spectacle which now presented itself.
v. 86. The name of that fair flower.] The name of the Virgin.
v. 92. A cresset.] The angel Gabriel.
v. 98. That lyre.] By synecdoche, the lyre is put for the angel
v. 99. The goodliest sapphire.] The Virgin
v. 126. Those rich-laden coffers.] Those spirits who, having
sown the seed of good works on earth, now contain the fruit of
their pious endeavours.
v. 129. In the Babylonian exile.] During their abode in this
world.
v. 133. He.] St. Peter, with the other holy men of the Old and
New testament.
CANTO XXIV
v. 28. Such folds.] Pindar has the same bold image:
[GREEK HERE?]
On which Hayne strangely remarks: Ad ambitus stropharum vldetur
v. 65. Faith.] Hebrews, c. xi. 1. So Marino, in one of his
sonnets, which calls Divozioni:
Fede e sustanza di sperate cose,
E delle non visioili argomento.
v. 82. Current.] "The answer thou hast made is right; but let
me know if thy inward persuasion is conformable to thy
profession."
v. 91. The ancient bond and new.] The Old and New Testament.
v. 114. That Worthy.] Quel Baron.
In the next Canto, St. James is called "Barone." So in
Boccaccio, G. vi. N. 10, we find "Baron Messer Santo Antonio."
v. 124. As to outstrip.] Venturi insists that the Poet has
here, "made a slip;" for that John came first to the sepulchre,
though Peter was the first to enter it. But let Dante have leave
to explain his own meaning, in a passage from his third book De
Monarchia: "Dicit etiam Johannes ipsum (scilicet Petrum)
introiisse SUBITO, cum venit in monumentum, videns allum
discipulum cunctantem ad ostium." Opere de Dante, Ven. 1793. T.
ii. P. 146.
CANTO XXV
v. 6. The fair sheep-fold.] Florence, whence he was banished.
v. 13. For its sake.] For the sake of that faith.
v. 20. Galicia throng'd with visitants.] See Mariana, Hist. 1.
xi.
v. 13. "En el tiempo," &c. "At the time that the sepulchre of
the apostle St. James was discovered, the devotion for that place
extended itself not only over all Spain, but even round about to
foreign nations. Multitudes from all parts of the world came to
visit it. Many others were deterred by the difficulty for the
journey, by the roughness and barrenness of those parts, and by
the incursions of the Moors, who made captives many of the
pilgrims. The canons of St. Eloy afterwards (the precise time is
not known), with a desire of remedying these evils, built, in
many places, along the whole read, which reached as far as to
France, hospitals for the reception of the pilgrims."
v. 31. Who.] The Epistle of St. James is here attributed to the
elder apostle of that name, whose shrine was at Compostella, in
Galicia. Which of the two was the author of it is yet doubtful.
The learned and candid Michaelis contends very forcibly for its
having been written by James the Elder. Lardner rejects that
opinion as absurd; while Benson argues against it, but is well
answered by Michaelis, who after all, is obliged to leave the
question undecided. See his Introduction to the New Testament,
translated by Dr. Marsh, ed. Cambridge, 1793. V. iv. c. 26. -
1, 2, 3.
v. 35. As Jesus.] In the transfiguration on Mount Tabor.
v. 39. The second flame.] St. James.
v. 40. I lifted up.] "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,
from whence cometh my help." Ps. Cxxi. 1.
v. 59. From Egypt to Jerusalem.] From the lower world to
heaven.
v. 67. Hope.] This is from the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus.
"Est autem spes virtus, qua spiritualia et aeterna bona speratam,
id est, beatitudinem aeternam. Sine meritis enim aliquid
sperare non spes, sed praesumptio, dici potest." Pet. Lomb.
Sent. 1. Iii. Dist. 26. Ed. Bas. 1486. Fol.
v. 74. His anthem.] Psalm ix. 10.
v. 90. Isaias ] Chap. lxi. 10.
v. 94. Thy brother.] St. John in the Revelation, c. vii. 9.
v. 101. Winter's month.] "If a luminary, like that which now
appeared, were to shine throughout the month following the winter
solstice during which the constellation Cancer appears in the
east at the setting of the sun, there would be no interruption to
the light, but the whole month would be as a single day."
v. 112. This.] St. John, who reclined on the bosom of our
Saviour, and to whose charge Jesus recommended his mother.
v. 121. So I.] He looked so earnestly, to descry whether St.
