its greatest painter, who must over and over again have held full and free conversation with him respecting the objects of his art, speaks in the following terms of painting, supposed to be carried to its highest perfection

'Qual di pennel fu maestro, e di stile

Che ritraesse l'ombre, e i tratti, ch' ivi
Mirar farieno uno ingegno sottile.
Mori li morti, e i vivi parean vivi:

Non vide me' di me, chi vide il vero,
Quant' io calcai, fin che chinato givi.'

Dante has here clearly no other idea of
the highest art than that it should bring
back, as in a mirror or vision, the aspect
of things passed or absent.
The scenes
of which he speaks are, on the pave-
ment, for ever represented by angelic
power, so that the souls which traverse
this circle of the rock may see them, as
if the years of the world had been rolled
back, and they again stood beside the
actors in the moment of action.. Nor do
I think that Dante's authority is
absolutely necessary to compel us to
admit that such art as this might indeed
be the highest possible. Whatever
delight we may have been in the habit
of taking in pictures, if it were but truly
offered to us to remove at our will the
canvas from the frame, and in lieu of it
to behold, fixed for ever, the image of
some of those mighty scenes which it
has been our way to make mere themes
for the artist's fancy,-if, for instance,
we could again behold the Magdalene
receiving her pardon at Christ's feet, or
the disciples sitting with him at the table
of Emmaus, and this not feebly nor
fancifully, but as if some silver mirror,
that had leaned against the wall of the
chamber, had been miraculously com-
manded to retain for ever the colours
that had flashed upon it for an instant,-
would we not part with our picture,
Titian's or Veronese's though it might
be?"

81. The sixth hour of the day, or noon of the second day.

102. Florence is here called ironically "the well guided" or well governed. Rubaconte is the name of the most easterly of the bridges over the Arno, and takes its name from Messer Rubaconte, who was Podestà of Florence in 1236, when this bridge was built.

Above it on the hill stands the church of San Miniato. This is the hill which Michael Angelo fortified in the siege of Florence. In early times it was climbed by stairways.

105. In the good old days, before any one had falsified the ledger of the public accounts, or the standard of measure. In Dante's time a certain Messer Niccola tore out a leaf from the public records, to conceal some villany of his; and a certain Messer Durante, a custom-house officer, diminished the salt-measure by one stave. This is again alluded to, Par. XVI. 105.

110. Matthew v. 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

It must be observed that all the Latin lines in Dante should be chanted with an equal stress on each syllable, in order to make them rhythmical.

CANTO XIII.

1. The Second Circle, or Cornice, where is punished the sin of Envy; of which St. Augustine says: 'Envy is the hatred of another's felicity; in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest they should be equal to them; in respect of equals, because they are equal to them.

Through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and the death of Christ."

9. The livid colour of Envy.

14. The military precision with which Virgil faces to the right is Homeric. Biagioli says that Dante expresses it "after his own fashion, that is, entirely new and different from mundane custom. 16. Boëthius, Cons. Phil., V. Met. 2: "Him the Sun, then, rightly call,God who sees and lightens all."

29. John ii. 3: "And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine."

Examples are first given of the virtue opposite the vice here punished. These are but "airy tongues that syllable men's names;" and it must not be supposed that the persons alluded to are actually passing in the air.

33. The name of Orestes is here

36. Matthew v. 44: "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.'

39. See Canto XIV. 147.

122. The warm days near the end of January are still called in Lombardy I giorni della merla, the days of the blackbird; from an old legend, that once in the sunny weather a blackbird sang, "I fear thee no more, O Lord, for the winter is over."

128. Peter Pettignano, or Pettinajo, was a holy hermit, who saw visions and

51. The Litany of All Saints. 92. Latian for Italian.

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109. A Sienese lady living in banishment at Colle, where from a tower she witnessed the battle between her townsmen and the Florentines. Sapia hated the Sienese, says Benvenuto, "and placed herself at a window not far from the field of battle, waiting the issue with anxiety, and desiring the rout and ruin of her own people. Her desires being verified by the entire discomfiture of the Sienese, and the death of their captain," (Provenzan Salvani, see Canto XI. Note 121,) exultant and almost beside herself, she lifted her bold face to heaven, and cried, "Now, O God, do with me what thou wilt, do me all the harm thou canst; now my prayers are answered, and I die content.'

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110. Gower, Confes. Amant., II. :

"Whan I have sene another blithe

Of love and hadde a goodly chere,
Ethna, which brenneth yere by yere,
Was thanne nought so hote as I
Of thilke sore which prively

Mine hertes thought withinne brenneth."

114. Convito, IV. 23: "Every effect, in so far as it is effect, receiveth the likeness of its cause, as far as it can retain it. Therefore, inasmuch as our life, as has been said, and likewise that of every living creature here below, is caused by the heavens, and the heavens reveal themselves to all these effects, not in complete circle, but in part thereof, so must its movement needs be above; and as an arch retains all lives nearly, (and, I say, retains those of men as well as of other living creatures,) ascending and curving, they must be in the similitude of an arch. Returning then to our life, of which it is now question, I say that

Italy, 149, describing the festival of the Assumption in that city in 1802, says :-

"The Pope had reserved for this great festival the Beatification of Peter, a Sienese comb-maker, whom the Church had neglected to canonize till now. Poor Peter was honoured with all the solemnity of music, high-mass, and officiating cardinal, a florid panegyric, pictured angels bearing his tools to heaven, and combing their own hair as they soared; but he received five hundred years ago a greater honour than all, a verse of praise from Dante."

