"He drinketh ipocras, clarre, and vernage I mein that sort that's made in Pietrafitta, My violent eye; mentioned who should make Lucca pleasant to him, seems to confirm the former interpretation. 38. In the throat of the speaker, where he felt the hunger and thirst of his punishment. 50. Chaucer, Complaint of the Blacke I curse him, clean, through all the Alpha- Knight, 194:— beta." 28. Ovid, Met. VII., says of Erisichthon, that he "Deludes his throat with visionary fare, Feasts on the wind and banquets on the air." 29. Ubaldin dalla Pila was a brother of the Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini, mentioned Inf. X. 120, and father of the Archbishop Ruggieri, Inf. XXXIII. 14. According to Sacchetti, Nov. 205, he passed most of his time at his castle, and turned his gardener into a priest; "and Messer Ubaldino," continues the novelist, "put him into his church; of which one may say he made a pigsty; for he did not put in a priest, but a pig in the way of eating and drinking, who had neither grammar nor any good thing in him." "But even like as doth a skrivenere, That can no more tell what that he shal write, But as his maister beside dothe indite." 51. A canzone of the Vita Nuova, beginning, in Rossetti's version, Early Italian Poets, p. 255: "Ladies that have intelligence in love, Of mine own lady I would speak with you; Not that I hope to count her praises through, But, telling what I may, to ease my mind.' "the 56. Jacopo da Lentino, or Notary,' was a Sicilian poet who flourished about 1250, in the later days of the Emperor Frederick the Second. Crescimbeni, Hist. Volg. Poesia, III. 43, says that Dante "esteemed him so highly, that he even mentions him in his Comedy, doing him the favour to put him into Purgatory." and others after him, make the careless statement that he addressed a sonnet to Petrarca. He died before Petrarca was born. Rossetti gives several specimens of his sonnets and canzonette in his Tassoni, Some writers say that this Boniface, Archbishop of Ravenna, was a son of Ubaldino; but this is confounding him He with Ruggieri, Archbishop of Pisa. was of the Fieschi of Genoa. His pas- Early Italian Poe's, of which the fol turing many people alludes to his keep-lowing is one :ing a great retinue and court, and the free life they led in matters of the table. 31. Messer Marchese da Forlì, who answered the accusation made against him, that "he was always drinking," by saying, that "he was always thirsty.' in 37. A lady of Lucca with whom Dante is supposed to have been enamoured. Let us pass over silence," says Balbo, Life and Times of Dante, II. 177, "the consolations and errors of the poor exile." But Buti says: "He formed an attachment to a gentle lady, called Madonna Gentucca, of the family of Rossimpelo, on account of her great virtue and modesty, and not with any other love." Benvenuto and the Ottimo interpret the passage differently, making gentucca common noun, gente bassa, low people. But the passage which immediately follows, in which a maiden is a "I "OF HIS LADY IN HEAVEN. have it in my heart to serve God so The holy place through the which every. I have heard say that joy and solace flow. Because if she were absent, I being there, My pleasure would be less than nought, I know. Look you, I say not this to such intent To see my lady joyful in her place." Fra Guittone d' Arezzo, a contemporary of the Notary, was one of the Frati Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars, mentioned in Inf. XXIII. Note 103. He first brought the Italian Sonnet to the perfect form it has since preserved, and 82. Corso Donati, the brother of Forese who is here speaking, and into whose mouth nothing but Ghibelline wrath could have put these words. Corso was the leader of the Neri in Florence, and a partisan of Charles de Valois. His death is recorded by Villani, VIII. 96, and is thus described by Napier, Flor. Hist., I. 407 "The popularity of Corso was now thoroughly undermined, and the priors, after sounding the Campana for a general assembly of the armed citizens, laid a formal accusation before the Podestà Piero Branca d' Agobbio against him for conspiring to overthrow the liberties of his country, and endeavouring to make himself Tyrant of Florence: he was immediately cited to appear, and, not complying, from a reasonable distrust of his judges, was within one hour, against all legal forms, condemned to lose his head, as a rebel and traitor to the commonwealth. "Not willing to allow the culprit more time for an armed resistance than had been given for legal vindication, the Seignory, preceded by the Gonfalonier of justice, and followed by the Podestà, the captain of the people, and the executor,-all attended by their guards and officers,-issued from the palace; and with the whole civic force marshalled in companies, with banners flying, moved forward to execute an illegal sentence against a single citizen, who nevertheless stood undaunted on his defence. against him, he never cowered for an instant, but courageously determined to resist, until succoured by Uguccione della Faggiola, to whom he had sent for aid. This attack continued during the greater part of the day, and generally with advantage to the Donati, for the people were not unanimous, and many fought unwillingly, so that, if the Rossi, Bardi, and other friends had joined, and Uguccioni's forces