APPENDIX IIIDANTE THE POET

APPENDIX IIIDANTE THE POETBenedetto Croce’s[382]contention is, of course, fundamentally true, that Dante is first and last a Poet, and that it is the magnetism of his poetic genius that attracts interest to all the varied subjects which he touches. If he had not been a Poet, these essays would never have been written; and the writer hopes that the poetic quality of his hero will have been felt as a background all through the book. His lyrical power is the driving force of his many-sided message. To the struggling patriot, whether of 1848 or of 1918, he is a Tyrtaeus; to the artist in poetry, a Horace (although he never saw theArs Poetica); to the lover, a Christian Anacreon; to the religious devotee, a Psalmist and Prophet in one; to the student of human nature in its detail and its large epic aspect, a Homer and a Virgil; in every aspect a supreme poet. The very magnetism of his lyrical appeal will, however, continue to keep countless disciples busy, in the future as in the past, exploring the by-ways and investigating the by-products of his genius; gloating over his obscurities, and glorying in everything, big or little, that Dante has touched. Those “questioni dantesche” on the more puerile of which Croce rightly pours his scorn,[383]will emerge to the end of the chapter—a lush growth of mingled flowers and weeds witnessing to the extraordinary fertility of the soil.And we may go on to ask, what, exactly, is the value,or the nature of that “lyrical quality” which Croce justly exalts if it is entirely divorced from its content, its subject-matter?True, Beauty has a value of its own, as Dante himself saw. In theory, indeed, he makes Poetry a humble gilding of the didactic pill, on the Horatian principle ofmiscere utile dulci; a beauteous fiction for a moral purpose—“una verità ascosa sotto bella menzogna”[384]a “clumsy device,” as Professor Foligno puts it, “to rivet the attention of readers while the lessons of virtue and truth were expounded.”[385]In practice, however, the author of theConvivio“spoke as Love dictated”[386]—nay, even in theConvivioitself (as Prof. Foligno points out), in theenvoiof the first Canzone,[387]he bids his poetry, if its argument prove unintelligible, take heart of grace and draw attention to its own sheer beauty—Allor ti priego che ti ricomforte,Dicendo lor, diletta mia novella.“Ponete mente almen com’ io son bella!”But lyrical form cannot exist as a mere abstraction. It must needs express itself in words that have a meaning—in “subject-matter.” The Poet sings of what is in his heart, and sings—... A quel modoCh’ e’ ditta dentro;he sings because hemust. And Dante has this irresistible impulse of the artist to express himself. He tells us in the XIXth chapter of theVita Nuovathe story of the birth of his canzone, “Donne ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore,” the famous song by which Bonagiunta knew him in Purgatory.[388]First, a great desire for utterance, then a pondering over the appropriate mode, and finally, “Ideclare,” he says, “my tongue spake as though by its own impulse and said—Donne ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore.”[389]That is the artistic impulse to create, and represents, indeed, the sum total of his “Message” as conceived by many an artist. But Dante took his message and his mission seriously; and unless we recognise as a factor in his poetry this sense of responsibility for the gift, and for the use of it—in however exalted a sense—as the handmaid of Religion, we surely misconceive him. He is essentially (not accidentally) didactic, prophetic, a conscious and purposeful inspirer of his own generation and of those to come.From the point of view of purely aesthetic criticism his “Theological Romance,” his “Epic of man’s freewill,” with its massive architectural framework and its recurring theological, philosophical, political and otherwise didactic passages may be entirely secondary—may be, in fact, so much awkward and obstructive material which the poet only reduces to order and dominates by force of titanic genius.[390]Dante certainly rises superior in fact to the contemporary theory of the Art of Poetry which he repeats in theConvivioand theDe Vulgari Eloquentia.[391]It is this which makes his verse to be, as we have called it, the driving power of his message. But this homage to the traditional theory is not mere lip-service. Supreme poet as he is, he deliberately makes his sublime verse the instrument of spiritual teaching. And in so doing only renders it the more sublime.FOOTNOTES[1]See esp.Inf.ix. 113; xx. 61: “Dante and the Redemption of Italy,” p. 15.[2]1865: Seeib.p. 19.[3]Par.xxv. 1, 2.[4]“Dante and Educational Principles,” pp. 83sqq.[5]Nos. III and VI.[6]Nos. I, II, IV, and VIII.[7]Prof. Foligno has, of course, no responsibility for the opinions set forth in this volume.