'"
We need not be surprised that there is such divergence of opinion among
critics as to the interpretation of Dante. He himself in The Banquet
(bk. II, ch. 15), written some years after his New Life, tells us that
there is a hidden meaning back of the literal interpretation of his
words. That is especially true of the Divine Comedy, as he writes to Can
Grande in explanation of the purpose of the poem. In the Paradiso he
bids this lacking in power of penetration to pierce the symbolism, to
accompany him no longer on his journey through the invisible world.
"O ye who in some pretty little boat
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along,
Turn back to look again upon your shores,
Do not put out to sea, lest, peradventure,
In losing me, you might yourselves be lost."
(Par. bk. II, I.)
With obscurity thus acknowledged, is it any wonder that Dante is
subjected to prolonged controversy by historical criticism which has not
hesitated to cast doubt upon the authorship of the Iliad and the Synotic
Gospels? In the face of this obscurity it is the opinion of such well
known Dantian scholars as D'Ancona, Charles Eliot Norton, John Addington
Symonds, Dean Plumtre, Edmund Gardiner, W.
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