Page:The Earliest Lives of Dante (Smith 1901).djvu/74

Rh There, however, he let it stand, for he believed that in vain would crusts of bread be put in the mouths of those who were still sucking milk. He therefore began his work anew in a style suited to modern feelings, and continued it in the vulgar tongue.

This book of the Commedia, as some one tells us, he dedicated to three illustrious Italians, according to its three-fold division, to each one his part, as follows. The first part, the Inferno, he dedicated to Uguccione della Faggiuola, then greatly celebrated in Tuscany as the Lord of Pisa. The second part, the Purgatorio, he dedicated to the Marquis Moruello Malaspina; and the third, the Paradiso, to Frederick III, King of Sicily. There are some who maintain that he dedicated the whole to Messer Cane della Scala. As to which of these two statements is correct, we have no evidence save the gratuitous opinions of different persons; nor is it so important a matter as to need serious investigation.