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DANTE, ALIGHIERI. 



DANTE. ALIGHIERI. 



503 



for their fidelity, and thought to promise for the artist a high position 

 as a portrait sculptor. But giving way to a strong inclination to 

 caricature, be about 1831 caught the fancy of the Parisian public by 

 issuing in quick succession a series of grotesque statuettes of the 

 leading celebrities of the capital. These ' charges,' as they were called, 

 were in fact something quite new in the world of art ; and they were 

 as clever as they were novel. D.intan seized the leading features of 

 the face and exaggerated and distorted them with singular ingenuity, 

 yet alwavs so as to refrain from rendering the person caricatured in 

 any way ridiculous, whilst the likeness and every peculiarity of expres- 

 sion seemed brought out with a greatly increased force by this good- 

 uumoured heightening. But D mtan, instead of confining his caricature 

 to the face like ordinary caricaturists, placed the head on a diminutive 

 body, which seemed at flr-t glmce mainly to serve as a pedestal, but 

 in which, and especially in the hands, the characteristic expression 

 was continued and strengthened with the most amusing absurdity. 

 No wonder that works of this kind, executed with the mastery of a 

 finished artist, and bringing out with ludicrous vehemence the well- 

 remembered expression and habit of each ' lion of the hour,' should 

 become excessively popular with a race who, whilst almost worshipping 

 the ruling favourite, of all things enjoys best a laugh at his expense. 

 Soon cat from Dantan's ' charges ' of Victor Hugo, Dumas, and many 

 other well-known writers, of Horace Vernet and other artists, of 

 Talleyrand and other statesmen, and especially of Pagauini, Berton, 

 Musard, Lablaclie, Tamburini, Rubini, Thalberg, and many more 

 musicians and singers, and of Boutle, Frederick Lemaitre, and other 

 actors in their most popular characters, were in every window, and 

 some one or other in almost every house ; and it may be doubted 

 whether many of these men do not still, when they recur to the 

 memory of the majority of Frenchmen, assume the shape of their 

 Dantaueeque ' charges.' Having thus secured the features of the world 

 of Paris M. Dantau determined to do the same kind office for that of 

 London ; and a ludicrous series of British heads including Wellington 

 and Brougham, U'Counell and Cobbett, Rogers and Rothschild were 

 the result of his visit to this country : but happily aa he caught and 

 enlarged ' with thrice-piled hyperbole ' some of the more strongly- 

 marked physiognomies, he hardly found himself thoroughly at home 

 with our countrymen. II. Dantan has during the last few ye.ars 

 executed several marble busts of various eminent persons, free from 

 all tendency to caricature, but admirable aa likenesses. 



DA'NTE or DURANTE, ALIGHIEIU, was born at Florence on 

 the 8th of May 1265. By a familiar contraction of his Christian 

 name, Durante, he waa called Dante, by which name he has become 

 generally known. Hia family was noble ; he was a great grandson of 

 Cacciaguida Elisei, who married a lady of the family of Alighieri of 

 Ferrara, and whose children assumed the arms and the name of their 

 mother. Cacciaguida accompanied the Emperor Conrad III. in his 

 crusade, was made a knight, and died in battle in Syria in 1147; 

 (' Paradiso,' cantos 15, 16, and 17, in which Cacciaguida is made to 

 rclite to Dante his adventures, with an interesting account of the 

 state of Florence and the primitive manners of its citizens in his time, 

 before the breaking out of the great feud between the Quelphs and the 

 Guidelines) Dante's father, Aldigbiero Alighieri, died while Dante 

 was yet a child. As Dante grew up he showed great capabilities for 

 learning, in which he was assisted by Brunetto Latini, a celebrated 

 scholar of the time. He became also intimate with Guide Cavalcanti, 

 a young man of an inqui.-itive and philosophical turn of mind. It is 

 asserted by some that Danto studied at Bologna, though this is not 

 clearly ascertained ; it is however evident from bis works that he had 

 deeply read and was imbued with all the learning of that age. By his 

 own account he seems to have led rather a licentious life until he fell 

 in love with Beatrice Portinari, of an illustrious family of Florence. 

 His attachment however appears to have been purely platonic, but it 

 served to purify his sentiments; the lady herself died about 1290, 

 when Dante was 25 years of age, but he continued to cherish her 

 memory, if we are to judge from his poems, to tha latest period of his 

 life. It must have been about or a little before the time of Beatrice's 

 death that he wrote his ' Vita Nuova,' which is a series of canzoni 

 intermixed with prose, in which he speaks of his love in a spiritual 

 and platonic strain, and of the change it produced in him, which was 

 the beginning of his " new life." 



The party of the Guelphs was at that time predominant at Florence, 

 having some years before driven away the Ghibelines with the 

 assistance of the pope and of Charles of Anjou, king of Maples. But 

 in the neighbouring city of Arezzo the contrary had occurred ; the 

 Ghibelinea, with the bishop at their head, being the stronger party, 

 had turned the Guelphs out of the town. The Uuelphs of Arezzo 

 applied to those of Florence for assistance. This led to a war between 

 Florence and Arezzo, in which the Ghibelines of the latter place were 

 'd at Cauipoliliuo in June 1289, when their bishop was killed. 