John were present there in body, or in spirit only, having had
his doubts raised by that saying of our Saviour's: "If I will,
that he tarry till I come what is that to thee."
v. 127. The two.] Christ and Mary, whom he has described, in
the last Canto but one, as rising above his sight
CANTO XXVI
v. 2. The beamy flame.] St. John.
v. 13. Ananias' hand.] Who, by putting his hand on St. Paul,
restored his sight. Acts, c. ix. 17.
v. 36. From him.] Some suppose that Plato is here meant, who,
in his Banquet, makes Phaedrus say: "Love is confessedly amongst
the eldest of beings, and, being the eldest, is the cause to us
of the greatest goods " Plat. Op. t. x. p. 177. Bip. ed. Others
have understood it of Aristotle, and others, of the writer who
goes by the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, referred to in the
twenty-eighth Canto.
v. 40. I will make.] Exodus, c. xxxiii. 19.
v. 42. At the outset.] John, c. i. 1. &c.
v. 51. The eagle of our Lord.] St. John
v. 62. The leaves.] Created beings.
v. 82. The first living soul.] Adam.
v. 107. Parhelion.] Who enlightens and comprehends all things;
but is himself enlightened and comprehended by none.
v. 117. Whence.] That is, from Limbo. See Hell, Canto II. 53.
Adam says that 5232 years elapsed from his creation to the time
of his deliverance, which followed the death of Christ.
v. 133. EL] Some read UN, "One," instead of EL: but the latter
of these readings is confirmed by a passage from Dante's Treatise
De Vulg. Eloq. 1. i. cap. 4. "Quod prius vox primi loquentis
sonaverit, viro sanae mentis in promptu esse non dubito ipsum
fuisse quod Deus est, videlicet El." St. Isidore in the
Origines, 1. vii. c. 1. had said, "Primum apud Hebraeos Dei
nomen El dicitur."
v. 135. Use.] From Horace, Ars. Poet. 62.
v. 138. All my life.] "I remained in the terrestrial Paradise
only tothe seventh hour." In the Historia Scolastica of Petrus
Comestor, it is said of our first parents: Quidam tradunt eos
fuisse in Paradiso septem horae." I. 9. ed. Par. 1513. 4to.
CANTO XXVII
v. 1. Four torches.] St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and Adam.
v. 11. That.] St. Peter' who looked as the planet Jupiter
would, if it assumed the sanguine appearance of liars.
v. 20. He.] Boniface VIII.
v.
26. such colour.]
Qui color infectis adversi solis ab ietu
Nubibus esse solet; aut purpureae Aurorae.
Ovid, Met. 1. iii. 184.
v. 37. Of Linus and of Cletus.] Bishops of Rome in the first
century.
v. 40. Did Sextus, Pius, and Callixtus bleed
And Urban.]
The former two, bishops of the same see, in the second; and the
others, in the fourth century.
v. 42. No purpose was of ours.] "We did not intend that our
successors should take any part in the political divisions among
Christians, or that my figure (the seal of St. Peter) should
serve as a mark to authorize iniquitous grants and privileges."
v. 51. Wolves.] Compare Milton, P. L. b. xii. 508, &c.
v. 53. Cahorsines and Gascons.] He alludes to Jacques d'Ossa, a
native of Cahors, who filled the papal chair in 1316, after it
had been two years vacant, and assumed the name of John XXII.,
and to Clement V, a Gascon, of whom see Hell, Canto XIX. 86, and
Note.
v. 63. The she-goat.] When the sun is in Capricorn.
v. 72. From the hour.] Since he had last looked (see Canto
XXII.) he perceived that he had passed from the meridian circle
to the eastern horizon, the half of our hemisphere, and a quarter
of the heaven.
v. 76. From Gades.] See Hell, Canto XXVI. 106
v. 78. The shore.] Phoenicia, where Europa, the daughter of
Agenor mounted on the back of Jupiter, in his shape of a bull.
v. 80. The sun.] Dante was in the constellation Gemini, and the
sun in Aries. There was, therefore, part of those two
constellations, and the whole of Taurus, between them.
v. 93. The fair nest of Leda.] "From the Gemini;" thus called,
because Leda was the mother of the twins, Castor and Pollux
v. 112. Time's roots.] "Here," says Beatrice, "are the roots,
from whence time springs: for the parts, into which it is
divided, the other heavens must be considered." And she then
breaks out into an exclamation on the degeneracy of human nature,
which does not lift itself to the contemplation of divine things.
v. 126. The fair child of him.] So she calls human nature.
