" (Rossetti, Disamina,
ec., p. 405.) Bossetti is himself a proof that a noble mind need not
be narrowed by misfortune. His "Comment" (unhappily incomplete) is
one of the most valuable and suggestive.
[79] The great-minded man ever magnifies himself in his heart, and in
like manner the pusillanimous holds himself less than he is.
(Convito, Tr. I. c. 11.)
[80] Dante's notion of virtue was not that of an ascetic, nor has any
one ever painted her in colors more soft and splendid than he in the
Convito. She is "sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes," and he dwells
on the delights of her love with a rapture which kindles and
purifies. So far from making her an inquisitor, he says expressly
that she "should be gladsome and not sullen in all her works."
(Convito, Tr. I. c. 8.) "Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools
suppose"!
[81] Inferno, XIX. 28, 29.
[82] Inferno, VIII. 70-75.
[83] Paradise, X. 138.
[84] Paradiso, IV. 40-45 (Longfellow's version).
[85] Marlowe's "Faustus." "Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell."
(Paradise Lost, IV. 75.) In the same way, _ogni dove in cielo o
Paradiso_. (Paradiso, III. 88, 89.)
[86] Purgatorio, XIX. 7-33.
[87] Convito, Tr.
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