LA DIVINA COMMEDIA.
Though doubtless his other writings suffice to place Dante among those illustrious Italians whose composition will always be read, it is be cause of Divine Comedy) that Dante ranks as the chief glory of his nation, crowned with the same immortality as belong to Shakespeare and Homer.
Divina Commedia' was called Tom media° by Dante, ((Divine being added imme diately after his death by his admirers, and since universally accepted.
Poets, painters and preachers before Dante had attempted uncouth description of the three realms of Punishment, Expiation and Reward. Orcagna's frescoes in the Campo Santo of Pisa are a familiar illustration. From these Dante appropriated freely; his rich imagination and stern logic transforming all into a complex yet balanced harmony. The structure of the poem is simple and symmetrical in its ensemble, but elaborate in its detail. The Inferno is a huge / inverted cone, opening directl under Jerusalem, its outside edged by Anti-In erno, which in its turn is circumscribed by t e river Acheron. The interior of this cone is divided into con centric rings (cerchi). In the upper, which is also the outer circle, the punishment is least, and increases in severity as in each successive descending concentric circle the sins to be pun ished increase in turpitude. The bottom of this cone is formed by the funnel in which Lucifer became wedged half way, hurled down head foremost from the Empireo. His beastly triple head is in Inferno, while his legs form the cen tral point of the opposite mount of Purgatorio. i Opposite to Inferno, in exact but symmetry, rises the mount of Purgatorio, di vided into a sequence of terraces corresponding to the cerchi (circles) of Inferno. Each terrace contains a certain category of sinners, the low est being the worst. As Inferno had an Anti Inferno and a final city of Dite, so Purgatorio is preceded by Anti-Purgatorio, surrounded by the Eden or Terrestrial Paradise encircled by the rivers of Lethe and Eunoe that wash away every recollection of sin. Paradiso is also im agined on the plan of concentric circles, in ac cord with the Ptolemaic system. Only in these spheres of splendor the Blessed are not ton strained to any fixed place, but soar freely from one circle to the other, and they all have their appointed seats in the mystic Rose, whose centre is God Himself.
The symmetrical harmony of the Comedy' extends to every detail. Nine circles in Hell and Anti-Inferno, nine terraces in Pur gatory and Anti-Purgatory and nine spheres in Heaven and the Empireo. The two outer
circles of Hell form the city of Dite, the last two of Purgatory the Terrestrial Paradise, and the last two spheres of Heaven the mystic Rose. The 33 cantos are divided into three parts, the repetition and multiplication of these leading up to nine, the perfect number com posed of the Trinity multiplied by itself. Each of the three parts ends with the word stelle. The material unity of this hugely imagined construction is shown in the line which, straight from the centre of the mystic Rose (centre of Paradise), forms the axis of Mount Purgatory, passes through Lucifer's body and reaches Jerusalem. This symbolic line, reaching from God Himself, through the realms of glory, ex piation and punishment, to Jerusalem, uniting the Church triumphant with the Church mili tant typifies Redemption. Lucifer, in falling from Heaven has formed the hollow of Hell, and the opposite mount of Purgatory was formed by the horror which made the very earth recoil at his passage. Salvation for a sinful world staring from the Cross of Calvary at Jerusalem, conquers Hell and by the purifi cations of Purgatory reopens Heaven, the dwelling-place of God, to redeemed mankind. This unity of conception is continued in the three allegorical significations of the Com media, the personal, moral and political. Con sidered as personal to the poet, Dante's journey begins on Easter Day 1300, the Year of the Jubilee, and lasts seven days. Dante, then in middle life, finds himself in a forest in sight of a hill, sun-illumined at the top, his path op posed by three beasts — his sins; — he is res cued by Virgil, who by Beatrice's command shows him the realms of punishment and piation. In the political allegory Virgil, typify ing the Power of the Empire, leads mankind through the realms of punishment and expia tion up to the Terrestrial Paradise from whence Beatrice, signifying religion, conducts him through Heaven. In the moral allegory Virgil is human reason, Beatrice is Faith and all the Scholastic controversy is developed by Saints Thomas, Dominique and Peter. In Inferno the ghosts or shades endure pain in the flesh, hope lessly conscious that pardon is past praying for. In Purgatorio the expiating soul is comforted with the certainty of ultimate pardon and with bright visions of happiness. In Heaven the souls are no more shades but lights. It is an ocean as full of brightness as Hell was black.