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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 in the mind of Dante, whose political character would have given great weight to any opinion or party he had espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might have offered strong temptations to deviate from that line of conduct which a strict sense of duty prescribed."-Cary.

Page 226. (Line 54.) The enmity of the two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, is represented to have been so inveterate that the fire, which consumed their bodies on the same funeral pile, refused to unite, and divided itself into two distinct flames.-Statius, Theb. xii. 430; Lucan, i. 145. (57.) As Ulysses and Diomed were in their life time associated in deeds of treachery and violence, so are they now united in suffering and torment. (60.) To the invention of the wooden horse was owing the fate of Troy; and that fate was the cause of Æneas' voyage and settlement in Italy. See Æn. vi. 515.

Page 227. (Line 61.) Ulysses is punished for the deceit he used towards Achilles, to induce him to join the Grecians in the siege of Troy; telling him the prediction of the oracle, that without his aid Troy could not be taken, but suppressing that part which foretold his death as a consequence. Achilles abandoned Deidamia to go to the wars; aud her grief is represented here to have been so great as to have continued even after death. (63.) The misery of Ulysses and Diomed is increased by the remembrance of their deceitful expedition by night, when they slew the guards of the temple, and carried off the Palladium. (65) The similarity of Dante and Shak

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speare here is remarkable," Assai ten priego, e repriego, che'l priego vaglia mille."

"My kind Antonio,

I can no other answer make than thanks,

And thanks, and ever thanks."-Twelfth Night. iii. 3.

(75.) Either because Dante was a Roman, descended from their enemies the Trojans, or because he was as yet a person unknown to fame. (83.) Meaning Ulysses.

Page 228. (Line 93.) So named from Æneas's nurse.

"Tu quoque litoribus nostris, Æneia nutrix,

Eternam moriens famam, Caieta, dedisti."-Æn. vii. 1.

Page 229. (Line 112.)

"O socii, neque enim ignari sumus ante malorum,

O passi graviora, dabit Deus his quoque finem."-En. i. 198. "O fortes, pejoraque passi

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Mecum sæpe viri."-Horace. Carm. vii. 30.

(116.) Gibraltar, called the pillar of Hercules, line 108, was supposed to be the limit of the habitable world. That Ulysses perished in an attempt to pass the Straits is an opinion taken from Pliny, and adopted by Tasso. (119.) "Be ye not like to horse and mule," &c.-Psalm xxxii. 9. And Hamlet. act iv., "What is a man,

If his chief good and market of his time

Be but to sleep, and feed?-a beast ;-no more."

(125.) The idea is from Virgil's " remigium alarum," En. vi. and Lucan's "Remigio oblitæ remorum vela remittunt."-B. vi. Thus Æschylus. “ πτερυγων έρετμοῖσιν ἐρεσσόμενοι.”—Agamemnon. First Chorus, And Homer. “ Οὐδ ̓ ἐνήρε ̓ ἐρετμὰ, τά τε πτερὰ νηυσὶ πέλονται.”—Od. λ. 124.

Page 230. (Line 139.) From Virgil. Æn. i. 116.

"Ast illam ter fluctus ibidem

Torquet agens circum, et rapidus vorat æquore vortex."

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CANTO XXVII.

ARGUMENT.

COUNT Guido di Montefeltro, another evil counsellor, holds a
conversation with Dante from within the fire. The Count
attributes his wretched fate to the artful persuasions of Pope
Boniface, who had promised him absolution for the crime he
required him to commit.

Now rose the flame with calm and upright spire,
Its speech concluded-and prepared to go,

Since the sweet poet granted its desire,
When from behind another came in sight,
Which, sending forth a moan, confused and low,

Our eyes attracted to its curling height.

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As the Sicilian bull (which roar'd of old

First with his shrieks, as justly came to pass,

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Whose cruel hand had wrought the monstrous mould)

Rebellow'd loudly with the sufferer's cry,

So that, all fashion'd as it was of brass,
It seem'd to be transpierced by agony;

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In mode like this-no way or outlet found

The miserable words that first did flow
Changed to the flame's own voice their proper sound.
But when, a passage won, the flames display'd

Their summits-quivering, as the tongue below
Imparted the direction they obey'd-

These words broke forth: "O thou, to whom I speak,
In Lombard phrase but lately heard to say,
'Thou may'st depart from thee no more I seek'-
Though somewhat tardily to thee I came,

Grieve not to pause and hold discourse, I pray;

Thou seest it grieves not me, though wrapt in flame.

If to this glooming world thou hast of late

Been hurried downward from fair Italy,

That land belov'd, whence all my crimes I date

Say, if Romagna is at peace or war?

For 'mid the hills that 'twixt Urbino lie

And those whence Tiber springs, my birth I draw." Still was I bending down to hear the flame,

When suddenly mine escort touch'd my side,

Saying: "Speak thou, for he from Latium came."
And I, whose answer was already framed,
Without delay obey'd my faithful guide:
"O thou secreted spirit!" I exclaim'd,-

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"Devoid of war within her tyrant's breast

Romagna is not now, nor e'er hath been;
But when I left her, war was then supprest.
Unchanged for years remains Ravenna's land;

There broods Polenta's eagle, so that e'en
O'er Cervia too its ample wings expand.
In Forli, which such long resistance made,

And with the Frenchman's blood the soil embrued,
The green arms of the Lion are obey'd.
The mastiffs of Verucchio, young and old,

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Whose hands, with slaughter stain'd, Montagna rued, Pierce with their teeth, and suck the prey they hold. There, where Santerno and Lamone glide,

The Lion of the snowy field commands,

Who, each returning autumn, changes side.
That town, whose bank by Savio's stream is laved,
E'en as between the plain and mount she stands,
So liveth, partly free, and part enslaved.

But who thou art, I prithee, tell me now;

Be not more niggard then the rest ;—so may

Thy name on earth uphold a lofty brow."
Then, when in its peculiar way had roar'd
The fire awhile, its top was seen to play
This way and that ;-anon a blast it pour'd:

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