Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/228

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NOTES -AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. SEPT. w, 1001.

ported " (though he qualifies the severity of tie stricture y adding, p. 91, "If ****** read, comp. perhaps its use in xxyi. 115 tor conscious anS intelligent life "). If this were the test of a verier lectio, lo sonno with only 13 MSS. must give place to sensi with 30 at its back. But intrinsic evidence is weightier than mere preponderance of readings. And yet I am not so sure that sensi is to be cast aside as unworthy of a moment's considera- tion, for Guido Pisano's gloss (quoted by Dr Moore) would almost bring it within the range of sonno: " Sensum et moturn mde perdebam."

b. The readings of the printed texts are of course, as variable here as the Mbb., ot which they are, so to speak, but typographical transcripts, though the allocation ot them would not always be an easy task. Thus, to collate a few, the John Rylands Library in this city possesses eleven editions of the 'D. C.' printed before 1501, and some forty of a later date, and amongst the former are three of the "prime quattro edizioni," each of 1472, and their respective readings of these lines, for which I am indebted to Mr. H. Guppy, run thus :

Mantua.

Fede portal al glorioso ufficio, Tanto chio ne p'de i sensi ei polsi.

Foligno.

Fede portal al glorioso offitio, Tanto chi ne perclia le uene et polsi.

Jem.

Fede portal al glorioso officio, Tanta che ne perdei li sonni & polsi.

The first has presumably followed either one of the 30 MSS. or of the Venetian codici which have sensi e i polsi ; the second has copied one of the 56 ditto or V. C. ; whilst the third is a print of one of the 102 ditto or V. C. The Latin and un- assimilated forms of offitio and officio are noticeable, and would seem to argue relation- ship with the MS. known as 2 (' Batines,' 403) in the Biblioteca Classense at Ravenna (with kindred MSS.), which, as Dr. Moore points out, abounds in such forms. The "tanta" of the Jesi edition (a reading I rather favour) is also noteworthy as supply- ing, I should imagine, an unusual variant, and the fusion of cK io in the Mantuan "chio" would point to kinship with MS. a in the B.M.

Coming to texts more modern, in the sense of editions by more recent editors, the variants and commentaries are not less numerous and divergent. Bianchi's has vene, which he upholds as equivalent to vita, but condescendingly adds, " Alcune edizioni hanno

lo sonno lezione buona anch' essa. Lombardi prefers lo sonno, and accepts polsi for vita. Lord Vernon's (the Paduan, which he adopts "non perche possa dirsi perfetto, ma perche nella mancanza dell' autografo, passa per migliore") \\&$ vene, which he simply para- phrases as "la vita." Scartazzini contents himself with " Lo sonno : il riposo. I polsi : la vita."

c. A brief collation of some English ren- derings of the lines will not be unprofit- able, if only to mark their variations. Gary perverts both letter and spirit in the second line :

The faith I bore to my high charge was such. It cost me the life-blood that warmed my veins.

Ford is equally wide of the mark : My glorious function 1 did so maintain, That to my life I made it fatal prove.

Tomlinson is hardly more satisfactory : ~_ I to the glorious office kept such faith That veins and pulses scarcely I discerned.

Boyd's translation is an unwarrantable jumble of 11. 63-4 with 1. 78, as well as a total perver- sion of the meaning of the former : With faithful zeal the glorious post I kept, But Envy woke while I supinely slept, And rain d the basis of my fair abode.

Plumptre is as refreshing in fidelity to text and meaning as in felicity of expression : And my high task I wrought with zeal so true, Pulse ceased to beat, nor did I slumber know.

Longfellow is equally accurate, though less

graceful :

Fidelity I bore the glorious office So great, I lost thereby my sleep and pulses.

d. Touching Pier delle Vigne's manner of death at Pisa, Napier (' Florentine History,' i. 19) holds that occurred, "as is conjectured, from the effects of a fall and not by his own hand, as Dante believed and sung." Per contra, Milman (' L. C.,' v. 499), Sismondi ( l H. R. I.,' iii. 79), and, more strongly still, Dante's testimony and that of the archives of Pisa, sustain the suicide theory. Gibbon makes no mention of it nor of Dante at all, so far as I know. Dante's statement concerning this or any other historical fact would not, perse, establish finality. He would (and did) use a poet's licence in dealing with history as unscrupu- lously as Shakespeare did. Nor are his quota- tions always trustworthy. Thus, to advance an instance or two, in l Par.,' xxv. 18, 33, &c., he attributes the General Epistle to St. James

9, he assigns to Livy what belongs to others ; but, for an obvious reason, he was more likely to be acquainted with the circumstances of Pier's death than Napier. The same may be
 * the Greater, and in ' De Monarchia,' ii. 4, 5, and