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

In Chaucer’s Squier’s Tale, a sword of similar quality is introduced:

And other folk have wondred on the sweard, That could so piercen through every thing; And fell in speech of Telephus the king, And of Achillcs for his queint spere, For he couth with it both heale and dere.

So Shakspeare, Henry VI. p. ii. a. 5. s. 1.

Whose smile and frown like to Achilles’ spear Is able with the change to kill and cure.

v. 14. Orlando.l

When Charlemain with all his peerage fell At Fontarabia

Milton, P. L. b. i. 586.

See Warton’s Hist. of Eng. Poetrg, v. i. sect. iii. p. 132.

“This is the horn which Orlando won from the giant Jatmund, and which as Turpin and the Islandic bards report, was endued with magical power, and might be heard at the distance of twenty miles.” Charlemain and Orlando are introduced in the Paradise, Canto XVIII.

v. 36. Montereggnon.] A castle near Sienna.

v. 105. The fortunate vale.] The country near Carthage. See Liv. Hist. l. xxx. and Lucan, Phars. l. iv. 590. Dante has kept the latter of these writers in his eye throughout all this passage.

v. 123. Alcides.] The combat between Hercules Antaeus is adduced by the Poet in his treatise “De Monarchia,” l. ii. as a proof of the judgment of God displayed in the duel, according to the singular superstition of those times.

v. 128. The tower of Carisenda.] The leaning tower at Bologna CANTO XXXII.

v. 8. A tongue not us’d

To infant babbling.]

Ne da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo.

Dante in his treatise ” De Vulg. Eloq.” speaking of words not admissble in the loftier, or as he calls it, tragic style of poetry, says- “In quorum numero nec puerilia propter suam simplicitatem ut Mamma et Babbo,” l. ii. c. vii.

v. 29. Tabernich or Pietrapana.] The one a mountain in Sclavonia, the other in that tract of country called the Garfagnana, not far from Lucca.

v. 33. To where modest shame appears.] “As high as to the face.”

v. 35. Moving their teeth in shrill note like the stork.]

Mettendo i denti in nota di cicogna.

So Boccaccio, G. viii. n. 7. “Lo scolar cattivello quasi cicogna divenuto si forte batteva i denti.”

v. 53. Who are these two.] Alessandro and Napoleone, sons of Alberto Alberti, who murdered each other. They were proprietors of the valley of Falterona, where the Bisenzio has its source, a river that falls into the Arno about six miles from Florence.

v. 59. Not him,] Mordrec, son of King Arthur.

v. 60. Foccaccia.] Focaccia of Cancellieri, (the Pistoian family) whose atrocious act of revenge against his uncle is said to have given rise to the parties of the Bianchi and Neri, in the year 1300. See G. Villani, Hist. l, viii. c. 37. and Macchiavelli, Hist. l. ii. The account of the latter writer differs much from that given by Landino in his Commentary.

v. 63. Mascheroni.] Sassol Mascheroni, a Florentiue, who also murdered his uncle.

v. 66. Camiccione.] Camiccione de’ Pazzi of Valdarno, by whom his kinsman Ubertino was treacherously pnt to death.

v. 67. Carlino.] One of the same family. He betrayed the Castel di Piano Travigne, in Valdarno, to the Florentines, after the refugees of the Bianca and Ghibelline party had defended it against a siege for twenty-nine days, in the summer of 1302. See G. Villani, l. viii. c. 52 and Dino Compagni, l. ii.

v. 81. Montaperto.] The defeat of the Guelfi at Montaperto, occasioned by the treachery of Bocca degli Abbati, who, during the engagement, cut off the hand of Giacopo del Vacca de’Pazzi, bearer of the Florentine standard. G. Villani, l. vi. c. 80, and Notes to Canto X. This event happened in 1260.

v. 113. Him of Duera.] Buoso of Cremona, of the family of Duera, who was bribed by Guy de Montfort, to leave a pass between Piedmont and Parma, with the defence of which he had been entrusted by the Ghibellines, open to the army of Charles of Anjou, A.D. 1265, at which the people of Cremona were so enraged, that they extirpated the whole family. G. Villani, l. vii. c. 4.

v. 118. Beccaria.] Abbot of Vallombrosa, who was the Pope’s Legate at Florence, where his intrigues in favour of the Ghibellines being discovered, he was beheaded. I do not find the occurrence in Vallini, nor do the commentators say to what pope he was legate. By Landino he is reported to have been from Parma, by Vellutello from Pavia.

v. 118. Soldanieri.] “Gianni Soldanieri,” says Villani, Hist.

l. vii. c14, “put himself at the head of the people, in the hopes of rising into power, not aware that the result would be mischief to the Ghibelline party, and his own ruin; an event which seems ever to have befallen him, who has headed the populace in Florence.” A.D. 1266.

v. 119. Ganellon.] The betrayer of Charlemain, mentioned by Archbishop Turpin. He is a common instance of treachery with the poets of the middle ages.

Trop son fol e mal pensant, Pis valent que Guenelon.

Thibaut, roi de Navarre O new Scariot, and new Ganilion, O false dissembler, &c.

Chaucer, Nonne’s Prieste’s Tale And in the Monke’s Tale, Peter of Spaine.

v. 119. Tribaldello.] Tribaldello de’Manfredi, who was bribed to betray the city of Faonza, A. D. 1282. G. Villani, l. vii. c.

80

v. 128. Tydeus.] See Statius, Theb. l. viii. ad finem.

