CANTO V Homer had two objects to depict, the exultation of the warlike Greeks while disembarking, and the noisy, un-soldierly array of the Trojans while advancing to battle; and it has been considered as a blemish, that he applies exactly the same metaphor to both: which criticism, though not precisely just (since the birds indeed are the same, but in very different situations) is not devoid of plausibility. Dante also had two things to inforce, the number and confusion of the fluttering souls, and their cries: for which purposes he imitated the Homeric similitudes, but with variations. In the first of them, instead of repeating cranes, he specifies starlings (1). These perhaps were better adapted than the others to express confusion; he makes not any difference in their states, but evidently intends both starlings and cranes to be alike screaming under the influence of terror, and flying alike from an inclement climate; that is, that the wintry jaunt' of the present tiercet, as well as the sorrowing lays' of the following one, should be common to both. In the Iliad the cranes, and other feathery tribes, are at one time by " the windings of Cayster's springs" chirping at liberty; and at another flying from winter with screams. Here both cranes and starlings are routed by winter (xeva (1) As starlings through the winter jaunting Sail in a broad, disordered train, So these go towering, cowering, slanting CANTO V. Qúyoy) and shriek piteously (xλayyy) and fly disorderly Τῶν δ ̓ ὤς ̓ ὀρνίθων πετεηνῶν ἔθνεα πολλὰ, Χηνῶν, ἤ γεράνων, η κύκνων δελιχοδείρων, Ενθα καὶ ἔνθα ποτῶνται, αγαλλόμεναι πτερύγεσσι, Κλαγγηδόν. . . . (1) Ηύτε περ κλαγγή γεράνων πέλει ἐρανοθι πρὸ, Αἴτ ̓ ἐπεὶ οὖν χειμῶνα φύγον καὶ ἀθέσφατον ὄμβρον (2). If the χειμώνα and the κλαγγὴ of this passage be, the one expressed, and the other understood in the preceding tiercets of the Italian, then is their disordered fluttering,' (which is taken from the first cited Greek verses évoa xaì évba) to be, in its turn, considered as implied in the tiercet we are now commenting (3). Dante's interpreting of xxzzñ 'sorrowing lays' proves he knew Greek, vindicates Homer from a charge of inconsistency, and shows clearly that these metaphors were drawn, not from the Aeneid, but directly from the Iliad itself. It proves he knew Greek, by his receiving xλαǹ as a generic word, not exclusively meaning a cry of exultation, but simply a cry, which may signify either a shout of hilarity, or a scream of depression; (1) Iliad. Lib. 11. v. 459. (2) Id. Id. 111. v. 3. (3) And as the cranes'long legions sloping CANTO V. either cum clamore, or cum stridore: for the former sense is the usual one, but this latter is the one. conveyed by the lai of Dante. That lai here means 'sorrowing lays' is certain from the context: whatever etymology we give the word (1), It vindicates Homer for it contrasts his two similes as much as the Trojans and Greeks by making xλayyǹ mean querulous murmurs ( cum stridore), while xλayynov may retain its common acceptation of exulting cries. What could be more correctly applied to an unmilitary advance than those, or to the joyous disembarking of a fine army than these? Mr. Pope recognized no such distinction, and so translated noise in both places : Now light with noise.. With noise and order is His interpolation of order, in the second passage, to make the opposition between the two similes consist in the disorder of the birds on one occasion, and their order on the other; as if the similitudes were otherwise defective, from the total absence of contrast: but it were enough to have accompanied noise with specifiying epithets (as joyful, and querulous) without introducing an idea not perceptible in the Greek. Moreover disorder is thus attributed to the Greeks, and order to the Trojans; for at Cayster's springs ", the cranes fly about " (1) Boccaccio interprets it versi di lamentazione. Comento, Vol. 1. p. 29o. and Dante himself uses it in the same siguification in his Creed, pianti, stridi, ed infiniti lai. Credo, p. 141. CANTO V. disorderly, and it is in their passage that they assume order. Homer scarcely intended that these similes should have more than one strict application that of the cries made. Like cranes cried both Greeks and Trojans; but those exulting in their native marshes, and these flying from dreary winter which ominous screaming is in strong opposition to the manly silence of his favourites when marching to battle mean Οἱ δ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἴσαν σιγῇ, μενέα πνείοντες Αχαιοί. But Dante could not have made hay 'sorrowing lays', had he (instead of borrowing from the original hellenic) had recourse to Virgil's copies; for in these there is nothing sorrowful, and the cries of the cranes are described as happy and canorous on both occasions. The first is .' . canoros Dant per colla modos: sonat amnis, et Asia longè the second, ?*)' Strymoniæ dant signa grues, atque æthera tranant of Cum sonitu, fugiuntque notos clamore secundo (2) ̧10) Twice already have I spoken of Dante's knowledge of Greek (3) ( a knowledge probably confined to a very few books certainly he had no greek Aris totle); and cited out of his Monarchia greek writ ten in greek characters; to which may be added Id. Id. (1) Aeneid. Lib. vn. v. 700-Macrobius, Saturnalia, Lib. v. Cap. vIII. 37 CANTO V. crowds of greek words (as allos, comos (1)) in Roman letters; -- a mode of writing lately proposed for general adoption in the study of all the oriental tongues, without its being known that he had already realized the project with respect to Greek; and (as we shall see) to Hebrew and Arabic. I at the same time noticed his familiarity with the Iliad and Odyssey; and quoted his own affirmation to prove he had never seen a Latin translation of those poems: so, be it asked again, in what language could he have read them? The manner in which the darkness of this circle is inculcated by the gloom, the muteness of light, etc is to prevent our being surprised at Dante's dubious mode of apostrophizing Francesca and Paul, or at her thinking it necessary to state who she was. It is to prepare us for her appearance that the eminent characters, now about to be seen, are introduced. The first of them is Semiramis, the mightiest of female sovereigns, foundress of the Assyrian monarchy, who conquer. ed the Medes and Persians, and India, and all the east, who led into the field an army of three millions of foot, fifty thousand horse, and a hundred thousand chariots, and was, in fine, buildress (after Nimrod) of the renowned Babylon "the golden cup (1) Epistola Dantis D. K. G. de Scala v p. 3. |