The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

Circle, where Avarice is punished. It is the dawn of the Third Day. ↩

Brunetto Latini, Tresor, Ch. CXI:⁠—

“Saturn, who is sovereign over all, is cruel and malign and of a cold nature.”

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Geomancy is divination by points in the ground, or pebbles arranged in certain figures, which have peculiar names. Among these is the figure called the Fortuna Major, which is thus drawn:⁠—

and which by an effort of imagination can also be formed out of some of the last stars of Aquarius, and some of the first of Pisces.

Chaucer, Troil. and Cres., III 1415:⁠—

“But whan the cocke, commune astrologer,
Gan on his brest to bete and after crowe,
And Lucifer, the dayes messanger,
Gan for to rise and out his hemes throwe,
And estward rose, to him that could it knowe,
Fortuna Major.”

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Because the sun is following close behind. ↩

This “stammering woman” of Dante’s dream is Sensual Pleasure, which the imagination of the beholder adorns with a thousand charms. The “lady saintly and alert” is Reason, the same that tied Ulysses to the mast, and stopped the ears of his sailors with wax that they might not hear the song of the Sirens.

Gower, Confessio Amantis, I:⁠—

“Of such nature
They ben, that with so swete a steven
Like to the melodic of heven
In womannishe vois they singe
With notes of so great likinge,
Of suche mesure, of suche musike,
Wherof the shippes they beswike
That passen by the costes there.
For whan the shipmen lay an ere
Unto the vois, in here airs
They wene it be a paradis,
Which after is to hem an helle.”

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“That is,” says Buti, “they shall have the gift of comforting their souls.”

Matthew 5:4:⁠—

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

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The three remaining sins to be purged away are Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust. ↩

See Canto XIV 148. ↩

Psalms 119:25:⁠—

“My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word.”

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Know that I am the successor of Peter. It is Pope Adrian the Fifth who speaks. He was of the family of the Counts of Lavagna, the family taking its title from the river Lavagna, flowing between Siestri and Chiaveri, towns on the Riviera di Genova. He was Pope only thirty-nine days, and died in 1276. When his kindred came to congratulate him on his election, he said, “Would that ye came to a Cardinal in good health, and not to a dying Pope.” ↩

Revelation 19:10:⁠—

“And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me. See thou do it not, I am thy fellow-servant.”

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Matthew 22:30:⁠—

“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven.”

He reminds Dante that here all earthly distinctions and relations are laid aside. He is no longer “the Spouse of the Church.” ↩

Penitence; line 92:⁠—

“In whom weeping ripens
That without which to God we cannot turn.”

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Madonna Alagia was the wife of Marcello Malespini, that friend of Dante with whom, during his wanderings he took refuge in the Lunigiana, in 1307. ↩

In this canto the subject of the preceding is continued, namely, the punishment of Avarice and Prodigality. ↩

To please the speaker. Pope Adrian the Fifth, (who, Canto XIX 139, says,

“Now go, no longer will I have thee linger,”)

Dante departs without further question, though not yet satisfied. ↩

See the article “Cabala” at the end of Vol. III. ↩

This is generally supposed to refer to Can Grande della Scala. See Note 22. ↩

The inn at Bethlehem. ↩

The Roman Consul who rejected with disdain the bribes of Pyrrhus, and died so poor that he was buried at the public expense, and the Romans were obliged to give a dowry to his daughters. Virgil, Aeneid, VI 844, calls him “powerful in poverty.” Dante also extols him in the Convito, IV 5. ↩

Gower, Confessio Amantis, V 13:⁠—

“Betwene the two extremites
Of vice stont the propertes
Of vertue, and to prove it so
Take avarice and take also
The vice of prodegalite,
Betwene hem liberalite,
Which is the vertue of largesse
Stant and governeth his noblesse.”

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This is St. Nicholas, patron saint of children, sailors, and travellers. The incident here alluded to is found in the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, the great storehouse of medieval wonders.

It may be found also in Mrs. Jameson’s Sacred and Legendary Art, II 62, and in her version runs thus:⁠—

“Now in that city there dwelt a certain nobleman who had three daughters, and, from being rich, he became poor; so poor that there remained no means of obtaining food for his daughters but by sacrificing them to an infamous life; and oftentimes it came into his mind to tell them so, but shame and sorrow held him dumb. Meantime the maidens wept continually, not knowing what to do, and not having bread to eat; and their father became more and more desperate. When Nicholas heard of this, he thought it a shame that such a thing should happen in a Christian land; therefore one night, when the maidens were asleep, and their father alone sat watching and weeping, he took a handful of gold, and, tying it up in a handkerchief, he repaired to the dwelling of the poor man. He considered how he might bestow it without making himself known, and, while he stood irresolute, the moon coming from behind a cloud showed him a window open; so he threw it in, and