CANTO XXXIII.

v. 14. Count Ugolino.] “In the year 1288, in the month of July, Pisa was much divided by competitors for the sovereignty; one party, composed of certain of the Guelphi, being headed by the Judge Nino di Gallura de’Visconti; another, consisting of others of the same faction, by the Count Ugolino de’ Gherardeschi; and the third by the Archbishop Ruggieri degli Ubaldini, with the Lanfranchi, Sismondi, Gualandi, and other Ghibelline houses. The Count Ugolino,to effect his purpose, united with the Archbishop and his party, and having betrayed Nino, his sister’s son, they contrived that he and his followers should either be driven out of Pisa, or their persons seized. Nino hearing this, and not seeing any means of defending himself, retired to Calci, his castle, and formed an alliance with the Florentines and people of Lucca, against the Pisans. The Count, before Nino was gone, in order to cover his treachery, when everything was settled for his expulsion, quitted Pisa, and repaired to a manor of his called Settimo; whence, as soon as he was informed of Nino’s departure, he returned to Pisa with great rejoicing and festivity, and was elevated to the supreme power with every demonstration of triumph and honour. But his greatness was not of long continuauce. It pleased the Almighty that a total reverse of fortune should ensue, as a punishment for his acts of treachery and guilt: for he was said to have poisoned the Count Anselmo da Capraia, his sister’s son, on account of the envy and fear excited in his mind by the high esteem in which the gracious manners of Anselmo were held by the Pisans. The power of the Guelphi being so much diminished, the Archbishop devised means to betray the Count Uglino and caused him to be suddenly attacked in his palace by the fury of the people, whom he had exasperated, by telling them that Ugolino had betrayed Pisa, and given up their castles to the citizens of Florence and of Lucca. He was immediately compelled to surrender; his bastard son and his grandson fell in the assault; and two of his sons, with their two sons also, were conveyed to prison.” G. Villani l. vii. c. 120.

“In the following march, the Pisans, who had imprisoned the Count Uglino, with two of his sons and two of his grandchildren, the offspring of his son the Count Guelfo, in a tower on the Piazza of the Anzania, caused the tower to be locked, the key thrown into the Arno, and all food to be withheld from them. In a few days they died of hunger; but the Count first with loud cries declared his penitence, and yet neither priest nor friar was allowed to shrive him. All the five, when dead, were dragged out of the prison, and meanly interred; and from thence forward the tower was called the tower of famine, and so shall ever be.”

Ibid. c. 127.

Chancer has briefly told Ugolino’s story. See Monke’s Tale, Hugeline of Pise.

v. 29. Unto the mountain.] The mountain S. Giuliano, between Pisa and Lucca.

v. 59. Thou gav’st.]

Tu ne vestisti

Queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia.

Imitated by Filicaja, Canz. iii.

Di questa imperial caduca spoglia Tu, Signor, me vestisti e tu mi spoglia: Ben puoi’l Regno me tor tu che me’l desti.

And by Maffei, in the Merope:

Tu disciogleste

Queste misere membra e tu le annodi.

v. 79. In that fair region.]

Del bel paese la, dove’l si suona.

Italy as explained by Dante himself, in his treatise De Vulg.

Eloq. l. i. c. 8. “Qui autem Si dicunt a praedictis finibus.

(Januensiem) Oreintalem (Meridionalis Europae partem) tenent; videlicet usque ad promontorium illud Italiae, qua sinus Adriatici maris incipit et Siciliam.”

v. 82. Capraia and Gorgona.] Small islands near the mouth of the Arno.

v. 94. There very weeping suffers not to weep,]

Lo pianto stesso li pianger non lascia.

So Giusto de’Conti, Bella Mano. Son. “Quanto il ciel.”

Che il troppo pianto a me pianger non lassa.

v. 116. The friar Albigero.] Alberigo de’Manfredi, of Faenza, one of the Frati Godenti, Joyons Friars who having quarrelled with some of his brotherhood, under pretence of wishing to be reconciled, invited them to a banquet, at the conclusion of which he called for the fruit, a signal for the assassins to rush in and dispatch those whom he had marked for destruction. Hence, adds Landino, it is said proverbially of one who has been stabbed, that he has had some of the friar Alberigo’s fruit.

Thus Pulci, Morg. Magg. c. xxv.

Le frutte amare di frate Alberico.

v. 123. Ptolomea.] This circle is named Ptolomea from Ptolemy, the son of Abubus, by whom Simon and his sons were murdered, at a great banquet he had made for them. See Maccabees, ch xvi.

v. 126. The glazed tear-drops.]

-sorrow’s eye, glazed with blinding tears.

Shakspeare, Rich. II. a. 2. s. 2.

v. 136. Branca Doria.] The family of Doria was possessed of great influence in Genoa. Branca is said to have murdered his father-in-law, Michel Zanche, introduced in Canto XXII.

v. 162 Romagna’s darkest spirit.] The friar Alberigo.

Canto XXXIV.

v. 6. A windmill.] The author of the Caliph Vathek, in the notes to that tale, justly observes, that it is more than probable that Don Quixote’s mistake of the windmills for giants was suggested to Cervantes by this simile.

v. 37. Three faces.] It can scarcely be doubted but that Milton derived his description of Satan in those lines, Each passion dimm’d his face Thrice chang’d with pale, ire, envy, and despair.

P. L. b. iv. 114.

from this passage, coupled with the remark of Vellutello upon it: “The first of these sins is anger which he signifies by the red face; the second, represented by that between pale and yellow is envy and not, as others have said, avarice; and the third, denoted by the black, is a melancholy humour that causes a man’s thoughts to be dark and evil, and averse from all joy and tranquillity.”

v. 44. Sails.]

—His sail-broad vans He spreads for flight.