cioffari, vicenzo. camoes and dante

7/29/2019 CIOFFARI, Vicenzo. Camoes and Dante

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Cames and Dante: A Source Study

Author(s): Vincenzo CioffariReviewed work(s):Source: Italica, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec., 1948), pp. 282-295Published by: American Association of Teachers of ItalianStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/476000 .

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CAMOESAND DANTE: A SOURCESTUDY 283In general scholars such as Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcellos6Wilhelm Storck,7 Giulio Bertoni,8 Achille Pellizzari,9 etc., haveemphasized the influence of Petrarch or Ariosto on Camoes. Storckbelieves that Cam6es was familiar with the Divine Comedy."oOliveira

Martins, in his Os Lusiadas e a renascengaem Portugal, goes so far asto say that it seems that Camoes read Dante."The translators, however, take a different attitude. AntonioNervi, who translated the Lusiadas into Italian in the beginning ofthe nineteenth century, casually mentions twenty-eight passageswhich to him are an echo of Dante.12 Jos6 Xavier Pinheiro, whotranslated the Divine Comedy into Portuguese at the beginning ofthis century, makes frequent mention of passages in the Lusiadaswhich correspond to passages in Dante."' William Julius Mickle,who translated the Lusiadas into English in the eighteenth century,says of the simile of the frogs (Lus. 11.27): "The simile here seems tohave been copied from Dante," and he quotes the correspondingpassages (Ix. 76-78; xxii. 25-27) of the Inferno.14Giacomo Zanella,in his review of Bellotti's translation of the Lusiadas into Italian,says: "I1 Camoes conosceva perfettamente i nostri poeti, Dante,Petrarca ed Ariosto e l'Amadigi di Bernardo Tasso. Anche il Poli-ziano non deve essergli stato ignoto."'1 None of these attempts toestablish any basis for his statements; they all take it for granted

6 Cf. article on Cam5es in Graber's Grundrissder RomanischenPhilologie,vol. II.2, pp. 320, 327.7Cf. WilhelmStorck, Vida e obrasde Luis de Camies,PrimeiraParte,Versdodo originalallemaoannotadaporCarolinaMichaelisde Vasconcellos.Lisboa, 1897, pp. 235, 249, etc.8 Cf. Giulio Bertoni, "Introduzione allo studio dei Lusiadi," in ArchivumRomanicum, Fasc. xxIv. 2-3, Apr.-Sett. 1940, pp. 155-166.9 Cf. Achille Pellizzari, "Cam5es e Petrarca," in Portogalloe Italia nel secoloXVI; studi e ricerchestoriche e letterarie.Napoli, F. Perrella e Co., 1914.10 "Podemos affirmar,porque as obras do Poeta fornecem as provas de-monstrativas, que o Camnes conhecia, entre outras obras ... a Divina Come-dia de Dante." Op. cit., p. 295.11"No leu Cam5es a Homero e Virgilio, Platao e Aristoteles, a Antigui-dade toda? Nao conhece Dante, o Ariosto e o Tasso, Garcilasso, Boscan, esobretudo o mestre, Petrarca o divino?" J. P. Oliveira Martins, Camoes, OsLusiadas e a renascengaem Portugal. Porto, Chardron, 1891, p. 70.12 I Lusiadi di Luigi Camoes,traduzionedi Antonio Nervi. Milano, SocietAtip. dei Classici italiani, 1821.13 Divina Comedia,traducgaobrasileirade Josd Pedro Xavier Pinheiro. Capi-

tal Federal, 1907, 3 vols., passim.14 TheLusiad; or, The Discovery of India, an epic Poem, translated rom theoriginal Portuguese of Luis de Cam5ens, by William Julius Mickle, 3rd ed.Dublin, Archer, 1791, 2 vols. Vol. I, p. 54 (The Lusiad).1fNuova antologia, 57. Ser. 2-27, p. 579.