[8]Le opere di Dante: testo critico della Società dantescha italiana, etc.Firenze: R. Bemporad & Figlio. MCMXXI. Cited in the notes as “Bemporad.” In the case of quotations from the prose works, an attempt has been made to consult the convenience of English readers by the reference to the paging of Dr. Moore’s Oxford Edition as well as to that of theTesto critico(Bemporad).[9]Nos. V and VII.[10]This Sermon was preached in Lincoln Cathedral on Aug. 14th, 1921 (Twelfth Sunday after Trinity).[11]Par.i. 6-8.[12]SeeOsservatore Romano, May 4th, 1921. Andcf.Appendix II.[13]Par.xvii. 55.[14]Purg.xxiv. 52-4.[15]Cf.A. G. Ferrers-Howell, “Dante and the Troubadours,” in the Memorial Volume,Dante, Essays in Commemoration, 1321-1921, London Univ. Press, 1921.[16]Purg.xxiv. 57.[17]Inf.iii. 5, 6.[18]Purg.xvii. 103-105.[19]Inf.i. 118-20.[20]Purg.xxiii. 71-74.[21]Par.iii. 70-72, 85.[22]Par.xxxiii. 145.[23]The Spiritual Message of Dante, Williams & Norgate, 1914, p. 225.[24]1 John iv. 16.[25]Par.xxx. 133-7.[26]Purg.xx. 43.[27]Purg.i. 1.[28]Par.xxv. 5.[29]A pathetic episode connected with this Celebration is related in Appendix I, p. 165.[30]Giornale, p. 215: Art. “Firenze e Italia nel concetto e nel cuore di Dante.”[31]Giornale, p. 344.[32]A similar chorus of reverent homage to Dante as the good genius of Italy’s fortunes, was evoked by the war, in the shape of “Dante e la Guerra,” Nos. 6-9 ofNuovo Convito, June-Sept., 1917.[33]Par.ix. 27.[34]“To the Defenders of the Piave: November, 1917, to November, 1918.” Art. inAnglo-Italian Review, Nov., 1918, p. 244.[35]Purg.xxvii. 142.[36]Il Purgatorio, p. 58.[37]Par.xxxi. 85-89.[38]Inf.i. 31-34.[39]Loc. cit.[40]Italy is likened by Dante to a wood (silva) inV.E., I, xi.[41]Purg.vi. 76-fin.[42]Purg.vi. 91sqq.;Mon.I, xii.[43]Purg.v. 61.[44]SeeMon.II, v. 132sqq.; 159sqq., quoted below; pp. 355sq., Oxf. Ed.; p. 379, Bemporad.[45]Inf.xii. 1-21.[46]Defensor Paciswritten c. 1324 (three years after Dante’s death) to support the claims of the Emperor Lewis IX (of Bavaria) against Pope John XXII, starts, as Dante does, from Aristotle and Holy Scripture, but carries the relentless exposure of papal pretensions much further, and strikes the note of appeal to a General Council which was one of the watchwords of the Reformation.[47]This theme he took up earlier in the Fourth Treatise of theConvivio, chaps. iv. and v.[48]Cf.especially his quotations from theAeneidinConv.IV, iv. (Bemp., 252) andMon.II, vii. 70sqq.(Bemp., 381); the Divine injunction is taken by Dante, almost as though theAeneidwere ‘Scripture’!Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.—Aen.vi. 852-4.[49]Inf.i. 82.[50]vi. 34-96.[51]W. W. Vernon,Readings on the Paradiso, Vol. I, p. 199.[52]Par.vi. 103-104.[53]Purg.vii. 94; vi. 97.[54]Purg.xvi. 106sqq.; 127sqq.[55]Purg.vi. 76sqq.[56]Purg.vi. fin.[57]Ep.vii.[58]Cf.Purg.x. 35.[59]Ep.vii. 44, p. 410, Oxf. Ed.; p. 427, Bemporad.[60]I. xii. 58; Oxf. Ed. p. 347; p. 365, Bemporad.[61]Purg.i. 75.[62]II, v. 158sqq.; Oxf. Ed. II, v. 17; p. 379, Bemporad.[63]Cf.Mon.I, xi. Bemporad, pp. 362-364.[64]Mon.I, v.[65]Od.ix. 114-115. θεμιστεύει δὲ ἕκαστος Παίδων ἠδ’ ἀλόγων....[66]οὐδ’ ἀλλήων ἀλέγουσιν.[67]Pol.i. 2.[68]It is interesting to note, in this connection, that when Dante, in his work on “The Vulgar Tongue,” is seeking aLiteraryTribunal—a sort of Academy of Letters—he asserts that where there is no Prince, his presence may be supplied by ‘the gracious light of reason.’ There is no king, he says, in Italy, as there is in Germany, to gather to his court poets andliteratiand form in his own person the centre of a brilliant literary circle; but the members of such a court—the elements of such a circle—are there, though scattered, and they have a bond of union in thegratioso lumine rationis.—V.E.I, xviii. fin; Oxf. p. 389; Bemporad, p. 336.[69]Mon.I, xi. 78-110. Oxf., p. 346; Bemp., pp. 363sq.[70]Ep.vii.[71]Par.xxx. 133sqq.[72]At the last moment before going to press, it is cheering to find this contention (treated more fully by the present writer in an article in theAnglo-Italian Review, Dec., 1918), corroborated by Prof. A. J. Grant, who, in an article on “Dante’s conception of History” (History, Vol. VI, Jan., 1922), speaks thus of the Poet’s praise of the Empire: “It is a demand for a world-order resting on laws that are sensible and generally known, and which control the lives of states as well as of individuals. It is little exaggeration to say that it is a plea for a League of Nations; and theDe Monarchiais not a bad handbook for those who are called upon to speak for the League” (p. 229).[73]Par.xxii. 151.[74]Mon.iii. 16; Oxf., p. 376; Bemp. p. 411.[75]Mon.I, xi; Oxf. p. 345; Bemporad, p. 364.[76]Mon.I, xi.,ut supra.[77]Mon.I, xi.