on a virtuous and duly ordered basis. Thus it is rightly
+illustrated by the symbol of the Empire. The Eagle behaves as one single
+individual, though composed of countless spirits; speaking with a
+single voice, and in the singular number. A discourse on justice leads
+up to a sharp rebuke of nearly every prince then ruling, on the score of
+misgovernment in one or another form.
+
+After this the Eagle proceeds to indicate whose are the spirits which
+compose its eye. These with one exception are all great sovereigns of
+ancient and recent times. The exception is remarkable. In Hell we found
+several cases in which mythological or fictitious personages were
+treated on a footing of absolute equality with those who had a perfect
+historical claim to the distinction; but the appearance in the Christian
+Heaven of a man whose very name is preserved merely in a single line of
+the _Æneid_ strikes us with astonishment. For being recorded by Virgil
+as the most righteous man among the Trojans, Rhipeus takes his place
+beside David, Hezekiah, Constantine, and the “good king” William II. of
+Sicily.
+
+When the time comes for the ascent to be resumed, Dante notices that
+Beatrice smiles no longer. On the threshold, as she explains, of the
+seventh heaven, the lustre of her smile would be more than his eyes
+could endure. Here, in Saturn, a ladder is seen, reaching to the next
+sphere. We learn that this is identical with the ladder seen by Jacob in
+his vision; and down it are descending the spirits of such as in this
+world had lived the contemplative life in full perfection. The chanting
+which has been audible in the other spheres is here silent--no doubt in
+order to symbolise the insensibility to outward impressions of the soul
+rapt in contemplation. The speakers in this group are St. Peter Damian
+and St. Benedict; both of whom have severe words to say as to the
+corruption of the monastic orders.
+
+The company of saints reascend (Canto xxii.): and Dante and Beatrice
+follow them, mounting by the ladder, but, as it would appear, with no
+perceptible lapse of time. The eighth heaven, that of the Fixed Stars,
+is reached in the sign of the Twins; under which Dante himself had been
+born. At this point Beatrice directs him, before entering on the final
+blessedness of heaven, and doubtless with the ulterior view of leading
+him to a just sense of the insignificance of earthly things, to look
+back over the course which he has traversed.
+
+A very distinct stage of the journey is here reached, and, as has been
+already noticed, we are entering that one of the celestial spheres in
+which Dante makes the longest stay.
+
+He and his guide have now reached the outermost of the heavenly spheres
+of whose existence our senses give any evidence--that of the Fixed
+Stars. A vision of Christ descending, accompanied by His Mother, and
+surrounded with saints, is granted to Dante; after which he is again
+able to endure the effulgence of Beatrice’s smile. It is not, however,
+until Christ has reascended that he recovers his full power of sight.
+Then he perceives that the company of saints has remained; and
+presently, at the request of Beatrice, St. Peter comes forward, and
+proceeds to examine Dante on the subject of Faith, and the grounds for
+his belief in the Christian revelation. The ensuing colloquy is
+interesting, as being practically a versified form of the scholastic
+method of discussion, such as we find in Aquinas. St. Peter plays the
+part of the supposed opponent, and brings forward the standard
+objections to Dante’s statements of dogma. For the ordinary reader,
+however, this and the next two cantos form, it must be admitted, one of
+the less attractive portions of the poem. Yet even here we now and then
+come upon a passage of pure poetry, such as the famous lines at the
+opening of Canto xxv., in which Dante utters what must have been almost
+his last aspiration after a return to “the fair fold in which as a lamb
+I slept.”
+
+Following St. Peter, St. James makes his appearance. To him is entrusted
+the task of testing Dante’s soundness in the doctrine and definition of
+Hope. Lastly, comes St. John, who examines him touching the right object
+of Love. In each case, when he has answered to the satisfaction of his
+questioner, a chant goes up from the assembled spirits; the words on
+every occasion being taken, as it would appear, from the _Te Deum_.
+Afterwards the three Apostles are joined by Adam, who takes up the
+discourse, and answers two unexpressed questions of Dante’s, as to the
+length of his stay in Paradise, and the nature of the primitive language
+of mankind.
+
+Canto xxvii. opens with a tremendous invective, put into the mouth of
+St. Peter, against the corruption of the Papacy; a passage which
+incidentally contains an important piece of evidence with regard to the
+date at which the later cantos of the _Paradise_ were written. A bitter
+allusion to “men of Cahors” can have been evoked only by the election of
+John XXII., who was from that city; and he became Pope in 1316. After
+this the whole multitude of Saints ascend to the highest heaven; but
+before Dante follows, Beatrice makes him look down once more, and he
+perceives that since his entry into this sphere he has moved with the
+diurnal rotation through an arc of forty-five degrees. Then they ascend
+into the sphere of the First Motion, where place and time no longer
+exist. From its movement time is measured; and its place is in the
+Divine intelligence only. Here the Empyrean, or highest Heaven, comes
+into view; at first as a point of intense brilliancy round which nine
+circles are revolving. These represent the Angelic hierarchies, and
+their places with regard to the central point are in inverse order to
+that of the spheres which they move. Beatrice takes occasion from them
+to instruct Dante upon some points relating to the creation and
+functions of the angels, and incidentally, upon the creation of form and
+matter, and their combination in the visible universe. The passage
+(Canto xxix.) is difficult; but is so magnificent in its diction as to
+deserve careful study. Dante has nowhere else succeeded so completely in
+clothing with poetry the dry bones of scholastic theology. The
+discussion, by dealing with several disputed points, gives occasion for
+some stringent remarks on the preachers of the time.
+
+They now rise to the highest heaven, outside of all the spheres, in
+which all the blessed have their true place. At first Dante is aware of
+light only, but gradually a fresh power of sight comes to him, and he
+sees a river, from and to which bright sparks are ever issuing and
+returning. The banks are brilliant with flowers. At the command of
+Beatrice he bows down and drinks, and at once sees the river as a lake
+of light, the flowers on the banks as concentric rows of saints seated
+on thrones, and the flitting sparks as angels. At this point Beatrice
+leaves Dante, after a few scathing words in reference to the
+“covetousness”[38] of the Papacy, which has put the world out of
+joint--words which may be taken as summing up in brief all the passages
+throughout the poem in which political affairs are touched upon. With
+this, if we except one bitter jibe at Florence (xxxi. 39) all
+controversial matters are dismissed, and the last three cantos of the
+poem are devoted to a description, rising ever in sublimity, of the joys
+and mysteries of Heaven.
+
+The “soldiery of heaven” appears in the form of a vast white rose, whose
+petals are the seats on which the saints sit. On one hand these are
+filled, being occupied by holy men and women belonging to the old
+dispensation: while on the other the number of the elect has still to be
+accomplished. Beatrice having gone back to her place among the blessed
+beside Rachel, the task of escorting Dante is entrusted to St. Bernard,
+who points out where some of the more eminent have their stations. As
+throughout the poem, all is arranged with order and symmetry. The
+junction between the Old and New Testaments is indicated by the position
+assigned to Our Lady on one side of the circle, and in the highest row,
+and St. John the Baptist, who is diametrically opposite to her. Below
+her sit in order a series of Christ’s ancestresses Eve, Rachel, Sarah,
+Rebekah, Ruth; Adam is on her left, St. Peter on her right, beyond them
+Moses and St. John the Evangelist. On either hand of the Baptist sit St.
+Anne and St. Lucy, and below him a line of founders of orders and other
+teachers; the lower circles are filled with the spirits of children.
+
+At the close of his enumeration of these chief personages, St. Bernard
+observes that the time of Dante’s slumber is nearly at an end, and that
+they must, “like a good tailor, cut the coat according to the cloth.” In
+these three lines are two very noticeable points. First, the word
+“slumber,” implying that the whole journey through the other world has
+been performed in a dream; and secondly, the bold use, at perhaps the
+most exalted moment of the whole poem, of a trivial, almost vulgar,
+figure of speech. We meet with other instances of this in the
+_Paradise_, and they are eminently characteristic of the mediæval mind.
+The subject is too wide to be discussed here; but readers may be
+reminded of the numerous examples which the architecture of the period
+shows, in which grotesque or even indecent figures are introduced among
+the ornamental work of sacred buildings.
+
+At the beginning of the last canto, St. Bernard, in an address of
+exquisite beauty (of which Chaucer, in the Second Nun’s Tale has given
+an almost equally exquisite rendering), appeals to the Virgin--who, it
+will be remembered, is throughout represented as taking a special
+interest in Dante--for her aid to him in his last and crowning
+experience. Thus succoured, he is able to gaze upon the Supreme Light;
+and in a flash there is revealed to him a full comprehension of all
+fundamental truths, first those of metaphysics, then those of faith. He
+understands for a moment the whole composition of the universe, and then
+the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Trinity. The intuition is
+momentary, and leaves merely the memory of a memory. But the lasting
+effect is the entire union of his will with the Divine will, and herein,
+we must understand him to imply, is found the salvation the attainment
+of which has been the ultimate aim and object of his whole journey.
+
+Many touches in this concluding passage bear a strong resemblance to
+what seems to have been the teaching of the contemporary German mystics.
+It would be interesting to inquire how far Dante can have been
+acquainted with any of the writings of that school. If any connection
+can be traced, it may throw light on several obscure points.[39]
+
+It remains to be added that the _Commedia_ was first printed at Foligno
+in 1472. Editions followed in quick succession from Jesi, Mantua, and
+Naples. The first Venetian edition is that of Vindelin of Spires, in
+1477; the first Florentine, that with Landino’s commentary, in 1481. It
+was printed several times more before 1500, and constantly in the
+sixteenth century. We have several commentaries dating from a period
+only later by a few years than Dante’s death.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [28] Not only this allusion, but the occurrence, in this and
+    other parts of the poem, of several words used in that district
+    makes it almost certain that Dante was very familiar with the
+    country round about Trent. Doubtless he would visit it from
+    Verona.
+
+    [29] See p. 79.
+
+    [30] See p. 36.
+
+    [31] It seems never to have been noticed that, as every line
+    from the surface to the centre is perpendicular, a descent by
+    _slopes_, such as is represented, would really be impossible.
+
+    [32] See p. 34.
+
+    [33] A late legend, to which some eminent writers have given too
+    easy credence, does actually assert that Dante did go to Genoa,
+    in the suite of Henry VII., about the end of 1311, and there was
+    ill-used by some of Branca d’Oria’s friends or domestics. But
+    none of the early commentators knows anything of this tale.
+
+    [34] But see p. 42.
+
+    [35] See pp. 48-51.
+
+    [36] See p. 38.
+
+    [37] See p. 70.
+
+    [38] Note that _cupidigia_ is, in Dante’s scheme, the vice
+    opposed to _giustizia_, that which debases nations as
+    righteousness exalts them.
+
+    [39] See also p. 46.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE MINOR WORKS
+
+
+The _Commedia_ is, for many readers perhaps, the only book distinctly
+identified with Dante’s name. Yet it must be remembered that, as a
+matter of fact, it represents less than half of the total bulk of his
+writings; and, further, that the remainder comprises several works
+which, though not attaining to the pre-eminent position which all the
+world now recognises the great poem as occupying, are very remarkable
+monuments of mediæval literature.
+
+Of the youthful work, the _Vita Nuova_, we have already spoken. It may
+be sufficient here to add that--though there is some controversy on the
+point--the name probably means only “Early” or “Fresh Life.” The book
+was pretty certainly written not much after 1290, though the last
+chapter, in which the author’s design to compose a greater work is
+alluded to, may have been added when the scheme of the _Commedia_ was
+more developed. The _Vita Nuova_ was not printed till 1578.
+
+With regard to the date at which the most important of the prose works,
+known as the _Convito_, or “Banquet,” was composed, considerable
+uncertainty exists. Villani says that the odes to which it is ostensibly
+a commentary were written in exile. Some critics hold that it belongs,
+at all events in great part, to the “pre-exilian” period of Dante’s
+life; while others place it as late as 1310. The late Dr. Witte regarded
+it as the middle division of what he called “Dante’s Trilogy”--the
+drama, that is, of the development of Dante’s soul. In this view, the
+early love portrayed in the _Vita Nuova_ marks an age of simple faith,
+undisturbed by any doubt. The _Convito_ (so far as it was completed)
+records a period of philosophical speculation--not actually adverse to
+the truths of religion, but seeking to establish these rather on the
+basis of human reason than on revelation. Lastly, the _Commedia_ shows
+us the soul, convinced that salvation and enlightenment are not to be
+found on this road, returning again to child-like submission. There is
+no doubt an attractive symmetry about this arrangement, but it is open
+to some objections, one of them being, as a French critic said, that
+part at least of the _Convito_ must almost certainly have been written
+after the date in which Dante’s conversion is represented as having
+taken place. Nor is it an answer to say that, the action of the
+_Commedia_ being purely imaginary, we need pay no attention to dates.
+For one thing, Dante is extremely careful, and with more success than
+any one without his marvellous “visualising” power could hope for, to
+avoid anything like an anachronism in the _Commedia_. If he allows no
+event, which, in the history of the world, was still future in 1300, to
+be referred to as past, why should he have allowed this in regard to
+events in the history of his own spiritual development?
+
+The truth is, that all these elaborate and symmetrical theories prove
+too much; and what is worse, they all spring from an ignorance, or a
+neglect, of the great facts of human nature. The _Commedia_ is, of
+course, full of expressions of contrition for former error; of frank
+recognition that the writer has gone astray in the past, and hopes to
+keep straight in the future. But might not any man, any thoughtful man
+at all events, of thirty-five years old and upwards, take Dante’s words
+with perfect sincerity, as the expression of his own deepest thoughts?
+Why assume that the faults of which Dante repented with tears in the
+presence of Beatrice, were limited to a too great reliance on human
+reason, or to a secret leaning to the philosophy of Averroes? Were they
+not moral as well as intellectual? Whether the year 1300 really marked
+an epoch at which anything of the nature of what is now called
+“conversion” took place in Dante’s mind, we cannot say. It pretty
+certainly corresponded with a decided revulsion in his political views.
+It cannot have been without a pang that he found himself obliged
+formally to break with the Guelf party, of which he had hitherto been a
+faithful member, and to cast in his lot with men whom he, doubtless,
+like those with whom he had all his life associated, regarded as a set
+of turbulent, over-bearing swashbucklers, trying with the help of
+foreign men and money to reimpose a feudal tyranny on a prosperous and
+free commonwealth. For this is the aspect in which the Ghibelines must
+have presented themselves to a Florentine burgher of the year 1300. No
+doubt the doings of the Black party would have taught him that
+overbearing and tyrannical ways, turbulence and swagger were not the
+monopoly of one side, and that the freedom and peace of Florence must,
+in any case, soon be things of the past. All the foundations of the
+earth must have seemed to him to be out of course, and we can well
+imagine that his thought may have been driven inward, and he may thus
+have come to recognise how far the school which he had followed, and the
+path upon which he had walked--not in philosophy only, but in all
+matters of conduct--had led him from the ideals of his early manhood and
+from the way of God. Thus he would naturally refer the vision, which, of
+course, contains an allegorical account of all this change or
+“conversion,” if we may call it so, to that year the events of which had
+given the first impulse to it.
+
+It is not, however, necessary to suppose that with Dante, any more than
+with most men of a similar age, a conviction that he had hitherto been
+on the wrong track involved an entire break with former habits, at all
+events of mind and thought. He may very well have gone on stringing
+together the curious medley of learning which he had not unfitly called
+a “Banquet.”[40] As we have said already, it looks very like the
+contents of a commonplace book, in which materials for other
+works--notably for the _Commedia_--were collected. Many of the views
+enunciated in it may well be those held by Dante long before, and
+subsequently changed, though he might not have taken the trouble to
+expunge them, even when stating a maturer opinion in a later work.
+
+A good many of the difficulties which arise in the consideration of the
+dates of Dante’s works, probably arise from oblivion of the fact that
+“publication” in our modern sense did not exist in those days. An author
+would no doubt give his manuscript to friends to read, as he went along;
+and, if they liked it, they would probably take a copy of so much as
+they had. Thus portions of a book would get about long before the whole
+was finished; and in this way the views which Dante expresses in the
+_Convito_ upon the cause of the markings in the moon, the order of the
+angelic hierarchies, the nature of the Milky Way, and similar matters,
+may well have been known to many as held by him, and he may have known
+that this was the case. Subsequently, having changed his mind--it may
+be, even before 1300--he would take the opportunity of a part of the
+_Commedia_ having got into circulation, to recant; and even so the
+original view might stand in the _Convito_, and appear in that work when
+finally produced. When we further remember that Dante left the
+_Convito_ little more than begun, and consequently, no doubt, unrevised,
+it will be clear that very little inference can be drawn as to its date,
+from the fact that certain opinions expressed in it are retracted in the
+_Commedia_. It would be truer to say that it had no date. It was first
+printed in 1490.
+
+The _De Monarchia_ is a complete treatise, in fact, probably the only
+work besides the _Commedia_ which we can feel sure that we have in a
+form which it would have retained however long Dante might have lived.
+Enough has been already said as to its scope; it may suffice to add that
+the Church has never looked upon it with favour, which was probably the
+reason of its not being printed till 1559, and then in Germany.
+
+The unfinished treatise known as _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ had the curious
+fortune to appear in an Italian translation (1529) some fifty years
+before it was printed in its original Latin. It is a most interesting
+little work, showing considerable acuteness of perception in regard to
+peculiarities of local vernacular, and a general “feeling” for
+linguistic matters.
+
+How do we know that all these works are Dante’s? it will be asked. Here
+we rest on unusually sure ground, for which once more we have to thank
+Villani.
+
+In the Chapter to which we have already more than once referred,
+containing the notice of Dante’s death, that historian gives a list of
+his works. “In his youth,” we read--
+
+    “he made the book called _The New Life of Love_; and afterwards,
+    when he was in exile, he made some twenty moral and amatory
+    odes, very excellent; and, among others, he wrote three notable
+    letters, one to the Government of Florence, lamenting his own
+    exile without any fault; the second he sent to the Emperor
+    Henry; the third to the Italian cardinals, when the vacancy
+    occurred after the death of Pope Clement.... And he made the
+    _Comedy_, wherein, in polished rhyme, and with great and subtle
+    questions of morals, nature, and astrology, philosophy and
+    theology ... he composed and treated in one hundred chapters, or
+    chants, concerning the being and condition of Hell, Purgatory,
+    and Paradise.... He also made the _Monarchy_, in which he
+    treated of the duty of the Pope and of the Emperor. And he began
+    a commentary on fourteen of the above-mentioned moral odes, in
+    the vulgar tongue, which, through his death supervening, is only
+    completed for three.... Also he made a little work which he
+    calls _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, whereof he promises to make four
+    books, but only two are extant, perhaps by reason of his speedy
+    end; in which, in powerful and elegant style, and with fine
+    arguments, he examines all the vernaculars of Italy.”
+
+The last two paragraphs, it should be said, do not occur in all
+manuscripts. But, assuming them to be genuine, it will be seen that we
+have here an almost contemporary notice, with one or two exceptions, of
+all the main works now contained in the editions of Dante. The chief
+exception is the curious little treatise on physical geography, called
+_De aqua et terra_, which purports to be a lecture delivered by Dante at
+Verona, in the last year of his life; but this is of very questionable
+genuineness. It was first printed, indeed, in 1508, but no manuscript of
+it is now known to exist.
+
+Of the other works, Villani’s notice may be regarded as clear proof that
+they are what they profess to be; and incidentally it may be said that
+his mention of them has probably been of great service. Literary
+morality was sufficiently lax in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
+and people’s ideas as to the use that might legitimately be made of
+famous names differed considerably from those now in force. As it is, a
+good many compositions have passed under Dante’s name, from an early
+date, which scarcely pretend to be genuine works of his. We can imagine
+what a temptation it would have been for some enterprising man of
+letters to complete the _Convito_ or the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, or
+even to add a canto or two to the _Commedia_, if there had been no
+record in existence to let the world know where the genuine ended and
+the spurious began.[41] Even this security, however, is not quite
+sufficient to set us at our ease in the case of the letters. True, we
+have three letters purporting to be the three which Villani mentions, as
+well as several others passing under Dante’s name; but it is, of course,
+possible that the very fact of his mentioning them may have sufficed to
+set ingenious scribes at work to produce them. Manuscripts of them are
+very few, and they occur in company with other works which are undoubted
+exercises of fancy.
+
+On the other hand, more than one writer of the fifteenth century
+professes to have seen letters of Dante’s, of which no trace can now be
+found. That referring to the battle of Campaldino, for which Leonardo
+Bruni vouches, has already been mentioned; and Flavius Blondus of Forlì,
+a historian about contemporary with Leonardo, speaks of others as extant
+in his time. These, if they could now be recovered, would be of the
+greatest interest, since they related to the obscure period immediately
+following the exile of the White party. Meanwhile the genuineness of the
+more important letters which we possess is perhaps the most interesting
+question which remains to be settled in connection with Dante’s works.
+
+Besides the prose letters, two poetical epistles are still extant, and
+these, strange to say, the most sceptical critics have so far allowed to
+pass unquestioned. There is something a little pathetic about their
+history. Two or three years before Dante’s death, a young scholar of
+Bologna, known from his devotion to the great Latin bard, as Joannes de
+Virgilio, addressed an extremely prosaic, but highly complimentary,
+epistle to the old poet, urging him to write something in the more
+dignified language of antiquity. Dante replied in an “Eclogue,” wherein,
+under Virgilian pastoral imagery, he playfully banters his
+correspondent, and says that he had better finish first the work he has
+in hand, namely the _Commedia_. One more communication on either side
+followed, and then Dante’s death brought the verse-making to a close. In
+his own pieces one is struck rather by the melody of the rhythm and
+occasional dignity of the thought, than by the classical quality of the
+Latinity. But they are unquestionably remarkable specimens of Latin
+verse for an age previous to the revival of classical study, and, we
+should say, far more genial and more truly Virgilian in spirit than the
+most polished composition of the Humanists.
+
+It is not intended here to enter into any analysis or estimate of
+Dante’s prose works. The former task is one which readers should perform
+for themselves. Nor need they find it too much for their powers. With
+all his obscurity of allusion, and occasionally of phrase, Dante is not
+really a difficult author. From his teachers, the schoolmen, he had
+learnt to arrange his matter with due, perhaps more than due, regard to
+order and symmetry; and consequently the attentive reader is seldom at a
+loss to know what part of the subject is, at any given place, under
+consideration.
+
+Of the obscurity which results from over-elaboration of the thought, or
+from an attempt at originality of expression, Dante is, in his maturer
+works, singularly free.[42] It must be remembered, too, that very often
+phrases which look to us like “conceits” are merely instances of the
+employment of scientific and technical terms now obsolete, but then
+familiar to every cultivated reader.
+
+For æsthetic, or, as it has been unkindly called, “sign-post”
+criticism--that which, under the guise of directing the reader’s taste,
+often seems intended to call attention mainly to the acuteness of the
+critic’s own perception or his delicacy of phrase--the study of Dante
+would seem to be a very unpromising field. The sentimentalist and the
+elegant craftsman in words seem out of place in the company of this
+uncompromising seeker after realities, this relentless exposer of shams.
+
+It is much better that the student should begin by understanding his
+author. When he has mastered the meaning, it will be time enough to
+begin to admire, whether it be the thought or the words, or the
+expression of the one through the other. For this reason we should
+strongly counsel beginners to read Dante himself first, and books about
+Dante afterwards. We would go so far as to say: at the first reading,
+dispense even with notes, and be content to look out the words in a
+dictionary. It is far better practice to find out for yourself where the
+difficulties lie, than to be told where to expect them. Similarly with
+the “beauties.” These will reveal themselves _a ciascun’ alma presa e
+gentil cuore_, and every reader will find them in such measure as he
+deserves. Then will be the time to use the commentaries to solve, so far
+as may be, the problems which have been discovered, and then to take up
+such works as Mr. Symonds’s _Study of Dante_, Miss Rossetti’s _Shadow of
+Dante_, and Dean Church’s _Essay_. The student who, to a thorough
+knowledge of the poem, joins a careful perusal of these three works will
+find his knowledge co-ordinated, his grasp of Dante’s whole system
+strengthened, his perception of Dante’s greatness marvellously
+quickened. If he afterwards cares to pursue the subject further into the
+thickets of modern Italian and German criticism, he will find plenty of
+entertainment. Only let him remember that most of the minute details
+with which the excellent critics deal are not really of the very
+slightest importance.
+
+As has been said above, there is ample reason for believing that the
+person to whom Dante refers under the name of Beatrice was a young lady
+of that name, daughter of one Folco Portinari, and wife to Simone de’
+Bardi. But suppose that irresistible evidence to the contrary could be
+found? Suppose that documents should come to light showing that no
+Beatrice Portinari ever lived--even that there was no woman, young or
+old, in Florence, who bore the Christian name of Beatrice between 1200
+and 1300, what would it matter? Do we read Andromache’s
+
+    “Hector, but thou to me art father and mother and brother, and
+    thou my gallant husband too;”
+
+or Helen’s
+
+    “Hector, dearest to me by far of all my brothers-in-law, it is
+    now twenty years since I left my native land, but never yet have
+    I heard from thee an ill or insulting word,”
+
+with any the less emotion because we do not feel sure that Hector, or
+Andromache, or Helen ever lived on this earth? Some would add, or Homer;
+but so far, happily, no “separatist” has taken Dante in hand. But again,
+suppose he did, and with better success than has on the whole attended
+those who would have us believe that half a dozen or more men
+contributed to the _Iliad_, any one book of which would entitle its
+author to rank among the great poets of all time? The world would prove
+to be richer by as many great poets as could be shown to have
+collaborated in the writing of the _Commedia_; and how should we be the
+poorer? The poem would still be there, with all its power to soothe, to
+stimulate, to throw light upon the most hidden corners of the human
+soul, to reveal our own motives to us. It is, of course, only human
+nature to feel a personal interest in the man who has taught us so much;
+but we must not allow this natural sentiment to make us forget that the
+man is only interesting because of his work. After all, when the most
+destructive criticism has done its worst, we know much more about Dante
+than we know about the still greater Shakespeare; and let us be thankful
+for what knowledge we have.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [40] This may be a good point at which to say that we need not
+    suppose because Dante employed the Canzoni as pegs upon which to
+    hang the philosophical, astronomical, and other lucubrations of
+    the _Convito_, that when originally written they were anything
+    but exercises in the amatory style of composition usual in that
+    age, whether inspired or not by any serious passion. He would
+    have found no more difficulty in attaching subsequently a
+    mystical and moral interpretation to them than divines had found
+    in doing the same for the Canticles.
+
+    [41] In the case of the _Commedia_, it would seem that Dante
+    himself took measures to guard against interpolations. As is
+    well known, he never uses any one series of rhymes more than
+    once in the same canto; and, from the structure of the _terza
+    rima_, it is impossible to introduce any fresh matter when the
+    canto is once completed without violating this rule. This fact
+    alone serves to convict of forgery the unknown person who
+    inserted eighteen lines after _Hell_, xxxiii. 90, in one of the
+    Bodleian manuscripts; as to which, see Dr. Moore’s _Textual
+    Criticism_.
+
+    [42] It is, perhaps, worth noting that as the tendency to
+    _concetti_ increased in Italian literature, Dante was more and
+    more neglected. Only three editions appeared from 1596 to 1716.
+    Curiously enough, there are two treatises extant which just
+    correspond with the beginning and end of this period of eclipse.
+    One of them is called _A Brief and Ingenious Discourse against
+    the Work of Dante_. It was written by Monsignor Alessandro
+    Cariero, and published at Padua in 1582. The arguments are of
+    the feeblest and most pedantic kind; but it marks a stage in
+    taste. The recovery is indicated by a _Defence of Dante
+    Alighieri_, a lecture given by Dr. Giuseppe Bianchini to the
+    Florentine Academy in 1715, and published three years later.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS
+
+
+Something has already been said as to the way in which the student of
+Dante should set to work in the way both of putting himself so far as
+possible at Dante’s point of view with regard to earlier literature, and
+of availing himself of the various commentaries and treatises which
+subsequent writers have produced in such abundance; but it may be
+convenient to enter into this matter somewhat more in detail. It would
+obviously be too much to expect of every beginner that he should prepare
+himself for the study of Dante by a preliminary perusal of all the books
+which Dante may have read. But if he is to read with any profit, or
+indeed with any real enjoyment, some preliminary study is almost
+indispensable. Take, for instance, the historical standpoint. Some of
+Dante’s grandest apostrophes fall flat to one who has not grasped the
+mediæval theory of the Roman Empire, as set forth in Mr. Bryce’s
+well-known book or elsewhere. Much of his imagery, especially in the
+first Cantica, seems fantastic and arbitrary to one who is not familiar
+with Virgil’s sixth _Æneid_, and does not realise that nearly every
+feature in the Dantesque Hell is developed, with assistance no doubt
+from mediæval legend, out of some hint of the Virgilian nether world. Of
+allusions to contemporaries it is hardly necessary to speak; and in many
+cases we must fall back on the commentators, who for their part have
+often nothing to tell us but what we have already gathered for
+ourselves. Cacciaguida’s statement that no souls had been shown to Dante
+save those of people known to fame, may not be always true so far as any
+but the most strictly contemporary fame is concerned, but it is true in
+a great many cases. Few indeed there are whose names have not gained
+additional celebrity from Dante’s mention of them; but, on the other
+hand, there are very few whose memory but for it would have perished
+altogether; and the thrill with which the reader comes across an old
+acquaintance, marked by the unfaltering hand for renown or infamy, as
+long as men shall read books on this earth, is far more satisfying than
+the process of looking a person up because he is some one in Dante. It
+is therefore at least worth while, if not essential, to know something
+of the minuter contemporary history, and those who can read the seventh,
+eighth, and ninth books of Villani’s _Florentine History_--not yet,
+unfortunately, translated into English--will find their reward.
+
+Those, again, who wish to place themselves as nearly as may be at the
+point from which Dante looked at ethical and metaphysical problems, will
+hardly be satisfied with an occasional quotation from Aristotle or
+Aquinas. If, as may well be the case, they cannot spare the time for
+systematic reading of those somewhat exacting authors, they should at
+least be at the trouble of acquiring such a knowledge of their systems,
+and of the place which they hold in the widening of men’s thoughts, as
+may be obtained from Ueberweg or some other approved history of
+philosophy. So for physical science and natural history, those who have
+not the leisure to read Aristotle (again), or Pliny, or Brunetto’s
+_Trésor_, may get from the fourth book of Whewell’s _History of the
+Inductive Sciences_, and from parts of Humboldt’s _Cosmos_, some idea of
+the way in which Dante would regard the external world.
+
+But one book, among all others, was undoubtedly the main instrument in
+the formation of Dante’s mind and character. Few professed Churchmen
+have ever been so saturated with the language and the spirit of the
+Bible as this lay theologian. It was this, indeed, which seems to have
+specially impressed his contemporaries. “Theologus Dantes nullius
+dogmatis expers” is the title which the epitaph of his friend Joannes de
+Virgilio confers upon him in its opening line. And among all the books
+of the “Sacred Library,” as an earlier age called it, we can see that
+two had a predominant place in his memory--the prophecy of Jeremiah and
+the Book of Psalms. In these two we may find the solution of some of his
+most obscure symbolism, and careful study of these will do perhaps more
+than anything to help the student to read with understanding. Of course
+those who read Latin should use the Vulgate rather than the English
+version, for the key to an allusion sometimes lies in a word or a
+phrase, the identity of which is lost in an alien language.
+
+It is with the study of such books as these, carried as far as the
+student’s opportunities will allow, that he will best prepare himself
+for that of the _Commedia_. The next thing will be to read it, either in
+a translation, or better, in the original, working rapidly through the
+poem, and noting difficulties which occur, but leaving them for the
+present. He will thus get a comprehensive view of its general structure
+and scope, and probably find himself enthralled by the spell; after
+which, to put it on the lowest ground, he will have a subject of
+interest to investigate which will last him his lifetime. At any rate he
+will pretty certainly resolve to go over the ground again, this time
+more deliberately. Now will come the turn of the commentators, including
+under this term not only the actual annotators of the text, but those
+who have in any way discussed, explained, or interpreted the whole poem
+or its parts, either from a general literary point of view, or in the
+attempt to clear up special points. Of these there is no lack. Probably
+no great writer has given occasion for so much writing on the part of
+lesser men. The French critic Sainte-Beuve remarked that “to read Dante
+was almost inevitably to want to translate him;” it certainly seems as
+if to read Dante made the desire to write about him almost irresistible.
+Many of these books the world has pretty willingly let die; but a few
+will be read as long as Dante is studied in England. Foremost among
+these is the _Essay_ by the late Dean of St. Paul’s, Dr. Church. This is
+printed in a volume with an excellent translation of the _De Monarchia_.
+As an introduction to Dante from every point of view, whether in
+connection with the history of his time or in regard to his place in
+literature, it remains unrivalled, and is likely to remain so until a
+writer on Dante arises equal to Dean Church in acuteness of historical
+insight, delicacy of literary taste, and a power of expression capable
+of translating those gifts into words. No student should fail to read
+it; and those who can buy a copy will not be likely to regret the
+outlay. Another instructive book is the late Miss Rossetti’s _Shadow of
+Dante_. It treats the poem rather in its religious than in its
+historical or philosophical aspect; and it is of especial value as an
+aid to understanding the often very perplexing symbolism. Long extracts
+are given from the versions by Mr. W. M. Rossetti (for the _Inferno_)
+and Mr. Longfellow (for the other parts); and these are linked together
+by a connecting summary. Mr. Symonds’s _Introduction to the Study of
+Dante_ is also useful, especially from the literary point of view, but
+it is occasionally inaccurate. Of actual translations none is better
+than Cary’s, and this has most valuable notes.
+
+These are some of the books from which a student, who did not feel equal
+to a preliminary study of Italian, might get information about Dante. It
+is to be hoped that there are not many who will stop here. When the
+genius of a poet is so closely involved as it is in Dante’s case with
+the genius of the language, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
+student’s mind that he ought to be read in his own words. Italian is the
+easiest to learn of all European languages, and the one in which the
+preliminary labour of learning grammatical rules is least required. Its
+grammar is very straightforward; its construction, in the best writers,
+is seldom involved; its words will in most cases be intelligible to
+people who know any Latin or French. The prepositions and their uses
+offer almost the only stumbling-block which cannot be surmounted by the
+aid of a pocket-dictionary; and even here the difficulty is more likely
+to be apparent in writing Italian. In reading, the context will usually
+be a guide to the meaning when the words are known.
+
+The first thing will be to get a text. There are several modern texts
+published in Italy; but none of them are very correct. Giuliani’s is an
+attractive little book; but the Abate was a somewhat reckless emendator,
+and some of his readings are very untrustworthy. The little pocket
+edition published by Barbèra contains Fraticelli’s text, which suffers
+rather from lack of correction. Messrs. Longmans publish one based on
+Witte, but embodying the results of later inquiry. A complete text of
+Dante’s entire works has lately been issued by the Clarendon Press, for
+the accuracy of which the name of its editor, Dr. Moore, is a sufficient
+guarantee. The “student’s” editions with notes are those of Bianchi and
+Fraticelli, both in Italian. The latter is for some reason more popular
+in England, but the notes seem to me decidedly less helpful than those
+of Bianchi based on Costa’s. Better than either is the _Vocabolario
+Dantesco_ of Blanc. The original work was written in German, and no
+doubt is to be obtained in that language. It is really a very useful
+commentary, and has the additional advantage that it forms a pretty
+copious Concordance, and enables the student to compare the various uses
+of a word.
+
+The student may now be supposed to be ready to set to work. How is he to
+proceed? This is a question very difficult to answer. Probably no two
+grown-up people will attack a new author, or a new language, in quite
+the same way. The present writer began Dante with very little knowledge
+of Italian; but knowing French and Latin pretty well. Being in Florence
+one day, he went to a bookstall and bought for one _lira_ a secondhand
+copy of a little text published in 1811; and began to puzzle out bits
+here and there with the help of a small dictionary. In the following
+winter he went through the whole poem in Bianchi’s edition with a
+friend, aided by various of the older commentaries. Then he took to
+reading the poem by a canto or two at a time, in bed, without notes or
+dictionary, and went through it two or three times in this way, at last
+beginning to feel that he would like to know something about it.
+Probably a course of this kind, spread in a rather desultory fashion
+over several years, would hardly suit every student. Nevertheless it has
+in its general features some merits. In the first place, the only way to
+learn is to find for yourself where the difficulties are; and this can
+be done most effectually by beginning with the minimum of help. With
+notes, there is always the temptation to look at the note first and the
+text afterwards: a process sure to result in slipshod and inaccurate
+knowledge. Take a canto at a time, and read it through. Go over the
+ground again with a commentary and perhaps a translation. Before long
+the difficulties arising merely from the language will be pretty well
+mastered, and progress will be more rapid. Above all, avoid in the
+first instance anything of the nature of æsthetic criticism. Be content
+to treat the poem, if it be not profane to say so, as a “grind.”
+Translate into the plainest English, so only that you take pains to
+render every word. It is a very good exercise to keep to the same
+English word for the same Italian word. This will not be quite always
+possible; but on the whole it is wonderful how many words in Italian (or
+any other language) have passed through the same change of signification
+as some one of their English equivalents. (Thus “sorry” in English means
+both “sad” and “contemptible.” You will find that Italian “_tristo_”
+bears both senses equally well.) Try to “explain Dante by Dante,” that
+is, look out for peculiar phrases and constructions which may occur more
+than once, and get at their meaning by comparison of contexts. One great
+advantage possessed by the student of Dante is that his author is
+practically the first in the language in point of time; and though later
+Italian poets used Dante freely as a quarry, they did not do it
+intelligently. It may safely be said that, with the occasional exception
+of Petrarch, no subsequent Italian poet threw the least light on the
+interpretation of a single word in Dante. Indeed our own Chaucer seems
+to have understood and appreciated Dante far better than did Dante’s
+countryman Ariosto. It is thus possible to read Dante without a very
+wide acquaintance with Italian literature in general.
+
+Then, again, beginners need not be at too much pains to follow out the
+often very elaborate symbolism. On a first reading take the story as it
+stands. Let the dark wood and the three beasts, and the hill
+illuminated by the rising sun, remain what they profess to be, until you
+see the broad outlines of the poem. There are quite enough passages of
+purely human interest to occupy you at first. Francesca, Farinata, the
+Counts of Montefeltro, father and son, Ugolino, the assembled princes
+awaiting their time to enter Purgatory, the great panegyrics of St.
+Francis and St. Dominic, these and the like are the “purple patches” on
+which the beginner’s attention should be fixed.
+
+The student who has gone through the poem on these lines will by the end
+of it be ripe for a more thorough reading and a fuller commentary. Among
+modern commentaries the fullest is that of Dr. Scartazzini. He is a
+guide whose judgement is perhaps not always quite equal to his
+erudition; but his Commentary (in four volumes, including the
+_Prolegomeni_) is almost indispensable to the advanced student. He has
+also published an abridgement in one volume. Those who read German
+should make acquaintance with the translation and notes of the late King
+John of Saxony, who wrote under the name of Philalethes, as well as with
+those of Dr. Witte. Both these deal fully with historical matters,
+“Philalethes” also going very fully into the theology. In the present
+writer’s edition some attempt is made to clear up obscure points of
+allegory, and to show the extent of Dante’s debt to Greek philosophy.
+Attention is also called to questions of grammar and philology, which
+have been somewhat neglected by the Italian and German commentators.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+DANTE’S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE
+
+
+A few words on the mythological and classical allusions in the
+_Commedia_ may be useful to those who are not familiar with Greek and
+Latin literature. The subject is a very wide one, and Dante’s treatment
+of heathen mythology is very curious. It is especially noticeable in the
+_Purgatory_, where every sin and its contrary virtue are illustrated by
+a pair of examples from Scripture history on the one hand, and Greek or
+Roman history or legend (for both seem alike to him) on the other.
+Sloth, for instance, is exemplified by the Israelites who “thought
+scorn” of the promised land, and the slothful followers of Æneas, who
+hung back from the conquest of Italy; while Mary going into the hill
+country with haste, and Cæsar dashing into Spain are the chosen models
+of prompt response to the call of duty. So, again, at the very outset of
+the poem, we find St. Paul and Æneas quoted as the two instances of
+living men who have been permitted to see the future world; and Dante
+professes his own unworthiness to be put on a level with them,
+apparently without a hint that he holds the _Æneid_ any lower as an
+authority than the Epistle to the Corinthians. In a practically pagan
+humanist of the days of Leo X. this would hardly surprise us; but it
+is, at first sight, not a little astonishing in the case of a poet to
+whom the Christian Church and Christian revelation were vital truths. It
+is, however, clear that to the mediæval mind the Bible, though no doubt
+the highest authority, was in matters of morality, and to some extent
+even of theology, only “first among its peers.” Aquinas quotes
+Aristotle, the Scriptures, and the Fathers almost indiscriminately in
+support of his positions. Dante, approaching the subject from a
+political as well as a moral point, takes for his guide and philosopher
+the poet Virgil, who, as the Middle Ages deemed, had both foretold the
+glories of the Church, and sung of the first origin of the Empire. It
+must never be forgotten that, to Dante, Church and Empire were merely
+two aspects of one Divine institution. Brutus and Cassius are hardly
+less guilty than Judas; and that simply from the official point of view,
+for there is no attempt to sanctify, much less to deify, Cæsar as an
+individual. None the less is the work that he did holy, and this
+holiness communicates itself, as readers of the _De Monarchia_ will
+remember, to the whole of the long course of workings by which Divine
+Providence prepared the way for it. The finger of God is no less plainly
+to be seen in the victory of Æneas over Turnus or of the Romans over the
+Samnites than in the passage of the Israelites across the Red Sea, or
+the repulse of the Assyrians. Roman history is no less sacred than
+Hebrew. This being so, we shall not be surprised to find that a certain
+authority attaches to the literature of either one of the chosen
+peoples. Did they conflict, doubtless the poet, as an orthodox
+Catholic, would admit that Virgil must give way to Isaiah; but he would
+in all probability decline to allow that they could conflict, at all
+events within the region common to them both. No doubt, just as Cæsar
+and Peter have, besides their common domain, functions peculiar to each,
+wherein Cæsar may not interfere with Peter, or as Aristotle may err when
+he trespasses on ground that the Church has made her province (for I
+interpret _Purg._ xxv. 63 as an allusion to Aristotle), so might Virgil
+or Lucan become a teacher of false doctrine if he ventured to teach
+theology. (Statius, who does teach theology, as in the passage just
+referred to, is, it must be remembered, a Christian.) But Virgil at all
+events holds scrupulously aloof from any over-stepping of his functions;
+and within his own limits his authority is infallible. Why, then, should
+we not accept his account of the infernal regions as trustworthy? He
+tells us that Charon is the ferryman who carries the souls across to the
+nether world; Minos the judge who sentences them; Pluto (whom we confuse
+perhaps a little with Plutus) a great personage in those regions. Furies
+sit over the inner gate; Gorgons and Harpies play their parts. Holy
+Scripture has nothing to say against these conceptions; so there is
+nothing to prevent our accepting Virgil’s account, and expanding it into
+mediæval precision and symmetry. Thus we have all the official hierarchy
+of hell ready provided. As has already been observed, it is not until
+Dante reaches a point very far down that anything like what we may call
+the Christian devil appears.[43] Throughout the upper circles the work,
+whether of tormenting or merely of guarding, is performed exclusively by
+beings taken from classic mythology. If we except the Giants, who seem
+to occupy a kind of intermediate position between prisoner and gaoler,
+Geryon is the last of these whom we meet; and him Dante has practically
+transformed into a being of his own invention: for there is little in
+common between the personage slain by Hercules and the strange monster
+with the face of a just man and the tail of a venomous scorpion. As
+might perhaps be expected when there was plenty of material to hand in
+Tuscany, less use is made of the persons of classical mythology in
+finding subjects for punishment. Among the virtuous heathen several find
+their place; but it may be doubted whether Electra or Orpheus were to
+Dante any less historical than Plato or Seneca. Semiramis, Dido,
+Achilles, again, would all be recorded in the histories of Orosius and
+others whom Dante read, with dates and possibly portraits. Capaneus, one
+of the “Seven against Thebes,” is more nearly mythological; but as the
+utterer of the earliest profession of reasoned atheism[44] he could
+hardly be omitted as the typical blasphemer. The most curious example of
+all is the Thais whom we find among the flatterers. She does not attain
+even to the dignity of a myth, being only a character in a play of
+Terence, and borrowed by Dante from Cicero; probably the strangest
+instance on record of the “realization” of a dramatic personage.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [43] See p. 102.
+
+    [44] “Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor” (Statius, _Thebaid_, iii.
+    661).
+
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+
+LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+BY A. J. BUTLER, M.A.
+
+
+THE PURGATORY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.,
+        late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 12_s._
+        6_d._
+
+THE PARADISE OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+THE HELL OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+A COMPANION TO DANTE.
+
+    By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown
+        8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
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+THE PURGATORY OF DANTE.
+
+    Translated by C. L. SHADWELL. Extra crown 8vo. 10_s._ net.
+
+THE PARADISE OF DANTE.
+
+    An Experiment in Literal Verse Translation. By C. L. SHADWELL.
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+
+READINGS ON DANTE.
+
+    Chiefly based on the COMMENTARY OF BENVENUTO DA IMOLA. By the
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+
+THE PURGATORIO.
+
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+
+THE INFERNO.
+
+    With Introduction by the Rev. E. MOORE, D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
+        30_s._
+
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+
+    With Introduction by the Bishop of RIPON. 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
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+
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+        FITZGERALD.
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+        Works of Marcus Aurelius. By the Rev. Dr. GERALD HENRY RENDALL,
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+        Furies of Æschylus. Translated into English Verse by E. D. A.
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+
+
+    Transcriber’s Note:
+
+    Variations in spelling, hyphenation and use of accents have
+    been retained as they appear in the original publication.
+
+    Changes to the original publication have been made as follows:
+
+        Page  11 Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+                 “Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+
+        Page 112 to positive cruelty,
+                 to positive cruelty.
+
+        Page 113 becomes almost suppliant
+                 becomes almost suppliant.
+
+        Page 128 eighth pit o
+                 eighth pit of
+
+        Page 128 evening is drawng
+                 evening is drawing
+
+        Page 133 In the circle o
+                 In the circle of
+
+        Page 149 Sun, Mars, Jupiter
+                 Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
+
+        Page 150 by other matter,
+                 by other matter.
+
+        Page 166 Note that capidigia
+                 Note that cupidigia
+
+        Page 178 It is a mos
+                 It is a most
+
+        Page 178 peculiarities of locat
+                 peculiarities of local
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dante: His Times and His Work, by 
+Arthur John Butler
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+Project Gutenberg's Dante: His Times and His Work, by Arthur John Butler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dante: His Times and His Work
+
+Author: Arthur John Butler
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2009 [EBook #27999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma �pehar and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+
+
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Edited, with Translation and Notes, by
+        A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PARADISE OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE HELL OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    A COMPANION TO DANTE. By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A.
+        J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Translated by C. LANCELOT SHADWELL, M.A.
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+
+    THE EARTHLY PARADISE OF DANTE. Translated by the same. Crown
+        8vo. 5_s._ net.
+
+    READINGS ON DANTE. By the Hon. WILLIAM WARREN VERNON, M.A.
+
+    THE PURGATORIO. With Introduction by Dean CHURCH. 2 vols. Crown
+        8vo. 24_s._
+
+    THE INFERNO. With Introduction by Rev. E. MOORE, D.D. 2 vols.
+        Crown 8vo. 30_s._
+
+    THE PARADISO. With Introduction by the Bishop of RIPON. 2 vols.
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+
+    DANTE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. By R. W. CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 5_s._
+
+    LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
+
+
+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+    BY
+
+    ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+
+    LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+    ~London~
+    MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+    NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    1902
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+
+    PRINTED BY
+    WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+    LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in
+the _Monthly Packet_, and part in the Magazine of the Home Reading
+Union. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those
+whom Italians call "Dantists," but for students at an early stage of
+their studies. To the former class there will be nothing in the book
+that is not already familiar--except where they happen to find mistakes,
+from which, in so extensive a field for blundering as Dante affords, I
+cannot hope to have kept it free. In the domain of history alone fresh
+facts are constantly rewarding the indefatigable research of German and
+Italian scholars--a research of which only the most highly specialised
+specialist can possibly keep abreast. Even since the following pages
+were for the most part in print, we have had Professor Villari's _Two
+Centuries of Florentine History_, correcting in many particulars the
+chroniclers on whom the Dante student has been wont to rely. This book
+should most emphatically be added to those named in the appendix as
+essential to the study of our author.
+
+In connection with some of the remarks in the opening chapter, Professor
+Butcher's Essay on _The Dawn of Romanticism in Greek Poetry_ should be
+noticed. I do not think that the accomplished author's view is
+incompatible with mine; though I admit that I had not taken much account
+of the Greek writers whom we call "post-classical." But it is to be
+noted, as bearing on the question raised in the second footnote on p. 9,
+that most or all of the writers whom he cites were either Asiatics or
+nearly touched by Asiatic influences.
+
+I have made some attempt to deal in a concise way with two subjects
+which have not, I think, hitherto been handled in English books on
+Dante, other than translations. One of these is the development of the
+Guelf and Ghibeline struggle from a rivalry between two German houses to
+a partisan warfare which rent Italy for generations. I am quite aware
+that I have merely touched the surface of the subject, which seems to
+me to contain in it the essence of all political philosophy, with
+special features such as could only exist in a country which, like
+Italy, had, after giving the law to the civilised world, been unable to
+consolidate itself into a nation like the other nations of Europe. I
+have, I find, even omitted to notice what seem to have been the ruling
+aims of at any rate the honest partisans on either side: unity, that of
+the Ghibelines; independence, that of the Guelfs. Nor have I drawn
+attention to a remarkable trait in Dante's own character, which, so far
+as I know, has never been discussed--I mean his apparent disregard of
+the "lower classes." Except for one or two similes drawn from the
+"villano" and his habits, and one or two contemptuous allusions to
+"Monna Berta e Ser Martino" and their like, it would seem as if for him
+the world consisted of what now would be called "the upper ten
+thousand." In an ordinary politician or partisan, or even in a mere man
+of letters this would not be strange; but when we reflect that Dante was
+a man who went deeply into social and religious questions, that he was
+born less than forty years after the death of St. Francis, and was at
+least closely enough associated with Franciscans for legend to make him
+a member of the order, and that most of the so-called heretical sects of
+the time--Paterines, Cathari, Poor Men--started really more from social
+than from religious discontent, it is certainly surprising that his
+interest in the "dim, common populations" should have been so slight.
+
+The other object at which I have aimed is the introduction of English
+students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most
+eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seem to
+be quite as much opposed to common sense and knowledge of human nature
+as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound
+historical criticism. Here, again, I have but touched on the more
+salient points; feeling sure that before long some of the scholarship in
+our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek
+and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin
+texts may be worth studying though written outside of so-called
+classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further
+point of applying to medi�val literature, which hitherto has been too
+much the sport of _dilettanti_, the methods that have till now been
+reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages. Unless I
+am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study
+of early Italian will teach him "a thing or two" that he did not know
+before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost,
+even from that point of view. Then we shall get the authoritative
+edition of Dante, which I am insular enough to believe will never come
+from either Germany or Italy, or from any intervening country.
+
+    _February_, 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+
+      I. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY                               1
+
+     II. GUELFS AND GHIBELINES                               16
+
+    III. DANTE'S EARLY DAYS                                  38
+
+     IV. FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE'S EXILE               52
+
+      V. DANTE'S EXILE                                       69
+
+     VI. THE "COMMEDIA"                                      89
+
+    VII. THE MINOR WORKS                                    171
+
+    APPENDIX  I.--SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS                   189
+
+    APPENDIX II.--DANTE'S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE       198
+
+
+
+
+DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+The person who sets to work to write about Dante at the present day has
+two great difficulties to reckon with: the quantity which has already
+been written on the subject, and the quantity which remains to be
+written. The first involves the reading of an enormous mass of
+literature in several languages, and very various in quality; but for
+the comfort of the young student, it may at once, and once for all, be
+stated that he can pretty safely ignore everything written between 1400
+and 1800. The subject of commentaries, biographies, and other helps, or
+would-be helps, will be treated of later on. Here we need only say that
+the Renaissance practically stifled anything like an intelligent study
+of Dante for those four centuries; and it was not until a new critical
+spirit began to apply to it the methods which had hitherto been reserved
+for the Greek and Latin classics, that the study got any chance of
+development. How enormously it has developed during the present century
+needs not to be said. It may suffice to point out that the British
+Museum Catalogue shows editions of the _Commedia_ at the rate of one for
+every year since 1800, and other works on Dante in probably five times
+that proportion.
+
+Now, it has been said of the _Commedia_, and the remark is equally true
+of Dante's other works, that it is like the Bible in this respect: every
+man finds in it what he himself brings to it. The poet finds poetry, the
+philosopher philosophy; the scientific man science as it was known in
+1300; the politician politics; heretics have even found heresy. Nor is
+this very surprising when we consider what were the author's
+surroundings. Naturally, no doubt, a man of study and contemplation, his
+lot was cast in the midst of a stirring, even a turbulent, society,
+where it was hardly possible for any individual to escape his share of
+the public burdens. Ablebodied men could not be spared when, as was
+usually the case, fighting was toward; all men of mental capacity were
+needed in council or in administration. And, after all, the area to be
+administered, the ground to be fought over, were so small, that the man
+of letters might do his duty by the community and yet have plenty of
+time to spare for his studies. He might handle his pike at Caprona or
+Campaldino one day, and be at home among his books the next. Then,
+again, the society was a cultivated and quick-witted one, with many
+interests. Arts and letters were in high esteem, and eminence in them as
+sure a road to fame as warlike prowess or political distinction. From
+all this it is clear that the Florentine of the thirteenth century had
+points of contact with life on every side; every gate of knowledge lay
+open to him, and he could explore, if he pleased, every one of its
+paths. They have now been carried further, and a lifetime is too short
+for one man to investigate thoroughly more than one or two; but in those
+days it was still possible for a man of keen intelligence, added to the
+almost incredible diligence, as it appears to us, of the Middle Ages, to
+make himself acquainted with all the best that had been done and said
+in the world.
+
+This it is which forms at once the fascination and the difficulty of
+Dante's great work. Of course, if we content ourselves with reading it
+merely for its "beauties," for the �sthetic enjoyment of an image here
+and an allusion there, for the trenchant expression of some thought or
+feeling at the roots of human nature, there will be no need of any
+harder study than is involved in going through it with a translation.
+Indeed, it will hardly be worth while to go to the original at all. The
+pleasure, one might almost say the physical pleasure, derived from
+sonorous juxtaposition of words, such as we obtain from Milton or from
+Shelley, is scarcely to be genuinely felt in the case of a foreign
+language; and the beauties of matter, as distinguished from those of
+form, are faithfully enough rendered by Cary or Longfellow.
+
+It may, however, be safely assumed that few intelligent students will
+rest content with this amount of study. They will find at every turn
+allusions calling for explanation, philosophical doctrines to be traced
+to their sources, judgements on contemporary persons and events to be
+verified. On every page they will meet with problems the solution of
+which has not yet been attempted, or attempted only in the most
+perfunctory way. For generation after generation readers have gone on
+accepting received interpretations which only tell them what their own
+wits could divine without any other assistance than the text itself
+gives. No commentator seems yet to have realised that, in order to
+understand Dante thoroughly, he must put himself on Dante's level so far
+as regards a knowledge of all the available literature. The more obvious
+quarries from which Dante obtained the materials for his mighty
+structure--the Bible, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle--have no
+doubt been pretty thoroughly examined, and many obscurities which the
+comments of Landino and others only left more obscure have thus been
+cleared up; but a great deal remains to be done. Look where one may in
+the literature which was open to Dante, one finds evidence of his
+universal reading. We take up such a book as Otto of Freising's _Annals_
+(to which, with his _Acts of Frederick I._, we shall have to refer
+again), and find the good bishop moralising thus on the mutability of
+human affairs, with especial reference to the break-up of the Empire in
+the middle of the ninth century:--
+
+    "Does not worldly honour seem to turn round and round after the
+    fashion of one stricken with fever? For such place their hope of
+    rest in a change of posture, and so, when they are in pain,
+    throw themselves from side to side, turning over
+    continually."[1]
+
+It is hard not to suppose that Dante had this passage in his mind when
+he wrote that bitter apostrophe to his own city with which the sixth
+canto of the _Purgatory_ ends:--
+
+    "E se ben ti ricorda, e vedi lume,
+       Vedrai te somigliante a quella inferma,
+       Che non pu� trovar posa in su le piume,
+     Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma."
+
+It is hardly too much to say that one cannot turn over a couple of pages
+of any book which Dante may conceivably have read without coming on some
+passage which one feels certain he had read, or at the very least
+containing some information which one feels certain he possessed. A real
+"Dante's library"[2] would comprise pretty well every book in Latin,
+Italian, French, or Proven�al, "published," if we may use the term, up
+to the year 1300. Of course a good many Latin books were (may one say
+fortunately?) in temporary retirement at that time; but even of these,
+whether, as has been suggested, through volumes, now lost, of "Elegant
+Extracts," or by whatever other means, more was evidently known than is
+always realised.
+
+We must, however, beware of treating Dante merely as a repertory of
+curious lore or museum of literary _bric-�-brac_--a danger almost as
+great as that of looking at him from a purely �sthetic point of view. He
+had no doubt read more widely than any man of his age, and he is one of
+the half-dozen greatest poets of all time. But his claim on our
+attention rests on even a wider basis than these two qualities would
+afford. He represents as it were the re-opening of the lips of the human
+race: "While I was musing, the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my
+tongue." The old classical literature had said its last word when
+Claudian died; and though men continued to compose, often with ability
+and intelligence, the histories and chronicles which practically formed
+the only non-theological writings of the so-called "Dark Ages," letters
+in the full sense of the term lay dormant for centuries. Not till the
+twelfth century was far advanced did any signs of a re-awakening appear.
+Then, to use a phrase of Dante's, the dead poetry arose, and a burst of
+song came almost simultaneously from all Western Europe. To this period
+belong the Minnesingers of Germany, the Troubadours of Provence, the
+unknown authors of the lovely romance--poetical in feeling, though cast
+chiefly in a prose form--_Aucassin et Nicolete_, and of several not less
+lovely English ballads and lyrics. Even the heavy rhymed chronicles
+begin to be replaced by romances in which the true poetic fire breaks
+out, such as the _Nibelungen Lied_ (in its definitive form) and the
+_Chronicle of the Cid_.
+
+In the new poetry two features strike us at once. The sentiment of love
+between man and woman, which with the ancients and even with early
+Christian writers scarcely ever rises beyond the level of a sensual
+passion,[3] becomes transfigured into a profound emotion touching the
+deepest roots of a man's nature, and acting as an incentive to noble
+conduct; and, closely connected with this, the influence of external
+nature upon the observer begins for the first time to be recognised and
+to form a subject for poetical treatment.[4] Horace has several charming
+descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him
+merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he
+cannot do better than have another drink in company with a friend. So
+with Homer and Virgil. External nature and its beauty are often touched
+off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it
+is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a
+mood. You may search classical literature in vain for such passages as
+Walther von der Vogelweide's:--
+
+    "D� der sumer komen was
+     Und die bluomen durch daz gras
+     W�nnecl�che ensprungen,
+     Ald[=a] die vogele sungen,
+     D�r kom ich gegangen
+     An einer anger langen,
+     D� ein l�ter brunne entspranc;
+     Vor dem walde was s[=i]n ganc,
+     D� diu nahtegale sanc;"[5]
+
+or the unknown Frenchman's:--
+
+    "Ce fu el tans d'est�, el mois de mai, que li jor sont caut,
+    lonc, et cler, et les nuits coies et series. Nicolete jut une
+    nuit en son lit, et vit la lune cler par une fenestre, et si oi
+    le lorseilnol center en garding, se li sovint d'Aucassin sen ami
+    qu'ele tant aimoit;"[6]
+
+or the equally unknown Englishman's:--
+
+    "Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+       When spray biginneth to springe,
+     The lutel foul hath hire wyl
+       On hyre lud to synge;
+     Ich libbe in love-longinge
+     For semlokest of alle thinge,
+     He may me blisse bringe,
+       Icham in hire baundoun."[7]
+
+But it is hardly necessary to multiply instances. By the middle of the
+thirteenth century the spring, and the nightingales, and the flowering
+meadows had become a commonplace of amatory and emotional poetry.
+
+So far, however, poetry was exclusively lyrical. The average standard of
+versifying was higher, perhaps, than it has ever been before or since.
+Every man of education seems to have been able to turn a sonnet or ode.
+Men of religion, like St. Francis or Brother Jacopone of Todi;
+statesmen, like Frederick II. and his confidant, Peter de Vineis;
+professional or official persons, like Jacopo the notary of Lentino, or
+Guido dalle Colonne the judge of Messina; fighting men, like several of
+the Troubadours; political intriguers, like Bertrand del Born--all have
+left verses which, for beauty of thought and melody of rhythm, have
+seldom been matched. But the great poem was yet to come, which was to
+give to the age a voice worthy of its brilliant performance. It is not
+only in literature that it displays renewed vitality. Turn where we
+will, in every department of human energy it must have been brilliant
+beyond any that the world has ever seen. It stood between two worlds,
+but we cannot say of them that they were
+
+                         "One dead,
+    The other powerless to be born."
+
+The old monarchy was dying, had indeed, as Dante regretfully perceived,
+died before he was born, and the trumpet-call of the _De Monarchia_,
+wherewith he sought to revive it, was addressed to a generation which
+had other ideals of government; but it had set in a blaze of splendour,
+and its last wielder, Frederick II., was, not unfitly, known as the
+Wonder of the World. The medi�val Papacy, though about to undergo a loss
+of prestige which it never retrieved, outlived its rival, and had
+seldom been a greater force in the political world than it was in the
+hands of the ambitious and capable Boniface VIII. The scholastic
+philosophy, which had directed the minds of men for many generations,
+was soon to make way for other forms of reasoning and other modes of
+thought; but its greatest exponent, St. Thomas Aquinas, was Dante's
+contemporary for nine years. These examples will serve to show that the
+old systems were capable to the very last of producing and influencing
+great men.
+
+Meantime the new order was showing no lack of power to be born. Two of
+our countrymen, Roger Bacon and, somewhat later, William of Ockham,
+sowed, each in his own way, the seeds which were to bear fruit in the
+science and speculation of far distant ages. In the arts, architecture
+reached its highest pitch of splendour; and painting was at the outset
+of the course which was to culminate, more than two hundred years later,
+in Titian and Raffaelle. But in no field did the energy of the
+thirteenth century manifest itself as in that of politics. With the
+collapse of the Empire came the first birth of the "nationalities" of
+modern Europe. The process indeed went on at very different rates. The
+representative constitution of England, the centralised government of
+France were by the end of the century fairly started on the lines which
+they have followed ever since. But England had never owned allegiance to
+the Emperor, while France had pretty well forgotten whence it had got
+the name which had replaced that of Gaul. In the countries where the
+Empire had till recently been an ever-present power, Germany and Italy,
+the work of consolidation went on far less rapidly; indeed, it has been
+reserved for our own age to see it completed. With Germany we have here
+nothing directly to do; but it is all-important to the right
+understanding of Dante's position that we should glance briefly at the
+political state of Italy and especially of Tuscany during the latter
+half of the thirteenth century. By good fortune we have very copious
+information on this matter. A contemporary and neighbour of Dante's, by
+name John Villani, happened to be at Rome during the great Jubilee of
+1300. The sight of the imperial city and all its ancient glories set him
+meditating on its history, written, as he says (in a collocation of
+names which looks odd to us, but was usual enough then), "by Virgil, by
+Sallust and Lucan, by Titus Livius, Valerius, and Paulus Orosius," and
+moved him, as an unworthy disciple, to do for his native city what they
+had done for Rome. The result was the most genial and generally
+delightful work of history that has been written since Herodotus.
+Villani, who lived till 1348, when the plague carried him off, seems to
+have been a man of an equable disposition and sober judgement. Like
+Dante and all the Florentines of that day, he belonged to the Guelf
+party; and, unlike his great fellow-citizen, he adhered to it
+throughout, though by no means approving all the actions of its leaders.
+After the fashion of the time, he begins his chronicle with the Tower of
+Babel; touches on Dardanus, Priam, and the Trojan war; records the
+origin of the Tuscan cities; and so by easy stages comes down towards
+the age in which he lived. The earlier portions, of course, are more
+entertaining and suggestive than trustworthy in detail; but as he
+approaches a time for which he had access to living memory, and still
+more when he records the events of which he was himself a witness, he is
+our best authority.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [1] Otho Fris., _Annales_, v. 36.
+
+    [2] A useful list, with some account of the authors cited by
+    Dante, is given by Mr. J. S. Black, in a volume entitled
+    _Dante_; _Illustrations and Notes_, privately printed by Messrs.
+    T. & A. Constable, at Edinburgh, 1890. He does not, however,
+    include (save in one or two cases, and those rather doubtful)
+    authors of whom Dante's knowledge rests on inference only.
+
+    [3] I do not forget Ulysses and Penelope, Hector and Andromache,
+    or Ovid's _Hero�des_; but the love of husband and wife is
+    another matter altogether. The only instance in classical
+    literature that I can recall of what may be termed the modern
+    view of the subject is that of H�mon and Antigone. See, on this
+    subject, and in connection with these paragraphs generally,
+    Symonds, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_, ch. viii.
+
+    [4] This must be taken as referring only to European literature.
+    Such a passage as Canticles ii. 10-14 shows that Oriental poets
+    felt the sentiment from very early times. Is it possible that
+    contact with the East evoked it in Europeans?
+
+    [5] "When the summer was come, and the flowers sprang joyously
+    up through the grass, right there the birds were singing;
+    thither came I, on my way over a long meadow where a clear well
+    gushed forth; its course was by the wood where the nightingale
+    sang."
+
+    [6] "It was summer time, the month of May, when the days are
+    warm, and long, and clear, and the nights still and serene.
+    Nicolete lay one night on her bed, and saw the moon shine clear
+    through a window, yea, and heard the nightingale sing in the
+    garden, so she minded her of Aucassin, her lover, whom she loved
+    so well" (Lang's translation).
+
+    [7] Lud = song; semlokest = seemliest; he = she; in hire
+    baundoun = at her command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GUELFS AND GHIBELINES[8]
+
+
+Mention was made, in the last chapter, of the "Guelf" party, and this,
+with its opposite, the party of the "Ghibelines," fills the entire field
+of Italian politics during Dante's life, and indeed for long afterwards.
+It would be impossible in the space of these pages to follow up all the
+tangled threads which have attached themselves to those famous names;
+but since we may be, to use a picturesque phrase of Carlyle's, "thankful
+for any hook whatever on which to hang half-an-acre of thrums in fixed
+position," a few of the more prominent points in the early history of
+the great conflict shall be noted here.
+
+As every one knows, the names originally came from Germany, and to that
+country we must turn for a short time to know their import.
+
+About seven miles to the north-east of Stuttgart, in what is now the
+kingdom of Wurtemberg, is a small town called Waiblingen, where was once
+a stronghold, near the borders of Franconia and Suabia (or Alemannia),
+belonging to the Franconian dukes. Conrad, often called "the Salic,"
+head of that house, was raised to the throne of Germany and the Empire
+in 1024. His line held the imperial crown for just a century, in the
+persons of himself and three Henries, who are known as the second,
+third, and fourth, or third, fourth, and fifth, according as we reckon
+their places among Roman Emperors or German Kings; Henry III. (or IV.)
+being famous as the great opponent of Pope Gregory VII.; Henry IV. (or
+V.) interesting to us as the first husband of the daughter of Henry I.
+of England, renowned in English history as the Empress Maud. The last
+Henry died childless in 1125. But the Franconian line was not extinct.
+Half a century or so before, Bishop Otto of Freising tells us "a certain
+count, by name Frederick, sprung from one of the noblest families of
+Suabia, had founded a colony in a stronghold called Staufen." Staufen,
+better known as Hohenstaufen, is a lofty hill about twenty miles from
+Waiblingen, and within the Suabian frontier. Frederick had been staunch
+to Henry IV. in his time of greatest difficulty, and received as his
+reward, together with the dukedom of Suabia, which the house of
+Z�hringen had forfeited through disloyalty, the hand of the Emperor's
+daughter Agnes. By her he had two sons, Frederick, who succeeded to his
+own duchy of Suabia, and Conrad, who received from his uncle Henry V.
+that of Franconia, including no doubt the lordship of Waiblingen. At
+Henry's death Frederick and Conrad, being then thirty-five and
+thirty-three years old respectively, were the most powerful princes of
+the Empire. Henry had designated Frederick as his successor; but the
+electors thought otherwise. At the instance of the Archbishop of Mainz,
+between whom and the Hohenstaufen there was no love lost, and, as it
+would seem, not without pressure from Lewis VI. of France, whom Henry's
+death had just saved from having to face an alliance between England
+and Germany, they chose Lothar, Duke of Saxony.
+
+We will now quote Otto of Freising once more. "Up to the present time,"
+he says, writing of the year 1152, "two families have been famous in the
+Roman Empire, about the parts where Gaul and Germany meet, the Henries
+of Waiblingen, and the Welfs of Altdorf." The Welfs go back to by far
+the greater antiquity. They probably did not originally belong to the
+Bajovarian stock, for we read elsewhere that they had "large possessions
+in the parts where Alemannia meets the Pyren�an Mountains," as Otto
+usually designates the Alps west of the Brenner. This Altdorf is a
+village near Ravensburg in Wurtemberg, between Ulm and Friedrichshafen.
+We first meet with the name in history about the year 820, when the
+Emperor Lewis I., "the Pious," married as his second wife Judith,
+"daughter of the most noble Count Welf." Somewhere about the middle of
+the tenth century, a Rudolf of the race was Count of Bozen. His son Welf
+took part in the insurrection of the Dukes of Worms and Suabia against
+their step-father Conrad II., "the Salic," and lost some of his
+territories in consequence, Bozen passing to Etiko, an illegitimate
+member of the same house. The family must have soon been restored to the
+imperial favour, for before 1050 Welf III. appears as Duke of Bavaria.
+
+At his death, without issue, in 1055, he was succeeded by the son of his
+sister, who had married Azzo II. of Este. This Welf IV. fought on the
+side of Henry IV., against the revolted Saxons at the Unstrut, but soon
+rebelled himself. He became for a time the husband of the "great
+Countess" Matilda of Tuscany. Through him and his son Henry, "the
+Black," the line was maintained; and though during the period at which
+we have arrived the head of the family for several generations bore the
+name of Henry, it is usually spoken of as "the house of the Welfs,"[9]
+and the name is borne by some member of the family at most times. At the
+accession of Lothar II. the head of the house was Henry, surnamed "the
+Proud." With him the new emperor at once made close alliance, giving him
+his daughter Gertrude in marriage. Henry's sister Judith was already
+married to Frederick of Suabia, but he sided with his father-in-law, and
+a struggle began which lasted for ten years, and in which the
+Hohenstaufen brothers had not entirely the worst of it. Conrad was
+actually anointed at Monza as King of Italy; but in the end, through the
+intervention of St. Bernard, peace was made, and lasted during the few
+remaining months of Lothar's life. At his death in 1137 Conrad was
+elected. His first act was to take the duchy of Bavaria from Henry, and
+bestow it on Leopold, the Marquis of Austria, his own half-brother, and
+whole brother to Bishop Otto, the historian. Henry died very soon,
+leaving a young son, afterwards known as Henry "the lion," and a
+brother, Welf, who at once took up the quarrel on behalf of his nephew.
+He beat Leopold; but when, emboldened by this success, he proceeded to
+attack the Emperor, who was besieging the castle of Weinsberg, in
+Franconia, he suffered a severe defeat. At this battle we are told the
+cries of the contending sides were "Welf!" and "Waiblingen!" Why the
+name of an obscure fortress should have been used as a battle-cry for
+the mighty house of Hohenstaufen, we shall probably never know; it may
+be that it was a chance selection as the password for the day. However
+that may be, the battle-cries of Weinsberg were destined to resound far
+into future ages. Modified to suit non-Teutonic lips, they became famous
+throughout the civilised world as the designations of the two parties in
+a struggle which divided Italy for centuries, and of which the last
+vibrations only died down, if indeed they have died down, in our own
+day.
+
+Of all faction-wars which history records, this is the most complicated,
+the most difficult to analyse into distinct issues. The Guelfs have been
+considered the Church or Papal party; and no doubt there is some truth
+in this view. Indeed, there seems to have been some hereditary tradition
+of the kind dating from a much earlier generation; long, in fact, before
+the Ghibeline name had been heard of. When, as we have seen, Countess
+Matilda of Tuscany, the champion of Gregory VII., was looking out for a
+second husband, she fixed upon Welf of Bavaria, presumably the "dux
+Noricorum," who, as Bishop Otto tells us, "in the war with the Emperor,
+destroyed the cities of Freising and Augsburg." Their union did not last
+long, for Matilda seems to have been hard to please in the matter of
+husbands; but the fact of his selection looks as if he had been a
+_persona grata_ with the Papal See. It is somewhat significant, too,
+that Machiavelli regards the contest between Henry IV. and the Papacy as
+having been "the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline races, whereby when the
+inundation of foreigners ceased, Italy was torn with intestine wars."
+Yet we may shrewdly suspect that it was not so much any special devotion
+to the Church, as the thwarted ambition of a powerful house, which made
+the Welfs to be a thorn in the side first of the Franconian, then of the
+Suabian Emperors.[10] At any rate, when a representative of the family,
+in the person of Otto IV., at last reached "the dread summit of C�sarean
+power," the very Pope, whose support had placed him on the throne, found
+himself within little more than a year under the familiar necessity of
+excommunicating the temporal head of Christendom. Still, in Italy no
+doubt the Guelfs, politically at any rate, held by the Church, while the
+Ghibelines had the reputation of being, as a party, at least tainted
+with what we should now call materialism. It will be remembered that
+among the sinners in this kind, who occupy the burning tombs within the
+walls of the city of Dis, Dante places both the Emperor Frederick II.,
+the head of Ghibelinism, and Farinata degli Uberti, the vigorous leader
+of the party in Tuscany, while the only Guelf who appears there is one
+who probably was a very loose adherent to his own faction.
+
+Less justified, it would seem, is the idea that the Guelfs were
+specially the patriotic party in Italy. No doubt the Popes at one time
+tried to pose as the defenders of Italian liberties against German
+tyrants, and some modern historians, forgetting the medi�val conception
+of the Empire, have been inclined to accept this view. But when it
+suited his purpose, the Pope was ready enough to support an "anti-C�sar"
+who was no less a German, or even to call in a French invader. The truth
+is that at that time (and for many centuries afterwards), no conception
+of "Italy" as a nation had entered into men's minds. We do not always
+realise that until the year 1870, the territory, well enough defined by
+Nature, which forms the modern kingdom of Italy, had never, except
+indeed as part of a far wider Empire, owned the rule of a single
+sovereign. Patriotism hardly extended beyond the walls of a man's own
+city. Even Dante feels that residence in Lucca, Bologna, or Verona is an
+exile as complete as any, and that his only _patria_ is Florence, though
+it may be safely said that to him, if to any living man, the idea of an
+Italian nation had presented itself.
+
+The one argument which we can find to support this view lies in the fact
+that while the chief Guelf names are those of burgher families, many of
+the leading Ghibeline houses were undoubtedly of German origin. At
+Florence the Uberti, at Bologna the Lamberti, show their descent in
+their names. Villani tells us that the Emperor Otto I. delighted in
+Florence, "and when he returned to Germany certain of his barons
+remained there and became citizens." The two families just mentioned
+are specified. So far, then, the Guelfs may be regarded as representing
+native civic liberties against an alien feudal nobility, and the
+struggle between the two factions will fall into line with that which at
+a somewhat later date went on in Germany between the traders of the
+cities and the "robber-barons" of the country. In this aspect we may see
+the full meaning of Dante's continual allusion to the sin of avarice,
+under the image of the "wolf;" an allusion, again, which the original
+name whence the Guelf party took its appellation would specially point.
+
+How and when the names first appeared in Italy we do not know. The first
+manifestation of resistance on the part of the cities to the Imperial
+control was given when Milan withstood Frederick Barbarossa--in defence,
+it may be noted, of its own right to oppress its weaker neighbours; but
+during the war which followed, and which was terminated by Frederick's
+defeat at Legnano, the head of the Welfs, Henry the Lion, was for most
+of the time fighting on the Imperial side, and though he deserted
+Frederick at the last, he does not seem to have given any active help to
+the Lombard League. Yet it may well be that in his defection we have to
+see a stage in the transition from Welf to Guelf. It is, however, not in
+Lombardy, but in Tuscany, that the names of Guelf and Ghibeline, as
+recognised party designations, first appear. Machiavelli says--perhaps
+by a confusion with the Black and White factions, of whom we shall hear
+later--that they were first heard in Pistoia; but however this may be,
+they would seem to have been definitely accepted by 1215, to which year
+Villani assigns their introduction into Florence.
+
+We have now reached the first date, it may be said, which students of
+Dante will have to remember; a date which to him, and equally to the
+sober chronicler Villani, marked the beginning of troubles for the city
+which both loved as a mother, though to the greater son she was "a
+mother of small love." The occasion is so important that it ought to be
+related in the historian's own words:--
+
+    "In the year of Christ 1215, one Messer Bondelmonte, of the
+    Bondelmonti, a noble citizen of Florence, having promised to
+    take to wife a damsel of the house of the Amidei, honourable and
+    noble citizens; as this Messer Bondelmonte, who was a gay and
+    handsome cavalier, was riding through the city, a lady of the
+    Donati family called to him, speaking evil of the lady who had
+    been promised to him, how that she was not fair nor fitting for
+    him, and saying: 'I have kept my daughter here for you,' showed
+    him the maiden; and she was very fair. And straightway falling
+    enamoured of her, he gave her his troth, and espoused her to
+    wife; for which cause the kinsfolk of the first promised lady
+    gathered together, and being grieved for the shame that Messer
+    Bondelmonte had wrought them, they took on them the accursed
+    quarrel whereby the city of Florence was laid waste and broken
+    up. For many houses of the nobles[11] bound themselves together
+    by an oath to do a shame to the aforesaid Bondelmonte in
+    vengeance for those injuries. And as they were in council among
+    themselves in what fashion they should bring him down, Mosca of
+    the Lamberti said the ill word: "A thing done hath an end,"
+    meaning that he should be slain.[12] And so it came to pass; for
+    on the morning of Easter Day they assembled in the house of the
+    Amidei by St. Stephen's, and the said Messer Bondelmonte, coming
+    from beyond Arno, nobly clad in new white clothes, and riding on
+    a white palfrey, when he reached the hither end of the Old
+    Bridge, just by the pillar where was the image of Mars, was
+    thrown from his horse by Schiatta of the Uberti,[13] and by
+    Mosca Lamberti and Lambertuccio of the Amidei assailed and
+    wounded, and his throat was cut and an end made of him by
+    Oderigo Fifanti; and one of the counts from Gangalandi was with
+    them. For the which thing's sake the city flew to arms and
+    uproar, and this death of Messer Bondelmonte was the cause and
+    beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibeline parties in
+    Florence, albeit that before this the factions among the nobles
+    of the city had been plenty, and there had been the parties I
+    have said, by reason of the conflicts and questions between the
+    Church and the Empire; but through the death of Messer
+    Bondelmonte all the families of the nobles and other citizens of
+    Florence took sides with them, and some held with the
+    Bondelmonti, who took the Guelf side and were its leaders, and
+    others with the Uberti, who were head of the Ghibelines. Whence
+    followed much havoc and ruin to our city, and one may think that
+    it will never have an end if God put not a term to it."[14]
+
+The historian proceeds to enumerate the noble families who joined either
+side. Curiously enough, they were at first evenly divided--thirty-eight
+to thirty-eight. Not much is to be inferred from the names, though it is
+somewhat significant that of those, some half a dozen families in all,
+whom Villani, himself a Guelf, notes as having only recently attained to
+nobility, all joined the Guelf party. There seems also to have been a
+tendency for Ghibeline houses to become Guelf, which is not balanced by
+any defections in the opposite sense, so that the balance of parties was
+soon disturbed in favour of the Guelfs. At first, however, though
+
+"there was a division among the nobles of the city in that one loved the
+lordship of the Church, and the other that of the Empire, yet in regard
+to the state and welfare of the commonwealth all were in concord."
+
+This state of things did not last long. In 1220 Frederick II. was
+crowned Emperor at Rome. Up till that time he had been more or less a
+_prot�g�_ of the Popes. First Innocent III., then Honorius III., had
+kept a fatherly eye upon his youth and early manhood, and for a time
+Church and Empire seemed to pull together. Honorius had, indeed,
+occasion to write severely to him more than once, but there was no
+breach of the peace. The accession of Gregory IX., in 1227, changed the
+aspect of affairs. Before the year was out, Frederick, like most of his
+predecessors for 200 years past, was under the ban of the Church: and
+from this time forward there was an end of peace and quiet government in
+Northern Italy. "Before Frederick met with opposition," Dante makes a
+Lombard gentleman of the last generation say, "valour and courtesy were
+wont to be found in the land which Adige and Po water; now may any man
+safely go that way, who through shame has left off to converse with
+good men or approach them."[15]
+
+Florence seems to have remained longer than most of the chief cities
+aloof from the main contest. She had her own wars with Pisa, beginning
+with a private quarrel at the Emperor's coronation (in which we are
+expressly told that both parties united), and afterwards with Siena; and
+the great houses did a certain amount of private fighting; "but still
+the people and commonwealth of Florence continued in unity, to the
+welfare and honour and stability of the republic." In 1248, however,
+Frederick turned his attention in that direction, moved, it may be, by
+the growing strength of the Guelfs. His natural son, Frederick of
+Antioch, was sent with a force of German men-at-arms, and after some
+fierce street fighting, the Guelfs were driven out.
+
+The Ghibeline supremacy was short-lived. Their nobles, especially the
+great house of the Uberti, became unpopular by reason of the exactions
+which they enforced; they got beaten in a fight with some of the
+banished Guelfs at no great distance from the city; and before the end
+of 1250 a meeting of "the good men," as Villani calls them, or, as we
+should say, the middle class, limited the power of the Podest�,[16] and
+appointed a Captain of the People to manage the internal affairs of the
+city, with a council of twelve Elders. Other important changes were made
+at the same time, and the new constitution--the third recorded in
+Florentine history--was known as the "Primo Popolo." The death of
+Frederick in the same year still further weakened the Ghibelines. Some
+of them were banished, and the exiled Guelfs were recalled. Peace,
+however, seems to have been kept between the parties for some time, and
+when in 1255 Count Guido Guerra on his own account expelled the
+Ghibelines from Arezzo, the Florentines restored them, and lent the
+Aretines money to pay a fine which the Guelf chief had inflicted; "but I
+know not if they ever got it back," says Villani.
+
+Again the compromise proved unstable. Manfred, Frederick's natural son,
+to whom, during the childhood of his young nephew, Conradin, the
+championship of the Hohenstaufen cause had fallen, was daily increasing
+in strength. His orders came to the Ghibelines of Florence to crush the
+popular party; and the latter, being warned in time, drove out all the
+great Ghibeline families. Two years later these had their revenge. On
+September 4, 1260, a date much to be remembered in the history of these
+times, the banished Ghibelines, aided by eight hundred of Manfred's
+German horse, seized the opportunity of hostilities between the
+Florentines and the Sienese to meet their opponents in a pitched battle.
+This took place on the Arbia, near the fortress of Montaperti, to the
+east of Siena.[17] The Guelfs were utterly routed, partly, it would
+seem, through the incompetence of some of the Elders who accompanied the
+army, and who, civilians though they were, overruled the judgement of
+the military leaders, and accepted battle under unfavourable
+conditions; and partly through the treachery of some Ghibelines who, not
+having been exiled, were serving in the Florentine host. Readers of the
+_Commedia_ will remember the name of Bocca degli Abati, placed by Dante
+in the lowest pit of hell.[18]
+
+Sixty-five of the leading Guelf families fled to Lucca, while the
+Ghibelines entered Florence, and appointed Guido Novello, of the great
+house of the Conti Guidi, Imperial Podest�. A meeting of the leaders of
+the party from Pisa, Siena, and Arezzo was held at Empoli, and a
+proposal was made on behalf of the rival cities, to raze Florence to the
+ground as a fortified city, and so preclude her revival as a Guelf
+stronghold. For once, however, a man was found to set patriotism above
+party. The great Farinata degli Uberti, whose wise counsel and warlike
+skill had mainly contributed to the victory, rose, with the same
+magnificent scorn, we may suppose, that Dante afterwards saw him display
+for the torments of Hell,[19] and let it be known that, so long as he
+had life in him, he would resist any such measure at the sword's point.
+Count Giordano, the commander of the Germans, who had convened the
+meeting, gave in, and Florence was saved.
+
+This was the last gleam of success which the Imperial cause was to
+enjoy in Tuscany for nearly half a century. Soon after the battle of
+Montaperti, Urban IV. was elected to the Papal See. He was a Frenchman
+by birth, "son of a shoemaker, but a valiant man and wise," says
+Villani. In view of the growing power of Manfred, vigorous steps had to
+be taken. The exiled Florentine Guelfs had made a fruitless attempt to
+effect a diversion in Germany, by inciting the young Conradin to oppose
+the acting head of his house. This old expedient having failed, Urban
+turned his eyes towards his own country. Charles of Anjou, brother of
+Saint Lewis, was at that time, next to the reigning sovereigns, the most
+powerful prince in Christendom, and to his aid the Pope appealed.
+Himself a man of Puritanical strictness in his life, and devoted to the
+Church, Charles was ready enough to accept the call, which appealed
+alike to his principles and to his ambition, and to act as the champion
+of the Holy See against the dissolute and freethinking Manfred; and the
+influence of his wife, the only one of Raymond Berenger's four daughters
+who was not actually or in prospect a queen,[20] was thrown on the same
+side. After keeping Easter 1265 at Paris, Charles set out, and landed at
+the mouth of the Tiber in May. In December he was crowned at Rome King
+of Naples, Sicily, and Apulia. Two months later, at the end of February
+1266, Charles and Manfred met near Benevento. After some hard fighting,
+of which the German troops seem to have borne the brunt, the battle was
+decided against Manfred by the desertion of his Apulian barons, and he
+himself was slain. His defeat gave the final blow to the Ghibeline cause
+in Tuscany. Only Pisa and Siena remained faithful. In Florence an
+attempt was made to avoid civil strife by the device of doubling the
+office of Podest�. Two gentlemen from Bologna, Catalano de' Malavolti
+and Loderingo de' Landol�, a Guelf and a Ghibeline,[21] were appointed,
+and they nominated a council of thirty-six, chosen from both sides. But
+this plan did not work well. Party spirit had grown too violent to allow
+of half measures, and before the year was out the people rose again, and
+the Ghibelines were banished for good and all.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [8] It seems proper to say that this chapter was written, and at
+    least some of it printed, before Mr. Oscar Browning's
+    interesting volume, _Guelphs and Ghibellines_ (Methuen),
+    appeared.
+
+    [9] It may not be out of place here to correct the vulgar error
+    that "Guelf" is in any sense the surname of our Royal family.
+    The house of Brunswick is no doubt lineally descended from these
+    Welfs of Bavaria; but it has been a reigning house since a
+    period long antecedent to the existence (among Teutonic peoples)
+    of family or surnames, and there is no reason for assigning to
+    the Queen the Christian name of one of her ancestors more than
+    another--"Guelf" more than "George."
+
+    [10] Hallam considers that hostility to the Empire was the
+    motive principle of the Guelf party in Lombardy; attachment to
+    the Church in Tuscany.
+
+    [11] Observe that the Bondelmonti were comparatively newcomers.
+    They had originally belonged to Valdigreve, and had only lived
+    in Florence for some eighty years at the date of this event.
+    Hence they were looked upon as upstarts, and not properly
+    speaking, nobles at all. See _Paradise_, xvi. 133-147.
+
+    [12] _Hell_, xxviii. 106.
+
+    [13] Possibly "by the Uberti lot."
+
+    [14] Villani, _Croniche_, v. 37.
+
+    [15] _Purgatory_, xvi. 115.
+
+    [16] The name _Podest�_ originally denoted the chief authority
+    of a city or county, whether vested in one person or several.
+    Frederick I. established Imperial officers under this title
+    throughout Tuscany near the end of his reign, and for some time
+    the Podest� was regarded as the Emperor's delegate. Before the
+    end of the century, however, they had become municipal officers,
+    gradually displacing the former consuls from the chief position.
