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The Divine Comedy of Dante

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v. 25. No long space my flesh
Was naked of me.]
Quae corpus complexa animae tam fortis inane.
Ovid. Met. l. xiii f. 2
Dante appears to have fallen into a strange anachronism. Virgil's
death did not happen till long after this period.

v. 42. Adders and cerastes.]
Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.
Virg. Aen. l. vi. 281.
--spinaque vagi torquente cerastae
. . . et torrida dipsas
Et gravis in geminum vergens eaput amphisbaena.
Lucan. Pharsal. l. ix. 719.
So Milton:
Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire,
Cerastes horn'd, hydrus and elops drear,
And dipsas.
P. L. b. x. 524.

v. 67. A wind.] Imitated by Berni, Orl. Inn. l. 1. e. ii. st.
6.

v. 83. With his wand.]
She with her rod did softly smite the raile
Which straight flew ope.
Spenser. F. Q. b. iv. c. iii. st. 46.

v. 96. What profits at the fays to but the horn.] "Of what
avail can it be to offer violence to impassive beings?"

v. 97. Your Cerberus.] Cerberus is feigned to have been dragged
by Hercules, bound with a three fold chain, of which, says the
angel, he still bears the marks.

v. 111. The plains of Arles.] In Provence. See Ariosto, Orl.
Fur. c. xxxix. st. 72

v. 112. At Pola.] A city of Istria, situated near the gulf of
Quarnaro, in the Adriatic sea.

CANTO X

v. 12. Josaphat.] It seems to have been a common opinion among
the Jews, as well as among many Christians, that the general
judgment will be held in the valley of Josaphat, or Jehoshaphat:
"I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into
the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my
people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations, and parted my land." Joel, iii. 2.

v. 32. Farinata.] Farinata degli Uberti, a noble Florentine,
was the leader of the Ghibelline faction, when they obtained a
signal victory over the Guelfi at Montaperto, near the river
Arbia. Macchiavelli calls him "a man of exalted soul, and great
military talents." Hist. of Flor. b. ii.

v. 52. A shade.] The spirit of Cavalcante Cavalcanti, a noble
Florentine, of the Guelph party.

v. 59. My son.] Guido, the son of Cavalcante Cavalcanti; "he
whom I call the first of my friends," says Dante in his Vita
Nuova, where the commencement of their friendship is related.
>From the character given of him by contemporary writers his
temper was well formed to assimilate with that of our poet. "He
was," according to G. Villani, l. viii. c. 41. "of a
philosophical and elegant mind, if he had not been too delicate
and fastidious." And Dino Compagni terms him "a young and noble
knight, brave and courteous, but of a lofty scornful spirit, much
addicted to solitude and study." Muratori. Rer. Ital. Script t. 9
l. 1. p. 481. He died, either in exile at Serrazana, or soon
after his return to Florence, December 1300, during the spring of
which year the action of this poem is supposed to be passing.
v. 62. Guido thy son
Had in contempt.]
Guido Cavalcanti, being more given to philosophy than poetry, was
perhaps no great admirer of Virgil. Some poetical compositions by
Guido are, however, still extant; and his reputation for skill in
the art was such as to eclipse that of his predecessor and
namesake Guido Guinicelli, as we shall see in the Purgatory,
Canto XI. His "Canzone sopra il Terreno Amore" was thought
worthy of being illustrated by numerous and ample commentaries.
Crescimbeni Ist. della Volg. Poes. l. v.
For a playful sonnet which Dante addressed to him, and a spirited
translation of it, see Hayley's Essay on Epic Poetry, Notes to
Ep. iii.

v. 66. Saidst thou he had?] In Aeschylus, the shade of Darius
is represented as inquiring with similar anxiety after the fate
of his son Xerxes.