[78]III, iv. init. Oxf., p. 365; Bemporad, p. 394. Dante combats and refutes the traditional argument in vogue in his day, which assumed that the creation of sun and moon in Gen. i. had a mystical reference to the Spiritual and Temporal powers respectively and argued that therefore, because the moon derives herlightfrom the sun, the Temporal must owe itsauthorityto the Spiritual; but, later in the chapter (Oxf., p. 366sq.; Bemporad, p. 396), he seems to admit a workableanalogybetween the luminaries and the authorities.[79]Purg.xvi. 106sqq.[80]Par.vi. 121sq.[81]2 Cor. iii. 17.[82]Inf., i. p. 124.[83]Cf.V.E., I, vii. 28; p. 382, Oxf.; p. 324, Bemporad.Ipsum naturantem, qui est Deus.[84]Par.xxxiii. 145.[85]Oxf. Ed., p. 282; Bemporad, p. 222.[86]Gerusalemme Liberata, xvii. 63.[87]The best spirits among our late enemies have already begun to reap the reward of their deadly earnestness in a wider and saner point of view: a realisation of variety of national characteristics and an appreciation of them; a longing to clear away misapprehensions, and “openly to call injustice injustice—to forgive and to expect forgiveness.” See an excellent article by Hedwig von Saenger inStudent Movement, Oct., 1921.[88]Il comico, l’ umorismo e la satira nella Divina Commedia.Da Enrico Sannia. 2 vols. Milan, 1909.[89]Vita, s. 8.[90]Mag. Mar.i, 31, 1193. εὐτραπελία δ’ ἐστὶ μεσότης βωμολοχίας καὶ ἀγροικίας. ὅ τε γὰρ βωμολόχος ἐστὶν ὁ πάντα καὶ πᾶν οἰόμενος δεῖν σκώπτειν, ὅ τε ἄγροικος ὁ μήτε σκώπτειν βουλόμενος, μήτε σκωφθῆναι, ἀλλ’ ὀργιζόμενος. ὁ δ’ εὐτράπελος ἀνὰ μέσον τούτων, ὁ μήτε πάντας καὶ παντῶς σκώπτων, μητ’ αὐτὸς ἄγροικος ὤν. ἔσται δ’ ὁ εὐτράπελος διττῶς πως λεγόμενος. καὶ γὰρ ὁ δυνάμενος σκῶψαι ἐμμελῶς, καὶ ὃς ἂν ὑπομείνῃ σκωπτόμενος.[91]De divinatione per somnumii. (464ᵃ 33) οἱ δὲ μελαγχολικοὶ διὰ τὸ σφόδρα, ὥσπερ βάλλοντες πόρρωθεν, εὔστοχοί εἰσιν.Cf.Eth. Nic.vi. 10 (1142ᵇ 2), where εὐστοχία is distinguished from βούλευσις as “swift and wordless”; ἄνευ τε γὰρ λόγου καὶ ταχύ τι ἡ εὐστοχία. And a little further on it is said that ἀγχίνοια—“ready wit,” “shrewdness,” is a kind of εὐστοχία.[92]Rhet.iii. II, 1412ᵃ. εὐστοχία sees analogies, like Archytas, who says “a διαιτητὴς is like an altar”—for to both the injured flee![93]Eth. Eud.vii. 5, 1240ᵃ 2.[94]Cf.Ps. cxv. 4-8. Esp. Isaiah xliv. and xlvi.[95]A recent writer, H. McLachlan (St. Luke, the Man and his Work, Manchester Univ. Press, 1920), has drawn attention to the humorous gift of the third Evangelist, and entitles one of his chapters “Luke the Humorist.” See also the present writer’sSt. Luke(Westminster Commentaries, Methuen, 1922, Introduction, pp. xxix.sq.).[96]Cronica Fratris Salimbene de Adam(Ed. Holder-Egger, Hanover, 1905-1913), pp. 77sqq.“Florentini ... trufatores maximi sunt.”[97]Rhet.ii. 1389ᵇ 10. οἰ νέοι ... φιλογέλωτες, διὸ καὶ εὐτράπελοι; ἡ γὰρ εὐτραπελία πεπαιδευμένη ὕβρις ἐστίν.[98]Purg.x. 130-3.[99]Nino Tammassia,S. Francesco d’ Assisi e la sua Leggenda, Padova, Drucker, 1906. (Eng. Tr. Fisher Unwin, 1910).[100]D. G. Rossetti,The Early Italian Poets, etc.[101]Purg.xxiii. 115sqq.[102]Op. cit.pp. 55-6.[103]Conv.III, viii. 70; Oxf., p. 282; Bemporad, p. 222.[104]Portraits of Dante from Giotto to Raffael: a critical study, with a concise iconography, by Richard Thayer Holbrook. London: Philip Lee Warner, 1911.[105]Holbrook,l.c.pp. 68-72.[106]Holbrook,op. cit.p. 102 and illustration opposite p. 98.[107]Vita, § 8. Ne’ costumi domestici e publici mirabilmente fu ordinato e composto, e in tutti più che un altro cortese e civile.[108]Hist.ix. 136. Per lo suo sapere fu alquanto presuntuoso e schifo e isdegnoso, e quasi a guisa di filosofo mal grazioso. Non bene sapea conversare co’ laici.[109]Cf.Toynbee,Dante Alighieri, Methuen, 3rd ed., 1904, p. 176sqq.[110]This is quoted from C. Bruni’s excellentGuida al Casentino, p. 167. B. does not specify his authorities, but says in a footnote: “Questo aneddoto è così riferito da varii scrittori danteschi.”[111]Dante and His Italy, pp. 141, 2.[112]Inf.xxii. 118.[113]Inf.xxiii, 4sqq.[114]Sannia not inappropriately describes this passage as “il comico populare della D.C.” (p. 193).[115]Inf.xxii. 25.[116]Inf.xxii. 41, 57, 60, 72,cf.xxi. 55sqq.[117]Inf.xxi. 7-15.[118]Inf.xxii. 130.[119]Inf.xxiii. 37.[120]Inf.xxi. 31, 88sqq., 127sqq.; xxii. 31.[121]Inf.xxx. 103.[122]Inf.xxx. 131, 2.[123]Inf.xiii. 120sqq.[124]Inf.xix. 52sqq.Cf.Boccaccio,Vita, § 17.[125]Inf.xix. 72.[126]Purg.vi. 149sqq.[127]Purg.vi. 141.[128]Par.xxi. 130sqq.[129]Par.xxi. 134.[130]Par.xxix. 34sqq.[131]Par.xxix. 110.[132]Purg.xx. 108.[133]Purg.xix. 72, 124.[134]Purg.xx. 116-17.[135]Purg.xxii. 67-9.[136]Purg.xxviii. 139.[137]Purg.xxviii. 145.[138]Par.xxiii. 22.[139]Par.xxvii. 4.[140]Par.xxviii. 137-8.[141]Essay on Richter, cited by Glover,Virgil, Methuen, 1920, p. 27.[142]Eth. Eud.iii. 1234ᵃ 17.[143]Conv.III, viii., 95sqq.p. 282, Oxf.; p. 222, Bemporad.[144]Oxf. Ed. p. 248; Bemporad, p. 165.[145]Oxf. Ed. p. 249; Bemporad, p. 166; Toynbee,In the Footprints of Dante, p. 303.[146](vi.) Oxf. Ed. p. 259; Bemporad, p. 183.[147]xi. 60sqq.; p. 263, Oxf. Ed.; (x.) p. 190, Bemporad.

