But say if him I here behold, who forth Evoked the new-invented rhymes, beginning: The The conventionalism of the school reappears with Dante. Here we have again Amore, the ruler of the soul, and the soul itself in abstractions and personifications, while grief and death are personified too. psychological processes are depicted in the traditional manner, that is to say, not as such, not as inner occurrences, but in a materialized and symbolical form. The spirits of life and love and the thoughts come, go, fly, speak, and struggle with each other in an entirely substantial manner. The soul speaks with death, and complains of it as of a person, that is accordingly endowed with all personal attributes. The parting soul embraces the spirits, who weep because they lose its company (in the canzone, "E' m' incresce di me sì duramente"). If we desire to obtain a clear idea of the relation between Dante's lyrical poetry and that hailing from Bologna, we have only to read the sonnet concerning the origin of love (Vita Nuova, cap. 20). Dante, too, was asked by a friend to solve the famous problem, and he replied as follows: Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa, Fagli Natura, quando è amorosa, Beltate appare in saggia donna pui, Che piace agli occhi sì che dentro al core E tanto dura talora in costui, Che fa svegliar lo spirito d' amore, E simil face in donna uomo valente.1 We may note here the grace of the expression, and a certain vivacity in the image that reveals the poet and, as it were, transforms the abstract theme into a little drama. But the idea is in harmony with the spirit of the school; the sage introduced in the sonnet is no other than Guido Guinicelli, and his poem, the canzone concerning Amore and the cor gentile. From this piece Dante borrowed the idea that a noble heart could not exist without love, nor love without a noble heart; the rest is nothing but the old theory of seeing and pleasing, so that Dante did not even display more genius in treating the question than so many others. Dante shared with his predecessors their mode of thought, their theoretical convictions as to the essence and character of poetry, their conception of love, and their entire poetical apparatus. What distinguished him from and raised him above them was his superior poetic gift. He did not create the language, but he had mastered it more thoroughly than all the others. He treats the same themes in the same manner; but they are consecrated afresh and endowed with originality by reason of the depth of his feeling. He employs the traditional forms, but the subjects treated 1 Amore and the noble heart are one, as the sage says in his poem; and one can be without the other as little as a rational soul without reason. Nature makes them when she is full of love, Amore as lord, and the heart as his dwelling, in which sleeping he rests, now for a short and now for a long while. Beauty appears thereupon in a virtuous lady, who pleases the eyes, so that within the heart is born a desire for the pleasing object. And at times this lasts so long in him, that it awakes the spirit of love; and the same is caused in a woman by a virtuous man. have been experienced by himself: they come from the heart and are often expressed with delightful tenderness and sincerity. Immediate inspiration by the feelings he himself designated, in the verses of the Purgatorio mentioned above, is the distinctive mark of his poetry. Filled with this deep sincerity and warmed by true feeling, in spite of all its idealism, is the tender, ethereal image of the loved one as it appears to us in the ballad, "Io mi son pargoletta bella e nuova," a poem that does not belong to the collection of the Vita Nuova, but which undoubtedly refers to Beatrice. This image of the loved one is pure and sacred as that of a Madonna, and yet graceful, almost child-like, in its ingenuousness. She is an angel come from heaven, and wishes soon to return thither; but first she desires to show us a ray of her light, a ray of the heavenly place whence she came. Her eyes are bright with all the virtues of the stars, and no charms were denied her by the Creator, when he set her in the world. And she rejoices in her beauty and purity, and communicates some of it to the others. She smiles, and her smile tells of her home, of Paradise. The qualities attributed by the poet to his beloved in extolling her are the same as were regularly celebrated ever since Guinicelli wrote. However, we have no mere repetition of commonplaces, but a deeply felt enthusiasm pervades this glorification and gave birth to some of the most fragrant blossoms of Italian lyrical poetry, such as the sonnets "Negli occhi porta la mia donna amore,' "Vede perfettamente ogni salute," and especially the following one: Tanto gentile e tanto onesta pare La donna mia, quand' ella altrui saluta, E Che dà per gli occhi una dolcezza al core, par che della sua labbia si muova Un spirito soave pien d' amore, Che va dicendo all' anima: sospira.1 In this sigh of the soul spiritualized passion has found its true expression. The beloved is transfigured, but she has not become an abstraction: the ideal does not tear itself away from the concrete image of the beauty in which it is incorporated. We see the lady, full of grace and virtue, go her way adorned with all her charms. The first poem of Dante was a vision; so, too, was his last, his great work. And in the Vita Nuova, in general, visions play no small part. The dream was regarded by the age as significant and prophetic; it is the form corresponding to a feeling of presentiment that passes over into the other world. A vision 1 So noble and so honorable appears my lady, when she greets any one, that every tongue trembling becomes dumb, and the eyes do not dare to look at her. She goes her way when she hears herself praised, gently clothed with humility, and she appears as a being come from heaven to earth in order to show us a miracle. So pleasing she shows herself to him who beholds her, that through the eyes she sends a joy into the heart, that only he can understand who experiences it himself. And from her lip appears to move a gentle spirit full of love, that says to the soul: "Sigh."-There may be a connection between this sonnet and Guido Cavalcanti's "Chi è quella che is depicted in the canzone that is rightly considered to be the most perfect poem of this first period of Dante's lyrical work. It begins with the words, "Donna pietosa e di novella etade." Here it is pain that unfetters the poetry and frees it from all conventional elements. Once, while the poet himself is ill, the thought comes to him that Beatrice, too, will die, and that he will lose her. Thereupon he falls asleep and dreams that she is really dead. And he sees women going about weeping and with unbound tresses. He sees the sun darkened and the moon appear, and the birds falling from the air and the earth trembling, and one of his friends appears to him with discolored face and cries to him: "What art thou doing? Dost thou not know the tidings? Dead is thy mistress that was so beautiful." Che fai? non sai novella? Morta è la donna tua, ch' era sì bella. And he raises his eyes streaming with blood, and sees the angels returning to heaven "even as a rain of manna," and before themselves they have a little cloud, and all sing "Hosanna": E vedea (che parean poggia di manna) And thereupon he goes to behold the mortal remains |