Dante Alighieri by Paget Toynbee Read Free Book Online

that he would have thrown stones at them if they had not held their peace; and this passion he retained to the day of his death. And assuredly I blush to be obliged to blot the fame of so great a man with any defect; but the manner in which I ordered my matter at the outset in some sort demands it, for if I were to besilent regarding things not to his credit, I should shake the faith of my readers in the things already related which are to his credit. Therefore to him himself I make my excuse, who maybe from some lofty region of heaven looks down with scornful eye upon me as I write.
    Â Â Â Â  “Amid all the virtue and all the learning which has been shown above to have been possessed by this wondrous poet, the vice of lustfulness found no small place, and that not only in the years of his youth, but also in the years of his maturity; 3 the which vice, though it be natural and common, yet cannot be worthily excused. Nevertheless bearing in mind what is written of David, and Solomon, and of many others, our poet may be allowed to pass by, not excused, but accused with less severity than if he had been alone in this failing.” 4
    Â Â Â Â  With this account of Dante by Boccaccio it is interesting to compare the brief description of his personal characteristics furnished by his contemporary and neighbour in Florence, the chronicler Giovanni Villani, who, if his nephew Filippo is to be believed, was also a personal friend of Dante. 5
    Â Â Â Â  “This Dante,” he says, “was an honourable and ancient citizen of Florence, belonging to the Porta San Piero, and our neighbour. . . . This man was a great scholar in almost every branch of learning, although he was a layman: he was a great poet and philosopher, and a perfect rhetorician both in prose and verse, and in public debate he was a very noble speaker; in rime he was supreme, with the most polished and beautiful style that ever had been in our language, up to his time and since. . . .This Dante, on account of his great learning, was somewhat haughty and reserved and scornful, and after the manner of a philosopher little gracious, not adapting himself to the conversation of the unlearned. But on account of his other virtues and knowledge and worth, it seems right to perpetuate the memory of so great a citizen in this our chronicle, albeit that his noble works left to us in writing are the true testimony to his fame and a lasting honour to our city.” 6
    Â 
----
    Â Â Â Â  1 See above, p. 103 note.
    Â Â Â Â  2 This anecdote was quoted in a letter written in 1624 by Lord Keeper Williams to the Duke of Buckingham, in which he tried to persuade the Duke to accept the office of Lord Steward. “I will trouble your grace,” he writes, “with a tale of
Dante
, the first
Italian
Poet of Note: who, being a great and wealthy Man in Florence, and his Opinion demanded who should be sent Embassador to the Pope? made this Answer, that he knew not who;
Si jo vo
,
chi sta
,
si jo sto
,
chi va
; If I go, I know not who shall stay at Home; If I stay, I know not who can perform this Employment” (see Paget Toynbee,
Dante in English Literature
, vol. i. p. 117).
    Â Â Â Â  3 There are several passages in the
Divina Commedia
which seem to hint at Dante’s consciousness of this failing (see above, p. 71).
    Â Â Â Â  4
Vita di Dante
, ed. Macrì-Leone, §§ 8, 12, pp. 43-7, 59-62.
    Â Â Â Â  5 See above, p. 37 note.
    Â Â Â Â  6 Bk. ix. ch. 136.

CHAPTER III
    Â Â Â Â  Anecdotes of Dante—Dante and Can Grande della Scala—Belacqua and Dante—Sacchetti’s stories—Dante and the blacksmith—Dante and the donkey-driver—Dante’s creed—Dante and King Robert of Naples—Dante’s reply to the bore—Dante and the Doge of Venice—Dante a kleptomaniac—Dante and Cecco d’ Ascoli.
    M ANY anecdotes and traditions concerning Dante