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GENEALOGY OF THE POET DANTE.*

Ar this moment when, if ever, Italy seems likely, headed by a wise and benevolent Pontiff, to vindicate in the scale of nations, a position suitable to her antique fame and her central position in the world of civilization and commerce, it is still curious to remark, how true she continues to the two great sentiments that have swayed her frame to and fro during the last five centuries of her existence, Ghibellinism and Guelfism. In our apprehension, it matters little whether a native or a foreign, a military, a civil, or a spiritual prince controls the political destinies of Italy, so long as she has secured to her national institutions, in accordance with the progress of human intelligence, and the civilization of the present day.

Napoleon said, that he asked twenty years to inake Italy a nation, a remark, no doubt, implying that it was to rise from its ashes in a new birth; that it was the coming, and not the existing generation; future, and not past education, to which he would look for the elements of national regeneration, and the hopes of future prosperity. That potent spirit that swept over the world, entailing ruin and destruction in his progress, but cleansing and purifying the political and social atmosphere, past away, nor survived to see, except in fancy, the consequences of his own acts. The seed that he had sown was destined to germinate in its fitting season, and whether that season has arrived, the events of the next score of years must determine.

The name of the sovereign Poet of Italy suggested the thoughts to which we have just given way, for who more than Dante had the cause of national regeneration at heart? Who better than he saw the peculiar evils to which Italy was then a prey? Who more than he deplored her fall from her ancient pre-eminence, her sacrifice of great and noble to paltry and selfish interests?

"Dante (says a writer in an Italian periodical, cited by Mr. Mazzinghi) sought to realize in Italy, a unity of civil and military force, and let the Italian who thinks not with him upon this point, after having had before his eyes that most fearful experiment of the five subsequent centuries, cast the first stone at him."

"O wretched, wretched country," writes Dante, in one of his treatises (Convito, Trattato iv. c. 28) "how irresistibly I am impelled to commisserate thy condition, whenever I read or write anything pertaining to civil government."

We confess that we have for some time regarded the enthusiasm of Italians of all classes for their philosophical Poet, as one of the most promising features of the national sentiment. And if as every Italian has felt, and Guizot (Discourse on Civilization) has expressed, Italy resembles a beautiful flower, which some rude grasp prevents from expanding, and if he have, even in his Quixotic anticipations, somewhat realized the epigrammatic saying of De Stael †, and mistaken memories

A brief Notice of some recent Researches respecting Dante Alighieri, by Thomas John Mazzinghi, M.A.

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of the past for prophecies of the future, still enough remains in the womb of time, awaiting only, it may be, the obstetric aid of prudent patriotism, to mature into a blooming promise of national prosperity. With a country blessed with havens of great capacity, an extensive seaboard, and a position in the very centre of the world's converse, what but the "rude grasp" of foreign violence has prevented her from growing into a great and influential European power? What has she hitherto been but war's playground, a theatre on which the madness of Austrian, or Gallic ambition, has strutted its little hour upon the stage?

But the subject with which we have to do is rather family than national, antiquarian than historical, literary than political. We propose to consider some curious features of Italian civilization, as connected with the annals of the family of the greatest Poet of Italy.

Hume, in commenting upon a household book of an Earl of Northumberland, temp. Henry VII., containing the items of expenditure which he sanctioned in his house, than which no baron's was on a nobler or more splendid footing, alludes to the rudeness of manners and gross want of polish and refinement which the whole scheme indicated. And he adds, "If we consider the magnificent and elegant manner in which the Venetian and other Italian noblemen then lived, with the progress made by the Italians in literature and the fine arts, we shall not wonder that they considered the ultramontane nations as barbarous." Sentiments are, however, an even less fallible indication of progress in civilization than manners. And where in England, or elsewhere in the world than in Italy, shall we, during the thirteenth or fourteenth century (the date of the composition is not critically fixed), find a juster definition of the constituent characteristics of a "gentleman," than in the following description :

"The soul that this celestial grace adorns,

In secret hides it not,

But soon as to its earthly mate espoused,

Displays it, until death:

Gentle, obedient, alive to shame,

In early age is seen';

Careful the frame in beauty to improve,

And all accomplishments.-

Temperate and bold, in youthful years, and full

Of love and courtesy, and thirst of fame,

Placing in loyalty its sole delight;

Then in old age wins praise

For prudence, justice, liberality;

And in itself enjoys

To hear and talk of others' valorous deeds.†
Last in the fourth and closing scene of life,
To God is re-espoused,

Contemplating the end which is at hand,
And thanks returning for departed years;

Reflect now how the many are deceived.” ‡

That Dante was "gentle," in this, the highest sense of the word, will

So should be translated the word "nobile," so often confounded with the English word "noble," to which quite a different sense is by us attached.

