"When any one is passionately fond of poetry, he should sit by night on
the _panchina_ {63} in the piazza or square of Santa Croce or in other
places (_i.e._, those haunted by Dante), and having read his poetry,
pronounce the following:
"'Dante, che eri
La gran poeta,
Siei morto, ma vero,
Il tuo spirito
E sempre rimasto,
Sempre per nostro
Nostro aiuto.
"'Ti chiamo, ti prego!
E ti scongiuro!
A voler aiutarmi.
Questa poesia
Voglio imparare;
Di piu ancora,
Non voglio soltanto
Imparar la a cantare,
Ma voglio imparare
Di mia testa
Poter le scrivere,
E cosi venire
Un bravo poeta."
"'Thou Dante, who wert
Such a great poet,
Art dead, but thy spirit
Is truly yet with us,
Here and to aid us.
"'I call thee, I pray thee,
And I conjure thee!
Give me assistance!
I would learn perfectly
All of this poetry.
And yet, moreover,
I would not only
Learn it to sing it,
But I would learn too
How I may truly
From my head write it,
And become really
An excellent poet!'
"And then a form of a man will approach from around the statue (_da
canto_), advancing gently--_piano-piano_--to the causeway, and will sit
on it like any ordinary person, and begin to read the book, and the young
man who has invoked the poet will not fail to obtain his wish. And the
one who has come from the statue is no other indeed than Dante himself.
"And it is said that if in any public place of resort or inn (_bettola_)
any poet sings the poems of Dante, he is always present among those who
listen, appearing as a gentleman or poor man--_secondo il
locale_--according to the place.
"Thus the spirit of Dante enters everywhere without being seen.
"If his poems be in the house of any person who takes no pleasure in
them, the spirit of the poet torments him in his bed (in dreams) until
the works are taken away."
* * * * *
There is a simplicity and directness in this tradition, as here told,
which proves the faith of the narrator. Washington Irving found that the
good people of East Cheap had become so familiar with Shakespearian
comedy as to verily believe that Falstaff and Prince Hal and Dame Quickly
had all lived, and still haunted the scenes of their former revels; and
in like manner the Florentine has followed the traditions of olden time
so closely and lovingly, that all the magnates of the olden time live for
him literally at the present day. This is in a great measure due to the
fact that statues of all the celebrities of the past are in the most
public places, and that there are many common traditions to the effect
that all statues at certain times walk about or are animated.
One of the commonest halfpenny or _soldo_ pamphlets to be found on the
stand of all open-air dealers in ballads--as, for instance, in the
Uffizzi--is a collection of poems on the statues around that building,
which of itself indicates the interest in the past, and the knowledge of
poets and artists possessed by the common people. For the poorest of
them are not only familiar with the names, and more or less with the
works, of Orcagna, Buonarotti, Dante, Giotto, Da Vinci, Raffaelle,
Galileo, Machiavelli, and many more, but these by their counterfeit
presentments have entered into their lives and live. Men who are so
impressioned make but one bold step over the border into the fairyland of
faith while the more cultured are discussing it.
I do not, with some writers, believe that a familiarity with a few names
of men whose statues are always before them, and from whose works the
town half lives, indicates an indescribably high culture or more refined
nature in a man, but I think it is very natural for him to make legends
on them. There are three other incantations given in another chapter,
the object of which, like this to Dante, is to become a poet.
"From which we learn that in the fairy faith," writes Flaxius, with
ever-ready pen, "that poets risen to spirits still inspire, even in
person, neophytes to song.
"'Life is a slate of action, and the store
Of all events is aggregated there
That variegate the eternal universe;
Death is a gate of dreariness and gloom,
That leads to azure isles and beaming skies . . .
Therefore, O spirit, fearlessly bear on.'"