Dante Poet of Hope By Ernest Hauser Even if Dante Alighieri had not been one of the great poets of all time, he would still deserve the praise the world bestows on him. There is more to than just praising a historic figure, for Dante, visionary, pioneer and father of the Italian language, is timeless. Though he lived in the Middle Ages, he can occasionally tease us with a modern twist that puts him centuries ahead of his own time. His monumental work, the Divine Comedy-an imaginary visit to the great beyond - is on0 or the enduring glories of world literature; the poem has been transited into 50 languages. Dante called it a comedy because it has £ blissful ending, while the divine was added by an enterprising publisher 234 years after the authors death. Its importance lies n its universal message-that man must journey inwards, look into his heart, and rise above sin and temptation in order to become a worthy member of society. Writing in a time as fraught with strife as our own, the poet sounded a trumpet call for order, peace and good citizenship- He envisaged a United World, which makes him the first modern European. Dante Alighieri was born into a noble Florentine family in 1265. His exact birth date is not known but he tells us, in his works, that he was born under the sign of Gemini-between the 21st of May and the 21st of June. He achieved fame early; parts of his Comedy, which took him nearly 20 years to write, were published as soon as the ink was dry. So realistic was each detail he described-the torment of the damned, the joy of the redeemed, and his hair-raising personal adventures on the way-that many readers accepted the work as a true story. More than 500 copies of the Comedy, all hand-copied and dating from the years shortly after his death, prove that the book was a best-seller. Michelangelo, when painting his celebrated Last Judgment, was under Dantes spell, and painters through the centuries, such as Botticelli and Gustave Dore have been inspired by this mighty poem. Today thousands of Italians know much of Dante by heart. No fewer than 20 editions of his works are currently available in Italy, with annual sales totalling 80,000 copies. In Florence, marble plaques quote his verses and remind the passer-by that Dante walked the same streets. What kind of man was Dante? Where did his life journey lead him? His portrait, painted by a contemporary artist on a wall of the old governors palace in Florence, shows a tall, upright figure with a gaunt face, a long, disdainful nose, a haughty mouth and jutting chin. He wears the flowing gown and stocking-cap then fashionable among learned men. An observer of the time tells us that Dante always had a melancholy, pensive look. From his works, we gather that he was possessed of a fierce will, stubborn opinions and a violent temper. Some of his best rhymes are sheer invective; he lashes out at kings, popes and fellow citizens with equal vehemence. But he had many distinguished friends who remained loyal to him through the years. We know he had a sense of humour, for many of his verses make us laugh. And we cannot forget that he was guided by a tender love which kindled his loftiest thoughts. Glorious Lady. The Florence into which Dante was born was a busy town on the River Arno and a free republic in the throes of social change. Its old nobility was losing ground to a new merchant class. As the son of a nobleman, Dante was tutored in Latin, public-speaking and philosophy in the flourishing religious schools. An event that was to influence the rest of his life occurred at a party he attended at the age of nine. Among the children present was a shy and lovely girl of his own age-Beatrice Portinari. She was so full of dignity and admirable bearing, he later wrote, that certainly the words of the poet Homer suited her well: She did not seem to be the daughter of an ordinary man but rather of a god. Seeing Beatrice on rare occasions and worshipping her from a distance, Dante wrote a number of exquisite love poems to her. And though she was to marry a local banker and die at 25, while Dante himself married a gentlewoman named Gemma Donati, he always claimed that his spiritual love for Beatrice governed his soul. In his Comedy, he made Beatrice his guide through Paradise and thus bestowed true immortality upon the glorious lady of his mind. The youthful Dante read voraciously and chose his friends among brilliant young-noblemen, intellectuals and poets. He soon outshone all his fellow writers in his lyric power; before he was 30, he had published some of his most enchanting poems, interspersed with pieces of prose recording his encounters with Beatrice, in a slender volume, La Vita Nuova (The New Life). One of the poems, beginning, Donne chavete intelletto damore (Ladies that have intelligence of love) was an instant success, and made his name known throughout Italy. At the time Florence was torn by a bitter feud between two factions known as the Blacks, who defended the old rights of the nobility, and the Whites, who spoke for the rising middle class. Dante sided with the commoners. He was elected several times to public office and once served on the citys six-man governing council. He did his military duty as a cavalryman, seeing front-line action in at least two battles. Then, at the age of 36, he joined a diplomatic mission to Pope Boniface VIII who was trying to curtail Florences freedom. Dante despised the high-handed, power-hungry pontiff. On his way back from Rome he learned that his enemies, the Blacks, who sided with the Pope, had seized power in Florence, plundered his house and sentenced him to banishment and a heavy fine. When he did not return to plead his cause, his enemies condemned him to be burnt to death should he ever again set foot in Florence. Bartolommeo della