Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES. rn s. vn. J TO u, ms.

Milan, Ambrosian Library), and ' The Reve- lation of Moses.' Of the triad the last-named is most analogous to the ' Divina Commedia ' in its conception of the horrors of hell, and, though it lacks Dante's sense of proportion and graduation of punishments, it discloses a high ethical standard. It was first trans- lated and published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1893 by Dr. Gaster, who regards it as pre-Christian. The angel Gabriel was Moses' conductor throughout. Nor did Christian visions, though tripartite like his own, suggest a guide to Dante, fairly plentiful though they were. Amongst these was that of the anonymous Monk of Evesham (our third English Dante), under date 1196, of which Matthew Paris and Roger of Wendover are the joint chroniclers. Prof. E. Arber issued a facsimile edition of De Machlinia's of 1482, and it was (in 1910) " rendered into modern English by Valerian Paget," edited from the now sole extant impression in the B.M. This visionary fell into a trance on Maundy Thursday, and was guided by St. Nicholas through hell, purgatory, and heaven, and, by a remark- able analogy with the ' D. C.,' the corrup- tions and depravities then prevailing in the Church are scathingly illustrated, a King of England (supposed to be Henry II.) especially receiving drastic treatment.

Earlier still (1149), an Irish Dante, Tundal, produced a vision in Latin which, in the estimation of Mr. Dods, is " one of the fullest and most elaborate which exist," and of which M. Delepierre said, " Par ces details, c'est une autre ' Divine Comedie ' en prose."

But of all pre-Dantean apocalypses that of the Persian Arta Viraf, of which Mr. Dods seems to know nothing, claims priority of place. The learned Iranian scholar Dr. Casar- telli, Bishop of Salford, gave due prominence to it in theDasturHoshang Memorial Volume, in an article headed 'A Persian Dante.' Its composition (' Arta Viraf Namak ; or, The Book of Arta Viraf ') in Pahlavi is referred to the fifth or sixth century A.D. ; it was rendered into Sanskrit, Gujerati, Persian, English (1816), and French (1887). and a new edition of the original text was issued in 1902. The resemblances between this vision and Dante's are in several points many and striking. Thus, to mention but one, on their entrance upon, and during the con- tinuance of, their strange journeys both mortals are escorted and guided by two inhabitants of the world of spirits Dante by Virgil and Beatrice ; Arta Viraf by the Archangel Srosh, the Spirit of Obedience, and Ataro, the Genius of Fire ; and the

introduction of each to their respective hells is singularly alike.

Here two questions clamour imperiously for solution : Was Dante conversant with the rich eschatological inheritance be- queathed to the world by his predecessors f and if so. did he (and how far ?) avail himself of it ? Mr. Dods supplies the answers to both sections of the query thus :

"It is just a hundred years since Dante en- joyed unchallenged the credit of having not only composed, but invented the various pictures of his ' Divine Comedy.' The first serious assailant of his originality was a countryman of his own, one Francesco Cancellieri, who, in 1814, accused the poet of copying the details of purgatory and hell from a certain manuscript which his learned critic then published for the first time. [' Osser- vazioni sopra 1' Originalita della Divina Com- media di Dante.' Roma, 1814.] "

Four years later Ugo Foscolo poured out the vials of his wrath upon the attack in The Edinburgh Review (vol. xxx., Sept., 1818), but inadvisedly, for later stiii both Ozanam and Labitte showed Dante's in- debtedness to his precursors in eschatology, the former stating calmly :

" ' II (Dante) trouvait cette tradition dans un cycle entier de l^gendes, de songes, d'apparitions, de voyages au monde invisible, oi\ revenaient toutes les scenes de la damnation et de la be"ati- tude. Sans doute il devait mettre 1'ordre et la lumiere dans ce chaos, mais il fallait qu'avant hii le chaos existat.' "

Secondly, if Dante was familiar (as he in- dubitably must have been) with, at all events, some Hebrew and Christian (and possibly with Arta Viraf 's) apocalypses, and assimilated therefrom such features as

E leased his fantasy or suited his purpose, ow came it that he, unlike them, chose as conduttore neither saint* nor angel, but a pagan poet ? The reason is not so- near to seek as is the opinion of some. To be too positive where all is conjecture darkens rather than brightens counsel. It is a more profitable canon to let the poet be his own interpreter. But this is just what he is not allowed to be. Like Shakespeare

Fidele " of 'Inf.,' ii. 98) patroness - saint, the Lucia of ' Inf.,' ii. 97. Dantists dispute over her personality. Mr. Tozer is confident she was St. Lucy, the virgin-martyr of Syracuse, " who represents illuminative grace." ' ScartazzinI modestly wavers between her and " Santa Lucia Ubaldini, sorella del Cardinale " and a Poor Clare at Florence ; Dean Plump tre " inclines to the earlier of the two." So do I, though less authori- tatively than Mr. Tozer, and for the same reason. The Syracusan martyr was regarded as the- patroness - saint of sufferers from ophthalmia,, and Dante was once near to losing his sight (' V. N.,' c. 40 ; * Conv.,' iii. 9).
 * Not even his (apparently from the "II tuo