"Presta, Pater piissime, Patrique compar Unice, This hymn would seem to have no great applicability to disembodied spirits; and perhaps may have the same reference as the last petition in the Lord's Prayer, Canto XI. 19: "Our virtue, which is easily o'ercome, Put not to proof with the old Adversary, But thou from him who spurs it So, deliver. This last petition verily, dear Lord, Not for ourselves is made, who need it not, But for their sake who have remained behind us." Dante seems to think his meaning very easy to penetrate. The commentators have found it uncommonly difficult. 26. Genesis iii. 24: "And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way the tree of life." of 27. Justice tempered with mercy, say the commentators. 28. Green, the color of hope, which is the distinguishing virtue of Purgatory. On the symbolism of colors, Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, Introd., says: "In very early Art we find colors used in a symbolical or mystic sense, and, until the ancient principles and traditions were wholly worn out of memory or set aside by the later painters, certain colors were appropriated to certain subjects and personages, and could not arbitrarily be applied or mis applied. In the old specimens of stained glass we find these significations scrupulously attended to. Thus : "WHITE, represented by the diamond or silver, was the emblem of light, religious purity, innocence, virginity, faith, joy, and life. Our Saviour wears white after his resurrection. In the judge it indicated integrity; in the rich man, humility; in the woman, chastity. It was the color consecrated to the Virgin, who, however, never wears white except in pictures of the Assumption. "RED, the ruby, signified fire, divine love, the Holy Spirit, heat, or the creative power, and royalty. White and red roses expressed love and innocence, or love and wisdom, as in the garland with which the angel crowns St. Cecilia. In a bad sense, red signified blood, war, hatred, and punishment. Red and black combined were the colors of purgatory and the Devil. "BLUE, or the sapphire, expressed heaven, the firmament, truth, constancy, fidelity. Christ and the Virgin wear the red tunic and the blue mantle, as signifying heavenly love and heavenly truth.* The same colors were given to St. John the Evangelist, with this difference, that he wore the blue tunic and the red mantle; in later pictures the colors are sometimes red and green. "YELLOW, or gold, was the symbol of the sun; of the goodness of God; *In the Spanish schools the color of our Saviour's mantle is generally a deep rich violet. initiation, or marriage; faith, or fruitfulness. St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin, wears yellow. In pictures of the Apostles, St. Peter wears a yellow mantle over a blue tunic. In a bad sense, yellow signifies inconstancy, jealousy, deceit; in this sense it is given to the traitor Judas, who is generally habited in dirty yellow. "GREEN, the emerald, is the color of spring; of hope, particularly hope in immortality; and of victory, as the color of the palm and the laurel. "VIOLET, the amethyst, signified love and truth; or, passion and suffering. Hence it is the color often worn by the martyrs. In some instances our Saviour, after his resurrection, is habited in a violet, instead of a blue mantle. The Virgin also wears violet after the crucifixion. Mary Magdalene, who as patron saint wears the red robe, as penitent wears violet and blue, the colors of sorrow and of constancy. In the devotional representation of her by Timoteo della Vite, she wears red and green, the colors of love and hope. "GRAY, the color of ashes, signified mourning, humility, and innocence accused; hence adopted as the dress of the Franciscans (the Gray Friars); but it has since been changed for a dark rusty brown. "BLACK expressed the earth, darkness, mourning, wickedness, negation, death; and was appropriate to the Prince of Darkness. In some old illuminated MSS., Jesus, in the Temptation, wears a black robe. White and black together signified purity of life, and mourning or humiliation; hence adopted by the Dominicans and the Carmelites." 50. It was not so dark that on a near approach he could not distinguish objects indistinctly visible at a greater distance. 53. Nino de' Visconti of Pisa, nephew of Count Ugolino, and Judge of Gallura in Sardinia. Dante had known him at the siege of Caprona, in 1290, where he saw the frightened garrison march out under safeguard. Inf. XXI. 95. It was this "gentle Judge," who hanged Friar Gomita for peculationf. Inf. XXII. 82. 71. His daughter, still young and innocent. 75. His widow married Galeazzo de' Visconti of Milan, "and much discomfort did this woman suffer with her husband," says the Ottimo, "so that many a time she wished herself a widow." 79. Hamlet, IV. 5 : — "His obscure funeral, No trophy, sword, or hatchment o'er his grave." 80. The Visconti of Milan had for their coat of arms a viper; and being on the banner, it led the Milanese to battle. 