DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71557#0156
136 LIFE OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
Of the style of personification to which we have
been alluding, and also of the allegorical mode of
conveying philosophical ideas by means of amatory
language, Dante furnishes a striking example in
two of his earliest productions, the Vita Nuova
and the Convito *, the former of which appears to
have been his first publication. The fashion thus
set by so commanding an authority, was largely
followed by the Italian poets of the middle ages,
and struck its roots also into the general literature
of modern Europe. He might probably himself
have borrowed the idea from Boethius, a favourite
author with him; though as respects the use of
allegory, in various forms, as a happy mode of
communicating instruction, the practice, it need
scarcely be observed, was frequent both in classical
and Oriental literature.
In the Convito, Philosophy becomes a sort of
Second Love to Dante, to console him under the
loss of his Beatrice, who herself, in the Vita
Nuova, is described in terms in which it is often
difficult to distinguish the literal from the alle-
gorical. So much is this the case, that some critics
have treated of her as altogether an ideal creation,
in which the poet has given a name and semblance
* I have pleasure in here referring to an Essay on the poetry
of Michael Angelo by Mr. J. E. Taylor, in which he traces it
back with much taste and ability to its primary and philosophic
sources. It is entitled, “ Michael Angelo considered as a Phi-
losophic Poet, with Translations." London, 2nd edition, 1852.
Of the style of personification to which we have
been alluding, and also of the allegorical mode of
conveying philosophical ideas by means of amatory
language, Dante furnishes a striking example in
two of his earliest productions, the Vita Nuova
and the Convito *, the former of which appears to
have been his first publication. The fashion thus
set by so commanding an authority, was largely
followed by the Italian poets of the middle ages,
and struck its roots also into the general literature
of modern Europe. He might probably himself
have borrowed the idea from Boethius, a favourite
author with him; though as respects the use of
allegory, in various forms, as a happy mode of
communicating instruction, the practice, it need
scarcely be observed, was frequent both in classical
and Oriental literature.
In the Convito, Philosophy becomes a sort of
Second Love to Dante, to console him under the
loss of his Beatrice, who herself, in the Vita
Nuova, is described in terms in which it is often
difficult to distinguish the literal from the alle-
gorical. So much is this the case, that some critics
have treated of her as altogether an ideal creation,
in which the poet has given a name and semblance
* I have pleasure in here referring to an Essay on the poetry
of Michael Angelo by Mr. J. E. Taylor, in which he traces it
back with much taste and ability to its primary and philosophic
sources. It is entitled, “ Michael Angelo considered as a Phi-
losophic Poet, with Translations." London, 2nd edition, 1852.