+    About 1200 the custom of choosing them from the citizens of some
+    other town than that in which they officiated, seems to have
+    become established; the native consuls being their councillors.
+
+    [17] _Hell_, x. 96.
+
+    [18] _Hell_, xxxii. 81, 106.
+
+    [19] _Ibid._, x. 36.
+
+    [20] _Paradise_, vi. 133.
+
+    [21] They seem to have acted on the principle of filling their
+    own pockets, rather than of maintaining order; and are placed by
+    Dante among the hypocrites, in the sixth pit of Malebolge
+    (_Hell_, xxiii. 103). They belonged to the order of Knights of
+    St. Mary, popularly called Jovial Friars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+DANTE'S EARLY DAYS
+
+
+In the month when Charles of Anjou sailed up the Tiber to Rome, a child
+was born at Florence to a citizen named Alighiero, son of Bellincione.
+We do not know for certain his _casato_, or family name. Bellincione's
+father was another Alighiero, or, as it was originally written,
+Aldighiero. His father was Cacciaguida, who had a brother named Eliseo;
+from which it has been conjectured that he may have belonged to the
+prominent house of the Elisei, which is known to have existed as far
+back as the beginning of the eleventh century, since it was not uncommon
+for members of a family to bear the founder's name. We know, further,
+that the name of Alighiero came into the family with Cacciaguida's wife,
+who belonged to some city near the Po, probably Ferrara, where a family
+of Aldighieri is known to have existed.[22] In any case, it was
+originally no Florentine name, and it may be doubted if it ever was
+recognised as the appellation of a family. True, Dante is once or twice
+referred to as "Dantes de Alegheriis," but this may be due to the fact
+that he was known to have had recently two ancestors of the name. He
+himself, if we may trust the evidence of letters ascribed to him, seems
+to have written "Dantes Alligherius," while his son calls him Dantes
+Aligherii, and himself Petrus Dantis Aligherii, "Peter, son of Dante,
+son of Alighiero." In the official Florentine documents, where his name
+occurs, it is "Dantes Allegherii" or "Dante d'Alighiero," "Dante the son
+of Alighiero," and no more. The form "degli Alighieri," which would
+indicate a true family name, we find in no undoubtedly contemporary
+document.
+
+In view of this initial uncertainty, the discussion whether the poet was
+of "noble" family or not seems a trifle superfluous. His
+great-great-grand-father, Cacciaguida, is made to say (_Par._, xv. 140)
+that he himself received knighthood from the Emperor Conrad III. (of
+Hohenstaufen). This would confer nobility; but it would appear that it
+would be possible for later generations to lose that status, and there
+are some indications that Dante was sensitive on this point. At any
+rate, it is pretty clear that his immediate ancestors were not in any
+way distinguished. The very fact that he was born in Florence during a
+period when all the leading Guelfs were in exile shows that Alighiero
+was not considered by the dominant Ghibelines a person of too great
+importance to be allowed to remain undisturbed in the city.
+
+Of Dante's boyhood and early youth we have only stray indications, and
+those mainly gathered from his own writings. We can, indeed, form a
+pretty clear notion of what he _was_, but we know little enough about
+what he _did_. From a very early period he was made a hero of romance.
+Without going so far as some recent writers, both German and Italian,
+who seem to look upon every statement of early biographers with
+suspicion, while regarding their silence as good evidence that what
+they do not mention cannot have happened, we must admit that we cannot
+with certainty date any event in the first thirty years of Dante's life.
+Still, we can infer a good deal. He must unquestionably, during this
+time, have read a great deal, for it would have been impossible for a
+man wandering about from place to place, and intermittently busied in
+political affairs, to have amassed in seven or eight years the amount of
+learning which the _Commedia_ by itself shows him to have possessed. He
+must have been recognised at an early age as a young man of marked
+ability. His intimacy with the old statesman Brunetto Latini, who died
+in 1294, and his friendship with Charles of Anjou's grandson, Carlo
+Martello,[23] the young King of Hungary, who was at Florence in the same
+year and the following, are sufficient to prove this. Neither Brunetto,
+the most learned man of his age in Florence, and, as we should say, a
+man of "society" as well, nor a prince who, had he lived, would have
+been one of the most important personages in Europe, was likely to have
+distinguished with his friendship a young man of twenty-nine, not of the
+highest birth, unless he had already made himself notable for
+intellectual eminence.
+
+One event occurred during Dante's youth, in which he is so generally
+believed to have borne a part, that it will probably come as a shock to
+many people to learn that this belief rests only on the statement of a
+writer who was not born till nearly fifty years after Dante's death. On
+St. Barnabas's day, June 11, 1289, the Florentine Guelfs met the
+Ghibelines of Arezzo, in whose ranks many of their own exiles were
+fighting, in a plain called Campaldino, belonging to the district of
+Certomondo, which lies in the Casentino, or upper part of the Arno
+valley. The Florentines gained a complete victory, though only after a
+hard fight, in which many of the chief Ghibeline leaders lost their
+lives. The event was one of great importance, and Villani recounts it in
+very full detail.[24] Dante also refers to it in one of the best-known
+passages of the _Purgatory_ (v. 92). It is quite possible that he
+himself may have taken part in the battle; but if he did so, it is
+somewhat strange that none of the earlier commentators, including his
+own son, nor any biographer of the fourteenth century, should have known
+of it, or, knowing of it, should have thought it worth recording; and
+that it should have been left to Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, writing after
+the year 1400, to make the first reference to so noteworthy an incident
+in Dante's early career. Leonardo (whose "Life" will be found in
+Bianchi's edition of the _Commedia_) quotes, indeed, a letter, said to
+have been written many years afterwards by Dante, in which reference is
+made to his presence in the battle; but this letter has long
+disappeared, and it is to be noted that the biographer does not even
+profess to have seen it himself. There is, it must be said, in the
+_Hell_ (xxii. _init._) one allusion to warlike operations in the
+Aretine territory of which Dante claims to have been an eye-witness; but
+as none of the early commentators seems to refer to Campaldino in
+connection with this passage, it tells, if anything, against the
+received story.
+
+Another event, sometimes assigned to the period of Dante's life before
+his banishment, has somewhat more evidence in its favour. That he
+visited Paris at least once in the course of his life, the early
+authorities are agreed; but Villani, Boccaccio, and Benvenuto of Imola,
+all writing in the fourteenth century, make the visit to have taken
+place during his exile. It is not until we come to John of Serravalle,
+Lord of Fermo, who as Bishop of Rimini attended the Council of
+Constance, and there, at the request of the Bishops of Bath and Wells
+and Salisbury, prepared a Latin version of the _Commedia_ with
+commentary, that we find mention of an earlier visit. His testimony is a
+little suspicious, because in the same sentence he also asserts that
+Dante studied at Oxford, a statement which, without strong confirmation,
+it would be very hard to accept. On the other side, it may be said that
+the silence of the older biographers is not conclusive evidence against
+the early study at Paris. Dante also went to Bologna, as it would
+appear, both before and after his banishment; yet while Villani and
+Boccaccio only name the latter visit, Benvenuto speaks only of the
+former. It is therefore quite possible that all three may have ignored
+the first period of study at Paris, or, if there was but one such
+period, may have assigned it to the wrong part of Dante's life. _Prim�
+facie_ it is more probable that he would have undertaken both the long
+journey and the course of study in his days of "greater freedom and less
+responsibility," than when he was not only engaged upon the composition
+both of his great poem and of several prose treatises, but was taking an
+active share in political work.
+
+Again, the allusion in the _Paradise_ to the lectures of Sigier bears
+all the stamp of a personal reminiscence; just as the allusion to the
+dykes along the coast of Flanders to illustrate those which form the
+banks of the river Phlegethon, could hardly have occurred to one who had
+not seen them with his own eyes, though the biographers mention no
+journey to Flanders. But Sigier's lectures and his life too were over by
+1300.
+
+Another little bit of evidence may be given for what it is worth. Any
+one who has read the discourses of Meister Eckhart, the founder of the
+school of German mystics, will be struck by the frequent and close
+resemblances, not of thought only, but of expression and illustration,
+which exist between him and Dante. So frequent and so close are these,
+that the reader can hardly conceive the possibility of their being due
+to mere coincidence.[25] But Eckhart preached and wrote (if he wrote) in
+German, a language which we have no reason to think that Dante knew; so
+that the exchange of ideas between them, if any, must have taken place
+by word of mouth, and in French or Latin. Now, Eckhart was for a long
+time in Paris--so long that he seems to have been known as "Master
+Eckhart of Paris"--and left that city in 1302. If he and Dante ever met,
+it must have been in Paris (for though Eckhart went to Italy in 1302, it
+appears to have been only on a journey to Rome, the last place save
+Florence where Dante would then have cared to show himself), and that at
+some time before 1300.
+
+Lastly, we may question if Dante would have chosen Paris as a place of
+residence while Philip the Fair was on the throne of France.
+
+If, then, he did visit France before his exile, we can date the visit
+with some certainty. It can hardly have been before 1290, the year of
+Beatrice's death, nor after 1294, the year in which Carlo Martello came
+to Florence. Dante's marriage, again, in all probability took place
+somewhere about the latter year. We know nothing directly of Dante's
+doings in this interval; nothing, at any rate, inconsistent with his
+having been for some considerable period away from Florence.
+
+But we have kept till the last the subject which to many is the only one
+associated with Dante's younger life. What, it will be said, about
+Beatrice? The fashionable theory nowadays seems to be that there
+undoubtedly was a lady at Florence of that name, the daughter of Folco
+Portinari, that she was married to Simone de' Bardi, a member of that
+great family who were Edward III.'s bankers, and that she died in the
+flower of her youth. But, say the modern Italian and German writers,
+this lady--Frau Bardi-Portinari, the latter call her--had no more to do
+with Dante than any other Beatrice in history. This will seem to many
+who do not realise on how slight a basis the identification of her
+rests, to be the very wantonness of paradox. These may be startled to
+learn that the whole story depends upon the veracity of one man, and
+that a professed writer of romantic fiction. It is from Boccaccio, and
+from him alone, that we have learnt to see in Dante's mystical guide and
+guardian, in the lost love of his early years, only the idealised and
+allegorised figure of Folco Portinari's daughter. What, then, is his
+evidence worth? To this we can only reply, that Boccaccio was born eight
+years before Dante's death; that he lived in Florence from his
+childhood; that he must have spoken with scores of people to whom the
+social and literary history of the years preceding 1290 was perfectly
+familiar; that both Dante and the husband of Beatrice were prominent
+men; and that Boccaccio can have had no motive for making a statement
+which, if untrue, he must have known to be so. Further, if the statement
+had been untrue, it would surely have been contradicted, and some trace
+of the contradiction would have been found. But, on the contrary, it
+seems to have been accepted from the first. It is repeated by
+Boccaccio's younger contemporary and disciple Benvenuto of Imola, who
+himself lived for some time in Florence, before all those who would be
+able from their own recollection to confirm or deny it would have passed
+away. And Benvenuto, it may be noted, though devoted to Boccaccio, was
+no mere student, but a shrewd and critical man of the world. Dante's son
+Pietro, indeed, says no word to show that Beatrice was anything but a
+symbol, and in this some of the other early commentators follow him. But
+this would prove too much. Whether she be rightly identified with
+Beatrice Portinari or not, it is impossible for any reader possessing
+the least knowledge of the human heart to see in the Beatrice of the
+_Commedia_ a symbol merely. Not to mention that it would be quite
+contrary to Dante's practice thus to _invent_ a personage for the sake
+of the symbol, it is absurd to suppose that the "ten years' thirst"
+which the sight of her relieves, "the eyes whence Love once took his
+weapons," and such-like expressions were intended primarily as
+references to a neglected study of theology or a previous devotion to a
+contemplative life. The omission, therefore, of the commentators who
+interested themselves mainly in the allegory to tell us about the real
+Beatrice cannot be used as evidence against her existence.
+
+The first supporter of what may be called the "superior" view--namely
+that the whole story of Beatrice is purely allegorical--was one Giovanni
+Mario Filelfo, a writer of the fifteenth century, born more than a
+hundred years after Dante's death. As a rule, where his statements can
+be tested, they are incorrect; and on the whole his work appears to be a
+mass of unwarranted inferences from unverified assertions. It was not
+till recent times that his theory on the subject found any defenders.
+
+We may, then, pretty safely continue in the old faith. After all, it
+explains more difficulties than it raises. No doubt if we cannot free
+ourselves from modern conceptions we shall be somewhat startled not only
+by the almost deification of Beatrice, but also by the frank revelation
+of Dante's passion, with which neither the fact of her having become
+another man's wife nor his own marriage seems in any way to interfere.
+It needs, however, but a very slight knowledge of the conditions of life
+in the thirteenth century to understand the position. As has been
+already pointed out, the notion of woman's love as a spur to noble
+living, "the maiden passion for a maid," was quite recent, and at its
+first growth was quite distinct from the love which finds its fulfilment
+in marriage. Almost every young man of a literary or intellectual turn
+seems to have had his Egeria; and when we can identify her she is
+usually the wife of some one else.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [22] It may be noted that the name is undoubtedly Teutonic. The
+    suggested derivations from _aliger_, "the wing-bearer," and the
+    like, are purely fanciful. The first part of the word is
+    doubtless _alt_, "old," which we have in our own Aldhelm; the
+    termination is the _geirr_, or _gar_, which occurs in all
+    Teutonic languages, and means "spear." Dante (= Durante) was a
+    common Christian name.
+
+    [23] Doubts have even been thrown on Dante's friendship with
+    this young King. To these we can only reply that, if it is not
+    implied by _Par._, viii. 55, it is impossible to draw any
+    inference whatever as to Dante's life from any line of the poem.
+
+    [24] The conclusion of his account is picturesque enough to
+    deserve reproduction. "The news of the said victory came to
+    Florence the very day and hour when it took place; for the Lords
+    Priors having after dinner gone to sleep and rest, by reason of
+    the anxiety and watching of the past night, suddenly came a
+    knock at the door of the chamber, with a cry, 'Rise up, for the
+    Aretines are discomfited;' and when they were risen, and the
+    door opened, they found no man, and their servants without had
+    heard nothing. Whence it was held a great and notable marvel,
+    seeing that before any person came from the host with the news,
+    it was towards the hour of vespers."
+
+    [25] We find close resemblances between Dante and the founder of
+    German mysticism. Not only in similes and illustrations, such as
+    the tailor and his cloth, the needle and the loadstone, the flow
+    of water to the sea, the gravitation of weights to the centre;
+    or in such phrases as Eckhart's "nature possesses nothing
+    swifter than the heaven," or his use of _edilkeit_ "nobility,"
+    in reference to freewill, _la nobile virt�_. These may have
+    been, in some cases were, borrowed by both from a common source,
+    though the fact of their so often borrowing the same things is
+    suggestive. So, too, both Dante and Eckhart quote St. John i. 3,
+    4, with the punctuation adopted by Aquinas, _quod factum est, in
+    ipso vita erat_--"what was made, in Him was life"--though the
+    Vulgate and St. Augustine prefer the arrangement of the words
+    familiar to us in our own version. But when we find such an
+    unusual thought as that in _Par._, viii. 103, 104, of the
+    redeemed soul having no more need to repent of its sins,
+    expressed in almost similar words by Eckhart, it is hardly
+    possible to believe that it occurred to both independently.
+    There are many other instances, but it would occupy too much
+    space if I were to give them here.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE'S EXILE
+
+
+In order to understand the extent to which Dante's life was influenced
+by the political circumstances of his age, it will be well to carry our
+survey of events somewhat further, with special reference to the affairs
+of Florence.
+
+As we have seen, after frequent alternations of fortune, the city
+passed, within two years of Dante's birth, for good and all to the Guelf
+side. On St. Martin's Day, in November, 1266, Count Guido Novello and
+his German horse were driven out of the city by the burghers; and though
+in the January following a treaty of peace was made, and cemented by
+various marriages between members of the leading families on either
+side--an arrangement of which the chief result was to embitter party
+spirit among the Guelfs who had taken no share in it--anything like a
+lasting reconciliation was soon found to be out of the question. Charles
+of Anjou, moreover, fresh from his victory over Manfred, was by no means
+disposed to allow the beaten Ghibelines any chance of rallying.
+Negotiations were entered into between him and the Florentine Guelfs,
+and on Easter Day, 1267, Guy of Montfort (son of Sir Simon) entered the
+city at the head of eight hundred French cavalry. The Ghibelines did not
+venture to strike a blow, but departed on the day before his arrival. At
+Easter, says Villani, the crime was committed which first split the city
+into factions; and at Easter the descendants of the men who had
+committed the crime went into exile, never to return.
+
+The same year saw a general rally of the north Italian states to the
+Guelf side, and before many months were out even Lombardy, where, says
+Villani, there was hardly any memory of the Guelfs, followed the stream.
+In Tuscany, Pisa and Siena alone held by the tradition--for it was
+little more--of allegiance to the Empire. The Florentine exiles betook
+themselves to those cities, and before long the spirits of the party had
+revived sufficiently to allow them to play what must have been felt to
+be their last stroke in the game. Profiting by the disaffection of
+certain Apulian and Sicilian barons (whom one may imagine to have found
+the gloomy discipline of Charles a poor exchange for the brilliancy and
+licence of Frederick's Court), they cast their eyes towards the last
+surviving representative of that Count Frederick who, some two hundred
+years before, had fixed his seat in the hill-fortress of Staufen.
+Conrad, or Corradino, as the Italians called him, grandson of Frederick
+II., was a lad of sixteen, still under the tutelage of his mother, the
+widow of Conrad IV. Germany seems to have been loyal to him, and had it
+not been for the impatience of the Italian Ghibelines, he might well
+have looked forward to regaining, perhaps under more favourable
+auspices, the Empire which his predecessors had held. But the Tuscan
+nobles, smarting under defeat, could not wait; and in spite of his
+mother's opposition, they carried the boy off. Money was lacking; and of
+the ten thousand German horsemen who accompanied him across the Brenner,
+only three thousand five hundred went beyond Verona. He passed through
+Lombardy, however, without opposition, and with the aid of the Genoese
+fleet reached Pisa in May, 1268. The rising of the Apulian barons had
+compelled Charles to return hastily to his kingdom, and Conradin found
+his way clear to Siena. An action in the district of Arezzo resulted in
+the defeat and capture of Charles's "marshal," who had come out from
+Florence in pursuit, and the German force was able to enter Rome
+unmolested. There they received a reinforcement of eight hundred good
+Spanish cavalry under Don Henry, brother of the King of Castile, and,
+elated with success, pushed on to strike a decisive blow. They marched
+eastward to Tagliacozzo, just within the frontier of the Abruzzi, while
+Charles reached the same point by forced marches from Nocera. The armies
+met on St. Bartholomew's Eve, and at first everything seemed to go well
+for Conradin. The Spanish division defeated the Proven�als, and the
+Germans crushed the French and Italians. But Charles had with him an
+experienced old knight, Alard de St. Val�ry, by whose advice he held a
+picked force in reserve, concealed behind some rising ground. With this
+he now attacked the victorious Germans and Spaniards, who had got out
+of hand in the excitement of pursuit and plundering. They made a bold
+resistance, but discipline told in the end; they were utterly defeated
+and their leaders put to flight. Conradin and his immediate staff,
+comprising the Duke of Austria and some German and Italian nobles, made
+their way to Astura on the coast of the Campagna, and had succeeded in
+embarking when they were recognised by one of the Frangipani, who were
+the lords of the territory. Arrested by him and handed over to Charles,
+they were subjected to a form of trial, and beheaded in the market-place
+of Naples. This act has always been regarded as an indelible blot on
+Charles's record. Dante couples it with the alleged murder, by his
+order, of St. Thomas Aquinas; and it seems to have been felt even by
+members of the Guelf party as something, if one may so say, beyond the
+rules of the game. Pope Clement, according to Villani, blamed Charles
+severely; and the pious historian, for his own part, sees in the King's
+subsequent misfortunes the judgment of God upon his cruelty towards an
+innocent boy. The judge who pronounced the sentence was slain before
+Charles's very eyes by his son-in-law, Robert, son to the Count of
+Flanders, "and not a word was said, for Robert was great with the King,
+and it appeared to the King and to all the barons that he had acted like
+a valiant gentleman." In Conradin the Hohenstaufen line came to an end,
+and therewith all _raison d'�tre_ for the Ghibeline party. After this it
+became merely a turbulent faction, until the accession of Henry of
+Luxemburg; when C�sar once more began to take interest in his Italian
+dominions.
+
+It may be conceded that party rancour had much more to do with the
+bringing of Conradin into Italy than any conscientious adhesion to views
+such as those to which Dante afterwards gave utterance in the _De
+Monarchia_, or faith in the benefit which would accrue to the world from
+the rule of a single sovereign. But it shows the hold which the Empire
+still had on men's minds, that the Ghibeline chiefs should have
+preferred to take a boy from Germany as the figure-head of their cause,
+rather than seek a leader of more experience from among their
+fellow-countrymen. Nor does it seem to have entered any one's mind to
+look out of Germany for an Emperor. There were, indeed, at the very
+time, two rival C�sars-elect in existence--Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
+and Alfonso, King of Castile, the former of whom his own countrymen,
+more in derision than respect, were wont to call "King of Almayne;" but
+clearly no Ghibeline cared to call upon either of them to "heal the
+wounds which were killing Italy." Later, when the long interregnum was
+brought to an end by the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, even the Guelf
+Villani holds that if he had been willing to pass into Italy he would
+have been lord of it without opposition; but that astute prince no doubt
+found himself much better employed in converting a petty baronial line
+into one of the great houses of Germany, and ultimately of Europe, than
+in acting up to a titular dignity which brought its bearer more
+splendour than either wealth or ease. When he did send an Imperial Vicar
+into Tuscany in 1281 his chance was gone, and the emissary was glad to
+come to terms with the Florentines.
+
+Thus, from the earliest time that Dante could remember, the Guelfs held
+an almost undisturbed supremacy throughout Tuscany. There was occasional
+fighting between Florence, as the head of the Guelf League, and Siena,
+or Pisa, as the case might be. The Sienese, though helped by Guido
+Novello and the Florentine exiles, and by some of the Spanish and German
+troops who had escaped from Tagliacozzo, were badly beaten at Colle di
+Val d'Elsa in 1269, and their commander, Provenzano Salvani (whom Dante
+afterwards met in Purgatory), taken and slain. In the following year
+this city too was purged of the Ghibeline taint, and a few Florentine
+citizens who were caught were, after a reference to Charles, duly
+beheaded. Pisa held out somewhat longer, and was able to expel its
+Guelfs in 1275, among them the famous Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, a
+member of the house of Donoratico, one of whose counts had been captured
+and killed with Conradin; but in a year's time a Florentine success
+brought them back. An effort made by Pope Gregory X. to reconcile the
+factions, as he passed through Florence on his way to the Council of
+Lyons, bore little or no fruit, and, as a pendant to former
+excommunications of Emperors, the city was placed under interdict. When,
+a year and a half later, Gregory died at Arezzo, "by his death," says
+Villani, "the Guelfs of Florence were greatly cheered, by reason of the
+ill will which he had towards them;"--an interesting remark, as showing
+that the Guelfs were not prepared to support the Holy See farther than
+their own interests as a party demanded.
+
+The condition of Florence at this time cannot be better described than
+in Villani's words. Writing of the year 1278, he says--
+
+    "In these times, the Guelf nobles of Florence, reposing from
+    their foreign wars with victory and honour, and fattened upon
+    the goods of the exiled Ghibelines, and by reason of their other
+    gains, began, through pride and envy, to quarrel among
+    themselves; whence came to pass in Florence more feuds and
+    enmities between the citizens, with slayings and woundings.
+    Among them all the greatest was the quarrel between the house of
+    the Adimari of the one part, who were very great and powerful,
+    and on the other side were the house of the Donati; in such wise
+    that nearly the whole of the city took sides, and some held with
+    one party and some with the other, whereby the city and the
+    Guelf party were in great danger."
+
+We shall remember how, in Dante's judgement also, pride, envy, and
+avarice were "the sparks that had set hearts on fire," in Florence.
+
+Once again the Pope, who was now Nicholas III., interfered; and once
+again representatives of the two great factions exchanged the kiss of
+peace before a Papal Legate, this time in front of "the Preaching
+Friars' new church of New St. Mary's, in Florence," of which the Legate,
+Cardinal Latino, had but lately laid the first stone. The Ghibeline
+leaders were still kept out, but the rank and file returned. The feud of
+the Adimari and Donati was patched up for the time, whereby "the said
+Cardinal had much honour, and Florence remained a good time in a
+peaceful and good and tranquil state."
+
+Cardinal Latino had arranged for the government of Florence by a
+committee of fourteen "good men," of whom eight were to be Guelfs and
+six Ghibelines. They were to hold office for two months. It marks the
+Cardinal as a man of some organizing capacity that his peace continued
+for four years, during which time Villani has next to nothing to relate
+about the affairs of his city. These were the years in which Dante was
+growing up to manhood. As a boy of thirteen he would doubtless have
+looked on at the scene in front of Santa Maria Novella; and during the
+next four peaceful years we may suppose that he would have begun to sit
+at the feet of the old statesman, diplomatist, and scholar Brunetto
+Latini, picking up from his lips the lore "how man becomes immortal."
+We can picture him too, where the boys and girls were gathered together,
+a silent and reserved lad, probably unpopular unless with one or two
+special friends, paying little heed to any of his companions save one
+girl of about his own age, whose movements he would follow, and for the
+sound of whose words, though never addressed to him, he would listen,
+with the speechless devotion which perhaps is only felt at sixteen or
+seventeen, and then only by natures which fortunately are exceptional in
+this world. "The child is father to the man;" and we can be pretty
+certain from what we know of the man Dante what the boy Dante must have
+been.
+
+The tranquil period was disturbed in 1282. Pope Nicholas, who, whether
+guilty of Simony or not--and one fears that the case against him must
+have been strong, since not only Dante, but even Villani charges him
+with the offence--at least deserved the blessing pronounced on
+peacemakers, had died in the previous year at Viterbo, a town which,
+during this period, seems to have suited the Popes better than Rome as a
+place of residence. Charles, between whom and Nicholas no love had been
+lost, was resolved that the next Pope should not come from the powerful
+house of the Orsini, to a branch of which, the Guatani, the late Pontiff
+had belonged, and by an arrangement with the people of Viterbo,
+succeeded in getting the two most prominent clerical members of that
+house imprisoned. Thus he secured the election of a Frenchman, Simon of
+Brie, who, being a canon of Tours, took the name of Martin IV. His
+Papacy, though it lasted little more than three years, was eventful. He
+was elected in January, 1282, and on the following Easter Monday, March
+30th, the people of Palermo, furious at the outrages of Charles's French
+troops, rose and massacred every Frenchman upon whom they could lay
+hands. Charles's efforts to recapture the island were baffled, chiefly
+owing to the hostility of Manfred's son-in-law. King Peter of Aragon,
+also, with the help of his famous admiral, Roger of Loria, began about
+this time to prove a serious thorn in the side of the Angevin King. From
+the day of the "Sicilian Vespers," fortune turned against Charles. His
+son was taken prisoner by Loria in 1284, his life being spared only at
+the entreaty of Peter's wife, while he did not recover his liberty till
+1289. The King himself died broken down with grief and disappointment,
+in the early days of 1285, and was followed a couple of months later by
+his creature, Martin IV., and, before the year was out, by his enemy,
+King Peter. It will be remembered that Peter and Charles were seen by
+Dante in the "Valley of Princes," awaiting their entry into Purgatory,
+and singing their Compline hymn in friendly accord: Martin IV. being
+placed higher up the mountain, among the gluttonous.
+
+At Florence the course of affairs was not much affected by the reverses
+which befell Charles. At the same time, these, and a success gained by
+Guy of Montefeltro over John of Appia, a French officer whom Martin had
+appointed Count of Romagna, made the Guelf majority uneasy. Cardinal
+Latino's Constitution was abandoned, and a new form of government
+adopted. The trading-class resolved to get rid altogether of the
+representatives of feudal authority, weak as they had become,[26] and to
+this end the Fourteen were abolished, and the chief power placed in the
+hands of the Priors of the Arts, or, as we should say, the Masters of
+the great trading guilds. The number of those guilds which contributed
+members to the governing body seems to have been gradually increased. At
+first only three--the Clothmakers, the Money-changers, and the
+Wool-dealers--were thus honoured; but by the end of the century, at
+least twelve, seven greater and five lesser arts, were included. The
+Priors, as the Fourteen had done, held office for two months only, and
+various devices were employed to prevent any house or any person from
+becoming dangerously powerful. Nobles, in order to qualify for office,
+had to join a guild; and as the nobles, or _grandi_, were more
+frequently on the Ghibeline side, this would yet further weaken that
+party.
+
+Florence had now fairly entered upon a period of great prosperity. Her
+bankers lent money to kings; her trade extended all over Europe. Pisa,
+her most dangerous rival, had been utterly crushed by the Genoese in the
+great sea-fight off Meloria, with a slaughter which seems to have
+struck awe into the hearts even of the victors; and though she expelled
+her Guelfs four years later, in 1288, and, in 1291, under the brilliant
+leader Guy of Montefeltro, won some successes in the field, she was
+never again a power to be feared. Arezzo gave some trouble as a
+rendezvous for the banished Ghibelines; but the battle of Campaldino, in
+1289, already referred to, broke her strength for a long time. Florence
+was thus free to attend to the arts of peace. The city walls were
+extended and new gates built; and several of the buildings, which to
+this day are among the glories of Florence, date from that period.
+Still, however, much of the old class-jealousy smouldered; and, as
+Machiavelli points out, all fear of the Ghibelines being removed, the
+powerful houses began to oppress the people. Giano della Bella, himself
+of noble family, casting in his lot with the commons, succeeded in
+carrying what were called the Ordinances of Justice, whereby, among
+other things, nobles were absolutely disqualified from taking any part
+in the government. A measure so oppressive as this was bound to bring
+about its own appeal, and, as a matter of fact, within two years from
+its promulgation, Giano was driven into exile, and the nobles were more
+turbulent than ever. It is at this time that the name of Corso Donati
+first comes into prominence.
+
+Another event, which was to influence the destinies of Florence and of
+Dante, occurred shortly before Giano's overthrow. This was the election
+to the Papacy, in 1294, of Benedetto Guatani, known to history as
+Boniface VIII. The most vigorous Pope who had held the office for
+several generations, he soon let it be known that he intended to revive
+all the claims which his predecessors, Gregory VII. and Innocent III.,
+had made to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His first efforts
+were devoted to getting Tuscany into his hands, and to this end he seems
+to have intrigued freely with the leaders of both parties in Florence.
+In theory, of course, where all were Guelfs, the Pope ought to have had
+little trouble; but there were Guelfs and Guelfs, and it was not long
+before party differences were emphasised, and, so to say, crystallised,
+by party names. Curiously enough, these again appear first at Pistoia. A
+family feud there had led to two branches of the Cancellieri being
+distinguished as Black and White, and towards 1300 the names appear at
+Florence. The Donati headed the Black faction; their rivals, the Cerchi,
+the White. The latter represented the more orderly section of the
+community; the former reproduced all the worst features of the old
+Ghibeline aristocracy, though in the end it was the Whites who had to
+coalesce with the Ghibelines. At first, indeed, it would seem as if
+Boniface might have been willing to work with the Whites. He sent for
+Vieri de' Cerchi, the leader of that party, and tried to induce him to
+live peaceably with the other side. Vieri, for reasons which we can only
+conjecture, replied curtly that he had no quarrel with any one; and
+Boniface resorted to the old expedient of sending a Cardinal--Matthew of
+Acquasparta--to reconcile the factions.
+
+We have now reached the critical year of Dante's life--that in which he
+held the office of Prior. But for the events of this and the next two
+years, it may be doubted whether the _Commedia_ would ever have come
+into existence, at least in the form in which six centuries have studied
+and admired it. Henceforth Dante's own history, rather than that of his
+times, will be our chief subject.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [26] In 1300, when the Black and White factions arose, we find
+    among the twenty-eight houses enumerated by Machiavelli, as the
+    chief on either side, only _three_ which in the old days had
+    belonged to the Ghibeline party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DANTE'S EXILE
+
+
+Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Dante's name begins to appear
+in public documents as taking a share in the business of the State. Thus
+he spoke in the "Council of the Hundred" on December 10, 1296, and in
+the following March, in opposition, it would seem, to a proposal of a
+grant to King Charles II. of Apulia. In May, 1299, he acted as
+ambassador from Florence to the neighbouring city of San Gemignano, the
+only one of all the numerous embassies ascribed to him by some
+biographers in which modern criticism will still allow us to believe.
+Finally, in 1300, probably from June 15th to August 15th, he served his
+term as Prior.
+
+The Constitution of Florence at this time was somewhat complicated. It
+will be sufficient to say here that the government was carried on by a
+committee of six priors, who held office for two months only; and that
+in order to be eligible for the offices of State a man had to be
+enrolled in one of the twelve trading guilds known as Arts, of which
+seven ranked as "greater," five as "less." Dante belonged to one of the
+"greater arts," that of the _speziali_, "dealers in spices," which
+included the apothecaries and, as it is believed, the booksellers. The
+number of priors was so large, and their tenure of office so short, that
+the selection of any particular citizen would hardly imply more than
+that he was regarded as a man of good business capacity; but in 1300
+public affairs in Florence were in such a critical state, that one may
+well suppose the citizens to have been especially careful in their
+choice. In the previous April an accusation had been brought by Lapo
+Salterelli (afterwards one of Dante's fellow-exiles, not held by him in
+much esteem), who then was Prior, against three citizens of
+Florence--Simon Gherardi, Noffo Quintavalle, and Cambio, son of Sesto,
+of conspiring against the State. The facts are somewhat obscure, but, as
+it appears that they were all connected with the Papal Court, and that
+Boniface made strong efforts to get the fine imposed on them remitted,
+we may conjecture that they had in some way abetted his scheme of
+"getting Tuscany into his hands." In a remarkable letter addressed to
+the Bishop of Florence, in which a good deal of the argument, and even
+some of the language, of Dante's _De Monarchia_ is curiously paralleled,
+of course from the opposite point of view, the Pope requires the
+attendance before him of Lapo (whom he styles _vere lapis offensionis_)
+and the other accusers. As may be supposed, no notice was taken of this
+requisition, and the fines were duly enforced.
+
+Boniface's letter is dated from Anagni, on May 15th. Before it was
+written, the first actual bloodshed in the feud between the Black and
+White parties had taken place. Some of the young Donati and Cerchi, with
+their respective friends, were in the Piazza di Santa Trinit� on May
+1st, looking on at a dance. Taunts were exchanged, blows followed, and
+"Ricoverino, son of Messer Ricovero de' Cerchi, by misadventure got his
+nose cut off his face." The leading Guelfs, seeing what a chance the
+split in their party would offer to the Ghibelines, sought the mediation
+of the Pope. Boniface was of course willing enough to interfere, and, as
+has been said, sent Matthew of Acquasparta, Cardinal of Ostia, a former
+General of the Franciscans, to Florence as peacemaker. He arrived just
+about the time when the new Priors, including, as we must suppose,
+Dante, were entering on office, and was received with great honour. But
+when it came to measures of pacification, he seems to have had nothing
+better to suggest than the selection of the Priors by lot, in place of
+their nomination (as had hitherto been the custom) by their predecessors
+and the chiefs of the guilds. "Those of the White party," says Villani,
+"who controlled the government of the country, through fear of losing
+their position, and of being hoodwinked by the Pope and the Legate
+through the reform aforesaid, took the worser counsel, and would not
+obey." So the familiar interdict was launched once more, and the Legate
+departed.
+
+In the city, things went from bad to worse. At the funeral of a lady
+belonging to the Frescobaldi, a White family, in the following December,
+a bad brawl arose, in which the Cerchi had the worst of it. But when the
+Donati, emboldened by this success, attacked their rivals on the
+highway, the Commune took notice of it, and the assailants were
+imprisoned, in default of paying their fines. Some of the Cerchi were
+also fined, and, though able to pay, went to prison, apparently from
+motives of economy, contrary to Vieri's advice. Unluckily for them, the
+governor of the prison, one of their own faction, "an accursed Ser Neri
+degli Abati," a scion of a family which seems, if we may trust Dante's
+mention of some of its other members, to have made a "speciality" of
+treacherous behaviour, introduced into the prison fare a poisoned
+millet-pudding, whereof two of the Cerchi died, and two of the opposite
+party as well,[27] "and no blood-feud came about for that"--probably
+because it was felt that the score was equal.
+
+The Blacks now made a move. The "captains of the Guelf party," who,
+though holding no official position, seem to have exercised a sort of
+_imperium in imperio_, were on their side; and a meeting was held in
+Holy Trinity Church, at which it was resolved to send a deputation to
+Boniface, requesting him to take once again what seems to us--and indeed
+was--the fatal step of calling in French aid. The stern prophecy which
+Dante puts into the mouth of Hugh Capet in Purgatory was to be
+fulfilled:--
+
+                  "I see the time at hand
+    That forth from France invites another Charles
+    To make himself and kindred better known.
+    Unarm'd he issues, saving with that lance
+    Which the arch-traitor tilted with; and that
+    He carries with so home a thrust, as rives
+    The bowels of poor Florence."
+
+We may probably date from this Dante's final severance from the Guelf
+party; and, at any rate, we may judge from it the real value of Guelf
+patriotism.
+
+It must be remembered that the Black faction was still but a faction.
+The conspiracy leaked out, and popular indignation was aroused. The
+_Signoria_ that is, the Priors, took action. Corso Donati and the other
+leaders were heavily fined, and this time the fines were paid. Probably
+they did not wish to taste Ser Neri degli Abati's cookery a second time.
+A good many of the junior members of the party were banished to Castello
+della Pieve; and at the same time, "to remove all jealousy," several of
+the White leaders were sent to Serezzano (which we now call Sarzana)--a
+weak and unlucky attempt at compromise. They were, indeed, soon allowed
+to return, their place of exile being unhealthy; so much so that one of
+them, Dante's most intimate friend, Guido Cavalcanti, died in the course
+of the winter from illness contracted there.
+
+Cardinal Matthew seems not to have actually left Florence till after the
+beginning of 1301. We are told that among his other demands (probably
+made on this occasion), was one to the effect that Florence should
+furnish a hundred men-at-arms for the Pope's service; and that Dante,
+who, after his term of office as Prior, remained a member of the
+council, moved that nothing should be done in the matter. Indeed, in the
+scanty notices which we have of his doings in this critical period, he
+appears as the steady opponent of all outside interference in the
+affairs of Florence, whether by Pope or Frenchman. In the face of this
+it is hard to understand how the famous story of his having gone on an
+embassy to Rome--"If I stay, who goes? If I go, who stays?"--can ever
+have obtained credence. Some words like those he may well have used, in
+the magnificent self-consciousness which elsewhere made him boast of
+having formed a party by himself; but we cannot suppose that he would at
+any time in the course of 1301 have thus put his head into the lion's
+mouth. That Boniface was at the time of the supposed mission not at Rome
+but at Anagni is a minor detail.
+
+If all the White party had possessed Dante's energy, Florence might have
+been saved. Vieri de' Cerchi had, indeed, as we have seen, spirit enough
+to tell the Pope in effect to mind his own business, and he was not
+devoid of shrewdness; but he seems to have been incapable of any
+sustained vigour in action. The party as a whole were probably as
+corrupt as their rivals, and less astute--"an evil and foolish company,"
+as Dante afterwards called them by the mouth of Cacciaguida. Corso
+Donati, on the other hand, was a bold and reckless intriguer. He
+followed up the conspiracy of the Santa Trinit� by hastening to the
+Papal Court, and inducing Boniface to send at once for Charles of
+Valois, brother of the French king, Philip the Fair. Charles obeyed the
+summons readily, in the hope, says Villani, of the Imperial crown. After
+a visit to the Pope at Anagni, he entered Florence on All Saints' Day,
+1301. All opposition on the part of the Whites was disarmed by the
+assurance that he came only as "peacemaker;" and a meeting, "at which I,
+the writer, was present," was held in the Church of Santa Maria Novella.
+Charles, "with his own mouth, undertook and swore, and promised as a
+King's son to maintain the city in peace and good estate; and
+incontinently by him and by his people the contrary was done." Armed men
+were introduced; Corso Donati, though under sentence of banishment,
+entered with them, Vieri de' Cerchi, in foolish confidence, forbidding
+his arrest. The populace, promptly seeing who were the masters, raised a
+shout of "Long live Lord Charles and the Baron" (the name given to
+Corso); and the city was given up for a week to burning and pillage. A
+second visit from the Cardinal of Acquasparta produced no result, save a
+momentary truce and another interdict. Throughout the early months of
+1302, killings and slayings went on, Corso's only son, among others,
+being mortally wounded in the act of murdering one of the Cerchi.
+Finally, one of the French knights, acting in the capacity which to this
+day is regarded as peculiarly suited to the French genius, that of
+_agent provocateur_, induced some of the White party, by offers of help,
+to form some kind of conspiracy against Charles's person. This plot
+being duly reported, the conspirators fled on April 4th, some to Pisa,
+some to Arezzo, some to Pistoia, and joined the already exiled
+Ghibelines. They were condemned as rebels, and their houses destroyed.
+From this time the Whites and Ghibelines form one party.
+
+Whether Dante actually went with them is a perplexing question which has
+never been thoroughly solved, but is of sufficient interest to delay us
+for a while. In the short biography of the poet which Villani gives when
+recording his death, we read: "This Dante was a citizen of Florence,
+honourable and of old family, belonging to the ward of St. Peter's Gate,
+and a neighbour of ours. His exile from Florence was for the reason that
+when Lord Charles of Valois, of the house of France, came to Florence in
+1301 and drove out the White party, as is mentioned above under the
+date, the said Dante was one of the chief governors of our city, and
+belonged to that party, Guelf though he was; and therefore, _for no
+other fault_, he was driven forth and banished with the said White party
+from Florence." This seems very explicit, but there are difficulties in
+the way of taking it quite literally. A document exists, dated January
+27, 1302, in which the Podest�, Cante de' Gabrielli of Gubbio, charges
+Dante Alighieri and three others with various offences, the chief being
+_baratteria_ (or corrupt jobbery in office), the use of public money to
+resist the entrance of Charles of Valois, and interference in the
+affairs of Pistoia with the view of securing the expulsion from that
+city "of those who are called Blacks, faithful, men devoted to the Holy
+Roman Church," which had taken place in May, 1301. It is stated that,
+having been duly summoned, they had contumaciously absented themselves,
+which seems to show that they were not in Florence; and they are
+sentenced to pay five thousand florins apiece within three days, or, in
+default, be banished and have their houses destroyed and their goods
+confiscated; and in any case they were banished for two years. A second
+decree of March 10th condemns Dante and fourteen others, among them Lapo
+Salterelli, if they fall into the power of the Commonwealth, to be burnt
+to death.
+
+As has been said, Dante must clearly have been out of Florence when this
+document was launched. Leonardi Bruni says he was at Rome on an embassy
+when the Whites left Florence, and that he hastened to join his party at
+Siena; but for the reasons already given, this story of the embassy
+cannot be accepted. Some have suggested that as at Florence the old
+style prevailed, under which March 26th was New Year's Day, the two
+sentences really belong to what we should now call 1303, when Dante had
+undoubtedly been in exile for some months, and this is corroborated by
+Benvenuto's statement, "bannitus fuit anno MCCCIII."--"bannitus"
+meaning, no doubt, "placed under ban," as distinct from voluntary exile.
+But it appears that Cante de' Gabrielli went out of office in June,
+1302. So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong--and there is
+some little ground for suspecting it--we must assume that, though a
+Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante,
+with some few others of the leading White Guelfs, was compelled to fly
+sooner than the bulk of his party. He may very well have been regarded
+as a specially dangerous opponent.
+
+That there was any foundation for the charge of corruption it is
+impossible to believe. Dante's faults were many, but they did not lie in
+that direction; and the honest Villani, though he appears to have sided
+with the Black party, and indeed held office himself as Prior only a few
+years later, seems to have introduced the words which we have italicised
+in the passage given above, with the express intention of indicating
+this. On the other hand, it may be noted that the charge was ingeniously
+devised. Dante is known to have been in debt, for some of his
+notes-of-hand exist, belonging to the years preceding 1300; while in the
+course of 1301 he was engaged in superintending the performance of
+certain public works in the city. Thus it would be matter of common
+knowledge both that he was short of money and that he had recently been
+in a position offering good opportunities for peculation, a fact of
+which his unscrupulous adversaries would naturally avail themselves. We
+may perhaps see, in the large space which he devotes, in the _Hell_, to
+the crime of _baratteria_, evidence of a wish to express his especial
+detestation of it.
+
+What, however, we know for certain is that, after some date early in the
+year 1302, Dante never saw Florence again. Several attempts were made by
+the exiles to win their way back, but they were uniformly unsuccessful,
+and only led to fresh sentences against those who took part in them.
+Whether Dante was among these, at all events during the earlier years of
+his exile, seems very doubtful. We know from his own words that he had
+no sympathy with the men with whom he was thrown. Indeed, it was a
+curious irony of fate which linked in one condemnation his name and that
+of Lapo Salterelli, a man whom he selects (_Par._, xv. 128) as an
+example of the degradation into which the Florentine character had
+fallen. During this first period he was probably eating his heart, and
+watching for the coming of the deliverer who, by bringing all the world
+under one impartial sway, should put an end to faction and
+self-seeking--the _invidia_ and _avarizia_ against which he is for ever
+inveighing--and permit every man "to sit at ease and perfect himself in
+prudence and wisdom;" thus fulfilling his proper task of "making himself
+immortal," or, as St. Paul phrases it, coming "to the measure of the
+stature of the fulness of Christ." It is a noble conception, though the
+six hundred years which have elapsed since Dante looked for its
+fulfilment do not seem to have brought us very much more forward in that
+direction. Still, we can give him the honour due to a lofty standard of
+political and social conduct in a violent and profligate, if brilliant,
+age; and we can still read with interest and profit that wonderful
+repertory of political wisdom, dialectical argument (after the manner of
+the schoolmen), and passionate pleading for good government, which he
+calls the _Treatise on Monarchy_.
+
+The date at which the _De Monarchia_ was composed is uncertain, but it
+would seem to belong most fitly to the years which immediately succeeded
+Dante's banishment. The Empire was in the hands of the incapable Albert
+of Hapsburg while the Pope, from 1305, was the creature of the French
+King. C�sar and Peter seemed both alike to have abdicated, and the world
+was going from bad to worse. With the election of Henry of Luxemburg, in
+1308, better times may seem to have dawned, when practice might
+supersede abstract theories. The letter which Dante actually wrote to
+Henry in 1311 is couched in a far less meditative tone.
+
+During Henry's short reign the Ghibeline cause looked up; nor was his
+death in 1313 so fatal a blow to it as might have been expected. Several
+powerful leaders arose, one of whom, Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa,
+won back most of Tuscany for his party. In 1315 he inflicted a severe
+defeat on the Florentines and their allies at Montecatini, on the border
+of the Florentine and Lucchese territories; but he was unable to follow
+up his success so far as to enter the city. Some two months later a
+third sentence went forth against Dante, in which his sons were
+included, condemning them, as Ghibelines and rebels against the
+Commonwealth and people of Florence and the statutes of the Guelf party,
+to be beheaded whenever taken. It has been plausibly suggested that the
+two events were not unconnected; and as it is hardly likely that at the
+age of fifty Dante would have taken a prominent part in the actual
+fighting, we must suppose it to have been as a leading adviser of the
+enemy that he was specially obnoxious to the ruling powers at Florence.
+
+The chief importance, however, which Dante's exile has for us, is that
+with it his great literary activity began. He had, of course, written
+all his life; and it is quite possible even that some portion of the
+_Commedia_ had been composed before he left Florence. The story told by
+Boccaccio is well known. Commenting upon the opening words of Canto
+viii., he tells us that the preceding portion of the poem had been
+written before the final catastrophe, and left behind by Dante in his
+flight, not being discovered for some years. In any case, the _Vita
+Nuova_ was written, as he himself tells us, before he was twenty-five;
+and a good deal of the _Convito_, a work which looks very much as if it
+had first come into existence as the contents of notebooks, in which
+materials to be afterwards worked into the great poem were jotted down,
+was no doubt in writing. But it is to Dante's twenty years of exile
+that we owe in their completed form the works which place him not only
+among the world's five or six greatest poets, but in an eminent position
+among philosophers, theologians, statesmen, and men of science.
+
+We have but little certain information as to Dante's life during his
+exile. Legends innumerable have sprung up as to his residence here,
+there, and elsewhere; but most of these are based on the fancies of
+later writers; or in some cases even on local vanity, which was
+flattered by the remotest connection with the great name. We can say for
+certain that he passed some time at Verona, some at Lucca, some at
+Ravenna, where his sepulchre remains to this day; and with some approach
+to probability we can place him at Paris, at Bologna, and perhaps at
+Milan. He may possibly have spent some time in the Lunigiana, and some
+in the Casentino. All we know is that his life was spent in wandering,
+that he had no settled home, that he lived on other men's bread, and
+went up and down other men's stairs. He was honoured, it is true. Great
+nobles were glad to employ his services, and, as we have said, the fact
+of his being so often selected by the rulers of Florence for
+condemnation, shows that at least they regarded him as a man to be
+reckoned with. But probably the strongest evidence of the estimation in
+which he was held is to be found in Villani's obituary chapter, wherein
+his character and accomplishments are set forth with a fulness which the
+historian elsewhere reserves for Popes and sovereigns; a fulness all the
+more noteworthy since his name never occurs in the chronicle of events
+in which he undoubtedly took a leading part.
+
+Only when Italy and Florence had lost him beyond hope of recovery was it
+realised that he was one of his country's greatest glories. Then chairs
+were founded from which the most eminent literary men of the age should
+expound his works; and commentator after commentator--nine or ten before
+the end of the fourteenth century--cleared up some obscurities and made
+others more obscure. Of course, so far as historical allusions go, the
+writers who were nearly or quite contemporary with the events are often
+of great service; but it is otherwise, as a rule, when a knowledge of
+books is wanted. We are never so much impressed with the vastness of
+Dante's reading, as when we see the utter failure of these learned men
+even to observe, in many cases, that any explanation or illustration of
+an allusion is wanted. This, however, brings us back to the point from
+which we started, namely, that much as has been written about Dante, the
+possible fields of research are by no means exhausted.
+
+The interest of the events which moulded Dante's career and influenced
+his work has perhaps led to their occupying too large a share of these
+pages; but it has been thought best to go into the history at some
+length, as being after all the first and most essential step towards a
+thorough comprehension of the position which his writings, and
+especially the _Commedia_, hold in European literature. This is quite
+unique of its kind. Never before or since has a poem of the highest
+imagination served--not merely as a political manifesto, but--as a party
+pamphlet; and we may safely say that no such poem will in future serve
+that purpose, at all events until the conditions under which it was
+produced occur. Whether that is ever likely to be the case, those who
+have followed the history may judge.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [27] So I understand an obviously corrupt passage in Villani,
+    viii. 41. One of the unlucky Blacks was a Portinari, doubtless a
+    kinsman of Beatrice--a fact which curiously seems to have
+    escaped the conjectural commentators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE "COMMEDIA"
+
+
+So many good summaries of the _Commedia_ exist that to give another may
+appear superfluous. At the same time, experience shows not only that
+such a summary is found by most readers to be the best of all helps to
+the study of the poem, but also that every fresh summariser treats it
+from a somewhat different point of view. It is therefore possible that
+in the following pages answers, or at least suggestions of answers, may
+be found to some questions which previous writers, in England at all
+events, have passed over; and that they may serve in some measure as a
+supplement to the works which will be mentioned in the appendix.
+
+
+� 1. HELL.
+
+The first eleven cantos of the _Hell_ form a very distinct subdivision
+of the poem. They embrace, first, the introduction contained in Canto
+i.; secondly, the description of the place of punishment up to a point
+at which a marked change in the character of the sins punished is
+indicated. In one sense, no doubt, an important stage in the journey is
+completed when the City of Dis is reached, in Canto viii.; but it will
+be observed, when we reach that point, that the class of sinners who are
+met with immediately within the walls of the City, the Epicureans or, as
+we should now say, the Materialists, bear really a much stronger
+affinity to those who are outside the walls, those whose sin has been
+lack of self-restraint in one form or another, than they do to the worse
+criminals who have "offended of malicious wickedness," and who lie at
+and below the foot of the steep guarded by the Minotaur. The former
+class at all events have been, to use a common phrase, "their own worst
+enemies;" their sins have not been, at any rate in their essence, like
+those of the latter, of the kind which break up the fabric of society,
+and with them the heretics may most naturally be considered. It can
+hardly be doubted that some such view as this led Dante to make the
+first great break of level in his scheme of the lower world at a point
+which would leave the freethinkers and materialists actually nearer to
+the sinners of whom he holds that their sin "men Dio offende," even
+though theological exigencies compel him to place them within the walls
+of the "red-hot city." We may thus conveniently take these eleven cantos
+for consideration as a group by themselves.
+
+In the earlier cantos, as indeed throughout the poem, the main
+difficulties with which we meet depend far more on interpretation than
+on the mere "construing" of the words; and even if it were otherwise,
+all purely linguistic difficulties have been so fully dealt with over
+and over again in commentaries and translations that it would, as has
+been said, be quite superfluous to enter here upon any discussion of
+them. The opening canto, as every reader will at once perceive, is
+symbolism and allegory from beginning to end, from the "dark wood" in
+which the action of the poem begins to the "hound" who is to free Italy.
+These, more especially the latter, have given as much trouble to the
+interpreter as anything in the whole poem; indeed it may be said that in
+the matter of the _Veltro_ we have not made much advance on Boccaccio,
+who frankly admitted that he could not tell what was meant. But between
+these two points we have some hundred lines in nearly every one of
+which, beside its obvious and literal interpretation, we must look for
+all the others enumerated by Dante in the famous passage of his letter
+to Can Grande. The second canto is of much the same character, in some
+respects almost in more need of close study. The significance of the
+three beasts who hinder Dante is easier to make out than that of the
+three heavenly ladies who assist him. Meantime, if we are content to
+read the poem as narrative merely, there is no great difficulty to be
+overcome. The language is straightforward on the whole, almost the only
+_crux_ being ii. 108, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained,
+nor is the imagery other than simple.
+
+With Canto iii. and the arrival within the actual portal of Hell (though
+hardly in Hell properly so called) we enter upon a fresh subdivision of
+the poem; and are very soon brought up by the first, and one of the most
+perplexing, of the allusions to contemporary history with which it
+abounds. The elucidation of these would constantly offer almost
+hopeless difficulties, were it not for the early commentators, who are
+often able to explain them from personal knowledge. Now and then,
+however, it happens that they differ, and then the modern student is at
+a loss. This has been in some measure the case with the famous "gran
+rifiuto," iii. 60; so that while we may with a high degree of
+probability accept the more usual view that the allusion is to the
+abdication of Celestine V., we cannot without further evidence feel so
+certain about it as we could wish. The whole conception of this canto
+seems to be due to Dante's own invention; only to a nature like his,
+keenly alive to the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and
+burning with zeal in the cause of right, could it have occurred to mark
+off for special ignominy people whose sole fault seems to have been that
+they "took things too easily." When, in Canto iv., we pass the river of
+Acheron, and find ourselves for the first time actually on the border of
+Hell itself, we are conscious at first of an alleviation. Melancholy
+there is, but it is a dignified melancholy, as different from the sordid
+misery of the wretches we have just left, as the "noble city" and the
+green sward enclosed by it are different from the murky air and the
+foul mud among which they have to dwell. Both in this and in the second
+circle we have punishment indeed but without degradation, even with some
+mitigation. Virgil at least enjoys the converse of the sages and great
+men of old and, in so far as non-Christians go, of recent times; while
+Francesca is solaced by the perpetual companionship of him for whose
+sake she has lost her soul. Even the penalty which she suffers, of being
+whirled for ever on the storm, is not exactly humiliating. From this
+point, however, we are conscious of a change. The gluttons seated or
+lying on putrid earth and exposed to lashing rain; the misusers of
+wealth, with all human lineaments effaced, and engaged in a foolish and
+wearisome scuffle; the ill-tempered, floating on the surface of the foul
+marsh of Styx or lying submerged in it according as their disposition
+was to fierce wrath or sullen brooding--all these are not merely
+tormented but degraded as well.
+
+After crossing the Styx (Canto viii.) we find a further change. Thus far
+the sins punished have differed only in degree from those which we shall
+find being expiated in Purgatory. They are indeed the simpler forms, so
+to speak, of the defects common to all animal nature. They are the same
+which, in one of their interpretations, the three symbolical beasts of
+Canto i. denote. Henceforth we find sins which are only possible to the
+higher intelligence of humanity. It will be observed, too, that at this
+point what may be called pictorial description begins. Hitherto we have
+had merely a general impression of murky air and miry soil, sloping
+perhaps a little toward the centre, and intersected now and again by a
+stream. Now the City of Dis with minarets and towers rises in front of
+us, and, as we shall see in future cantos, from this time onwards the
+character of the scenery is indicated with great preciseness, even to
+its smallest details. Here, too, actual devils, beings whose will, as
+Aquinas says, is obstinately set upon evil, appear for the first time,
+as distinct from the personages of classical mythology, who act as
+warders of the various circles. Virgil, or human reason, is no longer
+sufficient of himself to secure a passage. Both at the gates of the
+fiery city and on subsequent occasions he is as helpless, without
+superior aid, as his disciple and follower.
+
+The ninth canto contains a piece of allegory, that involved in the
+introduction of Medusa and the Furies, which has earned perhaps a
+greater reputation for obscurity than it deserves, from the fact that
+Dante himself calls special attention to it.
+
+Cantos x. and xi. are both very important, the former for its bearing on
+the history of Florence. Those who have read the sketch of that history
+in the preceding chapters will understand the full force of Farinata's
+discourse with Dante. We have had a brief passage of the same kind in
+Canto vi., but here the subject is treated at greater length, and with
+some marvellous dramatic touches.
+
+Canto xi. must be thoroughly mastered if Dante's scheme of ethics is to
+be understood. It forms, indeed, a summary of and key to the arrangement
+of the penalties, and a thorough comprehension and retention of it in
+the memory will be found a wonderful help to a recollection of the whole
+Cantica.
+
+At the conclusion of the discourse in which Dante, speaking by the mouth
+of Virgil, has set forth this ethical system, the poets move forward
+along the brink of the pit until they arrive at a spot where they can
+reach the lower level. The descent is rendered possible by a steep and
+broken slope of loose rock, which Dante compares to the great landslip
+between Trent and Verona, known as the Slavino di Marco.[28] Virgil
+explains that this was due to the "rending of the rocks" at the time of
+the Crucifixion. The descent is guarded by the legendary Minotaur, the
+Cretan monster, part bull, part man. In this connection it may be
+noticed that the beings suggested by classical mythology, who are met
+with in the division of Hell which lies between the wall of the City of
+Dis and the brink of Malebolge, the Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Harpies,
+and Geryon (as Dante conceives him), all belong to the semi-bestial
+class. In spite of the opinion held by some of the most eminent
+Dante-scholars, that Dante in his classification of sins does not follow
+Aristotle's grouping of them into incontinent, malicious, and brutal,
+but recognises the first two only, it seems difficult not to see in
+this, especially when it is taken in connection with expressions
+scattered throughout his writings, an indication that in the sins of
+the seventh circle he found the equivalent of the Greek philosopher's
+[Greek: th�riot�s]--the result of giving a free range to the brutal, as
+distinct from the common animal, impulses.
+
+In this seventh circle, too, we first meet with _fire_ as an instrument
+of Divine wrath. Indeed, with the single exception of the suicides, for
+whom a specially significant chastisement is devised, all the sinners in
+this group, from the heretics in their red-hot tombs to the usurers
+tormented on one side by the fiery rain, and on the other by the
+exhalations from the deeper pit, are punished by means of heat. At the
+foot of the slope is a great circular plain, ringed with a river of
+boiling blood in which spoilers, robbers, and murderers, some famous,
+some obscure, are plunged more or less deeply in proportion to the
+heinousness of their crimes; for, like earthly streams, this has its
+deep and shallow. At the latter point they cross, on the back of Nessus
+the Centaur, and at once enter (Canto xiii.) a wood of gnarled and sere
+trees, in which the Harpies have their dwelling. These trees have sprung
+from the souls of suicides, and retain the power of speech and
+sensation. From one of these, who in life had been the famous statesman
+Peter de Vineis, Dante learns that at the judgement they will recover
+their bodies, like others, but will not be allowed to reassume them. The
+body will be hung on the tree to which it belongs. Here, as in the case
+of the avaricious and the wrathful, the spirits of other sinners take a
+part in the infliction of the punishment. The wood is inhabited by the
+souls of those who had wasted their substance in life, and these are
+constantly chased through it by hounds, with much destruction of leaves
+and twigs.
+
+On issuing from the wood (Canto xiv.), they find themselves at the edge
+of a great circular plain of sand, upon which flakes of fire are
+ceaselessly dropping. Skirting the wood for some distance they reach the
+bank of the stream of blood which, having circled all round the outer
+margin of the wood, now comes flowing through it, and crosses the sandy
+plain in a channel carefully built of shaped stone. Virgil takes
+occasion to explain the origin of the rivers of Hell. Thick fumes rise
+from it which quench the falling flames, so that along its bank, and
+there only, can a way be found. As they proceed they find sinners lying
+prone or running under the fiery shower. These are they who had done
+violence to God, either directly by open blasphemy, or indirectly by
+violating the divinely appointed natural order whereby both the race of
+mankind and its possessions should increase and multiply. Many famous
+Florentines are among these sinners (Cantos xv. and xvi.); and Dante
+talks long with the famous statesman and philosopher, Brunetto Latini,
+who had been his early friend and adviser, and with sundry great
+captains and men of renown. After this they reach the point where the
+river falls with a mighty roar down to the next level. There is no
+natural means of descent here available; and Dante hands to Virgil a
+cord with which he is girt. The meaning of this cord is very obscure. He
+says: "I once thought to capture the leopard with it;" and if the
+leopard denotes the factions of Florence, the cord may perhaps symbolise
+justice or equity. When Virgil has thrown it down they wait a short
+time, and presently a monster appears whose name we find to be Geryon,
+and who symbolises fraud or treachery. It is perhaps not unnatural that
+when the power to enforce justice has been cast away, treachery should
+raise its head. This monster draws near the brink (Canto xvii.), but
+before they mount on him, Virgil allows Dante to walk a few paces to the
+right, in order that he may take note of the last class of "violent"
+sinners, namely, the usurers. These hold an intermediate position
+between the violent and the treacherous; just as the heretics did
+between the incontinent and the violent. Here again are many
+Florentines. Like the other misusers of money in Canto vii. their
+features are unrecognisable, and they are only to be known by the arms
+embroidered on their money bags. After hearing a few words from one of
+them, Dante returns to Virgil, and both take their place on the croup of
+Geryon, who bears them downwards to the eighth circle. This (Canto
+xviii.), from its configuration, is known as Malebolge, or Evilpits. It
+is divided into ten concentric rings, or circular trenches, separated by
+a tract of rocky ground. From various indications we gather that each
+trench is half a mile across, and the intervening ground a mile and a
+quarter. The trenches are spanned by rocky ribs, forming bridges by
+which the central cavity can be reached. Here we find for the first time
+devils, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, employed as tormentors.
+The sinners in this circle are those who have been guilty in any way of
+leading others into sin, deceiving or cheating them, without any
+aggravating circumstances of ingratitude or breach of natural ties. In
+the first pit are those who have led women astray; these are scourged by
+fiends. In the next lie flatterers immersed in the most loathsome filth.
+In each Dante notes two examples: one of recent times--indeed, in both
+cases an acquaintance of his own,--and one taken from ancient history or
+legend. Jason, for his desertion of Hypsipyle and Medea, is the
+classical example of the first offence. Of this use of mythological
+persons we have many examples, but the typical flatterer of old time is
+a more curious selection, being a character in a play, whom Dante has
+borrowed from Cicero.
+
+In the next, or third pit (Canto xix.), we again find fire as the
+instrument with which the sinners are punished. Those who have made
+money by misuse of sacred offices are buried head downwards in holes
+with their feet projecting, and fire plays about their soles. Naturally
+an opportunity is here presented for some strong invective against the
+recent unworthy occupants of the See of Rome.
+
+Canto xx. brings us to the fourth pit, in which those who have professed
+to foretell the future march in a dismal procession with their heads
+turned round so that they look down their own backs. The sight of Manto,
+daughter of Tiresias, suggests a description of the origin of the city
+of Mantua. The last lines of this canto contain one of the most
+important indications of time which Dante gives in this part of the
+poem.
+
+The sinners of the fifth pit correspond in some degree with those of the
+third, except that in their case the traffic which is punished has to do
+with secular offices. Canto xxi. opens with the famous description of
+the work in the arsenal of Venice, which is introduced in order to
+afford an image of the boiling pitch in which sinners of this class are
+immersed. For some reason, which is not very clear, Dante devotes two
+whole cantos to this subdivision of the subject. There is no doubt that
+_baratteria_, peculation or jobbery, was rampant throughout Southern
+Europe at the time, and, as has been said, it was one of the charges
+brought against the poet himself at the time of his banishment.[29] We
+find here again one of "the torments of heat;" with one exception, that
+of the evil counsellors in Canto xxv., the last instance in which heat
+plays a part. It would be interesting, by comparison of the various sins
+into the punishment of which it enters, to see if any ground can be
+suggested for its employment in their case.
+
+Cantos xxi. and xxii. are also noteworthy as bringing into prominence
+the agency of devils, and showing them actually at work. Ten are
+introduced and named; and some indication is given of their
+organisation. Dante's skill is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the
+way in which he has surmounted the difficulty of depicting beings in
+whom there is no touch of any good quality. They are plausible; and
+their leader, Malacoda, appears at first sight almost friendly. It is
+not until later that his apparent friendliness turns out to be a
+deliberate attempt to mislead.
+
+At the opening of Canto xxiii. we find the poets exactly half-way
+through Malebolge, on the rocky table-land, so to call it, which
+separates the fifth and sixth pits. They are quite solitary, for the
+first time in the course of their journey out of sight and hearing of
+any other beings; but still in fear of pursuit from the fiends whom they
+have just left. These do not, however, come up until just as the poets
+have begun the descent into the sixth pit, and here their power is at an
+end.
+
+In this pit are punished the hypocrites, who go in slow procession clad
+in cowls of gilded lead. Contrary to the usual practice the poets have
+in this case to descend to the bottom of the pit, the bridges being all
+broken away. Malacoda, the leader of the fiends in the last _bolgia_,
+had mentioned one, but (falsely) assured them that they would find a
+sound one further on. He also informed them that the destruction of the
+bridges had taken place 1266 years ago on the previous day, but five
+hours later than the time of speaking. This gives an important
+"time-reference." There can be no doubt that the allusion is to the
+rending of the rocks at the moment of Our Lord's death (_cf._ xii.
+31-45), which took place at 3 P.M., so that we have 10 A.M. on Easter
+Eve fixed as the hour at which the poets meet with the devils of the
+fifth pit. Among the hypocrites Dante talks with two men who had jointly
+held the office of _Podest�_, or chief magistrate, at Florence in the
+year after his birth.[30] They belonged to opposite parties, and the
+double appointment had been one of the many expedients devised to
+restore peace; but it had not answered, and the two were suspected of
+having sunk their own differences of opinion, not to conciliate the
+factions, but to enrich themselves at the expense of the State. While
+talking to them Dante sees a figure fastened to the ground with three
+stakes, as though crucified. This, it is explained, is Caiaphas; Annas
+being similarly placed at another point of the circle. Dante and Virgil
+have to leave this pit as they entered it, by climbing over the rocks
+(Canto xxiv.); and from the minuteness with which this process is
+described (even to so characteristic a touch as "I talked as I went, to
+show that my wind was good,") it has been thought that Dante was not
+without experience in mountain-craft.
+
+The seventh pit is appointed for the punishment of thieves. Serpents and
+dragons are here introduced. In some cases the body is reduced to ashes
+in consequence of the bite, and presently recovers its shape; in others
+man and serpent blend; in others, again, they exchange natures, the
+sinners themselves being transmuted into the reptiles, and becoming the
+instruments of torment to their fellows. A kind of reckless and brutal
+joviality seems to characterise the malefactors whom we meet with in
+this region. Among them are many Florentines, a fact which prompts Dante
+to an apostrophe full of bitter irony, with which Canto xxvi. opens. In
+the following pit a curious change of tone is manifest. The image chosen
+to illustrate the scene is an agreeable one--fireflies flitting in
+summer about a mountain valley; and the punishment though terrible is in
+no way loathsome or degrading, like most of those which have hitherto
+been described in the present circle. The sinners, too, who are
+mentioned are men who on earth had played heroic parts; the manner of
+their speech is dignified, and Dante treats them with respect. They are
+those who have sinned by giving wicked counsel to others, and so
+leading them to commit sin; and the two who are especially distinguished
+and who relate their stories at length are Ulysses (Canto xxvi.) and
+Count Guy of Montefeltro, a great Ghibeline leader (xxvii.). The former
+probably owes his place here to Virgil's epithet _scelerum inventor_,
+deviser of crimes. In a passage which has deservedly become famous, he
+gratifies Dante's curiosity as to the manner of his end. The passage,
+apart from its poetic beauty, is remarkable as being, so far as can be
+traced, due entirely to the poet's own invention. At all events, beyond
+two or three words in the _Odyssey_, nothing in either classical or
+medi�val legend is known which can have given the suggestion for it. In
+the case of the Count of Montefeltro, who is alleged to have given
+treacherous counsel to Boniface VIII., it also appears difficult to
+understand how the facts, if facts they are, became known to Dante.
+Villani no doubt gives the story, but in language so similar to that of
+the poem that a suspicion arises whether he may not be relying on it as
+his authority.
+
+The next canto (xxviii.) introduces us to one of Dante's most ghastly
+conceptions. The ninth pit is peopled by those who have on earth caused
+strife and divisions among mankind. They are not, as often stated,
+schismatics in the technical sense of the word. Mahommed and Ali are
+there, obviously not on religious grounds however, but as having brought
+about a great breach between divisions of the human race; and though Fra
+Dolcino, who is introduced as it were by anticipation, was a religious
+schismatic, it was no doubt his social heterodoxy which earned him a
+commemoration in this place. The punishment of these sinners is
+appropriate. They are constantly being slashed to pieces by demons; the
+wounds being closed again before they complete the circuit. Curio, who
+as Lucan narrates, spoke the words which finally decided C�sar to enter
+upon civil war, Mosca de' Lamberti, the instigator of the crime which
+first imported especial bitterness into the strife of factions at
+Florence, and one Peter of Medicina, who seems to have devoted himself
+to keeping party-spirit alive in Romagna, are here. Last of all,
+carrying his own head like a lantern, is Bertrand of Born, the famous
+troubadour, who is charged with having promoted the quarrel between
+Henry II. of England and his son. It is worth noting that at this point
+we get the first definite indication of the dimensions which Dante
+assumes for the present division of Hell. We are told that this ninth
+pit of Malebolge has a circumference of twenty-two miles. From the next
+canto we learn that the last or innermost pit has half this measure; and
+from this basis it has been found possible to draw an accurate plan of
+Malebolge, and to conjecture, with an approach to certainty, the
+conception formed by Dante of Hell generally.[31]
+
+In the last pit (Cantos xxix. and xxx.) are found those who have been
+guilty of personation with criminal intent, or of bearing false witness,
+or of debasing the coinage or pretending to transmute metals. These
+suffer from leprosy, dropsy, raving madness, and other diseases. Before
+leaving the pit, a quarrel between two of the sinners attracts Dante's
+attention more than Virgil thinks seemly; and a sharp reprimand follows.
+Dante's penitence however earns speedy forgiveness.
+
+We are now drawing near the lowest pit; and through the dim air is heard
+the sound of a great horn (Canto xxxi.) Going forward, they find that
+the final descent, which appears to be a sheer drop of about thirty-five
+feet, is guarded by a ring of giants. Those of them who are seen are
+Nimrod, and the classical Ephialtes and Ant�us; but we learn that others
+famous in Greek mythology are there also. Ant�us being addressed by
+Virgil in courteous words, lifts the poets down the wall and lands them
+on the lowest floor of Hell. This (Canto xxxii.) is of ice, and must be
+conceived as a circular plain, perhaps about two miles in diameter. In
+this are punished all who have been guilty of any treachery towards
+those to whom they were bound by special ties of kindred,
+fellow-citizenship, friendship, or gratitude. Each of these various
+grades of crime has its own division, and these are arranged
+concentrically, with no very definite boundaries between the different
+classes. At the same time each division has its appropriate name, formed
+from some famous malefactor who had specially exemplified that class of
+crime. Thus the first ring is Caina; the second, Antenora, from Antenor,
+who, according to a late version of the Trojan legend, had betrayed Troy
+to the Greeks; the third, Toommea, from that Ptolemy, son of Abubus,
+who treacherously slew the Maccabees at a feast; the last, in which
+Lucifer himself abides, is Giudecca. No distinction appears to exist
+between the penalties inflicted on the two first classes; all are alike
+plunged up to the shoulders in the ice, the head being free. Dante
+speaks with more than one, most of them persons who had belonged to the
+Ghibeline party; though in the case of one, Bocca degli Abati, the
+treachery had been committed to the detriment of the Guelfs.[32] The
+mention of Bocca and Dante's behaviour to him, may remind us that the
+whole question of Dante's demeanour towards the persons whom he meets in
+the first part of the poem is interesting. For some he is full of pity,
+towards some he is even respectful; occasionally he is neutral; while in
+some cases he displays anger and scorn, amounting as here to positive
+cruelty. The expressions of pity, it will be observed, practically cease
+from the moment that Malebolge, the "nethermost Hell," is reached.
+Similarly, after reaching the City of Dis, the tone of Virgil towards
+the guardians of the damned, which up to that point has been
+peremptory, becomes almost suppliant. The reason for this is indeed
+somewhat obscure: one does not at once see why the formula "So it is
+willed there, where will is power," should not be as good for the Furies
+or for Malacoda as it has proved for Charon and Minos. Perhaps the clue
+is to be found in the fact that the sins punished _inside_ the walls of
+the city (sins which, it will be seen, are not represented in Purgatory
+at all) are to be regarded as the result of a will obstinately set
+against the will of God; while the sins arising from the frailty of
+human nature may be checked by the "right judgement" recalling, before
+it is too late, what the will of God is. This, however, is a different
+question, and we must not here pursue it too far. To revert to that of
+Dante's various demeanour, it will be seen that, with the limitation
+indicated above, his sympathy with the sinner does not vary with the
+comparative heinousness of the sin. Almost his bitterest scorn, indeed,
+is directed towards some whose chief sin is lack of any positive
+qualities, good or bad. One infers that he would almost rather wander in
+a flame with Ulysses, or lie in the ice with Ugolino, than undergo the
+milder punishment of Celestine and his ignoble companions. For the
+simply self-indulgent, Francesca or Ciacco, he has pity in abundance;
+Farinata, Brunetto, and the other famous men who share the fates of
+these, may probably come into the same category. In such cases as these,
+while he has not a word to say against the justice of God, he has no
+desire to add "the wrath of man" thereto. In the one instance in
+Malebolge where he shows any sympathy (and is reproved by Virgil for
+doing so) it is for the soothsayers, whose sin would not necessarily
+involve the hurt of others. But his conduct is very different to those
+whose sin has been primarily against their fellow-man, or against kindly
+human intercourse. His first fierce outbreak is against the swaggering
+ruffian Filippo Argenti, who seems to have been in Florentine society
+the most notable example of a class now happily extinct in civilised
+countries, at all events among adults; a kind of bully, or "Mohock,"
+fond of rough practical jokes, prompted, not by a misguided sense of
+humour, but by an irritable man's delight in venting his spite. One can
+sympathise, even after six hundred years, in Dante's pious satisfaction
+when he saw the man, of whom he may himself have once gone in bodily
+fear, become in his turn the object of persecution. It is, however,
+after Malebolge is reached, and Dante is among the sinners who have by
+dishonest practices weakened the bond of confidence which should bind
+human society together, that he lets his wrath and scorn have full play.
+His imagery even takes on a grotesque, at times even a foul aspect. He
+was not one to mince his words, and if he means to sicken his readers,
+he goes straight to his aim.
+
+It is to be noted, too, that the language and demeanour of the sinners
+themselves have in many cases changed. Above Malebolge, at all events
+till the usurers are reached, a certain dignity of speech and action is
+the rule. Now we find flippant expressions and vulgar gestures. Nothing
+is omitted which can give a notion, not merely of the sinfulness, but of
+the sordidness of dishonesty. Curiously enough, the one denizen of this
+region who is thoroughly dignified and even pathetic, is the pagan
+Ulysses; and to him Dante does not himself speak, leaving the pagan
+Virgil to hold all communication with him. Besides Ulysses, Guy of
+Montfeltro and Ugolino are presented in such a way as to enlist, in
+some degree, the sympathy of the reader; and it may further be noted
+that in each case a representative of the family in the next generation
+is placed in Purgatory; as though Dante, while bound to condemn the
+elder men, had held the houses in such esteem that he wished to balance
+the condemnation by assigning a better fate to their successors.
+
+The opening of Canto xxxiii. brings us to the famous episode of Count
+Ugolino, which shares with the earlier one of Francesca da Rimini the
+widest renown of any passage in the whole poem. It is curious, by the
+way, that the structure of the two shows many marked parallelisms; only
+the tender pity which characterises Dante's treatment of the former is
+wholly lacking in the latter. There is no need to dwell on so well-known
+a story; but it may be noted that Ugolino, though a Guelf leader, and
+condemned here no doubt for his intrigues with the Ghibeline Archbishop
+Roger, came of a Ghibeline family, and thus forms only a partial
+exception to the rule stated above. The only genuine Guelf who is named
+in this division is Tesauro de' Beccheria, the Abbot of Vallombrosa.
+
+This will perhaps be the best point at which to say a few words on a
+subject about which much misconception has prevailed. It has often been
+supposed that Dante was just a Ghibeline partisan, and distributed his
+characters in the next world according to political sympathies. The
+truth is, that under no circumstances, so far as we can see, does he
+assign to any one his place on political grounds--that is, merely for
+having belonged to one or other of the great parties which then divided
+Italy. He himself, as we know, belonged to neither. His political ideal
+was a united world submitting to the general direction of the Emperor in
+temporal matters, of the Pope in spiritual. On the other hand, he would
+have had national forms of government retained. Brought up as he had
+been, the citizen and afterwards the official of a Guelf republic, there
+is no reason to suppose that a republican form of government was in any
+way distasteful to him, provided that it was honestly administered. It
+was not until the more powerful faction in the Guelf party called in the
+aid of an external power, unconnected with Italy, and hostile, or, as he
+would doubtless hold, rebellious, to the Empire, that he, along with the
+more "constitutional" branch of the Guelfs, threw in his lot with the
+long-banished Ghibelines. But neither then nor at any time did he belong
+to the Ghibeline party. So far from it, that he takes that party (in
+_Par._, vi. 105) as the example of those who follow the imperial
+standard in the wrong way, and make it a symbol of iniquity. The
+greatest and most heroic figure in the whole history of the Ghibelines,
+the man whose love for the rebellious city was as great as Dante's own,
+who when he had by his prowess in arms recovered it for the Empire,
+stood resolutely between it and the destruction which in the opinion of
+his comrades it had merited, is condemned to share with a Pope and an
+Emperor the penalty of speculative heterodoxy. On the other hand, we
+find Charles of Anjou, the foreign intruder, the bitter foe of the
+Empire and pitiless exterminator of the imperial race, a man in whom
+later historians, free from personal or patriotic bias, have seen hardly
+any virtue to redeem the sombre cruelty of his career, placed, not
+indeed in Paradise, but in Purgatory, and waiting in sure and certain
+hope of ultimate salvation, as one who in spite of many faults had led a
+pure and ascetic life in a profligate and self-indulgent age. It would
+be interesting to know, if Dante had met Charles somewhat later, in
+which of the Purgatorial circles he would have placed him. He seems to
+evade the difficulty of classifying him by finding him where he does.
+
+It is necessary to insist rather strongly on this point, since even so
+accomplished a scholar as the late Professor Bartoli, when dealing with
+Dante's reference to the Emperor Henry VII. (in _Par._, xxx. 133, sqq.),
+forgets that all the saints in Paradise have their allotted seat in the
+Rose of the highest heaven, and speaks as though Dante had honoured
+Henry above all but the greatest saints and foretold his "direct flight
+from the earth to the Empyrean." Of course there is not a word of this.
+All that we are entitled to say is that Dante held Henry to be an
+Emperor who was doing his duty, and would earn his reward like any other
+Christian and before Dante himself. It will be observed that he sees no
+other Emperor in Paradise, save Charlemagne; one, Rudolf of Hapsburg, is
+in, or rather just outside of, Purgatory; one, the great Frederick II.,
+in Hell. Of the Popes one only, and he a Pope who in his life lay under
+grievous suspicion of heterodoxy, and moreover only occupied the Papal
+See for a few months, is placed in Heaven. This is "Peter of Spain,"
+Pope John XXI. Two are in Purgatory; one of them, Martin IV., being a
+man who, as a Frenchman by birth, and a strong partisan of Charles of
+Anjou, might be supposed to have been specially obnoxious to Dante. No
+doubt Popes appear in what may seem an unfair proportion among the
+guilty souls below; but even for this distribution Dante could probably
+have pleaded orthodox authority and certainly scriptural support. "To
+whom much is given, of the same shall much be required." It is true, as
+Professor Bartoli points out, that Dante's "reverence for the supreme
+keys" was compatible with a very low estimate of their holders; but is
+not this exactly what we should expect from a man of high ideals and
+intolerant of failure in proportion to the dignity of the aim? His
+treatment of Pope Celestine, the one Pope of his time from whom, _prima
+facie_, something other than political partisanship might have been
+hoped, and who having put his hand to the plough had looked back, is
+sufficient to indicate his attitude in this matter.
+
+Once realise that Dante was, like our own Milton, a man with a keen
+sense of what ought to be, and an equally keen appreciation of the fact
+that things in his time were by no means as they ought to be, that he
+was fallen on evil days and evil tongues--an appreciation which
+doubtless most great souls, short of the few greatest, have had at most
+periods of the world's history--and you have the key to much that no
+ordinary theory of party-spirit will explain. Men of this temper care
+little for the party cries of everyday politics; and yet they cannot
+quite sit outside the world of affairs and watch the players, as we may
+imagine Shakespeare to have done, in calm consciousness that the shaping
+of our rough-hewn ends was in other hands than ours. No great historian
+of Shakespeare's time devoted a whole chapter to his memory, as did
+Villani to that of Dante; yet we can hardly doubt that in the education
+of the world Shakespeare has borne the more important share, and Dante,
+with his deep conviction of the higher dignity of the "contemplative
+life," would be the first to own it.
+
+The third subdivision, known as Tolommea, has, as one of its inmates
+says, the "privilege" of receiving the souls of sinners while their
+bodies are yet alive on earth, animated by demons. With this horrible
+conception we seem to have reached the highest mark of Dante's inventive
+power. Only two names are mentioned, but one feels that if the owners of
+them ever came across the poem in which they had earned so sinister a
+commemoration, their sentiment towards the poet would hardly be one of
+gratitude.[33] These are the last of his contemporaries whom Dante
+brands, the last, indeed, whom he recognises. In Giudecca (Canto xxxiv.)
+the sinners are wholly sunk below the ice, and only show through like
+straws or other small impurities in glass. An exception is made in the
+case of the three persons whom Dante regards as having carried the sin
+of ingratitude to its highest point. Lucifer, who, as has been said, is
+fixed at the lowest point, has three faces. In the mouth of the central
+one he for ever gnaws Judas Iscariot, while in the others are Brutus and
+Cassius.
+
+The journey to the upper world is begun by a climb down the shaggy sides
+of the Archfiend himself. On reaching his middle, which is also the
+centre of the earth, the position is reversed, and the ascent begins.
+For a short distance they climb up by Lucifer's legs, then through a
+chimney in the rock; lastly, it would appear, following the course of a
+stream which winds spirally down through the earth, they reach the
+surface, and again come in sight of the stars.
+
+
+� 2. PURGATORY.
+
+After the invocation to the Muses, a curious survival of classical
+imagery with which in one form or another each division of the poem
+begins, Dante relates how, on emerging from the lower world, as Easter
+Day was dawning the poets found themselves on an island with the first
+gleam of day just visible on the distant sea. Venus is shining in the
+eastern heaven; and four stars, "never seen save by the earliest of
+mankind," are visible to the south. No doubt some tradition or report of
+the Southern Cross had reached men's ears in Europe; but the symbolical
+meaning is more important, and there can be no doubt that the stars
+denote the four "cardinal" or natural or active virtues of fortitude,
+temperance, justice, and prudence. In the evening, as we shall see later
+on, their place is taken by three other stars, which symbolise the
+theological or Christian or contemplative virtues--faith, hope, charity.
+
+On turning again Dante sees close at hand an old man of venerable
+countenance, who questions them by what right they had come. Virgil
+recognises him for Cato of Utica, the Roman Republican patriot. His
+position here, as warder of the mount of purification, is very curious,
+and has never been thoroughly explained. Among other things it is
+probable that Dante was influenced by the Virgilian line in which Cato
+is introduced as the lawgiver of good men in the after-world. Being
+satisfied with the explanation given, Cato directs them to the shore,
+where Virgil is to wash the grime of Hell from Dante's face, and gird
+him with a rush, as an emblem of humility. When this has been done and
+as the sun is rising (Canto ii.) a light is seen approaching over the
+water. As it draws near, it is seen to be an angel. His wings form the
+sails to a boat which comes to the shore, freighted with more than a
+hundred souls on their way to Purgatory. They are chanting the Easter
+Psalm _In exitu Israel_; at the sign of the cross made by the angel they
+come ashore, and begin by inquiring the way of Virgil. While he is
+explaining that he is no less strange to the country than they are, some
+of them perceive that Dante is a living man, and all crowd around him.
+Among them he recognises a friend, the musician Casella, who, after some
+affectionate words have passed between them, begins at Dante's request
+to sing one of the poet's own odes; and the crowd listen intently. But
+Cato comes up, and bidding them delay no longer, drives them like a
+flock of frightened pigeons towards the mountain.
+
+Even Virgil is somewhat abashed on account of his participation in the
+delay (Canto iii.); but soon recovers his equanimity, and resumes his
+usual dignified pace. Dante for the first time observes that his
+companion casts no shadow on the ground, and Virgil explaining that the
+spiritual form, while capable of feeling pain, has not the property of
+intercepting light, takes occasion to point out that there are mysteries
+for which the human reason is unable to account, and that this very
+inability forms the chief unhappiness of the great thinkers whom they
+saw among the virtuous heathen on the border of Hell. With this they
+reach the foot of the mountain of Purgatory. As is explained elsewhere,
+this occupies a position exactly opposite to the conical pit of Hell;
+being indeed formed of that portion of the earth which fled at the
+approach of Satan when he fell from Heaven. Some of its features are no
+doubt borrowed from the legendary accounts which Pliny and others have
+preserved of a great mountain seen by navigators to the west of the
+Straits of Gibraltar; these accounts being probably based on imperfect
+descriptions of Atlas or Teneriffe, or both confused together. Its
+summit is exactly at the Antipodes of Jerusalem, a point which must be
+carefully borne in mind if the various astronomical indications of time
+given in the course of the journey are to be rightly understood.
+
+The mountain-side, which Dante compares to the steepest and most rugged
+parts of the Genoese Riviera, appears at first, quite inaccessible; but
+before long they meet a company of spirits, who, after recovering from
+their first astonishment at seeing from Dante's shadow that he is not
+one of themselves, indicate to them the point at which the cliff may be
+attacked. Before they proceed further, one of the shades addressing
+Dante makes himself known as Manfred, son to the Emperor Frederick II.,
+and gives an account of his end, explaining that excommunication--for he
+had died under the ban of the Church--is powerless to do more than
+protract the interval between the soul's admission to Purgatory. After
+this (Canto iv.) they enter a steep and narrow cleft in the rock, from
+which they emerge upon a ledge on the mountain face, and a further climb
+up this lands them about noon on a broader terrace. Hitherto they have
+been mounting from the eastward, and on looking back in that direction,
+Dante is surprised to find the sun on his left hand. Virgil explains the
+topography; and is saying, in order to encourage Dante, that the labour
+of climbing will diminish as they get higher, when a bantering voice
+interrupts with the assurance that he will need plenty of sitting yet.
