CANTO XXXIV

“The banners of Hell’s Monarch do come forth

Towards us; therefore look,” so spake my guide,

“If thou discern him.” As, when breathes a cloud

Heavy and dense, or when the shades of night

Fall on our hemisphere, seems view’d from far

A windmill, which the blast stirs briskly round,

Such was the fabric then methought I saw,

To shield me from the wind, forthwith I drew

Behind my guide: no covert else was there.

Now came I (and with fear I bid my strain

Record the marvel) where the souls were all

Whelm’d underneath, transparent, as through glass

Pellucid the frail stem. Some prone were laid,

Others stood upright, this upon the soles,

That on his head, a third with face to feet

Arch’d like a bow. When to the point we came,

Whereat my guide was pleas’d that I should see

The creature eminent in beauty once,

He from before me stepp’d and made me pause.

“Lo!” he exclaim’d, “lo Dis! and lo the place,

Where thou hast need to arm thy heart with strength.”

How frozen and how faint I then became,

Ask me not, reader! for I write it not,

Since words would fail to tell thee of my state.

I was not dead nor living. Think thyself

If quick conception work in thee at all,

How I did feel. That emperor, who sways

The realm of sorrow, at mid breast from th’ ice

Stood forth; and I in stature am more like

A giant, than the giants are in his arms.

Mark now how great that whole must be, which suits

With such a part. If he were beautiful

As he is hideous now, and yet did dare

To scowl upon his Maker, well from him

May all our mis’ry flow. Oh what a sight!

How passing strange it seem’d, when I did spy

Upon his head three faces: one in front

Of hue vermilion, th’ other two with this

Midway each shoulder join’d and at the crest;

The right ’twixt wan and yellow seem’d: the left

To look on, such as come from whence old Nile

Stoops to the lowlands. Under each shot forth

Two mighty wings, enormous as became

A bird so vast. Sails never such I saw

Outstretch’d on the wide sea. No plumes had they,

But were in texture like a bat, and these

He flapp’d i’ th’ air, that from him issued still

Three winds, wherewith Cocytus to its depth

Was frozen. At six eyes he wept: the tears

Adown three chins distill’d with bloody foam.

At every mouth his teeth a sinner champ’d

Bruis’d as with pond’rous engine, so that three

Were in this guise tormented. But far more

Than from that gnawing, was the foremost pang’d

By the fierce rending, whence ofttimes the back

Was stript of all its skin. “That upper spirit,

Who hath worse punishment,” so spake my guide,

“Is Judas, he that hath his head within

And plies the feet without. Of th’ other two,

Whose heads are under, from the murky jaw

Who hangs, is Brutus: lo! how he doth writhe

And speaks not! Th’ other Cassius, that appears

So large of limb. But night now re-ascends,

And it is time for parting. All is seen.”

I clipp’d him round the neck, for so he bade;

And noting time and place, he, when the wings

Enough were op’d, caught fast the shaggy sides,

And down from pile to pile descending stepp’d

Between the thick fell and the jagged ice.

Soon as he reach’d the point, whereat the thigh

Upon the swelling of the haunches turns,

My leader there with pain and struggling hard

Turn’d round his head, where his feet stood before,

And grappled at the fell, as one who mounts,

That into hell methought we turn’d again.

“Expect that by such stairs as these,” thus spake

The teacher, panting like a man forespent,

“We must depart from evil so extreme.”

Then at a rocky opening issued forth,

And plac’d me on a brink to sit, next join’d

With wary step my side. I rais’d mine eyes,

Believing that I Lucifer should see

Where he was lately left, but saw him now

With legs held upward. Let the grosser sort,

Who see not what the point was I had pass’d,

Bethink them if sore toil oppress’d me then.

“Arise,” my master cried, “upon thy feet.

“The way is long, and much uncouth the road;

And now within one hour and half of noon

The sun returns.” It was no palace-hall

Lofty and luminous wherein we stood,

But natural dungeon where ill footing was

And scant supply of light. “Ere from th’ abyss

I sep’rate,” thus when risen I began,

“My guide! vouchsafe few words to set me free

From error’s thralldom. Where is now the ice?

How standeth he in posture thus revers’d?

And how from eve to morn in space so brief

Hath the sun made his transit?” He in few

Thus answering spake: “Thou deemest thou art still

On th’ other side the centre, where I grasp’d

Th’ abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.

Thou wast on th’ other side, so long as I

Descended; when I turn’d, thou didst o’erpass

That point, to which from ev’ry part is dragg’d

All heavy substance. Thou art now arriv’d

Under the hemisphere opposed to that,

Which the great continent doth overspread,

And underneath whose canopy expir’d

The Man, that was born sinless, and so liv’d.

Thy feet are planted on the smallest sphere,

Whose other aspect is Judecca. Morn

Here rises, when there evening sets: and he,

Whose shaggy pile was scal’d, yet standeth fix’d,

As at the first. On this part he fell down

From heav’n; and th’ earth, here prominent before,

Through fear of him did veil her with the sea,

And to our hemisphere retir’d. Perchance

To shun him was the vacant space left here

By what of firm land on this side appears,

That sprang aloof.” There is a place beneath,

From Belzebub as distant, as extends

The vaulted tomb, discover’d not by sight,

But by the sound of brooklet, that descends

This way along the hollow of a rock,

Which, as it winds with no precipitous course,

The wave hath eaten. By that hidden way

My guide and I did enter, to return

To the fair world: and heedless of repose

We climbed, he first, I following his steps,

Till on our view the beautiful lights of heav’n

Dawn, through a circular opening in the cave:

Thus issuing we again beheld the stars.

NOTES TO HELL

CANTO I

Verse 1. In the midway.] That the era of the Poem is intended by these

words to be fixed to the thirty fifth year of the poet’s age, A.D.

1300, will appear more plainly in Canto XXI. where that date is

explicitly marked.

v. 16. That planet’s beam.] The sun.

v. 29. The hinder foot.] It is to be remembered, that in ascending a

hill the weight of the body rests on the hinder foot.

v. 30. A panther.] Pleasure or luxury.

v. 36. With those stars.] The sun was in Aries, in which sign he

supposes it to have begun its course at the creation.

v. 43. A lion.] Pride or ambition.

v. 45. A she wolf.] Avarice.

v. 56. Where the sun in silence rests.] Hence Milton appears to have

taken his idea in the Samson Agonistes:

The sun to me is dark

And silent as the moon, &c

The same metaphor will recur, Canto V. v. 29.

Into a place I came

Where light was silent all.

v. 65. When the power of Julius.] This is explained by the commentators

to mean “Although it was rather late with respect to my birth before

Julius Caesar assumed the supreme authority, and made himself perpetual

dictator.”

v. 98. That greyhound.] This passage is intended as an eulogium on the

liberal spirit of his Veronese patron Can Grande della Scala.

v. 102. ’Twizt either Feltro.] Verona, the country of Can della Scala,

is situated between Feltro, a city in the Marca Trivigiana, and Monte

Feltro, a city in the territory of Urbino.

v. 103. Italia’s plains.] “Umile Italia,” from Virgil, Aen lib.

iii. 522.

Humilemque videmus

Italiam.

v. 115. Content in fire.] The spirits in Purgatory.

v. 118. A spirit worthier.] Beatrice, who conducts the Poet through

Paradise.

v. 130. Saint Peter’s gate.] The gate of Purgatory, which the Poet

feigns to be guarded by an angel placed on that station by St. Peter.

CANTO II

v. 1. Now was the day.] A compendium of Virgil’s description Aen. lib.

iv 522. Nox erat, &c. Compare Apollonius Rhodius, lib iii. 744, and

lib. iv. 1058

v. 8. O mind.]

O thought that write all that I met,

And in the tresorie it set

Of my braine, now shall men see

If any virtue in thee be.

Chaucer. Temple of Fame, b. ii. v.18

v. 14. Silvius’sire.] Aeneas.

v. 30. The chosen vessel.] St.Paul, Acts, c. ix. v. 15. “But the Lord

said unto him, Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me.”

v. 46. Thy soul.] L’anima tua e da viltate offesa. So in Berni, Orl

Inn.lib. iii. c. i. st. 53. Se l’alma avete offesa da viltate.

v. 64. Who rest suspended.] The spirits in Limbo, neither admitted to a

state of glory nor doomed to punishment.

v. 61. A friend not of my fortune, but myself.] Se non fortunae sed

hominibus solere esse amicum. Cornelii Nepotis Attici Vitae, c. ix.

v. 78. Whatever is contain’d.] Every other thing comprised within the

lunar heaven, which, being the lowest of all, has the smallest circle.

v. 93. A blessed dame.] The divine mercy.

v. 97. Lucia.] The enlightening grace of heaven.

v. 124. Three maids.] The divine mercy, Lucia, and Beatrice.

v. 127. As florets.] This simile is well translated by Chaucer— But

right as floures through the cold of night Iclosed, stoupen in her

stalkes lowe, Redressen hem agen the sunne bright, And speden in her

kinde course by rowe, &c. Troilus and Creseide, b.ii. It has been

imitated by many others, among whom see Berni, Orl.Inn. Iib. 1. c. xii.

st. 86. Marino, Adone, c. xvii. st. 63. and Sor. “Donna vestita di

nero.” and Spenser’s Faery Queen, b.4. c. xii. st. 34. and b. 6 c. ii.

st. 35.

CANTO III

v. 5. Power divine Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.] The three

persons of the blessed Trinity. v. 9. all hope abandoned.] Lasciate

ogni speranza voi ch’entrate. So Berni, Orl. Inn. lib. i. c. 8. st. 53.

Lascia pur della vita ogni speranza.

v. 29. Like to the sand.]

Unnumber’d as the sands

Of Barca or Cyrene’s torrid soil

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise

Their lighter wings.

Milton, P. L. ii. 908.

v. 40. Lest th’ accursed tribe.] Lest the rebellious angels should

exult at seeing those who were neutral and therefore less guilty,

condemned to the same punishment with themselves.

v. 50. A flag.]

All the grisly legions that troop

Under the sooty flag of Acheron

Milton. Comus.

v. 56. Who to base fear Yielding, abjur’d his high estate.] This is

commonly understood of Celestine the Fifth, who abdicated the papal

power in 1294. Venturi mentions a work written by Innocenzio

Barcellini, of the Celestine order, and printed in Milan in 1701, In

which an attempt is made to put a different interpretation on this

passage.

v. 70. through the blear light.]

Lo fioco lume

So Filicaja, canz. vi. st. 12.

Qual fioco lume.

v. 77. An old man.]

Portitor has horrendus aquas et flumina servat

Terribili squalore Charon, cui plurima mento

Canities inculta jacet; stant lumina flamma.

Virg. 7. Aen. Iib. vi. 2.

v. 82. In fierce heat and in ice.]

The delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods or to reside

In thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice.

Shakesp. Measure for Measure, a. iii.s.1.

Compare Milton, P. L. b. ii. 600.

v. 92. The livid lake.] Vada livida.

Virg. Aen. Iib. vi. 320

Totius ut Lacus putidaeque paludis

Lividissima, maximeque est profunda vorago.

Catullus. xviii. 10.

v. 102. With eyes of burning coal.]

His looks were dreadful, and his fiery eyes

Like two great beacons glared bright and wide.

Spenser. F.Q. b. vi. c. vii.st. 42

v. 104. As fall off the light of autumnal leaves.]

Quam multa in silvis autumul frigore primo

Lapsa cadunt folia.

Virg. Aen. lib. vi. 309

Compare Apoll. Rhod. lib. iv. 214.

CANTO IV

v. 8. A thund’rous sound.] Imitated, as Mr. Thyer has remarked,

by Milton, P. L. b. viii. 242.

But long ere our approaching heard

Noise, other, than the sound of dance or song

Torment, and loud lament, and furious rage.

v. 50. a puissant one.] Our Saviour.

v. 75. Honour the bard

Sublime.]

Onorate l’altissimo poeta.

So Chiabrera, Canz. Eroiche. 32.

Onorando l’altissimo poeta.

v. 79. Of semblance neither sorrowful nor glad.]

She nas to sober ne to glad.

Chaucer’s Dream.

v. 90. The Monarch of sublimest song.] Homer.

v. 100. Fitter left untold.]

Che’l tacere e bello,

So our Poet, in Canzone 14.

La vide in parte che’l tacere e bello,

Ruccellai, Le Api, 789.

Ch’a dire e brutto ed a tacerlo e bello

And Bembo,

“Vie pui bello e il tacerle, che il favellarne.”