[GREEK HERE]

Atossa: Xerxes astonish'd, desolate, alone--
Ghost of Dar: How will this end? Nay, pause not. Is he safe?
The Persians. Potter's Translation.

v. 77. Not yet fifty times.] "Not fifty months shall be passed,
before thou shalt learn, by woeful experience, the difficulty of
returning from banishment to thy native city"

v.83. The slaughter.] "By means of Farinata degli Uberti, the
Guelfi were conquered by the army of King Manfredi, near the
river Arbia, with so great a slaughter, that those who escaped
from that defeat took refuge not in Florence, which city they
considered as lost to them, but in Lucca." Macchiavelli. Hist.
of Flor. b 2.

v. 86. Such orisons.] This appears to allude to certain prayers
which were offered up in the churches of Florence, for
deliverance from the hostile attempts of the Uberti.

v. 90. Singly there I stood.] Guido Novello assembled a council
of the Ghibellini at Empoli where it was agreed by all, that, in
order to maintain the ascendancy of the Ghibelline party in
Tuscany, it was necessary to destroy Florence, which could serve
only (the people of that city beingvGuelfi) to enable the party
attached to the church to recover its strength. This cruel
sentence, passed upon so noble a city, met with no opposition
from any of its citizens or friends, except Farinata degli
Uberti, who openly and without reserve forbade the measure,
affirming that he had endured so many hardships, and encountered
so many dangers, with no other view than that of being able to
pass his days in his own country. Macchiavelli. Hist. of Flor. b.
2.

v. 103. My fault.] Dante felt remorse for not having returned
an immediate answer to the inquiry of Cavalcante, from which
delay he was led to believe that his son Guido was no longer
living.

v. 120. Frederick.] The Emperor Frederick the Second, who died
in 1250. See Notes to Canto XIII.

v. 121. The Lord Cardinal.] Ottaviano Ubaldini, a Florentine,
made Cardinal in 1245, and deceased about 1273. On account of
his great influence, he was generally known by the appellation of
"the Cardinal." It is reported of him that he declared, if there
were any such thing as a human soul, he had lost his for the
Ghibellini.

v. 132. Her gracious beam.] Beatrice.

CANTO XI

v. 9. Pope Anastasius.] The commentators are not agreed
concerning the identity of the person, who is here mentioned as a
follower of the heretical Photinus. By some he is supposed to
have been Anastasius the Second, by others, the Fourth of that
name; while a third set, jealous of the integrity of the papal
faith, contend that our poet has confounded him with Anastasius
1. Emperor of the East.

v. 17. My son.] The remainder of the present Canto may be
considered as a syllabus of the whole of this part of the poem.

v. 48. And sorrows.] This fine moral, that not to enjoy our
being is to be ungrateful to the Author of it, is well expressed
in Spenser, F. Q. b. iv. c. viii. st. 15.
For he whose daies in wilful woe are worne
The grace of his Creator doth despise,
That will not use his gifts for thankless
nigardise.

v. 53. Cahors.] A city in Guienne, much frequented by usurers

v. 83. Thy ethic page.] He refers to Aristotle's Ethics.

[GREEK HERE]

"In the next place, entering, on another division of the subject,
let it be defined. that respecting morals there are three sorts
of things to be avoided, malice, incontinence, and brutishness."

v. 104. Her laws.] Aristotle's Physics. [GREEK
HERE] "Art imitates nature." --See the Coltivazione of Alamanni,
l. i.

-I'arte umana, &c.

v. 111. Creation's holy book.] Genesis, c. iii. v. 19. "In the
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread."

v. 119. The wain.] The constellation Bootes, or Charles's wain.

CANTO XII

v. 17. The king of Athens.] Theseus, who was enabled, by the
instructions of Ariadne, the sister of the Minotaur, to destroy
that monster.

v. 21. Like to a bull.] [GREEK HERE] Homer Il. xvii 522
As when some vig'rous youth with sharpen'd axe
A pastur'd bullock smites behind the horns
And hews the muscle through; he, at the stroke
Springs forth and falls.
Cowper's Translation.

v. 36. He arriv'd.] Our Saviour, who, according to Dante, when
he ascended from hell, carried with him the souls of the
patriarchs, and other just men, out of the first circle. See
Canto IV.

