Introduction
this line; very much as I think I find in Guido’s “Place where I found people whereof each one grieved overly of Love,” some impulse that has ultimate fruition in Inferno, v.
These are lines in the sonnets; is it any wonder that “F. Z.” is able to write:
“His (Guido’s) canzone solely on the nature of Love was so celebrated that the rarest intellects, among them ‘il beato Egidio Colonna,’ set themselves to illustrating it with commentaries, of which the most cited is that of Mazzucchelli”?
Another line, of which Rossetti completely loses the significance, is
“E la beltate per sua Dea la mostra” (Sonnet vii. 2),
“Beauty displays her for her goodness.” That is to say, as the spirit of God became incarnate in the Christ, so is the spirit of the eternal beauty made flesh dwelling amongst us in her. And in theline preceding,
“Ch’ a lei s’ inchina ogni gentil virtute”
means, that “she” acts as a magnet for every “gentil virtute,” that is, the noble spiritual power, the invigorating forces of life and beauty bend toward her; rather than:
“To whom are subject all things virtuous,”
as Rossetti translates it.
The inchina implies, I think, not the homage of an object but the direction of a force.
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