Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/297

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

��227

��Dante his

frequent

study.

��of modern languages, in order to qualify himself for teaching

them in Bowdoin College. One year he spent in Italy, and at the Visits Italy.

end of it his proficiency in the language was such that at the hotel

where he lodged he was taken for an Italian, until he stated that

he was an American. At midnight, " when the crowd is gone,"

he says in ' Outre-Mer,' " I retire to my chamber, and, poring

over the gloomy pages of Dante, or ' Bandello's laughing tale,'

protract my nightly vigil till the morning star is in the sky." From

that time Dante was his frequent study, but it was not until 1866

that he completed his translation, so careful and desirous was he

to make it as perfect as possible. In a letter to Mr. George W.

Greene on March 25th, 1864, he writes :

" This is a lovely day, as you are well aware. Moreover, it is Good Friday, as you are equally well aware ; and leaving aside the deep meaning of the day, I will tell you something of which I suspect you are not aware. Have you remembered or noticed that the day and dates of 1864 correspond with those of the Dantesque 1300 ? so that in both years Good Friday falls on the 25th of March ? Five hundred and sixty-four years ago to-day, Dante descended to the citta dolente ; and to-day, with the first cantos of the ' Inferno ' in my hand, I descended among the printer's devils .... Something urges me on and on with this work, and will not let me rest ; though I often hear the warning voice from within, ' Me degno a cio ne io ne altri crede.' '

Longfellow possessed a curious relic of Dante, namely, some bits of Dante's coffin, which were discovered in 1865, and sent to him by Mr. T. B. Lawrence, United States Consul-General in Italy. These he kept in his library in a little box covered with glass, and one day, when showing them to a visitor, he said, "Think of it! Six hundred years ago the bit of wood in that box touched Dante's bones."

While Dante is his longest effort, his work included transla- tions from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, German, Danish, and Anglo-Saxon ; and many of these shorter pieces are unsurpassed. His versions of German are far ahead of other attempts, and some might well pass as original. He was equally happy as a translator of Italian ; and from a Lapland source he got the memorable lines :

A boy's will is the wind's will,

And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.

Indeed, he found perpetual inspiration in phrases from his varied store of foreign knowledge.

Like Irving in his ' Sketch-Book ' and Nathaniel Hawthorne in 'Our Old Home,' Longfellow gave the world in ' Outre-Mer ' a notable book of travel impressions. Stedman in ' Poets of America ' says : " He stimulated our taste by choice presentation of what is rare and choice abroad. With thoughts of this singer

p2

��Possesses bits

of Dante's

coffin.

��Longfellow's

numerous

translations.

��Outre-Mer.'

�� �