Among My Books Volume Ii Part 11

[194] Mr. Longfellow's _for_, like the Italian _per_, gives us the same privilege of election. We "freeze for cold," we "hunger for food."

[195] Inferno, V. 67.

[196] Paradiso, XVIII. 46. Renoard is one of the heroes (a rudely humorous one) in "La Bataille d'Alischans," an episode of the measureless "Guillaume d'Orange." It was from the graves of those supposed to have been killed in this battle that Dante draws a comparison, Inferno, IX. Boccaccio's comment on this pa.s.sage might have been read to advantage by the French editors of "Alischans."

[197] We cite this comment under its received name, though it is uncertain if Pietro was the author of it. Indeed, we strongly doubt it. It is at least one of the earliest, for it appears, by the comment on Paradiso, XXVI., that the greater part of it was written before 1341. It is remarkable for the strictness with which it holds to the spiritual interpretation of the poem, and deserves much more to be called Ottimo, than the comment which goes by that name. Its publication is due to the zeal and liberality of the late Lord Vernon, to whom students of Dante are also indebted for the parallel-text reprint of the four earliest editions of the Commedia.

[198] See Wegele, _ubi supra_, p. 174, et seq. The best a.n.a.lysis of Dante's opinions we have ever met with is Emil Ruth's "Studien uber Dante Alighieri," Tubingen, 1853. Unhappily it wants an index, and accordingly loses a great part of its usefulness for those not already familiar with the subject. Nor are its references sufficiently exact. We always respect Dr. Ruth's opinions, if we do not wholly accept them, for they are all the results of original and a.s.siduous study.

[199] See the second book of the De Vulgari Eloquio. The only other Italian poet who reminds us of Dante in sustained dignity is Guido Guinicelli. Dante esteemed him highly, calls him maximus in the De Vulgari Eloquio, and "the father of me and of my betters," in the XXVI. Purgatorio. See some excellent specimens of him in Mr. D. G.

Rossetti's remarkable volume of translations from the early Italian poets. Mr. Rossetti would do a real and lasting service to literature by employing his singular gift in putting Dante's minor poems into English.

[200] The old French poems confound all unbelievers together as pagans and wors.h.i.+ppers of idols.

[201] Dante is an ancient in this respect as in many others, but the difference is that with him society is something divinely ordained.

He follows Aristotle pretty closely, but on his own theory crime and sin are identical.

[202] Purgatorio, XVIII. 73. He defines it in the De Monarchia (Lib.

I. -- 14). Among other things he calls it "the first beginning of our liberty." Paradiso, V. 19, 20, he calls it "the greatest gift that in his largess G.o.d creating made." "Dico quod judicium medium est apprehensionis et appet.i.tus." (De Monarchia, _ubi supra_.)

"Right and wrong, Between whose endless jar justice resides."

_Troilus and Cressida._

[203] Convito, Tr. IV. c. 22.

[204] Convito, Tr. IV. c. 7. "Qui descenderit ad inferos, non ascendet." Job vii. 9.

[205] But it may he inferred that he put the interests of mankind above both. "For citizens," he says, "exist not for the sake of consuls, nor the people for the sake of the king, but, on the contrary, consuls for the sake of citizens, and the king for the sake of the people."

[206] Paradiso, VIII. 145, 146.

[207] Purgatorio, XVI. 106-112.

[208] De Monarchia, -- _ult_.

[209] De Monarchia Lib III -- 10. "Poterat tamen Imperator in patrocinium Eccelesiae patrimonium et alia deputare immoto semper superiori dominio cujus unitas divisio non pat.i.tur. Poterat et Vicarius Dei recipere, non tanquam possessor, sed tanquam fructuum pro Eccelesia proque Christi pauperibus dispensator." He tells us that St. Dominic did not ask for the t.i.thes which belong to the poor of G.o.d. (Paradiso, XII. 93, 94.) "Let them return whence they came,"

he says (De Monarchia, Lib II. -- 10); "they came well, let them return ill, for they were well given and ill held."

[210] Inferno, XIX. 53; Paradiso, x.x.x. 145-148.

[211] Purgatorio, XX. 86-92.

[211] Purgatorio, XX. 86-92.

[212] Purgatorio, XIX. 134, 135.

[213] This results from the whole course of his argument in the second book of De Monarchia, and in the VI. Paradiso he calls the Roman eagle "the bird of G.o.d" and "the scutcheon of G.o.d." We must remember that with Dante G.o.d is always the "Emperor of Heaven," the barons of whose court are the Apostles. (Paradiso, XXIV. 115; Ib., XXV. 17.)

[214] Dante seems to imply (though his name be German) that he was of Roman descent He makes the original inhabitants of Florence (Inferno, XV. 77, 78) of Roman seed, and Cacciaguida, when asked by him about his ancestry, makes no more definite answer than that their dwelling was in the most ancient part of the city (Paradiso, XVI. 40.)

[215] Man was created, according to Dante (Convito, Tr. II. c. 6), to supply the place of the fallen angels, and is in a sense superior to the angels, inasmuch as he has reason, which they do not need.

[216] De Monarchia, Lib I. -- 5.

[217] Purgatorio, VI. 83, 84.

[218] De Monarchia, Lib. I. -- 16.

[219] De Monarchia, Lib. I. -- 5.

[220] De Monarchia, Lib II. -- 7.

[221] Purgatorio, XVI. 67, 68.

[222] "Troilus and Cressida," Act I. s. 3. The whole speech is very remarkable both in thought and phrase.