home Social science She keeps love in her eyes. Dante's new life is a divine comedy. Inspiration is in the little things

She keeps love in her eyes. Dante's new life is a divine comedy. Inspiration is in the little things

The story of his love for Beatrice Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the famous Italian poet, author of the Divine Comedy, a poem about a visit afterlife, he told himself in verse and prose in a short story "New Life" (Vita Nuova, or in Latin Vita Nova). It was written shortly after Beatrice's early death in 1290.
What meaning Dante put into such an amazing title of his youthful work is not entirely clear. He writes about a "book of memory", probably a notebook where he entered extracts from books, poems, and there he finds a rubric marked with the words Insipit vita nova - Begins new life, - perhaps with sonnets and notes associated with Beatrice, which he singles out as a "small book of memory."

Mary Stillman. Beatrice (1895)

In her eyes she keeps Love;
Blessed is everything she looks at;
She goes - everyone hurries to her;
Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

So, all confused, he bows down his face
And he sighs about his sinfulness.
Haughtiness and anger melt before her.
O donnas, who will not praise her?

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts
Knows the one who hears her word.
Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

The way she smiles
Speech does not speak and the mind does not remember:
So this miracle is blissful and new.

Rossetti. Greetings Beatrice

Any appearance of Beatrice among people, according to Dante, was a miracle, everyone “ran from everywhere to see her; and then a wonderful joy filled my chest. When she was near someone, his heart became so courteous that he did not dare to raise his eyes or answer her greeting; of this many who have experienced it could testify to those who would not believe my words. Crowned with humility, dressed in robes of modesty, she passed without showing the slightest sign of pride. Many said as she passed by: "She is not a woman, but one of the most beautiful heavenly angels."
And others said: “This is a miracle; Blessed be the Lord who does the extraordinary.” I say that she was so noble, so full of all graces, that bliss and joy descended on those who saw her; yet they were unable to convey these feelings. No one could contemplate her without sighing; and her virtue had even more miraculous effects on all.

Waterhouse - Dante and Beatrice

Reflecting on this and seeking to continue her praises, I decided to compose verses in which I would help to understand her excellent and wonderful appearances, so that not only those who can see her with bodily vision, but also others, will know about her everything that is in able to express words. Then I wrote the following sonnet, beginning: “So noble, so modest sometimes ...”

So noble, so modest
Madonna, answering the bow,
That near her the language is silent, embarrassed,
And the eye does not dare to rise to it.

She goes, does not heed the enthusiasm,
And become her humility clothed,
And it seems: brought down from the sky
This ghost to us, but a miracle here is.

She brings such delight to her eyes,
That when you meet her, you find joy,
Which the ignorant will not understand,

And as if from her mouth comes
Love spirit pouring sweetness into the heart,
Firmly to the soul: "Sigh ..." - and sigh.

Rossetti. Beatrice. meeting Dante at the wedding feast, refuses to greet him

Researchers speak of Dante's "youthful work", although he was 25-27 years old when he wrote the "New Life", and this is a fairly mature age for that era. Dante, in all likelihood, studied at the university in Bologna, possibly before the age of 20, and in 1289 took part in a military campaign. He was an active member of the "new sweet style" poets' circle. But the story does not even specifically mention Florence, and from the environment, mostly ladies, only Beatrice is occasionally called by name.
In terms of its special tonality, confession in verse and prose really sounds like a youthful one, which, however, has its own explanation. The death of Beatrice and memories of her immerse the poet in childhood and youth. After all, he first saw and fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and she was not yet nine. Since then, he has only seen her from a distance. The experiences of many years came to life, overgrown with memories and dreams, kept in verse, but so vague that comments were required, in the spirit of that time, reeking of scholasticism.

Rossetti. Dante's dream at the time of Beatrice's death

In a word, vital content the story is scarce, only dreams and feelings, but the feelings are strong and even excessive, especially since they were hidden from everyone and from Beatrice. For the first time he saw Beatrice in clothes of "the most noble blood-red color." At the age of 18, she appeared before him, "dressed in clothes of dazzling white color, among two ladies older than her years.
Beatrice greeted him, and one can understand that for the first time he heard her voice addressed directly to him. He called her "most noble" and now "lady of saving salutation," which was his highest bliss.

Dante sees a dream, how a certain ruler - Amor - wakes up a naked girl, slightly covered with a blood-red veil, - he recognizes Beatrice, - Amor gives her to eat "what was burning in his hand, and she ate timidly", after that Amor's joy turns into sobs, he embraces the mistress and hastily ascends - it seemed to him - into the sky. He suddenly felt pain and woke up.

At the same time, a sonnet was written, the meaning of which now, with the poet's story about a dream, is quite clear.

Whose spirit is captivated, whose heart is full of light,
To all those before whom my sonnet appears,
Who will reveal to me the meaning of his deaf,
In the name of the Lady of Love, - hello to them!

Already a third of the hours when it is given to the planets
Shine stronger, making your way,
When love appeared before me
Such that it is terrible for me to remember this:

In fun was Love; and in the palm of your hand
My heart was holding; but in the hands
She carried the Madonna, sleeping humbly;

And, having awakened, gave the Madonna a taste
From the heart, - and she ate in confusion.
Then Love disappeared, all in tears.

Rossetti. Dantis Amor

From actual events, this is what happens. Once Dante looked from a distance at Beatrice, perhaps at some festival that is not mentioned, and between them there was one noble lady who involuntarily began to look back at him, and he decided to choose her as a veil, a lady of protection, so that his love for Beatrice.
The poems were dedicated to that lady, although he meant his love for Beatrice - these poems were not included in the story - and this went on for quite a long time, during which time Beatrice got married, if not earlier, but this is not mentioned in the "small book memory." Somewhere at this time, “the lord of the angels was pleased to call on the glory of her young lady of a noble appearance, who was dear to everyone in the said city,” writes Dante, “I saw her lifeless body reclining, pitifully mourned by many ladies.”
It seems that this is also a veil, as if the poet is unable to imagine the lifeless body of Beatrice, whether he saw it or not, we do not know.

