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trained, small goods seem great, and therefore with them beginneth her desire. Hence we see children desire exceedingly an apple; and then, going farther, desire a little bird; and farther still, a beautiful dress; and then a horse; and then a woman; and then wealth not very great, and then greater, and then greater still. And this cometh to pass, because she findeth not in any of these things that which she is seeking, and trusteth to find it farther on."

96. Henry Vaughan, Sacred Poems:

They are indeed our pillar-fires,
Seen as we go;

They are that city's shining spires

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Second. Gregory retained the ambition,
the vigour, almost the activity of youth,
with the stubborn obstinacy, and some-
thing of the irritable petulance, of old
age. He was still master of all his
powerful faculties; his knowledge of
affairs, of mankind, of the peculiar in-
terests of almost all the nations in
Christendom, acquired by long employ.
ment in the most important negotiations
both by Innocent the Third and by
Honorius the Third; eloquence which
his own age compared to that of Tully,
profound erudition in that learning
which, in the medieval churchman, com-
manded the highest admiration.
one was his superior in the science of
the canon law; the Decretals, to which
authoritative form, were at his com-
he afterwards gave a more full and
the law of God as the Gospels them-
mand, and they were to him as much
selves, or the primary principles of mo-
rality. The jealous reverence and attach-
ment of a great lawyer to his science
strengthened the lofty pretensions of the
churchman.

No

"Frederick the Second, with many of the noblest qualities which could capti

107. The Emperor and the Pope; the vate the admiration of his own age, in temporal and spiritual power.

115. Lombardy and Romagna. 117. The dissension and war between the Emperor Frederick the Second and Pope Gregory the Ninth. Milman, Hist. Lat. Christ,, Book X. Ch. 3, says :

some respects might appear misplaced, and by many centuries prematurely born. Frederick having crowded into his youth adventures, perils, successes, almost unparalleled in history, was now only expanding into the prime of manhood. "The Empire and the Papacy were A parentless orphan, he had struggled now to meet in their last mortal and im- upward into the actual reigning monarch placable strife; the two first acts of this of his hereditary Sicily; he was even tremendous drama, separated by an in- then rising above the yoke of the turterval of many years, were to be deve- bulent magnates of his realm, and the loped during the pontificate of a prelate depressing tutelage of the Papal See; who ascended the throne of St. Peter at he had crossed the Alps a boyish adventhe age of eighty. Nor was this strife turer, and won so much through his own for any specific point in dispute, like the valour and daring that he might well right of investiture, but avowedly for ascribe to himself his conquest, the kingsupremacy on one side, which hardly dom of Germany, the imperial crown; deigned to call itself independence; for he was in undisputed possession of the independence, on the other, which re- Empire, with all its rights in Northern motely at least aspired after supremacy. Italy; King of Apulia, Sicily, and JeruCæsar would bear no superior, the suc- salem. He was beginning to be at once cessor of St. Peter no equal. The con- the Magnificent Sovereign, the knight, test could not have begun under men the poet, the lawgiver, the patron of more strongly contrasted, or more deter- arts, letters, and science; the Magniminedly oppugnant in character, than ficent Sovereign, now holding his court Gregory the Ninth and Frederick the in one of the old barbaric and feudal

gion, at least the awful authority of churchmen was examined with freedom, sometimes ridiculed with sportive wit.

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See also Inf. X. Note 119.

cities of Germany among the proud and more strong or more irreconcilable than turbulent princes of the Empire, more the octogenarian Gregory, in his cloister often on the sunny shores of Naples or palace, in his conclave of stern ascetics, Palermo, in southern and almost Oriental with all but severe imprisonment within luxury; the gallant Knight and trouba- conventual walls, completely monastic dour Poet, not forbidding himself those in manners, habits, views, in corporate amorous indulgences which were the re-spirit, in celibacy, in rigid seclusion from ward of chivalrous valour and of the the rest of mankind, in the conscientious 'gay science;' the Lawgiver, whose determination to enslave, if possible, all far-seeing wisdom seemed to anticipate Christendom to its inviolable unity of some of those views of equal justice, of faith, and to the least possible latitude the advantages of commerce, of the cul- of discipline; and the gay and yet tivation of the arts of peace, beyond all youthful Frederick, with his mingled the toleration of adverse religions, which assemblage of knights and ladies, of even in a more dutiful son of the Church Christians, Jews, and Mohammedans, of would doubtless have seemed godless in- poets, and men of science, met, as it difference. Frederick must appear before were, to enjoy and minister to enjoy us in the course of our history in the full ment, -to cultivate the pure intellect, development of all these shades of cha--where, if not the restraints of reliracter; but besides all this, Frederick's views of the temporal sovereignty were as imperious and autocratic as those of the haughtiest churchman of the spiritual supremacy. The ban of the Empire ought to be at least equally awful with 124. Currado (Conrad) da Palazzo of that of the Church; disloyalty to the Brescia; Gherardo da Camino of TreEmperor was as heinous a sin as in-viso; and Guido da Castello of Reggio. fidelity to the head of Christendom; the Of these three the Ottimo thus speaks:independence of the Lombard republics was as a great and punishable political heresy. Even in Rome itself, as head of the Roman Empire, Frederick aspired to a supremacy which was not less unlimited because vague and undefined, and irreconcilable with that of the Supreme Pontiff. If ever Emperor might be tempted by the vision of a vast hereditary monarchy to be perpetuated in his house, the princely house of Hohenstaufen, it was Frederick. He had heirs of his greatness; his eldest son was King of the Romans; from his loins might yet spring an inexhaustible race of princes; the failure of his imperial line was his last fear. The character of the man seemed formed to achieve and to maintain this vast design; he was at once terrible and popular, courteous, generous, placable to his foes; yet there was a depth of cruelty in the heart of Frederick towards revolted subjects, which made him look on the atrocities of his allies, Eccelin di Romano, and the Salinguerras, but as legitimate means to quell insolent and stubborn rebellion.

