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CANTO V.

to ourselves: and indeed there may be something herein intended as an imitation of Virgil, who teaches the same moral (although in a different manner) by putting a most notorious unnatural adultress, Pasiphae, not in the region appropria ted to such flagitious criminals, Tartarus (1), but in one of the purgatorial circles of his hell (3), If Dante believed Francesca's error to have exceeded that witless kiss, no one can blame him of overseverity; since his expressions are so studied that they are as capable of an interpretation that excul, pates, as of one that condemns her. If he thought it had been truly limited to a kiss, it remains to see, whether the public was also of his opinion or not. If it was, then the above reasoning applies, and he must have written in the expectation that it would have dissented from his sentence, however it admired his poetry: if it on the contrary had already condemned her far beyond the truth, and stained her reputation with that jaundice-hue which scarcely admits of cure, then his mode of defending her was perhaps the only one likely to benefit her memory. Scandal that no opposition can control, may be soothed into silence; this Dante knew, and he moreover knew that facts of the nature advanced against his fair client are not

(1) Hic thalamum invasit natæ vetitosque hymeneos: Quique ob adulterium cæsi.

Aeneid. Lib. vi. v. 612.-623.

(2) Cernit... Evadnenque et Pasiphaen. Id. v. 447.

CANTO V.

only difficult to prove, but impossible to refute. On these accounts, he might have preferred to making a formal defence, the appealing to our compassion in such a forcible manner, that no feeling mind should ever consent to her condem-1 nation, but on the clearest proofs; so that, upon no such being discoverable, she should, by the consent of the kindest (that is most respectable and virtuous) portion of society, be acquitted of the charges against her, and be deplored, and cherished as an honourable, abused lady. I am sensible of having dwelt on this matter with an earnestness that may appear exaggerated, considering the remoteness of the events; but if my remarks clear an inimitable poet from the reproach of not having performed the solemn duties of friendship as he ought, I seek for no other excuse. The last verse of the Canto in Italian is cited as

very imitative of what it speaks of, the falling of a corpse (1): an attempt to produce the same effect may perhaps be perceptible in my translation.

(1) Questo verso dipinge, non solo per le parole, ma pei numeri e piedi ond' è composto. Biagioli Comento, Vol. 1. p. 115.

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In recovering from the swoon of mortal pity' excited by the recital of Francesca, Dante finds himself within the third circle of Hell. Here intemperance (one of the most ruinous crimes in a Commonwealth) is punished by deluges of rain that flagellate and beat down the sufferers into the mire;while the three-headed dog of hell deafens them with his barking. Amongst them lies a Florentine gentleman, who enters into conversation with Dante on the civil discord of their native city and predicts the violent misdemeanors of the rival factions that divide it. After his relapse into the mire, the pupil and master indulge in discourse between themselves, and at last step down into the fourth circle; and so the Canto closes. This third circle, like the second, is without any division; and presents, like it, a circular walk 17 miles broad, with a wall 14 miles high on the one hand, and on the other the wide mouth of the central pit leading down into the heart of Tartarus (1).. (1) Hell, Comment, Canto v. p. 273.

GANTO V1.

I have said that intemperance and luxury are ruinous to a' Commonwealth: but, in justice to Dante's political prescience, I should add that this is not only a position that will be generally found correct, but that in the present case it was verified by the event with very peculiar force; for the modern Tuscans recognise luxury as the primary cause of the downfal of Florence; and (in the words of Davanzati) as being 'untempered poison to the life springs of her who had heen founded by parsimony and industry (1).' But such opinions seem declamatory in this our age, which boasts of having discarded so many prejudices, and, which, dignifying' gastronomia' with a classical name, seems disposed to rank it among the polite sciences. Its advocates contend that it was in honor in every civilized country; that its progress was ever co-eval with mental education; that it has always most triumphed while letters flourished most; and in fine that it has invariably attended on wealth and empire. Nothing could afford a more elaborate justification of the stern denunciation of the elder Cato: for it is impossible to perceive how the mind can be truly elevated by letters, if they tend to nourish those propensities which we possess in common with the brute creation. Literary attaiments were far worse than useless, if they lead to the undermining of the hardy virtues, they pretend to recommend; and it is frequently a great(1) Tacito Volg. Annal. Lib. a. post. 38.

CANTO VI.

ter evil to misdirect and sensualize our ethereal particle, than it would be to extinguish it altogether if such were possible. But the whole defence is sophism; luxury, far from advancing literature, or empire, has always been an infallible symp. tom of the decline of both. It is a vice that has often broken down freedom, wealth and power, which boldness and frugality had first reared; but it never contributed to their begetting: and though it has sometimes existed during epochs distinguished for much erudition and brilliant taste (as in Rome under Augustus, and under Louis the fourteenth in France) yet it has never been coeval with the highest genius in any department of art or science, with those rare prodigies of intellect that astonish and most ennoble human-nature; and it has hardly once failed to be a sure indication of the utter extinction of the sublimest and most beneficial portion of philosophy, ethics. If Dante felt this as a philosopher, he did so doubly as a good republican; and when he recollected the black broth of Sparta, the scanty repast of a Roman Consul, or even the simple manners of his own progenitors (which we shall hear him describe), he could not but deplore the increase of luxury in Florence, and regard it as a fatal augury to freedom. It is luxury, or intemperance, in the most general sense, that is to be understood as punished in this circle; and not merely the being what is vulgarly called a glutton. For it is in the

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