The Divine Comedy Of Dante Alighieri Part 3

[20] _Purg._ xx. 67.

[21] _Purg._ iii. 122.

[22] For an account of the const.i.tution and activity of the _Parte Guelfa_ at a later period, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. iv. p.

482.

[23] _Purg._ xx. 68.

[24] _Parad._ xi. 89.

[25] _Parad._ xvi. 40, etc.

[26] _Inf._ xxix. 31.

[27] _Inf._ x. 42. Though Dante was descended from n.o.bles, his rank in Florence was not that of a n.o.ble or magnate, but of a commoner.

[28] The month is indicated by Dante himself, _Parad._ xxii. 110. The year has recently been disputed. For 1265 we have J. Villani and the earliest biographers; and Dante's own expression at the beginning of the _Comedy_ is in favour of it.

[29] _Inf._ xxiii. 95.

[30] _Inf._ xix. 17; _Parad._ xxv. 9.

[31] _Purg._ x.x.x. 55.

[32] _Inf._ viii. 45, where Virgil says of Dante that blessed was she that bore him, can scarcely be regarded as an exception to this statement.

[33] In 1326, out of a population of ninety thousand, from eight to ten thousand children were being taught to read; and from five to six hundred were being taught grammar and logic in four high schools. There was not in Dante's time, or till much later, a University in Florence.

See J. Villani, xi. 94, and Burckhardt, _Cultur der Renaissance_, vol.

i. p. 76.

[34] For an interesting account of Heresy in Florence from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, see Perrens, _Hist. de Florence_, vol. i.

livre ii. chap. iii.

[35] It opens with Brunetto's being lost in the forest of Roncesvalles, and there are some other features of resemblance--all on the surface--between his experience and Dante's.

[36] G. Villani, viii. 10. Latini died in 1294. Villani gives the old scholar a very bad moral character.

[37] _Inf._ xv. 84.

[38] We may, I think, a.s.sume the _Vita Nuova_ to have been published some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante's works are far from being ascertained.

[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the t.i.tle means _New Life_, or _Youth_, I suppose one is free to take his choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new world into which the lover is transported by his pa.s.sion.

[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, _Vita di Dante_, expressly says was the case.

[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the period.--Witte, _Dante-Forschungen_, vol. ii. p. 312.

[42] The _Vita Nuova_ contains some thirty poems.

[43] See Sir Theodore Martin's Introduction to his Translation of _Vita Nuova_, page xxi.

[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English customs.

[45] _Donne, ch' avete intelletto d' amore_: Ladies that are acquainted well with love. Quoted in _Purg._ xxiv. 51.

[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266.

[47] _Purg._ xi. 98.

[48] _Purg._ xxiv. 52.

[49] The date of the _Convito_ is still the subject of controversy, as is that of most of Dante's works. But it certainly was composed between the _Vita Nuova_ and the _Comedy_.

There is a remarkable sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti addressed to Dante, reproaching him for the deterioration in his thoughts and habits, and urging him to rid himself of the woman who has bred the trouble. This may refer to the time after the death of Beatrice. See also _Purg._ x.x.x.

124.

[50] _Convito_ ii. 13.

[51] Some recent writers set his marriage five years later, and reduce the number of his children to three.

[52] His sister is probably meant by the 'young and gentle lady, most nearly related to him by blood' mentioned in the _Vita Nuova_.

[53] The difference between the Teutonic and Southern conception of marriage must be kept in mind.

[54] He describes the weather on the day of the battle with the exactness of one who had been there (_Purg._ v. 155).

[55] Leonardo Bruni.

[56] _Inf._ xxii. 4.

[57] _Inf._ xxi. 95.

[58] _Conv._ iii. 9, where he ill.u.s.trates what he has to say about the nature of vision, by telling that for some time the stars, when he looked at them, seemed lost in a pearly haze.

[59] The _Convito_ was to have consisted of fifteen books. Only four were written.

[60] _Wife of Bath's Tale._ In the context he quotes _Purg._ vii. 121, and takes ideas from the _Convito_.

[61] Dies to sensual pleasure and is abstracted from all worldly affairs and interests. See _Convito_ iv. 28.

[62] From the last canzone of the _Convito_.

[63] In the _Vita Nuova_.

[64] _Purg._ xxiii. 115, xxiv. 75; _Parad._ iii. 49.

[65] _Purg._ xi. 95.

[66] _Purg._ ii. 91.