v. 96. Nessus.] Our poet was probably induced, by the following
line in Ovid, to assign to Nessus the task of conducting them
over the ford:
Nessus edit membrisque valens scitusque vadorum.
Metam, l. ix.
And Ovid's authority was Sophocles, who says of this Centaur--
[GREEK HERE] Trach.570
He in his arms, Evenus' stream
Deep flowing, bore the passenger for hire
Without or sail or billow cleaving oar.

v. 110. Ezzolino.] Ezzolino, or Azzolino di Romano, a most
cruel tyrant in the Marca Trivigiana, Lord of Padua, Vicenza,
Verona, and Brescia, who died in 1260. His atrocities form the
subject of a Latin tragedy, called Eccerinis, by Albertino
Mussato, of Padua, the contemporary of Dante, and the most
elegant writer of Latin verse of that age. See also the
Paradise, Canto IX. Berni Orl. Inn. l ii c. xxv. st. 50. Ariosto.
Orl. Fur. c. iii. st. 33. and Tassoni Secchia Rapita, c. viii.
st 11.

v. 111. Obizzo' of Este.] Marquis of Ferrara and of the Marca
d'Ancona, was murdered by his own son (whom, for the most
unnatural act Dante calls his step-son), for the sake of the
treasures which his rapacity had amassed. See Ariosto. Orl. Fur.
c. iii. st 32. He died in 1293 according to Gibbon. Ant. of the
House of Brunswick. Posth. Works, v. ii. 4to.

v. 119. He.] "Henrie, the brother of this Edmund, and son to
the foresaid king of Almaine (Richard, brother of Henry III. of
England) as he returned from Affrike, where he had been with
Prince Edward, was slain at Viterbo in Italy (whither he was come
about business which he had to do with the Pope) by the hand of
Guy de Montfort, the son of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester,
in revenge of the same Simon's death. The murther was committed
afore the high altar, as the same Henrie kneeled there to hear
divine service." A.D. 1272, Holinshed's chronicles p 275. See
also Giov. Villani Hist. I. vii. c. 40.

v. 135. On Sextus and on Pyrrhus.] Sextus either the son of
Tarquin the Proud, or of Pompey the Great: or as Vellutelli
conjectures, Sextus Claudius Nero, and Pyrrhus king of Epirus.

v. 137.
The Rinieri, of Corneto this,
Pazzo the other named.]
Two noted marauders, by whose depredations the public ways in
Italy were infested. The latter was of the noble family of Pazzi
in Florence.

CANTO XIII

v. 10. Betwixt Corneto and Cecina's stream.] A wild and woody
tract of country, abounding in deer, goats, and wild boars.
Cecina is a river not far to the south of Leghorn, Corneto, a
small city on the same coast in the patrimony of the church.

v. 12. The Strophades.] See Virg. Aen. l. iii. 210.

v. 14. Broad are their pennons.] From Virg. Aen. l. iii. 216.

v. 48. In my verse described.] The commentators explain this,
"If he could have believed, in consequence of my assurances
alone, that of which he hath now had ocular proof, he would not
have stretched forth his hand against thee." But I am of opinion
that Dante makes Virgil allude to his own story of Polydorus in
the third book of the Aeneid.

v. 56. That pleasant word of thine.] "Since you have inveigled
me to speak my holding forth so gratifying an expectation, let it
not displease you if I am as it were detained in the snare you
have spread for me, so as to be somewhat prolix in my answer."

v. 60. I it was.] Pietro delle Vigne, a native of Capua, who,
from a low condition, raised himself by his eloquence and legal
knowledge to the office of Chancellor to the Emperor Frederick
II. whose confidence in him was such, that his influence in the
empire became unbounded. The courtiers, envious of his exalted
situation, contrived, by means of forged letters, to make
Frederick believe that he held a secret and traitorous
intercourse with the Pope, who was then at enmity with the
Emperor. In consequence of this supposed crime he was cruelly
condemned by his too credulous sovereign to lose his eyes, and,
being driven to despair by his unmerited calamity and disgrace,
he put an end to his life by dashing out his brains against the
walls of a church, in the year 1245. Both Frederick and Pietro
delle Vigne composed verses in the Sicilian dialect which are yet
extant.

