DANTE
In the year 1265 there was born in the city of Florence in Italy a man
who was destined to become one of the four greatest poets that the
world has ever produced. This man was Dante, the son of Alighiero, a
Florentine who was popular and well known as a man of affairs.
When Dante was born Italy was very different from what it is to-day,
for instead of being formed of a single nation, or even of a number of
smaller ones, the cities themselves were nations and made their own
laws. These cities, moreover, were constantly at war with one another,
and fighting was the order of the day. Even within the cities there
were often bloody frays and brawls between the supporters of one or
another noble family. These brawls sometimes became so extensive that
they grew into civil war, and penetrated beyond the limits of the
cities in which they were hatched. Such was the state of affairs in
Dante's time, and it is important to remember this, because the
quarrels of these different factions had a great effect upon his life.
Particularly long and bloody in Florence and other cities had been the
strife between two families and factions who called themselves
respectively the Guelfs and the Ghibellines. Dante's father belonged to
the Guelf party and the boy was brought up with the idea that he must
always serve the Guelfs, and support them in all their quarrels. The
Guelfs, moreover, were high in the affairs of Florence and had overcome
their opponents there. And for this reason those who belonged to the
Guelf cause had the chance to rise in the affairs of the city.
So Dante's boyhood was not spent like that of some other poets, in the
midst of books alone, or in the quiet seclusion of school and college.
He was thrown neck and heels into the midst of the fiery Italian
politics of an age when one could poniard his enemy on the streets and
go unpunished, providing he had power or influence. And it is probable
that he saw many wild doings. He was, however, of studious habits and
loved reading more than the air he breathed. And while little is known
of his boyhood years, it is certain that he mastered then and in his
early manhood many of the best books that had been written since the
beginning of the world. Moreover, as Dante later said, he had taught
himself "the art of bringing words into verse"--an art that he mastered
so thoroughly that his name was to live forever.
When Dante was still a young boy there befell something that proved to
be the most wonderful happening in his entire life. This was nothing
else than meeting a little girl named Beatrice Portinari. Although
Beatrice was only a child, and Dante himself hardly ten years old, he
felt a love for her that lasted from that minute until the day of his
death and that inspired him to write the great poem that made his name
famous throughout the world.
A festival was given by the family of the Portinari which was a noble
one and possessed such wealth that its members afterward became bankers
for King Edward the Third of England. Among the guests was the boy,
Dante, and he beheld Beatrice there as a beautiful little girl. How
strangely he was affected by the sight of her he told in later years,
and his words have been translated and quoted as follows: "Her dress,
on that day," said Dante, "was of a most noble color,--a subdued and
goodly crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited her
very tender age. At that moment, I say most truly, that the spirit of
life, which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart,
began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook
therewith. From that time Love ruled my soul."
Dante did not speak to Beatrice on that occasion,--in fact, he saw her,
or addressed her, only two or three times in his entire life. But from
the day when she first appeared to him in her crimson dress, he sought
to perform some deed that would make him worthy of her love, and the
result was the great poem in which he placed her name beside his own.
In spite of his love, Dante did not become an idle dreamer, but
developed into an active and studious young man, ready to take up the
sword to defend his city whenever it might call on him to do so. And
when he was twenty-four years old he put on his armor and went forth to
battle against the citizens of Arezzo, a town where the Ghibellines
were powerful and had been acting in a hostile manner toward the
Guelfs, who controlled Florence.
War was not so serious an affair then as it is now, and everyone
engaged in it. Moreover, the towns that warred against each other were
so near that it was sometimes an easy matter to go forth and fight on
one day and be back in your own home on the day following. Everyone was
expected to bear arms for his city, and going to war was held to be a
matter of course; but in spite of these things Dante gained great
praise for the way in which he conducted himself in the war with
Arezzo, perhaps because he was braver than the rest, or perhaps because
a poet is not generally considered to be as warlike as other men.
After the fighting had ended, Dante returned to Florence and prepared
to take his part in city politics. Before he could accomplish anything
it was necessary for him to go on record that he belonged to one of the
great guilds into which all the citizens at that time were divided, and
which controlled all the different branches of business and
manufacturing, and all the sciences. So Dante entered the guild of the
Doctors and Apothecaries--not because he knew anything about their
professions--that was not necessary--but to give himself an apparent
vocation when he came to assume some one of the city offices.
By this time Dante's great intellect and scholarly attainments had made
him well known in Florence, although he was only a young man. He was
high in the esteem of many learned men and had a great many poets and
artists for his friends. Among them were the artist named Giotto and
the poet called Guido Cavalcante. So well did he appear in their eyes
and to the men of the city of Florence who ran its affairs that in the
year 1300 Dante was made one of the Priors of Florence, that is, one of
the chief rulers of the city.
