: CANTO II. ed as its model his comments on his Odes or Canzoni; and these (under the title of Convito or Banquet) leave nothing to be desired, as far at least as Beatrice is concerned. They tell us that whatever she may signify literally, that which most interests the reader is to be aware of her allegorical sense, and know that Beatrice, though she is the same lady whom he had celebrated and whose death he had wept in the Vita nuova, is to be received as the personification of the divinest philosophy and that in fine his audience should for the future invariably deem her such. The selfsame, admirable Beatrice' ( he writes) 'of whom I discoursed in the Vita nuova, in that fervid effusion of my boyhood, which were no longer in character with these my mature years, yet not one syllable of which I would be understood as retracting, but rather as confirming, in what I am about to say at present; for as the age of man varies, so should his language and conduct vary; there are manners which sit well and handsomely on youth, and yet would be awkward and even highly blameable in an elderly person; I composed the Vita nuova with the passionate heat of one not yet arrived at manhood, and I begin these comments in the sober tone that becometh me now that that season of life is quite over Se nella presente opera vo' più virilmente parlare che nella Vita nuova, non intendo però a quella in parte alcuna derogare, ma maggiormeute gio. CANTO II. vare; e se quella è fervida e passionata, e questa temprata e virile, così conviene essere; io in quella dinanzi all'entrata di mia gioventute parlai, e in questa di poi quella già trapassata; altro si conviene e dire e operare a una etade, e altro a un'altra; e certi costumi sono idonei e laudabili a una etade, che sono sconci e biasimevoli ad' altra the same glorious Beatrice in whose praise I then expatiated, she whose corporeal charms are no more, but whose spirit remains in secure possession of the fortress of my mind, la rocca della mia mente the Saint that passed away indeed, but that lives in heaven with the angels and on earth in union with my soul, is not henceforth to be considered simply as a female, but as a creature personifying the loftiest portion of philosophy, the eldest daughter of Jehovah, the universal queen, the spotless dove of Solomon, the wisdom most happy and supreme, which at last resigned me to the irreparable loss of her who was my first love. No other than that celestial study could ever have assuaged my anguish, inconsolable as I was when she became lost to me who was my soul's first delight quando per me fu perduto quel primo diletto della mia anima. It was the constant perusal of Boëtius and Cicero that at length induced me to wean my affections from every earthly care and raise them to an exclusive reliance on that noblest philosophy, which I henceforth presented to my imagination in the form of - CANTO IT. my own gentlest lady, now become an inmate of Paradise'immaginava lei fatta come una donna gentile, quella gentil donna di cui feci menzione nella Vita nuova (1). Can any more satisfactory illustration be required? What is there to prevent our considering Beatrice in this two fold light? Do we not consider a human being as two fold viz. as body and as soul? This is quite natural; it is to figure them asunder that is abstruse and perplexing. Her form we are, as he tells us, to represent as that of his lovely mistress. We have seen she was a Florentine lady: to which I may add, that her father, Folcho Portinari, was celebrated for many princely acts of charity, but, above all, for having been the founder (2) of the magnificent hospital S. Maria Nuova, an establishment that still confers benefit on his native place. Boccaccio affirms that he was one of the most upright, most anciently descended, and every way most illustrious citizens of the Republic (3); and the line of Folcho is ranked by Mini among the oldest and noblest of Italy, having given, as he avers, 'a high admiral to the order of S. Iohn, since called of Rhodes, and now of Malta' (4). What insurmountable impediment there was to her union with our poet I cannot learn. It does not seem to have been (1) Convito. pp. 55.-77.-78.-95.-102. (2) Toscana Illustrata. vol. 1. CANTO 11. in her heart: for it is easily gathered, both that they never mutually revealed their passion, and that Dante flattered himself she secretly loved him; and indeed he makes her avow as much on their meeting in Purgatory, as we shall see. Neither was it from any disparity of rank; for his also was very distinguished, as shall be shown; so that when he married, it was into the family at that time confessedly the first in Florence both as to present autho. rity and hereditary station, that of Donati. But there were so many domestic and political feuds during that tempestuous era, that there must have been almost innumerable bars to matrimonial alliances. She married a Florentine gentleman a cavaliere M. Simone de'Bardi, according to Boccaccio, as well as to the M. S. I have already quoted. These Bardi were people of highest consequence: one was elected head Prior on the first establishment of Priors in 1282, others of their family were successively promoted to the same dignity, indeed their name appears on the roll of the Priorists above ten several times during a space of less than nine years (1); Mini says, that they were still in his time Lords of Vernia, as they had been for centuries (2); and I have myself the honor of being personally acquainted with one of them, who, even at this day, is a potent Count in Tuscany, and besides bears the lofty title of Perpetual Vicar of the (1) Priorista Fiorentino. pp. 8.-25 (2) Difesa. p. 241. CANTO II. empire a title once courted by our own Edward III. when he undertook his expedition against France (1). We know from the Vita nuova that Beatrice had a brother (2), that Dante was his intimate associate and indeed called him his second friend, (Guido Cavalcanti, of whom we already spoke, being invariably named his first) that they wept together for her loss, and that the poet composed verses for them both on that melancholy occasion, some expressive of his own and some of fraternal love and sorrow. But, if he indulged his affections in his works by arraying her there in the pristine, female shape which he had admired on earth, he consulted a loftier scope by considering her spiritual part as the perfection of celestial wisdom, or in his own words supreme Philosophy; of which the loftiest speculations without doubt are those that treat of the soul and its creator. Hence Beatrice is represented by commentators as theology, (although indeed theology be not an expression much employed by Dante) and, if it be taken in its original acceptation of the study of God, they are right; and it may well be used as the synonyme of universal, all-comprehending knowledge, or what Dante terms supreme philosophy: because if it were possible to rise in this life to a just conception of the Almighty, it is likely we should have an intuitive acquaintance with all his works; (1) Hume. Hist. Vol. 3. p. 215. (2) p. 39. |