 Dante ws present at this engagement, and soon after his return to 

 Florence he married Gemma Douati, of a powerful Guelph family. He 

 n > w became a candidate, for civic honours and offices. The citizens of 

 nee were classed into thr. e ranks : 1st, grand!, or old families, 

 formerly feudal nobles, many of whom had still feudal estates in 

 various parts of the country, though in the town they enjoyed by law 

 DO exclusive privilege ; 2nd, popolani grassi, or substantial citizens, 

 men who had risen by trade, and many of whom were wealthier than 



the nobles ; 3rd, piccioli, or inferior tradespeople, artisans, &c. The 

 two last classes, weary of disturbances created by faction, and being 

 directed by some well-meaning rneu, among whom was Uino Cornpagni 

 the chronicler, who is the safest guide through this part of Florentine 

 hUtory, had made a law in 1282 by which the citizens being classed 

 according to their trades, the higher trades, " arti maggiori," chose six 

 priori, or aldermen, one for each district of the city, who were called 

 also " i six'nori " and constituted tua executive. They were renewed 

 every two months. No oue could aspire to office who had not his name 

 inscribed on the register of one of the trades. Dante enrolled his 

 name on the register of physicians and apothecaries, though he never 

 exercised that profession. 



The institution of the priori did not prevent the town being distracted 

 by factions as before, as those magistrates often availed themselves of 

 their brief term of office to favour their friends and court favour with 

 the wealthier citizens. To remedy this, the popular party, led by 

 Giano della Bella, in 1293 elected a new officer, called Gonfalouiere di 

 Giustizia, who was to enforce, order and justice, and gave him a guard 

 of 1000 soldiers : they also excluded for ever thirty-three families of 

 the grandi, or nobles, from political office. But a conspiracy of the 

 wealthy families drove away Giauo della Bella and his adherents in 

 1294, and the town again fell a prey to factious. Two powerful 

 families, the Donati and the Cerchi, were at the head of the contending 

 parties, and affrays between their respective partisans occurred repeat- 

 edly in the streets of Florence. Both were Guelphs, but the Cerchi 

 were suspected of a bias in favour of the Ghibeliues, because they were 

 less rigorous in enforcing the penal laws against the latter; and they 

 had also for them the friends of the unjustly-expelled Giano della 

 Bella. The pope, Boniface VIII., favoured the Douati as being zealous 

 Guelphs. About this time the town of Pistoiu was likewise divided 

 between two factions, called Bianchi and Neri, which originated with 

 two branches of the family of Canoellieri. The Florentines being 

 applied to as arbitrators, several of the more violent partisans were 

 exiled from Pistoia, and came to Florence, where tlie Bianchi became 

 connected with the Cerchi and the Neri with the Douati, and from 

 tbese connections the two Florentine parties assumed the respective 

 names of Biauchi and Neri. Both, as we have said: above, were branches 

 of the great Guelph party then predominant at Florence; but after- 

 wards the Bianchi in their reverses joined the Ghibeliues, with whom 

 they have been often confounded by subsequent writers. It is necessary 

 to bear these things iu mind, in order to understand the history and 

 the political sentiments of Dante. Dante was a Guelph, and connected 

 by marriage with the Donati, the leaders of the Neri. But be was 

 also connected by personal friendship, and perhaps also by a feeling of 

 equity, with the Biauchi, who appear to have shown themselves from 

 the first less overbearing and violent than their antagonists, and to 

 have been in fact the injured party. Dante being made one of the 

 priori in June of the year 1300, proposed and carried a law by which 

 the chiefs of both parties were exiled for a time out of the territory 

 of the republic. The Bianchi were sent to Sarzana, and the Neri to 

 Castel della Pieve. Some of the Bianchi however soon after returned 

 to Florence, and Dante was accused of having connived at it, chiefly 

 out of friendship for Guido Cavalcanti, who had suffered from the 

 unwholesome climate of Sarzaua, and died soon after his return. 

 The Neri, by their agents at Rome, represented to Boniface VIII. 

 that the Bianchi kept up a communication with the Ghibelines of 

 Arezzo, Pisa, and other places, and that if they obtained the pre- 

 ponderance iu Florence, they would make common cause with the 

 Colonna, the pope's personal enemies. [BONIFACE VIII.J Through 

 these suggestions, aided by bribes distributed by the Neri at the 

 Roman court, a? Dino says, Boniface was induced to give his support 

 to the Neri, and he sent them Charles de Valois, brother of Philippe 

 le Bel, under the plausible title of peace-maker. Charles entered 

 Florence iu November 1301, followed by 1200 armed men. Affecting 

 impartiality at first, he let all the Neri return to Florence, followed 

 by the armed peasantry ; new priori were made, all favourable to the 

 Neri, and the Biauchi began to be openly attacked in the streets. 

 The Medici, who were already an influential family among the 

 people, killed oue of the Bianuhi, and no notice was taken of the 

 murder. A general proscription of the Bianchi now began, connived 

 at by the peace-maker, Charles de Valois. " People were murdered in 

 the streets ; others were dragged into tho houses of their enemies, 

 where they were put to the torture in order to extort money from 

 them, their houses were plundered and burnt, their daughters were 

 carried away by force; and when some largo house was seen in flames, 

 Charles used to ask, ' What fire is that ? ' and those around him 

 auswered him that it WHS some wretched hovel, whilst in reality it 

 was a ri.;h palace." (Dino, ' Crouica,' lib. ii.) Tho house of Dante 

 was one of those that were plundered. Dante was at the titno at 

 Rome, whither he had been sent by the Biauchi to counteract, if 

 possible, the suggestions of their antagonists. On hearing the news 

 of the proscription he hastily left Rome, and joined his fugitive 

 friends at Arezzo. In January 1302, a sentence was passed con- 

 demning him to two years' exile and a fine of 8000 florins, and in 

 case of non-payment hin property to bo sequestrated. By a second 

 sentence, dated March of the same year, he and others were con- 

 demned, as barattieri, or guilty of malversation, peculation, and usury, 

 to be burnt alive. The sentence was grounded merely on the public 



