Boccaccio, the earliest of his biographers, though not the most authentic, says, that in person Dante was of middle stature; that he stooped a little from the shoulders, and was remarkable for his firm and graceful gait. He always dressed in a manner peculiarly becoming his rank and years. His visage was long, with an aquiline nose, and eyes rather full than small; his cheek-bones large, and his upper lip projecting beyond the under; his complexion was dark; his hair and beard black, thick and curled; and his countenance exhibited a confirmed expression of melancholy and thoughtfulness. Hence one day, at Verona, as he passed a gateway, where several ladies were seated, one of them exclaimed, "There goes the man who can take a walk to hell, and back again, whenever he pleases, and bring us news of every thing that is doing there." On which another, with equal sagacity, added, "That must be true; for don't you see how his beard is frizzled, and his face browned, with the heat and the smoke below!" The words, whether spoken in sport or silliness, were overheard by the poet, who, as the fair slanderers meant no malice, was quite willing that they should please themselves with their own fancies. Towards the opening of the "Purgatorio" there is an allusion to the soil which his face had contracted on his journey with Virgil through the nether world:-- "High morn had triumph'd o'er the glimmering dawn Which fled before her, so that I discern'd The _tremble_ of the ocean from afar: We walk'd along the solitary plain, Like men retracing their erratic steps, Who think all lost till they regain the path. Arriving where the dew-drops with the sun Contended, and lay thick beneath the shade, Both hands my master delicately spread Upon the grass:--aware of his intent, I turn'd to him my tearful countenance, And thence he wiped away the dusky hue, With which the infernal air had sullied it."[17]