n poet was created by reading Lord
Byron's poem, "The Lament of Dante." From that hour we felt like
examining everything connected with the great Italian poet. The history
of poets, as well as painters, is written in their works. The best
written life of Goldsmith is to be found in his poem of "The Traveller,"
and his novel of "The Vicar of Wakefield." Boswell could not have
written a better life of himself than he has done in giving the
Biography of Dr. Johnson. It seems clear that no one can be a great poet
without having been sometime during life a lover, and having lost the
object of his affection in some mysterious way. Burns had his Highland
Mary, Byron his Mary, and Dante was not without his Beatrice. Whether
there ever lived such a person as Beatrice seems to be a question upon
which neither of his biographers have thrown much light. However, a
Beatrice existed in the poet's mind, if not on earth. His attachment to
Beatrice Portinari, and the linking of her name with the immortality of
his great poem, left an indelible impression upon his future character.
The marriage of the object of his affections to another, and her
subsequent death, and the poet's exile from his beloved Florence,
together with his death amongst strangers--all give an interest to the
poet's writings, which could not be heightened by romance itself. When
exiled and in poverty, Dante found a friend in the father of Francesca.
And here, under the roof of his protector, he wrote his great poem. The
time the painter has chosen is evening. Day and night meet in mid-air:
one star is alone visible. Sailing in vacancy are the shadows of the
lovers. The countenance of Francesca is expressive of hopeless agony.
The delineations are sublime, the conception is of the highest order,
and the execution admirable. Dante is seated in a marble vestibule, in a
meditating attitude, the face partly concealed by the right hand upon
which it is resting. On the whole, it is an excellently painted piece,
and causes one to go back with a fresh relish to the Italian's
celebrated poem. In coming out, we stopped a short while in the upper
room of the Gallery, and spent a few minutes over a painting
representing Mrs. Siddons in one of Shakspere's characters. This is by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, and is only one of the many pieces that we have
seen of this great artist. His genius was vast, and powerful in its
grasp. His fancy fertile, and his inventive faculty inexhaustible in it