Before the fire of this temptation he shrank and faltered, but Reason encouraged him with sweet discourse of the light of holiness lying beyond sin and temptation, till he passed in triumph through the flame, led on by his love of purer blessedness. Then "the temporal fire and the eternal seen," secure in his freedom, with his pure desire for good attained, he needs Reason's help no longer, and the Active Life completed, he can mount where his longing takes him, to the Knowledge of the things of God. In the sight of this glory all mundane learning appears fruitless, and he stands mute with contrition before the reproaches of faithlessness to "the loving of that good Beyond which there is nothing to aspire to." 1 Owing to Dante's personal relations to Beatrice there seems to be every reason for putting as little symbolism as possible into the interpretation of those Cantos of the “Purgatorio” where their meeting is recounted, and for taking Beatrice's reproaches as bearing directly upon the poet's individual life. Such is his dual nature, however, that we never feel so strongly that he is the type of the entire human race as in these scenes when he stands penitently before the reproachful Beatrice. She was so completely allied with the absorbing inner life of his imagination that, with kaleidoscopic changes, she is now a complete etherealization, now the gracious type of womanhood of his early days. "Non pur per ovra delle ruote magne, "Alcun tempo il sostenni col mio volto; Mostrando gli occhi giovinetti a lui, Di mia seconda etade, e mutai vita, E bellezza e virtù cresciuta m' era, "Mai non t' appresentò natura o arte Piacer, quanto le belle membra in ch' io Per la mia morte, qual cosa mortale Diretro a me, che non era più tale. "3 We have Pietro di Dante's testimony as to the identification of this pargoletta with the poetic art: "Dicono questa pargoletta essere stata l' arte poetica, per seguir la quale abbia egli lasciato Beatrice, cioè, com' essi spiegano, la Teologia; and we have Dante's own statement that he was a devoted student at the time he wrote his second Canzone, that is before the year 1300, according to Fraticelli; also that after the death of Beatrice he devoted himself to the study of Philosophy: 5 "Io, che cercava di consolare me, trovai non solamente alle mie lagrime rimedio; ma vocaboli d'autori e di scienza e di libri: li quali considerando, giudicava bene, 2 Ib. xxxi. 49-60. 1 Purgatorio, xxx. 109–132. 8 Quoted from Scartazzini, Divina Commedia, 1. c. 4 Convito, Tr. iii. c. ix. 3 5 Ib. Tr. ii. c. xiii. + che la Filosofia, che era donna di questi autori, di questi scienze e di questi libri fosse somma cosa . . sicchè in piccol tempo, forse di trenta mesi, cominciai tanto a sentire della sua dolcezza, che 'l suo amore cacciava e distruggeva ogni altro pensiero." Bearing these passages in mind, it is not necessary to see any contradiction between the reproaches of Beatrice and the indications afforded us by other passages of Dante's purity of heart and life. It is impossible to believe that there were any hideous corners in an imagination capable of conceiving such an ideal of beauty as that of the New Life; or could he, having a conscience burdened with impurity, say that: "coscienza mi assicura, La buona compagnia che l' uom francheggia The other sin charged against our poet is pride. Certain it is that he felt himself peculiarly prone to this fault, which was in his eyes a mighty lion of over-mastering strength.2 Even in the "Vita Nuova" there are signs of the supreme selfassertion which he displayed later. No poet before or since has arrogated to himself such a claim as that of Dante. But it must never be forgotten how Dante, with the deep sense of the brotherhood of man which we have already seen manifested in him, typified in himself the human race, and in view of this, could make his stupendous claims with propriety. That which is true of him is true of all souls born like him under fortunate stars.5 “E perocchè la complessione del seme può essere migliore e men buona; e la disposizione del seminante può essere migliore e men buona; e la disposizione del Cielo a questo effetto puote essere buona e migliore e ottima, la quale si varia nelle constellazioni, che continuamente 1 Inferno, xxviii. 115. 3 V. N. iii. 2 Ib. i. 45. 4 Cf. his claim of interest from the Virgin, Inferno, ii. 94. 5 Paradiso, xxii. 112. si trasmutano, incontra che dell' umano seme e di queste virtù più e men pura anima si produce. E s'elli avviene che per la purità dell' anima ricevente, la intellettuale virtù sia bene astratta e assoluta da ogni ombra corporea, la divina bontà in lei multiplica, siccome in cosa sufficiente a ricevere quella. Poichè la somma deità, cioè Iddio, vede apparecchiata la sua creatura a ricevere del suo beneficio, tanto largamente in quella ne mette, quanto apparecchiata è a riceverne."1 "E l'anima umana, la qual è colla nobilità della potenzia ultima cioè ragione, participa della divina natura a guisa di sempiterna Intelligenza; perocchè l' anima è tanto in quella sovrana potenzia nobilitata, e dinudata da materia, che la divina luce, come in Angelo, raggia in quella."2 The human souls who are bene nati are they to whom, brought by Reason to the Divine Light, "veder li troni Del trionfo eternal concede grazia, But it was through his own experiences that Dante had discovered the way for men to enter into the Light ineffable, and his personality was too intense for him to submerge it utterly in the conception of mankind in general. He took his place calmly as one of the "well-born," and it was upon him, as such, that the important mission devolved, of "carrying back to the mortal world" the sights and truths that had been manifested to him.4 "Giù per lo mondo senza fine amaro, E per lo monte del cui bel cacume 1 Convito, Tr. iv. c. xxi. 2 Ib. Tr. iii. c. ii. 8 Paradiso, v. 115. ♦ Paradiso, xxi. 97; cf. also Purgatorio, xxxii. 103; Paradiso, x. 27; xxxiii. 73. Indi rispose: - Coscienza fusca O della propria o dell' altrui vergogna, E lascia pur grattar dov' è la rogna ; Nel primo gusto, vital nutrimento But to sing the holy face of Beatrice irradiated by the light of the Triumph of Christ was too great a task for the sacred poem. Pride boasts the prow that is audacious, but humility recognizes that there are waters too vast for it to venture upon. It was the germ of this true humility that forbade him, in his early days, to write of the departure of the blessed Beatrice, "non sarebbe sufficiente la mia penna a trattare, come si converebbe di ciò." 3 A sure estimate of his own powers, a ready recognition of his own limitations, led him to accept his leaders, and take his place among them. He was in truth the high-minded man of his own Philosopher: Soxeî dè peyaλóψυχος εἶναι ὁ μεγάλων αὑτὸν ἀξιῶν ἄξιος ὤν4 He will take his place in the company of the five noble poets, but it shall be as sixth.5 The fame derived from the "Vita Nuova" and 1 Paradiso, xvii. 112-117; 124-132. 2 Ib. xxiii. 67. To this sense of the proportions of his mission, perhaps, may be attributed his evident expectation of fame to be derived from his poem, “Il nome mio ancor molto non suona." Purgatorio, xiv. 21. 3 V. N. xxix. ↑ Aristotle, N. E. 1123 b. That his pride was not mere empty conceit, vid. V. N. xxix. 17. Inferno, iv. 100. |