[599] France was not to be dealt with as conquered territory. This article comprises the only important provision in the treaty for safeguarding the interests of the French people.
[600] Charles VI., Henry V., and Philip the Good bind themselves not to come to any sort of terms with the Dauphin, which compact reveals the irreconcilable attitude characteristic of the factional and dynastic struggles of the period. Chapter 6 of the treaty disinherits the Dauphin; chapter 29 proclaims him an enemy of France.
[601] Dante represents the commentaries composing the Convito as in the nature of a banquet, the "meats" of which were to be set forth in fourteen courses, corresponding to the fourteen canzoni, or lyric poems, which were to be commented upon. As a matter of fact, for some unknown reason, the "banquet" was broken off at the end of the third course. "At the beginning of every well-ordered banquet" observes the author in an earlier passage (Bk. II., Chap. 1) "the servants are wont to take the bread given out for it, and cleanse it from every speck." Dante has just cleansed his viands from the faults of egotism and obscurity,—the "accidental impurities"; he now proceeds to clear them of a less superficial difficulty, i.e., the fact that in serving them use is made of the Italian rather than the Latin language.
[602] The date of the composition of the De Vulgari Eloquentia is unknown, but there are reasons for assigning the work to the same period in the author's life as the Convito. Like the Convito, it was left incomplete; four books were planned, but only the first and a portion of the second were written. In it an effort was made to establish the dominance of a perfect and imperial Italian language over all the dialects. The work itself was written in Latin, probably to command the attention of scholars whom Dante hoped to convert to the use of the vernacular.
[603] The author conceives of the canzoni as masters and the commentaries as servants.
[604] That is, any poetical composition.
[605] Some students of Dante hold that this phrase about Homer should be rendered "does not admit of being turned"; but others take it in the absolute sense and base on it an argument against Dante's knowledge of Greek literature.
[606] The Book of Psalms.
[607] The canzoni were in Italian and a Latin commentary would have been useless to scholars of other nations, because they could not have understood the canzoni to which it referred.
[608] The Provençal language—the peculiar speech of southeastern France, whence comes the name Languedoc. Oc is the affirmative particle "yes."