ed to cry up their innumerable antiquated visions, but invented new ones still more absurd, which they continued to have revealed, sworn to, and believed. The University of Paris was for several years agitated, Europe scandalized, and the Vatican occupied without knowing how to extricate itself, with a long trial of the Dominicans for a singular attempt, aided by a Franciscan fanatick, to substitute the prophetic visions of the Abbé Joachim, with some supplements of their own, for the New Testament. Mathew Paris, either from not being exactly informed of what was passing abroad, or not daring to state all he knew, speaks of this circumstance only in general terms. They preached,' says he, commented, and taught certain novelties, which, as far as they were known, were considered mere ravings, and reduced those into a book, which they were pleased to style "the Everlasting Gospel;" with certain other things, of which it would not be wise to say too much.' (Hist. Ang. ad an. 1257.) But he has said quite enough to confirm the discoveries subsequently made by writers of every communion, respecting this extraordinary fact, and to make known in what state Dante found the religion of Europe. The Inquisitors, in the mean time, were by no means remiss in burning astrologers, and persons accused of practising the art of magic, though it sometimes happened that an astrologer triumphed over them. Of two cotemporaries of Dante, one, Cecco d'Ascoli, was burned by order of the Dominican Inquisition at Florence; and the other, Pietro d'Abano, who was reputed to be confederate with devils, and openly professed astrology, upon being accused at Paris, retorted the charge of heresy upon the Dominicans-summoned them to appear-convicted them of heresy by forty-five special arguments--procured their expulsion and exclusion from Paris for a considerable period-and was himself pronounced innocent by the Pope at Rome. † The people, however, believed in the power of this magician. It is mentioned in the chronicles of that age, and still repeated in the villages of Padua, that Pietro had seven spirits at his command; and that when he was going to be hanged, he substituted an ass in his place. The fact is, that notwithstanding his canonical absolution, Pietro had admitted in his writings the influence of the stars upon human actions, and denied absolutely the existence of demons.

* Gio. Villani, B. 10. Chap. 39.

+ Michael Savonarola, ad an. 1292, 1299.-Petri Abani conciliator, differentia 10.

This curious observation was first made by Picq of Mirandola. See De rerum Pranotatione, sect. 5.

The philosophy of Epicurus had made some progress among the higher orders in the age of Dante; Guido Cavalcauti, his intimate friend, was pointed out by the people for his Meditations against the Existence of God.

Thus were the grossest abuses of superstition and fanaticism mingled with heretical license, uncertainty of opinion, popular credulity and atheism; and, nevertheless, Religion was still the great centre around which all the passions and interests of mankind revolved. In this singular condition of society, Boniface, in the last year of the 13th century, proclaimed a plenary indulgence to all who should make a pilgrimage to Rome. All Christendom was accordingly attracted towards the holy city; and, during several weeks, 200,000 foreigners were calculated to succeed each other daily || at its gates. To give all possible solemnity and effect to the lessons he proposed to inculcate, Dante fixed the epoch of his Vision of Divine Justice, in the holy week of that year, when all Europe thus went forth to obtain the remission of sins.

We have thus endeavoured to fill up some of the lacunæ in , the work of Mr Cancellieri; and trust we have, at the same time, negatived many of the trite and visionary conjectures that have been hazarded upon the sources whence our poet might have derived the idea of his work. * There are, however, some recent authors, whose writings are deservedly popular, of whose opinions it may be right to say something. Denina has gone the length of supposing, that Dante borrowed his plan from a masquerade which took place during a public festival at Florence, in which devils and damned souls were represented as characters. This strange drama was exhibited on a bridge over the Arno, which, being made of wood, gave way during the show, and closed the scene most tragically.-Now, it appears from Villani, that Dante had left Florence two years before; and, previously to his departure, had composed the seven first cantos of his poem, which were saved by his wife when his house was pillaged and destroyed by the faction that persecuted him. The manuscript, by Boccacio's account, was sent to him in his exile, in 1302; and the masquerade of the Damned Souls' was represented in 1304. The truth, therefore, is probably the very reverse of Denina's conjecture, that the idea of the show was suggested to the people of Florence by

Maratori, Annali, ad an. 1300.

Romance of Guerino-Saint Patrick's pit-The Juggler who goes to Hell-The dream of Hell-The road to Hell-and three Tales of the 12th and 13th centuries, to be found in the old French Fabliauz.

the beginning of their fellow-citizen's poem. Tiraboschi and Mr Sismondi, indeed, are both of this opinion; and we may add, that, even in 1295, Dante, in his little work, entitled La Vita Nuova,' gives distinct hints of the design of his great poem.

Our poet was the pupil of Brunetto Latini, who, in a sort of poem, entitled the Tesoretto, supposes himself guided by Ovid through the mazes of a forest, in search of the oracles of nature and philosophy; and from this model it is confidently asserted, that the pupil loses himself in a forest, and takes Virgil for his guide. That Mr Corniani should dilate upon this fine discovery, is very natural-for, of all the historians of Italian literature, he is the most quackish and the most inept. But it is lamentable that it should be repeated with even more confidence by Mr Ginguené. He is astonished, that no Italian before Mr Corniani suspected this to be the origin of Dante's poem;'-and we are astonished, in our turn, that Mr Ginguené should not know this suspicion to be as old as the year 1400. It may be collected, indeed, from the biographical account of Dante, by Philip Villani, nephew to the illustrious historian of that name; and was advanced more boldly by others a few years after, and at a longer interval. Federigo Ubaldini says, in the preface to his edition of the Tesoretto in 1642- Aver Dante imitato il Tesoretto di Brunetto Latini.' Mr Ginguené too, we may say, has been much too favourable in his judgment of the Tesoretto, which is really a very mean and scarcely intelligible performance. Though written six hundred years ago, we suspect there are but few persons who have read it in all that time. Would it be credited, that Count Mazzuchelli, and Father Quadrio, the two Italian writers who have most carefully explored the old authors, had but an imperfect knowledge of the Tesoretto, even while they were busy disputing about it? Both writers, misled by the resemblance of name, mention it as an abridgment of the Tesoro, which is in fact the great work of Brunetto Latini, but has nothing whatever, either in conception or matter, in common with the Tesoretto. The Tesoro, besides, is written in French, and in prose. Monsignor Fontanini, who is occasionally bewildered by his admiration of what is old, calls the Tesoretto Poesia cristiana, nobile e morale.' Its orthodoxy we do not dispute: But, for nobleness, we can see nothing but the reverse. And, as to its morality, it consists entirely in a string of maxims, or rather proverbs, without imagery, sentiment, or a single spark

