The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (essential books to read TXT) 📕

t. v. 1. ii. c. ii. sect. 4.) he was the source of modern philosophical impiety. The critic quotes some passages from Petrarch (Senil. 1. v. ep. iii. et. Oper. v. ii. p. 1143) to show how strongly such sentiments prevailed in the time of that poet, by whom they were held in horror and detestation He adds, that this fanatic admirer of Aristotle translated his writings with that felicity, which might be expected from one who did not know a syllable of Greek, and who was therefore compelled to avail himself of the unfaithful Arabic versions. D’Herbelot, on the other hand, informs us, that “Averroes was the first who translated Aristotle from Greek into Arabic, before the Jews had made their translation: and that we had for a long time no other text of Aristotle, except that of the Latin translation, which was made from this Arabic version of this great philosopher (Averroes), who afterwards added to it a very ample commentary, of which Thomas Aquinas, and the other scholastic writers, availed themselves, before the Greek originals of Aristotle and his commentators were known to us in Europe.” According to D’Herbelot, he died in 1198: but Tiraboschi places that event about 1206.

 

CANTO V

 

v. 5. Grinning with ghastly feature.] Hence Milton: Death

Grinn’d horrible a ghastly smile.

P. L. b. ii. 845.

 

v. 46. As cranes.] This simile is imitated by Lorenzo de Medici, in his Ambra, a poem, first published by Mr. Roscoe, in the Appendix to his Life of Lorenzo.

Marking the tracts of air, the clamorous cranes Wheel their due flight in varied ranks descried: And each with outstretch’d neck his rank maintains In marshal’d order through th’ ethereal void.

Roscoe, v. i. c. v. p. 257. 4to edit.

Compare Homer. Il. iii. 3. Virgil. Aeneid. 1 x. 264, and Ruccellai, Le Api, 942, and Dante’s Purgatory, Canto XXIV. 63.

 

v. 96. The land.] Ravenna.

 

v. 99 Love, that in gentle heart is quickly learnt.]

Amor, Ch’ al cor gentil ratto s’apprende.

A line taken by Marino, Adone, c. cxli. st. 251.

 

v. 102. Love, that denial takes from none belov’d.]

Amor, ch’ a null’ amato amar perdona.

So Boccacio, in his Filocopo. l.1.

Amore mal non perdono l’amore a nullo amato.

And Pulci, in the Morgante Maggiore, c. iv.

E perche amor mal volontier perdona, Che non sia al fin sempre amato chi ama.

Indeed many of the Italian poets have repeated this verse.

 

v. 105. Caina.] The place to which murderers are doomed.

 

v. 113. Francesca.] Francesca, daughter of Guido da Polenta, lord of Ravenna, was given by her father in marriage to Lanciotto, son of Malatesta, lord of Rimini, a man of extraordinary courage, but deformed in his person. His brother Paolo, who unhappily possessed those graces which the husband of Francesca wanted, engaged her affections; and being taken in adultery, they were both put to death by the enraged Lanciotto.

See Notes to Canto XXVII. v. 43

The whole of this passage is alluded to by Petrarch, in his Triumph of Love c. iii.

 

v. 118.

No greater grief than to remember days Of joy,xwhen mis’ry is at hand!]

Imitated by Marino:

Che non ha doglia il misero maggiore Che ricordar la giola entro il dolore.

Adone, c. xiv. st. 100

And by Fortiguerra:

Rimembrare il ben perduto Fa piu meschino lo presente stato.

Ricciardetto, c. xi. st. 83.

The original perhaps was in Boetius de Consol. Philosoph. “In omni adversitate fortunae infelicissimum genus est infortunii fuisse felicem et non esse.” 1. 2. pr. 4

 

v. 124. Lancelot.] One of the Knights of the Round Table, and the lover of Ginevra, or Guinever, celebrated in romance. The incident alluded to seems to have made a strong impression on the imagination of Dante, who introduces it again, less happily, in the Paradise, Canto XVI.

