* Purgatorio, C. xxx.

himself went by the name of Malefammi or “Do-me-harm.” For

an account of his death in 1307, which proved in keeping with his

turbulent life, see Dino Compagni's Chronicle, or the Pecorone of

Giovanni Fiorentino (Gior. xxiv. Nov. 2.)

* “Troppo tenero e stizzoso.” I judge that “tenero” here is

rather to be interpreted as above than meaning “impression-

able” in love affairs, but cannot be certain.

* Virgil, Dante's guide through Hell. Any prejudice which

Guido entertained against Virgil depended, no doubt, only on his

strong desire to see the Latin language give place, in poetry and

literature, to a perfected Italian idiom.

* With them were expelled the still more powerful Gherardini,

also great sufferers by the conflagration; who, on being driven

from their own country, became the founders of the ancient

Geraldine family in Ireland. The Cavalcanti reappear now and

then in later European history; and especially we hear of a

second Guido Cavalcanti, who also cultivated poetry, and travelled

to collect books for the Ambrosian Library; and who, in 1563,

visited England as Ambassador to the court of Elizabeth from

Charles IX. of France.

* This translation occurs in the Appendix to an Essay on the

Vita Nuova of Dante, including extracts, by my friend Mr. Charles

E. Norton, of Cambridge, U.S.,—a work of high delicacy and ap-

preciation, which originally appeared by portions in the Atlantic

Monthly , but has since been augmented by the author and pri-

vately printed in a volume which is a beautiful specimen of

American typography.

* It is also noticeable that in this treatise Dante speaks of Guido

Guinicelli on one occasion as Guido Maximus, thus seeming to

contradict the preference of Cavalcanti which is usually supposed

to be implied in the passage I have quoted from the Purgatory. It

has been sometimes surmised (perhaps for this reason) that the

two Guidos there spoken of may be Guittone d'Arezzo and Guido

Guinicelli, the latter being said to surpass the former, of whom

Dante elsewhere in the Purgatory has expressed a low opinion.

But I should think it doubtful whether the name Guittone, which

(if not a nickname, as some say) is substantially the same as Guido,

could be so absolutely identified with it: at that rate Cino da

Pistoia even might be classed as one Guido, his full name, Guitton-

cino, being the diminutive of Guittone. I believe it more probable

that Guinicelli and Cavalcanti were then really meant, and that

Dante afterwards either altered his opinion, or may (conjecturably)

have chosen to imply a change of preference in order to gratify

Cino da Pistoia, whom he so markedly distinguishes as his friend

throughout the treatise, and between whom and Cavalcanti some

jealousy appears to have existed, as we may gather from one of

Cino's sonnets (at page 176); nor is Guido mentioned anywhere

with praise by Cino, as other poets are.

* It may be mentioned (as proving how much of the poetry of

this period still remains in MS.) that Ubaldini, in his Glossary to

Barberino, published in 1640, cites as grammatical examples no

fewer than twenty-three short fragments from Cecco Angiolieri,

one of which alone is to be found among the sonnets which I have

seen, and which I believe are the only ones in print. Ubaldini

quotes them from the Strozzi MSS.

† Of this sonnet I have seen two printed versions, in both of

which the text is so corrupt as to make them very contradictory in

important points; but I believe that by comparing the two I have

given its meaning correctly. (See page 192 .)

• * “Alma sdegnosa,
• Benedetta colei che in te s' incinse!”

† Page 206.

† Pages 122, 137, 180.

§ Page 143.

‖ This sonnet, as printed, has a gap in the middle; let us hope

(in so immaculate a censor) from unfitness for publication.

* Crescimbeni ( Ist. d. Volg. Poes. ) gives this sonnet from a

MS., where it is headed “To Guido Guinicelli”; but he surmises,

and I have no doubt correctly, that Cavalcanti is really the person

addressed in it.

† See Documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire littéraire de l'Italie,

&c. par A.F. Ozanam ( Paris, 1850), where the poem is printed

entire.

• * “Se mai continga che il poema sacro
• Al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra,
• Sì che m' ha fatto per più anni macro,
• Vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi serra,” etc.

† See Dante's reverential treatment of this subject, ( Parad.

C. xi.)

* In the case of the above two sonnets, and of all others inter-

changed between two poets, I have thought it best to place them

together among the poems of one or the other correspondent,

wherever they seemed to have most biographical value; and the

same with several epistolary sonnets which have no answer.

† The last line of the Paradise (Cayley's Translation).

* “Here beginneth the new life.”

† In reference to the meaning of the name, “She who confers

blessing.” We learn from Boccaccio that this first meeting took

place at a May Feast, given in the year 1274 by Folco Portinari,

father of Beatrice, who ranked among the principal citizens of

Florence: to which feast Dante accompanied his father, Alighiero

Alighieri.

* “Here is a deity stronger than I; who, coming, shall rule

over me.”

† “Your beatitude hath now been made manifest unto you.”

‡ “Woe is me! for that often I shall be disturbed from this time

forth!”

• § Οὐδὲ ἐῴκει
• Ἀνδρός γε θνητοϋ παϊς ἔμμεναι, ἀλλὰ θεοϊο.

* “I am thy master.”

* The friend of whom Dante here speaks was Guido Cavalcanti.

For his answer, and those of Cino da Pistoia and Dante da Maiano,

see their poems further on.

* I.e., in a church.

* The commentators assert that the last two lines here do not

allude to the dead lady, but to Beatrice. This would make the

poem very clumsy in construction; yet there must be some covert

allusion to Beatrice, as Dante himself intimates. The only form

in which I can trace it consists in the implied assertion that such

person as had enjoyed the dead lady's society was worthy of heaven,

and that person was Beatrice. Or indeed the allusion to Beatrice

might be in the first poem, where he says that Love “ in forma

vera” (that is, Beatrice,) mourned over the corpse: as he after-

wards says of Beatrice, “ Quella ha nome Amor.” Most probably

both allusions are intended.

* “My son, it is time for us to lay aside our counterfeiting.”

† “I am as the centre of a circle, to the which all parts of the

circumference bear an equal relation: but with thee it is not thus.”

This phrase seems to have remained as obscure to commentators

as Dante found it at the moment. No one, as far as I know, has

even fairly tried to find a meaning for it. To me the following

appears a not unlikely one. Love is weeping on Dante's account,

and not on his own. He says, “I am the centre of a circle ( Amor

che muove il sole e l' altre stelle): therefore all lovable objects,

whether in heaven or earth, or any part of the circle's circum-

ference, are equally near to me. Not so thou, who wilt one day

lose Beatrice when she goes to heaven.” The phrase would thus

contain an intimation of the death of Beatrice, accounting for

Dante being next told not to inquire the meaning of the speech,—

“Demand no more than may be useful to thee.”

* It is difficult not to connect Dante's agony at this wedding-

feast, with our knowledge that in her twenty-first year Beatrice

was wedded to Simone de' Bardi. That she herself was the bride

on this occasion might seem out of the question, from the fact of

its not being in any way so stated: but on the other hand, Dante's

silence throughout the Vita Nuova as regards her marriage (which

must have brought deep sorrow even to his ideal love) is so

startling, that we might almost be led to conceive in this passage

the only intimation of it which he thought fit to give.

* Guido Guinicelli, in the canzone which begins, “Within the

gentle heart Love shelters him.” (See Part II. page 264.)