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The Iliad and the Odyssee Rose to the swelling of the voiceful sea.

Our own national epic, Shakespeare’s series of historical plays, could not be written until the state of society it depicted was ceasing to exist.

Dante himself has told us the origin of his poem. In the last sonnet of hisVita Nuova he represents himself as having in thought followed Beatrice from earth to heaven:

Beyond the sphere that doth all spheres enfold Passes the sigh that from my heart takes flight, By weeping Love with new perception dight Sure way to the ethereal vault to hold; Then having won unto that height untold, Of Lady throned in honour hath he sight, Resplendent so, that by the vesturing light The spirit peregrine doth her behold. So seen, that when he doth report the same, I miss his sense, so subtle doth it seem Unto the grieving heart that makes demand; Vet know I that my Lady is his theme, For oft he nameth Beatrice’s name, And then, dear Ladies, well I understand.

Here is the germ of theParadiso, at all events; but, to preclude all misapprehension, Dante adds: “After this sonnet there appeared to me a wondrous vision, wherein I beheld things which made me resolve to say no more concerning my Blessed One until I could treat of her more worthily. And that I may attain unto this I study with all my might, as she truly knoweth. Wherefore if it shall be the pleasure of Him by whom all things live that my life shall yet endure for some years, I hope to say concerning her that which has never been said concerning any woman.” TheVita Nuova is believed to have been written about 1294. At this time, therefore, Dante was meditating a poetical apotheosis of Beatrice on a scale surpassing anything attempted before, although the natural inference from his words would seem to be that he had not yet begun to write.