It was not to be thought that a man could gain such a position in those
turbulent times without making many enemies, and as Dante belonged to
the controlling faction, others who were not in power planned his
overthrow and that of his fellow rulers. Dante himself, however,
disliked this civil strife and did all in his power to bring the
opposing factions together. But his enemies got the upper hand, and he
was finally driven from the city in exile.
Another sorrow had befallen him. Beatrice, whom he still continued to
love ardently (although he had married a good woman named Gemma Donati
and had three children) had died some years before, leaving him nothing
but her memory. But Dante's love for Beatrice had not interfered in his
relations with his wife. It was not an earthly love. He had not wanted
Beatrice as his wife, but rather as an ideal that he could worship. And
after her death he became both gloomy and unhappy.
His exile, moreover, was a bitter blow to Dante, for he had loved
Florence dearly and could not imagine making his home elsewhere. With
bitterness in his heart he wandered from city to city, and then he set
out in earnest to write the great poem which is called the _Divine
Comedy_. Dante had already written a number of beautiful poems, but
they were more in the style of other Italian and Latin poetry. What he
now planned was entirely new and so daring that it had never been
thought of since the beginning of the world.
He planned in this poem to describe a journey into the nethermost
regions of Hell, then into Purgatory and finally into Heaven, where
Beatrice should be his guide and conduct him to the throne of God
Himself.
Such a poem, as we have said, had never been written or even wildly
imagined, but Dante's imagination was so vivid that it seemed as if he
really had beheld the scenes that he described. And he told the story
of the poem as though the adventures in it were real and had happened
directly to himself.
Hell, according to Dante's belief, and that of the religion of his day,
was a gigantic funnel-shaped gulf directly beneath the city of
Jerusalem, shaped into nine vast circles or pits with a common center
that reached down to the center of the earth like a circular flight of
stairs. In the lowest pit of all Satan himself was to be found, ruling
his kingdom. On the other side of the earth was a wide sea, from which
arose a mighty mountain called the Mount of Purgatory--the place where
the souls of human beings did penance for their sins until they were
fit to enter Heaven. Heaven itself was composed of nine transparent and
revolving spheres that enclosed the earth, and in which were fastened
the sun, the moon and the stars. The motion of these heavenly bodies as
they rose and set above the earth's horizon was believed by Dante to be
due to the turning of the spheres, which were moved by the hand of God.
It was in accordance with this idea of Heaven and Hell that Dante began
his poem.
One day, he said, when he was lonely and sad in spirit, he found
himself standing in the midst of a deep forest that was so gloomy, wild
and savage that no mortal eyes had ever seen its equal--and even to
think of it afterward caused him a bitterness not far from that of
death itself.
As he stood there he was aware of a presence close by, the stately
figure of a man, who proved to be the great Roman poet, Vergil,--and
Vergil told him that Divine Will had ordered him to guide Dante through
Hell and as far as the gates of Paradise.
He made clear to Dante that this journey was the part of a Heavenly
order and had been decreed by Heaven itself, and Dante, in great fear
at what he was about to see, was led by Vergil through the forest until
he came to the mouth of a black cavern. Carven on the rock above it was
a verse that told Dante that here was the entrance to the lower
world,--the gateway to Hell. And the verse concluded with the grim
words--"_All Hope Abandon, Ye Who Enter Here_."
Sighs, groans, lamentations and terrible voices were heard from the
depths below as they passed through this evil doorway, and now they
were in a region of murky gloom, where no ray of sunlight ever had
entered. All around them were the spirits of the dead. They came
flocking to the Acheron or River of Death, where the ferryman named
Charon, with eyes like flaming wheels, bore them across. When Charon
saw a living man among the dead he sternly ordered Dante to return
whence he had come. Vergil interceded for him, and they passed on.
After they had crossed the River of Death they entered the first circle
of Hell, where those who had the misfortune to die without being
baptized, or who had believed in some other religion than Christianity,
must spend the rest of time. Here were a number of noble spirits from
the days of Rome and Greece, including many of the poets,
mathematicians and astronomers of olden days. Dante would gladly have
remained with them, for they were not unhappy and spent their time in
learned discourse and scholarly friendship, but Vergil urged him
onward.
Deeper and deeper they descended. They passed through great spaces
where mighty winds swept before them the souls of the dead, whirling
them around forever without rest; through regions of chill rain and
sleet, where the spirits of those who had been gluttonous in their
lifetime were perpetually torn into pieces by a three-headed dog called
Cerberus. And after many awful scenes that Dante could hardly bear to
witness, he saw in front of him the towers of the dreadful city of Dis,
or Satan, in which the spirits of the damned underwent punishments that
were worse than any he had witnessed thus far.
Guarding the walls were the three Furies of the Greek legends. When
they beheld Dante they howled for the Gorgon, Medusa, with the snaky
locks to come quickly and turn him into stone--a fate that must befall
all men that gazed upon her face. But Vergil bade Dante hide his eyes,
and to be sure that he might be saved he covered them with his own
hand.
They entered the city--and there and from that time on the punishments
became so fearful that we shall not describe them here.
In their journey they had constantly to be on their guard against the
monsters of Hell that strove to arrest their progress. And in passing
by a lake of burning pitch, in which tortured souls were burning, the
demons that guarded them rushed at Dante and pursued him, eager to hurl
him into the lake to lose his life and the hope of Heaven at one and
the same time.
Lower and lower they descended, passing from one horror to another
still more terrible, until they came to the nethermost pit of all,
where Vergil told Dante that now he would need all his courage to
sustain him, for he had come at last to the abode of Satan. This was a
region of eternal ice and a bitter wind blew on them, so cold and
dreadful that Dante was half dead from it and it seemed that his numbed
senses could not support life any longer. The wind, he saw, was caused
by the bat-like wings of Satan himself--a gigantic and hairy monster,
with only the upper half of his body protruding from the icy pit in
which he stood. He had three heads, one red, one green and one white
and yellow; and in his three mouths he munched the three greatest
traitors of all time--Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius.
When Dante was about to swoon from the terrible sight, Vergil watched
his opportunity, and as the great wings of Satan rose he sprang beneath
them, with Dante following him. Grasping the hairy side of the monster,
they commenced to descend still lower. And soon, to Dante's amazement,
their downward path became an upward one, for Satan's waist was at the
center of the earth and after they had passed it they must climb
instead of descend.
Up and up they went, toiling with the greatest difficulty, passing
through a chimney-like passageway that led for an incredible distance
to the open air above; and when they arrived beneath the blue sky they
were at the base of the Mountain of Purgatory, where men's spirits that
were not doomed to Hell must purify themselves before they could hope
to enter the Heaven that lay above them.
After the soot of Hell was washed from Dante's countenance he began
with Vergil to ascend the mountain. They passed countless spirits all
engaged in severe tasks, to cleanse themselves of sin before they could
hope to attain the wonderful regions above; but these spirits were
almost happy, although many of them were undergoing pain and suffering,
for their trouble was not endless as was the case with the spirits of
Hell, and they would certainly find happiness at last.
When they came to the summit of the mountain a wall of fire lay between
them and Paradise. Through this they passed, and once on the other side
Dante lost sight of Vergil, who could accompany him no further.
Dante was then greeted by his long lost Beatrice, now a radiant spirit,
who had been chosen by divine will to show him the glories of Heaven.
And with Beatrice guiding him, Dante passed upward through the crystal
spheres, once getting a glimpse of the earth in his heavenly progress
as it lay beneath him shining in the light of the sun. At last Dante
had ascended to so great a height in Heaven that he beheld God
Himself--but what he saw was so wonderful that it was impossible for
him to write about it, and in this way his wonderful poem came to an
end.
After completing the Inferno Dante went to Paris, where he met a great
many scholars and wise men, who treated him with the utmost respect,
but all the time he desired to be in his native city of Florence. When
Henry of Luxembourg planned to lay siege to it, Dante encouraged him,
hoping that he might enter with the conquerors and that his enemies
might be overthrown. The siege took place, but it was unsuccessful, and
the poet was compelled to wander far and wide among strangers for the
rest of his life. As he lacked money, he had to take many humble
offices to earn his bread, and more than once had to undergo the
indignity of sitting among the jesters and buffoons at some great house
that had honored him with its favor.
At last, weary of life and sick at heart, Dante went to Ravenna, where
his genius was honored more worthily. His name had now penetrated
throughout the greater part of the civilized world and he was known as
one of the greatest geniuses that had ever lived. Many people believed
that Dante had actually beheld the scenes that he described. When they
met him on the streets they would draw aside to let him pass, thinking
him a man whose destiny was different from their own, and they would
whisper to each other that he was the man who had descended into Hell
and come forth again alive and had looked with his own eyes at the
horrors of the Infernal Regions.
No doubt the fame and the almost frightened homage that he received
were pleasing to the sad soul of Dante, but he always remembered that
he was still an outcast from his native city. Florence stubbornly
refused to remove her ban and when Dante died he was buried at Ravenna.
There his body still lies, with a Latin inscription on his tombstone
that tells the world of the ingratitude of the city of Florence to her
greatest son, who is also the greatest poet that Italy has ever seen.