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The Divine Comedy of Dante

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NOTES TO PURGATORY

CANTO I

Verse 1. O'er better waves.] Berni, Orl. Inn. L 2. c. i.
Per correr maggior acqua alza le vele,
O debil navicella del mio ingegno.

v. 11. Birds of chattering note.] For the fable of the
daughters of Pierus, who challenged the muses to sing, and were
by them
changed into magpies, see Ovid, Met. 1. v. fab. 5.

v. 19. Planet.] Venus.

v. 20. Made all the orient laugh.] Hence Chaucer, Knight's
Tale: And all the orisont laugheth of the sight.

It is sometimes read "orient."

v. 24. Four stars.] Symbolical of the four cardinal virtues,
Prudence Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance. See Canto XXXI v.
105.

v. 30. The wain.] Charles's wain, or Bootes.

v. 31. An old man.] Cato.

v. 92. Venerable plumes.] The same metaphor has occurred in
Hell Canto XX. v. 41:

--the plumes,
That mark'd the better sex.

It is used by Ford in the Lady's Trial, a. 4. s. 2.

Now the down
Of softness is exchang'd for plumes of age.

v. 58. The farthest gloom.] L'ultima sera. Ariosto, Oroando
Furioso c. xxxiv st. 59:
Che non hen visto ancor l'ultima sera.

And Filicaja, c. ix. Al Sonno.
L'ultima sera.

v. 79. Marcia.]
Da fredera prisci
Illibata tori: da tantum nomen inane
Connubil: liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis
Martia
Lucan, Phars. 1. ii. 344.

v. 110. I spy'd the trembling of the ocean stream.]
Connubil il tremolar della marina.

Trissino, in the Sofonisba.]
E resta in tremolar l'onda marina

And Fortiguerra, Rleelardetto, c. ix. st. 17.
--visto il tremolar della marine.

v. 135. another.] From Virg, Aen. 1. vi. 143.
Primo avulso non deficit alter

CANTO II

v. 1. Now had the sun.] Dante was now antipodal to Jerusalem,
so that while the sun was setting with respect to that place
which he supposes to be the middle of the inhabited earth, to him
it was rising.

v. 6. The scales.] The constellation Libra.

v. 35. Winnowing the air.]
Trattando l'acre con l'eterne penne.

80 Filicaja, canz. viii. st. 11.
Ma trattar l'acre coll' eterne plume

v. 45. In exitu.] "When Israel came out of Egypt." Ps. cxiv.

v. 75. Thrice my hands.]
Ter conatus ibi eollo dare brachia eircum,
Ter frustra eomprensa manus effugit imago,
Par levibus ventis voluerique simillima sommo.
Virg. Aen. ii. 794.

Compare Homer, Od. xl. 205.

v. 88. My Casella.] A Florentine, celebrated for his skill in
music, "in whose company," says Landine, "Dante often recreated
his spirits wearied by severe studies." See Dr. Burney's History
of Music, vol. ii. c. iv. p. 322. Milton has a fine allusion to
this meeting in his sonnet to Henry Lawes.

v. 90. Hath so much time been lost.] Casella had been dead some
years but was only just arrived.

v. 91. He.] The eonducting angel.

v. 94. These three months past.] Since the time of the Jubilee,
during which all spirits not condemned to eternal punishment,
were supposed to pass over to Purgatory as soon as they pleased.

v. 96. The shore.] Ostia.

v. 170. "Love that discourses in my thoughts."]
"Amor che nella mente mi ragiona."
The first verse of a eanzone or song in the Convito of Dante,
which he again cites in his Treatise de Vulg. Eloq. 1. ii. c.
vi.

CANTO III

v. 9. How doth a little failing wound thee sore.]
(Ch'era al cor picciol fallo amaro morso.
Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 59.

v. 11. Haste, that mars all decency of act. Aristotle in his
Physiog iii. reekons it among the "the signs of an impudent
man," that he is "quick in his motions." Compare Sophoeles,
Electra, 878.

v. 26. To Naples.]
Virgil died at Brundusium, from whence his body is said to have
been removed to Naples.

v. 38. Desiring fruitlessly.] See H. Canto IV, 39.

v. 49. 'Twixt Lerice and Turbia.] At that time the two
extremities of the Genoese republic, the former on the east, the
latter on the west. A very ingenious writer has had occasion,
for a different purpose, to mention one of these places as
remarkably secluded by its mountainous situation "On an eminence
among the mountains, between the two little cities, Nice and
Manoca, is the village of Torbia, a name formed from the Greek
[GREEK HERE] Mitford on the Harmony of Language, sect. x. p. 351.
2d edit.

