The other object at which I have aimed is the introduction of English students to the theories which seem to have taken possession of the most eminent Continental Dante scholars, and of which some certainly seem to be quite as much opposed to common sense and knowledge of human nature as the conjectures of Troya and Balbo, for instance, were to sound historical criticism. Here, again, I have but touched on the more salient points; feeling sure that before long some of the scholarship in our Universities and elsewhere, which at present devotes itself to Greek and Latin, having reached the point of realizing that Greek and Latin texts may be worth studying though written outside of so-called classical periods, will presently extend the principle to the further point of applying to mediæval literature, which hitherto has been too much the sport of _dilettanti_, the methods that have till now been reserved for the two favoured (and rightly favoured) languages. Unless I am much mistaken, the finest Latin scholar will find that a close study of early Italian will teach him “a thing or two” that he did not know before in his own special subject; so that his labour will not be lost, even from that point of view. Then we shall get the authoritative edition of Dante, which I am insular enough to believe will never come from either Germany or Italy, or from any intervening country. _February_, 1895. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 1 II. GUELFS AND GHIBELINES 16 III. DANTE’S EARLY DAYS 38 IV. FLORENTINE AFFAIRS TILL DANTE’S EXILE 52 V. DANTE’S EXILE 69 VI. THE “COMMEDIA” 89 VII. THE MINOR WORKS 171 APPENDIX I.--SOME HINTS TO BEGINNERS 189 APPENDIX II.--DANTE’S USE OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE 198 DANTE: HIS TIMES AND HIS WORK CHAPTER I. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY