Part 8

... It is impossible to continue without exhibiting the most intimate mysteries of the sect, seeing that the entire poem of Dante, all the lyrics of Petrarca, almost all the works of Boccaccio, and, in fine, all the old writings of that class, are nothing else than _downright doctrine and practice of the Freemasons_, in the strictest acceptation of the word. Such was the Gay Science, such the Platonic love, such the sect of the Templars, and that of the Paulicians. How true this is you will find in the published volume,[83] with numberless manuscript additions which I have made to it.... There you will see developed the God of the Sect--viz. Man in Freedom; there, also, the Sectarian Trinity, the Incarnation, Transubstantiation, and other matters.... But it is dangerous to consign the work to the public, and the chief danger is this: The demonstration cannot be _rightly_ founded, so as to defy confutation, without citing in confirmation the writings of St Paul and those of St John. One might make use of protests, dexterity, or even hypocrisy, but none the less one must state the thing which is; and, if one will not state this, one is compelled to stop short at the effects, and leave the cause unexplained, which makes less visible and tangible the reality of the assumption....

I see with regret that the assertion of many Sectarian writers, and among others of Swedenborg, is not without foundation--namely, that the religion founded upon the New Testament is, in fact, the religion which they profess, of which _we_ practise the letter, and _they_ possess the spirit: we are the outer church, and they form the hereditary priesthood. Be this true or false, great indeed is the illusion which it assails;[84] and to bring this to light would be an offence against the human society in which we exist....

I now comprehend why the _Mysterium Magnum_ was never manifested to the world. It is confided to very few persons, of well-approved prudence, and at an age of thorough maturity; and to discover it by one’s own scrutiny is a work of immense labour, and (I will venture to say) of no ordinary talent.... I know that Mr Frere belongs to the secret order; and, having perceived what it is that I have already discovered by analysis and reasoning, he fears lest I should reveal it to the world. I am not so mad as to plan detriment to society, and to myself....

With regard to the chapter, _Dante personified in Adam_, this, though not demonstrated in full, has none the less a great basis of proofs in other chapters; and its substance is that Dante was the inventor of that simulated religious language. Perhaps, on reading some additions which I have made, you will more strongly feel the reality of the thesis....

Your much obliged Servant, GABRIELE ROSSETTI.

C.

_15th May 1833._

MY VERY DEAR SIR,

“Non io, se cento bocche avessi e cento Lingue, con ferrea lena e ferreo petto,”[85]

not if I were to talk for a hundred years with the eloquence of Cicero himself, could I sufficiently thank you for having first mentioned and then sent to me the _Donna Immaginaria_ of Magalotti. Oh what a precious book for proving to the over-brim my assumption!...

In these recent days I have made some most important discoveries in the _Convito_: of these I will give you a hint, but only a hint, as the thing would be lengthy to expound. Being persuaded that the _Convito_ is the exposition, in the sect-language, of the _Commedia_ and its secrets, I, observing that Dante dwells so much upon explaining the cosmographical construction of heaven and earth, and confident that he must be speaking of his poem, have been minded to follow the track which he indicates; and I have found (_mirabile dictu!_) that all corresponds to the poem. Begin reading at p. 153 (Zatta’s edition), here at the end; “This heaven turns round this centre continually,” etc.; all that he says--verily all--expounds the arcane structure of his poetic machinery, and discloses its secret device....

Your much obliged G. ROSSETTI.

D.

_13th January 1836._

VERY DEAR SIR AND EXCELLENT FRIEND,

... The interpretation of the _Vita Nuova_ depends upon knowing what portions of it are to be taken first, and what portions are to be taken last. This enigmatic booklet contains thirty-three compositions (_vide_ your Index), relating to the thirty-three cantos of each section of the _Commedia_. These thirty-three poetic compositions are to be divided into three parts, according to those three sections, and to the three predominant canzoni of the _Vita Nuova_. The central canzone, which is “Donna pietosa,” is the head of the skein, and from that point must the interpretation begin; and then one must take, on this side and on that, the four lateral sonnets to the left, and the four to the right--(the last one to the right has been somewhat altered by Dante, with the designation of one stanza of an incomplete canzone, but it is in fact a sonnet, as I will prove)--and the one set of sonnets will explain the other set; and it will be seen that the death of Beatrice’s father, set forth on the left side, and the death of Beatrice herself, set forth on the right side, of the central canzone, mean one and the same thing. This is the first part of the enigma.

