[46] Ste. Beuve, Causeries du Lundi, Tome XI. p. 169.
[47] Dict. Phil., art. Dante.
[48] Corresp. gén., Oeuvres, Tome LVII. pp. 80, 81.
[49] Essai sur les moeurs, Oeuvres, Tome XVII. pp. 371, 372.
[50] Génie du Christianisme, Cap. IV.
[51] Ed. Lond. 1684, p. 199.
[52] It is worth notice, as a proof of Chaucer's critical judgment, that he calls Dante "the great poet of Itaille," while in the "Clerke's Tale" he speaks of Petrarch as a "worthy clerk," as "the laureat poete" (alluding to the somewhat sentimental ceremony at Rome), and says that his
"Rhetorike sweete
Enlumined all Itaille of poetry."
[53] It is possible that Sackville may have read the Inferno, and it is certain that Sir John Harrington had. See the preface to his translation of the Orlando Furioso.
[54] Second edition, 1800.