Gli. Asol. lib. 1.

v. 117. Electra.] The daughter of Atlas, and mother of Dardanus the

founder of Troy. See Virg. Aen. b. viii. 134. as referred to by Dante

in treatise “De Monarchia,” lib. ii. “Electra, scilicet, nata magni

nombris regis Atlantis, ut de ambobus testimonium reddit poeta noster

in octavo ubi Aeneas ad Avandrum sic ait “Dardanus Iliacae,” &c.

v. 125. Julia.] The daughter of Julius Caesar, and wife of Pompey.

v. 126. The Soldan fierce.] Saladin or Salaheddin, the rival of Richard

coeur de lion. See D’Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. and Knolles’s Hist. of the

Turks p. 57 to 73 and the Life of Saladin, by Bohao’edin Ebn Shedad,

published by Albert Schultens, with a Latin translation. He is

introduced by Petrarch in the Triumph of Fame, c. ii

v. 128. The master of the sapient throng.]

Maestro di color che sanno.

Aristotle—Petrarch assigns the first place to Plato. See Triumph

of Fame, c. iii.

Pulci, in his Morgante Maggiore, c. xviii. says,

Tu se’il maestro di color che sanno.

v. 132. Democritus Who sets the world at chance.] Democritus,who

maintained the world to have been formed by the fortuitous concourse of

atoms.

v. 140. Avicen.] See D’Herbelot Bibl. Orient. article Sina. He died in

1050. Pulci here again imitates our poet:

Avicenna quel che il sentimento

Intese di Aristotile e i segreti,

Averrois che fece il gran comento.

Morg. Mag. c. xxv.

v. 140. Him who made That commentary vast, Averroes.] Averroes, called

by the Arabians Roschd, translated and commented the works of

Aristotle. According to Tiraboschi (storia della Lett. Ital. t. v. 1.

ii. c. ii. sect. 4.) he was the source of modern philosophical impiety.

The critic quotes some passages from Petrarch (Senil. 1. v. ep. iii.

et. Oper. v. ii. p. 1143) to show how strongly such sentiments

prevailed in the time of that poet, by whom they were held in horror

and detestation He adds, that this fanatic admirer of Aristotle

translated his writings with that felicity, which might be expected

from one who did not know a syllable of Greek, and who was therefore

compelled to avail himself of the unfaithful Arabic versions.

D’Herbelot, on the other hand, informs us, that “Averroes was the first

who translated Aristotle from Greek into Arabic, before the Jews had

made their translation: and that we had for a long time no other text

of Aristotle, except that of the Latin translation, which was made from

this Arabic version of this great philosopher (Averroes), who

afterwards added to it a very ample commentary, of which Thomas

Aquinas, and the other scholastic writers, availed themselves, before

the Greek originals of Aristotle and his commentators were known to us

in Europe.” According to D’Herbelot, he died in 1198: but Tiraboschi

places that event about 1206.

CANTO V

v. 5. Grinning with ghastly feature.] Hence Milton:

Death

Grinn’d horrible a ghastly smile.

P. L. b. ii. 845.

v. 46. As cranes.] This simile is imitated by Lorenzo de

Medici, in his Ambra, a poem, first published by Mr. Roscoe, in

the Appendix to his Life of Lorenzo.

Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes

Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried:

And each with outstretch’d neck his rank maintains

In marshal’d order through th’ ethereal void.

Roscoe, v. i. c. v. p. 257. 4to edit.

Compare Homer. Il. iii. 3. Virgil. Aeneid. 1 x. 264, and

Ruccellai, Le Api, 942, and Dante’s Purgatory, Canto XXIV. 63.

v. 96. The land.] Ravenna.

v. 99 Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt.] Amor, Ch’ al cor

gentil ratto s’apprende. A line taken by Marino, Adone, c. cxli. st.

251.

v. 102. Love, that denial takes from none belov’d.]

Amor, ch’ a null’ amato amar perdona.

So Boccacio, in his Filocopo. l.1.

Amore mal non perdono l’amore a nullo amato.

And Pulci, in the Morgante Maggiore, c. iv.

E perche amor mal volontier perdona,

Che non sia al fin sempre amato chi ama.

Indeed many of the Italian poets have repeated this verse.

v. 105. Caina.] The place to which murderers are doomed.

v. 113. Francesca.] Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of

Ravenna, was given by her father in marriage to Lanciotto, son of

Malatesta, lord of Rimini, a man of extraordinary courage, but deformed

in his person. His brother Paolo, who unhappily possessed those graces

which the husband of Francesca wanted, engaged her affections; and

being taken in adultery, they were both put to death by the enraged

Lanciotto. See Notes to Canto XXVII. v. 43 The whole of this passage is

alluded to by Petrarch, in his Triumph of Love c. iii.

v. 118.

No greater grief than to remember days

Of joy,xwhen mis’ry is at hand!]

Imitated by Marino:

Che non ha doglia il misero maggiore

Che ricordar la giola entro il dolore.

Adone, c. xiv. st. 100

And by Fortiguerra:

Rimembrare il ben perduto

Fa piu meschino lo presente stato.

Ricciardetto, c. xi. st. 83.

The original perhaps was in Boetius de Consol. Philosoph. “In

omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum genus est infortunii

fuisse felicem et non esse.” 1. 2. pr. 4

v. 124. Lancelot.] One of the Knights of the Round Table, and the lover

of Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. The incident alluded to

seems to have made a strong impression on the imagination of Dante, who

introduces it again, less happily, in the Paradise, Canto XVI.

v. 128. At one point.]

Questo quel punto fu, che sol mi vinse.

Tasso, Il Torrismondo, a. i. s. 3.

v. 136. And like a corpse fell to the ground ]

E caddi, come corpo morto cade.

So Pulci:

E cadde come morto in terra cade.

Morgante Maggoire, c. xxii

CANTO VI

v. 1. My sense reviving.]

Al tornar della mente, che si chiuse

Dinanzi alla pieta de’ duo cognati.

Berni has made a sportive application of these lines, in his Orl.

Inn. l. iii. c. viii. st. 1.

v. 21. That great worm.] So in Canto XXXIV Lucifer is called

Th’ abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.

Ariosto has imitated Dante:

Ch’ al gran verme infernal mette la briglia,

E che di lui come a lei par dispone.

Orl. Fur. c. xlvi. st. 76.

v. 52. Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite: Ciacco, in

Italian, signifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been

transmitted to us. He is introduced in Boccaccio’s Decameron, Giorn.

ix. Nov. 8.

v. 61. The divided city.] The city of Florence, divided into the

Bianchi and Neri factions.

v. 65. The wild party from the woods.] So called, because it was headed

by Veri de’ Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city from

Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole.

v. 66. The other.] The opposite parts of the Neri, at the head of which

was Corso Donati.

v. 67. This must fall.] The Bianchi.

v. 69. Of one, who under shore Now rests.] Charles of Valois, by whose

means the Neri were replaced.

v. 73. The just are two in number.] Who these two were, the

commentators are not agreed.

v. 79. Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.] See Canto X. and Notes, and Canto

XVI, and Notes.

v. 80. Giacopo.] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto XVI, and Notes.

v. 81. Arrigo, Mosca.] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to

have been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards

occurs. Mosca degli Uberti is introduced in Canto XXVIII. v.

108. Consult thy knowledge.] We are referred to the following passage

in St. Augustin:—“Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum gaudia et

malorum tormenta majora erunt. “—At the resurrection of the flesh, both

the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will be

increased.”

CANTO VII

v. 1. Ah me! O Satan! Satan!] Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe. Pape is

said by the commentators to be the same as the Latin word papae!

“strange!” Of aleppe they do not give a more satisfactory account. See

the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Dr. Nugent, v. ii. b. iii

c. vii. p 113, where he mentions “having heard the words Paix, paix,

Satan! allez, paix! in the court of justice at Paris. I recollected

what Dante said, when he with his master Virgil entered the gates of

hell: for Dante, and Giotto the painter, were together in France, and

visited Paris with particular attention, where the court of justice may

be considered as hell. Hence it is that Dante, who was likewise perfect

master of the French, made use of that expression, and I have often

been surprised that it was never understood in that sense.”

v. 12. The first adulterer proud.] Satan.

v. 22. E’en as a billow.]

As when two billows in the Irish sowndes

Forcibly driven with contrarie tides

Do meet together, each aback rebounds

With roaring rage, and dashing on all sides,

That filleth all the sea with foam, divides

The doubtful current into divers waves.

Spenser, F.Q. b. iv. c. 1. st. 42.

v. 48. Popes and cardinals.] Ariosto, having personified

Avarice as a strange and hideous monster, says of her—

Peggio facea nella Romana corte

Che v’avea uccisi Cardinali e Papi.

Orl. Fur. c. xxvi. st. 32.

Worse did she in the court of Rome, for there

She had slain Popes and Cardinals.

v. 91. By necessity.] This sentiment called forth the reprehension of

Cecco d’Ascoli, in his Acerba, l. 1. c. i.

In cio peccasti, O Fiorentin poeta, &c.

Herein, O bard of Florence, didst thou err

Laying it down that fortune’s largesses

Are fated to their goal. Fortune is none,

That reason cannot conquer. Mark thou, Dante,

If any argument may gainsay this.

CANTO VIII

v. 18. Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo for

having violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of

that deity, by whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg.

Aen. l. vi. 618.

v. 59. Filippo Argenti.] Boccaccio tells us, “he was a man remarkable

for the large proportions and extraordinary vigor of his bodily frame,

and the extreme waywardness and irascibility of his temper.” Decam. g.

ix. n. 8.

v. 66. The city, that of Dis is nam’d.] So Ariosto. Orl. Fur. c. xl.

st. 32

v. 94. Seven times.] The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves

with the inquiry what seven perils these were from which Dante had been

delivered by Virgil. Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of

them, and adding Charon, Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas and Filippo

Argenti, as so many others, we shall have the number, and if this be

not satisfactory, we may suppose a determinate to have been put for an

indeterminate number.

v. 109. At war ’twixt will and will not.] Che si, e no nel capo mi

tenzona. So Boccaccio, Ninf. Fiesol. st. 233.

Il si e il no nel capo gli contende.

The words I have adopted as a translation, are Shakespeare’s,

Measure for Measure. a. ii. s. 1.

v. 122. This their insolence, not new.] Virgil assures our poet, that

these evil spirits had formerly shown the same insolence when our

Savior descended into hell. They attempted to prevent him from entering

at the gate, over which Dante had read the fatal inscription. “That

gate which,” says the Roman poet, “an angel has just passed, by whose

aid we shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the

city.”

CANTO IX

v. 1. The hue.] Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear,

restrained those outward tokens of displeasure which his own

countenance had betrayed.

v. 23. Erictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan,

Pharsal. l. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to

conjure up a spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil

wars between his father and Caesar.

v. 25. No long space my flesh

Was naked of me.]

Quae corpus complexa animae tam fortis inane.

Ovid. Met. l. xiii f. 2

Dante appears to have fallen into a strange anachronism. Virgil’s

death did not happen till long after this period.

v. 42. Adders and cerastes.]

Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.

Virg. Aen. l. vi. 281.

—spinaque vagi torquente cerastae

. . . et torrida dipsas

Et gravis in geminum vergens eaput amphisbaena.

Lucan. Pharsal. l. ix. 719.

So Milton:

Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire,

Cerastes horn’d, hydrus and elops drear,

And dipsas.

P. L. b. x. 524.

v. 67. A wind.] Imitated by Berni, Orl. Inn. l. 1. e. ii. st. 6.

v. 83. With his wand.]

She with her rod did softly smite the raile

Which straight flew ope.

Spenser. F. Q. b. iv. c. iii. st. 46.

v. 96. What profits at the fays to but the horn.] “Of what avail can it

be to offer violence to impassive beings?”

v. 97. Your Cerberus.] Cerberus is feigned to have been dragged by

Hercules, bound with a three fold chain, of which, says the angel, he

still bears the marks.

v. 111. The plains of Arles.] In Provence. See Ariosto, Orl. Fur. c.

xxxix. st. 72

v. 112. At Pola.] A city of Istria, situated near the gulf of Quarnaro,

in the Adriatic sea.

CANTO X

v. 12. Josaphat.] It seems to have been a common opinion among the

Jews, as well as among many Christians, that the general judgment will

be held in the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat: “I will also gather

all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat,

and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage

Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my

land.” Joel, iii. 2.

v. 32. Farinata.] Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine, was the

leader of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a signal victory

over the Guelfi at Montaperto, near the river Arbia. Macchiavelli calls

him “a man of exalted soul, and great military talents.” Hist. of Flor.

b. ii.

v. 52. A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a noble

Florentine, of the Guelph party.

v. 59. My son.] Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti; “he whom I

call the first of my friends,” says Dante in his Vita Nuova, where the

commencement of their friendship is related. >From the character given

of him by contemporary writers his temper was well formed to assimilate

with that of our poet. “He was,” according to G. Villani, l. viii. c.