On this side and on that follow the two canzoni, placed symmetrically--viz. “Donne che avete intelletto d’amore” on the left, and “Gli occhi dolenti per pietà del core” on the right. In the former it is decided that Beatrice is to die; in the second, Beatrice dead is lamented; and the one canzone explains the other. And thus, proceeding from one side to the other, collating the ten compositions to the right with the ten to the left, we come finally to the first and the last sonnets of the _Vita Nuova_, which contain two visions; and the last vision, “Oltre la spera che più larga gira,” explains the first vision, “A ciascun’alma presa e gentil core.” When the interpretation goes on these lines, this sonnet becomes as clear as possible. Dante, assuming his reader to be already cognizant of the mystical language, and to be capable of solving by this process his work which has the character of a knot, wrote: “The true judgment as to the said sonnet was not then seen by any one, but now it is manifest to the simplest.”... The central part [of the _Vita Nuova_], which constitutes the Beatrice Nine,[86] consists of nine compositions--_i.e._ the central canzone, with four sonnets on one side and four on the other....

Recently I have been applying myself to a study of the first Holy Fathers of the primitive Church; and they say plainly that they, in the inner Sacerdotal School, explained the _mysteries_ of religion, protesting at the same time that they could reveal nothing of this to the profane. I have passages from St Basil, a light of the Greek Church, which show that these personages acted like the gentile school....

Your truly devoted and obliged G. ROSSETTI.

E.

_14th January 1836._

VERY DEAR SIR AND FRIEND,

... The object or system of the secret school, in explaining the mysteries, is to show that those whom we take for beings existing outside of ourselves, and who are represented to us as such by the Christian doctrine, are none other than our internal ideas or affections; that is to say, that those supernatural personages who are exhibited to men as divine are the human faculties themselves, personified by ancient secret art; and that these figurative personages merge the one into the other, and interpenetrate and unify in one sole being--namely, in Man. The ultimate revelation.

This is equally the system of Dante, both in the _Divine Comedy_ and in the _Vita Nuova_--which latter gives the keys of the former....

Origen and Tertullian, as well as Synesius, Bishop of Cyrene, give in the sect-language the keys to the whole New Testament, and partly to the Old:... the selfsame explanation which is given in the mysteries of the present still-subsisting sect.

From the writings of the latter I gather that the secret school of the Christian priesthood is continued by Masonry; that one of the heads of the school in Constantine’s time, Sylvester, came to an understanding with that despot to suppress the secret explanation, and to retain merely the formula of the external figures, which understanding produced the papacy or priesthood of Rome; but that other chiefs of the same school, indignant at his having sold the interests of mankind to the secular power, severed themselves from him and persisted in the secret teaching,--which went on to the late ages (and here we arrive at Dante), and so continued up to our own times.

F.

_16th December 1836._

MY VERY DEAR SIR,

I cannot sufficiently express to you how much pleasure it affords me to hear from you, “What you have written[87] has convinced me.”...

Despite every effort, the nature of the argument wells forth of itself, and almost overflows the dykes which I labour to erect and strengthen. And I regret to tell you (far from rejoicing at it) that in the successive chapters the evidence increases to such a point as to belie all my words, which heal, assuage, and soften down the nature of the thing. Oh how much have I done to disguise it, but all in vain! I confess to you my misdeed: in that which you have read, or which you will be reading, I have suppressed all those passages of the authorities that I quote which exhibit the secret overtly. I have quoted in a maimed form Petrarca, Boccaccio, and especially Swedenborg.... For example, this Swede writes that the entire Bible, both the Old Testament and the New, is written in that selfsame language in which he writes, and that his is none other than a prolongation of that. He says that the Prophets saw God no otherwise than he saw him; that there is no other future life than that which he describes, in which one dies a man, and revives as an angel to a new life; that there are not any other heavens nor another God than those to which he ascended, and that with whom he spoke; and other similar things: all of them expunged by me, even in the thick of the citation which I make. These utterances of his may have illuded the world, before it was understood, by giving the keys, what heaven is, and what the angels and God are; but, the keys having been given, the propositions become horrible and scandalous....

