CANTO VITE.

by these in a manner that shocks, and by those that softens the heart: by these with a tale of rashness, revenge and sacrilege, of the violation of a virgin (which it required an effort of the understanding to convince men was not unholy, because ordained by heaven) and of the exasperation and eternal punishment of her father; the justice of which punishment, and the injustice of which exasperation could only be drawn from a metaphysical process too fine for popular comprehensions: and by those with a drama of most gratifying pathos, whose catastrophe was the dispersion of every fear and the crowning of every hope. What more venerably moving, than Abraham's unruffled faith and tenderness?

"and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. "I know of no scene more profoundly affecting. And when the juvenile victim, with a look of soul-reposing, filial devotion, interrogates his hoary sire, who but sheds a tender tear? "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, my father: and he said, here I am my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Has another mortal dramatist ever represented a parent in a situation more truly pathetic? Or can any thing be conceived more touchingly sublime, than the inly-bleeding parent's simple response? My son, God will himself

66

GANTO VIII.

provide a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. "Abraham" ( said the Apostle)" relying on the divine promise, that in Isaac his seed should be called, accounted that God could raise him up even from the dead (1). "So Abraham, having built the altar, and bound his stretched out his hand with the knife to slay him, when the Angel interposed: "By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not witheld thy son, thine only son; I will in blessing bless thee, and multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand on the sea-shore.

son,

If Dante uses here the feebler of these stories (to mark the flagitious nature of that anger which would attempt vain resistance to Omnipotence) we ought to observe, that he could not have introduced Abraham in hell; and that in availing himself of the other, he was incited by that tolerant, classic spirit, which (as I have repeatedly shown) engaged him to employ willingly the theological allegories of Antiquity. Virgil had made Phlegyas terrify by his own tortures: Dante makes him a teacher quite as effectual, by making him bear away the condemned souls to torture. Charon ferries them into hell; Phlegyas seizes on the worst portion, and hurries them down the hell of hells, the depths of Tartarus.

(1) Hebrews, x1, 18—19.

Boccaccio, citing Solomon, to prove that the more excellent and wise a virtuous man is, the more easily he is stirred up to noble indignation, adds that it was with reference to that text Dante used the epithet disdainful here (2). The Imolese says: 'Blest be the womb that bore thee' (Benedetta colei, che 'n te s' incinse) was not a fortuitous exclamation, but a tribute of respect from Dante to his mother; who was truly beatified and had a name expressive of her worth Gemma (3).' Dante's wife we know was called Gemma Donati : but there is legal proof that his mother's name was Bella (4). Either then the Imolese made a slight error, and confused the mother with her daughterin-law; or the former must have borne the two names. If her title was really Madonna Gemma Bella, there was double ground for vaunting. If

(1) Aeneid. Lib. vr. v. 413.

(2) Comento, vol. 2. p. 78.

(3) Heic nota, Lector, quod mater Dantis fuit verè beata. Vocata est enim Gemma, et tanquam gemma pretiosa misit lucem in mundum. Benvenuti Im. ap. Mur. Antiq. Ital. Vol. 1. p. 1043.

(4).... Dominæ Bellæ matris dicti Dantis... et Dominæ Gemma nunc viduæ, sed olim uxoris dicti Dantis, et filiæ D. Manetti de Donatis, etc. ap. Pelli, Mem. ec. p 28.

CANTO Vili.

such a tender sentiment as filial piety dictated this verse, that tenderness is rendered still more striking from the severity of all the rest of the passage, and is an instance of those strong contrasts which our poet very often employs with success. That this tribute to the maternal shade is short, and as it were casual, and intended to be concealed from every one's consciousness but his own, accords perfectly with the reserve which the whole poem displays respecting its Author's domestic concerns: for his name is to be found in it but and then its insertion is excused with a plea of necessity; and when he introduced into it three of his female friends, we have seen them so enveloped in allegory as to be almost disguised from the public eye, not obtruded on it (1).

This fierce burst of exultation is rendered fiercer from its being a mis-application of the words which religion had consecrated to joy and harmony. They were poured forth by the angelic chorus who announced to the shepherds the birth of our Saviour- "Glory be to God, etc. (2)." In more violent contrast still is what follows the shrieking out of the victim's name, and his turning his teeth against himself. It must, in great part, have been such passages, that obtained popularity

(1) Hell, Comment, Canto 11. p. 152.

(2) Luke 11. 14.

GANTO VIII.

for poetry, whose learning and condensity of mind seem adapted to but few readers. The meanest of the people knew a quantity of Dante verses by heart, and sung them up and down Italy. No poet's fame ever spread so quickly; for as fast as the Cantos of his poem were published, they appear to have got amongst all classes of the people, the lowest as well as the highest. Thus, we are informed that this discourse took place between two poor women in Verona, as he passed one day under their windows" See!" (cried one)" See the man who goes down and brings us news from Hell. " "Indeed" (replied her comparison, with simplicity)" and sore marks he bears of it too; observe how pale he looks, with his hair frizzled, for all the world as if it had been scorched. " Dante overheard them, and is said to have smiled: an infrequent occurrence with him; for his temperament disposed him to melancholy, and, if we credit biographers, he was never seen to laugh out.

G. - LXIV.

the

Messer Filippo Argenti degli Adimari' (says Riccardian M. S.) was a man of gigantic stature, dark complexion, and violent passions; and he was named Argenti, because, being very rich and as unbridled in his expenses as in his choler, he he had his horse, a beautiful animal in which he took great pride, shod on one occasion with silver' ---it fece ferare d'argento. M. Ginguenè professes