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and despair, that she can never be separated from Paul. Boccaccio however, who almost always penetrated his Author's sense with the sagacity of congenial genius, was fully aware of the necessity of understanding the matter as I do (1); and he moreover adds that it appears to be an imitation of Dido and Sicchæus, whose affections are mutual and equal among the shades

Respondet curis æquatque Sicchæus amorem (»).

M. Ginguené and the other translators with whom I am acquainted interpolate a lui, or something equivalent (as Mr. Cary's "I, in answer") words that are, I believe, directly in opposition with the spirit of the original: for they make Dante reply unto Virgil, although there is no such thing in the text. It is, on the contrary, very observable, that Dante, who generally repeats methodically and I to him,' or something of the kind, expresses himself on the present occasion in a mode that testifies the propriety of understanding what first he utters as a simple soliloquy, to which succeeds his address to Francesca. Quando risposi, cominciai is the Italian -- 'when I answered, I began;' viz. I began to exclaim to myself: for otherwise our attention would be directed to Virgil by risposi

(1) Puoi comprendere ch' io l'amo come l'amai mentre vivevamo. Comento, Vol. 1. p. 318.

(2) Aeneid. Lib. VI. v. 74.

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a lui, in Dante's usual manner. It is certainly a beauty, that a pupil, almost always so prompt in answering his revered Conductor, is now absorbed to such a degree by his own melancholy reflections, that he gives no answer whatever to his question; but, pursuing his own train of feelings, bursts out with the exclamation O lasso ec. 'Alas! etc. and, after that, turns again to the pair of lovers. This remark, made to me by the chief Italian poet of this day, the Chevalier Monti, I thought so just, that in order to direct the reader's attention to it more forcibly (and particularly by reason of his having been perhaps already misled by other translations) I took the liberty of inserting a syllable and changed And, answering, I began into 'And I, in answer's lieu;' as it at present stands.

W.

CXX.

Dubbiosi desiri, 'dubious desires,' is the original; and the absolute signification of the tiercet is, how did you become conscious of your mutual desires (1)? for a couple so young and pure might have long continued in their situation without making the dangerous discovery; and previous to the making of it their desires must have been full of doubt, because they were not known to each other. But this naked meaning is veiled in an

(1) A perilous knowledge, says the old commentator, Buti; for were people conscious of each others wishes, all shame would be banished from the earth. Bib. Ricc. M. S. Cod. 1006.

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exquisite poetry, of which there is really little or no vestige in M. Ginguené's version. 'In the season of sweet sighs' is the original, and it means in the spring of life: so that to interpolate your, as that Gentleman and Mr. Cary do, is to injure the image by obliterating its generalization. The Italian calls our attention to the tender years of the couple; but dans le temps de vos doux soupirs, as well as "in the time of your sweet sighs," are words applicable to lovers at any age. Concedette implies a reproach that is very touching; as if it were both strange and cruel in Love to permit two so dear to acquire the terrible knowledge of each other's secret wishes. For to a fanciful mind this epithet dubious applied to desires, is nearly akin with that of uncertain applied by Virgil to the moon; and both, besides their primary and obvious signification, suggest another, of treachery and peril. That these criticisms penetrate the spirit of my Author, I trust; whether my verses have succeeded in conveying it, is a very different thing; my confidence of the former nearly equals my diffidence of the latter.

Infandum, Regina, jubes renovare dolorem (1); but literally translates Boëtius in omni adversitate fortunæ, infelicissimum genus est infortunii

(1) Aeneid. Lib. 11. v. 3.

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fuisse felicem (1). This latter book, along with Tully, was Dante's first solace after Beatrice's death, as he tells us himself in the Convito. After I had lost the early delight of my soul, I remained long in a state of desolation that nothing could alleviate. At last however my understanding, admitting the possibility of a cure, engaged me to recur to those topics of consolation, which had been found useful to others in their woes; and so I applied myself to the reading of the volume (not known to many) which Boëtius composed to assuage the suffering of his captivity and exile; and learning that Tully, in his treatise on Friendship, wrote to condole with good Lelius on the death of his friend, Scipio, I began to read that also. And although I found it rather difficult at first to enter entirely into the spirit of those compositions, nevertheless, what with the grammatical lore I had acquired, and what with some little genius of my own, I became imbued with their thought, and had, as it were in a dream of the fancy, a succession of visions as may be seen in the Vita Nuova (2). These last expressions show, that those commentators who describe the book of Boëtius as being first resorted to by Dante for consolation in his exile, have made a mistake: for he had been familiar with it, from the period of the decease of 'the earliest delight of his soul,' Beatrice, and before he had finished

(1) De Consol. Lib. 2. Cap. 4.

(2) Convito, p. 95.

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composing his Vita Nuova; that is, before the close of his twenty-sixth year, in 1291, or ten years previous to his exile (1). This tract of Boëtius, which was little noticed in Dante's age, is less so now: it has however been in great fashion at different times, and not unfrequently been even a royal manual; James 1, of Scotland, read it in the Tower of London; Alfred turned it into Saxon, and queen Elisabeth into English (2). The tiercet that immediately follows is an imitation of Virgil:

Sed si tantus amor casus cognoscere nostros,

Quanquam animus meminisse horret, luctuque refugit, Incipiam (3). and, notwithstanding what is borrowed from Boëtius, the title Dottore naturally refers to Virgil, for several reasons, but particulary because he was there present, so that Francesca pointed to him while she spoke.

They were reading Launcelot of the lake, (as I said before) a romance in which the hero finds himself with the fair Ginevra and kisses her. There was a confidant on the occasion; whose name, Galeotto, became so synonimous with that

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto 11. p. 114–138.

(2) Hume. Hist. Vol. 1. p. 130. Boetii op. omnia, p. 9oa. fog. Basil. 1570.

(3) Aeneid. Lib. 11. v. 10.