Part 1 (1/2)

Dante: His Times and His Work

by Arthur John Butler

PREFACE

This little book is mainly compounded of papers which appeared, part in the _Monthly Packet_, and part in the Magazine of the Ho Union It will be seen, therefore, that it is not intended for those whoe of their studies To the for in the book that is not already familiar--except where they happen to findas Dante affords, I cannot hope to have kept it free In the do the indefatigable research of German and Italian scholars--a research of which only the hly specialised specialist can possibly keep abreast Even since the following pages were for the most part in print, we have had Professor Villari's _Two Centuries of Florentine History_, correcting in many particulars the chroniclers on whom the Dante student has been wont to rely This book should most emphatically be added to those named in the appendix as essential to the study of our author

In connection with so chapter, Professor Butcher's Essay on _The Dawn of Romanticism in Greek Poetry_ should be noticed I do not think that the accoh I admit that I had not taken much account of the Greek writers e call ”post-classical” But it is to be noted, as bearing on the question raised in the second footnote on p 9, that most or all of the writers whom he cites were either Asiatics or nearly touched by Asiatic influences

I have made some attempt to deal in a concise ith two subjects which have not, I think, hitherto been handled in English books on Dante, other than translations One of these is the develople from a rivalry between two Gerenerations I am quite aware that I have merely touched the surface of the subject, which seems to me to contain in it the essence of all political philosophy, with special features such as could only exist in a country which, like Italy, had, after giving the law to the civilised world, been unable to consolidate itself into a nation like the other nations of Europe I have, I find, even o aims of at any rate the honest partisans on either side: unity, that of the Ghibelines; independence, that of the Guelfs Nor have I drawn attention to a remarkable trait in Dante's own character, which, so far as I know, has never been discussed--I ard of the ”lower classes” Except for one or two similes drawn from the ”villano” and his habits, and one or two contemptuous allusions to ”Monna Berta e Ser Martino” and their like, it would seem as if for him the world consisted of what noould be called ”the upper ten thousand” In an ordinary politician or partisan, or even in a e; but e reflect that Dante was a ious questions, that he was born less than forty years after the death of St Francis, and was at least closely enough associated with Franciscans for legend to make him a member of the order, and that most of the so-called heretical sects of the time--Paterines, Cathari, Poor Men--started really ious discontent, it is certainly surprising that his interest in the ”diht

The other object at which I have ailish students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seee of human nature as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound historical criticisain, I have but touched on thesome of the scholarshi+p in our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin texts h written outside of so-called classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further point of applying to mediaeval literature, which hitherto has been too much the sport of _dilettanti_, the methods that have till now been reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages Unless I am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study of early Italian will teach hi or two” that he did not know before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost, even froet the authoritative edition of Dante, which I ah to believe will never co country

_February_, 1895

CHAPTER I

THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY

The person who sets to work to write about Dante at the present day has two great difficulties to reckon with: the quantity which has already been written on the subject, and the quantity which re of an enores, and very various in quality; but for the co student, it may at once, and once for all, be stated that he can pretty safely ignore everything written between 1400 and 1800 The subject of coraphies, and other helps, or would-be helps, will be treated of later on Here we need only say that the Renaissance practically stifled anything like an intelligent study of Dante for those four centuries; and it was not until a new critical spirit began to apply to it the methods which had hitherto been reserved for the Greek and Latin classics, that the study got any chance of develop the present century needs not to be said It ue shows editions of the _Commedia_ at the rate of one for every year since 1800, and other works on Dante in probably five times that proportion

Now, it has been said of the _Commedia_, and the remark is equally true of Dante's other works, that it is like the Bible in this respect: every s to it The poet finds poetry, the philosopher philosophy; the scientific man science as it was known in 1300; the politician politics; heretics have even found heresy Nor is this very surprising e consider ere the author's surroundings Naturally, no doubt, a man of study and conte, even a turbulent, society, where it was hardly possible for any individual to escape his share of the public burdens Ablebodied hting was toward; all men of mental capacity were needed in council or in administration And, after all, the area to be adht over, were so sht do his duty by the community and yet have plenty of tiht handle his pike at Caprona or Ca his books the next Then, again, the society was a cultivated and quick-witted one, with h esteem, and eminence in them as sure a road to fame as warlike prowess or political distinction From all this it is clear that the Florentine of the thirteenth century had points of contact with life on every side; every gate of knowledge lay open to him, and he could explore, if he pleased, every one of its paths They have now been carried further, and a lifetihly more than one or two; but in those days it was still possible for a ence, as it appears to us, of the Middle Ages, to make himself acquainted with all the best that had been done and said in the world

