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42. The sword of justice is dulled by the wheel being turned against its edge. This is the usual interpretation; but a friend suggests that the allusion may be to the wheel of St. Catherine, which is studded with sword-blades.

46. The grief which is the cause of your weeping.

59. There is a good deal of gossiping among the commentators about this little girl or Pargoletta. Some suppose it to be the same as the Gentucca of Canto XXIV. 37, and the Pargoletta of one of the poems in the Canzoniere, which in Mr. Lyell's translation runs as follows:"Ladies, behold a maiden fair, and young;

To you I come heaven's beauty to display,
And manifest the place from whence I am.
In heaven I dwelt, and thither shall return,
Joy to impart to angels with my light.
He who shall me behold nor be enamoured,
Of Love shall never comprehend the charm;
For every pleasing gift was freely given,
When Nature sought the grant of me from
him

Who willed that your companion I should be. Each star upon my eyes its influence sheds, And with its light and virtue I am blest: Beauties are mine the world hath never seen, For I obtained them in the realms above; And ever must their essence rest unknown, Unless through consciousness of him in whom

Love shall abide through pleasure of another. These words a youthful angel bore inscribed Upon her brow, whose vision we beheld; And I, who to find safety gazed on her

A risk incur that it may cost my life;
For I received a wound so deep and wide
From one I saw entrenched within her eyes,
That still I weep, nor peace I since have
known."

Others think the allusion is general. The Ottimo says: "Neither that young woman, whom in his Rime he called Pargoletta, nor that Lisetta, nor that other mountain maiden, nor this one, nor that other." He might have added the lady of Bologna, of whom Dante sings in one of his sonnets:

"And I may say

That in an evil hour I saw Bologna, And that fair lady whom I looked upon." Buti gives a different interpretation of the word pargolelta, making it the same as pargultà or pargolezza, "childishness or indiscretion of youth.'

In all this unnecessary confusion one thing is quite evident. As Beatrice is speaking of the past, she could not possibly allude to Gentucca, who is spoken of as one who would make Lucca pleasant to Dante at some future time :

"A maid is born, and wears not yet the veil,'

Began he, who to thee shall pleasant make My city, howsoever men may blame it."" Upon the whole, the interpretation of the Ottimo is the most satisfactory, or at all events the least open to objec tion.

63. Proverbs i. 17: "Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird."

72. Iarbas, king of Gætulia, from whom Dido bought the land for building Carthage.

77. The angels described in Canto XXX. 20, as

"Scattering flowers above and round about." Canto 92. Matilda, described in XXVIIL 40:

"A lady all alone, who went along

Singing and culling floweret after floweret, With which her pathway was all painted over."

95. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, the river without a bridge :

"Now I further saw that betwixt them and the gate was a river; but there was no bridge to go over: the river was very deep. At the sight therefore of this river, the pilgrims were much

stunned; but the men that went with them said, 'You must go through, or you cannot come at the gate.'

"They then addressed themselves to the water, and, entering, Christian began to sink, and crying out to his good friend Hopeful, he said, 'I sink in deep waters; the billows go over my head, all his waves go over me. Selah.'

“Now upon the bank of the river, on the other side, they saw the two shining men again, who there waited for them. Wherefore being come out of the river, they saluted them, saying, 'We are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for those that shall be heirs of salva- | tion.'"

98. Psalms li. 7: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."

104. The four attendant Nymphs on the left of the triumphal chariot. See Canto XXIX. 130:

"Upon the left hand four made holiday
Vested in purple."

against phantoms and demons; calms tempests; stanches blood, and is useful to soothsayers."

The beauty of green eyes, ojuelos verdes, is extolled by Spanish poets; and is not left unsung by poets of other countries. Lycophron in his "tenebrous poem" of Cassandra, says of Achilles :"Lo! the warlike eagle come,

Green of eye, and black of plume." teries, Hist. Theat. Franç., I. 176, And in one of the old French MysJoseph describes the child Jesus as having

"Les yeulx vers, la chair blanche et tendre Les cheveulx blonds."