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284 ITALICAthat Cam6es was familiar with Dante. There is, therefore, a tradi-tion of the influence of Dante on Camoes which has not beenorganized. This paper is presented as an introduction to the problemrather than a complete and exhaustive study. It deals only with theinfluence of the Divine Comedyon the Lusiadas and does not considerthe minor works of either poet.The question is of particular interest because Dante and Camoeshave various points in common. They were both epic poets, bothpoets whose fame rests chiefly on one masterpiece, although theirminor works would easily gain them a place among the foremostwriters of their respective countries. The poems are both an exalta-tion of their people as a whole: the Lusiadas in relating historicaldeeds, the Divine Comedy n expressing the hope for a unified nation.Both poets lived a life of exile and solitude: Camtbeswandering todistant, newly discovered lands, Dante hovering about his nativesoil, unable to return to his own city.Artistically, however, the Lusiadas and the Divine Comedyhavelittle in common. The Lusiadas is primarily a poem of the Renais-sance, the apotheosis of the deeds of valiant men. Whatever fictionit has is intended to glorify events that were basically true. TheDivine Comedy s primarily a poem of the Middle Ages, the synthesisof a world of fancy that is completely detached from reality. What-ever facts it contains are so woven as to glorify the vision of the worldto come. We shall not attempt to evaluate or to compare artisticallythese two great epic poems. The purpose of this paper is to establishfrom internal evidence the fact that Camses was familiar with theDivine Comedy and that the poem echoed through his mind as hewrote his own masterpiece.Historically there is reason to believe that Cam6es had access tothe Divine Comedy. True enough, there are neither fourteenth norfifteenth century Portuguese translations. In fact the first extensivetranslation is the one of the Inferno into terza rima by DomingoJos6 Ennes, published in Lisbon in 1887-89.16 Other Portuguesetranslations followed in the latter half of the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries, one of the Inferno by J. Pintos de Campos,"7

1 O0nferno, poema em trinta e quatro cantos, illustrado com as celebrescom-posigies de G. Dord;versdoportuguezaem tercetospor D. Ennes, acompanhadado textoitaliano, seguida de notas e antecedidade uma brevenoticia preliminarpor X. da Cunha. Lisboa, d. Corazzi, 1887-[89].17 A divina comedia,versdoportuguezacommentadae annotadapor J. Pintode Campos. [O0nferno.] Lisboa, Imprensa nacional, 1886.


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CAMOES AND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 285and two of the complete poem, one by Jos6 Pedro Xavier Pinheiro"sand one by Barao da Villa da Barba,19 both published in Rio deJaneiro in 1907. There are also various translations of individualcantos or fragments, none of which could possibly have been avail-able to Camdes.However Camoes could easily have read the Divine Comedy n theoriginal. It is generally accepted that he could read Italian poetryin the original.20The first Portuguese translation of the "Trionfodella Fama" of Petrarch is attributed to him by Braga and Juro-menha, but Storck does not consider their arguments conclusive.21Guido Vitaletti, writing on "Le imitazioni dantesche contenute nelCancioneiroGeral di Garcia de Resende" says that there is no doubtbut that Dante reached Portugal in the sixteenth century.22Men likeSa de Miranda, Andr6 de Resende, Damiao de Goes, visited Italyand studied there. Dante's fame was widespread throughout theneighboring country of Spain. The first Spanish translation of theDivine Comedy dates as far back as 1428.23(Actually it was begunon September 28, 1427 and finished on October 10, 1428.) Thefifteenth century saw one more translation, this one in Catalan, byAndreu Febrer, also done in 1428. In 1515 another Castilian trans-lation of the Inferno was completed by Eduardo Villegas. The in-fluence of Dante is evident in the works of Francisco Imperial,24Juan de Mena, the Marques de Santillana, Juan Padilla, and manyothers.25 There were many imitations of various aspects of theDivine Comedy, particulary centered around the fourth and fifthcantos of the Inferno.21 There is no danger incurred in establishing

18 Cf. note 13.19 A divina comediafielmente vertida do texto pelo Bardo da Villa da Barca

(obra posthuma). Rio de Janeiro, H. Garnier, 1907.20 ,,... leu assidua e proficuamente obras em grego, en latim antigo emoderno, em portugubs, hespanhol, e italiano, escolhendo em especial pro-ducvges poeticas." Storck, op. cit., p. 245.21 Cf. Storck, op. cit., p. 242-243.22 GiornaleDantesco, 1927 (30), p. 53 ff.23 Mario Schiff, "La Premiere traduction espagnole de la Divine Com6die,"in Homenaje a Menendez y Pelayo en el anioXX de su profesorado.Madrid,1899.24 Cf. article by Edwin B. Place, "The Exaggerated Reputation of Fran-cisco Imperial," in Speculum, Vol. xxi, No. 4 (October 1946), pp. 457-473.25 Cf. Bernardo Sanvisenti, I primi influssi di Dante, del Petrarca, e delBoccacciosulla letteraturaspagnuola, con appendici di documenti inediti. Mi-lano, Hoepli, 1902, passim.Cf. Arturo Farinelli, "Dante in Ispagna," in Dante in Spagna, Francia,Inghilterra,Germania.Torino, Fratelli Bocca, Editori, 1922, pp. 31 ff.28 Cf. Sanvisenti, op. cit., p. 217 ff.