Scala, Duke of Milan and Lord of Verona, gave him his first refuge. Thus began Dantes bitter exile, which was to last the rest of his life. Few men have loved their native city more passionately. During Dantes long wandering, he dreamed and wrote of Florence-now with nostalgia, now with bitterness. He called the city depraved, the home of evil people. Later, Florence proclaimed a pardon for all exiles willing to pay a certain sum. Dante, the citys greatest son, indignantly refused. For centuries after his death in Ravenna, the Florentines tried to reclaim his mortal remains. They even built an elaborate tomb for him in the Church of the Holy Cross, where now rest the citys other great men, among them Michelangelo. But the people of Ravenna did not see why Florence, not having wanted him alive, should have him dead, and to this day Dantes tomb in Florence is empty. Writing constantly in exile, Dante became troubled by the deep gap between the writer and the masses. He argued for a true Italian language, a noble vernacular which would supplant Latin as the language of Italian letters. Latin was read only by rich men, monks and scholars, and Dante wanted to address himself to ordinary people. Endowed with a fine ear for everyday speech, he manufactured his own vigorous, straightforward and melodious language from local dialects, and this has changed little since his time. Indeed, a modern Italian has less difficulty in reading Dante than we have in understanding Shakespeare. Dantes literary reputation grew, and soon he was taking a deep interest in politics. His brilliant pamphlet, On Monarchy, condemned the cold war between Emperor and Pope, which was splitting Europe asunder. Why should the two not coexist, one holding spiritual, the other temporal sway? Europe could thus be united under a single, just and enlightened government. All through his Comedy, too, there runs a mighty current of world politics and, to the end of his life, Dante raised his voice against injustice, tyranny and corruption in high places. Most of the Comedy was written in Ravenna, where Dante lived the last years of his life in peace, surrounded by his family. Arranging his vast subject in three books, sub-divided into a total of 100 cantos (literally songs) he tells the story of his imaginary voyage into afterlife. It takes place in the Holy Year 1300 and lasts a week. For the first part of the journey his guide is the ghost of Virgil, the Latin poet whom Dante admired most. The long-dead Roman escorts Dante through hell-a terrifying place lit by fires and resounding with sighs, lamentations and loud wailings. The sombre landscape consists of rivers, cliffs, deserts and a whole burning city. It takes the skill of a born story-teller to bring this murky empire to life. Dante accomplishes this by turning himself into the inquisitive reporter. As he descends into the depths, he stops to talk to the tormented souls, coolly interviewing them and taking note of what they tell him. Many of the sinners Dante meets are well-known characters of his time, and the author shows no restraint in portraying people he dislikes, among them princes and politicians. Action-Packed. Dante lived in a cruel age and the torments he describes are cruel. Some sinners are immersed in boiling pitch; others have been turned into gnarled trees-when Dante breaks a twig off one, the tree sheds blood and wails. Hypocrites drag themselves along under monks cowls made of gilded lead. Dante gives us high adventure. Arriving at the centre of the earth, the visitors find Satan, a huge dim figure surrounded by ice. To reach a back door that will let them out of hell, they have to get past him. But how? Summoning up their courage, they clamber down the Devils shaggy body and, traveling through a tunnel to the other side of the earth, they behold, rising from an ocean, the mount of Purgatory. Had Dante stopped there, his laurels would have been safe; and although nothing in the Divine Comedy can match the book on Hell for sheer dramatic impact, the books describing Purgatory and Paradise are also packed with action. It is at the end of the second book that the poet, in the garden of Eden atop the mount of Purgatory, hears his name called by a womans voice; the lady turns out to be his Beatrice. In the course of the last book the two float upwards through bright light and music as they pass through nine successive heavens. The Comedy ends with a blaze of glory. Before reaching the tenth and supreme heaven, Beatrice leaves the traveller-she has fulfilled her task. With a dazzling vision of God Himself, the poet rests his pen. His last resounding words assure us with finality that it is Love that moves the sun and the other stars. Dante died at 56, shortly after finishing the Comedy. The book was soon expounded in Italian universities as the most important moral and religious work of the age, for Dante convinced his readers that souls went somewhere after death and that man, in his lifetime, would determine his ultimate destination. Today, the poets message comes through as powerfully as ever. Dante charts a course we may all try to follow-a journey to the depths of our conscience and thence upwards to light and salvation. Virgil- symbol of Reason-and Beatrice-symbol of Faith-will comfort us along the way. Though Dante lived and laboured in a world that had yet to emerge from the long shadow of the Dark Ages, there is in his great work a foretaste of the bright new age that was to dawn upon the world a few generations later: the age of humanism, of discovery, of Renaissance. It is the individual freed from the shackles of dark forces, that rises, triumphant, from the poets work.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Nov 2014 06:34:09 +0000
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