CANTO XV.

1. In this canto is described the ascent to the Third Circle of the mountain. The hour indicated by the peculiarly Dantesque introduction is three hours before sunset, or the beginning of that division of the canonical day called Vespers. Dante states this simple fact with curious circumlocution, as if he would imitate the celestial sphere in this scherzoso movement. The beginning of the day is sunrise; consequently the end of the third hour, three hours after sunrise, is represented by an arc of the celestial sphere measuring forty-five degrees. The sun had still an equal space to pass over before his setting. This would make it afternoon in Purgatory, and midnight in Tuscany, where Dante was writing the poem.

20. From a perpendicular.

38. Matthew v. 7: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ; sung by the spirits that remained behind. See Canto XII. Note 110.

39. Perhaps an allusion to “what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Revelation ii. 7: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." And also the "hidden manna," and the "morning star," and the "white raiment," and the name not blotted "out of the book of life."

55. Milton, Par. Lost, V. 71:

Since good the more

Communicated, more abundant grows.

67. Convito, IV. 20: "According to the Apostle, 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.' He says then that God only giveth this grace to the soul of him whom he sees to be prepared and disposed in his person to receive this divine act. Whence if the soul is imperfectly placed, it is not disposed to receive this blessed and divine infusion; as when a pearl is badly disposed, or is imperfect, it cannot receive the celestial virtue, as the noble Guido Guinizzelli says in an ode of his, beginning,

...

To noble heart love doth for shelter fly.

The soul, then, may be ill placed in the person through defect of temperament, or of time; and in such a soul this divine radiance never shines. And of those whose souls are deprived of this light it may be said that they are like valleys turned toward the north, or like subterranean caverns, where the light of the sun never falls, unless reflected from some other place illuminated by it."

The following are the first two stanzas of Guido's Ode:

To noble heart love doth for shelter fly,

As seeks the bird the forest's leafy shade;
Love was not felt till noble heart beat high,
Nor before love the noble heart was made;
Soon as the sun's broad flame

Was formed, so soon the clear light filled the air,
Yet was not till he came ;

So love springs up in noble breasts, and there
Has its appointed space,

As heat in the bright flame finds its allotted place.

Kindles in noble heart the fire of love,

As hidden virtue in the precious stone;

This virtue comes not from the stars above,

Till round it the ennobling sun has shone;

But when his powerful blaze

Has drawn forth what was vile, the stars impart

Strange virtue in their rays;

And thus when nature doth create the heart

Noble, and pure, and high,

Like virtue from the star, love comes from woman's eye.

70. Par. XIV. 40 : —

Its brightness is proportioned to the ardor,

The ardor to the vision, and the vision

Equals what grace it has above its merit.

89. Luke ii. 48: "And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing."

97. The contest between Neptune and Minerva for the right of naming Athens, in which Minerva carried the day by the vote of the women. This is one of the subjects which Minerva wrought in her trial of skill with Arachne Ovid, Metamorph., VI. :

Pallas in figures wrought the heavenly powers,
And Mars's hill among the Athenian towers.

On lofty thrones twice six celestials sate,
Jove in the midst, and held their warm debate;
The subject weighty, and well known to fame,
From whom the city should receive its name.
Each god by proper features was expressed,
Jove with majestic mien excelled the rest.
His three-forked mace the dewy sea-god shook,
And, looking sternly, smote the ragged rock;
When from the stone leapt forth a sprightly steed,
And Neptune claims the city for the deed.

Herself she blazons, with a glittering spear,
And crested helm that veiled her braided hair,

With shield, and scaly breastplate, implements of war.
Struck with her pointed lance, the teeming earth

Seemed to produce a new, surprising birth;

When from the glebe the pledge of conquest sprung,
A tree pale-green with fairest olives hung.

101. Pisistratus, the tyrant of Athens, who used his power so nobly as to make the people forget the usurpation by which he had attained it. Among his good deeds was the collection and preservation of the Homeric poems, which but for him might have perished. He was also the first to found a public library in Athens. This anecdote is told by Valerius Maximus, Fact. ac Dict., VI. 1.

