says that never did a lady's face take on the colour of love and appearance of pity as does hers when she looks on him; in § 37 he argues against his eyes: ...questa donna...non mira voi, se non in quanto le pesa de la gloriosa donna di cui piangere solete.' At times he feels that the lady must have been sent by Love (§ 38, 'apparita forse per volontade d' Amore') only to reject the thought immediately. It is always the poet's heart that is inclined to yield to the thought that she must be accompanied by 'most noble Love,' his heart which, after at first rebuking the wayward eyes, does yield to that thought, and then urges it upon his stubborn reason; the heart which, we are told in § 38, represents desire ('appetito '). On the other hand, the author's 'anima. (which represents reason, § 38) never falters in its constancy to Beatrice; it is barely aware of, and only annoyed by, the thought which has overcome the heart', and when (§ 39) the forte imaginazione' arises to recall the memory of Beatrice, it is only the heart and the eyes which are obliged to repent, not the 'anima': 'lo mio cuore cominciò dolorosamente a pentere de lo desiderio a cui sì vilmente s' avea lasciato possedere alquanti dì contra la costanza de la ragione:....' In a word: the eyes yield at once and cause the heart, after a short struggle, to capitulate completely, but the 'anima' is constant and inflexible until the end when it triumphs. Reason refuses to admit that Love is on the side of the compassionate lady.

Twice in this account of the Vita Nuova occurs the word 'mente': a word which will come up for discussion later: in the sonnet Color d'amore: 'sì che per voi mi ven cosa a la mente-ch' io temo forte non lo cor si schianti,' where it is evidently used in the sense of memory,' a frequent meaning in the Vita Nuova, as has been pointed out by Melodia3, and in the sonnet Gentil pensero: 'L' anima dice al cor: "Chi è costui-che vene a consolar la nostra mente ed è la sua vertù tanto possente-ch' altro penser non lascia star con nui?" In this second passage it seems to have a more general meaning corresponding to the English mind.

The resemblance between the story of the 'donna gentile' in the Vita Nuova, and the sonnet Per quella via in which appears the Lisetta

1 Cf. § 38:...il cuore consentiva... E quando io avea consentito ciò e io mi ripensava sì come da la ragione mosso, e dicea fra me medesimo; "Deo che pensiero è questo ecc.," and son. Gentil pensero: 'L' anima dice al cor: "Chi è costui, che viene a consolar la nostra mente...?" Cf. Manacorda in G. S. L. It. XLII, p. 197, n. 1.

Cf. Azzolina, Il Dolce Stil Nuovo, Palermo, 1903, p. 184: E Amore che fa ?; prende parte in codesto? Nessuna; è semplice supposizione che esso c' influisca; "Questa è una donna gentile, bella, giovane e savia, ed apparita forse per volontà d' Amore,...."

3 La V. N. di D. A., Milano, 1906, pp. 9 ff.

discovered by Barbi, has often been pointed out. So long as the doubt remains whether Lisetta may not be the same as the ‘Isabetta' mentioned in the correspondence between Dante and Giovanni Quirini, it will be impossible to decide whether she is the 'donna gentile,' but to me it seems probable, as it did to Barbi, and does still to some eminent authorities. The objection of Zenatti that the 'donna gentile' is not aggressive, while Lisetta is described as advancing 'baldanzosamente,' is sufficiently met by the reply of Barbi3, and by Manacorda who notes that Dante uses the words 'baldanza d' amore a segnoreggiare me' in speaking of Beatrice in his memory (in V. N. § 2).

In this sonnet 'Lisetta' carries everything before her until she reaches the tower 'che s' apre quando l' anima consente,' when she is rejected as was the 'donna gentile.' Both are rejected without hesitation by the 'anima,' which in the Vita Nuova stands for 'reason,' and certainly the tower in this sonnet is an intellectual fortress of some kind. Here again the word 'mente' is used in a sense which is as difficult to define as in the Vita Nuova. It occurs first in verse 2, 'Per quella via che la bellezza corre-quando a chiamar Amor va nella mente,' and again in verse 9, 'chè donna dentro nella mente siede,' and here it seems to be used in the sense it has in the expression 'donna de la mia mente' (of Vita Nuova § 2). A striking resemblance to the story of the 'donna gentile' is to be seen in the circumstance that Love is entirely on the side of the rival of Lisetta, as he is on the side of Beatrice in the Vita Nuova: Quando Lisetta accomiatar si vede-da quella parte dove Amore alberga, tutta dipinta di vergogna riede.'

