202
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. vii. MARCH IG, 1001.
this. Dante, however, knew his Aristotle
well enough to make Virgil quote, r refer
to, the cosmic nonsense of Empedocles.
4. Ibid., 77-8 :
Chiron prese uno strale, e con la cocca Fece la barba indietro alle mascelle.
Plumptre says :
" Ruskin's note on this passage, as showing that what Dante wrote was not, as with second-rate artists, the work of a deliberate invention, but the description of what he had actually seen, as in the visions of the night, is eminently characteristic. 'M. P.,'iii. 8."
So it is, like most things Ruskin wrote or uttered, and like many things equally far- fetched. Dante was certainly not a second- rate, but he was in many instances a second- hand artist as most artists unavoidably are. And as to "deliberate invention," what is the whole poem but such? It was as much a vision of the day as of the night, and in both cases descriptions of what he had not seen. But Ruskin would not have been Ruskin had he not been outre.
5. Ibid., 107 :
Quivi 6 Alessandro, e Dionisio fero. Plumptre heads a long and instructive note on this and subsequent lines with a curious sentence :
"The list of the tyrants who are singled out from among thousands as types is interesting as furnishing data for a study of Dante's historical sympathies."
Had the dean written "antipathies" the sentence had been more intelligible, for such the selected list shows them to have been. But of more importance is the question touching the identity of Alessandro. Is he Macedonian or Thessalian ; Alexander the Great or Alexander of Phone 1 ? It is more than a case of Utrum horum mavis accipe. The weight of evidence, in my judgment, inclines towards him of Macedori. That Dante speaks favourably of him elsewhere (' De Monarchia,' ii. 9 ; ' Convito,' iv. 11) " non e di molta importanza," as Scartazzini ob- serves. He was the worse sinner of the two, and the entire ' Commedia' is constructed upon gradations of guilt and merit. Possibly Dante 'may have changed his estimate [of the Macedonian monarch], and been influenced by his favourite Lucan," as Pluraptre ob- serves, but the poet's independence of judg- ment militates somewhat against the con- jecture. The dean himself is of opinion that " Alexander is probablv not the Macedonian conqueror, but the Thessalian tyrant of Pherae." But, of course, neither this nor its converse opinion brings us finality.
- 6. Ibid., 118-20 :
Mostrocci un' ombra dall' un canto sola, Dicendo : Colui fesse in grembo a Dio Lo cor che in sul Tamigi ancor si cola. A special interest attaches to this passage, " as one of the few," to use Plumptre's words again, " in the ' Commedia ' which bring us into contact with English history." It is also the first of its kind ; the next one (' Purg.,' vii. 130) will confront us with our Henry III. The well-known incident needs no recapitu- lation here, but the value of the passage as indirect evidence of Dante's having visited England will bear repetition. In his memor- able article 'Did Dante study in Oxford?' (Nineteenth Century, June, 1892) Mr. Glad- stone wrote :
" The mere mention of the Thames by Dante is a notable fact ; for nowhere else, outside of Italy, does he name a river theretofore so unknown to fame and of such secondary importance, unless in
connexion with his own travels The introduction
of the Thames, and its association with a local con- temporary incident, crowns the presumptive evi- dence derivable from his other references to England, all coloured with local interest, and all of them contemporary with his own life."
Nobody with any pretension to historical criticism, of course, doubts nowadays that Dante did study at Oxford, as he had done at Paris, though, perse, mere references to foreign localities do not establish a presumption of personal acquaintance with such. Scott wrote admirably of Manxland, as Shakespeare did of Italy ; yet Scott had never visited the one nor Shakespeare the other. With Dante, however, the case differs materially ; his allusions prove directly some, indirectly others actual intimacy with the regions touched upon. But what does the poet mean precisely by
Lo cor che in sul Tamigi ancor si cola ? That the organ was exposed for public venera- tion on some column at the head of London Bridge 1 If so, I hold with Mr. Gladstone (loc. cit.) that " we learn this on the (I believe) solitary testimony of Dante." Or did he refer, in Barlow's sense, to its being " held in honour on the Thames " as it would be when resting in Westminster Abbey 1 The latter is the more probable of the two views. It is worthy of note that Villarii (vii. 39) perpetuates the former theory. Scartazzini quotes him as writing thus :
"Adoardo fece porre il cuore del detto suo fratello in una coppa d' oro in su una colunna in capo del ponte di Londra sopra il fiume Tamigi." Mr. Gladstone probably had this sentence before him when penning the line cited above, from which, it appears to me, not Dante, but Villaui, was the author of the supposition.
