And now I end in haste.
Yours, &c., &c.,
A. Panizzi.”
“Kent House, Jan. 25, 1856.
“Dear Panizzi,
The imitation of Dante in Milton’s verse—‘Therefore eternal silence be their doom’—seems to me doubtful. The quotation of the celebrated passage ‘Ahi Costantin’ does not prove that Milton had read Dante—he might have found this anti-papal citation in some controversial work.
I have no doubt that scattered references to particular passages and particular expressions in a writer so sterling, and once too well-known, can be found at all periods. But is there any evidence that Milton’s contemporaries read Dante, and understood and admired him, and were influenced by his poetry in their compositions?
Yours, &c., &c.,
G. C. Lewis.”
“B. M., Jan. 26, 1856.