Bronzino. Allegorical portrait of Dante

It happened that the “lady of protection” left the city, and the poet considered it good to choose another lady instead of the one to keep the veil. The ladies noticed this and began to reproach Dante for his unworthy behavior, which reached Beatrice, and she refused him her "sweet greetings, which contained all my bliss", according to the poet, which plunged him into the greatest grief.
He constantly shed tears, lost his face, became frail, and at that time he again saw Beatrice among other ladies, at the wedding of one of them, which only plunged him into new torments, and he was beside himself, and the ladies laughed at him, and what was worse, even Beatrice laughed at him with them.

Dante and Beatrice, from "L"Estampe Moderne", published Paris 1897-99

You laughed at me among your friends,
But did you know, Madonna, why
You can't recognize my face
When I stand before your beauty?

Oh, if you knew - with the usual kindness
You could not contain your feelings:
After all, Love, captivating me all,
Tyrannizing with such cruelty,

That, reigning among my timid feelings,
Executing others, sending others into exile,
She alone has her eyes on you.

That's why my unusual appearance!
But even then their exiles
So clearly I hear grief.

Looks like the noble ladies brought out young poet on clear water, with his tricks of rushing with the veil, they could not - or Beatrice - guess who the real lady of his heart was. Dante, as a young man, hid his feelings, although all his experiences were reflected in his appearance and behavior, not to mention the sonnets.

Rossetti. First anniversary of Beatrice's death: Dante draws an angel

In 1289, Folco Portinari, Beatrice's father, died; Dante heard the speeches of the ladies, how they sympathized with her and admired her, they noticed grief and compassion on his face, which could not open their eyes to the reason for his behavior.

And here Dante mentions the death of Beatrice as a fact known to all, and experienced by him, for the whole story was a confession of his heart at her grave, with the ascension after her soul to the highest spheres of Paradise.

How! And it's all?!

In a single voice merges all the moans
The sound of my sadness
And calls Death, and seeks steadily.
To her, to her alone my desires fly
From the day the madonna
Was taken from this life suddenly.
Then, that, throwing our earthly circle,
Her features so wonderfully lit up
Great, unearthly beauty,
Spilled in the sky
Love light - that the angels bowed
Everything is in front of her, and their mind is high
Marvel at the nobility of such forces.

Rossetti. Meeting Dante and Beatrice in Paradise

Dante calls Death, his soul is carried away after Beatrice, rising above the circles of Hell, over the ledges of Purgatory, into the spheres of Paradise shining with light, the idea of the poem flashes like a vision, and he declares that if his life lasts, he will say about her what else not a single woman was mentioned.

The poetics of Dante's "New Life" undoubtedly affected the work of Sandro Botticelli, in his fantasies-dreams about "Spring" and "The Birth of Venus". And you can even cite a sonnet in which the program of the famous paintings of the artist comes through.

I heard how I woke up in my heart
The loving spirit that slumbered there;
Then in the distance I saw love
So happy that I doubted her.

She said: "Time to bow
You are in front of me ... ”- and laughter sounded in the speech.
But only the mistress I heeded,
Her dear gaze fixed on mine.

And monna Vannu with monna Bice I
I saw those going to these lands -
Behind a marvelous miracle, a miracle without an example;

And, as is stored in my memory,
Love said: "This is Primavera,
And that one is Love, we are so similar to it.

Some biographers not so long ago doubted the real existence of Beatrice and tried to consider her just an allegory, without real content. But now it is documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned and exalted into the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection - undoubtedly, historical figure, daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived in the neighborhood of the Alighieri family and was born in April 1267, In January 1287 she married Sismon di Bardi, and on June 9, 1290 she died 23 years old, shortly after her father.

Rossetti-Blessing of Beatrice

Beatrice Portinari (1266-1290) - Florentine, "muse" and secret lover of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. She was his first and unhappy love, married another and died early. Very little is known about Beatrice's life, and the information available is partly disputed.

girl in red

Dante first saw her in 1274, when both of them were still children: he was 9, she was 8 years old. It was at the May festival in Florence, Dante reports about this in his first work La Vita nuova.

From this first meeting and first love, Dante left impressions for life, which only intensified in the future. The “young angel”, as the poet puts it, appeared before his eyes in an outfit that did not correspond to her childhood: Beatrice was dressed in a “noble” red color, she had a belt on her, and, according to Dante, she immediately became “the mistress of his spirit ". “She seemed to me,” says the poet, “more like the daughter of God than a mere mortal,” “From the very minute I saw her, love took possession of my heart to such an extent that I had no strength to resist it and, trembling with excitement , heard a secret voice: Here is a deity that is stronger than you and will own you.

Girl in white

Ten years later, Beatrice appears to him again, this time dressed in white. She walks down the street, accompanied by two other women, raises her eyes to him and, thanks to her “indescribable grace”, bows to him so modestly and charmingly that it seems to him that he has seen the “highest degree of bliss”.

Intoxicated with delight, the poet runs away from the noise of people, retires to his room to dream of his beloved, falls asleep and has a dream. When he wakes up, he writes it down in verse. This is an allegory in the form of a vision: love with Dante's heart in her hands carries at the same time in her arms "a lady asleep and wrapped in a veil." Cupid wakes her up, gives her Dante's heart and then runs away crying.

This sonnet of 18-year-old Dante, in which he addresses poets, asking them for an explanation of his dream, drew the attention of many, including Guido Cavalcanti, who congratulated the new poet from the bottom of his heart. Thus their friendship was supposed to flourish, which has never weakened since.

