nd sends
it to his lady, "who," he says, "of her noble grace shall show thee
courtesy." All the poets were not as constant as their own lines
would have us believe. Dante reproaches the famous Cino da Pistoja
for fickleness, and the latter confesses the charge, and declares he
cannot get "free from Love's pitiless aim." Guido Cavalcanti rebukes
Dante himself for his way of life after the death of Beatrice; and
this valuable sonnet should be read in connection with the beautiful
passage in the _Purgatory_ (xxx. 55-75) where Beatrice herself
upbraids the tearful poet.

In the second part, comprising _Poets chiefly before Dante_, we have
specimens of the Sicilian school--a _canzone_ by the great Frederick,
and a sonnet by his luckless son Enzo, who died in prison at Bologna
after a confinement of nearly twenty-three years. Of more importance
are the poems of Guido Guinicelli, of which the philosophical one
entitled "Of the Gentle Heart" was a nine days' wonder, but which,
even in Rossetti's elegant version, seems cold and formal. The
most natural and pleasing pieces among much that is artificial and
conventional are a ballad and two "catches" by Sacchetti, who died
just after 1400, and properly does not belong to Dante's circle.
Mr. Rossetti's readers will, however, be grateful to him for his
delightful versions of the two catches, one "On a Fine Day," the other
"On a Wet Day," giving the experiences of a band of young girls who
have gone to spend the afternoon in the fields and are overtaken by a
shower.

Poems like these, unfortunately, are rare. The range is a limited
one--Platonic love in its conventional form, or the still more
conventional form of chivalric love, imported bodily from the
Troubadours. Scattered here and there are some noble poems; as, for
instance, the one attributed to Fazio degli Uberti on his lady's
portrait, which begins--

I look at the crisp golden-threaded hair,
Whereof, to thrall my heart, Love twists a net;
Using at times a string of pearls for bait,
And sometimes with a single rose therein.

Mr. Rossetti has performed his task in a way to deserve the warmest
praise. The difficulties he has overcome are very great, consisting
not merely of intricate rhyme and assonance, which he has faithfully
reproduced, but a text often corrupt and meaning often obscure.
He says himself in his preface that "The life-blood of rhythmical
translation is this commandment--that a good poem shall n