41. “of a philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too

delicate and fastidious.” And Dino Compagni terms him “a young and

noble knight, brave and courteous, but of a lofty scornful spirit, much

addicted to solitude and study.” Muratori. Rer. Ital. Script t. 9 l. 1.

p. 481. He died, either in exile at Serrazana, or soon after his return

to Florence, December 1300, during the spring of which year the action

of this poem is supposed to be passing. v. 62. Guido thy son Had in

contempt.] Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy than

poetry, was perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical

compositions by Guido are, however, still extant; and his reputation

for skill in the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and

namesake Guido Guinicelli, as we shall see in the Purgatory, Canto XI.

His “Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore” was thought worthy of being

illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries. Crescimbeni Ist. della

Volg. Poes. l. v. For a playful sonnet which Dante addressed to him,

and a spirited translation of it, see Hayley’s Essay on Epic Poetry,

Notes to Ep. iii.

v. 66. Saidst thou he had?] In Aeschylus, the shade of Darius is

represented as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate of his son

Xerxes.

[GREEK HERE]

Atossa: Xerxes astonish’d, desolate, alone—

Ghost of Dar: How will this end? Nay, pause not. Is he safe?

The Persians. Potter’s Translation.

v. 77. Not yet fifty times.] “Not fifty months shall be passed, before

thou shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of returning

from banishment to thy native city”

v.83. The slaughter.] “By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the Guelfi

were conquered by the army of King Manfredi, near the river Arbia, with

so great a slaughter, that those who escaped from that defeat took

refuge not in Florence, which city they considered as lost to them, but

in Lucca.” Macchiavelli. Hist. of Flor. b 2.

v. 86. Such orisons.] This appears to allude to certain prayers which

were offered up in the churches of Florence, for deliverance from the

hostile attempts of the Uberti.

v. 90. Singly there I stood.] Guido Novello assembled a council of the

Ghibellini at Empoli where it was agreed by all, that, in order to

maintain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in Tuscany, it was

necessary to destroy Florence, which could serve only (the people of

that city beingvGuelfi) to enable the party attached to the church to

recover its strength. This cruel sentence, passed upon so noble a city,

met with no opposition from any of its citizens or friends, except

Farinata degli Uberti, who openly and without reserve forbade the

measure, affirming that he had endured so many hardships, and

encountered so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able

to pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli. Hist. of Flor. b. 2.

v. 103. My fault.] Dante felt remorse for not having returned an

immediate answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which delay he was

led to believe that his son Guido was no longer living.

v. 120. Frederick.] The Emperor Frederick the Second, who died in 1250.

See Notes to Canto XIII.

v. 121. The Lord Cardinal.] Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine, made

Cardinal in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On account of his great

influence, he was generally known by the appellation of “the Cardinal.”

It is reported of him that he declared, if there were any such thing as

a human soul, he had lost his for the Ghibellini.

v. 132. Her gracious beam.] Beatrice.

CANTO XI

v. 9. Pope Anastasius.] The commentators are not agreed concerning the

identity of the person, who is here mentioned as a follower of the

heretical Photinus. By some he is supposed to have been Anastasius the

Second, by others, the Fourth of that name; while a third set, jealous

of the integrity of the papal faith, contend that our poet has

confounded him with Anastasius 1. Emperor of the East.

v. 17. My son.] The remainder of the present Canto may be considered as

a syllabus of the whole of this part of the poem.

v. 48. And sorrows.] This fine moral, that not to enjoy our being is to

be ungrateful to the Author of it, is well expressed in Spenser, F. Q.

b. iv. c. viii. st. 15. For he whose daies in wilful woe are worne The

grace of his Creator doth despise, That will not use his gifts for

thankless nigardise.

v. 53. Cahors.] A city in Guienne, much frequented by usurers

v. 83. Thy ethic page.] He refers to Aristotle’s Ethics.

[GREEK HERE]

“In the next place, entering, on another division of the subject, let

it be defined. that respecting morals there are three sorts of things

to be avoided, malice, incontinence, and brutishness.”

v. 104. Her laws.] Aristotle’s Physics. [GREEK HERE] “Art imitates

nature.” —See the Coltivazione of Alamanni, l. i.

-I’arte umana, &c.

v. 111. Creation’s holy book.] Genesis, c. iii. v. 19. “In the sweat of

thy face shalt thou eat bread.”

v. 119. The wain.] The constellation Bootes, or Charles’s wain.

CANTO XII

v. 17. The king of Athens.] Theseus, who was enabled, by the

instructions of Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to destroy that

monster.

v. 21. Like to a bull.] [GREEK HERE] Homer Il. xvii 522

As when some vig’rous youth with sharpen’d axe

A pastur’d bullock smites behind the horns

And hews the muscle through; he, at the stroke

Springs forth and falls.

Cowper’s Translation.

v. 36. He arriv’d.] Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when he

ascended from hell, carried with him the souls of the patriarchs, and

other just men, out of the first circle. See Canto IV.

v. 96. Nessus.] Our poet was probably induced, by the following

line in Ovid, to assign to Nessus the task of conducting them

over the ford:

Nessus edit membrisque valens scitusque vadorum.

Metam, l. ix.

And Ovid’s authority was Sophocles, who says of this Centaur—

[GREEK HERE] Trach.570

He in his arms, Evenus’ stream

Deep flowing, bore the passenger for hire

Without or sail or billow cleaving oar.

v. 110. Ezzolino.] Ezzolino, or Azzolino di Romano, a most cruel tyrant

in the Marca Trivigiana, Lord of Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Brescia,

who died in 1260. His atrocities form the subject of a Latin tragedy,

called Eccerinis, by Albertino Mussato, of Padua, the contemporary of

Dante, and the most elegant writer of Latin verse of that age. See also

the Paradise, Canto IX. Berni Orl. Inn. l ii c. xxv. st. 50. Ariosto.

Orl. Fur. c. iii. st. 33. and Tassoni Secchia Rapita, c. viii. st 11.

v. 111. Obizzo’ of Este.] Marquis of Ferrara and of the Marca d’Ancona,

was murdered by his own son (whom, for the most unnatural act Dante

calls his step-son), for the sake of the treasures which his rapacity

had amassed. See Ariosto. Orl. Fur. c. iii. st 32. He died in 1293

according to Gibbon. Ant. of the House of Brunswick. Posth. Works, v.

ii. 4to.

v. 119. He.] “Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to the

foresaid king of Almaine (Richard, brother of Henry III. of England) as

he returned from Affrike, where he had been with Prince Edward, was

slain at Viterbo in Italy (whither he was come about business which he

had to do with the Pope) by the hand of Guy de Montfort, the son of

Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, in revenge of the same Simon’s

death. The murther was committed afore the high altar, as the same

Henrie kneeled there to hear divine service.” A.D. 1272, Holinshed’s

chronicles p 275. See also Giov. Villani Hist. I. vii. c. 40.

v. 135. On Sextus and on Pyrrhus.] Sextus either the son of Tarquin the

Proud, or of Pompey the Great: or as Vellutelli conjectures, Sextus

Claudius Nero, and Pyrrhus king of Epirus.

v. 137.

The Rinieri, of Corneto this,

Pazzo the other named.]

Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways in

Italy were infested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi

in Florence.

CANTO XIII

v. 10. Betwixt Corneto and Cecina’s stream.] A wild and woody tract of

country, abounding in deer, goats, and wild boars. Cecina is a river

not far to the south of Leghorn, Corneto, a small city on the same

coast in the patrimony of the church.

v. 12. The Strophades.] See Virg. Aen. l. iii. 210.

v. 14. Broad are their pennons.] From Virg. Aen. l. iii. 216.

v. 48. In my verse described.] The commentators explain this, “If he

could have believed, in consequence of my assurances alone, that of

which he hath now had ocular proof, he would not have stretched forth

his hand against thee.” But I am of opinion that Dante makes Virgil

allude to his own story of Polydorus in the third book of the Aeneid.

v. 56. That pleasant word of thine.] “Since you have inveigled me to

speak my holding forth so gratifying an expectation, let it not

displease you if I am as it were detained in the snare you have spread

for me, so as to be somewhat prolix in my answer.”

v. 60. I it was.] Pietro delle Vigne, a native of Capua, who, from a

low condition, raised himself by his eloquence and legal knowledge to

the office of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick II. whose confidence

in him was such, that his influence in the empire became unbounded. The

courtiers, envious of his exalted situation, contrived, by means of

forged letters, to make Frederick believe that he held a secret and

traitorous intercourse with the Pope, who was then at enmity with the

Emperor. In consequence of this supposed crime he was cruelly condemned

by his too credulous sovereign to lose his eyes, and, being driven to

despair by his unmerited calamity and disgrace, he put an end to his

life by dashing out his brains against the walls of a church, in the

year 1245. Both Frederick and Pietro delle Vigne composed verses in the

Sicilian dialect which are yet extant.

v. 67. The harlot.] Envy. Chaucer alludes to this in the

Prologue to the Legende of Good women.

Envie is lavender to the court alway,

For she ne parteth neither night ne day

Out of the house of Cesar; thus saith Dant.

v. 119. Each fan o’ th’ wood.] Hence perhaps Milton:

Leaves and fuming rills, Aurora’s fan.

P. L. b. v. 6.

v. 122. Lano.] Lano, a Siennese, who, being reduced by prodigality to a

state of extreme want, found his existence no longer supportable; and,

having been sent by his countrymen on a military expedition, to assist

the Florentine against the Aretini, took that opportunity of exposing

himself to certain death, in the engagement which took place at Toppo

near Arezzo. See G. Villani, Hist. l. 7. c. cxix.

v. 133. O Giocomo Of Sant’ Andrea!] Jacopo da Sant’ Andrea, a Paduan,

who, having wasted his property in the most wanton acts of profusion,

killed himself in despair. v. 144. In that City.] “I was an inhabitant

of Florence, that city which changed her first patron Mars for St. John

the Baptist, for which reason the vengeance of the deity thus slighted

will never be appeased: and, if some remains of his status were not

still visible on the bridge over the Arno, she would have been already

leveled to the ground; and thus the citizens, who raised her again from

the ashes to which Attila had reduced her, would have laboured in

vain.” See Paradise, Canto XVI. 44. The relic of antiquity to which the

superstition of Florence attached so high an importance, was carried

away by a flood, that destroyed the bridge on which it stood, in the

year 1337, but without the ill effects that were apprehended from the

loss of their fancied Palladium.

v. 152. I slung the fatal noose.] We are not informed who this suicide

was.

CANTO XIV

v. 15. By Cato’s foot.] See Lucan, Phars, l. 9.

v. 26. Dilated flakes of fire.] Compare Tasso. G. L. c. x. st. 61.

v. 28. As, in the torrid Indian clime.] Landino refers to Albertus

Magnus for the circumstance here alluded to.

v. 53. In Mongibello.]

More hot than Aetn’ or flaming Mongibell.

Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. ix. st. 29.

See Virg. Aen. 1. viii. 416. and Berni. Orl. Inn 1. i. c. xvi.

st. 21. It would be endless to refer to parallel passages in the

Greek writers.

v. 64. This of the seven kings was one.] Compare Aesch. Seven Chiefs,

425. Euripides, Phoen. 1179 and Statius. Theb. l. x. 821.

v. 76. Bulicame.] A warm medicinal spring near Viterbo, the waters of

which, as Landino and Vellutelli affirm, passed by a place of ill fame.

Venturi, with less probability, conjectures that Dante would imply,

that it was the scene of much licentious merriment among those who

frequented its baths.

v. 91. Under whose monarch.]

Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam

In terris.

Juv. Satir. vi.

v. 102. His head.] Daniel, ch. ii. 32, 33.

v. 133. Whither.] On the other side of Purgatory.

CANTO XV

v. 10. Chiarentana.] A part of the Alps where the Brenta rises, which

river is much swoln as soon as the snow begins to dissolve on the

mountains.

v. 28. Brunetto.] “Ser Brunetto, a Florentine, the secretary or

chancellor of the city, and Dante’s preceptor, hath left us a work so

little read, that both the subject of it and the language of it have

been mistaken. It is in the French spoken in the reign of St.