Inspiration is in the little things

In his first poetic works, in sonnets and canzones, surrounding the image of Beatrice with bright radiance and a poetic halo, Dante already surpasses all his contemporaries with the power of poetic talent, the ability to speak the language, as well as sincerity, seriousness and depth of feeling. Although he, too, still adheres to the same conventionality of form, the content is new: it is experienced, it comes from the heart. Dante soon abandoned the form and manner that had been handed down to him and took a new path. He contrasted the traditional feeling of worshiping the Madonna of the troubadours with real, but spiritual, holy, pure love. He himself considers the truth and sincerity of his feelings to be the "powerful lever" of his poetry.

The poet's love story is very simple. All events are the most insignificant. Beatrice passes him down the street and bows to him; he meets her unexpectedly at a wedding celebration and comes into such indescribable excitement and embarrassment that those present, and even Beatrice herself, make fun of him, and his friend must take him away from there. One of Beatrice's friends dies, and Dante composes two sonnets on this occasion; he hears from other women how much Beatrice grieves for the death of her father ... These are the events; but for such a high cult, for such love, which the sensitive heart of a poet of genius was capable of, this is a whole inner story, touching in its purity, sincerity and deep religiosity.

This is so pure love timid, the poet hides it from prying eyes, and his feeling remains a mystery for a long time. In order to prevent other people's eyes from penetrating into the sanctuary of the soul, he pretends to be in love with another, writes poetry to her. Gossip begins, and, apparently, Beatrice is jealous and does not return his bow.

Reality or myth?

Some biographers not so long ago doubted the real existence of Beatrice and tried to consider her just an allegory, without real content. But now it has been documented that Beatrice, whom Dante loved, glorified, mourned and exalted as the ideal of the highest moral and physical perfection, is undoubtedly a historical figure, the daughter of Folco Portinari, who lived in the neighborhood of the Alighieri family and was born in April 1267, In January 1287 She married Sismondi Bardi, and on June 9, 1290, she died at the age of 23, shortly after her father.

More angel than woman

Dante's love for Beatrice is distinguished by all the signs of the first youthful love. This is a spiritual, holy worship of a woman, and not a passionate love for her. Beatrice is more an angel for Dante than a woman; she, as if on wings, flies through this world, barely touching it, until she returns to the best one, from where she came, and therefore love for her is “the road to goodness, to God.”

This love of Dante for Beatrice realizes in itself the ideal of Platonic, spiritual love in its highest development. There were those who did not understand this feeling, who asked why the poet did not marry Beatrice. Dante did not seek the possession of his beloved; her presence, bow - that's all he wants, which fills him with bliss.

Only once, in the poem "Guido, I would like ...", fantasy captivates him, he dreams of fabulous happiness, of going away with sweetheart far from cold people, to stay with her in the middle of the sea in a boat, with only a few , dearest friends. But this beautiful poem, where the mystical veil rises and the sweetheart becomes close, desired, Dante excluded from the Vita nuova collection: it would be a dissonance in his general tone.

One might think that Dante, worshiping Beatrice, led an inactive, dreamy life. Not at all - pure, high love only gives a new, amazing power. Thanks to Beatrice, Dante tells us, he stepped out of the ranks of ordinary people. He began to write early, and she was the impetus for his writing.

“I had no other teacher in poetry,” he says in Vita nuova, “except myself and the most powerful teacher - love.” All the lyrics of "Vita nuova" are imbued with a tone of deep sincerity and truth, but its true muse is sorrow. And indeed, Short story Dante's love has rare glimpses of clear, contemplative joy; the death of Beatrice's father, her sadness, the premonition of her death and her death - all these are tragic motives. The premonition of Beatrice's death runs through the entire collection. Already in the first sonnet, in the first vision, Cupid's short joy turns into bitter lamentation, Beatrice is carried to heaven. Then, when Death abducts Beatrice's friend, the blessed spirits express the desire to have her sooner in their midst.

Lost heaven

When Beatrice died, the poet was 25 years old. Death, dear, was a heavy blow to him. His grief borders on despair - he himself wishes to die, and only in death awaits consolation for himself. Life, homeland - everything suddenly turned into a desert for him. Dante is crying about the dead Beatrice like a paradise lost. But his nature was too healthy and strong for him to die of grief. From his great sorrow, the poet seeks solace in the pursuit of science.

As a rule, the ideas of great poetic works do not appear suddenly and are not immediately realized; the thought of them lurks before that for a long time in the soul of the poet, develops little by little, takes root deeper and deeper, expands and transforms, until, finally, the mature product of a long, invisible inner work will not come into the light of God. So it was with the Divine Comedy.

The Divine Comedy

The first thought about his great poem was born, apparently, in the mind of Dante very early. Already the "New Life" serves as a prelude to the "Divine Comedy".

The name "Comedy" was given to his poem by Dante himself, and the epithet "Divine" was added by admiring posterity later, in the 16th century, not because of the content of the poem, but as a designation of the highest degree of perfection of Dante's great work. The Divine Comedy does not belong to any particular kind of poetry: it is a completely peculiar, one-of-a-kind mixture of all the elements of various kinds of poetry.

The continuation of the story of Dante's love for Beatrice is in the Divine Comedy, and there this love acquires new level- love-immortality.

Heavenly and earthly love

But Dante's other love for some Pietra, about whom he wrote four canzones, has a different character. Who this Pietra was is unknown, like much of the poet's life; but the four canzones he mentioned were written by him before his exile.

They sound the language of still youthful passion, youthful love, this time already sensual. Along with mystical exaltation, with the religious cult of the female ideal, sensual love was easily combined in those days; pure, chaste worship of a woman did not exclude then the so-called "folle amore" in those days. It is quite possible that, with his passionate temperament, Dante paid tribute to him, and that he, too, had a period of storms and delusions.

A few years after the death of Beatrice - when exactly is not known, but apparently in 1295 - Dante married a certain Gemma da Manetto Donati. Former biographers report that the poet had seven children from her, but according to the latest research, there are only three of them: two sons, Pietro and Jacopo, and daughter Anthony.

Very little information has been preserved about the poet's wife, Gemma. Apparently she outlived her husband; at least as far back as 1333, her signature appears on one document. According to information reported by Boccaccio, Dante no longer saw his wife after his exile from Florence, where she remained with her children. Many years later, at the end of his life, the poet called his sons to him and took care of them.

