With that expectancy I turned aside I turned, all dumb with wonder, to my guide, And quickly, too, her pale and panting boy Dante is rather fond of noting maternal affection in birds: As mother stork above the nest doth stir In loving circles, when her young are fed, Let us end with the famous picture of the Florentine wives of the good old times: One watcht beside the cradle in the night [From Dante, p. 314.] L'una vegghiava a studio della culla; LECTURE IV EXPERIENCE IN the preceding lecture I spoke of Dante's temperament, his traits of character. These characteristics were vigorously reinforced by the vicissitudes of his career, which also afforded various opportunity for his gift of quick and precise observation. Whatever life Dante might have led, he would have always been an interesting personality; but without the emotions, the trials, the hardships, the changes through which he passed, his genius could never have realized to the full its potential development. He learned to know the extremes of love and hatred, of happiness and misery, of joyous expectation and sad retrospect. To Dante himself, even more than to Virgil, his teacher, apply the immortal words of Francesca. Ed ella a me: "Nessun maggior dolore Nella miseria; e ciò sa il tuo dottore." The Florence of the latter thirteenth century was a good city to live in. Virtually independent, busy, eagerly ambitious, she was attaining, in her manufactures, her trade, and her political influence, a foremost place among the little munic ipal republics of Italy. Newly acquired wealth enabled her ancient civilization to break into fresh flower: the refinements of courtly society were easily adopted by her sturdy commercial population: the arts architecture, painting, music, poetry were cultivated with all the zest of novel interest, with all the delight of hitherto unknown achievement. Florence was sufficiently big to lend distinction to any sort of local supremacy among her citizens, and occupations were so diversified as to afford opportunity to competence of any kind; on the other hand, the closely packed town was small enough, and gossipy enough, for everyone of any account to be known to everyone else. The conditions, as you see, were favorable to the unfolding of talent. And talent did unfold, during those decades, to an extraordinary extent. Internal politics, to be sure, occupied much of the burghers' attention, changes of government were frequent, and party strife sometimes led to bloodshed. There was a strong reactionary group of old-time aristocrats, discontented with the modern democratic tendency, willing to resort to any means to maintain their ascendency over the despised commoners; there was an energetic middle class, well organized in guilds, which, having gained control of most of the property and power, was bent on reducing the old nobility to impotence and substituting for it a new aristocracy of wealth; there were the laborers, important on account of their numbers, who sided now with one party, now with another, having no consistent policy. Family rivalry, too, ran high. Indeed, the factional violence which finally threw Florence into the waiting hands of the Pope, and brought about Dante's exile, appears to have had its origin in the social competition of the Donati and the Cerchi, the former being leaders among the blue-bloods, the latter preeminent among the new-rich. Until he was about thirty years old, Dante, it would seem, did not concern himself with politics. Belonging to a family of modest possessions but with some claim to gentle extraction, he was well educated, well bred, and apparently mingled with the socially elect; at any rate, he appears to have been affianced in childhood to one of the Donati clan, whom he married in due time; and he had as an intimate associate another offshoot of this stock, Forese Donati. His closest friend was Guido, a distinguished member of the very rich Cavalcanti family, who had great influence in the progressive party. Guido, a man of independent views, was a poet of real merit, and also something of a philosopher and scholar. Other friends of young Alighieri were the notary Lapo Gianni and the jurist Cino da Pistoia (both of them excellent rimesters), the musician Casella, and, according to report, the architect and painter Giotto. It was, you see, an artistic milieu. Even Forese Donati wrote verses; and that unnamed brother of Beatrice, whom Dante calls second among his friends, was evidently fond of them. Dante himself early conceived a passion for poetry, and devoured the songs of southern France and the imitations of them made in Italy. Thus he "found out for himself "so he tells us "the art of composing things in rime." Among the Provençal troubadours, the one whom he most admired was Arnaut Daniel, a brilliant master of technique; among the Italians, his favorite was Guido Guinizelli of Bologna, who introduced the spiritual, symbolistic treatment of love. By the time he was eighteen, Dante had won some local reputation as a poet; and before he was thirty, his fame had gone abroad to other cities. His youthful verse did service to various damsels of his Florence, but especially to one whom he calls Beatrice, probably Beatrice Portinari, the daughter of a well-to-do neighbor. Very sweet and dainty are these early poems. As an example, let me cite this ballad: Chorus The memory of a garland I One day I saw thee, Lady, wearing A modest little love-sprite, swaying, The memory of a garland |