Dante was an influential Italian poet and critic in the late 13th/early 14th century who advocated for using the vernacular (Italian) rather than Latin for poetry. He wrote his most famous work, The Divine Comedy, in Italian to make it accessible to more people. In his critical work On the Vulgar Tongue, he argued that the language of poetry should be an idealized version of the vernacular that uses elevated, cultured vocabulary suited to grand themes like love of God, country, or woman. Dante also emphasized the importance of poetic style matching the subject and of using carefully constructed sentences and sounds to achieve a lofty tone.

1. Dante: Emergence of the
Vernacular
 Dante (1265-1321)
 Dante, the famous Italian critic and poet was a reputed
public figure of his time. He is more popular as a poet than
as a critic. His main critical work is the fragmentary work
named ‘Of the Vulgar Tongue’ or ‘Of Writing in the
Vernacular.’ He made a fervent advocacy of the vernacular
(Italian) against the use of classical Latin and the French.
His work on criticism is the most important critical
document between Longinus and the seventeenth century.
 The Language of Poetry
 Dante worked as a crusader for the cause of the mother-
tongue and rejected Latin and Greek as assiduous,
involving wastage of time. He made the vernacular the
language of poetry to magnify the object loved, to be
jealous for it and to defend it. He wanted to approach the
common by writing his Divine Comedia in the Florentine
idiom and not in classical Latin.

2.  His Theory of Poetic Diction
 Dante was the first critic who supported the claims of the
Vernacular against Classical Latin and the French Provence. But
he did not favour slipshod native language. He pleaded that the
language of poetry should be an ideal language fit to express the
best thoughts of the greatest poet. The language of poetry should
be proper, elevated and illustrious; it should be the language of
culture.
 According to Dante, grand style follows a grand theme; style
depends on the excellence of vocabulary. For Dante each
individual word is spoken of almost as if it had a separate
personality of its own, certainly a distinctive character which it
may possess independently of its context. “He sets about his task
of collecting words as if he were choosing a company of trusty
comrades, and there is not one of them which must not play its
part worthily in the texture of the poem.”
 Vocabulary: He requires that the vocabulary of his illustrious
vernacular should be composed of grand words only—words that
lend themselves to the grand manner. He rejects words which are
childish, effiminate, rough, slippery and rumpled. Words should
also be chosen with a view on their sounds. Ornamental words
may be used for a beautiful harmonious conjunction.

3.  Sentence Structure:
 The uncouth: used without learning; e.g.: Peter dearly loves his wife
Bethsheba.
 The Purely: employed strict scholars and schoolmasters; e.g.: I, who
outdo all others in compassion, am filled with regret for those who,
languishing in exile, will never see their homeland again except in
dreams.
 The learned and elegant style of those who draw superficially on
rhetoric,: e.g.: The laudable discernment of the Marquis of Este and his
generosity to all make him well beloved.
 The learned and elegant at the same time lofty employed by the
illustrious stylists; e.g.: After he had shorn thy robe of the greater part of
its flowers, O Florence, the second Totila (Charles of Valois) went in vain
to Trinacria (Sicily).
 This degree of construction is the one we call the most excellent…and
the one we seek when we deal with the highest things. This is the ideal
of the highest construction in sentence structure.
 This is clearly showing us about his rhythmic structure and loftiness of
tone.

4.  Subjects: The best style needs the best subject; the one
is but the means and the other the end, and the end ever
takes precedence over the means.
 He says, “It is no use asking for a grand style until you have
recognised that it can only be employed in the service of a
grand theme, as conceived by a man of great intellectual
stature.”
 Best subjects are of three sorts: Salus, Venus and Virtus
which means safety, love and excellence respectively. So,
subjects lower than ‘love of a country’, ‘love of a woman’
and ‘love of God’ vernacular would fail (falter).
 Style does not exist in a vacuum. It glorifies the subject only
when the subject glorifies it. Speech is to a poet what a
horse is to a soldier. Only the best poets can have the best
speech, as only the best soldiers can use the best horses.
 And the best poets are those ‘in whom wit and knowledge
are found’- those who are gifted by nature and taught by
‘elaborate and painful toil’ to entertain and transmit weighty

5.  As a Critic
 Dante holds a high place for his advocacy of the
vernacular for literary purpose. He was the first to
make the division of the power of language into
‘signum rationale’ and ‘signum sensuale’ which is
exactly a distinction of ‘semantic’ and ‘phonetic’. He
insisted upon the need of noble poetic diction. His
contribution was also in the field of comparative
criticism. “No ancient critic could have made such a
survey as he makes of the different language of
Europe; no ancient critic did make such a survey of
the dialects of Greek as he makes of the dialects of
Italian.” Furthermore, Dante gave a symbolic meaning
to poetry.