CANTO IT. on him; that if he had consulted his feelings, he would have betrayed his cause; that to have openly broken with the Dictator, after having in vain laboured to convert him, would have been to render the subversion of tyranny totally impracticable, whether by himself, or others; that no other Roman arm could be expected to strike for liberty, if his did not; and that that dearly purchased liberty was clearly at its crisis, to revive then, or never. But, whatever may be thought of his action in itself, the purity of his motives is less questionable; so that to him most fairly may be applied the verses directed to his ancestor - Unhappy Chieftain! Whatever be the decision of Posterity as to the morality of thy deed, noble were the aspirations of thy bosom, inflamed by love of Country and inextinguishable thirst of praise!' Infelix! utcumque ferent ea facta Minores, Vincet amor patriæ laudumque immensa cupido (1). 'Loftiest poet!' (altissimo poeta) was the title by which Virgil was announced; who now tells us that that title, though only intoned once at his entrance by a loud solitary voice (la voce sola), was not for him alone, but also for the other four, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan who honour (1) Aeneid. Lib. v1. v. Saa. CANTO IV. him and do well, since in honouring him they honour their common art and themselves. The Quarterly Review asserts preremptorily, against universal opinion, that this eagle is not Homer, but Virgil; -a violence to the text above my comprehension (1). By what straining logic can Homer be called one of the pupils (la bella scuola) of Virgil? Dante had already called Homer the sovereign poet;' which agrees well with this phrase of his out-soaring all others like an eagle.' That altissimo was applied in a preceding verse to (1) No. xLn. p. 512. The whole passage is remarkable. To understand Homer here is a vulgar error, and to think Dante knew Homer in Greek is a mistake: yet the first is assertion without a single reason given, and the second contradicts history, and is built on a false quo tation. For firstly, it says one Pindar's Latin translation of the Iliad was well known in Italy even previous to Dante, whereas I have cited his own words affirming that Homer was never translated into Latin (Hell, Comment, Canto m. p. 199); so that even supposing Pindar's translation not quite fabulous (which it may well be), it was at least a treasure unknown to the most learned man in Italy: and secondly, it represents Dante as speaking of two Latin translations' of Aristotle; whereas there is nothing about Latin in the original-the words being simply two translations; la sua sentenza non si truova cotale nell' una traslazione come nell' altra. Convito, p. 100. He is so far from saying they were both in Latin, that it is probable one of them was the Arabic version of Averroes, a book then much in vogue in Italy; indeed so much so, that S. Thomas Aquinas suspecting its infidelity got over a few Greek copies of Aristotle from Greece. They were the first known in modern Italy (Gradenigo, Lett. Greco-Ital. ): so considering their scarcity, for they were imported only some years previous to Dante's time, and the dearness and scarcity of all M. S. S., and his wanderings and poverty, it is no proof of his utter ignorance of Greek that he had no Greek Aristotle in his possession. CANTO IV. Virgil is no proof it means him here; for (as I have said commenting it) that title bright' refers to the elevated nature of the poetry cultivated by the whole group, and not to the individual merit of Virgil; who explains it so himself, saying it belonged to each of them ciascun meco si My translation answers equally, whether di tanto means di tanto onore, as many think, or di ciò, as the Academy decides, or incontinent, de suite, as a French Reviewer contends. Notre ancien Francais disait dans le même sens à tant: le dictionnaire de Nicol traduit à tant par his dictis, his peractis : les Espagnols entanto par interea (1). But the same word, interea, is also in the Vocabolario given the same meaning, intanto; so that it seems the Academicians (with a minuteness of distinction scarcely attainable by an Oltremontano) do not consider intanto and di tanto quite synonimous. Who but will admire, if not entirely blind, the modesty of our poet in calling himself only the sixth in a company, where he is really on a perfect equality with the first (2)? ',) (1) Journal des Savans, 1818. (2) Biagioli, Comento, Vol. 1. p. 82.5 CANTO IV. O.. A more characteristic picture in a few words has scarcely ever been drawn of the worthies of Antiquity it possesses a mild solemnity that I do not find in the Aeneid. But the sketch of the rest (with the exception of the castle) is there. The verdant lawn' is prata recentia rivis; and the 'open, lofty, lightsome hill,' Et tumulum capit, unde omnes longo ordine possit Adversos legere et venientum discere vultus (1). The imitation however displays the usual sobriety of Dante's judgment: for he quits his original the moment it contains any thing too difficult, or impossible to be reconciled with the tenets of Christianity; and instead of passing in review, like Anchises, both the shades of the dead and of those yet unborn, he limits his observations to the dead. P. - CXXI. Electra (avia vetustissima (2)) was the mother, by Jove, of Dardanus founder of Troy; whence lineally Priam, Aeneas, the Cæsarian line, and the royal house of France,' says Boccaccio run (1) Aeneid. Lib. vi. v. 671–754. (2) Monarchia Lib. 2. p. 33. CANTO IV. ning along the genealogical stem (). As the great mother of nations, whence all the mightiest families remarkable for either the best or the most evil deeds have sprung, she is appositely placed at the head of the procession: Dardanus, Iliacæ primus pater urbis et auctor, La Pentesilea (with the article by way of emphasis) was a Queen slain by Achilles during the Trojan war. The Gentleman who jocosely explains this line César, a qui le poëte donne les yeux d'un oiseau de proie (3) — if he had ever observed the fine, flashing eyes of a hawk, and recollected what is come down to us of the wonderful efficacy of Cæsar's glance (4), would not have been shocked at the impropriety of the figure. M. Biagioli (connecting armato with occhi) interprets, armed with eyes,' ridiculing the drawing of the hero with (1) Comento Vol. 1. p. 211. (2) Aeneid: Lib. VIII. v. 134. (3) Ginguené. Hist. Litt. de l'Italie. Vol. 1. p. 42. (4) Nigris vegetisque occulis. Suetonii vita Cæs. Cap. 45. |