DANTE
673
DANTE
re spent at BaTenna, where prince Goido Novello
Polenta was hb patron.
The first powerful influence which awakened in him
poetical inspiration was the love which at the age line years he conceived for Beatrice Portinari, then ht years old, the daughter of a rich citizen. How re, chaste, and tender this love was is testified by
first work, the VUa Nuova, which was published )nt 1300, and consists of a collection of poems, all rlpg reference to his first love (best edition by Mar- 38e Trivulzio, Milan, 1827). Beatrice died early !90) as the wife of the knight Simone de Bardi, and few years after her death Dante married a lady med Gemma, of the powerftd house of Donati, by Lom he had five or six children. A fruit of the phil- >phlcal studies in which he sought consolation for i death of Beatrice was the Convito (Banquet), which IS to consist of 15 trattati and 14 eaazone, of which, wever, only 4 tratkfti and three canzone were fin- led (best edition by Trivnlzio, Milan, 1826). But the great work^which has settled for all the es the reputation of T>ante as one of the greatest irisUan poets, is his immortal Commedia, or, as it IS subsequently called, the Divina Commediay writ- Q in terze rime, and consisting of 100 cantos, of which e first is introductory to the following visions, and ! are devoted to Hell (Inferno), Purgatory {Purgato- 9), and Paradise (ParacUao) each. **The poet is inducted first by Tirgil, the representative of human ason, through hell and purgatory, and then by Be- rice, the representative of revelation, and finally by t. Bernard, through the several heavens, where he sholds the triune Crod. Hell is represented in the )em as a funnel^haped hollow, formed of gradually mtracting circles, the lowest and narrowest of which
at the earth's centre. Purgatory is a mountain sing solitary from the ocean on that side of the earth lat is opposite to us : it is divided into terraces, and 3 top is the terrestrial paradise, the first abode of lan. From this the poet ascends through the seven lanetary heavens, the heaven of the fixed stars, and be ^primum mobile,* to the empyrean, or fixed seat f God. In all parts of the region thus traversed there rise conversations with noted personages, for the Bost part recently deceased. At one thne the reader } filled with the deepest sorrow, at another with hor or and aversion ; or the deepest questions of the then ihilosophy and theology are discussed and solved; ind the social and moral condition of Italy, with the :ormptions of Church and State, are depicted with a loble indignation" (Chambers). The conversations iontained in the Divina Commedia give a full expos^ >f most of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian "eligion. The creation of the worid, the fall of angels md man, and the atonement, are treated of with great ^uess. The doctrine that salvation can be found ia Uth in Christ alone is repeatedly insisted on. The poet in many places complains of the moral, social, ind political degeneracy of the time, and of the cor- ruption of the Church and the papal see. He violent- ly inveighs against indulgences and the false ven- eration of saints, against the preference given to the decretals of the popes over the holy Scriptures, and thrusts three popes in succession into hell. A thor- ough reformation of the Church in head and members Is expected, not firom the popes, but from the emperors. " Fifty-two years after the poet's death, the republic of Florence, at the instigation of Boccaccio, set apart an annual sum for pubUc lectures to explain the Di- t'we Comedy to the people in one of the churches, and Boccaccio himself was appointed first lecturer. The example was imitated in several other places in Italy. The works of these men are among the earliest com- nientaries on Dante that we possess. The number of editions of the work amounts by this time to about 800. Only a few deserve notice. They are, that printed at FoUgno in 1472-the earliest of all ; the Nidobeatme II.-U u
edition at Milan (1478) ; the flrst Aldine edition (1502) ; the first Cruscan edition (1695) ; that of Volpi (1727) ; of Venturi (1782) ; of Lombardi (1791), and with addi- tions and fllustrations in 1815, 1821, and 1822 ; of Dio- nisi (1796) ; of Ugo Foscolo (Lond. 1842-1848). A r*. print of the Fuligno edition above mentioned, together with those printed at Jesi (1472), at Mantua (1472), and at Naples by Francisco del Tuppo (about 1478), appeared at London in 1858 under the superintendence of Mr. Panizzi, and at the expense of Lord Vernon" (Chambers). Among the most recent editions are those by Bianchi (Florence, 5th ed. 1857) and Karl Witte (Berlin, 1862, 4to and 8vo). The last is regard- ed as the best fh>m a critical point of view. *^ The Divina Commedia has been translated into almost all European languages. Two translations of the whole into Latin have been printed, one by Carlo d* Aquino (1728), and lately by Piazza (1848). In French there are a number of translations both in prose and verse. The earliest, by Grangier, in 1596, is still the nearest to the original in form, but none is good. The Ger- man translations are numerous, and such as no other modem language can equal in faithfulness. Kanne- giesser has translated the whole in the measure and rhyme of the origmal (Leipsic, 1843, 4th ed.) ; prince [subsequently king] John of Sazony*s translation is said by some to be the best. The chief English trans- lations are Boyd's (1785) and Gary's (1814), in blank verse; Wright's (1888), in triple rhymes; Cayley's, in the original ternary rhyme (the Inferno, 1851 ; the Purgatorio, 1858 ; the Paraduo in 1854, with a volume of notes in 1855) ; Dr. John Carlyle's, the Jn/emo, in prose, with a judicious commentary (1849) ; Fred. Pol- lock's, U3 blank verse (1854)" (Chambers). The first complete American translation is by Longfellow (The Divine Comedy of Dante, Boston, 1867, 8 vols.).