DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3825#0071
64 ITALY.
in the beauties of nature. Petrarch has quoted from
him in his 17th canzone; and Dante bears his testi-
mony to his superior popularity over Guido Guini-
celli (Purg. cant, xi.) ; at the same time that he is
generally supposed, perhaps without foundation, to
prophesy his own superiority over both.
Credette Cimabue nella pittura
Tener lo campo; et ora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui oscura.
Cosi ha tolto 1' uno al 1' altro Guido
La gloria de la lingua; e forse 0 nato
Chi 1' uno e 1' altro caccera di nido.
Non e '1 mondan romore altro ch' un iiato
Di venlo, ch' or vien quinci c or vien quindi,
E muta nome, perche nmta lato.
Yet Dante seems to doubt the classical purity of
the last poet's style, and to consider it as deviating too
daringly from ancient models ; for in the Inferno,
c. 10, when Guido's father inquires from the tomb,
Mio figlio ov' e, e perche non e teco ?
Dante replies, alluding to his companion Virgil,
. . . Da me stesso non vegno;
Colui, ch' attende la, per qui mi mena;
Forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno.
Perhaps he only means to express the same dis-
trust of the merits of their vernacular poetry, which
the most successful cultivators of it seem continually
to have felt, although popular applause induced them
to sacrifice in some degree the superior attachment
in the beauties of nature. Petrarch has quoted from
him in his 17th canzone; and Dante bears his testi-
mony to his superior popularity over Guido Guini-
celli (Purg. cant, xi.) ; at the same time that he is
generally supposed, perhaps without foundation, to
prophesy his own superiority over both.
Credette Cimabue nella pittura
Tener lo campo; et ora ha Giotto il grido,
Si che la fama di colui oscura.
Cosi ha tolto 1' uno al 1' altro Guido
La gloria de la lingua; e forse 0 nato
Chi 1' uno e 1' altro caccera di nido.
Non e '1 mondan romore altro ch' un iiato
Di venlo, ch' or vien quinci c or vien quindi,
E muta nome, perche nmta lato.
Yet Dante seems to doubt the classical purity of
the last poet's style, and to consider it as deviating too
daringly from ancient models ; for in the Inferno,
c. 10, when Guido's father inquires from the tomb,
Mio figlio ov' e, e perche non e teco ?
Dante replies, alluding to his companion Virgil,
. . . Da me stesso non vegno;
Colui, ch' attende la, per qui mi mena;
Forse cui Guido vostro ebbe a disdegno.
Perhaps he only means to express the same dis-
trust of the merits of their vernacular poetry, which
the most successful cultivators of it seem continually
to have felt, although popular applause induced them
to sacrifice in some degree the superior attachment