Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers Volume I Part 7

[Footnote 4:

"Che quello 'mperador che la su regna Perch' i' fu'ribellante a la sua legge, Non vuol che 'n sua citta per me s vegna." ]

[Footnote 5:

"Quale i fioretti dal notturno gelo Chinati e chiusi, poi che 'l sol gl'imbianca, Si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo."

Like as the flowers that with the frosty night Are bowed and closed, soon as the sun returns, Rise on their stems, all open and upright.]

[Footnote 6: This loss of intellectual good, and the confession of the poet that he finds the inscription over h.e.l.l-portal hard to understand (_il senso lor m'e duro_), are among the pa.s.sages in Dante which lead some critics to suppose that his h.e.l.l is nothing but an allegory, intended at once to imply his own disbelief in it as understood by the vulgar part of mankind, and his employment of it, nevertheless, as a salutary check both to the foolish and the reflecting;--to the foolish, as an alarm; and to the reflecting, as a parable. It is possible, in the teeth of many appearances to the contrary, that such may have been the case; but in the doubt that it affects either the foolish or the wise to any good purpose, and in the certainty that such doctrines do a world of mischief to tender consciences and the cause of sound piety, such monstrous contradictions, in terms, of every sense of justice and charity which G.o.d has implanted in the heart of man, are not to be pa.s.sed over without indignant comment.]

[Footnote 7: It is seldom that a boast of this kind--not, it must be owned, bashful--has been allowed by posterity to be just; nay, in four out of the five instances, below its claims.]

[Footnote 8:

"Genti v'eran, con occhi tardi e gravi, Di grande autorita ne' lor sembianti Parlavan rado, con voci soavi." ]

[Footnote 9: "Sopra 'l verde smalto." Mr. Cary has noticed the appearance, for the first time, of this beautiful but now commonplace image.]

[Footnote 10: "Il maestro di color che sanno."]

[Footnote 11: This is the famous episode of Paulo and Francesca. She was daughter to Count Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, and wife to Giovanni Malatesta, one of the sons, of the lord of Rimini. Paulo was her brother-in-law. They were surprised together by the husband, and slain on the spot. Particulars of their history will be found in the Appendix, together with the whole original pa.s.sage.

"Quali colombe, dal disio chiamate, Con l'ali aperte e ferme, al dolce nido Volan per l'aer dal voler portate

Cotali uscir de la schiera ov'e Dido, A noi venendo per l'aer maligno, S forte fu l'affettuoso grido."

As doves, drawn home from where they circled still, Set firm their open wings, and through the air Come sweeping, wafted by their pure good-will

So broke from Dido's flock that gentle pair, Cleaving, to where we stood, the air malign, Such strength to bring them had a loving prayer. ]

[Footnote 12: Francesca is to be conceived telling her story in anxious intermitting sentences--now all tenderness for her lover, now angry at their slayer; watching the poet's face, to see what he thinks, and at times averting her own. I take this excellent direction from Ugo Foscolo.]

[Footnote 13:

"Nessun maggior dolore, Che ricordarsi del tempo felice Ne la miseria." ]

[Footnote 14:

"Per piu fiate gli occhi ci sospinse Quella lettura."

"To look at one another," says Boccaccio; and his interpretation has been followed by Cary and Foscolo; but, with deference to such authorities, I beg leave to think that the poet meant no more than he says, namely, that their eyes were simply "suspended"--hung, as it were, over the book, without being able to read on; which is what I intended to express (if I may allude to a production of which both those critics were pleased to speak well), when, in my youthful attempt to enlarge this story, I wrote "And o'er the book they hung, and nothing said, And every lingering page grew longer as they read."

_Story of Rimini._]

[Footnote 15:

"Mentre che l'uno spirto questo disse, L'altro piangeva s, che di pietade I' venni men cos com'io morisse, E caddi come corpo morto cade."

This last line has been greatly admired for the corresponding deadness of its expression.

While thus one spoke, the other spirit mourn'd With wail so woful, that at his remorse I felt as though I should have died. I turn'd Stone-stiff; and to the ground, fell like a corse.

