LIFE OF DANTE.
His children consisted of one daughter and five sons, two of whom, Pietro‘ and ]acopo,-‘ inherited
some portion of their father's abilities, which they employed chiefly in the pious task of illustrating his
“Divina Commedia.” The former of these possessed acquirements of a more profitable kind, and
obtained considerable wealth at Verona, where he was settled, by the exercise of the legal profession.
He was honoured with the friendship of Petratch, by whom some verses were addressed to him3 at
Trevigi, in 1361.
His daughter Beatrice‘ (whom he is said to have named after the daughter of Folco Portinari)
became a nun in the convent of S. Stefano dell‘ Uliva, at Ravenna; and, among the entries of ex
penditure by the Florentine Republic, appears a present of ten golden florins sent to her in I350, by the
hands of Boccaccio, from the state. The imagination can picture to itself few objects more interesting
than the daughter of Dante, dedicated to the service of religion in the city where her father's ashes were
deposited, and receiving from his countrymen this tardy tribute of their reverence for his divine genius,
and her own virtues.
It is butjustice to the wife of Dante not to omit what Boccaccio5relates of her; that after the
banishment of her husband, she secured some share of his property from the popular fury, under the
name of her dowry; that out of this she contrived to support their little family with exemplary dis
cretion ; and that she even removed from them the pressure of poverty, by such industrious efforts as in
her former affluence she had never been called on to exert. Who does not regret, that with qualities so
estimable, she wanted the sweetness of temper necessary for riveting the atTections of her husband?
Dante was a man of middle stature and grave deportment ; of a visage rather long; large eyes ; an
aquiline nose ; dark complexion ; large and prominent cheek-bones ; black curling hair and beard ; the
under lip projecting beyond the upper. He mentions, in the “ Convito,” that his sight had been
transiently impaired by intense application to books.‘ In his dress, he studied as much plainness as was
suitable with his rank and station in life; and observed a strict temperance in his diet. He was at
times extremely absent and abstracted ; and appears to have indulged too much a disposition to sarcasm.
At the table of Can Grande, when the company was amused by the conversation and tricks of a buffoon,
he was asked by his patron why Can Grande himself, and the guests who were present, failed of receiving
as much pleasure from the exertion of his talents as this man had been able to give them. “ Because
all creatures delight in their own resemblance,” was the reply of Dante.’ In other respects, his
manners are said to have been dignified and polite. He was particularly careful not to make any