122 Mr. Lacaita on the '^Divitia Commedia" [May 18, 



ferno, finer poetical expression, finer powers of description, more 

 gentle and nobler feelings, and a total freedom from coarseness of 

 allusion : the speaker went on to censure F. Schlegel's assertion that 

 the chief defect of the poetry of Dante is a want of gentle feelings ; 

 he felt sure that the German critic had scarcely glanced at thePwr- 

 gatorio and the Paradiso. He proceeded next to point out what he 

 conceived to be the finest passages in the Purgatorio, which from 

 the 1st to the end of the 31st canto is an almost uninterrupted 

 flow of soft and brilliant poetry. He called particular attention 

 to the beautiful opening of the 1st canto ; to the touching meeting 

 of Casella, ii. 67-133 ; the meeting of Manfredi, iii. ; Buonconte 

 di Montefeltro and La Pia de' Tolommei, v. 88-136 ; the meeting 

 of Virgil with Sordello, and the splendid apostrophe to Italy and 

 to Florence, vi. 58-151 ; and to the whole 8th canto, one of the 

 finest in the poem. In quoting the beautiful lines in praise of 

 the Malaspinas, the speaker mentioned that 520 years after Dante 

 had found hospitality among them, another exile. Carlo Troya, driven 

 away from Naples when Austrian bayonets had suppressed the 

 Neapolitan constitution in 1821, was also hospitably received by a 

 Malaspina, with whom he went wandering through Val di Magra, 

 and collecting the local traditions connected with the residence of 

 Dante in that mountainous district. Mr. Lacaita further referred 

 the audience to the description of sculptures, the story of Trajan 

 and the poor woman, x. 28-96, 121-129 ; Oderisi d'Agubbio, 

 Cimabue, Giotto, and the beautiful lines on worldly fame, xi. 

 73-117; Sapia from Siena, xiii. 91-154; Guido del Duca, the 

 Val d' Arno, and the Romagna, xiv. 16-126 ; the speech of Marco 

 Lombardo, and the allusion to the temporal power of the Popes, 

 xvi. 67-129; Pope Adrian V., xix. 100-145; Ugo Capeto and 

 Pope Boniface VIII., xx. 43-96 ; Forese de' Donati's praises of his 

 widow, and censure of the Florentine ladies, xxiii. 76-111 ; Foresees 

 mention of his sister Piccarda, Buonagiunta da Lucca, Dante's 

 poetry, &c., xxiv. 1-90 and 145-154; Guido Guinicelli, xxvi. 

 91-135; Dante's dream, &c. xxvii. 70-142; the terrestrial Para- 

 dise, and meeting of Matelda, xxviii. 1-63 ; the meeting of Beatrice, 

 the parting of Virgil, and reprimand of Beatrice to Dante, xxx. 

 22-145 ; and the whole canto, xxxi. 



The speaker regretted that time did not allow him to point out 

 in the same way what he considered to be the finest passages in the 

 Paradiso. After some general remarks on the peculiar character 

 and suggestiveness of Dante's poetry, on the truth and wonderful 

 variety of his similes, on the essentially moral tendency of the 

 whole poem, &c., he concluded by quoting the following passage 

 from a very able essay on Dante by Mr. Church, in the Christian 

 Memembrancer, which embodied, better than he could express by 

 words, his feelings in parting with a subject, to which he felt he 

 could scarcely have done adequate justice. 



" Those who know the Divina Commedia best, will best know 



