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

v. 71. Save one.] “Except that principle of rarity and denseness which thou hast assigned.” By “formal principles, “principj formali, are meant constituent or essential causes.”

Milton, in imitation of this passage, introduces the angel arguing with Adam respecting the causes of the spots on the moon.

But, as a late French translator of the Paradise well remarks, his reasoning is physical; that of Dante partly metaphysical and partly theologic.

v. 111. Within the heaven.] According to our Poet’s system, there are ten heavens; the seven planets, the eighth spheres containing the fixed stars, the primum mobile, and the empyrean.

v. 143. The virtue mingled.] Virg. Aen. 1. vi 724.

Principio coelum, &c.

CANTO III

v. 16. Delusion.] “An error the contrary to that of Narcissus, because he mistook a shadow for a substance, I a substance for a shadow.”

v. 50. Piccarda.] The sister of Forese whom we have seen in the Purgatory, Canto XXIII.

v. 90. The Lady.] St. Clare, the foundress of the order called after her She was born of opulent and noble parents at Assisi, in 1193, and died in 1253. See Biogr. Univ. t. 1. p. 598. 8vo.

Paris, 1813.

v. 121. Constance.] Daughter of Ruggieri, king of Sicily, who, being taken by force out of a monastery where she had professed, was married to the Emperor Henry Vl. and by him was mother to Frederick 11. She was fifty years old or more at the time, and “because it was not credited that she could have a child at that age, she was delivered in a pavilion and it was given out, that any lady, who pleased, was at liberty to see her. Many came, and saw her, and the suspicion ceased.” Ricordano Malaspina in Muratori, Rer. It. Script. t. viii. p. 939; and G. Villani, in the same words, Hist. I v. c. 16

The French translator above mentored speaks of her having poisoned her husband. The death of Henry Vl. is recorded in the Chronicon Siciliae, by an anonymous writer, (Muratori, t. x.) but not a word of his having been poisoned by Constance, and Ricordano Malaspina even mentions her decease as happening before that of her husband, Henry V., for so this author, with some others, terms him. v. 122. The second.] Henry Vl. son of Frederick I was the second emperor of the house of Saab; and his son Frederick II “the third and last.”

CANTO IV

v. 6. Between two deer]

Tigris ut auditis, diversa valle duorum Extimulata fame, mugitibus armentorum Neseit utro potius ruat, et ruere ardet utroque.

Ovid, Metam. 1. v. 166

v. 13. Daniel.] See Daniel, c. ii.

v. 24. Plato.] [GREEK HERE] Plato Timaeus v. ix. p. 326.

Edit. Bip. “The Creator, when he had framed the universe, distributed to the stars an equal number of souls, appointing to each soul its several star.”

v. 27. Of that.] Plato’s opinion.

v. 34. The first circle.] The empyrean.

v. 48. Him who made Tobias whole.]

Raphael, the sociable spirit, that deign’d To travel with Tobias, and secur’d His marriage with the sev’n times wedded maid, Milton, P. L. b. v. 223.

v. 67. That to the eye of man.] “That the ways of divine justice are often inscrutable to man, ought rather to be a motive to faith than an inducement to heresy.” Such appears to me the most satisfactory explanation of the passage.

v. 82. Laurence.] Who suffered martyrdom in the third century.

v. 82. Scaevola.] See Liv. Hist. D. 1. 1. ii. 12.

v. 100. Alcmaeon.] Ovid, Met. 1. ix. f. 10.

—Ultusque parente parentem

Natus, erit facto pius et sceleratus eodem.

v. 107. Of will.] “What Piccarda asserts of Constance, that she retained her affection to the monastic life, is said absolutely and without relation to circumstances; and that which I affirm is spoken of the will conditionally and respectively: so that our apparent difference is without any disagreement.”

v. 119. That truth.] The light of divine truth.

CANTO V

v. 43. Two things.] The one, the substance of the vow; the other, the compact, or form of it.

v. 48. It was enjoin’d the Israelites.] See Lev. e. xii, and xxvii.

v. 56. Either key.] Purgatory, Canto IX. 108.

v. 86. That region.] As some explain it, the east, according to others the equinoctial line.

v. 124. This sphere.] The planet Mercury, which, being nearest to the sun, is oftenest hidden by that luminary CANTO VI

v. 1. After that Constantine the eagle turn’d.] Constantine, in transferring the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium, carried the eagle, the Imperial ensign, from the west to the east. Aeneas, on the contrary had moved along with the sun’s course, when he passed from Troy to Italy.

v. 5. A hundred years twice told and more.] The Emperor Constantine entered Byzantium in 324, and Justinian began his reign in 527.

v. 6. At Europe’s extreme point.] Constantinople being situated at the extreme of Europe, and on the borders of Asia, near those mountains

in the neighbourhood of Troy, from whence the first founders of Rome had emigrated.

v. 13. To clear th’ incumber’d laws.] The code of laws was abridged and reformed by Justinian.

v. 15. Christ’s nature merely human.] Justinian is said to have been a follower of the heretical Opinions held by Eutyches,” who taught that in Christ there was but one nature, viz. that of the incarnate word.”

Maclaine’s Mosheim, t. ii. Cent. v. p. ii. c. v. 13.

v. 16. Agapete.] Agapetus, Bishop of Rome, whose Scheda Regia, addressed to the Emperor Justinian, procured him a place among the wisest and most judicious writers of this century.”

