SPECIAL ARTICLE. DANTE WITHOUT TEARS?

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 13

SPECIAL ARTICLE. DANTE WITHOUT TEARS?

L* J ' ~r Mr John Jay A*** fa book about **-**»- ipatae of the " fountains of com- * the n f annotation, ';.;:*''*''::.»««•,«*' ' \ rfOis' 5 fc ~L.rs" There in this attitude. In ' .-ti'J se -.h if- verv much :;>*«--«-• ,tt«<«* of r ,. while classical if|W« hf » r , ka !d Latin masterf ''Hants,'' too, * Jto write commentaries '• our chances > y t he''spirit" of a great ***** al , n f racv intuition. C .nt. Tins utlC f inV''and ''slag-heaps'' 2 , '" l ' tf; ~,, who has been buried f!3aU 'nf e"pcdants'Mvho £»*?£ . «: b-riid: all this i.s There is only one way *> l * l %e "«I>irit" of a great Lt wav is to see him m hia i''t hS a sentimental intJi v ? (, tonit" outlines, but in !* ,ltf k Jletitbesiidatoneo „'« netting at Danto in his resources of our underpatience, our unwearied *** f Ln«*of vision, us well **4 ffial material and the others, which we ran draw *"«,*« of counterblast to the 9* ./and superficial method of fS,i him, it has occurred to me «r*.,Vy brief, crudo outline, a vital phases or aspects of *.,«dn, to any student ap- **, kin for the first time, compel dncidation arc absolutely •fLjl, Of course, anyone who his own vague, superiTjgitimental conception of tho : •5,* hroods over the "pretty o%!j and Francesca, Beatrice's 2i isoed not read any further, 'trf(Millie ourselves to tho , •fc*Cmmedia," and first a few | the language of the poem, J* diS'eulticß which it presents, ijtffe dearly understood that, in jg* tiii poem, Danto was forging |g ,injißge. No poem on a heroic pi uj previously been written in Ha. Latin was still regarded as yob odium of expression suffifor such a purpose, tjjprrionily Dante himself, and a tf tfe ipirits, Guido Cavalcanti, fafe Ooueelli, and others, had writaarocte Bonnets and Canzoni in {••Wwitylnuovo." But the "Divine fjucj* m quite a different jch. We feci ourselves in k prewee of a Titan wresti( titk a half-formed medium. kt, amid the limpid, flowing en of tho verse, we come on hard, add Uocb of phraseology ' and find involutions, which present tin difficulties to tho unaided stue. Jtowrer, owing to the intense vb% of his imagination and injßtf, Dusto developed a strained, &sn «» of expressing objects and fc wntiisi of Nature, which only iaj Wiirrly renders lucid. Some dd* atJd, though beautiful, are »; ditnuH, ud especially difficult art thi lob| philosophica], theological, »ad Kwifit expositions—those of Virgil tad others K the "Purgatorio," «d of Bfiirice and others in the "Fwdk" And in the coarse, Wil freals of the demons in the lUfWp pit of the "Inferno" the *» waa to convey the horror by 3% osj detached chunks of fierce, ■rota pitch. fcCu]fflianiays:— "As for Dante's l *B l 'Kfl meanings, though he him■l retjaroed them as of the utmost ■Pttiet, they may safely be left to • ojMttatators." This 'is a foolish ■ aaßoi remark, and only worthy >l matt; though it is quite in ■W with Mr Chapman's general *« fippancy. Allegory in Dante MMatnesoi "purple patches," of *wj meanings superimposed from •*t; it is of the very woof and *»of his whole conception. Any•J* thinks he can ignore it, and J"wter into the spirit" of Dante, j*»ally delusion. What are JJW Beatrice but allegorical W-tn» one, the incarnation of the other, of Divine *■» tad Revelation? If this 3j*» is ignored, the whole m Wla out of the poem. And • "agory is eliminated from tho ?™jomto, what does that canto £*> btjond a mere children's yarn y» nan getting lost in a wood xJTf* wild "easts? B«t the «• i. .l r » a political referg» «» troubled state of Italy in P, m ' tiifl symbolises pusafhT Ure ', ffith a PO»t»cal re*4dU\sa£ t Florence, which S km - Tn«Lion is Ambition; irT™-!',^ 6 ,, Royal House of *7tk. p "° l{ * A?a »ce; secondtWl V Pac) : <as conceived by k i ,'? we have the foundations ieanai *0? n *?« B * r » to d great « *° a P?utical movements. ' S - Similar tho "*»?3ff piec ! ° f mo v ed before Dante's . the Eartl "y I'ara--1"}.* 1" later centos INk.iS^ 11 % thing is bald *?*!<* us ,, n 4 °. sl en)ficanc« or in«P hefom ' interpreted, it t>SU 0 j ?° l,tical - as well \ e r nt ! m * ho history of *^Stt^ edlsovalEl npire. h S-*» concLrfTt of - - the Pr °P^ ¥ss*• But ! vlslons of the 05 - The LriS^P 88 sh01 » the whole S & o^ a f Places, n S majority aPe C eL!2 d „ cont cmporary PbJ? SS % Fl «'i y e !* e S°nd. **s.Z! p opei ,tj "reign event* fe^TJ? ln '«, m£s' mus 'cian Sj S'lUßei k": eve d. not bv I^SS? no! ° dant condibe affiled 0116 of ?; hi *. XJ> few p,,^ oll * gmd- :» »no resigned