Vide Lor. Mehus, vita del Traversari, page 159.

of animation. It is moreover disfigured by grammatical inaccuracies, vulgarisms of phrase, and a great number of words, so obscure, as not to be found even in the dictionary of la Crusca. That Academy, which was certainly disposed to do full justice to the efforts of the early Florentine writers, and was instituted for the purpose of examining them with more care, has characterized the Tesoretto in three words- Poesia a foggia di frottola'-(poetry in the trivial ballad style.)

6

After all this, we should scarcely have expected to meet with a passage like the following in so learned and correct an author as Mr Hallam. The source from which Dante derived the scheme and general idea of his poem, has been a subject of inquiry in Italy. To his original mind, one might have thought the sixth Eneid would have sufficed. But it happens, in fact, that he took his plan, with more direct imitation than we should expect, from the Tesoretto of his master in philosophical studies, Brunette Latini. This is proved by Mr Ginguené, B. 2. p. 8. Even the authority is hastily quoted for this hasty opinion: for though it is true, that, in the place cited by Mr Hallam, and elsewhere, the French critic has made the assertion here imputed to him, it is very remarkable, that, in the succeeding volume,, this certainty is reduced to probability. Mr Ginguené there says only, that Dante gave grandeur and poetic colouring to the ideas of his master, Brunetto,-if indeed he borrowed any from him; and similar ideas were not dictated to him by the nature of his subject. (Vol. II. p. 27). And at last this great discovery dwindles into a mere possibility; for Mr Ginguené, in giving some extracts from the Tesoretto, is reduced to the avowal, that it is at least possible Dante may have profited by it.' (p. 8.). The truth is, that such inaccuracies and inconsistencies are almost inevitable in treating of a foreign literature; and espe cially of a literature so copious and peculiar as the Italian. The history of its eminent writers is entangled in the dissensions of the different provinces-the systems of their different schools-their religious opinions, and not infrequently the political interests of their several masters. Hence, in order to appretiate the force or the value of their expressions, it is of ten necessary to have an accurate knowledge of the different systems of literary education, of manners, of revolutions, of governments, and, often, even of the personal character and design of each writer. In Italy, too, it should be remembered, that there has not for centuries been any political freedom, and that the people have been studiously kept in ignorance. Flattery and satire have accordingly been chiefly in requestwhile party spirit and imposture have had full play. The num

ber of readers, at the same time, is so limited, as to consist almost wholly of protegés, patrons and rivals: and the men of letters, who might expose imposture, and bring truth to light, have rarely been able to speak without danger. We have already observed, that the Jesuits usurped every branch of polite literature; and that, to serve the cause of the Popes, they systematically decried Dante, with the other noblest geniuses of Italy. Nevertheless, the history of the Jesuit Tiraboschi, is (with very few exceptions) the constant model of Mr Ginguené, who in fact has done little more than impart a more lively colouring to the original design of that learned but prejudiced person. In the execution of this humble task, however, he now and then gets so bewildered as to be unjust to his model:-for example, he actually charges Tiraboschi with having confounded the Tesoro with the Tesoretto,' (vol. II. p. 8.);-while the fact is, that Tiraboschi was the very person who first exposed this blunder of Mazzuchelli and Quadric, to which we have already adverted. (Storia Lett. vol. IV. lib. 3. c. 5.) The French, however, are apt, we suspect, to fall into such perplexities. The Abbé de Sades, in his Memoirs of the life of Petrarca, relates of that poet- that, to avoid a winter passage over the mountains beween Milan and Venice, he postponed his journey,' &c. (vol. III, p. 345.) Now, we shall not venture to say what might have been the state of that country anterior to the deluge: But of this we are certain, that in no author, antient or modern, always excepting M. de Sades, is there the least mention of mountains between Milan and Venice-a tract of country so flat, as to be called, in the chronicles of the time of PetrarcaLa Valle Lombarda. -The key to the whole is, that the Abbé had never been in Italy,-and that Mr Ginguené wrote in the same predicament; having never penetrated beyond Turin, where he went as ambassador in the time of the Republic. We must not wonder, therefore, if he should now and then make a slip-But he might have avoided quoting foreign as native authority. Pour ne point alleguer ici' observes Mr Ginguené (vol. I. p. 25) d'autorités suspectes; c'est encore dans les Haliens que je puiserais:' And incontinently, he cites a passage of Mr Andres, who certainly writes in Italian, but is a Spaniard-and, moreover, generally considered in Italy, as neither very well acquainted with its literature, nor very just

to it.

The work of Mr Frederick Schlegel, which has been very lately translated into English, is another instance of the hazards of all peremptory criticism on the character of foreign writers. The German aathor has entitled his book Let