Page:A History of Italian Literature - Garnett (1898).djvu/53

Rh Not long after her death, Dante, as he tells us at the end of the Vita Nuova, had resolved, under the influence of a wondrous vision, "di dire di lei quello che mai non fu detto d'alcuna." The mortal maiden thus necessarily becomes a type of supernatural glory and perfection, as we see her in the Divina Commedia, and the metamorphosis inevitably extends to the lyrics in which Dante celebrates her. She is no longer Beatrice de' Portinari, but Philosophy, and unfortunately in too many instances Dante's poetry has become philosophy also. The nobility of the form still assures it pre-eminence over all contemporary verse but the author's own; but the substance is often mere reasoning in rhyme. Two canzoni, however, are of distinguished beauty, "Voi ch' intendendo il terzo ciel movete" (translated by Shelley), and "Tre donne intorno al cor mi son venute," which Coleridge says, in 1819, he is at length beginning to understand after reading it over twelve times annually for the last fourteen years. "Such a fascination had it in spite of its obscurity!"

The former of these pieces is shown by internal evidence to have been written as early as 1295, and the latter was composed after Dante's banishment, to which period most of the other canzoni and the prose commentary probably belong. This commentary constitutes the substance of the work. It was intended to have expounded fourteen canzoni, but treats only of three, apart from a general introduction. More remarkable, perhaps, than the philosophical subtleties of which it consists, is Dante's appeal to a new public. He writes no longer for literary circles, but for the world of persons of worth wherever found, especially persons of rank. Hence the treatise is necessarily composed in Italian, which has the good