The Divine Comedy - Dante Alighieri (bts book recommendations txt) 📗

live
That raignest aie in three, two and one
Uncircumscript, and all maist circonscrive,

v. 81. The goodliest light.] Solomon.

v. 78. To more lofty bliss.] To the planet Mars.

v. 94. The venerable sign.] The cross.

v. 125. He.] "He who considers that the eyes of Beatrice became more radiant the higher we ascended, must not wonder that I do not except even them as I had not yet beheld them since our entrance into this planet."

CANTO XV

v. 24. Our greater Muse.] Virgil Aen. 1. vi. 684. v. 84. I am thy root.] Cacciaguida, father to Alighieri, of whom our Poet was the great-grandson.

v. 89. The mountain.] Purgatory.

v. 92. Florence.] See G. Villani, l. iii. c. 2.

v. 93. Which calls her still.] The public clock being still within the circuit of the ancient walls.

v. 98. When.] When the women were not married at too early an age, and did not expect too large a portion.

v. 101. Void.] Through the civil wars.

v. 102 Sardanapalus.] The luxurious monarch of Assyria Juvenal is here imitated, who uses his name for an instance of effeminacy. Sat.

v. 103. Montemalo ] Either an elevated spot between Rome and Viterbo, or Monte Mario, the site of the villa Mellini, commanding a view of Rome.

v. 101. Our suburban turret.] Uccellatojo, near Florence, from whence that city was discovered.

v. 103. Bellincion Berti.] Hell, Canto XVI. 38. nd Notes. There is a curious description of the simple manner in which the earlier Florentines dressed themselves in G. Villani, 1 vi. c. 71.

v. 110. Of Nerli and of Vecchio.] Two of the most opulent families in Florence.

v. 113. Each.] "None fearful either of dying in banishment, or of being deserted by her husband on a scheme of battle in France.

v. 120. A Salterello and Cianghella.] The latter a shameless woman of the family of Tosa, married to Lito degli Alidosi of Imola: the former Lapo Salterello, a lawyer, with whom Dante was at variance.

v. 125. Mary.] The Virgin was involved in the pains of child-birth Purgatory, Canto XX. 21.

v. 130 Valdipado.] Cacciaguida's wife, whose family name was Aldighieri; came from Ferrara, called Val di Pado, from its being watered by the Po.

v. 131. Conrad.] The Emperor Conrad III who died in 1152. See G. Villani, 1. iv. 34.

v. 136. Whose people.] The Mahometans, who were left in possession of the Holy Land, through the supineness of the Pope.

CANTO XVI

v. 10. With greeting.] The Poet, who had addressed the spirit, not knowing him to be his ancestor, with a plain "Thou," now uses more ceremony, and calls him "You," according to a custom introduced among the Romans in the latter times of the empire.

v. 15. Guinever.] Beatrice's smile encouraged him to proceed just as the cough of Ginevra's female servant gave her mistress assurance to admit the freedoms of Lancelot. See Hell, Canto V. 124.

v. 23. The fold.] Florence, of which John the Baptist was the patron saint.

v. 31. From the day.] From the Incarnation to the birth of Cacciaguida, the planet Mars had returned five hundred and fifty-three times to the constellation of Leo, with which it is supposed to have a congenial influence. His birth may, therefore, be placed about 1106.

v. 38. The last.] The city was divided into four compartments. The Elisei, the ancestors of Dante, resided near the entrance of that named from the Porta S. Piero, which was the last reached by the competitor in the annual race at Florence. See G. Villani, 1. iv. c. 10.

v. 44. From Mars.] "Both in the times of heathenish and of Christianity." Hell, Canto XIII. 144.

v. 48. Campi and Certaldo and Fighine.] Country places near Florence.

v. 50. That these people.] That the inhabitants of the above- mentioned places had not been mixed with the citizens: nor the limits of Florence extended beyond Galluzzo and Trespiano."

v. 54. Aguglione's hind and Signa's.] Baldo of Aguglione, and Bonifazio of Signa.

v. 56. Had not the people.] If Rome had continued in her allegiance to the emperor, and the Guelph and Ghibelline factions had thus been prevented, Florence would not have been polluted by a race of upstarts, nor lost the most respectable of her ancient families.

v. 61. Simifonte.] A castle dismantled by the Florentines. G. Villani, 1. v. c. 30. The individual here alluded to is no longer known.

v. 69. The blind bull.] So Chaucer, Troilus and Cresseide. b. 2.