In the 'canzone' Voi che intendendo we find a situation similar to that described in the story of the 'donna gentile' in the Vita Nuova. There can be no doubt that this poem is concerned with the same persons as that story. The verses of the second stanza:

Solea esser vita dello cor dolente
Un soave pensier, che se ne gìa
Molte fiate a' pie' del vostro sire;
Ove una donna gloriar vedìa,

Di cui parlava a me si dolcemente,

Che l'anima diceva: I' men vo' gire",

1 Cf. Barbi, Due Noterelle Dantesche, Firenze, Carnesecchi, 1898 (per nozze RostagnoCavazza); D' Ancona, Della Pargoletta ecc. in N. Ant. 1 aprile, 1912, and references given there; Del Lungo, Lisetta in Rass Cont. ottobre, 1912.

2 Cf. Barbi in Bull. d. St. Dant. It. x, p. 408. 3 Bull. d. St. Dant. It. vIII, pp. 320-1. 4 G. S. L. It. XLII, p. 198.

We shall see that in the Convivio, when Dante has become a thorough-going philosopher, the word is used and defined in a specifically scholastic sense.

6 Moore, Tutte le opere, ecc., Oxford, 1904, p. 251. References to the Convivio are, throughout, to this edition.

cannot fail to be recognized as a reference to the last sonnet of the Vita Nuova:

Oltre la spera che più larga gira

Passa 'l sospiro ch' esce del mio core1:
Intelligenza nova, che l' Amore

Piangendo mette in lui, pur su lo tira.
Quand' elli è giunto là dove disira,
Vede una donna, che riceve onore,
E luce sì, che per lo suo splendore
Lo peregrino spirito la mira2.

The 'donna' whom the ascending 'pensier' used to see in glory is therefore, Beatrice. Nor can there be any doubt that 'chi fa fuggire, the above-mentioned 'pensier' (that is the 'spiritel d' amor gentile' of verse 42), is the 'Gentile pensero, che parla di vui,' of the Vita Nuova, or that the 'donna' of v. 23, which 'questi mi face...guardare,' is the 'donna gentile' herself. Here, as in the Vita Nuova, the new thought argues persuasively with the reluctant 'anima' of the poet, pointing out the attractions of the new lady: Mira quant' ella è pietosa ed umile, Saggia e cortese, ecc.' (vv. 46-7), and declaring that Love is on her side: Che tu dirai: Amor, signor verace,-Ecco l' ancella tua; fa che ti piace.' (vv. 51-2.)

The reference to the sonnet Oltre la spera seems to make it certain that Voi che intendendo was written after the Vita Nuova had been finished but there are other reasons which confirm this conclusion, and have an additional importance of their own. The situation in the 'canzone' is similar to that in the Vita Nuova, but it is not identical: there is an important difference. We saw that in the former work the 'anima' of the poet was not only never persuaded that the 'donna gentile' was accompanied by 'Amore,' that Love was on her side, but maintained an impenetrable confident reserve strongly in contrast with the attitude of the poet's heart, which surrendered entirely and afterwards was obliged to repent bitterly. Here in Voi che intendendo, the 'anima' has not yet, it is true, quite consented to the persuasion of the new thought, but it is far from being confidently hostile. It merely weeps and complains, reluctant to abandon the thought of Beatrice, but evidently foreseeing that it will soon be obliged to do so:

L'anima piange, sì ancor len duole,

E dice: Oh lassa me, come si fugge

Questo pietoso che m' ha consolata! (vv. 30-2.)

1 'Sospiro' is rendered 'pensero' in the prose of the V. N.

2 This reference is noted by Zingarelli, Dante, Milano, F. Vallardi, p. 131.

3 Cf. V. N. § 38: Questa è una donna gentile, bella, giovane e savia, ecc.' and the sonnet Gentil pensero, vv. 12-14: ..., e tutto 'l suo valore,-mosse de li occhi di quella pietosa che si turbava de' nostri martiri.'

The 'anima' is on the very verge of capitulation; it admits now that its first impression, recorded in the Vita Nuova, that nobilissimo Amore' was in the company of the 'donna gentile,' was true, and complains unavailingly of the eyes:

Io dicea ben: Negli occhi di costei1

De' star colui che le mie pari uccide:

E non mi valse ch' io ne fossi accorta

Che non mirasser tal, ch' io ne son morta. (vv. 36–9.)