v. 78. As sheep.] The imitative nature of these animals
supplies our Poet with another comparison in his Convito Opere,
t. i. p 34. Ediz. Ven. 1793.

v. 110. Manfredi. King of Naples and Sicily, and the natural
son of Frederick II. He was lively end agreeable in his manners,
and delighted in poetry, music, and dancing. But he was luxurious
and ambitious. Void of religion, and in his philosophy an
Epicurean. See G. Villani l. vi. c. xlvii. and Mr. Matthias's
Tiraboschi, v. I. p. 38. He fell in the battle with Charles of
Anjou in 1265, alluded to in Canto XXVIII, of Hell, v. 13,
"Dying, excommunicated, King Charles did allow of his being
buried in sacred ground, but he was interred near the bridge of
Benevento, and on his grave there was cast a stone by every one
of the army whence there was formed a great mound of stones. But
some ave said, that afterwards, by command of the Pope. the
Bishop of Cosenza took up his body and sent it out of the
kingdom, because it was the land of the church, and that it was
buried by the river Verde, on the borders of the kingdom and of
Carapagna. this, however, we do not affirm." G. Villani, Hist.
l. vii. c. 9.

v. 111. Costanza.] See Paradise Canto III. v. 121.

v. 112. My fair daughter.] Costanza, the daughter of Manfredi,
and wife of Peter III. King of Arragon, by whom she was mother
to Frederick, King of Sicily and James, King of Arragon With the
latter of these she was at Rome 1296. See G. Villani, 1. viii. c.
18. and notes to Canto VII.

v. 122. Clement.] Pope Clement IV.

v. 127. The stream of Verde.] A river near Ascoli, that falls
into he Toronto. The "xtinguished lights " formed part of the
ceremony t the interment of one excommunicated.

v. 130. Hope.]
Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde.
Tasso, G. L. c. xix. st. 53.
--infin che verde e fior di speme.

CANTO IV

v. 1. When.] It must be owned the beginning of this Canto is
somewhat obscure. Bellutello refers, for an elucidation of it, to
the reasoning of Statius in the twenty-fifth canto. Perhaps some
illustration may be derived from the following, passage in
South's Sermons, in which I have ventured to supply the words
between crotchets that seemed to be wanting to complete
the sense. Now whether these three, judgement memory, and
invention, are three distinct things, both in being distinguished
from one another, and likewise from the substance of the soul
itself, considered without any such faculties, (or whether the
soul be one individual substance) but only receiving these
several denominations rom the several respects arising from the
several actions exerted immediately by itself upon several
objects, or several qualities of the same object, I say whether
of these it is, is not easy to decide, and it is well that it is
not necessary Aquinas, and most with him, affirm the former, and
Scotus with his followers the latter." Vol. iv. Serm. 1.

v. 23. Sanleo.] A fortress on the summit of Montefeltro.

v. 24. Noli.] In the Genoese territory, between Finale and
Savona.

v. 25. Bismantua.] A steep mountain in the territory of Reggio.

v. 55. From the left.] Vellutello observes an imitation of
Lucan in this passage:

Ignotum vobis, Arabes, venistis in orbem,
Umbras mirati nemornm non ire sinistras.
Phars. s. 1. iii. 248

v. 69 Thou wilt see.] "If you consider that this mountain of
Purgatory and that of Sion are antipodal to each other, you will
perceive that the sun must rise on opposite sides of the
respective eminences."

v. 119. Belacqua.] Concerning this man, the commentators afford
no information.

CANTO V

v. 14. Be as a tower.] Sta ome torre ferma

Berni, Orl. Inn. 1. 1. c. xvi. st. 48:
In quei due piedi sta fermo il gigante
Com' una torre in mezzo d'un castello.

And Milton, P. L. b. i. 591.
Stood like a tower.

v. 36. Ne'er saw I fiery vapours.] Imitated by Tasso, G. L, c.
xix t. 62:
Tal suol fendendo liquido sereno
Stella cader della gran madre in seno.

