The precise period when his children joined him is unknown. Certain it is that they were well educated. One of his sons settled in Verona and died in Trèves; another is the author of Commentaries, still extant,* upon the "Divine Comedy;" and his daughter, Beatrice, lived to an advanced age in a monastery in Ravenna. Boccaccio was entrusted with the commission of conveying to her a sum of money from the Florentine Republic.

But the other circumstance before alluded to, that Dante nowhere mentions his wife by name, has also occasioned much remark, and been tortured into a proof of indifference. That it is a most striking circumstance is undeniable. Corso Donati, her relative (in what degree is not ascertained), was the first man at that period in Florence,-pre-eminent in ability, in influence and in wickedness, the representative, says Mr. Hallam, of the turbulent noble of the Italian Republics. He was regarded as one aiming at a tyranny; he was suspected to have poisoned his first wife; he was known to have committed sacrilege. The latter story is thus told by an anonymous commentator:-" Piccarda, sister of Forese and of Messer Corso Donati, and daughter of Messer Simone, although a maiden of excelling beauty, turned her thoughts to God, to whom she made a profession of her virginity, entering with this view the monastery of Santa Chiara. Her brothers had promised to give her in marriage to a gentleman of Florence, by name Rosellino della Tosa; when therefore Messer Corso, at that time Podestà of Bologna, heard of her profession, he left his command, proceeded to the monastery, and, contrary to the wishes of Piccarda herself, of the sisterhood, and of the abbess, forcibly carried her off. Being constrained against her inclinations to take Rosellino for her husband, she immediately fell ill, life became irksome, and having prayed for death, that spouse to whom she had made her profession took her to himself."

And yet this Corso Donati, so conspicuous by his vices, is nowhere named by Dante; his atrocities are, it is true, perpetually alluded to, so that he may be said to be one of the principal of those sculptured figures whom the Poet has fixed for eternal obloquy in his breathing gallery of criminals, one of those unnamed reprobates,

"A mal più che a bene usi,"

who, as Dante well knew, (for he had himself on one occasion been instrumental in procuring the banishment of Corso,) had been the principal cause of the dissensions which distracted his country.

Of this commentary Filelfo says:-" Non arbitror quemquam recte posse Dantis opus commentari nisi Petri viderit volumen qui ut semper erat cum patre ita ejus mentem tenebat melius." Some, however, doubt its authenticity.

His brother Forese was the bosom friend of the Poet, and his sister Piccarda, of whom Forese says

"La mia sorella che tra bella e buona

Non so qual fosse più;"

Purgat. XXIV. 13.

"My sister, she for whom

"Twixt beautiful and good, I cannot say
Which name was fitter;"

CAREY.

is one of those creations of excelling sweetness and purity, whose memory the Poet has embalmed in some of the most perfect passages in his inspired volume. They would alone justify the remark of Lord Byron, that there is no tenderness equal to the tenderness of Dante.

From the circumstances above adverted to, Foscolo and Balbo infer that the constant omission of the name of Corso Donati may be referred to the disinclination of the Poet to wound the feelings of his wife; still, in spite of the ingenious reasoning of the former writer, Dante has told many an event in the public or private lives of his contemporaries by mere allusions, without specifying names.

Foscolo, in his generous remarks upon the injustice done to the character of Dante's wife by previous writers, suggested, in aid of his argument, that she might have died shortly after his exile. After this remark had been acquiesced in, or at least not disputed, by subsequent writers, we confess we were sorry to find that it was clearly disproved by an interesting document cited by the indefatigable Pelli,* (a writer at whom Foscolo sneered, and whom he probably never read,) which establishes beyond the possibility of a doubt that Gemma survived her husband, but was not living A.D. 1332. These facts have, we believe, escaped the notice of all the recent biographers.

His children's names were Piero, Jacopo, Gabriello, Aligero, Eliseo, Bernardo, and Beatrice. Scipio Maffei, in his "Verona Illustrata," has preserved some memorials of the branch which settled at Verona.

There is something that strikes the imagination in the mode in which the lineal descendants of the great Poet indicated their family, Dante II., Dante III.,-as if their stock had been a royal one. So they are still to be seen designated on their tombs

* Pelli, Memorie per servire alla Vita di Dante Alighieri, pp. 34-5, in note. To the instrument in question, dated 16th May, 1332, Francesco, the brother, and Piero and Jacopo, the sons of Dante, are parties; it alludes to the dower, "Dominæ Gemmæ viduæ, olim matris dictorum Jacobi et Petri, et uxoris olim dicti Dantis, et filiæ olim Domini Manetti de Donatis."

in Verona, where the direct male line became extinct in the 17th century; the family is now believed to be represented by a house styling itself Aligeri, and claiming through a female.

If from the house of the Donati Dante selected his wife, he chose his political associates from a family occupying a rival station to that with which he had thus allied himself. The family of the Cerchi, in point of wealth and influence, stood at that time highest in popular favour; but those advantages were compensated in favour of the Donati by the greater energy, accomplishments, and popular recommendations of their chief, Corso, who is described by contemporary historians as a second Catiline, according to Villani,* the most prudent and valiant cavalier, the most eloquent speaker, the best man of business, and the most renowned for daring and enterprise, then in Italy. The origin of Corso's enmity with the Cerchi is variously related. According to some, his first wife, a sister of Vieri de' Cerchi, was poisoned by her husband at Trèves; and it is said that the brother being subsequently present at a banquet given by Corso, the latter caused the wine to be first tasted before it was handed to his guests, upon which Vieri exclaimed, " It was not thus that you caused the cup to be presented to my sister." To this speech was attributed their reciprocal enmity. Without, however, insisting upon the authenticity of this story, a satisfactory cause may be readily found in the character of the two men who were the respective leaders of the ultra and the moderate Guelfs, and afterwards of those factions of the Neri and the Bianchi, into which the former eventually merged. Corso aimed at a tyranny, whilst it was the object of Vieri to preserve the constitutional privileges of the Guelf republic. Corso sought to render the greater and more ancient families, whom with this view he studiously courted, the instruments of his ambition; whereas Vieri exercised only that moderate influence over the minds of the middle class, to which his character, his station, and his wealth had given him a legitimate claim.