Your very affectionate and oblige G. ROSSETTI.

G.

_21st July 1840._

MY VERY DEAR SIR,

... I could send you a hundred things of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which I have amassed in my extracts. I will limit myself to two sonnets of the famous Raphael of Urbino; and judge you whether he was not of the sect--like his contemporary, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and very many others who were in the environment of the Pope.

“Un pensier dolce è _rimembrare_, e godo.”[88]

Raphael’s second sonnet. He, having descended from the _third heaven_ (like St Paul), writes thus:

“Come non potè dir d’arcana Dei Paolo come disceso fù dal cielo, Così il mio cor d’un amoroso velo Ha ricoperto tutt’i pensier miei. Però che quanto io vidi e quanto fei (in the third heaven) Per gaudio taccio che nel petto celo; E prima cangerò nel fronte il pelo Che mai l’obbligo volger pensier rei.”[89]

... Pico della Mirandola, Molza, and other contemporaries, speak of this third heaven in the same mysterious manner, and agree with what St Bernard, Swedenborg, Cecco d’Ascoli, Dante, etc., say of it....

Oh how much can be gathered from the Latin writings of Poliziano! Far more than even from those of Tasso....

Your greatly obliged and obedient G. ROSSETTI.

H.

_1st February 1842._

MY VERY DEAR SIR,

... Have you ever read _Le Livre Mystique_ of De Balzac, a living French author--a book published in 1836? Read it, for it is truly curious. It is divided into three parts, and expounds mysticism in mystic language, somewhat less obscure than in the ancient works of like kind. In the first part he introduces a certain Louis Lambert as expounder of mysticism; in the second he introduces Dante at the school of Sigier in Paris, “al Vico degli Strami, Sillogizzando invidiosi veri”:[90] in the third he introduces a nephew of Swedenborg, _female and male_, a fantastic and changeful being, Seraphita-Seraphitus; and she-and-he expresses herself in terms fit to set the soundest head in a whirl,--and says among other things: “L’union qui se fait d’un _esprit d’amour_ et d’un _esprit de sagesse_ met la créature à l’état _divin_, pendant que son âme est _femme_ et que son corps est _homme_; dernière expression humaine où l’esprit l’emporte sur la forme, et la forme se débat encore contre l’esprit divin.... Ainsi _le naturel_ (état dans lequel sont les êtres non régénérés), _le spirituel_ (état dans lequel sont les esprits angéliques), et _le divin_ (état dans lequel demeure l’ange avant de briser son enveloppe), sont _les trois degrés_ de l’exister par lesquels l’homme parvient au ciel.” (Vol. II. p. 102.) And so on to a large extent. What seems to me most noticeable is to see Dante and Swedenborg put on the same footing. And Reghellini says plainly that Dante was a Freemason (_vide_ Vol. III. pp. 48, 49). And Ragon affirms the same (pp. 290-332)....

Your most attached G. ROSSETTI.

NO. 3.--FROM THREE LETTERS FROM SEYMOUR [BARONE] KIRKUP TO GABRIELE ROSSETTI

[Mr Seymour Kirkup, an English painter and man of letters established in Florence, became an enthusiastic adherent to Rossetti’s scheme of Dantesque interpretation, from reading his Comment on the _Inferno_ and his _Spirito Antipapale_. In his later years he was made a Barone of the Italian Kingdom, and he died at a great age towards 1880. The following extracts relate chiefly to the deeply interesting discovery, in which he bore a very principal part, of the portrait of Dante by Giotto in the Chapel of the Podestà, in the Bargello of Florence.]

A.

FLORENCE, _12th September 1840_.

