Dante in English Literature from Chaucer to Cary (1380-1844)

P. Toynbee in his Dante in English Literature offers a valuable collection of material for the future historian of either the influence of Italy on English literature, or of the vicissitudes of literary taste, from Chaucer, the first Englishman to translate portions of Dante, to the death of Henry Cary. Cary's translation, even to-day, represents Dante to the majority of English-speaking people, and was the first contribution to the subject treated by Mr. Toynbee on account of the citations of the many passages of English poets which owed their inspiration to the verses of the Italian poet, for which they often serve as the best comment