stupore siluisti? mallem pudore; sed te, ut video, stupor oppressit. Cumque me non modo tacitum, sed elinguem prorsus mutumque vidisset, admovit pectori meo leniter manum, et, Nihil, inquit, periculi est,' &c. There is scarcely an idea here that has not its counterpart in the scene in Purg. xxix. and xxx.

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The similarity of thought and expression in the following passages on the vanity of human fame can scarcely be accidental. Compare Purg. xi. 103-108 with De Cons. Phil. II. Pros. vii. (sub med.): 'Vos autem immortalitatem vobis propagare videmini, quum futuri famam temporis cogitatis. Quod si ad aeternitatis infinita spatia pertractes, quid habes quod de tui nominis diuturnitate laeteris ? Unius enim mora momenti, si decem millibus conferatur annis, quoniam utrumque spatium definitum est, minimam licet, habet tamen aliquam portionem. At hic ipse numerus annorum, eiusque quantumlibet multiplex, ad interminabilem diuturnitatem ne comparari quidem potest,' &c.

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In Conv. I. iii. II. 32 seqq. Dante complains that he has been a wanderer in many lands, mostrando contro a mia voglia la piaga della fortuna, che suole ingiustamente al piagato molte volte essere imputata.' And again in Par. xvii. 52, 3, he declares:

La colpa seguirà la parte offensa
In grido, come suol.

These sentiments seem likely to have been suggested by De Cons. Phil. I. Pros. iv. (a chapter which is shown by the Index to have been very familiar to Dante): At vero hic etiam nostris malis cumulus accedit, quod existimatio plurimorum non rerum merita, sed fortunae spectat eventum. ... Quo fit ut existimatio bona prima omnium deserat infelices. .. Hoc tantum dixerim: ultimum esse adversae fortunae

...

sarcinam, quod dum miseris aliquod crimen affingitur, quae perferunt, meruisse creduntur,' &c.

The sentiment is not an uncommon one elsewhere. We may compare Ecclus. xiii. 27, ' Humilis deceptus est, insuper et arguitur; locutus est sensate, et non est datus ei locus.' Also Sallust, Jug. c. xxiv., 'expertus sum parum fidei miseris esse' (letter of Adherbal): and a Tuscan proverb quoted by Scartazzini, 'La colpa è sempre degli offesi.'

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Lastly, the direct quotation of Boethius in Conv. III. ii. 1. 144, seems to justify a slight rectification of the text. The words are, Tu e Dio, che te nella mente degli uomini mise.' Those of Boethius run: Tu mihi et qui te sapientium mentibus inseruit Deus,' &c. (De Cons. Phil. I. Pros. iv). As far as I am aware, the MSS. of Dante omit 'te.' But this evidently leaves the sense incomplete, and the word was probably accidentally dropped out by an early copyist. It will be observed that the correction is not made merely to secure greater exactness of quotation (which would be a very questionable step), but to complete a grammatically defective

sentence.

SENECA.

In Conv. IV. xii. 1. 120, Dante attributes a sentiment to Seneca, which, it is stated, and as far as I have been able to ascertain, truly, cannot be found in his works. The words are, 'Se l' uno de' piedi avessi nel sepolcro, apprendere vorrei.' In effect Seneca does say as much in Epist. 76: 'Tam diu discendum est, quam diu nescias, et, si proverbio credimus, quam diu vivas'; and again, 'Tamdiu discendum est quemadmodum vivas, quamdiu vivis.' But the particular metaphor of one foot in the grave' does not occur. We may perhaps suppose Dante to be referring to this passage, though the

actual metaphor is added by himself1, it being one which was at any rate familiar to him, as we see from Purg. xviii. 121:

E tale ha già l' un piè dentro la fossa.

Another suggestion is made by Mazzuchelli, viz. that Dante may have somehow got hold of a sentiment precisely similar to the actual words quoted by him, which is ascribed to the great jurist Salvius Julianus (the author of the edictum perpetuum), who, being cited in the Digest, might thus be known to Dante, since he quotes this work under different titles (Digesto, Inforziato, Ragione) three or four times in the Convito and De Monarchia. The words are: Si alterum pedem in tumulo haberem, non pigeret aliquid addiscere.' This Dante may, by a slip of memory, have ascribed to Seneca; a mistake such as, alas! we are still liable to make, in spite of our enormous advantages in the way of printed editions, indices, and concordances.

In Conv. II. xiv. 1. 174, Dante refers to a fiery meteor which Seneca says was seen in Rome at the time of the death of Augustus. This will be found in Nat. Quaest. I. i. and again VII. xvii. But we are bound to admit that Dante is not quoting here at first hand, for in Albertus Magnus, Meteor. I. iv. 9, the quotations here made by Dante from Albumassar and Seneca occur together almost totidem verbis 2.

Conv. IV. xii. 1. 82. Quanto contra esse (ricchezze) Seneca, massimamente a Lucillo scrivendo, &c.

