related in the preceding note. Of this engagement I find no mention in Villani. Currado Malaspina is introduced in the eighth Canto of the Purgatory; where it appears that, although on the present occasion they espoused contrary sides, some important favours were nevertheless conferred by that family on our poet at a subsequent period of his exile in 1307.

CANTO XXV.

v. 1. The Sinner.] So Trissino.

Poi facea con le man le fiche al cielo

Dicendo Togli, Iddio; che puoi più farmi?

v. 12. Thy seed.] Thy ancestry.

v. 15. Not him.] Capaneus. Canto XIV.

L'Ital. Lib. c. xii.

v. 18. On Maremma's marsh.] An extensive tract near the sea-shore in Tuscany.

v. 24. Cacus.] Virgil, Æn. 1. viii. 193.

v. 31. A hundred blows.] Less than ten blows, out of the hundred Hercules gave him, had deprived him of feeling.

v. 39. Cianfa.] He is said to have been of the family of Donati at Florence.

v. 57. Thus up the shrinking paper.]

-All my bowels crumble up to dust.

I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen
Upon a parchment; and against this fire
Do I shrink up.

Shakspeare, K. John, a. v. s. 7.

v. 61. Agnello.] Agnello Brunelleschi. v. 77. In that part.] The navel.

v. 81. As if by sleep or fev'rous fit assail'd.]

O Rome! thy head

Is drown'd in sleep, and all thy body fev'ry.

v. 85. Lucan.] Phars. 1. ix. 766 and 793. v. 87. Ovid.] Metam. 1. iv. and v.

Ben Jonson's Catiline.

v. 121. His sharpen'd visage.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. x. 511, &c. v. 131. Buoso.] He is also said to have been of the Donati family. v. 138. Sciancato.] Puccio Sciancato, a noted robber, whose family, Venturi says, he has not been able to discover.

v. 140. Gaville.] Francesco Guercio Cavalcante was killed at Gaville, near Florence; and in revenge of his death several inhabitants of that district were put to death.

CANTO XXVI

v. 7. But if our minds.]

Namque sub Auroram, jam dormitante lucerna,

Somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent.

Ovid, Epist. xix.

The same poetical superstition is alluded to in the Purgatory, Canto IX. and XXVII.

v. 9. Shalt feel what Prato.] The poet prognosticates the calamities which were soon to befal his native city, and which, he says, even her nearest neighbor, Prato, would wish her. The calamities more particnlarly pointed at, are said to be the fall of a wooden bridge over the Arno, in May, 1304, where a large multitude were assembled to witness a representation of hell and the infernal torments, in consequence of which accident many lives were lost; and a conflagration, that in the following month destroyed more than seventeen hundred houses, many of them sumptuous buildings. See G. Villani, Hist. 1. viii. c. 70 and 71. v 22. More than I am wont.] "When I reflect on the punishment allotted to those who do not give sincere and upright advice to others. ! am more anxious than ever not to abuse to so bad a purpose those talents, whatever they may be, which Nature, or rather Providence, has conferred on me." It is probable that this declaration was the result of real feeling in the mind of Dante, whose political character would have given great weight to any opinion or party he had espoused, and to whom indigence and exile might have offered strong temptations to deviate from that line of conduct which a strict sense of duty prescribed.

v. 35. As he, whose wrongs.] Kings, b. ii. c. ii.

v. 54. Ascending from that funeral pile.] The flame is said to have divided on the funeral pile which consumed the bodies of Eteocles and Polynices, as if conscious of the enmity that actuated them while living.

Ecce iterum fratris, &c.

Statius, Theb. 1. xii.
Ostendens confectas flamma, &c.

Lucan, Pharsal. 1. 1. 145.

v. 60. The ambush of the horse.] "The ambush of the wooden horse, that caused Æneas to quit the city of Troy and seek his fortune in Italy, where his descendants founded the Roman empire.

v. 91. Caieta.] Virgil, Æneid. 1. vii. 1.

v. 93. Nor fondness for my son.] Imitated by Tasso, G. L. c. viii. st. 7.

Ne timor di fatica ò di periglio,
Ne vaghezza del regno, ne pietade
Del vecchio genitor, si degno affetto
Intiepedir nel generoso petto.

This imagined voyage of Ulysses into the Atlantic is alluded to by Pulci.

E sopratutto commendava Ulisse,

Che per veder nell' altro mondo gisse.

And by Tasso, G. L. c. xv. 25.

