Dante, Garibaldi, Mazzini : some English interpretations of Italian historical figures

Abstract

When, in 1819, Byron wrote his poem The Prophecy of Dante, he made Dante speak as an Englishman of the early 1800s. The myths that shape Dante's verses in Byron's poem proceed directly from English romanticism, and the prophecy Dante utters about a future Italian unification all point to the hopes and views of Byron himself. Byron acts as a ventriloquist, and Dante is his mouthpiece. The points which make of Dante a suitable Byronic hero, and which Byron highlights in his poem, seem to be the following: he is a political figure, indeed a warrior who has been engaged in his life in direct action; on the other hand, he is also, at the present time, an exile, spumed by society. Also, he is a voyager, in fact, the complete traveller since his travels in Italy and in the realms of the afterlife are both seen as having actually taken place. So Byron uses certain facts of Dante's own life and art to give shape to his Byronic Dante.