MY VERY EXCELLENT FRIEND,

Yours of the 22nd July came safe with the Sonnet, “O della mente eterna immago e prole.” It is very beautiful. It is capital. Let me thank you very sincerely, and let me congratulate you on Germany being about to enjoy the benefit of your invaluable discoveries. Every new country is a triumph of your cause; and, whilst all Europe will be benefiting by your genius and learning, Italy alone remains without an Italian edition of the original Italian work on the great luminary of Italy and of the world. In Florence there are too many obstacles: the priests, and the antiquated routine imbecility of the Crusca. The word-mongers are all envious. They are true bran, and well sifted from the fior di pensieri. They are old, and find your success a reproach, and in this country all hue and cry raised against innovation is supported by force. The tone of the court and the police is carried into the Academies. Well may you say “L’Italia invidia omai fin la Turchia.”

I have delayed writing in the hopes of sending you a sketch which will interest you, but I have hitherto been disappointed. We have made a discovery of an original portrait of Dante in fresco by Giotto! Although I was a magna pars in this undertaking, the Jacks in Office have not allowed me yet to make a copy. Sono tanto gelosi, most likely afraid I should publish it and prevent some friends of their own reaping all the profit they hope from that speculation.

I was the person who first mentioned to Sig. Bezzi, a Piedmontese and friend of Carlo Eastlake’s, the existence of the portrait under the whitewash of three centuries. We were joined by an American, and we three undertook at our expense to employ a restorer to uncover the walls of the old chapel in the palace of the Podestà in search of the portrait--mentioned by F. Villani, Filelfo, L. Aretino, Vasari, Cinelli, etc. Nothing but the constancy and talent of Sig. Bezzi could have overcome the numberless obstacles and refusals we met with. He wrote and spoke with the persuasions of an advocate, and persevered with the obstinacy and activity of an Englishman (which I believe he now is). He alone was the cause of success. We should have had no chance without him. At last, after uncovering enough of three walls to ascertain it was not there, the Government took the task into their own hands, on our terms, with the same restorer, and in the fifth wall they have succeeded. The number of walls is six, for the chapel has been divided in two--(magazines of wine, oil, bread, etc., for the prisoners).

The precise date of the painting is not known. The poet looks about 28--very handsome--un Apollo colle fattezze di Dante. The expression and character are worthy of the subject, and much beyond what I expected from Giotto. Raphael might own it with honour. Add to which it is not the mask of a corpse of 56--a ruin--but a fine, noble image of the Hero of Campaldino, the Lover of Beatrice. The costume very interesting--no beard or even a lock of hair.

A white cap, over which a white capuccio, lined with dark red showing the edge turned back. A parchment book under his arm--perhaps the Vita Nuova.

It is in a group of many others--one seems Charles II. of Naples. Brunetto Latini and Corso Donati are mentioned by the old authors.

I send herewith a pamphlet by Prof. Nannucci--very curious and very interesting respecting Dante--and a dose for the Crusca.

I wrote to you by Mr Craufurd, who took charge of the medal, and sent two pamphlets by him, one for Mr Taylor--and two letters of thanks, one to him and one to Mr Lyell; but I fear by what you say in your last letter you have never received them. Mr C[raufurd] is a friend of Eastlake’s, who can perhaps get them for you. I liked Mr Taylor’s book[91] very much indeed, and am very grateful to you and him.

Yours most sincerely, SEYMOUR KIRKUP.

B.

FLORENCE, _14th September 1841_.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

By the time you receive this, I hope that the portrait of Dante, for you, will be in London.

The gentleman who has taken charge of it was in such haste to leave the country (from the consequences of a fatal duel) that I had not an opportunity for writing.

You will receive, in fact, three portraits. They are as follows:--

No. 1. A drawing in chalk, on light-brown paper, of the face as large as the original. I had intended to write a memorandum on it, but in my hurry it was forgotten. Perhaps you would have the kindness to add it, if you think it worth while--viz.

“Drawn by S. K., and traced with talc, on the original fresco by Giotto; discovered in the Chapel of the Palazzo del Podestà, Florence, on the 21st July 1840, before it was retouched.”

