144. Thomson, Hymn :

"In swarming cities vast Assembled men to the deep organ join The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear At solemn pauses through the swelling bass, And, as each mingling flame increases each, In one united ardour rise to heaven."

CANTO X.

1. In this canto is described the First Circle of Purgatory, where the sin of Pride is punished.

14. It being now Easter Monday, and the fourth day after the full moon, the hour here indicated would be four hours after sunrise. And as the sun was more than two hours high when Dante found himself at the gate of Purgatory (Canto IX. 44), he was an hour and a half in this needle's eye.

30. Which was so steep as to allow of no ascent; dritto di salita being used in the sense of right of way.

32. Polycletus, the celebrated Grecian sculptor, among whose works one, representing the body-guard of the king of Persia, acquired such fame for excellence as to be called "the Rule."

33. With this description of the sculptures on the wall of Purgatory compare that of the shield which Vulcan made for Achilles, Iliad, XVIII. 484, Buckley's Tr. :

"On it he wrought the earth, and the heaven, and the sea, the unwearied sun, and the full moon. On it also he represented all the constellations with which the heaven is crowned, the Pleiades, the Hyades, and the strength of Orion, and the Bear, which they also call by the appellation of the Wain, which there revolves, and watches Orion; but it alone is free from the baths of the ocean.

"In it likewise he wrought two fair cities of articulate speaking men. In the one, indeed, there were marriages and feasts; and they were conducting the brides from their chambers through the city with brilliant torches, and many a bridal song was raised. The youthful dancers were wheeling round, and among them pipes and lyres uttered a sound; and the women standing, each at her portals, admired. And people were crowded together in an assembly, and there a contest had arisen; for two men

contended for the ransom-money of a slain man the one affirmed that he had paid all, appealing to the people; but the other denied, averring that he had received naught and both wished to find an end of the dispute before a judge. The people were applauding both, supporters of either party, and the heralds were keeping back the people; but the elders sat upon polished stones, in a sacred circle, and the pleaders held in their hands the staves of the clear-voiced heralds; with these then they arose, and alternately pleaded their cause. Moreover, in the midst lay two talents of gold, to give to him who should best establish his claim among them. But round the other city sat two armies of people glittering in arms; and one of two plans was agreeable to them, either to waste it, or to divide all things into two parts,

the wealth, whatever the pleasant city contained within it. They, however, had not yet complied, but were secretly arming themselves for an ambuscade. Meanwhile, their beloved wives and young children kept watch, standing above, and among them the men whom old age possessed. But they (the younger men) advanced; but Mars was their leader, and Pallas Minerva, both golden, and clad in golden dresses, beautiful and large, along with their armour, radiant all round, and indeed like gods; but the people were of humbler size. But when they now had reached a place where it appeared fit to lay an ambuscade, by a river, where there was a watering-place for all sorts of cattle, there then they settled, clad in shining steel. There, apart from the people, sat two spies, watching when they might perceive the sheep and crooked-horned oxen. These, however, soon advanced, and two shepherds accompanied them, amusing them. selves with their pipes, for they had not yet perceived the stratagem. Then they, discerning them, ran in upon them, and immediately slaughtered on all sides the herds of oxen, and the beautiful flocks of snow-white sheep; and slew the shep. herds besides. But they, when they heard the great tumult among the oxen previously sitting in front of the assembly, mounting their nimble-footed steeds, pur sued; and soon came up with them

Also the description of the Temple of Mars, in Statius, Thebaid, VII., and that of the tomb of the Persian queen in the Alexandreis of Philip Gaultier, noticed in Mr. Sumner's article, Atlantic Monthly, XVI. 754. And finally "the noble kerving and the portreitures" of the Temples of Venus, Mars, and Diana, in Chaucer's Knightes Tale :

"Why shulde I not as wel ke tell you all The portreiture that was upon the wall Within the temple of mighty Mars the Rede?

First on the wall was peinted a forest,

In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best;
With knotty, knarry, barrein trees old,
Of stubbes sharpe, and hidous to behold;
In which ther ran a romble and a swough,
As though a storme shuld bresten every bough.
And, dounward from an hill, under a bent,
Ther stood the temple of Mars Armipotent,
Wrought all of burned stele; of which th' entree
Was longe and streite, and gastly for to see;
And therout came a rage and swiche a vise,
That it made all the gates for to rise.
The northern light in at the dore shone;
For window, on the wall, ne was ther none,
Thurgh which men mighten any light discerne.
The dore was all of athamant eterne ;
Yclenched, overthwart and endelong,
With yren tough. And, for to make it strong,
Every piler the temple to sustene
Was tonne-gret, of yren bright an 1 shene.
"Ther saw I, first, the derke imagining
Of felonie, and alle the compassing;
The cruel ire, red as any glede:
The pikepurse; and eke the pale drede;
The smiler, with the knif under the cloke:
The shepen brenning, with the blake smoke,
The treson of the mordring in the bedde;
The open werre, with woundes all bebledde;
Conteke, with blody knif and sharp menace :
All full of chirking was that sory place.
The sleer of himself, yet, saw 1 there,
His herte-blood hath bathed all his here,
The naile ydriven in the shode anyght,
The colde deth, with mouth gaping upright."

