The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (essential books to read TXT) 📕

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; for had he thoroughly comprehended it, he would not have fallen.”

 

v. 108. The Ethiop.] Matt. c. xii. 41.

 

v. 112. That volume.] Rev. c. xx. 12.

 

v. 114. Albert.] Purgatory, Canto VI. v. 98.

 

v. 116. Prague.] The eagle predicts the devastation of Bohemia by Albert, which happened soon after this time, when that Emperor obtained the kingdom for his eldest son Rodolph. See Coxe’s House of Austria, 4to. ed. v. i. part 1. p. 87

 

v. 117. He.] Philip IV of France, after the battle of Courtrai, 1302, in which the French were defeated by the Flemings, raised the nominal value of the coin. This king died in consequence of his horse being thrown to the ground by a wild boar, in 1314

 

v. 121. The English and Scot.] He adverts to the disputes between John Baliol and Edward I, the latter of whom is commended in the Purgatory, Canto VII. v. 130.

 

v. 122. The Spaniard’s luxury.] The commentators refer this to Alonzo X of Spain. It seems probable that the allusion is to Ferdinand IV who came to the crown in 1295, and died in 1312, at the age of twenty four, in consequence, as it was supposed, of his extreme intemperance.

See Mariana, Hist I. xv. c. 11.

 

v. 123. The Bohemian.] Winceslaus II. Purgatory, Canto VII. v.

 

v. 125. The halter of Jerusalem.] Charles II of Naples and Jerusalem who was lame. See note to Purgatory, Canto VII. v.

122, and XX. v. 78.

 

v. 127. He.] Frederick of Sicily son of Peter III of Arragon.

Purgatory, Canto VII. v. 117. The isle of fire is Sicily, where was the tomb of Anchises.

 

v. 133. His uncle.] James, king of Majorca and Minorca, brother to Peter III.

 

v. 133. His brother.] James II of Arragon, who died in 1327.

See Purgatory, Canto VII. v. 117.

 

v. 135. Of Portugal.] In the time of Dante, Dionysius was king of Portugal. He died in 1328, after a reign of near forty-six years, and does not seem to have deserved the stigma here fastened on him. See Mariana. and 1. xv. c. 18. Perhaps the rebellious son of Dionysius may be alluded to.

 

v. 136. Norway.] Haquin, king of Norway, is probably meant; who, having given refuge to the murderers of Eric VII king of Denmark, A D. 1288, commenced a war against his successor, Erie VIII, “which continued for nine years, almost to the utter ruin and destruction of both kingdoms.” Modern Univ. Hist. v. xxxii p. 215.

 

v. 136. -Him

Of Ratza.]

One of the dynasty of the house of Nemagna, which ruled the kingdom of Rassia, or Ratza, in Sclavonia, from 1161 to 1371, and whose history may be found in Mauro Orbino, Regno degli Slavi, Ediz. Pesaro. 1601. Uladislaus appears to have been the sovereign in Dante’s time, but the disgraceful forgery adverted to in the text, is not recorded by the historian v. 138. Hungary.] The kingdom of Hungary was about this time disputed by Carobert, son of Charles Martel, and Winceslaus, prince of Bohemia, son of Winceslaus II. See Coxe’s House of Austria, vol. i. p. 1. p. 86.

 

4to edit.

 

v. 140. Navarre.] Navarre was now under the yoke of France.

It soon after (in 1328) followed the advice of Dante and had a monarch of its own. Mariana, 1. xv. c. 19.

 

v. 141. Mountainous girdle.] The Pyrenees.

 

v. 143. -Famagosta’s streets

And Nicosia’s.]

 

Cities in the kingdom of Cyprus, at that time ruled by Henry II a pusillanimous prince. Vertot. Hist. des Chev. de Malte, 1. iii.

iv. The meaning appears to be, that the complaints made by those cities of their weak and worthless governor, may be regarded as an earnest of his condemnation at the last doom.

 

CANTO XX

 

v. 6. Wherein one shines.] The light of the sun, whence he supposes the other celestial bodies to derive their light v. 8. The great sign.] The eagle, the Imperial ensign.

 

v. 34. Who.] David.

 

v. 39. He.] Trajan. See Purgatory, Canto X. 68.

 

v. 44. He next.] Hezekiah.

 

v. 50. ‘The other following.] Constantine. There is no passage in which Dante’s opinion of the evil; that had arisen from the mixture of the civil with the ecclesiastical power, is more unequivocally declared.

 

v. 57. William.] William II, king of Sicily, at the latter part of the twelfth century He was of the Norman line of sovereigns, and obtained the appellation of “the Good” and, as the poet says his loss was as much the subject of regret in his dominions, as the presence of Charles I of Anjou and Frederick of Arragon, was of sorrow and complaint.

 

v. 62. Trojan Ripheus.]

Ripheus, justissimus unus

Qui fuit in Teneris, et servantissimus aequi.

Virg. Aen. 1. ii. 4—.

 

v. 97. This.] Ripheus.

 

v. 98. That.] Trajan.

 

v. 103. The prayers,] The prayers of St. Gregory v. 119. The three nymphs.] Faith, Hope, and Charity. Purgatory, Canto XXIX. 116.

v. 138. The pair.] Ripheus and Trajan.

 

CANTO XXI

 

v. 12. The seventh splendour.] The planet Saturn v. 13. The burning lion’s breast.] The constellation Leo.

 

v. 21. In equal balance.] “My pleasure was as great in complying

with her will as in beholding her countenance.”

 

v. 24. Of that lov’d monarch.] Saturn. Compare Hell, Canto XIV. 91.

 

v. 56. What forbade the smile.] “Because it would have overcome thee.”

 

v. 61. There aloft.] Where the other souls were.

 

v. 97. A stony ridge.] The Apennine.

 

v. 112. Pietro Damiano.] “S. Pietro Damiano obtained a great and well-merited reputation, by the pains he took to correct the abuses among the clergy. Ravenna is supposed to have been the place of his birth, about 1007. He was employed in several important missions, and