As that I there would deal in any sin : To see my lady joyful in her place." Fra Guittone d' Arezzo, a contemporary of the Notary, was one of the Frati Gaudenti, or Jovial Friars, mentioned in Inf. XXIII. Note 103. He first brought the Italian Sonnet to the perfect form it has since preserved, and left behind the earliest specimens of Italian letter-writing. These letters are written in a very florid style, and are perhaps more poetical than his verses, which certainly fall very far , short of the "sweet new style." Of all his letters the best is that To the Florentines, from which a brief extract is given Canto VI. Note 76. 82. Corso Donati, the brother of Forese who is here speaking, and into whose mouth nothing but Ghibelline wrath could have put these words. Corso was the leader of the Neri in Florence, and a partisan of Charles de Valois. His death is recorded by Villani, VIII. 96, and is thus described by Napier, Flor. Hist., I. 407: "The popularity of Corso was now thoroughly undermined, and the priors, after sounding the Campana for a general assembly of the armed citizens, laid a formal accusation before the Podestà Piero Branca d' Agobbio against him for conspiring to overthrow the liberties of his country, and endeavoring to make himself Tyrant of Florence he was immediately cited to appear, and, not complying, from a rea "Corso, on first hearing of the prosecution, had hastily barricaded all the approaches to his palace, but, disabled by the gout, could only direct the nenessary operations from his bed; yet thus helpless, thus abandoned by all but his own immediate friends and vassals; suddenly condemned to death; encompassed by the bitterest foes, with the whole force of the republic banded against him, he never cowered for an instant, but courageously determined to resist, until succored by Uguccione della Faggiola, to whom he had sent for aid. This attack continued during the greater part of the day, and generally with advantage to the Donati, for the people were not unanimous, and many fought unwillingly, so that, if the Rossi, Bardi, and other friends had joined, and Uguccioni's forces arrived, it would have gone hard with the citi zens. The former were intimidated, the latter turned back on hearing how matters stood; and then only did Corso's adherents lose heart and slink from from the barricades, while the towns men speaker; but in truth, his life was dangerous, and his death reprehensible. He was a knight of great mind and name, gentle in manners as in blood; of a fine figure even in his old age, with a beautiful countenance, delicate features, and a fair complexion; pleasing, wise; and an eloquent speaker. His attention was ever fixed on important things; he was intimate with all the great and noble, had an extensive influence, and was famous throughout Italy. He was an enemy of the middle classes and their supporters, beloved by the troops, but full of malicious thoughts, wicked, and artful. He was thus basely murdered by a foreign soldier, and his fellow-citizens well knew the man, for he was instantly conveyed away: those who ordered his death were Rosso della Tosa and Pazzino de' Pazzi, as is commonly said by all; and some bless him and some the contrary. Many believe that the two said knights killed him, and I, wishing to ascertain the truth, inquired diligently, and found what I have said to be true.' Such is the character of Corso Donati, which has come down to us from two authors who must have been personally acquainted with this distinguished chief, but opposed to each other in the general politics of their country." Pursued their advantage by breaking down a garden wall opposite the Stinche prisons and taking their enemy in the rear. This completed the disaster, and Corso, seing no chance remaining, fled towards the Casentino; but, being overtaken by some Catalonian troopers in the Florentine service, he was led back a prisoner from Rovezzano. After vainly endeavoring to bribe them, unable to support the indignity of a public execution at the hands of his enemies, he let himself fall from his horse, and, receiving several stabs in the neck and flank from the Catalan lances, his body was left bleeding on the road, until the monks. of San Salvi removed it to their convent, where he was interred next morning with the greatest privacy. Thus perished Corso Donati, the wisest and most worthy knight of his time; the best speaker, the most experienced statesman; the most renowned, the boldest, and most enterprising nobleman in Italy: he was handsome in person and of the most gracious manners, but very worldly, and caused infinite disturbance in Florence account of his ambition.'* People now began to repose, and his unhappy death was often and variously discussed, according to the feelings of friendship or enmity that moved the * Villani, VIII. Ch. 96. on See also Inf. VI. Note 52. 105. Dante had only so far gone round the circle, as to come in sight of the second of these trees, which from † Dino Compagni, III. 76. distance to distance encircle the mountain. 