MR. VERNON'S " DANTE." *

"GENIUS," it has been said, "is the Heaven-given power of being able to take a great amount of trouble,"—a definition which many may decline to accept. But if there be any truth in the aphorism, Mr. Vernon's book demonstrates that its author can justly claim no small portion of this valuable possession, which is needed as much, though in a different way, by him who annotates a great poem, as by the original com- poser thereof, especially when, as in this case, it is united with a thorough knowledge of the Italian language, sound critical judgment, and discriminating taste. He has therefore done that justice to the mighty Florentine in which previous editors and translators have more or less failed, by the careful observance of certain rules too often neglected by the generality of commentators.

It cannot be too earnestly impressed upon the student, that every writer who can justly make any claim to originality, has his own peculiar trains of thought, and his own peculiar style or mode of expressing these thoughts, and from this it will follow, that every author worthy of serious study should comment on himself, and clearly explain his meaning. This is to be done by finding out parallel passages in which the difficult word or phrase appears, and then judging of some sense which will suit them all. But where few, or none, of such parallels exist—where the expression is what scholars call a iimag x6744E11014 (we know no equivalent English), and this is very often the case with Dante—we are justified in seeking light from authors who were contemporaries, or as nearly so as possible. Thus, a phrase of Homeric Greek may be explained by the aid of Hesiod or Theognis, and even of Aschylus or Pindar ; and thus Mr. Vernon has very success- fully explained many difficulties in Dante either by the poet's own usage in other places, or by the language of Petrarch, Ariosto, or Tasso. The train of thought, too, may be success-

(L) Readings on the In/cute of Dante. By the Hon. William Warren Vernon, ILL. London: Macmillan and Co.—(2.) A Companion to Dante. By G. A. Scartsazini. Translated by A. J. Butler. London : Macmillan and Co. fully illustrated by passages from writers of good repute in other languages; and our author has, with excellent taste and genuine poetic feeling, adduced many quotations from Latin writers as well as from Chaucer, Milton, Spenser, and the Provencal poets. Though the writings of Dante, and in parti- cular the " Divina Comrnedia," have given a fixity to the Italian language which we look for in vain in the speech of other nations, and though this result has been rendered permanent by the self-respect of the people whose maxim for centuries has been " Fuori i tramontani," yet it is obvious that, in the case of what is commonly called a living language, many words and phrases will be found in writings composed over three centuries ago, which are now deemed obsolete and perhaps incorrect. These, however, linger among the rural peasantry', and as we sometimes meet specimens of Chaucerian or Spenserian English from the lips of a rustic of Somerset or Yorkshire, so Mr. Vernon has thrown much light on Dantesque obscurities from the dialects of the Etrurian contadini. His etymological remarks also are ingenious and erudite, and give much information to such readers as have a taste for comparative philology. To give merely one speci- men of his accuracy and good taste, he has rendered " uraile Italia," in Canto I., "the now degraded Italy," a sense war- ranted by poetic feeling and historical truth; while Cary and Longfellow prefer "low-lying," which is not geographically true, and attempt to support their view by a parallel pas- sage from Virgil, which it is evident they did not under- stand.

The arrangement of his readings adopted by Mr. Vernon is worthy of approval, and should be followed by subsequent commentators at least on works which either from their style or subject-matter present any remarkable difficulties. He has divided each Canto into four or five portions, according to the transitions in the narrative; to each division he has prefixed some explanatory remarks, and then subdivides into passages containing from one to four terzine or sentences of three lines, which is easily done in dealing with the term rima of the Italian poets, as each third line generally ends with a full stop. The Italian lines are followed by an English prose version, at once literal and correctly English, in which latter quality some trans- lations we have seen are culpably deficient. This is followed by copious notes in which any peculiarities in idiom likely to impede the reader, are fully and clearly elucidated. Any careful student therefore, possessed of this book, may, with the aid of an ordinary dictionary and the most elementary grammar, acquire in a short time a reputable knowledge, not only of this great poem, but of the Italian language, which is in fact the easiest of all those of Europe, though fashion has not stamped it with its approval.

Though Dr. Johnson criticised "Paradise Lost" very unjustly, and Shakespeare very inadequately, we consider that occasionally, though very rarely, a great genius appears, whom it would be a profanity—we may say a species of blasphemy against intellect—to judge of except with admira- tion, and we will therefore only say of Dante in his own words

in referring to Homer, " Onorate poeta."

There are, however, two points about which some controversy has arisen, namely, his religious and political opinions. M. Scartazzini remarks that almost every sect, not even excepting the French philosophers, have claimed him as an adherent ; but to us it is surprising how there could be any doubt at all regarding his religions convictions, at least among those who have read his great poem with proper attention. We are satisfied that, so far as dogmatic belief is concerned, he was a strict and conscientious Roman Catholic, that he believed in the necessity and practicability of one head to the Church, infallible in spiritual matters, and that there is no ground for supposing that he was in the slightest degree sceptical as to any of the peculiar doctrines of the Roman Creed. He may very probably have had some doubts as to whether it was for the spiritual benefit of Christendom that the Pope should hold a temporal principality; but this is a question which admits of very serious discussion, and would perhaps have been out of place in the " Divina Commedia," as it certainly is here. He must, however, have seen that such a power would have been a fatal impediment to that united Italy which was the object of his noblest aspirations. If he inveighed against ambition, avarice, and nepotism, it was not because he deemed them inseparable from, but inconsistent with, the duties and char- acter of the Head of the Church ; if he put a Cardinal in a fiery tomb in the Inferno, it was not for his belief, but for his disbelief; and if he consigned an Archbishop to another bolgia, it was not for theological error, but for hideous immorality. Had he then succeeded in retaining his position as a statesman, he would have proved himself a moral reformer, not a philosophic revolutionist,—a Liberal Unionist, not a venal or seditious Disruptionist.

