ing to which, in rapt wonder, Virgil and Dante stand motionless," as did the shepherds who first heard that song." (Purg. xx. 127, 146.) Statius, after replying to the inquiry of Virgil as to his name and the sin which has detained him so long in Purgatory, concludes by expressing his intense admiration for the "Eneid (Purg. xxi. 94, 130), and declares his love for Virgil to be so great that, to have lived with him on earth, he would have done penance for another year, before his translation to Paradise; and on learning from Dante that he is in the presence of Virgil, he bows reverently down to embrace his master's feet.

When questioned by Virgil, in highly figurative language, as to how he became a Christian, Statius. replies (Purg. xxii. 61-72) :

"Thou first my steps didst guide Towards Parnassus, in its grots to drink, And first my road to God thou didst illume."

He then refers to Virgil's fourth Eclogue, 5-7, with its quotation from the Sibylline prophecy, which, from a very early age, had been regarded as predicting the advent of Christ.

"The season is renewed,

Justice returns, and man's primeval age,
And a new progeny descends from Heaven;

Poet I was through thee, through thee a Christian."

In the previous lines he compares Virgil to one walking by night, carrying a light behind him, of no profit to himself, but making wise those who follow after.

Very beautiful is the character of Virgil, as portrayed by Dante; though doomed himself to the joyless region, the air of which was tremulous with sighs, where, with his fellow-exiles from Heaven, he lives, exempt indeed from pain, but uncheered by hope, he feels no envy of Statius, his brother poet, who, having through his agency escaped the dismal fate of the unbaptized, is about to enter the society of the blest, the Paradise, from which he will be for ever excluded.

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Very beautiful also are the words of warning and of encouragement with which, in fulfilment of the task confided to him by Beatrice, he admonishes Dante as he conducts him on his perilous career.

Thus, when Dante, paralyzed by fear, shrinks from the appalling flames through which he must pass in order to reach the earthly Paradise, Virgil reminds him that the flames he so much dreads, are as a wall separating him from Beatrice; and when, in the midst of the fiery furnace, the torture is so exquisite that he would fain have cast himself into molten glass to cool his agony, Virgil, in order to distract his attention, still speaks to him of Beatrice. "Then my gentle Father," Dante tells us, "still speaking of Beatrice, went on," leading the way, "saying already I seem to see her eyes."

No mother, it seems to me, would have dealt more tenderly with a loved and faltering child.

Among the characteristic features of Mediævalism there are few more remarkable than the legendary halo which gathered round the personality of Virgil, who was regarded not only as a philosopher and poet, and as endowed with wonder-working power, but also, as we have seen in Dante's "ideal biography" of Statius, as a prophet of Christianity. This profound reverence for Virgil culminates in Dante, to whom he became the impersonation of human philosophy and wisdom, and also of the human conscience. Innumerable passages might be quoted bearing witness to the great love and profound reverence with which the Mantuan bard was regarded by his successor. Thus, on Virgil's first appearance, Dante, inspired with new-born courage, exclaims: "My Leader thou, my Lord, and thou my Master." (Infer. ii. 140.) And immediately after the departure of Virgil, he is thus apostrophized by Dante : Virgil, sweetest Father; Virgil to whom for my salvation I gave myself." (Purg. xxx. 50.)

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To Virgil, moreover, he was largely indebted for his grand conception of the Roman Empire, in his imagina

tion the type and embodiment of imperial majesty and strength, to the reestablishment of which, under some political Messiah, as a real government, based on justice and law, he looked forward as the only means of rescuing his beloved Italy from the terrible disorders in which she was involved.

Bidding farewell to classical literature, I must now briefly call attention to another feature of Mediævalism, which we find reflected in the "Divina Commedia."

Cherishing with pride the remembrance of Ancient Rome, and destitute of any native legendary lore, Italy was słower than other European nations in developing a vernacular language and literature. Hence she welcomed with enthusiasm the Trouvères and Troubadours of France, “who sang to her people the song of Roland, and to her nobles the Arthurian romance," and whose language was adopted by her poets. It is interesting to remember, as illustrating the popularity of the Provençal literature in Italy, at the time of Dante, that in the pathetic story of Paolo and Francesca (Infer. c. x.), the tale which they were reading, on the fatal day of their fall, was that of Queen Guinivere and Lancelot of the Lake.

