“As I rode the other day along a path, thinking of the journey that was irksome to me,” the journey in question being probably to Bologna (cf. p. 12). This part is not wanting in the “burning tears” which Leonardo Bruni finds such a stumbling-block in Boccaccio’s narrative. Its lyrics show the influence of Guido Cavalcanti, particularly in the personification of the faculties of the soul as _spiriti_, and in the somewhat extravagant metaphors with which Dante depicts his torment in love. But a complete change comes. The mysterious episode of Dante’s agony at a wedding feast, where Beatrice mocks him, marks a crisis in his new life. _Io tenni li piedi in quella parte de la vita di là da la quale non si puote ire più per intendimento di ritornare_, “I have set my feet on that part of life beyond the which one can go no further with intention of returning.” He crushes the more personal element out of his love, and will be content to worship her from afar; he has sufficiently made manifest his own condition, even if he should ever after abstain from addressing her. “It behoved me to take up a new matter and one nobler than the past.” This _matera nuova e più nobile che la passata_ is the subject of the second part of the _Vita Nuova_ (xviii. to xxviii.). The poet’s youthful love has become spiritual adoration for a living personification of all beauty and nobleness. Since Beatrice denies him her salutation, Love has placed all his beatitude in those words that praise his lady: so he tells the lady of very sweet speech, _donna di motto leggiadro parlare_, who questions him concerning this love, and whose rebuke marks the turning-point of the whole book. And, for the first time, the supreme poet is revealed in the great canzone: Donne ch’avete intelletto d’amore, “Ladies that have understanding of love,” uniting earth and heaven in glorification of her who was the giver of blessing. Here the apotheosis of womanhood, sketched by Guido Guinizelli, is developed with mystical fullness, and there is even perhaps a hint of some future work in honour of Beatrice that will deal with the world beyond the grave. The two sonnets that follow are a kind of supplement; the first: Amore e ’l cor gentil sono una cosa, “Love and the gentle heart are one same thing,” gives a definition of love, elaborating the Guinizellian doctrine; the second: Ne li occhi porta la mia donna Amore, “Within her eyes my lady carries Love,” pursues the conception further, to represent Beatrice herself as the creatrix of the divine gift of _gentilezza_ by which the heart is capable of noble love. Two sonnets on the death of Beatrice’s father lead up to a veritable lyrical masterpiece, the canzone: Donna pietosa e di novella etate,