It was an Hill plaste in an open plaine, That round about was bordered with a wood Of matchlesse hight, that seemed th' earth to disdaine: And at the foote thereof a gentle flud Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder clowne, And on the top thereof a spacious plaine Did spred itselfe, to serve to all delight, Either to daunce, when they to daunce would faine, Ne ought there wanted, which for pleasure might So pleasauntly the Hill with equall hight Did seeme to overlooke the lowly vale; Therefore it rightly cleeped was Mount Acidale. See also Tasso's Garden of Armida, in the Gerusalemme, XVI. "Here 20. Chiassi is on the sea-shore near Ravenna. grows a spacious pine forest," says Covino, Descr. Geog., p. 39, "which stretches along the sea between Ravenna and Cervia." 25. The river Lethe. 40. This lady, who represents the Active life to Dante's waking eyes, as Leah had done in his vision, and whom Dante afterwards, Canto XXXIII. 119, calls Matilda, is generally supposed by the commentators to be the celebrated Countess Matilda, daughter of Boniface, Count of Tuscany, and wife of Guelf, of the house of Suabia. Of this marriage Villani, IV. 21, gives a very strange account, which, if true, is a singular picture of the times. Napier, Flor. Hist., I. Ch. 4 and 6, gives these glimpses of the Countess: "This heroine died in 1115, after a reign of active exertion for herself and the Church against the Emperors, which generated the infant and as yet nameless factions of Guelf and Ghibelline. Matilda endured this contest with all the enthusiasm and constancy of a woman, combined with a manly courage that must ever render her name respectable, whether proceeding from the bigotry of the age, or to oppose imperial ambition in defence of her own defective title. According to the laws of that time, she could not as a female inherit her father's states, for even male heirs required a royal confirmation. Matilda therefore, having no legal right, feared the Emperor and clung to the Popes, who already claimed, among other prerogatives, the supreme disposal of kingdoms. ... "The Church had ever come forward as the friend of her house, and from childhood she had breathed an atmosphere of blind and devoted submission to its authority; even when only fifteen she had appeared in arms against its enemies, and made two successful expeditions to assist Pope Alexander the Second during her mother's lifetime. "No wonder, then, that in a superstitious age, when monarchs trembled at an angry voice from the Lateran, the habits of early youth should have mingled with every action of Matilda's life, and spread an agreeable mirage over the prospect of her eternal salvation: the power that tamed a Henry's pride, a Barbarossa's fierceness, and afterwards withstood the vast ability of a Frederic, might without shame have been reverenced by a girl whose feelings so harmonized with the sacred strains of ancient tradition and priestly dignity. But from whatever motive, the result was a continual aggrandizement of ecclesiastics; in prosperity and adversity ; during life and after death; from the lowliest priest to the proudest pontiff. "The fearless assertion of her own independence by successful struggles with the Emperor was an example not overlooked by the young Italian communities under Matilda's rule, who were already accused by imperial legit imacy of political innovation and visionary notions of gov. ernment. "Being then at a place called Monte Baroncione, and in her sixty-ninth year, this celebrated woman breathed her last, after a long and glorious reign of incessant activity, during which she displayed a wisdom, vigor, and determination of character rarely seen even in men. She bequeathed to the Church all those patrimonial estates of which she had previously disposed by an act of gift to Gregory the Seventh, without, however, any immediate royal power over the cities and other possessions thus given, as her will expresses it, for the good of her soul, and the souls of her parents.' "Whatever may now be thought of her chivalrous support, her bold defence, and her deep devotion to the Church, it was in perfect harmony with the spirit of that age, and has formed one of her chief merits with many even in the present. Her unflinching adherence to the cause she had so conscientiously embraced was far more noble than the Emperor Henry's conduct. Swinging between the extremes of unmeasured insolence and abject humiliation, he died a victim to Papal influence over superstitious minds; an influence which, amongst other debasing lessons, then taught the world that a breach of the most sacred ties and dearest affections of human nature was one means of gaining the approbation of a Being who is all truth and beneficence. "Matilda's object was to strengthen the chief spiritual against the chief temporal power, but reserving her own independence;, a policy subsequently pursued, at least in spirit, by the Guelphic states of Italy. She therefore protected subordinate members of the Church against feudal chieftains, and its head against the feudal Emperor. True to her religious and warlike character, she died between the sword and the crucifix, and two of her last acts, even when the hand of death was already cold on her brow, were the chastisement of revolted Mantua, and the midnight celebration of Christ's nativity in the depth of a freezing and unusually inclement winter." 50. Ovid, Met. V., Maynwaring's Tr. : Here, while young Proserpine, among the maids, Swift as his thought he seized the beauteous prey, The frighted goddess to her mother cries, The violets from her lap, and lilies fall: She misses them, poor heart! and makes new moan; 65. Ovid, Met. X., Eusden's Tr. : For Cytherea's lips while Cupid prest, Even Heaven itself with all its sweets unsought, 72. When Xerxes invaded Greece he crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of boats with an army of five million. So say the historians. On his return he crossed it in a fishing boat almost alone, "a warning to all human arrogance." Leander naturally hated the Hellespont, having to swim it so many times. The last time, according to Thomas Hood, he met with a sea nymph, who, enamored of his beauty, carried him to the bottom of the sea. See Hero and Leander stanza 45: His eyes are blinded with the sleety brine, Under the ponderous sea his body dips, Look how a man is lowered to his grave, The plunging sea fills up the watery gap; Anon he is all gone, and nothing seen, But likeness of green turf and hillocks green. And where he swam, the constant sun lies sleeping, Over the verdant plain that makes his bed; And all the noisy waves go freshly leaping, Like gamesome boys over the churchyard dead; Now screaming sea-fowl settle in his place. 80. Psalm xcii. 4: Delectasti me, Domine, in factura tua. "For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work! I will triumph in the works of thy hands." Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls Than the short, little stairway of three steps. 94. Only six hours, according to Adam's own account in Par. XXI. 139: Upon the mount which highest o'er the wave Rises was I, with life or pure or sinful, From the first hour to that which is the second, 102. Above the gate described in Canto IX. 146. Virgil and Statius smile at this allusion to the dreams of poets. CANTO XXIX. 1. The Terrestrial Paradise and the Apocalyptic Procession of the Church Triumphant. 3. Psalm xxxii. 1: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered." 10. Counted together, their steps were not a hundred in all. 41. The Muse of Astronomy, or things celestial, repre |