Louis,under the title of Tresor, and contains a species of

philosophical course of lectures divided into theory and practice, or,

as he expresses it, “un enchaussement des choses divines et humaines,”

&c. Sir R. Clayton’s Translation of Tenhove’s Memoirs of the Medici,

vol. i. ch. ii. p. 104. The Tresor has never been printed in the

original language. There is a fine manuscript of it in the British

Museum, with an illuminated portrait of Brunetto in his study prefixed.

Mus. Brit. MSS. 17, E. 1. Tesor. It is divided into four books, the

first, on Cosmogony and Theology, the second, a translation of

Aristotle’s Ethics; the third on Virtues and Vices; the fourth, on

Rhetoric. For an interesting memoir relating to this work, see Hist. de

l’Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. vii. 296. His Tesoretto, one of the

earliest productions of Italian poetry, is a curious work, not unlike

the writings of Chaucer in style and numbers, though Bembo remarks,

that his pupil, however largely he had stolen from it, could not have

much enriched himself. As it is perhaps but little known, I will here

add a slight sketch of it.

Brunetto describes himself as returning from an embassy to the King of

Spain, on which he had been sent by the Guelph party from Florence. On

the plain of Roncesvalles he meets a scholar on a bay mule, who tells

him that the Guelfi are driven out of the city with great loss.

Struck with grief at these mournful tidings, and musing with his head

bent downwards, he loses his road, and wanders into a wood. Here

Nature, whose figure is described with sublimity, appears, and

discloses to him the secrets of her operations. After this he wanders

into a desert; but at length proceeds on his way, under the protection

of a banner, with which Nature had furnished him, till on the third day

he finds himself in a large pleasant champaign, where are assembled

many emperors, kings, and sages. It is the habitation of Virtue and her

daughters, the four Cardinal Virtues. Here Brunetto sees also Courtesy,

Bounty, Loyalty, and Prowess, and hears the instructions they give to a

knight, which occupy about a fourth part of the poem. Leaving this

territory, he passes over valleys, mountains, woods, forests, and

bridges, till he arrives in a beautiful valley covered with flowers on

all sides, and the richest in the world; but which was continually

shifting its appearance from a round figure to a square, from obscurity

to light, and from populousness to solitude. This is the region of

Pleasure, or Cupid, who is accompanied by four ladies, Love, Hope,

Fear, and Desire. In one part of it he meets with Ovid, and is

instructed by him how to conquer the passion of love, and to escape

from that place. After his escape he makes his confession to a friar,

and then returns to the forest of visions: and ascending a mountain, he

meets with Ptolemy, a venerable old man. Here the narrative breaks off.

The poem ends, as it began, with an address to Rustico di Filippo, on

whom he lavishes every sort of praise.

It has been observed, that Dante derived the idea of opening his poem

by describing himself as lost in a wood, from the Tesoretto of his

master. I know not whether it has been remarked, that the crime of

usury is branded by both these poets as offensive to God and Nature: or

that the sin for which Brunetto is condemned by his pupil, is mentioned

in the Tesoretto with great horror. Dante’s twenty-fifth sonnet is a

jocose one, addressed to Brunetto. He died in 1295.

v. 62. Who in old times came down from Fesole.] See G. Villani Hist. l.

iv. c. 5. and Macchiavelli Hist. of Flor. b. ii.

v. 89. With another text.] He refers to the prediction of Farinata, in

Canto X.

v. 110. Priscian.] There is no reason to believe, as the commentators

observe that the grammarian of this name was stained with the vice

imputed to him; and we must therefore suppose that Dante puts the

individual for the species, and implies the frequency of the crime

among those who abused the opportunities which the education of youth

afforded them, to so abominable a purpose.

v. 111. Francesco.] Son of Accorso, a Florentine, celebrated for his

skill in jurisprudence, and commonly known by the name of Accursius.

v. 113. Him.] Andrea de’ Mozzi, who, that his scandalous life might be

less exposed to observation, was translated either by Nicholas III, or

Boniface VIII from the see of Florence to that of Vicenza, through

which passes the river Baccchiglione. At the latter of these places he

died.

v. 114. The servants’ servant.] Servo de’ servi. So Ariosto,

Sat. 3.

Degli servi

Io sia il gran servo.

v. 124. I commend my Treasure to thee.] Brunetto’s great work,

the Tresor.

Sieti raccomandato ’l mio Tesoro.

So Giusto de’ Conti, in his Bella Mano, Son. “Occhi:”

Siavi raccommandato il mio Tesoro.

CANTO XVI

v. 38. Gualdrada.] Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincione Berti, of

whom mention is made in the Paradise, Canto XV, and XVI. He was of the

family of Ravignani, a branch of the Adimari.

The Emperor Otho IV. being at a festival in Florence, where Gualdrada

was present, was struck with her beauty; and inquiring who she was, was

answered by Bellincione, that she was the daughter of one who, if it

was his Majesty’s pleasure, would make her admit the honour of his

salute. On overhearing this, she arose from her seat, and blushing, in

an animated tone of voice, desired her father that he would not be so

liberal in his offers, for that no man should ever be allowed that

freedom, except him who should be her lawful husband. The Emperor was

not less delighted by her resolute modesty than he had before been by

the loveliness of her person, and calling to him Guido, one of his

barons, gave her to him in marriage, at the same time raising him

to the rank of a count, and bestowing on her the whole of Casentino,

and a part of the territory of Romagna, as her portion. Two sons were

the offspring of this union, Guglielmo and Ruggieri, the latter of whom

was father of Guidoguerra, a man of great military skill and prowess

who, at the head of four hundred Florentines of the Guelph party, was

signally instrumental to the victory obtained at Benevento by Charles

of Anjou, over Manfredi, King of Naples, in 1265. One of the

consequences of this victory was the expulsion of the Ghibellini, and

the re-establishment of the Guelfi at Florence.

v. 39. Many a noble act.] Compare Tasso, G. L. c. i. st. 1.

v. 42. Aldobrandiu] Tegghiaio Aldobrandi was of the noble family of

Adimari, and much esteemed for his military talents. He endeavored to

dissuade the Florentines from the attack, which they meditated against

the Siennese, and the rejection of his counsel occasioned the memorable

defeat, which the former sustained at Montaperto, and the consequent

banishment of the Guelfi from Florence.

v. 45. Rusticucci.] Giacopo Rusticucci, a Florentine, remarkable for

his opulence and the generosity of his spirit.

v. 70. Borsiere.] Guglielmo Borsiere, another Florentine, whom

Boccaccio, in a story which he relates of him, terms “a man of

courteous and elegant manners, and of great readiness in conversation.”

Dec. Giorn. i. Nov. 8.

v. 84. When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past.]

Quando ti giovera dicere io fui.

So Tasso, G. L. c. xv. st. 38.

Quando mi giovera narrar altrui

Le novita vedute, e dire; io fui.

v. 121. Ever to that truth.] This memorable apophthegm is repeated by

Luigi Pulci and Trissino.

Sempre a quel ver, ch’ ha faccia di menzogna

E piu senno tacer la lingua cheta

Che spesso senza colpa fa vergogna.

Morgante. Magg. c. xxiv.

La verita, che par mensogna

Si dovrebbe tacer dall’ uom ch’e saggio.

Italia. Lib. C. xvi.

CANTO XVII

v. 1. The fell monster.] Fraud.

v. 53. A pouch.] A purse, whereon the armorial bearings of each were

emblazoned. According to Landino, our poet implies that the usurer can

pretend to no other honour, than such as he derives from his purse and

his family.

v. 57. A yellow purse.] The arms of the Gianfigliazzi of Florence.

v. 60. Another.] Those of the Ubbriachi, another Florentine family of

high distinction.

v. 62. A fat and azure swine.] The arms of the Scrovigni a noble family

of Padua.

v. 66. Vitaliano.] Vitaliano del Dente, a Paduan.

v. 69. That noble knight.] Giovanni Bujamonti, a Florentine usurer, the

most infamous of his time.

CANTO XVIII

v. 28. With us beyond.] Beyond the middle point they tended the same

way with us, but their pace was quicker than ours.

v. 29. E’en thus the Romans.] In the year 1300, Pope Boniface VIII., to

remedy the inconvenience occasioned by the press of people who were

passing over the bridge of St. Angelo during the time of the Jubilee,

caused it to be divided length wise by a partition, and ordered, that

all those who were going to St. Peter’s should keep one side, and those

returning the other.

v. 50. Venedico.] Venedico Caccianimico, a Bolognese, who prevailed on

his sister Ghisola to prostitute herself to Obizzo da Este, Marquis of

Ferrara, whom we have seen among the tyrants, Canto XII.

v. 62. To answer Sipa.] He denotes Bologna by its situation between the

rivers Savena to the east, and Reno to the west of that city; and by a

peculiarity of dialect, the use of the affirmative sipa instead of si.

v. 90. Hypsipyle.] See Appolonius Rhodius, l. i. and Valerius Flaccus

l.ii. Hypsipyle deceived the other women by concealing her father

Thoas, when they had agreed to put all their males to death.

v. 120. Alessio.] Alessio, of an ancient and considerable family in

Lucca, called the Interminei.

v. 130. Thais.] He alludes to that passage in the Eunuchus of Terence

where Thraso asks if Thais was obliged to him for the present he had

sent her, and Gnatho replies, that she had expressed her obligation in

the most forcible terms. T. Magnas vero agere gratias Thais mihi? G.

Ingentes. Eun. a. iii. s. i.

CANTO XIX

v. 18. Saint John’s fair dome.] The apertures in the rock were of the

same dimensions as the fonts of St. John the Baptist at Florence, one

of which, Dante says he had broken, to rescue a child that was playing

near and fell in. He intimates that the motive of his breaking the font

had been maliciously represented by his enemies.

v. 55. O Boniface!] The spirit mistakes Dante for Boniface VIII. who

was then alive, and who he did not expect would have arrived so soon,

in consequence, as it should seem, of a prophecy, which predicted the

death of that Pope at a later period. Boniface died in 1303.

v. 58. In guile.] “Thou didst presume to arrive by fraudulent means at

the papal power, and afterwards to abuse it.”

v. 71. In the mighty mantle I was rob’d.] Nicholas III, of the Orsini

family, whom the poet therefore calls “figliuol dell’ orsa,” “son of

the she-bear.” He died in 1281.

v. 86. From forth the west, a shepherd without law.] Bertrand de Got

Archbishop of Bordeaux, who succeeded to the pontificate in 1305, and

assumed the title of Clement V. He transferred the holy see to Avignon

in 1308 (where it remained till 1376), and died in 1314.

v. 88. A new Jason.] See Maccabees, b. ii. c. iv. 7,8.

v. 97. Nor Peter.] Acts of the Apostles, c.i. 26.

v. 100. The condemned soul.] Judas.

v. 103. Against Charles.] Nicholas III. was enraged against Charles I,

King of Sicily, because he rejected with scorn a proposition made by

that Pope for an alliance between their families. See G. Villani, Hist.

l. vii. c. liv.

v. 109. Th’ Evangelist.] Rev. c. xvii. 1, 2, 3. Compare Petrarch. Opera

fol. ed. Basil. 1551. Epist. sine titulo liber. ep. xvi. p. 729.

v. 118. Ah, Constantine.] He alludes to the pretended gift of the

Lateran by Constantine to Silvester, of which Dante himself seems to

imply a doubt, in his treatise “De Monarchia.” - “Ergo scindere

Imperium, Imperatori non licet. Si ergo aliquae, dignitates per

Constantinum essent alienatae, (ut dicunt) ab Imperio,” &c. l. iii. The

gift is by Ariosto very humorously placed in the moon, among the things

lost or abused on earth. Di varj fiori, &c. O. F. c. xxxiv. st. 80.

Milton has translated both this passage and that in the text.

Prose works, vol. i. p. 11. ed. 1753.

CANTO XX

v. 11. Revers’d.] Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. viii. st. 31

v. 30. Before whose eyes.] Amphiaraus, one of the seven kings who

besieged Thebes. He is said to have been swallowed up by an opening of

the earth. See Lidgate’s Storie of Thebes, Part III where it is told

how the “Bishop Amphiaraus” fell down to hell. And thus the devill for

his outrages, Like his desert payed him his wages. A different reason

for his being doomed thus to perish is assigned by Pindar. [GREEK HERE]

Nem ix.

For thee, Amphiaraus, earth,

By Jove’s all-riving thunder cleft

Her mighty bosom open’d wide,

Thee and thy plunging steeds to hide,

Or ever on thy back the spear

Of Periclymenus impress’d

A wound to shame thy warlike breast

For struck with panic fear

The gods’ own children flee.

v. 37. Tiresias.]

