Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/675

 DANTE 671 the Florentines had made bimestrial, in order apparently to secure at least six constitutional chances of revolution in the year. He advised that the leaders of both parties should be ban- ished to the frontiers, which was forthwith done, the ostracism including his relative Corso Donati among the Neri, and his most intimate friend, the poet Guido Cavalcanti, among the Bianchi. They were all permitted to return before long, but after Dante's term of office was over. Affairs getting worse (1301), the Neri, with the connivance of the pope (Boni- face VIII.), entered into an arrangement with Charles of Valois, who was preparing an expe- dition to Italy. Dante was meanwhile sent on an embassy to Rome by the Bianchi, who still retained all the offices at Florence. It is the tradition that he said in setting forth: "If I go, who remains? and if I stay, who goes?" Whether true or not, the story implies what was certainly true, that the council and influ- ence of Dante were of great weight with the more moderate of both parties. On Oct. 31, 1301, Charles took possession of Florence in the interest of the Neri. Dante being still at Kome (Jan. 27, 1302), sentence of exile was pronounced against him and others, with a heavy fine to be paid within two months ; the charge against him being pecuniary malversa- tion in office. The fine not paid (as it could not be without admitting the justice of the charges, which Dante scorned even to deny), in less than two months (March 10, 1302) a second sentence was registered by which he with others was condemned to be burned alive if taken within the boundaries of the republic. From this time the life of Dante becomes un- certain. He was now necessarily identified with his fellow exiles, and shared in their attempts to reinstate themselves by force of arms. He was one of their council of twelve, but withdrew from it on account of the folly of their measures. From the Ottimo Comento, written at least in part by a contemporary as early as 1333, we learn that Dante soon sepa- rated himself from his companions in misfor- tune, with mutual discontents and recrimina- tions. During the 19 years of his exile, it would be hard to say where he was not. In certain districts of northern Italy there is scarce a village that has not its tradition of him, authentic or otherwise; its sedia, rocca, spelonca, or torre di Dante. After his ban- ishment we find a definite trace of him first at Arezzo with Uguccione della Faggiuola ; then at Siena ; then at Verona with the Scaligeri. By the election of the emperor Henry VII. (of Luxemburg, November, 1308), and the news of his proposed expedition into Italy, the hopes of Dante were raised to the highest pitch. Henry entered Italy in October, 1310, and re- ceived the iron crown of Lombardy at Milan on the day of Epiphany, 1311. His movements being slow, and his policy undecided, Dante addressed him a famous letter, urging him to crash first the " Hydra and Myrrha " Florence, 248 VOL. v. 43 as the root of all the evils of Italy (April 16, 1311). To this year we must probably assign the new decree by which the seigniory of Flo- rence recalled a portion of the exiles, but ex- cepting Dante and others by name. The un- dertaking of Henry, after an ill-directed daw- dling of two years, ended in his death at Buon- convento, Aug. 24, 1313. According to Balbo, Dante spent the time from August, 1313, to November, 1314, in Pisa and Lucca, and then took refuge at Verona with Can Grande della Scala (see CANE I. DELLA SCALA), where he remained till 1318. Foscolo with equal posi- tiveness sends him, immediately after the death of Henry, to Guido da Polenta at Ravenna, and makes him join Can Grande only after the lat- ter became captain of the Ghibelline league in December, 1318. In 1316 the government of Florence issued a new decree allowing the exiles to return on conditions of fine and pen- ance. Dante rejected the offer in an indignant letter, saying: "Is this then the glorious re- turn of Dante Alighieri to his country after nearly three lustres of suffering exile? Did an innocence patent to all merit this ? This, the perpetual sweat and toil of study? Far from a man the housemate of philosophy be so rash and earthen - hearted a humility as to allow himself to be offered up bound like a schoolboy or a criminal ! Far from a man the preacher of justice to pay those who have done him wrong as for a favor ! This is not the way of returning to my country ; but if another can be found that shall not derogate from the fame and honor of Dante, that I will enter on with no lagging steps. For if by none such Florence may be entered, by me then never! Can I not everywhere behold the mirrors of the sun and stars ? Speculate on sweetest truths under any sky without first giving myself up inglorious, nay, ignominious, to the populace and city of Florence? Nor shall I want for bread." Whatever the date of Dante's visit to Can Grande, or the length of his stay with him, it is certain that he was in Ravenna in 1320, and that on his return thither from an embassy to Venice, he died in 1321. He was buried at Ravenna under a monument built by his friend Guido Novello. Dante is said to have dictated the following in- scription for it on his deathbed : JVRA MONARCHIC! 8VPEEO8 PHLEGETHONTA LACV8QVE LVSTRANDO CECENt VOLVEEVNT FATA QVOVSQVE BED QVIA PARS CEBSIT MELIORIBV8 HOSPITA CA8TRI8 AVCTOREMQVE 8VVM PETIIT FELICIOR A8TRI8 Hie CLAVDOR DANTES PATRIIS EXTORRIS AB ORIS QVEM GENVIT PARVI FLORENTIA MATER AMORIS. Of which this rude paraphrase may serve as a translation : The rights of Monarchy, the Heavens, the Stream of Fire, the Pit, In vision seen, I sang as far as to the Fates seemed fit; But since my soul, an alien here, hath flown to nobler wars, And, happier now, hath gone to seek its Maker 'mid the stars, Here am I Dante shut, exiled from the ancestral shore, Whom Florence, the of all least-loving mother, bore.