CANTO XX ARGUMENT.-Among those of the fifth cornice, Hugh Capet records illustrious examples of voluntary poverty and of bounty; then tells who himself is, and speaks of his descendants on the French throne; and, lastly, adds some noted instances of avarice. When he has ended, the mountain shakes, and all the spirits sing "Glory to God." I' LL strives the will, 'gainst will more wise that strives: I drew the sponge yet thirsty from the wave. So bottomless thy maw.-Ye spheres of Heaven! 2 Of his appearing, for whom fate reserves 66 In the sharp pangs of childbed; and "How poor The words so pleased me, that desire to know He is thought to allude to Can An angel having revealed to him that the father of a family was so impoverished as to resolve on exposing the chastity of his three daugh 66 Bounteous bestow'd, to save their youthful prime Of that ill plant, whose shade such poison sheds ters to sale, Nicholas threw in at the window of their house three bags of money, containing a sufficient portion for each of them. 4" Root." Hugh Capet, ancestor of Philip IV. These cities had lately been seized by Philip IV. The spirit intimates the approaching defeat of the French army by the Flemings, in the battle of Courtrai, which happened in 1302. "The slaughterer's trade." This reflection on the birth of his ancestor induced Francis I to forbid the reading of Dante in his dominions. Hugh Capet, who came to the throne of France in 987, was, however, the grandson of Robert, who was the brother of Eudes, King of France in 888; and it may, therefore, well be 8 questioned whether by Beccaio di Parigi is meant literally one who carried on the trade of a butcher, at Paris, and whether the sanguinary disposition of Hugh Capet's father is not stigmatized by this opprobrious appellation. 7 The posterity of Charlemain, the second race of French monarchs, had failed, with the exception of Charles of Lorraine, who is said, on account of the melancholy temper of his mind, to have always clothed himself in black. Venturi suggests that Dante may have confounded him with Childeric III, the last of the Merovingian, or first, race, who was deposed and made a monk in 751. Hugh Capet caused his son Rob ert to be crowned at Orleans. He, from whose bones the anointed race begins. "The great dower of Provence." Louis IX and his brother Charles of Anjou married two of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence. See "Paradise," c. vi. 135. 10" Young Conradine." Charles of Anjou put Conradino to death in 1268, and became King of Naples. 11" The angelic teacher." Thomas Aquinas. He was reported to have been poisoned by a physician, who wished to ingratiate himself with Charles of Anjou. "In the year 1323, at the end of July, by the said Pope John and by his cardinals, was canonized at Avignon Thomas Aquinas, of the order of Saint Dominic, a master in divinity and philosophy, a man most excellent in all science, and who expounded the sense of Scripture better than anyone since the time of Augustin. He lived in the time of Charles I, King of Sicily; and going to the Council at Lyons, it is said that he was killed by a physician of the said King, who put poison for him into some sweetmeats, thinking to ingratiate himself with King Charles, because he was of the lineage of the Lords of Aquino, who had rebelled against the King, and doubting lest he should be made cardinal; whence the Church of God received great damage. He died at the abbey of Fossanova, in Campagna.' In 12" Another Charles." Charles of Valois, brother of Philip IV, was sent by Pope Boniface VIII to settle the disturbed state of Florence. consequence of the measures he adopted for that purpose, our Poet and his friends were condemned to exile and death. 13 44 with that lance." If I remember right, in one of the old romances, Judas is represented tilting with our Saviour. 14 The other." Charles, King of Naples, the eldest son of Charles of Anjou, having, contrary to the directions of his father, engaged with Ruggieri de Lauria, the admiral of Peter of Arragon, was made prisoner, and carried into Sicily, June, 1284. He afterward, in consideration of a large sum of money, married his daughter to Azzo VIIL Marquis of Ferrara. Had stept on shore) exposing to the mart What canst thou more, who hast subdued our blood 16 Of their own flesh? To hide with direr guilt Acted again. Lo! to his holy lip Such violence cannot fill the measure up, With no decree to sanction, pushes on Into the temple" his yet eager sails. 66 "O sovran Master! when shall I rejoice To see the vengeance, which Thy wrath, well-pleased, 15" The flower-de-luce." Boniface VIII was seized at Alagna in Campagna, by the order of Philip IV, in the year 1303, and soon after died of grief. G. Villani, lib. viii. cap. lxiii. "As it pleased God, the heart of Boniface being petrified with grief, through the injury he had sustained, when he came to Rome, he fell into a strange malady, for he gnawed himself as one frantic, and in this state expired.", His character is strongly drawn by the annalist in the next chapter. Thus, says Landino, was verified the prophecy of Celestine respecting him, that he should enter on the popedom like a fox, reign like a lion, and die like a dog. 16 It is uncertain whether our Poet alludes still to the event mentioned in the preceding note, or to the destruction of the order of the Templars in 1310, but the latter appears more probable. 17"Achan." Joshua vii. 18 And praise the forefeet, that with furious ramp Couch'd to bring forth the twin-born eyes of Heaven, So vehement, that suddenly my guide Drew near, and cried: "Doubt not, while I conduct thee." Glory!" all shouted (such the sounds mine ear 66 Gather'd from those, who near me swell'd the sounds) Glory in the highest be to God." We stood Immovably suspended, like to those, The shepherds, who first heard in Bethlehem's field Heliodorus." "For there ap peared unto them an horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very fair covering, and he ran fiercely and smote at Heliodorus with his fore feet." 2 Macc. iii. 25. |