[1] The characteristics of this norm are well set forth by Wetz,
_Shakespeare_, ch. v.
[2] The conflict of friendship with love was in general treated in
England with a livelier sense of the power of love than in Italy.
Boccaccio’s Palemone and Arcita, rivals for the hand of Emilia,
courteously debate their claims (_Teseide_, V, 36, 39 f.); Chaucer
makes them fight in grim earnest. Spenser in the spirit of the
Renascence makes friendship an ideal virtue, but exposes it to more
legitimate trials, as where the Squire of low degree repels the
proffered favours of his friend’s bride. (_Faerie Queen_, iv. 9, 2.)
[3] ‘Perjured, murderous, ... savage, extreme ... rude, cruel, not to
trust.’
[4] Goethe probably never heard of a less fortunate adventure in that
kind by his English contemporary, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the _Loves of
the Plants_, which had then been famous in England for ten years; a
poem which suffices to show that it is possible to exploit in the
description of natural processes all the figures and personifications
of poetry, and yet to go egregiously wrong.
[5] To Knebel, 14 February 1821.
[6] I. 140 f.
[7] I. 922, 1.
[8] This and subsequent passages are freely compressed here and there.
[9] IV. 575.
[10] II. 29.
[11] 18 July 1818.
[12] 13 July 1818, to Tom Keats.
[13] April 1818, to Taylor.
[14] Cf. his amusing outburst at Teignmouth, in the previous March, at
the effeminacy he ascribed to the men of Devon. ‘Had England been a
large Devonshire, we should not have won the battle of Waterloo. There
are knotted oaks, there are lusty rivulets, there are meadows such as
are not elsewhere--there are valleys of feminine climate--but there are
no thews and sinews,’ etc. March 13th, to Bailey.
[15] Lord Houghton, quoted by Buxton Forman, _Letters_, LXI.
[16] It is not irrelevant, however, in this context, to recall that
Dante’s account of his Dream-journey has been thought to give evidence
of actual climbing experience. The Purgatory mountain was provided with
a good path; but the Inferno, with its precipitous walls, was less
easily negotiated. He had, however, the services of a most competent
Guide! Cf. H. F. Tozer, _Mod. Quart._, April 1899.
[17] Cf. ‘vaulted with fire,’ _Paradise Lost_, i. 298, with ‘the
vaulted rocks,’ _Hyperion_, ii. 348.
[18] Cf. the sonnet written at the top.
[19] Referred to also by Professor de Sélincourt (note _ad loc._),
though he ascribes it (somewhat sternly) to the ‘vulgarity of Hunt.’
[20] Much of this paragraph is repeated in substance from an article,
by the writer, on ‘The Higher Mind of Italy,’ in the _Manchester
Guardian_, 15 March 1920.
[21] _Manchester Guardian_, 12 September 1918.
[22] Dedication of _Il Poema Paradisiaco_ (1892).
[23] _Laus Vitæ_, 232 f.
[24] Gargiulo, _Gabriele d’Annunzio_ (1912), to whose account of the
poet’s _sovrumanità_ the present essay is much indebted.
[25] _Beatitudine._
[26] _Il Fanciullo._
[27] _Elettra: Città del Silenzio._
[28] _Elettra: A uno dei Mille._
[29] _Fast._ iv. 291 f.
[30] The distinction of a religious, philosophic, and poetic
World-view is based upon W. Dilthey: _Das Wesen der Philosophie:
Weltanschauungalehre_ (Hinneberg, _Kultur der Gegenwart_, I. vi).
[31] Wilamowitz, _Oresteia_, p. 47.
[32] _Purg._ xxiv. 52. 4.
[33] The case of Trajan, who for his justice was said to have been
saved by the prayers of Gregory, is not quite parallel, since there was
here a theological tradition in his favour. But at least Dante seizes
on and emphasizes the tradition, and not merely ‘saves’ Trajan, but
makes him the comrade of the glorious just kings in Jupiter (_Par._ xx.
44 f.).
[34] The second type I take to be represented, with obvious
differences, for Dante by the ‘philosophical’ love of Guido Guinicelli,
the ‘father of love poets and my own’ (_Purg._ xxvi. 97); there is no
evidence that he knew anything of this part of Plato; in any case, of
course, this love is for him excited only by woman. The _amore_ of
Empedocles is mentioned in _Inf._ xii. 42; Empedocles himself, as well
as Plato, is in Limbo (_Inf._ iv. 138).
[35] _De Vulg. Eloq._ ii. 2.
[36] _Purg._ xviii. 36.
[37] _Canz._ xix.
[38] _Canz._ i.
[39] _Parlement of Fowles_, 1 f.
[40] A. E., _Imaginations and Reveries_, p. 151.
[41] _Ginestra_, p. 120.
[42] _Il Copernico._
[43] _Sopra un basso relievo_, etc.
[44] _Sopra un ritratto di una bella donna_, etc.
[45] _Aspasia._
[46] _Storia dell genere umano._
[47] _Amore e Morte._
[48] _Consalvo._
[49] _Amore e Morte._
[50] ‘Che paradiso è quello,’ etc.
[51]
‘Ma di natura ...
Divina sei,’ etc.
[52] _Ginestra._
[53] _Il Pensiero Dom._: ‘Quasi intender non posso,’ etc.
[54] _Il Pensiero Dom._: ‘Giammai d’allor,’ etc.
[55] _Bruto Minore._
[56] _Pens. Dom._ ‘Quanto più torno,’ etc.
[57] _Alla sua Donna._
[58] The essay on _The Poetry of Lucretius_ in the present volume
supplements the argument of the present essay at this point, and he is
merely referred to here.
[59] His famous illustration, quoted by Plato, is the harmony of the
lyre brought about by the balance of opposite forces in the strings.
Plut. _Is. et Osir._ (quot. Ritter and Preller, p. 17), Plat. _Symp._,
p. 187.
[60] _A Commentary on In Memoriam_, Introd.
[61] _Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre_, iv. 9.
[62] A. E., _The Renewal of Youth_.
[63] The lines from _The Borderers_ are in fact, of course, earlier
than those from _Peele Castle_.
[64] _English Poetry and German Philosophy in the Age of Wordsworth_
(Manchester University Press).