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and twenty years. Search was made among the slain, by order of the queen, for the body of Cyrus, and when it was found, she took a skin, and, filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corse, 'I live and have conquered thee in fight, and yet by thee am I ruined; for thou tookest my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give thee thy fill of blood.' Of the many different accounts which are given of the death of Cyrus, this which I have followed appears to me most worthy of credit."

59. After Judith had slain Holofernes. Judith xv. 1: "And when they that were in the tents heard, they were astonished at the thing that was done. And fear and trembling fell upon them, so that there was no man that durst abide in the sight of his neighbor, but, rushing out all together, they fled into every way of the plain and of the hill country. . . . Now when the children of Israel heard it, they all fell upon them with one consent, and slew them unto Chobai."

61. This tercet unites the "I saw," "O," and "Displayed," of the preceding passage, and binds the whole as with a selvage.

67. Ruskin, Mod. Painters, III. 19: "There was probably never a period in which the influence of art over the minds of men seemed to depend less on its merely imitative power, than the close of the thirteenth century. No painting or sculpture at that time reached more than a rude resemblance of reality. Its despised perspective, imperfect chiaroscuro, and unrestrained flights of fantastic imagination, separated the artist's work from nature by an interval which there was no attempt to disguise, and little to diminish. And yet, at this very period, the greatest poet of that, or perhaps of any other and the attached friend of its greatest painter, who must over and over again have held full and free conversation with him respecting the objects of his art, speaks in the following terms of painting, supposed to be carried to its highest perfection :

age,

Qual di pennel fu maestro, e di stile

Che ritraesse l'ombre, e i tratti, ch' ivi

Mirar farieno uno ingegno sottile.
Morti li morti, e i vivi parean vivi :

Non vide me' di me, chi vide il vero,
Quant' io calcai, fin che chinato givi.

Dante has here clearly no other idea of the highest art than that it should bring back, as in a mirror or vision, the aspect of things passed or absent. The scenes of which he speaks are, on the pavement, forever represented by angelic power, so that the souls which traverse this circle of the rock may see them, as if the years of the world had been rolled back, and they again stood beside the actors in the moment of action. Nor do I think that Dante's authority is absolutely necessary to compel us to admit that such art as this might indeed be the highest possible. Whatever delight we may have been in the habit of taking in pictures, if it were but truly offered to us to remove at our will the canvas from the frame, and in lieu of it to behold, fixed forever, the image of some of those mighty scenes which it has been our way to make mere themes for the artist's fancy, if, for instance, we could again behold the Magdalene receiving her pardon at Christ's feet, or the disciples sitting with him at the table of Emmaus, and this not feebly nor fancifully, but as if some silver mirror, that had leaned against the wall of the chamber, had been miraculously commanded to retain forever the colors that had flashed upon it for an instant, would we not part with our picture, Titian's or Veronese's though it might be?"

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81. The sixth hour of the day, or noon of the second day. 102. Florence is here called ironically "the well guided' or well governed. Rubaconte is the name of the most easterly of the bridges over the Arno, and takes its name from Messer Rubaconte, who was Podestà of Florence in 1236, when this bridge was built. Above it on the hill stands the church of San Miniato. This is the hill which Michel Angelo fortified in the siege of Florence. In early times it was climbed by stairways.

105. In the good old days, before any one had falsified the ledger of the public accounts, or the standard of measIn Dante's time a certain Messer Niccola tore out a

ure.

leaf from the public records, to conceal some villany of his ; and a certain Messer Durante, a custom-house officer, diminished the salt-measure by one stave. This is again alluded to, Par. XVI. 105.

110. Matthew v. 3: "Blessed are the poor in spirit : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

It must be observed that all the Latin lines in Dante should be chanted with an equal stress on each syllable, in order to make them rhythmical.

CANTO XIII.

66

1. The Second Circle, or Cornice, where is punished the sin of Envy; of which St. Augustine says: Envy is the hatred of another's felicity; in respect of superiors, because they are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest they should be equal to them; in respect of equals, because they are equal to them. Through envy proceeded the fall of the world, and the death of Christ."