122. Monster is here used in the sense of marvel or prodigy.

123. Now as an eagle, now as a lion. The two natures, divine and human, of Christ are reflected in Theology, or Divine Wisdom. Didron, who thinks the Griffin a symbol of the Pope, applies this to his spiritual and temporal power: "As priest he is the eagle floating in the air; as king he is a lion walking on the earth."

106. See Canto I. Note 23. III. These four Cardinal Virtues lead to Divine Wisdom, but the three Evan- 132. The Italian Caribo, like the Enggelical Virtues quicken the sight to pene-lish Carol or Roundelay, is both song and trate more deeply into it.

114. Standing upon the chariot still; she does not alight till line 36 of the

next canto.

dance. Some editions read in this line "singing," instead of "dancing."

CANTO XXXII.

1. A mystical canto, in which is described the tree of the forbidden fruit, and other wonderful and mysterious Me- things.

116. The colour of Beatrice's eyes has not been passed over in silence by the commentators. Lani, in his Annotazioni, says: They were of a greenish blue, like the colour of the sea." chior Messirini, who thought he had discovered a portrait of Beatrice as old as the fourteenth century, affirms that she had "splendid brown eyes." Dante here calls them emeralds; upon which the Ottimo comments thus: "Dante very happily introduces this precious stone, considering its properties, and considering that griffins watch over emeralds. The emerald is the prince of all green stones; no gem nor herb has greater greenness; it reflects an image like a mirror; increases wealth; is useful in litigation and to orators; is good for convulsions and epilepsy; preserves and strengthens the sight; restrains lust; restores memory; is powerful

2. Beatrice had been dead ten years. 10. Goethe, Hermann and Dorothea, Cochrane's Tr., p. 103 :—

"Ev'n as the wanderer, who, ere the sun dips his orb in the ocean,

One last look still takes of the day-god, fast disappearing;

Then, amid rocks rude-piled, umbrageous forests, and copsewoods,

Sees his similitude float, wherever he fixes his vision;

Finding it glancing before him, and dancing in magical colours."

35. A disfrenata saetta, an uncurbed arrow, like that which Pandarus shot at Menelaus, Iliad, IV. 124: "The sharppointed arrow sprang forth, eager to rush among the crowd

453

38. Genesis ii. 16: "Of every tree of But the garden thou mayest freely eat. of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

Some commentators suppose that Dante's mystic tree is not only the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but also a symbol of the Roman Empire.

41. Virgil, Georgics, II. 123: "The groves which India, nearer the ocean, the utmost skirts of the globe, produces, where no arrows by their flight have been able to surmount the airy summit of the tree; and yet that nation is not slow at archery."

43. Christ's renunciation of temporal power.

51. The pole of the chariot, which was made of this tree, he left bound to

the tree.

Buti says: "This chariot represents the Holy Church, which is the congregation of the faithful, and the pole of this chariot is the cross of Christ, which he bore upon his shoulders, so that the author well represents him as dragging The statement the pole with his neck." that the cross was made of the tree of knowledge, is founded on an old legend. When Adam was dying, he sent his son Seth to the Garden of Paradise to bring him some drops of the oil of the mercy of God. The angel at the gate refused him entrance, but gave him a branch from the tree of knowledge, and told him to plant it upon Adam's grave; and that, when it should bear fruit, then should Adam receive the oil of God's The branch grew into a tree, but never bore fruit till the passion of Christ; but "of a branch of this tree and of other wood," says Buti, "the cross was made, and from that branch was suspended such sweet fruit as the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then Adam and other saints had the oil of mercy, inasmuch as they were taken from Limbo and led by Christ into eternal life."

mercy.

54. In the month of February, when the sun is in the constellation of the Fishes. Dante here gives it the title of the Lasca, the Roach or Mullet.

58. The red and white of the appleblossoms is symbolical of the blood and

At least so thinks Vellu water which flowed from the wound in Christ's side.

telli.

