IV

FORESE DONATI TO DANTE ALIGHIERI

He taunts him concerning the unavenged Spirit of Geri Alighieri
THE other night I had a dreadful cough

Because I'd got no bed-clothes over me;
And so, when the day broke, I hurried off
To seek some gain whatever it might be.
And such luck as I had I tell you of.

For lo! no jewels hidden in a tree

I find, nor buried gold, nor suchlike stuff,
But Alighieri among the graves I see,
Bound by some spell, I know not at whose 'hest,—
At Solomon's, or what sage's who shall say ?
Therefore I crossed myself towards the east ;
And he cried out : For Dante's love I pray
Thou loose me!' But I knew not in the least

How this were done, so turned and went my way.

Now all this may be pronounced little better than scurrilous doggrel, and I would not have introduced any of it, had I not wished to include everything which could possibly belong to my subject.

Even supposing that the authorship is correctly attributed in each case, the insults heaped on Dante have of course no weight, as coming from one who shows every sign of being both foulmouthed and a fool. That then even the observance of the vendetta had its opponents among the laity, is evident from a passage in Barberino's Documenti d'Amore. The two sonnets bearing Dante's name, if not less offensive than the others, are rather more pointed; but seem still very unworthy even of his least exalted mood.

Accordingly Fraticelli (in his Minor Works of Dante) settles to his own satisfaction that these four sonnets are not by Dante and Forese; but I do not think his arguments conclusive enough to set the matter quite at rest. He first states positively that Sonnet I (as above) is by Burchiello, the Florentine barber-poet of the fifteenth century. However, it is only to be found in one edition of Burchiello, and that a late one, of 1757, where it is placed among the pieces which are very doubtfully his. It becomes all the more doubtful when we find it there followed by Sonnet II (as above), which would seem by all evidence to

be at any rate written by a different person from the first, whoever the writers of both may be. Of this sonnet Fraticelli seems to state that he has seen it attributed in one MS. to a certain Bicci Novello; and adds (but without giving any authority) that it was addressed to some descendant of the great poet, also bearing the name of Dante. Sonnet III is pronounced by Fraticelli to be of uncertain authorship, though if the first is by Burchiello, so must this be. He also decides that the designation, 'Bicci, vocato Forese', shows that Forese was the nickname and Bicci the real name; but this is surely quite futile, as the way in which the name is put is to the full as likely to be meant in ridicule as in earnest. Lastly, of Sonnet IV Fraticelli says nothing.

It is now necessary to explain that Sonnet II, as I translate it, is made up from two versions, the one printed by Fiacchi and the one given among Burchiello's poems; while in one respect I have adopted a reading of my own. I would make the first four lines say—

Ben sò che fosti figliuol d'Alighieri :

Ed accorgomen pure alla vendetta
Che facesti di lui, si bella e netta,
Dell' avolin che diè cambio l'altrieri.

Of the two printed texts one says, in the fourth line-
Dell' aguglin ched ei cambiò l'altrieri ;

and the other,

Degli auguglin che diè cambio l'altrieri.

Aguglino' would be eaglet', and with this, the whole sense of the line seems quite unfathomable: whereas at the same time' aguglino' would not be an unlikely corrupt transcription, or even corrupt version, of avolino, which again (according to the often confused distinctions of Italian relationships) might well be a modification of 'avolo' (grandfather), meaning greatuncle. The reading would thus be, 'La vendetta che facesti di lui (i.e.) dell' avolino che diè cambio l'altrieri;' translated literally, The vengeance which you took for him, for your great-uncle who gave change the other day.' Geri Alighieri might indeed have been said to give change' or 'pay scores in full' by his death, as he himself had been the aggressor in the first instance, having slain one of the Sacchetti, and been afterwards slain himself by another.

6

I should add that I do not think the possibility, however questionable, of these sonnets being authentically by Dante

and Forese, depends solely on the admission of this word lino'.

The rapacity attributed to the Bicci' of Sonnet I seems a tendency somewhat akin to the insatiable gluttony which Forese is represented as expiating in Dante's Purgatory. Mention is also there made of Forese's wife, though certainly in a very different strain from that of Sonnet III; but it is not impossible that the poet might have intended to make amends to her as well as in some degree to her husband's memory. I am really more than half ashamed of so many possibles' and impossibles'; but perhaps, having been led into the subject, am a little inclined that the reader should be worried with it like myself.

not

At any rate, considering that these Sonnets are attributed by various old manuscripts to Dante and Forese Donati;-that various writers (beginning with Ubaldini, who seems to have ransacked libraries more than almost any one) have spoken of these and other sonnets by Forese against Dante,-that the feud between the Alighieri and Sacchetti, and the death of Geri, were certainly matters of unabated bitterness in Dante's lifetime, as we find the vendetta accomplished even after his death, and lastly, that the sonnets attributed to Forese seem to be plausibly referable to this subject, I have thought it pardonable towards myself and my readers to devote to these ill-natured and not very refined productions this very long and tiresome note.

