470 COMMENT CANTO VILL pecting the articles might be among those papers, she went with Ser Dino Perrini ( a great friend of Dante's) to examine them, according to some; but, according to others, she acted with still more propriety, for she sent for Dante's eldest nephew, Andrea, and (in that quality) confided to him the key in company with an Attorney (1). From the mouth of this very nephew, (a son of Dante's sister married to a Florentine gentleman of the name of Poggi) Boccaccio affirms he had the an ecdote, as well as some time afterwards from Perri ni: and although Andrea and Perrini dissented in this, that each ascribed the chief merit to himself; yet as to the substance of their story, they did not vary. The former said that as soon as he opened the box, he beheld a small unbound volume (un quadernetto) all in Dante's hand, and containing the first seven Cantos of the Divine Comedy; which (after having perused them several times with infi nite pleasure) he brought to the Poet, Frescobaldi. Perrini declared it was he himself did so (2). They (1) Siccome nipote di Dante fidatogli le chiavi lo mandò con un procuratore. Boccaccio, Comento, ut supra. (2) Andrea dice che tra più sonetti, canzoni e simili cose, fu un quadernetto, nel quale di mano di Dante erano scritti i sette Canti; e però presolo quantunque poco ne 'ntendesse, pur gli parevano bellissi me cose: e gli portò, per saper quello che fossero, ad un valente huomo della nostra città, famosissimo dicitore in rima, Dino di Messer Lambertuccio Frescobaldi, il quale pensò da dovere, mandargli a Dante, ec. Ora questa medesima istoria puntualmente mi raccontò Ser Dino Perrini; ma in tanto muta il fatto, che dice essere stato lui (e non Andrea) che trovò i Canti, ec. Id. Id. CANTO VIII. are reconciled, if we conclude that they were both together and that the one, who was sent merely as a near relative, knew the hand-writing, but not the beauty of the poetry; for he is represented as a simple, good kind of man, without any tincture of letters, although in form and exterior lineaments he much resembled his Uncle (1); while Perrini held himself entitled to be considered the discoverer, on the score of its being he that discerned the high merit of those Cantos, and of his consequently having chosen them from a quantity of songs, sonnets, and other morsels of verse (2). Frescobaldi was still more struck on their perusal; and taking measures to learn where Dante then was a proof that he had not been long resident any where, since even his family were unacquaint (1) Huomo idiota ma d'assai buon sentimento naturale e nei suoi ragionamenti e costumi ordinato e laudevole: e maravigliosamente nelle lineature del viso somigliò Dante, ed ancora nella statura della persona. Boccaccio, Comento, ut supra. (2) Intendente, e quanto esser più si potesse familiare ed amico di Dante. Id. Id. Perrini tolti questi capitoli gli portò a M. Dino Lambertuccio Frescobaldi, che fu valente huomo, massimamente nel dir in rima. Onde Dino invaghito dell'opera mandò il quadernetto copiato a M. M. Malaspina, confortandolo che rammentasse a Dante che egli il compiesse. Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra. The Imolese gives the first name of this Fresobaldi (Dino), on which Muratori makes the mistake of calling him Dino Compagni (Antiq. Ital. vol. 1. p. 1041). Pelli is right in pointing it out as an error (Mem. ec. p. 132): and he might have added, that there were two Dinos in the story; so that Muratori bad the less excuse for thinking the name enough to identify the historian Dino Compagni. Dino was then a very common name in Florence; and a loose proof. We see the Ricc. M. S. agrees with Boccaccio that it was D. L. Frescobaldi — a man of whom there are some M. S. S. in the Vatican. Giulio Negri, Scritt. Fior. 1 à at the Marquis Malaspina's (1), he wrote the Marquis himself; inclosing the seven hich he intreated that eminent nobleman to his mighty guest, and to use all his with him that a work should be continued endid exordium promised something of er-human glory; although none but the ould foresee what. Frescobaldi's preferring s the feudal prince, rather than the poet, ccounted for, either from a consciousness grace which the request of a Florentine to have in Dante's eyes, or from a belief ould really require the warmest intercesactual of an illustrious friend, presence pina proved himself to Dante) to engage ho had begun a poem in youth and proso take it up again after a long lapse of en he was fallen into grief and mendicity, ed by numberless