------------------------------------------------------------------------ [551] “This hundredth year.” _Par._ ix. 40. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The historical events alluded to in the _Divine Comedy_ are so often of unknown date to us, that few of them help as much as might be expected. Judge Nino’s widow remarried on June 24, 1300, and as he speaks of her as having already put off her widow’s weeds,[552] this might indicate that we are in 1301, but it is not conclusive, since they would probably be discarded three months before she was actually the wife of another. On the other hand, Can Grande della Scala, who is said in a fourteenth century chronicle to have been born on March 9, 1291, is described as only nine years old.[553] Dante might possibly have been mistaken by a year in the date of his birth, but he cannot have been ignorant of the death of his friend Guido Cavalcanti. The cry of anguish from Guido’s father will be remembered by all readers of the _Inferno_, after Dante has spoken of his friend in the past tense:— ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [552] _Purg._ viii. 74. [553] _Par._ xvii. 80, 81. “Di subito drizzato gridò: Come, Dicesti _egli ebbe_? Non viv’ egli ancora? Non fiere gli occhi suoi lo dolce lome?”[554] [554] “Up starting suddenly he cried out: How Saidst thou? ‘_he had_?’ Is he not still alive? Does not the sweet light strike upon his eyes?” _Inf._ x. 67-69. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ And as Dante hesitates a little, Cavalcante sinks back into his tomb of punishment, and does not reappear. Before Dante leaves the place, feeling compunction, he charges Farinata to tell the father that his son is still among the living, and that the sinister hesitation was due to another cause than he thought. Now it is beyond dispute that Guido died in August 1300, for he was buried in the cemetery of St. Reparata in Florence on August 29, 1300, according to official records still extant;[555] and Dante had a share in banishing him amongst other exiles to the unhealthy place where he contracted the illness of which he died. The year 1300, in which Dante held the official position which obliged him to do this, was burned into his mind, as we see in his letter, mentioned by Lionardo Bruni, in which he says that all his misfortunes sprang from the time of his priorate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [555] Toynbee’s _Dante Dictionary_, under “Cavalcanti.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------