On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    La Diviria Commedta ; the scenes of which divine comedy are partly laid in Hell ,, partly in Purgatory , and partly in Paradise , and are enacted by devils , men , women , and

    angels , together with our Lady and Lord ; at one time in sulphurous pits and brim full cesspools ) at another on dry land , but among hydras and Furies , and lastly in air and heaven . And our ancient

    historians have related that the said Dante Alighieri was banished from the city of Florence , as many poets and other learned men have been , and are daily ; they having been fotind by experience to be

    very offensive tb most of the governors , and to not a few of the governed . After several centuries , the nobility of our Florence resolved to wipe away the ignorance of their ancestors , and to erect a monument to the Church of

    Santa Croce in honour of the said Dante Alighieri , whose mortal spoils lie buried in the city of Ferrara on the river Po . The spirit of generosity and patriotism swelled at last to such a pitch in the bosoms

    of our illustrious patricians that , within a very few years , they raised among themselves a sum amounting to nearly half of what was requisite for the purchase of the marble . Finally the work is completed thfc monument is erected in

    Santa Croce . I wish it were in my power * most erudite and illustrious Signor , to state precisely from my own obser-

    Untitled Article

    vation , what occurred at the festival instituted to th £ ho * nour of this oiir immortal poet * namely Dante Alighieri . It was my intention to have been present in person at the

    celebration of so great a solemnity : but entering tlie church , and knowing that no member of the reigning family , tib chamberlain , no bishops no canonico , no person of rank either in the state or in literal

    ture was there , I thought it prudent and decorous to slink away , particularly as I feared , to be compromised by the murmurs I heard from

    strangers , who ventured to remark that the patriots and poets of the present day did iMell in remaining at home . Thifc remark would have beeti ambiguous , if their voices arid

    countenances had not stamped a broad gloss against the text . However we had some very fine music , which I ventured to hear from the steps : and I could discover in the nave a

    catafalc , the loan of which must have cost the community at least three crowns ; and best part of another to light it . The indignant spirit of our Alighieri seemed to have taken possession of the

    strangers universally , which indicates pretty plainly that they are sworn Ghibelhnes ; but I am happy to inform your Excellency that it did not burst forth against our augiist Imperial rulers , who had nothing to do with the business from beginning to end . TKbse however fare less handsomely

    Untitled Article

    Higk and -Xk ^ : ' J ^ % ' '' M'i } &fy ; % kf

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1837, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1836/page/23/