Benedetto Croce’s[382]contention is, of course, fundamentally true, that Dante is first and last a Poet, and that it is the magnetism of his poetic genius that attracts interest to all the varied subjects which he touches. If he had not been a Poet, these essays would never have been written; and the writer hopes that the poetic quality of his hero will have been felt as a background all through the book. His lyrical power is the driving force of his many-sided message. To the struggling patriot, whether of 1848 or of 1918, he is a Tyrtaeus; to the artist in poetry, a Horace (although he never saw theArs Poetica); to the lover, a Christian Anacreon; to the religious devotee, a Psalmist and Prophet in one; to the student of human nature in its detail and its large epic aspect, a Homer and a Virgil; in every aspect a supreme poet. The very magnetism of his lyrical appeal will, however, continue to keep countless disciples busy, in the future as in the past, exploring the by-ways and investigating the by-products of his genius; gloating over his obscurities, and glorying in everything, big or little, that Dante has touched. Those “questioni dantesche” on the more puerile of which Croce rightly pours his scorn,[383]will emerge to the end of the chapter—a lush growth of mingled flowers and weeds witnessing to the extraordinary fertility of the soil.

And we may go on to ask, what, exactly, is the value,or the nature of that “lyrical quality” which Croce justly exalts if it is entirely divorced from its content, its subject-matter?

True, Beauty has a value of its own, as Dante himself saw. In theory, indeed, he makes Poetry a humble gilding of the didactic pill, on the Horatian principle ofmiscere utile dulci; a beauteous fiction for a moral purpose—“una verità ascosa sotto bella menzogna”[384]a “clumsy device,” as Professor Foligno puts it, “to rivet the attention of readers while the lessons of virtue and truth were expounded.”[385]In practice, however, the author of theConvivio“spoke as Love dictated”[386]—nay, even in theConvivioitself (as Prof. Foligno points out), in theenvoiof the first Canzone,[387]he bids his poetry, if its argument prove unintelligible, take heart of grace and draw attention to its own sheer beauty—

Allor ti priego che ti ricomforte,Dicendo lor, diletta mia novella.“Ponete mente almen com’ io son bella!”

Allor ti priego che ti ricomforte,

Dicendo lor, diletta mia novella.

“Ponete mente almen com’ io son bella!”

