Part 3 (1/2)
In the city, things went fro to the Frescobaldi, a White fa December, a bad brawl arose, in which the Cerchi had the worst of it But when the Donati, ehway, the Commune took notice of it, and the assailants were i their fines Soh able to pay, went to prison, apparently from motives of econoovernor of the prison, one of their own faction, ”an accursed Ser Neri degli Abati,” a scion of a family which seems, if we may trust Dante's mention of some of its other members, to have made a ”speciality” of treacherous behaviour, introduced into the prison fare a poisoned , whereof two of the Cerchi died, and two of the opposite party as well,[27] ”and no blood-feud came about for that”--probably because it was felt that the score was equal
The Blacks now h holding no official position, seem to have exercised a sort of _i was held in Holy Trinity Church, at which it was resolved to send a deputation to Boniface, requesting hiain what see in French aid The stern prophecy which Dante puts into the atory was to be fulfilled:--
”I see the time at hand That forth from France invites another Charles To make himself and kindred better known
Unar with that lance Which the arch-traitor tilted with; and that He carries with so home a thrust, as rives The bowels of poor Florence”
We may probably date from this Dante's final severance froe from it the real value of Guelf patriotism
It must be remembered that the Black faction was still but a faction
The conspiracy leaked out, and popular indignation was aroused The _Signoria_ that is, the Priors, took action Corso Donati and the other leaders were heavily fined, and this time the fines were paid Probably they did not wish to taste Ser Neri degli Abati's cookery a second tiood many of the junior members of the party were banished to Castello della Pieve; and at the same time, ”to remove all jealousy,” several of the White leaders were sent to Serezzano (whichcall Sarzana)--a weak and unlucky attempt at compromise They were, indeed, soon allowed to return, their place of exile being unhealthy; so much so that one of them, Dante's most intimate friend, Guido Cavalcanti, died in the course of the winter from illness contracted there
Cardinal Matthew see of 1301 We are told that a his other demands (probably made on this occasion), was one to the effect that Florence should furnish a hundred men-at-arms for the Pope's service; and that Dante, who, after his term of office as Prior, re should be done in the matter Indeed, in the scanty notices which we have of his doings in this critical period, he appears as the steady opponent of all outside interference in the affairs of Florence, whether by Pope or Frenchman In the face of this it is hard to understand how the faone on an eo, who stays?”--can ever have obtained credence Sonificent self-consciousness which elsewhereformed a party by himself; but we cannot suppose that he would at any time in the course of 1301 have thus put his head into the lion's mouth That Boniface was at the tini is a minor detail
If all the White party had possessed Dante's energy, Florence ht have been saved Vieri de' Cerchi had, indeed, as we have seen, spirit enough to tell the Pope in effect to mind his own business, and he was not devoid of shrewdness; but he seeour in action The party as a whole were probably as corrupt as their rivals, and less astute--”an evil and foolish company,”
as Dante afterwards called theuida Corso Donati, on the other hand, was a bold and reckless intriguer He followed up the conspiracy of the Santa Trinita by hastening to the Papal Court, and inducing Boniface to send at once for Charles of Valois, brother of the French king, Philip the Fair Charles obeyed the summons readily, in the hope, says Villani, of the Ini, he entered Florence on All Saints' Day, 1301 All opposition on the part of the Whites was disarmed by the assurance that he ca, ”at which I, the writer, was present,” was held in the Church of Santa Maria Novella
Charles, ”with his own 's son to ood estate; and incontinently by him and by his people the contrary was done” Arh under sentence of banishment, entered with the his arrest The populace, pro live Lord Charles and the Baron” (the naiven up for a week to burning and pillage A second visit from the Cardinal of Acquasparta produced no result, save a hout the early s went on, Corso's only son, a one of the Cerchi
Finally, one of the French knights, acting in the capacity which to this day is regarded as peculiarly suited to the French genius, that of _agent provocateur_, induced some of the White party, by offers of help, to forainst Charles's person This plot being duly reported, the conspirators fled on April 4th, some to Pisa, some to Arezzo, some to Pistoia, and joined the already exiled Ghibelines They were condemned as rebels, and their houses destroyed
From this time the Whites and Ghibelines form one party
Whether Dante actually ith thehly solved, but is of sufficient interest to delay us for a while In the short biography of the poet which Villani gives when recording his death, we read: ”This Dante was a citizen of Florence, honourable and of old fahbour of ours His exile from Florence was for the reason that when Lord Charles of Valois, of the house of France, came to Florence in 1301 and drove out the White party, as is mentioned above under the date, the said Dante was one of the chief governors of our city, and belonged to that party, Guelf though he was; and therefore, _for no other fault_, he was driven forth and banished with the said White party from Florence” This seems very explicit, but there are difficulties in the way of taking it quite literally A document exists, dated January 27, 1302, in which the Podesta, Cante de' Gabrielli of Gubbio, charges Dante Alighieri and three others with various offences, the chief being _baratteria_ (or corrupt jobbery in office), the use of public money to resist the entrance of Charles of Valois, and interference in the affairs of Pistoia with the view of securing the expulsion from that city ”of those who are called Blacks, faithful, men devoted to the Holy Roman Church,” which had taken place in May, 1301 It is stated that, having been duly summoned, they had contumaciously absented themselves, which seems to show that they were not in Florence; and they are sentenced to pay five thousand florins apiece within three days, or, in default, be banished and have their houses destroyed and their goods confiscated; and in any case they were banished for two years A second decree of March 10th conde them Lapo Salterelli, if they fall into the power of the Commonwealth, to be burnt to death
