Prologue I- 1 1 21 



Moore^^ is not disposed to allow that Dante was acquainted 

 with the De Reriim Natura. He says : 'Even if the passage of 

 Lucretius be copied here (which seems to me very doubtful), 

 it was probably found by Dante as quoted by some other author, 

 or else it may be in some of the Florilegia, though the former 

 would here seem the more probable supposition, if any is needed.' 

 It is not easy to see why Dante, as well as the author whom he is 

 supposed to have quoted, should not have had access to Lucre- 

 tius ; but, if we accept either of Moore's alternative hypotheses 

 as true for Dante, there appears no reason why it should not be 

 equally true for Chaucer. It may be noted that Scartazzini also 

 quotes Lucretius on Dante's lines. 



With the foregoing parallels may be confronted a few passages 

 from modern authors. Lowell, Chaucer {Prose Works, River- 

 side ed., 3. 292) : 'If here be not the largior ether [(Ether, Aen. 

 6. 640], the serene and motionless atmosphere of classical 

 antiquity, we find at least the seclnsum nemus [Aen. 6. 704], the 

 domos placidas {Aen. 6. 705], . . . that persuade us we are 

 in an Elysium none the less sweet that it appeals to our more 

 purely human, one might almost say domestic, sympathies.' 



Ihid., p. 302: 'Virgil had wellnigh become mythical' [in the 

 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries]. 



Ibid., p. 306: 'The invocation of Venus, as the genetic force 

 of nature, by Lucretius [i. 1-43], seems to me the one sunburst 

 of purely poetic inspiration which the Latin language can show.' 



Mather, edition of Prologue, etc., p. Iv: 'The opening lines of 

 the Prologue set us in the very heart of an English springtime; 

 we know that buds are bursting, and hear the song of birds.' 



and give battle, combating in troops and never halting, driven about in 

 frequent meetings and partings.' 



Modis miiltis seems to have suggested Dante's diritte e torte, veloci 

 e tarde, lunghe e corte. 



^^ Studies in Dante i. 295. 