Duo magnorum viridi coeuntia sylva

Corpora serpentum baculi violaverat ictu, &c.

Ovid. Met. iii.

v. 43. Aruns.] Aruns is said to have dwelt in the mountains of Luni

(from whence that territory is still called Lunigiana), above Carrara,

celebrated for its marble. Lucan. Phars. l. i. 575. So Boccaccio in the

Fiammetta, l. iii. “Quale Arunte,” &c.

“Like Aruns, who amidst the white marbles of Luni, contemplated the

celestial bodies and their motions.”

v. 50. Manto.] The daughter of Tiresias of Thebes, a city dedicated to

Bacchus. From Manto Mantua, the country of Virgil derives its name. The

Poet proceeds to describe the situation of that place.

v. 61. Between the vale.] The lake Benacus, now called the Lago di

Garda, though here said to lie between Garda, Val Camonica, and the

Apennine, is, however, very distant from the latter two

v. 63. There is a spot.] Prato di Fame, where the dioceses of Trento,

Verona, and Brescia met.

v. 69. Peschiera.] A garrison situated to the south of the lake, where

it empties itself and forms the Mincius.

v. 94. Casalodi’s madness.] Alberto da Casalodi, who had got possession

of Mantua, was persuaded by Pinamonte Buonacossi, that he might

ingratiate himself with the people by banishing to their

own castles the nobles, who were obnoxious to them. No sooner was this

done, than Pinamonte put himself at the head of the populace, drove out

Casalodi and his adherents, and obtained the sovereignty for himself.

v. 111. So sings my tragic strain.]

Suspensi Eurypilum scitatum oracula Phoebi

Mittimus.

Virg. Aeneid. ii. 14.

v. 115. Michael Scot.] Sir Michael Scott, of Balwearie, astrologer to

the Emperor Frederick II. lived in the thirteenth century. For further

particulars relating to this singular man, see Warton’s History of

English Poetry, vol. i. diss. ii. and sect. ix. p 292, and the Notes to

Mr. Scott’s “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” a poem in which a happy use is

made of the traditions that are still current in North Britain

concerning him. He is mentioned by G. Villani. Hist. l. x. c. cv. and

cxli. and l. xii. c. xviii. and by Boccaccio, Dec. Giorn. viii. Nov. 9.

v. 116. Guido Bonatti.] An astrologer of Forli, on whose skill Guido da

Montefeltro, lord of that place, so much relied, that he is reported

never to have gone into battle, except in the hour recommended to him

as fortunate by Bonatti.

Landino and Vellutello, speak of a book, which he composed on the

subject of his art.

v. 116. Asdente.] A shoemaker at Parma, who deserted his business to

practice the arts of divination.

v. 123. Cain with fork of thorns.] By Cain and the thorns, or what is

still vulgarly called the Man in the Moon, the Poet denotes that

luminary. The same superstition is alluded to in the Paradise, Canto

II. 52. The curious reader may consult Brand on Popular Antiquities,

4to. 1813. vol. ii. p. 476.

CANTO XXI

v. 7. In the Venetians’ arsenal.] Compare Ruccellai, Le Api, 165, and

Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis, st. 146, &c.

v. 37. One of Santa Zita’s elders.] The elders or chief magistrates of

Lucca, where Santa Zita was held in especial veneration. The name of

this sinner is supposed to have been Martino Botaio.

v. 40. Except Bonturo, barterers.] This is said ironically of Bonturo

de’ Dati. By barterers are meant peculators, of every description; all

who traffic the interests of the public for their own private

advantage.

v. 48. Is other swimming than in Serchio’s wave.]

Qui si nuota altrimenti che nel Serchio.

Serchio is the river that flows by Lucca. So Pulci, Morg. Mag.

c. xxiv.

Qui si nuota nel sangue, e non nel Serchio.

v. 92. From Caprona.] The surrender of the castle of Caprona to the

combined forces of Florence and Lucca, on condition that the garrison

should march out in safety, to which event Dante was a witness, took

place in 1290. See G. Villani, Hist. l. vii. c. 136.

v. 109. Yesterday.] This passage fixes the era of Dante’s descent at

Good Friday, in the year 1300 (34 years from our blessed Lord’s

incarnation being added to 1266), and at the thirty-fifth year of our

poet’s age. See Canto I. v. 1.

The awful event alluded to, the Evangelists inform us, happened “at the

ninth hour,” that is, our sixth, when “the rocks were rent,” and the

convulsion, according to Dante, was felt even in the depths in Hell.

See Canto XII. 38.

CANTO XXII

v. 16. In the church.] This proverb is repeated by Pulci, Morg. Magg.

c. xvii.

v. 47. Born in Navarre’s domain.] The name of this peculator is said to

have been Ciampolo.

v. 51. The good king Thibault.] “Thibault I. king of Navarre, died on

the 8th of June, 1233, as much to be commended for the desire he showed

of aiding the war in the Holy Land, as reprehensible and faulty for his

design of oppressing the rights and privileges of the church, on which

account it is said that the whole kingdom was under an interdict for

the space of three entire years. Thibault undoubtedly merits praise, as

for his other endowments, so especially for his cultivation of the

liberal arts, his exercise and knowledge of music and poetry in which

he much excelled, that he was accustomed to compose verses and sing

them to the viol, and to exhibit his poetical compositions publicly in

his palace, that they might be criticized by all.” Mariana, History of

Spain, b. xiii. c. 9.

An account of Thibault, and two of his songs, with what were probably

the original melodies, may be seen in Dr. Burney’s History of Music, v.

ii. c. iv. His poems, which are in the French language, were edited by

M. l’Eveque de la Ravalliere. Paris. 1742. 2 vol. 12mo. Dante twice

quotes one of his verses in the Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. l. i. c. ix.

and l. ii. c. v. and refers to him again, l. ii. c. vi.

From “the good king Thibault” are descended the good, but more

unfortunate monarch, Louis XVI. of France, and consequently the present

legitimate sovereign of that realm. See Henault, Abrege Chron. 1252, 2,

4.

v. 80. The friar Gomita.] He was entrusted by Nino de’ Visconti with

the government of Gallura, one of the four jurisdictions into which

Sardinia was divided. Having his master’s enemies in his power, he took

a bribe from them, and allowed them to escape. Mention of Nino will

recur in the Notes to Canto XXXIII. and in the Purgatory, Canto VIII.

v. 88. Michel Zanche.] The president of Logodoro, another of the four

Sardinian jurisdictions. See Canto XXXIII.

CANTO XXIII

v. 5. Aesop’s fable.] The fable of the frog, who offered to carry the

mouse across a ditch, with the intention of drowning him when both were

carried off by a kite. It is not among those Greek Fables which go

under the name of Aesop.

v. 63. Monks in Cologne.] They wore their cowls unusually large. v. 66.

Frederick’s.] The Emperor Frederick II. is said to have punished those

who were guilty of high treason, by wrapping them up in lead, and

casting them into a furnace.

v. 101. Our bonnets gleaming bright with orange hue.] It is observed by

Venturi, that the word “rance” does not here signify “rancid or

disgustful,” as it is explained by the old commentators, but

“orange-coloured,” in which sense it occurs in the Purgatory, Canto II.

9.

v. 104. Joyous friars.] “Those who ruled the city of Florence on the

part of the Ghibillines, perceiving this discontent and murmuring,

which they were fearful might produce a rebellion against themselves,

in order to satisfy the people, made choice of two knights, Frati

Godenti (joyous friars) of Bologna, on whom they conferred the chief

power in Florence. One named M. Catalano de’ Malavolti, the other M.

Loderingo di Liandolo; one an adherent of the Guelph, the other of the

Ghibelline party. It is to be remarked, that the Joyous Friars were

called Knights of St. Mary, and became knights on taking that habit:

their robes were white, the mantle sable, and the arms a white field

and red cross with two stars. Their office was to defend widows and

orphans; they were to act as mediators; they had internal regulations

like other religious bodies. The above-mentioned M. Loderingo was the

founder of that order. But it was not long before they too well

deserved the appellation given them, and were found to be more bent on

enjoying themselves than on any other subject. These two friars were

called in by the Florentines, and had a residence assigned them in the

palace belonging to the people over against the Abbey. Such was the

dependence placed on the character of their order that it was expected

they would be impartial, and would save the commonwealth any

unnecessary expense; instead of which, though inclined to opposite

parties, they secretly and hypocritically concurred in promoting their

own advantage rather than the public good.” G. Villani, b. vii. c.13.

This happened in 1266.

v. 110. Gardingo’s vicinage.] The name of that part of the city which

was inhabited by the powerful Ghibelline family of Uberti, and

destroyed under the partial and iniquitous administration of Catalano

and Loderingo.

v. 117. That pierced spirit.] Caiaphas.

v. 124. The father of his consort.] Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas.

v. 146. He is a liar.] John, c. viii. 44. Dante had perhaps heard this

text from one of the pulpits in Bologna.

CANTO XXIV

v. 1. In the year’s early nonage.] “At the latter part of January, when

the sun enters into Aquarius, and the equinox is drawing near, when the

hoar-frosts in the morning often wear the appearance of snow but are

melted by the rising sun.”

v. 51. Vanquish thy weariness.]

Quin corpus onustum

Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat una,

Atque affigit humi divinae particulam aurae.

Hor. Sat. ii. l. ii. 78.

v. 82. Of her sands.] Compare Lucan, Phars. l. ix. 703.

v. 92. Heliotrope.] The occult properties of this stone are described

by Solinus, c. xl, and by Boccaccio, in his humorous tale of

Calandrino. Decam. G. viii. N. 3.

In Chiabrera’s Ruggiero, Scaltrimento begs of Sofia, who is

sending him on a perilous errand, to lend him the heliotrope.

In mia man fida

L’elitropia, per cui possa involarmi

Secondo il mio talento agli occhi altrui.

c. vi.

Trust to my hand the heliotrope, by which

I may at will from others’ eyes conceal me

Compare Ariosto, II Negromante, a. 3. s. 3. Pulci, Morg. Magg.

c xxv. and Fortiguerra, Ricciardetto, c. x. st. 17.

Gower in his Confessio Amantis, lib. vii, enumerates it among the

jewels in the diadem of the sun.

Jaspis and helitropius.

v. 104. The Arabian phoenix.] This is translated from Ovid,

Metam. l. xv.

Una est quae reparat, seque ipsa reseminat ales,

&c.

See also Petrarch, Canzone:

“Qual piu,” &c.

v. 120. Vanni Fucci.] He is said to have been an illegitimate offspring

of the family of Lazari in Pistoia, and, having robbed the sacristy of

the church of St. James in that city, to have charged Vanni della Nona

with the sacrilege, in consequence of which accusation the latter

suffered death.

v. 142. Pistoia.] “In May 1301, the Bianchi party, of Pistoia, with the

assistance and favor of the Bianchi who ruled Florence, drove out the

Neri party from the former place, destroying their houses, Palaces and

farms.” Giov. Villani, Hist. l. viii. e xliv.

v. 144. From Valdimagra.] The commentators explain this prophetical

threat to allude to the victory obtained by the Marquis Marcello

Malaspina of Valdimagra (a tract of country now called the Lunigiana)

who put himself at the head of the Neri and defeated their opponents

the Bianchi, in the Campo Piceno near Pistoia, soon after the

occurrence related in the preceding note.

Of this engagement I find no mention in Villani. Currado Malaspina is

introduced in the eighth Canto of Purgatory; where it appears that,

although on the present occaision they espoused contrary sides, some

important favours were nevertheless conferred by that family on our

poet at a subsequent perid of his exile in 1307.

Canto XXV

v.1. The sinner ] So Trissino

Poi facea con le man le fiche al cielo

Dicendo: Togli, Iddio; che puoi piu farmi?

L’ital. Lib. c. xii

v. 12. Thy seed] Thy ancestry.

v. 15. Not him] Capanaeus. Canto XIV.

v. 18. On Marenna’s marsh.] An extensive tract near the sea-shore in

Tuscany.

v. 24. Cacus.] Virgil, Aen. l. viii. 193.

v. 31. A hundred blows.] Less than ten blows, out of the hundred

Hercules gave him, deprived him of feeling.

v. 39. Cianfa] He is said to have been of the family of Donati at

Florence.

v. 57. Thus up the shrinking paper.]

—All my bowels crumble up to dust.

I am a scribbled form, drawn up with a pen

Upon a parchment; and against this fire

Do I shrink up.

