Without a rival stands; and lets the fools

That he was born of poor but noble parents, at the castle of Ribeyrac in Périgord, and that he was at the English court, is the amount of Millot's information concerning him (tom. ii. p. 479). The account there given of his writings is not much more satisfactory, and the criticism on them must go for little better than nothing. It is to be regretted that we have not an opportunity of judging for ourselves of his "love ditties and his tales of prose."

Versi d'amore e prose di romanzi.

Our Poet frequently cites him in the work De Vulgari Eloquio. In the second chapter of the second book, he is instanced as one "who had treated of love;" and in the tenth chapter, he is said to have used in almost all his canzoni a particular kind of stanza, the sestine, which Dante had followed in one of his own canzoni, beginning,

Al poco giorno ed al gran cerchio d'ombra.

This stanza is termed by Gray, "both in sense and sound, a very mean composition." Gray's Works, 4to. Lond. 1814. vol. ii. p. 23. According to Crescimbeni, (Della Volg. Poes. lib. i. p. 7. ed. 1698.) he died in 1189. Arnault Daniel was not soon forgotten; for Ausias March, a Catalonian, who was himself distinguished as a Provençal poet in the middle of the fifteenth century, makes honourable mention of him in some verses, which are quoted by Bastero in his Crusca Provenzale. Ediz. Roma. 1724. p. 75.

Envers alguns aço miracle par;

Mas sin's membram d'en Arnau Daniel
E de aquels que la terra los es vel,
Sabrem Amor vers nos que pot donar.

To some this seems a miracle to be;
But if we Arnault Daniel call to mind.

And those beside, whom earthly veil doth bind,
We then the mighty power of love shall see.

Since this note was written, M. Raynouard has made us better acquainted with the writings and history of the Provençal poets. I have much pleasure in citing the following particulars respecting Arnault Daniel from his Choix des Poésies des Troubadours, tom. ii. pp. 318, 319.

"L'autorité de Dante suffirait pour nous convaincre qu' Arnaud Daniel avait composé plusieurs romans. Mais il reste une preuve positive de l'existence d'un roman d'Arnaud Daniel; c'est celui de Lancelot du Lac, dont la traduction fut faite, vers la fin du treizième siècle, en allemand, par Ulrich de Zatchitschoven, qui nomme Arnaud Daniel comme l'auteur original".

"Le Tasse, dans l'un de ses ouvrages, s'exprime en ces termes, au sujet des romans composés par les troubadours: "E romanzi furono detti quei poemi, o più tosto quelle

(a) Des extraits de cette traduction allemande ont été publiés.

(6) Discorso sopra il parere fatto del Signor Fr. Patricio, etc. edit. fol. tom. iv. p. 210.

Talk on, who think the songster of Limoges1

istoric favolose, che furono scritte nella lingua de' Provenzali o de' Castigliani; le quali non si scrivevano in versi, ma in prosa, come alcuni hanno osservato prima da me, perchè Dante, parlando d'Arnaldo Daniello, disse:

Versi d'amore e prose di romanzi, etc.

Enfin Pulci, dans son Morgante Maggiore, nomme Arnaud Daniel comme auteur d'un roman de Renaud :

Dopo costui venne il famoso Arnaldo
Che molto diligentemente ha scritto,

E investigò le opre di Rinaldo,

De le gran cose che fece in Egitto, etc."

Morgante Maggiore, Canto xxvii. ott. 80. See also Raynouard, tom. v. 30.