And by Milton, P. L. b. iv. 558:
Swift as a shooting star
In autumn thwarts the night, when vapours fir'd
Impress the air.

v. 67. That land.] The Marca d'Ancona, between Romagna and
Apulia, the kingdom of Charles of Anjou.

v. 76. From thence I came.] Giacopo del Cassero, a citizen of
Fano who having spoken ill of Azzo da Este, Marquis of Ferrara,
was by his orders put to death. Giacopo, was overtaken by the
assassins at Oriaco a place near the Brenta, from whence, if he
had fled towards Mira, higher up on that river, instead of making
for the marsh on the sea shore, he might have escaped.

v. 75. Antenor's land.] The city of Padua, said to be founded
by Antenor.

v. 87. Of Montefeltro I.] Buonconte (son of Guido da
Montefeltro, whom we have had in the twenty-seventh Canto of
Hell) fell in the battle of Campaldino (1289), fighting on the
side of the Aretini.

v. 88. Giovanna.] Either the wife, or kinswoman, of Buonconte.

v. 91. The hermit's seat.] The hermitage of Camaldoli.

v. 95. Where its name is cancel'd.] That is, between Bibbiena
and Poppi, where the Archiano falls into the Arno.

v. 115. From Pratomagno to the mountain range.] From Pratomagno
now called Prato Vecchio (which divides the Valdarno from
Casentino) as far as to the Apennine.

v. 131. Pia.] She is said to have been a Siennese lady, of the
family of Tolommei, secretly made away with by her husband, Nello
della Pietra, of the same city, in Maremma, where he had some
possessions.

CANTO VI

v. 14. Of Arezzo him.] Benincasa of Arezzo, eminent for his
skill in jurisprudence, who, having condemned to death Turrino da
Turrita brother of Ghino di Tacco, for his robberies in Maremma,
was murdered by Ghino, in an apartment of his own house, in the
presence of many witnesses. Ghino was not only suffered to escape
in safety, but (as the commentators inform us) obtained so high a
reputation by the liberality with which he was accustomed to
dispense the fruits of his plunder, and treated those who fell
into his hands with so much courtesy, that he was afterwards
invited to Rome, and knighted by Boniface VIII. A story is told
of him by Boccaccio, G. x. N. 2.

v. 15. Him beside.] Ciacco de' Tariatti of Arezzo. He is said
to have been carried by his horse into the Arno, and there
drowned, while he was in pursuit of certain of his enemies.

v. 17. Frederic Novello.] Son of the Conte Guido da Battifolle,
and slain by one of the family of Bostoli.

v. 18. Of Pisa he.] Farinata de' Scornigiani of Pisa. His
father Marzuco, who had entered the order of the Frati Minori, so
entirely overcame the feelings of resentment, that he even kissed
the hands of the slayer of his son, and, as he was following the
funeral, exhorted his kinsmen to reconciliation.

v. 20. Count 0rso.] Son of Napoleone da Cerbaia, slain by
Alberto da Mangona, his uncle.

v. 23. Peter de la Brosse.] Secretary of Philip III of France.
The courtiers, envying the high place which he held in the king's
favour, prevailed on Mary of Brabant to charge him falsely with
an attempt upon her person for which supposed crime he suffered
death. So say the Italian commentators. Henault represents the
matter very differently: "Pierre de la Brosse, formerly barber to
St. Louis, afterwards the favorite of Philip, fearing the too
great attachment of the king for his wife Mary, accuses this
princess of having poisoned Louis, eldest son of Philip, by his
first marriage. This calumny is discovered by a nun of Nivelle in
Flanders. La Brosse is hung." Abrege Chron. t. 275, &c.

v. 30. In thy text.] He refers to Virgil, Aen. 1, vi. 376.
Desine fata deum flecti sperare precando, 37. The sacred height
Of judgment. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, a. ii. s. 2.
If he, which is the top of judgment

v. 66. Eyeing us as a lion on his watch.]
A guisa di Leon quando si posa.
A line taken by Tasso, G. L. c. x. st. 56.

v. 76. Sordello.] The history of Sordello's life is wrapt in
the obscurity of romance. That he distinguished himself by his
skill in Provencal poetry is certain. It is probable that he was
born towards the end of the twelfth, and died about the middle of
the succeeding century. Tiraboschi has taken much pains to sift
all the notices he could collect relating to him. Honourable
mention of his name is made by our Poet in the Treatise de Vulg.
Eloq. 1. i. c. 15.

v. 76. Thou inn of grief.]
Thou most beauteous inn
Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee?
Shakespeare, Richard II a. 5. s. 1.