Shakespeare, K. John, a. v. s. 7.

v. 61. Agnello.] Agnello Brunelleschi

v. 77. In that part.] The navel.

v. 81. As if by sleep or fev’rous fit assail’d.]

O Rome! thy head

Is drown’d in sleep, and all thy body fev’ry.

Ben Jonson’s Catiline.

v. 85. Lucan.] Phars. l. ix. 766 and 793.

v. 87. Ovid.] Metam. l. iv. and v.

v. 121. His sharpen’d visage.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. x. 511 &c.

v. 131. Buoso.] He is said to have been of the Donati family.

v. 138. Sciancato.] Puccio Sciancato, a noted robber, whose familly,

Venturi says, he has not been able to discover.

v. 140. Gaville.] Francesco Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville,

near Florence; and in revenge of his death several inhabitants of that

district were put to death.

CANTO XXVI

v. 7. But if our minds.]

Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucerna,

Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent.

Ovid, Epist. xix

The same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory,

Cant. IX. and XXVII.

v. 9. Shall feel what Prato.] The poet prognosticates the calamities

which were soon to befal his native city, and which he says, even her

nearest neighbor, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more

particularly pointed at, are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge

over the Arno, in May, 1304, where a large multitude were assembled to

witness a representation of hell nnd the infernal torments, in

consequence of which accident many lives were lost; and a conflagration

that in the following month destroyed more than seventeen hundred

houses, many ofthem sumptuous buildings. See G. Villani, Hist. l. viii.

c. 70 and 71.

v. 22. More than I am wont.] “When I reflect on the punishment allotted

to those who do not give sincere and upright advice to others I am more

anxious than ever not to abuse to so bad a purpose those talents,

whatever they may be, which Nature, or rather Providence, has conferred

on me.” It is probable that this declaration was the result of real

feeling Textd have given great weight to any opinion or party he had

espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might have offerred strong

temptations to deviate from that line of conduct which a strict sense

of duty prescribed.

v. 35. as he, whose wrongs.] Kings, b. ii. c. ii.

v. 54. ascending from that funeral pile.] The flame is said to

have divided on the funeral pile which consumed tile bodies of

Eteocles and Polynices, as if conscious of the enmity that

actuated them while living.

Ecce iterum fratris, &c.

Statius, Theb. l. xii.

Ostendens confectas flamma, &c.

Lucan, Pharsal. l. 1. 145.

v. 60. The ambush of the horse.] “The ambush of the wooden horse, that

caused Aeneas to quit the city of Troy and seek his fortune in Italy,

where his descendants founded the Roman empire.”

v. 91. Caieta.] Virgil, Aeneid. l. vii. 1.

v. 93. Nor fondness for my son] Imitated hp Tasso, G. L. c.

viii.

Ne timor di fatica o di periglio,

Ne vaghezza del regno, ne pietade

Del vecchio genitor, si degno affetto

Intiepedir nel generoso petto.

This imagined voyage of Ulysses into the Atlantic is alluded to

by Pulci.

E sopratutto commendava Ulisse,

Che per veder nell’ altro mondo gisse.

Morg. Magg. c. xxv

And by Tasso, G. L. c. xv. 25.

v. 106. The strait pass.] The straits of Gibraltar.

v. 122. Made our oars wings.l So Chiabrera, Cant. Eroiche. xiii Faro

de’remi un volo. And Tasso Ibid. 26.

v. 128. A mountain dim.] The mountain of Purgatorg

CANTO XXVII.

v. 6. The Sicilian Bull.] The engine of torture invented by Perillus,

for the tyrant Phalaris.

v. 26. Of the mountains there.] Montefeltro.

v. 38. Polenta’s eagle.] Guido Novello da Polenta, who bore an eagle

for his coat of arms. The name of Polenta was derived from a castle so

called in the neighbourhood of Brittonoro. Cervia is a small maritime

city, about fifteen miles to the south of Ravenna. Guido was the son of

Ostasio da Polenta, and made himself master of Ravenna, in 1265. In

1322 he was deprived of his sovereignty, and died at Bologna in the

year following. This last and most munificent patron of Dante is

himself enumerated, by the historian of Italian literature, among the

poets of his time. Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. t. v. 1. iii.

c. ii. 13. The passnge in the text might have removed the uncertainty

wwhich Tiraboschi expressed, respecting the duration of Guido’s absence

from Ravenna, when he was driven from that city in 1295, by the arms of

Pietro, archbishop of Monreale. It must evidently have been very short,

since his government is here represented (in 1300) as not having

suffered any material disturbance for many years.

v. 41. The land.l The territory of Forli, the inhabitants of which, in

1282, mere enabled, hy the strategem of Guido da Montefeltro, who then

governed it, to defeat with great slaughter the French army by which it

had been besieged. See G. Villani, l. vii. c. 81. The poet informs

Guido, its former ruler, that it is now in the possession of Sinibaldo

Ordolaffi, or Ardelaffi, whom he designates by his coat of arms, a lion

vert.

v. 43. The old mastiff of Verucchio and the young.] Malatesta and

Malatestino his son, lords of Rimini, called, from their ferocity, the

mastiffs of Verruchio, which was the name of their castle.

v. 44. Montagna.] Montagna de’Parcitati, a noble knight, and leader of

the Ghibelline party at Rimini, murdered by Malatestino.

v. 46. Lamone’s city and Santerno’s.] Lamone is the river at Faenza,

and Santerno at Imola.

v. 47. The lion of the snowy lair.] Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were

a lion azure on a field argent; mentioned again in the Purgatory, Canto

XIV. 122. See G. Villani passim, where he is called Machinardo da

Susinana.

v. 50. Whose flank is wash’d of SSavio’s wave.] Cesena, situated at the

foot of a mountain, and washed by the river Savio, that often descends

with a swoln and rapid stream from the Appenine.

v. 64. A man of arms.] Guido da Montefeltro.

v. 68. The high priest.] Boniface VIII.

v. 72. The nature of the lion than the fox.] Non furon leonine ma di

volpe. So Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xix.

E furon le sua opre e le sue colpe

Non creder leonine ma di volpe.

v. 81. The chief of the new Pharisee.] Boniface VIII. whose enmity to

the family of Colonna prompted him to destroy their houses near the

Lateran. Wishing to obtain possession of their other seat, Penestrino,

he consulted with Guido da Montefeltro how he might accomplish his

purpose, offering him at the same time absolution for his past sins, as

well as for that which he was then tempting him to commit. Guido’s

advice was, that kind words and fair promises nonld put his enemies

into his power; and they accordingly soon aftermards fell into the

snare laid for them, A.D. 1298. See G. Villani, l. viii. c. 23.

v. 84. Nor against Acre one Had fought.] He alludes to the renegade

Christians, by whom the Saracens, in Apri., 1291, were assisted to

recover St.John d’Acre, the last possession of the Christians in the

Iloly Land. The regret expressed by the Florentine annalist G. Villani,

for the loss of this valuable fortress, is well worthy of observation,

l. vii. c. 144.

v. 89. As in Soracte Constantine besought.] So in Dante’s treatise De

Monarchia: “Dicunt quidam adhue, quod Constantinus Imperator, mundatus

a lepra intercessione Syvestri, tunc summni pontificis imperii sedem,

scilicet Romam, donavit ecclesiae, cum multis allis imperii

dignitatibus.” Lib.iii.

v. 101. My predecessor.] Celestine V. See Notes to Canto III.

CANTO XXVIII.

v.8. In that long war.] The war of Hannibal in Italy. “When Mago

brought news of his victories to Carthage, in order to make his

successes more easily credited, he commanded the golden rings to be

poured out in the senate house, which made so large a heap, that, as

some relate, they filled three modii and a half. A more probable

account represents them not to have exceeded one modius.” Livy, Hist.

v. 12. Guiscard’s Norman steel.] Robert Guiscard, who conquered the

kingdom of Naples, and died in 1110. G. Villani, l. iv. c. 18. He is

introduced in the Paradise, Canto XVIII.

v. 13. And those the rest.] The army of Manfredi, which, through the

treachery of the Apulian troops, wns overcome by Charles of Anjou in

1205, and fell in such numbers that the bones of the slain were still

gathered near Ceperano. G. Villani, l. vii. c. 9. See the Purgatory,

Canto III.

v. 10. O Tagliocozzo.] He alludes to tile victory which Charles gained

over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur de Valeri, in 1208. G.

Villani, l. vii. c. 27.

v. 32. Ali.] The disciple of Mohammed.

v. 53. Dolcino.] “In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no

regular order, contrived to raise in Novarra, in Lombardy, a large

company of the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true

apostle of Christ, and promulgating a community of property and of

wives, with many other such heretical doctrines. He blamed the pope,

cardinals, and other prelates of the holy church, for not observing

their duty, nor leading the angelic life, and affirmed that he ought to

be pope. He was followed by more than three thousand men and women, who

lived promiscuously on the mountains together, like beasts, and, when

they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by depredation and rapine.

This lasted for two years till, many being struck with compunction at

the dissolute life they led, his sect was much diminished; and through

failure of food, and the severity of the snows, he was taken by the

people of Novarra, and burnt, with Margarita his companion and many

other men and women whom his errors had seduced.” G. Villanni, l. viii.

c. 84.

Landino observes, that he was possessed of singular eloquence, and that

both he and Margarita endored their fate with a firmness worthy of a

better cause. For a further account of him, see Muratori Rer. Ital.

Script. t. ix. p. 427.

v. 69. Medicina.] A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented

dissensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders

of the neighbouring states.

v. 70. The pleasant land.] Lombardy.

v. 72. The twain.] Guido dal Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of

the worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by

Malatestino da Rimini to an entertainment on pretence that he had some

important business to transact with them: and, according to

instructions given by him, they mere drowned in their passage near

Catolica, between Rimini and Fano.

v. 85. Focara’s wind.] Focara is a mountain, from which a wind blows

that is peculiarly dangerous to the navigators of that coast.

v. 94. The doubt in Caesar’s mind.] Curio, whose speech (according to

Lucan) determined Julius Caesar to proceed when he had arrived at

Rimini (the ancient Ariminum), and doubted whether he should prosecute

the civil war. Tolle moras: semper nocuit differre paratis Pharsal, l.

i. 281.

v. 102. Mosca.] Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei

family, but broke his promise and united himself to one of the Donati.

This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves

and their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging

the insult. Mosca degli Uberti persuaded them to resolve on the

assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them “the thing once done,

there is an end.” The counsel and its effects were the source of many

terrible calamities to the state of Florence. “This murder,” says G.

Villani, l. v. c. 38, “was the cause and beginning of the accursed

Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence.” It happened in 1215. See

the Paradise, Canto XVI. 139.

v. 111. The boon companion.] What stronger breastplate than a heart

untainted? Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. a. iii. s. 2.

v. 160. Bertrand.] Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near

Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father,

Henry II. of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the

Provencal poets. He is quoted in Dante, “De Vulg. Eloq.” l. ii. c. 2.

For the translation of some extracts from his poems, see Millot, Hist.

Litteraire des Troubadors t. i. p. 210; but the historical parts of

that work are, I believe, not to be relied on.

CANTO XXIX.

v. 26. Geri of Bello.] A kinsman of the Poet’s, who was murdered by one

of the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a

proof that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments

than has generally been supposed.

v. 44. As were the torment.] It is very probable that these

lines gave Milton the idea of his celebrated description:

Immediately a place

Before their eyes appear’d, sad, noisome, dark,

A lasar-house it seem’d, wherein were laid

Numbers of all diseas’d, all maladies, &c.

P. L. b. xi. 477.

v. 45. Valdichiana.] The valley through which passes the river Chiana,

bounded by Arezzo, Cortona, Montepulciano, and Chiusi. In the heat of

autumn it was formerly rendered unwholesome by the stagnation of the

water, but has since been drained by the Emperor Leopold II. The Chiana

is mentioned as a remarkably sluggish stream, in the Paradise, Canto

XIII. 21.

v. 47. Maremma’s pestilent fen.] See Note to Canto XXV. v. 18.

v. 58. In Aegina.] He alludes to the fable of the ants changed into

Myrmidons. Ovid, Met. 1. vii.

v. 104. Arezzo was my dwelling.] Grifolino of Arezzo, who promised

Albero, son of the Bishop of Sienna, that he would teach him the art of

flying; and because be did not keep his promise, Albero prevailed on

his father to have him burnt for a necromancer.

v. 117.

Was ever race

Light as Sienna’s?]

