40

COMMENT

CANTO E.

that it becomes susceptible of a variety of explications (1). The epithet given to Ilion in the Italian is superbo -- a literal translation of ceciditque superbum llium (»).

In this pathetical burst of encomium, of which the style is so beautiful, (3) Dante however is not unfair to himself; for, though he avows his having had a master in style, it is Style alone that is specified. He must have been conscious, that, in still higher qualities, he had neither the will nor the genius that employs itself in imitating others. As inventor, he could not but have felt himself vastly superior to Virgil; of whom Macrobius, nowise unjustly, remarks, that he scarcely inserted an incident in any of his works without having a model in Homer, Apollonius, Pindar, or some other Greek; and that on the only occasion when he ap. pears to have been reduced to his own contrivance he succeeded badly; for that the wounding of a stag and a consequent tumult among country churls is no adequate cause for the breaking out of a war of such importance and all the mighty the fall of Turnus and the foun

events to ensue

(1) Artis est interdum sic loqui ut in plureis sententias trahi possumus. Com.

(2) Aeneid. lib. 3. v. 2.

(3) Lo bello stile: Oui certes un beau style, et le plus beau qu'ait employé aucun poëte depuis que Virgile lui meme avait cessé de se faire entendre. Hist. Litt. d'Italie. Vol. 2. p. 30.

CANTO I

ding of Rome (1). Indeed if invention be the highest gift of poetry, (and that it is we have the authority of Dryden) then has Dante but two rivals

in that art, Homer, and Shakespere. If the rest are poets, this triumvirate are vates.

Q- XC.

This verse is sometimes cited to prove the circulation of the blood to be no recent discovery of Harvey; and the citation acquires speciousness from the fact of physic having been one of Dante's favorite studies. A french review (2). seems to think that M. Biagioli was the first to advance such a pretension; but therein it makes a mistake (3).

R. -CI.

In one of the oldest comments, bearing date 1343, that is, only 22 years after Dante's decease, or indeed the very oldest, (unless those left by Dante's own children, Peter and Jacob Alighieri, preceded it, which, in my mind, is improbable) it is asserted, that the best instructed men were then of opinion, that it was impossible to decide who was meant by the hound (4). Similar indecisi

(1) Saturn. lib 5. Cap. 17.

(2) Le Journal des Savans. (3) Magalotti. Lett. Vol. 1.

Aeneid. lib. 7.

(4) Chi sia questo Veltro non è diffiuito, ed è pretermesso da molti valenti Uomioi.

Bib. Ricc. Cod. 1016.

42

COMMENT

CANTO I.

on is displayed by both of the younger Alighieri : Peter, after observing it was a very contested point,

de quo tantum quæritur adds, it was a prediction of the birth of some illustrious personage, but whom he knows not - prædicit nascere et surgere quemdam plenum sapientiæ; (1) Jacob is of opinion, that hound was inserted merely for the sake of its contra-distinction to wolf, these being animals naturally enemies, veltro per contrario della lupa (2). Boccaccio, a little later, owned equal ignorance; although hinting a suspicion of some individual being personified (3). So true is my former observation, that this entire allegory was either mis-understood from the beginning, or soon en tirely forgot, or sedulously kept secret by the early annotators; and was afterwards interpreted by the moderns, as best suited their own interests, caprice or prejudice. Landino and others say, that the hound means Christ; at whose second coming, between the heavens, (this being the mystical signification they give Feltri) avarice and every other vice shall be re-consigned to the bottomless pit: or else a certain benign conjunction of the planets calculated by Dante, who is reported even

(7) Manifestamente confesso ch'io non l'intendo,.... ma pare intendere altro che non dica la lettera .

Com. Vol. 1. pp. 47--88.

GANTO I.

by his son Peter, (though I know not on what ground) to have been, like his master, Virgil, a great astrologer nunc vult se ostendere in judiciis astrologicis scientem; 'which conjunction', adds Landino, 'I have myself, by a new calculation, verified as undoubtedly to take place at two minutes past eight, on the morning of November the twenty-fifth, 1484; for then Saturn and Jove will so meet in the Scorpion, as to prog. nosticate, with infallible certainty, some mighty change in religion; and, since Jove will be ascendant over Saturn, we may further predict, that, that change will be an amelioration; and will be brought about by a Prince, to be born at the above moment, or else by some other species of potent influence, then to commence' (8): or, finally,

(8) Certo nell'anno 1484 il dì 25 Novembre, or: 13, minut: 41, tale sarà la conjuctione di Saturno e di Giove nello Scorpione nel ascendente del quinto grado della libra, la quale dimostrerà mutazione di Religione: e, perchè Giove prevale a Saturno, significa, che tale mutazione sarà in meglio. Questo io veggio, e però il narro.

Ed. della Magna. fol. Fir. 1481.

This odd prophecy of Landino, put forth in such a tone of confi. dence, having seemingly attracted no notice in the thickly printed vokume wherein it occurs, I had the curiosity to try how it could be applied, and found, to my surprise, that, Luther was born in the November of 1484, on the twenty-second, according to his mother, which differs from the prediction by three days; but Bayle informs us, that she owned she conld not affirm the date with absolute precision. I know Luther's foes are said to have pretended, that they had drawn opprobrious horoscopes of his birth: but such prejudices could not have dictated the present one, for Landino died in 1504, that is, a dozen years before Luther began to attract attention; besides this is a favourable, rather than a diffamatory prediction, and will please

readers and start matter for ingenious controversy, as Virgil did in one of his compositions (1). The history of the affair is, that, Dante was at that time busy in seeking for some champion to oppose the usurping spirit of the Papal court; and therefore, if he personified the later as a she wolf, it is likely, that the hound was a personification of the champion he had selected. This agrees very well with what is the common opinion now; that the Veltro 'Greyhound' of the text is put for Cane, 'dog'; and that, therefore, the individual meant is a prince of Verona known by the title of Can grande della Scala. He is said to be born mid the 'Feltri', because (remarks Venturi)

neither his friends or foes. Since then Landino was neither a Magiciau, nor a reputed Prophet, what can be done better than repeat Cicero's sentence 'a whimsical coincidence of what is foretold and what really comes to pass sometimes happens, otherwise not even an old woman would be superstitious'. The prophecy was known to Sterne (Slawken : tale) but not its origin or date, nor the prophecy itself correctly, for he attributes to it the error of a year, by calling it 1483, whereas we see it was really and truly 1484. He adds, that, Luther was born in December and not November; it may be so, but Bayle decides for the latter. For Sterne to have ridiculed the prediction was quite fair; as well as to have thought it made after the event, if he had never seen Landino's book. If he had, he must have admired the fortuitous verification of the horoscope, even while despising both the astrologer and his art: for not only before Luther became known, did Landino die; but he put his calculation to a fair trial, by divulging it long previous to the period it pretended to foretel ; that is, the first edition of his comment, now on my table, was prin ted and pubblished in August 1481, or above three years before Luther was born. This hypothesis then makes Dante's hound Luther. (1) Jam redit et virgo. Ecl. 4.