[55] Dante Alighieri's lyrische Gedichte, Leipzig, 1842, Theil II. pp. 4-9.
[56] Vita, p. 97.
[57] Comment on Paradiso, VI.
[58] Jean de Meung had already said,—
"Ge n'en met hors rois ne prélas
* * * * *
"Qu'il sunt tui serf au menu pueple."
Roman de la Rose (ed. Méon), V. ii. pp. 78, 79.
[59] Dante, Studien, etc., 1855, p. 144.
[60] Compare also Spinoza, Tractat. polit., Cap. VI.
[61] It is instructive to compare Dante's political treatise with those of Aristotle and Spinoza. We thus see more clearly the limitations of the age in which he lived, and this may help us to a broader view of him as poet.
[62] A very good one may be found in the sixth volume of the Molini edition of Dante, pp. 391-433.