"They

Then

106. The stoning of Stephen. Acts vii. 54: gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven. they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. . And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge! And when he had said this, he fell asleep."

117. He recognizes it to be a vision, but not false, because it symbolized the truth.

CANTO XVI.

1. The Third Circle of Purgatory, and the punishment of the Sin of Anger.

The

2. Poor, or impoverished of its stars by clouds. same expression is applied to the Arno, Canto XIV. 45, to indicate its want of water.

"Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.

“Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.

"Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us!"

27. Still living the life temporal, where time is measured by the calendar.

...

46. Marco Lombardo was a Venetian nobleman, a man of wit and learning and a friend of Dante. "Nearly all that he gained," says the Ottimo, "he spent in charity. . . . He visited Paris, and, as long as his money lasted, he was esteemed for his valor and courtesy. Afterwards he depended upon those richer than himself, and lived and died honorably." There are some anecdotes of him in the Cento Novelle Antiche, Nov. 41, 52, hardly worth quoting.

It is doubtful whether the name of Lombardo is a family name, or only indicates that Marco was an Italian, after the fashion then prevalent among the French of calling all Italians Lombards. See Note 124.

Benvenuto says of him that he "was a man of noble mind, but disdainful, and easily moved to anger."

Buti's portrait is as follows: "This Marco was a Venetian, called Marco Daca; and was a very learned man, and had many political virtues, and was very courteous, giving to poor noblemen all that he gained, and he gained much; for he was a courtier, and was much beloved for his virtue, and much was given him by the nobility; and as he gave to those who were in need, so he lent to all who asked. So that, coming to die, and having much still due to him, he made a will, and among other bequests this, that whoever owed him should not be held to pay the debt, saying, Whoever has, may keep.""

Portarelli thinks that this Marco may be Marco Polo the traveller; but this is inadmissible, as he was still living at the time of Dante's death.

57. What Guido del Duca has told him of the corruption of Italy, in Canto XIV.

64. Ovid, Metamorph., X., Ozell's Tr. :

The god upon its leaves
The sad expression of his sorrow weaves,

And to this hour the mournful purple wears

Ai, ai, inscribed in funeral characters.

67. See the article Cabala, at the end of Vol. III. 69. Boethius, Cons. Phil., V. Prosa 2, Ridpath's Tr. "But in this indissoluble chain of causes, can we preserve the liberty of the will? Does this fatal Necessity restrain the motions of the human soul?'. 'There is no reasonable being,' replied she, 'who has not freedom of will: for every being distinguished with this faculty is endowed with judgment to perceive the differences of things; to discover what he is to avoid or pursue. Now what a person esteems desirable, he desires; but what he thinks ought to be avoided, he shuns. Thus every rational creature hath a liberty of choosing and rejecting. But I do not assert that this liberty is equal in all beings. Heavenly substances, who are exalted above us, have an enlightened judgment, an incorruptible will, and a power ever at command effectually to accomplish their desires. With regard to man, his immaterial spirit is also free; but it is most at liberty when employed in the contemplation of the Divine mind; it becomes less so when it enters into a body; and is still more restrained when it is imprisoned in a terrestrial habitation, composed of members of clay; and is reduced, in fine, to the most extreme servitude when, by plunging into the pollutions of vice, it totally departs from reason for the soul no sooner turns her eye from the radiance of supreme truth to dark and base objects, but she is involved in a mist of ignorance, assailed by impure desires; by yielding to which she increases her thraldom, and thus the freedom which she derives from nature becomes in some measure the cause of her slavery. But the eye of Providence, which sees everything from eternity, perceives all this; and that same Providence disposes everything she has predestinated, in the order it deserves. As Homer says of the sun, It sees everything and hears everything.' Also Milton, Parad. Lost, II. 557 :

Others apart sat on a hill retired,

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
Of providence, foreknowledge, will and fate,