arrived, it would have gone hard with the citizens. The former were intimidated, the latter turned back on hearing how matters stood; and then only did Corso's adherents lose heart and slink from the barricades, while the townsmen pursued their advantage by breaking down a garden wall opposite the Stinche prisons and taking their enemy in the rear. This completed the disaster, and Corso, seeing no chance remaining, fled towards the Casentino ; but, being overtaken by some Catalonian troopers in the Florentine service, he was led back a prisoner from Rovezzano. After vainly endeavouring to bribe them, unable to support the indignity of a public execution at the hands of his enemies, he let himself fall from his horse, and, receiving several stabs in the neck and flank from the Catalan lances, his body was left bleeding on the road, until the monks of San Salvi removed it to their convent, where he was interred next morning with the greatest privacy. Thus perished Corso Donati, 'the wisest and most worthy knight of his time; the best speaker, the most experienced statesman; the most renowned, the boldest, and most enterprising nobleman in Italy: he was handsome in person and of the most gracious manners, but very worldly, and caused infinite disturbance in Florence account of his ambition.'* 'People now began to repose, and his unhappy death was often and variously discussed, according to the feelings of friendship or enmity that moved the speaker; but in truth, his life was dangerous, and his death reprehensible. He was a knight of great mind and name, * Villani, VIII. Ch. 96. cn Or her whom chance presented, took the feast "The cave resounds with female shrieks; we rise Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise : one?'" gentle in manners as in blood; of a fine He seized with sudden force the frighted fair. figure even in his old age, with a beauti-was Eurytus began: his bestial kind His crime pursued; and cach, as pleased his ful countenance, delicate features, and a mind, fair complexion; pleasing, wise; and an eloquent speaker. His attention was ever fixed on important things; he was intimate with all the great and noble, had an extensive influence, and was famous throughout Italy. He was an enemy of the middle classes and their supporters, beloved by the troops, but full of malicious thoughts, wicked, and artful. He was thus basely murdered by a foreign soldier, and his fellow-citizens well knew the man, for he was instantly conveyed away: those who ordered his death were Rosso della Tosa and Pazzino de' Pazzi, as is commonly said by all; and some bless him and some the contrary. Many believe that the two said knights killed him, and I, wishing to ascertain the truth, inquired diligently, and found what I have said to be true.' Such is the character of Corso Donati, which has come down to us from two authors who must have been personally acquainted with this distinguished chief, but opposed to each other in the general politics of their country." See also Inf. VI. Note 52. 99. Virgil and Statius. 125. Judges vii. 5, 6: "So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.' 139. The Angel of the Seventh Circle. CANTO XXV. I. The ascent to the Seventh Circle of Purgatory, where the sin of Lust is punished. gone 105. Dante had only so far round the circle, as to come in sight of the second of these trees, which from distance to distance encircle the mountain. 116. In the Terrestrial Paradise on the top of the mountain. 121. The Centaurs, born of Ixion and the Cloud, and having the "double breasts" of man and horse, became drunk with wine at the marriage of Hippodamia and Pirithous, and strove to carry off the bride and the other women by violence. Theseus and the rest of the Lapithæ opposed them, and drove them from the feast. This famous battle is described at great length by Ovid, Met. XII., Dryden's Tr. : "For one, most brutal of the brutal brood, Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood, Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes The bride; at once resolved to make his prize. Down went the board; and fastening on her hair, • Dino Compagni, III. 76. It is 3. When the sign of Taurus reached the meridian, the sun, being in Aries, would be two hours beyond it. now two o'clock of the afternoon. Scorpion is the sign opposite Taurus. 15. Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. 2: "And did address The Itself to motion, like as it would speak." 22. Meleager was the son of Eneus and Althea, of Calydon. At his birth the Fates were present and predicted his future greatness. Clotho said that he would be brave; Lachesis, that he would be strong; and Atropos, that he would live as long as the brand upon the fire remained unconsumed. Ovid, Met. VIII. :— "There lay a log unlighted on the hearth, So vanished out of view. The frighted dame Sprung hasty from her bed, and quenched the flame. The log, in secret locked, she kept with care, And that, while thus preserved, preserved her heir." Meleager distinguished himself in the Argonautic expedition, and afterwards in the hunt of Calydon, where he killed the famous boar, and gave the boar's head to Atalanta; and when his uncles tried to take possession of it, he killed them also. On hearing this, and seeing the dead bodies, his mother in a rage threw the brand upon the fire again, and, as it was consumed, Meleager perished. Mr. Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon: CHORUS. "When thou dravest the men Of the chosen of Thrace, None turned him again Nor endured he thy face "Mother, I dying with unforgetful tongue Hail thee as holy and worship thee as just Who art unjust and unholy; and with my knees Would worship, but thy fire and subtlety, Dissundering them, devour me; for these limbs Are as light dust and crumblings from mine Before the fire has touched them; and my face urn As a dead leaf or dead foot's mark on snow, And lesser than a man's: for all my veins 37. The dissertation which Dante here puts into the mouth of Statius may be found also in a briefer prose form in the Convito, IV. 21. It so much excites the enthusiasm of Varchi, that he declares it alone sufficient to prove Clothed round with the blush of the battle, with Dante to have been a physician, philoso light from a terrible place. CENEUS. "Thou shouldst die as he dies For whom none sheddeth tears; Filling thine eyes And fulfilling thine ears pher, and theologian of the highest order; and goes on to say: "I not only confess, but I swear, that as many times as I have read it, which day and night are more than a thousand, my wonder and astonishment have always With the brilliance of battle, the bloom and the increased, seeming every time to find beauty, the splendour of spears. CHORUS. "In the ears of the world It is sung, it is told, And the light thereof hurled And the noise thereof rolled therein new beauties and new instruction, and consequently new difficulties." This subject is also discussed in part by Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Theol., I. Quæst. cxix., De propagatione hominis From the Acroceraunian snow to the ford of the quantum ad corpus. fleece of gold. MELEAGER. "Would God ye could carry me Forth of all these; Heap sand and bury me By the Chersonese Milton, in his Latin poem, De Idea Platonica, has touched upon a theme somewhat akin to this, but in a manner to make it seem very remote. Perhaps no two passages could better show the difference between Dante and Milton, Where the thundering Bosphorus answers the than this canto and Plato's Archetypal thunder of Pontic seas. Man, which in Leigh Hunt's translation runs as follows: "Say, guardian goddesses of woods, Aspects, felt in solitudes; And Memory, at whose blessed knee The Nine, which thy dear daughters be, And thou, that in some antre vast Leaning afar off dost lie, Otiose Eternity, Keeping the tablets and decrees Of Jove, and the ephemerides Of the gods, and calendars, Of the ever festal stars; Say, who was he, the sunless shade. After whose pattern man was made; He first, the full of ages, born Nature in the neighbouring moon; And through their shadow-touched abodes Not the seer of him had sight, Who found in darkness depths of light; * In all his mighty gulfs of thought :- And charm him to thy schools below? 48. The heart, where the blood takes the "virtue informative," as stated in line 40. 52. The vegetative soul, which in man differs from that in plants, as being in a state of development, while that of plants is complete already. 55. The vegetative becomes a sensitive soul. 65. "This was the opinion of Averroes," says the Ottimo, "which is false, and contrary to the Catholic faith." Tiresias, who was blind. + Sanchoniathon. republic, In the language of the Schools, the Possible Intellect, intellectus possibilis, is the faculty which receives impressions through the senses, and forms from them pictures or phantasmata in the mind. The Active Intellect, intellectus agens, draws from these pictures various ideas, notions, and conclusions. They represent the Understanding and the Reason. 70. God. 75. Redi, Bacchus in Tuscany :"Such bright blood is a ray enkindled Of that sun, in heaven that shines, And has been left behind entangled And caught in the net of the many vines." 79. When Lachesis has spun out the thread of life. 81. Thomas Aquinas, Sum. Theol., I. Quæst. cxviii. Art. 3: "Anima intellectiva remanet destructo corpore." 86. Either upon the shores of Acheron or of the Tiber. 103. Eneid, VI. 723, Davidson's Tr. : "In the first place, the spirit within nourishes the heavens, the earth, and watery plains, the moon's enlightened orb, and the Titanian stars; and the mind, diffused through all the members, actuates the whole frame, and mingles with the vast body of the universe. Thence the race of men and beasts, the vital principles of the flying kind, and the monsters which the ocean breeds under its smooth plain. These principles have the active force of fire, and are of a heavenly original, so far as they are not clogged by noxious bodies, blunted by earth-born limbs and dying members. Hence they fear and desire, grieve and rejoice; and, shut up in darkness and a gloomy prison, lose sight of their native skies. Even when with the last beams of light their life is gone, yet not every ill, nor all corporeal stains, are quite removed from the unhappy beings; and it is absolutely necessary that many imperfections which have long been joined to the soul should be in marvellous ways increased and riveted therein. Therefore are they afflicted with punishments, and pay the penalties of their former ills. Some, hung on high, are spread out to the empty winds; in others, the guilt not done away is washed |