emporary, immortalised his
name in the _Divine Comedy_. The doctrine on which the _dolce stil
nuovo_ was based pointed to the love of a noble heart as the source of
all perfection in heaven and earth. Purely spiritual woman-worship was
regarded as an absolute virtue. The words of the last of the Provencal
troubadours, Guirot Riquier, "Love is the doctrine of all sublime
things"--was developed into a philosophy. I will quote a few
characteristic verses, omitting Dante for the present. One of the finest
lyric poems of all tongues and ages, written by Guido Guinicelli, begins
as follows:

Within the gentle heart love shelters him,
As birds within the green shades of the grove;
Before the gentle heart in nature's scheme
Love was not, or the gentle heart ere love.

(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)

Cino da Pistoia says in epigrammatic brevity:

You want to know the inmost core of love?
'Tis art and guerdon of a noble heart.

A wonderful canzone by Guinicelli contains the following verses:

A song she seems among the rest and these
Have all their beauties in her splendour drowned.
In her is ev'ry grace,--
Simplicity of wisdom, noble speech,
Accomplished loveliness;
All earthly beauty is her diadem.
This truth my song must teach--
My lady is of ladies chosen gem.

(_Transl. by_ D.G. ROSSETTI.)

And Cavalcanti sings:

What's she whose coming rivets all men's eyes,
Who makes the air so tremble with delight,
And thrills so every heart that no man might
Find tongue for words but vents his soul in sighs?

(_Transl. by_ SIR THEODORE MARTIN.)

The sentiment which pervades these verses has lifted us into the higher
sphere which will henceforth be our main theme. The beloved was more and
more extolled; in her presence the lover became more and more convinced
of his insignificance; she was worshipped, deified. The overwhelming
emotion, the longing for metaphysical values which dominated the whole
epoch, had reached its highest characteristic, had reached perfection.
It proved the eternal quality of human emotion: the impossibility of
finding satisfaction, the striving towards the infinite; it soared above
its apparent object and sought its consummation in metaphysic. The love
of woman and the mystical love of God were blended in a profounder
devotion; love had becom