The same imputation is again cast on the Siennese, Purg. Canto

XIII. 141.

v. 121. Stricca.] This is said ironically. Stricca, Niccolo Salimbeni,

Caccia of Asciano, and Abbagliato, or Meo de Folcacchieri, belonged to

a company of prodigal and luxurious young men in Sienna, called the

“brigata godereccia.” Niccolo was the inventor of a new manner of using

cloves in cookery, not very well understood by the commentators, and

which was termed the “costuma ricca.”

v. 125. In that garden.] Sienna.

v. 134. Cappocchio’s ghost.] Capocchio of Sienna, who is said to have

been a fellow-student of Dante’s in natural philosophy.

CANTO XXX.

v. 4. Athamas.] From Ovid, Metam. 1. iv. Protinos Aelides, &c.

v. 16. Hecuba. See Euripedes, Hecuba; and Ovid, Metnm. l. xiii.

v. 33. Schicchi.] Gianni Schicci, who was of the family of Cavalcanti,

possessed such a faculty of moulding his features to the resemblance of

others, that he was employed by Simon Donati to personate Buoso Donati,

then recently deceased, and to make a will, leaving Simon his heir; for

which service he was renumerated with a mare of extraordinary value,

here called “the lady of the herd.”

v. 39. Myrrha.] See Ovid, Metam. l. x.

v. 60. Adamo’s woe.] Adamo of Breschia, at the instigation of Cuido

Alessandro, and their brother Aghinulfo, lords of Romena, coonterfeited

the coin of Florence; for which crime he was burnt. Landino says, that

in his time the peasants still pointed out a pile of stones near Romena

as the place of his execution.

v. 64. Casentino.] Romena is a part of Casentino.

v. 77. Branda’s limpid spring.] A fountain in Sienna.

v. 88. The florens with three carats of alloy.] The floren was a coin

that ought to have had tmenty-four carats of pure gold. Villani

relates, that it was first used at Florence in 1253, an aera of great

prosperity in the annals of the republic; before which time their most

valuable coinage was of silver. Hist. l. vi. c. 54.

v. 98. The false accuser.] Potiphar’s wife.

CANTO XXXI.

v. 1. The very tongue.] Vulnus in Herculeo quae quondam fecerat hoste

Vulneris auxilium Pellas hasta fuit. Ovid, Rem. Amor. 47. The same

allusion was made by Bernard de Ventadour, a Provencal poet in the

middle of the twelfth century: and Millot observes, that it was a

singular instance of erudition in a Troubadour. But it is not

impossible, as Warton remarks, (Hist. of Engl. Poetry, vol. ii. sec. x.

p 215.) but that he might have been indebted for it to some of the

early romances.

In Chaucer’s Squier’s Tale, a sword of similar quality is

introduced:

And other folk have wondred on the sweard,

That could so piercen through every thing;

And fell in speech of Telephus the king,

And of Achillcs for his queint spere,

For he couth with it both heale and dere.

So Shakspeare, Henry VI. p. ii. a. 5. s. 1.

Whose smile and frown like to Achilles’ spear

Is able with the change to kill and cure.

v. 14. Orlando.l When Charlemain with all his peerage fell At

Fontarabia Milton, P. L. b. i. 586. See Warton’s Hist. of Eng. Poetrg,

v. i. sect. iii. p. 132. “This is the horn which Orlando won from the

giant Jatmund, and which as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was

endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty

miles.” Charlemain and Orlando are introduced in the Paradise, Canto

XVIII.

v. 36. Montereggnon.] A castle near Sienna.

v. 105. The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. See Liv. Hist.

l. xxx. and Lucan, Phars. l. iv. 590. Dante has kept the latter of

these writers in his eye throughout all this passage.

v. 123. Alcides.] The combat between Hercules Antaeus is adduced by the

Poet in his treatise “De Monarchia,” l. ii. as a proof of the judgment

of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of

those times.

v. 128. The tower of Carisenda.] The leaning tower at Bologna

CANTO XXXII.

v. 8. A tongue not us’d To infant babbling.] Ne da lingua, che chiami

mamma, o babbo. Dante in his treatise “ De Vulg. Eloq.” speaking of

words not admissble in the loftier, or as he calls it, tragic style of

poetry, says- “In quorum numero nec puerilia propter suam simplicitatem

ut Mamma et Babbo,” l. ii. c. vii.

v. 29. Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the

other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from

Lucca.

v. 33. To where modest shame appears.] “As high as to the face.”

v. 35. Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.] Mettendo i

denti in nota di cicogna. So Boccaccio, G. viii. n. 7. “Lo scolar

cattivello quasi cicogna divenuto si forte batteva i denti.”

v. 53. Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto

Alberti, who murdered each other. They were proprietors of the valley

of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river that falls

into the Arno about six miles from Florence.

v. 59. Not him,] Mordrec, son of King Arthur.

v. 60. Foccaccia.] Focaccia of Cancellieri, (the Pistoian family) whose

atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is said to have given rise

to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300. See G.

Villani, Hist. l, viii. c. 37. and Macchiavelli, Hist. l. ii. The

account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in

his Commentary.

v. 63. Mascheroni.] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentiue, who also murdered

his uncle.

v. 66. Camiccione.] Camiccione de’ Pazzi of Valdarno, by whom his

kinsman Ubertino was treacherously pnt to death.

v. 67. Carlino.] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di

Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of

the Bianca and Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for

twenty-nine days, in the summer of 1302. See G. Villani, l. viii. c. 52

and Dino Compagni, l. ii.

v. 81. Montaperto.] The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto, occasioned

by the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut

off the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de’Pazzi, bearer of the Florentine

standard. G. Villani, l. vi. c. 80, and Notes to Canto X. This event

happened in 1260.

v. 113. Him of Duera.] Buoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera, who

was bribed by Guy de Montfort, to leave a pass between Piedmont and

Parma, with the defence of which he had been entrusted by the

Ghibellines, open to the army of Charles of Anjou, A.D. 1265, at which

the people of Cremona were so enraged, that they extirpated the whole

family. G. Villani, l. vii. c. 4.

v. 118. Beccaria.] Abbot of Vallombrosa, who was the Pope’s Legate at

Florence, where his intrigues in favour of the Ghibellines being

discovered, he was beheaded. I do not find the occurrence in Vallini,

nor do the commentators say to what pope he was legate. By Landino he

is reported to have been from Parma, by Vellutello from Pavia.

v. 118. Soldanieri.] “Gianni Soldanieri,” says Villani, Hist. l. vii.

c14, “put himself at the head of the people, in the hopes of rising

into power, not aware that the result would be mischief to the

Ghibelline party, and his own ruin; an event which seems ever to have

befallen him, who has headed the populace in Florence.” A.D. 1266.

v. 119. Ganellon.] The betrayer of Charlemain, mentioned by Archbishop

Turpin. He is a common instance of treachery with the poets of the

middle ages. Trop son fol e mal pensant, Pis valent que Guenelon.

Thibaut, roi de Navarre O new Scariot, and new Ganilion, O false

dissembler, &c. Chaucer, Nonne’s Prieste’s Tale And in the Monke’s

Tale, Peter of Spaine. v. 119. Tribaldello.] Tribaldello de’Manfredi,

who was bribed to betray the city of Faonza, A. D. 1282. G. Villani, l.

vii. c. 80

v. 128. Tydeus.] See Statius, Theb. l. viii. ad finem.

CANTO XXXIII.

v. 14. Count Ugolino.] “In the year 1288, in the month of July, Pisa

was much divided by competitors for the sovereignty; one party,

composed of certain of the Guelphi, being headed by the Judge Nino di

Gallura de’Visconti; another, consisting of others of the same faction,

by the Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi; and the third by the Archbishop

Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, with the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and

other Ghibelline houses. The Count Ugolino,to effect his purpose,

united with the Archbishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his

sister’s son, they contrived that he and his followers should either be

driven out of Pisa, or their persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not

seeing any means of defending himself, retired to Calci, his castle,

and formed an alliance with the Florentines and people of Lucca,

against the Pisans. The Count, before Nino was gone, in order to cover

his treachery, when everything was settled for his expulsion, quitted

Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo; whence, as soon as

he was informed of Nino’s departure, he returned to Pisa with great

rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power with

every demonstration of triumph and honour. But his greatness was not of

long continuauce. It pleased the Almighty that a total reverse of

fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery and

guilt: for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia,

his sister’s son, on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind

by the high esteem in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held

by the Pisans. The power of the Guelphi being so much diminished, the

Archbishop devised means to betray the Count Uglino and caused him to

be suddenly attacked in his palace by the fury of the people, whom he

had exasperated, by telling them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and

given up their castles to the citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was

immediately compelled to surrender; his bastard son and his grandson

fell in the assault; and two of his sons, with their two sons also,

were conveyed to prison.” G. Villani l. vii. c. 120.

“In the following march, the Pisans, who had imprisoned the Count

Uglino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the

offspring of his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on the Piazza of the

Anzania, caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno,

and all food to be withheld from them. In a few days they died of

hunger; but the Count first with loud cries declared his penitence, and

yet neither priest nor friar was allowed to shrive him. All the five,

when dead, were dragged out of the prison, and meanly interred; and

from thence forward the tower was called the tower of famine, and so

shall ever be.” Ibid. c. 127.

Chancer has briefly told Ugolino’s story. See Monke’s Tale,

Hugeline of Pise.

v. 29. Unto the mountain.] The mountain S. Giuliano, between Pisa and

Lucca.

v. 59. Thou gav’st.]

Tu ne vestisti

Queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia.

Imitated by Filicaja, Canz. iii.

Di questa imperial caduca spoglia

Tu, Signor, me vestisti e tu mi spoglia:

Ben puoi’l Regno me tor tu che me’l desti.

And by Maffei, in the Merope:

Tu disciogleste

Queste misere membra e tu le annodi.

v. 79. In that fair region.] Del bel paese la, dove’l si suona. Italy

as explained by Dante himself, in his treatise De Vulg. Eloq. l. i. c.

8. “Qui autem Si dicunt a praedictis finibus. (Januensiem) Oreintalem

(Meridionalis Europae partem) tenent; videlicet usque ad promontorium

illud Italiae, qua sinus Adriatici maris incipit et Siciliam.”

v. 82. Capraia and Gorgona.] Small islands near the mouth of the Arno.

v. 94. There very weeping suffers not to weep,] Lo pianto stesso li

pianger non lascia. So Giusto de’Conti, Bella Mano. Son. “Quanto il

ciel.” Che il troppo pianto a me pianger non lassa. v. 116. The friar

Albigero.] Alberigo de’Manfredi, of Faenza, one of the Frati Godenti,

Joyons Friars who having quarrelled with some of his brotherhood, under

pretence of wishing to be reconciled, invited them to a banquet, at the

conclusion of which he called for the fruit, a signal for the assassins

to rush in and dispatch those whom he had marked for destruction.

Hence, adds Landino, it is said proverbially of one who has been

stabbed, that he has had some of the friar Alberigo’s fruit. Thus

Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv. Le frutte amare di frate Alberico.

v. 123. Ptolomea.] This circle is named Ptolomea from Ptolemy, the son

of Abubus, by whom Simon and his sons were murdered, at a great banquet

he had made for them. See Maccabees, ch xvi.

v. 126. The glazed tear-drops.]

-sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears. Shakspeare, Rich. II. a. 2.

s. 2.

v. 136. Branca Doria.] The family of Doria was possessed of great

influence in Genoa. Branca is said to have murdered his father-in-law,

Michel Zanche, introduced in Canto XXII.

v. 162 Romagna’s darkest spirit.] The friar Alberigo.

Canto XXXIV.

v. 6. A wind-mill.] The author of the Caliph Vathek, in the notes to

that tale, justly observes, that it is more than probable that Don

Quixote’s mistake of the wind-mills for giants was suggested to

Cervantes by this simile.

v. 37. Three faces.] It can scarcely be doubted but that Milton derived

his description of Satan in those lines,

Each passion dimm’d his face

Thrice chang’d with pale, ire, envy, and despair.

P. L. b. iv. 114.

from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it:

“The first of these sins is anger which he signifies by the red face;

the second, represented by that between pale and yellow is envy and

not, as others have said, avarice; and the third, denoted by the black,

is a melancholy humour that causes a man’s thoughts to be dark and

evil, and averse from all joy and tranquillity.”

v. 44. Sails.]

—His sail-broad vans

He spreads for flight.

Milton, P. L. b. ii. 927.

Compare Spenser, F. Q. b. i. c. xi. st. 10; Ben Jonson’s Every

Man out of his humour, v. 7; and Fletcher’s Prophetess, a. 2. s.

3.

v. 46. Like a bat.] The description of an imaginary being, who is

called Typhurgo, in the Zodiacus Vitae, has some touches very like this

of Dante’s Lucifer.