+The poet recognises in the speaker a Florentine friend. Another playful
+sarcasm on his thirst for information makes Dante address the shade and
+inquire as to his state. He, like Manfred, is debarred from entering
+Purgatory, but on the ground that he had led an easy life, and taken no
+thought of serious matters till his end drew near. In the following
+cantos (v. and vi.) we meet with many spirits who are from various
+causes in a similar position. First come those who have been cut off in
+the midst of their sins, but have sought for mercy at the last. The most
+noteworthy of these is Buonconte of Montefeltro, son of that Count Guy
+whom we met in the eighth pit of Malebolge. He was slain fighting
+against the Florentines at the battle of Campaldino (1289), in which
+Dante himself may possibly have borne arms.[34] Four lines at the end of
+this canto are among the most famous in the poem. In a few words they
+commemorate one of the domestic tragedies which were only too familiar
+in medi�val Italy. Passing through the crowd, they fall in, as evening
+is drawing on, with a solitary shade, who replies to Virgil's inquiry
+for the best road by asking whence they come. At the answer, "Mantua,"
+the shade springs up, and reveals himself as the famous warrior-poet of
+that city, Sordello. The affectionate greeting which follows between
+the fellow-citizens moves Dante to a splendid denunciation of the
+internecine quarrels then raging throughout Italy, and of the neglect on
+the part of the divinely ordained monarch, the Roman Emperor, which has
+allowed matters to come to such a pass. Lastly he directs his invective
+especially against his own city, Florence, and in words of bitter
+sarcasm upbraids her with the perpetual revolutions which hinder all
+good government.
+
+Sordello is an example of those whom constant occupation in affairs of
+state had caused to defer any thought for spiritual things, and who are
+expiating the delay in the region outside the proper entrance to
+Purgatory. In Canto vii., after explaining that they will not be able to
+stir a step after sunset ("the night cometh when no man can work"), he
+leads the poets to a spot where they may pass the night. This is a
+flowery dell on the hillside, occupied by the spirits of those who in
+life had been sovereign princes and rulers. There they see the Emperor
+Rudolf and his adversary, Ottocar of Bohemia; Charles of Anjou, King of
+Naples and Sicily, Philip III. of France, Peter III. of Aragon, Henry
+III. of England, and many other famous men of the last generation.
+Sordello, in pointing them out, takes occasion to enlarge on the
+degeneracy of their sons, making a special exception in favour of
+Edward, son of Henry.
+
+The sun sets (Canto viii.) and the shades join in the Compline hymn. At
+its conclusion, two angels clad in green robes descend, and take up
+their position on either side of the little valley. Dante, with his
+companions, goes down to join the "mighty shades," and is met by one
+whom he at once recognises as an old friend, the Pisan noble Giovanni,
+or Nino de' Visconti, "judge" or governor of the Sardinian province
+called Gallura, nephew of Count Ugolino. After some talk Dante notices
+the three stars spoken of above, and at the same moment Sordello draws
+Virgil's attention to an "adversary." They see a serpent making its way
+through the grass; and immediately the angels start in pursuit, putting
+it to flight. After this episode another shade announces himself as
+Conrad Malaspina, of the house with whom Dante was to find shelter
+during a part of his exile.
+
+The night wears on, and Dante falls asleep (Canto ix.). He dreams that
+he is being carried by an eagle up to the empyrean heaven. On awaking
+he finds that the sun has risen some time, and learns from Virgil that
+at daybreak St. Lucy (who has already come under notice as taking an
+interest in his welfare) had appeared and borne him to the place where
+they now are, in front of the gate of Purgatory. This is approached by
+three steps of variously-coloured stone. The first is white marble, the
+second a dark and rough rock, the third blood-red porphyry, indicating
+probably the three stages of the soul's progress to freedom through
+confession, contrition, and penance. On the topmost step sits an angel,
+who having marked seven P's (_peccata_ sins) on Dante's forehead, admits
+them within the gate.
+
+Thus far, except in the passage, Canto viii. 19 sqq., to which Dante
+himself draws the reader's attention, the allegorical interpretation has
+not afforded any very great difficulty. With this particular passage
+readers will do well to compare _Inf._, ix. 37 sqq., where a very
+similar indication is given of an underlying allegory, and draw their
+own conclusions. But on the whole, the main interest of the first nine
+cantos of the _Purgatory_ is more of a personal nature. Sordello alone
+may give an excuse for a good deal of historical research. For example,
+no one has yet explained Dante's reasons for so distinguishing a person
+who, from all the records that we have, does not seem to have made any
+great figure in the eyes of his contemporaries.
+
+It will hardly be necessary to follow Dante step by step through the
+stages of the mountain of purification. We shall probably do best to
+consider the general plan on which Purgatory is arranged, the nature of
+the various penances, with their adaptation to the offences which they
+expiate, and the light thrown in this division of the poem on Dante's
+opinions about the elements of political and moral science.
+
+We find, then, seven cornices, or ledges, on the mountain, connected
+with each other by stairways cut in the rock. Each stairway is guarded
+by an angel, and each, as it would appear, is shorter and less steep
+than the previous one. Thus the passage from the first to the second
+circle takes a considerable time, enough at all events to allow of some
+conversation between Dante and Virgil between the moment of their
+passing the angel and that at which they reach the top of the stairway.
+On the other hand, when they come to the final ascent, from the seventh
+circle to the level of the Earthly Paradise which occupies the summit, a
+few steps are sufficient to bring them to their halting-place, which, as
+appears afterwards, is practically on the summit level. Each angel, as
+Dante passes, erases from his forehead one of the P's which the warder
+of the first gate had inscribed there, and utters one of the Scriptural
+Beatitudes appropriate to the circle which they are quitting. Thus,
+"Blessed are the peacemakers" accompanies their departure from the
+circle of the wrathful; "Blessed are they that hunger after
+righteousness" is heard as they leave that where gluttony is expiated.
+
+The ritual, so to speak, is very precise throughout. Besides the
+Beatitudes, which are recited by the angel-guards, and in some cases it
+would seem repeated by a chorus of voices, we find in each circle
+commemoration variously contrived of notable instances, both of the sins
+punished and of their "contrary virtues." These are perhaps worth going
+through in detail. In the circle of Pride, where it is necessary to go
+in a stooping posture, the pavement is engraved with representations of
+humility. The first is the Annunciation, (and here it should be noted
+that in every group an event from the life of the Virgin holds the first
+place); next comes David dancing before the Ark; and lastly, Trajan
+yielding to the widow's prayer that he would perform an act of justice
+before setting out with the pomp of a military expedition. Further on in
+the same circle are found examples of the punishment of pride, taken
+alternately from Scripture and from classical mythology. The next circle
+is that of Envy. Here the penalty consists of the sewing up of the eyes,
+so that pictured representations would be of no use; and, accordingly,
+the task of calling the examples to mind is discharged by voices flying
+through the air. Yet another method is adopted in the third circle,
+where the Angry are punished by means of a dense smoke. Here the
+pictures are conveyed to Dante's mind by a kind of trance or vision, in
+which he sees the various scenes. We must suppose that the spirits pass
+through some similar experience. In the fourth circle, the examples of
+activity and warnings against Sloth are delivered by the souls
+themselves. As it is night while Dante is in this circle, he is himself
+unable to move; but the discipline being to run at speed, the souls pass
+him in their course. The fifth circle, of the Avaricious and Prodigal,
+follows much the same rule as the fourth, except that here the instances
+of virtue are recited in the day, those of sin at night, so that Dante
+does not actually hear the latter. In this case the souls lie prostrate.
+The Gluttonous, in the sixth circle, are punished by having to pass
+under trees laden with fruit, which they cannot reach; and the examples
+and warnings are conveyed by voices among the branches of these trees.
+The seventh circle follows the fashion of the fourth, except that the
+souls (who are punished by fire for having in life failed to hold in due
+restraint the flames of passion) seem to address the warning
+reminiscences to each other as they meet in the circuit. An instance of
+the system on which the examples are introduced has been given from the
+first circle. Perhaps that for the sixth is even more typical. On first
+entering this they come to a tree, among the branches of which a voice
+is heard recording the conduct of the Virgin at the feast in Cana, when
+"she thought more of the success of the banquet than of her own mouth;"
+the custom of drinking only water prevalent among the Roman women, and
+the abstemiousness of Daniel and the Baptist. Then, after passing
+through a portion of the circle, and holding converse with its inmates,
+they reach another tree, from which a second voice comes to them bidding
+them remember the trouble that came from the drunkenness of the Centaur
+at the wedding of Pirithous, and the rejection by Gideon of the men who
+had drunk immoderately. This coupling of a classical and Scriptural
+instance is quite invariable.
+
+To pass on to the subject of the light thrown upon Dante's speculative
+views in the _Purgatory_. It is not too much to say that from that point
+of view it is the most important division of the whole poem. This,
+perhaps, follows naturally from its subject. The Purgatorial existence
+bears more affinity to the life of this world than does that of those
+who have reached their eternal abode; and human affections and human
+interests still have much of their old power. This, then, would
+naturally be the division in which questions arising from the conditions
+of man's life with men would be likely to suggest themselves.
+
+In the _Hell_ we had indeed a statement of Dante's view of Ethics, so
+far as was necessary to explain his attitude towards breaches of the
+moral law and their punishment. In the _Purgatory_ he goes more deeply
+into the question, and expounds in Cantos xvi., xvii., and xviii., a
+theory with regard to the origin of morals and knowledge. According to
+this the soul when created is a _tabula rasa_, but having certain
+capacities inherent in it in consequence of the nature of its Creator.
+The Creator being absolutely veracious, the information imparted by the
+senses is infallible. Further, the Creator being absolutely happy, the
+soul naturally seeks happiness, and is said to love that in which it
+expects to find happiness. So far there is no room for error. Where it
+can come in is in the inferences which the mind draws from the
+information which the senses give, and in either its choice of an object
+to love, or the vigour with which it pursues that object. It must be
+further noted that the soul is endowed at the outset with a knowledge
+of good and evil, _i.e._ conscience, and with free-will; though this
+latter has to struggle with the conditions which the influence of the
+heavenly bodies imposes on the individual. With due culture, however, it
+can ultimately prevail over these; but it must also be aided in its
+struggle by the check of law and the guidance which should be afforded
+by spiritual pastors. In order that these may have their full effect, it
+is desirable that the secular and spiritual authorities should be in
+different hands: and thus we are brought to the same conclusions as in
+the treatise _De Monarchia_.
+
+To return, however, to the moral question. All action, as has been said,
+is directed to an end, and (in the words of Aquinas, following
+Aristotle) the end for each individual is that which he desires and
+loves. If the end is rightly selected, and the love duly proportioned,
+the action does not incur blame. But it may happen that the end may be
+evil; in which case evil becomes the object of the love, or the love is
+turned to hatred. Now, no created being can hate its Creator, nor can
+any man hate himself; therefore the sins arising from this cause must be
+sins against fellow-men. These, so far as Purgatory is concerned, are
+pride, envy, anger, which, when carried into action, become the sins
+that are punished within the City of Dis, though in Purgatory they would
+appear on the whole to be regarded as the less grave offences.
+
+When the object is good, but the love is lacking in due vigour, we have
+the sin of sloth, or, as our forefathers called it, "accidie." This
+occupies a somewhat anomalous position. Those who have allowed it to
+grow to moodiness and given way to it past hope of repentance, lie in
+Hell at the bottom of the Stygian marsh, and nothing is seen of them but
+the bubbles which are formed by their sighs; while the wrathful or
+ill-tempered lie in the same marsh, but appear above the water. Both
+sins alike render the man full of hatred for his fellows, and make him
+insensible to the joy of life. In Purgatory, on the other hand, the
+anger which is punished seems rather to be the fault of hasty temper;
+while in the case of sloth, the souls who expiate it are represented as
+running at great speed, and proclaiming instances of conspicuous
+alertness. For our present purpose, then, it must be regarded as merely
+slothfulness or indolence.
+
+Finally, we have the cases in which the object is natural, or even
+laudable. A fair share of this world's goods, our daily food, the love
+between man and woman, all these are objects to which the desires may
+lawfully be directed, so long as they are duly restrained. When,
+however, they become the main aim, they are sinful, and lead to the sins
+for which the discipline of the three upper cornices is required; the
+most severe of all that is undergone in Purgatory. Yet these are the
+sins which in Hell "incur less blame," as being sins involving rather
+the animal than the spiritual part of man. But there is not space here
+to discuss this aspect of the subject. Readers will find much interest
+in working it out for themselves.
+
+The physiological sketch given by Statius in the twenty-fifth canto,
+introduced to account for the spiritual body, is in logical order an
+introduction to Dante's ethics and psychology; and is remarkable both in
+its agreement with Aristotle and its divergence from him. The occasion
+for it is found in a question raised by Dante, and suggested to him by
+the appearance of the shades in the circle which they have just left:
+namely, how beings who have no need to go through the ordinary process
+of nutrition, can feel the desire for food (as Forese has explained that
+they do) and grow lean through the deprivation of it. In order to solve
+this difficulty, Statius sketches briefly the stages of the development
+of the human being, from his first conception until he has an
+independent existence, showing how the embryo progresses first to
+vegetative then to animal life, and how finally, when the brain is
+complete (this being the last stage in the organisation), the "First
+Mover" breathes the human soul into the frame. The soul, having thus an
+independent existence, when the frame decays sets itself loose
+therefrom, taking with it the senses and passions, as well as the mental
+faculties of memory, understanding, and will. The latter are still in
+full activity, but the former have only a potential existence until such
+time as the soul has found its place in the other world. Then it takes
+to itself a bodily shape, formed out of the surrounding air (as a flame
+is formed by the fire), and equips it with organs of sense; and
+thenceforward this shape is adapted to express all the natural emotions
+and desires, including of course those of hunger and thirst. This
+remarkable exposition is based on Aristotle's theory of the generation
+of the body, and the introduction into it of the soul; but there is an
+important difference. The Greek philosopher, though his language is not
+very explicit, has apparently no idea of any survival of the personal
+identity after death. At all events, so he was interpreted by Averroes
+and later by Aquinas. With him the source of all movement is the father,
+from whom only (though here again Aristotle is not quite clear) comes
+the gift of a soul. Dante, on the contrary, refers these back to the
+Prime Mover, namely God, and conceives a special creative act as
+performed on behalf of every human being that is brought into the world.
+As will be easily seen, this conception is the necessary complement to
+Dante's system of ethics, based on individual free-will, and postulating
+a newly-created soul, fresh from the Maker's hand; a _tabula rasa_, with
+no attributes save the natural propension towards that which gives it
+pleasure.
+
+We may now pass to the six cantos which conclude this division of the
+poem, and form a most important stage in the development of the whole
+plan. Dante has now proceeded as far as human reason, typified by
+Virgil, is able to guide him. He is on the threshold of Heaven; but
+before he can be admitted among the blessed, another conductor must be
+provided, to whom the way to the Divine Presence shall be freely open.
+This, of course, can only be knowledge informed by faith, or, as we may
+say for shortness, theology, not in the sense of a formal science, but
+in one approaching more nearly to what Aristotle calls _Theoria_, or
+contemplation. From certain expressions in the earliest cantos of the
+poem, it is clear that Dante looked upon the woman whom in his youth he
+had loved, and who had, at the supposed date of these events, been ten
+years dead, as symbolising this _Theoria_, and as being in some special
+way entrusted with the task of saving him from spiritual ruin. She
+accordingly appears, and takes up the duties which Virgil is
+surrendering. The manner of her appearance must be noticed--showing as
+it does the almost inextricable web in which Dante combines fact and
+allegory. That the "Beatrice" who is introduced is primarily none other
+than an actual woman of flesh and blood, whom hundreds of then living
+people had known, who had gone about Florence for twenty-four years and
+married a prominent citizen, and whom Dante had loved with the romantic
+passion of the Middle Ages, only the misplaced ingenuity of paradoxical
+critics can doubt.[35] Yet at her entry she is escorted by a procession,
+the members of which represent the books of the Bible, the seven
+virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; while the car on which she is
+borne (which itself denotes the Church) is drawn by a mystical figure,
+in which we cannot fail to see a symbol of the second Person of the
+Trinity. If it be objected that the salvation of Dante is a small matter
+about which to set in motion so stupendous a machinery, we may answer
+that, in the first place, his own salvation does not seem unimportant to
+the man himself; and further, which is of more weight, that Dante
+himself is here no less symbolical than Beatrice, or Virgil, or the
+mystic Gryphon. He is the typical human soul; his experiences, his
+struggles, his efforts to shake himself free of the trammels of the
+world and the flesh, are familiar features in the spiritual history of
+the great majority of Christians. Thus the wonderful pageant described
+in this canto must be regarded as being displayed, not to him only, but
+to all Christendom in his person.
+
+A few words with regard to this pageant may afford a little help to its
+comprehension. After the arrival of Beatrice, a scene follows in which
+she upbraids Dante for his forgetfulness of her, and receives an avowal
+of his fault. He is then bathed in the stream of Lethe--another curious
+employment of pagan mythology--and brought back to the presence of
+Beatrice. Hitherto she has been veiled; but now, at the special entreaty
+of her attendant nymphs (those nymphs who are also the four stars in
+heaven, and denote the cardinal virtues), she withdraws the veil, and
+discloses again the smile for which her "faithful one" had yearned
+during ten years.
+
+Soon, however, his attention is called away to new and strange sights.
+The procession, of which Dante and his remaining companion Statius now
+form part, moves forward through the wood of the Earthly Paradise; the
+car is attached to a tree, identified with the "tree of knowledge,"
+which since Adam's disobedience has been leafless and fruitless. After
+this Dante falls into a short sleep, and on waking finds that Beatrice
+with her attendants is alone left, as a guardian to the car. Then follow
+a series of strange transformations, the general plan of which is
+clearly suggested by the Apocalypse; but their interpretation is to be
+sought in the relations of the Church to the Empire, down to the time of
+the "Babylonish captivity," or transference of the Papal See to Avignon.
+This is symbolised by the departure of the car, drawn this time by a
+giant (Philip the Fair of France), and occupied no longer by Beatrice,
+but by a harlot, to denote (again with allusion to the Apocalypse) the
+corrupt rule under which the Church had fallen.
+
+In the final scene of all, Beatrice, in phrases hardly less obscure than
+the vision itself, indicates to Dante the lesson which he is to learn
+from it, and repeats in another form Virgil's prediction of a champion
+who is to come and set the world to rights. Much has been written about
+the first of these, the _Veltro_; hardly less about the "five hundred,
+ten, and five," or DXV. The usual interpretation takes these letters as
+intended merely to suggest _Dux_, a leader; but this seems a little
+weak. Elsewhere I have given reasons for thinking that Dante had a
+special motive for wrapping up his meaning in this numerical form.
+
+Lastly, in a passage which, though ostensibly only one of Dante's usual
+time-indications, seems intended to suggest repose after the labours
+through which he has brought his readers, and the agitation of the last
+canto, he tells us that at noon they reached the edge of the forest.
+Here he is made to drink of another stream, Eunoe, or "right mind,"
+after which he is ready for the upward journey.
+
+It is too much to expect readers to work through the voluminous
+interpretations which have been offered of the very difficult and
+perplexing mysticism of these cantos. Some points are perhaps plainer to
+the student who considers them with a fair knowledge of the Bible and
+history, than to the commentator who wishes to establish a new and
+original theory. But they are so important (particularly Cantos xxx. and
+xxxi.) to any one who wishes to understand Dante's whole position as
+man, poet, scholar, and politician, that they should not be passed over
+as mere futile medi�val fancies. It should be said, too, that they
+contain some passages which will never be out of date until the poetic
+taste of mankind has altogether changed.
+
+
+� 3. PARADISE.
+
+The first point which will strike the reader on entering upon the third
+division of the poem is the sudden change in the conditions under which
+the action is carried on. Hitherto Dante has been moving on solid earth,
+subject to the usual limitations which are enforced by physical laws
+upon all human action. Henceforth, as he tells us (_Par._, xxx. 123),
+God operates directly, and physical laws have no longer any place. "It
+is Beatrice," he elsewhere says, "who leads on so swiftly from one stage
+of blessedness to a higher;" and we shall notice that the transference
+from sphere to sphere is effected by Dante's fixing his eyes on hers,
+while she gazes upwards.
+
+A word as to the various spheres may not be out of place here. According
+to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, as adapted to the requirements of
+medi�val belief, the earth was at the centre, and concentric with it
+were ten hollow spheres. In the first eight of these were placed
+consecutively the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
+and the fixed stars. In order to explain the irregular movements of the
+planets, "epicycles" or smaller spheres borne by the principal spheres,
+and bearing the planets, were devised, but these need not be considered
+here. Outside of the fixed stars came the _primum mobile_, which gave
+the diurnal revolution of the heavens, and beyond this the Empyrean, or
+fixed heaven, in which was the special abode of God, and in which all
+the blessed had their places. Between the earth and the innermost
+sphere, that of the Moon, lie the regions of water, air, and fire. The
+Mountain of Purgatory, on the summit of which Dante at the conclusion of
+the second _Cantica_ was standing, lifts its head as far as the third of
+these. Through this accordingly, Beatrice and Dante have to rise in
+order to reach the first step in the celestial ascent. It must be noted
+that there is no reason to suppose that in every case the actual planet
+is visited. The "heaven" of the planet embraces the whole "sphere" in
+which it is set, and its characteristics may be conceived as extending
+to the whole of that sphere.
+
+The fact of rising without apparent motive force through a medium
+lighter than his own body, at once forms a subject for enquiry on
+Dante's part; and Beatrice, as she has frequently to do in the course of
+their journey, resolves his doubt. Those who are reading the poem for
+the first time will probably pass lightly over these difficult
+metaphysical passages. They must be read sooner or later by any one who
+wishes thoroughly to understand Dante's place in the history of
+speculative thought; but in the first instance it will probably be
+better to "take them as read" and endeavour to get a clear notion of the
+general arrangement. There are obvious reasons why this portion of the
+poem should consist as largely as it does of these subtle disquisitions.
+There is far less room, in the first place, for variety of description.
+In a region where there are no shadows, it is impossible to give a
+detailed picture; and terms indicative of simple brightness are limited.
+Nor, again, is it easy where all are perfect to depict individual
+character. Consequently two great elements of interest in the first two
+parts of the poem are far less available here; and their place must be
+filled by other matter. What this matter should be is suggested by the
+natural division of speculative science into Ethics, or the study of
+man's conduct as a moral being; Politics, or the science relating to his
+behaviour in regard to the social order; and Metaphysics, which for
+Dante is synonymous with theology, the investigation of all that
+concerns his spiritual part, as well as the Divine order generally. With
+the first two we have dealt in the _Hell_ and the _Purgatory_
+respectively; the third is reserved for the _Paradise_. Once or twice
+indeed Dante touches on matters that would seem more fitly to belong to
+the others; as, for instance, the magnificent passage in Canto vi.,
+where Justinian, after sketching the triumphant course of the Roman
+Eagle, inveighs against the party feuds of the time; or Carlo Martello's
+reference to the Sicilian Vespers, and the misdeeds of his brother
+Robert. But of these the first leads up to an elaborate exposition of
+the scheme of Redemption, the second seems intended directly to
+introduce a dissertation on matters lying at the very root of human
+nature.
+
+To the same difficulty in varying the methods (to use a phrase of
+Gingu�n�'s) must be attributed the occurrence of a good many
+conceptions which to our taste appear somewhat grotesque. Yet the better
+we know the poem the more we shall feel that in this third part the
+author's genius rises to its sublimest efforts, and agree with the late
+Dean of St. Paul's, that it is the true _pierre de touche_ of the
+student of Dante.
+
+To go briefly through the various stages. The heaven of the Moon is that
+in which appear the spirits of those who having taken vows have under
+compulsion or persuasion abandoned them; Mercury contains statesmen and
+men of affairs; Venus those who have been over-much swayed by indulgence
+in earthly love. It must be observed that, according to the astronomy of
+the time, the shadow of the Earth, cast into space by the Sun, extended
+as far as the orbit of Venus. The spirits in these three spheres
+therefore form a group by themselves: being distinguished by the fact
+that they had allowed earthly cares and pleasures to obtain too strong
+hold of them, to the injury of their spiritual development. In these
+three spheres respectively the representative speakers are Piccarda
+Donati, sister of Dante's friend Forese, and of Corso, the leader of
+the "Black Guelfs;" the Emperor Justinian; and Carlo Martello, the
+titular king of Hungary, son of Charles II., king of Naples, who is
+followed by Cunizza, sister of the Ghibeline chief, Ezzelino da Romano,
+and Folco of Marseilles, who began as a troubadour and became bishop of
+his native city.
+
+Although in one sense the inhabitants of the three lower spheres may be
+said to have attained a less perfect blessedness than those to whom the
+rest of heaven is assigned, it must not be supposed that they are
+conscious of any lack. All have their places in the highest or Empyrean
+heaven, and all sense of sorrow for past imperfections is at an end. We
+must indeed suppose that, as with Dante himself, the imperfections have
+been effaced by the discipline of Purgatory, and their remembrance
+washed away by the water of Lethe.
+
+With the sphere of the Sun, however, we arrive for the first time in the
+presence of those who have lived so as to earn the full honour of
+sanctity, and find ourselves amongst canonised saints. Even here Dante
+has shown himself, as usual, independent of conventional or official
+restrictions. In his introduction of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
+Bonaventura he merely anticipates the formal decision of the Church; but
+in "Peter of Spain," that is Pope John XXI. (the only historical Pope
+whom he places in Paradise), he selects for special honour a man who was
+by no means free from grave suspicion of heresy, and who has never been
+canonised. As Dante never did anything without a reason we must suppose
+that some now forgotten merit earned for the Spanish logician a place
+beside Nathan, Chrysostom, and Anselm. It is by these and such men as
+these, great teachers and thinkers, that the heaven of the Sun is
+occupied; the reason no doubt being that as the Sun is the source of
+light and the promoter of growth in the physical world, so are these in
+the spiritual.
+
+The tenth canto is specially notable as bringing Dante into the presence
+of the greatest exponent of the Scholastic philosophy, and the master
+whom he followed more closely than any other, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the
+eleventh, the illustrious Dominican recounts the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi, the founder of the rival order. This is one of the most notable
+passages in the whole poem, rising as it does to a sustained
+magnificence of diction which especially characterises those portions of
+the _Paradise_ where the poet allows full play to his genius.
+Justinian's roll-call of the Roman achievements in Canto vi. is another.
+Nothing at all like them is found in the two former divisions of the
+poem; and it is to them that students who wish to feel the attraction
+which the _Paradise_ undoubtedly exercises over those who know it well,
+should first turn.
+
+The sphere of the Sun, in which we now are, is, it should be noted, one
+of the two regions of Heaven in which Dante makes the longest stay, the
+other being that of the Fixed Stars. The passage to it marks a distinct
+stage in his progress. Looking back to the end of Canto ix. we see that
+it forms a kind of peroration; while the first twenty-seven lines of
+Canto x. are, as it were, the introduction to a fresh division of the
+poem, and recall certain phrases which occurred in the opening canto. It
+is difficult to say why these two spheres should be made of so much more
+importance than the rest. Mars is the only one which approaches them;
+but this is selected by Dante as the scene of his interview with his
+ancestor Cacciaguida, which gives the occasion for the magnificent
+contrast between the old days of Florence and its present state, and the
+prophecy of his own exile; subjects which might well occupy a
+considerable space. On the other hand, the eulogy of St. Francis,
+already referred to, which St. Thomas Aquinas delivers, and that of St.
+Dominic, with which St. Bonaventura, "vying with the courtesy of so
+mighty a paladin," responds to it, fine as they are, do not appear
+indispensable in the scheme of the poem. But the whole plan of the
+_Paradise_ is, so far as can be seen, arranged with much less of obvious
+symmetry than is to be found in the two former _Cantiche_. No doubt the
+plan is there; but just as "time-indications" for the most part fail us,
+or can be extracted only by elaborate and somewhat uncertain
+calculations, so it would seem as if the poet, no longer hampered by the
+necessities of time and space, had wished to show how he could work with
+no self-made restrictions.
+
+After his discourse in praise of the founder of the rival order,
+immediately followed by its counterpart--an eloquent summary of the
+career of St. Dominic, put into the mouth of the Franciscan
+Bonaventura--St. Thomas speaks again (Canto xiii.), in order to explain
+an apparent over-estimate of Solomon's greatness among mankind which an
+expression used by him in naming the spirits present with him might have
+seemed to imply. As happens more than once in this division of the poem,
+a piece of what at first sight looks rather like logical quibbling is
+made the introduction to some profound teaching in reference to the
+workings of the human mind--teaching which is at least as needful in the
+present day as it ever was in Dante's own time. Solomon himself then
+speaks, answering a question put by Beatrice on Dante's behalf as to the
+nature of the glorified body; and then Dante, having looked upon the
+countenance of Beatrice, and being by this means (as in every other
+case) raised "to a higher salvation," finds by the ruddy light which
+surrounds him that he has entered the sphere of Mars.
+
+A new feature appears here. In each of the three planets exterior
+(according to the astronomy of that age) to the Sun, we find some
+special image displayed. In the case of Mars, it is a vast crucifix,
+composed of spirits, who are darting in all directions within the
+figure, like motes in a sunbeam. One of them glides from the arm to the
+foot of the cross, and makes himself known to Dante as his
+great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, probably (though this is not
+certain) of the family of the Elisei.[36] He had been, like all the
+other spirits, as it would seem, of this sphere, a soldier, and had died
+in battle as a Crusader. The latter half of this, the fifteenth canto,
+together with the two following, form what is probably the best-known
+and most frequently quoted portion of the _Paradise_. First we have a
+beautiful picture of the simple and kindly life of old Florence, before
+party-spirit and luxury had entered and corrupted its citizens. The
+picture is, of course, one of those which people in every age have drawn
+of earlier times, supposed to have been free from the corruptions which
+each man's experience teaches him are rife in his own day; but none the
+less it is of value as showing Dante's ideal of social life.
+
+The next canto continues to deal with the same topic; but enters more
+into detail with regard to the various families, and the vicissitudes
+in their fortunes. This leads up to the existing strife of parties, and
+this again naturally to Dante's own share in it, and his exile. It must
+be remembered that this did not actually come about till two years after
+the date at which the action of the _Commedia_ is supposed to take
+place; so that the whole is cast into a prophetic form. The language
+used, however, must be taken as expressing the feeling with which Dante
+looked back after an interval of nearly twenty years--for the _Paradise_
+was probably completed very shortly before the poet's death--upon the
+events in which he had borne a somewhat prominent part. Whether he was
+ever a personage of the first importance in Florence we may be allowed
+to doubt. No doubt he was a man of some consideration; but still the
+office of Prior was one which nearly every eligible citizen must have
+held;[37] and Villani, who devotes a chapter to his memory, does not
+mention his name among the political leaders of an earlier period.
+Probably he occupied among the exiles of 1302 a far less important place
+in their own eyes and those of contemporaries than he does in ours; but
+if not a leader, he was in the front rank, and must have been aware of
+all that went on. The passages relating to his exile, to the
+worthlessness of his companions, to his gratitude towards those who
+helped him, gain immensely in force and pathos if we regard them as an
+aging man's reminiscences of a long by-gone time.
+
+With the passage to the sphere of Jupiter (Canto xviii.) the imagery
+becomes yet more daring. This is the region specially devoted to the
+spirits of the righteous; and these as they fly are forming letters,
+which ultimately spell out the opening words of the Book of Wisdom:
+"Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram." When the final M is reached a
+further transformation takes place; the letter is gradually modified
+into the shape of the imperial eagle. Righteousness, or justice, is, it
+should be remembered, in Dante's view (as indeed in that of most
+moralists) the source and foundation of all that goes to establish human
+society on a virtuous and duly ordered basis. Thus it is rightly
+illustrated by the symbol of the Empire. The Eagle behaves as one single
+individual, though composed of countless spirits; speaking with a
+single voice, and in the singular number. A discourse on justice leads
+up to a sharp rebuke of nearly every prince then ruling, on the score of
+misgovernment in one or another form.
+
+After this the Eagle proceeds to indicate whose are the spirits which
+compose its eye. These with one exception are all great sovereigns of
+ancient and recent times. The exception is remarkable. In Hell we found
+several cases in which mythological or fictitious personages were
+treated on a footing of absolute equality with those who had a perfect
+historical claim to the distinction; but the appearance in the Christian
+Heaven of a man whose very name is preserved merely in a single line of
+the _�neid_ strikes us with astonishment. For being recorded by Virgil
+as the most righteous man among the Trojans, Rhipeus takes his place
+beside David, Hezekiah, Constantine, and the "good king" William II. of
+Sicily.
+
+When the time comes for the ascent to be resumed, Dante notices that
+Beatrice smiles no longer. On the threshold, as she explains, of the
+seventh heaven, the lustre of her smile would be more than his eyes
+could endure. Here, in Saturn, a ladder is seen, reaching to the next
+sphere. We learn that this is identical with the ladder seen by Jacob in
+his vision; and down it are descending the spirits of such as in this
+world had lived the contemplative life in full perfection. The chanting
+which has been audible in the other spheres is here silent--no doubt in
+order to symbolise the insensibility to outward impressions of the soul
+rapt in contemplation. The speakers in this group are St. Peter Damian
+and St. Benedict; both of whom have severe words to say as to the
+corruption of the monastic orders.
+
+The company of saints reascend (Canto xxii.): and Dante and Beatrice
+follow them, mounting by the ladder, but, as it would appear, with no
+perceptible lapse of time. The eighth heaven, that of the Fixed Stars,
+is reached in the sign of the Twins; under which Dante himself had been
+born. At this point Beatrice directs him, before entering on the final
+blessedness of heaven, and doubtless with the ulterior view of leading
+him to a just sense of the insignificance of earthly things, to look
+back over the course which he has traversed.
+
+A very distinct stage of the journey is here reached, and, as has been
+already noticed, we are entering that one of the celestial spheres in
+which Dante makes the longest stay.
+
+He and his guide have now reached the outermost of the heavenly spheres
+of whose existence our senses give any evidence--that of the Fixed
+Stars. A vision of Christ descending, accompanied by His Mother, and
+surrounded with saints, is granted to Dante; after which he is again
+able to endure the effulgence of Beatrice's smile. It is not, however,
+until Christ has reascended that he recovers his full power of sight.
+Then he perceives that the company of saints has remained; and
+presently, at the request of Beatrice, St. Peter comes forward, and
+proceeds to examine Dante on the subject of Faith, and the grounds for
+his belief in the Christian revelation. The ensuing colloquy is
+interesting, as being practically a versified form of the scholastic
+method of discussion, such as we find in Aquinas. St. Peter plays the
+part of the supposed opponent, and brings forward the standard
+objections to Dante's statements of dogma. For the ordinary reader,
+however, this and the next two cantos form, it must be admitted, one of
+the less attractive portions of the poem. Yet even here we now and then
+come upon a passage of pure poetry, such as the famous lines at the
+opening of Canto xxv., in which Dante utters what must have been almost
+his last aspiration after a return to "the fair fold in which as a lamb
+I slept."
+
+Following St. Peter, St. James makes his appearance. To him is entrusted
+the task of testing Dante's soundness in the doctrine and definition of
+Hope. Lastly, comes St. John, who examines him touching the right object
+of Love. In each case, when he has answered to the satisfaction of his
+questioner, a chant goes up from the assembled spirits; the words on
+every occasion being taken, as it would appear, from the _Te Deum_.
+Afterwards the three Apostles are joined by Adam, who takes up the
+discourse, and answers two unexpressed questions of Dante's, as to the
+length of his stay in Paradise, and the nature of the primitive language
+of mankind.
+
+Canto xxvii. opens with a tremendous invective, put into the mouth of
+St. Peter, against the corruption of the Papacy; a passage which
+incidentally contains an important piece of evidence with regard to the
+date at which the later cantos of the _Paradise_ were written. A bitter
+allusion to "men of Cahors" can have been evoked only by the election of
+John XXII., who was from that city; and he became Pope in 1316. After
+this the whole multitude of Saints ascend to the highest heaven; but
+before Dante follows, Beatrice makes him look down once more, and he
+perceives that since his entry into this sphere he has moved with the
+diurnal rotation through an arc of forty-five degrees. Then they ascend
+into the sphere of the First Motion, where place and time no longer
+exist. From its movement time is measured; and its place is in the
+Divine intelligence only. Here the Empyrean, or highest Heaven, comes
+into view; at first as a point of intense brilliancy round which nine
+circles are revolving. These represent the Angelic hierarchies, and
+their places with regard to the central point are in inverse order to
+that of the spheres which they move. Beatrice takes occasion from them
+to instruct Dante upon some points relating to the creation and
+functions of the angels, and incidentally, upon the creation of form and
+matter, and their combination in the visible universe. The passage
+(Canto xxix.) is difficult; but is so magnificent in its diction as to
+deserve careful study. Dante has nowhere else succeeded so completely in
+clothing with poetry the dry bones of scholastic theology. The
+discussion, by dealing with several disputed points, gives occasion for
+some stringent remarks on the preachers of the time.
+
+They now rise to the highest heaven, outside of all the spheres, in
+which all the blessed have their true place. At first Dante is aware of
+light only, but gradually a fresh power of sight comes to him, and he
+sees a river, from and to which bright sparks are ever issuing and
+returning. The banks are brilliant with flowers. At the command of
+Beatrice he bows down and drinks, and at once sees the river as a lake
+of light, the flowers on the banks as concentric rows of saints seated
+on thrones, and the flitting sparks as angels. At this point Beatrice
+leaves Dante, after a few scathing words in reference to the
+"covetousness"[38] of the Papacy, which has put the world out of
+joint--words which may be taken as summing up in brief all the passages
+throughout the poem in which political affairs are touched upon. With
+this, if we except one bitter jibe at Florence (xxxi. 39) all
+controversial matters are dismissed, and the last three cantos of the
+poem are devoted to a description, rising ever in sublimity, of the joys
+and mysteries of Heaven.
+
+The "soldiery of heaven" appears in the form of a vast white rose, whose
+petals are the seats on which the saints sit. On one hand these are
+filled, being occupied by holy men and women belonging to the old
+dispensation: while on the other the number of the elect has still to be
+accomplished. Beatrice having gone back to her place among the blessed
+beside Rachel, the task of escorting Dante is entrusted to St. Bernard,
+who points out where some of the more eminent have their stations. As
+throughout the poem, all is arranged with order and symmetry. The
+junction between the Old and New Testaments is indicated by the position
+assigned to Our Lady on one side of the circle, and in the highest row,
+and St. John the Baptist, who is diametrically opposite to her. Below
+her sit in order a series of Christ's ancestresses Eve, Rachel, Sarah,
+Rebekah, Ruth; Adam is on her left, St. Peter on her right, beyond them
+Moses and St. John the Evangelist. On either hand of the Baptist sit St.
+Anne and St. Lucy, and below him a line of founders of orders and other
+teachers; the lower circles are filled with the spirits of children.
+
+At the close of his enumeration of these chief personages, St. Bernard
+observes that the time of Dante's slumber is nearly at an end, and that
+they must, "like a good tailor, cut the coat according to the cloth." In
+these three lines are two very noticeable points. First, the word
+"slumber," implying that the whole journey through the other world has
+been performed in a dream; and secondly, the bold use, at perhaps the
+most exalted moment of the whole poem, of a trivial, almost vulgar,
+figure of speech. We meet with other instances of this in the
+_Paradise_, and they are eminently characteristic of the medi�val mind.
+The subject is too wide to be discussed here; but readers may be
+reminded of the numerous examples which the architecture of the period
+shows, in which grotesque or even indecent figures are introduced among
+the ornamental work of sacred buildings.
+
+At the beginning of the last canto, St. Bernard, in an address of
+exquisite beauty (of which Chaucer, in the Second Nun's Tale has given
+an almost equally exquisite rendering), appeals to the Virgin--who, it
+will be remembered, is throughout represented as taking a special
+interest in Dante--for her aid to him in his last and crowning
+experience. Thus succoured, he is able to gaze upon the Supreme Light;
+and in a flash there is revealed to him a full comprehension of all
+fundamental truths, first those of metaphysics, then those of faith. He
+understands for a moment the whole composition of the universe, and then
+the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Trinity. The intuition is
+momentary, and leaves merely the memory of a memory. But the lasting
+effect is the entire union of his will with the Divine will, and herein,
+we must understand him to imply, is found the salvation the attainment
+of which has been the ultimate aim and object of his whole journey.
+
+Many touches in this concluding passage bear a strong resemblance to
+what seems to have been the teaching of the contemporary German mystics.
+It would be interesting to inquire how far Dante can have been
+acquainted with any of the writings of that school. If any connection
+can be traced, it may throw light on several obscure points.[39]
+
+It remains to be added that the _Commedia_ was first printed at Foligno
+in 1472. Editions followed in quick succession from Jesi, Mantua, and
+Naples. The first Venetian edition is that of Vindelin of Spires, in
+1477; the first Florentine, that with Landino's commentary, in 1481. It
+was printed several times more before 1500, and constantly in the
+sixteenth century. We have several commentaries dating from a period
+only later by a few years than Dante's death.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [28] Not only this allusion, but the occurrence, in this and
+    other parts of the poem, of several words used in that district
+    makes it almost certain that Dante was very familiar with the
+    country round about Trent. Doubtless he would visit it from
+    Verona.
+
+    [29] See p. 79.
+
+    [30] See p. 36.
+
+    [31] It seems never to have been noticed that, as every line
+    from the surface to the centre is perpendicular, a descent by
+    _slopes_, such as is represented, would really be impossible.
+
+    [32] See p. 34.
+
+    [33] A late legend, to which some eminent writers have given too
+    easy credence, does actually assert that Dante did go to Genoa,
+    in the suite of Henry VII., about the end of 1311, and there was
+    ill-used by some of Branca d'Oria's friends or domestics. But
+    none of the early commentators knows anything of this tale.
+
+    [34] But see p. 42.
+
+    [35] See pp. 48-51.
+
+    [36] See p. 38.
+
+    [37] See p. 70.
+
+    [38] Note that _cupidigia_ is, in Dante's scheme, the vice
+    opposed to _giustizia_, that which debases nations as
+    righteousness exalts them.
+
+    [39] See also p. 46.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE MINOR WORKS
+
+
+The _Commedia_ is, for many readers perhaps, the only book distinctly
+identified with Dante's name. Yet it must be remembered that, as a
+matter of fact, it represents less than half of the total bulk of his
+writings; and, further, that the remainder comprises several works
+which, though not attaining to the pre-eminent position which all the
+world now recognises the great poem as occupying, are very remarkable
+monuments of medi�val literature.
+
+Of the youthful work, the _Vita Nuova_, we have already spoken. It may
+be sufficient here to add that--though there is some controversy on the
+point--the name probably means only "Early" or "Fresh Life." The book
+was pretty certainly written not much after 1290, though the last
+chapter, in which the author's design to compose a greater work is
+alluded to, may have been added when the scheme of the _Commedia_ was
+more developed. The _Vita Nuova_ was not printed till 1578.
+
+With regard to the date at which the most important of the prose works,
+known as the _Convito_, or "Banquet," was composed, considerable
+uncertainty exists. Villani says that the odes to which it is ostensibly
+a commentary were written in exile. Some critics hold that it belongs,
+at all events in great part, to the "pre-exilian" period of Dante's
+life; while others place it as late as 1310. The late Dr. Witte regarded
+it as the middle division of what he called "Dante's Trilogy"--the
+drama, that is, of the development of Dante's soul. In this view, the
+early love portrayed in the _Vita Nuova_ marks an age of simple faith,
+undisturbed by any doubt. The _Convito_ (so far as it was completed)
+records a period of philosophical speculation--not actually adverse to
+the truths of religion, but seeking to establish these rather on the
+basis of human reason than on revelation. Lastly, the _Commedia_ shows
+us the soul, convinced that salvation and enlightenment are not to be
+found on this road, returning again to child-like submission. There is
+no doubt an attractive symmetry about this arrangement, but it is open
+to some objections, one of them being, as a French critic said, that
+part at least of the _Convito_ must almost certainly have been written
+after the date in which Dante's conversion is represented as having
+taken place. Nor is it an answer to say that, the action of the
+_Commedia_ being purely imaginary, we need pay no attention to dates.
+For one thing, Dante is extremely careful, and with more success than
+any one without his marvellous "visualising" power could hope for, to
+avoid anything like an anachronism in the _Commedia_. If he allows no
+event, which, in the history of the world, was still future in 1300, to
+be referred to as past, why should he have allowed this in regard to
+events in the history of his own spiritual development?
+
+The truth is, that all these elaborate and symmetrical theories prove
+too much; and what is worse, they all spring from an ignorance, or a
+neglect, of the great facts of human nature. The _Commedia_ is, of
+course, full of expressions of contrition for former error; of frank
+recognition that the writer has gone astray in the past, and hopes to
+keep straight in the future. But might not any man, any thoughtful man
+at all events, of thirty-five years old and upwards, take Dante's words
+with perfect sincerity, as the expression of his own deepest thoughts?
+Why assume that the faults of which Dante repented with tears in the
+presence of Beatrice, were limited to a too great reliance on human
+reason, or to a secret leaning to the philosophy of Averroes? Were they
+not moral as well as intellectual? Whether the year 1300 really marked
+an epoch at which anything of the nature of what is now called
+"conversion" took place in Dante's mind, we cannot say. It pretty
+certainly corresponded with a decided revulsion in his political views.
+It cannot have been without a pang that he found himself obliged
+formally to break with the Guelf party, of which he had hitherto been a
+faithful member, and to cast in his lot with men whom he, doubtless,
+like those with whom he had all his life associated, regarded as a set
+of turbulent, over-bearing swashbucklers, trying with the help of
+foreign men and money to reimpose a feudal tyranny on a prosperous and
+free commonwealth. For this is the aspect in which the Ghibelines must
+have presented themselves to a Florentine burgher of the year 1300. No
+doubt the doings of the Black party would have taught him that
+overbearing and tyrannical ways, turbulence and swagger were not the
+monopoly of one side, and that the freedom and peace of Florence must,
+in any case, soon be things of the past. All the foundations of the
+earth must have seemed to him to be out of course, and we can well
+imagine that his thought may have been driven inward, and he may thus
+have come to recognise how far the school which he had followed, and the
+path upon which he had walked--not in philosophy only, but in all
+matters of conduct--had led him from the ideals of his early manhood and
+from the way of God. Thus he would naturally refer the vision, which, of
+course, contains an allegorical account of all this change or
+"conversion," if we may call it so, to that year the events of which had
+given the first impulse to it.
+
+It is not, however, necessary to suppose that with Dante, any more than
+with most men of a similar age, a conviction that he had hitherto been
+on the wrong track involved an entire break with former habits, at all
+events of mind and thought. He may very well have gone on stringing
+together the curious medley of learning which he had not unfitly called
+a "Banquet."[40] As we have said already, it looks very like the
+contents of a commonplace book, in which materials for other
+works--notably for the _Commedia_--were collected. Many of the views
+enunciated in it may well be those held by Dante long before, and
+subsequently changed, though he might not have taken the trouble to
+expunge them, even when stating a maturer opinion in a later work.
+
+A good many of the difficulties which arise in the consideration of the
+dates of Dante's works, probably arise from oblivion of the fact that
+"publication" in our modern sense did not exist in those days. An author
+would no doubt give his manuscript to friends to read, as he went along;
+and, if they liked it, they would probably take a copy of so much as
+they had. Thus portions of a book would get about long before the whole
+was finished; and in this way the views which Dante expresses in the
+_Convito_ upon the cause of the markings in the moon, the order of the
+angelic hierarchies, the nature of the Milky Way, and similar matters,
+may well have been known to many as held by him, and he may have known
+that this was the case. Subsequently, having changed his mind--it may
+be, even before 1300--he would take the opportunity of a part of the
+_Commedia_ having got into circulation, to recant; and even so the
+original view might stand in the _Convito_, and appear in that work when
+finally produced. When we further remember that Dante left the
+_Convito_ little more than begun, and consequently, no doubt, unrevised,
+it will be clear that very little inference can be drawn as to its date,
+from the fact that certain opinions expressed in it are retracted in the
+_Commedia_. It would be truer to say that it had no date. It was first
+printed in 1490.
+
+The _De Monarchia_ is a complete treatise, in fact, probably the only
+work besides the _Commedia_ which we can feel sure that we have in a
+form which it would have retained however long Dante might have lived.
+Enough has been already said as to its scope; it may suffice to add that
+the Church has never looked upon it with favour, which was probably the
+reason of its not being printed till 1559, and then in Germany.
+
+The unfinished treatise known as _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ had the curious
+fortune to appear in an Italian translation (1529) some fifty years
+before it was printed in its original Latin. It is a most interesting
+little work, showing considerable acuteness of perception in regard to
+peculiarities of local vernacular, and a general "feeling" for
+linguistic matters.
+
+How do we know that all these works are Dante's? it will be asked. Here
+we rest on unusually sure ground, for which once more we have to thank
+Villani.
+
+In the Chapter to which we have already more than once referred,
+containing the notice of Dante's death, that historian gives a list of
+his works. "In his youth," we read--
+
+    "he made the book called _The New Life of Love_; and afterwards,
+    when he was in exile, he made some twenty moral and amatory
+    odes, very excellent; and, among others, he wrote three notable
+    letters, one to the Government of Florence, lamenting his own
+    exile without any fault; the second he sent to the Emperor
+    Henry; the third to the Italian cardinals, when the vacancy
+    occurred after the death of Pope Clement.... And he made the
+    _Comedy_, wherein, in polished rhyme, and with great and subtle
+    questions of morals, nature, and astrology, philosophy and
+    theology ... he composed and treated in one hundred chapters, or
+    chants, concerning the being and condition of Hell, Purgatory,
+    and Paradise.... He also made the _Monarchy_, in which he
+    treated of the duty of the Pope and of the Emperor. And he began
+    a commentary on fourteen of the above-mentioned moral odes, in
+    the vulgar tongue, which, through his death supervening, is only
+    completed for three.... Also he made a little work which he
+    calls _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, whereof he promises to make four
+    books, but only two are extant, perhaps by reason of his speedy
+    end; in which, in powerful and elegant style, and with fine
+    arguments, he examines all the vernaculars of Italy."
+
+The last two paragraphs, it should be said, do not occur in all
+manuscripts. But, assuming them to be genuine, it will be seen that we
+have here an almost contemporary notice, with one or two exceptions, of
+all the main works now contained in the editions of Dante. The chief
+exception is the curious little treatise on physical geography, called
+_De aqua et terra_, which purports to be a lecture delivered by Dante at
+Verona, in the last year of his life; but this is of very questionable
+genuineness. It was first printed, indeed, in 1508, but no manuscript of
+it is now known to exist.
+
+Of the other works, Villani's notice may be regarded as clear proof that
+they are what they profess to be; and incidentally it may be said that
+his mention of them has probably been of great service. Literary
+morality was sufficiently lax in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
+and people's ideas as to the use that might legitimately be made of
+famous names differed considerably from those now in force. As it is, a
+good many compositions have passed under Dante's name, from an early
+date, which scarcely pretend to be genuine works of his. We can imagine
+what a temptation it would have been for some enterprising man of
+letters to complete the _Convito_ or the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, or
+even to add a canto or two to the _Commedia_, if there had been no
+record in existence to let the world know where the genuine ended and
+the spurious began.[41] Even this security, however, is not quite
+sufficient to set us at our ease in the case of the letters. True, we
+have three letters purporting to be the three which Villani mentions, as
+well as several others passing under Dante's name; but it is, of course,
+possible that the very fact of his mentioning them may have sufficed to
+set ingenious scribes at work to produce them. Manuscripts of them are
+very few, and they occur in company with other works which are undoubted
+exercises of fancy.
+
+On the other hand, more than one writer of the fifteenth century
+professes to have seen letters of Dante's, of which no trace can now be
+found. That referring to the battle of Campaldino, for which Leonardo
+Bruni vouches, has already been mentioned; and Flavius Blondus of Forl�,
+a historian about contemporary with Leonardo, speaks of others as extant
+in his time. These, if they could now be recovered, would be of the
+greatest interest, since they related to the obscure period immediately
+following the exile of the White party. Meanwhile the genuineness of the
+more important letters which we possess is perhaps the most interesting
+question which remains to be settled in connection with Dante's works.
+
+Besides the prose letters, two poetical epistles are still extant, and
+these, strange to say, the most sceptical critics have so far allowed to
+pass unquestioned. There is something a little pathetic about their
+history. Two or three years before Dante's death, a young scholar of
+Bologna, known from his devotion to the great Latin bard, as Joannes de
+Virgilio, addressed an extremely prosaic, but highly complimentary,
+epistle to the old poet, urging him to write something in the more
+dignified language of antiquity. Dante replied in an "Eclogue," wherein,
+under Virgilian pastoral imagery, he playfully banters his
+correspondent, and says that he had better finish first the work he has
+in hand, namely the _Commedia_. One more communication on either side
+followed, and then Dante's death brought the verse-making to a close. In
+his own pieces one is struck rather by the melody of the rhythm and
+occasional dignity of the thought, than by the classical quality of the
+Latinity. But they are unquestionably remarkable specimens of Latin
+verse for an age previous to the revival of classical study, and, we
+should say, far more genial and more truly Virgilian in spirit than the
+most polished composition of the Humanists.
+
+It is not intended here to enter into any analysis or estimate of
+Dante's prose works. The former task is one which readers should perform
+for themselves. Nor need they find it too much for their powers. With
+all his obscurity of allusion, and occasionally of phrase, Dante is not
+really a difficult author. From his teachers, the schoolmen, he had
+learnt to arrange his matter with due, perhaps more than due, regard to
+order and symmetry; and consequently the attentive reader is seldom at a
+loss to know what part of the subject is, at any given place, under
+consideration.
+
+Of the obscurity which results from over-elaboration of the thought, or
+from an attempt at originality of expression, Dante is, in his maturer
+works, singularly free.[42] It must be remembered, too, that very often
+phrases which look to us like "conceits" are merely instances of the
+employment of scientific and technical terms now obsolete, but then
+familiar to every cultivated reader.
+
+For �sthetic, or, as it has been unkindly called, "sign-post"
+criticism--that which, under the guise of directing the reader's taste,
+often seems intended to call attention mainly to the acuteness of the
+critic's own perception or his delicacy of phrase--the study of Dante
+would seem to be a very unpromising field. The sentimentalist and the
+elegant craftsman in words seem out of place in the company of this
+uncompromising seeker after realities, this relentless exposer of shams.
+
+It is much better that the student should begin by understanding his
+author. When he has mastered the meaning, it will be time enough to
+begin to admire, whether it be the thought or the words, or the
+expression of the one through the other. For this reason we should
+strongly counsel beginners to read Dante himself first, and books about
+Dante afterwards. We would go so far as to say: at the first reading,
+dispense even with notes, and be content to look out the words in a
+dictionary. It is far better practice to find out for yourself where the
+difficulties lie, than to be told where to expect them. Similarly with
+the "beauties." These will reveal themselves _a ciascun' alma presa e
+gentil cuore_, and every reader will find them in such measure as he
+deserves. Then will be the time to use the commentaries to solve, so far
+as may be, the problems which have been discovered, and then to take up
+such works as Mr. Symonds's _Study of Dante_, Miss Rossetti's _Shadow of
+Dante_, and Dean Church's _Essay_. The student who, to a thorough
+knowledge of the poem, joins a careful perusal of these three works will
+find his knowledge co-ordinated, his grasp of Dante's whole system
+strengthened, his perception of Dante's greatness marvellously
+quickened. If he afterwards cares to pursue the subject further into the
+thickets of modern Italian and German criticism, he will find plenty of
+entertainment. Only let him remember that most of the minute details
+with which the excellent critics deal are not really of the very
+slightest importance.
+
+As has been said above, there is ample reason for believing that the
+person to whom Dante refers under the name of Beatrice was a young lady
+of that name, daughter of one Folco Portinari, and wife to Simone de'
+Bardi. But suppose that irresistible evidence to the contrary could be
+found? Suppose that documents should come to light showing that no
+Beatrice Portinari ever lived--even that there was no woman, young or
+old, in Florence, who bore the Christian name of Beatrice between 1200
+and 1300, what would it matter? Do we read Andromache's
+
+    "Hector, but thou to me art father and mother and brother, and
+    thou my gallant husband too;"
+
+or Helen's
+
+    "Hector, dearest to me by far of all my brothers-in-law, it is
+    now twenty years since I left my native land, but never yet have
+    I heard from thee an ill or insulting word,"
+
+with any the less emotion because we do not feel sure that Hector, or
+Andromache, or Helen ever lived on this earth? Some would add, or Homer;
+but so far, happily, no "separatist" has taken Dante in hand. But again,
+suppose he did, and with better success than has on the whole attended
+those who would have us believe that half a dozen or more men
+contributed to the _Iliad_, any one book of which would entitle its
+author to rank among the great poets of all time? The world would prove
+to be richer by as many great poets as could be shown to have
+collaborated in the writing of the _Commedia_; and how should we be the
+poorer? The poem would still be there, with all its power to soothe, to
+stimulate, to throw light upon the most hidden corners of the human
+soul, to reveal our own motives to us. It is, of course, only human
+nature to feel a personal interest in the man who has taught us so much;
+but we must not allow this natural sentiment to make us forget that the
+man is only interesting because of his work. After all, when the most
+destructive criticism has done its worst, we know much more about Dante
+than we know about the still greater Shakespeare; and let us be thankful
+for what knowledge we have.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [40] This may be a good point at which to say that we need not
+    suppose because Dante employed the Canzoni as pegs upon which to
+    hang the philosophical, astronomical, and other lucubrations of
+    the _Convito_, that when originally written they were anything
+    but exercises in the amatory style of composition usual in that
+    age, whether inspired or not by any serious passion. He would
+    have found no more difficulty in attaching subsequently a
+    mystical and moral interpretation to them than divines had found
+    in doing the same for the Canticles.
+
+    [41] In the case of the _Commedia_, it would seem that Dante
+    himself took measures to guard against interpolations. As is
+    well known, he never uses any one series of rhymes more than
+    once in the same canto; and, from the structure of the _terza
+    rima_, it is impossible to introduce any fresh matter when the
+    canto is once completed without violating this rule. This fact
+    alone serves to convict of forgery the unknown person who
+    inserted eighteen lines after _Hell_, xxxiii. 90, in one of the
+    Bodleian manuscripts; as to which, see Dr. Moore's _Textual
+    Criticism_.
+
+    [42] It is, perhaps, worth noting that as the tendency to
+    _concetti_ increased in Italian literature, Dante was more and
+    more neglected. Only three editions appeared from 1596 to 1716.
+    Curiously enough, there are two treatises extant which just
+    correspond with the beginning and end of this period of eclipse.
+    One of them is called _A Brief and Ingenious Discourse against
+    the Work of Dante_. It was written by Monsignor Alessandro
+    Cariero, and published at Padua in 1582. The arguments are of
+    the feeblest and most pedantic kind; but it marks a stage in
+    taste. The recovery is indicated by a _Defence of Dante
+    Alighieri_, a lecture given by Dr. Giuseppe Bianchini to the
+    Florentine Academy in 1715, and published three years later.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS
+
+
+Something has already been said as to the way in which the student of
+Dante should set to work in the way both of putting himself so far as
+possible at Dante's point of view with regard to earlier literature, and
+of availing himself of the various commentaries and treatises which
+subsequent writers have produced in such abundance; but it may be
+convenient to enter into this matter somewhat more in detail. It would
+obviously be too much to expect of every beginner that he should prepare
+himself for the study of Dante by a preliminary perusal of all the books
+which Dante may have read. But if he is to read with any profit, or
+indeed with any real enjoyment, some preliminary study is almost
+indispensable. Take, for instance, the historical standpoint. Some of
+Dante's grandest apostrophes fall flat to one who has not grasped the
+medi�val theory of the Roman Empire, as set forth in Mr. Bryce's
+well-known book or elsewhere. Much of his imagery, especially in the
+first Cantica, seems fantastic and arbitrary to one who is not familiar
+with Virgil's sixth _�neid_, and does not realise that nearly every
+feature in the Dantesque Hell is developed, with assistance no doubt
+from medi�val legend, out of some hint of the Virgilian nether world. Of
+allusions to contemporaries it is hardly necessary to speak; and in many
+cases we must fall back on the commentators, who for their part have
+often nothing to tell us but what we have already gathered for
+ourselves. Cacciaguida's statement that no souls had been shown to Dante
+save those of people known to fame, may not be always true so far as any
+but the most strictly contemporary fame is concerned, but it is true in
+a great many cases. Few indeed there are whose names have not gained
+additional celebrity from Dante's mention of them; but, on the other
+hand, there are very few whose memory but for it would have perished
+altogether; and the thrill with which the reader comes across an old
+acquaintance, marked by the unfaltering hand for renown or infamy, as
+long as men shall read books on this earth, is far more satisfying than
+the process of looking a person up because he is some one in Dante. It
+is therefore at least worth while, if not essential, to know something
+of the minuter contemporary history, and those who can read the seventh,
+eighth, and ninth books of Villani's _Florentine History_--not yet,
+unfortunately, translated into English--will find their reward.
+
+Those, again, who wish to place themselves as nearly as may be at the
+point from which Dante looked at ethical and metaphysical problems, will
+hardly be satisfied with an occasional quotation from Aristotle or
+Aquinas. If, as may well be the case, they cannot spare the time for
+systematic reading of those somewhat exacting authors, they should at
+least be at the trouble of acquiring such a knowledge of their systems,
+and of the place which they hold in the widening of men's thoughts, as
+may be obtained from Ueberweg or some other approved history of
+philosophy. So for physical science and natural history, those who have
+not the leisure to read Aristotle (again), or Pliny, or Brunetto's
+_Tr�sor_, may get from the fourth book of Whewell's _History of the
+Inductive Sciences_, and from parts of Humboldt's _Cosmos_, some idea of
+the way in which Dante would regard the external world.
+
+But one book, among all others, was undoubtedly the main instrument in
+the formation of Dante's mind and character. Few professed Churchmen
+have ever been so saturated with the language and the spirit of the
+Bible as this lay theologian. It was this, indeed, which seems to have
+specially impressed his contemporaries. "Theologus Dantes nullius
+dogmatis expers" is the title which the epitaph of his friend Joannes de
+Virgilio confers upon him in its opening line. And among all the books
+of the "Sacred Library," as an earlier age called it, we can see that
+two had a predominant place in his memory--the prophecy of Jeremiah and
+the Book of Psalms. In these two we may find the solution of some of his
+most obscure symbolism, and careful study of these will do perhaps more
+than anything to help the student to read with understanding. Of course
+those who read Latin should use the Vulgate rather than the English
+version, for the key to an allusion sometimes lies in a word or a
+phrase, the identity of which is lost in an alien language.
+
+It is with the study of such books as these, carried as far as the
+student's opportunities will allow, that he will best prepare himself
+for that of the _Commedia_. The next thing will be to read it, either in
+a translation, or better, in the original, working rapidly through the
+poem, and noting difficulties which occur, but leaving them for the
+present. He will thus get a comprehensive view of its general structure
+and scope, and probably find himself enthralled by the spell; after
+which, to put it on the lowest ground, he will have a subject of
+interest to investigate which will last him his lifetime. At any rate he
+will pretty certainly resolve to go over the ground again, this time
+more deliberately. Now will come the turn of the commentators, including
+under this term not only the actual annotators of the text, but those
+who have in any way discussed, explained, or interpreted the whole poem
+or its parts, either from a general literary point of view, or in the
+attempt to clear up special points. Of these there is no lack. Probably
+no great writer has given occasion for so much writing on the part of
+lesser men. The French critic Sainte-Beuve remarked that "to read Dante
+was almost inevitably to want to translate him;" it certainly seems as
+if to read Dante made the desire to write about him almost irresistible.
+Many of these books the world has pretty willingly let die; but a few
+will be read as long as Dante is studied in England. Foremost among
+these is the _Essay_ by the late Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Church. This is
+printed in a volume with an excellent translation of the _De Monarchia_.
+As an introduction to Dante from every point of view, whether in
+connection with the history of his time or in regard to his place in
+literature, it remains unrivalled, and is likely to remain so until a
+writer on Dante arises equal to Dean Church in acuteness of historical
+insight, delicacy of literary taste, and a power of expression capable
+of translating those gifts into words. No student should fail to read
+it; and those who can buy a copy will not be likely to regret the
+outlay. Another instructive book is the late Miss Rossetti's _Shadow of
+Dante_. It treats the poem rather in its religious than in its
+historical or philosophical aspect; and it is of especial value as an
+aid to understanding the often very perplexing symbolism. Long extracts
+are given from the versions by Mr. W. M. Rossetti (for the _Inferno_)
+and Mr. Longfellow (for the other parts); and these are linked together
+by a connecting summary. Mr. Symonds's _Introduction to the Study of
+Dante_ is also useful, especially from the literary point of view, but
+it is occasionally inaccurate. Of actual translations none is better
+than Cary's, and this has most valuable notes.
+
+These are some of the books from which a student, who did not feel equal
+to a preliminary study of Italian, might get information about Dante. It
+is to be hoped that there are not many who will stop here. When the
+genius of a poet is so closely involved as it is in Dante's case with
+the genius of the language, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
+student's mind that he ought to be read in his own words. Italian is the
+easiest to learn of all European languages, and the one in which the
+preliminary labour of learning grammatical rules is least required. Its
+grammar is very straightforward; its construction, in the best writers,
+is seldom involved; its words will in most cases be intelligible to
+people who know any Latin or French. The prepositions and their uses
+offer almost the only stumbling-block which cannot be surmounted by the
+aid of a pocket-dictionary; and even here the difficulty is more likely
+to be apparent in writing Italian. In reading, the context will usually
+be a guide to the meaning when the words are known.
+
+The first thing will be to get a text. There are several modern texts
+published in Italy; but none of them are very correct. Giuliani's is an
+attractive little book; but the Abate was a somewhat reckless emendator,
+and some of his readings are very untrustworthy. The little pocket
+edition published by Barb�ra contains Fraticelli's text, which suffers
+rather from lack of correction. Messrs. Longmans publish one based on
+Witte, but embodying the results of later inquiry. A complete text of
+Dante's entire works has lately been issued by the Clarendon Press, for
+the accuracy of which the name of its editor, Dr. Moore, is a sufficient
+guarantee. The "student's" editions with notes are those of Bianchi and
+Fraticelli, both in Italian. The latter is for some reason more popular
+in England, but the notes seem to me decidedly less helpful than those
+of Bianchi based on Costa's. Better than either is the _Vocabolario
+Dantesco_ of Blanc. The original work was written in German, and no
+doubt is to be obtained in that language. It is really a very useful
+commentary, and has the additional advantage that it forms a pretty
+copious Concordance, and enables the student to compare the various uses
+of a word.
+
+The student may now be supposed to be ready to set to work. How is he to
+proceed? This is a question very difficult to answer. Probably no two
+grown-up people will attack a new author, or a new language, in quite
+the same way. The present writer began Dante with very little knowledge
+of Italian; but knowing French and Latin pretty well. Being in Florence
+one day, he went to a bookstall and bought for one _lira_ a secondhand
+copy of a little text published in 1811; and began to puzzle out bits
+here and there with the help of a small dictionary. In the following
+winter he went through the whole poem in Bianchi's edition with a
+friend, aided by various of the older commentaries. Then he took to
+reading the poem by a canto or two at a time, in bed, without notes or
+dictionary, and went through it two or three times in this way, at last
+beginning to feel that he would like to know something about it.
+Probably a course of this kind, spread in a rather desultory fashion
+over several years, would hardly suit every student. Nevertheless it has
+in its general features some merits. In the first place, the only way to
+learn is to find for yourself where the difficulties are; and this can
+be done most effectually by beginning with the minimum of help. With
+notes, there is always the temptation to look at the note first and the
+text afterwards: a process sure to result in slipshod and inaccurate
+knowledge. Take a canto at a time, and read it through. Go over the
+ground again with a commentary and perhaps a translation. Before long
+the difficulties arising merely from the language will be pretty well
+mastered, and progress will be more rapid. Above all, avoid in the
+first instance anything of the nature of �sthetic criticism. Be content
+to treat the poem, if it be not profane to say so, as a "grind."
+Translate into the plainest English, so only that you take pains to
+render every word. It is a very good exercise to keep to the same
+English word for the same Italian word. This will not be quite always
+possible; but on the whole it is wonderful how many words in Italian (or
+any other language) have passed through the same change of signification
+as some one of their English equivalents. (Thus "sorry" in English means
+both "sad" and "contemptible." You will find that Italian "_tristo_"
+bears both senses equally well.) Try to "explain Dante by Dante," that
+is, look out for peculiar phrases and constructions which may occur more
+than once, and get at their meaning by comparison of contexts. One great
+advantage possessed by the student of Dante is that his author is
+practically the first in the language in point of time; and though later
+Italian poets used Dante freely as a quarry, they did not do it
+intelligently. It may safely be said that, with the occasional exception
+of Petrarch, no subsequent Italian poet threw the least light on the
+interpretation of a single word in Dante. Indeed our own Chaucer seems
+to have understood and appreciated Dante far better than did Dante's
+countryman Ariosto. It is thus possible to read Dante without a very
+wide acquaintance with Italian literature in general.
+
+Then, again, beginners need not be at too much pains to follow out the
+often very elaborate symbolism. On a first reading take the story as it
+stands. Let the dark wood and the three beasts, and the hill
+illuminated by the rising sun, remain what they profess to be, until you
+see the broad outlines of the poem. There are quite enough passages of
+purely human interest to occupy you at first. Francesca, Farinata, the
+Counts of Montefeltro, father and son, Ugolino, the assembled princes
+awaiting their time to enter Purgatory, the great panegyrics of St.
+Francis and St. Dominic, these and the like are the "purple patches" on
+which the beginner's attention should be fixed.
+
+The student who has gone through the poem on these lines will by the end
+of it be ripe for a more thorough reading and a fuller commentary. Among
+modern commentaries the fullest is that of Dr. Scartazzini. He is a
+guide whose judgement is perhaps not always quite equal to his
+erudition; but his Commentary (in four volumes, including the
+_Prolegomeni_) is almost indispensable to the advanced student. He has
+also published an abridgement in one volume. Those who read German
+should make acquaintance with the translation and notes of the late King
+John of Saxony, who wrote under the name of Philalethes, as well as with
+those of Dr. Witte. Both these deal fully with historical matters,
+"Philalethes" also going very fully into the theology. In the present
+writer's edition some attempt is made to clear up obscure points of
+allegory, and to show the extent of Dante's debt to Greek philosophy.
+Attention is also called to questions of grammar and philology, which
+have been somewhat neglected by the Italian and German commentators.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+DANTE'S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE
+
+
+A few words on the mythological and classical allusions in the
+_Commedia_ may be useful to those who are not familiar with Greek and
+Latin literature. The subject is a very wide one, and Dante's treatment
+of heathen mythology is very curious. It is especially noticeable in the
+_Purgatory_, where every sin and its contrary virtue are illustrated by
+a pair of examples from Scripture history on the one hand, and Greek or
+Roman history or legend (for both seem alike to him) on the other.
+Sloth, for instance, is exemplified by the Israelites who "thought
+scorn" of the promised land, and the slothful followers of �neas, who
+hung back from the conquest of Italy; while Mary going into the hill
+country with haste, and C�sar dashing into Spain are the chosen models
+of prompt response to the call of duty. So, again, at the very outset of
+the poem, we find St. Paul and �neas quoted as the two instances of
+living men who have been permitted to see the future world; and Dante
+professes his own unworthiness to be put on a level with them,
+apparently without a hint that he holds the _�neid_ any lower as an
+authority than the Epistle to the Corinthians. In a practically pagan
+humanist of the days of Leo X. this would hardly surprise us; but it
+is, at first sight, not a little astonishing in the case of a poet to
+whom the Christian Church and Christian revelation were vital truths. It
+is, however, clear that to the medi�val mind the Bible, though no doubt
+the highest authority, was in matters of morality, and to some extent
+even of theology, only "first among its peers." Aquinas quotes
+Aristotle, the Scriptures, and the Fathers almost indiscriminately in
+support of his positions. Dante, approaching the subject from a
+political as well as a moral point, takes for his guide and philosopher
+the poet Virgil, who, as the Middle Ages deemed, had both foretold the
+glories of the Church, and sung of the first origin of the Empire. It
+must never be forgotten that, to Dante, Church and Empire were merely
+two aspects of one Divine institution. Brutus and Cassius are hardly
+less guilty than Judas; and that simply from the official point of view,
+for there is no attempt to sanctify, much less to deify, C�sar as an
+individual. None the less is the work that he did holy, and this
+holiness communicates itself, as readers of the _De Monarchia_ will
+remember, to the whole of the long course of workings by which Divine
+Providence prepared the way for it. The finger of God is no less plainly
+to be seen in the victory of �neas over Turnus or of the Romans over the
+Samnites than in the passage of the Israelites across the Red Sea, or
+the repulse of the Assyrians. Roman history is no less sacred than
+Hebrew. This being so, we shall not be surprised to find that a certain
+authority attaches to the literature of either one of the chosen
+peoples. Did they conflict, doubtless the poet, as an orthodox
+Catholic, would admit that Virgil must give way to Isaiah; but he would
+in all probability decline to allow that they could conflict, at all
+events within the region common to them both. No doubt, just as C�sar
+and Peter have, besides their common domain, functions peculiar to each,
+wherein C�sar may not interfere with Peter, or as Aristotle may err when
+he trespasses on ground that the Church has made her province (for I
+interpret _Purg._ xxv. 63 as an allusion to Aristotle), so might Virgil
+or Lucan become a teacher of false doctrine if he ventured to teach
+theology. (Statius, who does teach theology, as in the passage just
+referred to, is, it must be remembered, a Christian.) But Virgil at all
+events holds scrupulously aloof from any over-stepping of his functions;
+and within his own limits his authority is infallible. Why, then, should
+we not accept his account of the infernal regions as trustworthy? He
+tells us that Charon is the ferryman who carries the souls across to the
+nether world; Minos the judge who sentences them; Pluto (whom we confuse
+perhaps a little with Plutus) a great personage in those regions. Furies
+sit over the inner gate; Gorgons and Harpies play their parts. Holy
+Scripture has nothing to say against these conceptions; so there is
+nothing to prevent our accepting Virgil's account, and expanding it into
+medi�val precision and symmetry. Thus we have all the official hierarchy
+of hell ready provided. As has already been observed, it is not until
+Dante reaches a point very far down that anything like what we may call
+the Christian devil appears.[43] Throughout the upper circles the work,
+whether of tormenting or merely of guarding, is performed exclusively by
+beings taken from classic mythology. If we except the Giants, who seem
+to occupy a kind of intermediate position between prisoner and gaoler,
+Geryon is the last of these whom we meet; and him Dante has practically
+transformed into a being of his own invention: for there is little in
+common between the personage slain by Hercules and the strange monster
+with the face of a just man and the tail of a venomous scorpion. As
+might perhaps be expected when there was plenty of material to hand in
+Tuscany, less use is made of the persons of classical mythology in
+finding subjects for punishment. Among the virtuous heathen several find
+their place; but it may be doubted whether Electra or Orpheus were to
+Dante any less historical than Plato or Seneca. Semiramis, Dido,
+Achilles, again, would all be recorded in the histories of Orosius and
+others whom Dante read, with dates and possibly portraits. Capaneus, one
+of the "Seven against Thebes," is more nearly mythological; but as the
+utterer of the earliest profession of reasoned atheism[44] he could
+hardly be omitted as the typical blasphemer. The most curious example of
+all is the Thais whom we find among the flatterers. She does not attain
+even to the dignity of a myth, being only a character in a play of
+Terence, and borrowed by Dante from Cicero; probably the strangest
+instance on record of the "realization" of a dramatic personage.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [43] See p. 102.
+
+    [44] "Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor" (Statius, _Thebaid_, iii.
+    661).
+
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+
+LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+BY A. J. BUTLER, M.A.
+
+
+THE PURGATORY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.,
+        late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 12_s._
+        6_d._
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+THE PARADISE OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+THE HELL OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+A COMPANION TO DANTE.
+
+    By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown
+        8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
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+THE PURGATORY OF DANTE.
+
+    Translated by C. L. SHADWELL. Extra crown 8vo. 10_s._ net.
+
+THE PARADISE OF DANTE.
+
+    An Experiment in Literal Verse Translation. By C. L. SHADWELL.
+        Extra crown 8vo. 5_s._ net.
+
+READINGS ON DANTE.
+
+    Chiefly based on the COMMENTARY OF BENVENUTO DA IMOLA. By the
+        Honourable WILLIAM WARREN VERNON, M.A.
+
+THE PURGATORIO.
+
+    With Introduction by Dean CHURCH. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 24_s._
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+
+    With Introduction by the Rev. E. MOORE, D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
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+
+    With Introduction by the Bishop of RIPON. 2 vols. Crown 8vo.
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+
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+        anew by the Author of "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE."
+
+    =The Story of the Christians and the Moors in Spain.= By C. M.
+        YONGE, Author of "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE." With Vignette by
+        HOLMAN HUNT.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    =The Golden Treasury Poets.= Arnold, Byron, Cowper, Keats,
+        Longfellow, Shelley, Southey, Wordsworth. 8 vols. in
+        cloth box. 21_s._ net.
+
+
+
+
+~English Men of Letters.~
+
+Edited by JOHN MORLEY.
+
+_In Paper Covers, 1s._; _Cloth, 1s. 6d._
+
+
+    ADDISON. By W. J. COURTHOPE.
+    BACON. By Dean CHURCH.
+    BENTLEY. By Professor R. C. JEBB.
+    BUNYAN. By J. A. FROUDE.
+    BURKE. By JOHN MORLEY.
+    BURNS. By Principal SHAIRP.
+    BYRON. By Professor NICHOL.
+    CARLYLE. By Professor NICHOL.
+    CHAUCER. By Professor A. W. WARD.
+    COLERIDGE. By H. D. TRAILL.
+    COWPER. By GOLDWIN SMITH.
+    DEFOE. By W. MINTO.
+    DE QUINCEY. By Professor MASSON.
+    DICKENS. By Professor A. W. WARD.
+    DRYDEN. By Professor SAINTSBURY.
+    FIELDING. By AUSTIN DOBSON.
+    GIBBON. By J. C. MORISON.
+    GOLDSMITH. By WILLIAM BLACK.
+    GRAY. By EDMUND GOSSE.
+    HAWTHORNE. By HENRY JAMES.
+    HUME. By PROFESSOR HUXLEY, F.R.S.
+    JOHNSON. By LESLIE STEPHEN.
+    KEATS. By SIDNEY COLVIN.
+    LAMB, CHARLES. By Canon AINGER.
+    LANDOR. By SIDNEY COLVIN.
+    LOCKE. By THOMAS FOWLER.
+    MACAULAY. By J. C. MORISON.
+    MILTON. By MARK PATTISON.
+    POPE. By LESLIE STEPHEN.
+    SCOTT. By R. H. HUTTON.
+    SHELLEY. By J. A. SYMONDS.
+    SHERIDAN. By Mrs. OLIPHANT.
+    SIDNEY. By JOHN. A. SYMONDS.
+    SOUTHEY. By Professor DOWDEN.
+    SPENSER. By Dean CHURCH.
+    STERNE. By H. D. TRAILL.
+    SWIFT. By LESLIE STEPHEN.
+    THACKERAY. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE.
+    WORDSWORTH. By F. W. H. MYERS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Reissue in 13 vols._ _Crown 8vo._ _3s. 6d. each._
+
+    Vol. I. CHAUCER, SPENSER, DRYDEN.
+    Vol. II. MILTON, GOLDSMITH, COWPER.
+    Vol. III. BYRON, SHELLEY, KEATS.
+    Vol. IV. WORDSWORTH, SOUTHEY, LANDOR.
+    Vol. V. LAMB, ADDISON, SWIFT.
+    Vol. VI. SCOTT, BURNS, COLERIDGE.
+    Vol. VII. HUME, LOCKE, BURKE.
+    Vol. VIII. DEFOE, STERNE, HAWTHORNE.
+    Vol. IX. FIELDING, THACKERAY, DICKENS.
+    Vol. X. GIBBON, CARLYLE, MACAULAY.
+    Vol. XI. SIDNEY, DEQUINCEY, SHERIDAN.
+    Vol. XII. POPE, JOHNSON, GRAY.
+    Vol. XIII. BACON, BUNYAN, BENTLEY.
+
+
+MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+    Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Variations in spelling, hyphenation and use of accents have
+    been retained as they appear in the original publication.
+
+    [=a] represents a with macron
+
+    [=i] represents i with macron
+
+
+    Changes to the original publication have been made as follows:
+
+        Page  11 Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+                 "Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+
+        Page 112 to positive cruelty,
+                 to positive cruelty.
+
+        Page 113 becomes almost suppliant
+                 becomes almost suppliant.
+
+        Page 128 eighth pit o
+                 eighth pit of
+
+        Page 128 evening is drawng
+                 evening is drawing
+
+        Page 133 In the circle o
+                 In the circle of
+
+        Page 149 Sun, Mars, Jupiter
+                 Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
+
+        Page 150 by other matter,
+                 by other matter.
+
+        Page 166 Note that capidigia
+                 Note that cupidigia
+
+        Page 178 It is a mos
+                 It is a most
+
+        Page 178 peculiarities of locat
+                 peculiarities of local
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dante: His Times and His Work, by 
+Arthur John Butler
+
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+
+Project Gutenberg's Dante: His Times and His Work, by Arthur John Butler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dante: His Times and His Work
+
+Author: Arthur John Butler
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2009 [EBook #27999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma 
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h1><span class="head">DANTE</span><br />
+
+<span class="head2">HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK</span></h1>
+
+<hr class="hr6" />
+
+<div class="box">
+<p class="lefts">THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Edited, with Translation and Notes, by
+<span class="smcap">A. J. Butler, M.A.</span> Crown 8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE PARADISE OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE HELL OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">A COMPANION TO DANTE. By Professor <span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span>. Translated by
+<span class="smcap">A. J. Butler, M.A.</span> Crown 8vo. 10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Translated by <span class="smcap">C. Lancelot Shadwell, M.A.</span>
+Crown 8vo. 10<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE EARTHLY PARADISE OF DANTE. Translated by the same. Crown
+8vo. 5<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+
+<p class="lefts">READINGS ON DANTE. By the Hon. <span class="smcap">William Warren Vernon, M.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE PURGATORIO. With Introduction by Dean <span class="smcap">Church</span>.
+2 vols. Crown 8vo. 24<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE INFERNO. With Introduction by Rev. <span class="smcap">E. Moore</span>,
+D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 30<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">THE PARADISO. With Introduction by the Bishop of <span class="smcap">Ripon</span>. 2 vols.
+Crown 8vo. 21<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<p class="lefts">DANTE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. By <span class="smcap">R. W. Church</span>. Globe 8vo. 5<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<p class="center">LONDON: MACMILLAN &#38; CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div id="tp">
+<p class="tp"><span class="tphead1">DANTE</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="tphead2">HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="by">BY</span><br />
+
+<span class="author">ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.</span><br />
+
+<span class="by">LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="city">London</span><br />
+
+<big>MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Limited</span></big><br />
+
+<span class="pub2">NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="date">1902</span><br />
+
+<span class="res"><em>All rights reserved</em></span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr5" />
+
+
+<p class="tp"><small>PRINTED BY<br />
+
+WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br />
+
+LONDON AND BECCLES.</small></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">This</span> little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in
+the <em>Monthly Packet</em>, and part in the Magazine of the Home Reading
+Union. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those
+whom Italians call &#8220;Dantists,&#8221; but for students at an early stage of
+their studies. To the former class there will be nothing in the book
+that is not already familiar&#8212;except where they happen to find mistakes,
+from which, in so extensive a field for blundering as Dante affords, I
+cannot hope to have kept it free. In the domain of history alone fresh
+facts are constantly rewarding the indefatigable research of German and
+Italian scholars&#8212;a research of which only the most highly specialised
+specialist can possibly keep abreast. Even since the following pages
+were for the most part in print, we have had Professor Villari&#8217;s <em>Two
+Centuries of Florentine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> History</em>, correcting in many particulars the
+chroniclers on whom the Dante student has been wont to rely. This book
+should most emphatically be added to those named in the appendix as
+essential to the study of our author.</p>
+
+<p>In connection with some of the remarks in the opening chapter, Professor
+Butcher&#8217;s Essay on <em>The Dawn of Romanticism in Greek Poetry</em> should be
+noticed. I do not think that the accomplished author&#8217;s view is
+incompatible with mine; though I admit that I had not taken much account
+of the Greek writers whom we call &#8220;post-classical.&#8221; But it is to be
+noted, as bearing on the question raised in the second footnote on <a href="#Page_9">p. 9</a>,
+that most or all of the writers whom he cites were either Asiatics or
+nearly touched by Asiatic influences.</p>
+
+<p>I have made some attempt to deal in a concise way with two subjects
+which have not, I think, hitherto been handled in English books on
+Dante, other than translations. One of these is the development of the
+Guelf and Ghibeline struggle from a rivalry between two German houses to
+a partisan warfare which rent Italy for generations. I am quite aware
+that I have merely touched the surface<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> of the subject, which seems to
+me to contain in it the essence of all political philosophy, with
+special features such as could only exist in a country which, like
+Italy, had, after giving the law to the civilised world, been unable to
+consolidate itself into a nation like the other nations of Europe. I
+have, I find, even omitted to notice what seem to have been the ruling
+aims of at any rate the honest partisans on either side: unity, that of
+the Ghibelines; independence, that of the Guelfs. Nor have I drawn
+attention to a remarkable trait in Dante&#8217;s own character, which, so far
+as I know, has never been discussed&#8212;I mean his apparent disregard of
+the &#8220;lower classes.&#8221; Except for one or two similes drawn from the
+&#8220;villano&#8221; and his habits, and one or two contemptuous allusions to
+&#8220;Monna Berta e Ser Martino&#8221; and their like, it would seem as if for him
+the world consisted of what now would be called &#8220;the upper ten
+thousand.&#8221; In an ordinary politician or partisan, or even in a mere man
+of letters this would not be strange; but when we reflect that Dante was
+a man who went deeply into social and religious questions, that he was
+born less than forty years after the death of St. Francis,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> and was at
+least closely enough associated with Franciscans for legend to make him
+a member of the order, and that most of the so-called heretical sects of
+the time&#8212;Paterines, Cathari, Poor Men&#8212;started really more from social
+than from religious discontent, it is certainly surprising that his
+interest in the &#8220;dim, common populations&#8221; should have been so slight.</p>
+
+<p>The other object at which I have aimed is the introduction of English
+students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most
+eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seem to
+be quite as much opposed to common sense and knowledge of human nature
+as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound
+historical criticism. Here, again, I have but touched on the more
+salient points; feeling sure that before long some of the scholarship in
+our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek
+and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin
+texts may be worth studying though written outside of so-called
+classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further
+point of applying to medi&#230;val literature,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> which hitherto has been too
+much the sport of <em>dilettanti</em>, the methods that have till now been
+reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages. Unless I
+am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study
+of early Italian will teach him &#8220;a thing or two&#8221; that he did not know
+before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost,
+even from that point of view. Then we shall get the authoritative
+edition of Dante, which I am insular enough to believe will never come
+from either Germany or Italy, or from any intervening country.</p>
+
+<p><em>February</em>, 1895.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="Contents">
+<tr>
+<th class="thr">CHAPTER</th>
+<th class="thr1" colspan="2">PAGE</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Thirteenth Century</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#I">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"> II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Guelfs and Ghibelines</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#II">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Dante&#8217;s Early Days</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#III">38</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"> IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Florentine Affairs till Dante&#8217;s Exile</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#IV">52</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">  V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Dante&#8217;s Exile</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#V">69</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"> VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The &#8220;Commedia&#8221;</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#VI">89</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Minor Works</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#VII">171</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Appendix I.&#8212;Some Hints to Beginners</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#AI">189</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Appendix II.&#8212;Dante&#8217;s Use of Classical Literature</span></td>
+<td class="tdr1"><a href="#AII">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span><a name="I" id="I"></a>DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr class="hr3" />
+
+<h2>CHAPTER I.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The</span> person who sets to work to write about Dante at the present day has
+two great difficulties to reckon with: the quantity which has already
+been written on the subject, and the quantity which remains to be
+written. The first involves the reading of an enormous mass of
+literature in several languages, and very various in quality; but for
+the comfort of the young student, it may at once, and once for all, be
+stated that he can pretty safely ignore everything written between 1400
+and 1800. The subject of commentaries, biographies, and other helps, or
+would-be helps, will be treated of later on. Here we need only say that
+the Renaissance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> practically stifled anything like an intelligent study
+of Dante for those four centuries; and it was not until a new critical
+spirit began to apply to it the methods which had hitherto been reserved
+for the Greek and Latin classics, that the study got any chance of
+development. How enormously it has developed during the present century
+needs not to be said. It may suffice to point out that the British
+Museum Catalogue shows editions of the <em>Commedia</em> at the rate of one for
+every year since 1800, and other works on Dante in probably five times
+that proportion.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it has been said of the <em>Commedia</em>, and the remark is equally true
+of Dante&#8217;s other works, that it is like the Bible in this respect: every
+man finds in it what he himself brings to it. The poet finds poetry, the
+philosopher philosophy; the scientific man science as it was known in
+1300; the politician politics; heretics have even found heresy. Nor is
+this very surprising when we consider what were the author&#8217;s
+surroundings. Naturally, no doubt, a man of study and contemplation, his
+lot was cast in the midst of a stirring, even a turbulent, society,
+where it was hardly possible for any individual to escape<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> his share of
+the public burdens. Ablebodied men could not be spared when, as was
+usually the case, fighting was toward; all men of mental capacity were
+needed in council or in administration. And, after all, the area to be
+administered, the ground to be fought over, were so small, that the man
+of letters might do his duty by the community and yet have plenty of
+time to spare for his studies. He might handle his pike at Caprona or
+Campaldino one day, and be at home among his books the next. Then,
+again, the society was a cultivated and quick-witted one, with many
+interests. Arts and letters were in high esteem, and eminence in them as
+sure a road to fame as warlike prowess or political distinction. From
+all this it is clear that the Florentine of the thirteenth century had
+points of contact with life on every side; every gate of knowledge lay
+open to him, and he could explore, if he pleased, every one of its
+paths. They have now been carried further, and a lifetime is too short
+for one man to investigate thoroughly more than one or two; but in those
+days it was still possible for a man of keen intelligence, added to the
+almost incredible diligence, as it appears to us, of the Middle Ages, to
+make himself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> acquainted with all the best that had been done and said
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>This it is which forms at once the fascination and the difficulty of
+Dante&#8217;s great work. Of course, if we content ourselves with reading it
+merely for its &#8220;beauties,&#8221; for the &#230;sthetic enjoyment of an image here
+and an allusion there, for the trenchant expression of some thought or
+feeling at the roots of human nature, there will be no need of any
+harder study than is involved in going through it with a translation.