1 The songster of Limoges.] Giraud de Borneil, of Sideuil, a castle in Limoges. He was a Troubadour, much admired and caressed in his day, and appears to have been in favour with the monarchs of Castile, Leon, Navarre, and Arragon. Giraud is mentioned by Dante in a remarkable passage of the De Vulg. Eloq. lib. ii. cap. 2. "As man is endowed with a triple soul, vegetable, animal, and rational, so he walks in a triple path. Inasmuch as he is vegetable, he seeks utility, in which he has a common nature with plants; inasmuch as he is animal, he seeks for pleasure, in which he participates with brutes; inasmuch as he is rational, he seeks for honour, in which he is either alone, or is associated with the angels. Whatever we do, appears to be done through these three principles, &c."-" With respect to utility, we shall find on a minute enquiry that the primary object with all who seek it, is safety; with regard to pleasure, love is entitled to the first place; and as to honour, no one will hesitate in assigning the same pre-eminence to virtue. These three then, safety, love, virtue, appear to be three great subjects, which ought to be treated with most grandeur; that is, those things which chiefly pertain to these, as courage in arms, ardency of love, and the direction of. the will: concerning which alone we shall find on enquiry that illustrious men have composed their poems in the vernacular tongues; Bertrand de Born, of arms; Arnault Daniel, of love; Giraud de Borneil, of rectitude; Cino da Pistoia, of love; his friend," (by whom he means himself)" of rectitude; but I find no Italian as yet who has treated of arms." Giraud is again quoted in the sixth chapter of this book. The following notice respecting him is found in Gray's posthumous Works, 4to. Lond. 1814, vol. ii. p. 23. "The canzone is of very ancient date, the invention of it being ascribed to Girard de Borneil of the school of Provence, who died in 1178. He was of Limoges, and was called Il Maestro de' Trovatori." That he was distinguished by this title (a circumstance that, perhaps, induced Dante to vindicate the superior claims of Arnault Daniel) is mentioned by Bastero in his Crusca Provenzale, Ediz. Roma, p. 84, where we find the following list of his MSS. poems preserved in the Vatican, and in the library of S. Lorenzo at Florence. "Una tenzone col Re d'Aragona; e un Serventese contra Cardaillac, e diverse Canzoni massimamente tre pel ricuperamento del S. Sepolcro, o di Terra Santa, ed alcune col titolo di Canterete, cioè picciole cantari, ovvero canzonette." The light which these and similar writings might

O'ertops him. Rumour and the popular voice
They look to, more than truth; and so confirm
Opinion, ere by art or reason taught.

Thus many of the elder time cried up
Guittone, giving him the prize, till truth
By strength of numbers vanquish'd. If thou own
So ample privilege, as to have gain'd
Free entrance to the cloister, whereof Christ
Is Abbot of the college; say to him
One paternoster for me, far as needs2

For dwellers in this world, where power to sin
No longer tempts us." Haply to make way
For one that follow'd next, when that was said,
He vanish'd through the fire, as through the wave
A fish, that glances diving to the deep.

I, to the spirit he had shown me, drew
A little onward, and besought his name,
For which my heart, I said, kept gracious room.
He frankly thus began: Thy courtesy3

cast, not only on the events, but still more on the manners of a most interesting period of history, would surely, without taking into the account any merit they may possess as poetical compositions, render them objects well deserving of more curiosity than they appear to have hitherto excited in the public mind. Many of his poems are still remaining in MS, According to Nostradamus he died in 1278. Millot. Hist. Litt. des Troub. tom. ii. p. 1. and 23. But I suspect that there is some error in this date, and that he did not live to so late a period. Some of his poems have since been published by Raynouard. Poésies des Troubadours, tom. iii. p. 304, &c.

1 Guittone.] See Canto xxiv. 56.

2 Far as needs.] See Canto xi. 23.

3 Thy courtesy.] Arnault is here made to speak in his own tongue, the Provençal. According to Dante, (De Vulg. Eloq. lib. i. c. 8.) the Provençal was one language with the Spanish. What he says on this subject is so curious, that the reader will perhaps not be displeased if I give an abstract of it.

He first makes three great divisions of the European languages. "One of these extends from the mouths of the Danube, or the lake of Mæotis, to the western limits of England, and is bounded by the limits of the French and Italians, and by the ocean. One idiom obtained over the whole of this space: but was afterwards subdivided into the Sclavonian, Hungarian, Teutonic, Saxon, English, and the vernacular tongues of several other people, one sign remaining to all, that they use the affirmative io, (our English ay.) The whole of Europe, beginning from the Hungarian limits and stretching towards the east, has a second idiom, which reaches still further than the end of Europe, into Asia. This is the Greek. In all that remains of Europe, there is a third idiom, subdivided into three dialects, which may be severally distinguished by the use of the affirmatives, oc, oil, and si;

So wins on me, I have nor power nor will
To hide me. I am Arnault; and with songs,

the first spoken by the Spaniards, the next by the French, the third by the Latins (or Italians). The first occupy the western part of southern Europe, beginning from the limits of the Geneose. The third occupy the eastern part from the said limits, as far, that is, as to the promontory of Italy, where the Adriatic sea begins, and to Sicily. The second are in a manner northern, with respect to these, for they have the Germans to the east and north, on the west they are bounded by the English sea and the mountains of Arragon, and on the south by the people of Provence and the declivity of the Apennine."