On the other hand, the words of the new thought express an altogether novel confidence of victory: E pensa di chiamarla Donna omai' (v. 48). For that matter the words of the first stanza concede all the contention of the new thought in the Vita Nuova, that the new lady has appeared by the command of Love, for the whole 'canzone' is addressed to the Intelligences of the sphere of Venus, and its last two verses affirm the concession:

E come un spirto contro a lei favella,
Che vien pe' raggi della vostra stella.

Voi che intendendo, then, presents a second chapter in the story of the 'donna gentile,' for the doubt which led to her rejection in the first chapter, has been dissipated: she has now appeared supported by Love, and the 'anima' is about to consent to the new sovereignty.

This 'canzone' is usually referred to as the first of the allegorical poems of Dante. Was it written with an allegorical intention? I think it was. Without detracting from the impression of a greater intellectual inspiration here than in the sonnets of the Vita Nuova, which many students of Dante have seemed to perceive, there are more objective reasons for believing it to be an allegory. The expression in vv. 24-5 'Chi veder vuol la salute,-Faccia che gli occhi d' esta Donna miri,' is enough to arouse the suspicion. The quality of 'grandeur' ascribed to the 'donna gentile' in v. 47: Saggia e cortese nella sua grandezza': seems inapplicable properly to the damsel of the Vita Nuova. The 'commiato' which speaks of the unusual obscurity of the poem, 'Tanto la parli faticosa e forte,' seems to imply something more than the mere difficulty of interpreting the literal meaning, mentioned in Convivio II, 12, especially since the readers, who could hardly fail to recognize the connexion with the story in the Vita Nuova, would have in that story an adequate commentary by which to interpret the 'canzone.'

1 This reading seems to me more acceptable than the Io dicea: Ben ecc.' of the edition quoted.

2 Cf. e.g. Zingarelli, op. cit. p. 131.

There does indeed seem to be some new, hidden meaning in the poem, which the reader, at the time when it was written, would be unable to understand. I shall undertake to show presently that the 'canzone' was written in 1293, and if, for the time being, we suppose (no new supposition) that this date is correct, we shall see that it was written not very long after the Vita Nuova was finished. The reader who was already acquainted with the Vita Nuova would naturally suppose that the new lady spoken of in the 'canzone' was the 'donna gentile' of the 'libello.' No other solution would be open to him, since it would be impossible for him to suppose that the author, manifestly referring to the Vita Nuova and representing a situation analogous to the former story, could be speaking of an entirely different lady. This reader would assume that Dante had now renewed his attachment to the 'donna gentile,' which had appeared short-lived in the Vita Nuova. And if the 'donna gentile' be 'Lisetta,' then the Florentine reader would assume that Dante had renewed his former temporary relation with Lisetta.

And here the sonnet of Aldobrandino da Padova1 in reply to Dante's Per quella via acquires a new interest, for whatever the difficulties in interpreting that sonnet may be, there can be no doubt that the author is bent on explaining away the harshness of the rebuff administered to Lisetta in Dante's sonnet: a rebuff which may have been the subject of common and malicious gossip. He explains why the voice ordered her away, and he seems to mean that Dante was unable to believe that the advances of Lisetta were inspired by true love, in other words that Dante could not believe that she was supported by Amore.' Therefore, when she approached, the voice cried: Alla rocca non s' erga-infin a tanto che 'l Sir nol concede,' —that is, 'let her not come up to the fortress until such time as the master grants his permission.' But Aldobrandino, who is taking the side of Lisetta, evidently thinks it likely that the time will come when the master (probably the same as Dante's 'anima') will give his consent, and Lisetta will be admitted within the fortress. Concluding his commentary Del Lungo says: Passò Lisetta dentro la rocca, avverando il presagio del pietoso Capitano? Ciò a noi poco importa sapere.'

Possibly. Yet I confess that I personally should much like to know

1 Cf. Del Lungo in Rass. Cont. ottobre, 1912.

2 Del Lungo interprets the verses: 'e dargli guida nel cammin dolente-che la conduca fuor di cruda gente,' as follows: e guidarla in quel suo doloroso tornare indietro, per modo che essa possa disimpacciarsi dalle scortesi persone che si farebbero beffe di lei...,' op. cit. p. 10.