v. 67. The harlot.] Envy. Chaucer alludes to this in the
Prologue to the Legende of Good women.
Envie is lavender to the court alway,
For she ne parteth neither night ne day
Out of the house of Cesar; thus saith Dant.

v. 119. Each fan o' th' wood.] Hence perhaps Milton:
Leaves and fuming rills, Aurora's fan.
P. L. b. v. 6.

v. 122. Lano.] Lano, a Siennese, who, being reduced by
prodigality to a state of extreme want, found his existence no
longer supportable; and, having been sent by his countrymen on a
military expedition, to assist the Florentine against the
Aretini, took that opportunity of exposing himself to certain
death, in the engagement which took place at Toppo near Arezzo.
See G. Villani, Hist. l. 7. c. cxix.

v. 133. O Giocomo
Of Sant' Andrea!]
Jacopo da Sant' Andrea, a Paduan, who, having wasted his property
in the most wanton acts of profusion, killed himself in despair.
v. 144. In that City.] "I was an inhabitant of Florence, that
city which changed her first patron Mars for St. John the
Baptist, for which reason the vengeance of the deity thus
slighted will never be appeased: and, if some remains of his
status were not still visible on the bridge over the Arno, she
would have been already leveled to the ground; and thus the
citizens, who raised her again from the ashes to which Attila had
reduced her, would have laboured in vain." See Paradise, Canto
XVI. 44.
The relic of antiquity to which the superstition of Florence
attached so high an importance, was carried away by a flood, that
destroyed the bridge on which it stood, in the year 1337, but
without the ill effects that were apprehended from the loss of
their fancied Palladium.

v. 152. I slung the fatal noose.] We are not informed who this
suicide was.


CANTO XIV

v. 15. By Cato's foot.] See Lucan, Phars, l. 9.

v. 26. Dilated flakes of fire.] Compare Tasso. G. L. c. x. st.
61.

v. 28. As, in the torrid Indian clime.] Landino refers to
Albertus Magnus for the circumstance here alluded to.

v. 53. In Mongibello.]
More hot than Aetn' or flaming Mongibell.
Spenser, F. Q. b. ii. c. ix. st. 29.
See Virg. Aen. 1. viii. 416. and Berni. Orl. Inn 1. i. c. xvi.
st. 21. It would be endless to refer to parallel passages in the
Greek writers.

v. 64. This of the seven kings was one.] Compare Aesch. Seven
Chiefs, 425. Euripides, Phoen. 1179 and Statius. Theb. l. x.
821.

v. 76. Bulicame.] A warm medicinal spring near Viterbo, the
waters of which, as Landino and Vellutelli affirm, passed by a
place of ill fame. Venturi, with less probability, conjectures
that Dante would imply, that it was the scene of much licentious
merriment among those who frequented its baths.

v. 91. Under whose monarch.]
Credo pudicitiam Saturno rege moratam
In terris.
Juv. Satir. vi.

v. 102. His head.] Daniel, ch. ii. 32, 33.

v. 133. Whither.] On the other side of Purgatory.

CANTO XV

v. 10. Chiarentana.] A part of the Alps where the Brenta
rises, which river is much swoln as soon as the snow begins to
dissolve on the mountains.

v. 28. Brunetto.] "Ser Brunetto, a Florentine, the secretary or
chancellor of the city, and Dante's preceptor, hath left us a
work so little read, that both the subject of it and the language
of it have been mistaken. It is in the French spoken in the
reign of St. Louis,under the title of Tresor, and contains a
species of philosophical course of lectures divided into theory
and practice, or, as he expresses it, "un enchaussement des
choses divines et humaines," &c. Sir R. Clayton's Translation of
Tenhove's Memoirs of the Medici, vol. i. ch. ii. p. 104. The
Tresor has never been printed in the original language. There is
a fine manuscript of it in the British Museum, with an
illuminated portrait of Brunetto in his study prefixed. Mus.
Brit. MSS. 17, E. 1. Tesor. It is divided into four books, the
first, on Cosmogony and Theology, the second, a translation of
Aristotle's Ethics; the third on Virtues and Vices; the fourth,
on Rhetoric. For an interesting memoir relating to this work,
see Hist. de l'Acad. des Inscriptions, tom. vii. 296. His
Tesoretto, one of the earliest productions of Italian poetry, is
a curious work, not unlike the writings of Chaucer in style and
numbers, though Bembo remarks, that his pupil, however largely he
had stolen from it, could not have much enriched himself. As it
is perhaps but little known, I will here add a slight sketch of
it.