As has been said, Dante must clearly have been out of Florence when this document was launched Leonardi Bruni says he was at Rome on an embassy when the Whites left Florence, and that he hastened to join his party at Siena; but for the reasons already given, this story of the eested that as at Florence the old style prevailed, under which March 26th was New Year's Day, the two sentences really belong to e should now call 1303, when Dante had undoubtedly been in exile for some months, and this is corroborated by Benvenuto's state, no doubt, ”placed under ban,” as distinct from voluntary exile
But it appears that Cante de' Gabrielli went out of office in June, 1302 So, unless we can suppose this last date to be wrong--and there is so it--we h a Florentine official, he did not use Florentine style, and that Dante, with so White Guelfs, was compelled to fly sooner than the bulk of his party He erous opponent
That there was any foundation for the charge of corruption it is impossible to believe Dante's faults were many, but they did not lie in that direction; and the honest Villani, though he appears to have sided with the Black party, and indeed held office himself as Prior only a few years later, seems to have introduced the words which we have italicised in the passage given above, with the express intention of indicating this On the other hand, it eniously devised Dante is known to have been in debt, for so to the years preceding 1300; while in the course of 1301 he was engaged in superintending the performance of certain public works in the city Thus it would be e both that he was short of ood opportunities for peculation, a fact of which his unscrupulous adversaries would naturally avail thee space which he devotes, in the _hell_, to the crime of _baratteria_, evidence of a wish to express his especial detestation of it
What, however, we know for certain is that, after soain Several attempts were made by the exiles to win their way back, but they were uniforainst those who took part in the the earlier years of his exile, seems very doubtful We know from his oords that he had no sympathy with the men hom he was thrown Indeed, it was a curious irony of fate which linked in one condemnation his name and that of Lapo Salterelli, a radation into which the Florentine character had fallen During this first period he was probably eating his heart, and watching for the co all the world under one i--the _invidia_ and _avarizia_ against which he is for ever inveighing--and permit every man ”to sit at ease and perfect hi his proper task of ” ”to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” It is a noble conception, though the six hundred years which have elapsed since Dante looked for its fulfilht us very ive him the honour due to a lofty standard of political and social conduct in a violent and profligate, if brilliant, age; and we can still read with interest and profit that wonderful repertory of political wisdoument (after the overnment, which he calls the _Treatise on Monarchy_
The date at which the _De Monarchia_ was co most fitly to the years which immediately succeeded Dante's banishment The E while the Pope, fro Caesar and Peter see fro, in 1308, better tiht supersede abstract theories The letter which Dante actually wrote to Henry in 1311 is couched in a far less n the Ghibeline cause looked up; nor was his death in 1313 so fatal a blow to it as ht have been expected Several powerful leaders arose, one of whoiuola of Pisa, won back most of Tuscany for his party In 1315 he inflicted a severe defeat on the Florentines and their allies at Montecatini, on the border of the Florentine and Lucchese territories; but he was unable to follow up his success so far as to enter the city Soainst Dante, in which his sons were included, condeainst the Commonwealth and people of Florence and the statutes of the Guelf party, to be beheaded whenever taken It has been plausibly suggested that the two events were not unconnected; and as it is hardly likely that at the age of fifty Dante would have taken a pro, weadviser of the ene powers at Florence
The chief importance, however, which Dante's exile has for us, is that with it his great literary activity began He had, of course, written all his life; and it is quite possible even that some portion of the _Commedia_ had been composed before he left Florence The story told by Boccaccio is well known Co words of Canto viii, he tells us that the preceding portion of the poem had been written before the final catastrophe, and left behind by Dante in his flight, not being discovered for some years In any case, the _Vita Nuova_ ritten, as he hiood deal of the _Convito_, a hich looks very much as if it had first come into existence as the contents of notebooks, in which reat poe But it is to Dante's twenty years of exile that e in their co the world's five or six greatest poets, but in an eians, statesmen, and men of science
We have but little certain inforends innu up as to his residence here, there, and elsewhere; but most of these are based on the fancies of later writers; or in some cases even on local vanity, which was flattered by the rereat name We can say for certain that he passed some time at Verona, some at Lucca, some at Ravenna, where his sepulchre remains to this day; and with sona, and perhaps at Milan He iana, and some in the Casentino All we know is that his life was spent in wandering, that he had no settled home, that he lived on other men's bread, and went up and down other men's stairs He was honoured, it is true Great nobles were glad to employ his services, and, as we have said, the fact of his being so often selected by the rulers of Florence for condearded hiest evidence of the estimation in which he was held is to be found in Villani's obituary chapter, wherein his character and accomplishments are set forth with a fulness which the historian elsewhere reserves for Popes and sovereigns; a fulness all the more noteworthy since his name never occurs in the chronicle of events in which he undoubtedly took a leading part
Only when Italy and Florence had lost him beyond hope of recovery was it realised that he was one of his country's greatest glories Then chairs were founded froe should expound his works; and commentator after commentator--nine or ten before the end of the fourteenth century--cleared up some obscurities and made others o, the writers ere nearly or quite contereat service; but it is otherwise, as a rule, when a knowledge of books is wanted We are never so , as e see the utter failure of these learned men even to observe, in many cases, that any explanation or illustration of an allusion is wanted This, however, brings us back to the point from which we started, namely, that much as has been written about Dante, the possible fields of research are by no means exhausted