[37] Inf. xv. 84.
[38] We may, I think, assume the Vita Nuova to have been published some time between 1291 and 1300; but the dates of Dante’s works are far from being ascertained.
[39] So long as even Italian critics are not agreed as to whether the title means New Life, or Youth, I suppose one is free to take his choice; and it seems most natural to regard it as referring to the new world into which the lover is transported by his passion.
[40] As, indeed, Boccaccio, Vita di Dante, expressly says was the case.
[41] In this adopting a device frequently used by the love-poets of the period.—Witte, Dante-Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 312.
[42] The Vita Nuova contains some thirty poems.
[43] See Sir Theodore Martin’s Introduction to his Translation of Vita Nuova, page xxi.
[44] In this matter we must not judge the conduct of Dante by English customs.
[45] Donne, ch’ avete intelletto d’ amore: Ladies that are acquainted well with love. Quoted in Purg. xxiv. 51.
[46] Beatrice died in June 1290, having been born in April 1266.