Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/847

Rh DANTE 311 account 01 the skirmishes against Arezzo in the year 1288, a prelude to the great battle of Campaldino in the follow ing summer. Then it was that Dante saw &quot;horsemen moving camp and commencing the assault, and holding muster, and the march of foragers, the shock of tournaments, and race of jousts, now with trumpets and now with bells, with drums and castle signals, with native things and foreign &quot; (Inf. xxii. 1, foil.) On June 11, 1289, at Cam paldino near Poppi, in the Casentino, the Ghibellines were utterly defeated. They never again recovered their hold on Florence, but the violence of faction survived under other names. &quot;Dante fought with distinction at Cam paldino, was present shortly afterwards at the battle of Caprona (Inf. xxi. 95, foil.), and returned in September 1289 to his studies and his love. His peace was of short luration. On June 9, 1290, died Beatrice, whose mortal love had guided him for thirteen years, and whose immortal spirit purified his later life, and revealed to him the mysteries of Paradise. Dante had first met Beatrice Portinari at the house of her father Folco on May-day 1274. In his own words, &quot; already nine times after my birth the heaven of light had returned as it were to the same point, when there appeared to my eyes the glorious lady of my mind, who was by many called Beatrice who knew not what to call her. She had already been so long in this life that already in its time the starry heaven had moved towards the east the twelfth part of a degree, so that she appeared to me about the beginning of her ninth year, and I saw her about the end of my ninth year. Her dress on that day was of a most noble colour, a subdued and goodly crimson, girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited with her tender age. At that moment I saw most truly that the spirit of life which hath its dwelling in the secretest chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook therewith ; and in trembling it said these words, Ecce deus fortior me qui veuiens domin- abitur mihi. &quot; In the Vita Nuo:a is written the story of his passion from its commencement to within a year after the lady s death. He saw Beatrice only once or twice, and she probably knew little of him. She married Simoite de Bardi. But the worship of her lover was stronger for the remoteness of its object. The last chapter of the Vita Nuova relates how, after the lapse of a year, &quot; it was given me to behold a wonderful vision, wherein I saw things which determined me that I would say nothing further of this blessed one until such time as I could discourse more worthily concerning her. And to this end I labour all I can, as she in truth knoweth. Therefore if it be His pleasure through whom is the life of all things that my life continue with me a few years, it is my hope that I shall yet write concerning her what hath not before been written of any woman. After the which may it seem good unto Him who is the master of grace that my spirit should go hence to behold the glory of its lady, to wit, of that blessed Beatrice who now gloriously gazes on the counte nance of Him qui est per omnia sascula benedictus.&quot; In the Convito he resumes the story of his life. &quot; When I had lost the first delight of my soul (that is, Beatrice) I remained so pierced with sadness that no comforts availed me anything, yet after some time my mind, desirous of health, sought to return to the method by which other dis consolate ones had found consolation, and I set myself to read that little-known book of Boetius in which he con soled himself when a prisoner and an exile. And hearing that Tully had written another work, in which, treating of friendship, he had given words of consolation to Laslius, I set myself to read that also.&quot; He so far recovered from the shock of his loss that in 1292 he married Gemma, daughter of Manetto Donati, a connection of the celebrated Corso Donati, afterwards Dante s bitter foe. It is possible that she is the lady mentioned in the Vita Nuova as sitting full of pity at her window and comforting Dante for his sorrow. By this wife he had seven children, and although he never mentions her in the Divina Oommedia, and although she did not accompany him into exile, there is no reason to suppose that she was other than a good wife, or that the union was otherwise than happy. Cer tain it is that he spares the memory of Corso in his great poem, and speaks kindly of his kinsmen Piccarda and Forese. Dante now began to take an active part in poli- omc tics. He was inscribed in the arte of the Medici and exile Speziali, which made him eligible as one of the six priori to whom the government of the city was intrusted in 1282. Documents still existing in the archives of Florence show that he took part in the deliberations of the several councils of the city in 1295, 1296, 1300, and 1301. Filelfo says that he served on fourteen embassies, a statement not only unsupported by evidence, but impossible in itself. Filelfo does not mention the only embassy in which we know for certain that Dante was engaged, that to the town of San Gemignano in 1299. From June 15 to August 15, 1300, he held the office of prior, which was the source of all the miseries of his life. The spirit of faction had again broken out in Florence. The two rival families were the Cerchi and the Donati, the first of great wealth but recent origin, the last of ancient ancestry but poor. A quarrel had arisen in Pistoia between the two branches of the Caucellieri, the Bianchi and Neri, the Whites and the Blacks. The quarrel spread to Florence, the Donati took the side of the Blacks, the Cerchi of the Whites. Pope Boniface was asked to mediate, and sent Cardinal Matteo d Acquasparta to maintain peace. He arrived just aa Dante entered upon his office as prior. The cardinal effected nothing, but Dante and his col/eagues banished the heads of the rival parties in different directions to a distance from the capital. The Blacks were sent to Citti della Pieve in the Tuscan mountains ; the Whites, among whom was Dante s dearest friend Guido Cavalcanti, to Serrezzano in the unhealthy Maremma. After the expira tion of Dante s office both parties returned, Guido Cavalcanti so ill with fever that he shortly afterwards died. The Blacks sought for vengeance. The journey of Charles of Valois to Rome gave them an opportunity. At a meeting held in the church of the Holy Trinity the Whites were denounced as Ghibellines, enemies of France and of the pope, and the French prince was invited to the town as peacemaker, to defend the Guelfs against their machinations. The priori sent at the end of September four ambassadors to the Pope, one of whom was Dante. He never again saw the towers of his native city. Charles of Valois marched from Pavia and took up his abode in the Oltr Arno, Corso Donati, who had been banished a second time, returned in force and summoned the Blacks to arms. The prisons were broken open, the podesta driven from the town, the Cerchi confined within their houses, a third of the city was destroyed with fire and sword. By the help of Charles the Blacks were victorious. They appointed Cante de Gabrielli of Gubbio as podesta, a man devoted to their interests. More than GOO Whites were condemned to exile and cast as beggars upon the world. On January 27, 1302, Dante with three others was condemned to pay a fine of 5000 lire of small florins. If the money was not paid within three days their property was to be destroyed and laid waste ; if they did pay the fine they were to be exiled for two years from Tuscany ; in any case they were never again to hold office in the republic. On March 10 Dante and fourteen others were condemned to be burned alive if they should come into the power of the republic. _ Similar