[Footnote D:  The text of the Vita Nuova is often uncertain.  Here, for example, many authorities concur in the reading, “la quale fu si tosto a lui disponsata,” “which had been so quickly betrothed to him.”  But we prefer to read “disposta,” as being more in accordance with the remainder of the figure concerning Love.  Many other various readings will be passed over without notice,—­but a translation might be exposed to the charge of inaccuracy, if it were judged by the text of any special edition of the original, without comparison with others.  The text usually followed in these versions is that of Fraticelli.]

Such is the account which Dante gives of the beginning of his love for Beatrice.  The tenderness and purity of his passion are obscured, but not concealed, by quaintness of expression and formality of learning.  In literary style the passage displays the uncertain hand of youth, and in a translation something is lost of the charm of simplicity which pervades the original.  But in this passage the keynote of Dante’s life is struck.

Passing over many things, he says that exactly nine years were completed after the above-described appearance of this most gentle lady, when it happened that “she appeared before me clothed in purest white between two noble ladies, and, passing along the street, she turned her eyes toward that place where I stood very timidly, and, by her ineffable courtesy, which is now rewarded in eternity, saluted me with such virtue, that I seemed to behold all the bounds of bliss.  The hour when her most sweet salutation reached me was exactly the ninth of that day; and since it was the first time that her words came to my ears, I felt such great delight, that, as it were intoxicated, I turned away from the crowd, and, betaking myself to the solitary place of my chamber, sat myself down to think of this most courteous lady, and, thinking of her, a sweet slumber came upon me, in which a marvellous vision appeared to me.”  After describing this vision, he says, that, thinking of what had appeared to him, he “proposed to bring it to the knowledge of many who were famous poets at that time; and since I had already seen in myself the art of speaking words in rhyme, I proposed to write a sonnet, in which I would salute all the vassals of Love; and praying them to give an interpretation of my vision, I wrote to them that which I had seen in my slumber.  And I began then this sonnet:—­

  “To every captive soul and gentle heart
     Before whose sight may come the present
        word,
     That they may thereupon their thoughts
        impart,
     Be greeting in Love’s name, who is their
        lord.

  “Now of those hours wellnigh one third had
        gone
     In which each star appears in heaven most
        bright,
     When on a sudden Love before me shone,
     To think upon whose being gives me fright.