Morg. Magg. c. xxv

v. 106. The strait pass.] The straits of Gibraltar.

v. 122. Made our oars wings.] So Chiabrera, Canz. Eroiche. xiii.

And Tasso. Ibid. 26.

Farò de' remi un volo.

v. 128. A mountain dim.] The mountain of Purgatory

CANTO XXVII.

v. 6. The Sicilian Bull.] The engine of torture invented by Perillus, for the tyrant Phalaris.

v. 26. Of the mountains there.] Montefeltro.

v. 38. Polenta's eagle.] Guido Novello da Polenta, who bore an eagle for his coat of arms. The name of Polenta was derived from a castle so called in the neighbourhood of Brittonoro. Cervia is a small maritime city, about fifteen miles to the south of Ravenna. Guido was the son of Ostasio da Polenta, and made himself master of Ravenna in 1265. In 1322 he was deprived of his sovereignty, and died at Bologna in the year following. This last and most munificent patron of Dante is himself enumerated, by the historian of Italian literature, among the poets of his time. Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital. t. v. 1. iii. c. ii. § 13. The passage in the text might have removed the uncertainty which Tiraboschi expressed, respecting the duration of Guido's absence from Ravenna, when he was driven from that city in 1295, by the arms of Pietro, archbishop of Monreale. It must evidently have been very short, since his government is here represented (in 1300) as not having suffered any material disturbance for many years.

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v. 41. The land.] The territory of Forli, the inhabitants of which, in 1282, were enabled, by the statagem of Guido da Montefeltro, who then governed it, to defeat with great slaughter the French army by which it had been besieged. See G. Villani, 1. vii. c. 81. The poet informs Guido, its former ruler, that it is now in the possession of Sinibaldo Ordolaffi, or Ardelaffi, whom he designates by his coat of arms, a lion

vert.

v. 43. The old mastiff of Verruchio and the young.] Malatesta and Malatestino his son, lords of Rimini, called, from their ferocity, the mastiffs of Verruchio, which was the name of their castle. Malatestino was perhaps the husband of Francesca, daughter of Guido Novello da Polenta. See Notes to Canto V. v. 113.

v. 44. Montagna.] Montagna de' Parcitati, a noble knight, and leader of the Ghibelline party at Rimini, murdered by Malatestino.

v. 46. Lamone's city and Santerno's.] Lamone is the river at Faenza, and Santerno at Imola.

v. 47. The lion of the snowy lair.] Machinardo Pagano, whose arms were a lion azure on a field argent; mentioned again in the Purgatory, Canto XIV. 122. See G. Villani passim, where he is called Machinardo da Susinana.

v. 50. Whose flank is wash'd of Savio's wave.] Cesena, situated at the foot of a mountain, and washed by the river Savio, that often descends with a swoln and rapid stream from the Apennine.

v. 64. A man of arms.] Guido da Montefeltro.

v. 68. The high priest.] Boniface VIII.

v. 72. The nature of the lion than the fox.]

Non furon leonine ma di volpe.

So Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xix.

E furon le sue opre e le sue colpe
Non creder leonine ma di volpe.

v. 81. The chief of the new Pharisees.] Boniface VIII. whose enmity to the family of Colonna prompted him to destroy their houses near the Lateran. Wishing to obtain possession of their other seat, Penestrino, he consulted with Guido da Montefeltro how he might accomplish

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his purpose, offering him at the same time absolution for his past sius, as well as for that which he was then tempting him to commit. Guido's advice was, that kind words and fair promises would put his enemies into his power; and they accordingly soon afterwards fell into the snare laid for them, A.D. 1298. See G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 23.

He alludes to the renegade Christians, by whom the Saracens, in Apri., 1291, were assisted to recover St. John d'Acre, the last possession of the Christians in the Holy Land. The regret expressed by the Florentine annalist, G. Villani, for the loss of this valuable fortress, is well worthy of observation, 1. vii. c. 144.

v. 89. As in Soracte, Constantine besought.] So in Dante's treatise De Monarchiâ: "Dicunt quidam adhuc, quod Constantinus Imperator, mundatus a leprâ intercessione Sylvestri, tunc summi pontificis, imperii sedem, scilicet Romam, donavit ecclesiæ, cum multis aliis imperii diguitatibus." Lib. iii.

v. 101. My predecessor.] Celestine V. See Notes to Canto III.

CANTO XXVIII.