+Indeed, it will hardly be worth while to go to the original at all. The
+pleasure, one might almost say the physical pleasure, derived from
+sonorous juxtaposition of words, such as we obtain from Milton or from
+Shelley, is scarcely to be genuinely felt in the case of a foreign
+language; and the beauties of matter, as distinguished from those of
+form, are faithfully enough rendered by Cary or Longfellow.</p>
+
+<p>It may, however, be safely assumed that few intelligent students will
+rest content with this amount of study. They will find at every turn
+allusions calling for explanation, philosophical doctrines to be traced
+to their sources, judgements on contemporary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> persons and events to be
+verified. On every page they will meet with problems the solution of
+which has not yet been attempted, or attempted only in the most
+perfunctory way. For generation after generation readers have gone on
+accepting received interpretations which only tell them what their own
+wits could divine without any other assistance than the text itself
+gives. No commentator seems yet to have realised that, in order to
+understand Dante thoroughly, he must put himself on Dante&#8217;s level so far
+as regards a knowledge of all the available literature. The more obvious
+quarries from which Dante obtained the materials for his mighty
+structure&#8212;the Bible, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle&#8212;have no
+doubt been pretty thoroughly examined, and many obscurities which the
+comments of Landino and others only left more obscure have thus been
+cleared up; but a great deal remains to be done. Look where one may in
+the literature which was open to Dante, one finds evidence of his
+universal reading. We take up such a book as Otto of Freising&#8217;s <em>Annals</em>
+(to which, with his <em>Acts of Frederick I.</em>, we shall have to refer
+again), and find the good bishop moralising thus on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> the mutability of
+human affairs, with especial reference to the break-up of the Empire in
+the middle of the ninth century:&#8212;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&#8220;Does not worldly honour seem to turn round and round after the fashion
+of one stricken with fever? For such place their hope of rest in a
+change of posture, and so, when they are in pain, throw themselves from
+side to side, turning over continually.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="noi">It is hard not to suppose that Dante had this passage in his mind when
+he wrote that bitter apostrophe to his own city with which the sixth
+canto of the <em>Purgatory</em> ends:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">&#8220;E se ben ti ricorda, e vedi lume,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Vedrai te somigliante a quella inferma,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Che non pu&#242; trovar posa in su le piume,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma.&#8221;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>It is hardly too much to say that one cannot turn over a couple of pages
+of any book which Dante may conceivably have read without coming on some
+passage which one feels certain he had read, or at the very least
+containing some information which one feels certain he possessed. A real
+&#8220;Dante&#8217;s library&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> would comprise pretty well every book
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>in Latin,
+Italian, French, or Proven&#231;al, &#8220;published,&#8221; if we may use the term, up
+to the year 1300. Of course a good many Latin books were (may one say
+fortunately?) in temporary retirement at that time; but even of these,
+whether, as has been suggested, through volumes, now lost, of &#8220;Elegant
+Extracts,&#8221; or by whatever other means, more was evidently known than is
+always realised.</p>
+
+<p>We must, however, beware of treating Dante merely as a repertory of
+curious lore or museum of literary <em>bric-&#224;-brac</em>&#8212;a danger almost as
+great as that of looking at him from a purely &#230;sthetic point of view. He
+had no doubt read more widely than any man of his age, and he is one of
+the half-dozen greatest poets of all time. But his claim on our
+attention rests on even a wider basis than these two qualities would
+afford. He represents as it were the re-opening of the lips of the human
+race: &#8220;While I was musing, the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my
+tongue.&#8221; The old classical literature had said its last word when
+Claudian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> died; and though men continued to compose, often with ability
+and intelligence, the histories and chronicles which practically formed
+the only non-theological writings of the so-called &#8220;Dark Ages,&#8221; letters
+in the full sense of the term lay dormant for centuries. Not till the
+twelfth century was far advanced did any signs of a re-awakening appear.
+Then, to use a phrase of Dante&#8217;s, the dead poetry arose, and a burst of
+song came almost simultaneously from all Western Europe. To this period
+belong the Minnesingers of Germany, the Troubadours of Provence, the
+unknown authors of the lovely romance&#8212;poetical in feeling, though cast
+chiefly in a prose form&#8212;<em>Aucassin et Nicolete</em>, and of several not less
+lovely English ballads and lyrics. Even the heavy rhymed chronicles
+begin to be replaced by romances in which the true poetic fire breaks
+out, such as the <em>Nibelungen Lied</em> (in its definitive form) and the
+<em>Chronicle of the Cid</em>.</p>
+
+<p>In the new poetry two features strike us at once. The sentiment of love
+between man and woman, which with the ancients and even with early
+Christian writers scarcely ever rises beyond the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> level of a sensual
+passion,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> becomes transfigured into a profound emotion touching the
+deepest roots of a man&#8217;s nature, and acting as an incentive to noble
+conduct; and, closely connected with this, the influence of external
+nature upon the observer begins for the first time to be recognised and
+to form a subject for poetical treatment.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Horace has several charming
+descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him
+merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he
+cannot do better than have another drink in company with a friend. So
+with Homer and Virgil. External nature and its beauty are often touched
+off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it
+is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a
+mood. You may search classical literature in vain for such passages as
+Walther von der Vogelweide&#8217;s:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="block"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io">&#8220;D&#244; der sumer komen was<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Und die bluomen durch daz gras<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">W&#252;nnecl&#238;che ensprungen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ald&#257; die vogele sungen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">D&#226;r kom ich gegangen<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An einer anger langen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">D&#226; ein l&#251;ter brunne entspranc;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Vor dem walde was s&#299; ganc,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">D&#226; diu nahtegale sanc;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">or the unknown Frenchman&#8217;s:&#8212;</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>&#8220;Ce fu el tans d&#8217;est&#233;, el mois de mai, que li jor sont caut, lonc, et
+cler, et les nuits coies et series. Nicolete jut une nuit en son lit, et
+vit la lune cler par une fenestre, et si oi le lorseilnol center en
+garding, se li sovint d&#8217;Aucassin sen ami qu&#8217;ele tant aimoit;&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>or the equally unknown Englishman&#8217;s:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="io"><a name="bytuene" id="bytuene"></a><ins title="original omits open quotation mark">&#8220;Bytuene</ins> Mershe and Averil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When spray biginneth to springe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The lutel foul hath hire wyl<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On hyre lud to synge;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ich libbe in love-longinge<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For semlokest of alle thinge,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He may me blisse bringe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Icham in hire baundoun.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>But it is hardly necessary to multiply instances. By the middle of the
+thirteenth century the spring, and the nightingales, and the flowering
+meadows had become a commonplace of amatory and emotional poetry.</p>
+
+<p>So far, however, poetry was exclusively lyrical. The average standard of
+versifying was higher, perhaps, than it has ever been before or since.
+Every man of education seems to have been able to turn a sonnet or ode.
+Men of religion, like St. Francis or Brother Jacopone of Todi;
+statesmen, like Frederick II. and his confidant, Peter de Vineis;
+professional or official persons, like Jacopo the notary of Lentino, or
+Guido dalle Colonne the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>judge of Messina; fighting men, like several of
+the Troubadours; political intriguers, like Bertrand del Born&#8212;all have
+left verses which, for beauty of thought and melody of rhythm, have
+seldom been matched. But the great poem was yet to come, which was to
+give to the age a voice worthy of its brilliant performance. It is not
+only in literature that it displays renewed vitality. Turn where we
+will, in every department of human energy it must have been brilliant
+beyond any that the world has ever seen. It stood between two worlds,
+but we cannot say of them that they were</p>
+
+<div class="block">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">&#8220;One dead,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The other powerless to be born.&#8221;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>The old monarchy was dying, had indeed, as Dante regretfully perceived,
+died before he was born, and the trumpet-call of the <em>De Monarchia</em>,
+wherewith he sought to revive it, was addressed to a generation which
+had other ideals of government; but it had set in a blaze of splendour,
+and its last wielder, Frederick II., was, not unfitly, known as the
+Wonder of the World. The medi&#230;val Papacy, though about to undergo a loss
+of prestige which it never retrieved, outlived its rival, and had
+seldom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> been a greater force in the political world than it was in the
+hands of the ambitious and capable Boniface VIII. The scholastic
+philosophy, which had directed the minds of men for many generations,
+was soon to make way for other forms of reasoning and other modes of
+thought; but its greatest exponent, St. Thomas Aquinas, was Dante&#8217;s
+contemporary for nine years. These examples will serve to show that the
+old systems were capable to the very last of producing and influencing
+great men.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the new order was showing no lack of power to be born. Two of
+our countrymen, Roger Bacon and, somewhat later, William of Ockham,
+sowed, each in his own way, the seeds which were to bear fruit in the
+science and speculation of far distant ages. In the arts, architecture
+reached its highest pitch of splendour; and painting was at the outset
+of the course which was to culminate, more than two hundred years later,
+in Titian and Raffaelle. But in no field did the energy of the
+thirteenth century manifest itself as in that of politics. With the
+collapse of the Empire came the first birth of the &#8220;nationalities&#8221; of
+modern<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> Europe. The process indeed went on at very different rates. The
+representative constitution of England, the centralised government of
+France were by the end of the century fairly started on the lines which
+they have followed ever since. But England had never owned allegiance to
+the Emperor, while France had pretty well forgotten whence it had got
+the name which had replaced that of Gaul. In the countries where the
+Empire had till recently been an ever-present power, Germany and Italy,
+the work of consolidation went on far less rapidly; indeed, it has been
+reserved for our own age to see it completed. With Germany we have here
+nothing directly to do; but it is all-important to the right
+understanding of Dante&#8217;s position that we should glance briefly at the
+political state of Italy and especially of Tuscany during the latter
+half of the thirteenth century. By good fortune we have very copious
+information on this matter. A contemporary and neighbour of Dante&#8217;s, by
+name John Villani, happened to be at Rome during the great Jubilee of
+1300. The sight of the imperial city and all its ancient glories set him
+meditating on its history, written, as he says (in a collocation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+names which looks odd to us, but was usual enough then), &#8220;by Virgil, by
+Sallust and Lucan, by Titus Livius, Valerius, and Paulus Orosius,&#8221; and
+moved him, as an unworthy disciple, to do for his native city what they
+had done for Rome. The result was the most genial and generally
+delightful work of history that has been written since Herodotus.
+Villani, who lived till 1348, when the plague carried him off, seems to
+have been a man of an equable disposition and sober judgement. Like
+Dante and all the Florentines of that day, he belonged to the Guelf
+party; and, unlike his great fellow-citizen, he adhered to it
+throughout, though by no means approving all the actions of its leaders.
+After the fashion of the time, he begins his chronicle with the Tower of
+Babel; touches on Dardanus, Priam, and the Trojan war; records the
+origin of the Tuscan cities; and so by easy stages comes down towards
+the age in which he lived. The earlier portions, of course, are more
+entertaining and suggestive than trustworthy in detail; but as he
+approaches a time for which he had access to living memory, and still
+more when he records the events of which he was himself a witness, he is
+our best authority.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> Otho Fris., <em>Annales</em>, v. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> A useful list, with some account of the authors cited by
+Dante, is given by Mr. J. S. Black, in a volume entitled <em>Dante</em>;
+<em>Illustrations and Notes</em>, privately printed by Messrs. T. &#38; A.
+Constable, at Edinburgh, 1890. He does not, however, include (save in
+one or two cases, and those rather doubtful) authors of whom Dante&#8217;s
+knowledge rests on inference only.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3" class="label">[3]</a> I do not forget Ulysses and Penelope, Hector and
+Andromache, or Ovid&#8217;s <em>Hero&#239;des</em>; but the love of husband and wife is
+another matter altogether. The only instance in classical literature
+that I can recall of what may be termed the modern view of the subject
+is that of H&#230;mon and Antigone. See, on this subject, and in connection
+with these paragraphs generally, Symonds, <em>Introduction to the Study of
+Dante</em>, ch. viii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4" class="label">[4]</a> This must be taken as referring only to European
+literature. Such a passage as Canticles ii. 10-14 shows that Oriental
+poets felt the sentiment from very early times. Is it possible that
+contact with the East evoked it in Europeans?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5" class="label">[5]</a> &#8220;When the summer was come, and the flowers sprang joyously
+up through the grass, right there the birds were singing; thither came
+I, on my way over a long meadow where a clear well gushed forth; its
+course was by the wood where the nightingale sang.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6" class="label">[6]</a> &#8220;It was summer time, the month of May, when the days are
+warm, and long, and clear, and the nights still and serene. Nicolete lay
+one night on her bed, and saw the moon shine clear through a window,
+yea, and heard the nightingale sing in the garden, so she minded her of
+Aucassin, her lover, whom she loved so well&#8221; (Lang&#8217;s translation).</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7" class="label">[7]</a> Lud = song; semlokest = seemliest; he = she; in hire
+baundoun = at her command.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span><a name="II" id="II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
+<br />
+<small>GUELFS AND GHIBELINES</small><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor2">[8]</a></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Mention</span> was made, in the last chapter, of the &#8220;Guelf&#8221; party, and this,
+with its opposite, the party of the &#8220;Ghibelines,&#8221; fills the entire field
+of Italian politics during Dante&#8217;s life, and indeed for long afterwards.
+It would be impossible in the space of these pages to follow up all the
+tangled threads which have attached themselves to those famous names;
+but since we may be, to use a picturesque phrase of Carlyle&#8217;s, &#8220;thankful
+for any hook whatever on which to hang half-an-acre of thrums in fixed
+position,&#8221; a few of the more prominent points in the early history of
+the great conflict shall be noted here.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>As every one knows, the names originally came from Germany, and to that
+country we must turn for a short time to know their import.</p>
+
+<p>About seven miles to the north-east of Stuttgart, in what is now the
+kingdom of Wurtemberg, is a small town called Waiblingen, where was once
+a stronghold, near the borders of Franconia and Suabia (or Alemannia),
+belonging to the Franconian dukes. Conrad, often called &#8220;the Salic,&#8221;
+head of that house, was raised to the throne of Germany and the Empire
+in 1024. His line held the imperial crown for just a century, in the
+persons of himself and three Henries, who are known as the second,
+third, and fourth, or third, fourth, and fifth, according as we reckon
+their places among Roman Emperors or German Kings; Henry III. (or IV.)
+being famous as the great opponent of Pope Gregory VII.; Henry IV. (or
+V.) interesting to us as the first husband of the daughter of Henry I.
+of England, renowned in English history as the Empress Maud. The last
+Henry died childless in 1125. But the Franconian line was not extinct.
+Half a century or so before, Bishop Otto of Freising tells us &#8220;a certain
+count, by name Frederick,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> sprung from one of the noblest families of
+Suabia, had founded a colony in a stronghold called Staufen.&#8221; Staufen,
+better known as Hohenstaufen, is a lofty hill about twenty miles from
+Waiblingen, and within the Suabian frontier. Frederick had been staunch
+to Henry IV. in his time of greatest difficulty, and received as his
+reward, together with the dukedom of Suabia, which the house of
+Z&#228;hringen had forfeited through disloyalty, the hand of the Emperor&#8217;s
+daughter Agnes. By her he had two sons, Frederick, who succeeded to his
+own duchy of Suabia, and Conrad, who received from his uncle Henry V.
+that of Franconia, including no doubt the lordship of Waiblingen. At
+Henry&#8217;s death Frederick and Conrad, being then thirty-five and
+thirty-three years old respectively, were the most powerful princes of
+the Empire. Henry had designated Frederick as his successor; but the
+electors thought otherwise. At the instance of the Archbishop of Mainz,
+between whom and the Hohenstaufen there was no love lost, and, as it
+would seem, not without pressure from Lewis VI. of France, whom Henry&#8217;s
+death had just saved from having to face an alliance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> between England
+and Germany, they chose Lothar, Duke of Saxony.</p>
+
+<p>We will now quote Otto of Freising once more. &#8220;Up to the present time,&#8221;
+he says, writing of the year 1152, &#8220;two families have been famous in the
+Roman Empire, about the parts where Gaul and Germany meet, the Henries
+of Waiblingen, and the Welfs of Altdorf.&#8221; The Welfs go back to by far
+the greater antiquity. They probably did not originally belong to the
+Bajovarian stock, for we read elsewhere that they had &#8220;large possessions
+in the parts where Alemannia meets the Pyren&#230;an Mountains,&#8221; as Otto
+usually designates the Alps west of the Brenner. This Altdorf is a
+village near Ravensburg in Wurtemberg, between Ulm and Friedrichshafen.
+We first meet with the name in history about the year 820, when the
+Emperor Lewis I., &#8220;the Pious,&#8221; married as his second wife Judith,
+&#8220;daughter of the most noble Count Welf.&#8221; Somewhere about the middle of
+the tenth century, a Rudolf of the race was Count of Bozen. His son Welf
+took part in the insurrection of the Dukes of Worms and Suabia against
+their step-father Conrad II., &#8220;the Salic,&#8221; and lost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> some of his
+territories in consequence, Bozen passing to Etiko, an illegitimate
+member of the same house. The family must have soon been restored to the
+imperial favour, for before 1050 Welf III. appears as Duke of Bavaria.</p>
+
+<p>At his death, without issue, in 1055, he was succeeded by the son of his
+sister, who had married Azzo II. of Este. This Welf IV. fought on the
+side of Henry IV., against the revolted Saxons at the Unstrut, but soon
+rebelled himself. He became for a time the husband of the &#8220;great
+Countess&#8221; Matilda of Tuscany. Through him and his son Henry, &#8220;the
+Black,&#8221; the line was maintained; and though during the period at which
+we have arrived the head of the family for several generations bore the
+name of Henry, it is usually spoken of as &#8220;the house of the Welfs,&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+and the name is borne by some member of the family at most times. At the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>accession of Lothar II. the head of the house was Henry, surnamed &#8220;the
+Proud.&#8221; With him the new emperor at once made close alliance, giving him
+his daughter Gertrude in marriage. Henry&#8217;s sister Judith was already
+married to Frederick of Suabia, but he sided with his father-in-law, and
+a struggle began which lasted for ten years, and in which the
+Hohenstaufen brothers had not entirely the worst of it. Conrad was
+actually anointed at Monza as King of Italy; but in the end, through the
+intervention of St. Bernard, peace was made, and lasted during the few
+remaining months of Lothar&#8217;s life. At his death in 1137 Conrad was
+elected. His first act was to take the duchy of Bavaria from Henry, and
+bestow it on Leopold, the Marquis of Austria, his own half-brother, and
+whole brother to Bishop Otto, the historian. Henry died very soon,
+leaving a young son, afterwards known as Henry &#8220;the lion,&#8221; and a
+brother, Welf, who at once took up the quarrel on behalf of his nephew.
+He beat Leopold; but when, emboldened by this success, he proceeded to
+attack the Emperor, who was besieging the castle of Weinsberg, in
+Franconia, he suffered a severe defeat. At this battle we are told the
+cries of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> contending sides were &#8220;Welf!&#8221; and &#8220;Waiblingen!&#8221; Why the
+name of an obscure fortress should have been used as a battle-cry for
+the mighty house of Hohenstaufen, we shall probably never know; it may
+be that it was a chance selection as the password for the day. However
+that may be, the battle-cries of Weinsberg were destined to resound far
+into future ages. Modified to suit non-Teutonic lips, they became famous
+throughout the civilised world as the designations of the two parties in
+a struggle which divided Italy for centuries, and of which the last
+vibrations only died down, if indeed they have died down, in our own
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Of all faction-wars which history records, this is the most complicated,
+the most difficult to analyse into distinct issues. The Guelfs have been
+considered the Church or Papal party; and no doubt there is some truth
+in this view. Indeed, there seems to have been some hereditary tradition
+of the kind dating from a much earlier generation; long, in fact, before
+the Ghibeline name had been heard of. When, as we have seen, Countess
+Matilda of Tuscany, the champion of Gregory VII., was looking out for a
+second husband, she fixed upon Welf of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> Bavaria, presumably the &#8220;dux
+Noricorum,&#8221; who, as Bishop Otto tells us, &#8220;in the war with the Emperor,
+destroyed the cities of Freising and Augsburg.&#8221; Their union did not last
+long, for Matilda seems to have been hard to please in the matter of
+husbands; but the fact of his selection looks as if he had been a
+<em>persona grata</em> with the Papal See. It is somewhat significant, too,
+that Machiavelli regards the contest between Henry IV. and the Papacy as
+having been &#8220;the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline races, whereby when the
+inundation of foreigners ceased, Italy was torn with intestine wars.&#8221;
+Yet we may shrewdly suspect that it was not so much any special devotion
+to the Church, as the thwarted ambition of a powerful house, which made
+the Welfs to be a thorn in the side first of the Franconian, then of the
+Suabian Emperors.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> At any rate, when a representative of the family,
+in the person of Otto IV., at last reached &#8220;the dread summit of C&#230;sarean
+power,&#8221; the very Pope, whose support had placed him on the throne, found
+himself <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>within little more than a year under the familiar necessity of
+excommunicating the temporal head of Christendom. Still, in Italy no
+doubt the Guelfs, politically at any rate, held by the Church, while the
+Ghibelines had the reputation of being, as a party, at least tainted
+with what we should now call materialism. It will be remembered that
+among the sinners in this kind, who occupy the burning tombs within the
+walls of the city of Dis, Dante places both the Emperor Frederick II.,
+the head of Ghibelinism, and Farinata degli Uberti, the vigorous leader
+of the party in Tuscany, while the only Guelf who appears there is one
+who probably was a very loose adherent to his own faction.</p>
+
+<p>Less justified, it would seem, is the idea that the Guelfs were
+specially the patriotic party in Italy. No doubt the Popes at one time
+tried to pose as the defenders of Italian liberties against German
+tyrants, and some modern historians, forgetting the medi&#230;val conception
+of the Empire, have been inclined to accept this view. But when it
+suited his purpose, the Pope was ready enough to support an &#8220;anti-C&#230;sar&#8221;
+who was no less a German, or even to call in a French invader. The truth
+is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> that at that time (and for many centuries afterwards), no conception
+of &#8220;Italy&#8221; as a nation had entered into men&#8217;s minds. We do not always
+realise that until the year 1870, the territory, well enough defined by
+Nature, which forms the modern kingdom of Italy, had never, except
+indeed as part of a far wider Empire, owned the rule of a single
+sovereign. Patriotism hardly extended beyond the walls of a man&#8217;s own
+city. Even Dante feels that residence in Lucca, Bologna, or Verona is an
+exile as complete as any, and that his only <em>patria</em> is Florence, though
+it may be safely said that to him, if to any living man, the idea of an
+Italian nation had presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>The one argument which we can find to support this view lies in the fact
+that while the chief Guelf names are those of burgher families, many of
+the leading Ghibeline houses were undoubtedly of German origin. At
+Florence the Uberti, at Bologna the Lamberti, show their descent in
+their names. Villani tells us that the Emperor Otto I. delighted in
+Florence, &#8220;and when he returned to Germany certain of his barons
+remained there and became citizens.&#8221; The two families just mentioned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+are specified. So far, then, the Guelfs may be regarded as representing
+native civic liberties against an alien feudal nobility, and the
+struggle between the two factions will fall into line with that which at
+a somewhat later date went on in Germany between the traders of the
+cities and the &#8220;robber-barons&#8221; of the country. In this aspect we may see
+the full meaning of Dante&#8217;s continual allusion to the sin of avarice,
+under the image of the &#8220;wolf;&#8221; an allusion, again, which the original
+name whence the Guelf party took its appellation would specially point.</p>
+
+<p>How and when the names first appeared in Italy we do not know. The first
+manifestation of resistance on the part of the cities to the Imperial
+control was given when Milan withstood Frederick Barbarossa&#8212;in defence,
+it may be noted, of its own right to oppress its weaker neighbours; but
+during the war which followed, and which was terminated by Frederick&#8217;s
+defeat at Legnano, the head of the Welfs, Henry the Lion, was for most
+of the time fighting on the Imperial side, and though he deserted
+Frederick at the last, he does not seem to have given any active help to
+the Lombard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> League. Yet it may well be that in his defection we have to
+see a stage in the transition from Welf to Guelf. It is, however, not in
+Lombardy, but in Tuscany, that the names of Guelf and Ghibeline, as
+recognised party designations, first appear. Machiavelli says&#8212;perhaps
+by a confusion with the Black and White factions, of whom we shall hear
+later&#8212;that they were first heard in Pistoia; but however this may be,
+they would seem to have been definitely accepted by 1215, to which year
+Villani assigns their introduction into Florence.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the first date, it may be said, which students of
+Dante will have to remember; a date which to him, and equally to the
+sober chronicler Villani, marked the beginning of troubles for the city
+which both loved as a mother, though to the greater son she was &#8220;a
+mother of small love.&#8221; The occasion is so important that it ought to be
+related in the historian&#8217;s own words:&#8212;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&#8220;In the year of Christ 1215, one Messer Bondelmonte, of the Bondelmonti,
+a noble citizen of Florence, having promised to take to wife a damsel of
+the house of the Amidei, honourable and noble citizens; as this Messer
+Bondelmonte, who was a gay and handsome cavalier, was riding through the
+city, a lady of the Donati family called to him, speaking evil of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+lady who had been promised to him, how that she was not fair nor fitting
+for him, and saying: &#8216;I have kept my daughter here for you,&#8217; showed him
+the maiden; and she was very fair. And straightway falling enamoured of
+her, he gave her his troth, and espoused her to wife; for which cause
+the kinsfolk of the first promised lady gathered together, and being
+grieved for the shame that Messer Bondelmonte had wrought them, they
+took on them the accursed quarrel whereby the city of Florence was laid
+waste and broken up. For many houses of the nobles<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> bound themselves
+together by an oath to do a shame to the aforesaid Bondelmonte in
+vengeance for those injuries. And as they were in council among
+themselves in what fashion they should bring him down, Mosca of the
+Lamberti said the ill word: &#8220;A thing done hath an end,&#8221; meaning that he
+should be slain.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> And so it came to pass; for on the morning of
+Easter Day they assembled in the house of the Amidei by St. Stephen&#8217;s,
+and the said Messer Bondelmonte, coming from beyond Arno, nobly clad in
+new white clothes, and riding on a white palfrey, when he reached the
+hither end of the Old Bridge, just by the pillar where was the image of
+Mars, was thrown from his horse by Schiatta of the Uberti,<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and by
+Mosca Lamberti and Lambertuccio of the Amidei assailed and wounded, and
+his throat was cut and an end made of him by Oderigo Fifanti; and one of
+the counts from Gangalandi was with them. For the which thing&#8217;s sake the
+city flew to arms and uproar, and this death of Messer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>Bondelmonte was
+the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibeline parties in
+Florence, albeit that before this the factions among the nobles of the
+city had been plenty, and there had been the parties I have said, by
+reason of the conflicts and questions between the Church and the Empire;
+but through the death of Messer Bondelmonte all the families of the
+nobles and other citizens of Florence took sides with them, and some
+held with the Bondelmonti, who took the Guelf side and were its leaders,
+and others with the Uberti, who were head of the Ghibelines. Whence
+followed much havoc and ruin to our city, and one may think that it will
+never have an end if God put not a term to it.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The historian proceeds to enumerate the noble families who joined either
+side. Curiously enough, they were at first evenly divided&#8212;thirty-eight
+to thirty-eight. Not much is to be inferred from the names, though it is
+somewhat significant that of those, some half a dozen families in all,
+whom Villani, himself a Guelf, notes as having only recently attained to
+nobility, all joined the Guelf party. There seems also to have been a
+tendency for Ghibeline houses to become Guelf, which is not balanced by
+any defections in the opposite sense, so that the balance of parties was
+soon disturbed in favour of the Guelfs. At first, however, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+&#8220;there was a division among the nobles of the city in that one loved the
+lordship of the Church, and the other that of the Empire, yet in regard
+to the state and welfare of the commonwealth all were in concord.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This state of things did not last long. In 1220 Frederick II. was
+crowned Emperor at Rome. Up till that time he had been more or less a
+<em>prot&#233;g&#233;</em> of the Popes. First Innocent III., then Honorius III., had
+kept a fatherly eye upon his youth and early manhood, and for a time
+Church and Empire seemed to pull together. Honorius had, indeed,
+occasion to write severely to him more than once, but there was no
+breach of the peace. The accession of Gregory IX., in 1227, changed the
+aspect of affairs. Before the year was out, Frederick, like most of his
+predecessors for 200 years past, was under the ban of the Church: and
+from this time forward there was an end of peace and quiet government in
+Northern Italy. &#8220;Before Frederick met with opposition,&#8221; Dante makes a
+Lombard gentleman of the last generation say, &#8220;valour and courtesy were
+wont to be found in the land which Adige and Po water; now may any man
+safely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> go that way, who through shame has left off to converse with
+good men or approach them.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>Florence seems to have remained longer than most of the chief cities
+aloof from the main contest. She had her own wars with Pisa, beginning
+with a private quarrel at the Emperor&#8217;s coronation (in which we are
+expressly told that both parties united), and afterwards with Siena; and
+the great houses did a certain amount of private fighting; &#8220;but still
+the people and commonwealth of Florence continued in unity, to the
+welfare and honour and stability of the republic.&#8221; In 1248, however,
+Frederick turned his attention in that direction, moved, it may be, by
+the growing strength of the Guelfs. His natural son, Frederick of
+Antioch, was sent with a force of German men-at-arms, and after some
+fierce street fighting, the Guelfs were driven out.</p>
+
+<p>The Ghibeline supremacy was short-lived. Their nobles, especially the
+great house of the Uberti, became unpopular by reason of the exactions
+which they enforced; they got beaten in a fight with some of the
+banished Guelfs at no great distance from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>the city; and before the end
+of 1250 a meeting of &#8220;the good men,&#8221; as Villani calls them, or, as we
+should say, the middle class, limited the power of the Podest&#224;,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> and
+appointed a Captain of the People to manage the internal affairs of the
+city, with a council of twelve Elders. Other important changes were made
+at the same time, and the new constitution&#8212;the third recorded in
+Florentine history&#8212;was known as the &#8220;Primo Popolo.&#8221; The death of
+Frederick in the same year still further weakened the Ghibelines. Some
+of them were banished, and the exiled Guelfs were recalled. Peace,
+however, seems to have been kept between the parties for some time, and
+when in 1255 Count Guido Guerra on his own account expelled the
+Ghibelines from Arezzo, the Florentines restored them, and lent the
+Aretines money to pay a fine which the Guelf chief had inflicted; &#8220;but I
+know not if they ever got it back,&#8221; says Villani.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>Again the compromise proved unstable. Manfred, Frederick&#8217;s natural son,
+to whom, during the childhood of his young nephew, Conradin, the
+championship of the Hohenstaufen cause had fallen, was daily increasing
+in strength. His orders came to the Ghibelines of Florence to crush the
+popular party; and the latter, being warned in time, drove out all the
+great Ghibeline families. Two years later these had their revenge. On
+September 4, 1260, a date much to be remembered in the history of these
+times, the banished Ghibelines, aided by eight hundred of Manfred&#8217;s
+German horse, seized the opportunity of hostilities between the
+Florentines and the Sienese to meet their opponents in a pitched battle.
+This took place on the Arbia, near the fortress of Montaperti, to the
+east of Siena.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> The Guelfs were utterly routed, partly, it would
+seem, through the incompetence of some of the Elders who accompanied the
+army, and who, civilians though they were, overruled the judgement of
+the military leaders, and accepted battle under <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>unfavourable
+conditions; and partly through the treachery of some Ghibelines who, not
+having been exiled, were serving in the Florentine host. Readers of the
+<em>Commedia</em> will remember the name of Bocca degli Abati, placed by Dante
+in the lowest pit of hell.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>Sixty-five of the leading Guelf families fled to Lucca, while the
+Ghibelines entered Florence, and appointed Guido Novello, of the great
+house of the Conti Guidi, Imperial Podest&#224;. A meeting of the leaders of
+the party from Pisa, Siena, and Arezzo was held at Empoli, and a
+proposal was made on behalf of the rival cities, to raze Florence to the
+ground as a fortified city, and so preclude her revival as a Guelf
+stronghold. For once, however, a man was found to set patriotism above
+party. The great Farinata degli Uberti, whose wise counsel and warlike
+skill had mainly contributed to the victory, rose, with the same
+magnificent scorn, we may suppose, that Dante afterwards saw him display
+for the torments of Hell,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and let it be known that, so long as he
+had life in him, he would resist any such measure at the sword&#8217;s point.
+Count Giordano, the commander of the Germans, who had convened the
+meeting, gave in, and Florence was saved.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>This was the last gleam of success which the Imperial cause was to
+enjoy in Tuscany for nearly half a century. Soon after the battle of
+Montaperti, Urban IV. was elected to the Papal See. He was a Frenchman
+by birth, &#8220;son of a shoemaker, but a valiant man and wise,&#8221; says
+Villani. In view of the growing power of Manfred, vigorous steps had to
+be taken. The exiled Florentine Guelfs had made a fruitless attempt to
+effect a diversion in Germany, by inciting the young Conradin to oppose
+the acting head of his house. This old expedient having failed, Urban
+turned his eyes towards his own country. Charles of Anjou, brother of
+Saint Lewis, was at that time, next to the reigning sovereigns, the most
+powerful prince in Christendom, and to his aid the Pope appealed.
+Himself a man of Puritanical strictness in his life, and devoted to the
+Church, Charles was ready enough to accept the call, which appealed
+alike to his principles and to his ambition, and to act as the champion
+of the Holy See against the dissolute and freethinking Manfred;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> and the
+influence of his wife, the only one of Raymond Berenger&#8217;s four daughters
+who was not actually or in prospect a queen,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> was thrown on the same
+side. After keeping Easter 1265 at Paris, Charles set out, and landed at
+the mouth of the Tiber in May. In December he was crowned at Rome King
+of Naples, Sicily, and Apulia. Two months later, at the end of February
+1266, Charles and Manfred met near Benevento. After some hard fighting,
+of which the German troops seem to have borne the brunt, the battle was
+decided against Manfred by the desertion of his Apulian barons, and he
+himself was slain. His defeat gave the final blow to the Ghibeline cause
+in Tuscany. Only Pisa and Siena remained faithful. In Florence an
+attempt was made to avoid civil strife by the device of doubling the
+office of Podest&#224;. Two gentlemen from Bologna, Catalano de&#8217; Malavolti
+and Loderingo de&#8217; Landol&#242;, a Guelf and a Ghibeline,<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> were appointed,
+and they <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>nominated a council of thirty-six, chosen from both sides. But
+this plan did not work well. Party spirit had grown too violent to allow
+of half measures, and before the year was out the people rose again, and
+the Ghibelines were banished for good and all.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8" class="label">[8]</a> It seems proper to say that this chapter was written, and
+at least some of it printed, before Mr. Oscar Browning&#8217;s interesting
+volume, <em>Guelphs and Ghibellines</em> (Methuen), appeared.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9" class="label">[9]</a> It may not be out of place here to correct the vulgar error
+that &#8220;Guelf&#8221; is in any sense the surname of our Royal family. The house
+of Brunswick is no doubt lineally descended from these Welfs of Bavaria;
+but it has been a reigning house since a period long antecedent to the
+existence (among Teutonic peoples) of family or surnames, and there is
+no reason for assigning to the Queen the Christian name of one of her
+ancestors more than another&#8212;&#8220;Guelf&#8221; more than &#8220;George.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10" class="label">[10]</a> Hallam considers that hostility to the Empire was the
+motive principle of the Guelf party in Lombardy; attachment to the
+Church in Tuscany.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11" class="label">[11]</a> Observe that the Bondelmonti were comparatively newcomers.
+They had originally belonged to Valdigreve, and had only lived in
+Florence for some eighty years at the date of this event. Hence they
+were looked upon as upstarts, and not properly speaking, nobles at all.
+See <em>Paradise</em>, xvi. 133-147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12" class="label">[12]</a> <em>Hell</em>, xxviii. 106.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13" class="label">[13]</a> Possibly &#8220;by the Uberti lot.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14" class="label">[14]</a> Villani, <em>Croniche</em>, v. 37.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15" class="label">[15]</a> <em>Purgatory</em>, xvi. 115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16" class="label">[16]</a> The name <em>Podest&#224;</em> originally denoted the chief authority
+of a city or county, whether vested in one person or several. Frederick
+I. established Imperial officers under this title throughout Tuscany
+near the end of his reign, and for some time the Podest&#224; was regarded as
+the Emperor&#8217;s delegate. Before the end of the century, however, they had
+become municipal officers, gradually displacing the former consuls from
+the chief position. About 1200 the custom of choosing them from the
+citizens of some other town than that in which they officiated, seems to
+have become established; the native consuls being their councillors.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17" class="label">[17]</a> <em>Hell</em>, x. 96.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18" class="label">[18]</a> <em>Hell</em>, xxxii. 81, 106.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19" class="label">[19]</a> <em>Ibid.</em>, x. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20" class="label">[20]</a> <em>Paradise</em>, vi. 133.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21" class="label">[21]</a> They seem to have acted on the principle of filling their
+own pockets, rather than of maintaining order; and are placed by Dante
+among the hypocrites, in the sixth pit of Malebolge (<em>Hell</em>, xxiii.
+103). They belonged to the order of Knights of St. Mary, popularly
+called Jovial Friars.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span><a name="III" id="III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
+<br />
+<small>DANTE&#8217;S EARLY DAYS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">In</span> the month when Charles of Anjou sailed up the Tiber to Rome, a child
+was born at Florence to a citizen named Alighiero, son of Bellincione.
+We do not know for certain his <em>casato</em>, or family name. Bellincione&#8217;s
+father was another Alighiero, or, as it was originally written,
+Aldighiero. His father was Cacciaguida, who had a brother named Eliseo;
+from which it has been conjectured that he may have belonged to the
+prominent house of the Elisei, which is known to have existed as far
+back as the beginning of the eleventh century, since it was not uncommon
+for members of a family to bear the founder&#8217;s name. We know, further,
+that the name of Alighiero came into the family with Cacciaguida&#8217;s wife,
+who belonged to some city near the Po, probably Ferrara, where a family
+of Aldighieri is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> known to have existed.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> In any case, it was
+originally no Florentine name, and it may be doubted if it ever was
+recognised as the appellation of a family. True, Dante is once or twice
+referred to as &#8220;Dantes de Alegheriis,&#8221; but this may be due to the fact
+that he was known to have had recently two ancestors of the name. He
+himself, if we may trust the evidence of letters ascribed to him, seems
+to have written &#8220;Dantes Alligherius,&#8221; while his son calls him Dantes
+Aligherii, and himself Petrus Dantis Aligherii, &#8220;Peter, son of Dante,
+son of Alighiero.&#8221; In the official Florentine documents, where his name
+occurs, it is &#8220;Dantes Allegherii&#8221; or &#8220;Dante d&#8217;Alighiero,&#8221; &#8220;Dante the son
+of Alighiero,&#8221; and no more. The form &#8220;degli Alighieri,&#8221; which would
+indicate a true family name, we find in no undoubtedly contemporary
+document.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>In view of this initial uncertainty, the discussion whether the poet was
+of &#8220;noble&#8221; family or not seems a trifle superfluous. His
+great-great-grand-father, Cacciaguida, is made to say (<em>Par.</em>, xv. 140)
+that he himself received knighthood from the Emperor Conrad III. (of
+Hohenstaufen). This would confer nobility; but it would appear that it
+would be possible for later generations to lose that status, and there
+are some indications that Dante was sensitive on this point. At any
+rate, it is pretty clear that his immediate ancestors were not in any
+way distinguished. The very fact that he was born in Florence during a
+period when all the leading Guelfs were in exile shows that Alighiero
+was not considered by the dominant Ghibelines a person of too great
+importance to be allowed to remain undisturbed in the city.</p>
+
+<p>Of Dante&#8217;s boyhood and early youth we have only stray indications, and
+those mainly gathered from his own writings. We can, indeed, form a
+pretty clear notion of what he <em>was</em>, but we know little enough about
+what he <em>did</em>. From a very early period he was made a hero of romance.
+Without going so far as some recent writers, both German and Italian,
+who seem to look upon every statement of early biographers with
+suspicion, while regarding their silence as good evidence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> that what
+they do not mention cannot have happened, we must admit that we cannot
+with certainty date any event in the first thirty years of Dante&#8217;s life.
+Still, we can infer a good deal. He must unquestionably, during this
+time, have read a great deal, for it would have been impossible for a
+man wandering about from place to place, and intermittently busied in
+political affairs, to have amassed in seven or eight years the amount of
+learning which the <em>Commedia</em> by itself shows him to have possessed. He
+must have been recognised at an early age as a young man of marked
+ability. His intimacy with the old statesman Brunetto Latini, who died
+in 1294, and his friendship with Charles of Anjou&#8217;s grandson, Carlo
+Martello,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> the young King of Hungary, who was at Florence in the same
+year and the following, are sufficient to prove this. Neither Brunetto,
+the most learned man of his age in Florence, and, as we should say, a
+man of &#8220;society&#8221; as well, nor a prince who, had he lived, would have
+been one of the most important personages in Europe, was likely to have
+distinguished with his friendship a young man of twenty-nine, not of the
+highest birth, unless he had already made himself notable for
+intellectual eminence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>One event occurred during Dante&#8217;s youth, in which he is so generally
+believed to have borne a part, that it will probably come as a shock to
+many people to learn that this belief rests only on the statement of a
+writer who was not born till nearly fifty years after Dante&#8217;s death. On
+St. Barnabas&#8217;s day, June 11, 1289, the Florentine Guelfs met the
+Ghibelines of Arezzo, in whose ranks many of their own exiles were
+fighting, in a plain called Campaldino, belonging to the district of
+Certomondo, which lies in the Casentino, or upper part of the Arno
+valley. The Florentines gained a complete victory, though only after a
+hard fight, in which many of the chief Ghibeline leaders lost their
+lives. The event was one of great importance, and Villani recounts it in
+very full detail.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> Dante <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>also refers to it in one of the best-known
+passages of the <em>Purgatory</em> (v. 92). It is quite possible that he
+himself may have taken part in the battle; but if he did so, it is
+somewhat strange that none of the earlier commentators, including his
+own son, nor any biographer of the fourteenth century, should have known
+of it, or, knowing of it, should have thought it worth recording; and
+that it should have been left to Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, writing after
+the year 1400, to make the first reference to so noteworthy an incident
+in Dante&#8217;s early career. Leonardo (whose &#8220;Life&#8221; will be found in
+Bianchi&#8217;s edition of the <em>Commedia</em>) quotes, indeed, a letter, said to
+have been written many years afterwards by Dante, in which reference is
+made to his presence in the battle; but this letter has long
+disappeared, and it is to be noted that the biographer does not even
+profess to have seen it himself. There is, it must be said, in the
+<em>Hell</em> (xxii. <em>init.</em>) one allusion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> to warlike operations in the
+Aretine territory of which Dante claims to have been an eye-witness; but
+as none of the early commentators seems to refer to Campaldino in
+connection with this passage, it tells, if anything, against the
+received story.</p>
+
+<p>Another event, sometimes assigned to the period of Dante&#8217;s life before
+his banishment, has somewhat more evidence in its favour. That he
+visited Paris at least once in the course of his life, the early
+authorities are agreed; but Villani, Boccaccio, and Benvenuto of Imola,
+all writing in the fourteenth century, make the visit to have taken
+place during his exile. It is not until we come to John of Serravalle,
+Lord of Fermo, who as Bishop of Rimini attended the Council of
+Constance, and there, at the request of the Bishops of Bath and Wells
+and Salisbury, prepared a Latin version of the <em>Commedia</em> with
+commentary, that we find mention of an earlier visit. His testimony is a
+little suspicious, because in the same sentence he also asserts that
+Dante studied at Oxford, a statement which, without strong confirmation,
+it would be very hard to accept. On the other side, it may be said that
+the silence of the older biographers is not conclusive evidence against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+the early study at Paris. Dante also went to Bologna, as it would
+appear, both before and after his banishment; yet while Villani and
+Boccaccio only name the latter visit, Benvenuto speaks only of the
+former. It is therefore quite possible that all three may have ignored
+the first period of study at Paris, or, if there was but one such
+period, may have assigned it to the wrong part of Dante&#8217;s life. <em>Prim&#226;
+facie</em> it is more probable that he would have undertaken both the long
+journey and the course of study in his days of &#8220;greater freedom and less
+responsibility,&#8221; than when he was not only engaged upon the composition
+both of his great poem and of several prose treatises, but was taking an
+active share in political work.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the allusion in the <em>Paradise</em> to the lectures of Sigier bears
+all the stamp of a personal reminiscence; just as the allusion to the
+dykes along the coast of Flanders to illustrate those which form the
+banks of the river Phlegethon, could hardly have occurred to one who had
+not seen them with his own eyes, though the biographers mention no
+journey to Flanders. But Sigier&#8217;s lectures and his life too were over by
+1300.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>Another little bit of evidence may be given for what it is worth. Any
+one who has read the discourses of Meister Eckhart, the founder of the
+school of German mystics, will be struck by the frequent and close
+resemblances, not of thought only, but of expression and illustration,
+which exist between him and Dante. So frequent and so close are these,
+that the reader can hardly conceive the possibility of their being due
+to mere coincidence.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> But Eckhart preached and wrote (if he wrote) in
+German, a language which we have no reason to think that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>Dante knew; so
+that the exchange of ideas between them, if any, must have taken place
+by word of mouth, and in French or Latin. Now, Eckhart was for a long
+time in Paris&#8212;so long that he seems to have been known as &#8220;Master
+Eckhart of Paris&#8221;&#8212;and left that city in 1302. If he and Dante ever met,
+it must have been in Paris (for though Eckhart went to Italy in 1302, it
+appears to have been only on a journey to Rome, the last place save
+Florence where Dante would then have cared to show himself), and that at
+some time before 1300.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, we may question if Dante would have chosen Paris as a place of
+residence while Philip the Fair was on the throne of France.</p>
+
+<p>If, then, he did visit France before his exile, we can date the visit
+with some certainty. It can hardly have been before 1290, the year of
+Beatrice&#8217;s death, nor after 1294, the year in which Carlo Martello came
+to Florence. Dante&#8217;s marriage, again, in all probability took place
+somewhere about the latter year. We know nothing directly of Dante&#8217;s
+doings in this interval; nothing, at any rate, inconsistent with his
+having been for some considerable period away from Florence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>But we have kept till the last the subject which to many is the only one
+associated with Dante&#8217;s younger life. What, it will be said, about
+Beatrice? The fashionable theory nowadays seems to be that there
+undoubtedly was a lady at Florence of that name, the daughter of Folco
+Portinari, that she was married to Simone de&#8217; Bardi, a member of that
+great family who were Edward III.&#8217;s bankers, and that she died in the
+flower of her youth. But, say the modern Italian and German writers,
+this lady&#8212;Frau Bardi-Portinari, the latter call her&#8212;had no more to do
+with Dante than any other Beatrice in history. This will seem to many
+who do not realise on how slight a basis the identification of her
+rests, to be the very wantonness of paradox. These may be startled to
+learn that the whole story depends upon the veracity of one man, and
+that a professed writer of romantic fiction. It is from Boccaccio, and
+from him alone, that we have learnt to see in Dante&#8217;s mystical guide and
+guardian, in the lost love of his early years, only the idealised and
+allegorised figure of Folco Portinari&#8217;s daughter. What, then, is his
+evidence worth? To this we can only reply, that Boccaccio was born eight
+years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> before Dante&#8217;s death; that he lived in Florence from his
+childhood; that he must have spoken with scores of people to whom the
+social and literary history of the years preceding 1290 was perfectly
+familiar; that both Dante and the husband of Beatrice were prominent
+men; and that Boccaccio can have had no motive for making a statement
+which, if untrue, he must have known to be so. Further, if the statement
+had been untrue, it would surely have been contradicted, and some trace
+of the contradiction would have been found. But, on the contrary, it
+seems to have been accepted from the first. It is repeated by
+Boccaccio&#8217;s younger contemporary and disciple Benvenuto of Imola, who
+himself lived for some time in Florence, before all those who would be
+able from their own recollection to confirm or deny it would have passed
+away. And Benvenuto, it may be noted, though devoted to Boccaccio, was
+no mere student, but a shrewd and critical man of the world. Dante&#8217;s son
+Pietro, indeed, says no word to show that Beatrice was anything but a
+symbol, and in this some of the other early commentators follow him. But
+this would prove too much. Whether she be rightly identified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> with
+Beatrice Portinari or not, it is impossible for any reader possessing
+the least knowledge of the human heart to see in the Beatrice of the
+<em>Commedia</em> a symbol merely. Not to mention that it would be quite
+contrary to Dante&#8217;s practice thus to <em>invent</em> a personage for the sake
+of the symbol, it is absurd to suppose that the &#8220;ten years&#8217; thirst&#8221;
+which the sight of her relieves, &#8220;the eyes whence Love once took his
+weapons,&#8221; and such-like expressions were intended primarily as
+references to a neglected study of theology or a previous devotion to a
+contemplative life. The omission, therefore, of the commentators who
+interested themselves mainly in the allegory to tell us about the real
+Beatrice cannot be used as evidence against her existence.</p>
+
+<p>The first supporter of what may be called the &#8220;superior&#8221; view&#8212;namely
+that the whole story of Beatrice is purely allegorical&#8212;was one Giovanni
+Mario Filelfo, a writer of the fifteenth century, born more than a
+hundred years after Dante&#8217;s death. As a rule, where his statements can
+be tested, they are incorrect; and on the whole his work appears to be a
+mass of unwarranted inferences from unverified assertions. It was not
+till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> recent times that his theory on the subject found any defenders.</p>
+
+<p>We may, then, pretty safely continue in the old faith. After all, it
+explains more difficulties than it raises. No doubt if we cannot free
+ourselves from modern conceptions we shall be somewhat startled not only
+by the almost deification of Beatrice, but also by the frank revelation
+of Dante&#8217;s passion, with which neither the fact of her having become
+another man&#8217;s wife nor his own marriage seems in any way to interfere.
+It needs, however, but a very slight knowledge of the conditions of life
+in the thirteenth century to understand the position. As has been
+already pointed out, the notion of woman&#8217;s love as a spur to noble
+living, &#8220;the maiden passion for a maid,&#8221; was quite recent, and at its
+first growth was quite distinct from the love which finds its fulfilment
+in marriage. Almost every young man of a literary or intellectual turn
+seems to have had his Egeria; and when we can identify her she is
+usually the wife of some one else.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22" class="label">[22]</a> It may be noted that the name is undoubtedly Teutonic. The
+suggested derivations from <em>aliger</em>, &#8220;the wing-bearer,&#8221; and the like,
+are purely fanciful. The first part of the word is doubtless <em>alt</em>,
+&#8220;old,&#8221; which we have in our own Aldhelm; the termination is the <em>geirr</em>,
+or <em>gar</em>, which occurs in all Teutonic languages, and means &#8220;spear.&#8221;
+Dante (= Durante) was a common Christian name.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23" class="label">[23]</a> Doubts have even been thrown on Dante&#8217;s friendship with
+this young King. To these we can only reply that, if it is not implied
+by <em>Par.</em>, viii. 55, it is impossible to draw any inference whatever as
+to Dante&#8217;s life from any line of the poem.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24" class="label">[24]</a> The conclusion of his account is picturesque enough to
+deserve reproduction. &#8220;The news of the said victory came to Florence the
+very day and hour when it took place; for the Lords Priors having after
+dinner gone to sleep and rest, by reason of the anxiety and watching of
+the past night, suddenly came a knock at the door of the chamber, with a
+cry, &#8216;Rise up, for the Aretines are discomfited;&#8217; and when they were
+risen, and the door opened, they found no man, and their servants
+without had heard nothing. Whence it was held a great and notable
+marvel, seeing that before any person came from the host with the news,
+it was towards the hour of vespers.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25" class="label">[25]</a> We find close resemblances between Dante and the founder
+of German mysticism. Not only in similes and illustrations, such as the
+tailor and his cloth, the needle and the loadstone, the flow of water to
+the sea, the gravitation of weights to the centre; or in such phrases as
+Eckhart&#8217;s &#8220;nature possesses nothing swifter than the heaven,&#8221; or his use
+of <em>edilkeit</em> &#8220;nobility,&#8221; in reference to freewill, <em>la nobile virt&#249;</em>.
+These may have been, in some cases were, borrowed by both from a common
+source, though the fact of their so often borrowing the same things is
+suggestive. So, too, both Dante and Eckhart quote St. John i. 3, 4, with
+the punctuation adopted by Aquinas, <em>quod factum est, in ipso vita
+erat</em>&#8212;&#8220;what was made, in Him was life&#8221;&#8212;though the Vulgate and St.
+Augustine prefer the arrangement of the words familiar to us in our own
+version. But when we find such an unusual thought as that in <em>Par.</em>,
+viii. 103, 104, of the redeemed soul having no more need to repent of
+its sins, expressed in almost similar words by Eckhart, it is hardly
+possible to believe that it occurred to both independently. There are
+many other instances, but it would occupy too much space if I were to
+give them here.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
+<br />
+<small>FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE&#8217;S EXILE</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">In</span> order to understand the extent to which Dante&#8217;s life was influenced
+by the political circumstances of his age, it will be well to carry our
+survey of events somewhat further, with special reference to the affairs
+of Florence.</p>
+
+<p>As we have seen, after frequent alternations of fortune, the city
+passed, within two years of Dante&#8217;s birth, for good and all to the Guelf
+side. On St. Martin&#8217;s Day, in November, 1266, Count Guido Novello and
+his German horse were driven out of the city by the burghers; and though
+in the January following a treaty of peace was made, and cemented by
+various marriages between members of the leading families on either
+side&#8212;an arrangement of which the chief result was to embitter party
+spirit among the Guelfs who had taken no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> share in it&#8212;anything like a
+lasting reconciliation was soon found to be out of the question. Charles
+of Anjou, moreover, fresh from his victory over Manfred, was by no means
+disposed to allow the beaten Ghibelines any chance of rallying.
+Negotiations were entered into between him and the Florentine Guelfs,
+and on Easter Day, 1267, Guy of Montfort (son of Sir Simon) entered the
+city at the head of eight hundred French cavalry. The Ghibelines did not
+venture to strike a blow, but departed on the day before his arrival. At
+Easter, says Villani, the crime was committed which first split the city
+into factions; and at Easter the descendants of the men who had
+committed the crime went into exile, never to return.</p>
+
+<p>The same year saw a general rally of the north Italian states to the
+Guelf side, and before many months were out even Lombardy, where, says
+Villani, there was hardly any memory of the Guelfs, followed the stream.
+In Tuscany, Pisa and Siena alone held by the tradition&#8212;for it was
+little more&#8212;of allegiance to the Empire. The Florentine exiles betook
+themselves to those cities, and before long the spirits of the party had
+revived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> sufficiently to allow them to play what must have been felt to
+be their last stroke in the game. Profiting by the disaffection of
+certain Apulian and Sicilian barons (whom one may imagine to have found
+the gloomy discipline of Charles a poor exchange for the brilliancy and
+licence of Frederick&#8217;s Court), they cast their eyes towards the last
+surviving representative of that Count Frederick who, some two hundred
+years before, had fixed his seat in the hill-fortress of Staufen.
+Conrad, or Corradino, as the Italians called him, grandson of Frederick
+II., was a lad of sixteen, still under the tutelage of his mother, the
+widow of Conrad IV. Germany seems to have been loyal to him, and had it
+not been for the impatience of the Italian Ghibelines, he might well
+have looked forward to regaining, perhaps under more favourable
+auspices, the Empire which his predecessors had held. But the Tuscan
+nobles, smarting under defeat, could not wait; and in spite of his
+mother&#8217;s opposition, they carried the boy off. Money was lacking; and of
+the ten thousand German horsemen who accompanied him across the Brenner,
+only three thousand five hundred went beyond Verona. He passed through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+Lombardy, however, without opposition, and with the aid of the Genoese
+fleet reached Pisa in May, 1268. The rising of the Apulian barons had
+compelled Charles to return hastily to his kingdom, and Conradin found
+his way clear to Siena. An action in the district of Arezzo resulted in
+the defeat and capture of Charles&#8217;s &#8220;marshal,&#8221; who had come out from
+Florence in pursuit, and the German force was able to enter Rome
+unmolested. There they received a reinforcement of eight hundred good
+Spanish cavalry under Don Henry, brother of the King of Castile, and,
+elated with success, pushed on to strike a decisive blow. They marched
+eastward to Tagliacozzo, just within the frontier of the Abruzzi, while
+Charles reached the same point by forced marches from Nocera. The armies
+met on St. Bartholomew&#8217;s Eve, and at first everything seemed to go well
+for Conradin. The Spanish division defeated the Proven&#231;als, and the
+Germans crushed the French and Italians. But Charles had with him an
+experienced old knight, Alard de St. Val&#233;ry, by whose advice he held a
+picked force in reserve, concealed behind some rising ground. With this
+he now attacked the victorious Germans and Spaniards,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> who had got out
+of hand in the excitement of pursuit and plundering. They made a bold
+resistance, but discipline told in the end; they were utterly defeated
+and their leaders put to flight. Conradin and his immediate staff,
+comprising the Duke of Austria and some German and Italian nobles, made
+their way to Astura on the coast of the Campagna, and had succeeded in
+embarking when they were recognised by one of the Frangipani, who were
+the lords of the territory. Arrested by him and handed over to Charles,
+they were subjected to a form of trial, and beheaded in the market-place
+of Naples. This act has always been regarded as an indelible blot on
+Charles&#8217;s record. Dante couples it with the alleged murder, by his
+order, of St. Thomas Aquinas; and it seems to have been felt even by
+members of the Guelf party as something, if one may so say, beyond the
+rules of the game. Pope Clement, according to Villani, blamed Charles
+severely; and the pious historian, for his own part, sees in the King&#8217;s
+subsequent misfortunes the judgment of God upon his cruelty towards an
+innocent boy. The judge who pronounced the sentence was slain before
+Charles&#8217;s very eyes by his son-in-law,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> Robert, son to the Count of
+Flanders, &#8220;and not a word was said, for Robert was great with the King,
+and it appeared to the King and to all the barons that he had acted like
+a valiant gentleman.&#8221; In Conradin the Hohenstaufen line came to an end,
+and therewith all <em>raison d&#8217;&#234;tre</em> for the Ghibeline party. After this it
+became merely a turbulent faction, until the accession of Henry of
+Luxemburg; when C&#230;sar once more began to take interest in his Italian
+dominions.</p>
+
+<p>It may be conceded that party rancour had much more to do with the
+bringing of Conradin into Italy than any conscientious adhesion to views
+such as those to which Dante afterwards gave utterance in the <em>De
+Monarchia</em>, or faith in the benefit which would accrue to the world from
+the rule of a single sovereign. But it shows the hold which the Empire
+still had on men&#8217;s minds, that the Ghibeline chiefs should have
+preferred to take a boy from Germany as the figure-head of their cause,
+rather than seek a leader of more experience from among their
+fellow-countrymen. Nor does it seem to have entered any one&#8217;s mind to
+look out of Germany for an Emperor. There were, indeed, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> the very
+time, two rival C&#230;sars-elect in existence&#8212;Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
+and Alfonso, King of Castile, the former of whom his own countrymen,
+more in derision than respect, were wont to call &#8220;King of Almayne;&#8221; but
+clearly no Ghibeline cared to call upon either of them to &#8220;heal the
+wounds which were killing Italy.&#8221; Later, when the long interregnum was
+brought to an end by the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, even the Guelf
+Villani holds that if he had been willing to pass into Italy he would
+have been lord of it without opposition; but that astute prince no doubt
+found himself much better employed in converting a petty baronial line
+into one of the great houses of Germany, and ultimately of Europe, than
+in acting up to a titular dignity which brought its bearer more
+splendour than either wealth or ease. When he did send an Imperial Vicar
+into Tuscany in 1281 his chance was gone, and the emissary was glad to
+come to terms with the Florentines.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, from the earliest time that Dante could remember, the Guelfs held
+an almost undisturbed supremacy throughout Tuscany. There was occasional
+fighting between Florence, as the head of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> the Guelf League, and Siena,
+or Pisa, as the case might be. The Sienese, though helped by Guido
+Novello and the Florentine exiles, and by some of the Spanish and German
+troops who had escaped from Tagliacozzo, were badly beaten at Colle di
+Val d&#8217;Elsa in 1269, and their commander, Provenzano Salvani (whom Dante
+afterwards met in Purgatory), taken and slain. In the following year
+this city too was purged of the Ghibeline taint, and a few Florentine
+citizens who were caught were, after a reference to Charles, duly
+beheaded. Pisa held out somewhat longer, and was able to expel its
+Guelfs in 1275, among them the famous Count Ugolino de&#8217; Gherardeschi, a
+member of the house of Donoratico, one of whose counts had been captured
+and killed with Conradin; but in a year&#8217;s time a Florentine success
+brought them back. An effort made by Pope Gregory X. to reconcile the
+factions, as he passed through Florence on his way to the Council of
+Lyons, bore little or no fruit, and, as a pendant to former
+excommunications of Emperors, the city was placed under interdict. When,
+a year and a half later, Gregory died at Arezzo, &#8220;by his death,&#8221; says
+Villani, &#8220;the Guelfs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> of Florence were greatly cheered, by reason of the
+ill will which he had towards them;&#8221;&#8212;an interesting remark, as showing
+that the Guelfs were not prepared to support the Holy See farther than
+their own interests as a party demanded.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of Florence at this time cannot be better described than
+in Villani&#8217;s words. Writing of the year 1278, he says&#8212;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&#8220;In these times, the Guelf nobles of Florence, reposing from their
+foreign wars with victory and honour, and fattened upon the goods of the
+exiled Ghibelines, and by reason of their other gains, began, through
+pride and envy, to quarrel among themselves; whence came to pass in
+Florence more feuds and enmities between the citizens, with slayings and
+woundings. Among them all the greatest was the quarrel between the house
+of the Adimari of the one part, who were very great and powerful, and on
+the other side were the house of the Donati; in such wise that nearly
+the whole of the city took sides, and some held with one party and some
+with the other, whereby the city and the Guelf party were in great
+danger.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>We shall remember how, in Dante&#8217;s judgement also, pride, envy, and
+avarice were &#8220;the sparks that had set hearts on fire,&#8221; in Florence.</p>
+
+<p>Once again the Pope, who was now Nicholas III., interfered; and once
+again representatives of the two great factions exchanged the kiss of
+peace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> before a Papal Legate, this time in front of &#8220;the Preaching
+Friars&#8217; new church of New St. Mary&#8217;s, in Florence,&#8221; of which the Legate,
+Cardinal Latino, had but lately laid the first stone. The Ghibeline
+leaders were still kept out, but the rank and file returned. The feud of
+the Adimari and Donati was patched up for the time, whereby &#8220;the said
+Cardinal had much honour, and Florence remained a good time in a
+peaceful and good and tranquil state.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal Latino had arranged for the government of Florence by a
+committee of fourteen &#8220;good men,&#8221; of whom eight were to be Guelfs and
+six Ghibelines. They were to hold office for two months. It marks the
+Cardinal as a man of some organizing capacity that his peace continued
+for four years, during which time Villani has next to nothing to relate
+about the affairs of his city. These were the years in which Dante was
+growing up to manhood. As a boy of thirteen he would doubtless have
+looked on at the scene in front of Santa Maria Novella; and during the
+next four peaceful years we may suppose that he would have begun to sit
+at the feet of the old statesman, diplomatist, and scholar Brunetto
+Latini, picking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> up from his lips the lore &#8220;how man becomes immortal.&#8221;
+We can picture him too, where the boys and girls were gathered together,
+a silent and reserved lad, probably unpopular unless with one or two
+special friends, paying little heed to any of his companions save one
+girl of about his own age, whose movements he would follow, and for the
+sound of whose words, though never addressed to him, he would listen,
+with the speechless devotion which perhaps is only felt at sixteen or
+seventeen, and then only by natures which fortunately are exceptional in
+this world. &#8220;The child is father to the man;&#8221; and we can be pretty
+certain from what we know of the man Dante what the boy Dante must have
+been.</p>
+
+<p>The tranquil period was disturbed in 1282. Pope Nicholas, who, whether
+guilty of Simony or not&#8212;and one fears that the case against him must
+have been strong, since not only Dante, but even Villani charges him
+with the offence&#8212;at least deserved the blessing pronounced on
+peacemakers, had died in the previous year at Viterbo, a town which,
+during this period, seems to have suited the Popes better than Rome as a
+place of residence. Charles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> between whom and Nicholas no love had been
+lost, was resolved that the next Pope should not come from the powerful
+house of the Orsini, to a branch of which, the Guatani, the late Pontiff
+had belonged, and by an arrangement with the people of Viterbo,
+succeeded in getting the two most prominent clerical members of that
+house imprisoned. Thus he secured the election of a Frenchman, Simon of
+Brie, who, being a canon of Tours, took the name of Martin IV. His
+Papacy, though it lasted little more than three years, was eventful. He
+was elected in January, 1282, and on the following Easter Monday, March
+30th, the people of Palermo, furious at the outrages of Charles&#8217;s French
+troops, rose and massacred every Frenchman upon whom they could lay
+hands. Charles&#8217;s efforts to recapture the island were baffled, chiefly
+owing to the hostility of Manfred&#8217;s son-in-law. King Peter of Aragon,
+also, with the help of his famous admiral, Roger of Loria, began about
+this time to prove a serious thorn in the side of the Angevin King. From
+the day of the &#8220;Sicilian Vespers,&#8221; fortune turned against Charles. His
+son was taken prisoner by Loria in 1284, his life being spared only at
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> entreaty of Peter&#8217;s wife, while he did not recover his liberty till
+1289. The King himself died broken down with grief and disappointment,
+in the early days of 1285, and was followed a couple of months later by
+his creature, Martin IV., and, before the year was out, by his enemy,
+King Peter. It will be remembered that Peter and Charles were seen by
+Dante in the &#8220;Valley of Princes,&#8221; awaiting their entry into Purgatory,
+and singing their Compline hymn in friendly accord: Martin IV. being
+placed higher up the mountain, among the gluttonous.</p>
+
+<p>At Florence the course of affairs was not much affected by the reverses
+which befell Charles. At the same time, these, and a success gained by
+Guy of Montefeltro over John of Appia, a French officer whom Martin had
+appointed Count of Romagna, made the Guelf majority uneasy. Cardinal
+Latino&#8217;s Constitution was abandoned, and a new form of government
+adopted. The trading-class resolved to get rid altogether of the
+representatives of feudal authority, weak as they had become,<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> and to
+this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>end the Fourteen were abolished, and the chief power placed in the
+hands of the Priors of the Arts, or, as we should say, the Masters of
+the great trading guilds. The number of those guilds which contributed
+members to the governing body seems to have been gradually increased. At
+first only three&#8212;the Clothmakers, the Money-changers, and the
+Wool-dealers&#8212;were thus honoured; but by the end of the century, at
+least twelve, seven greater and five lesser arts, were included. The
+Priors, as the Fourteen had done, held office for two months only, and
+various devices were employed to prevent any house or any person from
+becoming dangerously powerful. Nobles, in order to qualify for office,
+had to join a guild; and as the nobles, or <em>grandi</em>, were more
+frequently on the Ghibeline side, this would yet further weaken that
+party.</p>
+
+<p>Florence had now fairly entered upon a period of great prosperity. Her
+bankers lent money to kings; her trade extended all over Europe. Pisa,
+her most dangerous rival, had been utterly crushed by the Genoese in the
+great sea-fight off Meloria,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> with a slaughter which seems to have
+struck awe into the hearts even of the victors; and though she expelled
+her Guelfs four years later, in 1288, and, in 1291, under the brilliant
+leader Guy of Montefeltro, won some successes in the field, she was
+never again a power to be feared. Arezzo gave some trouble as a
+rendezvous for the banished Ghibelines; but the battle of Campaldino, in
+1289, already referred to, broke her strength for a long time. Florence
+was thus free to attend to the arts of peace. The city walls were
+extended and new gates built; and several of the buildings, which to
+this day are among the glories of Florence, date from that period.
+Still, however, much of the old class-jealousy smouldered; and, as
+Machiavelli points out, all fear of the Ghibelines being removed, the
+powerful houses began to oppress the people. Giano della Bella, himself
+of noble family, casting in his lot with the commons, succeeded in
+carrying what were called the Ordinances of Justice, whereby, among
+other things, nobles were absolutely disqualified from taking any part
+in the government. A measure so oppressive as this was bound to bring
+about its own appeal, and, as a matter of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> fact, within two years from
+its promulgation, Giano was driven into exile, and the nobles were more
+turbulent than ever. It is at this time that the name of Corso Donati
+first comes into prominence.</p>
+
+<p>Another event, which was to influence the destinies of Florence and of
+Dante, occurred shortly before Giano&#8217;s overthrow. This was the election
+to the Papacy, in 1294, of Benedetto Guatani, known to history as
+Boniface VIII. The most vigorous Pope who had held the office for
+several generations, he soon let it be known that he intended to revive
+all the claims which his predecessors, Gregory VII. and Innocent III.,
+had made to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His first efforts
+were devoted to getting Tuscany into his hands, and to this end he seems
+to have intrigued freely with the leaders of both parties in Florence.
+In theory, of course, where all were Guelfs, the Pope ought to have had
+little trouble; but there were Guelfs and Guelfs, and it was not long
+before party differences were emphasised, and, so to say, crystallised,
+by party names. Curiously enough, these again appear first at Pistoia. A
+family feud there had led to two branches of the Cancellieri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> being
+distinguished as Black and White, and towards 1300 the names appear at
+Florence. The Donati headed the Black faction; their rivals, the Cerchi,
+the White. The latter represented the more orderly section of the
+community; the former reproduced all the worst features of the old
+Ghibeline aristocracy, though in the end it was the Whites who had to
+coalesce with the Ghibelines. At first, indeed, it would seem as if
+Boniface might have been willing to work with the Whites. He sent for
+Vieri de&#8217; Cerchi, the leader of that party, and tried to induce him to
+live peaceably with the other side. Vieri, for reasons which we can only
+conjecture, replied curtly that he had no quarrel with any one; and
+Boniface resorted to the old expedient of sending a Cardinal&#8212;Matthew of
+Acquasparta&#8212;to reconcile the factions.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached the critical year of Dante&#8217;s life&#8212;that in which he
+held the office of Prior. But for the events of this and the next two
+years, it may be doubted whether the <em>Commedia</em> would ever have come
+into existence, at least in the form in which six centuries have studied
+and admired it. Henceforth Dante&#8217;s own history, rather than that of his
+times, will be our chief subject.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26" class="label">[26]</a> In 1300, when the Black and White factions arose, we find
+among the twenty-eight houses enumerated by Machiavelli, as the chief on
+either side, only <em>three</em> which in the old days had belonged to the
+Ghibeline party.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span><a name="V" id="V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
+<br />
+<small>DANTE&#8217;S EXILE</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Towards</span> the end of the thirteenth century, Dante&#8217;s name begins to appear
+in public documents as taking a share in the business of the State. Thus
+he spoke in the &#8220;Council of the Hundred&#8221; on December 10, 1296, and in
+the following March, in opposition, it would seem, to a proposal of a
+grant to King Charles II. of Apulia. In May, 1299, he acted as
+ambassador from Florence to the neighbouring city of San Gemignano, the
+only one of all the numerous embassies ascribed to him by some
+biographers in which modern criticism will still allow us to believe.
+Finally, in 1300, probably from June 15th to August 15th, he served his
+term as Prior.</p>
+
+<p>The Constitution of Florence at this time was somewhat complicated. It
+will be sufficient to say here that the government was carried on by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+committee of six priors, who held office for two months only; and that
+in order to be eligible for the offices of State a man had to be
+enrolled in one of the twelve trading guilds known as Arts, of which
+seven ranked as &#8220;greater,&#8221; five as &#8220;less.&#8221; Dante belonged to one of the
+&#8220;greater arts,&#8221; that of the <em>speziali</em>, &#8220;dealers in spices,&#8221; which
+included the apothecaries and, as it is believed, the booksellers. The
+number of priors was so large, and their tenure of office so short, that
+the selection of any particular citizen would hardly imply more than
+that he was regarded as a man of good business capacity; but in 1300
+public affairs in Florence were in such a critical state, that one may
+well suppose the citizens to have been especially careful in their
+choice. In the previous April an accusation had been brought by Lapo
+Salterelli (afterwards one of Dante&#8217;s fellow-exiles, not held by him in
+much esteem), who then was Prior, against three citizens of
+Florence&#8212;Simon Gherardi, Noffo Quintavalle, and Cambio, son of Sesto,
+of conspiring against the State. The facts are somewhat obscure, but, as
+it appears that they were all connected with the Papal Court, and that
+Boniface made strong efforts to get the fine imposed on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> them remitted,
+we may conjecture that they had in some way abetted his scheme of
+&#8220;getting Tuscany into his hands.&#8221; In a remarkable letter addressed to
+the Bishop of Florence, in which a good deal of the argument, and even
+some of the language, of Dante&#8217;s <em>De Monarchia</em> is curiously paralleled,
+of course from the opposite point of view, the Pope requires the
+attendance before him of Lapo (whom he styles <em>vere lapis offensionis</em>)
+and the other accusers. As may be supposed, no notice was taken of this
+requisition, and the fines were duly enforced.</p>
+
+<p>Boniface&#8217;s letter is dated from Anagni, on May 15th. Before it was
+written, the first actual bloodshed in the feud between the Black and
+White parties had taken place. Some of the young Donati and Cerchi, with
+their respective friends, were in the Piazza di Santa Trinit&#224; on May
+1st, looking on at a dance. Taunts were exchanged, blows followed, and
+&#8220;Ricoverino, son of Messer Ricovero de&#8217; Cerchi, by misadventure got his
+nose cut off his face.&#8221; The leading Guelfs, seeing what a chance the
+split in their party would offer to the Ghibelines, sought the mediation
+of the Pope. Boniface was of course willing enough to interfere, and, as
+has been said,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> sent Matthew of Acquasparta, Cardinal of Ostia, a former
+General of the Franciscans, to Florence as peacemaker. He arrived just
+about the time when the new Priors, including, as we must suppose,
+Dante, were entering on office, and was received with great honour. But
+when it came to measures of pacification, he seems to have had nothing
+better to suggest than the selection of the Priors by lot, in place of
+their nomination (as had hitherto been the custom) by their predecessors
+and the chiefs of the guilds. &#8220;Those of the White party,&#8221; says Villani,
+&#8220;who controlled the government of the country, through fear of losing
+their position, and of being hoodwinked by the Pope and the Legate
+through the reform aforesaid, took the worser counsel, and would not
+obey.&#8221; So the familiar interdict was launched once more, and the Legate
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>In the city, things went from bad to worse. At the funeral of a lady
+belonging to the Frescobaldi, a White family, in the following December,
+a bad brawl arose, in which the Cerchi had the worst of it. But when the
+Donati, emboldened by this success, attacked their rivals on the
+highway, the Commune took notice of it, and the assailants were
+imprisoned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> in default of paying their fines. Some of the Cerchi were
+also fined, and, though able to pay, went to prison, apparently from
+motives of economy, contrary to Vieri&#8217;s advice. Unluckily for them, the
+governor of the prison, one of their own faction, &#8220;an accursed Ser Neri
+degli Abati,&#8221; a scion of a family which seems, if we may trust Dante&#8217;s
+mention of some of its other members, to have made a &#8220;speciality&#8221; of
+treacherous behaviour, introduced into the prison fare a poisoned
+millet-pudding, whereof two of the Cerchi died, and two of the opposite
+party as well,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> &#8220;and no blood-feud came about for that&#8221;&#8212;probably
+because it was felt that the score was equal.</p>
+
+<p>The Blacks now made a move. The &#8220;captains of the Guelf party,&#8221; who,
+though holding no official position, seem to have exercised a sort of
+<em>imperium in imperio</em>, were on their side; and a meeting was held in
+Holy Trinity Church, at which it was resolved to send a deputation to
+Boniface, requesting him to take once again what seems to us&#8212;and indeed
+was&#8212;the fatal step of calling in French aid. The stern prophecy which
+Dante puts into the mouth of Hugh Capet in Purgatory was to be
+fulfilled:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="block"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i7">&#8220;I see the time at hand<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That forth from France invites another Charles<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To make himself and kindred better known.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unarm&#8217;d he issues, saving with that lance<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which the arch-traitor tilted with; and that<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He carries with so home a thrust, as rives<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The bowels of poor Florence.&#8221;<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p class="noi">We may probably date from this Dante&#8217;s final severance from the Guelf
+party; and, at any rate, we may judge from it the real value of Guelf
+patriotism.</p>
+
+<p>It must be remembered that the Black faction was still but a faction.
+The conspiracy leaked out, and popular indignation was aroused. The
+<em>Signoria</em> that is, the Priors, took action. Corso Donati and the other
+leaders were heavily fined, and this time the fines were paid. Probably
+they did not wish to taste Ser Neri degli Abati&#8217;s cookery a second time.
+A good many of the junior members of the party were banished to Castello
+della Pieve; and at the same time, &#8220;to remove all jealousy,&#8221; several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> of
+the White leaders were sent to Serezzano (which we now call Sarzana)&#8212;a
+weak and unlucky attempt at compromise. They were, indeed, soon allowed
+to return, their place of exile being unhealthy; so much so that one of
+them, Dante&#8217;s most intimate friend, Guido Cavalcanti, died in the course
+of the winter from illness contracted there.</p>
+
+<p>Cardinal Matthew seems not to have actually left Florence till after the
+beginning of 1301. We are told that among his other demands (probably
+made on this occasion), was one to the effect that Florence should
+furnish a hundred men-at-arms for the Pope&#8217;s service; and that Dante,
+who, after his term of office as Prior, remained a member of the
+council, moved that nothing should be done in the matter. Indeed, in the
+scanty notices which we have of his doings in this critical period, he
+appears as the steady opponent of all outside interference in the
+affairs of Florence, whether by Pope or Frenchman. In the face of this
+it is hard to understand how the famous story of his having gone on an
+embassy to Rome&#8212;&#8220;If I stay, who goes? If I go, who stays?&#8221;&#8212;can ever
+have obtained credence. Some words like those he may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> well have used, in
+the magnificent self-consciousness which elsewhere made him boast of
+having formed a party by himself; but we cannot suppose that he would at
+any time in the course of 1301 have thus put his head into the lion&#8217;s
+mouth. That Boniface was at the time of the supposed mission not at Rome
+but at Anagni is a minor detail.</p>
+
+<p>If all the White party had possessed Dante&#8217;s energy, Florence might have
+been saved. Vieri de&#8217; Cerchi had, indeed, as we have seen, spirit enough
+to tell the Pope in effect to mind his own business, and he was not
+devoid of shrewdness; but he seems to have been incapable of any
+sustained vigour in action. The party as a whole were probably as
+corrupt as their rivals, and less astute&#8212;&#8220;an evil and foolish company,&#8221;
+as Dante afterwards called them by the mouth of Cacciaguida. Corso
+Donati, on the other hand, was a bold and reckless intriguer. He
+followed up the conspiracy of the Santa Trinit&#224; by hastening to the
+Papal Court, and inducing Boniface to send at once for Charles of
+Valois, brother of the French king, Philip the Fair. Charles obeyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> the
+summons readily, in the hope, says Villani, of the Imperial crown. After
+a visit to the Pope at Anagni, he entered Florence on All Saints&#8217; Day,
+1301. All opposition on the part of the Whites was disarmed by the
+assurance that he came only as &#8220;peacemaker;&#8221; and a meeting, &#8220;at which I,
+the writer, was present,&#8221; was held in the Church of Santa Maria Novella.
+Charles, &#8220;with his own mouth, undertook and swore, and promised as a
+King&#8217;s son to maintain the city in peace and good estate; and
+incontinently by him and by his people the contrary was done.&#8221; Armed men
+were introduced; Corso Donati, though under sentence of banishment,
+entered with them, Vieri de&#8217; Cerchi, in foolish confidence, forbidding
+his arrest. The populace, promptly seeing who were the masters, raised a
+shout of &#8220;Long live Lord Charles and the Baron&#8221; (the name given to
+Corso); and the city was given up for a week to burning and pillage. A
+second visit from the Cardinal of Acquasparta produced no result, save a
+momentary truce and another interdict. Throughout the early months of
+1302, killings and slayings went on, Corso&#8217;s only son, among others,
+being mortally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> wounded in the act of murdering one of the Cerchi.
+Finally, one of the French knights, acting in the capacity which to this
+day is regarded as peculiarly suited to the French genius, that of
+<em>agent provocateur</em>, induced some of the White party, by offers of help,
+to form some kind of conspiracy against Charles&#8217;s person. This plot
+being duly reported, the conspirators fled on April 4th, some to Pisa,
+some to Arezzo, some to Pistoia, and joined the already exiled
+Ghibelines. They were condemned as rebels, and their houses destroyed.
+From this time the Whites and Ghibelines form one party.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Dante actually went with them is a perplexing question which has
+never been thoroughly solved, but is of sufficient interest to delay us
+for a while. In the short biography of the poet which Villani gives when
+recording his death, we read: &#8220;This Dante was a citizen of Florence,
+honourable and of old family, belonging to the ward of St. Peter&#8217;s Gate,
+and a neighbour of ours. His exile from Florence was for the reason that
+when Lord Charles of Valois, of the house of France, came to Florence in
+1301 and drove out the White party,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> as is mentioned above under the
+date, the said Dante was one of the chief governors of our city, and
+belonged to that party, Guelf though he was; and therefore, <em>for no
+other fault</em>, he was driven forth and banished with the said White party
+from Florence.&#8221; This seems very explicit, but there are difficulties in
+the way of taking it quite literally. A document exists, dated January
+27, 1302, in which the Podest&#224;, Cante de&#8217; Gabrielli of Gubbio, charges
+Dante Alighieri and three others with various offences, the chief being
+<em>baratteria</em> (or corrupt jobbery in office), the use of public money to
+resist the entrance of Charles of Valois, and interference in the
+affairs of Pistoia with the view of securing the expulsion from that
+city &#8220;of those who are called Blacks, faithful, men devoted to the Holy
+Roman Church,&#8221; which had taken place in May, 1301. It is stated that,
+having been duly summoned, they had contumaciously absented themselves,
+which seems to show that they were not in Florence; and they are
+sentenced to pay five thousand florins apiece within three days, or, in
+default, be banished and have their houses destroyed and their goods<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+confiscated; and in any case they were banished for two years. A second
+decree of March 10th condemns Dante and fourteen others, among them Lapo
+Salterelli, if they fall into the power of the Commonwealth, to be burnt
+to death.</p>
+
+<p>As has been said, Dante must clearly have been out of Florence when this
+document was launched. Leonardi Bruni says he was at Rome on an embassy
+when the Whites left Florence, and that he hastened to join his party at
+Siena; but for the reasons already given, this story of the embassy
+cannot be accepted. Some have suggested that as at Florence the old
+style prevailed, under which March 26th was New Year&#8217;s Day, the two
+sentences really belong to what we should now call 1303, when Dante had
+undoubtedly been in exile for some months, and this is corroborated by
+Benvenuto&#8217;s statement, &#8220;bannitus fuit anno <span class="smcap">MCCCIII.</span>&#8221;&#8212;&#8220;bannitus&#8221;
+meaning, no doubt, &#8220;placed under ban,&#8221; as distinct from voluntary exile.
+But it appears that Cante de&#8217; Gabrielli went out of office in June,
+1302. So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong&#8212;and there is
+some little ground for suspecting it&#8212;we must assume that, though a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante,
+with some few others of the leading White Guelfs, was compelled to fly
+sooner than the bulk of his party. He may very well have been regarded
+as a specially dangerous opponent.</p>
+
+<p>That there was any foundation for the charge of corruption it is
+impossible to believe. Dante&#8217;s faults were many, but they did not lie in
+that direction; and the honest Villani, though he appears to have sided
+with the Black party, and indeed held office himself as Prior only a few
+years later, seems to have introduced the words which we have italicised
+in the passage given above, with the express intention of indicating
+this. On the other hand, it may be noted that the charge was ingeniously
+devised. Dante is known to have been in debt, for some of his
+notes-of-hand exist, belonging to the years preceding 1300; while in the
+course of 1301 he was engaged in superintending the performance of
+certain public works in the city. Thus it would be matter of common
+knowledge both that he was short of money and that he had recently been
+in a position<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> offering good opportunities for peculation, a fact of
+which his unscrupulous adversaries would naturally avail themselves. We
+may perhaps see, in the large space which he devotes, in the <em>Hell</em>, to
+the crime of <em>baratteria</em>, evidence of a wish to express his especial
+detestation of it.</p>
+
+<p>What, however, we know for certain is that, after some date early in the
+year 1302, Dante never saw Florence again. Several attempts were made by
+the exiles to win their way back, but they were uniformly unsuccessful,
+and only led to fresh sentences against those who took part in them.