In his writings, Dante nowhere says anything about Gemma. But this was a common occurrence in those days: none of the then poets touched on their family relationships. The wife was destined in that era to play a prosaic role; she remained completely outside the poetic horizon; next to the feeling that was given to her, another could perfectly exist, which was considered the highest.

Boccaccio and some other biographers claim that Dante's marriage was unhappy. But nothing positive is known about this; it is only true that this marriage was concluded without any romantic lining: it was a kind of business arrangement to fulfill a public duty - one of those marriages, of which there are now many.

The story of his love for Beatrice Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), the famous Italian poet, author of the Divine Comedy, a poem about visiting the afterlife, told himself in verse and in prose in a short story "New Life" (Vita Nuova, or Latin Vita Nova). It was written shortly after Beatrice's early death in 1290.

What meaning Dante put into such an amazing title of his youthful work is not entirely clear. He writes about a "book of memory", probably a notebook where he entered extracts from books, poems, and there he finds a rubric marked with the words Insipit vita nova - A new life begins - perhaps with sonnets and notes associated with Beatrice, that he singles out as a "small book of memory".

In her eyes she keeps Love;

Blessed is everything she looks at;

She goes - everyone hurries to her;

Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

So, all confused, he bows down his face

And he sighs about his sinfulness.

Haughtiness and anger melt before her.

O donnas, who will not praise her?

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts

Knows the one who hears her word.

Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

The way she smiles

Speech does not speak and the mind does not remember:

So this miracle is blissful and new.

And others said: “This is a miracle; Blessed be the Lord who does the extraordinary.” I say that she was so noble, so full of all graces, that bliss and joy descended on those who saw her; yet they were unable to convey these feelings. No one could contemplate her without sighing; and her virtue had even more miraculous effects on all.

So noble, so modest

Madonna, answering the bow,

That near her the language is silent, embarrassed,

And the eye does not dare to rise to it.

She goes, does not heed the enthusiasm,

And become her humility clothed,

And it seems: brought down from the sky

This ghost to us, but a miracle here is.

She brings such delight to her eyes,

That when you meet her, you find joy,

Which the ignorant will not understand,

And as if from her mouth comes

Love spirit pouring sweetness into the heart,

Telling the soul: "Breathe ..." - and sigh.

In terms of its special tonality, confession in verse and prose really sounds like a youthful one, which, however, has its own explanation. The death of Beatrice and memories of her plunge the poet into childhood and adolescence. After all, he first saw and fell in love with Beatrice at the age of nine, and she was not yet nine. Since then, he has only seen her from a distance. The experiences of many years came to life, overgrown with memories and dreams, kept in verse, but so vague that comments were required, in the spirit of that time, reeking of scholasticism.

In a word, the vital content in the story is meager, only dreams and feelings, but the feelings are strong and even excessive, especially since they were hidden from everyone and from Beatrice. For the first time he saw Beatrice in clothes of "the most noble blood-red color." At the age of 18, she appeared before him, "dressed in clothes of dazzling white, among two ladies older than her."

Beatrice greeted him, and one can understand that for the first time he heard her voice addressed directly to him. He called her "most noble" and now "lady of saving salutation," which was his highest bliss.

Dante sees a dream, how a certain ruler - Amor - wakes up a naked girl, slightly covered with a blood-red veil - he recognizes Beatrice, - Amor gives her to eat "what was burning in his hand, and she ate timidly", after that Amor's joy turns into sobs, he embraces the mistress and hastily ascends - it seemed to him - into the sky. He suddenly felt pain and woke up.

At the same time, a sonnet was written, the meaning of which now, with the poet's story about a dream, is quite clear.

Whose spirit is captivated, whose heart is full of light,

To all those before whom my sonnet appears,

Who will reveal to me the meaning of his deaf,

In the name of the Lady of Love, hello to them!

Already a third of the hours when it is given to the planets

Shine stronger, making your way,

When love appeared before me

Such that it is terrible for me to remember this:

In fun was Love; and in the palm of your hand

My heart was holding; but in the hands

She carried the Madonna, sleeping humbly;

And, having awakened, gave the Madonna a taste

From the heart, - and she ate in confusion.

Then Love disappeared, all in tears.

Translated by A. M. Efros.

Amor and Love are one and the same, which corresponds to medieval ideas, there is no mention of Cupid Apuleius or Plato's Eros; Amor is rather an angel of Love.

The poems were dedicated to that lady, although he meant his love for Beatrice - these poems were not included in the story - and this went on for quite a long time, during which time Beatrice married, if not earlier, but this is not mentioned in the "small book memory." Somewhere at this time, “the lord of the angels was pleased to call on the glory of her young lady of a noble appearance, who was dear to everyone in the said city,” writes Dante, “I saw her lifeless body reclining, pitifully mourned by many ladies.”

It seems that this is also a veil, as if the poet is unable to imagine the lifeless body of Beatrice, whether he saw it or not, we do not know.

He constantly shed tears, lost his face, became frail, and at that time he again saw Beatrice among other ladies, at the wedding of one of them, which only plunged him into new torments, and he was beside himself, and the ladies laughed at him, and what was worse, even Beatrice laughed at him with them.

You laughed at me among your friends,

But did you know, Madonna, why

You can't recognize my face

When I stand before your beauty?

Oh, if you knew - with the usual kindness

You could not contain your feelings:

After all, Love, captivating me all,

Tyrannizing with such cruelty,

That, reigning among my timid feelings,

Executing others, sending others into exile,

She alone has her eyes on you.

That's why my unusual appearance!

But even then their exiles

So clearly I hear grief.

It seemed that the noble ladies had led the young poet into the open, with his tricks of running around with the veil, they could not - or Beatrice - not guess who the real lady of his heart was. Dante, as a young man, hid his feelings, although all his experiences were reflected in his appearance and behavior, not to mention the sonnets.