Crescimbeni (Storia della Volgar Poesia) gives another sonnet against Dante as being written by Forese Donati, and it certainly resembles these in style. I should add that their obscurity of mere language is excessive, and that my translations therefore are necessarily guesswork here and there; though as to this I may spare particulars except in what affects the question at issue. In conclusion, I hope I need hardly protest against the inference that my translations and statements might be shown to abound in dubious makeshifts and whimsical conjectures ; though it would be admitted, on going over the ground I have traversed, that it presents a difficulty of some kind at almost every step.

There is one more versifier, contemporary with Dante, to whom I might be expected to refer. This is the ill-fated Francesco Stabili, better known as Cecco d'Ascoli, who was burnt by the Inquisition at Florence in 1327, as a heretic, though the exact nature of his offence is involved in some mystery. He was a narrow, discontented, and self-sufficient writer; and his incongruous poem in sesta rima, called L'Acerba, contains various references to the poetry of Dante (whom he knew personally)

as well as to that of Guido Cavalcanti, made chiefly in a supercilious spirit. These allusions have no poetical or biographical value whatever, so I need say no more of them or their author. And indeed perhaps the Bicci' sonnets are quite enough of themselves in the way of absolute trash.

SEVERAL of the little-known sonnets of Boccaccio have reference to Dante, but, being written in the generation which followed his, do not belong to the body of my first division. I therefore place three of them here, together with a few more specimens from the same poet.

There is nothing which gives Boccaccio a greater claim to our regard than the enthusiastic reverence with which he loved to dwell on the Commedia and on the memory of Dante, who died when he was seven years old. This is amply proved by his Life of the Poet and Commentary on the Poem, as well as by other passages in his writings both in prose and poetry. The first of the three following sonnets relates to his public reading and elucidation of Dante, which took place at Florence, by a decree of the State, in 1373. The second sonnet shows how the greatest minds of the generation which immediately succeeded Dante already paid unhesitating tribute to his political as well as poetical greatness. In the third sonnet, it is interesting to note the personal love and confidence with which Boccaccio could address the spirit of his mighty master, unknown to him in the flesh.

I

To one who had censured his public Exposition of Dante
IF Dante mourns, there wheresoe'er he be,

That such high fancies of a soul so proud
Should be laid open to the vulgar crowd,
(As, touching my Discourse, I'm told by thee,)
This were my grievous pain; and certainly
My proper blame should not be disavow'd;
Though hereof somewhat, I declare aloud
Were due to others, not alone to me.
False hopes, true poverty, and therewithal
The blinded judgement of a host of friends,
And their entreaties, made that I did thus.
But of all this there is no gain at all

Unto the thankless souls with whose base ends

Nothing agrees that's great or generous.

II

Inscription for a Portrait of Dante

DANTE ALIGHIERI, a dark oracle,

Of wisdom and of art, I am; whose mind
Has to my country such great gifts assign'd
That men account my powers a miracle.
My lofty fancy passed as low as Hell,

As high as Heaven, secure and unconfin'd;
And in my noble book doth every kind
Of earthly lore and heavenly doctrine dwell.
Renowned Florence was my mother,-nay,
Stepmother unto me her piteous son,

Through sin of cursed slander's tongue and tooth.
Ravenna sheltered me so cast away;

My body is with her,-my soul with One

For whom no envy can make dim the truth.

III

To Dante in Paradise, after Fiammetta's death
DANTE, if thou within the sphere of Love,
As I believe, remain'st contemplating
Beautiful Beatrice, whom thou didst sing
Erewhile, and so wast drawn to her above ;-
Unless from false life true life thee remove

So far that Love's forgotten, let me bring
One prayer before thee: for an easy thing
This were, to thee whom I do ask it of.
I know that where all joy doth most abound
In the third Heaven, my own Fiammetta sees
The grief which I have borne since she is dead.

O pray her (if mine image be not drown'd
In Lethe) that her prayers may never cease
Until I reach her and am comforted.

I add three further examples of Boccaccio's poetry, chosen for their beauty alone. Two of these relate to Maria d'Aquino, the lady whom, in his writings, he calls Fiammetta. The last has a playful charm very characteristic of the author of the Decameron; while its beauty of colour (to our modern minds, privileged to review the whole pageant of Italian Art,) might recall the painted pastorals of Giorgione.