 

v. 128. At one point.]

Questo quel punto fu, che sol mi vinse.

Tasso, Il Torrismondo, a. i. s. 3.

 

v. 136. And like a corpse fell to the ground ]

E caddi, come corpo morto cade.

So Pulci:

E cadde come morto in terra cade.

Morgante Maggoire, c. xxii

 

CANTO VI

 

v. 1. My sense reviving.]

Al tornar della mente, che si chiuse Dinanzi alla pieta de’ duo cognati.

Berni has made a sportive application of these lines, in his Orl.

Inn. l. iii. c. viii. st. 1.

 

v. 21. That great worm.] So in Canto XXXIV Lucifer is called Th’ abhorred worm, that boreth through the world.

Ariosto has imitated Dante:

Ch’ al gran verme infernal mette la briglia, E che di lui come a lei par dispone.

Orl. Fur. c. xlvi. st. 76.

 

v. 52. Ciacco.] So called from his inordinate appetite: Ciacco, in Italian, signifying a pig. The real name of this glutton has not been transmitted to us. He is introduced in Boccaccio’s Decameron, Giorn. ix. Nov. 8.

 

v. 61. The divided city.] The city of Florence, divided into the Bianchi and Neri factions.

 

v. 65. The wild party from the woods.] So called, because it was headed by Veri de’ Cerchi, whose family had lately come into the city from Acone, and the woody country of the Val di Nievole.

 

v. 66. The other.] The opposite parts of the Neri, at the head of which was Corso Donati.

 

v. 67. This must fall.] The Bianchi.

 

v. 69. Of one, who under shore Now rests.]

Charles of Valois, by whose means the Neri were replaced.

 

v. 73. The just are two in number.] Who these two were, the commentators are not agreed.

 

v. 79. Of Farinata and Tegghiaio.] See Canto X. and Notes, and Canto XVI, and Notes.

 

v. 80. Giacopo.] Giacopo Rusticucci. See Canto XVI, and Notes.

 

v. 81. Arrigo, Mosca.] Of Arrigo, who is said by the commentators to have been of the noble family of the Fifanti, no mention afterwards occurs. Mosca degli Uberti is introduced in Canto XXVIII. v.

 

108. Consult thy knowledge.] We are referred to the following passage in St. Augustin:—“Cum fiet resurrectio carnis, et bonorum gaudia et malorum tormenta majora erunt. “—At the resurrection of the flesh, both the happiness of the good and the torments of the wicked will be increased.”

 

CANTO VII

 

v. 1. Ah me! O Satan! Satan!] Pape Satan, Pape Satan, aleppe.

Pape is said by the commentators to be the same as the Latin word papae! “strange!” Of aleppe they do not give a more satisfactory account.

See the Life of Benvenuto Cellini, translated by Dr. Nugent, v.

ii. b. iii c. vii. p 113, where he mentions “having heard the words Paix, paix, Satan! allez, paix! in the court of justice at Paris. I recollected what Dante said, when he with his master Virgil entered the gates of hell: for Dante, and Giotto the painter, were together in France, and visited Paris with particular attention, where the court of justice may be considered as hell. Hence it is that Dante, who was likewise perfect master of the French, made use of that expression, and I have often been surprised that it was never understood in that sense.”

 

v. 12. The first adulterer proud.] Satan.

 

v. 22. E’en as a billow.]

As when two billows in the Irish sowndes Forcibly driven with contrarie tides Do meet together, each aback rebounds With roaring rage, and dashing on all sides, That filleth all the sea with foam, divides The doubtful current into divers waves.

Spenser, F.Q. b. iv. c. 1. st. 42.

 

v. 48. Popes and cardinals.] Ariosto, having personified Avarice as a strange and hideous monster, says of her—

Peggio facea nella Romana corte Che v’avea uccisi Cardinali e Papi.

Orl. Fur. c. xxvi. st. 32.

Worse did she in the court of Rome, for there She had slain Popes and Cardinals.

