Purgatory by Dante Alighieri
v. 78. The other.] Charles, King of Naples, the eldest son of Charles of Anjou, having, contrary to the directions of his father, engaged with v. 49. Thaumantian.] Figlia di Taumante Compare Plato, Theaet. v.
Ruggier de Lauria, the admiral of Peter of Arragon, was made prisoner ii. p. 76. Bip. edit., Virg; Aen. ix. 5, and Spenser, Faery Queen, b. v.
and carried into Sicily, June, 1284. He afterwards, in consideration of c. 3. st. 25.
a large sum of money, married his daughter to Azzo VI11, Marquis of Ferrara.
v. 85. The name.] The name of Poet.
v. 85. The flower-de-luce.] Boniface VIII was seized at Alagna in v. 89. From Tolosa.] Dante, as many others have done, confounds Campagna, by order of Philip IV., in the year 1303, and soon after died Statius the poet, who was a Nea politan, with a rhetorician of the same name, who was of Tolosa, or Thoulouse. Thus Chaucer, Temple of Fame, of grief. G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 63.
b. iii. The Tholason, that height Stace.
v. 94. Into the temple.] It is uncertain whether our Poet alludes still v. 94. Fell.] Statius lived to write only a small part of the Achilleid.
to the event mentioned in the preceding Note, or to the destruction of the order of the Templars in 1310, but the latter appears more probable.
CANTO XXII
v. 103. Pygmalion.] Virg. Aen. 1. i. 348.
v. 5. Blessed.] Matt. v. 6.
v. 107. Achan.] Joshua, c. vii.
v. 14. Aquinum’s bard.] Juvenal had celebrated his contemporary v. 111. Heliodorus.] 2 Maccabees, c. iii. 25. “For there appeared unto Statius, Sat. vii. 82; though some critics imagine that there is a secret them a horse, with a terrible rider upon him, and adorned with a very derision couched under his praise.
fair cover ing, and he ran fiercely and smote at Heliodorus with his forefeet.”
v. 28. Why.] Quid non mortalia pecaora cogis Anri sacra fames? Virg.
Aen. 1. iii. 57 Venturi supposes that Dante might have mistaken the v. 112. Thracia’s king.] Polymnestor, the murderer of Polydorus. Hell, meaning of the word sacra, and construed it “holy,” instead of Canto XXX, 19.
“cursed.” But I see no necessity for having recourse to so improbable 114
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory a conjecture.
v. 26. When Mary.] Josephus, De Bello Jud. 1. vii. c. xxi. p. 954 Ed Genev. fol. 1611. The shocking story is well told v. 41. The fierce encounter.] See Hell, Canto VII. 26.
v. 27. Rings.] In this habit Met I my father with his bleeding rings Their v. 46. With shorn locks.] Ibid. 58.
precious stones new lost.
Shakespeare, Lear, a. 5. s. 3
v. 57. The twin sorrow of Jocasta’s womb.] Eteocles and Polynices v. 28. Who reads the name.] “He, who pretends to distinguish the v. 71. A renovated world.] Virg. Ecl. iv. 5
letters which form OMO in the fea tures of the human face, “might easily have traced out the M on their emaciated countenances.” The temples, v. 100. That Greek.] Homer
nose, and forehead are supposed to repre sent this letter; and the eyes the two O’s placed within each side of it.
v. 107. Of thy train. ] Of those celebrated in thy Poem.”
v. 44. Forese.] One of the brothers of Piccarda, she who is again spoken v. 112. Tiresias’ daughter.] Dante appears to have forgotten that he of in the next Canto, and intro duced in the Paradise, Canto III.
had placed Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, among the sorcerers. See Hell Canto XX. Vellutello endeavours, rather awkwardly, to recon cile V. 72. If the power.] “If thou didst delay thy repentance to the last, the inconsistency, by observing, that although she was placed there as when thou hadst lost the power of sinning, how happens it thou art a sinner, yet, as one of famous memory, she had also a place among the arrived here so early?”
worthies in Limbo. Lombardi excuses our author better, by observing that Tiresias had a daughter named Daphne. See Diodorus Siculus, 1.
v. 76. Lower.] In the Ante-Purgatory. See Canto II.
iv. 66.
v. 80. My Nella.] The wife of Forese.
v. 139. Mary took more thought.] “The blessed virgin, who answers for yon now in heaven, when she said to Jesus, at the marriage in Cana v. 87. The tract most barb’rous of Sardinia’s isle.] The Barbagia is part of Galilee, ‘they have no wine,’ regarded not the gratification of her of Sardinia, to which that name was given, on account of the uncivilized own taste, but the honour of the nuptial banquet.”
state of its inhabitants, who are said to have gone nearly na ked.
v. 142 The women of old Rome.] See Valerius Maximus, 1. ii. c. i.
v. 91. The’ unblushing domes of Florence.] Landino’s note exhibits a curious instance of the changeableness of his countrywomen. He even CANTO XXIII
goes beyond the acrimony of the original. “In those days,” says the commentator, “no less than in ours, the Florentine ladies exposed the neck and bosom, a dress, no doubt, more suitable to a harlot than a v. 9. My lips.] Psalm ii. 15.
matron. But, as they changed soon after, insomuch that they wore collars up to the chin, covering the whole of the neck and throat, so have I hopes v. 20. The eyes.] Compare Ovid, Metam. 1. viii. 801
they will change again; not indeed so much from motives of decency, as through that fickleness, which per vades every action of their lives.”
115
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory v. 46. Blame it as they may.] See Hell, Canto XXI. 39.
v. 97. Saracens.] “This word, during the middle ages, was indiscriminately applied to Pagans and Mahometans; in short, to all v. 51. Ladies, ye that con the lore of love.]Donne ch’ avete intelletto nations (except the Jew’s) who did not profess Christianity.” Mr. Ellis’s d’amore.The first verse of a canzone in our author’s Vita Nuova.
specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. i. page 196, a note.
v. 56. The Notary.] Jucopo da Lentino, called the Notary, a poet of these Lond. 8vo. 1805.
times. He was probably an Apulian: for Dante, (De Vulg. Eloq. I. i. c 12.) quot ing a verse which belongs to a canzone of his pub lished by the CANTO XXIV
Giunti, without mentioning the writer’s name, terms him one of “the illustrious Apulians,” praefulgentes Apuli. See Tiraboschi, Mr.
Matthias’s edit. vol. i. p. 137. Crescimbeni (1. i. Della Volg. Poes p.
v. 20. Buonaggiunta.] Buonaggiunta Urbiciani, of Lucca. “There is a 72. 4to. ed. 1698) gives an extract from one of his poems, printed in canzone by this poet, printed in the collection made by the Giunti, (p.
Allacci’s Collection, to show that the whimsical compositions called 209,).land a sonnet to Guido Guinicelli in that made by Corbinelli, (p
“Ariette “ are not of modern invention.
169,) from which we collect that he lived not about 1230, as Quadrio supposes, (t. ii. p. 159,) but towards the end of the thirteenth cen tury.
Concerning, other poems by Buonaggiunta, that are preserved in MS. in v. 56. Guittone.] Fra Guittone, of Arezzo, holds a distinguished place some libraries, Crescimbeni may be consulted.” Tiraboschi, Mr.
in Italian literature, as besides his poems printed in the collection of Matthias’s ed. v. i. p. 115.
the Giunti, he has left a collection of letters, forty in number, which afford the earliest specimen of that kind of writing in the language.
They were published at Rome in 1743, with learned illustra tions by v. 23. He was of Tours.] Simon of Tours became Pope, with the title Giovanni Bottari. He was also the first who gave to the sonnet its regular of Martin IV in 1281 and died in 1285.
and legitimate form, a species of composition in which not only his own countrymen, but many of the best poets in all the cultivated languages v. 29. Ubaldino.] Ubaldino degli Ubaldini, of Pila, in the Florentine of modern Europe, have since so much delighted. Guittone, a native of territory.
Arezzo, was the son of Viva di Michele. He was of the order of the “
Frati Godenti,” of which an account may
mentioned Ubaldini and by Laudino Francioso, a Frenchman.
p. 119. Dante, in the Trea tise de Vulg. Eloq. 1. i. c. 13, and 1. ii. c.
6., blames him for preferring the plebeian to the mor courtly style; and v. 32. The Marquis.] The Marchese de’ Rigogliosi, of Forli.
