[Footnote N:  Note the reference implied in these words
  to the journey of Dante through Hell.]

  “My lady is desired in high heaven. 
  Her virtues now will I make known to you. 
  I say, whoso a gentle lady would appear
  Should go with her:  for when she passeth by,
  Love casts a frost upon all villain hearts,
  So that their every thought doth freeze and die;
  And whoso bears to stay and look on her
  Will nobler thing become or else will die;
  And when one finds that he may worthy be
  To look on her, he doth his virtue prove: 
  For then that comes to him which gives him health,
  And humbleth him till he forgets all wrong;
  And God hath given a still greater grace,
  That who hath spoke with her cannot end ill.

  “Love says of her, ’How can a mortal thing
  Be thus in every part adorned and pure?’
  Then, gazing on her, to himself he swears
  That God in her a creature new designs. 
  Color of pearl doth clothe her, as it were,—­
  Not in excess, but most becomingly. 
  Whate’er of good Nature can make she is;
  And by her model Beauty proves itself. 
  From out her eyes, wherever they may move,
  Spirits inflamed with love do issue forth,
  Which strike the eyes of whoso looks on her,
  And enter so that every heart they find. 
  Love you behold depicted on her face,
  On which with fixed look no one can gaze.

  “I know, Canzone, thou wilt go to speak
  With many ladies, when I send thee forth;
  And now I bid thee, having bred thee up
  Like to a young and simple child of Love,
  That where thou goest thou shouldst praying say,
  ’Teach me which way to go, for I am sent
  To her with praise of whom I am adorned.’ 
  And if thou wishest not to go in vain,
  Remain not there where villain folk may be;
  Endeavor, if thou mayst, to be acquaint
  Only with ladies, or with courteous men,
  Who thee will guide upon the quickest way. 
  Love thou wilt find in company with her,
  And to them both commend me as thou shouldst.”

After explaining, according to his custom, and marking the divisions of this poem, Dante copies out a sonnet in which he answers the question of one of his friends, who, he says, perhaps entertaining an expectation of him beyond what was due, asked him, ‘What is Love?’ Many of the poets of that time tried their hands in giving an answer to this difficult question, and Dante begins his with confirming the opinion expressed by one of them:—­

  “Love is but one thing with the gentle heart,
  As in the saying of the sage we find."[O]

[Footnote O:  it is probable that Dante refers to the first of a Canzone by Guido Guinicelli, which says,

  “Within the gentle heart Love always stays,”

—­a verse which he may have had still in his memory when he makes Francesca da Rimini say, (Inf. v. 100,)