In Dante's day, Latin was still the language of
learning in Italy but the people there, as well as
in France, had begun to express themselves in
a vernacular, a sort of dialect which varied from
one province to another. This language was
gradually enriching itself, owing to the necessity
of finding new words and expressions to describe
new ways of thinking and acting. White Dante
was growing up, a group of young Florentines
were writing verses in the Tuscan vernacular;
the names of some, like Guido Cavalcanti and
Lapo Gianni, have survived, and their songs show
a growing taste and elegance of form. In choos-
ing this vernacular in which to write his master-
piece and in enriching it thereby, Dante may be
said to have created the Italian language as it
is spoken today. The idiom which he used gradu-
ally replaced thereafter the Latin tongue all
through the peninsula of Italy.
Love was the principal subject of the
vernacular songs and, according to the new spirit
of the age, the poets had a tendency to
idealize this sentiment and make of It an abstract
form of devotion. The "Fair Lady" appealed to,
was often the symbol of an ideal or a reality
turned into a symbol. Provencal and French lit-



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DANTE



erature had come over the Alps with die miiw

itrels; and certainly the "Gestes" of Charlfr
raagne, the stories of Lancelot and Tristan, were
familiar to the students of that age, and must have
impressed greatly the youthful Dante.
