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 DANTE DANTON 677 chief actor of his own drama. In the Corn- media for the first time Christianity wholly revolutionizes art, and becomes its seminal principle. But aesthetically also, as well as morally, Dante stands between the old and new, and reconciles them. The theme of his poem is purely subjective, modern, what is called romantic ; but its treatment is objective (almost to realism, here and there), and it is limited by a form of classic severity. In the same way he sums up in himself the two schools of modern poetry which had preceded him, and, while essentially lyrical in his sub- ject, is epic in the handling of it. So also he combines the deeper and more abstract religious sentiment of the Teutonic races with the scien- tific precision and absolute systematism of the Romantic. In one respect Dante stands alone. While we can in some sort account for such representative men as Voltaire and Goethe, or even Shakespeare, by the intellectual and moral fermentation of the age in which they lived, Dante seems morally isolated and to have drawn his inspiration almost wholly from his own internal resources. Of his mastery in style we need say little here. Of his mere language, nothing could be better than the ex- pression of Kivarol: "His verse holds itself erect by the mere force of the substantive and verb, without the help of a single epithet." In all literary history there is no such figure as Dante, no such homogeneousness of life and works, such loyalty to idea, and such sublime irrecognition of the unessential ; and there is no moral more touching than that the contem- porary recognition of such a nature, so en- dowed and so faithful to its endowment, should be summed up in the sentence of Florence : Igne comburatur sic quod moriatur. The best authorities on the life and works of Dante are : Troya, 11 veltro allegorico (Florence, 1826) ; Arrivabene, II secolo di Dante (Udine, 1827); Ugo Foscolo, Discorso sul testo (Lugano, 1827, and in London ed. of Dante, 1843, vol. i.) ; Dante, edited with Ottimo Comento (Pisa, 1827-'9) ; ditto, edited by Ciarditti (5 vols. 8vo, Florence, 1830, and 6 vols. 8vo, Molini, 1830) ; Rossetti, Sullo spirito antipapale, &c. (London, 1832) ; Colomb de Batines, Bibliografia dan- tesca (Prato, 1845-'6) ; Balbo, Vita di Dante (Florence, 1853) ; Witte, Dante's lyrische Ge- <^e/i<? (Leipsic, 1842) ; Dante metrisch iibertra- gen, etc., von Philalethes [John of Saxony] (2d ed., 3 vols. 4to, Dresden and Leipsic, 1849), containing the best notes and commentary hitherto; Wegele, Dante's Leben und Werlce (Jena, 1852) ; Schlosser, Studien, &c. (Leipsic und Heidelberg, 1855) ; Bruce-Whyte, Histoire des langues romanes (Paris, 1841, vol. iii.) ; Aroux, Dante, heretique, revolutionnaire et socialiste (Paris, 1854); Fauriel, Dante, &c. (Paris, 1854) ; Ozanam, Dante et la philosophic catholique, &c. (3d ed., Paris, 1855); Ville- main, Cours de litterature francaise (Paris, 1855, vol. i.) ; Quinet, Les revolutions d Italic, &c. (Paris, 1856); Saint-Ren6 Taillandier, in Revue des Deux Mondes for Dec. 1, 1856 ; Car- lyle, " Heroes in History " (London, 1841) ; Em- erson, "Representative Men" (Boston, 1850); and Mariotti (Gallenga), " Fra Dolcino and his Times" (London, 1853). See also "Dante as Philosopher, Patriot, and Poet," by Vincenzo Botta (New York, 1865), and Symonds's "In- troduction to the Study of Dante " (London, 1873). Of the earlier English translations, the most elegant is Gary's, though Dante is a little Miltonized in it. Cayley's preserves the origi- nal metre, the difficulty of which makes him sometimes obscure, often rugged ; but in parts it is admirable. John A. Carlyle's prose ver- sion of the Inferno is perhaps as good as any prose rendering of a poem remarkable for rhythm can be. Parsons's excellent version of the whole of the Inferno was published in 1867. Longfellow's translation of the entire Divina Commedia (1867-'70), in blank verse, is notable for its fidelity to the original; its notes are very valuable. A translation of the Vita nuova, by Charles Eliot Norton, was pub- lished at Boston in 1867. DANTON, Georges Jacques, a French revolu- tionist, horn at Arcis-sur-Aube, Oct. 28, 1759, executed in Paris, April 5, 1794. A lawyer by profession, he became one of the most fervent champions of the revolution. He had some in- tercourse with Mirabeau, and while the latter was exercising his influence over the constitu- ent assembly and the middle classes, he con- trolled the populace, whose affections he won by his fervid eloquence, energetic bearing, and cordial manners. He was one of the founders of the club of Cordeliers, in conjunction with Camille Desmoulins and Marat, and advocated the most violent measures. After the return of Louis XVI. from Varennes, Danton was one of the most ardent promoters of the petition for his deposition. This petition, presented for signature at a popular mass meeting, resulted, July 17, 1791, in the "massacre of the Champ de Mars." Toward the end of the same year Danton was appointed a member of the ad- ministration of the department of the Seine, and assistant attorney of the common council of Paris. He was foremost in organizing and conducting the attack upon the Tuileries, Aug. 10, 1792, and eagerly participated in the fight. A few days afterward he received as a reward from the legislative assembly his appointment to the ministry of justice. At the advance of the Prussian army of invasion in the latter part of August, which filled Paris with con- sternation, he showed such firmness and con- fidence that the assembly and the people were reassured ; but at the same time he cried, " To stop the progress of the enemy, we must strike the royalists with terror ! " On the receipt of the news of the fall of Verdun (Sept. 1) the mob broke into the prisons of Paris, and the dreadful September massacres ensued. Danton himself was unquestionably instru- mental in bringing about this bloody work. On being elected to the convention he resigned