DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61902#0085
1HE MAKERS OF FLORENCE. 63
ciples and ignore self-interest, might do ? And this sharp
revulsion of feeling, from a mere political point of view^
no doubt was strongly enforced by the new associations
into which the fuor-usciti was suddenly thrown.
These new associations procured for Dante various
friendships which lasted all his life. Not only with the
noble brothers Scaligeri of Verona, but with other leaders
of the Ghibelline party, he formed ties which, sometimes
relaxed and sometimes dropped, yet were never quite
thrown aside. We are not exactly informed when he left
Rome; probably the sting of his own public condemnation
and outlawry roused him into activity and drove him back
to his party ; but one of his first places of refuge after
leaving Rome, when it was known for certain that the
gates of Florence were shut against him, was Arezzo, a
city steadfastly Ghibelline, and against which he had
fought on the field of Campaldino. The Podesta for
the moment was Uguccione della Faggiola, a man
whose membra vastissime and straordinari robostezza del
corpo seem to have made a great impression on the chroni-
clers, and to whom the poet became bound in such warm
alliance of affection, that the first part of the “Divina Com-
media” was, on its completion, dedicated to this gigantic
soldier of fortune. The chronology of the first three years
of the poet’s exile is vague, but not the general scope of
them. Like all the exiles, his companions in misery, he
seems to have roamed up and down the world in a passion
of wild endeavor—to get allies, to get help, to get back
again to Florence, the one aim to which all others were
given up. Like children shut out of their father’s house,
restlessly promenading up and down within sight of the
windows, trying every mode of entrance, every side door
and postern, every passing servant who might be cajoled
into opening, every intercessor who might work for them
within, this hapless band of grave and desperate men seem
ciples and ignore self-interest, might do ? And this sharp
revulsion of feeling, from a mere political point of view^
no doubt was strongly enforced by the new associations
into which the fuor-usciti was suddenly thrown.
These new associations procured for Dante various
friendships which lasted all his life. Not only with the
noble brothers Scaligeri of Verona, but with other leaders
of the Ghibelline party, he formed ties which, sometimes
relaxed and sometimes dropped, yet were never quite
thrown aside. We are not exactly informed when he left
Rome; probably the sting of his own public condemnation
and outlawry roused him into activity and drove him back
to his party ; but one of his first places of refuge after
leaving Rome, when it was known for certain that the
gates of Florence were shut against him, was Arezzo, a
city steadfastly Ghibelline, and against which he had
fought on the field of Campaldino. The Podesta for
the moment was Uguccione della Faggiola, a man
whose membra vastissime and straordinari robostezza del
corpo seem to have made a great impression on the chroni-
clers, and to whom the poet became bound in such warm
alliance of affection, that the first part of the “Divina Com-
media” was, on its completion, dedicated to this gigantic
soldier of fortune. The chronology of the first three years
of the poet’s exile is vague, but not the general scope of
them. Like all the exiles, his companions in misery, he
seems to have roamed up and down the world in a passion
of wild endeavor—to get allies, to get help, to get back
again to Florence, the one aim to which all others were
given up. Like children shut out of their father’s house,
restlessly promenading up and down within sight of the
windows, trying every mode of entrance, every side door
and postern, every passing servant who might be cajoled
into opening, every intercessor who might work for them
within, this hapless band of grave and desperate men seem