Dante Alighieri Read Free

of his reading up to about his thirtieth year, at any rate so far as may be gathered from his writings, which in Dante’s case is a fairly safe criterion
    Â Â Â Â  Some of his biographers state that Dante during his early manhood studied at the universities of Bologna and Padua, but there is no evidence to support this statement, which is probably little more than a conjecture.
    Â Â Â Â  Within a few years of the death of Beatrice, certainly not later than 1298, Dante married. His wife, whose name was Gemma, 7 was the daughter of Manetto and Maria Donati, of the same ancient and noble Guelf family to which belonged Dante’s friend Forese, 8 and the impetuous Corso Donati, who, as we have seen, 9 distinguished himself at the battle of Campaldino. Boccaccio states that Dante’s marriage was brought about by his relations in order to console him for the loss of Beatrice, and he further draws a melancholy picture of what he supposes Dante’s married life to have been.
    Â Â Â Â  “Dante,” he says, “formerly had been used to spend his time over his precious studies whenever he was inclined, and would converse with kings and princes, dispute with philosophers, and, frequent the company of poets, the burden of whose griefs he would share, and thus solace his own. Now, whenever it pleased his new mistress,he must at her bidding quit this distinguished company, and bear with the talk of women, and to avoid a worse vexation must not only assent to their opinions, but against his inclination must even approve them. He who, whenever the presence of the vulgar herd annoyed him, had been accustomed to retire to some solitary spot, and there to speculate on the motions of the heavens, or the source of animal life, or the beginnings of created things, or, may be, to indulge some strange fancy, or to compose somewhat which after his death should make his name live into future ages—he now, as often as the whim took his new mistress, must abandon all such sweet contemplation, and go in company with those who had little mind for such things. He who had been used to laugh or to weep, to sing or to sigh, according as pleasing or painful thoughts prompted him, now must not dare, or, should he venture, must account to his mistress for every emotion, nay, even for every little sigh. Oh ! what unspeakable weariness to have to live day by day, and at last to grow old and die, in the company of such a suspicious being !” 10
    Â Â Â Â  In spite of Boccaccio’s express avowal that he cannot positively assert the truth of all this, 11 nevertheless his picture has been accepted seriously by many writers as an accurate representation of Dante’s married life. As a matter of fact there is very little real ground for supposing that Dante lived unhappily with Gemma. The arguments adduced in support of the contention are as follows: that men of genius are notoriously “gey ill to live with,” and consequently, even if Gemma was not the shrew painted by Boccaccio, Dante no doubt was an unbearable companion, wherefore they must have been unhappy together;again, that Dante nowhere in his works makes any reference to his wife; and lastly, that when Dante was exiled from Florence he left Gemma behind him, and, so far as is known, never saw her again. Only one of these arguments has any real weight The first is based on a pure assumption. If the absence of any reference to Gemma in Dante’s works necessarily implies that they lived on bad terms, the same must be assumed in the case of Dante’s parents, to whom his references are of the vaguest, 12 and of his children. On the other hand, the fact that Gemma did not subsequently live with Dante, so far as our information goes, when he settled at Ravenna with two of his children, lends some colour to the supposition that the affection between them was not of the strongest. Boccaccio makes the most of this circumstance. He