This it is which forreat work Of course, if we content ourselves with reading it merely for its ”beauties,” for the aesthetic enjoye here and an allusion there, for the trenchant expression of so at the roots of human nature, there will be no need of any harder study than is involved in going through it with a translation

Indeed, it will hardly be worth while to go to the original at all The pleasure, one ht almost say the physical pleasure, derived from sonorous juxtaposition of words, such as we obtain froenuinely felt in the case of a foreign language; and the beauties of uished froh rendered by Cary or Longfellow

It ent students will rest content with this a for explanation, philosophical doctrines to be traced to their sources, judgements on contee they will meet with problems the solution of which has not yet been atteeneration after generation readers have gone on accepting received interpretations which only tell them what their oits could divine without any other assistance than the text itself gives No commentator seems yet to have realised that, in order to understand Dante thoroughly, he e of all the available literature The more obvious quarries frohty structure--the Bible, Virgil, Augustine, Aquinas, Aristotle--have no doubt been pretty thoroughly examined, and many obscurities which the comments of Landino and others only left reat deal remains to be done Look where one may in the literature which was open to Dante, one finds evidence of his universal reading We take up such a book as Otto of Freising's _Annals_ (to which, with his _Acts of Frederick I_, we shall have to refer again), and find the good bishopthus on the mutability of human affairs, with especial reference to the break-up of the Empire in the middle of the ninth century:--

”Does not worldly honour seem to turn round and round after the fashi+on of one stricken with fever? For such place their hope of rest in a change of posture, and so, when they are in pain, throw the over continually”[1]

It is hard not to suppose that Dante had this passage in his mind when he wrote that bitter apostrophe to his own city hich the sixth canto of the _Purgatory_ ends:--

”E se ben ti ricorda, e vedi luliante a quella inferma, Che non pu trovar posa in su le piume, Ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma”

It is hardly too es of any book which Dante e which one feels certain he had read, or at the very least containing some information which one feels certain he possessed A real ”Dante's library”[2] would comprise pretty well every book in Latin, Italian, French, or Provencal, ”published,” if we ood many Latin books were (may one say fortunately?) in temporary retiregested, through voluant Extracts,” or by whatever other means, more was evidently known than is always realised

WeDante merely as a repertory of curious lore or reat as that of looking at him from a purely aesthetic point of view He had no doubt read e, and he is one of the half-dozen greatest poets of all time But his claim on our attention rests on even a wider basis than these two qualities would afford He represents as it were the re-opening of the lips of the hu, the fire kindled, and at last I spake with ue” The old classical literature had said its last hen Claudian died; and though ence, the histories and chronicles which practically fors of the so-called ”Dark Ages,” letters in the full sense of the term lay dormant for centuries Not till the twelfth century was far advanced did any signs of a re-awakening appear

Then, to use a phrase of Dante's, the dead poetry arose, and a burst of song came almost si the Minnesingers of Germany, the Troubadours of Provence, the unknown authors of the lovely roh cast chiefly in a prose form--_Aucassin et Nicolete_, and of several not less lovely English ballads and lyrics Even the heavy rhyin to be replaced by romances in which the true poetic fire breaks out, such as the _Nibelungen Lied_ (in its definitive form) and the _Chronicle of the Cid_

In the new poetry two features strike us at once The sentiment of love between man and woman, which with the ancients and even with early Christian writers scarcely ever rises beyond the level of a sensual passion,[3] beco the deepest roots of aas an incentive to noble conduct; and, closely connected with this, the influence of external nature upon the observer begins for the first tinised and to form a subject for poetical treathts and sounds of spring; but they suggest to him merely that life is short, or that he is thirsty, and in either case he cannot do better than have another drink in coil External nature and its beauty are often touched off in two or three lines which, once read, are never forgotten; but it is always as ornament to a picture, not auxiliary to the expression of a mood You es as Walther von der Vogelweide's:--

”Do der suras Wunnecliche ensprungen, Alda die vogele sungen, Dar koen, Da ein luter brunne entspranc; Vor deale sanc;”[5]

or the unknown Frenchman's:--