Page:Dante and His Circle, with the Italian Poets Preceding Him.djvu/54

10 time. Before Guide's return he had undertaken that embassy to Rome which bore him the bitter fruit of unjust and perpetual exile: and it will be remembered that a chief accusation against him was that of favour shown to the White party on the banishment of the factions.

Besides the various affectionate allusions to Guido in the Vita Nuova, Dante has unmistakably referred to him in at least two passages of the Commedia. One of these references is to be found in those famous lines of the Purgatory (C. xi.) where he awards him the palm of poetry over Guido Guinicelli though also of the latter he speaks elsewhere with high praise), and implies at the same time, it would seem, a consciousness of his own supremacy over both.

Against all painters Cimabue thought

To keep the field. Now Giotto has the cry,

And so the fame o' the first wanes nigh to nought.

Thus one from other Guido took the high

Glory of language; and perhaps is born

He who from both shall bear it by-and-bye."

The other mention of Guido is in that pathetic passage of the Hell (C. x.) where Dante meets among the lost souls Cavalcante de Cavalcanti:—

All roundabout he looked, as though he had

Desire to see if one was with me else.

But after his surmise was all extinct,

He weeping said: 'If through this dungeon blind

Thou goest by loftiness of intellect,—

Where is my son, and wherefore not with thee?'

And I to him: 'Of myself come I not:

He who there waiteth leads me thoro' here,

Whom haply in disdain your Guido had.'

Raised upright of a sudden, cried he: 'How

Didst say He had? Is he not living still?