still to be seen at the Convent of the Carmen.

154. The admirals who go to Talamone to superintend the works will lose there more than their hope, namely, their lives.

CANTO XIV.

1. The subject of the preceding canto is here continued. Compare the introductory lines with those of Canto V.

7. These two spirits prove to be Guido del Duca and Rinieri da Calboli.

17. A mountain in the Apennines, north-east of Florence, from which the Arno takes its rise. Ampère, Voyage Dantesque, p. 246, thus describes this region of the Val d' Arno. "Farther on is another tower, the tower of Porciano, which is said to have been inhabited by Dante. From there I had still to climb the summits of the Falterona. I started towards midnight in order to arrive before sunrise. I said to myself, How many times the poet, whose footprints I am following, has wandered in these mountains! It was by these little alpine paths that he came and went, on his way to friends in Romagna or friends in Urbino, his heart agitated with a hope that was never to be fulfilled. I figured to myself Dante walking with a guide under the light of the stars, receiving all the impressions produced by wild and weather-beaten regions, steep roads, deep valleys, and the accidents of a long and difficult route, impressions which he would transfer to his poem. It is enough to have read this poem to be certain that its author has travelled much, has wandered much. Dante really walks with Virgil. He fatigues himself with climbing, he stops to take breath, he uses his hands when feet are insufficient. He gets lost, and asks the way. He observes the height of the sun and stars. In a word, one finds the habits and souvenirs of the traveller in every verse, or rather at every step of his poetic pilgrimage.

"Dante has certainly climbed the top of the Falterona. It is upon this summit, from which all the Valley of the Arno is embraced, that one should read the singular imprecation which the poet

has uttered against this whole valley. He follows the course of the river, and as he advances marks every place he comes to with fierce invective. The farther he goes, the more his hate redoubles in violence and bitterness. It is a piece of topographical satire, of which I know no other example."

32. The Apennines, whose long chain ends in Calabria, opposite Cape Peloro in Sicily. Æneid, III. 410, Davidson's Tr. :

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:

But when, after setting out, the wind shall waft you to the Sicilian coast, and the straits of narrow Pelorus shall open wider to the eye, veer to the land on the left, and to the sea on the left, by a long circuit; fly the right both sea and shore. These lands, they say, once with violence and vast desolation convulsed, (such revolutions a long course of time is able to produce,) slipped asunder; when in continuity both lands were one, the sea rushed impetuously between, and by its waves tore the Italian side from that of Sicily; and with a narrow frith runs between the fields and cities separated by the shores. Scylla guards the right side, implacable Charybdis the left, and thrice with the deepest eddies of its gulf swallows up the vast billows, headlong in, and again spouts them out by turns high into the air, and lashes the stars with the waves." II. :

And Lucan, Phars.,

"And still we see on fair Sicilia's sands
Where part of Apennine Pelorus stands."
And Shelley, Ode to Liberty:-
"O'er the lit waves every Æolian isle
From Pithecusa to Pelorus

Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus."

40. When Dante wrote this invective against the inhabitants of the Val d'Arno, he probably had in mind the following passage of Boëthius, Cons. Phil., IV. Pros. 3, Ridpath's Tr. :

"Hence it again follows, that every thing which strays from what is good ceases to be; the wicked therefore must cease to be what they were; but that they were formerly men, their human shape, which still remains, testifies. By degenerating into wickedness, then, they must cease to be men. But as virtue alone can exalt a man above what is

human, so it is on the contrary evident, that vice, as it divests him of his nature, must sink him below humanity; you ought therefore by no means to consider him as a man whom vice has rendered vicious. Tell me, What difference is there betwixt a wolf who lives by rapine, and a robber whom the desire of another's wealth stimulates to commit all manner of violence? Is there anything that bears a stronger resemblance to a wrathful dog who barks at passengers, than a man whose dangerous tongue attacks all the world? What is liker to a fox than a cheat, who spreads his snares in secret to undermine and ruin you? to a lion, than a furious man who is always ready to devour you? to a deer, than a coward who is afraid of his own shadow? to an ass, than a mortal who is slow, dull, and indolent? to the birds of the air, than a man volatile and inconstant? and what, in fine, is a debauchee who is immersed in the lowest sensual gratifications, but a hog who wallows in the mire? Upon the whole, it is an unquestionable truth that a man who forsakes virtue ceases to be a man; and, as it is impossible that he can ascend in the scale of beings, he must of necessity degenerate and sink into a beast."

