V. THE ITALIAN AS THE TYPE OF FAILURE.--Browning used seven poets to typify failure, three historical and four imaginary ones. All these were Italians, and all suggest the conclusion--“You get no whole and perfect Poet.” This, then, must have been Browning’s conclusion. Naturally enough he does not picture for us a poet representing that for which he himself, after considering different kinds of failure, has decided to strive. By the very values the failures do not represent, however, Browning gave us a vision of his own ideals. Lack of knowledge, lack of strength, of grace, sensuality, superficiality, lack of purpose, and of interest in humanity--these are the causes of failure as represented by Aprile, Alcamo, Nina, Bocafoli, Plara, and Sordello. It would be unfair to say that these unsuccessful poets are typical of the Italian nation; but it can be safely stated that they are fairly representative of Italian weaknesses. A predominance of ill controlled feeling is the most inclusive characteristic of the group --a trait which is perhaps marked in Italians of the least desirable class. It is also significant, in contrast to Browning’s own nature, that no poet of his group of failures represents an intelligent, unselfish interest in human life. VI. ITALIAN MEN OF LETTERS: DANTE.--Of the great Italian men of letters, Dante is the only one who is mentioned in _Sordello_, and with the exception of the Shelley references in _Memorabilia_ and _Pauline_, Browning pays him the most perfect tribute he ever gave a writer, in the last two lines of the following passage: “Dante, pacer of the shore Where glutted hell disgorgeth filthiest gloom, Unbitten by its whirring sulphur-spume, Or whence the grieved and obscure waters slope, Into a darkness quieted by hope; Plucker of amaranths grown beneath God’s eye, In gracious twilights where his chosen lie.” Referring to the fact that Dante’s _Divina Commedia_ includes Sordello as a character, and that _De Vulgari Eloquio_ praises him because he had first attempted to establish an Italian vernacular, Browning names Sordello as the forerunner of Dante. Again in the same poem, Dante is mentioned as having called the “Palma” of Browning’s poem “Cunizza,” and as having taken advantage of Sordello’s lost chance to establish a vernacular. In most of the other poems, the references to Dante are merely incidental. _Up at a Villa_ refers to the great literary triumvirate of Italy, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, as standing in the popular mind for all that is great in Italian letters. In _Time’s Revenges_ Dante appears as being, in the mind of a poor, starving poet, the highest possible standard of fame.