v. 89. Justinian's hand.] "What avails it that Justinian
delivered thee from the Goths, and reformed thy laws, if thou art
no longer under the control of his successors in the empire?"

v. 94. That which God commands.] He alludes to the precept-
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's."

v. 98. O German Albert!] The Emperor Albert I. succeeded
Adolphus in 1298, and was murdered in 1308. See Par Canto XIX
114 v. 103. Thy successor.] The successor of Albert was Henry
of Luxembourg, by whose interposition in the affairs of Italy our
Poet hoped to have been reinstated in his native city.

v. 101. Thy sire.] The Emperor Rodolph, too intent on
increasing his power in Germany to give much of his thoughts to
Italy, "the garden of the empire."

v. 107. Capulets and Montagues.] Our ears are so familiarized
to the names of these rival families in the language of
Shakespeare, that I have used them instead of the "Montecchi" and
"Cappelletti."

v. 108. Philippeschi and Monaldi.] Two other rival families in
Orvieto.

v. 113. What safety, Santafiore can supply.] A place between
Pisa and Sienna. What he alludes to is so doubtful, that it is
not certain whether we should not read "come si cura"--" How
Santafiore is governed." Perhaps the event related in the note to
v. 58, Canto XI. may be pointed at.

v. 127. Marcellus.]
Un Marcel diventa
Ogni villan che parteggiando viene.
Repeated by Alamanni in his Coltivazione, 1. i.

v. 51. I sick wretch.] Imitated by the Cardinal de Polignac in
his Anti-Lucretius, 1. i. 1052.

Ceu lectum peragrat membris languentibus aeger
In latus alterne faevum dextrumque recumbens
Nec javat: inde oculos tollit resupinus in altum:
Nusquam inventa quies; semper quaesita: quod illi
Primum in deliciis fuerat, mox torquet et angit:
Nec morburm sanat, nec fallit taedia morbi.

CANTO VII

v. 14. Where one of mean estate might clasp his lord.]
Ariosto Orl. F. c. xxiv. st. 19

E l'abbracciaro, ove il maggior s'abbraccia
Col capo nudo e col ginocchio chino.

v. 31. The three holy virtues.] Faith, Hope and Charity.

v. 32. The red.] Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance.

v. 72. Fresh emeralds.]
Under foot the violet,
Crocus, and hyacinth with rich inlay
Broider'd the ground, more colour'd than with stone
Of costliest emblem.
Milton, P. L. b. iv. 793

Compare Ariosto, Orl. F. c. xxxiv. st. 49.

v. 79. Salve Regina.] The beginning of a prayer to the Virgin.
It is sufficient here to observe, that in similar instances I
shall either preserve the original Latin words or translate them,
as it may seem best to suit the purpose of the verse.

v. 91. The Emperor Rodolph.] See the last Canto, v. 104. He
died in 1291.

v. 95. That country.] Bohemia.

v. 97. Ottocar.] King of Bohemia, was killed in the battle of
Marchfield, fought with Rodolph, August 26, 1278. Winceslaus II.
His son,who succeeded him in the kingdom of Bohemia. died in
1305. He is again taxed with luxury in the Paradise Canto XIX.
123.

v. 101. That one with the nose deprest. ] Philip III of France,
who died in 1285, at Perpignan, in his retreat from Arragon.

v. 102. Him of gentle look.] Henry of Naverre, father of Jane
married to Philip IV of France, whom Dante calls "mal di Francia"
-" Gallia's bane."

v. 110. He so robust of limb.] Peter III called the Great,
King of Arragon, who died in 1285, leaving four sons, Alonzo,
James, Frederick and Peter. The two former succeeded him in the
kingdom of Arragon, and Frederick in that of Sicily.
See G. Villani, 1. vii. c. 102. and Mariana, I. xiv. c. 9.
He is enumerated among the Provencal poets by Millot, Hist. Litt.
Des Troubadours, t. iii. p. 150.

v. 111. Him of feature prominent.] "Dal maschio naso"-with the
masculine nose." Charles I. King of Naples, Count of Anjou, and
brother of St. Lonis. He died in 1284. The annalist of Florence
remarks, that "there had been no sovereign of the house of
France, since the time of Charlemagne, by whom Charles
was surpassed either in military renown, and prowess, or in the
loftiness of his understanding." G. Villani, 1. vii. c. 94.
We shall, however, find many of his actions severely reprobated
in the twentieth Canto.

v. 113. That stripling.] Either (as the old commentators
suppose) Alonzo III King of Arragon, the eldest son of Peter III
who died in 1291, at the age of 27, or, according to Venturi,
Peter the youngest son. The former was a young prince of virtue
sufficient to have justified the eulogium and the hopes of Dante.

