Here there is no room to treat at length of that work, to which when we turn our thoughts all else he wrote--though that was enough to secure him fame--seems to fall into the background as if unworthy of his genius. What can hardly be passed over in silence is that in the _Comedy_, once it was begun, he must have found a refuge for his soul from all petty cares, and a shield against all adverse fortune. We must search its pages, and not the meagre records of his biographers, to find what was the life he lived during the years of his exile; for, in a sense, it contains the true journal of his thoughts, of his hopes, and of his sorrows. The plan was laid wide enough to embrace the observations he made of nature and of man, the fruits of his painful studies, and the intelligence he gathered from those experienced in travel, politics, and war. It was not only his imagination and artistic skill that were spent upon the poem: he gave his life to it. The future reward he knew was sure--an immortal fame; but he hoped for a nearer profit on his venture. Florence might at last relent, if not because of his innocence and at the spectacle of his inconsolable exile, at least on hearing the rumour of his genius borne to her from every corner of Italy:-- If e'er it comes that this my sacred Lay, To which both Heaven and Earth have set their hand-- Through which these many years I waste away-- Shall quell the cruelty that keeps me banned From the fair fold where I, a lamb, was found Hostile to wolves who 'gainst it violence planned; With other fleece and voice of other sound, Poet will I return, and at the font Where I was christened be with laurel crowned.[141] But with the completion of the _Comedy_ Dante's life too came to a close. He died at Ravenna in the month of September 1321. FOOTNOTES: [1] Matilda died in 1115. The name Tessa, the contraction of Contessa, was still, long after her time, sometimes given to Florentine girls. See Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, vol. i. p. 126. [2] Whether by Matilda the great Countess is meant has been eagerly disputed, and many of the best critics--such as Witte and Scartazzini--prefer to find in her one of the ladies of the _Vita Nuova_. In spite of their pains it seems as if more can be said for the great Matilda than for any other. The one strong argument against her is, that while she died old, in the poem she appears as young. [3] See note on _Inferno_ xxx. 73. [4] It might, perhaps, be more correct to say that to some offices the nobles were eligible, but did not elect. [5] _Inf._ xiii. 75. [6] _Inf._ x. 119. [7] _Inf._ xxiii. 66. [8] _Inf._ x. 51. [9] _Purg._ vi. 144. [10] Dante sets the Abbot among the traitors in Inferno, and says scornfully of him that his throat was cut at Florence (_Inf._ xxxii. 119).