be found in the heart of him
even lowest in the social scale provided that he is a virtuous man. It
is not an affair solely of gentle blood. It has no pedigree of birth or
richness. "In this sense the true lover need not be a _gentleman_
but he must be a _gentle man_, loving not by genteel code of caste
but by gentle code of character." (J.B. Fletcher: Dante p. 27.)

Thus Dante makes Guido Guinicelli say: "Love and the gentle heart are
one and the same thing." And Dante himself in one of his Canzoni writes:

"Let no man predicate
That aught the name of gentleman should have
Even in a king's estate
Except the heart there be a gentle man's."

Love, Then, Became In Literature Such A Refined Emotion That To Quote
Dante: "It Makes Ill Thought To Perish, It Drives Into Foul Hearts A
Deadly Chill" And On The Other Hand It Fills Indeed The Lover With Such
Delicacy Of Sentiment For His Beloved That She Is His Inspiration To
Virtue And The Muse Who Directs His Pen. In Harmony With "The Sweet New
Style" Of Sincerity With Which Dante Treats Of Love, Thomas Bernart De
Ventadorn Sings:

"It is no wonder if I sing better than any other singer, for my heart
draws near to Love and I am a better man for Love's command."

Not in literature alone but in actual life did chivalry exalt "the
eternal womanly." In Dante's age, to quote the author of Phases of
Thought and Criticism, "Knights passed from land to land in search of
adventure, vowed to protect and defend the widow and the orphan and the
lonely woman at the hazard of their lives: they went about with a prayer
on their lips and in their hearts the image of the lady-love whom they
had chosen to serve and to whom they had pledged loyalty and fidelity:
they strove to be chaste in body and soul and as a tower of strength for
the protection of this spirit of chastity, they were taught to venerate
the Virgin Mother Mary and cultivate toward her a tender devotion as the
purest and holiest ideal of womanhood. This spirit of chivalry is the
ruling spirit of Dante's life and the inspiration of some of his
sublimest flights."

All these high achievements of Dante's century are all the more notable
in view of the fact that war with its horror and destruction was never
absent from those times. Every European country was involved often in
war and Asia and Africa were not free from its devastation.

In such stirring times, Dante was born at Florence. A city of flowers
and gay festi