founded Dryden's poem of Theodore and "Of calling shapes and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names.' Honoria. 109. Ariosto, Orlando Furioso, I. 1 :— "The dames, the cavaliers, the arms, the loves, The courtesies, the daring deeds I sing." 112. Brettinoro, now Bertinoro, is a small town in Romagna, between Forlì and Cesena, in which lived many of the families that have just been mentioned. The hills about it are still celebrated for their wines, as its inhabitants were in old times for their hospitality. The following anecdote is told of them by the Ottimo, and also in nearly the same words in the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 89: Among other laudable customs of the nobles of Brettinoro was that of hospitality, and their not permitting any man in the town to keep an inn for money. But there was a stone column in the middle of the town," (upon which were rings or knockers, as if all the front-doors were there represented), "and to this, as soon as a stranger made his appearance, he was conducted, and to one of the rings hitched his horse or hung his hat upon it; and thus, as chance decreed, he was taken to the house of the gentleman to whom the ring belonged, and honoured according to his rank. This column and its rings were invented to remove all cause of quarrel among the noblemen, who used to run to get possession of a stranger, as now-a-days they almost run away from him." 66 115. Towns in Romagna. "Bagnacavallo, and Castrocaro, and Conio,' says the Ottimo, were all habitations of courtesy and honour. Now in Bagnacavallo the Counts are extinct; and he (Dante) says it does well to produce no more of them because they had degenerated like those of Conio and Castrocaro. 118. The Pagani were Lords of Faenza and Imola, The head of the family, Mainardo, was surnamed "the Devil." -See Inf. XXVII. Note 49. His bad repute will always be a reproach to the family. 121. A nobleman of Faenza, who died without heirs, and thus his name was safe. 132. Milton, Comus: These voices in the air proclaim ex amples of envy. 133. Genesis iv. 13, 14: "And Cain said unto the Lord, Every one that findeth me shall slay me." 139. Aglauros through envy opposed the interview of Mercury with her sister Herse, and was changed by the god into stone. Ovid, Metamorph., I., Addison's Tr.:: "Then keep thy seat for ever,' cries the god, And touched the door, wide opening to his rod. Fain would she rise and stop him, but she found Her trunk too heavy to forsake the ground: Her joints are all benumbed, her hands are pale, And marble now appears in every nail. She sits unmoved, and freezes to a stone. 3 147. The falconer's call or lure, which he whirls round in the air to attract the falcon on the wing, 148. Ovid, Metamorph., I., Dryden's Tr. : "Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies." 150. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Laws of Candy, IV. 1 :— "Seldom despairing men look up to heaven, Although it still speaks to 'em in its glories; For when sad thoughts perplex the mind of There is a plummet in the heart that weighs And pulls us, living, to the dust we came from." man, CANTO XV. 1. In this canto is described the ascent to the Third Circle of the mountain. The hour indicated by the peculiarly Dantesque introduction is three hours before sunset, or the beginning of that division of the canonical day called Vespers. Dante states this simple fact with curious circumlocution, as if he would imitate the celestial sphere in this scherzoso movement. The beginning of day is sunrise; consequently the end the third hour, three hours after sunse, is represented by an arc of the celesial sphere measuring forty-five degrees. The sun had still an equal space to pass over before his setting. This would make it afternoon in Purgatory, and midnight n Tuscany, where Dante was writing the poem. 20. From a perpendicular. 38. Matthew v. 7: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy;' -sung by the spirits that remained behind. See Canto XII. Note 110. 39. Perhaps an allusion to "what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Revelation ii. 7: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." And also the "hidden manna,' and the "morning star," and the "white raiment," and the name not blotted "out of the book of life." 55. Milton, Par. Lost, V. 71:- 67. Convito, IV. 20: "According to the Apostle, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.' He says then that God only giveth this grace to the soul of him whom he sees to be prepared and disposed in his person to receive this divine act.. . . . Whence if the soul is imperfectly placed, it is not disposed to receive this blessed and divine infusion; as when a pearl is badly disposed, or is imperfect, it cannot receive the celestial