Ibid. c. x. "Each of these three," he observes, "has its own claims to distinction. The excellency of the French language consists in its being best adapted, on account of its facility and agreeableness, to prose narration, (quicquid redactum, sive inventum est ad vulgare prosaicum, suum est;) and he instances the books compiled on the gests of the Trojans and Romans, and the delightful Adventures of King Arthur, with many other histories and works of instruction. The Spanish (or Provençal) may boast of its having produced such as first cultivated in this, as in a more perfect and sweet language, the vernacular poetry: among whom are Pierre d'Auvergne, and others more ancient. The privileges of the Latin, or Italian, are two; first, that it may reckon for its own those writers who have adopted a more sweet and subtile style of poetry, in the number of whom are Cino da Pistoia and his friend; and the next, that its writers seem to adhere to certain general rules of grammar, and in so doing give it, in the opinion of the intelligent, a very weighty pretension to preference." Since the last edition of this book, it has appeared that Mr. Gray understood by the words "Grammaticæ, quæ communis est;"" the Latin or mother-tongue," and not, as I have rendered them, general rules of grammar." In this latter sense, however, the word "Grammatica" has been used twice before in the Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. though it is certainly afterwards applied in the sense in which Gray took it. See the edition of Gray's Works, for which we are so much indebted to Mr. Mathias, 4to. London. 1814. vol. ii. p. 35. We learn from our author's Vita Nuova, p. 258, that there were no poetic compositions in the Provençal or Italian, more than one hundred and fifty years before the Vita Nuova was written; and that the first who wrote in the vernacular languages, wrote to make himself understood by a lady. M. Raynouard supposed the text of all the editions to be miserably corrupted in this place, and took much pains to restore it. I will add the passage as that learned writer concluded it to have come from the hand of Dante :

"Tan m'abellis vostre cortes deman,

Ch' ieu non me puese ni m voil a vos cobrire;
Jeu sui Arnautz, che plor e vai cantan;

Consiros, vei la passada follor,

E vei jauzen lo joi qu'esper denan;

Aras vos prec, per aquella valor

Que us guida al som sens freich e sens calina,
Sovegna vos atenprar ma dolor.

66

Sorely waymenting for my folly past,
Thorough this ford of fire I wade, and see
The day, I hope for, smiling in my view.
I pray ye by the worth that guides ye up
Unto the summit of the scale, in time
Remember ye my sufferings."

With such words

He disappear'd in the refining flame.

CANTO XXVII.

ARGUMENT.

An angel sends them forward through the fire to the last ascent, which leads to the terrestrial Paradise, situated on the summit of the mountain. They have not proceeded many steps on their way upward, when the fall of night hinders them from going further; and our Poet, who has lain down with Virgil and Statius to rest, beholds in a dream two females, figuring the active and contemplative life. With the return of morning, they reach the height; and here Virgil gives Dante full liberty to use his own pleasure and judgment in the choice of his way, till he shall meet with Beatrice.

Now was the sun1 so station'd, as when first
His early radiance quivers on the heights, [hangs
Where stream'd his Maker's blood; while Libra
Above Hesperian Ebro; and new fires,
Meridian, flash on Ganges' yellow tide.

"Tant me plaît votre courtoise demande, que je ne puis ni ne me veux à vous cacher;-je suis Arnaud, qui pleure et va chantant;-soucieux, je vois la passée folie,-et vois joyeux le bonheur, que j'espère à l'avenir;-maintenant je vous prie, par cette vertu-qui vous guide au sommet, sans froid et sans chaud;-qu'il souvienne à vous de soulager ma douleur.

"Il n'est pas un des nombreux manuscrits de la Divina Commedia, pas une des éditions multipliées qui en ont été données, qui ne présente dans les vers que Dante prête au troubadour Arnaud Daniel, un texte défiguré et devenu, de copie en copie, presque inintelligible.

"Cependant j'ai pensé qu'il n'était pas impossible de rétablir le texte de ces vers, en comparant avec soin, dans les manuscrits de Dante que possèdent les dépôts publics de Paris, toutes les variantes qu'ils pouvaient fournir, et en les choisissant d'après les régles grammaticales et les notions lexicographiques. de la langue des troubadours. Mon espoir n'a point été trompé, et sans aucun secours conjectural, sans aucun déplacement ni changement de mots, je suis parvenu, par le simple choix des variantes, à retrouver le texte primitif, tel qu'il a dû être produit par Dante."

Raynouard. Lexique Roman. Tom. i. p. xlii. 8o. Par. 1830. The sun.] At Jerusalem it was dawn, in Spain midnight, and in India noonday, while it was sunset in Purgatory.