New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-05-22

noct Baldassare Castiglione, diplomat IA
man-at-arms, a favored habituG Of the CoS,.
M Urbino prepares his "Cortegiano," one OF tba
most captvating Of all the old compendium,
making for good manners. The list is endIas.
and as various as It is long. The novelists a,on,
make n strong gathering Bandeo, Sraparm,
Cjnthio and others continue the task begun Nv
Boccaccio Torquato Tasso. as the sixteenth
century draws to close, has flashes of creative
power which make his Jerusalem Delivered
seem a kind Of protest against the stagnatiOn
into which the literary genius of Italy was
about TO sink for a century or more. Mysjcs
like Bruno preserve the dignity Of that long
arid space. to be followed in the eighteenth
century by scientific and philosophical minds
on the ore hand. ard by such frivolous souls on
the other as Crescimbeni and the countless
members Of his once notorious Arcadia. In
these later years Of minor men. too, dranatiss
like Gozzi and Goldoni contest for the honors Of
the stage and make it, between them little
more attractive than 1t had ever been before
Alfleri and Metastasio both figure Interestingly
in the eighteenth century. the former a remark.
ably romantic personality. In this century
Leopardis is perhaps the greatest name. May
not the literature made by these swiftly emu
merated names be truly called fascinating?
II ia q fascination unique in European letters
"a DIR. Garnett might have made palmer than
ne does. and the secret Is disclosed with singu.
lar felicity In the picture by 81 anlsh master
which we reproduce. This Venetian group, with
It's declalming poet. its courtly painter pauslng
in his work TO give ear to his friends rhapsody
ts dignined patron OF the arts joining with the
cultivated ladies' OF his house in sympathy for
both followers OF the MUSES., summarizes and
typines the spirit Of Italian literature not only
In the Renaissance. but In Dante's time. Thus.
with a more austere accent and under stateler
but really kindred conditions. the poet Of the
Divine COMEDY may have recited some new
pages in his work. or course We make allow.
ances for his profounder and less dem nsirative
tenperament But the story Of Italian ltera.
| ture In his hands, and In the hands II his sue.
cessors down to the close Of the eighteenth CEN
fury remains n story Of thought touched by an
emotion Of delight in beauty. Letters and art
went hand in hand. The tragic brow Of Dante
seems untroubled by even the first conscious.
ness of sensuous aesthetic feeling. yet the most
ascetic. most phosophic significance may
| ascribe to Beatrice leaves her singer celebrant
OF lovcliness The beauty he sough, was spIr.
ituaI The Renaissance merged the spiritual in
the material. But that Is the only change In
what might be called the substance Of earlier
Italian letters. Dante. linked vaguely and some
times unconsciously with the classical past
nevertheless, had the sixth book Of the 'Enef
| 10y heart" and aside from his prediction for
Virgil he anticipates subtly the pagan revival
to which Petrarch was 10 give such impetus and
on which the humanists Of the fifteenth century
were to base some Of the most durable things In
the intellectual development Of the peninsula and
Of Europe 1t Is at this point that DR. Garnett
first provokes adverse comment Why. for ex.