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CANTO 1IIL.

those unworthy tales be too substantiated for controversy, and that Maffei still preferred to be the apologist of that sovereign, it would have been a more effectual plea to have reminded us of his youth, and of how pardonable are levities in the spring of life, when it is exposed to intrigues of flatterers and heart-hardening power; and to have assured the readers (instead of leading them astray by a conscious subversion of chronology) that when Can extolled his buffoon over the aimable gravity of an all-accomplished guest, it was less from congeniality of disposition than festive dis traction; that if his coarse jests necessitated the departure of the distinguished stranger, he lost no time in expressing compunction and soliciting his return; and that if in a moment of forgetfulness he spurned an 'Angel visit,' lasting regret almost compensated for the gross error. Throwing aside the many considerations, that are either irrelative, or ill-timed, or both; adding, that wherever the Cantos were written, they could not have been written in Verona, for that their Author did not go there till 1308, and that he had finished the

buffoon, it was natural for people to like those best whom they resembled most. Yet though Dante was not deficient in the wit of a man of the world, it must have cut him to have been obliged to make such use of it; and the conscious dignity of genius suffering alike by the insult and the repartee, he was soon engaged to leave Verona for ever - as soon as Can attained the full sovereignty. Hell, Comment, Canto . p. 48.

CANTO VIII.

whole Canticle of Hell before that time (1): I say, rejecting every vain conjecture and coming to plain matter of evidence, we first discern, from comparing dates, that these seven first Cantos, of thirty that were published at latest in 1308, must have been written before the summer of 1307; and then comes the absolute affirmation of half a dozen incontestible witnesses, all of them the contemporaries, and one of them the nephew of Dante, that they were committed to paper previous to his exile. It is the most authentic information we have concerning the composition of any part of the Divine Comedy, (and is indeed curious from being more authentic, than almost any thing else we know about any epic poem whatever) and it leads to the precise dates of Dante's movements during the first five years of his exile. If we add them to those after his coming to Verona (1308 (2)), we have a chronological series surprisingly entire

(1) They who pretend otherwise make many breaches in chronology. I have quoted from the legal documents themselves that his exile was in 1302 (Hell, Comment, Canto vI. p. 363 ): and he was then in his thirty-seventh year (Hell, Comment, Canto 11. p. 133). Yet Bettinelli writes Dante's exile happened in 1300' (il suo esilio avvenuto al 1300. Risorgimento, Cap. 5); and Maffei, that it happened in 1301 when he was thirty-five years of age' dopo che fu in esilio il quale segui nel 1301, quando era in età di 35 anni. Verona Illus. It is hard to give much credit to writers, who, on the very points they profess to elucidate, make such mistakes mistakes, which however trivial in themselves, become of consequence as proofs of inaccuracy; for to have looked into Villani, Macchiavelli, or any of the principal Italian historians would have prevented them.

(2) Hell, Comment, Canto 1. p. 48.

GANTO VII.

from the period of his banishment from Florence up to the day of his death; and which might enable a biographer to narrate at least that portion of his life with much exactness of detail. No reason. able doubt can attach to the literary anecdote I am about to relate; for, at the same time that it contradicts nothing told in any of the elder comments, it is itself most circumstantially given by two of the oldest of them, Boccaccio and the Riccardi M. S. which only vary enough to corroborate each other, by showing (an observation already made by me in speaking of Francesca da Rimini) that they were not derived from identical' sources, though their account is identical (1).

Dante was Florentine Ambassador in Rome when the first sentence of banishment was pronounced against him in January, 1302; and immediately upon learning it, he departed from a city, where it is likely he could not have staid with any safety (since Boniface VIII. was yet alive) and retiring to Sienna and thence to Arezzo, was named by the Chiefs of the white Guelphs (as soon as they were exiled, about three months after he had been so himself) one of the twelve counsellors entrusted with the supreme authority; and in this quality he accompanied them in that unsuccessful attempt to re-instate themselves at home in 1304, which, I said formerly, was patronised by the new Pontiff

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto v. p. 300.

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Benedict x; and which terminated so unfortu nately, not only for the White Chiefs themselves, but for the whole of the White party (1). After that overthrow, our Poet wandered into the north of Italy, and took up his residence for at least a short time in Padua; for there is extant a legal instrument belonging to the Papafava family (2), which bears Dante's signature, as one of the witnesses. The asking of him to witness it was probably intended as a compliment to an illustrious stranger; and his signature, besides its usual mode of designating his family and country, informs us that he was regularly domiciliated there, and even tells in what street his house stood (3). Returning into Tuscany we find him signing a treaty in Mugello in 1307, without specification of month or day (4); but probably in January. From Mugello (where the Whites made a last feeble struggle) he went early in the same year, to the Marquis Malaspina's near Sarzana. Thus full five years had elapsed since his exile, when he found himself with Malaspina. Although this be an instance in which Boc

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto vi. p. 367.

(2) The Marchese Papafava is still the most considerable nobleman of Padua.

(3) Millesimo trecentesimo sexto.... die vigesimo septimo mensis Augusti, Padue in contrata S Martini in domo...... Domini Papafave; presentibus Dantino Alligerii de Florentia qui nunc stat Padue in contrata S. Laurentii, etc. Pelli, Mem. ec. p. 96.

(4) In Dei nomine Amen 1307. Actum in Choro Ab. S. Gaudentii, presentibus, etc. Dom. Torrigianus, Dante Alleghierii, etc. etc. Pelli, Mem. p. 98.

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GANTO VI.

caccio seems to be at variance with what I now state (as well as with the M. S. for it also describes Dante as moving about much during this interval) yet is it only in seeming; for he comes to the same conclusion and indeed corroborates my statement, when, leaping over those five years entirely, he writes: it was about five years after his exile, that Dante, being on a visit to the Marchese M. Malaspina, an estimable nobleman of Lunigiana, recovered those Cantos of the Divine Comedy which had been written by him in Florence (1). For the violence of the Blacks against the exiled Whites being a little calmed about this time, and popular excesses consequently repressed, the sufferers began to be permitted to turn themselves towards legal interference and seek for some reparation for their losses (2): on which Dante's wife (who was a Donati, and had with her children obtained refuge in her brother's house, when obliged to fly from her own) was advised to put in her claim likewise, and to require that at least her dowry should be paid out of her condemned husband's property which seems to

(1) This family, (no longer independent princes) even yet hold their Marquisate; but under Genova. I am intimate with the present Marquis. His habitation, though ancient, is not the ancient feudal castle, but stands a little below it. Even that old rocca however still exists in a dilapidated state; and the chamber of Dante is shown to visitors. (2) Riposato lo stato di Firenze e cessate le ruberie, fu conceduto ad assai Cittadini, ancorchè fossino di fuori, di poter ridimandare il loro che era stato occupato. Bib. Ricc. M. S. Cod. 1016.

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