See Mariana, 1. xiv. c. 14.

v. 119. Rarely.]
Full well can the wise poet of Florence
That hight Dante, speaken in this sentence
Lo! in such manner rime is Dantes tale.
Full selde upriseth by his branches smale
Prowesse of man for God of his goodnesse
Woll that we claim of him our gentlenesse:
For of our elders may we nothing claime
But temporal thing, that men may hurt and maime.
Chaucer, Wife of Bathe's Tale.

Compare Homer, Od. b. ii. v. 276; Pindar, Nem. xi. 48 and
Euripides, Electra, 369.

v. 122. To Charles.] "Al Nasuto." -"Charles II King of Naples,
is no less inferior to his father Charles I. than James and
Frederick to theirs, Peter III."

v. 127. Costanza.] Widow of Peter III She has been already
mentioned in the third Canto, v. 112. By Beatrice and Margaret
are probably meant two of the daughters of Raymond Berenger,
Count of Provence; the former married to St. Louis of France, the
latter to his brother Charles of Anjou.
See Paradise, Canto Vl. 135. Dante therefore considers Peter as
the most illustrious of the three monarchs.

v. 129. Harry of England.] Henry III.

v. 130. Better issue.] Edward l. of whose glory our Poet was
perhaps a witness, in his visit to England.

v. 133. William, that brave Marquis.] William, Marquis of
Monferrat, was treacherously seized by his own subjects, at
Alessandria, in Lombardy, A.D. 1290, and ended his life in
prison. See G. Villani, 1. vii. c. 135. A war ensued between the
people of Alessandria and those of Monferrat and the Canavese.

CANTO VIII

v. 6. That seems to mourn for the expiring day.]
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. Gray's Elegy.

v. 13. Te Lucis Ante.] The beginning of one of the evening
hymns.

v. 36. As faculty.]

My earthly by his heav'nly overpower'd
* * * *
As with an object, that excels the sense,
Dazzled and spent.
Milton, P. L. b. viii. 457.

v. 53. Nino, thou courteous judge.] Nino di Gallura de'
Visconti nephew to Count Ugolino de' Gherardeschi, and betrayed
by him. See Notes to Hell Canto XXXIII.

v. 65. Conrad.] Currado Malaspina.

v. 71 My Giovanna.] The daughter of Nino, and wife of
Riccardo da Cammino of Trevigi.

v. 73. Her mother.] Beatrice, marchioness of Este wife of Nino,
and after his death married to Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan.

v. 74. The white and wimpled folds.] The weeds of widowhood.

v. 80. The viper.] The arms of Galeazzo and the ensign of the
Milanese.

v. 81. Shrill Gallura's bird.] The cock was the ensign of
Gallura, Nino's province in Sardinia. Hell, Canto XXII. 80. and
Notes.

v. 115. Valdimagra.] See Hell, Canto XXIV. 144. and Notes.

v. 133. Sev'n times the tired sun.] "The sun shall not enter
into the constellation of Aries seven times more, before thou
shalt have still better cause for the good opinion thou
expresses" of Valdimagra, in the kind reception thou shalt there
meet with." Dante was hospitably received by the Marchese
Marcello Malaspina, during his banishment. A.D. 1307.

CANTO IX

v. 1. Now the fair consort of Tithonus old.]
La concubina di Titone antico.
So Tassoni, Secchia Rapita, c. viii. st. 15.
La puttanella del canuto amante.

v. 5. Of that chill animal.] The scorpion.

v. 14. Our minds.] Compare Hell, Canto XXVI. 7.

v. 18. A golden-feathered eagle. ] Chaucer, in the house of
Fame at the conclusion of the first book and beginning of the
second, represents himself carried up by the "grim pawes" of a
golden eagle. Much of his description is closely imitated from
Dante.

v. 50. Lucia.] The enIightening, grace of heaven Hell, Canto
II. 97.

v. 85. The lowest stair.] By the white step is meant the
distinctness with which the conscience of the penitent reflects
his offences, by the burnt and cracked one, his contrition on,
their account; and by that of porphyry, the fervour with which he
resolves on the future pursuit of piety and virtue. Hence, no
doubt, Milton describing "the gate of heaven," P. L. b.
iii. 516.

