me, that thou seest in God, that I be lieve it."

named Drouet, either in wantonness or insult, came up to her, and, under the pretence of searching for arms, thrust 97. Convito, III. 14: "The first agent, his hand into her bosom. The girl that is, God, sends his influence into fainted in her bridegroom's arms. He some things by means of direct rays, and uttered in his agony the fatal cry, 'Death into others by means of reflected splento the French !' A youth rushed dour. Hence into the Intelligences the ward, stabbed Drouet to the heart with divine light rays out immediately; in his own sword, was himself struck down. others it is reflected from these IntelliThe cry, the shriek, ran through the gences first illuminated. But as mention crowd, Death to the French!' Many is here made of light and splendour, in Sicilians fell, but, of two hundred on the order to a perfect understanding, I will spot, not one Frenchman escaped. The show the difference of these words, cry spread to the city: Mastrangelo according to Avicenna. I say, the cus took the lead; every house was stormed, tom of the philosophers is to call th every hole and corner searched; their Heaven light, in reference to its existence dress, their speech, their persons, their in its fountain head; to call it ray, in manners, denounced the French. The reference to its passing from the fountainpalace was forced; the Justiciary, being head to the first body, in which it is luckily wounded in the face, and rolled arrested; to call it splendour, in referin the dust, and so undetected, mounted ence to its reflection upon some other a horse, and fled with two followers. part illuminated." Two thousand French were slain. They denied them decent burial, heaped them together in a great pit. The horrors of the scene were indescribable; the insur gents broke into the convents, the churches. The friars, especial objects of hatred, were massacred; they slew the French monks, the French priests. Neither old age, nor sex, nor infancy was spared."

76. Robert, Duke of Calabria, third son of Charles II. and younger brother of Charles Martel. He was King of Sicily from 1309 to 1343. He brought with him from Catalonia a band of needy adventurers, whom he put into high offices of state, "and like so many leeches," says Biagioli, "they filled themselves with the blood of that poor people, not dropping off so long as there remained a drop to suck."

80. Sicily already heavily laden with taxes of all kinds.

82. Born of generous ancestors, he was himself avaricious.

84. Namely, ministers and officials who were not greedy of gain.

87. In God, where all things are reflected as in a mirror. Rev. xxi. 6: "I am Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end." Buti interprets thus : "Because I believe that thou seest my joy in God, even as I see it, I am pleased; and this also is dear to

116. If men lived isolated from each other, and not in communities.

120. Aristotle, whom Dante in the Convito, III. 5, calls "that glorious philosopher to whom Nature most laid open her secrets ;" and in Inf. IV. 131, "the master of those who know."

124. The Jurist, the Warrior, the Priest and the Artisan are here typified in Solon, Xerxes, Melchisedec, and Dædalus.

129. Nature, like death, makes no distinction between palace and hovel. Her gentlemen are born alike in each, and so her churls.

130. Esau and Jacob, though twin brothers, differed in character, Esau being warlike and Jacob peaceable. Genesis xxv. 27: "And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.

131. Romulus, called Quirinus, because he always carried a spear (quiris), was of such obscure birth, that the Romans, to dignify their origin, preten. ded he was born of Mars.

the foot of the mountains, which, if they are transplanted, either wholly perish, or live a kind of melancholy life, as things separated from what is friendly to them."

145. Another allusion to King Robert of Sicily. Villani, XII. 9, says of him: "This king Robert was the wisest king that had been known among Christians for five hundred years, both in natural ability and in knowledge, being a very great master in theology, and a consummate philosopher." And the Postillatore of the Monte Cassino Codex: "This King Robert delighted in preaching and studying, and would have made a better monk than king."

CANTO IX.

I. The Heaven of Venus is continued in this canto. The beautiful Clemence here addressed is the daughter of the Emperor Rudolph, and wife of Charles Martel. Some commentators say it is his daughter, but for what reason is not apparent, as the form of address would rather indicate the wife than the daughter; and moreover, at the date of the poem, 1300, the daughter was only six or seven years old. So great was the affection of this "beautiful Clemence" for her husband, that she is said to have fallen dead on hearing the news of his death.

3. Charles the Lame, dying in 1309, gave the kingdom of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Robert, Duke of Calabria, thus dispossessing Carlo Roberto (or Caroberto) son of Charles Martel and Clemence, and rightful heir to the throne.

22. Unknown to me by name.

did before the birth of Paris, Althæa
before the birth of Meleager, and the
mother of St. Dominic before the birth of
"The amorous paramour

Of Christian Faith, the athlete consecrate,
Kind to his own and cruel to his toen."

32. Cunizza was the sister of Azzolino
di Romano. Her story is told by Ro-
landino, Liber Chronicorum, in Muratori,
that she was first married to Richard of
Rer. Ital. Script., VIII. 173. He says
St. Boniface; and soon after had an
intrigue with Sordello, as already men-
Afterwards
tioned, Purg. VI. Note 74.
she wandered about the world with a
soldier of Treviso, named Bonius, “tak-
ing much solace," says the old chronicler,
“and spending much money,"--multa
habendo solatia, et maximas faciendo ex-
pensas. After the death of Bonius, she
was married to a nobleman of Braganzo;
and finally and for a third time to a
gentleman of Verona.