 

v. 91. By necessity.] This sentiment called forth the reprehension of Cecco d’Ascoli, in his Acerba, l. 1. c. i.

 

In cio peccasti, O Fiorentin poeta, &c.

Herein, O bard of Florence, didst thou err Laying it down that fortune’s largesses Are fated to their goal. Fortune is none, That reason cannot conquer. Mark thou, Dante, If any argument may gainsay this.

 

CANTO VIII

 

v. 18. Phlegyas.] Phlegyas, who was so incensed against Apollo for having violated his daughter Coronis, that he set fire to the temple of that deity, by whose vengeance he was cast into Tartarus. See Virg. Aen. l. vi. 618.

 

v. 59. Filippo Argenti.] Boccaccio tells us, “he was a man remarkable for the large proportions and extraordinary vigor of his bodily frame, and the extreme waywardness and irascibility of his temper.” Decam. g. ix. n. 8.

 

v. 66. The city, that of Dis is nam’d.] So Ariosto. Orl. Fur.

c. xl. st. 32

 

v. 94. Seven times.] The commentators, says Venturi, perplex themselves with the inquiry what seven perils these were from which Dante had been delivered by Virgil. Reckoning the beasts in the first Canto as one of them, and adding Charon, Minos, Cerberus, Plutus, Phlegyas and Filippo Argenti, as so many others, we shall have the number, and if this be not satisfactory, we may suppose a determinate to have been put for an indeterminate number.

 

v. 109. At war ‘twixt will and will not.]

Che si, e no nel capo mi tenzona.

So Boccaccio, Ninf. Fiesol. st. 233.

 

Il si e il no nel capo gli contende.

The words I have adopted as a translation, are Shakespeare’s, Measure for Measure. a. ii. s. 1.

 

v. 122. This their insolence, not new.] Virgil assures our poet, that these evil spirits had formerly shown the same insolence when our Savior descended into hell. They attempted to prevent him from entering at the gate, over which Dante had read the fatal inscription. “That gate which,” says the Roman poet, “an angel has just passed, by whose aid we shall overcome this opposition, and gain admittance into the city.”

 

CANTO IX

 

v. 1. The hue.] Virgil, perceiving that Dante was pale with fear, restrained those outward tokens of displeasure which his own countenance had betrayed.

 

v. 23. Erictho.] Erictho, a Thessalian sorceress, according to Lucan, Pharsal. l. vi. was employed by Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, to conjure up a spirit, who should inform him of the issue of the civil wars between his father and Caesar.

 

v. 25. No long space my flesh Was naked of me.]

Quae corpus complexa animae tam fortis inane.

Ovid. Met. l. xiii f. 2

Dante appears to have fallen into a strange anachronism. Virgil’s death did not happen till long after this period.

 

v. 42. Adders and cerastes.]

Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.

Virg. Aen. l. vi. 281.

—spinaque vagi torquente cerastae … et torrida dipsas Et gravis in geminum vergens eaput amphisbaena.

Lucan. Pharsal. l. ix. 719.

So Milton:

Scorpion and asp, and amphisbaena dire, Cerastes horn’d, hydrus and elops drear, And dipsas.

P. L. b. x. 524.

 

v. 67. A wind.] Imitated by Berni, Orl. Inn. l. 1. e. ii. st.

6.

 

v. 83. With his wand.]

She with her rod did softly smite the raile Which straight flew ope.

Spenser. F. Q. b. iv. c. iii. st. 46.

 

v. 96. What profits at the fays to but the horn.] “Of what avail can it be to offer violence to impassive beings?”

 

v. 97. Your Cerberus.] Cerberus is feigned to have been dragged by Hercules, bound with a three fold chain, of which, says the angel, he still bears the marks.

 

v. 111. The plains of Arles.] In Provence. See Ariosto, Orl.

Fur. c. xxxix. st. 72

 

v. 112. At Pola.] A city of Istria, situated near the gulf