The MS. of the _Prophecy of Dante_, together with the Preface, was forwarded to Murray, March 14, 1820; but in spite of some impatience on the part of the author (Letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 20), and, after the lapse of some months, a pretty broad hint (Letter, August 17, 1820, _ibid_., p. 165) that "the time for the Dante would be good now ... as Italy is on the eve of great things," publication was deferred till the following year. _Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice_, and the _Prophecy of Dante_ were published in the same volume, April 21, 1821. The _Prophecy of Dante_ was briefly but favourably noticed by Jeffrey in his review of _Marino Faliero_ (_Edinb. Rev._, July, 1821, vol. 35, p. 285). "It is a very grand, fervid, turbulent, and somewhat mystical composition, full of the highest sentiment and the highest poetry; ... but disfigured by many faults of precipitation, and overclouded with many obscurities. Its great fault with common readers will be that it is not sufficiently intelligible.... It is, however, beyond all question, a work of a man of great genius." Other notices of _Marino Faliero_ and the _Prophecy of Dante_ appeared in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, April, 1821, vol. 9, pp. 93-103; in the _Monthly Review_, May, 1821, Enlarged Series, vol. 95, pp. 41-50; and in the _Eclectic Review_, June 21, New Series, vol. xv. pp. 518-527. DEDICATION. Lady! if for the cold and cloudy clime Where I was born, but where I would not die, Of the great Poet-Sire of Italy I dare to build[276] the imitative rhyme, Harsh Runic[277] copy of the South's sublime, Thou art the cause; and howsoever I Fall short of his immortal harmony, Thy gentle heart will pardon me the crime. Thou, in the pride of Beauty and of Youth, Spakest; and for thee to speak and be obeyed Are one; but only in the sunny South Such sounds are uttered, and such charms displayed, So sweet a language from so fair a mouth--[278] Ah! to what effort would it not persuade? Ravenna, June 21, 1819. PREFACE In the course of a visit to the city of Ravenna in the summer of 1819, it was suggested to the author that having composed something on the subject of Tasso's confinement, he should do the same on Dante's exile,--the tomb of the poet forming one of the principal objects[279] of interest in that city, both to the native and to the stranger.