virtue, as the noble Guido Guinizzelli says in an ode of his, beginning, To noble heart love doth for shelter fly.' The soul, then, may be ill placed in the person through defect of temperament, or of time; and in such a soul this divine radiance never shines. And of those whose souls are deprived of this light it may be said that they are like valleys turned toward the north, or like subterranean caverns, where the light of the sun never falls, unless reflected from some other place illuminated by it." The following are the first two stanzas of Guido's Ode: "To noble heart love doth for shelter fly, As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade; Was formed, so soon the clear light filled Yet was not till he came ; So love springs up in noble breasts, and As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted place. "Kindles in noble heart the fire of love, As hidden virtue in the precious stone; Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars Strange virtue in their rays; And thus when nature doth create the heart Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye." Par. XIV. 40: 70. "Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour, The ardour to the vision, and the vision Equals what grace it has above its merit." 89. Luke ii. 48: "And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." 97. The contest between Neptune and Minerva for the right of naming Athens, in which Minerva carried the day by the vote of the women. This is one of the subjects which Minerva wrought in her trial of skill with Arachne. Ovid, Metamorph., VI. :— "Pallas in figures wrought the heavenly powers, And, looking sternly, smote the ragged rock; When from the stone leapt forth a sprightly steed, And Neptune claims the city for the deed. Herself she blazons, with a glittering spear, And crested helm that veiled her braided hair, With shield, and scaly breastplate, implements of war. Struck with her pointed lance, the teeming earth Seemed to produce a new, surprising birth: When from the glebe the pledge of conquest ΙΟΙ. Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, who used his power so nobly as to make the people forget the usurpation by which he had attained it. Among his good deeds was the collection and preservation of the Homeric poems, which but for him might have perished. He was also the first to found a public library in Athens. This anecdote is told by Valerius Maximus, Fact. ac Dict., VI. 1. 106. The stoning of Stephen. Acts vii. 54: "They gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. .. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge! And when he had said this, he fell asleep." 117. He recognizes it to be a vision, but not false, because it symbolized the truth. I. CANTO XVI. The Third Circle of Purgatory, and the punishment of the Sin of Pride. 2. Poor, or impoverished of its stars by clouds. The same expression is applied to the Arno, Canto XIV. 45, to indicate its want of water. 19. In the Litany of the Saints :"Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the word, spare us, O Lord. "Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. "Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us!" 27. Still living the life temporal, where time is measured by the calendar. 46. Marco Lombardo, was a Venetian nobleman, a man of wit and learning and a friend of Dante. "Nearly all that he gained," says the Ottimo, "he spent in charity. He visited Paris, and, as long as his money lasted, he was esteemed for his valour and courtesy. Afterwards he depended upon those richer than himself, and lived and died honourably." There are some anecdotes of him in the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 41, 52, hardly worth quoting. It is doubtful whether the name of Lombardo is a family name, or only indicates that Marco was an Italian, after the fashion then prevalent among the French of calling all Italians Lombards. See Note 124. Benvenuto says of him that he " was a man of noble mind, but disdainful, and easily moved to anger." Buti's portrait is as follows: "This Marco was a Venetian, called Marco Daca; and was a very learned man, and had many political virtues, and was very courteous, giving to poor noblemen all that he gained, and he gained much; for he was a courtier, and was much beloved for his virtue, and much was given him by the nobility; and as he gave to those who were in need, so he lent to all who asked. So that, coming to die, and having much still due to him, he made a will, and among other bequests this, that whoever owed him should not be held to pay the debt, saying, 'Whoever has, may keep." Portarelli thinks that this Marco may be Marco Polo the traveller; but this is inadmissible, as he was still living at the time of Dante's death. 