This, says Mr. Mazzinghi, is a generous but not a faithful translation of the line. "D'udire e ragionar dell' altrui prode."

Dante's Canzoniere, translation of Mr. Lyell, p. 117.

be doubted by none who are conversant with the incidents of his life, or the nobility of thought that breathes throughout his writings; that he was" gentle," in the popular signification of the term, is apparent from other sources.

In the history of Florentine families, a singular feature presents itself; by a practice peculiar to Italy, nay, we believe to Florence, families, under certain circumstances, were compelled to change their arms and their surnames, the origin of which was as follows. After having long suffered the insolent factions of the great families to convulse the state, the middle classes, headed indeed by one of the nobles, by a determined movement obtained the mastery. To organize their newly-acquired power, they instituted an office, the chief at Florence during the republican era, that of Gonfalonier of Justice; they formed a species of national guard from the whole body of the citizens, who were again subdivided into companies, under the command of other officers of inferior dignity, also styled Gonfaloniers (Bannerets). As soon, and frequently did this occur, did any noble commit violence within the walls of the city, which was likely to compromise the public peace, or disturb the quiet of the state, when the great bell at the Palazzo Vecchio raised its alarum, the population flew to arms, and hastened to the spot, where the Gonfalonier of Justice speedily found himself in a position, not merely to put an end to the disturbance, but even to lay siege to the stout massive fortresses which formed the city residences of the insolent and refractious offenders to which they then withdrew. But the reforming party did not stop there; by the new constitution, which was then introduced," the ancient noble families, termed by contemporary historians 'i grandi,' and explained to include those only which had ever been illustrated by the order of Knighthood, were all placed under a severe system of civil restrictions and their names were entered upon a roll called the Ordinances of Justice; the immediate effect was that losing all political rights, they were placed in a most disadvantageous position before the law. Their situation has been aptly compared to that of the Irish Catholics under the full severity of the penal code,* and the same necessity may be regarded with equal reason, perhaps, as palliating the original harshness of each

enactment."

By a somewhat amusing species of democratic liberality, a man or a family might be emancipated from this position and rendered fit for office, born again as it were into a new political life, by renouncing their connections (consorteria) and changing their arms and surnames. They were then said to be made plebeian or popular (fatti di popolo). Niebhur has noticed the analogy of such voluntary resignation of nobility to the "transitio ad plebem" of the Romans.

This practice of changing arms and surnames originated from the Ordinances of Justice promulgated about that time, which expressly requires this as a condition to the enjoyment by any of the old families of popular rights. It gave rise to great varieties of surnames and armorial bearings in different branches of the same house. But it has nevertheless been noted that in all these mutations it was still the endeavour of the parties to retain as much as possible of the ancient ensigns and appellations, so that traces of descent and connexion might not in the progress of years be altogether obliterated. Thus the Cavalcanti took

* Bowyer's Statutes of Italy, p. 39.

the name of Cavallereschi, the Tornaquinci that of Tornabuoni. Sometimes they obtained the object by a play upon the name itself thus ; at other times by making a patronymic of the Christian name of the first or some other favourite ancestor; thus a branch of the Bardi assumed the name of Gualterotti, and a branch of the Pazzi that of Accorri. Sometimes they took their new name from a place or circumstance calculated to preserve the memory of their origin; thus the Agolanti designated themselves Fiesolani, the Bostichi from the antiquity of their stock, Buonantichi. In mutation of arms a similar object was borne in mind. Thus the Buondelmonti simply added to their ancient bearings a mountain az. and a cross gu. The Baccelli, who were a branch of the Mazzinghi, replaced the three perpendicular clubs, the ancient ensigns of the family, by two placed in the form of a cross.

