‘Rade volte discende per li rami,’ &c. ‘Full selde up riseth by his branches small,’ &c.;
and in the Monk’s Tale the whole of Ugolino’s Story is translated, and he ends by referring to
‘The grete poete of Itaille— That highte Dante ...’ as its author.
The imitation of Dante in Milton’s verse—‘Therefore eternal silence be their doom’—seems to me doubtful. The quotation of the celebrated passage ‘Ahi Costantin’ does not prove that Milton had read Dante—he might have found this anti-papal citation in some controversial work.
I have no doubt that scattered references to particular passages and particular expressions in a writer so sterling, and once too well-known, can be found at all periods. But is there any evidence that Milton’s contemporaries read Dante, and understood and admired him, and were influenced by his poetry in their compositions?
‘Fama di loro il mondo esser non lassa, Misericordia e Giustizia gli sdegna. Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda, e passa.’
‘Cancelled from Heaven and sacred memory, Nameless in dark oblivion let them dwell; * * * * * * Therefore eternal silence be their doom.’ —P. L., 6. 380-5.
Take the whole, and it seems to me that the English is in imitation of the Italian. But great poets, when they imitate, they do so making the images their own; they don’t _copy_, but they abridge, add, and alter so as to appear original, and so does Milton. I find that he once translated one line Dante, at the beginning of the Paradiso, c. 1, v. 12, says:
‘_Shall_ be the copious _matter of my song_.’
And compare also what he says of the sun in that book (v. 586), with the very first lines of the Canto of Dante.
In his sonnet to Henry Lawes, Milton says:—
‘Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher Than his Casella, whom he woo’d to sing, Met in the milder shades of Purgatory.’
Now this alludes to Purg. c.2, v.106, and ‘the _milder_ shades of Purgatory’ when compared to those of Hell, seem to show that Milton had read both.
Add to this that Milton knew Italian thoroughly, that he had passed some time at Florence, where Dante was never forgotten, and that Galileo, and still more Dati, were intimate friends of his. Now, Galileo and Dati were great admirers of Dante, and placed him in the highest rank of poets.