XXIV LIFE OF DANTE.
since at one age certain manners are suitable and praiseworthy, which at another become dis
proportionate and blameable.” He then apologises for speaking of himself. “I fear the disgrace,”
says he, “ of having been subject to so much passion as one, reading these canzoni, may conceive me
to have been : a disgrace that is removed by my speaking thus unreservedly of myself, which shows not
passion, but virtue, to have been the moving cause. I intend, moreover, to set forth their true
meaning, which some may not perceive, if I declare it not." He next proceeds to give many reasons
why his commentary was not written rather in Latin than in Italian ; for which, if no excuse be now
thought necessary, it must be recollected that the Italian language was then in its infancy, and scarce
supposed to possess dignity enough for the purposes of instruction. “ The Latin,” he allows, “would
have explained his canzoni better to foreigners, as to the Germans, the English, and others ; but then
it must have expounded their sense, without the power of, at the same time, transferring their beauty ; ”
and he soon after tells us, that many noble persons of both sexes were ignorant of the learned language.
The best cause, however, which he assigns for this preference, was his natural love of his native tongue,
and the desire he felt to exalt it above the Provencal, which by many was said to be the more beautiful
and perfect language ; and against such of his countrymen as maintained so unpatriotic an opinion he
inveighs with much warmth.
In his exposition of the first canzone of the three, he tells the reader that " the lady of whom he
was enamoured after his first love was the most beauteous and honourable daughter of the Emperor of
the Universe, to whom Pythagoras gave the name of Philosophy :” and he applies the same title to the
object of his affections, when he is commenting on the other twc.
The purport of his third canzone, which is less mysterious, and, therefore, perhaps more likely to
please than the others, is to show that “ virtue only is true nobility.” Towards the conclusion, after
having spoken of virtue itself, much as Pindar would have spoken of it, as being “the gift of God
only ”— “ Che solo Iddio all‘ anima la dona,"
he thus describes it as acting throughout the several stages of life :
“ L' anlma, cui adorna," &c.
“ The soul, that goodness like to this adorns,
Holdeth it not conceal'd;
But, from her first espousal to the frame,
Shows it, till death, reveal'd.
Obedient, sweet, and full of seemly shame,
She, in the primal age,
The person decks with beauty; moulding it
Filly through every part.
In ripcr manhood, temperate, firm of heart
With love replenish'd, and with courteous praise,
In loyal deeds alone she hath delight.
And, in her elder days,
For prudent and just largeness is she known ;
Rejoicing with herself,
That wisdom in her staid discourse be shown.
Then, in life's fourth division, at the last
She weds with God again.
Contemplating the end she shall attain:
And looketh back; and blesseth the time past.
His lyric poems, indeed, generally stand much in need of a comment to explain them ; but the
difficulty arises rather from the thoughts themselves, than from any imperfection of the language in
which those thoughts are conveyed. Yet they abound not only in deep moral reflections, but in
touches of tenderness and passion.
Some, it has been already intimated, have supposed that Beatrice was only a creature of Dante's
imagination ; and there can be no question but that he has invested her, in the “ Divina Commedia,”
with the attributes of an allegorical being. But who can doubt of her having had a real existence, when
she is spoken of in such a strain of passion as in these lines?
" Quel ch‘ ella par, quando un poco sorride,
Non si pub dicer ne tenere a mente,
Si E: nuovo miracolo e gentile."—I1ira Nuoz"a.
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