CANTO VIII. from the period of his banishment from Florence up to the day of his death; and which might enable a biographer to narrate at least that portion of his life with much exactness of detail. No reason. able doubt can attach to the literary anecdote I am about to relate; for, at the same time that it contradicts nothing told in any of the elder comments, it is itself most circumstantially given by two of the oldest of them, Boccaccio and the Riccardi M. S. which only vary enough to corroborate each other, by showing (an observation already made by me in speaking of Francesca da Rimini) that they were not derived from identical sources, though their account is identical (1). Dante was Florentine Ambassador in Rome when the first sentence of banishment was pronounced against him in January, 1302; and immediately upon learning it, he departed from a city, where it is likely he could not have staid with any safety (since Boniface viii. was yet alive) and retiring to Sienna and thence to Arezzo, was named by the Chiefs of the white Guelphs (as soon as they were exiled, about three months after he had been so himself) one of the twelve counsellors entrusted with the supreme authority; and in this quality he accompanied them in that unsuccessful attempt to re-instate themselves at home in 1304, which, I said formerly, was patronised by the new Pontiff (1) Hell, Comment, Canto v. p. 300. 466 COMMENT CANTO VIII. Benedict x; and which terminated so unfortunately, not only for the White Chiefs themselves, but for the whole of the White party (1). After that overthrow, our Poet wandered into the north of Italy, and took up his residence for at least a short time in Padua; for there is extant a legal instrument belonging to the Papafava family (2), which bears Dante's signature, as one of the witnesses. The asking of him to witness it was probably intended as a compliment to an illustrious stranger; and his signature, besides its usual mode of designating his family and country, informs us that he was regularly domiciliated there, and even tells in what street his house stood (3). Returning into Tuscany we find him signing a treaty in Mugello in 1307, without specification of month or day (4); but probably in January. From Mugello (where the Whites made a last feeble struggle) he went early in the same year, to the Marquis Malaspi na's near Sarzana. Thus full five years had elapsed since his exile, when he found himself with Malaspina. Although this be an instance in which Boc (1) Hell, Comment, Canto vi. p. 367. (2) The Marchese Papafava is still the most considerable nobleman of Padua. (3) Millesimo trecentesimo sexto.... die vigesimo septimo mensis Augusti, Padue in contrata S. Martini in domo...... Domini Papafave; presentibus Dantino Alligerii de Florentia qui nunc stat Padue in contrata S. Laurentii, etc. Pelli, Mem. ec. p. 96. (4) In Dei nomine Amen 1307. Actum in Choro Ab. S. Gaudentii, presentibus, etc. Dom. Torrigianus, Dante Alleghierii, etc. etc. Pelli, Mem. p. 98. well as with the M. S. for it also Dante as moving about much during val) yet is it only in seeming; for he he same conclusion and indeed corrobo statement, when, leaping over those five rely, he writes: it was about five years exile, that Dante, being on a visit to the M. Malaspina, an estimable nobleman ana, recovered those Cantos of the Divine which had been written by him in Flo'For the violence of the Blacks against Whites being a little calmed about this 1 popular excesses consequently repressufferers began to be permitted to turn es towards legal interference and seek for paration for their losses (2): on which wife (who was a Donati, and had with her obtained refuge in her brother's house, liged to fly from her own) was advised to er claim likewise, and to require that at dowry should be paid out of her conhusband's property which seems to family, (no longer independent princes) even yet hold isate; but under Genova. I am intimate with the present s habitation, though ancient, is not the ancient feudal casnds a little below it. Even that old rocca bowever still exists ated state; and the chamber of Dante is shown to visitors. ato lo stato di Firenze e cessate le ruberie, fu conceduto zadini, ancorchè fossino di fuori, di poter ridimandare il ■ stato occupato. Bib. Ricc. M. S. Cod. 1016. 468 COMMENT CANTO VILL have been still in the forcible possession of some potent individuals, rather than irrevocably confiscated to the State (1). To make this petition with any hopes of success, it was necessary to corroborate her brother's authority (who was a chieftain of the triumphant faction) with that' of her own marriage articles. These, along with all the writings of her husband, she had thrown into a box; with which she escaped at the moment the mob were advancing: and papers seem to have been the only matter of property which she had time to save from that relentless rabble, who soon reduced Dante's house to a few bare walls. There is no ground for believing her to have been a literary lady, nor were writings in those days of any mer cantile value; it was then a natural and affecting example of conjugal tenderness in her, to select, in that moment of trepidation and danger, not any of the effects which were of more intrinsic worth in vulgar eyes (and probably even in her (1) Passati ben 5 anni o più, dopo che le case di quei condannati furono rubate, e che i possenti n'occuparono chi una possessione, e chi un'altra, e similmente quelle di Dante, la città essendo venuta a più convenevole reggimento, le persone cominciarono a domandare loro ragione, chi con un titolo, e chi con un' altro (Boccaccio, Co. mento, Vol. 2. p. 67 ). Onde fu consigliata la donna di Dante, che ella almeno colle ragioni della dote sua dovesse dei di lui beni raddoman dare: onde essa, che fu sirocchia del baccellieri de' Donati, e al tempo della cacciata di Dante avea portato uno suo forziere a casa del fratello, per volere ridimandare certi beni ch'erano occupati da un grande huomo di Firenze, andò a questo forziere e menò seco Ser Dino Perrini uno grande amico di Dante; e cercando di sue carte, travo i sette Capitoli seritti tutti dalla mano di Dante stesso. Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra. CANTO VIII. own), but the loose papers of her husband; which she felt would be the most acceptable present to make him, in case he and she should ever meet. again (1). Meet again they never did, nor could. The one past the remainder of his life in forlorn po. verty in foreign lands, daily hoping to be recalled to Florence and daily finding his hopes deferred: and the other remained under her brother's roof, bringing up her six children as well as she could (yet poorly and with difficulty) on the little she could scrape up from her husband's ruin; and probably indulging the false hopes of his return, that he did himself. Had she left Florence, their offspring would have been reduced to the same total penury as their father; who (allowed no remittances from home) went wandering over the world, sometimes a transient guest, but generally the occasional diplomatic agent of one or other of the little Italian States (2). When the marriage articles were inquired after, she thought of the box of papers, which in scrupulous fidelity she is said to have kept unopened up to that hour; and sus (1) Boccaccio indeed uses the plural: but the Ricc. M. S. says emphatically that it was one box she saved uno forziere. (2) Era alcuna particella delle sue possessioni dalla Donna col titolo della sua dote dalla cittadina rabbia stata con fatica difesa : de'frutti della quale essa sè e i piccioli figliuoli di lui, assai sottilmente reggeva; per la qual cosa, povero, con industria disusata gli convenia il sostentamento di se medesimo procacciare. Oh! quanti onesti sdegni gli convenne posporre, più durí a lui che la morte...colla speranza della prossima ritornata, ec. Boccaccio, Vita di Dante, p. 234. |