New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-03

tention to Dante's unfearing and scath-
marked the Pspacy in his time. Truly,
il called for courage to depict con-
temporary Pope among the denizens OF
the Outer He'll, particularly Pope VINO
has been canonized. But the pusillani-
nous remuneration of the Papacy by
Celestine V, under sinister influences,
in behalf of the inscriptions Boniface
VIII evoked from the poet lines which
well serve as admonition and condem-
nation of weaklings and recreants IN all
times and circumstances. This IS the
authors virile rendering OF the passage
in "LTnferno," Ill:
Then I beheld q flag that seemed to
turn
And dart and run so swiftly to and
That rest and respite it appeared to
spurn.
And close behind it there did trailing
So long a train of ghosts, | ne'er had
thought
That Death had sent so many here
below.
Now when mine. eyes some likenesses
had caught,
That weskling shade recognized full
well
Whose cowardice the great refusal
wrought.
All! then | knew, and fearlessly may
tell,
This was the school of souls irrcsolute.
Despised by God. despised by fiends
of He'll.
One more passage must be quoted,
partly as an illustration Of Dante's IN.
comparable analysis and exposition OF
the very heart Of his own land and age,
and partly as an example of the Byron
ic spirit which now and then uncon-
sciously controls his present translator.
IL is from al PurgatoriO," vi, Just
after the meeting Of Virgil and Sor
dello:
All! servile Italy. a vessel thou
Unguided in the storm, a home OF
tears,
Once queen Of provinces, brothel
now!
That noble soul so lightning swift
appears
To bid his townsman welcome over
there,
When first his city's dulcet name he
hears;
And yet thy living tenants cannot bear
To bide in peace, and mate deyoureth
mate
Those citizens whose walls and bitches
share,
Seek. wretched one, about thy sea-
GRIT state,
Survey thy shores. then cast thine eyes
within.
And name town where love hath
banished hate.
IL is in discussing the MEDIEVAL
Temper" that DR.. Grandgent gives per-
haps his best Characterization at once
of Dante and of the spirit of his age.
Submissiveness to authority was one
Of the salient features of the medi9val
spirit In writing poems or in build
ing cathedrals the aim of the artist
was TO produce a perfect work and not
to exploit his own name or his own
peculiarities. He strove ito express
concepts familiar 70 all in a medium
congenial to all" But now and then.
rarely but notably, an author in spite
OF himself had to reveal himself. He
could not hold his originality in check.
"Such was Dante. He was taller than
the tradition he followed and could
not hide behind il. In his negation OF
progress. in his worship of authority,
he was unreservedly a citizen Of his
own commonwealth; but the conceal
ment of his towering self was beyond
his power. His spiritual experiences,
to be sure, he laid bare for the beneht
of his fellow men; but of his material
life he told next TO nothing. Yet
despite his self-suppression-never even
once in his photographed Vita
Nuova" does he reveal the identity OF
himself his friends or his city-he
looms in history and in the worlds
literature as one of the greatest names
and personalities Of the Middle Ages.
1t is TO populsrize. with the high au-
,hority Of indubitable scholarship, that
concept of the great Florentine that
DR.. Grandgent has produced this vol
ume. of which perhaps the best esti-
mate NAV be epitomized in the single
phrase that it is worthy Of its august
/