Pied wings, and flutter in the fleeting air. Chatt'ring, the scandal of the woods, they fly, 15. The highest heaven. "The besy larke, the messager of day, 23. The stars of the Southern Cross. Figuratively the four cardinal virtues, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance. See Canto XXXI. 106: 6 piece that advances very regularly near four minutes a day, and no other group of stars exhibits, to the naked eye, an observation of time so easily made. How often have we heard our guides exclaim in the savannahs of Venezuela, or in the desert extending from Lima to Truxillo, Midnight is past, the Cross begins to bend!' How often those words reminded us of that affecting scene, where Paul and Virginia, seated near the source of the river of Lataniers, conversed together for the last time, and where the old man, at the sight of the Southern Cross, warns them that it is time to separate.' 24. By the "primal people" Dante does not mean our first parents, but "the early races which inhabited Europe and Asia," says Dr. Barlow, Study of Dante, and quotes in confirmation of his view the following passage from Humboldt's Cosmos, II.: "In consequence of the precession of the equinoxes, the starry heavens are "We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are continually changing their aspect from stars. " The next line may be interpreted in the same figurative sense. Humboldt, Personal Narrative, II. 21, Miss Williams's Tr., thus describes his first glimpse of the Southern Cross. "The pleasure we felt on discovering the Southern Cross was warmly shared by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies. In the solitude of the seas, we hail a star as a friend from whom we have long been separated. Among the Portuguese and Spaniards peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recalls the sign of the faith planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the New World. "The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of the Cross having nearly the same right ascension, it follows hence, that the constellation is almost perpendicular at the moment when it passes the meridian. This circumstance is known to every nation that lives beyond the tropics, or in the Southern hemisphere. It has been observed at what hour of the night, in different seasons, the Cross of the South is erect or inclined. It is a time every portion of the earth's surface. The early races of mankind beheld in the far north the glorious constellations of the southern hemisphere rise before them, which, after remaining long invisible, will again appear in those latitudes after a lapse of thousands of years. The Southern Cross began to become invisible in 52° 30′ north latitude 2900 years before our era, since, according to Galle, this constellation might previously have reached an altitude of more than 10°. When it disappeared from the horizon of the countries of the Baltic, the great Pyramid of Cheops had already been erected more than 500 years.' 30. Iliad, XVIII.: "The Pleiades, and the Hyades, and the strength of Orion, and the Bear, which likewise. they call by the appellation of the Wain, which there turns round and watches Orion; and it alone is deprived of the baths of Oceanus." 31. Cato of Utica. "Pythagoras escapes, in the fabulous hell of Dante," says Sir Thomas Browne, Urn Burial, IV., "among that swarm of philosophers, wherein, whilst we meet with Plato and Socrates, Cato is found in no lower place than Purgatory." In the description of the shield of Æneas, Eneid, VIII., Cato is represented as presiding over the good in the Tartarean realms: "And the good apart, Cato dispensing laws to them." This line of Virgil may have suggested to Dante the idea of making Cato the warden of Purgatory. In the Convito, IV. 28, he expresses the greatest reverence for him. Marcia returning to him in her widowhood, he says, "symbolizes the noble soul returning to God in old age." And continues: "What man on earth was more worthy to symbolize God, than Cato? Surely none";-ending the chapter with these words: "In his name it is beautiful to close what I have had to say of the signs of nobility, because in him this nobility displays them all through all ages.' وو Here, on the shores of Purgatory, his countenance is adorned with the light of the four stars, which are the four virtues, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance, and it is foretold of him, that his garments will shine brightly on the last day. And here he is the symbol of Liberty, since, for her sake, to him "not bitter was death in Utica"; and the meaning of Purgatory is spiritual Liberty, or freedom from sin through purification, "the glorious liberty of the children of God." Therefore in thus selecting the "Divine Cato" for the guardian of this realm, Dante shows himself to have greater freedom then the critics, who accuse him of "a perverse theology in saving the soul of an idolater and suicide." 40. The "blind river" is Lethe, which by sound and not by sight had guided them through the winding cavern from the centre of the earth to the surface. Inf. XXXIV. 