that he goes
to look upon the body where it has its abiding-place.

The sun ceased, and the stars began to gather,
And each wept at the other;
And birds dropp'd at midflight out of the sky;
And earth shook suddenly;
And I was 'ware of one, hoarse and tired out,
Who ask'd of me: 'Hast thou not heard it said--
Thy lady, she that was so fair, is dead?

Then lifting up mine eyes, as the tears came,
I saw the angels, like a rain of manna
In a long flight flying back Heavenward,
Having a little cloud in front of them,
After the which they went, and said 'Hosanna;'
And if they had said more, you should have heard.

Then Love said, 'Now shall all things be made clear:
Come, and behold our lady where she lies
These 'wildering phantasies
Then carried me to see my lady dead.
Even as I there was led,
Her ladies with a veil were covering her;
And with her was such very humbleness
That she appeared to say, 'I am at peace.'
(Dante and his Circle.)

The trance proves to be a premonition of the event, for, shortly after
writing the poem in which his imaginings find record, Dante says, "The
Lord God of Justice called my most gracious lady unto Himself."

It is with the incidents of the dream that Rossetti has dealt. The
principal personage in the picture is, of course, Dante himself. Of the
poet's face, two old and accredited witnesses remain to us--the portrait
of Giotto and the mask supposed to be copied from a similar one
taken after death. Giotto's portrait represents Dante at the age of
twenty-seven. The face has a feminine delicacy of outline, yet is
full of manly beauty; strength and tenderness are seen blended in its
lineaments. It might be that of a poet, a scholar, a courtier, or yet a
soldier; and in Dante it is all combined.

Such, as seen in Giotto, was the great Florentine when Beatrice beheld
him. The familiar mask represents that youthful beauty as somewhat
saddened by years of exile, by the accidents of an unequal fortune, and
by the long brooding memory of his life's one, deep, irreparable loss.
We see in it the warrior who served in the great battle of Campaldino:
the mourner who sought refuge from grief in the action and danger of the
war waged by Florence upon Pisa: the magistrate whose justice proved his
ruin: the exile who ate bitter b