[114] _In questo mirifico poeta trovò ampissimo luego la lussuria; e non solamente ne' giovanili anni, ma ancora ne' maturi._--Boccaccio, _La Vita di Dante_. After mentioning that Dante was married, he indulges in a long invective against marriage; confessing, however, that he is ignorant of whether Dante experienced the miseries he describes. His conclusion on the subject is that philosophers should leave marriage to rich fools, to nobles, and to handicraftsmen. [115] In Purgatory his conscience accuses him of pride, and he already seems to feel the weight of the grievous burden beneath which the proud bend as they purge themselves of their sin (_Purg._ xiii. 136). Some amount of self-accusation seems to be implied in such passages as _Inf._, v. 142 and _Purg._ xxvii. 15, etc.; but too much must not be made of it. [116] In a letter of a few lines to one of the Marquises Malaspina, written probably in the earlier years of his exile, he tells how his purpose of renouncing ladies' society and the writing of love-songs had been upset by the view of a lady of marvellous beauty who 'in all respects answered to his tastes, habits, and circumstances.' He says he sends with the letter a poem containing a fuller account of his subjection to this new passion. The poem is not found attached to the copy of the letter, but with good reason it is guessed to be the Canzone beginning _Amor, dacchè convien_, which describes how he was overmastered by a passion born 'in the heart of the mountains in the valley of that river beside which he had always been the victim of love.' This points to the Casentino as the scene. He also calls the Canzone his 'mountain song.' The passion it expresses may be real, but that he makes the most of it appears from the close, which is occupied by the thought of how the verses will be taken in Florence. [117] However early the _De Monarchia_ may have been written, it is difficult to think that it can be of a later date than the death of Henry. [118] The _De Vulgari Eloquio_ is in Latin. Dante's own Italian is richer and more elastic than that of contemporary writers. Its base is the Tuscan dialect, as refined by the example of the Sicilian poets. His Latin, on the contrary, is I believe regarded as being somewhat barbarous, even for the period. [119] In his _Quæstio de Aqua et Terra_. In it he speaks of having been in Mantua. The thesis was maintained in Verona, but of course he may, after a prolonged absence, have returned to that city. [120] _Parad._ xvii. 70. [121] _Purg._ xviii. 121. [122] But in urgent need of more of it.--He says of 'the sublime Cantica, adorned with the title of the _Paradiso_', that '_illam sub præsenti epistola, tamquam sub epigrammate proprio dedicatam, vobis adscribo, vobis offero, vobis denique recommendo_.' But it may be questioned if this involves that the Cantica was already finished. [123] As, for instance, Herr Scheffer-Boichorst in his _Aus Dantes Verbannung_, 1882.