"When

v. 8. In that long war.] The war of Hannibal in Italy. Mago brought news of his victories to Carthage, in order to make his successes more easily credited, he commanded the golden rings to be poured out in the senate house, which made so large a heap, that, as some relate, they filled three modii and a half. A more probable account represents them not to have exceeded one modius." Livy, Hist. 1. xxiii. 12.

v. 12. Guiscard's Norman steel.] Robert Guiscard, who conquered the kingdom of Naples, and died in 1110. G. Villani, 1. iv. c. 18. He is introduced in the Paradise, Canto XVIII.

v. 13. And those the rest.] The army of Manfredi, which, through the treachery of the Apulian troops, was overcome by Charles of Anjou in 1265, and fell in such numbers, that the bones of the slain were still gathered near Ceperano. G. Villani, l. vii. c. 9. See the Purgatory, Canto III.

v. 16. O Tagliocozzo.] He alludes to the victory which Charles gained over Conradino, by the sage advice of the Sieur de Valeri, in 1268. G. Villani, 1. vii. c. 27.

v. 32. Ali.] The disciple of Mohammed.

v. 53. Dolcino.] "In 1305, a friar, called Dolcino, who belonged to no regular order, contrived to raise in Novara, in Lombardy, a large company of the meaner sort of people, declaring himself to be a true apostle of Christ, and promulgating a community of property and of wives, with many other such heretical doctrines. He blamed the pope, cardinals, and other prelates of the holy church, for not observing their duty, nor leading the angelic life, and affirmed that he ought to be pope. He was followed by more than three thousand men and women, who lived promiscuously on the mountains together, like beasts, and, when they wanted provisions, supplied themselves by depredation and rapine. This lasted for two years till, many being struck with compunction at the dissolute life they led, his sect was much diminished; and through failure of food, and the severity of the snows, he was taken by the

people of Novara, and burnt, with Margarita his companion, and many other men and women whom his errors had seduced." G. Villani, I. viii. c. 84.

Landino observes, that he was possessed of singular eloquence, and that both he and Margarita endured their fate with a firmness worthy of a better cause. For a further account of him, see Muratori Rer. Ital. Script. t. ix. p. 427.

v. 69. Medicina.] A place in the territory of Bologna. Piero fomented dissensions among the inhabitants of that city, and among the leaders of the neighbouring states.

v. 70. The pleasant land.] Lombardy.

v. 72. The twain.] Guido del Cassero and Angiolello da Cagnano, two of the worthiest and most distinguished citizens of Fano, were invited by Malatestino da Rimini to an entertainment, on pretence that he had some important business to transact with them and, according to instructions given by him, they were drowned in their passage near Cattolica, between Rimini and Fano.

v. 85. Focara's wind.] Focara is a mountain, from which a wind blows that is peculiarly dangerous to the navigators of that coast.

v. 94. The doubt in Casar's mind.] Curio, whose speech (according to Lucan) determined Julius Cæsar to proceed when he had arrived at Rimini (the ancient Ariminum), and doubted whether he should prosecute the civil war.

Tolle moras semper nocuit differre paratis.

Pharsal. 1. i. 281.

v. 102. Mosca.] Buondelmonte was engaged to marry a lady of the Amidei family, but broke his promise, and united himself to one of the Donati. This was so much resented by the former, that a meeting of themselves and their kinsmen was held, to consider of the best means of revenging the insult. Mosca degli Uberti persuaded them to resolve on the assassination of Buondelmonte, exclaiming to them "the thing once done, there is an end." The counsel and its effects were the source of many terrible calamities to the state of Florence. "This murder," says G. Villani, 1. v. c. 38, "was the cause and beginning of the accursed Guelph and Ghibelline parties in Florence." It happened in 1215. See the Paradise, Canto XVI. 139.

v. 111. The boon companion.]

What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?

Shakspeare, 2 Hen. VI. a. iii. s. 2.

v. 130. Bertrand.] Bertrand de Born, Vicomte de Hautefort, near Perigueux in Guienne, who incited John to rebel against his father, Henry II. of England. Bertrand holds a distinguished place among the Provençal poets. He is quoted in Dante, De Vulg. Eloq." 1. ii. c. 2. For the translation of some extracts from his poems, see Millot, Hist. Littéraire des Troubadours, t. i. p. 210; but the historical parts of that work are, I believe, not to be relied on.

CANTO XXIX.

v. 26. Geri of Bello.] A kinsman of the Poet's, who was murdered by one of the Sacchetti family. His being placed here, may be considered as a proof that Dante was more impartial in the allotment of his punishments than has generally been supposed.