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CAMOESAND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 287anxious to avoid when they hear someone coming. Dante representsthe frogs running before the snake, which is their natural enemy:

Come le rane innanzi a la nimicabiscia per l'acqua si dileguan tutte,finch'a la terra ciascuna s'abbica, (Inf. Ix.76-78)Cam6es tells of their coming to the familiar shore and hiding underthe water, leaving only the head visible. In another simile devotedto frogs Dante's verses read:

E come a l'orlo de l'acqua d'un fossostanno i ranocchi pur col muso fuori,si che celano i piedi e l'altro grosso, (Inf. xxii.25-27)Cam6es mentions their jumping to and fro. Dante says:

... una rana rimane ed altra spiccia (Inf. xxII.33)Cam6es devotes a whole stanza to a description of the life of ants.The theme is not new in literature, but in the Divine Comedywe findit expressed in these masterful verses:

cosi per entro loro schiera brunas'ammusa l'una con l'altra formica,forse ad espiar lor via e lor fortuna. (Pur. xxvI.34-36)Cam6es turns the simile into a beautiful scene which portrays ad-mirably the salient points in an ant's life:

Quais para a cova as pr6vidas formigas,Levando o peso grande acomodado,As f6rgas exercitam, de inimigasDo inimigo Inverno congelado;Ali sgo seus trabalhos e fadigas,Ali mostram vigor nunca esperado: (Lus. II.23)And so again, where Dante in two unusual verses describes thebeauty of a hill mirroring itself in the water:

E come clivo in acqua di suo imosi specchia, quasi per vedersi adorno,(Par. xxx.109-110)Cam6es applies this metaphor to a tree grove, describing the grace-ful charm with which it mirrors itself in the crystal water below:

Arvoredo gentil s6bre ela pendeComo que pronto est4 para afeitar-se,Vendo-se no cristal resplandecente,Que em si o est6 pintando propriamente. (Lus. Ix.55)In relating the siege of Lisbon, Cam6es expresses its duration inthe following words:


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288 ITALICACinco vezes a Lua se esconderaE outras tantas mostrara cheio o rosto, (Lus. 111.59)

Ulysses recounting his final voyage in the eighth bolgia says:Cinque volte racceso e tante cassolo lume era di sotto da la luna, (Inf. xxvi.130-131)

Dr. Luciano Pereira da Silva, in his A Astronomia dos Lusiadas,explains very carefully the correspondence between Camses' calcu-lation and the duration of the siege as given by Duarte Galvao inhis Chronica delreyD. Affonso Henriques. He comes to the followingconclusion: "Esta passagem inspirou evidentemente a estAncia deque nos ocupamos. Note-se que o poeta nao diz que se completaramcinco meses lunares. Para se observarem cinco luas novas e cincoluas cheias basta que decorram quatro lunag5es e meia. 0 c-mputodo poeta, de cinco lunag5es incompletas, concorda pois com aduragao de perto de cinco meses, marcada pelo cronista. Aqui opoeta empregou os meses lunares, nao porque elle fosse investigar asluas do anno de 1147, mas porque estes meses, contados pelo feno-meno bem visivel das fases da lua, se prestam melhor as descrig5es."28The arguments of Dr. Silva seem to be quite plausible, yet a carefulcomparison with the corresponding passage in Dante will show thatCam6es' calculation is not based on the "cinco lunag5es incom-pletas," but rather on "Cinque volte racceso e tante casso." By ahappy coincidence the time element corresponded closely enoughfor Camses to express himself with an echo from Dante.

