south-eastern sun, they corresponded precisely to the situation of the path by which he ascends above the purgatorial sea, the image could not possibly have been taken from a better source for the fully conveying his idea to the reader: nor, by the way, is there reason to discredit, in this place, his powers of climbing; for, with his usual accuracy, he has taken the angle of the path for us, saying it was considerably more than forty-five. Now a continuous mountain-slope of forty-five degrees is already quite unsafe either for ascent or descent, except by zigzag paths; and a greater slope than this could not be climbed, straightforward, but by help of crevices or jags in the rock, and great physical exertion besides." stories of enchantment and romance belong to a ruin that appears as if made for their dwelling-place. It is a scene out of that Italy which is the home of the imagination, and which becomes the Italy of memory. "As the road winds down to the sea, it passes under a high isolated peak, on which stands Esa, built as a city of refuge against pirates and Moors. A little farther on, "Its Roman strength Turbia showed not only recalling the ancient times, He In the Casa Magni, on the sea-shore near Lerici, Shelley once lived. was returning thither from Leghorn, when he perished in a sudden storm at sea. 67. After they had gone a mile, they were still a stone's throw distant. 82. See Convito, I. 10. Mr. Norton, Travel and Study, p. I, thus describes the Riviera: "The Var forms the geographical boundary between France and Italy; but it is not till Nice is left behind, and the first height of the Riviera is surmounted, that the real Italy begins. Here the hills close round at the north, and suddenly, as the road turns at the top of a long ascent, the Mediterranean appears far below, washing the feet of the mountains that form the coast, and stretching away to the Southern horizon. The line of the shore is of extraordinary beauty. Here an abrupt cliff rises from the sea; here bold and 112. Manfredi, king of Apulia and broken masses of rock jut out into it; Sicily, was a natural son of the Emhere the hills, their gray sides terraced peror Frederick the Second. He was for vineyards, slope gently down to the slain at the battle of Benevento, in water's edge; here they stretch into little 1265; one of the great and decisive promontories covered with orange and battles of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, olive-trees. the Guelph or Papal forces being com"One of the first of these promon-manded by Charles of Anjou, and the tories is that of Capo Sant' Ospizio. Ghibellines or Imperialists by ManA close grove of olives half conceals fredi. the old castle on its extreme point. With the afternoon sun full upon it, the trees palely glimmering as their leaves move in the light air, the sea so blue and smooth as to be like a darker sky, and not even a ripple upon the beach, it seems as if this were the very home of summer and of repose. It is remote and secluded from the stir and noise of the world. No road is seen leading to it, and one looks down upon the solitary castle and wonders what 66 Malispini, Storia, ch. 187, thus describes his death and burial: “Manfredi, being left with few followers, behaved like a valiant gentleman who preferred to die in battle rather than to escape with shame. And putting on his helmet, which had on it a silver eagle for a crest, this eagle fell on the saddle-bow before him; and seeing this he was greatly disturbed, and said in Latin to the barons who were near him, 'Hoc est signum Dei; for this crest I fastened on with my own hands in such a way that it could not fall.' But he was not discouraged, and took heart, and went into battle like any other baron, without the royal insignia, in order not to be recognized. But short while it lasted, for his forces were already in flight; and they were routed and Manfredi slain in the middle of the enemy; and they were driven into the town by the soldiers of King Charles, for it was now night, and they lost the city of Benevento. And many of Manfredi's barons were made prisoners, among whom were the Count Giordano, Messer Piero Asino degli Uberti, and many others, whom King Charles sent captive into Provence, and there had them put to death in prison; and he imprisoned many other Germans in different parts of the kingdom. And a few days afterwards the wife of Manfredi and his children and his sister, who were in Nocera de' Sardini in Apulia, were taken prisoners by Charles; these died in prison. And for more than three days they made search after Manfredi ; for he could not be found, nor was it known if he were dead, or a prisoner, or had escaped; because he had not worn his royal robes in the battle. And afterwards he was recognized by one of his own camp-followers, from certain marks upon his person, in the middle of the battle-field; and he threw him across an ass, and came shouting, "Who will buy Manfredi?' for which a baron of the king beat him with a cane. And the body of Manfredi being brought to King Charles, he assembled all the barons who were prisoners, and asked each one if that was Manfredi; and timidly they answered yes. Count Giordano smote himself in the face with his hands, weeping and crying, 'O my lord!' whereupon he was much commended by the French, and certain Bretons besought that he might have honourable burial. Answered the king and said, 'I would do it willingly, if he were not excommunicated'; and on that account he would not have him laid in consecrated ground, but he was buried at the foot of the bridge of Benevento, and each one of the army threw a stone upon his grave, so that a great pile was made. But afterwards, it is said, by command