....

"It is impossible to conceive a contrast

:

"Messer Currado was laden with honour during his life, delighted in a fine retinue, and in political life in the government of cities, in which he acquired much praise and fame.

"Messer Guido was assiduous in honouring men of worth, who passed on their way to France, and furnished many with horses and arms, who came hitherward from France. To all who had honourably consumed their property, and returned more poorly furnished than became them, he gave, without hope of return, horses, arms, and money.

"Messer Gherardo da Camino delighted not in one, but in all noble things, keeping constantly at home."

He farther says, that his fame was so great in France that he was there spoken of as the "simple Lombard," just as, "when one says the City, and no more, one means Rome." Benvenuto da Imola says that all Italians were called Lombards by the French. In the Histoire et Cronique du petit Jehan de Saintré, fol. 219, ch. iv., the author remarks : "The fifteenth day after Saintré's return, there came to Paris two young, noble, and

brave Italians, whom we call Lombards."

132. Deuteronomy xviii. 2: "Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them."

140.

"This Gherardo," says Buti, "had a daughter, called, on account of her beauty, Gaja; and so modest and virtuous was she, that through all Italy was spread the fame of her beauty and modesty."

The Ottimo, who preceded Buti in point of time, gives a somewhat different and more equivocal account. He says: "Madonna Gaia was the daughter of Messer Gherardo da Camino: she was a lady of such conduct in amorous delectations, that her name was notorious throughout all Italy; and therefore she is thus spoken of here.'

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beautifully when the spring newly begins, sitting in the thick branches of trees, and she, frequently changing, pours forth her much-sounding voice, lamenting her dear Itylus, whom once she slew with the brass through ignorance.'

25. Esther vii. 9, 10: "And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows, fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon. So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king's wrath pacified."

34. Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amata, betrothed to Turnus. Amata, thinking Turnus dead, hanged herself in anger and despair. Æneid, XII. 875, Dryden's Tr. :

"Mad with her anguish, impotent to bear

The mighty grief, she loathes the vital air.
She calls herself the cause of all this ill,
And owns the dire effects of her ungoverned
will;

She raves against the gods, she beats her breast,

She tears with both her hands her purple vest; Then round a beam a running noose she tied, And, fastened by the neck, obscenely died.

"Soon as the fatal news by fame was blown, And to her dames and to her daughters known, The sad Lavinia rends her yellow hair And rosy cheeks; the rest her sorrow share; With shrieks the palace rings, and madness of despair."

53. See Par. V. 134:

"Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself By too much light."

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97. The first, the object; the second, too much or too little vigour.

Or perhaps the reference is to the 124. The sins of Pride, Envy, and Homeric legend of Philomela, Odyssey, Anger. The other is Sloth, or lukeXIX. 518: "As when the daughter of warmness in well-doing, punished in this Pandarus, the swarthy nightingale, sings | circle.

28. Iliad, I. 403: "Him of the hundred hands, whom the gods call Briareus, and all men Ægæon." Inf. XXI. Note 98.

He was struck by the thunderbolt of Jove, or by a shaft of Apollo, at the battle of Flegra. "Ugly medley of sacred and profane, of revealed truth and fiction! exclaims Venturi.

31. Thymbræus, a surname of Apollo, from his temple in Thymbra.

34. Nimrod, who "began to be a mighty one in the earth," and his tower whose top may reach unto heaven."

66

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See also Inf. XXXI. Note 77. 36. Lombardi proposes in this line to read "together" instead of ". proud; which Biagioli thinks is "changing a beautiful diamond for a bit of lead; and stupid is he who accepts the change."

37. Among the Greek epigrams is one on Niobe, which runs as follows:

"This sepulchre within it has no corse; This corse without here has no sepulchre, But to itself is sepulchre and corse."

