picture. When Beatrice dies, "How doth the city sit solitary!" are the words that burst from the mourner's lips. And in the graver and greater poem of his mature life, Florence is the key-note of every strain. Heaven and hell, and the hopeful sadness of the green slopes between, are all crowded with Florentines. There is talk of the city in the highest circles of heaven, where blessed spirits, with the sound of tears in their voice, denounce her for very love of her, rather than leave in silence her beloved name. We are never allowed to forget the Tuscan town, in which all the universe seems to take a burning interest, whose vices convulse the spiritual world, and whose inhabitants are to be found everywhere. Though half of his manhood was spent in banishment from her dear walls, and his bones are laid far from the Arno, yet it is impossible to dissever Florence from Dante, or Dante from Florence. They are united more closely than any bridegroom and bride.
The prose works of Dante were all written after his banishment. The 'Convito,' the 'Discourse upon the Use of the Vulgar Tongue,' the 'Treatise on Monarchy,' are the chief of these works. They will be always interesting to the student, as showing the mind of the poet in other ways of working than that most congenial to him; but we do not think they will ever be found to possess great attractions of any kind for the general reader. They will, however, along with the greater productions of his genius, be noticed briefly in another chapter.