wrongs and insults, Iriven from his home and family, and ependance on his bitterest enemies, and was persecuted, in fine, by all the accuares public and private that can conspire the fountains of poetry to fester 1 and deaden the imagination. In this tion Frescobaldi would have been partly do investigato, e trovato che Dante era in Lunigiana col le' Malaspini, pensò di non mandargli a Dante, ma al ccaccio, Comento, ut supra. culty that the resume his poeti his long-lost Ca adding, that he stolen as well as effects, when his so he had quite 1 them (). At last 1 flush of propheti 'Yes they ha ted work; and it nor (2). It was r that he succeded and kindling up been so many yea 'Faithful, I foll tando) of the te the more so from curring any wh (1) Veggendo il quad ni che lasciato l'aveva; ripigliò i Canti, ec. (Bi estimava veramente ch fossero, nel tempo che n'avea l'animo e il pen perduti non sieno, e h ec. Boccaccio, Coment (2) Redditus est mihi venuti Im. ap. Mur. Ant mus, when coupled wit Comment, Canto 11. p. that the Divine Comedy at the Marquis could induce Dante to his poetical occupation; although he saw g-lost Cantos with melancholy pleasure; that he verily thought they had been as well as all the rest of his writings and when his house was put to sack, and that d quite relinquished every concern about .'At last the spark was struck : and, with a prophetic enthusiasm, the bard exclaimed es they have restored me my long-meditak; and it shall be to my imperishable ho- It was not without considerable effort succeded in recalling the train of his ideas dling up anew the lofty fancy which had many years smothered; and then the ul, I follow in my song' (lo dico seguiof the text came in quite naturally, and re so from no other similar formulary oc any where else throughout the poem: gendo il quaderno Dante se ne maravigliò, ch'era bene 5 anciato l'aveva; ma essendone confortato forte dal Marchese, Canti, ec. (Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra)... Dante rispose, lo veramente che questi, con altre mie cose e scritture assai, el tempo che rubata mi fu la casa, perduti, e però del tutto nimo e il pensiero levato; ma poichè a Dio è piaciuto, che on sieno, e hammegli rimandati innanzi, io adopererò ciò, ccio, Comento, ut supra. Iditus est mihi maximus labor cum honore perpetuo. Ben· ap. Mur. Antiq. Ital. Vol. 1. p. 1042. The expression maxin coupled with the annunciation in the Vita Nuova ( Hell, , Canto 11. p. 114), is surely enough to make us decide Divine Comedy was begun at least prior to the publication of ot (as I have avowed) prove any thing (1). aldi, ere forwarding the Cantos to Lunigia a copy of them; in which copy the lines iacco (in Canto vi.), as well as probably others, were — must have been wanting. io wonders he never saw any such defective But in the first place, he does not say he ked his authorities, Andrea and Perrini, to to him; and indeed seems to have amused in his old age with recounting facts as he I them, and allowing full scope to his own , without taking the pains of nicely sifting atters far less insignificant than this. With to this he did enough, in a comment comor a Florentine audience, when he recountstory, and indicated the difficulties it preand referred his hearers for further explato three of their own citizens, Frescobaldi, and Perrini; who, as well as Dante's wife, I probably alive and resident in Florence: rvation that also applies, at least in part, writer of the Riccardi M. S. In the second there are many ways of accounting for the sappearance of the imperfect Cantos. Fres , 'uova that is, prior to his twenty-sixth year, much more s exile. Nothing but what had been meditated for a long ld have been called maximus labor. Benvenuti adds: sed naguo labore resumpsit altam phantasiam. Id. Id. useless, when he perfect copy, wh sent him on the might have corred ing to the perfect so circumstantial entitled to a place but why its auth keenly disputed c the propensity, v into beams. To th told, the Canticle the Purgatory mu after the Author h Hell is said to have la Faggiola, who w escaped thither fr ment also dates s to Dante's final d pliments. Where (1) Compiuto che fos Ricc. M. S. ut supra. In is no stranger, than tha these scarcely any are ex there are several. The ancient documents in his (which would be a labor some specimens of the h le Dante, confortato dal Marchese, ripigliò il Capitolo nel (2) He did so to go to Pelli, Mem. ec. p. 100. to disopra. Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra. (3) In 1302 He soon sou |