How! And it's all?!

In a single voice merges all the moans

The sound of my sadness

And calls Death, and seeks steadily.

To her, to her alone my desires fly

From the day the madonna

Was taken from this life suddenly.

Then, that, throwing our earthly circle,

Her features so wonderfully lit up

Great, unearthly beauty,

Spilled in the sky

Love light - that the angels bowed

Everything is in front of her, and their mind is high

Marvel at the nobility of such forces.

I heard how I woke up in my heart

The loving spirit that slumbered there;

Then in the distance I saw love

So happy that I doubted her.

She said: "Time to bow

You are in front of me ... ”- and laughter sounded in the speech.

But only the mistress I heeded,

Her dear gaze fixed on mine.

And monna Vannu with monna Bice I

I saw those going to these lands -

Behind a marvelous miracle, a miracle without an example;

And, as is stored in my memory,

Love said: “This is Primavera,

And that one is Love, we are so similar to it.

We find the continuation of the story of Dante's love for Beatrice in the poem "The Divine Comedy".

After the death of Beatrice, Dante married a girl to whom he was engaged at the age of 12, and joined the political life in Florence with all the ardor of his soul, which was accompanied by work on the treatises "Feast" and "On Popular Eloquence". His career developed successfully, which was reflected in his fate: with the coming to power of the "black" party - supporters of the pope and the noble-bourgeois elite of the republic (and the poet belonged to the bourgeois-democratic elite), Dante was expelled from Florence, and when the poet reacted angrily, he was sentenced to death in absentia.

From 1302 until his death in 1321, Dante spent in exile in various cities of Italy and in Paris, a tragic situation for the proud spirit of the poet. And the idea of the "Comedy" fully corresponds to the state of his soul, in which anger boils, questions of being and the image of Beatrice arise in her childhood, in her youth and in the higher spheres of Paradise, where he raised her.

The Comedy genre, as Dante called his poem, suggests a happy ending, and was associated with a vision very common in the Middle Ages. In general, the whole system of the afterlife with all sorts of forms of retribution in Hell, Purgatory and Paradise was developed by church orthodoxy with extraordinary sophistication, and here Dante did not have to invent anything. But the idea and plot of the Comedy is entirely the creation of Dante as a poet and personality with the whole gamut of his aspirations and experiences from childhood to the end of his life, which no longer fits into the medieval worldview and portends the self-consciousness of a person of a new era.

The main event in Dante's life until the age of 25-27, judging by the content of the New Life, was his love for Beatrice, deeply hidden, painful in terms of the power of impressions, like the experience of her death. Obviously, in general, this is the make-up of his soul and character - to passionately and painfully intensely experience all the searches for thoughts and impressions of being.

Dante surveys the universe, the life of mankind, carried away by his thoughts to the highest spheres of Paradise after Beatrice, which is the idea and plot of his poem, with a visit to the afterlife in the spirit of the medieval genre of visions, with scenes of retribution, which is the last truth for the believer. The genre of visions, in fact, moral reflection, appears in Dante in a new light, filled with a purely poetic content of his life from childhood, because he is to meet Beatrice.

That's the whole point. It is the poetic content of the Comedy, in addition to all sorts of torments of sinners, that makes it a comprehensive work, in terms of genre a world drama, like Homer's Iliad or Goethe's Faust. Therefore, Dante's "Comedy" began to be called divine, which was fixed in its name - "Divine Comedy". Moral reflection and faith receded before the power of the poet's poetic feeling, the feeling of love, the feeling of nature, the feeling of history, the feeling of art.

I remember the first time I read "Hell", a separate pre-revolutionary publication, picked up out of interest in the old book. I was sitting in summer garden among ancient trees and sculptures; I was surprised by the translation - not by Dante's terzas, but by a simplified size, which, however, did not prevent me from being imbued with the poet's fears, who suddenly, as in a dream, found himself in a gloomy forest, and now a lynx, now a lion, then a she-wolf appeared in front of him - and they came to life in me fears of infancy and childhood wildlife, from the night, from the universe as a whole.

The whole content of "Hell" took me to Far East, the places of my childhood, as the poet latently revived the memories of his childhood, although he spoke about the torments of sinners in the circles of Hell, in which there is nothing poetic, but the terrible was transformed into the most mysterious and poetic impressions of nature in all its manifestations. Here is the true poetic content of Part I of the Divine Comedy.

Now I picked up The Divine Comedy translated by M. L. Lozinsky and for many days, years Dante lived, reading everything that he wrote, everything that was written about him - of course, not everything, but what came across to me in bookstores and in the library of the House of Writers. These were my leisure activities, like walking around the city and visiting the Hermitage or the Russian Museum. At the same time, the very first impressions of the poem, its all-encompassing poetic richness, always came to life in me.

Having passed half of earthly life,

I found myself in a dark forest

Having lost the right path in the darkness of the valley.

Virgil comes to the aid of Dante, the author of the Aeneid, his favorite poet, but not by himself, he is called to Beatrice and sent to him to accompany him through Hell and Purgatory to the Earthly Paradise. The beginning of the plot of the poem, when the vision - a seeming visit to the afterlife - is filled with the real poetic content of the poet's love, creates an aura of the most intimate memories from childhood and youth, which - after all the terrifying fears of Hell - the torments of sinners - you feel in Purgatory, rising to the Earthly Paradise, where Dante meets Beatrice.

When reading “Purgatory”, in an amazing way, memories of my first love came to life in me, about the excitement of love in my childhood on the Amur and in my youth on the banks of the Neva, and for Dante, one must think, in the course of his work on “Purgatory”, - all the content " New Life."

To understand the structure of Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, according to Dante, for clarity, we will use the notes of M. Lozinsky. Hell was created by the triune deity as the place of execution of the fallen Lucifer. “Dante depicts Hell as an underground funnel-shaped abyss, which, narrowing, reaches the center of the globe. Its slopes are surrounded by concentric ledges, the "circles" of Hell.

