Reference
HW94/1/1
Title
Letter: Leigh Hunt to B.B Wiffen regarding the works of the poet Dante.
Date free text
9 January 1831
Production date
From: 1831 To: 1831
Scope and Content
Reads - Dear Sir, I have not yet received the book which you are good enough to think about. When I do, I will let you know. Dante was undoubtedly a very great poet and I think it equally certain, as you intimate, that his greatness was assisted by his study of the Bible. I only wish he had read the Christian part of it to as much effect as the Jewish; and not left an impression on our minds of his having a main for more vindictive than charitable. I have just finished an abstract of the whole of his poem; and am in the equal state of astonishment at his genius, and sorrow and indignation at the truly informal use he made of the greater part of it. Yet the bigotry will become effete, and the beautiful poetry remain. The simplicity of the ''Friends'' makes one ashamed of our sophisticate epistolary manners; yet truth as well as habit...
Level of description
item