Page:The New Life (Rossetti 1899) Siddal ed.djvu/18

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   Prefatory Note

person over the dead seemly image: and often he gazed towards heaven, wherein was already settled the noble soul who had been a lady of such gladsome semblance."

It would be out of place to enter here into any detailed observations upon the Vita Nuova, its meaning, and the literature which has grown out of it. I will merely name, as obvious things for the English reader to consult, the translation which was made by Sir Theodore Martin; the essay by Professor C. Eliot Norton; the translations published by Dr. Garnett in his book entitled Dante, Petrarch, Camoens, 124 Sonnets, along with the remarks in his valuable History of Italian Literature; Scartazzini's Companion to Dante and the publications of the Rev. Dr. Moore, the foremost of our living Dante scholars.

August 1899.