the bishopric of Venice. There might however have been more than
one person of the name of Romieu, or Romeo which answers to that
of Palmer in our language. Nor is it probable that the Italians,
who lived so near the time, were misinformed in an occurrence of
such notoriety. According to them, after he had long been a
faithful steward to Raymond, when an account was required from
him of the revenues whichhe had carefully husbanded, and his
master as lavishly disbursed, "He demanded the little mule, the
staff, and the scrip, with which he had first entered into the
count's service, a stranger pilgrim from the shrine of St. James
in Galicia, and parted as he came; nor was it ever known whence
he was or wither he went." G. Villani, 1. vi. c. 92.
v. 135. Four daughters.] Of the four daughters of Raymond
Berenger, Margaret, the eldest, was married to Louis IX of
France; Eleanor; the next, to Henry III, of England; Sancha, the
third, to Richard, Henry's brother, and King of the Romans; and
the youngest, Beatrice, to Charles I, King of Naples and Sicily,
and brother to Louis.
v. 136. Raymond Berenger.] This prince, the last of the house
of Barcelona, who was count of Provence, died in 1245. He is in
the list of Provencal poets. See Millot, Hist, Litt des
Troubadours, t. ii. P. 112.
CANTO VII
v. 3. Malahoth.] A Hebrew word, signifying "kingdoms."
v. 4. That substance bright.] Justinian.
v. 17. As might have made one blest amid the flames.]
So Giusto de' Conti, Bella Mano. "Qual salamandra."
Che puommi nelle fiammi far beato.
v. 23. That man who was unborn.] Adam.
v. 61. What distils.] "That which proceeds immediately from
God, and without intervention of secondary causes, in immortal."
v. 140. Our resurrection certain.] "Venturi appears to mistake
the Poet's reasoning, when he observes: "Wretched for us, if we
had not arguments more convincing, and of a higher kind, to
assure us of the truth of our resurrection." It is here
intended, I think, that the whole of God's dispensations to man
should be considered as a proof of our resurrection. The
conclusion is that as before sin man was immortal,
so being restored to the favor of heaven by the expiation made
for sin, he necessarily recovers his claim to immortality.
There is much in this poem to justify the encomium which the
learned Salvini has passed on it, when, in an epistle to Redi,
imitating what Horace had said of Homer, that the duties of life
might be better learnt from the Grecian bard than from the
teachers of the porch or the academy, he says--
And dost thou ask, what themes my mind engage?
The lonely hours I give to Dante's page;
And meet more sacred learning in his lines
Than I had gain'd from all the school divines.
Se volete saper la vita mia,
Studiando io sto lungi da tutti gli nomini
Ed ho irnparato piu teologia
In questi giorni, che ho riletto Dante,
Che nelle scuole fattto io non avria.
CANTO VIII
v. 4. Epicycle,] "In sul dosso di questo cerchio," &c.
Convito di Dante, Opere, t. i. p. 48, ed. Ven. 1793.
"Upon the back of this circle, in the heaven of Venus, whereof we
are now treating, is a little sphere, which has in that heaven a
revolution of its own: whose circle the astronomers term
epicycle."
v. 11. To sit in Dido's bosom.] Virgil. Aen. 1. i. 718,
v. 40. 'O ye whose intellectual ministry.]
Voi ch' intendendo il terzo ciel movete. The first line in our
Poet" first canzone. See his Convito, Ibid. p. 40.
v. 53. had the time been more.] The spirit now speaking is
Charles Martel crowned king of Hungary, and son of Charles 11
king of Naples and Sicily, to which
dominions dying in his father's lifetime, he did not succeed.
v. 57. Thou lov'dst me well.] Charles Martel might have been
known to our poet at Florence whither he came to meet his father
in 1295, the year of his death. The retinue and the habiliments
of the young monarch are minutely described by G. Villani, who
adds, that "he remained more than twenty days in Florence,
waiting for his father King Charles and his brothers during which
time great honour was done him by the, Florentines and he showed
no less love towards them, and he was much in favour with all."
1. viii. c. 13. His brother Robert, king of Naples, was the
friend of Petrarch.
v. 60. The left bank.] Provence.
v. 62. That horn
Of fair Ausonia.]