+Whether Dante was among these, at all events during the earlier years of
+his exile, seems very doubtful. We know from his own words that he had
+no sympathy with the men with whom he was thrown. Indeed, it was a
+curious irony of fate which linked in one condemnation his name and that
+of Lapo Salterelli, a man whom he selects (<em>Par.</em>, xv. 128) as an
+example of the degradation into which the Florentine character had
+fallen. During this first period he was probably eating his heart, and
+watching for the coming of the deliverer who, by bringing all the world
+under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> one impartial sway, should put an end to faction and
+self-seeking&#8212;the <em>invidia</em> and <em>avarizia</em> against which he is for ever
+inveighing&#8212;and permit every man &#8220;to sit at ease and perfect himself in
+prudence and wisdom;&#8221; thus fulfilling his proper task of &#8220;making himself
+immortal,&#8221; or, as St. Paul phrases it, coming &#8220;to the measure of the
+stature of the fulness of Christ.&#8221; It is a noble conception, though the
+six hundred years which have elapsed since Dante looked for its
+fulfilment do not seem to have brought us very much more forward in that
+direction. Still, we can give him the honour due to a lofty standard of
+political and social conduct in a violent and profligate, if brilliant,
+age; and we can still read with interest and profit that wonderful
+repertory of political wisdom, dialectical argument (after the manner of
+the schoolmen), and passionate pleading for good government, which he
+calls the <em>Treatise on Monarchy</em>.</p>
+
+<p>The date at which the <em>De Monarchia</em> was composed is uncertain, but it
+would seem to belong most fitly to the years which immediately succeeded
+Dante&#8217;s banishment. The Empire was in the hands of the incapable Albert
+of Hapsburg<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> while the Pope, from 1305, was the creature of the French
+King. C&#230;sar and Peter seemed both alike to have abdicated, and the world
+was going from bad to worse. With the election of Henry of Luxemburg, in
+1308, better times may seem to have dawned, when practice might
+supersede abstract theories. The letter which Dante actually wrote to
+Henry in 1311 is couched in a far less meditative tone.</p>
+
+<p>During Henry&#8217;s short reign the Ghibeline cause looked up; nor was his
+death in 1313 so fatal a blow to it as might have been expected. Several
+powerful leaders arose, one of whom, Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa,
+won back most of Tuscany for his party. In 1315 he inflicted a severe
+defeat on the Florentines and their allies at Montecatini, on the border
+of the Florentine and Lucchese territories; but he was unable to follow
+up his success so far as to enter the city. Some two months later a
+third sentence went forth against Dante, in which his sons were
+included, condemning them, as Ghibelines and rebels against the
+Commonwealth and people of Florence and the statutes of the Guelf party,
+to be beheaded whenever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> taken. It has been plausibly suggested that the
+two events were not unconnected; and as it is hardly likely that at the
+age of fifty Dante would have taken a prominent part in the actual
+fighting, we must suppose it to have been as a leading adviser of the
+enemy that he was specially obnoxious to the ruling powers at Florence.</p>
+
+<p>The chief importance, however, which Dante&#8217;s exile has for us, is that
+with it his great literary activity began. He had, of course, written
+all his life; and it is quite possible even that some portion of the
+<em>Commedia</em> had been composed before he left Florence. The story told by
+Boccaccio is well known. Commenting upon the opening words of Canto
+viii., he tells us that the preceding portion of the poem had been
+written before the final catastrophe, and left behind by Dante in his
+flight, not being discovered for some years. In any case, the <em>Vita
+Nuova</em> was written, as he himself tells us, before he was twenty-five;
+and a good deal of the <em>Convito</em>, a work which looks very much as if it
+had first come into existence as the contents of notebooks, in which
+materials to be afterwards worked into the great poem were jotted down,
+was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> no doubt in writing. But it is to Dante&#8217;s twenty years of exile
+that we owe in their completed form the works which place him not only
+among the world&#8217;s five or six greatest poets, but in an eminent position
+among philosophers, theologians, statesmen, and men of science.</p>
+
+<p>We have but little certain information as to Dante&#8217;s life during his
+exile. Legends innumerable have sprung up as to his residence here,
+there, and elsewhere; but most of these are based on the fancies of
+later writers; or in some cases even on local vanity, which was
+flattered by the remotest connection with the great name. We can say for
+certain that he passed some time at Verona, some at Lucca, some at
+Ravenna, where his sepulchre remains to this day; and with some approach
+to probability we can place him at Paris, at Bologna, and perhaps at
+Milan. He may possibly have spent some time in the Lunigiana, and some
+in the Casentino. All we know is that his life was spent in wandering,
+that he had no settled home, that he lived on other men&#8217;s bread, and
+went up and down other men&#8217;s stairs. He was honoured, it is true. Great
+nobles were glad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> to employ his services, and, as we have said, the fact
+of his being so often selected by the rulers of Florence for
+condemnation, shows that at least they regarded him as a man to be
+reckoned with. But probably the strongest evidence of the estimation in
+which he was held is to be found in Villani&#8217;s obituary chapter, wherein
+his character and accomplishments are set forth with a fulness which the
+historian elsewhere reserves for Popes and sovereigns; a fulness all the
+more noteworthy since his name never occurs in the chronicle of events
+in which he undoubtedly took a leading part.</p>
+
+<p>Only when Italy and Florence had lost him beyond hope of recovery was it
+realised that he was one of his country&#8217;s greatest glories. Then chairs
+were founded from which the most eminent literary men of the age should
+expound his works; and commentator after commentator&#8212;nine or ten before
+the end of the fourteenth century&#8212;cleared up some obscurities and made
+others more obscure. Of course, so far as historical allusions go, the
+writers who were nearly or quite contemporary with the events are often
+of great service; but it is otherwise, as a rule, when a knowledge of
+books is wanted. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> are never so much impressed with the vastness of
+Dante&#8217;s reading, as when we see the utter failure of these learned men
+even to observe, in many cases, that any explanation or illustration of
+an allusion is wanted. This, however, brings us back to the point from
+which we started, namely, that much as has been written about Dante, the
+possible fields of research are by no means exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>The interest of the events which moulded Dante&#8217;s career and influenced
+his work has perhaps led to their occupying too large a share of these
+pages; but it has been thought best to go into the history at some
+length, as being after all the first and most essential step towards a
+thorough comprehension of the position which his writings, and
+especially the <em>Commedia</em>, hold in European literature. This is quite
+unique of its kind. Never before or since has a poem of the highest
+imagination served&#8212;not merely as a political manifesto, but&#8212;as a party
+pamphlet; and we may safely say that no such poem will in future serve
+that purpose, at all events until the conditions under which it was
+produced occur. Whether that is ever likely to be the case, those who
+have followed the history may judge.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27" class="label">[27]</a> So I understand an obviously corrupt passage in Villani,
+viii. 41. One of the unlucky Blacks was a Portinari, doubtless a kinsman
+of Beatrice&#8212;a fact which curiously seems to have escaped the
+conjectural commentators.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE &#8220;COMMEDIA&#8221;</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">So</span> many good summaries of the <em>Commedia</em> exist that to give another may
+appear superfluous. At the same time, experience shows not only that
+such a summary is found by most readers to be the best of all helps to
+the study of the poem, but also that every fresh summariser treats it
+from a somewhat different point of view. It is therefore possible that
+in the following pages answers, or at least suggestions of answers, may
+be found to some questions which previous writers, in England at all
+events, have passed over; and that they may serve in some measure as a
+supplement to the works which will be mentioned in the appendix.</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="h3mt">&#167; 1. <span class="smcap">Hell.</span></h3>
+
+<p>The first eleven cantos of the <em>Hell</em> form a very distinct subdivision
+of the poem. They embrace,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> first, the introduction contained in Canto
+i.; secondly, the description of the place of punishment up to a point
+at which a marked change in the character of the sins punished is
+indicated. In one sense, no doubt, an important stage in the journey is
+completed when the City of Dis is reached, in Canto viii.; but it will
+be observed, when we reach that point, that the class of sinners who are
+met with immediately within the walls of the City, the Epicureans or, as
+we should now say, the Materialists, bear really a much stronger
+affinity to those who are outside the walls, those whose sin has been
+lack of self-restraint in one form or another, than they do to the worse
+criminals who have &#8220;offended of malicious wickedness,&#8221; and who lie at
+and below the foot of the steep guarded by the Minotaur. The former
+class at all events have been, to use a common phrase, &#8220;their own worst
+enemies;&#8221; their sins have not been, at any rate in their essence, like
+those of the latter, of the kind which break up the fabric of society,
+and with them the heretics may most naturally be considered. It can
+hardly be doubted that some such view as this led Dante to make the
+first great break of level in his scheme<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> of the lower world at a point
+which would leave the freethinkers and materialists actually nearer to
+the sinners of whom he holds that their sin &#8220;men Dio offende,&#8221; even
+though theological exigencies compel him to place them within the walls
+of the &#8220;red-hot city.&#8221; We may thus conveniently take these eleven cantos
+for consideration as a group by themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In the earlier cantos, as indeed throughout the poem, the main
+difficulties with which we meet depend far more on interpretation than
+on the mere &#8220;construing&#8221; of the words; and even if it were otherwise,
+all purely linguistic difficulties have been so fully dealt with over
+and over again in commentaries and translations that it would, as has
+been said, be quite superfluous to enter here upon any discussion of
+them. The opening canto, as every reader will at once perceive, is
+symbolism and allegory from beginning to end, from the &#8220;dark wood&#8221; in
+which the action of the poem begins to the &#8220;hound&#8221; who is to free Italy.
+These, more especially the latter, have given as much trouble to the
+interpreter as anything in the whole poem; indeed it may be said that in
+the matter of the <em>Veltro</em> we have not made much advance on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> Boccaccio,
+who frankly admitted that he could not tell what was meant. But between
+these two points we have some hundred lines in nearly every one of
+which, beside its obvious and literal interpretation, we must look for
+all the others enumerated by Dante in the famous passage of his letter
+to Can Grande. The second canto is of much the same character, in some
+respects almost in more need of close study. The significance of the
+three beasts who hinder Dante is easier to make out than that of the
+three heavenly ladies who assist him. Meantime, if we are content to
+read the poem as narrative merely, there is no great difficulty to be
+overcome. The language is straightforward on the whole, almost the only
+<em>crux</em> being ii. 108, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained,
+nor is the imagery other than simple.</p>
+
+<p>With Canto iii. and the arrival within the actual portal of Hell (though
+hardly in Hell properly so called) we enter upon a fresh subdivision of
+the poem; and are very soon brought up by the first, and one of the most
+perplexing, of the allusions to contemporary history with which it
+abounds. The elucidation of these would constantly offer almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+hopeless difficulties, were it not for the early commentators, who are
+often able to explain them from personal knowledge. Now and then,
+however, it happens that they differ, and then the modern student is at
+a loss. This has been in some measure the case with the famous &#8220;gran
+rifiuto,&#8221; iii. 60; so that while we may with a high degree of
+probability accept the more usual view that the allusion is to the
+abdication of Celestine V., we cannot without further evidence feel so
+certain about it as we could wish. The whole conception of this canto
+seems to be due to Dante&#8217;s own invention; only to a nature like his,
+keenly alive to the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and
+burning with zeal in the cause of right, could it have occurred to mark
+off for special ignominy people whose sole fault seems to have been that
+they &#8220;took things too easily.&#8221; When, in Canto iv., we pass the river of
+Acheron, and find ourselves for the first time actually on the border of
+Hell itself, we are conscious at first of an alleviation. Melancholy
+there is, but it is a dignified melancholy, as different from the sordid
+misery of the wretches we have just left, as the &#8220;noble city&#8221; and the
+green sward enclosed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> by it are different from the murky air and the
+foul mud among which they have to dwell. Both in this and in the second
+circle we have punishment indeed but without degradation, even with some
+mitigation. Virgil at least enjoys the converse of the sages and great
+men of old and, in so far as non-Christians go, of recent times; while
+Francesca is solaced by the perpetual companionship of him for whose
+sake she has lost her soul. Even the penalty which she suffers, of being
+whirled for ever on the storm, is not exactly humiliating. From this
+point, however, we are conscious of a change. The gluttons seated or
+lying on putrid earth and exposed to lashing rain; the misusers of
+wealth, with all human lineaments effaced, and engaged in a foolish and
+wearisome scuffle; the ill-tempered, floating on the surface of the foul
+marsh of Styx or lying submerged in it according as their disposition
+was to fierce wrath or sullen brooding&#8212;all these are not merely
+tormented but degraded as well.</p>
+
+<p>After crossing the Styx (Canto viii.) we find a further change. Thus far
+the sins punished have differed only in degree from those which we shall
+find being expiated in Purgatory. They are indeed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> the simpler forms, so
+to speak, of the defects common to all animal nature. They are the same
+which, in one of their interpretations, the three symbolical beasts of
+Canto i. denote. Henceforth we find sins which are only possible to the
+higher intelligence of humanity. It will be observed, too, that at this
+point what may be called pictorial description begins. Hitherto we have
+had merely a general impression of murky air and miry soil, sloping
+perhaps a little toward the centre, and intersected now and again by a
+stream. Now the City of Dis with minarets and towers rises in front of
+us, and, as we shall see in future cantos, from this time onwards the
+character of the scenery is indicated with great preciseness, even to
+its smallest details. Here, too, actual devils, beings whose will, as
+Aquinas says, is obstinately set upon evil, appear for the first time,
+as distinct from the personages of classical mythology, who act as
+warders of the various circles. Virgil, or human reason, is no longer
+sufficient of himself to secure a passage. Both at the gates of the
+fiery city and on subsequent occasions he is as helpless, without
+superior aid, as his disciple and follower.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>The ninth canto contains a piece of allegory, that involved in the
+introduction of Medusa and the Furies, which has earned perhaps a
+greater reputation for obscurity than it deserves, from the fact that
+Dante himself calls special attention to it.</p>
+
+<p>Cantos x. and xi. are both very important, the former for its bearing on
+the history of Florence. Those who have read the sketch of that history
+in the preceding chapters will understand the full force of Farinata&#8217;s
+discourse with Dante. We have had a brief passage of the same kind in
+Canto vi., but here the subject is treated at greater length, and with
+some marvellous dramatic touches.</p>
+
+<p>Canto xi. must be thoroughly mastered if Dante&#8217;s scheme of ethics is to
+be understood. It forms, indeed, a summary of and key to the arrangement
+of the penalties, and a thorough comprehension and retention of it in
+the memory will be found a wonderful help to a recollection of the whole
+Cantica.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the discourse in which Dante, speaking by the mouth
+of Virgil, has set forth this ethical system, the poets move forward
+along the brink of the pit until they arrive at a spot where they can
+reach the lower level. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> descent is rendered possible by a steep and
+broken slope of loose rock, which Dante compares to the great landslip
+between Trent and Verona, known as the Slavino di Marco.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> Virgil
+explains that this was due to the &#8220;rending of the rocks&#8221; at the time of
+the Crucifixion. The descent is guarded by the legendary Minotaur, the
+Cretan monster, part bull, part man. In this connection it may be
+noticed that the beings suggested by classical mythology, who are met
+with in the division of Hell which lies between the wall of the City of
+Dis and the brink of Malebolge, the Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Harpies,
+and Geryon (as Dante conceives him), all belong to the semi-bestial
+class. In spite of the opinion held by some of the most eminent
+Dante-scholars, that Dante in his classification of sins does not follow
+Aristotle&#8217;s grouping of them into incontinent, malicious, and brutal,
+but recognises the first two only, it seems difficult not to see in
+this, especially when it is taken in connection with expressions
+scattered throughout his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>writings, an indication that in the sins of
+the seventh circle he found the equivalent of the Greek philosopher&#8217;s
+&#952;&#951;&#961;&#953;&#972;&#964;&#951;&#962;&#8212;the result of giving a free range to the brutal, as
+distinct from the common animal, impulses.</p>
+
+<p>In this seventh circle, too, we first meet with <em>fire</em> as an instrument
+of Divine wrath. Indeed, with the single exception of the suicides, for
+whom a specially significant chastisement is devised, all the sinners in
+this group, from the heretics in their red-hot tombs to the usurers
+tormented on one side by the fiery rain, and on the other by the
+exhalations from the deeper pit, are punished by means of heat. At the
+foot of the slope is a great circular plain, ringed with a river of
+boiling blood in which spoilers, robbers, and murderers, some famous,
+some obscure, are plunged more or less deeply in proportion to the
+heinousness of their crimes; for, like earthly streams, this has its
+deep and shallow. At the latter point they cross, on the back of Nessus
+the Centaur, and at once enter (Canto xiii.) a wood of gnarled and sere
+trees, in which the Harpies have their dwelling. These trees have sprung
+from the souls of suicides, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> retain the power of speech and
+sensation. From one of these, who in life had been the famous statesman
+Peter de Vineis, Dante learns that at the judgement they will recover
+their bodies, like others, but will not be allowed to reassume them. The
+body will be hung on the tree to which it belongs. Here, as in the case
+of the avaricious and the wrathful, the spirits of other sinners take a
+part in the infliction of the punishment. The wood is inhabited by the
+souls of those who had wasted their substance in life, and these are
+constantly chased through it by hounds, with much destruction of leaves
+and twigs.</p>
+
+<p>On issuing from the wood (Canto xiv.), they find themselves at the edge
+of a great circular plain of sand, upon which flakes of fire are
+ceaselessly dropping. Skirting the wood for some distance they reach the
+bank of the stream of blood which, having circled all round the outer
+margin of the wood, now comes flowing through it, and crosses the sandy
+plain in a channel carefully built of shaped stone. Virgil takes
+occasion to explain the origin of the rivers of Hell. Thick fumes rise
+from it which quench the falling flames, so that along<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> its bank, and
+there only, can a way be found. As they proceed they find sinners lying
+prone or running under the fiery shower. These are they who had done
+violence to God, either directly by open blasphemy, or indirectly by
+violating the divinely appointed natural order whereby both the race of
+mankind and its possessions should increase and multiply. Many famous
+Florentines are among these sinners (Cantos xv. and xvi.); and Dante
+talks long with the famous statesman and philosopher, Brunetto Latini,
+who had been his early friend and adviser, and with sundry great
+captains and men of renown. After this they reach the point where the
+river falls with a mighty roar down to the next level. There is no
+natural means of descent here available; and Dante hands to Virgil a
+cord with which he is girt. The meaning of this cord is very obscure. He
+says: &#8220;I once thought to capture the leopard with it;&#8221; and if the
+leopard denotes the factions of Florence, the cord may perhaps symbolise
+justice or equity. When Virgil has thrown it down they wait a short
+time, and presently a monster appears whose name we find to be Geryon,
+and who symbolises fraud or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> treachery. It is perhaps not unnatural that
+when the power to enforce justice has been cast away, treachery should
+raise its head. This monster draws near the brink (Canto xvii.), but
+before they mount on him, Virgil allows Dante to walk a few paces to the
+right, in order that he may take note of the last class of &#8220;violent&#8221;
+sinners, namely, the usurers. These hold an intermediate position
+between the violent and the treacherous; just as the heretics did
+between the incontinent and the violent. Here again are many
+Florentines. Like the other misusers of money in Canto vii. their
+features are unrecognisable, and they are only to be known by the arms
+embroidered on their money bags. After hearing a few words from one of
+them, Dante returns to Virgil, and both take their place on the croup of
+Geryon, who bears them downwards to the eighth circle. This (Canto
+xviii.), from its configuration, is known as Malebolge, or Evilpits. It
+is divided into ten concentric rings, or circular trenches, separated by
+a tract of rocky ground. From various indications we gather that each
+trench is half a mile across, and the intervening ground a mile and a
+quarter. The trenches<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> are spanned by rocky ribs, forming bridges by
+which the central cavity can be reached. Here we find for the first time
+devils, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, employed as tormentors.
+The sinners in this circle are those who have been guilty in any way of
+leading others into sin, deceiving or cheating them, without any
+aggravating circumstances of ingratitude or breach of natural ties. In
+the first pit are those who have led women astray; these are scourged by
+fiends. In the next lie flatterers immersed in the most loathsome filth.
+In each Dante notes two examples: one of recent times&#8212;indeed, in both
+cases an acquaintance of his own,&#8212;and one taken from ancient history or
+legend. Jason, for his desertion of Hypsipyle and Medea, is the
+classical example of the first offence. Of this use of mythological
+persons we have many examples, but the typical flatterer of old time is
+a more curious selection, being a character in a play, whom Dante has
+borrowed from Cicero.</p>
+
+<p>In the next, or third pit (Canto xix.), we again find fire as the
+instrument with which the sinners are punished. Those who have made
+money by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> misuse of sacred offices are buried head downwards in holes
+with their feet projecting, and fire plays about their soles. Naturally
+an opportunity is here presented for some strong invective against the
+recent unworthy occupants of the See of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Canto xx. brings us to the fourth pit, in which those who have professed
+to foretell the future march in a dismal procession with their heads
+turned round so that they look down their own backs. The sight of Manto,
+daughter of Tiresias, suggests a description of the origin of the city
+of Mantua. The last lines of this canto contain one of the most
+important indications of time which Dante gives in this part of the
+poem.</p>
+
+<p>The sinners of the fifth pit correspond in some degree with those of the
+third, except that in their case the traffic which is punished has to do
+with secular offices. Canto xxi. opens with the famous description of
+the work in the arsenal of Venice, which is introduced in order to
+afford an image of the boiling pitch in which sinners of this class are
+immersed. For some reason, which is not very clear, Dante devotes two
+whole cantos to this subdivision of the subject. There is no doubt that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+<em>baratteria</em>, peculation or jobbery, was rampant throughout Southern
+Europe at the time, and, as has been said, it was one of the charges
+brought against the poet himself at the time of his banishment.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> We
+find here again one of &#8220;the torments of heat;&#8221; with one exception, that
+of the evil counsellors in Canto xxv., the last instance in which heat
+plays a part. It would be interesting, by comparison of the various sins
+into the punishment of which it enters, to see if any ground can be
+suggested for its employment in their case.</p>
+
+<p>Cantos xxi. and xxii. are also noteworthy as bringing into prominence
+the agency of devils, and showing them actually at work. Ten are
+introduced and named; and some indication is given of their
+organisation. Dante&#8217;s skill is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the
+way in which he has surmounted the difficulty of depicting beings in
+whom there is no touch of any good quality. They are plausible; and
+their leader, Malacoda, appears at first sight almost friendly. It is
+not until later that his apparent friendliness turns out to be a
+deliberate attempt to mislead.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>At the opening of Canto xxiii. we find the poets exactly half-way
+through Malebolge, on the rocky table-land, so to call it, which
+separates the fifth and sixth pits. They are quite solitary, for the
+first time in the course of their journey out of sight and hearing of
+any other beings; but still in fear of pursuit from the fiends whom they
+have just left. These do not, however, come up until just as the poets
+have begun the descent into the sixth pit, and here their power is at an
+end.</p>
+
+<p>In this pit are punished the hypocrites, who go in slow procession clad
+in cowls of gilded lead. Contrary to the usual practice the poets have
+in this case to descend to the bottom of the pit, the bridges being all
+broken away. Malacoda, the leader of the fiends in the last <em>bolgia</em>,
+had mentioned one, but (falsely) assured them that they would find a
+sound one further on. He also informed them that the destruction of the
+bridges had taken place 1266 years ago on the previous day, but five
+hours later than the time of speaking. This gives an important
+&#8220;time-reference.&#8221; There can be no doubt that the allusion is to the
+rending of the rocks at the moment of Our Lord&#8217;s death (<em>cf.</em> xii.
+31-45),<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> which took place at 3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, so that we have 10 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on Easter
+Eve fixed as the hour at which the poets meet with the devils of the
+fifth pit. Among the hypocrites Dante talks with two men who had jointly
+held the office of <em>Podest&#224;</em>, or chief magistrate, at Florence in the
+year after his birth.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> They belonged to opposite parties, and the
+double appointment had been one of the many expedients devised to
+restore peace; but it had not answered, and the two were suspected of
+having sunk their own differences of opinion, not to conciliate the
+factions, but to enrich themselves at the expense of the State. While
+talking to them Dante sees a figure fastened to the ground with three
+stakes, as though crucified. This, it is explained, is Caiaphas; Annas
+being similarly placed at another point of the circle. Dante and Virgil
+have to leave this pit as they entered it, by climbing over the rocks
+(Canto xxiv.); and from the minuteness with which this process is
+described (even to so characteristic a touch as &#8220;I talked as I went, to
+show that my wind was good,&#8221;) it has been thought that Dante was not
+without experience in mountain-craft.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>The seventh pit is appointed for the punishment of thieves. Serpents and
+dragons are here introduced. In some cases the body is reduced to ashes
+in consequence of the bite, and presently recovers its shape; in others
+man and serpent blend; in others, again, they exchange natures, the
+sinners themselves being transmuted into the reptiles, and becoming the
+instruments of torment to their fellows. A kind of reckless and brutal
+joviality seems to characterise the malefactors whom we meet with in
+this region. Among them are many Florentines, a fact which prompts Dante
+to an apostrophe full of bitter irony, with which Canto xxvi. opens. In
+the following pit a curious change of tone is manifest. The image chosen
+to illustrate the scene is an agreeable one&#8212;fireflies flitting in
+summer about a mountain valley; and the punishment though terrible is in
+no way loathsome or degrading, like most of those which have hitherto
+been described in the present circle. The sinners, too, who are
+mentioned are men who on earth had played heroic parts; the manner of
+their speech is dignified, and Dante treats them with respect. They are
+those who have sinned by giving wicked counsel to others,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> and so
+leading them to commit sin; and the two who are especially distinguished
+and who relate their stories at length are Ulysses (Canto xxvi.) and
+Count Guy of Montefeltro, a great Ghibeline leader (xxvii.). The former
+probably owes his place here to Virgil&#8217;s epithet <em>scelerum inventor</em>,
+deviser of crimes. In a passage which has deservedly become famous, he
+gratifies Dante&#8217;s curiosity as to the manner of his end. The passage,
+apart from its poetic beauty, is remarkable as being, so far as can be
+traced, due entirely to the poet&#8217;s own invention. At all events, beyond
+two or three words in the <em>Odyssey</em>, nothing in either classical or
+medi&#230;val legend is known which can have given the suggestion for it. In
+the case of the Count of Montefeltro, who is alleged to have given
+treacherous counsel to Boniface VIII., it also appears difficult to
+understand how the facts, if facts they are, became known to Dante.
+Villani no doubt gives the story, but in language so similar to that of
+the poem that a suspicion arises whether he may not be relying on it as
+his authority.</p>
+
+<p>The next canto (xxviii.) introduces us to one of Dante&#8217;s most ghastly
+conceptions. The ninth pit is peopled by those who have on earth caused
+strife<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> and divisions among mankind. They are not, as often stated,
+schismatics in the technical sense of the word. Mahommed and Ali are
+there, obviously not on religious grounds however, but as having brought
+about a great breach between divisions of the human race; and though Fra
+Dolcino, who is introduced as it were by anticipation, was a religious
+schismatic, it was no doubt his social heterodoxy which earned him a
+commemoration in this place. The punishment of these sinners is
+appropriate. They are constantly being slashed to pieces by demons; the
+wounds being closed again before they complete the circuit. Curio, who
+as Lucan narrates, spoke the words which finally decided C&#230;sar to enter
+upon civil war, Mosca de&#8217; Lamberti, the instigator of the crime which
+first imported especial bitterness into the strife of factions at
+Florence, and one Peter of Medicina, who seems to have devoted himself
+to keeping party-spirit alive in Romagna, are here. Last of all,
+carrying his own head like a lantern, is Bertrand of Born, the famous
+troubadour, who is charged with having promoted the quarrel between
+Henry II. of England and his son. It is worth noting that at this point
+we get the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> definite indication of the dimensions which Dante
+assumes for the present division of Hell. We are told that this ninth
+pit of Malebolge has a circumference of twenty-two miles. From the next
+canto we learn that the last or innermost pit has half this measure; and
+from this basis it has been found possible to draw an accurate plan of
+Malebolge, and to conjecture, with an approach to certainty, the
+conception formed by Dante of Hell generally.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the last pit (Cantos xxix. and xxx.) are found those who have been
+guilty of personation with criminal intent, or of bearing false witness,
+or of debasing the coinage or pretending to transmute metals. These
+suffer from leprosy, dropsy, raving madness, and other diseases. Before
+leaving the pit, a quarrel between two of the sinners attracts Dante&#8217;s
+attention more than Virgil thinks seemly; and a sharp reprimand follows.
+Dante&#8217;s penitence however earns speedy forgiveness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>We are now drawing near the lowest pit; and through the dim air is heard
+the sound of a great horn (Canto xxxi.) Going forward, they find that
+the final descent, which appears to be a sheer drop of about thirty-five
+feet, is guarded by a ring of giants. Those of them who are seen are
+Nimrod, and the classical Ephialtes and Ant&#230;us; but we learn that others
+famous in Greek mythology are there also. Ant&#230;us being addressed by
+Virgil in courteous words, lifts the poets down the wall and lands them
+on the lowest floor of Hell. This (Canto xxxii.) is of ice, and must be
+conceived as a circular plain, perhaps about two miles in diameter. In
+this are punished all who have been guilty of any treachery towards
+those to whom they were bound by special ties of kindred,
+fellow-citizenship, friendship, or gratitude. Each of these various
+grades of crime has its own division, and these are arranged
+concentrically, with no very definite boundaries between the different
+classes. At the same time each division has its appropriate name, formed
+from some famous malefactor who had specially exemplified that class of
+crime. Thus the first ring is Caina; the second, Antenora, from Antenor,
+who, according to a late version of the Trojan legend, had betrayed Troy
+to the Greeks; the third,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> Toommea, from that Ptolemy, son of Abubus,
+who treacherously slew the Maccabees at a feast; the last, in which
+Lucifer himself abides, is Giudecca. No distinction appears to exist
+between the penalties inflicted on the two first classes; all are alike
+plunged up to the shoulders in the ice, the head being free. Dante
+speaks with more than one, most of them persons who had belonged to the
+Ghibeline party; though in the case of one, Bocca degli Abati, the
+treachery had been committed to the detriment of the Guelfs.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> The
+mention of Bocca and Dante&#8217;s behaviour to him, may remind us that the
+whole question of Dante&#8217;s demeanour towards the persons whom he meets in
+the first part of the poem is interesting. For some he is full of pity,
+towards some he is even respectful; occasionally he is neutral; while in
+some cases he displays anger and scorn, amounting as here to positive
+<a name="cruelty" id="cruelty"></a><ins title="original has comma">cruelty.</ins> The expressions of pity, it will be observed, practically cease
+from the moment that Malebolge, the &#8220;nethermost Hell,&#8221; is reached.
+Similarly, after reaching the City of Dis, the tone of Virgil towards
+the guardians of the damned, which up to that point <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>has been
+peremptory, becomes almost <a name="suppliant" id="suppliant"></a><ins title="original omits fullstop">suppliant.</ins> The reason for this is indeed
+somewhat obscure: one does not at once see why the formula &#8220;So it is
+willed there, where will is power,&#8221; should not be as good for the Furies
+or for Malacoda as it has proved for Charon and Minos. Perhaps the clue
+is to be found in the fact that the sins punished <em>inside</em> the walls of
+the city (sins which, it will be seen, are not represented in Purgatory
+at all) are to be regarded as the result of a will obstinately set
+against the will of God; while the sins arising from the frailty of
+human nature may be checked by the &#8220;right judgement&#8221; recalling, before
+it is too late, what the will of God is. This, however, is a different
+question, and we must not here pursue it too far. To revert to that of
+Dante&#8217;s various demeanour, it will be seen that, with the limitation
+indicated above, his sympathy with the sinner does not vary with the
+comparative heinousness of the sin. Almost his bitterest scorn, indeed,
+is directed towards some whose chief sin is lack of any positive
+qualities, good or bad. One infers that he would almost rather wander in
+a flame with Ulysses, or lie in the ice with Ugolino, than undergo the
+milder punishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> of Celestine and his ignoble companions. For the
+simply self-indulgent, Francesca or Ciacco, he has pity in abundance;
+Farinata, Brunetto, and the other famous men who share the fates of
+these, may probably come into the same category. In such cases as these,
+while he has not a word to say against the justice of God, he has no
+desire to add &#8220;the wrath of man&#8221; thereto. In the one instance in
+Malebolge where he shows any sympathy (and is reproved by Virgil for
+doing so) it is for the soothsayers, whose sin would not necessarily
+involve the hurt of others. But his conduct is very different to those
+whose sin has been primarily against their fellow-man, or against kindly
+human intercourse. His first fierce outbreak is against the swaggering
+ruffian Filippo Argenti, who seems to have been in Florentine society
+the most notable example of a class now happily extinct in civilised
+countries, at all events among adults; a kind of bully, or &#8220;Mohock,&#8221;
+fond of rough practical jokes, prompted, not by a misguided sense of
+humour, but by an irritable man&#8217;s delight in venting his spite. One can
+sympathise, even after six hundred years, in Dante&#8217;s pious satisfaction
+when he saw the man, of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> whom he may himself have once gone in bodily
+fear, become in his turn the object of persecution. It is, however,
+after Malebolge is reached, and Dante is among the sinners who have by
+dishonest practices weakened the bond of confidence which should bind
+human society together, that he lets his wrath and scorn have full play.
+His imagery even takes on a grotesque, at times even a foul aspect. He
+was not one to mince his words, and if he means to sicken his readers,
+he goes straight to his aim.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be noted, too, that the language and demeanour of the sinners
+themselves have in many cases changed. Above Malebolge, at all events
+till the usurers are reached, a certain dignity of speech and action is
+the rule. Now we find flippant expressions and vulgar gestures. Nothing
+is omitted which can give a notion, not merely of the sinfulness, but of
+the sordidness of dishonesty. Curiously enough, the one denizen of this
+region who is thoroughly dignified and even pathetic, is the pagan
+Ulysses; and to him Dante does not himself speak, leaving the pagan
+Virgil to hold all communication with him. Besides Ulysses, Guy of
+Montfeltro and Ugolino are presented in such a way as to enlist, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+some degree, the sympathy of the reader; and it may further be noted
+that in each case a representative of the family in the next generation
+is placed in Purgatory; as though Dante, while bound to condemn the
+elder men, had held the houses in such esteem that he wished to balance
+the condemnation by assigning a better fate to their successors.</p>
+
+<p>The opening of Canto xxxiii. brings us to the famous episode of Count
+Ugolino, which shares with the earlier one of Francesca da Rimini the
+widest renown of any passage in the whole poem. It is curious, by the
+way, that the structure of the two shows many marked parallelisms; only
+the tender pity which characterises Dante&#8217;s treatment of the former is
+wholly lacking in the latter. There is no need to dwell on so well-known
+a story; but it may be noted that Ugolino, though a Guelf leader, and
+condemned here no doubt for his intrigues with the Ghibeline Archbishop
+Roger, came of a Ghibeline family, and thus forms only a partial
+exception to the rule stated above. The only genuine Guelf who is named
+in this division is Tesauro de&#8217; Beccheria, the Abbot of Vallombrosa.</p>
+
+<p>This will perhaps be the best point at which to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> say a few words on a
+subject about which much misconception has prevailed. It has often been
+supposed that Dante was just a Ghibeline partisan, and distributed his
+characters in the next world according to political sympathies. The
+truth is, that under no circumstances, so far as we can see, does he
+assign to any one his place on political grounds&#8212;that is, merely for
+having belonged to one or other of the great parties which then divided
+Italy. He himself, as we know, belonged to neither. His political ideal
+was a united world submitting to the general direction of the Emperor in
+temporal matters, of the Pope in spiritual. On the other hand, he would
+have had national forms of government retained. Brought up as he had
+been, the citizen and afterwards the official of a Guelf republic, there
+is no reason to suppose that a republican form of government was in any
+way distasteful to him, provided that it was honestly administered. It
+was not until the more powerful faction in the Guelf party called in the
+aid of an external power, unconnected with Italy, and hostile, or, as he
+would doubtless hold, rebellious, to the Empire, that he, along with the
+more &#8220;constitutional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>&#8221; branch of the Guelfs, threw in his lot with the
+long-banished Ghibelines. But neither then nor at any time did he belong
+to the Ghibeline party. So far from it, that he takes that party (in
+<em>Par.</em>, vi. 105) as the example of those who follow the imperial
+standard in the wrong way, and make it a symbol of iniquity. The
+greatest and most heroic figure in the whole history of the Ghibelines,
+the man whose love for the rebellious city was as great as Dante&#8217;s own,
+who when he had by his prowess in arms recovered it for the Empire,
+stood resolutely between it and the destruction which in the opinion of
+his comrades it had merited, is condemned to share with a Pope and an
+Emperor the penalty of speculative heterodoxy. On the other hand, we
+find Charles of Anjou, the foreign intruder, the bitter foe of the
+Empire and pitiless exterminator of the imperial race, a man in whom
+later historians, free from personal or patriotic bias, have seen hardly
+any virtue to redeem the sombre cruelty of his career, placed, not
+indeed in Paradise, but in Purgatory, and waiting in sure and certain
+hope of ultimate salvation, as one who in spite of many faults had led a
+pure and ascetic life in a profligate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> and self-indulgent age. It would
+be interesting to know, if Dante had met Charles somewhat later, in
+which of the Purgatorial circles he would have placed him. He seems to
+evade the difficulty of classifying him by finding him where he does.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to insist rather strongly on this point, since even so
+accomplished a scholar as the late Professor Bartoli, when dealing with
+Dante&#8217;s reference to the Emperor Henry VII. (in <em>Par.</em>, xxx. 133, sqq.),
+forgets that all the saints in Paradise have their allotted seat in the
+Rose of the highest heaven, and speaks as though Dante had honoured
+Henry above all but the greatest saints and foretold his &#8220;direct flight
+from the earth to the Empyrean.&#8221; Of course there is not a word of this.
+All that we are entitled to say is that Dante held Henry to be an
+Emperor who was doing his duty, and would earn his reward like any other
+Christian and before Dante himself. It will be observed that he sees no
+other Emperor in Paradise, save Charlemagne; one, Rudolf of Hapsburg, is
+in, or rather just outside of, Purgatory; one, the great Frederick II.,
+in Hell. Of the Popes one only, and he a Pope who in his life lay under
+grievous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> suspicion of heterodoxy, and moreover only occupied the Papal
+See for a few months, is placed in Heaven. This is &#8220;Peter of Spain,&#8221;
+Pope John XXI. Two are in Purgatory; one of them, Martin IV., being a
+man who, as a Frenchman by birth, and a strong partisan of Charles of
+Anjou, might be supposed to have been specially obnoxious to Dante. No
+doubt Popes appear in what may seem an unfair proportion among the
+guilty souls below; but even for this distribution Dante could probably
+have pleaded orthodox authority and certainly scriptural support. &#8220;To
+whom much is given, of the same shall much be required.&#8221; It is true, as
+Professor Bartoli points out, that Dante&#8217;s &#8220;reverence for the supreme
+keys&#8221; was compatible with a very low estimate of their holders; but is
+not this exactly what we should expect from a man of high ideals and
+intolerant of failure in proportion to the dignity of the aim? His
+treatment of Pope Celestine, the one Pope of his time from whom, <em>prima
+facie</em>, something other than political partisanship might have been
+hoped, and who having put his hand to the plough had looked back, is
+sufficient to indicate his attitude in this matter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>Once realise that Dante was, like our own Milton, a man with a keen
+sense of what ought to be, and an equally keen appreciation of the fact
+that things in his time were by no means as they ought to be, that he
+was fallen on evil days and evil tongues&#8212;an appreciation which
+doubtless most great souls, short of the few greatest, have had at most
+periods of the world&#8217;s history&#8212;and you have the key to much that no
+ordinary theory of party-spirit will explain. Men of this temper care
+little for the party cries of everyday politics; and yet they cannot
+quite sit outside the world of affairs and watch the players, as we may
+imagine Shakespeare to have done, in calm consciousness that the shaping
+of our rough-hewn ends was in other hands than ours. No great historian
+of Shakespeare&#8217;s time devoted a whole chapter to his memory, as did
+Villani to that of Dante; yet we can hardly doubt that in the education
+of the world Shakespeare has borne the more important share, and Dante,
+with his deep conviction of the higher dignity of the &#8220;contemplative
+life,&#8221; would be the first to own it.</p>
+
+<p>The third subdivision, known as Tolommea, has,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> as one of its inmates
+says, the &#8220;privilege&#8221; of receiving the souls of sinners while their
+bodies are yet alive on earth, animated by demons. With this horrible
+conception we seem to have reached the highest mark of Dante&#8217;s inventive
+power. Only two names are mentioned, but one feels that if the owners of
+them ever came across the poem in which they had earned so sinister a
+commemoration, their sentiment towards the poet would hardly be one of
+gratitude.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> These are the last of his contemporaries whom Dante
+brands, the last, indeed, whom he recognises. In Giudecca (Canto xxxiv.)
+the sinners are wholly sunk below the ice, and only show through like
+straws or other small impurities in glass. An exception is made in the
+case of the three persons whom Dante regards as having carried the sin
+of ingratitude to its highest point. Lucifer, who, as has been said, is
+fixed at the lowest point, has three faces. In the mouth of the central
+one he for ever gnaws Judas Iscariot, while in the others are Brutus and
+Cassius.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>The journey to the upper world is begun by a climb down the shaggy sides
+of the Archfiend himself. On reaching his middle, which is also the
+centre of the earth, the position is reversed, and the ascent begins.
+For a short distance they climb up by Lucifer&#8217;s legs, then through a
+chimney in the rock; lastly, it would appear, following the course of a
+stream which winds spirally down through the earth, they reach the
+surface, and again come in sight of the stars.</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="h3mt">&#167; 2. <span class="smcap">Purgatory.</span></h3>
+
+<p>After the invocation to the Muses, a curious survival of classical
+imagery with which in one form or another each division of the poem
+begins, Dante relates how, on emerging from the lower world, as Easter
+Day was dawning the poets found themselves on an island with the first
+gleam of day just visible on the distant sea. Venus is shining in the
+eastern heaven; and four stars, &#8220;never seen save by the earliest of
+mankind,&#8221; are visible to the south. No doubt some tradition or report of
+the Southern Cross had reached men&#8217;s ears in Europe; but the symbolical
+meaning is more important, and there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> can be no doubt that the stars
+denote the four &#8220;cardinal&#8221; or natural or active virtues of fortitude,
+temperance, justice, and prudence. In the evening, as we shall see later
+on, their place is taken by three other stars, which symbolise the
+theological or Christian or contemplative virtues&#8212;faith, hope, charity.</p>
+
+<p>On turning again Dante sees close at hand an old man of venerable
+countenance, who questions them by what right they had come. Virgil
+recognises him for Cato of Utica, the Roman Republican patriot. His
+position here, as warder of the mount of purification, is very curious,
+and has never been thoroughly explained. Among other things it is
+probable that Dante was influenced by the Virgilian line in which Cato
+is introduced as the lawgiver of good men in the after-world. Being
+satisfied with the explanation given, Cato directs them to the shore,
+where Virgil is to wash the grime of Hell from Dante&#8217;s face, and gird
+him with a rush, as an emblem of humility. When this has been done and
+as the sun is rising (Canto ii.) a light is seen approaching over the
+water. As it draws near, it is seen to be an angel. His wings form the
+sails to a boat which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> comes to the shore, freighted with more than a
+hundred souls on their way to Purgatory. They are chanting the Easter
+Psalm <em>In exitu Israel</em>; at the sign of the cross made by the angel they
+come ashore, and begin by inquiring the way of Virgil. While he is
+explaining that he is no less strange to the country than they are, some
+of them perceive that Dante is a living man, and all crowd around him.
+Among them he recognises a friend, the musician Casella, who, after some
+affectionate words have passed between them, begins at Dante&#8217;s request
+to sing one of the poet&#8217;s own odes; and the crowd listen intently. But
+Cato comes up, and bidding them delay no longer, drives them like a
+flock of frightened pigeons towards the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>Even Virgil is somewhat abashed on account of his participation in the
+delay (Canto iii.); but soon recovers his equanimity, and resumes his
+usual dignified pace. Dante for the first time observes that his
+companion casts no shadow on the ground, and Virgil explaining that the
+spiritual form, while capable of feeling pain, has not the property of
+intercepting light, takes occasion to point out that there are mysteries
+for which the human reason is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> unable to account, and that this very
+inability forms the chief unhappiness of the great thinkers whom they
+saw among the virtuous heathen on the border of Hell. With this they
+reach the foot of the mountain of Purgatory. As is explained elsewhere,
+this occupies a position exactly opposite to the conical pit of Hell;
+being indeed formed of that portion of the earth which fled at the
+approach of Satan when he fell from Heaven. Some of its features are no
+doubt borrowed from the legendary accounts which Pliny and others have
+preserved of a great mountain seen by navigators to the west of the
+Straits of Gibraltar; these accounts being probably based on imperfect
+descriptions of Atlas or Teneriffe, or both confused together. Its
+summit is exactly at the Antipodes of Jerusalem, a point which must be
+carefully borne in mind if the various astronomical indications of time
+given in the course of the journey are to be rightly understood.</p>
+
+<p>The mountain-side, which Dante compares to the steepest and most rugged
+parts of the Genoese Riviera, appears at first, quite inaccessible; but
+before long they meet a company of spirits, who, after recovering from
+their first astonishment at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> seeing from Dante&#8217;s shadow that he is not
+one of themselves, indicate to them the point at which the cliff may be
+attacked. Before they proceed further, one of the shades addressing
+Dante makes himself known as Manfred, son to the Emperor Frederick II.,
+and gives an account of his end, explaining that excommunication&#8212;for he
+had died under the ban of the Church&#8212;is powerless to do more than
+protract the interval between the soul&#8217;s admission to Purgatory. After
+this (Canto iv.) they enter a steep and narrow cleft in the rock, from
+which they emerge upon a ledge on the mountain face, and a further climb
+up this lands them about noon on a broader terrace. Hitherto they have
+been mounting from the eastward, and on looking back in that direction,
+Dante is surprised to find the sun on his left hand. Virgil explains the
+topography; and is saying, in order to encourage Dante, that the labour
+of climbing will diminish as they get higher, when a bantering voice
+interrupts with the assurance that he will need plenty of sitting yet.
+The poet recognises in the speaker a Florentine friend. Another playful
+sarcasm on his thirst for information makes Dante address the shade and
+inquire as to his state.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> He, like Manfred, is debarred from entering
+Purgatory, but on the ground that he had led an easy life, and taken no
+thought of serious matters till his end drew near. In the following
+cantos (v. and vi.) we meet with many spirits who are from various
+causes in a similar position. First come those who have been cut off in
+the midst of their sins, but have sought for mercy at the last. The most
+noteworthy of these is Buonconte of Montefeltro, son of that Count Guy
+whom we met in the eighth pit <a name="of" id="of"></a><ins title="original has o">of</ins> Malebolge. He was slain fighting
+against the Florentines at the battle of Campaldino (1289), in which
+Dante himself may possibly have borne arms.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Four lines at the end of
+this canto are among the most famous in the poem. In a few words they
+commemorate one of the domestic tragedies which were only too familiar
+in medi&#230;val Italy. Passing through the crowd, they fall in, as evening
+is <a name="drawing" id="drawing"></a><ins title="original has drawng">drawing</ins> on, with a solitary shade, who replies to Virgil&#8217;s inquiry
+for the best road by asking whence they come. At the answer, &#8220;Mantua,&#8221;
+the shade springs up, and reveals himself as the famous warrior-poet of
+that city, Sordello. The affectionate greeting <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>which follows between
+the fellow-citizens moves Dante to a splendid denunciation of the
+internecine quarrels then raging throughout Italy, and of the neglect on
+the part of the divinely ordained monarch, the Roman Emperor, which has
+allowed matters to come to such a pass. Lastly he directs his invective
+especially against his own city, Florence, and in words of bitter
+sarcasm upbraids her with the perpetual revolutions which hinder all
+good government.</p>
+
+<p>Sordello is an example of those whom constant occupation in affairs of
+state had caused to defer any thought for spiritual things, and who are
+expiating the delay in the region outside the proper entrance to
+Purgatory. In Canto vii., after explaining that they will not be able to
+stir a step after sunset (&#8220;the night cometh when no man can work&#8221;), he
+leads the poets to a spot where they may pass the night. This is a
+flowery dell on the hillside, occupied by the spirits of those who in
+life had been sovereign princes and rulers. There they see the Emperor
+Rudolf and his adversary, Ottocar of Bohemia; Charles of Anjou, King of
+Naples and Sicily, Philip III. of France, Peter III. of Aragon, Henry
+III. of England, and many other famous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> men of the last generation.
+Sordello, in pointing them out, takes occasion to enlarge on the
+degeneracy of their sons, making a special exception in favour of
+Edward, son of Henry.</p>
+
+<p>The sun sets (Canto viii.) and the shades join in the Compline hymn. At
+its conclusion, two angels clad in green robes descend, and take up
+their position on either side of the little valley. Dante, with his
+companions, goes down to join the &#8220;mighty shades,&#8221; and is met by one
+whom he at once recognises as an old friend, the Pisan noble Giovanni,
+or Nino de&#8217; Visconti, &#8220;judge&#8221; or governor of the Sardinian province
+called Gallura, nephew of Count Ugolino. After some talk Dante notices
+the three stars spoken of above, and at the same moment Sordello draws
+Virgil&#8217;s attention to an &#8220;adversary.&#8221; They see a serpent making its way
+through the grass; and immediately the angels start in pursuit, putting
+it to flight. After this episode another shade announces himself as
+Conrad Malaspina, of the house with whom Dante was to find shelter
+during a part of his exile.</p>
+
+<p>The night wears on, and Dante falls asleep (Canto ix.). He dreams that
+he is being carried by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> an eagle up to the empyrean heaven. On awaking
+he finds that the sun has risen some time, and learns from Virgil that
+at daybreak St. Lucy (who has already come under notice as taking an
+interest in his welfare) had appeared and borne him to the place where
+they now are, in front of the gate of Purgatory. This is approached by
+three steps of variously-coloured stone. The first is white marble, the
+second a dark and rough rock, the third blood-red porphyry, indicating
+probably the three stages of the soul&#8217;s progress to freedom through
+confession, contrition, and penance. On the topmost step sits an angel,
+who having marked seven P&#8217;s (<em>peccata</em> sins) on Dante&#8217;s forehead, admits
+them within the gate.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far, except in the passage, Canto viii. 19 sqq., to which Dante
+himself draws the reader&#8217;s attention, the allegorical interpretation has
+not afforded any very great difficulty. With this particular passage
+readers will do well to compare <em>Inf.</em>, ix. 37 sqq., where a very
+similar indication is given of an underlying allegory, and draw their
+own conclusions. But on the whole, the main interest of the first nine
+cantos of the <em>Purgatory</em> is more of a personal nature.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> Sordello alone
+may give an excuse for a good deal of historical research. For example,
+no one has yet explained Dante&#8217;s reasons for so distinguishing a person
+who, from all the records that we have, does not seem to have made any
+great figure in the eyes of his contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>It will hardly be necessary to follow Dante step by step through the
+stages of the mountain of purification. We shall probably do best to
+consider the general plan on which Purgatory is arranged, the nature of
+the various penances, with their adaptation to the offences which they
+expiate, and the light thrown in this division of the poem on Dante&#8217;s
+opinions about the elements of political and moral science.</p>
+
+<p>We find, then, seven cornices, or ledges, on the mountain, connected
+with each other by stairways cut in the rock. Each stairway is guarded
+by an angel, and each, as it would appear, is shorter and less steep
+than the previous one. Thus the passage from the first to the second
+circle takes a considerable time, enough at all events to allow of some
+conversation between Dante and Virgil between the moment of their
+passing the angel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> and that at which they reach the top of the stairway.
+On the other hand, when they come to the final ascent, from the seventh
+circle to the level of the Earthly Paradise which occupies the summit, a
+few steps are sufficient to bring them to their halting-place, which, as
+appears afterwards, is practically on the summit level. Each angel, as
+Dante passes, erases from his forehead one of the P&#8217;s which the warder
+of the first gate had inscribed there, and utters one of the Scriptural
+Beatitudes appropriate to the circle which they are quitting. Thus,
+&#8220;Blessed are the peacemakers&#8221; accompanies their departure from the
+circle of the wrathful; &#8220;Blessed are they that hunger after
+righteousness&#8221; is heard as they leave that where gluttony is expiated.</p>
+
+<p>The ritual, so to speak, is very precise throughout. Besides the
+Beatitudes, which are recited by the angel-guards, and in some cases it
+would seem repeated by a chorus of voices, we find in each circle
+commemoration variously contrived of notable instances, both of the sins
+punished and of their &#8220;contrary virtues.&#8221; These are perhaps worth going
+through in detail. In the circle <a name="of2" id="of2"></a><ins title="original has o">of</ins><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> Pride, where it is necessary to go
+in a stooping posture, the pavement is engraved with representations of
+humility. The first is the Annunciation, (and here it should be noted
+that in every group an event from the life of the Virgin holds the first
+place); next comes David dancing before the Ark; and lastly, Trajan
+yielding to the widow&#8217;s prayer that he would perform an act of justice
+before setting out with the pomp of a military expedition. Further on in
+the same circle are found examples of the punishment of pride, taken
+alternately from Scripture and from classical mythology. The next circle
+is that of Envy. Here the penalty consists of the sewing up of the eyes,
+so that pictured representations would be of no use; and, accordingly,
+the task of calling the examples to mind is discharged by voices flying
+through the air. Yet another method is adopted in the third circle,
+where the Angry are punished by means of a dense smoke. Here the
+pictures are conveyed to Dante&#8217;s mind by a kind of trance or vision, in
+which he sees the various scenes. We must suppose that the spirits pass
+through some similar experience. In the fourth circle, the examples of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+activity and warnings against Sloth are delivered by the souls
+themselves. As it is night while Dante is in this circle, he is himself
+unable to move; but the discipline being to run at speed, the souls pass
+him in their course. The fifth circle, of the Avaricious and Prodigal,
+follows much the same rule as the fourth, except that here the instances
+of virtue are recited in the day, those of sin at night, so that Dante
+does not actually hear the latter. In this case the souls lie prostrate.
+The Gluttonous, in the sixth circle, are punished by having to pass
+under trees laden with fruit, which they cannot reach; and the examples
+and warnings are conveyed by voices among the branches of these trees.
+The seventh circle follows the fashion of the fourth, except that the
+souls (who are punished by fire for having in life failed to hold in due
+restraint the flames of passion) seem to address the warning
+reminiscences to each other as they meet in the circuit. An instance of
+the system on which the examples are introduced has been given from the
+first circle. Perhaps that for the sixth is even more typical. On first
+entering this they come to a tree, among the branches of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> which a voice
+is heard recording the conduct of the Virgin at the feast in Cana, when
+&#8220;she thought more of the success of the banquet than of her own mouth;&#8221;
+the custom of drinking only water prevalent among the Roman women, and
+the abstemiousness of Daniel and the Baptist. Then, after passing
+through a portion of the circle, and holding converse with its inmates,
+they reach another tree, from which a second voice comes to them bidding
+them remember the trouble that came from the drunkenness of the Centaur
+at the wedding of Pirithous, and the rejection by Gideon of the men who
+had drunk immoderately. This coupling of a classical and Scriptural
+instance is quite invariable.</p>
+
+<p>To pass on to the subject of the light thrown upon Dante&#8217;s speculative
+views in the <em>Purgatory</em>. It is not too much to say that from that point
+of view it is the most important division of the whole poem. This,
+perhaps, follows naturally from its subject. The Purgatorial existence
+bears more affinity to the life of this world than does that of those
+who have reached their eternal abode; and human affections and human
+interests still have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> much of their old power. This, then, would
+naturally be the division in which questions arising from the conditions
+of man&#8217;s life with men would be likely to suggest themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In the <em>Hell</em> we had indeed a statement of Dante&#8217;s view of Ethics, so
+far as was necessary to explain his attitude towards breaches of the
+moral law and their punishment. In the <em>Purgatory</em> he goes more deeply
+into the question, and expounds in Cantos xvi., xvii., and xviii., a
+theory with regard to the origin of morals and knowledge. According to
+this the soul when created is a <em>tabula rasa</em>, but having certain
+capacities inherent in it in consequence of the nature of its Creator.
+The Creator being absolutely veracious, the information imparted by the
+senses is infallible. Further, the Creator being absolutely happy, the
+soul naturally seeks happiness, and is said to love that in which it
+expects to find happiness. So far there is no room for error. Where it
+can come in is in the inferences which the mind draws from the
+information which the senses give, and in either its choice of an object
+to love, or the vigour with which it pursues that object. It must be
+further noted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> that the soul is endowed at the outset with a knowledge
+of good and evil, <em>i.e.</em> conscience, and with free-will; though this
+latter has to struggle with the conditions which the influence of the
+heavenly bodies imposes on the individual. With due culture, however, it
+can ultimately prevail over these; but it must also be aided in its
+struggle by the check of law and the guidance which should be afforded
+by spiritual pastors. In order that these may have their full effect, it
+is desirable that the secular and spiritual authorities should be in
+different hands: and thus we are brought to the same conclusions as in
+the treatise <em>De Monarchia</em>.</p>
+
+<p>To return, however, to the moral question. All action, as has been said,
+is directed to an end, and (in the words of Aquinas, following
+Aristotle) the end for each individual is that which he desires and
+loves. If the end is rightly selected, and the love duly proportioned,
+the action does not incur blame. But it may happen that the end may be
+evil; in which case evil becomes the object of the love, or the love is
+turned to hatred. Now, no created being can hate its Creator, nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> can
+any man hate himself; therefore the sins arising from this cause must be
+sins against fellow-men. These, so far as Purgatory is concerned, are
+pride, envy, anger, which, when carried into action, become the sins
+that are punished within the City of Dis, though in Purgatory they would
+appear on the whole to be regarded as the less grave offences.</p>
+
+<p>When the object is good, but the love is lacking in due vigour, we have
+the sin of sloth, or, as our forefathers called it, &#8220;accidie.&#8221; This
+occupies a somewhat anomalous position. Those who have allowed it to
+grow to moodiness and given way to it past hope of repentance, lie in
+Hell at the bottom of the Stygian marsh, and nothing is seen of them but
+the bubbles which are formed by their sighs; while the wrathful or
+ill-tempered lie in the same marsh, but appear above the water. Both
+sins alike render the man full of hatred for his fellows, and make him
+insensible to the joy of life. In Purgatory, on the other hand, the
+anger which is punished seems rather to be the fault of hasty temper;
+while in the case of sloth, the souls who expiate it are represented as
+running at great speed, and proclaiming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> instances of conspicuous
+alertness. For our present purpose, then, it must be regarded as merely
+slothfulness or indolence.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, we have the cases in which the object is natural, or even
+laudable. A fair share of this world&#8217;s goods, our daily food, the love
+between man and woman, all these are objects to which the desires may
+lawfully be directed, so long as they are duly restrained. When,
+however, they become the main aim, they are sinful, and lead to the sins
+for which the discipline of the three upper cornices is required; the
+most severe of all that is undergone in Purgatory. Yet these are the
+sins which in Hell &#8220;incur less blame,&#8221; as being sins involving rather
+the animal than the spiritual part of man. But there is not space here
+to discuss this aspect of the subject. Readers will find much interest
+in working it out for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The physiological sketch given by Statius in the twenty-fifth canto,
+introduced to account for the spiritual body, is in logical order an
+introduction to Dante&#8217;s ethics and psychology; and is remarkable both in
+its agreement with Aristotle and its divergence from him. The occasion
+for it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> is found in a question raised by Dante, and suggested to him by
+the appearance of the shades in the circle which they have just left:
+namely, how beings who have no need to go through the ordinary process
+of nutrition, can feel the desire for food (as Forese has explained that
+they do) and grow lean through the deprivation of it. In order to solve
+this difficulty, Statius sketches briefly the stages of the development
+of the human being, from his first conception until he has an
+independent existence, showing how the embryo progresses first to
+vegetative then to animal life, and how finally, when the brain is
+complete (this being the last stage in the organisation), the &#8220;First
+Mover&#8221; breathes the human soul into the frame. The soul, having thus an
+independent existence, when the frame decays sets itself loose
+therefrom, taking with it the senses and passions, as well as the mental
+faculties of memory, understanding, and will. The latter are still in
+full activity, but the former have only a potential existence until such
+time as the soul has found its place in the other world. Then it takes
+to itself a bodily shape, formed out of the surrounding air (as a flame
+is formed by the fire), and equips it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> with organs of sense; and
+thenceforward this shape is adapted to express all the natural emotions
+and desires, including of course those of hunger and thirst. This
+remarkable exposition is based on Aristotle&#8217;s theory of the generation
+of the body, and the introduction into it of the soul; but there is an
+important difference. The Greek philosopher, though his language is not
+very explicit, has apparently no idea of any survival of the personal
+identity after death. At all events, so he was interpreted by Averroes
+and later by Aquinas. With him the source of all movement is the father,
+from whom only (though here again Aristotle is not quite clear) comes
+the gift of a soul. Dante, on the contrary, refers these back to the
+Prime Mover, namely God, and conceives a special creative act as
+performed on behalf of every human being that is brought into the world.
+As will be easily seen, this conception is the necessary complement to
+Dante&#8217;s system of ethics, based on individual free-will, and postulating
+a newly-created soul, fresh from the Maker&#8217;s hand; a <em>tabula rasa</em>, with
+no attributes save the natural propension towards that which gives it
+pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>We may now pass to the six cantos which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> conclude this division of the
+poem, and form a most important stage in the development of the whole
+plan. Dante has now proceeded as far as human reason, typified by
+Virgil, is able to guide him. He is on the threshold of Heaven; but
+before he can be admitted among the blessed, another conductor must be
+provided, to whom the way to the Divine Presence shall be freely open.
+This, of course, can only be knowledge informed by faith, or, as we may
+say for shortness, theology, not in the sense of a formal science, but
+in one approaching more nearly to what Aristotle calls <em>Theoria</em>, or
+contemplation. From certain expressions in the earliest cantos of the
+poem, it is clear that Dante looked upon the woman whom in his youth he
+had loved, and who had, at the supposed date of these events, been ten
+years dead, as symbolising this <em>Theoria</em>, and as being in some special
+way entrusted with the task of saving him from spiritual ruin. She
+accordingly appears, and takes up the duties which Virgil is
+surrendering. The manner of her appearance must be noticed&#8212;showing as
+it does the almost inextricable web in which Dante combines fact and
+allegory. That the &#8220;Beatrice&#8221; who is introduced is primarily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> none other
+than an actual woman of flesh and blood, whom hundreds of then living
+people had known, who had gone about Florence for twenty-four years and
+married a prominent citizen, and whom Dante had loved with the romantic
+passion of the Middle Ages, only the misplaced ingenuity of paradoxical
+critics can doubt.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Yet at her entry she is escorted by a procession,
+the members of which represent the books of the Bible, the seven
+virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; while the car on which she is
+borne (which itself denotes the Church) is drawn by a mystical figure,
+in which we cannot fail to see a symbol of the second Person of the
+Trinity. If it be objected that the salvation of Dante is a small matter
+about which to set in motion so stupendous a machinery, we may answer
+that, in the first place, his own salvation does not seem unimportant to
+the man himself; and further, which is of more weight, that Dante
+himself is here no less symbolical than Beatrice, or Virgil, or the
+mystic Gryphon. He is the typical human soul; his experiences, his
+struggles, his efforts to shake himself free of the trammels of the
+world and the flesh, are familiar <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>features in the spiritual history of
+the great majority of Christians. Thus the wonderful pageant described
+in this canto must be regarded as being displayed, not to him only, but
+to all Christendom in his person.</p>
+
+<p>A few words with regard to this pageant may afford a little help to its
+comprehension. After the arrival of Beatrice, a scene follows in which
+she upbraids Dante for his forgetfulness of her, and receives an avowal
+of his fault. He is then bathed in the stream of Lethe&#8212;another curious
+employment of pagan mythology&#8212;and brought back to the presence of
+Beatrice. Hitherto she has been veiled; but now, at the special entreaty
+of her attendant nymphs (those nymphs who are also the four stars in
+heaven, and denote the cardinal virtues), she withdraws the veil, and
+discloses again the smile for which her &#8220;faithful one&#8221; had yearned
+during ten years.</p>
+
+<p>Soon, however, his attention is called away to new and strange sights.
+The procession, of which Dante and his remaining companion Statius now
+form part, moves forward through the wood of the Earthly Paradise; the
+car is attached to a tree,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> identified with the &#8220;tree of knowledge,&#8221;
+which since Adam&#8217;s disobedience has been leafless and fruitless. After
+this Dante falls into a short sleep, and on waking finds that Beatrice
+with her attendants is alone left, as a guardian to the car. Then follow
+a series of strange transformations, the general plan of which is
+clearly suggested by the Apocalypse; but their interpretation is to be
+sought in the relations of the Church to the Empire, down to the time of
+the &#8220;Babylonish captivity,&#8221; or transference of the Papal See to Avignon.
+This is symbolised by the departure of the car, drawn this time by a
+giant (Philip the Fair of France), and occupied no longer by Beatrice,
+but by a harlot, to denote (again with allusion to the Apocalypse) the
+corrupt rule under which the Church had fallen.</p>
+
+<p>In the final scene of all, Beatrice, in phrases hardly less obscure than
+the vision itself, indicates to Dante the lesson which he is to learn
+from it, and repeats in another form Virgil&#8217;s prediction of a champion
+who is to come and set the world to rights. Much has been written about
+the first of these, the <em>Veltro</em>; hardly less about the &#8220;five hundred,
+ten, and five,&#8221; or DXV. The usual interpretation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> takes these letters as
+intended merely to suggest <em>Dux</em>, a leader; but this seems a little
+weak. Elsewhere I have given reasons for thinking that Dante had a
+special motive for wrapping up his meaning in this numerical form.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, in a passage which, though ostensibly only one of Dante&#8217;s usual
+time-indications, seems intended to suggest repose after the labours
+through which he has brought his readers, and the agitation of the last
+canto, he tells us that at noon they reached the edge of the forest.
+Here he is made to drink of another stream, Eunoe, or &#8220;right mind,&#8221;
+after which he is ready for the upward journey.</p>
+
+<p>It is too much to expect readers to work through the voluminous
+interpretations which have been offered of the very difficult and
+perplexing mysticism of these cantos. Some points are perhaps plainer to
+the student who considers them with a fair knowledge of the Bible and
+history, than to the commentator who wishes to establish a new and
+original theory. But they are so important (particularly Cantos xxx. and
+xxxi.) to any one who wishes to understand Dante&#8217;s whole position as
+man, poet, scholar, and politician, that they should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> not be passed over
+as mere futile medi&#230;val fancies. It should be said, too, that they
+contain some passages which will never be out of date until the poetic
+taste of mankind has altogether changed.</p>
+
+
+<h3 class="h3mt">&#167; 3. <span class="smcap">Paradise.</span></h3>
+
+<p>The first point which will strike the reader on entering upon the third
+division of the poem is the sudden change in the conditions under which
+the action is carried on. Hitherto Dante has been moving on solid earth,
+subject to the usual limitations which are enforced by physical laws
+upon all human action. Henceforth, as he tells us (<em>Par.</em>, xxx. 123),
+God operates directly, and physical laws have no longer any place. &#8220;It
+is Beatrice,&#8221; he elsewhere says, &#8220;who leads on so swiftly from one stage
+of blessedness to a higher;&#8221; and we shall notice that the transference
+from sphere to sphere is effected by Dante&#8217;s fixing his eyes on hers,
+while she gazes upwards.</p>
+
+<p>A word as to the various spheres may not be out of place here. According
+to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, as adapted to the requirements of
+medi&#230;val belief, the earth was at the centre, and concentric with it
+were ten hollow spheres. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> first eight of these were placed
+consecutively the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, <a name="jupiter" id="jupiter"></a><ins title="original omits comma">Jupiter,</ins> Saturn,
+and the fixed stars. In order to explain the irregular movements of the
+planets, &#8220;epicycles&#8221; or smaller spheres borne by the principal spheres,
+and bearing the planets, were devised, but these need not be considered
+here. Outside of the fixed stars came the <em>primum mobile</em>, which gave
+the diurnal revolution of the heavens, and beyond this the Empyrean, or
+fixed heaven, in which was the special abode of God, and in which all
+the blessed had their places. Between the earth and the innermost
+sphere, that of the Moon, lie the regions of water, air, and fire. The
+Mountain of Purgatory, on the summit of which Dante at the conclusion of
+the second <em>Cantica</em> was standing, lifts its head as far as the third of
+these. Through this accordingly, Beatrice and Dante have to rise in
+order to reach the first step in the celestial ascent. It must be noted
+that there is no reason to suppose that in every case the actual planet
+is visited. The &#8220;heaven&#8221; of the planet embraces the whole &#8220;sphere&#8221; in
+which it is set, and its characteristics may be conceived as extending
+to the whole of that sphere.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>The fact of rising without apparent motive force through a medium
+lighter than his own body, at once forms a subject for enquiry on
+Dante&#8217;s part; and Beatrice, as she has frequently to do in the course of
+their journey, resolves his doubt. Those who are reading the poem for
+the first time will probably pass lightly over these difficult
+metaphysical passages. They must be read sooner or later by any one who
+wishes thoroughly to understand Dante&#8217;s place in the history of
+speculative thought; but in the first instance it will probably be
+better to &#8220;take them as read&#8221; and endeavour to get a clear notion of the
+general arrangement. There are obvious reasons why this portion of the
+poem should consist as largely as it does of these subtle disquisitions.
+There is far less room, in the first place, for variety of description.
+In a region where there are no shadows, it is impossible to give a
+detailed picture; and terms indicative of simple brightness are limited.
+Nor, again, is it easy where all are perfect to depict individual
+character. Consequently two great elements of interest in the first two
+parts of the poem are far less available here; and their place must be
+filled by other <a name="matter" id="matter"></a><ins title="original has comma">matter.</ins><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> What this matter should be is suggested by the
+natural division of speculative science into Ethics, or the study of
+man&#8217;s conduct as a moral being; Politics, or the science relating to his
+behaviour in regard to the social order; and Metaphysics, which for
+Dante is synonymous with theology, the investigation of all that
+concerns his spiritual part, as well as the Divine order generally. With
+the first two we have dealt in the <em>Hell</em> and the <em>Purgatory</em>
+respectively; the third is reserved for the <em>Paradise</em>. Once or twice
+indeed Dante touches on matters that would seem more fitly to belong to
+the others; as, for instance, the magnificent passage in Canto vi.,
+where Justinian, after sketching the triumphant course of the Roman
+Eagle, inveighs against the party feuds of the time; or Carlo Martello&#8217;s
+reference to the Sicilian Vespers, and the misdeeds of his brother
+Robert. But of these the first leads up to an elaborate exposition of
+the scheme of Redemption, the second seems intended directly to
+introduce a dissertation on matters lying at the very root of human
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>To the same difficulty in varying the methods (to use a phrase of
+Gingu&#233;n&#233;&#8217;s) must be attributed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> occurrence of a good many
+conceptions which to our taste appear somewhat grotesque. Yet the better
+we know the poem the more we shall feel that in this third part the
+author&#8217;s genius rises to its sublimest efforts, and agree with the late
+Dean of St. Paul&#8217;s, that it is the true <em>pierre de touche</em> of the
+student of Dante.</p>
+
+<p>To go briefly through the various stages. The heaven of the Moon is that
+in which appear the spirits of those who having taken vows have under
+compulsion or persuasion abandoned them; Mercury contains statesmen and
+men of affairs; Venus those who have been over-much swayed by indulgence
+in earthly love. It must be observed that, according to the astronomy of
+the time, the shadow of the Earth, cast into space by the Sun, extended
+as far as the orbit of Venus. The spirits in these three spheres
+therefore form a group by themselves: being distinguished by the fact
+that they had allowed earthly cares and pleasures to obtain too strong
+hold of them, to the injury of their spiritual development. In these
+three spheres respectively the representative speakers are Piccarda
+Donati, sister of Dante&#8217;s friend Forese, and of Corso, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> leader of
+the &#8220;Black Guelfs;&#8221; the Emperor Justinian; and Carlo Martello, the
+titular king of Hungary, son of Charles II., king of Naples, who is
+followed by Cunizza, sister of the Ghibeline chief, Ezzelino da Romano,
+and Folco of Marseilles, who began as a troubadour and became bishop of
+his native city.</p>
+
+<p>Although in one sense the inhabitants of the three lower spheres may be
+said to have attained a less perfect blessedness than those to whom the
+rest of heaven is assigned, it must not be supposed that they are
+conscious of any lack. All have their places in the highest or Empyrean
+heaven, and all sense of sorrow for past imperfections is at an end. We
+must indeed suppose that, as with Dante himself, the imperfections have
+been effaced by the discipline of Purgatory, and their remembrance
+washed away by the water of Lethe.</p>
+
+<p>With the sphere of the Sun, however, we arrive for the first time in the
+presence of those who have lived so as to earn the full honour of
+sanctity, and find ourselves amongst canonised saints. Even here Dante
+has shown himself, as usual, independent of conventional or official
+restrictions. In his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> introduction of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
+Bonaventura he merely anticipates the formal decision of the Church; but
+in &#8220;Peter of Spain,&#8221; that is Pope John XXI. (the only historical Pope
+whom he places in Paradise), he selects for special honour a man who was
+by no means free from grave suspicion of heresy, and who has never been
+canonised. As Dante never did anything without a reason we must suppose
+that some now forgotten merit earned for the Spanish logician a place
+beside Nathan, Chrysostom, and Anselm. It is by these and such men as
+these, great teachers and thinkers, that the heaven of the Sun is
+occupied; the reason no doubt being that as the Sun is the source of
+light and the promoter of growth in the physical world, so are these in
+the spiritual.</p>
+
+<p>The tenth canto is specially notable as bringing Dante into the presence
+of the greatest exponent of the Scholastic philosophy, and the master
+whom he followed more closely than any other, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the
+eleventh, the illustrious Dominican recounts the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi, the founder of the rival order. This is one of the most notable
+passages in the whole poem, rising as it does<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> to a sustained
+magnificence of diction which especially characterises those portions of
+the <em>Paradise</em> where the poet allows full play to his genius.
+Justinian&#8217;s roll-call of the Roman achievements in Canto vi. is another.
+Nothing at all like them is found in the two former divisions of the
+poem; and it is to them that students who wish to feel the attraction
+which the <em>Paradise</em> undoubtedly exercises over those who know it well,
+should first turn.</p>
+
+<p>The sphere of the Sun, in which we now are, is, it should be noted, one
+of the two regions of Heaven in which Dante makes the longest stay, the
+other being that of the Fixed Stars. The passage to it marks a distinct
+stage in his progress. Looking back to the end of Canto ix. we see that
+it forms a kind of peroration; while the first twenty-seven lines of
+Canto x. are, as it were, the introduction to a fresh division of the
+poem, and recall certain phrases which occurred in the opening canto. It
+is difficult to say why these two spheres should be made of so much more
+importance than the rest. Mars is the only one which approaches them;
+but this is selected by Dante as the scene of his interview with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+ancestor Cacciaguida, which gives the occasion for the magnificent
+contrast between the old days of Florence and its present state, and the
+prophecy of his own exile; subjects which might well occupy a
+considerable space. On the other hand, the eulogy of St. Francis,
+already referred to, which St. Thomas Aquinas delivers, and that of St.
+Dominic, with which St. Bonaventura, &#8220;vying with the courtesy of so
+mighty a paladin,&#8221; responds to it, fine as they are, do not appear
+indispensable in the scheme of the poem. But the whole plan of the
+<em>Paradise</em> is, so far as can be seen, arranged with much less of obvious
+symmetry than is to be found in the two former <em>Cantiche</em>. No doubt the
+plan is there; but just as &#8220;time-indications&#8221; for the most part fail us,
+or can be extracted only by elaborate and somewhat uncertain
+calculations, so it would seem as if the poet, no longer hampered by the
+necessities of time and space, had wished to show how he could work with
+no self-made restrictions.</p>
+
+<p>After his discourse in praise of the founder of the rival order,
+immediately followed by its counterpart&#8212;an eloquent summary of the
+career<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> of St. Dominic, put into the mouth of the Franciscan
+Bonaventura&#8212;St. Thomas speaks again (Canto xiii.), in order to explain
+an apparent over-estimate of Solomon&#8217;s greatness among mankind which an
+expression used by him in naming the spirits present with him might have
+seemed to imply. As happens more than once in this division of the poem,
+a piece of what at first sight looks rather like logical quibbling is
+made the introduction to some profound teaching in reference to the
+workings of the human mind&#8212;teaching which is at least as needful in the
+present day as it ever was in Dante&#8217;s own time. Solomon himself then
+speaks, answering a question put by Beatrice on Dante&#8217;s behalf as to the
+nature of the glorified body; and then Dante, having looked upon the
+countenance of Beatrice, and being by this means (as in every other
+case) raised &#8220;to a higher salvation,&#8221; finds by the ruddy light which
+surrounds him that he has entered the sphere of Mars.</p>
+
+<p>A new feature appears here. In each of the three planets exterior
+(according to the astronomy of that age) to the Sun, we find some
+special image displayed. In the case of Mars, it is a vast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> crucifix,
+composed of spirits, who are darting in all directions within the
+figure, like motes in a sunbeam. One of them glides from the arm to the
+foot of the cross, and makes himself known to Dante as his
+great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, probably (though this is not
+certain) of the family of the Elisei.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> He had been, like all the
+other spirits, as it would seem, of this sphere, a soldier, and had died
+in battle as a Crusader. The latter half of this, the fifteenth canto,
+together with the two following, form what is probably the best-known
+and most frequently quoted portion of the <em>Paradise</em>. First we have a
+beautiful picture of the simple and kindly life of old Florence, before
+party-spirit and luxury had entered and corrupted its citizens. The
+picture is, of course, one of those which people in every age have drawn
+of earlier times, supposed to have been free from the corruptions which
+each man&#8217;s experience teaches him are rife in his own day; but none the
+less it is of value as showing Dante&#8217;s ideal of social life.</p>
+
+<p>The next canto continues to deal with the same topic; but enters more
+into detail with regard to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>the various families, and the vicissitudes
+in their fortunes. This leads up to the existing strife of parties, and
+this again naturally to Dante&#8217;s own share in it, and his exile. It must
+be remembered that this did not actually come about till two years after
+the date at which the action of the <em>Commedia</em> is supposed to take
+place; so that the whole is cast into a prophetic form. The language
+used, however, must be taken as expressing the feeling with which Dante
+looked back after an interval of nearly twenty years&#8212;for the <em>Paradise</em>
+was probably completed very shortly before the poet&#8217;s death&#8212;upon the
+events in which he had borne a somewhat prominent part. Whether he was
+ever a personage of the first importance in Florence we may be allowed
+to doubt. No doubt he was a man of some consideration; but still the
+office of Prior was one which nearly every eligible citizen must have
+held;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> and Villani, who devotes a chapter to his memory, does not
+mention his name among the political leaders of an earlier period.
+Probably he occupied among the exiles of 1302 a far less important place
+in their own eyes and those of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>contemporaries than he does in ours; but
+if not a leader, he was in the front rank, and must have been aware of
+all that went on. The passages relating to his exile, to the
+worthlessness of his companions, to his gratitude towards those who
+helped him, gain immensely in force and pathos if we regard them as an
+aging man&#8217;s reminiscences of a long by-gone time.</p>
+
+<p>With the passage to the sphere of Jupiter (Canto xviii.) the imagery
+becomes yet more daring. This is the region specially devoted to the
+spirits of the righteous; and these as they fly are forming letters,
+which ultimately spell out the opening words of the Book of Wisdom:
+&#8220;Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram.&#8221; When the final M is reached a
+further transformation takes place; the letter is gradually modified
+into the shape of the imperial eagle. Righteousness, or justice, is, it
+should be remembered, in Dante&#8217;s view (as indeed in that of most
+moralists) the source and foundation of all that goes to establish human
+society on a virtuous and duly ordered basis. Thus it is rightly
+illustrated by the symbol of the Empire. The Eagle behaves as one single
+individual, though<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> composed of countless spirits; speaking with a
+single voice, and in the singular number. A discourse on justice leads
+up to a sharp rebuke of nearly every prince then ruling, on the score of
+misgovernment in one or another form.</p>
+
+<p>After this the Eagle proceeds to indicate whose are the spirits which
+compose its eye. These with one exception are all great sovereigns of
+ancient and recent times. The exception is remarkable. In Hell we found
+several cases in which mythological or fictitious personages were
+treated on a footing of absolute equality with those who had a perfect
+historical claim to the distinction; but the appearance in the Christian
+Heaven of a man whose very name is preserved merely in a single line of
+the <em>&AElig;neid</em> strikes us with astonishment. For being recorded by Virgil
+as the most righteous man among the Trojans, Rhipeus takes his place
+beside David, Hezekiah, Constantine, and the &#8220;good king&#8221; William II. of
+Sicily.</p>
+
+<p>When the time comes for the ascent to be resumed, Dante notices that
+Beatrice smiles no longer. On the threshold, as she explains, of the
+seventh heaven, the lustre of her smile would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> more than his eyes
+could endure. Here, in Saturn, a ladder is seen, reaching to the next
+sphere. We learn that this is identical with the ladder seen by Jacob in
+his vision; and down it are descending the spirits of such as in this
+world had lived the contemplative life in full perfection. The chanting
+which has been audible in the other spheres is here silent&#8212;no doubt in
+order to symbolise the insensibility to outward impressions of the soul
+rapt in contemplation. The speakers in this group are St. Peter Damian
+and St. Benedict; both of whom have severe words to say as to the
+corruption of the monastic orders.</p>
+
+<p>The company of saints reascend (Canto xxii.): and Dante and Beatrice
+follow them, mounting by the ladder, but, as it would appear, with no
+perceptible lapse of time. The eighth heaven, that of the Fixed Stars,
+is reached in the sign of the Twins; under which Dante himself had been
+born. At this point Beatrice directs him, before entering on the final
+blessedness of heaven, and doubtless with the ulterior view of leading
+him to a just sense of the insignificance of earthly things, to look
+back over the course which he has traversed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>A very distinct stage of the journey is here reached, and, as has been
+already noticed, we are entering that one of the celestial spheres in
+which Dante makes the longest stay.</p>
+
+<p>He and his guide have now reached the outermost of the heavenly spheres
+of whose existence our senses give any evidence&#8212;that of the Fixed
+Stars. A vision of Christ descending, accompanied by His Mother, and
+surrounded with saints, is granted to Dante; after which he is again
+able to endure the effulgence of Beatrice&#8217;s smile. It is not, however,
+until Christ has reascended that he recovers his full power of sight.
+Then he perceives that the company of saints has remained; and
+presently, at the request of Beatrice, St. Peter comes forward, and
+proceeds to examine Dante on the subject of Faith, and the grounds for
+his belief in the Christian revelation. The ensuing colloquy is
+interesting, as being practically a versified form of the scholastic
+method of discussion, such as we find in Aquinas. St. Peter plays the
+part of the supposed opponent, and brings forward the standard
+objections to Dante&#8217;s statements of dogma. For the ordinary reader,
+however, this and the next two cantos form,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> it must be admitted, one of
+the less attractive portions of the poem. Yet even here we now and then
+come upon a passage of pure poetry, such as the famous lines at the
+opening of Canto xxv., in which Dante utters what must have been almost
+his last aspiration after a return to &#8220;the fair fold in which as a lamb
+I slept.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Following St. Peter, St. James makes his appearance. To him is entrusted
+the task of testing Dante&#8217;s soundness in the doctrine and definition of
+Hope. Lastly, comes St. John, who examines him touching the right object
+of Love. In each case, when he has answered to the satisfaction of his
+questioner, a chant goes up from the assembled spirits; the words on
+every occasion being taken, as it would appear, from the <em>Te Deum</em>.
+Afterwards the three Apostles are joined by Adam, who takes up the
+discourse, and answers two unexpressed questions of Dante&#8217;s, as to the
+length of his stay in Paradise, and the nature of the primitive language
+of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Canto xxvii. opens with a tremendous invective, put into the mouth of
+St. Peter, against the corruption of the Papacy; a passage which
+incidentally contains an important piece of evidence with regard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> to the
+date at which the later cantos of the <em>Paradise</em> were written. A bitter
+allusion to &#8220;men of Cahors&#8221; can have been evoked only by the election of
+John XXII., who was from that city; and he became Pope in 1316. After
+this the whole multitude of Saints ascend to the highest heaven; but
+before Dante follows, Beatrice makes him look down once more, and he
+perceives that since his entry into this sphere he has moved with the
+diurnal rotation through an arc of forty-five degrees. Then they ascend
+into the sphere of the First Motion, where place and time no longer
+exist. From its movement time is measured; and its place is in the
+Divine intelligence only. Here the Empyrean, or highest Heaven, comes
+into view; at first as a point of intense brilliancy round which nine
+circles are revolving. These represent the Angelic hierarchies, and
+their places with regard to the central point are in inverse order to
+that of the spheres which they move. Beatrice takes occasion from them
+to instruct Dante upon some points relating to the creation and
+functions of the angels, and incidentally, upon the creation of form and
+matter, and their combination in the visible universe. The passage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+(Canto xxix.) is difficult; but is so magnificent in its diction as to
+deserve careful study. Dante has nowhere else succeeded so completely in
+clothing with poetry the dry bones of scholastic theology. The
+discussion, by dealing with several disputed points, gives occasion for
+some stringent remarks on the preachers of the time.</p>
+
+<p>They now rise to the highest heaven, outside of all the spheres, in
+which all the blessed have their true place. At first Dante is aware of
+light only, but gradually a fresh power of sight comes to him, and he
+sees a river, from and to which bright sparks are ever issuing and
+returning. The banks are brilliant with flowers. At the command of
+Beatrice he bows down and drinks, and at once sees the river as a lake
+of light, the flowers on the banks as concentric rows of saints seated
+on thrones, and the flitting sparks as angels. At this point Beatrice
+leaves Dante, after a few scathing words in reference to the
+&#8220;covetousness&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> of the Papacy, which has put the world out of
+joint&#8212;words which may be taken <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>as summing up in brief all the passages
+throughout the poem in which political affairs are touched upon. With
+this, if we except one bitter jibe at Florence (xxxi. 39) all
+controversial matters are dismissed, and the last three cantos of the
+poem are devoted to a description, rising ever in sublimity, of the joys
+and mysteries of Heaven.</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;soldiery of heaven&#8221; appears in the form of a vast white rose, whose
+petals are the seats on which the saints sit. On one hand these are
+filled, being occupied by holy men and women belonging to the old
+dispensation: while on the other the number of the elect has still to be
+accomplished. Beatrice having gone back to her place among the blessed
+beside Rachel, the task of escorting Dante is entrusted to St. Bernard,
+who points out where some of the more eminent have their stations. As
+throughout the poem, all is arranged with order and symmetry. The
+junction between the Old and New Testaments is indicated by the position
+assigned to Our Lady on one side of the circle, and in the highest row,
+and St. John the Baptist, who is diametrically opposite to her. Below
+her sit in order a series of Christ&#8217;s ancestresses Eve, Rachel,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> Sarah,
+Rebekah, Ruth; Adam is on her left, St. Peter on her right, beyond them
+Moses and St. John the Evangelist. On either hand of the Baptist sit St.
+Anne and St. Lucy, and below him a line of founders of orders and other
+teachers; the lower circles are filled with the spirits of children.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of his enumeration of these chief personages, St. Bernard
+observes that the time of Dante&#8217;s slumber is nearly at an end, and that
+they must, &#8220;like a good tailor, cut the coat according to the cloth.&#8221; In
+these three lines are two very noticeable points. First, the word
+&#8220;slumber,&#8221; implying that the whole journey through the other world has
+been performed in a dream; and secondly, the bold use, at perhaps the
+most exalted moment of the whole poem, of a trivial, almost vulgar,
+figure of speech. We meet with other instances of this in the
+<em>Paradise</em>, and they are eminently characteristic of the medi&#230;val mind.
+The subject is too wide to be discussed here; but readers may be
+reminded of the numerous examples which the architecture of the period
+shows, in which grotesque or even indecent figures are introduced among
+the ornamental work of sacred buildings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>At the beginning of the last canto, St. Bernard, in an address of
+exquisite beauty (of which Chaucer, in the Second Nun&#8217;s Tale has given
+an almost equally exquisite rendering), appeals to the Virgin&#8212;who, it
+will be remembered, is throughout represented as taking a special
+interest in Dante&#8212;for her aid to him in his last and crowning
+experience. Thus succoured, he is able to gaze upon the Supreme Light;
+and in a flash there is revealed to him a full comprehension of all
+fundamental truths, first those of metaphysics, then those of faith. He
+understands for a moment the whole composition of the universe, and then
+the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Trinity. The intuition is
+momentary, and leaves merely the memory of a memory. But the lasting
+effect is the entire union of his will with the Divine will, and herein,
+we must understand him to imply, is found the salvation the attainment
+of which has been the ultimate aim and object of his whole journey.</p>
+
+<p>Many touches in this concluding passage bear a strong resemblance to
+what seems to have been the teaching of the contemporary German mystics.
