Tu se 'l lo mio maestro, e 'l mio autore. Lo bello stile, che m' ha fatto onore.* DELL' INFERNO. CANTO 1. Homer would have been as sure a conductor, and Dante occasionally speaks of Homer; but there are no indications in the Commedia of much Greek literature. It is probable that Dante knew Homer merely by quotation, for it does not appear that a complete copy of the Iliad and Odyssey was known in Italy, before the Commedia was written; and certainly there was no Latin translation so early. The Italians were only acquainted with Homer by means of a Latin abridgment of the Iliad, by a writer who called himself Pindar. It is in Latin hexameters, and contains about a thousand lines. Moreover, in his Convito, Dante speaks of his two Latin versions of Aristotle And art thou, then, that Virgil, that well-spring, Have sought thy volume, and with love immense Have conn'd it o'er. My master thou, and guide! Thou he from whom alone I have deriv'd That style, which for its beauty, into fame Exalts me. CARY'S TRANSLATION. contradicting each other, and his consequent ignorance of his author's true meaning. Had Dante's mind been saturated with classical literature, what wise and pathetic reflections would he not have scattered over his great poem on the majestic and melancholy wreck of antiquity that Italy presents to the eye! Although the grand and the terrible are attributed to Dante, as the most striking characteristics of his genius, yet it is not by these qualities that the strongest impression is made on our feelings. The two most remarkable passages in the Divina Commedia, and those by which he is most commonly known, describe the guilty loves of Francesca da Rimini and her brother-in-law Polo, and the death of Count Ugolino and his children; and these two stories interest us by addressing our tenderness and our compassion. Some circumstances of a horrid and almost disgusting nature, are, however, set in bold relief before the pathetic of the latter story. The chronicles of the Polenta family furnished Dante with Francesca's tale. Guido of Polenta, in order to consolidate peace between himself and Malatesta, lord of Rimini, engaged to bestow his daughter Francesca in marriage upon Lancilletto, son of Malatesta. The young man was in person P 4 so little likely to engage the affections of a woman, that it was apprehended Francesca would at first sight reject him. It was concerted, therefore, unknown to her, that he should be married by proxy. His brother Polo, a handsome cavalier, was his substitute; Francesca saw and admired him, and gave her hand to him as her first and only love. She discovered too soon the deceit that had been practised upon her. The impression which Polo made upon her heart could not easily be effaced, and her passion was returned. The husband, suspecting no wrong, quitted Rimini for awhile; but he was recalled by a servant who detected the criminals. One stab of Lancilletto's sword pierced them both. Such is the tale of Francesca da Rimini, as recorded by Boccaccio, in his Commentary on the Divina Commedia ; and upon it Dante has constructed the most beautiful passage in his poem. But his friendship for the Polenta family restrained him from exposing the base and unkindly artifice, which had both occassioned the calamity, and afforded the only apology for Francesca; and however deeply we may sympathize with her and Polo, even in Dante's relation, yet the poet has prevented us from making any inference hostile to the cause of morality; for he has placed the guilty pair in those regions of sorrow which are devoted to the reception of Helen, Dido, Cleopatra, Paris, Achilles, Tristan, and a thousand other carnal sinners (i peccator carnali), whose reason was submissive to their passions. "Among the fleeting throng," says Dante, "I expressed to Virgil my wish of addressing two shadows who moved together light as the wind. My guide directed me to address them in the name of that love which guided them, and they would approach. When the shadows drew nigh I exclaimed, 'Oh! wearied souls, come and converse with us, if no higher power restrains you.? As doves moved by soft desire pursue with expanded wings their steady flight to their muchloved nest, so those shades, leaving the ranks where Dido stood, traversed the foul air and approached us, such was the power of my appeal. 'Ogracious and benevolent being, who breathing this dense atmosphere, visitest us, us whose blood the earth has stained, if the Ruler of the universe regarded us with favor, we would pray to him for thee, since thou hast pity on our evil state. Of what thou desirest to hear or to speak, of that we will hear, and speak to thee, while the wind, as at present, is hushed.' The land where I was born,' continued the female spirit, is on the shore in whose seas the Po descends to repose his streams. Love, which soon is learnt by a gentle heart, inflamed mine with passion for that beauteous form which was afterwards taken from me by means that I still resent. Love, that admits not refusal of return from the beloved object, inspired me with so strong a desire to please him, that, as thou seest, this desire has not yet forsaken me.* Love led us toge ther to one death. The fate of Cain awaits our destroyer.' Thus spake these unhappy shades, and I drooped my head, and remained so long in silent affliction, that Virgil said to me, What thoughts engage thee?" I replied, What soft imaginings, what ecstasy of rapture led them to these paths of sorrow?' Turning to them, I exclaimed, Your misery moves me to tears. But tell me, in the time of your sweet sighs, how and by what signs did love inform you of your yet imperfect desires.' Alas,' she replied, 'there is no greater grief than in misery to re * Amor, ch' al cor gentil ratto s'apprende Prese costui della bella persona, Che mi fu tolta, e 'l modo ancor m' offende: Amor, ch' a null' amato amar perdona, Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte, Che, come vedi, ancor non m' abbandona. DELL' INFERNO. CANTO 5. |