Note 601 — Chapter XXVI · THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE

Dante represents the commentaries composing the Convito as in the nature of a banquet, the "meats" of which were to be set forth in fourteen courses, corresponding to the fourteen canzoni, or lyric poems, which were to be commented upon. As a matter of fact, for some unknown reason, the "banquet" was broken off at the end of the third course. "At the beginning of every well-ordered banquet" observes the author in an earlier passage (Bk. II., Chap. 1) "the servants are wont to take the bread given out for it, and cleanse it from every speck." Dante has just cleansed his viands from the faults of egotism and obscurity,—the "accidental impurities"; he now proceeds to clear them of a less superficial difficulty, i.e., the fact that in serving them use is made of the Italian rather than the Latin language.