As the object of these provisions was to discriminate for the future those of the ancient families who had acceded to the principles of the popular institutions from their more haughty kindred, (the Protectionists of their day) who remained true to the defence of their feudal and aristocratical prejudices, the change either of arms or surname was not required if the whole family became converts to the new doctrines: for then there was no need of discrimination, and the law was not framed out of any dislike merely to particular ensigns but only to the principles and opinions which they had up to a certain time been understood to represent.

Notwithstanding one passage in the Convito, it would appear that the Poet was powerfully impressed with the feeling for antiquity so common to his age and country, but purified in his great mind from all those grosser ideas and vanities that detract from the real worth of the sentiment, and give it rather the character of a weak and indefensible prejudice. And accordingly we find him in the Paradiso thus apostrophizing 'Nobility,'

"Ben sei tu manto che tosto raccorce,

Si che, se non s'appon di die in die,

Lo tempo va dintorno con le force."-Canto xvi. 6.

"Yet cloak thou art soon shorten'd: for that Time,
Unless thou be eked out from day to day,

Goes round thee with his shears."-CAREY.

The frailty of things human, of family honors amongst them, escapes not the comment of the Poet.

"Mark Luni; Urbisaglia mark;

How they are gone; and after them how go
Chiusi and Sinigaglia; and 'twill seem
No longer new or strange to thee, to hear
That families fail, when cities have their end.
All things that appertain to ye, like yourselves,
Are mortal, but mortality in some

Ye mark not; they endure so long and you
Pass by so suddenly. And as the moon
Doth, by the rolling of her heavenly sphere
Hide and reveal the strand unceasingly;

So fortune deals with Florence. Hence admire not
At what of them I tell thee, whose renown

Time covers, the first Florentines."-CAREY.

In one of the most celebrated passages in the Inferno, the Poet Dante describes his encounter with a chief of the Uberti, hereditary enemies of his own house. Within his fiery tomb that was to remain unclosed until the last day, in the sixth circle of the Inferno (that of the "Increduli") was imprisoned the Ghibellin chieftain, the Coriolanus of Florentine History, Farinata degl' Uberti, to whom the Poet, with strict justice, awards the praise of highmindedness, designating him as " quel magnanimo." "Lo! Farinata there, who hath himself Uplifted; from his girdle upwards, all

Exposed, behold him. On his face was mine
Already fix'd; his breast and forehead there
Erecting, seem'd as in high scorn he held
E'en hell.

He, soon as there I stood at the tomb's foot,
Ey'd me, a space; then in disdainful mood

Addressed me:" Say what ancestors where thine."
I, willing to obey him, straight reveal'd

The whole, nor kept back aught: whence he his brow
Somewhat uplifting, cried: "Fiercely were they
Adverse to me, my party and the blood

From whence I sprang: twice therefore, I abroad
Scatter'd them." 66
Though driven out, yet they each time
From all parts," answered I, "returned; an act
Which yours have shown they are not skilled to learn.”

And here the dialogue is interrupted by an episode which has always been admired as a striking instance of the consummate art of the Poet; it involves however many allusions for which we have no space. We therefore pass it by.

"Meanwhile the other, great of soul, near whom

I yet was station'd, chang'd not count'nance stern,
Nor mov'd the neck, nor bent his ribbed side.

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And if," continuing the first discourse,

They in this art," he cried, "small skill have shown:
That doth torment me more e'en than this bed.
But not yet fifty times shall be relumed
Her aspect, who reigns here, queen of this realm,
Ere thou shalt know the full weight of that art."

Inferno x. Carey.

From the conversation between Dante and his ancestor Cacciaguida in Paradise is derived, although not exclusively, the information that has been handed down respecting the earlier descents of his family. It ascends by well authenticated documents by historical evidence, and municipal records, to a remote period in the middle ages. According to some, the Alighieri were originally descended from that patriotic house of Rome which derived its surname, according to tradition, from having at a time of great dearth and scarcity made a bountiful use of its opulence, to relieve the cravings of the necessitous. They broke their bread with the people, and became thenceforth the "Bread breakers," (Frangipani) in the nomenclature of a grateful people. Certain however it is that the Florentine family of the Alighieri were at a very early date divided into the kindred houses of the Alighieri

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