No. 2. A small sketch in water-colours, giving the colours of the dress, and the heads supposed to be of Corso Donati and Brunetto Latini.

No. 3. A Lithography by the painter and restorer Marini, who uncovered the painting. This is made on a tracing by himself.

I thought it useful to send you these in order to give you a better idea of this very interesting discovery--Dante, under 30 years of age. With respect to No. 1, it is fixed with glue-water, and will not rub out with common usage. The only thing it is liable to is the cracking or bending of the paper, which sometimes in a face alters the expression.

Since I drew it, I have had the mortification to see the original retouched, and its beauty destroyed. You will perceive that the eye is wanting. A deep hole in the wall was found exactly on that spot, as if done on purpose. It was necessary to fill it that it might not extend further: not content, they ordered Sig. Marini to paint the eye on it, and he has daubed over the face in many parts, to the ruin of its expression and character. It is now 15 years older, a mean, pinched expression, and an effeminate character, compared to what it was. It is not quite so bad as the lithography I send you, but not far from it. When I saw what was done, I asked a young man, his assistant, if it was done with colours in tempera, and he assured me, with a boast, that it was in bon fresco. If so, Dante is gone for good. But I have still hopes that he spoke only of the eye, and many of my friends think it can only be accomplished on the old and hard painting by some distemper-colour of glue, size, or egg; and, if so, a damp cloth fixed on it for half-an-hour will bring it all away without injuring the original fresco. I mean to take my time, and perhaps some day I may restore Dante to himself a second time. I had the principal part in the late discovery.

The lithography I send you is exceedingly unlike and incorrect, although a tracing. In shading and finishing he has totally lost and changed the outline, if he ever had it. It is vulgar, old, and effeminate--the contrary in every respect to the original. The Florentines of to-day cannot draw, nor even trace. Think of what such a hand would do, if allowed to paint over it! and that has been the case. It is a misfortune when the direction of the fine arts is in the hands of an ignorant man, chosen only for his _Nobility_! Our Direttore with his cleaners has been the ruin of paintings in the Galleries, since I have been here, to the value of £60,000 or £80,000 sterling--and the money is the least part of the loss. When I mentioned to you that my drawing was a secret, I only meant that, if known here that I obtained access to make a tracing by bribery, it would compromise those who had assisted me. You are welcome to show it to whom you please, and _do whatever you wish with it_. But I recommend you not to give it away, for it is the _only_ copy that has been made to my knowledge before the fresco was retouched, except the miserable lithography which I send; and, if so bad a copy was produced by the help of tracing, and from the original in its pure state, nothing very good is to be expected in future. The eye in the said lithography was, of course, added by the copier. You will perceive by my drawing that the outline (the eyelash) remained, which was fortunate, as it gives the exact situation of the feature.

We are in daily expectation of the arrival of The Book of Mystery.[92] I am doubly anxious, from the distinguished honour you have conferred on me. The Marquis and the Professor are full of gratitude to you, but the Frenchman (_entre nous_) seemed to confer a favour rather than receive one. And so great a one! _Gente francesca!_

The scientific meeting of Florence commences to-morrow, and ends on the 8th Oct. It opens with a grand Mass of Spontini, in the Church of S. Croce. Galileo’s shrine will be the favourite of the four great Tuscans--besides whom, there is a host of secondary stars: F. Barberini, C. Marsuppini, Leonardo Aretino, Lami, Mascagni, Alfieri, Rinuccini, Alberti, etc., etc., etc.

Do you know the Improvisatore Regaldi? and his _Carme a Firenze_--written about three years ago. There are some lines on the subject of S. Croce.

God bless you, my dear friend, and allow me once more to thank you for all your kindness, and to subscribe myself

Most sincerely yours, SEYMOUR KIRKUP.

Best remembrances to Sig. Carlo (Eastlake, his name in Rome).

* * * * *

The name of the bearer of the portrait is Plowden. He is a banker of Florence, and may be heard of at Messrs Harris & Farquhar, Bankers, of London. He will send it you, I hope, or leave it himself.

C.

FLORENCE, _5th February 1843_.

MY DEAR FRIEND,