DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0040
18
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
like his by the thought that even peerless Beatrice, like
others, must sometimes weep. Yet this intense truth of
fueling, and the strange reality of the picture at once so
dim and so dazzling, never make us forget the fantastic
unreality of the whole, and the strange artificial framework
of it, conventional to the fullest limits of mediaeval con-
ventionality though so fiery-true. The sonnets, with their
explanations, throw the most curious light upon the whole
mental existence of the time. How elaborate they are,
macle a solemn business of in all the fantastical sublimation
of their sentiments ; mapped out line by line, lest any one
should miss the meaning, with transparent pretenses at
obscurity, which give the young poet an excuse for linger-
ing over and interpreting and caressing bis own verse.
This was his “ Vita Nuova” the new sweet life which love
revealed to him apart from the common existence which
he had by nature. No doubt the dream-world in which
Beatrice was queen, and through which moved very softly
witli sympathetic looks and low-voiced questions, the
“ ladies who have intelligence in love,” was jostled by a
rude enough real world, a life which looked old and stale
and common in the young man's glowing eyes. He ig-
nores that life which to later spectators appears the best
and most important; puts out of sight his studies, his
preparations for the public service, his sharp taste of the
excitement of war at Campaldino and elsewhere, and all
the trade and wealth, the broils and commotions th^t were
going on in Florence. Historians would have preferred
that existence of fact; and a great many even who are not
historians would rather have known how Guido Cavalcanti
got drawn to the side of the Cerchi, and whether Forese
Donati and the gentle Piccarda were ashamed of that arro-
gant brother Corso, whom popular wit called Baron Do-me-
harm. But no—it is the “Vita Nuova ” that entrances
the young poet into its charmed circle. There the ladies
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
like his by the thought that even peerless Beatrice, like
others, must sometimes weep. Yet this intense truth of
fueling, and the strange reality of the picture at once so
dim and so dazzling, never make us forget the fantastic
unreality of the whole, and the strange artificial framework
of it, conventional to the fullest limits of mediaeval con-
ventionality though so fiery-true. The sonnets, with their
explanations, throw the most curious light upon the whole
mental existence of the time. How elaborate they are,
macle a solemn business of in all the fantastical sublimation
of their sentiments ; mapped out line by line, lest any one
should miss the meaning, with transparent pretenses at
obscurity, which give the young poet an excuse for linger-
ing over and interpreting and caressing bis own verse.
This was his “ Vita Nuova” the new sweet life which love
revealed to him apart from the common existence which
he had by nature. No doubt the dream-world in which
Beatrice was queen, and through which moved very softly
witli sympathetic looks and low-voiced questions, the
“ ladies who have intelligence in love,” was jostled by a
rude enough real world, a life which looked old and stale
and common in the young man's glowing eyes. He ig-
nores that life which to later spectators appears the best
and most important; puts out of sight his studies, his
preparations for the public service, his sharp taste of the
excitement of war at Campaldino and elsewhere, and all
the trade and wealth, the broils and commotions th^t were
going on in Florence. Historians would have preferred
that existence of fact; and a great many even who are not
historians would rather have known how Guido Cavalcanti
got drawn to the side of the Cerchi, and whether Forese
Donati and the gentle Piccarda were ashamed of that arro-
gant brother Corso, whom popular wit called Baron Do-me-
harm. But no—it is the “Vita Nuova ” that entrances
the young poet into its charmed circle. There the ladies