of the Pope, the Bishop of Cosenza took him from that grave, and sent him out of the kingdom, because it was Church land. And he was buried by the river Verde, at the confines of the kingdom and the Campagna. This battle was on a Friday, the last day of February, in the year one thousand two hundred and sixty-five." Villani, who in his account of the battle copies Malispini almost literally, gives in another chapter, VI. 46, the following portrait of Manfredi; but it must be remembered that Villani was a Guelph, and Manfredi a Ghibel line. "King Manfredi had for his mother a beautiful lady of the family of the Marquises of Lancia in Lombardy, with whom the Emperor had an intrigue, and was beautiful in person, and like his father and more than his father was given to dissipation of all kinds. He was a musician and singer, delighted in the company of buffoons and courtiers and beautiful concubines, and was always clad in green; he was generous and courteous, and of good demeanour, so that he was much beloved and gracious; but his life was wholly epicurean, hardly caring for God or the saints, but for the delights of the body. He was an enemy of holy Church, and of priests and monks, confiscating churches as his father had done; and a wealthy gentleman was he, both from the treasure which he inherited from the Emperor, and from King Conrad, his brother, and from his own kingdom, which was ample and fruitful, and which, so long as he lived, notwithstanding all the wars he had with the Church, he kept in good condition, so that it rose greatly in wealth and power, both by sea and by land." This battle of Benevento is the same as that mentioned Inf. XXVIII. 16 :— "At Ceperano, where a renegade Was each Apulian." 113. Constance, wife of the Emperor Henry the Sixth. 115. His daughter Constance, who was married to Peter of Aragon, and was the mother of Frederic of Sicily and of James of Aragon. 124. The Bishop of Cosenza and Pope Clement the Fourth. 131. The name of the river Verde reminds one of the old Spanish ballad, particularly when one recalls the fact that Manfredi had in his army a band of Saracens : "Rio Verde, Rio Verde, Many a corpse is bathed in thee, 132. Those who died "in contumely of holy Church," or under excommunication, were buried with extinguished and inverted torches. 71. The Ecliptic. See Inf. XVII., Note 107. 73. This, the Mountain of Purgatory; and that, Mount Zion. 83. The Seven Stars of Ursa Major, the North Star. 109. Compare Thomson's description of the "pleasing land of drowsy-head,” in the Castle of Indolence:— "And there a season atween June and May, Half prankt with spring, with summer half imbrowned, A listless climate made, where, sooth to say, No living wight could work, ne cared even for play.' 123. "He loved also in life," says Arrivabene, Commento Storico, 584, "a certain Belacqua, an excellent maker of musical instruments." Benvenuto da Imola says of him: "He was a Florentine who made guitars and other musical instruments. He carved and ornamented the necks and heads of the guitars with great care, and sometimes also played. Hence Dante, who delighted in music, knew him intimately.' This seems to be all that is known of Belacqua. 133. Measure for Measure, II. 2 :— "True prayers That shall be up at heaven, and enter there Ere sunrise; prayers from preserved souls, From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate To nothing temporal." CANTO V. I. There is an air of reality about this passage, like some personal reminiscence of street gossip, which gives perhaps a little credibility to the otherwise incredible anecdotes of Dante told by Sacchetti and others ;-such as those of the ass-driver whom he beat, and the blacksmith whose tools he threw into the street for singing his verses amiss, and the woman who pointed him out to her companions as the man who had been in Hell and brought back tidings of it. 38. Some editions read in this line mezza notte, midnight, instead of prima notte, early nightfall. Of meteors Brunetto Latini, Tresor, I. pt. 3, ch. 107, writes: "Likewise it often comes to pass that a dry vapour, when it has mounted so high that it Milton, Parad. Lost, IV. 556, scribing the flight of Uriel, says :— "Swift as a shooting star Nothing can be truer to the action of a stream in fury than these lines. And how desolate is it all! The lonely flight, the grisly wound, 'pierced in the throat,' the death, without help or pity, de-only the name of Mary on the lips,and the cross folded over the heart. Then the rage of the demon and the river, -the noteless grave,—and, at last, even she who had been most trusted forgetting him,— In Autumn thwarts the night, when vapours Impress the air, and show the mariner 66. Shakespeare's "war 'twixt will and will not,” and “letting I dare not wait upon I would." 67. This is Jacopo del Cassero of Fano, in the region between Romagna and the kingdom of Naples, then ruled by Charles de Valois (Charles Lackland). He was waylaid and murdered at Oriago, between Venice and Padua, by Azzone the Third of Este. 74. Leviticus, xvii. 2: "The life of the flesh is in the blood." 75. Among the Paduans, who are called Antenori, because their city was founded by Antenor of Troy. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, I. ch. 39, says: "Then Antenor and Priam departed thence, with a great company of people, and went to the Marca Trevisana, not far from Venice, and there they built another city which is called Padua, where lies the body of Antenor, and his sepulchre is still there." 79. La Mira is on the Brenta, or one of its canals, in the fen-lands between Padua and Venice. 88. Buonconte was a son of Guido di Montefeltro, and lost his life in the battle of Campaldino in the Val d'Arno. His body was never found; Dante imagines its fate. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 252, remarks: "Observe, Buonconte, as he dies, crosses his arms over his breast, pressing them together, partly in his pain, partly in prayer. His body thus lies by the river shore, as on a sepulchral monument, the arms folded into a cross. The rage of the river, under the influence of the evil demon, unlooses this cross, dashing the body supinely away, and rolling it over and over by bank and bottom. 'Giovanna nor none else have care for me.' There is, I feel assured, nothing else 92. Ampère, Voyage Dantesque, p. 241, thus speaks of the battle of Campaldino: "In this plain of Campaldino, now so pleasant and covered with vineyards, took place, on the 11th of June, 1289, a rude combat between the Guelphs of Florence and the fuorusciti Ghibellines, aided by the Aretines. Dante fought in the front rank of the Florentine cavalry; for it must needs be that this man, whose life was so complete, should have been a soldier, before being a theologian, a diplomatist, and poet. He was then twenty-four years of age. He himself described this battle in a letter, of which only a few lines remain. 'At the battle of Campaldino,' he says, 'the Ghibelline party was routed and almost wholly slain. I was there, a novice in arms; I had great fear, and at last great joy, on account of the divers chances of the fight.' One must not see in this phrase the confession of cowardice, which could have no place in a soul tempered like that of Alighieri. The only fear he had was lest the battle should be lost. In fact, the Florentines at first seemed beaten; their infantry fell back before the Aretine cavalry; but this first advantage of the enemy was its destruction, by dividing its forces. These were the vicissitudes of the battle to which Dante alludes, and which at first excited his fears, and then caused his joy." 96. The Convent of Camaldoli, thus described by Forsyth, Italy, p. 117:"We now crossed the beautiful vale of Prato Vecchio, rode round the modest arcades of the town, and arrived at the lower convent of Camaldoli, just at shutting of the gates. The sun was set and every object sinking into repose, except the stream which roared among the rocks, and the convent-bells which were then ringing the Angelus. "This monastery is secluded from the approach of woman in a deep, narrow, woody dell. Its circuit of dead walls, built on the conventual plan, gives it an aspect of confinement and defence; yet this is considered as a privileged retreat, where the rule of the order relaxes its rigour, and no monks can reside but the sick or the superannuated, the dignitary or the steward, the apothecary or the bead-turner. Here we passed the night, and next morning rode up by the steep traverses to the Santo Eremo, where Saint Romualdo lived and established de' tacenti cenobiti il coro, "The Eremo is a city of hermits, walled round, and divided into streets of low, detached cells. Each cell consists of two or three naked rooms, built exactly on the plan of the Saint's own tenement, which remains just as Romualdo left it eight hundred years ago; now too sacred and too damp for a mortal tenant. "The unfeeling Saint has here established rule which anticipates the pains of Purgatory. No stranger can behold without emotion a number of noble, interesting young men bound to stand erect chanting at choir for eight hours a day; their faces pale, their heads shaven, their beards shaggy, their backs raw, their legs swollen, and their feet bare. With this horrible institute the climate conspires in severity, and selects from society the best constitutions. The sickly novice is cut off in one or two winters, the rest are subject to dropsy, and few arrive at old age.' him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." And Jeremy Taylor, speaking of the pardon of sin, says: "And while it is disputed between Christ and Christ's enemy who shall be Lord, the pardon fluctuates like the wave, striving to climb the rock, and is washed off like its own retinue, and it gets possession by time and uncertainty, by difficulty and the degrees of a hard progression." 109. Brunetto Latini, Tresor, I. ch. 107: "Then arise vapours like unto smoke, and mount aloft in air, where little by little they gather and grow, until they become dark and dense, so that they take away the sight of the sun; and these are the clouds; but they never are so dark as to take away the light of day; for the sun shines through them, as if it were a candle in a lantern, which shines outwardly, though it cannot itself be seen. when the cloud has waxed great, so that it can no longer support the abundance of water, which is there as vapour, it must needs fall to earth, and that is the rain." And Compare also Inf. XXIII. 16, "If anger upon evil will be grafted"; and Inf. XXXI. 55, "For where the argument of intellect 116. This Pratomagno is the same as the Prato Vecchio mentioned in Note 96. The" great yoke" is the ridge of the Apennines. Dr. Barlow, Study of Dante, p. 199, has this note on the passage : "When rain falls from the upper region of the air, we observe at a considerable altitude a thin light veil, or a hazy turbidness; as this increases, the lower clouds become diffused in it, and 97. Where the Archiano loses its form a uniform sheet. Such is the straname by flowing into the Arno. tus cloud described by Dante (v. 115) 104. Epistle of Jude, 9: "Yet Mi-as covering the valley from Pratomagno chael the archangel, when contending to the ridge on the opposite side above with the devil he disputed about the Camaldoli. This cloud is a widely body of Moses, durst not bring against extended horizontal sheet of vapour, in |