BOOKS
463
of July
J898,
after Zola has been tried for libeling the army and sen–
tenced to a year in prison and a fine. Zola, we'll remember, had asked to
be indicted and tried, expecting to be able to furnish proof of his allega–
tions; the government and army parried that thrust by limiting the
indictment to a few words of his open letter. Now Zola will slip away to
London to avoid being detained pending the outcome of his appeal.
Clemenceau stayed behind, writing his editorials, letting his readers
reach the truth as he was, by careful reasoning and relentless searching,
with effort and logic. His seventh and last volume was published in
1903,
by which time France's highest court was deliberating on whether to retry
the case. It would decide affirmatively, but it was only in the summer of
1906
that the convict was rehabilitated, promoted, and decorated with
the Legion of Honor. By then France had entered a heady era of radical
republicanism, decreed separation of church and state, and took vigorous
steps to make sure it worked. And Clemenceau was back in parliament,
rapidly becoming interior minister, then prime minister. Later, as a mem–
ber of the senate's military affairs committee, he'd have an opportunity to
take a closer look at the army he was to lead to victory in
1918.
Herbert R. Lottman
Merwin's Limbo
THE POETS' DANTE. Edited by Peter S. Hawkins and Rachel Jacoff. Far–
rar, Straus and Giroux.
$3°.00.
THE SONG OF ROLAND. Translated, with an introduction, by W. S. Mer–
win. The Modern Library.
$8.95.
PURGATORIO. By Dante Alighieri. Translated, with an introduction, by
W. S. Merwin. Alfred A. Knopf.
$3°.00.
"IT SEEMS TO ME THAT POUND has been the great proponent and privi–
leger of Dante in English in this century," declares Charles Wright in
"Dantino Mio," his contribution to
The Poets' Dante.
"Pound is the
great highway into Citta Dante in our time," he goes on. "Eliot used
him, but Pound genuflected, lit the candles and swung the censer." ot
only do several other contemporary poets in the volume acknowledge
Pound and Eliot as crucial to their understanding of the
Commedia's