40. Luke i. 28: "And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee."

44. Luke i. 38: "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord."

57. 2 Samuel vi. 6, 7: "And when they came to Nachon's threshing-floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord as kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God."

65. 2 Samuel vi. 14: "And David danced before the Lord with all his

might; and David was girded with linen ephod."

68. 2 Samuel vi, 16: “And as the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart."

73. This story of Trajan is told in nearly the same words, though in prose, in the Fiore di Filosofi, a work attributed to Brunetto Latini. See Nannucci, Manuale della Letteratura del Primo Secolo, III. 291. It may be found also in the Legenda Aurea, in the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 67, and in the Life of St. Gregory, by Paulus Diaconus.

As told by Ser Brunetto the story runs thus: "Trajan was a very just Emperor, and one day, having mounted his horse to go into battle with his cavalry, a woman came and seized him by the foot, and, weeping bitterly, asked him and besought him to do justice upon those who had without cause put to death her son, who was an upright young man. And he answered and said, 'I will give thee satisfaction when I return.' And she said, 'And if thou dost not return?' And he answered, 'If I do not return, my successor will give thee satisfaction.' And she said, 'How do I know that? and suppose he do it, what is it to thee if another do good? Thou art my debtor, and according to thy deeds shalt thou be judged; it is a fraud for a man not to pay what he owes; the justice of another will not liberate thee, and it will be well for thy successor if he shall liberate himself.' Moved by these words the Emperor alighted, and did justice, and consoled the widow, and then mounted his horse, and went to battle, and routed his enemies. A long time afterwards St. Gregory, hearing of this justice, saw his statue, and had him disinterred, and found that he was all turned to dust, except his bones and his tongue, which was like that of a living man. And by this St. Gregory knew his justice, for this tongue had always spoken it; so that when he wept very piteously through compassion, praying God that he would take this soul out of Hell, knowing that he had been a Pagan. Then God, be cause of these prayers, drew that soul

from pain, and put it into glory. And thereupon the angel spoke to St. Gregory, and told him never to make such a prayer again, and God laid upon him as a penance either to be two days in Purgatory, or to be always ill with fever and side-ache. St. Gregory as the lesser punishment chose the fever and side-ache (male di fianco)."

75. Gregory's great victory" was saving the soul of Trajan by prayer. 124. Jeremy Taylor says: As the silk-worm eateth itself out of a seed to become a little worm; and there feeding on the leaves of mulberries, it grows till its coat be off, and then works itself into a house of silk; then, casting its pearly seeds for the young to breed, it leaveth its silk for man, and dieth all white and winged in the shape of a flying creature: so is the progress of souls."

127. Gower, Confes. Amant., I. :— "The proude vice of veingloire Remembreth nought of purgatoire."

to omit nothing relative to art that may be worthy of commemoration-a certain Oderigi of Agobbio, an excellent minia ture-painter of those times, with whom Giotto lived on terms of close friendship; and who was therefore invited by the Pope to illuminate many books for the library of the palace: but these books have in great part perished in the lapse of time. In my book of ancient drawings I have some few remains from the hand of this artist, who was certainly a clever man, although much surpassed by Franco of Bologna, who executed many admirable works in the same manner, for the same Pontiff (and which were also destined for the library of the palace), at the same time with those of Oderigi. From the hand of Franco also, I have designs, both in painting and illuminating, which may be seen in my book above cited; among others are an eagle, perfectly well done, and a lion tearing up a tree, which is most beautiful."

81. The art of illuminating manu

3. The angels, the first creation or effects of the divine power.

6. Wisdom of Solomon, vii. 25: "For she is the breath of the power of God, and a pure influence flowing from the glory of the Almighty." In the Vulgate: Vapor est enim virtutis Dei.

45. See Inf. XII. Note 2.

58. Or Italian. The speaker is Omberto Aldobrandeschi, Count of Santafiore, in the Maremma of Siena. "The Counts of Santafiore were, and are, and almost always will be at war with the Sienese," says the Ottimo. In one of these wars Omberto was slain, at the village of Campagnatico. "The author means," continues the same commentator, "that he who cannot carry his head high should bow it down like a

bulrush.

79. Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Mrs. Foster's Tr., I. 103, says :—

"At this time there lived in Rome

minare, was in Italy called miniare. Hence Oderigi is called by Vasari a miniatore, or miniature-painter.

83. Franco Bolognese was a pupil of Oderigi, who perhaps alludes to this fact in claiming a part of the honour paid to the younger artist.

94. Of Cimabue, Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Mrs. Foster's Tr., I. 35, says:

"The overwhelming flood of evils by which unhappy Italy has been submerged and devastated had not only destroyed whatever could properly be called buildings, but, a still more deplorable conse quence, had totally exterminated the artists themselves, when, by the will of God, in the year 1240, Giovanni Cimabue, of the noble family of that name, was born, in the city of Florence, to give the first light to the art of painting. This youth, as he grew up, being considered by his father and others to give proof of an acute judgment and a clear understanding, was sent to Santa Maria Novella to study letters under a relation, who was then master in grammar to the novices of that convent. But. Cimabue, instead of devoting himself to letters, consumed the whole day in drawing men, horses, houses, and other various fancies, on his