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).
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=In Memoriam.= By ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
=The Princess.= By ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
=Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus.= Rendered into English Prose by
ANDREW LANG.
=Poems, Religious and Devotional.= By J. G. WHITTIER.
=Poems of Wordsworth.= Chosen and edited, with Preface, by MATTHEW
ARNOLD.
=A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Countries.= Gathered
and narrated anew, by the Author of "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE."
=A Book of Worthies.= Gathered from the Old Histories and written
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