But lyrical form cannot exist as a mere abstraction. It must needs express itself in words that have a meaning—in “subject-matter.” The Poet sings of what is in his heart, and sings—

... A quel modoCh’ e’ ditta dentro;

... A quel modo

Ch’ e’ ditta dentro;

he sings because hemust. And Dante has this irresistible impulse of the artist to express himself. He tells us in the XIXth chapter of theVita Nuovathe story of the birth of his canzone, “Donne ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore,” the famous song by which Bonagiunta knew him in Purgatory.[388]First, a great desire for utterance, then a pondering over the appropriate mode, and finally, “Ideclare,” he says, “my tongue spake as though by its own impulse and said—

Donne ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore.”[389]

That is the artistic impulse to create, and represents, indeed, the sum total of his “Message” as conceived by many an artist. But Dante took his message and his mission seriously; and unless we recognise as a factor in his poetry this sense of responsibility for the gift, and for the use of it—in however exalted a sense—as the handmaid of Religion, we surely misconceive him. He is essentially (not accidentally) didactic, prophetic, a conscious and purposeful inspirer of his own generation and of those to come.

From the point of view of purely aesthetic criticism his “Theological Romance,” his “Epic of man’s freewill,” with its massive architectural framework and its recurring theological, philosophical, political and otherwise didactic passages may be entirely secondary—may be, in fact, so much awkward and obstructive material which the poet only reduces to order and dominates by force of titanic genius.[390]

Dante certainly rises superior in fact to the contemporary theory of the Art of Poetry which he repeats in theConvivioand theDe Vulgari Eloquentia.[391]It is this which makes his verse to be, as we have called it, the driving power of his message. But this homage to the traditional theory is not mere lip-service. Supreme poet as he is, he deliberately makes his sublime verse the instrument of spiritual teaching. And in so doing only renders it the more sublime.

FOOTNOTES[1]See esp.Inf.ix. 113; xx. 61: “Dante and the Redemption of Italy,” p. 15.[2]1865: Seeib.p. 19.[3]Par.xxv. 1, 2.[4]“Dante and Educational Principles,” pp. 83sqq.[5]Nos. III and VI.[6]Nos. I, II, IV, and VIII.[7]Prof. Foligno has, of course, no responsibility for the opinions set forth in this volume.[8]Le opere di Dante: testo critico della Società dantescha italiana, etc.Firenze: R. Bemporad & Figlio. MCMXXI. Cited in the notes as “Bemporad.” In the case of quotations from the prose works, an attempt has been made to consult the convenience of English readers by the reference to the paging of Dr. Moore’s Oxford Edition as well as to that of theTesto critico(Bemporad).[9]Nos. V and VII.[10]This Sermon was preached in Lincoln Cathedral on Aug. 14th, 1921 (Twelfth Sunday after Trinity).[11]Par.i. 6-8.[12]SeeOsservatore Romano, May 4th, 1921. Andcf.Appendix II.[13]Par.xvii. 55.[14]Purg.xxiv. 52-4.[15]Cf.A. G. Ferrers-Howell, “Dante and the Troubadours,” in the Memorial Volume,Dante, Essays in Commemoration, 1321-1921, London Univ. Press, 1921.[16]Purg.xxiv. 57.[17]Inf.iii. 5, 6.[18]Purg.xvii. 103-105.[19]Inf.i. 118-20.[20]Purg.xxiii. 71-74.[21]Par.iii. 70-72, 85.[22]Par.xxxiii. 145.[23]The Spiritual Message of Dante, Williams & Norgate, 1914, p. 225.[24]1 John iv. 16.[25]Par.xxx. 133-7.[26]Purg.xx. 43.[27]Purg.i. 1.[28]Par.xxv. 5.[29]A pathetic episode connected with this Celebration is related in Appendix I, p. 165.[30]Giornale, p. 215: Art. “Firenze e Italia nel concetto e nel cuore di Dante.”[31]Giornale, p. 344.[32]A similar chorus of reverent homage to Dante as the good genius of Italy’s fortunes, was evoked by the war, in the shape of “Dante e la Guerra,” Nos. 6-9 ofNuovo Convito, June-Sept., 1917.[33]Par.ix. 27.[34]“To the Defenders of the Piave: November, 1917, to November, 1918.” Art. inAnglo-Italian Review, Nov., 1918, p. 244.[35]Purg.xxvii. 142.[36]Il Purgatorio, p. 58.[37]Par.xxxi. 85-89.[38]Inf.i. 31-34.[39]Loc. cit.[40]Italy is likened by Dante to a wood (silva) inV.E., I, xi.[41]Purg.vi. 76-fin.[42]Purg.vi. 91sqq.;Mon.I, xii.[43]Purg.v. 61.[44]SeeMon.II, v. 132sqq.; 159sqq., quoted below; pp. 355sq., Oxf. Ed.; p. 379, Bemporad.[45]Inf.xii. 1-21.[46]Defensor Paciswritten c. 1324 (three years after Dante’s death) to support the claims of the Emperor Lewis IX (of Bavaria) against Pope John XXII, starts, as Dante does, from Aristotle and Holy Scripture, but carries the relentless exposure of papal pretensions much further, and strikes the note of appeal to a General Council which was one of the watchwords of the Reformation.[47]This theme he took up earlier in the Fourth Treatise of theConvivio, chaps. iv. and v.[48]Cf.especially his quotations from theAeneidinConv.IV, iv. (Bemp., 252) andMon.II, vii. 70sqq.(Bemp., 381); the Divine injunction is taken by Dante, almost as though theAeneidwere ‘Scripture’!Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.—Aen.vi. 852-4.

