Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/31

 9 th S. II. JULY 9, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

wishing to do ; for whatsoever, in his last scene of life, was not explained by the objects and the arrangement of the objects about him, found a suffi- cient solution in the confidential explanations of his purposes which he had communicated, as far as he felt it safe, to his only friend." 'Early Memorials of Grasmere.'

The reader has here the story as told in the verse by Payn, and in his " impassioned

Erose" by De Quincey. One would like to ave the unimpassioned prose in which the fate of the unhappy youth was first made known to the public. But though a suicide so extraordinary in its details and so un- usual in its motive must have made a great sensation, no reference to it has been traced in the ' Annual Register ' or the Gentleman 's Magazine, whose volumes are record-houses of the remarkable incidents of the period.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Moss Side, Manchester.

DANTEIANA. 1. 'Inferno,' ix. 61 :

voi che avete gl' intelletti sani, Mirate la dottrina che s' asconde Sotto il velame degli versi strani !

Though there is not any notable difficulty in this tercet, it deserves a passing reference as a sample of the poet's method. Prof. Tomlin- son's version and comment run thus :

" ye in whom the intelligence is sane, Do ye behold the doctrine hidden here, Which mystic verses 'neath their veil contain ?

These three parenthetical lines do not seem to belong especially to the matter in hand, or to the canto, but rather to the whole poem. A less original writer than Dante would probably have placed them at the beginning of canto i. by way of exordium."

The lines would form an appropriate proem to the whole poem, but, in my view, they are equally well adapted to the pre- vious as to the subsequent stanzas of the context in which they lie embedded, and so do not appear to me to be in any sense " parenthetical," but to belong very much to the "matter in hand." There is sufficient " dottrina che s' asconde " in the three furies and Medusa, and in the " del cielo messo " and inhabitants of Dis, to justify, without any special claim to originality, the insertion of the tercet in its actual setting. Gary is like- minded, and quotes Landino in support of his contention :

" The poet probably intends to call the reader's attention to the allegorical and mystic sense of the present canto, and not, as Venturi supposes, to that of the whole work. Landino supposes this hidden meaning to be, that in the case of those vices which proceed from incontinence and intem-

perance, reason, which is figured under the person of Virgil, with the ordinary grace of God, may be a sufficient safeguard ; but that in the instance of more heinous crimes, such as those we shall here- after see punished, a special grace, represented by the angel, is requisite for our defence."

Scartazzini's note coincides with my own : "I piu riferiscono questa terzina ai versi ante- cedenti, cioe all' allegoria di Medusa e delle tre furie. Dante suole per6 richiamare in tal modo P attenzione del lettore a ci6 che star per dire ; cf. ' Purg.' viii. 19 e seg. ; ix. 70 e seg. ; ' Par.' ii. 1 e seg., &c. Se la terzina si riferisce a quello che segue, il senso potrebbe essere : Mirate quanto e piccolo e folle il pih orgoglioso potere quando vuol resistere al principle d' ogni vero potere che & 1' Essere eterno !"

Lombardi's text differs from Scartazzini's in the elision of the e and i in che (first line) and. il (third line) : a minor variance, but more in obedience to scansion ; while their comments agree in substance. But Bianchi favours the opinions of both Prof. Tomlinson and Venturi, tnough his text follows Lombardi's in the omission of the i. The position, then, this tercet occupies in this canto is more admoni- tory than parenthetical, called for, in Dante's judgment, by its allegorical character, a character closely allied to the "noble gro- tesque " which, as Ruskin acknowledges,

"in Dante the central man of all the world, as representing in perfect balance the imaginative, moral, and intellectual faculties all at their highest reaches at once the most distinct and the most noble development to which it was ever brought in the human mind" (' Stones of Venice,' ii. 207).

2. Ibid., 98, 99 : Cerbero vostro, se ben vi ricorda, Ne porta ancor pelato il mento e '1 gozzo.

The altogether unnecessary fuss over this passage alone tempts me to advert to it, thougn in so doing the clamour may be unduly emphasized. Thus Gary has a fling at Lombardi :

" Your Cerberus, if ye remember, hence Bears still, peel'd of their hair, his throat and

maw.

Cerberus is feigned to have been drugged by Hercules, bound with a threefold chain, of which, says the angel, he still bears the mark. Lombardi blames the other interpreters for having supposed that the angel attributes this exploit to Hercules, a fabulous hero, rather than to our Saviour. It would seem as if the good father had forgotten that Cer- berus is himself no less a creature of the imagina- tion than the hero who encountered him."

The Anglican vicar certainly scores a point with the Italian Franciscan, but cui bono ? Tnough a ravenous three -headed watchdog the " Hound of Hell "at the gates of Dis (rvp/i?pos=devourer of flesh), he was as harm- less, in his mythological dignity, as modern " Cerebos salt," and it is really very immate- rial by what agency his "throat and ma\y"