81. The arms of Gallura. "According to Fara, a writer of the sixteenth century," says Valery, Voyage en Corse et en Sardaigne, II. 37, "the elegant but somewhat chimerical historian of Sardinia, Gallura is a Gallic colony; its arms are a cock; and one might find some analogy between the natural vivacity of its inhabitants and Circular base of rising folds, that towered At first, as one who sought access, but feared To interrupt, sidelong he works his way. His turret crest, and sleek enamelled neck, Fawning; and licked the ground whereon she trod." 114. In the original al sommo smalto, to the highest enamel; referring either to the Terrestrial Paradise, enamelled with flowers, or to the highest heaven enamelled with stars. The azure-stone, pierre d'azur, or lapis lazuli, is perhaps a fair equivalent for the smalto, particu. larly if the reference be to the sky. 116. The valley in Lunigiana, through which runs the Magra, dividing the Genoese and Tuscan territories. IX. 89: : Par. "The Magra, that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese." 118. Currado or Conrad Malaspina, father of Marcello Malaspina, who six years later sheltered Dante in his exile, as foreshadowed in line r36. It was from the convent of the Corvo, overlooking the Gulf of Spezia, in Lunigiana, that Frate Ilario wrote the letter describing Dante's appearance in the cloister. See Illustrations at the end of Vol. I. 131. Pope Boniface the Eighth. 134. Before the sun shall be seven times in Aries, or before seven years are passed. 137. Ecclesiastes, xii. 11: "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies." 139. With this canto ends the first day in Purgatory, as indicated by the description of evening at the beginning, and the rising of the stars in line 89. With it closes also the first subdivision of this part of the poem, indicated, as the reader will not fail to notice, by the elaborate introduction of the next canto. CANTO IX. 1. "Dante begins this canto," says Benvenuto da Imola, "by saying a thing that was never said or imagined by any other poet, which is, that the aurora of the moon is the concubine of Tithonus. Some maintain that he means the aurora of the sun; but this cannot be, if we closely examine the text." This point is elaborately discussed by the commentators. I agree with those who interpret the passage as referring to a lunar aurora. It is still evening; and the hour is indicated a few lines lower down. To Tithonus was given the gift of immortality, but not of perpetual youth. As Tennyson makes him say :— "The woods decay, the woods decay and fall, 2. Don Quixote, I. 2: "Scarcely had ruddy Phoebus spread the golden tresses of his beauteous hair over the face of the wide and spacious earth, and scarcely had the painted little birds, with the sweet and mellifluous harmony of their serrated tongues, saluted the approach of rosy Aurora, when, quitting the soft couch of her jealous husband, she disclosed herself to mortals through the gates and balconies of the Manchegan horizon." 5. As the sun was in Aries, and it was now the fourth day after the full moon, the Scorpion would be rising in the dawn which precedes the moon. 8. This indicates the time to be two hours and a half after sunset, or half past eight o'clock. Two hours of the ascending night are passed, and the third is half over. This circumstantial way of measuring the flight of time is Homeric. Iliad, X. 250: "Let us be going, then, for the night declines fast, and the morning is near. And the stars have already far advanced, and the greater portion of the night, by two parts, has gone by, but the third portion still re mains." 10. Namely, his body. 12. Virgil, Sordello, Dante, Nino, and Conrad. And here Dante falls upon the grass and sleeps till dawn. There is a long pause of rest and sleep between this line and the next, which makes the whole passage doubly beautiful. The narrative recommences like the twitter of early birds just beginning to stir in the woods. 14. For the tragic story of Tereus, changed to a lapwing, Philomela to a nightingale, and Procne to a swallow, see Ovid, Metamorph., VI. : — "Now, with drawn sabre and impetuous speed, In close pursuit he drives Pandion's breed; Whose nimble feet spring with so swift a force Across the fields, they seem to wing their course. And now, on real wings themselves they raise, Where stamped upon her breast the crimson spots remain. Tereus, through grief and haste to be revenged, Shares the like fate, and to a bird is changed; Fixed on his head the crested plumes appear, Long is his beak, and sharpened like a spear; Thus armed, his looks his inward mind display, And, to a lapwing turned, he fans his way." See also Gower, Confes. Amant., V.:— "And of her suster Progne I finde Which eke in winter lith swouning And comen is the somer tide, What falshede is in mariage, And telleth in a maner speche Of Tereus the spouse breche." 18. Pope, Temple of Fame, 7:"What time the morn mysterious visions brings, While purer slumbers spread their golden wings." 22. Mount Ida. 30. To the region of fire. Brunetto "AfLatini, Tresor, Ch. CXIII., says: ter the environment of the air is seated the fourth element; this is an orb of fire, which extends to the moon and surrounds this atmosphere in which we are. And know that above the fire is in the first place the moon, and the other stars, which are all of the nature of fire." 37. To prevent Achilles from going to the siege of Troy, his mother Thetis took him from Chiron, the Centaur, and concealed him in female attire in the court of Lycomedes, king of Scyros. 53. As Richter says: "The hour when sleep is nigh unto the soul." 55. Lucia, the Enlightening Grace of heaven. Inf. II. 97. 58. Nino and Conrad. |