Ruskin, Mod. Painters, IH, 226, says: "Some three arrow-flights farther up into the wood we come to a tall tree, which is at first barren, but, after some little time, visibly opens into flowers, of a colour 'less than that of roses, but more than that of violets.' It certainly would not be possible, in words, to come nearer to the definition of the exact hue which Dante meant,—that of the apple-blossom. Had he employed any simple colour. phrase, as a 'pale pink,' or 'violet pink,' or any other such combined expression, he still could not have completely got at the delicacy of the hue; he might perhaps have indicated its kind, but not its tenderness; but by taking the rose-leaf as the type of the delicate red, and then enfeebling this with the violet gray, he gets, as closely as language can carry him, to the complete rendering of the vision, though it is evidently felt by him to be in its perfect beauty ineffable; and rightly so felt, for of all lovely things am not sure but this which grace the spring-time in our fair temperate zone, blossoming of the apple-tree is the fairest."

65. The eyes of Argus, whom Mercury lulled asleep by telling him the story of Syrinx, and then put to death. Ovid, Met., I., Dryden's Tr. :—

"While Hermes piped, and sung, and told his
tale,
The keeper's winking eyes began to fail,
Till all the watchman was at length asleep.
And drowsy slumber on the lids to creep:
Then soon the god his voice and song supprest,
And with his powerful rod confirmed his rest;
Without delay his crooked falchion drew,
And at one fatal stroke the keeper slew."

73. The Transfiguration. The pas
"As
sage in the Song of Solomon, ii. 3,
the apple-tree among the trees of the
wood, so is my beloved among the
," is interpreted as referring to
sons,
Christ; and Dante here calls the Trans-
figuration the blossoming of that tree.
"While he yet
77. Matthew xvii. 5:
spake, behold, a bright cloud over-
shadowed them: and, behold, a voice
out of the cloud, which said, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased; hear ye him. And when the

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98. The seven Virtues holding the seven golden candlesticks, or the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

152. Philip the Fourth of France. For his character see Canto XX. Note 43.

156. This alludes to the maltreatment of Boniface by the troops of Philip at Alagna. See Canto XX. Note 87.

159. The removal of the Papal See from Rome to Avignon.

The principal points of the allegory of this canto may be summed up as 112. The descent of the eagle upon follows. The triumphal chariot, the the tree is interpreted by Buti as the Church; the seven Nymphs, the Virtues persecution of the Christians by the Cardinal and Evangelical; the seven Emperors. The rending of the bark candlesticks, the seven gifts of the Holy of the tree is the "breaking down of Spirit; the tree of knowledge, Rome; the constancy and fortitude of holy the Eagle, the Imperial power; the men"; the blossoms are "virtuous Fox, heresy; the Dragon, Mahomet ; examples or prayers," and the new the shameless whore, Pope Boniface the leaves, "the virtuous deeds that holy Eighth; and the giant, Philip the Fair men had begun to do, and which were of France. interrupted by these persecutions.'

115. Buti says: "This descent of the eagle upon the chariot, and the smiting it, mean the persecution of the Holy Church and of the Christians by the Emperors, as appears in the chronicles down to the time of Constantine."

119. The fox is Heresy.

CANTO XXXIII.

1. In this canto Dante is made to

drink of the river Eunoë, the memory of things good.

Psalm 1xxix., beginning: "O God, the heathen are come into thine inherit

126. The gift of Constantine to the ance; thy holy temple have they Church. Inf. XIX. 125:

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131. Mahomet. Revelation xii. 3: "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his

heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth."

144. These seven heads, say the Ottimo and others, "denote the seven deadly sins." But Biagioli, following

Buti, says:
"There is no doubt that
these heads and the horns represent the
same that we have said in Canto XIX.
of the Inferno; namely, the ten horns,
the Ten Commandments of God; and
the seven heads, the Seven Sacraments
of the Church." Never was there a
wider difference of interpretation. The
context certainly favours the first.

