Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851. Various
primo tuo rifugio e 'l primo ostello
Sarà la cortesia del gran Lombardo,
Che 'n su la Scala porta il santo uccello."
The Scaligers are well known, not only as having held the lordship of Verona for some generations, but also as having been among the friends of Dante in his exile, no mean reputation in itself; and, at a later period, as taking very high rank among the first scholars of their day. To which of them the passage above properly belongs—whether to Can Grande, or his brother Bartolommeo, or even his father Alberto, commentators are by no means agreed. The question is argued more largely than conclusively, both in the notes to Lombardi's edition, and also in Ugo Foscolo's Discorso nel testo di Dante.
Perhaps the following may be a contribution to the evidence in favour of Can Grande. After saying, in a letter, in which he professes to give the history and origin of his family,—
"Prisca omnium familiarum Scaligeræ stirpis insignia sunt, aut Scala singularis, aut Canes utrinque scalæ innitentes."
Joseph Scaliger adds—
"Denique principium Veronensium progenitores eadem habuerunt insignia: donec in eam familiam Alboinus et Canis Magnus Aquilam imperii cum Scala primum ab Henrico VIIo, deinde à Ludovico Bavaro acceptam nobis reliquerunt."
Alboinus, however, who received this grant upon being made a Lieutenant of the Empire, and having the Signory of Verona made hereditary in his family, only bore the eagle "in quadrante scuti."
"Sed Canis Magnus, cum eidem à Cæsare Ludovico Bavaro idem privilegium confirmatum esset, totum scutum Aquilâ occupavit, subjectâ Alitis pedibus Scalâ."
Can Grande, then, was surely the first who carried the "santo uccello" in su la Scala; and his epithet of Grande would also agree best with Dante's words, as neither his father nor brothers seem to have had the same claim to it.
I would offer a farther remark about this same title or epithet Can Grande, and the origin of the scala or ladder as a charge upon the shield or coat of this family. Cane would at first sight appear to be a designation borrowed from the animal of that name. There would be parallels enough in Italy and elsewhere, as the Ursini, Lewis the Lion (VIII. of France), our own Cœur de Lion, and Harold Harefoot. Dante, too, refers to him under the name "Il Veltro," Inferno, canto 1. l. 101. But Joseph Scaliger, in the letter to which I referred before, gives the following account of it:—
"Nomen illi fuerat Franscisco, à sacro lavacro, Cani à gentilitate, Magno à merito rerum gestarum. Neque enim Canis ab illo latranti animali dictus est, ut recte monet Jovius, sed quod linguâ Windorum, unde principes Veronenses oriundos vult, Cahan idem est, quod linguâ Serviana Kral, id est Rex, aut Princeps. Nam in gente nostrâ multi fuerunt Canes, Mastini, Visulphi Guelphi."—P. 17.
This letter consists of about 58 pages, and stands first in the edition of 1627. It is addressed "ad Janum Dousam," and was written to vindicate his family from certain indignities which he conceived had been put upon it. Sansovino and Villani, it appears, had referred its origin to Mastin II., "qui," to use Scaliger's version of the matter,—
"Qui primus dictator populi Veronensis perpetuus creatus est, quem et auctorem nobilitatis Scaligeræ et Scalarum antea fabrum impudentissime nugantur hostes virtutis majorum nostrorum."
It was bad enough to ascribe their origin to so recent a date, but to derive it from a mere mechanic was more than our author's patience could endure. Accordingly he is not sparing of invective against those who so disparage his race.
Vappa, nebulo, and similar terms, are freely applied to their characters; invidia, κακοήθεια, &c., to their motives. The following is a specimen of the way he handles them:—
"Dantes Poëta illustrissimum Christianissimorum Regum Franciæ genus à laniis Parisiensibus deducit, utique tam vere, quam ille tenebrio nostrum à scalarum fabro: quas mirum, ni auctor generis in suspendium eorum parabat, quos vaticinabatur illustri nobilitate suæ obtrectaturos."
Now the charge of a ladder upon their shield was certainly borne by the several branches of this family long before any of them became masters of Verona; and I should suggest that it originated in some brilliant escalade of one of the first members of it. Thus, of course, it would remind us all of perhaps the earliest thing of the kind—I mean the shield and bearings of Eteoclus before Thebes:
"Εσχημάτισται δ' ἀσπὶς οὐ σμικρὸν τρόπον·
Ἀνὴρ δ' ὁπλιτης κλίμακος προσαμβάσεις
Στείχει πρὸς ἐχθρῶν πύργον, ἐκπέρσαι θέλων."
H–n, Jan. 28. 1851.
INEDITED BALLAD ON TRUTH
I send you herewith a copy of an ancient ballad which I found this day while in search of other matters. I have endeavoured to explain away the strange orthography, and I have conjecturally supplied the last line. The ballad is unhappily imperfect. I trust that abler antiquaries than myself will give their attention to this fragmentary poem.
"What more poyson . than ys venome.
What more spytefull . than ys troozte.1
Where shall hattred . sonere come.
Than oone anothyr . that troozte showthe.
Undoyng dysplesure . no love growthe.
And to grete2 men . in especyall.
Troozte dare speke . lest3 of all.
"And troozte . all we be bound to.
And troozte . most men now dothe fle.4
What be we then . that so do.
Be we untrewe . troozte saythe ee.5
But he yt tellethe troozte . what ys he.
A besy foole . hys name shalle ronge.6
Or else he hathe an euyle tonge.
"May a tong . be trew and evyle.
Trootze ys good . and evyle ys navtze.7
God ys trootze . and navzt ys ye devyle.
Ego sum veritas . or8 lord tavzt.9
At whyche word . my conceyt lavzt.10
To se11 our Lorde . yff12 foly in hym be.
To use troozt . that few doth but he.
"To medyle wt trouthe13. no small game.
For trouthe told . of tyms ys shent.
And trouthe known . many doth blame.
When trouthe ys tyrned . from trew intent.
Yet trouthe ys trouthe . trewly ment.14
But now what call they trouthe
Truth, I presume, is meant, though it does not seem to agree with the context, which is pure nonsense in its present condition.
Great.
Least.
Flee.
Yea.
Ring, I fancy.
Naught.
Our.
Taught.
Laughed.
See.
If.
Here the orthography changes.
Meant.