Ibid. Cent. vi. p. ii c. ii. 8.

v. 33. Who pretend its power.] The Ghibellines.

v. 33. And who oppose ] The Guelphs.

v. 34. Pallas died.] See Virgil, Aen. 1. X.

v. 39. The rival three.] The Horatii and Curiatii.

v. 41. Down.] “From the rape of the Sabine women to the violation of Lucretia.”

v. 47. Quintius.] Quintius Cincinnatus.

E Cincinnato dall’ inculta chioma.

Petrarca.

v. 50. Arab hordes.] The Arabians seem to be put for the barbarians in general.

v. 54. That hill.] The city of Fesulae, which was sacked by the Romans after the defeat of Cataline.

v. 56. Near the hour.] Near the time of our Saviour’s birth.

v. 59. What then it wrought.] In the following fifteen lines the Poet has comprised the exploits of Julius Caesar.

v. 75. In its next bearer’s gripe.] With Augustus Caesar.

v. 89. The third Caesar.] “Tiberius the third of the Caesars, had it in his power to surpass the glory of all who either preceded or came after him, by destroying the city of .Jerusalem, as Titus afterwards did, and thus revenging the cause of God himself on the Jews.”

v. 95. Vengeance for vengeance ] This will be afterwards explained by the Poet himself.

v. 98. Charlemagne.] Dante could not be ignorant that the reign of Justinian was long prior to that of Charlemagne; but the spirit of the former emperor is represented, both in this instance and in what follows, as conscious of the events that had taken place after his own time.

v. 104. The yellow lilies.] The French ensign.

v. 110. Charles.] The commentators explain this to mean Charles II, king of Naples and Sicily. Is it not more likely to allude to Charles of Valois, son of Philip III of France, who was sent for, about this time, into Italy by Pope Boniface, with the promise of being made emperor? See G. Villani, 1. viii. c. 42.

v. 131. Romeo’s light.] The story of Romeo is involved in some uncertainty. The French writers assert the continuance of his ministerial office even after the decease of his soverign Raymond Berenger, count of Provence: and they rest this assertion chiefly on the fact of a certain Romieu de Villeneuve, who was the contemporary of that prince, having left large possessions behind him, as appears by his will, preserved in the archives of the bishopric of Venice. There might however have been more than one person of the name of Romieu, or Romeo which answers to that of Palmer in our language. Nor is it probable that the Italians, who lived so near the time, were misinformed in an occurrence of such notoriety. According to them, after he had long been a faithful steward to Raymond, when an account was required from him of the revenues whichhe had carefully husbanded, and his master as lavishly disbursed, “He demanded the little mule, the staff, and the scrip, with which he had first entered into the count’s service, a stranger pilgrim from the shrine of St. James in Galicia, and parted as he came; nor was it ever known whence he was or wither he went.” G. Villani, 1. vi. c. 92.

v. 135. Four daughters.] Of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, Margaret, the eldest, was married to Louis IX of France; Eleanor; the next, to Henry III, of England; Sancha, the third, to Richard, Henry’s brother, and King of the Romans; and the youngest, Beatrice, to Charles I, King of Naples and Sicily, and brother to Louis.

v. 136. Raymond Berenger.] This prince, the last of the house of Barcelona, who was count of Provence, died in 1245. He is in the list of Provencal poets. See Millot, Hist, Litt des Troubadours, t. ii. P. 112.

CANTO VII

v. 3. Malahoth.] A Hebrew word, signifying “kingdoms.”

v. 4. That substance bright.] Justinian.

v. 17. As might have made one blest amid the flames.]

So Giusto de’ Conti, Bella Mano. “Qual salamandra.”

Che puommi nelle fiammi far beato.

v. 23. That man who was unborn.] Adam.

v. 61. What distils.] “That which proceeds immediately from God, and without intervention of secondary causes, in immortal.”

v. 140. Our resurrection certain.] “Venturi appears to mistake the Poet’s reasoning, when he observes: “Wretched for us, if we had not arguments more convincing, and of a higher kind, to assure us of the truth of our resurrection.” It is here intended, I think, that the whole of God’s dispensations to man should be considered as a proof of our resurrection. The conclusion is that as before sin man was immortal, so being restored to the favor of heaven by the expiation made for sin, he necessarily recovers his claim to immortality.

There is much in this poem to justify the encomium which the learned Salvini has passed on it, when, in an epistle to Redi, imitating what Horace had said of Homer, that the duties of life might be better learnt from the Grecian bard than from the teachers of the porch or the academy, he says—

And dost thou ask, what themes my mind engage?

The lonely hours I give to Dante’s page; And meet more sacred learning in his lines Than I had gain’d from all the school divines.

Se volete saper la vita mia,

Studiando io sto lungi da tutti gli nomini Ed ho irnparato piu teologia

In questi giorni, che ho riletto Dante, Che nelle scuole fattto io non avria.

CANTO VIII

v. 4. Epicycle,] “In sul dosso di questo cerchio,” &c.

Convito di Dante, Opere, t. i. p. 48, ed. Ven. 1793.

“Upon the back of this circle, in the heaven of Venus, whereof we are now treating, is a little sphere,