Ingentem vidi regem ingentique sedentem

In solio, crines flammanti stemmate cinctum

—-utrinque patentes

Alae humeris magnae, quales vespertilionum

Membranis contextae amplis—

Nudus erat longis sed opertus corpora villis.

M. Palingenii, Zod. Vit. l. ix.

A mighty king I might discerne,

Plac’d hie on lofty chaire,

His haire with fyry garland deckt

Puft up in fiendish wise.

x x x x x x

Large wings on him did grow

Framde like the wings of flinder mice, &c.

Googe’s Translation

v. 61. Brutus.] Landino struggles, but I fear in vain, to extricate

Brutus from the unworthy lot which is here assigned him. He maintains,

that by Brutus and Cassius are not meant the individuals known by those

names, but any who put a lawful monarch to death. Yet if Caesar was

such, the conspirators might be regarded as deserving of their doom.

v. 89. Within one hour and half of noon.] The poet uses the Hebrew

manner of computing the day, according to which the third hour answers

to our twelve o’clock at noon.

v. 120. By what of firm land on this side appears.] The mountain of

Purgatory.

v.123. The vaulted tomb.] “La tomba.” This word is used to express the

whole depth of the infernal region.

PURGATORY

CANTO I

O’er better waves to speed her rapid course

The light bark of my genius lifts the sail,

Well pleas’d to leave so cruel sea behind;

And of that second region will I sing,

In which the human spirit from sinful blot

Is purg’d, and for ascent to Heaven prepares.

Here, O ye hallow’d Nine! for in your train

I follow, here the deadened strain revive;

Nor let Calliope refuse to sound

A somewhat higher song, of that loud tone,

Which when the wretched birds of chattering note

Had heard, they of forgiveness lost all hope.

Sweet hue of eastern sapphire, that was spread

O’er the serene aspect of the pure air,

High up as the first circle, to mine eyes

Unwonted joy renew’d, soon as I ’scap’d

Forth from the atmosphere of deadly gloom,

That had mine eyes and bosom fill’d with grief.

The radiant planet, that to love invites,

Made all the orient laugh, and veil’d beneath

The Pisces’ light, that in his escort came.

To the right hand I turn’d, and fix’d my mind

On the’ other pole attentive, where I saw

Four stars ne’er seen before save by the ken

Of our first parents. Heaven of their rays

Seem’d joyous. O thou northern site, bereft

Indeed, and widow’d, since of these depriv’d!

As from this view I had desisted, straight

Turning a little tow’rds the other pole,

There from whence now the wain had disappear’d,

I saw an old man standing by my side

Alone, so worthy of rev’rence in his look,

That ne’er from son to father more was ow’d.

Low down his beard and mix’d with hoary white

Descended, like his locks, which parting fell

Upon his breast in double fold. The beams

Of those four luminaries on his face

So brightly shone, and with such radiance clear

Deck’d it, that I beheld him as the sun.

“Say who are ye, that stemming the blind stream,

Forth from th’ eternal prison-house have fled?”

He spoke and moved those venerable plumes.

“Who hath conducted, or with lantern sure

Lights you emerging from the depth of night,

That makes the infernal valley ever black?

Are the firm statutes of the dread abyss

Broken, or in high heaven new laws ordain’d,

That thus, condemn’d, ye to my caves approach?”

My guide, then laying hold on me, by words

And intimations given with hand and head,

Made my bent knees and eye submissive pay

Due reverence; then thus to him replied.

“Not of myself I come; a Dame from heaven

Descending, had besought me in my charge

To bring. But since thy will implies, that more

Our true condition I unfold at large,

Mine is not to deny thee thy request.

This mortal ne’er hath seen the farthest gloom.

But erring by his folly had approach’d

So near, that little space was left to turn.

Then, as before I told, I was dispatch’d

To work his rescue, and no way remain’d

Save this which I have ta’en. I have display’d

Before him all the regions of the bad;

And purpose now those spirits to display,

That under thy command are purg’d from sin.

How I have brought him would be long to say.

From high descends the virtue, by whose aid

I to thy sight and hearing him have led.

Now may our coming please thee. In the search

Of liberty he journeys: that how dear

They know, who for her sake have life refus’d.

Thou knowest, to whom death for her was sweet

In Utica, where thou didst leave those weeds,

That in the last great day will shine so bright.

For us the’ eternal edicts are unmov’d:

He breathes, and I am free of Minos’ power,

Abiding in that circle where the eyes

Of thy chaste Marcia beam, who still in look

Prays thee, O hallow’d spirit! to own her shine.

Then by her love we’ implore thee, let us pass

Through thy sev’n regions; for which best thanks

I for thy favour will to her return,

If mention there below thou not disdain.”

“Marcia so pleasing in my sight was found,”

He then to him rejoin’d, “while I was there,

That all she ask’d me I was fain to grant.

Now that beyond the’ accursed stream she dwells,

She may no longer move me, by that law,

Which was ordain’d me, when I issued thence.

Not so, if Dame from heaven, as thou sayst,

Moves and directs thee; then no flattery needs.

Enough for me that in her name thou ask.

Go therefore now: and with a slender reed

See that thou duly gird him, and his face

Lave, till all sordid stain thou wipe from thence.

For not with eye, by any cloud obscur’d,

Would it be seemly before him to come,

Who stands the foremost minister in heaven.

This islet all around, there far beneath,

Where the wave beats it, on the oozy bed

Produces store of reeds. No other plant,

Cover’d with leaves, or harden’d in its stalk,

There lives, not bending to the water’s sway.

After, this way return not; but the sun

Will show you, that now rises, where to take

The mountain in its easiest ascent.”

He disappear’d; and I myself uprais’d

Speechless, and to my guide retiring close,

Toward him turn’d mine eyes. He thus began;

“My son! observant thou my steps pursue.

We must retreat to rearward, for that way

The champain to its low extreme declines.”

The dawn had chas’d the matin hour of prime,

Which deaf before it, so that from afar

I spy’d the trembling of the ocean stream.

We travers’d the deserted plain, as one

Who, wander’d from his track, thinks every step

Trodden in vain till he regain the path.

When we had come, where yet the tender dew

Strove with the sun, and in a place, where fresh

The wind breath’d o’er it, while it slowly dried;

Both hands extended on the watery grass

My master plac’d, in graceful act and kind.

Whence I of his intent before appriz’d,

Stretch’d out to him my cheeks suffus’d with tears.

There to my visage he anew restor’d

That hue, which the dun shades of hell conceal’d.

Then on the solitary shore arriv’d,

That never sailing on its waters saw

Man, that could after measure back his course,

He girt me in such manner as had pleas’d

Him who instructed, and O, strange to tell!

As he selected every humble plant,

Wherever one was pluck’d, another there

Resembling, straightway in its place arose.

CANTO II

Now had the sun to that horizon reach’d,

That covers, with the most exalted point

Of its meridian circle, Salem’s walls,

And night, that opposite to him her orb

Sounds, from the stream of Ganges issued forth,

Holding the scales, that from her hands are dropp’d

When she reigns highest: so that where I was,

Aurora’s white and vermeil-tinctur’d cheek

To orange turn’d as she in age increas’d.

Meanwhile we linger’d by the water’s brink,

Like men, who, musing on their road, in thought

Journey, while motionless the body rests.

When lo! as near upon the hour of dawn,

Through the thick vapours Mars with fiery beam

Glares down in west, over the ocean floor;

So seem’d, what once again I hope to view,

A light so swiftly coming through the sea,

No winged course might equal its career.

From which when for a space I had withdrawn

Thine eyes, to make inquiry of my guide,

Again I look’d and saw it grown in size

And brightness: thou on either side appear’d

Something, but what I knew not of bright hue,

And by degrees from underneath it came

Another. My preceptor silent yet

Stood, while the brightness, that we first discern’d,

Open’d the form of wings: then when he knew

The pilot, cried aloud, “Down, down; bend low

Thy knees; behold God’s angel: fold thy hands:

Now shalt thou see true Ministers indeed.

Lo how all human means he sets at naught!

So that nor oar he needs, nor other sail

Except his wings, between such distant shores.

Lo how straight up to heaven he holds them rear’d,

Winnowing the air with those eternal plumes,

That not like mortal hairs fall off or change!”

As more and more toward us came, more bright

Appear’d the bird of God, nor could the eye

Endure his splendor near: I mine bent down.

He drove ashore in a small bark so swift

And light, that in its course no wave it drank.

The heav’nly steersman at the prow was seen,

Visibly written blessed in his looks.

Within a hundred spirits and more there sat.

“In Exitu Israel de Aegypto;”

All with one voice together sang, with what

In the remainder of that hymn is writ.

Then soon as with the sign of holy cross

He bless’d them, they at once leap’d out on land,

The swiftly as he came return’d. The crew,

There left, appear’d astounded with the place,

Gazing around as one who sees new sights.

From every side the sun darted his beams,

And with his arrowy radiance from mid heav’n

Had chas’d the Capricorn, when that strange tribe

Lifting their eyes towards us: If ye know,

Declare what path will Lead us to the mount.”

Them Virgil answer’d. “Ye suppose perchance

Us well acquainted with this place: but here,

We, as yourselves, are strangers. Not long erst

We came, before you but a little space,

By other road so rough and hard, that now

The’ ascent will seem to us as play.” The spirits,

Who from my breathing had perceiv’d I liv’d,

Grew pale with wonder. As the multitude

Flock round a herald, sent with olive branch,

To hear what news he brings, and in their haste

Tread one another down, e’en so at sight

Of me those happy spirits were fix’d, each one

Forgetful of its errand, to depart,

Where cleans’d from sin, it might be made all fair.

Then one I saw darting before the rest

With such fond ardour to embrace me, I

To do the like was mov’d. O shadows vain

Except in outward semblance! thrice my hands

I clasp’d behind it, they as oft return’d

Empty into my breast again. Surprise

I needs must think was painted in my looks,

For that the shadow smil’d and backward drew.

To follow it I hasten’d, but with voice

Of sweetness it enjoin’d me to desist.

Then who it was I knew, and pray’d of it,

To talk with me, it would a little pause.

It answered: “Thee as in my mortal frame

I lov’d, so loos’d forth it I love thee still,

And therefore pause; but why walkest thou here?”

“Not without purpose once more to return,

Thou find’st me, my Casella, where I am

Journeying this way;” I said, “but how of thee

Hath so much time been lost?” He answer’d straight:

“No outrage hath been done to me, if he

Who when and whom he chooses takes, me oft

This passage hath denied, since of just will

His will he makes. These three months past indeed,

He, whose chose to enter, with free leave

Hath taken; whence I wand’ring by the shore

Where Tyber’s wave grows salt, of him gain’d kind

Admittance, at that river’s mouth, tow’rd which

His wings are pointed, for there always throng

All such as not to Archeron descend.”

Then I: “If new laws have not quite destroy’d

Memory and use of that sweet song of love,

That while all my cares had power to ’swage;

Please thee with it a little to console

My spirit, that incumber’d with its frame,

Travelling so far, of pain is overcome.”

“Love that discourses in my thoughts.” He then

Began in such soft accents, that within

The sweetness thrills me yet. My gentle guide

And all who came with him, so well were pleas’d,

That seem’d naught else might in their thoughts have room.

Fast fix’d in mute attention to his notes

We stood, when lo! that old man venerable

Exclaiming, “How is this, ye tardy spirits?

What negligence detains you loit’ring here?

Run to the mountain to cast off those scales,

That from your eyes the sight of God conceal.”

As a wild flock of pigeons, to their food

Collected, blade or tares, without their pride

Accustom’d, and in still and quiet sort,

If aught alarm them, suddenly desert

Their meal, assail’d by more important care;

So I that new-come troop beheld, the song

Deserting, hasten to the mountain’s side,

As one who goes yet where he tends knows not.

Nor with less hurried step did we depart.

CANTO III

Them sudden flight had scatter’d over the plain,

Turn’d tow’rds the mountain, whither reason’s voice

Drives us; I to my faithful company

Adhering, left it not. For how of him

Depriv’d, might I have sped, or who beside

Would o’er the mountainous tract have led my steps

He with the bitter pang of self-remorse

Seem’d smitten. O clear conscience and upright

How doth a little fling wound thee sore!

Soon as his feet desisted (slack’ning pace),

From haste, that mars all decency of act,

My mind, that in itself before was wrapt,

Its thoughts expanded, as with joy restor’d:

And full against the steep ascent I set

My face, where highest to heav’n its top o’erflows.