FOOTNOTES

[1]See esp.Inf.ix. 113; xx. 61: “Dante and the Redemption of Italy,” p. 15.

[2]1865: Seeib.p. 19.

[3]Par.xxv. 1, 2.

[4]“Dante and Educational Principles,” pp. 83sqq.

[5]Nos. III and VI.

[6]Nos. I, II, IV, and VIII.

[7]Prof. Foligno has, of course, no responsibility for the opinions set forth in this volume.

[8]Le opere di Dante: testo critico della Società dantescha italiana, etc.Firenze: R. Bemporad & Figlio. MCMXXI. Cited in the notes as “Bemporad.” In the case of quotations from the prose works, an attempt has been made to consult the convenience of English readers by the reference to the paging of Dr. Moore’s Oxford Edition as well as to that of theTesto critico(Bemporad).

[9]Nos. V and VII.

[10]This Sermon was preached in Lincoln Cathedral on Aug. 14th, 1921 (Twelfth Sunday after Trinity).

[11]Par.i. 6-8.

[12]SeeOsservatore Romano, May 4th, 1921. Andcf.Appendix II.

[13]Par.xvii. 55.

[14]Purg.xxiv. 52-4.

[15]Cf.A. G. Ferrers-Howell, “Dante and the Troubadours,” in the Memorial Volume,Dante, Essays in Commemoration, 1321-1921, London Univ. Press, 1921.

[16]Purg.xxiv. 57.

[17]Inf.iii. 5, 6.

[18]Purg.xvii. 103-105.

[19]Inf.i. 118-20.

[20]Purg.xxiii. 71-74.

[21]Par.iii. 70-72, 85.

[22]Par.xxxiii. 145.

[23]The Spiritual Message of Dante, Williams & Norgate, 1914, p. 225.

[24]1 John iv. 16.

[25]Par.xxx. 133-7.

[26]Purg.xx. 43.

[27]Purg.i. 1.

[28]Par.xxv. 5.

[29]A pathetic episode connected with this Celebration is related in Appendix I, p. 165.

[30]Giornale, p. 215: Art. “Firenze e Italia nel concetto e nel cuore di Dante.”

[31]Giornale, p. 344.

[32]A similar chorus of reverent homage to Dante as the good genius of Italy’s fortunes, was evoked by the war, in the shape of “Dante e la Guerra,” Nos. 6-9 ofNuovo Convito, June-Sept., 1917.

[33]Par.ix. 27.

[34]“To the Defenders of the Piave: November, 1917, to November, 1918.” Art. inAnglo-Italian Review, Nov., 1918, p. 244.

[35]Purg.xxvii. 142.

[36]Il Purgatorio, p. 58.

[37]Par.xxxi. 85-89.

[38]Inf.i. 31-34.

[39]Loc. cit.

[40]Italy is likened by Dante to a wood (silva) inV.E., I, xi.

[41]Purg.vi. 76-fin.

[42]Purg.vi. 91sqq.;Mon.I, xii.

[43]Purg.v. 61.

[44]SeeMon.II, v. 132sqq.; 159sqq., quoted below; pp. 355sq., Oxf. Ed.; p. 379, Bemporad.

[45]Inf.xii. 1-21.

[46]Defensor Paciswritten c. 1324 (three years after Dante’s death) to support the claims of the Emperor Lewis IX (of Bavaria) against Pope John XXII, starts, as Dante does, from Aristotle and Holy Scripture, but carries the relentless exposure of papal pretensions much further, and strikes the note of appeal to a General Council which was one of the watchwords of the Reformation.

[47]This theme he took up earlier in the Fourth Treatise of theConvivio, chaps. iv. and v.

[48]Cf.especially his quotations from theAeneidinConv.IV, iv. (Bemp., 252) andMon.II, vii. 70sqq.(Bemp., 381); the Divine injunction is taken by Dante, almost as though theAeneidwere ‘Scripture’!Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.—Aen.vi. 852-4.

[48]Cf.especially his quotations from theAeneidinConv.IV, iv. (Bemp., 252) andMon.II, vii. 70sqq.(Bemp., 381); the Divine injunction is taken by Dante, almost as though theAeneidwere ‘Scripture’!

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.—Aen.vi. 852-4.

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, momento,

Hae tibi erunt artes, pacique imponere morem;

Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos.

—Aen.vi. 852-4.

[49]Inf.i. 82.

[50]vi. 34-96.

[51]W. W. Vernon,Readings on the Paradiso, Vol. I, p. 199.

[52]Par.vi. 103-104.

[53]Purg.vii. 94; vi. 97.

[54]Purg.xvi. 106sqq.; 127sqq.

[55]Purg.vi. 76sqq.

