"
That promise, involving years of intense study and increasing devotion
to his beloved, Dante kept. The Divine Comedy is his matchless monument
to her who is the protagonist and muse of his poem and the love of his
heart. "Not only has the poet made her" says Norton, "the loveliest and
most womanly woman of the Middle Ages at once absolutely real and truly
ideal," but he has done what no poet had ever before conceived, thereby
achieving something unique in the whole range of literature--he has
"imparadised" among the saints and angels his lovely wonder, Beatrice,
"that so she spreads even there a light of love which makes the angels
glad and even to their subtle minds can bring a certain awe of profound
marvelling." He has given to her such a glorious exaltation that after
Rachel and Eve she of all women is enthroned in the glowing Rose of
Heaven next to the Virgin Mother, "our tainted nature's solitary boast,"
and so enthroned, Beatrice is at once his beloved and the symbol of
revelation, the heavenly light that discloses to mankind both the true
end of our being and the realities of Eternity.
Now with tremulous delight in his heart, admiration on his lips, ecstasy
in his soul, he is able to render her perhaps the very purest tribute of
praise and gratitude that ever came out of a human soul:
"O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong
And who, for my salvation, didst endure
In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet,
Of whatsoever things I have beheld,
As coming from thy power and from thy goodness
I recognize the power and the grace.
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