+It would be interesting to inquire how far Dante can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> have been
+acquainted with any of the writings of that school. If any connection
+can be traced, it may throw light on several obscure points.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>It remains to be added that the <em>Commedia</em> was first printed at Foligno
+in 1472. Editions followed in quick succession from Jesi, Mantua, and
+Naples. The first Venetian edition is that of Vindelin of Spires, in
+1477; the first Florentine, that with Landino&#8217;s commentary, in 1481. It
+was printed several times more before 1500, and constantly in the
+sixteenth century. We have several commentaries dating from a period
+only later by a few years than Dante&#8217;s death.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28" class="label">[28]</a> Not only this allusion, but the occurrence, in this and
+other parts of the poem, of several words used in that district makes it
+almost certain that Dante was very familiar with the country round about
+Trent. Doubtless he would visit it from Verona.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29" class="label">[29]</a> See <a href="#Page_79">p. 79</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30" class="label">[30]</a> See <a href="#Page_36">p. 36</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31" class="label">[31]</a> It seems never to have been noticed that, as every line
+from the surface to the centre is perpendicular, a descent by <em>slopes</em>,
+such as is represented, would really be impossible.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32" class="label">[32]</a> See <a href="#Page_34">p. 34</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33" class="label">[33]</a> A late legend, to which some eminent writers have given
+too easy credence, does actually assert that Dante did go to Genoa, in
+the suite of Henry VII., about the end of 1311, and there was ill-used
+by some of Branca d&#8217;Oria&#8217;s friends or domestics. But none of the early
+commentators knows anything of this tale.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34" class="label">[34]</a> But see <a href="#Page_42">p. 42</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35" class="label">[35]</a> See <a href="#Page_48">pp. 48&#8211;51</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36" class="label">[36]</a> See <a href="#Page_38">p. 38</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37" class="label">[37]</a> See <a href="#Page_70">p. 70</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38" class="label">[38]</a> Note that <a name="cupidigia" id="cupidigia"></a><ins title="original has capidigia"><em>cupidigia</em></ins> is, in Dante&#8217;s scheme, the vice
+opposed to <em>giustizia</em>, that which debases nations as righteousness
+exalts them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39" class="label">[39]</a> See also <a href="#Page_46">p. 46</a>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
+<br />
+<small>THE MINOR WORKS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">The</span> <em>Commedia</em> is, for many readers perhaps, the only book distinctly
+identified with Dante&#8217;s name. Yet it must be remembered that, as a
+matter of fact, it represents less than half of the total bulk of his
+writings; and, further, that the remainder comprises several works
+which, though not attaining to the pre-eminent position which all the
+world now recognises the great poem as occupying, are very remarkable
+monuments of medi&#230;val literature.</p>
+
+<p>Of the youthful work, the <em>Vita Nuova</em>, we have already spoken. It may
+be sufficient here to add that&#8212;though there is some controversy on the
+point&#8212;the name probably means only &#8220;Early&#8221; or &#8220;Fresh Life.&#8221; The book
+was pretty certainly written not much after 1290, though the last<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+chapter, in which the author&#8217;s design to compose a greater work is
+alluded to, may have been added when the scheme of the <em>Commedia</em> was
+more developed. The <em>Vita Nuova</em> was not printed till 1578.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the date at which the most important of the prose works,
+known as the <em>Convito</em>, or &#8220;Banquet,&#8221; was composed, considerable
+uncertainty exists. Villani says that the odes to which it is ostensibly
+a commentary were written in exile. Some critics hold that it belongs,
+at all events in great part, to the &#8220;pre-exilian&#8221; period of Dante&#8217;s
+life; while others place it as late as 1310. The late Dr. Witte regarded
+it as the middle division of what he called &#8220;Dante&#8217;s Trilogy&#8221;&#8212;the
+drama, that is, of the development of Dante&#8217;s soul. In this view, the
+early love portrayed in the <em>Vita Nuova</em> marks an age of simple faith,
+undisturbed by any doubt. The <em>Convito</em> (so far as it was completed)
+records a period of philosophical speculation&#8212;not actually adverse to
+the truths of religion, but seeking to establish these rather on the
+basis of human reason than on revelation. Lastly, the <em>Commedia</em> shows<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+us the soul, convinced that salvation and enlightenment are not to be
+found on this road, returning again to child-like submission. There is
+no doubt an attractive symmetry about this arrangement, but it is open
+to some objections, one of them being, as a French critic said, that
+part at least of the <em>Convito</em> must almost certainly have been written
+after the date in which Dante&#8217;s conversion is represented as having
+taken place. Nor is it an answer to say that, the action of the
+<em>Commedia</em> being purely imaginary, we need pay no attention to dates.
+For one thing, Dante is extremely careful, and with more success than
+any one without his marvellous &#8220;visualising&#8221; power could hope for, to
+avoid anything like an anachronism in the <em>Commedia</em>. If he allows no
+event, which, in the history of the world, was still future in 1300, to
+be referred to as past, why should he have allowed this in regard to
+events in the history of his own spiritual development?</p>
+
+<p>The truth is, that all these elaborate and symmetrical theories prove
+too much; and what is worse, they all spring from an ignorance, or a
+neglect, of the great facts of human nature. The <em>Commedia</em><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> is, of
+course, full of expressions of contrition for former error; of frank
+recognition that the writer has gone astray in the past, and hopes to
+keep straight in the future. But might not any man, any thoughtful man
+at all events, of thirty-five years old and upwards, take Dante&#8217;s words
+with perfect sincerity, as the expression of his own deepest thoughts?
+Why assume that the faults of which Dante repented with tears in the
+presence of Beatrice, were limited to a too great reliance on human
+reason, or to a secret leaning to the philosophy of Averroes? Were they
+not moral as well as intellectual? Whether the year 1300 really marked
+an epoch at which anything of the nature of what is now called
+&#8220;conversion&#8221; took place in Dante&#8217;s mind, we cannot say. It pretty
+certainly corresponded with a decided revulsion in his political views.
+It cannot have been without a pang that he found himself obliged
+formally to break with the Guelf party, of which he had hitherto been a
+faithful member, and to cast in his lot with men whom he, doubtless,
+like those with whom he had all his life associated, regarded as a set
+of turbulent, over-bearing swashbucklers, trying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> with the help of
+foreign men and money to reimpose a feudal tyranny on a prosperous and
+free commonwealth. For this is the aspect in which the Ghibelines must
+have presented themselves to a Florentine burgher of the year 1300. No
+doubt the doings of the Black party would have taught him that
+overbearing and tyrannical ways, turbulence and swagger were not the
+monopoly of one side, and that the freedom and peace of Florence must,
+in any case, soon be things of the past. All the foundations of the
+earth must have seemed to him to be out of course, and we can well
+imagine that his thought may have been driven inward, and he may thus
+have come to recognise how far the school which he had followed, and the
+path upon which he had walked&#8212;not in philosophy only, but in all
+matters of conduct&#8212;had led him from the ideals of his early manhood and
+from the way of God. Thus he would naturally refer the vision, which, of
+course, contains an allegorical account of all this change or
+&#8220;conversion,&#8221; if we may call it so, to that year the events of which had
+given the first impulse to it.</p>
+
+<p>It is not, however, necessary to suppose that with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> Dante, any more than
+with most men of a similar age, a conviction that he had hitherto been
+on the wrong track involved an entire break with former habits, at all
+events of mind and thought. He may very well have gone on stringing
+together the curious medley of learning which he had not unfitly called
+a &#8220;Banquet.&#8221;<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> As we have said already, it looks very like the
+contents of a commonplace book, in which materials for other
+works&#8212;notably for the <em>Commedia</em>&#8212;were collected. Many of the views
+enunciated in it may well be those held by Dante long before, and
+subsequently changed, though he might not have taken the trouble to
+expunge them, even when stating a maturer opinion in a later work.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>A good many of the difficulties which arise in the consideration of the
+dates of Dante&#8217;s works, probably arise from oblivion of the fact that
+&#8220;publication&#8221; in our modern sense did not exist in those days. An author
+would no doubt give his manuscript to friends to read, as he went along;
+and, if they liked it, they would probably take a copy of so much as
+they had. Thus portions of a book would get about long before the whole
+was finished; and in this way the views which Dante expresses in the
+<em>Convito</em> upon the cause of the markings in the moon, the order of the
+angelic hierarchies, the nature of the Milky Way, and similar matters,
+may well have been known to many as held by him, and he may have known
+that this was the case. Subsequently, having changed his mind&#8212;it may
+be, even before 1300&#8212;he would take the opportunity of a part of the
+<em>Commedia</em> having got into circulation, to recant; and even so the
+original view might stand in the <em>Convito</em>, and appear in that work when
+finally produced. When we further remember that Dante left the
+<em>Convito</em> little more than begun, and consequently, no doubt, unrevised,
+it will be clear that very little inference can be drawn as to its date,
+from the fact that certain opinions expressed in it are retracted in the
+<em>Commedia</em>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> It would be truer to say that it had no date. It was first
+printed in 1490.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>De Monarchia</em> is a complete treatise, in fact, probably the only
+work besides the <em>Commedia</em> which we can feel sure that we have in a
+form which it would have retained however long Dante might have lived.
+Enough has been already said as to its scope; it may suffice to add that
+the Church has never looked upon it with favour, which was probably the
+reason of its not being printed till 1559, and then in Germany.</p>
+
+<p>The unfinished treatise known as <em>De Vulgari Eloquentia</em> had the curious
+fortune to appear in an Italian translation (1529) some fifty years
+before it was printed in its original Latin. It is a <a name="most" id="most"></a><ins title="original has mos">most</ins> interesting
+little work, showing considerable acuteness of perception in regard to
+peculiarities of <a name="local" id="local"></a><ins title="original has locat">local</ins> vernacular, and a general &#8220;feeling&#8221; for
+linguistic matters.</p>
+
+<p>How do we know that all these works are Dante&#8217;s? it will be asked. Here
+we rest on unusually sure ground, for which once more we have to thank
+Villani.</p>
+
+<p>In the Chapter to which we have already more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> than once referred,
+containing the notice of Dante&#8217;s death, that historian gives a list of
+his works. &#8220;In his youth,&#8221; we read&#8212;</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="noi">&#8220;he made the book called <em>The New Life of Love</em>; and afterwards, when he
+was in exile, he made some twenty moral and amatory odes, very
+excellent; and, among others, he wrote three notable letters, one to the
+Government of Florence, lamenting his own exile without any fault; the
+second he sent to the Emperor Henry; the third to the Italian cardinals,
+when the vacancy occurred after the death of Pope Clement.... And he
+made the <em>Comedy</em>, wherein, in polished rhyme, and with great and subtle
+questions of morals, nature, and astrology, philosophy and theology ...
+he composed and treated in one hundred chapters, or chants, concerning
+the being and condition of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.... He also
+made the <em>Monarchy</em>, in which he treated of the duty of the Pope and of
+the Emperor. And he began a commentary on fourteen of the
+above-mentioned moral odes, in the vulgar tongue, which, through his
+death supervening, is only completed for three.... Also he made a little
+work which he calls <em>De Vulgari Eloquentia</em>, whereof he promises to make
+four books, but only two are extant, perhaps by reason of his speedy
+end; in which, in powerful and elegant style, and with fine arguments,
+he examines all the vernaculars of Italy.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The last two paragraphs, it should be said, do not occur in all
+manuscripts. But, assuming them to be genuine, it will be seen that we
+have here an almost contemporary notice, with one or two exceptions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> of
+all the main works now contained in the editions of Dante. The chief
+exception is the curious little treatise on physical geography, called
+<em>De aqua et terra</em>, which purports to be a lecture delivered by Dante at
+Verona, in the last year of his life; but this is of very questionable
+genuineness. It was first printed, indeed, in 1508, but no manuscript of
+it is now known to exist.</p>
+
+<p>Of the other works, Villani&#8217;s notice may be regarded as clear proof that
+they are what they profess to be; and incidentally it may be said that
+his mention of them has probably been of great service. Literary
+morality was sufficiently lax in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
+and people&#8217;s ideas as to the use that might legitimately be made of
+famous names differed considerably from those now in force. As it is, a
+good many compositions have passed under Dante&#8217;s name, from an early
+date, which scarcely pretend to be genuine works of his. We can imagine
+what a temptation it would have been for some enterprising man of
+letters to complete the <em>Convito</em> or the <em>De Vulgari Eloquentia</em>, or
+even to add a canto or two to the <em>Commedia</em>, if there had been no
+record in existence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> to let the world know where the genuine ended and
+the spurious began.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Even this security, however, is not quite
+sufficient to set us at our ease in the case of the letters. True, we
+have three letters purporting to be the three which Villani mentions, as
+well as several others passing under Dante&#8217;s name; but it is, of course,
+possible that the very fact of his mentioning them may have sufficed to
+set ingenious scribes at work to produce them. Manuscripts of them are
+very few, and they occur in company with other works which are undoubted
+exercises of fancy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>On the other hand, more than one writer of the fifteenth century
+professes to have seen letters of Dante&#8217;s, of which no trace can now be
+found. That referring to the battle of Campaldino, for which Leonardo
+Bruni vouches, has already been mentioned; and Flavius Blondus of Forl&#236;,
+a historian about contemporary with Leonardo, speaks of others as extant
+in his time. These, if they could now be recovered, would be of the
+greatest interest, since they related to the obscure period immediately
+following the exile of the White party. Meanwhile the genuineness of the
+more important letters which we possess is perhaps the most interesting
+question which remains to be settled in connection with Dante&#8217;s works.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the prose letters, two poetical epistles are still extant, and
+these, strange to say, the most sceptical critics have so far allowed to
+pass unquestioned. There is something a little pathetic about their
+history. Two or three years before Dante&#8217;s death, a young scholar of
+Bologna, known from his devotion to the great Latin bard, as Joannes de
+Virgilio, addressed an extremely prosaic, but highly complimentary,
+epistle to the old poet, urging him to write something in the more
+dignified language of antiquity. Dante replied in an &#8220;Eclogue,&#8221; wherein,
+under Virgilian pastoral imagery, he playfully banters his
+correspondent, and says that he had better finish first the work he has
+in hand, namely the <em>Commedia</em>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> One more communication on either side
+followed, and then Dante&#8217;s death brought the verse-making to a close. In
+his own pieces one is struck rather by the melody of the rhythm and
+occasional dignity of the thought, than by the classical quality of the
+Latinity. But they are unquestionably remarkable specimens of Latin
+verse for an age previous to the revival of classical study, and, we
+should say, far more genial and more truly Virgilian in spirit than the
+most polished composition of the Humanists.</p>
+
+<p>It is not intended here to enter into any analysis or estimate of
+Dante&#8217;s prose works. The former task is one which readers should perform
+for themselves. Nor need they find it too much for their powers. With
+all his obscurity of allusion, and occasionally of phrase, Dante is not
+really a difficult author. From his teachers, the schoolmen, he had
+learnt to arrange his matter with due, perhaps more than due, regard to
+order and symmetry; and consequently the attentive reader is seldom at a
+loss to know what part of the subject is, at any given place, under
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>Of the obscurity which results from over-elaboration of the thought, or
+from an attempt at originality<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> of expression, Dante is, in his maturer
+works, singularly free.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> It must be remembered, too, that very often
+phrases which look to us like &#8220;conceits&#8221; are merely instances of the
+employment of scientific and technical terms now obsolete, but then
+familiar to every cultivated reader.</p>
+
+<p>For &#230;sthetic, or, as it has been unkindly called, &#8220;sign-post&#8221;
+criticism&#8212;that which, under the guise of directing the reader&#8217;s taste,
+often seems intended to call attention mainly to the acuteness of the
+critic&#8217;s own perception or his delicacy of phrase&#8212;the study of Dante
+would seem to be a very unpromising field. The sentimentalist and the
+elegant craftsman in words seem out of place in the company of this
+uncompromising seeker after realities, this relentless exposer of shams.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>It is much better that the student should begin by understanding his
+author. When he has mastered the meaning, it will be time enough to
+begin to admire, whether it be the thought or the words, or the
+expression of the one through the other. For this reason we should
+strongly counsel beginners to read Dante himself first, and books about
+Dante afterwards. We would go so far as to say: at the first reading,
+dispense even with notes, and be content to look out the words in a
+dictionary. It is far better practice to find out for yourself where the
+difficulties lie, than to be told where to expect them. Similarly with
+the &#8220;beauties.&#8221; These will reveal themselves <em>a ciascun&#8217; alma presa e
+gentil cuore</em>, and every reader will find them in such measure as he
+deserves. Then will be the time to use the commentaries to solve, so far
+as may be, the problems which have been discovered, and then to take up
+such works as Mr. Symonds&#8217;s <em>Study of Dante</em>, Miss Rossetti&#8217;s <em>Shadow of
+Dante</em>, and Dean Church&#8217;s <em>Essay</em>. The student who, to a thorough
+knowledge of the poem, joins a careful perusal of these three works will
+find his knowledge co-ordinated, his grasp of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> Dante&#8217;s whole system
+strengthened, his perception of Dante&#8217;s greatness marvellously
+quickened. If he afterwards cares to pursue the subject further into the
+thickets of modern Italian and German criticism, he will find plenty of
+entertainment. Only let him remember that most of the minute details
+with which the excellent critics deal are not really of the very
+slightest importance.</p>
+
+<p>As has been said above, there is ample reason for believing that the
+person to whom Dante refers under the name of Beatrice was a young lady
+of that name, daughter of one Folco Portinari, and wife to Simone de&#8217;
+Bardi. But suppose that irresistible evidence to the contrary could be
+found? Suppose that documents should come to light showing that no
+Beatrice Portinari ever lived&#8212;even that there was no woman, young or
+old, in Florence, who bore the Christian name of Beatrice between 1200
+and 1300, what would it matter? Do we read Andromache&#8217;s</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&#8220;Hector, but thou to me art father and mother and brother, and thou my
+gallant husband too;&#8221;</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="noi">or Helen&#8217;s</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+&#8220;Hector, dearest to me by far of all my brothers-in-law, it is now
+twenty years since I left my native land, but never yet have I heard
+from thee an ill or insulting word,&#8221;</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="noi">with any the less emotion because we do not feel sure that Hector, or
+Andromache, or Helen ever lived on this earth? Some would add, or Homer;
+but so far, happily, no &#8220;separatist&#8221; has taken Dante in hand. But again,
+suppose he did, and with better success than has on the whole attended
+those who would have us believe that half a dozen or more men
+contributed to the <em>Iliad</em>, any one book of which would entitle its
+author to rank among the great poets of all time? The world would prove
+to be richer by as many great poets as could be shown to have
+collaborated in the writing of the <em>Commedia</em>; and how should we be the
+poorer? The poem would still be there, with all its power to soothe, to
+stimulate, to throw light upon the most hidden corners of the human
+soul, to reveal our own motives to us. It is, of course, only human
+nature to feel a personal interest in the man who has taught us so much;
+but we must not allow this natural sentiment to make us forget that the
+man is only interesting because of his work. After all, when the most
+destructive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> criticism has done its worst, we know much more about Dante
+than we know about the still greater Shakespeare; and let us be thankful
+for what knowledge we have.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40" class="label">[40]</a> This may be a good point at which to say that we need not
+suppose because Dante employed the Canzoni as pegs upon which to hang
+the philosophical, astronomical, and other lucubrations of the
+<em>Convito</em>, that when originally written they were anything but exercises
+in the amatory style of composition usual in that age, whether inspired
+or not by any serious passion. He would have found no more difficulty in
+attaching subsequently a mystical and moral interpretation to them than
+divines had found in doing the same for the Canticles.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41" class="label">[41]</a> In the case of the <em>Commedia</em>, it would seem that Dante
+himself took measures to guard against interpolations. As is well known,
+he never uses any one series of rhymes more than once in the same canto;
+and, from the structure of the <em>terza rima</em>, it is impossible to
+introduce any fresh matter when the canto is once completed without
+violating this rule. This fact alone serves to convict of forgery the
+unknown person who inserted eighteen lines after <em>Hell</em>, xxxiii. 90, in
+one of the Bodleian manuscripts; as to which, see Dr. Moore&#8217;s <em>Textual
+Criticism</em>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42" class="label">[42]</a> It is, perhaps, worth noting that as the tendency to
+<em>concetti</em> increased in Italian literature, Dante was more and more
+neglected. Only three editions appeared from 1596 to 1716. Curiously
+enough, there are two treatises extant which just correspond with the
+beginning and end of this period of eclipse. One of them is called <em>A
+Brief and Ingenious Discourse against the Work of Dante</em>. It was written
+by Monsignor Alessandro Cariero, and published at Padua in 1582. The
+arguments are of the feeblest and most pedantic kind; but it marks a
+stage in taste. The recovery is indicated by a <em>Defence of Dante
+Alighieri</em>, a lecture given by Dr. Giuseppe Bianchini to the Florentine
+Academy in 1715, and published three years later.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span><a name="AI" id="AI"></a>APPENDIX I.<br />
+<br />
+<small>SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Something</span> has already been said as to the way in which the student of
+Dante should set to work in the way both of putting himself so far as
+possible at Dante&#8217;s point of view with regard to earlier literature, and
+of availing himself of the various commentaries and treatises which
+subsequent writers have produced in such abundance; but it may be
+convenient to enter into this matter somewhat more in detail. It would
+obviously be too much to expect of every beginner that he should prepare
+himself for the study of Dante by a preliminary perusal of all the books
+which Dante may have read. But if he is to read with any profit, or
+indeed with any real enjoyment, some preliminary study is almost
+indispensable. Take, for instance, the historical standpoint. Some of
+Dante&#8217;s grandest apostrophes fall flat to one who has not grasped the
+medi&#230;val theory of the Roman Empire, as set forth in Mr. Bryce&#8217;s
+well-known book or elsewhere. Much of his imagery, especially in the
+first Cantica, seems fantastic and arbitrary to one who is not familiar
+with Virgil&#8217;s sixth <em>&AElig;neid</em>, and does not realise that nearly every
+feature in the Dantesque Hell is developed, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> assistance no doubt
+from medi&#230;val legend, out of some hint of the Virgilian nether world. Of
+allusions to contemporaries it is hardly necessary to speak; and in many
+cases we must fall back on the commentators, who for their part have
+often nothing to tell us but what we have already gathered for
+ourselves. Cacciaguida&#8217;s statement that no souls had been shown to Dante
+save those of people known to fame, may not be always true so far as any
+but the most strictly contemporary fame is concerned, but it is true in
+a great many cases. Few indeed there are whose names have not gained
+additional celebrity from Dante&#8217;s mention of them; but, on the other
+hand, there are very few whose memory but for it would have perished
+altogether; and the thrill with which the reader comes across an old
+acquaintance, marked by the unfaltering hand for renown or infamy, as
+long as men shall read books on this earth, is far more satisfying than
+the process of looking a person up because he is some one in Dante. It
+is therefore at least worth while, if not essential, to know something
+of the minuter contemporary history, and those who can read the seventh,
+eighth, and ninth books of Villani&#8217;s <em>Florentine History</em>&#8212;not yet,
+unfortunately, translated into English&#8212;will find their reward.</p>
+
+<p>Those, again, who wish to place themselves as nearly as may be at the
+point from which Dante looked at ethical and metaphysical problems, will
+hardly be satisfied with an occasional quotation from Aristotle or
+Aquinas. If, as may well be the case, they cannot spare the time for
+systematic reading of those somewhat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> exacting authors, they should at
+least be at the trouble of acquiring such a knowledge of their systems,
+and of the place which they hold in the widening of men&#8217;s thoughts, as
+may be obtained from Ueberweg or some other approved history of
+philosophy. So for physical science and natural history, those who have
+not the leisure to read Aristotle (again), or Pliny, or Brunetto&#8217;s
+<em>Tr&#233;sor</em>, may get from the fourth book of Whewell&#8217;s <em>History of the
+Inductive Sciences</em>, and from parts of Humboldt&#8217;s <em>Cosmos</em>, some idea of
+the way in which Dante would regard the external world.</p>
+
+<p>But one book, among all others, was undoubtedly the main instrument in
+the formation of Dante&#8217;s mind and character. Few professed Churchmen
+have ever been so saturated with the language and the spirit of the
+Bible as this lay theologian. It was this, indeed, which seems to have
+specially impressed his contemporaries. &#8220;Theologus Dantes nullius
+dogmatis expers&#8221; is the title which the epitaph of his friend Joannes de
+Virgilio confers upon him in its opening line. And among all the books
+of the &#8220;Sacred Library,&#8221; as an earlier age called it, we can see that
+two had a predominant place in his memory&#8212;the prophecy of Jeremiah and
+the Book of Psalms. In these two we may find the solution of some of his
+most obscure symbolism, and careful study of these will do perhaps more
+than anything to help the student to read with understanding. Of course
+those who read Latin should use the Vulgate rather than the English
+version, for the key to an allusion sometimes lies in a word or a
+phrase, the identity of which is lost in an alien language.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>It is with the study of such books as these, carried as far as the
+student&#8217;s opportunities will allow, that he will best prepare himself
+for that of the <em>Commedia</em>. The next thing will be to read it, either in
+a translation, or better, in the original, working rapidly through the
+poem, and noting difficulties which occur, but leaving them for the
+present. He will thus get a comprehensive view of its general structure
+and scope, and probably find himself enthralled by the spell; after
+which, to put it on the lowest ground, he will have a subject of
+interest to investigate which will last him his lifetime. At any rate he
+will pretty certainly resolve to go over the ground again, this time
+more deliberately. Now will come the turn of the commentators, including
+under this term not only the actual annotators of the text, but those
+who have in any way discussed, explained, or interpreted the whole poem
+or its parts, either from a general literary point of view, or in the
+attempt to clear up special points. Of these there is no lack. Probably
+no great writer has given occasion for so much writing on the part of
+lesser men. The French critic Sainte-Beuve remarked that &#8220;to read Dante
+was almost inevitably to want to translate him;&#8221; it certainly seems as
+if to read Dante made the desire to write about him almost irresistible.
+Many of these books the world has pretty willingly let die; but a few
+will be read as long as Dante is studied in England. Foremost among
+these is the <em>Essay</em> by the late Dean of St. Paul&#8217;s, Dr. Church. This is
+printed in a volume with an excellent translation of the <em>De Monarchia</em>.
+As an introduction to Dante from every point of view, whether in
+connection with the history of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> his time or in regard to his place in
+literature, it remains unrivalled, and is likely to remain so until a
+writer on Dante arises equal to Dean Church in acuteness of historical
+insight, delicacy of literary taste, and a power of expression capable
+of translating those gifts into words. No student should fail to read
+it; and those who can buy a copy will not be likely to regret the
+outlay. Another instructive book is the late Miss Rossetti&#8217;s <em>Shadow of
+Dante</em>. It treats the poem rather in its religious than in its
+historical or philosophical aspect; and it is of especial value as an
+aid to understanding the often very perplexing symbolism. Long extracts
+are given from the versions by Mr. W. M. Rossetti (for the <em>Inferno</em>)
+and Mr. Longfellow (for the other parts); and these are linked together
+by a connecting summary. Mr. Symonds&#8217;s <em>Introduction to the Study of
+Dante</em> is also useful, especially from the literary point of view, but
+it is occasionally inaccurate. Of actual translations none is better
+than Cary&#8217;s, and this has most valuable notes.</p>
+
+<p>These are some of the books from which a student, who did not feel equal
+to a preliminary study of Italian, might get information about Dante. It
+is to be hoped that there are not many who will stop here. When the
+genius of a poet is so closely involved as it is in Dante&#8217;s case with
+the genius of the language, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
+student&#8217;s mind that he ought to be read in his own words. Italian is the
+easiest to learn of all European languages, and the one in which the
+preliminary labour of learning grammatical rules is least required. Its
+grammar is very straightforward; its construction, in the best writers,
+is seldom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> involved; its words will in most cases be intelligible to
+people who know any Latin or French. The prepositions and their uses
+offer almost the only stumbling-block which cannot be surmounted by the
+aid of a pocket-dictionary; and even here the difficulty is more likely
+to be apparent in writing Italian. In reading, the context will usually
+be a guide to the meaning when the words are known.</p>
+
+<p>The first thing will be to get a text. There are several modern texts
+published in Italy; but none of them are very correct. Giuliani&#8217;s is an
+attractive little book; but the Abate was a somewhat reckless emendator,
+and some of his readings are very untrustworthy. The little pocket
+edition published by Barb&#232;ra contains Fraticelli&#8217;s text, which suffers
+rather from lack of correction. Messrs. Longmans publish one based on
+Witte, but embodying the results of later inquiry. A complete text of
+Dante&#8217;s entire works has lately been issued by the Clarendon Press, for
+the accuracy of which the name of its editor, Dr. Moore, is a sufficient
+guarantee. The &#8220;student&#8217;s&#8221; editions with notes are those of Bianchi and
+Fraticelli, both in Italian. The latter is for some reason more popular
+in England, but the notes seem to me decidedly less helpful than those
+of Bianchi based on Costa&#8217;s. Better than either is the <em>Vocabolario
+Dantesco</em> of Blanc. The original work was written in German, and no
+doubt is to be obtained in that language. It is really a very useful
+commentary, and has the additional advantage that it forms a pretty
+copious Concordance, and enables the student to compare the various uses
+of a word.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>The student may now be supposed to be ready to set to work. How is he to
+proceed? This is a question very difficult to answer. Probably no two
+grown-up people will attack a new author, or a new language, in quite
+the same way. The present writer began Dante with very little knowledge
+of Italian; but knowing French and Latin pretty well. Being in Florence
+one day, he went to a bookstall and bought for one <em>lira</em> a secondhand
+copy of a little text published in 1811; and began to puzzle out bits
+here and there with the help of a small dictionary. In the following
+winter he went through the whole poem in Bianchi&#8217;s edition with a
+friend, aided by various of the older commentaries. Then he took to
+reading the poem by a canto or two at a time, in bed, without notes or
+dictionary, and went through it two or three times in this way, at last
+beginning to feel that he would like to know something about it.
+Probably a course of this kind, spread in a rather desultory fashion
+over several years, would hardly suit every student. Nevertheless it has
+in its general features some merits. In the first place, the only way to
+learn is to find for yourself where the difficulties are; and this can
+be done most effectually by beginning with the minimum of help. With
+notes, there is always the temptation to look at the note first and the
+text afterwards: a process sure to result in slipshod and inaccurate
+knowledge. Take a canto at a time, and read it through. Go over the
+ground again with a commentary and perhaps a translation. Before long
+the difficulties arising merely from the language will be pretty well
+mastered, and progress will be more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> rapid. Above all, avoid in the
+first instance anything of the nature of &#230;sthetic criticism. Be content
+to treat the poem, if it be not profane to say so, as a &#8220;grind.&#8221;
+Translate into the plainest English, so only that you take pains to
+render every word. It is a very good exercise to keep to the same
+English word for the same Italian word. This will not be quite always
+possible; but on the whole it is wonderful how many words in Italian (or
+any other language) have passed through the same change of signification
+as some one of their English equivalents. (Thus &#8220;sorry&#8221; in English means
+both &#8220;sad&#8221; and &#8220;contemptible.&#8221; You will find that Italian &#8220;<em>tristo</em>&#8221;
+bears both senses equally well.) Try to &#8220;explain Dante by Dante,&#8221; that
+is, look out for peculiar phrases and constructions which may occur more
+than once, and get at their meaning by comparison of contexts. One great
+advantage possessed by the student of Dante is that his author is
+practically the first in the language in point of time; and though later
+Italian poets used Dante freely as a quarry, they did not do it
+intelligently. It may safely be said that, with the occasional exception
+of Petrarch, no subsequent Italian poet threw the least light on the
+interpretation of a single word in Dante. Indeed our own Chaucer seems
+to have understood and appreciated Dante far better than did Dante&#8217;s
+countryman Ariosto. It is thus possible to read Dante without a very
+wide acquaintance with Italian literature in general.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, beginners need not be at too much pains to follow out the
+often very elaborate symbolism. On a first reading take the story as it
+stands. Let the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> dark wood and the three beasts, and the hill
+illuminated by the rising sun, remain what they profess to be, until you
+see the broad outlines of the poem. There are quite enough passages of
+purely human interest to occupy you at first. Francesca, Farinata, the
+Counts of Montefeltro, father and son, Ugolino, the assembled princes
+awaiting their time to enter Purgatory, the great panegyrics of St.
+Francis and St. Dominic, these and the like are the &#8220;purple patches&#8221; on
+which the beginner&#8217;s attention should be fixed.</p>
+
+<p>The student who has gone through the poem on these lines will by the end
+of it be ripe for a more thorough reading and a fuller commentary. Among
+modern commentaries the fullest is that of Dr. Scartazzini. He is a
+guide whose judgement is perhaps not always quite equal to his
+erudition; but his Commentary (in four volumes, including the
+<em>Prolegomeni</em>) is almost indispensable to the advanced student. He has
+also published an abridgement in one volume. Those who read German
+should make acquaintance with the translation and notes of the late King
+John of Saxony, who wrote under the name of Philalethes, as well as with
+those of Dr. Witte. Both these deal fully with historical matters,
+&#8220;Philalethes&#8221; also going very fully into the theology. In the present
+writer&#8217;s edition some attempt is made to clear up obscure points of
+allegory, and to show the extent of Dante&#8217;s debt to Greek philosophy.
+Attention is also called to questions of grammar and philology, which
+have been somewhat neglected by the Italian and German commentators.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span><a name="AII" id="AII"></a>APPENDIX II.<br />
+<br />
+<small>DANTE&#8217;S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE</small></h2>
+
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">A few</span> words on the mythological and classical allusions in the
+<em>Commedia</em> may be useful to those who are not familiar with Greek and
+Latin literature. The subject is a very wide one, and Dante&#8217;s treatment
+of heathen mythology is very curious. It is especially noticeable in the
+<em>Purgatory</em>, where every sin and its contrary virtue are illustrated by
+a pair of examples from Scripture history on the one hand, and Greek or
+Roman history or legend (for both seem alike to him) on the other.
+Sloth, for instance, is exemplified by the Israelites who &#8220;thought
+scorn&#8221; of the promised land, and the slothful followers of &AElig;neas, who
+hung back from the conquest of Italy; while Mary going into the hill
+country with haste, and C&#230;sar dashing into Spain are the chosen models
+of prompt response to the call of duty. So, again, at the very outset of
+the poem, we find St. Paul and &AElig;neas quoted as the two instances of
+living men who have been permitted to see the future world; and Dante
+professes his own unworthiness to be put on a level with them,
+apparently without a hint that he holds the <em>&AElig;neid</em> any lower as an
+authority than the Epistle to the Corinthians. In a practically pagan
+humanist of the days of Leo X.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> this would hardly surprise us; but it
+is, at first sight, not a little astonishing in the case of a poet to
+whom the Christian Church and Christian revelation were vital truths. It
+is, however, clear that to the medi&#230;val mind the Bible, though no doubt
+the highest authority, was in matters of morality, and to some extent
+even of theology, only &#8220;first among its peers.&#8221; Aquinas quotes
+Aristotle, the Scriptures, and the Fathers almost indiscriminately in
+support of his positions. Dante, approaching the subject from a
+political as well as a moral point, takes for his guide and philosopher
+the poet Virgil, who, as the Middle Ages deemed, had both foretold the
+glories of the Church, and sung of the first origin of the Empire. It
+must never be forgotten that, to Dante, Church and Empire were merely
+two aspects of one Divine institution. Brutus and Cassius are hardly
+less guilty than Judas; and that simply from the official point of view,
+for there is no attempt to sanctify, much less to deify, C&#230;sar as an
+individual. None the less is the work that he did holy, and this
+holiness communicates itself, as readers of the <em>De Monarchia</em> will
+remember, to the whole of the long course of workings by which Divine
+Providence prepared the way for it. The finger of God is no less plainly
+to be seen in the victory of &AElig;neas over Turnus or of the Romans over the
+Samnites than in the passage of the Israelites across the Red Sea, or
+the repulse of the Assyrians. Roman history is no less sacred than
+Hebrew. This being so, we shall not be surprised to find that a certain
+authority attaches to the literature of either one of the chosen
+peoples.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> Did they conflict, doubtless the poet, as an orthodox
+Catholic, would admit that Virgil must give way to Isaiah; but he would
+in all probability decline to allow that they could conflict, at all
+events within the region common to them both. No doubt, just as C&#230;sar
+and Peter have, besides their common domain, functions peculiar to each,
+wherein C&#230;sar may not interfere with Peter, or as Aristotle may err when
+he trespasses on ground that the Church has made her province (for I
+interpret <em>Purg.</em> xxv. 63 as an allusion to Aristotle), so might Virgil
+or Lucan become a teacher of false doctrine if he ventured to teach
+theology. (Statius, who does teach theology, as in the passage just
+referred to, is, it must be remembered, a Christian.) But Virgil at all
+events holds scrupulously aloof from any over-stepping of his functions;
+and within his own limits his authority is infallible. Why, then, should
+we not accept his account of the infernal regions as trustworthy? He
+tells us that Charon is the ferryman who carries the souls across to the
+nether world; Minos the judge who sentences them; Pluto (whom we confuse
+perhaps a little with Plutus) a great personage in those regions. Furies
+sit over the inner gate; Gorgons and Harpies play their parts. Holy
+Scripture has nothing to say against these conceptions; so there is
+nothing to prevent our accepting Virgil&#8217;s account, and expanding it into
+medi&#230;val precision and symmetry. Thus we have all the official hierarchy
+of hell ready provided. As has already been observed, it is not until
+Dante reaches a point very far down that anything like what we may call
+the Christian devil<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> appears.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> Throughout the upper circles the work,
+whether of tormenting or merely of guarding, is performed exclusively by
+beings taken from classic mythology. If we except the Giants, who seem
+to occupy a kind of intermediate position between prisoner and gaoler,
+Geryon is the last of these whom we meet; and him Dante has practically
+transformed into a being of his own invention: for there is little in
+common between the personage slain by Hercules and the strange monster
+with the face of a just man and the tail of a venomous scorpion. As
+might perhaps be expected when there was plenty of material to hand in
+Tuscany, less use is made of the persons of classical mythology in
+finding subjects for punishment. Among the virtuous heathen several find
+their place; but it may be doubted whether Electra or Orpheus were to
+Dante any less historical than Plato or Seneca. Semiramis, Dido,
+Achilles, again, would all be recorded in the histories of Orosius and
+others whom Dante read, with dates and possibly portraits. Capaneus, one
+of the &#8220;Seven against Thebes,&#8221; is more nearly mythological; but as the
+utterer of the earliest profession of reasoned atheism<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> he could
+hardly be omitted as the typical blasphemer. The most curious example of
+all is the Thais whom we find among the flatterers. She does not attain
+even to the dignity of a myth, being only a character in a play of
+Terence, and borrowed by Dante from Cicero; probably the strangest
+instance on record of the &#8220;realization&#8221; of a dramatic personage.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43" class="label">[43]</a> See <a href="#Page_102">p. 102</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44" class="label">[44]</a> &#8220;Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor&#8221; (Statius, <em>Thebaid</em>,
+iii. 661).</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h5><a name="PRINTED_BY_WILLIAM_CLOWES_AND_SONS_LIMITED" id="PRINTED_BY_WILLIAM_CLOWES_AND_SONS_LIMITED"></a>PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br />
+
+LONDON AND BECCLES.</h5>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+
+
+<div class="block">
+<h2>BY A. J. BUTLER, M.A.</h2>
+
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PURGATORY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">Edited, with Translation and Notes, by <span class="smcap">Arthur John Butler</span>, M.A., late
+Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PARADISE OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">Edited, with Translation and Notes, by <span class="smcap">Arthur John Butler</span>, M.A. Second
+Edition. Crown 8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE HELL OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">Edited, with Translation and Notes, by <span class="smcap">Arthur John Butler</span>, M.A. Crown
+8vo. 12<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">A COMPANION TO DANTE.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">By Professor <span class="smcap">Scartazzini</span>. Translated by <span class="smcap">A. J. Butler</span>, M.A. Crown 8vo.
+10<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PURGATORY OF DANTE.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">Translated by <span class="smcap">C. L. Shadwell</span>. Extra crown 8vo. 10<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PARADISE OF DANTE.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">An Experiment in Literal Verse Translation. By <span class="smcap">C. L. Shadwell</span>. Extra
+crown 8vo. 5<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">READINGS ON DANTE.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">Chiefly based on the <span class="smcap">Commentary of Benvenuto da Imola</span>. By the Honourable
+<span class="smcap">William Warren Vernon</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PURGATORIO.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">With Introduction by Dean <span class="smcap">Church</span>. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 24<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE INFERNO.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">With Introduction by the Rev. <span class="smcap">E. Moore</span>, D.D. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 30<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE PARADISO.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">With Introduction by the Bishop of <span class="smcap">Ripon</span>. 2 vols. Crown 8vo. 21<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">DANTE, AND OTHER ESSAYS.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang">By <span class="smcap">R. W. Church</span>, late Dean of St. Paul&#8217;s. Globe 8vo. 5<em>s.</em></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>Complete Editions of the Poets</h2>
+
+<h4><em>In Uniform Binding.</em></h4>
+
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">With a Portrait engraved on Steel by <span class="smcap">G. J. Stodart</span>. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em>
+6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE POETICAL WORKS OF MATTHEW ARNOLD.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">With a Portrait engraved on Steel by <span class="smcap">G. J. Stodart</span>. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em>
+6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE POETICAL WORKS OF JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">With Introduction by <span class="smcap">Thomas Hughes</span>, and a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em>
+6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">Edited by Professor <span class="smcap">Dowden</span>. With a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE POETICAL WORKS OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">Edited, with a Biographical Introduction, by <span class="smcap">J. Dykes Campbell</span>. Portrait
+as Frontispiece. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">With Introduction by <span class="smcap">John Morley</span>, and a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<h4 class="noi left">THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF T. E. BROWN.</h4>
+
+<p class="hang2">With Introduction by <span class="smcap">W. E. Henley</span>, and a Portrait. Crown 8vo. 7<em>s.</em>
+6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>THE GLOBE LIBRARY</h2>
+
+<h4><em>Crown 8vo.</em> <em>3s. 6d. each.</em></h4>
+
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Boswell&#8217;s Life of Johnson.</strong> With an Introduction by <span class="smcap">Mowbray Morris</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Burns&#8217;s Complete Works.</strong> Edited from the best Printed and MS.
+Authorities, with Memoir and Glossarial Index. By <span class="smcap">Alexander Smith.</span></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">Alfred W. Pollard</span>, <span class="smcap">H. Frank
+Heath</span>, <span class="smcap">Mark H. Liddell</span>, and <span class="smcap">W. S. McCormick</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Cowper&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Edited, with Biographical Introduction and
+Notes, by <span class="smcap">W. Benham</span>, B.D., F.S.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Robinson Crusoe.</strong> Edited after the Original Editions, with a Biographical
+Introduction by <span class="smcap">Henry Kingsley</span>, F.R.G.S.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Dryden&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Edited, with a Memoir, Revised Texts, and
+Notes, by <span class="smcap">W. D. Christie</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Froissart&#8217;s Chronicles.</strong> Translated by Lord <span class="smcap">Berners</span>. Edited by <span class="smcap">G. C.
+Macaulay</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Goldsmith&#8217;s Miscellaneous Works.</strong> With Biographical Introduction by
+Professor <span class="smcap">Masson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Horace.</strong> Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, Running
+Analysis, Notes, and Index. By <span class="smcap">J. Lonsdale</span>, M.A., and <span class="smcap">S. Lee</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Morte d&#8217;Arthur.</strong> The Book of King Arthur, and of his Noble Knights of the
+Round Table. The Original Edition of Caxton revised for modern use. With
+Introduction, Notes, and Glossary. By Sir <span class="smcap">E. Strachey</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Milton&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Edited, with Introductions, by Professor
+<span class="smcap">Masson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Pope&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Edited, with Notes and Introductory Memoir, by
+Dr. <span class="smcap">A. W. Ward</span>, Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Sir Walter Scott&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Edited, with Biographical and
+Critical Memoir, by Professor <span class="smcap">F. T. Palgrave</span>. With Introduction and
+Notes.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Shakespeare&#8217;s Complete Works.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">W. G. Clark</span>, M.A., and <span class="smcap">W. Aldis
+Wright</span>, M.A., LL.D. With Glossary.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Spenser&#8217;s Complete Works.</strong> Edited from the Original Editions and
+Manuscripts, with Glossary, by <span class="smcap">R. Morris</span>, and a Memoir by <span class="smcap">J. W. Hales</span>,
+M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Tennyson&#8217;s Poetical Works.</strong> Also in Extra Cloth, Gilt Edges. 4<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Virgil.</strong> Rendered into English Prose, with Introductions, Notes,
+Analysis, and Index. By <span class="smcap">J. Lonsdale</span>, M.A., and <span class="smcap">S. Lee</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3>Macmillan&#8217;s Golden Treasury Series</h3>
+
+<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">Uniformly</span> printed in Pott 8vo., with Vignette Titles by Sir <span class="smcap">Noel Paton</span>,
+<span class="smcap">T. Woolner</span>, <span class="smcap">W. Holman Hunt</span>, Sir <span class="smcap">J. E. Millais</span>, <span class="smcap">Arthur Hughes</span>, etc.
+Engraved on steel. Bound in extra cloth. Pott 8vo. 2<em>s.</em> 6<em>d.</em> net each.</p>
+
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Golden Treasury of the best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English
+Language.</strong> Selected and arranged, with Notes, by <span class="smcap">Francis Turner Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Golden Treasury of the best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English
+Language.</strong> Selected and arranged, with Notes, by <span class="smcap">Francis Turner Palgrave</span>.
+Second Series.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><sup>*</sup><small>*</small><sup>*</sup> The Two Series, in cloth box. 5<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Lyric Love.</strong> An Anthology. Edited by <span class="smcap">W. Watson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Poet&#8217;s Walk.</strong> An Introduction to English Poetry. Chosen and arranged by
+<span class="smcap">Mowbray Morris</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Children&#8217;s Garland from the best Poets.</strong> Selected and arranged by
+<span class="smcap">Coventry Patmore</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Children&#8217;s Treasury of Lyrical Poetry.</strong> Arranged by <span class="smcap">F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Jest Book.</strong> The choicest Anecdotes and Sayings. Selected and arranged
+by <span class="smcap">Mark Lemon</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Fairy Book</strong>: the best Popular Fairy Stories. Selected and rendered
+anew by the Author of &#8220;<span class="smcap">John Halifax, Gentleman</span>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>A Book of Golden Thoughts.</strong> By <span class="smcap">Henry Attwell</span>, &#8220;Knight of the Order of the
+Oak Crown.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Sunday Book of Poetry for the Young.</strong> Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">C. F.
+Alexander.</span></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Golden Treasury Psalter.</strong> Student&#8217;s Edition. The Golden Treasury Psalter.
+Being an Edition with Briefer Notes of the Psalms Chronologically
+arranged. By <span class="smcap">Four Friends</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Book of Praise.</strong> From the best English Hymn Writers. Selected and
+arranged by the Earl of <span class="smcap">Selborne</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Theologia Germanica.</strong> Translated from the German by <span class="smcap">Susanna Winkworth</span>.
+With a Preface by <span class="smcap">Charles Kingsley</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Ballad Book.</strong> A Selection of the choicest British Ballads. Edited by
+<span class="smcap">William Allingham</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Song Book.</strong> Words and Tunes from the best Poets and Musicians.
+Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">John Hullah</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>La Lyre Francaise.</strong> Selected and arranged, with Notes, by <span class="smcap">Gustave Masson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Balladen und Romanzen.</strong> The Golden Treasury of the best German Ballads
+and Romances. Selected and arranged by Dr. <span class="smcap">Buchheim</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Deutsche Lyrik.</strong> The Golden Treasury of the best German Lyrical Poems.
+Selected and arranged, with Notes and Literary Introduction, by Dr.
+<span class="smcap">Buchheim</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Selections from Addison.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">J. R. Green</span>, M.A., LL.D.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Matthew Arnold&#8217;s Selected Poems.</strong></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Bacon&#8217;s Essays and Colours of Good and Evil.</strong> With Notes and Glossarial
+Index. By <span class="smcap">W. Aldis Wright</span>, M.A., LLD.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Sir Thomas Browne&#8217;s Religio Medici</strong>: Letter to a Friend, etc., and
+Christian Morals. Edited by <span class="smcap">W. A. Greenhill</span>, M.D. Oxon.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Sir Thomas Browne&#8217;s Hydriotaphia and the Garden of Cyrus.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">W.
+A. Greenhill</span>, M.D. Oxon.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Pilgrim&#8217;s Progress from this World to that which is to Come.</strong> By <span class="smcap">John
+Bunyan.</span></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Poetry of Byron.</strong> Chosen and arranged by <span class="smcap">Matthew Arnold.</span></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Selections from the Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough.</strong></p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Letters of William Cowper.</strong> Edited, with Introduction, by the Rev. W.
+<span class="smcap">Benham</span>, B.D., F.S.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Selections from Cowper&#8217;s Poems.</strong> With an Introduction by Mrs. <span class="smcap">Oliphant</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.</strong> Edited from the Original Edition, by
+<span class="smcap">J. W. Clark</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Balthazar Gracian&#8217;s Art of Worldly Wisdom.</strong> Translated by <span class="smcap">Joseph Jacobs</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Heine&#8217;s Lieder und Gedichte.</strong> Selected and Edited, with an Introduction
+and Notes, by Dr. <span class="smcap">C. A. Buchheim</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Herrick</strong>: Selections from the Lyrical Poems. Arranged with Notes, by <span class="smcap">F.
+T. Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Tom Brown&#8217;s School Days.</strong> By <span class="smcap">Thomas Hughes</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Poetical Works of John Keats.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Christian Year.</strong> By <span class="smcap">J. Keble</span>. With Introduction by <span class="smcap">C. M. Yonge</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Lamb&#8217;s Tales from Shakespeare.</strong> Edited by Rev. <span class="smcap">A. Ainger</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Walter Savage Landor.</strong> Selections from the Writings of. Arranged and
+Edited by <span class="smcap">Sidney Colvin</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Mohammed.</strong> The Speeches and Table Talk of the Prophet. Chosen and
+Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by <span class="smcap">Stanley Lane Poole</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Cavalier and his Lady.</strong> Selections from the Works of the First Duke
+and Duchess of Newcastle. With an Introductory Essay by <span class="smcap">Edward Jenkins</span>,
+Author of &#8220;<span class="smcap">Ginx&#8217;s Baby</span>,&#8221; etc.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Rub&#225;iy&#225;t of Omar Khayy&#225;m</strong>, the Astronomer-Poet of Persia. Rendered into
+English Verse by <span class="smcap">Edward FitzGerald</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Miscellanies (including Euphranor, Polonius, etc.).</strong> By <span class="smcap">Edward
+FitzGerald</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Two Essays on Old Age and Friendship.</strong> Translated from the Latin of
+Cicero, with Introduction, by <span class="smcap">E. S. Shuckburgh</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself.</strong> An English Version of the Works of
+Marcus Aurelius. By the Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Gerald Henry Rendall</span>, Head Master of
+Charterhouse.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The House of Atreus</strong>: being the Agamemnon, Libation-Bearers, and Furies
+of &AElig;schylus. Translated into English Verse by <span class="smcap">E. D. A. Morshead</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Republic of Plato.</strong> Translated into English, with Notes, by <span class="smcap">J. Ll.
+Davies</span>, M.A., and <span class="smcap">D. J. Vaughan</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Trial and Death of Socrates.</strong> Being the Euthyphron, Apology, Crito,
+and Phaedo of Plato. Translated into English by <span class="smcap">F. J. Church</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Phaedrus, Lysis, and Protagoras of Plato.</strong> A New Translation, by <span class="smcap">J.
+Wright</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Shakespeare&#8217;s Songs and Sonnets.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">F. T. Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Poems of Shelley.</strong> Edited by <span class="smcap">Stopford A. Brooke</span>, M.A.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Southey&#8217;s Poems.</strong> Selected and arranged by <span class="smcap">E. Dowden</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Lyrical Poems.</strong> By <span class="smcap">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</span>. Selected and Annotated by <span class="smcap">F. T.
+Palgrave</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>In Memoriam.</strong> By <span class="smcap">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Princess.</strong> By <span class="smcap">Alfred, Lord Tennyson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus.</strong> Rendered into English Prose by <span class="smcap">Andrew
+Lang</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Poems, Religious and Devotional.</strong> By <span class="smcap">J. G. Whittier</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>Poems of Wordsworth.</strong> Chosen and edited, with Preface, by <span class="smcap">Matthew Arnold</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Countries.</strong> Gathered and
+narrated anew, by the Author of &#8220;<span class="smcap">The Heir of Redclyffe</span>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>A Book of Worthies.</strong> Gathered from the Old Histories and written anew by
+the Author of &#8220;<span class="smcap">The Heir of Redclyffe</span>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Story of the Christians and the Moors in Spain.</strong> By <span class="smcap">C. M. Yonge</span>,
+Author of &#8220;<span class="smcap">The Heir of Redclyffe</span>.&#8221; With Vignette by <span class="smcap">Holman Hunt</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="left"><strong>The Golden Treasury Poets.</strong> Arnold, Byron, Cowper, Keats, Longfellow,
+Shelley, Southey, Wordsworth. 8 vols. in cloth box. 21<em>s.</em> net.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2 class="old"><big>English Men of Letters.</big></h2>
+
+<h4>Edited by JOHN MORLEY.</h4>
+
+<h5><em>In Paper Covers, 1s.</em>; <em>Cloth, 1s. 6d.</em></h5>
+
+<table summary="English Men of Letters Series">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">ADDISON. By W. J. COURTHOPE.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">HAWTHORNE. By HENRY JAMES.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BACON. By Dean CHURCH.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">HUME. By PROFESSOR HUXLEY, F.R.S.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BENTLEY. By Professor R. C. JEBB.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">JOHNSON. By LESLIE STEPHEN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BUNYAN. By J. A. FROUDE.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">KEATS. By SIDNEY COLVIN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BURKE. By JOHN MORLEY.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">LAMB, CHARLES. By Canon AINGER.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BURNS. By Principal SHAIRP.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">LANDOR. By SIDNEY COLVIN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">BYRON. By Professor NICHOL.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">LOCKE. By THOMAS FOWLER.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">CARLYLE. By Professor NICHOL.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">MACAULAY. By J. C. MORISON.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">CHAUCER. By Professor A. W. WARD.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">MILTON. By MARK PATTISON.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">COLERIDGE. By H. D. TRAILL.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">POPE. By LESLIE STEPHEN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">COWPER. By GOLDWIN SMITH.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SCOTT. By R. H. HUTTON.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">DEFOE. By W. MINTO.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SHELLEY. By J. A. SYMONDS.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">DE QUINCEY. By Professor MASSON.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SHERIDAN. By Mrs. OLIPHANT.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">DICKENS. By Professor A. W. WARD.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SIDNEY. By JOHN. A. SYMONDS.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">DRYDEN. By Professor SAINTSBURY.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SOUTHEY. By Professor DOWDEN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">FIELDING. By AUSTIN DOBSON.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SPENSER. By Dean CHURCH.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">GIBBON. By J. C. MORISON.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">STERNE. By H. D. TRAILL.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">GOLDSMITH. By WILLIAM BLACK.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">SWIFT. By LESLIE STEPHEN.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1">GRAY. By EDMUND GOSSE.</td>
+<td class="tdl2">THACKERAY. By ANTHONY TROLLOPE.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc" colspan="2">WORDSWORTH. By F. W. H. MYERS.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="block">
+<h5><em>Reissue in 13 vols.</em> <em>Crown 8vo.</em> <em>3s. 6d. each.</em></h5>
+<ul>
+<li>Vol. I. <span class="smcap">Chaucer, Spenser, Dryden.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. II. <span class="smcap">Milton, Goldsmith, Cowper.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. III. <span class="smcap">Byron, Shelley, Keats.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. IV. <span class="smcap">Wordsworth, Southey, Landor.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. V. <span class="smcap">Lamb, Addison, Swift.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. VI. <span class="smcap">Scott, Burns, Coleridge.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. VII. <span class="smcap">Hume, Locke, Burke.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. VIII. <span class="smcap">Defoe, Sterne, Hawthorne.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. IX. <span class="smcap">Fielding, Thackeray, Dickens.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. X. <span class="smcap">Gibbon, Carlyle, Macaulay.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. XI. <span class="smcap">Sidney, DeQuincey, Sheridan.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. XII. <span class="smcap">Pope, Johnson, Gray.</span></li>
+<li>Vol. XIII. <span class="smcap">Bacon, Bunyan, Bentley.</span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">MACMILLAN AND CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>, LONDON.</span></h3>
+
+<hr class="hr4" />
+
+<div id="tn">
+<h4>Transcriber&#8217;s Note:</h4>
+
+<hr class="hrtn" />
+
+<p class="tntext">Variations in spelling, hyphenation and use of accents have been retained
+as appears in the original publication.</p>
+<p class="tntext">Changes to the original publication have been made as follows:</p>
+
+<table summary="Transcriber's Note">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page &#8194;11</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"><a href="#bytuene">Bytuene</a> Mershe and Averil, <em>changed to</em><br />
+&#8220;Bytuene Mershe and Averil,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 112</td>
+<td class="tdl2a">to positive <a href="#cruelty">cruelty,</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ to positive cruelty.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 113</td>
+<td class="tdl2a">becomes almost <a href="#suppliant">suppliant</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+becomes almost suppliant.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 128</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> eighth pit <a href="#of">o</a> <em>changed to </em><br />
+ eighth pit of</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 128</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> evening is <a href="#drawing">drawng</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ evening is drawing</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 133</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> In the circle <a href="#of2">o</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ In the circle of</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 149</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> Sun, Mars, <a href="#jupiter">Jupiter</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ Sun, Mars, Jupiter,</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 150</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> by other <a href="#matter">matter,</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ by other matter.</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 166</td>
+<td class="tdl2a">Note that <a href="#cupidigia">capidigia</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+Note that cupidigia</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 178</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> It is a <a href="#most">mos</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ It is a most</td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl1a">Page 178</td>
+<td class="tdl2a"> peculiarities of <a href="#local">locat</a> <em>changed to</em><br />
+ peculiarities of local</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dante: His Times and His Work, by 
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+</body>
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+Project Gutenberg's Dante: His Times and His Work, by Arthur John Butler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Dante: His Times and His Work
+
+Author: Arthur John Butler
+
+Release Date: February 4, 2009 [EBook #27999]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Irma �pehar and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+
+
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Edited, with Translation and Notes, by
+        A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PARADISE OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE HELL OF DANTE. By the same. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+    A COMPANION TO DANTE. By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A.
+        J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._
+
+    THE PURGATORY OF DANTE. Translated by C. LANCELOT SHADWELL, M.A.
+        Crown 8vo. 10_s._ net.
+
+    THE EARTHLY PARADISE OF DANTE. Translated by the same. Crown
+        8vo. 5_s._ net.
+
+    READINGS ON DANTE. By the Hon. WILLIAM WARREN VERNON, M.A.
+
+    THE PURGATORIO. With Introduction by Dean CHURCH. 2 vols. Crown
+        8vo. 24_s._
+
+    THE INFERNO. With Introduction by Rev. E. MOORE, D.D. 2 vols.
+        Crown 8vo. 30_s._
+
+    THE PARADISO. With Introduction by the Bishop of RIPON. 2 vols.
+        Crown 8vo. 21_s._
+
+    DANTE, AND OTHER ESSAYS. By R. W. CHURCH. Globe 8vo. 5_s._
+
+    LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
+
+
+
+
+    DANTE
+    HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+    BY
+
+    ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+
+    LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
+
+
+    ~London~
+    MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
+    NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    1902
+
+    _All rights reserved_
+
+
+    PRINTED BY
+    WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+    LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in
+the _Monthly Packet_, and part in the Magazine of the Home Reading
+Union. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those
+whom Italians call "Dantists," but for students at an early stage of
+their studies. To the former class there will be nothing in the book
+that is not already familiar--except where they happen to find mistakes,
+from which, in so extensive a field for blundering as Dante affords, I
+cannot hope to have kept it free. In the domain of history alone fresh
+facts are constantly rewarding the indefatigable research of German and
+Italian scholars--a research of which only the most highly specialised
+specialist can possibly keep abreast. Even since the following pages
+were for the most part in print, we have had Professor Villari's _Two
+Centuries of Florentine History_, correcting in many particulars the
+chroniclers on whom the Dante student has been wont to rely. This book
+should most emphatically be added to those named in the appendix as
+essential to the study of our author.
+
+In connection with some of the remarks in the opening chapter, Professor
+Butcher's Essay on _The Dawn of Romanticism in Greek Poetry_ should be
+noticed. I do not think that the accomplished author's view is
+incompatible with mine; though I admit that I had not taken much account
+of the Greek writers whom we call "post-classical." But it is to be
+noted, as bearing on the question raised in the second footnote on p. 9,
+that most or all of the writers whom he cites were either Asiatics or
+nearly touched by Asiatic influences.
+
+I have made some attempt to deal in a concise way with two subjects
+which have not, I think, hitherto been handled in English books on
+Dante, other than translations. One of these is the development of the
+Guelf and Ghibeline struggle from a rivalry between two German houses to
+a partisan warfare which rent Italy for generations. I am quite aware
+that I have merely touched the surface of the subject, which seems to
+me to contain in it the essence of all political philosophy, with
+special features such as could only exist in a country which, like
+Italy, had, after giving the law to the civilised world, been unable to
+consolidate itself into a nation like the other nations of Europe. I
+have, I find, even omitted to notice what seem to have been the ruling
+aims of at any rate the honest partisans on either side: unity, that of
+the Ghibelines; independence, that of the Guelfs. Nor have I drawn
+attention to a remarkable trait in Dante's own character, which, so far
+as I know, has never been discussed--I mean his apparent disregard of
+the "lower classes." Except for one or two similes drawn from the
+"villano" and his habits, and one or two contemptuous allusions to
+"Monna Berta e Ser Martino" and their like, it would seem as if for him
+the world consisted of what now would be called "the upper ten
+thousand." In an ordinary politician or partisan, or even in a mere man
+of letters this would not be strange; but when we reflect that Dante was
+a man who went deeply into social and religious questions, that he was
+born less than forty years after the death of St. Francis, and was at
+least closely enough associated with Franciscans for legend to make him
+a member of the order, and that most of the so-called heretical sects of
+the time--Paterines, Cathari, Poor Men--started really more from social
+than from religious discontent, it is certainly surprising that his
+interest in the "dim, common populations" should have been so slight.
+
+The other object at which I have aimed is the introduction of English
+students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most
+eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seem to
+be quite as much opposed to common sense and knowledge of human nature
+as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound
+historical criticism. Here, again, I have but touched on the more
+salient points; feeling sure that before long some of the scholarship in
+our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek
+and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin
+texts may be worth studying though written outside of so-called
+classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further
+point of applying to mediaeval literature, which hitherto has been too
+much the sport of _dilettanti_, the methods that have till now been
+reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages. Unless I
+am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study
+of early Italian will teach him "a thing or two" that he did not know
+before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost,
+even from that point of view. Then we shall get the authoritative
+edition of Dante, which I am insular enough to believe will never come
+from either Germany or Italy, or from any intervening country.
+
+    _February_, 1895.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                                PAGE
+
+      I. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY                               1
+
+     II. GUELFS AND GHIBELINES                               16
+
+    III. DANTE'S EARLY DAYS                                  38
+
+     IV. FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE'S EXILE               52
+
+      V. DANTE'S EXILE                                       69
+
+     VI. THE "COMMEDIA"                                      89
+
+    VII. THE MINOR WORKS                                    171
+
+    APPENDIX  I.--SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS                   189
+
+    APPENDIX II.--DANTE'S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE       198
+
+
+
+
+DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
+
+
+The person who sets to work to write about Dante at the present day has
+two great difficulties to reckon with: the quantity which has already
+been written on the subject, and the quantity which remains to be
+written. The first involves the reading of an enormous mass of
+literature in several languages, and very various in quality; but for
+the comfort of the young student, it may at once, and once for all, be
+stated that he can pretty safely ignore everything written between 1400
+and 1800. The subject of commentaries, biographies, and other helps, or
+would-be helps, will be treated of later on. Here we need only say that
+the Renaissance practically stifled anything like an intelligent study
+of Dante for those four centuries; and it was not until a new critical
+spirit began to apply to it the methods which had hitherto been reserved
+for the Greek and Latin classics, that the study got any chance of
+development. How enormously it has developed during the present century
+needs not to be said. It may suffice to point out that the British
+Museum Catalogue shows editions of the _Commedia_ at the rate of one for
+every year since 1800, and other works on Dante in probably five times
+that proportion.
+
+Now, it has been said of the _Commedia_, and the remark is equally true
+of Dante's other works, that it is like the Bible in this respect: every
+man finds in it what he himself brings to it. The poet finds poetry, the
+philosopher philosophy; the scientific man science as it was known in
+1300; the politician politics; heretics have even found heresy. Nor is
+this very surprising when we consider what were the author's
+surroundings. Naturally, no doubt, a man of study and contemplation, his
+lot was cast in the midst of a stirring, even a turbulent, society,
+where it was hardly possible for any individual to escape his share of
+the public burdens. Ablebodied men could not be spared when, as was
+usually the case, fighting was toward; all men of mental capacity were
+needed in council or in administration. And, after all, the area to be
+administered, the ground to be fought over, were so small, that the man
+of letters might do his duty by the community and yet have plenty of
+time to spare for his studies. He might handle his pike at Caprona or
+Campaldino one day, and be at home among his books the next. Then,
+again, the society was a cultivated and quick-witted one, with many
+interests. Arts and letters were in high esteem, and eminence in them as
+sure a road to fame as warlike prowess or political distinction. From
+all this it is clear that the Florentine of the thirteenth century had
+points of contact with life on every side; every gate of knowledge lay
+open to him, and he could explore, if he pleased, every one of its
+paths. They have now been carried further, and a lifetime is too short
+for one man to investigate thoroughly more than one or two; but in those
+days it was still possible for a man of keen intelligence, added to the
+almost incredible diligence, as it appears to us, of the Middle Ages, to
+make himself acquainted with all the best that had been done and said
+in the world.
+
+This it is which forms at once the fascination and the difficulty of
+Dante's great work. Of course, if we content ourselves with reading it
+merely for its "beauties," for the aesthetic enjoyment of an image here
+and an allusion there, for the trenchant expression of some thought or
+feeling at the roots of human nature, there will be no need of any
+harder study than is involved in going through it with a translation.
+Indeed, it will hardly be worth while to go to the original at all. The
+pleasure, one might almost say the physical pleasure, derived from
+sonorous juxtaposition of words, such as we obtain from Milton or from
+Shelley, is scarcely to be genuinely felt in the case of a foreign
+language; and the beauties of matter, as distinguished from those of
+form, are faithfully enough rendered by Cary or Longfellow.
+
+It may, however, be safely assumed that few intelligent students will
+rest content with this amount of study. They will find at every turn
+allusions calling for explanation, philosophical doctrines to be traced
+to their sources, judgements on contemporary persons and events to be
+verified. On every page they will meet with problems the solution of
+which has not yet been attempted, or attempted only in the most
+perfunctory way. For generation after generation readers have gone on
+accepting received interpretations which only tell them what their own
+wits could divine without any other assistance than the text itself
+gives. No commentator seems yet to have realised that, in order to
+understand Dante thoroughly, he must put himself on Dante's level so far
+as regards a knowledge of all the available literature. The more obvious
+quarries from which Dante obtained the materials for his mighty
+structure--the Bible, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle--have no
+doubt been pretty thoroughly examined, and many obscurities which the
+comments of Landino and others only left more obscure have thus been
+cleared up; but a great deal remains to be done. Look where one may in
+the literature which was open to Dante, one finds evidence of his
+universal reading. We take up such a book as Otto of Freising's _Annals_
+(to which, with his _Acts of Frederick I._, we shall have to refer
+again), and find the good bishop moralising thus on the mutability of
+human affairs, with especial reference to the break-up of the Empire in
+the middle of the ninth century:--
+
+    "Does not worldly honour seem to turn round and round after the
+    fashion of one stricken with fever? For such place their hope of
+    rest in a change of posture, and so, when they are in pain,
+    throw themselves from side to side, turning over
+    continually."[1]
+
+It is hard not to suppose that Dante had this passage in his mind when
+he wrote that bitter apostrophe to his own city with which the sixth
+canto of the _Purgatory_ ends:--
+
+    "E se ben ti ricorda, e vedi lume,
+       Vedrai te somigliante a quella inferma,
+       Che non puo trovar posa in su le piume,
+     Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma."
+
+It is hardly too much to say that one cannot turn over a couple of pages
+of any book which Dante may conceivably have read without coming on some
+passage which one feels certain he had read, or at the very least
+containing some information which one feels certain he possessed. A real
+"Dante's library"[2] would comprise pretty well every book in Latin,
+Italian, French, or Provencal, "published," if we may use the term, up
+to the year 1300. Of course a good many Latin books were (may one say
+fortunately?) in temporary retirement at that time; but even of these,
+whether, as has been suggested, through volumes, now lost, of "Elegant
+Extracts," or by whatever other means, more was evidently known than is
+always realised.
+
+We must, however, beware of treating Dante merely as a repertory of
+curious lore or museum of literary _bric-a-brac_--a danger almost as
+great as that of looking at him from a purely aesthetic point of view. He
+had no doubt read more widely than any man of his age, and he is one of
+the half-dozen greatest poets of all time. But his claim on our
+attention rests on even a wider basis than these two qualities would
+afford. He represents as it were the re-opening of the lips of the human
+race: "While I was musing, the fire kindled, and at last I spake with my
+tongue." The old classical literature had said its last word when
+Claudian died; and though men continued to compose, often with ability
+and intelligence, the histories and chronicles which practically formed
+the only non-theological writings of the so-called "Dark Ages," letters
+in the full sense of the term lay dormant for centuries. Not till the
+twelfth century was far advanced did any signs of a re-awakening appear.
+Then, to use a phrase of Dante's, the dead poetry arose, and a burst of
+song came almost simultaneously from all Western Europe. To this period
+belong the Minnesingers of Germany, the Troubadours of Provence, the
+unknown authors of the lovely romance--poetical in feeling, though cast
+chiefly in a prose form--_Aucassin et Nicolete_, and of several not less
+lovely English ballads and lyrics. Even the heavy rhymed chronicles
+begin to be replaced by romances in which the true poetic fire breaks
+out, such as the _Nibelungen Lied_ (in its definitive form) and the
+_Chronicle of the Cid_.
+
+In the new poetry two features strike us at once. The sentiment of love
+between man and woman, which with the ancients and even with early
+Christian writers scarcely ever rises beyond the level of a sensual
+passion,[3] becomes transfigured into a profound emotion touching the
+deepest roots of a man's nature, and acting as an incentive to noble
+conduct; and, closely connected with this, the influence of external
+nature upon the observer begins for the first time to be recognised and
+to form a subject for poetical treatment.[4] Horace has several charming
+descriptions of the sights and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him
+merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he
+cannot do better than have another drink in company with a friend. So
+with Homer and Virgil. External nature and its beauty are often touched
+off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it
+is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a
+mood. You may search classical literature in vain for such passages as
+Walther von der Vogelweide's:--
+
+    "Do der sumer komen was
+     Und die bluomen durch daz gras
+     Wunnecliche ensprungen,
+     Ald[=a] die vogele sungen,
+     Dar kom ich gegangen
+     An einer anger langen,
+     Da ein luter brunne entspranc;
+     Vor dem walde was s[=i]n ganc,
+     Da diu nahtegale sanc;"[5]
+
+or the unknown Frenchman's:--
+
+    "Ce fu el tans d'este, el mois de mai, que li jor sont caut,
+    lonc, et cler, et les nuits coies et series. Nicolete jut une
+    nuit en son lit, et vit la lune cler par une fenestre, et si oi
+    le lorseilnol center en garding, se li sovint d'Aucassin sen ami
+    qu'ele tant aimoit;"[6]
+
+or the equally unknown Englishman's:--
+
+    "Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+       When spray biginneth to springe,
+     The lutel foul hath hire wyl
+       On hyre lud to synge;
+     Ich libbe in love-longinge
+     For semlokest of alle thinge,
+     He may me blisse bringe,
+       Icham in hire baundoun."[7]
+
+But it is hardly necessary to multiply instances. By the middle of the
+thirteenth century the spring, and the nightingales, and the flowering
+meadows had become a commonplace of amatory and emotional poetry.
+
+So far, however, poetry was exclusively lyrical. The average standard of
+versifying was higher, perhaps, than it has ever been before or since.
+Every man of education seems to have been able to turn a sonnet or ode.
+Men of religion, like St. Francis or Brother Jacopone of Todi;
+statesmen, like Frederick II. and his confidant, Peter de Vineis;
+professional or official persons, like Jacopo the notary of Lentino, or
+Guido dalle Colonne the judge of Messina; fighting men, like several of
+the Troubadours; political intriguers, like Bertrand del Born--all have
+left verses which, for beauty of thought and melody of rhythm, have
+seldom been matched. But the great poem was yet to come, which was to
+give to the age a voice worthy of its brilliant performance. It is not
+only in literature that it displays renewed vitality. Turn where we
+will, in every department of human energy it must have been brilliant
+beyond any that the world has ever seen. It stood between two worlds,
+but we cannot say of them that they were
+
+                         "One dead,
+    The other powerless to be born."
+
+The old monarchy was dying, had indeed, as Dante regretfully perceived,
+died before he was born, and the trumpet-call of the _De Monarchia_,
+wherewith he sought to revive it, was addressed to a generation which
+had other ideals of government; but it had set in a blaze of splendour,
+and its last wielder, Frederick II., was, not unfitly, known as the
+Wonder of the World. The mediaeval Papacy, though about to undergo a loss
+of prestige which it never retrieved, outlived its rival, and had
+seldom been a greater force in the political world than it was in the
+hands of the ambitious and capable Boniface VIII. The scholastic
+philosophy, which had directed the minds of men for many generations,
+was soon to make way for other forms of reasoning and other modes of
+thought; but its greatest exponent, St. Thomas Aquinas, was Dante's
+contemporary for nine years. These examples will serve to show that the
+old systems were capable to the very last of producing and influencing
+great men.
+
+Meantime the new order was showing no lack of power to be born. Two of
+our countrymen, Roger Bacon and, somewhat later, William of Ockham,
+sowed, each in his own way, the seeds which were to bear fruit in the
+science and speculation of far distant ages. In the arts, architecture
+reached its highest pitch of splendour; and painting was at the outset
+of the course which was to culminate, more than two hundred years later,
+in Titian and Raffaelle. But in no field did the energy of the
+thirteenth century manifest itself as in that of politics. With the
+collapse of the Empire came the first birth of the "nationalities" of
+modern Europe. The process indeed went on at very different rates. The
+representative constitution of England, the centralised government of
+France were by the end of the century fairly started on the lines which
+they have followed ever since. But England had never owned allegiance to
+the Emperor, while France had pretty well forgotten whence it had got
+the name which had replaced that of Gaul. In the countries where the
+Empire had till recently been an ever-present power, Germany and Italy,
+the work of consolidation went on far less rapidly; indeed, it has been
+reserved for our own age to see it completed. With Germany we have here
+nothing directly to do; but it is all-important to the right
+understanding of Dante's position that we should glance briefly at the
+political state of Italy and especially of Tuscany during the latter
+half of the thirteenth century. By good fortune we have very copious
+information on this matter. A contemporary and neighbour of Dante's, by
+name John Villani, happened to be at Rome during the great Jubilee of
+1300. The sight of the imperial city and all its ancient glories set him
+meditating on its history, written, as he says (in a collocation of
+names which looks odd to us, but was usual enough then), "by Virgil, by
+Sallust and Lucan, by Titus Livius, Valerius, and Paulus Orosius," and
+moved him, as an unworthy disciple, to do for his native city what they
+had done for Rome. The result was the most genial and generally
+delightful work of history that has been written since Herodotus.
+Villani, who lived till 1348, when the plague carried him off, seems to
+have been a man of an equable disposition and sober judgement. Like
+Dante and all the Florentines of that day, he belonged to the Guelf
+party; and, unlike his great fellow-citizen, he adhered to it
+throughout, though by no means approving all the actions of its leaders.
+After the fashion of the time, he begins his chronicle with the Tower of
+Babel; touches on Dardanus, Priam, and the Trojan war; records the
+origin of the Tuscan cities; and so by easy stages comes down towards
+the age in which he lived. The earlier portions, of course, are more
+entertaining and suggestive than trustworthy in detail; but as he
+approaches a time for which he had access to living memory, and still
+more when he records the events of which he was himself a witness, he is
+our best authority.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [1] Otho Fris., _Annales_, v. 36.
+
+    [2] A useful list, with some account of the authors cited by
+    Dante, is given by Mr. J. S. Black, in a volume entitled
+    _Dante_; _Illustrations and Notes_, privately printed by Messrs.
+    T. & A. Constable, at Edinburgh, 1890. He does not, however,
+    include (save in one or two cases, and those rather doubtful)
+    authors of whom Dante's knowledge rests on inference only.
+
+    [3] I do not forget Ulysses and Penelope, Hector and Andromache,
+    or Ovid's _Heroides_; but the love of husband and wife is
+    another matter altogether. The only instance in classical
+    literature that I can recall of what may be termed the modern
+    view of the subject is that of Haemon and Antigone. See, on this
+    subject, and in connection with these paragraphs generally,
+    Symonds, _Introduction to the Study of Dante_, ch. viii.
+
+    [4] This must be taken as referring only to European literature.
+    Such a passage as Canticles ii. 10-14 shows that Oriental poets
+    felt the sentiment from very early times. Is it possible that
+    contact with the East evoked it in Europeans?
+
+    [5] "When the summer was come, and the flowers sprang joyously
+    up through the grass, right there the birds were singing;
+    thither came I, on my way over a long meadow where a clear well
+    gushed forth; its course was by the wood where the nightingale
+    sang."
+
+    [6] "It was summer time, the month of May, when the days are
+    warm, and long, and clear, and the nights still and serene.
+    Nicolete lay one night on her bed, and saw the moon shine clear
+    through a window, yea, and heard the nightingale sing in the
+    garden, so she minded her of Aucassin, her lover, whom she loved
+    so well" (Lang's translation).
+
+    [7] Lud = song; semlokest = seemliest; he = she; in hire
+    baundoun = at her command.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GUELFS AND GHIBELINES[8]
+
+
+Mention was made, in the last chapter, of the "Guelf" party, and this,
+with its opposite, the party of the "Ghibelines," fills the entire field
+of Italian politics during Dante's life, and indeed for long afterwards.
+It would be impossible in the space of these pages to follow up all the
+tangled threads which have attached themselves to those famous names;
+but since we may be, to use a picturesque phrase of Carlyle's, "thankful
+for any hook whatever on which to hang half-an-acre of thrums in fixed
+position," a few of the more prominent points in the early history of
+the great conflict shall be noted here.
+
+As every one knows, the names originally came from Germany, and to that
+country we must turn for a short time to know their import.
+
+About seven miles to the north-east of Stuttgart, in what is now the
+kingdom of Wurtemberg, is a small town called Waiblingen, where was once
+a stronghold, near the borders of Franconia and Suabia (or Alemannia),
+belonging to the Franconian dukes. Conrad, often called "the Salic,"
+head of that house, was raised to the throne of Germany and the Empire
+in 1024. His line held the imperial crown for just a century, in the
+persons of himself and three Henries, who are known as the second,
+third, and fourth, or third, fourth, and fifth, according as we reckon
+their places among Roman Emperors or German Kings; Henry III. (or IV.)
+being famous as the great opponent of Pope Gregory VII.; Henry IV. (or
+V.) interesting to us as the first husband of the daughter of Henry I.
+of England, renowned in English history as the Empress Maud. The last
+Henry died childless in 1125. But the Franconian line was not extinct.
+Half a century or so before, Bishop Otto of Freising tells us "a certain
+count, by name Frederick, sprung from one of the noblest families of
+Suabia, had founded a colony in a stronghold called Staufen." Staufen,
+better known as Hohenstaufen, is a lofty hill about twenty miles from
+Waiblingen, and within the Suabian frontier. Frederick had been staunch
+to Henry IV. in his time of greatest difficulty, and received as his
+reward, together with the dukedom of Suabia, which the house of
+Zahringen had forfeited through disloyalty, the hand of the Emperor's
+daughter Agnes. By her he had two sons, Frederick, who succeeded to his
+own duchy of Suabia, and Conrad, who received from his uncle Henry V.
+that of Franconia, including no doubt the lordship of Waiblingen. At
+Henry's death Frederick and Conrad, being then thirty-five and
+thirty-three years old respectively, were the most powerful princes of
+the Empire. Henry had designated Frederick as his successor; but the
+electors thought otherwise. At the instance of the Archbishop of Mainz,
+between whom and the Hohenstaufen there was no love lost, and, as it
+would seem, not without pressure from Lewis VI. of France, whom Henry's
+death had just saved from having to face an alliance between England
+and Germany, they chose Lothar, Duke of Saxony.
+
+We will now quote Otto of Freising once more. "Up to the present time,"
+he says, writing of the year 1152, "two families have been famous in the
+Roman Empire, about the parts where Gaul and Germany meet, the Henries
+of Waiblingen, and the Welfs of Altdorf." The Welfs go back to by far
+the greater antiquity. They probably did not originally belong to the
+Bajovarian stock, for we read elsewhere that they had "large possessions
+in the parts where Alemannia meets the Pyrenaean Mountains," as Otto
+usually designates the Alps west of the Brenner. This Altdorf is a
+village near Ravensburg in Wurtemberg, between Ulm and Friedrichshafen.
+We first meet with the name in history about the year 820, when the
+Emperor Lewis I., "the Pious," married as his second wife Judith,
+"daughter of the most noble Count Welf." Somewhere about the middle of
+the tenth century, a Rudolf of the race was Count of Bozen. His son Welf
+took part in the insurrection of the Dukes of Worms and Suabia against
+their step-father Conrad II., "the Salic," and lost some of his
+territories in consequence, Bozen passing to Etiko, an illegitimate
+member of the same house. The family must have soon been restored to the
+imperial favour, for before 1050 Welf III. appears as Duke of Bavaria.
+
+At his death, without issue, in 1055, he was succeeded by the son of his
+sister, who had married Azzo II. of Este. This Welf IV. fought on the
+side of Henry IV., against the revolted Saxons at the Unstrut, but soon
+rebelled himself. He became for a time the husband of the "great
+Countess" Matilda of Tuscany. Through him and his son Henry, "the
+Black," the line was maintained; and though during the period at which
+we have arrived the head of the family for several generations bore the
+name of Henry, it is usually spoken of as "the house of the Welfs,"[9]
+and the name is borne by some member of the family at most times. At the
+accession of Lothar II. the head of the house was Henry, surnamed "the
+Proud." With him the new emperor at once made close alliance, giving him
+his daughter Gertrude in marriage. Henry's sister Judith was already
+married to Frederick of Suabia, but he sided with his father-in-law, and
+a struggle began which lasted for ten years, and in which the
+Hohenstaufen brothers had not entirely the worst of it. Conrad was
+actually anointed at Monza as King of Italy; but in the end, through the
+intervention of St. Bernard, peace was made, and lasted during the few
+remaining months of Lothar's life. At his death in 1137 Conrad was
+elected. His first act was to take the duchy of Bavaria from Henry, and
+bestow it on Leopold, the Marquis of Austria, his own half-brother, and
+whole brother to Bishop Otto, the historian. Henry died very soon,
+leaving a young son, afterwards known as Henry "the lion," and a
+brother, Welf, who at once took up the quarrel on behalf of his nephew.
+He beat Leopold; but when, emboldened by this success, he proceeded to
+attack the Emperor, who was besieging the castle of Weinsberg, in
+Franconia, he suffered a severe defeat. At this battle we are told the
+cries of the contending sides were "Welf!" and "Waiblingen!" Why the
+name of an obscure fortress should have been used as a battle-cry for
+the mighty house of Hohenstaufen, we shall probably never know; it may
+be that it was a chance selection as the password for the day. However
+that may be, the battle-cries of Weinsberg were destined to resound far
+into future ages. Modified to suit non-Teutonic lips, they became famous
+throughout the civilised world as the designations of the two parties in
+a struggle which divided Italy for centuries, and of which the last
+vibrations only died down, if indeed they have died down, in our own
+day.
+
+Of all faction-wars which history records, this is the most complicated,
+the most difficult to analyse into distinct issues. The Guelfs have been
+considered the Church or Papal party; and no doubt there is some truth
+in this view. Indeed, there seems to have been some hereditary tradition
+of the kind dating from a much earlier generation; long, in fact, before
+the Ghibeline name had been heard of. When, as we have seen, Countess
+Matilda of Tuscany, the champion of Gregory VII., was looking out for a
+second husband, she fixed upon Welf of Bavaria, presumably the "dux
+Noricorum," who, as Bishop Otto tells us, "in the war with the Emperor,
+destroyed the cities of Freising and Augsburg." Their union did not last
+long, for Matilda seems to have been hard to please in the matter of
+husbands; but the fact of his selection looks as if he had been a
+_persona grata_ with the Papal See. It is somewhat significant, too,
+that Machiavelli regards the contest between Henry IV. and the Papacy as
+having been "the seed of the Guelf and Ghibeline races, whereby when the
+inundation of foreigners ceased, Italy was torn with intestine wars."
+Yet we may shrewdly suspect that it was not so much any special devotion
+to the Church, as the thwarted ambition of a powerful house, which made
+the Welfs to be a thorn in the side first of the Franconian, then of the
+Suabian Emperors.[10] At any rate, when a representative of the family,
+in the person of Otto IV., at last reached "the dread summit of Caesarean
+power," the very Pope, whose support had placed him on the throne, found
+himself within little more than a year under the familiar necessity of
+excommunicating the temporal head of Christendom. Still, in Italy no
+doubt the Guelfs, politically at any rate, held by the Church, while the
+Ghibelines had the reputation of being, as a party, at least tainted
+with what we should now call materialism. It will be remembered that
+among the sinners in this kind, who occupy the burning tombs within the
+walls of the city of Dis, Dante places both the Emperor Frederick II.,
+the head of Ghibelinism, and Farinata degli Uberti, the vigorous leader
+of the party in Tuscany, while the only Guelf who appears there is one
+who probably was a very loose adherent to his own faction.
+
+Less justified, it would seem, is the idea that the Guelfs were
+specially the patriotic party in Italy. No doubt the Popes at one time
+tried to pose as the defenders of Italian liberties against German
+tyrants, and some modern historians, forgetting the mediaeval conception
+of the Empire, have been inclined to accept this view. But when it
+suited his purpose, the Pope was ready enough to support an "anti-Caesar"
+who was no less a German, or even to call in a French invader. The truth
+is that at that time (and for many centuries afterwards), no conception
+of "Italy" as a nation had entered into men's minds. We do not always
+realise that until the year 1870, the territory, well enough defined by
+Nature, which forms the modern kingdom of Italy, had never, except
+indeed as part of a far wider Empire, owned the rule of a single
+sovereign. Patriotism hardly extended beyond the walls of a man's own
+city. Even Dante feels that residence in Lucca, Bologna, or Verona is an
+exile as complete as any, and that his only _patria_ is Florence, though
+it may be safely said that to him, if to any living man, the idea of an
+Italian nation had presented itself.
+
+The one argument which we can find to support this view lies in the fact
+that while the chief Guelf names are those of burgher families, many of
+the leading Ghibeline houses were undoubtedly of German origin. At
+Florence the Uberti, at Bologna the Lamberti, show their descent in
+their names. Villani tells us that the Emperor Otto I. delighted in
+Florence, "and when he returned to Germany certain of his barons
+remained there and became citizens." The two families just mentioned
+are specified. So far, then, the Guelfs may be regarded as representing
+native civic liberties against an alien feudal nobility, and the
+struggle between the two factions will fall into line with that which at
+a somewhat later date went on in Germany between the traders of the
+cities and the "robber-barons" of the country. In this aspect we may see
+the full meaning of Dante's continual allusion to the sin of avarice,
+under the image of the "wolf;" an allusion, again, which the original
+name whence the Guelf party took its appellation would specially point.
+
+How and when the names first appeared in Italy we do not know. The first
+manifestation of resistance on the part of the cities to the Imperial
+control was given when Milan withstood Frederick Barbarossa--in defence,
+it may be noted, of its own right to oppress its weaker neighbours; but
+during the war which followed, and which was terminated by Frederick's
+defeat at Legnano, the head of the Welfs, Henry the Lion, was for most
+of the time fighting on the Imperial side, and though he deserted
+Frederick at the last, he does not seem to have given any active help to
+the Lombard League. Yet it may well be that in his defection we have to
+see a stage in the transition from Welf to Guelf. It is, however, not in
+Lombardy, but in Tuscany, that the names of Guelf and Ghibeline, as
+recognised party designations, first appear. Machiavelli says--perhaps
+by a confusion with the Black and White factions, of whom we shall hear
+later--that they were first heard in Pistoia; but however this may be,
+they would seem to have been definitely accepted by 1215, to which year
+Villani assigns their introduction into Florence.