130. marks: "The eighth book of the Tesoro of Brunetto Latini is headed Qui comincia la Rettorica che c' insegna a ben parlare, e di governare città e popoli. In this art Dante was duly instructed by his loving master, and became the most able orator of his era in Italy. Giov. Villani speaks of him as retorico perfetto tanto in dittare e versificare come in aringhiera parlare. But without this record and without acquaintance with the poet's political history, knowing nothing of his influence in debates and councils, nor of his credit at foreign courts, we might, from the occasional speeches in the Divina Commedia, be fully assured of the truth of what Villani has said, and that Dante's words and manner were always skilfully adapted to the purpose he had in view, and to the persons whom he addressed. "Virgil's speech to the venerable Cato is a perfect specimen of persuasive eloquence. The sense of personal dignity is here combined with extreme courtesy and respect, and the most flattering appeals to the old man's wellknown sentiments, his love of liberty, his love of rectitude, and his devoted attachment to Marcia, are interwoven with irresistible art; but though the resentment of Cato at the approach of the strangers is thus appeased, and he is persuaded to regard them with as much favour as the severity of his character permits, yet he will not have them think that his consent to their proceeding has been obtained by adulation, but simply by the assertion of power vouchsafed to them from on high,— Ma se donna del Ciel ti muove e regge, 42. His beard. Ford, Lady's Trial: In this also the consistency of Cato's character is maintained; he is sensible of the flattery, but disowns its influence." 77. See Inf. V. 4. IV. 28: "This the great poet Lucan 78. See Inf. IV. 128. Also Convito, shadows forth in the second book of his Pharsalia, when he says that Marcia returned to Cato, and besought him and entreated him to take her back in his old age. And by this Marcia is understood the noble soul." Lucan, Phars., II., Rowe's Tr. : "When lo! the sounding doors are heard to turn, Chaste Martia comes from dead Hortensius' urn. dame Forth from the monument the mournful came; Then with a pale, dejected, rueful look, 'At length a barren wedlock let me prove, glory was to be begun in suffering, and all power in humility. Ac 115. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 248: "There is only one more point to be noticed in the Dantesque landscape; namely, the feeling entertained by the poet towards the sky. And the love of mountains is so closely connected with the love of clouds, the sublimity of both depending much on their association, that, having found Dante regardless of the Carrara mountains as seen from San Miniato, we may well expect to find him equally regardless of the clouds in which the sun sank behind them. cordingly, we find that his only pleasure 95. A symbol of humility. Ruskin, in the sky depends on its 'white clearMod. Painters, III. 232, says: "There ness,'-that turning into bianco aspetto di is a still deeper significance in the pas-celestro, which is so peculiarly charactersage quoted, a little while ago, from istic of fine days in Italy. His pieces of Homer, describing Ulysses casting him- | pure pale light are always exquisite. In self down on the rushes and the corn- the dawn on the purgatorial mountain, giving land at the river shore, -the first, in its pale white, he sees the trerushes and corn being to him only good molar della marina,- -trembling of the for rest and sustenance,-when we com- sea; then it becomes vermilion; and at pare it with that in which Dante tells us last, near sunrise, orange. These are he was ordered to descend to the shore precisely the changes of a calm and perof the lake as he entered Purgatory, to fect dawn. The scenery of Paradise gather a rush, and gird himself with it, begins with day added to day,' the it being to him the emblem not only of light of the sun so flooding the heavens, rest, but of humility under chastisement, that never rain nor river made lake so the rush (or reed) being the only plant wide'; and throughout the Paradise all which can grow there ;- -'no plant the beauty depends on spheres of light, which bears leaves, or hardens its bark, or stars, never on clouds. But the pit can live on that shore, because it does of the Inferno is at first sight obscure, not yield to the chastisement of its deep, and so cloudy that at its bottom waves.' It cannot but strike the reader nothing could be seen. When Dante and singularly how deep and harmonious a Virgil reach the marsh in which the souls significance runs through all these words of those who have been angry and sad in of Dante,-how every syllable of them, their lives are forever plunged, they find the more we penetrate it, becomes a seed it covered with thick fog; and the conof farther thought! For follow up this demned souls say to them, image of the girding with the reed, under trial, and see to whose feet it will lead 'We once were sad, In the sweet air, made gladsome by the sun. Now in these murky settlings are we sad.' Even the angel crossing the marsh to help them is annoyed by this bitter marsh smoke, fummo acerbo, and continually sweeps it with his hand from before his face." 123. Some commentators interpret Ove adorezza, by "where the wind blows." But the blowing of the wind would produce an effect exactly opposite to that here described. 135. Eneid, VI.: "When the first" is torn off, a second of gold succeeds; and a twig shoots forth leaves of the same metal." CANTO II. 1. It was sunset at Jerusalem, night on the Ganges, and morning at the Mountain of Purgatory. The sun being in Aries, the night would "come forth with the scales,' or the sign of Libra, which is opposite Aries. These scales fall from the hand of night, or are not above the horizon by night, when the night exceeds, or is longer than the day. 7. Boccaccio, Decamerone, Prologue to the Third Day, imitates this passage: "The Aurora, as the sun drew nigh, was already beginning to change from vermilion to orange. Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher A 98. The first three months of the year of Jubilee, 1300. Milman, Hist. Latin Christ., VI. 285, thus describes it: "All Europe was in a frenzy of religious zeal. Throughout the year the roads in the remotest parts of Germany, Hungary, Britain, were crowded with pilgrims of all ages, of both sexes. Savoyard above one hundred years old determined to see the tombs of the Apostles before he died. There were at times two hundred thousand strangers at Rome. During the year (no doubt the calcula. tions were loose and vague) the city was visited by millions of pilgrims. At one time, so vast was the press both within and without the walls, that openings were broken for ingress and egress. Many people were trampled down, and perished by suffocation..... Lodgings were exorbitantly dear, forage scarce; but the ordinary food of man, bread, meat, wine, and fish, was sold in great plenty and at moderate prices. The oblations were beyond calculation. reported by an eyewitness that two priests stood with rakes in their hands sweeping the uncounted gold and silver from the altars. Nor was this tribute, like offerings or subsidies for Crusades, to be devoted to special uses, the accoutrements, provisions, freight of armies. It was entirely at the free and irrespon80. Odyssey, XI., Buckley's Tr.:sible disposal of the Pope. Christendom “But I, meditating in my mind, wished to lay hold of the soul of my departed mother. Thrice indeed I essayed it, and my mind urged me to lay hold of it, but thrice it flew from my hands, like unto a shadow, or even to a dream." 31. Argument used in the sense of means, or appliances, as in Inf. XXXI. 55. 44. Cervantes says in Don Quixote, Pt. I. ch. 12, that the student Crisostomo "had a face like a benediction." 57. Sackville, in his Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates, says: "Whiles Scorpio dreading Sagittarius' dart Whose bow prest bent in fight the string had slipped, Down slid into the ocean flood apart." And Æneid, VI., Davidson's Tr.: "There thrice he attempted to throw his arms around his neck; thrice the phantom, grasped in vain, escaped his hold, like the fleet gales, or resembling most a fugitive dream." 91. Casella was a Florentine musician and friend of Dante, who here speaks to him with so much tenderness and affection as to make us regret that nothing more is known of him. Milton alludes to him in his Sonnet to Mr. H. Lawes : It is of its own accord was heaping at the Pope's feet this extraordinary custom; and receiving back the gift of pardon and everlasting life." See also Inf. XVIII., Note 29. 100. The sea-shore of Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, where the souls of those who were saved assembled, and were received by the Celestial Pilot, who transported them to the island of Purgatory. Minutius Felix, a Roman lawyer of the third century, makes it the scene of his Octavius, and draws this pleasant picture of the sands and the sea. Reeves's Tr., p. 37 : "It was vacation-time, and that gave me aloose from my business at the bar; for it was the season after the summer's heat, when autumn promised fair, and put on the face of temperate. We set out, therefore, in the morning early, and as we were walking upon the seashore, and a kindly breeze fanned and refreshed our limbs, and the yielding sand softly submitted to our feet and made it delicious travelling, Cæcilius on a sudden espied the statue of Serapis, and, according to the vulgar mode of superstition, raised his hand to his mouth, and paid his adoration in kisses. Upon which Octavius, addressing himself to me, said: 'It is not well done, my brother Marcus, thus to leave your inseparable companion in the depth of vulgar darkness, and to suffer him, in so clear a day, to stumble upon stones; stones, indeed, of figure, and anointed with oil, and crowned; but stones, however, still they are ;-- for you cannot but be sensible that your permitting so foul an error in your friend redounds no less to your disgrace than his.' This discourse of his held us through half the city; and now we began to find ourselves upon the free and open shore. There the gently washing waves had spread the extremest sands into the order of an artificial walk; and as the sea always expresses some roughness in his looks, even when the winds are still, although he did not roll in foam and angry surges to the shore, yet were we much delighted, as we walked upon the edges of the water, to see the crisping, frizzly waves glide in snaky folds, one while playing against our feet, and then again retiring and lost in the devouring ocean. Softly, then, and calmly as the sea about us, we travelled on, and kept upon the brim of the gently declining shore, beguiling the way with our stories." 112. This is the first line of the second canzone of the Convito. Forsyth, Italy, p. 378, says: "Virgil's tomb is so called, I believe, on the single authority of Donatus. Donatus places it at the right distance from Naples, but on the wrong side of the city; and even there he omits the grotto of Posilipo, which not being so deep in his time as the two last excavations have left it, must have opened precisely at his tomb. Donatus, too, gives, for Virgil's own composition, an epitaph on the cliff now rejected as a forgery. And who is this Donatus? -an obscure grammarian, or rather his counterfeit. The structure itself resembles a ruined pigeon-house, where the numerous columbaria would indicate a family-sepulchre but who should repose in the tomb of Virgil, but Virgil alone? Visitors of every nation, kings and princes, have scratched their names on the stucco of this apocryphal ruin, but the poet's awful name seems to have deterred them from versifying here." : 37. Be satisfied with knowing that a thing is, without asking why it is. These were distinguished in scholastic language as the Demonstratio quia, and the Demonstratio propter quid. 49. Places on the mountainous seaside road from Genoa to Pisa, known as the Riviera di Levante. Of this, Mr. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 243, says: "The similes by which he illustrates the steepness of that ascent are all taken from the Riviera of Genoa, now traversed by a good carriage road under the name of the Cornice; but as this road did not exist in Dante's time, and the steep precipices and promontories were then probably traversed by footpaths, which, as they necessarily passed in many places over crumbling and slippery limestone, were doubtless not a little dangerous, and as in the manner they commanded the bays of sea below, and lay exposed to the full blaze of the |