Ovid, Metamorph., VI., Croxall's Tr.:

"Widowed and childless, lamentable state!

A doleful sight, among the dead she sate;
Hardened with woes, a statue of despair,
To every breath of wind unmoved her hair;
Her cheek still reddening, but its colour dead,
Faded her eyes, and set within her head.
Mo more her pliant tongue its motion keeps,
But stands congealed within her frozen lips.
Stagnate and dull, within her purple veins,
Its current stopped, the lifeless blood remains.
Her feet their usual offices refuse,

Her arms and neck their graceful gestures lose:

Action and life from every part are gone,
And even her entrails turn to solid stone;
Yet still she weeps, and whirled by stormy
winds,

Borne through the air, her native country

finds;

There fixed, she stands upon a bleaky hill, There yet her marble cheeks eternal tears distil."

39. Homer, Iliad, XXIV. 604, makes them but twelve. "Twelve children perished in her halls, six daughters and six blooming sons; these Apollo slew from his silver bow, enraged with Niobe; and those Diana, delighting in arrows, because she had deemed herself equal to the beautiful-cheeked Latona. She said that Latona had borne only two, but she herself had borne many; nevertheless those, though but two, exterminated all these."

But Ovid, Metamorph., VI., says :— "Seven are my daughters of a form divine, With seven fair sons, an indefective line.'

40. I Samuel xxxi. 4, 5: "Then said Saul unto his armour-bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust But his me through and abuse me. armour-bearer would not, for he was sore afraid; therefore Saul took a sword, and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword, and died with

him."

42. 2 Samuel i. 21: "Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you.'

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43. Arachne, daughter of Idmon the dyer of Colophon. Ovid, Metamorph., VI. :

"One at the loom so excellently skilled,

That to the goddess she refused to yield
Low was her birth, and small her native town,
She from her art alone obtained renown.

Nor would the work, when finished, please so much,

As, while she wrought, to view each graceful touch;

Whether the shapeless wool in balls she wound,

Or with quick motion turned the spindle round,

Or with her pencil drew the neat design,
Pallas her mistress shone in every line.
This the proud maid with scornful air denies,
And even the goddess at her work defies;
Disowns her heavenly mistress every hour,
Nor asks her aid, nor deprecates her power.
Let us, she cries, but to a trial come,
And if she conquers, let her fix my doom."

It was rather an unfair trial of skill, at the end of which Minerva, getting angry, struck Arachne on the forehead with her shuttle of box-wood.

"The unhappy maid, impatient of the wrong,

Down from a beam her injured person hung;

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Fell to the ground and left her temples bare;
Her usual features vanished from their place,
Her body lessened all, but most her face.
Her slender fingers, hanging on each side
With many joints, the use of legs supplied;
A spider's bag the rest, from which she gives
A thread, and still by constant weaving lives.'

46. In the revolt of the Ten Tribes. 1 Kings xii. 18: "Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died; therefore King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem."

50. Amphiaraus, the soothsayer, foreseeing his own death if he went to the Theban war, concealed himself, to avoid going. His wife Eriphyle, bribed by a "golden necklace set with diamonds," betrayed to her brother Adrastus his hiding-place, and Amphiaraüs, departing, charged his son Alcmeon to kill Eriphyle as soon as he heard of his

death.

Ovid, Metamorph., IX. :

advice, collected all the forces of her the combats in which the barbarians have Of all kingdom, and gave him battle. engaged among themselves, I reckon this to have been the fiercest. The greater part of the army of the Persians was destroyed, and Cyrus himself fell, after reigning nine and twenty years. Search was made among the slain, by order of the queen, for the body of Cyrus, and when it was found, she took a skin, and filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corse, I live and have conquered thee in fight, and yet by thee am I ruined; for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood.' Of the many different accounts which are given of the death of Cyrus, this which I have followed appears to be the most worthy of credit."

59. After Judith had slain Holofernes. Judith xv. I: "And when they that were in the tents heard, they were astonished at the thing that was done. And fear and trembling fell upon them, so that there was no man that durst abide in the sight of his neighbour, but, rushing out altogether, they fled into every way of the plain and of the hill country.. Now when the children

"The son shall bathe his hands in parent's of Israel heard it, they all fell upon

blood,

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them with one consent, and slew them unto Chobai."

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'O," and " 'Displayed," of the preceding passage, and binds the whole as with a selvage.

Its

67. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 19: "There was probably never a period in which the influence of art over the minds of men seemed to depend less on its merely imitative power, than the close of the thirteenth century. No painting or sculpture at that time reached more than a rude resemblance of reality. despised perspective, imperfect chiaroscuro, and unrestrained flights of fantastic imagination, separated the artist's work from nature by an interval which there was no attempt to disguise, and little to diminish. And yet, at this very period, the greatest poet of that, or perhaps of any other age, and the attached frier d of

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