Part 56 (1/2)

I possessed a well-balanced rather than a keen intellect--one p.r.o.ne to all kinds of good and wholesome study, but especially inclined to moral philosophy and the art of poetry. The latter, indeed, I neglected as time went on, and took delight in sacred literature.

Finding in that a hidden sweetness which I had once esteemed but lightly, I came to regard the works of the poets as only amenities.

[Sidenote: Admiration for antiquity]

Among the many subjects that interested me, I dwelt especially upon antiquity, for our own age has always repelled me, so that, had it not been for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other period than our own. In order to forget my own time, I have constantly striven to place myself in spirit in other ages, and consequently I delighted in history. The conflicting statements troubled me, but when in doubt I accepted what appeared most probable, or yielded to the authority of the writer.

[Sidenote: Att.i.tude toward literary style]

My style, as many claimed, was clear and forcible; but to me it seemed weak and obscure. In ordinary conversation with friends, or with those about me, I never gave thought to my language, and I have always wondered that Augustus Caesar should have taken such pains in this respect. When, however, the subject itself, or the place or the listener, seemed to demand it, I gave some attention to style, with what success I cannot pretend to say; let them judge in whose presence I spoke. If only I have lived well, it matters little to me how I talked. Mere elegance of language can produce at best but an empty renown....

FOOTNOTES:

[601] Dante represents the commentaries composing the _Convito_ as in the nature of a banquet, the ”meats” of which were to be set forth in fourteen courses, corresponding to the fourteen _canzoni_, or lyric poems, which were to be commented upon. As a matter of fact, for some unknown reason, the ”banquet” was broken off at the end of the third course. ”At the beginning of every well-ordered banquet” observes the author in an earlier pa.s.sage (Bk. II., Chap. 1) ”the servants are wont to take the bread given out for it, and cleanse it from every speck.”

Dante has just cleansed his viands from the faults of egotism and obscurity,--the ”accidental impurities”; he now proceeds to clear them of a less superficial difficulty, i.e., the fact that in serving them use is made of the Italian rather than the Latin language.

[602] The date of the composition of the _De Vulgari Eloquentia_ is unknown, but there are reasons for a.s.signing the work to the same period in the author's life as the _Convito_. Like the _Convito_, it was left incomplete; four books were planned, but only the first and a portion of the second were written. In it an effort was made to establish the dominance of a perfect and imperial Italian language over all the dialects. The work itself was written in Latin, probably to command the attention of scholars whom Dante hoped to convert to the use of the vernacular.

[603] The author conceives of the _canzoni_ as masters and the commentaries as servants.

[604] That is, any poetical composition.

[605] Some students of Dante hold that this phrase about Homer should be rendered ”does not admit of being turned”; but others take it in the absolute sense and base on it an argument against Dante's knowledge of Greek literature.

[606] The Book of Psalms.

[607] The _canzoni_ were in Italian and a Latin commentary would have been useless to scholars of other nations, because they could not have understood the _canzoni_ to which it referred.

[608] The Provencal language--the peculiar speech of southeastern France, whence comes the name Languedoc. _Oc_ is the affirmative particle ”yes.”

[609] _Si_ is the Italian affirmative particle. In the _Inferno_ Dante refers to Italy as ”that lovely country where the _si_ is sounded”

(x.x.x., 80).

[610] That is, prose shows the true beauty of a language more effectively than poetry, in which the attention is distracted by the ornaments of verse.

[611] The author refers to Cicero's philosophical treatise _De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_.

[612] For example, Pope Innocent IV. (1243-1254) declared: ”Two lights, the sun and the moon, illumine the globe; two powers, the papal and the royal, govern it; but as the moon receives her light from the more brilliant star, so kings reign by the chief of the Church, who comes from G.o.d.”

[613] The arguments disposed of by the author, in addition to those treated in the pa.s.sages here presented, are: the precedence of Levi over Judah (Gen., xxix. 34, 35), the election and deposition of Saul by Samuel (1 Sam., x. 1; xv. 23; xv. 28), the oblation of the Magi (Matt., ii. 11), the two swords referred to by Peter (Luke, xxii. 38), the donation of Constantine, the summoning of Charlemagne by Pope Hadrian, and finally the argument from pure reason.

[614] This was the common mediaeval designation of Aristotle.

[615] For Dante's conception of the terrestrial and the celestial paradise see the _Paradiso_ in the _Divina Commedia_.

[616] These were the lay and ecclesiastical princes in whom was vested the right of choosing the Emperor. The electoral college was first clearly defined in the Golden Bull issued by Charles IV. in 1356 [see p. 409]. Its composition in Dante's time is uncertain.

[617] Dante's ideal solution was the harmonious rule of the two powers by the acknowledgment of filial relations.h.i.+p between pope and emperor, on the basis of a recognition of the different and essentially irreconcilable character of their functions.

[618] George B. Adams, _Mediaeval Civilization_ (New York, 1904), pp.