138. Dante's besetting sin was not envy, but pride.

144. On the other side of the world." 153. The vanity of the Sienese is also spoken of Inf. XXIX. 123.

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152. Talamone is a seaport in the Maremma, " many times abandoned by its inhabitants," says the Ottimo, on account of the malaria. The town is utterly in ruins; but as the harbour is deep, and would be of great utility if the place were inhabited, the Sienese have spent much money in repairing it many times, and bringing in inhabitants; it is of little use, for the malaria prevents the increase of population."

Talamone is the ancient Telamon, where Marius landed on his return from Africa.

153. The Diana is a subterranean river, which the Sienese were in search of for many years to supply the city with water. "They never have been able to find it," says the Ottimo, "and yet they still hope." In Dante's time it was evidently looked upon as an idle dream. To the credit of the Sienese be it said, they persevered, and finally succeeded in obtaining the water so patiently sought for. The Pozzo Diana, or Diana's Well, is

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. Eneid, III. 410, Davidson's Tr.:

"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.

And Lucan, Phars., II. :-
"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 whât, 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:

gentleman at whose house I slept here. ascribed the superior flavour of thei 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.

scribes

'Li ruscelletti che de' verdi colli

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

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.

inhabitants of the Val d' Arno might said of the greater part of the Itaans, nay, of the world. Dante, being once asked why he had put more Christians' than Gentiles into Hell, replied, 'Because I have known the Christians better.'"

58. Messer Fulcieri da Calboli of Forlì, nephew of Rinieri. He was Podestà of Florence in 1302, and, being bribed by the Neri, had many of the Bianchi put to death.

64. Florence, the habitation of these wolves, left so stripped by Fulcieri, on his retiring from office, that it will be long in recovering its former prosperity.

81. Guido del Duca of Brettinoro, near Forlì, in Romagna; nothing remains but the name. He and his companion Rinieri were "gentlemen of worth, if they had not been burned up with envy."

87. On worldly goods, where selfishness excludes others; in contrast with the spiritual, which increase by being shared. See Canto XV. 45.

88. Rinieri da Calboli. "He was very famous," says the Ottimo, and history says no more.. In the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 44, Roscoe's Tr., he figures thus:

"A certain knight was one day entreating a lady whom he loved to smile upon his wishes, and among other delicate arguments which he pressed upon her was that of his own superior wealth, elegance, and accomplishments, especially when compared with the merits of her own liege-lord, whose extreme ugliness, madam,' he continued, 'I think I need not insist upon.' Her husband, who overheard this compliment from the place of his concealment, immediately replied, Pray, sir, mend your own manners, and do not vilify other people.' The name of the plain gentleman was Lizio di Valbona, and Messer Rinieri da Calvoli that of the other."

92. In Romagna, which is bounded by the Po, the Apennines, the Adriatic, and the river Reno, that passes near Bologna. 93. For study and pleasure. 97. Of Lizio and Manardi the Ottimo "Messer Lizio di Valbona, a courteous gentleman, in order to give a dinner at Forlì, sold half his silken bedquilt for sixty florins. Arrigo Manardi

says:

was of Brettinoro; he was a gentleman full of courtesy and honour, was fond of entertaining guests, made presents of robes and horses, loved honourable men, and all his life was devoted to largess and good living."

The marriage of Riccardo Manardi with Lizio's daughter Caterina is the subject of one of the tales of the Decameron, V. 4. Pietro Dante says, that, when Lizio was told of the death of his dissipated son, he replied, "It is no newś to me, he never was alive."

98. Of Pier Traversaro the Ottimo says: "He was of Ravenna, a man of most gentle blood;" and of Guido di Carpigna: "He was of Montefeltro.

Most of the time he lived at Brettinoro, and surpassed all others in generosity, loved for the sake of loving, and lived handsomely."

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100. "This Messer Fabbro," says the Ottimo, was born of low parents, and lived so generously that the author (Dante) says there never was his like in Bologna."

IOI. The Ottimo again: "This Messer Bernardino, son of Fosco, a farmer, and of humble occupation, became so excellent by his good works, that he was an honour to Faenza; and he was named with praise, and the old grandees were not ashamed to visit him, to see his mag nificence, and to hear his pleasant jests.'

104. Guido da Prata, from the village of that name, between Faenza and Forli, and Ugolin d' Azzo of Faenza, according to the same authority, though "of humble birth, rose to such great honour, that, leaving their native places, they associated with the noblemen before mentioned."

106. Frederick Tignoso was a gentleman of Rimini, living in Brettinoro. "A man of great mark," says Buti, "with his band of friends." According to Benvenuto, "he had beautiful blond hair, and was called tignoso (the scurvy fellow) by way of antiphrase." The Ottimo speaks of him as follows: "He avoided the city as much as possible, as a place hostile to gentlemen, but when he was in it, he kept open house."

107. Ancient and honourable families of Ravenna. There is a story of them in the Decameron, Gior. V. Nov. 8, which is too long to quote. Upon this tale is