43. The people of Casentino. Forsyth, Italy, p. 126:

"On returning down to the Casentine, we could trace along the Arno the mischief which followed a late attempt to clear some Apennines of their woods. Most of the soil, which was then loosened from the roots and washed down by the torrents, lodged in this plain; and left immense beds of sand and large rolling stones on the very spot where Dante describes

'Li ruscelletti che de' verdi colli

Del Casentin discendon giuso in Arno,
Facendo i lor canali e freddi e molli.'

gentleman at whose house I slept here, ascribed the superior flavour of their hams, which are esteemed the best in Italy and require no cooking, to the dryness of the air, the absence of stagnant water, and the quantity of chestnuts given to their hogs. Bibbiena has been long renowned for its chestnuts, which the peasants dry in a kiln, grind into a sweet flour, and then convert into bread, cakes, and polenta.”

46. The people of Arezzo. Forsyth, Italy, p. 128:

"The Casentines were no favourites with Dante, who confounds the men with their hogs. Yet, following the divine poet down the Arno, we came to a race still more forbidding. The Aretine peasants seem to inherit the coarse, surly visages of their ancestors, whom he styles Bottoli. Meeting one girl, who appeared more cheerful than her neighbours, we asked her how far it was from Arezzo, and received for answer, Quanto c'è.'

"The valley widened as we advanced, and when Arezzo appeared, the river left us abruptly, wheeling off from its environs at a sharp angle, which Dante converts into a snout, and points disdainfully against the currish race.

"On entering the Val di Chiana, we passed through a peasantry more civil and industrious than their Aretine neighbours. One poor girl, unlike the last whom we accosted, was driving a laden ass, bearing a billet of wood on her head, spinning with the rocca, and singing as she went on. Others were returning with their sickles from the fields which they had reaped in the Maremma, to their own harvest on the hills. That contrast which struck me in the manners of two cantons so near as Cortona to Arezzo, can only be a vestige of their ancient rivality while separate republics. Men naturally dislike the very virtues of their enemies, and affect qualities as remote from theirs as they can well defend."

50. The Florentines.
53. The Pisans.

founded Dryden's poem of Theodore and 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."

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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:

“Of calling shapes and beckoning shadows dire, And airy tongues that syllable men's names.' These voices in the air proclaim examples 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.
As when a cancer in the body feeds,
And gradual death from limb to limb proceeds,
So does the chillness to each vital part
Spread by degrees, and creeps into her heart;
Till hardening everywhere, and speechless
grown,

She sits unmoved, and freezes to a stone.
But still her envious hue and sullen mien
Are in the sedentary figure seen.'

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 man,

There is a plummet in the heart that weighs And pulls us, living, to the dust we came from."

CANTO XV.

I. In this canto is described the ascent to the Third Circle of the mountain. The hour indicated by the peculiar Dantesque introduction is three hous 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

E E

the day is sunrise; consequently the end of the third hour, three hours after sunrise, is represented by an arc of the celestial 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 in 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 11O.

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:—
"Since good the more
Communicated, more abundant grows."

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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 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,

receive this divine act.

'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;
Love was not felt till noble heart beat high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made;
Soon as the sun's broad flame

Was formed, so soon the clear light filled
the air,

Yet was not till he came;

So love springs up in noble breasts, and
there
Has its appointed space,

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;
This virtue comes not from the stars above,
Till round it the ennobling sun has shone;
But when his powerful blaze

Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars
impart

Strange virtue in their rays;

And thus when nature doth create the heart
Noble, and pure, and high,

Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye."

"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 This is day by the vote of the women. 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 Mars's hill among the Athenian towers.
On lofty thrones twice six celestials sate,
Jove in the midst, and held their warm debate;
The subject weighty, and well known to fame,
From whom the city should receive its name.
Each god by proper features was expressed,
Jove with majestic mien excelled the rest.
His three-forked mace the dewy sea-god
shook,

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.