The kingdom of Naples.
v. 68. The land.] Hungary.
v. 73. The beautiful Trinaeria.] Sicily, so called from its
three promontories, of which Pachynus and Pelorus, here
mentioned, are two.
v. 14 'Typhaeus.] The giant whom Jupiter is fabled to have
overwhelmed
under the mountain Aetna from whence he vomits forth smoke and
flame.
v. 77. Sprang through me from Charles and Rodolph.] "Sicily
would be still ruled by a race of monarchs, descended through me
from Charles I and Rodolph I the former my grandfather king of
Naples and Sicily; the latter emperor of Germany, my
father-in-law; "both celebrated in the Purgatory Canto, Vll.
v. 78. Had not ill lording.] "If the ill conduct of our
governors in Sicily had not excited the resentment and hatred of
the people and stimulated them to that dreadful massacre at the
Sicilian vespers;" in consequence of which the kingdom fell into
the hands of Peter III of Arragon, in 1282
v. 81. My brother's foresight.] He seems to tax his brother
Robert with employing necessitous and greedy Catalonians to
administer the affairs of his kingdom.
v. 99. How bitter can spring up.] "How a covetous son can
spring from a liberal father." Yet that father has himself been
accused of avarice in the Purgatory Canto XX. v. 78; though his
general character was that of a bounteous prince.
v. 125. Consult your teacher.] Aristole. [GREEK HERE]
De Rep. 1. iii. c. 4. "Since a state is made up of members
differing from one another, (for even as an animal, in the first
instance, consists of soul and body, and the soul, of reason and
desire; and a family, of man and woman, and property of master
and slave; in like manner a state consists both of all these and
besides these of other dissimilar kinds,) it necessarily follows
that the excellence of all the members of the state cannot be one
and the same."
v. 136. Esau.] Genesis c. xxv. 22.
v. 137. Quirinus.] Romulus, born of so obscure a father, that
his parentage was attributed to Mars.
CANTO IX
v. 2. O fair Clemenza.] Daughter of Charles Martel, and second
wife of Louis X. of France.
v. 2. The treachery.] He alludes to the occupation of the
kingdom of Sicily by Robert, in exclusion of his brother s son
Carobert, or Charles. Robert, the rightful heir. See G. Villani
,
1. viii. c. 112.
v. 7. That saintly light.] Charles Martel.
v. 25. In that part.] Between Rialto and the Venetian
territory, and the sources of the rivers Brenta and Piava is
situated a castle called Romano, the birth-place of the famous
tyrant Ezzolino or Azzolino, the brother of Cunizza, who is now
speaking. The tyrant we have seen in "the river of blood." Hell,
Canto XII. v. 110.
v. 32. Cunizza.] The adventures of Cunizza, overcome by the
influence of her star, are related by the chronicler Rolandino of
Padua, 1. i. c. 3, in Muratori Rer. It. Script. t. viii. p. 173.
She eloped from her first husband, Richard of St. Boniface, in
the company of Sordello, (see Purgatory, Canto VI. and VII. )
with whom she is supposed to have cohabited before her marriage:
then lived with a soldier of Trevigi, whose wife was living at
the same time in the same city, and on his being murdered by her
brother the tyrant, was by her brother married to a nobleman of
Braganzo, lastly when he also had fallen by the same hand she,
after her brother's death, was again wedded in Verona.
v. 37. This.] Folco of Genoa, a celebrated Provencal poet,
commonly termed Folques of Marseilles, of which place he was
perhaps bishop. Many errors of Nostradamus, regarding him, which
have been followed by Crescimbeni, Quadrio, and Millot, are
detected by the diligence of Tiraboschi. Mr. Matthias's ed. v.
1. P. 18. All that appears certain, is what we are told in this
Canto, that he was of Genoa, and by Petrarch in the Triumph of
Love, c. iv. that he was better known by the appellation he
derived from Marseilles, and at last resumed the religious habit.
