Volume 1

Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal / [Anon].

Date:
1835-1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eminent literary and scientific men of Italy, Spain, and Portugal / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/332 (page 37)
    In his studies, Dante was so eager, earnest, and indefatigable, that his wife and family often complained of his unsocial habits. Boccaccio mentions, that once, when he was at Siena, having unexpectedly found at a shop window a book which he had not seen, but had long coveted, he placed himself on a bench be- fore the door, at nine o’clock in the morning, and never lifted up his eyes from the volume till vespers, when he had run through the whole contents with such intense application, as to have totally disregarded the festivities of processions and music which had been passing through the streets the greater part of the day ; and when questioned about what had happened even in his presence, he denied having had knowledge of any thing but what he was reading. As might be expected from his other habits, he rarely spoke, except when personally addressed, or strongly moved, and then his words were few, well chosen, weighty, and expressed in tones of voice accommodated to the subject. Yet when it was required, his eloquence brake forth with spon- taneous felicity, splendour, and exuberance of diction, imagery, and thought. Dante delighted in music. The most natural and touching incident in his “ Purgatorio” is the interview between himself and his friend Casella; an eminent singer in his day, who must, notwithstanding, have been forgotten within his century, but for the extraordinary good fortune which has befallen him, to be celebrated by two of the greatest poets of their respective countries, (Dante and Milton) from whose pages his name cannot soon perish. Noi andavam per lo solingo piano, Com’ uom, che torna alla smaritta strada, Che ’nfino ad essa li pare ire invano, Quando noi fummo, dove la rugiada Pugna col sole, e per essere in parte Ove adorezza, poco si dirada, Ambo le mani in su l’erbetta sparte Soavemente ’] mio maestro pose ; Ond’ io che fui accorto di su’ arte, Porsi ver lui le guance lagrimose ; Quivi mi fece tutto discoverto Quel color, che l’inferno mi nagcose.’? pn 3