Brunetto describes himself as returning from an embassy to the
King of Spain, on which he had been sent by the Guelph party from
Florence. On the plain of Roncesvalles he meets a scholar on a
bay mule, who tells him that the Guelfi are driven out of the
city with great loss.

Struck with grief at these mournful tidings, and musing with his
head bent downwards, he loses his road, and wanders into a wood.
Here Nature, whose figure is described with sublimity, appears,
and discloses to him the secrets of her operations. After this
he wanders into a desert; but at length proceeds on his way,
under the protection of a banner, with which Nature had furnished
him, till on the third day he finds himself in a large pleasant
champaign, where are assembled many emperors, kings, and sages.
It is the habitation of Virtue and her daughters, the four
Cardinal Virtues. Here Brunetto sees also Courtesy, Bounty,
Loyalty, and Prowess, and hears the instructions they give to a
knight, which occupy about a fourth part of the poem. Leaving
this territory, he passes over valleys, mountains, woods,
forests, and bridges, till he arrives in a beautiful valley
covered with flowers on all sides, and the richest in the world;
but which was continually shifting its appearance from a round
figure to a square, from obscurity to light, and from
populousness to solitude. This is the region of Pleasure, or
Cupid, who is accompanied by four ladies, Love, Hope, Fear, and
Desire. In one part of it he meets with Ovid, and is instructed
by him how to conquer the passion of love, and to escape from
that place. After his escape he makes his confession to a friar,
and then returns to the forest of visions: and ascending a
mountain, he meets with Ptolemy, a venerable old man. Here the
narrative breaks off. The poem ends, as it began, with an
address to Rustico di Filippo, on whom he lavishes every sort of
praise.

It has been observed, that Dante derived the idea of opening his
poem by describing himself as lost in a wood, from the Tesoretto
of his master. I know not whether it has been remarked, that the
crime of usury is branded by both these poets as offensive to God
and Nature: or that the sin for which Brunetto is condemned by
his pupil, is mentioned in the Tesoretto with great horror.
Dante's twenty-fifth sonnet is a jocose one, addressed to
Brunetto. He died in 1295.

v. 62. Who in old times came down from Fesole.] See G. Villani
Hist. l. iv. c. 5. and Macchiavelli Hist. of Flor. b. ii.

v. 89. With another text.] He refers to the prediction of
Farinata, in Canto X.

v. 110. Priscian.] There is no reason to believe, as the
commentators observe that the grammarian of this name was stained
with the vice imputed to him; and we must therefore suppose that
Dante puts the individual for the species, and implies the
frequency of the crime among those who abused the opportunities
which the education of youth afforded them, to so abominable a
purpose.

v. 111. Francesco.] Son of Accorso, a Florentine, celebrated
for his skill in jurisprudence, and commonly known by the name of
Accursius.

v. 113. Him.] Andrea de' Mozzi, who, that his scandalous life
might be less exposed to observation, was translated either by
Nicholas III, or Boniface VIII from the see of Florence to that
of Vicenza, through which passes the river Baccchiglione. At the
latter of these places he died.

v. 114. The servants' servant.] Servo de' servi. So Ariosto,
Sat. 3.
Degli servi
Io sia il gran servo.

v. 124. I commend my Treasure to thee.] Brunetto's great work,
the Tresor.
Sieti raccomandato 'l mio Tesoro.
So Giusto de' Conti, in his Bella Mano, Son. "Occhi:"
Siavi raccommandato il mio Tesoro.

