The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-27
Italy Celebrates 65Oth
 Anniversary of Dante

Dante, the immortal Italian poet
 who ranks with shapespeare, VoItaire Cervantes, and the few other really
 great lights of modern literature, was born in Florence on May 27. and his 65Oth anniversary will be widely cele- brated in Italy today. Of the SUI preme national poets of modern times he was the first in point of time, and certainly far from being the least in point of influence. The i1lustrious F'lorentine has made an impress upon letters that extends far beyond his native land The ttDivina Comnedia' has held it's own for six centuries and a half as the finest religious epic to come from the pen, of Christian poet
 .AIlghieri Dante was born in Flor ence but buried at Ravenna, and for
 centuries the two cities waged a bit ter warfare for the possession of the poets bones The house in which Dante was born still stands It is situated on an extremely narrow side street, near the Dromo and is care fully preserved by the Florenhnes-
 Florence also has. a monument to Dante in the church of Santa Croce.
 This memorial, erected in 1929, con sists Of a. life size statue of Dante, on 1 a marble sarcdphagus- The latter is empty. however, as all the efforts of the FIorentines to bring about the 2 AAAOA'S i1Iustrio ous bard ended in failure At the celebration of the 60Oth anniver-
 sary of Dantess birth, in 1885, an other Dante memorial, a great marble stone statue was set up in an open
 square near the church. Perpetual lamps are kept burning before the 1 monument in <the church, as well as before the tomb in Ravenna-
 The tomb of Dante is far from be- | ing impressive. It is a plain structure in a narrow alley The sarcophagus ! is plain, and the wall is embelished only with a bas relief of the poet The urn containing all that is mortal of Dante bears some lines which were said to have been dictated by the poet on his death-be The epitaph con cludes with the lines:
 Here am I, Dante, shut, ezfled from the ancestral shore,
 Whom Florence, the of all least-1ov- ing mother bore '
 II F'Iorentines deny the authenticity of these lines, but it is certain that Dante had reason to grieve over the disIoyalty of his native city At the age of thirty-six he was banished l from Florence through the machina- tions of his enemies. At the time Dante was on a political mission in Rome interceding with the Pope in behalf of his party. His enemies in Florence not only secured a decree of banishment against him, but the
 poet was condemned to pay 5000 florins as a fine, on penalty of con 1 fiscation of his property Rather than pay the fine, which might be
 construed as a confession of his guilt, l Dante made no effort to retain his l property, and left Florence forever.
 He lived nineteen years after that, 1 wandering about from city to city and l village to village throughout northern Italy. It was more by accident than Eby deliberate choice that Dante died in Ravenna.
 I More than century passed before
 the people of Ravenna. were awaken ed to the true greatness of the poet
 whose bones lay in an unmarked l grave in the cemetery of the Fran l cisean convent. In 148S a, special I tomb was built for Dante, adjoining 1.-the convent This was restored in I1692. and the present structure was rebuilt in 17s0. The bones of the I poet were once removed in the fear
 that they would be stolen, but were 3taken from their hiding place and Iresfored to the tomb in 1865.