the Papacy inccause he did not feci e/jual to its demands. Again:—"That spirit, in t.od .: bo.v>m, pierced the hc-art which if; brill venerated on the Thame;;." This is interesting, as one of Dante's very rare allusions to English history: but decidedly obscure. The allu.-,iou is to Guy. son of Simon De Montioit, who avenged his father's death by murdering the nephew of the English King. The heart of the murdered prince was enclosed in a casket and preserved. Once more. A spirit says to Dante: —'•[ yas of the city that changed its first patron for the Baptist, on which account the former with bis art will make it always .sorrowful." Tlio citv is Florence. In pagan days its patron was Mars: but when Florence was converted to Christianity, a church dedicated to John the Baptist was substituted for the temple of Mats, rn developing the idea, Dante falls into a historical confusion, as bo occasionally did.

Not one of Dante's great gallery of characters has been introduced or located at random. Each has his assigned place, deliberately allotted, in tho economy or scheme of the whole poem. It will be for the serious student to probe each case; and, having ascertained all that is to be known about it, decide for himself whether the allocation is just or unjust. He will ask why Brunetto Latini, Dante's beloved old master and teacher, is placed in Hell; why the late Latin poet, Statius, plays so prominent a part in the "Purgatorio"; and Why Justinian is chosen as the typical representative of tho Komaii Empire in the "Paradiso." • And he must bo capable of taking a broad; panoramic view of the -whole field of medieval Italian history. He will study it on tho grand scale in the age-long struggle between tho Papacy and the Empire, or in the big effort made by the A'ngevin Dynasty to dominate Italy; and he will study it in a more fierce and concentrated form in the struggles of political parties in Florence, or in the raids and wars of the petty nobility. He will learn how the Temporal Power of tho Church became established, and will judge whether Dante is justified in condemning it as the main cause of the woes of Italy. He will learn how the dynasty of the great Emperor, Frederick 11., became extinguished, and Sicily and Southern Italy passed into the hands of Spain. The student will also # examine Dante's judgments in men' and things He will notice the fearful and loathsome penalties allotted to "barrators" (peculators of public money) in the "Inferno," and the angry denunciation of debasers of the coinago in tho "Paradiso." And ho will find the explanation of both in the'fact that Florence was at this time the financial centre and chief commercial. city ot Europe. And he will notice, too that Dante rises to his sublimest heights ot poetic power when his feelings are. most deeply moved.* Especially m regard to Florence he can never speak calmly; ho oscillates between bitter denunciations and tender outbursts ot love anct sorrow. The iron of exile had entered into his soul.

Dante had all the learning, the philosophy, the science, and the culture of his ago. The "Commedia" is an imposing concrete illustration of the stage of development at which such things had arrived in an age which it is the fashion to designate as "dark.' In these matters the poet often draws on his own earlier prose work, the Convivio," and he talks with easy familiaritv of a host of Greek writers and thinkers in a way that astonishes us in an age which practically knew no Greek. Of course he is largely influenced by Aristotle; but the Middle Ages had appropriated Aristotle, and incorporated him into the service of Christian doctrine. The branches of science which figure most prominently in Dante are Astronomv, Optics, and the <l\ ia £- ties of matter. He knows all about the Signs of the Zodiac, and frequently indicates the season by naming the Sign which the sun is entering, and the hour of the day by the position of the sun or the rising or setting of individual stars. Of course it was still believed that, the whole system revolved round the earth. In one most remarkable passage he describes the Ecliptic as a Divine blessing to man, because, by its inclination to the Equator, it saves mankind from sudden and startling transitions of heat and cold, and other violent changes. In propounding problems in Physics he lays down his own experiments. His all-devouring nund seems to absorb everything with winch it came into contact. As for Latin poetry, his mind was so saturated with it that he quotes without appearing to be aware that he is quoting. Another writer from whom he quotes almost instinctively is Boethius. Here we must stop. The object of these few remarks has been not cither to stimulate or to discourage the study of Dante, but to give the prospective student of him some rough idea of the task which awaits him. The task is formidable; but let him not be discouraged. If he refuses to listen to the voice of superficial dilettantism, he will find abundant illumination and guidance in the accumulated stores laid up by the labours of devoted scholars since Dante's own dav. And, one word m conclusion. It is a grotesque assumption on the part of the dilettanti that thev alone appreciate the higher poetic qualities of Dante, and that the commentators are mere grubbers. It makes one smile to thick that a Scartnzzini, a Paget Toynbee, a Philip Wicksteed, or an Edmund Gardner has less appreciation and reverence for the glorious qualities of Dante's poetry than a John Jay Chapman!