[56]Purg.vi. fin.

[57]Ep.vii.

[58]Cf.Purg.x. 35.

[59]Ep.vii. 44, p. 410, Oxf. Ed.; p. 427, Bemporad.

[60]I. xii. 58; Oxf. Ed. p. 347; p. 365, Bemporad.

[61]Purg.i. 75.

[62]II, v. 158sqq.; Oxf. Ed. II, v. 17; p. 379, Bemporad.

[63]Cf.Mon.I, xi. Bemporad, pp. 362-364.

[64]Mon.I, v.

[65]Od.ix. 114-115. θεμιστεύει δὲ ἕκαστος Παίδων ἠδ’ ἀλόγων....

[66]οὐδ’ ἀλλήων ἀλέγουσιν.

[67]Pol.i. 2.

[68]It is interesting to note, in this connection, that when Dante, in his work on “The Vulgar Tongue,” is seeking aLiteraryTribunal—a sort of Academy of Letters—he asserts that where there is no Prince, his presence may be supplied by ‘the gracious light of reason.’ There is no king, he says, in Italy, as there is in Germany, to gather to his court poets andliteratiand form in his own person the centre of a brilliant literary circle; but the members of such a court—the elements of such a circle—are there, though scattered, and they have a bond of union in thegratioso lumine rationis.—V.E.I, xviii. fin; Oxf. p. 389; Bemporad, p. 336.

[69]Mon.I, xi. 78-110. Oxf., p. 346; Bemp., pp. 363sq.

[70]Ep.vii.

[71]Par.xxx. 133sqq.

[72]At the last moment before going to press, it is cheering to find this contention (treated more fully by the present writer in an article in theAnglo-Italian Review, Dec., 1918), corroborated by Prof. A. J. Grant, who, in an article on “Dante’s conception of History” (History, Vol. VI, Jan., 1922), speaks thus of the Poet’s praise of the Empire: “It is a demand for a world-order resting on laws that are sensible and generally known, and which control the lives of states as well as of individuals. It is little exaggeration to say that it is a plea for a League of Nations; and theDe Monarchiais not a bad handbook for those who are called upon to speak for the League” (p. 229).

[73]Par.xxii. 151.

[74]Mon.iii. 16; Oxf., p. 376; Bemp. p. 411.

[75]Mon.I, xi; Oxf. p. 345; Bemporad, p. 364.

[76]Mon.I, xi.,ut supra.

[77]Mon.I, xi.

[78]III, iv. init. Oxf., p. 365; Bemporad, p. 394. Dante combats and refutes the traditional argument in vogue in his day, which assumed that the creation of sun and moon in Gen. i. had a mystical reference to the Spiritual and Temporal powers respectively and argued that therefore, because the moon derives herlightfrom the sun, the Temporal must owe itsauthorityto the Spiritual; but, later in the chapter (Oxf., p. 366sq.; Bemporad, p. 396), he seems to admit a workableanalogybetween the luminaries and the authorities.

[79]Purg.xvi. 106sqq.

[80]Par.vi. 121sq.

[81]2 Cor. iii. 17.

[82]Inf., i. p. 124.

[83]Cf.V.E., I, vii. 28; p. 382, Oxf.; p. 324, Bemporad.Ipsum naturantem, qui est Deus.

[84]Par.xxxiii. 145.

[85]Oxf. Ed., p. 282; Bemporad, p. 222.

[86]Gerusalemme Liberata, xvii. 63.

[87]The best spirits among our late enemies have already begun to reap the reward of their deadly earnestness in a wider and saner point of view: a realisation of variety of national characteristics and an appreciation of them; a longing to clear away misapprehensions, and “openly to call injustice injustice—to forgive and to expect forgiveness.” See an excellent article by Hedwig von Saenger inStudent Movement, Oct., 1921.

[88]Il comico, l’ umorismo e la satira nella Divina Commedia.Da Enrico Sannia. 2 vols. Milan, 1909.

[89]Vita, s. 8.

[90]Mag. Mar.i, 31, 1193. εὐτραπελία δ’ ἐστὶ μεσότης βωμολοχίας καὶ ἀγροικίας. ὅ τε γὰρ βωμολόχος ἐστὶν ὁ πάντα καὶ πᾶν οἰόμενος δεῖν σκώπτειν, ὅ τε ἄγροικος ὁ μήτε σκώπτειν βουλόμενος, μήτε σκωφθῆναι, ἀλλ’ ὀργιζόμενος. ὁ δ’ εὐτράπελος ἀνὰ μέσον τούτων, ὁ μήτε πάντας καὶ παντῶς σκώπτων, μητ’ αὐτὸς ἄγροικος ὤν. ἔσται δ’ ὁ εὐτράπελος διττῶς πως λεγόμενος. καὶ γὰρ ὁ δυνάμενος σκῶψαι ἐμμελῶς, καὶ ὃς ἂν ὑπομείνῃ σκωπτόμενος.