For swifter course cometh thing that is of wight
When it descendeth than done things light.

Compare Aristotle, Ethic. Nic. l. vi. c. 13. [GREEK HERE]

v. 72. Luni, Urbisaglia.] Cities formerly of importance, but then fallen to decay.

v. 74. Chiusi and Sinigaglia.] The same.

v. 80. As the moon.] "The fortune of us, that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea." Shakespeare, 1 Henry IV. a. i. s. 2.

v. 86. The Ughi.] Whoever is curious to know the habitations of these and the other ancient Florentines, may consult G. Villani, l. iv.

v. 91. At the poop.] Many editions read porta, "gate." -The same metaphor is found in Aeschylus, Supp. 356, and is there also scarce understood by the critics. [GREEK HERE] Respect these wreaths, that crown your city's poop.

v. 99. The gilded hilt and pommel.] The symbols of knighthood

v. 100. The column cloth'd with verrey.] The arms of the Pigli.

v. 103. With them.] Either the Chiaramontesi, or the Tosinghi one of which had committed a fraud in measuring out the wheat from the public granary. See Purgatory, Canto XII. 99

v. 109. The bullets of bright gold.] The arms of the Abbati, as it is conjectured.

v. 110. The sires of those.] "Of the Visdomini, the Tosinghi and the Cortigiani, who, being sprung from the founders of the bishopric of Florence are the curators of its revenues, which they do not spare, whenever it becomes vacant."

v. 113. Th' o'erweening brood.] The Adimari. This family was so little esteemed, that Ubertino Donato, who had married a daughter of Bellincion Berti, himself indeed derived from the same stock (see Note to Hell Canto XVI. 38.) was offended with his father-in-law, for giving another of his daughters in marriage to one of them.

v. 124. The gateway.] Landino refers this to the smallness of the city: Vellutello, with less probability, to the simplicity of the people in naming one of the gates after a private family.

v. 127. The great baron.] The Marchese Ugo, who resided at Florence as lieutenant of the Emperor Otho III, gave many of the chief families license to bear his arms. See G. Villani, 1. iv. c. 2., where the vision is related, in consequence of which he sold all his possessions in Germany, and founded seven abbeys, in one whereof his memory was celebrated at Florence on St. Thomas's day. v. 130. One.] Giano della Bella, belonging to one of the families thus distinguished, who no longer retained his place among the nobility, and had yet added to his arms a bordure or. See Macchiavelli, 1st. Fior. 1. ii. p. 86. Ediz. Giolito.

v. 132. -Gualterotti dwelt And Importuni.] Two families in the compartment of the city called Borgo.

v. 135. The house.] Of Amidei. See Notes to Canto XXVIII. of Hell. v. 102.

v. 142. To Ema.] "It had been well for the city, if thy ancestor had been drowned in the Ema, when he crossed that stream on his way from Montebuono to Florence."

v. 144. On that maim'd stone.] See Hell, Canto XIII. 144. Near the remains of the statue of Mars. Buondelmonti was slain, as if he had been a victim to the god; and Florence had not since known the blessing of peace.

v. 150. The lily.] "The arms of Florence had never hung reversed on the spear of her enemies, in token of her defeat; nor been changed from argent to gules;" as they afterwards were, when the Guelfi gained the predominance.

