CANTO VIN.

have been still in the forcible possession of some potent individuals, rather than irrevocably confiscated to the State (1). To make this petition with any hopes of success, it was necessary to corroborate her brother's authority (who was a chieftain of the triumphant faction) with that of her own marriage articles. These, along with all the writings of her husband, she had thrown into a box; with which she escaped at the moment the mob were advancing and papers seem to have been the only matter of property which she had time to save from that relentless rabble, who soon reduced Dante's house to a few bare walls. There is no ground for believing her to have been a literary lady, nor were writings in those days of any mercantile value; it was then a natural and affecting example of conjugal tenderness in her, to select, in that moment of trepidation and danger, not of the effects which were of more intrinsic any worth in vulgar eyes (and probably even in her

(1) Passati ben 5 anni o più, dopo che le case di quei condannati furono rubate, e che i possenti n'occuparono chi una possessione, e chi un'altra, e similmente quelle di Dante, la città essendo venuta a più convenevole reggimento, le persone cominciarono a domandare loro ragione, chi con un titolo, e chi con un' altro (Boccaccio, Comento, Vol. 2. p. 67 ). Onde fu consigliata la donna di Dante, che ella almeno colle ragioni della dote sua dovesse dei di lui beni raddomandare: onde essa, che fu sirocchia del baccellieri de' Donati, e al tempo della cacciata di Dante avea portato uno suo forziere a casa del fratello, per volere ridimandare certi beni ch'erano occupati da un grande huomo di Firenze, andò a questo forziere e menò seco Ser Dino Perrini uno grande amico di Dante; e cercando di sue carte, trovo i sette Capitoli scritti tutti dalla mano di Dante stesso. Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra.

CANTO VIII.

own), but the loose papers of her husband; which she felt would be the most acceptable present to make him, in case he and she should ever meet again (1). Meet again they never did, nor could. The one past the remainder of his life in forlorn po. verty in foreign lands, daily hoping to be recalled to Florence and daily finding his hopes deferred: and the other remained under her brother's roof, bringing up her six children as well as she could -(yet poorly and with difficulty) on the little she could scrape up from her husband's ruin; and probably indulging the false hopes of his return, that he did himself. Had she left Florence, their offspring would have been reduced to the same total penury as their father; who (allowed no remittances from home) went wandering over the world, sometimes a transient guest, but generally the occasional diplomatic agent of one or other of the little Italian States (2). When the marriage articles were inquired after, she thought of the box of papers, which in scrupulous fidelity she is said to have kept unopened up to that hour; and sus

(1) Boccaccio indeed uses the plural: but the Ricc. M. S. says emphatically that it was one box she saved — uno forziere.

(2) Era alcuna particella delle sue possessioni dalla Donna col titolo della sua dote dalla cittadina rabbia stata con fatica difesa : de' frutti della quale essa sè e i piccioli figliuoli di lui, assai sottilmente reggeva; per la qual cosa, povero, con industria disusata gli convenia il sostentamento di se medesimo procacciare. Oh! quanti onesti sdegni gli convenne posporre, più duri a lui che la morte...colla speranza della prossima ritornata, ec. Boccaccio, Vita di Dante, p. 234.

CANTO VI 11.

pecting the articles might be among those papers, she went with Ser Dino Perrini ( a great friend of Dante's) to examine them, according to some; but, according to others, she acted with still more propriety, for she sent for Dante's eldest nephew, Andrea, and (in that quality) confided to him the key in company with an Attorney (1). From the mouth of this very nephew, a son of Dante's sister married to a Florentine gentleman of the name of Poggi) Boccaccio affirms he had the anecdote, as well as some time afterwards from Perrini: and although Andrea and Perrini dissented in this, that each ascribed the chief merit to himself; yet as to the substance of their story, they did not vary. The former said that as soon as he opened the box, he beheld a small unbound volume (un quadernetto) all in Dante's hand, and containing the first seven Cantos of the Divine Comedy; which (after having perused them several times with infinite pleasure) he brought to the Poet, Frescobaldi. Perrini declared it was he himself did so (2). They

