No poet in Italian literature is better adapted to special study than Dante, nor is any so profitable. The material is abundant. The reader should provide himself with Scartazzini's Companion to Dante, translated by A. J. Butler, or Symond's Introduction to Dante. These will furnish all necessary facts concerning the life and works of the poet. It must be remembered that the Divine Comedy is a difficult poem, and that it takes many readings and much study to master it. It will be best to begin by reading Maria F. Rossetti's A Shadow of Dante, which gives a general outline of the story with copious extracts. Then one of the numerous translations should be taken up and studied carefully, canto by canto--Cary's, Longfellow's, and Norton's translations (the latter in prose) are the best. An edition of Cary's translation has been made by the writer of this book (published by T. Y. Crowell & Co.), with special reference to the general reader. It contains an introduction, Rossetti's translation of the New Life, and a revised reprint of Cary's version of the Divine Comedy furnished with a popular commentary in the form of foot notes. The number of essays and critical estimates of Dante in English is legion; perhaps the best three are those by Carlyle (in Heroes and Hero Worship), Dean Church, and Lowell. Of especial value is Dinsmore's Aids to the Study of Dante (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). FOOTNOTES: [3] The Quadrivium included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music; the Trivium, grammar (_i. e._, Latin), dialectics, and rhetoric. [4] The soul of Beatrice. [5] Dante's sister. [6] "You and I would rather see that angel, Painted by the tenderness of Dante, Would we not? than read a fresh Inferno." Browning (One Word More). CHAPTER III THE DIVINE COMEDY We have seen, at the end of the last chapter, how Dante had made a vow to glorify Beatrice, as no other woman had ever been glorified, and how he studied and labored to prepare himself for the lofty task. The Divine Comedy is the fulfilment of this "immense promise." Although it is probable that Dante did not begin to write this poem till after the death of Henry VII. (1313), yet there can be no doubt that it was slowly developing in his mind during all the years of his exile.