Camses gives the beautiful figure of light reflected from a mirrorin the following verses:Qual o reflexo lume do polidoEspelho de ago ou de cristal formoso,Que, do raio solar sendo ferido,Vai ferir noutra patre, luminoso, (Lus. viii.87)

Dante gave the same figure in approximately the same words:Come quando da l'acqua o da lo specchiosalta lo raggio a l'opposita parte,salendo su per lo modo parecchioa quel che scende.... (Purg. xv.16-19)

There are in the Lusiadas many verses which echo Dante's words,although these words do not necessarily appear in the same contextas they did in the Divine Comedy.The theme of the prow cutting the28 Luciano Pereira da Silva, A Astronomia dos Lusladas. Coimbra, Im-prensa da Universidade, 1915, p. 75.


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CAMOES AND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 289waters, which we find in the Inferno as: "segando se ne va l'anticaprora" (viii. 29) or in the Paradiso as: "quel che fendendo va l'arditaprora" (xxiiI. 68) appears repeatedly in the Lusiadas, as for examplein: Mas jAas agudas proas apartandolam as vias hdmidas de argento; (II.67)or in:

... onde as proas vio cortandoAs marftimas 4guas consagradas, (Lus. 1.19)or again in: Por6m jAcinco S6is eram passadosQue dali nos partframos, cortandoOs mares nunca de outrem navegados, (Lus. v.37)In presenting his lofty theme Camses bids previous great deeds tofall to the background as he says:

Cale-se de Alexandro e de TrajanoA fama das vit6rias que tiveram; (Lus. I.3)Dante bids previous writers be silent as they hear about the wonder-ful transformations taking place in the seventh bolgia:

Taccia Lucano omai 1 dove toccadel misero Sabello e di Nassidio,Taccia di Cadmo e D'Aretusa Ovidio: (Inf. xxv.94-97)

Elsewhere Dante speaks of "un veglio solo... degno di tantareverenza" (Purg. 1.31-32), and Cam6es mentions "um velho, deaspeito venerando" (Lus. Iv.94). Dante refers to the Pope as "ilsuccessor del maggior Piero" (Inf. 11.24); Camses calls him "osucessor de Pedro" (Lus. vii.4). Dante speaks of the divine judg-ment coming from Providence through Fortune as "occulto, comein erba l'angue" (Inf. vii.84). Cam6es says:

Ocultos os jufzos de Deus sio;As gentes vis, que nio nos entenderam,Chamam-lhe fado mau, fortuna escura,Sendo s6 provid6ncia de Deus pura. (Lus. x.38)Here Cam6es has followed not only Dante's wording, but the gen-eral Tomistic spirit of the ultimate correspondence of Fortune andFate to Providence and God's Will.29Dante says of Fate: "Che giovane le fata dar di cozzo?" (Inf. Ix. 97). Cam6es echoes the idea in:"Mas contra o fim fatal nao haireparo" (Lus. x.96). Dante's memor-able verses on the acquisition of fame: "seggendo in piuma... in

29 Cf. V. Cioffari, The Conceptionof Fortune and Fate in the Worksof Dante.Dante Society of Cambridge, Mass., 1940, p. 35.


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290 ITALICAfama non si vien, nb sotto coltre" (Inf. xxxv.47-48) finds its expres-sion in the description of the trials experienced by Vasco da Gama'smen, where the Poet says: "Ndo nos leitos dourados .... Nao co'osmanjares novos e exquisitos.... Mas comrnuscar, co'o seu forgosobrago" (Lus. vI. st. 95-97).Dante builds an unusual verse around credere: "Cred'io ch'eicredette ch'io credesse" (Inf. xIII.25). Camoes repeats the sameidea in "Nao creias, fero B6reas que te creio" (Lus. vI, 89).a0 InDante, Francesca da Rimini says to the Poet: "poi c'hai pieth delnostro mal perverso" (Inf. v.93) and Dante himself, addressingAlbert I of Austria, says in the Purgatorio: "e se nulla di noi pietati move" (Purg. vI.116). In the Lusiadas Vasco da Gama addressesthe Guarda Divina as follows:

E, se te move tanto a piedadeDesta mfsera gente peregrina (Lus. II.32)Ines de Castro makes her final appeal to King Alfonso in the sameDantesque words: Mova-te a piedade sua e minha,Pois te nio move a culpa que n~o tinha. (Lus. III.127)