Pindar by a more easy figure, terms the day, "child of the sun."
v. 129. None.] Because, as has been before said, the shepherds
are become wolves.
v. 131. Before the date.] "Before many ages are past, before
those fractions, which are drops in the reckoning of every year,
shall amount to so large a portion of time, that January shall be
no more a winter month." By this periphrasis is meant " in a
short time," as we say familiarly, such a thing will happen
before a thousand years are over when we mean, it will happen
soon.
v. 135. Fortune shall be fain.] The commentators in general
suppose that our Poet here augurs that great reform, which he
vainly hoped would follow on the arrival of the Emperor Henry
VII. in Italy. Lombardi refers the prognostication to Can Grande
della Scala: and, when we consider that this Canto was not
finished till after the death of Henry, as appears from the
mention that is made of John XXII, it cannot be denied but the
conjecture is probable.
CANTO XXVIII
v. 36. Heav'n, and all nature, hangs upon that point.] [GREEK
HERE]
Aristot. Metaph. 1. xii. c. 7. "From that beginning depend
heaven and nature."
v. 43. Such diff'rence.] The material world and the
intelligential (the copy and the pattern) appear to Dante to
differ in this respect, that the orbits of the latter are more
swift, the nearer they are to the centre, whereas the contrary is
the case with the orbits of the former. The seeming contradiction
is thus accounted for by Beatrice. In the material world, the
more ample the body is, the greater is the good of which itis
capable supposing all the parts to be equally perfect. But in the
intelligential world, the circles are more excellent and
powerful, the more they approximate to the central point, which
is God. Thus the first circle, that of the seraphim, corresponds
to the ninth sphere, or primum mobile, the second, that of the
cherubim, to the eighth sphere, or heaven of fixed stars; the
third, or circle of thrones, to the seventh sphere, or planet of
Saturn; and in like manner throughout the two other trines of
circles and spheres.
In orbs
Of circuit inexpressible they stood,
Orb within orb
Milton, P. L. b. v. 596.
v. 70. The sturdy north.] Compare Homer, II. b. v. 524.
v. 82. In number.] The sparkles exceeded the number which would
be produced by the sixty-four squares of a chess-board, if for
the first we reckoned one, for the next, two; for the third,
four; and so went on doubling to the end of the account.
v. 106. Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram.] Not
injured, like the productions of our spring, by the influence of
autumn, when the constellation Aries rises at sunset.
v. 110. Dominations.]
Hear all ye angels, progeny of light,
Thrones, domination's, princedoms, virtues, powers.
Milton, P. L. b. v. 601.
v. 119. Dionysius.] The Areopagite, in his book De Caelesti
Hierarchia.
v. 124. Gregory.] Gregory the Great. "Novem vero angelorum
ordines diximus, quia videlicet esse, testante sacro eloquio,
scimus: Angelos, archangelos, virtutes, potestates, principatus,
dominationae, thronos, cherubin atque seraphin." Divi Gregorii,
Hom. xxxiv. f. 125. ed. Par. 1518. fol.
v. 126. He had learnt.] Dionysius, he says, had learnt from St.
Paul. It is almost unnecessary to add, that the book, above
referred to, which goes under his name, was the production of a
later age.
CANTO XXIX
v. 1. No longer.] As short a space, as the sun and moon are in
changing hemispheres, when they are opposite to one another, the
one under the sign of Aries, and the other under that of Libra,
and both hang for a moment, noised as it were in the hand of the
zenith.
v. 22. For, not in process of before or aft.] There was neither
"before nor after," no distinction, that is, of time, till the
creation of the world.
v. 30. His threefold operation.] He seems to mean that
spiritual beings, brute matter, and the intermediate part of the
creation, which participates both of spirit and matter, were
produced at once.
v. 38. On Jerome's pages.] St. Jerome had described the angels
as created before the rest of the universe: an opinion which
Thomas Aquinas controverted; and the latter, as Dante thinks,
had Scripture on his side.
v. 51. Pent.] See Hell, Canto XXXIV. 105.
v. 111. Of Bindi and of Lapi.] Common names of men at Florence
v. 112. The sheep.] So Milton, Lycidas.
