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198 some homely advantage over the more dignified language, to be afterwards expounded and set forth in a work on the vulgar tongue which he intends to write,—are the subjects of the first book or Trattato of the 'Convito.' A portion of the feast itself is then presented to the reader in the shape of the first poem, the same which Carlo Martello quoted in "Paradise"—

The subject of the poem thus begun is the curious episode of nascent love recounted in the end of the 'Vita Nuova,' where, the reader will remember, a certain gentle lady, gazing at him with pitying eyes from her window, almost beguiled Dante out of recollection of Beatrice and everything else—which second love, with all the inconstancy of thought and levity of heart which it seemed to evidence, was finally combated and overcome in the poet's mind by a sudden vivid realisation of his lost lady, and all the circumstances of his love for her. He appeals to the Spirits which move the third heaven—that is, the star of Venus—the high controllers and inspiring influences of love, who have led him into the state in which he is, to hear him now; but so interwoven with allegory is the tale, that the reader, less intelligent perhaps than these Angels of Venus, may well be bewildered between the real lady of the window and the