One of his verses is cited by Dante, De Vulg. Eloq. 1. ii. c. 6.
v. 40. Five times.] The five hundred years are elapsed: and
unless the Provencal MSS. should be brought to light the poetical
reputation of Folco must rest on the mention made of him by the
more fortunate Italians.
v. 43 The crowd.] The people who inhabited the tract of country
bounded by the river Tagliamento to the east, and Adice to the
west.
v. 45. The hour is near.] Cunizza foretells the defeat of
Giacopo da Carrara, Lord of Padua by Can Grande, at Vicenza, on
the 18th September 1314. See G. Villani, 1. ix. c. 62.
v. 48. One.] She predicts also the fate of Ricciardo da Camino,
who is said to have been murdered at Trevigi, where the rivers
(Sile and Cagnano meet) while he was engaged in playing at chess.
v. 50. The web.] The net or snare into, which he is destined to
fall.
v. 50. Feltro.] The Bishop of Felto having received a number of
fugitives from Ferrara, who were in opposition to the Pope, under
a promise of protection, afterwards gave them up, so that they
were reconducted to that city, and the greater part of them there
put to death.
v. 53. Malta's.] A tower, either in the citadel of Padua, which
under the tyranny of Ezzolino, had been "with many a foul and
midnight murder fed," or (as some say) near a river of the same
name, that falls into the lake of Bolsena, in which the Pope was
accustomed to imprison such as had been guilty of an irremissible
sin.
v. 56 This priest.] The bishop, who, to show himself a zealous
partisan of the Pope, had committed the above-mentioned act of
treachery.
v. 58. We descry.] "We behold the things that we predict, in
the mirrors of eternal truth."
v. 64. That other joyance.] Folco.
v. 76. Six shadowing wings.] "Above it stood the seraphims:
each one had six wings." Isaiah, c. vi. 2.
v. 80. The valley of waters.] The Mediterranean sea.
v. 80. That.] The great ocean.
v. 82. Discordant shores.] Europe and Africa.
v. 83. Meridian.] Extending to the east, the Mediterranean at
last reaches the coast of Palestine, which is on its horizon when
it enters the straits of Gibraltar. "Wherever a man is," says
Vellutello, "there he has, above his head, his own particular
meridian circle."
v. 85. --'Twixt Ebro's stream
And Macra's.]
Eora, a river to the west, and Macra, to the east of Genoa, where
Folco was born.
v. 88. Begga.] A place in Africa, nearly opposite to Genoa.
v. 89. Whose haven.] Alluding to the terrible slaughter of the
Genoese made by the Saracens in 936, for which event Vellutello
refers to the history of Augustino Giustiniani.
v. 91. This heav'n.] The planet Venus.
v. 93. Belus' daughter.] Dido.
v. 96. She of Rhodope.] Phyllis.
v. 98. Jove's son.] Hercules.
v. 112. Rahab.] Heb. c. xi. 31.
v. 120. With either palm.] "By the crucifixion of Christ"
v. 126. The cursed flower.] The coin of Florence, called the
florin.
v. 130. The decretals.] The canon law.
v. 134. The Vatican.] He alludes either to the death of Pope
Boniface VIII. or, as Venturi supposes, to the coming of the
Emperor Henry VII. into Italy, or else, according to the yet more
probable conjecture of Lombardi, to the transfer of the holy see
from Rome to Avignon, which took place in the pontificate of
Clement V.
CANTO X
v. 7. The point.] "To that part of heaven," as Venturi explains
it, "in which the equinoctial circle and the Zodiac intersect
each other, where the common motion of the heavens from east to
west may be said to strike with greatest force against the motion
proper to the planets; and this repercussion, as it were, is here
the strongest, because the velocity of each is increased to the
utmost by their respective distance from the poles. Such at least
is the system of Dante."
v. 11. Oblique.] The zodiac.
v. 25. The part.] The above-mentioned intersection of the
equinoctial
circle and the zodiac.
v. 26. Minister.] The sun.
v. 30. Where.] In which the sun rises every day earlier after
the vernal equinox.
v. 45. Fourth family.] The inhabitants of the sun, the fourth
planet.
v. 46. Of his spirit and of his offspring.] The procession of
the third, and the generation of the second person in the
Trinity.
v. 70. Such was the song.] "The song of these spirits was
ineffable.
v. 86. No less constrained.] "The rivers might as easily cease
to flow towards the sea, as we could deny thee thy request."