The poet fell thus on the ground (some of the commentators think) because he had sinned in the same way; and if Foscolo's opinion could be established--that the incident of the book is invention--their conclusion would receive curious collateral evidence, the circ.u.mstance of the perusal of the romance in company with a lady being likely enough to have occurred to Dante. But the same probability applies in the case of the lovers. The reading of such books was equally the taste of their own times; and nothing is more likely than the volume's having been found in the room where they perished. The Pagans could not be rebels to a law they never heard of, any more than Dante could be a rebel to Luther. But this is one of the absurdities with which the impious effrontery or scarcely less impious admissions of Dante's teachers avowedly set reason at defiance,--retaining, meanwhile, their right of contempt for the impieties of Mahometans and Brahmins; "which is odd,"

as the poet says; for being not less absurd, or, as the others argued, much more so, they had at least an equal claim on the submission of the reason; since the greater the irrationality, the higher the theological triumph.]

[Footnote 16: Plutus's exclamation about Satan is a great choke-pear to the commentators. The line in the original is

"Pape Satan, pape Satan aleppe."

The words, as thus written, are not Italian. It is not the business of this abstract to discuss such points; and therefore I content myself with believing that the context implies a call of alarm on the Prince of h.e.l.l at the sight of the living creature and his guide.]

[Footnote 17: Phlegyas, a son of Mars, was cast into h.e.l.l by Apollo for setting the G.o.d's temple on fire in resentment for the violation of his daughter Coronis. The actions of G.o.ds were not to be questioned, in Dante's opinion, even though the G.o.ds turned out to be false Jugghanaut is as good as any, while he lasts. It is an ethico-theological puzzle, involving very nice questions; but at any rate, had our poet been a Brahmin of Benares, we know how he would have written about it in Sanscrit.]

[Footnote 18: Filippo Argenti (Philip _Silver_,--so called from his shoeing his horse with the precious metal) was a Florentine remarkable for bodily strength and extreme irascibility. What a barbarous strength and confusion of ideas is there in this whole pa.s.sage about him!

Arrogance punished by arrogance, a Christian mother blessed for the unchristian disdainfulness of her son, revenge boasted of and enjoyed, pa.s.sion arguing in a circle! Filippo himself might have written it.

Dante says,

"Con piangere e con lutto Spirito maladetto, ti rimani.

Via costa con gli altri cani," &c.

Then Virgil, kissing and embracing him,

"Alma sdegnosa Benedetta colei che 'n te s'incinse," &c.

And Dante again,

"Maestro, molto sarei vago Di vederlo attuffare in questa broda," &c. ]

[Footnote 19: Dis, one of the Pagan names of Pluto, here used for Satan.

Within the walls of the city of Dis commence the punishments by fire.]

[Footnote 20: Farinata was a Ghibelline leader before the time of Dante, and had vanquished the poet's connexions at the battle of Montaperto.]

[Footnote 21: What would Guido have said to this? More, I suspect, than Dante would have liked to hear, or known how to answer. But he died before the verses transpired; probably before they were written; for Dante, in the chronology of his poem, a.s.sumes what times and seasons he finds most convenient.]

[Footnote 22:

"S che la pioggia non par che 'l maturi."

This is one of the grandest pa.s.sages in Dante. It was probably (as English commentators have observed) in Milton's recollection when he conceived the character of Satan.]

[Footnote 23: The satire of friarly hypocrisy is at least as fine as Ariosto's discovery of Discord in a monastery.

The monster Geryon, son of Chrysaor (_Golden-sword_), and the Ocean-nymph Callirhoe (_Fair-flowing_), was rich in the possession of sheep. His wealth, and perhaps his derivatives, rendered him this instrument of satire. The monstrosity, the mild face, the glancing point of venom, and the beautiful skin, make it as fine as can be.]

[Footnote 24: "_Malebolge_," literally Evil-Budget. _Bolgia_ is an old form of the modern _baule_, the common term for a valise or portmanteau.