Where ghosts walk : the haunts of familiar characters in history and literature . alk bridegroom led a willing bride to thealtar of the shabby little church we nowenter. A dark, stifling nook we find it,pervaded by an odour that may be thefumes of incense a hundred years old, andmuch the worse for keeping. If it wasno larger then than at present, the kins-people of Alighieri and Donati must haveoverflowed it and the street, on the wed-ding-day, six hundred years ago. Was Gemma among the gentlewomen(^gentili doniie)— some of whom had beenpresent at my misfortunes —who pitiedand sought to consol
Where ghosts walk : the haunts of familiar characters in history and literature . alk bridegroom led a willing bride to thealtar of the shabby little church we nowenter. A dark, stifling nook we find it,pervaded by an odour that may be thefumes of incense a hundred years old, andmuch the worse for keeping. If it wasno larger then than at present, the kins-people of Alighieri and Donati must haveoverflowed it and the street, on the wed-ding-day, six hundred years ago. Was Gemma among the gentlewomen(^gentili doniie)— some of whom had beenpresent at my misfortunes —who pitiedand sought to console him at Beatricesmarriage, and again at her death ? Oneof these fair and sympathetic acquaint-ances ran to her lattice to look downupon the youth of the clear-cut profileand fathomless eyes, who wrote love-verses and had won his spurs upon thebloody field of Campaldino, and who, al-though but twenty-five, was already spokenof by one faction as a turbulent citizenwho might prove dangerous some day,and by the other as a rising man. Thiswas six months before Dantes CHURCH OF SAN MARTINO, ]N WHICH DANTE WAS MARRIED. Dantes Every-Day Wife 93 He caught sight of the pitying face bentupon him, and her glance was a drop ofbahn upon his still sore heart. If he (orshe) followed up the advantage affordedby the accident, he was too much en-grossed by the Vita Nuova and Floren-tine politics to write down the fact. We know absolutely nothing of Ma-donna Gemmas personal appearance, tem-per, taste, or habits. If she wore aflame-coloured gown when Dante askedher hand in marriage, or white when theystood side by side in the wee churchwhere their fathers worshipped—nobodytook the pains to mention these insignifi-cant details. She looked after her house— probably her fathers wedding-present—and her husbands diet and clothes, and,at the end of seven otherwise unrecordedyears, had added seven children to thefurniture of their home, and named, or letthe father name, one of their
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkgpputnam
