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

Aragon, and king, or in some form ruler of Sicily, called from Mount Etna the “Island of the Fire.” The Ottimo comments thus: “Peter of Aragon was liberal and magnanimous, and the author says that this man is avaricious and pusillanimous.” Perhaps his greatest crime in the eyes of Dante was his abandoning the cause of the Imperialists. ↩

According to Virgil, Anchises died in Sicily, “on the joyless coast of Drepanum.” Aeneid, III 708, Davidson’s Tr.:⁠—

“Here, alas! after being tossed by so many storms at sea, I lose my sire Anchises, my solace in every care and suffering. Here thou, best of fathers, whom in vain, alas! I saved from so great dangers, forsakest me, spent with toils.”

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In diminutive letters, and not in Roman capitals, like the Diligite Justitiam of Canto XVIII 91, and the record of the virtues and vices of the “Cripple of Jerusalem.” ↩

The uncle of Frederick of Sicily was James, king of the Balearic Islands. He joined Philip the Bold of France in his disastrous invasion of Catalonia; and in consequence lost his own crown.

The brother of Frederick was James of Aragon, who, on becoming king of that realm, gave up Sicily, which his father had acquired.

By these acts they dishonored their native land and the crowns they wore. ↩

Dionysius, king of Portugal, who reigned from 1279 to 1325. The Ottimo says that, “given up wholly to the acquisition of wealth, he led the life of a merchant, and had money dealings with all the great merchants of his reign; nothing regal, nothing magnificent, can be recorded of him.”

Philalethes is disposed to vindicate the character of Dionysius against these aspersions, and to think them founded only in the fact that Dionysius loved the arts of peace better than the more shining art of war, joined in no crusade against the Moors, and was a patron of manufactures and commerce.

The Ottimo’s note on this nameless Norwegian is curious:⁠—

“As his islands are situated at the uttermost extremities of the earth, so his life is on the extreme of reasonableness and civilization.”

Benvenuto remarks only that:⁠—

“Norway is a cold northern region, where the days are very short, and whence come excellent falcons.”

Buti is still more brief. He says:⁠—

“That is, the king of Norway.”

Neither of these commentators, nor any of the later ones, suggest the name of this monarch, except the Germans, Philalethes and Witte, who think it may be Eric the Priest-hater, or Hakon Longshanks. ↩

Rascia or Ragusa is a city in Dalmatia, situated on the Adriatic, and capital of the kingdom of that name. The king here alluded to is Uroscius II, who married a daughter of the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, and counterfeited Venetian coin. ↩

In this line I have followed the reading male ha visto, instead of the more common one, male aggiustò. ↩

The Ottimo comments as follows:⁠—

“Here he reproves the vile and unseemly lives of the kings of Hungary, down to Andrea” (Dante’s contemporary), “whose life the Hungarians praised, and whose death they wept.”

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If it can make the Pyrenees a bulwark to protect it against the invasion of Philip the Fair of France. It was not till four centuries later that Louis XIV made his famous boast, “Il n’y a plus de Pyrénées.” ↩

In proof of this prediction the example of Cyprus is given. ↩

Nicosia and Famagosta are cities of Cyprus, here taken for the whole island, in 1300 badly governed by Henry II of the house of the Lusignani. “And well he may call him beast,” says the Ottimo, “for he was wholly given up to lust and sensuality, which should be far removed from every king.” ↩

Upon this line Benvenuto comments with unusual vehemence.

“This king,” he says, “does not differ nor depart from the side of the other beasts; that is, of the other vicious kings. And of a truth, Cyprus with her people differeth not, nor is separated from the bestial life of the rest; rather it surpasseth and exceedeth all peoples and kings of the kingdoms of Christendom in superfluity of luxury, gluttony, effeminacy, and every kind of pleasure. But to attempt to describe the kinds, the sumptuousness, the variety, and the frequency of their banquets, would be disgusting to narrate, and tedious and harmful to write. Therefore men who live soberly and temperately should avert their eyes from beholding, and their ears from hearing, the meretricious, lewd, and fetid manners of that island, which, with God’s permission, the Genoese have now invaded, captured, and evil entreated and laid under contribution.”

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The Heaven of Jupiter continued. ↩

Coleridge, “Ancient Mariner”:⁠—

“The sun’s rim dips; the stars rush out;
At one stride comes the dark.”

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Blanco White, “Night”:⁠—

“Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew
Thee, from report divine, and heard thy name,
Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,
This glorious canopy of light and blue?
Yet neath a curtain of translucent dew,
Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,
Hesperus with the host of heaven came,
And lo! creation widened in man’s view.
Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed
Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find,
Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed,
That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind?
Why do we, then, shun death with anxious strife?
If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?”

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King David, who carried the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjathjearim to the house of Obed-Edom, and thence to Jerusalem. See 2 Samuel 6. ↩

In so far as the Psalms were the result of his own free will, and