57. What Guido del Duca has told him of the corruption of Italy, in Canto XIV. 64. Ovid, Metamorph., X., Ozell's Tr. : "The god upon its leaves The sad expression of his sorrow weaves, And to this hour the mournful purple wears Ai, ai, inscribed in funeral characters." 67. See the article Cabala, at the end of Paradiso. 69. Boëthius, Cons. Phil., V. Prosa 29 Ridpath's Tr. : "But in this indissoluble chain of causes, can we preserve the liberty of the will? Does this fatal Necessity restrain the motions of the human soul?'"There is no reasonable being,' replied she, 'who has not freedom of will: for every being distinguished with this faculty is endowed with judgment to perceive the differences of things; to discover what he is to avoid or pursue. Now what a person esteems desirable, he dr P sires; but what he thinks ought to be avoided, he shuns. Thus every rational creature hath a liberty of choosing and rejecting. But I do not assert that this liberty is equal in all beings. Heavenly substances, who are exalted above us, have an enlightened judgment, an incorruptible will, and a power ever at command effectually to accomplish their desires. With regard to man, his immaterial spirit is also free; but it is most at liberty when employed in the contemplation of the Divine mind; it becomes less so when it enters into a body; and is still more restrained when it is imprisoned in a terrestrial habitation, composed of members of clay; and is reduced, in fine, to the most extreme servitude when, by plunging into the pollutions of vice, it totally departs from reason: for the soul no sooner turns her eye from the radiance of supreme truth to dark and base objects, but she is involved in a mist of ignorance, assailed by impure desires; by yielding to which she increases her thraldom, and thus the freedom which she derives from nature becomes in some measure the cause of her slavery. But the eye of Providence, which sees everything from eternity, perceives all this; and that same Providence disposes everything she has predestinated, in the order it deserves. Homer says of the sun, It sees everything and hears everything.' As Also Milton, Parad. Lost, II. 557 :"Others apart sat on a hill retired, In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high latter, that the person sits; in the former, 78. Ptolemy says, "The wise man c shall control the stars ;" and the Turkish proverb, " Wit and a strong will are 10 superior to Fate." 79. Though free, you are subject to the divine power which has immediately breathed into you the soul, and the soul is not subject to the influence of the stars, as the body is. 84. Shakespeare, Lear, V. 3:— 92. Convito, IV. 12: "The supreme desire of everything, and that first given by nature, is to return to its source; and since God is the source of our souls, and maker of them in his own likeness, as is written, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,' to him this soul chiefly desireth to return. And like as a pil See also Par. XVII. Note 40. 70. Boëthius, Cons. Phil., V. Prosa 3, grim, who goeth upon a road on which Ridpath's Tr. he never was before, thinketh every "But I shall now endeavour to demon-house he seeth afar off to be an inn, and strate, that, in whatever way the chain of causes is disposed, the event of things which are foreseen is necessary; although prescience may not appear to be the necessitating cause of their befalling. For example, if a person sits, the opinion formed of him that he is seated is of necessity true; but by inverting the phrase, if the opinion is true that he is seared, he must necessarily sit. In both cases, then, there is a necessity; in the not finding it so, directeth his trust to the next, and thus from 'house to house until he reacheth the inn; in like manner our soul, presently as she entereth the new and untravelled road of this life, turneth her eyes to. the goal of her su preme good; and therefore whatever thing she seeth that seemeth to have some good in it, she believeth to be that. And because her knowledge at first is imperfect, not being experienced nor 20 I 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 And this cometh to then greater still. 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 " 'The camel be 99. Leviticus xi. 4: cause he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof: he is unclean to you." Dante applies these words to the Pope as temporal sovereign. 101. Worldly goods. As in the old French satirical verses : "Au temps passé du siècle d'or, Second. Gregory retained the ambition, He was still master of all his "Frederick the Second, with many of 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 JeruHe was beginning to be at once Cæsar would bear no superior, the suc- salem. 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 P 2 f |