DANTE AND PETRARCH. 51 



does he paint, for instance,, at the close of the first canto of 

 the Purgatorio ( 7S ) , the sweet breath of morning, and the 

 trembling light on the gently agitated distant mirror of the 

 sea, (il tremolar de la marina) ; in the fifth canto., the 

 bursting of the clouds and the swelling of the rivers, which, 

 after the battle of Campaldino, caused the body of Buon- 

 conte da Montefeltro to be lost in the Arno ( 79 ). The en- 

 trance into the thick grove of tne terrestrial paradise reminds 

 the poet of the pine forest near Ravenna : " la pineta in sul lito 

 di Chiassi" ( 80 ), where the early song of birds is heard in 

 the tall trees. The local truth of this natural picture 

 contrasts with the description of the river of light in the 

 heavenly paradise, from which et sparks burst forth, sink 

 amidst the flowers on the banks, and then, as if intoxi- 

 cated by their perfumes, plunge again into the stream ( 81 )." 

 It seems not impossible that this fiction may have had 

 for its groundwork the poet's recollection of that peculiar 

 state of the ocean, in winch, during the beating of the waves, 

 luminous points dash above the surface, and the whole liquid 

 plain forms a moving sea of sparkling light. The extraordinary 

 conciseness of the style of the Divina Commedia augments 

 the depth and earnestness of the impression produced. 



Lingering on Italian ground, but avoiding those 

 frigid compositions, the pastoral romances, I would next 

 name the sonnet in which Petrarch describes the impression 

 which the lovely valley of Yaucluse made on him when 

 Laura was no more ; then, the smaller poems of Boiardo, 

 the friend of Hercules of Este ; and at a later period 

 some noble stanzas by Yittoria Colonna ( 82 ). 



When the sudden intercourse which took place with, 

 Greece in her low state of political depression caused a more 