v. 91. I then.] "I was of the Dominican order."
v. 95. Albert of Cologne.] Albertus Magnus was born at
Laugingen, in Thuringia, in 1193, and studied at Paris and at
Padua, at the latter of which places he entered into the
Dominican order. He then taught theology in various parts of
Germany, and particularly at Cologne. Thomas Aquinas was his
favourite pupil. In 1260, he reluctantly accepted
the bishopric of Ratisbon, and in two years after resigned it,
and returned to his cell in Co
logne, where the remainder of his
life was passed in superintending the school, and in composing
his voluminous works on divinity and natural science. He died in
1280. The absurd imputation of his having dealt in the magical
art is well known; and his biographers take some pains to clear
him of it. Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum, by Quetif and
Echard, Lut. Par. 1719. fol. t. 1. p. 162.
v. 96. Of Aquinum, Thomas.] Thomas Aquinas, of whom Bucer is
reported to have said, "Take but Thomas away, and I will overturn
the church of Rome," and whom Hooker terms "the greatest among
the school divines," (Eccl. Pol. b. 3. 9), was born of noble
parents, who anxiously, but vainly, endeavoured to divert him
from a life of celibacy and study; and died in 1274, at the age
of fourty-seven. Echard and Quetif, ibid. p. 271. See also
Purgatory Canto XX. v. 67.
v. 101. Gratian.] "Gratian, a Benedictine monk belonging to the
convent of St. Felix and Nabor, at Bologna, and by birth a
Tuscan, composed, about the year 1130, for the use of the
schools, an abridgment or epitome of canon law, drawn from the
letters of the pontiffs, the decrees of councils, and the
writings of the ancient doctors."
Maclaine's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. 12. part 2. c. i. 6.
v. 101. To either forum.] "By reconciling," as Venturi explains
it "the civil with the canon law."
v. 104. Peter.] "Pietro Lombardo was of obscure origin, nor is
the place of his birth in Lombardy ascertained. With a
recommendation from the bishop of Lucca to St. Bernard, he went
into France to continue his studies, and for that purpose
remained some time at Rheims, whence he afterwards proceeded to
Paris. Here his reputation was so great that Philip, brother of
Louis VII., being chosen bishop of Paris, resigned that dignity
to Pietro, whose pupil he had been. He held his bishopric
only one year, and died in 1160. His Liber Sententiarum is
highly esteemed. It contains a system of scholastic theology, so
much more complete than any which had been yet seen, that it may
be deemed an original work." Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett.
Ital. t. iii. 1. 4. c. 2.
v. 104. Who with the widow gave.] This alludes to the beginning
of the Liber Sententiarum, where Peter says: "Cupiens aliquid de
penuria ac tenuitate nostra cum paupercula in gazophylacium
domini mittere,"
v. 105. The fifth light.] Solomon.
v. 112. That taper's radiance.] St. Dionysius the Areopagite.
"The famous Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius
the Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and who, under the
protection of this venerable name, gave laws and instructions to
those that were desirous of raising their souls above all human
things in order to unite them to their great source by sublime
contemplation, lived most probably in this century (the fourth),
though some place him before, others after, the present period."
Maclaine's Mosheim, v. i. cent. iv. p. 2. c. 3. 12.
v. 116. That pleader.] 1n the fifth century, Paulus Orosius,
"acquired a considerable degree of reputation by the History he
wrote to refute the cavils of the Pagans against Christianity,
and by his books against the Pelagians and Priscillianists."
Ibid. v. ii. cent. v. p. 2. c. 2. 11. A similar train of
argument was pursued by Augustine, in his book De Civitate Dei.
Orosius is classed by Dante, in his treatise De Vulg. Eloq. I ii
c. 6. as one of his favourite authors, among those "qui usi sunt
altissimas prosas,"--" who have written prose with the greatest
loftiness of style."
v. 119. The eighth.] Boetius, whose book De Consolatione
Philosophiae excited so much attention during the middle ages,
was born, as Tiraboschi conjectures, about 470. "In 524 he was
cruelly put to death by command of Theodoric, either on real or
pretended suspicion of his being engaged in a conspiracy." Della
Lett. Ital. t. iii. 1. i. c. 4.