Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/468

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. in. JUNE 17,

DANTEIANA.

I. ' Inf.,' xvii. 72-3 :

Vegna il cavalier sovrano Che recher& la tasca con tre becchi ! Dante's allusion to, or description of, cer- tain usurers in this canto rather by their heraldic insignia than by name has provided j the heraldic fraternity in particular, and Dantists in general, with a happy hunting- field for researches which have not proved unavailing ; while the poet's non-recog- nition of these sufferers and his peculiar method of describing them are plausibly and acutely explained by Dean Plumptre thus :

" The non-recognition may be either symbolical, as in C. VII. 58, Or may be meant to indicate that the poet had had no associates in that class of the fraudulent. The special process by which they are identified probably expresses Dante's scorn for the ostentatious heraldry of the nouveaux riches of Florence. Few, if any, of the bearings thus described have found their way into Litta's magnificent volumes on the 'Famiglie Celebri Italiane.'"

In spite, however, of Dante's alleged " scorn " and his " Non ne conobbi alcun " (at 1. 54), it is clear, from his assignation of those armorial bearings or heraldic badges to these usurers, that he was aware of their identity, although he respected that part of their punishment by which they were doomed to obscurity both of person- ality and name. As Scartazzini observes, " Sconosciuti in vita, Sconosciuti morti ! "

The fourth culprit so designated in the above couplet by " la tasca con tre becchi " has been recognized by those bearings as Giovanni Buiamonte, a Florentine and, says Scartazzini, " il piu infame usuraio, dicesi, di Europa." Plumptre' s comment on the lines ig suggestive and informing :

"Note the irony of the sovran cavalier as an echo of the poeta sovrano of C. IV. 88. The bearer of the purse with three goats rampant sable on field or, Giovanni Buiamonte of Florence, still living in 1300, was as far above all other usurers as Homer was above all other poets."

Venturi, however, sees another, and not less striking, *' irony " in the passage :

" Quel cavalier sovrano & detto per ironia, conie lo mostr6 quel distorcor la bocca, e trar fuori la lingua nel cosl mentovarlo."

Both views are sound commentary if sovrano be the correct reading, and not soprano (as in Witte's text adopted by Dr. Moore), the latter hardly being the equiva- lent of the former. But I am not disposed to quibble over shades of meaning occasioned by the substitution of p for v. Neither am

I concerned here with another substitution,, that of " testa " for " tasca " (as in D MS.) ; nor with the curious misplacement of lines 72-5 in L MS. ; nor, again, with the "coi tre" of several MSS., all instanced by Dr. Moore. " Becchi," however, call?, for more than a passing notice. The word may mean either " he-goats " or " beaks."

'Alcuni intendono," observes Bianchi, "con tre rostri d' uccello, quasi fosse questa 1' arme dei Buiamonti. Ma secondo il comento di Pietro di Dante, i tre becchi sono tre capri : Ille a tribwt hircis fuit dominus loannes Buiamonte de Biccis de Florentia. E cose dicono 1' Ottimo e Benvenuto ; i e tre capri si vedono per arme ai Buiamonti nell' antico Priorista delle Riformagioni,"

Scartazzini' s quotation is more explicit j both as to arms and date :

" L'arme di questo usuraio depinta nell' antico Priorista delle Riformazioni di Firenze colla data del 1293 ha tre capri veri e reali in campo d' oro."- 'D.C.,'ed. Pass., p. 700.

But the main purpose of this paragraph is ! to direct attention to Cary's honest retrac- tation in his note on " becchi " :

'Monti," he says, "in his Proposta, had intro- duced a facetious dialogue on the supposed mistake : made in the interpretation of this word ' Becchi r by the compilers of the Delia Crusca Dictionary, who translated it 'goats' instead of 'beaks.' He afterwards saw his own error, and had the ingenu- ousness to confess it in the Appendix, p. 274. j Having in the former editions of this >york been : betrayed into the same misunderstanding of my i author, I cannot do less than follow so good an I example, by acknowledging and correcting it."

Why this eagerness to correct a " sup- ; posed'' "misunderstanding"? For Dante may have meant to convey " beaks " as his i meaning, and not " goats." The conjecture i is tenable in the face of Plumptre' s assertion quoted above in respect of Litta's partial silence on the " bearings." Besides, the ! poet could hardly have used "capri," since it would not have rimed with either "orecchi" or "becchi," although doubtless i he could have employed or coined terms synonymous with them in rime and signi- fication. But he did not do so, and thus left his meaning ambiguous. Of course the evidence of Pietro, the Delia Crusca, and " antico Priorista " counts for much, but it is not, me judice, of such irreversible weight as to necessitate confession of error from either Monti or Cary. All three may have erred in their rendering of " becchi."

II. Ibid., xviii. 42 :

Di gia veder costui non son digiuno. Had Cary offered a retractation of hi' astounding rendering of this line, no on<!