Dante's political views were in one respect thoroughly visionary and impracticable. He believed in the realisation of a universal empire which would co-operate on equal and amicable terms with the Universal Church in promoting the virtue and happiness of mankind. But as he must have seen that this event, however desirable, could not reasonably be

expected, and could hardly even be hoped for, he would have been contented if Italy had become a united country under a single ruler. For he was a decided Monarchist, though he could not have failed to perceive that a united Italy subject to a single native ruler could not possibly exist in the then exasperated state of party feeling, aggravated by the naturally vindictive character of the population. Much therefore as he loved and respected his native land, and proud as his spirit was, he was not only willing but eagerly desirous that Italy should find repose under the sceptre of the German Emperor ; and it is a noteworthy circumstance that at the present day only one, or at most two, of the Kingdoms of Europe are governed by a genuinely national dynasty, the exception being little Servia and, perhaps, Portugal. He does not seem to have had any notion of Parliamentary represen- tation, which, indeed, only existed in Spain, and was in its infancy in England, and what he had seen of the perpetually seditious communities of Florence, Genoa, and Pisa could not have rendered him favourable to Local Government ; his opinions therefore generally tended towards strong personal rule and centralisation. It will seem strange to many "en- lightened patriots" that, conversant as he was with the literature of republican Rome and with the history of Greece, he did not approve of regicide ; on the contrary, he places Brutus and Cassius in Giudecca, the lowest bolgia of the Inferno, where they are punished for their glorious deed by being chewed by Lucifer. The state of Italian society in his day had probably given him a surfeit of assassinations, especially as they had not yet been authorised by the light of reason and philanthropic philosophy.

Dante has been accused of harshness, intolerance, and in- dulgence in personal animosity, but in most of the instances specified, M. Scartazzini has very ably defended him, though we agree with him that in the pathetic episode of Francesca da Rimini, the sympathy of the poet has triumphed over the impartiality of the moralist, while his treatment of Brunnetto Latini is inconsistent and mysterious. The wretched state of his country, politically and morally, the feuds handed down for generations, the popular seditious, poisonings, and robberies, must have caused the same state of feelings as that of Juvenal under the despotism of the last Flaying when he wrote—

"Si natura negat facit indignatio versum,"

or, as we read in a more important volume, "I do well to be angry."

The Manuscripts of Dante frequently exhibit variations of reading and punctuation calculated to perplex the student, and on most of them Mr. Vernon has commented with much judgment. He appears to have observed (though not pro- fessedly) Bentley's rule that of two readings the more difficult should be preferred, for a half-learned editor or copyist would be sure to select an incorrect phrase which he understood, rather than that which really ca me from the author's pen, but which he is unable to comprehend. We need hardly remark that the reading adopted must present a satisfactory sense, and be in conformity with the las et norma loguendi of the period.

Some have been surprised at the poet having given the title " Commedia " to his great work, as, with the exception of a portion of one Canto, it nowhere exhibits any features deserv- ing the appellation of comic, but it should be borne in mind that in his time any narrative which commenced with scenes of trouble and perplexity was styled a comedy, if it ended with a satisfactory explanation and final happiness, while tragedy was defined as that which commenced with false security and ended in calamity. If then we study the poem as a whole, we shall find the " Inferno" conducting us through a region of sin and misery, the " Purgatorio" developing the process of repentance and amendment, and the " Paradiso "

displaying the perfect happiness prepared for virtuous humanity. There is, we earnestly hope, a future of renown and prosperity for Italy, and this will be accelerated in no small degree by the careful study of the great poet and upright citizen of Florence, and of his class-fellows in the school of the Latian Muses, Tasso and Ariosto, who certainly would have rejected with contempt the dreams of a levelling

philosophy and the equalisation of ranks and classes by the agency of dynamite. When this result arrives we may thua address the land of Dante:—

" Thou realm of sunshine, thou abode of mirth !

Thou palace-garden of the fertile earth !

Thou harvest-field of glory, 'neath the plough Of Time twice pressed, fair Spring comes to thee now."

Our limits forbid us to say more of M. Scartazzini's book than that it is the product of great learning and conscientious industry; but we fear it will not attain an extensive popu- larity, or be acceptable to the generality of readers, though to the Dantesque specialist it will always be of great im- portance and utility. His learning is alloyed by an excessive scepticism, and he has therefore taken much unnecessary trouble to prove that many trivial anecdotes related of Dante are unworthy of credence, forgetting that these legends in no wise affect the character of the poet or the merits of his works. He has, however, well pointed out that the "Divina Commedia " presents difficulties which can be solved only by a reference to his other works and an accurate knowledge of Italian history, and justly censures Boccaccio's life of the poet as a mere romance. He holds, and we think rightly, that Dante was to a great extent self-educated, as a majority of illustrious men have been ; but as regards the more minute details of life, save that he fought at the battle of Campaldino, held high office in his native city, was banished, and finally found an exile's grave, we know no more than we do of the domestic affairs of our own Shakespeare. His immortal poem alone entitles us to say in a literal sense (not ironical, as he used it), and in Mr. Vernon's well-chosen diction : "Exult, Florence, since thou art so great that thou mayest spread thy wings over land and sea ! "