There are many unusual combinations of words that appear inboth poems:Divine Comedy Os Lusiadassara ora matera del mio canto Dareis mat6ria a nunca ouvido canto(Par. 1.12) (Lus. 1.15)vinto dal sonno (Purg. Ix.11) vencidos... do sono (Lus. vi.39)l'amico mio, e non de la ventura A quem Fortuna sempre favorece(Inf. II.61) (Lus. 1.44)Alto fato di Dio sarebbe rotto . . Fado eterno . . . Cuja alta lei nlo(Purg. xxx.142) pode ser quebrada (Lus. 1.28)ingegno e ... arte (Purg. xxvII.130) engenho e arte (Lus. 1.2)dei falsi e bugiardi (Inf.I.72) O falso Deus adora o verdadeiroCorda non pinse mai da se saetta... (Lus. 11.12)che si corresse ... Voa do C6u ao mar como una seta(Inf. viii.13-14) Lus. II.18)ar

The frequent references to a favorable star, which we find inDante's verses such as: "si che, se stella bona o miglior cosa...m'ha dato '1 ben" (Inf. xxvI.23-24), or "Se tu segui tua stella"(Inf. xv.55) find echoes in "benigna estrdla" (Lus. vi.47 viii.25)30 As Jos6 Maria Rodrigues pointed out, however, Cam5es may have hadin mind the correspondingverse from l'OrlandoFurioso; "io credea e credo, ecreder credo il vero" (Ix.23.7).31 Camoes may, of course, have been influenced by the same source whichinfluenced Dante, namely Virgil's Aeneid. For this simile, cf. Aeneid, xII,855-856.


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CAMOES AND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 291of Cam6es. The theme of approaching night, which appears in theeighth book of the Aeneid (viii.26-27) and which Dante places atthe beginning of the second canto of the Inferno:Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aere brunotoglieva gli animai che sono in terrada le fatiche loro; (Inf. II.1-3)appears at several points in the Lusiadas, as for example in CantoVII: JAnisto punha a noite o usado atalhoAs humanas canseiras (viu.65)

Of course, Camaes could have been influenced directly by Virgil,without the intermediation of Dante. Such would not be the casewhen Camoes is influenced by Christian philosophy. In the firstcanto of the Lusiadas Mars addresses Jupiter in words that arequite Christian in spirit: "0 Padre, a cujo imp6rio .... Tudoaquilo obedece que criaste" (Lus. 1.38). Dante expresses thisthought frequently in verses such as this one from the Purgatorio:"che lAdove ubidia la terra e il cielo" (xxix.25).More than in single verses, however, the influence of Dante isevident in the whole conception which Cam6es has of the Universe.The Platonic conception of the prototypes is used only as a poeticalmechanism to present an explanation of the Universe in a tangibleform. Beyond that, the ideas conform much more to the Aristotelicview expressed in the Ptolemaic system and developed throughChristian philosophy into Dante's poem. Cam6es could have derivedhis ideas of the Ptolemaic system from a direct translation of theworks of Ptolemy such as the Rudimenta Astronomica of Alfraganus,or the reworking of this translation by Sacrobosco, or in some otherway, but Ptolemy is evidently not considered an important sourceby Joaquim de Carvalho, who devoted a complete study to thephilosophic readings of Camses.32Luciano Pereira da Silva, however,explains at length the source of Camdes' knowledge of the structureof the Universe. It came through the Tratado da Sphera of PedroNufiez, who translated the De Sphaera of Sacrobosco from Latininto Portuguese in 1537.33The De Sphaera of Sacrobosco is a r6sum6of the Almagest of Ptolemy and the Elementa Astronomica ofAlfraganus, composed in the thirteenth century by Joannes deSacro Bosco (or Busto). Dr. Silva claims him as the common source

3 Joaquim da Carvalho, "Estudos sobre as leituras fils6ficas de Cam6es,"in Lusitania, Revista de estudos portugueses, Fasc. 4-6, Sept. 1924-[Sept.]1925, pp. 215-253.8a Cf. op. cit., p. 10.