+
+We have now reached the first date, it may be said, which students of
+Dante will have to remember; a date which to him, and equally to the
+sober chronicler Villani, marked the beginning of troubles for the city
+which both loved as a mother, though to the greater son she was "a
+mother of small love." The occasion is so important that it ought to be
+related in the historian's own words:--
+
+    "In the year of Christ 1215, one Messer Bondelmonte, of the
+    Bondelmonti, a noble citizen of Florence, having promised to
+    take to wife a damsel of the house of the Amidei, honourable and
+    noble citizens; as this Messer Bondelmonte, who was a gay and
+    handsome cavalier, was riding through the city, a lady of the
+    Donati family called to him, speaking evil of the lady who had
+    been promised to him, how that she was not fair nor fitting for
+    him, and saying: 'I have kept my daughter here for you,' showed
+    him the maiden; and she was very fair. And straightway falling
+    enamoured of her, he gave her his troth, and espoused her to
+    wife; for which cause the kinsfolk of the first promised lady
+    gathered together, and being grieved for the shame that Messer
+    Bondelmonte had wrought them, they took on them the accursed
+    quarrel whereby the city of Florence was laid waste and broken
+    up. For many houses of the nobles[11] bound themselves together
+    by an oath to do a shame to the aforesaid Bondelmonte in
+    vengeance for those injuries. And as they were in council among
+    themselves in what fashion they should bring him down, Mosca of
+    the Lamberti said the ill word: "A thing done hath an end,"
+    meaning that he should be slain.[12] And so it came to pass; for
+    on the morning of Easter Day they assembled in the house of the
+    Amidei by St. Stephen's, and the said Messer Bondelmonte, coming
+    from beyond Arno, nobly clad in new white clothes, and riding on
+    a white palfrey, when he reached the hither end of the Old
+    Bridge, just by the pillar where was the image of Mars, was
+    thrown from his horse by Schiatta of the Uberti,[13] and by
+    Mosca Lamberti and Lambertuccio of the Amidei assailed and
+    wounded, and his throat was cut and an end made of him by
+    Oderigo Fifanti; and one of the counts from Gangalandi was with
+    them. For the which thing's sake the city flew to arms and
+    uproar, and this death of Messer Bondelmonte was the cause and
+    beginning of the accursed Guelf and Ghibeline parties in
+    Florence, albeit that before this the factions among the nobles
+    of the city had been plenty, and there had been the parties I
+    have said, by reason of the conflicts and questions between the
+    Church and the Empire; but through the death of Messer
+    Bondelmonte all the families of the nobles and other citizens of
+    Florence took sides with them, and some held with the
+    Bondelmonti, who took the Guelf side and were its leaders, and
+    others with the Uberti, who were head of the Ghibelines. Whence
+    followed much havoc and ruin to our city, and one may think that
+    it will never have an end if God put not a term to it."[14]
+
+The historian proceeds to enumerate the noble families who joined either
+side. Curiously enough, they were at first evenly divided--thirty-eight
+to thirty-eight. Not much is to be inferred from the names, though it is
+somewhat significant that of those, some half a dozen families in all,
+whom Villani, himself a Guelf, notes as having only recently attained to
+nobility, all joined the Guelf party. There seems also to have been a
+tendency for Ghibeline houses to become Guelf, which is not balanced by
+any defections in the opposite sense, so that the balance of parties was
+soon disturbed in favour of the Guelfs. At first, however, though
+
+"there was a division among the nobles of the city in that one loved the
+lordship of the Church, and the other that of the Empire, yet in regard
+to the state and welfare of the commonwealth all were in concord."
+
+This state of things did not last long. In 1220 Frederick II. was
+crowned Emperor at Rome. Up till that time he had been more or less a
+_protege_ of the Popes. First Innocent III., then Honorius III., had
+kept a fatherly eye upon his youth and early manhood, and for a time
+Church and Empire seemed to pull together. Honorius had, indeed,
+occasion to write severely to him more than once, but there was no
+breach of the peace. The accession of Gregory IX., in 1227, changed the
+aspect of affairs. Before the year was out, Frederick, like most of his
+predecessors for 200 years past, was under the ban of the Church: and
+from this time forward there was an end of peace and quiet government in
+Northern Italy. "Before Frederick met with opposition," Dante makes a
+Lombard gentleman of the last generation say, "valour and courtesy were
+wont to be found in the land which Adige and Po water; now may any man
+safely go that way, who through shame has left off to converse with
+good men or approach them."[15]
+
+Florence seems to have remained longer than most of the chief cities
+aloof from the main contest. She had her own wars with Pisa, beginning
+with a private quarrel at the Emperor's coronation (in which we are
+expressly told that both parties united), and afterwards with Siena; and
+the great houses did a certain amount of private fighting; "but still
+the people and commonwealth of Florence continued in unity, to the
+welfare and honour and stability of the republic." In 1248, however,
+Frederick turned his attention in that direction, moved, it may be, by
+the growing strength of the Guelfs. His natural son, Frederick of
+Antioch, was sent with a force of German men-at-arms, and after some
+fierce street fighting, the Guelfs were driven out.
+
+The Ghibeline supremacy was short-lived. Their nobles, especially the
+great house of the Uberti, became unpopular by reason of the exactions
+which they enforced; they got beaten in a fight with some of the
+banished Guelfs at no great distance from the city; and before the end
+of 1250 a meeting of "the good men," as Villani calls them, or, as we
+should say, the middle class, limited the power of the Podesta,[16] and
+appointed a Captain of the People to manage the internal affairs of the
+city, with a council of twelve Elders. Other important changes were made
+at the same time, and the new constitution--the third recorded in
+Florentine history--was known as the "Primo Popolo." The death of
+Frederick in the same year still further weakened the Ghibelines. Some
+of them were banished, and the exiled Guelfs were recalled. Peace,
+however, seems to have been kept between the parties for some time, and
+when in 1255 Count Guido Guerra on his own account expelled the
+Ghibelines from Arezzo, the Florentines restored them, and lent the
+Aretines money to pay a fine which the Guelf chief had inflicted; "but I
+know not if they ever got it back," says Villani.
+
+Again the compromise proved unstable. Manfred, Frederick's natural son,
+to whom, during the childhood of his young nephew, Conradin, the
+championship of the Hohenstaufen cause had fallen, was daily increasing
+in strength. His orders came to the Ghibelines of Florence to crush the
+popular party; and the latter, being warned in time, drove out all the
+great Ghibeline families. Two years later these had their revenge. On
+September 4, 1260, a date much to be remembered in the history of these
+times, the banished Ghibelines, aided by eight hundred of Manfred's
+German horse, seized the opportunity of hostilities between the
+Florentines and the Sienese to meet their opponents in a pitched battle.
+This took place on the Arbia, near the fortress of Montaperti, to the
+east of Siena.[17] The Guelfs were utterly routed, partly, it would
+seem, through the incompetence of some of the Elders who accompanied the
+army, and who, civilians though they were, overruled the judgement of
+the military leaders, and accepted battle under unfavourable
+conditions; and partly through the treachery of some Ghibelines who, not
+having been exiled, were serving in the Florentine host. Readers of the
+_Commedia_ will remember the name of Bocca degli Abati, placed by Dante
+in the lowest pit of hell.[18]
+
+Sixty-five of the leading Guelf families fled to Lucca, while the
+Ghibelines entered Florence, and appointed Guido Novello, of the great
+house of the Conti Guidi, Imperial Podesta. A meeting of the leaders of
+the party from Pisa, Siena, and Arezzo was held at Empoli, and a
+proposal was made on behalf of the rival cities, to raze Florence to the
+ground as a fortified city, and so preclude her revival as a Guelf
+stronghold. For once, however, a man was found to set patriotism above
+party. The great Farinata degli Uberti, whose wise counsel and warlike
+skill had mainly contributed to the victory, rose, with the same
+magnificent scorn, we may suppose, that Dante afterwards saw him display
+for the torments of Hell,[19] and let it be known that, so long as he
+had life in him, he would resist any such measure at the sword's point.
+Count Giordano, the commander of the Germans, who had convened the
+meeting, gave in, and Florence was saved.
+
+This was the last gleam of success which the Imperial cause was to
+enjoy in Tuscany for nearly half a century. Soon after the battle of
+Montaperti, Urban IV. was elected to the Papal See. He was a Frenchman
+by birth, "son of a shoemaker, but a valiant man and wise," says
+Villani. In view of the growing power of Manfred, vigorous steps had to
+be taken. The exiled Florentine Guelfs had made a fruitless attempt to
+effect a diversion in Germany, by inciting the young Conradin to oppose
+the acting head of his house. This old expedient having failed, Urban
+turned his eyes towards his own country. Charles of Anjou, brother of
+Saint Lewis, was at that time, next to the reigning sovereigns, the most
+powerful prince in Christendom, and to his aid the Pope appealed.
+Himself a man of Puritanical strictness in his life, and devoted to the
+Church, Charles was ready enough to accept the call, which appealed
+alike to his principles and to his ambition, and to act as the champion
+of the Holy See against the dissolute and freethinking Manfred; and the
+influence of his wife, the only one of Raymond Berenger's four daughters
+who was not actually or in prospect a queen,[20] was thrown on the same
+side. After keeping Easter 1265 at Paris, Charles set out, and landed at
+the mouth of the Tiber in May. In December he was crowned at Rome King
+of Naples, Sicily, and Apulia. Two months later, at the end of February
+1266, Charles and Manfred met near Benevento. After some hard fighting,
+of which the German troops seem to have borne the brunt, the battle was
+decided against Manfred by the desertion of his Apulian barons, and he
+himself was slain. His defeat gave the final blow to the Ghibeline cause
+in Tuscany. Only Pisa and Siena remained faithful. In Florence an
+attempt was made to avoid civil strife by the device of doubling the
+office of Podesta. Two gentlemen from Bologna, Catalano de' Malavolti
+and Loderingo de' Landolo, a Guelf and a Ghibeline,[21] were appointed,
+and they nominated a council of thirty-six, chosen from both sides. But
+this plan did not work well. Party spirit had grown too violent to allow
+of half measures, and before the year was out the people rose again, and
+the Ghibelines were banished for good and all.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [8] It seems proper to say that this chapter was written, and at
+    least some of it printed, before Mr. Oscar Browning's
+    interesting volume, _Guelphs and Ghibellines_ (Methuen),
+    appeared.
+
+    [9] It may not be out of place here to correct the vulgar error
+    that "Guelf" is in any sense the surname of our Royal family.
+    The house of Brunswick is no doubt lineally descended from these
+    Welfs of Bavaria; but it has been a reigning house since a
+    period long antecedent to the existence (among Teutonic peoples)
+    of family or surnames, and there is no reason for assigning to
+    the Queen the Christian name of one of her ancestors more than
+    another--"Guelf" more than "George."
+
+    [10] Hallam considers that hostility to the Empire was the
+    motive principle of the Guelf party in Lombardy; attachment to
+    the Church in Tuscany.
+
+    [11] Observe that the Bondelmonti were comparatively newcomers.
+    They had originally belonged to Valdigreve, and had only lived
+    in Florence for some eighty years at the date of this event.
+    Hence they were looked upon as upstarts, and not properly
+    speaking, nobles at all. See _Paradise_, xvi. 133-147.
+
+    [12] _Hell_, xxviii. 106.
+
+    [13] Possibly "by the Uberti lot."
+
+    [14] Villani, _Croniche_, v. 37.
+
+    [15] _Purgatory_, xvi. 115.
+
+    [16] The name _Podesta_ originally denoted the chief authority
+    of a city or county, whether vested in one person or several.
+    Frederick I. established Imperial officers under this title
+    throughout Tuscany near the end of his reign, and for some time
+    the Podesta was regarded as the Emperor's delegate. Before the
+    end of the century, however, they had become municipal officers,
+    gradually displacing the former consuls from the chief position.
+    About 1200 the custom of choosing them from the citizens of some
+    other town than that in which they officiated, seems to have
+    become established; the native consuls being their councillors.
+
+    [17] _Hell_, x. 96.
+
+    [18] _Hell_, xxxii. 81, 106.
+
+    [19] _Ibid._, x. 36.
+
+    [20] _Paradise_, vi. 133.
+
+    [21] They seem to have acted on the principle of filling their
+    own pockets, rather than of maintaining order; and are placed by
+    Dante among the hypocrites, in the sixth pit of Malebolge
+    (_Hell_, xxiii. 103). They belonged to the order of Knights of
+    St. Mary, popularly called Jovial Friars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+DANTE'S EARLY DAYS
+
+
+In the month when Charles of Anjou sailed up the Tiber to Rome, a child
+was born at Florence to a citizen named Alighiero, son of Bellincione.
+We do not know for certain his _casato_, or family name. Bellincione's
+father was another Alighiero, or, as it was originally written,
+Aldighiero. His father was Cacciaguida, who had a brother named Eliseo;
+from which it has been conjectured that he may have belonged to the
+prominent house of the Elisei, which is known to have existed as far
+back as the beginning of the eleventh century, since it was not uncommon
+for members of a family to bear the founder's name. We know, further,
+that the name of Alighiero came into the family with Cacciaguida's wife,
+who belonged to some city near the Po, probably Ferrara, where a family
+of Aldighieri is known to have existed.[22] In any case, it was
+originally no Florentine name, and it may be doubted if it ever was
+recognised as the appellation of a family. True, Dante is once or twice
+referred to as "Dantes de Alegheriis," but this may be due to the fact
+that he was known to have had recently two ancestors of the name. He
+himself, if we may trust the evidence of letters ascribed to him, seems
+to have written "Dantes Alligherius," while his son calls him Dantes
+Aligherii, and himself Petrus Dantis Aligherii, "Peter, son of Dante,
+son of Alighiero." In the official Florentine documents, where his name
+occurs, it is "Dantes Allegherii" or "Dante d'Alighiero," "Dante the son
+of Alighiero," and no more. The form "degli Alighieri," which would
+indicate a true family name, we find in no undoubtedly contemporary
+document.
+
+In view of this initial uncertainty, the discussion whether the poet was
+of "noble" family or not seems a trifle superfluous. His
+great-great-grand-father, Cacciaguida, is made to say (_Par._, xv. 140)
+that he himself received knighthood from the Emperor Conrad III. (of
+Hohenstaufen). This would confer nobility; but it would appear that it
+would be possible for later generations to lose that status, and there
+are some indications that Dante was sensitive on this point. At any
+rate, it is pretty clear that his immediate ancestors were not in any
+way distinguished. The very fact that he was born in Florence during a
+period when all the leading Guelfs were in exile shows that Alighiero
+was not considered by the dominant Ghibelines a person of too great
+importance to be allowed to remain undisturbed in the city.
+
+Of Dante's boyhood and early youth we have only stray indications, and
+those mainly gathered from his own writings. We can, indeed, form a
+pretty clear notion of what he _was_, but we know little enough about
+what he _did_. From a very early period he was made a hero of romance.
+Without going so far as some recent writers, both German and Italian,
+who seem to look upon every statement of early biographers with
+suspicion, while regarding their silence as good evidence that what
+they do not mention cannot have happened, we must admit that we cannot
+with certainty date any event in the first thirty years of Dante's life.
+Still, we can infer a good deal. He must unquestionably, during this
+time, have read a great deal, for it would have been impossible for a
+man wandering about from place to place, and intermittently busied in
+political affairs, to have amassed in seven or eight years the amount of
+learning which the _Commedia_ by itself shows him to have possessed. He
+must have been recognised at an early age as a young man of marked
+ability. His intimacy with the old statesman Brunetto Latini, who died
+in 1294, and his friendship with Charles of Anjou's grandson, Carlo
+Martello,[23] the young King of Hungary, who was at Florence in the same
+year and the following, are sufficient to prove this. Neither Brunetto,
+the most learned man of his age in Florence, and, as we should say, a
+man of "society" as well, nor a prince who, had he lived, would have
+been one of the most important personages in Europe, was likely to have
+distinguished with his friendship a young man of twenty-nine, not of the
+highest birth, unless he had already made himself notable for
+intellectual eminence.
+
+One event occurred during Dante's youth, in which he is so generally
+believed to have borne a part, that it will probably come as a shock to
+many people to learn that this belief rests only on the statement of a
+writer who was not born till nearly fifty years after Dante's death. On
+St. Barnabas's day, June 11, 1289, the Florentine Guelfs met the
+Ghibelines of Arezzo, in whose ranks many of their own exiles were
+fighting, in a plain called Campaldino, belonging to the district of
+Certomondo, which lies in the Casentino, or upper part of the Arno
+valley. The Florentines gained a complete victory, though only after a
+hard fight, in which many of the chief Ghibeline leaders lost their
+lives. The event was one of great importance, and Villani recounts it in
+very full detail.[24] Dante also refers to it in one of the best-known
+passages of the _Purgatory_ (v. 92). It is quite possible that he
+himself may have taken part in the battle; but if he did so, it is
+somewhat strange that none of the earlier commentators, including his
+own son, nor any biographer of the fourteenth century, should have known
+of it, or, knowing of it, should have thought it worth recording; and
+that it should have been left to Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, writing after
+the year 1400, to make the first reference to so noteworthy an incident
+in Dante's early career. Leonardo (whose "Life" will be found in
+Bianchi's edition of the _Commedia_) quotes, indeed, a letter, said to
+have been written many years afterwards by Dante, in which reference is
+made to his presence in the battle; but this letter has long
+disappeared, and it is to be noted that the biographer does not even
+profess to have seen it himself. There is, it must be said, in the
+_Hell_ (xxii. _init._) one allusion to warlike operations in the
+Aretine territory of which Dante claims to have been an eye-witness; but
+as none of the early commentators seems to refer to Campaldino in
+connection with this passage, it tells, if anything, against the
+received story.
+
+Another event, sometimes assigned to the period of Dante's life before
+his banishment, has somewhat more evidence in its favour. That he
+visited Paris at least once in the course of his life, the early
+authorities are agreed; but Villani, Boccaccio, and Benvenuto of Imola,
+all writing in the fourteenth century, make the visit to have taken
+place during his exile. It is not until we come to John of Serravalle,
+Lord of Fermo, who as Bishop of Rimini attended the Council of
+Constance, and there, at the request of the Bishops of Bath and Wells
+and Salisbury, prepared a Latin version of the _Commedia_ with
+commentary, that we find mention of an earlier visit. His testimony is a
+little suspicious, because in the same sentence he also asserts that
+Dante studied at Oxford, a statement which, without strong confirmation,
+it would be very hard to accept. On the other side, it may be said that
+the silence of the older biographers is not conclusive evidence against
+the early study at Paris. Dante also went to Bologna, as it would
+appear, both before and after his banishment; yet while Villani and
+Boccaccio only name the latter visit, Benvenuto speaks only of the
+former. It is therefore quite possible that all three may have ignored
+the first period of study at Paris, or, if there was but one such
+period, may have assigned it to the wrong part of Dante's life. _Prima
+facie_ it is more probable that he would have undertaken both the long
+journey and the course of study in his days of "greater freedom and less
+responsibility," than when he was not only engaged upon the composition
+both of his great poem and of several prose treatises, but was taking an
+active share in political work.
+
+Again, the allusion in the _Paradise_ to the lectures of Sigier bears
+all the stamp of a personal reminiscence; just as the allusion to the
+dykes along the coast of Flanders to illustrate those which form the
+banks of the river Phlegethon, could hardly have occurred to one who had
+not seen them with his own eyes, though the biographers mention no
+journey to Flanders. But Sigier's lectures and his life too were over by
+1300.
+
+Another little bit of evidence may be given for what it is worth. Any
+one who has read the discourses of Meister Eckhart, the founder of the
+school of German mystics, will be struck by the frequent and close
+resemblances, not of thought only, but of expression and illustration,
+which exist between him and Dante. So frequent and so close are these,
+that the reader can hardly conceive the possibility of their being due
+to mere coincidence.[25] But Eckhart preached and wrote (if he wrote) in
+German, a language which we have no reason to think that Dante knew; so
+that the exchange of ideas between them, if any, must have taken place
+by word of mouth, and in French or Latin. Now, Eckhart was for a long
+time in Paris--so long that he seems to have been known as "Master
+Eckhart of Paris"--and left that city in 1302. If he and Dante ever met,
+it must have been in Paris (for though Eckhart went to Italy in 1302, it
+appears to have been only on a journey to Rome, the last place save
+Florence where Dante would then have cared to show himself), and that at
+some time before 1300.
+
+Lastly, we may question if Dante would have chosen Paris as a place of
+residence while Philip the Fair was on the throne of France.
+
+If, then, he did visit France before his exile, we can date the visit
+with some certainty. It can hardly have been before 1290, the year of
+Beatrice's death, nor after 1294, the year in which Carlo Martello came
+to Florence. Dante's marriage, again, in all probability took place
+somewhere about the latter year. We know nothing directly of Dante's
+doings in this interval; nothing, at any rate, inconsistent with his
+having been for some considerable period away from Florence.
+
+But we have kept till the last the subject which to many is the only one
+associated with Dante's younger life. What, it will be said, about
+Beatrice? The fashionable theory nowadays seems to be that there
+undoubtedly was a lady at Florence of that name, the daughter of Folco
+Portinari, that she was married to Simone de' Bardi, a member of that
+great family who were Edward III.'s bankers, and that she died in the
+flower of her youth. But, say the modern Italian and German writers,
+this lady--Frau Bardi-Portinari, the latter call her--had no more to do
+with Dante than any other Beatrice in history. This will seem to many
+who do not realise on how slight a basis the identification of her
+rests, to be the very wantonness of paradox. These may be startled to
+learn that the whole story depends upon the veracity of one man, and
+that a professed writer of romantic fiction. It is from Boccaccio, and
+from him alone, that we have learnt to see in Dante's mystical guide and
+guardian, in the lost love of his early years, only the idealised and
+allegorised figure of Folco Portinari's daughter. What, then, is his
+evidence worth? To this we can only reply, that Boccaccio was born eight
+years before Dante's death; that he lived in Florence from his
+childhood; that he must have spoken with scores of people to whom the
+social and literary history of the years preceding 1290 was perfectly
+familiar; that both Dante and the husband of Beatrice were prominent
+men; and that Boccaccio can have had no motive for making a statement
+which, if untrue, he must have known to be so. Further, if the statement
+had been untrue, it would surely have been contradicted, and some trace
+of the contradiction would have been found. But, on the contrary, it
+seems to have been accepted from the first. It is repeated by
+Boccaccio's younger contemporary and disciple Benvenuto of Imola, who
+himself lived for some time in Florence, before all those who would be
+able from their own recollection to confirm or deny it would have passed
+away. And Benvenuto, it may be noted, though devoted to Boccaccio, was
+no mere student, but a shrewd and critical man of the world. Dante's son
+Pietro, indeed, says no word to show that Beatrice was anything but a
+symbol, and in this some of the other early commentators follow him. But
+this would prove too much. Whether she be rightly identified with
+Beatrice Portinari or not, it is impossible for any reader possessing
+the least knowledge of the human heart to see in the Beatrice of the
+_Commedia_ a symbol merely. Not to mention that it would be quite
+contrary to Dante's practice thus to _invent_ a personage for the sake
+of the symbol, it is absurd to suppose that the "ten years' thirst"
+which the sight of her relieves, "the eyes whence Love once took his
+weapons," and such-like expressions were intended primarily as
+references to a neglected study of theology or a previous devotion to a
+contemplative life. The omission, therefore, of the commentators who
+interested themselves mainly in the allegory to tell us about the real
+Beatrice cannot be used as evidence against her existence.
+
+The first supporter of what may be called the "superior" view--namely
+that the whole story of Beatrice is purely allegorical--was one Giovanni
+Mario Filelfo, a writer of the fifteenth century, born more than a
+hundred years after Dante's death. As a rule, where his statements can
+be tested, they are incorrect; and on the whole his work appears to be a
+mass of unwarranted inferences from unverified assertions. It was not
+till recent times that his theory on the subject found any defenders.
+
+We may, then, pretty safely continue in the old faith. After all, it
+explains more difficulties than it raises. No doubt if we cannot free
+ourselves from modern conceptions we shall be somewhat startled not only
+by the almost deification of Beatrice, but also by the frank revelation
+of Dante's passion, with which neither the fact of her having become
+another man's wife nor his own marriage seems in any way to interfere.
+It needs, however, but a very slight knowledge of the conditions of life
+in the thirteenth century to understand the position. As has been
+already pointed out, the notion of woman's love as a spur to noble
+living, "the maiden passion for a maid," was quite recent, and at its
+first growth was quite distinct from the love which finds its fulfilment
+in marriage. Almost every young man of a literary or intellectual turn
+seems to have had his Egeria; and when we can identify her she is
+usually the wife of some one else.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [22] It may be noted that the name is undoubtedly Teutonic. The
+    suggested derivations from _aliger_, "the wing-bearer," and the
+    like, are purely fanciful. The first part of the word is
+    doubtless _alt_, "old," which we have in our own Aldhelm; the
+    termination is the _geirr_, or _gar_, which occurs in all
+    Teutonic languages, and means "spear." Dante (= Durante) was a
+    common Christian name.
+
+    [23] Doubts have even been thrown on Dante's friendship with
+    this young King. To these we can only reply that, if it is not
+    implied by _Par._, viii. 55, it is impossible to draw any
+    inference whatever as to Dante's life from any line of the poem.
+
+    [24] The conclusion of his account is picturesque enough to
+    deserve reproduction. "The news of the said victory came to
+    Florence the very day and hour when it took place; for the Lords
+    Priors having after dinner gone to sleep and rest, by reason of
+    the anxiety and watching of the past night, suddenly came a
+    knock at the door of the chamber, with a cry, 'Rise up, for the
+    Aretines are discomfited;' and when they were risen, and the
+    door opened, they found no man, and their servants without had
+    heard nothing. Whence it was held a great and notable marvel,
+    seeing that before any person came from the host with the news,
+    it was towards the hour of vespers."
+
+    [25] We find close resemblances between Dante and the founder of
+    German mysticism. Not only in similes and illustrations, such as
+    the tailor and his cloth, the needle and the loadstone, the flow
+    of water to the sea, the gravitation of weights to the centre;
+    or in such phrases as Eckhart's "nature possesses nothing
+    swifter than the heaven," or his use of _edilkeit_ "nobility,"
+    in reference to freewill, _la nobile virtu_. These may have
+    been, in some cases were, borrowed by both from a common source,
+    though the fact of their so often borrowing the same things is
+    suggestive. So, too, both Dante and Eckhart quote St. John i. 3,
+    4, with the punctuation adopted by Aquinas, _quod factum est, in
+    ipso vita erat_--"what was made, in Him was life"--though the
+    Vulgate and St. Augustine prefer the arrangement of the words
+    familiar to us in our own version. But when we find such an
+    unusual thought as that in _Par._, viii. 103, 104, of the
+    redeemed soul having no more need to repent of its sins,
+    expressed in almost similar words by Eckhart, it is hardly
+    possible to believe that it occurred to both independently.
+    There are many other instances, but it would occupy too much
+    space if I were to give them here.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE'S EXILE
+
+
+In order to understand the extent to which Dante's life was influenced
+by the political circumstances of his age, it will be well to carry our
+survey of events somewhat further, with special reference to the affairs
+of Florence.
+
+As we have seen, after frequent alternations of fortune, the city
+passed, within two years of Dante's birth, for good and all to the Guelf
+side. On St. Martin's Day, in November, 1266, Count Guido Novello and
+his German horse were driven out of the city by the burghers; and though
+in the January following a treaty of peace was made, and cemented by
+various marriages between members of the leading families on either
+side--an arrangement of which the chief result was to embitter party
+spirit among the Guelfs who had taken no share in it--anything like a
+lasting reconciliation was soon found to be out of the question. Charles
+of Anjou, moreover, fresh from his victory over Manfred, was by no means
+disposed to allow the beaten Ghibelines any chance of rallying.
+Negotiations were entered into between him and the Florentine Guelfs,
+and on Easter Day, 1267, Guy of Montfort (son of Sir Simon) entered the
+city at the head of eight hundred French cavalry. The Ghibelines did not
+venture to strike a blow, but departed on the day before his arrival. At
+Easter, says Villani, the crime was committed which first split the city
+into factions; and at Easter the descendants of the men who had
+committed the crime went into exile, never to return.
+
+The same year saw a general rally of the north Italian states to the
+Guelf side, and before many months were out even Lombardy, where, says
+Villani, there was hardly any memory of the Guelfs, followed the stream.
+In Tuscany, Pisa and Siena alone held by the tradition--for it was
+little more--of allegiance to the Empire. The Florentine exiles betook
+themselves to those cities, and before long the spirits of the party had
+revived sufficiently to allow them to play what must have been felt to
+be their last stroke in the game. Profiting by the disaffection of
+certain Apulian and Sicilian barons (whom one may imagine to have found
+the gloomy discipline of Charles a poor exchange for the brilliancy and
+licence of Frederick's Court), they cast their eyes towards the last
+surviving representative of that Count Frederick who, some two hundred
+years before, had fixed his seat in the hill-fortress of Staufen.
+Conrad, or Corradino, as the Italians called him, grandson of Frederick
+II., was a lad of sixteen, still under the tutelage of his mother, the
+widow of Conrad IV. Germany seems to have been loyal to him, and had it
+not been for the impatience of the Italian Ghibelines, he might well
+have looked forward to regaining, perhaps under more favourable
+auspices, the Empire which his predecessors had held. But the Tuscan
+nobles, smarting under defeat, could not wait; and in spite of his
+mother's opposition, they carried the boy off. Money was lacking; and of
+the ten thousand German horsemen who accompanied him across the Brenner,
+only three thousand five hundred went beyond Verona. He passed through
+Lombardy, however, without opposition, and with the aid of the Genoese
+fleet reached Pisa in May, 1268. The rising of the Apulian barons had
+compelled Charles to return hastily to his kingdom, and Conradin found
+his way clear to Siena. An action in the district of Arezzo resulted in
+the defeat and capture of Charles's "marshal," who had come out from
+Florence in pursuit, and the German force was able to enter Rome
+unmolested. There they received a reinforcement of eight hundred good
+Spanish cavalry under Don Henry, brother of the King of Castile, and,
+elated with success, pushed on to strike a decisive blow. They marched
+eastward to Tagliacozzo, just within the frontier of the Abruzzi, while
+Charles reached the same point by forced marches from Nocera. The armies
+met on St. Bartholomew's Eve, and at first everything seemed to go well
+for Conradin. The Spanish division defeated the Provencals, and the
+Germans crushed the French and Italians. But Charles had with him an
+experienced old knight, Alard de St. Valery, by whose advice he held a
+picked force in reserve, concealed behind some rising ground. With this
+he now attacked the victorious Germans and Spaniards, who had got out
+of hand in the excitement of pursuit and plundering. They made a bold
+resistance, but discipline told in the end; they were utterly defeated
+and their leaders put to flight. Conradin and his immediate staff,
+comprising the Duke of Austria and some German and Italian nobles, made
+their way to Astura on the coast of the Campagna, and had succeeded in
+embarking when they were recognised by one of the Frangipani, who were
+the lords of the territory. Arrested by him and handed over to Charles,
+they were subjected to a form of trial, and beheaded in the market-place
+of Naples. This act has always been regarded as an indelible blot on
+Charles's record. Dante couples it with the alleged murder, by his
+order, of St. Thomas Aquinas; and it seems to have been felt even by
+members of the Guelf party as something, if one may so say, beyond the
+rules of the game. Pope Clement, according to Villani, blamed Charles
+severely; and the pious historian, for his own part, sees in the King's
+subsequent misfortunes the judgment of God upon his cruelty towards an
+innocent boy. The judge who pronounced the sentence was slain before
+Charles's very eyes by his son-in-law, Robert, son to the Count of
+Flanders, "and not a word was said, for Robert was great with the King,
+and it appeared to the King and to all the barons that he had acted like
+a valiant gentleman." In Conradin the Hohenstaufen line came to an end,
+and therewith all _raison d'etre_ for the Ghibeline party. After this it
+became merely a turbulent faction, until the accession of Henry of
+Luxemburg; when Caesar once more began to take interest in his Italian
+dominions.
+
+It may be conceded that party rancour had much more to do with the
+bringing of Conradin into Italy than any conscientious adhesion to views
+such as those to which Dante afterwards gave utterance in the _De
+Monarchia_, or faith in the benefit which would accrue to the world from
+the rule of a single sovereign. But it shows the hold which the Empire
+still had on men's minds, that the Ghibeline chiefs should have
+preferred to take a boy from Germany as the figure-head of their cause,
+rather than seek a leader of more experience from among their
+fellow-countrymen. Nor does it seem to have entered any one's mind to
+look out of Germany for an Emperor. There were, indeed, at the very
+time, two rival Caesars-elect in existence--Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
+and Alfonso, King of Castile, the former of whom his own countrymen,
+more in derision than respect, were wont to call "King of Almayne;" but
+clearly no Ghibeline cared to call upon either of them to "heal the
+wounds which were killing Italy." Later, when the long interregnum was
+brought to an end by the election of Rudolf of Hapsburg, even the Guelf
+Villani holds that if he had been willing to pass into Italy he would
+have been lord of it without opposition; but that astute prince no doubt
+found himself much better employed in converting a petty baronial line
+into one of the great houses of Germany, and ultimately of Europe, than
+in acting up to a titular dignity which brought its bearer more
+splendour than either wealth or ease. When he did send an Imperial Vicar
+into Tuscany in 1281 his chance was gone, and the emissary was glad to
+come to terms with the Florentines.
+
+Thus, from the earliest time that Dante could remember, the Guelfs held
+an almost undisturbed supremacy throughout Tuscany. There was occasional
+fighting between Florence, as the head of the Guelf League, and Siena,
+or Pisa, as the case might be. The Sienese, though helped by Guido
+Novello and the Florentine exiles, and by some of the Spanish and German
+troops who had escaped from Tagliacozzo, were badly beaten at Colle di
+Val d'Elsa in 1269, and their commander, Provenzano Salvani (whom Dante
+afterwards met in Purgatory), taken and slain. In the following year
+this city too was purged of the Ghibeline taint, and a few Florentine
+citizens who were caught were, after a reference to Charles, duly
+beheaded. Pisa held out somewhat longer, and was able to expel its
+Guelfs in 1275, among them the famous Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, a
+member of the house of Donoratico, one of whose counts had been captured
+and killed with Conradin; but in a year's time a Florentine success
+brought them back. An effort made by Pope Gregory X. to reconcile the
+factions, as he passed through Florence on his way to the Council of
+Lyons, bore little or no fruit, and, as a pendant to former
+excommunications of Emperors, the city was placed under interdict. When,
+a year and a half later, Gregory died at Arezzo, "by his death," says
+Villani, "the Guelfs of Florence were greatly cheered, by reason of the
+ill will which he had towards them;"--an interesting remark, as showing
+that the Guelfs were not prepared to support the Holy See farther than
+their own interests as a party demanded.
+
+The condition of Florence at this time cannot be better described than
+in Villani's words. Writing of the year 1278, he says--
+
+    "In these times, the Guelf nobles of Florence, reposing from
+    their foreign wars with victory and honour, and fattened upon
+    the goods of the exiled Ghibelines, and by reason of their other
+    gains, began, through pride and envy, to quarrel among
+    themselves; whence came to pass in Florence more feuds and
+    enmities between the citizens, with slayings and woundings.
+    Among them all the greatest was the quarrel between the house of
+    the Adimari of the one part, who were very great and powerful,
+    and on the other side were the house of the Donati; in such wise
+    that nearly the whole of the city took sides, and some held with
+    one party and some with the other, whereby the city and the
+    Guelf party were in great danger."
+
+We shall remember how, in Dante's judgement also, pride, envy, and
+avarice were "the sparks that had set hearts on fire," in Florence.
+
+Once again the Pope, who was now Nicholas III., interfered; and once
+again representatives of the two great factions exchanged the kiss of
+peace before a Papal Legate, this time in front of "the Preaching
+Friars' new church of New St. Mary's, in Florence," of which the Legate,
+Cardinal Latino, had but lately laid the first stone. The Ghibeline
+leaders were still kept out, but the rank and file returned. The feud of
+the Adimari and Donati was patched up for the time, whereby "the said
+Cardinal had much honour, and Florence remained a good time in a
+peaceful and good and tranquil state."
+
+Cardinal Latino had arranged for the government of Florence by a
+committee of fourteen "good men," of whom eight were to be Guelfs and
+six Ghibelines. They were to hold office for two months. It marks the
+Cardinal as a man of some organizing capacity that his peace continued
+for four years, during which time Villani has next to nothing to relate
+about the affairs of his city. These were the years in which Dante was
+growing up to manhood. As a boy of thirteen he would doubtless have
+looked on at the scene in front of Santa Maria Novella; and during the
+next four peaceful years we may suppose that he would have begun to sit
+at the feet of the old statesman, diplomatist, and scholar Brunetto
+Latini, picking up from his lips the lore "how man becomes immortal."
+We can picture him too, where the boys and girls were gathered together,
+a silent and reserved lad, probably unpopular unless with one or two
+special friends, paying little heed to any of his companions save one
+girl of about his own age, whose movements he would follow, and for the
+sound of whose words, though never addressed to him, he would listen,
+with the speechless devotion which perhaps is only felt at sixteen or
+seventeen, and then only by natures which fortunately are exceptional in
+this world. "The child is father to the man;" and we can be pretty
+certain from what we know of the man Dante what the boy Dante must have
+been.
+
+The tranquil period was disturbed in 1282. Pope Nicholas, who, whether
+guilty of Simony or not--and one fears that the case against him must
+have been strong, since not only Dante, but even Villani charges him
+with the offence--at least deserved the blessing pronounced on
+peacemakers, had died in the previous year at Viterbo, a town which,
+during this period, seems to have suited the Popes better than Rome as a
+place of residence. Charles, between whom and Nicholas no love had been
+lost, was resolved that the next Pope should not come from the powerful
+house of the Orsini, to a branch of which, the Guatani, the late Pontiff
+had belonged, and by an arrangement with the people of Viterbo,
+succeeded in getting the two most prominent clerical members of that
+house imprisoned. Thus he secured the election of a Frenchman, Simon of
+Brie, who, being a canon of Tours, took the name of Martin IV. His
+Papacy, though it lasted little more than three years, was eventful. He
+was elected in January, 1282, and on the following Easter Monday, March
+30th, the people of Palermo, furious at the outrages of Charles's French
+troops, rose and massacred every Frenchman upon whom they could lay
+hands. Charles's efforts to recapture the island were baffled, chiefly
+owing to the hostility of Manfred's son-in-law. King Peter of Aragon,
+also, with the help of his famous admiral, Roger of Loria, began about
+this time to prove a serious thorn in the side of the Angevin King. From
+the day of the "Sicilian Vespers," fortune turned against Charles. His
+son was taken prisoner by Loria in 1284, his life being spared only at
+the entreaty of Peter's wife, while he did not recover his liberty till
+1289. The King himself died broken down with grief and disappointment,
+in the early days of 1285, and was followed a couple of months later by
+his creature, Martin IV., and, before the year was out, by his enemy,
+King Peter. It will be remembered that Peter and Charles were seen by
+Dante in the "Valley of Princes," awaiting their entry into Purgatory,
+and singing their Compline hymn in friendly accord: Martin IV. being
+placed higher up the mountain, among the gluttonous.
+
+At Florence the course of affairs was not much affected by the reverses
+which befell Charles. At the same time, these, and a success gained by
+Guy of Montefeltro over John of Appia, a French officer whom Martin had
+appointed Count of Romagna, made the Guelf majority uneasy. Cardinal
+Latino's Constitution was abandoned, and a new form of government
+adopted. The trading-class resolved to get rid altogether of the
+representatives of feudal authority, weak as they had become,[26] and to
+this end the Fourteen were abolished, and the chief power placed in the
+hands of the Priors of the Arts, or, as we should say, the Masters of
+the great trading guilds. The number of those guilds which contributed
+members to the governing body seems to have been gradually increased. At
+first only three--the Clothmakers, the Money-changers, and the
+Wool-dealers--were thus honoured; but by the end of the century, at
+least twelve, seven greater and five lesser arts, were included. The
+Priors, as the Fourteen had done, held office for two months only, and
+various devices were employed to prevent any house or any person from
+becoming dangerously powerful. Nobles, in order to qualify for office,
+had to join a guild; and as the nobles, or _grandi_, were more
+frequently on the Ghibeline side, this would yet further weaken that
+party.
+
+Florence had now fairly entered upon a period of great prosperity. Her
+bankers lent money to kings; her trade extended all over Europe. Pisa,
+her most dangerous rival, had been utterly crushed by the Genoese in the
+great sea-fight off Meloria, with a slaughter which seems to have
+struck awe into the hearts even of the victors; and though she expelled
+her Guelfs four years later, in 1288, and, in 1291, under the brilliant
+leader Guy of Montefeltro, won some successes in the field, she was
+never again a power to be feared. Arezzo gave some trouble as a
+rendezvous for the banished Ghibelines; but the battle of Campaldino, in
+1289, already referred to, broke her strength for a long time. Florence
+was thus free to attend to the arts of peace. The city walls were
+extended and new gates built; and several of the buildings, which to
+this day are among the glories of Florence, date from that period.
+Still, however, much of the old class-jealousy smouldered; and, as
+Machiavelli points out, all fear of the Ghibelines being removed, the
+powerful houses began to oppress the people. Giano della Bella, himself
+of noble family, casting in his lot with the commons, succeeded in
+carrying what were called the Ordinances of Justice, whereby, among
+other things, nobles were absolutely disqualified from taking any part
+in the government. A measure so oppressive as this was bound to bring
+about its own appeal, and, as a matter of fact, within two years from
+its promulgation, Giano was driven into exile, and the nobles were more
+turbulent than ever. It is at this time that the name of Corso Donati
+first comes into prominence.
+
+Another event, which was to influence the destinies of Florence and of
+Dante, occurred shortly before Giano's overthrow. This was the election
+to the Papacy, in 1294, of Benedetto Guatani, known to history as
+Boniface VIII. The most vigorous Pope who had held the office for
+several generations, he soon let it be known that he intended to revive
+all the claims which his predecessors, Gregory VII. and Innocent III.,
+had made to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His first efforts
+were devoted to getting Tuscany into his hands, and to this end he seems
+to have intrigued freely with the leaders of both parties in Florence.
+In theory, of course, where all were Guelfs, the Pope ought to have had
+little trouble; but there were Guelfs and Guelfs, and it was not long
+before party differences were emphasised, and, so to say, crystallised,
+by party names. Curiously enough, these again appear first at Pistoia. A
+family feud there had led to two branches of the Cancellieri being
+distinguished as Black and White, and towards 1300 the names appear at
+Florence. The Donati headed the Black faction; their rivals, the Cerchi,
+the White. The latter represented the more orderly section of the
+community; the former reproduced all the worst features of the old
+Ghibeline aristocracy, though in the end it was the Whites who had to
+coalesce with the Ghibelines. At first, indeed, it would seem as if
+Boniface might have been willing to work with the Whites. He sent for
+Vieri de' Cerchi, the leader of that party, and tried to induce him to
+live peaceably with the other side. Vieri, for reasons which we can only
+conjecture, replied curtly that he had no quarrel with any one; and
+Boniface resorted to the old expedient of sending a Cardinal--Matthew of
+Acquasparta--to reconcile the factions.
+
+We have now reached the critical year of Dante's life--that in which he
+held the office of Prior. But for the events of this and the next two
+years, it may be doubted whether the _Commedia_ would ever have come
+into existence, at least in the form in which six centuries have studied
+and admired it. Henceforth Dante's own history, rather than that of his
+times, will be our chief subject.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [26] In 1300, when the Black and White factions arose, we find
+    among the twenty-eight houses enumerated by Machiavelli, as the
+    chief on either side, only _three_ which in the old days had
+    belonged to the Ghibeline party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+DANTE'S EXILE
+
+
+Towards the end of the thirteenth century, Dante's name begins to appear
+in public documents as taking a share in the business of the State. Thus
+he spoke in the "Council of the Hundred" on December 10, 1296, and in
+the following March, in opposition, it would seem, to a proposal of a
+grant to King Charles II. of Apulia. In May, 1299, he acted as
+ambassador from Florence to the neighbouring city of San Gemignano, the
+only one of all the numerous embassies ascribed to him by some
+biographers in which modern criticism will still allow us to believe.
+Finally, in 1300, probably from June 15th to August 15th, he served his
+term as Prior.
+
+The Constitution of Florence at this time was somewhat complicated. It
+will be sufficient to say here that the government was carried on by a
+committee of six priors, who held office for two months only; and that
+in order to be eligible for the offices of State a man had to be
+enrolled in one of the twelve trading guilds known as Arts, of which
+seven ranked as "greater," five as "less." Dante belonged to one of the
+"greater arts," that of the _speziali_, "dealers in spices," which
+included the apothecaries and, as it is believed, the booksellers. The
+number of priors was so large, and their tenure of office so short, that
+the selection of any particular citizen would hardly imply more than
+that he was regarded as a man of good business capacity; but in 1300
+public affairs in Florence were in such a critical state, that one may
+well suppose the citizens to have been especially careful in their
+choice. In the previous April an accusation had been brought by Lapo
+Salterelli (afterwards one of Dante's fellow-exiles, not held by him in
+much esteem), who then was Prior, against three citizens of
+Florence--Simon Gherardi, Noffo Quintavalle, and Cambio, son of Sesto,
+of conspiring against the State. The facts are somewhat obscure, but, as
+it appears that they were all connected with the Papal Court, and that
+Boniface made strong efforts to get the fine imposed on them remitted,
+we may conjecture that they had in some way abetted his scheme of
+"getting Tuscany into his hands." In a remarkable letter addressed to
+the Bishop of Florence, in which a good deal of the argument, and even
+some of the language, of Dante's _De Monarchia_ is curiously paralleled,
+of course from the opposite point of view, the Pope requires the
+attendance before him of Lapo (whom he styles _vere lapis offensionis_)
+and the other accusers. As may be supposed, no notice was taken of this
+requisition, and the fines were duly enforced.
+
+Boniface's letter is dated from Anagni, on May 15th. Before it was
+written, the first actual bloodshed in the feud between the Black and
+White parties had taken place. Some of the young Donati and Cerchi, with
+their respective friends, were in the Piazza di Santa Trinita on May
+1st, looking on at a dance. Taunts were exchanged, blows followed, and
+"Ricoverino, son of Messer Ricovero de' Cerchi, by misadventure got his
+nose cut off his face." The leading Guelfs, seeing what a chance the
+split in their party would offer to the Ghibelines, sought the mediation
+of the Pope. Boniface was of course willing enough to interfere, and, as
+has been said, sent Matthew of Acquasparta, Cardinal of Ostia, a former
+General of the Franciscans, to Florence as peacemaker. He arrived just
+about the time when the new Priors, including, as we must suppose,
+Dante, were entering on office, and was received with great honour. But
+when it came to measures of pacification, he seems to have had nothing
+better to suggest than the selection of the Priors by lot, in place of
+their nomination (as had hitherto been the custom) by their predecessors
+and the chiefs of the guilds. "Those of the White party," says Villani,
+"who controlled the government of the country, through fear of losing
+their position, and of being hoodwinked by the Pope and the Legate
+through the reform aforesaid, took the worser counsel, and would not
+obey." So the familiar interdict was launched once more, and the Legate
+departed.
+
+In the city, things went from bad to worse. At the funeral of a lady
+belonging to the Frescobaldi, a White family, in the following December,
+a bad brawl arose, in which the Cerchi had the worst of it. But when the
+Donati, emboldened by this success, attacked their rivals on the
+highway, the Commune took notice of it, and the assailants were
+imprisoned, in default of paying their fines. Some of the Cerchi were
+also fined, and, though able to pay, went to prison, apparently from
+motives of economy, contrary to Vieri's advice. Unluckily for them, the
+governor of the prison, one of their own faction, "an accursed Ser Neri
+degli Abati," a scion of a family which seems, if we may trust Dante's
+mention of some of its other members, to have made a "speciality" of
+treacherous behaviour, introduced into the prison fare a poisoned
+millet-pudding, whereof two of the Cerchi died, and two of the opposite
+party as well,[27] "and no blood-feud came about for that"--probably
+because it was felt that the score was equal.
+
+The Blacks now made a move. The "captains of the Guelf party," who,
+though holding no official position, seem to have exercised a sort of
+_imperium in imperio_, were on their side; and a meeting was held in
+Holy Trinity Church, at which it was resolved to send a deputation to
+Boniface, requesting him to take once again what seems to us--and indeed
+was--the fatal step of calling in French aid. The stern prophecy which
+Dante puts into the mouth of Hugh Capet in Purgatory was to be
+fulfilled:--
+
+                  "I see the time at hand
+    That forth from France invites another Charles
+    To make himself and kindred better known.
+    Unarm'd he issues, saving with that lance
+    Which the arch-traitor tilted with; and that
+    He carries with so home a thrust, as rives
+    The bowels of poor Florence."
+
+We may probably date from this Dante's final severance from the Guelf
+party; and, at any rate, we may judge from it the real value of Guelf
+patriotism.
+
+It must be remembered that the Black faction was still but a faction.
+The conspiracy leaked out, and popular indignation was aroused. The
+_Signoria_ that is, the Priors, took action. Corso Donati and the other
+leaders were heavily fined, and this time the fines were paid. Probably
+they did not wish to taste Ser Neri degli Abati's cookery a second time.
+A good many of the junior members of the party were banished to Castello
+della Pieve; and at the same time, "to remove all jealousy," several of
+the White leaders were sent to Serezzano (which we now call Sarzana)--a
+weak and unlucky attempt at compromise. They were, indeed, soon allowed
+to return, their place of exile being unhealthy; so much so that one of
+them, Dante's most intimate friend, Guido Cavalcanti, died in the course
+of the winter from illness contracted there.
+
+Cardinal Matthew seems not to have actually left Florence till after the
+beginning of 1301. We are told that among his other demands (probably
+made on this occasion), was one to the effect that Florence should
+furnish a hundred men-at-arms for the Pope's service; and that Dante,
+who, after his term of office as Prior, remained a member of the
+council, moved that nothing should be done in the matter. Indeed, in the
+scanty notices which we have of his doings in this critical period, he
+appears as the steady opponent of all outside interference in the
+affairs of Florence, whether by Pope or Frenchman. In the face of this
+it is hard to understand how the famous story of his having gone on an
+embassy to Rome--"If I stay, who goes? If I go, who stays?"--can ever
+have obtained credence. Some words like those he may well have used, in
+the magnificent self-consciousness which elsewhere made him boast of
+having formed a party by himself; but we cannot suppose that he would at
+any time in the course of 1301 have thus put his head into the lion's
+mouth. That Boniface was at the time of the supposed mission not at Rome
+but at Anagni is a minor detail.
+
+If all the White party had possessed Dante's energy, Florence might have
+been saved. Vieri de' Cerchi had, indeed, as we have seen, spirit enough
+to tell the Pope in effect to mind his own business, and he was not
+devoid of shrewdness; but he seems to have been incapable of any
+sustained vigour in action. The party as a whole were probably as
+corrupt as their rivals, and less astute--"an evil and foolish company,"
+as Dante afterwards called them by the mouth of Cacciaguida. Corso
+Donati, on the other hand, was a bold and reckless intriguer. He
+followed up the conspiracy of the Santa Trinita by hastening to the
+Papal Court, and inducing Boniface to send at once for Charles of
+Valois, brother of the French king, Philip the Fair. Charles obeyed the
+summons readily, in the hope, says Villani, of the Imperial crown. After
+a visit to the Pope at Anagni, he entered Florence on All Saints' Day,
+1301. All opposition on the part of the Whites was disarmed by the
+assurance that he came only as "peacemaker;" and a meeting, "at which I,
+the writer, was present," was held in the Church of Santa Maria Novella.
+Charles, "with his own mouth, undertook and swore, and promised as a
+King's son to maintain the city in peace and good estate; and
+incontinently by him and by his people the contrary was done." Armed men
+were introduced; Corso Donati, though under sentence of banishment,
+entered with them, Vieri de' Cerchi, in foolish confidence, forbidding
+his arrest. The populace, promptly seeing who were the masters, raised a
+shout of "Long live Lord Charles and the Baron" (the name given to
+Corso); and the city was given up for a week to burning and pillage. A
+second visit from the Cardinal of Acquasparta produced no result, save a
+momentary truce and another interdict. Throughout the early months of
+1302, killings and slayings went on, Corso's only son, among others,
+being mortally wounded in the act of murdering one of the Cerchi.
+Finally, one of the French knights, acting in the capacity which to this
+day is regarded as peculiarly suited to the French genius, that of
+_agent provocateur_, induced some of the White party, by offers of help,
+to form some kind of conspiracy against Charles's person. This plot
+being duly reported, the conspirators fled on April 4th, some to Pisa,
+some to Arezzo, some to Pistoia, and joined the already exiled
+Ghibelines. They were condemned as rebels, and their houses destroyed.
+From this time the Whites and Ghibelines form one party.
+
+Whether Dante actually went with them is a perplexing question which has
+never been thoroughly solved, but is of sufficient interest to delay us
+for a while. In the short biography of the poet which Villani gives when
+recording his death, we read: "This Dante was a citizen of Florence,
+honourable and of old family, belonging to the ward of St. Peter's Gate,
+and a neighbour of ours. His exile from Florence was for the reason that
+when Lord Charles of Valois, of the house of France, came to Florence in
+1301 and drove out the White party, as is mentioned above under the
+date, the said Dante was one of the chief governors of our city, and
+belonged to that party, Guelf though he was; and therefore, _for no
+other fault_, he was driven forth and banished with the said White party
+from Florence." This seems very explicit, but there are difficulties in
+the way of taking it quite literally. A document exists, dated January
+27, 1302, in which the Podesta, Cante de' Gabrielli of Gubbio, charges
+Dante Alighieri and three others with various offences, the chief being
+_baratteria_ (or corrupt jobbery in office), the use of public money to
+resist the entrance of Charles of Valois, and interference in the
+affairs of Pistoia with the view of securing the expulsion from that
+city "of those who are called Blacks, faithful, men devoted to the Holy
+Roman Church," which had taken place in May, 1301. It is stated that,
+having been duly summoned, they had contumaciously absented themselves,
+which seems to show that they were not in Florence; and they are
+sentenced to pay five thousand florins apiece within three days, or, in
+default, be banished and have their houses destroyed and their goods
+confiscated; and in any case they were banished for two years. A second
+decree of March 10th condemns Dante and fourteen others, among them Lapo
+Salterelli, if they fall into the power of the Commonwealth, to be burnt
+to death.
+
+As has been said, Dante must clearly have been out of Florence when this
+document was launched. Leonardi Bruni says he was at Rome on an embassy
+when the Whites left Florence, and that he hastened to join his party at
+Siena; but for the reasons already given, this story of the embassy
+cannot be accepted. Some have suggested that as at Florence the old
+style prevailed, under which March 26th was New Year's Day, the two
+sentences really belong to what we should now call 1303, when Dante had
+undoubtedly been in exile for some months, and this is corroborated by
+Benvenuto's statement, "bannitus fuit anno MCCCIII."--"bannitus"
+meaning, no doubt, "placed under ban," as distinct from voluntary exile.
+But it appears that Cante de' Gabrielli went out of office in June,
+1302. So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong--and there is
+some little ground for suspecting it--we must assume that, though a
+Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante,
+with some few others of the leading White Guelfs, was compelled to fly
+sooner than the bulk of his party. He may very well have been regarded
+as a specially dangerous opponent.
+
+That there was any foundation for the charge of corruption it is
+impossible to believe. Dante's faults were many, but they did not lie in
+that direction; and the honest Villani, though he appears to have sided
+with the Black party, and indeed held office himself as Prior only a few
+years later, seems to have introduced the words which we have italicised
+in the passage given above, with the express intention of indicating
+this. On the other hand, it may be noted that the charge was ingeniously
+devised. Dante is known to have been in debt, for some of his
+notes-of-hand exist, belonging to the years preceding 1300; while in the
+course of 1301 he was engaged in superintending the performance of
+certain public works in the city. Thus it would be matter of common
+knowledge both that he was short of money and that he had recently been
+in a position offering good opportunities for peculation, a fact of
+which his unscrupulous adversaries would naturally avail themselves. We
+may perhaps see, in the large space which he devotes, in the _Hell_, to
+the crime of _baratteria_, evidence of a wish to express his especial
+detestation of it.
+
+What, however, we know for certain is that, after some date early in the
+year 1302, Dante never saw Florence again. Several attempts were made by
+the exiles to win their way back, but they were uniformly unsuccessful,
+and only led to fresh sentences against those who took part in them.
+Whether Dante was among these, at all events during the earlier years of
+his exile, seems very doubtful. We know from his own words that he had
+no sympathy with the men with whom he was thrown. Indeed, it was a
+curious irony of fate which linked in one condemnation his name and that
+of Lapo Salterelli, a man whom he selects (_Par._, xv. 128) as an
+example of the degradation into which the Florentine character had
+fallen. During this first period he was probably eating his heart, and
+watching for the coming of the deliverer who, by bringing all the world
+under one impartial sway, should put an end to faction and
+self-seeking--the _invidia_ and _avarizia_ against which he is for ever
+inveighing--and permit every man "to sit at ease and perfect himself in
+prudence and wisdom;" thus fulfilling his proper task of "making himself
+immortal," or, as St. Paul phrases it, coming "to the measure of the
+stature of the fulness of Christ." It is a noble conception, though the
+six hundred years which have elapsed since Dante looked for its
+fulfilment do not seem to have brought us very much more forward in that
+direction. Still, we can give him the honour due to a lofty standard of
+political and social conduct in a violent and profligate, if brilliant,
+age; and we can still read with interest and profit that wonderful
+repertory of political wisdom, dialectical argument (after the manner of
+the schoolmen), and passionate pleading for good government, which he
+calls the _Treatise on Monarchy_.
+
+The date at which the _De Monarchia_ was composed is uncertain, but it
+would seem to belong most fitly to the years which immediately succeeded
+Dante's banishment. The Empire was in the hands of the incapable Albert
+of Hapsburg while the Pope, from 1305, was the creature of the French
+King. Caesar and Peter seemed both alike to have abdicated, and the world
+was going from bad to worse. With the election of Henry of Luxemburg, in
+1308, better times may seem to have dawned, when practice might
+supersede abstract theories. The letter which Dante actually wrote to
+Henry in 1311 is couched in a far less meditative tone.
+
+During Henry's short reign the Ghibeline cause looked up; nor was his
+death in 1313 so fatal a blow to it as might have been expected. Several
+powerful leaders arose, one of whom, Uguccione della Faggiuola of Pisa,
+won back most of Tuscany for his party. In 1315 he inflicted a severe
+defeat on the Florentines and their allies at Montecatini, on the border
+of the Florentine and Lucchese territories; but he was unable to follow
+up his success so far as to enter the city. Some two months later a
+third sentence went forth against Dante, in which his sons were
+included, condemning them, as Ghibelines and rebels against the
+Commonwealth and people of Florence and the statutes of the Guelf party,
+to be beheaded whenever taken. It has been plausibly suggested that the
+two events were not unconnected; and as it is hardly likely that at the
+age of fifty Dante would have taken a prominent part in the actual
+fighting, we must suppose it to have been as a leading adviser of the
+enemy that he was specially obnoxious to the ruling powers at Florence.
+
+The chief importance, however, which Dante's exile has for us, is that
+with it his great literary activity began. He had, of course, written
+all his life; and it is quite possible even that some portion of the
+_Commedia_ had been composed before he left Florence. The story told by
+Boccaccio is well known. Commenting upon the opening words of Canto
+viii., he tells us that the preceding portion of the poem had been
+written before the final catastrophe, and left behind by Dante in his
+flight, not being discovered for some years. In any case, the _Vita
+Nuova_ was written, as he himself tells us, before he was twenty-five;
+and a good deal of the _Convito_, a work which looks very much as if it
+had first come into existence as the contents of notebooks, in which
+materials to be afterwards worked into the great poem were jotted down,
+was no doubt in writing. But it is to Dante's twenty years of exile
+that we owe in their completed form the works which place him not only
+among the world's five or six greatest poets, but in an eminent position
+among philosophers, theologians, statesmen, and men of science.
+
+We have but little certain information as to Dante's life during his
+exile. Legends innumerable have sprung up as to his residence here,
+there, and elsewhere; but most of these are based on the fancies of
+later writers; or in some cases even on local vanity, which was
+flattered by the remotest connection with the great name. We can say for
+certain that he passed some time at Verona, some at Lucca, some at
+Ravenna, where his sepulchre remains to this day; and with some approach
+to probability we can place him at Paris, at Bologna, and perhaps at
+Milan. He may possibly have spent some time in the Lunigiana, and some
+in the Casentino. All we know is that his life was spent in wandering,
+that he had no settled home, that he lived on other men's bread, and
+went up and down other men's stairs. He was honoured, it is true. Great
+nobles were glad to employ his services, and, as we have said, the fact
+of his being so often selected by the rulers of Florence for
+condemnation, shows that at least they regarded him as a man to be
+reckoned with. But probably the strongest evidence of the estimation in
+which he was held is to be found in Villani's obituary chapter, wherein
+his character and accomplishments are set forth with a fulness which the
+historian elsewhere reserves for Popes and sovereigns; a fulness all the
+more noteworthy since his name never occurs in the chronicle of events
+in which he undoubtedly took a leading part.
+
+Only when Italy and Florence had lost him beyond hope of recovery was it
+realised that he was one of his country's greatest glories. Then chairs
+were founded from which the most eminent literary men of the age should
+expound his works; and commentator after commentator--nine or ten before
+the end of the fourteenth century--cleared up some obscurities and made
+others more obscure. Of course, so far as historical allusions go, the
+writers who were nearly or quite contemporary with the events are often
+of great service; but it is otherwise, as a rule, when a knowledge of
+books is wanted. We are never so much impressed with the vastness of
+Dante's reading, as when we see the utter failure of these learned men
+even to observe, in many cases, that any explanation or illustration of
+an allusion is wanted. This, however, brings us back to the point from
+which we started, namely, that much as has been written about Dante, the
+possible fields of research are by no means exhausted.
+
+The interest of the events which moulded Dante's career and influenced
+his work has perhaps led to their occupying too large a share of these
+pages; but it has been thought best to go into the history at some
+length, as being after all the first and most essential step towards a
+thorough comprehension of the position which his writings, and
+especially the _Commedia_, hold in European literature. This is quite
+unique of its kind. Never before or since has a poem of the highest
+imagination served--not merely as a political manifesto, but--as a party
+pamphlet; and we may safely say that no such poem will in future serve
+that purpose, at all events until the conditions under which it was
+produced occur. Whether that is ever likely to be the case, those who
+have followed the history may judge.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [27] So I understand an obviously corrupt passage in Villani,
+    viii. 41. One of the unlucky Blacks was a Portinari, doubtless a
+    kinsman of Beatrice--a fact which curiously seems to have
+    escaped the conjectural commentators.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE "COMMEDIA"
+
+
+So many good summaries of the _Commedia_ exist that to give another may
+appear superfluous. At the same time, experience shows not only that
+such a summary is found by most readers to be the best of all helps to
+the study of the poem, but also that every fresh summariser treats it
+from a somewhat different point of view. It is therefore possible that
+in the following pages answers, or at least suggestions of answers, may
+be found to some questions which previous writers, in England at all
+events, have passed over; and that they may serve in some measure as a
+supplement to the works which will be mentioned in the appendix.
+
+
+Section 1. HELL.
+
+The first eleven cantos of the _Hell_ form a very distinct subdivision
+of the poem. They embrace, first, the introduction contained in Canto
+i.; secondly, the description of the place of punishment up to a point
+at which a marked change in the character of the sins punished is
+indicated. In one sense, no doubt, an important stage in the journey is
+completed when the City of Dis is reached, in Canto viii.; but it will
+be observed, when we reach that point, that the class of sinners who are
+met with immediately within the walls of the City, the Epicureans or, as
+we should now say, the Materialists, bear really a much stronger
+affinity to those who are outside the walls, those whose sin has been
+lack of self-restraint in one form or another, than they do to the worse
+criminals who have "offended of malicious wickedness," and who lie at
+and below the foot of the steep guarded by the Minotaur. The former
+class at all events have been, to use a common phrase, "their own worst
+enemies;" their sins have not been, at any rate in their essence, like
+those of the latter, of the kind which break up the fabric of society,
+and with them the heretics may most naturally be considered. It can
+hardly be doubted that some such view as this led Dante to make the
+first great break of level in his scheme of the lower world at a point
+which would leave the freethinkers and materialists actually nearer to
+the sinners of whom he holds that their sin "men Dio offende," even
+though theological exigencies compel him to place them within the walls
+of the "red-hot city." We may thus conveniently take these eleven cantos
+for consideration as a group by themselves.
+
+In the earlier cantos, as indeed throughout the poem, the main
+difficulties with which we meet depend far more on interpretation than
+on the mere "construing" of the words; and even if it were otherwise,
+all purely linguistic difficulties have been so fully dealt with over
+and over again in commentaries and translations that it would, as has
+been said, be quite superfluous to enter here upon any discussion of
+them. The opening canto, as every reader will at once perceive, is
+symbolism and allegory from beginning to end, from the "dark wood" in
+which the action of the poem begins to the "hound" who is to free Italy.
+These, more especially the latter, have given as much trouble to the
+interpreter as anything in the whole poem; indeed it may be said that in
+the matter of the _Veltro_ we have not made much advance on Boccaccio,
+who frankly admitted that he could not tell what was meant. But between
+these two points we have some hundred lines in nearly every one of
+which, beside its obvious and literal interpretation, we must look for
+all the others enumerated by Dante in the famous passage of his letter
+to Can Grande. The second canto is of much the same character, in some
+respects almost in more need of close study. The significance of the
+three beasts who hinder Dante is easier to make out than that of the
+three heavenly ladies who assist him. Meantime, if we are content to
+read the poem as narrative merely, there is no great difficulty to be
+overcome. The language is straightforward on the whole, almost the only
+_crux_ being ii. 108, which has not yet been satisfactorily explained,
+nor is the imagery other than simple.
+
+With Canto iii. and the arrival within the actual portal of Hell (though
+hardly in Hell properly so called) we enter upon a fresh subdivision of
+the poem; and are very soon brought up by the first, and one of the most
+perplexing, of the allusions to contemporary history with which it
+abounds. The elucidation of these would constantly offer almost
+hopeless difficulties, were it not for the early commentators, who are
+often able to explain them from personal knowledge. Now and then,
+however, it happens that they differ, and then the modern student is at
+a loss. This has been in some measure the case with the famous "gran
+rifiuto," iii. 60; so that while we may with a high degree of
+probability accept the more usual view that the allusion is to the
+abdication of Celestine V., we cannot without further evidence feel so
+certain about it as we could wish. The whole conception of this canto
+seems to be due to Dante's own invention; only to a nature like his,
+keenly alive to the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and
+burning with zeal in the cause of right, could it have occurred to mark
+off for special ignominy people whose sole fault seems to have been that
+they "took things too easily." When, in Canto iv., we pass the river of
+Acheron, and find ourselves for the first time actually on the border of
+Hell itself, we are conscious at first of an alleviation. Melancholy
+there is, but it is a dignified melancholy, as different from the sordid
+misery of the wretches we have just left, as the "noble city" and the
+green sward enclosed by it are different from the murky air and the
+foul mud among which they have to dwell. Both in this and in the second
+circle we have punishment indeed but without degradation, even with some
+mitigation. Virgil at least enjoys the converse of the sages and great
+men of old and, in so far as non-Christians go, of recent times; while
+Francesca is solaced by the perpetual companionship of him for whose
+sake she has lost her soul. Even the penalty which she suffers, of being
+whirled for ever on the storm, is not exactly humiliating. From this
+point, however, we are conscious of a change. The gluttons seated or
+lying on putrid earth and exposed to lashing rain; the misusers of
+wealth, with all human lineaments effaced, and engaged in a foolish and
+wearisome scuffle; the ill-tempered, floating on the surface of the foul
+marsh of Styx or lying submerged in it according as their disposition
+was to fierce wrath or sullen brooding--all these are not merely
+tormented but degraded as well.
+
+After crossing the Styx (Canto viii.) we find a further change. Thus far
+the sins punished have differed only in degree from those which we shall
+find being expiated in Purgatory. They are indeed the simpler forms, so
+to speak, of the defects common to all animal nature. They are the same
+which, in one of their interpretations, the three symbolical beasts of
+Canto i. denote. Henceforth we find sins which are only possible to the
+higher intelligence of humanity. It will be observed, too, that at this
+point what may be called pictorial description begins. Hitherto we have
+had merely a general impression of murky air and miry soil, sloping
+perhaps a little toward the centre, and intersected now and again by a
+stream. Now the City of Dis with minarets and towers rises in front of
+us, and, as we shall see in future cantos, from this time onwards the
+character of the scenery is indicated with great preciseness, even to
+its smallest details. Here, too, actual devils, beings whose will, as
+Aquinas says, is obstinately set upon evil, appear for the first time,
+as distinct from the personages of classical mythology, who act as
+warders of the various circles. Virgil, or human reason, is no longer
+sufficient of himself to secure a passage. Both at the gates of the
+fiery city and on subsequent occasions he is as helpless, without
+superior aid, as his disciple and follower.
+
+The ninth canto contains a piece of allegory, that involved in the
+introduction of Medusa and the Furies, which has earned perhaps a
+greater reputation for obscurity than it deserves, from the fact that
+Dante himself calls special attention to it.
+
+Cantos x. and xi. are both very important, the former for its bearing on
+the history of Florence. Those who have read the sketch of that history
+in the preceding chapters will understand the full force of Farinata's
+discourse with Dante. We have had a brief passage of the same kind in
+Canto vi., but here the subject is treated at greater length, and with
+some marvellous dramatic touches.
+
+Canto xi. must be thoroughly mastered if Dante's scheme of ethics is to
+be understood. It forms, indeed, a summary of and key to the arrangement
+of the penalties, and a thorough comprehension and retention of it in
+the memory will be found a wonderful help to a recollection of the whole
+Cantica.
+
+At the conclusion of the discourse in which Dante, speaking by the mouth
+of Virgil, has set forth this ethical system, the poets move forward
+along the brink of the pit until they arrive at a spot where they can
+reach the lower level. The descent is rendered possible by a steep and
+broken slope of loose rock, which Dante compares to the great landslip
+between Trent and Verona, known as the Slavino di Marco.[28] Virgil
+explains that this was due to the "rending of the rocks" at the time of
+the Crucifixion. The descent is guarded by the legendary Minotaur, the
+Cretan monster, part bull, part man. In this connection it may be
+noticed that the beings suggested by classical mythology, who are met
+with in the division of Hell which lies between the wall of the City of
+Dis and the brink of Malebolge, the Minotaur, the Centaurs, the Harpies,
+and Geryon (as Dante conceives him), all belong to the semi-bestial
+class. In spite of the opinion held by some of the most eminent
+Dante-scholars, that Dante in his classification of sins does not follow
+Aristotle's grouping of them into incontinent, malicious, and brutal,
+but recognises the first two only, it seems difficult not to see in
+this, especially when it is taken in connection with expressions
+scattered throughout his writings, an indication that in the sins of
+the seventh circle he found the equivalent of the Greek philosopher's
+[Greek: theriotes]--the result of giving a free range to the brutal, as
+distinct from the common animal, impulses.
+
+In this seventh circle, too, we first meet with _fire_ as an instrument
+of Divine wrath. Indeed, with the single exception of the suicides, for
+whom a specially significant chastisement is devised, all the sinners in
+this group, from the heretics in their red-hot tombs to the usurers
+tormented on one side by the fiery rain, and on the other by the
+exhalations from the deeper pit, are punished by means of heat. At the
+foot of the slope is a great circular plain, ringed with a river of
+boiling blood in which spoilers, robbers, and murderers, some famous,
+some obscure, are plunged more or less deeply in proportion to the
+heinousness of their crimes; for, like earthly streams, this has its
+deep and shallow. At the latter point they cross, on the back of Nessus
+the Centaur, and at once enter (Canto xiii.) a wood of gnarled and sere
+trees, in which the Harpies have their dwelling. These trees have sprung
+from the souls of suicides, and retain the power of speech and
+sensation. From one of these, who in life had been the famous statesman
+Peter de Vineis, Dante learns that at the judgement they will recover
+their bodies, like others, but will not be allowed to reassume them. The
+body will be hung on the tree to which it belongs. Here, as in the case
+of the avaricious and the wrathful, the spirits of other sinners take a
+part in the infliction of the punishment. The wood is inhabited by the
+souls of those who had wasted their substance in life, and these are
+constantly chased through it by hounds, with much destruction of leaves
+and twigs.
+
+On issuing from the wood (Canto xiv.), they find themselves at the edge
+of a great circular plain of sand, upon which flakes of fire are
+ceaselessly dropping. Skirting the wood for some distance they reach the
+bank of the stream of blood which, having circled all round the outer
+margin of the wood, now comes flowing through it, and crosses the sandy
+plain in a channel carefully built of shaped stone. Virgil takes
+occasion to explain the origin of the rivers of Hell. Thick fumes rise
+from it which quench the falling flames, so that along its bank, and
+there only, can a way be found. As they proceed they find sinners lying
+prone or running under the fiery shower. These are they who had done
+violence to God, either directly by open blasphemy, or indirectly by
+violating the divinely appointed natural order whereby both the race of
+mankind and its possessions should increase and multiply. Many famous
+Florentines are among these sinners (Cantos xv. and xvi.); and Dante
+talks long with the famous statesman and philosopher, Brunetto Latini,
+who had been his early friend and adviser, and with sundry great
+captains and men of renown. After this they reach the point where the
+river falls with a mighty roar down to the next level. There is no
+natural means of descent here available; and Dante hands to Virgil a
+cord with which he is girt. The meaning of this cord is very obscure. He
+says: "I once thought to capture the leopard with it;" and if the
+leopard denotes the factions of Florence, the cord may perhaps symbolise
+justice or equity. When Virgil has thrown it down they wait a short
+time, and presently a monster appears whose name we find to be Geryon,
+and who symbolises fraud or treachery. It is perhaps not unnatural that
+when the power to enforce justice has been cast away, treachery should
+raise its head. This monster draws near the brink (Canto xvii.), but
+before they mount on him, Virgil allows Dante to walk a few paces to the
+right, in order that he may take note of the last class of "violent"
+sinners, namely, the usurers. These hold an intermediate position
+between the violent and the treacherous; just as the heretics did
+between the incontinent and the violent. Here again are many
+Florentines. Like the other misusers of money in Canto vii. their
+features are unrecognisable, and they are only to be known by the arms
+embroidered on their money bags. After hearing a few words from one of
+them, Dante returns to Virgil, and both take their place on the croup of
+Geryon, who bears them downwards to the eighth circle. This (Canto
+xviii.), from its configuration, is known as Malebolge, or Evilpits. It
+is divided into ten concentric rings, or circular trenches, separated by
+a tract of rocky ground. From various indications we gather that each
+trench is half a mile across, and the intervening ground a mile and a
+quarter. The trenches are spanned by rocky ribs, forming bridges by
+which the central cavity can be reached. Here we find for the first time
+devils, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, employed as tormentors.
+The sinners in this circle are those who have been guilty in any way of
+leading others into sin, deceiving or cheating them, without any
+aggravating circumstances of ingratitude or breach of natural ties. In
+the first pit are those who have led women astray; these are scourged by
+fiends. In the next lie flatterers immersed in the most loathsome filth.
+In each Dante notes two examples: one of recent times--indeed, in both
+cases an acquaintance of his own,--and one taken from ancient history or
+legend. Jason, for his desertion of Hypsipyle and Medea, is the
+classical example of the first offence. Of this use of mythological
+persons we have many examples, but the typical flatterer of old time is
+a more curious selection, being a character in a play, whom Dante has
+borrowed from Cicero.
+
+In the next, or third pit (Canto xix.), we again find fire as the
+instrument with which the sinners are punished. Those who have made
+money by misuse of sacred offices are buried head downwards in holes
+with their feet projecting, and fire plays about their soles. Naturally
+an opportunity is here presented for some strong invective against the
+recent unworthy occupants of the See of Rome.
+
+Canto xx. brings us to the fourth pit, in which those who have professed
+to foretell the future march in a dismal procession with their heads
+turned round so that they look down their own backs. The sight of Manto,
+daughter of Tiresias, suggests a description of the origin of the city
+of Mantua. The last lines of this canto contain one of the most
+important indications of time which Dante gives in this part of the
+poem.
+
+The sinners of the fifth pit correspond in some degree with those of the
+third, except that in their case the traffic which is punished has to do
+with secular offices. Canto xxi. opens with the famous description of
+the work in the arsenal of Venice, which is introduced in order to
+afford an image of the boiling pitch in which sinners of this class are
+immersed. For some reason, which is not very clear, Dante devotes two
+whole cantos to this subdivision of the subject. There is no doubt that
+_baratteria_, peculation or jobbery, was rampant throughout Southern
+Europe at the time, and, as has been said, it was one of the charges
+brought against the poet himself at the time of his banishment.[29] We
+find here again one of "the torments of heat;" with one exception, that
+of the evil counsellors in Canto xxv., the last instance in which heat
+plays a part. It would be interesting, by comparison of the various sins
+into the punishment of which it enters, to see if any ground can be
+suggested for its employment in their case.
+
+Cantos xxi. and xxii. are also noteworthy as bringing into prominence
+the agency of devils, and showing them actually at work. Ten are
+introduced and named; and some indication is given of their
+organisation. Dante's skill is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the
+way in which he has surmounted the difficulty of depicting beings in
+whom there is no touch of any good quality. They are plausible; and
+their leader, Malacoda, appears at first sight almost friendly. It is
+not until later that his apparent friendliness turns out to be a
+deliberate attempt to mislead.
+
+At the opening of Canto xxiii. we find the poets exactly half-way
+through Malebolge, on the rocky table-land, so to call it, which
+separates the fifth and sixth pits. They are quite solitary, for the
+first time in the course of their journey out of sight and hearing of
+any other beings; but still in fear of pursuit from the fiends whom they
+have just left. These do not, however, come up until just as the poets
+have begun the descent into the sixth pit, and here their power is at an
+end.
+
+In this pit are punished the hypocrites, who go in slow procession clad
+in cowls of gilded lead. Contrary to the usual practice the poets have
+in this case to descend to the bottom of the pit, the bridges being all
+broken away. Malacoda, the leader of the fiends in the last _bolgia_,
+had mentioned one, but (falsely) assured them that they would find a
+sound one further on. He also informed them that the destruction of the
+bridges had taken place 1266 years ago on the previous day, but five
+hours later than the time of speaking. This gives an important
+"time-reference." There can be no doubt that the allusion is to the
+rending of the rocks at the moment of Our Lord's death (_cf._ xii.
+31-45), which took place at 3 P.M., so that we have 10 A.M. on Easter
+Eve fixed as the hour at which the poets meet with the devils of the
+fifth pit. Among the hypocrites Dante talks with two men who had jointly
+held the office of _Podesta_, or chief magistrate, at Florence in the
+year after his birth.[30] They belonged to opposite parties, and the
+double appointment had been one of the many expedients devised to
+restore peace; but it had not answered, and the two were suspected of
+having sunk their own differences of opinion, not to conciliate the
+factions, but to enrich themselves at the expense of the State. While
+talking to them Dante sees a figure fastened to the ground with three
+stakes, as though crucified. This, it is explained, is Caiaphas; Annas
+being similarly placed at another point of the circle. Dante and Virgil
+have to leave this pit as they entered it, by climbing over the rocks
+(Canto xxiv.); and from the minuteness with which this process is
+described (even to so characteristic a touch as "I talked as I went, to
+show that my wind was good,") it has been thought that Dante was not
+without experience in mountain-craft.
+
+The seventh pit is appointed for the punishment of thieves. Serpents and
+dragons are here introduced. In some cases the body is reduced to ashes
+in consequence of the bite, and presently recovers its shape; in others
+man and serpent blend; in others, again, they exchange natures, the
+sinners themselves being transmuted into the reptiles, and becoming the
+instruments of torment to their fellows. A kind of reckless and brutal
+joviality seems to characterise the malefactors whom we meet with in
+this region. Among them are many Florentines, a fact which prompts Dante
+to an apostrophe full of bitter irony, with which Canto xxvi. opens. In
+the following pit a curious change of tone is manifest. The image chosen
+to illustrate the scene is an agreeable one--fireflies flitting in
+summer about a mountain valley; and the punishment though terrible is in
+no way loathsome or degrading, like most of those which have hitherto
+been described in the present circle. The sinners, too, who are
+mentioned are men who on earth had played heroic parts; the manner of
+their speech is dignified, and Dante treats them with respect. They are
+those who have sinned by giving wicked counsel to others, and so
+leading them to commit sin; and the two who are especially distinguished
+and who relate their stories at length are Ulysses (Canto xxvi.) and
+Count Guy of Montefeltro, a great Ghibeline leader (xxvii.). The former
+probably owes his place here to Virgil's epithet _scelerum inventor_,
+deviser of crimes. In a passage which has deservedly become famous, he
+gratifies Dante's curiosity as to the manner of his end. The passage,
+apart from its poetic beauty, is remarkable as being, so far as can be
+traced, due entirely to the poet's own invention. At all events, beyond
+two or three words in the _Odyssey_, nothing in either classical or
+mediaeval legend is known which can have given the suggestion for it. In
+the case of the Count of Montefeltro, who is alleged to have given
+treacherous counsel to Boniface VIII., it also appears difficult to
+understand how the facts, if facts they are, became known to Dante.
+Villani no doubt gives the story, but in language so similar to that of
+the poem that a suspicion arises whether he may not be relying on it as
+his authority.
+
+The next canto (xxviii.) introduces us to one of Dante's most ghastly
+conceptions. The ninth pit is peopled by those who have on earth caused
+strife and divisions among mankind. They are not, as often stated,
+schismatics in the technical sense of the word. Mahommed and Ali are
+there, obviously not on religious grounds however, but as having brought
+about a great breach between divisions of the human race; and though Fra
+Dolcino, who is introduced as it were by anticipation, was a religious
+schismatic, it was no doubt his social heterodoxy which earned him a
+commemoration in this place. The punishment of these sinners is
+appropriate. They are constantly being slashed to pieces by demons; the
+wounds being closed again before they complete the circuit. Curio, who
+as Lucan narrates, spoke the words which finally decided Caesar to enter
+upon civil war, Mosca de' Lamberti, the instigator of the crime which
+first imported especial bitterness into the strife of factions at
+Florence, and one Peter of Medicina, who seems to have devoted himself
+to keeping party-spirit alive in Romagna, are here. Last of all,
+carrying his own head like a lantern, is Bertrand of Born, the famous
+troubadour, who is charged with having promoted the quarrel between
+Henry II. of England and his son. It is worth noting that at this point
+we get the first definite indication of the dimensions which Dante
+assumes for the present division of Hell. We are told that this ninth
+pit of Malebolge has a circumference of twenty-two miles. From the next
+canto we learn that the last or innermost pit has half this measure; and
+from this basis it has been found possible to draw an accurate plan of
+Malebolge, and to conjecture, with an approach to certainty, the
+conception formed by Dante of Hell generally.[31]
+
+In the last pit (Cantos xxix. and xxx.) are found those who have been
+guilty of personation with criminal intent, or of bearing false witness,
+or of debasing the coinage or pretending to transmute metals. These
+suffer from leprosy, dropsy, raving madness, and other diseases. Before
+leaving the pit, a quarrel between two of the sinners attracts Dante's
+attention more than Virgil thinks seemly; and a sharp reprimand follows.
+Dante's penitence however earns speedy forgiveness.
+
+We are now drawing near the lowest pit; and through the dim air is heard
+the sound of a great horn (Canto xxxi.) Going forward, they find that
+the final descent, which appears to be a sheer drop of about thirty-five
+feet, is guarded by a ring of giants. Those of them who are seen are
+Nimrod, and the classical Ephialtes and Antaeus; but we learn that others
+famous in Greek mythology are there also. Antaeus being addressed by
+Virgil in courteous words, lifts the poets down the wall and lands them
+on the lowest floor of Hell. This (Canto xxxii.) is of ice, and must be
+conceived as a circular plain, perhaps about two miles in diameter. In
+this are punished all who have been guilty of any treachery towards
+those to whom they were bound by special ties of kindred,
+fellow-citizenship, friendship, or gratitude. Each of these various
+grades of crime has its own division, and these are arranged
+concentrically, with no very definite boundaries between the different
+classes. At the same time each division has its appropriate name, formed
+from some famous malefactor who had specially exemplified that class of
+crime. Thus the first ring is Caina; the second, Antenora, from Antenor,
+who, according to a late version of the Trojan legend, had betrayed Troy
+to the Greeks; the third, Toommea, from that Ptolemy, son of Abubus,
+who treacherously slew the Maccabees at a feast; the last, in which
+Lucifer himself abides, is Giudecca. No distinction appears to exist
+between the penalties inflicted on the two first classes; all are alike
+plunged up to the shoulders in the ice, the head being free. Dante
+speaks with more than one, most of them persons who had belonged to the
+Ghibeline party; though in the case of one, Bocca degli Abati, the
+treachery had been committed to the detriment of the Guelfs.[32] The
+mention of Bocca and Dante's behaviour to him, may remind us that the
+whole question of Dante's demeanour towards the persons whom he meets in
+the first part of the poem is interesting. For some he is full of pity,
+towards some he is even respectful; occasionally he is neutral; while in
+some cases he displays anger and scorn, amounting as here to positive
+cruelty. The expressions of pity, it will be observed, practically cease
+from the moment that Malebolge, the "nethermost Hell," is reached.
+Similarly, after reaching the City of Dis, the tone of Virgil towards
+the guardians of the damned, which up to that point has been
+peremptory, becomes almost suppliant. The reason for this is indeed
+somewhat obscure: one does not at once see why the formula "So it is
+willed there, where will is power," should not be as good for the Furies
+or for Malacoda as it has proved for Charon and Minos. Perhaps the clue
+is to be found in the fact that the sins punished _inside_ the walls of
+the city (sins which, it will be seen, are not represented in Purgatory
+at all) are to be regarded as the result of a will obstinately set
+against the will of God; while the sins arising from the frailty of
+human nature may be checked by the "right judgement" recalling, before
+it is too late, what the will of God is. This, however, is a different
+question, and we must not here pursue it too far. To revert to that of
+Dante's various demeanour, it will be seen that, with the limitation
+indicated above, his sympathy with the sinner does not vary with the
+comparative heinousness of the sin. Almost his bitterest scorn, indeed,
+is directed towards some whose chief sin is lack of any positive
+qualities, good or bad. One infers that he would almost rather wander in
+a flame with Ulysses, or lie in the ice with Ugolino, than undergo the
+milder punishment of Celestine and his ignoble companions. For the
+simply self-indulgent, Francesca or Ciacco, he has pity in abundance;
+Farinata, Brunetto, and the other famous men who share the fates of
+these, may probably come into the same category. In such cases as these,
+while he has not a word to say against the justice of God, he has no
+desire to add "the wrath of man" thereto. In the one instance in
+Malebolge where he shows any sympathy (and is reproved by Virgil for
+doing so) it is for the soothsayers, whose sin would not necessarily
+involve the hurt of others. But his conduct is very different to those
+whose sin has been primarily against their fellow-man, or against kindly
+human intercourse. His first fierce outbreak is against the swaggering
+ruffian Filippo Argenti, who seems to have been in Florentine society
+the most notable example of a class now happily extinct in civilised
+countries, at all events among adults; a kind of bully, or "Mohock,"
+fond of rough practical jokes, prompted, not by a misguided sense of
+humour, but by an irritable man's delight in venting his spite. One can
+sympathise, even after six hundred years, in Dante's pious satisfaction
+when he saw the man, of whom he may himself have once gone in bodily
+fear, become in his turn the object of persecution. It is, however,
+after Malebolge is reached, and Dante is among the sinners who have by
+dishonest practices weakened the bond of confidence which should bind
+human society together, that he lets his wrath and scorn have full play.
+His imagery even takes on a grotesque, at times even a foul aspect. He
+was not one to mince his words, and if he means to sicken his readers,
+he goes straight to his aim.
+
+It is to be noted, too, that the language and demeanour of the sinners
+themselves have in many cases changed. Above Malebolge, at all events
+till the usurers are reached, a certain dignity of speech and action is
+the rule. Now we find flippant expressions and vulgar gestures. Nothing
+is omitted which can give a notion, not merely of the sinfulness, but of
+the sordidness of dishonesty. Curiously enough, the one denizen of this
+region who is thoroughly dignified and even pathetic, is the pagan
+Ulysses; and to him Dante does not himself speak, leaving the pagan
+Virgil to hold all communication with him. Besides Ulysses, Guy of
+Montfeltro and Ugolino are presented in such a way as to enlist, in
+some degree, the sympathy of the reader; and it may further be noted
+that in each case a representative of the family in the next generation
+is placed in Purgatory; as though Dante, while bound to condemn the
+elder men, had held the houses in such esteem that he wished to balance
+the condemnation by assigning a better fate to their successors.
+
+The opening of Canto xxxiii. brings us to the famous episode of Count
+Ugolino, which shares with the earlier one of Francesca da Rimini the
+widest renown of any passage in the whole poem. It is curious, by the
+way, that the structure of the two shows many marked parallelisms; only
+the tender pity which characterises Dante's treatment of the former is
+wholly lacking in the latter. There is no need to dwell on so well-known
+a story; but it may be noted that Ugolino, though a Guelf leader, and
+condemned here no doubt for his intrigues with the Ghibeline Archbishop
+Roger, came of a Ghibeline family, and thus forms only a partial
+exception to the rule stated above. The only genuine Guelf who is named
+in this division is Tesauro de' Beccheria, the Abbot of Vallombrosa.