The Ottimo alone among the commentators takes up the defence of Cunizza, and says: "This lady lived lovingly in dress, song, and sport; but consented not to any impropriety or unlawful act; and she passed her life in enjoyment, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes,"-alluding probably to the first verse of the second chapter, "I said in my heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure; and, behold, this is also vanity."

33. Of the influences of the planet Venus, quoting Albumasar, as before, Buti says: "Venus is cold and moist, and of phlegmatic temperament, and signifies beauty, liberality, patience, sweetness, dignity of manners, love of dress and ornaments of gold and silver, humility towards friends, pride and adjunction, delectation and delight in singing and use of ornaments, joy and gladness, dancing, song with pipe and lute, bridals, ornaments and precious ointments, cunning in the composition of songs, skill in the 28. The hill on which stands the Cas-game of chess, indolence, drunkenness, tello di Romano, the birthplace of the lust, adultery, gesticulations, and lasci tyrant Ezzelino, or Azzolino, whom, for viousness of courtesans, abundance o his cruelties, Dante punished in the river perjuries, of lies and all kinds of wanton. of boiling blood, Inf. XII. 110. Before ness, love of children, delight in men, his birth his mother is said to have strength of body, weakness of mind, dreamed of a lighted torch, as Hecuba | abundance of fool and corporal delights,

25. The region here described is the Marca Trivigiana, lying between Venice (here indicated by one of its principal wards, the Rialto) and the Alps, dividing Italy from Germany.

represses vain and lascivious thoughts, appeases quarrels between friends, and gives health of body. Its powder taken Fin water cures diseases of the eyes, and pains in the liver. If you touch with this gem the four corners of a house, orchard, or vineyard, they will be safe from lightning, storms, and blight."

70. Joy is shown in heaven by greater light, as here on earth by smiles, and as in the infernal regions the grief of souls in torment is by greater darkness.

73. In Him thy sight is; in the original, tuo vedersinluia, thy sight in-Himsitself.

76. There is a similar passage in one of the Troubadours, who, in an Elegy, commends his departed friend to the Virgin as a good singer. "He sang so well, that the nightingales grew silent with admiration, and listened to him. Therefore God took him for his own service. If the Virgin Mary is fond of genteel young men, I advise her to take him."

77. The Seraphim, clothed with six wings, as seen in the vision of the Prophet Isaiah vi. 2: "Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly."

81. In the original, Sio m' intuassi come tu t'immii; if I in-theed myself as thou in-meest thyself. Dantesque words, like inluia, Note 73.

82. The Mediterranean, the greatest of seas, except the ocean, surrounding

the earth.

Bryant, Thanatopsis :—

"And poured round all
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste."

93. The allusion here is to the siege of Marseilles by a portion of Cæsar's army under Tribonius, and the fleet under Brutus. Purg. XVIII. 101 :

"And Cæsar, that he might subdue Ilerda, Thrust at Marseilles, and then ran into Spain."

Lucan, who describes the siege and sea-fight in the third book of his Pharsalia, says :—

Meanwhile, impatient of the lingering war,
The chieftain to Iberia bends afar,

And gives the leaguer to Tribonius' care."

94. Folco, or Folchetto, of Marseilles (Folquet de Marseilles) was a noted Trou badour, who flourished at the end of the twelfth century. He was the son of a rich merchant of Marseilles, and after his father's death, giving up business for pleasure and poetry, became a frequenter of courts and favourite of lords and princes. Among his patrons are mentioned King Richard of England, King Alfonso of Aragon, Count Raymond of Toulouse, and the Sire Barral of Marseilles. The old Provençal chronicler in Raynouard, V. 150, says: "He was a good Troubadour, and very attractive in person. He paid court to the wife of his lord, Sire Barral, and besought her love, and made songs about her. But neither for prayers nor songs could he find favour with her which he was always complaining in his so as to procure any mark of love, of

songs.

Nevertheless this Lady Alazais listened with pleasure to his songs and praises; and was finally moved to jealousy, if not to love. The Troubadour was at the same time paying his homage to the two sisters of the Sire Barral, Lady Laura and Lady Mabel, both beautiful and de 85. Extending eastward between Eu-gran valor, and being accused thereof, rope and Africa. Dante gives the length fell into disfavour and banishment, the of the Mediterranean as ninety degrees. Lady Alazais wishing to hear no more Modern geographers make it less than his prayers nor his songs. In his despair fifty. he took refuge at the court of William, Lord of Montpellier, whose wife, daughter of the Emperor Manuel, "comforted him a little, and besought him not to be downcast and despairing, but for love of her to sing and make songs.'

89. Marseilles, about equidistant from the Ebro, in Spain, and the Magra, which divides the Genoese and Tuscan territories. Being a small river, it has but a short journey to make.

92. Buggia is a city in Africa, on nearly the same parallel of longitude as Marseilles.

And now a great change came over him. The old chronicler goes on to say: "And it came to pass that the Lady