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292 ITALICAfor both Dante and Camses in their knowledge of the Ptolemeicsystem,34 but Sacrobosco is seldom mentioned in this connectionwith reference to Dante, who derived his knowledge mainly from theElementa Astronomica of Alfraganus as translated from Arabic intoLatin by Johannes Hispalensis in about 1242.35Be it as it may, thesimilarity between the Dantesque conception and that of Camdes isworth indicating so that it may some day receive the extensivestudy it deserves.In the Lusiadas Camdes presents the subject as follows: WhileTethys is telling Vasco da Gama the future glories of the Portuguesepeople, she leads him up an arduous path into a field bedecked withemeralds and rubies, an indication that they were pacing on divinesoil. Here they see the prototype of the Universe suspended in mid-air:

Aqui um globo vem no ar, que o lumeClarfssimo por le penetrava,De modo que o seu centro esta evidente,Como a sua superficie, claramente. (Lus. x.77)The goddess explains to the frightened Gama:

0 transunto, reduzidoEm pequeno volume, aqui te douDo Mundo aos olhos teus, para que vejasPor onde vis e irds e o que desejas. (Ibid. 79)

Regardless of the exact source, there is certainly a close similaritybetween this passage and the scene in which Beatrice bids Dantetake a final look at the universe below him before the final visionof God. (Par. xxII.127 ff.)Tethys goes on to explain that this is the:mdquina do MundoEt6rea e elemental, que fabricadaAssim foi do Saber, alto e profundo,Que 6 sem principio e meta limitada. (Lus. x.80)

She then proceeds to explain the formation, which follows veryclosely that given in the Divine Comedy:Pste orbe que, primeiro, vae cercandoOs outros mais pequenos que em si tem,Que esta com luz tam clara radiandoQue a vista cega e a mente vil tamb6m,Empireo se nomeia, onde lograndoPuras almas estio daquele BemTamanho, que Mles6 se entende e alcanga, (Lus. x.81)

34Op.cit., p. 177.35Cf. Paget Toynbee, Dante Studies and Researches,London, Methuen &Co., 1902,pp. 56-77.


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CAMOES AND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 293The verses here are Dantesque in spirit, although the words cannotbe traced directly to the Divine Comedy.But Tethys goes on to say:"a Santa Provid~ncia. .... Por espiritos mil que tem prud~ncia....Governa o Mundo todo" (Lus. x.83). This is surely an echo of theverses in the Paradiso:

La provedenza, che governa il mondocon quel consiglio nel quale ogni aspettocreato vinto pria che vada al fondo, (Par. xi.28-30)The Nymph Tethys continues:

Debaixo d6ste cfrculo onde as mundasAlmas divinas gozam, que ndoanda,Outro corre, tam leve e tam ligeiroQue nio se enxerga: 6 o M6bile primeiro. (Lus. x.85)Com Asterapto e grande movimentoVio todos os que dentro tem no seio; (Lus. x.86)

The heaven of the fixed stars is distinguished from the crystallineheaven in the system of Camoes, whereas in Dante they were oneand the same. Basing himself on this division, Dr. Silva rightly con-cludes that Camses was following the marginal notes of PedroNufiez affixed to his translation of the work of Sacrobosco ratherthan the original which Dante had followed.36The heaven of thefixed stars is described in the following verses:

Debaixo d~ste leve, anda outro lento,Tam lento e subjugado a duro freio,Que emquanto Febo, de luz nunca escasso,Duzentos cursos faz, dA le um passo. (Lus. x.86)Then follows a description of the crystalline heaven:

Olha Ast 'outro debaixo, que esmaltadoDe corpos lisos anda e radiantes,Que tamb6m n4letem curso ordenadoE nos seus axes correm scintilantes. (Lus. x.87)

And the Poet proceeds to describe the various constellations in thissphere. Having done that, he explains the concentric spheres below,corresponding exactly to those of the Paradiso:Debaixo deste grande Firmamento,V~so ceu de Saturno, Deus antigo;Jupiter logo faz o movimento,E Marte abaixo, b6lico inimigo;O claro 01ho do c6u no quarto assento,E V6nus, que os amores traz consigo;Mercdrio de eloqiigncia soberana;Com trgs rostos, debaixo vai Diana. (Lus. x.89)

SCf. Silva, op. cit., p. 177.


