Having thus for fifteen chapters pursued a sort of “Rule of False” in order to catch that panther[[566]], the Illustrious Vulgar |The “Illustrious” Language none of these, but their common measure.| Tongue, by the a posteriori method, Dante determines to track her a priori. He calls Logic to his aid, and observes that every individual, species, genus is subject to a common measure. The measure of individual conduct is Virtue; of conduct between man and man, Law; in public behaviour, national manners and customs. So too there must be some norm, some common measure of all Italian tongues and dialects, and this, perceptible in all, abiding in none, will be what is sought for. This is the—

Each of these epithets has then to be discussed.

So we have the substance, the underlying and fashioning unity, of Italian defined as a tongue possessing a quadripartite |Its four characteristics.| differentia, and so it becomes necessary to explain the four parts. Illustrious, as the seventeenth chapter, devoted to it, explains, is something that “shines forth,” illuminans et illuminatum. Men are so called who, having been well trained, are great trainers, like Numa Pompilius and Seneca. This is what the Illustrious Vulgar Tongue of Italy is. It has cleared off much rubbish, as in Cino da Pistoia. It attracts even the unwilling. It exalts those who practise it. They surpass kings, marquises, counts. It gives a glory which even we, exiles as we are, acknowledge as sweetening the bitterness of our exile. Therefore it is Illustrious.

The three other epithets enjoy but a chapter between them. It is Cardinal, for as a door turns on a hinge, so all the throng of dialects turns on it. It is Aulic, because, if we Italians had a Court, it would be spoken there, and because, as a matter of fact, all those who enjoy courtly frequentation speak it. It is Curial because, though as in the Aulic case the conditions are wanting, it would be spoken in the great Law Courts of Italy if they existed, and it presents the action of a great Court of Law in trying and sifting cases. This is the proper Italian language, common to all, aimed at (if unconsciously) by all, giving the real key to all.

And so the first book ends, with the establishment on logical bases (none the weaker because the struts and props of them are sometimes decorated with a bygone ornamentation) at once of the necessity and the fact of a literary language for Italy, a language combining the merits, and purified from the defects, of the various local kinds of speech.

The First Book of the De Vulgari Eloquio has been chiefly concerned with language, though—as it is of the very highest |The Second Book—Why Dante deals with poetry only.| importance to observe—always with a side-glance at literature. The Second passes to literature itself, at least to that part of literature which was almost the only serious part to the earlier Middle Ages—namely, poetry. If we wanted anything to show us what a man of letters Dante was, it would be found in the apology which he makes at the beginning of this book for not dealing with Rhetoric at large, but only with Poetic. It is simply that “prosaicants” usually get their language from “inventors,” and “invention” remains a solid example to them, not vice versa. This, perhaps, with some exceptions (the chief among them he has himself referred to in citing the French Arthurian legend), was true in his time, though it was ceasing to be true; and a certain amount of truth remains still, greatly as the circumstances have changed. There is, he goes on to say, a kind of primacy about verse; so let us deal with it secundum quod metricum est.

Now, ought writers in verse to write vulgariter? Yes, he thought. The best things require the best language, and that, |All good poetry should be in the Illustrious.| as we have seen, is the Illustrious Vernacular. Things not so good will be improved by the best expression. So all verse-writers should use it, at least at first sight, though we must alter this conception on further thought. The Illustrious language demands illustrious writers (alma sdegnosa again!), and not only that, but the best thoughts or subjects. Very inferior persons writing on very inferior subjects had better not use the Illustrious, for an ugly woman never looks uglier than when dressed in gold and silk.

Now what subjects are good enough for the Illustrious Vernacular? Only Three: Salus, Venus, Virtus—in other words, |The subjects of High Poetry—War, Love, Virtue.| War, Love, and Moral Beauty, which means philosophy plus religion. Dante reaches this conclusion in the queer-looking but perhaps not easily improvable manner usual with him, by the prior and the posterior roads alike. These subjects are, first, the three things of most importance to a Vegetable-Animal-Rational-creature like man, and they are also those discussed by the best writers in the Vulgar Tongue, Bertran de Born, Arnaut Daniel, Cino da Pistoia, &c. But he does not find that any Italian has written on the subject of Salus or Arms. (An ominous fact!)

So much for subject; now for form. What forms are there of Illustrious Vulgar Verse? Some have written Canzoni, some |Its form: Canzoni.| Ballades, some Sonnets, some other and irregular forms. The best of these are Canzoni, for a wilderness of reasons, good, not very good, indifferent, and bad, the strongest of which, though not expressed, evidently is that Dante likes Canzoni best and knows he writes them well. They unite, he says, all the best points of art; the works of the best poets are found in them. So let us write of Canzoni, putting off Ballades, &c., to the Fourth Book—which, alas! we have not.