Dante combines the concepts and images of the Christian religion and ancient mythology, which, strictly speaking, is incompatible, but compatible if the Christian religion here also reveals its fundamental principle - mythology. This is what happens, and nothing remains of the medieval genre of vision - we have before us a poetic work of art, like Homer's Iliad.

So, what a surprise! – “The Divine Comedy” should not be taken as a work of “ High Middle Ages”, not even the proto-Renaissance, it fully expressed the aesthetics of the Renaissance, as in Homer's poem - the aesthetics of the classics ?! A comprehensive poetic work, in addition to religious ideas from the depths of millennia, reveals a classical art form.

Dante's Hell is immersed in Hades, as the religious and theological content of retribution and salvation in ancient mythology, which will become a defining feature of the Renaissance aesthetics, with the revival of the classical style.

“The rivers of the ancient underworld also flow in Dante's Hell. In essence, this is one stream formed by the tears of the Cretan Elder and penetrating into the bowels of the earth. At first he appears as Acheron (Greek - the river of sorrow) and encircles the first circle of Hell. Then, flowing down, it forms the swamp of Styx (Greek - hated), otherwise - the Stygian swamp, in which the angry are executed and which washes the walls of the city of Dita, bordering the abyss of the lower Hell. Even lower, it becomes Phlegeton (Greek - burning), a ring-shaped river of boiling blood, in which rapists are immersed against their neighbor.

Then, in the form of a bloody stream, which continues to be called Phlegeton, it crosses the forest of suicides and the desert, where the fiery rain falls. From here, with a noisy waterfall, it overthrows deep into, so that in the center of the earth it turns into an icy lake Cocytus (Greek - lamentation). Fly (Greek - oblivion) Dante places in the Earthly Paradise, from where her waters also flow to the center of the earth, taking with them the memory of sins; to her he adds Evnoia.

Thus, the internal form of Hell and Purgatory was thought out by Dante on the basis of ancient mythology, which made the greatest impression on Pushkin (and not the sophisticated torment of sinners): “the single plan (Dante’s) “Hell” is already the fruit of a high genius,” he said.

There we find all the characters of Hades: Charon, Cerberus, Minos, etc., many characters Greek mythology and Greco-Roman history, which, strictly speaking, the jurisdiction of the Christian Church cannot extend, as well as the prophet Muhammad (Mohammed), whom Dante places in the ninth circle of Hell as an apostate, next to Lucifer. Such was the view of the creator of Islam in the Middle Ages, which showed the rejection by the Christian church of the Renaissance phenomena of the history of Muslims, in addition to the rejection of any other religion, except the Christian one.

But the historical and religious limitations of Dante's worldview should not confuse us, it is overcome by him by his purely poetic recreation of the three spheres of human life - nature, history and culture, according to Schelling's definition. Reading "Hell" leaves a complete impression of the wild and frightening nature and, accordingly, human nature with all its weaknesses, perversions and creative power, capable of creating new world, to see the "new heaven and new earth."

Dante depicts Purgatory “in the form of a huge mountain rising in the southern hemisphere in the middle of the Ocean. It has the shape of a truncated cone. The coastline and the lower part of the mountain form the Prepurgatory, and the upper one is surrounded by seven ledges (seven circles of Purgatory itself). On the flat top of the mountain, Dante places the desert forest of the Earthly Paradise.

Rising through the circles of Purgatory to the Earthly Paradise, Dante observes various, already more merciful forms of punishment for those who died under church excommunication, negligent and negligent, who died forcibly, etc. spendthrifts, gluttons, voluptuaries.

In the Earthly Paradise, with the appearance of Beatrice, Virgil disappears, and now she will accompany the poet in his flights through the celestial spheres of Paradise.

In a wreath of olives, under a white veil,

A woman appeared, dressed

In a green cloak and in a dress of fire-scarlet.

And my spirit, even though times have flown away,

When she plunged him into a shudder

By her very presence, she

And here the contemplation was incomplete, -

Before the secret power that came from her,

Former love tasted the charm.

Beatrice meets Dante sternly, reproaching him for the fact that, as soon as she died, he "went away to others."

When I ascended from the body to the spirit

And increased in strength and beauty,

His soul to his beloved has cooled ...

So deep was his trouble,

That it was possible to give him salvation

Only the spectacle of the dead forever.

Beatrice addresses him directly with reproaches.

Nature and art did not give

You are forever more beautiful delights,

Than my appearance, disintegrated in the grave.

Since you have lost the highest of the fences

With my death, what is in the death share

Could it still attract your attention?

You should have at the first injection

That which is mortal, to aspire flight

Following me, not mortal, as hitherto.

Dante in Paradise ascends to the Empyrean. “Above the nine heavens of the Ptolemaic system, Dante, in accordance with church teaching, places the tenth, motionless Empyrean (Greek - fiery), the abode of a deity.” The first heaven is the moon; Dante and Beatrice plunge into its bowels, as it will be on other planets woven from light, the radiance of which will increase towards the Empyrean, and Dante’s “Paradise” is impressive - not in content: on the Moon we see vow breakers, on Mercury - ambitious ones, on Venus - loving, on the Sun - wise men, on Mars - warriors for faith, on Jupiter - just, on Saturn - contemplatives, in the starry sky - triumphant, where the Virgin Mary, Eve, the apostles and other triumphant souls, forming many round dances - but by the continuous increase in the brilliance and radiance of the light ..

In the ninth, crystal sky, this is the Prime mover, angels live. And here is the Empyrean with a radiant river and a Paradise rose.

Here the high spirit took off;

But passion and will already strove for me,

As if the wheel is given an even turn,

Love that moves the sun and luminaries.

“Having reached the highest spiritual tension,” as M. Lozinsky explains the last lines of the poem, “Dante ceases to see anything. But after the illumination he experienced, his passion and will (heart and mind) in their striving are forever subordinated to the rhythm in which divine love moves the universe."

