liament of Foules"
and "The Hous of Fame" there are distinct imitations of Dante. A passage
from the "Purgatory" is quoted in the "Wif of Bathes Tale," etc. Spenser
probably, and Milton certainly, knew their Dante. Milton's sonnet to
Henry Lawes mentions Dante's encounter with the musician Casella "in the
milder shades of Purgatory." Here and there a reference to the "Divine
Comedy" occurs in some seventeenth-century English prose writer like Sir
Thomas Browne or Jeremy Taylor. It is thought that the description of
Hell in Sackville's "Mirror for Magistrates" shows an acquaintance with
the "Inferno." But Dante had few readers in England before the
nineteenth century. He was practically unknown there and in all of
Europe outside of Italy. "His reputation," said Voltaire, "will go on
increasing because scarce anybody reads him." And half a century later
Napoleon said the same thing in the same words: "His fame is increasing
and will continue to increase because no one ever reads him."

In the third volume of his "History of English Poetry" (1781), Thomas
Warton had spoken of the "Divine Comedy" as "this wonderful compound of
classical and romantic fancy, of pagan and Christian theology, of real
and fictitious history, of tragical and comic incidents, of familiar and
heroic manners, and of satirical and sublime poetry. But the grossest
improprieties of this poem discover an originality of invention, and its
absurdities often border on sublimity. We are surprised that a poet
should write one hundred cantos on hell, paradise, and purgatory. But
this prolixity is partly owing to the want of art and method, and is
common to all early compositions, in which everything is related
circumstantially and without rejection, and not in those general terms
which are used by modern writers." Warton is shocked at Dante's
"disgusting fooleries" and censures his departure from Virgilian grace.
Milton "avoided the childish or ludicrous excesses of these bold
inventions . . . but rude and early poets describe everything." But
Warton felt Dante's greatness. "Hell," he wrote, "grows darker at his
frown." He singled out for special mention the Francesca and Ugolino
episodes.

If Warton could write thus it is not surprising to discover among
classical critics either a total silence as to Dante, or else a
systematic depreciation. Addison does not mention him in his Italian
travels; and in his "Saturday papers" misses the very ob