9. The livid color of Envy.

14. The military precision with which Virgil faces to the right is Homeric. Biagioli says that Dante expresses it "after his own fashion, that is, entirely new and different from mundane custom."

16. Boethius, Cons. Phil., V. Met. 2:

Him the Sun, then, rightly call,

God who sees and lightens all.

29. John ii. 3:

"And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine."

Examples are first given of the virtue opposite the vice here punished. These are but "airy tongues that syllable men's names"; and it must not be supposed that the persons alluded to are actually passing in the air.

33. The name of Orestes is here shouted on account of the proverbial friendship between him and Pylades. When Orestes was condemned to death, Pylades tried to take his place, exclaiming, "I am Orestes."

36. Matthew v. 44: "But I say unto you, Love your

enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."

39. See Canto XIV. 147.

42. The next stairway leading from the second to the third circle.

51. The Litany of All Saints.

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70. Belamy, Treatise on Falconry, p. 34, says: "Before the invention of the hood, in order to blindfold the hawks, falconers had recourse to an operation termed sealing, or seeling, which was performed by passing a needle and thread through the upper and under eyelid, by means of which they were brought together and secured,

being thus, as occasion served, deprived of its sight."

92. Latian for Italian.

the bird

109. A Sienese lady living in banishment at Colle, where from a tower she witnessed the battle between her townsmen and the Florentines. 66 Sapia hated the Sienese," says Benvenuto, "and placed herself at a window not far from the field of battle, waiting the issue with anxiety, and desiring the rout and ruin of her own people. Her desires being verified by the entire discomfiture of the Sienese, and the death of their captain," (Provenzan Salvani, see Canto XI. Note 121,) "exultant and almost beside herself, she lifted her bold face to heaven, and cried, 'Now, O God, do with me what thou wilt, do me all the harm thou canst; now my prayers are answered, and I die content.'

110. Gower, Confes. Amant., II. : —

Whan I have sene another blithe

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Of love and hadde a goodly chere,
Ethna, which brenneth yere by yere,
Was thanne nought so hote as I

Of thilke sore which prively

Mine hertes thought withinne brenneth.

114. Convito, IV. 23: "Every effect, in so far as it is effect, receiveth the likeness of its cause, as far as it can retain it. Therefore, inasmuch as our life, as has been said, and likewise that of every living creature here below, is caused by the heavens, and the heavens reveal themselves to all these effects, not in complete circle, but in part thereof,

so must its movement needs be above; and as an arch retains all lives nearly, (and, I say, retains those of men as well as of other living creatures,) ascending and curving, they must be in the similitude of an arch. Returning then to our life, of which it is now question, I say that it proceeds in the image of this arch, ascending and descending."

117. Namely, the defeat of the Sienese.

122. The warm days near the end of January are still called in Lombardy I giorni della merla, the days of the blackbird; from an old legend, that once in the sunny weather a blackbird sang, "I fear thee no more, O Lord, for the winter is over."

128. Peter Pettignano, or Pettinajo, was a holy hermit, who saw visions and wrought miracles at Siena. Forsyth, Italy, 149, describing the festival of the Assumption in that city in 1802, says:—

"The Pope had reserved for this great festival the Beatification of Peter, a Sienese comb-maker, whom the Church had neglected to canonize till now. Poor Peter was honored with all the solemnity of music, high-mass, an officiating cardinal, a florid panegyric, pictured angels bearing his tools to heaven, and combing their own hair as they soared; but he received five hundred years ago a greater honor than all, a verse of praise from Dante."

138. Dante's besetting sin was not envy, but pride.

144. On the other side of the world.

153. The vanity of the Sienese is also spoken of, Inf. XXIX. 123.

"many

152. Talamone is a seaport in the Maremma, times abandoned by its inhabitants," says the Ottimo, "on account of the malaria. The town is utterly in ruins; but as the harbor is deep, and would be of great utility if the place were inhabited, the Sienese have spent much money in repairing it many times, and bringing in inhabitants; it is of little use, for the malaria prevents the increase of population."

Talamone is the ancient Telamon, where Marius landed on his return from Africa.

153. The Diana is a subterranean river, which the Sienese

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