The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-24
Dante The Florentine n
And Petrarch The Italian

s-The difference between Dante's
ana Petrarch'sE education was mark
ed, and til Accehfuats. the d.
varrences OF their intellectual and NOR
al quaiities,r remarks John Addington
Synonds Dante, who lived until
maturity within sight of his bel San
Giovanni grew up a F1orenttne in
core and fiber. In his earliest work,
the Vita Nuova, there is a home
bred purity OF style. as of something
which could only have been perfected
In Florence; a beauty akin to that OF
0iotto's tower; perfume as of some
flower peculiar to a district whence
It will not bear transp1anting In one
golden canto to the past prosperity
of Florence, another to her decadence
through the corruption of her citi-
zef1s. While wandering like the
worlds rejected guest away from
that fair city OF his BIRTH, the un-
rest OF his pilgrimage, contrasted with
the peace of earlier manhood, only
strengthened the Florentine within
him.
Though he traversed italy in
length and breadth, though the Com
media, furnishes an epitome Of her
landscapes and her local customs, de-
scrfbes her cities and resumes her
0l3LOIys the InOuBnC OIL u1ltOldl uuIly
was not present to his mind. Italy
remained for him the garden Of the
empire, the unruly colt whom Caesar
should bestride and curb. Elsewhere
than in Florence Dante felt himself
an alien. He refused the poets crown
unless 1t could be taken by the font
OF baptism upon the square of Flor
ence.
ssPetrarch. called to perform an
other mission, had a different train
Ing, Brought up from earliest in
fancy In exile, transferred from Tus-
cany to France, deprived of civic
rights and disengaged from the duties
of a. burghsr in those troublous times,
he surveyed the world from his study
and judged its affairs with sthe i'm
partially OF philosopher. Without
a city, without a home, without a
family, consecrated to the priesthood
and absorbed In literary interests, he
spent his life in musings at vaucluse
or IN the splendid Inequalities of the
lombard Courts. Through all his
wanderings he was visitor, the citi-
zen OF no republic, but the freeman
OF the CITY of the Spi1tsx
When his mind dwe1t on. Italy at q
distance, ha could think of her as the
great Italic land. inheritor of Rome
mother OF a people destined to be
one, born to rule, or If not rule, al
least to regenerate the world through
wisdom From his lips we hear
of Florence nothing; but for the first
time the passionate cry of Italia. mia
the appeal jof an italian who recog-
nized his race, yet had no local habita-
ton on saGFAf s9H yihrates in his
oratorical .rrcanzenixnb .rRetrarch's
OF a united italy and a resuscitated
Roman republic were hardly less WIS.,
ionary than Dante's ideal of universal
:, empire. Yet in his lyrics the true
conception of Italy, one intellectually
In spite of political discord and for
eign oppression, the real and indie
rrructeSfe unity es the nation IA q
spirit destined no controls the future
OF 7Jhe xtia ~ :. 9suddenly
to eensc1o usnesss - There was an out
cry in their passion-laden strophes
which gathered volume as the years
rolled over Italy, until at last, in hel
mai prostratlon beneath Spanish
Austria, they seemed less poems thar
authentic prophecies.
'-Thus while Dante remained 6
F7orenftne, Petrarch was the f1rst
Italian. Nor is it insignificant that
whereas Dante refused the poets
crown unless he could place the lau.
re1s on his head in Florence. Pc
trarch assembled the Capitol among
the plaudits of the Romans, and, In
the absence OF Pope and Emperor, re-
csiyed hisswreath. from the Senator