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294 ITALICAEven below the heaven of the Moon the plan continues, except forthe small addition of the spheres of wind and snow between thesphere of air and water.. . . o fogo fez e o ar, o vento e neve,Os quais verAsque jazem mais a dentroE tem co'o Mar a Terra por seu centro. (Lus. x.90)

It is beyond the scope of this paper to enter into a complete studyof the conception of the Universe in Dante and Camaes. Dr. Silvahas rendered a valuable service in his study on "A astronomia emDante e Camoes," but a great deal remains to be done, since he dealtonly with several of the astronomical aspects of the question. Mypurpose, as expressed at the beginning of this paper, is to presentthe wealth of material which indicates that Camoes was unques-tionably influenced by Dante, so that the question may be studiedmore extensively in subsequent papers. With this in view I shall listin double columns the passages of the Lusiadas not previously men-tioned which seem to show Dante influence and the correspondingones from the Divine Comedy.Lusiadas Divine ComedyE disse assim:6 Padre, a cujo imp6rio che lAdove ubidia la terra e il cieloTudo aquilo obedece que criaste (Purg. xxix.25)(1.38.1-2)

O bem que outrem merece e o C6u Lo ben che fa contenta questa cortedeseja (Par. xxvI. 16)(i.39.8)J4 neste tempo o lficido Planeta guardai in alto, e vidi le sue spalleQue as horas vai do dia distinguindo vestite giAde' raggi del pianeta(I.1.1-2) (Inf. 1.16-17)Aquela alta e divina Eternidade In tutte parti impera e quivi reggeQue o C6u revolve e rege a gente ((Inf. 1.127)humana (II.104.5-6)E, para dizer tudo, temo e creio Ma s'a conoscer la prima radiceQue qualquer longo tempo curto seja; del nostro amor tu hai cotanto af-Mas, pois o mandas, tudo se te deve; fetto,Irei contra o que devo, e serei breve. dir5 come colui che piange e dice.(111.4.5-8) (Inf. v.124-6)Esta 6 a ditosa pAtriaminha amada, Se mai continga che '1poema sacroA qual se o C6u me di que eu sem al quale ha posto mano e cielo eperigo terra,Torne, com esta empr6sa j acabada si che m'hafatto perpid anni macro,(III.21.1-3) Vinca la crudelta che fuor mi serradel bell'ovile ov'io dormi' agnello(Par. xxv.1-5)


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CAMOES AND DANTE: A SOURCE STUDY 295J6 se ia o Sol ardente recolhendo Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aere brunoPara a casa de Tethys, e inclinado toglieva gli animai che sono in terraPara o Ponente, o V6sperotrazendo da le fatiche loro;Estava o claro dia memorado (Inf. 11.1-3)(III.115.1-4)O ouro e o alabastro transparente? che parve foco dietro ad alabastro(III.142.4) (Par. vx.24)Por6m j6 cinco S6is eram passados Venimmo poi in sul lito diserto,Que dali nos partframos, cortando che mai non vide navicar sue acqueOs mares nunca de outrem navegados omo chedi tornar sia poscia esperto.(v.37.1-3) (Purg. 1.130-2)Era no tempo quando a luz do dia Temp'era dal principio del mattinoDo E6o Hemisf6rio esta remota; (Inf. 1.37)(vi.38.5-6)Do Perineu, que Espanha e GAlia parte lo Genovese dal Toscanoparte (Par. Ix.90)(vi.56.6)Nunca tam vivos raios fabricou Se Giove stanchi '1suo fabbro da cuiContra a fera soberba dos Gigantes crucciato prese la folgora acutaO grfo ferreiro s6rdido que obrou (Inf. xIv.52-3)Do enteado as armas radiantes(vi.78.1-4)NAo nos leitos dourados,entre os finos ... seggendo in piuma,Animais de Mosc6via zibelinos; in fama non si vien, n6 sotto coltre;(vi.95.7-8) (Inf. xxIv.47-8)Elas, que vdo do doce amor vencidas ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse(Ix.50.7) (Inf. v.132)VAoos anos descendo (x.9.1) gia discendendo l'arco di miei anni(Purg. xIII.114)Esta luz 6 do fogo e das luzentes Quest'6 la luce della gran CostanzaArmas com que Albuquerque irA (Par. III.118)

amansandoDe Ormuz os PArseos (x.40.1-3)CONCLUSION. This study is in no way a reflection on the art ofCamses. Like all great artists, he familiarized himself with every-thing that preceded him in his chosen field. The echoes of theDivine Comedyare not servile imitations emerging out of place in anunfamiliar field, but rather well chosen gems that are transplanted toadorn a new artistic world. These echoes emphasize the universalappeal of both great poems. It is to the greater glory of Cam6es thathe was able to absorb Dante so well as to give new life to that whichwas already sparkling with vitality. VINCENZOIOFFARI

Boston, Mass.

cioffari, vicenzo. camoes and dante

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