Stories from the Italian Poets: with Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 by Leigh Hunt
page 58 of 336 (17%)
page 58 of 336 (17%)
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third, but sometimes on the second syllable. See Foscolo, _Discorso sul
Testo, p_. 432. He says, that in Verona, where descendants of the poet survive, they call it _Alìgeri_. But names, like other words, often wander so far from their source, that it is impossible to ascertain it. Who would suppose that _Pomfret_ came from _Pontefract_, or _wig_ from _parrucca_? Coats of arms, unless in very special instances, prove nothing but the whims of the heralds. Those who like to hear of anything in connexion with Dante or his name, may find something to stir their fancies in the following grim significations of the word in the dictionaries: "_Dante_, a kind of great wild beast in Africa, that hath a very hard skin."--_Florio's Dictionary_, edited by Torreggiano. "_Dante_, an animal called otherwise the Great Beast."--_Vocabolario della Crusca, Compendiato_, Ven. 1729.] [Footnote 6: See the passage in "Hell," where Virgil, to express his enthusiastic approbation of the scorn and cruelty which Dante chews to one of the condemned, embraces and kisses him for a right "disdainful soul," and blesses the "mother that bore him."] [Footnote 7: _Opere minori_, vol iii 12. Flor. 1839, pp. 292 &c.] [Footnote 8: "Béatrix quitta la terre dans tout l'éclat de la jeunesse et de la virginité." See the work as above entitled, Paris, 1840, p. 60. The words in Latin, as quoted from the will by the critic alluded to in the _Foreign Quarterly Review_ (No._ 65, art. _Dante Allighieri_), are, "Bici filiæ suæ et uxori D. (Domini) Simonis de Bardis." "Bici" is |
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