Glory
To this inward development of the individual corresponds a new sort of
outward distinction--the modern form of glory.
In the other countries of Europe the different classes of society lived
apart, each with its own medieval caste sense of honour. The poetical
fame of the Troubadours and Minnesanger was peculiar to the knightly
order. But in Italy social equality had appeared before the time of the
tyrannies or the democracies. We there find early traces of a general
society, having, as will be shown more fully later on, a common ground
in Latin and Italian literature; and such a ground was needed for this
new element in life to grow in. To this must be added that the Roman
authors, who were not zealously studied, are filled and saturated with
the conception of fame, and that their subject itself--the universal
empire of Rome-- stood as a permanent ideal before the minds of
Italians. From henceforth all the aspirations and achievements of the
people were governed by a moral postulate, which was still unknown
elsewhere in Europe.
Here, again, as in all essential points, the first witness to be called
is Dante. He strove for the poet's garland with all the power of his
soul.33 As publicist and man of letters, he laid stress on the fact
that what he did was new, and that he wished not only to be, but to be
esteemed the first in his own walks.
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