Now, having revisited The Divine Comedy after a series of articles on the aesthetics of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, I see that Dante's poem and its poetics predetermined the main features and properties of the aesthetics of artists, architects, thinkers of the Renaissance in Italy.

In the highest spheres of Paradise, among the angels, the Mother of God, the first biblical characters and apostles, we see, like Dante, one Beatrice, who in her beauty and intelligence became like angels, turning into the highest embodiment of humanity, which is the essence of humanism, when at the center of the world, instead of God, man comes forward.

Insipit vita nova - Dante entered life with a sense of its newness, as happens in spring, and it was filled with his love for Beatrice in their childhood and youth, with the awakening of vocation. The death of Beatrice moves him to the knowledge of the foundations of life. In his comprehensive poem, Dante sums up the millennia of human civilization, anticipating the onset of a new era.

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Love says: "Daughter of dust does not exist So beautiful and clean at the same time…” But I looked - and my lips are already repeating, That in it the Lord reveals the unearthly world. Her brow is like a pearl, where it shimmers Transparent diffuse pallor; Beauty proves itself in it, And nature embodies all goodness. From her eyes, when she looks, Spirits rush in the flame of love And they throw their lightning bolts on the way, And the heart in them loses its beating. Her smile was brought out by Love: Who once looked, he does not dare again.

Canzona, I know you are full of aspiration To come to the donnas - I won’t argue! But remember: I raised you Like the daughter of Love hidden under a bushel. So be everywhere filled with humility, Ask: “Instruct, where is my path? I'm looking for someone like me." Do not give an excuse for gossip, Don't make acquaintances with vile people, But consider it worthy to sit there, Where is the noble husband or where is the donna, - And the way will open to you as if by a miracle, And soon you will discern love And you will turn me over to her.

This canzone, in order to better understand it, I divide more skillfully than other things before mentioned. Therefore, to begin with, I will break it into three parts. The first part is the beginning of the following words. The second is the presentation of the content. The third is, as it were, a servant of the previous words. The second begins like this: “The angel calls…”; the third is like this: "Canzona, I know ...". The first part is divided into four parts: in the first - I talk about who I want to tell about my Donna and why I want to tell; in the second, I speak of what I myself think when I reflect on its merits, and what I would say about them if I did not lose courage; in the third, I speak about how I suppose to tell about it, so that nothing base does not interfere with me; in the fourth, I turn again to those to whom I intend to tell everything, I state the reason why I turn to them. The second begins like this: “I will say: Love gave ...”; the third is like this: “But I will not betray ...”; fourth: "Oh donnas and maidens ...". Then, when I say: “The angel calls…” - and I start the story about Donna. This part is divided into two: in the first - I say that they know about it in heaven; in the second - I say that they know about her on earth, namely: "They are waiting for the Madonna ...". This second part is divided into two, and in the first I take only one side and speak about the nobility of her soul, telling something about the beneficial properties that flow from her soul; in the second, I take the other side and speak of the nobility of her body, telling something about its beauty, namely: "Love says ...". This second part is divided into two, and in the first - I say something about the beauty of her whole appearance; in the second - I say something about the beauty of individual parts of her appearance, namely: "From her eyes ...". This second part is divided into two, and in one I speak of the eyes, in which the beginning of Love; in the second, I speak about the mouth, in which the limit of Love. And in order to drive out from here every base thought, the reader must remember what was said before, namely, that Donna's greeting, which is the act of her mouth, was the limit of my desires, while I could still get it. Then, when I say: “Canzona, I know…”, I add, as if a servant of others, another stanza in which I talk about what I want from this canzona. And since this last part is easy to understand, I do not bother with further division. True, for a better understanding of this canzone, it would be necessary to give even smaller subdivisions, however, in any case, whoever does not have sufficient understanding to understand it with the help of those already done, I will not complain if he neglects it, for I am truly afraid lest I reveal to too many its meaning by the division that has been made, if it turns out that many will be able to comprehend it.

After this canzone had gained some circulation among people, and therefore it happened that one of my friends heard it, he wished to ask me to explain to him what Love is: apparently, the words he heard inspired him with a higher opinion of me, than I deserve. Therefore, thinking that after the completion of that composition it would be good to compose something about Love, and believing that a friend should be served, I decided to say words that would speak about Love. And so I composed a sonnet, which begins "Good heart and Love ...".

A good heart and love are one, The sage tells us in his creation: They are also not allowed to be in discord, As the mind with a rational soul in the debate.

When the heart is on fire with love, She reigns, and the heart is in submission, And it gives the true shelter of Love For a long time or a short moment.

Beautiful donna marvelous features As soon as they appear to the eye, - and languor The lover will run through the heart.

The time comes - and now you hear Love unexpected new birth; And the proud husband will captivate the donna in the same way.

This sonnet is divided into two parts: in the first I speak of the power of love; in the second, I talk about how this power is manifested in action. The second begins like this: "Beautiful donna ...". The first part is divided into two: in the first I say that there is an object that contains this power; in the second, I say how this object and this power come into existence and that they are related to each other as form is to matter. The second begins like this: "When Love ...". Then, saying: "Beautiful donna ...", I say how this power is manifested in action: first - how it manifests itself in a man, then - how it manifests itself in a woman - from the words "And the same donna ...".

After what I told about Love in the above verses, I had a desire to say more words to the glory of the Most Noble, so that in them I would show how she awakens this Love and how she not only awakens her where she is dormant, but how and there where there is no power of Love, she miraculously calls her. And so I composed a sonnet that begins "In my eyes ...".

In her eyes she keeps Love; Blessed is everything she looks at; She goes - everyone hurries to her; Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

So, all confused, he bows down his face And he sighs about his sinfulness. Haughtiness and anger melt before her. O donnas, who will not praise her?

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts Knows the one who hears her word. Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

The way she smiles Speech does not speak and the mind does not remember: So this miracle is blissful and new.

