DANTE
630
DANTE
found his ideal of knightly manhood realized in Can
Grande della Scala, who was ruling a large portion of
Eastern Lombardy as imperial vicar, and in whom he
doubtless saw a possible future deliverer of Italy. It
is a plausible theory, dating from the fifteenth century,
that identifies Can Grande with the "Veltro", or
greyhountl, the hero whose advent is prophesied at
the beginning of the "Inferno", who is to effectuate
the unperial ideals of the "De Monarchia", and
succeed where Henry of Luxemburg had failed.
In 1317 (according to the more probable chronol- ogy) Dante settled at Ravenna, at the invitation of Guido Novello da Polenta. Here he completed the "Divina Commedia". From Ravenna he wrote the striking letter to Can Grande (Epist. x), dedicating the "Paradiso" to him, commenting upon its first canto, and explaining the intention and allegorical meaning of the whole poem. A letter in verse (1319) from Giovanni del Virgilio, a lecturer in Latin at the University of Bologna, remonstrating with him for treating such lofty themes in the vernacular, inviting him to come and receive the laurel crown in that city,
by his son Jacopo and forwarded by him to Can
Grande.
The "Pivina Commedia" is an allegory of human life, in the form of a vision of the world beyond the grave, written avowedly with the object of converting a corrupt society to righteousness; "to remove those living in this lifr from the state of misery, and lead them to the state of felicity". It is composed of a hundred cantos, written in the measure known aa terza rima, with its normally hendecasyllabic lines and closely linked rhymes, which Dante so modified from the popular poetry of his day that it may be regarded as his own invention. He is relating, nearly twenty years after the event, a vision which was granted to him (for his own salvation when leading a sinful life) during the year of jubilee, 1300, in which for seven days (beginning on the morning of Good Friday) he passed through hell, purgatory, and para- dise, spoke with the souls in each realm, and heard what the Providence of God had in store for himself and the world. The framework of the poem presents the dual scheme of the "De Monarchia" transfigured.
(Nati.
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nal .Museum, NaplesJ
(Raphael, Vatic'an)
Dante Aughieri
led Dante to compose his first " Eclogue", a delightful
poem in pastoral Latin hexameters, full of human
kindness and gentle humour. In it Dante expresses
his unalterable resolution to receive the laurel from
Florence alone, and proposes to win his correspondent
to an appreciation of vernacular poetry by the gift of
ten cantos of the "Paradiso". A second "Eclogue"
was sent to Giovanni after Dante's death; but it is
doubtful whether it was really composed by the poet.
This correspondence shows that in 1319 the " Inferno"
and "Purgatorio" were already generally known;
while the "Paradiso" was still mifinished. This was
now sent in instalments to Can Grande, as completed,
between 1319 and 1321. If the "Qusestio de Aqua et
Terra" is authentic, Dante was at Verona on 20 Jan-
. uary, 1320, where he delivered a discourse on the
relative position of earth and water on the surface of
the globe; but, although the authenticity of this
treatise has recently foimd strenuous defenders, it
must still be regarded as doubtful. In July, 1321,
Dante went on an embassy from Guido da Polenta to
Venice. Two months later he died, at Ravenna, on
the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and was
buried in the church of San Francesco in that city.
The whole of the "Divina Commedia" had been pulj-
ILshed, with the exception of the last thirteen cantos
of the "Paradiso", which were afterwards discovered
Virgil, representing human philosophy acting in ac-
cordance with the moral and intellectual virtues,
guides Dante by the light of natural reason from the
dark wood of alienation from God (where the beasts
of lust, pride, and avarice drive man back from
ascending the Mountain of the Lord), through hell
and purgatory to the earthly paradise, the state of
temporal felicity, when spiritual liberty has been
regained by the purgatorial pains. Beatrice, repre-
senting Divine philosophy illuminated by revelation,
leads him thence, up through the nine moving heavens
of intellectual preparation, into the true paradise, the
spaceless and timeless empyrean, in which the blessed-
ness of eternal life is found in the fruition of the sight
of God. There her place is taken liy St. Bernard, type
of the loving contemplation in which the eternal life
of the soul consists, who commends him to the
Blessed Virgin, at whose intercession he obtains a
foretaste of the Beatific Vision, the poem closing with
all powers of knowing and loving fulfilled and con-
sumed in the union of the understanding with the
Divine Essence, the will made one with the Divine
Will, "the Love that moves the sun and the other
stars".
The sacred poem, the last book of the Middle Ages, sums up the knowledge and intellectual attainment of the centuries that |)assed between the fall of the