The hungry sheep look up and are not fed,
But, swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly.
v. 121. The preacher.] Thus Cowper, T
ask, b. ii.
'Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul, &c.
v. 131. Saint Anthony.
Fattens with this his swine.]
On the sale of these blessings, the brothers of St. Anthony
supported themselves and their paramours. From behind the swine
of St. Anthony, our Poet levels a blow at the object of his
inveterate enmity, Boniface VIII, from whom, "in 1297, they
obtained the dignity and privileges of an independent
congregation." See Mosheim's Eccles. History in Dr. Maclaine's
Translation, v. ii. cent. xi. p. 2. c. 2. - 28.
v. 140. Daniel.] "Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." Dan. c. vii.
10.
CANTO XXX
v. 1. Six thousand miles.] He compares the vanishing of the
vision to the fading away of the stars at dawn, when it is
noon-day six thousand miles off, and the shadow, formed by the
earth over the part of it inhabited by the Poet, is about to
disappear.
v. 13. Engirt.] " ppearing to be encompassed by these angelic
bands, which are in reality encompassed by it."
v. 18. This turn.] Questa vice.
Hence perhaps Milton, P. L. b. viii. 491.
This turn hath made amends.
v. 39. Forth.] From the ninth sphere to the empyrean, which is
more light.
v. 44. Either mighty host.] Of angels, that remained faithful,
and of beatified souls, the latter in that form which they will
have at the last day.
v. 61. Light flowing.] "And he showed me a pure river of water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God
and of the Lamb." Rev. cxxii. I.
--underneath a bright sea flow'd
Of jasper, or of liquid pearl.
Milton, P. L. b. iii. 518.
v. 80. Shadowy of the truth.]
Son di lor vero ombriferi prefazii.
So Mr. Coleridge, in his Religious Musings, v. 406.
Life is a vision shadowy of truth.
v. 88. --the eves
Of mine eyelids.]
Thus Shakespeare calls the eyelids "penthouse lids." Macbeth, a,
1. s, 3.
v. 108. As some cliff.]
A lake
That to the fringed bank with myrtle crown'd
Her crystal mirror holds.
Milton, P. L. b. iv. 263.
v. 118. My view with ease.]
Far and wide his eye commands
For sight no obstacle found here, nor shade, But all sunshine.
Milton, P. l. b. iii. 616.
v. 135. Of the great Harry.] The Emperor Henry VII, who died in
1313.
v. 141. He.] Pope Clement V. See Canto XXVII. 53.
v. 145. Alagna's priest.] Pope Boniface VIII. Hell, Canto XIX.
79.
CANTO XXXI
v. 6. Bees.] Compare Homer, Iliad, ii. 87. Virg. Aen. I. 430,
and Milton, P. L. b. 1. 768.
v. 29. Helice.] Callisto, and her son Arcas, changed into the
constellations of the Greater Bear and Arctophylax, or Bootes.
See Ovid, Met. l. ii. fab. v. vi.
v. 93. Bernard.] St. Bernard, the venerable abbot of Clairvaux,
and the great promoter of the second crusade, who died A.D. 1153,
in his sixty-third year. His sermons are called by Henault,
"chefs~d'oeuvres de sentiment et de force." Abrege Chron. de
l'Hist. de Fr. 1145. They have even been preferred to al1 the
productions of the ancients, and the author has been termed the
last of the fathers of the church. It is uncertain whether they
were not delivered originally in the French tongue.
That the part he acts in the present Poem should be assigned to
him. appears somewhat remarkable, when we consider that he
severely censured the new festival established in honour of the
Immaculate Conception of the virgin, and opposed the doctrine
itself with the greatest vigour, as it supposed her being
honoured with a privilegewhich belonged to Christ Alone Dr.
Maclaine's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. 3 - 19.
v. 95. Our Veronica ] The holy handkerchief, then preserved at