[91]De divinatione per somnumii. (464ᵃ 33) οἱ δὲ μελαγχολικοὶ διὰ τὸ σφόδρα, ὥσπερ βάλλοντες πόρρωθεν, εὔστοχοί εἰσιν.Cf.Eth. Nic.vi. 10 (1142ᵇ 2), where εὐστοχία is distinguished from βούλευσις as “swift and wordless”; ἄνευ τε γὰρ λόγου καὶ ταχύ τι ἡ εὐστοχία. And a little further on it is said that ἀγχίνοια—“ready wit,” “shrewdness,” is a kind of εὐστοχία.

[92]Rhet.iii. II, 1412ᵃ. εὐστοχία sees analogies, like Archytas, who says “a διαιτητὴς is like an altar”—for to both the injured flee!

[93]Eth. Eud.vii. 5, 1240ᵃ 2.

[94]Cf.Ps. cxv. 4-8. Esp. Isaiah xliv. and xlvi.

[95]A recent writer, H. McLachlan (St. Luke, the Man and his Work, Manchester Univ. Press, 1920), has drawn attention to the humorous gift of the third Evangelist, and entitles one of his chapters “Luke the Humorist.” See also the present writer’sSt. Luke(Westminster Commentaries, Methuen, 1922, Introduction, pp. xxix.sq.).

[96]Cronica Fratris Salimbene de Adam(Ed. Holder-Egger, Hanover, 1905-1913), pp. 77sqq.“Florentini ... trufatores maximi sunt.”

[97]Rhet.ii. 1389ᵇ 10. οἰ νέοι ... φιλογέλωτες, διὸ καὶ εὐτράπελοι; ἡ γὰρ εὐτραπελία πεπαιδευμένη ὕβρις ἐστίν.

[98]Purg.x. 130-3.

[99]Nino Tammassia,S. Francesco d’ Assisi e la sua Leggenda, Padova, Drucker, 1906. (Eng. Tr. Fisher Unwin, 1910).

[100]D. G. Rossetti,The Early Italian Poets, etc.

[101]Purg.xxiii. 115sqq.

[102]Op. cit.pp. 55-6.

[103]Conv.III, viii. 70; Oxf., p. 282; Bemporad, p. 222.

[104]Portraits of Dante from Giotto to Raffael: a critical study, with a concise iconography, by Richard Thayer Holbrook. London: Philip Lee Warner, 1911.

[105]Holbrook,l.c.pp. 68-72.

[106]Holbrook,op. cit.p. 102 and illustration opposite p. 98.

[107]Vita, § 8. Ne’ costumi domestici e publici mirabilmente fu ordinato e composto, e in tutti più che un altro cortese e civile.

[108]Hist.ix. 136. Per lo suo sapere fu alquanto presuntuoso e schifo e isdegnoso, e quasi a guisa di filosofo mal grazioso. Non bene sapea conversare co’ laici.

[109]Cf.Toynbee,Dante Alighieri, Methuen, 3rd ed., 1904, p. 176sqq.

[110]This is quoted from C. Bruni’s excellentGuida al Casentino, p. 167. B. does not specify his authorities, but says in a footnote: “Questo aneddoto è così riferito da varii scrittori danteschi.”

[111]Dante and His Italy, pp. 141, 2.

[112]Inf.xxii. 118.

[113]Inf.xxiii, 4sqq.

[114]Sannia not inappropriately describes this passage as “il comico populare della D.C.” (p. 193).

[115]Inf.xxii. 25.

[116]Inf.xxii. 41, 57, 60, 72,cf.xxi. 55sqq.

[117]Inf.xxi. 7-15.

[118]Inf.xxii. 130.

[119]Inf.xxiii. 37.

[120]Inf.xxi. 31, 88sqq., 127sqq.; xxii. 31.

[121]Inf.xxx. 103.

[122]Inf.xxx. 131, 2.

[123]Inf.xiii. 120sqq.

[124]Inf.xix. 52sqq.Cf.Boccaccio,Vita, § 17.

[125]Inf.xix. 72.

[126]Purg.vi. 149sqq.

[127]Purg.vi. 141.

[128]Par.xxi. 130sqq.

[129]Par.xxi. 134.

[130]Par.xxix. 34sqq.

[131]Par.xxix. 110.

[132]Purg.xx. 108.

[133]Purg.xix. 72, 124.

[134]Purg.xx. 116-17.

[135]Purg.xxii. 67-9.

[136]Purg.xxviii. 139.

[137]Purg.xxviii. 145.

[138]Par.xxiii. 22.

[139]Par.xxvii. 4.

[140]Par.xxviii. 137-8.

[141]Essay on Richter, cited by Glover,Virgil, Methuen, 1920, p. 27.

[142]Eth. Eud.iii. 1234ᵃ 17.

[143]Conv.III, viii., 95sqq.p. 282, Oxf.; p. 222, Bemporad.

[144]Oxf. Ed. p. 248; Bemporad, p. 165.

[145]Oxf. Ed. p. 249; Bemporad, p. 166; Toynbee,In the Footprints of Dante, p. 303.

[146](vi.) Oxf. Ed. p. 259; Bemporad, p. 183.

[147]xi. 60sqq.; p. 263, Oxf. Ed.; (x.) p. 190, Bemporad.

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