There are several passages in Seneca's Epistles which may have been in Dante's mind, especially perhaps the following-Neminem pecunia divitem fecit: immo contra, nulli non maiorem sui cupiditatem incussit. Quaeris, quae sit huius

1 We might perhaps make a similar suggestion in reference to the pseudoAristotelian quotation mentioned supra, p. 153. The sentiment is Aristotelian, though not the actual form of words. Compare, for example, Pol. I. xi. 6 (1258 b. 36): τεχνικώταται μὲν τῶν ἐργασιῶν ὅπου ἐλάχιστον τῆς τύχης. Magn. Mor. 11. 8 (1207 a. 4, 5): οὗ πλεῖστος νοῦς καὶ λόγος, ἐνταῦθα ἐλαχίστη τύχη· οὗ δὲ πλείστη τύχη, ἐνταῦθ ̓ ἐλάχιστος νοῦς, and other like passages.

See sup. pp. 13, 129.

3 An error (Dante or copyists?) for Lucilio.

U

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rei causa? plus incipit habere posse, qui plus habet.' Epist. cxix. (ad med.). Multis parasse divitias non finis miseriarum fuit, sed mutatio.' Epist. xvii. (ad fin.). Multum est non corrumpi divitiarum contubernio.' Epist. xx., &c.

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1

An interesting reference, without, however, any definite quotation, is made to Seneca in Epist. iv. 5. Dante, exiled from Florence, begs his friend, an exile from Pistoja, to read the treatise of Seneca, Fortuitorum Remedia, as a defence against the darts of Fortune. This treatise is now acknowledged to be the work of Martinus Dumiensis, Abbot of Dumio in Portugal, in the sixth century. (So also is the 'Liber de iv virtutibus,' which was likewise attributed formerly to Sencca, as by Dante himself in De Mon. II. v. 1. 24.) It was originally printed among the works of Seneca; as in the old edition from which the following extracts are made, a black letter quarto in the Bodleian, 'Argentorati,' c. 1472. This Tractate professes to be addressed 'ad Gallionem amicum suum ... contra omnes impetus et machinamenta fortunae.' The title is, Liber Senece de remediis fortuitorum.' It is in the form of a dialogue between Sensus (conquerens) and Ratio (confortans). The principal titles are as follows:Mors, Egritudo, Maliloquium, Exilium, Dolor, Paupertas, Amissio pecuniae, Naufragium, Amissio amicorum, &c. Doubtless the portion chiefly in Dante's mind in the reference before us would be the section on 'Exilium,' the character of which may be judged from the following extracts, embodying probably the 'remedia,' which he thus recommends to his friend. 'Mundus omnium una patria est: extra hanc nemo proiici potest. . . . Non patria mihi interdicitur, sed locus. In quamcumque terram venio, in meam venio. Nulla terra exilium est, sed altera patria.... Patria est ubicunque bene es. Illud autem per quod bene est in homine non in loco est. . . . Si enim sapiens est peregrinatur ... si stultus exulat,' &c.

It was familiar to Brunetto Latini, and (as was his wont with other authors) freely copied by him.

ST. AUGUSTINE.

The direct references to St. Augustine in Dante are not so numerous as perhaps might have been expected. When he appears among the saints specially pointed out in the Heavenly Rose in Par. xxxii., he seems to be selected rather from his traditional connexion with the great monastic order of Augustinians, and with hermits and solitaries in particular 2, than for his eminence as a theologian. This appears from his association with St. Francis and St. Benedict, as the three saints in closest proximity to St. John the Baptist. He is quoted three times in one chapter of the De Monarchia, viz. III. iv.; the first quotation (11. 51 seqq.) is a striking passage from De Civ. Dei, XVI. ii., protesting against the over-interpretation of parable and allegory, and enforcing the point by the excellent illustration of the plough, all the parts of which are necessary, though the share only cleaves the ground. The other two passages come from the same context in the De Doctrina Christiana (I. xxxvi. and xxxvii.), the only point calling for remark being the curious reading (1.65), ‘eo tamen per gyrum pergeret quo via illa perducit,' where our MSS. of St. Augustine (in c. xxxvi) read agrum. Dr. Witte supposes that Dante had an inferior text. (We may compare with this passage, Convito IV. xii. 1. 181 segg.)

St. Augustine is also directly quoted three times in the Convito. In two of these cases it will be seen that I have failed to identify the passage. In the third case, Conv. I. iv. 1. 67, St. Augustine is quoted as saying, 'Nullo è senza macola.' I have not found the precise words, though they are likely enough to occur in St. Augustine, since the sentiment would be a common one in his writings. The passage I have noted

1 See, however, infra, p. 294.

In 1284, and therefore within Dante's recollection, about forty years after the foundation of the Franciscan and Dominican orders, Innocent IV had with some difficulty brought all hermits and solitaries under the Augustinian rule. See Mrs. Jameson's Legends of the Monastic Orders.