(1) Siecome nipote di Dante fidatogli le chiavi lo mandò con un procuratore. Boccaccio, Comento, ut supra.

un

(2) Andrea dice che tra più sonetti, canzoni e simili cose, fu u quadernetto, nel quale di mano di Dante erano scritti i sette Canti; e però presolo quantunque poco ne 'ntendesse, pur gli parevano bellissi. me cose: e gli portò, per saper quello che fossero, ad un valente huomo della nostra città, famosissimo dicitore in rima, Dino di Messer Lambertuccio Frescobaldi, il quale pensò da dovere, mandargli a Dante, ec. Ora questa medesima istoria puntualmente mi raccontò Ser Dino Perrini; ma in tanto muta il fatto, che dice essere stato lui (e non Andrea) che trovò i Canti, ec. Id. Id.

GANTO VIII.

are reconciled, if we conclude that they were both together; and that the one, who was sent merely as a near relative, knew the hand-writing, but not the beauty of the poetry; for he is represented as a simple, good kind of man, without any tincture of letters, although in form and exterior lineaments he much resembled his Uncle (1); while Perrini held himself entitled to be considered the discoverer, on the score of its being he that discerned the high merit of those Cantos, and of his consequently having chosen them from a quantity of songs, sonnets, and other morsels of verse (2). Frescobaldi was still more struck on their perusal; and taking measures to learn where Dante then was a proof that he had not been long resident any where, since even his family were unacquaint

(1) Huomo idiota ma d'assai buon sentimento naturale e nei suoi ragionamenti e costumi ordinato e laudevole: e maravigliosamente nelle lineature del viso somigliò Dante, ed ancora nella statura della persona. Boccaccio, Comento, ut supra.

(2) Intendente, e quanto esser più si potesse familiare ed amico di Dante. Id. Id. Perrini tolti questi capitoli gli portò a M. Dino Lambertuccio Frescobaldi, che fu valente huomo, massimamente nel dir in rima. Onde Dino invaghito dell'opera mandò il quaderuetto copiato a M. M. Malaspina, confortandolo che rammentasse a Dante che egli il compiesse. Bib. Ricc. M. S. ut supra. The Imolese gives the first name of this Fresobaldi (Dino), on which Muratori makes the mistake of calling him Dino Compagni ( Antiq. Ital. vol. 1. p. 1041). Pelli is right in pointing it out as an error (Mem. ec. p. 132): and he might have added, that there were two Dinos in the story; so that Muratori bad the less excuse for thinking the name enough to identify the historian Dino Compagni. Dino was then a very common name in Florence; and a loose proof. We see the Ricc. M. S. agrees with Boccaccio that it was D. L. Frescobaldi-a man of whom there are some M. S. S. in the Vatican. Giulio Negri, Scritt. Fior.

CANTO VIIT

ed with his movements), and finding he was in Lunigiana at the Marquis Malaspina's (1), he wrote a letter to the Marquis himself; inclosing the seven Cantos which he intreated that eminent nobleman to present to his mighty guest, and to use all his interest with him that a work should be continued whose splendid exordium promised something of such super-human glory; although none but the Author could foresee what. Frescobaldi's preferring to address the feudal prince, rather than the poet, is to be accounted for, either from a consciousness of the bad grace which the request of a Florentine deserved to have in Dante's eyes, or from a belief that it would really require the warmest intercession and actual presence of an illustrious friend, (as Malaspina proved himself to Dante) to engage a man, who had begun a poem in youth and prosperity, to take it up again after a long lapse of time, when he was fallen into grief and mendicity, exasperated by numberless wrongs and insults, himself driven from his home and family, and these in dependance on his bitterest enemies, and when he was persecuted, in fine, by all the accumulated cares public and private that can conspire to poison the fountains of poetry to fester the heart and deaden the imagination. In this latter opinion Frescobaldi would have been partly

(1) Ed avendo investigato, e trovato che Dante era in Lunigiana col Marchese M. de' Malaspini, pensò di non mandargli a Dante, ma al Marchese. Boccaccio, Comento, ut supra.