116. In the Terrestrial Paradise on the top of the mountain. 121. The Centaurs, born of Ixion and the Cloud, and having the "double breasts" of man and horse, became drunk with wine at the marriage of Hippodamia and Pirithous, and strove to carry off the bride and the other women by violence. Theseus and the rest of the Lapithæ opposed them, and drove them from the feast. This famous battle is described at great length by Ovid, Met. XII., Dryden's Tr.:— "For one, most brutal of the brutal brood, Or whether wine or beauty fired his blood, Or both at once, beheld with lustful eyes The bride; at once resolved to make his prize. Down went the board; and fastening on her hair, He seized with sudden force the frighted fair. "T was Eurytus began his bestial kind His crime pursued; and each, as pleased his mind, Or her whom chance presented, took: the feast An image of a taken town expressed. "The cave resounds with female shrieks; we rise Mad with revenge, to make a swift reprise : And Theseus first, 'What frenzy has possessed, O Eurytus,' he cried, 'thy brutal breast, To wrong Pirithous, and not him alone, But, while I live, two friends conjoined in 333 one?' 125. Judges vii. 5, 6: "So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men; but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water." 139. The Angel of the Seventh Circle. CANTO XXV. 1. The ascent to the Seventh Circle of Purgatory, where the sin of Lust is punished. 3. When the sign of Taurus reached the meridian, the sun, being in Aries, would be two hours beyond it. It is now two o'clock of the afternoon. The Scorpion is the sign opposite Taurus. 15. Shakespeare, Hamlet, I. 2: — "And did address Itself to motion, like as it would speak." 22. Meleager was the son of Eneus and Althæa, of Calydon. At his birth the Fates were present and predicted his future greatness. Clotho said that he would be brave; Lachesis, that he would be strong; and Atropos, that he would live as long as the brand upon the fire remained unconsumed. Ovid, Met. VIII. : "There lay a log unlighted on the hearth, When she was laboring in the throes of birth For th' unborn chief; the fatal sisters came, And raised it up, and tossed it on the flame Then on the rock a scanty measure place Of vital flax, and turned the wheel apace; And turning sung, "To this red brand and thee, O new-born babe, we give an equal destiny"; So vanished out of view. The frighted dame Sprung hasty from her bed, and quenched the flame. The log, in secret locked, she kept with care, And that, while thus preserved, preserved her heir." Meleager distinguished himself in the Argonautic expedition, and afterwards in the hunt of Calydon, where he killed the famous boar, and gave the boar's head to Atalanta; and when his uncles tried to take possession of it, he killed them also. On hearing this, and seeing the dead bodies, his mother in her rage threw the brand upon the fire again, and, as it was consumed, Meleager perished. Mr. Swinburne, Atalanta in Calydon: CHORUS. "When thou dravest the men None turned him again Nor endured he thy face Clothed round with the blush of the battle, with light from a terrible place. CENEUS. "Thou shouldst die as he dies For whom none sheddeth tears; And fulfilling thine ears With the brilliance of battle, the bloom and the beauty, the splendor of spears. CHORUS. "In the ears of the world It is sung, it is told, And the light thereof hurled From the Acroceraunian snow to the ford of the fleece of gold. MELEAGER. "Would God ye could carry me Forth of all these; Heap sand and bury me By the Chersonese Where the thundering Bosphorus answers the thunder of Pontic seas. CENEUS. "Dost thou mock at our praise And the singing begun In the folds of the hills of home, high places of Calydon? MELEAGER. "For the dead man no home is; Ah, better to be What the flower of the foam is In fields of the sea, That the sea-waves might be as my raiment, the gulf-stream a garment for me. "Mother, I dying with unforgetful tongue Would worship, but thy fire and subtlety, And minished all that god-like muscle and might And lesser than a man's: for all my veins Fail me, and all mine ashen 37. The dissertation which Dante here puts into the mouth of Statius may be found also in a briefer prose form in the Convito, IV. 21. It so much excites the enthusiasm of Varchi, that he declares it alone sufficient to prove Dante to have been a physician, philosopher, and theologian of the highest order; and goes on to say: "I not only confess, but I swear, that as many times as I have read it, which day and night are more than a thousand, my wonder and astonishment have always increased, seeming every time to find therein new beauties and new instruction, and consequently new difficul Of the ever festal stars; Say, who was he, the sunless shade, In the silence of the night :- Though he traced back old king Nine, And Belus, elder name divine, And Osiris, endless famed. Not the glory, triple-named, Thrice great Hermes, though his eyes Read the shapes of all the skies, Left him in his sacred verse Revealed to Nature's worshippers. |