Petrarch twice places him in the company of our Poet. Triumph of Love, cap. iv. and Son. Par. See “Sennuccio mio”
v. 38. gentucca.] Of this lady it is thought that our Poet became enamoured during his exile.
v. 63. The birds.] Hell, Canto V. 46, Euripides, Helena, 1495, and v. 45. Whose brow no wimple shades yet.] “Who has not yet assumed Statius; Theb. 1. V. 12.
the dress of a woman.”
v. 81. He.] Corso Donati was suspected of aiming at the sovereignty of 116
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory Florence. To escape the fury of his fellow citizens, he fled away on v. 126. Callisto.] See Ovid, Met. 1. ii. fab. 5.
horseback, but failing, was overtaken and slain, A.D. 1308. The contemporary annalist, after relating at length the circumstances of his CANTO XXVI
fate, adds, “that he was one of the wisest and most valorous knights the best speaker, the most expert statesman, the most renowned and enterprising, man of his age in Italy, a comely knight and of graceful v. 70. Caesar.] For the opprobrium east on Caesar’s effeminacy, see carriage, but very worldly, and in his time had formed many conspira Suetonius, Julius Caesar, c. 49.
cies in Florence and entered into many scandalous practices, for the sake of attaining state and lord ship.” G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 96. The v. 83. Guinicelli.] See Note to Canto XI. 96.
character of Corso is forcibly drawn by another of his contempo raries Dino Compagni. 1. iii., Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script. t. ix. p. 523.
v. 87. lycurgus.] Statius, Theb. 1. iv. and v. Hypsipile had left her infant charge, the son of Lycurgus, on a bank, where it was destroyed v. 129. Creatures of the clouds.] The Centaurs. Ovid. Met. 1. fab. 4
by a serpent, when she went to show the Argive army the river of Langia: v. 123. The Hebrews.] Judges, c. vii.
and, on her escaping the effects of Lycurgus’s resentment, the joy her own children felt at the sight of her was such as our Poet felt on beholding his predecessor Guinicelli. The incidents are beautifully CANTO XXV
described in Statius, and seem to have made an impression on Dante, for he again (Canto XXII. 110.) characterizes Hypsipile, as her-v. 58. As sea-sponge.] The fetus is in this stage is zoophyte.
Who show’d Langia’s wave.
v. 66. -More wise Than thou, has erred.] Averroes is said to be here v. 111. He.] The united testimony of Dante, and of Petrarch, in his meant. Venturi refers to his commentary on Aristotle, De Anim 1. iii.
Triumph of Love, e. iv. places Arnault Daniel at the head of the c. 5. for the opinion that there is only one universal intellect or mind Provencal poets. That he was born of poor but noble parents, at the castle pervading every individual of the human race. Much of the knowledge of Ribeyrae in Perigord, and that he was at the English court, is the displayed by our Poet in the present Canto appears to have been derived amount of Millot’s information concerning him (t. ii. p. 479). The from the medical work o+ Averroes, called the Colliget. Lib. ii. f. 10.
account there given of his writings is not much more satis factory, and Ven. 1400. fol.
the criticism on them must go for little better than nothing. It is to be regretted that we have not an opportunity of judging for ourselves of v. 79. Mark the sun’s heat.] Redi and Tiraboschi (Mr. Matthias’s ed.
his “love ditties and his tales of prose “ Versi d’amore e prose di romanzi.
v. ii. p. 36.) have considered this an anticipation of a profound Our Poet frequently cities him in the work De Vulgari Eloquentia. Ac discovery of Galileo’s in natural philosophy, but it is in reality taken cording to Crescimbeni, (Della Volg. Poes. 1. 1. p. 7. ed. 1698.) He died from a passage in Cicero “de Senectute,” where, speaking of the grape, in 1189.
he says, “ quae, et succo terrae et calore solis augescens, primo est
peracerba gustatu, deinde maturata dulcescit.”
v. 113. The songster of Limoges.] Giraud de Borneil, of Sideuil, a castle in Limoges. He was a troubadour, much admired and caressed in his v. 123. I do, not know a man.] Luke, c. i. 34.
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory day, and appears to have been in favour with the mon archs of Castile, and the declivity of the Apennine.” Ibid. c. x. “Each of these three,” he Leon, Navarre, and Arragon He is quoted by Dante, De Vulg. Eloq., and observes, “has its own claims to distinction The excellency of the French many of his poems are still remaining in MS. According to Nostradamus language consists in its being best adapted, on account of its facility and he died in 1278. Millot, Hist. Litt. des Troub. t. ii. p. 1 and 23. But agreeableness, to prose narration, ( quicquid redactum, sive inventum
I suspect that there is some error in this date, and that he did not live
est ad vulgare prosaicum suum est); and he instances the books compiled to see so late a period.
on the gests of the Trojans and Romans and the delightful adventures of King Arthur, with many other histories and works of instruction. The v. 118. Guittone.] See Cano XXIV. 56.