+
+This will perhaps be the best point at which to say a few words on a
+subject about which much misconception has prevailed. It has often been
+supposed that Dante was just a Ghibeline partisan, and distributed his
+characters in the next world according to political sympathies. The
+truth is, that under no circumstances, so far as we can see, does he
+assign to any one his place on political grounds--that is, merely for
+having belonged to one or other of the great parties which then divided
+Italy. He himself, as we know, belonged to neither. His political ideal
+was a united world submitting to the general direction of the Emperor in
+temporal matters, of the Pope in spiritual. On the other hand, he would
+have had national forms of government retained. Brought up as he had
+been, the citizen and afterwards the official of a Guelf republic, there
+is no reason to suppose that a republican form of government was in any
+way distasteful to him, provided that it was honestly administered. It
+was not until the more powerful faction in the Guelf party called in the
+aid of an external power, unconnected with Italy, and hostile, or, as he
+would doubtless hold, rebellious, to the Empire, that he, along with the
+more "constitutional" branch of the Guelfs, threw in his lot with the
+long-banished Ghibelines. But neither then nor at any time did he belong
+to the Ghibeline party. So far from it, that he takes that party (in
+_Par._, vi. 105) as the example of those who follow the imperial
+standard in the wrong way, and make it a symbol of iniquity. The
+greatest and most heroic figure in the whole history of the Ghibelines,
+the man whose love for the rebellious city was as great as Dante's own,
+who when he had by his prowess in arms recovered it for the Empire,
+stood resolutely between it and the destruction which in the opinion of
+his comrades it had merited, is condemned to share with a Pope and an
+Emperor the penalty of speculative heterodoxy. On the other hand, we
+find Charles of Anjou, the foreign intruder, the bitter foe of the
+Empire and pitiless exterminator of the imperial race, a man in whom
+later historians, free from personal or patriotic bias, have seen hardly
+any virtue to redeem the sombre cruelty of his career, placed, not
+indeed in Paradise, but in Purgatory, and waiting in sure and certain
+hope of ultimate salvation, as one who in spite of many faults had led a
+pure and ascetic life in a profligate and self-indulgent age. It would
+be interesting to know, if Dante had met Charles somewhat later, in
+which of the Purgatorial circles he would have placed him. He seems to
+evade the difficulty of classifying him by finding him where he does.
+
+It is necessary to insist rather strongly on this point, since even so
+accomplished a scholar as the late Professor Bartoli, when dealing with
+Dante's reference to the Emperor Henry VII. (in _Par._, xxx. 133, sqq.),
+forgets that all the saints in Paradise have their allotted seat in the
+Rose of the highest heaven, and speaks as though Dante had honoured
+Henry above all but the greatest saints and foretold his "direct flight
+from the earth to the Empyrean." Of course there is not a word of this.
+All that we are entitled to say is that Dante held Henry to be an
+Emperor who was doing his duty, and would earn his reward like any other
+Christian and before Dante himself. It will be observed that he sees no
+other Emperor in Paradise, save Charlemagne; one, Rudolf of Hapsburg, is
+in, or rather just outside of, Purgatory; one, the great Frederick II.,
+in Hell. Of the Popes one only, and he a Pope who in his life lay under
+grievous suspicion of heterodoxy, and moreover only occupied the Papal
+See for a few months, is placed in Heaven. This is "Peter of Spain,"
+Pope John XXI. Two are in Purgatory; one of them, Martin IV., being a
+man who, as a Frenchman by birth, and a strong partisan of Charles of
+Anjou, might be supposed to have been specially obnoxious to Dante. No
+doubt Popes appear in what may seem an unfair proportion among the
+guilty souls below; but even for this distribution Dante could probably
+have pleaded orthodox authority and certainly scriptural support. "To
+whom much is given, of the same shall much be required." It is true, as
+Professor Bartoli points out, that Dante's "reverence for the supreme
+keys" was compatible with a very low estimate of their holders; but is
+not this exactly what we should expect from a man of high ideals and
+intolerant of failure in proportion to the dignity of the aim? His
+treatment of Pope Celestine, the one Pope of his time from whom, _prima
+facie_, something other than political partisanship might have been
+hoped, and who having put his hand to the plough had looked back, is
+sufficient to indicate his attitude in this matter.
+
+Once realise that Dante was, like our own Milton, a man with a keen
+sense of what ought to be, and an equally keen appreciation of the fact
+that things in his time were by no means as they ought to be, that he
+was fallen on evil days and evil tongues--an appreciation which
+doubtless most great souls, short of the few greatest, have had at most
+periods of the world's history--and you have the key to much that no
+ordinary theory of party-spirit will explain. Men of this temper care
+little for the party cries of everyday politics; and yet they cannot
+quite sit outside the world of affairs and watch the players, as we may
+imagine Shakespeare to have done, in calm consciousness that the shaping
+of our rough-hewn ends was in other hands than ours. No great historian
+of Shakespeare's time devoted a whole chapter to his memory, as did
+Villani to that of Dante; yet we can hardly doubt that in the education
+of the world Shakespeare has borne the more important share, and Dante,
+with his deep conviction of the higher dignity of the "contemplative
+life," would be the first to own it.
+
+The third subdivision, known as Tolommea, has, as one of its inmates
+says, the "privilege" of receiving the souls of sinners while their
+bodies are yet alive on earth, animated by demons. With this horrible
+conception we seem to have reached the highest mark of Dante's inventive
+power. Only two names are mentioned, but one feels that if the owners of
+them ever came across the poem in which they had earned so sinister a
+commemoration, their sentiment towards the poet would hardly be one of
+gratitude.[33] These are the last of his contemporaries whom Dante
+brands, the last, indeed, whom he recognises. In Giudecca (Canto xxxiv.)
+the sinners are wholly sunk below the ice, and only show through like
+straws or other small impurities in glass. An exception is made in the
+case of the three persons whom Dante regards as having carried the sin
+of ingratitude to its highest point. Lucifer, who, as has been said, is
+fixed at the lowest point, has three faces. In the mouth of the central
+one he for ever gnaws Judas Iscariot, while in the others are Brutus and
+Cassius.
+
+The journey to the upper world is begun by a climb down the shaggy sides
+of the Archfiend himself. On reaching his middle, which is also the
+centre of the earth, the position is reversed, and the ascent begins.
+For a short distance they climb up by Lucifer's legs, then through a
+chimney in the rock; lastly, it would appear, following the course of a
+stream which winds spirally down through the earth, they reach the
+surface, and again come in sight of the stars.
+
+
+Section 2. PURGATORY.
+
+After the invocation to the Muses, a curious survival of classical
+imagery with which in one form or another each division of the poem
+begins, Dante relates how, on emerging from the lower world, as Easter
+Day was dawning the poets found themselves on an island with the first
+gleam of day just visible on the distant sea. Venus is shining in the
+eastern heaven; and four stars, "never seen save by the earliest of
+mankind," are visible to the south. No doubt some tradition or report of
+the Southern Cross had reached men's ears in Europe; but the symbolical
+meaning is more important, and there can be no doubt that the stars
+denote the four "cardinal" or natural or active virtues of fortitude,
+temperance, justice, and prudence. In the evening, as we shall see later
+on, their place is taken by three other stars, which symbolise the
+theological or Christian or contemplative virtues--faith, hope, charity.
+
+On turning again Dante sees close at hand an old man of venerable
+countenance, who questions them by what right they had come. Virgil
+recognises him for Cato of Utica, the Roman Republican patriot. His
+position here, as warder of the mount of purification, is very curious,
+and has never been thoroughly explained. Among other things it is
+probable that Dante was influenced by the Virgilian line in which Cato
+is introduced as the lawgiver of good men in the after-world. Being
+satisfied with the explanation given, Cato directs them to the shore,
+where Virgil is to wash the grime of Hell from Dante's face, and gird
+him with a rush, as an emblem of humility. When this has been done and
+as the sun is rising (Canto ii.) a light is seen approaching over the
+water. As it draws near, it is seen to be an angel. His wings form the
+sails to a boat which comes to the shore, freighted with more than a
+hundred souls on their way to Purgatory. They are chanting the Easter
+Psalm _In exitu Israel_; at the sign of the cross made by the angel they
+come ashore, and begin by inquiring the way of Virgil. While he is
+explaining that he is no less strange to the country than they are, some
+of them perceive that Dante is a living man, and all crowd around him.
+Among them he recognises a friend, the musician Casella, who, after some
+affectionate words have passed between them, begins at Dante's request
+to sing one of the poet's own odes; and the crowd listen intently. But
+Cato comes up, and bidding them delay no longer, drives them like a
+flock of frightened pigeons towards the mountain.
+
+Even Virgil is somewhat abashed on account of his participation in the
+delay (Canto iii.); but soon recovers his equanimity, and resumes his
+usual dignified pace. Dante for the first time observes that his
+companion casts no shadow on the ground, and Virgil explaining that the
+spiritual form, while capable of feeling pain, has not the property of
+intercepting light, takes occasion to point out that there are mysteries
+for which the human reason is unable to account, and that this very
+inability forms the chief unhappiness of the great thinkers whom they
+saw among the virtuous heathen on the border of Hell. With this they
+reach the foot of the mountain of Purgatory. As is explained elsewhere,
+this occupies a position exactly opposite to the conical pit of Hell;
+being indeed formed of that portion of the earth which fled at the
+approach of Satan when he fell from Heaven. Some of its features are no
+doubt borrowed from the legendary accounts which Pliny and others have
+preserved of a great mountain seen by navigators to the west of the
+Straits of Gibraltar; these accounts being probably based on imperfect
+descriptions of Atlas or Teneriffe, or both confused together. Its
+summit is exactly at the Antipodes of Jerusalem, a point which must be
+carefully borne in mind if the various astronomical indications of time
+given in the course of the journey are to be rightly understood.
+
+The mountain-side, which Dante compares to the steepest and most rugged
+parts of the Genoese Riviera, appears at first, quite inaccessible; but
+before long they meet a company of spirits, who, after recovering from
+their first astonishment at seeing from Dante's shadow that he is not
+one of themselves, indicate to them the point at which the cliff may be
+attacked. Before they proceed further, one of the shades addressing
+Dante makes himself known as Manfred, son to the Emperor Frederick II.,
+and gives an account of his end, explaining that excommunication--for he
+had died under the ban of the Church--is powerless to do more than
+protract the interval between the soul's admission to Purgatory. After
+this (Canto iv.) they enter a steep and narrow cleft in the rock, from
+which they emerge upon a ledge on the mountain face, and a further climb
+up this lands them about noon on a broader terrace. Hitherto they have
+been mounting from the eastward, and on looking back in that direction,
+Dante is surprised to find the sun on his left hand. Virgil explains the
+topography; and is saying, in order to encourage Dante, that the labour
+of climbing will diminish as they get higher, when a bantering voice
+interrupts with the assurance that he will need plenty of sitting yet.
+The poet recognises in the speaker a Florentine friend. Another playful
+sarcasm on his thirst for information makes Dante address the shade and
+inquire as to his state. He, like Manfred, is debarred from entering
+Purgatory, but on the ground that he had led an easy life, and taken no
+thought of serious matters till his end drew near. In the following
+cantos (v. and vi.) we meet with many spirits who are from various
+causes in a similar position. First come those who have been cut off in
+the midst of their sins, but have sought for mercy at the last. The most
+noteworthy of these is Buonconte of Montefeltro, son of that Count Guy
+whom we met in the eighth pit of Malebolge. He was slain fighting
+against the Florentines at the battle of Campaldino (1289), in which
+Dante himself may possibly have borne arms.[34] Four lines at the end of
+this canto are among the most famous in the poem. In a few words they
+commemorate one of the domestic tragedies which were only too familiar
+in mediaeval Italy. Passing through the crowd, they fall in, as evening
+is drawing on, with a solitary shade, who replies to Virgil's inquiry
+for the best road by asking whence they come. At the answer, "Mantua,"
+the shade springs up, and reveals himself as the famous warrior-poet of
+that city, Sordello. The affectionate greeting which follows between
+the fellow-citizens moves Dante to a splendid denunciation of the
+internecine quarrels then raging throughout Italy, and of the neglect on
+the part of the divinely ordained monarch, the Roman Emperor, which has
+allowed matters to come to such a pass. Lastly he directs his invective
+especially against his own city, Florence, and in words of bitter
+sarcasm upbraids her with the perpetual revolutions which hinder all
+good government.
+
+Sordello is an example of those whom constant occupation in affairs of
+state had caused to defer any thought for spiritual things, and who are
+expiating the delay in the region outside the proper entrance to
+Purgatory. In Canto vii., after explaining that they will not be able to
+stir a step after sunset ("the night cometh when no man can work"), he
+leads the poets to a spot where they may pass the night. This is a
+flowery dell on the hillside, occupied by the spirits of those who in
+life had been sovereign princes and rulers. There they see the Emperor
+Rudolf and his adversary, Ottocar of Bohemia; Charles of Anjou, King of
+Naples and Sicily, Philip III. of France, Peter III. of Aragon, Henry
+III. of England, and many other famous men of the last generation.
+Sordello, in pointing them out, takes occasion to enlarge on the
+degeneracy of their sons, making a special exception in favour of
+Edward, son of Henry.
+
+The sun sets (Canto viii.) and the shades join in the Compline hymn. At
+its conclusion, two angels clad in green robes descend, and take up
+their position on either side of the little valley. Dante, with his
+companions, goes down to join the "mighty shades," and is met by one
+whom he at once recognises as an old friend, the Pisan noble Giovanni,
+or Nino de' Visconti, "judge" or governor of the Sardinian province
+called Gallura, nephew of Count Ugolino. After some talk Dante notices
+the three stars spoken of above, and at the same moment Sordello draws
+Virgil's attention to an "adversary." They see a serpent making its way
+through the grass; and immediately the angels start in pursuit, putting
+it to flight. After this episode another shade announces himself as
+Conrad Malaspina, of the house with whom Dante was to find shelter
+during a part of his exile.
+
+The night wears on, and Dante falls asleep (Canto ix.). He dreams that
+he is being carried by an eagle up to the empyrean heaven. On awaking
+he finds that the sun has risen some time, and learns from Virgil that
+at daybreak St. Lucy (who has already come under notice as taking an
+interest in his welfare) had appeared and borne him to the place where
+they now are, in front of the gate of Purgatory. This is approached by
+three steps of variously-coloured stone. The first is white marble, the
+second a dark and rough rock, the third blood-red porphyry, indicating
+probably the three stages of the soul's progress to freedom through
+confession, contrition, and penance. On the topmost step sits an angel,
+who having marked seven P's (_peccata_ sins) on Dante's forehead, admits
+them within the gate.
+
+Thus far, except in the passage, Canto viii. 19 sqq., to which Dante
+himself draws the reader's attention, the allegorical interpretation has
+not afforded any very great difficulty. With this particular passage
+readers will do well to compare _Inf._, ix. 37 sqq., where a very
+similar indication is given of an underlying allegory, and draw their
+own conclusions. But on the whole, the main interest of the first nine
+cantos of the _Purgatory_ is more of a personal nature. Sordello alone
+may give an excuse for a good deal of historical research. For example,
+no one has yet explained Dante's reasons for so distinguishing a person
+who, from all the records that we have, does not seem to have made any
+great figure in the eyes of his contemporaries.
+
+It will hardly be necessary to follow Dante step by step through the
+stages of the mountain of purification. We shall probably do best to
+consider the general plan on which Purgatory is arranged, the nature of
+the various penances, with their adaptation to the offences which they
+expiate, and the light thrown in this division of the poem on Dante's
+opinions about the elements of political and moral science.
+
+We find, then, seven cornices, or ledges, on the mountain, connected
+with each other by stairways cut in the rock. Each stairway is guarded
+by an angel, and each, as it would appear, is shorter and less steep
+than the previous one. Thus the passage from the first to the second
+circle takes a considerable time, enough at all events to allow of some
+conversation between Dante and Virgil between the moment of their
+passing the angel and that at which they reach the top of the stairway.
+On the other hand, when they come to the final ascent, from the seventh
+circle to the level of the Earthly Paradise which occupies the summit, a
+few steps are sufficient to bring them to their halting-place, which, as
+appears afterwards, is practically on the summit level. Each angel, as
+Dante passes, erases from his forehead one of the P's which the warder
+of the first gate had inscribed there, and utters one of the Scriptural
+Beatitudes appropriate to the circle which they are quitting. Thus,
+"Blessed are the peacemakers" accompanies their departure from the
+circle of the wrathful; "Blessed are they that hunger after
+righteousness" is heard as they leave that where gluttony is expiated.
+
+The ritual, so to speak, is very precise throughout. Besides the
+Beatitudes, which are recited by the angel-guards, and in some cases it
+would seem repeated by a chorus of voices, we find in each circle
+commemoration variously contrived of notable instances, both of the sins
+punished and of their "contrary virtues." These are perhaps worth going
+through in detail. In the circle of Pride, where it is necessary to go
+in a stooping posture, the pavement is engraved with representations of
+humility. The first is the Annunciation, (and here it should be noted
+that in every group an event from the life of the Virgin holds the first
+place); next comes David dancing before the Ark; and lastly, Trajan
+yielding to the widow's prayer that he would perform an act of justice
+before setting out with the pomp of a military expedition. Further on in
+the same circle are found examples of the punishment of pride, taken
+alternately from Scripture and from classical mythology. The next circle
+is that of Envy. Here the penalty consists of the sewing up of the eyes,
+so that pictured representations would be of no use; and, accordingly,
+the task of calling the examples to mind is discharged by voices flying
+through the air. Yet another method is adopted in the third circle,
+where the Angry are punished by means of a dense smoke. Here the
+pictures are conveyed to Dante's mind by a kind of trance or vision, in
+which he sees the various scenes. We must suppose that the spirits pass
+through some similar experience. In the fourth circle, the examples of
+activity and warnings against Sloth are delivered by the souls
+themselves. As it is night while Dante is in this circle, he is himself
+unable to move; but the discipline being to run at speed, the souls pass
+him in their course. The fifth circle, of the Avaricious and Prodigal,
+follows much the same rule as the fourth, except that here the instances
+of virtue are recited in the day, those of sin at night, so that Dante
+does not actually hear the latter. In this case the souls lie prostrate.
+The Gluttonous, in the sixth circle, are punished by having to pass
+under trees laden with fruit, which they cannot reach; and the examples
+and warnings are conveyed by voices among the branches of these trees.
+The seventh circle follows the fashion of the fourth, except that the
+souls (who are punished by fire for having in life failed to hold in due
+restraint the flames of passion) seem to address the warning
+reminiscences to each other as they meet in the circuit. An instance of
+the system on which the examples are introduced has been given from the
+first circle. Perhaps that for the sixth is even more typical. On first
+entering this they come to a tree, among the branches of which a voice
+is heard recording the conduct of the Virgin at the feast in Cana, when
+"she thought more of the success of the banquet than of her own mouth;"
+the custom of drinking only water prevalent among the Roman women, and
+the abstemiousness of Daniel and the Baptist. Then, after passing
+through a portion of the circle, and holding converse with its inmates,
+they reach another tree, from which a second voice comes to them bidding
+them remember the trouble that came from the drunkenness of the Centaur
+at the wedding of Pirithous, and the rejection by Gideon of the men who
+had drunk immoderately. This coupling of a classical and Scriptural
+instance is quite invariable.
+
+To pass on to the subject of the light thrown upon Dante's speculative
+views in the _Purgatory_. It is not too much to say that from that point
+of view it is the most important division of the whole poem. This,
+perhaps, follows naturally from its subject. The Purgatorial existence
+bears more affinity to the life of this world than does that of those
+who have reached their eternal abode; and human affections and human
+interests still have much of their old power. This, then, would
+naturally be the division in which questions arising from the conditions
+of man's life with men would be likely to suggest themselves.
+
+In the _Hell_ we had indeed a statement of Dante's view of Ethics, so
+far as was necessary to explain his attitude towards breaches of the
+moral law and their punishment. In the _Purgatory_ he goes more deeply
+into the question, and expounds in Cantos xvi., xvii., and xviii., a
+theory with regard to the origin of morals and knowledge. According to
+this the soul when created is a _tabula rasa_, but having certain
+capacities inherent in it in consequence of the nature of its Creator.
+The Creator being absolutely veracious, the information imparted by the
+senses is infallible. Further, the Creator being absolutely happy, the
+soul naturally seeks happiness, and is said to love that in which it
+expects to find happiness. So far there is no room for error. Where it
+can come in is in the inferences which the mind draws from the
+information which the senses give, and in either its choice of an object
+to love, or the vigour with which it pursues that object. It must be
+further noted that the soul is endowed at the outset with a knowledge
+of good and evil, _i.e._ conscience, and with free-will; though this
+latter has to struggle with the conditions which the influence of the
+heavenly bodies imposes on the individual. With due culture, however, it
+can ultimately prevail over these; but it must also be aided in its
+struggle by the check of law and the guidance which should be afforded
+by spiritual pastors. In order that these may have their full effect, it
+is desirable that the secular and spiritual authorities should be in
+different hands: and thus we are brought to the same conclusions as in
+the treatise _De Monarchia_.
+
+To return, however, to the moral question. All action, as has been said,
+is directed to an end, and (in the words of Aquinas, following
+Aristotle) the end for each individual is that which he desires and
+loves. If the end is rightly selected, and the love duly proportioned,
+the action does not incur blame. But it may happen that the end may be
+evil; in which case evil becomes the object of the love, or the love is
+turned to hatred. Now, no created being can hate its Creator, nor can
+any man hate himself; therefore the sins arising from this cause must be
+sins against fellow-men. These, so far as Purgatory is concerned, are
+pride, envy, anger, which, when carried into action, become the sins
+that are punished within the City of Dis, though in Purgatory they would
+appear on the whole to be regarded as the less grave offences.
+
+When the object is good, but the love is lacking in due vigour, we have
+the sin of sloth, or, as our forefathers called it, "accidie." This
+occupies a somewhat anomalous position. Those who have allowed it to
+grow to moodiness and given way to it past hope of repentance, lie in
+Hell at the bottom of the Stygian marsh, and nothing is seen of them but
+the bubbles which are formed by their sighs; while the wrathful or
+ill-tempered lie in the same marsh, but appear above the water. Both
+sins alike render the man full of hatred for his fellows, and make him
+insensible to the joy of life. In Purgatory, on the other hand, the
+anger which is punished seems rather to be the fault of hasty temper;
+while in the case of sloth, the souls who expiate it are represented as
+running at great speed, and proclaiming instances of conspicuous
+alertness. For our present purpose, then, it must be regarded as merely
+slothfulness or indolence.
+
+Finally, we have the cases in which the object is natural, or even
+laudable. A fair share of this world's goods, our daily food, the love
+between man and woman, all these are objects to which the desires may
+lawfully be directed, so long as they are duly restrained. When,
+however, they become the main aim, they are sinful, and lead to the sins
+for which the discipline of the three upper cornices is required; the
+most severe of all that is undergone in Purgatory. Yet these are the
+sins which in Hell "incur less blame," as being sins involving rather
+the animal than the spiritual part of man. But there is not space here
+to discuss this aspect of the subject. Readers will find much interest
+in working it out for themselves.
+
+The physiological sketch given by Statius in the twenty-fifth canto,
+introduced to account for the spiritual body, is in logical order an
+introduction to Dante's ethics and psychology; and is remarkable both in
+its agreement with Aristotle and its divergence from him. The occasion
+for it is found in a question raised by Dante, and suggested to him by
+the appearance of the shades in the circle which they have just left:
+namely, how beings who have no need to go through the ordinary process
+of nutrition, can feel the desire for food (as Forese has explained that
+they do) and grow lean through the deprivation of it. In order to solve
+this difficulty, Statius sketches briefly the stages of the development
+of the human being, from his first conception until he has an
+independent existence, showing how the embryo progresses first to
+vegetative then to animal life, and how finally, when the brain is
+complete (this being the last stage in the organisation), the "First
+Mover" breathes the human soul into the frame. The soul, having thus an
+independent existence, when the frame decays sets itself loose
+therefrom, taking with it the senses and passions, as well as the mental
+faculties of memory, understanding, and will. The latter are still in
+full activity, but the former have only a potential existence until such
+time as the soul has found its place in the other world. Then it takes
+to itself a bodily shape, formed out of the surrounding air (as a flame
+is formed by the fire), and equips it with organs of sense; and
+thenceforward this shape is adapted to express all the natural emotions
+and desires, including of course those of hunger and thirst. This
+remarkable exposition is based on Aristotle's theory of the generation
+of the body, and the introduction into it of the soul; but there is an
+important difference. The Greek philosopher, though his language is not
+very explicit, has apparently no idea of any survival of the personal
+identity after death. At all events, so he was interpreted by Averroes
+and later by Aquinas. With him the source of all movement is the father,
+from whom only (though here again Aristotle is not quite clear) comes
+the gift of a soul. Dante, on the contrary, refers these back to the
+Prime Mover, namely God, and conceives a special creative act as
+performed on behalf of every human being that is brought into the world.
+As will be easily seen, this conception is the necessary complement to
+Dante's system of ethics, based on individual free-will, and postulating
+a newly-created soul, fresh from the Maker's hand; a _tabula rasa_, with
+no attributes save the natural propension towards that which gives it
+pleasure.
+
+We may now pass to the six cantos which conclude this division of the
+poem, and form a most important stage in the development of the whole
+plan. Dante has now proceeded as far as human reason, typified by
+Virgil, is able to guide him. He is on the threshold of Heaven; but
+before he can be admitted among the blessed, another conductor must be
+provided, to whom the way to the Divine Presence shall be freely open.
+This, of course, can only be knowledge informed by faith, or, as we may
+say for shortness, theology, not in the sense of a formal science, but
+in one approaching more nearly to what Aristotle calls _Theoria_, or
+contemplation. From certain expressions in the earliest cantos of the
+poem, it is clear that Dante looked upon the woman whom in his youth he
+had loved, and who had, at the supposed date of these events, been ten
+years dead, as symbolising this _Theoria_, and as being in some special
+way entrusted with the task of saving him from spiritual ruin. She
+accordingly appears, and takes up the duties which Virgil is
+surrendering. The manner of her appearance must be noticed--showing as
+it does the almost inextricable web in which Dante combines fact and
+allegory. That the "Beatrice" who is introduced is primarily none other
+than an actual woman of flesh and blood, whom hundreds of then living
+people had known, who had gone about Florence for twenty-four years and
+married a prominent citizen, and whom Dante had loved with the romantic
+passion of the Middle Ages, only the misplaced ingenuity of paradoxical
+critics can doubt.[35] Yet at her entry she is escorted by a procession,
+the members of which represent the books of the Bible, the seven
+virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; while the car on which she is
+borne (which itself denotes the Church) is drawn by a mystical figure,
+in which we cannot fail to see a symbol of the second Person of the
+Trinity. If it be objected that the salvation of Dante is a small matter
+about which to set in motion so stupendous a machinery, we may answer
+that, in the first place, his own salvation does not seem unimportant to
+the man himself; and further, which is of more weight, that Dante
+himself is here no less symbolical than Beatrice, or Virgil, or the
+mystic Gryphon. He is the typical human soul; his experiences, his
+struggles, his efforts to shake himself free of the trammels of the
+world and the flesh, are familiar features in the spiritual history of
+the great majority of Christians. Thus the wonderful pageant described
+in this canto must be regarded as being displayed, not to him only, but
+to all Christendom in his person.
+
+A few words with regard to this pageant may afford a little help to its
+comprehension. After the arrival of Beatrice, a scene follows in which
+she upbraids Dante for his forgetfulness of her, and receives an avowal
+of his fault. He is then bathed in the stream of Lethe--another curious
+employment of pagan mythology--and brought back to the presence of
+Beatrice. Hitherto she has been veiled; but now, at the special entreaty
+of her attendant nymphs (those nymphs who are also the four stars in
+heaven, and denote the cardinal virtues), she withdraws the veil, and
+discloses again the smile for which her "faithful one" had yearned
+during ten years.
+
+Soon, however, his attention is called away to new and strange sights.
+The procession, of which Dante and his remaining companion Statius now
+form part, moves forward through the wood of the Earthly Paradise; the
+car is attached to a tree, identified with the "tree of knowledge,"
+which since Adam's disobedience has been leafless and fruitless. After
+this Dante falls into a short sleep, and on waking finds that Beatrice
+with her attendants is alone left, as a guardian to the car. Then follow
+a series of strange transformations, the general plan of which is
+clearly suggested by the Apocalypse; but their interpretation is to be
+sought in the relations of the Church to the Empire, down to the time of
+the "Babylonish captivity," or transference of the Papal See to Avignon.
+This is symbolised by the departure of the car, drawn this time by a
+giant (Philip the Fair of France), and occupied no longer by Beatrice,
+but by a harlot, to denote (again with allusion to the Apocalypse) the
+corrupt rule under which the Church had fallen.
+
+In the final scene of all, Beatrice, in phrases hardly less obscure than
+the vision itself, indicates to Dante the lesson which he is to learn
+from it, and repeats in another form Virgil's prediction of a champion
+who is to come and set the world to rights. Much has been written about
+the first of these, the _Veltro_; hardly less about the "five hundred,
+ten, and five," or DXV. The usual interpretation takes these letters as
+intended merely to suggest _Dux_, a leader; but this seems a little
+weak. Elsewhere I have given reasons for thinking that Dante had a
+special motive for wrapping up his meaning in this numerical form.
+
+Lastly, in a passage which, though ostensibly only one of Dante's usual
+time-indications, seems intended to suggest repose after the labours
+through which he has brought his readers, and the agitation of the last
+canto, he tells us that at noon they reached the edge of the forest.
+Here he is made to drink of another stream, Eunoe, or "right mind,"
+after which he is ready for the upward journey.
+
+It is too much to expect readers to work through the voluminous
+interpretations which have been offered of the very difficult and
+perplexing mysticism of these cantos. Some points are perhaps plainer to
+the student who considers them with a fair knowledge of the Bible and
+history, than to the commentator who wishes to establish a new and
+original theory. But they are so important (particularly Cantos xxx. and
+xxxi.) to any one who wishes to understand Dante's whole position as
+man, poet, scholar, and politician, that they should not be passed over
+as mere futile mediaeval fancies. It should be said, too, that they
+contain some passages which will never be out of date until the poetic
+taste of mankind has altogether changed.
+
+
+Section 3. PARADISE.
+
+The first point which will strike the reader on entering upon the third
+division of the poem is the sudden change in the conditions under which
+the action is carried on. Hitherto Dante has been moving on solid earth,
+subject to the usual limitations which are enforced by physical laws
+upon all human action. Henceforth, as he tells us (_Par._, xxx. 123),
+God operates directly, and physical laws have no longer any place. "It
+is Beatrice," he elsewhere says, "who leads on so swiftly from one stage
+of blessedness to a higher;" and we shall notice that the transference
+from sphere to sphere is effected by Dante's fixing his eyes on hers,
+while she gazes upwards.
+
+A word as to the various spheres may not be out of place here. According
+to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, as adapted to the requirements of
+mediaeval belief, the earth was at the centre, and concentric with it
+were ten hollow spheres. In the first eight of these were placed
+consecutively the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
+and the fixed stars. In order to explain the irregular movements of the
+planets, "epicycles" or smaller spheres borne by the principal spheres,
+and bearing the planets, were devised, but these need not be considered
+here. Outside of the fixed stars came the _primum mobile_, which gave
+the diurnal revolution of the heavens, and beyond this the Empyrean, or
+fixed heaven, in which was the special abode of God, and in which all
+the blessed had their places. Between the earth and the innermost
+sphere, that of the Moon, lie the regions of water, air, and fire. The
+Mountain of Purgatory, on the summit of which Dante at the conclusion of
+the second _Cantica_ was standing, lifts its head as far as the third of
+these. Through this accordingly, Beatrice and Dante have to rise in
+order to reach the first step in the celestial ascent. It must be noted
+that there is no reason to suppose that in every case the actual planet
+is visited. The "heaven" of the planet embraces the whole "sphere" in
+which it is set, and its characteristics may be conceived as extending
+to the whole of that sphere.
+
+The fact of rising without apparent motive force through a medium
+lighter than his own body, at once forms a subject for enquiry on
+Dante's part; and Beatrice, as she has frequently to do in the course of
+their journey, resolves his doubt. Those who are reading the poem for
+the first time will probably pass lightly over these difficult
+metaphysical passages. They must be read sooner or later by any one who
+wishes thoroughly to understand Dante's place in the history of
+speculative thought; but in the first instance it will probably be
+better to "take them as read" and endeavour to get a clear notion of the
+general arrangement. There are obvious reasons why this portion of the
+poem should consist as largely as it does of these subtle disquisitions.
+There is far less room, in the first place, for variety of description.
+In a region where there are no shadows, it is impossible to give a
+detailed picture; and terms indicative of simple brightness are limited.
+Nor, again, is it easy where all are perfect to depict individual
+character. Consequently two great elements of interest in the first two
+parts of the poem are far less available here; and their place must be
+filled by other matter. What this matter should be is suggested by the
+natural division of speculative science into Ethics, or the study of
+man's conduct as a moral being; Politics, or the science relating to his
+behaviour in regard to the social order; and Metaphysics, which for
+Dante is synonymous with theology, the investigation of all that
+concerns his spiritual part, as well as the Divine order generally. With
+the first two we have dealt in the _Hell_ and the _Purgatory_
+respectively; the third is reserved for the _Paradise_. Once or twice
+indeed Dante touches on matters that would seem more fitly to belong to
+the others; as, for instance, the magnificent passage in Canto vi.,
+where Justinian, after sketching the triumphant course of the Roman
+Eagle, inveighs against the party feuds of the time; or Carlo Martello's
+reference to the Sicilian Vespers, and the misdeeds of his brother
+Robert. But of these the first leads up to an elaborate exposition of
+the scheme of Redemption, the second seems intended directly to
+introduce a dissertation on matters lying at the very root of human
+nature.
+
+To the same difficulty in varying the methods (to use a phrase of
+Ginguene's) must be attributed the occurrence of a good many
+conceptions which to our taste appear somewhat grotesque. Yet the better
+we know the poem the more we shall feel that in this third part the
+author's genius rises to its sublimest efforts, and agree with the late
+Dean of St. Paul's, that it is the true _pierre de touche_ of the
+student of Dante.
+
+To go briefly through the various stages. The heaven of the Moon is that
+in which appear the spirits of those who having taken vows have under
+compulsion or persuasion abandoned them; Mercury contains statesmen and
+men of affairs; Venus those who have been over-much swayed by indulgence
+in earthly love. It must be observed that, according to the astronomy of
+the time, the shadow of the Earth, cast into space by the Sun, extended
+as far as the orbit of Venus. The spirits in these three spheres
+therefore form a group by themselves: being distinguished by the fact
+that they had allowed earthly cares and pleasures to obtain too strong
+hold of them, to the injury of their spiritual development. In these
+three spheres respectively the representative speakers are Piccarda
+Donati, sister of Dante's friend Forese, and of Corso, the leader of
+the "Black Guelfs;" the Emperor Justinian; and Carlo Martello, the
+titular king of Hungary, son of Charles II., king of Naples, who is
+followed by Cunizza, sister of the Ghibeline chief, Ezzelino da Romano,
+and Folco of Marseilles, who began as a troubadour and became bishop of
+his native city.
+
+Although in one sense the inhabitants of the three lower spheres may be
+said to have attained a less perfect blessedness than those to whom the
+rest of heaven is assigned, it must not be supposed that they are
+conscious of any lack. All have their places in the highest or Empyrean
+heaven, and all sense of sorrow for past imperfections is at an end. We
+must indeed suppose that, as with Dante himself, the imperfections have
+been effaced by the discipline of Purgatory, and their remembrance
+washed away by the water of Lethe.
+
+With the sphere of the Sun, however, we arrive for the first time in the
+presence of those who have lived so as to earn the full honour of
+sanctity, and find ourselves amongst canonised saints. Even here Dante
+has shown himself, as usual, independent of conventional or official
+restrictions. In his introduction of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
+Bonaventura he merely anticipates the formal decision of the Church; but
+in "Peter of Spain," that is Pope John XXI. (the only historical Pope
+whom he places in Paradise), he selects for special honour a man who was
+by no means free from grave suspicion of heresy, and who has never been
+canonised. As Dante never did anything without a reason we must suppose
+that some now forgotten merit earned for the Spanish logician a place
+beside Nathan, Chrysostom, and Anselm. It is by these and such men as
+these, great teachers and thinkers, that the heaven of the Sun is
+occupied; the reason no doubt being that as the Sun is the source of
+light and the promoter of growth in the physical world, so are these in
+the spiritual.
+
+The tenth canto is specially notable as bringing Dante into the presence
+of the greatest exponent of the Scholastic philosophy, and the master
+whom he followed more closely than any other, St. Thomas Aquinas. In the
+eleventh, the illustrious Dominican recounts the life of St. Francis of
+Assisi, the founder of the rival order. This is one of the most notable
+passages in the whole poem, rising as it does to a sustained
+magnificence of diction which especially characterises those portions of
+the _Paradise_ where the poet allows full play to his genius.
+Justinian's roll-call of the Roman achievements in Canto vi. is another.
+Nothing at all like them is found in the two former divisions of the
+poem; and it is to them that students who wish to feel the attraction
+which the _Paradise_ undoubtedly exercises over those who know it well,
+should first turn.
+
+The sphere of the Sun, in which we now are, is, it should be noted, one
+of the two regions of Heaven in which Dante makes the longest stay, the
+other being that of the Fixed Stars. The passage to it marks a distinct
+stage in his progress. Looking back to the end of Canto ix. we see that
+it forms a kind of peroration; while the first twenty-seven lines of
+Canto x. are, as it were, the introduction to a fresh division of the
+poem, and recall certain phrases which occurred in the opening canto. It
+is difficult to say why these two spheres should be made of so much more
+importance than the rest. Mars is the only one which approaches them;
+but this is selected by Dante as the scene of his interview with his
+ancestor Cacciaguida, which gives the occasion for the magnificent
+contrast between the old days of Florence and its present state, and the
+prophecy of his own exile; subjects which might well occupy a
+considerable space. On the other hand, the eulogy of St. Francis,
+already referred to, which St. Thomas Aquinas delivers, and that of St.
+Dominic, with which St. Bonaventura, "vying with the courtesy of so
+mighty a paladin," responds to it, fine as they are, do not appear
+indispensable in the scheme of the poem. But the whole plan of the
+_Paradise_ is, so far as can be seen, arranged with much less of obvious
+symmetry than is to be found in the two former _Cantiche_. No doubt the
+plan is there; but just as "time-indications" for the most part fail us,
+or can be extracted only by elaborate and somewhat uncertain
+calculations, so it would seem as if the poet, no longer hampered by the
+necessities of time and space, had wished to show how he could work with
+no self-made restrictions.
+
+After his discourse in praise of the founder of the rival order,
+immediately followed by its counterpart--an eloquent summary of the
+career of St. Dominic, put into the mouth of the Franciscan
+Bonaventura--St. Thomas speaks again (Canto xiii.), in order to explain
+an apparent over-estimate of Solomon's greatness among mankind which an
+expression used by him in naming the spirits present with him might have
+seemed to imply. As happens more than once in this division of the poem,
+a piece of what at first sight looks rather like logical quibbling is
+made the introduction to some profound teaching in reference to the
+workings of the human mind--teaching which is at least as needful in the
+present day as it ever was in Dante's own time. Solomon himself then
+speaks, answering a question put by Beatrice on Dante's behalf as to the
+nature of the glorified body; and then Dante, having looked upon the
+countenance of Beatrice, and being by this means (as in every other
+case) raised "to a higher salvation," finds by the ruddy light which
+surrounds him that he has entered the sphere of Mars.
+
+A new feature appears here. In each of the three planets exterior
+(according to the astronomy of that age) to the Sun, we find some
+special image displayed. In the case of Mars, it is a vast crucifix,
+composed of spirits, who are darting in all directions within the
+figure, like motes in a sunbeam. One of them glides from the arm to the
+foot of the cross, and makes himself known to Dante as his
+great-great-grandfather, Cacciaguida, probably (though this is not
+certain) of the family of the Elisei.[36] He had been, like all the
+other spirits, as it would seem, of this sphere, a soldier, and had died
+in battle as a Crusader. The latter half of this, the fifteenth canto,
+together with the two following, form what is probably the best-known
+and most frequently quoted portion of the _Paradise_. First we have a
+beautiful picture of the simple and kindly life of old Florence, before
+party-spirit and luxury had entered and corrupted its citizens. The
+picture is, of course, one of those which people in every age have drawn
+of earlier times, supposed to have been free from the corruptions which
+each man's experience teaches him are rife in his own day; but none the
+less it is of value as showing Dante's ideal of social life.
+
+The next canto continues to deal with the same topic; but enters more
+into detail with regard to the various families, and the vicissitudes
+in their fortunes. This leads up to the existing strife of parties, and
+this again naturally to Dante's own share in it, and his exile. It must
+be remembered that this did not actually come about till two years after
+the date at which the action of the _Commedia_ is supposed to take
+place; so that the whole is cast into a prophetic form. The language
+used, however, must be taken as expressing the feeling with which Dante
+looked back after an interval of nearly twenty years--for the _Paradise_
+was probably completed very shortly before the poet's death--upon the
+events in which he had borne a somewhat prominent part. Whether he was
+ever a personage of the first importance in Florence we may be allowed
+to doubt. No doubt he was a man of some consideration; but still the
+office of Prior was one which nearly every eligible citizen must have
+held;[37] and Villani, who devotes a chapter to his memory, does not
+mention his name among the political leaders of an earlier period.
+Probably he occupied among the exiles of 1302 a far less important place
+in their own eyes and those of contemporaries than he does in ours; but
+if not a leader, he was in the front rank, and must have been aware of
+all that went on. The passages relating to his exile, to the
+worthlessness of his companions, to his gratitude towards those who
+helped him, gain immensely in force and pathos if we regard them as an
+aging man's reminiscences of a long by-gone time.
+
+With the passage to the sphere of Jupiter (Canto xviii.) the imagery
+becomes yet more daring. This is the region specially devoted to the
+spirits of the righteous; and these as they fly are forming letters,
+which ultimately spell out the opening words of the Book of Wisdom:
+"Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terram." When the final M is reached a
+further transformation takes place; the letter is gradually modified
+into the shape of the imperial eagle. Righteousness, or justice, is, it
+should be remembered, in Dante's view (as indeed in that of most
+moralists) the source and foundation of all that goes to establish human
+society on a virtuous and duly ordered basis. Thus it is rightly
+illustrated by the symbol of the Empire. The Eagle behaves as one single
+individual, though composed of countless spirits; speaking with a
+single voice, and in the singular number. A discourse on justice leads
+up to a sharp rebuke of nearly every prince then ruling, on the score of
+misgovernment in one or another form.
+
+After this the Eagle proceeds to indicate whose are the spirits which
+compose its eye. These with one exception are all great sovereigns of
+ancient and recent times. The exception is remarkable. In Hell we found
+several cases in which mythological or fictitious personages were
+treated on a footing of absolute equality with those who had a perfect
+historical claim to the distinction; but the appearance in the Christian
+Heaven of a man whose very name is preserved merely in a single line of
+the _Aeneid_ strikes us with astonishment. For being recorded by Virgil
+as the most righteous man among the Trojans, Rhipeus takes his place
+beside David, Hezekiah, Constantine, and the "good king" William II. of
+Sicily.
+
+When the time comes for the ascent to be resumed, Dante notices that
+Beatrice smiles no longer. On the threshold, as she explains, of the
+seventh heaven, the lustre of her smile would be more than his eyes
+could endure. Here, in Saturn, a ladder is seen, reaching to the next
+sphere. We learn that this is identical with the ladder seen by Jacob in
+his vision; and down it are descending the spirits of such as in this
+world had lived the contemplative life in full perfection. The chanting
+which has been audible in the other spheres is here silent--no doubt in
+order to symbolise the insensibility to outward impressions of the soul
+rapt in contemplation. The speakers in this group are St. Peter Damian
+and St. Benedict; both of whom have severe words to say as to the
+corruption of the monastic orders.
+
+The company of saints reascend (Canto xxii.): and Dante and Beatrice
+follow them, mounting by the ladder, but, as it would appear, with no
+perceptible lapse of time. The eighth heaven, that of the Fixed Stars,
+is reached in the sign of the Twins; under which Dante himself had been
+born. At this point Beatrice directs him, before entering on the final
+blessedness of heaven, and doubtless with the ulterior view of leading
+him to a just sense of the insignificance of earthly things, to look
+back over the course which he has traversed.
+
+A very distinct stage of the journey is here reached, and, as has been
+already noticed, we are entering that one of the celestial spheres in
+which Dante makes the longest stay.
+
+He and his guide have now reached the outermost of the heavenly spheres
+of whose existence our senses give any evidence--that of the Fixed
+Stars. A vision of Christ descending, accompanied by His Mother, and
+surrounded with saints, is granted to Dante; after which he is again
+able to endure the effulgence of Beatrice's smile. It is not, however,
+until Christ has reascended that he recovers his full power of sight.
+Then he perceives that the company of saints has remained; and
+presently, at the request of Beatrice, St. Peter comes forward, and
+proceeds to examine Dante on the subject of Faith, and the grounds for
+his belief in the Christian revelation. The ensuing colloquy is
+interesting, as being practically a versified form of the scholastic
+method of discussion, such as we find in Aquinas. St. Peter plays the
+part of the supposed opponent, and brings forward the standard
+objections to Dante's statements of dogma. For the ordinary reader,
+however, this and the next two cantos form, it must be admitted, one of
+the less attractive portions of the poem. Yet even here we now and then
+come upon a passage of pure poetry, such as the famous lines at the
+opening of Canto xxv., in which Dante utters what must have been almost
+his last aspiration after a return to "the fair fold in which as a lamb
+I slept."
+
+Following St. Peter, St. James makes his appearance. To him is entrusted
+the task of testing Dante's soundness in the doctrine and definition of
+Hope. Lastly, comes St. John, who examines him touching the right object
+of Love. In each case, when he has answered to the satisfaction of his
+questioner, a chant goes up from the assembled spirits; the words on
+every occasion being taken, as it would appear, from the _Te Deum_.
+Afterwards the three Apostles are joined by Adam, who takes up the
+discourse, and answers two unexpressed questions of Dante's, as to the
+length of his stay in Paradise, and the nature of the primitive language
+of mankind.
+
+Canto xxvii. opens with a tremendous invective, put into the mouth of
+St. Peter, against the corruption of the Papacy; a passage which
+incidentally contains an important piece of evidence with regard to the
+date at which the later cantos of the _Paradise_ were written. A bitter
+allusion to "men of Cahors" can have been evoked only by the election of
+John XXII., who was from that city; and he became Pope in 1316. After
+this the whole multitude of Saints ascend to the highest heaven; but
+before Dante follows, Beatrice makes him look down once more, and he
+perceives that since his entry into this sphere he has moved with the
+diurnal rotation through an arc of forty-five degrees. Then they ascend
+into the sphere of the First Motion, where place and time no longer
+exist. From its movement time is measured; and its place is in the
+Divine intelligence only. Here the Empyrean, or highest Heaven, comes
+into view; at first as a point of intense brilliancy round which nine
+circles are revolving. These represent the Angelic hierarchies, and
+their places with regard to the central point are in inverse order to
+that of the spheres which they move. Beatrice takes occasion from them
+to instruct Dante upon some points relating to the creation and
+functions of the angels, and incidentally, upon the creation of form and
+matter, and their combination in the visible universe. The passage
+(Canto xxix.) is difficult; but is so magnificent in its diction as to
+deserve careful study. Dante has nowhere else succeeded so completely in
+clothing with poetry the dry bones of scholastic theology. The
+discussion, by dealing with several disputed points, gives occasion for
+some stringent remarks on the preachers of the time.
+
+They now rise to the highest heaven, outside of all the spheres, in
+which all the blessed have their true place. At first Dante is aware of
+light only, but gradually a fresh power of sight comes to him, and he
+sees a river, from and to which bright sparks are ever issuing and
+returning. The banks are brilliant with flowers. At the command of
+Beatrice he bows down and drinks, and at once sees the river as a lake
+of light, the flowers on the banks as concentric rows of saints seated
+on thrones, and the flitting sparks as angels. At this point Beatrice
+leaves Dante, after a few scathing words in reference to the
+"covetousness"[38] of the Papacy, which has put the world out of
+joint--words which may be taken as summing up in brief all the passages
+throughout the poem in which political affairs are touched upon. With
+this, if we except one bitter jibe at Florence (xxxi. 39) all
+controversial matters are dismissed, and the last three cantos of the
+poem are devoted to a description, rising ever in sublimity, of the joys
+and mysteries of Heaven.
+
+The "soldiery of heaven" appears in the form of a vast white rose, whose
+petals are the seats on which the saints sit. On one hand these are
+filled, being occupied by holy men and women belonging to the old
+dispensation: while on the other the number of the elect has still to be
+accomplished. Beatrice having gone back to her place among the blessed
+beside Rachel, the task of escorting Dante is entrusted to St. Bernard,
+who points out where some of the more eminent have their stations. As
+throughout the poem, all is arranged with order and symmetry. The
+junction between the Old and New Testaments is indicated by the position
+assigned to Our Lady on one side of the circle, and in the highest row,
+and St. John the Baptist, who is diametrically opposite to her. Below
+her sit in order a series of Christ's ancestresses Eve, Rachel, Sarah,
+Rebekah, Ruth; Adam is on her left, St. Peter on her right, beyond them
+Moses and St. John the Evangelist. On either hand of the Baptist sit St.
+Anne and St. Lucy, and below him a line of founders of orders and other
+teachers; the lower circles are filled with the spirits of children.
+
+At the close of his enumeration of these chief personages, St. Bernard
+observes that the time of Dante's slumber is nearly at an end, and that
+they must, "like a good tailor, cut the coat according to the cloth." In
+these three lines are two very noticeable points. First, the word
+"slumber," implying that the whole journey through the other world has
+been performed in a dream; and secondly, the bold use, at perhaps the
+most exalted moment of the whole poem, of a trivial, almost vulgar,
+figure of speech. We meet with other instances of this in the
+_Paradise_, and they are eminently characteristic of the mediaeval mind.
+The subject is too wide to be discussed here; but readers may be
+reminded of the numerous examples which the architecture of the period
+shows, in which grotesque or even indecent figures are introduced among
+the ornamental work of sacred buildings.
+
+At the beginning of the last canto, St. Bernard, in an address of
+exquisite beauty (of which Chaucer, in the Second Nun's Tale has given
+an almost equally exquisite rendering), appeals to the Virgin--who, it
+will be remembered, is throughout represented as taking a special
+interest in Dante--for her aid to him in his last and crowning
+experience. Thus succoured, he is able to gaze upon the Supreme Light;
+and in a flash there is revealed to him a full comprehension of all
+fundamental truths, first those of metaphysics, then those of faith. He
+understands for a moment the whole composition of the universe, and then
+the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Trinity. The intuition is
+momentary, and leaves merely the memory of a memory. But the lasting
+effect is the entire union of his will with the Divine will, and herein,
+we must understand him to imply, is found the salvation the attainment
+of which has been the ultimate aim and object of his whole journey.
+
+Many touches in this concluding passage bear a strong resemblance to
+what seems to have been the teaching of the contemporary German mystics.
+It would be interesting to inquire how far Dante can have been
+acquainted with any of the writings of that school. If any connection
+can be traced, it may throw light on several obscure points.[39]
+
+It remains to be added that the _Commedia_ was first printed at Foligno
+in 1472. Editions followed in quick succession from Jesi, Mantua, and
+Naples. The first Venetian edition is that of Vindelin of Spires, in
+1477; the first Florentine, that with Landino's commentary, in 1481. It
+was printed several times more before 1500, and constantly in the
+sixteenth century. We have several commentaries dating from a period
+only later by a few years than Dante's death.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [28] Not only this allusion, but the occurrence, in this and
+    other parts of the poem, of several words used in that district
+    makes it almost certain that Dante was very familiar with the
+    country round about Trent. Doubtless he would visit it from
+    Verona.
+
+    [29] See p. 79.
+
+    [30] See p. 36.
+
+    [31] It seems never to have been noticed that, as every line
+    from the surface to the centre is perpendicular, a descent by
+    _slopes_, such as is represented, would really be impossible.
+
+    [32] See p. 34.
+
+    [33] A late legend, to which some eminent writers have given too
+    easy credence, does actually assert that Dante did go to Genoa,
+    in the suite of Henry VII., about the end of 1311, and there was
+    ill-used by some of Branca d'Oria's friends or domestics. But
+    none of the early commentators knows anything of this tale.
+
+    [34] But see p. 42.
+
+    [35] See pp. 48-51.
+
+    [36] See p. 38.
+
+    [37] See p. 70.
+
+    [38] Note that _cupidigia_ is, in Dante's scheme, the vice
+    opposed to _giustizia_, that which debases nations as
+    righteousness exalts them.
+
+    [39] See also p. 46.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE MINOR WORKS
+
+
+The _Commedia_ is, for many readers perhaps, the only book distinctly
+identified with Dante's name. Yet it must be remembered that, as a
+matter of fact, it represents less than half of the total bulk of his
+writings; and, further, that the remainder comprises several works
+which, though not attaining to the pre-eminent position which all the
+world now recognises the great poem as occupying, are very remarkable
+monuments of mediaeval literature.
+
+Of the youthful work, the _Vita Nuova_, we have already spoken. It may
+be sufficient here to add that--though there is some controversy on the
+point--the name probably means only "Early" or "Fresh Life." The book
+was pretty certainly written not much after 1290, though the last
+chapter, in which the author's design to compose a greater work is
+alluded to, may have been added when the scheme of the _Commedia_ was
+more developed. The _Vita Nuova_ was not printed till 1578.
+
+With regard to the date at which the most important of the prose works,
+known as the _Convito_, or "Banquet," was composed, considerable
+uncertainty exists. Villani says that the odes to which it is ostensibly
+a commentary were written in exile. Some critics hold that it belongs,
+at all events in great part, to the "pre-exilian" period of Dante's
+life; while others place it as late as 1310. The late Dr. Witte regarded
+it as the middle division of what he called "Dante's Trilogy"--the
+drama, that is, of the development of Dante's soul. In this view, the
+early love portrayed in the _Vita Nuova_ marks an age of simple faith,
+undisturbed by any doubt. The _Convito_ (so far as it was completed)
+records a period of philosophical speculation--not actually adverse to
+the truths of religion, but seeking to establish these rather on the
+basis of human reason than on revelation. Lastly, the _Commedia_ shows
+us the soul, convinced that salvation and enlightenment are not to be
+found on this road, returning again to child-like submission. There is
+no doubt an attractive symmetry about this arrangement, but it is open
+to some objections, one of them being, as a French critic said, that
+part at least of the _Convito_ must almost certainly have been written
+after the date in which Dante's conversion is represented as having
+taken place. Nor is it an answer to say that, the action of the
+_Commedia_ being purely imaginary, we need pay no attention to dates.
+For one thing, Dante is extremely careful, and with more success than
+any one without his marvellous "visualising" power could hope for, to
+avoid anything like an anachronism in the _Commedia_. If he allows no
+event, which, in the history of the world, was still future in 1300, to
+be referred to as past, why should he have allowed this in regard to
+events in the history of his own spiritual development?
+
+The truth is, that all these elaborate and symmetrical theories prove
+too much; and what is worse, they all spring from an ignorance, or a
+neglect, of the great facts of human nature. The _Commedia_ is, of
+course, full of expressions of contrition for former error; of frank
+recognition that the writer has gone astray in the past, and hopes to
+keep straight in the future. But might not any man, any thoughtful man
+at all events, of thirty-five years old and upwards, take Dante's words
+with perfect sincerity, as the expression of his own deepest thoughts?
+Why assume that the faults of which Dante repented with tears in the
+presence of Beatrice, were limited to a too great reliance on human
+reason, or to a secret leaning to the philosophy of Averroes? Were they
+not moral as well as intellectual? Whether the year 1300 really marked
+an epoch at which anything of the nature of what is now called
+"conversion" took place in Dante's mind, we cannot say. It pretty
+certainly corresponded with a decided revulsion in his political views.
+It cannot have been without a pang that he found himself obliged
+formally to break with the Guelf party, of which he had hitherto been a
+faithful member, and to cast in his lot with men whom he, doubtless,
+like those with whom he had all his life associated, regarded as a set
+of turbulent, over-bearing swashbucklers, trying with the help of
+foreign men and money to reimpose a feudal tyranny on a prosperous and
+free commonwealth. For this is the aspect in which the Ghibelines must
+have presented themselves to a Florentine burgher of the year 1300. No
+doubt the doings of the Black party would have taught him that
+overbearing and tyrannical ways, turbulence and swagger were not the
+monopoly of one side, and that the freedom and peace of Florence must,
+in any case, soon be things of the past. All the foundations of the
+earth must have seemed to him to be out of course, and we can well
+imagine that his thought may have been driven inward, and he may thus
+have come to recognise how far the school which he had followed, and the
+path upon which he had walked--not in philosophy only, but in all
+matters of conduct--had led him from the ideals of his early manhood and
+from the way of God. Thus he would naturally refer the vision, which, of
+course, contains an allegorical account of all this change or
+"conversion," if we may call it so, to that year the events of which had
+given the first impulse to it.
+
+It is not, however, necessary to suppose that with Dante, any more than
+with most men of a similar age, a conviction that he had hitherto been
+on the wrong track involved an entire break with former habits, at all
+events of mind and thought. He may very well have gone on stringing
+together the curious medley of learning which he had not unfitly called
+a "Banquet."[40] As we have said already, it looks very like the
+contents of a commonplace book, in which materials for other
+works--notably for the _Commedia_--were collected. Many of the views
+enunciated in it may well be those held by Dante long before, and
+subsequently changed, though he might not have taken the trouble to
+expunge them, even when stating a maturer opinion in a later work.
+
+A good many of the difficulties which arise in the consideration of the
+dates of Dante's works, probably arise from oblivion of the fact that
+"publication" in our modern sense did not exist in those days. An author
+would no doubt give his manuscript to friends to read, as he went along;
+and, if they liked it, they would probably take a copy of so much as
+they had. Thus portions of a book would get about long before the whole
+was finished; and in this way the views which Dante expresses in the
+_Convito_ upon the cause of the markings in the moon, the order of the
+angelic hierarchies, the nature of the Milky Way, and similar matters,
+may well have been known to many as held by him, and he may have known
+that this was the case. Subsequently, having changed his mind--it may
+be, even before 1300--he would take the opportunity of a part of the
+_Commedia_ having got into circulation, to recant; and even so the
+original view might stand in the _Convito_, and appear in that work when
+finally produced. When we further remember that Dante left the
+_Convito_ little more than begun, and consequently, no doubt, unrevised,
+it will be clear that very little inference can be drawn as to its date,
+from the fact that certain opinions expressed in it are retracted in the
+_Commedia_. It would be truer to say that it had no date. It was first
+printed in 1490.
+
+The _De Monarchia_ is a complete treatise, in fact, probably the only
+work besides the _Commedia_ which we can feel sure that we have in a
+form which it would have retained however long Dante might have lived.
+Enough has been already said as to its scope; it may suffice to add that
+the Church has never looked upon it with favour, which was probably the
+reason of its not being printed till 1559, and then in Germany.
+
+The unfinished treatise known as _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ had the curious
+fortune to appear in an Italian translation (1529) some fifty years
+before it was printed in its original Latin. It is a most interesting
+little work, showing considerable acuteness of perception in regard to
+peculiarities of local vernacular, and a general "feeling" for
+linguistic matters.
+
+How do we know that all these works are Dante's? it will be asked. Here
+we rest on unusually sure ground, for which once more we have to thank
+Villani.
+
+In the Chapter to which we have already more than once referred,
+containing the notice of Dante's death, that historian gives a list of
+his works. "In his youth," we read--
+
+    "he made the book called _The New Life of Love_; and afterwards,
+    when he was in exile, he made some twenty moral and amatory
+    odes, very excellent; and, among others, he wrote three notable
+    letters, one to the Government of Florence, lamenting his own
+    exile without any fault; the second he sent to the Emperor
+    Henry; the third to the Italian cardinals, when the vacancy
+    occurred after the death of Pope Clement.... And he made the
+    _Comedy_, wherein, in polished rhyme, and with great and subtle
+    questions of morals, nature, and astrology, philosophy and
+    theology ... he composed and treated in one hundred chapters, or
+    chants, concerning the being and condition of Hell, Purgatory,
+    and Paradise.... He also made the _Monarchy_, in which he
+    treated of the duty of the Pope and of the Emperor. And he began
+    a commentary on fourteen of the above-mentioned moral odes, in
+    the vulgar tongue, which, through his death supervening, is only
+    completed for three.... Also he made a little work which he
+    calls _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, whereof he promises to make four
+    books, but only two are extant, perhaps by reason of his speedy
+    end; in which, in powerful and elegant style, and with fine
+    arguments, he examines all the vernaculars of Italy."
+
+The last two paragraphs, it should be said, do not occur in all
+manuscripts. But, assuming them to be genuine, it will be seen that we
+have here an almost contemporary notice, with one or two exceptions, of
+all the main works now contained in the editions of Dante. The chief
+exception is the curious little treatise on physical geography, called
+_De aqua et terra_, which purports to be a lecture delivered by Dante at
+Verona, in the last year of his life; but this is of very questionable
+genuineness. It was first printed, indeed, in 1508, but no manuscript of
+it is now known to exist.
+
+Of the other works, Villani's notice may be regarded as clear proof that
+they are what they profess to be; and incidentally it may be said that
+his mention of them has probably been of great service. Literary
+morality was sufficiently lax in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
+and people's ideas as to the use that might legitimately be made of
+famous names differed considerably from those now in force. As it is, a
+good many compositions have passed under Dante's name, from an early
+date, which scarcely pretend to be genuine works of his. We can imagine
+what a temptation it would have been for some enterprising man of
+letters to complete the _Convito_ or the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_, or
+even to add a canto or two to the _Commedia_, if there had been no
+record in existence to let the world know where the genuine ended and
+the spurious began.[41] Even this security, however, is not quite
+sufficient to set us at our ease in the case of the letters. True, we
+have three letters purporting to be the three which Villani mentions, as
+well as several others passing under Dante's name; but it is, of course,
+possible that the very fact of his mentioning them may have sufficed to
+set ingenious scribes at work to produce them. Manuscripts of them are
+very few, and they occur in company with other works which are undoubted
+exercises of fancy.
+
+On the other hand, more than one writer of the fifteenth century
+professes to have seen letters of Dante's, of which no trace can now be
+found. That referring to the battle of Campaldino, for which Leonardo
+Bruni vouches, has already been mentioned; and Flavius Blondus of Forli,
+a historian about contemporary with Leonardo, speaks of others as extant
+in his time. These, if they could now be recovered, would be of the
+greatest interest, since they related to the obscure period immediately
+following the exile of the White party. Meanwhile the genuineness of the
+more important letters which we possess is perhaps the most interesting
+question which remains to be settled in connection with Dante's works.
+
+Besides the prose letters, two poetical epistles are still extant, and
+these, strange to say, the most sceptical critics have so far allowed to
+pass unquestioned. There is something a little pathetic about their
+history. Two or three years before Dante's death, a young scholar of
+Bologna, known from his devotion to the great Latin bard, as Joannes de
+Virgilio, addressed an extremely prosaic, but highly complimentary,
+epistle to the old poet, urging him to write something in the more
+dignified language of antiquity. Dante replied in an "Eclogue," wherein,
+under Virgilian pastoral imagery, he playfully banters his
+correspondent, and says that he had better finish first the work he has
+in hand, namely the _Commedia_. One more communication on either side
+followed, and then Dante's death brought the verse-making to a close. In
+his own pieces one is struck rather by the melody of the rhythm and
+occasional dignity of the thought, than by the classical quality of the
+Latinity. But they are unquestionably remarkable specimens of Latin
+verse for an age previous to the revival of classical study, and, we
+should say, far more genial and more truly Virgilian in spirit than the
+most polished composition of the Humanists.
+
+It is not intended here to enter into any analysis or estimate of
+Dante's prose works. The former task is one which readers should perform
+for themselves. Nor need they find it too much for their powers. With
+all his obscurity of allusion, and occasionally of phrase, Dante is not
+really a difficult author. From his teachers, the schoolmen, he had
+learnt to arrange his matter with due, perhaps more than due, regard to
+order and symmetry; and consequently the attentive reader is seldom at a
+loss to know what part of the subject is, at any given place, under
+consideration.
+
+Of the obscurity which results from over-elaboration of the thought, or
+from an attempt at originality of expression, Dante is, in his maturer
+works, singularly free.[42] It must be remembered, too, that very often
+phrases which look to us like "conceits" are merely instances of the
+employment of scientific and technical terms now obsolete, but then
+familiar to every cultivated reader.
+
+For aesthetic, or, as it has been unkindly called, "sign-post"
+criticism--that which, under the guise of directing the reader's taste,
+often seems intended to call attention mainly to the acuteness of the
+critic's own perception or his delicacy of phrase--the study of Dante
+would seem to be a very unpromising field. The sentimentalist and the
+elegant craftsman in words seem out of place in the company of this
+uncompromising seeker after realities, this relentless exposer of shams.
+
+It is much better that the student should begin by understanding his
+author. When he has mastered the meaning, it will be time enough to
+begin to admire, whether it be the thought or the words, or the
+expression of the one through the other. For this reason we should
+strongly counsel beginners to read Dante himself first, and books about
+Dante afterwards. We would go so far as to say: at the first reading,
+dispense even with notes, and be content to look out the words in a
+dictionary. It is far better practice to find out for yourself where the
+difficulties lie, than to be told where to expect them. Similarly with
+the "beauties." These will reveal themselves _a ciascun' alma presa e
+gentil cuore_, and every reader will find them in such measure as he
+deserves. Then will be the time to use the commentaries to solve, so far
+as may be, the problems which have been discovered, and then to take up
+such works as Mr. Symonds's _Study of Dante_, Miss Rossetti's _Shadow of
+Dante_, and Dean Church's _Essay_. The student who, to a thorough
+knowledge of the poem, joins a careful perusal of these three works will
+find his knowledge co-ordinated, his grasp of Dante's whole system
+strengthened, his perception of Dante's greatness marvellously
+quickened. If he afterwards cares to pursue the subject further into the
+thickets of modern Italian and German criticism, he will find plenty of
+entertainment. Only let him remember that most of the minute details
+with which the excellent critics deal are not really of the very
+slightest importance.
+
+As has been said above, there is ample reason for believing that the
+person to whom Dante refers under the name of Beatrice was a young lady
+of that name, daughter of one Folco Portinari, and wife to Simone de'
+Bardi. But suppose that irresistible evidence to the contrary could be
+found? Suppose that documents should come to light showing that no
+Beatrice Portinari ever lived--even that there was no woman, young or
+old, in Florence, who bore the Christian name of Beatrice between 1200
+and 1300, what would it matter? Do we read Andromache's
+
+    "Hector, but thou to me art father and mother and brother, and
+    thou my gallant husband too;"
+
+or Helen's
+
+    "Hector, dearest to me by far of all my brothers-in-law, it is
+    now twenty years since I left my native land, but never yet have
+    I heard from thee an ill or insulting word,"
+
+with any the less emotion because we do not feel sure that Hector, or
+Andromache, or Helen ever lived on this earth? Some would add, or Homer;
+but so far, happily, no "separatist" has taken Dante in hand. But again,
+suppose he did, and with better success than has on the whole attended
+those who would have us believe that half a dozen or more men
+contributed to the _Iliad_, any one book of which would entitle its
+author to rank among the great poets of all time? The world would prove
+to be richer by as many great poets as could be shown to have
+collaborated in the writing of the _Commedia_; and how should we be the
+poorer? The poem would still be there, with all its power to soothe, to
+stimulate, to throw light upon the most hidden corners of the human
+soul, to reveal our own motives to us. It is, of course, only human
+nature to feel a personal interest in the man who has taught us so much;
+but we must not allow this natural sentiment to make us forget that the
+man is only interesting because of his work. After all, when the most
+destructive criticism has done its worst, we know much more about Dante
+than we know about the still greater Shakespeare; and let us be thankful
+for what knowledge we have.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [40] This may be a good point at which to say that we need not
+    suppose because Dante employed the Canzoni as pegs upon which to
+    hang the philosophical, astronomical, and other lucubrations of
+    the _Convito_, that when originally written they were anything
+    but exercises in the amatory style of composition usual in that
+    age, whether inspired or not by any serious passion. He would
+    have found no more difficulty in attaching subsequently a
+    mystical and moral interpretation to them than divines had found
+    in doing the same for the Canticles.
+
+    [41] In the case of the _Commedia_, it would seem that Dante
+    himself took measures to guard against interpolations. As is
+    well known, he never uses any one series of rhymes more than
+    once in the same canto; and, from the structure of the _terza
+    rima_, it is impossible to introduce any fresh matter when the
+    canto is once completed without violating this rule. This fact
+    alone serves to convict of forgery the unknown person who
+    inserted eighteen lines after _Hell_, xxxiii. 90, in one of the
+    Bodleian manuscripts; as to which, see Dr. Moore's _Textual
+    Criticism_.
+
+    [42] It is, perhaps, worth noting that as the tendency to
+    _concetti_ increased in Italian literature, Dante was more and
+    more neglected. Only three editions appeared from 1596 to 1716.
+    Curiously enough, there are two treatises extant which just
+    correspond with the beginning and end of this period of eclipse.
+    One of them is called _A Brief and Ingenious Discourse against
+    the Work of Dante_. It was written by Monsignor Alessandro
+    Cariero, and published at Padua in 1582. The arguments are of
+    the feeblest and most pedantic kind; but it marks a stage in
+    taste. The recovery is indicated by a _Defence of Dante
+    Alighieri_, a lecture given by Dr. Giuseppe Bianchini to the
+    Florentine Academy in 1715, and published three years later.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS
+
+
+Something has already been said as to the way in which the student of
+Dante should set to work in the way both of putting himself so far as
+possible at Dante's point of view with regard to earlier literature, and
+of availing himself of the various commentaries and treatises which
+subsequent writers have produced in such abundance; but it may be
+convenient to enter into this matter somewhat more in detail. It would
+obviously be too much to expect of every beginner that he should prepare
+himself for the study of Dante by a preliminary perusal of all the books
+which Dante may have read. But if he is to read with any profit, or
+indeed with any real enjoyment, some preliminary study is almost
+indispensable. Take, for instance, the historical standpoint. Some of
+Dante's grandest apostrophes fall flat to one who has not grasped the
+mediaeval theory of the Roman Empire, as set forth in Mr. Bryce's
+well-known book or elsewhere. Much of his imagery, especially in the
+first Cantica, seems fantastic and arbitrary to one who is not familiar
+with Virgil's sixth _Aeneid_, and does not realise that nearly every
+feature in the Dantesque Hell is developed, with assistance no doubt
+from mediaeval legend, out of some hint of the Virgilian nether world. Of
+allusions to contemporaries it is hardly necessary to speak; and in many
+cases we must fall back on the commentators, who for their part have
+often nothing to tell us but what we have already gathered for
+ourselves. Cacciaguida's statement that no souls had been shown to Dante
+save those of people known to fame, may not be always true so far as any
+but the most strictly contemporary fame is concerned, but it is true in
+a great many cases. Few indeed there are whose names have not gained
+additional celebrity from Dante's mention of them; but, on the other
+hand, there are very few whose memory but for it would have perished
+altogether; and the thrill with which the reader comes across an old
+acquaintance, marked by the unfaltering hand for renown or infamy, as
+long as men shall read books on this earth, is far more satisfying than
+the process of looking a person up because he is some one in Dante. It
+is therefore at least worth while, if not essential, to know something
+of the minuter contemporary history, and those who can read the seventh,
+eighth, and ninth books of Villani's _Florentine History_--not yet,
+unfortunately, translated into English--will find their reward.
+
+Those, again, who wish to place themselves as nearly as may be at the
+point from which Dante looked at ethical and metaphysical problems, will
+hardly be satisfied with an occasional quotation from Aristotle or
+Aquinas. If, as may well be the case, they cannot spare the time for
+systematic reading of those somewhat exacting authors, they should at
+least be at the trouble of acquiring such a knowledge of their systems,
+and of the place which they hold in the widening of men's thoughts, as
+may be obtained from Ueberweg or some other approved history of
+philosophy. So for physical science and natural history, those who have
+not the leisure to read Aristotle (again), or Pliny, or Brunetto's
+_Tresor_, may get from the fourth book of Whewell's _History of the
+Inductive Sciences_, and from parts of Humboldt's _Cosmos_, some idea of
+the way in which Dante would regard the external world.
+
+But one book, among all others, was undoubtedly the main instrument in
+the formation of Dante's mind and character. Few professed Churchmen
+have ever been so saturated with the language and the spirit of the
+Bible as this lay theologian. It was this, indeed, which seems to have
+specially impressed his contemporaries. "Theologus Dantes nullius
+dogmatis expers" is the title which the epitaph of his friend Joannes de
+Virgilio confers upon him in its opening line. And among all the books
+of the "Sacred Library," as an earlier age called it, we can see that
+two had a predominant place in his memory--the prophecy of Jeremiah and
+the Book of Psalms. In these two we may find the solution of some of his
+most obscure symbolism, and careful study of these will do perhaps more
+than anything to help the student to read with understanding. Of course
+those who read Latin should use the Vulgate rather than the English
+version, for the key to an allusion sometimes lies in a word or a
+phrase, the identity of which is lost in an alien language.
+
+It is with the study of such books as these, carried as far as the
+student's opportunities will allow, that he will best prepare himself
+for that of the _Commedia_. The next thing will be to read it, either in
+a translation, or better, in the original, working rapidly through the
+poem, and noting difficulties which occur, but leaving them for the
+present. He will thus get a comprehensive view of its general structure
+and scope, and probably find himself enthralled by the spell; after
+which, to put it on the lowest ground, he will have a subject of
+interest to investigate which will last him his lifetime. At any rate he
+will pretty certainly resolve to go over the ground again, this time
+more deliberately. Now will come the turn of the commentators, including
+under this term not only the actual annotators of the text, but those
+who have in any way discussed, explained, or interpreted the whole poem
+or its parts, either from a general literary point of view, or in the
+attempt to clear up special points. Of these there is no lack. Probably
+no great writer has given occasion for so much writing on the part of
+lesser men. The French critic Sainte-Beuve remarked that "to read Dante
+was almost inevitably to want to translate him;" it certainly seems as
+if to read Dante made the desire to write about him almost irresistible.
+Many of these books the world has pretty willingly let die; but a few
+will be read as long as Dante is studied in England. Foremost among
+these is the _Essay_ by the late Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Church. This is
+printed in a volume with an excellent translation of the _De Monarchia_.
+As an introduction to Dante from every point of view, whether in
+connection with the history of his time or in regard to his place in
+literature, it remains unrivalled, and is likely to remain so until a
+writer on Dante arises equal to Dean Church in acuteness of historical
+insight, delicacy of literary taste, and a power of expression capable
+of translating those gifts into words. No student should fail to read
+it; and those who can buy a copy will not be likely to regret the
+outlay. Another instructive book is the late Miss Rossetti's _Shadow of
+Dante_. It treats the poem rather in its religious than in its
+historical or philosophical aspect; and it is of especial value as an
+aid to understanding the often very perplexing symbolism. Long extracts
+are given from the versions by Mr. W. M. Rossetti (for the _Inferno_)
+and Mr. Longfellow (for the other parts); and these are linked together
+by a connecting summary. Mr. Symonds's _Introduction to the Study of
+Dante_ is also useful, especially from the literary point of view, but
+it is occasionally inaccurate. Of actual translations none is better
+than Cary's, and this has most valuable notes.
+
+These are some of the books from which a student, who did not feel equal
+to a preliminary study of Italian, might get information about Dante. It
+is to be hoped that there are not many who will stop here. When the
+genius of a poet is so closely involved as it is in Dante's case with
+the genius of the language, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
+student's mind that he ought to be read in his own words. Italian is the
+easiest to learn of all European languages, and the one in which the
+preliminary labour of learning grammatical rules is least required. Its
+grammar is very straightforward; its construction, in the best writers,
+is seldom involved; its words will in most cases be intelligible to
+people who know any Latin or French. The prepositions and their uses
+offer almost the only stumbling-block which cannot be surmounted by the
+aid of a pocket-dictionary; and even here the difficulty is more likely
+to be apparent in writing Italian. In reading, the context will usually
+be a guide to the meaning when the words are known.
+
+The first thing will be to get a text. There are several modern texts
+published in Italy; but none of them are very correct. Giuliani's is an
+attractive little book; but the Abate was a somewhat reckless emendator,
+and some of his readings are very untrustworthy. The little pocket
+edition published by Barbera contains Fraticelli's text, which suffers
+rather from lack of correction. Messrs. Longmans publish one based on
+Witte, but embodying the results of later inquiry. A complete text of
+Dante's entire works has lately been issued by the Clarendon Press, for
+the accuracy of which the name of its editor, Dr. Moore, is a sufficient
+guarantee. The "student's" editions with notes are those of Bianchi and
+Fraticelli, both in Italian. The latter is for some reason more popular
+in England, but the notes seem to me decidedly less helpful than those
+of Bianchi based on Costa's. Better than either is the _Vocabolario
+Dantesco_ of Blanc. The original work was written in German, and no
+doubt is to be obtained in that language. It is really a very useful
+commentary, and has the additional advantage that it forms a pretty
+copious Concordance, and enables the student to compare the various uses
+of a word.
+
+The student may now be supposed to be ready to set to work. How is he to
+proceed? This is a question very difficult to answer. Probably no two
+grown-up people will attack a new author, or a new language, in quite
+the same way. The present writer began Dante with very little knowledge
+of Italian; but knowing French and Latin pretty well. Being in Florence
+one day, he went to a bookstall and bought for one _lira_ a secondhand
+copy of a little text published in 1811; and began to puzzle out bits
+here and there with the help of a small dictionary. In the following
+winter he went through the whole poem in Bianchi's edition with a
+friend, aided by various of the older commentaries. Then he took to
+reading the poem by a canto or two at a time, in bed, without notes or
+dictionary, and went through it two or three times in this way, at last
+beginning to feel that he would like to know something about it.
+Probably a course of this kind, spread in a rather desultory fashion
+over several years, would hardly suit every student. Nevertheless it has
+in its general features some merits. In the first place, the only way to
+learn is to find for yourself where the difficulties are; and this can
+be done most effectually by beginning with the minimum of help. With
+notes, there is always the temptation to look at the note first and the
+text afterwards: a process sure to result in slipshod and inaccurate
+knowledge. Take a canto at a time, and read it through. Go over the
+ground again with a commentary and perhaps a translation. Before long
+the difficulties arising merely from the language will be pretty well
+mastered, and progress will be more rapid. Above all, avoid in the
+first instance anything of the nature of aesthetic criticism. Be content
+to treat the poem, if it be not profane to say so, as a "grind."
+Translate into the plainest English, so only that you take pains to
+render every word. It is a very good exercise to keep to the same
+English word for the same Italian word. This will not be quite always
+possible; but on the whole it is wonderful how many words in Italian (or
+any other language) have passed through the same change of signification
+as some one of their English equivalents. (Thus "sorry" in English means
+both "sad" and "contemptible." You will find that Italian "_tristo_"
+bears both senses equally well.) Try to "explain Dante by Dante," that
+is, look out for peculiar phrases and constructions which may occur more
+than once, and get at their meaning by comparison of contexts. One great
+advantage possessed by the student of Dante is that his author is
+practically the first in the language in point of time; and though later
+Italian poets used Dante freely as a quarry, they did not do it
+intelligently. It may safely be said that, with the occasional exception
+of Petrarch, no subsequent Italian poet threw the least light on the
+interpretation of a single word in Dante. Indeed our own Chaucer seems
+to have understood and appreciated Dante far better than did Dante's
+countryman Ariosto. It is thus possible to read Dante without a very
+wide acquaintance with Italian literature in general.
+
+Then, again, beginners need not be at too much pains to follow out the
+often very elaborate symbolism. On a first reading take the story as it
+stands. Let the dark wood and the three beasts, and the hill
+illuminated by the rising sun, remain what they profess to be, until you
+see the broad outlines of the poem. There are quite enough passages of
+purely human interest to occupy you at first. Francesca, Farinata, the
+Counts of Montefeltro, father and son, Ugolino, the assembled princes
+awaiting their time to enter Purgatory, the great panegyrics of St.
+Francis and St. Dominic, these and the like are the "purple patches" on
+which the beginner's attention should be fixed.
+
+The student who has gone through the poem on these lines will by the end
+of it be ripe for a more thorough reading and a fuller commentary. Among
+modern commentaries the fullest is that of Dr. Scartazzini. He is a
+guide whose judgement is perhaps not always quite equal to his
+erudition; but his Commentary (in four volumes, including the
+_Prolegomeni_) is almost indispensable to the advanced student. He has
+also published an abridgement in one volume. Those who read German
+should make acquaintance with the translation and notes of the late King
+John of Saxony, who wrote under the name of Philalethes, as well as with
+those of Dr. Witte. Both these deal fully with historical matters,
+"Philalethes" also going very fully into the theology. In the present
+writer's edition some attempt is made to clear up obscure points of
+allegory, and to show the extent of Dante's debt to Greek philosophy.
+Attention is also called to questions of grammar and philology, which
+have been somewhat neglected by the Italian and German commentators.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+DANTE'S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE
+
+
+A few words on the mythological and classical allusions in the
+_Commedia_ may be useful to those who are not familiar with Greek and
+Latin literature. The subject is a very wide one, and Dante's treatment
+of heathen mythology is very curious. It is especially noticeable in the
+_Purgatory_, where every sin and its contrary virtue are illustrated by
+a pair of examples from Scripture history on the one hand, and Greek or
+Roman history or legend (for both seem alike to him) on the other.
+Sloth, for instance, is exemplified by the Israelites who "thought
+scorn" of the promised land, and the slothful followers of Aeneas, who
+hung back from the conquest of Italy; while Mary going into the hill
+country with haste, and Caesar dashing into Spain are the chosen models
+of prompt response to the call of duty. So, again, at the very outset of
+the poem, we find St. Paul and Aeneas quoted as the two instances of
+living men who have been permitted to see the future world; and Dante
+professes his own unworthiness to be put on a level with them,
+apparently without a hint that he holds the _Aeneid_ any lower as an
+authority than the Epistle to the Corinthians. In a practically pagan
+humanist of the days of Leo X. this would hardly surprise us; but it
+is, at first sight, not a little astonishing in the case of a poet to
+whom the Christian Church and Christian revelation were vital truths. It
+is, however, clear that to the mediaeval mind the Bible, though no doubt
+the highest authority, was in matters of morality, and to some extent
+even of theology, only "first among its peers." Aquinas quotes
+Aristotle, the Scriptures, and the Fathers almost indiscriminately in
+support of his positions. Dante, approaching the subject from a
+political as well as a moral point, takes for his guide and philosopher
+the poet Virgil, who, as the Middle Ages deemed, had both foretold the
+glories of the Church, and sung of the first origin of the Empire. It
+must never be forgotten that, to Dante, Church and Empire were merely
+two aspects of one Divine institution. Brutus and Cassius are hardly
+less guilty than Judas; and that simply from the official point of view,
+for there is no attempt to sanctify, much less to deify, Caesar as an
+individual. None the less is the work that he did holy, and this
+holiness communicates itself, as readers of the _De Monarchia_ will
+remember, to the whole of the long course of workings by which Divine
+Providence prepared the way for it. The finger of God is no less plainly
+to be seen in the victory of Aeneas over Turnus or of the Romans over the
+Samnites than in the passage of the Israelites across the Red Sea, or
+the repulse of the Assyrians. Roman history is no less sacred than
+Hebrew. This being so, we shall not be surprised to find that a certain
+authority attaches to the literature of either one of the chosen
+peoples. Did they conflict, doubtless the poet, as an orthodox
+Catholic, would admit that Virgil must give way to Isaiah; but he would
+in all probability decline to allow that they could conflict, at all
+events within the region common to them both. No doubt, just as Caesar
+and Peter have, besides their common domain, functions peculiar to each,
+wherein Caesar may not interfere with Peter, or as Aristotle may err when
+he trespasses on ground that the Church has made her province (for I
+interpret _Purg._ xxv. 63 as an allusion to Aristotle), so might Virgil
+or Lucan become a teacher of false doctrine if he ventured to teach
+theology. (Statius, who does teach theology, as in the passage just
+referred to, is, it must be remembered, a Christian.) But Virgil at all
+events holds scrupulously aloof from any over-stepping of his functions;
+and within his own limits his authority is infallible. Why, then, should
+we not accept his account of the infernal regions as trustworthy? He
+tells us that Charon is the ferryman who carries the souls across to the
+nether world; Minos the judge who sentences them; Pluto (whom we confuse
+perhaps a little with Plutus) a great personage in those regions. Furies
+sit over the inner gate; Gorgons and Harpies play their parts. Holy
+Scripture has nothing to say against these conceptions; so there is
+nothing to prevent our accepting Virgil's account, and expanding it into
+mediaeval precision and symmetry. Thus we have all the official hierarchy
+of hell ready provided. As has already been observed, it is not until
+Dante reaches a point very far down that anything like what we may call
+the Christian devil appears.[43] Throughout the upper circles the work,
+whether of tormenting or merely of guarding, is performed exclusively by
+beings taken from classic mythology. If we except the Giants, who seem
+to occupy a kind of intermediate position between prisoner and gaoler,
+Geryon is the last of these whom we meet; and him Dante has practically
+transformed into a being of his own invention: for there is little in
+common between the personage slain by Hercules and the strange monster
+with the face of a just man and the tail of a venomous scorpion. As
+might perhaps be expected when there was plenty of material to hand in
+Tuscany, less use is made of the persons of classical mythology in
+finding subjects for punishment. Among the virtuous heathen several find
+their place; but it may be doubted whether Electra or Orpheus were to
+Dante any less historical than Plato or Seneca. Semiramis, Dido,
+Achilles, again, would all be recorded in the histories of Orosius and
+others whom Dante read, with dates and possibly portraits. Capaneus, one
+of the "Seven against Thebes," is more nearly mythological; but as the
+utterer of the earliest profession of reasoned atheism[44] he could
+hardly be omitted as the typical blasphemer. The most curious example of
+all is the Thais whom we find among the flatterers. She does not attain
+even to the dignity of a myth, being only a character in a play of
+Terence, and borrowed by Dante from Cicero; probably the strangest
+instance on record of the "realization" of a dramatic personage.
+
+    FOOTNOTES:
+
+    [43] See p. 102.
+
+    [44] "Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor" (Statius, _Thebaid_, iii.
+    661).
+
+
+
+
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+
+LONDON AND BECCLES.
+
+
+
+
+BY A. J. BUTLER, M.A.
+
+
+THE PURGATORY OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.,
+        late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 12_s._
+        6_d._
+
+THE PARADISE OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+THE HELL OF DANTE ALIGHIERI.
+
+    Edited, with Translation and Notes, by ARTHUR JOHN BUTLER, M.A.
+        Crown 8vo. 12_s._ 6_d._
+
+A COMPANION TO DANTE.
+
+    By Professor SCARTAZZINI. Translated by A. J. BUTLER, M.A. Crown
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+       *       *       *       *       *
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+
+
+
+    Transcriber's Note:
+
+    Variations in spelling, hyphenation and use of accents have
+    been retained as they appear in the original publication.
+
+    [=a] represents a with macron
+
+    [=i] represents i with macron
+
+
+    Changes to the original publication have been made as follows:
+
+        Page  11 Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+                 "Bytuene Mershe and Averil,
+
+        Page 112 to positive cruelty,
+                 to positive cruelty.
+
+        Page 113 becomes almost suppliant
+                 becomes almost suppliant.
+
+        Page 128 eighth pit o
+                 eighth pit of
+
+        Page 128 evening is drawng
+                 evening is drawing
+
+        Page 133 In the circle o
+                 In the circle of
+
+        Page 149 Sun, Mars, Jupiter
+                 Sun, Mars, Jupiter,
+
+        Page 150 by other matter,
+                 by other matter.
+
+        Page 166 Note that capidigia
+                 Note that cupidigia
+
+        Page 178 It is a mos
+                 It is a most
+
+        Page 178 peculiarities of locat
+                 peculiarities of local
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Dante: His Times and His Work, by 
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