The terrible picture of Bertram dal Bornio, suffering the penalty of his crimes in the "Inferno" (c. xxv.), together with the high tribute paid by his brother poet, Guinicelli, to Arnauld Daniel, in the "Purgatorio " (c. xxvii. 115), bear witness to Dante's intimate acquaintance with the productions of the Provençal bards.

Among the Italian Troubadours, the most memorable is Sordello of Mantua, who, majestic in his loneliness,

"A guisa di leon quando si posa,"

is immortalized by Dante in the "Purgatorio" (c. vi. 76); the distinguished position assigned by Dante to the Mantuan Troubadour may be regarded as a tribute of gratitude and respect paid by the greatest of the Italian poets to the singers of Provence, "who first gave lyrical expression to the more delicate sentiments of the human

heart, and whose high glory it is to have inspired the early poets of Italy-the masters of Dante and Petrarch."

We owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Dante Gabriel Rossetti for having introduced us, through the medium of his admirable translations, to these early Italian poets, of whom he enumerates upwards of forty, who lived chiefly before Dante, and thirteen who belonged to the Poet's circle. Among the former, special interest attaches to Guido Guinicelli, as having, "in his treatment of chivalrous love, infused into his subject a spirit of philosophical mysticism," and of whom Dante speaks as "Father of myself and others my betters, who have practised sweet and graceful love-verse." Thus having, in a beautiful canzone, ventured to compare the vision of Truth, revealed in his lady's eyes, to the glory of the unveiled face of God, and, on passing into heaven, being asked by God:

"What darest thou?

To make me of vain love similitude."

He proceeds:

"Then may I plead: as though from Thee he came,
Love more an angel's face:

Lord, if I loved her, count it not my shame."

Very beautiful also are the following concluding lines of a sonnet, in praise of his lady:

"Love's self, being love for her, must holier prove. Ever as she walks she hath a sober grace,

Making bold men abash'd, and good men glad;

If she delights thee not, thy heart must err.

No man dare look on her his thoughts being base;
Nay, let me say even more than I have said:-

No man could think base thoughts who look'd on her."

Foremost among the poets of Dante's circle is Guido Cavalcanti, who plays a conspicuous part in the fierce quarrels which then distracted Florence, and who, with the contending factions was, in 1301, banished the city, Dante being at the time one of its chief magistrates.

Born about 1250, he was Dante's senior by some fifteen years. Distinguished by great personal beauty, high accomplishments of all kinds, and daring nobility of spirit, and being at the same time of a fitful and vehement temper, he was "not unworthy to have been the object of Dante's early emulation, the first friend of his youth, and his precursor and fellow-labourer in the creation of Italian poetry." The following sonnet, in which he compares all things with his lady, and finds them wanting, seems to justify the high esteem in which he was held as a poet.

"Beauty in woman; the high will's desire;
Fair knighthood arm'd for manly exercise;
The pleasant song of birds; love's soft replies;
The strength of rapid ships upon the sea;

The serene air when light begins to be;

The white snow, without wind that falls and lies;
Fields of all flower; the place where waters rise;
Silver and gold; azure in jewellery ;-

Weighed against these, the sweet and quiet worth
Which my dear lady cherishes at heart,

Might seem a little matter to be shown;
Being truly over these, as much apart
As the whole heaven is greater than this earth,
All good to kindred natures cleaveth soon."

"Besides the various affectionate allusions to Guido in the 'Vita Nuova,' Dante has unmistakably referred to him in at least two passages of the Commedia.' One of these references is to be found in those famous lines of the Purgatory' (c. xi.), where he awards him the palm of poetry over Guido Guinicelli (though also of the latter he speaks elsewhere with high praise), and implies at the same time, it would seem, a consciousness of his own supremacy over both."

The other mention of Guido is in that pathetic passage of the "Inferno" (c. x.), where Dante meets, among the lost souls, the spirit of Guido's father, Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti, who, being notoriously a sceptic in matters of religion, was placed by Dante in the sixth circle of the Inferno," in one of the fiery tombs of the unbelievers.