There are three parts to this sonnet: in the first I tell how Donna shows this power in action, talking about her eyes, which are most beautiful in her; and I say the same in the third, speaking of her lips, the most beautiful in her; and between these two parts there is a small particle, as if calling for help to the previous part and to the next one, and beginning like this: “Oh donnas, who…”. The third begins like this: "All the sweetness ...". The first part is divided into three: in the first I talk about how gracefully she endows with nobility everything that she looks at - which means to say that she brings Love to power where it does not exist; in the second I say how she awakens the action of Love in the hearts of all whom she looks upon; in the third, I speak about what she does with her goodness in their hearts. The second begins like this: “She is coming ...”; the third is like this: "Will you greet ...". Then, when I say: “Oh donnas, who…”, I explain who I had in mind, calling on the donnas to help praise her. Then, when I say: "All the sweetness ..." - I say the same thing that was said in the first part, telling that the action of her lips is twofold; one of them is her sweetest speech, and the other is her wondrous laughter; I am not talking only about what laughter produces in her hearts, because memory is unable to retain either him or his actions.

Page 42. A good heart and Love are one ... - In the original - the heart is “noble”, “graceful”. Love as the only source of spiritual refinement is a position developed by the Provencal lyrics and adopted by the Italian school of the "new sweet style".

Page 43. In her eyes, she keeps Love ... - Dante nowhere describes the appearance of Beatrice. This sonnet is especially characteristic as an expression of the second stage of love achieved by the poet, when the real image disappeared and only the impression that Beatrice makes on others is described, and in general, this impression boils down to one thing - to bliss.

Severe Dante did not despise the sonnet; In it, the heat of Petrarch's love poured out; The creator of Macbeth loved his game ... A.S. Pushkin

Muses, stop crying,

Pour out your sadness in songs,

Sing me a song about Dante

Or play the flute.

(N. Gumilyov "Beatrice")

Beatrice

In her eyes she keeps Love;

Blessed is everything she looks at;

She goes - everyone hurries to her;

Will he greet - his heart will tremble.

So, all confused, he bows down his face

And he sighs about his sinfulness.

Haughtiness and anger melt before her.

O donnas, who will not praise her?

All the sweetness and all the humility of thoughts

Knows the one who hears her word.

Blessed is he who is destined to meet her.

The way she smiles

Speech does not speak and the mind does not remember:

So this miracle is blissful and new.

You laughed at me among your friends,

But did you know, Madonna, why

You can't recognize my face

When I stand before your beauty?

Oh, if you knew - with the usual kindness

You could not contain your feelings:

After all, Love, captivating me all,

Tyrannizing with such cruelty,

That, reigning among my timid feelings,

Executing others, sending others into exile,

She alone has her eyes on you.

That's why my unusual appearance!

But even then their exiles

So clearly I hear grief.

Petrarch and Laura

Blessed is the day, month, summer, hour

And the moment when my gaze met those eyes!

Blessed is that land, and that long is bright,

Where I became a prisoner of beautiful eyes!

F. PETRARKA

There was a day on which, according to the Creator of the universe

Grieving, the sun faded... Ray of fire

From your eyes took me by surprise:

Oh, mistress, I became their prisoner captive ...

I bless the day, minute, share

Minutes, season, month, year,

And the place, and the limit is wonderful,

Where is the light sight doomed me.

I bless the sweetness of the first pain,

And arrows purposeful flight,

And the bow that sends these arrows to the heart,

A skillful shooter is obedient to the will.

I bless the name of names

When he spoke to his beloved.

I bless all my creations

To her glory, and every breath and groan,

And my thoughts are her possessions.

I fell at her feet in verse,

Filling with heartfelt sounds,

And he was separated from himself:

Himself - on earth, and thoughts - in the clouds.

I sang about her golden curls,

I sang of her eyes and hands,

Honoring torment with heavenly bliss,

And now she is cold dust.

And I'm without a lighthouse, in a shell orphan

Through a storm that's not new to me

I float through life, ruling at random.

William Shakespeare

Sonnet 130

Her eyes are not like the sun

Coral redder than her mouth

Snow with sweet breasts is not the same thing,

Her braid is made of black wires.

There are many crimson, white, red roses,

But I don't see them in her features, -

Although there are many beautiful incense,

Alas, but not in her mouth.

Her grumbling delights me,

But the music doesn't sound like that at all.

I don't know how goddesses perform

But my mistress is not an easy step.

And yet, I swear, she's cuter

Than the best of mortals next to her.

Translation by M. Tchaikovsky

Sonnet 37

Well, let it be! .. I love you so much.

That I am all yours and share your honor!

Sonnet 90

If you fall out of love - so now,

Now that the whole world is at odds with me.

Be the bitterest of my losses

But not the last straw of grief!

And if grief is given to me to overcome,

Don't ambush.

Let the stormy night not be resolved

Rainy morning - morning without consolation.

Leave me, but not at the last moment

When from small troubles I will weaken.

Leave now, so that I can immediately comprehend

That this grief is more painful than all adversities,

That there are no adversities, but there is one trouble -

Lose your love forever.

Sonnet 102

Sonnet 116

Interfere with the union of two hearts

I don't intend to. Can treason

Love boundless put an end to?

Love knows no loss and decay.

Love is a beacon raised above the storm,

Not fading in darkness and fog.

Love is the star that sailor

Defines a place in the ocean.

Love is not a pathetic doll in your hands

By the time that erases the roses

On fiery lips and cheeks,

And she is not afraid of time threats.

And if I'm wrong and my verse lies,

Then there is no love - and there are no my poems!

Sonnet 37

I confess that two of us are with you,

Although in love we are one being.

I don't want my vice any

I lay down on your honor like a stain.

Let a thread bind us in love,

But in life we have different bitterness.

She can't change love

But love steals hour after hour.

As a convict, I am deprived of the right

To recognize you openly in front of everyone,

And you can't accept my bow,

So that your seal does not lie on your honor.

Well, let it be! .. I love you so much. That I am all yours and share your honor!

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