Span ish (or Provencal) may boast of its having produced such as first cultivated in this as in a more perfect and sweet language, the v. 123. Far as needs.] See Canto XI. 23.
vernacular poetry: among whom are Pierre d’Auvergne, and others more ancient. The privileges of the Latin, or Italian are two: first that v. 132. Thy courtesy.] Arnault is here made to speak in his own tongue, it may reckon for its own those writers who have adopted a more sweet and subtle style of poetry, in the number of whom are Cino, da Pistoia the Provencal. According to Dante, (De Vulg. Eloq. 1. 1.
and his friend, and the next, that its writers seem to adhere to, certain general rules of gram mar, and in so doing give it, in the opinion of the c. 8.) the Provencal was one language with the Spanish. What he says intelligent, a very weighty pretension to preference.”
on this subject is so curious, that the reader will perhaps not be displeased it I give an abstract of it. He first makes three great divisions of the European languages. “One of these extends from the mouths of CANTO XXVII
the Danube, or the lake of Maeotis, to the western limits of England, and is bounded by the limits of the French and Italians, and by the ocean.
v. 1. The sun.] At Jerusalem it was dawn, in Spain midnight, and in One idiom obtained over the whole of this space: but was afterwards India noonday, while it was sunset in Purgatory
subdivided into, the Sclavonian, Hungarian, Teutonic, Saxon, English, and the vernacular tongues of several other people, one sign remaining v. 10. Blessed.] Matt. c. v. 8.
to all, that they use the affirmative io, (our English ay.) The whole of Europe, beginning from the Hungarian limits and stretching towards the v. 57. Come.] Matt. c. xxv. 34.
east, has a second idiom which reaches still further than the end of Europe into Asia. This is the Greek. In all that remains of Europe, there v. 102. I am Leah.] By Leah is understood the active life, as Rachel is a third idiom subdivided into three dialects, which may be severally figures the contemplative. The divinity is the mirror in which the latter distinguished by the use of the affirmatives, oc, oil, and si; the first looks. Michel Angelo has made these allegorical personages the subject spoken by the Spaniards, the next by the French, and the third by the of two statues on the monument of Julius II. in the church of S. Pietro Latins (or Italians). The first occupy the western part of southern in Vincolo. See Mr. Duppa’s Life of Michel Angelo, Sculpture viii. And Europe, begin ning from the limits of the Genoese. The t
the eastern part from the said limits, as far, that is, as the promontory of Italy, where the Adriatic sea begins, and to Sicily. The second are in v. 135. Those bright eyes.] The eyes of Beatrice.
a manner northern with respect to these for they have the Germans to the east and north, on the west they are bounded by the English sea, and CANTO XXVIII
the mountains of Arragon, and on the south by the people of Provence 118
The Divine Comedy of Dante - Purgatory sacred images in the Apocalypse. In Vasari’s Life of Giotto, we learn v. 11. To that part.] The west.
that Dante recommended that book to his friend, as affording fit subjects for his pencil.
v. 14. The feather’d quiristers] Imitated by Boccaccio, Fiammetta, 1.
iv. “Odi i queruli uccelli,” &c. —”Hear the querulous birds plaining with v. 89. Four.] The four evangelists.
sweet songs, and the boughs trembling, and, moved by a gentle wind, as it were keeping tenor to their notes.”
v. 96. Ezekiel.] Chap. 1. 4.
v. 7. A pleasant air.] Compare Ariosto, O. F. c. xxxiv. st. 50.
v. 101. John.] Rev. c. iv. 8.
v. Chiassi.] This is the wood where the scene of Boccaccio’s sublimest v. 104. Gryphon.] Under the Gryphon, an imaginary creature, the story is laid. See Dec. g. 5. n. 8. and Dryden’s Theodore and Honoria forepart of which is an eagle, and the hinder a lion, is shadowed forth Our Poet perhaps wandered in it daring his abode with Guido Novello the union of the divine and human nature in Jesus Christ. The car is the da Polenta.
church.
v. 41. A lady.] Most of the commentators suppose, that by this lady, v. 115. Tellus’ prayer.] Ovid, Met. 1. ii. v. 279.
who in the last Canto is called Matilda, is to be understood the Countess Matilda, who endowed the holy see with the estates called the v. 116. ‘Three nymphs.] The three evangelical virtues: the first Charity, Patrimony of St. Peter, and died in 1115. See G. Villani, 1. iv. e. 20