Each stair mysteriously was meant.

v. 100. Seven times.] Seven P's, to denote the seven sins
(Peccata) of which he was to be cleansed in his passage through
purgatory.

v. 115. One is more precious.] The golden key denotes the
divine authority by which the priest absolves the sinners the
silver expresses the learning and
judgment requisite for the due discharge of that office.

v. 127. Harsh was the grating.]
On a sudden open fly
With impetuous recoil and jarring, sound
Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harsh thunder
Milton, P. L. b. ii 882

v. 128. The Turpeian.]
Protinus, abducto patuerunt temple Metello.
Tunc rupes Tarpeia sonat: magnoque reclusas
Testatur stridore fores: tune conditus imo
Eruitur tempo multis intactus ab annnis
Romani census populi, &c.
Lucan. Ph. 1. iii. 157.

CANTO X

v. 6. That Wound.] Venturi justly observes, that the Padre
d'Aquino has misrepresented the sense of this passage in his
translation.

--dabat ascensum tendentibus ultra
Scissa tremensque silex, tenuique erratica motu.

The verb "muover"' is used in the same signification in the
Inferno, Canto XVIII. 21.

Cosi da imo della roccia scogli
Moven.

--from the rock's low base
Thus flinty paths advanc'd.

In neither place is actual motion intended to be expressed.

v. 52. That from unbidden. office awes mankind.] Seo 2 Sam. G.

v 58. Preceding.] Ibid. 14, &c.

v. 68. Gregory.] St. Gregory's prayers are said to have
delivered Trajan from hell. See Paradise, Canto XX. 40.

v. 69. Trajan the Emperor. For this story, Landino refers to
two writers, whom he calls "Heunando," of France, by whom he
means Elinand, a monk and chronicler, in the reign of Philip
Augustus, and "Polycrato," of England, by whom is meant John of
Salisbury, author of the Polycraticus de Curialium Nugis, in the
twelfth century. The passage in the text I find to be
nearly a translation from that work, 1. v. c. 8. The original
appears to be in Dio Cassius, where it is told of the Emperor
Hadrian, lib. I xix. [GREEK HERE]
When a woman appeared to him with a suit, as he was on a journey,
at first he answered her, 'I have no leisure,' but she crying
out to him, 'then reign no longer' he turned about, and heard her
cause."

v. 119. As to support.] Chillingworth, ch.vi. 54. speaks of
"those crouching anticks, which seem in great buildings to labour
under the weight they bear." And Lord Shaftesbury has a similar
illustration in his Essay on Wit and Humour, p. 4. s. 3.

CANTO XI

v. 1. 0 thou Mighty Father.] The first four lines are borrowed
by Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. vi.
Dante, in his 'Credo,' has again versified the Lord's prayer.

v. 58. I was of Latinum.] Omberto, the son of Guglielino
Aldobrandeseo, Count of Santafiore, in the territory of Sienna
His arrogance provoked his countrymen to such a pitch of fury
against him, that he was murdered by them at Campagnatico.

v. 79. Oderigi.] The illuminator, or miniature painter, a
friend of Giotto and Dante

v. 83. Bolognian Franco.] Franco of Bologna, who is said to
have been a pupil of Oderigi's.

v. 93. Cimabue.] Giovanni Cimabue, the restorer of painting,
was born at Florence, of a noble family, in 1240, and died in
1300. The passage in the text is an illusion to his epitaph:

Credidit ut Cimabos picturae castra tenere,
Sic tenuit vivens: nunc tenet astra poli.

v. 95. The cry is Giotto's.] In Giotto we have a proof at how
early a period the fine arts were encouraged in Italy. His
talents were discovered by Cimabue, while he was tending sheep
for his father in the neighbourhood of Florence, and he was
afterwards patronized by Pope Benedict XI and Robert King of
Naples, and enjoyed the society and friendship of Dante, whose
likeness he has transmitted to posterity. He died in 1336, at
the age of 60.

v. 96. One Guido from the other.] Guido Cavalcanti, the friend
of our Poet, (see Hell, Canto X. 59.) had eclipsed the literary
fame of Guido Guinicelli, of a noble family in Bologna, whom we
shall meet with in the twenty-sixth Canto and of whom frequent
mention is made by our Poet in his Treatise de Vulg. Eloq.
Guinicelli died in 1276. Many of Cavalcanti's writings, hitherto
in MS. are now publishing at Florence" Esprit des Journaux, Jan.
1813.

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