CANTO XVI

v. 38. Gualdrada.] Gualdrada was the daughter of Bellincione
Berti, of whom mention is made in the Paradise, Canto XV, and
XVI. He was of the family of Ravignani, a branch of the Adimari.

The Emperor Otho IV. being at a festival in Florence, where
Gualdrada was present, was struck with her beauty; and inquiring
who she was, was answered by Bellincione, that she was the
daughter of one who, if it was his Majesty's pleasure, would make
her admit the honour of his salute. On overhearing this, she
arose from her seat, and blushing, in an animated tone of voice,
desired her father that he would not be so liberal in his offers,
for that no man should ever be allowed that freedom, except him
who should be her lawful husband. The Emperor was not less
delighted by her resolute modesty than he had before been by the
loveliness of her person, and calling to him Guido, one of his
barons, gave her to him in marriage, at the same time raising him

to the rank of a count, and bestowing on her the whole of
Casentino, and a part of the territory of Romagna, as her
portion. Two sons were the offspring of this union, Guglielmo
and Ruggieri, the latter of whom was father of Guidoguerra, a man
of great military skill and prowess who, at the head of four
hundred Florentines of the Guelph party, was signally
instrumental to the victory obtained at Benevento by Charles of
Anjou, over Manfredi, King of Naples, in 1265. One of the
consequences of this victory was the expulsion of the Ghibellini,
and the re-establishment of the Guelfi at Florence.

v. 39. Many a noble act.] Compare Tasso, G. L. c. i. st. 1.

v. 42. Aldobrandiu] Tegghiaio Aldobrandi was of the noble
family of Adimari, and much esteemed for his military talents.
He endeavored to dissuade the Florentines from the attack, which
they meditated against the Siennese, and the rejection of his
counsel occasioned the memorable defeat, which the former
sustained at Montaperto, and the consequent banishment of the
Guelfi from Florence.

v. 45. Rusticucci.] Giacopo Rusticucci, a Florentine,
remarkable for his opulence and the generosity of his spirit.

v. 70. Borsiere.] Guglielmo Borsiere, another Florentine, whom
Boccaccio, in a story which he relates of him, terms "a man of
courteous and elegant manners, and of great readiness in
conversation." Dec. Giorn. i. Nov. 8.

v. 84. When thou with pleasure shalt retrace the past.]
Quando ti giovera dicere io fui.
So Tasso, G. L. c. xv. st. 38.
Quando mi giovera narrar altrui
Le novita vedute, e dire; io fui.

v. 121. Ever to that truth.] This memorable apophthegm is
repeated by Luigi Pulci and Trissino.

Sempre a quel ver, ch' ha faccia di menzogna
E piu senno tacer la lingua cheta
Che spesso senza colpa fa vergogna.
Morgante. Magg. c. xxiv.

La verita, che par mensogna
Si dovrebbe tacer dall' uom ch'e saggio.
Italia. Lib. C. xvi.

CANTO XVII

v. 1. The fell monster.] Fraud.

v. 53. A pouch.] A purse, whereon the armorial bearings of each
were emblazoned. According to Landino, our poet implies that the
usurer can pretend to no other honour, than such as he derives
from his purse and his family.

v. 57. A yellow purse.] The arms of the Gianfigliazzi of
Florence.

v. 60. Another.] Those of the Ubbriachi, another Florentine
family of high distinction.

v. 62. A fat and azure swine.] The arms of the Scrovigni a
noble family of Padua.

v. 66. Vitaliano.] Vitaliano del Dente, a Paduan.

v. 69. That noble knight.] Giovanni Bujamonti, a Florentine
usurer, the most infamous of his time.

CANTO XVIII

v. 28. With us beyond.] Beyond the middle point they tended the
same way with us, but their pace was quicker than ours.

v. 29. E'en thus the Romans.] In the year 1300, Pope Boniface
VIII., to remedy the inconvenience occasioned by the press of
people who were passing over the bridge of St. Angelo during the
time of the Jubilee, caused it to be divided length wise by a
partition, and ordered, that all those who were going to St.
Peter's should keep one side, and those returning the other.

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