At the time when Dante was first involved in the political dissensions of his country,-fixing such event as contemporary, or nearly so, with his marriage, Ă.D. 1292,-the Guelf party had been for many years in the ascendant. Originally it comprised in its ranks only a section of the ancient nobility; but it had contrived, during the continuance of the struggle, to associate to itself not only the greater proportion of the wealthy burgesses, by whom the cause was regarded as that of public tranquillity, but also numbers of the lower classes, weary of the oppressions and

* Villan. p. 369.

overbearing conduct of the old patrician houses, and attached by interest or affection to their immediate employers, upon whom they were dependent for their daily support. When, however, the faction, compounded of these heterogeneous materials, had succeeded in finally overthrowing their opponents, the Ghibellins, Florence soon presented another instance of what Macchiavelli regarded as a necessary proof of its extraordinary prosperity ;the successful party divided itself afresh into rival factions; the one distinguished by the same tyrannical and overbearing conduct which had rendered the Ghibellins so unpopular, the other adhering to those more moderate principles which had ensured the triumph of their party when united.

It is probable that the dissensions which ensued, arose only out of the collision of party interests, without any reference to the public good; for after repeated demonstrations of popular discontent, a revolution occurred, which was guided to its completion by a noble of ancient family. By the new constitution which he introduced, the ancient noble families, termed by contemporary historians "i grandi," and explained to include those only which had ever been illustrated by the order of Knighthood, were all placed under a severe system of civil restrictions; their names were entered upon a roll called the Ordinances of Justice; the immediate effect being that they lost all political rights, and were placed in a most disadvantageous position before the law. Their situation has been aptly compared to that of the Irish Catholics under the full severity of the penal code,* and the same necessity may be regarded with equal reason perhaps as palliating the original harshness of each enactment. Dante, as will be seen, was matriculated at a later period in one of the Arts or Companies, in order to evade the rigor of this law: this was a nominal resignation on his part of his ancestral pretensions; and as we find him, in the " Paradise," mentioning Giano della Bella, the author of the revolution, in terms of apparent commendation, it is probable that he regarded the change then introduced as salutary and necessary; and although it unavoidably led to the exclusion of many of the Guelfs from power, still it offered no violation to the principles by which the entire party professed to be governed.

About the time when the Guelfs had risen triumphantly over their opponents, in order to consolidate their power on a firm foundation, and secure themselves against the consequences of any open attempt or intrigue on the part of their fallen adversaries, they formed, as an important political engine for the con

Bowyer's Statutes of Italy, p. 39.

trol and efficient management of their party, to whose power union was an essential but a difficult condition, a secret society, destined for the future, as long as the Republic lasted, to exercise a species of imperium in imperio over its fortunes. It was styled the Guelf Club, and was represented by a President or Captain, afterwards invested with important privileges in the state. The society itself exercised the functions of a censorship; depriving citizens of their political rights by a process called "warning, "ammonizione," affixing to them the opprobrious epithet "Ghibellins," and stripping them as such of all their privileges and franchises. The Guelf Club appears in some subsequent instances to have usurped the office of negotiating, intriguing perhaps we should rather say, with foreign powers; it virtually became the controlling administration of Florence.* The two parties into which the original Guelfs had, as we before mentioned, divided themselves under the leadership of Corso Donati and Vieri de' Cerchi, were both of them represented in the Guelf Club, which probably ranked amongst its members all the principal aristocratical and burgher families of that party. The greater energy and more persuasive powers as an orator of Corso would most likely give him, and through him, his faction, the preponderating influence in the deliberations of this secret society; and so long as Vieri remained a member he would be thus constrained against his will to follow the policy of his rival, Corso, which tended to his own aggrandisement, and that of a few of the leading nobles, and the debasement of the rest of the citizens. Against such a policy the just and generous mind of Vieri revolted; and finding his wishes thwarted and his influence neutralized in this then novel society, he adopted the bold and dangerous measure of withdrawing himself and party from its meetings. In this position, pressed on the one hand by the influence of the faction of Corso, and on the other by the already organized body which represented the simply popular interests, Vieri and his friends stood in peril of being crushed in the conflict of interests, unless they could contrive to strengthen themselves by an infusion of new elements of life and vigour. This they proposed to effect by a coalition with the liberal party,—an object only to be obtained by a sacrifice of their nominal privileges of nobility. The union took effect; Vieri de' Cerchi, Dante, and their friends coalesced with the popular party, which had

Two centuries later we find Donato Giannotti, in a letter to Niccolo Capponi, thus speaking of this magistracy :-" The title, Guelf Party, is neither profitable nor honourable in the city-it is a sign that divisions have existed in it; it would therefore be necessary to change the name, to do away with the opinion that the city is more Guelf than Ghibellin."-Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani, XXXIII. p. 163.