CANTO XVII

v. 1. The youth.] Phaeton, who came to his mother Clymene, to inquire of her if he were indeed the son of Apollo. See Ovid, Met. 1. i. ad finem.

v. 6. That saintly lamp.] Cacciaguida.

v. 12. To own thy thirst.] "That thou mayst obtain from others a solution of any doubt that may occur to thee."

v. 15. Thou seest as clear.] "Thou beholdest future events, with the same clearness of evidence, that we discern the simplest mathematical demonstrations."

v. 19. The point.] The divine nature.

v. 27. The arrow.] Nam praevisa minus laedere tela solent. Ovid.

Che piaga antiveduta assai men duole.
Petrarca, Trionfo del Tempo

v. 38. Contingency.] "The evidence with which we see the future portrayed in the source of all truth, no more necessitates that future than does the image, reflected in the sight by a ship sailing down a stream, necessitate the motion of the vessel."

v. 43. From thence.] "From the eternal sight; the view of the Deity.

v. 49. There.] At Rome, where the expulsion of Dante's party from Florence was then plotting, in 1300.

v. 65. Theirs.] "They shall be ashamed of the part they have taken aga'nst thee."

v. 69. The great Lombard.] Either Alberto della Scala, or Bartolommeo his eldest son. Their coat of arms was a ladder and an eagle.

v. 75. That mortal.] Can Grande della Scala, born under the influence of Mars, but at this time only nine years old

v. 80. The Gascon.] Pope Clement V.

v. 80. Great Harry.] The Emperor Henry VII.

v. 127. The cry thou raisest.] "Thou shalt stigmatize the faults of those who are most eminent and powerful."

CANTO XVIII

v. 3. Temp'ring the sweet with bitter.] Chewing the end of sweet and bitter fancy. Shakespeare, As you Like it, a. 3. s. 3.

v. 26. On this fifth lodgment of the tree.] Mars, the fifth ot the @

v. 37. The great Maccabee.] Judas Maccabeus.

v. 39. Charlemagne.] L. Pulci commends Dante for placing
Charlemagne and Orlando here:
Io mi confido ancor molto qui a Dante
Che non sanza cagion nel ciel su misse
Carlo ed Orlando in quelle croci sante,
Che come diligente intese e scrisse.
Morg. Magg. c. 28.

v. 43. William and Renard.] Probably not, as the commentators have imagined, William II of Orange, and his kinsman Raimbaud, two of the crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, (Maimbourg, Hist. des Croisades, ed. Par. 1682. 12mo. t. i. p. 96.) but rather the two more celebrated heroes in the age of Charlemagne. The former, William l. of Orange, supposed to have been the founder of the present illustrious family of that name, died about 808, according to Joseph de la Piser, Tableau de l'Hist. des Princes et Principante d'Orange. Our countryman, Ordericus Vitalis, professes to give his true life, which had been misrepresented in the songs of the itinerant bards." Vulgo canitur a joculatoribus de illo, cantilena; sed jure praeferenda est relatio authentica." Eccl. Hist. in Duchesne, Hist. Normann Script. p. 508. The latter is better known by having been celebrated by Ariosto, under the name of Rinaldo.

v. 43. Duke Godfey.] Godfrey of Bouillon.

v. 46. Robert Guiscard.] See Hell, Canto XXVIII. v. 12.

v. 81. The characters.] Diligite justitiam qui judicatis terrarm. "Love righteousness, ye that be judges of the earth " Wisdom of Solomon, c. i. 1.

v. 116. That once more.] "That he may again drive out those who buy and sell in the temple."

v. 124. Taking the bread away.] "Excommunication, or the interdiction of the Eucharist, is now employed as a weapon of warfare."

v. 126. That writest but to cancel.] "And thou, Pope Boniface, who writest thy ecclesiastical censures for no other purpose than to be paid for revoking them."

v. 130. To him.] The coin of Florence was stamped with the impression of John the Baptist.

CANTO XIX

v. 38. Who turn'd his compass.] Compare Proverbs, c. viii. 27. And Milton, P. L. b. vii 224.

v. 42. The Word] "The divine nature still remained incomprehensible. Of this Lucifer was a proof;