150. Pope Boniface the Eighth.

defiled." The three Evangelical and four Cardinal Virtues chant this psalm, alternately responding to each other. The Latin words must be chanted, in order to make the lines rhythmical, with an equal emphasis on each syllable. 7. When their singing was ended.

10. John xvi. 16: "A little while, and ye shall not see me and again, a little while, and ye shall see me; because I go to the Father."

15. Dante, Matilda, and Statius. 27. As in Canto XXXI. 7 :"My faculties were in so great confusion, That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct, Than by its organs it was set at large."

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this way. Such is the interpretation of implacable enemy, who ever and secretly this passage by all the old commentators. layeth snares for human prosperity,37. The Roman Empire shall not disinheriting some of those who were always be without an Emperor, as it willing,-impiously, in the absence of was then in the eyes of Dante, who our protector, despoiled us also, who counted the "German Albert," Alberto were unwilling. Wherefore we wept tedesco, as no Emperor, because he never long by the rivers of confusion, and incame into Italy. See the appeal to him, cessantly implored the protection of the Canto VI. 96, and the malediction, just king, to scatter the satellites of the because he suffered cruel tyrant, and restore us to our just rights. And when thou, successor of Cæsar and of Augustus, crossing the chain of the Apennines, brought back the venerable Tarpeian ensigns, our long sighings straightway ceased, the fountains of our tears were stayed, and a new hope of a better age, like a sun suddenly risen, shed its beams over Latium. Then many, breaking forth into jubilant vows, sang with Mars the Saturnian reign, and the return of the Virgin

"The garden of the empire to be waste." 43. The Roman numerals making DVX, or Leader. The allusion is to Henry of Luxemburgh, in whom Dante placed his hopes of the restoration of the Imperial power. He was the successor of the German Albert of the preceding note, after an interregnum of one year. He died in 1312, shortly after his coronation in Rome. See Canto VI. Note 97.

Villani, though a Guelf, pays this tribute of respect to his memory, Book IX. Ch. 1: "He was wise and just and gracious, valiant in arms, dignified, and catholic; and although of low estate in lineage, he was of a magnanimous heart, feared and redoubted, and if he had lived longer, he would have done great things.'

When Henry entered Italy in September, 1310, Dante hastened to meet him, full of faith and hope. Whether this interview took place at Susa, Turin, or Milan, is uncertain; nor is there any record of it, except the allusion in the following extract from a letter of Dante, "written in Tuscany, at the sources of the Arno, on the 14th of May, 1311, in the first year of the happy journey of the divine Henry into Italy." Dante was disappointed that his hero should linger so long in the Lombard towns, and wished him to march at once against Florence, the monster "that drinketh neither of the headlong Po, nor of thy Tyber." In this letter, Mr. Greene's Tr., he says:

"The inheritance of peace, as the immense love of God witnesseth, was left us, that in the marvellous sweetness thereof our hard warfare might be softened, and by the use thereof we might deserve the joys of our triumphant country. But the hatred of the ancient and |

"But since our sun (whether the fervour of desire suggests it, or the aspect of truth) is already believed to have delayed, or is supposed to be going back in his course, as if a new Joshua or the son of Amos had commanded, we are compelled in our uncertainty to doubt, and to break forth in the words of the Forerunner: Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?' And although the fury of long thirst turns into doubt, as is its wont, the things which are certain because they are near, nevertheless we believe and hope in thee, asserting thee to be the minister of God, and the son of the Church, and the promoter of the Roman glory. And I, who write as well for myself as for others, when my hands touched thy feet and my lips performed their office, saw thee most benignant, as becometh the Imperial majesty, and heard thee most clement. Then my spirit exulted within me, and I silently said to myself, 'Behold the lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world.'

Dante, Par. XXX. 133, sees the crown and throne that await the 66 noble Henry" in the highest heaven :

"On that great throne on which thine eyes are
fixed

For the crown's sake already placed upon it,
Before thou suppest at this wedding feast,
Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus
On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come
To reform Italy ere she be prepared."

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