The name is absent

ço Dante Sexcentenary Lectures

part of Florence to recover his body, under a splendid tomb
his remains still lie.

In surveying the life of Dante one question inevitably
obtrudes itself. How did he do his work? How amidst
the distressing circumstances of his life, with its frequent
changes of abode, could he find time and peace of mind to
compose lyrical poems and eclogues, dissertations like the
“Convivio” and “De Monarchia,” and a magnum opus like
the “Divine Comedy”? The answer is to be found, I sup-
pose, in these very circumstances themselves. For just as at
the death of Beatrice Dante sought consolation in study, so
in his exile he found his chief relief from the pressure of out-
ward circumstance in the delights of study, reflection, and
composition. The warlike but cultured nobility with which
he found refuge supplied him with the means of study and
often with congenial and sympathetic companionship. His
own genius, combined with industry and drive, enabled him
to make the most of these conditions. And these conditions
and all the bitter experience of Dante’s life have left in-
delible traces on every page of the “Divine Comedy.”

It was Dante’s fate to become entangled and thrown by
an intricate political net whose meshes were woven partly
out of the waning medieval forces of the papacy, the em-
pire, and feudalism, and partly out of the waxing modern
forces of the city bourgeoisie. Yet fate spared his life, and
as a result Dante has left posterity an incomparably valuable
record of his times. That work has crystallized for us the
finest fruit of the Middle Ages, and at the same time re-
veals an individuality thoroughly modern in its independence
of mind and in its quick readiness along some lines to apply
the solvent of reason to the restricting bonds of tradition
and authority.

Curtis H. Walker.

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