DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0079
THE MAKERS OF FLORENCE.
57
marked his path. Beatrice had already moved from her
place in heaven, where she sat by the side of the ancient
Rachel, and had roused out of dim Limbo, where those
great souls dwell who live without hope, in desire of God
and goodness—the courteous Mantuan spirit, with his
ornate words, who was the most suitable guide for her
wandered but faithful lover. The gates of Florence, when
they were shut against him, did no more than formalize
that sentence of banishment which had already been pro-
nounced in his own breast. His city cast him away, to
her everlasting shame; but already he bad ceased to be
Dante the magnificent signore, the ambassador of an
arrogant republic, the representative of a crowd of turbu-
lent burghers. He had turned back to the life to which
he vowed himself in his dreaming youth; he had taken
his first steps on that mystic giro through hell and heaven;
and become the Dante of all Italy and of all poetry, repre-
sentative of his age and of his race—the Dante of the
world.
57
marked his path. Beatrice had already moved from her
place in heaven, where she sat by the side of the ancient
Rachel, and had roused out of dim Limbo, where those
great souls dwell who live without hope, in desire of God
and goodness—the courteous Mantuan spirit, with his
ornate words, who was the most suitable guide for her
wandered but faithful lover. The gates of Florence, when
they were shut against him, did no more than formalize
that sentence of banishment which had already been pro-
nounced in his own breast. His city cast him away, to
her everlasting shame; but already he bad ceased to be
Dante the magnificent signore, the ambassador of an
arrogant republic, the representative of a crowd of turbu-
lent burghers. He had turned back to the life to which
he vowed himself in his dreaming youth; he had taken
his first steps on that mystic giro through hell and heaven;
and become the Dante of all Italy and of all poetry, repre-
sentative of his age and of his race—the Dante of the
world.